Aspic En Belle Vue

For this decorate some small timbale moulds in this way: Slice down a hard-boiled egg one-eighth of an inch thick, and with a plain round cutter, about the size of a threepenny piece, stamp out rounds of the yolk, and cut the white into 1 ozenge-shaped pieces; line the moulds with clear aspic jelly and just as this is setting place the yellow round in the centre, arranging the 1 ozenge-shaped pieces round it like a daisy, or a sunflower, and set this decoration with a little more aspic; now pour in a layer of aspic about a quarter of an inch thick, then place on it a similar layer of sliced foie gras, or ham and chicken cream, or any nice potted game, etc., rubbed up with a little thick cream, and fill in with these two layers till the moulds are full; then put them aside till set when they may be turned out and served either on an aspic jelly border, or surrounded with shred lettuce tossed in a rich mayonnaise. The same dish, if lined with meat jelly as described in the previous chapter, garnished with a daisy of truffle and filled with alternate layers of chicken cream mixed with pate de foie gras, and savoury jelly, may be served on a border of salad, tossed in a French salad dressing and packed in a border mould lined with savoury jelly, as chaufroix de volatile en belle vue.

En belle vue invariably implies a certain amount of decoration of the dish in question.

Foie Gras En Aspic

This is a very easy entree to prepare granted the presence of some aspic jelly. Line some pretty little moulds with aspic, then place in each a cube of foie gras truffe, and fill up with aspic, leaving it till set when it is turned out and served on chopped aspic, or en mayonnaise with a salad. If preferred the moulds may be lined and filled up with aspic cream.

Aspic A La Royale

Toss together till well mixed, tiny round pieces of cold cooked chicken the size of a half crown, sliced truffle, rounds of tongue, mushrooms, and a bottle of financiere garnish (quenelles, cockscombs, etc.) in sufficient white chaufroix sauce; then with this mixture fill a plain timbale mould previously lined with clear savoury (chicken) jelly, covering it all with a good layer of jelly, and leave it till quite set, when it is turned out and served garnished with chopped aspic and a tomato salad dressed with a rich mayonnaise dressing.

Aspic Aux Tomates A L'Americaine

Prepare a richly coloured tomato aspic, and with it line a border mould pretty thickly; then fill the latter with a mixture of shred chicken, ham, tongue, sweetbread, etc., as you please, covering it with a finishing layer of tomato aspic, and put it aside till set; when it is turned out and the centre filled up with a mixture of celery (cut up into strips and thrown into water to crisp) and blanched walnuts, using one-third the quantity of walnuts that you have of celery, and moistening the whole with white mayonnaise. Garnish the outside of the aspic mould with quartered cabbage lettuce and either plover's eggs or quartered hard boiled eggs. (The bottled plover's eggs come in well for this.)

Another version of this dish is made by filling the savoury jelly-lined mould with chicken cream (made as for creme de volatile), setting it with more of the savoury jelly (which should be rather stiff for this purpose, allowing 1 oz. of leaf gelatine to each pint of strong chicken stock), and filling in the centre with an oyster mayonnaise, garnishing it outside with bunches of seasoned watercress and sliced tomato. This dish is one that any intelligent cook can vary to any extent, as any meat can be used in this way.

Aspic De Volatile Aux Huitres

Blanch some good •oysters in their own liquor till plump and frilly, then drain them and leave till dry; cut the white meat of a cold cooked chicken into neat pieces, either dice or rounds, and shred and crisp two-thirds as much celery as you have chicken, and blanch half the bulk of good walnuts; now line a plain charlotte mould with jelly cream (i.e., a gill of thick double cream carefully stirred with half a pint rather stiff savoury jelly; or if preferred, use a rich creamy bechamel sauce stiffened with ½oz. of best leaf gelatine to the pint of bechamel), and then fill up with the chicken, celery, walnuts, and oyster, mixed with a little good mayonnaise aspic, and serve garnished with prawns, caviar, and chopped aspic jelly.

Aspic A La Menagere

This is very much the same as the previous recipe, only the mould is lined with a brown chaufroix sauce (prepared by mixing together half a pint aspic jelly and a gill each of tomato and brown sauce, with a wineglassful of sherry, ½oz. of glaze or Liebig Co.'s extract, and a dust of coralline pepper), and fill up the mould with minced underdone beef or mutton, mixed with tomato mayonnaise, washed, boned, and filleted anchovies, minced olives or capers, etc., and serve garnished with any nice salad of cold cooked vegetables set with aspic in little cups or dariole moulds.

Aspic En Chaufroix A La Juive

Prepare a sauce thus: Have ready one and a half gills of thickly reduced veloute sauce, and stir into this a good spoonful of capers, and let it cool; then stir into it two spoonfuls of washed, boned, and sieved anchovies worked up with a little stiff savoury jelly (a little essence of anchovy may be used instead of the puree if the jelly is fairly stiff), rub it through a tammy, and then add to the above quantities a gill of aspic jelly. Have ready some moulds lined with tomato aspic and fill them up with cold roast mutton cut into dice and mixed with the above sauce; let these set, then turn them out on to rounds of aspic jelly on which you have placed a slice of tomato seasoned with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, and serve garnished with chopped aspic.