Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury

“ Mix half a pint of cream and two eggs with flour into a stiff batter, put in a glass of wine or brandy, a little lemon-peel, shred very fine, two ounces of powder-sugar: mix it well up, and then put in the apples. Have a pan of hog’s lard boiling hot; put in every slice singly as fast as you can, and fry them quick, of a fine gold colour on both sides; then take them out, and put them on a sieve to drain; lay them on a dish, and sprinkle them with sugar. For fritters be careful that the fat in which you fry them is quite sweet and clean. ”

“ Many capital cooks will be found for great feasts and festivals, but very few for every-day service, because this is not "eye-service," but the service of principle and duty. Few, indeed, there are who will take equal pains to make one delicate dish, one small exquisite dinner, for the three hundred and sixty-five days in the year ”

“ Taking as much suet as meat, shred it small; then beat it in a mortar; season with pepper, salt, shred herbs, a little shred onion, and a little allspice. Put in an egg or two, according to the quantity. Make balls, and fry them in good dripping; keep them warm. Then fry your collops with clarified butter, till they are brown enough; and, while they are warming in the pan, put in your sauce, which must be made thus:—have some good glaze, a little white wine, a good piece of butter, and two yolks of eggs. Put your balls to the collops; flour and make them very hot in the pan ”

“ Roast a large turkey till it is brown; cut it in pieces; put it into a marble mortar, with some ham, parsley, chives, mushrooms, a handful of each, and a crust of bread; beat them up into a paste. Take it out, and put it into a deep stewpan, with a pint of veal broth; stir it all well together; cover it, and set it over the stove; turn it constantly, adding more veal broth. When thoroughly dissolved, pass it through a hair sieve, and keep it for use. It will give any sauce a fine flavour; but cullises are generally used for the sorts of meat of which they are made. ”

“ Put into a stewpan a bit of butter, with two onions sliced, a carrot, a parsnip, a little thyme, laurel, basil, two cloves, two shalots, a clove of garlic, parsley, and scallions; turn the whole over the fire till it is well coloured; then shake in some flour, and moisten it with some broth, a spoonful of white wine vinegar, and a squeeze of a lemon, and strain it through a sieve, adding a little cayenne and salt. It is good with every thing. ”

“ Scald the brains, and cut them in four pieces; rub them with yolk of egg, then let them be crumbed, with the same crumbs and herbs as the head was done with, and fried a light brown; lay them round the dish with a few slices of bacon or ham fried. The brains may be done, to be sent up alone on a plate, as follows:—Let the brains be washed and skinned; let them be boiled in broth, about twenty-five minutes; make a little white sauce of some butter, flour, salt, a little cream, and a little good broth ”

“ When the ribs and sirloin are tender, they are commonly roasted, and eaten with their own gravy. To make the sirloin still better, take out the fillet: cut it into thin slices, and put it into a stewpan, with a sauce made with capers, anchovies, mushrooms, a little garlic, truffles, and morels, the whole shred fine, turned a few times over the fire, with a little butter, and moistened with some good cullis. When the sauce is skimmed and seasoned to your taste, put in the fillet with the gravy of the meat, and heat and serve it over the ribs or sirloin. ”

“ Take half a pound of almonds; blanch them, and cut out all their spots: then beat them very fine, in a clean stone or wooden mortar, with a little rose-water, and mix them with one quart of sweet cream. Strain them as long as you can get any out. Take as much fine sugar as will sweeten it, a nutmeg cut into quarters, some large mace, three spoonfuls of orange-flower water, as much rose-water, with musk or ambergris dissolved in it; put all these things into a glass churn; shake them continually up and down till the mass is as thick as butter; before it is broken, pour it all into a clean dish ”

“ When the chickens have been fried lightly, taking care they are not in the least browned, dust a little salt and flour over them; then add some veal jelly to the water in which they were blanched; let them boil about three quarters of an hour in that liquor, skimming off all the butter, and scum very cleanly; then take out the chicken, leaving the sauce or liquor, and lay it in another stewpan, which place in a basin of hot water near the fire. Boil down the sauce or liquor, adding some more veal jelly, till it becomes strong, and there remains sufficient sauce for the dish ”

