641.62 J72, 1847 The cook and housewife's manual : Schlesinger Library 002523738 3 2044 087 462 883 Olea Dands zu M Sando hy The Arthur and Elizabeth SCHLESINGER LIBRARY on the History of Women in America RADCLIFFE COLLEGE Gift of Karen Slater Man THE COOK AND HOUSEWIFE'S MAN U A L. THE COOK AND HOUSEWIFE'S MANUAL A PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF MODERN DOMESTIC COOKERY AND FAMILY MANAGEMENT; CONTAINING A COMPENDIUM OP FRENCH COOKERY, AND OF FASHIONABLR CONFECTIONARY, PREPARATIONS FOR INVALIDS AND CONVALESCENTS, A SELECTION OF CHEAP DISHES, AND NUMEROUS USEFI'L MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS IN THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY. BY MISTRESS MARGARET DODS, OF THE CLEIKUM INN, ST. ROXAN'S. TO WHICH IS ADDED A COMPREHENSIVE TREATISE ON DOMESTIC BREWING. Eighth Edtion. CAREFULLY REVISED, AND GREATLY ENLARGED. OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURG H. SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & Co., LONDON. MDCCCXLVII. clieha J72 1847 Edinburgh : Printed by WILLIAM TAIT, 107, Prince's Street. Gift of Karen Sleiter Z biu ADVERTISEMENT TO THE NEW EDITION. In again making our respectful acknowledgments to the public, and presenting a New EDITION of the Cook AND HOUSEWIFE's Manual, professing to be thoroughly revised, and considerably enlarged, with the view of increasing its every-day, practical utility, we take leave to state briefly in what departments improvement has been attempted :- Extending more or less through every section treating of Modern English, or more correctly of Anglo-French Cookery—that reformed and enlarged system of culinary science first promulgated in our pages-the improvements which, are apparent in all departments, are chiefly conspicuous, not in simple elementary processes, — those of Britain being in general unexceptionable,—but in those dishes entitled to be called dressed or made; the entrées and entremets of the French kitchen. In this department some new sections have been added. But in the fashionable iced puddings of Carême, or the Salades and Hors d'osuores of his contemporaries, we have not over- ADVERTISEMENT. looked the improvements made in the far more important, plain but savoury, everyday family-dishes of unostenta- tious middle life, nor been less attentive to the progress made in the various branches of English domestic cookery. Our original system was not exclusively that of England, Scotland, or France ; but an attempt to exhibit, and to a certain extent combine, the admitted excellencies of each ; in the belief that a practical system superior to any one of them might be formed from what was best in the three systems; or, at all events, that familiar acquain- tance with French cookery might prove a great resource to those capable of modifying and adapting their knowledge to the uses of the English kitchen. Though attention and observation have not been want- ing on our part, we must again confess our obligations to the judicious hints and corrections of practical cooks, and of ladies qualified by superior intelligence and experience, to enhance the value of any work of this sort, whether to the young housekeeper, or to the half-instructed cook. This information relates in general to preparations adopted for some time in the kitchens of the comfortable or affluent among the middle classes, which have not yet found their way into books of recipes; and to modes of Cookery adopted from France, India, and other quarters,—but generally modified, and, aş we think, improved by English tastes and habits. In this department there was indeed some danger of overdoing ; but we kept in view the maxim, “ that too many cooks spoil the broth," and en- ADVERTISEMENT. vü deavoured to hold the novel in strict subservience to the useful. The mighty revolution effected by steam has already had considerable influence on Cookery; and so have the recent changes in the Tariffs. Rare spiceries, and fresh and dried fruits, once costly luxuries, may now be ob- tained to a reasonable extent by the industrious even among the working-classes. It is pleasant to hear of them seasoning their gruel and rice with nutmeg or cassia, but it would be still more delightful that their messes could be enriched and sweetened with cheap sugar; and better still to see the prepared meats and gelatines of distant lands, as plenteously yielding their abundance to English artisans as we now see oranges, dates, grapes, cocoa nuts, and pine- apples. Freed Commerce has already done much, but far more remains to be accomplished ; and if Providence send the meat, we should hope that the old reproach against the cooks will, with good reason, be withdrawn. We are not, however, of the number of those who pretend to make a cook by book. This assumption we have repeatedly disclaimed, as may be seen in our 300-301, and other pages, — in Mr. Touchwood's Lectures, and many parts of this work. But we do pretend to have drawn into a focus, and laid before the intelligent cook, who has learnt the A B C of her art, a body of knowledge and of recipes, such as she will not meet with in many more, and bulkier works. As this is not the rudiments, or First Book of Cookery, it viii ADVERTISEMENT. is chiefly to intelligent young housekeepers that we commend it, as a directory or assistant that will be found neither dog- matic nor dictatorial; requesting them to bear in mind, that though we generally give our directions in a less arbi- trary form than most of our predecessors, and have con- descended to assign a reason for many of our commands, and to explain the rationale of our prescriptions, our courteous readers must not for this humility of tone imagine them one whit less authoritative. They may, indeed, at all times walk safely by the letter of our prescriptions ; but they will fall far short of the full advantage intended, unless, exercising their own understanding, and applying their increasing experience, they learn to apprehend the spirit in the letter, and in every circumstance, as it may arise, act accordingly. It was to conciliate the interesting class of accomplished young housekeepers, and win their attention to an art so closely connected with their daily duties, that many of our literary garnishings and decorations were originally introduced. Acting upon a favourite culinary maxim of our own, much of this extraneous ornament has been withdrawn, to make way for more solid matter. It would, however, be altogether erroneous to imagine, that, in making an irruption from head-quarters, and crossing the Border, preceded by a flourish of marrow-bones and cleavers, we might not have a message to deliver as earnest and important as any ever conveyed in the soberest tones cf monotonous du!ness. ADVERTISEMENT. ix So much for ourselves : and now a parting word of warning to our readers. We would impress upon them, that in specifying many enriching and expensive ingre- dients, decorations, and sauces, the things and modes in common or in fashionable use, are always pointed out, but by no means always recommended. But on the other hand, as works of this kind are usually consulted on high- days and holidays, or upon unforeseen emergencies and occasions when sparing would be parsimony or shabbiness, receipts for the preparation of fashionable modern dishes will be found in perhaps more than sufficient variety. In all circumstances, we would hint, that the taste- ful economist, though of affluent means, will do well, whether she have a housekeeper or not, to exer- cise her own discretion in drawing out or examining her bills of fare ; and, as a universal rule, the omission of costly ingredients is recommended, in preference to resorting to paltry substitutes, suggested by the ill- regulated desire of being genteel. This by no means excludes good taste and ingenuity in giving every dish or selection of dishes the best relish and the most graceful form, at the least cost. To those who use this work as a Manual of Cookery, we would take leave to recommend the Glossary of Culinary Terms, which is enlarged in this Edition ; the prefatory remarks to the Chapter or Section containing the particular receipt studied, and any notes and observations connected with it. For instance, every separate receipt ADVERTISEMENT. for making, boiling, or baking a pudding, cannot have the entire details to be found in pp. 472-3-4, but these once studied, recurrence to them in every receipt for making a pudding, would superfluously swell the work, and en- cumber it. Acting on the same principle of high-pressure, most of our receipts will be found to contain two, three, four, or more subsidiary receipts, frequently not less im- portant than the principal one. In conclusion, it is earnestly hoped that the work, in its improved state, will be found to bear, to the young or inexperienced housekeeper, value in some degree com- mensurate to the great labour and care bestowed upon its original compilation and subsequent revision. ERRATA. Page 637, for Gowland, read Goulard. Page 422, No. 719, for Bouches, read Bouchées. Page 406, first line, for Petit, read Petits. CONTENTS. PART I. Page . History of the Institution of the Cleikum or St. Ronan's Culinary Club, • • • • • Introductory Lecture, :.. . ' Syllabus of Culinary Lectures, Directions for Carving, with new Cuts, Bills of Fare, and Observations on ſaying out Tables and arranging Dinners, . Company Suppers, .. Déjeuners à la Fourchette, . . . . . . Depany Susng Dinners Vations onts; . . aying out more PART II. ELEMENTARY PROCESSES IN COOKERY. CHAP. I. Boiling and Steaming, II. To boil a Round of Beef, &c., III. Roasting and Baking, . IV. Broiling, . V. Frying, . , VI. Broths, Soups, and Gravies, Stew or Mouthful Soups, Fish Soups; in-nies, 164 178 . . 185 VII. Fi VIII. Vegetables and Roots, IX. Sauces, Essences, Pickles, Catsups, Vinegars, Herb-wines, Mustards, and other condiments, 227 25.5 of Beef . . . PART III. CHAP. I. MADE DISHES, of Veal, . . . of Mutton, of Venison, Hare and Rabbits, . of Poultry and Game, Curries, . . Sausages, . Devils, Cheese, 301 305 321 334 340 343 347 354 359 360 362 366 371 377 383 Eggs, . CHAP, II. FRENCH COOKERY, Sauces, . . Soups, Made-Dishes, . . . . . Mede-Dishes . . . . . 387 xii CONTENTS. Page 406 411 414 419 424 449 498 CHAP. II. Dishes of Fish Forcemeats, Dishes of Vegetables, Fruit, &c., ..... Pastry, &c., . Chap. III. National Dishes—Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German, Spanish, and Oriental, IV. Pastry, Pies, Patties, Puffs, Puddings, Pancakes, Fritters, and Dumplings, V. Creams, Jellies, Blancmanges, Trifles, Custards, Cheese-cakes, Soufflés, Rice-dishes, Sweetmeats, Preserves, Drops, Cakes, Household Bread, PART IV. CHAP. I. Liqueurs, Cordials; Punch, Brandies, Possets, Made Wines, and Household Beers, Table of the Average Time required for Boiling, Roasting, Frying, &c. . Notices of the Provisions in Season in the diffe- rent months of the year, . . Glossary of Culinary Terms; . II. Preparations for the Sick, and for Convalescents, Of Coffee, Chocolate, &c. best mode of making, Preparations for the Dressing-room, Cheap Dishes, and Cookery for the Poor, i III. Of Salting Meat, Tongues, Hams, Making Cheese, Preserving Butter, Eggs, Fattening Poultry, &c. IV. Useful Miscellaneous Receipts for Cleaning and Preserving Furniture, Clothes, &c. : 548 570 573 576 580 587 595 598 605 629 639 642 APPENDIX.—DOMESTIC BREWING. IMPLEMENTS NECESSARY FOR DOMESTIC BREWING. The Boiler — The Mash-tub - The Mashing-stick, or Oar- The Underback-Coolers — Fermenting Tuns — The Saccharometer and Thermometer, &c. . . Malt, Sugar, Water, &c. 1. To Brew from Six Bushels of Malt a Half-hogshead of Strong Ale, a Half-hogshead of Middle Ale, and a Quarter-hogshead of Table-beer, . .' IL To Brew from Six Bushels of Malt (without Sugar) a Barrel (36 gallons) of Ale and a Barrel of Table-beer, III. To Brew from Four Bushels of Malt one Kilderkin (9 dozen) of Strong Ale, and one Barrel (18 dozen) of Table-beer, using Sugar along with the Malt, . IV. To Brew from Four Bushels of Malt, with or without Sugar, a Half-hogshead (14 dozen) of Strong Ale, and a Kilderkin (9 dozen) of Table-beer, V. To Brew from ìwo Bushels of Malt a Quarter-hogshead of Strong Ale (7 dozen) and a Quarter-hogshead Table- 645 650 652 654 beer, 655 INSTITUTION OF THE ST. RONAN’S CULINARY CLUB. AFTER the accomplishment of those passages which are recorded at large in that entertaining and highly popular history, entitled “St. Ronan's WELL," Peregrine Touch- wood, Esquire, more commonly, styled the CLEIKUM NABOR, who had been deeply concerned in these disastrous events, was sorely pricked in mind; and, after a time, became affļicted with melancholy languor, so that his ap- petite failed, time hung heavily on his hands, and he knew not whereunto to betake himself. This worthy gentleman was, it may be remembered, of a stirring, active temper; prompt, nimble, and prying in spirit; somewhat dogmatic and opinionative withal; and fond of having a finger in every Pie, though it was alleged that he some- times scalded his lips with other people's Broth. The unhappy catastrophe which befell the ancient and honourable house of St. Ronan's occurred about the fall of the year; and by the end of the following March, Mr. Touchwood, having carried reform as far as was possible in and about the hamlet of Auldtown, was in some danger, as we have distantly intimated, of falling into hypochon- dria, or what the learned Dr. Cackleben called “fever on the spirits,” vulgarly fidgets,—a malady to which bachelor gentlemen in easy circumstances, when turned of fifty, are thought to be peculiarly liable. It so happened, how- ever, that one of those fortunate occurrences which oftenest B 18 INSTITUTION OF THE befall when least looked for, wrought the deliverance of the Nabob from the power of ennui or hypochondria, and restored him to himself. In brief, he exorcised the blue devils which began to torment him, by an attempt to teach his fair countrywomen the mystery of preparing culinary devils of all names and kinds; besides soups, ragouts, sauces, and the whole eirele of the arts of domestic eco- nomy,-an entirely new system, in short, of RATIONAL PRACTICAL COOKERY, An idea of this kind had, among many others, been for some time floating in the brain of the Nabob, which was rather fertile in projects; but it would probably never have gone farther than the tongue, save for one of those fortuitous combinations of events which sometimes pro- duce the mightiest consequences, and which about this time sent to St. Ronan's a personage of no less weight than the celebrated Dr. Redgill. The Doctor had for some months been what his physician called “an incipient in- valid.” His powers of digestion, though still respectable, were of late rather declining; but his appetite,“ he thanked God!" was vigorous as ever, his taste more refined, and his knowledge matured and extended in every branch of the science. He had been trying the Cheltenham waters in the previous season; and was now recommended by a Scotch physician, who had been singularly happy in the case of his friend, Alderman - to try the St. Ronan’s Spa, the virtues of which were just then coming into fashionable repute. Like the bulk of mankind, attracted by the glitter of · appearance, Dr. Redgill, on his arrival, had established himself at the New Hotel, just set up in opposition to the hostelrie of Mistress Margaret Dods. But here he soon became discontented with the accommodation, attendance, ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 19 but, above all, the cookery ; and learning that a wealthy old East Indian—a sort of humorist, who understood and loved good cheer-- had fixed his head-quarters in a quiet, comfortable, well-ordered, old-fashioned inn, where excel- lent small dinners were served, the Doctor ordered his low- hung, well-cushioned chariot, and on the second morning of his residence at St. Ronan's Well, set out to reconnoitre the capabilities of this land of promise. The Nabob, unshaved, half-dressed, blue and yellow, fallen off in flesh, and given up to melancholious fancies about bilious attacks and the fall of stocks, the vanity of riches, and the moral impossibility of Scotch cooks ever boiling rice properly, was, when the Doctor drove in sight, lounging at his parlour window, directing the old gray ostler in currying the old gray horse ; but with little of his former spirit and promptitude. It was a critical con- junction. The eyes of the three persons, -the Doctor, the Nabob, and the Ostler,— were instantly attracted to a spectacle in which all mankind take more or less in- terest,- a pair of Mistress Dods' game-cocks, that had lustily commenced a sparring-match. The Ostler staid his currycomb and its hissing accompaniment, and clapped his hands to cheer the combatants; the Nabob flung up the sash; and the Doctor drew up to contemplate the conflict. The feathered combatants fought it out gal- lantly, - each, no doubt, animated by the knightly consciousness that “his lady saw him," till one dropped dead, and the other staggered over.—“Well done, Charlie! – bravely fought, Charlie!” cried the Ostler, lifting up the survivor. “ Admirable cock-a-leekie,” said the Doctor, touching the deceased with the end of his whip; “ all the better for the fight; it would raise the creature's blood.—A fine 20 INSTITUTION OF THE brood that !” addressing the Ostler, and throwing eyes of love on a set of ducklings, just escaped from the shell, that were innocently disporting themselves in a little puddle, near some goodly rows of green pease in a more advanced state of vegetation than any the Doctor had seen since he had crossed the Border ; “ these ducklings will, however, be too old before the pease are ready. Strange stupidity not to have 'em come together!"*-At this instant the soft treble squeak of a pig of tender days, and then the squall of a full choir, a whole litter of pigs,-Chinese pigs, the Doctor knew by the Orientalism of the infant grunt, -struck his ear; and, starting like an old battle-horse at the sound of the trumpet, he alighted, (the Ostler in- stinctively seizing the reins,) and unheeding the proffered courtesy of the Nabob, who requested him to walk in, pushed forwards.—“Whereabouts, good woman! where- abouts is the piggery? How many days are they littered?”. -“ Gude woman, ill woman,” replied Mistress Dods for it was Meg herself, who, with a pailful of slops, was sallying towards the delicate objects of the Doctor's solici- tude, under which office she disguised the latent purpose of taking a nearer view of the new arrival at the Spa,- “Gude woman, ill woman, it can make little odds to you, for they are no for your market ;” and Meg pushed on, “In maiden meditation fancy free.” The Doctor, not yet wholly discomfited, followed with grave and ponderous, though eager steps. The appear- ance of the Hebe who daily ministered to their little * We never, for our own private eating, could yet find much to admire in the skin-and-bone ducks of June and July.-P. T. N,B.--The great Upe, and the rising SoYER, will say the same thing. On his showing, the Reform Club should look to it. ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 21 wants, called forth a full chorus of grunters, swelling the triple thrice-confounded din; and the matron of the sty, a full-grown porker, bursting the verge of the sanctuary, ran full tilt against the Doctor, and getting between his legs, caused him to perform a somerset, which made him free of the house ere Meg had time to bless herself.- “Help! hilloa, here, good woman !” exclaimed the Doctor, as the enraged matron of the sty, filled with maternal alarms, began to discover her tusks. “Ye'll ken the way back to my pig-sty now, it's like,” said Meg, with a grim smile; and, as a measure of de- fence, she heaved the whole contents of her brimming pail on the sow, thus allowing a rather copious libation to the Doctor; shouting—“Help here, Jerry Ostler! Lord sake, help here ! this battle atween the Scots and English is waur than Bannockburn. Is't you, Mr. Touchwood! This is a worse job than Saunders Jaup's jaw-hole yet; the fat English minister, frae St. Ronan’s Well, is smooring a' my wee grices.” “ Your grices will smother him, you mean, dame," said Touchwood. “Here, sir ; ay, there you are on end again. This way,- follow me. You shall have your revenge though. They bemire you ; you shall crunsh their bones.” Reeking and panting from the struggle, Dr. Redgill, more provoked by the fancied insolence of the landlady, and the ill-timed mirth of the Nabob, than by the assault of the Felon Sow, growled forth something that, were such enormity possible, sounded very like wishing the whole party in that place from which it was his duty as a clergyman to keep them. “Neither my swine nor my guests boded themselves on you,” said Meg sharply. “Them that come unsent for, sit unserved. But that cannot be said of you; ye con- 22 INSTITUTION OF THE trived to get far ben on short notice. If folks will scrape acquaintance " “A scraping acquaintance indeed!” interrupted Touch- wood. “Here, Jerry Ostler, - your currycombs here ! Soap, water, towels ! Uncase, Doctor. Faith, as you say, dame, a worse job than Saunders Jaup's jaw-hole yet.” The grumbling Doctor, wise enough to make a virtue of necessity, rallied his naturally good temper; for we hold that all gourmands are good-natured, except, perhaps, about meal-times ; though it may be, as Lord Shaftesbury says of other good-natured persons, “because they care for nobody but themselves; and as nothing annoys them but what affects their own interest, they never irritate them- selves about what does not concern them, and so seem to be made of the very milk of human kindness.” — Such was Dr. Redgill. His rubicund countenance, soft and swelling as a jelly, generally beamed easy good-nature ; his ample chest — call it not paunch — seemed a reservoir of the very gravy of human kindness ; his full, oleaginous lips curved over like the ledges of an overflowing sauce- tureen. Having cast his slough, and got purified from the defilements of the sty, arrayed his outward man in a scanty suit of brown tendered by the Nabob, and fortified the inner with the full of one of Meg's long-stalked, enamelled antique glasses of Touchwood's Curaçoa, the Doctor was so far mollified as to add to a grateful eulogy on the qualities of the liqueur an acknowledgment of the attention of the administrator. “Never mind it, man,” said the easy Nabob; “I at least am indebted to the delinquent sow; she abridges ceremony and idle introductions. You must take a bachelor's dinner with me to-day. No refusal positively. ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 23 A glass of Meg's good wine must make amends for short commons. . . . . I vow this brush has done me good.” Nothing was farther from the real intention of Dr. Redgill than to refuse an invitation, which the savoury steams now issuing from Meg's kitchen — steams that might have created a stomach under the ribs of death, rendered irresistibly seductive. With a decent show of hesitation, he yielded ; and, snuffing up the incense-breath- ing vapours which ascended the stair, followed the Nabob to a private parlour, where an old, rich china basin, filled with the balmy and ambrosial fluid, scented from afar, was twice replenished for his solace ; first, however, improved by a pin's point of crystals of Cayenne from his silver pocket-case of essence-vials, which had luckily escaped the taint of the sty. “Excellent hare-soup — very ercellent indeed I pro- nounce it, Mr. Touchwood. All the blood preserved the consistence — the concoction complete — the seasoning admirable. Sir, I abhor the injustice of withholding from the poor cook the praise that is her due. It is bad policy, Mr. Touchwood. This hare-soup, I say it again, is ad- mirable ; and soup, to my thinking, though a Scottishi mode, the very best way of dressing a hare. Sir, you are in snug quarters here. A sensible, discreet person, your hostess, though a little gruff at the first brush. Sir, all good cooks are so. They know their own value : they are a privileged class : they toil in a fiery element: they lie under a heavy responsibility. But, perhaps, after all, you travel with your own cook? many gentlemen who have travelled do." “No such thing,” returned Touchwood, lightly ;“ never less alone than when alone in affairs of the stomach. I · may have written out a few items for my old dame here, INSTITUTION OF THE and for the first three months, taken a peep occasionally into the kitchen and larder; but now matters go on as smoothly as well-oiled butter.” “Sir, you write receipts, then !” cried the Doctor, look- ing on his hospitable entertainer with augmented respect, —“perhaps for this very soup ; — and perhaps — but that would be too great a kindness to request on such short acquaintance — though hare-soup, sir, I will candidly own it, is only understood in Scotland. Sir, I am above National prejudices; and, I must say, I yield the Scots the superiority in all soups — save turtle, ox- tail, and mullagatawny. An antiquarian friend of mine attributes this to their early and long connexion with the French, - a nation pre-eminent in soups.” “No doubt of it, Doctor,” replied the Nabob ; “but you shall have this receipt, ay and twenty more receipts. To this ancient hostel now — you will scarce believe it - have been confined scores of admirable receipts in cookery, ever since the jolly friars flourished down in the Monas- tery yonder: "The Monks of Melrose made fat kail On Fridays, when they fasted.' You remember the old stave, Doctor?" The Doctor remembered no such thing. His attention was given to more substantial doctrine. “Sir,” said he, “ I should not be surprised if they possessed the original receipt — a local one too I am told — for dressing the red trout, in this hereditary house of entertainment." “ Never doubt it man, — claret, butter, and spiceries. - Zounds, I have eat of it till — It makes my mouth water yet. As the French adage goes,—'Give your trout a bottle of good wine, a lump of butter, and spice, and tell me how you like him.' — Excellent trout in this very ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 25 house — got in the ‘ Friar's Cast, man — the best reach of the Tweed. Let them alone for that. Those jolly Monks knew something of the mystery. Their warm, sunny old orchards still produce the finest fruit in the country. You English gentlemen never saw the Grey-Gudewife pear ? Look out here, sir. The ABBOT's Haugu yonder — the richest carse land and fattest beeves in the country. Their very names — those Monks — are genial, and smack of milk and honey! — But here comes a brother of the Reformed order, whom I have never yet been able to teach the difference between Bechamel and butter-milk, though he understands ten languages. Dr. Redgill, — give me leave to present to you, my friend, Mr. Josiah Cargill, the minister of this parish. Mr. Cargill, I have been telling my friend that the Reformation has thrown the science of cookery three centuries back in this corner of the island. Popery and made-dishes, eh, Mr. Cargill ? — Episcopacy, roast-beef, and plum-pudding, - and what is left to meagre Presbytery, but its lang-kail, its brose, and mash- lum bannocks?" “ So I have heard,” replied Mr. Cargill; “very whole- some food, indeed.” “Wholesome food, sir! Why, your wits are wool- gathering. There is not a barefoot monk, sir, of the most beggarly abstemious order, but can give you some pretty notions for tossing up a fricassee or an omelet, or of mixing an olio. Scotland has absolutely retrograded in gastro- nomy; yet she saw a better day, the memory of which is savoury in our nostrils yet, Doctor. In old Jacobite fami- lies, and in the neighbourhood of decayed monasteries, – in such houses as this, for instance, where long succeeding generations have followed the trade of victuallers, – a few relics may still be found. It is for this reason I fix my 26 INSTITUTION OF THE scene of experiment at the Cleikum, and choose my notable hostess as high priestess of the mysteries. But here comes Mr. Winterblossom. -No word of Jekyl ? Never mind. - Serve dinner there. I allow five minutes for difference of time-pieces, and wait a half-minute more for my tardy guest --- no man shall call me uncivil — and then proceed to the main business of the day, - eh, Doc- tor? -- were King George expected.” “Sir," said the Doctor, earnestly, “I venerate your opinions and your practice in this matter. Sir, our great English moralist, Dr. Johnson, though a fellow of no col- lege, yet no mean authority, says, — “The man that does not mind his stomach is a fool : the belly is every man's master.' — Sir, I have known young gentlemen, otherwise of unexceptionable morals, disgrace themselves, sir, I say disgrace themselves, and lose the friendship of those who were inclined to serve them and to promote their views in life, by this infamous practice of delaying dinner; a practice which the elegant and classic Addison truly calls a species of perjury. Sir, he brands it as 'the detest- able habit of keeping your friends waiting dinner.'--'If such persons did think at all,' says he, they would reflect on their guilt in lengthening the suspension of agreeable life,'-- that is, in lengthening the hanging-on, miserable half-hour before dinner.” This dinner was served punctual to the second; for Meg and the Nabob, though they did not quite agree in har- mony, always agreed in time : — a true gourmand dinner ; - no sumptuous feast of twenty dishes in the dead-thraw, but a few well-chosen and well-suited, -- each relieving each, — the boils done to a popple, the roast to a turn, - the stews to the nick of time. First came the soup-the hare- soup; Meg called it “rabbit-soup,” as this was close-time. ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 27 “Sir, if you please,” replied the Doctor, bowing to the tureen, and sipping his heated Madeira, as he answered the inquiry of the Nabob, if he would take soup,~“as our great moralist, Dr. Johnson, said of your Scotch barley- broth, — 'Sir, I have eat of it, and shall be happy to do so again.” Stewed red trout, for which the house was celebrated, -- a fat, juicy, short-legged, thick-rumped, very white pullet, braised and served with rice and mushroom sauce, -a Scotch dish of venison-collops, — and, though last, not least in the Doctor's good love, one of the young pigs, killed since his adventure in the sty: — these formed the dinner. And all were neatly dished, - each dish with its appropriate sauces and garnishings, - the whole in keeping that would have done honour to the best city-tavern in London. -"Sir, I say city-tavern,” said Redgill; “ for I humbly conceive that, in all save flimsy show, business is best understood in the city, however finely they may talk the matter in the grand Clubs, and at the West End.” Such a dinner deserved a grace. It was, indeed, part of the garnish--indispensable. The Doctor's was short and pithy, delivered in a rolling, sonorous voice, pitched to fill the dining-hall of a college ; and then the seats were occupied without farther ceremony; for though it be true that at large dinners “the post of profit is a pri- vate station,” there was here little to alarm. Stewed trout had ceased to be luxury to Winterblossom or the Nabob; and they both knew that though Jekyl would stand out with the most high-bred politeness, like a very gamester, or a Hotspur, for his full share of the venison- fat, browned outside of veal, belly-slice of salmon, neck- jelly of cod's-head, Pope's-eye, crackling, due proportion of stuffing, and all those epicurean delicacies whichi 28 INSTITUTION OF THE gentlemen politely urge on each other when resolved to obtain the dainty morsel for themselves. They also knew, as we have said, that they could do Mr. Cargill with perfect ease ; and he was the only other guest present. Dr. Redgill, with cranberry-tart and a copious libation of rich plain cream, was concluding one of the most satis- factory dinners he had ever made in his life, though called a chance-dinner-he in general detested chance-dinners -when Mr. Jekyl, in his fishing-jacket and wet shoes, lounged into the room. Certain reasons made an absence from the metropolis convenient to the young gentleman at this time. He was therefore still at St. Ronan's, and was become rather intimate with the Naboh, who, like Sir Peter Teazle with his young friends, never grudged him his good advice. The young gentleman bore the rebuke, which his want of punctuality drew upon him, with entire nonchalance, surveyed the board with an air of half-supercilious scru- tiny, and then ordered the female waiter to carry his com- pliments to Mistress Dods, and say that Mr. Touchwood would be particularly obliged by the re-appearance of the excellent roast-beef he had had yesterday, and a few slices of cold carrot. The Nabob and the facetious Win- terblossom, who, it may be remembered, was the most pleasant companion in the world, albeit he did not value at a pin's point any creature on its surface, were well ac- customed to these high flings in the young man, and gave themselves no manner of concern ; but Dr. Redgill, who was really, as we have said, a good-natured man, and who --after dinner-had bowels even for an unpunctual fisher, took compassion on the gentleman-like young officer, and recommended the braised fowl, “ hot yet, hardly touch- ed,”—the pig the Doctor kept as a special preserve. It ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 29 would be admirable to-morrow, re-dressed au Bechamel. The young man' was politely grateful, but invincible. Most elaborately did he mix up a relish, compounded of made-mustard, eschalot-vinegar, catsup, and horseradish, for his cold regale ; and plateful after plateful was swal- lowed, the Doctor looking on in silent admiration, not unmixed with envy, and resolving at supper to try this inviting beef, since, unfortunately, a man that lunches cannot comfortably eat two dinners in the same day. The toper certainly has here advantage of the gourmand. And now the clash of plates had ceased, the ringing of tumblers was no more ; and as next in degree to the eat- ing of a good dinner — the digesting is a different thing - comes the pleasure of talking of it, the merits of the several dishes were discussed at large. Winterblossom suggested “ a very little more currant-jelly to the veni- son-sauce ;” and the Doctor hinted that, “had the mus- tard been mixed one half-hour earlier, the amalgamation would have been complete : - but freshness, after all, was the good extreme; it was very well.” Both were deep in the stewed trout, when Jekyl, his solitary meal finished, took the lead with his wonted easy, well-bred assurance ; and expatiated so knowingly on the mysteries of the French kitchen, unfolding the intricate combinations of the most complicated ragouts, “familiar as his garter,” talking, so learnedly of unique flavours, of braises, daubes, mate- lộtes, &c. the compositions of sauces, their inventors, and the names of Parisian restaurateurs of celebrity, damning this one and applauding the other, and quoting the maxims and proceedings of the Caveau Moderne, that the Doctor began to think that on the shoulders of a young life-guardsman he had discovered the head of a Bishop. This was, however, rather a blow that staggered than 30 INSTITUTION OF THE one which made a lasting impression. “Sir,” said the Doctor to Touchwood next day, “ the talk of half these young fellows is mere foppery. In reality they know little and care less about the matter--mere foppery and pretence, sir.” But on the present day the racy flavour of Meg's old claret completed the conquest of Dr. Redgill's affections ; and he resolved, if possible, to abide in this land flowing with milk and honey. Moving his nose over his glass, like a beau smelling a nosegay, “ Sir,” said he, “ I pro- nounce this wine : - sir, common wines have taste — this has flavour.” Amid the smacking of green seals and red seals, the cracking of nuts and of jokes, the Nabob with- drew to sound Mistress Dods on the affair of Dr. Red- gill's establishing himself in her house : which he did in a manner that evinced considerable knowledge of the trim of his hostess. “Sick! d’ye say, sir ? he doesna look like it,” said Meg. “Fond o' a quiet, clean, weel-ordered house? Is there no that at the grand new hottle he gaed to ? Dying ! Deil a fears o' him—that I should ban! unless he smure in his creesh ; * whilk is not unlikely.-A swalled, judgment-like Jeshurun, wi' eyne like to loup with clean fat,” cried Meg, who had taken deep offence, first, at the Doctor going to the Opposition Hotel ; and secondly, at the freedom with which he, a guest there, had entered her territories. “But here he shall come, Luckie,” returned Touchwood, “ay, this very night too. What, woman! would you turn the servant of the Lord -- the stranger, from your gates ? — An invalid too, that cannot get an hour of rest, * Be smothered in his own grease. ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 31 nor a morsel he can swallow, poor gentleman, in their gilded-gingerbread pig-sty down yonder!” “Say ye sae, say ye sae, Mr. Touchwood !” cried Meg, her features relaxing ; “not a comfortable meltith o' meat, and him in a dwining way, ye say, Nabob?—though troth he does not look like it! But fat folk are often feckless. There was Mr. Matthew Stechy, St. Ronan's auld butler, that kept the first hottle in Glasgow-there was the cook, if ye speak of cooks ! that is, for a man-cook, whilk is but a non-natural calling—there was Matthew, waxed fatter and fatter to a perfect mere-swine. Well, he broke, sir,- became dyvour—was rouped to the door; took the Mill-craft down in the Haugh, wrought hard for his daily morsel, and is now as swack and clean-deliver a man, o' his years, as enters the kirk oʻSt. Ronan’s.” “It will do, by Jupiter and Comus !” exclaimed Touch- wood, who had been absorbed in a very unusual fit of musing. “ The Cleikum Club — myself President, - must keep order amongst them- Redgill, Vice; Winter- blossom, an old coxcomb, but deep in the mystery ; Jekyl, a conceited fop, but has his uses; Meg for the executive, with this Stechy—a practical man-nothing like practical men in business – Meg with great practical skill and knowledge, the paragon of economy and cleanliness. — It will do, by the Boar and the Peacock!” “And what will do, sir?” replied Mey. “The East chaumer for the Doctor, wi' the red Turk-upon-Turk bed. It can get a slaik o paint, and the easy-chair brought frae Mr. Francie’s room. Puir lad, little he sat in't. The bunker i’ the window that looks down through the firs to the Shaws Place, was aye his seat in the e’ening. I'll ne'er ha'e a lodger like him!” “That's all past and gone, dame,” cried Touchwood, INSTITUTION OF TIE impatiently ; “other matters on hand, woman : but re- member the rice-water to mix with your whitening, as I directed you in whitewashing the kitchen.” “As ready wi’ your advice as your help,” muttered Meg; “but I just took kirn-milk, as I used to do, and the same will serve this turn — but better fleich a fule than fecht him.” “ Well, he enters to-night,” said Touchwood; “ Jerry Ostler must settle the bill, and bring over the baggage along with the Doctor's own man.” The defection of the great Dr. Redgill from the New Hotel, after a trial of twenty-four hours, was the most signal triumph Meg had yet obtained over that establish- ment. But she disdained to crimp a customer; and as Mr. Cargill was at this instant passing out, happier than ever, after this symposium, to escape to his burrow and his books, she called on him to witness the compact. “ He'll get the East chaumer,” said Meg ; “I cannot spare anither parlour, -breakfast his lane; and ye dine a’ thegither,—the Club,—the Cleikum Club, ye ca' it: and better mess thegither than making as much ready for ae single gentleman as would serve six. I'll mak’ye a’ comfortable, never fear it. But, — and hear me now! it's no to be said, thought, or surmeesed, that by harbour- ing and resetting a rampant follower o' the Lethargy o' the Church of England, I'm to change my Kirk for the lucre o' trade and custom. Ye certify that, Nawbob, on saul and conscience; or a dish is no cookit for him in owre that door-stane." “Keep yourself easy, Mistress Margaret,” said Touch- wood; “the Doctor is, I dare say, a true son of the Church of England, but he admires your practice too much to seek to shake your faith.” ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. 33 “Na ; wha made me a judge and a divine ?” replied Meg, greatly mollified with the act of delivering her testi- mony ; “ I'm no dooting but the Doctor has the root o' the matter in him, Maister Cargill.” “Ay, that he has,” cried Touchwood; “ truffles and morels, onions and carrots, I'll answer for him." “ That's enough,” said Meg. “Go, woman, scour your saucepans. Send for Stechy; have the kitchen like a Dutch paradise to-morrow morn- ing ;-for then we take the field ! ” By the time that Touchwood returned triumphantly from his negotiation in the kitchen, the good wine had done its good office in the parlour. Not that there were any symptoms of inebriation, either actual or remote ; but the prevailing mood was free, joyous, in short, highly convivial. The Doctor told prosy college stories of college feasts, and gave Latin toasts ; Winterblossom related anecdotes of the bon vivans of another generation, and hummed catches most vilely; and the young man smoked his cigar and the whole party at once. In this happy hour, on which favouring stars shed prosperous influences, was the Cleikum or Sr. Ronan's CLUB instituted. To conclude the entertainment, the Nabob produced a single bottle of choice Burgundy, Mont Ratchet; and a special bumper was dedicated to the new comer. Coffee, four years kept, but only one hour roasted, was prepared by the Nabob's own hands — coffee which he had himself brought from Mocha, and now with a soupçon of chiccory, made in a coffeepot of Parisian inven- tion patronised by Napoleon. Mistress Dods was afterwards courteously summoned to make tea; and the plan of the proposed Club was sub- mitted to her judgment. She startled a good deal at first, 34 INSTITUTION OF THE and was several times in danger of bolting off the course. But once fairly engaged, her zeal was unbounded : and long experience rendered her finally the most efficient member of the convocation. An extended correspondence was arranged with celebrated amateur gourmands, as well as practical cooks ; and also with those Clubs, both provincial and metropoli- tan, of which the eating, rather than the erudite preparation of dishes, had hitherto been the leading business. Meanwhile, as every thing requires time, while the kitchen stores and utensils were getting into order, the Nabob, aided by his friend, delivered what might almost be called a COURSE OF LECTURES on the science of cookery in all its branches, which we propose some day to extend and publish. For these, though exceedingly valuable from the curious facts they contained, as well as for their philosophical speculations, Meg had not patience. “Let us to the wark !” she cried ; “ what business ha’e thae lang, ink-horn-tailed words wi' teaching wives and lasses to make COCK-A-LEEKIE, or FRIAR's CHICKEN ?” “Ay, there it is,” cried Touchwood, “the very names stamp truth on my theory.” “Ay, there's Friar's Chicken, and Friar's Fish-in-sauce, and Friar's Balsam, too, Nawbob,” said Meg ; “ and my grand-dame, as ye say, was just as good a cook as mysel', and may be a wee thought better at the jeelies and paistries; and for a Floating Island, or an Almond Hedgehog, we could never pretend to ony sic grandery at the Cleikum ; mair especially in days when every farmer- chield gangs yanking by on his bluid-horse, and keeps his bred cook, with her twal pound a-year and her tea-money. A bonny breed there is o' them! Unless I get the jillets o'my ain up-bringing, I wadna trust them to scour a pot- lid, Mr. Touchwood.” ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB, “ Meg shall deliver the lecture on the breeding and training of female cooks,” said the Nabob. “But a be- ginning must be made ; and I have thrown together a few loose hints, which I submit to you, gentlemen. You know my object. It was the saying of a great prince, that he wished every one of his subjects ‘had a pullet in the pot.' And why may not I, simple Peregrine Touch- wood, do my best to instruct every fair fellow-subject of mine how to dress her pullet when she has got it? If a Dr. King, a Sir John Hill, a Dr. Hunter, a Sir John Sin. clair, and a Count Rumford, have dedicated their time and talents to the service of their species, in this impor- tant department; nay, if a PARIS and PEREIRA have not disdained it, why should plain Peregrine Touchwood ? No man cares less about what he himself eats than I do, gentlemen. A man who has shared horse flesh with the Tartar, and banqueted on dog's flesh with the China-man, is not likely to be dainty of his own gab.” Here the Nabob took from his pocket the Introductory Lecture,—which had been privately retouched by Winter- blossom, as its garnish showed,—wiped his mouth with his ample Bandana, and proceeded :- “GENTLEMEN, — Man is a cooking animal ; and in whatever situation he is found, it may be assumed as an axiom, that his progress in civilization has kept exact pace with the degree of refinement he may have attained in the science of gastronomy. From the hairy man of the woods, gentlemen, digging his roots with his claws, to the refined banquet of the Greek, or the sumptuous enter- tainment of the Roman ; from the ferocious hunter, gnawing the half-broiled, bloody collop, torn from the still reeking carcass, to the modern gourmand, apportioning his ingredients, and blending his essences, the chain is 36 INSTITUTION OF THE complete! First, We have the brutalized digger of roots ; then the sly entrapper of the finny tribes; and next, the fierce, foul feeder, devouring his ensnared prey, fat, blood, and muscle !” “What a style o' language!” whispered Mistress Dods; -“but for a' that it's me maun look after the scouring o’ the kettles.” “ The next age of cookery, gentlemen,” continued the orator, “may be called the pastoral, as the last was that of the hunter. Here we have simple, mild broths, seasoned, perhaps, with herbs of the field, decoctions of pulse, barley-cakes, and the kid seethed in milk. I pass over the ages of Rome and Greece, and confine myself to the Gothic and Celtic tribes, among whom gradually emerged what I shall call the Chivalrous, or rather Feudal age of cookery,—the wild boar roasted whole, the stately crane, the lordly swan, the full-plumaged peacock, borne into the feudal hall by troops of vassals, to the flourish of trumpets, warlike instruments, marrow-bones, and cleavers ! ” “ Bravo!” cried Jekyl. “Cookery as a domestic art, contributing to the comfort and luxury of private life, had made considerable progress in England before the Reformation ; which event, I speak it with sorrow, threw it back some centuries. We find the writers of those ages making large account of an art, from which common sense, in all countries, borrows its most striking illustrations and analogies.” “Only hear till him !” whispered Meg. “The ambitious man seeks to rule the roast ;'-The meddling person 'likes to have his finger in the pie ;'- * Meat and mass hinder no business ; '-The rash man gets into a stew,' and cooks himself a pretty mess ; '- ST. RONAN'S CULINARY CLUB. “A half-loaf is better than no bread ; '-—'There goes rea- son to the roasting of an egg ;' – Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them ;'--'The churl invites a guest, and sticks him with the spit;'_“The belly is every man's master;'—'He who will not fight for his meat, what will he fight for?'—'A hungry man is an angry man;' —'It's ill talking between a full man and a fasting ;'- and, finally, “It is the main business of every man's life to make the pot boil ;' or, as the Scots more emphatically have it, to make the pot play brown,' which a maigre pot never will do.” “And that's as true,” said Meg. “A fat pot boiling, popples and glances on the tap, like as mony bonny, brown lammer-beads." “ Hush, dame !-- The science, as we noticed, gentle- men, had made considerable advances in England, when the Reformation not only arrested its progress, but threat- ened for ever to extinguish the culinary fire. Gastro- nomy, violently expelled from monasteries and colleges, found no fitting sanctuary either in the riotous household of the jolly Cavalier, or in the gloomy abode of the lank, pinched-visaged Roundhead; the latter, as the poet has it, eager to Fall out with mince-meat, and disparage His best and dearest friend, plum-porridge,'- the former broaching his hogshead of October beer, and roasting a whole ox, in the exercise of a hospitality far more liberal than elegant. “But, gentlemen, in our seats of learning, the genial spark was still secretly cherished. Oxford watched over the culinary flame with zeal proportioned to the impor- tance of the trust! From this altar were rekindled the culinary fires of Episcopal palaces, which had smouldered 38 INSTITUTION OF THE ST. RONAN'S CLUB. for a time; and Gastronomy once more raised her parsley- wreathed front in Britain, and daily gained an increase of devoted, if not yet enlightened worshippers.” “Ay, that will suffice for a general view of the subject,” said Dr. Redgill; “let us now get to the practical part of the science,-arrange the dinners,—the proof of the pud- ding is the eating.'”. Touchwood had a high disdain for what he called “ the bigotry of the stew-pan” in Dr. Redgill, who, like a true churchman, had a strong leaning to “dishes as they are.” Jekyl was to the full as flighty and speculative as the Doctor was dogmatic. The young man had French theory,—the beau ideal of gastrology floating in his brains, - he could talk of Ude and Carême. His experience in the most fashionable clubs, and taverns, and bachelor- establishments about the metropolis, had indeed been great; but it was fortunately modified by a course of Peninsular practice, under Wellington; and, upon the whole, he was found a most efficient member of the Club in all that regarded modern improvements, though rather intolerant of Scottish national dishes. The culinary lectures of Touchwood, whose eloquence for six long weeks fulmined over the Cleikum kitchen, extended to such unreasonable compass, that a brief sylla- bus of the course is all we can at present give, without unduly swelling this Manual, and losing sight of the purpose for which it was intended ; namely, a PRACTICAL SYSTEM of RATIONAL MODERN COOKERY and DOMESTIC ECONOMY, 39 SYLLABUS. Lecture I. Importance of the science : - Its history. II. On Cooks.—The name clearly derived from Coquin. Their self-conceit and prejudices.— Their ignorance. - May be propitiated by a printed Guide when they would disdain advice. — Sly peep into the Manual in the dresser drawer.-Books of receipts most useful to cooks who have already made some practical progress in the art. — Their elemental virtues, aptness to learn, order, and punctuality. III. ON THE KITCHEN. — Of kitchens in general. - The Dutch kitchen. — The baronial kitchen, and the corridor communicating with the chambers, whence the lady sur- veyed the operations below. — The Vicar of Wakefield's kitchen. — Kitchen of a comfortable village inn. — The yeoman's hall-kitchen.—Dark kitchens of great cities.- Importance of light. The construction and regulation of the fires. — Kitchen ranges, and new-invented culinary utensils : many of them sheer humbugs; the prudent housekeeper should see them in operation before buying, and adopt no new range of which actual trial is not first made. - Steaming ; Ovens; Stoves. — Supply of soft hot water in kitchens.-Kitchen utensils.–Ought to be provided in proper quantity, as well as of suitable kinds.—Rather numerous than otherwise, to save the distraction and waste of time occasioned by a scanty supply.—A digester, meat- screen, salting-trough, meat-safe, balnea maria, and a few other small articles, indispensable in families where comfort and economy are studied. — Speedily pay themselves by the saving of fuel, labour, and provisions.—May be bought on the graduated scale suited to the size and circumstances of the family. The price, to a young housekeeper, of one couch or looking-glass, would obtain all those kitchen articles so subservient to good cookery and economy. 40 SYLLABUS OF CULINARY LECTURES. IV. CLEANLINESS.— Its importance insisted on. — Con- sidered the first virtue of a plain cook. – Difference of opinion among gourmands as to its relative importance.-- Female cooks generally considered superior to those of the other sex in cleanliness.- 1st, Cleanliness as applicable to all descriptions of culinary utensils.-All saucepans, grid- irons, spits, skewers, &c. to be laid away clean, and kept well tinned and free of rust. — Pickle-jars, casks, troughs, paste-pins, &c. to be laid aside clean.—Great attention to be given to keep pudding-moulds and cloths, tapes, jelly- bags, tammy-cloths, sieves, &c. clean, sweet, and dry.- Kitchen-cloths to be washed every day after dinner. - Wood-ashes recommended by French artists for this pur- pose, as soap gives a bad flavour to pudding-cloths, &c.-2d, Cleanliness as applicable to provisions about to be dressed. -Should all be thoroughly trimmed, washed, and wiped. - Attention to be given to careful skimming, straining, withholding the sediment and lees. — Neatness in dishing without sloping the ledges of the dishes. — Anecdotes of the slovenliness of cooks. - Nobleman who, visiting his kitchen, found the butter required for the made-dishes stuck over the kitchen fireplace.—Mr. F of C- , on a similar occasion, finds his man-cook employing the con- tents of a shaving-jug, which he had just been using, to liquify a dish of mince-collops! V. EARLY TRAINING OF Cooks. — No receipts sufficient to qualify for duty.- Cooks, like surgeons, must first look on, and next put to their hands. — A mistress should, in preference to sending an intelligent young cook- maid to the kitchens of great hotels and Club Houses, pro- cure her admission as a spectator and assistant in the kitchens of families who give handsome dinners, with some frequency; and where, consequently, good cookery and neat and stylish dishing are not only thoroughly un- SYLLABUS OF CULINARY LECTURES. derstood, but practised daily. Let the cook do this, and study Meg Dods both before and after such days.-Ought to be duly impressed with the importance of the art, and above all, with her own individual responsibility. - Method : arrangement : forecast — The doys before a great dinner. — The day of a great dinner : what to be done.-Soups, jellies, creams, and many made-dishes to be prepared beforehand — Vegetables cleaned : spices ready mixed : thickening prepared : poultry ready trussed : chops trimmed, &c.—Rules for seasoning.–Training of the palate of the cook-indurated by the use of snuff, tobacco, and spirituous liquors. — Gentlemen of forty-five and upwards generally found to require a double allowance of Cayenne, eschalot, garlic, salt, and flavoured wines or vinegars, compared with those under that age, unless the juniors have been bred at Oxford. - As a general rule, bachelors and sportsinen to be allowed a fourth more seasoning than sober married men :-nearly the same pro- portions hold between a military man and a civilian. - For West and East Indians, peppers and all stimulating condiments may be used ad libitum. VI. On Family MANAGEMENT AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY IN GENERAL.-Ist, Early rising, importance of, to mistresses and servants.-Where impossible or inconvenient, best substitute an early and diligent inspection and regular enforcement of the orders given the night before, for the employinent of the morning hours. — 2d, Marketing and laying in family-stores and articles that improve by keep- ing—as soap, sugar, starch, paper, spiceries, fruits, spring- made candles, &c.—Rice, pearl barley, macaroni, vermicelli, semoulina, tapioca, and such things, should be bought very fresh, and not in large quantities, as they soon spoil. All best preserved in cool, but dry places. No expense to be grudged that prevents insects and vermin from getting at SYLLABUS OF CULINARY LECTURES. the stores.-3d, Choice of provisions.—The senses of sight and smell, with some experience, the best guides.- Fish of all sorts best when short and thick, well-made, bright in the scales, stiff and springy to the touch, the gills of a fresh red, the belly not flabby, — the eyes and fins to be looked at.-— Meat speaks for itself. — The fat of beef to be white and pure; the lean smooth-grained, and of a healthy brownish crimson.—Veal should be fat, white, and young : the mode of feeding it of great importance. The kidney to be duly examined, the state of which will show the feeding and condition of all animals. — Ram-Mutton discoverable by the rank flavour and coarse texture of the flesh.- Mutton not eatable under three years old. Best about five, but seldom to be got in the market of that age. The black-faced or hill sheep best for the table, though as much depends on the pasture as on the breed.—Lamb.- The qualities of it may easily be known by the inspection of the head, neck, and kidney; let the neck be fat, the eyes not sunk, the kidney fresh and fat, the quarters short and thick. — Pork to be chosen by the colour, and the smoothness of the rind.—Measly pork easily known by the little lumps and kernels mixed with the fat, which looks clammy and greasy.— All meat known, if stale, by the eyes being sunk, the kidney tainted, the flesh clammy and livid. The best joints of the best meat cost most money at first, but are the most economical.— Utility of purchasing these.—Venison.-Should be thick and firm in the fat, — the lean pure. - The age of deer, hares, and rabbits, known by the clefts and claws being close and smooth in the young animal. — Game and Poultry. - The age known by the legs and spur. - When smooth in the legs and short in the spur, the animal is young.--Trick of poulterers to cut and shorten the spur. - Stale when the eye is sunk, the vent tainted. --Black-legged fowls SYLLABUS OF CULINARY LECTURES. 43 often the most juicy :-white-legged look better.-Atten- tion to the breed and form. — Polanders. — The Dorking large breed recommended-though bad layers—best when short, plump, broad in the breast, and thick in the rump. -Game, if stale, known by the livid colour of the flesh about the vent. — Hams and Bacon good when the flesh adheres firmly to the bone, the smell fresh, the lean clear and not streaked with yellow. – Very good hams from Westmoreland, Yorkshire, Wiltshire, and other parts of England and Ireland :— if well fed and cured, quite equal to those of Bayonne and Westphalia.— Brawn.— If old, the rind thick and hard.—Salt Butter and Cheese to be probed and tasted. Fresh butter easily known by the taste.-Eggs not easily known when stale. Hold between the eye and a candle in a dark room, and if the yolk be unbroken the egg is not stale :- Rather a doubtful test this.—Fish of all kinds best when fresh caught; but the flat fish, as turbot, skate, halibut, may keep a few days, and even ripen and mellow : salmon, trout, eels, herrings, and mackerel, and also haddocks and whitings, cannot be too fresh. The red fish the most rich, though oily; the white the most digestible. Shell-fish of all sorts should be quite fresh to be wholesome or even safe. Lobsters often underboiled by fishmongers to make them keep longer. An eye of some experience and the sense of smell best determine the freshness of fish :-directions in the receipts, CHAPTER, Fish, for preparing, cooking, and preserving the several kinds. — Anchovies and Pickled Salmon known by the smell and fresh colour of the fish. - Their pickle-liquor should be pure and well-flavoured. + The red colour given to anchovy-liquor by artificial means, and no test of goodness. — ALL PROVISIONS SHOULD BE BOUGHT WITH READY MONEY ; OR THE BILLS SETTLED WEEKLY.-SHOWN TO BE A SAVING OF MANY PER CENTS. SYLLABUS OF CULINARY LECTURES. VII. MISCELLANEOUS HINTS AND DIRECTIONS.—Straining to be done twice if necessary, or with a double tammy- sieve. — All jelly-bags to be moistened in hot water, and well wrung :- if used dry, will drink up a considerable quantity of the article strained.-Full supply of kitchen- cloths, — use of gauze-wire covers and cheese-cloths in preserving raw and cold provisions. Marble-slab for paste, - marble pestle and mortar. - Sauces too much thickened can never afterwards be cleared of fat, as the fatty matter will not separate. -Sauces and broths must have time to cook ; but if kept too long over the fire, will deteriorate both in colour and flavour.—This is peculiarly applicable to sauces of game. — All sorts of small cakes, pasties, and puffs, shortbread, Savoy cake, &c. may be renovated by being laid on paper, and heated on the hob, or hot-hearth, or before the fire when to be used.—Pastry, if kept for days, is so much refreshed by this process as to eat nearly as well as when newly baked, from the full flavour of the sugar, butter, and fruit, being again brought out. — Great care to be taken that every single egg used be fresh, as one stale egg will, in cooking, taint dozens. VIII. PRESERVING OF PROVISIONS BY SALTING, DRYING, PICKLING, PRESERVING.—Importance of sugar and molasses in preserving meat, fish, and butter; — shown to do so most effectually with only a small proportion of salt. - The pyroligneous acid, or vinegar of wood, and chloride of soda, — their uses. -- Late discoveries in curing provisions in consequence of the premiums given by the Highland Society.-Meat salts the better of having the bones taken out.-Bacon should always be twice salted or pickled, and be patiently rubbed both times.-All meat salted in pieces and packed must be fully covered with the brine. The process of salting accelerated by occasional rubbing with SYLLABUS OF CULINARY LECTURES. fresh salt. This important subject more fully treated of in Part IV., Chap. III., of the MANUAL ; Art. Salting. IX. PREMIUMS TO Cooks FOR DILIGENT DISCHARGE or THEIR DUTIES, AND PROFICIENCY IN THEIR ART. — For neatness, economy, forecast, the preservation of provisions, invention or improvement of cheap family-dishes.—Estah- lishment for decayed cooks, and prospectus of a National GASTRONOMICAL BOARD. X. CAUSES THAT RETARD THE PROGRESS OF THE ART.- Ignorance and prejudices of Cooks. Inattention of ladies.-Impudence and common tricks of culinary quacks and would-be gastronomers. XI. ON FRENCH COOKERY. — The French, as a nation, allowed to be the best cooks in the world. - In what their superiority consists :—wherein worthy of imitation. -Their earthen stew-pans,-charcoal and wood embers -- small furnaces, — their fire applied above and around as well as under their sauce-pans. — Their cookery of vege- tables, and of dishes of desserte (that is, of cold left things) peculiarly commendable. Reference made to Mistress Dods' Manual for the substance of French Cookery. XII. VIEW OF COOKERY IN MODERN EUROPE.—A French dinner described. — Restaurateurs of Paris.-A word to Amphitryons,—to guests.-Petty differences of usages in different countries. - What would be considered bon ton at a dinner in Paris, reckoned low breeding in London.- Unctuous dishes of Germany. - Mingled barbarism and refinement of Russian cookery, — Russian whets and salads :—the kistischi or raw vegetables in quass: vareniky: —buterinia, or salad of salt-fish. – Spain behind all Europe in cookery : doubts on this head :— the olla or puchero : — the guisado. — Spaniards unshaken in their loyalty to garlic : — their taste for allspice traced to Christopher Columbus. See Manual, National Dishes. 46 SYLLABUS OF CULINARY LECTURES. XIII. ANGLO-GALLICAN COOKERY OF THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY :-considered the best the world has yet seen.—Causes which retard its progress :-conceit of French cooks, and affectation of juvenile gastrono- mers. — Reciprocal influence of cookery and polite litera- ture : attention given by the periodical writers and novelists of the day to this important subject creditable to their understandings. — The empire of cookery extended by late travellers.—What the science owes to the Jesuits : -to the White Friars :-to the Trappists :— to Mesdames Maintenon and Pompadour.—Eulogy on Vatel.-Praise of the late Mrs. Baron Hepburn, of Lord Sefton, Roths- child, Sampayo, and Sir George Warrender. — Carême, and a few more illustrious chefs, decorative cooks; as much for the eye as for the palate ; relying too much upon ornamental vases, silver skewers and dishes, and the long purses of their original parvenu employers, DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. CARVING has ever been esteemed one of the minor arts of polite life,-a test at first sight of the breeding of men, as its dexterous and graceful performance is presumed to mark a person trained in good fashion. In the times of chivalry, carving was the duty of the younger squire attendant on the knight. « To dance in hall and carve at board,” are classed together in the list of a young gentle- man's accomplishments; and Chesterfield, the great modern teacher of polished life, has made this qualifica- tion an object of his pupil's peculiar study. Carving, like heraldry, hunting, hawking, and other sciences of a like important kind, had a language of its own. Treatises were composed to show how the heron was to be dismem- bered, the duck unbraced, the crane displayed, the swan lifted, the goose reared, and so forth. The GRAND CARVER was a functionary of some dignity in former times; and till the office is revived, or the oriental and continental custom, of having the principal part of the carving per- formed by the cook and servants, is adopted, it is neces- sary to acquire a knowledge of this art on principles of economy, as well as from respect to good manners. To carve quickly and neatly requires a good deal of practice, as well as vigilant observation of those who per- form the office well. There are awkward grown-up per- sons, having, as the French say, two left hands, whom no labour will ever make dexterous carvers ; yet there is no difficulty in this humble but useful art, which young persons, if early initiated under the eye of friends, might not easily surmount, and thus save themselves inuch awk- ward embarrassment in future life. One objection to allowing juvenile practice is, that young people haggle provisions; but they might be permitted sometimes to try plain joints and cold game, which would soon bring in their hands. A lady, where ladies still carve at family dinners, requires an elevated seat, a light sharp knife, and the 48 DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. dish placed near her. All puddings, trifles,pastry, &c. should be cut or helped with a silver spoon. The French have a small silver trowel for this purpose. Their fish trowel has often one edge with teeth. Though no directions can supply the place of observation and practice, it may be useful to tell the young carver how to use his tools, and what is expected from him. What are esteemed the most choice morsels of every dish ought to be known; for “ to deal small and serve all” must be the carver's maxim. Venison fat,—the Pope's eye in a leg of mutton, --- veal and lamb kidney, — the firin gelatinous parts of a cod's head,—the thin part of salmon,—the thick of turbot and other flat fish, are reckoned the prime bits. — The ribs, neck, and pettitoes of a pig,--the breast and wings of fowls, — the shoulders, rump, and back of hare and rabbit, - the breast and thighs of turkey and goose, cutting off the drumsticks,-the wings and breast of phea- sants, partridges, and moor-game, and the legs and breast of duck, are also reckoned delicacies. There are, besides, favourite bits highly prized by some gourmands, though it is sometimes not easy to discover in what their superior excellence consists; as dry shank of mutton,-turbot fins, -cod's tongue,—the bitter back of moor-game,--the back of hare,—the head of carp. In stew-soups, meat and force- meat balls are prized. A knowledge of these things will be of use to the carver as a guide in that equitable distri- bution of good things, which is the most pleasing part of his duty. A person of any refinement will eat much more when his food is served in handsome slices, and not too much at once, than when a pound clumsily cut is laid upon his plate. To cut warm joints fairly and smoothly, neither in slices too thick, nor in such as are finically thin, is all that is required of the carver of a plain joint.* For this * purpose he must be provided with a knife of suitable size having a good edge; and it will greatly facilitate his operations if the cook has previously taken care that the bones in all joints are properly divided. It is impossible * The modern little instrument called “ An instantaneous knife-sharper" is worthy of the carver's attention. DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING, 49 for the most dexterous carver to proceed with ease or com- fort if this be neglected. Clever cooks are beginning to joint game and small poultry, and to cut the sinews with scissors, before dressing. The dishes appear at table in the usual form, but are much more easily carved. Modern carvers cut diagonally as often as this is practicable, as it saves the joint, improves the grain, and gives a better distribution of fat and lean. In carving game or poultry for a large party, where many look for a share of the same delicacy, what is called “making wings," must be avoided; the first helpings should be cut the long way, and not made too large. Pour the sauce beside the meat or vege- tables, not over them. One ladle of soup is a helping. Whatever accident occurs, preserve your self-possession. Turbot.—The thick part is the best : the fins are fancied. Make a cross-cut in the thickest part down to the bone, then make lines from the centre to the fins, and take out slices with a fish-trowel, helping part of the fins with each slice, along with the appropriate sauce, unless it is handed round. Salmon is easily carved, whether crimped, in slices, or boiled whole. At elegant tables, this fish is served on a napkin; a slice of the thick, cut so as to preserve the beauty of the flakes, and a smaller one of the thin, are given with the appropriate sauces; and a slice of lemon or cucumber is to be helped, if not objected to. Fried Fish.—The thick part is reckoned the best. The fish are to be cut quite through. The choice is—“Shoul- ders or tail?” Neither iron nor steel should ever touch fish. Sirloin of Beef.—This favourite joint is all prime. The fillet, or English side, as it it called in Scotland, is pre- ferred by many. The Sirloin may therefore be turned over on the dish, or be made to rest on the chine bone, and slices of the Allet, cut crosswise, may be sufficient for the party, and the joint be left to present cold, apparently untouched. Many, however, prefer the upper part of the joint, in which case the carver should, with a very sharp knife, make an incision along the chine bone as far as he thinks slices may be required; then, cutting off the outside slice next himself, he may proceed to help thin slices, cutting 60 DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. from the chine bone towards the end of the ribs, serving with each, part of the soft fat delicately cut, gravy, and horse- radish. Some at once carve out slices along the back- bone. This last, however, is neither the most economical nor sightly method. If the meat is to be presented cold, this deep trench-this “forty mortal gashes on its side”- looks ill, while it drains the joint of its juices. Edge-bone, or Aitch-bone of Beef.-In this, and all pieces of boiled meat, the outside slice, which becomes dry and hard in the salting and boiling, is to be laid aside or sent away. This done, cut handsome smooth slices of the lean, and with each give a very little of the marrowy and firm fat, for which this joint is prized Round of Beef is carved as the above, with a large car- ver for the purpose. Begin at the fattest end. Many carve this joint slantwise ; but more commonly it is cut horizontally, preserving a smooth, finely-grained surface. A Brisket of Beef is cut down to the bone the long way in rather thin slices, as the piece is fatty and gristly; and all fat meat must be cut delicately thin. Breast of Veal or Lamb.--- Divide the gristly part fronı the ribs, as directed in carving a Fore Quarter of lamb, then divide both the cross way. The choice is—“Gristles or ribs ?” Cut the meat clean off ribs of veal, as the gristly bones only encumber the eater's plate, and ought to be cut out, and dressed à la Française as Tendrons de Veau. Fillet of Veal. - This is usually, and always ought to be, stuffed. Cut it in delicate horizontal slices; and help either the browned outside or the inside, as is chosen, with a little of the fat, a thin slice of the stuffing, and gravy, &c. Gigot. - This delicate joint is familiar where veal is small. It is either cut in horizontal slices, or as a leg of mutton, but beginning nearer the broad end. Shoulder and loin of veal are cut as mutton. The kidney fat of the loin is prized, and sometimes sliced at table and kept hot over a lamp. Saddle of Mutton.-Cut thin slices along the backbone, dividing them if too long, and helping fat and lean together. Many persons think that, besides being a more economical way of carving, all meat is more delicately grained, and DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. 51 eats better, if a deep incision be made along the bone, and slices taken crosswise from thence. . M. Ude does so. Roasted Pig.–We could wish that the practice of hav. ing this dish carved by the cook were universal ; for, in this fastidious age, the spectacle of a four-footed animal at table is any thing but acceptable. Like the larger poultry, pig is also very troublesome to the carver, who must have a sharp knife, with which the head is to be taken off in the first place : then cut down the back from neck to rump; afterwards remove the shoulder and leg on each side. The ribs are then to be divided into four portions, and the legs and shoulders cut in two. The ribs were esteemed the most delicate part of this dish; now the neck of a well-roasted pig is the favourite morsel. The carver must use his discretion in distributing ear and cheek, as far as these will go ; and the cook should enable him to help stuffing and sauce liberally. Hams are cut in various ways. You may begin near the knuckle, which is the most economical method ; in the middle, taking out slices in a slanting direction, that the fat and lean may be fairly divided ; or at the broad end, The chief thing to be attended to, after an incision is made, is the delicacy of the slices. Tongue.-The best part is the thickest, and the meat is most delicate when cut across in very thin slices. Some leave a bottom or sole for the sake of appearance ; others reckon it more economical to cut in thin slices the long way. Tongue and ham cannot be too delicately cut. Cod's Head and Shoulders, if served plain or without a sauce in the dish, should be served on a napkin. If suf- ficiently boiled it is easily carved. Let the back of the fish be placed towards the carver. Enter the silver fish- slice within three inches of the head, and cut across down to the bone. Help from this opening right and left at convenience, taking care not to make a jagged surface by breaking the flakes. The gelatinous pieces about the neck and head are prized, and also a small slice of the sound. The palate and tongue may be got at with a spoon, but these are rather the fantastic than prime parts. Some cut the fish longwise ; but the above is perhaps the fairer mode. 52 DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. Haunch of Venison. —- Make an incision quite down to the bone in the direction of the line a b, to let the gravy flow. Let the carver then turn the dish towards himself, and cut down to the bone from c to d. The most delicate slices lie to the left of the line c d, supposing the joint to lie endwise to the carver, and the broad end of the haunch, 6 d f, next him. From the incision, slices, not too thick, may be cut from “the Alderman's walk,” which slices, if too large, can be divided. A thinner and smaller slice of fat must be given with each helping, and also gravy. As the fat of venison freezes very rapidly, the more expeditiously the carver gets through his task the better ; or a dish with a spirit-lamp is sometimes brought to the table, to keep the gravy and fat quite hot. Sometimes the cook makes a chart of cloves on the joint, as a guide to the carver. Haunch of Mutton is carved exactly as venison. A Boiled Gigot or Leg of Mutton. — A boiled gigot or leg is often served with the inside uppermost; a roast leg or haunch always with the outside uppermost. The most juicy part of this favourite joint is about the thick of the thigh, or along the backbone. Let the knuckle lie to the carver's left hand, and let him cut down to the bone, through the noix or kernel, called the Pope's eye. Though the most juicy part of the leg is here, some choose the dry knuckle ; and others the fatty part about the chump ; others delicate slices that may be found along the back- bone; even the tail of fat mutton is chosen by some. Some modern carvers give horizontal slices, and prefer this mode ; others diagonal slices, which is better. Shoulder of Mutton. This joint is served as shown. Cut into the thickest part down to the bone in a slanting line from a to b; and from this opening take slices of a DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. proper thickness. If more helpings are wanted, some delicate slices may be got on each side of the ridge of the blade-bone, in the direction cd and ef. The most delicate slices are to be found in that part which, in the living animal, lay next to the backbone; they are to be cut out rather thin, in the direction of the line gh. In almost all animals delicate fatty slices are to be found along the backbone. Good fleshy slices, full of juice, though not very delicate in the fibre, are to be got by turning the shoulder over, and cutting slantwise into the hollow part of the inside. So various are tastes, that some persons prefer the knuckle, though the driest and coarsest part of the animal. Some modern straightforward carvers prefer at once carving from what is called the “ oyster,” and right down from the knuckle to the broad end. The knuckle should be turned down from the first joint, though not thus shown in the above plate. Fore Quarter of Lamb.Separate the shoulder from the i a 11 AL 54 DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. ribs, by passing a carving-knife, held nearly horizontally, in the direction a b c d e. Take care not to make too broad a shoulder-flap, and thus leave the ribs too bare. Some carvers merely make a slight incision into the skin, and tear off the shoulder-flap. The shank, which should be twisted in fringed paper, may be held in the carver's left hand. Squeeze a little juice of lemon or Seville orange over the parts separated, and sprinkle them with a little salt. They may also be laid together, and gently pressed down, to make the juice flow; or have a little plain or Maître d'Hôtel butter laid between them if deficient in juice. Next separate the gristles of the breast from the ribs, in the direction ef; carve them in the direction of gh, and the ribs in the direction of ij. The choice is - « Ribs, gristle, or shoulder ?” The shoulder is to be carved as directed for shoulder of mutton; and if the joint is large, it will be found convenient to put the shoulder aside on a plate, while carving the ribs, &c. A saddle of lamb is carved as directed above, for a haunch of venison or saddle of mutton. MAMO A Goose. — The carver may turn the dish towards him, and cut nice thin slices in the lines b a, down to the breast- bone, helping as he carves. If there be stuffing, the apron must be cut open in the circular line f lg, and stuffing may be served with each helping. If there be no stuffing, a glass of wine, a little orange-gravy, or vinegar, is poured into the body of the goose at the opening which the carver, for this purpose, makes in the apron. Orange gravy or red wine is also often poured over the sliced breast of goose or duck, before the slices are taken out. If the party he 80 numerous that the breast-slices are not sufficient, the carver must first help a slice or two from the right leg, and DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING, 55 then proceed to disjoint it; for which purpose he must put his fork through the small end, press it close to the body, and meanwhile, entering his knife at d, jerk the leg smartly back, and the joint will separate, when the leg may easily be cut off in the direction d e. The wing on the same side is next to be taken off. For this purpose, fix the fork in the pinion, press it to the body, and, entering the knife at c, separate the joint, and afterwards cut off the wing in the direction c d. Proceed in the same way to take off the other leg and wing. In helping a goose, the thigh, which is a favourite part, may be separated from the drumstick, and the fleshy part of the wing from the pinion. Fortu- nately for the carver the breast-slices are in general found sufficient; as dismembering an old goose or turkey is one of the most laborious and awkward of his duties. They order these things better on the Continent. Turkey. - Where the party is not very large, and the dishes are numerous, a good many small delicate slices, with very thin portions of the stuffing, may be helped lengthwise from the breast. If this is not sufficient, pro- ceed as above directed for a goose. A Roast Fowl, with the wing and leg as cut off. — Fowls are carved in the same way, whether boiled or roasted. In a boiled fowl, the legs are bent in wards, and trussed within the apron ; in a roasted fowl they are left out and skewered en long. The carver may remove the fowl from the dish to his own plate, particularly when two fowls (as is usual) are served in the same dish. The members and joints, as taken off, are to be placed in the dish, if not helped round as cut off, which is the best way, as the guests are not kept waiting, and the carver sees when he 56 DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. has enough. He must fix his fork in the breast, and take off slices from the breast on each side of the merrythought, which are to be helped in the first place, or left till the whole is finished, as is chosen. Next separate the joint of the wing in the direction a b; then separate the muscles, by fixing the fork in the pinion, and smartly jerking back the wing towards the leg. Pass the knife between the body and leg, in the direction 6 d k, and cut to the joint clear ; then, with the fork fixed, jerk the leg back, and the parts will give way. Turn round the fowl on your plate, and take off the other leg and wing; next cut the breast in the line e c, and turn the knife towards the neck under the merry thought, which it will easily lift from the breast. Take off the neck-bone, by putting in the knife at g; and having the fork well fixed, jerk it off from the part which adheres to the breast-bone. The members being thus disposed of, the breast must be divided from the body by cutting right through the ribs downwards to the rump on each side. This done, turn the back of the fowl upwards on your plate. Lay your knife firmly across it, as if to hold it down, and, with the fork fixed in the rump, give it a jerk, when it will easily divide across ; turn the rump from you, and cut off the side-bones, and the fowl is carved. What demands most attention, is to hit the joint of the wing, so as not to inter- fere with the neck-bone. The prime parts of a fowl, whether boiled or roasted, are the breast, merry thought, wings, particularly a livered wing, and side-bones. The thigh of a boiled fowl is often preferred, if white, fleshy, and fat. Some dexterous carvers can take out a side-bone and leave on the leg and wing, which permits the fowl to be presented cold in good form. A Pheasant or Blackcock.–Fix the fork in the breast, DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. and cut slices in the lines a b. If more helpings are wanted, take off the legs and wings, as directed in carving a fowl, and be careful in taking off the wing to hit the exact point between it and the neck-bone. Next cut off the merrythought in the line c d, and then divide the other parts exactly as a fowl. The prime bits are the same as in a fowl. The brains are fancied. Of course, all skewers are removed before the birds are served. Pigeons.—To divide the pigeon by carving from the breast downward, in the line d e, is esteemed the fairest way, as the thigh and rump are counted delicate ; though many prefer the breast. Pigeons niay also be divided in a triangular line, b a c, making two legs, and two wings, with the breast. Ducklings, or very young spring chickens, are carved in the same manner. a a A Partridge. — A partridge is cut up as a fowl or pheasant. The prime parts are the same in them all ; but in a partridge the wing, -and particularly the tip of the wing,-is reckoned the most dainty bit. Small game, where many helpings are required, may be carved by turning back the legs, fixing the fork in the back, sepa- rating the whole body from the back, and then dividing the bird into six portions, - namely, four helpings of a wing or leg, the breast, and the back. A Roast Hare. While roast hare is sent to table as represented in the plate, the carver must enter his knife at 9, and cut fairly down in parallel lines on each side of the backbone to h. These slices are considered prime, and must be served first. The legs, as next best, are to be cut in the circular line c bamwhich, if the animal be young, will not be difficult—and divided into proper helpings free of bones. The shoulders are then taken off in the circular 58 DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. SAN line e f g. Now divide the body or back into three, or, if a large hare, four pieces, going right through the spine at a joint. An old hare should, when it is practicable, have the backbone cut out before roasting. If the hare is old and tough, the carver should turn the dish towards him- self, and cut off the legs, entering his knife about two inches below the backbone, trying to hit the haunch joint, and jerking it open as in carving a goose. If the whole hare is wanted, the head must be cut off and placed on a plate, the upper part divided from the under jaw, and then cut exactly down the middle. The slices may be either helped as carved, which we consider the best way, or left till the whole process is finished. They are helped with stuffing and gravy. During the process, the carver should frequently moisten the dry roast, and the parts cut off, with the hot gravy in the dish. The ears and brain are fancied; so that some care must be taken, by paper- ing, to have the ears crisp ; and before roasting they should be singed inside with a hot poker, or Italian iron-heater. No bone should be given with hare. Rabbits are carved like hare; only, being much smaller, the head is not divided, and the back is cut into fewer pieces. The shoulders of rabbits are considered tid-bits. The carver is permitted to turn every dish towards him- self, when more convenient, and he generally cuts towards himself. From a dish presented in its customary position he cuts from left to right. Fowls and Turkeys boned, and stuffed with forcemeat, are cut in slices across like tongue. Things that are larded must be cut the cross- way of the lardons. DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. 