CHAPTER XXXII.

[Illustration] FOREIGN AND JEWISH COOKERY. [Illustration] WE had hoped to have been able without exceeding the prescribed limits of the present volume to have added here a somewhat extensive chapter on the cookery of other countries, and to have comprised in it a section adapted to the service of the Jewish table; but we have so much enlarged in the pages on the more important subject of “Bread,” and on other matters which relate to simple _English_ domestic economy, that we find it necessary to depart from our original intention, and to confine our receipts here to a comparatively small number. This, however, is of the less consequence as so many good and well tested foreign receipts, of which, from our own experience, we can guarantee the success, are to be found in the body of the work. REMARKS ON JEWISH COOKERY. From being forbidden by their usages to mingle butter, or other preparation of milk or cream with meat at any meal, the Jews have oil much used in their cookery of fish, meat, and vegetables. Pounded almonds and rich syrups of sugar and water agreeably flavoured, assist in compounding their sweet dishes, many of which are excellent, and preserve much of their oriental character; but we are credibly informed that the restrictions of which we have spoken are not at the present day very rigidly observed by the main body of Jews in this country, though they are so by those who are denominated strict. JEWISH SMOKED BEEF.[188] Footnote 188: We were made acquainted with it first through the courtesy of a Jewish lady, who afterwards supplied us with the address of the butcher from whom it was procured: _Mr. Pass, 34, Duke Street, Aldgate_, from whom the _chorissa_ also may be purchased, and probably many other varieties of smoked meat which are used in Jewish cookery. For such of our readers as may not be acquainted with the fact, it may be well to state here that all meat supplied by Jew butchers is sure to be of first-rate quality, as they are forbidden by the Mosaic Law to convert into food any animal which is not perfectly free _from all_ “spot or blemish.” This is _excellent_, possessing the fine flavour of a really well cured ham, and retaining it unimpaired for a very long time after it is cut or cooked, if kept in a cool larder; it is therefore a valuable and inexpensive _store_ for imparting savour to soups, gravies, and other preparations; and it affords also a dish of high relish for the table. An inch or two of the lean part, quite cleared from the smoked edges and divided into dice, will flavour _well_ a tureen of gravy, or a pint of soup: even that which has been boiled will greatly improve the flavour of Liebig’s extract of beef, and of any simple broth or _consommé_. From the depth of fat upon it, which appears particularly rich and mellow, we think it is the thick flank of the beef of which we have made trial in various ways, and which is now in much request in several families of our acquaintance, who find it greatly superior to the common hung or Dutch beef, to which they were previously accustomed. It must be cooked in the same manner as other smoked meats, more time being allowed for it than for fresh. Drop it into boiling water, and when it has boiled quickly for ten minutes, take off the scum should any appear, add cold water sufficient to reduce it to mere _scalding heat_, bring it again gently to a boil, and simmer it until the lean appears quite tender when probed with a sharp skewer; then lift it on to a drainer and serve it hot or cold, and garnished in either case with vegetables or otherwise at pleasure. Beef, 6 lbs.: 3 hours or more. CHORISSA (OR JEWISH SAUSAGE) WITH RICE. The chorissa is a peculiar kind of smoked sausage much served at Jewish tables[189] as an accompaniment to boiled poultry, &c. It seems to be in great part composed of delicate pounded meat, intermingled with suet and with a small portion of some highly-cured preparation, and with herbs or spices which impart to it an agreeable aromatic flavour. Footnote 189: It may be had at the same shops as the smoked beef, and is the same price—a shilling the pound. Drop the _chorissa_ into warm water, heat it gently, boil it for about twenty minutes, and serve it surrounded with rice prepared as for currie. It will be found very good broiled in slices after the previous boiling: it should be cold before it is again laid to the fire. In all cases it will, we think, be found both more easy of digestion and more agreeable if half-boiled at least before it is broiled, toasted, or warmed in the oven for table. It is a good addition to forcemeat, and pounded savoury preparations, if used in moderation. TO FRY SALMON AND OTHER FISH IN OIL. (_To Serve Cold._) Turn into a _small_ deep frying-pan, which