The Brains & Brawn Cookbook - Amazing Recipes Of Yesteryear

By Nigel Woodhead

This extraordinary recipe book will make your eyes water, and, possibly, your mouth! A unique complilation of forgotten & forbidden foods from rare old cook books. Even if you're dubious about the Victorian culinary delights of scrapple or head-cheese, it makes a highly entertaining and often humorous read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: FishesEye
• Release date: Dec 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9781301150496

Book preview

The Brains & Brawn Cookbook - Amazing Recipes Of Yesteryear

Nigel Woodhead

Published by FishesEye Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright 2009 Nigel Woodhead

Discover other titles by FishesEye Publishing at Smashwords.com and at FishesEye.com.

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Reviews and extracts

This book is a load of steaming tripe!

Really Offal…

…throw in a pigeon…remember this is a soup for a convalescent

Every bit of marrow in bones should be scraped out and carefully used. Its taste is more delicate than that of suet, and it can be substituted for butter even in fine cake.

Chitterlings require a great deal of care in their preparation; in fact it must be remarked that the quality depends entirely upon the proper cleansing of the bowels.

MAIDS should likewise be hung one day, at least. May be boiled or fried, or if a tolerable size, the middle may be boiled, and the fins fried. They should be seasoned with Cayenne and salt, then dipped in egg, and covered with crumbs.

Never buy a dead lobster.

An unsatisfied stomach, or one overworked by having to wrestle with food which has bulk out of all proportion to flavor, too often makes its vengeful protest in dyspepsia. It is said underdone mutton cost Napoleon the battle of Leipsic, and eventually his crown. I wonder, now and then, if the prevalence of divorce has any connection with the decline of home cooking?

You will find the calf's head soup the most delicious soup in the cookery.

Collect a pint of blood either from a hare, rabbit or chicken, stir into it a little vinegar to prevent coagulation…

The small cat-fish of our inland lakes and streams are altogether respectable, except in their unfortunate name

Skin, clean, and cut off the horribly homely heads. Sprinkle with salt, to remove any muddy taste they may have contracted from the flats or holes in which they have fed.

Cut off the windpipes and prick the tongues with the point of a trussing needle…

If you can have a tin mould made in the shape of a boar's head your brawn will look well at a Christmas feast.

Take the largest eels you can get, skin and split them down the belly, take out the bones, season them with a little mace…

In Scotland, the head is usually singed with a red-hot iron to remove the wool, but without burning or otherwise injuring the skin.

Wash and quarter three or four good sized squirrels…

The appearance and odor of this stew are so pleasing as often to overcome the prejudices of those who Wouldn't touch an eel for the world ! They look so like snakes!

Let the birds hang as long as they can possibly be kept without becoming offensive…

If people generally knew how nice a calf's heart is, if properly cooked, the butchers would never charge so little as ten cents fo it. In France, the calf's heart and kidneys are considered great delicacies. In America they are often thrown away

Bleed them and save the blood, then wash them in hot water to take off the slime, cut them in pieces…

Scrappel is a most palatable dish. Take the head, heart and any lean scraps of pork, and boil until the flesh slips easily from the bones.

When the tripe is tender, it will be done. A lemon may be sent to table with it.

Epicures take the birds by the legs, and bite them in mouthfuls, beginning at the head. The bones are so small and tender that they can be eaten. Some persons cut the birds in quarters before eating, and do not eat the gizzards; the trail is always eaten.

Scour the head and ears nicely; take off the hair and snout, and take out the eyes and the brains…

The hindquarters and the toddle. of a young bear are the best for roasting. Meat from an old bear should be pickled in vinegar for a few days and then laid in milk for another day before roasting.

Some cooks singe the hair from the feet, etcetera, but this destroys the colour: good souse will always be white.

A great variety of excellent dishes may be made from a sheep's head, which in India, where veal is not so easily procurable, answers all the purposes for mock turtle…

Epicures say you should never take any thing out of a woodcock or snipe. The head of the woodcock is considered a great delicacy.

As a bustard is nearly always tough, it is necessary to hang it up for several days. Pick, singe, draw and clean it well; cut off the pinions, neck and drumsticks; detach the legs from the body as well as the breasts…

An excellent soup can be made of the giblets, that is, heart, liver and neck of chicken, and other fowls, which in city markets are sold separately and very cheap…

Take one dozen lady fingers, put jelly between each and line a pudding dish with them.

