Italian Cook Book, The

<h4>129</h4> <h4>ROAST VEAL</h4> <h4>(Arrosto di vitella)</h4> <p>Choose for that milk veal that is to be found all the year round, although it is always better during the spring or summer.</p> <p>The piece or pieces of veal can be cooked in a saucepan, slightly larded with garlic and rosemary, with oil, butter and a hash of corned beef, salt, pepper and tomato sauce. In the gravy fresh peas can be cooked.</p> <h4>130</h4> <h4>POT ROAST</h4> <h4>(Arrosto morto)</h4> <p>This can be done with all kinds of meats, but the best is milk veal. Take a good piece of the loins, roll it and tie with a string and put on the fire with good olive oil and butter, both in small quantity. Brown well from all sides, salt when half cooked and complete the cooking with a half cup of broth, seeing that little juice remains. If no broth is at hand, use tomato sauce, or tomato<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></SPAN></span> paste diluted with water. Some corned beef chopped fine can also be added.</p> <h4>131</h4> <h4>POT ROAST WITH GARLIC AND ROSEMARY</h4> <h4>(Arrosto morto coll'odore dell'aglio e del ramerino)</h4> <p>Cook the meat as above, but add a clove of garlic and one or two bunches of rosemary in the saucepan. When serving the roast rub the gravy through a sieve without pressing and surround the meat with potatoes or vegetables cooked apart.</p> <p>The leg of lamb comes very well in this way, baked in the oven.</p> <h4>132</h4> <h4>BIRDS</h4> <h4>(Arrosto di uccelli)</h4> <p>The best way to cook birds, and that nearly always used by the Italians, is roasted at the spit. They must be spitted with a small slice of bread between each bird. Also wrap each bird in very thin slices of bacon, in such a way that it can be spitted with this covering. Mind to slice the bacon almost as thin as paper. Pass some oil&mdash;only once&mdash;over when they begin to brown, using<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></SPAN></span> a brush or a feather, and salt only once, moderately.</p> <p>Put on the fire when near to be served, otherwise they may get dry and lose much of their flavor. The cooking is rapidly done if on a good fire.</p> <h4>133</h4> <h4>ROAST OF LAMB</h4> <h4>(Arrosto d'agnello)</h4> <p>Take a leg of lamb and season it with salt, pepper, oil and a drop of vinegar. Pierce it here and there with the point of a knife and leave it like this for several hours. Also lard it with bay leaf or rosemary to be removed when serving. The leg of lamb can be baked or, as the Italians do, cooked at the spit.</p> <h4>134</h4> <h4>LEG OF MUTTON</h4> <h4>(Cosciotto di castrato arrosto)</h4> <p>Before cooking see that several days elapse after the animal has been butchered. This, naturally, according to the temperature. Beat it well with a wooden mallet, then skin and remove the middle bone, without spoiling the meat. Then tie it and give it a good fire at the beginning, covering the fire when half cooked. Let it cook in its<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></SPAN></span> own juice and in a cup of broth strained to remove the fat; nothing else. Salt when it is almost cooked, but see that it is neither too well done nor rare, just medium. Serve with its juice apart in a sauce.</p> <h4>135</h4> <h4>ROAST OF HARE</h4> <h4>(Arrosto di lepre)</h4> <p>The part of the hare fitted for roast is the hind quarters, but the limbs of this game are covered with little skins that must be carefully removed, before cooking, without cutting the muscles.</p> <p>Before roasting keep it soaking for twelve or fourteen hours in a liquid prepared as follows: put on the fire in a kettle three tumblers of water with half a tumbler of vinegar or less in proportion with the piece to be cooked, three of four scallions chopped fine, one or two bay-leaves, a bunch of parsley, a little salt and a pinch of pepper; make it boil for five or six minutes, cool and pour when cold over the hare. When you remove the latter from the liquid wipe it and lard it all with little pieces of good bacon.</p> <p>Cook on a low fire, salt it sufficiently and grease with cream and nothing else. Never use the liver of the hare which, it is said, is very indigestible.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></SPAN></span></p> <h4>136</h4> <h4>POT ROAST LARDED</h4> <h4>(Arrosto morto lardellato)</h4> <p>Take a piece short and thick of beef or veal, quite tender and weighing about two pounds or a little more. Lard it with ham or bacon cut in little pieces. Tie with a string and put it in a stewpan with a piece of butter, one fourth of a middle-sized onion cut in two pieces, three or four ribs of celery half an inch thick and as many slices of carrot. Season with salt and pepper and when the meat begins to brown&mdash;turning it often&mdash;pour over one cup of water and complete the cooking on a low fire, leaving it to absorb great part of the gravy. See, however, that it doesn't dry up and become black. When you send to the table strain the juice that has remained and pour it on the meat, that may be surrounded with potatoes cut in pieces or kept whole if small, previously browned in butter or oil.</p> <h4>137</h4> <h4>PIGEON SURPRISE</h4> <h4>(Piccione a sorpresa)</h4> <p>The pigeon (or chicken) must be opened and stuffed with a cutlet of milk veal. Of course this cutlet must be of proportionate size. Beat it well<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></SPAN></span> to render it thinner and more tender, season with salt, pepper, a pinch of spices and little pieces of butter, roll it and put inside the pigeon sewing the opening. The liver and giblets of the pigeon can be cooked apart in brown stock or in butter, after being chopped. With the resulting gravy the cutlet can be smeared. In this way the different flavor of the two qualities of meat is better amalgamated.