The Belgian Cookbook
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7 David Starner, Sergio Cangiano, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE BELGIAN COOK-BOOK
EDITED BY
MRS. BRIAN LUCK
1915
"Lucullus, whom frugality could charm,
Ate roasted turnips at the Sabine Farm."
PREFACE
The recipes in this little book have been sent by Belgian refugees from
all parts of the United Kingdom, and it is through the kindness of these
correspondents that I have been able to compile it. It is thought, also,
that British cooking may benefit by the study of Belgian dishes.
The perfect cook, like Mrs. 'Arris or the fourth dimension, is often
heard of, but never actually found, so this small manual is offered for
the use of the work-a-day and inexperienced mistress and maid. It is not
written in the interests of millionaires. The recipes are simple, and
most inexpensive, rather for persons of moderate means than for those who
can follow the famous directions for a certain savory: "Take a leg of
mutton," etc. A shelf of provisions should be valued, like love-making,
not only for itself but for what it may become.
SAVORIES: If you serve these, let them be, like an ankle, small and neat
and alluring. This dish is not obligatory; recollect that it is but a
culinary work of supererogation.
SOUP: Let your soup be extremely hot; do not let it be like the
Laodiceans. You know what St. John said about them, and you would be
sorry to think of your soup sharing the fate which he describes with such
saintly verve. Be sure that your soup has a good foundation, and avoid
the Italian method of making _consomme_, which is to put a pot of
water on to warm and to drive a cow past the door.
FISH: It is a truism to say that fish should be absolutely fresh, yet
only too many cooks think, during the week-end, that fish is like the
manna of the Hebrews, which was imbued with Sabbatarian principles that
kept it fresh from Saturday to Monday. I implore of you to think
differently about fish. It is a most nourishing and strengthening food
--other qualities it has, too, if one must believe the anecdote of the
Sultan Saladin and the two anchorites.
MEAT: If your meat must be cooked in water, let it not boil but merely
simmer; let the pot just whisper agreeably of a good dish to come. Do you
know what an English tourist said, looking into a Moorish cooking-pot?
"What have you got there? Mutton and rice?" "For the moment, Sidi, it is
mutton and rice," said the Moorish cook; "but in two hours, inshallah,
when the garlic has kissed the pot, it will be the most delicious
comforter from Mecca to Casa Blanca." Simmer and season, then, your
meats, and let the onion (if not garlic) just kiss the pot, even if you
allow no further intimacy between them. Use bay-leaves, spices, herbs of
all sorts, vinegar, cloves; and never forget pepper and salt.
Game is like Love, the best appreciated when it begins to go. Only
experience will teach you, on blowing up the breast feathers of a
pheasant, whether it ought to be cooked to-day or to-morrow. Men, as a
rule, are very particular about the dressing of game, though they may not
all be able to tell, like the Frenchman, upon which of her legs a
partridge was in the habit of sitting. Game should be underdone rather
than well done; it should never be without well-buttered toast underneath
it to collect the gravy, and the knife to carve it with should be very,
very sharp.
VEGETABLES: Nearly all these are at their best (like brunettes) just
before they are fully matured. So says a great authority, and no doubt he
is thinking of young peas and beans, lettuces and asparagus. Try to dress
such things as potatoes, parsnips, cabbages, carrots, in other ways than
simply boiled in water, for the water often removes the flavor and leaves
the fiber. Do not let your vegetable-dishes remind your guests of
Froissart's account of Scotchmen's food, which was "rubbed in a little
water."
SWEETS: It is difficult to give any general directions for sweets. They
should be made to look attractive, and they should be constantly varied.
The same remarks apply to savories, which last ought always to be highly
seasoned, whether hot or cold.
