Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (40 page)

If you should have, by chance, a piece of lean veal weighing between 700 and 800 grams (about 1-1/2 and 1-2/3 pounds) without the bone, lard it with 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of lardoons, first seasoning the lardoons—each one finger thick—as well as the meat, with salt and pepper. Tie up the veal to hold it together, and put on the fire half-covered in water with two sage leaves, a sprig of rosemary and half a clove of garlic. If the meat is very ripe, use less water. Once the water has boiled off, sprinkle a teaspoon of flour on the meat and let it brown; add a small pat of butter, then moisten with a ladleful of broth and one finger’s worth of Marsala wine. Strain the sauce but without forcing it through, then pour it over the meat before sending the dish to the table.

Take a solid piece of milk-fed veal, taken from the haunch, and lard it with untrimmed prosciutto. Tie the piece and salt very little, or better yet not at all, because over-salting is the worst defect in food. Spike an onion with two cloves and prepare a
bouquet garni
with carrot strips, celery and parsley. Put everything in a saucepan with a small pat of butter, brown the meat and then simmer in broth until cooked.

When done, throw away the onion and the
bouquet garni
, strain the sauce, skim off the fat, then cook down to the consistency of gelatin. Then it is ready to be added to the
fricandeau
when you send it to the table.

It should be pointed out here that broth (which plays such in large role in preparing dishes) may not always be available. For that reason some people stock up on Liebig meat concentrate, which in a pinch, dissolved in water, may replace broth.

Every variety of meat should be larded following the grain of the flesh, so that it can be carved diagonally.

Fricassée
may be made with breast or another lean cut of milk-fed veal, lamb or chicken. Let’s use the first item, veal breast, as our example—approximately the same quantities may be used for the other cuts as well.

500 grams (about 1 pound) of breast of milk-fed veal

50 grams (1-2/3 ounces) of butter

5 grams (about 1/6 of an ounce) or 1 scant tablespoon of flour

2 deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of hot but not boiling water

2 egg yolks

1/2 a lemon

1 bouquet garni

Break up the breast of veal, leaving the bones. Put in a saucepan with half the butter, and when it starts to melt, add the flour and stir until it turns nut brown. Now start adding the water a little at a time and throw in the
bouquet garni
, which you can make with strips of onion and of carrot, as well as stalks of parsley, celery and basil, all tied together. Leave out the leaves, because they may dissolve and spoil the appearance of the
fricassee
, which should be of a lovely uniform straw color. When the water boils, add the meat and the rest of the butter, then season with salt and white pepper, which is the flower of ordinary pepper. Cover the saucepan with a sheet of paper held firmly in place by the lid, and allow to simmer slowly. When it is two-thirds done, remove the
bouquet garni
, and if it is fresh mushroom season, you can make the
fricassée
more delicious by adding between 100 and 150 grams (about 3-1/2 and 5-1/4 ounces) of thinly sliced mushrooms. Otherwise, use a pinch of the dried variety.

When you are about to send the
fricassée
to the table, remove the saucepan from the burner and stir in the egg yolks, whisked in lemon juice, a little at a time.

If you are making chicken
fricassée
, cut the chicken into pieces along the joints, leaving out the head, neck and feet. In all other respects, prepare as described above.

Fricassée
made in this way is a healthy and refined dish that particularly delights those whose palates have not been spoiled by strong and spicy flavors.

Cibreo is a simple but delicate dish, appropriate for ladies with listless appetites and for convalescents.

Take some chicken livers (first remove the gall bladder as indicated in recipe 110), coxcombs and testicles. Use boiling water to skin the coxcombs, then cut them into two or three pieces, and slice the livers in half. Put on the fire in an appropriate amount of butter, first the coxcombs, then the livers, and lastly the testicles. Season with salt and pepper, then cook until done, adding broth if necessary.

Depending on the amounts you are using, place one or two egg yolks in a small pan together with one or half a teaspoon of flour, some lemon juice and hot broth, whisking constantly so that the egg does not clump up. Once the giblets are cooked, pour this sauce over them, and allow to simmer for a while, adding more broth if needed to give the sauce a light consistency, then serve.

To serve one person, use three or four coxcombs, the same number of chicken livers and six or seven testicles, plus one egg yolk, half a teaspoon of flour, and half a lemon.

The ram testicles described in recipe 174, boiled and cut in thin slices, are also quite good prepared in this manner.

To bone a chicken, the simplest way is the following: cut off the neck half way down, the tips of the wings, and the feet along the shin joint. Then, without gutting the bird, open its back lengthwise along the surface, from the wings to the rump. With a very sharp paring knife, start taking out the bones from inside the wings, stripping out the flesh as you go along. Then do the same with the thigh and leg bones and the outer bones of the carcass, scraping away continually with the knife, until you can remove the carcass whole, including the entrails. Leave the little bones in the gizzard intact, or else remove the whole gizzard, then lift the wishbone from the breast.

