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 Title: Colette's best recipes : a book of French cookery 
 
 Author: Jacques, Marie 
 
 Publisher, year: Boston : Little, Brown and company, 1925, c1923 
 
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 ISBN of reproduction: 978-1-926846-29-3 
 
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Colette's Best Recipes 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 A Book of French Cookery 
 
 By 
 
 Marie Jacques 
 
 Boston 
 
 Little, Brown, and Company 
 
 1925 
 
Copyright, 1923, 
 By Marie Jacques. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Introductory I 
 
 II Colette Makes Soup 4 
 
 III Colette Cooks Eggs 18 
 
 IV French Ragouts and Stews . . . .32 
 
 V Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts ... 44 
 
 VI Colette and the Left-overs .... 63 
 
 VII Colette and the Chafing Dish ... 74 
 
 VIII Colette Cooks Fish 84 
 
 IX Out of the Frying Pan 94 
 
 X Colette Cooks Vegetables .... 109 
 
 XI Colette Makes Sauces 127 
 
 XII Colette Makes Candied Fruits and Sweets 138 
 
 XIII Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits . . 151 
 
 XIV Colette Cooks Fruit 168 
 
 XV Colette Makes Creams and Sweet Dishes . 181 
 
 XVI Colette Puts Up Conserves .... 193 
 
 XVII Some of the Things I Have Left Out . .214 
 
 Index 
 
 223 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
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 >>> 
 
 OLETTE, were you ever anything but a cook ? ! 
 “Yes, once. In my first place, I was cowherd. 
 I was eight years and three months old, and my 
 mother had put me to service on a farm, because there were 
 too many mouths to fill at home. But, one day, the mis- 
 tress of that farm had a baby — suddenly, you understand 
 — and there was no one to make the soup for the man. 
 So they fetched me in from the long pasture, and I did it. 
 I liked it better than herding — so much better that I was 
 glad when she died — that unfortunate one ! — and the 
 sudden baby, too, and left me to make the soup always. 
 I did not mean to think wickedly, you understand well. 
 But I was young and without education — and she had 
 given me a slap or two, now and then — and I loved to 
 make the soup. I have made it ever since.” 
 
 “And that was — how long ago?” 
 
 “Fifty-one years in August.” 
 
 [i] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 “Fifty-one years of cooking ! And yet you do not seem 
 tired of it!” 
 
 “I am not. For, look you, in the cooking there is always 
 something new to learn, something new to try. There are 
 as many different ways of cooking a chicken as he has 
 feathers on his back. And then times change, and seasons 
 change, and to-day you are rich and to-morrow you are 
 poor, and the cooking must fit itself to all that comes. Oh, 
 no ! It is not possible that a woman, who knows a little 
 about cooking and interests herself in it, should find it dull. 
 It is only the Shiftless Ones — those who muddle along 
 anyhow — who find it wearisome. I pity them! From 
 my heart I pity them! Fancy doing bad cooking! How 
 it must lie on the conscience, not to speak of the stomach ! ” 
 
 “Perhaps they know no better — ” I begin, taking up 
 arms to defend a world full of Shiftless Ones. But Colette 
 will accept no weak excuses. 
 
 “Perhaps they did not know better up till now. Let us 
 suppose so in charity. But now I have told them better. 
 I have told them how to cook as a Christian — as a French- 
 woman — should. You know that I have told them, for 
 you wrote it down yourself on that writing machine of yours, 
 all the afternoons of last summer, when I had made the 
 kitchen clean, and cleared the table for you. They have 
 nothing to do but read the book, and then they will know 
 all that I have learned about cooking in fifty-one years.” 
 
 As a matter of fact, you won’t — not half or a quarter of 
 it. No single book could be made to contain all the floods 
 of information that Colette poured out on me during those 
 summer afternoons. But some of it is here, anyway, — 
 as many recipes as I could squeeze in, and a certain amount 
 of general instruction. 
 
 Do you think you could find time to read right through 
 
 [ 2 ] 
 
Introductory 
 
 the book, please? It is not a work of reference; it is a 
 gossip in a kitchen. If you only turn up in the index the 
 recipe you want, and read just that, the chances are great 
 that your dish will fail for lack of a little hint or warning 
 which comes somewhere else in the chapter. And we should 
 hate to have you spoil anything, Colette and I. 
 
 But I don’t believe you will. For this book deals only 
 with the French cuisine de famille; and that — like most 
 other very good things and very good folks — is simplic- 
 ity itself. 
 
 [3] 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 COLETTE MAKES SOUP 
 
 S O, you see, Colette’s career began with the soup. 
 Many things do, in France, — the two chief meals 
 of every day, for instance, in every family; and 
 some things end with it also, as, in many working-class 
 homes, there is nothing else for dinner and supper except 
 just the soup, and a big hunk of bread to dip in it. And, 
 on that, the boys and girls manage to grow up as strong 
 and active and wiry as you please. For there is no more 
 valuable article of food than well-made soup. 
 
 Mind, it must be well made. A soup square, melted 
 down in a little hot water or a highly seasoned mess out of 
 a tin have no food value at all, or next to none. Besides, 
 they are very costly, and quite needlessly so : real, home- 
 made soup should cost next to nothing, as all the odds and 
 ends in the house can be used up for it. 
 
 Roughly speaking, soups can be divided into three classes : 
 purges, or soups that have been rubbed through a sieve 
 or a colander ; bread soups (specially French in nature) ; 
 
 CLEAR SOUPS. 
 
 Let me try to give you a notion of each in turn. You 
 should always remember that, in the first two categories 
 the word “ stock ” means either meat boilings or vegetable 
 water. Special stock made from bones is quite unnecessary. 
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
Colette Makes Soup 
 
 Remember also, please, that the time given for cooking 
 is the shortest possible one. Soups can nearly always be 
 cooked, with advantage, for an almost unlimited length of 
 time. All those that do not contain either eggs or whole 
 pieces of bread or toast can be warmed up, and will improve, 
 rather than otherwise, in the process. 
 
 BREAD SOUPS 
 
 panade is the first soup that a French baby gets. In 
 schools over here, they give it to the children for break- 
 fast, in place of any other cereal. It can also be served at 
 dinner, though only “ in the family.” 
 
 Allow a good half slice of bread for each person. The 
 more crusts you can use, the nicer will be the panade. 
 Put it into a big pot with plenty of water, and boil steadily, 
 but not too fast, for one hour. Don’t stir ! If you do, 
 the bread will sink to the bottom and bum. 
 
 Drain out the bread. Put it through a sieve or colander. 
 If you want plain Panade & l’Eau, such as school children 
 get, thin it out with its water to the consistency of a soup, 
 season it with salt and a very little sugar, and reheat it, 
 stirring all the while. Just before it is done add a lump of 
 butter, more or less generous, according to your resources. 
 
 panade AU lait. After the bread has gone through the 
 sieve, thin it out with boiling milk. Add sugar, and just 
 a wee pinch of salt, with butter to taste. This is the staple 
 food of French babies. 
 
 panade a la reine. Make it just like Panade au Lait. 
 But, after it has boiled up the second time, draw the pan 
 off the fire and beat in the yolks of one or two eggs. Re- 
 turn the pan and stir constantly while the eggs thicken, 
 but do not let the soup boil again. This is very often served 
 to invalids, or to children when they need a treat. 
 
 [5] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 panade A l’oignon (onion potage). Allow one small 
 onion for each person. Boil them with the bread, and 
 put them through the sieve with it. Thin out the soup 
 either with its own water, or with meat boilings. This is 
 excellent for colds, and for all skin troubles. Season well 
 with salt and pepper, but keep just a wee grain of sugar 
 too ; it helps the taste of the onion. 
 
 PANADE ATJX LEGUMES (VEGETABLE POTAGE). When 
 you have cold vegetables left, mix them into the hot bread 
 as you drain it out of the pan, and put all through the 
 sieve together. Thin out the mixture with vegetable water. 
 This is a good family soup. 
 
 SOUPE a l’oseille blanchie (white sorrel soup). 
 Take a big double -handful of tender young sorrel, which has 
 been washed and picked over. Put it in the soup pan with 
 a lump of butter the size of an egg, and stir over the fire till 
 the leaves soften. Add one and a half quarts of water or 
 stock. Let the whole thing boil five minutes. Now cut 
 about six largish and very thin slices of bread. Throw 
 them into the pan, draw it aside, cover it, and let it simmer 
 gently for quarter of an hour. Now beat up the yolks of 
 two eggs with salt, pepper, and a little of the warm soup. 
 Stir them in just at the moment of service. Have ready the 
 whites, beaten to a stiff froth with a little salt. If you use 
 a soup tureen, dab the whole big lump of white into it. 
 If you serve in plates, put a white tuft on each plate. 
 
 This soup is “very foreign looking” and never fails to 
 attract comment from those who have not lived in France. 
 
 Soupe a la Bretonne (Brittany Soup) 
 
 3 large onions A handful of sorrel or spinach 
 
 2 small carrots A piece of butter the size of an egg 
 
 2 small turnips i quart stock or water 
 
 Slices — or rather shavings — of stale bread 
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
Colette Makes Soup 
 
 Peel the vegetables and cut them into very small dice. 
 The green stuff should be washed and cut into fine strips. 
 Put them into the soup pan with the butter, and let 
 them get well warmed through. Then add the liquid 
 and boil steadily for two hours. Add salt and pepper to 
 taste. 
 
 Now take a stale loaf — or, better still, a big crusty roll 
 — and cut off from it the thinnest possible shavings. They 
 should not be slices, but real shavings, curled and ragged. 
 Put at least six, and more if you like, of these shavings into 
 each plate. Pour in boiling soup, taking care that you give 
 a fair share of vegetables with each serving. Cover the 
 plates, and stand them beside the fire, or in a cool oven, 
 for five minutes, so that the bread may soak : then add as 
 much more soup as each plate will hold, and serve. 
 
 JULIENNE AU PAIN ( JULIENNE, WITH BREAD) is Very much 
 the same kind of thing, except that you must take all the 
 root vegetables you can lay hands on in equal amounts, 
 and no green stuff at all, unless you happen to have some 
 green peas. Cut all the vegetables small. Be generous 
 with the butter in which you warm them. Cook just as 
 above, but, when it comes to a question of the bread, cut 
 neat thin slices, just large enough to fit tidily into your 
 soup plates, and toast them very brown indeed. 
 
 soupe mousseline. Melt three ounces of butter in the 
 soup pan. Add a handful of spinach or sorrel, carefully 
 washed, picked, and cut into fine strips. When the green 
 begins to change color, add one quart of water and half a 
 pound of the white of bread. Salt and pepper the soup to 
 taste, and let it simmer one hour. 
 
 Now beat up the yolks of two eggs with one pint of very 
 hot milk. Stir in the whites, beaten to the firmest possible 
 froth. Pour all into the soup tureen — which should be 
 
 [ 7 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 well heated first — and then add the soup, little by little, 
 beating all the while. Serve at once. 
 
 This is rather an old-fashioned soup, which still remains 
 in favor, and might quite well appear on a dinner menu. 
 
 croute au pot (crust in the pot) is another well- 
 known national soup. It can only be made with meat 
 boilings, — not with vegetable water. 
 
 Toast two thin slices of bread and put them in the soup 
 pan with the fatty part from the top of the boiling meat 
 pot. At first there should be enough liquid to cover them. 
 But, as they boil, the liquor will evaporate, leaving them to 
 stick to the bottom of the pot. When they are well stuck, 
 take them off carefully with a knife, put them in the soup tu- 
 reen, and pour over them the meat boilings, nicely seasoned. 
 
 If you can use crusts of bread, rather than slices with 
 white in them, so much the better. 
 
 Now let us have a few purees. 
 
 Their name is legion, for every kind of vegetable is 
 capable of being boiled and then put through a sieve : and 
 the more different kinds you mix together, the more various 
 and interesting will your purees be. Here are a few 
 examples. 
 
 SOUPE DE DIVERS LEGUMES (MIXED VEGETABLE SOUP). 
 
 Add together all the vegetable waters and meat boilings 
 that you have, up to two quarts. Put all on to boil. When 
 it boils, add whatever vegetables may be in season, — 
 carrots, turnips, onions, parsnips, peas, celery, and either old 
 potatoes or haricot beans, to thicken the entire affair. You 
 must never have less than three vegetables, of which one 
 must be onions and one the thickening. When all are soft, 
 put all through a colander with big holes. Reheat it, 
 stirring all the while. Add salt, pepper, and the largest 
 lump of butter or good dripping that you can spare. 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
Colette Makes Soup 
 
 This soup keeps several days, reheats perfectly, and is 
 capable of variation by the addition of any vegetables you 
 happen to have, provided that they are already cooked. 
 
 soupe d’haricots (haricot bean soup). Wash and soak 
 one pound of haricot beans. Put them on to boil with four 
 large peeled potatoes, four large peeled onions, and two 
 quarts of water or stock. Boil till the beans are perfectly 
 tender. Then put the whole thing through a sieve. It will 
 be quite thick, and you should not thin it out. Reheat it, 
 stirring carefully. Just before serving, add salt and pepper 
 to taste, and the biggest lump of butter you can spare. 
 
 This is a very nourishing soup, — just what you want 
 for the family dinner on cold-meat days. 
 
 SOUPE DE LENTILLES OU DE POIS (PEA OR LENTIL SOUP). 
 This is very similar. Use dried peas, either green or yellow, 
 or dried lentils. Measure them, soak them overnight, and 
 add four times as much of water as you have of vegetables. 
 Add also one onion and one large carrot to each pint of 
 liquid. Cook just as above, adding a tiny wee pinch of 
 sugar, as well as the salt and pepper, just before serving, if 
 the soup has been made with water or vegetable stock. If 
 it has been made with meat boilings, you will find just a 
 very small dash of made mustard nicer than the sugar. 
 
 SOUPE AUX POMMES DE TERRE (POTATO SOUP). There 
 are almost an unlimited number of flavorings for potato 
 soup, — onion, celery, salsify, mixed herbs being the favor- 
 ites. Whichever you choose, it should be cooked in with 
 the soup. 
 
 Allow five large potatoes to one quart stock or water. 
 Peel them, boil them in the stock till they are soft, and put 
 them through a fine sieve. Reheat the whole affair, adding 
 a generous lump of butter. At the moment of service, stir 
 in one fourth the amount of milk — or, better still, of cream 
 
 [9] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 — heated, but not boiling, that you used of stock. Un- 
 less you are very sure of the freshness of your cream mix 
 it first with a little boiling soup in a basin : it would be such 
 a shame if you were to put it straight into the whole quan- 
 tity, and then have to stand and watch it turn ! 
 
 soupe aux choux (cabbage soup) is a very great spe- 
 cialty of Colette’s, and I think I will put it in here, though 
 it is not exactly a puree. There are several different kinds. 
 
 1. Put on a big pot holding at least two quarts of water, 
 and throw into it 
 
 4 carrots, cut into long thin strips 
 6 onions, roughly chopped 
 i cupful haricot beans, soaked 
 4 large potatoes, peeled 
 A cupful of green peas, if you have any 
 A bunch of mixed herbs 
 
 A couple of cloves, stuck into a little onion, which is there especially 
 for them 
 
 A good-sized cabbage, with the stalks and the outer leaves removed, 
 and the rest cut into rough pieces 
 Salt and pepper 
 
 Cover the pot and boil hard for three hours. Then add 
 a piece of butter or good dripping, the size of two eggs. 
 Boil for half an hour more. Fish out the potatoes, if they 
 are not already in pulp, and smash them roughly. Finish 
 off the soup by throwing in little dice of crust, which should 
 just have time to soak before it is served. 
 
 This is a real good farmhouse soup, — the sort that 
 you almost live on when you spend a holiday in the coun- 
 try. If you can make it of the water in which a ham, 
 or a large piece of bacon, has been boiled, it is delicious. 
 
 2. SOUPE AUX CHOUX ET AU FROMAGE (CABBAGE AND 
 
 cheese soup) . This cannot be made except in a soup tureen. 
 
 [ io ] 
 
Colette Makes Soup 
 
 Put at the bottom of the tureen a layer of small, thin 
 pieces of bread. On them sprinkle a layer of grated Par- 
 mesan cheese. Then more bread. Then more cheese. 
 Then a final layer of bread. Having made a Soupe aux 
 Choux, as above, ladle a little of the liquid into the tureen, 
 — enough to soak the bread very well. Cover the tureen, 
 and stand it at the side of the fire for three quarters of an 
 hour, so that the bread may soak. Then pour in the rest 
 of the soup and serve. 
 
 This, according to Colette, is “a much more presentable 
 soup”, and worth careful making. Cut the vegetables 
 into wee dice, or even stamp them out with a tiny cutter : 
 but leave the pieces of cabbage rather big, or you will take 
 away all the character of the dish. 
 
 3. SOUPE AUX CHOUX A LA VIANDE (CABBAGE AND MEAT 
 soup) . When you have had a roast, either of beef or mut- 
 ton, which was rather underdone, leave a little of the meat 
 clinging to the bone, saw the bone at three or four places, 
 and boil it in the Soupe aux Choux. You need not, in this 
 case, use any butter at all. Colette often adds a good hand- 
 ful of rice when she uses a bone : in this case, no bread is 
 needed. 
 
 Last of all come the clear soups, which are, as a rule, 
 considered finer and better than the thick ones. There is 
 a sort of “halfway house ” of a soup, which gets served con- 
 tinually in every French family, and is a triumph of econ- 
 omy, both in money and effort. It is called pot-au-feu 
 (pot-on-the-fire), and it is made by the very simple 
 expedient of taking a nice piece of boiling beef and cooking 
 it in a big pot, with all the vegetables you have handy. 
 At the end of five to seven hours of cooking, fish out the 
 beef — which will be perfectly tender — slice it, and serve 
 it hot, covered with any of the meat sauces which you will 
 
 [ 11 I 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 find in Chapter XI. Or an even simpler — and more really 
 French — way of doing things is just to slice the beef, 
 arrange the slices at the middle of a dish, fish out of the pot 
 enough vegetables to make a pretty border, and pour a 
 little of the pot liquor over all. Serve the soup first, with 
 bread broken into it, and you have the staple dinner of the 
 French middle-class household, comparable to a meal of 
 roast mutton and bread pudding in England. 
 
 Colette wants you to know that there is a rule of pro- 
 cedure in the making of Pot-au-feu, and it is this : 
 
 Put the beef into cold water and bring it to a boil. 
 
 Skim it carefully. 
 
 Add the vegetables, peeled and cut into moderate pieces, 
 but not too small. Carrots, for instance, may be split 
 into four lengthwise bits, and an ordinary cabbage cut into 
 six pieces. But, as the pot must boil for so long, there is no 
 need to hurry the cooking of the vegetables by cutting 
 them smaller. 
 
 Let it boil up and skim it once more. 
 
 Add salt. Cover the pot. Keep it boiling at any rate 
 you like. If you don’t want to use the meat that day, let 
 it soak in the soup all night, and just warm them up to- 
 gether next morning. 
 
 A piece of beef weighing five pounds is enough to make 
 a gallon of good Pot-au-feu. 
 
 bouillon, which is the foundation of most clear soups, 
 can be made with meat or bones of any kind. Colette seldom 
 buys soup meat ; indeed, she would think it almost a crime 
 to do so. But, as we live in a country where butchers bone 
 their meat as a matter of course — except the large joints 
 of beef and mutton — each piece that comes into the house 
 brings its little pile of detached bones for the soup pot. 
 
 The best of all, without doubt, are veal bones, which 
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
Colette Makes Soup 
 
 make a delicious, jelly-like soup. Beef and mutton bones 
 are a little tasteless, but can be improved by being chopped 
 here and there, so that the marrow may come out. Game 
 and chicken bones and leavings are excellent, and Colette 
 always says that the fore quarters of a rabbit do better 
 work in the soup pot than on the dish. (There is little to 
 eat on them, you know, but they give an excellent flavor.) 
 You can mix several different kinds of meat with advantage, 
 and I need hardly remind you, I think, that the water in 
 which a tongue, ham, or bit of bacon has been boiled is a 
 perfect treasure for the soup pot. When people are coming 
 to dinner, Colette nearly always puts a pair of pig’s feet 
 into the bouillon, for there is nothing that gives a more 
 delicious flavor. And I like them very much to eat, cold, 
 next day, with a little mayonnaise dressing. 
 
 First and last, you should have one pound of bones 
 or bits of meat to each two pints of water, if you want 
 to get a real, good, strong bouillon. If you want it to 
 keep well, use no vegetables, as they tend to make it turn, 
 — nothing but the meat, the water, and a little salt. 
 
 Boil, with the lid on the pan, for at least five hours, and 
 as many more as you can manage. Let the bouillon get 
 cold. Skim it most carefully and save the skimmings for 
 frying. There’s nothing more tasty than saute potatoes 
 made with the skimmings of a well-seasoned bouillon. 
 
 Strain out as much as you want to use at a time, keeping 
 the big pot of soup in a cool place, and boiling it up every 
 two days in warm weather, and every three days in cold, if it 
 lasts that long. It may be used in any of the following ways : 
 
 vermicelle AU gras. Salt and pepper the bouillon 
 to taste, color it with a little browning, make it boil up 
 fast, and break in vermicelli. Stir till it boils again. Cook 
 fifteen minutes, and serve. 
 
 [ 13 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 potage of Italian paste. Make it exactly like the 
 Vermicelle soup. When it is served, have a plate of grated 
 Parmesan added, so that each person may help himself. 
 
 potage au macaroni, tapioca, etc., are all made just 
 the same. Large macaroni takes thirty-five minutes to 
 cook in the soup, and tapioca more or less time, according 
 to size : but, when it is quite clear, you may know that it 
 is done. 
 
 potage aux croutons frites. Serve a perfectly plain 
 bouillon, and hand wee stars of fried bread with it; or, 
 better still, use 
 
 choux puffs. Put into a pan one fourth pint of water, 
 two and one half ounces of flour, and one ounce of butter. 
 Let them boil. Then draw the pan aside and stin in two 
 and one half ounces of flour. Beat smooth with a wooden 
 spoon. Return the pan to the fire and stir again till the 
 paste just begins to bubble. Then draw the pan away once 
 more and beat in an egg. When the egg is most thoroughly 
 mixed, let the paste stand to get cold. Then heat your pan 
 of deep fat to smoking point, take up the weest possible 
 little bits of paste, and drop them in. They puff up enor- 
 mously, and turn a bright biscuit brown at once. Drain 
 them, store them in a tin, and just reheat them a little 
 in the oven before serving, to make them crisp. Hand 
 them with clear soup. They look ever so nice and taste 
 delicious. The quantities that I have given you make 
 a big tin full, — enough to last quite a while. 
 
 When you are making pastry, save up all the odds and 
 ends, roll them into long thin strips, and, holding a strip 
 over a pan of frying fat, heated to smoking point, snip off 
 the end in wee bits, which fall down into the pan. They 
 puff and swim up to the top almost at once, and are de- 
 liciously crisp and nice with the bouillon. 
 
 [ 14] 
 
Colette Makes Soup 
 
 julienne. You must use for this a good mixture of root 
 vegetables — at least four different kinds — and, if possi- 
 ble, green peas with them. The whole art of preparing 
 the Julienne lies in the cutting up of the various roots in 
 very wee bits, none of them larger than a pea. When all 
 are done, put them into the soup pan with one ounce butter 
 for each pint of vegetables, and cook gently till the vege- 
 tables begin to soften. Then add a quart of good bouillon 
 — or more, if you like — for each pint of vegetables : boil 
 three quarters of an hour : serve with little snips of fried 
 bread. 
 
 The bouillon may be colored or left plain, according to 
 taste. It should be well seasoned with pepper and salt. 
 
 potage printaniere (spring soup). This is pretty 
 much the same kind of thing, except that asparagus points, 
 green peas, and wee spring onions are essential to it. (You 
 probably won’t get anything much else to put with them 
 at that season of the year.) Add a little white sugar 
 to the soup, tasting carefully after each pinch that you 
 stir in. 
 
 potage au melon (melon soup). This is perfectly de- 
 licious. Peel and seed a small melon, and cut the fruit 
 into neat, small cubes, not more than one and one half 
 inches in size. Boil them till tender in plain water. Drain 
 them. 
 
 Slice one large onion into the soup pan and fry it in a 
 heaped tablespoonful of butter. Pour on to it one quart 
 of boiling bouillon, add the melon, season to taste with 
 salt and pepper. Simmer for five minutes before serving. 
 
 bouillon a la minute (hasty soup). Take one fourth 
 pint of gravy from the roast, — beef, mutton, or veal. 
 Skim it most carefully, taking away every possible drop 
 of dripping. Add it to one pint of boiling vegetable water 
 
 [15] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 or plain water. Serve with choux puffs or fried bread. 
 Very good indeed. 
 
 consomm£ is not much used except in illness or for very 
 grand occasions. But you may like to know how to make 
 it, all the same. 
 
 4 pints water 
 2 lbs. lean beef 
 
 An old bird of any kind — game or hen — or the fore quarters of a 
 rabbit or hare 
 
 2 each of carrots, onions, and parsnips 
 A bunch of sweet herbs 
 2 cloves, stuck into one of the onions 
 
 Boil for eight hours. Let it cool and skim carefully. 
 This makes a really splendid consomme. The meat can 
 be used a second time in the family soup pot, though I do 
 not suppose there will be so very much richness left in it. 
 
 “For all the other clear soups,” says Colette, “let folks 
 just take notice, when they go out to dinner, of what they 
 are eating, and they will get no end of ideas. Clear soup 
 is always clear soup : and, when you find that it has been 
 improved by the addition of this little thing, or that little 
 thing, — well, all you have to do is to notice just what it 
 may be, and put it in your own pot next time. What 
 could be easier?” 
 
 If you want to make good soup always : 
 
 1. Add the seasoning at the very end, unless the recipe 
 tells you something different. There are certain season- 
 ings — cloves, for instance — which must be cooked in 
 the soup. But salt and pepper, which are the most ordi- 
 nary seasonings, should generally be added at the last 
 moment, with a careful stir-up and an attentive tasting 
 between each pinch. 
 
 2. If your soup is too salty, or rather dull in taste, add 
 
 [16] 
 
Colette Makes Soup 
 
 a very little rough brown sugar. It is often a great help 
 in bringing out other flavors. 
 
 3. Remember that bread thickenings and pressed purees 
 must hardly ever be stirred at the first boiling while the 
 ingredients are whole : but when they are reheated, after 
 being put through the sieve, they must be stirred continu- 
 ally and kept on a very moderate heat, for they will burn 
 if you give them the smallest chance. 
 
 4. If soup burns, never stir or jolt it, but take the pan 
 off the fire at once, holding it very steady, and gently pour 
 the contents into a clean vessel. As soon as you see that 
 burnt bits are beginning to pour out, stop. Throw the 
 rest away. Never, on any account, scrape the pan or help 
 the soup out with a spoon. Carry the clean vessel out into 
 the fresh air and there taste the soup. (You cannot do a 
 fair tasting in the kitchen, where your nose and mouth 
 will be full of tainted air.) If the scorched taste is very 
 slight, reheat the soup, adding to it a good bunch of fresh 
 mint, and it will be eatable, though I do not promise that 
 it will be good. But if the scorched taste is strong, don’t 
 waste time and trouble on it. Throw it right away, for 
 if you serve scorched soup even once, it is so nasty that you 
 run the risk of disgusting your folks forever with this use- 
 ful dish. 
 
 5. If you are making soup with cold vegetables, which 
 is sometimes a very handy thing to do, don’t try to boil 
 them up in the soup pot, or they will surely sink to the 
 bottom and scorch. Boil the water or bouillon or what- 
 ever it is, and pour it on them, just let them warm and 
 soften a little, and then put them through a sieve and re- 
 heat them like a fresh puree. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 COLETTE COOKS EGGS 
 
 W HEN the Story-teller said that she wanted to 
 come and stay, I was ever so pleased. For a 
 long while I had liked and admired her at a re- 
 spectful distance ; and the thought of having her under my 
 own roof and all to' myself was enchanting. But there was 
 just one thorn in my rose-leaf bed. The Story-teller is a 
 food faddist of a most pronounced type; and what was 
 Colette going to say about that? 
 
 I mentioned gently that a lady was coming to stay on 
 Saturday. Colette looked pleased. She likes visitors. 
 
 “I will kill the little pig — the one with a black spot near 
 his tail,” said she. 
 
 “But that’s just the trouble,” I explained; “this lady 
 eats no meat.” 
 
 “The fish merchant passes only on Thursdays,” said 
 Colette hastily. (She detests fish, and cooks it worse than 
 anything else.) 
 
 “ She does n’t eat fish either. She lives entirely on eggs.” 
 Colette screwed up her brown old face into the most 
 severe of wrinkles. “Is she a fin bee?” demanded she. 
 
 I hesitated. But truth and a cold in the head must come 
 out, sooner or later, so — “Well — perhaps — just a lit- 
 tle,” I admitted. And I waited, shaking in my shoes. 
 
 The wrinkles deepened, wavered, broke, and the whole 
 
 [ 18 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Eggs 
 
 face beamed in a broad grin of pure delight. “Ah! 
 Merci, mon Dieu!” cried Colette devoutly. “At last I 
 shall have in the house somebody who will really eat and 
 enjoy eggs as they ought to be cooked ! Does she stay 
 long, this lady?” 
 
 “Fifteen days.” 
 
 “And she will eat eggs twice a day! Encore un grand 
 merci, mon Dieu!” She was quite carried away over it. 
 
 The Story-teller had n’t been in the house an hour before 
 she and Colette had fallen on each other’s necks, and the 
 result was that Colette’s egg-cooking became not only an 
 artistic triumph, but a work of love. Really, she did some 
 remarkably good things — and quite out of the way, many 
 of them. I will try to tell you about them. 
 
 The first evening, there was a sort of creamy dish, with 
 green peas in it, and wee stars of fried bread to decorate 
 the edge, “ceues aux petits pois,” murmured the Story- 
 teller. “I ate it often in Paris, but it was not as good as 
 this — the peas were less completely mixed into the eggs. 
 I think they cooked the eggs first, and put the peas in after- 
 wards, and — ” 
 
 “Ah! But that is wrong!” cried Colette, quite forget- 
 ting that she must not talk when she waits at table. 
 “Listen ! This is how I do it : 
 
 “I fry my little stars of bread and keep them very hot 
 in the oven till they are wanted. I take one pint of tender 
 little peas, wash them in cold water, drain them well, and 
 toss them in as much flour as they can pick up. In my 
 casserole, I melt a big tablespoonful of butter, and toss the 
 peas in it till they are well buttered all over. Then I add 
 one half pint of water, one half teaspoonful of salt, one big 
 lump of sugar, and one little onion, peeled.” 
 
 “Or one bay leaf,” suggested the Story-teller. 
 
 [ 19] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 “If you choose. Or, again, one may rub the sugar on 
 a cut bead of garlic. All are good. Bring the pan to the 
 boil, cover it, let it simmer till the peas are quite tender. 
 
 “Now beat up four eggs as if for an omelette. Move 
 your pan to a hot place on the fire. Pour in the eggs and 
 stir briskly with a little wooden spoon till they just take. 
 Whisk the pan off the fire at once, pour the contents into 
 a hot dish, decorate with the fried bread, and serve without 
 losing a second. 
 
 “The important thing is that the eggs must not be al- 
 lowed to harden into lumps, as badly cooked scrambled 
 eggs do, for example. There is just one moment at which, 
 mingling with the sauce from the peas, they make a thick, 
 smooth cream. And that moment is the one in which you 
 must whisk your pan off the fire. Wateriness means that 
 they are done too little, and lumpiness that they are done 
 too much. Only creaminess is perfection.” 
 
 If new peas are not to be had, one can very nicely use 
 those that are canned. Drain them and toss them in flour 
 as directed above. In a double boiler melt a generous 
 tablespoonful of butter, and add a small onion, grated; 
 then put in the peas and stir until the butter is sizzling. 
 Then add the water, salt, and a lump (or teaspoonful) of 
 sugar and proceed in exactly the same way as with fresh 
 peas. 
 
 Next day at lunch there was a little copper saucepan 
 standing before the Story-teller’s place. It was a pretty 
 little saucepan, beautifully cleaned and twinkling invit- 
 ingly ; still, one does not, as a rule, put pans on the table, 
 and I began to murmur an excuse. 
 
 “It’s all right!” she assured me. “That’s a fondu 
 au fromage, and it always must be served in the thing in 
 which it is cooked, in order to be hot enough. Some people 
 
 [ 20] 
 
Colette Cooks Eggs 
 
 use a copper or fireproof china dish, but I like the saucepan 
 best, myself — more unusual.” 
 
 A fondu au fromage is quite easy to make. Break 
 into your little pan four very fresh eggs. Add a big pinch 
 of pepper, a small pinch of salt, and a big pinch of sugar, 
 and beat the whole thing with a wooden spoon till the eggs 
 froth well. Then add two ounces of fresh butter and four 
 ounces of grated cheese — Cheddar or Gruyere — set the 
 pan on a very gentle heat, and stir continually with a 
 wooden spoon till the mixture thickens into a smooth 
 cream. 
 
 Again, this mustn’t be allowed to go into lumps, like an 
 omelette or scrambled eggs. As soon as it clings to the 
 spoon and coats it, it is done. Serve it in the pan and give 
 something crisp and crackling to eat with it ; potato 
 ribbons, piping hot, sprinkled well with salt, and piled up 
 on a folded napkin, are the ideal. 
 
 ceufs au fromage (cheese eggs). Colette considers 
 this one of the most nourishing of all her egg dishes, — quite 
 substantial enough to be the chief course of a meal. She 
 always serves puree of potatoes with it, as the dish itself is 
 rather rich, and can well carry off a simple vegetable, such 
 as mashed potatoes. 
 
 Allow two eggs for each person; more if you like, of 
 course, but two at least. Get your pan of deep frying fat 
 on the fire, and heat it till it comes to boiling point, which 
 it does just a few seconds before it stops bubbling and gives 
 off a thin blue smoke. Then drop the eggs in, one at a 
 time, and poach them in the fat, just as you are accustomed 
 to do in water. They cook much faster in the fat, and you 
 should be ready to take them out as soon as they are set. 
 If you allow them to harden, the charm of the dish will be 
 lost. Have ready a fireproof dish in which you have melted 
 
 [ 2i ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 one half teaspoonful of the best fresh butter, and one table- 
 spoonful of grated cheese for each egg. The dish should 
 stand in the oven while you are preparing the eggs, and you 
 should stir the contents now and then, so that the cheese 
 may melt nicely without getting browned at all. Arrange 
 the eggs neatly in the prepared dish, spoon just a little of 
 the butter over them, sprinkle them daintily with salt and 
 pepper, and serve the whole thing piping hot. Take care 
 to drain the eggs when you fish them out of the fat. 
 
 If you cannot eat rich things, poach the eggs in water. 
 But the dish becomes more ordinary at once, though still nice. 
 
 ceufs A l’ardennaise. “Almost as uncommon as it 
 is delicious,” sighed the Story-teller, lovingly regarding 
 the snowy mountains of whipped white, with golden yolks 
 tucked away amongst them. “ Why don’t folks do it more 
 often, I wonder? It is quite easy.” 
 
 Take a rather deep fireproof dish and butter it. Whip 
 up the whites of four or five eggs to a froth so stiff that the 
 fork will stand in it, seasoning them with pepper, salt, a 
 tiny pinch of mixed sweet herbs, just as if for an omelette. 
 Pile the whipped whites roughly in the dish and trickle 
 over them one tablespoonful of good cream for each egg. 
 Slip in the yolks wherever they fit best, and set the whole 
 thing in a brisk oven till the yolks are^ws/ set. The white 
 really ought not to brown, although, now and then, one 
 can’t keep it from coloring a little on the peaks. Serve 
 immediately in the dish in which it is cooked. 
 
 “ What a pity that Madame can take no meat ! ” sighed 
 Colette regretfully. “It hinders me from making her an 
 omelette aux croutons, which is the best of all ome- 
 lettes.” 
 
 “Oh, but I don’t go as far as that!” the Story-teller 
 assured her hastily. “It is not that I have made a vow 
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Eggs 
 
 against meat, my good Colette. It is simply that slices 
 of beef and mutton do not agree with me. But an Omelette 
 aux Croutons made with a little gravy of veal or chicken 
 — why, that is all that there is of the most delicious, is 
 it not?” 
 
 It was. And not quite like any other omelette that I 
 have ever tasted. 
 
 Take a good round of bread about one fourth inch thick, 
 remove the crusts, and cut the white into little squares, 
 fry the squares in a very little butter, till they are just 
 colored. Now put into a pan a very small drop of good 
 gravy — just enough to cover the bottom to the depth of 
 about one inch — put in your fried bread, let them drink 
 up all they can, and then add more if necessary, so that the 
 pan is just not dry. Let it stand at the side of the fire and 
 simmer gently till the bread is quite tender, adding a few 
 drops more of gravy if they are wanted, but remembering 
 that, in the end, the pan must boil dry. Beat it up with a 
 fork, add salt and pepper to taste — if the gravy was not 
 already sufficiently seasoned — and then beat in four eggs, 
 one at a time. Have ready a little butter melted in an 
 omelette pan, pour in the mixture, and cook exactly like 
 an ordinary omelette, taking care that it does not stick, 
 which it will be rather inclined to do on account of the 
 bread in it. 
 
 (EUFS MOLLETS AUX FINES HERBES (HERBEGGS). Colette 
 gave us CEufs Mollets several times. In France, they 
 are served very frequently — all kinds of different sauces 
 being put with them, — tomato, cream sauce, thickened 
 gravies, etc. They are quite easy to do, and many people 
 find them far more digestible than hard-boiled eggs. 
 
 Bring a pan of water to the boil, drop in your eggs, and 
 let them boil fast for five minutes. Fish them out and drop 
 
 [ 2 3 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 them straight into the coldest water you can get. Let 
 them stop in the cold water just one minute. Then take 
 them out and peel them immediately. They are not quite 
 easy to do at first, as the shells rather tend to stick to the 
 whites ; but a little practice will give you the trick of it. 
 Eggs cooked in this way are well set and yet tender to the 
 touch, and with the full taste, which is lost when they are 
 boiled hard. Have your sauce ready and pour it over them 
 at once, before they have time to get cold. 
 
 Supposing that you want to do them aux fines herbes, 
 you must make the characteristic and delicious sauce. 
 
 Put into a small saucepan one teaspoonful chopped 
 parsley, one teaspoonful grated onion or shallot, one leaf 
 of mint and a tiny leaf of laurel, the juice of a large sweet- 
 orange, three tablespoonfuls water, and a large tablespoon- 
 ful of butter, rolled in as much flour as it can pick up. Let 
 all boil gently for one fourth hour, stirring often, and add- 
 ing a little more water if the sauce gets too thick. Strain 
 it. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put the eggs into an 
 au gratin dish, pour the sauce over them, sprinkle with 
 fine crumbs of fried bread, and just slip the dish into the 
 oven for long enough to heat it all up thoroughly, but not 
 long enough either to dry the sauce or harden the eggs. 
 
 “In Italy, they leave out the butter, laurel, mint, and 
 onion, and, instead, they use oil and garlic and just about 
 half of a leaf of sage,” said the Story-teller. “I don't 
 know that their dish is better than yours, my Colette — 
 no, that I do not say — but you might try it, one time, by 
 way of a change.” 
 
 ceufs A l’ail (garlic eggs). “You cannot meet any 
 one after you have eaten it — you will smell too strongly 
 of garlic,” Colette warned us. 
 
 “ I do not want to meet any one who is narrow-minded 
 
 I 24] 
 
Colette Cooks Eggs 
 
 enough to object to garlic,” the Story-teller reassured her 
 regarding the tempting looking salad lovingly. “ How did 
 you make it, Colette?” 
 
 Cook six beads of garlic in just enough water to cover 
 them for ten minutes. Then drain them and pound them 
 in a mortar with two anchovies and six capers. When 
 they are crushed to a smooth paste stir in three tablespoon- 
 fuls of olive oil, one and one half tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 
 and pepper and salt to taste. 
 
 Cut four hard-boiled eggs in quarters, pile them up at 
 the middle of a rather flat salad dish, pour the dressing over 
 them, and make a light border of cress or small salad. 
 
 “ Could you do it with shallots instead of garlic?” asked 
 the Story-teller. 
 
 “Why, yes. It is weak, you know — poor — a sort of 
 second-best. But those who have not been brought up 
 on garlic — who have not their palates formed to it — 
 might like the shallots better. If you use shallots, put 
 in just a tiny dab of made mustard. It helps them — 
 brings out the taste — makes them more interesting.” 
 
 ceufs mimosa was the prettiest and most tempting thing 
 Colette had ever done, I thought, though the two egg 
 epicures shook their heads sadly at my lack of taste, and 
 said it was “ordinary.” 
 
 Boil four eggs hard, and drop them into cold water as 
 soon as they are done, won’t you, to keep the yolks from 
 turning green outside? Cut them in halves lengthwise. 
 Remove the yolks. Make a nice stiff mayonnaise with 
 the yolk of a very fresh egg, and pile it in the spaces left 
 in the whites. At the center of a flat dish make a small 
 round pile of finely chopped small salad, tossed in just a 
 drop or two of oil and vinegar. Put the prepared whites 
 all round, radiating outwards from the pile, like the petals 
 
 [ 25 1 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 of a flower. Hold a fine sieve over the dish, and rub the 
 hard-boiled yolks through it, so that they fall in fine golden 
 rain. Cool it well before serving. 
 
 gateau dor£ (golden cake). It ’s not a cake at all, 
 but a sort of souffle. French folks have a way of naming 
 everything that is cooked brown in the oven a “ g&teau. ” 
 Take one half pound of rice, wash it well, and put it into 
 a pan with enough milk to cover it, with the rind of a lemon, 
 and salt to taste. Let it simmer very gently till it has 
 cooked itself into a soft, thick paste. You may add a little 
 more milk from time to time, but don’t let the mixture be 
 sloppy at all ; there must be no liquid in it when it is done. 
 Take out the lemon rind, let the rice cool till you can hold 
 your finger in it, and then beat in, one after another, the 
 yolks of four e^gs. Now taste again, and add as much salt 
 as is necessary, with a dash of red pepper. 
 
 “ Somebody once told me to put a very little mus- 
 tard — ” murmured the Story-teller. 
 
 “A fool!” was Colette’s prompt comment. “Mustard 
 with milk ? M on Dieu ! ’ ’ 
 
 “You are right,” said the Story-teller meekly. “ Go on.” 
 “Butter a mold thickly — a tin mold is better than a 
 china one — and sprinkle it with the finest browned crumbs. 
 Beat up the whites of the eggs to the stiff est possible froth, 
 fold them gently into the rice, fill the mold not more than 
 half full — because the gUteau rises a great deal — and 
 bake it in an oven brisk enough to brown it well, for three 
 quarters of an hour. Turn out and serve immediately, 
 before it has time to fall. 
 
 “Hand with it any sauce you like. Tomato sauce is 
 delicious with it, and so is the Sauce aux Fines Herbes, 
 which I gave you a little way back.” 
 
 Now I want to tell you, if I may, a few of the more every- 
 
 [ 26] 
 
Colette Cooks Eggs 
 
 day egg dishes, those that Colette gives me when the Story- 
 teller is n’t here. They are very good, too, in their humble 
 way, and much more quickly done than those elaborate 
 affairs. 
 
 ceufs au miroir (looking-glass eggs). Melt a little 
 butter in an au gratin dish. Break in the eggs, two or 
 three for each person. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. 
 Pour in a tablespoonful of cream for each egg. Slip the 
 dish into the oven till the whites ar ejust set. Have ready 
 a browning iron and pass it over the surface to give a touch 
 of brown. But don’t make the eggs hard, or they will be 
 spoiled. Serve at once. 
 
 CEUFS AU BEURRE NOIR (BLACK BUTTER EGGS). Take 
 two eggs for each person. Choose a frying pan large enough 
 to hold them all at once. Melt a little of the best butter 
 in it, heat the butter to spluttering point, and then break 
 in the eggs at such a distance apart that their whites just 
 join up, and all are attached together in a big sheet. Fry 
 till they are set, the more lightly set the better, so long as 
 the whites will hold. Slip them out on to a round dish 
 without separating them. 
 
 Put into the frying pan another teaspoonful of butter 
 for each egg, with plenty of pepper and salt. Heat fast 
 till the butter stops spluttering and begins to brown. Then 
 add one half teaspoonful of vinegar for each egg. Reheat 
 again, pour quickly into the dish, and serve at once. 
 
 ceufs A la tripe (tripe eggs). Slice two large onions 
 into a stewpan, with a piece of butter the size of an egg. 
 Stand the pan beside the fire, and cook quite gently, till 
 the onions are tender, but not browned in the least. Add 
 pepper, salt, a cupful of cream, and a heaped tablespoonful 
 of flour. Stir till it thickens, and then add one half tea- 
 spoonful of powdered sugar and from four to six eggs, hard- 
 
 [ 27] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 boiled, and cut into quarters. Cover the pan, and stand 
 it where it will just keep hot — but will not boil — till the 
 eggs are warmed through. Then serve. 
 
 “ And omelettes, Colette, — what about those ? A little 
 while ago, I wrote ‘cook the omelette in the usual way.’ 
 But there may be some folks who are not quite sure what 
 the usual way is, you know.” 
 
 “ It is true, especially as there are two ways, the way of 
 a Plain Omelette, and that of a Souffle Omelette.” 
 
 A plain omelette. Allow two eggs, one tablespoonful 
 of milk, salt, pepper, and whatever seasoning you mean to 
 use, for each person. 
 
 Beat the eggs, salt and pepper lightly in a basin till they 
 are just mixed, flave ready a clean omelette pan, which 
 should never be used for anything else. Melt in it enough 
 fresh, unsalted butter to make it nice and slippy, but not 
 enough to lie in a pond at the bottom. Heat the pan quite 
 hot. Pour in the egg, which will at once begin to set round 
 the sides. Keep the pan at a moderate heat, while you 
 scrape the set sides of the egg into the middle, and allow 
 fresh liquid to run out, and set in its turn. Do this till all 
 the egg is set, but not a second longer. Flatten down the 
 mass lightly with the back of a spoon, set the pan on the 
 sharpest heat that you can get, and cook the omelette 
 fiercely, while you count ten. Then slip a knife under and 
 lift up a corner, just to see if the under side is brown. If it 
 is, turn the omelette out, brown side up, on a hot dish, and 
 serve at once. 
 
 If it is to be folded, with seasoning between, you must 
 slip it out brown side downwards. 
 
 1 If you want to be economical, and make one egg do for 
 each person, add, instead of the second egg, two tablespoon- 
 fuls of milk, with a small one half teaspoonful of cornstarch 
 
 [28] 
 
Colette Cooks Eggs 
 
 smoothed in it. Another very good plan is to use two table- 
 spoonfuls of white crumbs, soaked in enough milk to cover 
 them for one hour beforehand, and then beaten up well till 
 they make a sort of paste. 
 
 SEASONINGS FOR OMELETTES 
 
 1. Pepper, salt, and the smallest possible pinch of sugar. 
 
 2. Pepper, salt, a small onion grated so fine that it is in 
 pulp ; a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, mint, and sage. 
 
 3. Pepper, salt, asparagus points, well boiled and 
 drained, a tiny pinch of sugar. 
 
 4. Pepper, salt, green peas boiled and drained, just one 
 little rub from a bead of cut garlic round the inside of the 
 pan, before you melt the butter. 
 
 5. A very nice, thick puree of spinach or sorrel, spread on 
 a hot dish, with a plain salt and pepper omelette laid on top. 
 