MADE DISHES are a great feature in this little book. I have tried to help
those small households who cook, let us say, a leg of mutton on Sunday,
and then see it meander through the week in various guises till it ends
its days honorable as soup on the following Friday. Endeavor to hide from
your husband that you are making that leg of mutton almost achieve
eternal life. It is noticeable that men are attracted to a house where
there is good cooking, and the most unapproachable beings are rendered
accessible by the pleasantness of a _souffle_, or the aroma of a
roast duck. You must have observed that a certain number of single men
have their hearts very "wishful" towards their cook. Not infrequently
they marry that cook; but it is less that she is a good and charming
woman than that she is a good and charming cook. Ponder this, therefore;
for I have known men otherwise happy, who long for a good beef-steak
pudding as vainly as the Golden Ass longed for a meal of roses. Try
these recipes, for really good rissoles and hashes. Twice-cooked meat can
always be alleviated by mushrooms or tomatoes. Remember that the
discovery of a new dish is of more use than the discovery of a new star,
--besides which, you will get much more praise for it. And if on Wednesday
you find that you have to eat the same part of the very same animal that
you had on Monday, do not, pray, become exasperated; treat it
affectionately, as I treat my black hat, which becomes more ravishing
every time that I alter it. Only, do not buy extravagant make-weight for
a scrap of cold meat that would be best used in a mince patty, or you
will be like a man keeping a horse in order to grow mushrooms.
And, lastly, the good cook must learn about food what every sensible
woman learns about love--how best to utilize the cold remains.
M. LUCK.
PART I
CAULIFLOWER SOUP
After you have boiled a cauliflower, it is a great extravagance to throw
away the liquor; it is delicately flavored and forms the basis of a good
soup. Wash well your cauliflower, taking great care to remove all grit
and insects. Place it to simmer with its head downwards, in salted water;
and, when it is tender, remove it. Now for the soup. Let all the outer
leaves and odd bits simmer well, then pass them through a sieve. Fry some
chopped onions, add the liquor of the cauliflower and the pieces that
have been rubbed through the sieve, add a little white pepper and a slice
of brown bread. Let all cook gently for half-an-hour, then, just before
serving it, take out the slice of bread and sprinkle in two teaspoonfuls
of grated Gruyere cheese.
FISH SOUP
When you buy fish and have it filleted, ask for the bones and trimmings
to be sent also. Put a quart of milk to heat and add to it a bunch of
mixed herbs, a few minced shallots, parsley, pepper and salt. Throw in
your fish and cook for an hour. If you have any celery put in a piece, or
two or three white artichokes. Strain the soup, taste it, and add more
salt or more milk as you think necessary. Return to the pan. Take the
yolk of an egg and just before taking the soup from the fire, stir it
quickly in. This soup must never boil. It should be made out of the very
white fish, excluding herring and mackerel.
STARVATION SOUP
If you have a pork-bone from the fresh meat, let it boil in water for an
hour. Put the pan to cool and take off the fat, and remove the bone.
Replace the pan on the fire and throw into it two pounds of Brussels
sprouts. Do not add onions to this soup but leeks, and the hearts of
cabbage. Pepper and spice to taste. Rub it through a sieve and let it be
thick enough to form a thin puree.
IMMEDIATE SOUP, OR TEN MINUTES SOUP
Into a quart of boiling water throw two tablespoonfuls of either semolina
or tapioca: let it boil for eight minutes with a dust of salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, take your tureen, put quickly into it two yolks of very fresh
eggs, add two pats of butter and two small spoonfuls of water to mix it.
Stir quickly with the spoon, and when the soup has done its eight
minutes' boiling, pour it on the egg and butter in the tureen. This is an
extremely good soup. It is rendered still better by a small quantity of
Bovril.
CHERVIL SOUP
Put a bone of veal on to cook in water, with four or five potatoes,
according to the quantity desired. When these are tender, pass them
through the tammy and return them to the soup. Chop up the chervil,
adding to it half a dessert-spoonful of cornflour. Quarter of an hour
before serving, put in the chervil, but take the cover off the pot, so
that it remains a good green color. Pepper and salt to be added also.
