The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory;

Vermicelli Soup

Break the vermicelli a little, throw it into boiling water, and let it boil about two minutes. Strain it in a sieve, and throw it into cold water: then strain and put it into a good clear consommé, and let it boil very slowly about a quarter of an hour. When it is going to table, season with a little salt, and put into it a little crust of French roll.

West India Soup, called Pepper Pot

A small knuckle of veal and a piece of beef of about three pounds, seven or eight pounds of meat in all; potherbs as for any other soup. When the soup is skimmed and made, strain it off. The first ingredient you add to the soup must be some dried ocre (a West India vegetable), the quantity according to your judgment. It is hard and dry, and therefore requires a great deal of soaking and boiling. Then put in the spawn of the lobsters you intend for your soup, first pounding it very fine, and mixing it by degrees with a little of your soup cooled, or it will be lumpy, and not so smooth as it should be. Put it into the soup-pot, and continue to stir some time after it is in. Take about two middling handfuls of spinach and about six hearts of the inside of very nice greens; scald both greens and spinach before you put them to the soup, to take off the rawness; the greens require most scalding. Squeeze them quite dry, chop and put them into the soup; then add all the fat and inside egg and spawn you can get from the lobsters, also the meat out of the tails and claws. Add the green tops only of a large bundle of asparagus, of the sort which they call sprew-grass, previously scalded; a few green peas also are very good. After these ingredients are in, the soup should no more than simmer; and when the herbs are sufficiently tender it is done enough. This soup is not to be clear, on the contrary thick with the lobster, and a perfect mash with the lobster and greens. You are to put in lobster to your liking; I generally put in five or six, at least of that part of them which is called fat, egg, and inside spawn, sufficient to make it rich and good. It should look quite yellow with this. Put plenty of the white part also, and in order that none of the goodness of the lobsters should be lost, take the shells of those which you have used, bruise them in a mortar, and boil them in some of the broth, to extract what goodness remains; then strain off the liquor and add it to the rest. Scoop some potatoes round, half boiling them first, and put into it. Season with red pepper. Put in a piece of nice pickled pork, which must be first scalded, for fear of its being too salt; stew it with the rest and serve it.

White Soup. No. 1

Take two chickens; skin them; take out the lungs and wash them thoroughly; put them in a stewpan with some parsley. Add a quart of veal jelly, and stew them in this for one hour over a very slow fire. Then take out the chickens, and put a penny roll to soak in the liquor; take all the flesh of the chickens from the bones, and pound it in a mortar, with the yolk of three eggs boiled hard. Add the bread (when soaked enough) and pound it also with them; then rub the whole finely through a sieve. Add a quart more jelly to the soup, and strain it through a sieve; then put the chicken to the soup. Set a quart of cream on the fire till it boils, stirring it all the time; when ready to serve, pour that into the soup and mix it well together. Have ready a little vermicelli, boiled in a little weak broth, to throw into the soup, when put into the terrine.

White Soup. No. 2

Have good stock made of veal and beef; then take about a pound of veal, and the like quantity of ham, cut both into thin slices, and put them into a stewpan, with a pint of water and two onions cut small. Set it on the fire and stew it down gently, till it is quite dry, and of a rather light brown colour; then add the stock, and let it all stew till the veal and ham are quite tender. Strain it off into the stewpot; add a gill or more of cream, some blanched rice boiled tender, the quantity to your own judgment, the yolks of six eggs beaten up well with a little new milk: let the soup be boiling hot before the eggs are added, which put to it by degrees, keeping it stirring over a slow fire. Serve it very hot: to prevent curdling, put the soup-pot into a large pot of boiling water, taking care that not the least drop of water gets in, and so make it boiling hot.

White Soup. No. 3

Cut one pound of veal, or half a fowl, into small pieces; put to it a few sweet herbs, a crust of bread, an ounce of pearl barley well washed. Set it over a slow fire, closely covered; let it boil till half is consumed; then strain it and take off the fat. Have ready an ounce of sweet almonds blanched, pound them in a marble mortar, adding a little soup to prevent their oiling. Mix all together. When you send it up, add one third of new milk or cream, salt and pepper to taste.

