Lords & Ladles: Ballymacmoy House, 18th century

First Course

Turnep Soup

Take a large bunch of turneps and pare them, save out three or four, put the rest on in a gallon of water, with a bundle of sweet herbs, an onion stuck with cloves, a blade of mace, a little whole pepper, half a nutmeg, a little salt, and the crust of a penny loaf; boil it till the turneps are tender, then rub it through a sieve till all the turneps and bread are rubbed through, put it into a stew-pan, with four heads of cellery cut small, two turneps cut into dice, cut one turnep and two or three carrots in thin slices, flour them, and fry them brown in fresh butter, and four onions cut in slices, and fried brown, two ounces of vermicelli; boil it gently till all the roots are tender, then send it up hot in a tureen, with crisp French bread at the top.

To make a Salmon Pye

First, take a piece of salmon, peel and wash it, then put some spice, onions, sweet herbs and boil’d vinegar over it, hot; let it lie thus for half an hour; afterwards bake it in a patty-pan, open, with a border of rich paste, either of cold butter or of puff; when tis baked, take off the oil, and put over it a good lear made of shrimps, oysters, crabs, lobsters or what else you please. Serve it away hot.

To make your lear, if you use oysters first, parboil them; then take some of the clearest of the liquor, with white-wine, or very nice anchovies, pepper, ginger and grated nutmeg; draw up your butter thick with this; afterwards put in your oysters, crab & shrimps; and if you do not think it enough, stir in the yolk of an egg, and put it over your pye hot.

Lambs Ears in Beshemel

Take six lambs ears, scald the wool off, and wash them clean, stuff the inside with good veal, force-meat, put them into a stew-pan, with a pint of veal broth, a bundle of sweet herbs, a little cloves and mace, and stew them till they are tender, and then take them out; in the mean time make a pint of beshemel, as directed below, put them in it, with a few fresh mushrooms stewed, a dozen asparagus tops and a few small force-meat and egg-balls boiled; give them a boil up for a minute, put the ears in the dish, pour the sauce over them, and garnish with lemon and beetroot.

Beshemel

Take a pound of lean ham, shred it very fine, put it at the bottom of a stew-pan, two pounds of lean veal cut into small pieces, and a small fowl cut in pieces, lay them over the ham, an onion cut small, six shallots shred small, the white part of two heads of celery, a bundle of sweet herbs, six blades of mace, and a few mushrooms cut small, lay them over the meat, put in half a pint of veal broth or water, cover it close, put it over a slow fire, and sweat it gently for half an hour, but take care it does not stick or burn, as that will spoil it; then put in two quarts of new milk, stir it round, stew it gently for half an hour, mix half a pint of milk with two spoonfuls of flour very smooth and put in, stir it well round, bruise a little Cayan pepper very fine and put in, with salt to season it; stew it till you find it as good as you would have it, then rub it through a fine sieve or tammy, and it will be fit for use.

A Florentine of Kidney of Veal

Take the Kidney of a Loin of Veal, together with the fat, and shred them with spinach, parsley, and lettuce, three Pippins, and some orange-peel; season it with sweet spice and sugar, and a good handful of currans, two or three grated biskets, sack, and orange-flower water; 2 or 3 eggs; mix them well together, and put them into a dish cover’d with puff-paste; lay on a cut lid, and garnish the brim.

Chickens and Tongues

Salt six hogs tongues for one week in the same pickle with the neats tongues or hams; boil six small chickens, boil the tongues by themselves and peel the skins off, boil a cauliflower white, and a good deal of spinach picked and washed clean in several waters; boil it green, and squeeze it between two pewter dishes very dry; put the cauliflower upright in the middle of the dish, lay the chickens close round, the tongues round the chickens, with the roots outwards, and put the spinach between the tongues; garnish with toasted bacon, and lay a piece on each of the tongues. This is an excellent dish for a large company.

Carrot pudding

Take some carrots, pare and wash them well, and grate them; take half a pound of grated carrot and one pound of breadcrumbs, beat up the yolks of eight and the whites of four eggs with half a pint of cream, then stir in the carrot and breadcrumbs, with half a pound of fresh butter melted, half a pint of sack, three spoonfuls of orange-flower water, half a nutmeg grated, sweeten it with sugar to your palate and mix it all well together; (if it is too thick put in a little more cream) lay a puff-paste round the edge of your dish, pour in the ingredients, and bake it one hour; (or you may put it in a cloth and boil it) when it is done put it in a dish, and pour melted butter, sweet wine and sugar mixed over it.

To Butter Lobsters

Pick all the meat out of the shells and body of a large lobster; mince it small and put it into a clean sauce-pan, with a gill of white wine, a little nutmeg grated, and a little beaten mace, with a spoonful of vinegar, a few bread crumbs, and one anchovy split and bruised very fine; set it over a clear fire, or stove, and let it boil for a minute or two, shaking the sauce-pan now and then. Take a good piece of butter rolled in flour, break it into your lobster, and let all boil together, till it is thick; then fill the largest shell of a lobster you have, put it into the middle of the dish, and the rest of the meat in small saucers round it. Cut the chines of your lobsters in two, pepper and salt them, then broil them over a clear fire, and garnish the dish with them.

