Part 37

MUTTON STEW

Exactly the same rule may be followed for mutton stew as for beef. Do not forget to trim the meat carefully. Use only clear pieces of the lean. If a roast is used and there are bones, boil them in water with the scraps for additional broth. Mutton stew is good made with pearl-barley instead of potatoes, in the proportion of one teaspoon of grain to a cup of meat; it should be put in at the beginning of the cooking. A half teaspoon of chopped parsley is a nice addition, or a few tablespoons of stewed and strained tomato.

SWEETBREADS

Sweetbreads are the pancreatic glands of the calf. They are good while the animal lives on milk, but change their nature when it begins to eat grass and hay, and are then no longer useful for food. The gland consists of two parts, the long, slender portion called the "neck" sweetbread, and the round, thick part known as the "heart" sweetbread. These are sometimes sold separately, but they should be together. Among epicures sweetbreads are considered a dainty, and are certainly a most acceptable form of food for the sick.

=To Prepare.= As soon as sweetbreads come from market, they should be cleaned and parboiled. Cut off any refuse,--such as pipes, fat, and all bruised portions,--and wash them quickly in cold water. Pour into a saucepan some boiling water, salt it, and add a little lemon-juice or vinegar (not more than a teaspoon to a pint of water); boil the sweetbreads in this for fifteen minutes if they are to be creamed, broiled, or baked, or again cooked in any way; but if they are to be served plain with peas, they should remain on twenty-five or thirty minutes. When done, drain off the water and set them aside to cool. Sweetbreads must always be parboiled as soon as possible after being taken from the animal, as they decay quickly. Sweetbreads may be made white by soaking them in cold water for half an hour; the flavor, however, is said to be injured by so doing.

CREAMED SWEETBREADS

Make a cream sauce with a cup of sweet cream, a tablespoon of flour, and half a tablespoon of butter. Then cut a sweetbread into half-inch cubes, salt it slightly, and sprinkle on a little white pepper. Mix equal quantities of it and the cream sauce together, put the mixture into individual porcelain patty-dishes or scallop-dishes, sprinkle the top with buttered crumbs, and bake on the grate in a hot oven for ten minutes. This will give sufficient time to finish the cooking of the parboiled sweetbread without hardening it.

The sauce may be made quite acceptably with milk, by using a tablespoon of butter instead of half that quantity. This is a good way to prepare sweetbreads, and one particularly desirable for the sick. They will be tender and delicate if care is taken not to overcook them in either the boiling or the baking.

FRICASSEED SWEETBREADS

Cut a parboiled sweetbread into half-inch cubes. Then make a sauce with half a teaspoon of flour, a teaspoon of butter, three fourths of a cup of strong chicken broth, and one fourth of a cup of sweet cream. Heat the broth. Cook the flour in the butter, letting the two simmer together until brown, then add the hot broth, a little at a time, stirring constantly, and last put in the cream. Season the sauce with a bit of salt, a little black pepper, half a teaspoon of lemon-juice, and a speck of curry-powder. Roll the cut sweetbread into it, simmer for five minutes, and serve on sippets, or on squares of dry toast in a covered dish. The chicken broth may be made by boiling the bones and cuttings of a roast, and milk may be substituted for the cream.

SWEETBREADS WITH PEAS

A favorite way of serving sweetbreads is with fresh peas. They should be boiled in salted water and arranged in the middle of a platter with the peas (cooked and seasoned) around them. Serve them with a cream sauce. Or the peas may be piled in the middle of a platter, the sweetbreads arranged as a border, and the sauce poured around the whole. Sweetbreads larded and baked may also be served in this way.

FISH

Fish fresh from the lakes or sea is excellent food. The point of freshness is a very important one, for all kinds spoil quickly, and, unless you can be quite sure how long they have been out of the water, it is better to find some other food for your invalid. Some shell-fish, such as crabs and lobsters, are especially dangerous, and should not be eaten by either sick or well, unless they are known to be in perfect condition. For the sick they had better not be used at all.

"The flesh of good fresh fish is firm and hard, and will rise at once when pressed with the finger. If the eyes be dull or sunken, the gills pale, and the flesh soft and flabby, the fish is not fresh." (Mrs. Lincoln.)

