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Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches

by Eliza Leslie · English · Gutenberg #9624 · 740,835 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches

Author: Eliza Leslie


        
Release date: January 1, 2006 [eBook #9624]
                Most recently updated: January 2, 2021

Language: English

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DIRECTIONS FOR COOKERY, IN ITS VARIOUS BRANCHES.

BY

MISS LESLIE.


TENTH EDITION, WITH IMPROVEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY RECEIPTS.


1840.




PREFACE

The success of her little book entitled "Seventy-five Receipts in
Cakes, Pastry, and Sweetmeats." has encouraged the author to
attempt a larger and more miscellaneous work on the subject of
cookery, comprising as far as practicable whatever is most useful
in its various departments; and particularly adapted to the
domestic economy of her own country. Designing it as a manual of
American housewifery, she has avoided the insertion of any dishes
whose ingredients cannot be procured on our side of the Atlantic,
and which require for their preparation utensils that are rarely
found except in Europe. Also, she has omitted every thing which
may not, by the generality of tastes, be considered good of its
kind, and well worth the trouble and cost of preparing.

The author has spared no pains in collecting and arranging,
perhaps the greatest number of practical and original receipts
that have ever appeared in a similar work; flattering herself that
she has rendered them so explicit as to be easily understood, and
followed, even by inexperienced cooks. The directions are given as
minutely as if each receipt was "to stand alone by itself," all
references to others being avoided; except in some few instances
to the one immediately preceding; it being a just cause of
complaint that in some of the late cookery books, the reader,
before finishing the article, is desired to search out pages and
numbers in remote parts of the volume.

In the hope that her system of cookery may be consulted with equal
advantage by families in town and in country, by those whose
condition makes it expedient to practise economy, and by others
whose circumstances authorize a liberal expenditure, the author
sends it to take its chance among the multitude of similar
publications, satisfied that it will meet with as much success as
it may be found to deserve,--more she has no right to expect.

_Philadelphia, April 15th, 1837_.




INTRODUCTORY HINTS.


WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

We recommend to all families that they should keep in the house: a
pair of scales, (one of the scales deep enough to hold flour,
sugar, &c., conveniently,) and a set of tin measures: as accuracy
in proportioning the ingredients is indispensable to success in
cookery. It is best to have the scales permanently fixed to a
small beam projecting (for instance) from one of the shelves of
the store-room. This will preclude the frequent inconvenience of
their getting twisted, unlinked, and otherwise out of order; a
common consequence of putting them in and out of their box, and
carrying them from place to place. The weights (of which there
should be a set from two pounds to a quarter of an ounce) ought
carefully to be kept in the box, that none of them may be lost or
mislaid.

A set of tin measures (with small spouts or lips) from a gallon
down to half a jill, will be found very convenient in every
kitchen; though common pitchers, bowls, glasses, &c. may be
substituted. It is also well to have a set of wooden measures from
a bushel to a quarter of a peck.


Let it be remembered, that of liquid measure--

Two jills are half a pint.
Two pints--one quart.
Four quarts--one gallon.

Of dry measure--

Half a gallon is a quarter of a peck.

One gallon--half a peck.
Two gallons--one peck.
Four gallons--half a bushel.
Eight gallons--one bushel.

About twenty-five drops of any thin liquid will fill a common
sized tea-spoon.

Four table-spoonfuls or half a jill, will fill a common wine
glass.

Four wine glasses will fill a half-pint or common tumbler, or a
large coffee-cup.

A quart black bottle holds in reality about a pint and a half.

Of flour, butter, sugar, and most articles used in cakes and
pastry, a quart is generally about equal in quantity to a pound
avoirdupois, (sixteen ounces.) Avoirdupois is the weight
designated throughout this book.

Ten eggs generally weigh one pound before they are broken.

A table-spoonful of salt is generally about one ounce.




GENERAL CONTENTS.

Soups; including those of Fish

Fish; various ways of dressing

Shell Fish; Oysters, Lobsters, Crabs, &c.

Beef; including pickling and smoking it

Veal

Mutton and Lamb

Pork; including Bacon, Sausages, &c.

Venison; Hares, Rabbits, &c.

Poultry and Game

Gravy and Sauces

Store Fish Sauces; Catchups, &c.

Flavoured Vinegars; Mustards & Pepper

Vegetables; including Indian Corn, Tomatas, Mushrooms, &c.

Eggs; usual ways of dressing, including Omelets

Pickling

Sweetmeats; including Preserves and Jellies

Pastry and Puddings; also Pancakes, Dumplings, Custards, &c.,
Syllabubs; also Ice Creams and Blanc-mange

Cakes; including various sweet Cakes and Gingerbread

Warm Cakes for Breakfast and Tea; also, Bread, Yeast, Butter,
Cheese, Tea, Coffee, &c.

Domestic Liquors; including home-made Beer, Wines, Shrub,
Cordials, &c.

Preparations for the Sick

Perfumery

Miscellaneous Receipts

Additional Receipts

Animals used as Butchers' Meat

Index




MISS LESLIE'S COOKERY.




SOUPS.


GENERAL REMARKS.

Always use soft water for making soup, and be careful to
proportion the quantity of water to that of the meat. Somewhat
less than a quart of water to a pound of meat, is a good rule for
common soups. Rich soups, intended for company, may have a still
smaller allowance of water.

Soup should always be made entirely of fresh meat that has not
been previously cooked. An exception to this rule may sometimes be
made in favour of the remains of a piece of roast beef that has
been _very much_ under-done in roasting. This may be
_added_ to a good piece of raw meat. Cold ham, also, may be
occasionally put into white soups.

Soup made of cold meat has always a vapid, disagreeable taste,
very perceptible through all the seasoning, and which nothing
indeed can disguise. Also, it will be of a bad, dingy colour. The
juices of the meat having been exhausted by the first cooking, the
undue proportion of watery liquid renders it, for soup,
indigestible and unwholesome, as well as unpalatable. As there is
little or no nutriment to be derived from soup made with cold
meat, it is better to refrain from using it for this purpose, and
to devote the leavings of the table to some other object. No
person accustomed to really good soup, made from fresh meat, can
ever be deceived in the taste, even when flavoured with wine and
spices. It is not true that French cooks have the art of producing
_excellent_ soups from cold scraps. There is much _bad_
soup to be found in France, at inferior houses; but _good_
French cooks are not, as is generally supposed, really in the
practice of concocting any dishes out of the refuse of the table.
And we repeat, that cold meat, even when perfectly good, and used
in a large quantity, has not sufficient substance to flavour soup,
or to render it wholesome.

Soup, however, that has been originally made of raw meat entirely,
is frequently better the second day than the first; provided that
it is re-boiled only for a very short time, and that no additional
water is added to it.

Unless it has been allowed to boil too hard, so as to exhaust the
water, the soup-pot will not require replenishing. When it is
found absolutely necessary to do so, the additional water must be
boiling hot when poured in; if lukewarm or cold, it will entirely
spoil the soup.

Every particle of fat should be carefully skimmed from the
surface. Greasy soup is disgusting and unwholesome. The lean of
meat is much better for soup than the fat.

Long and slow boiling is necessary to extract the strength from
the meat. If boiled fast over a large fire, the meat becomes hard
and tough, and will not give out its juices.

Potatoes, if boiled in the soup, are thought by some to render it
unwholesome, from the opinion that the water in which potatoes
have been cooked is almost a poison. As potatoes are a part of
every dinner, it is very easy to take a few out of the pot in
which they have been boiled by themselves, and to cut them up and
add them to the soup just before it goes to table.

The cook should season the soup but very slightly with salt and
pepper. If she puts in too much, it may spoil it for the taste of
most of those that are to eat it; but if too little, it is easy to
add more to your own plate.

The practice of thickening soup by stirring flour into it is not a
good one, as it spoils both the appearance and the taste. If made
with a sufficient quantity of good fresh meat, and not too much
water, and if boiled long and slowly, it will have substance
enough without flour.


FAMILY SOUP.

Take a shin or leg of beef that has been newly killed; the fore
leg is best, as there is the most meat on it. Have it cut into
three pieces, and wash it well. To each pound allow somewhat less
than a quart of water; for instance, to ten pounds of leg of beef,
nine quarts of water is a good proportion. Put it into a large
pot, and add half a table-spoonful of salt. Hang it over a good
fire, as early as six o'clock in the morning, if you dine at two.
When it has come to a hard boil, and the scum has risen, (which it
will do as soon as it has boiled,) skim it well. Do not remove the
lid more frequently than is absolutely necessary, as uncovering
the pot causes the flavour to evaporate. Then set it on hot coals
in the corner, and keep it simmering steadily, adding fresh coals
so as to continue a regular heat.

About nine o'clock, put in four carrots, one parsnip, and a large
onion cut into slices, and four small turnips, and eight tomatas,
also cut up; add a head of celery cut small. Put in a very small
head of cabbage, cut into little pieces. If you have any objection
to cabbage, substitute a larger proportion of the other
vegetables. Put in also a bunch of sweet marjoram, tied up in a
thin muslin rag to prevent its floating on the top.

Let the soup simmer unceasingly till two o'clock, skimming it
well: then take it up, and put it into a tureen. If your dinner
hour is later, you may of course begin the soup later; but it will
require at least eight hours' cooking; remembering to put in the
vegetables three hours after the meat.

If you wish to send the meat to table, take the best part of it
out of the soup, about two hours before dinner. Have ready another
pot with a dozen tomatas and a few cloves. Moisten them with a
little of the soup, just sufficient to keep them from burning.
When the tomatas have stewed down soft, put the meat upon them,
and let it brown till dinner time over a few coals, keeping the
pot closely covered; then send it to table on a dish by itself.
Let the remainder of the meat be left in the large pot till you
send up the soup, as by that time it will be boiled to rags and
have transferred all its flavour to the liquid.

This soup will be greatly improved by the addition of a few dozen
ochras cut into very thin slices, and put in with the other
vegetables. You may put Lima beans into it, green peas, or indeed
any vegetables you like: or you may thicken it with ochras and
tomatas only.

Next day, take what is left of the soup, put it into a pot, and
simmer it over hot coals for half an hour: a longer time will
weaken the taste. If it has been well made and kept in a cool
place, it will be found better the second day than the first.

If your family is very small, and the leg of beef large, and the
season winter, it may furnish soup for four successive days. Cut
the beef in half; make soup of the first half, in the manner above
directed, and have the remainder warmed next day; then on the
third day make fresh soup of the second half.

We have been minute in these directions; for if strictly followed,
the soup, though plain, will be found excellent.

If you do not intend to serve up the meat separately, break to
pieces all the bones with a mallet or kitchen cleaver. This, by
causing them to give out their marrow, &c., will greatly enrich
the liquid. Do this, of course, when you first begin the soup.


FINE BEEF SOUP.

Begin this soup the day before it is wanted. Take a good piece of
fresh beef that has been newly killed: any substantial part will
do that has not too much fat about it: a fore leg is very good for
this purpose. Wash it well. Cut off all the meat, and break up the
bones. Put the meat and the bones into a large pot, very early in
the day, so as to allow eight or nine hours for its boiling.
Proportion the water to the quantity of meat--about a pint and a
half to each pound. Sprinkle the meat with a small quantity of
pepper and salt. Pour on the water, hang it over a moderate fire,
and boil it slowly; carefully skimming off all the fat that rises
to the top, and keeping it closely covered, except when you raise
the lid to skim it. Do not, on any account, put in additional
water to this soup while it is boiling; and take care that the
boiling goes steadily on, as, if it stops, the soup will be much
injured. But if the fire is too great, and the soup boils too
fast, the meat will become hard and tough, and will not give out
its juices.

After the meat is reduced to rags, and the soup sufficiently
boiled, remove the pot from the fire, and let it stand in the
corner for a quarter of an hour to settle. Then take it up, strain
it into a large earthen pan, cover it, and set it away in a cool
dry place till next day. Straining it makes it clear and bright,
and frees it from the shreds of meat and bone. If you find that it
jellies in the pan, (which it will if properly made,) do not
disturb it till you are ready to put it into the pot for the
second boiling, as breaking the jelly may prevent it from keeping
well.

On the following morning, boil separately, carrots, turnips,
onions, celery, and whatever other vegetables you intend to
thicken the soup with. Tomatas will greatly improve it. Prepare
them by taking off the skin, cutting them into small pieces, and
stewing them in their own juice till they are entirely dissolved.
Put on the carrots before any of the other vegetables, as they
require the longest time to boil. Or you may slice and put into
the soup a portion of the vegetables you are boiling for dinner;
but they must be nearly done before you put them in, as the second
boiling of the soup should not exceed half an hour, or indeed,
just sufficient time to heat it thoroughly.

Scrape off carefully from the cake of jellied soup whatever fat or
sediment may still be remaining on it; divide the jelly into
pieces, and about half an hour before it is to go to table, put it
into a pot, add the various vegetables, (having first sliced
them,) in sufficient quantities to make the soup very thick; hang
it over the fire and let it boil slowly, or simmer steadily till
dinner time. Boiling it much on the second day will destroy the
flavour, and render it flat and insipid. For this reason, in
making fine, clear beef soup, the vegetables are to be cooked
separately. They need not be put in the first day, as the soup is
to be strained; and on the second day, if put in raw, the length
of time required to cook them would spoil the soup by doing it too
much. We repeat, that when soup has been sufficiently boiled on
the first day, and all the juices and flavour of the meat
thoroughly extracted, half an hour is the utmost it requires on
the second.

Carefully avoid seasoning it too highly. Soup, otherwise
excellent, is frequently spoiled by too much pepper and salt.
These condiments can be added at table, according to the taste of
those that are eating it; but if too large a proportion of them is
put in by the cook, there is then no remedy, and the soup may by
some be found uneatable.

Many persons prefer boiling all the vegetables in the soup on the
first day, thinking that they improve its flavour. This may be
done in common soup that is not to be strained, but is
inadmissible if you wish it to be very bright and clear. Also,
unless you have a garden and a profusion of vegetables of your
own, it is somewhat extravagant, as when strained out they are of
no further use, and are therefore wasted.


MUTTON SOUP.

Cut off the shoulder part of a fore quarter of mutton, and having
cut all the meat from the bone, put it into a soup pot with two
quarts of water. As soon as it boils, skim it well, and then
slacken the fire and simmer the meat for an hour and a half. Then
take the remainder of the mutton, and put it whole into the soup-pot
with sufficient boiling water to cover it well, and salt it to
your taste. Skim it the moment the fresh piece of meat begins to
boil, and about every quarter of an hour afterwards. It should
boil slowly five hours. Prepare half a dozen turnips, four
carrots, and three onions, (all cut up, but not small,) and put
them in about an hour and a half before dinner. [Footnote: The
carrots should be put in early, as they require a long time to
boil; if full grown, at least three hours.] You may also put in
some small dumplings. Add some chopped parsley.

Cut the meat off the scrag into small pieces, and send it to table
in the tureen with the soup. The other half of the mutton should
be served on a separate dish, with whole turnips boiled and laid
round it. Many persons are fond of mutton that has been boiled in
soup.

You may thicken this soup with rice or barley that has first been
soaked in cold water; or with green peas; or with young corn, cut
down from the cob; or with tomatas scalded, peeled, and cut into
pieces.

_Cabbage Soup_ may be made in the same manner, of neck of
mutton. Omit all the other vegetables, and put in a large head of
white cabbage, stripped of the outside leaves, and cut small.

_Noodle Soup_ can be made in this manner also. Noodles are a
mixture of flour and beaten egg, made into a stiff paste, kneaded,
rolled out very thin, and cut into long narrow slips, not thicker
than straws, and then dried three or four hours in the sun, on tin
or pewter plates. They must be put in the soup shortly before
dinner, as, if boiled too long they will go to pieces.

With the mutton that is taken from the soup you may send to table
some suet dumplings, boiled in another pot, and served on a
separate dish. Make them in the proportion of half a pound of beef
suet to a pound and a quarter of flour. Chop the suet as fine as
possible, rub it into the flour, and mix it into a dough with a
little cold water. Roll it out thick, and cut it into dumplings
about as large as the top of a tumbler, and boil them an hour.


VEAL SOUP.

The knuckle or leg of veal is the best for soup. Wash it and break
up the bones. Put it into a pot with a pound of ham or bacon cut
into pieces, and water enough to cover the meat. A set of calf's
feet, cut in half, will greatly improve it. After it has stewed
slowly, till all the meat drops to pieces, strain it, return it to
the pot, and put in a head of celery cut small, three onions, a
bunch of sweet marjoram, a carrot and a turnip cut into pieces,
and two dozen black pepper-corns, with salt to your taste. Add
some small dumplings made of flour and butter. Simmer it another
hour, or till all the vegetables are sufficiently done, and thus
send it to table.

You may thicken it with noodles, that is paste made of flour and
beaten egg, and cut into long thin slips. Or with vermicelli,
rice, or barley; or with green peas, or asparagus tops.


RICH VEAL SOUP.

Take three pounds of the scrag of a neck of veal, cut it into
pieces, and put it with the bones (which must be broken up) into a
pot with two quarts of water. Stew it till the meat is done to
rags, and skim it well. Then strain it and return it to the pot.

Blanch and pound in a mortar to a smooth paste, a quarter of a
pound of sweet almonds, and mix them with the yolks of six hard
boiled eggs grated, mid a pint of cream, which must first have
been boiled or it will curdle in the soup. Season it with nutmeg
and mace. Stir the mixture into the soup, and let it boil
afterward about three minutes, stirring all the time. Lay in the
bottom of the tureen some slices of bread without the crust. Pour
the soup upon it, and send it to table.


CLEAR GRAVY SOUP.

Having well buttered the inside of a nicely tinned stew-pot, cut
half a pound of ham into slices, and lay them at the bottom, with
three pounds of the lean of fresh beef, and as much veal, cut from
the bones, which you must afterward break to pieces, and lay on
the meat. Cover the pan closely, and set it over a quick fire.
When the meat begins to stick to the pan, turn it; and when there
is a nice brown glaze at the bottom, cover the meat with cold
water. Watch it well, and when it is just coming to a boil, put in
half a pint of cold water. This will cause the scum to rise. Skim
it well, and then pour in another half pint of cold water; skim it
again; pour in cold water as before, half a pint at a time, and
repeat this till no more scum rises. In skimming, carefully avoid
stirring the soup, as that will injure its clearness.

In the mean time prepare your vegetables. Peel off the outer skin
of three large white onions and slice them. Pare three large
turnips, and slice them also. Wash clean and cut into small pieces
three carrots, and three large heads of celery. If you cannot
obtain fresh celery, substitute a large table-spoonful of celery
seed, tied up in a bit of clear muslin. Put the vegetables into
the soup, and then place the pot on one side of the fire, where
the heat is not so great as in the middle. Let it boil gently for
four hours. Then strain the soup through a fine towel or linen bag
into a large stone pan, but do not squeeze the bag, or the soup
will be cloudy, and look dull instead of clear. In pouring it into
the straining cloth, be careful not to disturb the ingredients at
the bottom of the soup-pot.

This soup should be of a fine clear amber colour. If not perfectly
bright after straining, you may clarify it in this manner. Put it
into the stew-pan. Break the whites of two eggs into a basin,
carefully avoiding the smallest particle of the yolk. Beat the
white of egg to a stiff froth, and then mix it gradually with the
soup. Set it over the fire, and stir it till it boils briskly.
Then take it off, and set it beside the fire to settle for ten
minutes. Strain it then through a clean napkin, and it will be fit
for use. But it is better to have the soup clear by making it
carefully, than to depend on clarifying it afterward, as the white
of egg weakens the taste.

In making this (which is quite a show-soup) it is customary to
reverse the general rule, and pour in cold water.


SOUPE A LA JULIENNE.

Make a gravy soup as in the preceding receipt, and strain it
before you put in the vegetables. Cut some turnips and carrots
into ribands, and some onions and celery into lozenges or long
diamond-shaped pieces. Boil them separately. When the vegetables
are thoroughly boiled, put them with the soup into the tureen, and
then lay gently on the top some small squares of toasted bread
without crust; taking care that they do not crumble down and
disturb the brightness of the soup, which should be of a clear
amber colour.


MACCARONI SOUP.

This also is made of clear gravy soup. Cut up and boil the
maccaroni by itself in a very little water, allowing a quarter of
a pound to a quart of soup. The pieces should be about an inch
long. Put a small piece of butter with it. It must boil till
tender, but not till it breaks. Throw it into the soup shortly
before it goes to table, and give it one boil up. Send to table
with it a plate or glass of rasped Parmesan or other rich cheese,
with a dessert spoon in it, that those who like it may put it into
their soup on the plate.

While the maccaroni is boiling, take care that it does not get
into lumps.


RICH MACCARONI SOUP.

Take a quart of clear gravy soup, and boil in it a pound of the
best maccaroni cut into pieces. When it is tender, take out half
of the maccaroni, and add to the remainder two quarts more of the
soup. Boil it till the maccaroni is entirely dissolved and
incorporated with the liquid. Strain it; then return it to the
soup-pan, and add to it the remainder of the maccaroni, (that was
taken out before the pieces broke,) and put in a quarter of a
pound of grated Parmesan cheese. Let it simmer awhile, but take it
up before it comes to a boil.

It may be made with milk instead of gravy soup.


VERMICELLI SOUP.

Cut a knuckle of veal, or a neck of mutton into small pieces, and
put them, with the bones broken up, into a large stew-pan. Add the
meat sliced from a hock or shank of ham, a quarter of a pound of
butter, two large onions sliced, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a
head of celery cut small. Cover the pan closely, and set it
without any water over a slow fire for an hour or more, to extract
the essence from the meat. Then skim it well, and pour in four
quarts of boiling water, and let it boil gently till all the meat
is reduced to rags. Strain it, set it again on the fire, and add a
quarter of a pound of vermicelli, which has first been scalded in
boiling water. Season it to your taste with salt and cayenne
pepper, and let it boil five minutes. Lay a large slice of bread
in the bottom of your tureen, and pour the soup upon it.