69 Every graceful carver will try to cover the unsightly gashes he must sometimes make-in fish particularly-by throwing the parsley, or other garnish, over the wreck. In ordinary circumstances, garnishing the ledges of dishes is rather losing ground. At highly dressed dinners, garnished by thorough-bred professors, all sorts of ornament are ex- pected. For public breakfasts, collations, and suppers, gar- nishings of coloured jellies, and of sauces iced and moulded in the French style, have peculiar beauty and fitness. And even at small quiet dinners, brain-cakes, forcemeat-balls, small fried fish, or oysters fried, sippets, small sausages, pastry-borders, and those of potato, or rice, are always appropriate when served with the respective dishes to which the best usages of cookery have attached them ; while the fried parsley, the spinage, sorrel, turnip, or other purées, on which fricandeau, tongue, or boiled mutton, &c. may be served, is a positive improvement, at almost no addi- tional expense. But as it must ever be more convenient, it is also more agreeable, to see such things as sliced orange or lemon, beet, pickles, scraped horseradish, &c. placed on a small dish near the carver, than tossed awry, soused in the gravy, or sloping the edges of the dishes. Curled parsley is always refreshing, and generally appropriate ; and still more so fresh water-cresses. There is one cheap and comfortable mode of imparting a look of fulness, finish, and neatness, in serving an otherwise insignificant dressed dish, when destined to occupy a principal place, which merits more general adoption, namely, serving the dish on a larger one, within which a damask napkin is neatly puffed, or the fancy napkins which ladies now knit for such pur- poses, thus showing an agreeable framework or border, of which a light paste border round the dish with the viands, may form, as it were, the inner circle. But CAREME's orna- mented silver vases and skewers are the greatest modern discovery in mere garnishing. They are indeed superb. PROTEST.We hope to see the day when all large troublesome dishes will be taken to the side-table, after being presented, and carved by the Maître d'Hôtel, the butler, or whoever waits on the company, as is now the general practice of France, Germany, and Russia, and the best houses in England. P. T., H. J. 60 BILLS OF FARE. Tables should be like pictures to the sight, Some dishes cast in shade, some spread in light; Some should be moved when broken, others last Through the whole treat incentive, to the taste. King's Cookery. As landmarks to the inexperienced housekeeper, as indi- cators rather than dictatorial guides, we subjoin a few bills of fare, premising that, in every instance, much is left to in- dividual taste and discretion. Bills of fare may be varied in endless ways,—nor can any specific rules be given for selecting dishes for the table, which must depend wholly on fortune, fashion, the season of the year, local situation, and a variety of circumstances. Neatness and propriety are alone of universal obligation in the regulation of every table, from the humblest to the most sumptuous. To the credit of the age, modern fashion inclines more to a few dishes, well selected and elegantly disposed, than to that heterogenous accumulation of good things with which notable British housewives used to conceal their table- linen. The culinary tastes of our polite neighbours are imperceptibly undermining many points of our ancient national faith. At refined tables, fat puddings, very rich cakes, and fat meat-pies, have lost ground. Creams, jellies, and preserved and caramelled fruits or com pôtes, take their place. Fish is more simply cooked than it for- merly was. Putrid game is no longer admired ; and the native flavour of all viands is more sedulously preserved by a simpler and better style of cookery. The manner of laying out a fashionable table is nearly the same in all parts of the United Kingdom ; yet there are trifling local peculiarities to which the prudent housewife in middle life must attend. A centre-ornament, whether it be a dormant, a plateau, an epergne, a candelabra, or a wine- vase, is found so convenient, and contributes so much to the good appearance of the table, that a fashionable dinner is now seldom or never set out without something of this kind, though a salad, or a cold ornamented raised pie may fill the space in the first course. A very false taste is often shown in centre-ornaments. BILLS OF FARE. 61 Strange ill-assorted nosegays, or monstrous bouquets of artificial flowers, begin to look faded among those hot steams, which soon deprive even the more appropriate salad of its fresh and crispy appearance. The modern silver skewers and vases, or ornamental articles of family plate, carved, chased, or merely plain, but highly polished, can never be out of place, however old-fashioned, and are the only things of which this can be constantly affirmed. In the same manner we may assume, that in desserts, richly-cut and brightly washed useful articles of glass and china can never cease to be ornamental ; though we would pause on the adoption of all alum or wax baskets, and all fruits of this last tantalizing substance, with many other things of the counterfeit kind. We are far, however, from proscribing flowers, and the foliage and moss in which fruits are sometimes seen lightly bedded. These, next to the native dew, and the bloom, are beautiful and appro- priate. That sparkling imitation of frostwork, which is given to preserved fruits and other things, is also exceed- ingly beautiful ; as are many of the trifles belonging to French and Italian confectionary. As we are disposed to give the Monks full credit for many of the best French dishes, and for our own excellent if antiquated national preparations, so are the fair recluses of France and Italy entitled to the merit of much that is elegant in confec- tionary, of which they long had, and still have, tasteful exhibitions on festivals. To their leisure and taste we owe caramelled and candied fruits, fruits en chemise, Chantilly, and caramel baskets, &c. &c., as really as we do the most delicate lace, needlework, and cut paper. It may be assumed, that utility is the true principle of beauty, in affairs of the table, and, above all, in the sub- stantial First Course. The first course may, therefore, con- sist mainly of English dishes; while French appear in the second. Linen well done up, and overlays, or more cloths than one, with a scarlet baize between, give a table a clad, com- fortable look. Though English gentlemen and gentle- women do not slobber and bedaub their fingers, mouths, and clothes, like some of their continental neighbours, table-napkins are now in all but universal use at refined 62 BILLS OF FARE. English tables, even at those of persons in the humbler classes of middle life. In all ranks, and in every family, one important art in housekeeping is to make what remains over from one day's entertainment contribute to the elegance or plenty of the next day's repasts. This is a principle understood by per- sons in the very highest ranks of society, who maintain the most splendid and expensive establishments. Their great town-dinners usually follow in rapid succession; one banquet forming, if not the basis, a useful auxiliary to the next. But as this has been elsewhere recommended to the attention of the reader, it is almost unnecessary to repeat here, that vegetables, ragouts, and soups, may be re- warmed; and jellies and blancmange re-moulded, with little deterioration of their qualities. Savoury or sweet patties, potted meats, croquets, rissoles, vol-au-vents, fritters, tartlets, &c., may be served with almost no cost, where cookery is going forward on a large scale. In the French kitchen, a numerous class of culinary preparations, called entrées de desserte, or made-dishes of left things, are served even at grand dinners. At dinners of any pretension, it is understood that the first course shall consist of soups and fish, removed by boiled poultry, ham, or tongue, roasts, stews, &c.; and of vegetables, with a few made-dishes, or entrées, as ragouts, curries, hashes, cutlets, patties, fricandeaus, &c., in as great variety as the number of dishes permits; as a white and a brown, or a clear and a stew soup.* For the second course, or entremêts, where there are only removes and not a third, roasted poultry or game at the top and bottom, with dressed vegetables, omelets, macaroni, jellies, creams, salads, preserved fruit, and all sorts of sweet things and pastry, are employed, — endeavouring to give an article of each sort, as a jelly and a cream, as will be exemplified in the bills of fare subjoined. This is a more sensible arrangement than three courses, which are attended with so much additional trouble both to the guests and * In some noble private eating-houses, it is now customary to hand round oysters before the soup, as a whet or preparative. This is a Parisian custom, which we cannot admire. In stylish modern dinners, the hors d'euvres and flying-dishes ( assiettes volantes ) appear usually during the First Course, before the removes, - although latitude is allowed in this matter. BILLS OF FARE, 63 servants. In France, where the table-cloth is never with- drawn, the dessert forms the Third Course. But whether the dinner be of two or three courses, it is managed nearly in the same way ; and for the advantage of servants, as well as of their juvenile employers, a few particulars may be detailed. In the centre, there is generally some ornamental article, as an epergne with flowers, real or artificial, or a decorated salad, or cold raised game pie. [An ornamental stand, containing cruets and pepper dishes, if plainer, is equally appropriate for a small party.] Two dishes of fish, dressed in different ways, should occupy the top and bottom; and two soups, a white and a brown, or a mild and a high-seasoned, are best disposed on each side of the centre-piece : the fish- sauces are placed between the centre-piece and the dish of fish to which each is appropriate ; and this, with the decanted wines drunk during dinner, forms the First Course. When there are rare French or Rhenish wines, they are placed in the original bottles, uncorked, (except champagne, *) in ornamented wine-vases, between the centre-piece and the top and bottom dishes; or, if four kinds, they are ranged round the plateau. If only one choice bottle, at a bachelor téte-à-tête dinner, it may be placed in a vase in the centre. The Second Course, if there are three, consists of roasts and stews for the top and bottom; turkey or fowls, or fricandeau, or ham garnished, or tongue, for the sides ; with small made-dishes for the corners, served in covered dishes ; as palates, stewed giblets, currie of any kind, ragoût or fricassee of rabbits, stewed mushrooms, &c. &c. Two sauce-tureens, or glasses with pickles, or very small made-dishes, may be placed between the epergne and the top and bottom dishes ; vegetables (assiettes volantes) on the side-table are handed round. If the epergne is taken away with this course, then the small table-cloth or over- lay, which is often placed across, to keep the cloth neat for the third course, is also removed. The Third Course consists of game, pastry, confectionary, * If not found very troublesome, it is well the corks be left in all the bottles :-—at least they must be returned loosely. A genuine gour- met detests previous uncorking and decanting.-H. J. 64 BILLS OF FARE. the more delicate vegetables and salads dressed in the French way, iced puddings, compôtes of fruit, creams, jellies, &c. Water-bottles, and often finger-glasses, are placed at proper intervals. Malt liquors, and other common beverages, are called for; but where hock, champagne, &c. are served, they are usually offered round between the courses. When the Third Course is cleared away, cheese, butter, a fresh salad, or sliced cucumber, are usually served, in respectable English families, who do not affect foreign manners; and the finger-glasses precede the dessert. At many tables, how- ever, of good fashion, it is customary merely to hand quickly round a glass, or silver vase or two, filled with simple or simply perfumed tepid water, made by the addition of a little rose or lavender water, or a home-made strained infusion of rose leaves or lavender spikes. Into this water each guest may dip the corner of his napkin, and with this (only when needful) refresh his lips and the tips of his fingers. At some refined tables, an antique silver or gilt vase, filled with perfumed water, and furnished with a gilt ladle, is placed on the table, from which each guest supplies himself into a sort of china plate or saucer fashioned for this use. This is quite oriental, and a decided improvement on the finger-glasses. Foreigners of the old regime cannot reconcile the use of finger-glasses with the boasted excessive delicacy of the domestic and personal habits of the English ; yet the custom is now adopted even on the Continent; whence again some of our young fashion- ables and veteran men of travel have caught the filthy practice of eating with their fingers ; not merely salads and cheese, but oysters, devils, macaroni, &c. in this dis- gusting trick far exceeding their French and Italian masters; what in foreigners is an unpleasant habit, being in their imitators bad taste, if not deliberate ill-breeding and effrontery. During the old regime the French moved from table to the ante-room to refresh their lips and fingers immediately after the substantial part of their repast. - Madame the Comtesse de Genlis considered the abandonment of this practice, and the introduction of finger-glasses, as one of the most flagrant innovations of parvenu manners, BILLS OF FARE. 65 The Dessert may consist merely of two dishes of fine fruit for the top and bottom ; common or dried fruits, or filberts, &c. for the corners or sides, and a cake for the middle, with ice-pails in warm weather. Liqueurs are at this stage handed round; and the wines usually drunk after dinner are placed decanted on the table along with. the dessert. The ice-pails and plates are removed as soon as the company finish their ice. Where there is preserved ginger, it usually follows the ices ; being then eaten to heighten to the palate the delicious coolness of the dessert wines. This may all be better understood by noting the following exact arrangement of what is considered a fashionable, though not very sumptuous, English dinner of three courses and a dessert. A Fashionable Dinner of Three Courses, with Cheese-Course and Dessert. FIRST COURSE. * Turbot boiled. Wine. Lobster Sauce. Wine Vase. Wine. Wine. Soupe à la Reine, or else Lobster or Oyster Soup. Epergne. Suupe Brunoise. Wine. Wine Vase. Wine. Wine, Shrimp Sauce. Soles Fried, or dressed two Ways. * The table may receive a fuller appearance from removes, and greater variety of fish-sauces, if wished for ; but it must be kept in mind, that all our directions rather exceed than fall short of the proper; retrenchment being left to individual discretion. Besides the butler, who has his bill of fare before him on the side-board, lady hostesses sometimes have one on a china slate to refresh their memories. This is a clumsy device, besides making a toil of a pleasure to the presiding lady. 66 BILLS OF FARE. SECOND COURSE. Wine. Turkey boiled or roasted with Truffles. Sweetbreads. Stewed Mushrooms. Currie in Rice border. Wine Vase Wine. Wine. Chickens boiled. Epergne. Ham glazed. Wine. Wine Vase. Wine. Patties. Cutlets, or Tendrons of Veal. Wine. Venison Sauce. Haunch of Venison or Mutton. THIRD COURSE.* Souflé. Sauce Tureen. Apricot Jelly. Small Pastry, or Omelet. Macaroni Pudding. Wine Vase. French Salad. Trifle ornamented. Wine Vase. Dressed Lobster. Cranberry Tart. Sauce Tureen. Tartlets. Pine-apple Cream. Pheasant, or other Game, roasted. * In the above Course the jelly and the cream may be placed at the sides. The salad and a dish of prawns at opposite corners, – or asparagus, pease, or any nice appropriate vegetable dishes, dressed à la Française, at the other corners. There is no end to the ways in which tables may be varied. BILLS OF FARE. Directions for placing the Cheese, &c. after Dinner.* British Parmesan, or Stilton, on a napkin. Cheese Biscuits. Butter, in forms, slices, or Shred Cucumber, or in ribbons. Salad. pats. Cheese Rusks, or Toasts. Parmesan rasped, and in a covered glass dish. (Next come the Finger-glasses.) THE DESSERT. Lemon Ice. Grapes. •ᏚᎸtnaᏗ pᎾᎪᏗᎾᏚᎾᏘd Sugar Basin. səqibad jo fodwo? Cut Glasses. Rose Souffé Cakes. Savoy Cake, on an elevated Stand. Wafers. Cut Glasses. Preserved Cherries. Water Jug. Melon. Greengages. Raspberry Ice.t * See another way of setting out a Cheese Course, p. 71, or there may be two small dishes with butter on each side, and a silver bread- basket in the centre, in which rusks or cheese biscuits are served on a damask or fancy-netted napkin, which it is ever agreeable to see under bread. + Ice is also handed round before the dessert. This dessert may be made more full by a few small dishes of wafers, brandy-scrolls, filberts, or dried small fruit. The French often serve cheese plain or grated, along with a plain dessert of fresh or dried fruits; and it is a good fashion. 68 BILLS OF FARE. BILLS OF FARE FOR PLAIN FAMILY DINNERS. DINNERS OF FIVE DISHES. Pease Soup. Potatoes browned Apple Dumplings, below the Roast. or Plain Fritters. Roast Shoulder of Mutton. Mashed Turnip or Pickles. Haddocks baked, in a Potato or Paste Border. Potatoes, or Mashed Newmarket Pudding. Rice or Pickles. Turnip. Haricot, Currie Hash, or Grill, Of the Mutton of the former day. Knuckle of Veal Ragout, or with Rice. Parsnips. A Charlotte. Potatoes, or Turkey or other beans. Roast of Pork or Pork Chops.--Sage Sauce. Potatoes, Boiled piece of Cod, with Oyster Sauce, and Crab-pie, introduced as an hors d'oeuvre. Barley Broth. Carrots or Turnips. Scrag of Mutton, with Caper Sauce, or Parsley and Butter. Cod Currie, a Fish-Pie or Fish rechauffé, of the Fish of the former day. Scalloped Oysters. Rice-Pudding. Mashed Potatoes, or dressed Parsnips. Roast Ribs of Beef. BILLS OF FARE. 69 . Marrow Bones, or Bouilli, garnished with Onions. Beef Cecils, of the Bread Pudding. & Soup of the Bouilli. Roast Ribs of the former day. Lamb Cutlets, with Cauliflower or Potatoes. Vegetables on the Side-Table. Potage of Rice. (Remove-Fish in Brown Sauce.) Stewed Celery. Fruit Pie. Fillet of Veal stuffed. Spinage. Boiled Fowl, or Fricandeau of Veal on Sorrel. Currie of Mutton , New England Pancakes. Pease Pudding in Rice Casserole. - or Green Pickled Pork or Salted Beef. Crimped Cod. Shrimp Sauce. Pigeons Ragout. Soup. Carrots or Turnips. Small Round of Beef with Greens, or Breast of Beef à la Flamande. Skate, with Caper Sauce, or Parsley and Butter. Cauliflower in Potatoes or Hotch-potch. Sauce blanche. Parsnips. Loin of Veal, Stuffed and Roasted. 70 BILLS OF FARE. . Good Family Dinners of Seven Dishes.* Crimped Salmon. Lobster Sauce. Mashed Potatoes, in small shapes,or sliced Mince Pies or Rissoles. Cucumber. Winter Hotch-potch. (Remote-Apple-Pie.) Bubble and Squeak of Oxford Dumplings. Veal of the former day. Pickles. Roast of Beef. Irish Stew, or Harricot of Mutton. Chickens. Vegetables. Fritters. Apple-Sauce. A Tongue on Spinage, or a Piece of Ham. Stubble Goose.t Savoury Patties. Fried Soles. Onion Soup. Salad. (Remove—A Charlotte.) Sliced Cucumber. Veal Sweetbreads. Saddle of Mutton Roasted. Macaroni. * Dinners may be served in two courses where there are so many good dishes ; and where there is a high-bred cook many of the things may be served en croustades, en timballes, or as vol-au-vents. † The cook must not forget to have fried or glazed onions on the side- board, notwithstanding the apple-sauce for the goose.—REDGILI.. BILLS OF PARE. Beetroot. Scotch Fish and Sauce. (Remode—Cutlets à Chingara.) Apple-Puffs. Marrow-Pudding. Tartlets or Sweet Patties. Mashed Turnip or Green Pease. Gigot of Mutton Boiled, and Caper Sauce. (Remove-Roast Ducks.) A Small Dinner in Courses, with Dessert, &c. FIRST COURSE. Mock Turtle-Soup. Turbot. Oyster, Lobster, or Fennel Sauce, and Cucumber sliced thick, dis- posed either on the Table or Side-board; and the Fish and Soup, with the Sauces and Wines, form the whole of the Course. SECOND COURSE. Pheasant. Turnips shaped like Pears, and glazed à la Française. Haunch of Mountain Mutton. Calf's Brains. THIRD COURSE. Macaroni. Vanilla Cream. Omelet Soufflé. Apricot Tart. Orange Jelly. CHEESE-COURSE, Stilton Cheese, on a napkin. Butter in Ice, · or Moulded. Silver Breadbasket. Small Cheese Biscuits, or Sliced Roll. A Cream Cheese, or grated Parmesan, in a covered cut-glass dish. BILLS OF FARE. Dinners of Two Courses, Four and Five, * for Family- Dinners or Small Parties. FIRST COURSE. Pike, Carp, or Eels, baked. Dutch Sauce. Jerusalem Artichokes. Mashed Turnips. Caper Sauce. Boiled Leg of Mutton. SECOND COURSE. Veal Cutlets in Vol-au-vent. Ratifia Cream. Dressed Lobster. Ducklings. Young Pease. PLAIN DESSERT. + Rennets. Cut Rummer. Walnuts. Spanish Nuts, or Olives. Water Jug. Cut Rummer. The Wines. Pears. FIRST COURSE. Hare-Soup. (Remove-Fillets of Turbot.) Stewed Cucumber. Dressed Turnip. Roast Pig, or Mutton as Parson's Venison. * Dinners here given in two may in general have the same number of dishes served in three courses, if wished. Spirit-lamps of neat form sometimes very conveniently occupy the sides, at a large dinner, or the corners' as fill-ups. Devils, and hot moist zests, should always be served over lamps. + Zests put down at bachelor dinners after the Dessert is removed, are fiercely-hot deviled Poultry and Game ; Anchovy Toasts, An- chovies, Caviare, Olives, Deviled Biscuit, Oysters, Grated Meat, &c. or, after a long interval, Rere-Supper Articles, (shoeing-horns, as our jovial ancestors called them, from their drawing on another bottle,) as Salmis, Potted Meats, Potted Shrimps, &c. BILLS OF FARE. SECOND COURSE. Sweetbreads fricasseed. Ginger Cream. Calf's. Feet Jelly Tourte, or Roasted Pheasant, or Game of any kind. FIRST COURSE. Civet of Hare as Soup. Stewed Giblets. Savoury Patties, or Calf's Ears. Breast of Mutton grilled. Vegetables on the Side-Table. SECOND COURSE. Small Ham, glazed and ornamented. Asparagus, Victoria Pudding, with Butter Sauce. Stewed Celery. or Gateau de Riz. Small Turkey roasted. Good Dinners of Seven Dishes— Two Courses. FIRST COURSE.* Oyster-Soup. (Remode-Slices of Salmon with Sauce Matelote.+) Small Fricandeau with Tongue, Spinage, Sorrel, or or Small Ham glazed. Tomata Sauce. Portuguese Ducks in Ragout. Partridge Pie. Partridge Fie. Mutton-Cutlets. Stewed half Ramp or Fillet of Beef. SECOND COURSE. Moor Game. Dressed Lobster. Orange Sauce. Macaroni. Lemon Cream. Cauliflower Apricot or Marmalade in White Sauce. Mint Sauce. Tart, or Pudding. Fore Quarter of Lamb roasted. * Many will prefer this dinner served in Three Courses. In Three it will still for a small party be a very plentiful dinner. . + Sliced Cucumber (which is eaten with Salmon, Cod, &c.) on the side-board, and also other vegetables. BILLS OP FARE. FIRST COURSE. Fish.—Pike, à la Isaac Walton. Sauce. Veal Cutlets, or Veal Olives. Chicken and Ham Patties. Giblet Soup, or Crecy-Soup, Cod-Sounds, Curried Rabbit in fried in Batter. Sauce. Casserole of Rice. Roast Goose. SECOND COURSE. Veal Sweetbreads. Snowballs, or Castle Puddings, Asparagus, with Butter. Trifle, or Ornamented Cake. Omelet. Cheesecakes. Roasted Birds. FIRST COURSE. Mullagatawny Soup. (Remove—Dressed Fish.) Macaroni Pudding. Sauce. Savoury Patties. Plateau. Potato-Balls, Currie of Chickens or Jerusalem Artichokes. in Rice Casserole, Sauce. Roast Pig. SECOND COURSE. Green Pease. Custards in Glasses. Vegetable Marrow. Jelly, with Apricots. Plateau. Cranberry Tart. Cream in Glasses. Ducklings, or Game. · Omelet, or Eufs pochés au jus. Dinner of Nine Dishes. FIRST COURSE. Ox-Tail Soup. Dressed Turnip. Boiled Turkey Poult. Curried Fish. Palates. - Sauce. Haunch of Mutton Roasted. Sauce. Boiled Rice. Ham glazed. Brocoli. BILLS OF PARE. Small Pastry. French Beans. Ginger or Lemon Cream. SECOND COURSE.* Black Cock. Sweet Sandwiches. Trifle. Vol-au-vent of Fruit. Hashed Hare, or Venison. Calf's Feet Jelly. Lobster Salad. Meringles, Dinner of Eleven Dishes. FIRST COURSE. White Soup,-à la Reine. Lamb Chops and Stewed Pigeons. (Remove-Fish.) Cucumbers. Oyster Patties. Tongue glazed. Plateau. Boiled Chickens. Lobster Patties. Mutton Rumps and Kidneys, Sweetbreads grilled. or Beef Palates. Mullagatawny. (Remode—Loin of Veal, Vegetables handed round.) SECOND COURSE. Iced-cake with Preserved Fruits. Wine Jelly. Dressed Lobster. Small Pastry. Stewed Mushrooms. Plateau. Buttered Apples. Small Pastry. Prawns in Jelly, or Plain. Pistachio Cream. Partridges Roasted. * If the party is rather large, and the table long, the same number of expensive dishes may do; but they must be arranged down the middle, and at the sides, while a few trifling articles of pastry fill up the corners. 76 BILLS OP FARE. Bill of Fare for St. Andrew's Day, Burns Clubs, and Curlers', Golfers', or other Scottish National Dinners. FIRST COURSE. Friar's Chicken, or Scotch Brown, Leek, or Hare Soup. (Remove — Braised Turkey,) Brown Fricassee Potted Game. Minced Collops. of Duck. Salt Cod, with Egg Sauce. Haggis. (Remove-Chicken Pie.) Seken Pie Crimped Skate. Crouped Smoked Tongue. Tripe in White Fricassee. Salt Caithness Goose, or Solan Goose. Sheep's Head Broth. (1. Remove — Two Sheep's Heads and Trotters.) (2. Remove — Haunch of Venison or Mutton, (with Wine Sauce and Currant Jelly,) or a Salted Round with Greens. SECOND COURSE. Roast Fowls, with drappit Egg, or Calf's Head dressed. Buttered Partans. Small Pastry. Stewed Onions. Calf's Feet Jelly Rich Eating Posset, in a China Punch Bowl. Blancmange. Apple-puddings in skins. Small Pastry. Plum-Damas Pie. Two Blackcocks, or Three Ptarmigan. BILLS OF PARE. 77 : Public Dinner of Two Courses, of from Thirty-five to Forty Dishes, arranged in the French Style. FIRST COURSE. Were this extended to double the number, the dishes are to be extended in the same manner, and large joints introduced accordingly. The centres marked by the asterisks may have another remove according to circumstances, and different sauces may be added. This ought to be attended to throughout the courses. Rice Soup. Hot Savoury Pie. (1. Remore-Turbot.) (2. Remoce—Turkey.) Oyster Patties. Lobster Sauce. Veal Sweetbreads. Partridge Salmi. Cold Ham Pie, decorated. Fowl Pie, or Vegetable Pie. Chartreuse d'unt Salpiçon de Volaille. Beef Palates. Truffles. Chickens, Fricassee of Chickens. with Cucumbers. Fillets of Mackerel, Veal Cutlets. à la Maître d'Ilótel. Plateau. Green Spring Soup. Remove * Roasted Lamb. Stewed Beef. Remore- Brown Soup. Soles, Mutton, à la Ravigote. à la Ste. Menehould. Stewed Pigeons. Ducklings Ragout. Mutton Cutlets, Pork Cutlets. à la Soubise. Game Pie, decorated. Fowl or Capon . Caper and Currant Jelly Mixed Ragout. aux huitres. Sauces. Fillets of Partridges, Boudins, à la Portugaise. de Richelieu au Velouté. Patties. Ox-tail Soup. Larks, in Vol-au-vent, (1. Remove—Salmon. 2. Haunch of Venison.) + In arranging thirteen dishes upon one side, attention must be had to centres, which may be formed by larger or different-shaped dishes : attention must also be paid to their contents. 78 BILLS OF FARE. SECOND COURSE OF FROM THIRTY-FIVE TO FORTY COVERS. Partridge Pie. (Removed by a Cake.) Spinage in Crust Border. Jelly of Oranges. Chickens Green Pease, with White Sauce. dressed. Smoked Tongue. Cherry Fritters. Olives. Salad Herbs. Poached Eggs Rabbits. in Gravy. Perches au din. Fried Soles. Tartlets. Stewed Lettuce, or Laitues à l’Espagnole. Young Pease. Calf's Brains. Dish of Crawfish. Plateau of Silver, to be covered with Vases and Crystal Dishes filled with Flowers, Confections, or crystallized Fruits and Flowers. Remove Savoy Cake. Remove Jelly. Mullet in Aspic Young Beans. Haricots, à la Lyonaise. Small Pigeons. Smelts. Small Biscuits. Ramakins. Olives. Salad Herbs. Apples in Rice. Stuffed Cucumbers. Cauliflower or Sea Kale, with Butter. Asparagus, with Butter. Rice Fritters. Blancmange, in small glasses. Artichokes, en Canapes. Glazed Ham. (Remode-Soufflé.) BILLS OF FARE. DESSERT. Preserved Pine Apple. Preserved Oranges. Nectarines. Cherries. Olives. Preserved Magnum Bonums. Cake Ornamented, on a Silver Stand. gages. Green- Preserved Olives. Apples. Peaches. Preserved Citrons. Melon Preserved. This dessert, which by some may be reckoned scanty, by others profuse, and which we submit rather than recommend, may, at little expense, be enlarged by four small dishes, consisting of Macaroons, White Currants, Walnuts, Filberts, Wafers, &c. &c. nor does it preclude Ices and Preserved Ginger. DESSERT OF FRESH FRUIT. Grapes. Sugar. Apricots. White Currants. Cream. Almond Biscuits. Macaroons. Sugar. Red Gooseberries. Nectarines. Strawberries. Though a dinner divided into courses is to be recommended, both for elegance and comfort, there are public occasions when convenience and economy make it necessary to place almost all the dishes at once. To arrange them so as best to distribute the several things served up, is all that a dinner of this substantial kind admits of. The soups may be placed either at the top and bottom or at the sides of the table; though, when there are large dishes of fish, the latter arrangement seems the more eligible, At a very long table four soups may be placed at the top, bottom, and sides, and the four corners be each furnished with a dish of fish ; in which case the stews, boils, and roasts, are to be placed in change for the soups. Such an arrangement will better ensure to each guest a ready supply. The French call this sort of dinner an Ambigu ;-at such dinners they remove only the soups to give place to the roasts, removes, and stews. 80 COMPANY SUPPERS. The ingenuity of the genteel economist is as often taxed to contrive supper things as in arranging dinners, which admit of less temporizing. Economy, good taste, and neatness, can however do much, even with slender means, where the chief organ to be propitiated is the eye ; for the lateness of modern dinner-hours has now, almost uni- versally, changed suppers from a solid meal into a light showy refreshment. It is said that ladies are the best critics in suppers, while gentlemen are better qualified to decide on the more sub- stantial business of the dinner-table. Ladies are unques- tionably more conversant with the things on which the elegance of a supper depends, — namely, the beautiful shapes and arrangement of china, glass, linen, fruits, foliage, flowers, colours, lights, ornamental confectionary, and all the other natural and artificial embellishments of the table. Articles, so beautiful in themselves, cannot fail, if taste- fully disposed, to gratify the eye, however slender the repast with which they are intermixed. When a formal substantial supper is set out, the prin- cipal dishes are understood to be roasted game or poultry, cold meats sliced, ham, tongue, collared and potted things, grated beef, Bologna sausage, Dutch herring, kipper, highly- seasoned pies of game, &c. &c. with occasionally soup- an addition to modern suppers which, after the heat and fatigue of a ball-room, or large party, is found peculiarly grateful and restorative. Minced white meats, lobsters, oysters, collared eels, and crawfish dressed in various forms; sago, rice, the more delicate vegetables, poached eggs, scalloped potatoes, are all suitable articles of the solid kind. To these are added, ices, cakes, tarts, possets, creams, jellies in glasses or shapes, custards, preserved or dried fruits, pancakes, fritters, puffs, tartlets, grated cheese, butter in little shapes, sandwiches ; and the catalogue of SUPPERS. 81 the more stimulating dishes, as anchovy toasts, grilled bones, Welsh, English, and Scotch rabbits, roasted onions, sal- magundi, smoked sausages sliced, many of the things the French name hors d'oeuvres, and those other preparations which are best adapted to what among ancient bon-vivants was called the rere-supper, or “supper next morning.” A supper table should neither be too much crowded nor too much scattered and broken with minute dishes. Any larder moderately stored will furnish a few substantial articles for supper on an emergency; and a few sweet things readily prepared, or purchased, with patties, shell- fish, and fruits, will do the rest, if the effect of contrasted colours, flavours, and forms, be understood ; and that light and graceful disposition of trifles which is the chief art in setting off such entertainments. Where small apart- ments, and crowded parties introduce the custom of standing suppers, the same cold dishes are suitable, served on high tables, and eaten on one's knee, or standing. French wines have become an article of ambitious display at fashionable suppers, even in families of the middle rank. Where they can be afforded in excellence and variety, nothing can be more appropriate to a light, showy, exhilarating repast.* DES DÉJEUNERS À LA FOURCHETTE.T That change of manners which has introduced late dinners, and superseded hot suppers, has very much im- * Solid supper articles will generally answer for luncheons or com- fortable collations—and for that refreshment affectedly termed TIFFIN. † THE DEJUENER A LA FOURCHETTE. AN ODE. There are the sausages, there are the eggs, And there the chickens with close-fitted legs, And there is a bottle of brandy, And there 's some of the best sugar-candy, Which is better than sugar for coffee. There are slices from good ham cut off, --he Who cut them was but an indifferent carver, He wanted the delicate hand of a barber. And there is a dish Buttered over! and fish, trout, and char Sleeping are The smooth ice-like surface over, There's a pie made of veal, one of widgeons, And there's one of ham mixed with pigeons. 82 SUPPERS. proved the modern breakfast. Besides the ordinary articles of eggs, broiled fish, pickled herrings, Sardinias, Finnan haddocks, collared eels, beef, mutton, and goat hams, rein-deer's and beef tongues, sausages, potted meats, cold pies of game, &c. &c. a few stimulating, hot, dressed dishes are, by a sort of tacit prescription, set especially apart for the déjeuner à la fourchette of the gourmand and the sportsman. Of this number are broiled kidneys, calf's and lamb's liver fried with fine herbs, mutton cutlets à la Venetienne, Oxford John, and many kinds of broiled and fried fish, and other piquant, and yet solid prepara- tions. Receipts for these stimulating preparations of poultry, game, &c. will be found under the proper heads. In France, where it is the practice to take a cup of coffee either in bed, or in the bed-chamber the moment of rising, the breakfast, later than with us, is a sort of luncheon, or lighter dinner, but served sans ceremonie, and usually with- out a tablecloth; cold and hot dishes are served, the repast often beginning with oysters, and ending with a dessert of the fruits in season, with coffee, tea, and chocolate, and wines of course. When the déjeuner à la fourchette is in Eng- land an entertainment for company, the articles provided, with the addition of tea, coffee, chocolate, and all kinds of breakfast bread, &c. do not materially differ from those of a fashionable supper. And it is served in two courses. The following is an example : DEJEUNER A LA FOU'RCHETTE. 83 Marriage, Christening, or Public Breakfast, à la fourchette. Tea Urn. Lemon Cakes. Potted Salmon Ham in decorated. Butter in Ice. Jelly. Partridges. Caramel Basket of Bon-bons, Potted Perigord. containing Mottoes, &c. Char. Preserved Anchovy Ginger. Butter. Ginger Cream. Preserved Pine, melon, Strawberry Jelly. or Cucumber, Pastry Sandwiches, with Marmalade, Jams, &c. Meringles. Chocolate. Water Urn. Plateau ornamented; or if for a Marriage or Christen- ing Breakfast, a Bride's Cake or Christening Cake, with Flowers, &c. &c. Water Urn. Milk Coffee. Tartlets. Preserved Oranges, or Perfumed Biscuit. West India Fruits. Almond Butter, Preserved or piece of Honeycomb. Greengages. Wine Jelly. Caramel Basket, filled Coffee Cream. with Confectionary Potted Pigeons. Potted Lobster. Tongue in Turkey in Butter in Ice. Jelly. Jelly. Orange-flower cakes. Coffee Urn. N.B.--Cream and Sugar, in cut glass jugs and dishes, may be pre- sented in proper places. Game and lobster salads may make part of the dishes, and venison is an appropriate luxury. Ice-pails may, in hot weather, be placed on the table. Plovers’ eggs hot, in a napkin, or cold, laid in moss, are pretty : Gulls and other wild birds' eggs often supply their place. At such entertainments, the lighter Dessert Wines are used, and also Liqueurs. Those useful if vulgar commodities, buttered toast, rolls, muffins, cutlets, eggs, &c., may find a place on the side-table. The articles above, with the addition of fresh fruits, pastry, preserves, and more wines and liqueurs, will afford an elegant cold collation. At the déjeuner of the sportsman, the tea and coffee are not expected to make their appearance till the solids, namely, the broiled kidneys, fish, steaks, cold game, &c. &c. are removed. PART SECOND. CHAPTER I. BOILING AND STEAMING. O! for some forty pounds of lovely beef In a Mediterranean sea of brewis ! Spanish Curate. [When studying the receipts of this Chapter, read along with them those for made-dishes, and French dishes, of the same kind of meat, fish, or game.] Boiling, though not the first invented, is certainly the easiest of all culinary processes; and for this reason, it is often the worst performed. After what has been said in the Introduction, we would disdain to waste words on the careless housewife or greasy Joan, who requires again to be told, that order, arrangement, thorough-going cleanli- ness, and neatness all but finical, is indispensable in this, as in every other branch of Cookery. Taking it for granted, then, that the fire burns clear, that the hearth is neatly swept, that the pots and stew-pans, of cast-iron, in pre- ference to copper, (the Carron goblets of Scotland and the saucepans of England and Ireland,) are of proper size, clean, well-tinned, and covered with close-fitting lids, we proceed with a few general rules for boiling. All meat, whether fresh or salted, smoked or dried, is best put in with cold water. For fowls or white meats, the water may be a little heated, and also for salted meat when there is danger of it freshening over much in com- ing slowly to boil. Gradual heating softens, plumps, and whitens the meat, and facilitates the separation of the scum, on the removal of which the goodness, as well as beauty of soup and boiled meat so much depends. Salt facilitates the separation of the scum. Carefully watch CHAP. 1,-BOILING. 8.5 when the first thick scum rises; take the pot from the fire, if necessary, to remove the scum completely ; throw in a little cold water, which will check the boiling and throw up what scum remains. - This is the first step by which Soups, Gravies, and Sauces are best cleared and refined. — When the skimmed pot must be eked, let it be with boiling water. Milk, and floured cloths as wrappers, are often employed in boiling white meats and poultry, to make them look whiter. The practice is questionable. Soaking in cold or lukewarm water, or, according to circumstances, blanching, careful skimining, and slow boiling, especially at first, are equal to any other method. Yet a leg of mutton, or fowls, may sometimes, with advantage, be boiled in a floured cloth. No certain rule can be given for the length of time necessary to boil meat or fish. Dried tongues, for example, or hams, will take double the time to simmer which will boil a fresh leg of mutton; and, again, these will differ from each other, from hardness, while a piece of pork, though a little salted, will take longer to boil than either veal or lamb. Of all meat the hind-quarter, from the solid and compact texture of the fibre, will require longer boiling or simmer- ing than the fore-quarter. The state of the weather, so important in roasting, less affects things that are boiled. As a general rule, liable however to many exceptions, from 15 to 25 minutes of time, and a quart of water, (less where strong soup is wanted,) is allowed by cooks to the pound of fresh meat; and from 25 to 35 minutes for salted meat, with a fourth more water. * But no length of boil- ing will ever make dried meats fit to be eaten, without sufficient previous soaking. This is emphatically true of goat and pork hams, rein-deer tongues, dried fish, &c. Capital blunders are often performed in this department; and provisions which excel all others for relishes, break- fasts, and luncheons, are made good for nothing but to * There is palpable absurdity in this universal culinary rule. A quar- ter of an hour will not be nearly enough of time to boil one pound of meat, nor a half hour to boil two, still less three quarters of an hour for three pounds. But, again, twelve hours' boiling would destroy forty- eight pounds. It must be kept in mind that large joints expose corre- sponding surfaces to heat, whether in pots or on spits. 86 CHAP. 1.-BOILING. try the temper, and break the teeth of the eater, who might as well diet upon “ spur leather whang." Smoked and dried meats and dried fish sometimes require to be soaked from one hour to four or five days, changing the water often; or, what is better, where there is a run of fresh water, steeping the meat in it, or in the trough of a pump. In some circumstances, salted or spiced meat should be left to soak for hours in the liquor in which it was boiled. Some good cooks like the subsequent steep better than much previous soaking. Meat must have time to imbibe salt; but frequent rub- bing and a warm temperature will hasten the process. In brief, well-tinned clean pots, - thick in the bottom to aid in maintaining an equal temperature, — a clear fire, well washed, and if salt, soaked viands, gentle boiling, and most careful skimming, are all the rules that can be given to ensure well-dressed boiled dishes; for the length of time in previous soaking, and subsequent boiling, or rather simmering, must in almost every case be determined by the size, the condition, and the nature of the provisions. Obs. What goes under the general name of pot-liquor, particularly that in which fresh meat or poultry has been boiled, may be applied to many useful purposes, for which directions will be given. Professed cooks, and works which treat of Gastronomy, uniformly enter a protest against any sort of vegetables being boiled with meat to be served at table, except carrots, – a rule this which the Cleikum Club thought more honoured in the breach than the observance. Watery vegetables, boiled in water and served in wateriness, find no favour in the French kitchen. Common sense, and indeed common practice, discards them. There is an adaptation, a natural affinity, between certain vegetables and roots, and certain pieces and kinds of meat. A cook who would excel in her profession, ought, day and night, to study this doctrine of coherence and natural affinity. Who would dissever from the round of salted beef, the carrots, greens, or cabbage, which be- come part and parcel of it as soon as it reaches the pot ? If, however, from reasons of economy, it is wished to pre- CHAP, 1.-STEAMING. 87 serve the liquor for other purposes, a quantity of it may be put into a separate vessel, and the greens boiled there. The pot may have the top-fat taken off to enrich the water in which the greens are boiled, without any loss of pot-liquor for soup; and the cook's objection, that green vegetables spoil the meat, may be thus obviated. Salted or spiced beef, with suitable roots and vegetables, is one of those cut-and-come-again family dishes, which, from November till March, every sensible man hails with pleasure, whether on his own or his friend's table. To dress it in the best manner is therefore well worth the attention of the cook, the economist, and the judicious epicure.-See Salting. Steaming.-In large families and large establishments, steaming is found a very convenient way of preparing food ; and to a limited extent it is useful and practicable in every kitchen, for small steamers may be attached to any range; and at all events every body may have a saucepan with a Rumford steamer to fit it, or a large kettle inserted over the boiler of the range, in which small saucepans with drainers and close-fitting lids may be inserted, in which to place the meat. But an apparatus of this kind, of dif- ferent forms, may now be seen at the ironmongers; and as we have said of new-fashioned ranges, frying-pans, gridirons, &c. &c., let them first be carefully examined, and tried, and get the opinion of those who have used them for some time. Steaming has much to recommend it to the cook, were it only that it saves her much trouble and also from being scorched by a furious fire. Yet good cooks do not like the process; and there are grave doubts whether dishes steamed are as savoury as when cooked by the old method. The cooks at Buckingham Palace, the City Club, the Albion Tavern, &c., allege that neither meat nor fish are so well cooked by steam as by boiling in water. This does not apply to many preparations, such as jugged hare, stuffed oyster of veal, &c. &c. And steaming in nume- rous cases has much to recommend it. In small families, a bain marie, or a piece of hot plate over the grate, with a few embers below, will be found useful for small sauce-pans, in which are sauces and ragouts, and generally for articles 88 CHAP. II.-BOILING. that would stew to advantage, and which are not apt to he overdone, as kidneys, jugged hare, and salt tongues. Where steam is employed on any scale, the steamers must, of course, be kept thoroughly clean, aad the fire must be so managed as to keep the water in the boiler of the range boiling strongly. Things to be steamed are cleaned and prepared exactly as for boiling or stewing. Several articles may be cooked in the same steamer, as veal with pickled pork under it; or pease-pudding tied up, and carrots laid to one side. The same steamer may have small saucepans fitting into the lid, in which apple-sauce, for example, or parsley may be cooked, or butter melted. If the steamed meats are of suitable kinds, the liquor which must occasionally be drawn off by the tap of the steamer, will make good soup when it is allowed to cool and the cake of fat is taken off. Steaming requires as long time as boiling. Cooking by Gas.Some years since we had great hopes of the success of cooking by gas, which must have been of im- mense convenience to small families where gas is used for lighting. We regret to say that no progress has been made : gas cookery is still not only unsatisfactory, but expensive. CHAPTER II. 1.-TO BOIL A ROUND OF BEEF. A ROUND or rump of salted beef may be boiled whole, or the round may be divided into two or three pieces, accord- ing to the size of the joint, and the number of the guests or family. [For salting it, see No. 1188.] It is a common error to boil too much of a large ham or round at once. If boiled whole, the bone may be cut out; if divided, it is desirable to give each piece an equal proportion of the fat; the tongue, or silver side is the best. Wash the meat, and, if over salt, soak it in one or more waters till it be suffi- ciently freshened. Skewer it up tightly, and of a good ROUND OF BEEF-BEEF-LEG OF MUTTON. 89 shape, wrapping the flap or tongue-piece very firmly round; and then bind it with strong tape, or fillets of linen. The pot should be roomy, and the water should just cover the meat. A fish-drainer is convenient to boil this and other large pieces on. Heat gradually ; take off the scum, (of which a great deal will be thrown up,) till no more rises, and throw in cold water to refine the liquor farther, and scum again; cover the pot close, and boil slowly, but at an equal temperature, allowing about three hours to from 12 to 16 pounds, and from that to four or five hours for a weightier piece. Turn the meat once or twice in the pot during the process. Put in carrot and turnip about two hours after the meat. If the liquor is to be afterwards used for pease or potato soup, the roots instead of hurting will improve the flavour. Greens may be boiled in the same pot, but much better separately in some of the pot-liquor. When the meat is dished, ladle up some of the liquor to wash it, and with a clean sponge, or à cloth moistened in the pot-liquor, take off any scum or films which will often hang about salted meat ; replace the skewer that holds the flap with a plated or silver one ; garnish with large sliced carrots (or with greens or cabbage instead,) and serve greens in separate dishes. Obs. The dry outside slices are to be laid aside by the carver; the meat must be cut in smooth, thin, horizontal or diagonal slices, keeping the surface level. The soft fat eats best when the meat is warm, the firmer fat when it is cold; but the taste of the guests must be the carver's guide. By good management this meat will in cold weather keep for a fortnight or more. Cover it with several folds of soft cloth. Cut off a thin slice from the outside before it is at any time presented at table, or on the side- board. If underdone, the meat, after keeping some time, may be put into pot-liquor, and get from 15 to 35 minutes' slow boiling. This receipt is equally applicable to every piece of salted beef, whether ribs, brisket, edge-bone, or heuckbane. In England a few suet or plain flour-dumplings, or what are provincially called dough-boys, are often boiled with the round and served with it “hot and hot.” The Reform Club authority suggests that when to be presented cold, the round taken from the boiling pot should be plunged into ice, or several courses of spring water to freeze the surface and retain the juices. 2. BOILED BEEF, OR BOUILLI ORDINAIRE. This is another plain family dish,-boiled fresh beef; 90 CHAP, 11.-BOILING. but as economy, good sense, and, what is the same thing, good taste, reject this mode of dressing beef but in con- junction with the soup, which forms the better part of it, we leave the Bouilli till we give it along with Bouillon, though obliged, for connexion's sake, to notice it here. See No. 389, and Obs. 3. TO BOIL LEG OF MUTTON WITH TURNIP, &c. A LEG OF MUTTON—the gigot of the French and Scottish kitchen — may be kept from two days to a week before boiling. The pipe, as it is technically called, must be cut out, and the mustiness which gathers on the surface, and in the folds and soft places, daily rubbed off. It is whitest when quite fresh, but most delicate when hung a week in the larder, though not so long as to allow the juices to thicken, and the flavour to deteriorate. Mountain-wether mutton, from four to five years old, is by far the best, whether for boiling or roasting. Choose it short and thick in the knuckle, and of a pure, healthy, brownish red. Chop but a very small bit off the shank; if too much is taken off, the juices will be drained by this con- duit. If you wish to whiten the meat, blanch it for ten minutes in warm water, or boil it in a floured cloth if you like. Simmer it in an oval-shaped pot that will just hold it, letting the water come very slowly to boil. Skim carefully. Boil sliced carrots and turnip with the mutton, and the younger and more juicy they are the better they suit this joint. Be sure never to run a fork or any thing sharp into the meat, which would drain its juices. All meat ought to be well done, but a leg of mutton not overdone, to look plump and retain its juices. , About two hours of slow boiling will dress it. Garnish with slices of carrot. Pour caper-sauce over the meat, and serve mashed turnip or cauliflower in a separate dish. Some good country cooks serve the turnip as a purée, that is, a thin mash made with cream, under the mutton; and as, in carving, the native juices are all caught by the vegetable sauce, the practice, though not general, is commendable ; but where it is fol- lowed, the caper-sauce, if served at all, must be kept in a sauce-boat. Turnip-sauce, i. e. a very thin purée, or mash, is sometimes poured over the joint. If chickens or LEG OF MUTTON-SCRAG OF MUTTON. 91 fowls are wanted for the same dinner, they will boil in a cloth with great advantage along with the mutton, before the roots are put to it, or in some of the liquor in a sepa- rate pot. — Obs. - This joint, above all others, should be boiled slowly to eat well. The liquor in which fresh mutton is boiled is valuable for broth; and it is a common family practice in Scotland, to make barley or rice broth at the same time the leg is boiled. When broth is to be made put in the barley at first; lift out the meat after an hour and a half's boiling ; cover it up to keep warm ; take the lid off the pot, and suffer the liquor to evaporate by rapid boiling, till what remains is strong and good, and the broth of a proper consistence. Cut some of the roots into small dices, and put these, with a head of celery cut in fillets, and a little shred parsley, to the broth ; return the mutton, and boil gently for a half-hour longer. A gigot is an excellent and most economical joint, capable of being turned to many purposes. It may be dressed as chops, and the best balmy, mellow, barley or rice broth made of what remains. It may also be roasted, or baked, or cured as ham, or, if a large gigot, a fillet may be stuffed and roasted, and the knuckle used for barley or rice broth. In French cookery, parsley, onions, and sometimes a clove or two of garlic, are boiled with this favourite joint. It is then glazed and served on a Sauce Espagnole. - See French Cookery, Part III. Chap. ii. 4. TO BOIL A SMALL SCRAG OF MUTTON, OR BACK RIBS,- An Economical Dish. WASH, trim nicely, and simmer from five to seven pounds of the neck slowly for two hours, making broth as in last receipt. Use the trimmed-off bones. The scrag may be taken up and finished with egg and bread crumbs, in the American oven, like dressed lamb's head, thus making a nice cheap family dish, and soup also. Garnish the dish with carrot, or turnips cut; and pour over the meat caper-sauce, or parsley and butter. Serve mashed turnip or cauliflower. — Obs. Pouring the sauce over boiled dishes, besides improving their appearance, is often to be preferred, because, in carving, the juices of the meat, 92 CHAP. 11.-BOILING. the natural sauce, flow out and mingle with the prepared relish, “each improving each.” This joint, in point of economy, comes next, if not before the gigot. The scrag (Captain Booth’s favourite dish — vide Fielding's Amelia) or the neck alone, makes excellent barley or rice broth, or it will stew. The ribs will do the same; or make Chops, Currie, Haricot, Irish Stew, or Pie.—See Made Dishes of Mutton.-French cooks take two necks for this dish, but their mutton, lamb, and veal, are generally smaller than ours. They saw off the bones ; steep the meat in olive oil, pepper, salt, and sliced onion, and lard it with blanched minced parsley. A boiled shoulder of mutton, or of veal, is very good with white onion-sauce poured over it. A scrag of lamb is done as above. 5. TO BOIL A LEG OF LAMB. LAMB must be boiled slowly to look plump and white; and is served with brocoli, spinage, turnip, or cauliflower. Garnish with sprigs of cauliflower. The loin may be cut in steaks and nicely fried, and served round the boiled leg with crisped parsley. — See Made Dishes of Lamb. 6. TO BOIL VEAL. VEAL, save the gristly parts, when plainly boiled, is too insipid to be much relished. But variety, economy, and veal broth or gravy, sanction this mode of cookery. Boiled veal looks detestable when slobbery and red-coloured ; and to prevent this, particular attention must be paid to the boiling. It is eaten with bacon, or sausage. Sauce — Parsley and butter, onion-sauce of young onions, or any favourite piquante sauce.—See Made Dishes of Veal. 7. TO BOIL VENISON.* A NECK, and even a haunch, is sometimes boiled. Let it hang from three days to ten. Boil it as mutton. It is eaten with turnip or cauliflower, with which last garnish. Sauce-Melted butter, and a little of any of the flavoured vinegars you choose.—See Venison Soup ; see also Civet de Chevreuil. * It is only in the hunting-grounds of America that one could bear to hear of venison so scandalously cooked ; but when very plentiful it may be made into soup, which possesses the wild flavour so prized by les hommes de bouche. POULTRY. 03 8. TO BOIL POULTRY.* In picking, be careful not to break the skin. Let the fowls hang from two to five days ; for the most delicate fowl will be tough and thready if too soon dressed. When to be used, draw, singe without blackening, and wash thoroughly, passing a stream of water again and again through the inside. Boiled fowls must be very neatly trussed, as they have small aid from skewers; and nothing can be more indecorous than to see unfortunates on the table- Whose dying limbs no decent hands composed ! Put them on with plenty of water, a little warmed, in a floured cloth if you like. Having, as usual, skimmed very carefully, simmer by the side of the fire from thirty-five minutes to an hour and half, according to the age and size of the fowl. A small tureen of very good barley or rice broth, seasoned with shred parsley and young onions, may be made at the same time, if a shank, or small cutlets of neck of mutton be added; which last may be frugally served in the broth. Some good cooks put fresh suet and slices of peeled lemon to boil with fowls if lean, but larding is better. White-legged fowls are most worthy of attention, whether for eating or appearance. The St. Ronan’s sauce for fowls was either the national * So little is the proper keeping of fowls previous to dressing attended to in country inns and families, that, warned by experience, the arrival of a stranger is the signal for the whole poultry in some places to run off and burrow among the nettles, to eschew their fate for yet another day. The bounty of a penny sterling, which travellers have sometimes heard offered on the head of “the old cock to make brandered chicken for the gentleman's dinner,” is often earned with the sweat of his brow by the gallopin loitering about the inn-door, so knowing do those old stagers become.-As a house for the wayfarer, and the solitary chance- traveller, poultry was at all times a main article in the larder of the CLEIKUM, where great dinners and numerous dishes were seldom re- quired. So plump, so white, so tender were the fowls, whether boiled or roasted, and the chickens, whether brandered, or dressed as how- towdie or Friar's Chicken, that Mr, TOUCHWOOD, so tenacious on other points of the art, gave up this department entirely to MEG herself, re- serving only some practical directions for curried fowls, and the feeding and fattening of young poultry, which will be found in another section of this erudite work. 6 Take the fattest and youngest eerocks,” (year- lings,) said MEG, “ and the whitest, — for a white skin is a good sign, whether of beast or body." 9+ CHAP. 11.-BOILING, “ drappit egg,” egg-sauce, parsley and butter, or, if the fowls were of a dark complexion, liver-sauce, as a veil of their dinginess. TouchWOOD chose celery-sauce for fowls, and oyster-sauce for turkey; JEKYLL preferred lemon-sauce, but often joined the Nabob. The best sort of stuffing or forcemeat for poultry was the cause of many disputes. MEG long stood out for sweet stuffing for her turkeys, orthodox apple-sauce for her goose, and a sweet pudding in the belly of her sucking pig. After a feud which lasted three days, the belligerents came to a treaty on the old basis of the uti possidetis, though the best stuffing for boiled or roasted poultry or veal was agreed to be this,- SAUCE AND STUFFING FOR BOILED TURKEY, FOWLS, OR VEAL. “CRUMBS of stale bread, two parts; suet, marrow, or fresh butter, one part; a little parsley, boiled for a minute, and very finely shred; the quarter of a nutmeg grated, a tea-spoonful of lemon-rind grated, allspice and salt, - the whole to be worked up to a proper consistence, with two yolks of eggs well beat.” If for roasted or boiled turkey, pickled oysters chopped, ham or tongue grated, and eschalot to taste may be added. MEG's sweet stuffing was made by discarding the parsley, ham, oysters, and tongue, and substituting a large handful of currants, picked, rubbed, and dried, as for puddings. [A common and an approved smuggling way of boiling a pullet or how-towdie in Scotland, was, in a well-cleaned haggis-bag, which must have preserved the juices much better than a cloth. In the days of Popery and good cheer,—and they were certainly synonymous,—though we do not quite subscribe to the opinion of Dr. REDGILL, that no Presbyterian country can ever attain eminence in Gastronomy,- in those days of paternosters and venison pasties, stoups of untaxed claret and oral confession, a pullet so treated was, according to waggish legends, the secret regale provided for Mess John by his fair penitents. - Vide ALLAN Ramsay's “ Monk and Miller's Wife," or “Friars of Berwick ;” also, “ Traditions of the Cleikum," and “Bughtrigg's Wife's Receipt for “Ane capon stewed in brewis.'”-Butter, shred onions, and spice, were put in BACON-HAM-HAM WITH MADEIRA. 95 the bag along with the fowl, and formed the sauce, or else oysters with their liquor strained.] 9. TO BOIL BACON. BRING slowly to boil, and simmer for at least two hours. When ready to serve, strip off the rind, and dry the meat with a red hot shovel, or salamander, or set it in the oven to dry up the oozing fat. Dredge bread-raspings over it. 10. TO BOIL A HAM.* A LARGE ham is seldom boiled at once, but whether in whole, or in part, it must be treated in the same way. Pork is so well adapted to salting that though kept for years, it does not become so hard or tough as beef or mutton would do in half the time. The main point is the soaking, which the discretion of the cook must proportion to the hardness and saltness of the ineat, If very old, briny, and dry, it will require from three to four days, in and out of the water, to soften and become mellow. The night before it is boiled, pour lukewarm water over it, scrape it very well, trim off all rusty ill-looking bits. Put it in an oval kettle with plenty of water. Let it soak for an hour or two before coming to the boil,—then quicken the boil, and skim. Then let it simmer slowly by the side of the fire for from two to five hours, according to the weight. When done, pull off the skin neatly and keep it to cover the ham when set by cold ; strew bread-raspings (and many pour spirits) over it, and place it on a hot dish set over the pot before the fire, to brown and crisp. It will crisp easier if put in an oven to dry up the oozing fat. Twist a fringe of writing paper neatly round the shank, if not sawed off, which is much better. Garnish if you choose with old-fashioned greens, or strew raspings in little heaps on the ledge of the dish; or dish it over dressed Windsor beans. — See Glazing. We have seen fresh ham admirably done by a quick boiling of one hour, and then toasting in the American oven, after it is skinned. * A Hamburgh or Westphalia ham requires longer soaking than one of Bayonne, or one home-made.- We back a Westmoreland or York- shire, a Gloucester, Wiltshire, or Dumfries-shire ham, well fattened and properly cured, against all the hams in the world.-P. T. 96 CHAP, 11.-BOILING. 11. HAM WITH MADEIRA.- The French Jambon Braisé. Take a small fresh North of England ham. Saw off the knuckle, or the ham may be boned if wished. Let it soak if likely to be briny, and simmer it for an hour; then drain, trim, and dry it. Lay it in a braising pan, or oval-shaped stew-pan that will just hold it, and in which you have previously laid slices of veal, carrots, onions, parsley, and spices. Pour in some good broth, (about a quart,) and a bottle of Madeira. When done for an hour take off the lid, and let the braise reduce. In a half-hour more, probe to try whether the ham is done. Drain and skin, and dry it in the oven. Glaze with veal glaze; serve the braise liquor, well reduced, and skimmed as sauce. — Obs. Ham may be glazed enough by sifting fine sugar over it, and holding a red hot poker above; but sweet glaze is, in our opinion, not suitable to meat dishes. The French often serve braised ham over spinage, or mashed, i.e. a purée of turnips, or other vegetables ; but it is seldom served in England save with Windsor beans. 12. HAM WITH WINDSOR BEANS. Boil the ham as directed in No. 10, and serve it trim- med and skinned, over Windsor beans, boiled in salt and water, and tossed up in melted butter.–Obs. This, which is just the French ham à l'essence, will keep longer than a round of beef, and is an excellent and serviceable article at all hours. When cold, keep as directed for a salted round of beef, using the skin instead of cloths. The out- side slices pared off before the meat is served, can be kept for culinary purposes. The liquor in which the ham was boiled may be strained ; and if you manage to have fowls or a knuckle of veal dressed on the following day, both liquors may be rapidly boiled down together, with pepper, mace, eschalot, and sweet herbs, when the result will be a rich and highly-relishing gravy for culinary purposes. Or plain pease or carrot soup may be made of these mixed liquors. — See Potted Meats, Pease Soup, Ham roasted, and Sandwiches. JEKYLL was intolerably eloquent on ham sauce, and astounded even Touch WOOD by anecdotes of a grand BACON-LEG OF PORK --GAME-TRIPE AND COW-Heels. 97 gourmand, a man of ultra gout, who, pursuing THE SCIENCE as one of the fine arts, soaked his Westphalia hams in Rhine-wine, and baked them in French wine, with aroma- tic spices. “It was a fine thing," as the Irishman said, “ to be a pig in them times.” If a ham is tolerably fresh, it will bake very well. It must be soaked as for boiling. The colour will be better than when boiled, and the flavour higher. But Mistress Dons, who detested that new and unnatural practice, said it was “ dried to a dan- der;” and TouCHWOOD dropped the point, as he could not think of bestowing a libation of Rhine-wine on a Porker of Westphalia, (see Ham with Madeira ;) and distance from the metropolis made it impossible to procure Essence of Ham, a high-flavoured commodity sold at the London Eating-houses, which he not irrationally concluded might make an admirable substitute for wine, and be afterwards applicable to every purpose for which Essence of Ham is used. His experiment is worth trying. - French Mode. In France, hams are boiled deliciously, wrapped in a cloth with carrots, onions, garlic, cloves, bay-leaves, parsley, thyme, and basil. When enough done, the cloth is tied more firmly, and when cool, the ham is dressed as in No. 11, and served on a napkin. The French also roast hams, and have the Paté de Jambon. 13. BOILED BACON OR PORK. ALL pork to be boiled should lie in salt at least two days previous to dressing. Pork requires more boiling than other meat. Small pork is the most delicate to boil fresh. Pork throws up a greasy scum during the whole process, which must be constantly removed. Serve with pease-pud- ding or bean pudding, or parsnips, boiled in the same pot.* * Dr. REDGILL, professionally devoted to benevolence and Christian charity, made a long oration on the value of pork liquor for soup to the poor ; charitable soup, economical soup, dealt out in copious libations to old women, as often as very salt or very fat pork was boiled in the Doctor's kitchen. The idea was nauseous to every other member of the Committee. TouchWood asserted, that even COBBETT, that en- thusiast for hog's flesh, disclaims pork broth. REDGILL, on this hard push, brought forward his battle-horse, Dr. KITCHINER, — in vain, - was left in a minority of one, and the hogs got their natural perquisite. The liquor of young pork not long in salt will, however, make tolerable pease-soup, to which a strong subduing relish of celery and onion should be given. Cabbage and greens of all sorts may be boiled with advan- tage in pork liquor. Also bean or pease pudding. 983 CHAP. II.-BOILING. 14. A LEG OF PORK TO BOIL. Choose a nice, small, compact, well-filled leg. Salt it, rubbing hard, lay it in pickle for a week; and boil and serve along with pease-pudding, boiled with it, and savoys or green cabbage. 15. TO BOIL RABBITS, PARTRIDGES, PHEASANTS, SNIPES, WILD DUCKS, AND OTHER GAME. Boil as directed in No. 8; or in fresh veal or mutton- broth. For Partridges, Pheasants, &c. use the same sauces as directed for them when roasted ; garnish with crisp parsley, slices of lemon, or green pickles. — Obs. Though game of all sorts is occasionally boiled, the Com- mittee of the Cleikum did not patronise this mode of dressing, except for rabbits. Stewed rabbits, which must be neatly trussed, are best smothered with a thick, mild onion-sauce, though sometimes a liver-sauce is made thus: Boil and bruise the liver; add veal or other gravy to some of the liquor in which the rabbits were boiled. Thicken with flour, and a good piece of butter, and some parsley shred very fine. Season with mace and allspice. Garnish with sliced lemon. Onion-sauce is also often used for boiled goose and ducks, in preference to less piquant compositions. Rabbits will take a full hour of slow boil- ing; birds according to their size.—Study page 93. 16. TO BOIL TRIPE AND COW-HEELS. UNLESS in country places, or where families kill their own beef, tripe is usually bought from the butcher, or else ready-boiled at the Tripe or Cow-heel shops. It requires very long boiling—from six to nine hours of simmering by the fire, or, as is very good practice where kitchen- fires are gathered, it is left over a slow fire for a whole night. Tripe requires endless cleaning, and is best ma- naged at a river-side. Afterwards, to assist in the clean- ing and blanching, a piece of quicklime may be dissolved in the water in which it is scalded and scraped ; but tripe so blanched will become ill coloured in the boiling. Tripe, like chickens, veal, &c. may be whitened by rubbing it with lemon-juice, where expense is no object. The scald- ing must be frequently repeated. When bought in the shops, choose it thick, fat, and white, and see that it be COW HEELS. 99 fresh. The best way of keeping tripe after it is boiled, is to allow it to jelly in the liquor in which it was boiled. When to be dressed, pare off the fat and films, and wash it with warm water. Cut it into pieces about the size of small cutlets, and simmer in milk and water till it is quite soft and tender, and the sauce thickish. Peel and boil a dozen white, firm button onions. Dish the tripe in a deep steak-dish or small tureen, and put the onions to it, taking off the surface-skin if they look black.* Many persons prefer tripe boiled plainly in water, and served with onion-sauce and mustard; others boil it in veal broth, or put a fresh beef-bone or veal-shank to the water, and some bake it in milk, and serve onion-sauce sepa- rately.-See Glasgow and Birmingham Tripe. No. 56. French Mode.-In modern French cookery, tripe, after being boiled and whitened with lemon-juice, is cut in strips and stewed in white sauce, or strong white broth, for four hours. It is then served either in a sauce à la Poulette or in sauce Italienne blanche. In old French cookery, the tripe, when boiled and cut in bits, was stewed in cullis with all sorts of herbs, onions, and chives, a glass of wine, and a little tarragon. When the sauce was thickened, a little made mustard was added, and the whole strained, heated, and poured over the tripe. Cow-HEELS are generally cleaned before they are bought. They require from five to six hours' boiling. If to be dressed, cut them into neat bits, egg and crumb these, brown them, and serve round slices of Portugal onion fried, and laid in the middle of the dish. Sauce,-melted butter, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and a very little vinegar, or parsley and butter. — See Potted Heels, Fried and Fricasseed Tripe, &c.; also French Cookery, National Dishes, and Kelly's Sauce. The fat skimmings of Cow-heels and Cow-head are the best adapted, for frying or basting, of all boiled fats. They, indeed, afford a very rich oil, which is sometimes even * Dr. REDGILL, to the above, added a bit of butter rolled in flour, and put into the sauce, half an hour before it was taken off the fire, a large tea-spoonful of made mustard, or the same quantity of mushroom- catsup, and the onions, previously parboiled, or fried in butter. This original variation was highly approved of. 100 CHAP. III.-ROASTING. burned; and the perfumers draw largely upon them for commodities of high name. Calves' feet jelly, so named, is often made both of Cow-heels and Tripe ; indeed the former affords a much stronger jelly than the article whose name it usurps. A good glaze is made of Cow-heels, which also afford a good cheap soup, if properly seasoned. CHAPTER III. ROASTING. “For what are your soups, your ragouts, and your sauce, Compared to the Beef of Old England ? - And 0, the Old English Roast Beef !” In a voice between whistling and singing, accompanied by the flourish of the carving-knife, and an occasional rub against the steel, it was with the above appropriate stave that our brisk old Nabob hailed with high satisfaction the lordly sirloin, of a delicate pale brown, frosted as if with seed-pearls, a labour of love which had occupied him for five hours, and now smoked in savouriness on the board of the Committee. In the evening of the same day, and while the process was still fresh in his head, after sundry disputes with Dr. REDGILL on the underdone and the overdone, the Nabob dictated something like the following discourse on roasting :- No printed rules can make a good Roaster. Practice and vigilant attention alone can produce that rara avis of the kitchen. In the French kitchen this is a department by itself. He who rules the roast attends to that only. Choose your meat well : but even then no meat will roast to advantage that is not kept the proper length of time; and this in every case must be determined by the weather and the age of the animal. Two days of hot weather are equal to a week of cold in rendering meat fit for the spit, or bien mortifie. Londoners often roast their beef too soon. In the North of ROASTING. 101 England, and other places, the roasted sirloin is frequently salted, and eaten with vinegar and mustard. A salted sirloin, or leg of mutton, eats tolerably well ; but they are undeniably a relic of those days when the squire or yeoman killed his own beef and mutton, and his lady found it necessary to keep the holiday joint, however long, to grace the holiday. Even in summer, by proper attention, meat will keep much longer than is generally supposed. Have the roast properly jointed, which saves much mortification to the carver, and much haggling and mangling of the meat. Let it be spunged with salt and water, and dried. See that the spit, when used, be brightly clean. If not, scour with sand and water, or Bath brick, and wipe dry with a clean cloth. If there is too much fat, some of it may be previously cut off for paste or puddings. Cover the fat for the first hour with kitchen-paper, fastened on with twine.* A good cook can manage to handle meat very little in the spitting and balancing. In many joints, the spit will run along the side of the bone without piercing the flesh. Tie it, or fix with screw skewers. If much handled, baste the joint with salt and water, and dry the dripping-pan, suffering the meat to drip and dry (which it will do in a few seconds by the heat of the fire) before basting. If the joint is not accurately balanced, no horizontal spit will work well. In roasting, the management of the fire is half the battle. Let the kitchen grate be thoroughly raked out in * RedGill insisted upon a warning post here, as the worthy gentle- man, in the eagerness of his appetite, had one day a large bodle-pin fixed in his gullet, like a salmon-hook, for a good half-hour ; which some of MEG’s queans had used in skewering (new reading, securing) the paper. + A smoke or a wind-up jack, or a cradle-spit, was considered the best by the Nabob; but Yorkshire jacks, bottle-jacks, Dutch ovens, and Gipsy jacks, i. e. a nail and a string, and many other contrivances, may all be employed with success, if the fire be adapted to the peculiar construc- tion of the implement. Experience shows that the bottle-jack, with or without a tin screen as may be found suitable, is the one best adapted to private families in middle life. A substitute for a spit-screen is easily contrived, from an old large tea-tray, or a clothes-horse. Smaller light tin screens with one or two shelves are now generally substituted for the huge block-tin and timber frame-work of the jack. 102 CHAP. III.-ROASTING, the morning. An hour before the roast is put down, make up a fire suited to the size of the joint; let it be clear and glowing, and free of ashes and smoke in front. A backing of wetted cinders or small coal helps to throw forward and sustain an equal radiant heat in front. Place the meat at a due distance, that it may heat through without the out- side becoming shrivelled and scorched. To prevent this, baste diligently for the first half-hour. The larger the joint the greater at first must be the distance from the fire, so that it be not so great as to make the meat tough and sodden by the slackness of the process. A radiant fire, due distance, and frequent basting, can alone ensure a well-roasted joint, of that fine amber-colour, crisp, and lightly frothed, which speaks a language that all men understand. A quarter of an hour to the pound of meat is the time usually allowed for roasting, bearing in mind that fat meat takes longer than lean, and pork and veal longer than other kinds of meat. But, as we have said of boiling, this must in almost every case be determined by circumstances. Fillets and legs take rather longer than loins or breasts. A meat-screen, the state of the weather, the kind of fuel, and a thousand things, must be taken into account. A meat-screen, with shelves, contributes so much to good roasting, and is so generally useful, that something of the kind ought to find a place in every family that aspires to comfort. It saves fuel, keeps plates and dishes warm, and, above all, by warding off draughts of air, preserves the temperature in the region of the spit in a state of equality. Once, or, if the roast be very large, twice during the process, withdraw the spit and dripping- pan, and stir the fire, clear away the ashes, and bring forward the clear burning coals,* supplying their place * In all departments of domestic life, save the management of kitchen-fires, there is at least a plausible show of attention to economy among servants. There the waste is wanton, wilful, and enormous, whether cooking be going forward or not. “ The waste of fuel,” says Count Rumford, “ which arises from making liquids boil unnecessarily, or when nothing more is necessary than merely to keep them boiling hot, is enormous. I have not a doubt, that half the fire used in kitchens, public and private, in the whole world, is wasted precisely in this manner.” What would Count Rumford have said to great fires for doing nothing? To convince a regular cook, or even a kitchen-maid, that ROASTING. 103 with fresh fuel. When the meat is nearly done, which will be known by the length of time, and by the steams, in the language of the kitchen, “ drawing to the fire,” the paper is to be removed, a little salt sprinkled lightly over the roast, and the spit so placed, that the ends of the roast may be browned. The meat must now be carefully basted, and may be placed a little nearer to the fire, if the surface is not yet of a fine, clear, brown colour. The roast is then frothed, where this is liked, by dredging it very lightly with well-dried flour shaken from a dredging-box, smaller in the holes than those generally employed.* Fresh butter makes a delicate froth, but does not improve the flavour of the skin or the appearance of the gravy, which ought at this stage to be sparkling in the dripping-pan, bright, brown, and transparent as a Caledonian topaz. If much flour is dredged on, let it at least have time to get crisp. Fashion and luxury have introduced stall-fed oxen and overgrown sheep, which are better fitted for the tallow- chandler than the cook. They are indeed good for nothing, save to obtain premiums at cattle shows, and deluge drip- ping-pans with liquid fat. “Our prize oxen,” says D’Israeli, “might astonish a Roman as much as one of their crammed peacocks would ourselves. Gluttony produces monsters, and turns away from nature to feed on un- wholesome meats.” When meat of this description is to be dressed, it is an object of economy to save the super- fluous fat, which makes so much of the weight. Besides what is cut off, the dripping-pan, during the first hour of roasting, may be emptied of its oily contents once or twice, and abundance remain for basting. Dripping put aside in this manner will be much fitter for all culi- nary purposes, whether for pease-soup, pie-crust, or for frying fish, than that which has acquired an empyreumatic taste, either from burning cinders, or being exposed to the action of a fierce heat. This disagreeable flavour and the she does not know how to manage her fire, is, we confess, quite hope- less; but surely something might be made, by proper instruction, of young girls, in economizing an article of such serious consequence in all families. * The calibre of Touchwood's best dredging-box and that of his pepper-box were precisely the same. 104 CHAP. III.-ROASTING. unsalutary qualities which it betokens, makes an epicure reject all dripping with abhorrence, for any use except making coarse pastry,or frying fish, common fritters, patties, and rissoles. The improved Cleikum dripping-pan, from a drawing by WINTERBLOSSOM, was made of ample dimen- sions, and with high sloping ledges. It was furnished with a covered fountain, and a conduit to allow the super- fluous dripping to be easily taken away. In the Cleikum kitchen, the dripping was immediately clarified for future use, [See No. 44.7 If meat is at all of good quality, and roasted with care, it will afford a plentiful supply of good gravy, the natural and best sauce that can accompany it. To the gravy which flows from the meat, the best addition, as we have found after repeated experiments, is a very little boiling water (a large cupful for ten pounds) and salt, poured through the hole from which the spit is with- drawn, and then gently laved on the browned outside under parts of the roast. Some good frugal cooks remove the roast, and wash and melt down all the crisp crust, which forms in the dripping-pan, in boiling water, which is again boiled, strained, and poured as above over the roast, thus making an excellent gravy with much of the osmazome, the charm of the roast, in it. To the gravy of venison and veal, when found scanty, which will some- times be the case, a little thin melted butter may be added in preference to drawn gravies. The dishes for roasts should be furnished with a gravy-fountain, for utility as well as neatness. The jelly gravy that flows from young meats, the very essence of meat, ought to be carefully pre- served, as it forms the most delicate of all gravies to enrich sauces, ragouts, and hashes. Of this, veal gravy is the most delicate, and it is accordingly in great requisition among good cooks ; but beef gravy is fit for almost all purposes. The Nabob, in the course of his discursive readings, though he was more a practical man than one of research, discovered that many things had been anciently used for hastings which the simplicity of modern practice rejects. Sweet herbs and seeds pulverized, butter and claret, yolks of eggs, pounded biscuit and spiceries, have all been SIRLOIN-RUMP-RIBS OF BEEF. 105 employed. But these antique refinements were all rejected, except butter and claret, which, for venison, and all the dry meats that sometimes go under that generic name, were used at the Cleikum with unanimous approbation. Much more did our Nabob, in the fulness of his heart and stomach, on this day of his triumph, say on the subject of roasting in general, and on this his Essay roast in particular, which we must take the liberty to skip, and come at once to the receipts for roasting. 17. TO ROAST A SIRLOIN OF BEEF. Study well the above discourse, and bear in mind that, next to broiling, roasting is the most difficult of all ele- mentary culinary processes : and, when well done, is valued accordingly. Instruction may teach even a bungler to compound a tolerable made-dish, which, if faulty, may be improved, disguised, or altered. But care alone, and a little practice, can make a dexterous roaster. Give a large sirloin from four to five hours to roast ; and then The great Sirloin of Ben ist he stands, In his pure native splendour full array'd ! No knife hath touch'd him ; never mortal hands Have dared his majesty of form invade. For thee he lives: his death-pang it will sweeten First for thee to be carved-first by thee to be eaten! Roast BEEF is garnished with plenty of horseradish, finely scraped, and laid round the dish in light heaps ; and it is served with Yorkshire pudding, or potato pudding and horseradish-sauce.* The fillet, tender-loin, or English side, t as it is commonly called in the northern division of the island, is by some esteemed the most delicate part. To this the carver must attend, and also to the equitable distribution of the fat. Cold roast beef is generally liked ; and it may * Dr. REDGill, who rather relished a joke after the serious business of dinner was despatched, holding it as a 'maxim that a moderate laugh aided digestion, was wont to say, that Yorkshire Pudding was the true squire of Sir Loin, and Horseradish his brisk, fiery page, without which attendants he looked despoiled of his dignity and bearing. Yorkshire pudding is nearly the same as the Panade with which it was the ancient custom to baste roasts till they gathered a crust before the fire. + The French distinguish the different parts of the aloyau or sirloin as “the lawyer's bit and the clerk's.” 106 CHAP. III.-ROASTING. be warmed in various ways. Slices may be warmed in a Dutch oven, and served with some of the gravy also warmed, and seasoned rather highly with pepper and salt, anchovy, eschalot, or a tea-spoonful of eschalot vinegar. Cold beef may also be dressed as Olives, or as a Fricassee, Cecils, Sanders, Bubble and Squeak, &c.—See Made Dishes of Beef, and French Cookery of Beef. * 17. TO ROAST THE RUMP, OR PART OF IT. Cut from the rump, chump-end, a handsome roast of from seven to ten or twelve pounds. Bone and roll it up nicely like a fillet of veal. It will take from three to five hours to roast, according to its thickness. N.B.-French cooks saw off the large bones, sprinkle the sirloin with olive oil, and lay sliced onions and bay leaves over it, and leave it thus some days before roasting. They serve it, when roasted, with sauce-hachée, that is, chopped gherkins, mushrooms, capers, and an anchovy, all thrown into a brown sauce. Sirloin is, we think, better ordered at home. The French also braise the sirloin, but their beef is sometimes so lean as to require a process which would ruin English fed beef. 18. TO ROAST RIBS OF BEEF. --P. R., ESQ. This piece of beef is garnished, and served with the same accompaniments as the Sirloin. Both the ribs and the inside part of a large Sirloin may be dressed in a more elaborate way as follows:- Cut out the ribs ; beat the meat flat with a rolling-pin; lay it to soak in vinegar and wine for a night; cover it with a rich forcemeat, made of minced veal, suet, grated ham, lemon-peel, and mixed spices. Roll it tightly up, fixing it with small skewers and tape, and roast it, basting constantly with wine and butter. Froth with fresh butter, and serve with Venison-sauce. — Obs. A fillet of the loin, larded, marinaded, and roasted, makes a handsome French dish, served with Tomata-sauce, or some fit substitute, as cucumber-sauce. 19. TO ROAST A LEG, HAUNCH, OR SADDLE OF MUTTON. (See French Cookery of Mutton, which is well worth attention.) Mutton intended to be roasted may be kept longer than mutton for boiling, as the colour is of less importance. LEG, HAUNCH, OR SADDLE OF MUTTON. 107 Cut out the pipe that runs along the back-bone, which taints so early; wipe off the mustiness that gathers on the surface, and in the folds and doublings of the meat, and below the flap. This and every other piece of meat may be lightly dusted with flour or with pepper, which, by excluding the external air and keeping off flies, helps to preserve the meat, and can be taken off in the washing previous to roasting. A leg, a chine, a saddle, a loin, a breast, a shoulder, and the haunch or the gigot, are the roasting pieces of mutton. Joint the roast well, whatever be the piece. Most of the loose fat should be cut from the loin, which may be stuffed, and should be papered at first, to preserve the kidney-fat. A modern refinement is to put laver in the dripping-pan, which, in basting, imparts a high gout ; or a large saddle may be served over a pound and half of larer, stewed in brown sauce with catsup and seasonings. This roast requires a rather quick fire to concentrate its juices ; onion-sauce, cucumber-sauce, and currant-jelly, are ordered in most Cookery Books to be served with roast mutton ; but a juicy leg of mutton requires little sauce save its own gravy, to which the French add a squeeze of lemon, and pepper. A SADDLE is roasted as above. A double saddle has been introduced at the Reform Club, which is well adapted to large parties. It consists of the entire middle of the four quarters, leaving more of the shoulder than in a shoulder saddle, and more of the gigot than in the loin saddle. It is trimmed by the butcher. Some French cooks serve roast mutton on French beans stewed in good stock, with a couple of onions cut in dice and fried. The crowberry or red bilberry, and even the berry of the mountain-ash, as a thick jam, makes a rustic sauce for venison or mountain mutton. Some modern gourmands consider sweet jellies eaten with animal food as not merely among the vulgarities but the obsolete barbarisms of cookery; others consider red currant jelly indispensable : and when will an Englishman give up the currant jelly of his boyhood ? N.B.- Potatoes browned in the dripping-pan, or a plain potato-pudding placed below the dripping roast, are 108 CHAP. III.-ROASTING. favourite accompaniments to this dish at our Club. Mashed turnip is another approved accompaniment.-See Made Dishes of Mutton. 20. TO ROAST A SUCKING PIG.- BY DR. REDGILL. A SUCKING PIG ! un cochon de lait! France and England, natural enemies on the relative merits of ragouts and roast beef, are in brotherhood here. The age for killing, on which every gourmand, whether insular or continental, has set his seal, is from ten days to double that number. Unlike the ways of other flesh, in this delicate creature - this “ ortolan with four feet,” as a corresponding member calls him there is but one step between the gully of the butcher and the carver's knife. In short, he must be killed ; but that done, the sooner he is roasted and eaten, the better is he relished by those in the secret. The ordinary way, after he has received the coup de grace, is to take off the hair by scalding.* When cleaned from the hair, the entrails taken out, and the nostrils and ears well * Dr. REDGILL, though apt to be somewhat violent in his prejudices, and entertaining a loyal and laudable hatred of COBBETT and all his ways, paused when TouchWood communicated to him the method which that demagogue-infallible in hog's flesh, and unequalled in bolting-recommends for removing the hair of grown porkers: “ And why not,” said the Nabob, “ of sucklings? ” “ The first method ” (scalding,) says COBBETT,“ slackens the skin, opens all the pores of it, and makes it loose and flabby, by drawing out the roots of the hair. The second (singeing) tightens the skin in every part, contracts all the sinews and veins,” &c. This is said in reference to bacon, no doub:; but it was for talent like Dr. REDGILL’s to apply it to young pigs. In a roast pig, where crackling is all in all, this burning process is surely worthy of trial. The President, with a meanness of jealousy of which the good Doctor was incapable, where pig of which he was him- self to partake was concerned, had indeed kept this important informa- tion secret till the scalded élève of his rival was smoking in the platter; he then referred, with malicious triumph, to the singeing of sheep's head, reasoning on what a wersh, fusionless morsel it would make if scalded. The moisture which had overflowed the Doctor's chops as he viewed his savoury charge reposing, as might say, “in the crispness of his beauty,” was arrested in its course. But between a singed pig in prospect, and a scalded pig on the table, ready roasted, sauce, crackling, stuffing, all alike inviting, the Doctor did not long hesitate. N.B.-Every cook should be made aware, that, by singeing chickens and fowls, she not only removes the downy feathers, but gives firmness to the flesh, and tenacity to the skin; and that the chickens, if for fricassee, broiling, &c. will cut up much cleaner when well singed. SUCKING-PIG, 109 cleaned, the pig must next be washed in cold water. Cut off the feet at the first joint, loosening and leaving on the skin to turn neatly over. He is now ready for the stuffing. For this, take a half ounce of mild sage, and a couple of young onions parboiled ; chop these very fine, add a cupful of grated bread-crumbs, two ounces of good butter, and a high relish of pepper and salt. Sew the slit neatly up, (this the Doctor did with his own hands,) and baste first with brine, then with the best fresh butter or salad oil, if you would have the crackling crisp, which is the true and only test of a well-roasted pig. Some cooks tie up the butter in a bit of muslin, and diligently rub the crackling with this; others anoint that substance with a bunch of feathers or a paste-brush to keep it constantly moist; others again smear it with beat white of eggs. A pig-iron, or some ingenious substitute, must be placed in the centre of the grate, part of the time, to prevent the middle regions of the animal from being scorched before the extremities are enough done. The legs must be trussed back to allow the inside to be roasted, and “ You 'll see when he 's enough, when both eyes out, Or if he want the nice, concluding bout; For if he lie too long, the crackling's palled, Not by the dredging-box to be recalled.” For sauce -- clear beef or veal gravy, with a squeeze of lemon, and, if approved, a little of the stuffing stirred into the sauce-tureen. — Obs. Apple-sauce and currant-sauce are still served with roast pig; but sweet sauces for animal food are losing favour, if not place. Even currant- jelly sauce with mutton and venison, which were hereto- fore considered one-and-indivisible, are now often seen disjoined. The taste of the age is decidedly either for the pungent, the sharp, the piquant, or the sub-acid. Another favourite sauce is the liver and brains, the forcemeat, and a few sprigs of sage, chopped and boiled up in the gravy. In Scotland, where the pig is too often dished whole, the brains cannot be obtained to enrich the sauce, which, along with the trouble given to the carver, was considered by the Club a capital objection to this mode of dishing. 