The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book

by Victor Hirtzler

BREAKFAST				LUNCHEON
	Sliced peaches with cream				Eggs, Bienvenue
	Kidney stew				Kalter aufschnitt
	Baked potatoes				Camembert cheese with crackers
	Rolls				Coffee
	Coffee
		DINNER
			Chicken mulligatawney soup
			Ripe California olives
			Fried smelts, Tartar sauce
			Roast chicken
			Artichokes, Hollandaise
			Summer squash
			Rissolée potatoes
			Field salad
			Fancy ice cream
			Assorted cakes
			Demi tasse

Eggs, Bienvenue. Butter four individual shirred egg dishes. Make a border of mashed (croquette) potato around each dish. Put in the bottom a spoonful of purée of fresh tomatoes. Break two eggs in each dish, season with salt and pepper, and bake in oven.

Kalter aufschnitt. Assorted cold meats, such as roast beef, ham, tongue, lamb, etc. Garnish with a lettuce leaf filled with potato salad, for each person.

Chicken mulligatawney soup. Cut the breast from an uncooked soup hen, and cut in small squares of about one-quarter inch. Make about two quarts of broth from the bones and trimmings. Heat three ounces of butter in a casserole, add the cut-up breast of chicken, and simmer for five minutes. Then add an onion chopped very fine, and simmer again until yellow. Then add two spoonfuls of flour and one spoonful of curry powder, and heat through. Now pour in the strained chicken broth and a cup of rice, and boil slowly until the rice is cooked. Cut two apples in quarter inch squares, and simmer in butter until cooked, and add to the soup. Season with salt and pepper.

To preserve limes. Remove the cores from the limes with a small tin tube made for the purpose. Then cover with salad water, using a large handful of salt to the gallon. Soak for four or five hours; then drain off the water, and throw the limes into boiling water. As soon as they are soft take them out, one by one, and drop them into cold water. Change the cold water several times. To turn the limes green again put two gallons of water in a copper pan, add two large handfuls of cooking salt, one cup of vinegar, and several handfuls of fresh spinach. Put the pan on the fire and boil for a few minutes, then put the limes in the pan, and boil up several times. Remove from the fire, and allow to stand until cold; when the limes will have resumed their natural color. Drain off the liquid and let the limes soak in fresh water for about fourteen hours, changing the water frequently. Prepare a fifteen degree syrup, testing with a syrup gauge or cooking thermometer; and when boiling throw the limes into this, boil up, and then put into a vessel and leave for twelve hours. Then pour off the syrup, and boil it to sixteen degrees, pour it over the limes again, leaving it for twelve hours. Then drain and boil again to twenty degrees, pour over the limes, stand for twelve hours, and continue every twelve hours until thirty-two degrees are reached. Then boil for two minutes, and pour into small stone jars. Seal hermetically when cool.

Jellied cherries. Stone three pounds of cherries. Crush a handful of the cherry stones, and tie in a gauze bag. Put a pound of currant juice on the fire, add the crushed cherry stones, and steep. Put the cherries in a copper pan over a slow fire, and reduce one-half. Then add three pounds of granulated cane sugar and the currant juice, after the gauze bag has been removed; and boil steadily until a little tried on a saucer will not spread. Add half a gill of kirschwasser, and pour at once into jelly glasses. Place in a cool place, and when cold pour melted paraffine over the top and cover tightly.

Candied lemon or orange peels. Put a sufficient quantity of lemon or orange peels on the fire with enough water to cover. Boil until soft to the touch, then drain, and put in cold water and soak for twenty-four hours, changing the water often. Then pour off the water, and put the peels in an earthern jar, covering with a fifteen degree boiling syrup. Use a syrup gauge or cooking thermometer to determine the density. Let the peels stand for twelve hours, then pour off the syrup and boil it up to eighteen degrees. Pour again over the peels and let it set for twelve hours. Repeat this operation six or seven times, gradually increasing the density of the syrup until it reaches thirty-two degrees. The last time prepare a fresh thirty-two degree syrup. Drain the old syrup from the peels, add them to the fresh boiling syrup, and boil up once. Then put the peels in stone jars or pots, cover with the syrup, and seal when cold.

Fig jam. Select large white firm figs, remove the stems, and cut in quarters. Dissolve a half pound of sugar in a little water for each pound of figs. Bring to a boil, then add the figs and boil steadily until the marmalade coats the spoon and drops from it in beads. Then pour into hot jelly glasses.

Blackberry cordial, for medicinal purposes. Heat and strain through fine cheese cloth some ripe blackberries. To one pint of juice add one pound of granulated sugar, one-fourth ounce of powdered cinnamon, one-fourth ounce of mace, and one teaspoonful of cloves. Boil all together for twenty minutes, strain, and to each pint add a jill of French brandy. Put up in small bottles.

Vanilla brandy. Cut some vanilla beans very fine, pound in a mortar, put in bottles and cover with strong brandy. This is much better than ordinary vanilla extract.