For the veal or mutton you may substitute a pair of large fowls
cut into pieces; always adding the ham or a few slices of bacon,
without which it will be insipid. Old fowls that are fit for no
other purpose will do very well for soup.


MILK SOUP.

Boil two quarts of milk with a quarter of a pound of sweet
almonds, and two ounces of bitter ones, blanched and broken to
pieces, and a large stick of cinnamon broken up. Stir in sugar
enough to make it very sweet. When it has boiled strain it. Cut
some thin slices of bread, and (having pared off the crust) toast
them. Lay them in the bottom of a tureen, pour a little of the hot
milk over them, and cover them close, that they may soak. Beat the
yolks of five eggs very light Set the milk on hot coals, and add
the eggs to it by degrees; stirring it all the time till it
thickens. Then take it off instantly, lest it curdle, and pour it
into the tureen, boiling hot, over the bread.

This will be still better if you cover the bottom with slices of
baked apple.


RICH BROWN SOUP.

Take six pounds of the lean of fresh beef, cut from the bone.
Stick it over with four dozen cloves. Season it with a tea-spoonful
of salt, a tea-spoonful of pepper, a tea-spoonful of
mace, and a beaten nutmeg. Slice half a dozen onions; fry them in
butter; chop them, and spread them over the meat after you have
put it into the soup-pot. Pour in five quarts of water, and stew
it slowly for five or six hours; skimming it well. When the meat
has dissolved into shreds, strain it, and return the liquid to the
pot. Then add a tumbler and a half, or six wine glasses of claret
or port wine. Simmer it again slowly till dinner time. When the
soup is reduced to three quarts, it is done enough. Put it into a
tureen, and send it to table.


RICH WHITE SOUP.

Take a pair of large fat fowls. Cut them up. Butter the inside of
the soup-pot, and put in the pieces of fowl with two pounds of the
lean of veal, cut into pieces, or with four calf's feet cut in
half. Season them with a tea-spoonful of salt, a half tea-spoonful
of cayenne pepper, and a dozen blades of mace. Cover them with
water, and stew it slowly for an hour, skimming it well. Then take
out the breasts and wings of the fowls, and having cut off the
flesh, chop it fine. Keep the pot covered, and the veal and the
remainder of the fowls still stewing.

Mix the chopped chicken with the grated crumb of about one quarter
of a loaf of stale bread, (a six cent loaf,) having soaked the
crumbs in a little warm milk. Have ready the yolks of four hard
boiled eggs, a dozen sweet almonds, and half a dozen bitter ones
blanched and broken small. Mix the egg and almonds with the
chopped chicken and grated bread, and pound all in a mortar till
it is well incorporated. Strain the soup from the meat and fowl,
and stir this mixture into the liquid, after it has stewed till
reduced to two quarts. Having boiled separately a quart of cream
or rich milk, add it hot to the soup, a little at a time. Cover
it, and let it simmer a few minutes longer. Then send it to table.

These two soups (the brown and the white) are suited to dinner
parties.


MEG MERRILIES' SOUP.

Take four pounds of venison, or if you cannot procure venison you
may substitute the lean of fresh beef or mutton. Season it with
pepper and salt, put it into a large pot, (break the bones and lay
them on the meat,) pour in four quarts of water, and boil it three
hours, skimming it well. Then strain it, and put it into another
pot.

Cut up a hare or a rabbit, a pair of partridges, and a pair of
grouse; or one of each, with a pheasant, a woodcock, or any other
game that you can most easily obtain. Season them and put them
into the soup. Add a dozen small onions, a couple of heads of
celery cut small, and half a dozen sliced potatoes. Let the soup
simmer till the game is sufficiently done, and all the vegetables
tender.

This is the soup with which the gipsy, Meg Merrilies, regaled
Dominie Sampson.

When game is used for soup, it must be newly killed, and quite
fresh.


VENISON SOUP.

Take four pounds of freshly killed venison cut off from the bones,
and one pound of ham in small slices. Add an onion minced, and
black pepper to your taste. Put only as much water as will cover
it, and stew it gently for an hour, keeping the pot closely
covered. Then skim it well, and pour in a quart of boiling water.
Add a head of celery cut into small pieces, and half a dozen
blades of mace. Boil it gently two hours and a half. Then put in a
quarter of a pound of butter, divided into small pieces and rolled
in flour, and half a pint of port or Madeira wine. Let it boil a
quarter of an hour longer, and then send it to table with the meat
in it.


HARE OR RABBIT SOUP.

Take a large newly killed hare, or two rabbits; cut them up and
wash the pieces. Save all the blood, (which adds much to the
flavour of the hare,) and strain it through a sieve. Put the
pieces into a soup-pot with four whole onions stuck with a few
cloves, four or five blades of mace, a head of celery cut small,
and a bunch of parsley with a large sprig of sweet marjoram and
one of sweet basil, all tied together. Salt and cayenne to your
taste. Pour in three quarts of water, and stew it gently an hour
and a half. Then put in the strained blood and simmer it for
another hour, at least. Do not let it actually boil, as that will
cause the blood to curdle. Then strain it, and pound half the meat
in a mortar, and stir it into the soup to thicken it, and cut the
remainder of the meat into small mouthfuls. Stir in, at the last,
a jill or two glasses of red wine, and a large table-spoonful of
currant jelly. Boil it slowly a few minutes longer, and then put
it into your tureen. It will be much improved by the addition of
about a dozen and a half small force-meat balls, about the size of
a nutmeg. This soup will require cooking at least four hours.

Partridge, pheasant, or grouse soup may be made in a similar
manner.

If you have any clear gravy soup, you may cut up the hare, season
it as above, and put it into a jug or jar well covered, and set in
boiling water till the meat is tender. Then put it into the gravy
soup, add the wine, and let it come to a boil. Send it to table
with the pieces of the hare in the soup.

When hare soup is made in this last manner, omit using the blood.


MULLAGATAWNY SOUP, AS MADE IN INDIA.

Take a quarter of an ounce of China turmeric, the third of an
ounce of cassia, three drachms of black pepper, two drachms of
cayenne pepper, and an ounce of coriander seeds. These must all be
pounded fine in a mortar, and well mixed and sifted. They will
make sufficient curry powder for the following quantity of soup:

Take two large fowls, or three pounds of the lean of veal. Cut the
flesh entirely from the bones in small pieces, and put it into a
stew-pan with two quarts of water. Let it boil slowly for half an
hour, skimming it well. Prepare four large onions, minced and
fried in two ounces of butter. Add to them the curry powder and
moisten the whole with broth from the stew-pan, mixed with a
little rice flour. When thoroughly mixed, stir the seasoning into
the soup, and simmer it till it is as smooth and thick as cream,
and till the chicken or veal is perfectly tender. Then stir into
it the juice of a lemon; and five minutes after take up the soup,
with the meat in it, and serve it in the tureen.

Send to table separately, boiled rice on a hot-water dish to keep
it warm, The rice is to be put into the plates of soup by those
who eat it.

To boil rice for this soup in the East India fashion:--Pick and
wash half a pound in warm water. Put it into a sauce-pan. Pour two
quarts of boiling water over it, and cover the pan closely. Set it
in a warm place by the fire, to cook gradually in the hot water.
In an hour pour off all the water, and setting the pan on hot
coals, stir up and toss the rice with a fork, so as to separate
the grains, and to dry without hardening it. Do not use a spoon,
as that will not loosen the grains sufficiently.


MOCK TURTLE OR CALF'S HEAD SOUP.

This soup will require eight hours to prepare. Take a large calf's
head, and having cleaned, washed, and soaked it, put it into a pot
with a knuckle of veal, and the hock of a ham, or a few slices of
bacon; but previously cut off and reserve enough of the veal to
make two dozen small force-meat balls. Put the head and the other
meat into as much water as will cover it very well, so that it may
not be necessary to replenish it: this soup being always made very
rich. Let it boil slowly four hours, skimming it carefully. As
soon as no more scum rises, put in six potatoes, and three
turnips, all sliced thin; with equal proportions of parsley, sweet
marjoram and sweet basil, chopped fine; and pepper and salt to
your taste.

An hour before you send the meat to table, make about two dozen
small force-meat balls of minced veal and beef-suet in equal
quantities, seasoned with pepper and salt; sweet herbs, grated
lemon-peel, and powdered nutmeg and mace. Add some beaten yolk of
egg to make all these ingredients stick together. Flour the balls
very well, and fry them in butter. Before you put them into the
soup, take out the head, and the other meat. Cut the meat from the
head in small pieces, and return it to the soup. When the soup is
nearly done, stir in half a pint of Madeira. Have ready at least a
dozen egg-balls made of the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, grated or
pounded in a mortar, and mixed with a little flour and sufficient
raw yolk of egg to bind them. Make them up into the form and size
of boy's marbles. Throw them into the soup at the last, and also
squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Let it get another slow boil, and
then put it into the tureen.

We omit a receipt for _real_ turtle soup, as when that very
expensive, complicated, and difficult dish is prepared in a
private family, it is advisable to hire a first-rate cook for the
express purpose.

An easy way is to get it ready made, in any quantity you please,
from a turtle-soup house.


OX TAIL SOUP

Three ox tails will make a large tureen full of soup. Desire the
butcher to divide them at the joints. Rub them with salt, and put
them to soak in warm water, while you prepare the vegetables. Put
into a large pot or stew-pan four onions peeled and quartered, a
bunch of parsley, two sliced carrots, two sliced turnips, and two
dozen pepper corns. Then put in the tails, and pour on three
quarts of water.

Cover the pot, and set it on hot coals by the side of the fire.
Keep it gently simmering for about three hours, supplying it well
with fresh hot coals. Skim it carefully. When the meat is quite
tender, and falls from the bones, strain the soup into another
pot, and add to it a spoonful of mushroom catchup, and two
spoonfuls of butter rubbed in flour.

You may thicken it also with the pulp of a dozen onions first
fried soft, and then rubbed through a cullender. After it is
thickened, let it just boil up, and then send it to table, with
small squares of toasted bread in the tureen.


OCHRA SOUP.

Take a large slice of ham (cold boiled ham is best) and two pounds
of the lean of fresh beef; cut all the meat into small pieces. Add
a quarter of a pound of butter slightly melted; twelve large
tomatas pared and cut small; five dozen ochras cut into slices not
thicker than a cent; and salt and cayenne pepper to your taste.
Put all these ingredients into a pot; cover them with boiling
water, and let them stew slowly for an hour. Then add three quarts
of _hot_ water, and increase the heat so as to make the soup
boil. Skim it well, and stir it frequently with a wooden or silver
spoon.

Boil it till the tomatas are all to pieces, and the ochras
entirely dissolved. Strain it, and then serve it up with toasted
bread cut into dice, put in after it comes out of the pot.

This soup will be improved by a pint of shelled Lima beans, boiled
by themselves, and put into the tureen just before you send it to
table.


BEAN SOUP.

Put two quarts of dried white beans into soak the night before you
make the soup, which should be put on as early in the day as
possible.

Take five pounds of the lean of fresh beef--the coarse pieces will
do. Cut them up, and put them into your soup-pot with the bones
belonging to them, (which should be broken to pieces,) and a pound
of bacon cut very small. If you have the remains of a piece of
beef that has been roasted the day before, and so much under-done
that the juices remain in it, you may put it into the pot, and its
bones along with it. Season the meat with pepper and salt, and
pour on it six quarts of water. As soon as it boils take off the
scum, and put in the beans (having first drained them) and a head
of celery cut small, or a table-spoonful of pounded celery-seed.
Boil it slowly till the meat is done to shreds, and the beans all
dissolved. Then strain it through a cullender into the tureen, and
put into it small squares of toasted bread with the crust cut off.

Some prefer it with the beans boiled soft, but not quite
dissolved. In this case, do not strain it; but take out the meat
and bones with a fork before you send it to table.


PEAS SOUP.

Soak two quarts of dried or split peas overnight. In the morning
take three pounds of the lean of fresh beef, and a pound of bacon
or pickled pork. Cut them into pieces, and put them into a large
soup-pot with the peas, (which must first be well drained,) and a
table-spoonful of dried mint rubbed to powder. Add five quarts of
water, and boil the soup gently for three hours, skimming it well,
and then put in four heads of celery cut small, or two table-spoonfuls
of pounded celery seed.

It must be boiled till the peas are entirely dissolved, so as to
be no longer distinguishable, and the celery quite soft. Then
strain it into a tureen, and serve it up with toasted bread cut in
dice. Omit the crust of the bread.

Stir it up immediately before it goes to table, as it is apt to
settle, and be thick at the bottom and thin at the top.


GREEN PEAS SOUP.

Take four pounds of knuckle of veal, and a pound of bacon. Cut
them to pieces, and put them into a soup kettle with a sprig of
mint and four quarts of water. Boil it moderately fast, and skim
it well. When the meat is boiled to rags, strain it out, and put
to the liquor a quart of young green peas. Boil them till they are
entirely dissolved, and till they have thickened the soup, and
given it a green colour. [Footnote: You may greatly improve the
colour by pounding a handful of spinach in a mortar, straining the
juice, and adding it to the soup about a quarter of an hour before
it has done boiling.]

Have ready two quarts of green peas that have been boiled in
another pot with a sprig of mint, and two or three lumps of loaf
sugar, (which will greatly improve the taste.) After they have
boiled in this pot twenty minutes, take out the mint, put the
whole peas into the pot of soup, and boil all together about ten
minutes. Then put it into a tureen, and send it to table.

Never use hard old green peas for this soup, or for any other
purpose. When they begin to turn yellow, it is time to leave them
off for the season.

Lima bean soup may be made in the same manner.


ASPARAGUS SOUP.

Asparagus soup may be made in a similar manner to that of green
peas. You must have four or five bunches of asparagus. Cut off the
green tops, and put half of them into the soup, after the meat has
been boiled to pieces and strained out. The asparagus must be
boiled till quite dissolved, and till it has given a green colour
to the soup. Then take the remainder of the asparagus tops (which
must all this time have been lying in cold water) and put them
into the soup, and let them boil about twenty minutes. Serve it up
with small squares of toast in the tureen.

You may heighten the green of this soup by adding the juice of a
handful of spinach, pounded in a mortar and strained. Or you may
colour it with the juice of boiled spinach squeezed through a
cloth. The spinach juice should be put in fifteen or ten minutes
before you take up the soup, as a short boiling in it will take
off the peculiar taste.


FRIAR'S CHICKEN,

Cut up four pounds of knuckle of veal; season it with white pepper
and salt: put it into a soup-pan and let it boil slowly till the
meat drops from the bone. Then strain it off. Have ready a pair of
young fowls skinned, and cut up as you carve them at table. Season
them with white pepper, salt, and mace. Put them into the soup,
add a handful of chopped parsley, and let them boil. When the
pieces of chicken are all quite tender, have ready four or five
eggs well beaten. Stir the egg into the soup, and take it
immediately off the fire lest it curdle. Serve up the chicken in
the soup.

Rabbits may be substituted for fowls.


CATFISH SOUP.

Catfish that have been caught near the middle of the river are
much nicer than those that are taken near the shore where they
have access to impure food. The small white ones are the best.
Having cut off their heads, skin the fish, and clean them, and cut
them in three. To twelve small catfish allow a pound and a half of
ham. Cut the ham into small pieces, or slice it very thin, and
scald it two or three times in boiling water, lest it be too salt.
Chop together a bunch of parsley and some sweet marjoram stripped
from the stalks. Put these ingredients into a soup kettle and
season them with pepper: the ham will make it salt enough. Add a
head of celery cut small, or a large table-spoonful of celery seed
tied up in a bit of clear muslin to prevent its dispersing. Pat in
two quarts of water, cover the kettle, and let it boil slowly till
every thing is sufficiently done, and the fish and ham quite
tender. Skim it frequently. Boil in another vessel a quart of rich
milk, in which you have melted a quarter of a pound of butter
divided into small bits and rolled in flour. Pour it hot to the
soup, and stir in at the last the beaten yolks of four eggs. Give
it another boil, just to take off the rawness of the eggs, and
then put it into a tureen, taking out the bag of celery seed
before you send the soup to table, and adding some toasted bread
cut into small squares. In making toast for soap, cut the bread
thick, and pare off all the crust.

This soup will be found very fine.

Eel soup may be made in the same manner: chicken soup also.


LOBSTER SOUP.

Have ready a good broth made of a knuckle of veal boiled slowly in
as much water as will cover it, till the meat is reduced to rags.
It must then be well strained.

Having boiled three fine middle-sized lobsters, extract all the
meat from the body and claws. Bruise part of the coral in a
mortar, and also an equal quantity of the meat. Mix them well
together. Add mace, nutmeg, cayenne, and a little grated lemon-peel;
and make them up into force-meat balls, binding the mixture
with the yolk of an egg slightly beaten.

Take three quarts of the veal broth, and put into it the meat of
the lobsters cut into mouthfuls. Boil it together about twenty
minutes. Then thicken it with the remaining coral, (which you must
first rub through a sieve,) and add the force-meat balls, and a
little butter rolled in flour. Simmer it gently for ten minutes,
but do not let it come to a boil, as that will injure the colour.
Pour it into a tureen, and send it to table immediately.


OYSTER SOUP.

To two quarts of oysters add a pint of water, and let them set an
hour. Then take them out of the liquor. Grate and roll fine a
dozen crackers. Put them into the liquor with a large lump of
fresh butter. When the grated biscuit has quite dissolved, add a
quart of milk with a grated nutmeg, and a dozen blades of mace;
and, if in season, a head of celery split fine and cut into small
pieces. Season it to your taste with pepper.

Mix the whole together, and set it in a closely covered vessel
over a slow fire. When it comes to a boil, put in the oysters; and
when it comes to a boil again, they will be sufficiently done.

Before you send it to table put into the tureen some toasted bread
cut into small squares, omitting the crust.


PLAIN OYSTER SOUP.

Take two quarts of large oysters. Strain their liquor into a soup
pan; season it with a tea-spoonful of whole pepper, a tea-spoonful
of whole allspice, the same quantity of whole cloves, and seven or
eight blades of mace. If the oysters are fresh, add a large tea-spoonful
of salt; if they are salt oysters, none is requisite. Set
the pan on hot coals, and boil it slowly (skimming it when
necessary) till you find that it is sufficiently flavoured with
the taste of the spice. In the mean time (having cut out the hard
part) chop the oysters fine, and season them with a powdered
nutmeg. Take the liquor from the fire, and strain out the spice
from it. Then return it to the soup pan, and put the chopped
oysters into it, with whatever liquid may have continued about
them. Add a quarter of a pound of butter, divided into little bits
and rolled in flour. Cover the pan, and let it boil hard about
five minutes. If oysters are cooked too much they become tough and
tasteless.


CLAM SOUP.

Having put your clams into a pot of boiling water to make them
open easily, take them from the shells, carefully saving the
liquor. To the liquor of a quart of opened clams, allow three
quarts of water. Mix the water with the liquor of the clams and
put it into a large pot with a knuckle of veal, the bone of which
should be chopped in four places. When it has simmered slowly for
four hours, put in a large bunch of sweet herbs, a beaten nutmeg,
a tea-spoonful of mace, and a table-spoonful of whole pepper, but
no salt, as the salt of the clam liquor will be sufficient. Stew
it slowly an hour longer, and then strain it. When you have
returned the liquor to the pot, add a quarter of a pound of butter
divided into four and each bit rolled in flour. Then put in the
clams, (having cut them, in pieces,) and let it boil fifteen
minutes. Send it to table with toasted bread in it cut into dice.

This soup will be greatly improved by the addition of small force-meat
balls. Make them of cold minced veal or chicken, mixed with
equal quantities of chopped suet and sweet marjoram, and a smaller
proportion of hard-boiled egg, grated lemon-peel, and powdered
nutmeg. Pound all the ingredients together in a mortar, adding a
little pepper and salt. Break in a raw egg or two (in proportion
to the quantity) to bind the whole together and prevent it from
crumbling to pieces. When thoroughly mixed, make the force-meat
into small balls, and let them boil ten minutes in the soup,
shortly before you send it to table. If you are obliged to make
them of raw veal or raw chicken they must boil longer.

It will be a great improvement to cut up a yam and boil it in the
soup.

Oyster soup may be made in this manner.


PLAIN CLAM SOUP.

Take a hundred clams, well washed, and put them into a large pot
of boiling water. This will cause the shells to open. As they open
take them out, and extract the clams, taking care to save the
liquor. Mix with the liquor a quart of water, (or what will be
much better, a quart of milk,) and thicken it with butter rolled
in flour. Add a large bunch of parsley tied up, and a large table-spoonful
of whole pepper. Put the liquid into a pot over a
moderate fire. Make some little round dumplings (about the size of
a hickory nut) of flour and butter, and put them into the soup.
When it comes to a boil, put in the clams, and keep them boiling
an hour. Take them out before you send the soup to table.

When the soup is done, take out the bunch of parsley. Have ready
some toasted bread cut into small squares or dice. Put it into the
soup before you send it to table.

You may make oyster soup in a similar manner.


WATER SOUCHY.

Cut up four flounders, or half a dozen perch, two onions, and a
bunch of parsley. Put them into three quarts of water, and boil
them till the fish go entirely to pieces, and dissolve in the
water. Then strain the liquor through a sieve, and put it into a
kettle or stew-pan. Have ready a few more fish with the heads,
tails, and fins removed, and the brown skin taken off. Cut little
notches in them, and lay them for a short time in very cold water.
Then put them into the stew-pan with the liquor or soup-stock of
the first fish. Season with pepper, salt, and mace, and add half a
pint of white wine or two table-spoonfuls of vinegar. Boil it
gently for a quarter of an hour, and skim it well.

