Beignets De Foie Gras

Make a good batter with two heaped tablespoonfuls of dried and sifted flour, the yolk of one egg, a tablespoonful of oil (or 1 oz. of liquefied butter), with coralline pepper and salt to taste, and lastly a gill of water added very gradually when the other ingredients are well mixed and perfectly smooth. Let this batter stand for two hours at least, and when about to use it, stir into it quickly the stiffly whipped whites of two eggs. Be careful to have the batter thick enough to adhere smoothly and evenly to the object to be fried. Bring a pan of boiling fat to such a heat that it is perfectly still and a very slight blue vapour is beginning to rise; dip into the batter some neat pieces of foie gras (previously seasoned with salt, coralline pepper, and lemon juice), and slip each as coated gently into the fat, turning it over lightly with a fork, and, when perfectly crisp and of a delicate golden brown, drain it on kitchen paper in front of the fire; then dish on a napkin, lightly sprinkled with coralline pepper.

Pieces of sweet-bread, calves' brains, oysters, poultry livers, etc., can all be used in this way.

Nicely cooked tripe is delicious if cut into neat pieces, seasoned with pepper, salt, and lemon juice, and then fried in batter as above, and served plain or with tomato sauce, in which case it is known as beignets de gras double a l'Orlie.

Scotch Fashion Tripe

Tripe is usually looked on with aversion in England, though many of these same dainty people eat it with gusto at the table d'hote when disguised as gras double a la soubise (i.e., stewed and served with a rich onion sauce), a la Orlie, etc. Stew the tripe till perfectly tender, and let it get cold. Make ready a good veal forcemeat to which you have added a little very finely minced onion and an egg. Now cut the thick plain part of the tripe into neat pieces about 1½ in. by Sin. or 4in. long. Spread some of the stuffing on each (if liked add a little of the honeycombed part of the tripe, which does not roll, finely minced, to the stuffing, as it improves the flavour greatly), then roll these up neatly like a beef olive, skewer each into shape with a fine skewer, roll in egg and fine breadcrumbs, and fry it a delicate brown. Have ready some rich, well-flavoured brown or espagnole sauce, lay the tripe olives in this, and allow them to soak at the side of the stove, keeping hot, but never actually even simmering, for an hour or so, till they absorb the flavour of the sauce, then serve in a wall of mashed potato.

Gras Double A La Francaise

Roll up tightly a thin piece of dressed tripe and skewer it with a tiny wooden skewer about ¼in. from the end of the roll, then cut this off in a slice ½in. thick, with the skewer in the. middle, like a little wheel. Repeat this process till you have as many of these little wheels as you need, when you brush them with beaten egg, and then dip them into savoury breadcrumbs (freshly made white breadcrumbs mixed with a quarter the quantity of grated cheese, with pepper and salt to taste). Then fry a golden brown in plenty of hot fat, drain well, and serve garnished with fried parsley, with a squeeze of lemon juice, and a dust of coralline pepper.