should be kept for the purpose, a flask of fresh olive oil, place it over a clear fire, and as soon as it ceases to bubble lay in a pound and a half of delicate salmon properly cleansed and well dried in a cloth, and fry it gently until it is cooked quite through. The surface should be only lightly browned, and when the proper colour is attained the pan must be lifted so high from the fire as to prevent it being deepened, as we have directed in Chapter IX. in the general instructions for frying. Drain the fish well when it is done, and when it is perfectly cold, dish, and garnish it with light foliage. The Jews have cold fried fish much served at their repasts. Fillets of soles, plaice, brill, small turbots, or other flat fish, may be fried as above, and arranged in a symmetrical form round a portion of a larger fish, or by themselves. We would recommend as an accompaniment one of the _Mauritian chutnies_ which are to be found in this chapter. Olive oil, 1 small flask; salmon, about 1-1/2 lb.: 1/2 hour or rather more. Fillets of fish 5 to 10 minutes. _Obs._—The oil should be strained through a sieve, and set aside as the fish is done; it will serve many times for frying if this be observed. JEWISH ALMOND PUDDING. We have not thought it necessary to test this receipt ourselves, as we have tasted the puddings made by it more than once, and have received the exact directions for them from the Jewish lady at whose house they were made. They are extremely delicate and excellent. The almonds for them were procured ready ground from a Jew confectioner, but when they cannot be thus obtained they must be pounded in the usual manner. With half a pound of sweet, mingle six or seven bitter almonds, half a pound of sifted sugar, a little fine orange-flower water, with the yolks of ten and the whites of seven well whisked eggs, and when the whole of the ingredients are intimately blended, bake the pudding in a rather quick oven for half an hour, or longer should it not be then sufficiently firm to turn out of the dish. Sift sugar thickly over, or pour round it a rich syrup flavoured with orange-flower water, _noyau_ or _maraschino_. _Obs._—We think a _fruit_ syrup—pine-apple or other—or a compôte of fruit would be an excellent accompaniment to this pudding, which may be served hot or cold. We conclude that the dish in which it is baked, _if not well buttered_, must be rubbed with oil. The above proportions will make two puddings of sufficient size for a small party. THE LADY’S OR INVALID’S NEW BAKED APPLE PUDDING. (_Author’s Original Receipt. Appropriate to the Jewish table._) This pudding, which contains no butter, is most excellent when made _with exactness_ by the directions which follow, but any variation from them will probably be attended with entire failure, especially in the crust, which if properly made will be solid, but very light and crisp; whereas, if the proportion of sugar for it be diminished, the bread will not form a compact mass, but will fall into crumbs when it is served. First weigh six ounces of the crumb of a light stale loaf, and grate it down small; then add to, and mix thoroughly with it three ounces and a half of pounded sugar, and a slight pinch of salt. Next, take from a pound to a pound and a quarter of russets, or of any other _good_ baking apples; pare, and then take them off the cores in quarters without cutting the fruit asunder, as they will then, from the form given to them, lie more compactly in the dish. Arrange them in close layers in a deep tart-dish which holds about a pint and a half, and strew amongst them four ounces of sugar and the grated rind of a fine fresh lemon; add the strained juice of the lemon, and pour the bread-crumbs softly in a heap upon the apples in the centre of the dish, and with the back of a spoon level them gently into a very smooth layer of equal thickness, pressing them lightly down upon the fruit, which must all be perfectly covered with them. Sift powdered sugar over, wipe the edge of the dish, and bake the pudding in a somewhat quick oven for rather more than three-quarters of an hour. We have had it several times baked quite successfully in a baker’s oven, of which the heat is in general too great for puddings of a delicate kind. Very pale brown sugar will answer for it almost as well as pounded. For the nursery, some crumbs of bread may be strewed between the layers of fruit, and nutmeg or cinnamon may be used instead of lemon. _Obs._—We insert this receipt here because the pudding has been so much liked, and found so wholesome by many persons who have partaken of it at different times, that we think it will be acceptable to some of our readers, but it belongs properly to another work which we have in progress, and from which we extract it now