Lettuce, greens and celery, though much eaten, are worse than cabbage, being equally indigestible without the addition of condiments. Besides, the lettuce contains narcotic properties.

Before the tongue is salted, the gullet, which has an unsightly appearance, should be trimmed away: it is indeed usual to take the root off entirely, but some families prefer it left on for the sake of the fat.

A smoke-house needs to be kept dark, dry and cool, also well ventilated… Darkness prevents or discourages the maggot-fly. To discourage him still further cover the cut sides of hams and shoulders before hanging up with molasses made very thick with ground pepper.

But fried hogs feet were nearly the best of hog killing. After bling tender , the feet were split lengthwise in half, rolled in sifted cornmeal, salted and peppered, and fried crisp in plenty of boiling hot fat. Served with hot biscuit, and stewed sun-dried peaches, along with strong coffee, brown and fragrant, they made a supper or breaksfast one could rejoice in.

Garlicks, tho' used by the French, are better adapted to the uses of medicine than cookery.

Said a maid to me once : Indeed, mem, I niver see sich another as yersel' for cookin' wild things and innards !"

The wild things to which she referred were quail, woodcock and hare, while the innards of which she spoke with such scorn were sweetbreads, kidneys and brains. I may remark, en passant, that the lower classes seldom like viands most prized by the epicure, and the cooking of them, to be done properly, must be performed by the mistress not the maid unless the

latter be an accomplished cook."

Crane, Ostrich, Peacock, Pelican, or other Large Birds. These birds are seldom eaten. When old, they are tough, and of a disagreeable taste. When young, they are not so bad, and may be prepared like a turkey stuffed or stewed.

Chapters

Introduction

Surprising Soups

Crustaceans and Shellfish

Fishy Stuff

On the Hoof

Pig Out!

Any Old Mutton

Fowl Ideas

Game For a Laugh

Other Lost Delicacies

Peculiar Puddings and Sweets

Vegetables With Caution

Dairy Delights

Sick-Room Feasts

Frogs and Snails… and Turtles

Good Advice

Bibliography

Introduction

All of the recipes in this compilation are taken from recipe books, published in the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia, roughly between the American Revolution and the Great War. From the rough, homestead fare of post-Revolutionary America, to the refined New York hotel cuisine imported by French chefs such as Pierre Blot.

Influenced by immigrant traditions from Old Europe and Asia…

The unifying feature of all these recipes is – for contemporary readers, cooks, and diners, their surprise factor. The bits we throw away or which get recycled as pet food, but which for previous generations were often considered as delicacies, or at the very least as something too good to waste. Species that are either endangered, protected, or just plain off the menu. Not suggesting that you should even try to recreate these latter dishes – though in some cases mock alternative recipes are offered, using easily obtainable substitute ingredients.

Here you will discover how to make your own haggis, chitterlings, head cheese and many more legendary delicacies: Thrush Pudding; and for a festive surprise, why not treat all the family to the spectacular Turkey Gobbler Stuffed With Chestnuts. You will learn the difference between sheep’s head and sheepshead, as well as how to prepare both. And in case you were wondering how to skin a skunk, without tears, all is explained…

Recipes are presented as is, from the original texts, with occasional minor standarization of spelling (rabbets changed to rabbits, muscles to mussels, etc.) to reduce any possible confusion. Page number and recipe references to the original texts have also been removed.

A final word of pertinent advice for all cooks: Cooking is about using your brains (and balls), as well as your brawn!

Saltpetre Caution:

Saltpetre is mentioned in a number of the recipes as a curing or even flavoring agent. At the time it was an important ingredient in gunpowder, and for bomb-making. As such, in the contemporary climate, it is strongly advisable not to attempt to procure it or to produce your own, as it may be hard to explain to the authorities who monitor such things!

Surprising Soups

Pectoral Broth

(A French convent soup, given to delicate nuns.)

Cut up an old fowl and put with the liver, heart, and gizzard, 1 quarts of water, with a handful of marshmallow root and 2 cups of barley, 1 carrot, 3 onions, parsley, thyme, and sweet marjoram. Simmer for 3 hours, strain the broth, pressing the barley through a sieve ; add the yolk of I egg, salt, pepper, and a tablespoonful of rum or brandy. It should be reduced to almost a quart, and is very healing.