Provide some parsley roots, cut into slices and boiled till very
tender; and also a quantity of parsley leaves boiled nice and
green. After the fish-pan has boiled moderately fifteen minutes,
take it off the fire, and put in the parsley roots; also a little
mushroom catchup.

Take out the fish and lay them in a broad deep dish, or in a
tureen, and then pour on the soup very gently for fear of breaking
them. Strew the green parsley leaves over the top. Have ready
plates of bread and butter, which it is customary to eat with
water souchy.

You may omit the wine or vinegar, and flavour the soup just before
you take it from the fire with essence of anchovy, or with any
other of the essences and compound fish-sauces that are in general
use.

Water souchy (commonly pronounced _sookey_) is a Dutch soup.
It may be made of any sort of small fish; but flounders and perch
are generally used for it. It is very good made of carp.




FISH.


REMARKS.

In choosing fresh fish, select only those that are thick and firm,
with bright scales and stiff fins; the gills a very lively red,
and the eyes full and prominent. In the summer, as soon as they
are brought home, clean them, and put them in ice till you are
ready to cook them; and even then do not attempt to keep a fresh
fish till next day. Mackerel cannot be cooked too soon, as they
spoil more readily than any other fish.

Oysters in the shell may be kept from a week to a fortnight, by
the following process. Cover them with water, and wash them clean
with a birch broom. Then lay them with the deep or concave part of
the shell undermost, and sprinkle each of them well with salt and
Indian meal. Fill up the tub with cold water. Repeat this every
day; first pouring off the liquid of the day before.

The tub must stand all the time in a cool cellar, and be covered
well with an old blanket, carpeting, or something of the sort.

If carefully attended to, oysters kept in this manner will not
only live but fatten.

It is customary to eat fish only at the commencement of the
dinner. Fish and soup are generally served up alone, before any of
the other dishes appear, and with no vegetable but potatoes; it
being considered a solecism in good taste to accompany them with
any of the other productions of the garden except a little horseradish,
parsley, &c. as garnishing.

In England, and at the most fashionable tables in America, bread
only is eaten with fish. To this rule salt cod is an exception.


TO BOIL FRESH SALMON

Scale and clean the fish, handling it as little as possible, and
cutting it open no more than is absolutely necessary. Place it on
the strainer of a large fish-kettle and fill it up with cold
water. Throw in a handful of salt. Let it boil slowly. The length
of time depends on the size and weight of the fish. You may allow
a quarter of an hour to each pound; but experience alone can
determine the exact time. It must however be thoroughly done, as
nothing is more disgusting than fish that is under-cooked. You may
try it with a fork. Skim it well or the colour will be bad.

The minute it is completely boiled, lift up the strainer and rest
it across the top of the kettle, that the fish may drain, and
then, if you cannot send it to table immediately, cover it with a
soft napkin or flannel several folds double, to keep it firm by
absorbing the moisture.

Send it to table on a hot dish. Garnish with scraped horseradish
and curled parsley. Have ready a small tureen of lobster sauce to
accompany the salmon.

Take what is left of it after dinner, and put it into a deep dish
with a close cover. Having saved some of the water in which the
fish was boiled, take a quart of it, and season it with half an
ounce of whole pepper, and half an ounce of whole allspice, half a
pint of the best vinegar, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil it; and
when cold, pour it over the fish, and cover it closely again. In a
cold place, and set on ice, it will keep a day or two, and may be
eaten at breakfast or supper.

If much of the salmon has been left, you must proportion a larger
quantity of the pickle.

Boil salmon trout in a similar manner.


TO BAKE FRESH SALMON WHOLE

Having cleaned a small or moderate sized salmon, season it with
salt, pepper, and powdered mace rubbed on it both outside and in.
Skewer it with the tail turned round and put to the mouth. Lay it
on a stand or trivet in a deep dish or pan, and stick it over with
bits of butter rolled in flour. Put it into the oven, and baste it
occasionally, while baking, with its own drippings.

Garnish it with horseradish and sprigs of curled parsley, laid
alternately round the edge of the dish; and send to table with it
a small tureen of lobster sauce.

Salmon trout may be drest in the same manner.


SALMON BAKED IN SLICES.

Take out the bone and cut the flesh into slices. Season them with
cayenne and salt. Melt two ounces of butter that has been rolled
in flour, in a half pint of water, and mix with it two large
glasses of port wine, two table-spoonfuls of catchup, and two
anchovies. This allowance is for a small quantity of salmon. For a
large dish you must proportion the ingredients accordingly. Let
the anchovies remain in the liquid till they are dissolved. Then
strain it and pour it over the slices of salmon. Tie a sheet of
buttered paper over the dish, and put it into the oven.

You may bake trout or carp in the same manner.


SALMON STEAKS

Split the salmon and take out the bone as nicely as possible,
without mangling the flesh. Then cut it into fillets or steaks
about an inch thick. Dry them lightly in a cloth, and dredge them
with flour. Take care not to squeeze or press them. Have ready
some clear bright coals, such as are fit for beef-steaks. Let the
gridiron be clean and bright, and rub the bars with chalk to
prevent the fish from sticking. Broil the slices thoroughly,
turning them with steak tongs. Send them to table hot, wrapped in
the folds of a napkin that has been heated. Serve up with them
anchovy, or prawn, or lobster sauce.

Many epicures consider this the best way of cooking salmon.

Another way, perhaps still nicer, is to take some pieces of white
paper and butter them well. Wrap in each a slice of salmon,
securing the paper around them, with a string or pins. Lay them on
a gridiron, and broil them over a clear but moderate fire, till
thoroughly done. Take off the paper, and send the cutlets to table
hot, garnished with fried parsley.

Serve up with them prawn or lobster sauce in a boat.


PICKLED SALMON.

Take a fine fresh salmon, and having cleaned it, cut it into large
pieces, and boil it in salted water as if for eating. Then drain
it, wrap it in a dry cloth, and set it in a cold place till next
day. Then make the pickle, which must be in proportion to the
quantity of fish. To one quart of the water in which the salmon
was boiled, allow two quarts of the best vinegar, one ounce of
whole black pepper, one ounce of whole allspice, and a dozen
blades of mace. Boil all these together in a kettle closely
covered to prevent the flavour from evaporating. When the vinegar
thus prepared is quite cold, pour it over the salmon, and put on
the top a table-spoonful of sweet oil, which will make it keep the
longer.

Cover it closely, put it in a dry cool place, and it will be good
for many months.

This is the nicest way of preserving salmon, and is approved by
all who have tried it. Garnish with fennel.


SMOKED SALMON.

Cut the fish up the back; clean, and scale it, and take out the
roe, but do not wash it. Take the bone neatly out. Rub it well
inside and out with a mixture of salt and fine Havanna sugar, in
equal quantities, and a small portion of saltpetre. Cover the fish
with a board on which weights are placed to press it down, and let
it lie thus for two days and two nights. Drain it from the salt,
wipe it dry, stretch it open, and fasten it so with pieces of
stick. Then hang it up and smoke it over a wood fire. It will be
smoked sufficiently in five or six days.

When you wish to eat it, cut off slices, soak them awhile in
lukewarm water, and broil them for breakfast.


TO BOIL HALIBUT.

Halibut is seldom cooked whole; a piece weighing from four to six
pounds being generally thought sufficient. Score deeply the skin
of the back, and when you put it into the kettle lay it on the
strainer with the back undermost. Cover it with cold water, and
throw in a handful of salt. Do not let it come to a boil too fast.
Skim it carefully, and when it has boiled hard a few minutes, hang
the kettle higher, or diminish the fire under it, so as to let it
simmer for about twenty-five or thirty minutes. Then drain it, and
send it to table, garnished with alternate heaps of grated horseradish
and curled parsley, and accompanied by a boat of egg-sauce.

What is left of the halibut, you may prepare for the supper-table
by mincing it when cold, and seasoning it with a dressing of salt,
cayenne, sweet oil, hard-boiled yolk of egg, and a large
proportion of vinegar.


HALIBUT CUTLETS.

Cut your halibut into steaks or cutlets about an inch thick. Wipe
them with a dry cloth, and season them with salt and cayenne
pepper. Have ready a pan of yolk of egg well beaten, and a large
flat dish of grated bread crumbs.

Put some fresh lard or clarified beef dripping into a frying pan,
and hold it over a clear fire till it boils. Dip your cutlets into
the beaten egg, and then into the bread crumbs. Fry them of a
light brown. Serve them up hot, with the gravy in the bottom of
the dish.

Salmon or any large fish may be fried in the same manner.

Halibut cutlets are very fine cut quite thin and fried in the best
sweet oil, omitting the egg and bread crumbs.


TO BROIL MACKEREL.

Mackerel cannot be eaten in perfection except at the sea-side,
where it can be had immediately out of the water. It loses its
flavour in a very few hours, and spoils sooner than any other
fish. Broiling is the best way of cooking it.

Clean two fine fresh mackerel, and wipe them dry with a cloth.
Split them open and rub them with salt. Spread some very bright
coals on the hearth, and set the gridiron over them well greased.
Lay on the mackerel, and broil them very nicely, taking care not
to let them burn. When one side is quite done, turn them on the
other. Lay them, on a hot dish, and butter and pepper them before
they go to table. Garnish them with lumps or pats of minced
paisley mixed with butter, pepper and salt.


BOILED MACKEREL.

Clean the mackerel well, and let them lie a short time in vinegar
and water. Then put them into the fish-kettle with cold water and
a handful of salt. Boil them slowly. If small, they will be
sufficiently cooked in twenty minutes. When the eye starts and the
tail splits they are done. Take them up immediately on finding
them boiled enough. If they stand any time in the water they will
break.

Serve them up with parsley sauce, and garnish the dish with lumps
of minced parsley.

They are eaten with mustard.

For boiling, choose those that have soft roes.

Another way is to put them in cold salt and water, and let them
warm gradually for an hour. Then give them one hard boil, and they
will be done.


TO BOIL SALT CODFISH.

The day previous to that on which it is to be eaten, take the fish
about four o'clock in the afternoon, and put it into a kettle of
cold water. Then place it within the kitchen fire-place, so as to
keep it blood-warm. Next morning at ten, take out the fish, scrub
it clean with a hard brash, and put it into a kettle of fresh cold
water, into which a jill of molasses has been stirred. The
molasses will be found an improvement. Place the kettle again near
the fire, until about twenty minutes before dinner. Then hang it
over the fire, and boil it hard a quarter of an hour, or a little
more.

When done, drain it, and cut it into large pieces. Wrap them
closely in a fine napkin and send them to table on a large dish,
garnished round the edge with hard-boiled eggs, either cut in
half, or in circular slices, yolks and whites together. Have ready
in a small tureen, egg-sauce made with, drawn butter, thickened
with hard-boiled eggs chopped fine. Place on one side of the fish
a dish of mashed potatoes, on the other a dish of boiled parsnips.

The most usual way of preparing salt cod for eating when it comes
to table, is (after picking out all the bones) to mince it fine on
your plate, and mix it with mashed potato, parsnip, and egg-sauce;
seasoning it to your taste with cayenne and mustard. What is left
may be prepared for breakfast nest morning. It should be put into
a skillet or spider, which must be well buttered inside, and set
over hot coals to warm and brown. Or it may be made up into small
cakes and fried.

You may add to the mixture onions boiled and chopped.


TO BOIL FRESH COD.

Having washed and cleaned the fish, leave out the roe and liver;
rub some salt on the inside, and if the weather is very cold you
may keep it till next day. Put sufficient water in the fish-kettle
to cover the fish very well, and add to the water a large handful
of salt. As soon as the salt is entirely melted put in the fish. A
very small codfish will be done in about twenty minutes, (after
the water has boiled;) a large one will take half an hour, or
more. Garnish with the roe and liver fried, or with scraped
horseradish. Send it to table with oyster-sauce in a boat. Or you
may make a sauce by flavouring your melted butter with a glass of
port wine, and an anchovy boned and minced.


ANOTHER WAY OF BOILING FRESH COD.

Put the fish into cold water with a handful of salt, and let it
slowly and gradually warm for three hours if the cod is large, and
two hours if it is small. Then increase the fire, and boil it hard
for a few minutes only.


BAKED SHAD.

Keep on the head and fins. Make a force-meat or stuffing of grated
bread crumbs, cold boiled ham or bacon minced fine, sweet
marjoram, pepper, salt, and a little powdered mace or cloves.
Moisten it with beaten yolk of egg. Stuff the inside of the fish
with it, reserving a little to rub over the outside, having first
rubbed the fish all over with yolk of egg. Lay the fish in a deep
pan, putting its tail to its mouth. Pour into the bottom of the
pan a little water, and add a jill of port wine, and a piece of
butter rolled in flour. Bake it well, and when it is done, send it
to table with the gravy poured round it. Garnish with slices of
lemon.

Any fish may be baked in the same manner.

A large fish of ten or twelve pounds weight, will require about
two hours baking.


TO BROIL A SHAD.

Split and wash the shad, and afterwards dry it in a cloth. Season
it with salt and pepper. Have ready a bed of clear bright coals.
Grease your gridiron well, and as soon as it is hot lay the shad
upon it, and broil it for about a. quarter of an hour or more,
according to the thickness. Butter it well, and send it to table.
You may serve with it melted butter in a sauce-boat.

Or you may cut it into three pieces and broil it without
splitting. It will then, of course, require a longer time. If done
in this manner, send it to table with melted butter poured over
it.


BOILED ROCK-FISH.

Having cleaned the rock-fish, put it into a fish-kettle with water
enough to cover it well, having first dissolved a handful of salt
in the water. Set it over a moderate fire, and do not let it boil
too fast. Skim it well.

When done, drain it, and put it on a large dish. Have ready a few
eggs boiled hard. Cut them in half, and lay them closely on the
back of the fish in a straight line from the head to the tail.
Send with it in a boat, celery sauce flavoured with a little
cayenne.


SEA BASS OR BLACK FISH.

May be boiled and served up in the above manner.


PICKLED ROCK-FISH.

Have ready a large rock-fish. Put on your fish-kettle with a
sufficiency of water to cover the fish amply; spring or pump water
is best. As soon as the water boils, throw in a tea-cup full of
salt, and put in the fish. Boil it gently for about half an hour,
skimming it well. Then take it out, and drain it, laying it
slantingly. Reserve a part of the water in which the fish has been
boiled, and season it to your taste with whole cloves, allspice,
and mace. Boil it up to extract the strength from the spice, and
after it has boiled add to it an equal quantity of the best
vinegar. You must have enough of this liquid to cover the fish
again. When the fish is quite cold, cut off the head and tail, and
cut the body into large pieces, extracting the back-bone. Put it
into a stone jar, and when the spiced liquor is cold, pour it on
the fish, cover the jar closely, and set it in a cool place. It
will be fit for use in a day or two, and if well secured from the
air, and put into a cold place will keep a fortnight.


FRIED PERCH.

Having cleaned the fish and dried them, with a cloth, lay them,
side by side, on a board or large dish; sprinkle them with salt,
and dredge them with flour. After a while turn them, and salt and
dredge the other side. Put some lard or fresh beef-dripping into a
frying-pan, and hold it over the fire. When the lard boils, put in
the fish and fry them of a yellowish brown. Send to table with
them in a boat, melted butter flavoured with anchovy.

Flounders or other small fish may be fried in the same manner.

You may know when the lard or dripping is hot enough, by dipping
in the tail of one of the fish. If it becomes crisp immediately,
the lard is in a proper state for frying. Or you may try it with a
piece of stale bread which will become brown directly, if the lard
is in order.

There should always be enough of lard to cover the fish entirely.
After they have fried five minutes on one side, turn them and fry
them five minutes on the other. Skim the lard or dripping always
before you put in the fish.


TO FRY TROUT.

Having cleaned the fish, and cut off the fins, dredge them with
flour. Have ready some beaten yolk of egg, and in a separate dish
some grated bread crumbs. Dip each fish into the egg, and then
strew them with bread crumbs. Put some butter or fresh beef-dripping
into a frying-pan, and hold it over the fire till it is
boiling hot; then, (having skimmed it,) put in the fish and fry
them.

Prepare some melted butter with a spoonful of mushroom-catchup and
a spoonful of lemon-pickle stirred into it. Send it to table in a
sauce-boat to eat with the fish.

You may fry carp and flounders in the same manner.


TO BOIL TROUT.

Put a handful of salt into the water. When it boils put in the
trout. Boil them fast about twenty minutes, according to their
size.

For sauce, send with them melted butter, and put some soy into it;
or flavour it with catchup.


FRIED SEA BASS.

Score the fish on the back with a knife, and season them with salt
and cayenne pepper. Cut some small onions in round slices, and
chop fine a bunch of parsley. Put some butter into a frying-pan
over the fire, and when it is boiling hot lay in the fish. When
they are about half done put the onions and parsley into the pan.
Keep turning the fish that the onions and parsley may adhere to
both sides. When quite done, put them into the dish in which they
are to go to table, and garnish the edge of the dish with hard
boiled eggs cut in round slices.

Make in the pan in which they have been fried, a gravy, by adding
some butter rolled in flour, and a small quantity of vinegar. Pour
it into the dish with the fish.


STURGEON CUTLETS OR STEAKS.

This is the most approved way of dressing sturgeon. Carefully take
off the skin, as its oiliness will give the fish a strong and
disagreeable taste when cooked. Cut from the tail-piece slices
about half an inch thick, rub them with salt, and broil them over
a clear fire of bright coals. Butter them, sprinkle them with
cayenne pepper, and send them to table hot, garnished with sliced
lemon, as lemon-juice is generally squeezed over them when eaten.

Another way is to make a seasoning of bread-crumbs, sweet herbs,
pepper and salt. First dip the slices of sturgeon, in beaten yolk
of egg, then cover them with seasoning, wrap them up closely in
sheets of white paper well buttered, broil them over a clear fire,
and send them to table either with or without the papers.


STEWED CARP.

Having cut off the head, tail, and fins, season the carp with
salt, peppers and powdered mace, both, inside and out. Rub the
seasoning on very well, and let them lay in it an hour, Then put
them into a stew-pan with a little parsley shred fine, a whole
onion, a little sweet marjoram, a tea-cup of thick cream or very
rich milk, and a lump of butter rolled in flour. Pour in
sufficient water to cover the carp, and let it stew half an hour.

Perch may be done in the same way.

You may dress a piece of sturgeon in this manner, but you must
first boil it for twenty minutes to extract the oil. Take off the
skin before you proceed to stew the fish.


CHOWDER.

Take a pound or more of salt pork, and having half boiled it, cut
it into slips, and with some of them cover the bottom of a pot.
Then strew on some sliced onion. Have ready a large fresh cod, or
an equal quantity of haddock, tutaug, or any other firm fish. Cut
the fish into large pieces, and lay part of it on the pork and
onions. Season it with pepper. Then cover it with a layer of
biscuit, or crackers that have been previously soaked in milk or
water. You may add also a layer of sliced potatoes.

Next proceed with a second layer of pork, onions, fish, &c. and
continue as before till the pot is nearly full; finishing with
soaked crackers. Pour in about a pint and a half of cold water.
Cover it close, set it on hot coals, and let it simmer about an
hour. Then skim it, and turn it out into a deep dish. Leave the
gravy in the pot till you have thickened it with a piece of butter
rolled in flour, and some chopped parsley. Then give it one boil
up, and pour it hot into the dish.

Chowder may be made of clams, first cutting off the hard part.




SHELL FISH


PICKLED OYSTERS.

Take a hundred and fifty fine large oysters, and pick off
carefully the bits of shell that may be sticking to them. Lay the
oysters in a deep dish, and then strain the liquor over them. Put
them into an iron skillet that is lined with porcelain, and add
salt to your taste. Without salt they will not be firm enough. Set
the skillet on hot coals, and allow the oysters to simmer till
they are heated all through, but not till they boil. Then take out
the oysters and put them into a stone jar, leaving the liquor in
the skillet. Add to it a pint of clear strong vinegar, a large
tea-spoonful of blades of mace, three dozen whole cloves, and
three dozen whole pepper corns. Let it come to a boil, and when
the oysters are quite cold in the jar, pour the liquor oh them.

They are fit for use immediately, but are better the next day. In
cold weather they will keep a week.

If you intend sending them a considerable distance you must allow
the oysters to boil, and double the proportions of the pickle and
spice.


FRIED OYSTERS.

Get the largest and finest oysters. After they are taken from the
shell wipe each of them quite dry with a cloth. Then beat up in a
pan yolk of egg and milk, (in the proportion of two yolks to half
a jill or a wine glass of milk,) and grate some stale broad grated
very fine in a large flat dish. Cut up at least half a pound of
fresh butter in the frying-pan, and hold it over the fire till it
is boiling hot. Dip the oysters all over lightly in the mixture of
egg and milk, and then roll them up and down in the grated bread,
making as many crumbs stick to them as you can.

Put them into the frying-pan of hot butter, and keep it over a hot
fire. Fry them brown, turning them that they may be equally
browned on both sides. If properly done they will be crisp, and
not greasy.

Serve them, dry in a hot dish, and do not pour over them the
butter that may be left in the pan when they are fried.

Oysters are very good taken out of the shells and broiled on a
gridiron.


SCOLLOPED OYSTERS.

Having grated a sufficiency of stale bread, butter a deep dish,
and line the sides and bottom thickly with bread crumbs. Then put
in a layer of seasoned oysters, with a few very small bits of
butter on them. Cover them thickly with crumbs, and put in another
layer of oysters and butter, till the dish is filled up, having a
thick layer of crumbs on the top. Put the dish into an oven, and
bake them a very short time, or they will shrivel. Serve them up
hot.

You may bake them in large clam shells, or in the tin scollop
shells made for the purpose. Butter the bottom of each shell;
sprinkle it with bread crumbs; lay on the oysters seasoned with
cayenne and nutmeg, and put a morsel of butter on each. Fill up
the shells with a little of the oyster liquor thickened with bread
crumbs, and set them on a gridiron over coals, browning them
afterwards with a red-hot shovel.