[_V. Verachtert, Cafe Appelmans, Anvers._]
A GOOD PEA SOUP
Soak your dried peas over-night. The following day boil some fresh water,
and throw in the peas, adding a few chopped onions and leeks, with pepper
and salt. Let the soup simmer for three hours on the top of the stove,
giving it a stir now and then. If you have a ham-bone, that is a great
improvement, or the water in which some bacon has been boiled is a good
foundation for the soup, instead of the fresh water.
[_Mdlle. M. Schmidt._]
WATERZOEI
This is an essentially Flemish soup. One uses carp, eels, tench, roach,
perches, barbel, for the real waterzoei is always made of different kinds
of fish. Take two pounds of fish, cut off the heads and tails, which you
will fry lightly in butter, adding to make the sauce a mixed carrot and
onion, three cloves, a pinch of white pepper, a sprig of parsley, one of
thyme, a bay-leaf; pour in two-thirds of water and one-third of white
wine till it more than covers the ingredients and let it simmer for half-
an-hour. Then the pieces of fish must be cut an equal size, and they are
placed to cook quickly in this liquor for twenty minutes. Five minutes
before serving add a lemon peeled and cut into slices and the pips
removed. Some people bind the sauce with breadcrumbs grated and browned.
You serve, with this dish, very thin slices of bread and butter. For
English tastes, the heads and tails should be removed when dressing the
dish.
A GOOD BELGIAN SOUP
is called _creme de saute_. Itself one of the most wholesome of
vegetables, watercress combines admirably with potatoes in making soup.
Wash, dry, and chop finely four ounces of the leaves picked from the
stalks, fry slowly for five minutes with or without a thinly-sliced
onion, add one pound of potatoes cut in small dice, and fry, still very
slowly, without browning; pour in one quart of water or thin stock,
simmer gently, closely-covered, for from thirty-five to fifty minutes,
rub through a hair sieve, and having returned the puree to the saucepan
with a half-teaspoonful of castor sugar, and salt and cayenne to taste,
thicken with one table-spoonful of flour stirred smoothly into one
breakfast-cupful of cold milk; boil up sharply, and serve sprinkled with
watercress.
[_E. Haig._]
BELGIAN PUREE
Cook two pounds of Brussels sprouts in boiling water. Take them out,
drain them and toss them in butter for five minutes, sprinkle them with a
teaspoonful of flour, and then cook them in gravy (or meat extract and
water), fast boiling, over a good fire, and keep the lid of the saucepan
off so that they may remain green. Pass them through the sieve, leave
them in ten minutes, bind the mixture with the yolks of three eggs, a
pint of milk; then at the last minute one dessert-spoonful of butter for
each pint and a half of soup.
AMBASSADOR SOUP
A pint and a half of either fresh peas, or of dried peas that have been
soaked for six hours in cold water; a leek, and three onions chopped
finely. Simmer till the peas are tender, then pass all through the sieve.
Well wash some sorrel and chop it, and add as much as will be to your
taste. In another pan cook five tablespoonfuls of rice, and add that
to your soup. Simmer up again, stirring it all very well. This soup
should be of a green color.
[_Mme. Georges Goffaux._]
CRECY SOUP (BELGIAN RECIPE)
Take ten carrots, two onions, one leek, five potatoes, and cook all
gently in water, with salt and pepper; when they are tender, rub them
through the sieve and serve it very hot.
[_G. Goffaux._]
FLEMISH SOUP
To two pounds of washed and picked Brussels sprouts add ten potatoes, two
onions, two leeks, salt, pepper. Cook all gently and pass through a
sieve. Add at the last moment a sprinkle of chopped chervil.
[_G. Goffaux._]
TOMATO PUREE
Begin by cleaning four potatoes, two leeks, a celery, four carrots, three
pounds of big tomatoes; well wash all these vegetables and cut them in
dice, the tomatoes a little larger. Cook them all gently for an hour in
nearly two pints of gravy, to which you have already added two thick
slices of bread and a pinch of salt. Take care that your vegetables do
not stick to the bottom of the pan. When all is well cooked, pass it
through a fine tammy. Add more gravy, or water and meat juice; make it of
the consistency that you wish. Bring it to the boil again over the fire,
adding pepper and salt, and just before serving a bit of fresh butter
also. It is a great improvement to add at the last minute the yolk of an
egg, mixed in a little cold water, quickly stirred in when the soup is
off the fire.
