Wipe steak with a damp cloth. Trim off the surplus fat. When the oven has been heated for from five to seven minutes, lay steak on a rack, greased, as near the flame as possible, the position of the rack depending on the thickness of the steak. Let the steak sear on each side, thereby retaining the juice. Then lower the rack somewhat, and allow the steak to broil to the degree required. Just before taking from the oven, salt and pepper and spread with melted chicken fat. You can get just as good results in preparing chops and fish in the broiling oven.
4 hard-boiled eggs 2 tablespoonfuls of butter 2 level tablespoonfuls of flour 1/2 pint of milk 1 cupful of finely chopped cold cooked chicken or fish 1 teaspoonful of salt 1 saltspoonful of pepper
Chop the eggs rather fine. Rub the butter and flour together, add the milk, stir until boiling, add the salt and pepper. Put a layer of eggs in the bottom of a casserole, or baking dish, then a layer of the fish or chicken, then a little white sauce, and so continue until the ingredients are used. Dust the top thickly with bread crumbs and bake in a moderate oven until nicely browned.
Catfish that have been caught near the middle of the river are much nicer than those that are taken near the shore where they have access to impure food. The small white ones are the best. Having cut off their heads, skin the fish, and clean them, and cut them in three. To twelve small catfish allow a pound and a half of ham. Cut the ham into small pieces, or slice it very thin, and scald it two or three times in boiling water, lest it be too salt. Chop together a bunch of parsley and some sweet marjoram stripped from the stalks. Put these ingredients into a soup kettle and season them with pepper: the ham will make it salt enough. Add a head of celery cut small, or a large table-spoonful of celery seed tied up in a bit of clear muslin to prevent its dispersing. Pat in two quarts of water, cover the kettle, and let it boil slowly till every thing is sufficiently done, and the fish and ham quite tender. Skim it frequently. Boil in another vessel a quart of rich milk, in which you have melted a quarter of a pound of butter divided into small bits and rolled in flour. Pour it hot to the soup, and stir in at the last the beaten yolks of four eggs. Give it another boil, just to take off the rawness of the eggs, and then put it into a tureen, taking out the bag of celery seed before you send the soup to table, and adding some toasted bread cut into small squares. In making toast for soap, cut the bread thick, and pare off all the crust. This soup will be found very fine. Eel soup may be made in the same manner: chicken soup also.
For potting, one should have small stone or earthen jars, a little larger at the top than at the bottom, so that the meat may be taken out whole, and then cut in thin slices. All kinds of cooked meats and fish can be potted. The meat must, of course, be well cooked and tender, so that it can be readily pounded to a paste. Of the fish, salmon and halibut are the best for potting. When the potted meat or fish is to be served, scrape off all the butter, run a knife between the meat and the jar, and, when the meat is loosened, turn it out on a dish. Cut it in thin slices, and garnish with parsley; or, serve it whole, and slice it at the table. The butter that covered meats can be used for basting roasted meats, and that which covered fish can be used for basting baking fish. Beef. Three pounds of the upper part of the round of beef, half a cupful of butter, one table-spoonful of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, a speck of cayenne, one-eighth of a teaspoonful of mace, the same quantity of clove, a bouquet of sweet herbs, three table- spoonfuls of water. Cut the meat in small pieces and put it in a jar with the water, herbs and seasoning. Mix one cupful of flour with water enough to make a stiff paste. Cover the mouth of the jar with paper, and spread over this the paste. Place the jar in a pan of hot water and put in a moderate oven for five hours. Take up and remove the cover and herbs. Pound the meat to a paste, add half of the butter to it, and when thoroughly mixed, pack solidly in small jars. Melt the remainder of the butter and pour it over the meat. Paste paper over the jars, put on the covers, and set away in a cool, dry place. Veal may be potted in the same manner, omitting the clove. Chicken. One quart of cold roasted chicken, one cupful of cold boiled ham, four table-spoonfuls of butter, a speck of cayenne, a