Jewish Cook Book - Appetizers

This is the Appetizers section of this book

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Canapés
For serving at the beginning of dinner and giving a zest to the appetite, canapés are extremely useful. They may be either hot or cold and made of anything that can be utilized for a sandwich filling. The foundation bread should be two days old and may be toasted or fried crouton fashion. The nicest way is to butter it lightly, then set it in a hot oven to brown delicately, or fry in hot fat.

The bread should be cut oblong, diamond shaped, in rounds, or with a cutter that has a fluted edge. While the toast is quite hot, spread with the prepared mixture and serve on a small plate with sprigs of watercress or points of lemon as a garnish.

Another way is to cut the bread into delicate fingers, pile it log-cabin fashion, and garnish the centre with a stuffed olive. For cheese canapés sprinkle the toast thickly with grated cheese, well seasoned with salt and pepper. Set in a hot oven until the cheese melts and serve immediately.

Sardine canapés
Toast lightly diamond-shaped slices of stale bread and spread with a sardine mixture made as follows:—Skin and bone six sardines, put them in a bowl and run to a paste with a silver spoon. Add two tablespoons of lemon juice, a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of pepper, two teaspoons of chopped parsley and four tablespoons of creamed butter. Garnish with a border of whites of hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped, and on top scatter shredded olives.

White caviar
Take roe of any fish, remove skin, salt; set aside over night. Next day beat roe apart, pour boiling water over it and stir; when roe is white, pour off the water and let drain; then put in pan with two tablespoons of oil and salt, pepper, a little vinegar, and mix well. Let stand a few days before using.

This caviar may be substituted in all recipes for the Russian caviar or domestic caviar may be procured in some shops.

Caviar canapés
Cut the bread about one-quarter of an inch thick and two inches square (or round), and after it is toasted spread over each slice a teaspoon of ice cold caviar. Mix one teaspoon of chopped onion and one teaspoon chopped parsley; spread the mixture over the caviar and serve with quarters of lemon.

Anchovy canapés
Cut the bread as for caviar canapés and spread with anchovy paste. Chop separately the yolks and whites of hard-boiled eggs and cover the canapés, dividing them into quarters, with anchovies split in two lengthwise, and using yolks and whites in alternate quarters.

Anchovy canapés with tomatoes
For each person take a thin slice toast covered with anchovy paste. Upon this place whole egg which has been boiled four minutes, so that it can be pealed whole and the yolk is still soft. Around the toast put tomato sauce.

Chopped onion and chicken fat
Chop one yellow onion very fine, add four tablespoons of chicken fat (melted), salt to taste. Serve on slices of rye bread. If desired, a hard-boiled egg chopped very fine may be mixed with the onions.

Brain (appetizer)
Cook brains, let cool and add salt; beat up with chopped onions, juice of one and a half lemons and olive oil. Serve on lettuce leaves.

Black olives
Pit black olives, cut them very thin, and prepare as brain appetizer; beat well with fork.

Chicken liver paste, No. 1
Wash thoroughly several fowls' livers and then let them simmer until tender in a little strong soup stock, adding some sliced mushroom, minced onion, and a little pepper and salt. When thoroughly done mince the whole finely, or pound it in a mortar. Now put it back in the saucepan and mix well with the yolks of sufficient eggs to make the whole fairly moist. Warm over the fire, stirring frequently until the mixture is quite thick, taking care that it does not burn.

It should be served upon rounds of toast on a hot dish garnished with parsley.

Imitation pâté de foi gras
Take as many livers and gizzards of any kind of fowl as you may have on hand; add to these three tablespoons of chicken or goose fat, a finely chopped onion, one tablespoon of pungent sauce, and salt and white pepper to taste. Boil the livers until quite done and drain; when cold, rub to a smooth paste. Take some of the fat and chopped onion and simmer together slowly for ten minutes. Strain through a thin muslin bag, pressing the bag tightly, turn into a bowl and mix with the seasoning; work all together for a long time, then grease a bowl or cups and press this mixture into them; when soft cut up the gizzards into bits and lay between the mixture. You may season this highly, or to suit taste.

Chicken liver paste, No. 2
Take one-quarter pound chicken livers that have been boiled soft; drain and rub through grater, add one-quarter cup of fresh mushrooms that have been fried for three minutes in two tablespoons of chicken fat, chop these, mix smooth with the liver, moistening with the fat used in frying the mushrooms, season with salt, pepper, paprika and a little onion and lemon juice. Spread on rye bread slices. Garnish plate with a red radish or sprigs of parsley.

Chopped herring
Soak herring a few hours, when washed and cleaned, bone and chop. To one herring take one onion, one sour apple, a slice of white bread which has been soaked in vinegar, chop all these; add one teaspoon oil, a little cinnamon and pepper. Put on platter in shape of a herring with head at top and tail at bottom of dish, and sprinkle the chopped white of a hard-boiled egg over fish and then the chopped yolk.

Cheese balls
Take mashed cream cheese—add butter, cream and a little paprika. You can chop either green peppers, almonds or olives in this mixture, or the juice of an onion. Roll into small balls and serve on lettuce leaves. This is also very good for sandwiches.

Egg appetizer
Boil eggs hard. Cut slice off the end, so that the egg will stand firm. Dip egg in French dressing, then with a pastry bag arrange sardellen butter on the top of egg. Have ready small squares of toasted bread, spread with a thin layer of sardellen butter, on which to stand the eggs. Caviar, mixed with some finely chopped onion, pepper and lemon juice, may be used instead of the sardellen butter, but mayonnaise must be used over the caviar.

Deviled eggs with hot sauce
Take six hard-boiled eggs, cut lengthwise, remove yolk and add to same: one dessertspoon of melted butter, Cayenne pepper, salt and chopped parsley. Mash this mixture very fine and refill the whites of the eggs and turn over on platter.

Sauce.—One tablespoon of butter, one tablespoon of flour, a pinch of Cayenne pepper, salt and one pint of milk. Stir this mixture continually until it thickens; beat the yolk of one egg and pour the hot gravy over the same. Dress with chopped parsley and eat very hot. Sherry wine can be added if desired.

Stuffed yellow tomatoes
Take small yellow tomatoes, scrape out the centre and fill with caviar.

Serve on lettuce or watercress.

A Delicious appetizer
Take as many slices of delicately browned toast as people to serve, several large, firm tomatoes sliced, one green pepper, and store cheese. Place a slice of tomato on each slice of toast and season with salt and pepper and a dot of butter. Place several long, curly strips of pepper around the tomato, and cover with a thin slice of the cheese. Place in the oven until the cheese is melted. Serve piping hot.

Celery relish
Boil about six pieces of celery root. When soft, peel and mash. Season with salt, pepper, a little onion powder, a teaspoon of home-made mustard and plenty of mayonnaise. Shape into pyramids, put mayonnaise on the top of the pyramid, and on top of that either a little well-seasoned caviar or some sardellen butter shaped in a pastry bag. Serve on a slice of beets and a lettuce leaf.

Sardellen
Take one-quarter pound salted sardellen and soak in water over night. Bone the next morning, put in cloth and press until dry; chop very fine, almost to a paste; take one-half pound sweet butter, stir to a cream and add the sardellen. Serve on toasted cracker or bread. Sprinkle with the grated yellow and grated white of egg.

Stuffed eggs
Hard boil eggs, drop into cold water, remove shells, cut each in half lengthwise. Turn out yolks into a bowl. Carefully place whites together in pairs, mash yolks with back of a spoon. For every six yolks put into bowl one tablespoon melted butter, one-half teaspoon mustard (the kind prepared for table), one teaspoon salt, dash of cayenne pepper. Rub these together thoroughly with yolks. Make little balls of this paste the size of the yolks. Fit one ball into each pair whites.

Nut and cheese relish
Mix one package cream cheese with one cup of chopped nut meats, one teaspoon of chopped parsley, two tablespoons of whipped cream, salt and red pepper. Roll into balls and serve cold, garnished with parsley and chopped nuts.

Grape-fruit cocktail
Cut the grape-fruit into halves, crosswise, and scoop out the pulp, rejecting the white inner skin as well as the seeds. Clean the shells; cut the edges with a sharp knife into scallops and throw them into cold water. Set the pulp on the ice. At serving time put a teaspoon of cracked ice in the bottom of each shell; fill with the pulp, mixed thoroughly with powdered sugar and a little sherry, if desired; and place a maraschino cherry or bit of bright-colored jelly in the centre of each. Lay on paper doilies or surround with bits of asparagus fern.

Ambrosia
Fill glass with alternate layers of sliced orange and cocoanut; cover with powdered sugar and place a maraschino cherry on the top of each.

Peach cocktail
Fill the glasses with sliced peaches; cover with orange or lemon juice; sweeten to taste; add a little shaved ice and serve.

Apricot and cherry cocktails may be made in the same way.

Raspberry cocktail
Mash a pint of ripe, red currants; strain them through cheesecloth; pour the juice over a pint of red raspberries and set on the ice to chill. At serving time sweeten to taste and pour into the glasses, putting one teaspoon of powdered sugar on the top of each.

Pineapple and banana cocktail
Take equal parts of banana and fresh or canned pineapple; cut into small cubes and cover with lemon or pineapple juice. Serve in glasses or orange shells placed on autumn leaves or sprays of green fern.

Strawberry cocktail
Slice five or six large strawberries into each glass and squeeze over them the juice of an orange. At serving time add one heaping teaspoon of powdered sugar and one tablespoon of shaved ice.

Musk melons
Cut melon in half, seed and put on ice one hour before serving. When ready to serve, fill with crushed ice and sprinkle with, powdered sugar. Allow one-half melon for each person. Very refreshing for summer luncheons or dinners. For dinner serve before soup.

Filled lemons
Select good-sized lemons; cut off tip to stand the lemon upright; cut top for cover. Scoop out all the lemon pulp, and put in a bowl; put shells in a bowl of cold water. For six lemons take one box of boneless sardines, six anchovies, and two green peppers, cut very fine. Wet with lemon-juice until moist; fill in shells after wiping dry; insert a pimento on top; put on cover of lemon; serve on doily with horseradish and watercress.

Red pepper canapés
Mix together two chopped hard-boiled eggs, one tablespoon of chopped red peppers (canned), a saltspoon of salt, a tiny pinch of mustard and two tablespoons of grated American cheese with sufficient melted butter to form a paste; spread over the rounds of fried bread and place in a very hot oven for about three minutes. Serve on a folded napkin, garnished with watercress.

Salted peanuts
Shell and skin freshly roasted peanuts and proceed as in salting almonds.

Salted almonds
Pour boiling water on the almonds; cool and remove the skins; dry thoroughly and brown in a hot oven, using a half tablespoon of butter or olive oil (preferably the oil) to each cup of nuts, which must be shaken frequently. When brown, sprinkle well with salt and spread on paper to dry and cool.

A still easier way to prepare the nuts is to cook them over the fire, using a larger quantity of olive oil. As the oil can be saved and used again, this method is not necessarily extravagant.