The European cookbook for American homes (from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France)

The country cheese of ewes' milk, known as petits Barrons, comes in a small brick wrapped in a great big vine leaf, and before it leaves home the cheese is well soused with brandy. The mountain cheese Cachat is as strong as Gibraltar, highly seasoned and simply reeling with brandy and white wine. The almond tarts of Aix, honeyed nougats, sweet nut biscuits aux Avelines — but best of all, a watermelon iced, au Vin: Cut out the heart only, in balls, remove all seeds in the remaining hole and fill it two-thirds full of Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine. Put the iced melon balls back into the cavity and eat with the wine sauce. Chateauneuf-du-Pape is fruity and mellow and comes either white or red, though Provence is distinguished for its pink wines, Vin Rosee, forming a class in themselves, but little known outside of France. Tavel is the best of these. The Nicois have the fine wine of Bellet and the excellent petit vins of La Gaude and St. Jeannette. Champagne NECK OF MUTTON SAINTE MENEHOULD (Cous de Mouton Sainte Menehould) i neck mutton 2 sprigs parsley Salt pork 1 sprig thyme % cup butter 1 bay leaf 3 young carrots, sliced Salt and peppercorns 3 medium-sized onions, sliced Seasoned stock 1 leek, sliced 1 egg, beaten Bread crumbs Have butcher trim neck. Split it down the center, chop between vertebrae without cutting the meat, and lard it with salt pork. Melt butter; add carrots, onions, leek, herbs, pepper- corns and salt and slowly fry. When vegetables begin to color lay in the halves of neck and fry, turning often and carefully until vegetables are lightly browned. Have stock boiling hot, and pour on enough to cover. Simmer until tender. Drain well. Brush with egg, sprinkle with crumbs and brown slowly under grill. Remove herbs and peppercorns from liquid. Reduce to a rich sauce. The Cous de Mouton Sainte Menehould is well worth the loving care bestowed on it. The dish is interesting in that three cooking processes go into its making, namely, frying, stewing, and grilling. Many of the recipes of the Champagne district owe their fame to two cooking processes, usually braising or stewing, and baking or grilling. The town of Sainte Menehould has given its name to this class of cooking, the origin of which is obscured in the middle ages. At least two other countries have their twice-cooked dishes from remote antiquity. The Portuguese like their pork fried and then simmered, and the Southern Germans stew the humbler cuts of veal and then bread and bake them. Lyonnais VEAL RQLLS (Veau Roulee) 1 veal steak cut very thin 1 teaspoon minced parsley l/4 cup bread crumbs 1 egg yolk Milk 2 tablespoons butter *4 pound sausage meat 2 bacon slices, minced \\ cup onion, chopped 2 cups meat broth Yz garlic clove, minced l/z tablespoon flour Pound veal until it is % inch thick. Cut in strips 4 inches by 3 inches. Wet crumbs with milk and squeeze dry. Mix together the sausage meat, crumbs, onion, garlic, parsley and egg yolk. Lay a generous portion of this filling across the center of each piece of veal and roll, securing with toothpicks. Heat butter, add bacon, and then veal rolls, and fry until nicely browned. Add hot meat broth and simmer until done, 20-30 minutes. Reduce liquid and slightly thicken with flour. Serve with a dish of mushroom sautes.