LVII Captain Edward A. Salisbury
Sauce for Spaghetti
This sauce for spaghetti is a real Italian mixture—and wonderful. This is how I learned to make it in Italy:
Place in a cup or bowl a half teacup full of dried mushrooms. Pour boiling water over them and just let them stand until thoroughly softened, say—about a half hour.
In the meantime cover the bottom of your frying pan or skillet with butter or olive oil (I prefer the butter). Chop one big onion and cook slowly, stirring frequently. In another pan or kettle place two cans of tomatoes. Stew them for half an hour. Then make three small cakes of Hamburg steak or chopped beef and put them in to cook, with the onions. Cook thoroughly. Add at the same time the mushrooms which have been softened and chopped into fine particles.
When the meat is cooked through mash the cakes up with a fork—mixing well with onions and mushrooms.
Now add the stewed tomatoes and, in doing this, press them through a sieve or colander. Stir well.
Place on back of stove and let steep for one hour after adding two teaspoons of Eagle Chili Powder (if available) or two teaspoons of Lea & Perrins sauce with five dissolved cubes of beef or chicken bouillon.
To cook the spaghetti, place it, unbroken, in well salted boiling water. Put it in end first. Boil exactly twenty-three minutes. Drain. Hold under cold water tap for a second or two and drain again. Keep warm on stove until served. This cold water treatment is important. It removes all gumminess and leaves the spaghetti in perfect condition. Use the imported spaghetti if available.
Eggs à la Salisbury
Here is a dish that is easy to make and delicious.
I poach the desired number of eggs until they are just solid. Then I place them on hot, crisp toast, covering the eggs with beautifully done bacon.
Over the lot, I pour hot cream until the eggs are floating.
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste.
Try this for breakfast.
Fish à la Commodore
Say you are cooking a six pound bass or some similar fish—do it this way for a change:
Rub the fish well with salt and pepper. Don’t be afraid to rub. Then open the flesh in three places and insert in each opening a clove of garlic.
Next slice six large onions—six small green peppers—and six large tomatoes. Now take your Dutch oven or baking pan and cover the bottom with Mazola oil or olive oil—add a tablespoon of butter.
When this is hot put in your fish and cover the fish with the sliced vegetables. Salt and pepper the vegetables.
Cook until the vegetables are done or about one hour. Baste frequently to avoid scorching the vegetables. To the basting add two teaspoons of Lea & Perrins sauce and one-half wine glass of cooking Sherry when half done.
When serving put plenty of juice and sauce on each portion and make them come back for more. This recipe can be used for many kinds of large fish.
To Cook Trout
Dip trout in beaten egg, salt and pepper. Roll in flour and drop into very hot and very deep Mazola oil. Remove when golden brown. The trout will be perfectly free from oil and every bit of the delicate trout flavor will be sealed up inside. Try it!
Venison Steak
Venison steak is fairly poor steak at best. But there is one way to cook it that makes you forget all past experiences with venison. And remember this is really the only way to cook it that’s worth a damn.
Take the venison and strip out all of the white sinews that lay between the muscles or lean parts. Strip and cut this white part all away. Then cut your venison into small strips about the thickness of a finger. Now you are on your way. Beat up an egg or two and beat in a bit of salt and pepper. Dip your strips of venison in the egg, then roll them in flour. Fry in butter and serve immediately.
Every hunter or guide who has tried this sticks to it. It’s the one way to cook venison.
Goose
There is only one way for a man, or any one else, to cook a goose. Listen: Never pick a goose! Just pull the skin right off—every inch of it.
Then take a sharp knife and follow down the breast bone on both sides. Strip the breast meat clear away from both sides. Split each side of breast into two thin steaks (if large goose).
Dip these steaks in beaten egg, salt and pepper. Roll in flour and fry over a medium fire. That’s new to most folks for goose and it’s going to give you a new idea about geese when you try it.
