The "Queen" cookery books: Entrees

My Grandmother's Veal Collops. — “ Slice a piece of veal down thinly, and stamp out these slices into rounds the size of a five-shilling piece ; melt a piece of butter the size of four eggs (sic) without allowing it to brown, then lay in the collops, and keep them well stirred with a wooden spoon, taking care to keep them white ; add a little pepper, salt, and very finely minced shallot, and thicken the sauce by stirring in a little flour cooked to a smooth paste in butter, &c. Let this simmer gently to cook the flour. It must not boil, however, or the veal will harden. Have ready fried and drained some rounds of bread, a size smaller than the collops, and lay these in the pan with the meat, &c. Toss it all together over the fire squeezing the juice of half a lemon over it, and serve very hot garnished with tiny rolls of broiled ham/’ Lapereau en Fricassee. — Cut a young rabbit up into neat pieces, scald them well, then drain off all moisture carefully. Make an ounce or so of butter hot in the pan and lay into it the rabbit (well dusting the latter with fine sifted flour) with some washed and dried mushrooms and a bouquet, and let it cook, moistening it from time to time with good stock. Now paint a ring lightly on a silver dish with semiliquid glaze, and on this fix a wall of fried triangular croutons, then lift the rabbit joints and the mushrooms into this ; strain the sauce, add to it a liaison made by beating up the yolk of an egg in two or three spoonfuls of cream, stir it all over the fire to thicken it, but without letting it boil, then pour it over and round the rabbit, and serve very hot. Langue de Bceuf en Pcipillotes. — Slice down into moderately thick slices a good ox tongue (which should have been braised for the purpose and allowed to cool in its braising liquor), cut some heartshaped pieces of white paper, oil them lightly, and lay on half of this paper a thin slice of very fat par-boiled bacon, spread a layer of d’Uxelles mixture on this, then put in a slice of tongue, then more d’Uxelles, and lastly another slice of bacon, and twist up the paper neatly and tightly. Now broil these cases for ten minutes over a clear fire, turning them now and again, and as soon as the paper begins to colour and puff out, serve at once. D'TJxelles Mixture. — Wipe some nice mushrooms and dry them, after rubbing them well all over with lemon juice to keep them white, and mince them with half their bulk of parsley and chives, stir to them some breadcrumbs) not too many, or the mixture will be stodgy) grated and finely sifted, and put it into a pan with salt, pepper, a tiny grate of nutmeg, and about |oz. of fresh butter, moistening it with good gravy or stock till it will absorb no more, and use. Langue a Vltalienne. — Slice a tongue cooked as before, have ready a well-buttered fireproof dish sprinkled with grated cheese, lay on this a layer of peeled and thinly sliced tomatoes, then more cheese, then a layer of tongue, and repeat these layers till the dish is full, finishing with a layer of cheese and white breadcrumbs plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. Put some morsels of butter over the top, and bake a golden brown.