</p> <h4>138</h4> <h4>STUFFED BEEF CUTLET</h4> <h4>(Braciuola di manzo ripiena)</h4> <p>The ingredients for this dish are a slice of beef half an inch thick, weighing about one pound, half a pound or less of lean milk veal, two small slices of ham and two or three of tongue, one scant tablespoonful of grated cheese, a piece of butter, two chicken livers, one egg, a crumb of bread as large as a closed fist.</p> <p>Make a hash with a small onion, a little celery, carrot and parsley, put it on the fire with the butter and when it is browned, place in the saucepan the veal cut in small pieces and the chicken livers, season with little salt and pepper and complete the cooking with a little broth. Remove the veal and chicken when cooked, and chop them fine. In the gravy that remains make a pap rather hard with the crumb of bread, moistening<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></SPAN></span> with broth if necessary. Now mix the chopped meat, the pap, the eggs, the cheese, the ham and tongue cut in little pieces. When the stuffing is composed thus, dip the cutlet in water, in order to stretch it better, beat it with the back of the knife and flatten with its blades. Put the stuffing inside and roll up and tie tightly with a string crosswise. Roast or bake with oil and salt.</p> <h4>139</h4> <h4>STUFFED CHICKEN</h4> <h4>(Pollo ripieno)</h4> <p>For a middle-sized fowl use the following ingredients: two sausages, the liver and giblets of the fowl, eight or ten chestnuts well roasted, some pieces of mushrooms, a taste of nutmeg, one egg. If, instead of a fowl, it is a turkey, double the dose.</p> <p>Begin by giving the sausages and the giblets half a cooking, moistening them with a little broth if necessary. Season with a little salt and pepper on account of the sausages that already contain them. Remove them and in the gravy that remains put a crumb of bread, in order to obtain with a little broth two tablespoonfuls of thick pap. Skin the sausages, chop the chicken giblets and the giblets and grind everything together with the chestnuts, the egg and the pap; this is the stuffing with which the fowl is to be filled,<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></SPAN></span> to be baked afterward. It is more tasty cold than hot, and it can also be cut better.</p> <h4>140</h4> <h4>CHICKEN WITH SAUCE PIQUANTE</h4> <h4>(Pollo al diavolo)</h4> <p>This ought to be cooked with Cayenne pepper and served with a highly seasoned sauce, but not everybody likes that and a simpler way to cook the chicken "al diavolo" is the following:</p> <p>Take a young chicken, remove the neck and the legs, open it all in front and flatten it open as much as possible. Wash and wipe dry with a towel, then put it on the grill and when it begins to brown turn it. Grease it with melted butter or with oil, using a brush, and season with salt and pepper. The later may be Cayenne pepper for those who like it. Keep turning and greasing until it is all cooked.</p> <p>To prepare the sauce piquante that many like with chicken broiled in this way, put four tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan and when it begins to brown add two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir until it is well browned, but do not let it burn. Draw to a cooler place on the range and slowly add two cupfuls of brown stock, stirring constantly, add salt and a dash of Cayenne and let simmer for ten minutes. In another saucepan boil four tablespoonfuls of vinegar one table<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></SPAN></span>spoonful of chopped onion, one teaspoonful of sugar rapidly for five minutes; then add it to the sauce and at the same time add one tablespoonful of chopped capers two tablespoonfuls of chopped pickle and one teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar. Stir well and let cook for two minutes to heat the pickles. If the sauce becomes too thick dilute it with a little water.</p> <p>This sauce is excellent for baked fish and all roasts and boiled meats, besides being a fitting condiment for the chicken "al diavolo".</p> <h4>141</h4> <h4>CHICKEN WITH HAM</h4> <h4>(Pollo in porchetta)</h4> <p>Fill a chicken with thin strips of ham, about half an inch wide. Add three cloves (or sections) of garlic, two little bunches of fennel and a few grains of pepper. Season outside with salt and pepper and cook in a saucepan with butter, or preferably bake in the oven. Sausages cut lengthwise and previously skinned can be substituted for the ham.</p> <h4>142</h4> <h4>CHICKEN SAUT&Eacute;</h4> <h4>(Pollo saltato)</h4> <p>Take a young chicken, remove the neck and trim the wings. Cut away the legs. Cut the chic<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></SPAN></span>ken into six pieces. Remove some of the bones. Beat an egg with a teaspoonful of water and place in it the pieces of chicken after dipping them in flour and seasoning generously with salt and pepper. Leave the pieces in the egg until it is time for cooking. Then take the pieces one by one, sprinkle with bread crumbs and place a saucepan with a good piece of butter on the fire. When the butter begins to brown put in the pieces of chicken from the side of the skin, then turn them when browned to the other side. Let them on a good fire for about ten minutes. Serve with lemon. The chicken prepared in this way is good also when cold.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />