 Kent Coast Sea Fishing Compendium |
The Gentle Art of Cookery |
"The Gentle Art of Cookery" (1925) Mrs Hilda (C. F.) Leyel and Miss Olga Hartley
at pages 3 to 27, 139 to 170, 228 and 357 to 367
This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is
A sort of soup or broth, or brew,
Or hotchpotch, of all sorts of fishes,
That Greenwich never could outdo;
Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffern,
Soles, onions, garlic, roach, and dace;
All these you eat at Terré's tavern,
In that one dish of Bouillabaisse.
CHAPTER I
SAUCES
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SAUCE BÉARNAISE
The peculiar flavour of this sauce is obtained by reducing two table-spoonfuls of good vinegar to a teaspoonful by boiling it. In the vinegar should be boiled a teaspoonful of chopped shallots. Strain the vinegar into a double saucepan and add two table-spoonfuls of cold water into this. Mix slowly the beaten yolks of four eggs and a quarter of a pound of butter. Divide the butter into six portions and stir in one at a time over a very slow fire. The sauce must be stirred continuously till it is as smooth as thick cream and of the same consistency. At the last moment mix into it a little tarragon chopped very finely - not more than a teaspoonful.
Béarnaise Sauce must not boil, and will curdle if it is allowed to get too hot.
To be served with a Châteaubriand or a Tournedos of beef, or any hot fillet of steak.
SIMPLE BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
This Sauce is named after the Marquis de Béchamel, who was maître d'hôtel to Louis XIV
When a sauce is made with flour it must be allowed to simmer from ten to fifteen minutes after the flour has been added, otherwise the flour will not be cooked and the sauce will not be at all good.
To make a Béchamel sauce, melt a piece of butter the size of an egg in a double saucepan, stirring into it, over very gentle heat, two table-spoonfuls of flour. Into this add gradually half a pint of milk, stirring it steadily with a wooden spoon over a slow fire for a quarter of an hour. When it is perfectly smooth and of cream-like consistency, remove it from the fire; add salt and pepper, and mix in another smaller piece of butter.
BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
Three-quarters of a pint of white stock, half a pint of milk, two ounces of butter, one of flour, six peppercorns, a carrot, an onion, parsley, a bay leaf, salt and pepper.
Boil the stock with a little sliced onion and carrot, half a bay leaf, a piece of parsley, and six peppercorns for twenty minutes, or till it is reduced to half a pint; strain it into a bowl.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, work the flour into a smooth paste, heat the milk, and gradually add the hot stock and the hot milk to the butter and flour, stirring it well. Add salt and pepper to season.
Béchamel Sauce can be served with nearly all vegetables, with eggs and chicken, etc.
BLACK BUTTER
Two ounces of butter; parsley, two table-spoonfuls of lemon juice.
Take a handful of small sprigs of parsley freed from their stalks. Put the butter in a frying pan and make it hot. Fry the parsley in it until crisp and brown. When the sauce is brown without being burnt pour it into a very hot sauceboat.
Boil the lemon juice, and just before serving the sauce pour it into the black butter and parsley.
This sauce invariably gives its name to the dish with which it is served œufs au beurre noir - raie au beurre noir.
BREAD SAUCE
This is one of the sauces we make better in England than in France, for the French don't have bread sauce at all - a great mistake on their part, for properly made it is excellent, not only with birds but with many kinds of fish. Cold bread sauce ought always to be served with cold roast chicken.
The secret of making good bread sauce is to flavour the milk before adding it to the bread. The bread crumbs should be stale, dried in the oven and then pounded.
First boil a small onion for five minutes. Then put half a pint of milk into a saucepan and add to it the boiled onion cut into pieces, a dozen peppercorns, not quite a level teaspoonful of salt, and either a good pinch of nutmeg or a leaf of mace, or half a dozen cloves. Watch the milk to see that it does not boil, and let it simmer over a gentle fire until it has time to absorb the various flavourings in it. Every time it begins to bubble, move it from the fire to cool down a little. As this process reduces the milk a little more must be added.
Then strain the milk into another saucepan, bring it to the boil, remove it from the fire and stir into it the bread-crumbs.
A table-spoonful of cream added at the last moment improves the sauce.
To get the right consistency the crumbs must be added to the milk, the milk must not be poured over the crumbs. The sauce must be made with milk and not with milk and water.
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CURRY SAUCE
Six onions, two ounces of butter, a table-spoonful of curry powder, a pint of gravy or stock, flour or arrowroot.
Peel and slice six large onions. Put two ounces of butter into a pan, add the onions and let them stew without browning; add a good table-spoonful of curry powder and mix them all together. Then moisten them with a pint of gravy or stock and stir the mixture for twenty minutes. Rub it through a sieve and thicken it with flour or arrowroot if necessary.
Three apples sliced and added to the onions is an improvement.
This sauce is used for curried vegetables and fish.
COLD DEVIL SAUCE
One and a half ounces of butter, three ounces of red shallot, half a pint of stock, a quarter of a pint of claret, a table-spoonful of green ginger, a table-spoonful of chutney, sugar or red currant jelly.
Melt the butter in a small stew-pan over a moderate fire; put into it the finely minced shallot, fry gently, adding, the minced skin of two green chillies or of one fair-sized capsicum, and a teaspoonful of rasped green ginger. When the shallot has browned slightly, moisten it with half a pint of good stock, a quarter of a pint of claret, and a tablespoonful of chili vinegar; stir in while this is heating a table-spoonful of chutney and a teaspoonful of sugar or red currant jelly. Boil it up, skim it, let it simmer for fifteen minutes, and strain it.
When cold remove any scum that may have risen and serve.
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GARLIC SAUCE
Oil, almonds or other nuts, garlic.
For one gill of olive oil, blanch, peel and pound thirty almonds or nuts; add finely chopped garlic to taste, and stir both into the oil.
GREEN SAUCE
To be served with eggs, boiled fish, or chicken.
Take a handful of very green parsley and another of chervil, also some tarragon leaves and some spinach, and scald them all in boiling water. Pound them in a mortar; add to them two gherkins and two spoonfuls of capers. Pound all together with a piece of butter and pass through a sieve.
Mix into a white Béchamel (see page 7).
GREEN GOOSEBERRY SAUCE
To serve with grilled mackerel.
Half a pint of green gooseberries, a wineglass of spinach juice; butter, nutmeg, sugar, pepper and salt.
Boil half a pint of green gooseberries and drain away the water. Pass them through a sieve and put the purée into a stew-pan with a wine-glassful of spinach juice or raw green sorrel; add a little butter and season with nutmeg, sugar, pepper and salt.
Make very hot and serve.
GUBBIN'S SAUCE
This sauce should be made over boiling water.
One ounce of butter, one dessert-spoonful of vinegar, one table-spoonful of cream, two teaspoonfuls of made mustard, half a dessert-spoonful of tarragon vinegar.
