Puree Of White Beans

New white beans are the best suited for making a puree. Put them into boiling water if they be fresh, and in cold water if they be dry, with a little butter in either case, which makes the skin more mellow. When they are done, throw in a handful of salt, to give them a seasoning. Fry a few slices of onion in a little butter; when they are of a nice brown colour, singez them with half a spoonful of flour; moisten with gravy of veal, and season with a little salt and pepper, and skim off the grease. When the flour is done, mix it well with the beans, let them boil fifteen minutes, squeeze them well before you rub them through the tammy. Let your puree be rather liquid, as it gets thick when on the fire. A short time before it is sent up, mix with your beans a small bit of butter, and then serve up.

The puree en maigre is prepared in the same manner; but instead of sauce grasse, you use jus maigre, or milk. If you wish to make it white, you must sweat the onions gently and slowly, that they may not get brown.

* Singez, is patting some flour into the stew-pan.

Puree Of Mushrooms, White And Brown

If you wish to make a white puree of mushrooms, you must then turn the mushrooms white in a little water and lemon-juice: chop them; then put them into a stew-pan, with a very small bit of butter. When the mushrooms are what we call melted, moisten them with four or six spoonfuls of veloute. Do not let them boil long, for fear they should lose their taste and colour. Then rub them through a tammy. It is no easy matter, indeed, with regard to mushrooms, yet this sauce is called puree of mushrooms.

It is almost useless to observe, that for the brown puree, it is enough to moisten with some Espagnole only. If you were to fry the mushrooms brown, they then would turn black, and make the sauce of the like colour. Skim your sauce. Put a little sugar into both. All such sauces as are called puree, must be made thicker than others.

Puree Of Green Peas, New And Dry

The puree of green peas for an entree, is prepared in the same manner as that described for potage or soup. You must only keep it thicker, and richer, which is done by mixing a little glaze with it. But if you were to put too much, the puree then would no longer retain its green colour; neither must you let it boil, for it will lose its green colour.

The puree of dry peas is made as follows. Stew the peas with a large piece of bacon, the breast part, a few carrots and onions, a bunch of parsley and green onions, a little thyme, and bay-leaves, and some cold water. Let them boil four hours. When quite done, pound them in a mortar, and then rub them through a tammy, with the liquor they have been boiling in. Let it be properly seasoned, and a short time before you send up, pour in a verd de persil, or verd d'epinards, to make it green.

Puree Of Chestnuts

Take some fine new chesnuts; slit the peel with your knife, and put a little butter into a frying-pan. Fry the chesnuts till the peel comes off; then boil them in a little consomme and sugar. When done, add four or six spoonfuls of Espagnole, and rub the whole through a tammy. Keep this sauce rather liquid, as it is liable to get thick.

Observations Relative To The Sauces

Amongst the number of sauces that have been mentioned, many may be found that are not to be used. But I thought it incumbent upon me to introduce them all, for fear of incurring censure. If four entrees only are to be sent up to table, it would be ridiculous to make preparations that would answer the purpose of a grand dinner. Instead then of using a great many sorts of broth; suage, coulis, etc. merely prepare a stock-pot the preceding day, if you have leisure, with twenty pounds of beef, a knuckle of veal, and a hen; do not season with too much vegetable. As this is to be used for sauces, the vegetable would give a disagreeable taste to some of them when reduced.

When you are to send up a dinner of six or eight entrees, with a view of not carrying the expense to an extreme, take a nice rump of beef, and about twelve pounds of buttock, a leg and knuckle of veal, and, as there must be no waste, the rump is used to make a remove; make gre-nadins, or fricandeau, or quenelles, with the noix of veal. By this means the expense is reduced. On the preceding evening put into a stock-pot twelve pounds of beef, with the bones and trimmings of the rump, a knuckle of veal, and a few other parings, if you have any. Set the pot to skim, and season it with two large onions, one of which is to be stuck with four cloves, three carrots, four large leeks, as many turnips, a head of celery, a little salt, and leave the whole to stew on a slow fire for five hours. Strain the broth through a silk sieve, and skim the fat; for if the broth of any description be not thus skimmed, it will turn sour in the course of the night. On the next day mark your sauces with this broth; and the day on which you are to serve the dinner, make another stock-pot with the rump, a knuckle of veal, and a hen, seasoned in the same manner as above. This broth is used for potages, and to moisten the braizes.

Mark* in a stew-pan some thin shoes of ham, and a few slices of veal, moistened with some of the broth, which reduce to a glaze. When it begins to thicken, so as to stick, put the stew-pan on a very slow fire, in order that the glaze may get a good colour without burning; then moisten with the broth, to which you add a bunch of parsley and green onions, and a few mushrooms; let them stew for an hour. Next make a roux, and moisten it with part of the gravy of veal; and keep some of it for the gravy of the roasts; skim all the grease off, and use it when occasion may require.

For the white sauces, put some slices of ham in the stew-pan with a few pieces of veal, the bones and remnants of fowl, which moisten with the same broth you have used for the coulis, or Espqgnole. When the meat is sweated through, cover it entirely with boiling hot broth, season with a bunch of parsley and green onions and a few mushrooms, and stew the whole for an hour and a half; skim off the fat. This consomme is used to make either the veloute No. 56, or la sauce tournee, which is the key to all other;thick sauces, etc.

The stock-potonust be put on the fire at an early hour. The rump of beef must be kept hot. Reduce to glaze the broth that you have left after having made every article. This glaze may serve either to strengthen or to glaze. If you are frequently set to work, you must always have a little glaze ready. By this means you have no occasion to reduce your liquor till the following day, and it will serve for the morrow.

* Mark, or prepare.