Frog Soup (Normandy)

To 1 1/2 quarts of white stock, add 1 1/2 ounces of flour, an onion, parsley, celery, salt, and pepper. Cook it 1 hour, strain and add 1 dozen frogs' legs, fried in butter, and a glass of sherry. Cook 1/2 hour more, add the yolks of 2 eggs, blended with 1 cup of hot milk and a little butter.

Crayfish Bisque. A Creole Dish

Parboil the fish, pick out the meat, and mince or pound it in a mortar until very fine; it will require about fifty crayfish. Add to the fish one-third the quantity of bread soaked in milk, and a quarter of a pound of butter, also salt to taste, a bunch of thyme, two leaves of sage, a small piece of garlic and a chopped onion. Mix all well and cook ten minutes, stirring all the time to keep it from growing hard. Clean the heads of the fish, throw them in strong salt and water for a few minutes and then drain them. Fill each one with the above stuffing, flour them, and fry a light brown. Set a clean stewpan over a slow fire, put into it three spoonfuls of lard or butter, a slice of ham or bacon, two onions chopped fine; dredge over it enough flour to absorb the grease, then add a pint and a half of boiling water, or better still, plain beef stock. Season this with a bunch of thyme, a bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Let it cook slowly for half an hour, then put the heads of the crayfish in and let them boil fifteen minutes. Serve rice with it.

Lake and Pond Fish Soup

For every person take a pound each of pike, perch, roach, dace, gudgeon, carp and tench, eels, or any fresh water fish that can be obtained; wash them in salt and water, and stew them with a tomato, carrots, leeks, fried onions, and sweet herbs, in as much water as will cover them; and let them stew until the whole is reduced to a pulp; then strain the liquor, and boil it for another hour until it becomes quite smooth. Then have ready some roots of any sort that may be in season, which have been chopped small, and boiled either in milk or water: add them to the soup, and let it simmer for 15 minutes; season it, if milk has been used, with mace and celery, with a little Cayenne; but if made solely with water, then use Chili vinegar, soy, mushroom ketchup, or any of the savory sauces.

Cat-Fish Soup

Few persons are aware into what a variety of tempting dishes this much-abused fish can be made. Those who have only seen the bloated, unsightly creatures that play the scavengers about city wharves, are excusable for entertaining a prejudice against them as an article of food. But the small cat-fish of our inland lakes and streams are altogether respectable, except in their unfortunate name.

6 cat-fish, in average weight half a pound apiece.

1/2 lb. salt pork.

1 pint milk.

2 eggs.

1 head of celery, or a small hag of celery-seed.

Skin and clean the fish and cut them up. Chop the pork into small pieces. Put these together into the pot, with two quarts of water, chopped sweet herbs, and the celery seasoning. Boil for an hour, or until fish and pork are in rags, and strain, if you desire a regular soup for a first course. Return to the saucepan and add the milk, which should be already hot. Next the eggs, beaten to a froth, and a lump of butter the size of a walnut. Boil up once, and serve with dice of toasted bread on the top. Pass sliced lemon, or walnut or butternut pickles with it.

Catfish Soup, No. 2

An excellent dish for those who have not imbibed a needless prejudice against those delicious fish.

TAKE two large or four small white catfish that have been caught in deep water, cut off the heads, and skin and clean the bodies; cut each in three parts, put them in a pot, with a pound of lean bacon, a large onion cut up, a handful of parsley chopped small, some pepper and salt, pour in a sufficient quantity of water, and stew them till the fish are quite tender but not broken; beat the yelks of four fresh eggs. add to them a large spoonful of butter, two of flour, and half a pint of rich milk; make all these warm and thicken the soup, take out the bacon, and put some of the fish in your tureen, pour in the soup, and serve it up.

Cat-Fish Chowder

Skin, clean, and cut off the heads. Cut the fish into pieces two inches long, and put into a pot with some fat pork out into shreds--a pound to a dozen medium-sized fish, two chopped onions, or half a dozen shallots, a bunch of sweet herbs, and pepper. The pork will salt it sufficiently. Stew slowly for three-quarters of an hour. Then stir in a cup of milk, thickened with a tablespoonful of flour; take up a cupful of the hot liquor, and stir, a little at a time, into two well-beaten eggs. Return this to the pot; throw in half a dozen Boston or butter crackers, split in half; let all boil up once, and turn into a tureen, Pass sliced lemon, or cucumber pickles, also sliced, with it. Take out the backbones of the fish before serving.