Pigeons au Poire

Take 6 pigeons and bone them, stuff them with good forcemeat, and make them in the shape of a pear, with one foot stuck in the small end to look like the stalks, rub them over with the yolk of an egg, sprinkle breadcrumbs on them, and fry them of a fine brown in a pan of boiling hot beef-dripping; put them on a sieve to drain, then put them into a stew-pan with a pint of gravy, a gill of white wine, an onion stuck with cloves, a bundle of sweet herbs, cover them close and stew them for half an hour; then take them, the onion and sweet herbs out, skim the fat off the gravy, put in some butter mixed with flour, a spoonful of ketchup, the same of browning, some truffles and morels, pickled mushrooms, two artichoke bottoms cut in six pieces each, and a few forcemeat and egg balls; season it with Cayan pepper and salt, put in the juice of half a lemon and stew it five minutes; then put in your pigeons, make them hot, lay them with the stalk-end inwards and the breast outwards, pour the sauce over them, and garnish with lemon and beet-root.

Stewed cucumbers

Take twelve cucumbers, pare and slice them as thick as a crown-piece, but leave one whole, lay them on a coarse cloth to drain, flour and fry them in fresh butter of a light brown; take them out with a slice, and lay them on a plate before the fire; take the whole one, cut a long piece out of the side, and scoop out the pulp; peel and slice six large onions, and fry them brown, season them with pepper and salt, stuff them into the cucumber, put in the slice, tie it round with packthread, flour it, fry it brown, and put it before the fire to keep hot; keep the pan on the fire, and with one hand put in a little flour, and stir it with the other till it is thick, put in a gill of water, half a pint of red or white wine, two spoonfuls of ketchup, a little beaten mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper and salt, and stir it altogether; then put in your sliced cucumbers, give them a toss or two, untie the whole cucumber, and lay it in the dish, pour the rest all over it, and garnish with fried onions.

A Pig au Pere Douillet

Take a roasting pig, scald it, and wash it clean, cut off the head, and cut it into quarters the same as lamb, lard them with bacon, and season them with beaten cloves, mace, nutmeg, pepper and salt, lay a layer of fat bacon at the bottom of a deep stew-pan, lay the head in the middle, and the quarters round it, put in a few bay leaves, an onion sliced, one lemon cut in two, a carrot and parsnip sliced, some parsley and chives, cover the pig over with bacon, and put in a quart of veal broth, cover it close, and stew it gently for one hour over a slow fire; then take it up and put the pig into another stew-pan with a bottle of white wine, cover it close and stew it gently for one hour longer. If you choose to send it to the table hot, while your pig is stewing in the wine, take the first gravy it was stewed in and strain it, skim off all the fat, put it into a stew-pan, with a sweet-bread boiled and cut in pieces, some truffles and morels, pickled mushrooms, stew it a few minutes and season it with Cayan pepper and salt, and thicken it with the yolks of four eggs beat up, or with butter mixed with flour; and when your pig is done lay the head in the middle of the dish, and the quarters round it; put the wine it was stewed in to the sauce, skim it well, pour the ragou over it, and garnish with lemon and pickled barberries.

Maids of Honour

Take half a pint of sweet curds, beat them well in a marble mortar till they are as smooth as butter, put in half a pint of cream, the yolks of four eggs, the whites of two, well beaten and strained through a sieve; a quarter of a pound of fresh butter melted, a little grated lemon peel and nutmeg, one ounce of candied citron shred very fine, a glass of brandy, and a spoonful of orange-flower water; sweeten it to your palate with powder sugar; mix the ingredients all well together, have your patty-pans very small, sprinkle on a little flour, put a thin puff-paste over them, more than half fill them, and bake them in a moderate oven.

Eggs and Bacon in Flummery

Take a quart of new-milk and put it into a stew-pan, with two ounces of isinglass; boil it gently till the isinglass is dissolved, sweeten it with sugar, and strain it through a sieve; colour a quarter of a pint red with cochineal; have a tin mould about four inches long, two broad, and one deep, put a little of the red at the bottom, and let it be cold, then put on some white, then red, and treble the thickness of white at the top, always observing to let one be cold before you put on the other, and that only blood-warm; then take five tea-cups and fill them half full with white flummery, and let all stand till the next morning: turn them out and cut that of the tin mould in thin slices and lay in your dish; then turn them out of the cups, and put over the other, cut a hole out of the tops, and lay in half a preserved apricot, to make it appear like the yolk of an egg. Garnish the dish with currant jelly, calf’s foot jelly, or flowers as you fancy.

To Make Almond Flummery

Boil three ounces of hartshorn in two quarts of spring water; let it simmer over the fire six or seven hours, till half the water is consumed; or else put it in a jug, and set it in the oven with household bread; strain it through a sieve and beat half a pound of almonds very fine, with a quantity of orange flower water; when they are beat, mix a little of your jelly with it, and some fine sugar; strain it with the rest of the jelly, stirring it till it is a little more than blood-warm; then pour it into your cups

A Tansey and Black Caps

Take twenty yolks and eight whites of eggs, beat them well, and strain them into a quart of thick cream; one nutmeg, three Naples biscuits grated, as much juice of spinach which a little tansey; sweeten it to your palate; you must butter the dish, and butter a sheet of paper and put in your dish or it will not come out; and set it in an oven fit to bake custards, watch it and when it is done, take it out, and turn it on a pye-plate; scrape sugar and squeeze orange over it: Garnish the dish with orange and lemon and serve it up.

To Make Black Caps

Take as many Holland pippins as will fill your mazarine dish; cut them in half, and lay the flat side downward; put over them the juice of a lemon, two spoonfuls of orange-flower water, and some lemon-peel shred very fine; sift pounded sugar all over them, and bake them a little better than half an hour, in a pretty quick oven. When you send them to table strew pounded sugar over. They are very fit for a garnish for a tansey.