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Title: Cooking in old Créole days. La cuisine créole à l'usage des petits ménages.
Author: Eustis, Célestine.
Publisher: New York, R. H. Russell

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> COOKING IN OLD CREOLE DAYS

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> COOKING IN OLD CREOLE DAYS

GUMBO FILé

Put into a casserole (saucepan) a spoonful of pure lard and one of flour, stir it well until it is of a light brown. Chop an onion into small pieces and throw them in. Cut up a fat capon or chicken into small pieces and put these in the casserole with the flour and lard. Stir it all the while until the chicken is nearly done. When the whole is well browned, add a slice of ham, cut up small. Throw in two or three pods of red pepper, and salt to your taste. Now add a quart of boiling water, and leave it on the fire for two hours and a half. A quarter of an hour before dinner is served add three dozen oysters with their liquor. Just before taking the soup off the fire, put in a tablespoonful of filet, stirring it all the while. Let it boil one minute and then serve. Do not put in too much filet; the spoon should not be full. Indeed, half a tablespoonful is enough.--LOUISE LIVINGSTON HUNT, New Orleans.

CREME D'ORGE

One pound of lean veal, one pound of lean beef, and two ounces of pearl barley. Put them into a quart of cold water and let it boil down to a pint. Rub all through a sieve. Melt a spoonful of this strengthening jelly when required.

GUMBO FILé

Disjoint and cut up a fowl. Fry in pan with onion cut up. Put in a soup pot knuckle of veal, fried fowl covered in


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3 1-2 quarts of cold water, let it simmer on back of range about six hours, strain soup and skim off all grease, cut up white meat of chicken and put in stock with a quart or more of oysters; add salt, cayenne pepper, white pepper. When at boiling point sprinkle in, or sift in, powdered filet enough to thicken it.--MRS. EUGENIA PHILLIPS.

For very many years Mrs. Phillips had the most elegant table and the most delicious dishes in Washington, D.C. No one could rival her in taste and daintiness; her hospitality was boundless.

Leek and potato soup is another of the same French-woman's dishes. Cut several leeks, or, if they cannot be had, an onion or two, into pieces, and fry them without browning in butter. Add potatoes cut into dice and a seasoning of salt and pepper, and boil. When they are soft push them through a colander, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour and a tablespoonful of butter. For two small onions four potatoes and a quart of water will be wanted. Instead of using the water in which the potatoes have boiled, milk may be used.

OKRA GUMBO

Put into a saucepan a spoonful of pure lard and one of flour. Stir it well until it is of a light brown. Chop an onion into small pieces and throw them in. Cut up a fat capon or chicken into small pieces and put it into the saucepan with the flour and lard. Stir it all the while until the chicken is nearly done. When the whole is well browned, add a slice of ham cut up small. Throw in two or three pods of red pepper, and salt to your taste. Then add a quart of boiling water, and leave it on the fire for two hours and a half. During that time you take either a


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can of okra or the fresh okra, and chop it up a bit. Put it in a saucepan with a little water and let it simmer a quarter of an hour, stirring it all the time. Then add to it either six fresh tomatoes, or half a can of tomatoes, and let it cook on a slow fire for an hour, uncovered. When your gumbo has been on the fire the two hours and a half, you take it off to cool, and skim all the grease off. Then you put it back in the saucepan and add your okra and tomatoes and let it simmer slowly for an hour or until the okra is thoroughly cooked. Serve hot, and eat it with dry rice served in a separate dish.--MME. EUSTIS, MéRE.

CRAB GUMBO

Take half a pound of nice veal, cut it in slices; or take half a chicken, which you cut in small pieces. Brown it well, as you do for the gumbofilet. Let it simmer on the fire an hour and a half. Pick very carefully twelve or fifteen crabs, keeping the flesh only. Warm them up in a separate saucepan with a spoonful of butter for a few minutes. Pour it then in your pot over your veal. Add a few small pieces of fried ham. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Before you mix the veal and crabs take out all the large pieces of veal, so that the crabs may predominate, It should be of a thick consistency. Serve hot, with dry rice in a separate dish.--JOSEPHINE NICAUD,New Orleans.