White Soup. No. 4

Take a knuckle of veal, and put water according to the quantity of soup you require; let it boil up and skim it; then put in three ounces of lean bacon or ham, with two heads of celery, one carrot, one turnip, two onions, and three or four blades of mace, and boil for three or four hours. When properly boiled, strain it off, taking care to skim off all the fat; then put into it two ounces of rice, well boiled, half a pint of cream beaten up, and five or six yolks of eggs. When ready to serve, pour the soup to the eggs backward and forward to prevent it from curdling, and send it to table. You must boil the soup once after you add the cream, and before you put it to the eggs. Three laurel leaves put into it in summer and six in winter make a pleasant addition, instead of sweet almonds.

White Soup. No. 5

Make your stock with veal and chicken, and beat half a pound of almonds in a mortar very fine, with the breast of a fowl. Put in some white broth, and strain off. Stove it gently, and poach eight eggs, and lay in your soup, with a French roll in the middle, filled with minced chicken or veal, and serve very hot.

White Soup. No. 6

Take a knuckle of veal; stew it with celery, herbs, slices of ham, and a little cayenne and white pepper; season it to your taste. When it is cleared off, add one pound of sweet almonds, a pint of cream, and the yolks of eight eggs, boiled hard and finely bruised. Mix these all together in your soup; let it just boil, and send it up hot. You may add a French roll; let it be nicely browned.

The ingredients here mentioned will make four quarts.

White Soup. No. 7

Stock from a boiled knuckle of veal, thickened with about two ounces of sweet almonds, beaten to a paste, with a spoonful of water to prevent their oiling; a large slice of dressed veal, and a piece of crumb of bread, soaked in good milk, pounded and rubbed through a sieve; a bit of fresh lemon-peel and a blade of mace in the finest powder. Boil all together about half an hour, and stir in about a pint of cream without boiling.

BROTHS

Broth for the Poor

A good wholesome broth may be made at a very reasonable rate to feed the poor in the country. The following quantities would furnish a good meal for upwards of fifty persons.

Take twenty pounds of the very coarse parts of beef, five pounds of whole rice, thirteen gallons of water; boil the meat in the water first, and skim it very well; then put in the rice, some turnips, carrots, leeks, celery, thyme, parsley, and a good quantity of potatoes; add a good handful of salt, and boil them all together till tender.

Another

Four hundred quarts of good broth for the poor may be made as follows: – Good beef, fifty pounds weight; beeves’ cheeks, and legs of beef, five; rice, thirty pounds; peas, twenty-three quarts; black pepper, five ounces and a half; cayenne pepper, half an ounce; ground ginger, two ounces; onions, thirteen pounds; salt, seven pounds and a half; with celery, leeks, carrots, dried mint, and any other vegetable.

Broth for the Sick. No. 1

Boil one ounce of very lean veal, fifteen minutes in a little butter, and then add half a pint of water; set it over a very slow fire, with a spoonful of barley and a piece of gum arabic about the size of a nut.

Broth for the Sick. No. 2

Put a leg of beef and a scrag of mutton cut in pieces into three or four gallons of water, and let them boil twelve hours, occasionally stirring them well; and cover close. Strain the broth, and let it stand till it will form a jelly; then take the fat from the top and the dross from the bottom.

Broth for the sick. No. 3

Take twelve quarts of water, two knuckles of veal, a leg of beef, or two shins, four calves’ feet, a chicken, a rabbit, two onions, cloves, pepper, salt, a bunch of sweet herbs. Cover close, and let the whole boil till reduced to six quarts. Strain and keep it for use.

Barley Broth

Take four or five pounds of the lean end of a neck of mutton, soak it well in cold water for some time, then put it in a saucepan with about four quarts of water and a tea-cupful of fine barley. Just before it boils take it off the fire and skim it extremely well; put in salt and pepper to your taste, and a small bundle of sweet herbs, which take out before the broth is sent up. Then let it boil very gently for some hours afterwards; add turnips, carrots, and onions, cut in small pieces, and continue to boil the broth till the vegetables are quite done and very tender. When nearly done it requires to be stirred frequently lest the barley should adhere.