STEWED OYSTERS.

Put the oysters into a sieve, and set it on a pan to drain the
liquor from them. Then cut off the hard part, and put the oysters
into a stew-pan with some whole pepper, a few blades of mace, and
some grated nutmeg. Add a small piece of butter rolled in flour.
Then pour over them about half of the liquor, or a little more.
Set the pan on hot coals, and simmer them gently about five
minutes. Try one, and if it tastes raw cook them a little longer.
Make some thin slices of toast, having cut off all the crust.
Butter the toast and lay it in the bottom of a deep dish. Put the
oysters upon it with the liquor in which they were stewed.

The liquor of oysters should never be thickened by stirring in
flour. It spoils the taste, and gives them a sodden and
disagreeable appearance, and is no longer practised by good cooks.


OYSTER FRITTERS.

Have ready some of the finest and largest oysters; drain them from
the liquor and wipe them dry.

Beat six eggs very light, and stir into them gradually six table-spoonfuls
of line sifted flour. Add by degrees a pint and a half
of rich milk and some grated nutmeg, and beat it to a smooth
batter.

Make your frying-pan very hot, and put into it a piece of butter
or lard. When it has melted and begins to froth, put in a small
ladle-full of the batter, drop an oyster in the middle of it, and
fry it of a light brown. Send them to table hot.

If you find your batter too thin, so that it spreads too much in
the frying-pan, add a little more flour beaten well into it. If it
is too thick, thin it with some additional milk.


OYSTER PIE.

Make a puff-paste, in the proportion of a pound and a half of
fresh butter to two pounds of sifted flour. Roll it out rather
thick, into two sheets. Butter a deep dish, and line the bottom
and sides of it with paste. Fill it up with crusts of bread for
the purpose of supporting the lid while it is baking, as the
oysters will be too much done if they are cooked in the pie. Cover
it with the other sheet of paste, having first buttered the flat
rim of the dish. Notch the edges of the pie handsomely, or
ornament them with leaves of paste which you may form with tin
cutters made for the purpose. Make a little slit in the middle of
the lid, and stick firmly into it a paste tulip or other flower.
Put the dish into a moderate oven, and while the paste is baking
prepare the oysters, which should he large and fresh. Put them
into a stew-pan with half their liquor thickened with yolk of egg
boiled hard and grated, enriched with pieces of butter rolled in
bread crumbs, and seasoned with mace and nutmeg. Stew the oysters
five minutes. When the paste is baked, carefully take off the lid,
remove the pieces of bread, and put in the oysters and gravy.
Replace the lid, and send the pie to table warm.


TO BOIL A LOBSTER.

Put a handful of salt into a large kettle or pot of boiling water.
When the water boils very hard put in the lobster, having first
brushed it, and tied the claws together with a bit of twine. Keep
it boiling from half an hour to an hour in proportion to its size.
If boiled too long the meat will be hard and stringy. When it is
done, take it out, lay it on its claws to drain, and then wipe it
dry. Send it to table cold, with the body and tail split open, and
the claws taken off. Lay the large claws next to the body, and the
small ones outside. Garnish with double parsley.

It is scarcely necessary to mention that the head of a lobster,
and what are called the lady-fingers are not to be eaten.


TO DRESS LOBSTER COLD.

Put a table-spoonful of cold water on a clean plate and with the
back of a wooden spoon mash into it the coral or scarlet meat of
the lobster, adding a salt-spoonful of salt, and about the same
quantity of cayenne. On another part of the plate mix well
together with the back of the spoon two table-spoonfuls of sweet
oil, and a tea-spoonful of made mustard. Then mix the whole till
they are well incorporated and perfectly smooth, adding, at the
last, three table-spoonfuls of vinegar.

This quantity of seasoning is for a small lobster. For a large
one, more of course will be required. Many persons add a tea-spoonful
of powdered white sugar, thinking that it gives a
mellowness to the whole.

The meat of the body and claws of the lobster must be carefully
extracted from the shell and minced very small When the dressing
is smoothly and thoroughly amalgamated mix the meat with it, and
let it be handed round to the company.

The vinegar from a jar of Indian pickle is by some preferred for
lobster dressing.

You may dress the lobster immediately _before_ you send it to
table. When the dressing and meat are mixed together, pile it in a
deep dish, and smooth it with the back of a spoon. Stick a bunch
of the small claws in the top, and garnish with curled parsley.

Very large lobsters are not the best, the meat being coarse and
tough.


STEWED LOBSTER.

Having boiled the lobster, extract the meat from the shell, and
cut it into very small pieces. Season it with a powdered nutmeg, a
few blades of mace, and cayenne and salt to your taste. Mix with
it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter cut small, and two glasses
of white wine or of vinegar. Put it into a stew-pan, and set it on
hot coals. Stew it about twenty minutes, keeping the pan closely
covered lest the flavour should evaporate. Serve it up hot.

If you choose, you can send it to table in the shell, which must
first be nicely cleaned. Strew the meat over with sifted bread-crumbs,
and brown the top with a salamander, or a red hot shovel
held over it.


FRICASSEED LOBSTER.

Put the lobster into boiling salt and water, and let it boil
according to its size from a quarter of an hour to half an hour.
The intention is to have it parboiled only, as it is afterwards to
be fricasseed. Extract the meat from the shell, and cut it into
small pieces. Season it with white pepper, salt, and nutmeg; and
put it into a stew-pan with as much cream as will cover it. Keep
the lid close; set the pan on hot coals, and stew it slowly for
about as long a time as it was previously boiled. Just before you
take it from the fire, stir in the beaten yolk of an egg. Send it
to table in a small dish placed on a larger one, and arrange the
small claws nicely round it on the large dish.


POTTED LOBSTER.

Parboil the lobster in boiling water well salted. Then pick out
all the meat from the body and claws, and beat it in a mortar with
nutmeg, mace, cayenne, and salt, to your taste. Beat the coral
separately. Then put the pounded meat into a large potting can of
block tin with a cover. Press it down hard, having arranged it in
alternate layers of white meat and coral to give it a marbled or
variegated appearance. Cover it with fresh butter, and put it into
a slow oven for half an hour. When cold, take off the butter and
clarify it, by putting it into a jar, which, must be set in a pan
of boiling water. Watch it well, and when it melts, carefully skim
off the buttermilk which will rise to the top. When no more scum
rises, take it off and let it stand for a few minutes to settle,
and then strain it through a sieve.

Put the lobster into small potting-cans, pressing it down very
hard. Pour the clarified butter over it, and secure the covers
tightly.

Potted lobster is used to lay between thin slices of bread as
sandwiches. The clarified butter that accompanies it is excellent
for fish sauce.

Prawns and crabs may be potted in a similar manner.


LOBSTER PIE.

Put two middle-sized lobsters into boiling salt and water. When
they are half boiled, take the meat from the shell, cut it into
very small pieces, and put it into a pie dish. Break up the
shells, and stew them in a very little water with half a dozen
blades of mace and a wine-glass of vinegar. Then strain off the
liquid. Beat the coral in a mortar, and thicken the liquid with
it. Pour this into the dish of lobster to make the gravy. Season
it with cayenne, salt, and mushroom catchup, and add bits of
butter. Cover it with a lid of paste, made in the proportion of
half a pound of butter to a pound of flour, notched handsomely,
and ornamented with paste leaves. Do not send it to table till it
has cooled.


TO BOIL PRAWNS.

Throw a handful of salt into a pot of boiling water. When it boils
very hard, put in the prawns. Let them boil a quarter of an hour,
and when you take them out lay them on a sieve to drain, and then
wipe them on a dry cloth, and put them aside till quite cold.

Lay a handful of curled parsley in the middle of a dish. Put one
prawn on the top of it, and lay the others, all round, as close as
you can, with the tails outside. Garnish with parsley.

Eat them with salt, cayenne, sweet oil, mustard and vinegar, mixed
together as for lobsters.


CRABS

Crabs are boiled in the same manner, and in serving up may be
arranged like prawns.


HOT CRABS.

Having boiled the crabs, extract all the meat from the shell, cut
it fine, and season it to your taste with nutmeg, salt, and
cayenne pepper. Add a bit of butter, some grated bread crumbs, and
sufficient vinegar to moisten it. Fill the back-shells of the crab
with the mixture; set it before the fire, and brown it by holding
a red-hot shovel or a salamander a little above it.

Cover a large dish, with small slices of dry toast with the crust
cut off. Lay on each slice a shell filled with the crab. The shell
of one crab will contain the meat of two.


COLD CRABS.

Having taken all the meat out of the shells, make a dressing with
sweet oil, salt, cayenne pepper, mustard and vinegar, as for
lobster. You may add to it some hard-boiled yolk of egg, mashed in
the oil. Put the mixture into the back shells of the crabs, and
serve it up. Garnish with the small claws laid nicely round.


SOFT CRABS.

These crabs must be cooked directly, as they will not keep till
next day.

Remove the spongy substance from each side of the crab, and also
the little sand-bag. Put some lard into a pan, and when it is
boiling hot, fry the crabs in it. After you take them out, throw
in a handful of parsley, and let it crisp; but withdraw it before
it loses its colour. Strew it over the crabs when you dish them.

Make the gravy by adding cream or rich milk to the lard, with some
chopped parsley, pepper and salt. Let them all boil together for a
few minutes, and then serve it up in a sauce-boat.


TERRAPINS.

Have ready a pot of boiling water. When it is boiling very hard
put in the terrapins, and let them remain in it till quite dead.
Then take them out, pull off the outer skin and the toe-nails,
wash the terrapins in warm water and boil them again, allowing a
tea-spoonful of salt to each terrapin. When the flesh becomes
quite tender so that you can pinch it off, take them out of the
shell, remove the sand-bag, and the gall, which you must be
careful not to break, as it will make the terrapin so bitter as to
be uneatable. Cut up all the other parts of the inside with the
meat, and season it to your taste with black and cayenne pepper,
and salt. Put all into a stew-pan with the juice or liquor that it
has given out in cutting up, but not any water. To every two
terrapins allow a quarter of a pound of butter divided into pieces
and rolled in flour, two glasses of Madeira, and the yolks of two
eggs. The eggs must be beaten, and not stirred in till a moment
before it goes to table. Keep it closely covered. Stew it gently
till every thing is tender, and serve it up hot in a deep dish.

Terrapins, after being boiled by the cook, may be brought to table
plain, with all the condiments separate, that the company may
dress them according to taste.

For this purpose heaters or chafing-dishes must be provided for
each plate.


PICKLED LOBSTER.

Take half a dozen fine lobsters. Put them into boiling salt and
water, and when they are all done, take them out and extract all
the meat from the shells, leaving that of the claws as whole as
possible, and cutting the flesh of the body into large pieces
nearly of the same size. Season a sufficient quantity of vinegar
very highly with whole pepper-corns, whole cloves, and whole
blades of mace. Put the pieces of lobster into a stew-pan, and
pour on just sufficient vinegar to keep them well covered. Set it
over a moderate fire; and when it has boiled hard about five
minutes, take out the lobster, and let the pickle boil by itself
for a quarter of an hour. When the pickle and lobster are both
cold, put them together into a broad flat stone jar. Cover it
closely, and set it away in a cool place.

Eat the pickled lobster with oil, mustard, and vinegar, and have
bread and butter with it.




DIRECTIONS FOR COOKING MEAT.


BEEF.

GENERAL REMARKS.

When beef is good, it will have a fine smooth open grain, and it
will feel tender when squeezed or pinched in your fingers. The
lean should be of a bright carnation red, and the fat white rather
than yellow--the suet should be perfectly white. If the lean looks
dark or purplish, and the fat very yellow, do not buy the meat.

See that the butcher has properly jointed the meat before it goes
home. For good tables, the pieces generally roasted are the
sirloin and the fore and middle ribs. In genteel houses other
parts are seldom served up as _roast-beef_. In small families
the ribs are the most convenient pieces. A whole sirloin is too
large, except for a numerous company, but it is the piece most
esteemed.

The best beef-steaks are those cut from the ribs, or from the
inner part of the sirloin. All other pieces are, for this purpose,
comparatively hard and tough.

The round is generally corned or salted, and boiled. It is also
used for the dish called beef a-la-mode.

The legs make excellent soup; the head and tail are also used for
that purpose.

The tongue when fresh is never cooked except for mince-pies.
Corned or salted it is seldom liked, as in that state it has a
faint sickly taste that few persons can relish. But when pickled
and afterwards smoked (the only good way of preparing a tongue) it
is highly and deservedly esteemed.

The other pieces of the animal are generally salted and boiled. Or
when fresh they may be used for soup or stews, if not too fat.

If the state of the weather will allow you to keep fresh beef two
or three days, rub it with salt, and wrap it in a cloth.

In summer do not attempt to keep it more than twenty-four hours;
and not then unless you can conveniently lay it in ice, or in a
spring-house.

In winter if the beef is brought from market frozen, do not cook
it that day unless you dine very late, as it will be impossible to
get it sufficiently done--meat that has been frozen requiring
double the usual time. To thaw it, lay it in cold water, which is
the only way to extract the frost without injuring the meat. It
should remain in the water three hours, or more.


TO ROAST BEEF.

The fire should be prepared at least half an hour before the beef
is put down, and it should be large, steady, clear, and bright,
with plenty of fine hot coals at the bottom.

The best apparatus for the purpose is the well-known roaster
frequently called a tin-kitchen.

Wash the meat in cold water, and then wipe it dry, and rub it with
salt. Take care not to run the spit through the best parts of it.
It is customary with some cooks to tie blank paper over the fat,
to prevent it from melting and wasting too fast.

Put it evenly into the roaster, and do not set it too near the
fire, lest the outside of the meat should be burned before the
inside is heated.

Put some nice beef-dripping or some lard into the pan or bottom of
the roaster, and as soon as it melts begin to baste the beef with
it; taking up the liquid with a long spoon, and pouring it over
the meat so as to let it trickle down again, into the pan. Repeat
this frequently while it is roasting; after a while you can baste
it with its own fat. Turn the spit often, so that the meat may be
equally done on all sides.

Once or twice draw back the roaster, and improve the fire by
clearing away the ashes, bringing forward the hot coals, and
putting on fresh fuel at the back. Should a coal fall into the
dripping-pan take it out immediately. An allowance of about twenty
minutes to each pound of meat is the time commonly given for
roasting; but this rule, like most others, admits of exceptions
according to circumstances. Also, some persons like their meat
very much done; others prefer it rare, as it is called. In summer,
meat will roast in a shorter time than in winter.

When the beef is nearly done, and the steam draws towards the
fire, remove the paper that has covered the fat part, sprinkle on
a little salt, and having basted the meat well with the dripping,
pour off nicely (through the spout of the roaster) all the liquid
fat from the top of the gravy.

Lastly, dredge the meat very lightly with a little flour, and
baste it with fresh butter. This will give it a delicate froth. To
the gravy that is now running from the meat add nothing but a tea-cup
of boiling water. Skim it, and send it to table in a boat.
Serve up with the beef in a small deep plate, scraped horseradish
moistened with vinegar.

Fat meat requires more roasting than lean, and meat that has been
frozen will take nearly double the usual time.

Basting the meat continually with flour and water is a bad
practice, as it gives it a coddled parboiled appearance, and
diminishes the flavour.

These directions for roasting beef will apply equally to mutton.

Pickles are generally eaten with roast beef. French mustard is an
excellent condiment for it. In carving begin by cutting a slice
from the side.


TO SAVE BEEF-DRIPPING.

Pour off through the spout of the roaster or tin-kitchen, all the
fat from the top of the gravy, after you have done basting the
meat with it. Hold a little sieve under the spout, and strain the
dripping through it into a pan. Set it away in a cool place; and
next day when it is cold and congealed, turn the cake of fat, and
scrape with a knife the sediment from the bottom. Pat the dripping
into a jar; cover it tightly, and set it away in the refrigerator,
or in the coldest place you have. It will be found useful for
frying, and for many other purposes.

Mutton-dripping cannot be used for any sort of cooking, as it
communicates to every thing the taste of tallow.


BAKED BEEF.

This is a plain family dish, and is never provided for company.

Take a nice but not a fat piece of fresh beef. Wash it, rub it
with salt, and place it on a trivet in a deep block tin or iron
pan. Pour a little water into the bottom, and put under and round
the trivet a sufficiency of pared potatoes, either white or sweet
ones. Put it into a hot oven, and let it bake till thoroughly
done, basting it frequently with its own gravy. Then transfer it
to a hot dish, and serve up the potatoes in another. Skim the
gravy, and send it to table in a boat.

Or you may boil the potatoes, mash them with milk, and put them
into the bottom of the pan about half an hour before the meat is
done baking. Press down the mashed potatoes hard with the back of
a spoon, score them in cross lines over the top, and let them,
brown under the meat, serving them up laid round it.

Instead of potatoes, you may put in the bottom of the pan what is
called a Yorkshire pudding, to be baked under the meat.

To make this pudding,--stir gradually four table-spoonfuls of
flour into a pint of milk, adding a salt-spoon of salt. Beat three
eggs very light, and mix them gradually with the milk and flour.
See that the batter is not lumpy. Do not put the pudding under the
meat at first, as if baked too long it will be hard and solid.
After the meat has baked till the pan is quite hot and well
greased with the drippings, you may put in the batter; having
continued stirring it till the last moment.

If the pudding is so spread over the pan as to be but an inch
thick, it will require about two hours baking, and need not be
turned. If it is thicker than an inch, you must (after it is brown
on the top) loosen it in the pan, by inserting a knife beneath it,
and having cut it across into four pieces, turn them all nicely
that the other side may be equally done. But this pudding is
lighter and better if laid so thin as not to require turning.

When you serve up the beef lay the pieces of pudding round it, to
be eaten with the meat.

Veal may be baked in this manner with potatoes or a pudding. Also
fresh pork.


TO BOIL CORNED OR SALTED BEEF.

The best piece is the round. You may either boil it whole, or
divide it into two, or even three pieces if it is large, taking
care that each piece shall have a portion of the fat. Wash it
well; and, if very salt, soak it in two waters. Skewer it up
tightly and in a good compact shape, wrapping the flap piece
firmly round it. Tie it round with broad strong tape, or with a
strip of coarse linen. Put it into a large pot, and cover it well
with water. It will be found a convenience to lay it on a fish
drainer.

Hang it over a moderate fire that it may heat gradually all
through. Carefully take off the scum as it rises, and when no more
appears, keep the pot closely covered, and let it boil slowly and
regularly, with the fire at an equal temperature. Allow three
hours and a half to a piece weighing about twelve pounds, and from
that to four or five hours in proportion to the size. Turn the
meat twice in the pot while it is boiling. Put in some carrots and
turnips about two hours after the meat. Many persons boil cabbage
in the same pot with the beef, but it is a much nicer way to do
the greens in a separate vessel, lest they become saturated with
the liquid fat. Cauliflower or brocoli (which are frequent
accompaniments to corned beef) should never be boiled with it.

Wash the cabbage in cold water, removing the outside leaves, and
cutting the stalk close. Examine all the leaves carefully, lest
insects should be lodged among them. If the cabbage is large,
divide it into quarters. Put it into a pot of boiling water with a
handful of salt, and boil it till the stalk is quite tender. Half
an hour will generally be sufficient for a small young cabbage; an
hour for a large full-grown one. Drain it well before you dish it.
If boiled separately from the meat, have ready some melted butter
to eat with it.

Should you find the beef under-done, you may reboil it next day;
putting it into boiling-water and letting it simmer for half an
hour or more, according to its size.

Cold corned beef will keep very well for some days wrapped in
several folds of a thick linen cloth, and set away in a cool dry
place.

In carving a round of beef, slice it horizontally and very thin.
Do not help any one to the outside pieces, as they are generally
too hard and salt. French mustard is very nice with corned beef.
[Footnote: French mustard is made of the very best mustard powder,
diluted with vinegar, and flavoured with minced tarragon leaves,
and a minced clove of garlic; all mixed with a wooden spoon.]

This receipt will apply equally to any piece of corned beef,
except that being less solid than the round, they will, in
proportion to their weight, require rather less time to boil.

In dishing the meat, remove the wooden skewers and substitute
plated or silver ones.

Many persons think it best (and they are most probably right) to
stew corned beef rather than to boil it. If you intend to stew it,
put no more water in the pot than will barely cover the meat, and
keep it gently simmering over a slow fire for four, five, or six
hours, according to the size of the piece.


TO BROIL BEEF-STEAKS.

The best beef-steaks are those cut from the ribs or from the
inside of the sirloin. All other parts are for this purpose
comparatively hard and tough.

They should be cut about three quarters of an inch thick, and,
unless the beef is remarkably fine and tender, the steaks will be
much improved by beating them on both sides with a steak mallet,
or with a rolling-pin. Do not season them till you take them from
the fire.

Have ready on your hearth a fine bed of clear bright coals,
entirely free from smoke and ashes. Set the gridiron over the
coals in a slanting direction, that the meat may not be smoked by
the fat dropping into the fire directly under it. When the
gridiron is quite hot, rub the bars with suet, sprinkle a little
salt over the coals, and lay on the steaks. Turn them frequently
with a pair of steak-tongs, or with a knife and fork. A quarter of
an hour is generally sufficient time to broil & beef-steak. For
those who like them under-done or rare, ten or twelve minutes will
be enough.

When the fat blazes and smokes very much as it drips into the
fire, quickly remove the gridiron for a moment, till the blaze has
subsided. After they are browned, cover the upper side of the
steaks with an inverted plate or dish to prevent the flavour from
evaporating. Rub a dish with a shalot, or small onion, and place
it near the gridiron and close to the fire, that it may be well
heated. In turning the steak drop the gravy that may be standing
on it into this dish, to save it from being lost. When the steaks
are done, sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper, and lay
them in a hot dish, putting on each a piece of fresh butter. Then,
if it is liked, season them with, a very little raw shalot, minced
as finely as possible, and moistened with a spoonful of water; and
stir a tea-spoonful of catchup into the gravy. Send the steaks to
table very hot, in a covered dish. You may serve up with them
onion sauce in a small tureen.