110 CHIAP. III.- ROASTING. *20. ROAST PIG.–ENGLISH MODE. In England the pig is generally cut off the spit down the middle on both sides; the head is cut off and divided, and the jaws are stuck up on each side for ornament, instead of the pippin, which was wont of old to be stuck in the grinning chops of the savoury cherub. Roast pig, when not liked cold, should be cut into neat fillets, and warmed in a strained sauce made of thin melted butter, four and sweet herbs, chopped mushrooms, and a bay leaf, or in broth so seasoned, or in Bechamel. He may be baked, which is an excellent and convenient mode, only the cook or baker must baste him liberally. - See No. 37. For an excellent way of dressing pig, see French Cookery; * also Scotch receipt, National Dishes. 21. TO ROAST A HAUNCH OR SHOULDER OF VENISON IN THE ENGLISH MODE.—BY H. J., ESQ.T The meat may be kept from ten to twenty days by proper care, and by observing the precautions recom- * The illustrious members of the Caveau Moderne, the most distin- guished gourmet and gourmand association in the world (previous to the establishment of our CLEIKUM Club, the City, and the Clubs,) steep their pig in fresh water for four hours; baste him with a bouquet of sage dipped in olive oil; and for forcing use fine herbs minced, steeped in lemon-juice, and about a pound of fresh butter. This, though French, is no bad receipt.-P. T. : + WINTERBLOSSOM and JEKYLL, both men of family and fashion, the former of whom had for forty years, by one means or other, con- trived “to sit at good men's feasts,” took the lead here. “ Nothing," said JEKYLL, “ can be more delicious than a fat buck from an English park, a 'hart of grease,' in the proper season. It is food for heroes and princes; but, with the good leave of our hostess, this doe or roe, or hart or hind' of the Caledonian forest, would please me fully better bounding on its native hills than smoking on this board. For the greater part of the year these wild animals are as sinewy, lean, and dry as the stalkers who pursue them. Roast it will not,—this meagre hard meat. With all appliances to boot, it makes but indifferent pasty; but after a long morning of shooting, or for a déjeuner à la fourchette, I have found a fricassee of it cleverly tossed up—what you Scots call venison collops, Mistress Dons,—very tolerable eating," “ And what you Englishers lick your lips after,” said MEG, not a little offended. “I have had but little handling of English fallow deer; but as gude venishon, haunch and shouther, neck and brisket, has been roasted in my father's kitchen as e'er coost horn or cloot in an English policy (park)-set them up !” “For my own private eating,” said Touchwood, “a leg of five- year-old heath wether mutton before all the venison in the world; but VENISON, 111 mended for preserving mutton. When to be used, clean it without much wetting, with a sponge dipped in luke- warm water. Unless venison is fat it is useless to roast it : and in roasting, the main object is to preserve the fat. For this purpose, butter or rub over with salad oil a large sheet of writing paper, tie it over the fat, and butter it on the outside once more. Have ready rolled a paste of flour and water, to the thickness of a half inch, on another sheet of paper, and with this cover the first paper. Tie the whole firmly on, and pour plenty of melted butter over the outside paper, to prevent it from catching to the fire. Baste constantly, and keep up the fire, which must be a strong, solid sirloin fire, to penetrate through the incasements, and roast the haunch. Venison is rather preferred underdone than overdone, a little red but not blue. A large haunch may be allowed from four to six hours, when wrapped in paste. A half hour before it is ready it must be carefully unswaddled, placed near the fire, basted with fresh butter, and lightly dredged with flour, to brown and froth. For sauce, --Currant-jelly melted in port wine, or jelly roughed in a sweetmeat glass, is still usually served. — Obs. A glass or two of claret, with three times that quantity of gravy made of venison or mutton, and a small glassful of raspberry vinegar, all very hot, was the sharp sauce most relished by our Club; or a plain sharp sauce made of white-wine vinegar or lemon-juice and the finest lump-sugar, heated together in a stone jar. This is the best mode of roasting venison where expense is not grudged. In ordinary cases the paste may be dis- pensed with, - a double paper will be sufficient. The shoulder, breast, and neck, are each roasted; but the latter is much better dressed as a pasty or as soup.See Venison Pies. At small genuine gourmand parties, as the venison fat freezes, it is not unusual to cut off small slices of fat and on occasions of high festival, this aristocratic dish is indispensable to the fools who preside and the knaves who partake : ---so about it, Captain. The dulce we leave to you and WINTERBLOSSOM; the utile is my own peculiar province." 112 CHAP. III.-ROASTING. lean, and heat them in a silver dish over a spirit-lamp. Venison is thus kept warm to perfection. And where luxury or joint-stock Gourmand Clubs afford silver dishes, these, besides retaining their heat long, when once thoroughly heated, are placed on the table on concealed heaters filled with hot sand, and keep any dish hot. 22. TO ROAST RED DEER OR ROE. Season the haunch highly, by rubbing it well with mixed spices. Soak it for six hours in claret and a quarter pint of the best vinegar, or the fresh juice of three lemons; turn it frequently, and baste with the liquor. Strain the liquor in which the venison was soaked ; add to it fresh butter melted, and with this baste the haunch during the whole time it is roasting. Fifteen minutes before the roast is drawn remove the paper, and froth and brown it as directed in other receipts. For sauce, - Take the contents of the dripping-pan, which will be very rich and highly flavoured ; add a half pint of clear brown gravy, drawn from venison or full-aged heath mutton. Boil them up together ; skim, add a tea-spoonful of walnut- catsup, and pour the sauce round the roast. Instead of the walnut-catsup, lemon-juice or any of the flavoured vinegars most congenial to venison, and to the taste of the gastronome, may advantageously be substituted. After the third veni- son dinner, it was the recorded opinion of the Club, that it is downright idiotcy, a wanton and profligate sacrifice of the palate and the stomach to the vanity of the eye, to roast venison when it is not fat, while so many more nutritious and palatable modes of cookery may be em- ployed, in soup, pasty, or civet. — See Made Dishes of Venison. 23. TO ROAST VEAL. The fillet, the loin, the shoulder,* or what of it is called the oyster, and the breast, are roasted; the back ribs are best used for pie or cutlets; and the scrag should be either cut to pieces and stewed, and served in thick stew-soup, or made into rice-broth. Stuff the flap of the fillet with forcemeat made as directed for boiled turkey, but with rather more * The noix, or large muscle bedded in firm fat near the neck, is a tid-bit of the Parisian epicure. VEAL AND LAMB. 113 lemon-peel. Sew in the stuffing.–See Sauce, and Stuffing for Turkey, No. 8, or No. 27. Some of it may be worked up with yolk of egg into the shape of pigeon's eggs, then fried, or parboiled and browned below the roast, and drained, and served as a garnishing, or made into a small accompanying dish.* Be careful to brown the outside nicely, which can only be well done by attention to the state of the fire. The tendrons are often cut out of a breast of large veal, and dressed separately, as Tendrons de veau, No. 629. 24. LOIN AND BREAST OF VEAL. A loin is roasted and served in the very same way, only the kidney fat, which is so delicate, must be papered, and the roast should be more constantly basted. The flap should be rolled in and skewered firm, and the bones chopped off, to give the dish a handsome shape. If a large loin, the kidney must be skewered back for a time to roast thoroughly. The SHOULDER should always be stuffed ; and the stuffing for this piece requires more suet, marrow, or butter, whichever is employed, than the forcemeat for the fillet. The breast must be roasted with paper or the caul, on * Forcemeat must be left in a great measure to the genius and in- vention of the cook. Like spiceries and seasoning, it may, in the exercise of good discretion, be used ad libitum, bearing in mind, that it is intended to enrich and give piquance to the more insipid meats. Relishing ingredients of all kinds enter into the composition of force- meat, such as grated ham or beef, sausage, pickled oysters, caviare, anchovy, sweet herbs, eschalots, mushrooms, truffles, and morells, currie powder, cayenne, &c. “ Plodding perseverance,” said JEKYLL, “ may make a good roaster, and careful observance of rules a tolerable com- pounder of a made-dish ; but the true maker of forcemeat, like the true poet, must be born.” +“ A bit of the brown” is esteemed the most delicate part of this roast. It was with this, liberally supplied from Mr. STRAHAN's veal, that the demagogue WILKES not only overcame the prejudices, but actually gained the heart, of Dr. JOHNSON,-a success which far out- does that of RicHARD over Lady ANNE. But then he helped a slice of the lemon or bitter orange, which formed the garnishing, along with the browned outside. Ever, as you would gain the heart of a judicious epicure, garnish your roast veal with slices of lemon.-P. T. ION BASTING.--Cooks like Doctors differ on many points, and among others on basting. We consider that both basters and non-busters may be right or wrong according to circumstances. To baste mutton too much, for example, would stew, not roast it; but veal cannot be too mucli basted. In cooking much is left to the intelligence of the cook. H }14 CHAP. 111.-ROASTING. till nearly enough done, which both preserves and enriches the meat. Serve these roasts with their own gravy only. 25. TO ROAST A LEG OR SADDLE OF LAMB. A SADDLE is now considered a stylish joint for a small party. Whether Leg or Saddle, place it at some distance from a sharp clear fire, and baste well ; paper if needful: It will take from one hour and a half to two hours. Young lamh, and none other, is fit for the use of a gas- tronome of high gout,-a hobble-de-hoy between lamb and mutton being even coarser than a three months' pig. Lamb, like pig, and indeed all young meat, should not be long kept, if the flavour and juices are to be obtained in perfection ; time to cool is considered quite sufficient by knowing gourmands. It is true, the fibre may be thready, but the juices and flavour will be infinitely superior to that of lamb killed for days. In roasting the hind-quarter, the flap of the loin may be stuffed, using the superfluous fat for the forcemeat.* House lamb requires more roast- ing than pasture or hill lamb. Sauce. - The gravy which flows from the meat after the dripping has been poured out, with about a wine-glassful of boiling water and a little salt, run through the spit-hole, and cucumber or Mint-sauce. Serve spinage, French beans, cauliflower, or green pease with lainb; garnish with crisp parsley, or sprigs of cauliflower, and always serve a salad. The fore-quarter should be lightly jointed. Lamb must be well done. This and the knuckle of all roasts, or of a * This is an old Scottish practice, which MEG Dops called “ Makin' a pouch.” Dr. RedGILL, who patronized all receptacles for forcemeat, wheresoever placed, vowed that a “hind-quarter of lamb should never again be roasted in his kitchen without a pouch." This protuberance must not be too large, else it might prove offensive to the eye, - an organ that ought to be diligently consulted in all matters conuected with the table.“ Open the mouth, and shut the eyes," the maxim or a great modern gastronome, had certainly, WINTERBLOSSOM said, been stolen from the luxurious picture of the Gude Wife of Auchtermuchty's Sow:- “And aye scho winked and aye scho drank.” Both Touchwood and RedGill rebuked the old beau for this irre- verent sally against an authority for which the latter entertained the most profound respect,--to wit, Dr. KITCHINER. On my recommenda- tion, try for once the Scotch practice of delicate young mashed cabbage below roast lamb.-H. J. LAMB AND PORK, 115 ham, ought to have a fringe of writing paper twisted neatly round it. When the shoulder is removed, the carver is expected to squeeze a lemon, and to sprinkle a little salt over the ribs, or, if necessary, to put in a little melted butter; and to press the parts together to obtain gravy, N. B.-A friend, who admires French cookery, recom- mends Maître d'Hôtel butter to be put under the shoulder. In Parisian cookery, the lean parts of the lamb have thin slices of bacon papered over them while roasting. When done, the shoulder is lifted from the breast so as not to be perceptible, and a Maître d'Hôtel sauce is slipped in. A clear gravy is served in the dish, and the larded parts are glazed. British lamb does not require larding. - See Made Dishes, and Pies, of lamb. 26. TO ROAST PORK. Pork takes more of the fire than any other kind of meat. Choose it young, short in the knuckle, fine in the grain, and thick but smooth in the skin.* Cut a hole in the knuckle, widen it with the finger, and stuff it with sage and onions parboiled and chopped fine, pepper, salt, grated crumbs, a piece of butter, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and an egg to cement the whole. With a bunch of feathers rub the skin with salad oil, or fresh butter tied up in a muslin rag. Do this frequently to prevent the crackling from blistering, and to make it crisp and brown. The crackling must be scored into diamonds twenty minutes before the roast is done ; but unless it look hide-bound, and scorched or shrivelled, the scoring need not go deep. The roast loin should, however, be scored in stripes, with advantage both to the eating and to the appearance. Some cooks add pulverized sage to the basting. We only recommend this in roasting the griskin, Pork requires a more pungent sauce than suck- ing pig; yet apple-sauce is occasionally used. Onion- sauce we like better, or Sauce Robert; and confidently * If pork is fed in sties at dairy farms, that which has fattened on potatoes and buttermilk we consider much better, both in flesh and flavour, than that which has been fed on drenches of barley-meal and kitchen slops. The rationale of scoring pork is to increase the surfaces --in other words, the delicious jaune croquante, therefore we say-score away.-P.T. 116 CHAP. 111.-ROASTING. recommend Dr. Rengill's sauce for pork, goose, duck, or rabbit. (See No. 292.) - French beans or pease-pudding are served with roast pork. The French serve a poiorude under a roast chine.-Obs. Sham House Lamb, when the real is scarce and high-priced, is made by skinning a half- grown porker, and cutting it of a proper shape.-N.B. The Cleikum Club countenanced no counterfeits. 27. TO ROAST TURKEY, FOWLS, AND GAME. A TURKEY will keep a fortnight, a fowl a week. By care they will keep longer; that is to say, if drawn, hung in a cool, dry air, wiped often, and seasoned with pepper in the inside.* The sinews of the legs must be drawn : * Stuffing for TURKEY.-So dexterously, and with such an air of conscious superiority, did Mistress Dons carry herself, that, except for the new lights which had dawned upon REDGILL in the composition of stuffings, and an affected dandy squeamishness which overcame the young Guardsman about trussing, in this important branch of the art, the Club would, unquestioning, have submitted to her judgment as to an oracle ; but these causes produced open discontents, and veliement debate, and “I say sweet stuffing is an abomination for roast turkey," cried REDGILL, as the knife of WINTERBLOSSOM gave to view MEG'S savoury composition, mottled with Zante currants, and fragrant with what she termed “a scrape o’a nutmug,”—an immense grater fur- nished with this spicy fruit being, instead of a lady's essence-bottle, generally lodged in the depths and labyrinths of those strong, blue cloth pockets, with scarlet welting, of whose multifarious contents JEKYLL one day made a catalogue.“ Oysters ! oysters ! madam ; there is no other turkey stuffing worth the attention of a Christian eater.” “Or Dinde aux Trufies et à la broche," said Touchwood, animated by the spirit of contradiction, and the ambition of displaying his science. “A pound of fresh truffles chopped, the same quantity of rasped fat white bacon. Soak the mixture in the stew-pan, with spiceries and a bay leaf. Stuff the turkey, and give him three days take the flavour ; covering him with slices of bacon :--or chestnuts,” continued he. “ Roast a quarter hundred and peel them ;- leave out ten or a dozen ; pound in a mortar, with the liver parboiled; a quarter of a pound of ham, or of pork sausage well grated or pounded, a little basil and parsley, mace, pepper, salt, our friend Meg's nutmug, and a good piece of butter; stuff and tie the bird at neck and vent :-roast him, and tell me how you like him. For sauce, the remaining chestnuts chopped and stirred in a thickened strong gravy, with a glass of old Sherry or Maderia. Garnish with sliced orange. This, sir, is a turkey for you ; or, better still, a roast turkey, with rolls of sausage fried, or sausage balls served with it, an Alderman in chains,' as those waggish rogues, e London sturdy beggars, call it, -- their favourite regale at the close of a prosperous day.” REDGILL despised the chestnut receipt ; but turkey and sausage, the ambrosia of the bousing ken, seemed worthy of TURKEY, FOWLS, AND GAME. 117 . (those of fowls, pheasants, &c. should all be drawn, espe- cially when the birds are old.) Press down the breast-bone even more than in a fowl, to make the bird look plump: be careful, in drawing, to preserve the liver whole, and not to break the intestines. For stufjing, take a breakfast cupful of bread finely grated, two ounces of minced beef- suet, or marrow, a little parsley parboiled and finely shred, a tea-spoonful of lemon-peel grated, two sprigs of lemon- thyme, a little nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Mix the whole well in a mortar, with a couple of eggs. Do not stuff too full; and, with another egs, work up what remains into an epicure's serious investigation; so the next bird was ordered to be dressed beggar-fashion. “And why, Dame,” said JEKYLL, as, thrown back in his chair, he eyed the roasted turkey with a languid air of half-affected disgust, “Why produce the unhappy bubbly-jock with his head -- forty mortal gashes upon it— tucked under his wing, while his gizzard and liver, larger than life, grace his other fin? This affair of dining, after all, has its bétise. Or why those rough-footed Scots," pointing to a brace of moorfowl, “in their spurs and pantaloons, with their pretty inno- cent heads tucked under their arms, like that of St. Denis in the pictures of a book of miracles ?-nay, worse, I protest," and he lifted his eye- glass,—“ here too are ducks, if I don't mistake; but indeed there is no mistaking- miserable amphibiæ ! their saffron web-feet drawn up, and spread in such goodly sort, as if in act to swim. . . . . . . ... Our refined patrons, Drs. KITCHINER and TKUSSLER, direct that the feet be roasted delicately crisp, as some people are very fond of them.” “Cut off a turkey's head, Captain Jackall !” broke forth Meg, with indignant astonishment,—“ A roasted turkey! Do you tak' us for born ignoramuses on this side of the Border ? "_" Cut off the heads," responded REDGILL, "of turkey and wildfowl! Surely, my young friend, you forget yourself.” The Doctor, a loyal hearty-dining church- man, had, since the beginning of the French Revolution, seen but too much of this innovating “off-with-his-head” spirit abroad. “ There was no knowing,” he said, “ where its devastations were to stop ; it began with anointed kings." - "And may safely end with basted turkeys,” rejoined JEKYLL; and he continued—“ At all tonish tables, Mr. WINTERBLOSSOM, though I do not pretend to think better of mankind than my neighbours, it would be but a well-bred stretch of faith, to take for granted that turkey was not goose, nor pigeon grouse, without such testimony as those bloody heads and feathered heels afford. Why, the panache of his own tail-feathers, which my respected grandmother was wont to stick into the rump of her roasted pheasant, or even the surtout of his entire goodly plumage with which ancestors invested the lordly peacock, was not more barbarous than this absurd fashion.” Loud rose the clamour of cooks, scullions, and amateurs, as this new heresy was broached; and the refined JEKYLL, if not convinced, was at least silenced, 118 CHAP. 111.-ROASTING. balls, to be fried and served with the turkey. To this stuffing, parboiled sausage meat may be added, or grated ham, or oysters chopped. (The same stuffing is suitable for a large fowl, and in both cases the meat may be omitted.) Paper the breast. Score the gizzard. Season it highly with pepper, salt, and cayenne, and dip in melted butter, and then in bread crumbs; cover the gizzard and liver with veal or lamb caul, or buttered paper, and roast them, fixing them under the pinion, and basting liberally. A very large turkey will take nearly as long to roast as a sirloin. These are not the most delicate kind. A inoderate-sized turkey will take from an hour and a half to two hours. The fire must be clear and sharp; dredge with flour when laid down. (Fresh butter is always best for basting white-meats; but salted butter may be washed.) Keep the turkey far from the fire at first, that the stuffing and breast may be done through, and fifteen ininutes before it is finished, remove the paper that the breast may be delicately browned. Sauce-Bread-sauce, with gravy in the dish, oyster-sauce, celery-sauce, egg- sauce. Hen turkeys are the most delicate, and the whitest; they are consequently preferred for boiling.–See to Hash and Devil túrkey; also Made Dishes of Poultry, and French Cookery of Poultry. An excellent Stuffing for a Turkey or Hare, French fashion. –Chop, and afterwards pound in a mortar, half a pound of beef-suet, equal bulk (but not weight) of soaked bread crumbs, lemon peel, parsley, and a sprig of thyme chopped, pepper, salt, two beat eggs, and a little milk or broth. This makes an excellent stuffing. (See also Quenelles, French Cookery.)-French cooks are celebrated for their skill in forcemeat; one half of their merit in this depart- ment consists in their patience at the mortar. Turkey and other poultry are now often served or garnished with fresh water-cresses; which often suits better than raw parsley, if it could be as easily got. N.B.—A test of turkey, pheasant, fowl, &c. being ready for the spit, is their falling down when suspended in the larder by a few of the tail feathers left for this experiment when the birds are picked. For roasting, choose full-fed, white-legged, large fowls-smaller ones may do for boiling. GOOSE. 119 28. TO ROAST A GOOSE. A GOOSE, if well cleaned and seasoned inside with pepper, will keep in cold weather for a fortnight or more, and improve. Geese are in perfection from Michaelmas to Christmas. In Scotland, a goose is often rubbed with salt for ten days before roasting. In England, in rural situations, it is often first parboiled. Where geese are rank this may be advisable, but not otherwise, as it dries the flesh. After the goose is carefully picked and singed, let it be well washed and dried with a cloth. Stuffing-Four well sized onions, about fourth their bulk of sage undried, and half the liver; parboil slightly, and chop these very fine: add a bit of butter, yolk of egg, and a cupful of grated bread; --or, à la bourgeoisie, an equal quantity of mashed potatoes, and season rather highly with pepper and salt. With this stuff the goose. All stuffing, containing bread-crumbs, should be allowed room to swell, and indeed all forcemeat whatever, as it expands more or less in the dressing. Spit the goose ; fasten tightly at the neck and rump. Paper the breast, but remove the paper when it has swelled. A goose requires a brisk fire, well kept up; and will, ac- cording to size, take from one hour to two hours to roast. The breast must not be allowed to sink. Apple-sauce is, hy prescription, served with goose. For delicate cookery, this bird requires a drawn gravy in the dish, its own being often rank and oily, — Obs. To apple-sauce tlie Cleikum Club preferred onion-sauce; better still, REDGILL’s sauce for roast pork, duck, or goose, and Sauce Robert. — Nos. 292, 293. The gravy may either be poured into the goose by the carver making, for this purpose, a slit in the apron, or served in a tureen in thick melted butter; a glass of port or (better) claret is by knowing gourmands poured into the goose : if so let it be hot. In Scotland, it was customary to garnish with slices of raw onion, but the practice is obsolete. GREEN GEESE are roasted in the same manner; but for these thready younglings less sage and onion is required. Season them with pepper and salt, and put a piece of butter into the inside as an interior basting. Froth and brown nicely. The gravy is preserved and served, but more gravy must generally be added. Gooseberry-sauce, or. REDGILL'S sauce. (See 120 CHAP. 111.—ROASTING. Sauces.) — Garnish with grated crust of bread.* Salted geese are, in some parts of Ireland and Scotland, served with a cabbage-sauce, or cabbage stewed in good broth. The French roast geese with chestnuts, as in the receipt for Turkey, (Note, p. 116.) The liver is chopped with the chestnuts, and both are fried together in lard before the goose is stuffed with them.t Onions, fried in the goose fat, is a favourite accompaniment with some old-fashioned provincial eaters. Rings of large onions cooked in strong consommé are more delicate, but not better. 29. TO ROAST DUCKS, TEAL, AND WIDGEONS. KEEP ducks three days: if young they are ready when killed. If a pair are to be roasted, one may be stuffed as directed for a goose, with less than half the quantity of stuffing; and to suit all tastes the other may be done plain, only seasoning with pepper and salt. From three quarters of an hour to a whole hour will roast ducks. Baste well, and dust lightly with flour to make them froth, and look * The livers of geese and poultry are esteemed a great delicacy by some gourmands; and on the Continent great pains are taken to pro- cure fat overgrown livers. The methods employed to produce this diseased state of the animals are as disgusting to rational taste as revolting to humanity. The geese are crammed with fat food, deprived of drink, kept in an intolerably hot atmosphere, and fastened by the feet (we have heard of nailing) to the shelves of the fattening-cribs, The celebrated Strasburg pies, which are esteemed so great a delicacy that they are often sent as presents to distant places, are enriched with these enormous livers. It is, however, a mistake that these pies are wholly made of this artificial animal substance. In England, the goose is sacred to St. Michael ; in France, to St. Martin ; in Scotland, where dainties are not going every day, “ 'Twas Christmas sent its savoury goose." The Michaelmas goose is said to owe its origin to Queen Elizabeth's dining on one at the table of an English baronet on that happy day when she received tidings of the dispersion of the Spanish Armada; in commemoration of which she ordered the Goose to make its appearance every Michaelmas. In some places, particularly Caithness, geese are cured and smoked, and are highly relishing. Smoked Solan geese are well known as contributing to the abundance of a Scottish breakfast, though too rank and fishy-flavoured for unpractised palates. Slices are eaten as whets, or relishes. The goose has made some figure in the English history. The churl- ishness of RICHARD CEUR DE LION, a sovereign usually good-natured, and distinguished for an insatiable appetite and vigorous digestion, in an affair of roast goose, was the true cause of his captivity in Germany. † A young salted goose answers very well dressed as duck in saur croute.-P. T. ĎUCKS AND PHEASANTS. 121 of a rich, warm brown. Green pease are indissolubly allied with ducklings.-Sauce, Apple-sauce, onion, or sage sauce, or Dr. REDGILL’s sauce for goose, duck, &c. (See Nos. 292, 293.)— Wild Ducks are roasted in the same way, but made very crisp ; and as they are smaller, they take less time, from twenty-five minutes to half an hour.–Sauce, PLEYDEL's sauce for wild fowl; Orange Gravy-sauce ; or No. 295–The above receipt is also applicable to Teal and Widgeons.-Obs. Some epicures prefer all wild fowl underdone, to have the flavour in perfection; and to secure this, they eat it without sauce. All sorts of wild fowl require to be longer kept than your “tame villatic fowl," because they are drier in the flesh, for the same reasons that a city Alderman is more abounding in juices than a Backwoodsman or an Indian hunter. — See Hashcd Duck, Made Dishes, 8c. 30. TO ROAST PHEASANTS AND PARTRIDGES. THESE birds are trussed in the same manner: the craw is drawn out by a slit in the neck, the head is left on, and the legs of the partridge are tucked across each other. Put a little fresh butter inside ; baste frequently, and dust with flour to froth; the fire must be brisk and clear. A partridge will take from twenty to twenty-five minutes ; a pheasant from thirty to forty-five. Make a round of toast; having pared off the outer crust, moisten it in hot water or broth, press and butter it; and soak it in the dripping in the pan, and serve the partridges on it. This is lighter than fried bread-crumbs which many good cooks use for these birds. Pheasants require made gravy. It may be made of scrag of mutton, or knuckle of veal, but is better of beef, and best of all of game, when that is in plenty. (See Brown Gravy-sauce, Bread-sauce, or Rice- sauce.)-Obs. We do not recommend the ornament of the pheasant's best tail-feather stuck in his tail; though such things are still heard of. Guinea and pea fowl are dressed and served exactly as pheasants; and by a fiction of cookery, when a brace cannot be procured, a fowl is, on occasion, converted into a pheasant. ON KEEPING GAME.—Necessity, and the vanity of producing at a dinner what is rare and far-travelled, must first have 122 CHAP. III.-ROASTING, introduced among cleanly, civilized nations, the custom of over-keeping game, till in time it came to be considered as essential to its perfection that it be kept till putrid, and that what has not flavour may at least have fumet. It is at the same time indispensable thatgame be kept till tender, and the flavour brought out. The same principle applies here as in keeping pears and plums to mellow, after they are gathered. Game, as we have said before, must be longer kept than domestic fowls, to be in proper condition for the table. A great deal has been said on preserving provisions of late years; but we are afraid little has been done. We are certain • that very few of the practices recommended have been adopted, and chiefly because that, when tried, they were found wanting. Form, colour, and material may be pre- served; but flavour, and even nutritious qualities, have fled before the pyroligneous acid, and the genius of Appert ; and mummy partridges, and embalmed green pease, sur- vive to please the eye and fill the table—and this so far is highly desirable-but sadly disappoint the palate. Game - we speak not of giving pheasants and grouse to immor- tality--may be kept good a long while, by drawing, crop- ping, picking, and (without washing) rubbing with equal parts of salt, pounded loaf-sugar, and a little pepper. It is a great mistake to wet, much less to wash, any fresh thing intended to be kept. Charcoal and chloride of soda, may also be employed to retard putrefaction. Lay a thin muslin cloth over the birds, and place lumps of charcoal under them and over the cloth. Charcoal baskets and closets may be had on the scale adapted to small establishments. We have no faith in charcoal doing much good in the way of restoring what is much tainted, though this is often confidently asserted. The knife applied to the worst parts, scraping and constantly removing the musti- ness, and, when to be used, washing with hot water, is the preferable method. Game, when it is wished to be kept to grace a gala day, besides the above precautions, may be parboiled or par-roasted; in short, kept for ten minutes in boiling water, or laid to the fire for seven minutes, which must be made to touch all parts. Then dry thoroughly, and to keep, use salt, sugar, and pepper, PIGEONS, 123 as above. Before roasting, cleanse from this seasoning, and season with a little fresh pepper. But the preserva- tion of game depends as much on the sportsman as on the cook. A bird or hare much mangled by shot will taint far more quickly than one killed in a “gentlemanly way;" and what has fallen into the water, than that which drops on land. For some seasons back the southern sportsmen, who frequent the Highland moors, have paid great atten- tion to preserving and packing their game. Stuffing with and packing in hops is found to answer better than any other method yet employed, and is now generally resorted to. The date of shooting is written on a card tied to the birds ; so that the cook cannot be led astray. 31. TO ROAST WOODCOCKS, SNIPES, PLOVERS, RAILS, AND ORTOLANS. Keep them till tender. They must not be drawn, as the intestines are considered a delicacy. (This rule ad- mits of exceptions. The proverb says, “ what is one man's meat is another man's poison.”) Hook to your bottle-jack or tie them on a bird-spit, which fix to the spit, and lay down to a clear brisk fire. Lay slices of moistened toast in the dripping-pan, to catch the trail. These birds and moor-game require to be deluged with butter in roasting. Dish them on the toasts, pour clear brown beef or game gravy very hot into the dish, and set it on a hot table, or over steam, or a spirit lamp. These birds will take from twenty-five to thirty minutes, in proportion to the size. Sauce, PLEYDEL's sauce for wild fowl. Garnish with slices of lemon, or bitter orange, and fried bread-crumbs. Obs. French cooks stuff woodcocks with chopped truffles, and either roast them, or stew them with fire under and over the pot. The trail is sometimes cooked in gravy and butter, and poured over the toast. French cooks lay slices of lemon over the breasts of the partridges, on these slices of lard, and above all fasten paper. Dr. Hunter recommends a stuffing of minced beef or veal for a cock-pheasant, the flesh of which is rather insipid to English palates. This may be more acceptable to some than the French practice of enriching these birds by larding. 124 CHAP. III.-ROASTING. 32. TO ROAST GROUSE, BLACK COCK, AND PTARMIGAN. Truss with the head under the wing. They require a sharp, clear fire, must be well basted, and not over- done. Serve on a buttered toast soaked in the dripping-pan, and put brown beef gravy in the dish. In this and the above receipt we recommend plain melted butter instead of meat-gravy, to those who wish to retain the native flavour of the birds.-Rice-sauce, or PLEYDEL's Sauce; also Orange- gravy.- Obs. The French often soak the toasts in lemon- juice before they are laid in the dripping-pan, an elegant practice. M. Soyer, an artiste of some authority, gives many receipts of his own invention for grouse. His grouse à la Rob Roy, is in one sense piquant. He wraps the birds, when to be roasted, in fat bacon and sprigs of heather, moistened with a glass of whisky ! His grouse à la Bonnie lassie, will be a favourite with young sportsmen, though, except the name, it has no particular claim to notice. His grouse salad, however, the Salade de Grouse à la Soyer, is magnifique. The recipe may be thus abridged : Put a thin rim of butter round a dish, and on this stick a high border of hard boiled eggs cut into four lengthwise, with a bit cut off to make them stand. Fill the centre with a nice fresh salad, and tastefully ornament the egy border with fillets of anchovies, cut beetroot, or gher- kins; cut three under-roasted grouse into neat small pieces; and have prepared a sauce made of two table-spoonsful of finely chopped eschalots; two of pounded sugar, the yolks of two eggs, two table-spoonsful of chopped tarragon, and chervil, a salt- spoonful of white pepper, and two of salt: with these, gradu- ally mix twelve table-spoonsful of salad oil, and three of Chili vinegar : mix all well and put the mixture on the ice. “When ready to serve,” continues our authority, “whip half a pint of cream rather stiff, and add to the sauce : pour a little over the salad, upon which lay first the worst pieces of the grouse, over which pour more sauce, dressing them pyramidically." This salad, M. Soyer confesses, is better adapted to gentlemen than ladies. It was first served in Paris at a competition of the most cele- brated artistes of the Stove, on whose head certain English moblemen and gentlemen had bets. What cook can fail to envy the Chef of the Reform Club, when he is able to say, “ My first course, being full of novelty, gained the approbation of the whole party;" but the salade created such an unexpected effect, that in brief the inventor was invited to the honour of the sitting, and over several rosudes of exquisite Lafitte, it was christened by General Sir Alexander Duff, who presided over the noble party, “ SALADE DE GROUSE À LA SOYER!” These are moments which occur but once in a man's life. This was M. Soyer's Waterloo, or Trafalgar; his Bridge of Lodi; his Austerlitz. PIGEONS—LARKS-HARE, &c. 125 33. TO ROAST PIGEONS. Let them be cropped and drawn as soon as killed, and wiped inside as well as possible. They will be ready for the spit in from six to forty-eight hours, according to age and the weather; and are in high season from June to Novem- ber. If kept long, they lose their flavour. When to be dressed, they must, (when drawn,) be well washed in several waters ; and great care must be taken (as in all birds) not to break the intestines in drawing them. Stuff with parsley parboiled and chopped, and about the size of a nutmeg of butter for each bird, with a few bread-crumbs, and the liver chopped, if it is liked. Season rather highly with pepper and salt. Twenty to twenty-five minutes will roast them. Dust with flour, and froth, (if you like frothing,) with fresh butter. Parsley and butter, or plain melted butter, is served in the dish, and is more suitable for mild-flavoured birds than meat gravy, which has so strong a predominating flavour of its own. - Bread-sauce, Orange Gravy-sauce, or Rice-sauce. — Serve with dressed French beans, asparagus, or cucumber. Garnish with fried bread-crumbs, or slices of bitter orange. 34. TO ROAST LARKS AND WHEATEARS. WHEN well cleaned, dip them in beat yolk of egg, and roll them in bread-crumbs. Put a small bit of butter in each bird. Spit on a lark-spit, and fasten that to the spit, or hook to your bottle-jack. Baste with plenty of good butter, which is most essential in roasting all the smaller birds. Strew sifted bread-crumbs over the birds as they roast. From twelve to fifteen minutes will do them. Serve fried bread-crumbs, and garnish with fried crumbs or crisp parsley.-Obs. Some good cooks put a thin small slice of bacon between the birds when they are spitted, to nourish them. This is good practice. 35. TO ROAST HARE, FAWN, OR KID. A HARE will keep from a fortnight to three weeks, if pro- perly managed ; and is seldom fit for roasting before eight days, though for soup it should be used nearly as soon as killed. A hare keeps best when not opened for some days; and the vent and mouth may be tied, to prevent the air from hastening the process of putrefaction. When kept 126 CHAP. III.- ROASTING. four days in this state (if the object is to keep it as long as possible,) it may be paunched, and the heart and liver taken out and scalded. Wash and soak it in water when to be dressed, changing the water several times. Make a little slit in the neck, and in every part where the blood has gathered, to let it out. Drip dry, and truss it. An old hare is not fit for roasting. Even a young hare makes but a dry roast, so that a rich and relishing stuffing is a sine qua non when dressing it in this manner. — For stuffing, take the grated crumbs of a penny-loaf, a quarter of a pound of beef suet, or three ounces of marrow, a small quantity of parsley and eschalot, a boned anchovy, * a tea-spoonful of grated lemon-peel, and the same quantity of nutmeg ; salt and pepper to taste, a little cayenne, and the liver parboiled and chopped, if in a sound state,-and no liver should be used if unsound. Mix the ingredients with the yolk of an egg, and the crumbs soaked in a very little red wine. Put this in the hare, and sew it closely up. Baste well with plenty of butter for three quarters of an hour; then drain the drip- ping-pan into a basin; and baste with cream and yolk of egg well beat, and flour lightly. It will take from an hour and a half to two hours. For sauce, venison sauce, or the drippings of the hare mixed with cream, or with claret, a squeeze of a lemon, some thin slices of bread, and a bit of fresh butter, boiled up with the skimmed drippings strained and highly seasoned ; also currant jelly. (See Hashed Hare, Hare Collops, Made Dishes of Hare, &c.)- Obs. In France a roasted hare is always larded on the back ; but the French seldom roast this dry animal from choice. — For an excellent method of dressing hare, see Civet and Lièvre en daube, French Cookery. By a fiction of cookery, the lean inside of a large sirloin is cut up, stuffed as a hare, skewered, tied with tape, and roasted. It requires to be highly seasoned, and in truth eats much better than most roasted hares. In rural situa- tions, a hare is often stuffed with mashed potato, grated * We do not like anchovy to meat dishes ourselves, but tolerate it as a relish admired by some contemporary authorities. ON BAKING MEAT, 127 ham, suet, and onion, and highly seasoned with pepper and allspice ; nor, though a plain, is this a bad fashion. 36. A young Fawn is treated precisely as a hare, but must not be kept above one day. When somewhat grown, it may be roasted in quarters, or in a haunch or a saddle. Cover with veal or lamb caul in roasting, or slices of fat bacon, and baste well. Froth in the usual manner, and serve with venison-sauce, and a good gravy in the dish. A Kid is roasted as a hare. - Obs. These are all, at least hare and kid, dry meats, and are better dressed, the for- mer as soup or collops, the latter as collops or stew, or both in the French fashion. A RABBIT, when large, may be stuffed and roasted as a hare ; a leveret is not stuffed. Å hare's ears are reckoned a dainty by some affected epicures ; — they must be singed and cleaned. We hold them in equal respect with duck's feet, but are very toler- ant of those who admire them. Baste and dredge as in roasting poultry, and make a sauce of the chopped liver and chopped parsley, stirred into melted butter. 37. ON BAKING MEAT. The baker's, or the family oven, may often be substi- tuted for the spit, with greater economy and convenience ; and for some particular joints and kinds of viands it is even more suitable. A baking dish ought to be in form of a trough, and at least six inches deep, that the meat, covered if possible, may in fact stew in its own juices, as it gets little or no basting. But a pig must be baked in a shallow tin dish for sake of the crackling. The dripping- pan of a Bachelor's or Dutch oven will answer very well. Prepare things to be baked as for roasting, but season more highly. A fillet or breast of veal, if not very high fed, will bake as well as it will roast. The oven is equally suitable to a LEG of pork, but a loin requires to be sweated in roasting-it is too greasy when baked. A pig, if not very old, and if the baker is careful to anoint the crackling, as in roasting, bakes very well. His ears and tail must be put in buttered papers, if you would hope ever to see them return from the oven. Geese and ducks may be baked, if not old and rank ; in which case, they must either be first parboiled or sweated in roasting before the 128 CHAP. 111.-OVEN COOKERY. fire, to overcome the flavour. A leg of mutton, with potatoes peeled, and an onion shred, makes, when baked, an excellent plain family dish, the mucilage of the potatoes combines so kindly with the fat of the meat.* The noble Sirloin disdains to be cribbed in the oven ; but a rump of beef, salted for a few days, washed, highly seasoned, and baked with plenty of butter in a deep covered vessel, eats short, and is esteemed a delicacy. A hare or rabbit may be baked, allowing plenty of butter in the dish, and put- ting a large piece, or a rich stuffing into the inside of the animal. Herrings, sprats, salmon, haddocks, and eels, may all be highly seasoned and baked with advantage. Bakers' ovens have one great drawback; — they are accused of being sad suckers in, indeed real sponges for gravy; so that they largely indemnify the bakers' apprentices for the trouble saved to the cook. Besides, meat is seldom got home in season from those wholesale receptacles for all manner of joints; and about the dinner hour, what dismay is often created by the face of the maid, - “Who comes with most terrible news from the baker, - That insolent sloven ! Who shut out the pasty when shutting his oven.” Hams are often soaked and baked, where they are used in great quantity, and where the object is to cut thin. + Fish, if baked, must have plenty of butter. Since our Seventh edition was published, it has been ascertained by experiment that meat loses less weight in baking than by any other mode of cookery. But, alas! it loses flavour. * We have doubly admired this homely dish, the happy artisan's social Sunday dinner, since reading the life of the poet Crabbe. + A few years since the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens lost his celebrated carver of hams, when he advertised for a new operator in that department of harmless anatomy. One of notoriety applied, when the worthy proprietor asked him how many acres he could cover with one fine ham ; upon which he replied, “ He did not stand upon an acre or two more or less, but could cover the whole of his gardens with one ham.” On this he was instantly hired, and told he was the very fellow for this establishment, and to cut away for the benefit of the con- cern and of mankind at large. To grow a shoulder or leg of mutton.—This art is said to be well understood by London and other bakers. liave a very small leg or shoulder ; change it upon a customer for one a little larger, and that upon another for one larger still, and by the dinner-hour, you will have a heavy excellent joint grown out of your original very small one.-P. T. 129 CHAPTER IV. BROILING. I have no dainties for ye, gentlemen, Nor loads of meat to make the room smell of 'em; Only a dish to every man I dedicate. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. BROIling is the most delicate manual office which the common cook has to perform, and one which requires the greatest practical facility and the most unremitting vigilance. She may turn her back on the stew-pan or the spit, but the gridiron can never be left with impunity. A valuable and large portion of society is interested in this culinary process. It is the simple mode of cookery, best suited, and generally the most acceptable, to the sickly, fickle appetite of the invalid and valetudinarian. It is also recommended by comfort and economy to solitary diners and small families, as by this means the smallest morsel of meat can be dressed hot as delicately as the largest quantity; and few grown persons relish cold pro- visions, if they could help themselves. The French are admired for their skill in blending flavours, heightening relishes, imparting sapid qualities to what is dry or harsh, and giving piquancy to what is naturally insipid. But, as a nation, they are more entitled to praise for that graduated scale of cookery which descends to the very lowest class of society, and gives comfort and relish even to the meal of the Parisian tub-woman. Every French man and woman is something of a cook. Hence the pro- verb, “ As many Frenchmen as many cooks." This they owe in some measure to the scale of their utensils, and to the tiny furnaces and chafing dishes, and the patience and skill which enable them to deal in all manner of ways with the smallest bit of meat, while their contemporaries in London have too often but the one resource - the Sun- day oven- for the large expensive joint, which loses both its flavour and succulence in baking, and, at all events, must be eaten cold by the family till it is finished. Such 1:30 CHAP. IV.- BROIL!NG. families know nothing of the pot au fer; they seldom s?3 SUU, roots, or regetalles, save perhaps a few potatoes on the hot day. The cottage cookery of both rural and urbane Scotland is superior to that of its neighbours, from the canny skill of the Scotch in the potage, and in the use of roots and vegetables; and this they manage with no additional expense of fuel. BROILING is not, however, the cookery of the cottage economist, and it is of Broiling we now treat. The state of the fire is the primary consideration. It must be clear and radiant, consequently free of smoke. A fire half burnt out is best. The gridiron should rather be over long than tuo short, and ought to be so contrived that it can be placed at the distance of three, four, five, or six inches above the fire. If a gridiron is well polished at first, there can be no good cause for the bars ever becoming black. Let it be always rubbed when put aside, not only bright on the top of the bars, but clear of soot and grease between them. The bars should be nar- rowest at top, that they may not intercept the heat of the fire. It is well to have one gridiron for fish, and another for poultry and steaks. The gridiron must be hot through (which will take five minutes before any thing is put on it. It must then be rubbed with a piece of fresh suct, to prevent the meat from being branded or sticking to the hot bars. If for fish, rub with chalk. Great care must be taken to keep broiled dishes hot, as the smallness of the articles exposes them more to the action of cold than meat cooked in large pieces. There is great convenience sometimes in the perpen- dicular gridirons ; and there is a trifling kind made double of strong wire, with a hinge, and small dripping-pan and hooks, which permits the steaks, bacon, or fish to be turned by merely turning the implement. On the small scale of cookery, these are very convenient. They hang before the fire, or lie over it. P.S. We have been so often taken in with wonderful newly-invented frying-pans and infallible gridirons, that we do not venture to recommend any form. We have BEEF-STEAKS. 131 collected half a garret-full of those and other culinary inventions, and on trial found nearly the whole useless, or no improvement on the old-fashioned utensils. 38. TO BKOIL BEEF-STEAKS.-P. T., ESQ. In England, the best steaks are cut from the middle of the rump. In Ireland, Scotland, and France, steaks which are thought more delicate are oftener cut, like chops, from the sirloin or spare-rib, or edge-bone, trimming off the superfluous fat, and chopping away the bone. Beef for steaks must be killed for from three to five days, or more, to eat tender ; but it does not require to be kept so long as a large piece to be roasted. Cut the steaks of equal thickness, (about three quarters of an inch,) beat them out to a level — though much beating is not recom- mended, as it expresses the juices from the meat. Let them be from three to four inches in breadth, and from four to six in length. Sirloin steaks shape themselves. Trim off the bone. When the gridiron is hot, rub the bars with suet, sprinkle a little salt over the fire, and pepper and lay on the steaks. Turn them frequently with steak tongs, to do them equally and keep in the juices. When the fat blazes and smokes very much, remove the gridiron for a second, till the blaze is past. From ten to twelve minutes will do a steak. Have a hot dish (rubbed with eschalot if you like) placed by the side or over the fire, near the edge of the gridiron. When turning the steaks with the tongs, if there be on the top any gravy that would fall in turning, drop it quickly into this dislı to preserve it. Steaks are generally preferred rather underdone. Sprinkle them with a little salt just before they are dished in the hot dish, in which a little eschalot, finely shred, may be put, with a bit of fresh butter, and a spoonful of catsup laid to heat in the dish, if liked. Turn the steaks over with the tongs once or twice in th: dish, squeezing them to express the gravy. In Scotlandi, shred raw onion is still sometimes employed instead of eschalot. Garnish with pickled red cabbage or cucumber, or horseradish scraped as for roast beef. - Oyster-sauce, Eschalot-sauce, Brown onion-sauce, Eschalot-wine, Carach- - sauce, General's-sauce, or Miser's sauce.---Those who relish 132 CILAP. IV.-BROILING. a well-dressed beef-steak * discard all sauces, save the native juices of the meat, with the addition of pepper, salt, * “ Ask a dozen healthy men under thirty," said Touchwood, “ what was the very best dinner they ever made in their lives, and I bet from eight to ten of them answer, "a beef steak, -and they give you the history of this unique regale, generally found on a journey, a pedestrian tour, or fishing excursion. Yes, gentlemen ! England may well pride herself on a bonne bouche which her rival exhausts herself in vain endeavours to imitate, though she has never yet succeeded in even spelling its Christian name. The rum'-stik and bif-stik de mouton, are not more unlike in orthography than in quality, to the juicy, delicately- browned, hot, tender rump-steak, which has immortalized the name of the “ CLUB" and of Dolly. But I am sorry to say that beef-sticks, literally so, are too often met with even in our own island. I have calculated that in the cities of London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and Glasgow alone, upwards of a hundred thousand young men dine on beef- steaks every day of the week, --students, apprentices, clerks, .gentle. men of the press,' and so forth. What a clattering of gridirons here! Now, if our receipt, by instructing the thousands of slip-shod wenches who dress those messes, tends to keep said youths from taverns and ordinaries, true to the old sober habits of their country-home- dinners, I shall not think this page ill bestowed, Dr. RedGill; though you hint that too much space is occupied by simple elementary pro- cesses.”—The Doctor assured his friend, that he held no such opinion, and suggested that the girls attending the National Schools ought to be early initiated into these mysteries, as in the admirable French insti- tution at Ecouen, near Paris, which would be conferring a real kindness on those they were destined to serve in future life.-“ No spot on earth once," said WINTERBLOSSOM,“ like the Old FLESH MARKET Close of Edinburgh, for a spare-rib steak; and I believe it has not yet quite lost its ancient celebrity. I never ate one in perfection but there:”-and the old beau related, with much vivacity, the adventures of a night on which he had accompanied to this resort the eccentric Earl of of Kellie, and a party of Caledonian lon-vivants of the last age.- “ But the receipt ?" inquired REDGILL, with grave earnestness, cor- responding to the magnitude of the subject. 50! neither more nor less than that those taverns were, and are kept by butchers' wives, so that the primest of the meat found, and finds its way there. In the darksome den into which we dived -- Luckie Middritt's of savoury memory-hungry customers consumed beef-steaks by wholesale, at all hours of the night and day, or rather of the perpetual night. The coal fire was always in prime condition, and short way between the brander and the mouth, Doctor,- served hot and hot, no distance between the kitchen and the hall: before the collop-tongs had collapsed in the hands of the cook, in rushed the red-legged waiting-wench with the smoking wooden platter. Every man held his weapon ready, and his teeth set; trencher after trencher followed. -- Ay, this is to eat a steak in perfection. It can be known but once!" -- The listening Doctor compressed his lips, and sighed in accordance with this melan- choly view of life. There were times-hours of crudities and incipient evil digestion --when the hand of a child could have staggered the BEEF-STEAKS AND MUTTON CIIOPS. 133 and at most a particle, à soupçon, of minced eschalot or onion. 39. BEEF-STEAKS WITH POTATOES OR BEANS, - An Excellent French Dish. Flatten and season with salt and mixed spices neatly- cut rump-steaks. Dip them in melted butter to keep in their native gravy whilst broiling. Have ready, in a dish by the fire, a very little parboiled and finely-shred parsley, with butter, pepper, and salt, in the hot dish. When the steaks are broiled, as directed in the last receipt, lay them on this, and turn them quickly over once or twice, and arrange very hot fried potatoes around them, or potato fritters; or serve beans. 40. TO BROIL MITION AND LAMB CHOPS, &c. MUTTON and Lamb CHOPS, RABBIT cut in quarters, SWEETBREADS and KIDNEYS, may be broiled as above; but particular care must be taken that the fat which drops from mutton does not smoke the chops, - to prevent which, turn them frequently, and remove or place the gridiron aslant when the smoke rises. Kidneys must be stretched on a skewer to prevent their curling with the heat. Each of these things may be higher dressed by dipping them in egg, and then in a mixture of bread- crumbs and savoury herbs, which may farther be strewed strongest principles of his culinary belief. The vision of some three pounds of steaks, consumed at a country inn in Somersetshire, with all the vigour and relish of youthful appetite, sharpened by exercise, rose between him and the well-replenished board that now courted his advances; and the Doctor moralized on the vanity and nothingness of all sublunary pleasures, while he handed round the mock turtle soup. “No beef-steak, after all, equal to that of my friends the Abyssinians," said Touchwood. The Doctor anathematized the savage and bloody process ::-"Nor any receipt to that of Macbeth,” said WINTERBLOSSOM “not he of the hotel, but of Shakspere, Doctor;" and he spouted, " If it were done, when 'tis done, Then 'twere well that it were done quickly!" “Stolen from the New Monthly,” said JEKYLL, only half-aside: and the Doctor, more than ever convinced that little assistance for the Great Work could be obtained either from the finical Guardsman or the flighty Old Beau, gave himself in seriousness to the serious business of dining. 134 CHAP. IV.--BROILING. over them as they broil. - Sauces for mutton-chops the same as for beef-steaks. For Lamb, the Catsup is better omitted, and Cucumber or Maîire d'Hôtel sauce, substituted. Sweetbreads and Kidneys are better fried than broiled. 41. TO BROIL PORK CHOPS. PORK-CHOPS should be delicately cut from the neck or loin, and trimmed from part of the fat. Dust them with white pepper, with which is mixed a spice of cayenne. Broil them for from fifteen to twenty minutes over a clear sharp fire, strewing over them a little salt when they are nearly cooked. They must be served broiling hot and with a hot gravy, with which à tea-spoonful of inade- mustard, and a little dry sage pulverized, may be mixed. Redgill-sauce or Sauce Robert possesses still more gusto for thorough-bred pork-eaters. * Stewed cabbage is served with them. Bacon, in thin slices, may be nicely broiled over a slow fire, in a sheet of paper, tucked up in form of a small dripping-pan; or on a toaster before the fire. N.B. We would, unless the fire is temptingly radiant and the cook dexterous, recommend that pork-chops be dressed in the American oven before a brisk fire, which will prevent their becoming black, and having the smeary appearance which those dressed on the gridiron too often exhibit; or they may be half-fried, crumbed, and then broiled brown. 42. TO BROIL YOUNG CHICKENS AND PIGEONS. . A BROILED chicken or pigeon is thought lighter than one roasted, and is at least more expeditiously cooked. It is therefore preferred for the sick, or the hungry and hasty. * PORK-CHOPS.--It is related that FUSELI, when he wished to summon Nightmare, and bid her sit for her picture, or any other grotesque or horrible personation, wont to prime himself for the feat by supping on about three pounds of half-dressed pork-chops. Though that accommodating Prince, RICHARD CãUR DE LION, could, as has been seen, eat any thing, all being fish that came in the net when he was sharp-set, he had, like other epicures, his favourite dish, which was Porkified Saracen, curried. On recovering in Syria from an ague, his first violent longing was for pork, which is said to approach nea to human flesh than any other sort of meat. Pork is indeed “a passionate” food. It tolerates no medium. It must be idolized or detested, whetl.er as flitch or gammon, souse or sausage, brawn or griskin. CHICKEYS, PIGEONS, AND PARTROS. 1:05 Singe as directed, ze page 103. Pick and truss, wash and dry it, and cut down the back: season with pepper and salt, and place the inside on & gridiron previously heated, and put at a greater distance from the fire than for a steak. This dish will take a full half-hour to cook perfectly. The gridiron sheuld occasionally be taken off the fire, and the birds rubbed with butter tied in a muslin rag. Probe with a knife to see if they are done. Place your chickens or pigeons in a hot dish. For chickens, serve parsley and butter, or gravy with mush- rooms, or sauce à la Tartare. Garnish with slices of lemon, and the liver and gizzard (the latter scored) highly seasoned with pepper and salt, and also broiled. For pigeons—the sauce is melted butter, flavoured with mush- room-catsup, or parsley and butter in the dish. Pigeons may be broiled without splitting. Truss as for boiling, and flatten the breast-bone. Stuff each pigeon with a bit of butter rolled in chopped parsley, and season pretty high with pepper and salt. Tie them close at both ends, and turn them frequently over a clear fire that they may be nicely browned and equally done ; or they may be rubbed with egg, and afterwards rolled in bread-crumbs and chopped parsley, and dredged with this mixture while broiling.-Obs. Pigeons are not so light, but more savoury, when broiled whole. When a chicken is broiled for an invalid or convalescent, it may be proper to skin it, as the skin is the most indigestible part of any bird, and to use as little butter as possible. A chicken for an invalid may be par-roasted, cut up, and then broiled. — It will sometimes be more convenient to dress chickens as directed for partridges, in the next receipt. 43. TO BROIL PARTRIDGES OR MOOR-GAME. Having prepared, make them firm in the frying-pan, turning them once. Finish on the gridiron; and serve them in a hot dish, with Poor Man's sauce.--Another good way. French cooks, after trussing the fowl or chicken, often cut down the back, flatten the breast, break the leg-bones, simmer in butter with white pepper and salt, and finish on the gridiron. 136 CHAPTER V. FRYING. Passion, O me! how I run on, Here's that which should be thought upon The business of the kitchen's great And it is fit that men should eat, Nor was it e'er denied. SUCKLING. Fryin, if not the lightest, is a very convenient mode of cookery to those who wish to unite comfort with economy; and, certain things premised, it is not difficult of manage- ment. The frying fat, be it lard, oil, butter, dripping, or top-pot, must not be stale, much less rancid ; the fire must not be smoky, and the frying-pan, but not the sauté-pan, (which our cooks corrupt into the sooty-pan,) ought to be thicker in the bottom than frying-pans are usually made. Fresh butter, clarified from all foreign substances, pure “ British oil," is the most delicate sub- stance in which meat can be fried, as it communicates no predominating flavour. Oil, lard, or what answers equally well, clarified fresh suet, or dripping (the “kitchen- fee” of the Cleikum,) are better adapted than butter for fish, eggs, or any thing watery. When butter for frying is clarified, it is not nearly so apt to burn, which effect is produced by the water or milk it contains. Fritters and sweet things must have either good butter, or good Jard, or, where it can be afforded, good oil. The fire must not be too fierce, nor yet too slack, as fat is suscep- tible of that intense degree of heat which will scorch whatever is placed in it before the substance to be fried could be heated through; and, on the other hand, if not hot enough, the fry will be merely sodden in fat, stewed and not fried. If fish, they would be limber, apt to break, of a bad colour, and have no crispness. Fish are more difficult to fry than meat, from the softness of the fibre. They consequently require a greater degree of attention. Have an oval-shaped frying-pan for fish, as FRYING FATS-STEAKS. 137 this form requires much less of the frying material than one of a round shape. A wire-frame fitted to the size of the pan, and raised about a quarter inch from its bottom is coming into general use for fish: lay the fish on it ; covered with the frying material. Ascertain the heat of the fat, which must completely cover the fish, by throwing a bit of bread into it, as you try the heat of an oven by a bit of wet paste placed in it. Fat that has fried veal-cutlets, lamb-steaks, &c., may be used afterwards for fish, if allowed to settle and poured clean from the sediment; but what is used for fish would spoil any sort of meat, though it will answer repeatedly for fish, especially of the same sort, if strained when used. Frying fat becomes richer from having meat fried in it; and if carefully taken up, may be used repeatedly.—See Fritters, Omelets, &c. 44. TO CLARIFY BUTTER FOR POTTING OR FRYING, AND SUET, AND DRIPPING FOR FRYING. Cur the butter in slices; put it into a jar, which set in a pan of boiling water till it melt. Skim it, take it out, and when it has cooled a little, pour it gently off, holding back the curdy sediment. Mutton and beef suet and lard may be roughly chopped, have all the skin and fibrous parts taken out, and either be gradually melted over a slow fire, or before the fire in a Dutch oven, taking away the fat as it drops. In this last process there is less danger of the fat acquiring a burnt taste than when rapidly melted into tallow over the fire. Another good way.--Boil down the suet in water, and when cold take off the cake of fat. In each case strain the fat and keep back the sediment. Dripping and melted suet* are used for pie-crust, and for basting and soups, as well as for frying. Their suitableness for all these purposes depends, in a great measure, on the way in which they have been melted and preserved. When dripping is to be kept for soup it may be seasoned, not otherwise. It may be very highly purified by twice clarifying. A bit of * For an excellent way of using beef suet, see Paste of Beefsuet for Pies, &c. No. 774. 138 FRYING, CHAP. V. charcoal or a charred toast thrown into it will help to remove a rancid taint. 45. TO MELT LARD FOR FRYING, &c., AND TO MAKE LARD. · Either melt it as in last receipt, or skin, beat, and boil the hog's caul slowly, and lay it in a little water, working it with the land. When it will easily break with the fingers, let it cool, and rub it through a sieve. Hang the lard in bladders or nets in a cool place. Another way. – Melt the lard in a stone jar set in boiling water ; pour it carefully from the sediment, and keep it in bladders or small jars. LARD for larding.–Rub the lard when taken from the pig with pounded salt. Lay two pieces together, put a heavy weight over them. Let it lie from four to six weeks, then skewer and hang it to dry, in a dry, cool, airy place. It cannot be used for larding till it get firm. See Nos. 57, 58. 46. TO FRY BEEF STEAKS.-DR. R. Fry in butter, for twelve or fifteen minutes, pieces cut from the best part of the rump or any good joint, of the same size as for broiling. Fry them of a fine brown. The pan may be covered after the steaks are browned, which will render them more juicy. When done place them in a hot dish by the fire ; add to the gravy in the pan a small glass of red wine, and, if you like it, a small anchovy boned, pepper, salt, and a minced eschalot. Give it a boil up, and pour it over the steaks, which, like every fry and broil, must be served hot. Or fried steaks may be eaten with brown gravy, or onion-sauce, or fried onions, served very hot along with them. Garnish with pickles or scraped horseradish. The wine may be omitted. Potato- fritters or plain dumplings are a good accompaniment. 47. SCOTCH BEEF COLLOPS WITH ONIONS, OR COLLOP IN THE PAN.-M. D. Cut the meat rather thinner than for broiling ; make the butter hot, and place the collops in the frying-pan, with about the proportion of a couple of middle-sized onions sliced to each half-pound. If the butter be salt, pepper is used, but no additional salt. Brown, and then cover the pan with a close lid. When done, the collops may be drawn aside, and a little oyster-pickle or walnut- VEAL CUTLETS. 139 catsup and boiling water added to the onion-gravy sauce in the pan. Dislı, and serve hot.* Ten minutes will dress them. 48. TO FRY VEAL CUTLETS, ENGLISH AND FRENCH WAY. Cut slices about half an inch thick from the fillet, back-ribs, or loin. If not equally cut, level them with a cutlet-bat, and shape round, about the size of the mouth of a large tea-cup. Have plenty of lard or fresh butter to fry them in, not dripping, which is unsuitable to white meats. Keep the pan at a good distance from the fire, if the cutlets be thick; when browned on both sides of a light golden-tinged brown, the pan may be held higher above the fire and covered. Have ready some gravy made thus : A quarter-pound of the skins, bones, or trim- mings of the cutlets, a blade of mace, the head of a young onion, a sprig of parsley, a good bit of lemon-peel, six white peppercorns, a bay leaf, if the flavour is liked, and a pint of water, which may boil down one-half; add fresh butter, the size of a large walnut, rolled in flour, or white roux. When this gravy is thickened, strain, boil again, and pour it hot over the cutlets, which must be served very hot. This sauce may be made brown, by the addition of a little walnut or mushroom catsup. Another way.-- Veal cutlets may be more highly dressed by brushing the slices with beat egg, and strewing over them a mixture of bread-crumbs, parsley, and lemon-peel chopped very fine, and a scrape of nutmeg. They must be fried in plenty of butter. When the cutlets are done, place them before the fire in a hot dish, covered, and to the gravy in the pan add veal broth or gravy, and white roux, or a few little bits of butter separately rolled in flour; let it boil and thicken; add a little lemon-juice and white pepper, skim the sauce, and pour it over the cutlets. Where the flavour of lemon- thyme is liked, a sprig of it makes a grateful addition to sauce for veal cutlets. French way, which the French call * This national dish possessed rather too much gusto for JEKYLL; but the Doctor admired it exceedingly, and even suggested that, inde- pendently of the collops, this was an excell ha collons. this was an excellent method of preparing onion gravy, which only required the addition of a little red wine and lemon juice, to those who like an acid relish, to be a complete sauce. 140 CHAP. V.-FRYING. the English:-Cut nice small cutlets from the neck, skin- ning and trimming them from fat. Egy, crumb, and fry them. In another pan fry as many delicate slices of bacon as you have cutlets. Dress round on a very hot dish, a cutlet and a slice of bacon laid edgeways on each other, and pour hot mushroom gravy in the centre. See Nos. 640, 641, 642, and Scotch collops, in Chap. National Dishes. 49. LAMB OR PORK CHOPS ARE fried in same manner as veal, and either plain or egged, * rolled in bread crumbs, and, when dished, garnished with slices of lemon, or crisped parsley. PorK-CHOPS may be fried as above, dipping them after they are egged in a mixture of chopped onion, sage, and bread-crumbs.—Obs. Care should be taken to have all chops, steaks, and cutlets of a good shape, neatly trimmed, and beat out to equal thick- ness, when not at first cut smoothly and equally. 50. TO FRY FRESH SAUSAGES.-DR. R. WHETHER pork, veal, or beef sausages, they are best fried in the same way, viz. slowly, that they may heat to the heart without bursting. Sausages ought to be dressed fresh, more especially those that are bought at cooks' shops, where it is the practice to put the crumb of fresh roll soaked in a certain proportion of water into them, which immediately ferments and turns the sausage-nieat sour. Very little butter or lard is required to fry pork or beef sausages; veal must have more. If in danger of bursting they may be pricked with a darning-needle ; but if gra- dually heated, unless they are fermenting, this precaution will not be necessary. They must be lightly dredged with flour to froth them, and drained from the fat, by lying on a dish before the fire. They are sometimes boiled, and frothed before the fire. - Obs. Sausages were wont to be fried with apples, pared, cored, and quartered; and gar- nished and served with the same: the practice is nearly obsolete. Poached eggs and fried bread, mashed, roasted, or scalloped potatoes, or stewed red cabbage, are more *“ To egg,”—to smear with beat egg, or dip in egg,--is an approved kitchen verb, from which TouchWOOD derived the Scotch phrase, to “egg up,” or “ egg on," incite, urge, or stimulate—the appetite. Dr. REDGILL had grave doubts as to this etymology. “To onion” is ano- ther buttery verb, which deserves to be more generally known. SAUSAGES-SWEETBREADS. 141 suitable to this rich and savoury dish. With Turkey, fowl, or veal, sausage is often more acceptable than even tongue or ham. To make sausages, see the Index. 51. TO FRY EGGS WITH BACON-HAM OR SAUSAGE.—P.T. But for this homely dish many an honest traveller would go without his dinner. The general fault is, that the bacon is often too hard, and cannot be cut into proper slices; to steep the slices even for a few minutes in luke- warm water would tend to remedy one defect; they must then be dried in the folds of a cloth. The colour of eggs is very easily hurt; so be sure that the frying-pan is de- licately clean. This, in all cases, is best known by melt- ing a little fat in it, pouring it out, and wiping hard while the pan is still hot. Let the bacon be nearly fried, draw it aside, and if the fat look in the least dark or burnt, pour it off, and, if nice cookery is wanted, let fresh material get hot before the eggs are broken and gently slipt in. Ladle the frying fat over them with an iron tinned spoon. When the eggs are done on the under side, dish the bacon in a hot dish, and either turn them or hold the pan before the fire a minute, or use a salamander, to take the raw off the upper side. Trim them as they lie in the pan; then take them up with a slice, and drain the grease off, before dish- ing them with the bacon. They are dished either on the slices of bacon, or laid in the dish, with the bacon placed neatly round them. In very nice cookery a separate pan should be used for frying the eggs, and some good cooks broil the ham, and fry the eggs only. 52. TO FRY SWEETBREADS. LET Sweetbreads always be slightly parboiled when they come from the butcher. When to be dressed, cut them into oblong slices, and either flour and fry them in butter, or egg them, then roll in bread-crumbs ; add a seasoning of lemon-peel, pepper, and a sprig of basil chopped. Garnish with crisped parsley : anchovy-sauce, or melted butter, with a small tea-spoonful of walnut or mushroom catsup stirred into it. Serve with them small slices of crisped bacon, or slices of sausage done in a cheese-toaster or Dutch oven. For Sweetbreads, see French Cookery. 142 CHAP, V.---PRYING, 53. TO FRY LAMB'S LIVER AND pig's HARSLET. Cut a sound fat liver into long thin slices. Soak in water, Gry in a cloth, and flour these. Fry them of a fine rich brown, in plenty of fresh butter or lard. Eschalot, or young onions, and pepper, may be added to the fry. Serve with hot gravy and stewed cucumbers, or cucumber-sauce. Garnish with fried parsley, --Obs. When liver is found either livid, black, or lumpy, it is surely unnecessary to notice, that, whether for sauce, stuffing, or frying, it is alike to be rejected. Liver may be parboiled, and finished by frying. Pig's Harslet.-Clean and parboil the lights, liver, sweetbread, and heart; slice, dredge with flour, season with pepper and salt, and fry with chopped onion and sage, in butter or lard, with a bit of bacon. The French make this dish fine by serving it with a sauce of claret and mustard. Harslet may be stewed, a good way, or roasted, skewered up in a caul. 54. TO FRY CALF'S LIVER AND BACON. Calf's liver is fried as above. When nearly done, or else in a separate pan, fry the bacon. Dish with a slice of bacon laid on each slice of liver; or they may be dished separately. Serve a little thickened gravy with a squeeze of lemon. Garnish with crisp parsley.-Obs. Sound ox- liver and bacon, done as above, make a good, cheap, but coarse dish. So do chopped potatoes, with fat bacon fried. 55. TO FRY VENISON COLLOPS, SCOTTISH. Cur nice steaks from the haunch, or slices neatly trimmed from the neck or loin. Have a gravy drawn from the bones and trimmings, ready thickened with butter rolled in lightly-browned flour. Strain it into a small stew-pan, boil, and add a squeeze of lemon or orange, and a small glass of claret :* pepper to taste, a salt-spoonful of salt, the size of a pin's head of cayenne, and a scrape of nutmeg. Fry and dish the collops hot, and pour this sauce over them. A still higher gout may be imparted to this sauce by eschalot wine, basil wine, or tarragon vinegar, chosen as * Claret, of all the red wines, is that, in general, best adapted to the use of the cook: wines are those generally used ; Champagne, Madeira, and Sherry especially, which are best suited to white meats and fish. : for higher flavour. Burgundy is preferred. vet white TRIPE. 143 may suit the taste of the eater. If those flavours are not liked, some old venison-eaters may relish a very little pounded fine sugar and vinegar in the gravy, and currant- jelly may be served in a sauce tureen. Garnish with fried crumbs. This is a very excellent way of dressing venison, particularly when it is not fat enough to roast well.–For Venison Minced Collops, see National Dishes. 56. TO FRY TRIPE AND COW-HEELS. TRIPE must be boiled as in No. 16, cut in pieces not too large, and dipped in a batter made of flour and eggs, with a little salt and minced onion, if you like, and fried for seven minutes of a rich light-brown.- IVhite Onion-sauce. -Obs. Cow Heel is cut into neat pieces, egged, rolled in crumbs, fried, and served in the same manner. The Club were not partial to these fries. They to a man preferred plain boiled tripe, or tripe fricasseed with a white sauce.- See Potted Heel, Irish, French, Birmingham and Glasgow Tripe. 57. TO PREPARE CRUMBS FOR CRUMBING AND FRYING, AND TO FRY CRUMBS AND PARSLEY. Toast carefully in an American oven, thin slices of bread with the crust off ; or, better, place it for a night in a cool oven to be bis-cuit, i.e. twice baked; when very crisp, crumble and roll or rub down into fine crumbs for things fried, or to dredge hams, bacon, or fish with. To fry parsley, have the frying-pan well filled with very hot drip- ping or lard. Have young parsley nicely picked, washed, drained, and then rubbed lightly between the folds of a cloth to dry. It must be fried quickly to get crisp. The moment it is done lift it with a slice, and place it before the fire on a sieve reversed, to drain and become more crisp; or it may be crisped in a Dutch oven before the fire. There is now a useful wire basket, for holding parsley while frying. Parsley fried is used for garnishing lamb-chops, liver, or any meat dish to which the flavour of parsley is suitable. Many things are served on fried parsley. (See Dried Herbs.) - BREAD-CRUMBS are fried and drained in the same manner, taking care that the fat is perfectly clear and transparent, and that the bread is 144 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. not burned. Sippets may be stamped with pastry stamps in the form of stars, the Maltese cross, triangles, diamonds, paper-kites, cocks’-combs, &c. &c. and nicely fried and drained before the fire to serve for garnishings. Fried bread and crumbs are most useful articles for garnishing, as they never fail, when well done, to be eaten with the dish they are employed to ornament. Another Way.-Fry in a wire basket; or, as a substitute, in a colander held among the frying fat. Crumbs will thus be easily lifted when dry and firm. Parslev fried may be afterwards dried in the oven. 58. TO FRY HERBS TO SERVE WITH BACON AND EGGS, OR CALI's LIVER. Take two handfuls of spinage, a bunch of parsley, and a few chives or young onions. Pick, cut, wash, drain, and stew them slowly in a very little broth and butter, taking care they do not burn. They may be fried in a net, or wire basket, placed in the frying fat. N.B. For Frying Fish, see No. 136. CHAPTER VI. BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat. French Proverb. Sour has been aptly termed the vestibule to a banquet. We call it the safest foundation to the principal repast of the day, whether it be a Cottage or a Cabinet dinner. With this belief we hold as maxims, that the French take the lead of all European people in soups and broths ; that the Scotch rank second, the Welsh next; and that the English, as a nation, though with many honourable excep- tions, are at the very bottom of the scale ; and, farther, that if soup be the foundation of a good dinner, it is equally true that good beef is the best foundation of the best soup. Whether brown or white, plain or rich, tha BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. 145 basis may still be beef, — fresh-killed, juicy ripe beef, and soft pure water.* * “ We of Scotland," said Winterblossom,“ probably owe our superiority in this department to our long and close alliance with that nation which has ever been most profoundly skilled in the mysteries of the soup-pot. That Scotland is indebted to France for the proficiency she has attained in cookery, is abundantly evident from the culinary nomenclature of the nation. Kitchen - Cuisine — the word with us comprehends every kind of viand or preparation which may add to the relish of the coarse cake, and decoction of oatmeal and coleworts, which formed the staple of the daily meal. A peasant's butter, cheese, fish, meat, and so forth, are all his : kitchen.' Then we have the hachi-the soup Lorraine, and à la Reine, the veal Flory-or Florentine pie-our broche and turn-broche, and our culinary adage, Hunger is gude kitchen."" _“ If you go on at this rate, you will soon reduce your nation to their original brose and haggis,” said JEKYLL ; “for you recollect that your skill in cabbage and coleworts is attributed to Cromwell's soldiers." - “ Little or mickle," put in Mistress Dods, a true-bred Border Scot, who would not yield an inch of the kitchen-floor to France or England, " we mak' better use o' what little skill is accorded to us, it's like. I have heard them say that should know, and that's the Nawbob himsel' there, that there is thousands upon thousands o' working men's houses in Lunon whar they ne'er saw a broth-trencher, let-a-be a pot o' fat kail:-Cauld, comfortless, wasterfu', gude-for-naething gangings on, for man, wife, and wean. Their roast joint, -- set them up! ---scouthered to a cinder in a baker's oven,-a hunger and a burst, - dear bought at first, and a short outcome for a working man's family, compared with two or three pots fu' o' gude barley-broth from the same joint of meat." “Even too true, Luckie,” interrupted the Nabob; “this must be cared for. The Scots may, or did fail in a grand dinner, Doctor, - no doubt of it ; but as a nation they manage better than most of their neighbours, — three hot meals of broth and meat for about the price of one roasting joint, perhaps. Then ' second day's kail,' said I right, dame ? — something to warm up to-morrow for the gudeman and the bairns, the pot-au-feu of France ?" “ And gude enough too,” rejoined Meg ; " sae ye need not cast up puir Seotland, Captain JAYKILL. A week's hunger and a Sunday burst—their hot roast joint-set them up! We may be easily put by; and the Gude forbid we were belly-gods and pock-pudding Eppycurryeans ; though at a Christening, or a Kirn, or on a Sacrament Monday, we may like a bit roast as weel as our nice-gabbit neighbours." " Ay this it is to clip and crib the gluttonizing joys of honest John Bull, 'to some high festival of once a-year,” said JEKYLL. “ Call you a wholesome nutritious soup four times a-week, clipping the gormandizing joys of John Bull,” cried the Nabob, “ instead of his Sunday roast and dilution of porter ?-no, sir, soup is the best as well as the most economical fare for dinner a mechanic's family can consume. But I will give him a thousand preparations." “ Besides the elegant variety of Mr. GEORGE ROSE's salt-herring, and COBBETT's toujours fat - Very fat — bacon,” said Jekyll, who scented a long prosing harangue and wished to cut it. “But let K 146 CHAP. VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. The essential qualities of soup are, that it be nourishing and restorative. It is the food of childhood and extreme old age, of the declining and the debilitated, for whom the soup-pot performs half the offices of the digestive organs. With these invigorating and salutiferous qualities, the mildest, the richest, and the most poignant relishes may be combined, by the judicious employment of the numerous ingredients which go to the composition of soups. The capital defect of soups is not in general so much the want of meat as of the time necessary to the due concoction of a rich fluid composed of so many ingredients. The defects of soups are vainly attempted to be concealed by the excessive use of pepper and herbs. The following elementary rules, from the French of the chemist Parmen- tier, were assumed by the Club as practical directions to the cook :- RULES FOR MAKING NOURISHING BROTH. 1. Sound, healthful, fresh viands. II. Vessels of earthenware in preference to those of metal, as a less degree of heat keeps them boiling; and once heated, a few hot cinders will maintain that slight degree of ebullition which is all that is wanted. III. Double the weight of water to that of the meat used. IV. A sufficient quantity of common salt to facilitate the separation of the blood and slime that coagulate under the form of scum. V. In the early stage of the process such a degree of heat as will throw off the whole scum. VI. Afterwards a lower, but an equal temperature, that the soup may simmer gently till the substances employed, whether nutritive, colouring, or flavour- ing, are perfectly combined with the water, ac- cording to their several degrees of solubility. Besides observing these rules, use the softest water, and let the cook read the observations prefixed to the Chapter Mistress Dons proceed with her discourse,” he added. Here, however, the Doctor called the party to Order, and resumed the real business of the day-Gravy-soup.... For many excellent, cheap Scotch soups, see National Dishes, and Cookery for the Poor. RULES FOR MAKING STOCK BROTH. 147 on Boiling, and attend to the following hints : - Some soups are very good when made the day before they are to be eaten, as the top-fat can be removed in a cake, and they can be cleared more effectually, and also attain more complete consistence, where a thick body is required, (Scotticè, lithiness,) without losing their flavour ; but they need not be seasoned till wanted, and should then be slowly heated to the boiling point. If permitted to boil, most re-warmed soups will lose part of their flavour ; and in stew-soups the meat will harden. Excellent judges differ on this point. Many think every hot preparation best when fresh-cooked, — and soups of the number. Of the kinds that will keep, and that may be prepared before- hand, are brown-soup, hare-soup, soup of game of any kind, giblet-soup, and generally all soups made of the meat of animals of mature growth. Soups into which vegetables and young meats enter in any quantity, are best when fresh-made, as these things have a tendency to ferment. This also holds especially of veal and fish soups. This ten- dency may be partly checked by boiling them up, and changing the vessels. In re-warming all previously-inade soups, broths, sauces, and gravies, if they cannot be heated by steam, or by the vessel containing them being com- pletely plunged into a stew-pan of boiling water, or a bain marié, particular care must be taken that they are not smoked. The fire must be clear, and the lids close ; for things re-warmed are more liable to be smoked than during their first preparation. Soups and gravies are best kept in earthen or stoneware vessels. They must not be covered till quite cold; and when cold and covered, vegetable soups, &c. may be plunged into a trough or large vessel of spring water. Where there is no ice-house this is a good way to keep cream or milk sweet. The wicker-work boxes or baskets, lined with charcoal, used in hot climates, might often be useful at home to preserve meat, ices, &c. When soup is to be finished or warmed, take off the cake of fat which settles on the top, strain, and hold back the lees or sediment. Give all soup ample time in making. From four to six hours is not too much ; but the finer flavouring ingredients for soups, gravies, or made-dishes, need not be 148 CHAP. VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. added, save for the length of time necessary to blend the various zests into one harmonious relish, without exposing them to that degree of continued heat which drives off their subtle essence. This observation is peculiarly appli- cable to catsups, aromatic spices, wines, flavouring vinegars, lemon and orange juice, &c.; and a much smaller quantity of these costly ingredients would answer the purpose if it were attended to. In certain cases it is proper to put in the half of these ingredients at an early stage of the pro- cess, that the flavour may be intimately blended with the preparation, adding what remains to give piquance near the conclusion. In English books on cookery there is often too much wine ordered for soups, and sometimes too little meat. The former error is the less dangerous, as what is levied from the cellar may not always find its way to the soup-pot. Roots, bread-raspings, or barley, for plain common soups, ought to be put in as soon as the pot is skimmed, when the roots are merely intended to thicken and flavour the soup. When to be cut in pieces and served in the broth, an hour's boiling is fully enough for carrots, turnips, onions. Many things are used to thicken and give consistency to common soups; not the worst is the mucilage of oatmeal : but rice-flour, or rice, potato-flour, pearl-barley, and bread, are each excellent. When the soup or gravy is too much boiled down, the waste must be supplied with boiling water or broth; and though in general we strenuously recommend close-covered pots, yet when the soup is watery and weak, the lid may be taken off till the watery particles evaporate, for thicken- ing gives consistence but not strength. It facilitates the operation, if meat for soup or gravy be cut into pieces of about a half-pound each ; and it improves both the flavour and colour, if the meat, onions, and carrots be browned with a bit of butter at the bottom of the soup-pot or digester, before the water is added to it.