Cut your halibut into steaks or cutlets about an inch thick. Wipe them with a dry cloth, and season them with salt and cayenne pepper. Have ready a pan of yolk of egg well beaten, and a large flat dish of grated bread crumbs. Put some fresh lard or clarified beef dripping into a frying pan, and hold it over a clear fire till it boils. Dip your cutlets into the beaten egg, and then into the bread crumbs. Fry them of a light brown. Serve them up hot, with the gravy in the bottom of the dish. Salmon or any large fish may be fried in the same manner. Halibut cutlets are very fine cut quite thin and fried in the best sweet oil, omitting the egg and bread crumbs.
The best piece is the round. You may either boil it whole, or divide it into two, or even three pieces if it is large, taking care that each piece shall have a portion of the fat. Wash it well; and, if very salt, soak it in two waters. Skewer it up tightly and in a good compact shape, wrapping the flap piece firmly round it. Tie it round with broad strong tape, or with a strip of coarse linen. Put it into a large pot, and cover it well with water. It will be found a convenience to lay it on a fish drainer. Hang it over a moderate fire that it may heat gradually all through. Carefully take off the scum as it rises, and when no more appears, keep the pot closely covered, and let it boil slowly and regularly, with the fire at an equal temperature. Allow three hours and a half to a piece weighing about twelve pounds, and from that to four or five hours in proportion to the size. Turn the meat twice in the pot while it is boiling. Put in some carrots and turnips about two hours after the meat. Many persons boil cabbage in the same pot with the beef, but it is a much nicer way to do the greens in a separate vessel, lest they become saturated with the liquid fat. Cauliflower or brocoli (which are frequent accompaniments to corned beef) should never be boiled with it. Wash the cabbage in cold water, removing the outside leaves, and cutting the stalk close. Examine all the leaves carefully, lest insects should be lodged among them. If the cabbage is large, divide it into quarters. Put it into a pot of boiling water with a handful of salt, and boil it till the stalk is quite tender. Half an hour will generally be sufficient for a small young cabbage; an hour for a large full-grown one. Drain it well before you dish it. If boiled separately from the meat, have ready some melted butter to eat with it. Should you find the beef under-done, you may reboil it next day; putting it into boiling-water and letting it simmer for half an hour or more, according to its size. Cold corned beef will keep very well for some days wrapped in several folds of a thick linen cloth, and set away in a cool dry place. In carving a round of beef, slice it horizontally and very thin. Do not help any one to the outside pieces, as they are generally too hard and salt. French mustard is very nice with corned beef. [Footnote: French mustard is made of the very best mustard powder, diluted with vinegar, and flavoured with minced tarragon leaves, and a minced clove of garlic; all mixed with a wooden spoon.] This receipt will apply equally to any piece of corned beef, except that being less solid than the round, they will, in proportion to their weight, require rather less time to boil. In dishing the meat, remove the wooden skewers and substitute plated or silver ones. Many persons think it best (and they are most probably right) to stew corned beef rather than to boil it. If you intend to stew it, put no more water in the pot than will barely cover the meat, and keep it gently simmering over a slow fire for four, five, or six hours, according to the size of the piece.
Wash a pint of small button mushrooms, remove the stems and outside skins, stew them slowly in veal gravy or milk or cream, adding an onion, and seasoning with pepper, salt and a little butter rolled in flour. Their flavor will be heightened by salting a few the night before, to extract the juice. In dressing mushrooms only those of a dull pearl color on the outside and the under part tinged with pale pink should be selected. If there is a poisonous one among them, the onion in the sauce will turn black. In such a case throw the whole away. Used for poultry, beef or fish.
