It is always extravagant to use up any joint or
poultry, when it can be helped, when bones are
left on the plates. I succeeded some little time ago
in persuading a shockingly bad housekeeper not to
bring up the remains of a large turkey cold. It was
treated instead as follows : — With the assistance of a
small tin of mushrooms, part of it made some Russian
Kromeskies ; another part made a dish of mince ;
some nice slices cut off the remains of the breast were
converted into a capital Mayonnaise ; while the two
36 Common-sense Cookery.
legs — for it was a fine bird, weighing twenty-one
pounds — were devilled, and sent up with some devil
sauce, which I may briefly describe as follows : — Cut
up some young onions very fine, and moisten them
with a very little French vinegar, and boil for about
five or six minutes ; add some cayenne pepper, some
good strong gravy, wine, and anchovy butter, which
latter consists of filleted anchovies pounded very
thoroughly in a mortar with some butter and cayenne.
Any grilled meat, such as a chop, or drumsticks of
fowls, is very much improved by a sauce of this kind.
Of course, the cayenne must be suited in quantity to
the tastes of the eaters. But to return to the turkey :
by treating it in the manner I have described, there
was no waste, all the bones being saved, and the result
was that they made more than half a gallon of stock,
which when cold was a hard jelly.
Another common form of waste is home-made
pastry. I recollect some oyster patties as they were
called, but oyster pies as they really were, being very
nearly as big as cheese-plates, in which the pastry was
so out of proportion to the oyster that the dish was
almost ludicrous, the impossibility of eating even a
quarter of the pastry being self-evident the moment
the pie was cut. I have seen lobster patties made on
a similar principle, in which, when the top was taken
off, the lobster part appeared beneath, something not
I. n r/. /'. I'lxTHA i/a OA Nt. //'.:;.
37
merely in < olour, but in size resembling a red wafer.
Now these dishes are really very extravagant., for th>-
reason that they cost both money ami trouble, am] in
the eti'l no one eaf> them,
A somewhat eo entric form of the “ extravagant of
ignorance" to whieh J have alluded, is that of warm
ing up joints that have been not only cooked before,
but cut. In the first plane, if the joint ut cooked
properly the firtsl day, every one possessing even the
vestige of a palate would surely prefer it cold to being
warmed up and spoilt. The probable reason of
warming up a joint a second day is that the cook
knows of no other way of extricating herself from the
difficulty of sending up cold meat. Such extreme
ignorance is, however, I am pleased to say, rare. /
once knew a case of a loin of mutton which went
through the following awful processes : — hirst it was
roasted, fortunately being a trifle blue ; the second day
it was roasted again, the flavour being of course quite
gone. The awful part remains behind - the rest was
cut into chops, egged and bread-crumbed, and sent up
as cutlets ; and 1, alas ! ate one.
Another instance of waste and extravagance is a
ham which is allowed to get musty. It will be found
that a ham when it first comes up is very popular, but
wait till the middle bone is distinctly visible, and the
fat has a yellow tirig<- and doubtful smell no one will
38
Page 12
Presented as published in 1880. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
It is always extravagant to use up any joint or poultry, when it can be helped, when bones are left on the plates. I succeeded some little time ago in persuading a shockingly bad housekeeper not to bring up the remains of a large turkey cold. It was treated instead as follows : — With the assistance of a small tin of mushrooms, part of it made some Russian Kromeskies ; another part made a dish of mince ; some nice slices cut off the remains of the breast were converted into a capital Mayonnaise ; while the two
36 Common-sense Cookery.
legs — for it was a fine bird, weighing twenty-one pounds — were devilled, and sent up with some devil sauce, which I may briefly describe as follows : — Cut up some young onions very fine, and moisten them with a very little French vinegar, and boil for about five or six minutes ; add some cayenne pepper, some good strong gravy, wine, and anchovy butter, which latter consists of filleted anchovies pounded very thoroughly in a mortar with some butter and cayenne.
Any grilled meat, such as a chop, or drumsticks of fowls, is very much improved by a sauce of this kind. Of course, the cayenne must be suited in quantity to the tastes of the eaters. But to return to the turkey : by treating it in the manner I have described, there was no waste, all the bones being saved, and the result was that they made more than half a gallon of stock, which when cold was a hard jelly.
Another common form of waste is home-made pastry. I recollect some oyster patties as they were called, but oyster pies as they really were, being very nearly as big as cheese-plates, in which the pastry was so out of proportion to the oyster that the dish was almost ludicrous, the impossibility of eating even a quarter of the pastry being self-evident the moment the pie was cut. I have seen lobster patties made on a similar principle, in which, when the top was taken off, the lobster part appeared beneath, something not
[illustration: decorative separator]
merely in colour, but in size resembling a red wafer. Now these dishes are really very extravagant, for the reason that they cost both money and trouble, and in the end no one eats them,
A somewhat eccentric form of the "extravagance of ignorance"" to whieh J have alluded, is that of warm ing up joints that have been not only cooked before, but cut. In the first plane, if the joint ut cooked properly the firtsl day, every one possessing even the vestige of a palate would surely prefer it cold to being warmed up and spoilt. The probable reason of warming up a joint a second day is that the cook knows of no other way of extricating herself from the difficulty of sending up cold meat. Such extreme ignorance is, however, I am pleased to say, rare. I once knew a case of a loin of mutton which went through the following awful processes:—First it was roasted, fortunately being a trifle blue ; the second day it was roasted again, the flavour being of course quite gone. The awful part remains behind - the rest was cut into chops, egged and bread-crumbed, and sent up as cutlets ; and 1, alas ! ate one.
Another instance of waste and extravagance is a ham which is allowed to get musty. It will be found that a ham when it first comes up is very popular, but wait till the middle bone is distinctly visible, and the fat has a yellow tinge and doubtful smell no one will