The Jewish Manual

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THE JEWISH MANUAL;

OR

PRACTICAL INFORMATION IN JEWISH AND MODERN COOKERY,

Introduction

OBSERVATIONS FOR THE USE OF THE COOK.

The receipts we have given are capable of being varied and modified by an intelligent pains-taking cook, to suit the tastes of her employers.

Where one receipt has been thought sufficient to convey the necessary instruction for several dishes, &c., &c., it has not been repeated for each respectively, which plan will tend to facilitate her task. We might, had we been inclined, have increased our collection considerably by so doing, but have decided, from our own experience, that it is preferable to give a limited number clearly and fully explained, as these will always serve as guides and models for others of the same kind.

The cook must remember it is not enough to have ascertained the ingredients and quantities requisite, but great care and attention must be paid to the manner of mixing them, and in watching their progress when mixed and submitted to the fire.

The management of the oven and the fire deserve attention, and cannot be regulated properly without practice and observation.

The art of seasoning is difficult and important.

Great judgment is required in blending the different spices or other condiments, so that a fine flavour is produced without the undue preponderance of either. It is only in coarse cooking that the flavour of onions, pepper, garlic, nutmeg, and eschalot is permitted to prevail. As a general rule, salt should be used in moderation.

Sugar is an improvement in nearly all soups, sauces, and gravies; also with stewed vegetables, but of course must be used with discretion.

Ketchups, Soy, Harvey's sauce, &c., are used too indiscrimately by inferior cooks; it is better to leave them to be added at table by those who approve of their flavour.

Any thing that is required to be warmed up a second time, should be set in a basin placed in a bain-marie, or saucepan, filled with boiling water, but which must not be allowed to boil; or the article will become hardened and the sauce dried up.

To remove every particle of fat from the gravies of stews, &c., a piece of white blotting-paper should be laid on the surface, and the fat will adhere to it; this should be repeated two or three times. It is important to keep saucepans well skimmed; the best prepared dish will be spoiled by neglect on this point.

The difference between good and bad cookery is particularly discernible in the preparation of forcemeats. A common cook is satistified if she chops or minces the ingredients and moistens them with an egg scarcely beaten, but this is a very crude and imperfect method; they should be pounded together in a mortar until not a lump or fibre is perceptible. Further directions will be given in the proper place, but this is a rule which must be strictly attended to by those who wish to attain any excellence in this branch of their art.

Eggs for forcemeats, and for every description of sweet dishes, should be thoroughly beaten, and for the finer kinds should be passed through a sieve.

A trustworthy zealous servant must keep in mind, that waste and extravagance are no proofs of skill. On the contrary. Good Cookery is by no means expensive, as it makes the most of every thing, and furnishes out of simple and economical materials, dishes which are at once palatable and elegant.

Chapter I

CHAPTER I.

Soups.

This is the basis of all kinds of soup and sauces. Shin of beef or ox-cheek make excellent stock, although good gravy-beef is sometimes preferred; the bones should always be broken, and the meat cut up, as the juices are better extracted; it is advisable to put on, at first, but very little water, and to add more when the first quantity is nearly dried up. The time required for boiling depends upon the quantity of meat; six pounds of meat will take about five hours; if bones, the same quantity will require double the time.

Gravy beef with a knuckle of veal makes a fine and nutritious stock; the stock for white soups should be prepared with veal or white poultry. Very tolerable stock can be procured without purchasing meat expressly for the purpose, by boiling down bones and the trimmings of meat or poultry.

The liquor in which beef or mutton intended for the table has been boiled, will also, with small additions and skilful flavoring, make an excellent soup at a trifling expense.

To thicken soups, mix a little potatoe-flour, ground rice, or pounded vermicelli, in a little water, till perfectly smooth; add a little of the soup to it in a cup, until sufficiently thin, then pour it into the rest and boil it up, to prevent the raw taste it would otherwise have; the presence of the above ingredients should not be discovered, and judgment and care are therefore requisite.

