Boil one-half pound of vermicelli in salted water, drain, and mix with two tablespoons of olive-oil and a little chopped-up parsley. Then set to one side to get cool.
Take five smelts, split them, take out the bones, and fry them slightly in one teaspoon of olive-oil.
Butter a pan and sprinkle it with bread crumbs. Then put into it one-half of the cold vermicelli. Pour over this some thick tomato sauce (one tablespoon of tomato paste cooked in two tablespoons of olive-oil). Then put in the smelts cut in two, some anchovy, a few capers, and three or four ripe olives chopped up with one mushroom. Then add the rest of the tomato sauce, then the other half of the vermicelli, and on top a layer of bread crumbs. Season all well with salt and pepper. Put the pan into a moderate oven, and cook about an hour and a quarter, adding a little olive-oil when necessary, so that it will not dry up too much.
Any fish may be used instead of the smelts, cutting it into thin strips.
1 can of fish, or 1 pint. 1 large cup of cracker or bread crumbs. 1 large cup of white sauce.
Prepare this dish almost as you did the scalloped oysters. Take out all the bones and skin and juice from the fish; butter a baking-dish, put in a layer of fish, then salt and pepper, then a layer of crumbs and butter, and a layer of white sauce, then fish, seasoning, crumbs and butter again, and have the crumbs on top. Dot over with butter and brown in the oven, or serve in small dishes.
Take a Calves Chaldron, after it is little more then half boyled, and when it is cold, cut it into little bits as big as Walnuts; season it with beaten Cloves, Salt, Nutmeg, Mace, and a little Pepper, an Onion, Parsley, and a little Tarragon, all shred very small, then put it into a frying-pan, with a Ladle-full of strong broth, and a little piece of sweet Butter, so fry it; when it is fryed enough, have a little lear made with the Gravy of Mutton, the juyce of a Lemon and Orange, the yolks of three or four Eggs, and a little Nutmeg grated therein; put all this to your Chaldrons in the Pan, Toss your Fricat two or three times, then dish it, and so serve it up.
One coffeecupful of white sugar, the grated rind and juice of one large lemon, the yolks of three eggs and the white of one, a tablespoonful of butter. Put into a basin the sugar and butter, set it in a dish of boiling water over the fire; while this is melting, beat up the eggs, and add to them the grated rind from the outside of the lemon; then add this to the sugar and butter, cooking and stirring it until it is thick and clear like honey. This will keep for some days, put into a tight preserve jar, and is nice for flavoring pies, etc.
One quart of the tender parts of cold game, cut into dice; one generous pint of rich stock, one-third of a box of gelatine, one quart of any kind of force-meat, four cloves, one table-spoonful of onion juice, two of butter, one of flour, three eggs, one pint of bread or cracker crumbs, salt, pepper. Soak the gelatine for one hour in half a cupful of cold water. Put the butter in a frying-pan, and when hot, add the flour. Stir until smooth and brown, and add the stock and seasoning. Simmer ten minutes; strain upon the game, and simmer fifteen minutes longer. Beat an egg and add to the gelatine. Stir this into the game and sauce and take from the fire instantly. Place the stew-pan in a basin of cold water, and stir until it begins to cool; then turn the mixture into a shallow baking pan, having it about an inch thick. Set on the ice to harden. When hard, cut into cutlet- shaped pieces with a knife that has been dipped in hot water. When all the mixture is cut, put the pan in another of warm water for half a minute. This will loosen the cutlets from the bottom of the pan. Take them out carefully, cover every part of each cutlet with force-meat, and set on ice until near serving time. When ready to cook them, beat the two eggs with a spoon. Cover the cutlets with this and the crumbs. Place a few at a time in the frying basket, and plunge them into boiling fat. Fry two minutes. Drain, and place on brown paper until all are cooked. Arrange them in a circle on a hot dish. Pour mushroom sauce in the centre, garnish with parsley, and serve. Poultry cutlets can be prepared and served in the same way.
4 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 6 teaspoons baking powder 2 to 4 tablespoons shortening 1-1/2 cups milk
Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Add melted shortening to milk and add slowly to dry ingredients stirring until smooth. Knead lightly on floured board and roll out one-half inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter. Crease each circle with back of knife one side of center. Butter the small section and fold larger part well over the small. Place one inch apart in greased pan. Allow to stand 15 minutes in warm place. Brush each with melted butter and bake in moderate oven 15 to 20 minutes.
6 eggs, 3 oz. of powdered sugar, 1 oz. of butter, 1 dessertspoonful of potato flour, and 1 dessertspoonful of orangeflower water. Put the yolks of the eggs into a large basin, add the sugar, potato flour, and orange water, and beat all well with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes; beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and mix them lightly with the other ingredients. Meanwhile beat the butter in the omelet pan; when boiling pour the mixture into it, and fry the omelet over a gentle fire. When it begins to set round the sides shake it very gently from side to side, and turn the omelet neatly out on a buttered dish. Set it in the oven for about 10 minutes, and serve immediately with a little castor sugar sifted over it.
Line a buttered baking-dish with cold flaked fish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; add a layer of cold cooked rice, dot with butter; repeat and cover with cracker or bread crumbs. Bake fifteen to twenty minutes.
Make one quart of aspic jelly. Set the plain border mould (see rice border, under Entries) in a pan with a little ice and water. Pour enough of the liquid jelly into the mould to make a layer half an inch deep. Let this get hard. When hard, decorate with cooked carrot and beet, and the white of a hard-boiled egg. These must all be cut in pretty shapes with the vegetable cutter, and arranged on the jelly. Very carefully add two table-spoonfuls of jelly, and let it harden. Fill with the remainder of the jelly, and set away to harden. At serving time put the mould for half a minute in a pan of warm water. Wipe it, and turn the jelly on a cold flat dish. Fill the centre with salad, boned fowl, or anything else you choose.
A general role for boiling fish, which will hold good for all kinds, and thus save a great deal of time and space, is this: Any fresh fish weighing between four and six pounds should be first washed in cold water and then put into boiling water enough to cover it, and containing one table-spoonful of salt. Simmer gently thirty minutes; then take up. A fish kettle is a great convenience, and it can be used also for boiling hams. When you do not have a fish kettle, keep a piece of strong white cotton cloth in which pin the fish before putting into the boiling water. This will hold it in shape. Hard boiling will break the fish, and, of course, there will be great waste, besides the dish's not looking so handsome and appetizing. There should be a gentle bubbling of the water, and nothing more, all the time the fish is in it, A fish weighing more than six pounds should cook five minutes longer for every additional two pounds. Boiled fish can be served with a great variety of sauces. After you have learned to make them (which is a simple matter), if you cannot get a variety of fish you will not miss it particularly, the sauce and mode of serving doing much to change the whole character of the dish. Many people put a table-spoonful of vinegar in the water in which the fish is boiled. The fish flakes a little more readily for it. Small fish, like trout, require from four to eight minutes to cook. They are, however, much better baked, broiled or fried.