Melt the butter and stir into it the mustard; then stir in a dessert-spoonful of vinegar, half that quantity of tarragon vinegar, and a table-spoonful of cream. Season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne.
To be poured over grilled fowl, turkey, pheasant or game, just before serving. It is good with any grill.
SAUCE HOLLANDAISE
Two ounces of butter, the yolks of three eggs, one lemon, a little parsley, a little nutmeg, a little vinegar, salt.
Beat up the yolks of the eggs with a little salt, grated nutmeg, chopped parsley, and a dash of vinegar. Melt the butter in a double saucepan, add the beaten eggs slowly; stir all the time, but do not let the sauce boil. When the sauce is smooth and well mixed, add the juice of a lemon and stir it in.
Serve the sauce very hot, but never let it boil. To be eaten with asparagus and other vegetables and all fish.
COLD SAUCE HOLLANDAISE
A Hollandaise Sauce should be made with butter and eggs, but to be served cold the butter must be left out. Therefore a custard must be made with the yolks of three eggs and half a pint of milk, seasoned with salt and pepper. When this is cold add the following:
Boil a quarter of a pint of French vinegar with a little salt and a teaspoonful of chopped onion until there is little more than a table-spoonful left. Strain this, and when it is cold stir it very gradually into the cold sauce.
HORSERADISH SAUCE
Horseradish, stock, almonds, vinegar, sugar.
Grate two roots of horseradish in a cupful of white stock or milk, and add to it two lumps of sugar, a teaspoonful of ground almonds, and two table-spoonfuls of vinegar. Let it boil, and make it an hour before it is served.
If it is to be used cold do not boil it. To be eaten with roast beef.
Another Recipe for HORSERADISH SAUCE
Horseradish, castor sugar, vinegar, salt, cream.
Grate a young horseradish root as finely as possible, and add to it a dessert-spoonful of castor sugar, a table-spoonful of vinegar, and salt to taste. Stir into it a quarter of a pint of cream, and if it is for hot meat heat it by pouring it into a jar and standing it in boiling water.
Oil can be used instead of cream, and then it should have grated orange rind in it.
MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL BUTTER
Butter, parsley, lemon juice, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Melt an ounce of butter in a pan, and add the same quantity of parsley chopped finely, a good squeeze of lemon juice, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
The lemon juice should be added gradually to the butter and parsley.
If a 'Maître d'Hôtel Sauce' is required, these ingredients are added to a simple Béchamel (see page 7).
To serve with vegetables and fish, grilled kidneys, etc.
MAYONNAISE SAUCES
All Mayonnaise Sauces are made in the same way, and varied with different flavourings. It is important to keep all the ingredients for a cold sauce as cool as possible. Oil kept in a hot kitchen in the summer will be almost tepid, and then no amount of whipping will thicken it properly. Mix the sauce in a cool place - the larder if necessary, and in hot weather cool the oil by standing the bottle on ice for a few minutes, or in a basin of cold water.
PLAIN MAYONNAISE SAUCE
Eggs, salad oil, salt, vinegar.
Stir the yolks of two fresh eggs in a basin with a little salt. Stir with a silver spoon, and add the salad oil very slowly, a drop or two at a time. When the yolks begin to thicken, the oil may be added a spoonful at a time. Two yolks will thicken half a pint of oil. To this quantity add only a tablespoonful of vinegar.
An egg whisk may be used after the sauce has begun to thicken, but should not be used till then.
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MUSHROOM SAUCE
Put a dozen mushrooms into a small stew-pan with a glass of mushroom catsup and half a pint of good brown gravy. Boil it for ten minutes.
To serve with fish or meat.
MUSTARD SAUCE
Melt one ounce of butter in a double saucepan, stir into it a dessert-spoonful of flour till it is smooth, add a teaspoonful of vinegar, salt and pepper, a table-spoonful of dry mustard and a spoonful or two of water.
Stir this over a slow fire till it thickens. To serve with grilled herrings.
Another Recipe for MUSTARD SAUCE
One table-spoonful of made mustard, one table-spoonful of Chili vinegar, two table-spoonfuls of butter, one cup of boiling water, one squeeze of lemon, one teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, two table-spoonfuls of flour.
Melt and mix together the butter and flour, add the cupful of water and stir all the time till it boils, then add the mustard, vinegar, lemon and anchovy. Stir altogether, and serve.
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SAUCE PIQUANTE
This requires one ounce of butter, two onions, one carrot, two cloves, two shallots, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, parsley, and chives; a table-spoonful of flour, a little stock, and a table-spoonful of vinegar.
Chop up all the vegetables and herbs; put them with the butter into a double saucepan. When the butter is melted and turning brown, sift in the flour, stirring all the time; add a little stock and the vinegar; season it with salt and pepper.
Boil the sauce up slowly and put it through a sieve.
Serve with calf's head, brains, grilled trout, or braised cutlets.
SAUCE ROBERT
This is one of the simplest, oldest, and most famous of all the French sauces. It is mentioned as early as the thirteenth century, and may be of Norman origin.
'Robert' is supposed to be derived from Roebuck Sauce.
This is considered the best recipe for Sauce Robert:
Take four large onions and cut them into small pieces; sprinkle them with flour. Put some butter into a frying pan and brown the onions in it; moisten them with a little stock and finish cooking them. Season them with mignonette pepper and salt, and French mustard. After the mustard is added the sauce should not be cooked any more. English mustard mixed with tarragon vinegar, can be used as a substitute for French mustard.
Serve with vegetables, fish or meat.
TOMATO SAUCE
One and a half pounds of tomatoes, two ounces of onions, one clove of garlic, a little butter, a little dried basil, a teaspoonful of sugar, black pepper, salt.
First of all put the basil and the clove of garlic in a little muslin bag, as it must be cooked in the sauce but removed before serving. The tomatoes must be ripe, and well dried after they are washed. They must be sliced. Use the whole of the tomatoes, with skins and seeds.
Melt a spoonful of butter (about an ounce) in a pan, and in this fry two ounces of chopped onion for five minutes. Then put in the sliced tomatoes, with the muslin bag containing the flavourings, the white sugar, and pepper and salt to season. Put the lid on the pan and let it stand for about twelve minutes before bringing it to the boil. Let it boil for a few minutes to thicken the sauce, stirring it well. Then strain it through a hair sieve.
Put it back in the pan (without the muslin bag), add a table-spoonful of 'beurre manié' (made of equal parts of butter and flour kneaded to a paste), bring it to the boil and it is ready for serving.
To serve with macaroni, fish or cutlets.
TOMATO SAUCE TO BOTTLE
Eight tomatoes, two onions, half a pound of white sugar, six cloves, salt, grated nutmeg.