HERB GUMBO

Clean and prepare a good handful of fresh spinach leaves, a handful of beetroot leaves, a handful of radish leaves, a handful of mustard leaves, a handful of patience leaves, one head of lettuce. Throw them in hot water and let them boil like spinach, then let them drip in a


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colander, chop them all together on a nice clean board, as you do spinach. Fry a dozen small pieces of ham cut in pieces an inch long and half an inch wide, and also half a chicken cut in pieces, or a piece of veal, say half a pound. Add a cup of water and let it simmer three quarters of an hour or until all are soft. Then add your herbs. Let them simmer together for a quarter of an hour. If it looks too thick add a few tablespoonfuls of water. It must have the consistency of a thick puree. To be served hot, and eaten with dry rice.--JOSEPHINE NICAUD.

CRAWFISH BISQUE

Take two or three dozen crawfish, throw them in boiling water for a minute or two, clean them thoroughly. Take off the heads, empty them, and clean them and wash them, keeping the fat part of the tails. Put them on a chopping board with the fat, a little chicken or veal, a little stale bread, chop it all fine together, flavor with pepper, red or black, a laurel leaf, or put in a bouquet of aromatic herbs for a few minutes, having tied it with a thread so as to pull it out. Brown all this in a saucepan with a spoonful of lard. Stuff the crawfish heads tight with this. Put them in a saucepan to simmer with a quart of bouillon for an hour or more, until you have a good soup. Serve hot.--MME. JOSEPHINE NICAUD,
Who has been for over forty years in Ambassador Eustis' family.

BOUILLON A LA JAMES MADISON

Two gallons of water, throw in every bone you have (ham bones are excellent), with three good sized carrots, three onions, celery, a can of tomatoes. Salt and pepper pod to taste. Simmer, closely covered, all day and all night.


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The next morning strain into a large bowl. If in a hurry set bowl in cold water, otherwise put in a celler or on ice. Remove the grease very carefully. Cut up fine, size of dice, three pounds of rump of beef, take two eggs and break them over the cut meat, yolk and white. Stir freely. Add celery, salt and pepper, pour the bouillon on it, settle it on the fire, stir until the froth rises. Skim off very carefully, strain off through a nice clean cloth or flannel. Set aside for use. When ready to serve, warm the quantity desired, throw in small pieces of celery, cover closely, throw a bunch of chervil and a glass of good sherry in the soup according to taste.--Cook, born in James Madison's family.

POT AU FEU THE POT AU FEU IS SERVED DAILY IN FRENCH FAMILIES

Take two pounds of round of beef, cutting off all the fat very carefully, put it in a good sized saucepan, add cold water enough to cover the meat well, put the lid on half way to allow the steam to evaporate, let it simmer by a fire of live coals an hour, and skim carefully as the scum arises. While your broth is cooking, prepare your vegetables, have them nice and fresh, wash and scrape carefully (requisite care must be taken), throw them into a pan of cold water until the time to use them. Cut three carrots in half, too leeks the same way, or half an onion, a small piece of cabbage and a bit of garlic, a piece of celery, parsley and pepper pod. Put all these vegetables in your broth, adding two or three tomatoes, or two spoonfuls of tomatoes; let it simmer for two hours, skimming it carefully. It can be served with or without vegetables. Without vegetables it can be served as bouillon, to which you add rice, vermicelli, macaroni, or any other Italian paste, or bread dried in the


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oven, or drop in a poached egg, one for every person, if your dinner is a little short.

These receipts were given to me by an old colored cook who was brought up in James Madison's family, and she said they were served on Mr. Madison's table when he entertained the distinguished guests of his day.

SORREL SOUP

Take a handful of sorrel, cook it ten minutes in a spoonful of fresh butter, add a quart of water, salt and pepper, and let it simmer half an hour over a slow fire. Stir in white of an egg, and then let it cook two minutes only, stirring it all the time. Rub in a cup the yolk of an egg with a small piece of butter. Add a cup of cream. Put some pieces of stale bread cut in slices in the bottom of your soup tureen. Chop fine some chervil and sprinkle on top just as you serve it very hot.-LENONIE PENIN.

BARLEY SOUP WITH CELERY

Melt a heaping spoonful of fresh butter in a frying-pan; put to it a cupful of barley; let it brown a few moments; add to it two quarts of good broth, and salt to taste. Let it simmer two hours or more on a slow fire; chop into it small pieces of celery--let it simmer half an hour. Dissolve in a glassful of sweet cream the yolks of six eggs, a spoonful of fresh butter added in small pieces, and add all to the soup.