Oyster and Peanut Soup

Take half a pound of shelled and roasted peanuts, well pounded. Add two spoonfuls of flour, mix well, boil a pint of oyster water and mix with the peanuts and flour, let it thicken slowly for fifteen minutes, stirring all the time. Add a pint of oysters and let them cook five minutes. Flavor with salt, red and black pepper.

Tripe Soup With Dressing

[ISHGAMREH TCHORBA TERBIEHLI.]

Ingredients:

Stock .............................................. for 10 plates.

Tripe ...................................... 1 pound, well cleaned.

Chick Pea ....................................... 2 tablespoonfuls.

Wheat Starch ................................... 1/2 tablespoonful.

Eggs ........................................................... 2.

Lemon .......................................................... 1.

Garlic ........................................... 4 bulbs, peeled.

Salt and red pepper, to taste.

Method:

Take the well-cleaned tripe, chop in very small pieces and boil well in broth with the chick peas (which must have been soaked in plain water for 10 to 12 hours) and garlic. Skim the scum off and season to taste when it comes to a boil. When done, break the eggs in a separate plate and beat well with the juice of the lemon, for dressing.

Then take the starch, soak in a little water and blend with the mixture of the egg and the lemon juice, also with some of the soup. Care should be taken that during the blending, the egg may not get curdled. Serve hot.

Calf’s Head Soup

Let the butcher open the head wide. Take the brains from it and lay into clean water with a little salt. Leave the tongue in the head when put on to boil; when the tongue is tenderly boiled or done, take it out of the pot and let it get cold for making tongue salad. Two gallons of water to a calf's head; boil to one gallon; strain it off clear for soup to one dozen guests. Take two quarts of this liquid and put to boil; two tablespoonfuls of flour and brown it; one tablespoonful of butter; rub into the brown flour till it comes to a cream, then add to the soup gradually, and stir well while adding. Season with salt and pepper, and a little red pepper. While cooking, boil a small piece of thyme and the half of an ordinary sized onion tied tight in a clean linen rag, and to be taken out of soup when done. One teaspoonful of mustard mixed with one tablespoonful of wine, to be put into the tureen before pouring in the soup hot, also one glass of sherry wine. Pick all skin from brains; beat two eggs light and add to the brains, then beat the eggs and brains together to a batter; take one-quarter tea cup of powdered cracker, one tablespoonful of flour added to the brains and egg batter well beaten together. Then make this brain batter in cake the size of a hickory nut, and fry them brown in hot fat just before taking up soup, and send to table on separate dish. Serve them with the soup, two cakes to a plate of soup.

P.S.--Chop parsley very fine, and boil it into the soup. You will find the calf's head soup the most delicious soup in the cookery. Study the recipe and remember it well.

Calf’s Head Soup, No. 2

(Recipe of the Hotel Star and Garter, Richmond, England.)

Parboil and bone a calf's head. Put the bones and the meat, cut up, in 4 quarts of water with 1 ounce of flour, salt, pepper, a bayleaf, some parsley, a clove, 1 carrot, and 1 onion. Cook 4 hours, take out the bones, cut the meat into dice, strain the soup, add the meat, 3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced, 1 dozen poached forcemeat balls, made of some meat, bread-crumbs, herbs, and egg, 1 glass of sherry and 1 lemon, cut in slices. Serve at once, hot.

Veal Sweetbread Soup

Prepare the sweetbreads, cut into small cubes and lightly brown in butter and flour. Cook for a short time in veal broth, salt slightly and stir with some finely chopped parsley or mace, and the yolks of eggs. This soup is also good for invalids, but then the seasoning must be omitted and the flour rubbed in a little butter but not browned, and 1/4 of a teaspoouful of extract of beef added to a pint of the soup.

Shin Bone Soup – Rough And Ready

Crack a shin-bone well, boil it in five or six quarts of water four hours. Take half a head of white cabbage, three carrots, two turnips, and three onions; chop them up fine, and put them into the soup with pepper and salt, and boil it two hours. Take out the bone and gristle half an hour before serving it.

