Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Roots, Essence of (maigre). — Clean three bunches of carrots, two of turnips, six heads of celery, two bunches of white onions, and one of leeks, the whole sliced, and boiled for two minutes in boiling water ; cool them afterwards in cold water, then drain, and put them in a stock-pot with ten quarts of boiling water, add an onion with two cloves, a little salt, pepper, nutmeg grated, and butter; simmer them for three hours over a slow fire, skim off all the butter, and strain the essence through a silk sieve. This stock, not being coloured, is adapted for sauces and soups that are to bo white, but has less flavour than that described in the preceding recipe. Roots, Macedoine of. — Take some button onions, peel them ; some carrots as red as you can get them, and some nice young turnips. Pare off the outer red part of the carrot, having first scraped and cleaned them thoroughly, and cut the parings into bits about the size of peas ; do so also with the turnips, but leave the onions whole. Frj' the onions and turnips in a good lump of butter and a tea-spoonful of sugar, but the caiTots require more dressing, and should be stewed previously in water for about ten or fifteen minutes, when they may be fried with the rest. Toss aU the vegetables well in the butter until the}- are glazed but not burned. Add a cupful of bechamel maigre and stew, with a proper seasoning of salt and pepper, until the macedoine has acquired a rather thickish consistency and the sauce is reduced. To thicken, add the yolk of an egg beaten up with two table-spoonfuls of cream. Stir in the thickening when ready to serve, and when the heat has gone oft' a little, or it will curdle and spoil the saucee. If not required for a maigre dish, use bechamel made with meat, but in every other respect proceed as before directed. Time, fifteen minutes to stew the carrots ; to fry, five or six minutes. Probable cost of bechamel maigre, per pint, 6d. This dish is mostly used as a maigre dish. Roots, Pickled. — To pickle roots— such as beetroots, carrots, salsifis, &c. — slice them, boil them in vinegar for a short time, and flavour with the usual spices. They should not, of course, be boiled sufficiently long to destroy their crispness. Roquefort Cheese. — The celebrated cheese of Rovergue, known under the name of Roquefort cheese, was made in the seventeenth century in the following way, according to Marcorelle: — "The curd employed is made from sheep's milk mixed with a little goat's milk. It is broken as small as possible. "When it is taken from the moulds it is bound with a linen band and taken to the drying-room, then to the caves, where it is rubbed with salt on the two flat sides of the surface. The dovmy substance which subsequently covers the crust is frequently scraped off, after which it is left to ripen on tablets exposed to currents of air which proceed from the interstices of the rocks in which the caves are formed." Rose Brandy, for Flavouring Cakes and Puddings. — Fill a bottle with freshlygathered rose-leaves, and shake them down. Poui' brandy over them to cover them, cork the bottle closely, and store the infusion for use.