Prepare patty shells as directed in puff paste receipt (page [460]). Fill them with oysters (see page [134]), with lobster (see page [140]), or with any salpicon.
RISSOLES
Roll puff paste one eighth of an inch thick. Place on it at intervals of three inches from the edge and five inches apart, a teaspoonful of salpicon, or of creamed minced meat. Moisten with a wet brush the paste, and fold it over the balls of meat. With the finger press the paste together lightly around the meat, inclosing it like a small pie. Then with a patty or biscuit-cutter stamp out the rissoles in shape of half-circles, the ball of meat being on the straight side, and a border of paste an inch or more wide on the rounded side. Egg and bread-crumb them or not, and fry in hot fat. Serve on a folded napkin.
TO PREPARE SWEETBREADS
Soak the sweetbreads in cold water for an hour or more. Change the water several times, so that all the blood will be extracted, and leave the sweetbreads very white. Put them on the fire in cold water, and simmer (not boil) for twenty minutes. Then immerse them again in cold water. This is to parboil and blanch them. Remove all the pipes, strings, and fibers it is possible to do without breaking the sweetbreads to pieces. When half cold tie each one in a piece of cheese-cloth, drawing it tightly into an oval form, and place them under a light weight until cold. They will then be smooth and a uniform shape, and may be larded with fine lardoons if desired. Use a silver knife for cutting sweetbreads.
BAKED SWEETBREADS
Take parboiled larded sweetbreads, and place them on slices of salt pork in a baking-pan. Add enough stock to cover well the pan. Cook them in a hot oven for twenty minutes, basting frequently. Serve with a brown or with a mushroom sauce.
BRAISED SWEETBREADS
Place in a baking-pan a bed of vegetables cut in small dice, and a few pieces of salt pork. Lay parboiled sweetbreads on it. Add enough water or stock to cover the vegetables. Close the pan tight, and cook for forty to forty-five minutes. Uncover the pan the last fifteen minutes to let the sweetbreads brown. Paint them with glaze. Strain the liquor from the pan; thicken it with a brown roux, and serve it on the dish under the sweetbreads.