* The only objec- tion is, that by these means the removal of the scum is * To this previous drawing out of the juices without much or any water, we are inclined to attribute much of the superiority of French soups and stews. Some French cooks, to regulate the flavour of soups more exactly, boil the roots, herbs, and vegetables separately to a mash, and then squeeze them and add the juice, till the desired flavour is obtained. STOCK BROTH. 149 not so complete as is necessary to the rock-crystal trans- parency of clear soups. SCOTCH BROTH made of fat meat may have a larger proportion of greens, leeks, cabbage, or whatever green vegetable is used, than leaner meat. The best plain browning for high-flavoured soups, sauces, gravies, &c. is red wine, soy, or mushroom or walnut catsup. Where these are not admissible, use crusts of bread well browned, browned flour or browned oatmeal where thickening is required, the meat browned in the pot before putting in the water, and the onions fried a fine deep brown. But a more elegant because paler tint is simply got by the carrots, the black peppercorns, and the skins of the onions, which should be topped, tailed, and washed, but not peeled before being put to the soup. (See Browning for Soups and Made Dishes.)—To improve the colour, many cooks sacrifice the flavour of their soups. Burnt meat or bones, burnt sugar or treacle, are all con- demned by us. The cook is entreated to bear in mind, that the beauty of all clear gravy brown soups consists in transparency, united with richness and flavour,-to obtain which skim carefully and simmer slowly ; and of white soups, and fish and vegetable soups, in the goodness of the desired colour, and in fulness or velvetiness on the palate. Soup may be made in an infinity of ways. There is no end to the combinations of meat, game, fish, herbs, roots, spices, and mucilage, with water; but the basis of the best soup, whether expense is either an object or no object, is, as we have said, beef,—fresh, full of juices, mature, succulent, but not too fat, — the lean parts of an equally fattened animal. For this Primary soup we give the fol- lowing tried and approved receipt :- 59. PLAIN STOCK BROTH. The Basis of many Soups and Sauces. In large families, or if the cook is to have a large dinner, let her, on the previous day, prepare the Stock broth.-To every pound of fresh juicy beef, or a shin broken, allow a quart, or, if wanted very strong, a third less of soft water, and to this add any fresh trimmings of lean mutton, veal, poultry, or game, which the larder affords. An 150 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. old fowl, a rabbit, or a knuckle of veal, are excellent additions, and with these less meat will serve,-a good fresh bone, sawed, is a cheap help to any stock-pot. When the broth is rendered pellucid by boiling, skimming, and clearing, as directed in the observations on boiling, put to it an ounce of salt, the same of black peppercorns, and a half ounce of pimento corns, two carrots, two turnips, four large onions in their skins, four cloves, some good leeks, if you like the flavour, a fagot of herbs, and a head or two of celery. There are, however, some purposes for which stock is wanted to which this quantity and kind of vegetables may be unsuitable; and this is left to the judgment of the cook. Half the quantity specified will do for one large tureen. Let the soup boil for from four to six hours, according to the quantity. If left too long on the fire, the flavour of the vegetables will deteriorate, the colour will spoil, and the broth become ropy. When a good soup merely is wanted, without re- gard to the meat, boil quickly with the lid aslant to reduce. When done, let it settle, skim off the fat, (which will be useful for moistening braises, enriching vegetables, &c.) pour it from the sediment; strain it through a tammy, and set by for use. Obs. As our object is to unite judicious economy with good cookery, it is proper to mention, that each of the material ingre- dients of the stock-pot may be turned to good account. The meat may be put on early on the day of the dinner, and may be kept hot to serve at the servants' table, while it affords stock for the soups, sauces, and braises. Or it may be served in the first course as beef garni de choux; or garni de racines, or as plain bouilli, as directed for that dish, by taking it up when just enough done, and placing it in a stew-pan, with • a few ladlefuls of the top of the broth, to serve as a sauce. If a fowl is boiled in the stock-pot, let it be trussed before boil- ing, and it may be served with rice, or any suitable sauce, or au gros sel; so may a knuckle of veal, a rabbit with onions, or å brace of partridges with a proper sauce. In large private establishments, where broth for soups and sauces is constantly required, these articles, of which Stock is best formed, may be served at the different tables, or on different days.* The Stock being made, the Cook is now in possession * For hotels, clubs, regimental messes, &c. these hints are valu- able ; for each of these dishes, besides causing no loss, will actually STOCK-BROTH-SECOND STOCK. 151 of a floating capital subservient to many purposes. See Nos. 582-3-4. 60. STRONGER STOCK, the Consommé of the French Kitchen. This is the same thing, only stronger than the former broth. Take a large old fowl, or a cock, a large knuckle, or a good piece of the leg of veal, a piece of juicy beef, and any game you have to spare ; put four ounces of butter in a stew-pan, and then the cut meat; moisten with a pint of stock, No. 59; let it catch the fire till the juices are drawn; then add more first stock in the proportion of a pint to the pound of meat ; skim, season with a carrot, two or three onions, two cloves, some parsley, and a head of celery. Let the fowl only boil till enough done for the table, and the knuckle of veal only till done. Then again skim and carefully strain this consommé through a fine sieve.-N.B. Ham is often ordered for these Stock broths; but unless for gravies, to enrich ragouts, or to make certain sauces, it is seldom employed. Indeed, it is more suitable to savoury gravies than to the bland, elementary broth, from which mild soups and sauces are to be made. 61. RICHER HIGH-FLAVOURED STOCK. LINE a well-tinned stew-pan with slices of good ham, over this place slices of veal from the thick of the knuckle, and a fowl or brace of game cut to pieces. When the meat has been sweated over a slow fire till the juices have formed a glaze, moisten the whole with a quart and a half of strong stock, and season with chopped mushrooms, pars- ley, green onions, a blade of mace, and two cloves. Strain and thicken it, when stewed, with white or brown thick- ening, and keep to use in cooking. 62. VERY STRONG STOCK, the Grand Consommé of the French Kitchen. MAKE this exactly as Second Stock, but use more veal and poultry and less beef, if convenient. This is the basis of many French sauces, and clear gravy-soups.* be more rich boiled in the stock-pot, than if cooked separately. A fowl au gros sel, means one sprinkled when dished with grains of large bright salt. * French cookery is imagined to be a very complicated affair. It is, in fact, more easily understood than our own, because its principles are more fixed, and its language more scientific. The Beauvillerian, the 152 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. 63. CLEAR GRAVY-SOUP, the Basis of many of the Soups mentioned afterwards. Have eight pounds of a shin of beef, chopped across, a knuckle of veal, or a scrag of mutton, with any fresh trimmings the larder can furnish, and a piece of lean ham, if the ham-flavour is admired. Heat and rub hard a nicely-tinned stew-pot; melt in it some butter, or rub it with marrow. Let the meat, with a carrot, a head of celery, three onions, and a turnip, each sliced, catch, but not burn, over a rather quick fire; then add five quarts of soft water. Carefully skim, as formerly directed. When skimmed, throw in a pint of cold water to refresh it, and take off what more scum is detached till it become quite limpid. If the soup is not sufficiently transparent, it may be clarified by the whites and broken shells of two eggs being boiled up with it, for a few minutes, before it is strained a second time ; but careful first cookery is much better than second processes, which hurt the flavour. Let the stew-pot simmer slowly by the fire for four hours, (without stirring it any more from the bottom,) till all the strength is obtained, but not so long as to cause the soup to become ropy. Take it off and let it settle ; skim off the fat, and strain off gently what flows freely through a tammy.- Obs. This clear soup, (for it must be very clear,) is served under many different names; as, Vermi- celli, if with this paste separately boiled and put to it, when ready to serve ; Carrot-soup, if with the red of boiled carrots cut in straws; Turnip-soup, with turnips Udean, and Veryean systems are laid down as clearly as the Linnæan. Modern French professors have a few grand sounding names which they bestow on elementary gravies and sauces, as Espagnole, Grande Espa- gnole. Espagnole Travaillie, Italienne Blanche, Italienne Rousse, &c. and these, once defined and properly understood, remain ever the same. Our sauces, like our native melodies, are so overlaid with every body's variations, that it is difficult for the most correct ear or the most discri- minating palate to recognise them. And along with all our culinary deficiencies, our cookery-books give double the number of transmogrified and unintelligible receipts that are to be found in the bulkiest French systems. On their comparative value I do not pronounce.-H. J. We must add, that, of late, French cooks, like French milliners, have become most perplexingly inventive of fine names; as the same dish will have twenty different names though it remains the self-same pre- paration, FRENCH AND SCOTCH BROWN SOUP-WHITE SOUPS. 153 scooped; Celery-soup, Asparagus-soup, Green Pease-soup, &c., by adding the ingredient which gives the name. — N.B. All these additions are usually separately cooked. When all or the greater part of these vegetables, stewed and carefully rubbed through a tammy sieve, are added to a strong gravy-soup, you have exactly the French Crecy- soup. A good French cook would, however, after chop- ping the roots, &c., first stew them in top-fat or butter. The French generally have their turnip-soup white, their carrot-soup brown. Sippets are requisite to the Potage à la Crecy. With chopped lettuce and sorrel this Crecy- soup makes Soupe à la Faubonne. 64. FRENCH BROWN SOUP, or La Brunoise. To clear amber-coloured gravy-soup put carrots and turnips, cut in dice, straws, or like very small pears, with a root-cutter, and first fried and drained, if young, but if old parboiled. Soak toasted sippets in a basin of broth, and slip them into the tureen after the soup is dished, lest they crumble down and destroy the brightness of the soup. This is proper whenever bread is used. Skim off any film of fat from the tureen, and serve. — Obs. Cut boiled leeks and celery in fillets like very fine straws, of an inch and half in length, and cooked turnips and carrots in the same shape, or the red of the carrots in thin straws and the turnips in thin slices, stamped with small pastry stamps, the whole boiled in the soup for a few minutes, and you have Julienne soup. The roots cannot be too delicately cut, and many are considered vulgar. A cupful will do for a large tureen. SPINAGE SOUP-A very elegant and favourite mild soup á la Française, is made by gently slipping a few balls of spinage, the size of small eggs, into a tureen of clear golden brown soup: the sparkling emerald green of the spinage contrasting beautifully with the brilliant topaz hue of the soup. See from Nos. 607 to 618, French Soups. 65. THE OLD SCOTCH BROWN SOUP. Make the stock as directed for clear gravy-soup, but brown the meat a little more, and, when the stock is ready, put to it two pounds of rump steaks, cut rather small, and nicely browned in the frying-pan, but drained from the fry- ing fat. Simmer the steaks in the soup for an hour; strain 154 CHAP. VI.---BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. it; add a small glassful of catsup, with salt, pepper, and cayenne; slip toasted sippets into the tureen, and skimming off any filmy fat, serve the soup with the steaks in it. Without the steaks, which one now rarely sees, this is plain brown soup. 66. PLAIN WHITE STOCK for several kinds of Soup-the French Blonde de Veau, or Veal Broth. Have a large knuckle of veal broken, and to this put any poultry trimmings you have, and a few slices of lean ham, a carrot, three onions, and a blade of mace. Moisten these, (when laid in a nice stew-pan over which butter has been rubbed,) with a little good broth or water. When the jelly is partly drawn out, and the meat tinged a little, prick it all over with a sharp knife to let the juices 'flow, and add more clear broth or water till you have enough. Add a bunch of parsley and onions, and a large tea-spoonful of white peppercorns; boil and skim, and when the soup is ready, skim again and carefully strain it. Cooked rice or vermicelli is put to this soup. If a white colour is wished, thicken with arrow-root, and add gradually, before serving, a pint of sweet cream.-N.B. Always boil cream before putting it to any soup or sauce, and stir carefully till it again boil. Keep the soup hot in a bain marié, or pot of water. 67. THE OLD SCOTCH WHITE SOUP, or Soup à la Reine.* Take a large knuckle of veal, well broken and soaked, a nice fowl skinned, or two chickens, a quarter-pound of well-coloured, lean, undressed bacon, two sprigs of lemon. thyme, three onions, a carrot, celery, a white turnip, and a few white peppercorns, and two blades of mace. Boil for about two hours ; skim repeatedly and carefully during that time. When the stock is well tasted, strain it off. It will form a jelly. When to be used, take off the surface-fat, clear off the sediment, and put the jelly into a stew-pan nicely tinned; boil for a half-hour, and serve on a couple of rounds of a small French roll; or with macaroni pre- viously soaked, and stewed in some soup till perfectly soft ; or rice or vermicelli. This is plain White Soup. It is raised * This soup was introduced, or rather revived in Scotland by Hume the historian, after his residence in Paris ; see his letters to Adam Smith on his culinary experiments.-Burton's Life of Humo. . . ONION-SOUPS. 155 to LORRAINE soup as follows:- Take a half pound of sweet almonds, blanched, (that is, scalded and the husks rubbed off in a cloth,) the hard-boiled yolks of three eggs, and the skinned breast and white parts of a cold roast fowl; beat the almonds to a paste in a mortar, with a little water to prevent their oiling ; mince very finely the fowl and eggs with some bread-crumbs. Add to this hash an English pint or more of the stock, a bit of lemon-peel, and a scrape of nutmeg ; bring it to boil, and put to it a pint of boiling cream, and the rest of the stock. Let it be for a considerable time on the very eve of boiling, that it may thicken, but take care it does not boil, lest the cream curdle. Strain through a sieve. Two yolks of eggs beat will do for half the cream. 68. POTAGE À LA REINE, or VICTORIA SOUP, the fashionable White Soup. TAKE a couple of large or three small fat pullets; clean and skin them : take also two pounds or more of veal cut into pieces, and a half pound of lean ham; put these to- gether into a very nice stew-pan, with a bunch of parsley, and moisten them with clear boiling veal-broth. Let this stew softly for an hour; then soak in the broth the soft part of a penny loaf; cut the flesh off the breasts and wings of the chickens; chop and pound it to a paste in a mortar with the hard yolks of two eggs, the soaked crumbs, ten sweet almonds and three bitter, all blanched. Rub the compound into the soup; strain the whole ; and add gradually a quart of sweet cream brought to boil by itself; boil it up, stirring till served. It may be farther thickened with arrow-root. The seasoning should be mild ; and a bit of sugar is an improvement. Cow-HEEL or Calf's FEET make a good White Soup stock. Rabbits may be economically substituted for chickens, and beef for veal. 69. PLAIN ONION-SOUP. Chop a dozen large mild onions, and stew them in a small stew-pan with butter; stir them about with a wooden spoon, let them cook very gradually and not get brown. Put to this some very strong stock-broth, well- seasoned ; add pepper, cayenne, and salt, and, if nicer cooking is wanted, strain the soup, and put to it a pint of boiling cream. 156 CHAP. VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. 70. SUPERLATIVE ONION-SOUP. Have a proper quantity of well-seasoned, clear brown gravy-soup, in which a double proportion of onions and a fagot of seasoning herbs have been boiled. To this, when strained, put a dozen middle-sized onions, sliced and nicely fried ; let these stew gently in the soup, not to crumble the slices; season with pepper and cayenne, and serve with toasted sippets in the tureen. Button onions, cooked as for garnishing bouilli, No. 262, &c., may be used instead of large ones fried; and for those who like a full-tasted soup, this may be thickened with rice-flour, or the pulp of peas. It may, if liked, be simmered till the onions, both in sub- stance and flavour, are thoroughly blended with the soup. -Obs. The gusto may be heightened and the flavour varied to suit the palate of the consumer. Currie-powder was a favourite addition of the Nabob, and also a spice of ginger, which made a sort of imitation Mullagatawny superior to the original, to those who dislike fork-soups and stew-soups. Dr. REDGILL heightened the flavour of his onion-soup with mushroom-catsup, or eschalot. As the taste for onions and garlic, * like that for olives, piquant sauces, and peppers, increases with age, we do not, in any case, fix the precise quantity to be used, but merely give the medium. Some cooks thicken onion-soup with a liaison of the yolk of * Onions are supposed to possess a considerable quantity of nourish- ment. It is even asserted, that no substance of only equal bulk affords so much. This is at least doubtful. Onions in their raw state are much relished by some persons, while others find them wholly indi- gestible: they are very generally acceptable in soup or sauce. They used to form the favourite bon-bons of the Highlander, “who, with a few of these and an oat-cake, would,” says Sir John SINCLAIR,“ travel an incredible distance, and live for days without other food.” The Egyptians adored the Onion nearly as much as the Ox; and the Spa- niards have the same fondness for this pungent root, whether to give savour to their rich dishes, or to relish the crust from the wallet, and the draught from the brook, which form the gay repast of the poor and light-hearted sojourners one likes so much to meet with in the Spanish novels. The Scotch peasants seasoned their chappit potatoes with shred onion, and sometimes their brose; and the grave and high authority of Mrs. HANNAH MORE recommends “ an onion from their own garden, which makes every thing savoury and costs nothing” to the poor of England. “ Soupe a l'oignon” is thought highly restorative by the French. It is considered peculiarly grateful, and gently stimulating after hard drinking or night-watching, and holds among soups the place that Champagne, soda-water, or ginger-beer, does aniong liquors. ONION-SOUPS. 157 two or three eggs well beat and whisked into the soup before it is dished, or with cream, as in last receipt. 71. ONION-SOUP MAIGRE,-good. Chop and fry in butter a dozen large onions, two heads of celery, and a large carrot and turnip sliced. Pulp- the roots through a tammy, and put them to two quarts of boiling water thickened with six ounces of butter kneaded up with rice flour, and seasoned with salt, mace, and white pepper. The crumb of two penny loaves may be boiled in the water instead of the rice flour, but it must then be strained. Add bread-sippets fried, and thicken with the beat yolks of four eggs. 72. POTAGE À LA CLERMONT, an elegant Onion-soup. BROWN a dozen small silver onions cut in rings, of a nice golden tinge, and drain them ; cook them lightly in a little broth, and stew them for twenty minutes in clear gravy-broth, coloured with veal jelly-gravy, which is an excellent material for colouring soups or sauces. Serve with toasted sippets previously soaked in the tureen. 73. VEGETABLE MARROW, JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, AND OTHER VEGETABLE SOUPS. Trim and slice nice young Vegetable Marrow. Stew it in veal or fowl broth. [The liquor in which a young turkey is boiled is excellent for vegetable and paste soups.] When boiled almost to a mash, press the marrow through a sieve : add boiling cream or yolk of egg when nearly cooked. Grated cocoa-nut is an excellent addition. Add white pepper and salt to taste. It may be dished on toasted sippets. Under the head Vegetable Soups, or Potages, the French comprehend an endless variety of pre- parations, many of them maigre. Under it might also be included the Welsh Leek-porridge, and the Scottish Nettle Kail, and Pan-kail. But those mild, wholesome, and even elegant potages are, as we have seen, not neces- sarily maigre. In preparing them, the main object of the cook is to have the soup of a fine clear, pale-green colour, which is obtained by the expressed juice of spinage, pars- ley, green onions, or pea-shell liquor, using the colouring ingredient most suitable to the nature of the soup. Vege- table soups require a good deal of pepper, and are improved 158 CHAP, V1.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. by a spice of cayenne. They will not keep. If the vege- tables are bitter, a bit of sugar will help to correct that quality, and is a good addition. — See No. 75. These maigre vernal compositions found little favour in the eyes of the elder members of the Cleikumn Club, who thought them only fit for sickly girls and young Cockney poets. They, however, afford an elegant and wholesome variety, and are now well prepared at the shops, like richer soups. 74. MACARONI AND OTHER PASTE SOUPS. This elegant class of soups are coming fast into general favour and use, and are easily prepared. They are Maca- roni, Vermicelli, Semolina, Nouille, and Cagliari, and other paste soups, and with them may be classed sago and tapioca soup, and the varieties of rice and arrow-root soups, also what is thickened with the Canna starch called Tous les mois. VERMICELLI SOUP.—Break two ounces of vermicelli into minute bits: soak, blanch, and drain it; drop it lightly, and by degrees, into two quarts of clear boiling gravy soup; scum and stew it gently for from five to ten minutes, but not so long as to get into lumps : the French put a great deal of vermicelli, and other pastes into their potages. To vermicelli soup they sometimes add dressed young peas or asparagus tops. Macaroni Soup.—Throw three ounces of fresh ribbon macaroni into boiling water : boil for eight minutes or ten if hard; when it is done drain and cut it into thin delicate rings, and drop it into two quarts of clear gravy stock : serve grated Parmesan with this, and all soups made with Italian pastes. Cagliari Soup, is made precisely as the above; but as the paste is here ready prepared in stars, rings, Maltese crosses, &c. &c. it needs no cutting, and looks very pretty. Semolina Soup.-Semolina is an excellent preparation of the finest wheat. Make the soup as Vermicelli above; but more of the Semolina may be used, and it must also be dropt carefully and by slow degrees, not to get into lumps; to prevent which stir diligently till it is ready, which will be in from twenty to thirty-five minutes. Semolina makes an excellent pudding: Soujée and Manna SOUPS. 159 roup are very similar to Semolina, but are chiefly used for the food of infants and invalids. These soups form elegant potages, if made with clear, colourless gravy, or thickened, and boiling cream gradually added when about to be served, Sago and Tapioca.-Potages are sometimes made of these substances : wash, drain, and stew them in gravy soup, or what sort of stock you choose ; good fresh broth in which beef, mutton, or veal has been boiled, answers very well. Sago must be simmered for an hour, and Tapioca rather longer. If a thick potage is wanted, give two ounces to every quart of soup; if a fine soup, add wine and sugar to taste to the usual seasonings. Obs. All of the above soups may be made in a high style, with rich and very clear veal or fowl gravy soup : or cheap and plainly with any kind of fresh broth that would otherwise be lost. The French often serve Quenelles of chicken, &c. in them. Grated Parmesan should accom- pany all the paste soups. Imitation of Italian pastes and Nouille : if not so fine as the original pastes, these have the advantage of being much cheaper, and are sure to be fresh. Make a paste with the yolks of half-a-dozen eggs, and the whites of two, and as much of the very finest dry flour as it will take to knead, and roll out smoothly. Work it well, that it may be tenacious; roll out as thinly as possible ; cut into fillets about an inch and a-half wide ; dust and rub the strips with flour : and laying them on paper, four or five above each other, cut into the thinnest straws or fibres ; or it may be stamped out like the Cagliari paste with fine pastry cutters. Separate the strips or shapes of paste, and dry them till pretty firm, when drop gently into boiling soup, (like broken vermicelli,) and taking care they do not run together, boil for ten minutes and serve the soup. Some French cooks put nutmeg and pepper to the paste. Rasped cocoa-nut we consider a fine ingredient in these soups if made as white potages; and if cocoa-nut is used in white soup, made of veal or fowl stock, it takes a name from the nut, and is Cocoa-Soup. Cream should be added, and wine may, with sufficient cayenne, and a bit of sugar. 100 CHAP. VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. 75. GREEN PEASE-SOUP,-Maigre. HAVE shelled fully three pints of fresh-gathered marrowy peas. In shelling, separate the old from the young. Melt half a pound of fresh butter in a stew-pan, put to it four imperial pints of boiling water, a slice of bread, a quart of shelled peas, using the old ones, some roughly-chopped green onions, spinage, and green lettuce, salt, and two dozen corns of white and Jamaica pepper. Stew till the peas will pulp back into the liquor from which they are strained ; or they may be pounded in a mortar. To this add a pint more of young peas, the white of a lettuce chopped, and, if approved, a sliced cucumber, first sprink- ling the slices with salt, soaking, and draining them. If the soup is thought too thin, add rice-flour; if too maigre, allow more butter; if not green enough, add a little spinage chopped, or a glass of green spinage-liquor, made by parboiling and squeezing the vegetable. Stew for half an hour, but do not let the soup boil, or the green colour will become a tawny yellow. Green shred mint in a very small quantity may be added to flavour the soup five minutes before it is dished. Serve with dice of fried bread. — Obs. This summer soup may be made gras from the liquor in which chickens, fowl, veal, mutton, or lamb have been boiled. If the peas are not quite young and sweet, a little sugаr may be employed, and consequently less salt. Peas, fresh gathered and quickly cooked, are as superior to those exposed in the market as is a fresh-caught herring or mackerel from one a day old. Chantilly Soup is made by boiling for a minute or two a purée of these delicate peas in seasoned stock. 76. GREEN ASPARAGUS-SOUP. MAKE this as No. 75. Slice and pulp the thick part of the cooked asparagus; put the other part, cut into nice points, and dressed, into the strained soup before serving ; or substitute fried bread cut into dice. — Obs. Adding consommé to cold dressed peas (petits pois) or asparagus, will, with thickening and seasoning, make a good and economical potage, 77. AN EXCELLENT SOUP MAIGRE. Melt a half-pound of butter very slowly, and put to it . 161 PEASE-SOUP. four onions sliced, a head of celery, and a carrot and tur- nip cut down. When the vegetables have fried in the butter for a quarter of an hour, and are browned on all sides, put to them nearly three quarts of boiling water, and a pint and a half of young peas, with twelve white and Jamaica peppercorns. When the vegetables are quite tender, let the soup stand to clear from the sediment, and strain it into a clean stew-pan. If not yet sufficiently transparent, let it stand an hour, and turn it carefully over. When it boils, put to it three onions shred, or five young ones; a head of celery cut in fillets, carrots sliced, and cut as wheels or stars, and turnips scooped of the size of marbles. When the vegetables are enough done, without the soup getting ropy from their dissolution, the soup is finished. This and all vegetable soups are the better of a spice of cayenne. 78. THE BEST YELLOW PEASE-SOUP. To a pound and a half of split * peas, soaked and floated, to separate the bad ones, and, if very hard, soaked again for two hours in a quart of lukewarm water, add three quarts of very soft water, and three pounds of neck or shin beef, or of any sinewy, lean, gelatinous piece, or trimmings of meat or poultry; a slice of bacon, or a knuckle of either a bacon or mutton ham scalded (the root of a tongue salted a little, and well soaked to draw out all the slime, does very well;) two well-sized carrots, two turnips, and four large or six smaller onions. When this has been skimmed, and has simmered slowly for about an hour and a-half, taking care that it does not stick to the bottom of the pot, add another quart of boiling water, or any fresh pot-liquor in which poultry or meat has been boiled. Simmer again till the peas are completely dissolved. * Whole peas are often sweeter and better than those which are split. In country families that study economy, peas of the gray kind are often shelled at the mill, and used as white boilers. The colour is not so fine, but the soup is equally good, if not better. Peas will mel- low better in the pot, if first soaked a night, and then allowed to dry. They may be broken in a mill. New and excellent kinds are coming into use. We have seen the “ Glasgow Brose Meal,” used to advan- tage in thickening Pease and even Mullagatawny soups. It is a high- toasted, very fine flour, 162 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. Pour the soup into a sieve, set over an earthen pan or stew-pot, and pulp the peas through with a wooden spoon, taking back some strained soup to moisten what remains till the whole mash is pulped through. Add salt, white pepper, and the onions well pulped, to the strained soup, a head of fresh celery shred roughly, or a small dessert- spoonful of the bruised seed (which communicates the flavour in a strong degree) tied up in a muslin bag, and which (we need not say,) must be lifted out before the soup is dished. Simmer it for a half-hour or three-quar- ters, if too thin. Pour it into the tureen, and either throw in toasted bread cut into dice or diamonds, or serve the dice on a plate : many, as in onion-soup, like currie season- ing. Stir up the soup the moment before it goes to the table. Butter fried with flour may be used to enrich this soup. For PEASE-POTTAGE double the quantity of peas is required. Obs. This, though neither the most expen- sive nor elegant of soups, is a favourite family-dish for nine months of the year. It can be made of an inferior sort of any thing that is wholesome. A rump-bone, the bones of meat used for pies, trimmings of a roast, &c., are all excellent. Roast beef-bones, if not stale nor charred, a hock of ham, or fresh dripping, answer very well; also the liquor in which salt meat is boiled—or part of it - with the exception of that of fat rancid pork, which, save in cases of stern necessity, cannot be tole- rated by us. When pease-soup is made of shreds and patches of meat, more onion or celery and spice should be used to overcome the flavour of what constitutes the basis of the soup. The grated red of carrot we think a great improvement to this soup. A very convenient way of mak- ing a common pease-soup is, to have pease-pudding without eggs, boiled, ready to mix with the liquor in which meat or fowls are dressed. The above seasonings are then to be added, and the soup may be enriched with butter, or clari- fied fresh dripping, thickened as above directed, and fin- ished in an hour. Dried mint or dried parsley is some- times rubbed and strewed into this soup, or chopped spinage. Withholding the onions and celery, and substi- tuting asparagus points, makes pease-soup an excellent PEASE-PUDDING 103 POTATO-SOUP. plain asparagus-soup. By the addition of Currie-powder, Dr. HUNTER, the author of Culina, made CURRIE PEASE- SOUP. Dr. REDGILL added square bits of fried bacon, cayenne, fried onions or cucumber, and concocted a soup of the Composite Order, which, in compliment to the inventor, was named by the Club, REDGILL’s Pease-Soup Haut Gout. 79. PEASE-PUDDING. Marrowy melters, whether whole or split, are far the best peas for the cook. Soak a pint the necessary length of time : boil them in the softest water, tied loosely in a cloth till they will pulp through a colander. Add salt, pepper, two beat eggs, a good piece of butter: tie up firmly in a floured cloth, and boil (with pork if boiling) for an- other half hour; hang the cloth before the fire till the pudding gets firm, then turn it out. 80. POTATO-SOUP. This cheap and favourite soup may be made of the same materials as Pease-soup, or of any liquor in which meat has been boiled, or of roast-beef bones, &c.; a hock of ham, or shank of mutton-ham, or any thing of this kind, may be advantageously used to flavour and enrich it. Season with onions, celery, or parsley, and either thicken with mashed potatoes, or suffer the potatoes, pre- viously pared and parboiled, to fall to a mash in the soup. N.B.-Where small families kill a sheep now and then for winter-store, what is salted, though it would not make even tolerable broth, will make a very palatable pease or root soup, with any of the above seasonings. 81. TO GRILL CRUSTS FOR SOUPS AND CHEESE. Put the cut crusts upon a small wire gridiron over hot cinders to crisp. When done, wet the inside with top-fat, and sprinkle a little salt over them, and put them into the tureen; or crisp them over a furnace, wetting with good stock. Crusts for Toasted Cheese.—Pull rough pieces from a quite new loaf, brown them in the oven or before the fire. N.B.-If yoụ put untoasted bread into boiling soup, it will swell, crumble, and spoil the appearance of the soup. 164 SOUP AND STEW, OR MOUTHFUL SOUPS. By the above names the reader is to understand all soups in which meat, fowl, or fish, cut in mouthfuls, is dressed and served. Such, for example, are Mock Turtle- Soup, Kidney, Ox-tail, Lobster-Soup, Oyster-Soup, &c. This is a division which we think was wanted in books that treat of the culinary art. This important class, be it noticed, comprehends not only the Oriental Mullaga- tawny and the oleaginous Ox-rump, but even the spicy and luscious Turtle. [We give no receipt for dressing Turtle, an affair on which a volume might be written, so complicated and various are the processes. ROUSSEAU tells of a German who composed a whole volume on the zest of a lemon. What then might not be said on that which comprehends all zests.-" The Sovereign of Savouri- ness,” the Olio compounded “of every creature's best !” As none but thorough-bred men of science are ever intrusted with dressing a Turtle, the Cleikum Club did not presume to instruct them, and thought the receipts found in cookery books for this article merely so many make-bulks. Female cooks are excellent in their own way; but no woman ever yet succeeded in writing an Epic or dressing a Turtle.-P. T.] 82. MULLAGATAWNY-SOUP. BREAK and wash a knuckle of good veal, and put it to boil in nearly three quarts of water, with a quarter- ounce of white and Jamaica peppercorns. Place wooden or tinned skewers in the bottom of the stew-pan, to prevent the meat from sticking to it. Put also a few slices of Bacon, if the flavour of this meat is admired. Skim this stock carefully when it comes to boil, and let it simmer an hour and a half before straining it off. Cut three pounds of breast of veal into cubes of about an inch and fourth, and add trimmings, bones, and gristles of the breast, to the water in which the knuckle is put to boil. Fry the cubes of veal and six sliced onions in a deep stew-pan, of a delicate brown. Put the strained stock to them ; skim carefully, and when the soup and meat have simmered three quarters of an hoar, mix two spoonfuls of MOCK-TURTLE SOUP. 165 currie powder, and the same quantity of lightly-browned flour or Glasgow brose-meal, to a smooth batter; add these to the soup, with salt, and cayenne, and lemon-juice, to taste, and stew and simmer till the meat is quite tender. - Obs. This soup may be made, still more expensively, of chickens cut in pieces, of rabbits, or small mutton cutlets all browned ; but is best when made of well-fed veal. For East Indian palates, eschalots, mace, and ginger, may be employed, and, more elegantly, pickled mangoes and grated cocoa-nut: the quantity must be left to the discretion of the cook.–See Mullagatawny, as made in India, Nos. 757-8-9; also No. 98. N.B. Currie, or Mullagatawny soup may be varied in fifty ways. Calf's head, for example, prepared as for Mock Turtle, and treated as above, makes admirable Mullagatawny. Boiled rice is always served with this dish. A Vegetable Mullagatawny is made maigre with butter, or gras with veal stock, by boiling and pulping chopped vegetable-marrow, cucumbers, onions, and toma- toes; and seasoning with currie powder, and cayenne. The good stocks, nice bits of meat, and the currie season- ings, are the essentials. 82. MOCK-TURTLE, or Calf's Head Soup. Scald the head of a middle-sized, well-fed, cow-calf, with the skin on ; split it and take out the brains and the gristles and bones of the nose, blanch it well in several waters, to draw out the slime. Place it in a stew-pan, and cover it with cold water ; bring it to the boil, and skim without intermission while any scum continues to arise. When the head has boiled gently for three quarters of an hour, take it out, and as soon as cold enough to cut, carve the skin and fat parts, laying aside the fleshy, into small neat pieces, in the shape of diamonds, dice, triangles, &c. Peel the tongue, and cut it into cubes of an inch square. Meanwhile, put the broken bones and trimmings of the head into your stock-pot, with a large knuckle of veal well broken, and three or four pounds of a shin of beef well soaked. Let this boil very slowly, having carefully skimmed it, for at least four hours, and take care it does not stick to the bottom of the pot; then strain for future • 166 CHAP. VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. use, and lay aside a quart of the stock for gravy. This much may be done the evening before the soup is wanted. When the soup is to be finished, take off the cake of fat which will have formed on the top, and put the stock, holding back the sediment, into a large stew-pan. If the stock is good it will be a jelly, or nearly so. When it is again skimmed, put to it a dozen onions sliced, and browned in the frying-pan, with a half-dozen sprigs of fresh mild sage, also chopped and fried. Thicken the soup with butter kneaded in browned flour, or with brown roux ; and season highly with white and Jamaica pepper, a little cayenne, two blades of mace, an eschalot, four leaves of fresh basil, and the parings of one large or two small lemons. When the soup is strong and well coloured, strain it through a hair sieve gently into a fresh stew-pan, and put the hash of the head to it. Add Madeira when it is nearly finished, in the proportion of a half- glassful to the quart.* When to be dished, slip in two dozen of small forcemeat balls, made of veal or veal-kidney, minced parsley, crunibs, and the seasonings directed for Quenelles (See French Cookery,) well fried, and drained ; also a dozen hard-boiled yolks of eggs made into egg- balls, No. 86, and the juice of two lemons squeezed through a strainer. Obs. A small piece of bacon used to be put into the stock-pot; and a fagot of sweet herbs, and mushrooms are still occasionally added to this soup. The imitation of the real Turtle-soup was formerly thought nearer, when the soup abounded in bits of the fat double tripe, gristly bits of veal, or veal sweetbread parboiled, or the belly-piece of pickled pork cut in mouthfuls, the soft part of oysters, pickled tongue parboiled and cut down, the meat of lobsters, &c. These cloying substances are now very generally discarded. Simplicity is the taste of the day, though much is left to the discretion of the cook in making Mock Turtle, and all soups of the Composite Order. The quantity made by the above directions is fully more than will be wanted for an ordinary dinner, as it will fill two tureens; but part of the stock may be laid aside for gravy or sauces; and if there is too much hash, some of it may be highly seasoned and dressed as a ragout or pie. Mock Turtle may be greened, if that is wished, by * Madeira or Sherry are the wines commonly employed; but Bur- gundy or Claret may be used, where more depth of colour is wanted. BAKED MOCK-TURTLE SOU'P. 167 stewing a large handful of chopped spinage or green herbs, in butter and putting some of the soup to them; then rubbing this green liquor through a sieve and putting it to green the soup. We do not recommend it. 84. A CHEAPER AND VERY EXCELLENT MOCK-TURTLE SOUP. This is made of calf's feet or cow-heels, gently stewed, the broth strained, and the best of the meat cut down as above, and put to it, with a seasoning of white pepper, allspice, onion, cayenne, a little mushroom or walnut catsup, a squeeze of lemon, and a glass of Madeira. Or the wine and expensive seasonings may be withheld, and the soup be very good without them. 85. BAKED MOCK-TURTLE SOUP. This is good, easily prepared, and generally liked. Put a broken knuckle of veal, or the gristly ends of two knuckles, into a deep earthen pan, with two cow-heels, the half of a calf's head broken, four onions, a dozen of peppercorns, three blades of mace, and a few sprigs of lemon-thyme, an eschalot, or any other flavouring sub- stance that is best relished by those for whom the soup is prepared. Fill up the dish with water or weak broth; tie several folds of paper over the mouth of it, and set it in an oven for upwards of two hours. When it is cold take off the fat from the jelly, cut the meat into mouthfuls, and stew it with the clear jelly till perfectly tender. Wine, spiceries, catsup, forcemeat balls as in the former receipts, or whatever is approved of, may be added, if a soup of haut gout be wanted; or it may be seasoned with only a little mushroom-catsup, and served plain. The French often make their Mock-Turtle soup stock of the trimmings of fish and mutton knuckles, &c., using meat full of gelatine. They clarify the stock, and boil it so much down that, when cool, it will bear the Madeira on its surface. They cook the parboiled head in white sauce,, and then proceed as above directed, only using more hard- boiled yolks of eggs. 86. TO MAKE EGG-BALLS FOR MOCK-TURTLE SOUP. · Pound a sufficient quantity of the yolks of hard-boiled eggs in a mortar, with as much raw yolk and flour as will bind the composition. Add salt, and make up in the form 168 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. of balls the size of a marble. Put at least two dozen to a dish of soup. 87. SCOTCH HARE, RABBIT, OR GAME SOUP,— excellent. Skin and clean the hare thoroughly, saving the blood. Cut a dozen or more of small chops from the back, shoulders, and rump. Put what remains of the hare and the bones into a pot, with four pounds of fresh shin or neck of beef, four quarts of water, a couple of turnips, two carrots, six middle-sized onions, a half ounce of black and Jamaica peppercorns, an ounce of salt, a fagot of sweet herbs, and a large head of celery. Boil for four hours and strain. Brown the small chops nicely in a sauté-pan, and add them to the strained stock, and simmer for an hour and a half ; strain the blood; rub it with a half pint of the soup as if making starch, add more hot soup, and put the whole into the soup, which must be kept only at the point of boiling for ten minutes, or longer if you choose, lest the blood curdle. The soup may be farther thickened with the parboiled liver, pounded in a mortar with the pieces of hare boiled for stock; with browned flour rolled in butter, or rice flour, or arrow-root. When enough done, skim, put in a glass of catsup, and one or more of red wine, what more salt, pepper, and cayenne is required, and also essence of celery. Serve with the hare-steaks in the tureen.--Obs. Red wine, in the proportion of a quarter-pint to a tureen of soup, is reckoned an improvement by some gourmands; and those of the old school still like a large spoonful of currant-jelly dissolved in the soup. Hare-Soup may be made by cutting down the ingredients and placing them in an earthen jar, in a kettle of boiling water, for four hours, and then managing as above. Cold roast hare, not overdone, cut to pieces and stewed for an hour in good and highly-seasoned broth, will make an excellent, but not the highest flavoured Hare-Soup. (See Civet of Hare, No. 617.) You may lay aside as much of the fleshy part of a good hare as will make a handsome dish of hare-cakes, or minced collops, garnished with sippets, or as will make forcemeat balls for the soup.—Cold roast hare, game, or veal, will all of them, if cut down, and slowly stewed for an hour in broth, or in a gravy drawn from their bones, or MODERN OR ENGLISH HARE-SOUP. 169 even in boiling water, thickened with brown flour kneaded in butter, and rather highly-seasoned with onions, pepper, and cayenne, make a very palatable Stew-Soup. Many prefer this mode of re-dressing cold meat to either hashing or fricasseeing. The burnt outside, skins, and every thing unfit for the tureen, should first be trimmed away ; or, if these are boiled to make the gravy or stock, it must be strained before the hashed meat to be served is added to it. 88. MODERN OR ENGLISH HARE-SOUP. In England the blood is not generally used : cut down the hare into nice pieces, and stew them with a pound of good lean of ham, four onions, stuck with four cloves, four blades of mace, a bay-leaf or two, a fagot of parsley, with two or three sprigs of basil, thyme, marjoram, and a head of celery. Simmer slowly in a little strong stock-broth; and when the juices are well drawn out, put more stock, till two quarts are in. Simmer for another hour at least, and strain the soup. Take the best of the meat from the bones, pound it, moistening with a little of the soup. Pound also some soaked crumb of bread, or rice flour, and put this to the soup, which must now be seasoned to your taste with pepper, salt, cayenne, catsup, and red wine ; or, keep the best pieces, if the hare be large, to serve in the tureen, cut into mouthfuls, and pound and pulp the others, which added, will make the soup have quite enough of consistence ; more celery may be added, or a seasoning of the seed bruised, and tied in a muslin bag. The best pieces to serve are fillets cut off along the backbone, which need not be boiled quite so long as the other parts, if to be thus served. 89. PIGEON-SOUP, OR GAME-SOUP. Make a clear gravy-stock of four pounds of lean beef, or scrag and shanks of mutton, two turnips, celery, two onions, and four quarts of water boiled down to three. Put to this stock the gizzards, crops, and livers of four or five pigeons or partridges, or a pheasant. The birds must be neatly trussed as for boiling, seasoned inside with ground white pepper and salt, and flattened on the breast. We prefer them divided, using the trimmings for stock. Dredge them with flour, and brown them nicely in a 170 CHAP. VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. frying-pan. Thicken the stock with butter kneaded in browned flour; strain and season it with white pepper, salt, and a little mace, and let the pigeons stew in it for twenty-five minutes, taking off the scum as it rises. Throw a few toasted sippets into the tureen before dishing the soup. Either of the above receipts apply to joints of rabbits, which make a good soup, with suitable seasonings. 90. SUPERLATIVE GAME-SOUP, OR VENISON-SOUP. This soup is made of all sorts of black or red game, or of venison or wild rabbits. Skin the birds, carve and trim them neatly, and fry the pieces along with a few small slices of ham, sliced onions, carrots, and turnips, a little of each. Strain, and stew this meat gently for an hour in good fresh veal or beef stock-broth, with a head of celery cut in nice bits, a little minced parsley, and what seasonings you like.–Very small steaks of venison may be fried, as the birds, and stewed in the broth; and if the stock is made of any venison trimmings, it will be an advantage both in flavour and strength.-Obs. Jamaica pepper and cloves are suitable seasonings; celery, froin its nutty flavour, is a proper vegetable for hare and game- soups. Take out the ham before dishing. Carême likes turkey and turkey-giblets better for game-soup, than either pheasants or partridges. The pot-liquor of boiled turkey is too often wasted in English kitchens. 91. OX-HEAD-SOUP, called Hessian Soup and Ragout.* CLEAN, rub with salt, and afterwards soak in salt and lukewarm water for four hours, the half of a fat bullock's head and the root of a tongue, or a cow-heel. Wash them well and break and put them into a large pot with seven quarts of water and a spoonful of salt. Skim very care- fully, and retard the boiling by throwing in a quart of cold water, which will throw up more scum. When the meat is tender, but not overdone, take it out and strain the broth. When cold take off the cake of fat, t and the * This is the preparation on which Young Mrs. Roberts was wrecked at the first of her famous “ THREE ChrisTMAS DINNERS.”— See Edinburgh Tales. + This will keep for frying, make a cheap sour, or Scotch kail-brose or brewis. ox-HEAD-SOUP-CALE'S-HEAD-SOUP. 171 oil below it, and put to the soup a pound of peas. When it has boiled an hour, add six carrots, four turnips, half a dozen onions, a bunch of parsley, and a dessert-spoonful of celery-seed tied up in muslin. Season with pepper and salt, or cayenne, and boil till the vegetables are tender. This makes a very excellent broth, nutritious and pala- table, and the meat may either be served in it or as a ragout. But a little more trouble fits this dish to appear at any family-dinner, and entitles it, made thus, to the appellation of Hessian Soup and Ragout : — When the peas and vegetables put in the soup, as above described, are soft enough to pulp, strain it, and rub them through a sieve to the soup, which will now be nearly of the consis- tence of thin pease-soup. If not thickened enough, add rice-flour well mixed, and heat the soup, adding white pepper and cayenne to taste, and a head of celery sliced. The ragout or hash is made by cutting into mouthfuls the best parts of the head and root of the tongue, or cow-heel, seasoning highly with mixed spices, a little walnut-catsup, and a tea-spoonful of made-mustard, with a pint and a half of the clear stock of the head, saved for this purpose when the soup is strained.-Obs. Soy, forcemeat-balls, wine, &c., are all ordered for this ragout in some approved books of cookery; but we consider such expensive ingredients quite out of place in a preparation which is cheap, good, and savoury, but never can be elegant. The meat of the head and root of tongue that remain may either be eaten as a plain stew, added to the soup, or else potted, in the Scotch fashion, and used either cold or heated, as a stew-soup. 92. CALF'S-HEAD-SOUP. · Rub the half of a large head with salt, soak it for some hours, and, when thoroughly clean, put it on with as much fresh water or fresh pot-liquor as will cover it, and with an onion stuck with cloves, and some parsley. When well skimmed and boiled for an hour, take out the head and strain the soup. Cut the head into nice mouthfuls, about two inches long and one thick, and dress it as a ragout, or put it to stew in the soup. Season with white pepper, mace, and herbs. Currie-powder and other fit seasonings 172 CHAP, VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. make this very good Mullagatawny.-See Dressed Calf's Ilead, Nos. 83 and 84. 93. A PEPPER POT.* This is now understood to be a sort of clear larder, or wash-day's family dinner-dish, composed of all sorts of shreds and patches. It ought properly, if fine cookery is sought, to be an Olio, composed of a due admixture of meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, and roots. To three quarts of water put a couple of pounds, cut, of whatever vegetables are plentiful (a good proportion being onions,) and a couple of pounds of mutton-scrag cut into three or four pieces ; or a fowl, or a piece of veal, or lean bacon, and a little rice. Skim it; and, when nearly finished, add the meat of a lobster or crab, cut in bits, or the soft part of a few oysters, or hard-boiled yolk of eggs. Take off all the fat that rises, and season highly with pepper and cayenne. Serve in a deep dish. 94. KNUCKLE OF VEAL SOUP, an excellent Scotch Soup. Take a large knuckle, or if small add a piece of the scrag. Wash it, and break the bones ; place skewers in the stew-pan to keep the meat from sticking ; cover it and no more with water; put in a head of celery, a sprig of lemon-thyme, three onions, a carrot, a turnip, a bunch of parsley, and a dozen white and Jamaica peppercorns ; simmer till the knuckle is tender. Strain the soup. Cut the gristly parts of the knuckle and all that is good into mouthfuls, and put to it a seasoning of white pepper, and mace in powder, and rice-flour to thicken, if it is wished.-- Obs. This soup may be made with rice or vermicelli; or the stewed uncut knuckle may be served in the soup or sepa- rately; for many like to pick the gristles, a “pleasing toil," instead of having the meat cut for them by the cook. Some gourmands admire veal stew-soup made of the Irish Staggering-Bob,—that is, an infant calf, whose bones are still gristle, and his flesh a jelly. The breast, knuckle, and shoulder-blade, are best for this purpose, and the soup * “ Where every thing that every soldier got, Fowl, bacon, cabbage, mutton and what not, Was thrown into one Bank, and went to pot." GIBLET, OX-RUMP, AND POACHER'S SOUP. 173 is seasoned with mace, and, when finished, thickened with a liaison of the yolks of three eggs. 95. GIBLET-SOUP. * TAKE from two to three pounds of shin of beef, or of shanks and scrag of mutton, or knuckle of veal, or a part of each, as may be found most convenient; a small fagot of sweet herbs, carrots, turnips, and a little parsley; a quarter ounce of black or Jamaica peppercorns, and three quarts of water. When this has simmered for an hour, put to it two pair of goose giblets, or four pair of duck- giblets—but turkey if you can-scalded and cleaned, and previously browned in the frying-pan, if you choose, with minced onion. When the giblets are stewed delicately tender, but not soft and insipid, take them up, and cut them neatly into mouthfuls. The soup must now be thickened with butter kneaded in a large spoonful of flour or with roux, or with the top-fat gradually mixed with flour, and strained into a fresh stew-pan, into which put the giblets. Boil, skim, and season with a large spoonful of mushroom catsup, salt, and a little cayenne. Serve with the cut giblets in the tureen Beans, lettuce, and celery, separately boiled, may be added at pleasure ; and we especially approve of celery. 96. OX-TAIL AND KIDNEY SOUP. Two tails, or, if small, three, will make a large tureen of soup. Let the butcher divide them at the joints. Rub them with salt, and soak them well in lukewarm water. Place the tails in a stew-pan, with a pound of ham, four onions or more, a bunch of parsley, celery, two dozen of Jamaica and black peppercorns (or a half-ounce, if high peppering is wanted,) a turnip and a carrot or two sliced, * This was one of those pretending dishes of which Mistress Dons emphatically said, “ Boil stanes in butter, and the broo will be gude." When plainly made, as directed in the above receipt, it affords an agree- able variety for a family-dinner, and is an economical way of using what might otherwise be wasted. Wine is ordered for giblet-soup in the most approved cookery books; and we have no wish to restrain the fancies of a gourmand, however extravagant; but Mistress Dons strongly protested against bestowing Madeira on goose-horns and pinions. French cooks dress giblets as a haricot, wrapping them in layers of bacon, in which they are stewed. When done and drained, the bacon is of course laid aside, and the sauce is skimmed, thickened, and poured over the giblets. 174 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, souPS, AND GRAVIES, and three quarts of water. When the meat is tender, which will take three hours, lift it out, and cut it into small mouthfuls. Thicken the soup with a little browned four, rubbed up with a ladleful of the top- fat; strain it into a fresh stew-pan, put in the cut meat, boil up, and skim; and finish with a spoonful of mushroom catsup, and pepper and cayenne to taste.-Obs. Ox-tails make a very excellent onion-soup, by adding to it, when strained, a dozen fried onions pulped, and thick- ening it with rice-flour. The tails cut to bits may be put to boil at once. Some cooks add red wine ; then less catsup is needed.–See No. 400. KIDNEY SOUP : prepare Scotch kidney collops as directed, using two ox-kidneys. When cooked for two hours, add sufficient stock to make the stew and soup, adding cayenne and catsup to taste, and thicken with browned flour rolled in butter.-See No. 398. 97. POACHER's soup, Or Soup à la Meg Merrilies,-admirable. This savoury and highly-relishing sylvan stew-soup may be made of any or every thing known by the name of game, if fresh. Take from two to four pounds of the trimmings or coarse parts of venison, shin of beef, or knuckles or lean scrag of good mutton — all fresh. If game is plentiful, use no meat. Break the bones, and boil this in five pints of water, with celery, a couple of carrots and turnips, four onions, a bunch of parsley, and a quarter-ounce of peppercorns, the larger proportion Jamaica pepper. Strain this stock when it has simmered for three hours. Have ready cut down a black-cock, or wood-cock, a pheasant, half a hare, or a rabbit, a brace of partridges or grouse, or one of each (whichever is obtained most easily—a mixture is best,) and season the pieces with mixed spices. These may be floured and browned in the frying-pan; but as this is a process dictated by the eye as much as the palate, it is not necessary in making this soup. Put the cut game to the strained stock, with a dozen of small onions, a couple of heads of celery sliced, half a dozen peeled potatoes, or an ounce of rice-flour, and, when it boils, a small white cabbage quartered; black. RICE-SOUP AND BARLEY-BROTH. 175 pepper, allspice, and salt, to taste. Let the soup simmer till the game is tender, but not overdone; and lest it should, the vegetables may be put in half an hour before the meat.-Obs. This soup may be coloured and flavoured with red wine and two spoonfuls of mushroom catsup, and enriched with forcemeat balls; but we think it best plain. Forcemeat balls are getting out of favour: they are con- sidered indigestible, not without reason.* Soups in which catsup is mixed should not be fully salted till the catsup is added, as it contains so much salt itself.t * The Club were at variance on the above original receipt. JEKYLL declared for the simple racy flavour of the rude sylvan cheer ; WIN- TERBLOSSOM liked the addition of forcemeat-balls and catsup ; and the Doctor — hovering between the tureens, like Macheath between his rival charmers — laid his ears deeply in both, but when compelled to decide, from habitual reverence to soups as they are, voted for the plain soup, as originally swallowed with so much unction by Dominie Sampson. + STEW-SOUPS, when not made cloyingly rich nor over-seasoned, as they always are by those whose trade it is to compound cordials to stimulate and pamper palled appetites and indurated palates, are, for common and general purposes, the most easy, economical, wholesome, and nutritious form in which food can be prepared. This is that com- bination of fluids and solids, animal and vegetable substances, with condiments, which forms a mixture well fitted to the human stomach, and calculated to promote health and impart strength. The prejudice which exists in England against soups as not promotive of strength, ought to give way before STEW-SOUPS. It has been gravely con- tended of late, that human life cannot be supported on soups, however rich, without solid animal food ; and experiments are quoted where a dog kept on the richest soup died, while another which was fed on meat boiled to chips, and water, retained health and strength. To these experiments may be opposed the living example of the peasantry of Ireland and Scotland, and other countries who hardly ever see animal food in any form, and yet enjoy health and strength. “The greatest heroes of antiquity," says Sir John SINCLAIR,“ lived on broth.” The liquor in which their mutton or venison was boiled, thickened with a little oatmeal, and seasoned perhaps with a few wild herbs, formed the morning tea and coffee in the hall of the Highland Chief, before the introduction of these commodities. It is impossible to say on what men will not live,-ay, and enjoy health too ; — shell- fish, Iceland moss, mushrooms, snails, and an endless variety of sub- stances, have been known to sustain life and health, not to mention fricassees of old shoes and leather breeches, to which shipwrecked mariners have often had recourse. Our readers cannot have forgotten Sir Bevis of Hampdoun in his dungeon, of whom- “ Rats, and mice, and such small deer, Was the food for full seven year.” This to be sure is solid animal food, and favours the theory of the 176 CHAP. VI.-BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. 98. A CHEAP RICE AND MEAT OR CURRIE-SOUP. Boil from three to four pounds of a good ox-cheek, very well soaked and cleaned, in three quarts of water, with four onions, and a small fagot of pot-herbs. Strain it; cut the meat in small pieces, and stew it with six ounces of blanched rice, adding pepper and salt. This cheap stew-soup may be seasoned with currie-powder and mace; or made after a finer fashion with fowls, knuckle of veal, or two cow-heels.See No. 82. 99. SCOTCH BARLEY-BROTH, WITH BOILED MUTTON OR BEEF, as Bouilli Ordinaire. To from three to six pounds of beef or mutton, accord- ing to the quantity of soup wanted, put cold water in the proportion of a quart to the pound, - a quarter-pound of Scotch barley, or more or less as may suit the meat and the water, and a spoonful of salt, unless the meat is already slightly salted. To this put a breakfast-cupful of soaked white or split peas, unless in the season when fresh green peas are to be had cheap, a larger quantity of which must be put in with the other vegetables, using less barley. Skim very carefully as long as any scum rises ; then draw aside the pot, and let the broth simmer slowly for an hour, at which time put to it two young carrots and turnips cut in dice, and two or three onions sliced. Ten minutes before the broth is ready, add a little parsley, picked and chopped,~or the white part of modern experimenters ; but again, we have Dr. FRANKLIN’S old Catholic lady, who lived solely on water-gruel, and yet enjoyed health. There has lately started up in England, we are told, a newfangled re- ligious sect, who, from an absurd reading of the commandment “ Thou shalt not kill,” renounce the use of animal food, and enjoy high health on their vegetable regimen. It is indeed great presumption to limit the powers of the human stomach, in assimilating and turning to health- ful chyle whatever is, in discretion and without violent and sudden change, submitted to its action. Of this important organ, “the master of the family," it holds as strongly as of the palate, that." What is one man's meat is another man's poison :” Chaque pays, chaque coutume. The Tartar feeds on horse-flesh, the Chinese on dog's, the Green- lander on fish garbage, with the luxurious sauce of train-oil. The Frenchman and German feast on frogs and snails, and the ancients valued asafoetida as much as the moderns do currie-powder, or Burgess 's fish-sauce.-P. T. BARLEY-BROTH. 177 three leeks may be used instead of onions, and a head of celery sliced, instead of the parsley seasoning ; celery re- quires longer boiling. For beef-broth a small quantity of greens roughly shred, and the best part of four or five leeks cut in inch lengths, are better suited than turnip, carrot, and parsley, which are more adapted to mutton. If there is danger of the meat being overdone before the broth is properly lithed, i. e. thickened, it may be taken up, covered for a half hour, and returned into the pot to heat through before it is dished. Garnish the bouilli with carrot and turnip boiled in the broth, and divided ; or pour over it caper-sauce, parsley and butter, or a sauce made of pickled cucumbers, or nasturtiums heated in melted butter, or in a little clear broth, with a tea-spoonful of made mustard and another of vinegar. Parsley, par- boiled for two minutes and minced, may also be strewed over bouilli, — or a sprinkling of boiled carrots cut in small dice. Obs. This is the comfortable Pot au feu of Scotland, which still furnishes the Manse and the Farmhouse dinner, and the “pot- luck” of homely and hearty old-world hospitality. The pieces of fresh beef best adapted for barley-broth are the shin, the brisket, the flank, and the veiny piece, — of mutton, the neck, the ribs, and the leg. In some parts of the “ Land of Kail,” broth made of fresh beef would scarcely be tolerated, the meat not at all; and unquestionably the brisket or flank, when salted for a week, makes excellent broth, while the meat eats much better. Many, however, prefer fresh meat. An economical way of managing where beef is salted for winter provision, is to boil a piece of fresh and a piece of salt meat together, by which method the broth is not grouty nor yet over-salt, which it will be if made wholly of salt meat. In some parts of rural England, lean fresh beef and salt pork are still boiled and eaten together. The im- proved management of stock (cattle, not broth,) will soon super- sede this necessity. Turkey beans, stripped of their blackening outer husk, are admirably adapted for lithing barley-broth.* If * Mistress Dods, with her usual sagacity, stated with great plausi- bility of reasoning, that one capital defect of barley-broth cooked by “ Englishers" and other unqualified persons, is produced nine times out of ten by the bad quality of the pot-barley often used in England. Nor does pearl-barley give the same consistence as pot-barley. Rice, with mutton, or veal, or fowl broth, is an excellent substitute for barley. Were it equally cheap it would be better liked than the principal. Both are best when quite fresh. M 158 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. you would avoid the glary, ropy decoctions which are sometimes seen on tables where better things might be looked for, the quality of the barley or rice used in cookery ought to be carefully attended to. When exposed to air and damp, barley and flour become musty much sooner than is generally thought. English books of cookery order a sauce for meat boiled in Scotch broth, of red wine, mushroom catsup, and gravy with cut pickles — a piece of absurd extravagance completely at variance with the character and properties of the better part of the dish,-namely, with the bland, balsamic barley-broth of Scotland. But if a fine name is admired, use the French sauce hachée. For cheap and excellent soups and broths, see National Dishes, and Cheap Cookery.—The above barley-broth will make an excellent rice- broth, by substituting rice for barley, and omitting the peas, though we think pulse an excellent ingredient in all plain family soup. German barley-broth is made exactly as above, using a piece of the flank of beef.—See Sheep's Head Broth, Scotch Hotch-Potch, Cock-a-Leekie, and Nos. 725, 726-27-28, and 748. FISH SOUPS. This delicate and refined description of soups has gained on the favour of the gormandizing world very rapidly. Cray-fish soup was the favourite bonne bouche of the soup- eaters of past generations. Oyster and lobster soups are more admired in our day. A clear gravy of cow-heels makes an admirable basis for fish-soups, and is employed by those who make them for sale in great towns. 100. THE BASIS OF FISH-SOUPS. THE Stock, as it is technically called, may either be made of fish or meat. The former is the more elegant, and is besides suited to maigre days; the latter is more rich and nourishing. Beef, veal, or the lean of mutton, may all be used for fish-stock. When made of fish, a skate, a cod's skull, haddocks, whitings, eels, gudgeons, flounders, and other white fish are used, and also the heads, fins, and trimmings of the fish which are to be dressed. As fish-stock soon becomes sour, it should not be made sooner than needful. Boil the fish of which you make the stock in two quarts of water, with a couple of onions, a piece of lemon-peel, and a fagot of sweet herbs. Skim the liquor carefully, and strain it. If the BASIS OF FISH-SOUPS-LOBSTER-SOUP. 179 fish-soup is to be brown, the fish which makes the stock may be browned in the frying-pan before boiling, and catsup and brown roux is generally put to brown fish- soup.-See Court Bouillon, French Cookery. 101. LOBSTER-SOUP. Have three middle-sized, or five small fresh lobsters- hen-lobsters, if possible — ready boiled, and five pints of good veal-gravy, though beef or mutton stock will answer very well. Break off, and bruise in a mortar, the small claws and fins, with an anchovy, a piece of lemon-peel, and a couple of onions. Put these to the stock, and simmer till you have obtained all the strength and flavour they contain. Strain off the stock. Split the tails, crack without mangling the great claws, and carefully take out the meat, cutting it into neat pieces, and lay it aside. Pick the meat from the chine, and take part of the coral, the soft part of a few oysters, an anchovy, the quarter of a nutmeg, a blade of mace, a little cayenne, and a tea- spoonful of lemon-peel grated. Beat these in a mortar ; and with the yolks of two eggs and a very little flour, make of this two dozen small forcemeat-balls for the soup. Next bruise the spawn in the inortar, with a little flour, and rubbing it through a sieve, put it and the balls, with the cut meat of the claws and tails, and the coral left from the forcemeat, into the soup. Or fry the force- meat-balls first, if you like, or brown them in a Dutch oven, and slip them into the soup, which may simmer for a quarter of an hour, but must not boil. Test the balls (See testing of forcemeat, Godiveau, French Cookery,) or they may be omitted, and the meat of which they are made cut in nice bits, and put to the soup. Foreign substances are sometimes employed to heighten the vermilion tint of this soup; but we do not recommend the practice. Squeeze the juice of a lemon through a strainer into the tureen, and serve the soup, lifting it carefully. Some cooks put a glass of Madeira into it. — Obs. This soup is sometimes partly made of sweet cream, or milk thickened with rice- flour, and butter instead of stock ; but the mixture of milk with fish or meat is less relished every day. The meat of whitings or small haddocks is sometimes substituted for 180 CHAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. half the lobster, where this fish is expensive. The soup is often used thickened with rice-flour only. Wine is a good deal employed by the French in the composition of fish- soups; the rough and dry wines suit some tastes better than cream. In like manner cider, mild ale, or beer, is sometimes employed in this country in making fish-soup. Another LOBSTER-SOUP.—Make a good stock of a piece of beef, a slice of ham, and some butter, a large Portugal onion sliced, pepper, and any fish and lobster trimmings you have. Strain the stock, pulping the onions ; pound the spawn and body of the lobster as above, and stir it into the soup. Mix it smoothly with the stock. Season with cayenne and white pepper,-a glass of sherry, if you like; boil up and skim, and add the cut bits of the tail and claws as directed above. Boil five minutes. 102. OYSTER-SOUP. Have two quarts of a strong clear stock, whether of fish or meat: we przfer it of veal. Add to it the hard- boiled yolks of six eggs, and the hard part and beards of a quart of fresh juicy oysters, previously well pounded in a mortar. Simmer for a half hour, and strain it into a fresh stew-pan, in which have the quart of oysiers—or what will allow a dozen, if small or divided, to each half-pint- cleared of the beards, and very nicely washed from shells and sand. Season with mace and cayenne, and let the oysters siminer for eight minutes, when the yolks of three eggs well beat may be stirred into a little of the cool soup, and gradually mixed with the whole quantity, drawing aside the stew-pan, and constantly stirring, lest the eggs curdle. When smooth and thick, serve in a tureen, and still keep stirring the soup to prevent curdling. Any other flavour that is relished may be given to this luscious soup. We like lemon : mustard and vinegar are used, and tarragon or garlic, for those who relish foreign cookery. 103. WHITE OYSTER-SOUP. Have for a full tureen of soup, a Scotch hundred (one hundred and twenty) or an English hundred and quarter of moderate-sized, plump, native oysters. Oysters for soup should be bearded in shelling; but if not, scald them in OYSTER, CRAY-FISH, AND EEL-SOUPS. 181 their own liquor, and take away the nut and beards : pick them out of the liquor and keep them warm. Let it settle for a half hour, and strain it over the oysters. Boil the nut or hard part and beards, in a pint of strong veal-soup, for twenty minutes ; let this settle and strain it to three pints more of veal stock, seasoning it with a blade of mace, and cayenne, and meanwhile have the oysters simmered for five minutes in their own liquor, and ready to slip into the tureen, into which a half-pint of rich boiling cream is to be stirred. This soup may be thickened with beat yolks of eggs or arrow-root, enriched with butter, or made maigre by using fish-stock and butter; or the oysters may be run on fine skewers and fried, instead of being simmered in their own liquor. If large, the oysters for soup must be divided. Plain OYSTER-SOUP, maigre.—Have good Court Bouillon (No. 679,) or make some of four pints of water, four onions fried in butter, mace, and other seasonings. Put to this when skimmed a half pound of fresh butter, and a hundred picked oysters; also a few mushrooms. Thicken with rice-flour and simmer slowly a quarter of an hour. 104. CRAY-FISH-SOUP. Make two quarts of fish-stock, in which boil a bunch of parsley, two onions, and two dozen of black and Jamaica pepper-corns. For this, from two to three pounds of fish fins, heads, &c., all fresh, will be needed. Boil to a mash, and strain the liquor till clear. Pick from four to five dozen of cray-fish, and stew them in the soup till delicately done : add a little cayenne, and the spawn of a boiled lobster, pounded and stirred into the soup, which it will both thicken and enrich. — Obs. Cray-fish soup is seldoin seen in this country; but good shell-fish soups are inade of muscles, cockles, and prawns. These all require a good stock, (whether gras or maigre,) plenty of pepper, and careful washing and picking.–As much of the flavour of delicate shell-fish is lost in washing them free of sand, the washings may be allowed to settle, strained repeatedly, and put to the stock ; but where shell-fish are in plenty this is idle. 182 CHIAP. VI.- BROTHS, SOUPS, AND GRAVIES. 105. FORCEMEAT FOR FISH-SOUPS, OR FOR STEWS OF FISH. BEAT the flesh and soft parts of a boiled lobster in a mortar, with a boned anchovy, the yolks of three eggs hard boiled, and a head of boiled celery chopped. Put to this a handful of bread-crumbs, cayenne, mace, a spoonful of mushroom-catsup, a quarter-pound of melted butter, a large spoonful of oyster-liquor, or some oyster- pickle, and two or more eggs well beaten, to cement the composition. Mix well, and form it into small egg-shaped balls, which fry, or brown in a Dutch oven. Or the fish that makes the stock may be pounded for forcemeat.-See Fish Forcemeat ; French Cookery of Fish ; Chap. Fish; and also Crappit Heads. 106. EEL-SOUP. Take two pounds of cleaned and cut eels, two quarts of water, a crust of bread, two blades of mace, two onions, a few corns of white pepper, and a bundle of sweet herbs : boil the fish till half the liquor is wasted, then strain it, and serve it up with toasted bread. This may make both a ragout and a soup. It may be made stronger by boiling it longer, or using broth instead of water. — See Scotch Fish and Sauce, National Dishes ; also Fish Turtle. 107. MILK-SOUP, a nice Nursery Dish. Boil two quarts of milk, with a little salt, a stick of cinnamon, and a little sugar ; lay thin slices of toasted bread in a dish; pour over a little of the milk to soak them, and keep them hot upon a stove ; taking care the milk does not burn. When the soup is ready to serve, beat up the yolks of five eggs, and add them to the milk. Stir it over the fire till it thickens; then take it off lest it should curdle, and pour it into the dish upon the bread. - Obs. This makes the Potage de Lait of French cook- ery, by the addition of a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds (with a few bitter ones blanched, pounded, sifted, and stirred into the boiling soup. It may be thickened with rice, Semolina, Vermicelli, Nouille, or Cagliari paste, or cocoa-nut, and is good and useful in every mode : we like lemon-peel flavour in it, and a squeezz of lemon. PIG'S PETTITOES' SOUP-SPRING-FRUIT SOUP. 183 108. PIG'S PETTITOES' SOUP. This cheap and useful soup has obtained the imposing name of Lord Mayor's Soup, and, like ox-tail and other soups which should be economical, is made expensive and less wholesome by useless additions. It is thus made in localities where pigs are reared for slaughter and expor- tation, and where the offal is very cheap: to every two set of feet and ears thoroughly cleaned, put five quarts of water, a couple of onions, and a fagot of savoury herbs : skim well, and simmer for four hours; then lift out the ears; simmer the feet for another hour, or till quite tender; strain off the soup, and let it settle for a night, till the cake of fat sets, and the sediment falls : cut the meat of the feet and ears into dice : boil up the soup cleared of the fat and sediment: season it highly with salt, cayenne, a table-spoonful of minced savoury herbs, and white pep- per : thicken with flour, or arrow-root rubbed up in butter. Meanwhile have the cut meat ready in a small saucepan, and, first gradually heating it in some of the strained soup, put it to the thickened soup, and simmer the whole for a few minutes before serving. By putting Madeira, Harvey's sauce, or turtle sauce and forcemeat balls, to this unctuous potage, is made what is called the Lord Mayor's Soup; a vulgar and not very wholesome composition: though if made plain as above, it is economical, and savoury, and quite suitable to persons of sound, vigorous digestion. 109. SPRING-FRUIT SOUPS. THESE are made of gourds, rhubarb, cucumbers, vege- table marrow, &c. &c. They may either be made with cream, milk, or good clear gravy; and seasoned to the taste of the eater. Peel, clean, and blanch a bundle of Victoria rhubarb, cut the stems in three-inch lengths, and put them to a couple of quarts of good veal or beef gravy, with two or three onions, a few thin slices of bread, crust and crumb together, and salt and cayenne. Skim off all the fat and scum ; simmer till tender; strain and serve on toasted sippets. This soup may also be made maigre with a half-pound of butter kneaded in a little flour. See No. 1125. A plea- sant variety of harmless and delicate messes may be made of those fruits; we sy bjoin a few approved recipes :- 184 CHAP. VI.-SPRING-FRUIT SOUPS. Spring Soup, of the Cheese-gourd.—Cut the fleshy part of a ripe gourd into small bits. Put these into a pan with an ounce of fresh butter, and melt over a slow fire to the con- sistence of a purée. Add water in the proportion of half a gallon to four pounds of gourds. Add a little salt and sugar to taste. Dish the soup over toasted bread cut into dice.-See No. 73. Cheese-gourd, Spanish fashion. — When ripe, slice the fleshy part of the gourd an inch thick, score the slices on one side about half through. Put some rasped fat of bacon into a stew-pan, with a little parsley, eschalots, and chopped mushrooms, pepper, and salt; give this a fry; and cover the scored side of the slices of gourd with the mixture, lay- ing them first on the dish, which place in a quick oven, with a little melted butter or olive-oil poured over. When baked sufficiently, serve hot. Soup of Gourds.-Pare and slice the gourds. Boil them in gravy-broth to a mash, and strain this off. Put the strained soup on the fire in a clean pan. Season with salt and white pepper, and, boiling for half an hour, put three table-spoonfuls of grated Parmesan in the tureen, and serve the soup over it, stirring them well up together. - N.B. The cheese must be in quantity to suit the soup. The above will do for a moderate dish. Second-Course Dishes of young Gourds. — Take gourds when no larger than cucumbers, and cut them in four lengthwise. Clear off any pulp. If tender, only blanch them, or if hard, parboil. Take two ounces of butter, and brown it with a table-spoonful of flour. Pour on good gravy: stew the gourds in this sauce, and season with white pepper and salt. Young Gourds in White Sauce.- Proceed as above, but do not brown the butter. Instead of gravy-broth, take three beat yolks of eggs, and a half-pint of milk and another of cream. Mix and stir this over the fire till like custard,—thickening with more yolks if necessary. Dish the gourds in this white sauce, and serve. N.B.–For a variety of other fashionable soups, see French Cookery. For good plain Soups, see National Dishes; and also Cookery for the Poor. 185 CHAPTER VII. FISH. All fish from sea or shore, Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin, And exquisitest name ; for which was drained Pontus and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast. MILTON. READ Section VI., page 43. Clean all fish thoroughly, but without rubbing too hard or tossing roughly about. Brush, when gutted, all blood, slime, and filmy mem- branes most carefully froin the inside. Cook fish tho- roughly in whatever mode you dress it. We do not approve of steaming fish. Oily fish, as eels, and even herrings and mackerel, may be skinned : Eels must : Whitings and small haddocks, to be fried, are skinned, though the practice is more recommended by beauty than utility. Fish is usually boiled in salted water, i.e. a slight brine, made with about an ounce of salt to the quart of spring water, and a drachm of saltpetre ; but some good modern cooks, instead of this, salt the water very slightly, and rub the fish with salt, leaving it for from five minutes to a quarter of an hour, in proportion to its size, to soak in the salt previous to boiling. Flat fish are always dished with the white side uppermost. The soft-roed, or male fish, are, in all species, reckoned the richest ; so are the male lobster and crab.—N.B. Our FRENCH COOKERY of fish contains excellent practical receipts; yet it is our belief that English cookery of fish is superior to that of France. For this we have elsewhere given our reasons. 110. TO BOIL SALMON and other Fish. This monarch of the British rivers is in season in some part of the three kingdoms for most of the year; so that, however the price may vary, the London market — the point which attracts all salmon speculators - is never long without a supply. The fishing of the river Ness, which the fish visit very early, is opened so soon as the month of December; the Severn fishery even in November; and 186 CHAP. VII.--FISH. from that time some fishery is opened every week, till in April the whole are in operation. The salmon of the Thames is that which was most esteemed in London ; that of the Tay is the favourite with the inhabitants of the northern metropolis, - probably in both cases, because the fish from those rivers are brought to the respective markets in greater perfection than those of the more distant rivers. - Steam and commerce have nearly banished salmon from the Thames. We have ever remarked, that the salmon of a man's native stream, or of the river of his native province, is to him the best-flavoured. Among other marks of de- generate times, is the decrease of salmon in our rivers ; and it is perhaps the only one that is undeniable. This fish at one time was so common an article of food, that stipulations were made by Scottish servants against having it above three times a-week for their kitchen; and the same conditions were observed in indenturing apprentices in Newcastle, Perth, and many other towns. Since Mr. DEMPSTER's discovery, the well-boat and packing salmon in ice, there has been no occasion for the enforcement of the clause against salmon-eating. The preservation of this source of wealth and luxury is still an object of legislative investigation; and we doubt not, that a sub- ject coming home so immediately “ to men's business and stomachs,” will meet with all the attention it merits. The destruction of the fry is the chief evil. We have known instances in which whole cart-loads of whitlinys, or salmon-fry, have been used as manure. The poor of Lon- don, which draws into its enormous maw all the fish of the kingdom, still occasionally enjoy this luxury, though not in the best state. Steam navigation has revolutionized the trade in salmon. We are now supplied not only from the Scottish and Irish fisheries, but from Norway. Grilse is seldom sent to London, though in Paris, where cookery, if not more rich than in London, is thought more refined, the trout, from its superior delicacy, is more prized than the ripe salmon. We ought to inform our gourmand readers, that a fish, as we have eat it, boiled in the pickling kettle, where perhaps some dozens of cut fish are prepar- ing for the London market, is superbly done, - meltingly FISH. 187 rich, and of incomparable flavour. Such a thing is to be procured only at the fishing-stations, at which, it is to be remarked, Assizes and Presbyteries are always held. There are many excellent ways of dressing this favou- rite fish, but perhaps none equal to plain boiling when well performed; or, if on the small scale, broiling, as No. 112. Scale and clean the fish without unnecessary wash- ing or handling, and without cutting it too much open. Have a well-scoured fish-kettle, and if the salmon be very large and thick, when you have placed it on the drainer and in the kettle, fill up, and cover it with cold spring water, that it may heat through gradually. Throw in six ounces of salt to a gallon of water. If only a jole, slices, or a quarter is boiled, it may be put in with warm water. In both cases take off the scum carefully, and let the fish boil slowly, allowing ten minutes to the pound; if the piece is not heavier than five or six pounds, then the time must be less; but it is even more difficult to fix the time fish should boil than the length of time that meat requires. Experience, and those symptoms which the eye of a practised cook alone can discern, must fix the point, and nothing is more disgusting and unwholesome than underdone fish. Fish may be probed ; and notice when the eyes start and the meat comes from the bone. The minute the boiling of any fish is completed, the fish-strainer must be lifted and rested across the kettle, to drain the fish.* * If meat is ready before the company assemble, take it up as directed above, in boiling fish, and it may be kept in good season. Have all the dish-covers warmed inside at all times, and the dishes well heated. Put a hot cover over the meat, and some folds of flannel over that. If you have a Bain marie, (which is a most useful utensil,) or some sub- stitute, you will be at no loss, though the above may tolerably well supply its place. The Bain marie is a flat copper vessel containing boiling water ; you put all your stew-pans into it, and keep the water always up to the boil- ing point, but it must not boil. The effect of this Buin marie is to keep every thing warm, without altering either the quantity or the quality, particularly the quality. “When I had the honour, (says M. Ude,) of serving a nobleman who kept a very extensive hunting esta- blishment, and the hour of dinner was consequently uncertain, I was in the habit of using the Bain marie as a certain means of preserving the flavour of all my dishes.” Sauces set on a hot table would soon lose both flavour and proper consistency. If sauce, broth, or soup, is kept by the fireside, the soup reduces and becomes too strong, and the 188 CHAP. VII.-FISH. Throw a soft cloth or flannel in several folds over it. It would spoil if permitted to soak in the hot water. Dish on a hot fish-plate with a napkin under. Besides the sauces and essences to be used at discretion, which are now found on every side-board of any pretension, shrimp, anchovy, and lobster sauce, are served with salmon; also plain melted butter; and where the fish is got fresh, and served in what is esteemed by some the greatest perfection, - crisp, curdy, and creamy, - it is the practice to send up a sauce tureen of the clear liquor in which it was boiled. Fennel and butter are still heard of for salmon, but are nearly obsolete. Sliced cucumber is often served with salmon, and indeed with all boiled fish. Mustard is considered an improvement to salmon when over-ripe, - beginning to spoil, in short: salmon may then be boiled with horse- radish. Garnish with a fringe of curled green parsley, and, if you like, slices of lemon. Curled parsley in wreaths or tufts we consider the handsomest of all fish garnishes. The carver must help a slice of the thick part with a smaller one of the thin, which is the fattest, and the best liked by those in the secret. Carême skins salmon, - a bad practice. Scotch cooks sometimes leave the scales on, which, when fresh, rough, and silvery, have a good effect in contrast with the parsley garnishing. 