Boil the sugar till it candies, then put in the onions cut into pieces; when they are brown add the tomatoes, salt to season, the cloves and a little nutmeg. Boil it quickly. Pour it into bottles when cool, and keep it well sealed in a cool, dry place.
WELSH RABBIT
A quarter of a pound of Cheddar cheese, one gill of milk (or cream), a good teaspoonful of made mustard, one ounce of butter, pepper, a slice of bread, a little vinegar.
Have a hot dish ready. Toast a whole round of bread half an inch thick on one side, butter it and lay it on the hot dish, the untoasted side uppermost.
Well butter a small iron saucepan, put the milk into it, then the mustard, the butter divided into small morsels; plenty of pepper, a dash of vinegar, and the cheese. Stir the mixture on the fire till the cheese is melted, then quickly pour it on the bread and serve at once. Beer can be used instead of milk.
This is often poured over fish such as halibut and used as a sauce.
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CHAPTER V
FISH
ALL the oldest cookery books are full of recipes for cooking fresh-water fish, because before modern inventions revolutionized transport it was difficult for those who lived inland to get sea fish fresh, and the country was well stocked with stew ponds from the days when the Church's law of abstinence prevailed.
Salmon, of course, was plentiful in all big rivers; in fact, the Thames was so full of salmon before its waters were polluted by our enlightened civilized ways, that when boys were apprenticed in London it was stipulated in their indentures that their masters were not to feed them on salmon more than so many days a week. Salmon was the cheapest thing to feed boys on, in those days.
But are salmon fresh-water fish ? and are eels ? and how do they acclimatize themselves to fresh water and salt water in turn ? If a salmon or an eel could speak they would have far more interesting accounts to give of themselves than any four-footed animal. Life at the bottom of a muddy pond must be dull, yet who would not like to be able to chat with the enormous carp in the pond at Versailles ? the one famous carp who is older than the French Revolution, and who comes to the surface of the water only when there is political trouble in Paris.
But as this is a cookery book and not a work on natural history it is time to return to the point and explain that with the exception of pink trout, fresh-water fish are not as good to eat as sea fish.
A Marseilles Recipe for BOUILLABAISSE
Two large onions, olive oil, any kind of fish, a bay leaf, half a lemon, two tomatoes, glass of white wine, peppercorns, four cloves of garlic, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a taste of saffron, slices of bread.
Slice two large onions and put them into a deep aluminium saucepan with four spoonfuls of olive oil; fry them a pale brown. Wash all the fish (any kinds of fish will do), though those usually used - because caught in the Mediterranean - are whitings, turbot, lobster, red mullet, gurnet, crayfish; the more different kinds the better.
Add the fish well washed and cut into small pieces, and just cover them with warm water; add salt to taste, a bay leaf, half a lemon without rind or pips, two tomatoes cut in dice with the seeds removed, a glass of white wine, a few peppercorns, and four cloves of garlic. Let it all boil slowly for twelve minutes. Then it should be reduced to about one-third of its original quantity. Add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a taste of saffron, and boil it for another minute.
Put into a tureen which has been heated twenty-four slices of French rolls or bread cut half an inch thick, and pour the contents of the saucepan over it, a little at first to soak the bread.
A Provençal Recipe for BOUILLABAISSE
Gather together as many different kinds of fish as possible; the best kinds for this dish are - langouste, red gurnet, conger-eel, whiting, crab, etc. Shell them and take out the flesh; cut them up and put them on two plates - on one the firm fish like langouste, and on the other the soft, such as whiting.
Put into a saucepan three chopped onions, four cloves of garlic crushed, three peeled tomatoes seeded and chopped, a sprig of thyme and one of fennel, parsley, a bay leaf, and a piece of orange peel.
Put into this all the firm fish and cover them with half a glass of oil; a little more than cover them with boiling water, season them with salt, pepper and saffron, and cook very quickly; the saucepan should be half covered with the flames of the fire or gas.
After five minutes' boiling add the other fish, and continue the cooking at the same speed for another five minutes; take it off the fire. Put some pieces of French roll at the bottom of the tureen, and pour some of the liquid over them. Pour the fish on another dish, and serve both.
The quick boiling is essential, otherwise the oil will not amalgamate.
COD
COD À L'HOLLANDAISE
A piece of cod, lemon, onion, thyme, a bay leaf, potatoes, Hollandaise sauce (see page 16).
Boil the cod in cold water with some slices of lemon, salt, a sliced onion, a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf. In the same water cook enough potatoes to surround the cod when it is dished up.
Make some Hollandaise sauce. Serve the cod with potatoes round it and sauce over it.
CRAB
HOT CRAB
One crab, two ounces of butter, three ounces of breadcrumbs, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one tablespoonful of oil; pepper, salt, nutmeg.
Put the meat from a boiled crab into a basin and stir the nutmeg, oil, vinegar and seasoning into it. Add the butter and the breadcrumbs.
Return it to the shell, strew it with bread-crumbs, and brown it in the oven.
CHAMPIGNONS À L'ÉCRIVISSE
Crabs, a few mushrooms, one ounce of butter, one ounce of flour, yolks of two eggs, nearly half a pint of white stock, two tablespoonfuls of sherry, parsley, pepper and salt.
There should be enough crab meat to fill a breakfast cup. Make a sauce with the butter, flour, and white stock, add salt and pepper to season. Stir in the beaten yolks of the eggs; then add the chopped mushrooms (about half a teacupful). Cook the mixture for three minutes, then add parsley, and set it aside to cool.
Trim and wash the crab shells, fill them with the mixture and cover them with breadcrumbs and morsels of butter. Mark the crumbs with the back of a knife, drawing it across them in parallel lines, and bake them till brown.
BAKED JOHN DORY
This fish derives its name from the French jaune d'orée
Remove the flesh from the bone in two large unbroken pieces. Make a broth from the head and bones (see p. 145). Beat up an egg and brush the inside of the fillets with it, pepper and salt them, and sprinkle them with finely chopped chives, chervil and parsley.
Butter a fireproof dish, strew it with some of the chopped chives, chervil and parsley, put the fish together again and put it in the dish with three tablespoonfuls of white wine and double the quantity of the broth that you have made from the head and bones. Bake it in a fairly slow oven.
Make the rest of the broth into a white sauce, flavouring it with anchovy and lemon juice.
When the John Dory is almost ready, pour the juice from the dish into the sauce. Have ready some pieces of stewed cucumber or stewed tomato, garnish the fish with these, pour the sauce over it. Put the dish back in the oven for a few minutes, and serve it with croutons.
COLD RED GURNET
Three large gurnets, one and a half ounces of butter, two lemons, yolks of two eggs, a bunch of herbs, two carrots, two good-sized onions, two ounces of flour.
