Take some bacon and put in a hot frying-pan, and cook till it crisps. Then lift it out on a hot dish and put in the oven. Break six eggs in separate cups, and slide them carefully into the fat left in the pan, and let them cook till they are rather firm and the bottom is brown. Then take a cake-turner and take them out carefully, and put in the middle of the dish, and arrange the bacon all around, with parsley on the edge.
In boiling beet-roots be careful not to break them, or else they will bleed and lose their colour. When the beet-root is boiled and cold, peel it, and cut it into thin slices. It can be dressed with oil and vinegar, or vinegar only, adding pepper and salt. Some persons dress beet-root with a salad-dressing in which cream is used instead of oil; but never use cream and oil. To mix cream and oil is like mixing bacon with butter.
Trim a short fillet, and cut a deep incision in the side, being careful not to go through to the other side or the ends. Fill this with one cupful of veal, prepared as for quenelles, and the whites of three hard-boiled eggs, cut into rings. Sew up the openings, and bind the fillet into good shape with broad bands of cotton cloth. Put in a deep stew-pan two slices of ham and two of pork, and place the fillet on them; then put in two calf's feet, two stalks of celery and two quarts of clear stock. Simmer gently two hours and a half. Take up the fillet, and set away to cool. Strain the stock, and set away to harden. When hard, scrape of every particle of fat, and put on the fire in a clean sauce-pan, with half a slice of onion and the whites of two eggs, beaten with four table-spoonfuls of cold water. When this boils, season well with salt, and set back where it will just simmer for half an hour; then strain through a napkin. Pour a little of the jelly into a two-quart charlotte russe mould (half an inch deep), and set on the ice to harden. As soon as it is hard, decorate with the egg rings. Add about three spoonfuls of the liquid jelly, to set the eggs. When hard, add enough jelly to cover the eggs, and when this is also hard, trim the ends of the fillet, and draw out the thread. Place in the centre of the mould, and cover with the remainder of the jelly. If the fillet floats, place a slight weight on it. Set in the ice chest to harden. When ready to serve, place the mould in a pan of warm water for half a minute, and then turn out the fillet gently upon a dish. Garnish with a circle of egg rings, each of which has a stoned olive in the centre. Put here and there a sprig of parsley.
Slice the liver a quarter of an inch thick; pour hot water over it and let it remain for a few minutes to clear it from blood; then dry it in a cloth. Take a pound of bacon, or as much as you require, and cut the same number of thin slices as you have of liver; fry the bacon to a nice crisp; take it out and keep it hot; then fry the liver in the same pan, having first seasoned it with pepper and salt and dredged in a little flour; lay it in the hot bacon fat and fry it a nice brown. Serve it with a slice of bacon on the top of each slice of liver. If you wish a gravy with it, pour off most of the fat from the frying pan, put in about two ounces of butter, a tablespoonful of flour well rubbed in, add a cup of water, salt and pepper, give it one boil and serve in a gravy boat. Another Way.--Cut the liver in nice thin slices, pour boiling water over it and let it stand about five minutes; then drain and put in a dripping-pan with three or four thin slices of salt pork or bacon; pepper and salt and put in the oven, letting it cook until thoroughly done, then serve with a cream or milk gravy poured over it. Calf's liver and bacon are very good broiled after cutting each in thin slices. Season with butter, pepper and salt.
Mince very finely three pounds of raw veal and one-fourth pound of pork. It is better to do this at home than to have it done at the butcher's. Put two slices of bread to soak in milk, add two yolks of eggs and the whites, pepper and salt. Mix it well, working it for ten minutes. Then let it rest for half-an-hour. Put it in a small stewpan, add a lump of butter the size of a pigeon's egg, and put it in the oven. It will be ready to serve when the juice has ceased to run out. [Paquerette]
Clean well, inside and out, a dozen small birds, quail, snipe, woodcock, etc., and split them in half; put them in a saucepan with about two quarts of water; when it boils, skim off all scum that rises; then add salt and pepper, a bunch of minced parsley, one onion chopped fine, and three whole cloves. Cut up half a pound of salt pork into dice, and let all boil until tender, using care that there be enough water to cover the birds. Thicken this with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour and let it boil up. Stir in a piece of butter as large as an egg; remove from the fire and let it cool. Have ready a pint of potatoes cut as small as dice, and a rich crust made. Line the sides of a buttered pudding dish with the crust; lay in the birds, then some of the potatoes, then birds and so on, until the dish is full. Pour over the gravy, put on the top crust, with a slit cut in the centre, and bake. The top can be ornamented with pastry leaves in a wreath about the edge, with any fancy design placed in the centre across the slit. Rockaway Beach.