111. TO BOIL SALMON CRIMP. This makes a very handsome dish, and is the way which salmon is usually dressed in places near the fisheries, where the fish is obtained quick ; and also at the most fashionable English tables. The fish must be cleaned and scaled or not, without much cutting up the breast. Cut off the head, with about two inches of the neck; and the tail- fin with the same quantity of fish along with it. Cut as many circular fillets of the salmon as you wish for, (ac- cording to the size of the fish and the number of the com- pany,) of about three or four inches thick ;- the opening sauce thickens as well as reduces. It is best managed where there is a steam range or hot plate, but may do by the fire. This is the best manner of re-warming turtle-soup: as the thick part is always at the bottom of the stew-pan, this method prevents it from burning, and keeps it always good. The Maria Balnea, for the reasons given above, does well for melting glaze, or heating up sauces. TO BOIL SALMON CRIMP-TO GRILL FRESH SALMON STEAKS, 189 of these slices, whence the entrails have been taken, must be thoroughly cleaned. Throw the whole into cold water made brackish with salt and saltpetre, as above directed. Place the head and tail on the strainer, and put them in a fish-kettle of boiling water, with a handful of salt and some vinegar—though vinegar hurts the colour. Let this boil five minutes ; lift the strainer, and lay on the slices ; take off whatever scum arises. Boil from fifteen to twenty- five minutes, according to the thickness. Place the head and tail on end on a napkin, in the middle of the fish-plate, and dish the slices neatly round them, or, at choice, dish, by laying the fish in its natural shape as French cooks do. Sauce and Garnishing as in the last receipt. This is boiled salmon in its utmost perfection. 112. TO GRILL FRESH SALMON STEAKS OR CUTLETS, This mode of dressing, though unsuitable for a large dinner, is the way in which the solitary epicure best relishes this luxury. Split the salmon and take out the bone, * without mangling the fish. Cut fillets of from two to three inches in breadth. Dry these in the folds of a cloth, but do not beat or press them. Have a clear fire, and a bright-barred gridiron, rubbed with chalk to prevent the fish from sticking ; the slices if not dry may be dusted with flour ; turn with steak-tongs. Place the gridiron aslant to let the oil pass away, which, if it blaze, spoils the steaks. This, like all broils, must be served very hot. The slices may be covered with the folds of a hot napkin.—Anchovy or Shrimp sauce.-Obs. A small fish is cut in circular slices of about an inch in thickness. French cooks first marinade, i. e. steep the salmon cutlets in oil, season- ings, and shred fine herbs; baste them gently while on the gridiron with the marinade-liquor ; take off the skin before serving, and serve with dressed cucumber or caper-sauce. This is good practice,-all save taking off the skin. To Fry Salmon. - Cut, fry, and serve fillets or slices as above.See 118. * A salmon-bone with some rough pickings left makes an admirable Girll. The bone cut out of a kippered salmon should be left rough for this purpose. Seasoned with pepper and salt, broiled and buttered, it is quite an epicure's breakfast morsel. A kipper originally meant a black fish. These were salted. Now the very finest salmon are thus managed, and called kippers.-See No. 115. 190 CHAP. VII.-FISI. 113. TO BAKE SALMON OR SALMON TROUT. Place the fish in a deep pan, and stick plenty of bits of butter over it, first seasoning it with allspice, mace, and salt : rub a little of the seasonings on the inside. It must be basted occasionally with what collects in the baking- pan. If the fish is small, or a grilse, it may be skewered, with the tail turned round to the mouth. A baked salmon, if not too oily, makes a handsome dish, and eats well cold. Garnishing and sauce the same as for boiled salmon, -Obs. Many persons think salmon not only lighter but of finer flavour cold than hot. It is, at any rate, too ex- pensive and too good to be lost. Place what is left in a deep dish. To a quart of the liquor in which the fish was boiled put half an ounce of black pepper and allspice in corns, half a pint of the best vinegar, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil this with a bay-leaf or two, and a sprig of lemon-thyme. When cold, pour it over the salmon, which must be kept covered. This pickle will keep the fish good for some days; but if it be necessary to keep it longer, boil up the pickle afresh, adding more vinegar and spice, and when cold pour it again on the fish ;* or use No. 114. 114. BALLYSHANNON PICKLE FOR COLD SALMON. VINEGAR two parts, water one, white wine one. Boil in this salt, pepper, allspice, also mace, cloves, ginger, and horseradish sliced, at pleasure ; when cold pour this over the boiled cold salmon. 115. TO KIPPER, 2. e. TO SALT AND DRY SALMON. The fish must be cut up at the back, cleaned, and scaled, but not washed, and have the bone cut neatly out. Rub with equal proportions of salt and fine raw sugar, with a particle of saltpetre. Peppers in powder may be added to the salt. Let the fish lie for two days, pressing it with a board on which weights are placed ; then hang it up, or, which is much better, smoke it. Lest the folds * N.B. Very fresh salmon is in most places so expensive an article of luxury, that rarity alone has given it a factitious value with many persons ; for the fish is in reality much more delicate and sapid when ripened for a day or even more. The same thing holds of turbot and cod, though they too are prized for that crimp harsh freshness, which is in truth no recommendation in the eating, and often a drain on the purse.-P. T. We decidedly question this.--W. W. TO POT SALMON—TO COLLAR SALNION. 191 gather mustiness, it is a good plan, when the fish is hung, to stretch it open with pieces of stick, that it may dry equally. This forms a favourite addition to a Scottish breakfast, and nothing can be more relishing than fresh kipper, though it soon hardens, when the French mode of grilling salmon, No. 112, may be used with advantage. Kipper is generally dressed by cutting it into thin slices and broiling, though we have seen it fried. If long hung the slices may be soaked in water a quarter of an hour, which will soften and improve the quality of the fish. If the fresh fish is very large and rich it may be rubbed with salt, and drained for a day before it get the final salting. English cooks sometimes serve poached eggs over dried salmon. Salmon Roe. See Note to No. 1189. 116. TO POT SALMON. SPLIT, scale, and clean, by wiping, for water must not touch it; rub with salt, and in an hour drain off the moisture, and season the salmon with pounded mace, cloves, and black and Jamaica pepper. Cut it into neat pieces ; lay them in a pan, and cover them with melted butter. Bake them, drain from the fat, and put the pieces into potting-cans, which must then be covered with cooled clarified butter. We think vinegar an improvement. 117. TO COLLAR SALMON. Split, scale, and bone as much of the fish as will make a handsome collar of about six inches diameter. Season it highly with pounded mace, cloves, pepper and salt, and having rolled it firmly up and bandaged it, bake it three quarters of an hour with vinegar and butter: or simmer in vinegar and water. Serve with melted butter and anchovy- sauce. The liquor in which the collar was boiled or baked may be boiled up with salt, vinegar, and two bay- leaves, and poured over the collared fish to preserve it. See Obs. No. 113. 118. SALMON CUTLETS. FRENCH cooks dress slices an inch and half thick of fresh salmon as cutlets en papillote, seasoning them with mixed spices, dipping in salad-oil, and broiling.–See 112. 119. BAKED SALMON-TROUT, - a handsome dish. A TROUT of from two to four pounds will make this 192 CHAP. VII.- FISH. dish. Having cleaned and scaled it without cutting it much up, stuff with fish-forcemeat, (See Forcemeats,) and fix the tail in the mouth; or tie the fish up in curve lines, as if swimming,-a common way in boiling a long fish in a small kettle. Pour over it a marinade made thus:- Boil in vinegar and a good piece of butter, chopped carrots, onions, eschalots, with peppercorns, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, basil, cloves, and allspice in grains. Baste with this frequently; when baked, drain off the liquor, and keep the fish hot while you boil it down ; thicken it with a piece of butter rolled in flour, season with a little essence of anchovies, pepper, cayenne, and the squeeze of a lemon. Serve the trout with this sauce strained over it.—See 113. 120. TO BOIL TURBOT.* A FISH of the middle size is the best. Choose the tur- bot thick in the belly, which should be of a cream-coloured white, and springy under the slightest pressure of the finger. When to be boiled, soak the fish in salt and water, to draw off the slime incidental to all flat fish. When thoroughly clean, score the skin along the backbone deeply, to prevent the belly from cracking when the fish begins to swell in heating; and this done, place it on a fish-strainer with the back undermost. If very large, clever cooks cut out the bone to some extent. The turbot-kettle must be roomy and nicely clean, as the colour of fish is even more easily injured than that of meat. The fish may be rubbed with lemon to whiten it.t Cover it with cold water, into * This pontifical fish is found of excellent quality in many parts of the British seas, and also on the Irish coast ; but what are still esteemed the best, are, like the best cod, caught off the Dutch coast, and brought alive to London in well-boats. This fish is in season, like the haddock, from the time it has had a “leap in the May flood” till Michaelmas. The halibut, which often in Scotland usurps the name of turbot, is in reality a handsomer-looking fish, and excellent of its kind, but not equal in richness, and far inferior in flavour to the genuine Bunnock Fluke of Mr. JONATHAN OLDBUCK. Miss Edgeworth relates an anec- dote of a Bishop—and we doubt not that he came to be an Archbishop - ---who, descending to his kitchen to superintend the dressing of a turbot, and finding that his cook had stupidly cut away the fins, set about sewing them on again with his own Episcopal fingers. This dignitary knew the value of turbot. * French cooks sometimes boil turbot in milk and water. TO BOIL TURBOT. 193 which throw salt, six ounces to the gallon. Do not let the fish-kettle come too fast to boil ; skim very carefully ; and this done, draw aside the kettle, and allow it to simmer for from twenty-five to thirty minutes, without that violent degree of ebullition which would crack the skin and spoil the look of the fish. Many cooks, to have the colour fine, and to prevent the skin from cracking, wrap a cloth round it, which is fastened under the strainer. For sauces, anchovy, lobster, or shrimp sauce, or any of the fish-sauces stirred into plain melted butter, may be served in one tureen, and melted butter in another ; but lobster-sauce is the favourite turbot-sauce. Garnish with à fringe of curled parsley, slices of lemon, or horseradish nicely scraped ; and nasturtium flowers look pretty in- termixed, though we are not fond of over-garnishing. Cover the cracks, if unfortunately there should be any, with the garnish and a little lobster coral. The ornaments may be interspersed with fried sprats, or very small flounders fried. Small turbot makes a very delicate dish, cut in slices and fried, drained from the frying fat, and, without breaking, simmered for five minutes in a sauce made of thin melted butter, a few pickled oysters chopped, or a boned anchovy, a tea-spoonful of walnut-pickle, and a dessert-spoonful of mushroom-catsup. Take up the fish with a slice, lay it neatly in the dish, and, having skimmed the sauce, pour it hot over the fish. A glass of claret is a desirable addition to this sauce. Garnish with slices of lemon. – Obs. Cold fish of any kind may be cut in neat pieces, and heated up in a white sauce; or soused, by placing it handsomely on the dish in slices, and pouring over it any of the flavoured vinegars you choose, or pepper and plain vinegar. If any lobster- sauce is left, it will be found most useful in dressing cold turbot afresh. The French make many entrées de desserte of this fish, by cutting what remains into fillets or dice, stewing these in a white sauce, à la crême, or serving in vol- au-vent, or in a dish with an ornamented border made of fried bread cut into diamonds.-See Nos. 688, 691. For turbot, Carême serves no sauce save two tureens of melted butter. N 194 CHAP. VII.–FISH. 121. AN EXCELLENT WAY TO DRESS A SMALL DISH OF TURBOT OR BRILL. WHEN the fish is cleaned, take off the skin gently, (many like the skin,) and cut the fillets off with a sharp knife. Dip the fillets in beat eggs, then in crumbs, minced parsley, and other seasonings. Dip twice. Place the fillets in a deep dish stuck round with butter, and bake them twenty minutes in a moderate oven, basting from time to time with the butter. Have ready lobster sauce made of thin veal-broth, with cayenne, nutmeg, and salt. Let the lobster meat stew in this for ten minutes before thick- ening it with roux. Dish the baked fillets in a hot dish, and pour the sauce hot over them. Garnish with slices of lemon and curled parsley.- Obs. Where the party is not large, this is a very excellent way of dressing this expensive fish. It may also be stuffed and baked whole. Fillets of the tail will make a good dish, and allow plenty of an ordinary-sized fish for boiling on another or a pre- vious day. Many persons admire the above modes more than boiled turbot. * 121. SOLES IN DIFFERENT WAYS. This fish is a general favourite in England, and when good, not inferior to turbot, if not, indeed, more delicate. It may be boiled plain as small turbot, putting it in warm water, made into a brine, as above directed, and sim- mered gently for six or eight minutes, according to size. Serve with the turbot sauces, and cucumber as for salmon. --Baked Soles : two fish, white side upmost, are, when thoroughly cleaned, put into a baking pan, with two ounces of melted butter : stick two ounces more over the fish, having first brushed them with white of egg, and strewed a thick layer of fine crumbs and minced parsley over them : bake for a quarter of an hour ; pour the gravy from them : if too rich, lay part of it aside, and put a glass of sherry and a squeeze of lemon juice with cayenne and white pepper to the remainder, which boil up, skim, and pour gently under the nicely baked soles when dished. We consider the above modes better than filleting ; but soles are also dressed in fillets. In some parts of England they are pro- vincially stewed in cream, being first parboiled in water. COD'S HEAD AND SHOULDERS. 195 If fish are to be boiled in any liquid except water au bleu, or fish bouillon, let it be in some light sub-acid wine, or good sharp cider : cream, save for the sauce, is all but Hottentot- ish in the preparation of fish. See Fish rechauffee, No. 159. 122. TO DRESS A COD'S HEAD AND SHOULDERS, * Scotch Fashion. This was a great affair in its day. It is still a formid- able, nay, even a respectable-looking dish, with a kind of bulky magnificence, which, at Christmas-tide, appears imposing at the head of a long board. Have a quart of good stock ready for the sauce, made of beef or veal, sea- soned with onion, carrot, and turnip. Rub the fish, (a deep-sea or rock-cod,) with salt over night, taking off the scales, but do not wash it. When to be dressed wash it clean, then quickly dash hot water over the upper side, and with a blunt knife remove the slime which will ooze out, taking great care not to break the skin. Do the same to the other side of the fish ; then place it on the drainer, wipe it clean, and plunge it into a fish-kettle of boiling water, with a handful of salt and a half-pint of vinegar. It must be entirely covered, and will take from thirty to forty minutes' slow boiling. Set it to drain, slide it carefully on a deep dish, and glaze with beat eggs, over which strew fine bread-crumbs, t grated lemon-peel, pepper, and salt. Stick numerous bits of butter over the fish, and place it before a clear fire, strew- ing more crumbs, grated lemon-peel, and minced parsley over it, and basting with the butter. In the mean while thicken the stock with butter kneaded in flour, and strain * Cod is in high perfection about Christmas. It comes into season about Michaelmas, when the other large fish are going out. The Dogger-bank cod are the most esteemed in the London market; but very excellent fish are now sent from Orkney, and many other parts. Cod of good quality are salted in the Hebrides, and a little has been done in Ireland; but the great supply of salted fish still comes from New- foundland. The best cod are such as, with good size and shape, have yellow spots upon a pure skin. Many persons justly prefer both salt and fresh Ling to Cod ; Tusk is much superior to either of them, but is found in small quantities. + Many cooks at this stage skin cod and haddocks. All true gour- mands detest flayed fish. Where not nicely crumbed and browned, they are absolutely horrific and spectral. „P, T. 196 FISH. CHAP. VII. it, adding to it half a hundred oysters nicely picked and bearded, and a glassful of their liquor, two glasses of Madeira or sherry, the juice of a lemon, the hard meat of a boiled lobster cut down, and the soft part pounded. Simmer this sauce for five minutes, and skim it well ; wipe clean the edges of the dish in which the fish is crisp- ing, and pour the half of the sauce around it, serving the rest in a tureen. Garnish with fried oysters, small fried flounders, pickled samphire, or slices of lemon. Cod's head is also dressed with a brown sauce, made of the stock, or with butter nicely browned, and a little mushroom-catsup. This sauce is generally made more piquant than the white, by the addition of two boned anchovies. — Obs. This Scotch mode of dressing cod is nearly the same as the French Cabillaud à la Sainte Menehould, only the cod is then stuffed with a forcemeat either of meat or fish. Cod may be parboiled and finished in the oven with the above sauce. Oysters, Muscles, or Cockles, may supply the place of Lobster.- See 184. 123. BOILED COD, OR HADDOCK WITH SHRIMP-SAUCE. Cut off the tail of cod, which would be useless before the other part is enough done. But if a large dish is wanted, place the tail-cut in the belly. Rub well with salt inside, without washing ; let it lie from one to two days, and wash and boil slowly in plenty of water, with a handful of salt. Drain the fish, serve it on a napkin, and garnish with the boiled roe and liver, or small flounders or whitings, nicely fried, or only parsley. Serve shrimp sauce. The tail-cut may lie in salt for a few days, and be boiled and served with egg-sauce, or parsnips mashed with butter and cream, or it may be broiled fresh, or fried in fillets or slices, and served with oyster or shrimp sauce; or, grandly, with a sauce made of half a pint of veal-gravy, a glass of red wine, a boned anchovy chopped, white pepper and salt, and a few pickled oysters, and thickened with a little flour kneaded in butter. Boil up and skim the sauce; place the slices neatly on the dish, and pour it around them. Now, in Scotland, where cod is generally cheap, only the middle- cut is taken for a company dish; and is boiled, skinned, browned before the fire, and served as above with oyster TO DRESS COD SOUNDS. 197 or shrimp sauce. Large or Dublin Bay Haddocks are cooked and served as cod, but need not lie in salt. The French make entrées de desserte of cold cod as of turbot. The fish may be used as above quite fresh.—See French Cookery of Fish. 124. TO DRESS COD-SOUNDS. CLEAN and scald them with very hot water, and rub them with salt. Take off the sloughy coat, parboil them, then flour and broil till enough done. Dish them, and pour a sauce made of browned gravy, pepper, cayenne, salt, a little butter kneaded in browned flour, a tea-spoonful of made-mustard, and one of soy. Cod-sounds are dressed as ragout, by boiling as above, and then stewing in clear gravy, adding a little cream and butter kneaded in flour, with a seasoning of lemon-peel, nutmeg, and mace. Cut them in fillets. They may also be cut in fillets, turned round, dipped in batter, and fried ; serve on a napkin.- See Note to No. 1189, and also Nos. 682-3-4, and 691. Cod-livers and their oil we leave to the physicians, who make the most of them. 125. COLD BOILED COD CURRJED. A LARGE fish that comes in fine flakes is best. Fry the pieces in butter, with sliced onions, of a fine brown, and stew them in a little white gravy, thickened with butter rolled in four, and a large dessert-spoonful of currie- powder, rubbed down with a glassful of good cream.-Obs. Cream for curries is, we think, the better of being a little turned,—thick and sourish, but not clotted. Good butter- milk makes a substitute for cream in this and most common made-dishes. The flakes may be seasoned and then fried in batter with butter or lard.-See Curried Fish, No. 154. 126. CABEACHED COD. Cut the tail-part of the fish into slices, and upon these rub some white pepper and salt. Then fry in Spanish oil. Take the slices from the pan, and lay them on a plate to cool. When cold, put them into a pickle made of good vinegar, in which some white peppercorns, a few cloves, a little mace, and salt, have been boiled. When cold, mix with the pickle a tea-cupful of oil. Put the fish into a 198 CHAP, VII.-FISH. pot, and between every piece lay a few slices of onion, and keep the whole well covered with the pickle. In the same manner salmon may be cabeached ; but if taken fresh out of the water, it is liable to break, which it will not do after being kept a few days. Mackerel when prime may be treated in this way, omitting the onion, and will, if not too soon opened up, keep for many months, and be useful when fresh fish cannot be obtained. Oil should be poured over the pots to exclude the air. This is the famous Spanish escabeche or fish-pickle. The Spanish pre- paration is similar to the dish above described, with the addition of a large portion of garlic and some bay-leaves. The Spaniards eat it with ginger and salad, and some- times stew it lightly. 127. TO CRIMP COD. Boil quickly very fresh cod, cut in thin slices, or whole, in strong boiling brine for fifteen minutes (only ten if cut.) Serve instantly with shrimp or oyster sauce. Cod in slices may also be fried or grilled. 128. TO DRESS SALT COD, LING, TUSK, &c. The fish must be soaked for a length of time corre- sponding to its dryness and the hardness it has acquired. Soak it in cold water for a night; that done, if still hard, beat it well with a paste-roller, and brush it with a hard brush, and soak it again in lukewarm water. Let it come very slowly near to boil. When it has soaked for an hour and a half by the side of the fire, take up the pieces ; scrape off the tough filmy outer parts, or clotted scales, but not the skin, which, containing much gelatine, is the best of the fish. Place the pieces, laid skin to skin, in the stew-pan, having first trimmed them neatly from bones and films. Pour the strained boiling liquor over them in which they have simmered; simmer for three, or, if needful, four hours longer, but never allow the fish to boil till it is almost ready. Serve on a napkin with egg-sauce or parsnips mashed with plenty of butter ; mustard must never be forgotten. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs divided or in circular slices.- Obs. At sea, salt fish is dressed after a very palatable, if not refined fashion, by pulling it, when boiled, into flakes, and beating it up with mashed TO DRESS STURGEONS_TEASED SKATE, 199 potatoes, or parsnips and butter. In New England, where the management of dry cod is well understood, it is alternately soaked and laid on a table till sufficiently softened, which is thought a better method of softening and swelling than continual soaking. See Nos. 690 and 763. 129. TO DRESS STURGEON. This fish does not eat well boiled. If boiled, skin it. It should be roasted or baked, basting with plenty of butter, and serving with a rich gravy relished with anchovy, wine, and juice of lemon; or with any favourite flavoured vinegar. Slices of sturgeon skinned, are egged, dipped in bread-crumbs, seasonings, and chopped parsley, and broiled en papillote. This fish is seldom seen in England, and not so much admired as on the Continent. Sauce,-oyster or lobster sauce, or melted butter, with a little soy and essence of anchovy. A nonsensical imita- tion of pickled sturgeon is made of a large turkey, boned and stewed in a rich pickle, made of a quart of wine vinegar, a pint of Rhenish wine, salt and spices. The Chinese dress sturgeon in a way which the English at Canton admire. 130. TEASED SKATE. — Economical and good. From Dr. Hunter's Culina. Take the dried wing of a skate, and after stripping off the skin, cut it into lengths of about one inch in breadth. Put the fish, so prepared, into water, and boil for the space of twenty minutes; after which let it be put into the oven, where it should remain a quarter of an hour, during which time it will become so tender as to permit the bones to be drawn out. The flesh being now detached from the bones, it should be put into a cloth, and well rubbed with the hands till it puts on a woolly appearance, which it will soon do. Take a saucepan, and in it reduce about half a pound of butter into oil, when the teased fish should be put into it, and kept stirring for the space of fifteen ininutes. When sufficiently heated, serve up.- Obs. Skate, so prepared, may be eaten as salt fish, with egg- sauce, mashed potatoes, or parsnips. The whole wing of a large skate will require half a pound of butter when put 200 CHAP. VII.–FISH. into the saucepan. It is a good-looking dish, and pre- pared at a small expense. It may be served in a dish with a paste border, or in a casserole of mashed potatoes. 131. TO BOIL SKATE.* If to be crimp, boil it quite fresh ;- if liked tender and sapid, it may, in cool weather, hang from one to three days. Sauce,-melted butter, or lobster or caper sauce. Skate fries very well when parboiled for five minutes, cut in thin slices, and dipped in egg and bread-crumbs; it eats well cold, with mustard, pepper, and vinegar. It is also very good parboiled, and then grilled in slices, serving it with parsley and butter, or caper-sauce. 132. ANOTHER WAY TO BOIL SKATE. MAKE a stock of the trimmings of the skate, parsley, onions, a clove of garlic, a sprig of basil, and a half-pint of vinegar. When this is cooked put in the skate, put also in the liver, let it just boil, and leave it twelve minutes covered with a cloth under the lid. Dish on a napkin. Make a sauce with the brown meat nicely minced, and some of the stock. Garnish with the liver. — Serve * Skate differs more in quality than perhaps any other fish. It should be broad and thick, roughish on the back, and of a creamy or opal-tinged whiteness. We have, however, seen a small kind of skate which is caught along the north-east coast of Scotland, of a leaden-blue colour, called by fishermen the deen or dun skate, which is more delicate than any other kind we have met with. In places where this fish forms a great part of the food of the common people, it is best relished when it is hung till dry, by which time it has acquired so strong a smell of ammonia as to be intolerable to the uninitiated. This fish, in those primitive days when as yet turtle was not, used to be esteemed, when eaten cold, with mustard and vinegar, quite a grand regale by those sober citizens of Edinburgh who repaired on holidays to the fishing-hamlets around the city. It is thought to eat like lobster, ---by persons of lively imagination. Skate is said, when out of season, to produce cholera and other violent diseases. The same thing is alleged of salmon in the state of foul or “black fish ;” and there is no question but that fish undergoes a change at particular seasons, which renders it for the time exceedingly improper food. There are many instances of seamen dying in consequence of eating dolphin. Shell-fish, especially muscles, sometimes occasion violent disorders, and dried salmon is at times, according to Dr. Christison, found as poisonous as sausages. It is said that accidents of this nature may be avoided by the simple test of putting a piece of silver into the tish-kettle. If it blacken, the fish should be considered dangerous, if not absolutely poisonous.-P. S. T. TO CRIMP SKATE-HADDOCKS IN BROWN SAUCE. 201 Caper-sauce. Skate is also served with onion-sauce, pars- ley and butter, or beurre noir, i. e. butter fried till black. 133. TO CRIMP SKATE. CLEAN, skin, and cut the fish into fillets, which must be tied to keep them round. Boil these quickly in water made very briny,—drain the fillets,-take away the tapes, —and serve with caper-sauce, parsley and butter, or shrimp- sauce. Obs. The French stew this excellent if homely fish, in a marinade of vinegar, salt, pepper, onions, bay- leaves, &c.; and after skinning, serve it with caper-sauce, or cucumbers. As the Parisians seldom have sea-fish fresh, they season more highly than the English and Dutch. On the whole, we consider the modern English cookery of fish better than the French. 134. HADDOCKS IN BROWN SAUCE. An excellent old-fashioned Scotch Dish. CLEAN, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, and skin from six to eight middle-sized haddocks. Take the heads, tails, and trimmings, with two or three of the fish cut down, and boil them in a quart of water or broth, with a couple of onions, some sweet herbs, and a piece of lemon-peel; thicken with four ounces of butter rolled in browned flour, strain the sauce, and season highly with mixed spices and mushroom-catsup; and when it boils and is skimmed, put in the fish, boned and cut into neat pieces, and if you choose, previously browned in the frying-pan. If there be too little sauce, add some good beef-gravy; add, if you like, a quarter-hundred of oysters and a glass of their liquor ; or some muscles, and a little wine. Take out the fish, when ready, with a slice, and pour the sauce, which should be brown, smooth, and thick, over them. — Other ways.-Haddocks may be stuffed with a fish-forcemeat, and dressed in a sauce, as directed above. Some of the force- meat may be made into balls for garnishing. Haddocks may also be stuffed, egged, and strewed with fine bread- crumbs, and minced parsley; and baked, basting them well with butter. Serve in a white or brown sauce made of a pound or more of good veal, onions, and parsley, and thickened with plenty of butter kneaded in browned flour. Strain, and add a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, 202 CHAP. VII. - FISH. white pepper in fine powder, a quarter-hundred of pickled oysters, and a spoonful of the pickle. Pour the skimmed sauce over the fish. Garnish with sliced lemon and pickled samphire. Whitings are dressed as above, with a white sauce, and codlings with a brown sauce. (For Crappit Heads see National Dishes.)—See Fish and Sauce, National Dishes. 135. HADDOCKS BAKED,—a plain good Family Dish. Clean and season three or four haddocks, place them neatly on a flat dish, with a border of paste or mashed potatoes neatly marked. Glaze with an egg, and place bits of butter here and there over the fish, and a piece inside of each. Garnish with potato-balls ragout, and bake for a half-hour. Pour a little melted butter and catsup over the dish, as in baking fish get dry. This dish may be made much finer by adopting receipt No. 149. 136. TO FRY HADDOCKS, SOLES, TROUT, PERCH, TENCH, WHITINGS, FLOUNDERS, HERRINGS, &c.* CLEAN and skin the haddocks or whitings. If the had- docks are too large, cut them in two or three pieces,-or split them, or slit the backs. The bone may be cut out, particularly in large fish ; or they may be dressed in fillets, now the common way: fillets are made by cutting the fish neatly off the backbone in oblong slices : when to be boiled or dressed à la Française, skin the fish-two soles for example—make a deep incision down the backbone on each side, and divide each side into four fillets; but still leave the fish on the bone till boiled and drained, by which means the fillets will be more easily detached, smooth and un- broken. When the fish are to be fried, rub them with flour, and, if to be higher dressed, rub off the flour, and with a paste-brush brush them over with beat egg ; strew finely- grated crumbs over them, and fry in a deep pan in plenty * It is not easy to know the delicate whiting, at times, from the coarse codling :-the codling has a beard—the whiting is silvery smooth. Flounders differ much in quality ; there is a coarse kind of flounder, with bright scarlet star-like spots, which in reality looks better than the sober-coated gray-back, though the last is often not inferior to brill. The colour is a surer test than the thickness or firmness of the fish. Haddocks are in high season from Whitsuntide to Christmas. Herrings are never long out of season, though the quality falls off at times, TO FRY HADDOCKS, &c. 203 of clarified dripping or lard (oil is still better,) heated to such a degree that it may neither scorch the fish nor yet stew them : when a thick smoke rises they are considered ready. Turn and lift them carefully, and keep them hot by the fire, on a reversed sieve and paper, to absorb the fat, till the whole are finished. Garnish with fried oysters, or a few sprigs of curled parsley, and sliced lemon, and serve very hot, with shrimp-sauce, if any is used. If small fish are not cut in pieces, they may be slit either in the back, or slightly scored ;—the same frying fat will serve more than once, if strained. Whitings and small haddocks may have the tail pushed through the eye. French cooks, and many English ones, serve fried fish on a napkin, which always looks well if neatly done. In Scotland, herrings are often dipped in oatmeal, and fried in plenty of dripping with 'sliced onions. In France mustard is served with fried fresh herrings. All these fish are occasionally broiled either split (Scotticè, speldered) or whole. Wipe them very dry, dust them with flour, and broil over a clear moderate fire. Haddocks, split and boned, (pipers,) salted and hung for a day or two, are very good broiled. Skin them, dust them with flour, lay them on a girdiron, and, if not split, put the opened part downmost. Turn them a few minutes on both sides, and they are done. Serve with cold butter. They are admirable for breakfast. 137. Finnan Haddocks (so named from a hamlet, about six miles south from Aberdeen,) should be skinned, broiled over a quick and clear fire, and served on a napkin. Those of the best quality are of a creamy-yellow colour, and have a peculiar odour, from the nature of the materials used in preparing them. When kept above forty-eight hours they lose much of their delicacy. Broiled haddocks, whether fresh rizzared, or as Finnans, are held in great esteem by those who relish a good breakfast. Finnans are now regularly forwarded froin Aberdeen to Edinburgh and London by railways and steamers. They may be dressed in a bread-toaster before the fire, or in a Dutch oven. An imitation of Finnans is now made at many parts of the coast ; a tolerable one by dipping the fresh split fish in 204 CHAP. VII.—FISH. pyroligneous acid, as above, and smoking them. * - See 1196. 138. TO DRESS SLICES OF HALIBUT, LING, OR TUSK, a Maigre Dish. Fry the fillets in butter, and then stew them in a little fish-stock, seasoned with parsley and celery. Add a piece of butter rolled in flour, white pepper, mace, a little lemon- peel, and a squeeze of lemon-juice; or use a currie-sauce. 139. HERRINGS AND MACKEREL. CHOOSE soft roe fresh mackerel. When gently boiled for from twelve to twenty minutes according to their size, dish on a napkin, with the boiled roe. Serve fennel sauce, or a mixture of. fennel and parsley ; more commonly melted butter, or Maître d'Hôtel sauce. They may be fried or broiled, either split or whole, sprinkled or stuffed with herbs chopped, and crumbed, and seasoned with pepper and salt; or collared, by splitting them, tak- ing out the bones, seasoning with mixed spices, rolling up and baking them in a slow oven. Herrings or mackerel are very good baked, and will keep a week. Clean, and season them highly with salt and mixed spices. Pack them neatly, heads and tails, in a deep dish. Fill up with vinegar, and stick a little butter over them. Tie them closely up with several folds of paper, and bake them. They eat very well cold, or will warm up in their own liquor. For pickling highly, bay-leaves, and more vinegar and spices, may be employed, and the fish may be either baked or boiled ;-boil up the pickle, and when cold pour it over them, as directed for salmon, p. 190.-The French cook mackerel with fine herbs, champagne, and butter. Nor in London are the days quite gone by— “ When Mackerel seem'd delightful to their eyes, Though dress’d with incoherent gooseberries.” * « A Finnan haddock," writes Sir Walter Scott, “ has a relish of a very peculiar and delicate flavour, inimitable on any other coast than that of Aberdeenshire. Some of our Edinburgh philosophers tried to produce their equal in vain. I was one of a party at a dinner where the philosophical haddocks were placed in competition with the genuine Finnan fish. These were served round without distinguishing whence they came ; but only one gentleman out of twelve present espoused the cause of philosophy." — Boswell's Life of Johnson, by Croker, vol. ii. p. 343, note. TO STEW TROUT, &c. 205 * 139. FRESH HERRINGS AS DRESSED AT INVERARY, and the Highland Sea-Lochs. The best herrings are obtained almost alive. Cut off the heads, fins, and tails ; scale, gut, and wash them. Split and bone them, dust the inside with pepper and fine salt. Place two herrings ílat together, the backs outmost, and dip in oatmeal and fry them for seven minutes. Serve hot. They are delicious; and, in the summer, add much to the breakfasts in the steamers on the Clyde, and round all the north-east and west coasts of Scotland. 140. TO STEW TROUT, CARP, OR PERCH. Clean the fish very well ; if large, they may be divided or split. Rub them inside with salt and mixed spices. Lay them in the stew-pan, and put in nearly as much good stock as will cover them, with a couple of onions and four cloves stuck in them, some Jamaica and black peppercorns, and a bit of mace; and when the fish have stewed a few minutes, a couple of glasses of white wine, a boned anchovy, the juice of a lemon, and a little cayenne. Take up the fish carefully when ready, and keep them hot. Thicken the sauce with butter kneaded in brown flour ; add a little mushroom-catsup and a few pickled oysters, if approved :— the sauce, though less piquant, is more delicate without catsup. Having skimmed and strained, pour it over the fish. — Obs. In the French and Dutch kitchen, fish is sometimes stewed maigre with wine, spiceries, and butter. The dry, austere or sub-acid wines are the best adapted for this purpose. The sauce is thickened with bread boiled in it. These fish may all be boiled plain, and served with finely-minced parsley and butter, or fennel, or chervil and butter, or equal parts of each. (See Sauces.)--The fish may be browned previously; but we conceive the flavour better when they are at once put to stew in the sauce. In England fish is sometimes stewed in cider instead of wine, seasoning with cayenne, eschalot, or onion. In Germany carp is sometimes even yet stewed in strong ale thickened with gingerbread ! - See Nos. 685-7. 206 CHAP. VII.-FISH. 141. TO STEW SOLES, EELS, LAMPREYS, AND FILLETS OF TURBOT, HALIBUT, WHITINGS, COD, &c. Clean and trim the fish. Eels must be cut in from three to four-inch lengths, and rubbed with salt to draw out the slime. Wash them thoroughly; cut off the heads. The other kinds of fish may be cut into larger pieces; the pieces may be dipped in egg, rolled in grated crumbs, and browned before they are put into the stew-pan. Have a pint and a half of good clear beef-gravy, in which two onions, a carrot, and a few pot-herbs have been boiled. Stew the fish in this gravy very gently, giving a quarter of an hour to the harder sorts, and about ten minutes to whitings or eels. Lift out the pieces or fillets with a fish slice, and keep them hot. Skim the sauce, and thicken it with brown flour, roux, or rice-flour ; add a small glass of wine, and a large spoonful of mushroom- catsup; give it a minute's boiling, and strain it over the dished stewed fish.—Obs. Stewed fish may be dressed for maigre days in the French manner, making the stock strong, either with fish or butter, or part of both, and using more herbs and seasonings. Lampreys and codlings are the better of having an anchovy and some made- mustard added to the above sauce. Serve them with scraped horseradish, sippets of bread, or fried parsley. 142. TO FRY EELS. * Skin and clean them, rub them with salt, and wash * The freshness of an eel is known by its vivacity of motion; and its quality by the colour of the skin. The best kind—the silver eel- is that found in the clearest waters. The dingy yellow, and the deep sallow-green are very inferior to the clear, coppery, brown-backed eel, and even to the bronze-coloured. Fresh-water fish of all kinds are best when found in clear streams. The natives of turbid, sluggish waters, are justly considered more difficult of digestion. This is said to be peculiarly the case with salmon. If slimy, soak the eels in water in which a piece of alum or charcoal is put. The cruelty inflicted on eels is proverbial. Instead of skinning and cutting alive, a humane method of putting them to death is recom- mended by Dr. KITCHENER, which deserves to be generally known. With a sharp-pointed skewer pierce the spinal marrow through the back part of the skull, when life will instantly cease. Mons. UDE gives the following receipt:-“ Take live eels, throw them into the fire, and as they are twisting about on all sides, lay hold of them with a towel in your hand, and skin them !” M. UDE belongs, we presume, to the revolution of 1789, not to that of 1830. TO FRY, COLLAR, AND SPITCHCOCK EELS. 207 them in several waters. Cut them in four-inch lengths ; but if small, turn them round, the tail to the mouth, and, having rubbed them with salt and mixed spices, brush them with beat egg, and roll in crumbs. Fry in plenty of boiling lard, drain from the fat on a sieve before the fire, and serve with chervil and butter, or parsley and butter, plain melted butter, or melted butter sharpened with vinegar or lemon-juice. If maigre, fry in butter or oil. This, on a maigre day, is a dish for the Pope. N.B. The fat in which eels are fried does not answer well for frying other fish. 143. TO COLLAR EELS. Bone without mangling a large eel. Season it highly by rubbing it with mixed spices finely pounded, chopped parsley, sage, and a sprig of lemon-thyme. Roll up and bind the collar with tape, and boil it in salt and water till tender. It may be served whole with a sharp sauce, or it may be cut in slices. It will keep in a pickle of the liquor it was boiled in, adding salt and vinegar. Eels may be stewed as carp, but are rather a luscious dish. 144. TO SPITCHCOCK EELS.- Linlithgow receipt. CLEAN them well, and rub with salt and skin them. Slit open the belly and take out the bone. Wash and dry them, cut in pieces about four inches long, dredge with flour, which wipe off, that they may be quite dry. Dip them in a thick batter made of melted butter, yolk of eggs, with a little minced parsley, sage, and a very little eschalot, with pepper and salt. Roll the pieces in fine grated bread-crumbs, or biscuit pounded. Dip and roll them again, and broil on a clear fire of a fine light- brown. Eels may be dipped and broiled whole if they are not too large, or roasted in a Dutch oven. Serve either anchovy-sauce or melted butter, sharpened with any favourite flavoured vinegar. Garnish with crisped parsley. Eels are, by many gourmands, preferred when boiled plain, strewing dried parsley and sage, pulverized, over them, and serving with them plain melted butter, sharpened with lemon-juice. (See also Remoulade-sauce.)— Eels are also dressed as Fish in Sauce, or as Water-Souchy. They are sometimes farced. 208 CHAP. VII.--FISH. 145. TO FRY SPRATS, SMELTS, AND OTHER SMALL FISH. Clean them well, and, when wiped dry, rub them with flour to absorb any moisture that remains. Dip them in beat egg, and then in fine bread-crumbs. Fry them in plenty of oil, lard, or clarified dripping, making it quite hot. Take care in turning not to break them. If wanted very nice, they may be twice dipped in egg and crumbs, or biscuit-powder. Lay them on a sieve reversed to drain, and serve on a napkin. These delicate fish may also be stewed in wine, with a little vinegar and plenty of spice; or in cider : or they may be seasoned with salt, mace, and cayenne, and arranged with the tails meeting in the centre of a flat baking-dish, covered with fine bread-crumbs, over which plenty of fresh butter is laid, and baked for from ten to twelve minutes. Serve as above, placing the baking-dish concealed on another, in which a napkin is puffed. Garnish with fried parsley and lemon sliced. 146. TO BROIL, BAKE, OR FRY SPRATS, SMELTS, &c. Run a long bird-skewer or a common knitting-needle through the eyes. Dust them with flour, and have a hot gridiron rubbed with mutton-suet or chalk, and a clear fire. Serve them hot. These fish will pickle or bake; and eat very well cold. Bake them with butter, and a high seasoning of mixed spices and vinegar. They will keep for a week. - Another way. Dip them in a batter made of two eggs, and bread-crumbs mixed with flour and seasonings, and fry them. Serve them on fried parsley.-Obs. Imitation-Anchovies may be made of sprats cured in a strong pickle of bay and common salt, and sal prunella, sugar, and pounded pepper, with a little cochineal to colour them. In Scotland, sprats, garvocks, &c., and herrings, are roasted on the girdle which toasts the family oat-bread, and this plan answers very well in cottage economy.-See White Bait. 147. TO DRESS RED HERRINGS, SARDINIAS, AND BUFFED AND PICKLED HERRINGS. Skin, open, and trim red herrings. If old and dry, pour some hot small beer or water over them, and let them steep a half-hour, or longer if hard. Yarmouth bloaters seldom need soaking. Broil them over a clear fire at a PICKLED HERRINGS. 205 considerable distance ; or before the fire : rub them with good oil or fresh butter while broiling, and rub on a little more when they are served. Serve them very hot with cold butter ; or with melted butter and mustard, and mashed potatoes or parsnips. Steep pickled Herrings from one to two days and nights, changing the water if they be very salt. Hang them upon a stick pushed through the eyes, and broil them when wanted. These are called buffed herrings in Scotland, and are served at breakfast or supper. 148. PICKLED HERRINGS,-a French way for a rere-supper. Wash the herrings; cut off the heads and tips of the tails ; skin them; steep them in lukewarm milk and water, and dry and broil them ; dish with slices of raw onions and rennets, and serve with oil. 149. TO STUFF AND BAKE CARP, PIKE,* AND HADDOCKS. HAVING scaled and cleaned the fish without cutting open * Receipt for Dressing a Pike, by ISAAK WALTON. — “ First open your pike at the gills, and, if need be, cut also a little slit towards the belly. Out of these take his guts, and keep his liver, which you are to shred very small with thyme, sweet-marjoram, and a little winter- savory; to these put some pickled oysters, and some anchovies, two or three, both these last whole, for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not; to these you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be well salted. If the pike be more than a yard long, then you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less butter will suffice; these, being thus mixed, with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the pike's belly; and then his belly so sewed up as to keep all the butter in his belly if it be possible; if not, then as much as you possibly can. But take not off the scales. Then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth, out at his tail. And then take four, or five, or six split sticks, or very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting : these laths are to be tied round about the pike's body from his head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit. Let him be roasted very leisurely, and often basted with claret wine, and anchovies and butter mixed together, and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan. When you have roasted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as you propose to eat him out of, and let him fall into it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly, and by this means the pike will be kept unbroken and complete. Then, to the sauce which was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you are to add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of three or four oranges. Lastly, you may either put it into the pike, with the oysters, two cloves of garlic, and take it 210 CHAP. VII.-FISH. much of the breast, stuff them with a maigre forcemeat made thus: Beat yolks of eggs, a few oysters bearded and chopped, and two boned anchovies, pounded biscuit, or bread grated, minced parsley, and a bit of eschalot or an onion, a blade of mace pounded, pepper, allspice, and salt. Mix these in the proper proportions; and, having beat a good piece of butter in a stew-pan, stir them in it, over the fire, till of the consistence of a thick batter, adding more biscuit-powder or flour if necessary. Fill the fish and sew up the slit. Bake them in a moderate oven, basting with plenty of butter, and sticking butter all over them. They will look handsomer if brushed with egg and crumbed. Serve Pike with anchovy-sauce, and carp with the following sauce :- Take up the fish on a hot dish ; thicken the liquor in which it was baked with butter rolled in flour, boiling it for a few minutes with a fagot of parsley, a few leaves of basil, a sprig of lemon-thyme, and a very little marjoram. Strain and add to the sauce a tea-spoonful of made-mustard, and one of Chili vinegar, a glass of red wine, and a little soy, with mace, pepper, and salt to taste. Pour a little of this over the carp, and serve the rest in a tureen. Garnish with curled parsley and slices of lemon, or parsley and scraped horseradish.- Obs. A highly-relishing forcemeat for the above may be made of scraped ham or tongue, or bacon fried and cut in little bits, suet or marrow, eschalot, cayenne, salt, a chopped anchovy, bread-crumbs, a little walnut or oyster liquor, with egg to bind the composition. The meat of a lobster may be substituted for the ham or fried bacon.-See Crappit Heads and Fillets of Haddocks, also French Cookery of Fish. 150. TO DRESS PLAICE, BRILL, OR LARGE FLOUNDERS. Clean, and without washing wipe the fish, and rub it with salt. When it has lain from six hours to a day, whole ont when the pike is cut off the spit; or, to give the sauce a hogoo, (haut gout, we presume,) let the dish into which you let the pike fall be rubbed with it; the using or not using of this garlic is left to your discretion. - This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers or very honest men; and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted you with this secret.” TO DRESS PIPERS, RED MULLET, FISH-TURTLE. 211 wash it, wipe it very dry, and rub with flour to absorb all the remaining damp. When the flour is rubbed off, brush it over with beat egg, and dip it in bread-crumbs, with a little finely-minced parsley. Fry it in plenty of lard, and when drained from the fat, serve it on fried parsley, with anchovy-sauce, or melted butter sharpened with the juice of a lemon or Seville orange. 151. TO DRESS PIPERS. CLEAN a very fresh fish without cutting it open too much. Stuff it with a forcemeat of two or three ounces of shred suet, and a large breakfast-cupful of bread- crumbs, mixed with two eggs, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and a little cayenne. Sew in this stuffing, skewer the tail into the mouth; flour, egg, and crumb the fish ; bake it in a hot oven; drain it and serve with Dutch sauce.—This must not be confounded with rizzared had- docks, which in Scotland are often called pipers. 152. TO DRESS RED MULLET. CLEAN and bake or boil the fish. Serve with lobster- sauce.Obs. French cooks do not gut this delicate fish. It is merely washed, wrapped in buttered paper-cases, and baked to preserve the delicacy of its native flavour. Serve in the cases. 153. FISH-TURTLE,—A favourite dish. Fry slices of fresh codling or haddock, and drain them. Parboil, skin, and cut into squares a piece of good skate. Have ready some gravy, or broth of cow-heel, beef, or veal, highly seasoned with pepper, cayenne, and catsup, and thickened with butter rolled in flour. Stew the fish in this stock with the meat of a lobster, and a few oysters in their juice. Season with essence of anchovy, and a little winé, if you like. Serve in a soup-dish. 154. TO CURRIE HADDOCKS, CODLINGS, Whitings, or slices of Cod, Halibut, and other Fish. Have a quart of good beef or veal stock, in which a carrot or turnip and two onions have been boiled. Thicken it with butter kneaded in lightly-browned rice flour. Having cleaned, skinned, and boned the fish, cut them into neat fillets of about three inches in length. Rub them with flour, and fry them in butter or lard 212 CHAP. VII.- FISH, of a fine golden brown. Drain them, and mix very smoothly with a little of the stock from a dessert-spoon- ful to a table-spoonful of currie-powder, two onions beaten in a mortar, and a large quarter-pint of thick cream,- if a little sour so much the better. Stew the fish very slowly in the stock till they are tender, which will not take long. Place the pieces neatly in the dish, the largest in the centre, and having skimmed the currie-sauce, pour it over them. Obs. Currie has become a favourite way of dressing fish, though it finds no place in any book of cookery. It is cheap, convenient, and even elegant. Instead, however, of using currie-powder as obtained in shops, we would advise every cook to keep the several ingredients, each good of its kind, in well-stopped vials, and to mix them when they are wanted, suiting the quantities of the various ingredients to the nature of the dish. Fish, for ex- ample, requires more acid than fowl. Some people like a great deal of cayenne, others detest the taste and smell of turmeric, and some are all for ginger. To use currie-powder mixed in the same proportions for every sort of viand and of taste, may do very well for those who entertain a mysterious veneration for the Oriental characters inscribed on the packages, but will not suit a gourmand of any knowledge or experience. Prawns, oysters, or muscles, may be added to fish currie, and are also curried by them- selves. Dressed fish will make good currie. The currie may be any shade of colour, from pale gold to deep rich brown, by browning the fish and onions more or less, or adding browning. . 155. DUTCH WATER-SOUCHY, maigre. Eels, gudgeons, whitings, flounders, perch, tench, &c. are all employed for this dish. Whichever sort of fish you use, clean them well, taking out the gills, eyes, &c. Cut them in neat small pieces. Have a little good fish-stock made of the heads and fins, and seasoned with onion, parsley, a bit of lemon-peel, pepper, and salt. Strain and skim, and stew the cut fish in this for eight or ten minutes. Put in a little catsup ; skim, and serve it in a soup-dish. A bay-leaf may be boiled in the stock, and the souchy may be flavoured with essence of anchovy, eschalot, or any flavouring ingredient that is approved.* DR. ANTHONY Todd Thomson's receipt. — Boil two small • * We have been refused the receipt of the Star Inn at Alphen, in Holland, a place famous for its water-zootje. This is illiberality which the CLEIKUM CLUB rarely experiences. CRAY-FISH. 213 founders, whitings, or haddocks, in a quart of water to a third, reducing them nearly to a pulp; prepare four more flounders, and boil them in the strained liquor, serving with salt, pepper, and cayenne. This is strongly recom- mended for convalescents; thickening with beat yolk of egg if in advanced convalescence. 156. TO DRESS CRAY-FISH AND WHITE BAIT. BOIL cray-fish for four minutes in the shell, in wine and water, or in water and vinegar, with herbs, and serve them, hot or cold, on a napkin arranged neatly in form. TO DRESS CRAY-FISH AND WHITE BAIT, as at Greenwich, and Lovegrove's, Blackwall. The sooner this delicate fish is cooked after it leaves the water the better, just like herrings, mackerel, and also the small species eaten as white bait. Keep them in a pan of salt water, or salted water. Lift them with a skimmer, for they should never be handled,-into a towel in which plenty of flour is put. Toss them about till coated with flour; place them in a colander, and sift all the flour off them that will come, and instantly fry them for from one to two minutes in hot lard; lift with the fish-skimmer, drain from the frying fat, and serve neatly and instantly on a fish-plate of china or silver, piling them like a pyramid. They are eaten with brown bread and butter, and sauced at table with a squeeze of cut lemon and cayenne : the accompanying beverage iced punch.--Obs. White bait is now settled to be a distinct species of fish; especially created, we presume, for English cabinet minis- ters and their friends, and a few London bankers and merchants. It is, however, found in other British estuaries besides the Thames, though it never can relish on the shores of the Dornoch Firth as at Greenwich. The receipt is applicable to all localities, and to several small delicate species of fish that pass for genuine white bait. 157. RICH FISH-PIE,—a maigre dish. CLEAN and nicely trim either soles, trout, salmon, turbot, whichever is intended for the pie, and cut the meat from the bone in handsome fillets. Season the fillets with pepper, cayenne, mace, and salt. They may either be 214 CHAP. VII.--FISH. turned round or laid flat in the pie-dish, packing them neatly. If to be very rich, the pie-dish may be lined with fish-forcemeat. Put bits of butter below and above the fish, and strew in, if to be very rich, chopped shrimps or prawns, or the soft part of oysters, or lobster-meat. Season a half-pint of stock made of the fish-heads and trimmings; thicken, and strain this over the fish, and cover the dish with a good puff-paste. It will require less baking than a meat-pie of the same size. — See Fish Pudding. 158. LOBSTER-PIE,—a maigre dish. PARBOIL two good lobsters; take out all that is good of the meat, and cut it in bits, and place it in a small pie-dish. "Beat the spawn and shells, and stew them in water, with a blade or two of mace, and a little good vinegar. Strain this over the lobster-meat, and cover with a light paste. A little soy, wine, cayenne, and cat- sup will make this pie more relishing.-Obs. Some know- ing gourmands have lobster-pies made of alternate layers of lobster and oyster meat, and bread-crumbs, with small farce-balls of pounded oysters, lobster-coral, and essence of anchovies. 159. FISH RE-WARMED. TAKE cold cod, turbot, skate, pike, or other fish, in neat bits from the bone : place in a dish any sauce left of it, and lay the bits on this, pouring over them four ounces of butter melted in cream, and thickened and seasoned to your taste with cayenne, made mustard, and Harvey's fish sauce : Heat thoroughly in a Dutch oven : the dish may have a paste border, or be served on another dish in a puffed napkin. — See Nos. 683-4, for French receipts. 160. A SAVOURY SHRIMP OR PRAWN PIE, maigre. Have as many well-cleaned shrimps or prawns as will nearly fill the pie-dish. Season with pounded mace, cloves, a little cayenne, or Chili vinegar. Put some butter in the dish, and cover with a light puff-paste. Less than three-quarters of an hour will bake these pies. 161. AN EXCELLENT SALT-FISH PIE, maigre. This may be made of either cod or haddocks salted, but not too dry. Steep and boil the fish. Trim away all FISH-PIES AND SAUCES. 215 skins, bones, and fins, and cut them into thin handsome pieces. Boil hard, and peel half a dozen eggs, and slice them thin ; do the same with as many well-sized onions, Have plenty of parboiled potatoes sliced. Place some bits of butter and a layer of potatoes in the bottom of a large pie-dish, then fish, then eggs, then onions, and again butter, thus filling up the dish, shaking pepper over every separate layer, and putting butter over each. Make a sauce of chopped hard-boiled yolks of eggs, melted butter, a little made-mustard, and essence of anchovy, or soy, and pour it over the pie. Cover it with a puff-paste, or with mashed potatoes, scalloped round the edge, and glazed with eggs. This pie will not require much of the oven.- Obs. Pies may be made of perch, mackerel, her- rings, soles, flounders, haddocks, &c. The tough or oily fish must be previously skinned. Fish-pies may be baked open, and we think are best so, with merely a border, and, when dished, a sprinkling of hard white of eggs strewed over. - See Potato Pasty. 162. A RICH FISH-PIE, OR BAKED FISH. THREE middling-sized haddocks, mackerels, or soles, will make a pie. They may be stuffed, well seasoned, and laid in an oval flat dish, with a puff-paste border and centre ornament, or an edging of mashed potatoes neatly marked. Stick plenty of butter over them ; or, better, glaze and cover with bread-crumbs. Balls of fish-forcemeat, or yolks of hard-boiled eggs, may be employed to enrich the dish; or for plain dinners, potato-balls. If wanted very high-dressed, the fish may be laid on forcemeat, and have a rich sauce poured hot over them when baked.- Obs. These may be served yet more elegantly à la Matelote, or à la Genevoise. - See French Cookery. 163. SAUCES FOR FISH-PIES, OR FOR FRESH FISH, TAKE a quarter-pint of the best vinegar, the same quan- tity of white wine, a large spoonful of oyster-liquor, and another of catsup, with two anchovies boned and chopped. Boil this sauce for two minutes, and, skimming it, pour it hot through a funnel into the pie when to be served. 164. A Provincial way. Take a half-pint of good thick cream, a dessert-spoonful of soy, two anchovies boned and 216 CIIAP. VII.-FISH. chopped, and a bit of butter rolled in browned flour. Boil it up in a small saucepan, and pour it hot into the pie. 165. TO BOIL LOBSTERS AND CRAES. Choose lobsters and crabs by their weight, alertness, and fresh smell. The tail of the lobster, when fresh, will be stiff and springy; and so will the claws of the crab.* Fill a large pot with water, and make it brackish with salt (on the coast sea-water is used ;) brush and put in the lob- sters, tying the claws. Take off the scum, of which a great deal will be thrown up, and let them boil from twenty to forty minutes, according to the size. If boiled too long, the flesh will get thready and coarse ; if not long enough, the spawn will not have a good colour. Wipe the lobsters with a damp cloth, then rub the shell with butter, and wipe it off again. Break off the great claws, and * Lobsters and crabs are in high season from March till October ; so that they supply the place of oysters, which come in about the time lobsters go out of season. Lobsters are held in great esteem by gas- trologers for the firmness, purity, and flavour of their flesh. When they find refuge in the rocky fastnesses of the deep from the rapacity of sharks and fishermen, they sometimes attain an immense size, and have been found from eighteen inches to upwards of two feet in length. Apicius, who ought to be the patron saint of epicures, made a voyage to the coast of Africa on hearing that lobsters of an unusually large size were to be found there ; and, after encountering much distress at sea, met with a disappointment. Very large lobsters are at present found on the coast of Orkney. Some naturalists affirm, (OLAUS MAGNUS and GESNER,) that in the Indian ceas, and on the wild shores of Nor- way, lobsters have been found twelve feet in length, and six in breadth, which seize mariners in their terrible embrace, and, dragging them into their caverns, devour them. However this may be, the lobsters and crabs for being devoured are best when of the middle size, and when found on reefs or rocky places. They are obtained on many parts of the British coasts ; and during the summer months there is generally an abundant supply in the London market. In places where crabs are good and plentiful, a very pretty surper-plate is made of a few pairs of the claws; and an excellent substitute for lobster-sauce is prepared from them, particularly from the small delicate species known by the name of Cavies. The age of shell-fish may, it is said, be known, as that of a tree is by the bark, from the roughness and incrustations which gather upon the surface. Yet if lobsters cast their shells yearly, how can this be ? At any rate, avoid the crusted. River lobsters are esteemed more delicate than sea enes. In Germany, lobsters are oiten boiled alive in milk. The Germans are indeed fond of cooking all sorts of fish in milk, and of marinading in milk.- Barbarous cookery.- P. T. French practice is refining German cookery. TO POT LOBSTERS, &c. 217 crack them at the joints without mangling. Split down the tail, and dress all neatly on the dish, serving the fol- lowing sauce :-The hard yolks of two eggs pounded in a mortar with a little vinegar, and the soft spawn of the lob- ster. When beaten quite smooth, mix this thoroughly with a large spoonful of salad oil and a glassful of the best vine- gar, a tea-spoonful of made-mustard, and a little cayenne and salt. For crabs the same sauce, but shorter boiling. 166. TO POT LOBSTERS, SHRIMPS, AND CRABS FOR SANDWICHES, DEVILED BISCUITS, &c. CRACK the claws, &c. and pick out the meat. If for sandwiches, beat it in a mortar with pounded mace, white pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, and salt. If to keep for eating, for a cold relish, mix the meat neatly cut in small bits, and the coral and the spawn, in a regular manner in layers or alternate pieces, so that when sliced it may have that marbled appearance, that look of mosaic work, which so much commends the taste of the cook. Press the layers into a potting-can, and bake, covered with butter in a slow oven for about a half-hour. When cold, take off the but- ter, pack the meat in small potting-cans, and pour the butter clarified over it.-Obs. What is left of this butter will be very relishing for sauces. Sometimes potted lobster may be dressed as a fricassee in a Bechamel or cream- sauce, or eaten cold. Lobsters for sauce, when the fish are dear or out of season, may be well preserved in this way. To pot Shrimps.—Shell as many fresh shrimps as will fill a pint basin. Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter in a small saucepan, which season pretty highly with a blade of mace, a particle of cayenne, and a very little nutmeg. Let the shrimps gently heat through, and soak in the butter for a quarter of an hour, but not boil. Pot, as other things, in very small shallow potting-cans. When cold, pour a little melted butter over, and cover them closely. N.B.-If to be kept for sauce, pot at least three pints; but suit the seasonings to that purpose, and put no nutmeg. 167. LOBSTER, HAUT GOUT,—BY H. JEKYLL, ESQ. Pick the firm meat from a parboiled lobster or two, and take also the inside, if not thin and watery. Season 218 CHAP. VII.-FISH. highly with white pepper, cayenne, pounded mace, and cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Take a little well-flavoured gravy-for example, the jelly of roast veal—a few tiny bits of butter, a spoonful of soy, or walnut-catsup, or of any favourite flavoured vinegar, and a spoonful of red wine. Stew the cut lobster in this sauce for a few minutes.-Obs. This is one of those delicate messes which the gourmet loves to cook for himself in a silver dish over a spirit-lamp, the preparation of the morsel being to him the better part of it. 168. TO ROAST A LOBSTER. WHEN parboiled, rub it with plenty of butter, and lay it in a Dutch oven, or before the fire ; baste it till it froth ; dredge lightly with flour, and baste again, 169. TO BUTTER LOBSTERS. WARM the meat cut into nice bits, in a little good brown gravy. Season with mace, nutmeg, and salt; and thicken with butter kneaded in brown flour; or dress them white in clear gravy and a little cream, seasoning with white pepper and salt. Prawns and shrimps may be buttered in the same way, either in white or brown sauce, and served on toasted sippets. 170. FRICASSEED LOBSTER,—An elegant Dish. DRESS the lobster the same as in the former receipt, but use more veal-gravy, a little cream, and the beat yolk of an egg. Dish the fricassee in the middle of a small dish, and place the claws and cut tail neatly round it; garnish with pickled beetroot and sliced pickled cucumber. This is just a lobster salad. 171. LOBSTER in the French mode. Cut the meat in small dice. Stew it in a little rich sauce for a few minutes, and serve it in the shell, which must be nicely cleaned. Strew it twice over with sifted crumbs, and brown with a salamander.-See Lobster-sauce, and Sauce for Lobsters. 172-3. TO DRESS CRABS HOT AND COLD, And the Scotch Partan-pie. Pick the meat out of the claws and body of two crabs; clean the shell nicely, and return the meat into one, first seasoning with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg ; a few bits CRABS_PRAWNS, CRAY-FISH. 219 of fresh butter, and some bread-crumbs. A half-glass of vinegar, beat up with a little made-mustard, may be added, and a small quantity of salad-oil substituted for the butter. - Brown the meat when laid in the shell with a salamander. This is the preparation which the Original thinks so charming an interlude in a social dinner, when handed round with the fish.—To dress Crabs cold. Pick out all the meat, and mixing it well with a tea-spoonful of salad-oil, with cayenne, white pepper, and salt to taste, serve it in the shell.–Obs. The shell of one crab will contain the meat of two. For variety the meat may be cut in fillets, the small claws disposed neatly round the dish, and the contents of the body pounded, rubbed through a sieve, seasoned and stewed in a little gravy, before being returned into the shell. Shell-fish are picked from the shells, from which a liquor is drawn by breaking or boiling them in water and a little white wine and vinegar, with salt, pepper, mace, and lemon-peel. Strain and thicken this liquor; add the fish : stew for five minutes, and dish over slips of thin toast.See Aspic Jelly. 174. PRAWNS, OR CRAY-FISH,----An Ornamental Dish. Make a savoury jelly of calf's-feet or a cow-heel, a piece of skate, or trimmings of turbot, with horseradish, lemon- peel, an onion, and a piece of lean bacon. When boiled to a jelly, strain it, and when cold take off the fat, keep back the sediment, and boil it up with a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, and the whisked whites and crushed shells of four eggs. Do not disturb it by stirring. When boiled, let it settle twenty minutes, and run it through a jelly-bag. Pour some of the jelly into a deep dish ; when it has firmed, put in the cray-fish with their backs down- wards, fill up the dish with the jelly, and when cold, turn the whole out. This jelly may be poured over any sort of shell-fish.-Obs. A lobster in savoury jelly was one of the fantastic dishes of the old school of cookery. The process was very elaborate, and it seldom succeeded entirely; either a horn was broken or awry, or a claw snapt, or a fracture of the tail took place, to the utter discomfiture of the cook and mortification of the hostess. 220 CHAP. VII.-FISH. 175. CAVIARE AND MOCK CAVIARE. CAVIARE must be bought. The best is prepared from the roe of sturgeon; but roe of salmon, pike, &c. are also employed. It is eaten raw, with toasted bread, oil, and vinegar, or lemon-juice. A good imitation is thus made : Bone a few anchovies, and chop or pound them in a mortar with dried parsley, a clove of garlic, a little cayenne, salt, lemon-juice, and a very little salad-oil. Serve on toasted bread or toasted biscuits. See Salmon-roe. 176. A SALMAGUNDI. Wash and cut open at the breast two large Dutch or Lochfine pickled herrings; take the meat from the bones, without breaking the skin, and keep on the head, tails, fins, &c. Mince the fish with the breast of a cold roast chicken skinned, a couple of hard-boiled yolks of eggs, an onion, a boned anchovy, and a little grated ham or tongue. Season with salad-oil, vinegar, cayenne, and salt, and fill up the herring-skins, so that they may look plump and well shaped. Garnish with scraped horseradish, and serve mustard with the dish. Obs. An ornamental Salmagundi was one of the frippery dishes of former times. This edi- fice was raised on a china bowl reversed, and placed in the middle of a dish, crowned with what, by the courtesy of the kitchen, was called a pine-apple, made of fresh butter. Around were laid, stratum above stratum, chopped eggs, minced herring and veal, rasped meat, and minced parsley; the whole surmounted by a triumphal arch of herring- bones, and adorned with a garnishing of barberries and samphire. 177. TO STEW OYSTERS,* COCKLES, OR MUSCLES. · PLUMP juicy middle-sized oysters alone will stew to * Oysters are conceitedly said to be in season in every month of the year that has an r in its name, beginning with September and ending with April; but the season in many places extends from August to May. Every city has its favourite oyster-bank. In London the Colchester and Milton oysters are held in most esteem. Edinburgh has her “whis- kered Pandores,” and Dublin the Carlingford, and Powldoodies of Burran.” Venice is celebrated for oysters. Ancient Rome had those of Tarentum. For the convenience of obtaining a ready supply of oysters, they are often transported from their original beds, and laid down on other places of the coast; but these exiles are seldom found in such perfection as those which are called natives; that is, such as have never OYSTERS. 221 advantage. When opened, put them in a saucepan to harden for two minutes, which will enable you to beard been rudely torn from their native beds and despatched on voyages of profit. Oysters, when just dredged, may be so packed in smali barrels as to keep good for a week or ten days, and in this state they are sent to distant places. Oysters may be dropped out of the shell into a bottle, and kept in their juice for a little time by pouring in a little olive-oil, corking the bottle closely. They may also be preserved good for some time by feeding; and custom, which brings gourmands to admire game when in a state of putridity, has taught some epicures to relish the flavour of stale oysters better than those recently taken from the beds. The fresher oysters are, they are the better; but when to be kept, lay them bottom downwards in a tub, or any vessel suited to the quantity to be preserved, and cover them with water in which a good deal of salt is dissolved. In this manner Apicius sent oysters to Tiberius when he was in Parthia. Change the water every twelve hours. Most cooks direct that this delicate animal should be fed with oatmeal or flour inkled in water, and others, on the principle which leads a mother of the parish of St. Giles to give her new-born darling a drop of gin, are for feeding them with white wine and bread-crumbs! It is said by those who have the charge of fish-ponds, “that fish will eat nothing but what comes out of the sea ;” now, though we are not per- fectly convinced of this fact, we can at least believe that salt-water gruel is not over well suited to the delicate stomach of an oyster. Those large fat oysters called Pandores, which are so much prized in Edinburgh, are said to owe their superior excellence to the brackish contents of the pans of the adjacent salt-works of Prestonpans flowing out upon the beds,- a subject this worthy the serious investigation of the oyster- amateur, who may here receive some excellent hints for fattening and improving the quality of his favourite morsel. We have, however, grave doubts of this theory. Shell-fish, and the oyster above all, have long been esteemed highly restorative, and easy of digestion; they are therefore recommended for the food of the delicate and declining, and of those whose digestive powers have been impaired by excess. When eaten for health, an oyster is best swallowed with its own liquor the moment the shell is opened; or, if found too cold for the stomach, a sprinkling of black pepper may be allowed. Vinegar counteracts the effect of eating oysters to enrich the blood, or render it more balsamic, and ought therefore to be avoided by the declining. As there are no reasonable bounds to oyster-eating, it may be useful to notice here, that when too many of these or other shell-tish are swallowed, the unpleasant feeling created may, it is said, be removed by drinking half a pint of hot milk. Consumptive persons are recommended to use hot milk after their oysters at all times, ---- we cannot tell why. “Oysters,” says the learned author of Tabella Cibaria, “ were not common at Rome, and consequently fetched there a very high price ; yet MACROBIUS assures us, that the Roman Pontiffs never failed to have them every day on their tables.” From the fourth century to the reign of Louis XIV, they were nearly forgotten ; but they soon came again into vogue, and from that time have kept up their reputation. Gastronomers, we know, can swallow from three to four dozen before 2:22 CHAP. VII.-FISH. them easily. Wash them as you beard, from their own liquor. Keep them hot. Strain the liquor, and after- dinner, and then sit down and eat perhaps better than if they had abstained from them. They clear the stomach of accidental phlegm, increase the gastric juices, and by their natural coolness, condense the air which may be fixed in the organs of digestion. When good they are wholesome, but poisonous when bad.--" The Athenians held oysters in great esteem,” says the same learned authority on matters of the table; and we may add, that in the Modern Athens they are held in equal regard. They appear to have fallen into disrepute during the middle ages. Chaucer's begging monks mortified themselves upon this mean food. The principal taverns of the Old Town of Edinburgh used to be called Oyster Taverns, in honour of this favourite viand; and this name is still kept up by some modern places of genial resort. “How many celebrated wits and bon-vivunts, now quite chop-fallen," said WINTER- BLOSSOM, “ have dived into the dark defiles of Closes and Wynds in pursuit of this delicacy, and of the wine, the wit, the song, that gave it zest! I have heard my learned and facetious friend, t he late PROVOST CREECH - for it was rather before my day -- say, that before public amusements were much known in our Presbyterian capital, an Oyster- ploy, which always included music and a little dance, was the delight of the young fashionables of both sexes." The municipal authorities of Edinburgh were wont to pay consider- able attention to “The feast of shells,” both as regarded the supply and the price, ----and we hope they do so still. At the commencement of the dredging season, a voyage was boldly undertaken to the oyster-beds in the Frith of Forth by the public functionaries, with something of the solemnity of the DOGE of Venice wedding his Adriatic bride. Even the plodding fishermen of our bleak coast seem to catch inspira- tion from this delicate creature. Instead of the whisky-inspiration which supports them in dragging the herring nets, or throwing the cod- lines, like the fishermen of the Sicilian seas, they “ Sing to charm the spirits of the deep,” as they troll the dredging-nets. There is indeed a poetical notion that the oyster, among his other gentle qualities, is inclined to minstrelsy - “ The Herring loves the merry moonlight, The Mackerel loves the wind, But the Oyster loves the dredging-sang, For he comes of gentle kind." The Nabob, emulous of the well-earned fame of Dr. KitCHINER, who has set the ancient duet between Bubble and Squeak with proper accompaniments, wished to embellish this volume with the music of the “ Dredging-Song," and the shrilling recitative of the oyster-wives - those Maids of Honour to the “ Empress of the North,” who, for miles off, are heard when September evenings begin to shorten-cuckoos of autumn- harbingers of winter-screaming around “her Mountain Throne”– drowning the summer“ babble of green trees,” and bringing back the genial associations of “ rousing nights,” merry tavern-suppers, and “ a quarter of a hundred after the play." There is perhaps no spot on earth where oysters were enjoyed in such perfection as at the head . . . OYSTERS. 2:23 wards allow time for the sediment to subside. Put it into · a silver or block-tin saucepan, with a bit of mace, and lemon-peel, and a few white peppercorns, a little butter kneaded in flour, and a glass of sweet cream, or of Cham- pagne or Madeira, if for a high relish ; in which case a very little minced eschalot, or onion and cayenne, may be added. Let it boil for a few minutes, and slip in the oysters, simmer very gently for five minutes, lift them with a silver spoon into a deep hot dish with toasted sippets in it, and strain the sauce over them.-Obs. A sort of deviled stew is made by adding more seasonings and Par- mesan cheese ; which high-flavoured cheese the French employ frequently for relishing ragouts, both of meat and fish. If it be true that all fish require silver knives and forks, this holds peculiarly of oysters. A genuine oyster- eater rejects all additions, - wine, eschalot, lemon, &c., are alike obnoxious to his taste for the native juice. 178. TO SCALLOP OYSTERS OR COCKLES. HAVING hardened, bearded, and stewed the oysters, as above directed, for two or three minutes in their own cleared juice, have some bread-crumbs moistened with the oyster-liquor, a good piece of butter melted, and a little wine. Place some of this in scallop-shapes, and cover with a layer of oysters, then more moistened bread-crumbs, next oysters, and finish with the bread-crumbs mixed with a little grated lemon-peel and finely-shred parsley. Put some bits of butter over the whole, and brown in a Dutch oven, or with a salamander. 179. TO GRILL OYSTERS. Blanch them in a stew-pan in their own juice, beard of the Old Fish Market Close of Edinburgh ; once, --- alas the change! ---the cynosure of all the taverns, fish-creels, and booksellers’ shops of that learned city: the place where eating, learning, and law, sat enthroned side by side. Here, on any evening from October till March, the oyster gourmand took his solitary stand, and enjoyed his delicious vegale in its utmost earthly perfection,- swallowed alive with its own gravy the moment it was opened by the fishwife ; who operated on the shell with a dexterity of manipulation, a rapidity of fingering, that no piano-forte player we ever saw could vie with, -nothing indeed could be compared with it except the eager voracity of those genuine lovers of the oyster, to whom these piscatory Hebes ministered. A precious remnant of genuine oyster-eaters still haunt this favourite spot. Dr. REDGILL resolved to visit it on the first night of his sojourn in Edin- burgh.-Edit. 224 CHAP. VII.-FISH, and wash them out of this, and in another stew-pan give them a toss with a bit of fresh butter and a little chopped parsley ; but do not let them boil. Place them in their own shells, previously well cleaned, and put some bits of butter over them. Place the shells on the gridiron ; two minutes will do them. Nutmeg is added sometimes, both to scalloped and grilled oysters; but we do not approve of it. Two may be put in one shell. 180. TO BROWN OYSTERS IN THEIR OWN JUICE. Beard and wash them in their juice, and dip them one by one in yolk of egg beat up with a very little flour, pepper, and salt. Brown a good piece of butter in the frying-pan, and brown the oysters nicely over a quick fire ; draw them aside, and pour their juice strained into the pan; thicken it with a very little flour kneaded in butter, and when it boils stir the oysters among it for a few minutes. This answers for brown sauce to cod's head and shoulders, and for calf's head, &c.; but when to be served as a stew, it may have a little catsup, bread- crumbs, and minced parsley added to it. Serve in a hot hash-dish on toasted sippets. Lemon-peel and chopped parsley will be an improvement. Muscles and cockles may be dressed in the same way. 181. TO SERVE OYSTERS IN THE SHELL. LET the opener stand behind the eater's chair, who should make quick and clean conveyance. If not so placed, wash, brush, and open and beard the oysters, and arrange them in rows on a tray; or if at a loss for room, heap the shells in piles: the fresher from the sea, and the more recently opened, the better. The French serve lemon-juice with raw oysters; we serve this and also vinegar, pepper, and toasted crusts. 182. TO PICKLE OYSTERS, MUSCLES, AND COCK LES. BEARD and wash large fat native oysters in their own liquor. Strain it, and to every pint of it put a glass of white wine, mace, nutmeg, a good many white peppercorns, and a little salt, if necessary. Simmer the oysters for four or five minutes; but never let them boil. Put them in glass or stone jars. Put vinegar, in the proportion of a glass to OYSTERS. 225 the pint, to the liquor, and boil it up. Skim this pickle and pour it over the oysters; and when cold, cork them and tie them close up with bladder. The pickle-liquor may be boiled up occasionally, suffered to cool, and poured over them, which will tend to preserve the oysters : a spoonful of it will be a great addition to any hash or common ragout. Add horseradish, parsley, and a little thyme, if you like.-N. B. Muscles and cockles in the same manner : but having washed well, place them on the fire that the shells may open,- then pick them out and proceed as above, using pepper, and a little vinegar only. Neither muscles nor cockles should be kept long. 183. TO FRY OYSTERS TO GARNISH FISH, or Oyster-fritters. SIMMER them in their own strained liquor for three minutes; drain them; take off the beards, and, dipping in a batter of egg, flour, and white pepper, or No. 882, fry them in lard or butter of a golden brown. The above is the same as oyster-fritters, only the fritter-batter must be stiffer, and highly seasoned with mace, nutmeg, and lemon-peel. Oyster-loaves, a fantastic sort of dish, are made as oyster- patties, filling the little rolls made for this purpose instead of patty-cases. See Patties and Oyster-sauce, Preserved Oysters, &c.* * Fish is a favourite food with the rich and luxurious, but it is not thought to possess much nourishment, though late experiments of men of science in France go far to overturn this opinion. When it is wished rapidly to reduce the weight of jockeys at Newmarket, they are kept on fish. Fish is considered more easy of digestion than flesh, though we are disposed to question the statement. Shell-fish, including turtle, from approaching to the nature of meat jelly, are the most nutritious. but not always the most easily digested. Salmon and salmon-trout, turbot and sturgeon, are all nutritious, but heavy. Eels are nourishing, but difficult of digestion. Salt-water fish are more wholesome than the fish of slimy lakes and muddy pools. White fish are more easily digested than those of more richness and favour, such as salmon and herring : and, if less fat, are at least as nutritious. Pike, the water- wolf, is firm in the texture, and a well-flavoured and wholesome, though not a favourite fish. Carp and tench are considered wholesome. Whit- ings, flounders, and soles, being of a moist juicy nature, are light, and very easy of digestion. There seems, according to Sir John SINCLAIR, to be a general understanding among mankind, that fish ought to be eaten with butter and acids. “ Fish and milk,” says the same authority, “are seldom conjoined.” Brandy, he ought to have added, is Latin for a salmon. “Fish,” says Sir John, “ do not agree with vegetables, except the potato.” Bere he is wrong ; the people in Orkney and P 2:26 CHAP. VII.--FISH. 187. TO STEW MUSCLES FOR FISH-SAUCE. Stew them as oysters in their own strained liquor, witli pepper, butter, and a little vinegar, carefully picking off the beards, which are disagreeable and unwholesome. 185. TO MAKE A STORE FISH-SAUCE.* To an English pint of red port (Burgundy or claret is better) add fifteen anchovies, chopped and prepared by steeping in vinegar in a close-covered vessel for a week ; add to this a stick of horseradish scraped, two onions, and a handful of parsley chopped, a dessert-spoonful of lemon- thyme stripped of the stalks, two bay-leaves, a nutmeg, and six blades of mace roughly pounded, nine cloves, and a small dessert-spoonful of black pepper bruised. Pour over these ingredients a large half-pint of port-wine vinegar, and simmer slowly in a silver or nice block-tin saucepan, or earthen pipkin, till the bones of the anchovies are dis- solved. Add a few grains of cochineal if the colour is not good. Strain the liquor through a hair-sieve, and, when cold, bottle it for use, securing the vials well with corks Shetland, who live a great deal both on fresh and salt fish, consumo cabbage in large quantities with it, and are entirely free from the scurvy, hose cutaneous diseases which overrun the people of the Hebrides, who raise no vegetables. “Among all fish,” says Lynch's Guide to Health, " whether of sea or river, the middle-sized are the best ; also those that have not hard and dry flesh, that are crisp and tender, and have many scales and fins.” The meat of the turtle, the sea-turtle, is considered not only as a high-flavoured expensive delicacy, but as salubrious and highly nutritious, though those sickly half-dead animals, which are spiced and drugged for city-banquets, may not possess these. qualities. Fish were held in such esteem by the ancients, that persons constantly rode post with live fish to Rome, as they now travel by rail- way. NOTE BY DR. RengiLL.-_“It is strongly recommended to those who may, like me, have the misfortune to swallow a fish-bone, to take four grains of tartar emetic dissolved in warm water, and immediately after- wards the beat whites of four eggs. This mess will instantly coagulate, and will probably unfix the bone from the throat or stomach. The bones of pike, which are sharp and pronged, and so very hard that they will not dissolve in the stomach, ought to be watchfully avoided.” * The CLEIKUM CLUB were favoured with this original receipt from an intelligent Highland lady, who has contributed several valuable original receipts to this volume. This sauce boasts neither the name of BURGESS nor HARVEY; but we would advise those who wish to combine economy with what is healthful and elegant, to make a fair trial of it. PRAWNS-JOHN DORY, 227 and leather. When to be used shake the vials before pouring out the sauce ;-two table-spoonfuls will impart a high flavour to four ounces of beat butter, in which it must be simmered for a minute before it is served. For a great variety of Fisk-sauces, see the chapter on Sauces ; and for other receipts in Fish, see French Cookery. 186. TO DRESS PRAWNS, FROM BEAUVILLIERS Take a pound and a half of prawns ; cover a dish with a large cup or basin reversed, so that a small damask nap- kin may be raised like an octagon upon it. Cover this with parsley, and dress the prawns on it like a pyramid. 187. JOHN DORY.