FRENCH SWEET SAUCES FOR PUDDINGS, ETC.

Sauce Madère à la Marmalade.—A half-pound of apricot marmalade; half a tumbler of Madeira or sherry; boil three minutes, then pass through a sieve, and serve as sauce to soufflées, cabinet puddings, etc.

Sauce des Œufs au Kirsch.—Beat the yolks of eight eggs, put them in a saucepan with half a tumbler of kirsch, five ounces of powdered sugar, and half the rind of a lemon grated. Stir all in a double boiler till the mixture sticks to the spoon; then remove from the boiling water; stir for a minute to prevent curdling; then it is ready to serve.

Chaudeau Sauce.—Take two whole eggs, six yolks of eggs, and eight lumps of sugar (each one rubbed on lemon-peel), two pints of Chablis, and the juice of half a lemon; beat them over a slow fire in a double boiler till a light froth is formed; be very careful the eggs do not curdle when the boiling-point is reached; take the sauce off the fire, and continue beating for a minute or two. If small streaks appear on the froth the sauce is done. Stir in a tablespoonful of fine rum, and the sauce is ready to serve.

Sherry Sauce for Puddings.—Six yolks of eggs, one ounce of sugar, half a pint of sherry, and the thin peel of a lemon. Beat the eggs with the sugar; when the wine is warm, stir them into it (let the lemon-peel steep in the wine while warming); stir all together till as thick as cream; then remove from the fire, and take out the peel. In making all these sauces with eggs the same precaution is required as in making custard.

Wine Sauce, No. 2.—Three gills of water, one cup of sugar, one teaspoonful of corn-starch, and one gill of wine. Mix the corn-starch with a little water; pour the rest boiling to it, stirring till smooth; then add the sugar, and boil for five minutes; then add the wine and a few drops of essence of lemon and the same of cinnamon. Use these flavorings drop by drop, as they differ in strength too much for an exact quantity to be given, and the taste must be the guide. Rum or brandy may be used instead of wine; then the cinnamon is omitted.

Apricot Sauces.—Half a small jar of apricot jam or marmalade; dissolve it in three quarters of a gill of water with the juice of a lemon; stir in three quarters of a gill of rum. This sauce is simply made hot, not boiled, and may be served cold with Baba or Savarin cake. Greengage marmalade may be substituted.

Whipped Sweet Sauce.—Put the yolks of four eggs into a double saucepan with two ounces of sugar, one glass of sherry, the juice of one lemon, and a speck of salt; beat all together; then set the saucepan over the fire, and whisk the sauce till it is a creamy froth, when it is ready to serve.

Very Fine Sweet Butter Sauce.—Wash four ounces of butter; squeeze it dry; beat it to a hard sauce with half a pound of powdered sugar; then put the yolks of two eggs in a cold bowl; stir it a minute, then add to it a little of the hard sauce; when well mixed add more, about a teaspoonful at a time; when the hard sauce is blended with the yolks of eggs, stir in by degrees a wineglass of brandy or rum. Keep on ice till wanted.

Vanilla Cream Sauce.—Put half a pint of fresh cream to boil, reserving a tablespoonful; mix this with a teaspoonful of flour; stir it into the cream, with a tablespoonful of sugar, when near boiling; when it boils, stir for five minutes or ten in a double boiler; then pour out the sauce, and stir in a small teaspoonful of vanilla and a few drops of extract of rose or a teaspoonful of rose-water. Observe that the rose is used to give a different tone to the vanilla, and not to impart its own flavor, therefore very little must be used.

Almond Sauce.—Dissolve four ounces of almond paste in half a pint of sweet cream by stirring in a double boiler (the almond paste should be grated first); when both are hot, add a tablespoonful of sugar and the yolk of an egg; stir till the egg thickens, then remove from the fire and serve.

XXXIII.
SALADS AND CHEESE DISHES.

Salad has come to form part of even the simplest dinners; and certainly cold meat and salad and excellent bread and butter make a meal by no means to be despised even by an epicure, while cold meat and bread and butter sound very untempting. The best dinner salad will perhaps always be white, crisp lettuce, with a simple French dressing, although, to those acquainted with it, escarole runs it hard, with its cool, watery ribs and crisp leaves. Elaborate salads, or those dressed with mayonnaise, are too heavy to form the latter part of an already sufficiently nourishing meal, but for luncheons and suppers the rich salad is invaluable.

Salad which is to be eaten with game or to form a course at dinner may be a crisp white cabbage lettuce, water-cress, Romaine lettuce, or that most delicious form of endive, escarole.

The dressing should be the simple French dressing, about which so much has been written and said, and which is so easy that perhaps it is one reason why so few make it well. There is nothing to remember beyond the proportions, and so many keep the quantity of oil, vinegar, and pepper and salt in mind, but the manner of using them seems of no consequence; but it is of so much consequence, if you do not want the vinegar on the leaves and the oil at the bottom of the salad bowl, that, well known as the formula is, I am going over it again with a few details that may help to fix the matter in mind.

