Stewed Steak With Oysters

Two pounds of rump steak, one pint of oysters, one table-spoonful of lemon juice, three of butter, one of flour, salt, pepper, one cupful of water. Wash the oysters in the water, and drain into a stew-pan. Put this liquor on to heat. As soon as it comes to a boil, skim, and set back. Put the butter in a frying-pan, and when hot, put in the steak. Cook ten minutes. Take up the steak, and stir the flour into the butter remaining in the pan. Stir until a dark brown. Add the oyster liquor, and boil one minute. Season with salt and pepper. Put back the steak, cover the pan, and simmer half an hour; then add the oysters and lemon juice. Boil one minute. Serve on a hot dish with points of toast for a garnish.

Rice Borders

These are prepared in two ways. The first is to boil the rice as for a vegetable, and, with a spoon, heap it lightly around the edge of the fricassee, ragout, etc. The second method is a little more difficult. Put one cupful of rice on to boil in three cupfuls of cold water. When it has been boiling half an hour, add two table-spoonfuls of butter and one heaping teaspoonful of salt. Set back where it will just simmer, and cook one hour longer. Mash very fine with a spoon, add two well-beaten eggs, and stir for three minutes. Butter a plain border mould, and fill with the rice. Place in the heater for ten minutes. Turn upon a hot dish. Fill the centre with a fricassee, salmis or blanquette, and serve hot. A mould with a border two inches high and wide, and having a space in the centre five and a half inches wide and eleven long, is pretty and convenient for rice and potato borders, and also for jelly borders, with which to decorate salads, boned chicken, creams, etc.

Potato Border

Six potatoes, three eggs, one table-spoonful of butter, one of salt, half a cupful of boiling milk. Pare, boil and mash the potatoes. When fine and light, add the butter, salt and pepper and two well-beaten eggs. Butter the border mould and pack the potato in it. Let this stand on the kitchen table ten minutes; then turn out on a dish and brush over with one well-beaten egg. Brown in the oven. Fill the centre with a curry, fricassee, salmis or blanquette.

How To Make A Croustade

The bread for the crostade must not be too light, and should be at least three days old. If the loaf is round, it can be carved into the form of a vase, or if long, into the shape of a boat. Have a very sharp knife, and cut slowly and carefully, leaving the surface as smooth as possible. There are two methods by which it can be browned : one is to plunge it into a deep pot of boiling fat for about one minute; the other is to butter the entire surface of the bread and put it into a hot oven, being careful not to let it burn. Care must be taken that the inside is as brown as the outside; if not, the sauce will soak through the croustade and spoil it. Creamed oysters, stewed lobster, chicken, or any kind of meat that is served in a sauce, can be served in the croustade.

Cheese Souffle

Two table-spoonfuls of butter, one heaping table-spoonful of flour, half a cupful of milk, one cupful of grated cheese, three eggs, half a teaspoonful of salt, a speck of cayenne. Put the butter in a sauce-pan, and when hot, add the flour, and stir until smooth, but not browned. Add the milk and seasoning. Cook two minutes; then add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten, and the cheese. Set away to cool. When cold, add the whites, beaten to a stiff froth. Turn into a buttered dish, and bake from twenty to twenty-five minutes. Serve the moment it comes from the oven. The dish in which this is baked should hold a quart. An escalop dish is the best.

Rissoles

Roll the trimmings from pie crust into a sheet about a sixth of an inch thick. Cut this in cakes with the largest patty cutter. Have any kind of meat or fish prepared as for croquettes. Put a heaping teaspoonful on each cake. Brush the edges of the paste with beaten egg, and then fold and press together. When all are done, dip in beaten egg and fry brown in boiling fat. They should cook about eight minutes. Serve hot.

How To Remove A Fillet From A Fowl Or Bird

Draw the skin off of the breast, and then run a sharp knife between the flesh and the ribs and breast-bone. You will in this way separate the two fillets from the body of the bird. The legs and wings of the largest birds and fowl can be boned, and stuffed with force-meat, and then prepared the same as, and served with, the fillet. The body of the bird can be used for soups. Fillets from all kinds of birds can be prepared the same as those from chickens.