Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (96 page)

Some people find fried foods rather heavy on the stomach on account of the grease that these dishes absorb in the pan; nevertheless, the most tolerable fried foods are brains, sweetbreads, saddles, semolina fritters, milk-fed veal liver, lamb giblets, and plain liver. In addition, golden chicken I (recipe 205), chicken breasts with salted tongue (recipe 207), testicles (recipe 174), rice fritters II (recipe 179), tube pastries and pastry puffs (recipe 183), stuffed cutlets (recipe 220), milk-fed veal chops little bird style (recipe 221), stuffed bread morsels (recipe 223), kidney for lunch (recipe 292), sweetbread croquettes (recipe 197), basic rice croquettes (recipe 198), mixed fry Bolognese style (recipe 175), veal chops Roman style (recipe 222), and several similar dishes You’ll find listed under fried foods.

Boiled meats can be served with impunity when cooking for someone with a weak stomach. They can be accompanied by spinach cooked in butter or in a sauce, as long as they are chopped extremely fine. The healthiest greens are cardoons, zucchini, turnip greens, and asparagus. Green beans, if they are small, can also be part of the a convalescent’s diet. Boiled chicken or capon with rice as a side dish (recipe 245) are also appropriate, and do not forget boiled mutton, which is eminently suitable.

In addition to the vegetables mentioned in the previous paragraph, you can serve artichokes cooked straight up (recipe 418); artichoke cutlets (recipe 187); cardoon, spinach, artichoke and fennel molds
(recipes 389, 390, 391 and 392); fried and stewed eggplant (recipes 400 and 401); celery as a side dish (recipe 413); and artichokes in sauce (recipe 416).

Here you can serve semolina dumplings (recipe 230); Roman-style dumplings (recipe 231); pan-cooked artichokes (recipe 246).

The following dishes are suitable: capon galantine (recipe 366); capon cooked in a bladder (recipe 367); roasted saddle of pork (recipe 369); corned tongue (recipe 360); and liver loaf (recipe 374).

The healthiest and most delicate stews are, in my opinion, the following:
fricassée
(recipe 256); chicken giblets
fricassée
(recipe 257); chicken souffle (recipe 259); sautéed or pan-broiled beef cutlets (recipe 262); stuffed loin of mutton (recipe 296); chicken in egg sauce (recipe 266); sautéed chicken breasts (recipe 269) with lemon juice; braised top round of beef (recipe 299); “drowned” rump roast (recipe 301); veal chops Livorno style (recipe 302); milk-fed veal cutlets in egg sauce (recipe 311); cutlets with prosciutto (recipe 313); French-style dumplings (recipe 317); milk-fed veal stew (recipe 325); fillet with Marsala wine (recipe 340); fillet Parisian style (recipe 341); Signora Adele’s gruyere mold (recipe 346); stew in a shell (recipe 350); chicken or capon galantine (recipe 366); and finally, as a most appetizing dish, veal in tuna sauce (recipe 363).

The most digestible ordinary fish are hake and cod, particularly if grilled or boiled and seasoned only with oil and lemon juice. Also suitable are sole, turbot, sturgeon, umber, weever, sea bream, gilt head, dogfish (see recipe 464 for dogfish rounds in sauce), and also fried or grilled mullet. But do not serve any blue fish, since those are the least digestible varieties.
¹⁴⁸

Being an analogous substance to the human body, meats can generally be easily assimilated if roasted, as long as they are not tough and fibrous. Poultry is the preferable meat in this context, especially Guinea hen (recipe 546), and milk-fed veal. Steak Florentine style (recipe 556) may also be suitable, especially the fillet cut; as well as pan-fried steak (recipe 557); sauteed or pan-broiled beef cutlets (recipe 262) or roast beef (recipes 521 and 522). You can also serve milk-fed veal cutlet Milanese style (recipe 538), and mutton chops, which are excellent. Also suitable are roast of milk-fed veal (recipe 524); roasted milk-fed veal chops with sage (recipe 327); roast leg of mutton (recipe 530); or leg of kid on a spit or pot roast (recipe 526), quail (recipe 536), chicken Rudinì (recipe 544); and turkey prepared like Guinea hen (recipe 546). Braised pot roast (recipe 526) is excellent with a side dish of peas, as long as they do not upset your stomach. Squab meat, the meat of full-grown turkey, and of birds in general are considered very nutritious but high in calories; therefore, serve them sparingly until a more opportune time.

There are few salads that I can identify as being healthy, but if I were you I would favor the following: cooked radicchio mixed with beets which you will bake in the oven if they are large or boil if small; asparagus (recipe 450), zucchini (recipes 376, 377 and 378) and very young green beans (recipe 380).

As far as desserts are concerned, I will leave the choice up to you and you can, with a little common sense, judge which ones are suitable. However, I will warn you that shortcrust pastry and puff pastry doughs are difficult to digest, as are all doughs made without yeast. If you suffer from constipation, I recommend cooked apples and pears, stewed prunes, apricots and pear compote, and, as long as milk does not bother you, you can have milk
brûlé
(recipe 692), milk Portuguese style (recipe 693), as well as milk pudding (recipes 694 and 695).

