Beat eight Eggs with a little Cream and a little Flour, very well together, like other Batter; then fry some very think slices of Bacon, and while they are frying pour some of the Batter upon them; when one side is fry’d turn the Fraize and pour more Batter on the other side; and when both sides are fry’d serve it up.
To boil a Gammon of Bacon, a Neat’s Tongue, or any other salted Meat, that hath hung in smoke
Put into the kettle of water three or four handfuls of Hay-Flowers; or if they cannot be procured, some sweet Hay ty’d up close in a coarse bag or cloth; either of these will give the meat a much finer colour, and make it more tender, short and mellow, than when boil’d in water only.
Take three pounds of lean Beef cut in slices, three pounds of a fillet of Veal, and one pound of the large end of a leg of Mutton, the fat taken from all of it; one Partridge, one Capon, from which you must take off the skin, and fill the body with rice, pick’d very clean. Then take an earthen pan big enough to hold all this meat, and scald it in water before you use it. Season your meat with a very little Salt, and an Onion stuck with two Cloves; put your meat into the pan and pour to it two quarts of water; then cover the pan with its lid, and stop it close with paste and paper over it, that no steam may come out. Set a kettle of water over the fire and make it boil; then put the earthen pan into the kettle, and take care to have scalding water always ready to replenish what in the kettle as it boils away. Keep it boiling five hours, then take it off, and strain the Broth thro’ a sieve or napkin; let it stand a while and then take off all the fat; set it a simmering with some crusts of bread; and serve it.
Scald some Lamb’s Liver, and having shred it small with beef-marrow, mix it with the Yolks of half a dozen beaten Eggs, and six ounces of Spinach, chopp’d very small; of Thyme and Savoury, shred also very small, of each two ounces; Cloves, Mace and Pepper powder’d of each two Scruples; and Salt at discretion. Work up the whole into a paste with grated Bread, and make it into Balls.
Is a River fish, very well tasted, and dressed in different manners.
To stew Barbels
Having sealed and drawn your Barbels, put them into a stewpan with Wine, fresh Butter, Salt, Pepper and a bunch of Sweet Herbs; when they are ready, knead a bit of Butter with a little flour, and put it in to thicken the sauce. So serve them.
Others dress them as above, excepting the Butter, of which they use none: but when the Barbels are stewed they serve them up with a Ragoo made of Mushrooms, Truffles, Morils, Artichoke Bottoms, Salts, Pepper, fresh Butter, Broth made of Fish, or juice of Onions.
To dress Barbels au Court-Bouillon
It is generally the largest Fish that are dressed in this manner. Take therefore a large Barbel and draw it, but do not scale it; lay it in a dish and throw on it Vinegar and Salt scalding hot. Then set your fish pan over the fire with white Wine, Verjuice, Salt, Pepper, Cloves, Nutmeg, Bay-Leafs, Onion, Lemon or Orange-Peel; when it boil’s very fast, put in your Barbel; and when it is boil’d take it up and serve it dry upon a clean napkin, instead of a dish of roast meat. Let your garniture be Parsley or Garden-Cress.
To broil Barbels
Having scaled and drawn them, cut small notches in their sides; then rub them over with melted Butter, and strew pounded Salt upon them; so broil them on a grid-iron. Let the sauce be fresh Butter, with Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg, Capers, Anchovies, and Chives shred small, use a little flour to thicken it, and put in a little water with two or three drops of Vinegar and keep it continually shaking till ‘tis come to a due thickness, then pour it on the fish, let your garniture be fry’d mushrooms, with the Roes of Carps, and slices of Lemon.
To half Barbels
Bone them and half the flesh; put it into a sauce pan and dry it over the fire till ‘tis grown white; then mix it with Mushrooms, Truffles, Chives and Parsley cut very small; brown some fresh Butter in a saucepan with a little flour and put in the half; let it have two or three turns, season it with Salt, Pepper and a slice or two of Lemon, moisten it with some fish broth and three or four spoonfuls of Cray Fish Coulis or of other fish to thicken it, and serve it hot for a first course.
