The Story of Crisco

by Marion Harris Neil

Calf's Tail Soup
*Braised Fillet of Veal
Braised Belgian Endive Potato Puree
Beet and Cabbage Salad
Banana Trifle
Coffee

*Braised Fillet of Veal—3-1/2 pounds veal, 1/4 pound larding bacon, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, 1/2 lemon, forcemeat, stock and a little celery.

Remove bone, fill in cavity with forcemeat. Cut some even strips of bacon 1/4 of an inch thick, and with a larding needle thread neatly on top of meat. Slice vegetables, place them in a pan, set veal on these, sprinkle with a little lemon juice. Cover with Criscoed paper, and add stock to come three-parts up the meat. Cover closely and set pan in oven (in order to get top heat also) or over a gentle fire, and simmer 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Remove veal to a dripping tin with very little stock, and brown in front of fire or in hot oven. Reduce stock in pan, meanwhile, by fast boiling without lid, and strain round meat. Garnish with cut lemon, and, if liked, with curled bacon and forcemeat balls.

The forcemeat is made as follows: Add 1/4 cup Crisco, 4 tablespoons chopped cooked ham, 1 cup breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon mixed herbs, thyme, and marjoram. Add salt and pepper to taste, and mix with 2 well-beaten eggs.

March 25

Scallop Chowder
*Boiled Cod, Oyster Sauce
Mashed Potatoes Stewed Corn
Watercress, French Dressing
Cheese Biscuits Ginger Pudding
Coffee

*Boiled Cod—Wash the fish (about 2 to 3 pounds cod), and put into a fish-kettle, containing enough boiling water to cover it. Add some salt, bring quickly to boil; then draw pan to side of fire, and let it stay in hot water until cooked. Do not let water boil or simmer again. Cod cooked in this way has a much finer flavor than if it is allowed to simmer or boil. Take up fish on drainer, slide it on to a hot dish on a folded napkin, and serve garnished with sprigs of crisp parsley. Send to table with oyster sauce, which is made as follows: 4 tablespoons Crisco, 6 tablespoons flour, 1 small onion, 1/2 carrot, 12 whole peppers, 1/2 bay leaf, 1 clove, 1 bouquet garni, small blade mace, salt, and ten oysters. Peel the onion, scrape carrot; put them into saucepan with bay leaf, whole pepper, bouquet garni, and clove; add milk, and bring to boil. When milk boils take out mace and bay leaf. Melt Crisco in small saucepan; mix in flour smoothly; whisk into this hot milk. Stir until it boils, then let it simmer from 10 to 15 minutes. Take out bouquet; rub sauce through a sieve. Take 10 oysters and their liquor and put into a saucepan and bring to boiling point. Then take the oysters and cut each in quarters. Heat the sauce and add the oyster liquor, reduce well, strain and return to saucepan; stir in 1 yolk of egg, bind, and then add oysters and lemon juice. Stir till hot, but it must not boil. Season to taste and serve.

March 26

Pepper Cocktail
*Fried Pigeons
Baked Onions Mashed Potatoes
Celery and Nut Salad
Cheese Custards
Orange Ice Cream
Coffee

*Fried Pigeons—4 pigeons, 1/2 pound sausage meat, 1 egg, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, mace, and cloves. Empty and split pigeons in halves, lengthways; remove 1 joint of wing and of leg, and truss neatly; wash thoroughly.