Swiss Patés.
Some slices of stale bread.
A little good dripping or very sweet lard mixed with the same quantity of butter.
Two or three eggs beaten light.
Very fine cracker-crumbs.
Minced fowl or veal mixed with white sauce, and well seasoned. Cut thick slices of stale bread—baker’s bread is best—into rounds with a cake-cutter. With a smaller cutter extract a piece from the middle of each round, taking care not to let the sharp tin go quite through the bread, but leaving enough in the cavity to serve as a bottom to the paté. Dip the hollowed piece of bread in the beaten egg, sift the pulverized cracker over it, and fry in the dripping, or lard and butter, to a delicate brown. Drain every drop of fat from it. Arrange upon a hot dish when all are done, heap up with the “mince,” and eat without delay.
Devilled crab or lobster is nice served in this style.
Bread patés are a convenience when the housekeeper has not time to spare for pastry-making. You can, if you like, fry them without the egg or cracker; but most persons would esteem them too rich.