Boil the fish for half an hour in water with plenty of salt, the carrots and onions cut in slices, a bunch of mixed herbs. When the fish is cooked, drain it and cut into pieces about three or four inches in length, removing from them all skin and bones. Arrange these pieces neatly on the dish in which they are to be served. Do not have too large a dish, as it will look nicer if the pieces of fish are arranged high in the form of a pyramid.
Then pour over it the following sauce:
Melt a piece of butter the size of an egg in a small saucepan, add two tablespoonfuls of flour, stirring it into a smooth paste, and add to it some of the water the fish has boiled in, being careful not to put into the sauce any pieces of vegetable or anything solid. When you have enough sauce, squeeze in the juice of two lemons; remove it from the fire and stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs. The sauce must be hot, but not hot enough to curdle the eggs. Add more pepper and salt if necessary. Pour the sauce over the fish, and put in a cool place. Serve it garnished with lemon.
A good way of cooking HADDOCK
Choose a good-sized fresh haddock. Remove the flesh from each side of the bone in two large fillets. With the bones, head and tail make a broth, by covering them with cold water in a saucepan with a salt-spoonful of salt; bring slowly to the boil, and add three ounces of onion, one of celery, a bunch of parsley and herbs, and mignonette pepper. Let it simmer until a good fish broth has been obtained. Skim and strain this off into a sauté pan with an upright rim; add a glass of Chablis, Graves or Sauterne, and bring it to the boil. Put the fish in, let it boil up again, and then let it simmer (not boil) for eight minutes.
Take out the fillets, put them on a hot dish and keep them hot while the broth in which the fish has cooked is thickened in a saucepan containing a roux prepared beforehand. Stir into it in small pieces half a gill of freshly made shrimp purée, and when it is well amalgamated and skimmed pour it over the fish. Garnish with small potatoes, or pieces of stewed cucumber.
HALIBUT
HALIBUT À LA BÉCHAMEL
Eight fillets of halibut (about one and a half pounds), three tablespoonfuls of butter, three-quarters of a pint Béchamel sauce, a dessert-spoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of onion juice; salt and pepper; eggs, lemon, parsley.
Prepare the Béchamel sauce (see page 7). Melt the butter in a bowl with pepper, salt, lemon and onion juice, and stand it in a pan of boiling water to keep it melted while you dip each fillet of fish in it. Roll up and skewer each buttered fillet, flour them and put them on a fireproof dish in a hot oven for twelve minutes.
Take out the skewers when they are cooked, pour round them the hot Béchamel sauce, and decorate them with the yolks of hard-boiled egg grated, strips of the whites, little three-cornered slices of lemon, and small pieces of fried parsley.
HALIBUT À LA WELSH RABBIT
Fillets of halibut, Welsh rabbit (see page 26). Put the fillets of halibut into a dish with pepper, salt, a squeeze of lemon juice, and melted butter brushed over them. Bake them.
Put them on the dish they are to be served in, and pour over them a Welsh rabbit.
HERRINGS
STUFFED HERRINGS À LA PRESIDENTE
A herring for each person; parsley, bread-crumbs, butter, one egg.
Choose large fresh herrings with soft roes. Split the herrings, take out the roes and chop up the roes with parsley and soft breadcrumbs; season them with a little pepper, and mix well.
Melt a little butter in a saucepan, break an egg into it and stir it; then add the chopped roe mixture. Stir it, and don't let the egg set until the ingredients are well mixed.
Take out the herring bones; fill the fish with the stuffing and bake them in a pie dish with a little butter for about twenty-five minutes.
Put the herring on a hot plate, add a little milk to the liquor in the dish they have cooked in; stir it over the fire for a minute, pour the sauce over the herrings and serve them very hot.
HERRINGS À LA BOHEMIENNE
Take as many herrings as are required. Split them open, remove the bones, and lay them out flat. Season them with pepper and salt, and put a small piece of butter on them. Place them on a gridiron and grill, then turning them over.
Prepare a brown sauce with a little butter and flour, Worcester sauce and Harvey's sauce.
Fold back the herrings, pour the sauce over them and serve them with red currant jelly.
LOBSTER
LOBSTER À LA BORDELAISE
Lobster, white wine, onion, parsley, thyme, garlic, bay leaf.
Shell a lobster and divide it into eight pieces. Let it boil in a wine-glassful of white wine with the herbs. Drain well and put each piece of lobster in a clean pan.
Make a roux of butter and flour, and fry two small onions chopped up in it; moisten it with some of the liquor in which the lobster was boiled; stir it, and add two wineglassfuls of tomato sauce and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Pour this over the lobster, heat it and serve.
LOBSTER À LA BÉCHAMEL
A lobster weighing two pounds, or two smaller ones, three-quarters of a pint of milk, one and a half ounces of butter, one and a half ounces of flour, yolk of an egg, breadcrumbs, salt, nutmeg, half a bay leaf, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, one of minced parsley; cayenne.
Take all the lobster meat and chop it in small pieces. Make a Béchamel sauce with the milk, butter, flour (see page 7), flavour it with a bay leaf boiled in the milk. Remove the bay leaf, stir in the yolk of an egg beaten up with lemon juice, parsley, salt, a little grated nutmeg and cayenne. Put the lobster meat into the sauce, fill the lobster shell with the mixture, cover it with breadcrumbs and morsels of butter, and bake it till the crumbs are brown.
STUFFED LOBSTER
One large lobster or two small ones, yolks of two eggs, a dessert-spoonful of minced parsley, four table-spoonfuls of bread-crumbs, a little milk, one ounce of butter, one ounce of flour; salt, pepper, nutmeg, to season.
Remove the meat from the lobster; there should be a breakfast-cupful. Make a white sauce with milk, butter and flour, season it with chopped parsley, salt, pepper and a little grated nutmeg.
Chop up the lobster meat with the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs worked into a paste, and stir it into the sauce. Put the mixture in the shells of the lobster, cover it with crumbs and morsels of butter, and bake it till the crumbs brown.
DEVILLED LOBSTER
One lobster, three table-spoonfuls of milk, half a teaspoonful of dry mustard, one ounce of butter, half a teaspoonful of curry powder, toast.
Put the butter into a saucepan with a little mace, the curry powder, cayenne, salt, and half a teaspoonful of dry mustard.
Cut the lobster up into small pieces, and add it. Stir it all together until hot, then add the milk and let it all simmer for five minutes.
Prepare some large slices of hot buttered toast, and serve the lobster on it.
GRILLED LOBSTER
Open a lobster and break its claws. Sprinkle it when open with dry mustard, pepper and salt, and cover it with little pieces of butter.
Grill it, and as the skin comes away from the shell, slip in pieces of butter between the shell and the flesh. Sprinkle it from time to time with the juice and butter which comes from it. After twenty minutes sprinkle it with breadcrumbs; place pieces of butter on the top, and brown it either in the oven or under the grill.
Serve with a maître d'hôtel sauce, to which is added a spoonful of mustard.
