TROUGHS. Water troughs of various kinds, which require to be rendered impervious to the wet, may be lined with a strong cement of gypsum and quicklime, mixed up with water. Four fifths of pulverised coal or charcoal, and one fifth of quicklime, well mixed together, and infused in boiling pitch or tar, will also form a useful cement for this purpose. It requires to be of the consistence of thin mortar, and applied hot with a trowel.
TROUT. Open them along the belly, wash them clean, dry them in a cloth, and season them with pepper and salt. Set the gridiron over the fire, and when it is hot rub the bars with a piece of fresh suet. Lay on the fish, and broil them gently over a very clear fire, at such a distance as not to burn them. When they are done on one side, turn them carefully on the other, and serve them up the moment they are ready. This is one of the best methods of dressing this delicate fish; but they are sometimes broiled whole, in order to preserve the juices of the fish, when they are fresh caught. Another way is, after they are washed clean and well dried in a napkin, to bind them about with packthread, and sprinkle them with melted butter and salt; then to broil them over a gentle fire, and keep them turning. Make a sauce of butter rolled in flour, with an anchovy, some pepper, nutmeg, and capers. Add a very little vinegar and water, and shake it together over a moderate fire, till it is of a proper thickness. Put the trout into a dish, and pour this sauce over them. Trout of a middle size are best for broiling. The gurnet or piper is very nice broiled in the same manner, and served with the same kind of sauce. Mullets also admit of the same treatment. Trout are very commonly stewed, as well as broiled; and in this case they should be put into a stewpan with equal quantities of Champaigne, Rhenish, or Sherry wine. Season the stew with pepper and salt, an onion, a few cloves, and a small bunch of parsley and thyme. Put into it a crust of French bread, and set it on a quick fire. When the fish is done, take out the bread, bruise it, and then thicken the sauce. Add a little flour and butter, and let it boil up. Lay the trout on a dish, and pour the thickened sauce over it. Serve it with sliced lemon, and fried bread. This is called Trout á la Genevoise. A plainer way is to dry the fish, after it has been washed and cleaned, and lay it on a board before the fire, dusted with flour. Then fry it of a fine colour with fresh dripping; serve it with crimp parsley and plain butter.
TROUT PIE. Scale and wash the fish, lard them with pieces of silver eel, rolled up in spice and sweet herbs, with bay leaves finely powdered. Slice the bottoms of artichokes, lay them on or between the fish, with mushrooms, oysters, capers, and sliced lemon or Seville orange. Use a dish or raised crust, close the pie, and bake it gently.—Another way. Clean and scale your trouts, and cut off the heads and fins; boil an eel for forcemeat; when you have cut off the meat of the eel, put the bones and the heads of the trout into the water it was boiled in, with an onion, mace, whole pepper, a little salt, and a faggot of sweet herbs; let it boil down till there is but enough for the pie. Chop the meat of the eel very fine, add grated bread, an anchovy chopped small, sweet herbs, and a gill of oysters blanched and bearded, the yolks of two hard eggs chopped very fine, and as much melted butter as will make it into a stiff forcemeat; season the trout with mace, pepper and salt; fill the belly with the forcemeat, and make the remainder into balls; sheet your dish with a good paste, lay some butter on that, then the trout and forcemeat; strain off the fish broth, and scum it very clean, and add a little white wine, and a piece of butter rolled in flour; when it is all melted, pour it into the pie, and lid it over; bake it in a gentle oven, and let it be thoroughly done.
TRUFFLES. The largest are the most esteemed; those which are brought from Perigord are the best. They are usually eaten dressed in wine, and broth seasoned with salt, pepper, a bunch of sweet herbs, some roots and onions. Before being dressed they must be soaked in warm water, and well rubbed with a brush, that no earth may adhere to them. When dressed, serve them in a plate as an entremet. The truffle is also very excellent in all sorts of ragouts, either chopped or out into slices, after they are peeled. It is one of the best seasonings that can be used in a kitchen. Truffles are also used dried, but their flavour is then much diminished.
TRUFFLES RAGOUT. Peel the truffles, cut them in slices, wash and drain them well. Put them into a saucepan with a little gravy, and stew them gently over a slow fire. When they are almost done enough, thicken them with a little butter and flour. Stewed in a little water, and thickened with cream and yolk of egg, they make a nice white ragout. Truffles, mushrooms, and morels are all of them very indigestible.
