Chop some onions and garlic very fine, fry them in olive oil, and when slightly colored add some fish cut up in slices; also a few tomatoes scalded, peeled and sliced, some salt, black and red pepper, thyme, sweet-bay, parsley, and half a bottle of white wine, and enough water to cover the fish. Put it over a brisk fire and boil a quarter of an hour. Put slices of toasted bread in a deep dish, place the fish on a shallow dish with some broth, and pour the balance on the bread and serve hot.
BROWNED SNIPE A LA FAUVET
Dress fourteen snipe, stuff them with a little browned stuffing, to which add two hashed truffles. Bend the skin back carefully while stuffing, and then replace it so the birds will retain as nearly as possible their natural appearance. Place the snipe so prepared and larded with bacon, into a frying pan; and to keep them sufficiently together in order that the skins may not shrink much while cooking, put some strips of bacon over them; moisten them with a little soup-stock, cover them with buttered paper and let them cook in the oven for forty minutes; then drain them, lightly trim the lower side, and lay them on a little mound of uncooked, but slightly browned stuffing, breast up, in the bottom of a dish, and ice them (glacez). Keep the dish hot in the oven for some minutes. Remove the skin and eyes from the heads of the snipe after cooking them and stick a small truffle in each bill, and lay between each two birds, one of the heads with the truffle up. Garnish the dish with stewed cock’s combs, scallops, goose liver, and champignons; add a little Madeira sauce, boiled down and permeated with the flavor of the game. Ice (glacez) the snipe and truffles, and serve with a separate sauce. Let everything be very hot.
SALAD A LA RUSSE
Cut up all kinds of vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, snap beans, etc., boil them in water with salt and butter, then drain and season lightly with salt, black pepper and vinegar; add a few cooked green peas, mashed and well drained. Put all in a salad dish in the form of a pyramid, and lightly cover it over with mayonnaise. If you have the hearts of artichokes put them around the dish, as a wreath, with a little asparagus mixed in. Keep as cool as possible until served.
BISCUIT GLACE FOR TWENTY
Ten yolks of eggs, one and a half pounds pulverized sugar, half a gallon of cream, vanilla extract, white of eggs well beaten if the cream is too light. To be frozen in a square box and cut in small pieces. A coat of strawberry sherbet on top of the cream, before cutting, to give nice appearance. A tin box three inches wide and six inches long, which is enclosed in a box three inches larger all around. The inside box has a tight-fitting top, and is packed in the outside box, which has a perforated bottom to allow water or melted ice to escape. Place inside box within the outer, and stuff with ice and salt and let it freeze; when frozen, place red sherbet on top of biscuit to give pretty appearance.
HINTS ON COOKING
When salt hams or tongues are cooked they should be instantly thrown into cold water, as the change from the boiling water they were cooked in, to the cold water, instantly loosens the skin from the flesh, and it peels off without trouble.