The encyclopædia of practical cookery

of nasturtium-leaves around the edge of the dish, making them overlap each other, then put an inner circle of the flowers, and in that a circle of sliced hard-boiled eggs. Arrange a tuft of flowers and leaves in the centre (see Fig. 577), and serve the salad before the freshness of the Cress has gone off. Cress Vinegar. — Pound joz. of Garden Cress seed, put it in a clean, dry bottle, pour over it 1 pint of the best vinegar, and cork the bottle tightly. Let this stand for ten days, shaking the bottle every day, and when strained off it will be ready for use. German Mode of cooking Watercress. — Wash some Watercress and chop it slightly ; put 2oz. of butter in a stewpan with 2 table-spoonfuls of flour, and stir over the fire until well browned, then pour in gradually f pint of water, and continue stirring over the fire until boiling; season the sauce with pepper, salt, a small quantity of grated nutmeg, and sufficient lemon-juice or vinegar to give it an agreeable acidity. Put in the Watercress, boil it up, then turn it into a dish and serve as a vegetable. Stewed Watercress. — Trim off all the coarse ends of the stalks, and wash the Watercress in plenty of water, then put it into a saucepan of boiling water with a lump of salt, and boil it. When cooked, turn the Watercress into a colander and press out as much of the water as possible ; put a piece of butter, say about ljoz., in a stewpan, melt it, then put in the Cress and dredge it over with a little flour. Stir the Cress over the fire for ten minutes, then pour in i pint of broth, season it with salt, pepper, and a small quantity of grated nutmeg, and boil for ten minutes longer, stirring at the same time. Turn the Watercress on to a hot dish, garnish with croutons of fried bread and halves of hard-boiled eggs, and serve. Watercress Butter. — Wash a quantity of Watercress, pick the best and greenest leaves, and chop them finely, dry them on a cloth, then mince them again ; repeat the drying and mincing twice, then knead them with as much butter as they will take up, seasoning with a very small quantity of salt For details respecting Culinary Processes, Utensils, Cresses — continued. and white pepper. Shape the butter into small pats and keep them in a cool place until ready to use. Watercress Salad. — Procure three bunches of fresh Watercress, clean, and pare off the stalks, wash well, dry in a cloth, place in a salad-bowl, seasoning with ^ pinch of salt, a little pepper, and 2 or 3 table-spoonfuls of vinegar ; mix well, and serve. Watercress salad does not require any oil. CRIMPING. — A mode of finely scoring fish before they are dead, so that the muscular fibres are divided before they become rigid. Skate is usually served in this way when being prepared for boiling ; but some cooks like to crimp cod and salmon. The term is also applied to a fancy marking on pastry. CRIMPING-BOARD. — Very few pastry-cooks would care to make fancy pastry or biscuits without having a Crimping-Board available for their use. Crimping-Boards Fig. 578. Crimping-Board (Mathews and Son). are slabs of wood or iron plates so corrugated (see Fig. 578) that when pastry is rolled upon them in different directions a pattern is given to the surface.