for the present volume. An ounce or more of ratifias crushed to powder, may be added to the crust, or strewed over the pudding before it is served, when they are considered an improvement. A FEW GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR THE JEWISH TABLE. As a substitute for milk, in the composition of _soufflés_, puddings, and sweet dishes, _almond-cream_ as it is called, will be found to answer excellently. To prepare it, blanch and pound the almonds by the directions of page 542, and then pour very gradually to them boiling water in the proportion directed below; turn them into a strong cloth or tammy, and wring it from them with powerful pressure, to extract as much as possible of it from them again. The fruit custards of page 482, and the _méringues_ of fruit of page 485, are perfectly suited to the tables of Jewish families; and sweet or savoury _croustades_ or fried patties may be supplied to them from the receipts in the present work, by substituting clarified marrow (see page 388) for the butter used for them in general cookery. The reader will easily discover in addition, numerous dishes distributed through this volume which may be served to them without departing from their peculiar usages. Almond-cream: (for puddings, &c.) almonds, 4 oz.; water, 1 pint. For blancmanges, and rich _soufflés_, creams and custards: almonds, 1/2 to whole pound; water, 1 to 1-1/2 pints. _Obs._—As every cook may not be quite aware of the articles of food strictly prohibited by the Mosaic law, it may be well to specify them here. Pork in every form; all varieties of shell-fish, without exception; hares, rabbits, and swans. TOMATA AND OTHER CHUTNIES. (_Mauritian Receipts._) The composition of these favourite oriental sauces varies but little except in the ingredient which forms the basis of each. The same piquant or stimulating auxiliaries are intermingled with all of them in greater or less proportion. These are, young onions, chilies (sometimes green ginger), oil, vinegar, and salt; and occasionally a little garlic or full grown onion, which in England might be superseded by a small portion of minced eschalot. Green peaches, mangoes, and other unripe fruits, crushed to pulp on the stone roller, shown at the head of this chapter; ripe bananas, tomatas roasted or raw, and also reduced to a smooth pulp; potatoes cooked and mashed; the fruit of the egg-plant boiled and reduced to a paste; fish, fresh, salted, or smoked, and boiled or grilled, taken in small fragments from the bones and skin, and torn into minute shreds, or pounded, are all in their turn used in their preparation.[190] Mingle with any one of these as much of the green onions and chilies chopped up small, as will give it a strong flavour; add salt if needed, and as much olive oil, of pure quality, with a third as much of vinegar, as will bring it to the consistence of a thick sauce. Serve it with currie, cutlets, steaks, pork, cold meat, or fish, or aught else to which it would be an acceptable accompaniment. Footnote 190: We are indebted for these receipts to a highly intelligent medical man who has been for twenty years a resident in the Mauritius. INDIAN LOBSTER-CUTLETS. A really excellent and elegant receipt for lobster-cutlets has already been given in previous editions of the present work, and is now to be found at page 91 of Chapter III.; but the subjoined is one which may be more readily and expeditiously prepared, and may consequently, be preferred by some of our readers for that reason: it has also the recommendation of being new. In India, these cutlets are made from the flesh of prawns, which are there of enormous size, but lobsters, unless quite overgrown, answer for them as well, or better. Select fish of good size and take out the tails entire; slice them about the third of an inch thick, dip them into beaten egg, and then into very fine crumbs of bread seasoned rather highly with cayenne, and moderately with salt, grated nutmeg, and pounded mace. Egg and crumb them twice, press the bread upon them with the blade of a knife, and when all are ready, fry them quickly in good butter to a light brown. Serve them as dry as possible, arranged in a chain round a hot dish, and pour into the centre, or send to table with them in a tureen, some sauce made with the flesh of the claws heated in some rich melted butter, flavoured with a tablespoonful of essence of anchovies, one of strong chili vinegar, a little salt and mace, and coloured with the coral of the fish, should they contain any. A few shrimps may be added with good effect; or the sauce may be made of these entirely, either whole or pounded, when they are preferred. In either case, they should only be heated in it, and not allowed to boil. East or West Indian mangoes, or other