OKRA SOUP

Soak in a little cold water for an hour or two one pint of the dried okra, add this with the water to one gallon of good strong beef stock. Also one quart of tomatoes, (strained through a colander), a half cupful of rice, and one


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pint of chopped Irish potatoes. Season with salt, green pepper, or cayenne, chopped celery and onion. Boil in a porcelain kettle at least five hours, stirring frequently with a silver spoon, or new wooden spoon, or the soup will become dark. The gallon must be maintained by adding boiling water at intervals as required. This should result in a rich, thick soup, such as is liked in the South. Some cooks prefer to boil meat and vegetables together, removing the meat when tender, cutting it into pieces, and returning it to the soup a few minutes before serving.--MRS. WILLIAM C. HILL.

SIMPLE, CLEAR, TOMATO SOUP

Boil your tomatoes with onion and butter thoroughly. Add to clear stock, or broth, half of white of egg to clear. Let it stand, then pass through cheesecloth that has been washed.

TOMATO SOUP

Cut one ounce of ham, a little carrot and onion into thin slices, place these in a stewpan with two ounces of butter, one bay leaf and a few peppercorns. Add two tablespoonfuls of flour, stir together on the fire until it becomes a light brown color. Moisten with a quart of good broth, or stock, stirring it on a slow fire. Add one quart of canned tomatoes, and season with salt, pepper and two ounces of brown sugar. Let it boil together for one hour, after being thoroughly strained.

SOUTHERN TOMATO SOUP

Southern tomato soup is a meal in itself. Wash two quarts of tomatoes, and set over the fire in three pints of water; cook ten minutes, and drain, saving the water for


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the soup; press the tomatoes through a sieve, add to them one cucumber, peeled and cut small, one large onion sliced, one dozen okras (also sliced), a five cent marrowbone and the water drained from the tomatoes. Simmer for three hours, and just before sending to table thicken with a tablespoonful of flour wet with cold water. Season with salt, cayenne and three pats of butter.

BONNE FEMME SOUP

Shred fine a cucumber (already soaked) and four lettuce, one onion and a handful of chervil. Put these into a soup pot, with two pats of butter, a little nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Simmer over a slow fire about ten minutes, then add a good spoonful of flour, and three pints of veal broth. Boil for a quarter of an hour. Stir into it a seasoning of six yolks of eggs, half a pint of cream and a dessertspoonful of sugar. Do not let it boil after the egg and cream are added.

SOUP WITHOUT MEAT

Take four or five cucumbers, according to their size, pare and cut them in small square pieces; three cupfuls of lettuce cut in shreds, two sprigs of mint, a little parsley, two or three small onions (all shredded), with a pint of young peas. Put all these herbs into a stewpan, with nearly a quarter of a pound of butter, some salt, and a little cayenne pepper. They must stew gently for an hour. Boil a pint of old peas in a full quart of water. When quite soft run them through a sieve, with a wooden spoon, then add them, together with the water they have been boiled in, to your stewed herbs, and let them all stew together a full half hour. This soup is all the better if it does not stand long before it is served up.

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OYSTER AND PEANUT SOUP

Take half a pound of shelled and roasted peanuts, well pounded. Add two spoonfuls of flour, mix well, boil a pint of oyster water and mix with the peanuts and flour, let it thicken slowly for fifteen minutes, stirring all the time. Add a pint of oysters and let them cook five minutes. Flavor with salt, red and black pepper.--JOSEPHINE NICAUD.

OYSTER SOUP

Wash and drain two quarts of oysters, put them on the fire with three quarts of water, three onions chopped up, two or three slices of lean ham, pepper and salt. Boil until it is reduced one half, strain through a sieve. Return the liquid into the pot. Put in one quart of fresh oysters. Boil until they are sufficiently done and thicken the soup with four spoonfuls of flour, two gills of rich cream, and the yolks of two nice fresh eggs, well beaten. Boil it a few minutes after the thickening is put in. Take care that it does not curdle, and that the flour is not in lumps. Serve it up with the last oysters that were put in. If the flavor of thyme is agreeable you may put in a little, but take care that it does not boil in it long enough to discolor the soup.--MARY RANDOLPH

NEW ORLEANS OYSTER SOUP

Make "a brown." A brown is made by putting a lump of butter or lard into a saucepan, adding flour, and stirring until it becomes a rich brown, but is not burned. Add to your brown, salt and pepper. Take a quart of oysters, separate them from their water. Add a pint of fresh water to your brown, then put in the oyster water, let it simmer


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slowly for half an hour. Then put in a little parsley. Add your oysters a quarter of an hour before serving, and small pieces of fried bread or biscuits. A few minutes before serving cayenne pepper can be added to taste, also vermicelli instead of crackers, or small green onions.--JOSEPHINE NICAUD.