Cut up a chicken weighing from a pound and a half to two pounds, as for fricassee, wash it well, and put it into a stewpan with sufficient water to cover it; boil it, closely covered, until tender; add a large teaspoonful of salt, and cook a few minutes longer; then remove from the fire, take out the chicken, pour the liquor into a bowl, and set it one side. Now cut up into the stewpan two small onions, and fry them with a piece of butter as large as an egg; as soon as the onions are brown, skim them out and put in the chicken; fry for three or four minutes; next sprinkle over two teaspoonfuls of Curry Powder. Now pour over the liquor in which the chicken was stewed, stir all well together, and stew for five minutes longer, then stir into this a tablespoonful of sifted flour made thin with a little water; lastly, stir in a beaten yolk of egg, and it is done. Serve with hot boiled rice laid around on the edge of a platter, and the chicken curry in the centre. This makes a handsome side dish, and a fine relish accompanying a full dinner of roast beef or any roast. All first-class grocers and druggists keep this "India Curry Powder," put up in bottles. Beef, veal, mutton, duck, pigeons, partridges, rabbits or fresh fish may be substituted for the chicken, if preferred, and sent to the table with or without a dish of rice. To Boil Rice or Curry.--Pick over the rice, a cupful. Wash it thoroughly in two or three cold waters; then leave it about twenty minutes in cold water. Put into a stewpan two quarts of water with a teaspoonful of salt in it; and when it boils, sprinkle in the rice. Boil it briskly for twenty minutes, keeping the pan covered. Take it from the fire, and drain off the water. Afterwards set the saucepan on the back of the stove, with the lid off, to allow the rice to dry and the grains to separate. Rice, if properly boiled, should be soft and white, and every grain stand alone. Serve it hot in a separate dish or served as above, laid around the chicken curry.
Water in which meat of fish has been boiled should never be thrown away, as it forms an excellent foundation for many soups and sauces which might otherwise have to be made with water.
If a large quantity of water has been used, the boilings will be poor; therefore, when the meat has been taken up, leave the pot on the fire and let it boil quickly, without the lid, for an hour or so, then strain off for use.
The water in which corned beef or pork has been cooked is generally too salt for soups, but it should be stood away till cold, when a thick cake of fat will be found on the top. Put this into a basin and pour over it some boiling water; when it is cold again it can be used for cakes and pastry. It makes an excellent and wholesome substitute for butter in cooking.
The following of hot breakfast dishes may be of assistance in knowing what to provide for the comfortable meal called breakfast. Broiled beefsteak, broiled chops, broiled chicken, broiled fish, broiled quail on toast, fried pork tenderloins, fried pig's feet, fried oysters, fried clams, fried liver and bacon, fried chops, fried pork, ham and eggs fried, veal cutlets breaded, sausages, fricasseed tripe, fricasseed kidneys, turkey or chicken hash, corn beef hash, beef croquettes, codfish balls, creamed codfish, stewed meats on toast, poached eggs on toast, omelettes, eggs boiled plain, and eggs cooked in any of the various styles.
With roast beef: tomato sauce, grated horse-radish, mustard, cranberry sauce, pickles. With roast pork: apple sauce, cranberry sauce. With roast veal: tomato sauce, mushroom sauce, onion sauce and cranberry sauce. Horse-radish and lemons are good. With roast mutton: currant jelly, caper sauce. With boiled mutton: onion sauce, caper sauce. With boiled fowls: bread sauce, onion sauce, lemon sauce, cranberry sauce, jellies. Also cream sauce. With roast lamb: mint sauce. With roast turkey: cranberry sauce, currant jelly. With boiled turkey: oyster sauce. With venison or wild ducks: cranberry sauce, currant jelly, or currant jelly warmed with port wine. With roast goose: apple sauce, cranberry sauce, grape or currant jelly. With boiled fresh mackerel: stewed gooseberries. With boiled blue fish: white cream sauce, lemon sauce. With broiled shad: mushroom sauce, parsley or egg sauce. With fresh salmon: green peas, cream sauce. Pickles are good with all roast meats, and in fact are suitable accompaniments to all kinds of meats in general. Spinach is the proper accompaniment to veal; green peas to lamb. Lemon juice makes a very grateful addition to nearly all the insipid members of the fish kingdom. Slices of lemon cut into very small dice and stirred into drawn butter and allowed to come to the boiling point, served with fowls, is a fine accompaniment.
