FoodNetArchive

Soyer's standard cookery

1912

Page 55 · 3 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1912. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Sprinkle a board heavily with flour and pour contents of the mortar on to this. Now roll flour and mixture into the size and shape of small sausages. Have ready a large stewpan with one gallon of boiling water, into which a good handful of saltSoyer Pike Quenelles or Souffles has been thrown, and drop into this the quenelles, a dozen at a time. The quenelles will at first sink to the bottom; when they rise leave them one minute without boiling. Remove from the water with a fish-slice, strain on a napkin, and place on a dish. In this way they will keep for two or three days. METHOD OF SERVING THE ABOVE Vol au Vent Soyer. Have one pint of brown sauce in a stewpan large enough to hold three quarts, add a few sliced mushrooms, a few slices of braised sweetbread or a few shrimps, or crayfish, or lobster, together with the juice of half a lemon, and bring to the boil. Add two tablespoonfuls of Madeira or sherry. If the sauce is too thin thicken it with a little arrowroot, so as to obtain a glossy sauce. Season to taste. Put half a dozen quenelles into the sauce and leave at the side of the stove to keep warm, but not to boil. Have your Vol au Vent or crouttes on a very hot entree-dish and one minute only before serving put the sauce containing the quen- elles on a full fire with the cover on, when the quenelles will swell in diameter to the size of a golf-ball. Pour at once in the croutte on dish, as the quality and success depend on quick serving. See that hot plates are on the table waiting for the dish to appear. This is most important. When using white sauce proceed in the same way as above. Dilute white sauce with boiling milk or white fish stock. If no fish stock, other white stock will do. STANDARD COOKERY. 77 The above entails a lot of work, but it is well worth doing, and having been once done comes easily afterwards. In Lent and other times of fasting, by omitting stock, etc., and using only fish, this is very nourishing and good and ac- ceptable to a rigid Catholic. The recipe given is for pike quenelles only, but any kind of fish can be used and is much superior to any other known method. Red Mullet en Papillote. Take a Soyer paper-bag, about ten inches by ten inches in size, and grease it well inside, top and bottom. Obtain three red mullet, season with pepper and salt, and place a little duxelle on both sides of the fishes. Place the fish in the bag, side by side, throw in one tablespoonful of tomato sauce, a few mushrooms (if obtainable) and a tea- spoonful of lemon juice. Close and seal the bag, insert on grid in the oven and bake for twenty-five minutes in a mod- erate heat (350° Fahr.). Cooked in this way and served with boiled potatoes these are luscious. Red Mullet a la Voisin. Trim and score two red mullet, season with saltRed Mullet en Papillote and pepper and the juice of a lemon. Butter a dish and place the fish therein. Have ready a Portugaise made as follows :— Take half a shallot and fry in butter, long enough to warm through but not to color. Add to it four small tomatoes from which skin and pips have been removed and allow to simmer gently for about ten minutes. Put this mixture on top of the fish, sur- mounted by a few slices of mushroom, if procurable.