Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1879 — Artistic Cookery. [ARTICLE]

Artistic Cookery.

Miss Dodds, late of the Edinburgh (Scotland) School, of Cookery, recently lectured upon the art of cooking before a Chicago audience. The Chicago Times describes her method as follows: Miss Dods was surrounded on the platform with very complete kitchen appliances, the cooking being done on a gas stove. She made her dishes in view of, her audience, giving her recipe, explaining in detail the various steps she took and the order in which the ingredients were mixed, and all the reasons for it. The first dish made was a Venoise pudding, the recipe for which was five ounces of bread crumbs, four ounces of sugar, three ounces of raisins, one teaspoonful of fresh lemon-juice, a half-pint of milk, the yelks of four eggs and a small piece of butter. With the butter she greased a mold, which she then filled with the mixture. Over the top she twisted a piece of paper to keep out the water, and then set it in a saucepan of boiling water, and let it steam for an hour and twenty minutes. She explained that it might be boiled, but it was lighter when! steamed. If the water in the saucepan became reduced too much it was to be replenished with boiling water, as adding cold water would cause the pudding to split open. The recipe for sauce was not given until the pudding was cooked, and in the meanwhile a kidney soup was made. The elements of this were one ox-kidney, two ounces of butter, one ounce of flour, a little pepper and salt, a quart of cold water, and one des-sert-spoonful each of mushroom catsup and Worcester sauce. The butter was melted and the dry flour thrown into it, and the water added subsequently; thus the flour didn't become lumpy. The soup was allowed to! boil up once, and then simmer slowly two hours. J bile the soup simmered some lobcutlets were made'of one ounce of butter, one ounce of flour, a gill of cold water, a little nepper and salt, a few drops of lemon-juice, a half-pound can of lobster, an egg and two tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs. If fresh lobster were used, it wanted to be cooked twenty minutes in advance. Otherwise the recipe was as good for fresh as for canned lobster. After the lobster was cut up and mixed it was set aside to cool, as it then made up into cutlets much better. In the meantime some cheese fritters were produced. Three ounces of flour were placed in a bowl, an ounco of butter was melted and poured into the center of tho dry flour, and a gill of tepid water was added. Miss Dods explained that tepid water consisted of two parts of cold and one of boiling water. In this case the water .might be hotter without doing any harm, but in making bread the water must be just tepid. The yelk of one egg was added, the white being put on a plate. A very little salt and a good quantity of pepper, which aids digestion, were added. Three ounces °* grated Parmesan cheese were 'added, though any hard, dry cheese might be used instead of the Parmesan variety. 1 A small pinch of salt was thrown into the white of the egg, and it was beaten into a stiff froth. The lecturer explained that salt oooled the egg while Sttgar would heat it. The white was theu stirred very lightly into-the other ingredtents. The mixture was.to stand an. hour or two before being cooked, when possible, the white of the egg being added at the last moment. ' :•> , %

The lecturer knew her lard was just at the right temperature, because a light smoke arose from the center. If it arrived at this heat before she was ready to use it, she threw a large potato or a piece of bread into it, and the lard would get no hotter till it had cooked the potato or bread. She threw ihto the lard a half-spoonful of the mixture at a time, and It looked in three minutes. She used lard enough to cover the fritters, but she used the same lard over and over again, She kept two dishes of lard, one for cooking iisn and the other for fritters. When the fritters were done she took them out, allowing each to lie a moment on a piece of soft paper to absorb the surface grease. A sweet omelette was then made of the yelks of two eggs, a teaspoonful of sugar, the samo of essence of vanilla, ana a half-ounce of butter to grease the pan with. The yelks, sugar and vanilla were mixed in a small bowl. A little salt was added to the whites, and they were beaten stiff. The butter was melted in a pan, but not allotted to get hot The yelks and whites wore mixed lightly. The mixture was then poured quickly in an omelette pan, and it was placed over the fire fust one minute. Then it was put in the oven, and in four or five minutes it was done. When the lecturer could put her finger on the top of it, and the finger wasn't moistened by the contact, she knew it was done. It was then turned out quickly, and sugar was sprinkled over it The lobster cutlets were then resumed. The mixture was divided into five masses, and made into long, narrow shapes after being very slightly floured. An egg was thoroughly beaten and each cutlet rolled into it. The bread-crumbs were put into a piece of paper, the cutlets in the crumbs, and the paper twisted around till the cutlets were covered with crumbs. The cutlets were then cooked in the lard two minutes and taken out on paper likd the fritters. The pudding-sauce was then made. This called for the juice of half a lemon, one ounce of sugar, a tablespoonful of milk and an egg. The egg, sugar, lemon-juice and milk were mixed up in a saucepan and whisked over the fire till the egg began to thicken, but it was on no acoount to boil. The pudding was turned out and the sauce poured around it. This sauce was used with this pudding because their colors harmonized remarkably well.