Forcemeat

“ Or the forcemeat may be made of 1 tablespoonful of picked and coarsely-chopped shrimps, breadcrumbs, a teaspoonful of anchovy-essence, 1 tablespoonful of melted butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, and a little milk. When using forcemeat, spread one half of the fish-cake mixture on the tin in the form of a sole, spread the forcemeat in the centre, leaving bare a narrow margin at the sides, cover with the remainder of the mixture, brush over with egg, sprinkle with browned breadcrumbs, and bake in a moderate oven for 35 or 40 minutes. ”

“ The excellence of many simple forcemeats depends largely on flavourings and seasoning. In making them, it is a common error to use too little salt and pepper, and too few flavourings; it is much better to use a small quantity of several kinds than to allow one flavour to predominate. A comparatively large quantity of nutmeg may be used in forcemeat without its presence being detected ”

“ The coarse and unpalatable compounds so constantly met with under the denomination of forcemeat, even at tables otherwise tolerably well served, show with how little attention they are commonly prepared. ”

“ Make a stiff forcemeat from the breast of a fowl or pheasant, or the two breasts of partridge or grouse. Cut some slices of tongue into cutlet shapes. Take some more tongue, pound and pass it through a sieve and mix it with the forcemeat. Season with a little cayenne and mushroom flavour. Butter and fill up some cutlet moulds with the forcemeat, and steam them in the oven. Then turn out the cutlets and place them on a baking sheet. Glaze them and replace them in the oven for a few seconds. Dish up alternately a cutlet of tongue with a cutlet of forcemeat ”

“ About 1⁄2 an hour before serving, knead the remaining oz. of butter and the flour together, stir into the stock, add the other glass of wine, and seasoning if necessary. Make the forcemeat as directed, shape it into small balls, fry in hot butter or fat, and drain well. Pile the pieces of hare on a hot dish, strain the gravy over, arrange the forcemeat balls round the base, and serve the red currant jelly separately. ”

“ American Forcemeat. —Place on the fire in a saucepan for five minutes two very finely chopped onions with an ounce of butter. Soak in [182] water for fifteen minutes the crumbs of a loaf of bread; press out all the water either with the hands or through a cloth, put the crumbs in a bowl with three whole raw eggs, a tablespoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of pepper, a tablespoonful of sage, a large half teaspoonful of nutmeg, three skinned sausages, and a pinch of chopped parsley. Add the cooked onions, and mix well together; use the forcemeat when needed in other recipes. ”

“ Make a forcemeat and sew it into the fish. Rub some dripping over a baking sheet, truss the fish into shape, and lay it on. Rub the rest of the dripping on to a piece of paper, cover the fish carefully, bake in rather a hot oven for half an hour or longer, according to size; take of the paper, dish it, and pour round a nice brown sauce. A fish forcemeat is made with 2 oz cold fish, 1 oz suet, 1 oz bread crumbs well mixed together, with some seasoning and an egg. ”

“ They should be mixed perfectly smooth, and the ingredients thoroughly incorporated. Forcemeat balls must not be larger than a small nutmeg. If for brown sauce, flour and fry them: if for white sauce, put them into boiling water, and boil them for three minutes: the latter are by far the most delicate. Parboiled sweetbreads and tongues are the principal ingredients for stuffing or forcemeat. Besides these, yolks of hard eggs, flour, bread crumbs, boiled onion, mashed potatoe, mutton, beef, veal suet, marrow, calf's udder or brains, veal minced and pounded, and potted meats. ”

“ Detach the shoulders and the legs; do not touch the head; [577] season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with a few drops of brandy, and leave to marinade. With the hare’s liver, some fat bacon, and some truffle parings, prepare a gratin forcemeat. Prepare another forcemeat with the meat of the shoulders and the legs, an equal weight of fat bacon, one egg, a pinch of wild thyme, salt, pepper, spices, and the brandy of the marinade. Rub this forcemeat through a sieve, and add to it the gratin forcemeat, one-half lb. of fat bacon, and five oz. of truffles cut into dice. ”

