FoodNetArchive

Cookery and housekeeping

1882

Page 131 · 4 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1882. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
For this vegetable, as for asparagus, the water ought to be not only hot but boiling ; and both salt and butter should be added to it while it continues to boil. By paying attention to this rule, and by strain- ing quickly, you may avoid the sodden brcken-up heap which is often served as cauliflower. The stalk ought to be cut across twice, thus, x , so as to allow it to cook as quickly as the flowers. Cauliflower au Gratin. This is a popular dish, but English cooks seldom prepare it successfully. To dress this vegetable well it ought to be first thoroughly washed, have a cross x cut in its thick stalk, and then be cooked in perfectly boiling water. Let the head drain, then put it neatly in a dish that will stand the oven, and dust it with grated cheese. Make a white sauce of milk and stock, and get it pretty thick ; stir in grated cheese, and when it is smooth mask the cauliflower with it. Add breadcrumbsCauliflower au Gratin all over the sauce, and put the dish 324 CELERY. in the oven, till the whole has got a bright golden brown, and serve. Scalloped Cauliflower. Boil until tender, clip into neat clusters, and pack, the stems downwards, in a buttered pudding dish. Beat up a cupful of breadcrumbs to a soft paste with two tablespoonsful of melted butter, and three of cream or milk ; season with pepper and salt, bind with a beaten ^ggScalloped Cauliflower^ and with this cover the cauliflower. Cover the dish closely and bake six minutes in a quick oven ; brown in five minutes more, and serve very hot in the dish in which it was baked. Celery a TEspagnole. Select celery which is well grown and not woolly inside ; cut it into lengths of six inches, and blanch in boiling water. Line a stewpan with slices of bacon ; place the celery on these ; mix together four table- spoonsful of 'espagnole' and the same quantity of brothCelery a la Espagnole. Simmer for three-quarters of an hour. Place the celery in the proper dish, remove the grease from the sauce, and pour it round the celery. Turnip-rooted Celery. (Celeri rave.) This is a kind of celery particularly suited to stewing. Care must be taken to wash thoroughly, so as to get rid of any earthy matter which adheres CARDOONS. 325 to the celery ; the leaves are to be cut off about an inch from the root, and when the root has become large, as it does by midwinter, it may be necessary to divide it into quarters. It is to be blanched in boiling water, which is salted. Then let it drain till no more liquid runs away. Simm.er in a rich sauce, allowing the sauce to reduce with the celery in it, dress neatly in a deep dish and send up the sauce round it. As in the case of cardoons, the sauce must be of the consistency of cream. As turnip-rooted celery is not much cultivated in England, it may be useful to add, that it is sown and grown like the more common kind of celery, but it does not require to be earthed up, and it is less liable to suffer from frost. It can be used as early as October. Cardoons. This excellent vegetable is little known in England.^ The Spanish cardoon is the best sort to grow. The stem of the leaf is the part eaten. It must be white, firm, and as thick as a finger when dressed. The inferior kind shrinks to the size of a pencil, and is stringy.