Having cleared it from the skin, sinews, and gristle, take six pounds of the lean of young fresh pork, and three pounds of the fat, and mince it all as fine as possible. Take some dried sage, pick off the leaves and rub them to powder, allowing three tea-spoonfuls to each pound of meat. Having mixed the fat and lean well together, and seasoned it with nine tea-spoonfuls of pepper, and the same quantity of salt, strew on the powdered sage, and mix the whole very well with your hands. Put it away in a stone jar, packing it down hard; and keep it closely covered. Set the jar in a cool dry place. When you wish to use the sausage-meat, make it into flat cakes about an inch thick and the size of a dollar; dredge them with flour, and fry them in butter or dripping, over rather a slow fire, till they are well browned on both sides, and thoroughly done. Sausages are seldom eaten except at breakfast.
Take the bone out of a round of fresh beef, and beat the meat well all over to make it tender. Chop and mix together equal quantities of sweet marjoram and sweet basil, the leaves picked from the stalks and rubbed fine. Chop also some small onions or shalots, and some parsley; the marrow from the bone of the beef; and a quarter of a pound, or more of suet. Add two penny rolls of stale bread grated; and pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste. Mix all these ingredients well, and bind them together with the beaten yolks of four eggs. Fill with this seasoning the place from whence you took out the bone; and rub what is left of it all over the outside of the meat. You must, of course, proportion the quantity of stuffing to the size of the round of beef. Fasten it well with skewers, and tie it round firmly with a piece of tape, so as to keep it compact and in good shape. It is best to prepare the meat the day before it is to be cooked. Cover the bottom of a stew-pan with slices of bacon. Lay the beef upon them, and cover the top of the meat with more slices of bacon. Place round it four large onions, four carrots, and four turnips, all cut in thick slices. Pour in from half a pint to a pint of water, and if convenient, add two calves' feet cut in half. Cover the pan closely, set it in an oven and let it bake for at least six hours; or seven or eight, according to the size. When it is thoroughly done, take out the beef and lay it on a dish with the vegetables round it. Remove the bacon and calves' feet, and (having skimmed the fat from the gravy carefully) strain it into a small sauce-pan; set it on hot coals, and stir into it a tea-cupful of port wine, and the same quantity of pickled mushrooms. Let it just come to a boil, and then send it to table in a sauce-tureen. If the beef is to be eaten cold, you may ornament it as follows:-- Glaze it all over with beaten white of egg. Then cover it with a coat of boiled potato grated finely. Have ready some slices of cold boiled carrot, and also of beet-root. Cut them into the form of stars or flowers, and arrange them handsomely over the top of the meat by sticking them on the grated potato. In the centre place a large bunch of double parsley, interspersed with flowers cut out of raw turnips, beets, and carrots, somewhat in imitation of white and red roses, and marygolds. Fix the flowers on wooden skewers concealed with parsley. Cold à-la-mode beef prepared in this manner will at a little distance look like a large iced cake decorated with sugar flowers. You may dress a fillet of veal according to this receipt. Of course it will require less time to stew.
Take a calf's head and boil it, when it is cold take one half of the head and cut off the meat in thin slices, put it into a stew pan with a little brown gravy, put to it a spoonful or two of walnut pickle, a spoonful of catchup, a little claret, a little shred mace, a few capers shred, or a little mango; boil it over a stove, and thicken it with butter and flour; take the other part of the head, cut off the bone ends and score it with a knife, season it with a little pepper and salt, rub it over with the yolk of an egg, and strew over a few bread crumbs, and a little parsley; then set it before the fire to broil whilst it is brown; and when you dish up the other part lay this in the midst; lay about your hash-brain-cakes, forc'd-meat-balls and crisp bacon. To make Brain-cakes; take a handful of bread-crumbs, a little shred lemon-peel, pepper, salt, nutmeg, sweet-marjorum, parsley shred fine, and the yolks of three eggs; take the brains and skin them, boil and chop them small, so mix them all together; take a little butter in your pan when you fry them, and drop them in as you do fritters, and if they run in your pan put in a handful more of bread-crumbs.
One thin slice of the upper part of the round of beef. Cut off all the fat, and so trim as to give the piece a regular shape. Put the trimmings in the chopping tray, with a quarter of a pound of boiled salt pork and one pound of lean cooked ham. Chop very fine; then add a speck of cayenne, one teaspoonful of mixed mustard, one of onion juice, one table-spoonful of lemon juice and three eggs. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Spread the mixture over it, and roll up. Tie with twine, being careful not to draw too tightly. Have six slices of fat pork fried in the braising pan. Cut two onions, two slices of carrot, and two of turnip into this, and stir for two minutes over the fire. Roll the cannelon in a plate of flour, and put it in the braising pan with the pork and vegetables. Brown slightly on all sides; then add one quart of boiling water, and place in the oven. Cook three hours, basting every fifteen minutes. When it has been cooking two hours, add half a cupful of canned tomatoes or two fresh ones. Taste to see if the gravy is seasoned enough; if it is not, add seasoning. The constant dredging with flour will thicken the gravy sufficiently. Slide the cake turner under the beef, and lift carefully on to a hot dish. Cut the string in three or four places with a sharp knife, and gently draw it away from the meat. Skim off all the fat. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve on to the meat. Garnish with a border of toast or riced potatoes. Cut in thin slices with a sharp knife.