To boil Barbels
After they are scaled and drawn, make small incisions in the sides of them; then rub them with melted butter, and strew them over with pounded Salt; This done, lay them on the gridiron and when they are broil’d make your sauce with fresh Butter, Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg, Anchovies, Capers, Chives shredded small, with a little flour to thicken it; put to is likewise a drop of water and as much Vinegar shaking it continually till it be thicken’d and then pour it on your fish; otherwise you may use the same sauce as for a roasted Pike which see in letter P and let your garniture be the same likewise.
Gather them when they are dry, and choose the largest clusters; pick out the worst to make the Pickle look red. Let the pickle by both white and bay Salt boil’d in water till it is strong enough to bear an Egg; let it boil half an hour; then strain it into the galley pots in which you intend to keep the Barberries, and put them in when the liquor is cold with as much white wine Vinegar as you think needful, with half a pound of brown Sugar; then stop them close, and tie a bit of leather about the mouth of the pot; so keep them to use as you have occasion.
Or thus
Let the Barberries steep an hour or two in water and salt, then take them out, and boil your shattered ones in water and Salt, as in the above recipe; and when the water is cool, put in a few slices of Ginger and a little lump of Allom, then put in the Barberries and cover them close.
Being a food not more common than necessary, several ways of dressing it have been invented, not only to make it the more grateful to the taste, but also that it might do honour to the best tables. The usual ways of dressing it are so well known that we shall not need to mention them; and therefore we will confine our instructions to those only that are not so common, except at the tables of Princes and Great Men: and first of
Beef al la Braife
Take two or more Ribs of Beef only the fleshy part of them that is next the Chine, cutting off the long bones and taking away all the fat; lard it with large pieces of Bacon, season’d with Spices, Sweet-Herbs, Parsley, young Onions, a little quantity of Mushrooms and Truffles, shred very small. When your Beef is thus larded, bind it about with tie pack thread for fear it should break to pieces when you come to take it out of the stewpan, which must be bigger or less according to the size of your Beef; cover the bottom of it with slices of fat Bacon, and over that lay slices of Lean Beef an inch thick, well beaten, and seasoned with Spice, Herbs, Onions, Lemon-Peel, Bay-Leaves, pepper and Salt. Then put in the Beef, observing to lay the fleshy side down most, that it may the better take the taste of the seasoning. You must season the upper part of it as you did the lower, and lay over it in like manner slices of Beef, and over them slices of Bacon: This done, cover your stewpan, and close it well with paste all round the edge of the cover; then put some fire as well over as under it. While your Beef is thus getting ready, make a Ragoo of Veal-Sweetbreads, Capon-Livers, Mushrooms, Truffles, Asparagus-tops, and Artichoke-bottoms, which you must toss up with a little melted Bacon, moisten with good gravy, and thicken with a Cullis made of Veal and Gammon of Bacon. When you are ready to serve, take up your Beef, and let it drain a little; then lay it in the dish in which you intend to serve it; and pour your Ragoo upon it.
This Beef a la Braise is sometimes served with a hash’d sauce; that is to say we take a little of the lean of a Gammon of Bacon, some young Onions, a little Parsley, some Mushrooms and Truffles, and shred all of them very small together; then we toss it up with a little Lard, moisten it with good gravy, and thicken it with the cullis last mention’d and when we serve up the Beef, we pour this Sauce upon it.
At other times we serve it with a Ragoo of Cardoons, or of Succory, or of Celery, or of roasted Onions, or of Cucumbers; which last is made in the following manner.
Take some Cucumbers and pare them; cut them in two in the middle, take out the seeds; then cut them in small slices, and marinate them for two hours with two or three sliced Onions, Vinegar, and a little Pepper and Salt; after this, squeeze your Cucumbers in a linen cloth, and then toss them up in a little melted Bacon, when they begin to grow brown, put to them some good gravy, and let them to simmer over a stove. When you are ready to serve, take off the fat from your Cucumbers, thicken them with a good Cullis made of Veal and Gammon of Bacon, and pour them on your Beef.
This Ragoo of Cucumbers serves likewise for all sorts of Butcher’s Meat that we either roast or stew in a whole joint in its own gravy.
Note: that we make Beef a la Braise of all the pieces that grow next to the Chine from Neck to the Rump, as well as of the ribs.
