Cut half a roast (or boiled) fowl up into very small dice, then put a teaspoonful of chopped eschalots in a stewpan, with half an ounce of butter, fry them quite white, then add sixteen tablespoonfuls of white sauce (No. 7), put it over the fire to reduce till it is rather thick, put the fowl into the sauce, season with a little salt, white pepper, sugar, a teaspoonful of chopped mushrooms, and a little chopped parsley; let it boil a few minutes, then stir in the yolks of two eggs, let them set, and pour it on a dish to cool (a little ham or tongue may be mixed with the above, if required;) make, fry, and serve the rissoles as before.
Rissoles may also be made of turkey, pigeons, veal, lamb, sweetbread, &c., by following the above receipt, and using either one or the other of those articles instead of fowl.
No. 405. Croustade de Beurre.
Have ready a lump of fresh butter very hard and cut it into slices one inch and a half in thickness, lay them upon a table or slab in a cool place; then take a round cutter the size of half-a-crown, and with it cut twelve pieces of the butter out of the slices, beat up three or four eggs on a plate, put the pieces of butter into them, then take them out and throw them into a dish of bread-crumbs, take them out, throw them again into the eggs, and then the bread-crumbs, repeating the process three times, lay them upright upon the table, and mark a ring a little larger than a shilling on the top of each with a smaller cutter, stand them in a wire basket and fry in very hot lard, of a nice light-brown colour, and very crisp, take them out, take off the lids, empty them with care, and you will save nearly all the butter from them, turn them topsy-turvey in a dry place until wanted; when ready to serve put them in the oven a short time to get hot, and fill with any of the preparations for petites bouchées. You may form the croustades in diamonds, or any shape your fancy dictates; they make very beautiful hors-d’œuvres, and very cheap, as with care you may save the butter, which when cold may be applied to any other purpose.
No. 406. Croustade de Beurre à la Duke of York.
Prépare the croustades as above, and make a good purée of fowl (as for petites bouchées à la purée de volaille, No. 392), then peel a good sized cucumber, cut it in pieces two inches long, and divide each piece into three lengthwise, take out the seeds, and stew the pieces of cucumber till very tender, with a little sugar, onion, and broth, keeping them very white; when cold cut them in small dice, mix with the purée of fowl, fill the croustades, and serve very hot with a plover’s egg upon the top of each.
No. 407. Croquettes de Homard.
Prepare a salpicon of lobster the same as for rissoles de homard; when quite cold cut it out in pieces two inches long and three quarters of an inch wide, beat up three or four eggs on a plate, and throw each piece into them and then into a dish of bread-crumbs, take them out, roll them lightly with the hand, beat them gently with a knife to make the crumbs stick, then throw them again into the eggs and bread-crumb, smooth them again with a knife, fry in hot lard, and dress them on a napkin garnished with fried parsley; they may be made in the form of pears or any way that fancy dictates, giving them the shape previous to bread-crumbing them. Croquettes may be made of any of the preparations for rissoles by following the above direction.
No. 408. Aiguillettes de Ris de Veau.
For these kind of hors-d’œuvres it is necessary to have twelve small silver skewers, about four inches long and the thickness of a packing-needle, with a ring or fancy design on the top, they are not very expensive but are very novel for this description of dishes; the persons eating what is served upon them taking the head of the skewer with the fingers of their left hand and picking it off with their fork. Boil three throat sweetbreads in water ten minutes, pour off the water and add one onion, one carrot, one turnip, two bay-leaves, and a pint of white broth, let them simmer about twenty minutes till firm, then take them out of the broth, lay them on a clean cloth, cut them in pieces, with a long round cutter, about the size of a shilling, and season with pepper and salt; then chop two eschalots very fine and put them in a stewpan with an ounce of butter; fry them quite white, add ten tablespoonfuls of white sauce (No. 7), and eight of light stock, reduce until rather thick, add two yolks of eggs and the juice of half a lemon, take it off the fire, but do not let it boil after the yolks of eggs are in, then dip each piece of sweetbread into the sauce with a fork, and lay them on a dish till cold, then run the skewers through the centre of each piece, putting two pieces on each skewer, have ready four eggs well beaten on a plate, dip each skewer into the eggs and then into the bread-crumbs twice over, fry in hot lard, and serve them very hot on a napkin.