COOKERY AS A PINE ART

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1666, 19 September 1887, Page 3

COOKERY AS A PINE ART

Thackeray makes a santimontal French cook m " Pendennia " woo his lady-lov* through the medium of dainty dishes. I hive recently seen Dome dluhea, p'oduced by the skilful hands of an E iglish lady, ■which might vie with those Berved at the table of the heroine of •• Pendeunla." Mrs Wicken, dlplemee, of London, and au'horeas of the " Kingewood Cookery Book," may claim to make oookery a fine art. I have attended two of the oookery lectures which are now being given by Mrs Wioken m the Melbourne At her roam to a large class of ladies, and have been muoh interested by what I heard and saw. j Mrs Wioken purposes to establish a Melbourne school of cookery should she receive sufficient encouragement, The subject of the first lesson given was " Breakfast Dishes." The leoturesa stood on a raised platform with a table and a gas stove before her. On and below the platform an attentive audience <ook notes vigorously. As each dish was made and artistically ornamented, it was handed to the audience to be inspected and admired. Staffed eggs W6S one of the dishes demonstrated. The eggs were boiled hard. Aooordlng to Mrs Wicken a hard boiled egg to be cooked should be boiled for fifteen minutes, and then put into old water. The herd boiled epgs were cot m two, the yolks were taken out and pounded. With tha yolk of one a little anohovy was m'xod, to make it pink ; another yolk was mixed with watercress to make it green, and the other Toft yellow. The yolkß were replaoed m tha whites, the eggs placed on slic b of fried bread, at.d the dish ornamin*ed with watercroes. Rissoles was the first dish shown at las-. Tuesday's lecure on Inochecn dl hes The materials were lib of old bee c chopped small, lcz cf butter, J z cf flour, one gill of gravy, one teaspoonful of chop-©! parsley, two small spring onions, and pepner and salt. The parsley was chopped fine, washed, made quite dry, and chopped again The butter was put m a sauoepan till dissolved, then the onions chopped small, were put In and fried for two or three minutes. The flour went m next, was mixed smoothly, and cooked for a minute. Then the gravy was added. When the mixture boilei It was taken off the fire. The parley, pepper, and salt and meat were put m and thoroughly mixed, The whole was turned on to a plate. When quite cold it was made into tiny balls. These were dipped m a mixture of one tecspoonful of salad oil, an egg, and one teaspoonful of water, and then into breadcrumbs. It is best, if possible, to leave rissoles for an hour after they have been made into balls before frying. Mrs Wicken frya m a deep vessel In a mixture of lard and dripping. Her two secrets m frying are'to have plenty of fat to cover the article fried, and to have the fat very hot. Lard is considered extravagant by many people as a frying medium, but the leoturtsa explained that Bbc always strained her fat through a Bleve after using, and put It away for future use. Tbui the same fat lasted for several days. The rissoles were piled on - ' a dish with, sprays of parsley, fried when quite dry, and consequently crisp and green, between them. A cheap and good little luncheon pudding called Bedford puddiDg was made from the crusts of the bread used In making the rissoles; The materials included besides two eggs, the rind and juice of a lemon, one gill of milk, two ! tablespoonfuls of sugar, and a little jam. Any kind of jam will do. The orusts are soaked m cold water, squeezed quite dry m a cloth, and put into a basin with the lemon-rind, sugar, and milk. This is worked with a spom to make It smooth. The eggs are broken, the yolbs are put with the bread, the whitea on a plate. A small pledish Is buttered, half the mixture put m it, then a layer of jam, then the rest of the mixture. It is baked m a moderate oven for half an hour, then ooverecLwlth pm, and the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. The diih is put again into the oven to set the froth, and emerges a most tempting little pudding. American hash, either a breakfast or lunoheon dish, was also shown. This can be made of any kind of chopped cold meat, and only takes a few minutes to make. One pound of meat and the same quantity of oold ohopped potatoes, two ounces of bntter, a small ohopped onion, a gill and a half of milk and gravy, and a little pepper and salt are the materials. The onion is fried a light brown m half the butter. Then the meat, potatoes, onion, milk, and gravy are added . A little chopped parsley is an improvement. When everything Is quite hot In the pan the dish !■ ready. The bath does not want frying. Pile It on a hot dish, and put the rest of the butter on the top. Stewed kidneys and macoaronl, another lunohcon dish, was particularly recommended by Mrs Wickon aa being a favorite dish of her English pupils. The materials were four sheep's kidneys, one teaspoonful of ohopped parsley, one gill of gravy, one ounce of butter, and two or three ounces of maccaroni. The maccaronl Is ' boiled In plenty of salted water for twenty minutes, and then strained off into hot water. The kidneys ate skinned, and ont into slices. The butter Is put into the i pan, and when melted the kidneys are I tossed mit for about ten minutes. When the butter Is quite used up, the gravy Is added and the ohopped parsley. The kidneys rre put on a hot dish, the gr*vy poured ronnd them, and the maccaroni cut up and placed round the kidneys. ,