Beef farced (forced)
We farce only the same pieces of Beef that we dress a la Braife; that is to say what we generally call roasting pieces, and you may farce them with a Salpicon, for which see the directions in Letter S. or else when your Beef is almost roasted, raise up the skin or outside of it, and take the flesh of the middle, which you must shred very small with the fat of Bacon, and Beef, fine Herbs, Spices, and good garnishings. With this you farce or stuff your Beef between the skin and the bone, and sew it up very carefully to prevent the flesh from dropping into the dripping pan, when you make an end of roasting it. Garnish your dish with Fricandeaux (which see in Letter F) after the manner of larded cutlers, and with fry’d Bread: and when the dish is on the table take away the skin and it may be eaten with spoons.
Rump of Beef Rowl’d
Having taken out the bones, make a slit the whole length of it, and spread it as much as you can; lard it with large lardoons of Bacon well seasoned. Make a Farce of the Flesh of the Breasts of Fowl, Beef-Sewet, Mushrooms and boiled Ham; season your farce with Pepper, Salt, sweet Herbs, Spices, Parsley and small Onions, a few Crumbs of Bread moistened with Cream, and three or four Yolks of raw Eggs; hash all this together and pound it in a mortar; having spread this farce on the piece of Beef, roll it up at the two ends; and tie it fast with pack thread; take a pot or kettle of the size of your piece of Beef, and garnish the bottom of it first with bards of Bacon, and then with Slices of Beef well beaten and seasoned with Salt, Pepper, Herbs, Spices, Onions, Carrots, and Parsnips. Put the piece of Beef into the pot, and cover it with beef and Bacon, as under it. Cover your pot very close, put fire under and over it, keep it stewing for ten or twelve hours. Make hashed sauce with some Ham of Bacon cut in dice, with hashed Mushrooms and Truffles, small Onions and Parsley. Toss up all this in a saucepan with a little melted Bacon, and moisten it with good gravy; when it is enough, take off all the fat, and thicken the sauce with a Cullis of Veal and Bacon. When you are going to serve, mix among it a hashed Anchovie and a few Capers; take up your Beef and drain it very well, then lay it in your dish, pour your sauce upon it, so serve it very warm.
At another time you may serve it with a Ragoo of Calves Sweet breads and Cocks-combs; (the manner of making it is already set down in the Receipt for Beef a la Braife, (or with a Ragoo of Cucumbers and Succory.
Brisket of Beef a la Chalonnoise
Take a Brisket of Beef and set it a boiling; when ‘tis half boil’d take it up and lard it with large Lardons of Bacon: then put it on a spit, and to make it stick fast, take two sticks and tie them at both ends of it. Have in your dripping-pan a marinade made of Vinegar, Pepper, Salt, Spice, Onion, the rind of Lemon and Orange, Rosemary and Sage; and keep basting with it all the while it is roasting. When it is enough, set it a simmering in the sauce, which you may thicken with chippings of Bread or Flour stirr’d in a little strong broth. Let your garniture be Mushrooms, Palates, and Asparagus.
Beef Steaks Rowl’d
Take for example, three or four large Steakes of Beef, according to the size of your dish, and flat them on a table with your cleaver. Make a Farce with Capon’s flesh, a piece of a fillet of Veal, some of the fat and lean of a boil’d gammon of Bacon, and the fat of a Loin of Veal, Parsley and young Onions, Sweet-bread, Truffles and Mushrooms, the Yolks of four Eggs, and a little Cream; when all this is well season’d with Spice and Herbs, and hash’d very small, lay it on your slices of Beef, which you must then rowl up very handsomely, so that they may be firm and of a good size. Then put them a stewing, and let them stew a good while. When you think they are enough, take them up, drain off the fat, slit them in two, and lay them in the dish, the cut side uppermost. You may put to them some Ragoo or other; or only a good Cullis, if you think fit.
Rump of Beef boil’d
Rub it all over with common Salt, all sorts of Pot Herbs, Pepper and a little Salt-petre, and let it lie three or four days. Put it in a pot proportionable to its size, and fill the pot with Water; among which put some Onions and Carrots, etc. Garden-Herbs, Bay Leaves, Cloves, Pepper and Salt, boil your Beef, and when it is ready, lay it in a dish, garnish’d with green Parsley. So serve it hot for the first course.