hot pickle, should accompany the dish. The cutlets may likewise be dipped into light French batter, and fried; but the egg and bread-crumbs are somewhat preferable. It is an advantage to have lobsters little more than parboiled for them. Herbs can be added to the crumbs at pleasure; the writer does not, however, recommend them. AN INDIAN BURDWAN. (_Entrée._) This is an Oriental dish of high savour, which may be made either with a young fowl or chicken parboiled for the purpose, or with the remains of such as have already been sent to table. First, put into a stewpan about a tablespoonful of very mild onion finely minced, or a larger proportion with a mixture of eschalots, for persons whose taste is in favour of so strong a flavour; add rather more than a quarter of a pint of cold water, about an ounce of butter smoothly blended with a very small teaspoonful of flour, a moderate seasoning of cayenne, and a tablespoonful of essence of anchovies. Shake or stir this sauce over a clear fire until it boils, then let it stand aside and merely simmer for ten or fifteen minutes, or until the onion is quite tender, then pour to it a couple of wineglassesful of Madeira (Sherry or Tenerifte will do), and a tablespoonful of chili-vinegar. Lay in the fowl after having carved it neatly, divided all the joints, and stripped off the skin; and let it remain close to the fire, but without boiling, until it is perfectly heated through; bring it to the point of boiling and send it immediately to table. A dish of rice, boiled as for currie, is often, but not invariably, served with it. Should the fowl have been parboiled only—that is to say, boiled for a quarter of an hour—it must be gently stewed in the sauce for fifteen or twenty minutes; longer, even, should it not then be quite tender. Cold lamb, or veal, or calf’s-head, or a delicate young rabbit, may be very advantageously served as a _rechauffé_, in a sauce compounded as above. The various condiments contained in this can be differently apportioned at pleasure; and pickled capsicum, or chilies minced, can be added to it at choice either in lieu of, or in addition to the chili-vinegar. The juice of a fresh lime should, if possible, be thrown into it before it is served. Except for a quite plain family dinner, only the superior joints of poultry should be used for this dish. Care should be taken not to allow the essence of anchovies to predominate too powerfully in it. THE KING OF OUDE’S OMLET. Whisk up very lightly, after having cleared them in the usual way, five fine fresh eggs; add to them two dessertspoonsful of milk or cream, a small teaspoonful of salt, one—or half that quantity for English eaters—of cayenne pepper, three of minced mint, and two dessertspoonsful of young leeks, or of mild onions chopped small. Dissolve an ounce and a half of good butter in a frying-pan about the size of a plate, or should a larger one of necessity be used, raise the handle so as to throw the omlet entirely to the opposite side; pour in the eggs, and when the omlet, which should be kept as thick as possible, is well risen and quite firm, and of a fine light brown underneath, slide it on to a very hot dish, and fold it together “like a turnover,” the brown side uppermost: six or seven minutes will fry it. This receipt is given to the reader in a very modified form, the fiery original which we transcribe being likely to find but few admirers here we apprehend: the proportion of leeks or onions might still be much diminished with advantage:—“Five eggs, two tolahs of milk, one masha of salt, two mashas of cayenne pepper, three of mint, and two tolahs of leeks.” KEDGEREE OR KIDGEREE, AN INDIAN BREAKFAST DISH. Boil four ounces of rice tender and dry as for currie, and when it is cooled down put it into a saucepan with nearly an equal quantity of cold fish taken clear of skin and bone, and divided into very small flakes or scallops. Cut up an ounce or two of fresh butter and add it, with a full seasoning of cayenne, and as much salt as may be required. Stir the kedgeree constantly over a clear fire until it is very hot; then mingle quickly with it two slightly beaten eggs. Do not let it boil after these are stirred in; but serve the dish when they are just _set_. A Mauritian chatney may be sent to table with it. The butter may be omitted, and its place supplied by an additional egg or more. Cold turbot, brill, salmon, soles, John Dory, and shrimps, may all be served in this form. A SIMPLE SYRIAN PILAW. Drop gradually into three pints of boiling water one pint of rice which has been shaken in a cullender to free it from the dust and then well wiped in a soft clean cloth. The boiling should not be checked by the addition of the rice, which if well managed will require no stirring, and