Foie Gras in Aspic
INGREDI- ENTS for 1½ pint shape.-11 pint of aspic jelly, a few sprays of chervil, a small piece of truffle, a small pot of foie gras paté.
AVERAGE COST, 2s. 6d.
Melt the jelly, and coat a border mould with it. In this, arrange small dice of the truffle and sprays of the chervil, then add a little more jelly. Cut the foie gras in thin slices about 1 inch square, and arrange them with the remainder of the truffle and chervil, with jelly, between in the mould till it is full. When cold, turn out and fill the centre with fresh cut salad.
SEASONABLE at any time.
FONDUE.
Fondue. INGREDIENTS for dish sufficient for 4 or 5 persons.-4 eggs, the weight of 2 in Parmesan or good Cheshire cheese, the weight of one in butter; pepper and salt to taste. AVERAGE COST, 10d.
Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs; beat the former in a basin, and grate the cheese, or cut it into very thin flakes.
Parmesan or Cheshire cheese may be used, whichever is the most convenient, although the former is considered more suitable for this dish; or an equal quantity of each may be used. Break the butter into small pieces, add to it the other ingredients, with sufficient pepper and salt to season nicely, and beat the mixture thoroughly. Well whisk the whites of the eggs, stir them lightly in, and either bake the fondue in a soufflé-dish or small round cake-tin. Fill the dish only half full, as the fondue should rise very much. Pin a napkin round the tin or dish, and serve very hot and very quickly. If allowed to stand after it is withdrawn from the oven, the beauty and lightness of this preparation will be entirely spoiled.
TIME. From 15 to 20 minutes.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Fondue, Brillat Savarin's. (An excellent Recipe.)-- INGREDIENTS. - Eggs, cheese, butter, pepper and salt.
Take the same number of eggs as there are guests; weigh the eggs in the shell, allow a third of their weight in Gruyère cheese, and a piece of butter one-sixth the weight of the cheese. Break the eggs into a basin, beat them well; add the cheese, which should be grated, and the butter, which should be broken into small pieces.
Stir these ingredients together with a wooden spoon; put the mixture into a lined saucepan, place it over the fire, and stir it until the substance is thick and soft.
Put in a little salt, according to the age of the cheese, and a good sprinkling of pepper, and serve the fondue on a very hot silver or metal plate. Do not allow the fondue to remain on the fire after the mixture is set, as, if it boils, it will be entirely spoiled.
Brillat Savarin recommends that some choice Burgundy should be handed round with this dish. We have given this recipe exactly as he recommends it to be made; but we have tried it with good Cheshire cheese, and found it answer remarkably well. ture.
TIME.-About 4 minutes to set the mix- SEASONABLE at any time.
FOOD FOR INFANTS.
Food for Infants, and its Preparation. The articles generally employed as food for infants consist of arrowroot, bread, flour, baked flour, prepared groats, farinaceous food, biscuit-powder, biscuits, tops-and-bottoms, and semolina, or manna croup, as it is otherwise called, which, like tapioca, is the prepared pith of certain vegetable substances. Of this list, the least efficacious, though, perhaps, the most believed in, is arrowroot, which only as a mere agent, for change, and then only for a very short time, should ever be employed as a means of diet in infancy or childhood. It is thin, flatulent and innutritious food, and incapable of supporting infantile life and energy. Bread, though the universal régime with the labouring poor, where the infant's stomach and digestive powers are a reflex, in minature, of the father's, should never be given to an infant under three months, and, even then, however finely beaten up and smoothly made, is a very questionable diet. Flour, when well boiled, though infinitely better than arrowroot, is still only a kind of fermentative paste, that counteracts its own good by after-acidity and flatulence.
Baked flour, when cooked into a pale brown mass, and finely powdered, makes a far superior food to the others, and may be considered as a very useful diet, especially for a change. Prepared groats may be classed with arrowroot and raw flour, as innutritious.
We may observe in this place that an occasional change in the character of the food is highly desirable, both as regards the health and benefit of the child; and, though the interruption should only last for a day, the change will be advantageous.
The packets sold as farinaceous food are unquestionably the best aliment that can be given from the first to a baby, and may be continued, with the exception of an occasional change, without alteration of the material, till the child is able to take its regular meals of animal and vegetable food. Some infants are so constituted as to require a frequent and a total change in their system of living, seeming to thrive for a certain time on any food given to them, but if persevered in, too long, declining in bulk and appearance as rapidly as they had previously progressed.
In such cases, the food should be immediately changed, and when that which appeared to agree best with the child is resumed, it should be altered in its quality, and perhaps in its consistency.
For the farinaceous food, there are direc- Curried Lobster Filleted Soles.
Whiting.
Boiled Cod.
Baked Haddock.
Mackerel Scolloped Oysters.
Boiled Salmon.
Fish. nore ENTS FOOD FOR INFANTS. tions with each packet, containing instructions for the making; but whatever the food employed is, enough should be made at once to last the day and night; at first, about a pint basinful, but, as the child advances, a quart will hardly be too much.
In all cases, let the food boil a sufficient time, constantly stirring, and taking every precaution that it does not get burnt, in which case it is on no account to be used.
The food should always be made with water, the whole sweetened at once, and of such a consistency that, when poured out, and it has had time to cool, it will cut with the firmness of a pudding or custard. One or two spoonfuls are to be put into the pap saucepan and stood on the hob till the heat has softened it, when enough milk is to be added, and carefully mixed with the food, till the whole has the consistency of ordinary cream; it is then to be poured into the nursing-bottle, and the food having been drawn through to warm the nipple, it is to be placed in the child's mouth. For the first month or more, half a bottleful will be quite enough to give the infant at one time; but, as the child grows, it will be necessary not only to increase the quantity given at each time, but also gradually to make its food more consistent, and, after the third month, to add an egg to every pint basin of food made. At night, the mother puts the food into the covered pan of her lamp, instead of the saucepan-that is, enough for one supply, and, having lighted the rush, she will find, on the waking of her child, the food sufficiently hot to bear the cooling addition of the milk. But, whether night or day, thesame food should never be heated twice, and what the child leaves should be thrown away.
FORCEMEAT, FRENCH. when cold, in the same manner as the other.
This makes an admirable food, at once nutritious and strengthening. When topsand-bottoms or rusks are used, the quantity of the egg may be reduced, or altogether omitted.
Semolina, or manna croup, being in little hard grains, like a fine millet-seed, must be boiled for some time, and the milk, sugar and egg added to it on the fire, and boiled for a few minutes longer, and, when cold, used as the other preparations.
Many persons entertain a belief that cow's milk is hurtful to infants, and, consequently, refrain from giving it; but this is a very great mistake, for both sugar and milk should form a large portion of every meal an infant takes. The only objection, moreover, is, that the milk from different cows varies in quality; and for this reason condensed milk is preferred for infant's food.