Beef a la mode
Take a large slice of Beef, three inches thick, most lean, from the buttock or elsewhere. Season it on both sides with Pepper, Salt and Cloves, all pounded. Then pound in a mortar likewise two Shallots, or half a dozen Rocamboles, with some Garden Basil, Thyme and Parsley; when they are well pounded, pour upon them a good glass of white wine; strain it off, and lay your Beef to marinate in it for two hours; then lard it with large bits of Bacon and put it with a good Cullis into a stew pan together with a few Bay leaves; add to it another glass of white wine, and let it stew over a gentle fire.
It is generally serv’d cold for breakfast, or the first course, in slices somewhat thick, with shred Parsley over it.
There is another way of doing it, which is thus: Beat it very well, lard it as above, and toss it up in a frying pan before you stew it: which you may do in one glass of white wine, and two of water, with Salt, pepper, Bay leaf, Rind of Lemon and a half a dozen Mushrooms: or else in its own gravy, keeping it close cover’d over a gentle fire; and when it is ready put a Cullis to it to thicken it.
To dress Beef Steakes the Italian Way
Cut the ribs of Beef into steakes, and hack them; then sprinkle them with Rose-Vinegar and Elder-Vinegar and having season’d them with Salt, pepper and Coriander seed, lay them in a dish one upon another for an hour, then broil’d them on a gridiron, or toast them before the fire: serve them up with their own gravy, or with that and the juice of Orange boil’d together.
To collar Beef
Cut a flank of Beef square, and pull off the inner skin, make a brine of water and Bay-salt, strong enough to bear an Egg to the breadth of a sixpence; put the Beef into the brine, and let it lie in it 7 or 8 days; then take it out of the brine, and rub it all over with Salt-petre; afterwards lay it again in the brine for three days, pound grossly an ounce of white Pepper, a larger Nutmeg, with the weight of it in Mace, and the weight of both the Nutmeg and the Mace in Cloves, and strew it on the Beef; then roll the Beef hard, tie it about with tape, and sew it up in a cloth: next put it into a long earthen pot, which fill with half water and half Claret; cover the post with coarse dough, put it into a very hot oven, and let is stand 12 hours; then having taken off the cloth and the tape, roll the same clothe very hard about again, and hang it up to cool and drain; some who love sweet herbs, put to it, before they roll it, Thyme, Sweet Marjoram, and Parsley, shred very small.
Another way
Take a breast of young Beef, and bone it, make a brine with three gallons of water, one pound of Bay Salt and two of white, half an ounce of Salt—Petre, and make the brine strong enough to bear an Egg to the breadth of a three-pence; let the Beef lie 9 days in this brine, then take it out, and beat it well with a rolling pin; after this season it with half an ounce of Mace, and six Nutmegs shred fine, which is better than pounding, an ounce of Bay-berries, some dry’d sweet Marjoram pounded small, two dozen of Cloves, and an ounce of Pepper and a handful or two of white Salt beaten in a mortar; having mixed all these seasonings together strew it all over the Beef, which must be well dried, then roll it up hard and bind it in a cloth; after which put it into an earthen pot with three pints at least of Claret, half a pint of Vinegar, and one quart of water; cover the pot with a coarse paste, put it into a hot oven, and let it bake at least 12 hours; then take it out of the liquor, bind it faster, and hang it up to drain and cool.
To make Dutch Beef
Take eight pounds of buttock Beef, and having rubb’d it all over with six ounces of coarse Sugar, let it lie two days, then wipe it, and take white Salt and Salt-petre, and rub it well into the beef; let it lie thus for three weeks, but rub and turn it every day; then sew it up in a cloth, and hang it into the chimney to dry; and to prevent the brine from settling turn it upside down every day, afterwards boil it in pump water till very tender.
To fry beef
Cut the Beef into steakes, and beat it well with the back of a shredding knife or a rolling pin; put first the lean only into the frying pan, with just as much butter as will moisten the pan: set it over a gentle fire, turn it often, and as the gravy comes from it pour it out, then fry the fat by it self, and lay it on the lean. For sauce put an Anchovy, some Onion, Nutmeg, Pepper and Claret into the gravy, and let it stew a little.