 6. Make a plain salt and pepper omelette, and turn it 
 out pale side upwards. Sprinkle it liberally with grated 
 cheese, and pass a browning iron over it till the cheese is 
 very lightly colored. Fold and serve. You must never 
 stir up cheese with the eggs and cook the whole lot together, 
 or it will turn horribly stringy and indigestible. 
 
 7. Stir into the eggs before cooking a pinch each of red 
 pepper and dry mustard, and a little lean boiled ham cut 
 into wee dice, — about one tablespoonful for each egg. 
 
 8. Use pounded shrimps, or pounded salmon or lobster, 
 with a dash of anchovy essence to deepen the taste. Dish 
 such an omelette on a fish paper, and sprinkle it with 
 chopped parsley. 
 
 souffl£ omelettes are mostly sweet ones, though you 
 can also fill them with a savory paste, made of pounded 
 shrimps or pounded game. 
 
 Take at least two eggs for each person. Separate the 
 
 [ 29] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 whites from the yolks. Beat the whites to a froth so firm 
 that a fork stuck into it will stand upright. In order to 
 make the froth come up quick and well, you should 
 
 1. Keep in a cool place while you are whipping it. 
 
 2. Go always in the same direction. 
 
 3. Add a few grains of bicarbonate of soda. This helps 
 it a lot. 
 
 4. Never do it till you are ready to use it. If you let it 
 stand, it will be spoiled. 
 
 Mix the yolks just enough to break them up, adding a 
 wee pinch of salt. Stir them lightly into the whites. Have 
 ready your omelette pan, prepared as before. Pour in 
 the egg, set the pan at once on a brisk heat, and fry sharply, 
 without any stirring or touching at all till the bottom of the 
 omelette is a good brown. Then take the pan off, and 
 either hold it under a gas grill, or pass a browning iron over 
 it, so that the top of the omelette, which is still quite raw, 
 may get cooked. But don't cook it too much: you must 
 not dry it up ; it must remain so soft and fluffy that, when 
 the omelette is folded, the fluff comes leaking out at the 
 corners in tempting yellow foam. 
 
 Put in the filling, fold, and serve immediately. A Plain 
 Omelette may, at a push, be kept waiting a few minutes, 
 though it does not improve at all thereby : but a Souffle 
 Omelette must be eaten on the instant, or it will turn into 
 a poor imitation of wet shoe leather. 
 
 FLAVORINGS FOR SOUFFLE OMELETTES 
 
 1. Jam of any kind, warmed till it is liquid enough to 
 spread easily ; or hot fruit puree, made as dry as jam. 
 
 2. Add a drop of vanilla flavoring to the eggs. Before 
 you cook the upper side of the omelette, sprinkle it thickly 
 with very fine white sugar. 
 
 [ 30] 
 
Colette Cooks Eggs 
 
 3. Use any kind of savory paste filling that you like best. 
 Warm it till it will spread easily. 
 
 If you want to cook eggs well, always 
 
 1. Break each one separately into a cup. Never mind 
 how fresh it is. Even if you have heard your hen cluck- 
 ing, and have run out to fetch the hot egg she has just laid, 
 break it into a cup first, all the same. There may be a 
 “ thread ” in it that wants taking out, or one of those little 
 red specks, which would spoil the look of any dish. 
 
 2. Never, if you can help it, cook eggs in anything but 
 butter. Margarine, lard, butter substitutes are good for 
 many things, but they ruin the delicate taste of eggs. Olive 
 oil is the only alternative and that changes your dish, at 
 once and forever. It is a nice dish, but the niceness is 
 Italian, not French. 
 
 3. Keep a special pan for omelettes. If you use it for 
 anything else — even once — you have only yourself to 
 blame when the omelettes burn afterwards. 
 
 4. Remember that the less an egg is cooked, the more 
 easy it is to digest, so, when you are making egg dishes for 
 delicate folks, never let them go beyond the setting point, 
 but take them away from the fire as soon as they have had 
 the barest amount of cooking needed to make them pala- 
 table. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 FRENCH RAGOUTS AND STEWS 
 
 C OLETTE, I hear that they don’t make good stews 
 in America.” 
 
 “Tims I Why?” 
 
 “How can I say? Perhaps they don’t know how. Per- 
 haps, also, it is because they cook on gas stoves and electric 
 stoves so very much, instead of on fires.” 
 
 “ I lived with a gas stove once,” said Colette, in the 
 voice of one who states that she has lived with a mad dog 
 or a dangerous lunatic. “ Oh, what misery I had with 
 it ! What an animal ! It burnt all — all ! But in the end 
 
 I brought it to reason, and I made it cook quite well — 
 even stews that need such a slow heat. Figure to yourself, 
 I bought a big sheet of thin tin, just the size of the top of 
 that animal. I put on the sheet of tin. I lighted one 
 burner near the middle. All the tin heated itself, just as 
 the top of my stove does — red hot near the burner, and 
 cooler at the sides, just as the top of a stove is. I only had 
 to pretend that there was a good little fire underneath in- 
 stead of a gas, and then I was quite happy.” 
 
 “It is an idea, certainly. I will tell them, over there, 
 to try it. Now go on and tell them how to make some of 
 your very best and most tender stews and ragouts.” 
 
 RAGOUT DE FOIES (RAGOUT OF CHICKEN LIVERS) . Chicken 
 livers are the nicest, but you may also use those of rabbits 
 
 [ 32 ] 
 
French Ragouts and Stews 
 
 or ducks, if you like. Take out the gall bag, but leave the 
 livers whole. Throw them into hot water, bring them up 
 to the boil, count ioo, and then drain off the water. Pour 
 into the pan half a glass of white wine, with enough light 
 stock to cover the livers ; add pepper, salt, a good bunch 
 of parsley, and a bead of garlic. Boil all for one fourth 
 hour. Take out the livers. Arrange them on a hot dish. 
 Skim the gravy carefully. Smooth one half teaspoonful 
 of good corn flour in a few drops of cold water. Boil up 
 the gravy again, add the corn flour, and stir till the sauce 
 is well thickened. Pour it over the livers and decorate 
 the dish with snippets of toast. 
 
 This is a nice little entree or breakfast dish. 
 
 RAGOUT DE CHAMPIGNONS (RAGOUT OF MUSHROOMS). 
 
 Peel one pound of mushrooms, and put them into a stew- 
 pan, with two tablespoonfuls of butter, one tablespoonful 
 of vinegar, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, pepper, 
 salt, and a good pinch of grated nutmeg. Stew gently for 
 a quarter of an hour. Strain the sauce. Put the mush- 
 rooms on a hot dish. Reheat the sauce, and thicken it 
 with one teaspoonful of corn flour, as directed above. 
 There is no need to put any stock with this ragout, as the 
 mushrooms give off a good deal of juice. 
 
 This is either a delicious breakfast dish, or it makes a 
 nice lunch entree. 
 
 choux en RAGofrr (ragout of cabbage). Take the 
 heart of a nice, firm cabbage. Throw it into boiling* salt 
 and water and cook it fast for half an hour. Then put it 
 into cold water till it is cool enough to handle. Squeeze it 
 well, to get out as much water as possible, and cut away 
 the stalk. Chop the rest of the cabbage roughly. Now 
 melt two tablespoonfuls of good beef dripping in a stew- 
 pan, toss the cabbage in it till well greased, and then sprinkle 
 
 [33 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 in two tablespoonfuls of flour, stirring well all the time. 
 Add one and one half cupfuls of good, brown gravy, stir 
 up well, cover the pan, and let it simmer very gently till 
 the cabbage is quite tender. Season with pepper, salt, and 
 grated nutmeg. Serve very hot indeed. 
 
 This may be served either as a vegetable or as a supper 
 dish. 
 
 ragout me Us (ragout of little roots). Take three 
 each of carrots, parsnips, and turnips. Peel them, and cut 
 them into neat little cubes or sticks. Melt three table- 
 spoonfuls of dripping in a stewpan, and toss the vegetables 
 in it till they are well greased. Take them out again. 
 Stir one and one half tablespoonfuls of flour into what re- 
 mains of the dripping, and, when it is smooth, add gradu- 
 ally one and one half cups of hot gravy, to make a good 
 thick sauce. Return the vegetables to the pan, cover it, 
 and simmer till they are quite tender. Add pepper and 
 salt to taste, and one level teaspoonful of powdered sugar. 
 Toss the vegetables well, so that the seasoning may be 
 evenly distributed. Serve them in a hot dish, and sprinkle 
 them with chopped parsley. 
 
 If you want to make a Ragoflt Maigre, use potato water 
 instead of gravy, and add a drop of browning to color it. 
 
 RAGOUT DE GUERRE (RAGOUT OF POTATOES AND TINNED 
 
 meat). We had this often during the war. Colette 
 thought it one of the nicest ways of serving “ box beef ”, 
 as she called the corned beef which came through to us 
 now and then from America. 
 
 Melt in a stewpan two tablespoonfuls of the best fat you 
 have ; in the war we took what we could get, with thanks. 
 Slice two onions into it and let them fry till they are lightly 
 colored. Stir in one tablespoonful of flour and one pint 
 of hot vegetable water or meat stock. 
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
French Ragouts and Stews 
 
 Add pepper and salt. When the sauce has thickened, 
 put in two pounds of potatoes, peeled and cut into moder- 
 ate-sized pieces. Cover the pan and simmer very gently 
 indeed, shaking the pan now and then, till the potatoes are 
 almost cooked. Then cut one pound of corned beef or 
 other pressed meat into little squares, add it, and sim- 
 mer again till the potatoes are quite done. Turn all into a 
 deep dish, and serve very hot. 
 
 This makes a good family dinner, — one that is very 
 inexpensive and easy to prepare. 
 
 “ Have you told them what slow simmering is?” asked 
 anxious old Colette. 
 
 “ Yes ; I think so. But I ’ll say it again, if you like.” 
 When a thing is simmering slowly, the liquid in the pan 
 must just move and bubble a very little, — ever so gently, 
 and probably at one part of the pan only. But the solids 
 in the pan — the meat and vegetables — must not move 
 at all. If they dance about, the cooking is going much too 
 fast, and the pan must be shifted to a cooler place. If 
 there is no motion at all, the cooking is not going on, and 
 the pan must be put a trifle nearer the central heat of the 
 stove. 
 
 Always simmer with the lid on, because the lid keeps in 
 the steam, and it is the action of the steam, almost as much 
 as that of the hot liquid, which cooks the meat and vege- 
 tables. 
 
 bceuf en miroton. This is a stew of cold beef. Cold 
 mutton, lamb, veal, or pork may also be arranged in the 
 same way. 
 
 Melt two tablespoonfuls of dripping in a pan. Slice 
 into it four onions, and let them cook very gently till they 
 are tender and golden. Take care that they do not burn. 
 Add one heaped tablespoonful of flour, and stir the pan 
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 over the fire till the flour is a nice golden color also. Then 
 add one and one half teacupfuls of hot stock, stirring it 
 in well, and pepper and salt to taste. Boil fast with the 
 lid off the pan till the onion is quite tender, and only a tiny 
 drop of sauce remains, just enough to cover the bottom of the 
 pan. Then put in one pound or a little more of cold meat, 
 cut into neat little slices. Stir them into the sauce, which will 
 only just be sufficient to dampen them. Cover the pan and 
 stand it at the side of the fire till the meat is heated through. 
 Arrange the slices on a hot dish. Warm half a teacupful of 
 vinegar in a little pan and trickle it over the dish. 
 
 This is a most delicious way of warming up meat. Co- 
 lette wants you to notice with great care that the meat 
 itself is never allowed to boil; it only stands beside the 
 fire for just long enough to heat it through. 
 
 FILET DE BCEUF A LA SAUCE ORANGE (FILET OF BEEF 
 
 with orange sauce). Colette speaks of this with great 
 respect; she says it gives itself at dinners of ceremony. 
 It certainly is remarkably good. You can do much the 
 same thing with a cheaper cut of beef, but that I leave to 
 your inventive faculties to plan out. 
 
 Take a large tablespoonful of butter and roll it in as 
 much flour, pepper, and salt as it can pick up. Put it into 
 a saucepan and stir it while it melts. Then add the juice 
 of two sweet oranges, salt, pepper (cayenne is best), and 
 a laurel leaf. Add three quarters pound of mushrooms, 
 peeled and cut up, and let the sauce simmer gently. Your 
 beef should, by this time, have been roasted in the oven 
 till it is half cooked. Now put it into the pot and stew 
 it gently for half an hour, turning it so that all sides of 
 it may get a little time in the sauce. Slice the beef thin. 
 Arrange the slices at the center of the dish, put the mush- 
 rooms around, and pour the sauce over all. 
 
 [36] 
 
French Ragouts and Stews 
 
 If you can’t get mushrooms, use carrots, sliced thinly 
 and boiled in salt and water for half an hour to make them 
 tender, before they are added to the sauce ; but you must 
 prepare your mind for the fact that they will be a very 
 second-rate kind of thing compared to the mushrooms. 
 
 BCEUF A LA ELAMANDE (RIBS OF BEEF, FLEMISH STYLE). 
 Bone the ribs and beat them well. Roll and tie them in a 
 neat shape. Put the piece of meat into a stewpan with 
 three large slices of fat, salt pork or bacon, and let the beef 
 fry in the pork fat, turning it constantly, till it is lightly 
 colored all over. Then add half a glass of light stock, two 
 laurel leaves, a sprig of thyme, and seven or eight little 
 onions, neatly peeled. Cover the pan and let it simmer 
 gently for three hours. Then add three large carrots, peeled, 
 and cut into very thin rounds, and an onion stuck full of 
 cloves. If necessary, add two or three tablespoonfuls 
 more of white stock, just to keep the meat from sticking ; 
 but the less sauce there is with this the better. Cover the 
 pan and stew very gently for three hours more. Then 
 slice the meat thinly, arrange the slices in a dish, put the 
 vegetables round as a garnish. Add half a cupful of boiling 
 water to the pan, and boil it up on a clear fire, scraping the 
 bottom well. Strain the sauce over the meat. 
 
 If you prefer, you may serve the whole joint on the dish, 
 and carve it on the table. We never do this in France, 
 but different countries have different habits, and there’s 
 no reason why you should not do it if you like. 
 
 bceuf A la paysanne (country beef). Take any 
 cut of beef that has no bones — a lean piece of stewing 
 beef is splendid for this purpose — and lard it thickly after 
 having beaten it well with a rolling pin. Put it into a 
 saucepan with water enough to cover it, pepper, salt, and 
 a dozen or more of little onions, peeled. Let it cook very 
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 gently for six hours, turning it from time to time. Take 
 out the onions. Leave the cover off the pot and boil as 
 fast as ever you can, till the water is all boiled away and 
 the beef sticks to the bottom of the pot and browns. (You 
 may calculate that you ought to take the cover off the pot 
 about one hour before you want to serve dinner.) Put 
 back the onions and let them brown with the beef, turning 
 both them and the meat, so that the whole affair gets well 
 browned without being burned in any part at all. Now 
 pour in one breakfast-cupful of water, just to detach the 
 meat-juices from the bottom of the pan. Take out the 
 meat. Slice it. Arrange it in the middle of a big dish 
 and put the onions round it. Stir up the liquid in the pan 
 very thoroughly indeed, and strain it over the beef. 
 
 This is a very economical stew, and a most delicious one. 
 
 BLANQUETTE DE VEAU (BLANQUETTE OF VEAL). Take 
 two pounds of neck or breast of veal, and cut it into small 
 neat pieces, leaving the bones. Throw the pieces into boil- 
 ing water, and boil steadily for half an hour. Drain them. 
 (Save the water for soup. It is very good.) 
 
 Now, in your stewpan, melt three tablespoonfuls of 
 butter, and stir in two tablespoonfuls of flour. Let the 
 mixture cook as much as it can, without getting in the least 
 brown. Then add salt, pepper, and a little of the water 
 in which the veal was boiled, till the mixture is thinned 
 down to a nice, smooth sauce. Put in the meat, bring 
 the pan to the boil, and then cover it, draw it to the side 
 of the fire, and let it simmer for one hour. 
 
 Take out the meat, and put it on a hot dish. Beat the 
 yolks of two eggs very thoroughly with the juice of a lemon. 
 Add this to the sauce, return to the fire, and stir most care- 
 fully till it begins to thicken. Then take the pan off, add 
 enough chopped parsley to look pretty, and pour the sauce 
 
 [38] 
 
French Ragouts and Stews 
 
 over the meat. It should be thick enough to cling to the 
 pieces and coat them. 
 
 A Blanquette Sauce, made with a little water or light 
 stock, is excellent for reheating cold white meat of any 
 kind, — rabbit and chicken, as well as veal. 
 
 poitrine de veau a la poulette (breast of veal a 
 la poulette). Cut a breast of veal into small neat pieces 
 and beat them a little to make them tender. Put two 
 tablespoonfuls of butter or lard in a stewpan. Let the fat 
 melt, and then stir in two tablespoonfuls of flour, taking 
 great care that it does not brown. Mix very well with water, 
 to make a thick sauce. Put in the meat. Add pepper, 
 salt, and a grating of nutmeg. Cover the pan and let it 
 stew gently for one hour. At the end of that time, add one 
 dozen peeled shallots, cover the pan again, and simmer 
 for one and a half hours. Try the onions. If they are 
 cooked, take out the meat. Arrange it at the middle of a 
 dish. Arrange the onions round. Add three tablespoon- 
 fuls of thick cream to the sauce, stir well, and pour all over 
 the dish. 
 
 This is very delicious indeed ; — just the thing to form 
 the main dish at one of your smart little lunch parties. 
 
 FILET DE VEAU AU JUS (FILET OF VEAL IN GRAVY) . Choose 
 a thin filet. Beat it well and dust it with flour. Melt 
 three tablespoonfuls of butter in a large, flat stewpan and 
 fry the filet in it till it is well colored at both sides. Now 
 pour in a cupful of stock or water. Add pepper, salt, two 
 lumps of sugar, and two cloves, with one laurel leaf. Cover 
 the pan and put it into an oven hot enough to keep it sim- 
 mering well. Leave it for one and a half hours. 
 
 It is a very good plan to cook potatoes with this meat, 
 as they take the taste of it and become perfectly delicious. 
 Choose smallish ones. Peel them. Put them into the 
 
 [ 39 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 pan at the same time as the meat, making a circle round 
 it, and pushing them well down into the sauce. 
 
 When the meat is cooked, slice it thinly. Serve the 
 potatoes on a separate dish. Put the pan on top of a bright 
 fire, pour in a teacupful of water, and stir very well, so that 
 you may scrape off whatever has stuck to the bottom of the 
 pan. Strain the gravy over the meat before serving. 
 
 FOIE DE VEAU A L’lTALIENNE (CALF’S LIVER WITH MACA- 
 RONI). Cut the liver into neat thin slices, and fry them 
 lightly in a little butter in the stewpan. Add water enough 
 to cover them, salt, pepper, six nice little onions, and a table- 
 spoonful of cranberry or red currant jelly. Cover the pan 
 and stew for three quarters of an hour. 
 
 Meanwhile boil a little macaroni in plain water, — a 
 quarter pound of macaroni to each pound of liver. (The 
 cook books — and their name is legion — which tell you 
 to boil macaroni in salted water are obviously written by 
 folks who have never even tried it, for salt turns macaroni 
 hard in the boiling, just as it does beans. Salt should be 
 added during the last five minutes, so that it may have 
 time to flavor the sticks, but not time to harden them.) 
 
 Drain the macaroni. Take out the bits of liver, and 
 arrange them on a hot dish. Simmer the macaroni in the 
 sauce for ten minutes, and then put it around as a border. 
 
 Kidneys done in this way are ever so good. But they 
 want a little drop of mushroom ketchup with them, in 
 place of the jelly. 
 
 GIGOT A LA BONNE FEMME (STEWED LEG OF MUTTON). 
 Melt three tablespoonfuls of good dripping in the stew- 
 pan, and fry the leg of mutton in it, turning it frequently, 
 till it is nicely colored all over. Add one pint of water, 
 pepper, salt, two laurel leaves, and a sprig of thyme. Under 
 the leg of mutton in the pan lay a big slice of fat bacon or 
 
 [40] 
 
French Ragouts and Stews 
 
 fat salt pork. Cover the pan and stew gently, but not too 
 slowly, for five hours. At the same time, boil a good pan 
 of haricot beans in plain water. 
 
 “Do they know that salt in the water turns haricot beans 
 hard?” asked Colette. 
 
 “I have just said so. But we may just as well men- 
 tion it, again.” Well, strain your beans. Add a good 
 handful of salt and toss them thoroughly in it. Make a 
 bed of them on a big dish and pour all the mutton gravy 
 over it. Then slice the mutton thinly and arrange it on 
 top. 
 
 You can make a bed of mashed potatoes, if you like, but 
 the haricots are more really French. They must be boiled 
 till they are all broken and coming out of their skins. 
 
 FILET A LA FRANCAISE (FILET OF MUTTON WITH FRENCH 
 
 beans). Beat the filet well, fry it lightly on both sides in 
 a little dripping, add a big cupful of water, pepper, salt, 
 and two laurel leaves. Cover the pan and stew for two 
 hours. Then skim off most of the fat, and put in one to 
 one and a half pounds of nice little French beans, which 
 have been already boiled for five minutes in salt and water. 
 Let them stew with the mutton till they are tender. Serve 
 them as a border around it. This is an excellent stew, though 
 such a very simple one. 
 
 If you have a piece of rather underdone roast mutton, 
 you may very well warm it up in this way, putting in the 
 beans at the start, and stewing both together till the beans 
 are cooked. 
 
 If the gravy is not quite as brown as you would like, 
 add a drop of coloring. 
 
 haricot de mouton (haricot of mutton). Take about 
 a half a dozen big turnips, and cut each into four or five 
 neat pieces. Melt three tablespoonfuls of bacon or pork 
 
 [41 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 fat in a big stewpan. Now trim the cutlets of a neck of 
 mutton, taking away most of their fats, which can be melted 
 down and used for other things. If you are quite en famille, 
 you may also use the lumpy little bones in the worst 
 end of the neck, but this will not do for any smart oc- 
 casion. 
 
 “ A haricot of mutton does not generally appear in big 
 dinners, does it?” asked I. 
 
 “Of course not. It is a dish that I serve to you” said 
 Colette witheringly. 
 
 Fry the chops in the fat till they are lightly colored. 
 Take them out. Fry the turnips also. Take them out. 
 Thicken what remains of the fat with two tablespoonfuls 
 of flour, letting it' brown nicely. Add pepper and salt to 
 taste and return the chops. Stew them gently for one 
 hour. Now put in the turnips, making a sort of ground- 
 work of them all around the edge of the pan, with the meat 
 pushed into the middle. Peel a dozen and a half smallish 
 potatoes and lay them on the turnips. Don’t let them go 
 down into the sauce ; they are to be cooked in the steam 
 only. Cover the pan and simmer gently again till the po- 
 tatoes are tender (about one and a half hours). Stand up 
 the cutlets at the center of the dish and make a border of 
 vegetables. Pour the sauce over all. 
 
 pigeons a la ... I swept my fingers across all the 
 keys of the typewriter at a swoop and then snapped them 
 under Colette’s astonished nose. 
 
 “If you think that, with that level, unexcited voice, 
 which makes no change when the subject changes, you are 
 going to slip along into the endless regions of game and 
 poultry, my friend, you mistake yourself pretty thor- 
 oughly!” said I. “To-morrow, if you like. For to-day. 
 
 . . . Fini!” 
 
 [42] 
 
French Ragouts and Stews 
 
 If you want to make good stews, always 
 
 1. Cook them slowly. 
 
 2. Cook them too much, rather than too little. 
 
 3. Keep the pan covered all the while, unless you ac- 
 tually want to make the gravy boil dry. If you keep the 
 lid off, the goodness of the meat goes off in steam. 
 
 4. Use only just as much liquid as is necessary to keep 
 the things from sticking. If you put in too much, you will 
 get a result which is neither quite boiling nor quite stewing. 
 
 5. When making the sauce, remember that it will thin 
 out as time goes on and the juices of the meat run into it. 
 
 6. If the finished stew has sufficient fat to float on top 
 of the sauce, skim it off. And save it for frying potatoes 
 and other vegetables. It makes them quite delicious, be- 
 cause of the rich, meaty taste which is in it. 
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 COLETTE COOKS BIRDS AND BEASTS 
 
 T HE cooking of every country has its limitations, — 
 its weak points as well as its strong ones. And it 
 would be sheer foolishness in me to try to main- 
 tain that the French can teach other countries anything 
 about plain meat cookery, — plain roasts, plain grilled, and 
 fried things. Quite between ourselves, I never get a slice 
 of roast beef worth eating except when I go visiting in 
 London. Many years of painful experience have taught 
 me that the only roast Colette can do decently is horse. 
 
 During the war, there was a time when our meat supply 
 in this part of the world failed completely. After a week 
 or two of nothing at all, we were thankful when the mu- 
 nicipal authorities opened a horse butcher’s in the nearest 
 town, and we were quite polite to the dark, acid-smelling 
 meat, which we tactfully named “steak.” We tried all 
 sorts of experiments with it, and, at last, Colette arrived 
 at a roast which was quite delicious, — more like roast veni- 
 son than anything else in taste, and as tender as a chicken 
 in texture. May I just tell you about it ? Not for present 
 use, of course : but you may have a war in your country 
 before this book goes out of circulation. 
 
 “The good God guard them from it!” says Colette 
 devoutly. 
 
 Amen. With all my heart. 
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 As soon as your horse flesh comes from the shop, put it 
 into a basin, pour a cupful of vinegar over it, sprinkle it 
 well with salt and black pepper, and stand it in the cellar 
 for three days, turning it in the vinegar each day. Drain 
 it until it will drip no more. Stab it in a dozen places or 
 so with a small knife, and into each slit slip a piece of sliced 
 onion. Baste it with any fat that you can get ; when a 
 country ’s eating horse meat, there ’s generally a fat-famine 
 going on, too, but horse must have something of the kind, 
 as it never seems to grow any fat of its own. 
 
 Roast it in the usual way, starting it with a strong heat, 
 so that it may brown attractively. After half an hour of 
 roasting in a dry tin, add about one half of the vinegar that 
 remains in the basin, and baste often with this. 
 
 The meat should be very well done, — so well that it 
 does not “run red” when you thrust a skewer into it. Un- 
 derdone horse meat is revolting. 
 
 Slice it thin. Make a good gravy with the liquid in the 
 pan. Don’t try to save dripping, for there will be none. 
 Thicken the gravy a little, and add a drop of browning to 
 it before you pour it over the meat. 
 
 Cold horse is splendid for hashes and minces of all kinds, 
 but you must manage to add a little fresh fat to it, or it 
 will be too crumby. A small amount of it, used with a 
 little fresh fat, some sieved haricot beans, a thick flour 
 sauce to dampen the whole, and a little grated onion or 
 grated cheese for seasoning makes a dish of mince or 
 rissoles which is not only very nourishing, but quite ex- 
 cellent. 
 
 But, apart from horse, I am going to skip right over the 
 question of roasts, for I feel pretty sure most of you could 
 teach us more about them than we can teach you. 
 
 “Get on to the interesting things, Colette — all those 
 
 [45 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 delicious fancy dishes of game and rabbit and so on, which 
 you do so beautifully .” 
 
 Colette sighs, but gives up. She never can stand against 
 a compliment. So here come the interesting things. 
 
 lapin A la cri:me (creamed rabbit) . Wash a nice young 
 rabbit and joint it neatly. Melt two tablespoonfuls of 
 butter or very good dripping in a stewpan, toss the joints 
 till they are well buttered but not in the least browned, and 
 then pour in enough cold water to cover them. Add salt, 
 pepper, two bay leaves, six small shallots into one of which 
 two cloves are stuck. Cover the pan and stew gently for 
 one and a half to three hours, according to the age of the 
 rabbit. When the meat is nearly tender, take the lid off 
 the pan and cook fast till the gravy is reduced to half its 
 first amount. Remove the shallots and bay leaves. Now 
 mix a teaspoonful of corn flour in a teacupful of good cream, 
 pour it in, stir till you see that the pan is just on the verge 
 of boiling, and then draw it aside and let it simmer for 
 quarter of an hour more. 
 
 The sauce should be so thick that some of it clings to and 
 coats the joints. Pile them neatly in a hot dish, pour what 
 remains of the sauce around them, and sprinkle all with 
 chopped parsley. Very good indeed. 
 
 If you have no cream, use milk. If you think the sauce 
 rather poor with only milk in it, add the yolk of an egg 
 after the meat has been taken out, and reheat the sauce, 
 stirring it all the while, till the egg thickens; but don’t 
 let it boil, or it will turn. 
 
 LAPIN A LA PAYSANNE (COUNTRY RABBIT). Joint the 
 rabbit, but do not wash it; on the contrary, save all the 
 blood most carefully. Fry the joints in a little dripping 
 till they begin to brown. Then add three large chopped 
 onions and brown those also. Last of all, stir in a heaped 
 
 [46] 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 tablespoonful of flour, and, as soon as it has colored a little, 
 add a teacupful of water, with salt and pepper to taste. 
 Cover the pan and stew, as above, till the meat is nearly 
 tender. Then add the blood, the same quantity of brown 
 vinegar, and, as nearly as you can judge, the same quantity 
 of currant jelly. Simmer for quarter of an hour more, and 
 then serve. It is a rich dark stew, which seems more like 
 hare than rabbit. 
 
 lapin en pAte (jellied rabbit). We have two kinds of 
 pates in France, — the minced pat6, and the jellied one, 
 which is made of chicken, veal, or rabbit, and is thought 
 a much better and more delicate dish than the mince. Do 
 you have pate pots in America, fireproof jars with lids, 
 neatly finished off so that they can come to the table, and 
 looking more like English marmalade jars than anything 
 else? If you can possibly get one, you had better do so, 
 for then the p&te can remain in the thing in which it is 
 cooked, and, if it does this, it will stay good for several days 
 more than it would do if it were turned out. 
 
 Cut the rabbit into small pieces, for convenience in pack- 
 ing, but do not take away the bones. Soak the joints very 
 thoroughly in salt and water, to remove as much of the 
 blood as possible. Then pack them into the pate pot, 
 sprinkling each layer with salt and pepper. Put in a small 
 bag containing sweet herbs, a couple of onions, and a couple 
 of cloves. Fill up the pot with cold water and stand it in 
 the oven, with the lid on, for the whole day. 
 
 When you take it out, you will find the meat so tender 
 that you can pick it off the bones without any trouble. 
 Take care, won’t you, that little splinters of bone don’t get 
 left in by mistake; they are so dangerous, especially for 
 children. While you are picking over the meat, have the 
 gravy in a pan, boiling fast with the lid off. 
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 Repack the pot, arranging the pieces of meat as neatly 
 as you can, and putting truffles or slices of hard-boiled 
 egg in among them. Pour in the boiling gravy and set 
 the whole thing, covered, in a hot part of the oven till it 
 just comes up to the boil. Then stand it in a cool place 
 to set. 
 
 It keeps an astonishingly long time, if your pantry is cool 
 and dry, and the lid is always on the pot. I have known 
 it to last, in winter, a full fortnight, and be as good on the 
 fourteenth day as on the first. 
 
 Veal and chicken can be prepared in just the same way. 
 Neck or breast of veal should be used, with all the fat taken 
 away. If you can add a little lean bacon or ham, so much 
 the better. 
 
 Colette is remarkably fond of keeping ancient old grand- 
 mothers of hens, because she says they teach the young 
 mothers how to bring up their families well; and when 
 the poor old dears are really past work of any kind, she 
 turns them into 
 
 poule au riz (fowl with rice). Pluck, clean, and 
 truss the hen. Put into a big pot three pints of water, 
 two ounces of butter, one large onion, and a dozen pepper- 
 corns. Let the hen be well covered with the water, and 
 boil her steadily for two to three hours, according to her 
 antiquity. 
 
 Take her out and keep her warm. Strain the liquor. 
 Add salt and a quarter pound well-washed rice. Boil the 
 rice till it is quite tender, strain it out of the pot, make a 
 bed of it in a hot dish. Carve the fowl and arrange the 
 joints on the rice. Cover them with Sauce Jaune (page 136) 
 made with the liquor from the pot. The liquor that is 
 left over needs only the addition of a little broken bread 
 or toast to make an excellent soup. 
 
 [48] 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 That is, I think, our simplest and most family-like 
 way of cooking poultry ; let me give you something a 
 little more fanciful. 
 
 POULET FARCI A LA CRE1ME (CHICKEN WITH CREAM STUFF- 
 ING). Prepare your chicken and roast it rather lightly. 
 It must not be completely cooked. Carve off the meat 
 of the breast. Keep the rest of the bird warm. Mince the 
 breast meat finely, and mix it with 
 
 i teacupful white crumbs soaked in as much good cream as they 
 can take up 
 3 ounces butter 
 
 i quarter pound mushrooms, cut small and warmed in the butter 
 till they begin to soften a little 
 pepper and salt, with a little chopped parsley 
 the yolks of two and a half eggs. (Keep the other half for decorating.) 
 
 Mix all into a soft and pliable farci, and mold it over the 
 breastbone of the chicken, so that it represents the meat 
 which has been cut away. Put the rest into the inside of 
 the bird, like an ordinary stuffing. Brush over the molded 
 bre'ast with the yolk of the egg, scatter it thickly with 
 crumbs, and put pieces of butter here and there. Then 
 return the bird to a good oven for quarter of an hour or 
 so, till the made-up breast is nicely browned. 
 
 Serve with brown gravy, like a roast chicken. A salad 
 dressed with cream is the proper accompaniment of this 
 dish. 
 
 POULET A LA PllLMONTAISE (CHICKEN IN ANCHOVY CREAM). 
 
 Put two and a half pints of good bouillon (see page 12) in a 
 pan large enough to hold the chicken ; add two laurel leaves 
 and two ounces of butter. When all comes to the boil, put 
 in the chicken, breast upwards, let it cook till it is quite 
 tender. Then draw the pot aside and allow the chicken 
 to cool half an hour in the liquor. Take out the chicken, 
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 drain it, and keep it in a warm place. Skim the liquor. 
 Now melt one tablespoonful of butter in a small pan ; add 
 a tablespoonful of flour and thin out the mixture to a sauce 
 with the liquor of the chicken ; add one to two tablespoon- 
 fuls of anchovy sauce and plenty of cayenne pepper, and 
 let all simmer beside the fire while you are carving the 
 chicken. Pile the joints high in a dish, pour the hot an- 
 chovy sauce over them, and decorate all with little snippets 
 of fried bread. 
 
 If you find it more convenient to use whole anchovies, 
 take four to six of them and pound them well before 
 putting them into the sauce. 
 
 POULET saute A la marengo. Take a nice fat chicken, 
 carve it raw, and cUt off the flesh from the bones in the most 
 substantial strips that you can manage. Sprinkle it with 
 pepper and salt. Put into a flat-bottomed pan two table- 
 spoonfuls of butter and two of olive oil. Warm these, and 
 then put in the pieces of chicken, and fry them lightly, 
 turning them so that they may be done at all sides. When 
 they are colored, cover the pan and put it in a hot oven for 
 half an hour, so that the bird may be cooked through. 
 
 Take out the pan. Sprinkle a heaped teaspoonful of 
 flour into the fat, and add half a pint of good stock. Stir 
 all up and stand the pan on top of the fire, so that it may 
 boil. Add half a pound chopped mushrooms, and, when 
 they are tender, stir in one tablespoonful of chopped parsley 
 and one tablespoonful of currant jelly. Taste just before 
 serving and add more pepper if necessary ; for this dish, 
 to be correct, should have a decided peppery sting in it. 
 
 POULET SAUTE AUX CHAMPIGNONS (CHICKEN WITH MUSH- 
 ROOMS) is done in just the same way, except that you must 
 use all butter, no oil, and the juice of a lemon must be added 
 at the last moment instead of the jelly. Garnish the dish 
 
 [ 5 ° I 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 liberally with little snippets of bread, fried very brown and 
 crisp in butter. 
 
 poijlet sauce batarde. This is a rather extravagant, 
 but very delicious form of chicken in cream sauce. It is 
 a dish to be served at lunch or dinner, when you have visi- 
 tors. 
 
 Put into a pan large enough to hold the chicken two 
 pints of bouillon, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a large onion, 
 peeled and cut up, and a good bunch of parsley. Put in 
 the chicken, breast upwards, when the contents of the pan 
 have come to the boil ; cook very slowly, basting often 
 with the liquor, if there is not enough to cover the bird. 
 Take out the bird when cooked and keep it warm. Boil 
 the liquor fast, with the lid off the pan, till it is reduced to 
 a quarter of its first amount. 
 
 Now roll two ounces of butter in one tablespoonful of 
 flour. Bring one pint of good cream to the boil, add the 
 butter and flour, and stir all till the mixture thickens. Then 
 strain in some of the reduced liquor of the chicken. 
 
 Cut up the bird. Remove all skin. Reheat the joints 
 in the liquor, which should be thick enough to cling to them 
 and coat them. Serve with a garnish of green peas or 
 asparagus points. 
 
 PIGEONS EN COMPOTE (STEWED PIGEONS). Allow half of 
 a large pigeon for each person, and six little onions to each 
 pigeon. 
 
 Melt in your stewpan a tablespoonful of butter for each 
 pigeon. Brown them nicely in it. When they are well 
 colored all over, add half a teaspoonful flour for each pigeon, 
 pepper, salt, a bunch of sweet herbs, and enough water 
 to cover them halfway as they lie in the pan. Fry the 
 onions in a little butter in an open frying pan, and, when 
 they are nicely colored, make a ring of them all around the 
 
 [51] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 pigeons. Cover the pan and simmer gently, basting often, 
 till the birds are cooked, — three quarters to one and a 
 half hours, according to size and age. Dress the pigeons 
 at the middle of a dish, make a ring of onions around, and 
 strain the sauce over all. 
 
 Practically all small game birds can be cooked in this 
 way, though those which have a high and strong taste of 
 their own do not need any onion. When no onion is used, 
 serve jelly with the bird. 
 
 pigeons A la chipolata. This is delicious, — one of 
 those queer, mixed dishes, in which every mouthful is dif- 
 ferent from the one before and nicer. 
 
 Allow two small sausages and ten chestnuts to each pigeon. 
 
 Cook the pigeons en compote, exactly as above. In the 
 meanwhile, roast the nuts and sausages in the oven, till the 
 former are soft and the latter brown. Peel the nuts. Cut 
 the sausages into pieces about the size of the nuts, or a little 
 bigger. About five minutes before the birds are done, put 
 the nuts and sausages into the gravy, and let the whole.affair 
 simmer gently together. Dress the pigeons at the middle 
 of a big dish, with a border of mixed surprises all round. 
 
 PIGEONS AU PETIT pois. Allow a quarter pint of freshly 
 shelled peas to each pigeon, instead of the onions. Cook 
 as above. A pinch of sugar is a great improvement. If 
 you want to make the dish very pretty indeed, add a few 
 wee baby carrots to the peas. 
 
 FILETS DE CANARDS AUX ORANGES (FILETS OF DUCK WITH 
 
 orange). Colette always says that there is no good at 
 all in sending a whole duck to table. There is nothing 
 to eat on the legs and wings — at least, nothing to men- 
 tion — so it is much better to keep them out in the kitchen 
 and use them straight away for the soup. 
 
 When a duck has been roasted, she cuts off all the breast, 
 
 [52] 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 and divides it into about six neat filets, sometimes eight if 
 the bird is a very big one. Then she takes the juice from 
 the roasting tin and mixes it with any other stock she hap- 
 pens to have, till she gets about three quarters of a pint of 
 liquid. She thickens this with a very little brown roux 
 and adds pepper, salt, and the juice of a lemon. Into this 
 sauce she puts the filets of duck and lets them simmer gently 
 for quarter of an hour, without ever coming to the boil. 
 
 Meanwhile, she peels an orange as thinly as possible, so 
 as to get only the red skin, — no white at all. The red 
 part she cuts into the thinnest of little strips — mere 
 needles — and she boils these in plain water for ten minutes. 
 Then she drains them well and mixes them into the sauce. 
 
 Between ourselves, I never can taste them ; what I 
 taste is the lemon. But they look ever so pretty and are 
 quite a good change. 
 
 All water fowl may be served in this way. 
 
 Now, let us have just one or two veal dishes. 
 
 But first, just in case the same error may be current in 
 America as in England, I had better ask you to notice two 
 things : 
 
 Well-cooked veal is highly digestible. 
 
 Underdone veal is highly indigestible. 
 
 This explains why so many English say that veal does 
 not agree with them. They cook it like beef — all pink — 
 and it makes them ill ; whereas, if they would cook it quite 
 dry and white, it would suit them to perfection. 
 
 FRICANDEAU PARISIEN (PARIS FRICANDEAu). Take a 
 nice veal cutlet weighing about two pounds. Lard it on 
 one side only. Put into a saucepan 
 
 2 tablespoonfuls good bouillon Salt and pepper 
 
 i laurel leaf The meat, with the larded 
 
 i onion with a clove stuck into it side upwards 
 
 f53] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 Cover the pan and set it to simmer for one hour, 
 looking now and then to see that the meat is not stick- 
 ing. 
 
 The larded side, which will not have been covered by the 
 small amount of liquid, will remain uncooked, with melted 
 lard running into all the holes and corners of it. When the 
 hour is finished, uncover the pan, set it in a brisk oven with 
 a good top heat, and brown the meat. Baste it often. It 
 ought to become a beautiful deep brown. At the end of 
 ten minutes or so, take it out, put it in a hot dish, and strain 
 the gravy over it. 
 
 A fricandeau has all the tenderness of a stew, combined 
 with the nice crispness of a roast. 
 
 COTELETTES DE VEAU SAUTEES AU NATUREL. Use an 
 open frying pan. Melt in it enough butter to cover the 
 bottom, and fry the cutlets on a moderate heat, turning 
 and moving them often, so that they may not burn. When 
 they are firm to the touch they are done. 
 
 Now pour into the pan two tablespoonfuls of vegetable 
 or meat boilings for each cutlet. If you have onion water 
 or celery water, these are very good indeed. Add salt and 
 pepper and enough brown roux to thicken the sauce. Let 
 it boil up just once and then add a squeeze of lemon juice 
 and a little chopped parsley. Arrange the cutlets on a 
 dish and pour the sauce over. 
 
 This is one way of doing things. Another is to take the 
 cutlets out as soon as they are fried, make the gravy after- 
 wards, and pour it around them in the dish instead of over 
 them. 
 
 variations, i. Fry a few mushrooms with the cutlets. 
 Allow them about five minutes of simmering in the sauce 
 before you serve it. 
 
 2. Use truffles cut into fine strips, instead of the mush- 
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 rooms. Leave out the parsley and add almost nothing 
 of lemon. 
 
 3. Use a little Sauce Piquante (see page 132) instead of 
 anything else. No other seasoning at all, of course. 
 
 4. Brush the cutlets over with egg, dip them in crumbs, and 
 fry them. Take them out of the pan. Decorate the ends 
 of their bones with wee paper frills and stand them up in 
 the dish. Add to the juice in the pan a little good meat 
 essence or bouillon — about a teacupful — in which three 
 grated shallots have been boiled. When the shallots are 
 quite cooked, strain this liquor into the frying pan with the 
 meat juice ; add pepper, salt, and coloring ; reheat to boil- 
 ing point and pour around the cutlets. 
 
 cotelettes A la flamande. Fry the cutlets in a 
 stewpan, — not in a frying pan. When they are well 
 browned on both sides, pour in one pint of water or stock, 
 and add one tablespoonful each of chopped onion and 
 parsley. Put the stewpan into a hot oven and keep 
 basting the meat during fifteen minutes. It should turn 
 a very rich, dark color. Smooth half a teaspoonful corn- 
 starch in a few drops of cold water, stir it in, and allow 
 all to cook on top of the fire for five minutes. Then 
 add pepper, salt, the juice of a lemon. Serve very hot 
 indeed. 
 
 CERVELLE AU BEURRE NOIR (BRAINS IN BLACK BUTTER). 
 
 Take off the thin skin with care and wash the brains well 
 in several waters. When they are quite white, boil them 
 gently for twenty minutes in water to which you have added 
 salt, a dash of vinegar, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a cut 
 onion. Drain the brains very well, keeping them warm 
 all the while. 
 
 Melt three ounces of butter in a frying pan and cook it 
 so fast that it browns. As soon as it changes color, add 
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, with salt and plenty 
 of pepper. Let all heat to boiling point. Pour over 
 the brains, and, if you like, sprinkle them with chopped 
 parsley. 
 
 RIS DE VEAU A LA POULETTE (SWEETBREAD A LA POU- 
 
 lette). Sweetbreads must always be soaked in salt and 
 water for at least two hours before use. When boiling, 
 they should be quite covered with the water or bouillon 
 in the pot, in order to keep them white. Do not cook them 
 too long ; twenty-five to thirty minutes is enough. 
 
 Prepare the sweetbread and boil it twenty minutes only. 
 Drain it. Cut it into small cubes. 
 
 Put into a small pan a teacupful of the liquor for each 
 sweetbread. Thicken slightly with white roux. Add 
 salt, plenty of red pepper, a little chopped parsley. Add 
 the chopped sweetbread and bring all to the boil. Then 
 draw the pan aside, let it cool for three minutes, and stir 
 in the yolks of one or two eggs, beaten up with the juice 
 of a lemon. Return the pan to the fire, stirring all the 
 while, till the eggs “take.” This sauce should be very 
 thick and clinging and should coat the pieces of sweet- 
 bread completely. 
 
 Ris de Veau may be served in almost any sauce you like 
 to name, all made in a manner similar to the above. The 
 nicest, I think, are : 
 
 1. Mushrooms stewed with the sweetbread and chopped 
 up with it. No lemon in the sauce ; and the egg is not in- 
 dispensable, though it is, without doubt, a great improve- 
 ment. 
 
 2. Green peas and a sprig of mint stewed with the sweet- 
 bread. Drain them all out. Make a plain sauce with 
 one egg and a wee pinch of sugar. Not much pepper, and 
 no lemon. Return the peas and sweetbreads together. 
 
 [ 56 1 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 This sauce may be a little thinner than the others, and it 
 is usual to trim the dish with snips of fried bread. 
 
 3. A little tomato sauce may be used. In this case, no egg 
 is wanted. A couple of little onions should be stewed with 
 the sweetbread, and removed afterwards. Lots of pepper, 
 please. 
 
 PAIN DE RIS DE VEAU (SWEETBREAD SAUSAGE). This is a 
 most excellent way of using up cold sweetbread. Measure 
 your sweetbread and take the same bulk [of each of the 
 following : 
 
 Cold lean veal, pork, chicken, or rabbit 
 Sausage meat 
 White of bread 
 
 Don’t mince the sweetbread; cut it into dice. Mix 
 all well, with salt and pepper to taste, and either one or 
 two eggs, according to the amount of meat that you have. 
 Roll it into a long thin sausage, put a rasher of fat bacon 
 on top, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty-five min- 
 utes. If you see that it is browning too much, lay on a 
 second rasher at the end of a quarter of an hour or so. 
 
 This may very well be eaten hot, with any sauce you 
 like. But I prefer it cold, with a salad and a nice little 
 mayonnaise dressing ; then it is quite delicious. 
 