Princess Soup (Veal Sweetbread Soup No. 2)

Prepare 3 veal sweetbreads, and cook them for 15 minutes in a mild broth made from the extract of beef. Chop 2 of the sweetbreads very fine, simmer for a few minutes in melted butter and stir with the yolks of 5 hard boiled eggs to a uniform mass. Cook 3 ounces of lightly toasted bread in about 3 quarts of mild meat broth, then put in the sweetbread mass and cook the soup 1/2 hour longer. 3 hard boiled eggs and the other sweetbread are cut into cubes, placed in the tureen, and sprinkled with a small glassful of Madeira. Season the soup with cayenne popper, strengthen with a, teaspoonful of extract of beef it necessary, pour over the ingredients already in the tureen and serve.

Ox-Tail Soup

Cut each joint of two ox-tails with a meat-saw, steep them in water for two hours; then place them in a stew-pan with three carrots, three turnips, three onions, two heads of celery, four cloves, and a blade of mace.

Fill up the stew-pan from the boiling stock-pot; boil this over a slow fire until done and the joints quite tender. Take them out, cool them, and clarify the broth. Strain this into a soup-pot, put with it the pieces of ox-tail, some olive shaped pieces of carrot and turnip which have been boiled in a little of the broth; add to this when it has boiled half an hour a small lump of sugar and a little red pepper. This soup is excellent, and may be served with any kind of vegetables strained in it, such as puree of peas, carrots, turnips, or celery.

Ox-Tail Soup, No. 2

Two ox-tails, two slices of ham, one ounce of butter, two carrots, two turnips, three onions, one leek, one head of celery, one bunch of savory herbs, pepper, a tablespoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of catsup, one half glass of port wine, three quarts of water.

Cut up the tails, separating them at the joints; wash them, and put them in a stewpan with the butter. Cut the vegetables in slices and add them with the herbs. Put in one-half pint of water, and stir it over a quick fire till the juices are drawn. Fill up the stewpan with water, and when boiling, add the salt. Skim well, and simmer very gently for four hours, or until the tails are tender. Take them out, skim and strain the soup, thicken with flour, and flavor with the catsup and port wine. Put back the tails, simmer for five minutes and serve.

Another way to make an appetizing ox-tail soup. You should begin to make it the day before you wish to eat the soup. You should begin to make it the day before you wish to eat the soup. Take two tails, wash clean, and put in a kettle with nearly a gallon of cold water; add a small handful of salt; when the meat is well cooked, take out the bones. Let this stand in a cool room, covered, and next day, about an hour and a half before dinner, skim off the crust or cake of fat which has risen to the top. Add a little onion, carrot, or any vegetables you choose, chopping them fine first; summer savory may also be added.

Kidney Soup

** 1 Ox Kidney--4d.

** 2 Onions--1/2d.

** 1 oz. Butter--1d.

** 1 oz. Cornflour--1/2d.

** Salt, Lemon Juice, and parsley

** 2 quarts Stock--1/2d.

** Total Cost--6 1/2 d.

** Time--One Hour.

Slice up the onions and fry them in the butter, strain them out and return the butter to the saucepan. Stir in the cornflour, and when well mixed pour over the stock and stir until it boils. Slice the kidney up into small pieces, and put it in; simmer very gently for one hour. Just before serving, season with salt and a little lemon juice; pour into a tureen and sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top.

This soup must be cooked very slowly, or the kidney will be hard and tough.

Sheep’s Head Soup

Have the head carefully cleaned, put it into a stewpan with a little water, and when it is heated through fill up the pot. When it is sufficiently tender, take it up, remove the meat from the bones, and return the bones into the broth, adding onion, sweet herbs, &c., as before directed. The head and trotters may also be put with some vegetables into an earthen jug, containing half a gallon of water; cover it close up, and bake it; either cut the meat from the bones, when sufficiently tender, and put it in small pieces into the soup, or serve up the head and trotters separately, either whole or with the meat cut off and made into a stew.

In Scotland, the head is usually singed with a red-hot iron to remove the wool, but without burning or otherwise injuring the skin. The head is then soaked during the night, washed, scraped, and split; the brains taken out, and either fried or made into forcemeat balls, and the head stewed in the broth till tender.

Sheeps-Head Soup, No. 2

Cut the liver and lights into pieces, and stew them in four quarts of water, with some onions, carrots, and turnips, half pound of pearl barley, pepper, salt, cloves, and a little marjoram, parsley and thyme. Stew all these until nearly done enough, then put in the head and boil it until quite tender, then it should be taken out and everything strained from the liquor. Let this stand till cool, then take off the fat, and thicken it with butter and flour in the same way as mock turtle. A glass of wine may be put into the tureen if desired, before pouring in the soup.