TUNBRIDGE CAKES. Rub six ounces of butter quite fine into a pound of flour; then mix six ounces of sugar, beat and strain two eggs, and make the whole into a paste. Roll it very thin, and cut it with the top of a glass. Prick the cakes with a fork, and cover them with carraways; or wash them with the white of an egg, and dust a little white sugar over.
TURBOT. This excellent fish is in season the greatest part of the summer. When fresh and good, it is at once firm and tender, and abounds with rich gelatinous nutriment. Being drawn and washed clean, it may be lightly rubbed with salt, and put in a cold place, and it will keep two or three days. An hour or two before dressing it, let it soak in spring water with some salt in it. To prevent the fish from swelling and cracking on the breast, score the skin across the thickest part of the back. Put a large handful of salt into a fish kettle with cold water, lay the turbot on a fish strainer and put it in. When it is beginning to boil, skim it well; then set the kettle on the side of the fire to boil as gently as possible for about fifteen or twenty minutes; if it boil fast, the fish will break to pieces. Rub a little of the inside coral spawn of the lobster through a hair sieve, without butter; and when the turbot is dished, sprinkle the spawn over it. Garnish the dish with sprigs of curled parsley, sliced lemon, and finely scraped horseradish. Send up plenty of lobster sauce. The thickest part of the fish is generally preferred. The spine bone should be cut across to make it easier for carving.
TURBOT PIE. Take a middling turbot, clean it very well, cut off the head, tail, and fins. Make a forcemeat thus; take a large eel, boil it tender, then take off the flesh; put the bones of the turbot and eel into the water the eel was boiled in, with a faggot of herbs, whole pepper, an onion, and an anchovy; let this boil till it becomes a strong broth. In the mean time, cut the eel very fine; add the same quantity of grated bread, a little lemon-peel, an anchovy, parsley, and the yolks of two or three hard eggs, and half a pint of oysters blanched and bearded; chop all these as fine as possible; mix all together with a quarter of a pound of melted butter; and with this forcemeat lay a rim in the inside of the dish; put in the turbot, and fill up the vacancies with forcemeat; strain off the broth, scum it very clean, and add a lump of butter rolled in flour, and a glass of white wine; pour this over the fish. Make a good puff paste, cover the pie with it, and let it be thoroughly baked. When it comes from the oven, warm the remainder of the liquor; pour it in, and send it to table.
TURKEYS. When young they are very tender, and require great attention. As soon as hatched, put three peppercorns down their throat. They must be carefully watched, or they will soon perish. The hen turkey is so careless, that she will stalk about with one chicken, and leave the remainder, or even tread upon and kill them. Turkeys are violent eaters, and must therefore be left to take charge of themselves in general, except one good feed a day. The hen sets twenty-five or thirty days, and the young ones must be kept warm, as the least cold or damp kills them. They must be fed often, and at a distance from the hen, or she will pick every thing from them. They should have curds, green cheese parings cut small, and bread and milk with chopped wormwood in it. Their drink milk and water, but must not be left to turn sour. All young fowls are a prey for vermin, therefore they should be kept in a safe place where none can come. Weasels, stoats, and ferrets will creep in at a very small crevice. The hen should be under a coop, in a warm place exposed to the sun, for the first three or four weeks; and the young ones should not be suffered to wander about in the dew, at morning or evening. Twelve eggs are enough to put under a turkey; and when she is about to lay, lock her up till she has laid every morning. They usually begin to lay in March, and set in April. Feed them near the hen-house, and give them a little meat in the evening, to accustom them to roosting there. Fatten them with sodden oats or barley for the first fortnight; and the last fortnight give them as above, and rice swelled with warm milk over the fire twice a day. The flesh will be beautifully white and fine flavoured. The common way in Norfolk is to cram them, but they are so ravenous that it seems unnecessary, if they are not suffered to wander far from home, which keeps them lean and poor.—When fat turkeys are to be purchased in the market, in order to judge of their quality it is necessary to observe, that the cock bird when young has a smooth black leg, and a short spur. If fresh and sweet, the eyes are full and bright, and the feet moist and supple. If stale, the eyes will be sunk, and the feet stiff and dry. The hen turkey is known by the same rules; but if old, the legs will be red and rough.
TURKEY PATTIES. Mince some of the white part, and season it with grated lemon, nutmeg, salt, a dust of white pepper, a spoonful of cream, and a very small piece of butter warmed. Fill the patties, and bake them.