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HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY BEQUEST OF

MRS. CHESTER N. GREENOUGH SEPTEMBER 20, 1926

Copyright, 1880, by

GEORGE W. HARLAN.

641.5

M 98r2

IN

PREFACE.

N issuing this little volume the publisher is aware that the market is already deluged with "cook-books," both good and bad; but the aim in this instance is to utilize the experience of a caterer, who has spent twenty-five years of his life in the service of leading hotels and restaurants all over the country, besides catering to the appetites of thousands of private families. The well-known and unsurpassed cuisine of the hotels where he has been employed would of itself form testimony conclusive of his culinary ability, but he possesses besides numerous flattering letters from private parties, many of high standing in the community. As a salad-maker his reputation is wide-spread, and his receipts under this head are numbered among the hundreds, any one of which is a masterpiece of epicurean art and taste. It is my intention shortly to issue a book containing these receipts.

In writing receipts for this volume Mr. Murrey has kept economy constantly in mind, and has endeavored to present some of the most appetizing formulas in such a shape as to be within the reach of all families of moderate means. Each and every receipt has been personally tested and can be implicitly relied upon. The arrangement is that of a regular bill of fare or ménu. It will be understood, of course, that the contents of this book do not pretend to cover the field of cookery. Some idea of the magnitude of

such a task can be had when you are informed that Mr. Murrey possesses probably the largest library on gastronomic art in this country, numbering many thousand volumes. Like all men who have made this art a study, he has aimed to so construct his formulas as to ward off indigestion and dyspepsia. Apropos at this point is a story illustrating the philanthropy of that prince of French chefs, Carême. Meeting one day a woman bitterly weeping at the door of a wineshop, his commiserating question was answered by saying her husband was within; all his earnings were spent there and his family left to starve. Close questioning revealed the fact that the culprit liked good living, and that the wife condemned him to boiled beef every day. "No man cares to go abroad," said Carême reproachfully, "for a bad meal, if his wife can cook him a good one, particularly if a silversmith and earning money." Carême visited the house the next morning, and ordered a silver cup to be repaired, and, while waiting for its completion, offered to cook his own breakfast, which the man and wife shared. It was woodcock cooked in a way to electrify an Apicius. Carême called again for his cup with some wild duck. Meantime, the wife made rapid progress in the chef's art. The husband ceased wasting his money. The delicate fare improved his intellect; he became an artist in his trade, and finally one day Carême received a box containing a silver woodcock exquisitely carved, carrying in its beak a tiny silver cup, with the inscription, "To Carême, from a friend who was saved by good cooking."

THE PUBLISHER.

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Raw Oysters.-Eat raw oysters as plain and as free from condiments as possible, and always on the deep shell in their own liquor. The average American orders a dozen on the half-shell and then drowns his pets in vinegar, pepper, salt, horse-radish, etc., washing them down with some malt beverage, pays his check, and disappears. The next day he goes through the same performance, and the not over-conscientious oyster-man, knowing his weakness for condiments, can easily palm off on him a Rockaway Cull" for a Blue Point or a Green Point, or he may give him a "deep-water native" for almost any particular kind or brand he may want, and he cannot detect the difference in their flavor, owing to his excessive use of condiments. A little lemon-juice is all that is necessary, if you will not eat your saline dainties

natural.

66

The heartless oyster-fiend who opens your oysters by smashing the shell should be avoided, for it is cruelty, to say the least. We can forgive him for spattering our clothing with shells, mud, and dirty water, but filling our mouths with these things is pure ugliness. Order a quart of the bivalves to be sent home, and this oyster-butcher endangers the health of your family should any of them swallow a particle of the shell. The true lover of an oyster should have some feeling for his little favorite, and patronize establishments only where they contrive to open them (Boston fashion) so dexterously that the mollusk is hardly conscious he has been removed from his lodging "till he feels the teeth of the piscivorous gourmet tickling him to death."

Roast Oysters on half-shell.-Open a dozen large oysters on deep shell; add a walnut of butter, with a little salt and mixed pepper (red and black) and a pinch of cracker-dust to each. Place them on a broiler over a sharp, clear fire until done, and serve.

Families not having all the conveniences for roasting oysters restaurant fashion " will find the above receipt acceptable; though I must confess it is quite a treat to our Western cousins to ask them down into the kitchen of an evening, and serve up a peck of oysters roasted in the shell direct from the fire, with no other tool to pick them out of the coals than the old tongs the moment they pop open. You may possibly burn a finger or two, but what of that so long as the young folks have had a good time?

Oysters escalloped. In a deep yellow dish place a layer of oysters and cover them with cracker-dust (add an ounce of butter to each layer of cracker-dust); pepper and salt to taste; another layer of oysters, another of cracker-dust, and so on until the dish is full. Moisten the dish with the juice of the oysters or hot water to prevent its burning, and bake a nice brown.

Oyster Patties.-Roll out some very light puff paste half an inch thick; stamp it in rounds with a cutter three inches in diameter; press a small cutter two inches in diameter on the middle of each to the depth of a quarter of an inch. Place the rounds on a buttered tin, baste them lightly with egg, and bake in a quick oven. When done take them out, remove the centre-piece, scoop out a little of the inside, and fill the shells with the prepared oysters.

Parboil twenty-five oysters in their own liquor; remove the oysters and season the liquid with lemon-peel, nutmeg, and pepper; strain, and thicken with a heaping tablespoonful of flour, one and a half ounces of butter, a wineglassful of rich cream; mix, and then add the oysters. Simmer all together a few minutes, fill the shells, and serve.

Scallops and clams cut up fine, with a sauce made on the same principle, make a very nice patty.

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