PEPPER POT
One lobster or crab, prawns, oysters, anchovy, onion, stock, Worcester sauce, spinach.
Take a boiled lobster or crab, and remove the flesh from the shell. Add twelve prawns and twelve oysters, also a breakfast-cupful of cooked spinach.
Make a cupful of gravy, using the shells of the fish; fry an onion and place all the fish in a frying pan for half an hour and fry it very slowly in a pint of stock. Add pepper, salt, Worcester sauce and anchovy to taste.
MACKEREL
MACKEREL AUX FINES HERBES
Mackerel, butter, shallot, parsley, orange, fennel, mint, sweet basil, thyme, spices.
Draw the mackerel without opening its belly, and make an incision in its back from the neck to the tail without flattening it.
Mince a handful of herbs, consisting of parsley, fennel, mint, sweet basil and thyme, and make them into a paste with butter, pepper, salt and mixed spice: Rub this seasoned butter all over the flesh of the fish; place it on a gridiron and grill it on both sides.
Make a sauce of gravy and shallot boiled with the juice of an orange.
Support the fish in the dish, the back uppermost, with quarters of orange, and pour the sauce in boiling hot.
GERMAN MACKEREL
One mackerel, two table-spoonfuls of bread-crumbs, two ounces of butter, one onion minced, one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, lemon.
Make a mixture of the bread-crumbs, minced onion and parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, but do not cook it.
Stuff the mackerel with this after splitting and boning the fish.
Prepare a buttered paper; wrap the mackerel in it after seasoning the fish and placing a small piece of butter on the top of it.
Bake for twenty or thirty minutes, and serve it out of the paper with bread sauce.
CREAM OF MACKEREL
One mackerel, bread, pepper, salt and cayenne, one table-spoonful of anchovy essence; butter.
Remove all the skin and bones from a boiled mackerel, and put it in a saucepan with a quarter of a pint of milk. Let it simmer, then take it off the fire and beat it till it becomes a cream.
Add a small piece of butter, season it with anchovy, pepper and salt. Re-heat it, and when very hot pour it into china ramakin cases and serve with a crouton of fried bread on the top.
The usual way of cooking RED MULLET
Red mullet, salt, pepper, and butter, lemon.
Take as many sheets of white paper as fish; make them into cradles, oil them and bake them for a few minutes to harden them. Sprinkle the cradle with pepper and salt, and lay on it a piece of butter.
Deposit each red mullet - which on no account should have its liver removed - in the cradle, and put a piece of butter on the top of each fish. Arrange the paper cases in a flat baking dish, and bake them in the oven for twenty or thirty minutes.
Serve them in the cases, with pieces of lemon.
RED MULLETS AU VIN
Butter a flat casserole and place the mullets in it, with a little butter, white wine, minced shallots, pepper and salt, and an additional piece of butter on each fish. Bake them and just before serving sprinkle lemon juice and minced parsley over them.
Serve them in the same dish.
FILLETED RED MULLET
Four red mullets, four ounces of mushrooms, one tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup, two tablespoonfuls of white wine, one tablespoonful of minced parsley, two ounces of butter, one shallot, flour, milk, bread, salt and pepper.
Stew the mushrooms, the sliced shallot, and the parsley with one ounce of butter, pepper and salt, for thirty minutes.
Fry four slices of bread the size of the fillets of red mullet. Spread over them the mushroom paste.
Fry the fillets of mullet in butter over a quick fire, lay them on the bread, and pour over them a sauce made of the ketchup, white wine, a little milk, and water in which the livers and heads of the fish have been stewed, and flour.
MUSSELS
This fish was called by Grimod de la Reynière the oysters of the poor, and there are very few shell fish which surpass them in flavour. This fish is one of the chief attractions of the Normandy Matelote.
Mussels must be perfectly fresh and taken straight from the rocks where they live. Scrape the shells and wash them; put them in a saucepan of boiling water on the fire till they open.
Prepare a sauce by melting a piece of butter the size of an egg in a saucepan, stir into it a table-spoonful of flour; when smooth add a little milk and some of the water the mussels have cooked in. Season it with salt, pepper and minced parsley, and add the mussels.
OYSTERS
OYSTERS PAPRIKA
The oysters are baked and served with the following sauce:
Not quite a table-spoonful of melted butter, three-quarters of a teaspoonful of lemon juice, the same amount of sauterne, a pinch of finely minced parsley, and salt and paprika to taste. Before mixing the ingredients, rub the cup or bowl with a clove of garlic.
BAKED OYSTERS
One dozen oysters, one and a half ounces of butter, one table-spoonful of lemon juice, salt, pepper, cayenne.
Make some neat small squares of toast, one for each oyster put an oyster on each piece of toast, with salt and pepper, and bake. Serve with the following sauce:
Cream the butter, adding the lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne, and a salt-spoonful of salt.
A VENETIAN WAY OF COOKING OYSTERS
One dozen oysters, bread-crumbs, butter, pepper, half a pound of macaroni, one gill of milk, lemon.
Cook the macaroni in boiling water for about fifteen minutes; drain it. Butter a pie dish and put the macaroni at the bottom.
Cut the oysters in four and lay in the macaroni. Season with pepper, lemon juice, and pour the milk over them. Cover them with bread-crumbs, and place small pieces of butter on the top.
Bake, and serve very hot.
OYSTERS IN BACON
Six oysters, six thin slices of bacon, bread.
Wrap each oyster in a thin slice of bacon, after bearding and dusting it with pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Fry them, and serve them on fried bread.
HUÎTRES EN COQUILLE
Oysters, butter, parsley, white wine, flour, bread-crumbs.
Blanch and beard the oysters, then put them in a pan with their own liquor, a little butter, some chopped parsley, and a glass of white wine - Chablis is best. Do not on any account let them boil. Take out the oysters and put them into well-buttered scallop shells.
Reduce the sauce, and add to it a little flour and butter to thicken it. Pour the sauce over the oysters, sprinkle them well with breadcrumbs, place pieces of butter on the top, and brown them in the oven in a baking tin.
PLAICE
PLAICE AU VIN
Fillets of plaice, three ounces of butter, a small onion, one ounce of potato flour, a little cooking sherry or other white wine, parsley.
Melt the butter in a shallow stew-pan; in it sprinkle a chopped onion; then put in the fillets of fish, drying them on a cloth first. Pour in enough wine to cover them; cook quickly for five minutes, then cover them with the lid and let them simmer quietly till they are cooked. Remove the fish on to a hot dish; keep it hot while you thicken the sauce by stirring in potato flour. Pour it over the fillets, and garnish them with a little chopped parsley before serving hot.
STEWED PLAICE
One plaice, one onion, pepper, salt and butter, one egg, pinch of ground ginger, mace, lemon.
Fillet the plaice, and sprinkle the fillets with lemon juice, salt and cayenne. Stew bones and trimmings of the fish with salt, pepper, a pinch of ginger and mace, and stock.