 ROGNONS DE MOUTON A LA BROCHETTE (SKEWERED KID- 
 NEYS). Plunge the kidneys into warm salt and water for 
 a few minutes. Then skin them, clean them, and open 
 them without separating the two sides. Thread them on 
 a skewer of wood or silver (never of any other metal). 
 Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and olive oil and grill them 
 on a quick fire. When they are done, unthread them. 
 Lay on each kidney a little ball of butter, the size of a wal- 
 nut, into which you have worked a drop of lemon juice and 
 
 [ 57 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 enough chopped parsley to make it pretty. Serve on a 
 very hot dish. 
 
 mutton cutlets. See all the recipes for Veal Cutlets. 
 Colette often gives me, also 
 
 COTELETTES DE MOUTON A LA SOUBISE. Fry the Cutlets 
 in egg and crumbs. Boil beforehand two small onions 
 for each cutlet. Drain them, sieve them, and make a 
 mound of the puree at the middle of the dish. Arrange 
 the cutlets around it, with their frilled bones all pointing 
 to the center. Into the frying pan where the cutlets were 
 cooked put a little good brown gravy, well seasoned. Re- 
 heat this, with the fat that remains in the pan. When 
 very hot, trickle it over the mound of puree at the middle 
 of the dish. 
 
 Another of our war experiences made us very clever with 
 tough beef, which, for many long months, was the only 
 alternative to horse that we had. 
 
 iron-pot beef. Don’t waste a good cut in this way. 
 But it is just ideal for meat that would otherwise be tough. 
 
 When the meat comes from the butcher, put it into a 
 basin, pour a cupful of vinegar over it, and add black pep- 
 per, plenty of chopped sweet herbs, chopped onion or, 
 better still, garlic. 
 
 Let the whole thing stand four days, turning it daily. 
 Or, if you are in a hurry, you can warm the vinegar and 
 seasonings, pour them on the meat, let them cool, and re- 
 peat the process. When all has cooled for the second time, 
 the meat will be ready to use. 
 
 Take an iron pot, which can stand in the oven, and make 
 in it a little thick sauce with dripping, flour, and water. 
 There should be enough sauce to cover the bottom of the 
 pan to the depth of two inches. Put in the meat. Add 
 salt, pepper, chopped onions, and carrots. Cover the pot 
 
 [58] 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 and stand it in a good oven to stew. When the lid heats, 
 the top of the meat will brown. Keep turning the meat 
 till it is browned on all sides. Then add a little of the 
 vinegar in which it was soaked and let it simmer till, by 
 trying it with a skewer, you find that it is perfectly tender. 
 Slice it and strain the sauce over it. 
 
 This sauce should be about khaki-colored, — not very 
 brown. You will find the flavor extremely good and the 
 meat so tender that it will be difficult to carve neatly. 
 
 filets a la sultane. Filet is the piece of beef that, 
 in England, is called the undercut, the best and most ex- 
 pensive piece of beef that there is. If you wish to be a 
 little more economical, you will find that a nice piece of 
 steak does every bit as well. 
 
 Remove all fat, skin, and nerves from the meat, and cut 
 it into neat little pieces about half an inch thick by three 
 or four inches square. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and 
 let them stand half an hour. Then mix together equal 
 amounts of bread crumbs and grated cheese, roll the meat in 
 this mixture, and fry the pieces in an open pan, using either 
 butter or olive oil. When they are nicely browned at both 
 sides, take them out and pile them up on a hot dish. Add 
 a little thick tomato essence to the fat which remains in 
 the pan, heat to boiling point, season with salt and red 
 pepper, and pour around the meat. 
 
 I have never seen this dish served anywhere except in 
 France. It is very good indeed. Those who are fond 
 of onions may hash one and fry it with the beef, but the 
 pieces must be drained carefully out of the fat before the 
 tomato is added. 
 
 DESSERTE DE BOUILLI A LA FLAMANDE (FLEMISH BOILED 
 
 beef) . Wfien a piece of beef has been used for bouillon and 
 has been served plain afterwards, but has not been quite 
 
 [ 59] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 finished, you will find the following an excellent manner 
 of warming it up again. 
 
 Melt three tablespoonfuls of good dripping in the stew- 
 pan. Slice in three large onions, and let them cook gently till 
 they are clear but not in the least brown. Cut the remains 
 of the beef into small, neat slices, roll them in flour, add 
 them to the onions. Add just enough stock or water to 
 keep the whole from sticking to the pan. Stand the pan, 
 covered, at the side of the fire, where it will simmer along 
 gently, without ever boiling. Leave it twenty minutes. 
 Then add salt, pepper, a single large lump of sugar, 
 and one and a half to three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 
 Taste well and increase the sugar if needed. Last of 
 all, add a tablespoonful of fresh butter, and, as soon as 
 this has melted into the gravy, turn all out on a hot dish 
 and serve. 
 
 LANGUE DE BCEUE EN HOCHEPOT (TONGUE IN HOTCHPOT) . 
 Boil the tongue in a pot so large that the water will cover 
 it well. About half an hour before it is done, add to it the 
 following vegetables. 
 
 The heart of a firm cabbage, cut into four parts and blanched in 
 boiling water. 
 
 Potatoes, carrots, and turnips — small ones, for choice — peeled but 
 left whole. They should be about half cooked in salt and waiter. 
 
 Drain all the vegetables, put them into the pot with the 
 tongue, and finish cooking all together. 
 
 Skin the tongue. Slice it thin. Make a ring of 
 slices all around a large dish, piling them up like a wall. 
 Drain the vegetables most carefully, and pile them as at- 
 tractively as you can at the middle of the dish. 
 
 No sauce is served with this, and no other vegetable. 
 It is a complete course in itself. The liquor is an excellent 
 bouillon. 
 
 [ 60 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Birds and Beasts 
 
 LANGUE DE BCEUE EN PARMESAN (TONGUE WITH CHEESE). 
 
 Cut one pound of cold tongue into long, thin strips. Lay 
 them in a dish which can go into the oven. Mix a cupful 
 of good white sauce with half a cupful of grated cheese. 
 Add a little pepper and a dash of mustard. Pour all over 
 the tongue and set the dish in the oven till a little skin has 
 formed. Sprinkle this skin thickly with grated cheese and 
 a few white crumbs. Brown under a quick heat and serve. 
 
 Any meat can be done in this way, but tongue and ham 
 are best. 
 
 hochepot de porc is made in just the same way as Hotch- 
 pot of Tongue, a nice piece of salt pork or bacon being 
 used. But, in this second case, you need not limit yourself 
 to the few vegetables that I gave you in the first recipe. 
 Add also plenty of onions, a head of celery, and a good 
 bunch of sweet herbs. 
 
 Reverse the order of arranging the dish. Pile the slices of 
 meat at the center, and put the vegetables around the edge. 
 
 jambon (ham). Perhaps you boil ham better than we 
 do ; I should not be at all astonished to hear so. But, 
 just in case you might like a hint, I may as well tell you that 
 Colette always rubs the ham all over with brown sugar 
 the day before cooking it, and shakes all the sugar off again. 
 Into the pot she puts enough water to cover the ham, and 
 an onion stuck with three cloves and two tablespoonfuls 
 of vinegar. She puts her ham into cold water, brings it 
 slowly to the boil, boils it steadily till it is done, and then 
 lets it cool in the water. Is that how you manage things, 
 chez vous ? 
 
 fromage d’italie (italian cheese) is not cheese at 
 all, but a sort of cake of very rich cold sausage, most highly 
 thought of in the south of France. It is very useful for 
 picnics and such occasions. Serve it with salad. 
 
 [ 61 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 Chop and pound two pounds of pig’s liver; chop, but 
 do not pound, one pound of fresh bacon, not too lean ; 
 mix them with salt, pepper, mixed spice, and enough lemon 
 juice to bind them into a paste. Line a plain round cake 
 tin with thin slices of bacon ; press the mince into it, cover 
 with more bacon on top, and cook for an hour in a good oven. 
 
 Let the frontage get cold in the mold. Next day, dip 
 it into boiling water, to make the fat on the outside melt ; 
 then it will slide out quite easily. 
 
 If you want to do good meat cooking, always 
 
 1. Buy good cuts of meat. The inferior cuts are not 
 really economical, in the end, because they cook to waste, 
 and give less soup and dripping than the good ones do. 
 
 2. Get your meat boned at the shop, or bone it yourself. 
 If you attend to this, you will not only keep your soup pot 
 always well supplied without extra cost, but you will save 
 considerably on your fuel bills, for an unboned piece of 
 meat cooks ever so much faster than a whole solid joint 
 with a big bone down the middle. 
 
 3. Add salt towards the end of the cooking. Salt used 
 on the meat at the start hardens it. 
 
 4. Keep trying all sorts of different sauces on boiled 
 beef when it comes out of the soup pot. There are literally 
 hundreds that are good with it. About nine tenths of the 
 fancy meat dishes that you get in restaurants are nothing 
 but boiled beef or mutton, sliced up prettily, dressed with a 
 sauce, and called by a fine-sounding name. 
 
 5. Hang mutton. It wants to be almost high before it 
 is really good. Use veal very fresh indeed, and beef mod- 
 erately fresh. Cook rabbits while the life is still warm in 
 them, but always leave chickens for a full day after killing, 
 if you can manage it. They are eatable sooner, no doubt, 
 but they taste of carnage ! 
 
 [62] 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 COLETTE AND THE LEFT-OVERS 
 
 ti 
 
 rjii 
 
 HEY don’t have any,” said Colette firmly. 
 
 “But, Colette, every one has left-overs!” 
 
 “Not rich people, like those Americans. Left- 
 overs are for the poor, like you and me. I know it ! Say 
 no more ! ” 
 
 I said no more at the moment, but I was n’t at all con- 
 vinced that she was right. Folks may be as rich as they 
 please, but they must eat left-overs now and then, all the 
 same, for the simple fact that matter is indestructible, and 
 that cold meats cannot vanish into air just at the will of 
 the cook. So I hunted around in back numbers of Ameri- 
 can magazines and at last I found what I wanted in an ad- 
 vertisement, — a remarkably clever advertisement it was, too. 
 
 “ Colette, look here ! ” cried I, swooping into the kitchen, 
 magazine in hand. “You said they didn’t eat left-overs 
 in America. Well, they do! Here it is — printed — and 
 with a picture ! What do you think is in the dish that that 
 pretty young lady is handing round? Hash, my friend, 
 hash /” 
 
 Now, the French for mince is hachis, which is so much 
 like hash that Colette recognized one word from the other. 
 With her usual large-spiritedness, she gave up at once and 
 began to take a lively interest in the left-overs, which she 
 had previously sworn to be non-existent. 
 
 “ Is it good hachis ? Do they like it over there ? ” asked she. 
 
 [ 63 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 “Not much, I think. Folks in general don’t seem to 
 care much for hash and mince — except me. I like them 
 always.” 
 
 “That’s because I make them for you,” explained Co- 
 lette, with perfectly innocent self-complacency. “A hachis 
 is about the hardest thing there is to make — the thing 
 that wants the most knowing how. Oh, yes! I know 
 well that all cooks make it! But nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine in a thousand make it wrong.” 
 
 “Well ! Tell me, then, how the thousandth does it.” 
 “With thinking. That’s what you must put into a 
 hachis — lots of thinking. You must say to yourself : 
 Here I am with a piece of meat which is cold 
 Cold and must be warmed 
 
 Rather dry and must be softened 
 
 Rather tasteless and must be made tasty 
 
 Probably not quite enough and must be helped out 
 
 And all this without being cooked again, because it is cooked 
 already. 
 
 “I suppose it ’s no use telling those people to cut up their 
 meat with a chopper on a board, instead of putting it 
 through a food cutter, is it?” 
 
 “Considering the rate at which they live, I shouldn’t 
 think so. Why?” 
 
 “Because, you see, a food chopper, though good in many 
 ways, squeezes the juices out of the meat and helps to rob 
 it of taste. Also, of course, it wastes the meat a good deal, 
 because some is bound to cling to the knives, even if one 
 puts a bit of bread through afterwards, to clean them. 
 But there ! I can’t insist : I leave it to their consciences ! ” 
 (So there you are, America, with a fine case of conscience 
 to settle ! Don’t go into scruples over it, please !) 
 
 It is cut up — somehow — and, now, to each pound of 
 
 [64] 
 
Colette and the Left-overs 
 
 cold minced meat — weighed after all the bones and skin 
 have been taken away — you must allow two ounces of 
 something fresh and strong-tasting — something that has 
 not been cooked. 
 
 If the hash is chicken, veal, or rabbit, use rather fat bacon. 
 
 If the hash is beef, use raw liver. 
 
 If the hash is mutton, use raw melt; or, if you can’t 
 get that, liver. But melt is best. Not more than a bare 
 two ounces, it ’s such strong stuff. 
 
 The addition of the little scrap of fresh meat takes away 
 all that toughness and stringiness — that shoe leather and 
 cardboard feel in the mouth — which most folks dislike 
 in minces and hashes. 
 
 Keep your raw meat separate from the cooked. 
 
 Melt a tablespoonful of butter in a stewpan, slice in an 
 onion, and let it cook gently for ten minutes. Then take 
 out the bits of onion with a fork. They will leave their 
 flavor in the butter. 
 
 Put in the fresh meat, cut up small. Let it cook gently 
 for five minutes. Then pour in enough stock or water to 
 cover it, and add whatever seasoning you like. These are 
 the ones I use : 
 
 If the hash is chicken, veal, or rabbit, a little mushroom 
 ketchup or dried mushrooms, powdered; or a couple of 
 sprigs of parsley and one leaf of sage; or six nasturtium 
 seeds, tied up in a little bit of muslin, so that they can be 
 taken out afterwards. 
 
 If the hash is beef, one teaspoonful of mixed spice to each 
 two pounds with lots of salt, but no pepper ; or two laurel 
 leaves and two sprigs of parsley. 
 
 If the hash is mutton, a little tomato sauce ; or one large 
 tablespoonful of red currant jelly to each pound of meat. 
 
 Add the seasoning, — unless it is jelly, which must go 
 
 [65] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 in at the last moment ; or salt, which must also go in at the 
 last moment, because it hardens the meat. Cover the pan ; 
 draw it to the side of the fire, and let it simmer gently for 
 half an hour. 
 
 Now stir in the minced cold meat, which has been pre- 
 viously shaken up with one heaped tablespoonful of flour 
 to each pound of meat. Return the pan to a good heat and 
 stir fast with a wooden spoon till the hash just boils. Add 
 a little more water, if necessary, to thin it out. For general 
 purposes, it should not be thicker than whipped cream. 
 As soon as ever it boils, draw the pan away, — it must not 
 go on boiling, even for a moment, or the meat will harden. 
 Let it stand at the side of the fire for quarter of an hour 
 more, to warm it well through, and then serve it in one of 
 the endless different ways in which hachis can be served. 
 I ’ll tell you just a few. 
 
 roses blanches (white roses). Pour the mince into a 
 large, heated dish. Have ready some hot mashed potato, 
 made rather thick, and a large rose forcer. Force the po- 
 tato in big white roses all round the edge of the dish. Put a 
 little bit of parsley here and there, to make the green of the 
 flowers. It ’s ever so pretty ! 
 
 viande au gratin (mince au gratin). Use, for prefer- 
 ence, chicken, or some other white meat, and put no sea- 
 soning into it at all except the onion which is fried in the 
 first butter, and a little pepper and salt. Pour the hot 
 mince into an au gratin dish. Have ready equal quantities 
 of crumbs and cheese, sifted together. Sprinkle them on 
 top. Pass the dish under the gas griller, till it is nicely 
 browned. This can be done in little scallop shells, too. 
 
 pain viande (meat loaf). Cut the top crust neatly 
 off a new loaf. Scoop out all the white. Fill the loaf with 
 nicely made mince. Put back the crust. Trickle gravy 
 
 [ 66 ] 
 
Colette and the Left-overs 
 
 over the loaf till the crust is well soaked. Put it on a 
 lightly greased tin in a quick oven and bake till the crust 
 begins to brown. Serve hot, slicing it like a pie. It is 
 every bit as good as a pie, for the soaked, baked crust turns 
 crisp outside and is soft and meat-flavored inside. 
 
 When Colette does it for me, she uses a nice little crusty 
 roll instead of a loaf, because, you see, a roll is plenty for 
 one person alone. 
 
 HACHIS A LA MAYONNAISE (MOLDED MINCE). Add an 
 extra tablespoonful of flour to each pound of mince, in 
 order to make the hash a little firmer than it generally is. 
 While hot, pour it into damped egg cups or tiny molds. 
 When quite cold, loosen it with a knife, and turn out on a 
 bed of small salad. Pour mayonnaise over all, and deco- 
 rate with hard-boiled egg. 
 
 These are quite good substitutes for little aspics, if you 
 have no time to do aspics. They would not be pretty 
 enough for a dinner, Colette wishes you to understand; 
 but “they are quite presentable for the family.” 
 
 pat£. “This eats itself cold,” as Colette says, and it is 
 the handiest thing in the world for breakfast; for sand- 
 wiches ; for pocket lunches ; for any time when you want 
 a slice of something cold to fill up the gaps. 
 
 When you are making your mince, add two tablespoonfuls 
 of flour to each pound of meat. Don’t thin out your mince 
 at all, and don’t cook it for the last quarter of an hour. As 
 soon as it has just boiled up, turn it into a basin, beat the 
 yolk of an egg into it, and, as soon as it is cool enough to 
 touch, work it with your hands into a smooth, firm paste. 
 It ought to be worked for ten minutes at least. Make this 
 paste into a big sausage. Put it on a greased baking tin, 
 brush it over with the white of the egg, sprinkle it with 
 fine crumbs, and cook it in a moderate oven for half 
 
 [67] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 an hour. Don’t let it brown, or it will be difficult to 
 carve. 
 
 Let it get quite cold. Then slice it as thin as paper, 
 and serve it with salad, pickles, or mayonnaise. With a 
 salad border and a nice mayonnaise, it is quite good enough 
 for an extra cold dish at lunch. 
 
 “One minute, Colette ! You said you ’d tell them how to 
 make the mince go farther, if there was n’t enough.” 
 
 “Yes, of course. There are many ways of doing it — 
 all good.” 
 
 1. When you are cooking the raw meat, add the same 
 weight of crumbs as of raw meat, with enough liquid to 
 cover both well, and boil them together. If bread is well 
 cooked, it can’t be either seen or tasted in the mince; it 
 merely turns to a sort of jelly, which takes the meat flavor 
 and rather improves the mince than otherwise. But you 
 must not add crumbs without cooking them, or they will 
 both taste and show. If it is possible to soak the bread 
 in cold water overnight, so much the better. 
 
 2. Put hot, dry, freshly boiled potatoes through a potato 
 press into the mince, and they improve it. But don’t 
 think, “I can use up a few cold potatoes in that mince,” 
 for cold potatoes are sticky and heavy, and will turn your 
 meat into a sort of indigestible glue. Put the cold pota- 
 toes into the soup, if you like, but use fresh ones with the 
 mince. 
 
 3. Boil a little rice in salt and water for at least two 
 hours, till it is reduced to a soft, thick paste. Beat it up 
 well with a fork and color it with browning before adding 
 it to the meat. A little scrap of dripping, cooked with the 
 rice, softens it and improves the flavor. 
 
 4. Freshly boiled haricot beans, mashed through a 
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
Colette and the Left-overs 
 
 sieve, can very well be added to dry white meat, such as 
 veal or rabbit. They make it drier still, and, so to say, 
 intensify it. But you must not put them with a juicy 
 meat, such as beef or mutton, or you will get a mince that 
 tastes as if it had sand in it. 
 
 “And, now, Colette, supposing that they don’t want 
 mince, that they want to heat up the meat whole or in 
 pieces ; what shall they do ? ” 
 
 “Whatever sings to them the most sweetly — as long 
 as they don’t harden the meat. But they will — no doubt 
 of that — they will!” Colette shook her head sadly. 
 “However — ! Tell them they must first consider the 
 piece of meat. If it is a boneless piece, which is rather 
 underdone, this is a splendid way.” 
 
 Make enough stiff mashed potatoes, mixed with pepper, 
 salt, a little dripping and a little milk, to cover the meat 
 with a layer about quarter of an inch thick. Smooth the 
 potato on neatly with a knife. Brush it over with beaten 
 egg and dredge with crumbs. Put it on a greased baking 
 tin in a hot oven and bake it a nice, bright brown. Serve 
 on a hot dish, with a little made gravy poured around. 
 The potato and meat are carved and helped together, of 
 course. The potato keeps the meat perfectly tender and 
 prevents the juices from leaking out. 
 
 If there is a joint with a bone in it — a leg of mutton, 
 for instance — the best thing to do is to warm it up in 
 sauce. Make enough thick sauce to cover the bottom 
 of a stewpan which will take the joint, and add vegetables, 
 to flavor and decorate. These are the prettiest : 
 
 i. Stew some button mushrooms in the sauce. Serve 
 them as a border around the meat, sprinkling them with a 
 little chopped, hard-boiled egg. 
 
 [69] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 2. Stew green peas and wee baby carrots together in the 
 sauce. This makes a border “jardiniere”, which every 
 one likes. 
 
 3. Peel little onions and stew them in the gravy, taking 
 care that they do not break. When the meat is done, take 
 it out. Leave the pan uncovered and let it boil fast, till 
 the sauce becomes so thick that it sticks to the little onions 
 and coats them. Arrange them in a border around the 
 meat. Wash out the pan with a tiny drop of boiling water, 
 to make just a spoonful of gravy, which you can pour over 
 the meat. Those little onions — ah ! Colette smacks her 
 lips over them. 
 
 4. Boil some chestnuts for half an hour. Slip them out 
 of their skins. Stew them in the sauce and dish them around 
 the meat, just as you did the button mushrooms, taking 
 care not to break them. They want rather a lot of salt 
 and a wee pinch of mixed spice to flavor them. 
 
 5. Rub the skins off little new potatoes and stew them 
 in the sauce. Dish them round the meat and sprinkle them 
 with parsley and mint, chopped up together and mixed with 
 the smallest possible grain of sifted sugar. There must not 
 be so much sugar that you can see it — only so much that 
 it brings out the taste of the mint. 
 
 Colette wants you to understand that meat which is 
 cooked up in sauce must be stewed to rags. Visitors who 
 go home from the Continent and talk about the meat cooked 
 all to bits which they have eaten are talking about meat 
 stewed up a second time in sauce. It ’s an extremely com- 
 mon dish in France, and every one knows, and takes for 
 granted, that the meat itself will not be up to much ; it ’s 
 the sauce and the vegetables which will be so delicious, be- 
 cause they have all the juices of the meat in them. 
 
 If you want your warmed-up joint to be in nice, fresh 
 
 [ 70] 
 
Colette and the Left-overs 
 
 slices, just as if it were newly roasted, you must iron- 
 pot it. 
 
 If it is veal or lamb, squeeze the juice of a lemon over 
 it first, to keep it white. Dark meats don’t need this treat- 
 ment. Spread a sheet of kitchen paper thickly with butter, 
 wrap the joint completely up in it, and put it into an iron 
 saucepan or stewpan, with a well-fitting cover. Put the 
 pan into the oven. Our pans have no long handles, only 
 little ears, like teapots, so they go in quite well. Let it 
 stop till the pan is very, very hot all over. (A quarter of 
 an hour in a brisk oven does it.) Take the pan out (and 
 mind your fingers, please !) and set it at the side of the stove, 
 where it will just hold the heat but not get any hotter. 
 Leave it for a time varying from a quarter to three quarters 
 of an hour, according to the size and thickness of the joint. 
 It comes out of the iron pot exactly like a fresh roast. The 
 well-fitting lid and the paper wrapping keep in all the 
 steam, you see, and prevent the meat from drying, while 
 the hot metal all around it warms it up to the right tem- 
 perature. 
 
 You can’t use any other pot than an iron one. No other 
 metal can hold the right degree of heat. Some let the 
 temperature drop too fast, while others get red-hot in the 
 oven and spoil the meat. 
 
 Colette has a first-class way of warming up cold roast 
 chicken, roast game, and roast rabbit. She gets the meat 
 well warmed and yet not dried in the very least. 
 
 At the bottom of a saucepan she puts an upturned cake 
 tin, so large that the chicken can sit on it. Into the pan 
 she puts enough boiling water to come halfway up the tin. 
 Then she covers the pan, puts it on a good heat, and lets 
 it boil for half an hour. And then she carves her bird and 
 
 l 7 1 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 serves it with fresh bread sauce and gravy. And even I, 
 who am in the secret, can’t always tell if the wing to which 
 I help myself comes from a new friend or an old one ! 
 
 It ’s a simple process of steaming up, of course. But I 
 have tried the same thing in a steamer, and it didn’t go. 
 The bird was too far from the boiling water, perhaps. Any- 
 way, he was n’t nice. 
 
 “Colette! Tell them how you turn the cold pork into 
 turkey !” 
 
 “Do not talk foolishness ! It is not really like a turkey 
 — that is an illusion which you have.” 
 
 But it ’s not. A leg of cold roast pork, warmed up in 
 Colette’s way, and served with a few fresh stuffing balls 
 and some boiled and sieved chestnuts is, in my opinion, 
 every bit as white and tender as the breast of a roast turkey. 
 Try it and judge for yourselves. Only, please, don’t take 
 meat which is too much cooked ; it should be rather under- 
 done than otherwise. 
 
 Make a plain, short pie crust, using, if possible, some of 
 the fat from the pork itself, — the dripping, you know, 
 which came from the first roasting. Roll it out quite thin. 
 Take all the crackling off the meat. Squeeze the juice of 
 half a lemon over it, to keep it white. Wrap it up in the 
 pastry, closing all the joinings most carefully. Bake it 
 in a good oven till the crust is done. Break away the crust, 
 and carve the pork, and serve it like turkey. 
 
 “The crust is for the kitchen dinner, or for the children, 
 except when you — ” says Colette severely to me “ — come 
 out here and spoil your good appetite by eating so much 
 crust that you can’t touch your meat afterwards.” 
 
 I plead guilty. What else can she expect ? That crust ; 
 with the pork and lemon juices in it, all hot and crisp, is 
 quite irresistible. Of course, it can’t make its appearance 
 
 [ 7 2 1 
 
Colette and the Left-overs 
 
 at a formal meal, because it breaks into untidy little bits 
 when it is taken off the joint. But, if you follow my advice, 
 you ’ll slip out into the kitchen and risk the wrath of your 
 particular Colette, in order to get a taste of such a delec- 
 table “ trimming.” 
 
 If you want to do good left-overs always 
 
 1 . Cook them as little as may be, unless you are doing 
 meat stewed up in sauce. Then frankly cook it to rags. 
 
 2. Prepare the meat ever so carefully. Many a good 
 dish has been spoiled by little scraps of skin and bone and 
 fat, which had found their way into it. 
 
 3. If the meat is at all high, wash it in vinegar first. 
 
 4. If you use onions, mind they are well done. Little 
 bits of hard, uncooked onion, mixed in with a dish of mince, 
 are just about as dangerous to the digestion as so many 
 little bits of glass would be. 
 
 5. Prepare only the amount you are going to want, in 
 order to avoid the risk of having to warm things up a sec- 
 ond time. Thrice-cooked meat isn’t good for anything 
 that I know of, — except, maybe, for helping folks to 
 Heaven before their time. 
 
 [73] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 COLETTE AND THE CHAFING DISH 
 
 A T first Colette had a supreme contempt for the chaf- 
 ing dish. She called it “that toy ”, and absolutely 
 insisted on my eating real meals, cooked in the kit- 
 chen, in addition to anything which it amused me to pre- 
 pare in it. Under those circumstances, as you may readily 
 understand, I soon gave up using it, and it stood on a high 
 shelf of my sitting-room cupboard, waiting for its hour 
 to come. 
 
 That hour was the time of the coal strike. We had not 
 laid in our winter stock of coal, when, suddenly, there was 
 none at all to be had, — not a lump for love or money. 
 First we burned the little that was in the cellar ; then 
 we burned all our coke, and as much dry wood as the 
 garden would produce. Then we bought a petrol stove at 
 an exorbitant price, and it exploded and frightened Colette 
 so horribly that I dared not try another. Then, at last, 
 I remembered the chafing dish, sitting patiently in my 
 cupboard, waiting to be used. 
 
 “It will explode,” said Colette mistrustfully. 
 
 “Impossible!” I assured her. “Think of the many 
 times I have played with it, and it has always behaved 
 beautifully. It is made, you see, to stand on the table in a 
 dining room — even on a table all set for lunch or sup- 
 per. Itis quite, quite different from that nasty petrol lamp.” 
 
 [ 74] 
 
Colette and the Chafing Dish 
 
 Colette took it gingerly between the tips of her fingers 
 and retired with it to the kitchen, shutting the door firmly 
 behind her. She and chafing dish were going to have things 
 out between them. No audience wanted. 
 
 The result of that debate was such a supper as I had not 
 tasted since the coal strike began. And, even now that 
 the strike is over and she can burn as much coal as she 
 wishes, Colette often lets her fire go out on a hot summer 
 evening and gives me a chafing-dish supper. I like to 
 watch her bending over it, with her old face puckered into 
 absorbed wrinkles, and her squat, strong hands touching 
 the dainty, shining little thing ever so gently. And her 
 chafing r dish food is good ! No doubt of that at all ! 
 
 But I don’t suppose that any of you are going to let your 
 cook have the chafing dish to use out in the kitchen. You 
 will be wanting to have it in the dining room and prepare 
 your own little lunches or suppers on it, under the noses of 
 your expectant guests. So perhaps you may be glad of 
 just a hint or two, which will help you to save fuss and 
 waste of time, — two things which are fatal to the success of 
 a chafing-dish party. All the recipes in this chapter can 
 be carried out on a gas ring or an electric grill, just as 
 well as in a chafing dish. 
 
 Prepare beforehand, or have prepared in the kitchen, as 
 much as possible of the foundation of each dish. Have 
 fish washed, oysters cleaned, eggs hard-boiled (if that kind 
 is wanted), cheese grated, parsley and cress washed, vege- 
 tables all prepared and put into cold water, toast made and 
 kept warm in the oven till the last moment. It is a very 
 good plan, also, to use tiny ramekin cases, either of paper 
 or china as required, containing measured quantities of 
 butter, milk, flour, and the like, so that you know exactly 
 what you are taking without any trouble in weighing or 
 
 [ 75 1 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 measuring. Have all these things ready on a table so 
 small that, when you have done with it, it can easily be 
 moved aside. 
 
 It is a very good plan to keep at hand a small omelette pan, 
 in addition to the regular frying pan. There are quite a 
 number of dishes for which the one pan does not suffice. 
 
 There are certain things that seem to belong specially 
 to the range of chafing-dish cookery, oysters, for instance, 
 and eggs. I will tell you a few of the ways in which Colette 
 does them, and you can invent others for yourself. One 
 of the great charms of a chafing dish is that it lends itself 
 so well to experiments. 
 
 HUITRES A LA CREME (OYSTERS IN ANCHOVY CREAM). 
 Prepare beforehand one ounce fresh butter, well mixed 
 with a teaspoonful of anchovy paste and a good dash of 
 cayenne pepper 
 
 Five eggs, beaten up with a little salt 
 
 Twelve oysters, cut into neat dice 
 
 Twelve neat fingers of toast, buttered, and then spread 
 with anchovy paste 
 
 At the moment melt the prepared butter in the blazer over 
 the hot-water pan. Add the eggs and stir until the mixture 
 starts to thicken. Then add the oysters, and stir again 
 till the egg cakes around them, which it will do at the end 
 of a minute or so. 
 
 Hand the upper part of the chafing dish around and 
 offer the anchovy toast fingers with it. 
 
 variations of the same dish. Use half a pint of picked 
 shrimps (measured after picking) instead of the oysters. 
 
 Use half a pint of neat flakes of white fish, previously 
 cooked, instead of the oysters. 
 
 Use the fish as above, but do not take any anchovy at 
 all. Instead of it, use one teaspoonful of lemon juice and 
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
Colette and the Chafing Dish 
 
 plenty of cayenne pepper. Hand cheese biscuits or cheese 
 straws instead of the anchovy fingers. 
 
 Use the white of a chicken, cut up into neat little cubes. 
 Measure half a pint of them. If you want the real French 
 flavor to this, rub the pan with a bead of cut garlic before 
 you start and add half a teaspoonful of lemon juice to the 
 sauce. Colette always puts salad on the table to eat with 
 this, as chicken without salad would hardly be real chicken 
 at all to French people. 
 
 homard A la diable (red-hot lobster). Prepare be- 
 forehand a medium-sized tin of lobster, finely chopped 
 One teacupful cold white sauce, rather thick 
 Little circles of white bread, stamped out with a cutter, 
 fried crisp and brown, and kept very hot indeed till they 
 are wanted 
 
 At the moment put the lobster and sauce into the pan 
 and reheat, stirring carefully. Add salt, red pepper, one 
 dessertspoonful made mustard, and one tablespoonful 
 vinegar. When very hot, spread on the rounds of toast 
 and serve, garnished with wee sprigs of parsley. 
 
 variations of the same dish. Any kind of white fish 
 or white meat may be deviled in the same way. The fish 
 should be broken up finely, or the meat minced. 
 
 Hot biscuits or buttered toast may be used instead of 
 fried bread, if preferred. 
 
 RAGOUT DE POULET AU RIZ (RAGOUT OF CHICKEN AND 
 RICE). 
 
 Prepare beforehand one cupful rice cooked till it is just 
 tender, but not at all squashy 
 
 One cupful cold chicken cut into large dice 
 One half cupful thick white sauce 
 At the moment rub the frying pan with a bead of garlic 
 or a little cut onion. Melt a tiny piece of butter in it and 
 
 [ 77 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 just swirl it round, to make the sides slippy and prevent 
 the ragout from sticking. Put in the chicken, rice, sauce, 
 pepper, salt, and a good grate of nutmeg. Stir up well, 
 cover the dish and let it simmer gently for twenty minutes. 
 Stir it now and then and add a little drop of water or white 
 sauce, if it is getting too thick. 
 
 Serve out of the pan. At the moment of serving, Colette 
 generally produces from the kitchen a plateful of little 
 wedges of crisp fried pastry, which she sticks in all around 
 the dish to garnish it. They are ever so good with the 
 creamy white ragout — they give just that little crackling 
 in the mouth that is so nice — but, if they cannot conven- 
 iently be obtained, the dish can quite well be served with- 
 out them. 
 
 VARIATIONS OF THE SAME DISH. Use half a Cupful of 
 cold veal and half a cupful of lean ham instead of the 
 chicken. No nutmeg, but a laurel leaf simmered in the 
 ragout and taken out before serving. I like this better 
 than the chicken, myself. 
 
 You can do the same thing with mutton and a brown 
 sauce, instead of white meat and a white sauce. But it 
 is ordinary. Colette thinks nothing at all of it, even when 
 it is flavored in the way I like best, with an onion stuck 
 with two cloves. The onion comes out before the ragout 
 is served, of course. 
 
 The remains of a boiled or stewed rabbit, with a sauce 
 made of his own gravy, cook up into the most delicious 
 ragout you can imagine. Add pepper and salt only as the 
 first seasoning. But, just before serving, stir in a heaped 
 tablespoonful of red currant jelly and a teaspoonful of 
 brown vinegar. You wonder, then, whether you are eating 
 rabbit or hare ! But, anyway, you know that you have 
 struck something mighty good. 
 
 [78] 
 
Colette and the Chafing Dish 
 
 foie A la minute (hasty liver). Prepare beforehand 
 half a pound calf’s liver, cut into neat thin slices, and rolled 
 in flour, pepper, and salt 
 
 One peeled and chopped shallot 
 
 A little parsley 
 
 At the moment melt half an ounce of butter in the deep 
 pan and fry the shallot in it. Put in the sliced liver and 
 turn the pieces carefully with a fork, taking pains to keep 
 them from burning, till they are neatly fried at both sides. 
 Now add three tablespoonfuls of gravy or stock and the 
 same amount of tomato sauce, with salt and red pepper 
 to taste. Stir the pan till it comes up to the boil and then 
 simmer for five minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley 
 and serve from the pan. 
 
 Hand fried potato ribbons or chips with this, if you can 
 manage it. They are a very great improvement to it. 
 
 variations of the same dish. Kidneys sliced and 
 cooked like this are quite delicious. Season them with a 
 few chopped mushrooms, or a little mushroom sauce, in- 
 stead of the tomato. 
 
 PETITS POIS A LA FRANf AISE (FRENCH PEAS). You Can 
 use preserved peas for this in winter, when no fresh ones 
 are to be had. The dried ones, in packets, do just as well 
 as bottled peas, and are cheaper. 
 
 Prepare beforehand one pint of peas, cooked, drained, 
 and kept hot 
 
 One dessertspoonful chopped parsley 
 
 Put the peas into the deep pan with four tablespoonfuls 
 of cream. It need not be double cream — a thin cream 
 will do, though, of course, the thicker and richer cream 
 you can get, the better the dish will be. Add pepper, salt, 
 and half a teaspoonful powdered sugar, with a large sprig 
 of fresh green mint. Stir carefully, never allowing the 
 
 [ 79] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 cream to come to the boil. This is most important ; if 
 it boils it is spoiled. When thoroughly hot, turn into a 
 warmed vegetable dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley 
 before serving. 
 
 variations of the same dish. If you can’t get cream, 
 or if you think it too costly, make a rather liquid white 
 sauce with butter. It is almost as good. In this case, 
 don’t use powdered sugar, but take one big lump of cube 
 sugar and rub it well on a cut onion before you put it in. 
 The tiny touch of onion is very nice — it picks out the 
 flavor of the peas — but you can only use it with sauce, 
 — never with milk-cream. 
 
 swiss rabbit. “Rabbits that have no legs” seem to be- 
 long especially to chafing-dish cookery. You know lots 
 of them already, I expect, for I have, at different times, 
 eaten “Boston Rabbit” and “American Rabbit.” But 
 perhaps this one may not be known to you, and it is par- 
 ticularly nice and economical. 
 
 Prepare beforehand a fresh egg, beaten up in a cup with 
 one ounce of crumbs and three tablespoonfuls of cream 
 or “the top of the milk” 
 
 Three ounces of grated cheese — Gruyere is best, but 
 nice dry Cheddar will do 
 
 Four nice little half-rounds of hot buttered toast 
 
 At the moment melt one ounce of butter in the chafing 
 dish, put in all the other things, with lots of salt and pepper, 
 and a dash of mustard if you like. Stir all over a good 
 heat till the mixture is piping hot and quite smoothly 
 mixed to a cream. Then pile it on the pieces of buttered 
 toast. 
 
 A Swiss Rabbit, as a rule, is not very hot in flavor, so 
 don’t be too generous with your pepper and mustard. 
 
 variations of the same dish. “There are none,” says 
 
 [So] 
 
Colette and the Chafing Disk 
 
 Colette. “Every Rabbit is so different that each must 
 have its own recipe.” 
 
 “Well, I can’t write more than one more, so pick out the 
 nicest.” 
 
 old English rarebit. Prepare beforehand six ounces of 
 Cheddar cheese, cut up into thin slices 
 Six nice half-rounds of buttered toast 
 At the moment put the cheese into the pan, with half a tea- 
 spoonful mustard and one quarter pint ale. Add red pepper 
 to taste, but no salt. Stir over a sharp heat till the mix- 
 ture becomes creamy, and then pour on to the toast and 
 serve very hot indeed. 
 
 “But, Colette, I never tasted ale in my life, and I am 
 sure I should not like it if I did !” 
 
 “Well, then, milk can be used instead of the ale. It is 
 very good when done with milk, but a little salt is needed 
 — just a wee pinch — to pick up the flavor.” 
 
 GEUES A la jardiniere (garden eggs). Prepare before- 
 hand half a pint macedoine of vegetables (You can either 
 use it cold, left over from a previous meal, or you can use 
 the macedoine that comes bottled.) 
 
 Half a teacupful good white sauce 
 Four hard-boiled eggs, cut into slices 
 One small shallot, chopped finely 
 
 At the moment melt one ounce butter in the chafing dish, 
 fry the shallot lightly in it, and, when it just begins to color, 
 add the vegetables, and let them just color too. Then stir 
 in the sauce and let all get thoroughly hot, taking care that 
 nothing sticks to the pan. Last of all add the eggs and give 
 a good shake-up, so that the eggs settle down among the 
 vegetables. Serve piping hot from the pan. 
 
 Little triangles of fried bread, stuck in all round the dish 
 at the moment of serving, are a great improvement. 
 
 [81] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 variations of the same dish. Half a dozen mush- 
 rooms, peeled, cut into little pieces, and fried in the butter, 
 are even nicer than the onion, some folks think. If you 
 cannot easily get a macedoine, take just one vegetable, or 
 perhaps two — carrots and green peas are excellent to- 
 gether; or dried haricot beans alone make a dish which 
 looks less pretty, but is very good indeed if you use plenty 
 of onion and a sprinkling of mixed herbs, — parsley, mint, 
 and thyme. 
 
 “Now, Colette, something with which to finish up the 
 meal, please ! ” 
 
 deviled almonds a l’italien. Prepare beforehand half 
 a pound of almonds, blanched in boiling water, skinned, 
 and then most carefully dried on a soft cloth 
 
 One saltspoonful of salt, cayenne, and curry powder, 
 well mixed together 
 
 (Some like a little more salt and less pepper and curry) 
 
 At the moment put one large tablespoonful of the best 
 sweet olive oil into the frying pan and let it get hot. Then 
 add the almonds and fry them a good golden brown, tossing 
 them often, so that the color may be even and clear. Pour 
 off every drop of the oil, so that the almonds remain quite 
 dry in the hot pan. Then add the salt mixture and stir 
 them in it with your fingers, working and rubbing them till 
 they are almost cold. Have ready a little silver dish or 
 basket, lined with a lace paper. Turn them out into this 
 and hand them with the coffee at the end of the meal. 
 
 “Why do you never cook sweets in my chafing dish, 
 Colette? I should have thought it would be quite nice 
 for fritters and so on.” 
 
 “Because you have only one pan,” answered Colette 
 promptly. “And, as every clean cook knows, milk things 
 or fruit juice must never, never be cooked in a pan that is 
 
 [82] 
 
Colette and the Chafing Dish 
 
 used for meat or vegetables. You may say, as much as 
 you like, that good washing takes away the taste of all 
 previous dishes ; but it is not true. Nine people out of ten 
 will detect nothing ; but the tenth will taste that there is 
 something wrong. And, as you know very well, one must 
 always cook for the tenth — the person with a palate. 
 If one gets into the habit of cooking for the nine who taste 
 nothing, in a few weeks one will be having complaints from 
 the pigs because their mash is so badly made that they can’t 
 eat it.” 
 
 Which is, I suppose, her eminently practical translation 
 of the saying, “You must aim at the stars if you want to 
 hit the chimney pots !” 
 
 [83] 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 COLETTE COOKS FISH 
 
 C OLETTE has one sworn enemy, — the fish merchant. 
 To me he seems to be a pleasant little fellow enough, 
 with a smile that would be quite charming if his 
 teeth were not so broken. But Colette hates the very 
 sight of him, scolds at his wares, at his prices, at his manner 
 of ringing at our gate, at his donkey’s manner of nibbling 
 the hedge while it waits, — in fact, at everything to do 
 with him. Under the circumstances, it is hardly wonder- 
 ful that he manages adroitly to trade off on her the smallest 
 and boniest and least fresh of his fish. And whatever 
 treatment it gets in the kitchen does n’t help it much. So 
 my Fridays are real seasons of penance. 
 
 It was on a Friday, after a particularly uneatable lunch, 
 that I said gently to Colette that I thought I would go up 
 to the convent on the hill, and ask the kitchen Sister to 
 tell me something about cooking fish. “Because I don’t 
 think it is your strong point, is it?” said I. “And, of 
 course, I want the best possible recipes to put in the book.” 
 Oh, my goodness ! Colette suddenly went hopping, 
 dancing, shouting mad ! Though whether she was blaming 
 me, who was so difficult about my food : or the evil fish- 
 peddler, who sold her such muck : or the Holy Father, who 
 orders Friday abstinence : or Almighty God, who created 
 “whales and all that move in the waters” is really more 
 
 [84] 
 
Colette Cooks Fish 
 
 than I can tell you. Maybe it was the whole lot of us. 
 She had indignation enough to go round, and leave a little 
 over ! 
 
 Well, well ! It passed, as all storms do. And, in proof 
 of her repentance for having made such a scene, Colette 
 set to and gave me a number of most mouth-watering 
 recipes for fish-cookery. She has kindly promised to do 
 them all for me — when the fish merchant gets gaoled at 
 last, and his place is taken by an honest man with decent 
 wares. 
 
 I expect that it is the same all the world over ; in the in- 
 land districts of big countries the folks are bound to go in 
 for a good deal of salt fish. Salt cod is what we get, mostly : 
 but any other kind of large salt fish would answer the same 
 purpose. 
 
 All salt fish should be soaked in cold water overnight. 
 If a strong salt taste is disliked, the fish should be put into 
 cold water, brought to the boil, and then taken out before 
 cooking. This process may be repeated once or even 
 twice. If the fish is never allowed actually to boil, it will 
 not lose anything of its food value. 
 
 MORUE AUX POMMES DE TERRE (COD WITH POTATOES). 
 After preparing the fish as above, put it into cold water, 
 bring it just to the boil, skim it, cover the pan and draw 
 it aside, allowing the fish to cook gently for quarter of an 
 hour. Then drain it out and keep it warm, while you cook 
 in its water six large potatoes, peeled and cut into halves 
 lengthwise. Drain them. Dish them around the fish and 
 pour over all a nice cream sauce with a little parsley in it. 
 
 BRAND ADE DE MORUE (BRAND ADE OF COD). Boil the 
 fish as above. Take away all the skin and bones and break 
 the flesh into flakes. Put two tablespoonfuls of the best 
 olive oil in a pan, add the fish, set the pan on a moderate 
 
 [85] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. When you 
 see that the mixture is becoming too dry, add a very few 
 drops of milk. Keep on doing this from time to time, 
 stirring constantly, till the mixture becomes a soft, smooth 
 paste (in about twenty minutes). Pepper it strongly. 
 Pile it on a hot dish. Chop a couple of truffles and sprinkle 
 them over it ; but, whatever you do, don’t put any parsley 
 near it, not even for decoration, or you will spoil it com- 
 pletely. 
 
 morue A la BOURGUIGNOTE. Boil the fish as above. 
 In a pan large enough to hold the fish, make a pint or so of 
 simple brown sauce. (Poor Man’s Gravy does very well.) 
 Peel twelve little onions and add them to the sauce, with 
 pepper, salt, a good bunch of mixed herbs, and as much 
 mixed spice as will lie on the nail of your least finger. Cover 
 the pan and let the onions cook gently in the sauce. When 
 they are almost done, put back the fish with them, and let 
 it simmer for the last quarter hour. 
 
 Remove the bones and skin from the fish ; arrange the 
 flakes in a pile at the middle of a dish, put the onions around, 
 and pour the sauce over all. 
 
 If the sauce has thinned down a little in the process of 
 boiling, thicken it up with a teaspoonful of cornstarch, 
 smoothed in a little drop of cold water. It should be thick 
 enough to coat the fish and cling to it. 
 
 morue a la maItre-d ’hotel. When your fish has been 
 boiled, take away all the skin and bones and break the 
 flesh into large flakes. In a flat dish melt a piece of butter 
 the size of two eggs, and add to it a tablespoonful of vine- 
 gar, a little chopped parsley, a good pinch of coarse pepper, 
 and a little grated nutmeg. Stir all well together. Stand 
 the dish on the edge of the stove, where it will keep very 
 hot, and turn the flakes in the sauce till they are buttered 
 
 [ 86 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Fish 
 
 all over. Serve immediately. If you let the dish hang 
 about in the oven, so that the fish dries up, it will be good 
 for nothing at all. 
 