Pickles are frequently eaten with beef-steaks.

Mutton chops may be broiled in the same manner.


TO FRY BEEF-STEAKS.

Beef-steaks for frying should be cut thinner than for broiling.
Take them from the ribs or sirloin, and remove the bone. Beat them
to make them tender. Season them with salt and pepper.

Put some fresh butter, or nice beef-dripping into a frying pan,
and hold it over a clear bright fire till it boils and has done
hissing. Then put in the steaks, and (if you like them) some
sliced onions. Fry them about a quarter of an hour, turning them
frequently. Steaks, when fried, should be thoroughly done. After
they are browned, cover them with a large plate to keep in the
juices,

Have ready a hot dish, and when they are done, take out the steaks
and onions and lay them in it with another dish on the top, to
keep them hot while you give the gravy in the pan another boil up
over the fire. You may add to it a spoonful of mushroom catchup.
Pour the gravy over the steakes, and send them to table as hot as
possible.

Mutton chops may be fried in this manner.


BEEF-STEAK PUDDING.

For a small pudding take a pound of fresh beef suet. Clear it from
the skin and the stringy fibres, and mince it as finely as
possible. Sift into a large pan two pounds of fine flour, and add
the suet gradually, rubbing it fine with your hands and mixing it
thoroughly. Then pour in, by degrees, enough of cold water to make
a stiff dough. Roll it out into a large even sheet. Have ready
about a pound and a half of the best beef-steak, omitting the bone
and fat which should be all cut off. Divide the steak into small
thin pieces, and beat them well to make them tender. Season them
with pepper and salt, and, if convenient, add some mushrooms. Lay
the beef in the middle of the sheet of paste, and put on the top a
bit of butter rolled in flour. Close the paste nicely over the
meat as if you were making a large dumpling. Dredge with flour a
thick square cloth, and tie the pudding up in it, leaving space
for it to swell. Fasten the string very firmly, and stop up with
flour the little gap at the tying-place so that no water can get
in. Have ready a large pot of boiling water. Put the pudding into
it, and let it boil fast three hours or more. Keep up a good fire
under it, as if it stops boiling a minute the crust will be heavy.
Have a kettle of boiling water at the fire to replenish the pot if
it wastes too much. Do not take up the pudding till the moment
before it goes to table. Mix some catchup with the gravy on your
plate.

For a large pudding you must have two pounds of suet, three pounds
of flour, and two pounds and a half of meat. It must boil at least
five hours.

All the fat must be removed from the meat before it goes into the
pudding, as the gravy cannot be skimmed when enclosed in the
crust.

You may boil in the pudding some potatoes cut into slices.

A pudding of the lean of mutton chops may be made in the same
manner; also of venison steaks.


A BEEF-STEAK PIE.

Make a good paste in the proportion of a pound of butter to two
pounds of sifted flour. Divide it in half, and line with one sheet
of it the bottom and sides of a deep dish, which must first be
well buttered. Have ready two pounds of the best beef-steak, cut
thin, and well beaten; the bone and fat being omitted. Season it
with pepper and salt. Spread a layer of the steak at the bottom of
the pie, and on it a layer of sliced potato, and a few small bits
of butter rolled in flour. Then another layer of meat, potato,
&c., till the dish is full. You may greatly improve the flavour by
adding mushrooms, or chopped clams or oysters, leaving out the
hard parts. If you use clams or oysters, moisten the other
ingredients with a little of their liquor. If not, pour in, at the
last, half a pint of cold water, or less if the pie is small.
Cover the pie with the other sheet of paste as a lid, and notch
the edges handsomely, having reserved a little of the paste to
make a flower or tulip to stick in the slit at the top. Bake it in
a quick oven an hour and a quarter, or longer, in proportion to
its size. Send it to table hot.

You may make a similar pie of mutton chops, or veal cutlets, or
venison steaks, always leaving out the bone and fat.

Many persons in making pies stew the meat slowly in a little water
till about half done, and they then put it with its gravy into the
paste and finish by baking. In this case add no water to the pie,
as there will be already sufficient liquid If you half-stew the
meat, do the potatoes with it.


A-LA-MODE BEEF.

Take the bone out of a round of fresh beef, and beat the meat well
all over to make it tender. Chop and mix together equal quantities
of sweet marjoram and sweet basil, the leaves picked from the
stalks and rubbed fine. Chop also some small onions or shalots,
and some parsley; the marrow from the bone of the beef; and a
quarter of a pound, or more of suet. Add two penny rolls of stale
bread grated; and pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste. Mix all
these ingredients well, and bind them together with the beaten
yolks of four eggs. Fill with this seasoning the place from whence
you took out the bone; and rub what is left of it all over the
outside of the meat. You must, of course, proportion the quantity
of stuffing to the size of the round of beef. Fasten it well with
skewers, and tie it round firmly with a piece of tape, so as to
keep it compact and in good shape. It is best to prepare the meat
the day before it is to be cooked.

Cover the bottom of a stew-pan with slices of bacon. Lay the beef
upon them, and cover the top of the meat with more slices of
bacon. Place round it four large onions, four carrots, and four
turnips, all cut in thick slices. Pour in from half a pint to a
pint of water, and if convenient, add two calves' feet cut in
half. Cover the pan closely, set it in an oven and let it bake for
at least six hours; or seven or eight, according to the size.

When it is thoroughly done, take out the beef and lay it on a dish
with the vegetables round it. Remove the bacon and calves' feet,
and (having skimmed the fat from the gravy carefully) strain it
into a small sauce-pan; set it on hot coals, and stir into it a
tea-cupful of port wine, and the same quantity of pickled
mushrooms. Let it just come to a boil, and then send it to table
in a sauce-tureen.

If the beef is to be eaten cold, you may ornament it as follows:--
Glaze it all over with beaten white of egg. Then cover it with a
coat of boiled potato grated finely. Have ready some slices of
cold boiled carrot, and also of beet-root. Cut them into the form
of stars or flowers, and arrange them handsomely over the top of
the meat by sticking them on the grated potato. In the centre
place a large bunch of double parsley, interspersed with flowers
cut out of raw turnips, beets, and carrots, somewhat in imitation
of white and red roses, and marygolds. Fix the flowers on wooden
skewers concealed with parsley.

Cold a-la-mode beef prepared in this manner will at a little
distance look like a large iced cake decorated with sugar flowers.

You may dress a fillet of veal according to this receipt. Of
course it will require less time to stew.


TO STEW BEEF.

Take a good piece of fresh beef. It must not be too fat. Wash it,
rub it with salt, and put it into a pot with barely sufficient
water to cover it. Set it over a slow fire, and after it has
stewed an hour, put in some potatoes pared and cut in half, and
some parsnips, scraped and split. Let them stew with the beef till
quite tender. Turn the meat several times in the pot. When all is
done, serve up the meat and vegetables together, and the gravy in
a boat, having first skimmed it.

This is a good family dish.

You may add turnips (pared and sliced) to the other vegetables.

Fresh pork may be stewed in this manner, or with sweet potatoes.


TO STEW A ROUND OF BEEF.

Trim off some pieces from a round of fresh beef--take out the bone
and break it. Put the bone and the trimmings into a pan with some
cold water, and add an onion, a carrot, and a turnip all cut in
pieces, and a bunch, of sweet herbs. Simmer them for an hour, and
having skimmed it well, strain off the liquid. Season the meat
highly with what is called kitchen pepper, that is, a mixture, in
equal quantities, of black or white pepper, allspice, cinnamon,
cloves, ginger and nutmeg, all finely powdered. Fasten it with
skewers, and tie it firmly round with tape. Lay skewers in the
bottom of the stew-pan; place the beef upon them, and then pour
over it the gravy you have prepared from the bone and trimmings.
Simmer it about an hour and a half, and then turn the meat over,
and add to it three carrots, three turnips, and two onions all
sliced, and a glass of tarragon vinegar. Keep the lid close,
except when you are skimming off the fat. Let the meat stew till
it is thoroughly done and tender throughout. The time will depend
on the size of the round. It may require from five or six to eight
hours.

Just before you take it up, stir into the gravy a table-spoonful
or two of mushroom catchup, a little made mustard, and a piece of
butter rolled in flour.

Send it to table hot, with the gravy poured round it.


ANOTHER WAY TO STEW A ROUND OF BEEF,

Take a round of fresh beef (or the half of one if it is very
large) and remove the bone. The day before you cook it, lay it in
a pickle made of equal proportions of water and vinegar with salt
to your taste. Next morning take it out of the pickle, put it into
a large pot or stew-pan, and just cover it with water. Put in with
it two or three large onion a few cloves, a little whole black
pepper, and a large glass of port or claret. If it is a whole
round of beef allow two glasses of wine. Stew it slowly for at
least four hours or more, in proportion to its size. It must be
thoroughly done, and tender all through. An hour before you send
it to table take the meat out of the pot, and pour the gravy into
a pan. Put a large lump of butter into the pot, dredge the beef
with flour, and return it to the pot to brown, turning it often to
prevent its burning. Or it will be better to put it into a Dutch
oven. Cover the lid with hot coals, renewing them as they go out.
Take the gravy that you poured from the meat, and skim off all the
fat. Put it into a sauce-pan, and mix with it a little butter
rolled in flour, and add some more cloves and wine. Give it a boil
up. If it is not well browned, burn some sugar on a hot shovel,
and stir it in.

If you like it stuffed, have ready when you take the meat out of
the pickle, a force-meat of grated bread crumbs, sweet herbs,
butter, spice, pepper and salt, and minced parsley, mixed with
beaten yolk of egg. Fill with this the opening from whence you
took the bone, and bind a tape firmly round the meat.


BEEF BOUILLI.

Take part of a round of fresh beef (or if you prefer it a piece of
the flank or brisket) and rub it with salt. Place skewers in the
bottom of the stew-pot, and lay the meat upon them with barely
water enough to cover it. To enrich the gravy you may add the
necks and other trimmings of whatever poultry you may happen to
have; also the root of a tongue, if convenient. Cover the pot, and
set it over a quick fire. When it boils and the scum has risen,
skim it well, and then diminish the fire so that the meat shall
only simmer; or you may set the pot on hot coals. Then put in four
or five carrots sliced thin, a head of celery cut up, and four or
fire sliced turnips. Add a bunch of sweet herbs, and a small
table-spoonful of black pepper-corns tied in a thin muslin rag. Let
it stew slowly for four or fire hours, and then add a dozen very
small onions roasted and peeled, and a large table-spoonful of
capers or nasturtians. You may, if you choose, stick a clove in
each onion. Simmer it half an hour longer, then take up the meat,
and place-it in a dish, laying the vegetables round it. Skim and
strain the gravy; season it with catchup, and made mustard, and
serve it up in a boat. Mutton may be cooked in this manner.


HASHED BEEF.

Take some roast beef that has been very much under-done,
and having cut off the fat and skin, put the trimmings
with the bones broken up into a stew-pan with two large
onions sliced, a few sliced potatoes, and a bunch of sweet
herbs. Add about a pint of warm water, or broth if you have
it. This is to make the gravy. Cover it closely, and let it
simmer for about an hour. Then skim and strain it, carefully
removing every particle of fat.

Take another stew-pot, and melt in it a piece of butter,
about the size of a large walnut. When it has melted, shake
in a spoonful of flour. Stir it a few minutes, and then add
to it the strained gravy. Let it come to a boil, and then put
to it a table-spoonful of catchup, and the beef cut either in
thin small slices or in mouthfuls. Let it simmer from five to
ten minutes, but do not allow it to boil, lest (having been
cooked already) it should become tasteless and insipid.
Serve it up in a deep dish with thin slices of toast cut into
triangular or pointed pieces, the crust omitted. Dip the toast in
the gravy, and lay the pieces in regular order round the sides of
the dish.

You may hash mutton or veal in the same manner, adding sliced
carrots, turnips, potatoes, or any vegetables you please. Tomatas
are an improvement.

To hash cold meat is an economical way of using it; but there is
little or no nutriment in it after being twice cooked, and the
natural flavour is much impaired by the process.

Hashed meat would always be much better if the slices were cut
from the joint or large piece as soon as it leaves the table, and
soaked in the gravy till next day.


BEEF CAKES.

Take some cold roast beef that has been under-done, and mince it
very fine. Mix with it grated bread crumbs, and a little chopped
onion and parsley. Season it with pepper and salt, and moisten it
with some beef-dripping and a little walnut or onion pickle. Some
scraped cold tongue or ham will be found an improvement. Make it
into broad flat cakes, and spread a coat of mashed potato thinly
on the top and bottom of each. Lay a small bit of butter on the
top of every cake, and set them in an oven to warm and brown.

Beef cakes are frequently a breakfast dish.

Any other cold fresh meat may be prepared in the same manner.

Cold roast beef may be cut into slices, seasoned with salt and
pepper, broiled a few minutes over a clear fire, and served up hot
with a little butter spread on them.


TO ROAST A BEEF'S HEART.

Cut open the heart, and (having removed the ventricles) soak it in
cold water to free it from the blood, Parboil it about ten
minutes. Prepare, a force-meat of grated bread crumbs, butter or
minced suet, sweet marjoram and parsley chopped fine, a little
grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, pepper, and salt to your taste, and
some yolk of egg to bind the ingredients. Stuff the heart with the
force-meat, and secure the opening by tying a string around it.
Put it on a spit, and roast it till it is tender throughout.

Add to the gravy a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a glass of
red wine. Serve up the heart very hot in a covered dish. It chills
immediately.

Eat currant jelly with it.

Boiled beef's heart is frequently used in mince pies.


TO STEW A BEEF'S HEART.

Clean the heart, and cut it lengthways into large pieces. Put them
into a pot with a little salt and pepper, and cover them with cold
water. Parboil them for a quarter of an hour, carefully skimming
off the blood that rises to the top. Then take them out, cut them,
into mouthfuls, and having strained the liquid, return them to it,
adding a head or two of chopped celery, a few sliced onions, a
dozen potatoes pared and quartered, and a piece of butter rolled
in flour. Season with whole pepper, and a few cloves if you like.
Let it stew slowly till all the pieces of heart and the vegetables
are quite tender.

You may stew a beef's kidney in the same manner.

The heart and liver of a calf make a good dish cooked as above.


TO DRESS BEEF KIDNEY.

Having soaked a fresh kidney in cold water and dried it in a
cloth, cut it into mouthfuls, and then mince it fine. Dust it with
flour. Put some butter into a stew-pan over a moderate fire, and
when it boils put in the minced kidney. When you have browned it
in the butter, sprinkle on a little salt and cayenne pepper, and
pour in a very little boiling water. Add a glass of champagne or
other wine, or a large tea-spoonful of mushroom catchup, or of
walnut pickle. Cover the pan closely, and let it stew till the
kidney is tender. Send it to table hot in a covered dish. It is
eaten generally at breakfast.


TO BOIL TRIPE.

Wash it well in warm water, and trim it nicely, taking off all the
fat. Cut it into small pieces, and put it on to boil five hours
before dinner, in water enough to cover it very well. After it has
boiled four hours, pour off the water, season the tripe with
pepper and salt, and put it into a pot with milk and water mixed
in equal quantities. Boil it an hour in the milk and water.

Boil in a sauce-pan ten or a dozen onions. When they are quite
soft, drain them in a cullender, and mash them. Wipe out your
sauce-pan and put them on again, with a bit of butter rolled in
flour, and a wine-glass of cream or milk. Let them boil up, and
add them to the tripe just before you send it to table. Eat it
with pepper, vinegar, and mustard.


TRIPE AND OYSTERS.

Having boiled the tripe in milk and water, for four or five hours
till it is quite tender, gut it up into small pieces. Put it into
a stew-pan with just milk enough to cover it, and a few blades of
mace. Let it stew about five minutes, and then put in the oysters,
adding a large piece of butter rolled-in flour, and salt and
cayenne pepper to your taste. Let it stew five minutes longer, and
then send it to table in a tureen; first skimming off whatever fat
may float on the surface.


TO FRY TRIPE.

Boil the tripe the day before, till it is quite tender, which it
will not be in less than four or five hours. Then cover it and set
it away. Next day cut it into long slips, and dip each piece into
beaten yolk of egg, and afterwards roll them in grated bread
crumbs. Have ready in a frying-pan over the fire, some good beef-dripping.
When it is boiling hot put in the tripe, and fry it
about ten minutes, till of a light brown.

You may serve it up with onion sauce.

Boiled tripe that has been left from the dinner of the preceding
day may be fried in this manner.


PEPPER POT.

Take four pounds of tripe, and four ox feet. Put them into a large
pot with as much water as will cover them, some whole pepper, and
a little salt. Hang them over the fire early in the morning. Let
them boil slowly, keeping the pot closely covered. When the tripe
is quite tender, and the ox feet boiled to pieces, take them out,
and skim the liquid and strain it. Then cut the tripe into small
pieces; put it back into the pot, and pour the soup or liquor over
it. Have ready some sweet herbs chopped fine, some sliced onions,
and some sliced potatoes. Make some small dumplings with flour and
batter. Season the vegetables well with pepper and salt, and put
them into the pot. Have ready a kettle of boiling water, and pour
on as much as will keep the ingredients covered while boiling, but
take care not to weaken the taste by putting too much water. Add a
large piece of butter rolled in flour, and lastly put in the
dumplings. Let it boil till all the things are thoroughly done,
and then serve it up in the tureen.


TO BOIL A SMOKED TONGUE.

In buying dried tongues, choose those that are thick and plump,
and that have the smoothest skins. They are the most likely to be
young and tender.

A smoked tongue should soak in cold water at least all night. One
that is very hard and dry will require twenty-four hours' soaking.
When you boil it put it into a pot full of cold water. Set it over
a slow fire that it may heat gradually for an hour before it comes
to a boil. Then keep it simmering from three and a half to four
hours, according to its size and age. Probe it with a fork, and do
not take it up till it is tender throughout. Send it to table with
mashed potato laid round it, and garnish with parsley. Do not
split it in half when you dish it, as is the practice with some
cooks. Cutting it lengthways spoils the flavour, and renders it
comparatively insipid.

If you wish to serve up the tongue very handsomely, rub it with
yolk of egg after you take it from the pot, and strew over it
grated bread crumbs; baste it with butter, and set it before the
fire till it becomes of a light brown. Cover the root (which is
always an unsightly object) with thick sprigs of double parsley;
and (instead of mashed potato) lay slices of currant jelly all
round the tongue.


TO BOIL A SALTED OR PICKLED TONGUE.

Put it into boiling water, and let it boil three hours or more,
according to its size. When you take it out peel and trim it, and
send it to table surrounded with mashed potato, and garnished with
sliced carrot.


TO CORN BEEF.

Wash the beef well, after it has lain awhile in cold water. Then
drain and examine it, take out all the kernels, and rub it
plentifully with salt. It will imbibe the salt more readily after
being washed. In cold weather warm the salt by placing it before
the fire. This will cause it to penetrate the meat more
thoroughly.

In summer do not attempt to corn any beef that has not been fresh
killed, and even then it will not keep more than a day and a half
or two days. Wash and dry it, and rub a great deal of salt well
into it. Cover it carefully, and keep it in a cold dry cellar.

Pork is corned in the same manner.


TO PICKLE BEEF OR TONGUES.

The beef must be fresh killed, and of the best kind. You must wipe
every piece well, to dry it from the blood and moisture. To fifty
pounds of meat allow two pounds and a quarter of coarse salt, two
pounds and a quarter of fine salt, one ounce and a half of
saltpetre, one pound and a half of brown sugar, and one quart of
molasses. Mix all these ingredients well together, boil and skim
it for about twenty minutes, and when no more scum rises, take it
from the fire. Have ready the beef in a large tub, or in a barrel;
pour the brine gradually upon it with a ladle, and as it cools rub
it well into every part of the meat. A molasses hogshead sawed in
two is a good receptacle for pickled meat. Cover it well with a
thick cloth, and look at it frequently, skimming off whatever may
float on the top, and basting the meat with the brine. In about a
fortnight the beef will be fit for use.

Tongues may be put into the same cask with the beef, one or two at
a time, as you procure them from the butcher. None of them will be
ready for smoking in less than six weeks; but they had best remain
in pickle two or three months. They should not be sent to the
smoke-house later than March. If you do them at home, they will
require three weeks' smoking over a wood fire. Hang them with the
root or large end upwards. When done, sew up each tongue tightly
in coarse linen, and hang them up in a dark dry cellar.

Pickled tongues without smoking are seldom liked.

The last of October is a good time for putting meat into pickle.
If the weather is too warm or too cold, it will not take the salt
well.

In the course of the winter the pickle may probably require a
second boiling with additional ingredients.

Half an ounce of pearl-ash added to the other articles will make
the meat more tender, but many persons thinks it injures the
taste.

The meat must always be kept completely immersed in the brine. To
effect this a heavy board should be laid upon it.


DRIED OR SMOKED BEEF.

The best part for this purpose is the round, which you must desire
the butcher to cut into four pieces. Wash the meat and dry it well
in a cloth. Grind or beat to powder an equal quantity of cloves
and allspice, and having mixed them together, rub them well into
the beef with your hand. The spice will be found a great
improvement both to the taste and smell of the meat. Have ready a
pickle made precisely as that in the preceding article. Boil and
skim it, and (the meat having been thoroughly rubbed all over with
the spice) pour on the pickle, as before directed. Keep the beef
in the pickle at least six weeks, and then smoke it about three
weeks.

Smoked beef is brought on the tea-table either shaved into thin
chips without cooking, or chipped and fried with a little butter
in a skillet, and served up hot.