Slice and fry the onion in butter, and put it into a clean pan; add the fish. Strain the liquor over the fish and let it all simmer gently for thirty minutes. When cooked, take out the fillets and add the well-beaten eggs to the liquor when it is cool. Let it simmer until it thickens, but do not let it boil, and pour over the plaice, which should be dished on a thick slice of toast.
PRAWNS
FRICASSEE OF PRAWNS
Prawns, flour, tomatoes, onion, butter, garlic, shrimps.
Shell a pint of prawns and four dozen shrimps.
Make a roux and fry an onion in it. Stew the prawns and shrimps in a casserole with a clove of garlic, pepper and salt, one pound of tomatoes, and a pint of boiling water for an hour.
CURRIED PRAWNS
Twenty-four prawns, curry sauce, three eggs.
Prepare a curry sauce (see page 12). Hard-boil the eggs and cut them into slices. Let the prawns cook gently in the curry sauce for thirty minutes, then add the slices of egg, and serve with a border of boiled rice.
SALMON
PAIN DE SAUMON À LA RUSSE
One pound of salmon, yolks of two eggs, nearly half a pint of milk, three-quarters of an ounce of butter, half an ounce of sugar, four table-spoonfuls of vinegar, two leaves of gelatine, a dessert-spoonful of flour, a dessert-spoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of mustard; cayenne.
Boil the salmon and flake it. Mix the flour, the dry mustard, the sugar, and a pinch of cayenne; add the melted butter, the beaten yolks, and the milk. Cook in a double saucepan until it thickens, stir in the vinegar, and the gelatine previously soaked in cold water. Strain it on to the salmon. Mix well, and fill a mould.
Serve cold with horseradish sauce.
SALMON WITH GREEN SAUCE
Boil the salmon in water with a sliced carrot, an onion, a bunch of herbs, salt and pepper, and serve it with green mayonnaise sauce.
SCALLOPS
One dozen scallops, rice, curry sauce.
In another pan stew the scallops gently till partly cooked, then cook them in a curry sauce very slowly for one hour.
Pour the mixture back into the shells, and put a border of cooked rice round them.
SHRIMPS
SHRIMP ROLLS
Shrimps, watercress, butter, cayenne, bread.
Lay some shrimps in the centre of thin slices of bread and butter. Roll the slices up into tight rolls, and serve with lettuce and watercress.
SHRIMPS À LA CZARINE
One pint of picked shrimps, three-quarters of a pint of milk, nutmeg, a roux of butter and flour, anchovy essence, salt, cayenne, mace.
Make a white roux of butter and flour, and add to it the milk and seasoning. Add a few drops of anchovy, and cook for a few minutes.
Put the shrimps into this sauce, and make them very hot. Serve with sippets of fried bread.
SHRIMP CROUSTADES
Shrimps, onion, parsley, flour, butter, pepper, salt, mace, bread.
Shell a pint of shrimps. Boil the shells in half a pint of water with a little onion and parsley; strain it. With this liquor, and flour and butter, make a white sauce flavoured with mace.
Fry the shrimps in butter and add these to the sauce, which must be reduced till it is like very thick cream.
Have some small round fresh dinner rolls with a soft crust. Cut a piece off the top of each and remove all the crumb. Fry the cases and the pieces of crust removed in very hot butter. Fill the cases with the shrimp mixture, replace the top as a lid. Bake in the oven, and serve hot.
SKATE
BAKED SKATE
Skate, peppercorns, vinegar, minced herbs, mixed spice, parsley, beer (if liked), salt.
Make the skate into fillets and dust each fillet with salt, mixed spice, pepper, and finely chopped parsley. Put the fillets in a fireproof dish, dust over them chopped mixed herbs, and pour in vinegar in which has been put some whole peppercorns, or equal quantities of vinegar and beer. Cover the dish with greased paper, and bake it for an hour and a quarter.
SKATE AU BEURRE NOIR
Fillets of skate, parsley, an onion, salt, vinegar, butter.
Boil the fish in water with a sliced onion, salt, and a little vinegar. When it is cooked, drain it well. Fry some parsley in boiling butter till it is crisp.
Serve the fish with the fried parsley, and a sauce of black butter (see page 8), to which a dash of vinegar has been added.
SKATE AU VIN BLANC
Skate, a glass of white wine, one ounce of butter, parsley, two shallots, a chive, two or three mushrooms, three leaves of basil; salt, peppercorns, grated bread-crumbs.
Cook the fish in the usual way, and serve it with the following sauce: Melt the butter in the wine, and add the other ingredients chopped very finely and passed through a sieve. Let the sauce simmer for fifteen minutes over a slow fire, and serve it poured over the skate.
RAIE MARINÉE FRITE
Fillets of skate, vinegar, salt, pepper, parsley, chives, a clove of garlic, cloves, an onion.
Divide the fish into small pieces and let it soak for two or three hours in a little water with vinegar in it, also add a chopped onion, a clove of garlic, pepper, salt, cloves, and chopped chives. When it is time to cook the fillets, drain them well, wipe them dry, flour and fry them. Serve them with parsley fried crisply.
SMELTS
The Scotch call this exquisite fish "Sparlings", which is derived from its French name, "Eperlans". It is considered in France the most delicate of all fish. Brillat Savarin called it the beccafico of the sea, as turbot is called the pheasant, and red mullet the woodcock.
When fresh, smelts have a scent like cucumber, though Beauvilliers found that they smelt of violets. Here are two ways of cooking them:
BAKED SMELTS
Put some butter into a fireproof dish, a glass of white wine, a few drops of anchovy sauce, and the juice of half a lemon.
Arrange the fish prettily in this dish, sprinkle them with salt, mace and cayenne, and cover them with bread-crumbs. Put dabs of butter on the bread-crumbs, and bake them till brown.
FRIED SMELTS
Dip the fish in flour, then egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in suet.
Serve them in a napkin, garnished with fried parsley.
This is the most usual way of cooking them.
SOLES
SOLE AU VIN BLANC
Sole, onion, sweet herbs, a clove, peppercorns, salt, butter, white wine, the yolk of half an egg.
Carefully trim the sole and put it in a flat earthenware casserole, surrounded with slices of onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, a clove, four peppercorns, and a little salt. Put some small dabs of butter over it, and cover it with white wine. Cover with a lid and cook it slowly for ten minutes, or until done. Remove the fish and prepare a sauce from the liquor in which it was cooked by removing the onions and the herbs, and by shaking into it the yolk of half an egg to thicken the gravy. Strain it over the fish.
SOLE AUX FINES HERBES
Sole, butter, parsley, chives, bread-crumbs.