Another

Put on whatever bones you have; stew them down well with a little whole pepper, onions, and herbs. When done, strain it off, and next day take off all the fat. Take a little pearl barley, boil it a little and strain it off; put it to the broth, add a coss lettuce, carrot, and turnip, cut small. Boil all together some time, and serve it up.

Chervil Broth for Cough

Boil a calf’s liver and two large handfuls of chervil in four quarts of spring water till reduced to one quart. Strain it, and take a coffee-cupful night and morning.

Hodge-Podge

Stew a scrag of mutton: put in a peck of peas, a bunch of turnips cut small, a few carrots, onions, lettuce, and some parsley. When sufficiently boiled add a few mutton chops, which must stew gently till done.

Leek Porridge

Peel twelve leeks; boil them in water till tender; take them out and put them into a quart of new milk; boil them well; thicken up with oatmeal, and add salt according to the taste.

Madame de Maillet’s Broth

Two ounces of veal, six carrots, two turnips, one table-spoonful of gum arabic, one table-spoonful of rice, two quarts of water; simmer for about two hours.

Mutton Broth

The bone of a leg of mutton to be chopped small, and put into the stewpan with vegetables and herbs, together with a little drop of water, and drawn as gravy soup; add boiling water.

Pork Broth

Take a leg of pork fresh cut up; beat it and break the bone; put it into three gallons of soft water, with half an ounce of mace and the same quantity of nutmeg. Let it boil very gently over a slow fire, until two thirds of the water are consumed. Strain the broth through a fine sieve, and when it is cold take off the fat. Drink a large cupful in the morning fasting, and between meals, and just before going to bed, warmed. Season it with a little salt. This is a fine restorative.

Potage

Boil a leg of beef, and a knuckle of veal, with a bunch of sweet herbs, a little mace and whole pepper, and a handful of salt. When the meat is boiled to rags or to a very strong broth, strain it through a hair sieve, and when it is cold, take off the fat. With raw beef make a gravy thus: cut your beef in pieces, put them in a frying-pan with a piece of butter or a slice of bacon, fry it very brown, then put it to some of your strong broth, and when it grows browner and thick till it becomes reduced to three pints of gravy, fill up your strong broth to boil with a piece of butter and a handful of sweet herbs. Afterwards a chicken must be boiled and blanched and cut in slices; and two or three sweetbreads fried very brown; a turnip also sliced and fried. Boil all these half an hour, and put them in the dish in which you intend to serve up, with three French rolls (cut in halves) and set it over a fire with a quart of your gravy, and some of your broth, covered with a dish, till it boils very fast, and as it reduces fill up with your broth till your bread is quite soaked. You may put into the dish either a duck, pigeon, or any bird you please; but whichever you choose, roast it first, and then let it boil in the dish with your bread. This may be made a pea soup, by only rubbing peas through a sieve.

Scotch Pottage

Place a tin saucepan on the fire with some boiling water; stir in Scotch oatmeal till it is of the desired consistence: when done, pour it in a basin and add milk or cream to it. It is more nutritious to make it of milk instead of water, if the stomach will bear it. The Scotch peasantry live entirely on this strengthening food. The best Scotch oatmeal is to be bought at Dudgeon’s, in the Strand.

Scotch Broth

Boil very tender a piece of thin brisket of beef, with trimmings of any other meat, or a piece of gravy beef; cut it into square pieces; strain off the broth and put it in a soup-pot; add the beef, cut in squares, with plenty of carrots, turnips, celery, and onions, cut in shapes and well boiled before put to the broth, and, if liked, some very small suet dumplings first boiled. Season it to your palate.

Turnip Broth

Have a sufficient quantity of good strong broth as for any other soup, taking care that it is not too strongly flavoured by any of the roots introduced into it. Peel a good quantity of the best turnips, selecting such as are not bitter. Sweat them in butter and a little water till they are quite tender. Rub them through a tamis, mix them with the broth; boil it for about half an hour. Add half a pint of very good cream, and be careful not to have too fierce a fire, as it is apt to burn.

Another

Put one pound of lean veal, pulled into small pieces in a pipkin, with two large or three middling turnips. Cover the pipkin very close, to prevent water from getting into it; set it in a pot of water, and let it boil for two or three hours. A tea-cupful of the broth produced in the pipkin may be taken twice or thrice a day.