 There are two standard French ways of cooking unsalted 
 boiled fish, which can be used for any kind you like, pro- 
 vided that it is large enough to be separated neatly from 
 the bones and skin. 
 
 Boil your fish gently, so that it may not break too much. 
 Take away the bones and skin and divide the flesh into 
 large flakes. Put them on a hot dish and cover them either 
 with sauce au beurre noir (black butter) (see chapter 
 on Meat Cookery) or sauce jaune (see chapter on Sauces). 
 Fish water is used as the liquid of the sauce, and, as a rule, 
 a sprinkling of parsley is added as a garnish to the finished 
 dish. 
 
 If any of this large-flaked fish is left, the best way of 
 warming it up is 
 
 beignets de poisson (fish fritters). Scrape away 
 all the sauce. Put the flakes in a dish with salt, pepper, 
 and a little vinegar, and leave them to soak for a couple 
 of hours, so that they may be well seasoned. Then shake 
 them very dry, dip them in Beer Batter (see article on 
 Frying), and fry them in deep fat, heated to smoking point. 
 Serve very hot, piled up on a dish and garnished with 
 fried parsley. 
 
 If you don’t care about fried things, perhaps you would 
 prefer 
 
 POISSON AU gratin (fish au gratin). Melt a good 
 piece of butter in an au gratin dish and sprinkle it with 
 crumbs, pepper, and salt. Toss the fish in its own quantity 
 of thick white sauce and put it in the dish. Cover it with 
 more crumbs, add little bits of butter here and there, and 
 brown it in a good oven. 
 
 [87] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 That is the respectable au gratin, which every one has. 
 Personally, I think it dull, and very much prefer a 
 
 AU GRATIN FLAMANDE (FLEMISH HASHED FISH) which 
 
 Colette says is “low”, and will only give me when I am 
 alone. 
 
 Mix together a cupful of crumbs and a cupful of chopped 
 onions, and fry them in three tablespoonfuls of olive oil 
 till they are a nice brown. Put a layer in the dish : then 
 add the fish, turned in white sauce, as before; then an- 
 other crisp brown layer to finish off ; and just heat the whole 
 thing well through in the oven. 
 
 Any one who is fond of onions will find it perfectly de- 
 licious. But, as Colette thinks it “low”, I must not insist 
 on it. Let us pass to higher subjects ! 
 
 trout A la genevoise is a dish of which she quite ap- 
 proves. And it is very good, too. 
 
 Clean and scale the fish and put them on to boil gently 
 in salt and water. After their water has begun to boil 
 and has been skimmed, put in a large crust of bread, — 
 the whole bottom of a loaf, probably, for four trout. 
 
 While the fish and bread are boiling, prepare the follow- 
 ing sauce : 
 
 Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter about half the size 
 of an egg. Add two chopped shallots, a tablespoonful 
 of chopped parsely, salt, pepper, and six mushrooms, peeled 
 and chopped. Take the piece of bread out of the fish pan 
 — being careful not to break it — and, after it has drained 
 for five minutes, add it to the sauce. It will suck up all 
 the butter, and a great many of the seasonings will stick 
 to it. After it has simmered for five minutes, lift it care- 
 fully to a hot dish, pile on it any seasonings that it has not 
 absorbed, and finally add the boiled and well-drained fish. 
 I have never seen this dish anywhere outside France. 
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Fish 
 
 If, by bad luck, the crust should break, you must beat 
 it all to a paste and put it through a sieve, making a sort 
 of puree of it in the dish. This tastes all right, but it is a 
 confession of failure, for, of course, the crust shouldn’t 
 break at all. 
 
 fried trout are served all the world over, and lots of 
 folks do them well. But I wonder if any one else does them 
 just as well as a woman with whom I once went camping? 
 Her fried trout were really too good for this wicked world. 
 
 She cleaned them first, and dusted them with a little 
 flour. 
 
 Then she filled her fry pan with the best olive oil to such 
 a depth that the fish would just be covered. 
 
 She heated the oil till it smoked and then put the 
 fish in. 
 
 She fried them very much , — almost to the verge of 
 burning. 
 
 She sprinkled them with salt and red pepper before serv- 
 ing, and squeezed the juice of a lemon over them as they 
 lay piled in the dish. 
 
 herrings are very much eaten in France, and the one 
 curious point about the manner of preparing them is that 
 they are never washed. Colette would not even look at a 
 herring that had been in water since it left the sea. They 
 are emptied, wiped out with a bit of clean rag, and then 
 carefully dusted with salt, pepper, and a grain or two of 
 dry mustard before being either fried or grilled. If you 
 use a grill — which, Colette says, is much better than a 
 fry pan for such a greasy-fleshed fish — remember to make 
 it red hot, and then the herrings won’t stick to it. 
 
 HARENGS DE DIEPPE (DIEPPE HERRINGS). Take a dozen 
 fine herrings, clean and scale them, and wipe them as dry 
 as you can. 
 
 [ 89 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 Put on the fire a saucepan with 
 
 | pint water 
 j pint vinegar 
 The juice of 3 oranges 
 
 1 large onion, peeled and chopped 
 
 2 carrots 
 
 2 beads garlic 
 
 12 peppercorns 
 
 A bunch of fresh sweet herbs 
 
 Cook all together for quarter of an hour. Put in the her- 
 rings. Let them boil for six minutes. Draw the pan off the 
 fire and let them get cold in the water. 
 
 When they are perfectly cold, drain them well, pile them 
 up on a fish paper, decorate them with parsley, and serve 
 them with a cold cream sauce which contains a good deal 
 of salt ; for, as you may have noticed, no salt is cooked 
 with the fish at all. 
 
 HARENGS EN SALADE (SALT HERRING AND POTATO SALAD). 
 Open the salt herrings. Pour boiling water over them 
 till the skin and bones become loosened. Then take away 
 all that you can, dividing the flesh into neat filets. Make 
 an ordinary potato salad, and trim it with the little pieces 
 of fish, and with a couple of hard-boiled eggs, cut into 
 slices. 
 
 FILETS DE MERLAN A L’ORLY (FILETS OF WHITING A 
 
 l’orly). Colette says that medium whitings are the best. 
 The little ones are nothing but skin and bone, while the big 
 ones are apt to taste coarse. So take the filets of three 
 medium whitings, split them down the middle, so that each 
 fish yields four long thin pieces, and put these pieces into 
 a dish, with the juice of a lemon, salt, pepper, and a couple 
 of sprigs of parsley — whole, not chopped. Leave them to 
 soak for at least two hours. Just before the meal, drain 
 
 [ 90 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Fish 
 
 them, roll them in very finely sifted flour, and fry them 
 in smoking hot oil, which is just deep enough to cover them. 
 
 They should be perfectly dry and crisp, more like pieces 
 of biscuit than anything else. Pile them on a heated nap- 
 kin and decorate them with fried parsley and slices of 
 lemon. 
 
 soles in France are practically always cooked in white 
 wine. The only exception that I know of is 
 filet de sole a la brochette. Divide each filet, 
 making two long, thin strips of it, and cut shadow- thin 
 pieces of fat bacon just to fit them. Pound a little onion 
 and pepper together in a mortar till you get a paste, which 
 can be spread very thinly on the fish. Now lay a piece of 
 bacon inside each piece of fish, roll them up together, pass 
 them through flour. Slip a skewer through several little 
 rolls at a time. Dip them into deep fat heated to smoking 
 point, and fry them a good brown. Serve very hot indeed. 
 
 rouget A l’huile. (If you don’t have those pretty, 
 pink-splashed fish in America, you will find, I think, that a 
 small fresh haddock cooks very well in the same fashion, 
 though, of course, the flesh of a rouget is more delicate.) 
 Clean and wash the fish. Put on to boil 
 
 i quart water 
 
 1 teacupful vinegar 
 
 2 peeled onions 
 
 2 peeled carrots 
 
 Salt, pepper, a bunch of sweet herbs 
 
 i tablespoonful butter 
 
 Boil all this for half an hour. Then empty and wash the 
 fish and put it in. Rouget takes only a minute to cook : 
 haddock much longer. When it is done, drain it out, let 
 it get perfectly cold, and then serve it with oil and vinegar. 
 huitres (oysters). “But you know that it is a crime to 
 
 f 9 1 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 cook oysters ! All those who eat with intelligence, take their 
 oysters raw — unless they want to play with them in that 
 chafing-dish toy of yours,” protests Colette. But I insist 
 on a recipe or two, being myself sufficiently lacking in in- 
 telligence to prefer cooked oysters to raw ones. 
 
 There is one very good way of doing them, in which they 
 remain really raw, but do not seem to be so, if you under- 
 stand me. 
 
 Allow one small shallot and a tablespoonful of vinegar 
 for each oyster. Pound the shallots in a mortar till they 
 are reduced to pulp ; then add the vinegar, and a liberal sea- 
 soning of black pepper, a little salt, and the merest shadow 
 of fine sugar. The amount of sugar to be used is a very deli- 
 cate matter, for none at all leaves the dish insipid, while 
 even a little too much makes it uneatably nasty. Add it 
 grain by grain, tasting all the time. Open the oysters and 
 pour the sauce on each in its shell. 
 
 HUITRES AU NATUREL (GRILLED OYSTERS). Open large 
 oysters. Place on each a piece of butter the size of a small 
 nut, into which has been rolled a good allowance of chopped 
 parsley, a big pinch each of salt and pepper, and a grain 
 or two of mixed spice. Set the oysters on the grill. Take 
 them off the moment they begin to boil, and serve them 
 at once. 
 
 If you want to do good fish cooking always 
 
 1. Test whether boiled fish is done or not by slipping 
 a fine skewer along the side of the backbone. If the least 
 resistance is felt, the fish is not done yet. 
 
 2. Bring fish up to the boiling point very fast. Skim it. 
 Draw it aside and let it simmer till it is done. Never let 
 it boil hard after the skimming ; this is the secret of keeping 
 it both whole and of a good flavor. 
 
 3. Fry fish in oil whenever you can. It is one of my 
 
 [92] 
 
Colette Cooks Fish 
 
 complaints against Colette that she will use dripping, which 
 makes heavy, soggy fried fish, whereas oil makes it crisp 
 and light and crackling. Olive oil does very well indeed, 
 but still better is the cheap oil — called by no name that 
 I have ever found out except just “oil” — which is used 
 by the owners of fry stalls in gutters, and fried fish and 
 chip shops in “mean streets.” But it ’s hard to get, es- 
 pecially for those who shop in automobiles, or on the ’phone, 
 and, as I said, the olive oil does quite well. 
 
 4. Never fry fish till the minute before you want to 
 serve it. It should go straight from the pan to the table. 
 
 5. Be ever so careful in the preparation, — the removal 
 of bones and skin, and so on. The fact that these things 
 are often found so bothersome at table is the reason why 
 many persons object to fish. 
 
 6. We never serve any vegetable except potatoes with 
 fish, and rarely those. The vegetable follows as a separate 
 course, even when the fish is the main dish of the meal. 
 
 [93] 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 OUT OF THE FRYING PAN 
 
 A CLATTER and a yell from the kitchen ! I dropped 
 my book and raced down the long flagged passage, 
 meeting, as I went, a dense cloud of stifling, stinking 
 smoke, which poured out of the kitchen door. The wails 
 grew louder and more heartrending at each instant. 
 
 “Colette!” cried I. “Whatever on earth is the mat- 
 ter?” 
 
 “Oh, oh!” sobbed Colette, through the folds of the 
 apron which she had twisted tragically round her head. 
 “ Quel malheur ! Ah, mon Dieu, que je suis malheureuse ! 
 Jamais, jamais de la vie n'ai-je vu une affaire pareille! 
 Oh . . . !” 
 
 “Colette! Dear, good Colette! Try to tell me — 
 just plainly once — where have you burnt yourself?” For 
 the awful smell was certainly one of burning, and I could n’t 
 see Colette clearly for the smoke that filled the kitchen. 
 
 “Burnt myself?” Colette whisked the apron off her 
 head and rounded on me in a state of furious astonishment. 
 “As if I would cry because I had only burnt myself ! I ’ve 
 burnt the friture!” 
 
 I had been horribly frightened, for I love Colette. The 
 relief of her explanation, joined to its absurdity, were too 
 much for me. I sat down and crowed — literally crowed 
 with hysterical laughter — till Colette, growing frightened 
 
 [ 94 ] 
 
Out of the Frying Pan 
 
 in her turn, opened the window and forced a drink of water 
 on me. Then, when we were both quiet and reasonable 
 again, she turned reproachful. 
 
 “It is nothing to laugh at, you know. The frilure costs 
 so dear, and it ought to last for months and months. No, 
 indeed, it is no laughing matter ! It is on my conscience 
 that I have been negligent — but, figure to yourself, I do 
 but turn my back a little, little moment — the fire is very 
 quick — I smell something — I throw myself upon the 
 friture — but it is too late. Ah! Mon Dieu! Quel mal- 
 heur I” 
 
 “Don’t start that noise again. I ’ll buy you some more 
 to-morrow.” 
 
 “But I think of the waste. In these hard days — ” 
 “How much does it cost?” ( Friture , I may as well ex- 
 plain, means a big pan of dripping, in which things are fried.) 
 
 “To make a good, big friture , in my large, deep pan — 
 oh, one has for fifteen francs’ worth of fat. But I will not 
 ask for all that — I will try to manage with the half quan- 
 tity. I am so sorry — so ashamed — ” 
 
 “You needn’t be. Tell me all the things you mean to 
 cook in the friture, and I will make an article for the cook 
 book. So you will help me to earn the fifteen francs and 
 perhaps even a little more to put in my pocket. You see, 
 there is no need to be sorry or ashamed, mon amie. It is 
 a good turn that you do me — not a bad one at all.” 
 Colette was silent for a moment. Then she said, in an 
 unusually gentle little voice. 
 
 “ Merci, ma petite — merci heaucoup ! ” And I knew that 
 she meant it very much indeed, or she would never have 
 forgotten her carefully acquired manners enough to call 
 me “ petite ”, as if I were twelve years old again, and home 
 from my convent for the holidays. 
 
 [ 95 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 Before telling about the dishes cooked in the friture 
 (which is Colette’s name for the big pan of dripping in 
 which things are fried) it may be well to say a word, first 
 of all, as to the friture itself. Any kind of nice dripping 
 will do, provided that it is rendered down and cleansed — 
 not clarified, but just cleansed — by having cut away from 
 it any dark matter that may fall to the bottom when the 
 dripping is set. It should be kept in the pan in which it is 
 used, this pan being deep and large enough to take in the 
 frying basket easily. Before each using, warm the pan just 
 a tiny trifle, to loosen the hard cake of dripping from the 
 sides. Slip it out, turn it upside down, and scrape away 
 any little burnt bits that you may find at the bottom. By 
 this means, the fat is kept always clean and nice. 
 
 Colette does not use a real frying pan for her deep frying. 
 She has a round iron pan, about twelve inches deep, with a 
 little round handle at each side. An ordinary frying pan 
 is not good for friture work; it is only good for sauteed 
 things and for omelettes. 
 
 Colette always keeps two sets of friture , — the big one for 
 things in general, and the little one for fish. You can do 
 fish in the general friture, if you like, but you always run 
 the risk of tanging the fat, with the result that you will 
 get fishy fritters and sweets for the rest of the chapter. 
 
 There is nothing equal to good beef dripping for the 
 friture. There is nothing equal to fresh butter for eggs 
 and omelettes, cooked in an open frying pan ; lard makes 
 a good second. 
 
 Oil fries things to a most lovely color and makes them 
 very crisp, but it is more costly than fat and not quite so 
 easy to use. 
 
 Margarine should never be used for frying under any 
 circumstances whatever. 
 
 [ 9 6 ] 
 
Out of the Frying Pan 
 
 1. friture batter. Put into a good-sized basin half a 
 pound flour, one tablespoonful of brandy, one tablespoon- 
 ful of olive oil, and a pinch of salt (no salt if the batter is 
 for a sweet dish). The best way of arranging matters is 
 to sift the salt into the flour, and then make a hole in the 
 center and pour in the oil and brandy. Pour in also a 
 little cold water, and begin to mix from the center, stirring 
 all the time with a wooden spoon. When you have put 
 in enough water to make a mixture of the consistency of 
 whipped cream, begin to beat across and across, raising the 
 spoon well at each stroke, so that plenty of air may get 
 into the batter. When you have beaten for five minutes, 
 put the batter aside and let it stand in a cool place for two 
 hours. 
 
 It is not possible to tell the exact quantity of water that 
 you will want, because the amount differs with different 
 kinds of flour. But the batter should be thick enough to 
 coat the back of a metal spoon : also it ought to follow the 
 spoon in a kind of thread, which breaks, of course, when it 
 is an inch or two long. On the other hand, it must not be 
 thick enough to make lumps ; it must be a running mixture, 
 not a paste. 
 
 2. flemish batter is very cheap and convenient, and 
 many people like it better than the French kind, as it is 
 lighter and crisper. Remember that it must be used as 
 soon as ever it is made, so get the fat heated beforehand 
 and prepare all thaj: is wanted, in order that you may waste 
 no time. 
 
 Sift together in a basin half a pound of flour, one tea- 
 spoonful sugar, and one teaspoonful baking powder. Add 
 a little beer or soda water, to mix the whole to the consist- 
 ency of an ordinary frying batter, and use immediately . 
 
 Colette seldom makes batter with an egg. She says it 
 
 [97] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 is wasteful. But, if she has a white left over from some- 
 thing else, she often uses it in the following way for a 
 
 3. SWEET BATTER. 
 
 § pound flour 
 1 teaspoonful sugar 
 A pinch of salt 
 Sweet milk to mix 
 
 The white of the egg, whipped to the stiffest possible froth 
 
 Mix it like number one, adding the whipped white of the 
 egg at the last moment. 
 
 CERVELLE FRITE (FRIED OX BRAINS). A delicious lunch 
 dish or entree. Clean the brains carefully, and soak them 
 for one hour in cold salt and water to take out the blood. 
 Put them into a pan with enough cold water to cover them, 
 with pepper, salt, half a lemon sliced, and three small onions. 
 Cover the pan and boil gently till tender. Drain the 
 brains. Cut them into pieces the size of an egg. Dip them 
 in the friture batter. 
 
 Now heat the friture till it stops bubbling, and be- 
 gins to give off a thin blue smoke. Try it with a bit of 
 bread. If the bread turns crisp and brown at once, the 
 friture is ready. Put in the pieces of brains, one at a time, 
 with a little pause between each. Leave plenty of room 
 in the pan, so that they may not touch each other. Fry 
 them to a good golden brown. Take them out with a 
 drainer, and put them on a sieve with a plate underneath, 
 so that whatever fat too much there may be will drip 
 through the sieve on to the plate, from which it may be 
 scraped off and used again. Keep them very hot. Pile 
 them on a hot dish and garnish with parsley before serving. 
 
 Any other kind of brains may be served in the same way, 
 though most others — calf’s brains, for instance — need 
 only a few moments of boiling before they are fried. 
 
 [ 98 ] 
 
Out of the Frying Pan 
 
 CROQUETTES DE VEAU (CROQUETTES OF VEAL). Another 
 delightful dish for lunch, supper, or breakfast. You may 
 prepare any kind of white meat in the same way, — chicken, 
 rabbit, or pork. 
 
 Melt in a pan two tablespoonfuls of lard or butter. Add 
 one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, pepper, salt, a grate 
 of nutmeg, and two tablespoonfuls of flour, well piled up. 
 Stir all together with a wooden spoon, and when well mixed 
 over the fire, add slowly a small cupful of hot milk, or, if 
 you prefer, a little good gravy. Stir the sauce over the 
 fire till it becomes as thick as porridge. Cut your meat 
 into very neat little squares — ■ quite tiny, please — and 
 mix them into the sauce. It is best not to mince the meat 
 through a machine, because it loses its character if you do 
 so. Let the mixture get quite cold, and then you will find 
 it firm enough to handle. Shape it into small croquettes 
 and roll them in fine white crumbs. Beat up an egg. 
 Dip the croquettes into it. Crumb them again. Drop 
 them into deep fat, heated to smoking point, and cook 
 them just like the brains. Serve them very hot indeed, 
 garnished with fried parsley. 
 
 When they are cut, their crisp brown outsides are found 
 to hide a sort of creamy filling, with little bits of meat in 
 it. Delicious ! 
 
 PETITES PATES, FRITES (LITTLE FRIED PIES). Take One 
 pound of any nice short pastry that you know best how to 
 make. Roll it out to the thickness of quarter of an inch 
 and cut it into circles with something just a trifle larger 
 than a tumbler. Dampen the edges of the circles. Now 
 mince any cooked meat that you happen to have, season 
 it well with pepper, salt, mixed spice, and, if you like, a 
 little grated onions or chopped parsley. Add to it enough 
 good gravy to make a rather damp paste of it. Put a large 
 
 [ 99 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 spoonful on one side of a round of pastry, double the other 
 side over, press the edges together, and pinch them up and 
 down with your fingers, to make a sort of frilly border. 
 Now, you have things the shape of English turnovers. 
 Drop them into the friture, which has been heated to smok- 
 ing point, and fry them a nice bright brown. Keep them 
 very hot indeed till the moment of service comes. Pile 
 them up in a folded napkin when they go to table. 
 
 If nicely fried, they will be as dry and crisp as if they 
 had been baked. This is a very economical method of 
 using up leavings of cold meat. Cold fish can also be em- 
 ployed in the same way, while a spoonful of jam folded 
 into the pastry gives a sort of little sweet pie very dear to 
 the hearts of children. Colette always used to make them 
 for me, with strawberry jam inside, when I came home 
 for the holidays. She used to roll them in sifted sugar 
 as soon as they came out of the pan, I remember, to make 
 them more fascinating still. 
 
 BEIGNETS D’HUITRES (FRITTERED OYSTERS). Take the 
 oysters from their shells and drop them into boiling water 
 to which the juice of a lemon has been added. Let them 
 cook in it for half an hour. Drain them thoroughly. Sprin- 
 kle them generously with pepper and salt. Dip them into 
 the friture batter and fry them in deep fat heated to smok- 
 ing point. Pile them up high in a dish, and garnish them 
 with fried parsley. This is a delicious entree or lunch dish. 
 It would also be good at supper. 
 
 boulettes (rissoles of cold meat). Mince one pound 
 of any sort of cold meat, with quarter of a pound of cooked 
 bacon, — rather fat, if possible, unless the meat happens 
 to be fat also. Now boil two pounds of potatoes, drain 
 them very dry, and put them through a potato press. Mix 
 well into the meat, adding pepper, salt, and a tiny bit of 
 
 [ ioo] 
 
Out of the Frying Pan 
 
 grated onion or garlic. Now beat up two eggs very well. 
 Mix them into the other ingredients and roll all into wee 
 balls, — the smaller the prettier. Dip them in flour, 
 brush them over lightly with beaten egg, and roll them 
 in fine white crumbs. Put them in the frying basket and 
 plunge them into deep fat heated to smoking point. Let 
 them get well colored. Drain thoroughly. They swell 
 little in cooking and become very light and good. Make 
 a thick tomato sauce — see article on sauces — pile up the 
 Boulettes in a high pyramid at the middle of a hot dish, 
 and pour tomato sauce round the base of it. Serve at once. 
 
 BCEUF A L’HUILE (COLD BEEF FRIED IN OIL). Cut Cold 
 
 boiled beef into thin, neat slices. Rub each slice well with 
 a bead of cut garlic. Put into an open frying pan enough 
 oil just to cover the bottom. Heat it till it smokes. Put 
 in as many slices of beef as will lie flat at the bottom of the 
 pan and fry them lightly at both sides. Sprinkle them 
 well with pepper and salt. When all the slices are fried, 
 arrange them on a hot dish, heat two tablespoonfuls of 
 vinegar in the pan and pour it over all. Serve at once. 
 
 BEIGNETS DE VOLAILLE (GAME FRITTERS). Take the 
 breast only of a game bird of any kind, roasted and cold, 
 and divide each side of it into four or six long and rather 
 thin pieces. Soak the pieces in vinegar for half an hour. 
 Drain them very dry. Dust them with pepper and salt. 
 Dip them into future batter, and fry in the usual way. 
 
 Prepare chicken in the same way. If the dish is for 
 family use, you may also cut up the other parts of the bird, 
 taking the fleshy pieces from the legs, and making big, 
 fat fritters of them. 
 
 BEIGNETS DE CHOUX FLEURS (CAULIFLOWER FRITTERS). 
 Take the flowers only and break them into neat little sprays. 
 Wash them very well and boil them in salt and water till 
 
 [ ioi ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 they are tender. Drain them. Sprinkle them with salt, 
 pepper, and a few drops of vinegar. Dip them into Flem- 
 ish batter and fry them in deep fat to smoking point. This 
 is a very pretty and dainty vegetable. 
 
 BEIGNETS OF SALSIFY, CHICORY, OR CELERY. Scrape 
 the vegetable, cut it into little pieces about half the size 
 of your least finger, and boil them in salt and water till 
 they are quite tender. Drain them well. Measure the 
 quantity. Make the same amount of well-seasoned white 
 sauce, very thick. Mix in the vegetables, and spread the 
 whole thing on a dish to get cool. When it is quite cold, 
 it will be so firm that you can cut it into neat little pieces ; 
 dip them in Batter No. i, and fry them in deep fat. 
 
 These, like the Croquettes, liquefy as they get hot, and 
 come running out in a delicious cream when the shell 
 is cut. 
 
 BEIGNETS DE POMMES DE TERRE (POTATO FRITTERS). 
 
 Steam your potatoes, peel them while hot, and beat them 
 through a sieve. Add sugar and a very little salt, if you 
 want to make a sweet dish of them ; add a good deal of 
 salt and only the merest pinch of sugar, if you want to 
 make a vegetable of them. Mix in enough flour to bind 
 them into a firm, smooth paste. The paste must be well 
 bound, but not so stiff that it is tough. Work it into a 
 ball, roll it out on a floured board to the thickness of half 
 an inch, and cut it into rounds with the edge of a tumbler. 
 Heat your friture till it smokes, drop in the rounds, one 
 at a time, and fry them fast. Take them up with a 
 skimmer as soon as they are brown. Let them drip dry, 
 roll them in sifted sugar or sprinkle them with salt, and 
 serve at once. They must be served without a second of 
 delay, for, as soon as they become cold, they fall, and are 
 no longer either pretty or good. 
 
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Out of the Frying Pan 
 
 If served very hot, with a nice jam or wine sauce, they 
 are the most delicious of puddings. 
 
 If served very hot, with a little grilled bacon or ham, 
 they are a breakfast for the gods. 
 
 Hand a thick cheese sauce with them, and you have a 
 nice simple savory or supper dish. 
 
 crepes (pancakes). We eat them here on Shrove Tues- 
 day almost as a matter of religion, and at many other sea- 
 sons of the year as a matter of pleasure. They are not a 
 bit like the pancakes I have sometimes tasted in England, 
 but much thinner and lighter. 
 
 Put into a deep dish one pound of flour. Make a hole 
 at the middle and break three eggs into this hole. Add 
 two tablespoonfuls of brandy, a good pinch of salt, and a 
 tablespoonful of olive oil. By way of flavoring you may 
 add either a little orange-flower water, or the grated rind 
 of a lemon. Add a little cold water and begin to stir from 
 the center with a wooden spoon, putting in water, a few 
 drops at a time, till the mixture is like a thin custard. It 
 should just coat the back of a spoon smoothly but not 
 thickly. Put the dish in a cool place when the batter has 
 been well beaten and leave it for three hours. 
 
 Now melt in a small omelette pan a little piece of lard. 
 Pour off into a cup as much of the lard as will come, leaving 
 only enough to grease the bottom of the pan. Put the pan 
 on a brisk heat till it is quite hot, and then, with a table- 
 spoon, pour in the batter, tipping the pan as you do so, 
 in order that the batter may run fast all over the bottom 
 of it. The pan should be entirely covered with the thinnest 
 possible coating of batter. 
 
 “It ’s not easy to do the first time,” said Colette. “You 
 want the trick of it. The first time one does it, one cannot 
 tip fast enough, and the crepe turns into a thick dab, in- 
 
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Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 stead of into the lightest and daintiest of thin skins at the 
 bottom of the pan. However, it soon comes.” 
 
 Let the crepe fry for a moment, and, when it is brown 
 underneath, turn it and fry the other side, too. 
 
 “They can tell if it is brown underneath by lifting up a 
 corner and looking underneath,” Colette explains. “The 
 right way to turn it is to give the handle of the pan a sharp 
 tap, and then the crepe jumps.” 
 
 “Yes. Up into one’s face. One needs to wear a mask 
 when making crepes,” said I ruefully. 
 
 “La, la! Every one is not as clumsy as you! Tell 
 them they can turn it with two knives if they like better. 
 When it is fried on the second side, slip it off on to a hot 
 plate, and keep it in an oven which is just cool enough not 
 to dry it, but plenty warm enough not to let it go limp, 
 while you are doing the others.” 
 
 When all are done, fold them, pile them up in a scaffold- 
 ing on a dish, sprinkle them with lots of sifted sugar, and 
 garnish them with slices of cut lemon. 
 
 The batter must be constantly stirred all the time the 
 frying is going on, so that the thick part may not drop down 
 to the bottom. 
 
 crapes aux pommes (apple pancakes). Make the 
 batter as above. Take very nice cooking apples, of a kind 
 that easily softens in heat. Peel them. Take out the 
 cores with a corer. Cut them into wafer-thin slices, going 
 right across the apple at each slice. Just before frying 
 the crepes , stir the apples into the batter, and, when frying, 
 try to arrange things so that at least two good slices are 
 in each crepe. 
 
 Don’t fold them — you can’t, without spoiling the 
 pieces of apple. Lay them flat on a hot dish, sprinkling 
 each thickly with powdered sugar. 
 
 [ 104] 
 
Out of the Frying Pan 
 
 batonettes (fried sticks). Make a store of these 
 at a time and keep them to serve with stewed fruits, cus- 
 tards, and other soft sweets of the same kind. They can 
 be stored in a tin and reheated in the oven when wanted. 
 They are excellent, and they give a novel look to any very 
 simple and everyday kind of dessert. 
 
 Sift one pound of flour on to the pastry-board, mixing 
 in with it a good teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon and 
 half a pound of sifted sugar. Chop roughly in it half a 
 pound of good butter, and then rub the butter in with the 
 tips of your fingers, till the mixture is like bread crumbs. 
 Make a hole at the center of the flour. Break an egg into 
 the hole, and add two or three tablespoonfuls of cold water. 
 Begin to mix with your fingers, adding a little more water 
 from time to time, till the whole is of the stiffness of pastry. 
 Knead it just like bread till it leaves your hands quite clean. 
 Then roll it out to the thickness of quarter of an inch, cut 
 it into narrow strips, and twist them, just like cheese straws. 
 Some people turn the strips into little rings; others tie 
 them in wee bows. The paste is so firm and at the same 
 time so flexible that it is easy to handle, and all kinds of 
 pretty things can be made with it. Heat the friture to 
 smoking point. Put a few at a time of your dainty things 
 into the frying basket, and lower them in. They will turn 
 bright brown very soon. Shake them quite dry in the 
 basket. 
 
 They are crisp and delicious, and, if well fried, so dry 
 that they do not soil your hands in the least when you touch 
 them. They are dry enough to be eaten cold, if necessary ; 
 but, like all fried things, they gain by being heated. 
 
 pain perdu (bread fritters). “I expect they ’ll know 
 that already, Colette,” said I. “It’s rather a renowned 
 sort of thing. But, as you make it so deliciously, just tell 
 
 [ 105] 
 
Colette's Best Redyes 
 
 them your method. Perhaps you may do some little trick 
 or other which is a novelty to them.” 
 
 Cut slices of bread about half an inch thick. Take 
 away the crusts and make the white into neat squares. 
 Warm one pint of milk till it is about blood heat. Add to 
 it plenty of sugar and a few drops of any flavoring essence 
 that you like best. Put the slices of bread in a single layer 
 in a deep dish and pour the milk over them. There should 
 be enough milk to soak them all well but not enough to 
 float them. Let them soak for one hour. Beat up three 
 eggs with a tiny pinch of salt and three tablespoonfuls of 
 milk, just as if you were going to make an omelette. Put 
 into a large, open frying pan one good tablespoonful of 
 butter. When it is hot, dip into the eggs as many slices 
 of bread as will lie flat in the pan, take them out of the egg 
 with a drainer, and slip them into the hot fat. Let them 
 fry to a good golden brown. Melt another spoonful of 
 butter before turning them to the other side. When they 
 are very well browned on both sides, sprinkle with sifted 
 sugar and serve. 
 
 Some people pile a spoonful of strawberry jam on each 
 slice. About the best thing I ever had to eat in England 
 was a pudding called “Beggars on Horseback”, which was 
 nothing more or less than Pain Perdu, with hot strawberry 
 jam on it. 
 
 But Colette won’t put jam. You never met such a 
 pig-headed old piece of obstinacy in your life ! 
 
 “It is not necessary,” says she. “You only want it 
 because you are greedy — but greedy, mon Dieu ! Who 
 disgraced herself by eating Pets de Nonne in the open streets 
 of Paris?” 
 
 pets de nonne (fritter puffs) is the very vulgar name 
 of the things that polite folks call beignets souffles. 
 
 [ 106] 
 
Out of the Frying Pan 
 
 At the corner of a street in Paris, not far from the Louvre, 
 there is a man with a stall, who fries Pets de Nonne and 
 sells them, all crisp and crackling, at a few sous the handful. 
 They are all that there is of the most delicious ! But I was 
 a fool to tell Colette that I had succumbed to their charms. 
 She was honestly shocked, and has never got over it. Let 
 me just tell you how to make them. 
 
 Put into a pan half a pint of water, one tablespoonful 
 butter, the thinly peeled rind of a lemon, and one table- 
 spoonful sugar. Boil for five minutes, and then take out 
 the lemon. Take a handful of flour in your left hand, 
 hold a wooden spoon in your right, and sprinkle flour into 
 the pan, stirring all the while, till you get a paste so thick 
 that you have difficulty in moving the spoon in it. Keep 
 on boiling and stirring till the mixture leaves the sides of 
 the pan. The more it can be cooked, the nicer it will be, 
 for very well-done flour has a much more delicate flavor 
 than that which is only partly done : but you must never 
 stop stirring, even for a second, or it will burn. 
 
 Take the pan off the fire, break in an egg, and beat it 
 till it is most thoroughly mixed into the paste. Then add 
 another, and so on up to four. The more thoroughly the 
 eggs are beaten in, the lighter the Beignets will be. 
 
 Have ready your deep pan of fat, heated to smoking 
 point. Take up with the handle of a spoon a little bit of 
 paste no bigger than a walnut. It will puff to the size of 
 an egg, or even bigger, become quite empty, and swim up 
 to the top of the pan. As soon as it is bright brown, fish 
 it out with a drainer, and put in another. Only do one at 
 a time, please. And keep them very hot till they are 
 wanted. Sprinkle them with sugar before serving. No 
 sauce is ever handed with them, but, m. and then, a few 
 drops of some strong perfume — lemon, for instance — 
 
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Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 may be rubbed into the sugar with which they are 
 sprinkled. 
 
 If you want to do good deep-pan frying, always 
 
 1. See that there is a sufficient depth of fat to cover the 
 things that must be fried. 
 
 2. See that the fat is heated to smoking point. 
 
 3. Put in each bit separately, with a little pause between 
 each pair, so that the fat may reheat again. 
 
 4. Keep them as small as possible, so that they may 
 have a chance to get well cooked through. 
 
 5. Serve them very hot. 
 
 6. Make no extra ones. Fried things don’t reheat well. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 COLETTE COOKS VEGETABLES 
 
 I N the North of France, where we live, potatoes are 
 by no means the universal food that they are in Eng- 
 land. We eat them, perhaps, three or four times a 
 week : and, when we do have them, they are deliciously 
 cooked. But, especially in the poorer families, the place 
 of honor is taken by dried beans, called Haricots Blancs 
 or Haricots Rouges, according to their color. 
 
 They are easier to grow than potatoes and less subject 
 to blight; they can be stored in less space; and a mod- 
 erate help of them “fills you up” more than the same 
 amount of potato would do, and is, I believe, equally good 
 for you. So they appeal very strongly to a practical-minded 
 person like Colette. 
 
 “But the potatoes are more distinguished,” she assures 
 me earnestly. “One does not give dried beans except 
 quite in the family. I will tell you about the potatoes 
 first.” 
 
 So we make a “distinguished” start! 
 
 Colette practically always boils her potatoes in their 
 skins, and peels them afterwards. By this means, she gets 
 not only the full flavor, but also the full nourishment, most 
 of which lies just under the skin. The only exceptions 
 that she makes are in favor of very old or very new potatoes. 
 The very new ones get their skins rubbed off, of course, 
 
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Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 while the very old ones are peeled, so that the bad parts 
 may be cut away. 
 
 PUREE DE POMMES DE TERRE (MASHED POTATOES). This 
 is a very important French dish, — a sort of test case for 
 the cook. If she can’t make a good puree, she ’s no use, 
 however many other qualifications she may have. 
 
 Boil and peel the potatoes, and put them through a sieve 
 or a potato press. Pour about half a teacupful of milk 
 into a pan and make it very hot. Stir in the potato, with 
 salt and pepper to taste, and as much butter as you can 
 spare. A dish of puree for four people should have a piece 
 of butter at least the size of an egg, and as much more as 
 you care to add. Put the pan on a moderate heat, and 
 stir the puree with a wooden spoon, adding more milk 
 as required, till it is thinned down to exactly the consist- 
 ency of whipped cream. Then draw the pan aside, and let 
 it simmer gently, giving it a stir now and then, till it is 
 very hot indeed all through. Pour into a heated dish, 
 smooth the surface with a knife, and serve at once. 
 
 Mistakes folks make with puree. 
 
 1. They get it too thick. It must not be thicker than 
 cream unless it is going to be made up afterwards into 
 something else, — ■ boulettes, for example. 
 
 2. They don’t heat it all through. It takes a long while 
 to get well heated up, — at least fifteen minutes. 
 
 3. They try to heat it too fast, and it scorches; it’s a 
 terror to scorch, and quite uneatable when once the acci- 
 dent has happened. 
 
 4. They make it with cold potatoes instead of with fresh- 
 boiled ones, and then it is sticky and heavy and horribly 
 indigestible. 
 
 The only good way to reheat cold puree is to smooth it 
 into a pie dish or au gratin dish, put little bits of butter 
 
 [ no ] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 here and there on top, and bake it in a brisk oven to a good 
 brown. Sometimes Colette does the fresh puree like this 
 and calls it Gateau de Pommes de Terre. But it isn’t 
 really. This is the real thing : 
 
 GATEAU DE POMMES DE TERRE (POTATO CAKE). Make 
 three cupfuls of puree, rather stiffer than usual. Beat in 
 the yolks of two eggs. Whip the whites to the stiff est 
 possible froth, fold them into the mixture, put all into a 
 buttered dish, which must not be more than three-quarters 
 full, and bake in a brisk oven till the Gateau is well risen 
 and browned. Serve it quickly, in the dish in which it was 
 cooked. 
 
 variations, i. Add three heaped tablespoonfuls of 
 grated cheese, a little extra pepper, and a little mustard. 
 Fill small ramekin cases. Sprinkle the tops with grated 
 cheese and brown well. This makes a nice little supper 
 dish or savory. 
 
 2. Spread a layer of minced and well-seasoned meat or 
 fish under the potato. In this case, one egg will be enough ; 
 two would make the dish too rich. 
 
 3. Add a little sugar and lemon peel, reduce the salt 
 almost to nothing, and you have a nice, simple pudding. 
 
 POMMES DE TERRE DOREES (GILDED POTATOES). Take 
 small potatoes — new ones are best — peel them, and cut 
 them all, as nearly as possible, to the same size. Fry them 
 in an open frying pan, till they are a pretty gold color all 
 over. Put them into a saucepan, with just one teacupful 
 of water, and let them cook gently till they are quite tender. 
 The pan should remain covered and should be shaken from 
 time to time. Drain them out carefully. Potatoes cooked 
 in this way are not at all unlike potatoes roasted under the 
 joint, but rather softer. 
 
 POMMES DE TERRE SAUTfLES (TOSSED POTATOES). Boil 
 
 [ HI ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 the potatoes in their skins till they are quite done but not 
 broken at all. Peel them while they are hot. Melt in an 
 open frying pan enough good dripping or lard to cover the 
 bottom well. Cut the potatoes into slices about quarter 
 of an inch thick and fry them, tossing them now and then 
 till they are a good golden brown. Sprinkle with salt and 
 serve very hot. 
 
 Cold potatoes, sliced and sauteed, are quite eatable; 
 but they never taste like fresh ones, and never will, so don’t 
 waste your hopes on them. 
 
 POMMES DE TERRE SOUEFLEES (PUEFED POTATOES). Peel 
 the raw potatoes and cut them into rounds the thickness 
 of a cracker biscuit. 
 
 Have two pans of deep fat on the fire. Let one be just 
 melted, and the other so very hot that it has stopped bub- 
 bling and has begun to give off a thin blue smoke. 
 
 Put the potatoes first into the pan of just melted fat. 
 As soon as they begin to color, fish them out with a drainer, 
 let them drip a moment, and then toss them into the very 
 hot fat. You will see that, in a few seconds, they puff up 
 enormously, becoming almost like balls in shape. Fish 
 them out, drain them quickly, keeping them very hot all 
 the while, and serve them promptly, powdered with salt. 
 The right way to serve them is to wrap them in a warm 
 table napkin, so that they may not catch cold and fall flat 
 on their way to the dining room. 
 
 Put only a few potatoes at a time in the second pan. 
 If you put too many, they won’t puff. 
 
 POMMES DE TERRE A LA PARISIENNE (PARIS POTATOES). 
 Put into a saucepan a piece of butter or good dripping the 
 size of an egg. Slice a large onion fine and cook it in the 
 fat till it begins to color. Add ten potatoes, peeled and cut 
 in halves lengthwise, one pint water, pepper, salt, and a 
 
 [ H2 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 little bunch of sweet herbs. Let all cook gently, like a 
 stew, till the potatoes are tender. Drain them out, put 
 them in a hot dish, and strain a little of their liquor around 
 and over them. Any liquor that remains is excellent for 
 soup. 
 
 Some people think olive oil nicer for this dish than either 
 butter or dripping. 
 
 POMMES DE TERRE A LA SAUCE BLANCHE. Boil the po- 
 tatoes in their skins, peel them while still very hot, and toss 
 them in a good Sauce Blanche (see page 132). 
 
 POMMES DE TERRE A LA MAITRE D ’HOTEL. Boil the po- 
 tatoes in their skins, peel them while still very hot and 
 slice them. Put them in a hot dish, and add Maitre 
 d’ Ho tel Sauce (see page 133) or Maitre d’Hotel Butter (see 
 page 133). 
 
 POMMES DE TERRE EN GALETTES (LITTLE POTATO CAKES). 
 After boiling the potatoes in their skins, put them through 
 a potato press or sieve. Add a piece of butter the size of 
 an egg for each dozen potatoes, salt, pepper, and as much 
 flour as will make the whole stick into a paste, — the less 
 the better. Work all well with your hands till the paste 
 is firm and smooth. Then clean your fingers, dip them in 
 flour, and use them to form small flat cakes. Fry these 
 cakes in lard or olive oil, first on one side and then on the 
 other, using an open frying pan. Serve them very hot, 
 garnished with parsley. 
 
 BOULETTES DE POMMES DE TERRE (POTATO BALLS). Make 
 a very thick puree from twelve potatoes. Beat into it 
 pepper, salt, and the yolk of an egg. Let it stand in a cool 
 place all night. Next day form wee balls — certainly 
 not larger than walnuts — brush them over with the beaten 
 white of the egg, roll them in fine white crumbs. Drop 
 them into deep fat which is heated to smoking point. They 
 
 [ 11 3 1 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 will puff a good deal and will swim to the surface, turning 
 bright gold in color. Fish them out, drain them, and serve 
 them very hot, piled on a heated napkin. 
 
 Colette wishes she knew exactly what sort of dried beans 
 you get in America. But I tell her it really does n’t matter, 
 for all beans come to pretty much the same in the end, the 
 only difference being that some take a little longer to cook 
 than others. 
 
 All dried vegetables should be washed very well indeed 
 before used ; then soaked in cold water overnight ; and then 
 cooked in the water in which they were soaked. If you 
 throw away the soaking water, you loose a good deal of 
 the flavor and nourishment of the vegetables with it. 
 
 Dried beans should be very well cooked, — so well that 
 you can crush one between your finger and thumb without 
 the least effort. If you are late with them, and you want 
 to hurry them up, stir in a teaspoonful of baking soda. 
 When the effervescence goes down, you will see that the 
 beans are all split and coming out of their skins. In a very 
 few minutes more, they will be done. But this way of going 
 to work is a little extravagant, as it makes the bean water 
 unfit for use in soup afterwards. 
 
 HARICOTS A LA BRETONNE (HARICOTS OF BRITTANY). 
 
 Soak, boil, and drain one pint of beans (measured when dry). 
 Put into an open frying pan a piece of butter — or good 
 beef dripping — the size of an egg. Cut a large onion 
 into fine strips and cook it in the fat till it is pale brown. 
 Add a teaspoonful of flour, and let that brown also. Then 
 add enough of the haricot water to thin out the whole to 
 a little sauce, stir in the haricots, season them well with 
 salt and pepper, and let them warm gently for quarter of 
 an hour. 
 
 There should be very little sauce, — only enough to 
 
 [ 114] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 soften the beans and stick them together. If there is so 
 much that they can swim in it, the dish will not be right. 
 
 HARICOTS DU NORD (NORTHERN HARICOTS). This is the 
 great family dish of the North of France. In houses where 
 there are children, it never fails to appear each time there 
 is a roast. 
 
 Boil the beans till they are within quarter of an hour of 
 being done. Drain them. Keep your joint in a good oven 
 till it is nicely browned. Then take it out for a moment, 
 make a good bed of the cooked haricots in the baking tin, 
 lay the joint on them, and finish it like this. Serve them 
 around the meat. 
 
 The dripping and the meat juices go into the beans and 
 make them perfectly delicious. They crisp a little if there 
 is a good deal of fat and may even brown. They are very 
 nourishing and extremely nice. 
 
 HARICOTS EN PUREE (MASHED HARICOTS). Do them just 
 like potato puree, but use, if possible, more butter and less 
 milk. Colette often puts a small amount of mashed potato 
 in with the beans, and I consider it a great improvement, as 
 it smooths them down so nicely. 
 
 Haricot Beans are also served : 
 
 A la Sauce Blanche 
 
 A la Sauce Tomate (see chapter on Sauces) 
 
 A la Maitre d’Hotel 
 
 A la Mayonnaise Verte 
 
 “Tell me, Colette, how it is that, when I go to stay in 
 England, the greens taste of nothing but water, while your 
 greens have all sorts of delicious little flavors.” 
 
 “Because the English drown their vegetables instead 
 of cooking them. Tiensl I will give you a few standard 
 French ways of doing things.” 
 
 [ns] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 CHOUX A LA FRAN£AISE (FRENCH SPICED CABBAGE) . Wash 
 the cabbage and boil it in the usual way, in plenty of salt 
 and water. Drain it. Chop it well in the colander, or, 
 if you prefer, put it through the food chopper. Measure 
 it and return it to the pan. To each cupful of cabbage add 
 a level saltspoonful of mixed spice, a level dessertspoonful 
 of butter, and a level teaspoonful of flour. Stir over the 
 fire till the mixture has boiled for three minutes. Then 
 taste it and add salt as required, with the tiniest possible 
 pinch of pepper. 
 