This soup will require eight hours to prepare. Take a large calf's head, and having cleaned, washed, and soaked it, put it into a pot with a knuckle of veal, and the hock of a ham, or a few slices of bacon; but previously cut off and reserve enough of the veal to make two dozen small force-meat balls. Put the head and the other meat into as much water as will cover it very well, so that it may not be necessary to replenish it: this soup being always made very rich. Let it boil slowly four hours, skimming it carefully. As soon as no more scum rises, put in six potatoes, and three turnips, all sliced thin; with equal proportions of parsley, sweet marjoram and sweet basil, chopped fine; and pepper and salt to your taste. An hour before you send the meat to table, make about two dozen small force-meat balls of minced veal and beef-suet in equal quantities, seasoned with pepper and salt; sweet herbs, grated lemon-peel, and powdered nutmeg and mace. Add some beaten yolk of egg to make all these ingredients stick together. Flour the balls very well, and fry them in butter. Before you put them into the soup, take out the head, and the other meat. Cut the meat from the head in small pieces, and return it to the soup. When the soup is nearly done, stir in half a pint of Madeira. Have ready at least a dozen egg-balls made of the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, grated or pounded in a mortar, and mixed with a little flour and sufficient raw yolk of egg to bind them. Make them up into the form and size of boy's marbles. Throw them into the soup at the last, and also squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Let it get another slow boil, and then put it into the tureen. We omit a receipt for real turtle soup, as when that very expensive, complicated, and difficult dish is prepared in a private family, it is advisable to hire a first-rate cook for the express purpose. An easy way is to get it ready made, in any quantity you please, from a turtle-soup house.
There are two modes of frying. One is to have just enough fat to prevent the article from burning or sticking; and the other is to have enough not only to cover the food, but to float it. The latter is by far the better way, as all the surface of the article is instantly hardened, and, therefore, will not absorb fat. It is also the cheaper way, because the fat can be used so many times. If the drippings saved from meats, soups and gravies should not be enough for frying purposes, buy pure lard to use with it. Many recommend buying beef suet for this same purpose; but food fried in suet is more liable to absorb fat than that fried in lard. The reason of this is that lard can be heated to a higher temperature without burning than can beef or any of the other fats. Butter is also often recommended for frying. If used, it should be free of salt. But aside from being so expensive, it is not so nice for frying purposes as fats, for it burns at a much lower temperature than either beef fat or lard. The Scotch kettle is the best utensil for frying. It rests on a rim, which lifts the bottom from the stove, and the inside surface is polished very smooth; therefore, the fat is less liable to burn than if the surface were rough and the bottom rested on the hot stove. The fat should heat gradually; and when the food is plunged into it a slight smoke should rise from the centre. It will smoke at the sides some time before it has become hot enough for frying. After the food has been put in, let the kettle stand on the hottest part of the stove until it regains its former temperature, and then set it back where it is not quite so hot. In frying fish-balls, doughnuts, etc., put only a few at a time in the boiling fat; then wait a few moments for the fat to regain its former temperature, and put in a few more. Fish-balls are often spoiled by the putting of a great many in the kettle at once. The temperature of the fat is instantly reduced, and the balls absorb the fat. When an article of food is fried, drain the fat from it, and lay it on a sheet of brown paper in a warm pan. The paper will absorb any fat that may remain on the food. As soon as you are through frying, take the fat from the fire, and when cooled a little, strain it, (See the chapter on the Care of Food.) If the directions given are followed, there will be no difficulty in having food fried without its being saturated with grease.
Having cleaned the fish and dried them, with a cloth, lay them, side by side, on a board or large dish; sprinkle them with salt, and dredge them with flour. After a while turn them, and salt and dredge the other side. Put some lard or fresh beef-dripping into a frying-pan, and hold it over the fire. When the lard boils, put in the fish and fry them of a yellowish brown. Send to table with them in a boat, melted butter flavoured with anchovy. Flounders or other small fish may be fried in the same manner. You may know when the lard or dripping is hot enough, by dipping in the tail of one of the fish. If it becomes crisp immediately, the lard is in a proper state for frying. Or you may try it with a piece of stale bread which will become brown directly, if the lard is in order. There should always be enough of lard to cover the fish entirely. After they have fried five minutes on one side, turn them and fry them five minutes on the other. Skim the lard or dripping always before you put in the fish.