which will entirely absorb the water. It should be placed _above_ the fire where the heat will reach it equally from below; and it should boil gently that the grain may become quite tender and dry. When it is so, and the surface is full of holes, pour in two or three ounces of clarified butter, or merely add some, cut up small; throw in a seasoning of salt and white pepper, or cayenne; stir the whole up well, and serve it immediately. An onion, when the flavour is liked, may be boiled in the water, which should afterwards be strained, before the rice is added; there should be three pints of it when the grain is dropped in. Small fried sausages or sausage-cakes may be served with it at pleasure for English eaters. The rice may be well washed and thoroughly dried in a cloth when time will permit. SIMPLE TURKISH OR ARABIAN PILAW. (_From Mr. Lane, the Oriental Traveller._) “_Piláw_ or _piláu_ is made by boiling rice in plenty of water for about twenty minutes, so that the water drains off easily, leaving the grains whole, and with some degree of hardness; then stirring it up with a little butter, just enough to make the grains separate easily, and seasoning it with salt and pepper. Often a fowl, boiled almost to rags, is laid upon the top. Sometimes small morsels of fried or roasted mutton or lamb are mixed up with it; and there are many other additions; but generally the Turks and Arabs add nothing to the rice but the butter, and salt, and pepper.” _Obs._—We are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Lane for this receipt, which was procured from him for us by one of his friends. A REAL INDIAN PILAW. Boil three pounds of bacon in the usual manner; take it out and drop into the same pan a pair of fowls compactly trussed as for boiling. In three quarters of an hour, unless very large, they will be sufficiently cooked; but they should be thoroughly boiled. When they are so, lift them out, and place a hot cover and thick cloth over them. Take three pints and a half of the liquor in which they were boiled, and add to it when it again boils, nearly two pounds of well washed Patna rice, three onions, a quarter of an ounce each of cloves and peppercorns, with half as much of allspice, tied loosely in a bit of muslin. Stew these together very gently for three quarters of an hour. Do not stir them as it breaks the rice. Take out the spice and onions; lay in the fowls if necessary, to heat them quite through, and dish them neatly with the rice heaped smoothly over them. Garnish the pilaw with hot hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters, or with fried forcemeat-balls, or with half rings of onion fried extremely dry. The bacon, heated apart, should be served in a separate dish. _Obs._—This is a highly approved receipt supplied to us by a friend who had long experience of it in India; but we would suggest that to be _really cooked_ so as to render it wholesome in this country, a larger quantity of liquid should be added to it, as one pint (or pound) will absorb three pints of water or broth: and the time allowed for stewing it appears to us insufficient for it to become really tender. A Persian Pilaw is made much in the same manner, sometimes with morsels of fried kid mixed with the rice. Bacon, 3 lbs., 1-1/2 to 2 hours; fowls, 2.; Rice, nearly 2 lbs. Broth from bacon and fowls, 3-1/2 pints; onions, 3; cloves and peppercorns, 1/4 oz. each; allspice, 1 drachm: 3/4 hour. INDIAN RECEIPT FOR CURRIED FISH. Take the fish from the bones, and cut it into inch and half squares; lay it into a stewpan with sufficient hot water to barely cover it; sprinkle some salt over, and boil it gently until it is about half cooked. Lift it out with a fish-slice, pour the liquor into a basin, and clear off any scum which may be on it. Should there be three or four pounds of the fish, dissolve a quarter of a pound of butter in a stewpan, and when it has become a little brown, add two cloves of garlic and a large onion finely minced or sliced very thin; fry them until they are well coloured, then add the fish; strew equally over it, and stir it well up with from two to three tablespoonsful of Bengal currie powder; cover the pan, and shake it often until the fish is nicely browned; next add by degrees the liquor in which it was stewed, and simmer it until it is perfectly done, but not so as to fall into fragments. Add a moderate quantity of lemon-juice or chili vinegar, and serve it very hot. BENGAL CURRIE POWDER. No. 1. Mix thoroughly the following ingredients after they have been separately reduced to the finest powder and passed through a fine hair or lawn sieve:— 6 oz. coriander seed. 3 oz. black pepper. 1 oz. cummin-seed. 1-1/2 oz. fenugreek-seed. 3/4 oz. cayenne pepper. 