If colouring is necessary, a crust of bread stewed in the stock will give a fine brown, or the common browning may be used; it is made in the following manner:

Put one pound of coarse brown sugar in a stew-pan with a lump of clarified suet; when it begins to froth, pour in a wine-glass of port wine, half an ounce of black pepper, a little mace, four spoonsful of ketchup or Harvey's sauce, a little salt, and the peel of a lemon grated; boil all together, let it grow cold, when it must be skimmed and bottled for use.

It may also be prepared as required, by putting a small piece of clarified fat with one ounce of coarse sugar, in an iron spoon, melting them together, and stirring in a little ketchup and pepper.

When good stock or consommé is prepared, it is very easy to form it into any kind of soup or sauce that may be required.

Take about three quarts of any strong stock, seasoned with a bunch of sweet herbs, a carrot, turnip, and a head of celery, which must not be served in the soup. Vermicelli, maccaroni, or thin slices of carrot and small sippets of fried bread cut in fancy shapes, are usually served in this soup.

Half boil a well-cleaned calf's head, then cut off all the meat in small square pieces, and break the bones; return it to the stew-pan, with some good stock made of beef and veal; dredge in flour, add fried shalot, pepper, parsley, tarragon, a little mushroom ketchup, and a pint of white wine; simmer gently until the meat is perfectly soft and tender. Balls of force-meat, and egg-balls, should be put in a short time before serving; the juice of a lemon is considered an improvement.

Take two chickens, cut them up small, as if for fricassee, flour them well, put them in a saucepan with four onions shred, a piece of clarified fat, pepper, salt, and two table spoonsful of curry powder; let it simmer for an hour, then add three quarts of strong beef gravy, and let it continue simmering for another hour; before sent to table the juice of a lemon should be stirred in it; some persons approve of a little rice being boiled with the stock, and a pinch of saffron is also sometimes added.

Take a knuckle of veal, stew it till half done, then cut off the greatest part of the meat, and continue to stew down the bone in the stock, the meat must be cut into small pieces and fried with six onions thinly sliced, and a table spoonful of curry powder, a desert spoonful of cayenne pepper and salt, add the stock and let the whole gently simmer for nearly an hour, flavouring it with a little Harvey's sauce and lemon pickle.

Take a variety of vegetables: such as celery, carrots, turnips, leeks, cauliflower, lettuce, and onions, cut them in shreds of small size, place them in a stew-pan with a little fine salad oil, stew them gently over the fire, adding weak broth from time to time; toast a few slices of bread and cut them into pieces the size and shape of shillings and crowns, soak them in the remainder of the broth, and when the vegetables are well done add all together and let it simmer for a few minutes; a lump of white sugar, with pepper and salt are sufficient seasoning.

Make a good gravy from shin of beef, and cut up very small various sorts of vegetables of whatever may be in season, add spices, pepper, and salt; when it is all stewed well down together, set it to cool and take off the fat, then place it again on the fire to boil, and add to two quarts of soup, one quarter of a pound of rice, beat two yolks of eggs with a little of the stock, and when the rice is quite tender, stir them into the soup, taking the precaution not to let the soup boil, and to stir always the same way.

Cut small pieces of any vegetables, and add pieces of smoked or salt beef, and also of any cold poultry, roast beef or mutton, stew all these together in two or three quarts of water, according to the quantity of meat, &c. It must be seasoned highly with whole peppers, allspice, mace, Jamaica pickles, and salt; it must be thoroughly stewed, and served, without straining, in a tureen.

Grate a pound of fine potatoes in two quarts of water, add to it the trimmings of any meat, amounting to about a pound in quantity, a cup of rice, a few sweet herbs, and a head of celery, stew well till the liquor is considerably reduced, then strain it through a sieve; if, when strained, it is too thin and watery, add a little thickening; it should be flavoured only with white pepper and salt.