Use only fruit that is in good condition, ripe and in season. In the winter, avoid dried fruits, and eat dates, oranges and mandarins; and don’t forget the prickly pear which, when accompanied by a piece of cheese of your choice (as long as your stomach will tolerate it) is, as everyone knows, an appetizing morsel. In other seasons you can have a few varieties of grapes (the excellent white “salamanna,” muscatel and the red “aleatico”); spadona pears, which are very juicy, greengage plums, butter peaches, black cherries, apricots, and apples if they are tender. However, sacrifice gluttony a little, and do without strawberries, which can cause trouble on account of their many little seeds; large strawberries may be less dangerous but are also less flavorful.

You can have ice cream, especially fruit ices, at the end of a meal or once digestion is complete.

I think that dry white wine is the most suitable for the table of someone with a weak stomach, and I consider Orvieto wine to be excellent on account of its pleasant taste and because it is very digestible. This wine can also be served with dessert, which you can also accompany with vin santo, Asti spumante, and Malaga wine, as well as other similar wines you can find on the market—but can one trust those products? As far as liqueurs are concerned, you would do well to exclude them from your diet, because use can turn into abuse and this could be fatal. The only exception is cognac, without abusing it, however, and only that which costs more than 6 or 7 lire a bottle.

And in conclusion, I’ll echo the poet:

I’ve set the board: henceforth ‘tis yours to eat.
¹⁴⁹

Since it often happens that having to prepare a dinner, one cannot decide what to serve, I thought it might be useful to describe for you in this appendix a number of menus, two for each month of the year, and an additional ten for the main holidays. For the holidays, the choice of fruit is better dictated by what is in season than by me. Even if you do not follow my suggestions to the letter, this will at least provide you with some ideas that will make your choices easier.

I.

Soup:
tortellini Bolognese style (recipe 9).

Boiled course:
capon with rice as a side dish (recipe 245).

Fried dish:
tube pastries (recipe 183); sweetbread croquettes (recipe 197).

Entremets:
zampone or cotechino with potato pie (recipes 446 or 447).

Vegetables:
side dish of celery (recipe 412).

Roast:
thrushes (recipe 528) and green salad.

Dessert:
almond cake (recipe 579), Cesarino pudding (recipe 671).

Fruit and cheese:
pears, apples, oranges and dried fruits.

II.

Soup:
soup with semolina dumplings (recipe 23), soup with potato fritters (recipe 29).

Boiled course:
poached fish (recipe 459) with a side dish.

Stew:
sweet-and-sour wild boar or hare (recipe 285).

Entremets:
puff pastries with meat stuffing (recipe 161).

Roast:
roast beef with potatoes and green salad (recipe 521 or 522).

Dessert:
sponge cake (recipe 576), blancmange or white almond pudding (recipe 681).

Fruit and cheese:
pears, apples, mandarin oranges and a selection of dried fruits.

I.

Soup:
tortellini Italian style (recipe 8).

Boiled course:
chicken and veal with side dish of spinach (recipe 448)

Cold dish:
hare loaf (recipe
373
).

Entremets:
clams in egg sauce (recipes 498).

Stew:
milk-fed veal cutlets with truffles Bolognese style (recipe 312)

Roast:
birds and woodcocks (recipe 528) and green salad.

Dessert:
Savarin (recipe 563); French-style custard (recipe 688)

Fruit and cheese:
pears, apples, and a selection of dried fruits.

II.

Soup:
soup with meat stuffing (recipe 32)

Appetizers:
a variety of canapes (recipe “3)

Boiled course:
pullet with mashed potatoes (recipe 443), side dish of Savoy cabbage (recipe 453).

Stew:
meat and macaroni pie (recipe 349)

Roast:
Guinea hen (recipe 546) and squab.

Dessert:
sweet pizza Neapolitan style (recipe 609), ice cream mold (recipe 753)

Fruit and cheese:
pears, apples, mandarin oranges and dried fruits.

I.

Soup:
frog soup (recipe 64), soup Carthusian style (recipe
66
).

Appetizers:
canapés with caviar and anchovies (recipe “3).

Entremets:
seafood pie (recipe 502).

Vegetables:
spinach mold (recipe 390).

Roast:
grilled fish with sauce (recipe 131).

Dessert:
chick-pea fritters (recipe 624), chilled whipped custard (recipe 689)

Fruit:
pears, apples, oranges and dried fruits.

II.

Soup:
passatelli noodle soup (recipe 20)

Boiled course:
a large fish with mayonnaise (recipe 126)

Stew:
mutton chops and veal fillet with
financière
sauce (recipe 338)

Entremets:
canapes with capers (recipe 108)

Roast:
roasted stuffed rib steak (recipe 537)

Dessert:
Mantuan cake (recipe 577), custard ice cream (recipe 759), nougat ice cream (recipe 768)

Fruit and cheese:
a variety of fruits and soft cookies (recipe 571).

I.

Soup:
soup with little bricks of ricotta cheese (recipe 25)

Boiled course:
veal with asparagus in white sauce (recipe 124)