Veal Broth. No. 1

Take ten or twelve knuckles, such as are cut off from legs and shoulders of mutton, at the very shank; rub them with a little salt, put them in a pan of water for two or three hours, and wash them very clean; boil them in a gallon of spring water for an hour. Strain them very clean, then put in two ounces of hartshorn shavings, and the bottom crust of a penny loaf; let it boil till the water is reduced to about three pints; strain it off, and when cold skim off the fat. Take half a pint warm before you rise, and the same in bed at night. Make it fresh three times a week in summer, and twice a week in winter: do not put in any lamb bones. This is an excellent thing.

Veal Broth. No. 2

Soak a knuckle of veal for an hour in cold water; put it into fresh water over the fire, and, as the scum rises, take it off; let it stew gently for two hours, with a little salt to make the scum rise. When it is sufficiently stewed, strain the broth from the meat. Put in some vermicelli; keep the meat hot; and as you are going to put the soup into the terrine add half a pint of cream.

Veal Broth. No. 3

Take one pound of lean veal, one blade of mace, two table-spoonfuls of rice, one quart of water; let it boil slowly two hours; add a little salt.

Veal Broth. No. 4. —Excellent for a Consumption

Boil a knuckle of veal in a gallon of water; skim and put to it half a pound of raisins of the sun, stoned, and the bottoms of two manchets, with a nutmeg and a half sliced, and a little hartshorn. Let it boil till reduced to half the quantity; then pound it all together and strain. Add some brown sugar-candy, some rose-water, and also the juice of a lemon, if the patient has no cough.

FISH

Carp and Tench

Scale the fish, take out the gut and gall; save all the blood. Split the carp if large; cut it in large pieces, and salt it. Boil some sliced parsley roots and onions tender in half a pint of water, adding a little cayenne pepper, ginger, cloves, and allspice, a lemon sliced, a little vinegar, and moist sugar, one glass of red wine, and some butter rolled in flour. Then put in the fish, and let it boil very fast for half an hour in a stewpan. The blood is to be put in the sauce.

Carp, to stew

Scale, gut, and cleanse them; save the roes and milts; stew them in some good broth: season, to your taste, with a bundle of herbs, onions, anchovies, and white wine; and, when they are stewed enough, thicken the sauce with the yolks of five eggs. Pass off the roes, dip them in yolk of egg and flour, and fry them with some sippets of French bread; then fry a little parsley, and, when you serve up, garnish the dish with the roes, parsley, and sippets.

Another way

Have your carp fresh out of the water; scale and gut them, washing the blood out of each fish with a little claret; and save that after so doing. Cut your carp in pieces, and stew in a little fresh butter, a few blades of mace, winter savory, a little thyme, and three or four onions; after stewing awhile, take them out, put them by, and fold them up in linen, till the liquor is ready to receive them again, as the fish would otherwise be boiled to pieces before the liquor was reduced to a proper thickness. When you have taken out your fish, put in the claret that you washed out the blood with, and a pint of beef or mutton gravy, according to the quantity of your fish, with some salt and the butter in which you stewed the carp; and when this butter is almost boiled to a proper thickness put in your fish again; stew all together, and serve it up. Two spoonfuls of elder vinegar to the liquor when taken up will give a very agreeable taste.

Cod, to stew

Cut a cod into thin pieces or slices; lay them in rows at the bottom of a dish; put in a pint of white wine, half a pound of butter, a few oysters, with their liquor, a little pepper and salt, with some crumbs of bread. Stew them all till they are done enough. Garnish the dish with lemon.

Cod, Ragout of

Wash the cod clean, and boil it in warm water, with vinegar, pepper, salt, a bay-leaf, and lemon. Make a sauce of burnt butter, fried flour, capers, and oysters. When you serve it up put in some black pepper and lemon-juice.

Cod’s Head, to boil

Take vinegar and salt, a bunch of sweet herbs, and an onion; set them on the fire in a kettle of water; boil them and put in the head; and, while it is boiling, put in cold water and vinegar. When boiled, take it up, put it into a dish, and make sauce as follows: – Take gravy and claret, boiled with a bundle of sweet herbs and an onion, two or three anchovies, drawn with two pounds of butter, a pint of shrimps, oysters, the meat of a lobster shred fine. You may stick little toasts on the head, and lay on and about the roe, milt, and liver. Garnish the dish with fried parsley, lemon, barberries, horseradish, and fried fish.

