The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

In adding small scallops of sweetbread to the financiere ragout the cook must first parboil the sweetbread and throw it into cold water. The sweetbread must then be very carefully trimmed, and every particle of skin removed. It will also be found sometimes more economical to add small scallops of the white meat of a fowl or a turkey, as well as some quenelles of forcemeat. Financiere ragout is sometimes served by itself, in which case an equal quantity of sweetbread can be added to it. It is also often used to garnish, other dishes. For instance, fillet of rabbit larded is sometimes surrounded by financiere (i la Toulouse, salmi of partridge is garnished with financiere ragout. One of the most popular forms in which financiere is served, as well as financiere a la Toulouse, is that of a vol-au-vent. The vol-au-vcnt is simply a very large pate made of rich light puff-paste. I will not here enter into a description of how to make puffpaste, but I would strongly recommend housekeepers who live in the neighbourhood of a good pastrycook, especially if ,the pastrycook is a French one, to always instruct the cook to order the vol-au-vent case as well as pate cases ready made. They will be found to be far cheaper and far better than it is possible to make them at home. It is in filling the pate cases that the pastrycook invariably fails, not in making the pastry. I have already explained how to make rich brown gravy to be added to financiere ragout. I wull now endeavour to give directions how to make a bechamel sauce to be added to the ragout a. la Toulouse. Many cooks recommend instead of bechamel sauce another sauce known as Sauce Supreme. Bechamel sauce is simply a good clear stock mixed with an equal quantity of boiling cream. Sauce supreme is made as follow's : — Take say a pint of rich clear stock and a pint of boiling cream. Instead of adding the stock as it is, it must be allowed to boil away on the Are till it is almost reduced to a glaze. The boiling cream is then added. Of course, sauce supreme is richer than ordinary bechamel. Whenever boiling cream is used the cook should always boil two or three bay-leaves in the cream. It is of great importance that the cream should be boiled separately and the stock not added until it has boiled by itself. For the. sake, however, of those housekeepers whose incomes may be said to be limited, I will give directions how to make very good bechamel sauce without cream. Take a pint of really good stock, and have ready a pint of good milk. The milk must be really good, because if it has been diluted the result will be a failure. Then let the cook boil away the stock till it is reduced to about one-fourth of its original quantity, and add the boiling milk. In making ragout a la Toulouse I would recommend as follows : — Make bechamel sauce as I have described, by mixing a pint of reduced clear stock with a pint of boiling milk, and then add afterwards a small quantity of cream ,. say a quarter of a pint. In making this delicious dish it is well worth incurring this extra expense. Ragout, whether financiere or a la Toulouse, should be made hot in an enamelled saucepan, and poured into the empty vol-au-vent case.