Beef a la Vinaigrette
Take a large slice of Beef, as for your Beef al la Moder; beat it well, and stew it with water and a glass of white wine, seasoned with Salt, pepper, Cloves, Bay Leaf, and a Faggot of Herbs; is must be season’d high. Let the liquor boil most away; then take it off the fire, and set it a cooling in the same pot, liquor and all; and when it is cold, serve it with sliced Lemon and a drop of Vinegar.
We also put Beef into Paste; for which see the receipt for a Veal-Pye in Letter P. and observe the same method; except that the Beef-Pye requires more baking; nor must you above all forget to leave a hole in the lid while it is baking, and to close it when baked.
Neats Tongues al la Braise
Cut away to roots of the Tongues, and then put them into boiling water, that you may take off the skin as cleverly as possible. Lard them with large bits of raw gammon of Bacon well season’d; then take a boyler, and cover the bottom of it with bards of fat Bacon, and slices of Beef well beaten; lay in your Tongues with sliced Onions and all sorts of Sweet Herbs and Spices, and season them besides with Pepper and Salt; cover them with slices of Beef and Bacon, in the same manner as under them, so that they may be entirely wrapped up in them; put them a la Braise, with fire above and under. You must keep them so eight or ten hours, that they may be thoroughly done, after which you must have in readiness a good Cullis of Mushrooms, or some other good Ragoo with all sorts of ingredients, as Mushrooms, Morils, Truffles, Sweet-breads, etc. Having taken up your Tongues, you drain them and take off the fat; then lay them in a dish, and your Ragoo over them. If you would garnish the dish, you may cut one of the Tongues in slices, or else garnish it with Fricandeaux, all serv’d very warm.
Calves Tongues are sometimes dressed in the same manner; and if one will, they may be farced without larding, and serv’d up with the same Ragoo.
Another way to dress a Neat’s Tongue
Boil it in water with a little Salt, and a Faggot of Sweet Herbs; when it is almost enough, cut off the root, take off the skin, and lard it with long bits of Bacon. Then lay it down to the fire, and while it is roasting, baste it with Butter, Salt, Pepper and Vinegar. When it is roasted, cut it in large slices, and toss it up a moment in a stewpan, with a Ramolade made of anchovies, Capers, Parsley and Onions shred very small; then toss all up in good Beef gravy, with Salt, pepper, a few Rocamboles and a drop of Vinegar; and serve it for first course.
We serve it likewise, after having cut it in slices, with a Ragoo of Mushrooms, Sweet-breads, Artichoke-bottoms, Salt, pepper, Butter or melted Bacon; we set it a simmering in this Ragoo, and so serve it, but observe, that when we serve it this way, we use no Vinegar in basting it, but only Butter.
Calves Tongues are dressed in the same manner, and may be serv’d whole; either with a Poivrade or a Sweet Sauce.
Are a sort of root, that for being common ought not to be despised; they are eaten either in salads, or fry’d in the following manner.
To fry Beets
Having bak’d them in an oven, peel them, and cut them in slices long ways, and of the thickness of half an inch or rather more, the large ones, when cut, are almost of the shape of soles. Then steep them in a thin batter made of white wine, the finest Wheat flour, Cream, the white and yolk of Eggs, (more Yolk than White) Pepper, Salt and Cloves beaten to powder; when they have lain in the batter a little while, take them out and drudge them with Flour, crumm;d Bread and shred Parsley; then fry them, and when they are dry, serve them in plates or small dishes with juice of Lemon.
We likewise make a fricassee of them with Butter, Parsley, Onions, Pepper and Salt.