In the first place it must be remembered that a wet leaf will repel oil, therefore the lettuce or other salad must be well dried before it is sent to table. This is best done by swinging it in a salad basket, and then spreading it between two cloths for a few minutes. Now it must be quite evident, if a leaf wet with water will refuse to retain oil, that one wet with vinegar will do the same; for this reason the leaves should be covered with oil before the vinegar is added, or the salad will be crude and very unlike what it should be if properly mixed in the following way:

Take lettuce as the example, although any of those mentioned are made in the same way. Have the lettuce dry in the salad bowl, put in the salad-spoon a saltspoonful of salt, a quarter one of pepper, and, holding it over the bowl, fill the spoon with oil; mix the salt and pepper well with it, and turn it over the salad; toss the salad lightly over and over till the leaves glisten, then add two (if for epicures, three or four) more spoonfuls of oil, then toss again over and over till every leaf is well coated with oil; then sprinkle in a saladspoonful of sharp vinegar. Toss again, and the salad is ready.

One salad less well known than it deserves to be is that made from the grape fruit. This is an especially grateful dish for spring breakfast, when cool, refreshing things are in order. Many tell me they have tried to eat grape fruit, but find it quite impossible on account of the intense bitter.

There is a very slight and pleasant bitter with grape fruit when properly prepared, but if by carelessness or ignorance even a small portion of the pith is left in it intense bitter is imparted to the whole.

Grape-fruit Salad.—Prepare the fruit, some hours before it is wanted, in the following way: Cut the fruit in four as you would an orange; separate the sections; then remove the pulp from each, taking care that no white pith or skin adheres to it. Put the pulp on the ice until just before serving; then dress with oil and vinegar exactly as directed for lettuce, etc.

Meat or fish salads should always be dressed with mayonnaise. I say nothing of the well-known lobster and chicken salads, which are so general that one is tempted to think the majority of people do not know how excellent some other combination salads are. Salmon salad—the fish flaked, laid on a bed of crisp lettuce with a border of the leaves, and masked with mayonnaise, with a garnish of aspic—is both handsome and delicious; but cold halibut, or even cod—any firm fish that flakes, in fact—make delightful salads, and acceptable to many who cannot eat lobster. In the way of meat salads, partridge or grouse are far daintier than chicken, prepared in just the same way. There is one point, however, which should be observed in making all meat salads: it is that the material should be well dressed with oil, vinegar, and condiments before the mayonnaise is put on. Usually one of two courses is followed: either the meat is left dry, the mayonnaise being supposed sufficient, or it is dressed with mayonnaise and then masked with it. In the latter case the salad is far too rich; in the former it is flat, because mayonnaise, if rightly made, has not acidity enough to flavor the meat; therefore it and the celery or other salad mixed with it should be bathed with French dressing before it is masked.

With these general rules any salad may be made; but as variety is the spice of the table, it may be borne in mind that in spring a sprig of mint, very finely chopped, gives a fragrance to lettuce, as does chervil or borage, parsley, or a tiny bit of onion. To a game salad nothing should be added.

No recipe is needed for mayonnaise, it having been given in the chapter on cold sauces.

In the course of these chapters several cheese dishes have been given, but there are a few others especially appropriate to the cheese and salad course, where it constitutes part of the dinner, which I will include. Cheese dishes are far less popular in this country than in Europe, but there are families whose masculine members eat no sweets, and for whom a dainty cheese dish would be very acceptable.

Genoa Ramaquin.—Cut a slice of Vienna or other baker’s bread, half an inch thick, lengthwise of the loaf, so that it covers the bottom of a fire-proof dish—a soufflé pan well buttered is excellent; beat two eggs and half a pint of milk together; add a level saltspoonful of salt; pour this custard over the bread, and leave it an hour to soak. Pour off any custard that may not be absorbed; dust the bread with pepper; then cover with the following mixture: dissolve as much rich cheese shaved in half a gill of cream as will cover the bread an inch thick, stirring it over a slow fire. Season with pepper and salt, and pour the cheese over the bread. Put it in the oven, and bake for half an hour, or till quite brown.

Cheese Puffs.—Line patty-pans with puff-paste, and fill three parts full with the following mixture: put a gill of cream in a double boiler with two ounces of grated cheese (half Parmesan if liked), a saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper, a pinch of sugar, and a large teaspoonful of butter; when all is melted to a thick custard, break into it two eggs well whipped. The mixture is only to be made hot enough to melt the cheese, not to boil.

Cheese Sticks.—Take a piece of light bread dough about the size of a teacup, roll it out on a pastry-board, spread it with bits of firm butter, dredge with flour, fold and roll, repeat until you have rolled in two ounces of butter, just as for puff-paste; now roll the pastry out the third of an inch thick, cut into strips half an inch wide and any length you think proper, lay them very straight on a baking-sheet, and bake slowly a very light brown; remove from the oven, let them cool, then brush them over with white of egg, and roll them thickly in grated Parmesan; return for a minute or two to the oven. These are very good with salad, but cannot easily be made in warm weather. Should the pastry get too soft while rolling, put it on ice, and it is better to do so at all times before cutting into strips, so that the “sticks” may be quite straight.

INDEX.

THE END.