The three recipes for seven or eight persons.
[_G. Kerckaert._]
ONION SOUP
Mince some thick onions, five or six, and let them color over the fire in
butter. Add a dessert-spoonful of flour, sprinkling it in, and the same
amount in gravy; thicken it with potatoes and when these are cooked,
peas, all through a sieve. Bring the puree to the right consistency with
milk, and let it simmer for a few minutes before serving, adding pepper
and salt.
[_Gabrielle Janssens._]
POTAGE LEMAN
Make a good gravy with one and one-half pounds of skirt of beef. With one
half of the gravy make a very good puree of peas--if possible the green
peas--with the other half make a good puree of tomatoes. Combine the two
purees, adding pepper and salt and a dust of cayenne. For each guest add
to the soup a teaspoonful of Madeira wine, beat it all well and serve
quickly. Or add, instead of Madeira, one dessert-spoonful of sherry wine.
This celebrated soup is honored by the name of the glorious defender of
Namur.
[_Gabrielle Janssens._]
TOMATO SOUP
Boil together six medium potatoes, a celery, two leeks, two carrots, and
a pound of fresh tomatoes, with pepper, salt and a leaf of bay. Pass all
through the sieve. Fry two or three chopped onions in some butter and add
the soup to them. Boil up again for twenty minutes before serving. If you
have no fresh tomatoes, the tinned ones can be used, removing the skin,
at the same time that you add the fried onions.
[_Mme. van Praet._]
SOUP, CREAM OF ASPARAGUS
Boil some potatoes and pass them through the sieve, add the asparagus-
tops, with a pat of butter for each four tops; thin the soup with extract
of meat and water, and at the last moment stir in the raw yolks of two
eggs, and a little chopped parsley.
[_Mme. van Praet._]
GREEN PEA SOUP
Put half a pound of dry green peas to soak overnight in water, with a
teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in it. In the morning take out the
peas and put them on the fire in about three-and-a-half pints of water.
When the peas are nearly cooked, add five big potatoes. When all is
cooked enough for the skins to come off easily, rub all through a sieve.
Fry in some butter four or five onions and five or six leeks till they
are brown, or, failing butter, use some fat of beef; add these to the
peas and boil together a good half-hour. If possible, add a pig's trotter
cut into four, which makes the soup most excellent. When ready to serve,
remove the four pieces of trotter. Little dice of fried bread should be
handed with the soup.
[_V. Verachtert._]
VEGETABLE SOUP
Fry four onions till they are brown. Add them to three pints of water,
with four carrots, a slice of white crumb of bread, five potatoes, a
celery and a bunch of parsley, which you must take out before passing the
soup through the sieve. A few tomatoes make the soup better; if they are
tinned, do not add them till after the soup has been passed through the
tammy; if they are fresh, put them in with the other vegetables. Simmer
for an hour, add pepper and salt before serving.
[_V. Verachtert._]
MUSHROOM CREAM SOUP
On a good white stock foundation, for which you have used milk and a bone
of veal, sprinkle in some ground rice till it thickens, stirring it well
for twenty minutes. Wash and chop your mushrooms, and fry them in butter.
Add the yolk of an egg and bind it. This is a delicious soup.
[_Mme. van Marcke de Lunessen._]
THE SOLDIER'S VEGETABLE SOUP
(Eight to ten persons)
Peel three pounds of vegetables. Put them in a large pot with all the
vegetables that you can find, according to the season. In the winter you
will take four celeries, four leeks, two turnips, a cabbage, two onions,
pepper and salt, two-penny-worth of bones, and about five and one-half
quarts of water. Let it all boil for three hours, taking care to add
water so as to keep the quantity at five quarts. Rub all the vegetables
through a tammy, crushing them well, and then let them boil up again for
at least another hour. The time allotted for the first and second cooking
is of the greatest importance.
