Savoury Dishes: How to Improve Them.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1997, 25 April 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Savoury Dishes : How to Improve Them.

Nn.LicT of appearances is a very common failing even in many well-to-do households, especially as regards edibles generally ; though, to take for instance so homely and unattractive a dish as boiled beef or mutton.how much more appetising it becomeß when some of the vegetables usually served with it are cut into various shapes with fancy cutters, and placed round the meat ! These cutters may be bought for very little in most large towns, at shops that deal iv novelties, and may be had to imitate all kinds of fruit, besides stars, leaves, curls, and so on. They will bo found equally handy for use in many other ways, as I will ende«vor to point out. A3 regards the appearance of fish, few things blend more harmoniously than a delicately-boiled white fish sprinkled with lobster ccral, surrounded by slices of lemon and sprigs of fennel or parsley. However, it is to cold savouries that the greater share of attention must be f?iven, for it is in the preparation of dainty di3hes for festive occasions that one feels most inclined to give extra time and trouble to their ornamentation. Here, again, parsley and fennel —most homely, yet most graceful and beautiful of garnitures — will render good service. Indeed, quite artistic results may be obtained if lemon, hard eggs, butter, raw potatoes, carrots, and turnips, with some boiled beetroot, are handy, as well us a*pic jelly, if possible, as it is difficult to dispense with it ijoraetimes. It must be borne in mind that there are two kinds of " savoury jelly," one which is merely the gravy in which something has been cooked— say, veal, chicken, or rabbit for filling a mould, to bo served as moulded meat ; the said f>ravy, being reduced and mixed with dissolved gelatine, is theu simply strained through a sieve or cloth, and poured into the mould with the meat. In this oase it is only moderately clear, but " aepic jelly " is the same thing put through a jellybag and cleared with eg!»s, ju^t as sweet jelly is ; and this trouble must be taken when the jelly is required to form a glistening heap round a glazed fowl, and many other similar things. But as often not more than a pint is needed, and as that quantity may be bought from the grooer for fifteenpence or eightepnpence, it is cheaper to buy than to make it. The same thing may be said of glaze — an ounce of which, costing about threepence, will ornament several dishes, such as a tongue and a couple of fowls, or their equal. The glaze should be cut up into a cup or jar, and a tablespoonful of water addeJ. It should then be set into a saucepan of boiling wator, and allowed to melt gradually until quite liquid ; and after it is brushed over the meat, it must be left to set before any other daooration, such as butter, is dotted about it, as the warm glaze would run into, and spoil the appearance of, the butter. With reference to the latter, there are two ways of using it for decorative purposes. One is to melt it, and pour it into a small cone made of writing-paper, which should be held in the left hand, the thumb and finger of the right hand regulating the stream of butter through the small bole in the point of the cone. In this way many devices may be made, or mottoep suited to the occasion I written upon the article under treatment. Some one with a talent for drawing, or who writes a good bold band, will best succeed in this task. Lard may be used instead of butter in this case, but not in the following form of decoration, as it would be too soft. Hub with a wooden spoon through a coarse hair sieve (a wire one would turn the butter green) some firm butter, cut into slices; reverse the sieve, and you will find the butter in little curly tufts ; take them up carefully on the point of a penknife or wooden skewer, and dot about the meat according to fancy. This is far easier than the " melting " prooeas, which requires practice to obtain good results. Where a turkey or large piece of pressed beef has been glazed, thia " sieved " butter may be formed into monograms, initials, or words, the small letters of which should be the size of the large hand of our "first copy-book" days. A ham, for instance, glazed, and then finished off in this way, with plenty of parsley on the dish, is rendered quite attractive. I may mention in passing that, when paraley is scarce, carrot-tops, if young and green, will answer very well. To finish tho butter part of the business, however : another way to introduce it in a really artistic form is in combination with potted meats. Many people put several kinds upon their tablo in oval or round moulds, and never give a thought to servo it out of the mould in pretty shapes ; yet it is very easy to imitate almost anything, animate or inanimate, after a little practice. I ha\e seen various kinds of fish and birds copied in this way — wonderfully true to nature, so far as their shape went ; but I would advise amateurs to commence with two of the most Bimple shapes, viz., baskets and Cleopatra's needle. The first may be round, oval, or square, the meat being passed into a basin, pie dish, or cake-tin — in fact, anything at liberty for the purpose. It must then be turned out on to a dish, and ornamented with the butter, iirst all round the top and bottom edges in little curly knobs close together, to form the rim, or framework, then all over the sides in thinner streaks to represent the wicker-work ; but if trouble is an object, this may be dispensed with, and only tho top and bottom edges oovered. The top of the basket must next receive attention. The butter should be dotted about to imitate the lid as muoh as possible ; and hard-boiled eggs, cut into slices, arranged in a pattern in the centre, with hero and there a dot of parsley, will have a nice effect. For the handle, bend a piece of cap-wire— of the kind used by milliners — and insert each end into the meat to make it firm, then lay the butter on co as to cover the wire. A border of

parsley, with a few quarter-slices of_ lemon and fancy shapes of beetroot to garnish the di^'n, finish off this inexpensive dainty. The kinds of meat usually prefeired are beef, tongue, ham and chicken, or ham and veal. Lobster and salmon, too, may be used in the same way, and then lobater coial may be spiinkled ovor the butter, to ita groat improvement, and shriiops or prawns, or tno small claw? of a lobster, used as garniah with the p^rrflcy. For a Cleopatra's needle, the meat must br moulded by hand into the shape. The size, of cour&e, must bo regulated by choice and requirement ; but even if the party is a large one, half a-dozen neadles six or eight inches in height will look prettier than one or two larger ones. Set each on a small plate— of "laa?, if you ean — and cover the four sides of the " needle" with the butter, laid on in little irregular lines, as muoh like a page of short-imnd-writiDg a3 anything I can compare it with; garnish the base of the needle with parsley. A word now about aapic jolly, a little of which goes a long way. Supposing you have three or four dishes in which you purpose introducing it, a portion Bhould be poured upon a dish or plate in a thin layer, which, when set, can bn cut into strips, diamonds, triangles, or accordiug to fancy. Another portion can be poured into a plate or saucer to set, then roughly chopped. Alternate heaps of this aud parsley, with here and there a dash of beetroot, round a dish of chicken cutlets, for example, is a very pretty though inexpensive decoration. The strips of jelly look pretty laid in a a pattern over the breast of a turkey or chioken previously glazed, while the fancy shapes arc suitable for laying on or placing among dishes of cutlets. When poultry or white meats are served with a coating of "white aauce," aspic jelly need be sparingly used, hard eggs and lemons, with plenty of beetroot and carrots, being more suitable, as a good supply of color is necessary. Fish in jelly look very nice — filleted soles being, perhaps, the moBt popular. White game and poultry of all kindB may be Berved in the same way. A pretty device should first be made in the top of the mould. For fish, pour in a little jelly— say a quarter of an inch deep— and when it is almost set, lay in small pieces of beetroot and the outside of a pickled walnut also cut very small, with some leaves of parsley, forming a pretty pattern ; or the sUn of a chili may take the place of beetroot. Next pour in a little more jelly, which must be left to set ; after that, the fish, filling up with jelly. In moulded meats, the pattern on the top may be formed of slices of boiled tongue cut into leaves or cockscomb shapes, with hard-boiled eggs and parsley. Tiny leaves cut from pickled gherkins may also be effectively introduced. Watercress, perhaps, is among the least used of our aalads for the purpoae of garnishing, though it might ofteu take the place of endive at far less oost. It is especially ueeful for garnishing cold fowl, teing so often eaten with it ; and small banchea of it eaten with grated horseradish, round a piece of cold beef, improve its appearance considerably. Truly tho way 3 of decorating salads are manifold, the chief thing to bear in mind being a judicious arrangement of color and of suitable ingredients. I mean that each salad should have a distinctive embellishment, such as prawns or shrimps on a fish salad, and aspic jelly, Blicc3 of tongue, eggs, &c, for one of meat or poultry. In conclusion, I would remind my readers that my remarks in a previous paper as to the unauitability of a dinner-service with much blue in the pattern for sweet diahes requiring garniahinfr, apply with equal or even greater force to those enumerated in the present paper; and I would advise those who are about to purchase a now service, that the less color there is in it, and the neater the pattern, the greater will be their chance of making attractive anything placed upon it. L.'fli un \ge, in Cassel's Magazine.