A different way of cooking lentils

(Recipe #66, page 66)

After carefully picking over the lentils and washing them, boil them until completely soft. Then pour off all the water and add meat stock along with sliced leeks and celery; cook for a good while longer and thicken the stock with a roux of flour and plenty of fat.

Or drain the lentils after they have boiled for an hour and then boil them with fresh water until quite soft. Cut a piece of bacon and a lot of onions into slices, fry in butter until the butter begins to foam, add from 1 to 3 tablespoons of flour (depending on the quantity of lentils) and brown lightly, stir in meat stock to make a thick sauce, add vinegar, salt, and pepper, pour over the lentils, cook them until done in the sauce.

Translated by David Green.

Beans

(Recipe #58, page 64)

First wash the beans clean, then steam butter and onions a bit and add the beans with a little chopped parsley. Steam the beans until tender, sprinkle with a spoonful of flour, followed by some salt and pepper, fill the dish with meat stock or water, and let the beans cook a bit more.

Translated by David Green.

[Note: Beans = Bohnen, nothing more, nothing less. No better definition of the type beans to be cooked.]

A different preparation (parsnips)

(Recipe #49, page 62)

After preparing the parsnips as above, bring meat stock with its fat to a boil and drop the parsnips in along with some salt.

Translated by David Green.

Fresh mushrooms

(Recipe #41, page 60)

Clean the mushrooms as described in I, no. 16. Set them on the stove in an earthenware dish with some meat stock, butter, and nutmeg; cook slowly tightly covered for ½ hour. Finally add a teaspoon of potato flour or some crumbled zwieback, a little lemon juice, and salt if needed. Cook until the liquid thickens; the dish can be finished by beating in an egg yolk.

Side dishes: smoked salmon, roast hen, meat patties, veal cutlets, also fricassee of veal.

Translated by David Green.

Cucumbers

(Recipe #40, page 60)

This dish—somewhat soft but very easy to digest—is especially recommended, since it can be prepared in ¼ hour. Peel the cucumbers, which should have the diameter of a large bottle, cut them into long pieces as thick as a finger, toss them into boiling salted water and cook them until they begin to soften; that takes only a few minutes. Meanwhile make a light roux with a teaspoon of flour and a knob of butter, stir in fresh milk, season it with nutmeg, and let the cucumbers stew in it; they should resemble cauliflower. When the pot is taken off the stove, you can also stir in some vinegar, as in the preparation of butter beans; alternatively stew the cucumbers in a strong meat stock with mace, salt, and crumbled zwieback lightly cooked in butter. Instead of meat stock you can also use water with an addition of meat extract.

Side dishes: Meatballs, roast chicken, and especially any salted or smoked meat.

Translated by David Green.

Stewed cucumbers

(Recipe #39, page 60)

Peel the cucumbers, remove the core, cut the cucumbers into pieces of a convenient size, and cook them for a while in a salted mixture of half water and half vinegar. Then stew them in bouillon or stock made from meat extract, butter, nutmeg, and zwieback crumbs.

Cooking time will be 1¼ hours.

Serve meatballs, cutlets, roast lamb, sausages as side dishes.

Translated by David Green.

Stuffed cabbage

(Recipe #35, page 59)

Make a forcemeat consisting of 8 ounces of finely chopped pork, 2-½ ounces of butter, 3–4 ounces of white bread without crusts squeezed in cold water, 2 eggs, salt, mace, and lemon peel. Take large leaves of white cabbage, soften them somewhat by blanching, and remove the veins. Place the leaves on a cutting board or flat platter, each overlapping half the previous leaf, spread them with a layer of forcemeat as thick as a straw, bring the ends together and roll the whole package together in the shape of a sausage and wrap with twine. Cook it about 1 hour in meat stock, butter, and mace.

After removing the twine, briefly boil down the cooking liquid and thicken it with potato flour to make gravy. Some add a bit of sugar to the gravy.

Translated by David Green.

Savoy cabbage

(Recipe #29, page 57)

Remove the outer leaves, then cut the head in half, remove the core and the thick veins of the leaves, and cut the rest of the head into pieces half the size of a hand. Wash and boil in lots of lightly salted water over a hot fire until done, pour boiling water over the cabbage in a colander, press the water out of the leaves, and stew them thoroughly with meat stock, nutmeg, and butter.

Cooking time 1 hour.

Accompaniments: tripe, roast duck, roast beef, cutlets, pork sausage, boiled beef, for everyday meals also a piece of soup meat.

Translated by David Green.