The Stag Cook Book: Written for Men by Men

Grease well a deep iron skillet with iron top, the potroast utensil. When the gravy begins to drip add a little water, but not much. The steam makes the meat tender and brings out all the flavors in the little pockets. Baste from time to time just to get the aroma of the simmering mess and sharpen your appetite. Take a little wire and jab it in the roast after about an hour and twenty minutes and you'll find out whether it is tender and juicy enough. Put the big pot on and get your water boiling fast. Add a good sized kitchen spoon of salt. Better salt the [146] .J water to taste. Throw in a pound of Italian made spaghetti . . . the Farina spaghetti. It requires a certain kind of wheat to make good macaroni. Boil for twenty minutes. Drain off water. To the rich gravy you will find the roast swimming in add a small can of tomato paste, stirring in slowly. As this is poured over the spaghetti add grated Roman cheese. You will get it all properly dressed by using two forks, lifting and dropping the strands. Serve piping hot with an automatic revolver at hand so that the man who cuts his can be disposed of promptly. Some twine the spaghetti about the fork. Others just lead a mass of it to the face and bite off what they want at that particular mastication. A good salad and Italian bread, to be secured at any small dealer's where the boss sings Santa Lucia in a thin high voice as he slices the salami, goes well with the roast. This layout will last an old bachelor or a deserted husband two or three days. It's grand when it's warmed up in a boiler. [147] Lxxn F. X. Leyendecker VEAU SAUTE MARENGO During my Paris days (school days) I became very fond of two dishes and they still remain my favorites: No. I — ^Veau Saute Marengo— nothing epicurean about this, but real tasty; a ragout of veal which must be served in a brown pot. It is flavored with tiny onions and mushrooms, olives and a delicious sauce. I have never found it quite so well prepared as in Paris. Fry some small pieces of veal in oil, add one chopped onion, one head of crushed garlic and when it is well brown strain it, add one glass of white wine and reduce. Moisten it with one quart of brown sauce. Add two pounds fresh tomatoes and some fine herbs. Cook slowly for an hour and a half. Put the meat in another pan, add few small onions cooked in butter, some small mushrooms already cooked- Dress and serve on toast fried in butter. No. 2 — ^Vol au Vent Financiere — z, pastry form filled with mushrooms, cubes of chicken, something else, and a good sauce. This also seems not quite the same outside of Paris. [148] VOL AU VENT FINANCIERE Put four ounces of butter in a saucepan, add four ounces of cooked sweetbread cut in three-sixteenth inch squares, small bits of the white of chicken, some truffles, olives, mushrooms, kidney and cock's combs. Moisten with one pint of Madeira sauce, let boil and despumate; when the sauce is done strain it through a tamis, fill your pastry crust and serve. EorroR's Note: — ^The recipes are French, and properly prepared and served, they will prove the real thing in Keokuk as well as in the Quartier Latin. [149] Lxxm Eddie Cantor BOILED BEEF AND HORSERADISH SAUCE I love boiled beef and horseradish sauce — I love it better than any other dish in the world I Anybody knows how to boil beef. And a good horseradish sauce is made in this fashion.