* This hideous-looking but delicious fish is boiled as tur- bot or brill. Serve with anchovy-sauce or lobster-sauce, and cover with plenty of green parsley Maids are dressed like skate by boiling, or parboiling, and then broiling or frying as in No. 131, and are served with lobster or caper sauce. They may be hung a few days. Brill is dressed and sauced like turbot. Shad is usually broiled. French cooks in this country dress the jaune d'oree en matelôte, à la Hollandaise, and in various complex ways: but with the rich, fresh fish of the British seas it were in general better, save for pampered and capricious gourmands, to “ let well alone.” Read Nos. 120, 121, 123, 136, and French Cookery. CHAPTER VIII. VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. - The earth hath roots; The bounteous huswife, Nature, on each bush Lays her full mess before ye. SHAKSPERE. Fat Coleworts and comforting Pursline, Cold Lettuce and refreshing Rosemarine. SPENSER. VEGETABLES are at their best when just on the eve of being ripe, in their natural season, and when their growth * Of all unions, Quin, a rational gourmand, admired that of “deli- cate Ann-Chovy, with rich John Dory.” 228 CHAP. VIII.-VEGETABLES AND ROOTS, has neither been retarded, nor forced on by artificial meang. The vanity which induces people to load their tables with flavourless, ill-coloured, immature vegetables, is ever punished by the expense and disappointment it occasions. Much, however, has been judiciously done of late years, both to improve the quality, to hasten the season, and to spread the cultivation of vegetables. Where a turnip, a cabbage, or a leek, was fifty years ago the only vegetable luxury found on a country gentleman's table, we now see a regu- lar succession of not merely brocoli, cauliflower, and peas, but of the more recondite asparagus, sea-kale, endive, and artichoke; with an abundance of early small saladings. The vegetable-markets of most towns have within the same period undergone wonderful improvement. The kinds and quantity of articles are more than quadrupled, and the price, except for early or forced vegetables, has diminished more than half; so that a healthful and harmless luxury is now within the reach of all classes. Vegetables of the more delicate species are however still comparatively sucli recent acquaintances, that, even at tables otherwise well appointed, they are seldom seen perfectly well dressed, at least in so far as regards colour. That homely chemistry, which does not disdain to descend to the kitchen, has in- deed of late considerably assisted the cook in this depart- ment; and a few general observations will, if attended to, supply the place of long or often-repeated directions for dress- ing particular vegetables. Vegetables can never be dressed too fresh, though some kinds, such as French beans and arti- chokes, will keep a few days, and by care all will keep for some time. They must, after being carefully cleared from insects and decayed leaves, and spoiled parts, be washed in plenty of water ; they cannot be too much refreshed. Let the many-leaved lie in salt and water, head downwards, till they are put to boil. This simple method will bring out every insect that may lurk in the leaves. If to be kept for a few days, place the stalk-ends of cauliflower, asparagus, cucumbers, &c. in water, as in keeping cut flowers fresh. To preserve their beauty vege- tables must be boiled alone, in a perfectly clean, well-tinned vessel, and in abundance of water. A tea-spoonful of salt BROCOLI AND CAULIFLOWERS, 229 of wormwood, or a bit of pearl ashes, or, better, soda, the size of a nutmeg, will not only preserve the green colour, but contribute to the tenderness of cabbage, savoys,* &c. A bit of sugar will sometimes be useful. Put all vege- tables into soft boiling water with plenty of salt; with hard water the colour will keep better, but the quality will not improve. Boil fast, and do not cover the vessel if you desire to preserve the fine colour. In a former section it was recommended to boil several sorts of vegetables and roots with the meat, if salted, with which they are to be served ; and this, though it may injure the colour, will certainly iinprove the quality,--a point of greater impor- tance. All vegetables should be enough boiled. The cook's rule of having cauliflowers crisp,t is as inimical to health as offensive to the palate. If boiled quickly, which they ought to be, vegetables are ready when they begin to sink in the boiling water, and they will spoil every instant after that. Meat may wait a little, but vegetables will not, particularly the cauliflower kinds. - See French Cookery, and Batter to fry vegetables, No. 882. 188. BROCOLI AND CAULIFLOWERS. Choose those vegetables close, compact, of a good colour, and from five to eight inches in diameter; strip off the outside leaves, and trim away the tops of the inner leaves; cut off the stalk at the bottom, and pare away the outer husky skin from it and the branches. Having washed, lay them, head downwards, in a pan of cold water and salt, which will bring out all insects; and boil them on a drainer in plenty of boiling water, with a little salt ; some cooks add a bit of sugar. Skim the water well; from ten minutes to fifteen will boil them. When the stalks are nearly tender they are ready. If some heads are larger than others, put in the large ones first; dish as one large cauliflower, and if sauce is wanted, pour melted butter (sauce blanche) about them. -- Obs. Brocoli is sometimes served at supper, like asparagus, on a toast. Melted * We know that the Romans used nitre in boiling vegetables. + If cooks and ladies will have their cauliflowers crisp, as they call it, why not serve them raw, and then eaters will be aware of them.- P. T. 2:30 CHAP. VIII.–VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. butter, (often with a very little vinegar,) is usually sent to table either about or with brocoli and cauliflower. Cauliflower is nicely dressed for the Second Course by pulling it into handsome branches, parboiling these, and then stewing them a few minutes in a sauce of white broth, seasoned with mace, white pepper, and salt, and thickened with a little sweet cream, and a bit of butter kneaded in flour, or à la crême.--See No. 698 and onwards. 189. CAULIFLOWER WITH PARMESAN, for the Second Course. STRIP away nearly all the green part, boil, and dish, and sauce the cauliflowers with sauce blanche; strew grated Parmesan over it; then gently pour a little melted butter, then strew crumbs and more grated cheese over all, and colour with a salamander ; pour a little well- seasoned velouté or fresh butter, well mixed with grated Parmesan, into the dish; or butter melted in cream or milk will do.--Another way. Boil and dish the cauli- flower, and have ready to pour over it a hot sauce made of velouté, and a liaison of two eggs or a little cream. 190. TO DRESS ASPARAGUS AND SEA-KALE. SCRAPE the stalks of asparagus nicely clean; throw them into cold water; tie them up in bundles of about three inches thick, with tape or rushes; cut these bundles of equal lengths, leaving about an inch of stalk, and put them into a stew-pan of quick-boiling water, with salt. Notice when the stalks are tender, and take them up before they lose their flavour or colour. Have ready, nicely toasted, a slice of a round loaf; dip it for a few seconds into hot water, and, squeezing, lay it in the middle of the dish, and serve the asparagus upon it with the heads in- ward. Serve beat butter in a boat, with a little vinegar, if liked. (See No. 698.)– The same receipt is applicable to sea-kale, except that no bread is served with it.* It * So well was the cultivation of vegetables understood by the Romans, that at Ravenna asparagus were raised for the tables of the great, of which three weighed à pound. Nettle-tops, alder-buds, and cliver were among their pot-herbs. Asparagus is thought medicinal. This vegetable is equally a favourite in Paris and London, where enormous quantities of it are consumed. Young buds of the hop form a wholesome substitute for asparagus. — See French Cookery of Asparagus, No. 698. ARTICHOKES AND GREEN PEAS. 231 should also be well drained, “and dried a little before the fire,” says Sir George Mackenzie. It may also be par- boiled, drained and stewed in gravy; or boiled, and have a white sauce poured on it. See Nos. 700 and 698. 191. TO BOIL ARTICHOKES. STRIP off the coarse outer leaves, and cut off the stalks. Steep and wash them in plenty of cold water, and boil them with the tops downwards, keeping up the boil (add- ing boiling water, when wanted,) if old for from two to three hours. Float a plate over them to keep them below the water. Try a leaf, and if it draw out easily they are done. Drain them, and serve with melted butter in small cups, a very little in each, or with melted butter in a sauce-boat.— To Fry. Boil; take away the chokes, divide the bottoms, dip in batter, fry and serve with melted butter. (See No. 882.) — Artichoke bottoms, if dry, may be soaked, and then stewed in clear broth, and served with a little relishing forcemeat laid in each ; or they may be boiled in milk and water, and served with cream-sauce. They are frequently used to enrich ragouts, turtle-soups, pies, &c. The French cut the bottoms un- dressed, and serve them as salad, dipping the slices in oil or vinegar.-See No. 701. 192. JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES May either be boiled plain, taken up the moment they are done, which will be from twenty minutes to a half hour, and served with melted butter poured over them, or cooked with a rich white or brown sauce. They are very good roasted ; they are then served on a napkin, and melted butter is eaten with them. They are also mashed, and used in pie or soup. 193. TO BOIL GREEN PEAS. PEAs should not be gathered, or, at any rate, not shelled, till they are to be used. The younger the more delicate ; there is also a great difference in the kinds. When the water boils put them in with a little salt and a bit of sugar; skim, and let them boil quickly for from fifteen to twenty-five minutes, trying when they are ready. Soda helps the colour, but is apt to soften the peas too much. Drain them, and put a few bits of fresh 232 CHAP. VIII.-VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. butter in the dish, turning them lightly over with a silver spoon till they are buttered. Boil a few sprigs of fresh mint by themselves; chop these fine, and lay in little heaps round the edge of the dish.- Obs. Some like the flavour of mint boiled with the peas. Buttered peas are rather going out of vogue, but buttering is a good old English custom. Dr. KITCHINER allows “a peck of peas to two hearty pea-eaters.” At this rate peas for a large party would occupy a tolerable space on a modern table. We would, however, allow a peck of young peas to six persons. Peas are sometimes stewed in good white broth, with sliced lettuce and onion, or with sliced cucumber. These must be nearly cooked before the peas are put in. Thicken the broth with butter kneaded in flour; season with white pepper and salt, and a sprig of mint, to be taken out before the stew is dished. This is also called pease-sauce, and is served with lamh, veal, chickens, ducklings, giblets. The French couk peas savourily with bits of bacon fried, and more delicately with a thickening of beat yolks of eggs, and milk or cream and butter. The colour is hurt, but the flavour of peas not quite young is improved.-See No. 699. 194. WINDSOR AND OTHER BEANS. Boil them in plenty of water with salt. Serve them with or under bacon or pickled pork. Garnish with chopped parsley, and serve parsley and butter. Kidney or American beans, and Turkey beans, are found a good substitute for potatoes, and are now constantly imported. Soak them from two to six or more hours, as found necessary. Boil, and when done drain them, and steam for a few minutes by the fire, adding salt, pepper, and a bit of butter. Or, after boiling they may be stewed with: meat or in gravy. The great objection to the red kidney beans is their colour, which offends the English eye. 195. FRENCH BEANS. Cut off the stalks, and strip off the strings. If the beans are old, cut them in two slantwise. Lay them in a weak pickle of salt and water for a half-hour. Put them into water that boils quickly, and when done, which will be best known by trying them, drain them, and serve GREENS-SPINAGE. 233 with melted butter.-Obs. When old and large they are best split, as well as cut aslant. Dish in a pyramid. 196. TO BOIL CABBAGE, GREENS, SAVOYS, AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS. STRIP off the coarse outer leaves, and pare off the coarse husk from the branch-stalks ; cut off the stem close to the bottom; wash thoroughly, and put on with plenty of boiling water in an open pot, and a little salt of worm- wood, or a bit of soda. Divide half-grown cabbages, and quarter large ones, but tie up to keep them in shape till served. See that they be well covered with boiling water, They will take from fifteen minutes to an hour, or more, according to the age. Small Brussels cabbage are boiled as above, and arranged in the dish as asparagus. The French serve a white sauce, and often send up a cruet of oil with these delicate cabbages. They are also served with Maitre d’Hotel butter. 197. SPINAGE. This delicate vegetable requires very careful picking and washing. When perfectly clean, put it into plenty of boiling water and salt, and boil very quickly, pressing it down with a wooden spoon; ten minutes will boil it. Then squeeze it, and throw it into a great quantity of cold water, to pre- serve the colour green. Put a piece of fresh butter and a little salt in the stew-pan, and returning the spinage, well squeezed, to heat up, chop it fine. Spread it smoothly on the dish, and scallop with a spoon; or score it in the form of diamonds, or sippets ; or press it in a leaf-shaped mould with holes to drain it, and turn it out. Cream, the squeeze of a lemon, and mace, or nutmeg, are added, by some cooks ; or a little rich, bland gravy, if to be served under a tongue, fricandeau, or breast of lamb. Spinage is often served with poached eggs. It is then boiled as above, pressed, beat up hot with butter and seasonings, and cut in the form of sippets, with an egg served over each :-it makes a pretty supper dish. Tender young spinage, without any redun- dancy of vegetable bile in it, may be boiled in a close vessel, with no more water than what hangs about the leaves when washed; but is not so free of bitterness as when boiled in plenty of water. A little sugаr may be added if required : the French serve fried sippets with 234 CHAP. VIII. ----VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. spinage ; and their Epinard en jus is excellent; for which cook as above, add a dessert-spoonful of flour, and half a pint of strong jelly-gravy, garnishing with fried sippets glazed. The French also cook endive in juice, serving it as spinage with sippets, or poached eggs. 198. TURNIPS, plain. Of turnips there are many varieties. Choose the yellow, small, fine-grained, juicy, Scottish sorts. Pare off all that would be woody and stringy when boiled. Boil in plenty of water for from three-quarters of an hour to nearly two hours, according to the age and size. Swedish, four hours. Drain and serve them whole, or, if too large, divided, or, best of all, mashed. A bit of the green top shoot is left on young turnips, and melted butter or white sauce poured over them. Swedish turnip-tops are very delicate greens when young. If boiled in their coats, and then pared, old turnips will be more juicy. 199. TO DRESS TURNIPS, for the Second Course, - a French Mode. Cut them into cubes or oblong forms, or scoop them out as balls, pears, peaches, plums, &c. and, after boiling in salt and water with a piece of butter, sauce them with melted butter, seasoning them with nutmeg.-Obs. A root- cutter will be very useful here. Turnips are handy to fill up a table when other vegetables are not to be got : glazed or browned in butter or lard, turnips, as above, make an excellent garnish to several dishes. 200. TO MASH TURNIPS. When the turnips are boiled as above directed, drain them and mash them with a wooden spoon through a colander. “Return them into a stew-pan to warm, with a piece of fresh butter, white pepper, and salt. When mixed well with the butter, place them neatly in the dish, and mark in diamonds or sippets. - Obs. Our Club put a little powdered ginger to their mashed turnips, which were studiously chosen of the yellow, sweet, juicy sort, for which Scotland is celebrated,- that kind which, in the days of semi-barbarism, were served raw, as a delicate whet before dinner, as turnips are in Russia at the present day. The long-shaped genuine navet of France is of superior gout. CARROTS AND PARSNIPS. 235 Mashed turnips to be eaten with boiled fowl or veal, or the more insipid meats, are considerably improved by a seasoning of ginger, which, besides, tends to correct the flatulent properties of this esculent. Yellow turnips, mashed and eaten with milk, are recommended in scurvy and consumption. Physicians recommend turnips and carrots to be boiled separately in three successive waters, drained well, mashed together with new milk, and salt. Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson recommends this dish strenu- ously to convalescents restricted to vegetable diet, and prefers it himself to any other kind of vegetable food. Turnips eat well with boiled or roasted mutton, and make an excellent purée, over which to serve boiled scrag or leg of mutton, neck of lamb, tongue, &c. 201. CARROTS AND PARSNIPS. — These roots, if old, re- quire long boiling. Wash young carrots, and scrub them with a hard brush. Old ones must be scraped very lightly, remembering that the red outside is far the best of the carrot, and that alone used in French cookery. When boiled, have the outside scurf rubbed off with a coarse towel. They are served with boiled mutton or beef, whether fresh or salted. If large, they may be sliced across. — Obs. Some persons like cold carrots with cold beef. Parsnips may either be mashed with butter or cream, served whole, or, if large, quartered. Turnips, carrots, and parsnips, warm up very well in a vessel plunged in boiling water. 202. CARROTS, the Flemish way.--Prepare (after boiling) in nice forms, as stars, wheels, &c. and stew them in melted butter, with minced parsley, young onions, salt, and pepper. — N.B. This Vandyking throws away the best of the root, unless you keep it for some other use. 203. FRIED GOURDS, — KITCHINER. — Cut five or six gourds in quarters, take off the skin and pulp, stew them in the same manner as for table ; when done, drain them quite dry, beat up an egg, and dip the gourds in it, and cover them well over with bread crumbs; make some hogs' lard hot, and fry them a nice light colour, throw a little salt and pepper over them, and serve quite dry. 204. ANOTHER WAY. - Take six or eight small gourds 236 CHAP. VIII.-VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. as near of a size as possible, slice them with a cucumber- slice, dry them in a cloth, and then fry them in very hot lard ; throw over a little pepper and salt, and serve upon a napkin.-Obs. These vegetables are also dressed in milk, with butter and seasonings. 205. SKIRRETS and SCONZONERAS are boiled, and served with melted butter. SCONZONERA.-Scrape off the rind. Steep in hot water, to extract part of the bitter, and then boil or stew as carrots. 206. Tomatas, or Love-Apples.—These have rather gone down in France, but are, just like other fashions when at ebb there, coming into vogue amongst us. To stew. Place a layer in a nice saucepan, and pour good gravy over them till half covered ; stew very gently ; turn once, finish the stewing; dish them, thicken the gravy with arrow-root, or rice-flour and cream ; or plain with flour and butter : pour it over them. — Tomatas roasted. Prepare them by cutting off the stalks, and roast in a Dutch oven, turning them occasionally for ten or twelve minutes. — Tomatas farced. Cut open the top of seven with a cutter, and gently scoop out the inside : press the pulp through a small sieve, mixing it with a small cupful of bread-crumbs, and two ounces of butter in bits, with pepper, salt, and cayenne. Mix this thoroughly, fill the tomatas mode- rately, and bake for ten or twelve minutes. To this, French cooks add yolks of eggs, or grated ham, minced mushroom, or whatever is preferred for a relishing farce, which must be thoroughly pounded. However they are cooked choose well-shaped tomatas. Dished with five round and two above, they make either a pretty dish, or a garnish to stewed beef, boiled mutton or veal, and calf's head. — A Purée of tomatas is made by dividing, picking out the seeds, and boiling them with good gravy, an onion or two, pepper, and cayenne, pulping and mixing down the purée with sufficient cream (or milk) and rice- flour. Tomatas are also used both in sauces and soups, and are pickled.-See Tomata-Catsup. 207. BEETROOTS. Though chiefly used in winter salads, or for pickling, BEETROOTS AND ONIONS. 237 beetroots may be dressed the same as parsnips, and served as a garnishing with boiled beef, or salt fish. Wash, and without touching with the knife, boil them whole in boil- ing water, or bake and skin them. If broken, the colour will fly. Parboiled beetroot may be sliced, and stewed with small onions in a little cream or gravy thickened, with seasonings and a spoonful of vinegar. Dish the slices of beetroot with the small onions round them. Beetroot, besides being wholesome and palatable, is orna- mental in salads, and for garnishing; and makes a cheap and beautiful common pickle. In England it is often served along with cheese cold and sliced, with a little vinegar, or Chili vinegar, poured over. The leaves of the white beet are used as spinage. The juice of the red is used to colour certain soups and sauces, by vulgar cooks. 208. TO STEW AND ROAST ONIONS. Scald and peel a dozen middle-sized, or two or three mild Spanish onions. If old and acrid, parboil them, and then stew very slowly for nearly an hour in good veal or beef broth, with white pepper and salt; thicken the sauce with a little white roux or butter kneaded in flour, and, dishing the onions in a small hash-dish, pour it over them. A little mushroom-catsup may be added, or they may be browned. Onions are roasted before the fire in their skins, peeled, and served with cold butter and salt. They are in Scotland served with roasted goose, or pork; and eaten either alone or with roasted potatoes, or red or pickled herrings. In the latter case, we would recommend mus- tard as well as butter. — Obs. Stewed and roasted onions used to be a favourite supper-dish in Scotland, and were reckoned medicinal. The onions were stewed (after par- boiling) in a butter-sauce, to which cream was put, i, e. the Sauce blanche of France.* Onions may be farced, as may several sorts of vegetables, with a farce of meat, fish, or poultry.-See No. 206. 209. VEGETABLE CURRIE. Boil, strain, and mash delicate greens or cabbage ; stew them in butter, with currie-powder to taste, rubbed down *“ We now," said TouchWOOD,“ rarely see a dish of onions ; yet I have much to say in behalf of this homely patriarchal relish, which is 238 CHAP. VIII.-VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. in vinegar, salt, and pepper. A currie of spinage is made by the addition of vinegar or sorrel, and onions. The sauce is veal-gravy or butter, and either bits of meat, or, if maigre, prawns, cockles, or oysters, are added to the stew. 210. TO STEW CUCUMBERS AND CELERY. Pare fresh cucumbers, cut them in thin slices, and take out the seeds ; or, if small, divide them the long way. Slice onions in the proportion of one to every two cucum- bers. Stew these together in a little good broth, or in melted butter, with cayenne, pepper, and salt. Thicken the sauce with a bit of butter kneaded in flour, and, after dishing the cucumbers, skim it, and pour it over them. To stew celery, clean and cut the heads (the younger the more delicate) in three-inch lengths. Stew them till tender in melted butter. Thicken the sauce with a good piece of butter rolled in flour, add a quarter-pint of sweet cream, and season with pepper, mace, and salt. The French put grated nutmeg or minced parsley to stews of cucumber, and thicken the sauce with beat yolks of so much consequence in giving gusto to the food of those who cannot reach the costly compound essences that are gradually subverting it in the kitchens of the rich. In the early part of the last century SWIFT sung- There is, in every Cook's opinion No savoury dish without an onion;' and added, for the benefit of youthful gourmands, * But lest your kissing should be spoil'd, The onion must be thoroughly boil’d, ' a precaution of no great moment, however, as the period when a man begins to pay much attention to palatic enjoyments is nearly about the same at which the taint of his breath becomes an affair of less con- cernment either to himself or others, provided he keep at a respectful distance. It may be remarked, by the way, that one sign of the pre- cocity of the youth of the age, is their beginning to talk of the business of the table at the years when their fathers were still upon their bread and milk.”_“But return we to our onion,” said JEKYLL to the Nabob, after delivering this note. “ Well, sir ?-and what has consigned this prime root to Parisian restaurateurs and London soup-brewers, who are still cunning enough in their art to employ its savoury, cordial, and stimulating qualities, but this same pouncet-box dread of the manly scent of a garlic breath, — another root, by the way, most vilely ne- glected ? Of all plants,' says Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, garlic affords the most nourishment, and supplies the best spirits to those who eat little flesh.' It clears phlegm, dissipates cold slimy humours." RED CABBAGE-SORREL-MUSHROOMS. 299 of eggs. Nutmeg is a suitable condiment with this watery vegetable, so is cayenne. — Obs. Stewed cucumbers are frequently served with lanıb-steaks, mutton-chops, or rump-steaks, and with mutton-rumps and kidneys. Some cooks brown the cucumbers and onions before stewing. These vegetable stews may be made into the purées, or sauces bearing their respective names, by cutting the .celery in smaller bits, and by stewing the cucumbers to a mash, and pressing through a sieve. If to serve with veal, veal-kidneys, or fowls, celery may in cooking be enriched with ham and seasoning herbs.--See 240. 211. TO STEW RED CABBAGE. Wash, pick, and shred what will fill a large pint-basin. Melt some butter in a saucepan, and put in the cabbage with only the water that hangs about it, pepper, cayenne, salt, and an onion sliced. Stew this, keeping the sauce- pan close covered, but tossing it ; and when just ready, add a glass of vinegar, which should just boil up. French cooks add a bay-leaf and two cloves stuck in an onion, which must be picked out before serving. Fried sausages are served on this preparation ; or it may be served with bouilli.* - 212. TO STEW SORREL FOR ROASTS OF VEAL, LAMB, FRICANDEAUX, &c. Wash and simmer it in an unglazed earthen or stone jar, very slowly, and beat it up with a good piece of butter, or a little salad-oil. Add cayenne, pepper, and salt. A mixture of spinage and sorrel is dressed as * The cabbage tribe has ever been a first-rate favourite with writers on diet, whether ancient or modern. Volumes have been composed, not merely in praise of the demulcent cauliflower and brocoli, but of the common white and red cabbage. Besides their use in soups, and in correcting the putrescent qualities of animal food, they are said to be correctives of the consequences of excess in wine. ARBUTHNOT says, the juice of red cabbage baked, is, with the addition of honey, an excellent pectoral; and red cabbage stewed in veal-broth, with calf's lights and pistachios, is, on the Continent, esteemed a specific in con- sumption, - a malady, by the way, for which a remedy has been dis- covered in chickens, oysters, jellies, fruits, and every favourite aliment, - in short, in whatever the discoverer fancies he himself could thrive on, and live for ever. These discoveries are, we take it, generally made on the principle of the Irish corpse-howl or Ullaloo,- " Why did you die? why did you die? Had you not plenty of butter-milk and potatoes ?” 240 CILAP. VIII. -VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. spinage, where sorrel alone might be thought too acid. The French cook it in jelly gravy, thicken with eggs, and serve with poached eggs. 213. MUSHROOMS. So many fatal accidents happen every season from the use of poisonous mushrooms, and it is so difficult to distinguish between the edible kinds and those that are deleterious, that we would advise our readers either to eat none that they have not examined for themselves, or to be contented with what are raised in artificial beds, though the flavour of these is as inferior to that of the wild mushrooms as a coop-fed chicken is to the heath- cock.* The small cultivated buttons are however excel- lent for pickling. * Naturalists enumerate nearly five hundred kinds of mushrooms found in England alone, and of these there are perhaps not ten sorts ascertained to be fit for human food. Mushrooms, with coarse bread, form the chief sustenance of the inhabitants of several of the Russian provinces, during a considerable part of the year. They are indeed freely eaten every where on the Continent, where their properties seem to be better understood than in England. In Russia they are salted, dried, or dressed fresh, and eaten with olive-oil by the better orders, while the poorer classes use hemp-oil. They are also broiled, roasted in the ashes, stewed and fried, served with meat, chopped with potatoes, turnips, carrots, &c., and form a relishing ingredient in ragouts and sauces. The following is a tolerably accurate description of the whole- some, or, we should rather say, the unsuspected sorts; for, notwith- standing this extensive Russian practice, we question whether mush- rooms in substance are ever salubrious. “The eatable mushrooms first appear very small, and of a round form, on a little stalk. They grow very fast, and the upper part and stalk are white; as the size increases, the under part gradually opens, and shows a fringy fur, of a very fine salmon-colour, which continues more or less till the mushroom is a tolerable size, and then turns to a dark brown. These marks should be attended to; and, likewise, whether the skin can be easily parted from the edges and middle. Those which have a white or yellow fur should be carefully avoided, though many of them have the same smell, but not so strong as the right sort." The most delicate mushrooms are those found on old close-cropt pastures, or open downs by the sea-shore, where cattle browse. Mushrooms of good quality are plentiful in Ire- land. It is of that country Bacon said long ago," Ireland is the soil where mushrooms and upstart weeds spring up in a night and do chiefly prosper." * Picking this delicate and singular food forms an agreeable rustic amuse- ment; and the ladies or idle gentlemen of any family may easily in their walks gather edible mushrooms for pickling, catsup, powder, and for dressing fresh. The Romans, who were delicate in their eating, prepared their mushrooms at table with an amber or silver knife. MUSHROOMS. 241 Mushrooms are safest when pickled or made into catsup, because they are then used only in small quantities, and their pernicious properties are corrected by the acids and spices employed to preserve them. When good, they approach nearer to animal substances than any plant whatever, both in their texture and flavour, and in the gravy with which they abound. Skilful cooks have been known to impose a ragout of mushrooms for a meat ragout, even on practised epicures; nor do we know any one flavouring ingredient that the cook could less spare than mushroom-catsup. We by no means, therefore, wish to proscribe this delicacy, but to caution our readers not merely against mushrooms of suspicious quality, but also against consuming many at once, however temptingly they may be dressed. 214. TO STEW OR RAGOUT MUSHROOMş in White or Brown Sauce. GATHER the largest button-mushrooms, or the smallest flaps. Trim away all that is mouldy or spoiled, rub with flannel, wash lightly, drain dry in the folds of a towel, and when quite dry, for every half-pint have prepared an ounce of butter slightly browned. Place the mushrooms in this for five ininutes, cooking them equally by tossing in the saucepan. Season with salt, mace, and cayenne. s Another way.—Stew them in their own gravy, in a silver or earthen vessel, with a very small quantity of water only, to prevent burning. When nearly done, put in a large spoonful of sweet cream, a bit of butter rolled in flour, cayenne, white pepper, and salt. Lemon-juice is employed to whiten them. The French thicken this ragout with beat yolks of egg; and this is good practice. — Mushrooms are stewed brown in good brown gravy, thickened and seasoned as above, with the addition of a little nut- The following test of the qualities of mushrooms is given, though we do not vouch for its accuracy :-“ Boil a peeled onion with the mush- rooms; if it remain white, they are safe; if it become black or livid, there are bad ones among them.” It is said, if the water in which mushrooms are steeped, or the broken parts of them, be poured upon an old bed, innumerable young ones will spring up. The mushrooms raised in beds are sometimes of unwholesome kinds, as well as the wild ones. No sort of mushroom will poison a Frenchman.-P. S. T. 2+2 CHAP. VIII.-VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. meg. A piece of liam may be put to a brown ragout of mushrooms, fine herbs, onions, and parsley, keeping in view what they have to accompany. 214.” To GRILL MUSHROOMS, or Mushrooms à la Bordelais. Choose large, firm, fresh-gathered flaps. Skin them, and lightly score the under side. Put them into an earthen dish, and baste them with oil or melted butter, and strew pepper and salt over them. When they have heen steeped in this marinade for an hour or more, broil them on both sides for ten minutes over a clear fire, and serve them with a sauce of oil or melted butter, in which are parsley, young onions, a little garlic, all minced, and the juice of a lemon poured over them; or they may be done in the oven, have a sauce drawn from their trimmings and stalks, and flavoured, as No. 214. See No. 267. 215. TO STEW TRUFFLES IN CHAMPAGNE, or serve in croutons. Soak in warm water for an hour, and then clean with a scrubbing-brush a dozen black truffles, picking out the eyes. Wash thoroughly. Have a stew-pan ready, covered in the bottom with slices of fat bacon, a sliced carrot and turnip, two or three onions, and a fagot of parsley, thyme, a bay-leaf, six cloves, and a blade of mace. Lay in the truffles and half cover them with good white stock, and when they have simmered half an hour, add a pint of champagne, and simmer a half hour more, keeping the lid very close. Let them cool: place the stew-pan in ice with a weight over the cover. Serve on a napkin : serve the cold liquor strained in a sauce tureen. Truffles may be fried cut in fillets, and sauced with jelly-gravy and wine; glazed and served with glazed sippets or crous- tades ; and also in a large croustade with Italienne sauce. Truffles are dressed in many other ways; but we have given the best on the competent authority of the Chef of the Reform Club, and the great Carême. 216. POTATOES. Some humorous writer pities those people who lived before the publication of the Waverley Novels and the in- troduction of potatoes, that root of superlative excellence and unbounded utility, which once-alas the day !—took. its honoured place on every dining table or stool in the POTATOES. 243 three kingdoms, and went far to equalize the dining enjoy. ments of every grade of society. There are a great many varieties of potatoes, and fully as many ways of cooking them ; but when all ways are tried, simple boiling, when well done, is found the best way. Count RUMFORD, Sir John SINCLAIR, and other writers upon economics, have multiplied receipts for dress- ing this valuable production ; but we would advise such of our readers as are potato-fanciers, rather to follow the practice adopted in the cabins or cottages in their neigh- bourhood, than any printed formula whatever. Potatoes are rarely seen in their utmost perfection save in such situations, when, just ripe and freshly dug, they are well washed and scrubbed, suited in size, and boiled in hot haste, with scanty. water, and abundance of salt, and in a vessel to which poverty, luckily for the quality of the potatoes, denies a close-fitting lid. As soon as they are ready, the water is poured off ; a few minutes more of the fire evaporates all moisture, and completes the cooking ; and there they lie, smoking hot, mealy, and flaky, burst- ing from their coats, in such guise as potatoes are seldom seen on the tables of opulence. Steaming is recommended for potatoes by theoretical writers upon the subjects of the kitchen; and certainly, where potatoes must be cooked on a large scale, it is very convenient; but so far as our ex- perience goes, we will venture to affirm, that the crude, rank, deleterious juice, which makes potatoes so unfit for food in their raw state, is never so quickly nor so effec- tually extracted as by rapid uncovered boiling. Potatoes ought to be eaten as soon as they are dressed and dried. If they must stand, let it be by the fire, in the saucepan, and only partially covered, that the steams may escape as they arise. A piece of coarse calico or flannel kept for this purpose should be laid over the potatoes in folds, and the pot-lid over this. This will not only absorb the moisture, but keep them hot a long while. Young potatoes ought always to be served in their skins ;-very little boiling will dress them. They are best when boiled with boiling water and salt poured over them. 217. ROASTED POTATOES.—This is perhaps the nicest mode 244 CHAP. VIII.- VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. of cooking this root. Let the potatoes be large, of equal size, and well washed and scrubbed; for the browned skin of a roasted potato is the better part of it. They must be slowly done before the fire, or in an American oven, or buried in wood or turf ashes. Serve them with cold salt butter scooped, and roasted onions. 218. POTATOES are FRIED or BROILED after being boiled, peeled, and sliced cold. Broil on a clear fire, or fry in plenty of good dripping. They may be dressed as potato- fritters, by flouring the slices, dipping them in egg and crumbs, and frying. These form an agreeable accompani- ment to steaks, sausages, and pickled or red herrings, with which they may be served. Large potatoes, cut neatly in ringlet-slices and browned, form à suitable garnish to sausages, pork-chops, &c. The French fry sliced potatoes in goose-dripping, which has a very strong gout ; but before serving, drain them on a sieve before the fire. See French Cookery of Potatoes. 219. TO MASH POTATOES. * Wash and pare them, cut out all the eyes and specks, boil them with plenty of salt, pour off the water, and put them over the fire to dry for a minute. Add butter, salt, and a little milk, (the less the better, unless they are to be eaten with milk, as it makes them tough and doughy:) Mash them smooth, with the Scottish implement called a potato-beetle, or with a beater, and dish neatly; score in diamonds or sippets, and brown them before the fire. They are also done pressed in shapes, and rock-work made by pressing the mash through a colander, upon the roughly heaped up mash before browning, exactly as pipe ma- caroni is made of the prepared paste by pressing it through holes. After the month of March, potatoes ought always * There is an admirable receipt for gusty chappit (i. e. mashed) potatoes in an early volume of BLACKWOOD's Magazine, the work which, in the mysteries of Comus, wont to take the lead of all the periodi. cals of the day. The receipt to which we allude is after the practice of the pastoral inhabitants of Ettrick, Yarrow, and Teviotdale. Before calling the potato-beetle into operation to mash, salt, pepper, and an onion, finely shred, are sprinkled over the potatoes, with a good dash of sweet milk. The addition of the onion is here the Tour-de-Maître. POTATOES. 245 to be pared before boiling, whether they are to be mashed or served whole. 220. Mashed Potatoes may be pressed into patty-pans previously buttered, and turned out and browned; or put into stoneware scallop-shell shapes, glazed with egg, and browned before the fire, sticking a few bits of butter upon them. A few of these make a pretty supper-dish. - 221. Potato-Snow, a favourite way of cooking Potatoes.- Choose white, mealy, smooth potatoes ; pare them ; boil them carefully, and when they crack pour off the water, and put them to dry on the trivet till quite dry and powdery. Rub them through a coarse wire-sieve on the dish they are to go to table on; and do not move it, or the flakes will fall and flatten. · 222. Potato-Balls is another form into which mashed potatoes may be converted. Roll them up with yolk of egg and a little flour, and fry them in good dripping, or brown them. 223. Potatoes dressed in a French Mode for Nursery Dinners, &c.— Stir new milk into mashed potatoes till the mixture is as thin as double cream. Boil this with a little butter, pepper, and salt, for twenty minutes. 224. Potato-Balls Ragout are also made . of mashed potatoes, by adding grated ham or tongue, minced parsley and onion, pepper, salt, a bit of butter, and a little of any flavouring ingredient that is suited to the dish they are to accompany. Small ragout balls of potatoes form an agreeable addition to open fish-pies, or make a neat supper- plate. 225. Westphalia Loaves, a Supper Dish, or to eat with Veal, &c.—Grate four ounces of good lean ham, and mix it with a pound of good potatoes, mashed with butter. Add salt, pepper, and two eggs, to bind the ingredients. Mould this into small loaves, or shape it in patty-pans, and fry and serve in a brown gravy, or without sauce. 226. A Potato-Collar, rolled handsomely up, scored in diagonal lines, and nicely browned, makes a neat potato- dish. Garnish it with potato-balls around it, and a brown onion gravy-sauce, or plain melted butter, which we would 246 CHAP. VIII.–VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. recommend in place of the wine-sauce ordered by learned cooks. 227. Potato-Fritters, (Scotch.)—Parboil waxy, long- shaped potatoes, dip them (sliced) in egg, bread-crumbs, and rasped ham ; fry in plenty of dripping, and serve with any sort of steaks and chops, or alone as a supper-dish. They may be dipped in small-beer fritter-batter. A cheap and delicious mess was furnished in summer to those healthy and happy children educated in what are called the Maiden Hospitals of Edinburgh. Good potatoes, boiled, peeled, and roughly broken, were boiled up with sweet milk, and a small proportion of butter. 228. Calecannon, an Irish dish, is made by boiling and mashing greens, young cabbage, or spinage, and mixing them with mashed potatoes, butter, pepper, and salt ; press- ing it into a buttered shape to be turned out, or dishing it like mashed potatoes. In this dish at least two-thirds should be potato. Plain Calecannon is made in cottages with infinitely less ceremony, and it is quite as good. Boil the vegetables till nearly done ; put the peeled raw potatoes to them to boil ; drain them from the water; add pepper, salt, a shred onion, and a good piece of butter or dripping ; and mash them up together. The partial failure of the potato crop in 1845, and the subse- quent more general, or almost universal failure of this favourite esculent, drove all classes to their shifts to find substitutes ; though neither the cook, nor the potato-lover has yet completely succeeded. Substitutes became a question of economy, as well as of taste. Rice, macaroni, chestnuts, parsnips, Portugal onions, stewed or roasted, beet, baked or boiled; the different kinds of beans, native or imported from different quarters, mashed white cabbage ; turnip and carrot mashed ; saur croute, many prepara- tions of Indian corn or maize meal, and the old plain Yorkshire pudding, dough-nuts, dough-boys, and the other plain flour or oatmeal dumplings of our ancestors, were all resorted to, both to save the consumption of meat, and to improve it to the palate. For those who can afford to dine comfortably, if not sumptu- ously, every day, we would suggest, as among the best substitutes, if for accompaniments to meat :-1. Rice plain boiled, if with roasts or poultry; but parboiled, and then stewed with the meat, if with stews; and also as borders to stews and small made dishes.-II. Macaroni paste dressed and served in the same way.-1II. Turkey POTATOES. 247 and kidney beans, in all their varieties, soaked and plainly boiled till thoroughly cooked, and then strained, and heated up in a saucepan with a bit of butter, pepper, and salt, before serving. IV, Carrots and turnips suggest themselves, and parsnips have again come into favour, both for soup and to eat with salt meat and salt fish. Carrots and turnips boiled separately, drained, and mashed up together, with pepper, salt, and a very little butter, or stock, is an excellent accompaniment to plain roast or boiled joints, and a dish recommended for convalescents or those restricted to vegetable diet ; tomatas and Jerusalem artichokes are also good substitutes.-V.Plain flour dumplings, dough-nuts and Devonshire dough-boys, boiled with meat or in water; and flour and oatmeal dumplings with suet, which may either be eaten alone or with meat; also Yorkshire pudding, and mashed young cabbage, put below roasts of lamb or mutton, in the same way as potatoes mashed.-VI. Portugal onions stewed, and chestnuts as dressed plainly in Spain and the south of France, or stewed in stock, is another good substitute. (l'o cook Chestnuts, see No. 231.4) The white haricot bean, so much admired in France, is another admirable substitute, while young. Bakers now sell dough as readily as bread, which is found very useful; as cheap dumplings, dough-nuts, and meat-puddings, can thus be easily prepared. MEAT-PUDDINGS, which, whether for economy or savouriness, are most valuable preparations, have rapidly increased in favour since the failure of the potato, and so have plain mild curries. See No. 766--which is as good for family as for camp-cookery- and other receipts. The failure of the potato, which first, on a great scale, brought to this country from the United States the mutual blessing of Indian corn meal and buck-wheat, inundated us with American receipts for preparing the meal. On these, many of which were mere varieties of the same thing,-distinctions with- out difference, save in name,- English cooks and housekeepers have improved. The most approved of these receipts we give in the sections Puddings, Cakes, and Bread ; and as a substitute for potatoes, a plain cheap accompaniment to meat, we know of no recipes better than those which we subjoin; first prefixing a few general remarks on the important article of subsistence of which they are made. The Yellow meal, or what ladies in the hue of their ribbons call maize-colour, is the richest and most nutritious. In- dian meal should never be ground too fine. It will not make good bread nor cakes without a fourth or third of wheaten-flour; nor very good, unless a half or three-fourths flour is used. It should not, however prepared, have much salt, which deteriorates its native flavour. It requires a hot oven, or, if baked on a girdle, a hot clear fire. It takes longer to bake than wheaten-flour bread; and if boiled, much longer time to boil properly, than oatmeal or barleymeal. For boiling, the coarser ground it is the better, if it is long enough boiled. It is enough that it is husked. For 248 CHAP. VIII.- VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. hominy, (a good substitute for rice,) the corn is simply hulled or cracked at the mill, and any inevitable meal is afterwards sifted out, or the skins are got rid of by pounding the corn in a mor- tar and sifting it; a tedious process. Indian corn, roughly ground, may be used for forcemeat instead of bread-crumbs; or as oatmeal in our receipt for dressing fresh herrings. It makes good gruel. DINNER PREPARATIONS OF INDIAN MEAL. 229. Hominy or crushed Indian Corn.- Bake half a pound of crushed corn in three pints of water and a salt-spoonful of salt. If it thicken too much, add more water, and stir up. It becomes of the consistence of rice-pudding. This will turn out of a shape if wished. 230. Another way.—Make a pudding of Indian meal, exactly as oatmeal porridge or stirabout is made over all Scotland and Ireland; but boil it much longer. Put in the meal very gradually and stir briskly between each handful, as well as when dropping in the meal. The old-fashioned concave porridge-pot is best, as there is less risk of the pudding sticking to the bottom. It can- not be boiled too long, nor made too smoothly: and with care, and a good stout porridge-stick, this is easily done. Have ready a buttered basin or shape; pour the pudding into it, and it will, in a few minutes, be fit to turn out, and still hot; or it may be served without turning out. Salt may be added at table. The above dishes may be made of milk instead of water. . More liquid will often need to be added during the cooking, as the meal swells much. To Fry cold Mush or Pudding.–Cut it out of the dish in slices about an inch thick, and fry in lard, beef-dripping, or melted suet. It is excellent this way, either alone or with meat. 231. Hominy or Hulled corn, as in the Western States of America.—When the cracked corn is prepared as above directed, put it in a large pot of cold water, and boil for six or eight hours, frequently adding boiling water and stirring, lest the hominy become black or burn. It is usually prepared twice a week, and kept cold; and if for dinner, sliced and fried as No. 230; or if for breakfast, heated up by baking in a well-buttered baking dish, and either so served or turned over. – N. B. For Puddings and Cakes of Indian Meal, see the Index. 231.2 Boiled and Roasted Chestnuts, Substitutes for Potatoes.- Make an incision in the outer skin of each chestnut : wash and boil them in salt and water as potatoes : probe with a packing- needle, to try when they are boiled enough, and drain, rub them in a kitchen towel, and serve quickly in a napkin : prepared as above they may be baked, or roasted in a coffee-bean roaster as in the chestnut countries, but in both ways must be first par- boiled. 232. SALADS. Salad herbs are cooling and refreshing. They correct SALADS. 249 the putrescent tendency of animal food. Salads are at any rate a harmless luxury; and though they afford little nourishment of themselves, they make a pleasant addition to other aliments, and a graceful appearance on the dinner- table. Lettuce, of the different sorts, or salad as it is often called, is the principal ingredient in those vegetable messes, and Endive the most beautiful. Lettuce should be blanched by the gardener, and eaten young; when old, its juices become acrimonious. Lettuce possesses soporific qualities, and is therefore recommended to bad sleepers as a supper- article. Radishes, when young, are juicy and cooling, but a very few days changes their quality, and they be- come woody and acrid ; when not very young they ought to be scraped. Cress and mustard are cordial and grateful, and of an agreeable pungency; and celery, when young and properly blanched, by its peculiar nutty flavour, contributes much to what EVELYN calls “ harmony in the composure of a sallet.” A variety of other herbs mingle in full well-selected salads, such as sorrel, young onions, cucumbers, tomatas, radish leaflets, and baked beetroot. Several wild herbs, as dandelion, were formerly employed, and are still used on the Continent and in America, as saladings. As this is quite a delicate, jaunty branch of the culinary art, we would recommend that young ladies residing in the country should gather their own salad- herbs, and dress salads for their families, which will give a better chance of a duty being well done, which, in the hurry of the stew-pan, the spit, and the stove, the dis- tracted cook must often perform with haste and sloven- liness. Never make a salad till near the dinner-hour, as it will flatten and lose its light appearance by stand- ing. Foreigners call many things SALADS which we would merely reckon cold, little, dressed dishes. A salad of cold dressed meat, game, or poultry, is a frequent continental summer dinner. As this may produce a confusion of ideas in the young housekeeper, we notice it here. Our ancestors had the same notion of what sallets were, that the French still retain, and which French cooks have again brought into use among us. There are also sweet 2.50 CHAP. VIII.-VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. dishes, having the name of salads, made of different kinds of fruit, served in the dessert. 233. An English Summer Salad and Salad-Sauce,- Let the salad-herbs be freshly gathered, nicely picked and trimmed, and repeatedly washed in salt and water. Drain and cut them with a silver knife. Salad-sauce. Just before dinner is served, rub the yolks of two hard- boiled eggs very sinooth on a soup-plate, with a little very rich cream. When well mixed, add a tea-spoonful of made-mustard and a little salt, a spoonful of olive-oil (one of oiled butter, or two of sourish cream may be sub- stituted,) and when this is mixed smooth, put in as much plain, or cucumber, or tarragon vinegar às will give the proper degree of acidity to the sauce, –about two large spoonfuls ; add a little pounded lump-sugar, if the flavour is liked. Salad-sauce may be rendered more pungent by the addition of cayenne, minced onion, or eschalot, or any of the herb-flavoured vinegars. Put the sauoe in the dish, and lay the cut herbs lightly over it; or mix them well with it, and garnish with cooked beetroot sliced and marked ; rings of the white of the eggs, young radishes, &c. Onions may be served separately on a small dish. Some like the salad-sauce served separately, and others, knowing persons, like grated Parmesan put to their salad and sauce. 234. Lobster-Salad.-This is become a fashionable salad. The coral of the lobster is cut, and tastefully disposed among the white and green vegetables, and green capsi- cums, so as best to contrast the colours ; lemon-juice or vinegar is added with salt.--Another way. Choose a hen lobster. Boil, break the shell without mangling the meat. Divide the tail, and lay it in the middle of the dish, the best side upmost—the claws laid around—then a row of minced parsley, or cress, then one of lobster and spawn. Garnish with slices of lemon. Serve a sauce of oil, vinegar, mustard, cayenne, and salt, or the sauce of No. 233.- Another. Dress the lobster and garnish with parsley.--- See No. 32. Salade de Grouse à la Soyer. 236. PARISIAN SALAD, and Macedoine after Carême.-Cut five red carrots and five turnips in half-inch lengths ; and then, with a SALADS, 251 root-cutter a quarter inch wide, cut them into small fillets as for soup : keep them separate, and blanch them in salt and water : then boil them separately, in stock, with a morsel of butter and a bit of sugar, keeping the turnips firm : when boiled and cooled in a basin, add to them asparagus points, and young French beans, cut in half-inch lengths, and also boiled, but not too soft : season the mixture, or Macedoine, to taste with nutmeg, chopped chervil, pepper, eschalot first blanched, and three spoonfuls of aspic jelly, (See No. 606.) Before dishing add a little tarragon vinegar : toss up in a saucepan to mix thoroughly, and serve in a Crous- tade, (See No. 578,) round which small sprigs of cauliflower may be placed. Prepared mushrooms, or artichoke bottoms cut in dice, may be mingled with this, and two spoonsful of salad-sauce, or the French Mayonnaise, added. This is a Spring Macedoine, and is raised to the PARISIAN SALAD of Carême as follows :—Take slices of beet, and boiled potatoes; cut them an inch and three- fourths long, and two thirds of an inch thick, and divide each piece into two triangular ones. Form a circle of potatoes six inches in diameter, round a salad dish, placing a triangle of the beet alternately with one of potatoes, so as to form a border two-thirds of an inch high. To fortify this border, fill the bottom of the dish with aspic jelly, and set it on ice. Then pierce the centre of thirty mushrooms with a corer an inch wide, and fill the hole with a head of asparagus an inch long, or else with French beans, carrot, or beet cut in fillets : dip each inushroom in a large spoonful of aspic nearly set (by the ice,) and fix them on the border of beetroot and potato : they should appear as if slightly glazed. Within this dressed border pour the macedoine, prepared as above directed, and cover it with a little mayonnaise- sauce, (No. 266,) and then place within the border, as an inner one, small hearts of brilliant lettuces, divided, with a very fine one stuck in the centre; serve immediately. The border may be made of hard eggs, cut in four the long way, and stuck to the dish, with aspic; and small leaves of endive or celery may take place of lettuce. We give the above, not from any great admiration of its utility in domestic cookery, but to show how elaborately these things are done in France. It is, besides, a specimen of pretty cookery for young ladies. 237. An Italian Salad. Three hours before dinner, bone and chop two anchovies, mince a small eschalot, and some young cress or parsley. Mix these well in a salad-bowl, add a spoonful of olive-oil, two of vinegar, pepper at dis- cretion, and a little made-mustard. To this sauce put very thin small slices of cold roast-meat, or minced breast of cold chicken, or lobster-meat, also veal-gravy ; toss them about in the sauce, and let them soak in it :-or, instead of sauce, use aspic jelly, or remoulade. Garnish with curled 252 CHAP. VIII.–VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. parsley, boiled white of eggs, or beetroot. Almonds, capers, pickled fruits, or fish, grated cheese of high flavour, and many things of a piquant nature, were formerly mixed with salads, and are still used abroad in their composition. -Obs. Salads are likewise compounded of cold oysters, salmon, soles, skate, trout, and cray-fish ; but these Gothic mixtures, though sometimes presented, are seldom or never touched. 238. Boiled Salad.—This, if less agreeable, is more safe than crude vegetables, however they may be compounded. The sauce may be the same as for English Salad, but the vegetables are previously dressed. It is made of dressed celery, French beans, or cauliflowers. Sprinkle some chopped raw white lettuce or endive over it. The jelly of roast veal or lamb blends well with salads instead of oil or cream, and is preferred by many persons. 239. A Winter Salad.-The basis of this is the same as any other salad, with the substitution of endive, celery, and beetroot cooked, also pickled red cabbage, hard-boiled yolks, &c. — Obs. A very pretty winter salad may be arranged by nicely contrasting the colours of the consti- tuents, garnishing with the beetroot in slices, the red cabbage and white celery, cut in delicate straws, and en- dive arranged in the centre. Plovers' and sea-birds' eggs are used to ornament salads; and are admired for their opal and pearly tints. So are the pretty root-flowers intro- duced by the French, and now to be had of our own green- grocers and fruiterers. These are Provence roses, of white turnip, red roses of beet, and ranunculuses of carrot, which are very pretty to look at, and only fit to throw away. Salads admit of many elegant decorations of con- trasted colour ; as scraped horseradish, squirted, Fairy butter, young radishes, &c. &c. See No. 1201. 240. To dress Cucumbers. — Pare the cucumbers, and with a penknife cut the slices into small skeins (the length of the dish) wound up; sprinkle with cayenne and drain a little. Dress the ribbons along the dish, and pour Chili vinegar over them. Cucumbers thus cut may be served over beetroot sliced. Cucumbers in skeins may also be prettily served cooked. 241. Indian Salado.-Slice two cucumbers, taking out INDIAN SALADO, &c. 253 the seeds, a Spanish onion, two rennets, and two Chilies. Season with pepper and salt, stir together, and add two spoonfuls of vinegar, and three of salad-oil. The cut meat of a lobster, or of crabs' claws, is an improvement, and cayenpe. The onion may be omitted at pleasure. 242. TO PRESERVE ROOTS AND VEGETABLES. POTATOES are of most consequence, but few now think of storing potatoes. Keep carrots and turnips, parsnips 'and beetroots, with their native mould dry about them, in dry sand. Onions are best preserved strung, or the small ones in nets, in a cool but not a damp place. Use the thick-necked spongy ones first. They may also have the germ taken out with a larding-pin, and then be strung up, or they may be kiln-dried. Parsley may be picked, and dried by tying it in bundles to a string, or drying it in a cool oven ; and so may other herbs. French beans will keep by salting and closing them up, and soaking them before they are dressed; but they lose their flavour and colour. Cucumbers, kidney-beans, endive, &c. may be parboiled and kept closed up in strong pickle ; soaking them to freshen them before they are dressed. Green peas are shelled, scalded repeatedly, drained, dried in cloths, spread on plates, and put in a cool oven, and after- wards hung up in paper bags to harden. Soak them before they are used. After all this trouble they are but the ghosts of sweet young peas. They may also be scalded, bottled, covered with clarified butter, corked up, and the corks dipped in rosin ; but nothing will preserve the sweet flavour and marrowy substance of the young pea. When used boil them with a bit of sugar. Cabbages, lettuce, greens, endive, leeks, cauliflowers, &c. if carefully removed in dry weather from the ground, without injuring the roots, and laid in a cold cellar, or on a stone floor, covering the roots with earth or sand, will keep through the winter, even when the frost might destroy them if left in the garden ; and this we conceive the best mode of preservation.- Obs. Vegetables slightly touched by frost may be recovered by soaking in water. 254 CHAP. VIII.--VEGETABLES AND ROOTS. 243. TO STORE FRUITS OF DIFFERENT KINDS. This art is now so well understood, that in spring and early summer, apples, and even pears, are seen as plump and fresh as in the autumn when they are gathered. Gather apples when just ready to drop off easily, but not over-ripe,—do not bruise the fruit in gathering. Wipe each apple or pear, one by one, and wrap in paper :-place them in stoneware gallon jars, bedded in fine sifted sand, dried in an oven :— fill up the jars with sand, which will imbibe any moisture that might injure the fruit. If fruit is frozen, steep it in cold water, as in all cases of things frozen, that it may thaw gradually. Pack each sort by itself; label the jars and close them, and keep them in an airy loft, but protect from frost by covering them with a thick cloth. N. B.-Eggs, fruit, and other things packed in straw, acquire a very musty flavour. This, which is called being straw-tasted, may be avoided by using dried fern, sawdust, or bran, for packing. 244. HERBS AND SEEDS TO DRY FOR KITCHEN USE. The herbs which are generally kept dry are mint, knotted marjoram, thyme, sweet basil, and sage, and pars- ley and celery-seeds; gather them when ripe, and put in a cool oven, meat-screen, or drying stove ; dry them quickly, but do not burn them; when dry rub the leaves off the stalks; pound, sift, and keep them in bottles well corked. Note. They are much higher flavoured than when dried slowly in the sun. They may be dried, as No. 242. 245. TO SALT VEGETABLES. FRENCH beans, artichokes, samphire, and olives, may be kept for a long time in a strong brine, taking care that they are completely covered. 246. TO SALT BARBERRIES, CRANBERRIES, &c. GATHER fine full clusters before they are quite ripe. Pick away any dead leaves and injured berries, and keep the clusters in salt and water in jars well covered. When the pickle begins to ferment change it. Red currants, cranberries, and crowberries, may be kept as above. 255 CHAPTER IX. SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. Elements ! each other greeting, Gifts and Powers attend your meeting! The Pirate. Our fathers most admired their sauces sweet, And often asked for gugar with their meat ; They buttered currants on fat veal bestrewed, And rumps of beef with virgin-honey stewed: Insipid taste, old friend, to them who Paris know, Where rocambole, shallot, and the rank garlic grow. “ It is the duty of a good sauce,” says one of the most recondite of modern gastrologers, the Editor of the Alma- nach des Gourmands, “to insinuate itself all around the maxillary glands, and call into activity each ramification of the palatic organs. If it be not relishing, it is incapable of producing this effect, and if too piquant, it will deaden instead of exciting those titillations of tongue and vibra- tions of palate, which can only be produced by the most accomplished philosophers of the mouth on the well-trained palate of the refined gourmand.” This, we think, is a tolerably correct definition of what a well-compounded sauce ought to be. The French, among our other insular distinctions, speak of us as a nation “ with twenty religions and only one sauce,”-parsley and butter, by the way, is this national relish,--and unquestionably English cookery, like English manners, has ever been simpler than that of our refined neighbours. Modern cookery, too, like modern dress, is stripped of many of its original tag-rag fripperies. We have laid aside lace and embroidery, save upon occasions of high ceremonial, and, at the same time, many omne- gatherum compound sauces and ragouts, with a smack of every thing. Yet the human form and the human palate have not lost by this revolution. The harmonies of flavours, the affinities and coherence of tastes, and the art of blend- ing and of opposing relishes, were, however, never so well understood as now; while the modern kitchen still affords, 256 CHAP. IX.--SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. in sufficient variety, the sharp, the pungent, the sweet, the acid, the spicy, the aromatic, and the nutty flavours, of which to compound mild, savoury, or piquant sauces, though a host of heterogeneous ingredients are laid aside. The elegance of a table, as opposed to mere lumbering sumptuousness or vulgar luxury, is perhaps best displayed in the adaptation of the sauces to the meats served, and in their proper preparation and attractive appearance. Plain Sauces ought to have, as their name iinports, a plain but yet a decided character; so ought the piquant, the sweet, and the savoury. All hot sauces should be served very hot, a matter too often neglected in the hurry of dishing and serving dinner. Sauces with which cream and eggs are mixed should be diligently stirred after these ingredients are added, to prevent their curdling; and suffered to warm through in a pot of hot water or bain marie, but not to boil on the fire or hot plate, lest they curdle. The same care inust be taken in mixing capers and acid pickles in sauce. Though it is wilful waste to put wine, catsup, lemon-juice, aromatic spices, and other expensive ingredients, into sauces or soups for more than the tinie necessary to extract the flavour, yet, on the other hand, these things must be macerated or boiled long enough to be properly blended, both in substance and flavour, with the basis of the sauce. The patient con- coction must also be duly attended to, whether at the mincing-board, in the mortar, or saucepan. As a general rule, brown sauces should be thinner than white. Cream should be boiled before it is mixed with any boiling soup or sauce. And all sauces served over meat should be thick enough to adhere to what they are meant to cover. A good test is their adhering to the back of a spoon. For sauces use the enamelled saucepans, which are equally suitable for many small delicate dishes, and nearly as cheap as tinned ones. · The receipts we have given in this important branch of the culinary art are ample, various, and circumstantial, and have been diligently considered. We do not, how- ever, pretend, either in this Chapter or any other, to fix the precise quantities of ingredients ; but we have tried to TO MELT BUTTER. 237 hit the medium, as far as possible in a matter where men differ so widely and intolerantly, that “ The very dish one relishes the best, Is tasteless or abomination to the rest.” The basis, or, more correctly, the vehicle of plain Eng- lish sauces, is butter, whether melted, oiled, browned, or burnt; or gravy, either clear, brown, or thickened ; also water, milk, cream, and wine, or some substitute. A numerous class of sauces is composed of vegetables and green fruits, another of shell-fish, and a third of flavoured meat-gravy. There are still other complicated sauces, compounded of an admixture of many or all of these ingredients. It will simplify arrangement to take these in regular order; though the philosophers of the English kitchen shake themselves tolerably free of the trammels of system.-For excellent foundation and other French sauces, see our French Cookery, and read Nos. 59, 60, 61, 62, and 63. 247. TO MELT BUTTER PLAIN, or for Sauces. BREAK the butter in little bits, and put it into a small saucepan (kept for this and other delicate uses,) with either cream, sweet milk, or water, or a mixture of them, in the proportion of a dessert-spoonful to the ounce of butter. Dredge a little flour over this, and, holding the vessel over the fire, toss it quickly round, or stir quickly with a spoon, till the butter melts into the consistence of a very thick cream. Let it boil up and no more. This is the French Sauce blanche. Some French cooks add a very little vinegar and nutmeg. - Another way. Make a thick batter of flour with a wine-glassful of water, and six ounces of butter broken. Stir this quickly till it comes to the boiling point.-Obs. A spoonful of catsup, and a little vinegar, flavoured or plain, or anchovy-liquor, converts this, extempore, into a good fish-sauce; - a tea-spoonful of mustard, where suitable, will heighten the relish. Butter, from its bad quality, will sometimes run to oil in spite of the most vigilant cook. In this case, it is the 258 CHAP. 18.–SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. practice to put a little cold water to it, and to pour it rapidly backwards and forwards from the saucepan into a basin, which will partially restore it ; but below we give a better way. Melted butter to be mixed with flavoured vinegars, catsups, and thin essences, should be inade very thick, and melted with water and flour only, as milk is apt to coagulate; and the vinegars, capers, pickles, &c. must be carefully stirred in, just before the sauce is served, to prevent it from curdling. Butter, on the contrary, into which minced egg, or herbs, which thicken, are to be stirred, should be rather thin when melted, as the other ingredients will thicken the sauce. To recover Butter run to Oil.—Add a little salt of tartar, kept in a close-stopped vial for this purpose, to the oiled butter first poured off from the milky sediment. Shake them up together, and the desired creamy appearance will be restored, exactly as in making a liniment of hartshorn and oil.—To clarify Butler, see No. 44.* 248. Oiled Butter,--Set the saucepan over a slow fire, or at the side of it, and it will oil of itself. Let it settle, and pour it from any milky sediment. 249. To brown or burn Butter, i. e. Black Butter.- Put a large piece of butter into a small frying-pan, and toss it round over a brisk fire till it becomes brown. Skim it, .dredge in lightly-browned flour, and stir it briskly round with an iron spoon, till it boils and is smooth. A little vinegar or lemon-juice, with cayenne, &c. makes this a good plain fish-sauce. 250. TO THICKEN BUTTER to keep to sauce Green Peas, Vegetables, Salads, fc. Just cover the bottom of a wide stew-pan with water. Put to it in bits ten ounces of butter, and let it gradually melt. Take the stew-pan off the fire, and toss it round till the butter becomes smooth. When to be used, heat it in * Butter is frequently spoiled by ignorance or carelessness. The simple chemical process of making the creamy compound called • volatile liniment," commonly used in cases of sore throat, is familiar to most people. It is merely adding the necessary quantity of hartshorn to sweet oil. By a similar process oiled butter may be recovered as directed above, where the appearance of the butter is a matter of more importance than its qualities. TO THICKEN SAUCES. 259 your melting-pan. This and oiled butter answer well for salads to those who dislike oil. 251. Parsley and Butter, the National Sauce.--Pick and wash young parsley ; tie it up in a fagot, and boil it in salt and water, for five minutes if young, or seven if old or preserved; drain it, and cutting off the stalks, mince the leaves very fine, and stir about a table-spoonful into three ounces of melted butter. This simple English sauce is used with a variety of dishes. 252. To melt Butter with Cream.- Melt a half-pound of butter broken in bits in a glassful of sweet cream. Stir it constantly. This is used for lobster or oyster sauces, for turbot, turkey, &c. when the sauce is to be presented in the very highest style of English cookery. ROUX, BROWN AND WHITE, TO THICKEN SAUCES, &c. 253. White Roux.—Melt some good butter slowly, and stir into it, over embers, the best sifted flour, till it is as thick as a thinnish but firm paste. Stir it over a slow fire for a quarter of an hour, but do not let it get brown, -a pound of butter will take in nearly a pound of flour. -Obs. This thickening, or roux, as the French term it, comes in place of our extempore butter kneaded in flour, and of our hastily-made browning, “a wretched resource," of which the mere name drives a French cook in England au desespoir. The prepared roux, called humorously the “Cook's assistant," is certainly superior to our insular, off- hand, kneaded flour, which often communicates a musty flavour, at any rate an unpleasant doughy taste of flour, to the sauce thickened. 254. Brown Roux.Melt what quantity of butter you like very slowly. Stir into this browned flour, till of a proper consistence. Less cooking will make the roux if the flour is browned previously; and this will prevent the danger of the empyreumatic flavour, which, by the con- mon methods, and even by the French method, is insepar- able from browning made of butter.* Pour the roux into * We find no account of this simple and useful preparation in the many volumes of cookery which we have perused, though it highly merits the attention of the cook. Where browning or brown thickening is required for any dish, browned flour may be employed with much 260 CHAP. IX.--SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. an earthen dish, and keep it for use. This thickening will keep a good while; but we conceive the method of having the flour ready browned better, as it will keep for ever. 255. Brown Thickening for Sauces, Ragouts, fc. another way. - To make thickening properly is one of the most delicate offices of the cook, and a sort of test of skill. We shall explain the mystery minutely, with due regard to its importance. Throw slices of clarified or good fresh butter into a shallow frying-pan; toss it about briskly till it become of a fine amber colour, skim off the frothy bubbles that float on the surface, and from a dredging-box shake in slightly- browned flour, stirring the composition briskly and inces- santly till it become perfectly smooth, and of the consis- tence of a thick batter. It must be stirred for at least fifteen minutes. Thickening is best when recently made ; but it will keep for ten days or more if poured into small jars, and the surface is not broken. Put a little of the sauce you wish to thicken to it, and mix gradually, as in inaking mustard, till they are thoroughly incorporated. A dessert-spoonful will thicken a sauce-tureen of gravy. In spite of the most vigilant attention, particles of fatty and other matters will sometimes, to the great mortifica- tion of the cook, be seen floating in sauce. To remove this, throw a glassful of lukewarm water into the thick- ened sauce, and set the saucepan on the hearth, whichi will drive those crude particles to the top, when they can be removed, and the cook, in serving up a transparent sauce, reap the reward of her care. This mode of refining may also be employed for soups and white sauces; but be it remembered, that the watery ordeal, while it contributes to the beauty, injures the flavour of these gusty composi- tions. The gravy served with roast ducks, hare, wild- fowl, goose, &c. &c. if clear, is too often little better than amber-coloured water. When gravy is required advantage. It is easily prepared by laying a quantity of flour on a plate, and placing it in an oven, or before the fire, till it takes the shade desired; for it may be of any tint, from that of einnamon to the deepness of coffee powder. Turn it occasionally, that it may colour equally, and keep it for use. BEEF-GRAVY. 261 with roasts, we would advise that the contents of the dripping-pan be strained (presuming that the first rank greasy droppings of goose, &c. are laid aside,) and thick- ened with brown roux, or potato, or rice flour, and have the addition of a little walnut-pickle, or catsup. The eye admires clear gravy (often little more than coloured water,) the palate relishes a cleared but savoury thickened gravy, like the above.—See Sugar Browning, No. 369. 256. THE BEST BEEF-GRAVY, OR JUS DE BEUF, the Basis of many Sauces for Made Dishes. For strong gravy we would once more recommend, in place of all other parts of the animal, the lean but juicy pieces of good meat. The gelatinous pieces are better adapted for soup than for rich gravy, which is, in fact, the concentrated extract of beef. Ox-kidney is sometimes employed from motives of economy; it makes a strong- flavoured and rich-coloured, but certainly not a very deli- cate gravy. Cut the gravy-beef, (from four to eight pounds, according to the degree of strength and the quan- tity wanted,) into thin slices ; score them roughly, and, placing a thick slice of lean undressed bacon in a thick- bottomed -stew-pot, lay the cut meat over it, with a few bits of butter, or a cupful of fresh gravy. Slice over this a carrot, a couple of onions, a little eschalot, a head of celery, and, if a high-flavoured gravy for ragouts be wanted, a couple of bay-leaves, and a bundle of sweet herbs of suitable size. Let the stew-pot be deep and very closely covered, Set it over a sharp fire to catch and brown, and shake it occasionally to prevent the meat from stick- ing. When the meat is drained on both sides, and the juices partially drawn out, which will take above half an hour, put in the proper quantity of boiling water, a short pint to the pound and half, allowing a little for waste. Skim it well,—check the boil with cold water, and skim it again and again, if needful, — wipe the edges of the stew-pot and lid, and, covering close, let the gravy simmer for three hours by the fire. Strain into an earthen or stone- ware vessel, and keep it in a dry, cool place. - See Con- sommé, French Cookery. 262 CHAP. IX.–SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. 257. SAVOURY BROWN GRAVY, for Brown Sauces, Ragouts, and Fricassees. This brown savoury gravy, or foundation brown-sauce, we conceive to be, for every useful purpose, equivalent to the Grand Espagnole or Italienne rousse of the French kitchen. Line the stew-pan with slices of ham or bacon : add to this four or five pounds of a fillet of veal cut in slices; moisten with a ladleful or two of good stock, with two carrots and two onions, or double the number, if you, for future purposes, wish their flavour. The juices will soon form a glaze. Take the stew-pan off the fire, and prick the meat all over, to obtain all the juices; moisten again with any broth you have, made of gelatinous meat, as poultry, game, or rabbits; season with a fagot of herbs, parsley and a little young onion espe- cially—and mushrooms, if you have them; to this add, (according to your own judgment,) two cloves, a bay-leaf, a bit of garlic, and a head of celery. When ready, allow this, (or any gravy,) to settle a few minutes before strain- ing.-This gravy may be very conveniently made jugged. Cut down all the ingredients, and put them in a jar; cover it close, and set it in an oven or over a stove for a half-hour ; add boiling water, and let the preparation stove slowly till wanted. Brown gravy may be varied and enriched in many ways, by the addition of red wines, flavoured vinegars, eschalot, tarragon, mushrooms, currie-powder, truffles, and morells, artichoke-bottoms, anchovy, pickled oysters, -in short, whatever is best fitted to improve and heighten the relish of the dish it is to sauce. Keep for use and thicken it with brown thickening when wanted. All gravies may be cleared, if needful, with white of eggs before adding the thickening. N.B.-Eschalot, a lemon sliced, a bay-leaf, two cloves, and a quarter pint of eating oil, stewed in a ladleful of the above gravy, with pepper, cayenne, and a glass of white wine, makes the Italienne rousse; and the Italienne blanche is made by using a white instead of a brown savoury gravy. 257. To make Glaze and Demi-glace; and to glaze Made Dishes, Poultry, and Cutlets, Tongues, Fricandeaux, Hams,&c. Glaze is a highly condensed extract of meat. It is, in GRAVY AND ONION SAUCES. 263 fact, meat varnish or glue, and the cook's glaze-pot and brush are, in character, nearly allied to those of the cabi- net-maker. Make a strong consommé, for which see Nos. 60 and 62, and 582. Rapidly boil down the strong pre- pared gravy or consommé, stirring constantly, till it be- comes thickish in dropping from the spoon; then pour it into a smaller saucepan, and still boil and stir till it is a firm jelly. Veal makes the best jelly, because it is more gelatinous than other meat; but poultry and all meat yield more or less. Where required on a large scale, glaze is kept in bladders till wanted. To Glaze.—Dishes to be glazed should first be well dried on the surface. Have, on the small scale, the glaze melted in a small jar set in boiling water, and brush the ham, tongue, &c., to be glazed, smoothly over with one coat: this dried, lay on another, and a third if needful. Mush- rooms, and vegetables in general, when glazed, look better rather lightly done, so that the glaze forms rather a grace- ful veil than a solid varnish. Demi-glace is made of a mixture of two parts rich brown gravy, one part of consommé, and a very small proportion of glaze, boiled first down to a clear light glaze, and used as the basis of several sauces. 258. WHITE GRAVY SAUCE, the French Velouté, or white Cullis, the Basis of white Sauces for Vegetables and white Fri- cassees, &c. Put a piece of the best end of a knuckle of veal, accord- ing to the quantity of sauce wanted, into a well tinned stew-pan, with some good ham, some beef cut to pieces, and whatever fresh trimmings of game or poultry the lar- der affords. Moisten this with stock, put to it three carrots and four onions, parsley, and thyme, and some chopped mushrooms, but no lemon or acid of any kind. Let the meat sweat, but not brown, and prick it to let the juices flow. When the knuckle is done well enough, skim the sauce; strain through a lawn sieve; boil it again till well reduced, and add to it, on the fire, as much roux blanche, or white thickening, (No. 253,) ready prepared, as will make it of a proper consistence,--rather thick than other- wise, as it can easily be thinned. Skim it and boil it up 264 CHAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. once more, stirring it, and lifting it in a spoon, and letting it fall continually, to make it smooth and fine ; do this till it cool. This useful skinking process, which the French call to vanner a sauce, has no name in English. — See Bechamel. N.B.-M. Ude substitutes cream for roux blanche in this sauce, and says it is a great improvement. In appearance it certainly is so. 259. Fennel and Butter, Basil, Burnet, Chervil, Tar- ragon, Cress and Butter, are all prepared for sauces according to the receipt for parsley and butter, No. 251.-Obs. Tarragon, basil, chervil, rocambole, and burnet, used instead of parsley and butter, give dishes a smack of foreign cookery. We would, however, recommend a cautious use of burnet and tarragon, unless the taste of those for whom the sauces are prepared be previously ascertained. Less of these high- flavoured herbs should be employed than of parsley. It is commendable to mix a little parsley with fennel, which is too powerful by itself. Butter melted in the water in which bruised celery or parsley seeds have been boiled, will take the flavour when the fresh vegetables cannot be got; the seeds must either be boiled in a bag or strained off. The Essences of most herbs are now prepared for sale, and are very use- ful to the cook. The flavour of the above herbs, where acids are admissible in the particular sauce, may be com- municated in a more refined form to melted butter by the vinegars with which they are tinctured. 260. Onion-Sauce. -- Peel and throw a dozen of onions into salt and water to prevent their blackening. Boil them in plenty of water, and, if they are very acrid, change the water; chop them fine, and, with a wooden spoon, press them through a sieve ; stir them into thin melted butter, and heat up the sauce : or roast the onions, and then pulp them. - Obs. If for tripe, made-mustard may be mixed with this sauce : if for smothering rabbits, boiled ducks, &c., cream may be added. Some cooks use veal or clear beef gravy instead of melted butter, and others mash a turnip, or apple, or white beet, along with the onions, where the flavour is thought too strong. Young onions, when very small, may be cooked separately and served whole in the ONION-SAUCE. 265 sauce. The French make onion-sauce, with cream or Bechamel as the basis, and season with nutmeg, or mace, and a bay-leaf. 261. Brown Onion-Sauce. This is a highly-relishing sauce, suitable to many different dishes, and a general favourite with thorough-bred gourmands of the old school. Slice large mild onions, brown them in butter over a slow fire, add good brown gravy, pepper, salt, cayenne, and a bit of butter rolled in brown flour. Skim this, and put in a half-glass of Burgundy, claret, or port, the same quantity of mushroom-catsup; or, if more suitable to the dish the sauce is to accompany, a dessert-spoonful of wal- nut-pickle, or eschalot-vinegar, to give piquance; also essence of ham.-Obs. This standard sauce is susceptible of many variations. Onion-sauce, both kinds, may be made extempore by stirring small cooked onions into Bechamel or into Brown sauce. 262. To dress Onions for garnishing, and for Bouilli, &c. - Top and tail small firm silver onions ; blanch and peel them; stew them in good stock till they look clear and pulpy. Obs. If to be browned, do not blanch, but at once fry them. If for garnishing bouilli, use larger onions; put fire over the stew-pan, and let them fall to a glaze. Pour a little stock into the pan to float off the glaze, which should be poured over the beef. If onions are not mild, put a bit of sugar to the stock. 263. Sage and Onion Sauce.-Chop together a couple of onions and eight sprigs of sage ; stew them in water with salt, and in five minutes add bread crumbs; drain off a little of the water when they are tender, and beat up and stir in melted butter; add pepper, and, if for goose-stuffing, a little flour, or crumbs. 264. Eschalot-Sauce.-Chop of eschalot what will fill a dessert-spoon ; give this a scald, drain and add a half-pint of good gravy or melted butter, pepper, and salt, and, when done, a large spoonful of vinegar. The eschalots stewed in mutton-broth, with a little butter rolled in flour, and some vinegar, make an excellent sauce for boiled mutton, Eschalot-sauce may be made as directed in No. 251 (Parsley and Butter,) by merely stirring a little eschalot-vinegar into melted butter, with salt; and for roast meat or poultry 266 CHAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. this is more elegant than sauce of the chopped root. Carrier-sauce for mutton is made by boiling chopped eschalots in gravy, sharpened with vinegar, and seasoned with pepper and salt. Eschalot enters largely into the composition of most of the high-flavoured compound store sauces made for sale. 265. Garlic Sauce.--Make this with a spoonful of garlic- vinegar stirred into a half-pint of melted butter; or blanch in two waters, chop and pound in a mortar two cloves of garlic with a bit of butter, or a very little oil, and, rubbing the paste through a sieve, simmer it in the butter. * 266. Mayonnaise, a favourite French sauce, for serving with, or masking, (i. e. pouring over,) cold poultry, salads, and many cold dishes.—To the yolks of two eggs carefully separated from the whites, put a little salt and white pepper, and drop by drop a few drops of vinegar; stir, rub briskly with a spoon; and next, add drop by drop a spoonful of salad oil, stirring and rubbing diligently. When rubbed quite smooth, and of the consistence of a thick cream, add gradually three wine glasses of vinegar, or of eschalot, cucumber, tarragon, or Chili vinegar, or part of them, whichever is best adapted to the dish the Mayon- naise is to sauce. A spoonful of veal jelly or of demi- glaze is a great improvement. This sauce requires great care and patience, and it will often curdle in spite of all the cook can do. The gradual rubbing of the yolks is the main thing. The sauce should be prepared in a cool place, or over ice. A spoonful of cold water, added after the vinegar, will help to whiten it, and so will the icing. This sauce is made gras, with four hard-boiled yolks rubbed down, pepper, salt, a little salad oil and tarragon vinegar, added gradually as above directed, and meat jelly ; rub long and well over ice, to make it smooth. No. 236, is an excellent salad sauce, and is poured over, or served with many cold dishes. When gras, it is used to sauce veal or * The invention of the following garlic-sauce is attributed to MICHAEL KELLY, a musical composer of some celebrity, and possessed moreover of some skill in the “ Harmonies of Meats.”—“ For boiled tripe, cow- heels, or calf's head, take a spoonful of garlic-vinegar and a tea-spoonful of made-mustard, brown sugar, and black pepper, stir these into a half- pint of oiled butter.” JEKYLL pronounces this — beastly! MUSHROOM, AND CELERY SAUCES. 207 poultry, re-warmed. Varieties of it are made by the addition of cooked and chopped fine herbs, or spinage. We give the most refined of them from M. Soyer. Mayonnaise à la gellée.-Put a quarter pint of melted aspic into a saucepan upon ice. Whisk till it become a white froth : add by slow degrees, first, a half pint of salad oil, and then six spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar, continually whisking till you have a sauce like a smooth white cream. Season with half a tea-spoonful of salt, a quarter one of white pepper, and a very little pounded sugar. Whisk once more, and this most delicate sauce is ready, and may be dressed pyramidically, as high as you please. Keep it in a cool place till served. It is made in the same way, with chopped herbs added : choose parsley, eschalots, or whatever is most suitable. 