This receipt for dried or smoked beef will answer equally well for
venison ham, which is also used as a relish at the tea-table.

Mutton hams may be prepared in the same way.


POTTED BEEF.

Take a good piece of a round of beef, and cut off all the fat. Rub
the lean well with salt, and let it lie two days. Then put it into
a jar, and add to it a little water in the proportion of half a
pint to three pounds of meat. Cover the jar as closely as
possible, (the best cover will be a coarse paste or dough) and set
it in a slow oven, or in a vessel of boiling water for about four
hours. Then drain off all the gravy and set the meat before the
fire that all the moisture may be drawn out. Pull or cut it to
pieces and pound it for a long time in a mortar with pepper,
allspice, cloves, mace, nutmeg, and oiled fresh butter, adding
these ingredients gradually, and moistening it with a little of
the gravy. You must pound it to a fine paste, or till it becomes
of the consistence of cream, cheese.

Put it into potting cans, and cover it an inch thick with fresh
butter that has been melted, skimmed, and strained. Tie a leather
over each pot, and keep them closely covered. Set them in a dry
place.

Game and poultry may be potted in this manner




VEAL.


GENERAL REMARKS.

The fore-quarter of a calf comprises the neck, breast, and
shoulder: the hind-quarter consists of the loin, fillet, and
knuckle. Separate dishes are made of the head, heart, liver, and
sweet-bread. The flesh of good veal is firm and dry, and the joints
stiff. The lean is of a very light delicate red, and the fat quite
white. In buying the head see that the eyes look full, plump, and
lively; if they are dull and sunk the calf has been killed too
long. In buying calves' feet for jelly or soup, endeavour to get
those that have been singed only and not skinned; as a great deal
of gelatinous substance is contained in the skin. Veal should
always be thoroughly cooked, and never brought to table rare or
under-done, like beef or mutton. The least redness in the meat or
gravy is disgusting.

Veal suet may be used as a substitute for that of beef; also veal-dripping.


TO ROAST A LOIN OF VEAL.

The loin is the best part of the calf. It is always roasted. See
that your fire is clear and hot, and broad enough to brown both
ends. Cover the fat of the kidney and the back with paper to
prevent it from scorching. A large loin of veal will require _at
least_ four hours and a half to roast it sufficiently. At first
set the roaster at a tolerable distance from the fire that the
meat may heat gradually in the beginning; afterwards place it
nearer. Put a little salt and water into the dripping-pan and
baste the meat with it till the gravy begins to drop. Then baste
with the gravy. When the meat is nearly done, move it close to the
fire, dredge it with a very little flour, and baste it with
butter. Skim the fat from the gravy, which should be thickened by
shaking in a very small quantify of flour. Put it into a small
sauce-pan, and set it on hot coals. Let it just come to a boil,
and then send it to table in a boat. If the gravy is not in
sufficient quantity, add to it about half a jill or a large wine-glass
of boiling water.

In carving a loin of veal help every one to a piece of the kidney
as far as it will go.


TO ROAST A BREAST OF VEAL.

A breast of veal will require about three hours and a half to
roast. In preparing it for the spit, cover it with the caul, and
skewer the sweet-bread to the back. Take off the caul when the meat
is nearly done. The breast, being comparatively tough and coarse,
is less esteemed than the loin and the fillet.


TO ROAST A FILLET OF VEAL.

Take out the bone, and secure with skewers the fat flap to the
outside of the meat. Prepare a stuffing of fresh butter or suet
minced fine, and an equal quantity of grated bread-crumbs, a large
table-spoonful of grated lemon-peel, a table-spoonful of sweet
marjoram chopped or rubbed to powder, a nutmeg grated, and a
little pepper and salt, with a sprig of chopped parsley. Mix all
these ingredients with beaten yolk of egg, and stuff the place
from whence the bone was taken. Make deep cuts or incisions all
over the top of the veal, and fill them with some of the stuffing.
You may stick into each hole an inch of fat ham or salt pork, cut
very thin.

Having papered the fat, spit the veal and put it into the roaster,
keeping it at first not too near the fire. Put a little salt and
water into the dripping-pan, and for awhile baste the meat with
it. Then baste it with its own gravy. A fillet of veal will
require four hours roasting. As it proceeds, place it nearer to
the fire. Half an hour before it is done, remove the paper, and
baste the meat with butter, having first dredged it very lightly
with flour. Having skimmed the gravy, mix some thin melted butter
with it.

If convenient, you may in making the stuffing, use a large
proportion of chopped mushrooms that have been preserved in sweet
oil, or of chopped pickled oysters. Cold ham shred fine will
improve it.

You may stuff a fillet of veal entirely with sausage meat.

To accompany a fillet of veal, the usual dish is boiled ham or
bacon.

A shoulder of veal may be stuffed and roasted in a similar manner.


TO STEW A BREAST OF VEAL.

Divide the breast into pieces according to the position of the
bones. Put them into a stew-pan with a few slices of ham, some
whole pepper, a bunch of parsley, and a large onion quartered. Add
sufficient water to keep it from burning, and let it stew slowly
till the meat is quite tender. Then put to it a quart or more of
green peas that have boiled twenty minutes in another pot, and a
piece of butter rolled in flour. Let all stew together a quarter
of an hour longer. Serve it up, with the veal in the middle, the
peas round it, and the ham laid on the peas.

You may stew a breast of veal with tomatas.


TO STEW A FILLET OF VEAL.

Take a fillet of veal, rub it with salt, and then with a sharp
knife make deep incisions all over the surface, the bottom as well
as the top and sides. Make a stuffing of grated stale bread,
butter, chopped sweet marjoram, grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, pepper
and salt, mixed up with beaten yolk of egg to bind and give it
consistency. Fill the holes or incisions with the stuffing,
pressing it down well with your fingers. Reserve some of the
stuffing to rub all over the outside of the meat. Have ready some
very thin slices of cold boiled ham, the fatter the better. Cover
the veal with them, fastening them on with skewers. Put it into a
pot, and stew it slowly in a very little water, just enough to
cover it. It will take at least five hours to stew; or more, in
proportion to its size. When done, take off the ham, and lay it
round the veal in a dish.

You may stew with it a quart or three pints of young green peas,
put in about an hour before dinner; add to them a little butter
and pepper while they are stewing. Serve them up in the dish with
the veal, laying the slices of ham upon them.

If you omit the ham, stew the veal entirely in lard.


TO STEW A KNUCKLE OF VEAL.

Lay four wooden skewers across the bottom of your stew-pan, and
place the meat upon them; having first carefully washed it, and
rubbed it with salt. Add a table-spoonful of whole pepper, the
leaves from a bunch of sweet marjoram, a bunch of parsley leaves
chopped, two onions peeled and sliced, and a piece of butter
rolled in flour. Pour in two quarts of water. Cover it closely,
and after it has come to a boil, lessen the fire, and let the meat
only simmer for two hours or more. Before you serve it up, pour
the liquid over it.

This dish will be greatly improved by stewing with it a few slices
of ham, or the remains of a cold ham.

Veal when simply boiled is too insipid. To stew it is much better.


VEAL CUTLETS.

The best cutlets are those taken from the leg or fillet. Cut them
about half an inch thick, and as large as the palm of your hand.
Season them with pepper and salt. Grate some stale bread, and rub
it through a cullender, adding to it chopped sweet marjoram,
grated lemon-peel, and some powdered mace or nutmeg. Spread the
mixture on a large flat dish. Have ready in a pan some beaten egg.
First dip each cutlet into the egg, and then into the seasoning on
the dish, seeing that a sufficient quantity adheres to both sides
of the meat. Melt in your frying-pan, over a quick fire, some
beef-dripping, lard, or fresh butter, and when it boils lay your
cutlets in it, and fry them thoroughly; turning them on both
sides, and taking care that they do not burn. Place them in a
covered dish near the fire, while you finish the gravy in the pan,
by first skimming it, and then shaking in a little flour and
stirring it round. Pour the gravy hot round the cutlets, and
garnish with little bunches of curled parsley.

You may mix with the bread crumbs a little saffron.


VEAL STEAKS.

Cut a neck of veal into thin steaks, and beat them to make them
tender. For seasoning, mix together some finely chopped onion
sprinkled with pepper and salt, and a little chopped parsley. Add
some butter, and put it with the parsley and onion into a small
sauce-pan, and set it on hot coals to stew till brown. In the
mean, time, put the steaks on a hot gridiron (the bars of which
have been rubbed with suet) and broil them well, over a bed of
bright clear coals. When sufficiently done on one side turn them
on the other. After the last turning, cover each steak with some
of the seasoning from the sauce-pan, and let all broil together
till thoroughly done.

Instead of the onions and parsley, you may season the veal steaks
with chopped mushrooms, or with chopped oysters, browned in
butter.

Have ready a gravy made of the scraps and trimmings of the veal,
seasoned with pepper and salt, and boiled in a little hot water in
the same sauce-pan in which the parsley and onions have been
previously stewed. Strain the gravy when it has boiled long
enough, and flavour it with catchup.


MINCED VEAL.

Take some cold veal, cut it into slices, and mince it very finely
with a chopping-knife. Season it to your taste with pepper, salt,
sweet marjoram rubbed fine, grated lemon-peel and nutmeg. Put the
bones and trimmings into a sauce-pan with a little water, and
simmer them over hot coals to extract the gravy from them. Then
put the minced veal into a stew-pan, strain the gravy over it, add
a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a little milk or cream. Let
it all simmer together till thoroughly warmed, but do not allow it
to boil lest the meat having been once cooked already, should
become tasteless. When you serve it up, have ready some three-cornered
pieces of bread toasted and buttered; place them all
round the inside of the dish.

Or you may cover the mince with a thick layer of grated bread,
moistened with a little butter, and browned on the top with a
salamander, or a red hot shovel.


VEAL PATTIES.

Mince very fine a pound of the lean of cold roast veal, and half a
pound of cold boiled ham, (fat and lean equally mixed.) Put it
into a stew-pan with three ounces of butter divided into bits and
rolled in flour, a jill of cream, and a jill of veal gravy. Season
it to your taste with cayenne pepper and nutmeg, grated lemon-peel,
and lemon-juice. Set the pan on hot coals, and let the
ingredients simmer till well warmed, stirring them well to prevent
their burning.

Have ready baked some small shells of puff-paste. Fill them with
the mixture, and eat the patties either warm or cold.


VEAL PIE.

Take two pounds of veal cut from the loin, fillet, or the best end
of the neck. Remove the bone, fat, and skin, and put them into a
sauce-pan with half a pint of water to stew for the gravy. Make a
good paste, allowing a pound of butter to two pounds of flour.
Divide it into two pieces, roll it out rather thick and cover with
one piece the sides and bottom of a deep dish. Put in a layer of
veal, seasoned with pepper and salt, then a layer of cold ham
sliced thin, then more veal, more ham, and so on till the dish is
full; interspersing the meat with yolks of eggs boiled hard. If
you can procure some small button mushrooms they will be found an
improvement. Pour in, at the last, the gravy you have drawn from
the trimmings, and put on the lid of the pie, notching the edge
handsomely, and ornamenting the centre with a flower made of
paste. Bake the pie at least two hours and a half.

You may make a very plain veal pie simply of veal chops, sliced
onions, and potatoes pared and quartered. Season with pepper and
salt, and fill up the dish with water.


CALF'S HEAD DREST PLAIN

Wash the head in warm water. Then lay it in clean hot water and
let it soak awhile. This will blanch it. Take out the brains and
the black part of the eyes. Tie the head in a cloth, and put it
into a large fish-kettle, with plenty of cold water, and add some
salt to throw up the scum, which must be taken off as it rises.
Let the head boil gently about three hours.

Put eight or ten sage leaves, and as much parsley, into a small
sauce-pan with a little water, and boil them half an hour. Then
chop them fine, and set them ready on a plate. Wash the brains
well in two warm waters, and then soak them for an hour in a basin
of cold water with a little salt in it. Remove the skin and
strings, and then put the brains into a stew-pan with plenty of
cold water, and let them boil gently for a quarter of an hour,
skimming them well. Take them out, chop them, and mix them with
the sage and parsley leaves, two table-spoonfuls of melted butter,
and the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs, and pepper and salt to
your taste. Then put the mixture into a sauce-pan and set it on
coals to warm.

Take up the head when it is sufficiently boiled, score it in
diamonds, brush it all over with beaten egg, and strew it with a
mixture of grated bread-crumbs, and chopped sage and parsley.
Stick a few bits of butter over it, and set it in a Dutch oven to
brown. Serve it up with the brains laid round it. Or you may send
to table the brains and the tongue in a small separate dish,
having first trimmed the tongue and cut off the roots. Have also
parsley-sauce in a boat. You may garnish with very thin small
slices of broiled ham, curled up.

If you get a calf's head with the hair on, sprinkle it all over
with pounded rosin, and dip it into boiling water. This will make
the hairs scrape off easily.


CALF'S HEAD HASHED.

Take a calf's head and a set of feet, and boil them until tender,
having first removed the brains. Then cut the flesh off the head
and feet in slices from the bone, and put both meat and bones into
a stew-pan with a bunch of sweet herbs, some sliced onions, and
pepper and salt to your taste; also a large piece of butter rolled
in flour, and a little water. After it has stewed awhile slowly
till the flavour is well extracted from the herbs and onions, take
out the meat, season it a little with cayenne pepper, and lay it
in a dish. Strain the gravy in which it was stewed, and stir into
it two glasses of madeira, and the juice and grated peel of a
lemon. Having poured some of the gravy over the meat, lay a piece
of butter on the top, set it in an oven and bake it brown.

In the mean time, having cleaned and washed the brains (skinning
them and removing the strings) parboil them in a sauce-pan, and
then make them into balls with chopped sweet herbs, grated bread-crumbs,
grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, and beaten yolk of egg. Fry
them in lard and butter mixed; and send them to table laid round
the meat (which should have the tongue placed on the top) and
garnish with sliced lemon. Warm the remaining gravy in a small
sauce-pan on hot coals, and stir into it the beaten yolk of an egg
a minute before you take it from the fire. Send it to table in a
boat.


CHITTERLINGS OR CALF'S TRIPE.

See that the chitterlings are very nice and white. Wash them, cut
them into pieces, and put them into a stew-pan with pepper and
salt to your taste, and about two quarts of water. Boil them two
hours or more. In the mean time, peel eight or ten white onions,
and throw them whole into a sauce-pan with plenty of water. Boil
them slowly till quite soft; then drain them in a cullender, and
mash them. Wipe out your sauce-pan, and put in the mashed onions
with a piece of butter, two table-spoonfuls of cream or rich milk,
some nutmeg, and a very little salt. Sprinkle in a little flour,
set the pan on hot coals (keeping it well covered) and give it one
boil up.

When the chitterlings are quite tender all through, take them up
and drain them. Place in the bottom of a dish a slice or two of
buttered toast with all the crust cut off. Lay the chitterlings on
the toast, and send them to table with the stewed onions in a
sauce-boat. When you take the chitterlings on your plate season
them with pepper and vinegar.

This, if properly prepared, is a very nice dish.


TO FRY CALF'S FEET.

Having first boiled them till tender, cut them in two, and (having
taken out the large bones) season the feet with pepper and salt,
and dredge them well with flour. Strew some chopped parsley or
sweet marjoram over them, and fry them of a light brown in lard or
butter. Serve them up with parsley-sauce.


TO FRY CALF'S LIVER.

Cut the liver into thin slices. Season it with pepper, salt,
chopped sweet herbs, and parsley. Dredge it with flour, and fry it
brown in lard or dripping. See that it is thoroughly done before
you send it to table. Serve it up with its own gravy.

Some slices of cold boiled ham fried with it will be found an
improvement.

You may dress a calf's heart in the same manner.


LARDED CALF'S LIVER.

Take a calf's liver and wash it well. Cut into long slips the fat
of some bacon or salt pork, and insert it all through the surface
of the liver by means of a larding-pin. Put the liver into a pot
with a table-spoonful of lard, a little water, and a few tomatas,
or some tomata catchup; adding one large or two small onions
minced fine, and some sweet marjoram leaves rubbed very fine. The
sweet marjoram will crumble more easily if you first dry it before
the fire on a plate.

Having put in all these ingredients, set the pot on hot coals in
the corner of the fire-place, and keep it stewing, regularly and
slowly, for four hours. Send the liver to table with the gravy
round it.


TO ROAST SWEET-BREADS.

Take four fine sweet-breads, and having trimmed them nicely,
parboil them, and then lay them in a pan of cold water till they
become cool. Afterwards dry them in a cloth. Put some butter into
a sauce-pan, set it on hot coals, and melt and skim it. When it is
quite clear, take it off. Have ready some beaten egg in one dish,
and some grated bread-crumbs in another. Skewer each sweet-bread,
and fasten them on a spit. Then glaze them all over with egg, and
sprinkle them with bread-crumbs. Spread on some of the clarified
butter, and then another coat of crumbs. Roast them before a clear
fire, at least a quarter of an hour. Have ready some nice veal
gravy flavoured with lemon-juice, and pour it round the sweet-breads
before you send them to table.


LARDED SWEET-BREADS.

Parboil three or four of the largest sweet-breads you can get.
This should be done as soon as they are brought in, as few things
spoil more rapidly if not cooked at once. When half boiled, lay
them in cold water. Prepare a force-meat of grated bread, lemon-peel,
butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg mixed with beaten yolk of
egg. Cut open the sweet-breads and stuff them with it, fastening
them afterwards with a skewer, or tying them round with
packthread. Have ready some slips of bacon-fat, and some slips of
lemon-peel cut about the thickness of very small straws. Lard the
sweet-breads with them in alternate rows of bacon and lemon-peel,
drawing them through with a larding-needle. Do it regularly and
handsomely. Then put the sweet-breads into a Dutch oven, and bake
them brown. Serve them up with veal gravy flavoured with a glass
of Madeira, and enriched with beaten yolk of egg stirred in at the
last.


MARBLED VEAL.

Having boiled and skinned two fine smoked tongues, cut them to
pieces and pound them to a paste in a mortar, moistening them with
plenty of butter as you proceed. Have ready an equal quantity of
the lean of veal stewed and cut into very small pieces. Pound the
veal also in a mortar, adding butter to it by degrees. The tongue
and veal must be kept separate till both have been pounded. Then
fill your potting cans with lumps of the veal and tongue, pressed
down hard, and so placed, that when cut, the mixture will look
variegated or marbled. Close the cans with veal; again press it
down very hard, and finish by pouring on clarified butter. Cover
the cans closely, and keep them in a dry place. It maybe eaten at
tea or supper. Send it to table cut in slices.

You may use it for sandwiches.




MUTTON AND LAMB.


GENERAL REMARKS.

The fore-quarter of a sheep contains the neck, breast, and
shoulder; and the hind-quarter the loin and leg. The two loins
together are called the chine or saddle. The flesh of good mutton
is of a bright red, and a close grain, and the fat firm and quite
white. The meat will feel tender and springy when you squeeze it
with your fingers. The vein in the neck of the fore-quarter should
be of a fine blue.

Lamb is always roasted; generally a whole quarter at once. In
carving lamb, the first thing done is to separate the shoulder
from the breast, or the leg from the loin.

If the weather is cold enough to allow it, mutton is more tender
after being kept a few days.


TO ROAST MUTTON.

Mutton should be roasted with a quick brisk fire. Every part
should be trimmed off that cannot be eaten. Wash the meat well.
The skin should be taken off and skewered on again before the meat
is put on the spit; this will make it more juicy. Otherwise tie
paper over the fat, having soaked the twine in water to prevent
the string from burning. Put a little salt and water into the
dripping-pan, to baste the meat at first, then use its own gravy
for that purpose. A quarter of an hour before you think it will be
done, take off the skin or paper, dredge the meat very lightly
with flour, and baste it with butter. Skim the gravy and send it
to table in a boat. A leg of mutton will require from two hours
roasting to two hours and a half in proportion to its size. A
chine or saddle, from two hours and a half, to three hours. A
shoulder, from an hour and a half, to two hours. A loin, from an
hour and three quarters, to two hours. A haunch (that is a leg
with, part of the loin) cannot be well roasted in less than four
hours.

Always have some currant jelly on the table to eat with roast
mutton. It should also be accompanied by mashed turnips.

Slices cut from a cold leg of mutton that has been under-done, are
very nice broiled or warmed on a gridiron, and sent to the
breakfast table covered with currant jelly.

Pickles are always eaten with mutton.

In preparing a leg of mutton for roasting, you may make deep
incisions in it, and stuff them with chopped oysters, or with a
force-meat made in the usual manner; or with chestnuts parboiled
and peeled. The gravy will be improved by stirring into it a glass
of port wine.


TO BOIL MUTTON.

To prepare a leg of mutton for boiling, wash it clean, cut a small
piece off the shank bone, and trim the knuckle. Put it into a pot
with water enough to cover it, and boil it gently for three hours,
skimming it well. Then take it from the fire, and keeping the pot
well covered, let it finish by remaining in the steam for ten or
fifteen minutes. Serve it up with a sauce-boat of melted butter
into which a tea-cup full of capers or nasturtians have been
stirred.

Have mashed turnips to eat with it.

A few small onions boiled in the water with the mutton are thought
by some to improve the flavour of the meat. It is much better when
sufficient time is allowed to boil or simmer it slowly.

A neck or a loin of mutton will require also about three hours
slow boiling. These pieces should on no account be sent to table
the least under-done. Serve up with them carrots and whole
turnips. You may add a dish of suet dumplings to eat with the
meat, made of finely chopped suet mixed with double its quantity
of flour, and a little cold water.


MUTTON CHOPS.