Concord Soup

Three pounds of neck of beef, one cowheel, one pennyworth of carrots and turnips, part of a head of celery, one bunch of tied up sweet herbs, four onions browned, one pint of peas, all put together

Raw Beef Soup

One pound of chipped beef. Put into a preserve jar with four ounces of water and four drops of muriatic acid poured over it. Put the top down tight, shake, and put on the ice for twelve hours, then put the jar into a pan of cold water (bain-Marie) and put it on the fire for an hour until the water is hot, then strain the contents of the jar off with pressure through a cloth, and put it on the ice until it is cold. Take it off the ice and let it stand ten minutes before serving. Salt to taste.

Soup of Lamb's Head and Pluck

Put the head, heart and lights, with one pound pork into five quarts of water; after boiling one hour, add the liver, continue boiling half an hour more, which will be sufficient; potatoes, carrots, onions, parsley, summer-savory and sweet marjoram, may be added in the midst of the boiling; take half pound of butter, work it into one pound flour, also a small quantity summer-savory, pepper and two eggs, work the whole well together--drop this in small balls into the soup while hot, it is then fit for the table.

Squirrel Soup

Wash and quarter three or four good sized squirrels; put them on, with a small tablespoonful of salt, directly after breakfast, in a gallon of cold water.

Cover the pot close, and set it on the back part of the stove to simmer gently, not boil. Add vegetables just the same as you do in case of other meat soups in the summer season, but especially good will you find corn, Irish potatoes, tomatoes and Lima beans. Strain the soup through a coarse colander when the meat has boiled to shreds, so as to get rid of the squirrel's troublesome little bones. Then return to the pot, and after boiling a while longer, thicken with a piece of butter rubbed in flour. Celery and parsley leaves chopped up are also considered an improvement by many. Toast two slices of bread, cut them into dice one half inch square, fry them in butter, put them into the bottom of your tureen, and then pour the soup boiling hot upon them. Very good.

Hare Soup

An old hare is fitted only for soup or jugging. To render it into soup, let it be cleaned, cut into pieces, add and pound and a half or two pounds of beef, to which there is little or no fat; place it at the bottom of the pan; add two or three slices of ham or bacon, or a little of both, a couple of onions and some sweet herbs; add four quarts of boiling water, let it stew to shreds, strain off the soup and take away the fat; reboil it, add a spoonful of soy or Harvey’s sauce, send to the table with a few force-meat balls.

Neat’s Feet Soup

Take two neat's feet, cut them as you do a calf's head: take five pints of any sort of broth, the juice and rind of one lemon, some parsley and herbs chopped fine; send these to the oven; when it comes from the oven, put in a pint of strong gravy and a cup of white wine, some hard eggs and forcemeat balls; season with cayenne pepper and salt.

To these an excellent addition will be found in one pound of the belly part of very delicate pickled pork; for it will improve the flavor of the soup, and, if cut neatly into bits, will taste nearly as rich, and quite as savory, as the fat of the head, or the gelatinous parts of the feet.

Prairie Hen Broth

Roast or bake, till about one-third done, two prairie-hens, and put them in a soup-kettle with about one pound of lean beef, salt, and five pints of water. Set the kettle on a rather slow fire, skim off the scum when it gathers on the surface, and then add half a carrot, two stalks of parsley, one of celery, one onion with a clove stuck in it, a bay-leaf, six pepper-corns, and two cloves of garlic. Simmer about three hours, and take the birds out of the kettle; simmer then two hours longer; strain, and the broth is ready for use.

Game-broth is warming and stimulating; it may be taken alone, or prepared with croutons, rice, vermicelli, or other Italian pastes, the same as beef-broth.

The prairie-hens are served in salmis, and the beef is served as boiled beef.

Gai Grun Yung Waa

(Bird's-nest Soup)

One half pound of bird's nest; one pint of chicken stock; one quarter pound of cooked breast of chicken; one boiled egg; one quarter pound of minced ham; one teaspoonful of salt.

To make this soup, the bird's nest is first boiled an hour, then drained and put into cold water. Meanwhile the cooked chicken meat is well pounded, so as not to be in large or hard pieces, and a cupful of the cold stock is added to it. Next the bird's nest is taken from the cold water and well drained, and added to the soup stock. Boil for half an hour. Now the chicken meat is added, and also the egg, the latter having previously been finely crumbled. The soup is taken off the fire as it begins to boil again after the last addition. Before serving, the minced ham is sprinkled on top.