267. MUSHROOM-SAUCE, WHITE, for Fowls, Veal, Rabbits, dc. -Pick and wash a large breakfast-cupful of small button- mushrvoms ; take off the leathery skin as directed in No. 214, and stew them in Bechamel, with pepper, cayenne, mace, nutmeg, salt, and a piece of butter rolled in a good deal of flour or arrow-root to thicken, as the abounding liquor of the mushroom requires a good deal of thickening. Stew till tender, stirring them now and then, add four spoonfuls of hot cream, and pour the sauce over the fowls. Those who like a high relish of mushroom may add a spoonful of mushroom-juice, (drawn off by salting a few for a night,) or a little mushroom-powder. — Obs. The mushrooms may be stewed in thin cream, and seasoned and thickened as above. Mushrooms pickled white may supply the place of the fresh for this sauce. Lay them first in milk for a little. Brown mushroom sauce is made by stewing mushrooms in brown gravy and adding catsup. 268. CELERY-SAUCE, WHITE, for boiled Fowls, Turkey, &c. -Wash, pare, and cut down in thin slices, about two inches long, three or four heads of celery, the younger the better. Boil it till tender in weak broth or water, and season with pounded mace, nutmeg grated, white pepper, and salt. Thicken with white roux or a good piece of hutter kneaded in flour, or a liaison of two yolks of eggs. The juice of a lemon is a great improvement, or, for less 268 CHAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. delicate purposes, a little lemon-pickle. — Obs. French cooks stew the chopped celery in stock, with suet or fat bacon, and use very little seasoning, which they justly think unsuitable, celery possessing so decided a flavour of its own. A purée of celery is made by boiling twelve heads, cut down, till tender; draining, chopping, and stew- ing with four ounces of butter, half a pint of Bechamel, and a pint of milk, passing through a tammy, seasoning with salt, pepper, sugar, and serving very hot. 269. Brown Celery-Sauce. - Stew and season as in the receipt No. 268, thicken with browned flour, and add a glass of red wine and a spoonful of catsup. — See Pease- Sauce. 270. Horseradish-Sauce, White and Brown. - Grate a tea-cupful of horseradish; if for a white sauce add bread- crumbs and salt, and put to this vinegar. For Brown-sauce stir the horseradish in brown gravy, and add a little vinegar, salt, sugar, and a dessert-spoonful of made-mustard ; or use vinegar alone without gravy. 271. MINT-SAUCE for hot or cold Roast Lamb. — Wash a small quantity of young mint; pick off the leaves, and have a wine-glassful very finely minced, to which add, in the sauce-boat, vinegar enough to thin the sauce, and sugar. to taste. 272. For CUCUMBER SAUCE, see Stewed Cucumbers, No. 210. 273. Sorrel-Sauce. — Stew two handfuls of blanched sorrel very slowly, with a good bit of butter oiled. Season it with pepper, salt, and cayenne; add a little strong gravy, and beat it well. Make it very hot, and serve below or with roast lamb, veal, sweetbreads, &c.—See No. 212. 274. Tomata-Sauce. - Take from ten to fifteen ripe toinatas, or fewer, according to the size ; put them into a jar, and set it in a cool oven. When they are soft take off the skins, pick out the seeds, and mix the pulp with a capsicum, a clove of garlic, and a very little vinegar, ginger, cayenne, white pepper, and salt; pulp this through a sieve, and siinmer it for a few minutes. Beetroot juice is used to improve the colour. Imitation of Tomata-sauce is made by roasted apples, properly seasoned and coloured with turmeric. - Obs. In Tomata sauce French cooks APPLE-SAUCE, &c. 269 stew an onion, a piece of ham, a sprig of thyme, and a bay-leaf, and use top-fat, or a rich cullis, to moisten the ingredients. Good practice. 275. Apple-Sauce. - Pare, core, and slice four or five juicy baking-apples, and roast them; or simmer them in a saucepan, with a little water to keep them from burn- ing, and a bit of lemon-peel and sugar to taste. Take care they do not burn, and when quite soft, pour off the superfluous moisture, and beat them up with pounded sugar to taste, and a small bit of butter. Roasting is both best and easiest. Bread crumbs or panada may be added. If for goose or pig, much sugar is objectionable. For brown apple-sauce, stew the pared fruit, drain, and add brown gravy; heat up and season highly with cayenne and pepper. This suits many tastes better than the com- mon apple-sauce. 276. Gooseberry-Sauce.-Clip away the tops and tails of a breakfast-cupful of small green gooseberries ; scald them, drain them, and stir them into melted butter, with a little sorrel-juice or vinegar. A little ginger may be added. The scalded gooseberries may also be served mashed with sugar and seasonings. 277. Caper-Sauce.—Take two table-spoonfuls of capers and a very little of their vinegar. Mince the one-half, and stir the whole of them into a half-pint of melted butter, or of strong thickened gravy. To prevent the butter from oiling, stir the sauce for some time. When wanted very poignant, lemon-juice may be added to this simple and tasteful sauce, or it may be flavoured with tarragon or Chili vinegar. If for fish, as skate, &c. a little essence of anchovy will be found an improvement, with pepper and salt to taste. 278. Mock Caper-Sauce is made of gherkins or nastur- tiums cut in bits, with lemon-juice and melted butter. It is also made of radish seed-pods. 279. Bechamel, or French White Sauce.-Cut two pounds of the lean of a breast or knuckle of white veal, and a quarter-pound of lean fresh bacon, into small bits. Melt some butter in a deep saucepan, and put in the meat to draw a little, and to whiten, not to brown. Mix two spoonfuls of 270 CHAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. fine rice-flour very smooth with pure water, and then put in a quart of clear stock made of veal, or as much water or milk. Let this stew very gently with the meat, over a chafing-dish, or by the side of the fire, for an hour and a half; having first seasoned it with a tea-spoonful of white peppercorns, an onion, a few sprigs of parsley and lemon-thyme, and a bit of lemon-peel. Let the sauce settle, strain it, and stir in a cupful of rich hot creain. Bring it to boil, and strain it once more.--A cheaper white sauce, to pour over boiled fowls, may be made of stock and sweet milk, thickened and seasoned as above, and the yolk of an egg well beat and stirred gradually into it when just ready. A few chopped mushrooms will improve this sauce, if for fowls. The Bechamel, before the cream is added, is a white cullis, fit for adding to white ragouts, fricassees, and hashes of veal. It is also a rich basis for all savoury white sauces, and for dressed vegetables. See Dishes à la Bechamel, French Cookery. 280. Vinegaret for cold Meat or Fowl.—Chop young mint, parsley, and eschalot together, and mix them up with salt, salad oil, and good vinegar. 281. Tartar Sauce. --Add to vinegaret, No. 280, chopped chervil and tarragon, with a little made-mustard. 282. Lemon-Sauce.—Pare a lemon, taking off all the white part; cut it in half-inch slices, pick out the seeds, and on a plate cut the slices into dice, and mix them with melted butter, taking care to stir it up lest it oil. 283. Miser's Sauce.--Chop two onions, and mix them- with pepper, salt, vinegar, and a little melted butter. When made with oil and young onions, add a little minced parsley and scraped horseradish. 284. Poor Man's SAUCE, to serve with Turkey Poults or grilled Birds,French Sauce.--Mince a little parsley and a few eschalots. Stew this in stock or water, and add vinegar and pepper. 285. Carach-Sauce.--Mix a little pounded garlic with cayenne, soy, and walnut-pickle, in good vinegar. OTHER SAUCES FOR POULTRY AND GAME. Most of the common sauces for poultry have been described under other heads. These are principally white- SAUCES FOR POULTRY AND GAME, 271 sauce, egg-sauce, apple-sauce, rice-sauce, lemon-sauce, celery- sauce, gooseberry-sauce, and mushroom-sauce; but a few of the more rich and delicate remain to be given. · 286. Bread-Sauce.-Put grated crumbs into a small saucepan, and pour a little of the liquor in which fowls, mutton, or veal have been boiled, over this. When it has soaked, simmer it with a sliced onion, white peppercorns, salt, and mace: take out the onion and peppercorns, and add cream or melted butter.—Another Bread-Sauce. Pour a half-pint or more of boiling milk over a breakfast cup- ful of stale bread in crumbs in a jug : cover this, and in twenty minutes at soonest, beat it up in a nice enamelled saucepan, adding a good bit of butter and salt, cayenne and mace to taste. Add as much boiling cream or milk as will thin it; boil up and serve. 287. Rice-Sauce.-Stew two ounces of blanched rice in milk, with an onion, white peppercorns, and a little salt. Take out the peppercorns and onion, and rub the rice through a colander. Heat it up with more milk or cream, and flavour it as above. This looks whiter, but it is not so light as bread-sauce. Butter may be put to it. 288. Egg-Sauce for salt Fish, roasted Poultry, fc.-Boil three or four eggs for a quarter of an hour. Dip them in cold water, and then roll them quickly under your hand to make the shell come easily off. Chop the yolks by themselves into little half-inch cubes, and cut the white of one egg in the same manner. Stir first the white and then the yolks into thinnish melted butter in the tureen. 289. Our Own Sauce for Game,-or Orange-Gravy.-A half-pint of claret, and the same quantity of good brown- gravy.—Make the gravy boil, put the wine to it, with pepper, salt, cayenne, and the strained juice of two Seville oranges, or one orange and a lemon. Let them simmer for a few minutes, and, pouring some over the game, serve the rest very hot in a sauce-boat.- Obs. This is an elegant sauce for any sort of winged game. A French cook would use some of the thin rind or zest of the lemon, and less of the juice. 290. PLEYDELS Sauce for Wild Duck, Teal, and Widgeons. -To a large quarter-pint of savoury brown-gravy, put a 272 CHAP. IX.--SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. glass of claret or port; pepper, salt, cayenne to taste, and a dessert-spoonful of finely-shred eschalot. Make this hot, and pour it over the ducks.-Obs. In making this sauce, if for the oily, rank, and fishy-tasted water-fowl, made- mustard may be added, and a higher seasoning of eschalot and onion, with walnut-pickle, or a little essence of anchovy. Wild geese, solan geese, mallards, &c. require a pungent sauce. 291. Dr. Hunter's Sauce for cold Partridge, or coll Meat of any kind.—Rub down the yolk of a hard boiled egg with salad oil and vinegar; add a very little anchovy- liquor, some cayenne pepper, salt, parsley, and eschalot, both chopped small. Obs. This is a good extemporaneous sauce. It is excellent for cold lobster or crabs. 291.? Olive-Sauce for Ducks and Beef-Steaks.-Care- fully stone a quarter-pound of olives by paring the fruit round in ribbons, so that the olives may recover shape when stoned. Blanch them, and throw them into cold water, and let them soak till freshened, when stew slowly for a half-hour in a half-pint of brown gravy. Add more gravy, if needed. A squeeze of lemon is sometimes added, but being disapproved by those who like the native flavour of the olive, may be given at table. 291.3 Chestnut-Sauce for Turkey and Fowls, White and Brown.—Throw half a pound of fresh chestnuts, stripped of the outer rind, into boiling water : scald for five minutes, and peel them. Stew them till quite tender in véal gravy, with a bit of lemon-peel, and rub them with the gravy through a hair-sieve, as if pulping peas. Sea- son with white pepper and cayenne, and add a large glass of cream. Just boil up the sauce, stirring it till it boil, and serve. The Brown Sauce is stewed in rich brown gravy, is more poignantly seasoned, and has no cream. 292. REDGILL’s Sauce for Stubble Goose, roasted Pork or Pork Chops, also called Dr. HUNTER's Sauce.- Make a quarter-pint, or rather more, of savoury brown-gravy, or melted butter, very hot; thicken it with a little browned flour, and put to it a large glass of claret or port wine, a large tea-spoonful of made-mustard, and salt, pep- per, and cayenne to taste. Simmer it a few minutes, and SAUCES FOR POULTRY, GAME, AND VENISON. 273 serve it very hot.-Obs. For the wine, or part of it, may occasionally be substituted mushroom or walnut pickle, and a little chopped green sage may be added. Hard yolks of eggs rubbed smooth in the sauce make a good variety of the above. 293. Sauce Robert, for Pork, Mutton Cutlets, Geese, &c.—Brown four or five onions very finely shred, in a small saucepan, with a good piece of butter. When of a fine rich brown, mix in a table-spoonful of browned flour, one of mushroom-catsup, and two of red wine, with a half- pint of stock, a salt-spoonful of pepper, and one of salt, and a tea-spoonful of made-mustard, the juice of a lemon, or a dessert-spoonful of Chili vinegar.-Obs. This sauce is named after the inventor, as we say, Maintenon cutlets, or Sandwiches. It is a favourite sauce. Tarragon vine- gar will give it the flavour of the French kitchen, which to some gourmands may be a recommendation even as an accompaniment to plain English fare. This sauce is eaten with rump steaks, whether stewed or broiled. Pour it hot over them, and garnish with scraped horseradish or fried parsley. 294. AN EXCELLENT WHITE SAUCE, for fricasseed Rabbits, Fowls, Veal, Whitings, fc. To a half-pint of the liquor in which fowls, veal, or trimmings of these, have been boiled, put a bit of lemon- peel, an onion sliced, six white peppercorns, a pounded blade of mace and a scrape of nutmeg, and a small bunch of lemon-thyme, basil, and parsley. When the sauce is well flavoured, strain it, add a little rich cream, a bit of butter rolled in flour, and, last of all, a squeeze of lemon, taking care to stir the sauce lest the cream curdle. Pour it over the fricassee. 295. Lemon and Liver Sauce for Fowls.-Parboil the liver of the fowl, having first washed and scored it; mince it very fine. Pare a lemon very thin, as if for punch; take off the white part, and cut the lemon into small dice, picking out the seeds. Mince about a fourth part of the peel very fine, and put these ingredients, with a little salt, to a half-pint of melted butter. Let them heat up, but not boil, lest the butter oil.-Obs. Liver and parsley sawee 274 CHAP, IX.--SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. is a good common sauce, and is made by parboiling the parsley and liver; and, after they are separately minced, stirring them in melted butter, 296. The Marquis's Sauce for Wild Fowls. A glass of claret, a spoonful of catsup, the same of lemon-juice, & minced eschalot, a few thin slices of lemon-rind, a few grains of cayenne, two blades of mace pounded, and a large spoonful of the essence sold at the shops under the name of Sauce à la Russe. Simmer these ingredients for a few minutes, and strain them to the gravy which comes from the wild-fowl in roasting. Place the fowl on a dish heated by a lamp, and cut it up, so that the gravy as it flows out may simmer with the sauce.Obs. The above amateur preparation is much admired. The gravy of wild-fowl is often scanty ; but butter, or meat-gravy, would hurt the wild flavour. Game-gravy may, however, be made by par-roasting, and then stewing a partridge or grouse, by those who hesitate at no expense in the gratifi- cation of the palate. This essence of game, French artists procure by slowly stewing partridges in a vessel closely covered, till they yield a strong consommé. 297. VENISON-SAUCES. VENISON may have a sweet, a sharp, or a savoury sauce. Sharp Sauce. A quarter-pound of the best loaf-sugar, or white candy-sugar, dissolved in a half-pint of Cham- pagne vinegar, and carefully skimmed. - Sweet Sauce. Melt some white or red currant-jelly with a glass of white or red wine, whichever suits best in colour ; or serve the jelly unmelted in a sauce tureen. This last sauce answers well for hare, fawn, or kid, and for roast mutton to many tastes. We consider currant-jelly, worked cold, very superior for venison-sauce to boiled jelly, though less transparent. Melon-pickle we reckon better still for either roast venison or mutton. It is made thus:--Pare, seed, and slice two or three rather unripe small melons ; soak them in vinegar for a week or ten days; drain off and simmer the slices in fresh vinegar till as tender as pickled beet ; again drain, and leave the slices on the sieve reversed ; and when dry, put them into a pickle bottle, and pour over them a thin syrup, made in the HASH SAUCES, 275 · proportion of a pint of water to twelve ounces of sugar, and in which some cloves have been infused. Let them soak in the syrup for a week or more, and, pouring the half of it off them, fill up the bottles with the best vine- gar, which, as for all pickles to keep, is boiled and left to get quite cold. Gravy for Venison. Make a pint of gravy of trimmings of venison, or shanks of mutton, thus: - Broil the meat on a quick fire till it is browned, then stew it slowly. Skim, strain, and serve the gravy it yields, adding salt and a tea-spoonful of walnut-pickle.-Savoury Venison-Sauces, see pp. 111, 112.-In the north of Europe a sauce of the whortleberry is used for venison and other meats. 298, TURTLE STORE-SAUCE, to flavour Ragouts, Hashes, savoury Patties, Soups, Pies, &c.—A quarter-pint of strong mushroom-catsup, the same of basil-wine and of eschalot- wine, a large glassful of the essence of anchovies, an ounce of lemon-peel sliced thin, concrete of lemon one drachm, and the same quantity of the best cayenne. Infuse for ten days, strain off and bottle the essence, which is very powerful and very much relished. 299. TURTLE-SAUCE, for Calf's Head or Feet, stewed Knuckle of Veal, Gristles, fc. - To a pint of beef or veal gravy add two spoonfuls of the above turtle store-sauce, and a little essence of anchovy. 300. A STORE-SAUCE, to flavour the Gravy of Steaks, Chops, or roast Meat. - Infuse in a half-pint of walnut- pickle, and the same quantity of mushroom or oyster catsup, a half-ounce of Jamaica pepper in fine powder, with a salt-spoonful of cayenne, half an ounce of scraped horseradish, and the same weight of minced eschalot. Let these ingredients steep ten days, and strain and bottle them. A spoonful of essence of anchovy may be added, or a little bruised mustard-seed. — Obs. This is a cheap and high-flavoured relish, and will be found useful at all times for seasoning either melted butter or the gravy that flows from chops, steaks, &c. 301. CURRIE-SAUCE. - This sauce is plainly made by mixing currie-powder with melted butter. It is more generally relished if mixed with white onion-sauce ; or, if 276 CHAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. wanted of high flavour, with brown onion gravy-sauce. When liked more piquant, Chili vinegar may be added to the sauce. French cooks use saffron to colour currie- sauce and rice for curries, boiling the saffron, and rubbing it through a sieve. Where a bright colour alone is desir- able, a tincture of saffron is less offensive than an over-dose of turmeric. Saffron is often used to colour cakes, puddings, &c. ; but should be used with caution. 302. Chetney or Chatné.-This, like currie-powder, is a compound Indian preparation, made in twenty ways. It can now be got from the East, and is well prepared in the great Italian warehouses of London. The following is thought a good receipt:— A half pound of crab-apples, unripe bullaces, or quinces ; four ounces of stoned raisins; four of treacle or brown sugar; two of best white ginger in powder ; one of chilies, with salt enough to make the whole rather salt, and cayenne to make it very hot. Pound the hard ingredients separately, add the sugar and spices, and as much plain or Chili vinegar, or lemon-juice, as will make the sauce of the consistence of thin mustard. Mangoes, tamarinds, garlic, berries of the mountain-ash, sloes, and many pungent and bitter things, are occa- sionally put to this composition. The main ingredient of the Bengal Chetney is a vegetable resembling parsley, of a very disagreeable odour. It is called cotemear. 303. WHITE HASH-SAUCE, for Veal roasted or minced, or for Fowls. —Take the bones, gristles, and white trim- mings of the meat, and stew them in clear weak broth or water, a small onion, and a good piece of thinly-sliced lemon-peel, salt, a blade of mace, and a dozen white peppercorns. Thicken the gravy with flour rolled in butter, and when it is boiled quite smooth, let it settle, and strain it. A good squeeze of lemon, and a little fresh lemon-grate, is the only additional seasoning we would recommend ; a spoonful of good cream may be added ; and for fowls, a little more mace and less acid. This may be made a currie-hash, by adding a small dessert-spoonful of currie-powder, and withholding part of the lemon-juice and peel. 304. CUSTARD-Sauce, for Rice, Bread, Sago, or Custard PUDDING-SAUCES. 277 . Puddings, or Fruit Pies.—Stir a pint of sweet cream in a very clean saucepan till it comes to boil. Mix with it the beat yolks of two eggs, first rubbed with a little cold cream, and some finely-pounded sugar; pour backwards and forwards from the saucepan to a basin to prevent curdling, and let it just come to the eve of boiling, con- stantly stirring it. Serve the sauce in a tureen or china basin, and grate a little nutmeg on the top of it. Butter and rice-flour may be added to thicken it. 305. CAUDLE, OR Wine Sauce, for a Plum or Marrow Pudding.- A glass of white wine, a half-glass of lemon brandy, old rum, or rum-shrub, pounded sugar to taste, the grate of a lemon, and a little cinnamon, stirred into a little thickened melted butter ; sprinkle a little cinnamon or nutmeg on the top. 306. PUDDING-SAUCE, AND A STORE PUDDING-SAUCE. — Heat half a pint of white wine, sweetened to taste with pounded loaf-sugar; and with this, as making custard, mix the beat yolks of four eggs. Mill the sauce over a slow heat till it thickens ; add a few drops of essence of lemon and of lemon-peel. — N.B. The brandy, or Kirchenwasser, got from abroad, which is half cherry-juice sweetened, is excellent for fat pudding-sauces. Thicken it with egg or cream. — A Store-Sauce. A pint of canary, sherry, or Madeira, a quarter-pint of old rum, (pine-apple is best,) or of good brandy; a quarter-pint of Curaçoa, a half- ounce of good lemon-peel, the same quantity of Seville orange-peel, and half an ounce of mace. Infuse this for ten days, shaking the bottle every day. Strain it, and add a half-pint of rich clarified syrup. Bottle for use. This may be mixed with wine, cream, thin syrup, eau sucré, &c. for a sauce to many sorts of puddings and sweet made-dishes. 307. ESSENCE OF Ham, or Ham-Sauce. — This may be bought in London and other large cities. In country situations, a highly-flavoured gravy, which is a great improvement to other gravies for plain purposes, may be made by breaking ham-bones to pieces, and cutting down all the good pickings left on them. Let this just catch over a slow fire for a quarter of an hour, first adding 278 CHAP, IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. butter or meat-gravy, (jelly-gravy if you have it,) and stirring it lest the meat and bones burn. When the ham has been treated in this way some time, add stock, a bundle of sweet herbs, and onion and peppercorns ; strain it for use. — Obs. A few receipts for Sauces will be found along with the recipts for the dishes they are to accompany. Gravy-sauce for roast-meat, pp. 106–113. Sauce for tripe and cow-heel, page 99. Sauce for å pig, page 108. For roast venison, pp. 111, 112. Sauce for pork-chops, page 134. See Drappit Egg-National Dishes, and French Cookery. SAUCES OF SHELL-FISH, AND FISH SAUCES. 308. LOBSTER-SAUCE, OR CRAB-SAUCE, for Turbot, fc.- For sauce you must have a hen lobster, fresh (alive if pos- sible) and full of spawn. When boiled, pound the spawn or coral with a bit of butter, or a very little oil. In nice cookery reject the coarse outer spawn. Rub through a sieve into a sufficient quantity of melted butter, and mix it smooth ; season with cayenne. Cut the meat of the tail, &c. into small dice, and put these to the sauce, which may be heated up, but not boiled, or the colour will spoil. This sauce is rendered more piquant by anchovies, cavice, catsup, spices, walnut or lemon pickles, &c.; but for fresh fish it is, we think, better unmixed with overpowering foreign flavours. Besides, these and other additions can be made at table. A little cream, first boiled, should be put to this sauce. 309. Crab Sauce is made nearly as above. Pick the meat from the great and small claws, and a little of the soft inside when not watery ; stir this into melted butter.* -Obs. Lobsters for sauce may be preserved potted, and the live spawn may be kept in brine, or in an ice-house. Sauces for Lobsters, page 217. A sprinkling of the red coral rubbed through a sieve makes, mixed with curled parsley, a pretty garnish to turbot, halibut, or other white fish, especially if they are cracked in the boiling. 310. Sauce à l'Aurore. — This kind of lobster-sauce is made of the spawn only. Pound the spawn with butter; * The inside meat of the small crabs, Scottice cavies, makes most delicate fish sauce, inferior only in name to lobster-sauce. A spoon- ful of Harvey is a capital addition to most of the fish sauces.-P. T. OYSTER-SAUCE. 279 rub it through a coarse sieve, and thin it with a little clear broth; season it with salt, pepper, and lemon-juice. Obs. This is served in France with trout or soles. 311. Oyster-Sauce, for boiled Turkey, Fish, 8c.- Open the oysters when you are just ready to make the sauce ; save their liquor, strain it, and put it to them, and give them a scald in it, and a soft boil. Take them up with a spoon with holes, and drain on a sieve. Let the liquor settle: pour it off the sediment. After picking and bearding them one by one, return them into a stew-pan, in which there must be in the proportion of half a pint of very thick melted butter to two dozen of oysters, or to eighteen large cut ones. Strain the liquor over them :- or, letting them come to boil, set them in a bain marie or by the side of the fire that they may become tender : quick boiling hardens oysters. When ready, stir in a spoonful of cream. A squeeze of lemon-juice is a simple and tasteful addition. Some cooks add mace, nutmeg, and if for fish, anchovy, &c., when a piquant sauce is wanted. Obs. In oyster sauce, it is a frequent and good practice, both from reasons of economy and palatic motives, to serve stewed oysters in one sauce-tureen, and melted butter in another. The quantities can then be mixed on the plate of each guest, and the oysters left may be afterwards grilled, scalloped, &c. Besides, it is the only way by which one can always escape the cook's detestable over-dose of flour. French cooks put flour and milk to oyster-sauce, and very little butter. Our English oyster-sauce and fish-cookery in general, is much superior. 312. Shrimp-Sauce and Cockle-Sauce.—Shell and wash the fish carefully, and simmer them for a few seconds in thick melted butter: add a small spoonful of boiling cream. A squeeze of lemon and a little cayenne is the only addi- tion we can recommend for shrimps, though various pun- gent flavours are added to this simple and agreeable sauce. 313. Anchovy-Sauce.-Bone and pound some anchovies very smooth with a bit of butter; stir this into thick melted butter, in the proportion of three anchovies to the half-pint:mor melt them in vinegar or wine. Obs. This is a sauce which ought to be piquant; the cook is 280 CHAP. ix.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. therefore at liberty to make whatever additions she pleases ;-cayenne, soy, essence of anchovy, lemon-pickle, horseradish, mustard, eschalot, gherkins, cavice, vinegars, -in short, the whole circle of the pungent and sharp flavours may be pressed into the service. When a com- pound or double-relish sauce is wanted, we would recom- mend brown gravy-sauce for the basis, instead of plain melted butter. Anchovy-sauce may have chopped capers added to it and cayenne, and will then be a good fish- sauce for haddocks, skate, &c. 314. Liver-Sauce for Fish.-Boil the fish liver by itself ; take away all fibres and black parts that attach to it, and pound it in a mortar. Boil it up in thin melted butter with cayenne, and sharpen with lemon juice, or lemon cut in dice. If a higher gout is wanted, add soy, essence of anchovy, or catsup, instead of lemon-juice, or in addition to it. 315. A plain Sauce for Fish.— Melt some butter in water and vinegar ; add the liver first boiled and chopped, and thicken with the yolk of an egg and flour. Mustard, a tea-spoonful of catsup or walnut-pickle, is a cheap pungent addition to the above. 316. Mackerel Roe Sauce.—Boil two or three soft roes; take away the filaments that hang about them, and bruise them with the yolk of an egg. Stir this into a little thin parsley and butter, or fennel and butter, and add a little vinegar or walnut-pickle, with pepper and salt. 317. The Old Admiral's Sauce.-Chop an anchovy, a dozen capers, and four or five eschalots or rocamboles ; simmer these in melted butter till the anchovy dissolves; season with pepper and salt; and when ready, add the juice of a lemon, and grated nutmeg. 318. A Grill-Sauce. Thicken some good brown-gravy with butter and browned flour to the consistence of a thin batter; add to it a spoonful of walnut-catsup, the juice of a lemon, a tea spoonful of made mustard, and a dozen chopped capers, a tea-spoonful of the essence of anchovies, a bit of eschalot finely minced, a few grains of cayenne, and a tea-spoonful of grated rind of lemon. Simmer these ingredients for a minute, and pouring a little hot FISH-SAUCES. 281 over the grill, serve the rest in a tureen. This com pound piquant sauce will suit several kinds of white fish, such as skate, halibut, &c., to those who like a highly-stimu- lating relish. It is appropriate to what are called Devils of all orders. 319. Dutch Fish-Sauce.-Equal quantities of water and vinegar, boiled, seasoned, and thickened with beat yolk of egg, and sharpened with a good squeeze of lemon ; do not boil it after the egg is added, but mill it like custard. 320. An excellent Store English Fish-Sauce. — A half-pint of claret or red port, a half-pint of mountain or Rhenish, and another of walnut-catsup, a large glassful of walnut-pickle, the grate and juice of two lemons, a dozen well-flavoured mellow anchovies pounded and dissolved by the side of the fire, three eschalots chopped, a good relish of cayenne, four large spoonfuls of scraped horseradish, a few blades of mace, and a dessert-spoonful of mustard, rubbed down with the anchovy-liquor, of which the more you have the better. Boil this composition slowly for a few minutes, mixing in the ingredients according to the delicacy of their flavour and their solubility. Bottle it when cold in small bottles ; cork them well and dip in rosin. This is an expensive but a very rich fish-sauce. It may be made of water in which herbs may be pre- viously boiled, and vinegar may be substituted for wine. It will keep longer if, instead of fresh lemon-rind and juice, citric acid and dry lemon-peel are used. A tea- spoonful of the above will convert two ounces of melted butter into a well-flavoured extemporaneous sauce; or it may be mixed with the butter on the plate, like essence of anchovy, soy, &c. 321. The General's, or Camp Sauce, a Store-Sauce for Fish or Meat.-Chop six eschalots, a clove of garlic, with two bay-leaves, a few sprigs of lemon-thyme and leaves of basil, with a few bits of the peel of a Seville orange. Bruise a quarter of an ounce of mace and cloves, a half- ounce of long pepper, and add two ounces of salt, a quarter-pint of vinegar, and a pint of Madeira, with a half-glass of verjuice, and the juice of two lemons. In- 282 CHAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. fuse these ingredients in a stone jar, very closely stopped, and let it stand over embers, or by the side of the fire, or in a bain marie, for a night. Pour it gently from the lees, and strain it, and bottle as other essences. This is a high compound relish, and must be used in moderation with gravy or melted butter. 322. Dr. REDGILL'S Sauce Piquant, for Fish or Cold Meat.- Pound a large spoonful of scraped horseradish, four eschalots, 'a clove of garlic, a drachm of mustard, and one of celery-seed, with salt and a high relish of cayenne, Jamaica and black pepper. When well pounded, mix with these ingredients a half-pint of cucumber-vinegar, a quarter-pint of eschalot, and the same quantity of horse- radish-vinegar. Let these infuse in a close-stopped jar by the fire for a few days, and strain, and bottle in small vials for use. 323. Quin's * Fish-Sauce, a Store-Sauce. - Two glasses * Had this GREAT MAN lived in our day, he would, we think, instead of so much heavy catsup and coarse walnut-pickle, have adopted some delicately-flavoured vinegar as a substitute for about the one-half of these ingredients, such as eschalot or burnet vinegar, or even fiery horse- radish-tincture. As a mere untravelled practical Englishman, and, moreover, of the Old School, Quin, no doubt, ranks high in the lists of gastronomy. Still he is completely distanced by many moderns, both in love for, and knowledge of the science. Among the most noted of the moderns, we beg to introduce our readers to Mr. ROGERSON, an enthu- siast greater than Sampayo, and a martyr. He, as may be presumed, was educated at that University where the rudiments of palatic science are the most thoroughly impressed on the ductile organs of youth. His father, a gentleman of Gloucestershire, sent him abroad to make the grand tour ; upon which journey, says our informant, young ROGERSON attended to nothing but the various modes of cookery, and methods of eating and drinking luxuriously. Before his return his father died, and he entered into the possession of a very large moneyed fortune, and a small landed estate. He was now able to look over his notes of epicurism, and to discover where the most exquisite dishes were to be had, and the best cooks procured. He had no other servants in his house than cooks: his butler, footman, housekeeper, coachman, and grooms, were all cooks. He had three Italian cooks, one from Florence, another from Sienna, and a third from Viterbo, for dressing one dish, the docce piccante of Florence. He had a messenger constantly on the road between Brittany and London, to bring him the eggs of a certain sort of plover, found near Stus, o pring him the eggs of a certain er, found near St. Maloes. He has eaten a single dinner at the expense of fifty-eight pounds, though himself only sat down to it, and there were but two dishes. He counted the minutes between meals, and seemed totally absorbed in the idea, or in the action of eating ; yet his stomach was very small,- it was the exquisite flavour FISH-SAUCES. 283 of claret and two of walnut-pickle, with four of mush- room-catsup; six large pounded anchovies with their pickle, and six eschalots pounded ; a half glass of soy, black and cayenne pepper. Let this simmer slowly by the side of the fire till the bones of the anchovies dissolve. Strain it off, and when cold bottle for use.* 324. Dr. KITCHINER's Fish-Sauce Superlative, a Store- Sauce.-A pint of claret, a pint of mushroom-catsup, and half a pint of walnut-pickle ; four ounces of pounded anchovy, an ounce of fresh lemon-peel pared thin, and the same quantity of eschalot and scraped horseradish : an ounce of black pepper and allspice, and a drachm of cayenne, or three of currie-powder, with a drachm of celery-seed. Infuse these, in a wide-mouthed bottle closely stopped, for a fortnight, and shake the mixture every day; then strain and bottle it for use. A large spoonful of this stirred into a quarter-pint of thickened melted butter “makes," says the Doctor, “an admirable extemporaneous sauce.”+-Obs. This will be found even moreexpensive than the fish-sauce of HARVEY or BURGESS; the composition of which, so far as such high mysteries are accessible to ordi- alone that he sought. In nine years he found his table dreadfully abridged by the ruin of his fortune, and himself hastening to poverty. This made him melancholy, and brought on disease. When totally ruined (having spent near £150,000,) a friend gave him a guinea to keep him from starving ; and he was found in a garret soon after roasting an ortolan with his own hands. We regret to add, that a few days afterwards this extraordinary youth shot himself. We hope that his notes are not lost to the dining world. * Gastronomers will feel a natural desire to know what was con- sidered the “ best universal sauce in the world” in the boon days of Charles II.; or at least what was accounted such by the Duke of York, who was instructed to prepare it by the Spanish ambassador. It con- sisted of parsley, and a dry toast pounded in a mortar with vinegar, salt, and pepper. The modern English would no more relish his Royal Highness's taste in condiments than in religion. A fashionable or Cabinet dinner of the same period consisted of a dish of marrow-bones, a leg of mutton, a dish of fowl, three pullets, and a dozen larks, all in a dish : a great tart, a neat's tongue, a dish of anchovies, a dish of prawns, and cheese." At the same period, a delicate supper-dish, when the King supped with his mistress, Lady Castlemaine, " was a chine of beef roasted." But folks then supped at the modern dinner hour. + The Kitchiner sauce was analyzed with great care by the Cleikum Club at sundry sittings. REDGILL approved of it in toto, the NABOB suggested a little more cayenne, and JEKYLL more wine and less catsup, with the elegant substitution of lemon-pickle for walnut-pickle, 234 CHAP, 1X.—SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. nary mortals, is not materially different from the piquant fish-sauces for which we have given receipts above, save that more anchovies, cavice, and probably fewer expensive seasonings and less wine, are employed. The extensive sales, and the complete apparatus of these Sauce-chemists, enable them to sell compound essences cheaper than they could be prepared in any private family. Though so many receipts are given for STORE-SAUCES, we do not, when pro- per sauces can be obtained fresh, recommend them either for taste or economy. We have been rather diffuse on the subject of fish-sauces, in the persuasion that fish, from its insipidity and softness of texture, requires savoury and stimulating accompani- ments more than any other kind of food. STUFFINGS AND FORCEMEATS. RECEIPTS for these are, for the convenience of the cook, often given by us, along with the dishes for which they are employed. See pp. 109, 113, 114, 116, 118, and 126, &c.; and Fish-Forcemeat, pp. 182, 209 ; also French Cookery and Crappit Heads. 325. ANCHOVY BUTTER,—for Anchovy Toasts, Deviled Biscuit, fc. Bone, wash, and pound fresh mellow anchovies in a mortar, and pressing into small potting-cans, cover them with clarified butter. If for deviled biscuit, a little cayenne may be added. — See Aspic and Montpelier, and other Butters, French Cookery. 326. ANCHOVY-POWDER, for flavouring Sauces or sprinkling on Anchovy Toasts or Sandwiches.—Pound anchovies in a mortar, rub them through a hair-sieve, and make them into thin cakes, with flour and a little flour of mustard. Toast the cakes very dry, rub to powder, and keep in well-stopped vials.- Obs. Instead of flour of mus- tard, citric acid and grated dry lemon-peel, added when the anchovy-cakes are baked, may be more agreeable to some palates. 327. Mushroom-Powder.- Peel large, fleshy mush- rooms, and cut off the stems ; spread them on plates, ESSENCE OF CAYENNE, 285 and dry them in a slow oven. When thoroughly dry, pound them with a little cayenne and pounded mace. Bottle, and keep the powder in a dry place. — Obs. The dried mushrooms may be kept hung up in paper-bags without pounding. A tea-spoonful of powder will give the mushroom-flavour to a tureen of soup, or to a currie, or to sauce for poultry, ragouts, hashes, &c. when fresh mush- rooms cannot be obtained. 328. Horseradish-Powder.-In the beginning of winter slice horseradish and dry it slowly before the fire. When dry, rub or pound, and bottle the powder. 329. Essence of Cayenne.-Steep half an ounce of good cayenne in a half-pint of strong spirits for a fortnight, and strain and bottle it for use. We have already re- marked that Essences of all kinds may now be bought of excellent quality, and where there is no regular still-room, are perhaps cheapest and best when bought. It is, however, sometimes proper to economize lemon and orange rind, and such things. 330. Essence of Lemon and Seville Orange Peel. Rub lumps of sugar on the lemon or orange till the lumps are saturated with the yellow rind. Scrape off what is saturated, and repeat the process till all the rind is got off. Press the sugar down close, and cover it up.-Obs. Essence of Seoille Orange makes a fragrant and most grateful seasoning to custard, rice, or batter puddings. Essence of lemon or of orange peel is made by mixing one drachm of the essential oil of these fruits with a large glassful of rectified spirits, or spirit of wine, and is very con- venient when fresh lemons are not to be obtained, though not equal to the fresh fruit either in fragrance or flavour. The oil must be gradually mixed. Tincture of lemon- peel may be very economically made when lemon-juice is wanted, by paring the peel off very nicely, and steeping it in brandy. The bottle must be very closely stopped, as the flavour of lemon is exceedingly volatile. Essence of Allspice may be made in the same way as essence of lemon, and so may Essences of Cloves and Mace. 331. Essence of Ginger.- Infuse three ounces of well- bruised fresh ginger, and an ounce of lemon-peel sliced thin, 286 CHAP. IX.–SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. in a pint and a half of strong rectified spirits. Let it be closely stopped, and shaken every day. This preparation is cordial and grateful. 332. Tinctures of Cloves, Nutmeg, Allspice, Cinnamon, &c. may be all prepared by infusing a sufficient quantity of the aromatics in strong spirits. They may be converted into plain useful liqueurs by the addition of fine sugar; but they must then be carefully filtered. 333. Cayenne Pepper, to make. — This is made either of ripe chilies or capsicums. If chilies, dry them before the fire a whole day, turning them till quite dry. Trim away the stalks. Pound the pods in a mortar till they become a fine powder, mixing in about a sixth of their weight of salt. Bottle the dry powder, and stop the vials carefully, If capsicums are used, dry them in the oven, first mixing them with dried flour ; beat them to a powder, and add water, yeast, and a little salt, with which form the capsi- cums into paste and then in small cakes. Bake these twice ; pound and sift the powder, bottle in vials and stop, 334. MIXED SPICES AND SEASONINGS.—Cook's or Kitchen Pepper. --Dry, and pound or grind to a fine powder, an ounce of ginger; and of nutmeg, black and Jamaica pepper, and cinnamon, half an ounce each, with a dozen of cloves. Bottle these in separate vials labelled and well corked : mix in proper proportions with common salt when wanted, N. B. French cooks keep their seasonings mixed, and even pound or grind them together, not from convenience, but to blend the flavours intimately : much may be said for this practice. 335. Cook's SEASONINGS for White Sauce, Fricassees, and Ragouts.-White pepper, nutmeg, mace, and lemon-grate pounded and mixed. Also ginger and cayenne in proper proportions. These may be pounded together. 336. POWDER OF FINE HERBS, for flavouring Soups and Sauces, when the fresh Herbs cannot be obtained. — Dry, in summer, parsley two ounces, of lemon-thyme, winter savory, sweet marjoram, and basil, each an ounce; lemon-peel dried, an ounce. Dry slowly and thoroughly : pound dry, and bottle. The powder should be sifted. Celery-seeds may be put to this useful relish.-See No. 244, VINEGARS. 287 · 337. HOUSEHOLD VINEGARS. Vinegar is an article per- petually wanted for various purposes in almost every family ; and, compared with the first cost of the materials, it is an expensive one. Though we are not perfectly con- vinced that the labour of the still-room is at all times what economists would call productive labour, we think that vinegar, for ordinary purposes, may often be made at home. 338. Sugar-Vinegar. - To every gallon of water put two pounds of coarse raw sugar. Boil and skim this. Put it to cool in a tub, and when sufficiently cold, float in it a slice of bread soaked in fresh yeast. Barrel it in a week, and set it in the sun in summer, or by the fire in winter, for six months, without stopping the bung-hole; but cover it to keep out insects. 339. Cider-Vinegar. - Put a pound of white sugar to the gallon of cider, and, shaking them well together, let them ferment for four months, and a strong and well- coloured vinegar will be the result. 340. Gooseberry-Vinegar.- To every quart of bruised ripe white or green gooseberries put three quarts of spring- water. Stir them well with the water, and let them steep for forty-eight hours, repeating the stirring. Strain through a flannel bag, and put two pounds of white pounded sugar to every gallon of liquor. Put it into a barrel with a toast soaked in yeast, leaving the bung-hole as directed above. Keep the barrel in a warm place. White currants or raspberries make an excellent vinegar by following the same receipt. Pick the currants from the stalks. 341. Vinegar of Wine-Lees. Boil the wine-lees quickly for half an hour, skimming well. Cask the lees and add some chervil. Stop the cask, and in a month it will be fit for use as vinegar. 342. Verjuice. - Gather some ripe crab-apples, and lay them in a heap to sweat; then throw away the stalks and decayed fruit, and having mashed the apples, express the juice. (A cider or wine press will be useful for this pur- pose.) Strain it: in a month it will be ready. This is the best simple substitute for lemon-juice that can be found ; it answers still better in place of sorrel. The French, for 233 CHIAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. many dishes, prefer verjuice to lemon acid. It is used by great economists in preparing lemonade. 343. Alegar. - This is often made of stale beer, but is best when made of fresh worts, fermented with sour yeast, and set in the sun till the acetous fermentation takes place. 344. Raisin-Vinegar. - After making raisin-wine lay - the refuse in a heap to ferment. Add water in the pro- portion of a gallon to the pound of raisins and half-pound of sugar. Put yeast to the liquor when strained. 315. FLAVOURED VINEGARS. — These are a cheap and agreeable addition to sauces, hashes, and ragouts, and have the convenience of being always at hand, at seasons when herbs are either very costly or not to be procured. They may be coloured with a few grains of cochineal. They keep long, and being so serviceable ought to be regularly pre- pared. Make them of the best pickle vinegar. 346. Chili-Vinegar and Cayenne-Vinegar, called Pepper- Vinegars. — Infuse a hundred red chilies, fresh gathered, in a quart of the best white-wine vinegar for ten days or more, shaking the bottle occasionally. A half-ounce of genuine cayenne will answer the same purpose. This makes an excellent and cheap addition to plain melted butter for fish-sauce, &c., and may be made of any strength. It is a safe and convenient inode of using cayenne in many dishes. 347. Eschalot-Vinegar. - Clean, peel, and bruise four ounces of eschalots at the season when they are quite ripe without having become acrid. Steep them in a quart of the best vinegar, and strain, filter, and bottle. 348. Garlic-Vinegar.—The same as above, but use only half the quantity of chopped garlic. 349. Celery or Cress Vinegar. — Pound a half-ounce of celery-seed or cress-seed, or a half-pound of fresh celery, and steep it for ten days in a quart of vinegar boiled. Strain and bottle. It is used with salads. 350. Cucumber-Vinegar. — Pare and slice ten large cucumbers, and steep them in three pints of pickle vinegar for a few days. Strain and bottle it.- Obs. Vinegar of VINEGARS. 289 nearly the same flavour may be more cheaply prepared with burnet. 351. Tarragon-Vinegar.-Gather the leaves of tarra- gon on a dry sunny day; pick them from the stalks, and filling up a narrow-necked stone jar, pour the best vinegar over them till the jar is full. Let them infuse for ten days, then strain and bottle the tincture. 352. Basil- Vinegar is made precisely as the above. The French add cloves and lemon-rind : we admire this addition. 353. Horseradish-Vinegar.-Pour a quart of the best and strongest vinegar, boiling hot, on three ounces of scraped horseradish, an once of minced eschalot, two drachms of black pepper, and a drachm of cayenne. Strain it in four days, and serve it in a cruet along with cold roast beef. It makes an excellent economical addi- tion to the gravy of chops, steaks, &c.—See No. 270. 354. Camp-Vinegar.- Six chopped anchovies, four spoonfuls of walnut-catsup, two of soy, and a clove of gar- lic chopped very fine, and two drachms of cayenne. Steep these for a fortnight in a pint of white-wine vinegar, and strain and bottle for use. - Obs. This is more properly a sauce than a vinegar, as, with butter or gravy added, it sup- plies the place of a store-sauce for either meat or fish. The anchovies should be omitted when the vinegar is to be stored. 355. Currie-Vinegar. - Steep currie-powder, in the proportion of two ounces to the quart, in the best vinegar, and strain and filter for use. 356. Raspberry-Vinegar. - Pour on fresh-gathered raspberries, put in a large stoneware or china dish, or wide-necked bottles, the best champagne vinegar, in the proportion of a bottle to two quarts of fruit. Next day pour off the liquor, and pour a little more vinegar over the fruit: where the fruit is plentiful and cheap, you need not mind expressing the juice too carefully; strain through a sieve, but do not bruise the fruit. To every pint of the vinegar and raspberry juice, now blended, allow a full pound of good refined sugar. Break it in pieces, and dissolve it in the juice. Boil the syrup for seven minutes, or it is better to place the whole in a stone jar, (not a glazed 290 CHAP. IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. earthen one,) and put the jar, (covered,) in a kettle of boiling water for an hour; take off what scum arises ; when cool bottle the vinegar for use. This is an exceed- ingly pleasant beverage in hot weather. Two spoonfuls mixed with water make a delicious summer draught; but the large quantity of acid which it contains may, in some cases, render it an improper one. With currant-jelly it makes an admirable sauce for roast venison or mutton, and is made extempore by melting raspberry jelly in vinegar. 357. HERB-WINES, &c. Wine may be impregnated with the flavour of roots and herbs in the same manner as vinegar, and this generous fluid extracts even more of the flavour; and often when yinegar would be objectionable, wine is suitable. The proportions for Eschalot-wine, Tarragon-wine, Basil-wine, &c., are the same as when these herbs are steeped in strong vine- gar. Eschalot wine is that most used and esteemed. 358. Eschalot-Wine. — To four ounces of eschalots dried, chopped, and pounded, or merely bruised, put a bottle of sherry. Infuse for a fortnight and strain off. If for beef only, horseradish sliced may be added, or rather substituted for part of the eschalots. 359. MUSTARDS. MUSTARD is best when nearly fresh made. It is pre- pared in a variety of ways. 360. Good Common Mustard.—Mix by degrees the best mustard-flour, with boiling water and a little salt, rubbing a long time till it be perfectly smooth. The less made at a time the better; but it will keep for some time in a small jar closely stopped. 361. Mild Mustard.—Mix as above, but use hot milk instead of water, and sugar with the salt. 362. Imitation of Patent Mustard, and Tartar Mus- tard.Scrape a cupful of horseradish, and chop a half- clove of garlic. Infuse this with salt enough to make a quart of boiling water rather brackish. Let it stand for a night; strain and mix with it the best mustard-flour, leav- ing the mustard rather thick. Cayenne may be added. Keep it close-stopped in small jars. —Tartar or pungent Mustard is made with cayenne and with horseradish-vine- CATSUPS. 291 gar instead of water. – N. B. For mustard-pots always have well-ground close-fitting stoppers. 363. CATSUPS. Mushroom-Catsup is the most esteemed of this class of preparations. Large flap-mushrooms, which contain a great deal of juice, and do not answer for pickling or stew- ing, are well adapted to making catsup. Let the mush- rooms be wholesome. (See pp. 241-2.)-Without washing them, pick off whatever looks dirty or corrupted, and, breaking in pieces, lay them in an earthen jar, strewing salt about them. Throw a folded cloth over the jar, and set it by the fire, or in a very cool oven. Let it remain thus for twenty-four hours or more, and then strain off the liquor into a clean saucepan. To every quart of strained liquor put a half-ounce of black peppercorns, a quarter- ounce of allspice in corns, a half-ounce of fresh sliced ginger, two or three blades of mace, and six cloves. Boil the liquor on a quick fire for fifteen minutes, or, if it be wished very strong, and to keep long, boil the catsup till it is reduced a half, adding the spices after it has boiled a full half-hour. Let it settle on the lees, and, pouring it carefully off, bottle what is clear by itself; and bottle the sediment, after straining, in separate bottles, as it will answer very well for fish-and-sauce, hare-soup, game-soup, &c. Dip the corks of the bottles in bottle- rosin. Cayenne and nutmeg may be added to the other spiceries if a very delicate relish is wanted; or all the seasonings may be withheld, save the black pepper and salt, of which catsups, to make them keep well, require a good deal. The longer catsup is boiled the better it will keep. Anchovies, bay-leaves, and cayenne pepper are sometimes put to mushroom-catsup. In France, glaze is put to mushroom-catsup, and the whole is boiled till it be nearly a glaze or robb ; in this state it keeps good for years. Catsups, Sauces, fc., ought to be kept with the bottles lying on the side. They ought all to be bottled in small quan- tities, as a bottle once opened soon spoils. When a bottle of capers or pickles is opened, it should be filled up with good vinegar, scalded and cooled. 364. Walnut-Catsup. — Gather the walnuts green. 292 CHAP. IX.-CATSUPS, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. Prick them with a bodkin, and throw them into a vessel with a large handful of salt and some water, which will greatly assist in drawing out their liquor. Mash them well with a rolling-pin, and repeat this every day for four days. The rinds will now be soft. Pour scalding water, with salt in it, over the walnuts, and raise the vessel on edge that the walnut-liquor may flow away from the shells. Take it up as it gathers into another vessel, and still repeat the mashing; or pound the walnuts in a mortar, and pour some vinegar over them, which will ex- tract all the remaining juice. To every quart of the walnut-liquor, when boiled and skimmed, put an ounce of bruised ginger, an ounce of Jamaica and black pepper- corns, a quarter-ounce of cloves, the same of long pepper and nutmegs. Boil this liquor in a close vessel for three- quarters of an hour, and when cold, bottle the catsup, putting equal proportions of the spices into each bottle.- Obs. Anchovies, garlic, cayenne, &c. are sometimes put to this catsup; but we think this a bad method, as these flavours may render it unsuitable for some dishes, and they can be added extempore when required.See Pickled Walnuts, p. 296. 365. Lemon-Catsup or Pickle.—Choose six large fresh lemons; pare them thinly; rub them well with salt till they are saturated with it. Make an opening in the end of each, and put in salt. Bed them in a handful of salt and horseradish, and six bruised cloves of garlic, for a week; then dry them in the oven till quite crisp; boil them in three bottles of vinegar with a half-ounce of cayenne. Add a cupful of the best mustard-seed, bruised tomata. See No. 381, and Melon Pickle, 297. 366. Tomata-Catsup. — Make this exactly as the sauce, page 274; but boil it for an hour, then strain and bottle. A small glassful will flavour any sauce, or, with melted butter, make an extempore Tomata-sauce. 367. Cucumber-Catsup. Pare large cucumbers ; cut them in slices and break them to a mash, which must be sprinkled with salt and covered with a cloth. Keep in all the seeds. Next day, set the vessel aslant to drain off the juice, and do this till no more can be CATSUPS. 293 obtained. Strain the juice, and boil it up with a high seasoning of white peppercorns, sliced ginger, black pepper, sliced eschalot, and a little horseradish. When cold, pick out the eschalot and horseradish, and bottle the catsup, which is an excellent preparation for flavour- ing sauces for boiled fowls, veal, rabbits, or the more insipid meats. 368. Oyster, Cockle, and Muscle Catsup.-Wash in their own liquor, and pound in a mortar, fat, newly-opened native oysters. To every pint of the pounded oysters and their strained liquor, add a pint of white wine, and boil this up and skim it; then to every quart of this catsup add a tea-spoonful of white pepper, a salt-spoonful of pounded mace, some cayenne, with salt to taste. Let it boil up to blend the spices, and then strain the catsup through a sieve into a clean vessel. When cold, bottle it, and stop the bottles with corks dipped in bottle-rosin.- Cockle-Catsup is made as above; but as this has less flavour naturally, and is seldom used but for fish, a few pounded anchovies may be added to it. 369. Browning, or Sugar-Catsup.-Pound, very finely, six ounces of the best refined sugar, and put the powder into a small and very clean frying-pan, with an ounce and a half of fresh butter. As it dissolves mix well with a spatula or wooden spoon, and withdraw the pan from the fire when the fluid begins to boil violently ; stir, and keep it thus till it has acquired the rich dark-brown colour wanted. It may either be seasoned with pepper, salt, cloves, catsup, &c. or not, and is generally more useful plain. When cold, skim the browning, and bottle it in vials for use.—Obs. It is very difficult, nay alınost impos- sible, to prepare browning free of an empyreumatic flavour, which is necessarily communicated to the dish that is coloured with it. Where sauces can be coloured with the catsup, browned flour, and wine, which may be employed in making the dish, it is better to avoid sugar browning ; and soup may generally be made of a suffi- ciently rich colour by previously browning the meat and onions, and by other means we have pointed out. Many cooks use onion-skins, which contain a yellow dye, to colour 294 CHAP. IX.-PICKLES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. their soups; and it is a common, bat slovenly practice, where browning is wanted in a hurry, to melt a knob of sugar between the hot bowls of tongs, and drop it into a little soup to colour the rest. This, on an emergency, may be useful, but the necessity ought to be avoided. Prepared Browning is sold. 370. PICKLES. THESE are an important class of culinary preparations, and one about which the cook and notable housewife wont to make no little bustle, and feel no small pride. Pickles are chiefly intended for a relishing accompaniment to many sorts of made-dishes and sauces, though a few of them are merely ornamental as garnishings. The only general rules that can be given for the proper and safe preparation of pickles are, to have sound vege- tables or fruits, not over-ripe, and gathered on a dry day. Let the things to be pickled be carefully trimmed and wiped, washing only such things as are to be steeped or parboiled previous to pickling. It is miserable economy to employ bad vinegar for pickling, or bad sugar for pre- serving, or to use either in stinted quantities, -as both the syrup in which fruits are preserved, and the vinegar used for pickles, may afterwards be serviceable to the cook. Pickle-liquor can be at all times conveniently disposed of in seasoning gravies or sauces, or as an accompaniment to cold meat;the pickle of cucumbers, walnuts, mushrooms, and onions, is especially useful. The vinegar used for pickles, if not boiled, ought to be made scalding hot; but remember that no fermented liquid can be long boiled without loss of strength. The spiceries used in pickling are so well bestowed that we give no rule for the quantity, except that it should not be so great as to overcome the natural flavour of the article pickled; for pickles, like every thing else, should be what their name imports, — either Onion or Cucumber, &c. and not a hodge-podge of conflicting flavours. Pickles are most safely prepared in stoneware vessels; but they must, at all events, be kept in small glass or stone jars well stopped, and the corks or bungs wrapt round with bladder or leather, with an upper covering of the same, or of sheet lead if they are to be long TO PICKLE CUCUMBERS AND FRENCH BEANS. 295 kept. Or, when well corked, let them be dipped in bottle- rosin. The corks or bungs may be left rather loose for two days, and the jars filled up to the neck with scalded vinegar before being finally closed, as a great deal of the liquor will be absorbed at first by the pickles. When the pickles are used, boil up the liquor with a little salt and fresh spice, and bottle and cork it for future use, either as a sauce, or to pickle nasturtiums and gherkins, where a fine colour is no object. To have green pickles of a bright green, and yet safe, is no easy matter; and we are glad to observe, that there is now at the most refined tables a wholesome distrust of pickles of too brilliant a green. It is, however, very possible to preserve the colour tolerably good, and yet prepare the pickles safely, by keeping them for a length of time, first in brine, and then exposed to the steams of vinegar. Potato-plums, elder-flowers in the bud, and many other things are pickled besides the vege- tables in common use. We do not admire them. 371. To pickle Cucumbers.-Lay fifty firm, young, and very small-sized cucumbers, not too ripe or seedy, on flat dishes, having first rubbed them with salt. Keep them covered, and look at them and turn them occasionally for eight or ten days, and then having carefully drained them, put them in a jar in which vine-leaves or cabbage-leaves are laid, and, pouring two quarts of scalding vinegar over them, cover them with more leaves, and keep them covered by the fire. Next day pour off the vinegar, boil it up, and pour it hot over the cucumbers, again covering them with fresh leaves above and below. A little pounded alum will improve the colour; but if it be not good enough, scald them once more by placing the jar in a pan of boiling water, or on a hot hearth. When the colour is tolerably good-for it will never be very brilliant-boil up the vinegar once more with a half-ounce of white pepper, the same of sliced ginger, two drachms of cloves, and a bruised nutmeg. Boil the spices for a few minutes with the vinegar, and when cold, bottle them according to the general directions in the preceding page. — Obs. A French cook would add a seasoning of tarragon, fennel, and garlic. 296 CHAP. IX.-PICKLES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. 372. French beans, gherkins, Indian cress, samphire, and other green pickles, are all to be managed as in the above receipt for cucumbers. 373. Cucumbers and Onions pickled.-Pare and slice cucumbers, picking out the seeds; and peel and slice large onions in thick slices. Sprinkle salt over them, and drain for a night, then put them into a stone jar, and pour scalding vinegar over them. Close the jar, and set it by the fire. Scald them by placing the jar over a hot hearth, and repeat this till they become of a tolerable colour; then boil up the vinegar with spiceries as in No. 371. 374. To pickle Walnuts Green. — Gather the walnuts before they are nearly ripe, and while the shells are still tender. Lay them in a strong pickle of salt and water for nine days. Change the brine twice in that time. Keep a board floating over them, for if they are exposed to the air they will turn black. Drain them, and run a bodkin or steel pin into each walnut in several places. Lay plenty of vine-leaves or cabbage-leaves in the bottom of a pan. Place the walnuts on these, and cover them with more leaves ; fill the vessel with water, and give them a scald ; let them stand to cool, and repeat this several times, pouring off the blackened water, and supplying its place with scalding water. When the husks become soft, scrape them off with a knife as quickly as possible ; and, rubbing the walnuts smooth with flannel, throw them into a vessel of hot water. Boil for three minutes a quart of the best vinegar for every fifty walnuts, with white pepper, salt, ginger, cloves, and cayenne. Dry the walnuts well in a cloth, and pour the vinegar over them. Walnuts are pickled black in an easier manner, by merely steeping for twelve days in strong brine, renewed every three days, rubbing them smooth and dry, and pouring boiling vinegar over them, with a seasoning of pepper, horseradish, garlic, and mustard-seed. 375. To pickle Mushrooms, and keep in Brine for Winter use.-Choose small white button-mushrooms, and rub them with flannel or a sponge dipped in a little salt. Put them into a stone jar, with some mace, ginger, pepper, and salt, and let them stew in their own juices over a slow fire, TO PICKLE MUSHROOMS AND ONIONS. 297 shaking them well, but not breaking them. Let them remain over the fire till they are almost dry, but take care they do not burn. When the liquor is all reimbibed by the mushrooms, put in as much hot vinegar as will cover them, and let them just come to boil. When cold, bottle them in jars, and after a week fill up the jars with vine- gar, scalded and then cooled, and pour a little salad oil into the necks of the bottles, which will aid in excluding the air. Cork the bottles, wrapping bladder or leather round the corks, and dip in bottle-rosin the corks of those which are to be long kept. To keep in Brine.-Prepare buttons as above directed ; and for every pint make a brine by boiling, in a pint of water, six ounces of salt and one of sugar, with a tea-spoonful of peppercorns. Scald the mush- rooms in the boiling brine for six minutes. Finer season- ings may be added; but we consider this unnecessary, as the mushrooms are to be afterwards cooked. To keep, bottle and treat them exactly as pickled mushrooms. We have of late, with advantage, used tin-foil as for champagne bottles, for pickles and preserves. · 376. To pickle Onions. - Choose small sound silver- onions, as equal in size as may be. Top and tail them, but do not pare the tops very close, as the air will soften and spoil the onions. Scald them with brine. Repeat this on the second day, and when cold, peel the onions as quickly as possible, throwing them into vinegar as they are done, to prevent their blackening. Boil white-wine vinegar enough to cover them, with sliced ginger, black and white pepper, and mace; when cooled a little, pour it over the onions. Cork them well, as directed for other pickles, and dip in bottle-rosin.-Obs. Some cooks peel and scald the onions, a few at a time, take them up as soon as they look transparent, and dry them in the folds of a cloth, covering them carefully to exclude the air. Others scald in brine, and then parboil in milk and water. Pickled onions of the shops look beautifully white, but some think have little gout.* .* In the youthful days of Mistress Dops onions were pickled in their skins, tops, and tails, and only peeled when to be served at table. The flavour was then very little different from that of a raw onion, 298 CHAP. IX.-PICKLES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. 377. Red Cabbage.—A firm deep-purple-coloured middle- sized cabbage is best for pickling. Strip off the outer leaves, cut out the stalk; and, dividing the cabbage, cut it down into slices of the breadth of narrow straws. Sprinkle salt over these, and let them lie for two days ; then drain very dry, and pour over the sliced cabbage a pickle of boiling vinegar, seasoned with black and Jamaica peppers and ginger. Cover the jar to keep in the hot steams, and when cold, close it up.-Obs. A few mild onions sliced are thought an improvement to this pickle. The onion takes the beautiful tinge of the cabbage, thus repaying “ The grace it borrows with the strength it lends !" 378. Beetroot, to pickle.-Wash the beetroots, but take care not to break the skin or the fibres which hang about them, else the colour will fly. Boil them softly for an hour or more if they are large, or bake them, and as soon as they are cold enough to be handled, peel them, and, cutting them into slices, put the slices into a jar, and have ready to pour over them cold, vinegar, in which black and Jamaica pepper, ginger, cloves, and a little cayenne, have been previously boiled.—Obs. A few slices of beetroot make a pretty fill-up dish for any odd corner on a table, and a very elegant garnish, particularly if contrasted with the brilliant emerald green of pickled samphire. The slices, when to be used, may be cut in the form of leaves, flowers, or Vandyked round the edges ; a few small silver- onions, and turnips scooped out to the size of marbles, will take the rich red tinge of this pickle, form an orna- mental variety with the beetroot, and cost nothing. Cochineal will improve the colour. 379. INDIAN PICKLE, or Piccalilli.—This is a general hodge-podge pickle of all the common green and white pickles to which the currie flavour and tawny currie tinge is given. Prepare the pickle-liquor thus :-To every two quarts of the best vinegar put an ounce and a half of white ginger, scraped and sliced, the same of long pepper, two ounces of peeled eschalots, one of peeled garlic, an ounce and a half of salt, an ounce of turmeric, a little INDIAN PICKLE. 299 cayenne, and some flour of mustard. Let this infuse in a close jar set in a warm place for a week; and, in the meanwhile, have ready a white cabbage sliced, cauliflowers cut in neat branches, white turnip-radishes, young French beans, sliced cucumbers, button-onions, and codling-apples, a large carrot cut in round slices, nicked round the edges, capsicums, bird-pepper, &c. Sprinkle all these things with plenty of salt, mixing it well with them in a large earthen vessel, or pouring scalding brine over them. Let them lie for four days, turning them over, and then take them up, wash them in vinegar, and dry them carefully with a cloth, and afterwards lay them on sieves before the fire, turning them over till thoroughly dried. Next day, place them either in a large stone jar, or in smaller jars, and pour the cooled pickle over them. The jars must be well stopped.–Obs. This pickle keeps a long time, and for the first two years will even improve by the keeping. The vegetables do not all come in together, but they may be prepared as for pickling, and added to the general pickle as they come into season. This pickle looks more attrac- tive if the French beans, small whole cucumbers, or melons, are greened before they are put to it, as directed in other receipts. When the melons or cucumbers are greened, cut a slit in the sides, and scrape out the seeds. Shoots of green elder are also put to this pickle, in imita- tion of the Bamboo of the genuine Mango pickle. Instead of being laid in salt, the vegetables may be parboiled in very strong brine, by which means the pickle will be soon ready, but the colour and crispness will be injured, though, on the whole, both for ease of preparation and safety in eating, we think parboiling the preferable method. This pickle is so cheaply bought, whether common or nicely prepared, that few families now make it. 380. To preserve Barberries. Tie the clusters to bits of sticks, and boil them in syrup. To pickle Barberries for gurnishing.–Gather fine clusters not quite ripe. Make a brine that will float an egg. Boil it up with a small bit of alum, and when cold pour it over barberries, or Siberian crabs, laid not too closely in jars. Look at the fruit occasionally, and, if 300 CHAP, IX.-SAUCES, ESSENCES, AND CONDIMENTS. needed, pour off the brine, and supply its place with more, freshly prepared as the first, but with less salt. 381. To pickle Bitter Oranges and Lemons for Wild Fowl.–Rub the fruit well with salt. Cover them with vinegar, with a handful of coriander-seeds, and some mace. Boil up the vinegar once or twice, and when cool pour it again over the oranges or lemons.-See No. 365. 382. To pickle Cauliflower or Brocoli.—Take firm, well-coloured vegetables, before they are quite ripe, and cut away the bark of the stems, and all the green leaves. Scald them for four minutes in a pan of boiling brine, and then drain and dry them thoroughly. When dry, pull them into properly-sized branches, cutting the stalks smoothly, and pack them up in the jars with the same pickle-liquor as directed for onions or beetroots. 383. Nasturtiums, to make either a pickle, or for imi- tation caper-sauce, may be prepared in the same manner; also the seed-pods of the radish, which make another sub- stitute for capers. 384. To hasten the Preparation of Pickles.--Parboil in brine the vegetables you wish to pickle. Drain and dry them, and then proceed as before directed with the respective kinds. The colour will not be quite so good, but the vegetables, besides being less crude, will be fit for use in a few days. Fresh pickles look most handsome, but old pickles eat better. PART THIRD. CHAPTER I. MADE-DISHES. When art and nature join, the effect will be Some nice ragout, or charming fricassee. King's Cookery But prudent men will sometimes save their cash By interlinear days of frugal hash. CRABBE's Tales. We take for granted that the cook, at this stage, thoroughly understands the rudiments of her art, and is manually an adept in the elementary processes treated of in the preceding chapters. We also hope that she begins to comprehend the principles or rationale of cookery. In the Introduction it has been said that the Cook, like the Surgeon, must first look on, observe carefully, and then put to her hand; for it would be quite as easy to teach surgery by book, as many of the manual operations of cookery. We have found, by sad experience, that printed directions for boning, trussing, and larding, pre- paring delicate sauces — Mayonnaise, for instance - nay peeling mushrooms - only stupified an otherwise intelli- gent young cook-maid, who, when she saw the thing done, understood and could do it at once. In country lodgings, some time since, we found our boiled fowl very well cooked, but very ill trussed. It was offensive to the eye ; and patiently and elaborately, as we fancied, we explained to a very clever girl how the thing should be done, and the legs trussed inside. Worse and worse! an anxious attempt had been made ; and, next time, the unfortunate fowl, instead of its legs straddling out any where as before, appeared with the skin much torn, one stump half-in- half-out, and the other exactly like the timber legs of 302 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES. one of Wilkie's veteran Chelsea pensioners. It was at once ludicrous and provoking; and the distress of the young candidate of the stove most pitiable. But where there is a will there is a way. Book knowledge was in this case given up in despair, and the manner shown, by an old kitchen-maid in the village,-no great cook. From that period we have held, that unless ladies will learn to put to their own delicate hands, and show their unin- structed cooks how to proceed-a duty which we certainly do not require of gentlewomen or gentlemen — the lesson should be given by some one properly qualified. If a lady obtain that rare prize, a thorough cook, nothing inore is required than books to refresh her memory and extend her knowledge ; but, if only a clever intelligent girl, capable of becoming a cook — a humble function, which yet requires sound intellectual faculties, whatever may be thought of it — the mistress should at once send the young woman to where she may see cookery performed in all its departments, from skinning a hare, or gutting fish, to the most delicate offices. The cook will, if clever and willing, in a very short time learn to clean thoroughly a great point-to truss, to bone, to lard, to whip, to mill, and fifty other things, which no printed instructions can teach half so well or easily as a single example. Let the young cook, therefore, previous to taking a place, go, or, if selected by a mistress, from being intelligent, active, and hopeful, be sent to observe, and try. This, in the first place ; and, while in the A B C of the art, the school should be in the kitchen of a family where there is a good and experienced plain cook. Another step, is that recommended in our Introductory Lectures, of seeing handsome dinners dressed, and assisting in their preparation, - in a private family where dinners are given with some frequency. Where more instruction is required, there are now regular French or French-bred professors of the art in most of our considerable towns, who receive pupils, and who, going out to families to prepare fashionable dinners, take their female pupils along with them to look on, and to assist. Young ladies in the middle ranks do still occasionally take lessons in pastry, confec- MADE-DISHES. 303 tionary, and preserving,—which for them is going quite far enough ; for though it is perfectly right, and, indeed, indis- pensable, that all young housekeepers should know how to giye orders, and even directions, and know when they are well served, it is going to the extreme to hear of gentle- women who have, or ought to have, other duties and pur- suits, attending in the kitchens of hotels and clubs, to learn cookery. But enough of this; and presupposing that the cook thoroughly understands the rudiments of her art, and many of its plainer but most important branches, we now proceed to MADE-DISHES. What is technically termed Made-Dishes, (the entrées and entremêts of the French Kitchen,) presupposes either a more elaborate mode of cookery than plain frying, broil- ing, or roasting; or else some combination of those ele- mentary processes, — as, for example, half-roasting and finishing in the stew-pan, which is a common way of dressing a ragout. Most dishes commonly called French dishes, are of the class Made-dishes, such as fricassees and ragouts, meat braised, larded, &c., and so are hashes, curries, and generally all viands that are re-dressed or re-made. To understand this Chapter properly, the young cook should first study the directions for braising, for cooking in a poêle or a blanc; also the mixing of forcemeat, cook's peppers, and other seasonings, and how to make and use all sorts of garnishes, as sippets, fried parsley, casserole edgings, croustades, bread-borders, farce-balls, egg-balls, grilled toasts of all kinds, also serving in vol-au-vent, in tim- balles, glazing and demi-glazing, glazing onions and celery for garnishes, paste and rice borders, dishing in various forms, and many other matters. She should understand the qualities and uses of the different catsups and flavoured wines and vinegars; and what flavours are best adapted to the several meats ; as horseradish with dishes of beef, lemon-peel, or lemon-juice with veal, &c. These things should be diligently studied, under the respective heads, as pointed out in the Index.-Study also French Cookery and the Glossary of Culinary Terms. To dress a Made-dish properly requires rather judg- 304 CHAP. 1.-MADE DISHES. ment, contrivance, and resource, than great manual dex- terity. It is in fact more difficult to broil a chop properly than to dress a ragout, provided the cook knows how to proportion seasonings, and to blend flavours with taste and judgment. Stewing is the commonest form of dressing Made-dishes, and is besides that mode of cook- ery which is best adapted to all dry, fibrous, harsh meats, Its perfection consists in the extreme slowness with which the process is conducted ; and the closeness of the vessel in which the meat is contained. The lid of a stew- pan, or digester, after its contents have been skimmed, ought to be as seldom removed as possible ; but the stew-pan may be frequently shaken, to prevent the meat from adhering either to the bottom or to the sides.* Stewing is recommended by Dr. Cullen as the best mode of cookery for retaining all the native succulence of the meat, thus ob- taining from it the greatest quantity of nourishment; and likewise as promotive of digestion :— The last assertion, though of so great authority, may be questioned. Made-dishes are valued by the gourmand for their savouriness or their piquancy. They are equally es- teemed by the economist, from the circumstance that a much less quantity of material than would suffice for a boil or roast, will make a handsome and highly-flavoured dish; while, by the various modes of re-dressing, every thing cold may, in a new Made-dish, be turned to good account. A common fault of English Made-dishes is, that they are overdone. While a large dinner is proceeding, the stew- pans are neglected, because their contents sustain less apparent injury than is instantly visible on roasts, broils, or fries; and also because cooks, either do not know, or forget, that meat stewing in its own rich juices is often exposed to a more intense heat than in boiling or roasting, The general rules we would give for dressing Made- dishes are, 1st, That they be not over-hastily done, but rather removed from the fire, steamer, or hot-plate, as a very few minutes at any time will finish them completely; * It would be a great improvement if the lids of stew-pans permitted turf or charcoal to be put over, as well as under, the meat, unless where there are scientific ranges, with steaming apparatus. OF BEEF. 305 2d, That the sauce be smooth and properly thickened, so as to adhere to the meat, — and that the pieces of meat, fillets of poultry, &c., of which they are composed, be nicely trimmed, cut perfectly smooth with a fine-edged knife, and never left clumsily large. This is peculiarly to be attended to in re-dressing cold meat ; which some- times comes to table mangled and lacerated, as if it had been gnawed, not carved. Palates, sweetbreads, &c. may be cut into scollops, or other pretty forms, as is common in French cookery. The very name Made-dish, with us, implies something savoury and highly relishing; and though over-seasoning is to be avoided, it is proper that Made-dishes should rather be savoury or piquant than insipid. We name many things Made-dishes, which French cooks call removes or flanks, MADE-DISHES OF BEEF. See CHAPTERS, Roasting, Broiling, and Frying. 386. To ragout or braise a Rump or half Rump of Beef. - Except for some particular occasion, a rump to be stewed should not be very large, nor above ten inches in thickness, unless it is salted a little. Cut out the bone neatly, and break it; and with that and what trimmings may be made in smoothing the meat, make a little gravy, which boil with onions, a carrot, and turnip, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Season the rump highly with cooks' pepper and a little cayenne, and skewer and tie it firmly up with tape. Lay skewers in the bottom of a nice clean stew-pot that will just hold the meat, and place the rump upon them, straining over it the gravy drawn from the bones. When it has simmered, closely covered, for an hour or more, turn it over, and put to it three carrots sliced, two turnips scooped to the size of marbles ; and in another half-hour four onions sliced, and a glass of eschalot vinegar, or plain vinegar, with minced eschalots, and more pepper if required. Keep the lid close the whole time ; and before dishing, put in a large spoonful of cat- sup, and, if you like, another of made-mustard, with roux, or butter rolled in flour, to thicken the gravy. The rump may be dressed more highly by filling up the hole whence the bone is taken with a relishing forcemeat, egg- 306 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES ing and browning it before stewing, and putting wine to the sauce; which may also be enriched with sweetbreads or kernels, parboiled and cut into bits. It may be glazed, and the bruise may be prepared with bacon.-Obs. A rump, or part of one, salted for four days in summer, or a week in cold weather, washed and stewed plainly, is an econo- mical as well as an excellent dish, whether for company or for family use. It may be divided diagonally, so as to skewer up neatly, or cut into three parts, and stewed in weak stock with roots as above. Skim the fat carefully off, and serve the soup, which will be very rich, on toasted sippets, and serve the meat by itself, either garnished with cut pickles, or with sliced carrot, or onions prepared as for garnishing. (See No. 262.) A rump is sometimes half-roasted, and finished in the stew-pot in broth, with some mild ale, wine, vinegar, catsup, a fagot of sweet herbs, and onions, mixed spices, pickled mushrooms, &c. This last is an expensive dish, and has nothing to recom- mend it beyond a plainer dressed rump, stewed carefully in the stock intended to make soups and sauces for the same dinner. A sirloin is excellent stewed; but we con- sider this a desecration of this noble joint. 387. TO STEW OR RAGOUT A BRISKET OF BEEF. TAKE six or eight pounds of a brisket, with the firm fat; wash and rub it with salt and vinegar before dressing it. Put it into a stew-pan that will just hold it, with water or stock, and when well skimmed, let it stew very slowly for an hour, and then put to it cut carrots, turnips, and small whole onions. When it has stewed slowly till very tender, draw out the bones, thicken the gravy with butter rolled in flour and a little catsup, and season with plenty of mixed spices. Serve the meat by itself, with a garnishing of sprigs of cauliflower, and the sauce made of the thickened gravy, with more catsup, and, if approved, a little made-mustard. — Obs. A haricot of beef (excellent) may be made of the above, by dividing the meat into two dozen neat pieces, browning them, and putting in two sliced heads of celery and forcemeat balls, in addition to the ingredients ordered above. · 388. Another way. The French “ Bauf Garni de OF BEEF. 307 Choux,” an excellent dish. — Tie up and boil firm white cabbages cut in quarters. Finish them in any good braise, or broth seasoned with roots. Moisten them with a little top-fat. Then drain the cabbage, press out the fat, untie and serve them neatly round the beef stewed as above. A Bachelor's Round of Beef. - Have from four to six pounds of a fine rib, boned, skewered, and bandaged round like a fillet of veal prepared for roasting. Rub it briskly with salt, and next day place it in a cold boiled pickle, in which the least particle of saltpetre is dissolved by boiling. In from six days to ten, as you wish, wash the meat, tie it up in a cloth, put it in hot water, and boil from three quarters of an hour to two hours, in proportion to the weight; for it may be eight or ten pounds. Serve with large carrots boiled with the round; and greens or savoys, boiled in water enriched with the pot liquor, and served in a vegetable dish. A plated skewer may replace the wooden or iron one. 389. TO STEW A SHIN OF BEEF, or Bouilli ordinaire. Have the shin-bone sawed across in three different places without cutting the fleshy side. Place skewers in the stew-pot, and lay the meat on them, and as much water as will nearly cover it. When this is skimmed, put in a bundle of herbs, a large head of celery cut, four onions, and a dessert-spoonful of black and Jamaica peppercorns in a bag ; cover the pot very close, and let the meat stew slowly for three hours, when more cut carrots may be put to it, and afterwards cut turnip, with a dozen of small onions ; stew for another hour, Make a sauce for the Bouilli, by thickening and seasoning a pint of the soup with catsup, spices, and a little made-mustard. The French sauce hachée is also a very suitable garnish along with the onions. See No. 591. 390. BEEF OR VEAL À LA MODE. The clod, the mouse-buttock, the rump, or the thick of the flank, may be dressed à la mode. Rub from six to ten pounds of the rump well with mixed spices and salt, and dredge it with flour. Lay skewers in the bottom of a stew-pan, and on them spread some thin slices of streaked bacon ; place the meat on these, with a few more slices of bacon above, and a small quantity of vinegar and gravy, 308 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES or good broth. Make the stew-pan very close, and let the meat stew as slowly as possible over embers for two hours. Turn it, and put to the gravy a high seasoning of cloves, black and Jamaica pepper, with three bay-leaves and some mushrooms if in season, or a little catsup, and a dozen button onions half roasted. Let it again stew very slowly till the meat is tender. Pick out the bay-leaves and bacon, and serve the meat in a deep dish with the gravy, which, if slowly stewed, will have thickened to the con- sistence of glaze. A fillet of veal is very good dressed in the same manner. Though the gristly part of the breast is best adapted for this purpose, lemon-grate may be added to the veal seasonings, but no catsup. Butter may be substituted for bacon, and with veal should be. Obs.-A la mode will ever be a good way of dressing beef, for luxurious, healthy eaters. It should now be called à l'antique. The Culotte de Boeuf à la Gellée of the French kitchen, called also Beuf à la Royale, differs very little from beef à la mode, save that it is tied up, and, when half baked and braised, is boned. It is glazed, served with its own gravy, and garnished with pickles or parsley; and in high style, with different coloured meat- jellies, cut in figures. Many cooks lard the meat. Plain good à la mode Beef, or Brazilian Stew.-(We are, we believe, indebted for this receipt to Mr. Charles Knight the publisher.) Cut a shin of beef into three-ounce slices, dip them in vinegar, and stew them very slowly : no water is required; in three or four hours, by a slow fire, the meat will have yielded abundant gravy, and be tender as a chicken ; when it may be seasoned, and served. 391. DR. HUNTER'S RECEIPT FOR A STEWED BRISKET. Brisket of Beef stewed savoury - Take eight pounds of the brisket, and stew it till quite tender, in as much water as will just “steam” the meat. When sufficiently tender, take out the bones, and carefully skim off the fat. Take a pint of the liquor, put to it the third of a pint of red wine, a little walnut or mushroom catsup, and some salt. Tie up in a bit of muslin some whole white pepper and mace, and stew these together for a short time. Have ready three carrots and turnips boiled tender, and cut into the form of dice; strew them hot upon the beef, putting a OF BEEF. 309 few into the dish. Truffles and morells may be added, — when you can get them, the Dr. should have said. 392. To collar Beef.