How to Cook Puree

Puree Of Sorrel

Wash and pick some sorrel, and then put it into a stew-pan with a little water: keep stirring with your spoon to prevent its burning; when melted, lay it in a hair sieve to drain, then put it on the table and chop it well with some trimmings of mushrooms. When chopped fine, put it into a stew-pan with a little butter; let it fry a long time on the fire, in order to drain the water it contains. When it is become quite dry, mix it with four spoonfuls of Espagnole, or more, if you have any occasion for a large quantity; and let it stew for a long while over a small stove. After it has been continually boiling for an hour, rub it through a tammy. If it should happen to be too thick, dilute it with a little consomme or Espagnole. If too acid, put in a little glaze and sugar. You must always put some cabbage-lettuce with the sorrel, to correct its acidity. When you make puree of sorrel, if you have no sauce to put to it, put a spoonful of flour, and dilute with gravy of veal, and proceed then as before.

Sorrel En Maigre

Pick your sorrel, let it melt, drain it, and lay it on the table, as above. Mind that the table be very clean. Then chop the sorrel for a long time and very fine, fry it gently in a stew-pan with a little butter. When it has been kept for about half an hour on a slow fire, throw in a spoonful of flour; moisten with boiling hot cream, and let it stew on a slow fire for an hour. Then season it with a little salt. If your sorrel should be too acid, put a little sugar to it. Then thicken it with the yolks of four eggs, and serve up. If you should prefer making a Bearnoise, you make a kind of pap with flour and cream or milk, and let it boil. When the sorrel is done enough, pour the Bearnoise into it, and let it boil ten minutes, then put the yolks of four eggs immediately after to thicken it. In this manner the sorrel will never curdle, whereas if you follow the other method, it most frequently will. If it be with broth that you wish to prepare your sorrel, instead of cream or milk, you mix some with it, and use the yolks of eggs in the like manner, and that is what we call farce*.

Puree Of Celeri

Cut the whitest part of several heads of celery, which blanch in water, to take off the bitter taste. Let it cool, and drain all the water off. Then put it into a stew-pan with a little consomme and sugar. Let it stew for an hour and a half, and be reduced till there be no kind of moisture. Then mix it with four spoonfuls of bechamel or veloute, strain the whole through a tammy, and put it an bain marie *. When ready to send up, refine the sauce with a little thick cream, to make it white.

* A dish much used by the Roman Oatholics; Eggs a la farce.

Puree Of Onion, Or Soubise

Take a dozen of white onions. After having peeled and washed them, cut them in halves, take off the tops and bottoms, mince them as fine as possible, and blanch them to make them taste sweeter. Then set them melting on a small stove, with a little butter. When they are thoroughly done, and no kind of moisture left, mix four spoonfuls of bechamel. Season them well, rub the puree through a tammy, and keep this sauce hot, but without boiling. You must also put a small lump of sugar with the sauce if necessary.

Puree Of Onion, Brown, And Lyonaise

Peel and wash twelve onions clean, then mince them, and fry them in a stew-pan with a little butter, till brown.

* Bain marie is a flat vessel containing boiling water; you put all your stew-pans into the water, and keep that water always very hot, but it must not boil. The effect of this bain marie, is to keep every thing warm, without altering either the quantity or the quality, particularly the quality. When I had the honour of serving a nobleman in this country, who kept a very extensive hunting establishment, and the hour of dinner was consequently uncertain, I was in the habit of using bain marie, as a certain means of preserving the flavour of all my dishes. If you keep your sauce, or broth, or soup, by the fire-side, the soup reduces and becomes too strong, and the sauce thickens as well as reduces.

It is necessary to observe, that this is the best manner of warming turtle-soup, as the thick part is always at the bottom of the stew-pan; this method prevents it from burning, and keeps it always good.

Then moisten with some Espagnole, if you have any ; if not, singez * with two spoonfuls of flour, mixed with some gravy of veal. Now scum the fat, and season well with salt. Then strain the puree through an old tammy, for these sort of purees would destroy new ones.

For the Lyonaise make a puree of onions likewise, but then keep the sauce a little more liquid. Take some very small white onions, cut them into rings, and fry them till they be of a light brown, then lay them on a clean towel to drain, and throw them into the sauce. Give them one single boiling, that the fat, getting at the top, may easily be skimmed off; and serve up.