 If the butter is salted, you will probably need no more 
 salt. Go lightly on the pepper, as the spice has already 
 a slightly heating taste. 
 
 You will find that the flavor of the cabbage comes out to 
 the full, and that it has nothing of that “greens- water” 
 taste, which so many people dislike. 
 
 “There are those who don’t care for spice,” explains Co- 
 lette, “and, for them, I should use a good pinch of grated 
 nutmeg — about as much as would he on my thumb-nail 
 to each cupful of cabbage.” 
 
 choux A la creme (creamed cabbage) . Choose a cab- 
 bage with a nice, firm heart. Remove the outer leaves, 
 cut the heart into four parts, and boil it in salt and water 
 till it is quite tender. Drain it well, and even squeeze out 
 the water, keeping it very hot all the while. Put it in a 
 warmed dish, and cover it with a good Sauce Blanche (see 
 page 131). 
 
 choux a la flamande (flemish cabbage). Boil and 
 drain the cabbage in the usual way, squeeze it well, and chop 
 it roughly. To each cupful of cabbage allow one large 
 onion and a piece of dripping the size of an egg. Melt the 
 dripping in an open pan, add the sliced onion and the cab- 
 bage, and fry all till you see that the bits of onion are be- 
 
 [ 116] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 ginning to turn brown. Then sprinkle liberally with salt 
 and pepper and serve. 
 
 Slices of cold potato are sometimes mixed into the cab- 
 bage, but this is not real French cooking at all, it is pure 
 British, though whether Scotch or English is more than 
 I can tell you. 
 
 CHOUX ROUGES AUX POMMES (RED CABBAGE WITH APPLES) . 
 
 This is not French either; it is a Dutch recipe, which has 
 wandered over the border into the North of France. 
 
 Wash and prepare a red cabbage and put it into a pan 
 with water enough to cover it. Add five apples, peeled 
 and cored, a piece of butter the size of an egg, pepper, salt, 
 and six cloves. Let the whole thing boil two and a half 
 hours on a moderate heat. 
 
 Take out the cabbage and dish it, draining it first. Re- 
 move the cloves. Stir together one tablespoonful of vine- 
 gar, one tablespoonful of currant jelly, and one teaspoon- 
 ful of corn flour. Stir all this into the sauce and, when it 
 thickens, pour it over the cabbage. 
 
 petits choux (sprouts and spring greens). Prepare 
 them and boil them in the usual way in salt and water. 
 Drain them very well. Leave the sprouts whole, but 
 mash greens through the colander, or chop them very 
 thoroughly with a knife. 
 
 Cut an onion and rub your frying pan with it, around 
 and around, pressing rather hard, so that you squeeze out 
 a good part of the onion juice into the pan. Then add a 
 large tablespoonful of butter or good dripping, heat it, and 
 toss the greens in it till they are well buttered. Sprinkle 
 them with salt before serving, not while they are in the 
 frying pan. 
 
 “Why not?” 
 
 “Because salt makes the fat fly all about, and then your 
 
 [ 117 1 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 stove is spoiled . No one will be able to say that the greens 
 exactly taste of onions ; it ’s such a pity to kill the flavor of 
 the dish by too much seasoning of any kind. But they will 
 know that something or other has been added, which has 
 made the sprouts taste warm and rich, instead of thin and 
 watery.” 
 
 eplnards (spinach). French spinach, dandelion greens, 
 and sorrel are never bitter and harsh as they are in other 
 countries. We always boil lettuce with them — one good 
 handful of lettuce to each four handfuls of the other g^een. 
 The outside leaves of lettuce will do quite well, while the 
 hearts can be kept for salad. The one vegetable softens 
 down the other, and then the addition of a little cream to 
 the puree finishes the business. If you can’t get cream, 
 stir up a dessertspoonful of fresh butter in a teacupful of 
 warm milk, and the result will be about the same. 
 
 choux fleurs (cauliflowers) . Take the white part 
 only, none of the stalk or green. Break it into neat little 
 sprigs. Cook them in salt and water, boding not too fast, 
 till they are tender. Drain them and plunge them into 
 cold water to set them. Then reheat them in Sauce 
 Blanche or Sauce Tomate (see chapter on Sauces). Or 
 dip them in batter and fry them (see chapter on Frying). 
 Or let them get cold and dress them with a mayonnaise. 
 Or cover them with Sauce Blanche, sprinkle them thickly 
 with grated cheese, brown the whole in a sharp oven, and 
 call it CHOUX FLEURS AU GRATIN. 
 
 petits pois (green peas). Shell the peas and wash 
 them. Drain them. Toss them in as much flour as they 
 will pick up. Now melt a good tablespoonful of butter in 
 a stewpan and toss the peas in it till they are nicely greased 
 all over. Then add one teaspoonful of sifted sugar, one 
 teaspoonful of salt, one good head of lettuce, washed out, 
 
 [118] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 not pulled to pieces, and enough water to come halfway to 
 the peas as they lie in the pan. Cover the pan and simmer 
 gently till the peas are tender, — one to three hours accord- 
 ing to their age. 
 
 Some folks put mint into peas, but Frenchwomen never 
 think of such a thing. Peas ought to be rather a soft and 
 sweet kind of vegetable, and the mint is too burning for 
 them. The lettuce gives them the fresh taste that they 
 need, without making them bite the tongue. The sugar 
 helps to get the right touch of sweetness, and also to keep 
 them a good color. When you have sugar, you won’t 
 put any soda, naturally ; it ’s not needed for the color, and 
 it would spoil the taste. 
 
 Don’t strain the peas before you serve them, you know ; 
 dish them in the sauce that they have made for themselves. 
 It is a sort of green cream, sweet and smooth, and very good 
 indeed. 
 
 carrots at their best. Lots of people don’t like car- 
 rots, because they taste “faded.” They are vegetables 
 that can’t stand alone ; they need something to help them 
 out. Colette prepares them in one of two ways. 
 
 1. She adds a spoonful of vinegar and a spoonful of sugar 
 to the water in which she boils them. You would expect 
 the two to contradict each other and give a negative effect. 
 But, as a matter of fact, the vinegar just serves to “tang” 
 the carrots out of their faded taste, while the sugar softens 
 down the vinegar and prevents it from being too notice- 
 able. 
 
 2. She boils them plainly in salt and water and drains 
 them well. Then she melts a lump of butter or dripping 
 in a frying pan, slices in an onion, and lets it fry to a nice 
 brown. The slices of onion are cut so thickly that they 
 don’t go to pieces in the fat, and it is easy to take them out 
 
 [ 119] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 with a spoon before putting in the carrots and tossing them. 
 It would not do to leave the pieces of onion — that would 
 be too much — it is only just a hint of the flavor that is 
 wanted to help out the carrots. 
 
 CAROTTES A LA CREME (CREAMED CARROTS). Peel the 
 carrots and cut them into small dice. Melt in a stewpan a 
 piece of butter the size of an egg (for one and a half pounds of 
 carrots) and toss them in it till they are well buttered. Stir 
 in salt, pepper, a heaped tablespoonful of flour, and a level 
 teaspoonful of sugar. Add enough water just to cover the 
 carrots and stew gently till they are tender (one to four 
 hours, according to the time of year). Draw the pan off 
 the fire and stir in enough cream to make the sauce opaque, 
 — the more the better. Turn all into a hot dish and sprin- 
 kle with chopped parsley. 
 
 CAROTTES A LA FLAMANDE (FLEMISH CARROTS). Peel 
 one pound of carrots and quarter of a pound of onions. 
 Put them through the food chopper together. Toss them 
 in a tablespoonful of flour and a good pinch of salt and 
 pepper. Put them into a stewpan with enough brown 
 gravy or good stock just to cover them and stew gently 
 till they are perfectly tender. Turn all into a hot dish 
 and garnish with wedges of fried bread. 
 
 haricots verts (french beans). We never cut these 
 beans into little bits, as they do in England. We simply 
 pull out the threads and, if they are very large, break them 
 in half- Then they must be thrown into fast-boiling salt 
 and water, cooked at the gallop till they are tender, 
 drained, and dressed. 
 
 The most common dressing — and I think the nicest — 
 consists of merely tossing the beans in a little hot butter 
 or good olive oil, and sprinkling them well with salt and 
 pepper before sending them to table. 
 
 [ 120 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 Another very favorite way of serving them is to take 
 some of the dripping from the roast, fry in it a small quan- 
 tity of chopped onion, and then add the beans, and fry them 
 till they are lightly browned. They must be served very 
 hot indeed. 
 
 They are also tossed, sometimes, in a Sauce Blanche, but 
 this is rather rare. When Colette does it I know that her 
 beans are not first class, and that they need the sauce to 
 help them down. 
 
 They are very often allowed to get cold and then served 
 in a plain oil and vinegar salad dressing, either alone or 
 with slices of cold potato. 
 
 tomates en hors-d ’oeuvre. Cut very ripe tomatoes 
 into thin, neat slices and arrange them on round plates, 
 letting the slices overlap each other, like the petals of a 
 daisy. Sprinkle them well with pepper and salt and add 
 to the salt the smallest possible pinch of sugar. Make a 
 plain dressing, two parts of oil to one part of vinegar, pour 
 it over them, cover them with a plate, and let them stand 
 two hours. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve. 
 
 tomates farcies (stueeed tomatoes). Take six large 
 tomatoes. Cut a little hole the size of a sixpence at the 
 top of each and scoop out about a dessertspoonful of the pulp. 
 
 Heat two tablespoonfuls of olive oil in a small pan. Add 
 half a bead of garlic, finely chopped, salt, pepper, a little 
 powdered mushroom if you have any, and sufficient crumbs 
 of white bread to make a thick stuffing. 
 
 Fill the tomatoes, letting a little of the stuffing stand 
 up on top of each. Pour one tablespoonful of olive oil 
 into a fireproof dish, stand up the tomatoes in it, and bake 
 them in a brisk oven, basting them often. When they are 
 quite tender, sprinkle each with a wee pinch of chopped 
 parsley, before sending them to table. 
 
 [ i2i ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 TOMATES AU GRATIN (TOMATOES WITH CHEESE). Cut a 
 bead of garlic and rub a fireproof dish with it. Then butter 
 the dish liberally and sprinkle it with a good bed of crumbs 
 and grated cheese, mixed together. Arrange on it very 
 ripe tomatoes, which are all about the same size. Put on 
 each a pile of grated cheese and crown the cheese with a 
 lump of butter. Sprinkle all with salt and red pepper. 
 Cook in an oven hot enough to brown the cheese well. 
 
 champignons (mushrooms). If you are doubtful 
 whether your mushrooms are true ones or fungi, here is 
 an infallible test. 
 
 Cut a large onion in two and put it to boil in a pan of 
 water with three or four of the doubtful mushrooms. If, 
 at the end of fifteen minutes, the onion remains its natural 
 color, you may be sure that the mushrooms are good : but 
 if it turns even a very little black or gray, you should not 
 venture to eat them. 
 
 CROUTE AUX CHAMPIGNONS (MUSHROOMS ON HORSEBACK). 
 Peel one pound of mushrooms, throwing them, as you peel 
 them, into vinegar and water. Have ready a pan of boil- 
 ing, salted water, put in the mushrooms, and boil for five 
 minutes. Drain them well. 
 
 Make half a pint of nice Sauce Blanche, beat into it the 
 yolk of an egg, and stir on the fire till the egg thickens. (But 
 it must not boil.) After adding the mushrooms take the pan 
 off the fire, let it cool three minutes, and add the juice of a 
 lemon. Let the pan stand at the side of the fire, where it 
 will keep warm without coming anywhere near to boiling. 
 
 Take a large slice of bread, nearly an inch thick. Fry 
 it on both sides in butter. Put it on a hot dish and pour 
 the mushrooms over it. 
 
 It is convenient for service if you cut the fried bread into 
 several pieces. 
 
 [122] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 CHAMPIGNONS SAUTES AUX FINES HERBES (MUSHROOMS 
 
 with sweet herbs). Blanch the mushrooms as above. 
 Drain them well. Put into a pan two tablespoonfuls of 
 the best olive oil; half a bead of garlic, grated; pepper, 
 salt, and chopped parsley. Toss the mushrooms till they 
 are well buttered and serve very hot. 
 
 CHAMPIGNONS EN COQUILLES (MUSHROOM SHELLS). Pre- 
 pare them exactly as for Croftte aux Champignons. Fill 
 scallop shells, sprinkle them with crumbs, and pour a little 
 melted butter over. Brown them in a brisk oven. 
 
 CHAMPIGNONS A LA RUSSE (RUSSIAN MUSHROOMS). Peel 
 one pound of mushrooms, cut them in halves, and let them 
 cook gently in a small pan, with a piece of butter the size 
 of an egg, salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. When 
 they are so cooked that they yield to the pressure of your 
 finger, add two large tablespoonfuls of thick white sauce, 
 and one of thick sour cream. Let the whole boil up. Turn 
 it into a hot dish, sprinkle with parsley, and serve. 
 
 If you use cream that is not turned, you will get ordinary 
 mushrooms, stewed with a good white sauce. It is the sourness 
 of the cream that gives the characteristic touch to the dish. 
 
 artichauts (artichokes) . Colette wants you to know 
 that, if you can manage to prick your fingers with the 
 tips of the leaves of an artichoke, you must n't buy that 
 one, — it is hard and old. The whole of it should be quite 
 green and tender. Wash them well, put them, heavy end 
 downwards, into a big pan of boiling salt and water, and 
 let them boil rather fast till, on pulling one of the leaves, 
 you find that it comes away quite easily. Then put them 
 the other way up on a colander, in a nice warm place, and 
 let them drain at least quarter of an hour. Serve then with 
 a good Sauce Blanche, which contains plenty of butter and 
 not too much salt. 
 
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Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 asperges (asparagus). Scrape them. Tie them into 
 small bunches, — not more than twelve heads in a bunch. 
 Throw them into a big pan of boiling salt and water and 
 boil steadily, but not too hard, for fifteen to twenty-five 
 minutes. Drain them. Throw just a splash of cold water 
 on them, to set them. Untie the bunches. When serving 
 asperges , give plenty of very good white sauce in a separate 
 tureen. 
 
 asperges A l’huile (asparagus salad). Let them 
 cool till they are tepid, after boiling them as above. Then 
 hand them with a simple salad dressing of oil and vinegar, 
 containing lots of pepper and a little salt. 
 
 It would be a grave fault to offer them quite cold. When 
 they are perfectly cold, they must either go into the soup, 
 or be served with a mayonnaise dressing, or be chopped 
 small and mixed into scrambled eggs : this last way, I 
 think, is quite an ideal manner of disposing of “left-over” 
 asperges. 
 
 salad seasonings. When you make salad in America, 
 I wonder if you use all the following seasonings? Each 
 one of them is delicious. 
 
 1. Rub a dozen mint leaves in your fingers, to bruise 
 them, and then soak them in four tablespoonfuls of vine- 
 gar. At the end of an hour, drain off the vinegar and use 
 it for the dressing of an ordinary lettuce salad, with olive 
 oil, salt, pepper, and the tiniest possible touch of sugar. 
 You never tasted a fresher, cleaner salad in your life. It 
 is just the ideal for thirsty weather. 
 
 2. Take green, freshly formed seeds of nasturtiums, 
 chop them finely, and use them for sprinkling the surface 
 of a pale-colored salad, on which they will show up well. 
 They have a hot, clean, mustard taste, which is generally 
 much liked. 
 
 [ 124 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Vegetables 
 
 3. Do you put a little sugar into your mayonnaise, 
 always? It is so important, and there are some people 
 who forget it. The right amounts are a mustard spoonful 
 each of sugar and mustard to one egg. 
 
 4. Do you know what a good plan it is to pick a bunch 
 of mixed herbs — thyme, mint, sage, laurel, and parsley — 
 tie them up in a bit of muslin with two cloves, and simmer 
 them gently in one pint of vinegar for an hour ? Keep the 
 lid on the pan. At the end of the hour, strain the vinegar 
 and bottle it for use. When aromatized in this way, it is 
 splendid for salads of any kind. 
 
 When you are cooking vegetables, remember : 
 
 Potatoes, onions, carrots, and almost all other root vege- 
 tables cook very much better and more quickly in soft 
 water than in hard. 
 
 If you want potatoes to cook quickly, cut them in halves 
 lengthwise. Cutting them across is no good, but length- 
 wise cutting reduces the cooking time by about one third. 
 
 If you want to cook carrots — or other root vegetables 
 — in a shorter time than usual, add a good lump of dripping 
 to their water. 
 
 Put salt in the water with potatoes, even when you are 
 boiling them in their skins. A little of it gets through the 
 skin and helps the flavor of the vegetable. 
 
 When you are scraping salsify, Jerusalem artichokes, or 
 any other delicate white things of the same kind, throw 
 them into vinegar and water, to keep them from going 
 black. 
 
 If you want to keep greens from boiling over, slip in a 
 little lump of dripping at the edge of the bubbling pan. 
 The fat will spread over the surface and smooth the bubbles 
 right down. 
 
 Don’t be too generous with baking soda in your greens ; 
 
 [ 125] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 it makes them cook all to bits, and a very tiny lump will 
 keep their color good, just as well as a big knob. 
 
 Keep the stalks of cabbage and cauliflower and add them 
 to the soup pot. They give ever such a nice flavor. 
 
 Keep all your vegetable waters, if they have no soda in 
 them. All, with the exception, perhaps, of cabbage water, 
 are good for flavoring the soup. 
 
 [ 126] 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 COLETTE MAKES SAUCES 
 
 “XT OW is it that French sauces are always so good?” 
 I I people often ask. 
 
 I think it is partly due to the fact that we have 
 such a great variety of them, to suit so many different dishes. 
 I shall not be able to do more than suggest just a few in 
 this chapter, — a mere nothing in comparison to the 
 multitude that exist. Also, I think, much of the success 
 is due to the care that is taken in the cooking. A French 
 sauce is not just a little trimming, to be tossed together 
 at the last moment ; it is a matter of thought and planning 
 and long attention. But most of all, I think, is due to the 
 almost universal use of roux, and it is to the fact that their 
 sauces are often thickened with roux, instead of having 
 flour boiled in them, that French cooks owe the delicate 
 creaminess of their dressings. An ordinary sauce, with 
 the flour just boiled in it, does n’t always get cooked suffi- 
 ciently ; unless a good deal of time and patience are spent 
 on it, the chances are that the flour will taste raw, harsh, 
 and poor. The roux are cooked beforehand, so that danger 
 is avoided. I will tell you just how Colette manages them. 
 
 A brown roux for thickening soups, gravies, etc., 
 and for coloring them at the same time, is a most 
 valuable thing. Colette hates browning in bottles, and 
 only uses it now and then, always under protest. 
 
 [ 127] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 If you make roux in this way, it will keep for months. 
 Colette does a big jarful at a time and stores it in the 
 cellar. 
 
 Take one pound of butter or the best beef dripping, 
 and melt it in an enameled stewpan. When it is quite 
 melted, strain it, to get out any sediment that may be at 
 the bottom. Now stir in one pound two ounces of the 
 best flour, which should first have been dried and sifted. 
 Put the pan on the fire and keep stirring all the while, with 
 a wooden spoon, till the mixture turns a good brown. Now 
 draw the pan away and keep on stirring till the mixture 
 ceases to fizzle, which it will do for several minutes after 
 the pan has left the fire. Have ready an onion, peeled and 
 cut in halves. Put this into the pan as soon as it leaves 
 the fire, to give a little flavor. When no more sound is 
 to be heard, fish out the onion, pour the roux into a stone 
 or earthenware jar, and leave it to get cold. When set, it 
 is just soft enough to be taken out with a spoon. 
 
 Now, suppose that you have a soup or a gravy or any- 
 thing else of the same kind that wants thickening. All 
 you have to do is to bring your liquid to the boil and then 
 stir in one, two, or more spoonfuls of brown roux. The 
 liquid thickens immediately, is perfectly smooth and free 
 from lumps, and needs no more cooking at all. 
 
 The brown roux may also be used for fish and vegetable 
 sauces. A little good potato water, with brown roux stirred 
 into it, and pepper and salt added to taste, makes a very 
 simple but quite presentable sauce for everyday vegetables. 
 
 A white roux. For cream sauces, sweet sauces, etc., a 
 white roux is necessary. It should, if possible, be made 
 with the best fresh butter, as you know dripping won’t go 
 well in sweet sauces. It does not keep quite as long 
 as the brown roux, because it is less thoroughly cooked. 
 
 [ 128] 
 
Colette Makes Sauces 
 
 Therefore, in our little household, Colette only makes up 
 a half quantity at a time. 
 
 She melts half a pound of butter in a pan and stirs in 
 nine ounces of flour. She does it exactly like the brown 
 roux, except that she does not allow it to change color. 
 At the first hint of darkening, the pan must come off the 
 fire at once. No onion, naturally ! 
 
 When you want to make a cream sauce, or a sweet sauce, 
 all that you have to do is to bring the milk, or fruit juice, 
 or syrup up to the boil and then stir in a little white roux. 
 Here are a few examples of good sauces thickened with roux. 
 
 sauce Robert (poor man’s gravy). This is the ideal 
 thing for warming up cold meat. It looks and tastes ex- 
 actly like fresh gravy a trifle thickened. Use four small 
 onions, four good sprigs of parsley, one bay leaf, pepper 
 and salt, half a teaspoonful made mustard, one tablespoon- 
 ful vinegar. Put the parsley, bay leaf, and onion to boil 
 in just enough water to cover them. Let them cook for 
 three quarters of an hour. Then strain off the liquid and 
 bring it up to the boil again. Add the seasoning. If you 
 like, thicken the sauce with a teaspoonful of brown roux. 
 
 sauce tomate (tomato sauce). This is made with 
 six tomatoes, two large shallots, one bay leaf, four good 
 sprigs of parsley, half a cupful cold water, pepper, salt, 
 two tablespoonfuls white roux, one cupful milk. 
 
 Put the five first-named ingredients together in a small 
 pan and let them boil rather fast for half an hour. Pass 
 them through a sieve. Reheat the liquid. Smooth the 
 roux in a little cold milk. Bring the rest of the milk to the 
 boil. Add the smoothed roux and the seasoning to the 
 hot tomato mixture ; stir with a wooden spoon till it thick- 
 ens ; then thin out the sauce as much as you like with the 
 hot milk. 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 Eat it with croquettes, with fish, with vegetables that 
 need a taste lent to them, with rice or macaroni or any other 
 cereal of that sort, and, last but not least, heat up slices 
 of cold meat in it and they will be better than a fresh stew. 
 
 Sauce Piquante 
 
 1 pint meat boilings or fish water 
 
 2 chopped shallots 
 
 3 tablespoonfuls vinegar 
 
 I tablespoonful chopped pickle 
 
 i tablespoonful chopped parsley 
 
 Put the shallot with the vinegar into a pan and boil them 
 till all the vinegar is gone. Its flavor will remain in the 
 shallot, but the actual liquid might spoil the consistency 
 of the sauce, so it must be boiled away. Add the meat 
 boilings, pickle, and parsley, with a good allowance of pep- 
 per and a little salt. Boil gently for five minutes. Then 
 thicken with brown roux. 
 
 This is a very useful sauce for all kinds of made-up meat 
 dishes. 
 
 sauce italienne (italian sauce) is exactly the same, 
 with the addition of a couple of tablespoonfuls of mixed 
 herbs, and a dessertspoonful of currant jelly, which should 
 be stirred in at the last moment. 
 
 sauce A l ’oignon (onion sauce) . Chop four onions fine 
 and boil them in one pint of water till they are perfectly 
 tender. Thicken with white roux. Add salt, pepper, and 
 the smallest possible pinch each of mace and brown sugar. 
 
 Another way of making this sauce is to use only the water 
 in which the onions have been boiled whole. 
 
 Almost any vegetable which gives a nice liquor, — celery, 
 salsify, mushrooms, Jerusalem artichokes, etc. — can be 
 served with a sauce made of the liquor thickened with a 
 little brown roux. 
 
 [ 130] 
 
Colette Makes Sauces 
 
 Any meat that has been boiled or stewed can have a 
 simple sauce made for it from its own liquor, thickened 
 with brown roux, well seasoned with salt, pepper, and a 
 tablespoonful of any bottled essence that you have at hand. 
 
 That will give you a working notion of the way to handle 
 roux, won’t it ? Now we must get on to boiled flour sauces, 
 which have to be used when there is no roux at hand. 
 The foundation of all of them is 
 sauce blanche. Use two cupfuls of milk — or milk 
 and cream, — two level tablespoonfuls of butter or three 
 of margarine, three of flour. 
 
 Melt the butter in a clean aluminum or enamel pan — 
 never in an iron pan, for it will change the color of the sauce 
 and give a bad taste also. Stir in the flour with a wooden 
 spoon. In another pan have ready the milk, heated to 
 boiling point. When the flour and fat mixture has cooked 
 till it leaves the sides of the pan — at the end of about two 
 minutes probably — begin to add the boiling milk, a few 
 drops at a time, stirring fast and hard. 
 
 This is the critical moment. If you want to avoid lumps 
 you must: i. Add the milk slowly. 2. Stir constantly 
 till it is all added. 3. Stir always in the same direction. 
 4. Keep the pan off the fire while adding the first half 
 of the milk, then put it back again while adding the second 
 half. 
 
 Keep on stirring till the sauce boils. Then draw the pan 
 to the side of the fire, cover it to prevent a skin from form- 
 ing, and let the sauce just boil — but only just — for a 
 full fifteen minutes. That ’s the foundation. Now we 
 come to the different flavorings and colorings, which make 
 the difference between one cream sauce and another. 
 
 sauce aux capres (caper sauce). Stir one tablespoon- 
 ful chopped capers into one pint Sauce Blanche. Let it 
 
 [ 131 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 simmer beside the fire quarter of an hour. Taste it. If 
 it is flat and dull, let it cool a little, and then add a few drops 
 of vinegar, with about quarter of a tablespoonful of made 
 mustard smoothed in them, to pick up the taste. 
 
 sauce verte (parsley sauce) . Add two tablespoonfuls 
 chopped parsley to a Sauce Blanche, after the pan has been 
 taken off the fire. 
 
 sauce au beurre d’anchois (anchovy sauce). Add 
 one to two tablespoonfuls of pounded anchovies or anchovy 
 essence to one pint of Sauce Blanche. No salt, but lots 
 of pepper. 
 
 sauce blanche, piquante. Make one cupful thick 
 white sauce, and let it get quite cold. Stir into it one table- 
 spoonful made mustard and two tablespoonfuls vinegar, 
 with salt and pepper to taste. Use as a mayonnaise. Add 
 the mustard a little at a time, tasting often, so that the 
 flavor may not be too strong. 
 
 MAYONNAISE AU BEURRE (BUTTER MAYONNAISE). Make 
 one cupful of good white sauce. While it is still warm, 
 beat into it one large tablespoonful of butter and the juice 
 of a large lemon. Add plenty of pepper and salt. Serve 
 cold. This is finer in taste than the former sauce. It 
 goes excellently with salmon and with boiled fish of all 
 kinds. 
 
 SAUCE FROIDE A LA CREME (COLD CREAM SAUCE) . Make a 
 cupful of good white sauce, not very thick. After boiling it 
 for ten minutes take it off the fire and beat in the yolk of an 
 egg, with pepper and salt to taste. Let it stand ten min- 
 utes. Then add two tablespoonfuls of white vinegar. Let 
 it stand again till cold. Then beat up the white of the egg 
 to the stiffest possible froth and fold it in gently. This is a 
 splendid sauce for cold fish or salad of any kind. 
 
 Then there is all the large tribe of cold, uncooked sauces, 
 
 [ 1 3 2 1 
 
Colette Makes Sauces 
 
 to which real Mayonnaise belong^. In England, they 
 often call them Salad Dressings, though the name is not, 
 strictly speaking, correct at all. They are used on every 
 possible kind of cold thing, as well as, now and then, on 
 hot vegetables and eggs. 
 
 SAUCE maitre d ’hotel. Melt two tablespoonfuls butter. 
 Stir into it half a teaspoonful chopped parsley, one tea- 
 spoonful white vinegar; salt and pepper to taste. Toss 
 vegetables in it, particularly potatoes, or pour it over eggs 
 or fish. 
 
 sauce printaniere (spring sauce). Wash and chop 
 a small bouquet of parsley, celery tops, and cress. Boil 
 two eggs hard and put their yolks through a fine hair sieve 
 with the herbs. Put the pressed mixture into a small bowl 
 and use a wooden spoon to mix into it slowly four table- 
 spoonfuls olive oil, two tablespoonfuls white vinegar, two 
 teaspoonfuls made mustard, pepper, and salt. When all 
 is thoroughly mixed, serve in a sauce boat, and pass with 
 fish of almost any kind. This is easier to make than may- 
 onnaise and quite as nice. 
 
 One of the handiest things in the world, and yet a thing 
 that is seldom found outside a French kitchen, is 
 
 maitre d ’hotel butter. Put a tablespoonful — or 
 more, according to the amount needed — of butter into a 
 saucer ; use a small wooden spoon to work into it pepper, 
 salt, a little very finely chopped parsley, and just one drop 
 of citric acid to each tablespoonful of butter. When it is 
 well mixed, work it into a little cake, and lay this cake on 
 the boiled potatoes, peas, or other vegetables ; on a chop 
 or steak and then you won’t want any gravy; or roll it 
 into pea-sized balls, and dot a dish of cold fish or salad with 
 them. 
 
 It should be allowed to melt, if it is served on anything 
 
 [ 1 33 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 hot. It takes the place of any other sauce or gravy, and 
 is always good and always handy. 
 
 real mayonnaise is a thing which may be made in as 
 many different ways as coffee : and, of course, each cook 
 swears by her own method and is prepared to defend it 
 to the death. Colette’s way is very good indeed, but, in 
 giving it, I do not mean to court your displeasure by hold- 
 ing it up as being better than your own, you know. 
 
 Put the yolk only of an egg into a small basin. If the 
 egg can be very fresh — even hot from the nest — so much 
 the better. Take a small wooden spoon and stir with it, 
 going always in the same direction, and dropping olive 
 oil on to the egg, . drop by drop, till you have added three 
 teaspoonfuls. If the mixture becomes very thin, stop 
 dropping and stir only. Add a grain of pepper, two grains 
 of salt, one grain of sugar, and half a teaspoonful of vinegar, 
 quarter of a teaspoonful made mustard. 
 
 Add three more teaspoonfuls of oil, stirring in the same 
 way all the time. Then the vinegar and seasoning again. 
 
 Continue in this way up to twelve teaspoonfuls of oil, 
 if the egg will carry so much. The mixture must never 
 be thinner than butter on a hot day. Whenever it thins 
 down, that is a sign that you must do a lot more stirring 
 before adding anything more. 
 
 I have been told by another cook, for whom I have a 
 great respect, that it is not good to add the seasonings from 
 time to time, — that you should stir into the yolk of the 
 egg, right at the start, one fourth teaspoonful mustard, 
 one fourth teaspoonful fine sugar, one half teaspoonful 
 salt, a good pinch of red pepper. And add nothing but 
 the oil and vinegar as you go along. 
 
 MAYONNAISE VERTE (GREEN MAYONNAISE) is made by 
 adding three tablespoonfuls of mixed and chopped parsley, 
 
 [ i34] 
 
Colette Makes Sauces 
 
 mint, cress, and the green of baby onions, after the sauce 
 is made. 
 
 remoulade is a very highly-savored sauce, much in 
 vogue for dishes of cold meat. After the plain mayonnaise 
 is made, add to it 
 
 i tablespoonful of chopped capers 
 
 1 tablespoonful chopped pickled onions 
 
 2 chopped anchovies 
 
 i tablespoonful made mustard, if you have no mustard in it already 
 
 Use no sugar in the mayonnaise ; there are enough forceful 
 flavors without it. 
 
 sauce tartare may be used either for salads, meat, or 
 fish. Cold chicken and tongue, a la Sauce Tartare, is 
 simply delicious. 
 
 Make an ordinary mayonnaise, without mustard or 
 sugar. Add to it 
 
 1 teaspoonful dry mustard 
 
 2 tablespoonfuls grated onions 
 
 i tablespoonful chopped parsley 
 
 A large pinch of cayenne pepper 
 
 This chapter could not be considered at all complete 
 if I were to leave it without giving you a word about egg- 
 thickened sauces, which are so very much used for rather 
 ‘ < good ,, dishes. A sauce thickened with egg is softer and 
 smoother and more rich than one made with either flour 
 or roux. 
 
 It is very generally used for the gravies of delicate meats, 
 — stewed chicken, boiled veal, etc. 
 
 Measure into a pan the amount of liquor or gravy that 
 you need, heat it to the boil, and skim it carefully. Take 
 the pan off the fire and let it cool for two minutes. This 
 is very important. A boiling sauce would turn the eggs. 
 
 [ i3S] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 The yolk of one egg will thicken half a pint of sauce, but, 
 of course, it would be richer and better if you used two. 
 Pour a little of the hot liquor on the yolks and stir them with 
 a wooden spoon till they are well mixed. Add this mixture 
 to the liquor which remains in the pan, stirring all the 
 while. Set the pan back on a gentle heat, and continue 
 to stir till the sauce thickens. But you must not let it 
 boil, or it will turn. 
 
 Never use the white of the egg. It would make lumps 
 and spoil the sauce. 
 
 Sauce Poulette 
 
 \ pint meat boilings 
 i tablespoonful white roux 
 Salt and red pepper 
 Yolk of i egg 
 
 Either a little chopped parsley, or a couple of tablespoon- 
 fuls of mushroom, cooked in the meat boilings, and roughly 
 chopped. 
 
 Mix as directed above, and add the parsley or mush- 
 rooms at the last moment. 
 
 sauce JAUNE. Make it just like a cream sauce, using 
 the water in which meat or fish has been boiled, in place 
 of milk. When it has cooked for five minutes after thick- 
 ening, take the pan off the fire and beat in the yolk of an 
 egg. Put the pan back again and stir briskly with a wooden 
 spoon while you count fifty. The fire must be a good, 
 clear one. Now let the sauce cool for five minutes ; then 
 stir in two or three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. This is 
 excellent with boiled meat or fish of any kind. 
 
 If you want to make good sauces always 
 
 Add whatever you may have to add very gradually, 
 stirring all the while. No sauce will stand the addition of 
 a stream of liquid ; it must go in drop by drop. 
 
 [136] 
 
Colette Makes Sauces 
 
 Always stir in the same direction ; which direction does 
 not matter, as long as it is the same one. 
 
 If your sauce goes lumpy, put it on a slightly stronger 
 heat than you have used so far and stir it very quickly, 
 trying to beat out the lumps. If they do not disappear 
 almost at once, rub it through a sieve. 
 
 If a sauce curdles, it may sometimes be put right if, at 
 the very first sign of the trouble, you throw in a few drops 
 of cold water and stir hard, taking the pan off the fire. 
 But this remedy by no means always succeeds. You 
 could not call it anything better than a last hope for a 
 desperate case. 
 
 Keep tasting sauce. Add the seasoning in very small 
 amounts, with a tasting between each. But, though you 
 are so careful not to put in too much of anything, you must 
 remember, all the same, that the meat or vegetable, or 
 whatever it may be, with which the sauce is eaten, will take 
 off from the force of the flavor, so that a sauce which is 
 ideally good when tasted from a spoon, will be poor and 
 fade when eaten on meat. So exaggeration in the saucepan 
 means the happy medium on the dish. 
 
 Remember, won’t you — one is so apt to forget ! — 
 that sauces made with meat boilings and fish boilings sel- 
 dom need the addition of any salt, as it is already in the 
 liquor. If you forget this, and your sauce is too salty, 
 you can nearly always get it right by adding a wee pinch 
 of rough brown sugar; the coarse kind, which is almost 
 like treacle, is best. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 COLETTE MAKES CANDIED FRUITS AND SWEETS 
 
 I N France, Christmas is nothing like the great social 
 festival that it is in England. As a rule, we keep 
 it rather quietly, reserving all our present-giving and 
 merrymaking for a later date, New Year, when we burst 
 out into sociability of every possible and imaginable kind, 
 and keep it up for a whole week. 
 
 During that first week of January, you are bound to call 
 upon all your relations who are within anything like rea- 
 sonable distance ; write to those who are too far off ; and 
 give or send presents to every one of them. You also have 
 to call on and give things to all the local lights, such as 
 the cure and the mayor and the doctor ; and, worst of all, 
 you have to respond graciously to all the calls and presents 
 and good wishes that are showered upon your defenseless 
 self. A tiring business ! But it has its repaying moments, 
 as when the gardener’s small, fat grandson, darting out of 
 the stable cottages to catch me as I passed, stammered 
 with breathless earnestness, “Madame! I have the honor 
 to wish you a good year, followed by many others ! And 
 good fortune — and good health — and good friends — 
 and — and a good death, followed by many others ! ” 
 
 No doubt about it, it ’s a tiring business. And it was 
 a very costly one, too, till I discovered that the cheap- 
 est way to provide presents for all my “sisters and my 
 
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Colette Makes Candied Fruits and Sweets 
 
 cousins and my aunts” and their patriotically large 
 families, was to turn Colette loose on sweet-making, and 
 then pack up the results in pretty boxes. She always 
 made sweets very well, and, as each year raises her reputa- 
 tion in the family higher and higher, she becomes more 
 ambitious and does better and better. 
 
 It is an understood thing that, at least once in the year, 
 I shall bring her a box of the best candied fruits and bon- 
 bons that Paris can produce, and that she shall be allowed 
 to experiment till she can make the same things herself. 
 
 The experiments don’t always succeed, of course. There 
 are some bonbons which need special molds and colorings, 
 known only to confectioners, and others which can only 
 be made by machine. But she has had a very great num- 
 ber of successes. And I should like, if you will allow me, 
 to pick out for you a dozen or more of those which I con- 
 sider best of all. 
 
 There are just a few technical terms, which are used in 
 all French recipes for sweet-making, jam-making, etc., 
 and, if you will have patience with me while I explain them, 
 it will save us a lot of trouble in the future. Would you 
 mind putting a mark in this page, please ? I shall use the 
 same terms in other chapters, and I shall not explain them 
 again. They all refer to the preparation of the sugar 
 syrups, in which the fruits are cooked. 
 
 making sugar syrup. Use the best white cane sugar, 
 taking lumps rather than powder. To each pound of sugar 
 allow half a gill of water. Put all into a clean aluminum 
 or copper pan and boil till it reaches the degree indicated 
 in the recipe. Here are the different degrees : 
 sugar “A liss£” (petit lisse et grand liss£). Keep 
 a skimmer always in the boiling sugar. Lift up the skim- 
 mer, dab your first finger on the sticky edge — where the 
 
 [ i39 1 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 syrup is so cool that you can touch it quickly without hurt- 
 ing yourself. Press your finger hard on your thumb and 
 separate them immediately and gently. 
 
 If an almost imperceptible thread forms between them, 
 breaking instantly, the syrup is cooked to petit lisse. If 
 the thread is stronger and longer lasting, the syrup is cooked 
 to grand lisse. 
 
 SUGAR A PERLfi — (PETIT PE RLE, GRAND PERl£). Let 
 your sugar cook a little longer and try it in the same way 
 when you see that it is boiling up into round bubbles like 
 beads. If the thread between the finger and thumb stands 
 firm instead of breaking immediately, the syrup is a perle , 
 — d petit perle] when it will only bear a slight separation ; 
 d grand perle when the hand can be opened quite wide. 
 
 sugar A souffle and A la plume. Withdraw your 
 skimmer, which has been boiling in the pan all the time, 
 let it drip a little, and then hold it up and blow through 
 the holes. If you blow little bubbles, which break at once, 
 the syrup is a souffle. If the bubbles stand, lengthening 
 out under your blowing into long or feathery shapes, just 
 as soap bubbles do, the syrup is a plume. 
 
 sirop A casse. Dip your finger and thumb into cold 
 water, then into the boiling sugar; then into cold water 
 again, pressing them hard together. If they stick firm 
 enough to make a breaking sound when they are separated, 
 the syrup is cooked a casse. 
 
 sugar au caramel. Bite the little piece of sugar off 
 your fingers. If it sticks to your teeth, it is not yet done ; 
 but if it cracks and snaps, it is cooked au caramel, and has 
 reached the farthest stage possible in syrup cooking. Take 
 the pan off the fire at once, or it will burn and spoil. 
 
 There ! That ’s a long explanation, but it ’s well worth 
 while, as you will see when we pass on to the recipes. At 
 
 [ 140] 
 
Colette Makes Candied Fruits and Sweets 
 
 New Year, oranges are about the best and most easily found 
 of fruits, so let us start with them. 
 
 oranges glacees (sugared oranges). There are 
 many different kinds of Oranges Glacees. This is the 
 simplest, cheapest, and most quickly done. 
 
 Use ripe oranges, taking the kind that have few, if any, 
 pips. Peel them very carefully, removing every scrap of 
 the white skin, and divide them neatly into sections. Now 
 cut little pieces of very fine wire, four or five inches long. 
 Slip a wire along the small curve of each section, and twist 
 the ends of the wire so that a ring is formed, by which the 
 fruit can easily be held. Cook a pan of syrup to “casse ” 
 and set it on a very moderate heat, so that it may stay liquid 
 without cooking too much and turning into toffee. Dip 
 in the pieces of orange one at a time ; take them out gently, 
 so that you do not shake off more of the syrup than you can 
 help. Thread the wire rings along a stick or bar, and let 
 the fruit hang till it is dry. Then pull out the wires and 
 arrange the sections in paper frills. 
 
 Sections of lemons and limes may be done in the same 
 way. Some people are extremely fond of them, though 
 others find them too sharp. It is a good plan, I think, to 
 coat lemons and limes twice with sugar. You must make 
 a fresh syrup the second time, as the first will go into 
 toffee if you try to reheat it. 
 
 By the way, if there is ever some syrup left over from 
 sweet-making, you need not think that it is wasted. Just 
 stew some fruit in the pan ; the stewed fruit will be well 
 sweetened, and the pan cleaned at the same time ! 
 
 ORANGES AU CARAMEL (CARAMELED ORANGES). These 
 are a little more tiresome to do, because the sugar, being 
 cooked to the farthest possible point, is rather inclined to 
 turn to toffee while one is still at work. The best way 
 
 [ 141 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 to avoid this is to boil the syrup in a small pan and stand 
 it inside a big basin of boiling water, so that it may stay 
 liquid without getting any more cooked. 
 
 Color the sugar with a drop of carmine. Cook it to 
 “caramel.” Have ready your bits of orange, prepared as 
 in the former recipe, and dip and dry them just as before. 
 If you want to make a variation in their appearance, dip 
 them into a bowl of rather coarse crystallized sugar when 
 they have been a few seconds withdrawn from the syrup. 
 The little white spangles on the pink background, with 
 the yellow fruit glinting through, make a charming effect. 
 
 Bananas (not too ripe) peeled, cut into rounds about 
 half an inch thick, and carameled in this way are delicious. 
 Don’t bother to make wires for them — just spear each 
 up on the end of a fine skewer, dip it, and then tickle it 
 off with another skewer on to a piece of oiled paper, where 
 it must be turned so that it may dry nicely at both sides. 
 
 “They know how to make Marrons Glaces in America, 
 don’t they?” asked Colette. 
 
 “They make them,” admitted I, “but so folks do in 
 London, you know. And, if the New York marrons are 
 as nasty as the London ones, we shall be doing a good turn 
 by teaching them a different way of setting to work.” 
 marrons glacis au caramel. Prick and roast one 
 pound of chestnuts, taking great care that they do not 
 color. Peel them neatly, trying to remove the inner skins 
 as well as the outer. It is difficult to do this without break- 
 ing the nuts, but it can be managed with care. Let them 
 cool. Slip a fine wire into each and make up a ring, just 
 as you did for the pieces of orange. Cook a syrup to casse 
 in a flattish pan. Run the wire rings on little sticks, and 
 lay the sticks from side to side of the pan, so that the nuts 
 may hang in the syrup. Let them remain an hour if, by 
 
 [ 142 ] 
 
Colette Makes Candied Fruits and Sweets 
 
 the use of a lower dish of boiling water, you can so long 
 manage to keep the syrup from setting. Then hang them 
 up to dry, just like the oranges. 
 
 Those are the real French Marrons Glaces. The things 
 that they call Marrons Glaces in England are really Marrons 
 Confits and are so very troublesome to do and take so long 
 that I should advise any one who can’t live without them 
 to overdraw her bank account in buying some ready-made ! 
 
 violettes pralinees are not much good to eat — too 
 small — but a stock of them is exceedingly useful to any 
 one who goes in for sweet-making or cake-making. And 
 the Parma violets (so plentiful in Europe and I suppose 
 in America, during winter) are much better for them than 
 the little outdoor kind. 
 
 Cut off the stalks. Weigh the flower heads. Cook an 
 equal weight of sugar to souffle, throw in the flower heads, 
 cover the pan, and let it boil one minute. Then pour all 
 into a tin vessel, and let it stand overnight. (The tin 
 helps to keep the natural color in the flowers.) 
 
 Next day, reheat all nearly to boiling point. Drain out 
 the flowers, lay them on a hair sieve till they won’t drip 
 any more. 
 
 Color some icing sugar with a little violet coloring worked 
 well into it. Dry it in the oven, sieve it, and roll the flower 
 heads well in it. Lay them on sheets of paper and put 
 them in the rack over the dying fire all night. 
 
 roses pralinees are done in just the same way, except 
 that fine untinted castor sugar is generally used instead 
 of icing sugar, and that the petals must stand overnight 
 in a china basin instead of a tin one. 
 
 I think that the real bonbons are nicer^ than sugared 
 fruits, as well as being much easier to make. 
 
 TRUFFETTES AU CHOCOLAT (CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES) are 
 
 [ 143 1 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 those very soft chocolates, which melt in your mouth all 
 too soon. 
 
 £ pound best fresh butter 
 $ pound icing sugar 
 
 \ pound of the best unsweetened chocolate, grated fine 
 2 ounces best sweetened chocolate, grated roughly 
 
 Take the first three ingredients, mix them well, and work 
 them with a wooden spoon till the paste is perfectly smooth. 
 Make balls about the size of walnuts, roll them in the 
 roughly grated chocolate, and put them to dry on plates. 
 
 That is just the foundation recipe, which may be varied 
 in many different ways. 
 
 1. Add a few drops of coffee essence to the chocolate. 
 Many people find this a very great improvement. 
 
 2. Put a glace cherry, or a blanched and grilled almond 
 into the center of each ball. 
 
 3. Chop blanched almonds roughly, mix them with the 
 coarse grated chocolate, and roll the balls in them. 
 
 4. Coat the balls with desiccated cocoanut, instead of 
 with chocolate. 
 
 In any case, remember that, not being cooked at all, 
 they will only keep so long as the butter keeps, — about a 
 week in winter. But they are best when eaten the day 
 they are made. I know one most famous little shop which 
 sells nothing but Truffettesau Chocolat, and will never offer 
 yesterday’s wares. They make each morning only as 
 many as they are sure of selling, and, when all are gone, 
 they shut down, — often as early as three in the afternoon. 
 
 bonbons au chocolat (chocolate bonbons) are very 
 much the same in taste and have the added advantage of 
 keeping well. 
 
