YORKSHIRE MINCE
Four ounces of mushrooms, 1 oz. butter, 1 gill thick brown sauce, 1 tablespoonful thick cream, lemon-juice, parsley, seasoning, Yorkshire pudding mixture.
Method.—Cleanse and peel the mushrooms and remove the stalks (which can be used to flavour stock) and fry them in the butter for five minutes, seasoning them with salt, pepper, and a little powdered mace; then cover them with the sauce; place a greased paper over the pan and let them stew by the side of the fire for half an hour. Pass the mushrooms through a fine mincer, add a squeeze of lemon-juice, and reheat them in the pan previously used, with a tablespoonful of cream, stirring them occasionally to prevent them from burning. Prepare a Yorkshire pudding in the usual way, and bake it carefully so that it is nicely browned; when ready, spread the minced mushrooms evenly on the top, scatter some parsley over it, and with a sharp knife cut it into neat squares, and serve with, or without, a boat of thick brown sauce.
YORKSHIRE PUDDING WITH MUSHROOMS AND TOMATOES
Three ounces dry, sifted flour, 3 eggs, rather more than ¹⁄₄ pint milk, baking powder, 2 ozs. butter, 4 mushrooms, 2 tomatoes, maître d’hôtel butter, seasoning.
Method.—Put the flour into a basin, add a little salt and some freshly-ground black pepper, and make a hollow in the middle; whisk the eggs well and mix the milk with them, then pour by degrees into the flour, mixing it with a wooden spoon; when a perfectly smooth batter is formed cover the basin with a cloth and let it stand for an hour or two before cooking. Then melt the butter in a Yorkshire pudding tin (ten by six inches), and when it is hot stir a saltspoonful of baking powder into the batter, pour it into the hot tin, and bake in a well-heated oven for from twenty to thirty minutes. While the pudding is being cooked, fry two medium-sized tomatoes cut in half and four fairly large mushrooms (cleansed and peeled); when the pudding is done cut it into eight squares with a sharp knife and arrange them on a very hot flat fireproof dish, place the mushrooms and tomatoes alternately on the pieces, and put a little pat of maître d’hôtel butter on each; it should be prepared thus: Beat three ounces of butter (or two ounces if only for a small dish) until it is soft and creamy; season it with salt, pepper, and cayenne, and add, by degrees, a tablespoonful of lemon-juice; when it is thoroughly worked into the butter sprinkle in a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley and put into a cool place until it is firm. Then take a small portion of the butter at a time, and roll it into eight neat little balls; flatten them slightly into a little pat and use as directed.
SAUCES
BROWN SAUCE
Two and a half ounces of butter, 1 onion, 1 large or 2 small carrots, a few pieces of celery, 1 tomato, ¹⁄₂ turnip, 1 thick slice parsnip, 2 or 3 pieces parsley, 1 clove, seasoning, browning, Maggi’s essence.
Method.—Slice the vegetables and let them simmer gently in one ounce of the butter for a quarter of an hour; then add a pint of boiling water, a teaspoonful of browning, a teaspoonful of Maggi’s essence, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a dust of curry powder, and let it boil rapidly for ten minutes; at the end of the time draw the pan to the side of the stove and let the stock cook slowly for three quarters of an hour. When it is ready thicken it with two ounces of flour, and one and a half ounces of butter, cooked together, add a squeeze of lemon-juice, or a few drops of tarragon vinegar, and strain.