“ Forcemeat is a matter of taste; if used, it should be pressed lightly inside the hare and the body sewn up with a needle and strong cotton before trussing. Carefully follow the directions given for trussing, then brush the hare all over with warm butter or dripping, cover the back with slices of fat bacon, and tie it down with siring in 3 or 4 places. Roast the hare in front of a clear fire or in a moderate oven from 11⁄2 to 2 hours, basting it very frequently with milk, to which may be added, when economy is not an object, 1 or 2 ozs. ”

“ The above is a fish forcemeat, now seldom used as an integral dish, but still popular as a dressing for fish or as quenelles. The modern fish forcemeat is usually made of raw fish, cream and eggs, with the necessary seasoning. The material is poached or cooked much in the same manner as prescribed by the ancient recipe. ”

“ Instead of cooking the sheep’s trotters in a blanc, braise them; add a little Madeira to their braising-liquor, and cook them thoroughly.
Prepare a forcemeat, consisting of one and one-half lbs. of very fine sausage-meat; three oz. of chopped onions, cooked in butter without colouration, and a large pinch of parsley.
When the trotters are cooked, transfer them to a dish; almost entirely reduce their braising-liquor; add to this two liqueur-glassfuls of burnt brandy, for each ten trotters, and add this reduced braising-liquor to the forcemeat. ”

“ Ingredients.—Hare, forcemeat, a little milk, and butter. To be eaten in perfection, the hare must hang for some time. After it is skinned wash it well, and soak it for an hour in warm water to draw out the blood. Make a forcemeat, wipe the hare dry, fill the belly with it, and sew it up. Bring the hind and fore legs close to the body towards the head, run a skewer through each, fix the head between the shoulders by means of another skewer, and be careful to leave the ears on. Put a string round the body from skewer to skewer and tie it above the back. ”

“ Must have a strong and brisk fire. It must not only be well done through, but be of a nice brown. For the fillet a stuffing of forcemeat made thus: two parts of stale bread-crumbs, one part suet, marrow or fresh butter, a little parsley boiled for a minute and chopped fine, 2 tea-spoonsful of grated lemon peel, a little nutmeg, a very little cayenne and some salt, the whole to be worked to a proper consistence, with yolks of 2 or 3 eggs. ”

“ Press the forcemeat tightly inside the shoulder, and fasten the sides with small skewers. Have ready the meat tin, with a sufficient quantity of boiling water in the lower tin, and in the upper 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of hot fat. Put in the meat, baste well, bake in a hot oven for 10 or 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature by putting in the damper, drawing the fire away, or leaving open the oven door. Baste frequently and bake gently until the meat is done, the time required depending more upon the thickness of a joint than upon its weight ”

“ Make a good veal forcemeat, and after well washing the inside of the wallaby, stuff it, and sew it up. Truss as a hare, and roast before a bright, clear fire, from 11⁄2 to 13⁄4 hours, according to size. ”

“ A hare may be rendered far more plump in appearance, and infinitely easier to carve, by taking out the bones of the back and thighs, or of the former only: in removing this a very sharp knife should be used, and much care will be required to avoid cutting through the skin just over the spine, as it adheres closely to the bone. Nearly double the usual quantity of forcemeat must be prepared: with this restore the legs to their original shape, and fill the body, which should previously be lined with delicate slices of the nicest bacon, of which the rind and edges have been trimmed away. ”

“ With regard to the flavouring ingredients to be used in making these, no precise instructions can be given, because what is disagreeable to one palate is indispensable to another one, therefore, practice alone will teach a cook how to succeed in the art of forcemeat making ”

“ When you get to the joint, take hold of the bone with a cloth and twist it round, and it will come out. The sinews may want cutting here and there. It is much more difficult to take the bone out entire, but it can be done; yet it is seldom needful to take out more than the bladebone. Now make a forcemeat with the following ingredients: 3 oz. breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley, 1 teaspoonful chopped onion, 1 teaspoonful lemon thyme (green, if possible) , a slice or two of lean ham chopped fine, 2 oz. butter, 2 yolks of eggs, a little grated nutmeg, a little salt and pepper ”