A Mayonnaise and a Salad Dressing
Take yolks of two eggs, beat well and add slowly (drop at a time) olive oil. If your mixture is too thick lighten with dash of lemon or vinegar.
Now into a half pint of this mayonnaise put three tablespoons of Chili sauce; three tablespoons of Blue Label Ketchup; one tablespoon of finely chopped pimento; one tablespoon of finely chopped blanched sweet peppers.
To this add one-half teaspoon of salt—pepper and Hungarian paprika to taste.
Then add, slowly, Tarragon vinegar to taste—say about one and one-half tablespoons.
Serve this on shrimps, lobster, lettuce or tomato salad.
Ducks and Large Fowl
Ducks, such as Mallard, Canvasback and Redhead, should be baked. If you once learn how to bake in a Dutch Oven you have found the secret of successful camp cookery.
Take a Mallard, for instance. Rub it with salt and pepper (I might add here: pick ’em dry and keep ’em dry—no water near a duck!), then put an onion well up in the body cavity. Fill the remaining space with celery, wild or domestic.
Get your oven, or Dutch oven, very hot before the duck goes in. Use no grease and no water—just your dry pan or oven. A big Mallard will cook perfectly in twenty minutes. Do not open oven or take lid from Dutch oven after starting to cook. Serve with currant jelly.
Teal, Partridge and Small Fowl
Pick, without breaking the skin. Cut open the back and break out flat for grilling or broiling. Broil bone side to the fire for eight minutes. Souse frequently with melted butter.
Turn and broil, flesh side to the fire, for four minutes, using more butter. Salt and pepper thoroughly at time of turning.
Serve with currant jelly.
Beans
Get a deep pot for beans. A heavy iron one is mighty good.
Take a half pound of salt pork and cut it into very small pieces. Fry them until brown.
Clean your beans and soak them for at least two hours—or more. Then boil the beans for two hours, after which add the pork and one can of Mexican Chili Sauce. If this is not available, make your own by frying with the salt pork: four tomatoes, three onions, two bell peppers and one red pepper, all chopped.
Now you’ve got your mixture and after it’s all together put in six beef bouillon cubes; salt and pepper to taste.
It’s a good idea to have enough water in the pot so that when the beans are done a fine soup may be enjoyed before the beans are eaten. Altogether three to four hours of cooking is necessary for the best results with beans.
Italian Rice
First, a word about cooking rice. Buy the best head rice. Wash it thoroughly,—six waters. Drop rice slowly into well salted, boiling water, and boil for twenty-three minutes. Drain off three-quarters of water and hold rice under cold water faucet for a moment; this will leave each grain firm and perfect. Drain thoroughly.
Now the sauce. Place in your skillet olive oil to cover the bottom; also tablespoon of butter. Chop one large Spanish onion. Place it in the skillet and cook slowly. Stir often.
After ten or fifteen minutes, a piece of white fish (sole preferred) about the size of your four fingers, from the palm down—see? When the onions are a golden color add one finely chopped clove of garlic. When fish is thoroughly cooked, mash it up with a fork and stir well. Now add one or two cans of tomatoes which have been stewing slowly for half an hour or more. Add them through a sieve and push with a spoon so as to get the thick part through. Mix well.
Place this on the back of the stove where it will simmer for one hour. Add a pinch of saffron or thyme—salt and pepper to taste.
This sauce can be used for only one meal, as it sours after a few hours. Sauce should be applied by each person as desired until it’s all gone.
Steak Sauce
Have a large platter very, very hot—really hot!
Then the minute the steak is done, put it on the platter and work fast. Over the steak sprinkle a very little bit of dry English mustard. Then a squeeze or two of lemon. Now several thin slices of butter, a little Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and paprika. Rub all this in with a broad knife. Turn steak and repeat the operation. Now tip platter on edge and quickly whip the sauce into a froth, using a fork. Serve two or three tablespoons of sauce with each piece of steak.