A Bisque is a soup in Ragoo. We make bisques of Quails, of Capons, and of Pullets; but more commonly of Pigeons, as follows:
To make a Bisque of Pigeons
Your broth and gravy being prepar’d as directed in the Receipt for making soup de Sante, (which see in letter S), put the crust of two French rolls, with two quarts of good Veal-gravy, and boil it over the fire; strain it through a fine strainer or sieve, rubbing the |Bread all through with a Ladle. Then take six or eight Squab-Pigeons, truss the up and boil them tender, a pound of Cocks-combs well blanch’d and tender boil’d; both of them good Broth; you must give the Cocks-Combs half an hour boiling more than the Pigeons, cut a blanch’d Sweetbread in dice, fry it in Butter, brown and a few of the smallest of your Cocks-Combs cut in pieces; put both into your Bread and gravy, stained as above. Garnish your dish with a rim of paste, and the biggest of your Cocks-Combs on the outside of it. Your Bread being soaked in your dish with good gravy, place your Pigeons round in the middle and boil up your Cullis with the fry’d Sweet-breads and Cocks-combs; let it be of the thickness of cream, and squeeze in half a Lemon. So serve it.
To make a Bisque of a Pullet
Draw and truss a Pullet very neatly, blanch it in hot water, and boil it in good clear Broth with several bards of Bacon, an Onion struck with Cloves, and two or three slices of Lemon. Take care to scum it well. When it is boil’d as it ought to be, take it off the fire, and set it over a chafing dish to keep it warm. Then make a Ragoo of Veal-Sweetbreads blanch’d, of Mushrooms, Trussles, Artichoke bottoms, all cut in small pieces, toss them up all together with melted Bacon. Pour on it some good Veal gravy; and when you have taken off all the fat, thicken it with a Cullis of Veal and gammon of Bacon, and put a little Veal gravy upon it; when your Ragoo is ready, set some crusts of chipped bread a simmering in good Broth; and when it has simmered enough lay your Pullet upon it, and your Ragoo all round it. So serve it.
Bisque of Quails and other Fowls
Truss your Quails in like manner as your Pullets, and toss them up in a stew pan till they are a fine brown colour. Then put them in a little pot with good broth, bards of Bacon, a bunch of Sweet Herbs, some Cloves, and other spices, with a good slice of Beef well beaten, another of lean Bacon, and two or three of Lemon, and boil all together over a gentle fires. Garnish your Bisque as the other, with Veal Sweetbreads, Artichoke bottoms, Mushrooms, Truffles, Fricandeaux, and Cocks-Combs, with the finest of which last make a rim round your bisque; and pour a little Veal Cullis upon it.
Bisque of Fish
Take a large Carp; let it be a Milter; having scaled and drawn it, take off all the flesh, and pick out all the bones. Hash the flesh small, together with blanch’d Mushrooms, and set your hash a stewing in a stew pan with Butter, Salt, Pepper, Sweet Herbs, and a little Fish Broth. When this is ready, make another Ragoo by it self, with the Milts of Carps, the Livers of Pikes, and tails and claws of Crayfish. This last ragoo is to serve likewise to garnish your bisque. When all this is prepared, lay in your dish some crusts of Bread that have been dry’d in an oven; soak your Bread with some good fish broth, which you must be sure to have ready for the purpose. When your soup is simmered enough, garnish it with the hased and the other Ragoo, and serve it very warm. There are some that do not make use of the hash, but of the Ragoo only. The body of the Carp from whence you took the flesh may be imploy’d in making Fish Broth; which is generally made of Carp, Eel, Tench and Pike, cut in Pieces; and then put into a great kettle with water, Butter, Salt, pepper, a bunch of Sweet Herbs, and an Onion stuck with Cloves. We boil all this together for the space of an hour, and then strain it through a linen cloth. See further directions for this in the Receipts for Fish Broth under the article Broth.
Bisque of Crayfish
After having washed them very clean, boil them in water and from the largest of them pull off all the Claws, and pick out the tails so as to leave them hanging at the shells; but from the rest pick out the tails; and keep the shells to help to make the Cullis, the Receipt for which you will find in Letter C. Take the tails of the Crayfish, some small Mushrooms, some Truffles cut in slices, and toss them up in a saucepan, with a morsel of Butter, and a little fish Broth. Put to all this a bunch of Sweet herbs, and let is simmer over a gentle fire. When you think it enough, put to is some Asparagus tops, half a dozen Artichoke bottoms, and thicken it with a Cullis of Crayfish. Set some crusts of Bread a simmering in good Fish Broth and let them fasten to the bottom of the dish and when they stick to it, garnish the Soop with a border of your picked middles, and the Artichoke bottoms about it, together with some morsels of the Milt of Carps; pour the Ragoo and the Crayfish Cullis upon it; and serve it very hot.
