The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary Part 9

CALF'S FEET PUDDING. Boil four feet quite tender, pick off the meat, and chop it fine. Add some grated bread, a pound of chopped suet, half a pint of milk, six eggs, a pound of currants, four ounces of citron, two ounces of candied peel, a grated nutmeg, and a gla.s.s of brandy. b.u.t.ter the cloth and flour it, tie it close, and boil it three hours.

CALF'S HEAD BOILED. Clean it carefully and soak it in water, that it may look very nice, and take out the brains for sauce. Wash them well, tie them up in a cloth, with a little sage and parsley; put them into the pot at the same time with the head, and sc.u.m the water while boiling. A large head will take two hours, and when the part which joined the neck becomes tender it is done. Take up the brains and chop them with the sage and parsley, and an egg boiled hard. Put them into a saucepan with a bit of b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt, and warm them up. Peel the tongue, lay it in the middle of the dish, with the brain sauce round it. Strew over the head some grated bread and chopped parsley, and brown it by the fire in a separate dish, adding bacon, pickled pork, and greens.

CALF'S HEAD COLLARED. Scald the skin off a fine head, clean it nicely, and take out the brains. Boil it tender enough to remove the bones, and season it high with mace, nutmeg, salt, and white pepper. Put a layer of chopped parsley, then a quant.i.ty of thick slices of fine ham, or a beautiful coloured tongue skinned, and then the yolks of six nice yellow eggs stuck here and there about. Roll the head quite close, and tie it up tight, placing a cloth under the tape, as for other collars. Boil it, and then lay a weight upon it.

CALF'S HEAD FRICa.s.sEED. Clean and half-boil part of a head; cut the meat into small bits, and put it into a t.o.s.s.e.r, with a little gravy made of the bones, some of the water it was boiled in, a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion, and a blade of mace. The c.o.c.ks...o...b.. of young c.o.c.krels may be boiled tender, and then blanched, or a sweetbread will do as well.

Season the gravy with a little pepper, nutmeg, and salt. Rub down some flour and b.u.t.ter, and give all a boil together. Then take out herbs and onion, and add a small cup of cream, but do not boil it in. Serve with small bits of bacon rolled up and forcemeat b.a.l.l.s.

CALF'S HEAD HASHED. When half boiled, cut off the meat in slices, half an inch thick, and two or three inches long. Brown some b.u.t.ter, flour, and sliced onion; and throw in the slices with some good gravy, truffles and morels. Give it one boil, skim it well and set it in a moderate heat to simmer till very tender. Season at first with pepper, salt, and cayenne; and ten minutes before serving, throw in some shred parsley, and a very small bit of taragon and knotted marjoram cut as fine as possible. Send it up with forcemeat b.a.l.l.s, and bits of bacon rolled round, adding the squeeze of a lemon.--Another way is to boil the head almost enough, and take the meat of the best side neatly off the bone with a sharp knife. Lay this into a small dish, wash it over with the yolks of two eggs, and cover it with crumbs, a few herbs nicely shred, a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg all mixed together first. Set the dish before the fire, and turn it now and then, that all parts of the head may be equally brown. In the mean time slice the remainder of the head, peel the tongue and slice it. Put a pint of good gravy into a pan with an onion, and a small bunch of herbs, consisting of parsley, basil, savoury, taragon, knotted marjoram, and a little thyme. Add a small quant.i.ty of salt and cayenne, a few truffles and morels, and two spoonfuls of ketchup. Then beat up half the brains, put it to the rest with a little b.u.t.ter and flour, and simmer the whole together. Beat the other part of the brains with shred lemon peel, a little nutmeg and mace, some shred parsley and an egg. Then fry it in small cakes of a beautiful yellow brown. Dip some oysters into the yolk of an egg, and do the same; and also some relis.h.i.+ng forcemeat b.a.l.l.s, made as for mock turtle. Garnish with these, and small bits of bacon just made hot before the fire.