Fish with red blood, such for instance as salmon, are highly nutritious but not easily digested, partly because of the amount of fat distributed through the flesh. Herring and mackerel belong to this class. White fish, such as cod, haddock, turbot, halibut, and flounder, contain comparatively little fat, and that mostly in the liver. They are easy of digestion, and possess a delicate flavor. When in season and just from their native element, these fish are delicious, and make excellent food for the sick, on account of the ease with which they are digested.

=To Prepare.= If fish be brought from market with the scales on, as is usually the case, it is a very easy matter to remove them. A large sheet of brown paper, or a newspaper, and a knife not very sharp, are all that are necessary. Spread the paper on the table, lay the fish upon it, and then with the blade of the knife held parallel with the body of the fish, or nearly so, not at right angles to it, push off the scales. They will come off easily, and will not fly unless you turn the edge of the knife too much. Should this happen, the paper will catch the scales, and when the fish is finished all the refuse can be rolled up in the paper and burned. After removing the scales, cut off the head, fins, and tail. Make a slit on the under side, and take out the contents of the cavity, clearing out everything that is not flesh. Then wash the fish quickly in a stream of cold water, wipe it, and set it in a cool place (a refrigerator if you have it) until it is required for cooking. Do not lay it directly on ice, for the juices of the fish are dissolved by the water which is formed as the ice melts, and its delicate flavor is thus impaired.

WHEN IN SEASON

Cod All the year. Haddock All the year. Cusk Winter. Halibut All the year. Flounders All the year. Salmon May to September. Shad Spring. Bluefish June to October. Whitefish Winter. Swordfish July to September. Smelts September to March. Perch Spring and summer. Mackerel April to October. Oysters September to May. Clams All the year.

BROILED FISH

Small fish, such as perch, scrod (young cod), etc., are excellent broiled. After the fish is cleaned, washed out, and wiped, split it lengthwise if it be thick, sprinkle on salt and pepper, squeeze over it some drops of lemon-juice, dip it in melted butter, and broil over clear coals, quickly at first and then very slowly, allowing ten minutes for each inch of thickness. Serve with butter cream.

=To Make Butter Cream.= Cream some butter in a cup or bowl, season it with salt, Cayenne pepper, lemon-juice, and vinegar. A teaspoon of butter is enough for an ordinary small fish such as a perch, and to season it a speck of cayenne, a speck of salt, and a teaspoon of vinegar and lemon-juice (half of each), will be good proportions. Spread it on the fish, and let it melt and run over it, or serve it separately in a little ball on a glass butter-plate. A nice addition to the butter is a little finely minced parsley, or chopped pickle, such as cucumbers or olives, or the three mixed, if they are at hand.

CREAMED FISH

To make creamed fish, any white fish which flakes easily may be used. Cusk, cod, and haddock are especially recommended. Cook the fish fifteen or twenty minutes by gentle boiling. Then remove the flesh carefully from the bones, letting it separate into flakes; season it with pepper and salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice sprinkled over. For every pint of prepared fish make a rich cream sauce with four tablespoons of butter, two of flour, and a pint of milk in which a small slice of onion has been boiled. Pour the sauce over the seasoned fish, rolling them together gently so that the flakes may not be broken, arrange on a platter, sprinkle the top with buttered crumbs, and bake in a hot oven from twenty minutes to half an hour. A speck of cayenne is a good addition to make to the sauce. This is a delicious and wholesome dish. The butter is so thoroughly incorporated with the flour of the sauce that it becomes one of the few very easily digested forms of cooked fat.

BOILED FISH

Select any white fish--fresh cod for instance. Prepare it according to the directions given for cleaning fish, put it into a wire vegetable-basket, drop the basket into a dish of boiling salted water, and let it simmer for from fifteen minutes to three quarters of an hour according to the size of the fish (a cod weighing three pounds will require cooking a half hour). Do not allow it to boil rapidly at any time, or it will break. When it is done lift it out of the basket and serve it at once with drawn butter made in the following manner:

Put two tablespoons of butter and one of flour into a saucepan; let them simmer together for two minutes (count the time); then add, a little at a time, a pint of boiling water or of chicken broth, stirring constantly. This will give a smooth cream-like sauce which will be enough for two pounds of fish. Season it with parsley, grated yolks of hard-boiled eggs, a few drops of lemon-juice, a bit each of cayenne and mustard, and a few drops of onion-juice.

CUSTARDS, CREAMS, PUDDINGS, AND BLANC-MANGE