Well grease a fireproof dish, and spread over the bottom a layer of bread-crumbs and chopped parsley, and a pinch of chives. Then put in the sole and cover it with another layer of bread-crumbs, parsley and chives, pepper and salt. Sprinkle a few raspings over the top, and add small pieces of butter. Cover it with a buttered paper, and bake it. Serve it in the same dish.
SOLE OTERO
One small sole, half a pint of shrimps, four large potatoes, butter, pepper, salt.
Choose four large potatoes or as many as are required; they should be chosen to lie well on their sides. Bake them in the oven. When cooked, cut a neat oval in the topmost side of each potato, and scoop out the inside without damaging the skins. Mash up the potato so removed with butter, pepper and salt.
Cook a small sole, remove the bones, and divide into small pieces. Mix it with half a pint of picked shrimps, and cover the fish with a sauce Mornay. Add the mashed potato, and with this mixture refill the cases; replace the end and re-heat. (Sauce Mornay, see page 20).
Serve them in a silver dish on a napkin.
TROUT
TROUT À LA BÉARNAISE
Trout, butter, chives, minced parsley, oil, thyme, pepper and salt.
Fill the trout with a paste of butter and herbs. Brush the fish over with oil or butter, sprinkle it with pepper and salt, and grill it.
Serve with Béarnaise sauce (page 6) over it. The sauce can be served in a separate dish.
TRUITES AU BLEU
Half a pint of white wine, half a pint of water, an onion, a carrot, parsley, herbs, a bay-leaf, celery, tarragon, leek, pepper, salt, trout.
Put into a fish kettle the wine and water, cut up an onion, a carrot, and a little parsley, a bouquet of herbs, a bay leaf, thyme, celery, tarragon, a leek, pepper and salt, and in this court bouillon boil the trout.
Serve with a Mousseline or Hollandaise sauce.
TURBOT
TURBOT À LA TARTARE
Turbot, breadcrumbs, butter, pepper, salt, tartare sauce, chives, an egg, thyme.
Put the turbot in a fireproof dish; heat some butter and pour it over, then sprinkle some chopped parsley, thyme, and chives over it, and season it with black pepper and salt. Leave it for one hour. Then brush it over with egg, sprinkle it with breadcrumbs and bake.
Serve it with a tartare sauce poured over it.
WHITING
WHITING CREAMS
One whiting, half a pint of milk, two eggs, four ounces of butter, three ounces of onion, parsley, salt, pepper, a little cream.
Fillet a large whiting; put the head, tail, skin and bone into a saucepan with half a pint of cold milk, a pinch of pepper and half a tea-spoonful of salt. Bring it to the boil slowly, then add the chopped onion, a teaspoonful of chopped celery, a large piece of parsley, and a teaspoonful of herbs. Cook it gently for thirty minutes, then strain it into a stew-pan and cook the fish in it till it is soft enough to make a purée.
Take out the fish when it is cooked, pass it through a sieve with a lump of butter the size of an egg, an ounce of flour made into a paste, with an ounce of butter. Beat up two whole eggs and mix this with the fish purée; flavour it with salt and pepper, add a little cream, and steam it for twenty-five minutes in small buttered moulds.
Thicken the broth with a roux of flour and butter, and add a good squeeze of lemon juice. Turn out the moulds, pour the sauce over them, and serve hot.
A DELICATE WAY OF COOKING WHITINGS
Whitings, flour, butter, parsley, spring onions, stock, cream.
Rub some small whitings in flour till it adheres to them; then put a good piece of butter into a frying pan and lay the fish in. Fry them very slowly without letting them get coloured or dry.
Mince some parsley and green onions very finely, and mix them with a little good stock and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Mix well and pour it over the fish just before they are quite cooked. Move them about, but do not break them.
TO COOK FRESH-WATER FISH
Fish, butter, onion, anchovies, bread-crumbs, brown gravy.
Put some pieces of butter at the bottom of a flat fireproof dish, and lay the fish, after boning it, in it.
Fry half an onion and a few washed anchovies in butter, and pour over the fish. Strew them with dry bread-crumbs grated from the crust of a loaf, put in a little brown gravy. Bake, and baste it constantly till cooked, and serve it in the same dish.
AN EXCELLENT FISH SALAD
One teacupful of cooked macaroni, one teacupful of flaked cooked fish, three ounces of grated horseradish, a quarter of a pint of cream, half a teaspoonful of made mustard, a table-spoonful of tarragon vinegar, salt and pepper, chopped tarragon, and lettuces.
Cut the macaroni into equal lengths, and mix it with the fish. Whip the cream, and add to it the horseradish and seasoning. Stir in the vinegar.
Surround the fish with crisp lettuce hearts, washed and well drained; sprinkle it with finely chopped tarragon, and pour over all the sauce.
A GOOD FISH SOUFFLÉ
Partly boil the fish in salted water (turbot, halibut or sole should be used for a soufflé).
Remove from it all skin and bone, and mince it finely. Season the puree with salt and pepper, mix with it a little cream and the well-beaten white of two eggs.
Butter a soufflé dish, fill it with the mixture, and tie a band of greased paper round the top above the rim of the dish.
Steam it or bake it for about half an hour.
LAVINIA'S SOUCHET
One sole, one pint of water, one medium-sized onion, one carrot, one small turnip (if the carrot is not a very good sweet one, add a small lump of sugar), pepper and salt.
Take all the bones of the sole and simmer them in the water with the vegetables and salt and pepper for one hour. Then strain the liquid, return it to the saucepan and put in the sole itself, cut in pieces. Boil it for five minutes.
Put some chopped parsley at the bottom of the tureen and a few little pieces of the previously boiled carrot and turnip.
BROWN FISH
Either mackerels or herrings, brown stock or gravy, a quarter of a pound of butter (or less for a small amount of fish), two table-spoonfuls of flour, a piece of lemon peel, a teaspoonful of mixed spice, a wine-glassful of claret, or a dessert-spoonful of mushroom ketchup.
Trim the fish, removing its bones, fillet it, and boil it in water with salt and pepper for forty-five minutes. Then strain off the liquor and colour it with browning.
Fry the butter brown, stir into it the flour; when it is smooth, add this to the liquor with the spice, salt and pepper, and a piece of lemon rind. Boil it and then put in the fillets of fish. Let them simmer for twenty minutes, adding brown gravy if it is too dry.
When it is cooked and ready to serve, remove the lemon peel and pour in the wine (or the ketchup). Serve hot.
A MOOLOO OF FISH
One cocoanut, green chillies, an onion, garlic, butter, vinegar, any fish.
Take one pound of filleted fish, fry it lightly and leave it to cool. Make a small opening in a cocoanut, scrape the interior and half fill it with hot water. Leave it till cool, and strain the water into a basin, then put in a little more hot water and rub it well into the cocoanut, and again strain it off.
Cut up two or three onions, three green chillies, and add to it half a clove of garlic. Fry them all in butter, and add the cocoanut water. Pour all the contents of the frying pan over the fish, add a little vinegar, some sliced green ginger, pepper and salt.