Grate six carrots, and chop some onions with a lettuce, adding a few sweet herbs, put them all into a stewpan, with enough of good broth to moisten the whole, adding occasionally the remainder; when nearly done, put in the crumb of a French roll, and when soaked, strain the whole through a sieve, and serve hot in a tureen.

Take a dozen carrots scraped clean, rasp them, but do not use the core, two heads of celery, two onions thinly sliced, season to taste, and pour over a good stock, say about two quarts, boil it, then pass it through a sieve; it should be of the thickness of cream, return it to the saucepan, boil it up and squeeze in a little lemon juice, or add a little vinegar.

Stew a of veal, and a calf's foot, and one pound of chorissa, and a large fowl, in four quarts of water, add a piece of fresh lemon peel, six Jerusalem artichokes, a bunch of sweet herbs, a little salt and white pepper, and a little nutmeg, and a blade of mace; when the fowl is thoroughly done, remove the white parts to prepare for thickening, and let the rest continue stewing till the stock is sufficiently strong, the white parts of the fowl must be pounded and sprinkled with flower or ground rice, and stirred in the soup after it has been strained, until it thickens.

Break a knuckle of veal, place it in a stewpan, also a piece of chorissa, a carrot two onions, three or four turnips, and a blade of mace, pour over two or three quarts of water or weak broth, season with salt, a sprig of parsley, and whole white pepper; when sufficiently boiled, skim and strain it, and thicken with pounded vermicelli.

Make a fine strong stock from the shin of beef, or any other part preferred, and add, a short time before serving, a handful of vermicelli, which should be broken, so that it may be in pieces of convenient length, the stock should be more or less flavoured with vegetables, and herbs, according to taste.

Boil down half a shin of beef, four pounds of gravy beef and a calf's foot may be added, if approved, in three or four quarts of water; season with celery, carrots, turnips, pepper and salt, and a bunch of sweet herbs; let the whole stew gently for eight hours, then strain and let it stand to get cold, when the fat must be removed, then return it to the saucepan to warm up. Ten minutes before serving, throw in the balls, from which the soup takes its name, and which are made in the following manner:

Take half a pound of matso flour, two ounces of chopped suet, season with a little pepper, salt, ginger, and nutmeg; mix with this, four beaten eggs, and make it into a paste, a small onion shred and browned in a desert spoonful of oil is sometimes added; the paste should be made into rather large balls, and care should be taken to make them very light.

Take a dozen unpealed tomatas, with a bit of clarified suet, or a little sweet oil, and a small Spanish onion; sprinkle with flour, and season with salt and cayenne pepper, and boil them in a little gravy or water; it must be stirred to prevent burning, then pass it through a sieve, and thin it with rich stock to the consistency of winter pea-soup; flavour it with lemon juice, according to taste, after it has been warmed up and ready for serving.

Put a knuckle of veal and a calf's foot into two quarts of water, with a blade of mace and a bunch of sweet herbs, a turnip, a little white pepper, and salt; when sufficiently done, strain and skim it, and add balls of forced meat, and egg balls. A quarter of an hour before serving beat up the yolks of four eggs with a desert spoonful of lemon juice, and three ounces of sweet almonds blanched and beaten with a spoonful of powdered white sugar. This mixture is to be stirred into the soup till it thickens, taking care to prevent its curdling.

Take two quarts of strong stock made of gravy beef, add to this, carrots, turnips, leek, celery, brocoli, peas and French beans, all cut as small as possible, add a few lumps of white sugar, pepper, and salt, let it simmer till the vegetables are perfectly soft, and throw in a few force-meat balls.

Take eight pounds of gravy beef, with five pints of water, a few sweet herbs, and an onion shred, with a little pepper and salt; when the strength of the meat is sufficiently extracted, strain off the soup, and add to it a bundle of asparagus, cut small, with a little chopped parsley and mint; the asparagus should be thoroughly done. A few minutes before serving, throw in some fried bread cut up the size of dice; pound a little spinach to a pulp, and squeeze it through a cloth, stir about a tea-cup full of this essence into the soup, let it boil up after to prevent a raw taste.