 Grate quarter of a pound of chocolate finely and put it 
 into a small pan with two tablespoonfuls of milk. Let it 
 
 [ 144] 
 
Colette Makes Candied Fruits and Sweets 
 
 cook gently for quarter of an hour. Cut six ounces of 
 fresh butter into small pieces and add to the chocolate. 
 While the butter is melting, beat up in a basin the yolks 
 of two eggs, with half a pound of icing sugar. Stir the 
 hot chocolate very well into the eggs and let the whole 
 thing get cold. When it is firm enough to handle, roll it 
 into little bolster shapes, and coat them with roughly grated 
 chocolate. 
 
 bonbons aux amandes (almond bonbons) are those 
 rough, lumpy goodies which you find in every box of mixed 
 chocolates. 
 
 j pound grated chocolate 
 j pound almonds, blanched and roughly chopped 
 3 heaped tablespoonfuls of icing sugar 
 2 tablespoonfuls of coffee essence 
 | tablespoonful of fresh butter 
 
 Work all together with a wooden spoon, adding either a 
 little more butter or a little more sugar, as required, till 
 you get a paste which is very firm indeed, but not so dry 
 that it breaks. Break it into rough little lumps and roll 
 each in a few more chopped almonds. Let them stand on 
 plates till they are dry. 
 
 These sweets gain greatly in appearance by being packed 
 in little frilled papers. 
 
 CARAMELS AU CHOCOLAT (CHOCOLATE CARAMELS) are 
 
 ever so much nicer when made at home than when bought. 
 Those that come from the shops always seem to me to be 
 too hard : but those that Colette makes are dreams of 
 sticky sweetness. 
 
 £ pound grated chocolate 
 i gill thick cream 
 1 1 ounces of butter 
 
 3 tablespoonfuls of honey 
 
 4 heaped tablespoonfuls of sifted sugar 
 
 [ 145 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 Melt the butter, honey, and sugar together in a small 
 pan. Add the cream and stir all on a sharp heat while 
 you count one hundred. Then add the chocolate and keep 
 on stirring till the mixture begins to boil away from the 
 sides of the pan. Try a little bit in cold water. It ought 
 to set so firm that there is a definite something which you 
 can press between your fingers, though it is not nearly so 
 hard as toffee. Pour it out on oiled marble; a marble 
 pastry slab is the best thing. If you have nothing like 
 that, a dish lightly rubbed with olive oil will do. Try to 
 arrange the caramel so that it hardens into a sheet about 
 half an inch thick. When it is nearly cold, cut it with a 
 sharp knife which has been rubbed over with a little oil. 
 Let the caramels go quite cold before you wrap each in a 
 wee twist of waxed paper. 
 
 It is rather hard to cut them without getting the edges 
 ragged, but if you use a heavy knife, not too sharp, oiling 
 it lightly and sawing with it, rather than making strokes, 
 you will manage nicely, I feel sure. 
 
 CARAMELS AU CAFE (COFFEE CARAMELS) have a Very 
 delicious flavor, but I do not like the texture of them quite 
 as much as that of the chocolate ones. Unless you are 
 very careful in the boiling, they are inclined to turn into 
 coffee toffee, which, though an excellent thing in its own 
 way, is not caramel. 
 
 i pound castor sugar 
 6 ounces of fresh butter 
 i gill fresh cream 
 i gill very strong black coffee 
 
 Boil the sugar and butter together for ten minutes, stir- 
 ring carefully. Add the coffee and cream and go on stir- 
 ring for ten minutes more. Then start trying the prepa- 
 
Colette Makes Candied Fruits and Sweets 
 
 ration in cold water. Finish it off just like the chocolate 
 caramels. 
 
 Dattes Fources (Stuffed Dates) 
 
 | pound ground almonds 
 | pound icing sugar 
 
 2 ounces of pistachio nuts, chopped fairly fine 
 A little “ sirop a casse” (see page 140) 
 
 Pound the almonds and sugar together till they are very 
 well mixed. Add the pistachio nuts and enough syrup to 
 bind the whole to a paste. Split the dates down one side, 
 stone them, stuff them with little balls of the paste, and 
 close them carefully. Have ready a pan of syrup cooked 
 d casse. Stick a knitting needle into each date, dip it 
 in the syrup, and then use another knitting needle to tickle 
 it off on to a lightly oiled dish. Leave them till dry. The 
 coating of sugar will be very thick and quite transparent, so 
 that it will not at all rob the dates of their characteristic 
 appearance. 
 
 French plums may be stuffed in the same way, — I mean 
 those bluish plums, which are sold in flat wooden boxes. 
 Stuffing them is a profitable sort of job for the stuffer, be- 
 cause their stones have already been replaced by a plug of 
 fruit, and you have to take this out before you can put 
 the nut mixture in. And, once out, obviously it has no 
 other use in the world but to be eaten at once ! 
 
 klongas is very much indeed like Chocolate Caramels 
 but rather harder. It is very often given to children, as 
 it is both nourishing and wholesome. 
 
 1 quart good cream 
 1 pound castor sugar 
 f pound grated chocolate 
 
 Cook on a gentle heat till the chocolate and sugar have 
 melted. Then move the pan to a very hot place and stir 
 
 [ i47 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 hard all the while with a wooden spoon, till a drop of the 
 mixture sets at once when it is put into cold water. It 
 should fall heavily to the bottom of the water and set firm, 
 like toffee. Finish it off just like caramels. 
 
 massepains are dull alone, I think. But Colette often 
 makes them very wee, and, when they are cold, coats them 
 with Truffette au Chocolat mixture. Then they become 
 perfectly delicious. You can very well make them up 
 in those big blocks — about one and a half inches each 
 way — which are wrapped in silver paper, and called Bou- 
 chees, though I should be very sorry, myself, to be obliged 
 to take a whole one at a mouthful ! 
 
 I pound ground sw.eet almonds 
 x ounce ground bitter almonds 
 \ pound icing sugar 
 The whites of two eggs 
 
 A few drops of flavoring if you like, though most people find that 
 the almonds alone have flavor enough 
 
 Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth. Add the 
 almonds first, working them well in with your fingers, and 
 then the sugar, — or as much of it as the paste will take 
 without getting too dry. Knead it very well indeed, just 
 like bread. Make it into any shapes you like, put them 
 on oiled paper, and bake them quarter of an hour in a very 
 gentle oven. 
 
 Let them cool. Then either eat them plain, or coat 
 them as I told you above. ‘ 
 
 nougat de montelimar is very good indeed, as every 
 one knows, and worth the trouble that it takes to make. 
 But don’t try it unless you can buy rice paper with which 
 to cover it while it cools, for it goes so horribly sticky and 
 messy if you try to make it without any. 
 
 You will want a large, square shaped tin of some kind, 
 
 [ 148] 
 
Colette Makes Candied Fruits and Sweets 
 
 which can be lined at bottom and sides with two thick- 
 nesses of rice paper. Prepare this beforehand. 
 
 Now take two pounds of the best honey and boil it au 
 petit casse, stirring it most carefully all the while with a 
 wooden spoon. Beat the whites of four eggs to the stillest 
 possible froth and stir them in. Put the pan on a more 
 gentle heat and keep stirring constantly. If you are not 
 very careful indeed, it may suddenly puff up and all go 
 over the sides. Go on cooking till the mixture is again 
 at casse. Now stir in two pounds of almonds, which have 
 been blanched, dried, and cut into slips. Pour out the 
 nougat into your prepared tin, letting it lie, if possible, 
 about one and a half to two inches deep. Smooth out 
 another sheet of rice paper flat on top. Leave it till it 
 is quite cool. 
 
 Now comes the awful moment! Your block will come 
 out of the tin quite easily, and look innocent and good 
 enough. But, when you try to cut it into bars or squares, 
 you ’ll find that you have caught a Tartar. It sticks to 
 everything! Especially to you! And the better it is, 
 the more it sticks ; it ’s a sign of good nougat to be sticky. 
 So you can’t even comfort yourself by blaming it. But 
 by the help of courage, a very sharp knife dipped in boiling 
 water and then dried quickly, and lots of rice paper in which 
 to fold the detached pieces, you may arrive at a happy 
 result, — perhaps. 
 
 If you want to make good bonbons always 
 
 1 . Get all your odds and ends ready beforehand — al- 
 monds blanched, chocolate grated, and so on — so that you 
 may have them all at hand, and not be distracted from 
 your bonbons at the critical moment of cooking. 
 
 2. Keep your bonbon pan strictly for that alone. All 
 these sugary things are just waiting for an excuse to burn, 
 
 [ 149 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 and you will certainly give it to them if you use a pan in 
 which other things have been cooked. 
 
 3. Dry blanched almonds, and even brown them in the 
 oven. If you use them fresh and soft, they turn musty 
 almost at once. 
 
 4. Buy the very best sugar and the very best chocolate 
 that can be got for money. Let the chocolate be perfectly 
 plain, unsweetened cooking chocolate, but of a very high 
 quality. Never get it from a confectioner, but, if you 
 cannot deal with the factory direct, at least go to a very 
 big and reliable grocery store. If you use cocoa instead 
 of chocolate, increase the amount of sugar in the recipe by 
 one fifth, and add a pinch of powdered cinnamon, to soften 
 the harsh flavor of the cocoa. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 COLETTE MAKES CAKES AND BISCUITS 
 
 G OOD Americans, when they die, go to Paris,” runs 
 the saying. 
 
 I don’t know about that. But, whatever they 
 may do when they are dead, they certainly go to Paris in 
 astonishing numbers while they are alive. And it is for 
 them, and also for the English visitors, that a multitude of 
 smart tea shops have been opened in all the best streets. 
 They are called “Five-o’clocks”, though, of course, nobody 
 ever dreams of going there at five. When you lunch be- 
 tween eleven and twelve, you begin to want your tea some- 
 where around 3.30 p.m. 
 
 Last time I went on a shopping trip to Paris, I took 
 Colette with me, because she needed new spectacles. 
 Thinking to give her a treat, I took her to tea at a Five- 
 o’clock, one day. But it was not a success. Colette 
 “passed remarks” in a loud voice on every bun she ate, 
 and, finally, almost wept when she discovered that I was 
 going to pay ten francs for our entertainment. 
 
 “Ten francs!” wailed she, blocking up the road to the 
 pay desk with her stout and agitated old figure. “But it 
 is a crime that — a real crime ! Ten francs for a cup of 
 coffee that one drinks in a single swallow, so small is it, and 
 half a dozen little nothings that have the impertinence to 
 call themselves cakes. Cakes, indeed ! As if it was only 
 
 [151] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 in Paris that such cakes could make themselves ! Give me 
 a couple of eggs and a little sugar — • !” 
 
 “ I ’ll give you anything you like if you ’ll only hush and 
 come away,” whispered I, desperately tugging at her arm. 
 So out we bundled, followed by a wave of admiring giggles 
 and whispers. I would have shaken Colette if I could have 
 found a private corner to do it in, and if she had not been 
 so heavy ! But, all the same, there was truth in what she 
 said ; these little fancy cakes, which one gets in confection- 
 ers’ shops, are a plain steal. If you make them at home 
 you will get about twenty for the price that one would cost 
 you in the shop. And they really are not difficult to do, 
 when once you know how. 
 
 Let me tell you the “how” of just a few. 
 
 In the first place, I wonder if your oven has a top heat ? 
 A coal-range oven, which is worth anything at all, heats 
 itself naturally at the top as well as at the bottom ; but gas 
 and electric ovens, which have only bottom heats, are not 
 very good for cake baking. Your little things get burned 
 underneath, while they stay pale and dull on the upper 
 side. What you want is a row of gas or electric jets along 
 the oven roof, from which the heat will beat down on to 
 your cakes, as well as one from which it will beat up; 
 and, in France at least, you can generally get an oven like 
 that to your gas stove if you make fuss enough about it. 
 
 But, if your stove is fixed already, and you can do 
 nothing, you must make the best of a bad job by heating 
 it very carefully before you start, and then fixing the pressure 
 so that the temperature stays steady. It is sheer foolish- 
 ness, and waste of time and materials, to stoke up the fire 
 or turn up the gas after the cake is in, thinking that, so 
 long as the heat gets to work one time or another, it does 
 not much matter when. A good heat is nearly always wanted 
 
 I 152] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 at the start to make the cake rise. (There are a few excep- 
 tions, but that ’s the general rule.) And, if it does not get 
 its chance to rise in the first few minutes, the outside will 
 be toughened into a swell-proof crust, and the unfortunate 
 cake will be ruined beyond praying for. 
 
 Always test your oven before using it. (I once bought 
 Colette an oven thermometer in a wooden frame, which, 
 rather to my surprise, she received with warm thanks. 
 She hung it outside the kitchen window and tapped it 
 industriously, and, after a few days of useless effort, was 
 rather stiff with me on the subject of the very inferior 
 weatherglass I had given her !) This is how she tests her 
 oven. And a very gpod way, too. 
 
 When the oven is all heated, put into the hottest place 
 a sheet of ordinary thin writing paper. Shut the door. 
 Count one hundred. Then look at the result. 
 
 If the paper is blackened and smelling, the oven is fierce — 
 right for pastry, bread, and a few cakes. 
 
 If the paper is deeply browned, the oven is brisk , — 
 right for the majority of small buns and some biscuits. 
 
 If the paper is pale brown, the oven is moderate, — right 
 for sponge cakes and the majority of biscuits. 
 
 If the paper is a little crisped but not colored at all, the 
 oven is slow, — right for meringues, and other things that 
 just have to be dried gradually. 
 
 There ’s a lot more to say, but I think I ’ll put it in the 
 list at the end of the chapter. Just turn that up and study 
 it, won’t you, before you try any of the recipes ? 
 
 biscuits A la cuiller. Break the yolks of five eggs 
 into one basin and the whites into another. Add to the 
 yolks three quarters of a pound of sifted sugar, and beat 
 them with a wooden spoon steadily for half an hour, till 
 you get a cream that is white and thick. Stir in very 
 
 [ i53 1 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 gently one quarter of a pound of flour and a teaspoon of 
 orange-flower water. Whip up the whites to a froth so 
 stiff that it will support a whole egg, and fold it into the 
 mixture as gently as ever you can. Have ready a baking 
 tin covered with buttered paper. Take a teaspoon of the 
 mixture. Lay the point of the spoon on the paper and 
 then gently draw it backward, letting the mixture trickle 
 out as you go, till you have a bar about three inches long. 
 Cover the paper with these bars. Sift a little sugar over them 
 and bake them in a very moderate oven till they are set 
 and a very delicate brown. 
 
 Are they like sponge biscuits ? Yes. They’re the same 
 with a big difference. 
 
 In all the dessert recipes for which I have recommended 
 you to use sponge cakes, Biscuits a la Cuiller will do as 
 well, or better. Colette makes up a lot at a time, and stores 
 them in a tin, so that she may always have them at hand 
 for desserts. 
 
 almond meringues. Beat up the white of an egg, and 
 while you are beating it, sift into it three ounces of powdered 
 sugar. Keep on beating till you have a froth. Then 
 put the basin containing it into a pan of boiling water, 
 and let the water boil around the basin while you keep on 
 beating for fifteen minutes. Take the basin out of the 
 pan, add twenty almonds, blanched and chopped, and a 
 teaspoon of coffee essence. Sprinkle a baking tin lightly 
 with flour, and pile the mixture on it in little high lumps, 
 leaving good spaces between them, as they will spread in 
 baking. Cook in a gentle oven till set, and cool on a cake 
 wire. These meringues are very nice indeed without cream 
 filling which may be added if desired. 
 
 chocolate meringues. Beat the whites of two eggs 
 to a very stiff froth and stir in gently one bar of grated 
 
 [ i54] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 chocolate and six tablespoons of sugar. Cover a baking 
 sheet with paper and sugar it lightly. Drop the mixture 
 on it, a tablespoon at a time, leaving a good space between 
 them, and taking care to get them as nearly alike in shape 
 as possible. Sprinkle them lightly with sugar and put them 
 into a gentle oven till they are set. Lift them up carefully, 
 scoop out the soft underneath part of each, turn them on 
 their backs on a clean sheet of paper, and put them back 
 again in the oven to dry. Fill them with whipped cream 
 when they are cold, and clap them together in pairs. 
 Delicious ! Much nicer than plain sugar meringues ! 
 
 almond chains. Melt three quarters of a pound of 
 butter in a good sized basin. Stir into it three quarters of 
 a pound of sifted sugar. Then beat in three eggs, one at a 
 time, giving a good brisk beating to each, and, finally, work 
 in enough flour to make a paste of the consistency of 
 putty. Blanch and chop finely one half pound of almonds 
 and work them well into the paste. Take a little piece 
 at a time — covering the lump with a damp cloth to keep 
 it from hardening — roll your piece out as fine as possible, 
 cut it into tiny narrow strips with a sharp knife, and roll 
 these strips into little rings, pinching the ends. Fasten 
 one ring through another till you have a chain. Bake on a 
 buttered tin in an oven quickly enough to color the rings 
 lightly. Take the chain out of the oven with the greatest 
 possible care. 
 
 You can make nice little biscuits by cutting the same 
 paste into ordinary round or finger shapes. The chains 
 are rather bothersome to make, but they are very pretty, 
 and, for a children’s party, or anything of that sort, they 
 are a novelty perfectly certain to score a success, when used 
 for table decoration. 
 
 chocolate croquettes. Take three quarters of a 
 
 [ i55] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 pound of powdered sugar, three bars of grated chocolate 
 and two whites of eggs. Put them all together into a basin 
 and stir with a small wooden spoon for one half hour, 
 stirring always in the same direction round and round. 
 You need not beat hard ; just keep on stirring. Rub a 
 little oil on to a sheet of paper, spread it on the baking 
 sheet, and drop the mixture on it in small drops or bars, 
 remembering that they must have room to spread a good 
 deal. Bake five to seven minutes in a gentle oven. Cool 
 on a cake wire. They will become quite crisp. 
 
 cardinal’s cake. Bring a breakfast cup of milk to the 
 boil, sweeten it well, and flavor it with vanilla. Beat to- 
 gether three eggs and six tablespoons of flour till they are 
 well mixed, stir in the milk just as it is boiling up into 
 foam. Pour all into a well-buttered mold and put into 
 a quick oven for fifteen minutes. Loosen the cake with a 
 knife, turn it out on a hot plate and serve it at once. 
 
 What is it like? Well, it ’s a cross between a souffle 
 and a very light batter cake. It must be eaten hot, be- 
 cause it toughens when it gets cold. But it won’t have 
 any chance to stay and cool — too good ! 
 
 chestnut CAKE. Take thirty chestnuts, boil them till 
 tender and slip them out of their skins. Mix into them 
 one quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, one quarter of a 
 pound of melted butter, the yolks of four eggs, and a few 
 drops of vanilla. Beat the whites of the eggs to a very 
 stiff froth and stir it in gently. Butter a plain tin of the 
 size for a three-pound cake and sprinkle it with as much 
 flour as will stick to the buttered sides. Cook the cake 
 for three quarters of an hour in a steady but not too quick 
 oven. Try it by thrusting a straw into the thickest part. 
 If the straw comes out clean, the cake is done. 
 
 Let it get cold. Sprinkle with sugar or pile it with 
 
 [ 156] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 little mounds of whipped cream. Use a very sharp knife 
 to cut it, as it is so light. 
 
 Quatre-quarts 
 
 4 eggs 
 
 Their weight in flour, sifted sugar, and butter 
 The juice of i lemon 
 2 ounces blanched almonds 
 
 Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Put the yolks 
 into a basin with the sugar, the flour, the melted butter, 
 and the lemon juice. Stir with a wooden spoon till the 
 cream becomes white and light (about fifteen minutes). 
 Add a grain of salt to the whites and whip them till a fork 
 stuck in them will stand upright. Fold the whites into the 
 yellow mixture as gently as ever you can. 
 
 Have ready a plain cake tin, buttered with fresh butter, 
 and sprinkled over with a little flour and sifted sugar. 
 Fill it not more than half full. Sprinkle the top of the cake 
 with the almonds, blanched and chopped. Start it in a 
 moderate oven and move it to a cooler place if you see that 
 it is getting too much colored. It ought to take about an 
 hour to cook. 
 
 Try it by thrusting a straw into the center. If the straw 
 comes out clean, the cake is done. 
 
 It is a sort of sponge cake, and Colette thinks more highly 
 of it than of the real French sponge cake, which is called 
 Biscuit de Savoie, which is horribly lengthy and difficult 
 to make, and not particularly good when it is done. Quatre- 
 quarts is just as light and wholesome as Biscuit de Savoie, 
 and it keeps much better, because there is a little butter in it. 
 
 choux a la creme (cream puffs). In England, folks 
 put coffee or chocolate icing on them and call them eclairs. 
 But it is all the same thing. 
 
 Make the paste for which the recipe is given under the 
 
 [ iS7 1 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 name of Pets de Nonne (page 106). Cover the oven sheet 
 with buttered paper and drop on it little lumps of paste, 
 each the size of a walnut. Leave a couple of inches between 
 each. Brush them over with the beaten yolk of an egg 
 and let them stand twenty minutes before putting them 
 into the oven. They want a brisk heat to make them rise. 
 You must not open the oven door, or down they will go 
 with a flop, as the cold air rushes in and presses on them. 
 Stand near and sniff hard. As soon as you can smell 
 baking, open the door, powder them thickly with fine sugar, 
 and put them back again, so that they may go glace. After 
 two minutes, take them out and cool them on a sieve. 
 Just before serving, slit each at the side and fill it with 
 whipped cream. 
 
 Sometimes they are sprinkled with chopped almonds in- 
 stead of powdered sugar ; then a little strawberry jam is 
 whipped up with the cream. 
 
 If you want to make 6clairs, put the paste through a 
 forcing bag or tube of stiff paper, so that you can arrange 
 it in bars about the size of your middle finger. When they 
 are quite cold, ice them with a simple chocolate or coffee 
 icing. 
 
 chocolate icing. Melt three ounces icing sugar, and 
 two ounces grated chocolate in three tablespoonfuls of 
 boiling water. Warm the icing till it is perfectly liquid, 
 but don’t let it boil. Hold each eclair in turn over the pan 
 and trickle the mixture on it with a spoon. Don’t touch 
 them till they are quite cold and dry. 
 
 Coffee Icing 
 4 ounces sugar 
 
 2 tablespoonfuls coffee essence 
 2 tablespoonfuls boiling water 
 
 Make as above. 
 
 [158] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 saint honore is a sort of traditional French cake, just 
 like the traditional English plum cake. 
 
 Make the same paste as for Choux k la Creme, and form 
 rather more than three quarters of it into a large round, the 
 thickness of your little finger. Cut it with the edge of a 
 saucepan lid, to make it neat. 
 
 Divide the rest of the paste into very wee balls, not 
 larger than marbles, and put them on buttered paper. 
 Bake all in a hot oven. The little balls will only take a few 
 minutes and should be glaced as thickly as possible ; the 
 big cake will take nearly one half hour and should be left 
 plain. 
 
 When both are cold, make a wall of little balls all around 
 the edge of the big cake, alternating them with different 
 kinds of glace fruits here and there, and sticking both fruit 
 and balls into place by dabs of jam or syrup. Just before 
 serving, pile the middle of the cake with whipped cream 
 and decorate it with more fruits. Or, if you prefer, you 
 may flavor the cream with coffee or chocolate and use no 
 fruits at all. 
 
 babas are those tall, light buns, soaked in rum, which are 
 as common in Paris as penny buns in London. If you don’t 
 care to use rum, a sugar syrup, with a few drops of any 
 strong fruit essence in it, will do well. 
 
 \ pound flour 
 | ounce dry yeast 
 
 Mix the yeast into three tablespoonfuls water. When 
 it is well mixed, add enough flour to make a firm paste and 
 work this paste with your fingers to a smooth ball. Put 
 the ball into a large basin ; cover it with the rest of the 
 flour ; spread a clean towel over all and set the basin in a 
 warm, but not hot, place for five hours. 
 
 “I put it on a chair at the side of the fire,” Colette says. 
 
 [ i59 1 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 “Not right in front, you know, as if it were clothes to air : 
 but just at the side, where I might sit comfortably myself.” 
 
 At the end of five hours, take out the yeast ball — which 
 will be much swollen — and mix up the flour which remains 
 with four tablespoonfuls of milk, one teaspoonful salt, and 
 one quarter of a pound of good butter. Work all with 
 your hands into a smooth paste ; add an egg and work it 
 well in ; when it is no longer visible, add another and do the 
 same with that. 
 
 Now add the yeast ball, one quarter pound sugar, a 
 wine glassful of rum or fruit syrup, and one quarter 
 pound seeded raisins, and give all a final working. It is 
 important that the whole should be well and evenly mixed, 
 but don’t work ft more than is necessary ; the less of hand 
 that it gets at this stage, the lighter it will be. 
 
 Grease some of those little, tall cake tins, which are 
 used for Castle Puddings. (If you have n’t any of that 
 shape, never mind : the Babas will taste just as good if 
 they come out square or round, though, of course, they 
 won’t look right.) Fill the tins rather less than half full 
 and set them in a warm place till the dough rises up so 
 much that it fills them. Then bake in a quick oven till 
 nicely browned and try them with a straw, just as you do 
 all buns. Tap them out of their tins on to a cake wire, 
 and, as soon as they are cool, soak them in rum or fruit 
 syrup. Let them drip all they can before you serve 
 them. 
 
 I have spent a lot of time and trouble telling you about 
 Babas, but I think it is worth while, because, in very much 
 the same way are made two more famous French cakes, — 
 Brioche and Savarin. They are not very generally made 
 in French town households, where the baker in every street 
 is sure to sell them ; but no big country house would dream 
 
 [ 160] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 of accepting a cook who was not well up in all three, and 
 prepared to make them on baking days. 
 
 brioche. Make exactly like the Baba till you come to 
 the adding of the raisins, rum, etc. Don’t add these , — 
 neither raisins, nor rum, nor anything else. Just leave the 
 paste quite plain, work the yeast ball into it lightly. Throw 
 a clean towel over the empty basin, lay the lump of dough 
 lightly on the towel. If you want a simple Brioche, you 
 can color it with a pinch of saffron, and use four table- 
 spoonfuls of milk to replace the eggs. 
 
 “And keep pulling the cloth, till you make the dough 
 hang as if it were in a hammock,” says Colette. “The air 
 must be able to get to it underneath, as well as on top.” 
 
 Throw another cloth over it and leave it in a cool place 
 all night. 
 
 When the oven is heated as much as possible for baking, 
 flatten out your Brioche paste on a floured board. Take 
 the four corners, and bring them in to the middle. Turn 
 the lump over, so that the corners are underneath, flatten 
 it out again. Repeat the whole process four times. 
 
 Take a little bit of your paste to make the head of the 
 brioche. Put the rest into a buttered, fluted tin, — one 
 of those cake tins which makes a much bigger circle at the 
 top than at the bottom. It should not be more than half 
 full. Stick on the head with a little drop of water and put 
 the Brioche into the hottest possible oven. Cover it with a 
 sheet of buttered paper if it goes too brown. 
 
 It will take about one hour to cook, — one half an hour in 
 the sharp heat, and the second half in a more moderate place. 
 
 You can tell if it is done by turning it out of the tin, and 
 tapping the bottom crust sharply. If it rings clear, it is 
 done right through ; if it rings dull, there is still uncooked 
 matter towards the middle. 
 
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Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 Brioches may be made tiny and are easier to bake like 
 this than when they are big. Put tiny ones in rough dabs 
 on a sheet of buttered paper and let them rise as they will. 
 
 savarin can’t be made without a special tin in which to 
 bake it. It must be a large round, with a hole in the middle ; 
 no other shape will do. But maybe you have a tin like 
 that ; it is not an uncommon shape. 
 
 Make the yeast ball, as for the Baba, and let it rise in the 
 flour. Then take it out and put it into a basin with 
 i gill milk 
 
 j pound sifted sugar 
 I pound melted butter 
 
 i egg, beaten just enough to mix the yolk and white 
 As much salt as will lie on the nail of your little finger 
 
 Beat all together with your hand till the mixture feels light 
 and frothy. A spoon cannot be used. Add the rest of the 
 flour gradually. 
 
 Butter the tin and coat it as thickly as you can with 
 almonds, blanched and chopped. Fill the tin half full only 
 with the paste and stand it in a warm place for four hours. 
 The rack above the stove, in between meals, when the fire 
 is low, is about the best place for it. 
 
 The paste ought to rise right up, so that it laps the 
 edges of the tin. When it has done this, sprinkle it with 
 almonds, put it into a very hot oven, and bake it just like 
 the Brioche. Cool it on a cake wire and soak it with rum 
 or fruit syrup, just like the Baba. 
 
 “That ’s enough of those big, important, national cakes,” 
 say I. “Now give them some nice, little, simple things, 
 Colette, something that they can just toss together in a few 
 minutes when friends come to tea.” 
 
 Biscdmes 
 
 \ pound honey 5 ounces almonds, blanched and chopped 
 
 2 ounces sugar A small half teaspoonful powdered cinnamon 
 
 [ 162 ] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 Mix all together with your hand and work in enough flour 
 to make a paste so firm that it leaves the fingers clean. 
 Keep on kneading till it is soft and pliable. Roll it out to 
 paper thickness, stamp it with a tumbler or round biscuit 
 cutter. Bake the Biscomes on a buttered tin in a brisk 
 oven till they are well browned. Put them on a cake wire 
 just for a moment, so that they may crisp, but serve them 
 while they are still warm. They are the crackliest, crispiest 
 honey biscuits that any one could wish to eat. 
 
 Colmoriennes 
 
 \ pound sugar, melted in the juice of an orange 
 | pound flour 
 
 5 ounces butter, melted till it is most creamy, but not oily 
 
 Stir all these well together and add as much more flour 
 as is necessary to make a paste which is just firm enough to 
 handle, but not at all dry or breakable. Roll out this paste 
 very thin and cut it with a wine glass or biscuit cutter. 
 Bake it like the Biscfimes. 
 
 These little biscuits keep well and are very useful for 
 handing with stewed fruit, rich creams, or anything of that 
 kind. 
 
 copeaux (shavings) do look exactly like wood shavings, 
 when they are nicely made. The right way to serve them 
 is to pile them up in a basket lined with lace paper. 
 
 5 ounces sugar 
 
 6 ounces flour 
 
 2 eggs 
 
 A few drops of vanilla flavoring 
 
 Beat the eggs till they are just well mixed. Add the 
 sugar and beat for three minutes more. Now put in the 
 vanilla, and then the flour, little by little, beating all the 
 while. You ought to get a soft paste, which is just firm 
 enough to roll out. Roll it to tissue-paper thinness and 
 
 [ 163 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 cut it into strips which are one half inch wide and as long 
 as your oven sheet. Butter the oven sheet, lay the strips 
 on it without letting them touch each other, and cook in a 
 very hot oven. 
 
 They will color almost at once. Take them up one by 
 one, leaving the rest in a place where they will keep warm 
 and therefore soft. Have ready a smooth stick — a hoop 
 stick does well — with just a very little butter rubbed on 
 it to make it slippy. Twist each band lightly round the 
 stick and let it remain a moment, so that it may set and 
 harden into curls, like those of a shaving. Slip it off as 
 soon as it is set and leave it on a cake wire to crisp. 
 
 FRI AND S AUX POMMES DE TERRE (POTATO DAINTIES) . 
 They are very much like doughnuts, I believe. (Not that 
 my acquaintance with doughnuts is extensive !) They are 
 awfully good, and very cheap. Only you must eat them 
 hot ; they are no use when they get cold. 
 
 Boil a pound of potatoes in their skins. Peel them, put 
 them through a sieve, and mix them with quarter of a tea- 
 spoonful salt and enough flour to bind the whole into a 
 smooth paste. Work it with your fists. Put your whole 
 strength into it and go at it hard till you feel as if you were 
 kneading butter. Then pat the paste out into little round 
 cakes about the size of — 
 
 “Colette, what size is a dollar ?” 
 
 “How should I know — never seen one.” 
 
 “No more have I. Lots of dollar checks, but never 
 the real article. And, maybe, those folks over there have 
 never seen an English five-shilling piece ; and a franc is 
 too small.” 
 
 “Tell them to make their Friands the size of a wrist 
 watch. Every one has a wrist watch,” says the resource- 
 ful Colette. 
 
 [ 164 ] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 — the size of a wrist watch, drop them into deep fat 
 which is heated to smoking point, and fry them till they 
 turn brown and swim. Drain them out. Slip the point 
 of a knife into the side of each, pass in a little hot jam by 
 the cut, roll them in sifted sugar, and serve at once. 
 
 Jam — any sort you like — but nothing made with 
 lemons or oranges ! For some reason which I don’t know, 
 these two flavors are absolutely loathsome when you get 
 them mixed in with fried potato. 
 
 GATEAU FECULE (CORNSTARCH CAKE) is a Sort of Souffle, 
 with just enough cornstarch in it to stick it together. It is 
 a fine thing for an invalid, who has been ordered to eat 
 lots of eggs. 
 
 Take six eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. 
 Add a grain of salt to the whites and whip them to a foam 
 so stiff that a fork can stand in it. Whip the yolks till 
 they are so well beaten that they change from a yellow 
 liquid to a pale cream. Mix together a tablespoonful of corn- 
 starch (heaped up) and a tablespoonful of powdered sugar. 
 Mix the whites and yolks together and keep on whipping 
 lightly while you let the starch and sugar fall in like rain. 
 
 Have ready a buttered mold “and cook the cake in a gay 
 oven,” says Colette. “That is to say, one that is just 
 midway between moderate and brisk. Turn it out on a 
 cake wire to cool — and mind you don’t break it.” 
 
 If you want to make good cakes always 
 
 1 . Sift and dry the flour before you use it. Damp flour 
 makes heavy cakes. 
 
 2. Wring the butter in a clean cloth, to take out the 
 water. Watery butter makes cakes that are heavy and 
 biscuits that are tough. 
 
 3. Do all your mixing in a warm place, unless the recipe 
 says something different. 
 
 [ 165 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 4. Try to get into the way of beating and stirring al- 
 ways in the same direction, round and round the bowl. 
 I don’t say that a cake which is beaten around and across 
 and up and down is going to be a bad cake for that reason : 
 but it will be less perfect in texture, and probably a little 
 less light than one which is always beaten in the same 
 direction. 
 
 5. When whites of eggs have been whipped separately 
 and then folded in, remember that you must not beat the 
 mixture more than you can help after they have been added. 
 Beating before gets air into the cake, and makes it puff 
 nicely. Beating after smashes the air out of the whites 
 and makes them no good at all. 
 
 6. Always heat and test your oven the way I have told 
 you. 
 
 7. Never open the oven door while the cakes are in, if 
 you can help it, as the inrush of cold air keeps them from 
 rising. 
 
 8. Never grease cake tins with either margarine or salt 
 butter, for both make the cakes stick and burn. Fresh 
 butter, or a little good lard are the best things. 
 
 9. If you have no good grease, line the tin with four 
 thicknesses of plain white paper, — nothing else at all. 
 You’ll find that the cake bakes beautifully and that, though 
 the inside thickness of paper sticks, it can very easily be 
 damped off when the cake is cold. 
 
 10. If cakes or buns burn to the tin, put a cloth wet 
 with cold water under them, and let them stay for five 
 minutes. You will find that they then come loose without 
 breaking. 
 
 11. If cakes and buns are burned, don’t scrape them 
 with a knife. Let them get quite cold and then grate off 
 the black gently with a nutmeg grater. Sprinkle a little 
 
 [ 166] 
 
Colette Makes Cakes and Biscuits 
 
 sifted sugar over the place, and no one will notice that 
 there has been anything wrong. 
 
 12. If you want cakes or buns to keep fresh a long while, 
 put half of an apple in the tin with them. But never do 
 this with biscuits, as it would turn them limp at once. 
 
 13. If your oven is too fierce at the bottom, stand a 
 shallow pan of silver sand on the shelf, and plant the cake 
 tins in this. Another very good plan is to keep two or 
 three bricks in the oven and stand the tins on them, thus 
 allowing the hot air to circulate rigjit round the cakes. 
 
 You will notice that there is no baking powder in any of 
 these recipes. It is a modern invention, at which Colette 
 turns up her old nose ! And it is quite true that you don’t 
 need baking powder if you are prepared to spend hours in 
 whipping your eggs almost stiff before you use them. But, 
 if you happen to be in a hujry, and you want to make things 
 go well with less beating, you will generally find it a good 
 plan to mix into the flour as much baking powder as will 
 lie on the nail of your first finger, — not more. So many 
 cooks make the mistake of slamming in baking powder 
 by the tablespoonful. And then they complain of the 
 nasty, flat, soda taste which spoils their baking. What 
 else can they expect? The yeast cakes, meringues, and 
 the Gateau Fecule must not have baking powder put into 
 them on any account. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 COLETTE COOKS FRUIT 
 
 B EHIND this old, gray-stone house, the fruit gardens 
 and orchard go sloping gently down to the river. 
 Long ago, when we were all at home, and the place 
 was really kept up, the fruit gardens were, I remember “a 
 sight to see”, of which my father was justly proud; and 
 Colette is never tired of “ talking tall” about the fruit she 
 used to have for her compotes and jams. 
 
 The gardens are a wilderness now, for if old Albert man- 
 ages to keep the front rose beds tidy, that ’s all I can ask 
 of him. But they still yield fruit in such abundance that 
 we don’t know how to pick it. And, if the apples and 
 strawberries are a little less fine than they were in the by- 
 gone days for which Colette mourns, what does that matter? 
 They are all the same size when they are eaten, I tell her. 
 
 P" And eaten they do get, in astonishingly large quantities, 
 too. For Colette loves cooking fruit and does it in so many 
 dainty ways that it is difficult to pick out the best. I have 
 tried to choose those that are peculiar to French cookery ; 
 and I shall be quite disappointed if the majority of them 
 are not novelties to you. 
 
 POMMES FLAMBANTES (APPLE BONFIRE). Allow tWO 
 moderate-sized apples for each person. Peel and core 
 them without breaking them. Put them into a flat pan, 
 in which they can all stand on the bottom, and add a tea- 
 
 [ 168 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Fruit 
 
 cupful of water, three quarters of a teacupful of sugar and 
 a stick of cinnamon. Stew gently till the apples are tender, 
 turning them, if necessary, so that they may cook on both 
 sides. Take them out and drain them carefully. Pile 
 them up on a fireproof dish and keep them very warm. 
 Boil the syrup fast, with the lid off the pan, till it is thick 
 and sticky. Pour it over the apples and powder them 
 thickly with sugar. Just before serving the dish, set light 
 to it with a drop of spirit. You only need a spoonful or 
 two, just to start the fire, and make the whole pile flare 
 up in a most effective way. Serve it while it still flares, 
 just like an English Plum Pudding. 
 
 MARHELADE DE POMMES (APPLE MARMALADE). Take 
 eight apples of moderate size, peel them, quarter them, 
 take away the cores, and put them into a pan with quarter 
 pound sugar, one tablespoonful butter, two tablespoonfuls 
 water. Cook very gently, stirring often, so that the fruit 
 may not stick and scorch, which it readily does. When 
 it has stewed quite soft, put it through a sieve, smooth it 
 neatly into a dish, sprinkle it with sugar, and brown it, 
 either with an iron or under the grill. Garnish it liberally 
 with tiny triangles of bread fried in butter. 
 
 POMMES AU BEURRE (BUTTERED APPLES) is a Sort of 
 standard dish with us, just as, I gather, apple pie is with you. 
 
 Take good cooking apples, peel them and core them with- 
 out breaking them. Cut small thick pieces of the white 
 of bread and stand one apple on each in a fireproof dish. 
 Take a small piece of butter, roll it in as much sugar as it 
 will pick up, and stuff each apple with this. Set the dish 
 in a moderate oven for ten minutes. Then stuff the apples 
 with more butter and sugar, and, till they are done, baste 
 them frequently with the liquid that trickles into the dish. 
 When cooked, they should be tender, but not baked to a 
 
 [ 169] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 mash. Serve either hot or cold in the dish in which they 
 were baked. The brown “cracky bits” around the edge 
 are far too nice to be wasted by a change of dishes. 
 
 pommes portugaises (Portuguese apples) are made by 
 filling Pommes au Beurre with hot apricot jam, just at 
 the moment of service. 
 
 CROUTES AUX POMMES (APPLES WITH FRIED BREAD) is a 
 very fine way of using up windfall fruit, which is always 
 rather sour and tasteless unless it gets something to help 
 it out. 
 
 Peel the fruit, cut it up any way you like, and cook it in 
 plain water till it is quite tender. Drain it. Mash it 
 through a sieve. Now add one small pot of red currant 
 jelly for each two cups of apple, and sugar to taste. Reheat 
 all and pour it over small squares of bread, fried in 
 butter. 
 
 All kinds of stewed fruit may be served in this way; 
 that is to say, all kinds may be poured over slices of fried 
 bread and served hot. But apple is the only one that needs 
 to have jelly added to it ; the others are best cooked plain, 
 in a sugar and water syrup. 
 
 pommes meringues (apple meringue). Peel, core, 
 and slice your apples. Weigh one pound of them after 
 they have been sliced. Put them into a pan with quarter 
 of a pound of butter and half a pound of sugar and cook 
 them gently till tender. (The thinner the slices in which 
 they are cut, the quicker and more satisfactory the cooking 
 will be). Pile them up on a dish in the tallest pyramid 
 that you can manage. Beat the whites of four eggs to a 
 froth so stiff that a fork will stand in it. Fold in gently 
 two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Coat the fruit with 
 the meringue and set the dish in a good oven till it is just 
 tinted. Serve at once. 
 
 [ 170] 
 
Colette Cooks Fruit 
 
 Pears may be served in the same way, but they are gen- 
 erally thought less nice than apples. 
 
 POMMES REGENCE (ROYALTY APPLES). Stew one pound 
 of apples in plain water. When they are soft, drain them, 
 put them through a sieve, and add sugar to taste, with 
 enough of their own water to reduce the mixture to the 
 consistency of a thick puree. Beat in the yolks of three 
 eggs and put the mixture into a buttered pie dish, — a 
 round one is prettiest. The dish should not be more than 
 half full. Spread a generous layer of red currant jelly 
 on the apples. Whip the whites of the three eggs to a very 
 stiff froth, adding a little sifted sugar. Pile this on the 
 jelly. Color the whole thing in a good oven and serve 
 either hot or cold. 
 
 You should keep a piece of paper laid over this pudding 
 at first, or the whites will get burned before the inside is 
 cooked enough. It should remain in the oven for twenty 
 minutes all together. 
 
 This is one of the best ways of using dried apples, which, 
 if carefully stewed, seem almost exactly like fresh ones. 
 
 POMMES A LA CREME (CREAMED APPLES) looks pretty, 
 and is very nice for children. 
 
 Take custard cups, or small, pretty saucers, and fit each 
 with an apple which is just large enough to go in nicely, 
 leaving space for a little liquid around it. Peel and core 
 the apples without breaking them and stew them gently, 
 taking care that they do not go to pulp. Plenty of sugar 
 should be used in the stewing, but not too much water. 
 When they are cooked, drain them out and put each into 
 its cup. Measure the syrup that remains and make about 
 the same amount of very thick custard-powder custard. 
 When both syrup and custard are cool, but not yet quite 
 cold, beat them well together and pour them around the 
 
 [ 171 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 apples. Decorate the cups with scraps of pink and green 
 glace fruits and set them on ice till the moment of service. 
 
 POMMES OU POIRES AU RIZ (APPLES OR PEARS WITH RICE). 
 Wash quarter pound of rice carefully and put it on to 
 boil with two ounces of sugar and just enough water to 
 cover it. Let it cook steadily for three quarters of an hour, 
 adding a little more water if necessary, and shaking the 
 pan to keep the rice from sticking. It should cook itself 
 into a thick, soft mass. 
 
 Turn this mash out on a glass dish and let it get cold. 
 When it is quite cold, decorate it with the halves of pears 
 or apples, neatly peeled and stewed. Boil the fruit syrup 
 till it becomes thick and sticky, add a drop of pink color- 
 ing to make it pretty, and pour it over all. 
 
 A little whipped cream, piled on the fruit, is a great im- 
 provement. 
 
 compote de poires (stewed pears) in France are al- 
 ways left whole, unless they are windfalls, which have got 
 badly knocked about, and then excuses are made for serv- 
 ing them in a cut-up state. The correct thing is to peel 
 them neatly, leaving the stalks, put them into a pan with 
 sugar and water just enough to cover them, and a table- 
 spoonful of vinegar, which turns them pink. Stew them 
 slowly and steadily till they are quite tender. Then take 
 them out and arrange them in a glass dish, with all their 
 stalks meeting at the middle and the pears themselves 
 standing on their heads. Boil the syrup fast, with the lid 
 off the pan, till it grows thick and sticky ; then strain it 
 over the fruit and serve all cold. 
 
 poires au four (baked pears) are very popular also. 
 The large winter kinds are generally used for baking. Wipe 
 them well and put them into a fairly good oven. Watch 
 them carefully and, if you see any signs of burning, move 
 
 [ 172 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Fruit 
 
 them to a cooler place ; but a very slack heat will not do 
 for them, any more than it will for baked potatoes. They 
 take from one and a half to three hours to cook, according 
 to their kind and size. Test them with a knitting needle. 
 Serve them very hot and hand sugar with them, as of course 
 they have not been sugared at all. 
 
 compote roti (compote of roast pears) is very nice, 
 and quite a change from ordinary stewed fruit. 
 
 Take large winter pears, put them into a good hot oven, 
 and keep turning them, so that they may not burn, for 
 half an hour. Then peel them. Make a syrup of sugar 
 and water — half a pound of sugar to quarter pint of water 
 — put in the peeled pears, boil fast for five minutes, and then 
 cover the pan and draw it aside to simmer till the fruit 
 is quite soft. 
 
 Yofl must take great care that the pears do not scorch 
 while they are in the oven, or the scorched places will come 
 up as dark marks on the finished fruit. 
 
 If you find it hard to peel the pears after roasting them, 
 plunge each into cold water just for a moment before start- 
 ing on them. But do not leave them to soak, or their 
 flavor will be lost. 
 
 POKES BONS CHRETIENS (GOOD CHRISTIAN PEARS). 
 
 “Why are they called that, Colette ?” 
 
 “Because it is their name, the name both of the fruit 
 and of the way of cooking it.” 
 
 “Then, if one were to take other pears — Jargonelles, 
 for instance — and cook them that way, would they be 
 converted and become Good Christians?” 
 
 “Of course they would — at least they would be Cooked 
 Good Christians — and so — . What are you laughing at now ? ’ ’ 
 Drop the peeled pears into a large pan of plain water 
 and boil them till they begin to feel a little tender. Drain 
 
 [ 173 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 them well. Make a syrup of sugar and water just enough 
 to cover them and add to it the juice and the thinly peeled 
 rind of a lemon for each pound of sugar. Cover the pan 
 and stew gently till the fruit is quite cooked. Put the 
 pears standing up, as I told you before, in a rather large 
 glass dish, strain the syrup around them, and put thin 
 slices of lemon to float in the syrup. Serve very cold, iced 
 if possible. 
 
 fruit tarts of all kinds are exactly the same in France 
 as all the world over, and so it is not worth my while to 
 say much about them. Their only distinguishing feature 
 is that the fruit is nearly always cooked in the pastry, with 
 a large quantity of sugar, which, mingling with the juice, 
 turns to a stiff syrup when the tart is cold. 
 
 Peel apples, slice them very thin, and arrange the slices 
 in circles, overlapping each other. Sprinkle very tfiickly 
 with sugar and let the tart brown so much that the sugar 
 comes almost to the verge of burning. 
 
 Stone plums or cherries, and arrange them, as far as 
 you can, in lines radiating out from the center. 
 