BLACK BEAN SOUP

One pint of black Mexican beans, put them in five pints of water (without soaking), boil about five hours. Pass beans and liquid through a sieve, half an hour before serving; do it thoroughly, that it may be thick enough. Put it back into the pot with salt, pepper, bunch of thyme, onions, a quarter of lemon cut in thin slices, and a tablespoonful of butter. Have two eggs, boiled hard, cut up in your tureen, and a wineglass of good wine. Pour soup on it and give it a stir.--MRS. MORRIS ADDISON.

CALF'S HEAD SOUP

First cut the head in half, take out the brains, crack up the head, wash it, put it in the pot, boil half an hour. Take out, wash, clean and scrape it, put back in the pot, boil until soft, take out, pick out all the bones. Part the lean meat from the jelly meat. Cut up the jelly meat fine. Put back in the pot, thicken with flour, seasone with cloves, black pepper, onions and wine.
--"UNCLE JOHN"--the best chef in South Carolina, Mr. Le Garee's and Mrs. Phoenix's cook.

NEW ENGLAND CHOWDER

Have a fresh, firm cod or haddock, a fish about five pounds is the best size. Take saucepan large enough to hold a little more than you wish to make. Cut salt pork in


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small squares about the size of dice, and fry quite brown. Lay in the same pan alternate layers of thin sliced potatoes first, then slices of fish, then broken water crackers, small fried pork, shreds of raw onion, black pepper and salt to suit the taste. Continue the layers until you have used up your material. Pour over it the pork fat from the scraps and half a pint of water, to keep from burning at the bottom. Close the saucepan tight and set on the fire. Cook slowly, without stirring, for forty-five minutes, when it is ready for the table. As some fish cook drier than others, if you do not find the chowder thin enough to serve well in tureen, add some fresh milk just before taking up, and let it come to a boil.--PARKER HOUSE, Boston, Sept. 23, 1873.

CHOWDER FOR EIGHT PERSONS

Boil, mash and pass through a colander six potatoes. Slice and fry brown six onions. Soak quite soft two ship biscuits. Fry four slices of salt pork, the fat cut in small dice. Cut in pieces about an inch thick three or four pounds of fish, either cod or sea bass, or blackfish, which are the best; then proceed as follows: Put in your pot four tablespoonfuls of butter, and two of salt, scatter a portion of the fried onion in it, then a layer of fish, free from bones, season with a teaspoonful of black pepper, half teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, half of cloves, add a bouquet of thyme, then put in a layer of potatoes. Repeat the same operation, leaving out the spice and thyme. Then pour in stock enough to cover the whole about four inches, place on the fire, add the biscuit and pork, and three tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, and cook slowly for an hour. Then add the juice of a lemon, and five lumps of sugar. Color the soup a dark brown. When ready to serve add a tumbler of sherry.
--Compliments of MR. PETER MARIE.

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CHICKEN PANADE

Boil a large fowl in a quart and a half of water, and boil down to a quart. Skim the fowl and pound it, bones and all, in a mortar. Spread this paste in a sieve and rub it through. Then pour it over the liquor in which the fowl was boiled, and pour the mixture hot over a stale French roll, well grated. Take a little frequently throughout the day.

RAW BEEF SOUP

One pound of chipped beef. Put into a preserve jar with four ounces of water and four drops of muriatic acid poured over it. Put the top down tight, shake, and put on the ice for twelve hours, then put the jar into a pan of cold water (bain-Marie) and put it on the fire for an hour until the water is hot, then strain the contents of the jar off with pressure through a cloth, and put it on the ice until it is cold. Take it off the ice and let it stand ten minutes before serving. Salt to taste.

CHICKEN BROTH

Take a chicken or fowl (small pieces of the former make the broth very good) and break the bones. Clean it carefully. Put it into a saucepan with two quarts of water, a very small onion, a little salt, and two tablespoonfuls of rice. When it boils skim and cover closely, and let it simmer slowly for six hours, if a fowl; if a chicken, for five hours.--MRS. JEFFERSON COOLIDGE.