Chop three lettuces, a large handful of spinach, a little chervil, a head of celery, two or three carrots, and four onions, put them on the fire with half a pound of butter, and let them fry till slightly browned, season with a little salt, sifted white sugar, and white pepper, stew all gently in five pints of boiling water for about two hours and a half, and just before serving the soup, thicken it with the beaten yolks of four eggs, mixed first with a little of the soup, and then stirred into the remainder.

Take a peck of peas, separate the old from the young, boil the former till they are quite tender in good stock, then pass them through a sieve, and return them to the stock, add the young peas, a little chopped lettuce, small pieces of cucumber fried to a light brown, a little bit of mint, pepper, and salt; two or three lumps of sugar give a fine flavor.

Soak a quart of white peas in water, boil them till soft, in as much water as will cover them, pass them through a sieve, and add them to any broth that may be ready, a little piece of chorissa or smoked beef will improve the flavour; this soup should be served with mint and fried bread.

Add to a fine strong well-seasoned beef stock, of about three quarts, two sets of giblets, which should be previously stewed separately in one quart of water (the gizzards require scalding for some time before they are put in with the rest); white pepper, salt, and the rind of lemon should season them; when they are tender, add them with their gravy to the stock, and boil for about ten minutes together, then stir in a glass of white wine, a table spoonful of mushroom ketchup, and the juice of half a lemon; it will require to be thickened with a little flour browned; the giblets are served in the soup.

Put in a stew-pan, a knuckle of mutton, or four pounds of the neck, with three quarts of water, boil it gently and keep it well skimmed; a sprig of parsley, a couple of sliced turnips, a carrot, an onion or more, if approved, with a little white pepper and salt, are sufficient seasonings a breakfast cup full of barley should be scalded and put in the stew-pan with the meat, if when done, the soup is thin and watery, a little prepared barley, mixed smoothly, should be stirred in.

Make a good stock, by simmering a cod's-head in water, enough to cover the fish; season it with pepper and salt, mace, celery, parsley, and a few sweet herbs, with two or three onions, when sufficiently done, strain it, and add cutlets of fish prepared in the following manner: cut very small, well-trimmed cutlets from any fish, sole or brill are perhaps best suited; stew them in equal quantities of water and wine, but not more than will cover them, with a large lump of butter, and the juice of a lemon; when they have stewed gently for about fifteen or twenty minutes, add them to the soup, which thicken with cream and flour, serve the soup with the cutlets in a tureen; force-meat balls of cod's liver are sometimes added.

Have two well cleaned tails and a neat's foot, cut them in small joints and soak them in water, put them in a stew-pan with a large piece of clarified suet or fat, and let them simmer for ten minutes, then put to them between three and four quarts of cold water, four onions, a bunch of sweet herbs, a carrot, a turnip, a head of celery, and season with whole pepper, allspice, two or three cloves, and salt; let it stew till the meat is tender enough to leave the bones, then remove it from them, as the bones are unsightly in the soup; thicken if necessary with browned flour, and just before serving, add a glass or more of port wine, and a little mushroom ketchup.

Chapter II

CHAPTER II.

Sauces.

Take a little good beef consommé, or stock, a small piece of smoked beef, or chorissa, a lemon sliced, some chopped shalots, a couple of onions shred, a bay leaf, two or three cloves, and a little oil; simmer gently, and add a little minced parsley, and a few chopped mushrooms: skim and strain.

The above may be rendered a Sauce Piquante by substituting a little vinegar, whole capers, allspice, and thyme, instead of the smoked beef and lemon; a few onions and piccalilli chopped finely, is a great addition when required to be very piquante.

A sauce like the above is very good to serve with beef that has been boiled for broth.

Take a little stock, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, add a little mushroom powder, cayenne pepper and salt; thicken with flour.

Chop some mushrooms, young and fresh, salt them, and put them into a saucepan with a little gravy, made of the trimmings of the fowl, or of veal, a blade of mace, a little grated lemon peel, the juice of one lemon; thicken with flour, and when ready to serve, stir in a table-spoonful of white wine.

Beat up the yolks of four eggs with the juice of a fine lemon, a tea-spoonful of flour, and a little cold water, mix well together, and set it on the fire to thicken, stirring it to prevent curdling. This sauce will be found excellent, if not superior, in many cases where English cooks use melted butter. If capers are substituted for the lemon juice, this sauce will be found excellent for boiled lamb or mutton.

Cut in small pieces from about four to five heads of celery, which if not very young must be peeled, simmer it till tender in half a pint of veal gravy, if intended for white sauce, then add a spoonful of flour, the yolks of three eggs, white pepper, salt, and the juice of one lemon, these should be previously mixed together with a little water till perfectly smooth and thin, and be stirred in with the sauce; cream, instead of eggs, is used in English kitchens.

Skin a dozen fine tomatos, set them on the fire in a little water or gravy, beat them up with a little vinegar, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and salt; some persons like the yolk of an egg, well beaten added. Strain or not, as may be preferred.

Take the feet, wash them, cut them small, also the neck and gizzard; season them with pepper and salt, onion, and parsley, let them simmer gently for some time, in about a breakfast-cup of water, then strain, thicken with flour, and add a little browning, and if liked, a small quantity of any store sauce at hand, and it will prove an excellent sauce.

Have a bare knuckle of veal, and a calf's foot or cow heel; put it into a stew-pan with a thick slice of smoked beef, a few herbs, a blade of mace, two or three onions, a little lemon peel, pepper and salt, and three or four pints of water (the French add a little tarragon vinegar). When it boils skim it, and when cold, if not clear, boil it a few minutes with the white and shell of an egg, and pass it through a jelly bag, this jelly with the juice of two or three lemons, and poured into a mould, in which are put the yolks of eggs boiled hard, forms a pretty supper dish.

Throw into a saucepan a piece of fat the size of an egg, with two or three onions sliced, let them brown; add a little gravy, flour, a little vinegar, a spoonful of mustard, and a little cayenne pepper, boil it and serve with the steaks.

Put on, in a small saucepan, a cup of water, well flavored with vinegar, an onion chopped fine, a little rasped horse-radish, pepper, and two or three cloves, and a couple of anchovies cut small, when it has boiled, stir carefully in the beaten yolks of two eggs, and let it thicken, until of the consistency of melted butter.

One teacup full of walnut pickle, the same of mushroom ditto, three anchovies pounded, one clove of garlic pounded, half a tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper, all mixed well together, and bottled for use.

Beat up a little salad-oil with a table-spoonful of vinegar, mustard, pepper and salt, and then stir in the yolk of an egg; this sauce should be highly seasoned. A sauce of this description is sometimes used to baste mutton while roasting, the meat should be scored in different places to allow the sauce to penetrate.

A little good gravy, with a glass of port wine, the juice of a lemon, highly seasoned with cayenne pepper.

Take a large onion and boil it, with a little pepper till quite soft, in milk, then take it out, and pour the milk over grated stale bread, then boil it up with a piece of butter, and dredge it with flour; it should be well beaten up with a silver fork.

The above can be made without butter or milk: take a large onion, slice it thin, put it into a little veal gravy, add grated bread, pepper, &c., and the yolk and white of an egg well beaten.

Slice some apples, put them in a little water to simmer till soft, beat them to a pulp; some consider a little powdered sugar an improvement, but as the acid of the apples is reckoned a corrective to the richness of the goose, it is usually preferred without.

Mix vinegar with brown sugar, let it stand about an hour, then add chopped mint, and stir together.

Slice finely, and brown in a little oil, two or three onions; put them in a little beef gravy, and add cayenne pepper, salt, and the juice of a lemon. This is a nice sauce for steaks.

Put some good butter into a cup or jar, and place it before the fire till it becomes an oil, then pour it off, so that all sediment may be avoided.

