Preparation for Filling the Case.—Fillet chickens, guinea-hens, partridges, or grouse (leave pigeons or quails whole, but bone them). Put sufficient pieces of one sort, or all sorts mixed, to fill the pâte chaude case into a sauté pan, with two ounces of butter, and sauté till lightly colored. Take them out, and put them in a stewpan with a quart of reduced consommé, half a pint of mushrooms sliced, a dozen truffles cut into dice (half-inch), a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, and a wineglass of sherry, and let them simmer very gently, not boil, for half an hour, or until very tender. Let them cool, and when lukewarm arrange them in the pâte case, leaving the centre hollow, which fill with mushrooms and truffles. The liquor in which they were stewed must be then poured over them. The cover of a pâte chaude case is often not used, and aspic jelly covers the top of the pie.
English Manner of Making Game Pie in a Crust.—Use at least two kinds of game, which for this purpose must not be long kept; high game is acceptable to epicures when roasted or stewed, but never in a pie. Discard all parts blackened by shot. Cut into neat joints, from which bones must be removed. Take all the fragments from the carcass after the breast and joints are removed, and the flesh of a small bird or hare, or, failing that, some calf’s liver fried in dice; pound whichever you may have for force-meat in a mortar with four ounces of bacon that has been boiled; when the whole forms a paste (from which you have removed all strings, sinew, or gristle while pounding), season with pepper and salt—a teaspoonful of salt to a pound of force-meat, and a scant half saltspoonful of pepper. Put on the bones, without vegetables, in cold water to simmer until it is a rich broth, which strain, and boil rapidly till a little set on ice in a saucer will jelly. Make what is called “raised” paste in the following way: To two pounds of flour use three quarters of a pound of butter and half a pint of scalding milk; pour this into a hole in the centre of the flour, and knead into a firm paste, adding a little more milk if necessary (but it seldom is). This paste is not to be rolled, but beaten out with the hand while warm to half an inch thickness. Line a well-buttered meat-pie mould, with a hinge opening at the side; leave half an inch of paste above the mould; trim off neatly with scissors. Then lay in the game and force-meat in alternate layers, seasoning the joints with pepper and salt as you lay them. A few slices of tongue and truffles to form one layer are desirable. When the mould is full, lay on the cover, moisten the under edge, and pinch round in tiny scallops. Make a hole in the centre, round which put an ornament; stick in a bone to prevent the hole closing, and bake two to four hours in a moderate oven, according to size, remembering always that the crust will not be injured by long baking, and that the game in this pie is uncooked. When it is removed from the oven, let it stand half an hour, taking the mould off, that it may cool; then brush the sides and top with an egg beaten with milk, and return the pie to the oven that the sides may brown; cover the top, if it is already highly colored, with a sheet of paper. Remove the bone from the centre, insert a small funnel, and after removing all fat from it, pour in the gravy from the bones. The gravy must be poured very slowly or it will bubble up, and care must be taken to have all the pie will hold, yet not a drop too much, or it will ooze somewhere. These pies, when quite cold, may be sent any distance, and are much used in England and Scotland for hunting-parties, besides being a standard breakfast and luncheon dish. The crust is merely a frame to hold the game.
XXI.
GARNISHES.
In all choice cookery the appearance of dishes has to be carefully studied. However good the taste may be, the effect will be spoiled if its appearance on the table does not come up to the expectation raised by the name on the menu. For this reason the subject of garnishes requires to be considered apart from the dishes they adorn. In the old time garnishes were few and simple, and when not simple, very ugly, as the camellias cut from turnips and stained with beet juice. Nowadays garnishes are many, and many so termed form part of the dish, as what are termed, “floating garnishes for soup,” quenelles, etc. Garnishes that are merely ornamental need not be so expensively made as those intended for eating. Foremost among fashionable floating garnishes for soup are the colored custards known as pâte royale; they are perfectly easy to make, yet very effective served in clear bouillon.
Colored Custard.—Prepare the custard with five yolks of eggs, a gill of cream or strong bouillon, and a pinch of salt; butter small saucers or cups; divide the custard in three—color one with spinach juice or pulp of green asparagus, another with red tomato pulp or the pulp of red carrot boiled, and a third with pulp of beets. A few drops of cochineal may be added to intensify the color of the last, which is apt to be a beautiful pink instead of red. The custard for which pulps are used must be strained after they are added, expressing as much of the juice as possible. The custard should be flavored delicately with the vegetable used for color.
Spinach Juice is very frequently directed to be used as coloring, but scarcely anywhere is any indication given that the juice without preparation is of very little use. It should be prepared as follows: Take a large handful of fresh green spinach, wash it, and remove decayed leaves only; drain well, then pound in a mortar or chopping-bowl until quite mashed. Let it stand a quarter of an hour, then squeeze the mass in a cloth, and put the green water into a cup, which set over the fire in a small saucepan of water; watch the scum rise; when it stands quite thick at the top and turns a vivid green, remove at once (if it remains on the fire after this the green darkens); pour the contents of the cup through cheese-cloth or thin muslin laid in a strainer. The scum that remains is your coloring matter. It must be carefully scraped off with a spoon, and mix with the custard only as much as is required to give a delicate green tint. If any is left it may be mixed with an equal quantity of salt and put away; it loses color, however, after a few days.
The colored custards must be set in water, a small piece of buttered paper over each, and the water allowed to boil gently round them till they are firm. Let them get quite cold; then cut them into cubes or diamonds.
Profiterolles.—Perhaps the next in popularity of these floating garnishes are profiterolles, or “prophet’s rolls,” as cooks call them. They are made exactly like those intended for dessert, omitting sweetening of course, and a very small quantity is required, as they must be dropped no larger than a pea, and baked a pale fawn-color.