Let it simmer for a few minutes, and serve.
FISH CUSTARD
Haddock, whiting or any other small quantity of fish, one pint of milk, one egg.
Take the skin, bones, head and tail of the fish and boil them in the milk with pepper and salt. Half boil the fish itself. Strain in the milk the trimmings of the fish have boiled in and add the beaten egg. Pour the custard into a mould and put the fish in flaked. Steam the mould in hot water for forty-five minutes, then turn it out, garnish it with strips of lemon peel and cucumber.
This is a good way of using up cold fish.
CHAPTER IX
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
An Arabian way of cooking RED MULLET
Fry in oil some cut-up tomatoes, onions, spices, shallots, salt, pepper, garlic, and a little curry powder, and saffron. Add a little flour and water.
Grill the red mullets slowly in this sauce, and serve them very hot.
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CHAPTER XV
SANDWICHES AND SAVOURIES
FORTUNES are made in the City of London out of sandwiches, yet to the average household a sandwich is merely two slices of bread and butter and a piece of ham palmed off in a hurry on those who desire to picnic, but the proper accompaniment of a sandwich is not the schoolboy's ginger beer or railway station coffee, but a glass of champagne, or some of the excellent white French wines which at present are cheaper than beer.
If a busy City millionaire can lunch on sandwiches and desires nothing better, why shouldn't sandwich lunches be popular in Mayfair ? There is as much art in making sandwiches as in preparing a French menu, and many hostesses who offer their friends indifferently cooked but pretentious lunches could, with far less trouble, gain an epicurean reputation if they were content with the simplicity of wine and sandwiches.
In New York new and expensive sandwich shops are springing up in the most fashionable streets. Possibly the popularity of the sandwich meal is accounted for by the domestic service problem, as a sandwich supper after the theatre is such a convenient innovation. And Prohibition does not apparently deprive the sandwich of its natural accompaniment of wine.
These sandwiches are not limited to mere slices of cold meat; all the most elaborate sauces and salads are drawn upon to make them interesting and appetising. Fish, fowl, cheese, fruit, vegetables, are used in every permutation and combination. And undoubtedly they will become as fashionable here as in America, for the sandwich habit is adaptable to every household in every circumstance and emergency.
Two of the secrets of successful sandwich making are to use plenty of butter, and to grate ham, tongue, chicken, etc., instead of using the meat in slices.
Never put mushrooms into sandwiches; they are not safe to keep to eat cold.
One of the best and least known mixtures for filling sandwiches is green butter, and it is particularly good between slices of Veda bread (see page xv). This is how it is made:
GREEN BUTTER
Well wash and bone two ounces of anchovies. Boil a large handful of very green parsley, just cover it with water and leave the lid off the pan it boils in. Boil for about five minutes and then immediately put the parsley under the cold-water tap. Strip the parsley from the stalks and chop it very fine (a parsley cutter only costs a few pence and saves a lot of time). Beat the parsley, the anchovies and a quarter of a pound of butter together into a paste, and pot it. This will keep for a week.
Other good sandwiches are:‑
DELHI SANDWICH
Six anchovies, three sardines, one teaspoonful of chutney, one egg, one ounce of butter, one small teaspoonful of curry powder.
Free the sardines and anchovies from bones. Pound them with the seasonings, the chutney and butter. Beat up the yolk of the egg and stir this in, with a pinch of cayenne. Heat the mixture, stirring it into a smooth paste. This is excellent spread between toast. The toast should be made in rather thick slices, split in two, and the soft sides buttered.
SOLE SANDWICH
Fillets of cold sole, seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt, between slices of brown bread and butter make a delicious sandwich.
…
DEVILLED FISH SANDWICH
Mix chopped cooked fish and hard-boiled eggs, moisten it with cream and season it with minced parsley and Worcester sauce and spread between bread.
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CREAMED HADDOCK SANDWICH
One cooked dried haddock, three tablespoonfuls of cream, one ounce of butter, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, a little milk, cayenne, salt, pepper.
Flake the flesh from the bones of the fish. Make the cream, butter, pepper, parsley and cayenne into a paste, and mix it with the flaked haddock. Spread between slices of bread or toast.
LOBSTER SANDWICH
Pound the meat of a small lobster to a paste with a little cream and butter, a chopped anchovy, salt and pepper. Add two or three tablespoonfuls of chopped watercress, and mix thoroughly. Spread between slices of bread.
SALADE D'ÉCRIVISSE SANDWICH
Mix pounded shrimps seasoned with lemon juice and pepper, with mayonnaise and spread between bread.
DEVILLED SALMON SANDWICH
Mix salmon pounded to a paste with butter and seasoned with salt, pepper and Worcester sauce, with sliced cucumber dipped in French dressing and spread between bread.
TOMATO AND SARDINE SANDWICH
Half a pound of tomatoes, one tin of sardines, lemon juice, castor sugar, one ounce of butter, pepper and salt.
Bone the sardines, pound them with one ounce of butter and rub it through a sieve. Season it with pepper and salt. Skin the tomatoes and cut them in very thin slices. Spread buttered bread with the sardine mixture, lay on this the thin slices of tomato, and complete the sandwich.
DEVILLED ALMOND AND ANCHOVY SANDWICH
Three ounces of sweet almonds, three ounces of butter, one teaspoonful of anchovy paste, cayenne pepper, half a teaspoonful each of minced parsley and onion.
Blanch the almonds and pound them; mix them with the butter, and add the parsley, onion and anchovy paste. Season the mixture with cayenne, and spread between split pieces of toast.
NORWEGIAN SANDWICHES
Six anchovies, one hard-boiled egg, minced parsley, smoked salmon, one ounce of butter. Pound six anchovies to a smooth paste with an ounce of butter, and spread both pieces of buttered toast with this. Lay a thin slice of smoked salmon, sprinkled with chopped hard-boiled egg and the parsley, between them.
OLIVE AND ANCHOVY SALAD SANDWICH
Allow three olives for each anchovy; chop them, pound them together, season it with pepper. Spread the sandwich with this and then with mayonnaise sauce. Sprinkle it with minced capers.
…
CAVIARE TOAST SANDWICHES
Make the toast rather thick, split it, butter the soft side, spread it with caviare seasoned with lemon juice, and sprinkle it with hard-boiled egg chopped very finely.
EGGS AND ANCHOVY PASTE SANDWICH
Three eggs, half an ounce of butter, one dessertspoonful of anchovy essence; salt , pepper.
Hard boil the eggs; pound the yolks with butter, stir in the anchovy essence, add pepper to taste, and mix it well. Spread between slices Of bread or toast.
…
COD'S ROE ON TOAST
Half a pound of dried cod's roe, mace, lemon, butter, salt, pepper and cayenne.