Joe Tilden's Recipes for Epicures Part 1

Joe Tilden's Recipes for Epicures.

by Joe Tilden.

Introductory Note

Major Joseph Tilden was in his time one of the most famous Bohemians and epicureans of the Pacific Coast. Ever since his death his many friends have been trying to learn the culinary secrets which made a repast of his devising so delicious. He had given his recipes to but few, and those few his most intimate friends and fellow spirits. One of the most favored of his old companions has given this complete collection of his recipes for publication.

San Francisco, May, 1907.

SOUPS AND CHOWDERS

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Onion Soup

Place six ounces of b.u.t.ter in a large saucepan over the fire, and stir into it four large white onions cut up, not sliced. Stew this very slowly for one hour, stirring frequently to prevent its scorching. Add salt, pepper, cayenne, and about one quart of stock, and cook one hour longer. Then stir into the mixture one and a half cups of milk and simmer for a few minutes. Have ready a soup tureen. In it beat the yolks of four eggs with two tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese.

Stir the hot soup into this, beating until it thickens a little. A slice of toasted French bread should be placed in each plate, and the soup poured over it.

Palestine Soup

Slice two or three Jerusalem artichokes and place in two quarts of boiling water. Cook for one and one-half hours. Then rub the artichokes through a colander and add to them one pint of the water in which they were boiled. Stir in two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into the same amount of b.u.t.ter. Add two cups of milk and boil for ten minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve with croutons.

Black Bean Soup

Soak over night one quart of black turtle beans in water to cover them. In the morning strain and boil them in four quarts of water for one hour, skimming frequently. Then put into the liquor two white onions sliced, two stalks of celery cut into bits, salt, pepper, cayenne, and one teaspoonful each of cloves and allspice. Boil for three hours. Remove from the stove and add enough stock to thin the mixture to the consistency of a cream soup. Pour into it nearly a tumbler of sherry and add a thinly sliced lime. Place over the fire to boil for five minutes. Just before serving stir into the soup three hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped. Force meat b.a.l.l.s may be added.

Parker House Tomato Soup

Put into a saucepan five pounds of tomatoes, either fresh or canned, with one quart of water, salt, pepper, cayenne, one and one-half tablespoonfuls of sugar, and three ounces of b.u.t.ter, rubbed into one heaping tablespoonful of flour. Cook slowly one hour. Remove from the fire and rub through a sieve. Place over the fire again and add one and one-half tablespoonfuls of rice flour which has been dissolved in a little water. Let it come to a boil, when it is ready to serve.

Celery Soup

Boil one small cupful of rice in three pints of milk, or two pints of milk and one of cream, until it is tender. Then rub it through a sieve and add one quart of veal stock, salt, cayenne, and three heads of celery (the white stalks only) which have been previously grated. Boil until the celery is tender.

Bisque of Prawns or Shrimps

Boil three dozen prawns twenty minutes in salted water to cover them.

Meanwhile in two small tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, fry an onion and a carrot sliced, and a small piece of salt pork chopped. Take the prawns out of the boiling water and add to it the fried mixture with salt, pepper, a bunch of sweet herbs and one-half the prawns added again.

Simmer one hour. Pound the sh.e.l.ls of the prawns in a mortar with a little b.u.t.ter, to form a smooth paste. Stir this into the soup and boil twenty minutes. Strain through a sieve. Add one quart of milk and one teaspoonful of cornstarch stirred into a little of the cold milk.

Let it boil up, and serve. It should be as thick as rich cream.

Lobster Soup

Pick the meat from a five pound lobster and pound it in a mortar, adding from time to time a little milk or cream. When perfectly smooth, add two teaspoonfuls of salt, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley (if liked), cayenne and mace. Take out enough to make a dozen small b.a.l.l.s, mix this with the yolk of an egg and fry it in b.u.t.ter.

Mix the rest of the pounded lobster with two quarts of milk and rub through a sieve. Put this in a saucepan and simmer ten minutes. Add two ounces of b.u.t.ter and stir until melted and smooth. Pour over the fried b.a.l.l.s in the tureen and serve very hot.

Venison Soup

Cut six pounds of lean venison into medium sized pieces and place in a soup kettle with two gallons of cold water, to which add two dozen cloves and four blades of mace. Boil slowly three hours. Then add two pounds of venison, cut into pieces about an inch square and one dozen force meat b.a.l.l.s. Boil for thirty minutes. Then season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and half a gla.s.s of lime juice, letting the soup cook ten minutes longer. It should be served in hot bowls in each of which is poured a half gla.s.s of port before serving. Crisp croutons may be added.

Puree of Venison

Cut up the remains of venison that had been roasted for a former dinner, put a few slices of ham into a stew pan, then the venison, two whole onions, a blade of mace, two quarts of stock, and a small piece of a sprig of thyme, parsley, and two cloves. Set it on the stove to simmer, two hours or more. Strain it off, and pull all the meat to pieces. Pound it with the lean ham that was boiled with it, the crust of two French rolls which has been soaked in consomme. Rub the whole through a colander with a gla.s.s of claret or port and enough consomme to bring it to the consistency of cream. Put it back on the fire in a double boiler. Stir a little b.u.t.ter into it, and serve with bread fried in dice.

Clear Soup Stock

To four pounds of beef add six quarts of cold water and place over the fire. Just before it boils, skim it carefully. Then add two cups of cold water and skim again, repeating this for a third skimming. Allow it to simmer slowly for three hours. Then add the vegetables; eight ounces each of cut up carrots, onions and turnips, and three ounces of celery, with salt and pepper. Simmer three hours longer. The stock should be strained before using, and while cooking it should not be allowed to boil.

Daniel Webster's Chowder

Fry with some slices of pork, four tablespoonfuls of sliced onions, to a light brown. Put them in a deep iron pot with six pounds of cod sliced, one quart of boiled mashed potatoes, one pound and a half of broken sea biscuit, fifty oysters, one teaspoonful of thyme, one teaspoonful of summer savory, one-half a bottle of mushroom catsup, one bottle of port or claret, one-half a nutmeg, one dozen cloves, a little mace and allspice, one half a lemon sliced, pepper and salt.

Cover with one inch of water and cook slowly until done.

Scott's Chowder

Cover the bottom of a deep pot with slices of pork cut very thin. Add a layer of fish sliced and seasoned with salt and pepper, a layer of onions parboiled and quartered, a layer of tomatoes sliced and seasoned, a layer of thickly sliced potatoes and a layer of broken sea biscuit. Repeat the layers until the pot is filled. Just cover the fish with water and cook one hour very slowly. Add one pint of claret, cook one-half hour longer and serve.

Marblehead Chowder

Cut half a pound of salt pork into dice and place two-thirds of it in a deep saucepan; fry a light brown. Remove it and in the fat fry two large onions sliced. Cover the bottom of the pot with slices of raw cod or ba.s.s mixed with some of the fried pork and onions. On this place another layer of sliced fish mixed with a few pieces of raw pork, and slices of raw onion, salt and pepper; over this a layer of sliced raw potatoes. Repeat these layers until the pot is about two-thirds full, when the mixture should be covered with warm water, or preferably a stock made of the heads and tails of the fish. After the chowder comes to a boil, let it cook for forty-five minutes.