slight grating of nutmeg, and two teaspoonfuls of salt. Free the chicken of skin and bones. Cut it and the ham in fine pieces. Chop, and pound to a paste. Add the butter and seasoning, and pack solidly in small stone pots. Cover these, and place them in a pan of hot water, which put in a moderate oven for one hour. When the meat is cold, cover with melted butter, and put away in a cool, dry place. Tongue. Pound cold boiled tongue to a paste, and season with salt, pepper and a speck of cayenne. To each pint of the paste add one table-spoonful of butter and one teaspoonful of mixed mustard. Pack closely in little stone jars. Place these in a moderate oven in a pan of hot water. Cook half an hour. When cool, cover the tongue with melted butter. Cover, and put away. Ham. Cut all the meat, fat and lean, from the remains of a boiled ham, being careful not to mix with it either the outside pieces or the gristle. Chop very fine, and pound to a paste with the vegetable masher. To each pint of the paste add one teaspoonful of mixed mustard and a speck of cayenne, and, if there was not much fat on the meat, one table-spoonful of butter, Pack this smoothly in small earthen jars. Paste paper over these, and put on the covers. Place the pots in a baking pan, which, when in the oven, should be filled with hot water. Bake slowly two hours. Cool with, the covers on. When cold, take off the covers and pour melted butter over the meat. Cover again, and set away in a cool place. The ham will keep for months. It is a nice relish for tea, and makes delicious sandwiches. Marbled Veal. Trim all the roots and tough parts from a boiled pickled tongue, which chop and pound to a paste. Have two quarts of cold roasted or boiled veal chopped and pounded to a paste. Mix two table-spoonfuls of butter and a speck of cayenne with the tongue, and with the veal mix four table-spoonfuls of butter, one of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper and a speck of mace. Butter a deep earthen dish. Put a layer of the veal in it and pack down solidly; then put spoonfuls of the tongue here and there on the veal, and fill in the spaces with veal. Continue this until all the meat has been used, and pack very solidly. Cover the dish, and place it in the oven in a pan of water. Cook one hour. When cold, pour melted butter over it. Cover, and set away. Fish. Take any kind of cooked fish and free it of skin and bones. To each quart of fish add one table-spoonful of essence of anchovy, three of butter, two teaspoonfuls of salt, a little white pepper and a speck of cayenne. Pound the fish to a paste before adding the butter and anchovy. When all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, pack the fish closely in little size jars. Place these in a pan of water and put in a moderate oven. Cook forty-five minutes. When cold, pour melted butter over the fish. Paste paper over the top, and set way. Lobster. Prepare and pot lobster the same as fish. If there is "coral" in the lobster, pound it with the meat. Mackerel. Nine pounds of small mackerel (about twenty-five in number), one ounce of whole cloves, one of pepper-corns, one of whole allspice, six teaspoonfuls of salt, three pints of vinegar. Wash the mackerel and pack them in small, deep earthen or stone pots. Three will be needed for the quantities given. Divide the spice into six parts. Put each portion in a small piece of muslin, and tie. Sprinkle two teaspoonfuls of salt on the fish in each pot, and put two of the little bags of spice in each pot. Cover the fish with the vinegar; and if there should not be enough, use more. Cover the pots with old plates, and place in a moderate oven. Bake the fish four hours. Cool, and put away in the pots in which they were baked. They will keep five or six months. Where oil is liked, half a cupful can be added to each pot with the vinegar. Any kind of small fish can be potted in this manner. Smelts. Six dozen smelts, one pint of olive oil, three pints of vinegar, or enough to cover the smelts; three table-spoonfuls of salt. Spice the same as potted mackerel, and prepare and cook the same as mackerel. More or less oil can be used. Smelts are almost as nice as sardines.
Roll a lump of butter in flour, put it in a pan on the fire, and as it melts add pepper and salt. Stir it, and as it thickens add a little milk; let it simmer and keep on stirring it. You will never get a good white sauce unless you season it well and let it simmer for a quarter of an hour. Strain it, heat it again, and serve it for fish, potatoes, chicken.
