Page:Art of Cookery 1774 edition.djvu/234

196 them out with an egg-slice, lay them in a plate before the fire, and have ready one cucumber whole, cut a long piece out of the side, and scoop out all the pulp; have ready fried onions peeled and sliced, and fried brown with the sliced cucumber. Fill the whole cucumber with the fried onion, season with pepper and salt; put on the piece you cut out, and tie it round with pack-thread. Fry it brown, first flouring it, then take it out of the pan and keep it hot; keep the pan on the fire, and with one hand put in a little flour, while with the other you stir it. When it is thick put in two or three spoonfuls of water, and half a pint of white or red wine, two spoonfuls of catchup, stir it together, put in three blades of mace, four cloves, half a nutmeg, a little pepper and salt, all beat fine together; stir it into the sauce-pan, then throw in your cucumbers in the middle, the rest round, pour the sauce all over, untie the cucumbers before yuo lay it into the dish. Garnish the dish with fried onions, and send it to table hot. This is a pretty side-dish with a first course.

TAKE a quarter of a peck of French beans, stirring them, do not split them, cut them in tree across, lay them in salt and water, then take them out and dry them in a coarse cloth, fry them brown, then pour out all the fat, put in a quarter of a pint of hot water, stir it into the pan by degrees, let it boil, then take a quarter of a pound of fresh butter rolled in a very little flour, two spoonfuls of catchup, one spoonful of mushroom-pickle, and four of white wine, an onion stuck with six cloves, two or three blades of mace beat, half a nutmeg grated, a little pepper and salt, stir it all together for a few minutes, then throw in the beans; shake the pan for a minute or two, take out the onion, and pour them into your dish. This is a pretty side-dish, and you may garnish with what you fancy, either pickled French beans, mushrooms, or samphire, or any thing else.

RAGOO them as above, take two large carrot, scrape and boil them tender, then mash them in a pan, season with pepper and salt, mix them with a little piece of butter and the yolks of two raw eggs. Make it into what shape you please, and baking it a quarter of an hour in a quick oven will do, but a tin oven is the best; lay it in the middle of the dish, and the ragoo round. Serve it up hot for a first course.