3 oz. best pale turmeric. Set the powder before the fire to dry, and turn it often; then withdraw it, let it become cold, and bottle it immediately. Keep it closely corked. _Obs._—We cannot think a large proportion of black pepper a desirable addition to currie powder, as it gives a strong coarse flavour: but as it may be liked by persons who are accustomed to it, we give the preceding and the following receipt without varying either: the second appears to us the best. Coriander-seed 8 oz. Chinese 4 oz. turmeric Black pepper 2 oz. Cassia 1/2 oz. White ginger 1 oz. Cayenne pepper 1/2 oz. RISOTTO À LA MILANAISE. Slice a large onion very thin, and divide it into shreds; then fry it slowly until it is equally but not too deeply browned; take it out and strain the butter, and fry in it about three ounces of rice for every person who is to partake of it. As the grain easily burns, it should be put into the butter when it begins to simmer, and be very gently coloured to a bright yellow tint over a slow fire. Add it to some good boiling broth lightly tinged with saffron, and stew it softly in a copper pan for fifteen or twenty minutes. Stir to it two or three ounces of butter mixed with a small portion of flour, a moderate seasoning of pepper or cayenne, and as much grated Parmesan cheese as will flavour it thoroughly. Boil the whole gently for ten minutes, and serve it very hot, at the commencement of dinner as a _potage_. _Obs._—The reader should bear in mind what we have so often repeated in this volume, that rice should always _be perfectly cooked_, and that it will not become tender with less than three times its bulk of liquid. STUFATO. (_A Neapolitan Receipt._) “Take about six pounds of the silver side of the round, and make several deep incisions in the inside, nearly through to the skin; stuff these with all kinds of savoury herbs, a good slice of lean ham, and half a small clove of garlic, all finely minced, and well mingled together; then bind and tie the meat closely round, so that the stuffing may not escape. Put four pounds of butter into a stewpan sufficiently large to contain something more than that quantity, and the beef in addition; so soon as it boils lay in the meat, let it just simmer for five or six hours, and turn it every half hour at least, that it may be equally done. Boil for twenty-five minutes three pounds of pipe maccaroni, drain it perfectly dry, and mix it with the gravy of the beef, without the butter, half a pint of very pure salad oil, and a pot of paste tomatas; mix these to amalgamation, without breaking the maccaroni; before serving up, sprinkle Parmesan cheese thickly on the maccaroni.” We insert this receipt exactly as it was given to us by a friend, at whose table the dish was served with great success to some Italian diplomatists. From our own slight experience of it, we should suppose that the excellence of the beef is quite a secondary consideration, as all its juices are drawn out by the mode of cooking, and appropriated to the maccaroni, of which we must observe that three pounds would make too _gigantic_ a dish to enter well, on ordinary occasions, into an English service. We have somewhere seen directions for making the _stufato_ with the upper part of the sirloin, thickly larded with large, well-seasoned lardoons of bacon, and then stewed in equal parts of rich gravy, and of red or of white wine. BROILED EELS WITH SAGE. (ENTRÉE.) (_German Receipt._) _Good._ Skin, open, and cleanse one fine eel (or more), cut it into finger-lengths, rub it with a mixed seasoning of salt and white pepper, and leave it for half an hour. Wipe it dry, wrap each length in sage leaves, fasten them round it with coarse thread, roll the eel in good salad oil or clarified butter, lay it on the gridiron, squeeze lemon-juice over, and broil it gently until it is browned in every part. Send it to table with a sauce made of two or three ounces of butter, a tablespoonful of chili, tarragon, or common vinegar, and one of water, with a little salt; to keep this smooth, proceed as for the Norfolk sauce of Chapter V. Broiled fish is frequently served without _any_ sauce. A quite simple one may supply the place of that which we have indicated above: eels being of so rich a nature, require no other. A SWISS MAYONNAISE. Beat half a pound of butter to a cream, and then add it very gradually to the hard-boiled yolks of six fresh eggs which have been cut into quarters, separated carefully from the whites, and pounded to a perfect paste; when these are blended into a smooth sauce add, a few drops at a time, some of the finest salad oil that can be procured, and work the mixture in the same manner as the _mayonnaise_ of Chapter VI. until no particle of it remains visible: a small quantity of salt also must be thrown in, and sufficient good