CALF'S HEAD PIE. Stew a knuckle of veal till fit for eating, with two onions, a few isingla.s.s shavings, a bunch of herbs, a blade of mace, and a few peppercorns, in three pints of water. Keep the broth for the pie.

Take off a bit of the meat for the b.a.l.l.s, and let the other be eaten; but simmer the bones in the broth till it is very good. Half boil the head, and cut it into square bits; put a layer of ham at the bottom, then some head, first fat and then lean, with b.a.l.l.s and hard eggs cut in half, and so on till the dish be full; but great care must be taken not to place the pieces close, or the pie will be too solid, and there will be no s.p.a.ce for the jelly. The meat must be first seasoned pretty well with pepper and salt, and a sc.r.a.pe or two of nutmeg. Put a little water and gravy into the dish, cover it with a tolerably thick crust, and bake it in a slow oven. When done, fill it up with gravy, and do not cut it till quite cold. Use a very sharp knife for this purpose, first cutting out a large piece, and going down to the bottom of the dish: thinner slices may afterwards be cut. The different colours, and the clear jelly, will have a beautiful marbled appearance. A small pie may be made to eat hot, and will have a good appearance, if seasoned high with oysters, mushrooms, truffles and morels. The cold pie will keep several days, and slices of it will make a handsome side-dish. If the isingla.s.s jelly be not found stiff enough, a calf's foot or a cow heel may be used instead. To vary the colour, pickled tongue may be cut in, instead of ham.

CALF'S HEAD ROASTED. Wash the head perfectly clean, stew it with oysters, tie it together and spit it, baste it well with b.u.t.ter and flour rubbed smooth. Stew together some of the oyster liquor, gravy, b.u.t.ter and salt, with a few sprigs of marjoram and savoury, adding a little claret, and pour the sauce over the dish.

CALF'S HEAD SOUP. After the head has been thoroughly cleaned, put it into a stewpan with a proper quant.i.ty of water, an onion, some sweet herbs, mace and cloves, and a little pearl barley. Boil it quite tender, put in some stewed celery, and season it with pepper. Pour the soup into a dish, place the head in the middle, and send it hot to table.

CALF'S HEAD STEWED. Wash and soak it for an hour, bone it, take out the brains, the tongue and the eyes. Make a forcemeat with two pounds of beef suet, as much lean veal, two anchovies boned and washed, the peel of a lemon, some grated nutmeg, and a little thyme. Chop them up together with some grated bread, and mix in the yolks of four eggs. Make part of this forcemeat into fifteen or twenty b.a.l.l.s; boil five eggs hard, some oysters washed clean, and half a pint of fresh mushrooms, and mix with the rest of the forcemeat. Stuff that part of the head where the bones were taken out, tie it up carefully with packthread, put it into two quarts of gravy or good broth, with a blade of mace, cover it close, and stew it very slowly for two hours. While the head is doing, beat up the brains with some lemon-thyme and parsley chopped very fine, some grated nutmeg, and the yolk of an egg mixed with it. Fry half the brains in dripping, in little cakes, and fry the b.a.l.l.s. When the head is done, keep it warm with the brain-cakes and b.a.l.l.s; strain off the liquor in which the head was stewed, add to it some stewed truffles and morels, and a few pickled mushrooms. Put in the other half of the brains chopped, boil them up together, and let them simmer a few minutes. Lay the head into a hot dish, pour the liquor over it, and place the b.a.l.l.s and the brain-cakes round it. For a small family, half the head will be sufficient. A lamb's head may be done in the same way.

CALF'S HEART. Chop fine some suet, parsley, sweet marjoram and a boiled egg. Add some grated bread, lemon peel, pepper, salt and mustard. Mix them together in a paste, and stuff the heart with it, after it has been well washed and cleaned. If done carefully, it is better baked than roasted. Serve it up quite hot, with gravy and melted b.u.t.ter.