 Use a little red currant jelly with strawberries. They 
 cook to such an ugly color if they are alone. 
 
 Cut apricots in half, stone them, and lay them with the 
 cut side downwards. Colette says it is an open question 
 as to whether you should peel them or not. They are much 
 nicer when peeled ; but, on the other hand, there is always 
 danger that they will cook to a mash. 
 
 Don’t make a tart of currants, unless they are black 
 ones. A little red currant juice with cherries or raspberries 
 is delicious, but the fruit alone is too full of seeds to be a 
 nice tart. 
 
 Don’t make a tart of pears either; it is very hard to 
 manage, and not satisfactory, as the taste of the fruit is so 
 
 [ 174 ] 
 
Colette Cooks Fruit 
 
 delicate that it is completely hidden by the taste of the 
 pastry, and the result is fade in the extreme. 
 
 beignets, or fritters, are made of all kinds of unexpected 
 things, over here. (You will find recipes for the fritter 
 paste, and directions as to method, in the chapter on Fry- 
 ing.) But I think I might tell you here some of the fillings 
 that Colette uses. 
 
 cherries. Take those that are ripe enough to have the 
 stone squeezed out. Thread five or six at a time on a fine 
 skewer and dip them first in the fritter paste and then in 
 the boiling fat. Shake them off into sifted sugar. 
 
 strawberries and raspberries. Throw them right 
 into the fritter paste. Take them up on a drainer. Let 
 the drainer drip a moment or two and then flick the fruits 
 off it, one by one, with a skewer, into the hot fat. Take 
 them out with another drainer and roll them in sifted sugar. 
 Ever so good ! 
 
 rose leaves. Use a rather thick fritter paste and the 
 larger petals only of well-blown roses. Beat them quickly 
 into the paste, and then take up a small teaspoonful at a 
 time, and drop it into the hot fat. It puffs up and 
 swims almost at once. Fish it out as soon as it is lightly 
 browned, and you will find that the petals still keep their 
 natural color. Drain the Beignets for a few seconds on 
 kitchen paper, before rolling them in sifted sugar. 
 
 vine leaves. Young and tender vine leaves are de- 
 licious, and so pretty. Choose those which are just well 
 opened and leave each its stalk. Hold the leaf by the 
 stalk, dip it in the fritter paste, give it a gentle little 
 shake, and then dip it in the boiling fat. Never let go of 
 the stalk at all till the fritter is quite cooked. When all 
 are done, pile them high on a dish, and sprinkle them with 
 sugar. 
 
 [ i7Sl 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 acacia flowers. Choose pretty bunches, of which the 
 flowers are in full blow. Do them just like the vine leaves. 
 They are absolutely charming, and very fragrant, as well 
 as good. 
 
 It is best to fry all flowers and leaves in oil or butter; 
 dripping might spoil their flavor a little. 
 
 oranges. Peel them carefully and separate them into 
 sections. Rub the sections thickly with powdered sugar 
 and leave them to soak for half an hour before dipping 
 them in batter. Sugar them again after frying. 
 
 dried plums, prunes, or dates. Soak dried plums or 
 prunes in cold tea overnight. In all cases, replace the 
 stone by a blanched almond . All three make delicious fritters . 
 
 cerises perl£es (sugared cherries) is a dessert that 
 needs great delicacy of touch in the making ; but it is worth 
 the trouble, for it is extremely pretty and attractive, and 
 it costs next to nothing. 
 
 Take large ripe cherries of the bright red sort ; peel 
 them delicately, cut their stalks to half the original length : 
 roll them in fine sugar, making them pick up as much as 
 they can. Spread them out on dishes, and put them in the 
 full sun for one hour (in a glasshouse they will do better 
 still). Then put them on ice, or in a very cold cellar, till 
 the time of service comes. Stand them in a glass dish, 
 with all their stems sticking up in the air, and surround 
 them with whipped cream. 
 
 Red or white currants may be treated in the same way. 
 But, as they naturally cannot be peeled, it is necessary to 
 dip them in a little syrup and make them sticky, so that the 
 sugar may cling to them. The fruit is held by the stalk 
 when it is eaten. Both these sweets are very highly thought 
 of in France and are served at what Colette calls “real 
 dinners.” 
 
 [ 176] 
 
Colette Cooks Fruit 
 
 compote of uncooked currants is a very, very old 
 recipe, and the dessert has a curiously delicate flavor which 
 quite distinguishes it from modern cookery. 
 
 String half a pound of very ripe red currants. Wash 
 and drain them. Add quarter pound of fine sugar and two 
 tablespoonfuls of cold water. Toss all together till the 
 sugar is perfectly melted, but do not stir in the least. Pour 
 the whole into a glass dish and set it in a very cold cellar 
 for two hours. 
 
 At the end of that time, you will find the currants set 
 into a clear, soft red jelly, formed by their own juice and 
 the sugar. If it is not set, put the dish on ice for a few 
 minutes; but a too long icing is apt to set the jelly too 
 stiff and rob it of some of the delicacy of texture, which is 
 its great charm. 
 
 Hand with it a twin glass dish of Sweet Cheese (see 
 page 187). 
 
 FRAISES A LA CHANTILLY (STRAWBERRIES A LA CHANTILLY) 
 is a garden party, or summer dinner-party dish, just as 
 good as it is pretty. Allow one pint of thick cream to 
 one and a quarter pounds of strawberries. Pick out quar- 
 ter pound of the finest and ripest of the berries. Wash 
 the rest, and beat them through a sieve and sugar them. 
 Whip the cream very stiff, mix the puree into it, pile all in 
 a glass dish, and decorate with the berries that you have 
 saved. 
 
 Raspberries can be treated in the same way. So, I should 
 think, could blackberries, but I have never seen them, be- 
 cause we don’t eat them much in France ; they are thought 
 good only for children to play with on the way to school ! 
 
 compote d ’oranges (compote of oranges). Colette 
 always says that oranges are no good for eating raw before 
 March, — too sour. But she gives me a great many of 
 
 [i77] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 them cooked, as we both agree that they are just as whole- 
 some as they are nice. 
 
 Peel four oranges, divide them into sections, and take 
 out the pips. The best way to do this is to make quite a 
 small slit in the skin of the inner side, and work the pips 
 up gently with your fingers. Boil together half a pound 
 of sugar and quarter of a pint of water. When they have 
 boiled for five minutes, pour them on the pieces of orange, 
 which you have put into a china dish or bowl. Cover 
 them and leave them for two hours. 
 
 Drain out the pieces of orange and pile them up high 
 in a glass dish. Strain the syrup, boil it fast for five min- 
 utes more. Let it cool a little and then trickle it over the 
 fruit. When all is quite cold, add piles of whipped cream 
 here and there and serve. 
 
 ORANGES EN SURPRISE (SURPRISE ORANGES). Take 
 large, ripe oranges. Cut off the top of one, just as you cut 
 the top off a boiled egg. Take a tiny silver egg spoon and 
 work it round and round gently inside the fruit, loosening 
 the pulp from the skin and pounding it up. In a few min- 
 utes you will have room to add a little sugar. Keep on 
 working with the spoon and adding sugar, and, if you like, 
 a few grains of crushed ice, till all the inside of the fruit is 
 reduced to pulp. 
 
 Stand the oranges up in a dish, surround them with 
 crushed ice, and give a silver teaspoon with which to eat 
 each. 
 
 peches au beurre (buttered peaches) are made ex- 
 actly like Pommes au Beurre, and are very good indeed. 
 
 PECHES A LA CONDE (PEACHES A LA COND&) is ever SO 
 pretty, and more of a real pudding than one generally gets 
 in France. 
 
 Prepare quarter of a pound of rice, just as you did for 
 
 [178] 
 
Colette Cooks Fruit 
 
 Pommes au Riz. While it is cooking, take ten fine peaches, 
 dip them into boiling water, skin them, cut them in halves, 
 and take out the stones. Stew them gently in a syrup 
 made of quarter of a pound of sugar, four tablespoonfuls 
 of water, and a few drops of vanilla, till they are quite soft. 
 
 Beat into your hot rice a tablespoonful of salt butter 
 and the yolks of four eggs. Make a large round bed of 
 the rice on a dish, arrange the halves of peaches on it, with 
 a glace cherry in the stonehole of each. 
 
 Take a pound pot of apricot jam, beat it up with enough 
 of the peach syrup to make it just liquid, and pour it around 
 and over the rice. It must not cover the peaches. Blanch 
 two ounces of almonds, cut them into thin strips, and stick 
 the jam thickly with them. Serve all warm. 
 
 The peaches have to be piled up a little on the rice, as 
 there is not room for all to lie flat. But try to arrange 
 things so that all the cherries show, as the little red dots 
 peeping out from the fruit are very effective indeed. 
 
 Souffle aux Abricots (Apricot Souffle ) 
 
 I pound butter 
 \ pound sugar 
 
 3 ounces cornstarch 
 
 4 eggs 
 
 9 tablespoonfuls of the pulp of ripe apricots 
 Small sponge cakes 
 
 Beat the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon till the 
 mixture becomes perfectly white. Then add the yolks 
 of the eggs, one at a time, working each well in ; the corn- 
 starch; and the fruit pulp. Beat the whites of the eggs 
 to the stiffest possible froth and stir them in. 
 
 Butter a plain three-pound cake tin and line the bottom 
 and sides with sponge fingers, split open. Put in a good 
 spreading of the apricot mixture; then more biscuits; 
 
 [ 179 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 then more fruit. Do not fill the mold more than three 
 quarters full. Set it in a large pan of water and let the 
 water boil around it for half an hour. Then turn it out 
 carefully on a hot dish. Beat up a pound pot of apricot 
 jam with one fourth of its own bulk of boiling water. Put 
 the mixture through a fine sieve over the souffle. 
 
 “Do they know,” asks Colette, “that, when I state a 
 time for the cooking of something in the bain-marie, I mean 
 that the time must be counted from the moment when the 
 water starts to boil?” 
 
 “I’ll tell. Is there anything else you want them to 
 know?” 
 
 If you want to do good fruit cooking always 
 
 1. Do as much peeling and cutting as possible with a 
 silver knife. A steel one is always likely to damage the. 
 color, even if it does not spoil the taste. 
 
 2. As you peel pears and apples, throw the pieces into 
 water which contains a little vinegar. This will keep them 
 a good color. 
 
 3. Never try to “get ahead” by peeling fruit hours be- 
 fore it is wanted. Even when kept in vinegar and water, 
 it looses both texture and taste if left for more than half 
 an hour or so. 
 
 4. Remember that fruit which is just under - ripe takes 
 less sugar than that which is dead ripe. 
 
 5. A wee grain of salt added to fruit makes the sugar 
 go much farther; but I have not mentioned this in the 
 recipes, because it is one of the things that Colette won't 
 take to. She calls it “new-fangled nonsense” and peace- 
 fully continues to waste the sugar. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 COLETTE MAKES CREAMS AND SWEET DISHES 
 
 S HE does not make many now — in fact, I never see 
 one except on those rare occasions when friends 
 come to luncheon or dinner — for a good French 
 housekeeper would consider it almost a sin to serve creams 
 to “the family” alone. A dish of fruit and a little cheese 
 are quite enough, thank you ! But, when we were all at 
 home, and there very often used to be “real dinners”, 
 she attained to a pitch of excellence in cream and sweets- 
 making, rarely arrived at by even a professional pastry 
 cook. 
 
 If I give you a few of her recipes, will you please remember, 
 in reading them, that the flavors suggested are not by any 
 means the only ones that can be used. In your place, I 
 should work out the book recipe exactly, just once, in order 
 to make sure how it goes, and then vary the flavors, colors, 
 shapes, etc., according to time of year and the tastes of 
 your folks. In this way, you will get practically endless 
 range of sweets, — all dainty and pretty, and none of them, 
 I think, very hard to make. 
 
 Over here it is very usual to hand a little silver basket 
 of Biscuits a la Cuiller with creams of any sort, especially 
 with the very rich ones, which would hardly be nice alone. 
 
 You will notice the large extent to which eggs take the 
 place of milk-cream. This is due to the fact that we are 
 
 [181] 
 
Colettes Best Recipes 
 
 a cheese-making country, and milk-cream is, in consequence, 
 rather rare and costly. But, if it is cheaper in America, 
 you can often cut down the quantity of eggs by half and 
 substitute cream for milk, with advantage to the dish. 
 
 creme a la vanille (vanilla cream). To make ten 
 little pots, take 
 
 i quart rich milk 
 20 drops vanilla 
 3 ounces sugar 
 
 The yolks of 3 eggs, and the white of 1 
 
 Warm the milk enough to make the sugar melt in it. 
 Then let it get cold. Add the vanilla to it. Beat up the 
 eggs as if for an omelette and pour in the milk, a little at 
 a time, stirring all the while. Fill little pots and stand in 
 the bain-marie till the cream “takes.” Serve hot or cold 
 in the pots. You may put a little jam or whipped cream 
 on each, but this is not French ; it is an English improve- 
 ment. 
 
 The bain-marie means a saucepan — as flat and shallow 
 as possible — on the bottom of which all the pots can stand. 
 Pour in enough water to come rather more than halfway 
 up them, and put the big pan on the fire to boil. There is 
 no need to watch it, except just enough to see that the 
 water is not boiling over into the creams. You must leave 
 it open, — no cover at all, please. If you were to put a 
 cover on, the steam would collect inside the cover, turn 
 into water, and fall back into the creams, making them 
 all watery and nasty. 
 
 You can tell pretty much by the look of the creams how 
 they are getting on. When they look done, poke each 
 right at the center with a straw. If liquid comes out, they 
 are not yet cooked enough, but if the straw comes away 
 dry, they are done. 
 
 1 182] 
 
Colette Makes Creams and Sweet Dishes 
 
 It ’s useless to poke the sides of them ; sides get done in 
 a very few minutes. Go right at the middle, please. 
 
 CREME RENVERS&E (CARAMEL CREAM) is as much a 
 standard dish in France as rice pudding in England, and 
 far nicer. 
 
 Take a plain cake tin, which will hold rather more than 
 a quart. Put into it eight lumps of sugar, pounded up 
 and just dampened. Put your tin on the hottest part of 
 the stove, so that the sugar browns quickly. When it is 
 colored and melted, take hold of the mold — with the tongs, 
 please, for it is horribly hot ! — and turn it round and round, 
 so that the sides may be coated as well as the bottom. Mind 
 the sugar does not go too far and burn to blackness, won’t 
 you? 
 
 Make a creme just like the vanilla one, except that you 
 add two extra eggs and use only half the amount of vanilla. 
 Fill the prepared mold. Cook it just like the first creams. 
 Serve it cold. 
 
 If you turn it out on the same day that it is made, you 
 will find the tops and sides coated with brown. But if 
 you leave it till next day, the caramel will liquefy and come 
 streaming out all around the cream, like a sauce. 
 
 “Why does it do that, Colette?” 
 
 “Because that ’s its nature.” 
 
 “And which is the nicer of the two, do you think?” 
 
 “It ’s a matter of taste.” 
 
 So now you know as much about it as I do, — and that ’s 
 not much ! 
 
 creme au chocolat (chocolate cream). Grate three 
 bars of good chocolate and melt them in a little of the milk. 
 Then go on exactly as for Creme & la Vanille. Serve cold, 
 with a generous dab of whipped cream on each pot. 
 
 Perhaps I had better just mention that Creme au Choco- 
 
 1 183 ] 
 
Colette's Best Redyes 
 
 lat is one of those things to which can be applied the very 
 wise saying that 
 
 “ There are nine and thirty ways 
 Of inventing tribal lays. 
 
 And every single one of them is right. 
 
 But Colette holds that the one I have just given you is the 
 Tightest. 
 
 creme au cafe (coffee cream) is made exactly like 
 Creme a la Vanille, except that you must use a little extra 
 sugar, and have two tablespoonfuls of coffee essence in- 
 stead of the vanilla. 
 
 If you want to make any of these cremes in a big mold, 
 and turn it out, use one extra egg — or, better still, two — 
 to make it very firm. Don’t put the whites in. Keep 
 them back for other sweets, as they make the creams stringy, 
 and do them no good. 
 
 That ’s an end of the plain cremes. Now let us go on to 
 a few fancy things. 
 
 bavaroise au cafe (coffee bavaroise). This is enough 
 for two good-sized molds. 
 
 i pint thick cream 
 
 1 pint fresh milk 
 
 4 sheets of white leaf gelatine 
 
 20 lumps sugar 
 
 6 eggs 
 
 2 tablespoonfuls coffee essence 
 
 Beat the eggs — yolks and whites together — for ten 
 minutes. Warm the milk. Melt in it the sugar and gela- 
 tine. Add the coffee. Pour it slowly on the eggs, stir- 
 ring all the while. Put the whole into a double pan and 
 stir over the fire till the cream thickens. (You can do it 
 in a single pan, if you like, but Colette says she would n’t 
 risk it herself, because a thing of this sort scorches in a 
 
 [ 184] 
 
Colette Makes Creams and Sweet Dishes 
 
 second and is then perfectly uneatable. However, in an 
 aluminum pan perhaps it might be all right.) 
 
 Let it cool down till you can put your finger into it 
 without feeling anything special. Beat up the milk-cream 
 till it is perfectly thick and then mix it well into the egg- 
 cream. Pour both into wetted molds, and set them in a 
 cold cellar all night. 
 
 Bavaroise may be eaten as soon as it is set — and that 
 will be within a few minutes — if you put it on ice. But 
 Colette thinks that it mellows and improves by being kept 
 till next day. 
 
 It may be flavored with any kind of fruit syrup that you 
 like, in place of the coffee, colored to match, and decorated 
 with the fresh fruits. 
 
 bombe MARficHALE is quite simple, and what I call rather 
 puddingy ; but, for some reason or other, it is very highly 
 thought of in France, and you will meet it on quite 
 smart dinner tables, — beautifully decorated with whipped 
 cream and glace fruits, but Bomb Marechale for all 
 that. 
 
 Take a plain basin or cake tin and line the bottom and 
 sides with Biscuits a la Cuiller, soaked in either sherry 
 or fruit syrup. Make a Creme a la Vanille and add to it 
 three sheets of gelatine, melted in a little of the milk, and 
 fill the basin with it. Cook it in the bain-marie, with a 
 plate over the basin or tin, and a weight on the plate, to 
 keep the biscuits from swimming out of place. Turn it 
 out when it is cold and decorate it to any extent you 
 please. 
 
 bAche au chocolat. (Colette keeps, with great respect, 
 an ancient tongue tin, in which she always makes Buche, 
 — one of those tall tongue tins, you know, that looks like 
 a bit of drain pipe. I once asked her why she kept that 
 
 [185] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 horror, when she has a whole row of beautiful copper molds, 
 twinkling unused on the top shelf, and she replied with 
 dignity that a Buche would not be a Bfiche if it was n’t 
 made in a tongue tin. Nonsense, I call it. But you can 
 do as you like about it.) 
 
 Dip your mold, whatever it may be, into milk. Grate 
 five large bars of chocolate (weight about three quarters 
 pound), and melt them in the smallest possible amount of 
 boiling water. Let the chocolate get so cold that it is on 
 the verge of setting. Then add the yolks of six eggs and 
 mix very well. Beat the whites to a very stiff froth ; add 
 four tablespoonfuls of sugar to them. 
 
 Melt half an ounce of gelatine in a very little hot water 
 and stir it into the chocolate. Fold in the whites of the 
 eggs, lightly and gently, but mind they are well mixed ; 
 there must be no stripes or dabs. Pour all into your pre- 
 pared tin and set aside in a cold place for six hours. 
 
 Turn it out on a dish and surround it with whipped 
 cream. Sprinkle the whipped cream with a little grated 
 chocolate. 
 
 This is very rich and needs to have biscuits handed 
 with it. 
 
 dIslicieux lyonnais is the prettiest thing you can think 
 of, when it is made with all sorts of different-colored pre- 
 served fruits. 
 
 Beat the whites of six eggs to a very stiff froth and mix 
 gently into them three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar 
 and four of preserved fruits, all kinds mixed, chopped into 
 smallish pieces. 
 
 Butter very lightly one of those molds which have a 
 hole in the middle, and put the mixture into it, leaving a 
 little room for swelling. Cook it in the bain-marie till a 
 straw thrust into it comes out clean. Turn it out into a 
 
 [186] 
 
Colette Makes Creams and Sweet Dishes 
 
 glass dish and fill the hole at the center with Creme a la 
 Vanille, made with the yolks of the eggs. 
 
 When Creme a la Vanille is wanted for such a purpose 
 as this, it must not be cooked in pots ; it must be stirred 
 in a double pan over the fire till it thickens. 
 
 fromage a la creme (sweet cheese). This is a very 
 delicious thing, which is served either alone or with fresh 
 or stewed fruit. Many people like it better than whipped 
 cow-cream with their fruit, because they find it less heavy 
 and greasy. 
 
 Let a quart of milk go sour. If you want to hurry it 
 up, put just a spot of vinegar into it and stand it near the 
 fire. It must be so sour that it divides itself into solid and 
 liquid parts. 
 
 Pour it into a clean cloth, hang the cloth up over a basin 
 in the cellar, and leave it to drip all night. By next morn- 
 ing, the part in the cloth will be dry enough for use. 
 
 Put it into a basin, add rather less than half its own bulk 
 of the finest possible sugar, and rub both together with a 
 wooden spoon till they are perfectly smooth, — no little 
 grains of sugar to be felt at all. Some people like a drop of 
 vanilla flavoring, but I think, myself, that it is not wanted 
 as the cheese has a definite taste of its own. 
 
 Add rich milk or thin cream, very gradually, stirring 
 well all the time, till the mixture is the consistency of a 
 custard or a mayonnaise sauce. Serve it in a glass dish. 
 
 The liquid part of the cheese is never used in France. 
 But if you do any English cooking at all — boiled puddings 
 or scones or anything of that kind — mix them with the 
 liquid in place of milk or water; add a little bicarbonate 
 of soda, and they will come up as light as feathers. 
 
 gateau mexicain (mexican cake). This is not a 
 cake at all; it is a sort of frothy chocolate arrangement, 
 
 [ is? 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 which is handy for a party, because it must be made the 
 day before. 
 
 4 eggs 
 
 Their weight in grated chocolate and in sifted sugar and in butter 
 
 Half their weight in flour 
 
 Melt the chocolate in a very little water and leave it on 
 one side to get cool. Melt the butter. Stir in the sugar 
 and flour. Beat in the yolks of the eggs, one at a time. 
 Add the cooled chocolate. Last of all, whip the whites 
 to the stiffest possible froth and fold it in. Put all into a 
 couple of medium sized, buttered molds and cook in the 
 bain-marie for one hour. Turn them out while they are 
 still warm. Put them in glass dishes when they are cold 
 and surround them with whipped cream or a custard. 
 
 It is rather pretty to use two or three tins, each smaller 
 than the other, and to build up the cold chocolate shapes 
 into a tower, sticking them together by a spreading of 
 whipped cream. 
 
 ILE FLOTTANTE (FLOATING ISLAND). Beat the whites 
 of four eggs to the stiffest possible froth ; fold into them a 
 couple of tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Put all into 
 a carameled tin (see Creme Renversee), and cook in the 
 bain-marie till a straw which is thrust into the fluff comes 
 out clean. 
 
 Meanwhile, make a Creme a la Vanille with the yolks. 
 Cook it in a pan — not in pots — and don’t let it get too 
 thick. Allow it to cool. 
 
 Turn out the white mass into a large glass dish or bowl 
 and trickle the custard around it. It will stand up and float. 
 
 (EUFS A la neige (snow eggs), that most celebrated 
 of French sweets, is made just the same, except that, in- 
 stead of being all cooked together in a mold, the whipped 
 whites are taken up, a spoonful at a time, and just poached 
 
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Colette Makes Creams and Sweet Dishes 
 
 in a pan of boiling water. When you remove them from 
 the water, let them drain for a few minutes on a plate, as 
 they give off a good deal of liquid, which would make the 
 Creme thin and poor if they were put straight into it. 
 
 le reve (the dream) is practically the same thing as 
 lie Flottante, except that you must stir half a pound of 
 crystallized rose leaves into your whites before cooking 
 them. A drop of carmine in the Creme adds greatly to the 
 prettiness of the whole affair. 
 
 mousse. See “Mousse aux Pommes” in chapter on 
 Fruit Cookery. A Mousse may be very well made with 
 chocolate, melted in a very few drops of hot water: or 
 with fruit pulp of any kind, provided that there is not too 
 much juice in it. It is a very economical plan to make a 
 Mousse and a Creme together, using the yolks of the eggs 
 for one and the whites for another. 
 
 souefl£ de marrons (chestnut souefl^). Boil 
 twenty-five large chestnuts in plain water till they are soft. 
 Carefully take away all the skin, and put the nuts through 
 a sieve. Add to them the yolks of four eggs, well beaten, 
 and quarter pound of sifted sugar. Mix very well and then 
 add a piece of fresh butter the size of an egg, the juice of 
 a lemon, and, last, the whites of the eggs beaten to a very 
 stiff froth. Butter a round souffle dish, put in the mixture 
 — which should not fill it more than about half — and 
 cook it fifteen minutes in a very hot oven. Serve at once. 
 
 If you like to leave it till it is quite cold and then serve 
 it with whipped cream, it will be good also, though of a 
 different texture, — close and smooth, instead of being 
 all light and fluffy. 
 
 Many people prefer orange juice to lemon. Try both 
 and choose for yourself. 
 
 sambayonnes. For each person allow one egg, one 
 
 [ 189] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 tablespoonful sifted sugar, one tablespoonful Madeira wine, 
 or, if you don’t use wine, orange juice. 
 
 Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the yolks 
 with the sugar till the mixture becomes quite white. Add 
 the flavoring. Whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth 
 and fold them in gently. Pile up the mixture in cham- 
 pagne glasses, sprinkle the surface with glace fruits chopped 
 small, and offer a teaspoon with each glass. 
 
 Whenever possible, pack the glasses in chopped ice, but 
 do not mix any ice into the cream, or you will make it taste 
 thin and poor. 
 
 palais de glace (crystal palace). Put three ounces 
 of sugar into a small pan and burn it a good brown. (Take 
 care it does not go black.) When it is nicely colored, add 
 two tablespoonfuls of boiling water and stir hard, till the 
 whole affair makes a caramel syrup. 
 
 In a large basin, melt half an ounce of gelatine in half a 
 gill of boiling water. Beat the whites of six eggs to the 
 stillest possible froth, fold them into the melted gelatine, 
 and add the caramel, and also, if you like, a very little 
 powdered sugar. Mix thoroughly, but gently. Pour all 
 into a mold which has been dipped in cold water and set 
 it in a cold place for six hours at least. Turn out and sur- 
 round with a thick, well-sweetened custard. 
 
 “Perhaps, Colette, we had better give them a few recipes 
 for real entremets — things made with rice, and so on.” 
 
 “Well, all those creams are entremets; what better do 
 you want?” 
 
 “I don’t want anything better. I want something 
 rather less good, something plainer and more satisfying, 
 you know.” 
 
 Riz A l’imperatrice (empress rice). Wash five table- 
 spoonfuls of rice and boil it in five wine-glassfuls of milk. 
 
 [ 190] 
 
Colette Makes Creams and Sweet Dishes 
 
 At the end of half an hour, add twelve lumps of sugar. 
 Let the rice boil gently till it is quite soft and thick. 
 
 I hope it won’t burn ; it won’t in all probability, if you 
 keep it right at the side of the stove. But, still, scorched 
 rice is a trouble that one does meet, now and again, in 
 kitchens. If it should happen to you, stand the pan right 
 away in cold water — to cool it down and keep the burnt 
 fumes from rising — and take off the rice from the top, 
 lightly, with a spoon, smelling each spoonful. As soon as 
 you come to one that smells burnt, don’t take any more ; 
 the rest is only good for the chickens. By this means, you 
 can often save half or three quarters of the panful: but 
 if you stir it up recklessly, and then scrape out the burnt 
 part along with the good, none of it will be eatable at all. 
 
 Let the rice cool. When you can hold your finger in it 
 easily, beat one pint of cream quite stiff and stir it in. Add 
 five sheets of gelatine, melted in a few drops of hot water, 
 and any flavoring that you like best. Put all into a large, 
 wetted mold, and stand in a cold place or on ice. Turn 
 out and surround with red currant or raspberry jelly. 
 
 The amount of cream may be reduced if you want to 
 be economical. 
 
 souffle de riz (rice souffl£). Cook five tablespoon- 
 fuls of rice, as above. When it has cooled a little, beat 
 into it one tablespoonful of melted butter, a small pinch 
 of salt, sugar and the yolks of two or three eggs. Whip 
 up the whites to a very stiff froth and fold them in gently. 
 Fill a buttered souffle dish not more than half full and put 
 it into a brisk oven for twenty minutes. 
 
 The rice should rise very much. It should have a nice 
 golden crust, which generally breaks into a peak at the 
 middle, and lets the lighter inside boil out a little, just like 
 a very perfectly baked cake. 
 
 [ I 9 1 1 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 Serve very hot. No sauce or fruit is wanted with it. 
 
 If you want to make good creams and sweets, always 
 
 1. Remember that they are very delicate things, which 
 spoil quickly and must not be kept hanging round in the 
 hot kitchen for even a needless second. When you take 
 them out to the cellar or the cold larder, remember that 
 you should not stand them near meat or soup or anything 
 strong-scented, as they have a wonderful readiness to suck 
 up scents and tastes which do not belong to them, especially 
 when they are still hot. For this reason, you never ought 
 to make creams in molds that have ever been used for meat 
 or fish. They may be quite clean — they may have been 
 boiled out dozens of times — but, all the same, you can 
 never be sure that a certain greasiness does not cling to 
 them, and that, if it does not actually “tang” your cream, it 
 may spoil its first freshness. 
 
 2. Don’t touch and fuss creams too much. The less 
 handling they get, the better they will be. 
 
 3. If you think they are going to be troublesome to 
 turn out, dip the mold quickly in and out of a bowl of boil- 
 ing water, and then the contents will simply skate out 
 into the dish. But don’t let the mold remain in the hot 
 water for more than a bare second, or the cream will be so 
 much melted that the outlines of it will be blurred and 
 spoiled. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 COLETTE PUTS UP CONSERVES 
 
 1 THINK I must have been a very well-brought-up 
 child, — not at all because I am a model character 
 now, but because, through more changeful and 
 chanceful years than I care to count, I have preserved 
 such astonishingly firm and clear principles with regard to 
 many strange and unexpected things. For instance — 
 “You must not cut your nails on Sunday.” 
 
 “It is very ill-bred to open a door with the left hand.” 
 “Never turn a mattress on a Friday.” 
 
 And above all else 
 
 “Every Christian family puts up conserves against the 
 winter.” 
 
 Conserves are not just jam, you know ; they are every 
 possible and imaginable kind of winter stores, — jams, jellies, 
 syrups, things in bottles, things dried, things hung in 
 bunches from the attic roof. And Colette knows how to 
 make them all ; ever since I was the right size to play at 
 wigwams under the kitchen table, I have watched her doing 
 them, very grave over such a serious business, clinking 
 across and across the red-tiled floor in her sabots. She 
 is a Breton woman, is Colette, and though we do not live 
 in Brittany now, she has kept to the shawl, check apron, and 
 sabots of her country, as well as to the wonderful, old-world 
 ways of doing things that were handed down to her by I 
 don’t know how many great-grandmothers. 
 
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Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 And she never loses a conserve of any kind. We don’t 
 know what it is to have moldy jelly and fermented jam. 
 
 “But evidently not!” says Colette, rather impatiently. 
 “If the conserves are put up properly, they cannot spoil 
 themselves. It stands to reason. It is only those care- 
 less ones, who will not do as their grandmothers have 
 taught them, who lose their conserves — and well they 
 merit it ! ” 
 
 “But Colette! There are some folks who have no 
 grandmothers to teach them things.” 
 
 “Bah! Every one has a grandmother — even the 
 rabbits. You are too old to believe any longer that babies 
 grow in the cabbages ! ” 
 
 “You know I don’t mean that! I mean that there are 
 hundreds and thousands of girls and women in the world 
 who want to keep house nicely, but really nicely, and who 
 can’t do it because, for one reason or another, they have 
 never had the chance of learning good ways of doing things.” 
 “The poor miserables ! From my heart I pity them ! ” 
 “So they read a lot of books written by people who don’t 
 properly understand what they are writing about, and they 
 try a lot of new-fangled dodges. And the results — oh, 
 they are abominable beyond all words.” 
 
 Colette is visibly impressed. “What will you?” she 
 asks mournfully, with a sigh so deep that it heaves the check 
 apron as well as the shawl. 
 
 “I want you to tell me how you make all your conserves 
 — everything about it, and then I will tell some of those 
 folks who do not know. It will be a good work that you do, 
 will it not?” 
 
 “But assuredly! Instructing the ignorant is one of 
 the Five Spiritual Works of Mercy.” 
 
 And so, with a zeal truly apostolic she sets to work and 
 
 [ 194 ] 
 
Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 tells me all her conserve secrets. I have tried to write them 
 exactly as she said them, adding nothing and leaving out 
 nothing. For Colette’s conserves are so perfect that any 
 change in them would certainly be for the worse. 
 
 I will begin with a class of conserve which is, I think, even 
 more popular with you than with us, — I mean Syrups 
 and Bottled Fruits. I hear that, since the prohibition, 
 your traffic in fruit drinks has gone up enormously. So if 
 you mean to continue drinking an ocean of that kind of 
 thing, you might as well have it good, might n’t you ? 
 
 When serving these unsweetened fruit drinks, it is better 
 to mix them with sugar syrup than with sugar in cube or 
 powder, which does not melt well in a cold liquid and always 
 tends to taste gritty. Sugar syrup is the easiest thing in 
 the world to make. You only have to put into a pan one 
 pound of sugar and one quarter pint of water, and boil 
 them together for five minutes, skimming away any froth 
 that may rise. Bottle the mixture. Add a spoonful or 
 two to each glass of fruit drink. 
 
 SIROP DE GROSEILLES (RED CURRANT SYRUP). Wash 
 the currants well. There is no need to stalk them. Put 
 them into a preserving pan with a very little water, just 
 enough to start the juice, and stew gently till they are 
 mashed. Strain them through muslin. Measure the 
 juice. To each eight pints add one pint of the juice of 
 sour cherries. Put all into a big china pan, and let it stand 
 in a cool place for one day. When you look at it, you will 
 see that a skin has formed on top. Break this skin with a 
 fork and strain the liquid through muslin again. Bottle 
 it in wine bottles, corking tightly, and wiring down the 
 corks. 
 
 Pack them into a fish kettle or boiler, with a little hay 
 between, to keep them from dancing about and cracking 
 
 [ 195 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 each other when they begin to boil. Fill up the kettle with 
 cold water, taking care that it does not come higher than 
 the shanks of the bottles, and bring all to the boil. Let 
 it boil steadily for twenty-five minutes. Then draw the 
 kettle aside and allow it to cool gradually. 
 
 When the water is quite cold, take out the bottles, let 
 them stand till the corks are perfectly dry, and then cover 
 the corks completely with sealing wax, — that cheap wax 
 which is used in postoffices. You can buy it in huge lumps. 
 Store the bottles in a cool, dark place. The cellar is the 
 ideal spot for them, provided that it is dry. 
 
 Into my mind there crept the memory of a most wonderful 
 and elaborate book on fruit bottling, which I translated 
 from American into French some few years ago. That 
 book was full of advice about self-sealing jars, sterilization 
 machines, tables of temperature degrees, and goodness 
 alone knows what-and-all. 
 
 “ Colette,” said I doubtfully, “will the syrup really keep, 
 if it ’s just done like that — only in ordinary bottles, 
 corked down? It seems too simple, almost — ” 
 
 Colette rose with heavy dignity and clinked out into the 
 pantry. After a moment, she returned with a glass of 
 brilliant, blood-red liquid and a couple of little sweet 
 sponge biscuits to dip into it. 
 
 “Well?” asked she, when the whole affair had been 
 incorporated into my personality. 
 
 “It could not be better. It tastes as if you had pressed 
 out the currants an hour ago in the garden under a hot 
 sun. You know how the sun-heat brings out all the sharp, 
 stinging taste of fruit, don’t you? Well, it ’s like that.” 
 
 “ It has been in bottles in the cellar more than five 
 months. When a thing does not keep, I shall tell you.” 
 Colette squashes as heavily as she walks ! But I did n’t 
 
 [ 196] 
 
Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 mind ; I mentally passed on the snub to the writer of that 
 fruit-bottling book and remained undisturbed. 
 
 SIROP DE FRAMBOISES (RASPBERRY SYRUP). Pick and 
 wash the raspberries, and stew them, just like the currants, 
 for ten minutes, stirring all the time. Strain the juice. 
 To five pints of raspberry add one pint of sour cherry juice. 
 Proceed exactly as you did for the currant syrup. 
 
 SIROP DE FRAISES (STRAWBERRY SYRUP). Make it 
 exactly like currant syrup. Don’t let the strawberries 
 stew too long or they will lose their color. The pulp that 
 remains, both of strawberries and raspberries, can be used 
 up for puddings, etc., provided that they are carefully 
 picked over before stewing. 
 
 FRAMBOISES LIQUIDES (RASPBERRY VINEGAR). Pick and 
 wash one pound of very ripe raspberries. Put them in a 
 basin, pour one and one quarter pints of white vinegar over 
 them, and leave them to soak for a fortnight, keeping the 
 basin in a cool place, and covering it with a cloth. At the 
 end of a fortnight, strain the liquid into a preserving pan, 
 and melt two and three quarters pounds of the best white 
 sugar in it. Stir till the sugar is melted. Let the mixture 
 come almost, but not quite, to the boil. Pour into bottles 
 and cork at once. Store in a cool place. 
 
 Sirop d’Abricots (Apricot Syrup) 
 
 4 pounds very ripe apricots 
 2 pints water 
 4 pounds sugar 
 
 Boil the apricots and water together till they are in pulp. 
 Put them through a very fine sieve. Add the sugar and 
 bring all to the boil, skimming carefully. Fill bottles and 
 finish them off like the other syrups. 
 
 This is sweet and thick, and it needs only to have plain 
 or soda water added to it, — nothing sugary at all. 
 
 [ i97] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 sirop violat (violet syrup) is a deliciously fragrant 
 drink, with soda water; it is also very good for perfuming 
 creams, etc. 
 
 Take one pound of violets, the flowers only. Bruise 
 them in a mortar, add a wine-glassful of soft water, and 
 leave them to soak for an hour. Cook four pounds of 
 sugar to “pearl” (see page 140). Let the sugar go off 
 the boil, put in your violets, and stir them round and round 
 with a wooden spoon for five minutes. Pass the syrup 
 through muslin into a big basin. Let it get perfectly cold. 
 When it is cold, fill small bottles with it, and seal the corks. 
 
 sirop d’ceillet (syrup of clove pinks) smells and 
 tastes of all the flower gardens in France, baking under a 
 hot June sun, or fading off into silvery night mists and dew, 
 all heavy and sweet with the richness of the rose beds and 
 the fragrant borders. Quite a poetic drink ! 
 
 “And so useful, too,” says Colette. “It fortifies the 
 stomach ! ” 
 
 “Oh — er — well, go on, anyway ! ” 
 
 “But I can’t go on till I know if they have the right sort 
 of pot in which to make it. It must be a big earthenware 
 pot, glazed inside, and with a narrow neck. No other kind 
 will do. If they haven’t got it, or they can’t buy it, their 
 pinks must just go into vases in the drawing room, that’s 
 all.” 
 
 Strip off the stalks and green cups of the flowers. Put 
 three pounds of petals into your big jar, pour on nine pints 
 of boiling, soft water, and plunge the flowers well down 
 into it with a wooden spoon. Cover the pot with a plate 
 and stand it at the side of the fire, where it will simmer, for 
 one hour. At the end of the hour, heat it more strongly, 
 so that the liquid may just boil. But mind you do not 
 crack the pot with too fierce a heat. Have ready three 
 
 [ 198] 
 
Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 pounds more of pinks, strain the boiling liquid on to them, 
 return them to the pot, and let them simmer beside the fire 
 for another hour. 
 
 Now cook six pounds of sugar to “pearl.” Mix it into 
 the liquid, add a drop of red coloring, to tint all a delicate 
 pink. Strain it through muslin. 
 
 When it is perfectly cold, put it into little bottles, and seal 
 the corks. 
 
 orangeade. Take five fine, large oranges, and rub on 
 them the pieces of four pounds of lump sugar. Put the 
 sugar in an earthenware jar, strain over it the juice of the 
 oranges, and one and one half pints of water, in which you 
 have melted twenty-five grams of citric acid. Cover the 
 jar with a damp cloth, stand it in the cellar, and let all soak 
 for twenty-four hours. Then strain it through muslin, put 
 it into small bottles, and cork and seal them. 
 
 You need two fingers of Orangeade to a glass of soda water. 
 
 sirop d ’orgeat is a thing that we serve as a liqueur , 
 though, really, it is the strictest of temperance drinks. 
 
 1 pound sweet almonds 
 
 3 ounces bitter almonds 
 
 4 tablespoonfuls orange-flower water 
 
 2 pints pure water 
 
 2 pounds sugar 
 
 Blanch the almonds and grind them up in a mortar, with 
 the sugar, and just enough water to make the whole affair 
 into a paste. You will find it easiest to divide the paste into 
 four or five parts and pound each separately, for it has to 
 be done very well indeed, and the entire quantity is difficult 
 to handle all at once. When it is all pounded as smooth as 
 butter, add the rest of the water and stir up well. Pour 
 the mixture into a clean cloth — not too closely woven — 
 and twist and press it strongly till every drop of liquid is 
 
 [ 199 ] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 squeezed out into a basin. Put the liquid into a pan, add 
 the rest of the sugar, stand it on a gentle heat, and keep 
 stirring all the while, till it just comes to the boil. Then 
 take it off, add the orange-flower water, and, when the 
 liquor is cool, bottle it and seal the corks. Shake the bottle 
 very well before pouring out the liquor. 
 
 Those are about the best of the syrups, I think. Now 
 let us get to bottled fruits, which Colette does beautifully. 
 All the winter through I have compote of fruit which tastes 
 and looks almost exactly as if it had come straight from the 
 garden. And yet — I confess it with every possible apology 
 to every modern and perfected process of “canning” — 
 Colette uses any old bottle or jar on which she can lay her 
 hands, and the only things she ever gets new is corks. 
 She has a whole set of those, fresh every year, for a cork that 
 has been once pierced in the drawing can never serve 
 again ; it would let air into the bottle. 
 
 By the way, the corks are soaked in cold water for twenty- 
 four hours before use, and the bottles are most scrupulously 
 washed and then dried in the sun. I am not sure if Colette 
 knows that sun kills germs ; indeed, I rather doubt if she is 
 on speaking terms with the germ and microbe tribe. But 
 she does know that, if you stand all your pots and pans and 
 bottles and things out in the sun, now and again, your food 
 is going to keep much better than it would do if you merely 
 dried them with a cloth. 
 
 bottled cherries. Take ripe but sour cherries, of 
 the kind used for cooking, wipe them, and cut the stalks to 
 the length of half an inch. 
 
 It ’s a French fashion to leave a bit of stalk, and to pick 
 up the cherry by its tail, and eat it like that out of your 
 fingers. But if you don’t care for that way of doing things, 
 remove the stalk altogether. 
 
 [ 200] 
 
Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 Pack them into wine bottles, shaking them down well, 
 but not squashing them at all. 
 
 Put into a preserving pan three pounds of the best white 
 sugar and three quarters of a pint of water. Boil them 
 d la plume (see page 140). 
 
 When the syrup is cooked to this degree, fill up the bottles, 
 cork them, and wire down the corks. Then treat them just 
 as we told you in the directions for Currant Syrup. 
 
 “How long will they keep, Colette? ” 
 
 “How can I tell you? Each winter I use them all up. 
 There is no sense in hoarding things from one year to 
 another. But, as they are as fresh, both in look and taste, 
 as if they had just been gathered, I see no reason why they 
 should not keep jusqu'd la vie eternelle , quoit ” 
 
 Neither do I. 
 
 bottled apricots. Cut them open and take out the 
 stones. Crack a few of the stones and boil the almonds in 
 the syrup, to give it flavor. Proceed exactly as for the 
 bottled cherries. 
 
 bottled strawberries. Choose strawberries that 
 are not yet perfectly ripe. They must be red, of course, 
 but not too soft. Mix into them one fifth of their own bulk 
 of white raspberries, — wood raspberries are best. Treat 
 them just like the cherries, except that you must not allow 
 them to boil for more than eight minutes, or they will go 
 to squash. 
 
 bottled raspberries. Treat them just like strawberries. 
 They, also, must be barely ripe. 
 
 red plums. Leave in their stones. Otherwise, do them 
 just like the apricots, except that they must be boiled for a 
 full half-hour. 
 
 green gages. Take out their stones. Boil them for 
 twenty minutes only. They turn rather yellow in cooking 
 
 [ 201 ] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 and tend to squash. I notice that Colette is so little proud 
 of them that she always serves them to me when I am 
 alone. So much the better for me ! Though not quite as 
 tempting to look at as the other bottled fruits, they are the 
 nicest of all in taste, being honey-sweet and quite delicious. 
 
 blackberries and all other soft seed berries should be 
 done like raspberries. The larger and firmer the berries, 
 the more boiling they want. You may go up to one quarter 
 of an hour in the case of anything very large, such as dew- 
 berries. 
 
 peaches are rare and expensive in France, and Colette 
 says she has only bottled them once in all her life. On 
 that occasion, she dipped them into boiling water to loosen 
 the skins, peeled them, took out the stones, and then pro- 
 ceeded just as with apricots, except that she boiled them for 
 a full half hour. 
 
 She will never agree to bottle apples and pears. She 
 says that they take a great deal of space and are really 
 not worth the trouble that one must spend upon them, — 
 especially as it is possible to preserve them in many ways 
 that are a great deal more practical. 
 
 She is very strong indeed on Fruit Pastes. Do you have 
 those in America, I wonder? They are small rounds or 
 squares of dried fruit pulp, sugared outside. Sometimes 
 we melt them down and make a sort of jam-like mixture of 
 them ; but more often they are eaten dry, with bread, in 
 place of jam. Children simply love them, and they are 
 very useful things indeed to put into a lunch basket or 
 school bag ; just as nourishing as jam, and far less messy. 
 
 PATE DE POIRES ET DE POMMES (PASTE OF PEARS OR APPLES). 
 Take fruit which is all of one kind, — for instance, you 
 must not try to mix the fruits off several different trees, 
 because the time taken in cooking varies with the species. 
 
 [ 202 ] 
 
Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 Throw them into a preserving pan of hot water and boil 
 hard till, on pinching the fruit, you find it soft to your 
 fingers. Throw it, then, into cold water, and, as soon as 
 you can handle it, peel it, and put it to drip on a sieve. 
 Let it drip quite dry and then rub it through the sieve with a 
 wooden spoon into a basin underneath. (The holes of the 
 sieve must be fine enough to keep back the pips, etc.) 
 Weigh the pulp and put it into the preserving pan. Keep 
 stirring it constantly over a fire which is not too fierce — 
 for it is very likely indeed to burn — till it is so completely 
 dried that, neither by tilting the pan nor by squeezing the 
 paste with the spoon, can you bring up even a drop of 
 water. 
 