LEEK SOUP
Cut up two onions and fry them till they are brown; you need not use
butter, clarified fat will do very well. Clean your leeks, washing them
well; cut them in pieces and fry them also; add any other vegetables that
you have, two medium-sized potatoes, pepper, salt, and a little water.
Let all simmer for three hours, and pass it through a fine sieve. Let
there be more leeks than other vegetables, so that their flavor
predominates.
[_Mme. Jules Segers_.]
CELERIS AU LARD
Take one pound of celery, cut off the green tops, cut the stems into
pieces two-thirds of an inch long; put into boiling salted water, and
cook till tender. Take one-half pound potatoes, peel and slice, and add
to the celery, so that both will be cooked at the same moment. Strain and
place on a flat fire-proof dish. Prepare some fat slices of bacon, toast
them till crisp in the oven; pour the melted bacon-fat over the celery
and potato, adding a dash of vinegar, and place the rashers on top. Serve
hot.
Leeks may be prepared in the same way.
CABBAGE WITH SAUSAGES
Cut a large cabbage in two, slice and wash, put it into boiling water
with salt, and when partly cooked, add some potatoes cut into smallish
pieces. Cook all together for about an hour; then drain. Put some fat in
a saucepan, slice an onion, brown it in the fat, add the cabbage and
potato, and stew all together for ten minutes; then dish. Bake some
sausages in the oven and dish them round the cabbage; serve hot.
_Another way (easier)_
Stew the cabbages, potato and sausages all together and dish up neatly.
LEEKS A LIEGOISE Take enough of leeks to make the size of dish required;
if they are very thick, cut in two lengthwise; cut off the green tops;
leaving only the blanched piece of stalk; put them into boiling salted
water and cook thoroughly about one hour: strain and dish neatly on a
fish-drainer. Have ready some hard-boiled eggs; shell them, cut in two,
and place round the leeks; serve hot with melted butter, or cold with
mayonnaise sauce.
N. B. The water in which the leeks have been boiled makes a wholesome
drink when cold, or a nourishing basis for a vegetable soup.
[_From Belgians at Dollarfield, N.B._]
A SALAD OF TOMATOES
To make a tomato salad you must not slice the fruit in a dish and then
pour on it a little vinegar and then a little oil; that is not salad
--that is ignorance.
Take some red tomatoes, and, if you can procure them, some golden ones
also. Plunge each for a moment in boiling water, peel off the skin, but
carefully, so as not to cut through the flesh with the juice. Take some
raw onion cut in slices; if you do not like the strong taste, use
shallot; and lay four or five flat slices on the bottom of the salad
dish. Put the tomato slices over them, sprinkle with salt and just a dust
of castor sugar. In four hours lift the tomatoes and remove the onions
altogether. Make in a cup the following sauce: Dissolve a salt-spoonful
of salt in a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar. Stir in a dessert-spoonful
of oil, dropping it slowly in, add a very little mustard, some pepper and
a sprinkle of chopped chervil. Some people like chopped chives. Pour this
over the tomato salad and leave it for an hour at least before serving
it.
POTATOES AND CHEESE
Every one likes this nourishing dish, and it is a cheap one. Peel some
potatoes and cut them in rounds. In a fireproof dish put a layer of
these, sprinkle them with flour, grated cheese, pepper, salt, a few pats
of butter. Then some more potatoes, and so on till the dish is full. Beat
the yolks of two eggs in a pint of milk, add pepper and salt and pour it
over the dish. Leave it on the top of the stove for five minutes, then
cook it for half-an-hour in a moderate oven. Less time may be required if
the dish is small, but the potatoes must be thoroughly cooked. The
original recipe directs Gruyere cheese, but red or pale Canadian Cheddar
could be used.