Crab, to dress

Take all the body and the meat of the legs, and put them together in a dish to heat, with a little broth or gravy, just to make them moist. When hot, have ready some good broth or gravy, with an anchovy dissolved in it, and the juice of a small lemon, heated; afterwards thicken it up with butter, and stir it in the crab, as it is, hot: then serve all up in the shell.

Crab or Lobster, to butter

The crabs or lobsters being boiled and cold, take all the meat out of the shells and body; break the claws and take out the meat. Shred it small; add a spoonful or two of claret, a little vinegar, and a grated nutmeg. Let it boil up till it is thoroughly hot; then put in some melted butter, with anchovies and white gravy; thicken with the yolk of an egg or two, and when very hot put it into the large shell. Put crumbs of bread over it, and brown it with a salamander.

Crab, or Lobster, to stew. No. 1

A little cayenne, vinegar, butter, flour, and salt. Cover it with water and let it stew gently.

Crab, or Lobster, to stew. No. 2

When the lobsters are boiled, take out the tail and claws, and dip them in white wine; strew over them nutmeg, cloves, mace, salt, and pepper, mixed together. Then pour over them some melted butter with a little white wine in it; send them to the bakehouse, and let them stand in a slow oven about half an hour. Pour out the butter and wine, and pour on some fresh butter; when cold, cover them, and keep them in a cold place.

Crab, or Lobster, to stew. No. 3

Boil the lobsters; when cold take out all the meat; season it well with pepper, salt, nutmeg and mace pounded. Put it into an earthen pot with as much clarified butter as will cover it; bake it well. While warm, take it out of the pot, and let the butter drain from it. Break it as fine as you can with a spoon or knife; add more seasoning if required; put it as close as possible in the pot, and cover with clarified butter. The hen lobsters are best for this purpose, as the eggs impart a good colour. It may be pounded in a marble mortar, but, if baked enough, will do as well without it.

Crawfish, to make red

Rub the fish with aqua vitæ, which will produce the desired effect most completely.

Eels broiled whole

Skin, wash, and dry your eels, and score them with the knife, seasoning them with pepper, salt, thyme, parsley, and crumbs of bread, turning them round and skewering them across; you may either roast or broil them as you like best: the sauce to be melted butter with lemon juice.

Eels, to collar

Scour large silver eels with salt; slit them, and take out the back-bones; wash and dry them; season with shred parsley, sage, an onion, and thyme. Then roll each into collars, in a cloth; tie them close with the heads, bones, and a bundle of herbs, and boil them in salt and water. When tender, take them up, and again tie them close; drain the pickle, and put them into it.

Eels, to fry

Cut every eel into eight pieces; mix them with a proper quantity of yolks of eggs, and well season with pepper, and salt, and bread rubbed fine, with parsley and thyme; then flour them, and fry them. You may cook them as plain as you like, with only salt and flour, and serve them up with melted butter and fried parsley.

Eels, to pot

Into an earthen pan put Jamaica and common pepper, pounded fine, and salt; mix them and strew some at the bottom of the pan; cut your eels and lay them over it, and strew a little more seasoning over them. Then put in another layer of eels, repeating this process till all the eels are in. Lay a few bay leaves upon them, and pour as much vinegar as you may think requisite; cover the pan with brown paper and bake them. Pour off the liquor, cover them with clarified butter, and lay them by for use.

Eels, to pickle

Drain, wash, and well cleanse your eels, and cut off the heads. Cut them in lengths of four or five inches, with their skins on; stew in them some pepper and salt, and broil them on a gridiron a fine colour: then put them in layers in a jar, with bay-leaf, pepper, salt, a few slices of lemon, and a few cloves. Pour some good vinegar on them; tie strong paper over, and prick a few holes in it. It is better to boil the seasoning with some sweet herbs in the vinegar, and let it stand to be cold before it is put over the eels. Two yolks of eggs boiled hard should be put in the vinegar with a tea-spoonful of flour of mustard. Two yolks are sufficient for twelve pounds of eels.