Today I have
for you a Valentine’s Day recipe which you may like to prepare for your
beloved. It is quite different from the usual blog offerings at this time. It
is not sweet. It contains no chocolate, oysters, or champagne. It does not
require a heart-shaped cookie cutter. I give it to you in advance of the day to
give you time to source the ingredients.
Love in Disguise (to dress)
After well cleaning, stuff a calf’s
heart; cover it an inch thick with good forcemeat; then roll it in vermicelli;
put it into a dish with a little water, and send it to the oven. When done,
serve it with its own gravy in the dish. This forms a pretty side dish.
The Female’s Friend, and General
Domestic Adviser, by
R.Huish, Esq. (London, 1837)
If you
really want to impress, you could serve it with a fine sauce made from a recipe
in the same book. You will remember that ‘love apples’ were an early name for
tomatoes, on account of their supposed aphrodisiac properties when they were
introduced to Europe from the New World in the early sixteenth century. The old
name must surely be auspicious for tomorrow?
Love Apple Sauce (to make)
Take a dozen love apples, very ripe,
and of a fine red; take off the stalks, open, and take out the seeds, and press
them in the hand to take out the water; put the expressed love apples into a
stewpan with a size of an egg of butter, a bay leaf, and a little thyme; put in
a spoonful of good cullis, or the top of broth, called top-pot, which will be
better; when it is thus prepared, rub it through a search [sieve], and put it
into a stewpan with two spoonfuls of cullis; reduce it to the consistence of a
light bouillie; put in a little salt, and a small quantity of cayenne pepper.
Quotation for the Day.
Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And
cooking done with care is an act of love**
Craig Claiborne.
1 comment:
St. Valentine's Day, surely.
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