 “Tell them to take the pan off the fire while they are 
 trying the pulp/’ says anxious old Colette. “ Right off ! 
 If they stop stirring even for a second while it is on the heat, 
 it will scorch — and smell! MonDieu! It will smell the 
 house out ! ” 
 
 Now take the same weight of sugar that you had of pulp, 
 and, in a separate pan, cook it to grande plume (see page 
 140). Stir it well into the cooked paste. Put the pan back 
 on the fire and look after it with even more than your former 
 care till it begins to quiver on the surface, showing that, in 
 another moment, it will break into those big, sighing bubbles, 
 which very thick mixtures make when they boil. 
 
 Take off the pan. Drop the paste in lozenges on dishes 
 or unpainted trays, which can go into the oven. After 
 the last meal at night has been cooked, slip them in and let 
 the lozenges dry till morning by the aid of the dying fire. 
 
 Next day lift them with a knife. (They will have 
 stuck, but never mind, you can easily smooth them off. 
 But their tendency to stick explains the reason why the 
 trays must not be painted.) Wash the trays or dishes. 
 
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Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 Turn the lozenges the other side up on them and dry them 
 through another night. Roll them in sifted sugar and store 
 them in tin boxes, with a sheet of paper between each two 
 rows. 
 
 If you are going to use the paste for cooking, spread it 
 out in big thin sheets on the dishes ; don’t bother to make 
 lozenges. When you want to use it, simmer it down gently 
 with just enough water to prevent it from sticking to the 
 pan. It then makes a mixture which is not at all unlike a 
 puree of fresh apples and does very well indeed for tarts, 
 puddings, etc. 
 
 On the whole, Colette thinks apple paste nicer than pear 
 paste. The flavor of pears is so delicate that it is very apt 
 to be lost during the processes of cooking and storage: 
 besides, there is a certain grittiness about pear paste which 
 Colette considers a great defect. (She will not have her 
 teeth seen to, the obstinate old witch ! So how can she 
 expect to get along, at her age, with gritty foods ?) 
 
 PATE DE PRUNES OU D’ABRICOTS (PLUM OR APRICOT 
 paste) is made in just the same way, except that the fruit 
 needs no first boiling to soften it. Peel and stone it. 
 Weigh it. Put it through a sieve. And then go on as 
 above. 
 
 PATE DE MARRONS (CHESTNUT PASTE) is SO much of a 
 bonbon that, really, it ought to go into the chapter on 
 Sweets. It is never used for cooking, I think, — at least, I 
 have always eaten it “in my fingers.” 
 
 Boil the chestnuts in plain water till they are soft. 
 Then peel them. Put them through a sieve or a potato 
 press and weigh them. To each pound of them allow one 
 and one half pounds of sugar and one quarter pound of thick 
 apricot or raspberry jam, — not whole fruit in syrup, but 
 the thick, close jam which French folks call “marmalade.” 
 
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Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 Cook the sugar as before : then stir in the chestnuts and 
 jam and proceed as above. 
 
 “Colette, you have not said a word about dried things.” 
 
 “But it is too easy,” Colette objects. “All they must 
 do is to string the things up in the attic or the loft. Every 
 little country girl knows how.” 
 
 “Just tell it quickly, all the same. Perhaps they have 
 not been in the country for a long while, and they have 
 forgotten.” 
 
 dreed apples. Choose cooking apples, which have been 
 picked by hand, so that they are not bruised. Peel them. 
 Core them without breaking them. Cut them into slices 
 about one eighth of an inch thick, using either a sharp 
 ivory paper knife or a silver fruit knife. Thread them on a 
 long string and hang the string, like a washing line, under 
 the hot tiles of the attic or the loft. Walk along and care- 
 fully separate the bits of apple, so that they do not touch 
 each other. Leave them till they are quite dry — quite 
 curled and shriveled and hard — and then store them in 
 tins. 
 
 Shut the attic doors and windows at night and stuff the 
 chinks ; if the damp September night mist gets in too much, 
 your apples may go musty. 
 
 dried mushrooms. Peel them. Cut the stalk to half an 
 inch in length, and string up the mushrooms by their 
 stalks, using a packing needle and fine twine. Let them dry 
 till they go to powder when you touch them. As you 
 unstring them, a great number will fall to bits, but this 
 really does not matter. Pound them up, store them in 
 corked jars, and use them for flavoring soups, gravies, etc. 
 Store the unbroken ones in tins. They have all their 
 flavor, though they never look quite as tempting as fresh 
 mushrooms. 
 
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Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 herbs are just tied into bunches — not too big — and 
 hung up till they get dry. As soon as the first damp 
 freshness is off, inclose the bunches loosely in ventilated 
 paper bags. If you forget to do this, you will go up one 
 fine day, when there is a gale, and the windows have been 
 left open, to find bunches of stalks hanging from the rafters, 
 while the floor is strewn with sweet-scented leaves. 
 
 “And now for the jams!” says Colette joyfully. She 
 loves making jam. “I will tell them jams without 
 end.” 
 
 “Indeed you will not,” say I firmly, “and that for two 
 reasons, i. I want my tea. 2. Jam is very much the 
 same all the world over, as far as the ordinary makes go, 
 and there ’s no sense in telling folks what they know al- 
 ready. Tell them only what they are unlikely to know, and 
 only as much as you can say in the time the kettle takes to 
 boil.” 
 
 Colette growls. But, seeing that there is no help for it, 
 she fills the kettle, puts it on a fire which, I notice, she 
 carefully does n't stir out of its smoldering state, and hurries 
 on with the recipes which she thinks specially French and 
 therefore specially worth attention. 
 
 GELEE DE RAISINS NOIRS (jELLY OF BLACK GRAPES). 
 Outdoor grapes, which are not quite ripe enough to come to 
 table, do very well indeed for this. 
 
 Pull them off their stalks and cook them gently till they 
 begin to split. Squeeze the juice through a clean cloth. 
 Weigh it. Add the same weight of sugar, and boil like any 
 ordinary jelly, skimming with great care. At the end of 
 ten minutes, begin to try it by dropping a little on a cold 
 plate. As soon as it sets, pot it in small pots and cover with 
 wax papers or brandy papers. 
 
 Grape Jelly has a very delicate and delicious taste. It 
 
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Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 is not much good for eating on bread, as the flavor is hardly 
 strong enough ; but it is the most delicious thing you can 
 think of for filling tartlet cases or those sponge cakes which 
 have a hole in the middle. 
 
 By the way, Colette never covers either jams or jellies 
 till a full week after making. She gives as her reason that 
 the contents of the pot settle down during that time and 
 shrink away from a paper that is already in place, leaving 
 room for air to get in : so it is best to wait till the shrinkage 
 is over before putting on the covers. 
 
 Now, there can be no doubt about it, Colette’s jams keep 
 most beautifully. It is the rarest thing on earth for her to 
 have a moldy pot. But, in the interests of truth, I feel 
 bound to tell you that her method has excited shouts of 
 disapprobation from all the jam-making women to whom I 
 have ever mentioned it! A far more generally accepted 
 idea seems to be that the covers should be put on as soon as 
 ever the surface of the jam is cool and stiff enough to 
 hold them, in order that dust and germs which breed decay 
 may be shut out as soon as possible. And I have known this 
 method to give very good results, too. So, really, I can’t 
 tell which to recommend. 
 
 “Haven’t you finished writing the Black Grapes yet?” 
 asks Colette, who wants to get on. 
 
 “Why, yes. I ’m just telling them there is something I 
 don’t know.” 
 
 “A pity to waste your time on what they ’ll guess for 
 themselves. Do you imagine they take you for God 
 Almighty?” 
 
 GELEE ROUGE (jELLY OF TOMATOES AND RED CURRANTS) 
 is the most lovely-looking, blood-red preserve you can 
 imagine, and it has a half-sharp taste, which many folks 
 like much better than dead sweetness. It is the jelly par 
 
 [ 207 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 excellence for eating with mutton or game, and beautiful 
 for decoration, on account of its perfect color. 
 
 8 pounds tomatoes, very ripe and red 
 2 pounds sugar 
 i pint water 
 
 i pint red currant jelly. The juice of ripe currants would do even 
 better, but they are not in season when outdoor tomatoes fall 
 ripe, — at least, not over here. 
 
 Cut the tomatoes in little bits and rub them through a 
 rather coarse sieve, which lets all the pulp pass and only 
 holds back the pips and skins. Put the pulp and juice in 
 the preserving pan and let it boil five minutes, stirring all 
 the while. Strain it first through an ordinary cloth, and 
 then through silk, — or very fine muslin, if you have no 
 silk that you care to use. 
 
 While the puree is straining, put on the sugar and water, 
 and let them cook en casse (see page 140). Add the 
 currant jelly, and what remains of the tomatoes after the 
 second straining. It will be little more than juice. Let it 
 start cooking on a very slow heat but increase the fire 
 gradually till it boils at a gallop. Stir it very carefully. 
 When it is cooked d la nappe put it into little pots. 
 
 marmelade cevenole is a curious mixture of fruit and 
 vegetables, which sounds as if it ought to be horrid, but is 
 really very good indeed. Try just once, and see if your 
 folks can guess what it is. They ’ll be unusually bright if 
 they can ! 
 
 Take equal amounts of apples, pears, plums, melon, toma- 
 toes, cooked red beetroot, and little tender carrots. Peel 
 all and boil each separately, as no two take the same amount 
 of time. Let them drip for twelve hours. Keep the water 
 that drips from them. Weigh them. Take half their total 
 
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Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 weight of sugar, and melt it in the water of the drippings 
 on a moderate heat. Now add the fruit and also a muslin 
 bag which contains the following seasonings for each three 
 pounds of fruit. 
 
 The rind of i lemon 
 The rind of i orange 
 i stick of cinnamon 
 | nutmeg 
 6 cloves 
 
 Pour in enough water just to cover all. Boil steadily, 
 but not too fast, for seven hours. Take away the spices 
 and pot the jam. 
 
 It should boil into a soft, thick paste, which is very good 
 for spreading on bread. Towards the end of the time, 
 stir it pretty often, for, as it goes thick, it is likely to scorch. 
 
 It is a jam that is used enormously here for schools, 
 institutes, the servants’ halls of big houses, and so forth. 
 
 confiture de cerises (whole cherry jam) in its clear 
 red syrup, is such a beautiful preserve that it is worth the 
 trouble of making just right. 
 
 Stone the cherries without breaking them, and weigh 
 four pounds. Take one and three quarters pounds of 
 sugar and put it in the preserving pan with one pint of 
 water and the cherries. Set the pan on a very sharp heat 
 and stir gently, taking pains not to break the fruit, till 
 the syrup is cooked d la nappe. Then pour both cherries 
 and syrup into a big basin and let them stand till 
 next day. (They must not stop in the pan, or their color 
 will be spoiled.) Next day, put them back in the pan, with 
 another one and three quarters pounds of sugar, and cook 
 till the syrup is d la nappe again. Then ladle the fruit into 
 pots with a drainer. Fill the pots just half full and then 
 pour in syrup to finish them. 
 
 [209] 
 
Colette’s Best Recipes 
 
 This jam does not spread well on bread. The syrup only 
 just sets. We very often serve it as a rather specially nice 
 dessert, handing whipped cream or Sweet Cheese with it. 
 
 confiture d’abricots (whole apricot jam) is another 
 preserve that is both beautiful to look at and delicious to 
 eat. 
 
 Take fruit that is quite ripe, but not at all squashy. 
 Make a little hole with a knife at the end of each apricot 
 and push out the stone. Weigh them after stoning till 
 you have four pounds. 
 
 Have ready a big pan of fast-boiling water, throw in the 
 apricots, and let them cook as long as they can without 
 breaking. But, as soon as ever you see that they begin 
 to crack, take them off, drop them into cold water to set 
 them, and then drain them in a sieve. 
 
 Put on four pounds of sugar to boil, with just enough 
 water to help it melt. Cook it d la plume (see page 140). 
 Put in the apricots gently, one at a time. Let them boil 
 for three minutes. Then pour them off into a basin. Let 
 them stand all night. Next day, drain off the liquid, cook 
 it again a la plume , and repeat the first process. Then pot 
 the apricots just like the cherries. 
 
 Both fruit and syrup ought to be a clear, bright gold in 
 color. The syrup just sets. 
 
 Jars of this whole-fruit jam in syrup ought not to be 
 moved more than is necessary. As long as they are let 
 alone, they keep forever. But, if once you start shifting 
 and tilting them, you will get the covers all messed with the 
 syrup, and then the contents of the jars will very soon go 
 bad. 
 
 conserve de poires (whole pear jam). Peel the pears 
 neatly, halve them, and take away the cores. Do them 
 exactly like the apricots, except that, of course, they will 
 
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Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 want much longer boiling at first, in order to soften them. 
 Some pears remain perfectly white. Others turn pink and 
 are all the better for being helped by the addition of a 
 tablespoonful or so of vinegar, which helps them to color 
 nicely. Many people like a few cloves, tied in muslin, and 
 boiled in the syrup of the pears. 
 
 conserve de peches (peach jam). Peel the peaches 
 as neatly as you can and stone them. Throw them into a 
 big pan of boiling water. As soon as they swim up to the 
 top, take them out with a drainer, and drop them into 
 cold water. Then go on just as for the Apricot Jam. 
 Some people think that a very wee drop of pink coloring 
 improves the look of the syrup. 
 
 conserve de poncires (melon jam). Peel the melon 
 thick, so that all the green comes away. Seed it. Cut 
 the flesh into small pieces. Allow one and one half pounds 
 of sugar and one half gill of vinegar to each two pounds of 
 fruit. Boil very gently for three hours. It ought to boil 
 into a perfectly smooth pulp. If any pieces remain, crush 
 them against the sides of the pan with a spoon. 
 
 conserve de marrons (chestnut jam). This is ex- 
 tremely nourishing and very much to be recommended for 
 lunch baskets, sandwiches, and so on. 
 
 Peel off the first skin of the nuts with a knife ; boil them 
 half an hour in plain water, and then you will be able, quite 
 easily, to get off the second skin also. While they are still 
 hot, pound them up into a smooth paste. 
 
 Put two pounds of sugar and one gill of water into the 
 preserving pan, and let them come to the boil. Then add 
 two pounds of the paste and let the whole boil for one half 
 hour, stirring it constantly, so that it may not stick to the 
 pan. Add vanilla flavoring and pot the preserve while it 
 is still hot. 
 
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Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 It will not keep for more than four months. 
 
 A perfectly delicious sweet can be made by turning out 
 small pots of chestnut jam into a glass dish and surrounding 
 them with a liquid Creme a la Vanille. 
 
 If you want to make good conserves, always 
 
 Use nothing but the best fruit and sugar. Some folks 
 seem to have a notion that any old thing can be hidden away 
 in jam and find a happy home there. But this is not correct. 
 One bad berry, or one speck of mold on a peach is enough 
 to cause the destruction of a whole shelf full of pots of 
 preserves. 
 
 Peel with a silver or ivory knife, if you can manage it. 
 It is harder work and takes longer than peeling with a steel 
 knife, and it is not absolutely necessary. But, undeniably, 
 it makes a real difference both in the color and flavor of the 
 preserve. 
 
 Colette swears by a copper preserving pan. She says 
 there is nothing else which gets so hot and keeps the fruit 
 at such a fierce pitch of boiling, — and this is very necessary 
 for some kinds of jam. But, of course, a really good copper 
 preserving pan is expensive, and some folks may not be 
 able to get one. If you have to use enameled ware, do 
 mind, won’t you, that you either cease using the pan or 
 get it mended the moment the enamel begins to chip : for, 
 once it starts, there will always be little bits coming off, 
 and they are horribly dangerous for you “innards.” 
 
 Wash all jam and jelly pots scrupulously. Before using, 
 stand them in the rack above the fire. This insures perfect 
 dryness and also hinders them from cracking when the hot 
 jam is put into them. 
 
 Mind you pick your fruit on a day which is dry itself, 
 and has been preceded by as many other dry days as 
 possible. Damp-picked fruit is sure to make jam that molds. 
 
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Colette Puts Up Conserves 
 
 If you have even the least suspicion that the jam is 
 scorching, stop stirring that second. Take the pan off the 
 fire and pour the preserve at once, very gently , in a big bowl. 
 Watch it all the while. As soon as you see that it is begin- 
 ning to pour dark, or that there are specks in it, start 
 pouring into another basin. Don’t scrape the pan. All 
 that refuses to pour is unfit to eat. You will almost 
 certainly find that the contents of the first basin are 
 untainted ; that those of the second basin, though tainted, 
 are quite good enough to be finished off for the children ; 
 and that the amount you finally loose is inconsiderable. 
 
 When you have a big store of bottled fruits, syrups, etc., 
 it is a good plan to make a habit of using one bottle from 
 each every month, just to assure yourself that they are 
 all right. We keep all bottles, jam jars, etc., on open 
 shelves in a closet where there is a continual, strong draught, 
 — but a dry draught. If you put them in a wet place, they 
 will mold, in a hot place, they will dry up and loose all 
 color and flavor ; while in an airless place, whether it be hot 
 or cold, they will certainly ferment. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SOME OF THE THINGS I HAVE LEFT OUT 
 
 C OLETTE can’t write. She can read, — at least, 
 she says she can, though she never reads anything 
 but her prayer book, and that, as a rule, upside 
 down. But writing is a form of “kultur” which she has 
 left sternly alone. 
 
 We never felt the need of it till this summer. When I 
 go away from home, I leave my name and address, written 
 in large round hand, and a bit of tracing paper : and she 
 takes immense pleasure in tracing the direction on the 
 backs of all the most astonishing post-cards the village 
 shop can furnish, and sending them to me. But this sum- 
 mer I have regretted her lack of writing power. It ’s wor- 
 risome work collaborating in a cook book with a person 
 who remembers important things at odd times, and can’t 
 make notes of them. 
 
 She comes pelting after me at the most inconvenient 
 moments. I see the door open a crack and hear a pleading 
 cough come through the opening, just when I am in the 
 middle of a most absorbing conversation ; I get stage whis- 
 pers hissed into my ears during meals ; or a frantic pound- 
 ing at the bathroom door makes me poke my head out to 
 hear that Colette quite forgot to tell me this or that, and 
 the book will be an utter failure without it. 
 
 Sometimes all my energy goes into keeping my temper. 
 Sometimes I may be able to make a note as well. And 
 then the notes get lost ! What a life ! 
 
 [ 214] 
 
Some Things I Have Left Out 
 
 In this chapter, you will find all the notes I have n’t lost. 
 If the recipe in any other chapter leaves you with a sort 
 of question in your mind — a feeling that you are not quite 
 sure if something has n’t been kept back from you — just 
 turn to this chapter. It is n’t long, but there are a good 
 many things worth knowing in it. 
 
 what salt will do for flavors. Mix one saltspoon- 
 ful of salt into each pound of ground coffee. It brings out 
 the taste and makes the coffee seem much stronger. You 
 can’t taste the salt itself at all. 
 
 Mix one teaspoonful of salt with each pound of sugar, 
 when you are making jam or preserve of any kind. It 
 deepens the flavor of the sugar, besides helping the jam to 
 keep well. 
 
 When preparing rhubarb for stewing, cut it up, sprinkle 
 it thickly with salt, and let it stand for at least two hours. 
 Then scald it in boiling water, and rinse it well. If pre- 
 pared in this way, it loses all its horrid “teeth-on-edge” 
 taste. 
 
 some sugar strategies. Put a wee pinch of sugar — 
 as well as the ordinary amount of salt and pepper — into 
 each omelette, each dish of scrambled eggs, and powder a 
 tiny sprinkling on each poached egg. It gives a very deli- 
 cate and delicious flavor. 
 
 Always cook a teaspoonful of sugar and a small onion 
 with your carrots and your green peas. The sugar and the 
 onion don’t taste — there is only enough of them to make 
 the vegetables seem unusually nice. 
 
 Mix together equal amounts of flour and sugar, and sprin- 
 kle the mixture lightly into each bun or bread tin, after 
 it has been greased. If you do this, the buns will be less 
 likely to burn, and will always have a nice, sweet, short 
 crust. 
 
 [ 215] 
 
Colette s Best Recipes 
 
 Always put a dash of fine white sugar into the salad 
 dressing. 
 
 baking soda is most useful. When the potatoes, 
 carrots, or other vegetables are not cooked in time, add a 
 teaspoonful of baking soda, and stir up the pot well. Leave 
 it to boil for a few minutes more, and you will find that 
 the vegetables are wonderfully softened. Drain them very 
 well and throw away the water, which is not any good for 
 soup on account of the presence of the soda. 
 
 Cook a wee grain of baking soda in any custard, milk 
 pudding, or mold that you may be making. Then, if some 
 is left, it will keep nicely till next day, without separating 
 itself into solid and watery parts, as it is apt to do without 
 the soda. 
 
 asparagus stalks. Cut the white stalks of asparagus 
 into tiny rounds with a sharp knife. Dry them in a gentle 
 oven. Store them in tins. When wanted, soak them over- 
 night in cold water and boil them in the soup. They give 
 a flavor which makes a very welcome change when aspara- 
 gus is out of season. 
 
 red crumbs. Rub a small piece of very stale bread 
 through a sieve. Drop a few drops of carmine or cochineal 
 on a saucer, and turn the crumbs in it till they are a good 
 bright red. Mix them with a little chopped parsley, and, 
 just at the moment of service, sprinkle white soup, white 
 sauce, ’or white boiled fish with them. They are as pretty 
 as possible ! But they must not be allowed to lie, or they 
 will stain the white on which they are sprinkled. 
 
 garlic water. “ They don’t eat garlic much in America, 
 Colette,” said I. “It needs a pure-bred Frenchman or 
 Italian to like that.” 
 
 “Who is asking them to eat garlic? Myself, I cannot 
 eat it — I taste it in my mouth for a week afterwards. But 
 
 [ 216] 
 
Some Things I Have Left Out 
 
 garlic water is quite another thing. When there is a little 
 of it in a sauce or a soup, you do not taste garlic at all — 
 you only wonder why the soup is so good to-day.” 
 
 Take a bead of garlic, peel it, pound it in a mortar, pour 
 quarter of a pint of boiling water over it, and let it stand till 
 quite cold. Then strain it through muslin and bottle the 
 liquid, using just a few drops at a time for seasoning. 
 
 ONION butter. That ’s a very useful thing when you 
 have to cook for people who don’t like onions, or can’t 
 digest them. Without onions in one form or another, 
 meats, gravies, and soups taste weak and poor. But, if 
 you make the onions into a butter, you get the strength of 
 them, without the actual flavor. 
 
 Peel two large onions. Slice them. Pound them in a 
 mortar till they are reduced to a pulp, — no pieces left at 
 all. Pass them through a fine sieve and mix them with 
 two tablespoonfuls of butter or very good dripping. Keep 
 the whole thing on a plate in the larder. When you are 
 preparing a roast, just rub it over with a little of the mix- 
 ture. Rub a little, also, around the inside of a fowl or a 
 duck before cooking it. Melt a little in the stewpan before 
 you make your stew and stir a teaspoonful or so into the 
 soup. No one will be able to accuse you of cooking with 
 onions ; but the hint of flavor will be found one of those 
 important little things that “make all the difference.” 
 some meat seasonings. Lard a piece of beef with sliv- 
 ers of cut onion, pour two tablespoonfuls of vinegar and 
 the same amount of water into the baking tin, and baste 
 the beef often with this liquid during the time of roasting. 
 The result is a flavor not unlike that of venison, but more 
 delicate. 
 
 Beat a steak. Sprinkle it thickly with pepper, salt, and 
 chopped mint. Pour over it enough vinegar to soak it and 
 
 [ 217] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 let it lie for one hour. Then drain it, shake off the herbs, 
 and grill or stew it in the usual way. It will look just like 
 an ordinary steak but will taste perfectly different and 
 very much better. 
 
 As soon as a chicken or rabbit has been emptied, tie to- 
 gether a little bunch of sage, thyme, mint, and parsley. Dip 
 this bunch first in water and then in salt and pepper. Put 
 it into the inside of the beastie and let it remain till the 
 cooking is finished. The meat will be deliciously scented 
 and fragrant, without having anything that could definitely 
 be called an herb flavor. 
 
 When you are making a stew with onions, or a hash, or 
 anything of that kind, try the effect of first frying the on- 
 ions and then sprinkling them with a pinch of powdered 
 sugar before you mix them with the meat. This treat- 
 ment takes away all their rather strong, coarse taste, and 
 makes them the most delicate and delicious seasoning that 
 any one could find. 
 
 When you cook a rabbit or hare, do you always take care 
 to use a little fresh fat pork with it ? English cooks gen- 
 erally put bacon with a hare, but the result is not at all the 
 same. What you want is the taste of the fresh pig, and 
 no amount of salt bacon will replace that. 
 
 If you are not using liver in a hash you will find a good 
 pinch of mixed spice an excellent thing. Use pepper and 
 salt in the ordinary quantities, and the spice in addition. 
 Colette is very fond of putting it into cold pates and things 
 of that sort. A cold mince with a little spice in it does not 
 taste flat and dead, as a plain mince is so apt to do. 
 
 Do you grate about half a bead of garlic into two table- 
 spoonfuls of olive oil, and then paint a roast of veal over 
 with it just when the skin is beginning to turn brown? 
 It ’s an excellent thing to do, for the oil turns the skin a 
 
 [ 218 ] 
 
Some Things I Have Left Out 
 
 crisp bright gold, while the garlic almost cooks away to 
 nothing, remaining only as the faintest possible savor when 
 the joint is done. 
 
 You cook apples with your pork in America, I know. 
 But do you ever stuff it with apples and chestnuts mixed ? 
 There is a dream of a dish ! Boil the chestnuts, skin them, 
 and pass them through a sieve. Peel and core the apples, 
 and put them through the food-chopper. By the way, 
 it must be sour apples that you use, — sweet ones won’t 
 do. Mix both together with just a touch of pepper and 
 salt, and stuff the pork for roasting. The fat of the rather 
 greasy joint goes into the dry chestnuts, with the result 
 that, when it is done, your stuffing is good beyond all 
 words. 
 
 mint in the soup. When you make a clear soup of 
 mutton bones or lamb bones, boil a couple of sprigs of mint 
 with the meat. Strain the stock in the usual way, reboil 
 it with the addition of Italian paste, tapioca, or whatever 
 other thickening you wish to use, and then add pepper, 
 salt, a wee pinch of sugar, and what we call “a thread” of 
 vinegar — the merest possible thread ; if you get too much, 
 folks will say that your soup has gone sour. The best way 
 to do the seasoning is to get the pepper and salt right 
 first, then add alternately a wee pinch of sugar and a 
 drop of vinegar, tasting each time. Don’t let the soup 
 boil again afterwards, or the quality of the flavor may 
 alter a little. It ’s good ! Just try it once, if you don’t 
 believe me. 
 
 Colette’s cofeee. I don’t much believe in urging 
 one’s own methods on other folks, as a rule ; it ’s a sure 
 way of asking for trouble. But, just for once, I must break 
 my rule with regard to coffee. However you may make 
 yours, and however good it is, I wish you would try Colette’s 
 
 [ 219 ] 
 
Colette's Best Recipes 
 
 way just once. For her coffee is so supremely good that 
 I am sure no other can come up to it. 
 
 Coffee should never be made for less than three people. 
 A smaller amount is both wasteful and difficult to measure. 
 If there are only one or two of you to drink it, you should 
 make the larger quantity, all the same, and warm it up. 
 It loses nothing by reheating, provided that 
 
 1. It is kept in a china vessel, covered, between whiles. 
 
 2. It is not allowed to boil in reheating. As soon as the 
 surface “whitens” in heating — which it does several sec- 
 onds before boiling time comes — the pan should be taken 
 off the fire. 
 
 The following, quantities are right for three people, who 
 are drinking coffee at breakfast or in the afternoon. (That 
 which is served after lunch or dinner wants much less water.) 
 
 5 level tablespoonfuls of ground coffee 
 
 1 \ tablespoonfuls of chicory 
 
 2 to 2 \ pints of water (according to the amount of milk used) 
 
 Mix the coffee and chicory. Warm them on a paper 
 in oven till you are just able to smell them. Warm the 
 filtre also by pouring boiling water into it. (A filtre is one 
 of those ordinary, two-storied, tin coffee pots, which one 
 can get everywhere. Colette swears that there is abso- 
 lutely nothing to touch them.) 
 
 Put the coffee and the chicory into the top of the filtre. 
 Have the water boiling up fast . Pour quite a little — about 
 a tenth part — of it into the filtre, and wait till it has all 
 run through, keeping the filtre in a place where it will be 
 very hot, but will not boil. When all has passed, make 
 the water boil hard again, and add another tenth part. 
 Keep on like this till all the water has gone through. 
 
 Have your coffee pot very hot, and your milk jug too. 
 
 [ 220 J 
 
Some Things I Have Left Out 
 
 Let the milk be freshly boiling, so that it may not have any 
 chance to form a “skin” on top. 
 
 If you are going to use tinned milk, as one has to do now 
 and then, stand the tin in a basin of hot water, so that it 
 may get warmed through, and spoon the milk into the 
 cup, just like cream, after the coffee has been poured. The 
 habit of thinning down tinned milk with hot water, and 
 serving it in a jug, is one of the worst shams I know, but 
 tinned milk, used honestly and openly, like cream, is not 
 at all bad. 
 
 The amount of milk to be used is a much discussed ques- 
 tion here. The farther south you go, the more milk you 
 get into your breakfast cup, till you arrive at three parts 
 of milk and one of coffee. But in the north, the quantities 
 are reversed, and in Belgium they put only about as much 
 milk into coffee as English folks do into tea. 
 
 Cream is rarely served with coffee in France. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Almond Bonbons, 145. 
 Chains, 155. 
 
 Meringue, 154. 
 Almonds, Deviled, 82. 
 Anchovy Sauce, 132. 
 
 Apple Bonfire, 168. 
 Marmalade, 169. 
 Meringue, 170. 
 Pancakes, 104. 
 
 Paste, 202, 
 
 Apples (Pommes) 
 
 Buttered, 189. 
 
 Creamed, 171. 
 
 Dried, 205. 
 
 Portuguese, 170. 
 Royalty, 171. 
 with Fried Bread, 170. 
 with Rice, 170. 
 
 Apricot Jam, 210. 
 
 Paste, 204. 
 
 SoufflS, 179. 
 
 Syrup, 197. 
 
 Apricots (Abricots) 
 
 Bottled, 201. 
 
 Artichokes (Artichauts), 123 
 Asparagus (Asperges) 
 
 Salad, 124. 
 
 Stalks, 216. 
 
 Babas, 159. 
 
 Bain-Marie, 132. 
 
 Baking Soda, 216. 
 
 Batter, Flemish, 97. 
 
 Friture, 97. 
 
 Sweet, 97. 
 
 Bean Soup, 9. 
 
 Beans (Haricots) 
 
 Brittany, 114. 
 
 French, 120. 
 
 Mashed, 115. 
 
 Northern, 115. 
 
 Beef (Boeuf) 
 
 Cold, Fried in Oil, 101. 
 
 Cold, Stew, 35. 
 
 Country, 37. 
 
 Filet of, a la Sultane, 59. 
 
 Filet of, with Orange Sauce, 
 
 36. 
 
 Flemish Boiled, 59. 
 
 Iron Pot, 58. 
 
 Ribs of, Flemish Style, 37. 
 Biscdmes, 162. 
 
 Biscuits 4 la Cuiller, 153. 
 Blackberries, Bottled, 202. 
 
 Bombe Marechale, 185. 
 
 Bonbons, Almond, 145. 
 
 Chocolate, 144. 
 
 Rules for Making, 149. 
 
 Bottled Fruits, 200. 
 
 Bouillon, 12. 
 
 Brains in Black Butter, 55. 
 
 Fried Ox, 98. 
 
 Bread Fritters, 105. 
 
 Soups, 5. 
 
 Brioches, 161. 
 
 Buche au Chocolat, 185. 
 
 Butter, Maitre d’H6tel, 133. 
 
 Onion, 217. 
 
 Cabbage (Choux) 
 
 Creamed, 116. 
 
 Flemish Style, 116. 
 
 [223] 
 
Index 
 
 Cabbage, continued 
 French Style, 116. 
 
 Red, with Apples, 117. 
 Soup, 10. 
 
 Cake (Gateau) 
 
 Cardinal, 156. 
 
 Chestnut, 156. 
 
 Cornstarch, 165. 
 
 Golden, 26. 
 
 Mexican, 187. 
 
 Potato, hi. 
 
 Quatre-Quarts, 157. 
 
 Rules for Making, 165. 
 Saint Honore, 1 59. 
 Caramels, Chocolate, 145. 
 
 Coffee, 146. 
 
 Carrots (Carottes) 
 
 Creamed, 120. 
 
 Flemish Style, 120. 
 Cauliflower (Choux Fleurs), 118. 
 
 Fritters, 101. 
 
 Celery Fritters, 102. 
 
 Cheese (Fromage) 
 
 Cream, 187. 
 
 Italian, 61. 
 
 Cherries (Cerises) 
 
 Bottled, 200. 
 
 Sugared, 176. 
 
 Cherry Jam, 209. 
 
 Chestnut (Marron) 
 
 Jam, 211. 
 
 Paste, 204. 
 
 Souffle, 189. 
 
 Chestnuts Glaces, 142. 
 
 Chicken (Poulet) 
 
 in Anchovy Cream, 49. 
 Liver, Ragout of, 132. 
 Ragout of, with Rice, 77. 
 Saute a la Marengo, 50. 
 Saut6, with Mushrooms, 50. 
 with Cream Stuffing, 49. 
 with Sauce B&tarde, 51. 
 Chicory Fritters, 102. 
 
 Chocolate Bonbons, 144. 
 
 Caramels, 145. 
 
 Cream, 183. 
 
 Croquettes, 155. 
 
 Icing, 158. 
 
 Truffles, 143. 
 
 Choux Puffs, 14. 
 
 Clove Pink Syrup, 198. 
 
 Cod (Morue) 
 
 & la Bourguignote, 86. 
 a la Maitre d’H6tel, 86. 
 Brandade of, 85. 
 with Potatoes, 85. 
 
 Coffee (Cafe), 219. 
 
 Bavaroise, 184. 
 
 Caramels, 146. 
 
 Cream, 184. 
 
 Colmoriennes, 163. 
 
 Compote, Orange, 177. 
 
 Pear, 172. 
 
 Roast Pear, 173. 
 
 Uncooked Currant, 177. 
 Consomme, 16. 
 
 Copeaux, 163. 
 
 Cream (Cr&me) 
 
 Caramel, 183. 
 
 Chocolate, 183. 
 
 Coffee, 184. 
 
 Rules for Making, 192. 
 
 Vanilla, 182. 
 
 Croquettes, Chocolate, 155. 
 
 Veal, 99. 
 
 Crotite au Pot, 8. 
 
 Crystal Palace, 180. 
 
 Currant, Red, Syrup, 195. 
 
 Cutlets, Mutton, 58. 
 
 Veal, 54. 
 
 Dates, Stuffed, 147. 
 
 Delicieux Lyonnais, 186. 
 
 Deviled Almonds, 82. 
 
 Duck, Filet of, with Oranges, 
 52 - 
 
Index 
 
 Eggs (CEufs) 
 
 a l’Ardennaise, 22. 
 
 Black Butter, 27. 
 
 Cheese, 21. 
 
 Garden, 81. 
 
 Garlic, 24. 
 
 Herb, 23. 
 
 Looking-Glass, 27. 
 
 Mimosa, 25. 
 
 Snow, 188. 
 
 Tripe, 27. 
 with Peas, 19. 
 
 Empress Rice, 190. 
 
 Filet of Beef, a la Sultane, 59. 
 Beef, Orange Sauce, 36. 
 
 Duck with Oranges, 52. 
 
 Mutton with French Beans, 41. 
 Sole a la Brochette, 91. 
 
 Veal in Gravy, 39. 
 
 Whiting a l’Orly, 90. 
 
 Fish, Flemish Hashed, 88. 
 
 Fritters, 87. 
 au Gratin, 87. 
 
 Flavorings for Omelettes, 30. 
 Flemish Boiled Beef, 59. 
 
 Floating Island (lie Flottante), 188. 
 Fondu au Fromage, 21. 
 
 Fowl with Rice (Poule au Riz), 48. 
 French Peas, 79. 
 
 Fricandeau, Paris, 79. 
 
 Fried Ox Brains, 98. 
 
 Sticks, 105. 
 
 Fritter Filling, 175. 
 
 Puffs, 106. 
 
 Fritters (Beignets) 
 
 Cauliflower, 101. 
 
 Celery, 102. 
 
 Chicory, 102. 
 
 Fish, 87. 
 
 Game, 101. 
 
 Oyster, 100. 
 
 Potato, 102. 
 
 Rules for Cooking, 108. 
 
 Salsify, 102. 
 
 Friture, 96. 
 
 Fruit, Bottled, 200. 
 
 Rules for Cooking, 180. 
 
 Tarts, 174. 
 
 Frying, Rules for, 108. 
 
 Game Fritters, ioi. 
 
 Garlic Water, 216. 
 
 Golden Cake, 26. 
 
 Green Gages, Bottled, 201. 
 
 Greens, Spring, 117. 
 
 Ham (Jambon), 6. 
 
 Haricot of Mutton, 41. 
 
 Hash (Hachis), 64, 68. 
 
 Mayonnaise, 67. 
 
 Hasty Soup, 15. 
 
 Herbs, 206. 
 
 Herring (Hareng) 
 
 Dieppe, 89. 
 
 Salt, and Potato Salad, 90. 
 Horse, Roast, 45. 
 
 Hotchpot (Hochepot) 
 
 Pork, 61. 
 
 Tongue, 60. 
 
 Icing, Chocolate, 158. 
 
 Coffee, 158. 
 
 Italian Paste Soup, 14. 
 
 Jam (Confiture) 
 
 Apricot, 210. 
 
 Cherry, 209. 
 
 Chestnut, 211. 
 
 Pear, 210. 
 
 Julienne, 7. 
 
 Kidneys (Rognons) 
 
 Skewered, 57. 
 
 Klongas, 147. 
 
 Left-overs, Rules for Cooking, 
 73 - 
 
 [225] 
 
Index 
 
 Lentil Soup, 9. 
 
 Liver (Foie) 
 
 Calf’s, with Macaroni, 40. 
 Hasty, 79. 
 
 Ragout of, 32. 
 
 Lobster, Red Hot, 77. 
 
 MaItre d’H6xel Butter, 133. 
 Sauce, 133. 
 
 Marmalade (Marmelade) 
 
 Apple, 169. 
 
 C6venole, 208. 
 
 Marrons Glaces, 142. 
 
 Massepains, 148. 
 
 Meat (Viande) 
 
 Loaf, 66. 
 
 Mince, au Gratin, 66. 
 
 Rissoles of Cold, 100. 
 
 Rules for Cooking, 62. 
 Seasonings for, 217. 
 
 Melon (Poncire) 
 
 Jam, 21 1. 
 
 Soup, 15. 
 
 Meringue, Almond, 154. 
 
 Apple, 170. 
 
 Mince, Molded, 67. 
 
 Mousse, 189. 
 
 Mushrooms (Champignons) 
 a la Russe, 123. 
 
 Dried, 205. 
 on Horseback, 122. 
 
 Ragout of, 33. 
 
 Shells, 123. 
 
 with Sweet Herbs, 123. 
 
 Mutton (Mouton) 
 
 Cutlets, 58. 
 
 Filet of, with French Beans, 
 41 - 
 
 Haricot of, 41. 
 
 Stewed Leg of, 40. 
 
 Nougat de Mont£limar, 148. 
 
 Omelette, aux Croutons, 23. 
 Plain, 28. 
 
 Souffld, 29. 
 
 Flavorings for, 30. 
 
 Rules for, 30. 
 
 Seasonings for, 29. 
 
 Onion Butter, 217. 
 
 Sauce, 130. 
 
 Soup, 6. 
 
 Orangeade, 199. 
 
 Orange Flower Syrup, 199. 
 Oranges, au Caramel, 141. 
 Compote of, 177. 
 en Surprise, 178. 
 
 Sugared, 141. 
 
 Oven, Rules for Testing, 153. 
 Oysters (Huitres) 
 
 in Anchovy Sauce, 76. 
 Frittered, 100. 
 
 Grilled, 92. 
 
 Pancakes (Crapes), 103. 
 
 Apple, 104. 
 
 Paris Fricandeau, 53. 
 
 Parsley Sauce, 132. 
 
 Paste (Pate) 
 
 Apple, 202. 
 
 Apricot, 204. 
 
 Chestnut, 204. 
 
 Pear, 202. 
 
 P&t6, 67. 
 
 Peaches (Peches) 
 a la Cond6, 178. 
 
 Bottled, 202. 
 
 Buttered, 178. 
 
 Preserved, 211. 
 
 Pears (Poires) 
 
 Baked, 172. 
 
 Bons Chretiens, 173. 
 Compote of, 172. 
 
 Jam, 210. 
 
 Paste of, 202. 
 
 [ 226 ] 
 
Index 
 
 Pears, continued 
 Stewed, 172. 
 with Rice, 172. 
 
 Pea Soup, g. 
 
 Peas, French, 79, 118. 
 
 Pies, Little Fried, 99. 
 
 Pigeons & la Chipolata, 52. 
 Compote of, 51. 
 
 Stewed, 51. 
 with Green Peas, 52. 
 Plums, Red, Bottled, 201. 
 Pork Hotchpot, 61. 
 
 Potages, 14. 
 
 Potato Balls, 113. 
 
 Cake, hi. 
 
 Cakes, 113. 
 
 Dainties, 164. 
 
 Fritters, 102. 
 
 Ragout, 34. 
 
 Soup, 9. 
 
 Potatoes (Pommes de Terre) 
 a la Maitre d’Hdtel, 113. 
 a la Sauce Blanche, 113. 
 Gilded, in. 
 
 Mashed, no. 
 
 Paris, 112. 
 
 Puffed, 112. 
 
 Tossed, in. 
 
 Pralines, Rose, 143. 
 
 Violet, 143. 
 
 Preserves (Conserves), 210. 
 
 Rules for Making, 213. 
 Purges, 6. 
 
 Little Roots, 34. 
 
 Mushrooms, 33. 
 
 Potatoes and Tinned Meat, 34. 
 Rarebit, Old English, 81. 
 
 Swiss, 80. 
 
 Raspberry (Framboise) 
 
 Bottled, 201. 
 
 Syrup, 197. 
 
 Vinegar, 197. 
 
 Red Currant (Groseille) 
 
 Syrup, 195. 
 
 Red Plums, Bottled, 201. 
 
 R£ve, Le, 189. 
 
 Rice (Riz) 
 
 Empress, 190. 
 
 Souffle, 191 
 
 Rissoles of Cold Meat (Boulettes), 
 100. 
 
 Roses, Pralined, 143. 
 
 White, 66. 
 
 Rouget, in Oil, 91. 
 
 Roux, Preparation of, 128. 
 
 Rules for Bonbons, 149. 
 
 Cake, 165. 
 
 Cream, 192. 
 
 Fritters, 108. 
 
 Frying, 108. 
 
 Left-overs, 73. 
 
 Meat, 62. 
 
 Omelettes, 30. 
 
 Oven Testing, 153. 
 
 Preserves, 213. 
 
 Soup, 16. 
 
 Quatre-Quarts, 157. 
 
 Rabbit (Lapin) 
 
 Country, 46. 
 Creamed, 46. 
 
 Jellied, 46. 
 
 Ragout of Cabbage, 33. 
 Chicken and Rice, 77. 
 Chicken Livers, 32. 
 
 Salad, Asparagus, 124. 
 
 Seasonings for, 124. 
 Salsify Fritters, 102. 
 Sambayonnes, 189. 
 
 Sauce, Anchovy, 132. 
 
 Caper, 131. 
 
 Cold Cream, 132. 
 
 Green Mayonnaise, 134. 
 Italian, 130. 
 
 [ 227 ] 
 
Index 
 
 Sauce, continued 
 
 Maitre d’H6tel, 133. 
 Mayonnaise, 134. 
 
 Mayonnaise with Butter, 132. 
 Onion, 130. 
 
 Parsley, 132. 
 
 Piquante, 130. 
 
 Poor Man’s, 129. 
 
 Poulette, 136. 
 
 Remoulade, 135. 
 
 Rules for Making, 136. 
 Spring, 133. 
 
 Tartar, 135. 
 
 Tomato, 129. 
 
 White, 131. 
 
 Yellow, 136. 
 
 Seasonings, Meat, 217. 
 
 Omelette, 29. 
 
 Salad, 124. 
 
 Simmering, Definition of, 35. 
 Skewered Kidneys, 57. 
 
 Snow Eggs, 188. 
 
 Soda, Baking, 216. 
 
 Sole, Filet of, a la Brochette, 91. 
 Soufffe, Apricot, 179. 
 
 Chestnut, 189. 
 
 Rice, 191. 
 
 Soup (Soupe) 
 a la Reine, 5. 
 
 Bean, 9. 
 
 Bread, 5. 
 
 Bread and Milk, 5. 
 
 Brittany, 6. 
 
 Cabbage, 10. 
 
 Cabbage and Cheese, 10. 
 Cabbage and Meat, 11. 
 Crofite au Pot, 8. 
 
 Fried Bread, 14. 
 
 Hasty, 15. 
 
 Italian Paste, 14. 
 
 Julienne, 7. 
 
 Lentil, 9. 
 
 Macaroni, 14. 
 
 Melon, 15. 
 
 Mixed Vegetable, 8. 
 Mousseline, 7. 
 
 Onion, 6. 
 
 Pea, 9. 
 
 Potato, 9. 
 
 Pot au Feu, n. 
 
 Spring, 15. 
 
 Tapioca, 14. 
 
 Vegetable, 6. 
 
 Vermicelli, 13. 
 
 White Sorrel, 6. 
 
 Soups (Soupes) 
 
 Clear, 6. 
 
 Rules for Making, 16. 
 Spinach (fipinards), 118. 
 Sprouts and Spring Greens, 1 1 7. 
 Stews, Rules for, 43. 
 Strawberries (Fraises) 
 a la Chantilly, 177. 
 
 Bottled, 201. 
 
 Syrup, 97. 
 
 Stuffed Dates, 147. 
 
 Sugar Strategies, 2x5. 
 
 Syrup, 139. 
 
 Sweetbreads (Ris de Veau) 
 a la Poulette, 56. 
 
 Sausages, 57. 
 
 Syrup, Apricot, 197. 
 
 Clove Pink, 198. 
 
 Orange Flower, 199. 
 Raspberry, 197. 
 
 Red Currant, 195. 
 Strawberry, 195. 
 
 Sugar, 139. 
 
 Violet, 198. 
 
 Tapioca Soup, 14. 
 
 Tarts, Fruit, 174. 
 
 Tomatoes (Tomates) 
 
 Stuffed, 1 2 1. 
 with Cheese, 122. 
 with Hors d’CEuvre, 121. 
 
 [ 228 ] 
 
Index 
 
 Tongue (Langue de Boeuf) 
 in Hotchpot, 60. 
 with Cheese, 61. 
 
 Tripe Eggs, 27. 
 
 Trout (Truite) 
 
 Fried, 89. 
 
 Geneva, 88. 
 
 Truffles, Chocolate, 143. 
 
 Veal (Veau) 
 
 Blanquette of, 38. 
 Breast of, a la Poulette, 
 39- 
 
 Cutlets, 54. 
 
 Filet of, in Gravy, 39. 
 Vegetable Soup, 6. 
 Vermicelli Soup, 13. 
 Vinegar, Raspberry, 197. 
 Violet (Violette) 
 
 Pralines, 143- 
 Syrup, 198. 
 
 White Roses, 66. 
 
 White Sorrel Soup, 6. 
 Whiting (Merlan) 
 
 Filet of, a l’Orly, 90.