Blanch off a pound of Sweet Almonds in scalding water, take off all the husks, and pound the kernels as fine as paste, in a marble or other stone mortar. As you are pounding them put to them now and than a spoonful of Jelly (for which see the Receipt in Letter J), to keep them from oiling, when they are reduced very fine, put them into a clean saucepan with a quart or three pints of the above mention’d Jelly, warm it over the fire till it is scalding hot breaking your Almonds well with your Jelly, with a silver or wooden ladle, then take it off, and strain it through a woollen strainer or a table napkin into a dish rubbing the Almonds through as hard as you can with the ladle. Put back your Jelly on the almonds three or four times, till you find that the Blanc-manger is almost as thick as cream; otherwise it will be apt to part when it is cold, the Almonds swimming on the top, and the Jelly falling to the bottom; which looks not well, and is a sign that the Almonds were not well beaten or not often enough strained. This done, fit it up in jelly glasses to set betwixt your plain jelly, or put it in a china bowl for the middle of the dish, or in cold plates for the second course. Or put two glasses of each sort in the vacancies of your plates, the white opposite to one another, and so the other; or, with these two Jellies you may make a dish for the second course by themselves. I have asserted this, because mixing the ingredients cold for the plain Jelly, I think, is better than putting the Eggs in to the stock after it boils. Note, this way of mixing the ingredients cold is not commonly known. The plain Jelly and this are proper for second course or supper, and some use them for a dessert. You may make half the quantity with half the ingredients, according to your occasion. If the eater loves it, you may use a little Musk in the running of your Jelly ty’d in a rag, and thrown into your Jelly bag; but most persons of quality eat it plain. If you have a mind to make it red or yellow take what quantity of Jelly you please and to make it red squeeze through a bit of clean cloth a little cochineal; to make it yellow a little Saffron. Wash your jelly bag out in cold water and be sure to let no smoke come near it that it be very dry, when you run your Jelly, and do not shake your bag as you pour it in for then it will be apt to stop. When you use your bag, hang it on a plat or spit, with the mouth open.
To make Boucons, take the Lean of a Fillet of Veal, and cut it into Slices somewhat long and thin; lay them flat on a table; have in readiness some bits of Bacon, such as you use in larding, and as many of a raw Ham, and place them, one fat and one lean, the whole length of your slices of Veal; strew on them some shredded Parsley and Chive, and season them with spices and savour Herbs. Then roll up the slices very handsomely and stew them al la Braise. When they are done enough, let the fat drain from them; have a good Cullis and a Ragoo of Truffles, Mushrooms, etc and serve them very warm. Boucon is a French word, which properly signifies a mouthful or morsel.
Is a fresh water fish, and generally eaten either fried or broil’d. We dress it as follows. After it is scaled and drawn, we notch the sides of it, dip it in melted butter, lay it on the gridiron, and baste it from time to time with melted butter: when it is broil’d enough we make a brown sauce with Chives, Parsley, Capers and anchovies, which we toss up in a sauce-pan with a morsel of butter; we put in it a little fish-broth and thicken it with a cullis that we throw on the fish. Observe, not to put in the Anchovies till you are going to serve.
We likewise sometimes serve it with a white sauce, made as directed before in the Receipt for a broil’d Barbel. You may serve it also with a good Farce of Herbs.
Take according to the size of your boiler, slices of Beef, fillets of Vale, a roasted leg of Mutton, from which you must take off all the fat; put all this into your boiler with cold water, and scum it well. Let is boil over a gentle fire; and add your Fowls according to what soup you would make. If it be for your bisques, make use of this broth to boil your Chickens, your Quails, or your Pigeons, each of them by themselves, with slices of at Bacon and Lemon, to keep them very white; and you must add likewise to your stock of Broth some Fowls, to strengthen it. Season it with roots, Salt, Onions and Cloves, and let is boil as long as in discretion you think fit.
This broth serves, for the most part for all sorts of soups, it is nothing but the different meats we put to them, and the garnishings, whether they be cullises or Legumes, that distinguish the different soups from one another. This is the best method in use now-a-days for making a general broth to be imploy’d in every thing we set a simmering and we make use of it to moisten all sorts of cullises, made of flesh, and to boil all sorts of Legumes.
To make Broth for Breakfast
We make it of the Chine part of a Rump of Beef, of the Crag-Ends of a Neck of Mutton and a neck of Veal, and of two Chickens. We take the white or beasts of the two Chickens after they are boil’d and pound them in a Mortar with some crumb of Bread soaked in the broth. We strain the whole through a sieve and pour it on crusts of Bread that we have laid a simmering in the same Broth.
You will find the particular Broths for the several sorts of Soups in their respective places in letter S.
To make Fish-Broth
This Broth is the stock of all the fish soups that are made, with the distinctions that are set down for each of them.
Take some Tenches, Eels, Pikes and Carps, and after having prepar’d them as for boiling, pull out their gills and cut them in pieces; put all together in a large kettle, with water, Butter, Salt, a bunch of sweet herbs, and an Onion stuck with Coves. When it has boil’d an hour and a half, drain the broth through a table napkin, and divide it equally into three several lesser kettles. In one of them put the pickings or Cullings of Mushrooms, and strain them afterwards through a sieve, with a cullis, some fry’d wheaten flour, and a sliced Lemon. This will serve you to thicken the brown soups and for dishes for the first course, and also for plates and little dishes. In another of them, strain some pounded Almonds, and some Yolks of hard eggs and this will serve for your white soups, as profiteroles, soups of Smelts, Perches, Soles and other fish that are served with white Broth; as also for certain Ragoos of the like nature. In the third Kettle boil the first of all your soups, as well white as brown, either for the first course, or plates or little dishes, and even make some jelly of it.
You may likewise make fish broth in the following manner: take a kettle of proportional bigness in regard to the soup you have occasion for; put water in it, and let it over the fire with Roots of Parsley, some Parsnips and whole Onions, a handful of Parsley and Sorrel, all sorts of Pot Herbs, and good Butter, the whole well season’d. Add to this the bones and carcass of the fish, whole flesh you have used for fracas; even the tripes of them after they are well clean’d some tails of Cray fish pounded in a mortar, and four or five spoonfuls of the juice of Onions. All this being well season’d and well boiled, strain it through a sieve, put it back into the kettle, and keep it hot, simmer your soups, to boil your fish and other things.
Another fish broth
Take some Onions, Carrots and Parsnips; cut them in slices; put them in a stew pan with a lump of butter, and set them a sweating as a juice of Onions. When this is brown, put your fish into the stew pan, and give them two or three turns; moisten the whole with a clear puree, and put to it a bunch of Parsley, some Chives, sweet herbs, Cloves and Salt, together with some Mushrooms. Boil all this together for the space of an hour, and then strain it through a sieve into a middle sized kettle, and make use of it to simmer your fish soups. Take notice that to make fish Broth, Carp is the best of all fish whatever.
To make a meagre Broth for soup with herbs
Put all sorts of good Herbs into a kettle of water, with two or three crusts of Bread, season it with Salt, Butter and a bunch of sweet herbs. When it had boil’d an hour and a half, strain the Broth, though a napkin or Sieve. It will serve you to make soup de Sante with Herbs and others, as Lettice-Soop, Aspragus soup, succory soup, Artichoke soup, etc.
To make Broth of Roots
Boil about two quarts of clung peas; when they are very tender, bruise them to a mash, put them into a large boiler, that holds a bushel of water, and hang it over the fire for an hour and a half; then take it off, and let it settle. Take next a middle sized kettle, and strain into it through a sieve the clear puree, into which put a bunch of Carrots, a bunch of Parsnips, and a bunch of Parley roots, a dozen of Onions, season it with Salt, a bunch of pot Herbs, and an Onion stuck with Cloves. Boil all of it together and put in a bunch of Sorrel and another of Chervil, and two or three spoonfuls of Juice of Onions. See that the broth be well tasted, and make use of it to simmer all sorts of soups made of legumes.
