The "Queen" cookery books: Entrees

else boned, stuffed with any delicate forced meat and braised, then served as Ballotines de Yolaille (a very high class and delicate little entree) on a bed of nicely mashed potatoes, chicken farce, or mushroom puree, as you please ; the rest of the flesh carefully picked from the bones and finely chopped, answers capitally for quenelles, souffle's, &c., whilst the bones will serve as a foundation for the Supreme sauce, or can be utilised in the stock pot, so that no part of the fowl is wasted. Any bird, game or otherwise, can be used in the same way. For lesser birds, such as pigeons, quails, &c., two other recipes are also followed. For the first, usually known as cutlets, the birds are boned (with the exception of the feet and leg bones), halved, seasoned to taste with pepper, salt, and mushrooms, chives, herbs, or spice according to the use they are to be put to, then fried or sautes in plenty of butter from three to five minutes, after which they are placed between two plates lightly weighted, and then left till cold. They are then masked with a layer of suitable farce, carefully smoothed over with a hot wet knife, brushed over with unbeaten white of egg, wrapped neatly in a piece of poi-k caul, again brushed over with white of egg, and cooked in a buttered baking dish under a buttered paper in a moderate oven for twelve or fifteen minutes, according to the size of the bird. Many cooks, after spreading these cutlets with the farce, dip them into whole beaten up egg, then into freshly grated and very white bread crumbs, and fry them in plenty of clean boiling fat till of a delicate golden brown ; they can then be served with any garnish or sauce to taste. The other method of using the smaller birds when they are boned, stuffed, cooked, pressed, and sliced is only adapted for chaufroix, and will be given under that heading. Hares and rabbits can be filleted by cutting out the strip of meat lying alongside the backbone on both sides exactly as described for filleting fowls, and if well larded these make a very pretty dish, whether served in rounds as Grenadins or Medaillons or in long narrow strips as Filets or escalopes. The little under fillet, answering to the sirloin in beef, to be found under the ribs of both hare and rabbit, and known in France as filets mignons, is superior to the fillet proper, but is unluckily as diminutive as it is dainty. All fillets or cutlets made from brown meat, whether flesh, or fowl, can be marinaded, and this when the meat is dry, as it is especially with hares and venison, will be found a great improvement.* For beef the commonest form of marinade is that previously given for mutton cutlets, and is made with four parts of salad oil to one of vinegar, with the addition of a small shallot or onion sliced, a bay leaf, four or five cloves, eight or ten peppercorns, a saltspoonful of salt, a good strip of thinly pared lemon rind, and a spray or two of parsley and thyme, or marjoram, to every gill of salad oil; needless to say this can be varied by changing the proportions of the herbs and spice. A very nice marinade for giving a venison taste to mutton can be prepared as below (but for this the meat, which