Pass them now through the wire sieve as with vanilla. you would potatoes, and keep the puree ready. While the chestnuts were stewing, make a custard with half a pint of milk (boiled and cooled), a gill of cream, three whole eggs and two yolks, or omit the cream and use three-quarters of a pint of milk ; sweeten with an ounce of sugar, and work the custard in a basin over a vessel containing hot water till it is rich and creamy. Cool it as soon as it is ready. In the third place make a coffee-cupful of caramel in this manner : — Choose a small glazed earthenware casserole or sugar boiler, put into it a tablespoonful of castor sugar✪ Chestnut Puree, stir this over a low fire till the sugar melts and turns to a rich dark brown syrup, pour this into the mould to form a cap ; let it harden ; mix the puree and custard, pour this in cold, cover the mould, and steam as described for banana pudding. Menu ix., turning out in the same way. Butter the mould well beforehand. Threepennyworth of picked shrimps will suffice for these toasts. Test them, and if too salt put them into a strainer, and pour boiling water over them, then give them a douche of cold 111 • toasts. water, and dry them m a cloth. Prepare the toasts, keep them hot in the mouth of the oven on a drainer, and treat the shrimps as follows : — Melt an ounce of butter in a ^rt?</^-pan, setting it over a low fire, put in the shrimps, turning them about in the 9 FIFTY DINNERS. 114 butter while you dredge over them a little devil seasoning and a dust of mace ; when quite hot, having absorbed some of the butter, arrange them over the hot toasts, pour the butter remaining in the pan over them, and serve as hot as possible. MENU XXV. {Januaty or February.) Potage a la bourgeoise. Petoncles au gratin. Ragout de mouton aux navets. Flageolets a la Flamande. Beignets de bananes au rbum. Croutes au merluche fum^e. A CAPITAL domestic soup can be made out of second boilings and the vegetables used in flavouring the soup of the day before. Take of the former enough for the soup, and put the boiled vegetables into it over the fire just to warm both, and cause them to throw up any grease there may be which should be skimmed off. Then drain and pass the vegetables through the hair-sieve. Now mix over the fire in a saucepan half an ounce of butter, and half an ounce of flour, gradually adding vegetable pulp and stock, and stirring well, until you have exhausted the whole. Let it come to the boil, skim, simmer for ten minutes, and pass through the sieve again. After you have taken the soup off the fire, stir in the yolk of an egg beaten up in a little milk : fried croiitons bread should accompany. For this dish, for which six scallops will be suffi- cient, follow the receipt given for cooking oysters in Menu xi. Understand that they must never but a ”5 FIFTY DINNERS. 1 16

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Pass them now through the wire sieve as with vanilla. you would potatoes, and keep the puree ready. While the chestnuts were stewing, make a custard with half a pint of milk (boiled and cooled), a gill of cream, three whole eggs and two yolks, or omit the cream and use three-quarters of a pint of milk ; sweeten with an ounce of sugar, and work the custard in a basin over a vessel containing hot water till it is rich and creamy. Cool it as soon as it is ready. In the third place make a coffee-cupful of caramel in this manner : — Choose a small glazed earthenware casserole or sugar boiler, put into it a tablespoonful of castor sugar, stir this over a low fire till the sugar melts and turns to a rich dark brown syrup, pour this into the mould to form a cap ; let it harden ; mix the puree and custard, pour this in cold, cover the mould, and steam as described for banana pudding. Menu ix., turning out in the same way. Butter the mould well beforehand. Threepennyworth of picked shrimps will suffice for these toasts. Test them, and if too salt put them into a strainer, and pour boiling water over them, then give them a douche of cold 111 • toasts. water, and dry them m a cloth. Prepare the toasts, keep them hot in the mouth of the oven on a drainer, and treat the shrimps as follows : — Melt an ounce of butter in a stewpan, setting it over a low fire, put in the shrimps, turning them about in the butter while you dredge over them a little devil seasoning and a dust of mace ; when quite hot, having absorbed some of the butter, arrange them over the hot toasts, pour the butter remaining in the pan over them, and serve as hot as possible. MENU XXV. {Januaty or February.) Potage a la bourgeoise. Petoncles au gratin. Ragout de mouton aux navets. Flageolets a la Flamande. Beignets de bananes au rbum. Croutes au merluche fum^e. A CAPITAL domestic soup can be made out of second boilings and the vegetables used in flavouring the soup of the day before. Take of the former enough for the soup, and put the boiled vegetables into it over the fire just to warm both, and cause them to throw up any grease there may be which should be skimmed off. Then drain and pass the vegetables through the hair-sieve. Now mix over the fire in a saucepan half an ounce of butter, and half an ounce of flour, gradually adding vegetable pulp and stock, and stirring well, until you have exhausted the whole. Let it come to the boil, skim, simmer for ten minutes, and pass through the sieve again. After you have taken the soup off the fire, stir in the yolk of an egg beaten up in a little milk : fried croiitons bread should accompany. For this dish, for which six scallops will be sufficient, follow the receipt given for cooking oysters in Menu xi. Understand that they must never but a ”5 1 16

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Chestnut PureeShrimp Toasts

Fifty dinners