“ This panada must always be prepared beforehand, in order to have it cold, for it cannot be used warm; when cold, roll it into balls, but let them be small; pound the whole as large as possible in a mortar, for the more they are pounded the more delicate they are. Then break two eggs, and pound them likewise; season with a pinch of cayenne pepper, salt, and spices, in powder. When the whole is well mixed together, try a small bit, rolling it with a little flour, then putting it into boiling water with a little salt; if it should not be firm enough, add another egg, without beating the white. ”

“ Stew the oysters in their own liquor, but do not let them be too much done; beard them; take a table-spoonful of pickled mushrooms, wash them in two or three cold waters to get out the vinegar; then cut each mushroom into four, and fry them in a little butter dusted over with flour. Take three table-spoonfuls of veal jelly, and two spoonfuls of cream; let it boil, stirring all the while; add a small bit of butter. Season with a pinch of salt, and one of cayenne pepper. Throw the oysters, which you have kept warm in a cloth near the fire, into the sauce; see that it is all hot ”

“ Set three ounces of flour of rice over the fire in three quarters of a pint of milk; stir it constantly; when stiff, take it off, pour it into an earthen pan, and stir in three ounces of butter, and a large tea-cupful of cream; sweeten it to your taste with lump sugar. When cold, beat five eggs and two whites; grate the peel of half a lemon; cut three ounces of blanched almonds small, and a few bitter ones with them. Beat all well together; boil it half an hour in small basins, and serve with wine sauce. ”

“ Five pounds of flour dried, six pounds of currants, a quart of boiled cream, a pound and a half of butter, twenty eggs, the whites of six only, a pint of ale yest, one ounce of cinnamon finely beaten, one ounce of cloves and mace also well beaten, a quarter of a pound of sugar, a little salt, half a pound of orange and citron. Put in the cream and butter when it is just warm; mix all well together, and let it stand before the fire to rise. Put it into your hoop, and leave it in the oven an hour and a quarter. The oven should be as hot as for a manchet. ”

“ Every sort of dish requires good sauce, and for every sauce it is absolutely necessary to have a good meat jelly. The following may be depended upon as being excellent: a shin of beef, about eight pounds, rather more than less; a knuckle of veal, about nine pounds; a neck of mutton, about nine pounds; two fowls; four calves’ feet: carefully cut off all fat whatever, and stew over a stove as slowly as possible, till the juice is entirely extracted. This will produce about seven quarts of jelly. No pepper, salt, or herbs of any kind. ”

“ When the meat has taken the salt, wash it in warm water, and put some slices of bacon upon the upper part on that side which is covered with fat, and tie a linen cloth over it with packthread. Let it stew gently five hours, with a pint and a half of red wine, a pint of water, six onions, two cloves of garlic, five carrots, two parsnips, a laurel leaf, thyme, basil, four or five cloves, parsley, and scallions. When it is done, it may be either served up hot, or left to cool in its own liquor, and eaten cold. ”

“ Hack and cut your collops well; season with pepper and salt, and fry them quick of a pale colour in a little bit of butter. Squeeze in a lemon: put in half a pint of cream and the yolks of four eggs. Toss them up quick, and serve them hot.
Collops, to mince.
Chop some beef as fine as possible; the under part of roasted beef without any fat is best. Put some onions, pepper, and salt to it. Then put a little butter in the frying-pan; when it is melted, put in the meat, and stew it well. Add a cupful of gravy; if you have none, water will do. Just before it is done put in a little vinegar. ”

“ When you beat the almonds in the mortar with orange-water, put in by degrees about four spoonfuls of citron water or ratafia of apricots, or, for want of these, brandy and sack mixed together, two spoonfuls of each. The cake must be baked in a tin pan; flour the pan before you put the cake into it. To try if it is done enough, thrust a straw through it, and if the cake sticks to the straw it is not baked enough; let it remain till the straw comes out clean.
Another.
Take twelve eggs, leaving out half the whites; beat the yolks by themselves till they look white ”