Take chops or steaks from a loin of mutton, cut off the bone close
to the meat, and trim off the skin, and part of the fat. Beat them
to make them tender, and season them with pepper and salt. Make
your gridiron hot over a bed of clear bright coals; rub the bars
with suet, and lay on the chops. Turn them frequently; and if the
fat that falls from them causes a blaze and smoke, remove the
gridiron for a moment till it is over. When they are thoroughly
done, put them into a warm dish and butter them. Keep them covered
till a moment before they are to be eaten.

When the chops have been turned for the last time, you may strew
over them some finely minced onion moistened with boiling water,
and seasoned with pepper.

Some like them flavoured with mushroom catchup.

Another way of dressing mutton chops is, after trimming them
nicely and seasoning them with pepper and salt, to lay them for
awhile in melted butter. When they have imbibed a sufficient
quantity, take them out, and cover them all over with grated
bread-crumbs. Broil them over a clear fire, and see that the bread
does not burn.


CUTLETS A LA MAINTENON.

Cut a neck of mutton into steaks with a bone in each; trim them
nicely, and scrape clean the end of the bone. Flatten them with a
rolling pin, or a meat beetle, and lay them in oiled butter. Make
a seasoning of hard-boiled yolk of egg and sweet-herbs minced
small, grated bread, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; and, if you choose,
a little minced onion. Take the chops out of the butter, and cover
them with the seasoning. Butter some half sheets of white paper,
and put the cutlets into them, so as to be entirely covered,
securing the paper with pins or strings; and twisting them nicely
round the bone. Heat your gridiron over some bright lively coals.
Lay the cutlets on it, and broil them about twenty minutes. The
custom of sending them to table in the papers had best be omitted,
as (unless managed by a French cook) these envelopes, after being
on the gridiron, make a very bad appearance.

Serve them up hot, with mushroom sauce in a boat, or with a brown
gravy, flavoured with red wine. You may make the gravy of the
bones and trimmings, stewed in a little water, skimmed well, and
strained when sufficiently stewed. Thicken it with flour browned
in a Dutch oven, and add a glass of red wine.

You may bake these cutlets in a Dutch oven without the papers.
Moisten them frequently with a little oiled butter.


STEWED MUTTON CHOPS.

Cut a loin or neck of mutton into chops, and trim away the fat and
bones. Beat and flatten them. Season them with pepper and salt,
and put them into a stew-pan, with barely sufficient water to
cover them, and some sliced carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes,
and a bunch of sweet herbs, or a few tomatas. Let the whole stew
slowly about three hours, or till every thing is tender. Keep the
pan closely covered, except when you are skimming it.

Send it to table with sippets or three-cornered pieces of toasted
bread, lain all round the dish.


HASHED MUTTON.

Cut into small pieces the lean of some cold mutton that has been
under-done, and season it with pepper and salt. Take the bones and
other trimmings, put them into a sauce-pan with as much water as
will cover them, and some sliced onions, and let them stew till
you have drawn from them a good gravy. Having skimmed it well,
strain the gravy into a stew-pan, and put the mutton into it. Have
ready-boiled some carrots, turnips, potatoes and onions. Slice
them, and add them to the meat and gravy. Set the pan on hot
coals, and let it simmer till the meat is warmed through, but do
not allow it to boil, as it has been once cooked already. Cover
the bottom of a dish with slices of buttered toast. Lay the meat
and vegetables upon it, and pour over them the gravy.

Tomatas will be found an improvement.

If green peas, or Lima beans are in season, you may boil them, and
put them to the hashed mutton; leaving out the other vegetables,
or serving them up separately.


A CASSEROLE OF MUTTON.

Butter a deep dish or mould, and line it with potatoes mashed with
milk or putter, and seasoned with pepper and salt. Fill it with
slices of the lean of cold mutton, or lamb, seasoned also. Cover
the whole with more mashed potatoes. Put it into an oven, and bake
it till the meat is thoroughly warmed, and the potatoes brown.
Then carefully turn it out on a large dish; or you may, if more
convenient, send it to table in the dish it was baked in.


MUTTON HARICO.

Take a neck of mutton, cut it into chops, and fry them brown. Then
put them into a stew-pan with a bunch of sweet herbs, two or three
cloves, a little mace, and pepper and salt to your taste. Cover
them with boiling water, and let them stew slowly for about an
hour. Then cut some carrots and turnips into dice; slice some
onions, and cut up a head of celery; put them all into the stew-pan,
and keep it closely covered except when you are skimming off
the fat. Let the whole stew gently for an hour longer, and then
send it to table in a deep dish, with the gravy about it.

You may make a similar harico of veal steaks, or of beef cut very
thin.


STEWED LEG OF MUTTON.

Take a leg of mutton and trim it nicely. Put it into a pot with
three pints of water; or with two pints of water and one quart of
gravy drawn from bones, trimmings, and coarse pieces of meat. Add
some slices of carrots, and a little salt. Stew it slowly three
hours. Then put in small onions, small turnips, tomatas or tomata
catchup, and shred or powdered sweet marjoram to your taste, and
let it stew three hours longer. A large leg will require from
first to last from six hours and a half to seven hours stewing.
But though it must be tender and well done all through, do not
allow it to stew to rags. Serve it up with the vegetables and
gravy round it. Have mashed potatoes in another dish.


TO ROAST LAMB.

The best way of cooking lamb is to roast it; when drest otherwise
it is insipid, and not so good as mutton. A hind-quarter of eight
pounds will be done in about two hours; a fore-quarter of ten
pounds, in two hours and a half; a leg of five pounds will take
from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half; a loin about an
hour and a half. Lamb, like veal and pork, is not eatable unless
thoroughly done; no one preferring it rare, as is frequently the
case with beef and mutton.

Wash the meat, wipe it dry, spit it, and cover the fat with paper.
Place it before a clear brisk fire. Baste it at first with a
little salt and water, and then with its own drippings. Remove the
paper when the meat is nearly done, and dredge the lamb with a
little flour. Afterwards baste it with butter. Do not take it off
the spit till you see it drop white gravy.

Prepare some mint sauce by stripping from the stalks the leaves of
young green mint, mincing them very fine, and mixing them with
vinegar and sugar. There must be just sufficient vinegar to
moisten the mint, but not enough to make the sauce liquid. Send it
to table in a boat, and the gravy in another boat. Garnish with
sliced lemon.

In carving a quarter of lamb, separate the shoulder from the
breast, or the leg from the ribs, sprinkle a little salt and
pepper, and squeeze on some lemon juice.

It should be accompanied by asparagus, green peas, and lettuce.




PORK, HAM, &c.


GENERAL REMARKS.

In cutting up pork, you have the spare-rib, shoulder, griskin or
chine, the loin, middlings and leg; the head, feet, heart and
liver. On the spare-rib and chine there is but little meat, and
the pieces called middlings consist almost entirely of fat. The
best parts are the loin, and the leg or hind-quarter. Hogs make
the best pork when from two and a half to four years old. They
should be kept up and fed with corn at least six weeks before they
are killed, or their flesh will acquire a disagreeable taste from
the trash and offal which they eat when running at large. The
Portuguese pork, which is fed on chestnuts, is perhaps the finest
in the world.

If the meat is young, the lean will break on being pinched, and
the skin will dent by nipping it with the fingers; the fat will be
white, soft, and pulpy. If the skin or rind is rough, and cannot
he nipped, it is old.

Hams that have short shank-bones, are generally preferred. If you
put a knife under the bone of a ham, and it comes out clean, the
meat is good; but quite the contrary if the knife appears smeared
and slimy. In good bacon the fat is white, and the lean sticks
close to the bone; if it is streaked with yellow, the meat is
rusty, and unfit to eat.

Pork in every form should be thoroughly cooked. If the least
under-done, it is disgusting and unwholesome.


TO ROAST A PIG.

Begin your preparations by making the stuffing. Take a sufficient
quantity of grated stale bread, and mix it with sage and sweet
marjoram rubbed fine or powdered; also some grated lemon-peel.
Season it with pepper, salt, powdered nutmeg and mace; mix in
butter enough to moisten it, and some beaten yolk of egg to bind
it. Let the whole be very well incorporated.

The pig should be newly killed, (that morning if possible,) nicely
cleaned, fat, and not too large. Wash it well in cold water, and
cut off the feet close to the joints, leaving some skin all round
to fold over the ends. Take out the liver and heart, and reserve
them, with the feet, to make the gravy. Truss back the legs. Fill
the body with the stuffing (it must be quite full) and then sew it
up, or tie it round with a buttered twine. Put the pig on the
spit, and place it before a clear brisk fire, but not too near
lest it scorch. The fire should be largest at the ends, that the
middle of the pig may not be done before the extremities. If you
find the heat too great in the centre, you may diminish it by
placing a flat-iron before the fire. When you first put it down,
wash the pig all over with salt and water; afterwards rub it
frequently with a feather dipped in sweet oil, or with fresh
butter tied in a rag. If you baste it with any thing else, or with
its own dripping, the skin will not be crisp. Take care not to
blister or burn the outside by keeping it too near the fire. A
good sized pig will require at least three hours' roasting.

Unless a pig is very small it is seldom sent to table whole. Take
the spit from the fire, and place it across a large dish: then,
having cut off the head with a sharp knife, and cut down the back,
slip the spit out. Lay the two halves of the body close together
in the dish, and place half the head on each side. Garnish with
sliced lemon.

For the gravy,--take, that from the dripping-pan and skim it well.
Having boiled the heart, liver, and feet, with some minced sage in
a very little water, cut the meat from the feet, and chop it. Chop
also the liver and heart. Put all into a small sauce-pan, adding a
little of the water that they were boiled in, and some bits of
butter rolled in flour. Flavour it with a glass of Madeira, and
some grated nutmeg. Give it a boil up, and send it to table in a
gravy-boat.

You may serve up with the pig, apple-sauce, cranberry sauce, or
bread-sauce in a small tureen; or currant jelly.

If you bake the pig instead of roasting it, rub it from time to
time with fresh butter tied in a rag.


TO ROAST A LEG OF PORK.

Take a sharp knife and score the skin across in narrow stripes
(you may cross it again so as to form diamonds) and rub in some
powdered sage. Raise the skin at the knuckle, and put in a
stuffing of minced onion and sage, bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, and
beaten yolk of egg. Fasten it down with a buttered string, or with
skewers. You may make deep incisions in the meat of the large end
of the leg, and stuff them also; pressing in the filling very
hard. Rub a little sweet oil all over the skin with a brush or a
goose feather, to make it crisp and of a handsome brown. Do not
place the spit too near the fire, lest the skin should burn and
blister. A leg of pork will require from three to four hours to
roast. Moisten it all the time by brushing it with sweet oil, or
with fresh butter tied in a rag. To baste it with its own dripping
will make the skin tough and hard. Skim the fat carefully from the
gravy, which should be thickened with a little flour.

A roast leg of pork should always be accompanied by apple-sauce,
and by mashed potato and mashed turnips.


TO ROAST A LOIN OF PORK.

Score the skin in narrow strips, and rub it all over with a
mixture of powdered sage leaves, pepper and salt. Have ready a
force-meat or stuffing of minced onions and sage, mixed with a
little grated bread and beaten yolk of egg, and seasoned with
pepper and salt. Make deep incisions between the ribs and fill
them with this stuffing. Put it on the spit before a clear fire
and moisten it with butter or sweet oil, rubbed lightly over it.
It will require three hours to roast.

Having skimmed the gravy well, thicken it with a little flour, and
serve it up in a boat. Have ready some apple-sauce to eat with the
pork. Also mashed turnips and mashed potatoes.

You may roast in the same manner, a shoulder, spare-rib, or chine
of pork; seasoning it with sage and onion.


TO ROAST A MIDDLING OR SPRING PIECE OF PORK.

Make a force-meat of grated bread, and minced onion and sage,
pepper, salt, and beaten yolk of egg; mix it well, and spread it
all over the inside of the pork. Then roll up the meat, and with a
sharp knife score it round in circles, rubbing powdered sage into
the cuts. Tie a buttered twine round the roll of meat so as to
keep it together in every direction. Put a hook through one end,
and roast the pork before a clear brisk fire, moistening the skin
occasionally with butter. Or you may bake it in a Dutch oven. It
is a good side dish. Thicken the gravy with a little flour, and
flavour it with a glass of wine. Have currant jelly to eat with
it.

It should be delicate young pork.


TO STEW PORK.

Take a nice piece of the fillet or leg of fresh pork; rub it with
a little salt, and score the skin. Put it into a pot with
sufficient water to cover it, and stew it gently for two hours or
more, in proportion to its size. Then put into the same pot a
dozen or more sweet potatoes, scraped, split, and cut in pieces.
Let the whole stew gently together for an hour and a half, or till
all is thoroughly done, skimming it frequently. Serve up all
together in a large dish.

This stew will be found very good. For sweet potatoes you may
substitute white ones mixed with sliced turnips, or parsnips
scraped or split.


TO BOIL CORNED PORK.

Take a nice piece of fresh pork, (the leg is the best,) rub it
with salt, and let it lie in the salt two days. Boil it slowly in
plenty of water, skimming it well. When the meat is about half
done, you may put into the same pot a fine cabbage, washed clean
and quartered. The pork and the cabbage should be thoroughly done,
and tender throughout. Send them to table in separate dishes,
having drained and squeezed all the water out of the cabbage. Take
off the skin of the pork, and touch the outside at intervals with
spots of cayenne pepper. Eat mustard with it.

Pork is never boiled unless corned or salted.


PICKLED PORK AND PEASE PUDDING.

Soak the pork all night in cold water, and wash and scrape it
clean. Put it on early in the day, as it will take a long time to
boil, and must boil slowly. Skim it frequently. Boil in a separate
pot greens or cabbage to eat with it; also parsnips and potatoes.

Pease pudding is a frequent accompaniment to pickled pork, and is
very generally liked. To make a small pudding, you must have ready
a quart of dried split pease, which have been soaked all night in
cold water. Tie them in a cloth, (leaving room for them to swell,)
and boil them slowly till they are tender. Drain them, and rub
them through a cullender or a sieve into a deep dish; season them
with pepper and salt, and mix with them an ounce of butter, and
two beaten eggs. Beat all well together till thoroughly mixed. Dip
a clean cloth in hot water, sprinkle it with flour, and put the
pudding into it. Tie it up very tightly, leaving a small space
between the mixture and the tying, (as the pudding will still
swell a little,) and boil it an hour longer. Send it to table and
eat it with the pork.

You may make a pease pudding in a plain and less delicate way, by
simply seasoning the pease with pepper and salt, (having first
soaked them well,) tying them in a cloth, and putting them to boil
in the same pot with the pork, taking care to make the string very
tight, so that the water may not get in. When all is done, and you
turn out the pudding, cut it into thick slices and lay it round
the pork.

Pickled pork is frequently accompanied by dried beans and hominy.


PORK AND BEANS.

Allow two pounds of pickled pork to two quarts of dried beans. If
the meat is very salt put it in soak over night. Put the beans
into a pot with cold water, and let them hang all night over the
embers of the fire, or set them in the chimney corner, that they
may warm as well as soak. Early in the morning rinse them through
a cullender. Score the rind of the pork, (which should not be a
very fat piece,) and put the meat into a clean pot with the beans,
which must be seasoned with pepper. Let them boil slowly together
for about two hours, and carefully remove all the scum and fat
that rises to the top. Then take them out; lay the pork in a tin
pan, and cover the meat with the beans, adding a very little
water. Put it into an oven, and bake it four hours.

This is a homely dish, but is by many persons much liked. It is
customary to bring it to table in the pan in which it is baked.


PORK STEAKS.

Pork steaks or chops should be taken from the neck, or the loin.
Cut them about half an inch thick, remove the skin, trim them
neatly, and beat them. Season them with pepper, salt, and powdered
sage-leaves or sweet marjoram, and broil them over a clear fire
till quite done all through, turning them once. They require much
longer broiling than beef-steaks of mutton chops. When you think
they are nearly done, take up one on a plate and try it. If it is
the least red inside, return it to the gridiron. Have ready a
gravy made of the trimmings, or any coarse pieces of pork stewed
in a little water with chopped onions and sage, and skimmed
carefully. When all the essence is extracted, take out the bits of
meat, &c., and serve up the gravy in a boat to eat with the
steaks.

They should be accompanied with apple-sauce.


PORK CUTLETS.

Cut them from the leg, and remove the skin; trim them and beat
them, and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Prepare some beaten egg in
a pan; and on a flat dish a mixture of bread-crumbs, minced onion,
and sage. Put some lard or drippings into a frying-pan over the
fire; and when it boils, put in the cutlets; having dipped every
one first in the egg, and then in the seasoning. Fry them twenty
or thirty minutes, turning them often. After you have taken them
out of the frying-pan, skim the gravy, dredge in a little flour,
give it one boil, and then pour it on the dish round the cutlets.

Have apple-sauce to eat with them.

Pork cutlets prepared in this manner may be stewed instead of
being fried. Add to them a little water, and stew them slowly till
thoroughly done, keeping them closely covered except when you
remove the lid to skim them.


PORK PIE.

Take the lean of a leg or loin of fresh pork, and season it with
pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Cover the bottom and sides of a deep
dish, with, a good paste, made with a pound of butter to two
pounds of flour, and rolled out thick. Put in a layer of pork, and
then a layer of pippin apples, pared, cored, and cut small. Strew
over the apples sufficient sugar to make them very sweet. Then
place another layer of pork, and so on till the dish is full. Pour
in half a pint or more of water, or of white wine. Cover the pie
with a thick lid of paste, and notch and ornament it according to
your taste.

Set it in a brisk oven, and bake it well.


HAM PIE.

Cover the sides and bottom of a dish with a good pasts rolled out
thick. Have ready some slices of cold boiled ham, about half an
inch thick, some eggs boiled hard and sliced, and a large young
fowl cleaned and Cut up. Put a layer of ham at the bottom, then
the fowl, then the eggs, and then another layer of ham. Shake on
some pepper, and pour in some water, or what will be much better,
some veal gravy. Cover the pie with a crust, notch and ornament
it, and bake it well.

Some mushrooms will greatly improve it.

Small button mushrooms will keep very well in a bottle of sweet
oil--first peeling the skin, and cutting off the stalks.


HAM SANDWICHES

Cut some thin slices of bread very neatly, having slightly
buttered them; and, if you choose, spread on a very little
mustard. Have ready some very thin slices of cold boiled ham, and
lay one between two slices of bread. You may either roll them up,
or lay them flat on the plates. They are used at supper, or at
luncheon.

You may substitute for the ham, cold smoked tongue, shred or
grated.


BROILED HAM.

Cut the ham into very thin slices, (the thinner the better.) Soak
them in hot water at least half an hour, (a whole hour is better,)
to draw out some of the salt; changing the water several times,
and always pouring it on scalding hot. This process will not only
extract the superfluous salt (which would otherwise ooze out in
broiling and remain sticking about the surface of the meat) but it
makes the ham more tender and mellow. After soaking, dry the
slices in a cloth, and then heat your gridiron, and broil them
over a clear fire.

If you have cold boiled ham, it is better for broiling than that
which is raw; and being boiled, will require no soaking before you
put it on the gridiron.

If you wish to serve up eggs with the ham, put some lard into a
very clean frying-pan, and make it boiling hot. Break the eggs
separately into a saucer, that in case a bad one should be among
them it may not mix with the rest. Slip each egg gently into the
frying-pan. Do not turn them while they are frying, but keep
pouring some of the hot lard over them with an iron spoon; this
will do them sufficiently on the upper side. They will be done
enough in about three minutes; the white must retain its
transparency so that the yolk will be seen through it. When done,
take them up with a tin slice, drain off the lard, and if any part
of the white is discoloured or ragged, trim it off. Lay a fried
egg upon each slice of the broiled ham, and send them to table
hot.

This is a much nicer way than the common practice of frying the
ham or bacon with the eggs. Some persons broil or fry the ham
without eggs, and send it to table cut into little slips or
mouthfuls.

To curl small pieces of ham for garnishing, slice as thin as
possible some that has been boiled or parboiled. The pieces should
be about two inches square. Roll it up round little wooden
skewers, and put it into a cheese toaster, or into a tin oven, and
set it before the fire for eight or ten minutes. When it is done,
slip out the skewers.


TO BOIL A HAM.

Hams should always be soaked in water previous to boiling, to draw
out a portion of the salt, and to make them tender. They will
soften more easily if soaked in lukewarm water. If it is a new
ham, and not very salt or hard, you need not put it in water till
the evening before you intend to cook it. An older one will
require twenty-four hours' soaking; and one that is very old and
hard should be kept in soak two or three days, frequently changing
the water, which must be soft. Soak it in a tub, and keep it well
covered. When you take it out of the water to prepare it for
boiling, scrape and trim it nicely, and pare off all the bad
looking parts.

Early in the morning put it into a large pot or kettle with plenty
of cold water. Place it over a slow fire that it may heat
gradually; it should not come to a boil in less than an hour and a
half, or two hours. When it boils, quicken the fire, and skim the
pot carefully. Then simmer it gently four or fire hours or more,
according to its size. A ham weighing fifteen pounds should simmer
five hours after it has come to a boil. Keep the pot well skimmed.

When it is done, take it up, carefully strip off the skin, and
reserve it to cover the ham when it is put away cold. Rub the ham
all over with some beaten egg, and strew on it fine bread-raspings
shaken through the lid of a dredging box. Then place it in an oven
to brown and crisp, or on a hot dish set over the pot before the
fire. Cut some writing paper into a handsome fringe, and twist it
round the shank-bone before you send the ham to table. Garnish the
edge of the dish with little piles or spots of rasped crust of
bread.

In carving a ham, begin not quite in the centre, but a little
nearer to the hock. Cut the slices very thin. It is not only a
most ungenteel practice to cut ham in thick slices, but it much
impairs the flavour.

When you put it away after dinner, skewer on again the skin. This
will make it keep the better.

Ham should always be accompanied by green vegetables, such as
asparagus, peas, beans, spinach, cauliflower, brocoli, &c.

