The Skilful Cook Part 31

2 or 3 mushrooms.

Enough stock to moisten nicely.

1 teaspoonful of flour.

A slice of cooked ham.

A few drops of lemon juice.

1 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Mince the sweetbreads, mushrooms, and ham.

Melt the b.u.t.ter in a stewpan, and fry the mushrooms in it.

Put in the flour, and mix it smoothly with the b.u.t.ter.

Then put in the sweetbread and ham, and enough stock to mix nicely.

Add lemon juice, pepper, and salt, to taste.

Make it hot, and then put the mixture into oiled-paper cases.

Sprinkle over the top of each a few browned crumbs and put in the oven for a few minutes.

Fried Sweetbread.

_Ingredients_--1 dozen lambs' heart sweetbreads.

1 pint of good stock.

1 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

1 oz. of flour.

A few drops of lemon juice.

If liked, winegla.s.s of sherry.

Eggs and bread-crumbs.

Some mashed potatoes and green peas.

_Method._--Trim the sweetbreads, and soak them in cold water for two hours.

Then throw them into the boiling stock, and simmer them for half an hour or more until quite tender.

If possible, let them get cold in the stock.

Then egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in a frying basket in hot fat (_see_ French Frying).

To make a sauce, melt the b.u.t.ter in a saucepan.

Mix in the flour smoothly, pour in the stock, and stir and cook well; add lemon juice, pepper, and salt to taste, and, if liked, a little sherry.

Dish the sweetbreads on the potatoes; pour the sauce round them, and put the peas in the centre.

The sauce should be made before the sweetbreads are fried, that there may be no delay in serving.

If calves' sweetbreads are used, proceed in the same way, cutting them in neat slices before frying.

Cutlets of Veal with Tomato Sauce.

_Ingredients_--2 lb. of fillet of veal.

2 or 3 oz. of b.u.t.ter, or some of the fat skimmed from the stock-pot.

1 pint of tomato sauce.

lb. macaroni, nicely stewed in milk and seasoned with Parmesan cheese.

Some mashed potatoes.

1 uncooked tomato.

_Method._--Cut the veal into neat little cutlets, and fry them nicely in the b.u.t.ter or skimming.

Dish them in a circle on a border of potatoes.

Pile the macaroni high in the middle.

Pour tomato sauce round, and garnish the macaroni with small strips of uncooked tomato.

Beef Olives.

_Ingredients_--1 lb. of thick beefsteak.

Some veal stuffing.

1 pint of stock.

1 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

1 oz. of flour.

A few drops of lemon juice.

Pepper and salt.

Some mashed potatoes.

A few carrots and turnips, cut in fancy shapes, and nicely cooked.

_Method._--Cut the beef into thin strips, lay a little forcemeat on each, and roll them up.

Tie each roll with a little fine string.

Put them in a stewpan close together, and cover them with the stock.

Stew them gently for two or three hours until quite tender.

Then place them in a circle on a border of mashed potatoes.

Remove any fat from the stock, and stir in the b.u.t.ter and flour thoroughly mixed together.

Cook the flour well, and then add the lemon juice and seasoning.

Strain the sauce over the olives, and put the vegetables in the centre.