My best 250 recipes

Pare eight large, soft, ripe peaches; cut them in halves. Put aside twelve halves and mash the remaining quantity; add to them the yolks of two eggs, half a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of butter, melted, half a teaspoonful of salt, and one cupful and a half of flour that has been sifted with a rounding teaspoonful of baking powder ; beat for a moment, and fold in the wellbeaten whites. Put a layer of the batter in the bottom of custard-cups, put on top of each half a peach, cover with two tablespoonfuls of batter, dust with granulated sugar, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Turn from the cups and serve hot with hard sauce or a pitcher of cream. My Best 250 Recipes 105 FISH AND MEAT IN THE CHAFING-DISH CHICKEN A LA CREME Boil a four-pound chicken until tender ; when cold remove the skin and cut the flesh into blocks. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour in the chafing-dish; mix with one pint of milk; stir until the sauce thickens; add the chicken, a level teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, and, if you have it, a teaspoonful of soy ; stir until the chicken is thoroughly covered with the sauce. Heat, and serve from the dish. FRICASSEE OF DRIED BEEF Pull the dried beef apart in tiny pieces, cover it with boiling water for fifteen minutes, and drain perfectly dry. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in the chafing-dish ; when hot sprinkle in the beef ; stir and cook until the meat is thoroughly heated. Sprinkle over a tablespoonful of flour, and add half a pint of milk. Stir constantly until the mixture boils ; add a dash of pepper, and, if you have it, half a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet. Stir constantly, and serve at once. SWEETBREADS AND CANNED MUSHROOMS Boil the sweetbreads carefully for threequarters of an hour; pick them apart, rejecting the membrane. Drain and chop fine one can of io6 My Best 250 Recipes mushrooms; mix them together and let them stand in the refrigerator for an hour or two. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour in the chafing-dish ; add a pint of milk, stir until the sauce thickens; add the sweetbreads and mushrooms, a level teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. Serve when hot. Chicken may be cooked after the same fashion. DUCK A LA BORDELAISE Roast a duck and cut it in blocks ; to one pint of these blocks use a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and half a pint of stock. Put the butter and flour in the chafing-dish, add the stock, stir until boiling. Add the duck and a teaspoonful of mushroom ketchup, half a can of mushrooms, a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet and a teaspoonful of onion juice. When hot add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and serve. Turkey or chicken may be substituted for the duck. LOBSTER A LA NEWBURG Boil a good-sized lobster; when cold remove the meat and cut in cubes of about one inch. Hard-boil three eggs. Put the yolks through a sieve ready for use ; put into the chafing-dish one tablespoonful of butter and one of flour ; mix ; add My Best 250 Recipes 107 two-thirds of a cupful of good milk or cream; add a little of this sauce, when it has thickened, to the yolks of the eggs ; rub to a paste, mix them with the sauce; add half a teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of white or black pepper and about half a saltspoonful of grated nutmeg or a drop of extract of ,nutmeg. This sauce should be thick and have the general appearance of mayonnaise dressing. Add the lobster. When hot it is ready to serve. SCALLOPS A LA POULETTE