The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management / Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping

by Anne Cobbett

The bread should be cut in thin slices with a sharp knife. Various things are used. Slices of beef, ham, or tongue, or either of the last two grated or scraped; also German or pork sausage, anchovies and shrimps; forcemeat, and all kinds of potted meat. Some persons cut the meat in very little pieces, and spread them over the bread; a mixture of ham and chicken in this way makes delicate sandwiches: or ham and hard-boiled yolk of egg, seasoned with salt, mustard, or curry powder, according to the meat. Cheese sandwiches are made thus: 2 parts of grated parmesan or Cheshire cheese, one of butter, and a small portion of made mustard; pound them in a mortar; cover slices of bread with a little, then thin slices of ham, or any cured meat, cover with another slice of bread, and press it lightly down; cut these sandwiches small.

Maccaroni. (See to make the paste.)

Boil 2 oz. in good broth or gravy, till tender; add a small piece of butter, and a little salt, give it a turn in the stew-pan, and put it in the dish. Scrape parmesan, stilton, or any other dry rich cheese over, and brown it before the fire.—Or: mix a pint of milk and a pint of water, put in 2 oz. maccaroni, and simmer it slowly three hours, till the liquor is wasted, and the maccaroni tender. Add grated cheese, salt, and cayenne, mix well, and brown it before the fire. Maccaroni plain boiled, with a little salt, till tender, and the gravy of roast or boiled meat poured over it, is light and nourishing for an invalid. Maccaroni in the Italian way.—Mince about six livers of fowl or game with a very little celery, young onion, and parsley (blanched), and stew them in good butter. Then have six more livers cut small, not minced, and cooked in a little butter. Boil 2 oz. of maccaroni in white gravy, season it, if necessary, add powdered mace and cayenne; when done, put a layer of it in a deep hot dish, then a layer of the mince, a layer of grated parmesan, then maccaroni, and at top the chopped livers and more cheese, and enough of the gravy to moisten it sufficiently; put it before the fire a quarter of an hour, or on a slow stove: then brown it or not as you choose. Another (Italian).—Boil it in water, pass it through a cullender, and having ready prepared some tomata sauce (which see), lift a layer of the maccaroni lightly with two forks out of the cullender into a deep vegetable or hash dish, put a light sprinkling of grated cheese, then tomata sauce, then maccaroni, and again tomata sauce, till the dish be full; if the maccaroni be dry, add butter in little bits, and cayenne, if you think proper. This is not browned. You may omit the cheese. Maccaroni Maigre.—Simmer 2 oz. maccaroni in a pint of milk and a pint of water (mixed) three hours, and the liquor wasted: stir into it grated cheese, salt, and cayenne, and brown it before the fire.

Toast and Cheese.

Toast a slice of stale bread half an inch thick, without the crust, butter one side, and lay on slices of toasting cheese; put it into a cheese-toaster before the fire; when done, lightly pepper and salt it, and serve it hot.

Welsh or Scotch Rabbit.

There are many receipts for this, and the following is a good one. Mix some butter with grated cheese (unless that be so fat that the butter is not required), add salt, pepper, made mustard, and a tea-cupful of brown stout or Port wine; put this into a cheese-toaster, stir till the cheese be dissolved, then brown, and serve it quite hot: toasts in a separate dish.

CHAPTER XV.

STUFFING AND FORCEMEAT.

With regard to the flavouring ingredients to be used in making these, no precise instructions can be given, because what is disagreeable to one palate is indispensable to another one, therefore, practice alone will teach a cook how to succeed in the art of forcemeat making; and so many flavouring condiments may be used that she may vary her forcemeats to almost any variety of dishes, taking care that no one flavour predominates, but the whole be so blended that the proper zest be given without too much poignancy. Some choose the flavour of onions, thyme, and other herbs, to be strong, while others dislike even a very little of either. Onion is milder for being parboiled in two waters, and some think the flavour of eschalot preferable.—Suet is indispensable; but if it cannot be obtained, beef marrow, or good fresh butter, are the best substitutes.—Bread-crumbs are better soaked in milk, than grated dry; in the former case their quantity must be judged by bulk, not by weight: the bread should be stale. The French use Panada, and prepare it thus: Soak slices of bread in hot milk, when moist press out the milk from the bread, and beat the latter up, with a little rich broth or white sauce, and a lump of butter. Stir till somewhat dry, add the yolks of 2 eggs, and pound the whole well together. Sweetbreads make delicate forcemeat flavoured with tongue.