A guide to modern cookery

Prepare some slices of brown bread, equal in thickness to the toast; but only heat, do not grill them. Spread some horsetadish butter over them, and cover with alternate strips of smoked salmon, caviare, and filleted herrings marinaded in white wine. Now stamp the garnished slices with a sharp fancy-cutter, the shape of which is optional. 322—CRAYFISH TOAST Make the pieces of toast crescented; cover with crayfish butter, deck the edges with a string of softened butter, and garnish with a crayfish’s tail, cut into two lengthwise The two halves of the tail should be placed in the middle of each crescent, close together and with their thickest side innermost. 323—TONGUE TOAST Prepare some slices of crumb of bread, equal in thickness, and toast them. Now garnish with a coating, half as thick as the slices themselves, of mustard butter. Cover the butter with thin slices of very red, salted tongue, and let the butter harden. Stamp out the pieces of toast with a star-shaped fancy-cutter, which should be dipped from time to time in boiling water in order to facilitate the operation. Finally, make a rosette of mustard butter in the middle of each piece of toast. 324—LUCILE TOAST Make the pieces of toast oval, cover with mustard butter, and border their edges with a line of finely chopped and very red tongue. Garnish the middle of each with chopped white chicken-meat, and in the centre drop a pinch of chopped truffle. 325—VARIOUS CAROLINES A These are very small éclairs of pale a choux without sugar. When quite cold, garnish them inside with a purée, either of tongue, fowl, game, or foie gras, &c., then coat them thinly with a chaud-froid sauce in keeping with the purée forming the inside garnish. When the sauce has cooled, glaze it, by means of a brush, with a little cold melted jelly, with a view to making it glossy. N.B.—Carolines are also used as a garnish for certain cold preparations, aspics, &c. 326—CAVIARE AND BLINIS Caviare is undoubtedly the richest and most delicate of hors-d’ceuvres, granted, of course, that it be of good quality and consist of large, light-coloured, and transparent particles. Its price is always high, owing to the difficulty attending its importation. It is served very simply, either in a silver timbale or in its original receptacle, surrounded with ice, and accompanied by a dish of Blinis, whereof the preparation is as follows :— Make a thin paste with one oz. of yeast and one Ib. of sifted flour diluted with one pint of lukewarm milk. Leave this paste to ferment for two hours in a lukewarm atmosphere, and then add thereto one-half Ib. of flour, the yolks of four eggs, a pinch of salt, one-half pint of tepid milk; mix the whole without letting it acquire any body, and finally add the whites of four eggs, whisked. Let the preparation ferment for half an hour, and, when about to serve, cook the Blinis quickly, after the manner of pancakes, in special little omeletpans. Dish them up very hot on a napkin. L 2 Failing fresh caviare, the pressed and salted kind may also be used for hors-d’ceuvres. Some cooks serve finely-chopped onions with fresh caviare, but a worse practice could not be imagined. Fresh caviare, the flavour of which is perfect, does not need any supplementary condiment. 327—-CELERY ‘‘A LA BONNE-FEMME” Take equal quantities of very tender celery sticks and peeled quartered and cored russet apples. Finely mince the celery and apples, season with a mustard-and-cream sauce, and place on a hors-d’ceuvre dish. 328—CELERY A LA GRECQUE Select a few hearts of celery, very equal; trim, wash, and parboil them in acidulated water, as directed under “ artichokes a la Grecque.’’ Prepare the cooking-liquor from the same ingredients, using the same quantities thereof, and cook similarly.