Bacon also should be well soaked before it is cooked; and it
should be boiled very slowly, and for a long time. The greens may
be boiled with the meat. Take care to skim the pot carefully, and
to drain and squeeze the greens very well before you send them to
table. If there are yellow streaks in the lean of the bacon, it is
rusty, and unfit to eat.


TO ROAST A HAM.

Take a very fine ham (a Westphalia one if you can procure it) and
soak it in lukewarm water for a day or two, changing the water
frequently. The day before you intend cooking it, take the ham out
of the water, and (having removed the skin) trim it nicely, and
pour over it a bottle of Madeira or sherry. Let it steep till next
morning, frequently during the day washing the wine over it. Put
it on the spit in time to allow at least six hours for slowly
roasting it. Baste it continually with hot water. When it is done,
dredge it all over with fine bread-raspings shaken on through the
top of the dredging box; and set it before the fire to brown.

For gravy, take the wine in which the ham was steeped, and add to
it the essence or juice which flowed from the meat when taken from
the spit. Squeeze in the juice of two lemons. Put it into a sauce-pan,
and boil and skim it. Send it to table in a boat. Cover the
shank of the ham (which should have been sawed short) with bunches
of double parsley, and ornament it with a cluster of flowers cut
out with a penknife from raw carrots, beets, and turnips; and made
to imitate marygolds, and red and white roses.


DIRECTIONS FOR CURING HAM OR BACON.

Ham or bacon, however well cured, will never be good unless the
pork of which it is made has been properly fed. The hogs should be
well fattened on corn, and fed with it about eight weeks, allowing
ten bushels to each hog. They are best for curing when from two to
four years old, and should not weigh more than one hundred and
fifty or one hundred and sixty pounds. The first four weeks they
may be fed on mush, or on Indian meal moistened with water; the
remaining four on corn unground; giving them always as much as
they will eat. Soap-suds may be given to them three or four times
a week; or oftener if convenient.

When killed and cut up, begin immediately to salt them. Rub the
outside of each ham with a tea-spoonful of powdered saltpetre, and
the inside with a tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper. Having mixed
together brown sugar and fine salt, in the proportion of a pound
and a half of brown sugar to a quart of salt, rub the pork well
with it. This quantity of sugar and salt will be sufficient for
fifty pounds of meat. Have ready some large tubs, the bottoms
sprinkled with salt, and lay the meat in the tubs with the skin
downward. Put plenty of salt between each layer of meat. After it
has lain eight days, take it out and wipe off all the salt, and
wash the tubs. Make a pickle of soft water, equal quantities of
salt and molasses, and a little saltpetre; allowing four ounces of
saltpetre to two quarts of molasses and two quarts of salt, which
is the proportion for fifty pounds of meat. The pickle must be
strong enough to bear up an egg. Boil and skim it; and when it is
cold, pour it over the meat, which must be turned every day and
basted with the pickle. The hams should remain in the pickle at
least four weeks; the shoulders and middlings of the bacon three
weeks; and the jowls two weeks. They should then be taken out and
smoked. Having washed off the pickle, before you smoke the meat,
bury it, while wet, in a tub of bran. This will form a crust over
it, and prevent evaporation of the juices. Let the smoke-house be
ready to receive the meat immediately. Take it out of the tub
after it has lain half an hour, and rub the bran evenly over it.
Then hang it up to smoke with the small end downwards. The smoke-house
should be dark and cool, and should stand alone, for the
heat occasioned by an adjoining--building may spoil the meat, or
produce insects. Keep up a good smoke all day, but have no blaze.
Hickory is the best wood for a smoke-house fire, In three or four
weeks the meat will be sufficiently smoked, and fit for use.
During the process it should be occasionally taken down, examined,
and hung up again. The best way of keeping hams is to wrap them in
paper, or, to sew them in coarse cloths (which should be white-washed)
and bury them in a barrel of hickory ashes. The ashes must
be frequently changed.

An old ham will require longer to soak, and longer to boil than a
new one.

Tongues may be cured in the above manner.


LIVER PUDDINGS.

Boil some pigs' livers. When cold, mince them, and season them
with pepper, salt, and some sage and sweet marjoram rubbed fine.
You may add some powdered cloves. Have ready some large skins
nicely cleaned, and fill them with the mixture, tying up the ends
securely. Prick them with a fork to prevent their bursting; put
them into hot water, and boil them slowly for about an hour. They
will require no farther cooking before you eat them. Keep them in
stone jars closely covered. They are eaten cold at breakfast or
supper, cut into slices an inch thick or more; or they may be cut
into large pieces, and broiled or fried.


COMMON SAUSAGE-MEAT.

Having cleared it from the skin, sinews, and gristle, take six
pounds of the lean of young fresh pork, and three pounds of the
fat, and mince it all as fine as possible. Take some dried sage,
pick off the leaves and rub them to powder, allowing three tea-spoonfuls
to each pound of meat. Having mixed the fat and lean
well together, and seasoned it with nine tea-spoonfuls of pepper,
and the same quantity of salt, strew on the powdered sage, and mix
the whole very well with your hands. Put it away in a stone jar,
packing it down hard; and keep it closely covered. Set the jar in
a cool dry place.

When you wish to use the sausage-meat, make it into flat cakes
about an inch thick and the size of a dollar; dredge them with
flour, and fry them in butter or dripping, over rather a slow
fire, till they are well browned on both sides, and thoroughly
done.

Sausages are seldom eaten except at breakfast.


FINE SAUSAGES.

Take some fresh pork, (the leg is best,) and clear it from the
skin, sinews, and gristle. Allow two pounds of fat to three pounds
of lean. Mince it all very fine, and season it with two ounces and
a half of salt, half an ounce of pepper, thirty cloves, and a
dozen blades of mace powdered, three grated, nutmegs, six table-spoonfuls
of powdered sage, and two tea-spoonfuls of powdered
rosemary. Mix all well together. Put it into a stone jar, and
press it down very hard. Cover it closely, and keep it in a dry
cool place.

When you use this sausage-meat, mix with it some beaten yolk of
egg, and make it into balls or cakes. Dredge them with flour, and
fry them in butter.


BOLOGNA SAUSAGES.

Take ten pounds of beef, and four pounds of pork; two-thirds of
the meat should be lean, and only one third fat. Chop it very
fine, and mix it well together. Then season it with six ounces of
fine salt, one ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of cayenne,
one table-spoonful of powdered cloves; and one clove or garlic
minced very fine.

Have ready some large skins nicely cleaned and prepared, (they
should be beef-skins,) and wash them in salt and vinegar. Fill
them with the above mixture, and secure the ends by tying them
with packthread or fine twine. Make a brine of salt and water
strong enough to bear up an egg. Put the sausages into it, and'
let them lie for three weeks, turning them daily. Then take them
out, wipe them dry, hang them up and smoke them. Before you put
them away rub them all over with, sweet oil,

Keep them in ashes. That of vine-twigs is best for them.

You may fry them or not before you eat them.


PORK CHEESE.

Take the heads, tongues, and feet of young fresh pork, or any
other pieces that are convenient. Having removed the skin, boil
them till all the meat is quite tender, and can be easily stripped
from the bones. Then chop it small, and season it with salt and
black pepper to your taste, and if you choose, some beaten cloves.
Add sage-leaves and sweet marjoram, minced fine, or rubbed to
powder. Mix the whole very well together with your hands. Put it
into deep pans, with straight sides, (the shape of a cheese,)
press it down hard and closely with a plate that will fit the pan;
putting the under side of the plate next to the meat, and placing
a heavy weight on it. In two or three days it will be fit for use,
and you may turn it out of the pan. Send it to table cut in
slices, and use mustard and vinegar with it. It is generally eaten
at supper or breakfast.


PIG'S FEET AND EARS SOUSED.

Having cleaned them properly, and removed the skin, boil them
slowly till they are quite tender, and then split the feet and put
them with the ears into salt and vinegar, flavoured with a little
mace. Cover the jar closely, and set it away. When you use them,
dry each piece well with a cloth; dip them first in beaten yolk of
egg, and then in bread-crumbs, and fry them nicely in butter or
lard. Or you may eat them cold, just out of the vinegar.

If you intend keeping them some time, you must make a fresh pickle
for them every other day.


TO IMITATE WESTPHALIA HAM.

The very finest pork must be used for these hams. Mix together an
equal quantity of powdered saltpetre and brown sugar, and rub it
well into the hams. Next day make a pickle in sufficient quantity
to cover them very well. The proportions of the ingredients are a
pound and a half of fine salt, half a pound of brown sugar, an
ounce of black pepper and an ounce of cloves pounded to powder, a
small bit of sal prunella, and a quart of stale strong beer or
porter. Boil them all together, so as to make a pickle that will
bear up an egg. Pour it boiling hot over the meat, and let it lie
in the pickle two weeks, turning it two or three times every day,
and basting or washing it with the liquid. Then take out the hams,
rub them with bran and smoke them for a fortnight. When done, keep
them in a barrel of wood ashes.

In cooking these hams simmer them slowly for seven or eight hours.

To imitate the shape of the real Westphalia hams, cut some of the
meat off the under side of the thick part, so as to give them a
flat appearance. Do this before you begin to cure them, first
loosening the skin and afterwards sewing it on again.

The ashes in which you keep them must be changed frequently,
wiping the hams when you take them out.


TO GLAZE A COLD HAM.

With a brush or quill feather go all over the ham with beaten yolk
of egg. Then cover it thickly with pounded cracker, made as fine
as flour, or with grated crumbs of stale bread. Lastly go over it
with thick cream. Put it to brown in the oven of a stove, or brown
it on the spit of a tin roaster, set before the fire and turned
frequently.

This glazing will be found delicious.




VENISON, &c.


TO ROAST A SADDLE OR HAUNCH OF VENISON.

Wipe it all over with a sponge dipped in warm water Then rub the
skin with lard or nice dripping. Cover the fat with sheets of
paper two double, buttered, and tied on with packthread that has
been soaked to keep it from burning. Or, what is still better, you
may cover the first sheets of paper with a coarse paste of flour
and water rolled out half an inch thick, and then cover the paste
with the second sheets of paper, securing the whole well with the
string to prevent its falling off. Place the venison on the spit
before a strong clear fire, such as you would have for a sirloin
of beef, and let the fire be well kept up all the time. Put some
claret and butter into the dripping-pan and baste the meat with it
frequently. If wrapped in paste, it will not be done in less than
five hours. Half an hour before you take it up, remove the
coverings carefully, place the meat nearer to the fire, baste it
with fresh butter and dredge it very lightly with flour. Send it
to table with fringed white paper wrapped round the bone, and its
own gravy well skimmed. Have currant jelly to eat with it. As
venison chills immediately, the plates should be kept on heaters.

You may make another gravy with a pound and a half of scraps and
trimmings or inferior pieces of venison, put into a sauce-pan with
three pints of water, a few cloves, a few blades of mace, half a
nutmeg; and salt and cayenne to your taste. Boil it down slowly to
a pint. Then skim off the fat, and strain the gravy into a clean
sauce-pan. Add to it half a pint of currant jelly, half a pint of
claret, and near a quarter of a pound of butter divided into bits
and rolled in flour. Send it to table in two small tureens or
sauce-boats. This gravy will be found very fine.

Venison should never be roasted unless very fat. The shoulder is a
roasting piece, and may be done without the paper or paste.

Venison is best when quite fresh; but if it is expedient to keep
it a week before you cook it, wash it well with milk and water,
and then dry it perfectly with cloths till there is not the least
damp remaining on it. Then mix together powdered ginger and
pepper, and rub it well over every part of the meat. Do not,
however, attempt to keep it unless the weather is quite cold.


TO HASH COLD VENISON.

Cut the meat in nice small slices, and put the trimmings and bones
into a sauce-pan with barely water enough to cover them. Let them
stew for an hour. Then strain the liquid into a stew-pan; add to
it some bits of butter rolled in flour, and whatever gravy was
left of the venison the day before. Stir in some currant jelly,
and give it a boil up. Then put in the meat, and keep it over the
fire just long enough to warm it through; but do not allow it to
boil, as it has been once cooked already.


VENISON STEAKS.

Cut them from the neck or haunch. Season them with pepper and
salt. When the gridiron has been well heated over a bed of bright
coals, grease the bars, and lay the steaks upon it. Broil them
well, turning them once, and taking care to save as much of the
gravy as possible. Serve them up with some currant jelly laid on
each steak. Have your plates set on heaters.


VENISON PASTY.

The neck, breast, and shoulder are the parts used for a venison
pie or pasty. Cut the meat into pieces (fat and lean together) and
put the bones and trimmings into a stew-pan with pepper and salt,
and water or veal broth enough to cover it. Simmer it till you
have drawn out a good gravy. Then strain it.

In the mean time make a good rich paste, and roll it rather thick.
Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with one sheet of it,
and put in your meat, having seasoned it with pepper, salt,
nutmeg, and mace. Pour in the gravy which you have prepared from
the trimmings, and two glasses of port or claret, and lay on the
top some hits of butter rolled in flour. Cover the pie with a
thick lid of paste, and ornament it handsomely with leaves and
flowers formed with a tin cutter. Bake it two hours or more,
according to its size.


VENISON HAMS.

Venison for hams must be newly killed, and in every respect as
good as possible. Mix together equal quantities of salt and brown
sugar, and rub it well into the hams. Put them into a tub, and let
them lie seven days; turning them and rubbing them daily with the
mixture of salt and sugar. Next mix together saltpetre and common
salt, in the proportion of two ounces of saltpetre to a handful of
salt. Rub it well into your hams, and let them lie a week longer.
Then wipe them, rub them with bran, and smoke them a fortnight
over hickory wood. Pack them in wood ashes.

Venison ham must not be cooked before it is eaten. It is used for
the tea-table, chipped or shred like dried beef, to which it is
considered very superior.

It will not keep as long as other smoked meat.


TO ROAST A KID.

A kid should be cooked the day it is killed, or the day after at
farthest. They are best from three to four months old, and are
only eaten while they live on milk.

Wash the kid well, wipe it dry, and truss it. Stuff the body with
a force-meat of grated bread, butter or suet, sweet herbs, pepper,
salt, nutmeg, grated lemon-peel, and beaten egg; and sew it up to
keep the stuffing in its place. Put it on the spit and rub it over
with lard, or sweet oil. Put a little salt and water into the
dripping-pan, and baste the kid first with that, and afterwards
with its own gravy. Or you may make it very nice by basting it
with cream. It should roast about three hours. At the last,
transfer the gravy to a small sauce-pan; thicken it with a little
butter rolled in flour, give it a boil up, and send it to table in
a boat. Garnish the kid with lumps of currant jelly laid round the
edge of the dish.

A fawn (which should never be kept more than one day) may be
roasted in the same manner; also, a hare, or a couple of rabbits.

You may send to table, to eat with the kid, a dish of chestnuts
boiled or roasted, and divested of the shells.


TO ROAST A HARE.

If a hare is old do not roast it, but make soup of it. Wash and
soak it in water for an hour, and change the water several times,
having made a little slit in the neck to let out the blood. Take
out the heart and liver, and scald them. Drain, dry, and truss the
hare. Make a force-meat richer and more moist than usual, and add
to it the heart and liver minced fine. Soak the bread-crumbs in a
little claret before you mix them with the other ingredients.
Stuff the body of the hare with this force-meat, and sew it up.
Put it on the spit, rub it with butter, and roast it before a
brisk fire. For the first half hour baste it with butter; and
afterwards with cream, or with milk thickened with beaten yolk of
egg. At the last, dredge it lightly with flour. The hare will
require about two hours roasting.

For sauce, take the drippings of the hare mixed with cream or with
claret, and a little lemon-juice, a bit of butter, and some bread-crumbs.
Give it a boil up, and send it to table in a boat. Garnish
the hare with slices of currant jelly laid round it in the dish.


FRICASSEED RABBITS.

The best way of cooking rabbits is to fricassee them. Take a
couple of fine ones, and cut them up, or disjoint them. Put them
into a stew-pan; season them with cayenne pepper and salt, some
chopped parsley, and some powdered mace. Pour in a pint of warm
water (or of veal broth, if you have it) and stew it over a slow
fire till the rabbits are quite tender; adding (when they are
about half done) some bits of butter rolled in flour. Just before
you take it from the fire, enrich the gravy with a jill or more of
thick cream with some nutmeg grated into it. Stir the gravy well,
but take care not to let it boil after the cream is in, lest it
curdle.

Put the pieces of rabbit on a hot dish, and pour the gravy over
them.


TO STEW RABBITS.

Having trussed the rabbits, lay them in a pan of warm water for
about fifteen minutes. Then put them into a pot with plenty of
water and a little salt, and stew them slowly for about an hour,
or till they are quite tender. In the mean time, peel and boil in
a sauce-pan a dozen onions. When they are quite tender all
through, take them out, and drain and slice them. Have ready some
drawn, butter, prepared by taking six ounces of butter, (cut into
bits and rolled in about three tea-spoonfuls of flour,) and
melting it in a jill of milk. After shaking it round-over hot
coals till it simmers, add to it the onions, and give it one boil
up.

When the rabbits are done stewing lay them on a large dish (having
first cut off their heads, which should not he sent to table) and
cover them all over with the onion-sauce, to which you may add
some grated nutmeg.


TO FRY RABBITS,

Having washed the rabbits well, put them into a pan of cold water,
and let them lie in it two or three hours. Then cut them into
joints, dry them in a cloth, dredge them with flour, strew them
with chopped parsley, and fry them in butter. After you take them
out of the frying-pan, stir a wine-glass of cream into the gravy,
or the beaten yolk of an egg. Do not let it boil, but pour it at
once into the dish with the rabbits.

Rabbits are very good baked in a pie. A boiled or pot-pie may be
made of them.

They may he stuffed with force-meat and roasted, basting them with
butter. Cut off their heads before you send them to table.




POULTRY, GAME, &c.


GENERAL REMARKS

In buying poultry choose those that are fresh and fat. Half-grown
poultry is comparatively insipid; it is best when full-grown but
not old. Old poultry is tough and hard. An old goose is so tough
as to be frequently uneatable. When poultry is young the skin is
thin and tender, and can be easily tipped by trying it with a pin;
the legs are smooth; the feet moist and limber; and the eyes full
and bright. The body should be thick and the breast fat. The bill
and feet of a young goose are yellow, and have but few hairs on
them; when old they are red and hairy.

Poultry is best when killed overnight, as if cooked too soon
after-killing, it is hard and does not taste well. It is not the
custom in America, as in some parts of Europe, to keep game, or
indeed any sort of eatable, till it begins to taint; all food when
inclining to decomposition being regarded by us with disgust.

When poultry or game is frozen, it should be brought into the
kitchen early in the morning of the day on which it is to be
cooked. It may be thawed by laying it several hours in cold water.
If it is not thawed it will require double the time to cook, and
will be tough and tasteless when done. In drawing poultry be very
careful not to break the gall, lest its disagreeable bitterness
should be communicated to the liver.

Poultry should be always scalded in hot water to make the feathers
come out easily. Before they are cooked they should be held for a
moment over the blaze of the fire to singe off the hairs that are
about the skin. The head, neck, and feet should be cut off, and
the ends of the legs skewered in the bodies. A string should be
tied tightly round.


TO BOIL A PAIR OF FOWLS.

Make a force-meat in the usual manner, of grated, bread-crumbs,
chopped sweet herbs, butter, pepper, salt, and yolk of egg. Fill
the bodies of the fowls with the stuffing, and tie a string firmly
round them. Skewer the livers and gizzards to the sides, under the
wings. Dredge them with flour, and put them into a pot with just
enough of water to cook them; cover it closely, and put it over a
moderate fire. As soon as the scum rises, take off the pot and
skim it. Then cover it again, and boil it slowly half an hour.
Afterwards diminish the fire, and let them stew slowly till quite
tender. An hour altogether is generally sufficient to boil a pair
of fowls, unless they are quite old. By doing them slowly (rather
stewing than boiling) the skin will not break, and they will be
whiter and more tender than if boiled fast.

Serve them up with egg-sauce in a boat.

Young chickens are better for being soaked two hours in skim milk,
previous to boiling. You need not stuff them. Boil or stew them,
slowly in the same manner as large fowls. Three quarters of an
hour will cook them.

Serve them up with parsley-sauce, and garnish with parsley.

Boiled fowls should be accompanied by ham or smoked tongue.


TO ROAST A PAIR. OF FOWLS.

Leave out the livers, gizzards and hearts, to be chopped and put
into the gravy.--Fill the crops and bodies of the fowls with a
force-meat, put them before a clear fire and roast them an hour,
basting them with butter or with clarified dripping.

Having stewed the necks, gizzards, livers, and hearts in a very
little water, strain it and mix it hot with the gravy that has
dripped from the fowls, and which must be first skimmed. Thicken
it with a little browned flour, add to it the livers, hearts, and
gizzards chopped small. Send the fowls to table with the gravy in
a boat, and have cranberry-sauce to eat with them.


BROILED CHICKENS.

Split a pair of chickens down the back, and beat them flat, Wipe
the inside, season them with pepper and salt, and let them, lie
while you prepare some beaten yolk of egg and grated bread-crumbs.
Wash the outside of the chickens all over with the egg, and then
strew on the bread-crumbs. Have ready a hot gridiron over a bed of
bright coals. Lay the chickens on it with the inside downwards, or
next the fire. Broil them about three quarters of an hour, keeping
them covered with a plate. Just before you take them up, lay some
small pieces of butter on them.

In preparing chickens for broiling, you may parboil them about ten
minutes, to ensure their being sufficiently cooked; as it is
difficult to broil the thick parts thoroughly without burning the
rest.


FRICASSEED CHICKENS.

Having cut up your chickens, lay them in cold water till all the
blood is drawn out. Then wipe the pieces, season them with pepper
and salt, and dredge them with flour. Fry them in lard or butter;
they should be of a fine brown on both sides. When they 

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