FRIDAY'S FEAST
Cook a medium cabbage till it is tender, and all the better if you can
cook it in some soup. When tender, mince it and rub it through a sieve.
Boil at the same time three pounds of chestnuts, skin them, keep ten
whole, and rub the others through the sieve, adding a little milk to make
a puree. Mix the puree with the cabbage, adding salt, pepper, and a lump
of butter the size of a chestnut. Press it into a mold and cook it in a
double saucepan for quarter of an hour. Take it out and decorate with the
whole chestnuts.
RED CABBAGE
Take half a red cabbage of medium size, chop it very finely and put it in
a pan; add a little water, salt, and pepper, three or four potatoes cut
in fine slices and five lumps of sugar. Let it all simmer for two hours
with the lid on. Then take off the cover and let it reduce. Before
serving it, add either a bit of fat pork or some gravy, with a dessert-
spoonful of vinegar. Stir it well before sending it to table.
[_Mrs. Emelie Jones_.]
ASPARAGUS A L'ANVERS
Clean a bunch of asparagus and cook it in salt water for fifteen minutes.
To do this successfully, tie the bunch round with some tape and place it
upright in a pan of boiling water. Let the heads be above the water so
that they will get cooked by the steam and will not be broken. Simmer in
this way to prevent them moving much. Meanwhile, hard-boil three eggs and
chop some parsley. Lay the asparagus on a dish and sprinkle parsley over
it, place round the sides the eggs cut in halves long-ways, and serve as
well a sauce-boat of melted butter.
[_Mrs. Emelie Jones_.]
COOKED LETTUCE
Very often you will find that you cannot use all your lettuces, that they
have begun to bolt and are no good for salad. This is the moment to cook
them. Discard any bad leaves and wash the others carefully. Boil them for
twelve minutes, take them off the fire, drain them and dry them in a
clean cloth so as to get rid of all the water. Mince them finely, then
put them into a saucepan with a lump of butter, pepper and salt. Stir
till they begin to turn color, then put in a thimbleful of flour melted
in milk. Stir constantly, and if the vegetable becomes dry, moisten with
more flour and milk. Let it simmer for quarter of an hour, and turn it
out as a vegetable with meat.
STUFFED CAULIFLOWER
Pick over a fine cauliflower, and plunge it for a moment in boiling
water. Look over it well again and remove any grit or insects. Put it
head downwards in a pan when you have already placed a good slice of fat
bacon at the bottom and sides. In the holes between the pan and the
vegetable put a stuffing of minced meat, with breadcrumbs, yolks of eggs,
mushrooms, seasoning of the usual kinds, in fact, a good forcemeat. Press
this well in, and pour over it a thin gravy. Let it cook gently, and when
the gravy on the top has disappeared put a dish on the top of the
saucepan, turn it upside down and slip the cauliflower out. Serve very
hot.
GOURMANDS' MUSHROOMS
There was a man in Ghent who loved mushrooms, but he could only eat them
done in this fashion. If you said, "Monsieur, will you have them tossed
in butter?" he would roar out, "No--do you take me for a Prussian? Let me
have them properly cooked."
Melt in a pan a lump of butter the size of a tangerine orange and squeeze
on it the juice of half a lemon. The way to get a great deal of juice
from a lemon is to plunge it first of all for a few minutes, say five
minutes, in boiling water. When the butter simmers, throw in a pound of
picked small mushrooms, stir them constantly, do not let them get black.
Then in three or four minutes they are well impregnated with butter, and
the chief difficulty of the dish is over. Put the saucepan further on the
fire, let it boil for a few minutes. Take out the mushrooms, drain them,
sprinkle them with flour, moisten them with gravy, season with salt and
pepper, put them back in the butter and stir in the yolk of an egg. Add
also a little of the lemon juice that remains. While you are doing this
you must get another person to cut and toast some bread and to butter it.
Pour on to the bread the mushrooms (which are fit for the greatest saints
to eat on Fridays), and serve them very hot.
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