The century cook book

Spinach, with Eggs Boiled Soft. Spinach, although a vegetable common to all countries, is nevertheless highly appreciated, and well deserves to be so. The spinach, represented by the drawing, is prepared with butter, thickened and garnished alternately with eggs boiled soft, and bread croutons, cut in a crescent shape, fried in butter, and glazed with the paste-brush. But few cooks prepare spinach well; and yet there is nothing simpler than the cooking of this vegetable. If prepared with cream or gravy, the spinach previously must be blanched, but in plenty of liquid, and on a very brisk fire; thus it preserves its nice color without Artistic Cookery 221 however boiling too long. When well drained, the water carefully pressed out, it is chopped, and plunged into hot melted butter, cooked a la noisette; which means, giving it a fine hazel, light brown color. The dampness of the vegetable having dispersed, it is seasoned, and thickened with reduced good Bechamel sauce. The sauce may be short, and yet the spinach be reduced again, for a few minutes only, with the sauce. Then the spinach is removed from the fire, and finished with a piece of .good butter. If the spinach is prepared with gravy, it is slightly floured, after being well warmed in the hazel butter ; or else it is thickened with a brown sauce well reduced, and is boiled for a few minutes more, to take consistence by being mixed with a little succulent gravy, or rather some good half-glaze; at the last moment, it is finished with a piece of good butter. Cauliflower, -with Dutch Sauce. Previous to cooking cauliflowers, they are divided, trimmed if large; then they are boiled, either in salt water or steam, well drained and arranged in a dome-like fashion on a folded napkin. To give this dome a more regular shape, the cauliflowers can be placed beforehand in a dome-mould, and then turned out on the napkin. Cauliflowers generally are accompanied with either Dutch sauce, or butter sauce, or even with a good cream sauce. In Germany cauliflower is served with the same sauce that is applied to asparagus; some bread crumbs fried in butter. For the preparation of this sauce, half a pound of good butter is melted; when warm, two handfuls of grated white bread crumbs are added to it, and a little salt. The preparation is boiled, and for three minutes stirred continually; then the stewpan is removed onto a moderate fire. Five minutes afterward, the sauce may be served. Asparagus Heads, a La Duchesse. In this case, the asparagus are selected of equal length, scraped at the 222 Artistic Cookery lower ends; then from the tender part, pieces one to one and one-half inches long are cut off. The asparagus is boiled in salt water or steam on a brisk fire, and done to the moment. When well drained, they are placed in a flat stewpan, with good butter, then seasoned, and moistened with a little good sauce, such as Bechamel. Then they are taken off the fire, and bound with a preparation of a few yolks of eggs, finished with a piece of butter. When dished up, they are surrounded with a garnish of Brussels sprouts, baked without sugar; which, when taken out of the oven, have to be sprinkled with a little Parmesan.