No. 131. Fowls, with Spring Vegetables. Braise a poularde as directed for the turkey, and make a sauce from the braise as there directed; then have twenty young carrots and twenty young turnips, lightly peeled, and three parts boiled, with twenty small onions, drain and put them into your sauce, which you have made as No. 136, with a good teaspoonful of powdered sugar; stew them gently until tender, then dress the poularde upon your dish, arrange the vegetables tastefully around, mix half a gill of cream with the sauce, boil a few minutes, sauce over the whole and serve.
No. 132. Fowls Braised, Fricassée Sauce. Braise the fowls as before, and make the sauce from the braise, in which put a bunch of parsley, fifty button onions, and a pottle of mushrooms, both well peeled; stew half an hour, add a little sugar, salt, and a gill of cream, boil a few minutes, sauce over and serve. Chickens may be dressed in either of the above methods, calculating the time they require cooking by their size.
No. 133. Roast Goose. Pluck, draw, and truss a goose, fill the inside with sage and onions, by cutting four large onions into small dice, and put them into a stewpan with a few leaves of sage (chopped fine), and a couple of well-boiled mealy potatoes, crumbled very small, add two ounces of butter, and a little pepper and salt; when the onions become tender stuff the goose, the day previous if time permit, which roast an hour and a quarter before a moderate fire, serve plain, with a little gravy on the dish, and apple sauce separate.
No. 134. Ducks may also be stuffed and roasted as a goose; a few apples may also be used with the stuffing instead of potatoes, for either ducks or geese, if approved of.
No. 135. Ducks à l’Aubergiste (or Tavern-keeper’s fashion). Truss one or two ducks with the legs turned inside, put them into a stewpan with a quarter of a pound of butter; place them over a slow fire, turning round occasionally, until they have taken a nice brown colour, add two spoonfuls of flour, mix well with them, add a quart of water, with half a tablespoonful of salt and sugar, let simmer gently until the ducks are done (but adding forty button onions well peeled as soon as it begins to boil), keep hot; peel and cut ten turnips in slices, fry them in a frying-pan with butter, drain upon a cloth, put them into the sauce, and stew until quite tender; dress the ducks upon your dish, skim the fat from the sauce, which has attained a consistency, pour round the ducks and serve.
SIMPLIFIED ENTRÉES.
The word entrée is a French culinary term (universally known by the nobility and gentry of Europe), signifying a corner, or made dish, in which sauce is introduced, the importance of which is known in the kitchens of the wealthy as forming the size and magnitude of a dinner. Being considered as the principal dish upon which it is intended to dine well, the wealthy epicure orders his cook to prepare a dinner of four, six, or eight entrées, thus making a criterion for the second course, which, in the opinion of real gourmets, is a secondary consideration of delight, and very often left entirely to the cook. But when a lady of moderate income is consulted, she very properly devotes all her attention, good taste, and economy to the subject.
The entrées, however, which I am here about to describe, are very economical; whilst those entrées of importance, which are so well known for their excellence and unavoidable expense, I have left to those whose means will better afford it, and content myself with here offering to my readers those only with which I would be content in placing before my friends at home.
My readers will find that certain made dishes, instead of being expensive, tend to greater economy. Every ordinary cook might be perfect in roasting and boiling a joint, but quite incapable of making a single made dish to perfection, even from the remains of a joint. In a tradesman’s family it often happens that he dines once or twice a week from a Sunday joint, either in winter or summer; in the last it is partly excusable, but, in the former, hot meat for such an important meal is much more preferable, being more light than cold, and of course digests more freely. To prove the truth of this argument, pickles are continually used with cold meat to invigorate and open the appetite, and facilitate digestion. I would always advise to take a little cold lunch, and a hot late dinner, if circumstances permit, and avoid as much as possible a supper, particularly a late one.
SAUCES.—No. 136. For daily use I avoid making any foundation sauces, but when I want to give a little party at home, I generally previously provide a small quantity of white and brown sauce as follows: