Modern cookery for private families

and sauce them with very fine oil, well mixed with chili vinegar, or with equal parts of chili and of common vinegar. Cucumbers, 2 or 3; salt, 1 to 2 saltspoonsful; little cayenne; oil, 6 to 8 tablespoonsful; chili vinegar, or equal parts of this and common vinegar, 2 to 4 tablespoonsful. _Obs._—When the flavour of eschalots is much liked, a teaspoonful or more of the vinegar in which they have been steeped or pickled may be added to this dish. STEWED CUCUMBERS. (_English mode._) Pare, and split into quarters, four or five full-grown but still young cucumbers; take out the seeds and cut each part in two; sprinkle them with white pepper or cayenne; flour and fry them lightly in a little butter, lift them from the pan, drain them on a sieve, then lay them into as much good brown gravy as will nearly cover them, and stew them gently from twenty-five to thirty minutes, or until they are quite tender. Should the gravy require to be thickened or flavoured, dish the cucumbers and keep them hot while a little flour and butter, or any other of the usual ingredients, is stirred into it. Some persons like a small portion of lemon-juice, or of chili vinegar added to the sauce; cucumber vinegar might be substituted for these with very good effect, as the vegetable loses much of its fine and peculiar flavour when cooked. 25 to 30 minutes. _Obs._—The cucumbers may be left in entire lengths, thrown into well-salted boiling water, and simmered for ten minutes, then thoroughly drained upon the back of a sieve, and afterwards stewed very quickly until tender in some highly-flavoured brown gravy, or in the Spanish sauce of page 101. CUCUMBERS À LA POULETTE. The cucumbers for this dish may be pared and sliced very thin; or quartered, freed from the seeds, and cut into half-inch lengths; in either case they should be steeped in a little vinegar and sprinkled with salt for half an hour before they are dressed. Drain, and then press them dry in a soft cloth; flour them well,