BEEF TEA

Three pounds of lean beef. Cut out all the fat and gristle, put it in a covered saucepan, with one clove, and a


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lump of ice, the size of your fist, in the centre of the beef, and the remainder of the beef laid over it. Let it stand back on the range and simmer until all the juice is extracted, then let it have one boil up. Only season as much as you intend using at once. The remainder can be kept on ice and seasoned as required with salt, pepper, celery salt, or to suit the taste of the patient.

JUMBALLAYA A LA CREOLE

Add to a cupful of rice, which has boiled five minutes, a rich brown chicken fricassee, put it in a saucepan, not closely covered, let it dry slowly, turn with a fork. The Carolinians make different perlous prepared in the same way by adding cooked tomatoes and butter. Green peas with a little butter is delicious. Okra and tomatoes fried together and added to rice. Oysters a little fried in butter. Hopping John is made in the same way with small pieces of fried ham, fried sausages, to which you add some cow peas that have been partially boiled. Season highly. The St. Domingo Congris is like the Hopping John.

PLAIN BOILED RICE

Take a cup of the best South Carolina rice (whole). Wash it three times in cold water until the water is clear. The fourth time wash it in hot water, put it in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover it, salt it, and cover closely. Let it boil from five to ten minutes. Test it with your fingers. If cooked, pour off the water, add to it a quarter cupful of cold water, cover closely, and set awhile on the stove to soak. If you fear its clinging to the saucepan stir it with a fork, not a spoon. Your rice will soak and dry beautifully.

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CHINESE RICE

Take equal parts of rice and cold water. Wash your rice in several waters, put it in a saucepan, salt, and let it boil. When cooked put aside to soak until dry. Be careful, it burns easily. Every grain of rice will be separate and dry.
"Mon Repos," Aiken, S.C. --MISS EUSTIS.

HOPPING JOHN

Cup of cow peas, boil with piece of bacon. When peas are thoroughly done, not till mushy, drain water off, three hours boiling. Boil separately a well washed cupful and a half of rice. Mix together after it is done. Skim off grease from top of pot peas are boiled in, add salt and cayenne pepper, put in oven to dry out. Serve with sliced bacon in centre or fried sausages.--MRS. EUGENIA PHILLIPS, Washington, D.C.

JUMBALLAYA A SPANISH CREOLE DISH

Wash one pound of rice and soak it an hour. Cut up a cold roast chicken, or the remnants of a turkey, and a slice of ham, and fry them in a tablespoonful of lard. Stir in the rice, and add slowly while stirring in, a pint of hot water. Cover your pot, and set where it can cook slowly, until the rice is nearly dry. One or two spoonfuls of cooked tomatoes give it a very good taste. Jumballaya is very nice made with oysters, shrimps or sausages.--MME. EUSTIS, MERE.

DELICIOUS BREAKFAST DISH

Take some hog meat prepared for sausages. Chop up some well boiled pig's feet, mix with it, and wrap up in a lace. Fry it, and serve hot.--MME. ALZIRE DUBROCA, Baton Rouge.

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JUMBALLAYA

Take a good sized chicken. Cut it as for fried chicken, season it with salt and pepper, and fry in a spoonful of lard. Cut up half a pound of ham in pieces an inch long, and fry in the same pan. When that is fried, take out and in the same lard fry a spoonful of onions cut very fine. Slice up three large tomatoes, or two spoonfuls of canned tomatoes, and fry them in the same pan. Cut up a little parsley and add when everything is fried. Put back your ham and chicken and add two and a half cupfuls of water. Let it come to a boil, and then add a cupful of well washed rice. Put it again on a quick fire. When the rice is cooked, and the steam begins to rise, put it on a slow fire and add a teaspoonful of butter. If you fear it may burn at the bottom of the pot, use a fork, not a spoon, as the latter makes the rice soggy. Let it soak or dry thoroughly. If it does not dry fast enough, put for a moment in the oven.--LYDIA EUSTIS.

RIZ A LA VALENCIENNE

Make a nice brown fricassee, with a good sized fowl highly flavored; let it simmer for two hours. Make about a pint of tomato sauce, adding to it red and green peppers. It must have cooked two hours. Mix it with the chicken fricassee, let it simmer together. Take a cup of best Carolina rice, prepare it as for boiling in hot water for five minutes. Use a tureen or dish that will go to the fire, put in it your chicken, then the rice on top, add two or three spoonfuls of the best olive oil, put it in a moderately hot oven, watching it closely; if it gets dry b