Having done this, turn the now boneless legs and the wings, pulling them inward, and remove any tendons you find in the meat.

Once the chicken has been boned, and assuming it is rather large, prepare the stuffing with about 300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) of lean milk-fed veal. If the bird is small, reduce the quantity. Mince the veal finely, then grind it in a mortar until very soft. Then add to the meat a good portion of crustless bread soaked in broth, a handful of grated Parmesan cheese, three egg yolks, salt and pepper, and a dash of nutmeg if you like. Lastly, add 20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of untrimmed prosciutto and 20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of salted tongue, both diced into small cubes. Once you have stuffed the bird, sew it up, wrap tightly in a cheesecloth, and tie up. Simmer in water for a couple of hours over a slow flame. Then remove the wrapping and brown it, first in butter and then in a sauce prepared as follows.

Break all the bones you have removed from the chicken, as well as the neck and head. Then put all of this in a saucepan on the fire with minced bacon, some butter, onion, celery and carrot. Season with salt and pepper, and draw out their juices by adding the water in which you have boiled the chicken, which by now has turned into good broth.

Before sending it to the table, either alone or with a side dish, remove the thread you have used to sew the stuffing inside.

This nourishing, light and not very exciting dish may come in handy, if, after a meal, you have some leftover roast chicken (breast and thighs), particularly if you are serving some older people in the family, or other members with sensitive and weak stomachs.

80 grams (about 2-2/3 ounces) of skinless chicken meat

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of flour

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of grated Parmesan cheese

2-1/2 deciliters (about 1 cup) of milk

4 eggs

a pinch of salt

Prepare a bechamel with the butter, the flour and the milk. When done but no longer boiling hot, add the Parmesan cheese, the salt, the egg yolks and the chicken, finely minced with a mezzaluna. Then beat the whites until they are stiff and add carefully to the mixture. Pour everything into an ovenproof platter, brown lightly in a Dutch oven, and serve hot, though it is also delicious cold.

1 gutted pullet, weighing about 700 grams (about 1-1/2 pound
)

300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) of rice

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of butter

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of untrimmed prosciutto

1 onion of more than average size

1 piece of carrot

a small handful of dried mushrooms

Tie up the pullet to hold it all well together, then place in a saucepan the prosciutto, cut into small strips, and 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of the butter. Slice the onion and carrot on top, then put the bird in breast downward, seasoning with salt and pepper. Keep it covered and, when it has browned on both sides, finish cooking by adding hot water a little at a time. Take care to have enough sauce left to flavor the rice, and remember to strain it.

Put the rice on the fire with half of the remaining butter, and without other condiments or spices. Cook in hot water, adding the sauce from the pullet at the end. When completely done, add the remaining butter, and, to give it better flavor, a good handful of grated Parmesan cheese.

Cook the liver and giblets together with the bird, then chop them up and mix into the rice. Prepared in this way, the rice may also be served as a first course and should do for three people. But in that case, serve the chicken separately in its own sauce, with the mushrooms as a side dish.

The roasted and stuffed beef cutlets described in recipe 537 can also be stewed. Brown in butter and finish cooking with water and tomato sauce (recipe 6). They can be served with any side dish.

When for a luncheon instead of steak you would like to serve beef cutlets, which can turn out too dry when grilled, cook them in the following way, and they will turn out very well. Pound the cutlets thoroughly with the blunt edge of a knife, and put on the fire with an appropriate amount of butter. Season with salt and pepper, turning often so that they brown on both sides. When the meat has absorbed nearly all of the butter, moisten twice with a splash of water, and when it is cooked, sprinkle a pinch of chopped parsley over it, keeping it just another moment on the flame. Serve in its own sauce.

If you like, you can accompany these cutlets with fried potatoes.

Take a young chicken and stud it with several sprigs of rosemary and with a clove of garlic cut into four or five pieces. Put on the fire with a little finely minced lardoon and season inside and out with salt and pepper. When it has browned all over, add chopped, seeded tomatoes, and when the tomatoes have dissolved moisten with broth or water. In a different pan, brown some raw potato wedges in oil, lard, or butter. Then flavor them with the juice from the chicken, and serve as a side dish. For a more delicate taste, use butter instead of lardoon.

Cut the chicken into large pieces and put it in a saucepan with some finely chopped onion and a bit of butter. Season with salt and pepper and when it has nicely browned, add some broth and cook until done. Strain the sauce, skim off the fat if necessary, and put the chicken back on the fire in a little Marsala wine. Remove as soon as it starts to boil again.