“ The points which cooks should, in this branch of cookery, more particularly observe, are the thorough chopping of the suet, the complete mincing of the herbs, the careful grating of the bread-crumbs, and the perfect mixing of the whole. These are the three principal ingredients of forcemeats, and they can scarcely be cut too small, as nothing like a lump or fibre should be anywhere perceptible. ”

“ One pound of fresh suet, one ounce ready dressed veal, or chicken chopped fine, bread crumbs, a little shallot or onion, salt and pepper (white) , nutmeg; parsley and thyme, finely shred.
Beat as many eggs, yolks and whites separately, as will make the above ingredients into a moist paste; roll into small balls, and fry in boiling lard. When of a light brown, take out with a perforated skimmer. Forcemeat balls made in this way are remarkably light, but being somewhat greasy, some persons prefer them with less suet and eggs.—Mrs. ”

“ I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was "mamaliga," and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call "impletata." (Mem., get recipe for this also.) ”

“ Stuff it with any force meat that you like. You remember this morning that we made force meat by chopping a teaspoonful of onion and frying it in a tablespoonful of butter, then putting in with the fried onion a cupful of stale bread soaked in cold water, seasoning with salt and pepper and sweet herbs. I said also that you could add chopped meat, cold meat or eggs, or to make any desired addition to the force meat in the way of seasoning. A little grated cheese in stuffing is very nice. You scarcely will realize what the seasoning is. ”

“ Bass, halibut, or pickerel are the best fish to use for force-meat. Force-meat is often shaped into small balls.
Fish Force-meat II Chop fish finely, or force through a meat chopper. Pound in mortar, adding gradually white of egg, and working until smooth. Add seasonings, rub through a sieve, and then add cream.
Salmon Force-meat Cook milk and bread crumbs ten minutes, add salmon chopped and rubbed through a sieve; then add cream, egg slightly beaten, melted butter, salt, and pepper. ”

“ FORCE-MEAT FOR KREPLECH Chop one pound of beef, soup meat, cold veal, or take lamb chopped very fine, season with one teaspoon of salt, one-eighth teaspoon of pepper, ginger or nutmeg, one-half teaspoon of onion juice, mix with one egg. This force-meat may also be made into balls one-half inch in diameter, roll the balls in flour and cook them in the boiling soup, or fry them in fat. ”

“ Have ready some force-meat balls made of minced veal-suet, grated bread-crumbs, grated lemon-peel, and shred sweet-marjoram,—adding beaten yolk of egg to bind the other ingredients together. Put in the force-meat balls, and stew it slowly a quarter of an hour longer, adding some bits of butter rolled in flour to enrich the gravy. ”

“ Non-nitrogenous food is the best force-producer—it corresponds to the fuel of the steam-engine; the nitrogenous is necessary only to repair the machine. Nevertheless, when force production is specially demanded, the food required is not the force-producer, but the special builder of muscles, the which muscles, according to theory, are not used up and renewed in doing the work. ”

“ When a charge of powder is exploded in the barrel of a gun, it expands in all directions. Of course, the projectile yields to the pressure of the powder gases and is sent kiting out of the muzzle of the gun. But for an instant before the shell starts to move, an enormous force is exerted against the walls of the bore of the gun, and, because steel is elastic, the barrel is expanded by this pressure, and the bore is actually made larger for a moment, only to spring back in the next instant. ”

“ Fish Force-meat I Cook bread and milk to a paste, add egg well beaten, and fish pounded and forced through a purée strainer. Season with salt. A meat chopper is of great assistance in making force-meats, as raw fish or meat may be easily forced through it. ”

“ The power for working the mechanism is obtained from the recoil, which, when the gun is fired, drives the barrel, together with the breech and the other moving parts, some two inches backwards, thus compressing the powerful recoil-spring which lies behind the breech, enclosed in the front part of the stock, and which, after the force of the recoil is spent, expands, and thus drives the barrel forward again into the firing position. ”

“ How to Temper Mainsprings.—If it be a single spring that is to be tempered, heat it carefully or evenly in a fire that is well burned to free it from sulphur, or preferably in a charcoal fire, and when at a light-red heat, harden by plunging it in any animal oil. An iron pan may be used to contain the oil, and any refuse or poor oil that may collect may be used. Lard oil is good, but if oil be wanting, use common lard or even tallow. ”