Having put your clams into a pot of boiling water to make them open easily, take them from the shells, carefully saving the liquor. To the liquor of a quart of opened clams, allow three quarts of water. Mix the water with the liquor of the clams and put it into a large pot with a knuckle of veal, the bone of which should be chopped in four places. When it has simmered slowly for four hours, put in a large bunch of sweet herbs, a beaten nutmeg, a tea-spoonful of mace, and a table-spoonful of whole pepper, but no salt, as the salt of the clam liquor will be sufficient. Stew it slowly an hour longer, and then strain it. When you have returned the liquor to the pot, add a quarter of a pound of butter divided into four and each bit rolled in flour. Then put in the clams, (having cut them, in pieces,) and let it boil fifteen minutes. Send it to table with toasted bread in it cut into dice. This soup will be greatly improved by the addition of small force-meat balls. Make them of cold minced veal or chicken, mixed with equal quantities of chopped suet and sweet marjoram, and a smaller proportion of hard-boiled egg, grated lemon-peel, and powdered nutmeg. Pound all the ingredients together in a mortar, adding a little pepper and salt. Break in a raw egg or two (in proportion to the quantity) to bind the whole together and prevent it from crumbling to pieces. When thoroughly mixed, make the force-meat into small balls, and let them boil ten minutes in the soup, shortly before you send it to table. If you are obliged to make them of raw veal or raw chicken they must boil longer. It will be a great improvement to cut up a yam and boil it in the soup. Oyster soup may be made in this manner.
Cut up a chicken weighing from a pound and a half to two pounds, as for fricassee, wash it well, and put it into a stewpan with sufficient water to cover it; boil it, closely covered, until tender; add a large teaspoonful of salt, and cook a few minutes longer; then remove from the fire, take out the chicken, pour the liquor into a bowl, and set it one side. Now cut up into the stewpan two small onions, and fry them with a piece of butter as large as an egg; as soon as the onions are brown, skim them out and put in the chicken; fry for three or four minutes; next sprinkle over two teaspoonfuls of Curry Powder. Now pour over the liquor in which the chicken was stewed, stir all well together, and stew for five minutes longer, then stir into this a tablespoonful of sifted flour made thin with a little water; lastly, stir in a beaten yolk of egg, and it is done. Serve with hot boiled rice laid around on the edge of a platter, and the chicken curry in the centre. This makes a handsome side dish, and a fine relish accompanying a full dinner of roast beef or any roast. All first-class grocers and druggists keep this "India Curry Powder," put up in bottles. Beef, veal, mutton, duck, pigeons, partridges, rabbits or fresh fish may be substituted for the chicken, if preferred, and sent to the table with or without a dish of rice. To Boil Rice or Curry.--Pick over the rice, a cupful. Wash it thoroughly in two or three cold waters; then leave it about twenty minutes in cold water. Put into a stewpan two quarts of water with a teaspoonful of salt in it; and when it boils, sprinkle in the rice. Boil it briskly for twenty minutes, keeping the pan covered. Take it from the fire, and drain off the water. Afterwards set the saucepan on the back of the stove, with the lid off, to allow the rice to dry and the grains to separate. Rice, if properly boiled, should be soft and white, and every grain stand alone. Serve it hot in a separate dish or served as above, laid around the chicken curry.
Mix one saltspoon of pepper with one of salt; add three tablespoonfuls of olive oil and one even tablespoonful of onion scraped fine; then one tablespoonful of vinegar; when well mixed, pour the mixture over your salad and stir all till well mingled. The merit of a salad is that it should be cool, fresh and crisp. For vegetables use only the delicate white stalks of celery, the small heart-leaves of lettuce; or tenderest stalks and leaves of the white cabbage. Keep the vegetable portion crisp and fresh until the time for serving, when add the meat. For chicken and fish salads use the "Mayonnaise dressing." For simple vegetable salads the French dressing is most appropriate, using onion rather than garlic.
Clean, wash and stuff, as for roasting. Baste a floured cloth around each and put into a pot with enough boiling water to cover them well. The hot water cooks the skin at once and prevents the escape of the juice. The broth will not be so rich as if the fowls are put on in cold water, but this is a proof that the meat will be more nutritious and better flavored. Stew very slowly, for the first half hour especially. Boil an hour or more, guiding yourself by size and toughness. Serve with egg, bread or oyster sauce. (See SAUCES.)
Take a fresh white fish or trout, boil and chop it, but not too fine; put with the same quantity of chopped cabbage, celery or lettuce; season the same as chicken salad. Garnish with the tender leaves of the heart of lettuce.
