The complete cook book

Pare, core, and quarter six or eight tart apples. Make a syrup with one cup of sugar, two-thirds of a cup of water, and a little lemon peel. When boiling, add the apples, and cook carefully two or three minutes, till they are just tender, but not broken. Remove them carefully, boil the syrup down a little, and strain it over the apples. Cook them in granite or porcelain pans, and use a wooden spoon. COMPOTE OF APPLES. Make a syrup with one cup of sugar, one cup of water, and a square-inch of stick cinnamon. Boil slowly for ten minutes, skimming well. Core and pare eight or ten tart apples ; cook till nearly done in the syrup. Drain, and cook them a few minutes in the oven. Boil the syrup till almost like a jelly. Arrange i8o The Complete Cook Book. the apples on a dish for serving. Fill the core cavities with jelly or marmalade. Pour the syrup over them. Put whipped cream around the base, and garnish the cream with jelly. BAKED APPLES. Core and pare sour apples. Put them in a shallow earthen dish, fill the cavities with sugar, mixed with grated lemon rind ; add water to cover the bottom of the dish. Bake in a very quick oven till soft, basting often with the syrup. FRIED APPLES FOR FRIED PORK. Wash large apples without peeling ; slice them and fry them in pork fat that is very hot and sprinkle a little brown sugar over them. GREEN PEA SAUCE. Cook for ten minutes in a double boiler one cupful of milk, one-half teaspoonful of chopped onion and one teaspoonful of chopped parsley ; melt one teaspoonful of butter, add a tablespoonful of flour and the hot milk a little at a time. Strain back into the double boiler; add one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of white pepper and one cupful of cold cooked peas. Just before serving add to the sauce the beaten yolk of an egg and cook for one minute. CHICKEN SAUCE. Cut up two tender chickens ; put three ounces of butter in a stewpan, and toss your chickens in it, sprinkle with flour, and moistened with hot white stock, or water if you have none. Season with salt, white pepper, mushrooms, twelve tiny pickling onions, and a bouquet of herbs. Let it simmer for one hour and a half. Take the stewpan off the fire, take out the bouquet, and crush the onions to atoms; beat up two yolks of eggs with two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice; mix it up with the gravy, and stir the whole together. Beforehand take a good-sliced baker's loaf, cut off the top The Complete Cook Book. i8i carefully, remove the crumb; then in the cavity you place the chicken, gravy and all. Put back the top you had cut off to empty the loaf of its crumb, and let the whole become perfectly cold before you either eat or pack it in the hamper, so that the crust may be very crisp. THICK CREAM SAUCE FOR CROQUETTES AND PATTIES. One pint hot cream, two even tablespoonfuls butter, four heaping tablespoonfuls flour, or two heaping tablespoonfuls cornstarch, one-half teaspoonful salt, onehalf saltspoonful white pepper, one-half teaspoonful celery salt, a few grains of cayenne. Scald the cream. Melt the butter in a granite saucepan. When bubbling, add the dry cornstarch. Stir till well mixed. Add one-third of the cream, and stir as it boils and thickens. Add more cream, and boil again. When perfectly smooth, add the remainder of the cream. The sauce should be very thick, almost like a drop batter. Add the seasoning, and mix it while hot with the meat or fish. For croquettes, one beaten egg may be added just as the sauce is taken from the fire; but the croquettes are whiter and more creamy without the egg. Form patties, warm the meat or fish in the sauce, and use the egg or not as you please. BREAD SAUCE— FOR GAME.