74. Small trout à la meunière. Small river trout, very fresh, flour, butter and oil, salt, pepper, shallots.

It is mainly small river trout that are suitable for this dish; they must be very fresh, lively even if that is possible.

Empty them through their stomachs; trim their fins a little; peel them and put them in milk for a few minutes. Then remove them and roll them in flour, without cutting them.

Put as much butter and oil in the pan as one as the other. When this frying is hot, simply at good ordinary heat, put the trout there, placed so that they do not touch each other. The fire must be clear, without being too hot, because the trout must be cooked purely and simply. However, when the fire is too strong, they turn strongly brown, while the inside remains rare and undercooked. Flip them over. Then, when they are a nice golden color, remove them and place them in a warm dish. So, wipe the pan well; melt a piece of fresh butter in it. When this butter is melted and frozen, pour it over the trout. Then sprinkle them with salt, pepper and a pinch of finely chopped shallots. Serve with very hot plates.

We must never use, to make the sauce, butter which has just been used for frying, because, to achieve a small economy in this way, we would spoil a dish which, with the sauce made from fresh butter, is truly exquisite. .

75. Angel food cake. 250 grams of vanilla powdered sugar, 150 grams of oatmeal flour, 3 deciliters of egg whites, 6 grams of cream of tartar (to buy from the pharmacist or druggist), 40 grams of very fresh fine butter.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff; then add, little by little, a third of your sugar which should be strongly vanilla.

While continuing to whisk, add a little cream of tartar, and a little more sugar, until you have nothing left. no more sugar or tartar. Pass the mixture thus prepared twice through a sieve, and then put it back into the basin where you whipped it.

Sift your flour; after which, by incorporating it into the sugared snow by gentle and regular work, you obtain a delicious biscuit dough.

Lightly butter a smooth cylinder mold with a capacity of one liter, line the mold with white paper; fill it three-quarters full with your snow paste. Cook in a low oven for an hour and a half.

Turn out onto a serving dish, lined with a tea towel; Surround the cake with oublis cones, gracefully arranged in four or five groups. Failing these omissions, serve flavored wafers at the same time as this cake.

76. Consommé mimosa. 1 liter of broth, four egg yolks.

By “consommé” we mean pot-au-feu broth subjected to a strong reduction (by half, in general) by a second, very prolonged cooking. Or, which amounts to the same thing, we make a stew as usual, but with a double quantity of meat and without increasing the quantity of water.
Mimosa garnish. This soup garnish, absolutely pretty and delicious, is childishly simple.

Have four hard-boiled eggs and only use the yolks. Your pâté being ready to serve and very hot, boiling hot, put the egg yolks in the sieve with large holes and press them with the potato masher, called "mushroom", so that when passing through the holes your yolks fall in rain into the pâté, which is still in the pan.

Pour this soup very carefully into the soup bowl. These tiny yellow grains, which do not dissolve in the broth, perfectly simulate the flowers of the mimosa, and this appearance of large gold powder, floating in the liquid, is most graceful. In the absence of a soup, this soup can be made with the simple broth of a stew.

77. Italian potato croquettes. 250 grams of floury yellow potatoes, 200 grams of grated Gruyere cheese, 200 grams of fine butter or vegan butter, salt, grated nutmeg, white pepper, three fresh eggs, frying.

Bake yellow, floury potatoes in the oven. As soon as they are cooked, remove the skin and pound them quickly in the mortar. Add the same weight of grated gruyere. Assuming you have 50 grams of waste for the skin, you have 200 grams of peeled potatoes, to which you add 200 grams of grated Gruyère. To ensure that the cheese and potato mixture is well blended, add the cheese little by little, while continuing to mash.

After which, add, in small quantities and still grinding and mixing with the pestle, 200 grams of fine, very fresh butter. Salt with fine salt, very little, because of the cheese itself which is salty; add grated nutmeg, very little; pepper quite well, but without exaggeration, with freshly ground white pepper.

Crack two fresh eggs. Put the whites aside, in a deep plate and pour the two yolks into the mortar. Start maneuvering the pestle again so that the thick puree absorbs the egg yolks into a perfect mixture.

Then beat the egg whites with a fork; when they have softened, add them in turn to the thick puree, but this time carrying out this final mixture using the fork, using which you mix and knead. You then have a very thick dough, but manageable as required.

Divide this dough into small quantities; each fraction should be equivalent to a pigeon's egg, and you roll it into a "croquette" as big as two corks added end to end. Beat, as for an omelette, a fresh whole egg; season them with salt and pepper.

On the other hand, you have put an ordinary frying pan on the fire and, when it is very hot, throw in the croquettes that you have dipped in the beaten egg; they are fried perfectly when they are golden. Serve them arranged in a pyramid on a hot dish lined with a napkin.

78. Parisian-style stuffed hare. a country hare, very fleshy, two or three shallots, pepper sauce.

Skin a plump country hare. When emptying it, be careful not to damage the skin of the stomach, as it will have to be sewn up.

Prepare the following stuffing: chop and pound 300 grams of raw foie gras, mixed with the hare's liver; add two or three shallots, very finely chopped, and bind everything with the blood of the hare that you had reserved. Season.

With all this, fill the inside of the hare, carefully sewing up the opening.

Carefully remove the sinews from the fillets; Pick up the hare and, after securing it to the spit, roast it over high heat, making sure to keep it very rare.

To serve, cut the fillets into strips, the legs into escalopes, and place them on top of the stuffing. At the same time send a pepper sauce prepared according to the usual method. This dish will make two meals.

79. Frozen chocolate mousse. 60 grams of fine chocolate, 1/2 deciliter of white wine, 1/2 deciliter of filtered water, 2 deciliters of good thick and very fresh milk cream, 50 grams of granulated sugar, 10 grams of caster sugar, optionally a little vanilla powder that can be added if the chocolate is not vanilla enough, 2 kilos of ice cream, 250 grams of coarse salt, a lidded mold with a capacity of half a liter.

Boil the white wine with the granulated sugar; then let this syrup cool. Boil the water in a small saucepan, then, having removed it from the heat, add the crushed chocolate, cover and wait ten minutes. With a small whisk, dilute the chocolate; mix in the syrup; beat this mixture over ice to cool it well while making it frothy. Whip the double cream while incorporating 10 grams of caster sugar; it just needs to be a little firm. Add the vanilla powder; add the foamy chocolate and syrup mixture. When incorporating it into the whipped cream, be very careful not to soften the cream too much. The preparation to be glazed is finished.
Now crush the ice; sprinkle it with salt; surround the mold up to the height of the edge of the lid, uncover it, pour in the preparation, put a sheet of white paper on, cover by forcing the lid on. Add the remaining ice and the remaining salt (50 grams), spread a cloth over everything and wait two or two and a half hours at most. At the end of this time, remove the mold, wash it slowly in cold water, dry it. Place a tea towel in a round dish, uncover the mold and invert it. Raise it straight and serve immediately.

THE HOUSEHOLD CRICKET.