CALF'S KIDNEY. Chop veal kidney, and some of the fat; likewise a little leek or onion, pepper, and salt. Roll the kidney up with an egg into b.a.l.l.s, and fry it.--A calf's heart should be stuffed and roasted as a beef's heart; or sliced and made into a pudding, the same as for a steak or kidney pudding.

CALF'S LIVER. There are several ways of making this into a good dish.

One is to broil it, after it has been seasoned with pepper and salt.

Then rub a bit of cold b.u.t.ter over, and serve it up hot and hot.--If the liver is to be roasted, first wash and wipe it, then cut a long hole in it, and stuff it with crumbs of bread, chopped anchovy, herbs, fat bacon, onion, salt, pepper, a bit of b.u.t.ter, and an egg. Sew up the liver, lard or wrap it in a veal caul, and put it to the fire. Serve it with good brown gravy, and currant jelly.--If the liver and lights are to be dressed together, half boil an equal quant.i.ty of each; then cut them in a middling-sized mince, add a spoonful or two of the water that boiled it, a bit of b.u.t.ter, flour, salt and pepper. Simmer them together ten minutes, and serve the dish up hot.

CALF'S SWEETBREADS. These should be half boiled, and then stewed in white gravy. Add cream, flour, b.u.t.ter, nutmeg, salt, and white pepper.

Or do them in brown sauce seasoned. Or parboil, and then cover them with crumbs, herbs, and seasoning, and brown them in a Dutch oven. Serve with b.u.t.ter, and mushroom ketchup, or gravy.

CALVES. The general method of rearing calves consumes so much of the milk of the dairy, that it is highly necessary to adopt other means, or the calves must be sold to the butcher while they are young. A composition called linseed milk, made of linseed oil-cake powdered, and gradually mixed with skim-milk sweetened with treacle, has been tried with considerable effect. It must be made nearly as warm as new milk when taken from the cow. Hay tea mixed with linseed and boiled to a jelly, has likewise been tried with success. A species of water gruel, made in the following manner, is strongly recommended. Put a handful or two of oatmeal into some boiling water, and after it has thickened a little, leave it to cool till it is lukewarm; mix with it two or three pints of skim-milk, and give it to the calf to drink. At first it may be necessary to make the calf drink by presenting the fingers to it; but it will soon learn to drink of itself, and will grow much faster than by any other method. According to the old custom, a calf intended to be reared is allowed to suck for six or eight weeks; and if the cow give only a moderate quant.i.ty of milk, the value of it will amount to the price of the calf in half that time. By the method now recommended, only a little oatmeal or ground barley is consumed, and a small quant.i.ty of skim-milk. The calf is also more healthy and strong, and less subject to disease. Small whisps of hay should be placed round them on cleft sticks, to induce the calves to eat; and when they are weaned, they should be turned into short sweet gra.s.s; for if hay and water only are used, they are liable to swellings and the rot. The fatting of calves being an object of great importance, a greater variety of food is now provided for this purpose than formerly, and great improvements have been made in this part of rural economy. Grains, potatoes, malt dust, pollard, and turnips now const.i.tute their common aliment. But in order to make them fine and fat, they must be kept as clean as possible, with fresh litter every day. Bleeding them twice before they are slaughtered, improves the beauty and whiteness of the flesh, but it may be doubted whether the meat is equally good and nutricious. If calves be taken with the scouring, which often happens in a few days after being cast, make a medicine of powdered chalk and wheat meal, wrought into a ball with some gin; and it will afford relief. The shoote is another distemper to which they are liable, and is attended with a violent cholic and the loathing of food. The general remedy in this case is milk, well mulled with eggs; or eggs and flour mixed with oil, melted b.u.t.ter, linseed or anniseed. To prevent the sickness which commonly attends calves about Michaelmas time, take newly-churned b.u.t.ter, without salt, and form it into a cup the size of an egg; into this cup put three or four cloves of bruised garlic, and fill it up with tar. Having put the cup down the calf's throat, pour into its nostrils half a spoonful of the spirit of turpentine, rub a little tar upon its nose, and keep it within doors for an hour. Calves ought to be housed a night before this medicine is given.

CALICO FURNITURE. When curtains or bed furniture of this description are to be taken down for the summer, shake off the loose dust, and lightly brush them with a small long-haired furniture brush. Wipe them afterwards very closely with clean flannels, and rub them with dry bread. If properly done, the curtains will look nearly as well as at first, and if the colour be not very light, they will not require was.h.i.+ng for years. Fold them up in large parcels, and put them by carefully. While the furniture remains up, it should be preserved as much as possible from the sun and air, which injure delicate colours; and the dust may be blown off with bellows. Curtains may thus be kept clean, even to use with the linings after they have been washed or newly dipped.

CAMP VINEGAR. Slice a large head of garlic, and put it into a wide-mouthed bottle, with half an ounce of cayenne, two tea-spoonfuls of soy, two of walnut ketchup, four anchovies chopped, a pint of vinegar, and enough cochineal to give it the colour of lavender drops. Let it stand six weeks; then strain it off quite clear, and keep it in small bottles sealed up.

CAMPHOR JULEP. Dissolve a quarter of an ounce of camphor in half a pint of brandy. It may thus be kept fit for use; and a tea-spoonful taken in a wine gla.s.s of cold water will be found an agreeable dose.--Another way. To a quarter of an ounce of camphor, add a quart of boiling water, and a quart of cold. Let it stand six hours, and strain it off for use.

CAMPHOR OINTMENT. Put half an ounce of camphor into an ounce of the oil of almonds, mixed with an ounce of spermaceti. Sc.r.a.pe fine into it half an ounce of white wax, and melt it over some hot water.

CAMPHORATED OIL. Beat an ounce of camphor in a mortar, with two ounces of Florence oil, till the camphor is entirely dissolved. This liniment is highly useful in rheumatism, spasms, and other cases of extreme pain.

CANARIES. Those who wish to breed this species of birds, should provide them a large cage, with two boxes to build in. Early in April put a c.o.c.k and hen together; and whilst they are pairing, feed them with soft meat, or a little grated bread, scalded rapeseed and an egg mixed together. At the same time a small net of fine hay, wool, cotton, and hair should be suspended in one corner of the cage, so that the birds may pull it out as they want it to build with. Tame canaries will sometimes breed three or four times in a year, and produce their young about a fortnight after they begin to sit. When hatched, they should be left to the care of the old ones, to nurse them up till they can fly and feed themselves; during which time they should be supplied with fresh victuals every day, accompanied now and then with cabbage, lettuce, and chick-weed with seeds upon it. When the young canaries can feed themselves, they should be taken from the old ones, and put into another cage. Boil a little rapeseed, bruise and mix it with as much grated bread, mace seed, and the yolk of an egg boiled hard; and supply them with a small quant.i.ty every day, that it may not become stale or sour. Besides this, give them a little scalded rapeseed, and a little rape and canary seed by itself.

This diet may be continued till they have done moulting, or renewed at any time when they appear unhealthy, and afterwards they may be fed in the usual manner.

CANCER. It is a.s.serted by a French pract.i.tioner, that this cruel disorder may be cured in three days, by the following simple application, without any surgical operation whatever. Knead a piece of dough about the size of a pullet's egg, with the same quant.i.ty of hog's lard, the older the better; and when they are thoroughly blended, so as to form a kind of salve, spread it on a piece of white leather, and apply it to the part affected. This, if it do no good, is perfectly harmless.--A plaster for an eating cancer may be made as follows. File up some old bra.s.s, and mix a spoonful of it with mutton suet. Lay the plaster on the cancer, and let it remain till the cure is effected.

Several persons have derived great benefit from this application, and it has seldom been known to fail.

CANDIED ANGELICA. Cut angelica into pieces three inches long, boil it tender, peel and boil it again till it is green; dry it in a cloth, and add its weight in sugar. Sift some fine sugar over, and let them remain in a pan two days; then boil the stalks clear and green, and let them drain in a cullender. Beat another pound of sugar and strew over them, lay them on plates, and dry them well in an oven.

CANDIED FRUIT. Take the preserve out of the syrup, lay it into a new sieve, and dip it suddenly into hot water, to take off the syrup that hangs about it. Put it on a napkin before the fire to drain, and then do another layer in the sieve. Sift the fruit all over with double refined sugar previously prepared, till it is quite white. Set it on the shallow end of sieves in a lightly-warm oven, and turn it two or three times: it must not be cold till dry. Watch it carefully, and it will be beautiful.

CANDIED PEEL. Take out the pulps of lemons or oranges, soak the rinds six days in salt and water, and afterwards boil them tender in spring water. Drain them on a sieve, make a thin syrup of loaf sugar and water, and boil the peels in it till the syrup begins to candy about them. Then take out the peels, grate fine sugar over them, drain them on a sieve, and dry them before the fire.

CANDLES. Those made in cold weather are best; and if put in a cool place, they will improve by keeping; but when they begin to sweat and turn rancid, the tallow loses its strength, and the candles are spoiled.

A stock for winter use should be provided in autumn, and for summer, early in the spring. The best candle-wicks are made of fine cotton; the coa.r.s.er yarn consumes faster, and burns less steady. Mould candles burn the clearest, but dips afford the best light, their wicks being proportionally larger.

CAPER SAUCE. Add a table-spoonful of capers to twice the quant.i.ty of vinegar, mince one third of the capers very fine, and divide the others in half. Put them into a quarter of a pint of melted b.u.t.ter, or good thickened gravy, and stir them the same way as the melted b.u.t.ter, to prevent their oiling. The juice of half a Seville orange or lemon may be added. An excellent subst.i.tute for capers may be made of pickled green peas, nastursions, or gherkins, chopped into a similar size, and boiled with melted b.u.t.ter. When capers are kept for use, they should be covered with fresh scalded vinegar, tied down close to exclude the air, and to make them soft.

CAPILLAIRE. Take fourteen pounds of good moist sugar, three of coa.r.s.e sugar, and six eggs beaten in well with the sh.e.l.ls, boil them together in three quarts of water, and skim it carefully. Then add a quarter of a pint of orange-flower water, strain it off, and put it into bottles.

When cold, mix a spoonful or two of this syrup in a little warm or cold water.

CARACHEE. Mix with a pint of vinegar, two table-spoonfuls of Indian soy, two of walnut pickle, two cloves of garlic, one tea-spoonful of cayenne, one of lemon pickle, and two of sauce royal.

CARMEL COVER. Dissolve eight ounces of double refined sugar in three or four spoonfuls of water, and as many drops of lemon juice. Put it into a copper skillet; when it begins to thicken, dip the handle of a spoon in it, and put that into a pint bason of water. Squeeze the sugar from the spoon into it, and so on till all the sugar is extracted. Take a bit out of the water, and if it snaps and is brittle when cold, it is done enough. But let it be only three parts cold, then pour the water from the sugar, and having a copper form oiled well, run the sugar on it, in the manner of a maze, and when cold it may be put on the dish it is intended to cover. If on trial the sugar is not brittle, pour off the water, return it into the skillet, and boil it again. It should look thick like treacle, but of a light gold colour. This makes an elegant cover for sweetmeats.

CARP. This excellent fish will live some time out of water, and may therefore get wasted: it is best to kill them as soon as caught, to prevent this. Carp should either be boiled or stewed. Scale and draw it, and save the blood. Set on water in a stewpan, with a little Chili vinegar, salt, and horse-radish. When it boils, put in the carp, and boil it gently for twenty minutes, according to the thickness of the fish. Stew the blood with half a pint of port wine, some good gravy, a sliced onion, a little whole pepper, a blade of mace, and a nutmeg grated. Thicken the sauce with b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, season it with pepper and salt, essence of anchovy, and mushroom ketchup. Serve up the fish with the sauce poured over it, adding a little lemon juice. Carp are also very nice plain boiled, with common fish sauce.