vinegar in very small portions, to give an agreeable acidity to the preparation. (Fresh lemon-juice might be substituted in part for this, and a little fine cayenne used with it; but though we suggest this, we adhere to our original Swiss receipt for this excellent dish, even when we think it might be slightly improved in _flavour_.) Carve very neatly two delicate boiled fowls, and trim the joints into handsome form. Lay the inferior parts upon a large plate, and spread a portion of the sauce, which should be very thick, upon them; arrange them in a flat layer in the dish in which they are to be served; then sauce in the same way more of the joints, and arrange them symmetrically over the others. Proceed thus to build a sort of pyramid with the whole; and decorate it with the whites of the eggs, and the hearts of small lettuces cut in halves. Place these last round the base alternately with whole bantams’ or plovers’ eggs, boiled hard, a small slice must be cut from the large end of each of these to admit of their being placed upright. A slight branch of parsley, or other foliage, may be stuck in the tops. Roast chickens divested entirely of the skin, can always be substituted for boiled ones in a _mayonnaise_: they should all be separated into single joints with the exception of the wings. The quite inferior parts need not be used at all. The same sauce rather highly flavoured with cayenne, and other condiments, and more or less, to the taste, with essence of anchovies or anchovy butter, and coloured with lobster-coral, will make an excellent fish-salad, with alternate slices of lobster,—cut obliquely to increase their size,—and of cold turbot or large soles. These can be raised into a high border or chain round a dish when more convenient, and the centre filled with young fresh salad, sauced at the instant it is sent to table. A French _mayonnaise_ does not vary much from the preceding, except in the composition of the sauce, for which see Chapter VI. It should always be kept very thick. A little rich cold white sauce is sometimes mixed with it. TENDRONS DE VEAU. The _tendrons_ (or gristles) which lie under the flesh of the brisket of a breast of veal are much used in foreign countries, and frequently now in this, to supply a variety of the dishes called _entrées_. When long stewed they become perfectly tender, and yield a large amount of gelatine; but they are quite devoid of flavour, and require therefore to be cooked and served with such additions as shall render them palatable. With a very sharp knife detach the flesh from them without separating it from the joint, and turn it back, so as to allow the gristles to be divided easily from the long bones. Cut away the chine-bone from their outer edge, and then proceed first to soak them, that they may be very white, and to boil them gently for several hours,[191] either quite simply, in good broth, or with additions of bacon, spice, and vegetables. Foreign cooks _braise_ them somewhat expensively, and then serve them in many different forms; but as they make, after all, but a rather unpretending _entrée_, some economy in their preparation would generally be desirable. They may be divided at the joints, and cut obliquely into thin slices before they are stewed, when they will require but four hours simmering; or they may be left entire and braised, when they will require, while still warm, to be pressed between two dishes with a heavy weight on the top, to bring them into good shape before they are divided for table. They are then sometimes dipped into egg and bread-crumbs, and fried in thin slices of uniform size; or stewed tender, then well drained, and glazed, dished in a circle, and served with peas _à la Française_ in the centre, or with a thick _purée_ of tomatas, or of other vegetables. They are also often used to fill _vol-au-vents_, for which purpose they must be kept very white, and mixed with a good _béchamel_-sauce. We recommend their being highly curried, either in conjunction with plenty of vegetables, or with a portion of other meat, after they have been baked or stewed as tender as possible. Footnote 191: We think that in the pasted jar which we have described in Chapter IX., in the section of Baking, they might be well and easily cooked, but we have not tried it. POITRINE DE VEAU GLACÉE. (_Breast of Veal Stewed and Glazed._) When the gristles have been removed from a breast of veal, the joint will still make an excellent roast, or serve to stew or braise. Take out the long-bones,[192] beat the veal with the flat side of a cleaver, or with a cutlet-bat, and when it is quite even, cut it square, and sprinkle over it a moderate seasoning of fine salt, cayenne, and mace. Make some forcemeat by either of the receipts Nos. 1, 2, 3, or 7, of