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Make some paste and roll it out thinly. Take a coffee cup and turning it upside down stamp out some rounds.
Turn the cup the right way again, and put it on a round. Then you will see an edge of paste protruding all
round. Turn this up with the end of a fork, which makes a pretty little edge. Do this with all, and fill the
shallow cases then made with a good mayonnaise sauce in which you have put chopped celery and potato, and
a small quantity of chopped gherkins. Lay three fillets of anchovy across each other to form a six-pointed star
and season highly with cayenne pepper.
All the above recipes can be followed using sardines instead of anchovies, and indeed one can use them in
many other ways, with eggs, with lettuce, with tomatoes. As anchovies are rather expensive to buy, I give a
recipe for mock anchovies, which is easy to do, but it must be done six months before using the fish.
MOCK ANCHOVIES
When sprats are cheap, buy a good quantity, what in England you would call a peck. Do not either wipe or
wash them. Take four ounces of saltpeter, a pound of bay salt, two pounds of common coarse salt, and pound
them well, then add a little cochineal to color it, pound and mix very well. Take a stone jar and put in it a layer
of the mixture and a layer of the sprats, on each layer of fish adding three or four bay leaves and a few whole
pepper-corns. Fill up the jar and press it all down very firmly. Cover with a stone cover, and let them stand
for six months before you use them.
CUCUMBER À LA LAEKEN
Take a cucumber and cut it in pieces two inches long, then peel away the dark green skin for one inch, leaving
the other inch as it was. Set up each piece on end, scoop it out till nearly the bottom and fill up with bits of
cold salmon or lobster in mayonnaise sauce. Cold turbot or any other delicate fish will do equally well or a
small turret of whipped cream, slightly salted, should be piled on top. This dish never fails to please.
HERRING AND MAYONNAISE
Take some salt herring, a half for each person, and soak them for a day in water. Skin them, cut them open
PART I 40
lengthwise, take out the backbone, and put them to soak in vinegar. Then before serving them let them lie for
a few minutes in milk, and putting them on a dish pour over them a good mayonnaise sauce. [_Mlle.
Oclhaye._]
SWEET DRINKS AND CORDIALS. ORGEAT
Blanch first of all half a pound of sweet almonds and three ounces of bitter, turn them into cold water for a
few minutes; then you must pound them very fine in a stone mortar, if you have a marble one so much the
better, and do it in a cool place.
You must add a little milk occasionally to prevent the paste from becoming oily, then add three quarts of fresh
milk, stirring it in slowly, sweeten to your taste, and then putting all into a saucepan clean as a chalice, bring it
to the boil.
Boil for ten minutes, and then stir till cold, strain it through finest muslin, and then add two good glasses of
brandy. Bottle and keep in a dark place.
HAWTHORN CORDIAL
When the hawthorn is in full bloom, pick a basketful of the blooms. Take them home, and put the white petals
into a large glass bottle, taking care that you put in no leaves or stalks. When the bottle is filled to the top do
not press it down, but pour in gently as much good French Brandy as it will hold. Cork and let it stand for
three months, then you can strain it off. This is good as a cordial, and if you find it too strong, add water, or
sweeten it with sugar.
DUTCH NOYEAU
Peel finely the rinds of five large lemons, or of six small ones, then throw on it a pound of loaf sugar that you
have freshly pounded, two ounces of bitter almonds, chopped and pounded; mix these with two quarts of the
best Schnappes or Hollands, and add six tablespoonfuls of boiling milk.
Fill your jars with this, cover it close, and put it in a passage or hall, where people can shake it every day.
Leave it there for three weeks, and strain it through some blotting paper into another bottle. It will be ready to
drink.
LAVENDER WATER
Take a large bottle, and put in it twelve ounces of the best spirits of wine, one essence of ambergris,
twopennyworth of musk, and three drachms of oil of lavender.
Cork it tightly, put in a dark place, and shake it every day for a month. This is really lavender spirit, as no
water is used.
HOT BURGUNDY
Take half a pint of good Burgundy wine, put it to boil with two cloves, and a dust of mixed spice, sweeten to
taste with some powdered sugar. If you like add a quarter of the quantity of water to the wine before boiling.
CRÊME DE POISSON À LA ROI ALBERT
PART I 41
Take a fresh raw whiting, fillet it, and pass the flesh through a wire sieve.
For a small dish take four ounces of the fish, mix them lightly with four tablespoonfuls of very thick cream,
adding pepper and salt. Fill an oval ring mold, and steam gently for twenty minutes, under buttered paper.
Have some marine crayfish boiled, shell the tails, cut them in pieces, removing the black line inside. Cut three
truffles into thick slices, heat them and the crayfish in some ordinary white sauce, enriched with the yolk of a
raw egg, pepper and salt, and one dessertspoonful of tarragon vinegar. This must not be allowed to boil. When
the cream is turned out into a hot silver dish, pour the ragout into the center, and put a hot lid on.
This dish, and that on page 86-87, has been composed by a Scotch lady in honor of the King of the Belgians.
Not every cook can manage the cream, but the proportions are exact, and so is the time.
[_Mrs. Alex. Stuart._]
FISH AND CUSTARD
Boil up the trimmings of your fish with milk, pepper and salt. Strain it and add the yolks of eggs till you get a
good custard. Pour the custard into a mold, and lay in it your fish, which must already be parboiled. If you
have cold fish, flake it, and mix it with the custard. Put the mold in a double saucepan. Steam it for three
quarters of an hour. Turn it out, and garnish with strips of lemon peel, and if you have it, sprigs of fennel.
HAKE AND POTATOES
Hake, which is not one of the most delicate fish, can be made excellent if stewed in the following sauce: A
quart of milk to which you have added a dessertspoonful of any of the good English sauces; thicken it with a
knob of butter rolled in flour, which stir in till all is smooth. When it boils take off the fire, and put in your
pieces of hake, set it back by the side of the fire to keep very hot, without boiling, for twenty-five minutes.
Meanwhile mash some potatoes, and put it as a purée round a dish, pour the fish in the center, sprinkle on it
chopped parsley. The liquor ought to be much reduced.
VERY NICE SKATE
Take skate, or indeed any fish that rolls up easily, make into fillets, dry them well, and sprinkle on each fillet,
pepper, salt, a dust of mixed spice, and chopped parsley. Roll each fillet up tightly, and pack them tightly into
a dish, so that they will not become loose. Take vinegar and beer in equal quantities, or, if you do not like to
use beer, you must add to the vinegar some whole black pepper, and a good sprinkle of dried and mixed herbs
with salt. Pour over the fish, tie a piece of buttered paper over the top, and bake for an hour and a quarter (for
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