Bird's nest is a gelatinous substance, a species of seaweed, with which certain Chinese birds, the esculent swallow and the white-backed swallow, build their nests. It is also found in Java. It is one of the most delicious of Chinese foods, and esteemed and praised not alone by the Chinese but by all travelers in the Orient.

Seaweed Soup

Two yolks of hard-boiled eggs; one can of seaweed; three chicken giblets; two tablespoonfuls of syou; one and one half teaspoonfuls of Quong Sang Chong (water chestnut flour).

Boil one can of seaweed until it is like thin jelly. Have ready three chicken giblets

, chopped very fine, having first boiled them one hour in a quart of water. Add the seaweed, and boil all together for half an hour. Strain, then crumble in the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, stir in two tablespoonfuls of syou, and salt to taste. Rub smooth one and a half teaspoonfuls of Quong Sang Chong in a little cold water, then add to the soup and stir until it thickens slightly. Serve with a small piece of seaweed on top that has been soaking in spiced vinegar.

Pigeon Soup

Make a beef soup, and an hour before wanted throw in a pigeon. Boil slowly, with all kinds of vegetables (provided your patient is allowed to have them, for remember this is a soup intended for the convalescent). Strain, add the beaten yelk of an egg, add salt to taste.

Giblet Soup

An excellent soup can be made of the giblets, that is, heart, liver and neck of chicken, and other fowls, which in city markets are sold separately and very cheap. Cut in small pieces and boil 2 hours with onion and herbs, then add a little butter and thickening, salt and pepper.

Giblet Soup, No. 2

Scald and clean three or four sets of goose or duck giblets; then set them on to stew with a scrag of mutton, or a pint of gravy of beef, or bone of knuckle of veal, or some shank bones of mutton, three onions, a blade of mace, ten pepper-corns, two cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, and two quarts of water. Simmer till the gizzards are quite tender, which must be cut in three or four parts; then put in a little cream, a spoonful of flour rubbed smooth with it, and a spoonful of mushroom catsup, and some Cayenne pepper.

Giblet Soup, No. 3

This soup is a great success. It is very inexpensive, a plate of giblets only costing at market five cents. It is a very good imitation of mock-turtle soup, and, after the first experience in making, it will found very easy to manage.

Ingredients: The giblets of four chickens or two turkeys, one medium-sized onion, one small carrot, half a turnip,two sprigs of parsley, a leaf of sage, eggs, a little lemon-juice, Port or Madeira wine, and one or two cupfuls of chicken or beef stock, quite strong.

Cut up the vegetables. Put a piece of butter the size of a small egg into a stew-pan. When quite hot, throw in the sliced onion. When they begin to brown, add the carrot and turnip, a table-spoonful of flour, and the giblets. Fry them all quickly for a minute, watching them constantly, that the flour may brown, and not burn. Now cut the giblets (that the juice may escape), and put all into the soup-kettle, with a little pepper and salt, and three quarts of water--of course, stock would be much better, and for extra occasions I would recommend it; or without stock, one could add any fresh bones or scraps of lean meat one might happen to have. Pieces of chicken are especially well adapted to this soup; yet, for ordinary occasions, giblets alone answer very well.

Let the soup simmer for five hours; then strain it. Thicken it a little with roux (page 51), letting the flour brown, and add to it also one of the livers mashed. Season with the additional pepper and salt it needs, a little lemon-juice, and two table-spoonfuls of Port or Madeira wine. Put into the soup tureen yolks of hard-boiled eggs, one for each person at table. Pour over the soup, and serve.

Soup Made of Canned Turtle

In cooking the soup the green fat, which has an oily flavor, should be removed as much as possible by means of hot water. Then cut the meat into small cubes, bring to a boil once in a strong Espagnole sauce with Madeira, and serve.

The Espagnole sauce is made as follows Line the bottom of a deep saucepan with fresh butter about 1/4 or an inch thick, put in a pound of sliced, lean, raw ham then 3-4 large sliced Spanish onions, 1 pound of lean veal, 2 old partridges or 2 old pigeons, an old chicken and the remnants of uncooked or roasted poultry, pour in 2 bastingspoonfuls of bouillon