Cut some gravy beef into small pieces, put them in a jar, and set it in a saucepan of cold water to boil gently for seven or eight hours, adding, from time to time, more water as the original quantity boils away. The gravy thus made will be the essence of the meat, and in cases where nutriment is required in the smallest compass, will be of great service. Soups are stronger when the meat is cut, and gravy drawn before water is added.

Peel and slice as many truffles as required, simmer them gently with a little butter, when they are tender, add to them good white or brown consommé lemon juice, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a very little white wine.

Take about a pint of fine young button mushrooms, let them stew gently in a white veal gravy seasoned with salt, pepper, a blade of mace, and if approved, the grated peel of half a lemon, it should be thickened with flour and the yolk of an egg stirred in it, just before serving; English cooks add cream to this sauce.

The usual way of making sauces for puddings, is by adding sugar to melted butter, or thin egg sauce, flavoring it with white wine, brandy, lemon peel, or any other flavor approved of.

Although this sauce is one of the most simple, it is very rarely that it is well made. Mix with four ounces of butter, a desert spoonful of flour, when well mixed, add three table spoonsful of water, put it into a clean saucepan kept for the purpose, and stir it carefully one way till it boils; white sauce to throw over vegetables served on toast, is made in the same way, only putting milk and water, instead of water only.

Mix a table-spoonful of flour, with two of water, add a little wine, lemon peel grated, a small bit of clarified suet, of the size of a walnut, grated nutmeg, and sugar, put on in a saucepan, stirring one way, and adding water if too thick, lemon juice, or essence of noyeau, or almonds may be substituted to vary the flavour.

Chop up some onions, throw them into a saucepan with a bit of clarified fat, let them fry till brown, then add pepper, salt, a little gravy, mustard, lemon juice, and vinegar; boil it all, and pour over the steaks.

This is merely melted butter with a few pickled capers simmered in it, or they may be put into a sauce made of broth thickened with egg, and a little flour.

It is useful to select a variety of herbs, so that they may always be at hand for use: the following are considered to be an excellent selection, parsley, savory, thyme, sweet majoram, shalot, chervil, and sage, in equal quantities; dry these in the oven, pound them finely and keep them in bottles well stopped.

Mix chopped onion with an equal quantity of chopped sage, three times as much grated stale bread, a little shred suet, pepper, salt, and a beaten egg to bind it, this is generally used for geese and ducks, the onions are sometimes boiled first to render them less strong.

Boil two eggs hard, chop them finely, and warm them up in finely made melted butter, add a little white pepper, salt, a blade of mace, and a very small quantity of nutmeg.

Mix the yolk of an egg with oil, vinegar, chopped parsley, mustard, pepper, and salt; a spoonful of paté de diable or French mustard, renders the sauce more piquante.

Mix a little port wine in some gravy, two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, one of oil, a shalot minced, and a spoonful of mustard, just before the mutton is served, pour the sauce over it, then sprinkle it with fried bread crumbs, and then again baste the meat with the sauce; this is a fine addition to the mutton.

Cut some asparagus, or sprew, into half inch lengths, wash them, and throw them into half a pint of gravy made from beef, veal, or mutton thickened, and seasoned with salt, white pepper, and a lump of white sugar, the chops should be delicately fried and the sauce served in the centre of the dish.

Peel and cut in thick slices, one or more fresh cucumbers, fry them until brown in a little butter, or clarified fat, then add to them a little strong beef gravy, pepper, salt, and a spoonful of vinegar; some cooks add a chopped onion browned with the cucumbers.

Take out the seeds of some fresh young cucumbers, quarter them, and cut them into pieces of two inch lengths, let them lay for an hour in vinegar and water, then simmer them till thoroughly soft, in a veal broth seasoned with pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice; when ready for serving, pour off the gravy and thicken it with the yolks of a couple of eggs stirred in, add it to the saucepan; warm up, taking care that it does not curdle.