-Choose the thin part of the flank, or what in Scotland is called the nine-holes or runner. Let the meat be young, tender, and well grained, but not very fat, as it is to be eaten cold. Rub it with salt mixed with a very little saltpetre; and when it has drained a night, rub it thoroughly well with a mixture of sugar, salt, pounded pepper, and allspice. Let it lie a week in the salting tray, turning it, and basting daily with the pickle that will gather. If the weather is cold, it may lie ten days; then bone it, and cut away all the gristly parts, and the coarse inner skin. Dry it, and strew over the inside chopped herbs and cooks' pepper; that done, roll it up as tightly as possible, bind it with broad fillets of strong cloth, and these with tape ; press it under a heavy weight, and then undo the bandages and re-fasten them, (as the meat will have shrunk,) and make the ends very fast. It will re- quire from three to four hours slow but constant boiling. When done, press it again while still bound; and when cold, undo the bandages. It may be served hot, with savoys or carrot, but it is most valued for slicing down cold.- Obs. A large fore-quarter of mutton, with the shoulder-blade cut off, will collar, and so will veal, but neither of these eat nearly so well as collared beef.— Beef is pressed flat to slice for sandwiches or to eat cold, exactly in the above manner, but then it is not bound up ; it eats as well, and is prepared with much less trouble. Spiced and collared beef is now prepared for sale, so very good that we hesitate to give directions about it; the West of Scotland is famous for this manufacture. 393. To roast collared Ribs of Beef.- Take out the bones when the meat has hung till tender, season it highly with spices and herbs, and rolling tightly up, roast or bake it, or dress it as HUNTER's beef.- Obs. This is an ex- cellent and economical dish, as a good soup can at once be made from the trimmings and the bones cut out. A neck or back-ribs of mutton, boned, seasoned, and sprinkled with dried parsley and sage, will roast as above, and the bones 310 CHAP, 1.-MADE-DISHES and scrag make rice-soup or barley-broth ; but we would rather recommend this to the economist than to the fastidious eater; for although two good dishes are by this means presented at table, this particular piece of meat eats better dressed as chops, pie, bouilli, or currie, than as a roast, when the roti can be dispensed with. 394. Brisket of Beef à la Flamande.—Take eight pounds of the gristly nice part of the brisket; trim and season it. Put it to stew in a stew-pan with the trim- mings, and a slice or two of bacon under and over it. Put to it carrots and turnips cut and scooped into the shapes of cocks' combs, pigeons' eggs, &c., and also some cabbage previously dressed in top-fat or good broth. Arrange the vegetables with a few glazed onions round the meat, and thicken a pint of the broth for sauce.-See German Onion Beef, and Potage aux choux. 395. To dress Ox-Palates.-Clean and boil them till the upper skin will easily pull off ; and either cut them into long fillets and square bits, or merely divide them. Stew them very slowly in good gravy thickened with butter kneaded in brown flour, and season them with cayenne, minced eschalot, or onion, and a large spoonful of catsup; or the pickle of walnuts, mushrooms, or even of onions, which is very good for plain purposes. -Obs. This we think the most suitable way of dressing palates ; but they are often in France more expensively prepared, by adding forcemeat, wine, and mushrooms, or even truffles and morells to the sauce; or by dressing them as a fricassee in white sauce. Palates are also served with cucumbers, or with sauce tournée. In fine cookery they are served in vol-au-vent or casserole, (see French Cookery,) or cut in pretty shapes and served in a rich brown sauce. Palates are suitable to the dejeuner à la fourchette, either served hot like kidneys, with Soubise sauce, or pickled and eaten cold. 396. The Bachelor's Stew of Beef or Veal.-Order from two and a half to three and a half pounds of the rump, or fillet, or mouse-buttock, shaped as a handsome steak, about two inches thick ; put a very little butter in a small stew-pan, and pepper well, and brown the meat; add a half- OF BEEF. 311 pint of water, and place two carrots cut in very thick slices, and the woody part taken out with an apple-corer, over the meat; close the lid very fast, and first heating through, let the stew simmer very slowly by the fire — the heat of a match or a few cinders is sufficient for three-quarters of an hour; then turn it over, still keeping the carrots uppermost; add four small whole onions, a little salt, a spoonful of catsup, and what boiling water you think necessary ; but, as the steam is kept in, and the gravy drawn, none or very little may be required. Simmer on a trivet, or the hob, or a toaster, before the fire for an hour more, and dish with the sauce and roots as garnish. Celery may in part be substituted for the other roots; and the stew may be seasoned and flavoured in various ways. The same quantity of a fillet of veal may be cooked as above, seasoning with juice and rind of lemon, and a bit of ham; and using peas for carrots. A fowl may be well cooked as above, with celery or a few mushrooms. The main thing is, the slowness of the pro- cess, and the closeness of the lid, which may be pressed down with a smoothing-iron or heavy weight. In the French kitchen there are grooved lids for saucepans, and tin pudding-moulds, which are most useful. Beef-Steaks with Cucumbers.— Pare and slice three large cucumbers, and as many onions. Fry them in butter, and when browned, add a half-pint of gravy. Beat and season some rump-steaks and fry them. Dish them in a very hot dish, and pour the above cucumber-sauce hot over them. - Obs. This is a good dish for variety, with very little expense.-See, Beef-Steaks, Nos. 38, 39, 46, 47. 397. To stew a Tongue.—Trim off the coarse part of the root, but leave on some of the soft fat. Rub the tongue with salt, sugar, and pounded allspice, and let it lie in this for a few days. Stew it in a small close saucepan for an hour, and then skin it; strain the liquor, put some fresh broth to it if necessary, a fagot of sweet herbs, two bay- leaves, and a head of young celery sliced. When the tongue has stewed in this very slowly for nearly another hour, take out the herbs and bay-leaves, and season the gravy with cayenne, pounded cloves, mixed spices, and 312 CHAP. I.-MADE DISHES a little walnut-pickle. Serve the tongue in a deep dish, with the sauce about it, and a few dressed mushrooms or small onions previously roasted and peeled. This is an excellent and not an expensive dish ; and if any gravy be left, nothing can be better adapted for a sauce to ragouts. The tongue may be cut open the long way, but not quite divided, and so spread out on the dish.-Obs. This differs little from the French langue de bæuf à la braise, save that the French dish is enriched by the trimmings of game, poultry, or veal, put to the braise, and has a little wine put to the sauce. Pickled tongues are frequently glazed, after (of course) being boiled and skinned. They are sometimes served on mashed turnips or spinage, but more handsomely with a rice border. Scarlet tongues, cold, may be sliced, and have the slices glazed. 398. To dress Beef-Kidneys, the Scotch Kidney-Collops.- Cut a fresh kidney in slices of the size of very small steaks, or into mouthfuls. Soak the slices in water, and dry them well. Dust them with flour, and brown them in the stew-pan with fresh butter. When the collops are browned, pour some hot water into the pan, a minced eschalot, or the white of four young onions minced, with salt, pepper, shred parsley, and a spoonful of plain or eschalot vinegar, or of onion-pickle liquor. Cover the stew-pan close, and let the collops simmer slowly for three hours at least. We give all internal parts of animals twice the time to cook allowed by ordinary authorities. If a flavoured vinegar is not used, a spoonful of mushroom catsup put in before the collops are dished will be a great improvement. Thicken the gravy. Garnish with fried parsley.-Obs. Some good cooks season this dish with an anchovy and lemon pickle ; others add made-mustard. 399. Beef Kidneys, for the Dejeuner à la Fourchette.- Mince the kidneys into bits the size of a hazel nut, and season highly with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Fry the mince for fifteen minutes, or till tender; moisten it with gravy and champagne, and serve in a hot-water dish. Cat- sup, or lemon or walnut pickle, may be used in place of wine, and the mince may be first marinaded in vinegar and herbs. -See French Cookery, Rogons de Mouton. OF BEEF. 313 - 400. To stew Ox-Tails.-Let the butcher divide them at the joints. Scald them; dry, and brown them in the stew-pan, add a little hot water or weak broth, with a piece of butter rolled in browned flour. Stew them slowly till tender, and season with salt, mixed peppers, minced parsley, and either a spoonful of catsup or eschalot vinegar. We think cayenne an improvement. — See No. 96. 401. Hotch-Potch of Ox-Tails, or Rumps à la mode, a French Dish. - Have two tails jointed, and blanch them as for soup. Cover a stew-pan with trimmings of meat or poultry, and put in the tails, with four sliced onions, two carrots, a fagot of herbs, a bay-leaf, three cloves, and a bit of garlic. Moisten this with two ladlefuls of broth, cover it with slices of bacon, then paper, then the lid, and over all put a few cinders. Let it simmer for four hours, till the meat part easily from the bones with a spoon. Serve with a ragout of roots stewed (after boiling) in the sauce of the tails or in melted butter. – Obs. Ox-tail dressed as above is very good served with a sauce, or purée of peas, or with sauce hachée. 402. Beef-Olives.-Cut slices from the rump half an inch thick, six inches long, and three inches broad. Flatten them, dip them in egg, and then in a seasoning made of pulverized or finely shred herbs, bread-crumbs, mixed spices, and salt. If the meat be lean, a little shred suet may be flattened into each piece of meat. Roll them neatly up, and fasten them with pack-thread :— a little forcemeat may be put in each. The olives may either be roasted on a lark-spit, and served with a drawn gravy, or browned and stewed over embers in a broth made of the skins and trimmings. Thicken the sauce, and season it with catsup, and untying, and, dishing the olives neatly, skim and pour it very hot over them. 403. Olives au Roi-a favourite small dish.-Mash two pounds of boiled potatoes ; add a quarter of a pint of cream, two beat yolks of eggs, and one spoonful of flour ; season this with salt and pepper ; take six long slices of beef beat out very thin ; strew over them a mixture of a 314 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES spoonful of chopped onion, the same of parsley, and of mushrooms; spread the potato-paste on the olives, and roll them up; fry or bake half an hour; glaze them, and put some plain brown sauce under them. Six will make a good-sized, nice dish.—Obs. Veal may be done the same way. Beef-Olives may be baked in a potato or other paste border. 404. Beef Marrow-Bones.—Have them neatly sawed by the butcher. Fill up the opening with a piece of dough or paste, and tie a floured cloth over that. Boil them, placed upright, in the soup-pot (keeping them covered) for nearly two hours. Serve upright on a napkin, accompanied with slips of dry toast. Marrow- bonès may also be baked, covered with batter. 405. Beef-Heart.-In England a heart is cut up, soaked to free it from the blood, and has the lobes cut off, after which it is stuffed with forcemeat as a roasted hare, covered with paper or veal caul, and roasted, and served with venison sauce. In Scotland beef-heart is often dressed as minced collops, with a proportion of beef, or, which we consider the best way of dressing it, is prepared as a cheap stew-soup thus:-Clean and cut the heart in large pieces lengthwise. Put these into a stew-pot with cold water and salt, and carefully skim away the blood, which will be thrown up in large quantities. Take up the parboiled pieces, and carve them into mouthfuls; return them into the strained liquor with plenty of shred onion, a shred head or two of celery, pepper, and allspice, and a dozen peeled potatoes, or some sliced carrots. This is a highly nourishing, well-flavoured, and economical stew-soup, as the half of a good fat bullock's heart will be sufficient to make it. — For Roast Beef, see page 102; for Steaks, Collops, fc. pages 131, 132, 133; Tripe, page 143. 406. Beef-Skirts. These make a nice small dish dressed as palates. The French braise and farce them with mushrooms or oysters : they may be served with a ragout of cucumber, or over spinage or fried toasts. 407. Beef-Liver may be used when sound, (and is con- stantly used on the Continent,) either in a stew-soup with carrot and onion, or slowly cooked in butter or with bacon, OF BEEF. 315 as calf's liver: or as directed for lamb's liver in the Scotch mode, No. 53. 408. Beef-Udder may be boiled, sliced, and served with tomata or onion-sauce : udder is also salted for two days, tacked to a tongue, and they are boiled together. Salted udder is eaten cold with oil and vinegar. It should be very slowly simmered. 409. Spiced or Hunter's Beef. – Take the bone from a small round and salt it, as directed for a rump of beef, using grated nutmeg, half an ounce, and the same weight of cloves. When to be dressed, wash with a sponge, bind it tightly up, and put it into a tin or earthenware pan that will just hold it, with a pint of melted butter or gravy, and a little butter on the top; cover the pan with several folds of brown paper, or a close-fitting lid. Bake in a slow oven for four hours.—The hole whence the bone is 'taken may be stuffed with sweet herbs or minced udder. The gravy in the pan, after the beef is baked, will be almost equal to ham-sauce for strength and flavour; and is very useful for flavouring soups and sauces. Herbs, coriander- seeds, juniper, and garlic, are all used for this piquant dish by the French. They braise it with roots, bacon, and wine. This dish may be glazed and garnished with pickles and meat-jelly; and thus decorated, when cold, even after being previously served hot, makes a handsome dormant dish at an entertainment where there is a long table to cover. 410. Bæuf de Chasse, another form of Spiced Beef. - Bone a piece of the flank of fifteen pounds. Take one ounce of saltpetre, two and a half of brown sugar, two bruised nutmegs, a half-ounce of cloves, and an ounce and a half of allspice, with two large handfuls of salt dried. Pound and mix these well, and rub them well into the beef. Keep it two weeks in this pickle, turning and rubbing it daily. Wash, bind it up, skewer, and boil it, or bake it for four hours in a slow oven. 411. Dutch or Hamburgh Beef. - Rub a rump of beef with brown sugar, and let it lie three days, turning it often ; then wipe it, and salt it with four ounces of bay salt, four ounces common salt, and one ounce of saltpetre, all 316 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES well beaten and mixed. Let it lie in this for a fortnight, turning it, and then roll it tight in a cloth, and press it under a weight. Smoke the meat in the cloth, hung in a chimney where wood is burned; boil it piecemeal, or fry with bacon in slices, as it is wanted; when boiled, press it till cold, and it will grate or pull like the real Dutch beef.—Obs. Too much saltpetre and sal prunella is generally used for salting meat. It is incredible (till tried) how small a particle will give the desired red colour. 412. Hamburgh Beef, or Bæuf fumé. This is cured in nearly the same manner as No. 411. Take sugar, salt, a very little saltpetre, juniper-berries, and pound them; mix spices with them and aromatics, all in powder. Rub the beef well with this, and leave it for a fortnight, turning it every day, and, like all meat pickled, keeping it covered; tie up, drain, and smoke it for a week. In Germany, when boiled, it is served on saur croute.--For Salting, see No. 1187. 413. Irish Beef. — Proceed as directed for a rump or round, only season with nutmeg and mace, as well as the ingredients mentioned there.—Read Obs., Chap. Salting. 414. Fillet of Beef with Madeira, a receipt by Beauvilliers. Take a nice fat fillet of beef : cut away all fibres, skins, &c., and lard it equally all over. Line a stew-pan with sliced carrots, onions, and a bunch of herbs. Strew four ounces of rasped lard over them, and place the fillet rolled up on this. Pour a half bottle of Madeira over it, as much good stock, and a little salt. Cover with three rounds of buttered paper, and let there be a very slow fire under, with embers over the lid. When nearly dressed, strain the gravy; and what will not go through a fine sieve return to nourish the fillet, and keep it moist. Reduce the strained gravy, adding to it a large spoonful of Espagnole (see French Cookery) till it comes to the consistence of glaze. Drain and glaze the fillet. Season the gravy that remains, — put a bit of butter to it, and pour it round the dished meat. 415. To press Beef.—Take the bones from the brisket or flank, or thin part of the ribs. Salt and season it OP DRESSED BEEF. 017 well with sugar and mixed spices, and let it lie a week; then boil till tender, and press the meat under a heavy weight till cold, when it will either cut in slices or do for sandwiches.--See No. 392. 416. A Porker's and a Calf's Head may be pressed or collared. A porker's head must be previously salted ; for a calf's head the same seasonings are used as when the head is hashed.-See No. 392. 417. MADE-DISHES OF BEEF THAT HAS BEEN DRESSED, Few persons, come to the years of eating discretion, like cold, unsalted meat ; and though the days are quite gone by when the hospitality of the landlord was measured by the size of the joint, it still happens that where a table affords any variety of dishes, a good deal of meat will be left cold. The invention of the culinary artist is thus put on the rack for new forms and modes of dressing, and new names for various dishes which are intrinsically the same. The most common and the best methods of dressing cold beef, are broiling, heating in the Dutch oven, or hashing. It is served with sippets, and in many other ways. . 418. To dress the Inside of a cold Sirloin.-Cut the meat in long and rather narrow slices of an inch thick, leaving a little of the firm fat upon each. Trim and season these with salt and mixed spices, dredge them with flour, and heat them, without any thing like violent frying, in the gravy saved from the cold joint, seasoned with an anchovy, if you like, an eschalot minced, or a shred onion, and a little vinegar. Garnish with scraped horseradish or fried parsley. N.B. The slices may also be broiled and served in the hot sauce. 419. To fricassee cold Beef. — Cut away all skins, gristles, and fat. Cut the meat into thin small slices. Have ready a sauce made of broth, thickened with roux or butter rolled in flour, and seasoned with shred parsley and young onions, pepper, and salt. Strain the sauce when it is well flavoured, and just heat the meat in it by the side of the fire, then add a glass of red wine, the yolk of an egg well beat, and the juice of a lemon. Stir the 318 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES fricassee for a few minutes, but do not let it boil, or, like all re-warmed things, it will harden. 420. Olives of dressed Beef. – Cut the meat as for fresh beef-olives. Season the slices, and spread thinly over them a forcemeat of bread-crumbs, seasonings, and a little finely shred suet or marrow. Roll them up, and stew them in a relishing gravy saved from the joint, or drawn from the beef-bones, and thickened with butter rolled in flour, and seasoned with an anchovy or a little catsup. This makes a nice family-dish when the bits of cold meat, either in small slices or minced, are seasoned, and rolled up in a paste of mashed potatoes and flour, and having been closed at the ends and edges are fried in dripping, and browned before the fire.-See Olives au Roi, page 313. 421. To hash cold Beef.-Cut down the meat either into large slices, or mouthfuls, trimming away all burnt out- side, fat, gristle, skin, &c. Set aside the meat thus prepared with what gravy you have saved, and draw a pint of broth from the bones well broken, the lean pieces of meat that are not used, and the hard, or overdone. Season this broth highly with pepper and salt, allspice, two onions, and a fagot of parsley. Thicken it with roux or flour rubbed down as for batter-pudding. Skim all the fat from it ; let it settle, and strain it, and heat it up again ; putting to it, as additional seasonings at discretion, any one of the following things :-Walnut or mushroom catsup, or onion- pickle liquor, with a few cut pickles ; a little tarragon- vinegar, or some shred parsley, made-mustard, capers, &c. &c. ; in brief, any flavouring ingredient which is agree- able to the taste of the eater, and easily procured. When this sauce is hot, put the cut meat and gravy to it, and let it soak and slowly warm quite through, without boiling : Or the sauce may be poured over the meat in the hash- dish, and that set in a hot-water bath, a cool oven, or a vessel of boiling water, till the hash is hot through. Place toasted sippets round the dish. A currie-hash of beef is generally liked. Fry a few large onions; add the hashed meat and currie seasonings. Garlic may be used if liked. -Obs. The varieties of Hashes are endless ; but the above OF DRESSED BEEF. 319 is conceived the best mode of making this useful family- dish, whether the hash be of beef or mutton. Hashes or minces of dressed veal or poultry require white sauce, a seasoning of lemon-peel, and the juice of lemon ; or the flavour of tarragon given by vinegar, which makes a French flavoured hash. A currie-hash of veal or fowls answers very well with plenty of small onions par-roasted, and then stewed whole in the hash-sauce. If meat comes back from the table which you know must be hashed next day, carve it before it get cool; it will then soak in all the gravy which lies in the dish, and be far more rich than if allowed to remain dry and uncut till next day. This should be particularly attended to in hashes of venison, hare, or mutton. 422. An English Stew of cold roast beef, mutton, or lamb. -Cut the meat in small and rather thin slices, season them rather highly with pepper and salt, and dip each lightly in bread-crumbs, moistened in gravy or melted butter. Dress them neatly on a dish, and lay over them a thin layer of cut pickles, and moisten the whole with a glassful of pickle-vinegar, and the preserved gravy of the roast meat: Heat in a Dutch oven, and garnish with fried sippets, or potato balls. Place the dish dressed in another with a napkin. This we consider the best method of re- dressing cold roast meat. . 423. Cold Beef Scalloped, or Saunders. — Mince the meat as in the next receipt : add the same seasonings and a little scraped tongue or ham, moisten it with gravy and walnut-pickle, and fill up the scallop-shapes, laying mashed potatoes thinly, and neatly marked, or crumbs over the mince. Put some bits of butter over each shape, and set them to warm and brown in an oven.-See Scottish Minced Collops, also Beef Patties and Podovies. 424. To mince Dressed Beef, and Beef Cecils.—Mince the beef finely with a very little suet, and warm it up in a small stew-pan, with a little broth or water, minced parsley, eschalot or onion, and a little vinegar, and what meat.gravy you have saved, which is the best ingredient that can enter into the composition of any hash or mince. Dish the mince with toasted sippets, or poached eggs. Beef 320 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES . Cecils.--Mince the whitest part of dressed meat very nicely, and mix it up with bread crumbs, minced onions, a chopped anchovy, and parsley, pepper, salt, and a little onion or walnut-pickle. Stir this mince over the fire in a small stew-pan, with a little melted butter; and, when cold enough to handle, make it up into large oval balls with flour ; egg the balls and roll them in crumbs ; brown them before the fire, and pour hot gravy, seasoned with eschalot and pepper, over them. 425. A Parisian Mode of dressing cold Beef.- Cut the part most underdone in slices, and stew them over embers in a sauce of weak broth, a glass of red wine, a small spoonful of tarragon vinegar, an onion, two bay- leaves, a sprig of thyme and parsley, pepper, salt, and cloves. Serve either hot or cold, with the strained gravy, to which, however, more vinegar must be put if the beef is served cold. The wine may be omitted. · 426. To broil cold Beef.-Cut the slices as steaks, broil them over a very clear fire, or better in a Dutch oven, and serve them with fried eggs, or scalloped potatoes, and steak.sauce, grill-sauce, or any piquant sauce made hot. 427. Another way.-Divide the dressed ribs and shorten them : leave the meat on the upper side about the breadth of an inch. Sprinkle the steaks with salt and mixed spices, and place them in a Dutch oven, basting them with the left gravy of the roast, bread-crumbs, and chopped parsley. Serve them with grill-sauce. 428. Bubble and Squeak. —This dish is made either of cold roast or boiled beef; and is best of salt meat. Cut the slices not too thick, nor very large ; fry them in butter with plenty of pepper, and keep them warm before the fire. Meanwhile chop and fry, or braise some boiled cab- bage, and lay this on the slices of beef; or heap the cabbage high in the middle of the dish, and lay the meat round it. For sauce, chop and stir a few slices of pickled cucumber and onion into a little thick melted butter, and add a tea-spoonful of made-mustard. Fried beetroot, eggs, and even apples are used. A ragout added of any left oysters, mushrooms, or onions, makes this scrap-dish superb. OF VEAL. 321 429. Bubble and Squeak of Veal.-Make this as of beef, but use no mustard.- Obs. This dish deserves to be better kņown. Spinage may be substituted for cabbage. 430. Inky Pinky.-Slice boiled carrots ; slice also cold roast beef, trimming away outside and skins. Put an onion to a good gravy (drawn from the roast beef-bones, if you like,) and let the carrots and beef slowly simmer in this ; add vinegar, pepper, and salt, to taste. Thicken the gravy,--take out the onion, and serve hot, with sippets, as any other hash. 431. To pot Beef, Veal, or Game.-Salt a piece of lean fleshy beef for two days. Drain it, season it well, and afterwards bake it in a slow oven, or stew it in an earthen- ware jar, placed in a vessel of boiling water. When tender, drain off all the gravy, and set the meat before the fire, that all the moisture may be drawn out. Pull it to pieces, and beat it in a Wedgewood mortar, with mixed spices and oiled fresh butter, till it becomes of the consis- tence of mellow Stilton cheese.-Obs. This is mostly made of beef dressed for other purposes, such as beef from which gravy is drawn, or the remains of any joint that cannot be otherwise used. It may be flavoured with anchovy, mushroom-powder, minced eschalot, chervil or tarragon, dried and pulverized, if the potted meat is not to be long kept. The longer it is beat in the mortar the better it will eat and keep. Put it into small potting-cans, and cover with plenty of clarified butter, which butter will after- wards be useful for frying meat, pie-crust, &c.—Game to be sent to distant places may be potted as above without cutting up the birds, and will keep for at least a month. The birds should not be over done, and their gravy should be preserved along with them. 432. MADE-DISHES OF VEAL. VEAL is generally accompanied by acid sauces, as sorrel, or lemon. It is often the better of a relishing forcemeat ; and unless very fat, young, tender, and white, cooks the better for a slice of good bacon. 433. To stew a Fillet of Veal. — The more slowly all 322 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES meat, but especially veal, is stewed, the better. Allow at least a half-hour to the pound. Take off the knuckle either to stew, or for soup or gravy, and also the square end, which will cut up into cutlets, or olives, or make a pie. Stuff the middle part of the fillet with a forcemeat, as directed at No. 8, and, rolling it up tightly, skewer it neatly, and simmer it very slowly in a close nice stew-pan that will just contain it. Lay skewers below to prevent the meat from sticking. When quite tender take it up, and strain and thicken the sauce. Serve with mushrooms parboiled, and then stewed in the sauce, and season with white pepper and mace :— or the sauce may be enriched with a few pickled oysters and forcemeat balls ; season with a glass of white wine and the juice of a lemon, and garnish with lemon sliced. See No. 23. -- Obs. The fillet may be half-baked, and finished by stewing. For dividing the fillet, see French Cookery. 434. To stew a Breast of Veal, a common remove of Fish, or a Second-course top-dish.—Choose thick, fat, white veal. Chop off the neck and the bone, and stew them for gravy. Stuff the thin part of the breast with a relishing force- meat, made of a sweetbread parboiled and minced, bread- crumbs, lemon-grate, nutmeg, pepper, salt, shred suet or veal-kidney fat, and yolk of egg to bind the forcemeat. Skewer the stuffing neatly in, or sew it in, and stew the meat for two hours in the gravy made of the neck, first egging and browning it if you choose. Thicken a pint and a half of the sauce, and put to it a half-hundred oysters cut, a few mushrooms chopped, lemon-juice, white pepper, and mace. Pour this over the stew, and garnish with slices of lemon and forcemeat balls. Cream, wine, truffles, &c. are all put to this dish, also catsup and an anchovy. The oysters we omit. A shoulder is boned, stuffed, and stewed as above in good gravy. 435. To ragout a Breast of Veal.- Make a little strong gravy, as above, of the scrag and bones of the breast, and with this or a quantity of rich stock sufficient to stew the veal—and sweet herbs, the peel of a lemon, white pepper, a, bay-leaf, a large carrot sliced, three onions, and a fagot of sweet herbs and parsley, stew till the point of a knife OF VEAL. 323 will easily enter the meat. This, like all stews, cannot be too slowly simmered, over embers or by the fire, keeping the lid of the stew-pan very close. When the veal is quite tender, skim off all the fat that floats on the sauce, which must then be strained and thickened to the degree of thin batter, and enriched with a glassful of white wine and the juice of a lemon. Heat up the sauce, or dish the veal and pour the sauce hot over it, holding back the sediment. Forcemeat-balls may be used as a garnishing to this dish, (they will be more suitable if made with a large propor- tion of grated tongue, sausage-meat, ham, &c.) also slices of lemon. - Obs. Veal, whether the neck or breast, is ex- ceedingly good stewed plainly in a little strong gravy. The meat may also be glazed, or it may be covered with white onion-sauce ; or cut and stewed with young green peas, chopped lettuce, and young onions chopped, and served en puit, that is, in a well or space in the middle of the dish, of which the cut meat forms the walls. Celery also answers very well with stewed veal.See Tendrons de Veau, No. 629. N.B. — Lamb or Rabbits may be dressed as above, and served, the former with cucumbers, the latter with white onion-sauce. · 436. Veal Olives.- Make as Beef Olives, p. 313; or cut, flatten, and spread forcemeat on each slice, with seasonings. Roll up each olive tightly, and egg and crumb them, and either roast or stew them in a rich gravy. Thicken the gravy, add to it a few forcemeat-balls, and serve with oyster or mushroom sauce. 437. Veal Cutlets. - See pages 139, 326, and French Cookery. 438. Scotch Collops.*--Cut small slices of equal thick- ness out of the fillet, and flour and brown them over a brisk fire in fresh butter. When enough are browned, put a little weak veal-broth or boiling water to them in a small, close stew-pan, adding, when they are nearly ready, the juice of a lemon, a spoonful of catsup, or the same of lemon pickle, with mace, pepper, and salt, to taste. Thicken * This properly means scotched, or scored collops, though the word has come to be understood as above. OF 325 O VEAL, - · 440. To ragout a Knuckle of Veal-(an economical Dish.) – Cut off the meat the cross way of the grain in slices rather thinner and smaller than for cutlets. Draw slowly nearly a quart of broth from the broken bone, the skins, gristles, and trimmings, with a head of celery, an onion, a carrot and turnip, a small fagot of parsley, and a sprig of lemon thyme and basil. Season the slices with salt and cooks' pepper ; dredge with flour, and brown them in a small stew-pan; and, pouring the strained broth over them, stew the whole very slowly over embers, or at a considerable distance from the fire, for a full hour. Thicken the sauce with flour rolled in butter, or white roux, and, just before serving, add the squeeze of a lemon, and pounded mace. - To Stew a Knuckle with Rice, see page 172. 441. To braise a Neck or other Piece of Veal. ---Cut the scrag in bits, but keep whole, and lard the best end of it with chopped bacon, minced parsley, pepper, salt, and mace. Lay the larded meat in a shallow stew-pan, with hot water to cover it, and put around it the cut scrag, some slices of bacon, four onions, a turnip, a head of celery, two carrots, and three bay-leaves. Stew till tender, strain off the gravy, and, melting some butter in another stew- pan, take the neck gently up, and lay it there to brown. When browned, put as much of the strained gravy to it as will do for sauce, with a glass of white wine, the juice of a Seville orange, white pepper and mace. Dish with the browned side uppermost, and pour the sauce over it. Obs. This is a handsome but a rather expensive dish, with little to recommend it over plain savoury stews of veal save the name and the larding, a resource of cookery, by the way, which does not seem peculiarly suited to English palates, and which is every day less employed in the Anglo-Gallican kitchen. Any piece of meat, poultry, or game, may be braised as above ; or, as another variety, stuffed with forcemeat instead of being larded. Braising is, in fact, just slow stew-baking in fat, rich, compound juices, with high seasonings. 442. A Granada (properly GRENADIN) of Veal, — a naturalized French Dish.-Line a small oval dish with a 326 CHAP. l-MADE-DISHES veal caul, leaving part hanging over the ledges of the dish. In this place slices of good bacon, then a layer of veal forcemeat, Nos. 8, 693, next veal-collops well seasoned, and so on alternately till the dish is filled. Tuck the caul over the whole, tie paper over the dish, and bake the Granada. Turn it out of the dish, and serve with clear brown-gravy.-Obs. Mushrooms, herbs, &c. may be added at discretion to this savoury dish. See No. 629. 443. To dress Veal à la daube.—Trim off the edge-bone of a good loin of veal, and cut off the chump.* Raise the skin, season the meat, and fill the cavity with the forcemeat of No. 8: bind up the loin with fillets of linen, and cover it with slices of bacon ; place the loin in a stew-pan, with the bones and trimmings, and veal-stock, if you have it, a chopped calf's foot, or jelly of cow-heels. Put in a fagot of herbs, mace, white pepper, and two anchovies. Cover the lid of the pan with a cloth, and force it down very close, placing a weight over it. Simmer slowly for two hours, shaking the stew-pan occasionally. By this time the gravy will be reduced to a strong glaze. Take out the bacon and herbs, and glaze the veal. Serve with sorrel or tomata-sauce; or with mushrooms, which are always a very suitable accompaniment to made-dishes of veal or poultry. 444. An English Haricot of Veal.-Shorten the bones of the best end of a neck or back-ribs. Either leave the meat whole or cut it into chops. Brown it of a fine colour. Stew it in good brown gravy; and when nearly ready, add a pint of green peas, à large cucumber, pared and sliced, and a well-blanched lettuce quartered, with pepper, salt, a point of cayenne, and a quart, or what will cover the stew, of boiling stock. Dish the veal in the middle of the soup-dish, pour the stew-sauce over it, and garnish with the lettuce and, if you like, a few forcemeat-balls. 445. Maintenon Cutlets.-Cut, flatten, and shape small round cutlets, season them with mixed spices, dip them in * The chump or tail-end makes a good family-dish, stewed in stock, with roots, spices, herbs, and a slice of bacon. Serve with its own thickened gravy, and the roots that are stewed with it, but take out the bacor. OF VEAL. 327 beat egg, and then in bread-crumbs and pulverized sweet- herbs, with a little grated nutmeg. Broil them over å quick clear fire, turning them quickly, and moistening them with melted butter. Twist each cutlet neatly up in thin writing paper made hot, and serve them accom- panied by mushroom-sauce, or catsup, stirred into plain melted butter. These cutlets may be dressed by stewing them for a few minutes with chopped parsley, butter, and rasped bacon, and finishing en papillote.—Obs. Common books of cookery recommend dressing veal-cutlets, salmon- cutlets, &c., in paper,-a plan which is extremely difficult even in the hands of a French artist, and which requires several folds of buttered or oiled paper put on at first, and supplied by fresh buttered paper when the cutlet is nearly dressed. The original paper will look greasy and be- smeared whatever care the cook may take, and fresh paper spoils the meat. * — See Cutlets, p. 139. 446. Various ways of dressing Veal.—Prepare as above, and dress cutlets in a Dutch oven, pouring melted butter and mushrooms over them. Fresh Veal minced, with the grate of a lemon and nutmeg, and a little shred mutton-suet, makes a very good small-dish or supper- dish, and warms up well, or does for patties or scallops. Veal-rolls, for a corner-dish or supper-dish, may be made of long thin slices of veal flattened, seasoned, and rolled round a forcemeat of bacon or grated ham, suet, eschalot, parsley, and spices. Tie the rolls tight, and stew them slowly in gravy, adding white wine and the squeeze of a lemon. Serve in a ragout-dish. Stewed mushrooms are a suitable accompaniment to this dish, which is just another name for veal olives. Veal makes excellent currie or pillau, which see. 447. To dress a Calf's Pluck. — Clean and stuff the heart with the forcemeat of No. 8. Spread a veal caul, or slices of fat bacon over it, and bake it. Boil, for an hour, the half of the liver and lights, and mince them rather finer than for a hash. Simmer this mince for a half-hour in a little gravy, seasoning it with the juice of a lemon, catsup, white pepper, chopped parsley, and salt. * Nothing should be dressed en papillote, in an English kitchen save a pig's ears and tail. It is never well done.-P.T. 328 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES Dish the mince, and place the fried heart above it, and lay slices of the remainder of the liver fried, round it, with fried parsley, or sippets ; or the heart, if large and fat, will of itself make a handsome dish if stuffed with a rich force- meat, roasted with caul or paper over it, and served with venison-sauce or melted butter and catsup poured about it. The liver may be stuffed and roasted as above; but this we conceive one of the absurdities of cookery. The minced lights are made into balls, or used for forcemeat to calf's head, &c. They should have a good deal of kidney or other fat, or of udder, and the usual veal seasonings of mace and lemon-peel. See No. 535. 448. To dress Veal Sweetbreads.—Parboil them slightly. Divide and stew them in white gravy; thicken, and sea- son this with salt, mace, white pepper, and, when just ready, a little hot cream; or, egg the parboiled sweet- breads, dip them in crumbs, chopped herbs, and seasonings, and finish them in a Dutch oven, and serve with melted butter and catsup. 449. To ragout Sweetbreads.-Cut them in mouthfuls, wash and dry them in a cloth, brown them in fresh butter, and, pouring as much brown rich gravy as will just cover them into the stew-pan, let them simmer gently, adding a seasoning of pepper, allspice, salt, and mushroom-catsup. Thicken the sauce, and, dishing the sweetbreads very hot, pour the sauce over them through a sieve. — See French Cookery, No. 634. 450. To dress Calces' Tails.-Clean, blanch, cut them at the joints, and brown them in butter or soft kidney-fat. Drain, and stew them in good stock seasoned with parsley, onions, and a bay-leaf. Add green peas to the stew, if in season, or some small mushrooms. Skim and serve the ragout. Foreigners use garlic in this dish, and dredge it with grated Parmesan. 451. Calf's Heart. ---Cut down in slices and dress as a plain stew, and season with lemon-grate; or stuff and roast, rolling in forcemeat as at No. 447. 452. Calf's Liver.-Cut a fat white liver into thin slices. Dust flour over these. Fry them for five minutes. Strew minced parsley and young onions, salt, and pepper, over the fry. Moisten it with good stock, and give it a toss OF VEAL. 329 for five minutes more ; but do not let it boil, or it will harden. Before serving, add the squeeze of a lemon. Calf's Liver may be dressed more richly by stewing it with bacon, herbs, spices, &c., and putting white wine to the thickened sauce.-See No. 635. 453. Veal-Kidney may be minced and fried as sausage, or rolled up in oval balls, mixing the fat and lean together, with a little bacon, onion, pepper, salt, &c. Dressed thus, it forms a relishing accompaniment to plain stews of veal; but it is a violation of the principles of good cookery to separate it from the roast loin. 454. To jug Veal. - Cut, flatten, and season slices of veal, and put them into an earthen or stone jar, with a few sprigs of sweet herbs, a roll of lemon-peel, and some bits of fresh butter. Cover the jar very closely, and set it in a pot of boiling water, or in a slow oven, for from two to three hours. Take off the covering, and stir a little thickening and the juice of a lemon into the sauce, and, allowing a few minutes for this to blend, dish the veal in a ragout-dish, picking out the herbs and lemon-peel. Gar- nish with slices of lemon. For choice small dishes of veal, see from No. 627 to 643, French Cookery. 455. Veal-Cake.—This is rather a pretty fantastical dish to ornament a table, than one about which either the epi- cure or economist cares much. Take the hard yolks of eight or more eggs, and cut them in two. Put some of them in the bottom of a small nice tin pan, or earthen- ware dish. Strew chopped parsley over them, with seasonings; then thin slices of veal and ham, or, better, veal and ham separately beaten to a paste in a mortar. Place thus alternate layers of egg, parsley, and meat- paste, till you have enough. Stick butter over the top, and add a little water or gravy ; cover the saucepan very close, and set it in an oven. When done, which will be in about three-quarters of an hour, take off the covering, and press the meat down. When cold and firm, turn it out. It may be baked in an oval or fluted earthenware shape, turned out, and garnished with curled parsley, &c. 456. To dress a Calf's Head plain.-Wash it and soak it in hot water that it may blanch. Take out the brains, 330 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES and cut away the black part of the eyes. Boil it in a large fish-kettle, putting it on with plenty of cold water, and some salt to throw up the scum. Simmer it gently for an hour and a half. Take up the head, cut out the tongue; score the head (but not deeply) in diamonds ; brush it over with beat egg, and sprinkle it with bread- crumbs, chopped parsley, and seasonings. Stick a few bits of butter over it, and brown the head in a Dutch oven. Meanwhile, wash, scald, parboil, and skin the brains, and chop them up with parsley and sage, (first parboiled and chopped,) white pepper and salt. Stir this into hot melted butter. Add the squeeze of a lemon, or a little lemon-pickle, a small quantity of cayenne, and a minced eschalot. Skin the tongue, and serve the brains dressed as above directed, around it, as a smaller dish to accompany the calf's head. Serve also parsley and butter- sauce. Curled slices of toasted bacon, a piece of ham or bacon, a pig's cheek, or sausage, are indispensable with calf's head, even when highly dressed.See No. 92. 457. Calf's or Lamb's Head and Ragout, a Scotch Dish.- Having parboiled a fat head as above, cut down the one- half of it, with the skinned tongue, the palate, &c., into dice and other neatly-shaped pieces. Trim and brush the other half with egg, and strew crumbs, chopped parsley, &c., over it, and set it to bake before the fire or in the oven, sticking butter over it, and basting it with more crumbs. Meanwhile stew the hash in a little good veal- broth, jelly of cow-heels, or any rich fresh stock you have : season this with mixed spices, the grate and juice of a lemon, mace, or whatever seasoning is most approved. Dish the ragout, and place the baked cheek upon it. Garnish with brain-cakes and forcemeat-balls, or fried sippets, or merely with slices of the fried liver. -Obs. Pickled oysters, catsup, &c., may be added to this ragout, which may, at the discretion of the cook, be made either a white or brown ragout. This we conceive the best way of dressing a calf's head; though the hash or fricassee of the second day must, by the experienced gourmand, be con- sidered as preferable to any other mode of cookery, and only objectionable from not making so important an OF VEAL. 331 addition to the appearance of the table as the full-dressed head. If it be a lamb's head, brown it all: the meat of the scrag minced (which is generally cut off with the head in Scotland) will make a great addition to the ragout. The heads may be glazed before being crumbed. -- Lamb's Head, see National Dishes. 158. To fricassee a Calf's Head.-Clean and parboil the head ; cut the cheeks, tongue, palate, &c., into nice bits, and stew thein in a rich white gravy, with a little of the broth in which the head was parboiled, seasoned with white pepper, mace, herbs, onion, and salt. Thicken with butter rolled in flour, and, just before dishing the fricassee, add a little hot cream or beat yolk of egg. Simmer this, but do not allow it to boil. Garnish with brain-cakes and forcemeat-balls, or curled slices of toasted bacon, and egg- balls. 459. To hash a Calf's Head.-Clean and parboil the head; or take what is left of a plainly-boiled cold head, and cut it into slices of a rather larger size than for fricassee. Peel and slice the tongue. Take upwards of a quart of the liquor in which the head was boiled, with the bones, trimmings, and a shank of veal or mutton, and boil these for the hash-stock, with a fagot of sweet herbs, a good bit of lemon-peel, onions, and white pepper. Boil this gravy till it is good and well-flavoured. Thicken it with flour kneaded in butter, and strain it into a clean saucepan. Season with pounded mace, catsup, or lemon- pickle, or a little of any piquant store-sauce, and warm up the hash, without suffering it to boil, though boiling will not harm calf's head so much as it does other cold meat. Garnish with forcemeat balls, or curled slices of bacon, or fried bread, which forms a suitable accompaniment to all hashes.—Obs. This hash may be rendered more piquant by anchovy, pickled oysters, &c. It may be dressed as a currie-hash by the addition of fried onions and currie- powder ; or receive the flavour of a French dish, from finely-shred parsley, knotted marjoram, and a bit of tar- ragon being added to the sauce just before dishing; or a little tarragon-vinegar. It may also be flavoured very agreeably with a little basil-wine. A brown hash may be 332 CHAP, 1.-MADE-DISHES made as above by using fried onion, catsup, soy, a little red wine, &c.; but as all brown made-dishes are expected to be piquant, while those that are white are usually bland and balsamic, seasonings of a more pungent quality are to be used.* 460. MOCK-TURTLE, OR CALF'S HEAD. — See also pages 167 and 171. Get a large fat head with the skin on. Scald and clean it well. Soak it in hot water, and, if you wish to have the imitation-dish very rich, parboil it in good veal- stock, with a turnip, carrot, onions, and sweet herbs. Skim this well. In half an hour take up the head, and, when cold enough to be firm and easily handled, cut the meat thus:--The eyes into thin round slices, having first picked out the black part; the gristly part about the ears into long narrow strips, the fleshy part into round slices, the thick of the cheeks into small dice, the thin on the forehead into long strips, and the peeled tongue into nice square bits. Put the bones and trimmings, with a piece of bacon, back into the stew-pot. Fry some minced eschalot in plenty of butter browned with flour. Put the cut meat to this browning, and give it a toss for a few minutes, then strain a sufficient quantity of the stock over it, to make the dish not much thicker than a stew-soup. Season with mace, pepper, salt, and a half-pint of Madeira. When the meat has stewed very slowly, rather soaking in the gravy than actually boiling, and is nearly ready, put to it cayenne to taste, a small glass of catsup, a very little soy, and a couple of spoonfuls of chopped basil, tarragon, chives, and parsley. When skimmed ready to be dished, add the juioe of a lemon. Serve in a large but not deep soup-dish, ornamented with a cut paste border ; and gar- nish with forcemeat-balls and egg-balls, with a few green * In France, eschalot-sauce is served with a plain dressed calf's head; but the favourite mode of dressing this dish is superbe. Make a forcemeat of a pound of minced veal and two pounds of the fat of beef-kidney, bread-crumbs steeped in cream and dried, and fine herbs minced-namely, mushrooms, parsley, and young onions. Add salt, pepper, and spices. Mix this thoroughly. Stuff the boned-head with it, but keep some for forcemeat-balls. Braise the head in gravy-stock; put artichoke bottoms, veal sweetbreads cut, truffles, and button-mushrooms, to the ragout, and serve with the farce balls. OF DRESSED VEAL. 333 pickles intermixed, if you choose.- Obs. This highly- flavoured dish may be enriched by parboiled sweetbreads cut, oysters, turtle-balls, &c.; if the head be lean or small, a good cow-heel cut down will make an excellent addition to it, but will require more boiling, and must be put into the stock-pot an hour before the head.For Potted Head, see National Dishes. 461. To dress Calves' Feet.—Clean and blanch them. Clean again and boil them till tender ; divide, and serve them with sauce Robert, or sauce à la Tartare, in the dish ; or they may be served as a fricassee like calf's head, thicken- ing the sauce, and seasoning it with lemon-peel and mace, -For Calf's Brains, see French Cookery. MADE-DISHES OF COLD VEAL. 462. To ragout cold Veal.-Cut the cold meat into small round cutlets, trimming off all gristles, skins, bones, &c. With the fragments, an onion, a turnip, and carrot, make a little good gravy. Melt some fresh butter in a frying-pan, and flour and brown the slices of veal of a light brown; take them up, strain the made-gravy into the pan, and thicken the sauce to a proper consistence with flour first mixed with butter. When smooth and well mixed, put in the cutlets, and let them simmer very slowly. Season with pepper, mace, catsup, and anchovy, or mushroom- powder, if you choose; bearing in mind that meat re-dressed, having lost much of its native flavour, requires more seasoning than at first. Skim the sauce, and pour it hot over the ragout. 463. To hash Veal.—Cut the meat in thin small slices, paring away all gristles, skins, &c. Warm it up in a gravy drawn from the bones, as in the former receipt. Thicken with butter rolled in flour, and season with mace, minced lemon-peel, a spoonful of lemon-pickle, or the juice of a lemon; or, in place of these, a glass of basil-wine.- See Hashed Beef, pp. 318, 319. 464. To mince Veal.- Take only the fine white part of the meat, -mince it very finely, and heat it up in a little veal-stock, with white pepper, salt, mace, a good deal of finely-rasped lemon-peel, and a glassful of cream.- Obs. Minced Veal may be dressed as patties, scallops, or blan- :34 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES quettes. It is much more savoury when made of undressed meat. 465. A Dunelm of cold Veal.- This is made by mixing stewed mushrooms finely minced with minced veal, thickening the fricassee, putting a little cream to it, and serving garnished with toasted sippets, which ought to accompany all hashes and minces. 466. To pot Veal.- A fillet of white veal answers very well potted. (See No. 431.) – Pounded ham or smoked tongue mixed with the potted veal is a great improvement to it.-For Potted Calf's Head, see National Dishes. For Veal Sausage, see Sausages ; and for several excellent dishes of veal, see French Cookery. MADE-DISHES OF MUTTON.-See Roasts of Mutton, page 106, and Reform Club Cutlets, No. 475. 467. A Haricot* of Mutton.-Cut from three to five pounds of the back-ribs into handsome chops, trimming away the fat and bones. Flatten the chops with a cutlet-bat ; season them well with mixed spices, (No. 334,) flour, and brown them lightly in the frying-pan, over a quick fire, and then put them into a stew-pan with their own gravy, and a quart of strained stock, in which onions, a turnip, a carrot, and a fagot of parsley have been boiled. When the chops have stewed slowly for some time, put in one large or two middle-sized carrots cut into slices and marked on the edges, a dozen pieces of turnip scooped to the size of large marbles, and a half-dozen button-onions either roasted or parboiled and peeled. When the chops are quite tender, skim, thicken, and season the gravy with pepper and salt. Dish the chops in a soup-dish, and pour the gravy and roots over them. What is left of the fore-quarter when a shoulder is cut off to roast, will make excellent haricot or Irish stew.-Obs. Celery or cucumber may be put to the haricot, and also cut pickles, or a spoonful of catsup. Brown haricot is made with carrot, yellow turnip, and onions; White * Haricot properly and originally meant French beans. Now with us it signifies meat cut in chops, stewed with vegetables of different kinds. OF MUTTON. 335 haricot, of haricot beans, white turnip, endive, celery, &c. Haricot is an excellent plain dish, nourishing and savoury, containing a judicious combination of meat, fluid, and roots, and is one of the best ways in which veal-cutlets, mutton-chops, or rump-steaks can be prepared. Haricot may be made of the loin, but not so economically as of the neck or back-ribs. These chops answer well with cabbage braised and quartered.—See p. 133, and Nos. +74, 475. 468. Shoulder of Mutton with Oysters. Have a large shoulder, which has been kept till tender, boned, and highly seasoned with salt and pepper. Lay some bearded oysters inside the meat, roll it up firm, bind it with fillets of tape, and simmer in broth, with onion, peppercorns, and a head of celery, till ready. Undo the tape, and pour oyster- sauce over the mutton. 469. To dress a Scrag of Mutton.-Trim the scrag, and dress it as Bachelors Stew, No. 396, or braise it in fresh stock with roots, seasonings, and a fagot of sweet herbs, and small slices of bacon under and over it, if you wish it rich. Simmer gently for three hours. Skim, and strain the gravy, and serve it with the meat, and dressed spinage, or cucumber-sauce. * 470. SHOULDER OF MUTTON.- Receipt by a Scotch Lady. -Keep the shoulder as long as possible without spoiling. Half roast it. Score it on both sides as for broiling. Melt in the basting-ladle four mellow anchovies chopped ; put pepper and salt to this; place a clean dish under the roast, and baste with the following hot sauce :--The melted anchovies, half a pint of port, half a pint of rich gravy, a spoonful of mushroom-catsup, the same of walnut-catsup, a point of cayenne ; baste constantly till the mutton is done. Dish on a hot dish rubbed with garlic. Skim the sauce or dropped gravy, and pour it over the mutton.* 471. To dress a Breast of Mutton.-Cut off the fat; parboil the meat ; egg it, and strew over it shred parsley and bread-crumbs. Stick pieces of butter all over it. * M. UDE might shrug at this receipt as inadmissible in delicate cookery. But the dish is admirable for gusto ; and at all events there are so few avowed fair amateurs of cookery in Scotland that we like to encourage the breed.-P. T. 336 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES Roast it in the Dutch oven, and serve with caper or Robert sauce, or with stewed cucumbers. 472. Mutton-Collops.-See Beef-Collops, page 112, and Chops, 107. 473. To grill a Breast of Mutton. — Cut off the superfluous fat, and take out the bones. Beat the breast flat, and season and score it in diamonds. Brush it with egg, and strew minced parsley and bread-crumbs over it. Broil it in a Dutch oven, basting it well with fresh butter; and serve with caper-sauce, cucumbers, or sauce Robert. " 474. Mutton-Cutlets, Maintenon.-Cut handsome chops from the loin, or cutlets from the gigot. Fry some chopped eschalot and mushrooms in butter, and in this brown the cutlets. Season them with cooks' pepper, and stew them with crumbs and chopped parsley, and twisting them in buttered papers, finish them on the gridiron. Serve with cucumbers, or any sauce that is liked. 475. Reform Club Mutton-Cutlets. — For ten nicely trimmed cutlets, seasoned with salt and white pepper, mince very finely a quarter-pound of lean dressed ham ; and with it mix a quarter-pound of fine bread-crumbs. Brush the cutlets with egg, and dip them into the ham and crumbs, and fry them for ten minutes in a sauté-pan, in which oil to fry them has been made quite hot, [if the pan will not hold the whole, keep hot those already done till the whole are finished.] They should be full of gravy; serve on a border of mashed potatoes, with the bones pointing outwards, and pour plenty of “Reform Sauce” over the cutlets. Reform sauce is a piquant sauce, made of two onions, two sprigs of parsley, two of thyme, two bay-leaves, two ounces of lean ham, half a clove of garlic, and half a blade of mace, cooked for ten minutes over a sharp fire; thinned with two spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar, and one of Chili vinegar, and a pint of brown sauce. Boil it up, let it simmer for ten minutes, skim it; and boil it quickly till so reduced that it adheres to the back of a spoon, when add a large table-spoonful of red currant-jelly, and a half one of chopped mushrooms. Season with pepper and salt to taste ; and when the jelly is OF MUTTON. 337 melted, strain through a tammy. When wanted, make it hot, and add the white of hard-boiled eggs cut in half- inch strips, four white mushrooms first blanched, one gherkin, two green Indian pickles, and half an ounce of cooked ham or tongue, all cut in strips like the egg. Do not boil the sauce after these are added, but keep very hot.-N.B. This we think an excellent general sauce of the piquant kind, and creditable to the genius of M. Soyer, though the simplicity of good taste might dictate fewer in gredients. For the one gherkin we suggest a point of cayenne. The Reform Sauce is equally good for roast hare. Mutton-Steaks.-Cut down the back-ribs, a rib in each steak, and chop the bone short. If very fat, trim away some of the fat, which will answer very well for pie-crust, puddings, &c. Broil them as beef-steaks, and serve hot and hot. Put salt and a bit of fresh butter in the dish, or serve with sauce Robert. The steaks are excellent over potato-pudding, or mashed potatoes, or arranged round a shape of potatoes, or with potato-balls, or slices fried and arranged round them.—See page 133. 476. Mutton-Collops and Cucumbers.-Pare and slice the cucumbers. Sprinkle them with fine salt and pepper, and pour vinegar over them. Brown thinly-cut collops in a frying-pan, and then stew them with the drained cucum- bers in a little stock. Skim and season the stew, and serve it hot in a ragout dish.-Obs. Lamb chops are ex- cellent dressed as above, but they must not be over fat. Some cooks add slices of onion to the above ragout, and the practice is commendable.—See p. 133, Nos. 474, 475. 477. To Roll a Loin of Mutton.-Keep the meat till quite tender and just beginning to turn. Bone it, and season it highly with black and Jamaica pepper, mace, nutmeg, and cloves (all in powder,) and salt. Let it lie a day in this seasoning. Flatten it with a rolling-pin, and cover it with forcemeat as for roast hare. Roll it up, and bind with fillets of linen. Half-roast or bake it in a slow oven. Skim off all the fat when cold, and finish the dressing of the loin by stewing it in the gravy drawn from itself, first dredging it well with flour and more spices. Put to the hot sauce, ten minutes before dishing the meat, Y 338 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES a glass of red wine, catsup, an anchovy, and a large spoon- ful of lemon-pickle. 478. To dress Mutton Tails and Kidneys. — Parboil six rumps (which are the number necessary for a dish,) in mutton-broth. Let them cool, and take off the cake of fat from the gravy. Brush the rumps with egg, dip them in crumbs, chopped parsley, and a little lemon-thyme, and brown them. Have six kidneys larded and broiled in a Dutch oven, and stew a little boiled rice in the gravy of the rumps. Dish the rice in a shallow dish, and lay the rumps on it, the points meeting at a centre; place a kidney between each of these, and garnish with cut pickles. See Kidneys, No. 399. — Obs. This dish is very good dressed plain in the Dutch oven, and either served on rice stewed in stock, or with stewed cucumbers. Be- sides the above methods of dressing mutton, a haunch may be cut and roasted as venison. A fillet may be braised * * Braising. We are afraid that the young beginner in cookery may not find the account of the process of braising, which is given in this chapter, sufficiently circumstantial. This process, which is of French invention, is, by thorough-bred gourmands, esteemed the ne plus ultra of cookery. It is eminently suited to white meats ; lean, or what was anciently called " rascal venison," turkey, and domestic fowls. It is not quite so well adapted to delicate stomachs ; nor is it relished by those whose unsophisticated palates can still distinguish and enjoy the native, decided flavour of meats. Braised turkey, or rather Dinde en daube, is a very favourite dish, and when old and dry in the flesh, braising is requisite for this bird, of which it has been somewhat irre- verently sung- “ Turkey boil'd is Turkey spoil'd, And Turkey roast is Turkey lost; But for Turkey braised, the Lord be praised!" Braising is comparatively an easy process; and the same rules apply either to meat or poultry. Clean, season, and stuff or lard, where necessary. the article to be dressed. Line a thick-bottomed stew-pan or baking-dish, just large enough to hold the meat, with slices of good bacon or fat beef, sliced onion, carrot, and turnip. Strew in a few chopped herbs, with salt, mace, and black and Jamaica peppercorns, and a few bay-leaves, a clove of garlic, &c. &c. observing to vary and suit the seasonings to the nature of the preparation. Lay the meat or poultry on this spicy bed, and cover it with a superstratum of the same ingredients. Over this place a sheet of cambric paper, wrap a cloth about the lid of the stew-pan, and press it closely down, setting a weight over it to keep it so, and to prevent the escape of the savoury steams which the meat or poultry ought to imbibe till completely saturated. Set the stew-pan over embers, have embers above it, and let the process be very slow. Dishes which are braised are generally finished by glazing. 310 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES slowly till quite hot; or it may be well basted and heated in the Dutch oven, at a good distance from the fire. 484. To Hash Mutton.-Cut the white underdone parts into thin slices about the size of a shilling, laying aside the fat. Prepare a gravy from the gristles and other trimmings, and season it with pepper, salt, and onion. Skim off the fat, and strain the gravy, and, putting the meat to it, let it soak till thoroughly warm, but it must not boil.–See Obs. No. 421, and 422. 485. Minced Mutton with Cucumbers. -Mince the best parts left of a cold roasted leg, and stir this into a mince of stewed cucumbers. Let it heat, but not boil. — Obs. Minced mutton may also be served with cooked endive. 486. Plain Casserole of dressed Mutton.-Butter and line a mould with mashed potatoes ; fill it with the sliced mutton properly seasoned ; cover the whole with more mashed potatoes, and bake and turn it out. 487. Haricot of cold Mutton.-Cut the cold meat into chops, trimming off, as in all hashes, superfluous fat. Simmer it very slowly in any strong well-seasoned stock you may have ready, or may draw from the mutton-bones. Add a half-dozen of button-onions, some round slices of carrot, and a turnip scooped down in bits like marbles.- Obs. This is a good and economical way of dressing cold roast mutton for family use. *_See also pages 318, 319. and French Cookery. N. B.—Almost every dish made of mutton may be prepared the same way of lamb. MADE-DISHES OF LAMB -See Index for Roast Lamb, Saddle of Lamb, Chops of, Frying, Boiling, Head, fc. 488. Breast of Lamb with Cucumbers.-Chop off the chine-bone, and, notching the breast well, stew it in good gravy for twenty minutes. Take it up, drain and score * A Poor Man of Mutton.—This Scotch dish is the blade-bone grilled, or heated before the fire. There is a traditionary story of Lord - , after a long and severe fit of illness with which he was seized in London, horrifying his landlord by whining forth from behind his bed-curtains, when urged to choose and eat, - I think I could tak'a snap o' a Puir Man." Swift's scheme for Ireland went only the length of eating poor children. OF LAMB. 341 it in diamonds. Season it with mixed spices, dredge it with flour, and finish in a Dutch oven. Serve on stewed cucumbers, or green peas. 489. Lamb-Cutlets with Spinage. – Take cutlets from the loin; trim, flatten, season, and broil them; and placing spinage (No. 197) high and neatly in a dish, dress the cutlets round it. Lamb eutlets are also very savourily served with a ragout of mushrooms or oysters, the cutlets laid around the ragout. Asparagus, or asparagus peas, are very suit- able to dressed dishes of lamb. 490. Shoulder of Lamb Stuffed.-Bone the shoulder, and fill up the vacancy with forcemeat. Braise the meat very slowly over embers, or a stove; or stew it plainly in the same manner. Glaze, and serve it either with sorrel-sauce, tomata-sauce, or stewed cucumbers. 491. Lamb-Steaks Ragout. — Stew them in veal-stock, to which a very little sweet milk is put, and season with white pepper and mace. When nearly ready, thicken the sauce with a little mushroom-powder, a bit of butter rolled in flour, and add a large glassful of good boiling cream. 492. Lamb-Steaks Brown, see pp. 133-140.-Flatten and season them. Brush them with egg, and roll them in a sea- soning of chopped parsley, bread-crumbs, grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, and salt. Fry them of a fine light-brown, and pour over them some good thickened gravy, in which are put a glass of wine, and either a few stewed oysters or mush- rooms. Skim the sauce, and serve the dish very hot, garnishing it with forcemeat-balls, fried bread, or cut pickles if preferred. These chops, which form a nice side-dish, may be served over a purée of turnip ; or with peas, or stewed cucumbers. 493. Another way.- Fry the steaks for five minutes in butter; drain them, dip them in egg and bread-crumbs, and finish them on the gridiron. 494. Lamb-Sweetbreads Ragout. — Blanch what will make a dish with scalding water. Soak and stew them in good clear gravy for twenty minutes, adding white pepper, mace, and salt. Thicken the gravy with butter 342 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES rolled in flour. Beat up two yolks of eggs and a glass of sweet cream, with a dessert-spoonful of minced parsley, and a little nutmeg. Take off the stew-pan, and gradually mix in the beat egg and cream. Make the sauce hot, stirring it diligently lest it curdle, but do not let it boil. Asparagus points, or cut young French beans, first par- boiled, may be stirred into the ragout. — Obs. If the sweetbreads are very large they must be cut. 495. Lamb-Chops with Potatoes, a favourite Dish.-Cut the back-ribs of a large lamb into handsome chops, trimming off the bone with a chopping-knife. Season, and brush the chops with a beat egg ; dip them in crumbs and minced parsley, and fry them nicely. Place mashed potatoes (made somewhat thin with butter and cream, and again heated,) high in the centre of a dish, score this neatly, and lay the hot chops around, leaning each chop on the side of the adjoining one. - Obs. A finely- minced onion may be added to the mashed potatoes, if the flavour is liked. This is just a purée of potato. To dress Lamb's Liver, see p. 142. To dress Lamb's Head, or Calf's Head, see No. 457; and National Dishes. 496. To dress a Leg of Lamb with Vegetables.-Cut the loin into handsome steaks, and fry them nicely. Boil the gigot slowly, skimming it well, that it may look white and plump. Place the gigot in the middle of the dish, lay the steaks around it, with sprigs of nicely-boiled cauli- flower on each steak: or it may be served with spinage, sorrel, or stewed cucumber.. Pour melted butter or Bechamel over the gigot.- Obs. This is a good variety in dressing lamb, and is attended with no additional ex- pense whatever. 497. To Grill a Shoulder of Lamb. Boil for forty minutes, score in diamonds, and broil or brown it in a Dutch oven. Serve with a clear gravy, or with mush- room or cucumber sauce. A neck of fat lamb is very good boiled and served over mashed turnip, with a little white sauce poured over it. Besides the above methods of cookery, lamb may be dressed as ragout, collar, currie, Cutlets Maintenon, covered with rice, and in all the ways mutton is dressed. OF LAMB AND VENISON. 343 Cold lamb, whether shoulder or breast, is best re-dressed in the Dutch oven, or by scoring, seasoning, and grilling it; or it may be hashed, though this mode of dressing is not so well suited to lamb as to veal or poultry.-For Roast Lamb, see p. 114. 498. Lamb's Stove, a Scottish Dish.—Clean and blanch the head. Stew it in broth, or along with a scrag of mutton, till tender. Add minced parsley, green onions, and a good deal of mashed spinage, and serve the stew and head together in a deep dish.-Obs. This, nationality apart, we consider an indifferent preparation. It is but a beggarly imitation of the Téle d'Agneau à la pluche verte of our old allies the French.-See No. 457. The brains and liver may be boiled, rubbed through a tammy-cloth, and put to the stew. Asparagus or peas may be substituted for spinage, and the soup thickened with yolks of eggs. 499. Lamb's Stove, by a French Receipt. — Clean two lambs' heads. Lift up the skin, and cut out the jaw- bones. Let them soak in salt and water ; blanch them; rub them with lemon to whiten them. Let them simmer for an hour in a blanc. * Drain them ; split the skull; take out the brains, skin the tongues, and split them; trim the ears. Serve the heads neatly arranged on the dish with a good sauce, and with the harslet boiled for two hours, and minced or cut in scollops and laid under the head or heads, as a ragout: or serve with a green sauce of parsley. One large head will make a dish. See No. 748.2 500. Pigs' Pettitoes.--Boil the feet till tender ; boil also the harslet as directed in lamb's head. Mince the harslet (i. e. pluck,) and season and serve with the feet over it; garnish with sippets.-Lamb's Trotters, No. 480. MADE-DISHES OF VENISON. 501. To Stew a Shoulder of Venison when too lean to roast.-Bone the meat when it has been kept long enough. Flatten it, and lay over it thin slices of fat well-flavoured mutton. Sprinkle with plenty of mixed spices, and roll it up very tight. . Stew it slowly in rich beef or mutton gravy, in a close stew-pan that will just hold it. Add, when nearly finished, pepper, cayenne, allspice, and a half- * See Index for the rich stock called a blanc. 344 CHAP. 1.—MADE DISHES pint of claret or port. When the venison is tender, which will be in about three hours, take off the bandages, and dish it, pouring the strained gravy hot over it. Serve with venison-sauce.-Obs. A few slices of mutton, or two or more shanks well broken, may be put to the gravy to enrich the stew. A breast of venison may be dressed as above, but is better as a pasty. 502. Venison Collops, a Scotch Dish. - Cut the meat in thin cutlets, season them highly with mixed spices, and having browned them in the stew-pan, put to them a quarter-pint of strong brown gravy, the same quantity of claret, some fried crumbs, a little fine sugar, and a half- glass of white wine vinegar. Stew slowly in a close- covered stew-pan, and pour over the collops the strained sauce. They may first be marinaded in the wine, vinegar, and spices. — Obs. Venison makes the finest-flavoured minced collops, surpassing either beef or hare ; and excel- lent steaks, when seasoned, dipped in butter, rolled in crumbs, and broiled or fried quickly. But these steaks require a gravy-sauce, unless the venison be very fat. — See Nos. 55, 22, and 21. 502.? Baked Venison, an excellent mode.-Grate the crumb of a penny loaf, to which put a pint of white wine, the grated rind of a Seville orange, nutmeg, salt, a quarter pound of sugar, and a half pound of butter. Wrap the meat in this farce, and bake and serve with venison-sauce. 503. Civet of Venison. — Cut the back-ribs, or breast, into small chops. Fry some pieces of good bacon in butter, and when melted, drain off most of the liquid, and add flour. Brown the steaks in this roux, and then moisten them with red wine, and good stock. Add minced parsley, onions, pepper, salt, and also garlic, if admired. Let this cook slowly, shaking the pan occasionally. Add a few sinall onions and mushrooms. Let the meat stew slowly for two hours, and the sauce be of good consistence. This is elegantly served en casserole. Hare or rabbits thus cooked make good civet. MADE-DISHES OF COLD VENISON. 504. To Stew cold Venison.—Make a gravy of what re- mains about the bones after cutting off the meat, a little OF VENISON AND HARE. 345 strong unseasoned mutton-stock, and a bundle of fine herbs. When this is good, skim it, and add browned butter thick- ened with flour, also catsup, mixed spices, a little claret, and a spoonful of currant-jelly, if liked. Boil this till smooth, stirring it well, and put in the thinly-sliced veni- son. Let it only heat thoroughly, and taking out the herbs, dish it, squeezing a lemon into the dish. Garnish with slices of lemon and fried sippets, or with cut pickles. 505. To Hash Venison.-Cut the meat as for other hashes, and soak till warm in its own gravy. Season and dish it with toasted sippets.-Obs. When the hashed venison is very lean, some cooks cut the firm fat of a neck of mut- ton into thin small slices, stew them first in wine and sugar, and add them to the hash. A large piece of cold venison, when it cannot be used otherwise, will make a good stew-soup, made as directed for dressed veal stew- soup.—For Roasting Venison, see No. 21.-Collops, No. 55. MADE-DISHES OF HARE AND RABBIT. 506. To Stew a Hare.-Cut off the legs and shoulders, or wings, as they are sometimes called ; chop down the iniddle of the back, and then chop each side into three or four pieces. Season these with mixed spices, and soak* them for some hours in a glassful of eschalot vinegar, with three bay-leaves, and some cloves. Make a pint and a half of gravy of the neck, head, liver, heart, and trimmings, with onions, a slice of bacon chopped into small bits, a large carrot split, fine herbs, and two dozen corns of black pepper and allspice. Strain this into a clean stew-pan, and put the hare, with the vinegar in which it has been soaked, to it, and stew gently till done. Add salt, spices, and a little cayenne. Catsup may be added, and the stew may be thickened with butter rolled in browned flour.- Obs. This is an excellent method of dressing a hare, which makes at best but a dry and ungainly roast. A few par- roasted button-onions may be peeled, stewed in the sauce, and served with the hare. An old hare requires to be * The propriety of this and of all marinades, we must own, is strongly doubted by some gastronomers of repute. They do not con- sider the foreign flavour imparted by the soaking, as an equivalent for the native juices withdrawn. 316 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISH ES either larded, stewed in very rich broth, or, which is still better, braised. Garlic, if liked at all, should always be used with hare. Hare is also stewed in wine, ale, or cider, enriching the liquor with rasped bacon and high season- ings ; and also with the blood, stirred in when the dish is taken off the fire ; the liver and lights may be dressed as forcemeat-balls to serve with it. Currant-jelly, honey, or sugar may be used, but with discretion, in this dish. See Lièvre en daube, No. 662. 507. To Jug Hare.-Cut it into small pieces ; season them, and put them into a jugging-can which will just hold them, with a slice or two of good bacon or beef hashed, a fagot of herbs, a few onions, with a half-dozen cloves stuck in them, a couple of bay-leaves, the rind of a lemon, and a little water. Cover the jugging-can closely, so that no steam may escape. Set it in a steamer, a kettle of boiling water, or a slow oven, for three hours. When done, skim off the fat, and strain off the gravy; thicken it; add seasonings, if necessary; and, dishing the pieces of hare neatly in a deep dish, pour the hot sauce over them; or, if they have become cold, heat them up in it.- Obs. Red wine, instead of water, the juice of a lemon, and a clove of garlic, may be added to the jugged hare, which will then make a highly-flavoured ragout. Serve venison- sauce ; but the natural sauce is the best that can accom- pany this dish. 508. To Broil a roasted Hare for Supper or Luncheon. Cut off the legs and shoulders, and flatten and season them highly; broil them on a quick, clear fire ; froth with cold butter, and serve them hot with venison-sauce. 509. To Hash Hare.-Cut down the cold hare into thin bits, and warm these in good gravy, or in gravy drawn from the head, bones, &c. Season with mixed spices, an onion, and herbs, and a little wine. Pick out the onion and herbs, and serve the hash with toasted sippets.-Obs. Hare may also be dressed as directed for braised goose. — See No. 520. 510. Hare-Cakes.-Mince the best parts of the hare with a little firm mutton-suet. Season the mince highly. Pound it in a mortar, and make up the cakes with raw OF HARE AND RABBIT 3+7 eggs, as small cakes or sausage-roll; flour and fry them, or do them in a Dutch oven.—See Gateau de Lièvre, No. 660. 511. To Smother Rabbits. — Truss them and boil them ; smother them with white onion-sauce, melting the butter with milk or cream, that it may look very white.- Obs. In Scotland rabbits used to be smothered in an onion- sauce made with strong clear gravy instead of melted butter ; and though the dish looked less fine, it was at least equally savoury. Rabbits cannot be too slowly boiled. Bring them very slowly to boil, and finish by the side of the fire. Those who dislike strong onion-sauce for this dish may use a part of apples, turnips, or bread. Celery, artichoke-bottoms, young peas, and French beans, are all used as ragouts for rabbits. Warren rabbits are far before tame ones for the table, - wild ones are better still. 512. To Fry Rabbits.-Cut them in joints, and fry them in fresh butter, with dried parsley and a sprinkling of sage. Serve liver-and-parsley sauce. Rabbits may also be fricasseed as directed for chickens. They make an excellent pie, a good soup, and may be potted or jugged. - See Currie, Pie, Rabbits à la Venetienne, 8c. MADE-DISHES OF POULTRY AND GAME. — See also pages 116 to 126; and pages 134, 135. 513. To Boil Fowls with Rice.* _Stew a large white fowl in a little clear mutton or veal-stock, seasoned with white pepper, onion, and mace, in a close stew-pan that will just hold it, and allow it room to swell. When it has stewed a half-hour, put to it a small cupful of clean, well-soaked rice. When tender take up the fowl, keep it hot, and, straining the rice from the broth, place it on a reversed sieve to dry. Dish the fowl, and pile the rice in light heaps around it. Bechamel may be put over all. Serve parsley and butter sauce. Serve the soup sepa- rately. See pages 93, 94, and 98. 514. Fowl with Mushrooms. — Season and stew as above * This is quite the French dish Poularde au riz. Fowls à la Turque are much the same thing too, save that they are stuffed with seasoned rice ; in roasting have the breast covered with layers of bacon, and are papered till done. No, 515 is much the same as the dish in French Cookery called Poulets aux huîtres. 348 CHAP, 1.-MADE-DISHES in a very strong gravy, with butter rolled in flour, and add a few button-mushrooms nicely picked. Serve mushroom- sauce or a white fricassee of mushrooms. 515. Fowls with Oysters. — Truss as for boiling. Put plenty of butter and a seasoning of mace and lemon-rind into them; tie them at neck and vent ; line a nice stew- pan with bacon, and put in the fowls. Moisten with stock, and braise the fowls slowly. Meanwhile have a very nice thick oyster-sauce prepared with butter and cream ; dish the fowls on this, and garnish with fried oysters and slices of lemon. — See Howtowdie, National Dishes. 516. To Farce a Fowl—a favourite old-fashioned English Dish. — Having 'boned the fowl, stuff the inside with the following forcemeat :- A quarter-pound of minced veal, two ounces of grated ham, two of chopped onion and suet, a spoonful of shred sweet herbs, two chopped hard yolks of eggs, a tea-spoonful of minced lemon-peel, mixed spices, and a little cayenne. Shred the several ingredients and beat the whole to a paste in a mortar, adding two eggs to make them cohere. Stuff the fowl, sew it up, keeping it of the natural shape, draw in the legs, and truss the wings. Stew it in clear stock, and when nearly done, thicken the sauce with butter rolled in flour. When just ready to serve, add a little cream, squeeze a lemon into the dish, and serve the fowl with the sauce around it. — See Quenelles, and Gratin, French Cookery. 517. To Ragout Poultry, Pigeons, Rabbits, &c.—a gene- ral receipt. -- Half-roast the thing which is to be dressed as a ragout. Cut it into joints as at table, and stew in good stock, with a couple of onions, two dozen corns of allspice and black pepper, a few cloves, a piece of lemon- peel, and for some things a slice of celery, for others a couple of bay-leaves. Skim the stew, and, keeping the lid quite close, let it simmer for three quarters of an hour or more, according to the age and size of the birds. Strain off the gravy, leaving the fowls in the stew-pan to keep hot. Take off the cake of fat which will soon form, and thicken the gravy with butter rolled in browned flour till it is as thick as stiff pancake-batter. Add to it a glass of white OF POULTRY AND GAME. 349 !! wine and the squeeze of a lemon. Dish the fowls, ducks, or rabbits, whichever your dish may be, and pour the sauce hot over them, garnishing with fried bread.- Obs. The sauce must be well worked, and ought to be smooth, thick, and well coloured. It may be made without wine. 517.2 Chicken Cutlets.-Cut the bone from the breasts and legs of two or three chickens. Skin the separated joints and fillets, and shape neatly, and season them with “chicken fixings," i. e., cayenne, mace, salt, and pepper. Brush with egg, dip in butter and crumbs, and fry them in a sauté-pan, turning often. Meanwhile have a seasoned gravy drawn from the bones and trimmings, and a bit of lemon-rind. Strain it, add to it a little mushroom-powder, and thicken with butter rolled in flour, and a liaison of one egg. Dish the cutlets high, and pour the sauce over them. 518, To Braise Chickens or Pigeons with Green Peas, or Mushrooms, and Asparagus. - Bone them, and stuff them with forcemeat, as at No. 516. Fry a few sliced onions in a stew-pan; add to these the bones and other trimmings of the chickens, with a broken shank of veal or mutton, a fagot of herbs, a few blades of mace, and a pint of good stock. Cover the chickens with slices of bacon, and then with paper. Stew very slowly over embers, or on a stove, for an hour and a half. Take them up, and keep them hot in an oven. Strain the braise-gravy, and boil it up quickly to a jelly. Glaze the chickens with it, and serve with a brown fricassee of mushrooms, or over asparagus, or a purée of green peas.-- See French Cookery, from No. 664 to 671. 519. A Continental Method of dressing cold Roast Fowls. — Beat up two yolks of eggs with butter, mace, nutmeg, &c. Cut up the fowls, dip them in this, and roll the egged pieces in crumbs and fried parsley. Fry the cut pieces nicely in butter or clarified dripping, and pour over the dish any white or green vegetable ragout (that you may have left) made hot. Parmesan grated is used to heighten the gout of this dish. 520. T. Braise a Goose. — Every thing to be braised is trussed as for boiling. Put thin slices of bacon over the goose, and line the stew-pan with the same. Put in the 350 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES goose, with the giblets and seasonings. Moisten with stock. Braise as directed, page 338, and serve it above either apple or onion sauce, or onion-sauce mollified with white turnip.-Obs. A hare may be well cooked thus.-Wine is employed in braising both goose and turkey, but we see no use for it.-For Turkey, see French Cookery. 521. To Fricassee Chickens white.-Cut up each chicken neatly into eight parts, as in carving them at table. Wash, dry, flatten, and season the parts with mixed spices, using only white pepper. Take a pint of clear veal or mutton gravy, or other good clear stock, more or less according to the number of chickens, and put to it a roll of lemon- peel, two onions, three blades of mace, and a few sweet herbs. Stew the chickens in this very slowly for a half- hour, keeping the stew-pan covered. Strain the sauce, and thicken it with butter rolled in flour, adding salt and a scrape of nutmeg. When ready to serve, add a quarter- pint of good hot cream, and the yolk of one or two eggs well beat. Stir this very carefully, and, lest it curdle, be sure it does not boil. A glass of white wine and the squeeze of a lemon may be put to this fricassee.- Obs. Be- sides the above methods of dressing fowls and chickens, they may be stewed with peas and lettuce in good stock, seasoned with parsley, young onions, salt, and spices. Put in the peas, and a cut lettuce, a quarter of an hour after the chickens. Fill up the dish, when served, with the gravy, laying the peas and lettuce over the chickens. If large fowls, they may be cut down the back. Young chickens may here be trussed as for boiling, and stuffed.- See French Cookery, Fricassee Naturel or à la Paysanne. 522. Davenport Fowls are stuffed with a forcemeat made of the hearts, livers, &c., an anchovy, yolk of hard-boiled eggs, onions, mixed spices, and a piece of butter or shred mutton-suet, or veal-kidney fat. Sew up the necks and vents, brown the fowls in a Dutch oven, then stew them in stock till tender, and serve with mushroom-sauce, or melted butter and catsup ; a fowl farced in this way may be larded in the breast, and roasted. See No. 516. 523. To Stew Giblets.-Clean and cut them as directed for giblet-soup, p. 173. Season with mixed spices. Stew OF TURKEYS AND PIGEONS. 351 them till very tender in a little stock, and before serving thicken the sauce, and add a glass of good boiling cream to it. Green peas may be added to this stew. 524. To Pull cold Turkey or Chickens,-Skin them, and pull the meat off the breast and wings in long flakes. Brown these in a Dutch oven, basting with butter : or brown very quickly in a frying-pan, so as not to dry the meat. Drain from the butter, and simmer the pulled meat in good gravy, seasoned with mixed spices. Thicken the gravy. Meanwhile, cut off the legs, sidesmen, and back. Season and broil these, and serving the pulled hash in the middle of the dish, place these neatly over and around it. Garnish with fried sippets. Turkey may be warmed as above; but the leg should be scored, peppered, and grilled, and the hash served under the deviled leg.- See No. 27. 525. To Stew Pigeons brown.-Season them, and truss them with the legs inward. Return the livers into them, with a bit of butter and chopped parsley. Lay them in a small stew-pan, with slices of bacon below and over them. Twenty-five minutes will cook them ;-serve well-seasoned brown gravy-sauce with them.-See Nos. 33, 42. 526. To Ragout Pigeons.-Clean and stuff them with a seasoning of mixed spices, salt, parsley shred very finely, a piece of fresh butter, and a few bread-crumbs. Tie them at neck and vent, half-roast them, and finish in the stew-pan in good gravy, to which a glass of white wine, a bit of lemon-peel, and a few fresh or pickled mushrooms may be put. Thicken the sauce with butter rolled in flour. Dish the pigeons, and pour it over them. Garnish with asparagus laid between the birds. This is almost the French “ Pigeons en compôte.”- Obs. Cream, or the beat yolk of an egg, may be put to this, and to any white ragout, taking care to prevent these ingredients from curdling. The pigeons may be stuffed with a forcemeat of the chopped livers, with bread-crumbs, minced parsley, butter, spices, and a little cayenne, and dressed as a brown ragout, by browning them in the frying-pan previous to stewing, thickening the sauce with browned flour, and adding to it a spoonful of catsup, or a glass of red wine. 3.52 CHIP. 1.-MADE-DISHES Some good cooks stew pigeons with white cabbage, cut as for pickling, serving the cabbage round the pigeons; or stew them in brown gravy highly seasoned, adding mush- rooms or a little catsup. Others stew them with a let- tuce quartered instead of cabbage. Pigeons pot very well, and are, though common, most excellent as a pie, either cold or hot.-N.B. The cabbage, when thus used with stewed pigeons, should be first braised. To roast or broil Pig’ons, see pp. 125 and 134 ; Pigeon Soup, p. 169. 527. Ducks with young Peas, a favourite Dish pre- pared in the best manner.-Clean, truss, and singe the ducks, which about August should be plump though young. Season them with salt, pepper, cayenne, and mixed spices. Place them between layers of bacon in a stew-pan that will just hold them, and moisten them with a little stock. Stew them from a half-hour to a whole one, according to the size and age of the birds. Meanwhile parboil and afterwards fry three pints of the most delicate green peas with a half-pound of good bacon cut in bits. While the peas still retain their good colour, drain off all the fat, dust some flour over them; add a little water or stock, a bunch of parsley and young onions, some pepper and salt, and the ducks carved (if too large) into proper pieces. Serve the peas over the ducks, and let all fat be care- fully skimmed off. This is much the same dish as the French Canard à petit pois.-Obs. The ducks may be roasted; but the stringy summer ducks that come with green peas are much better dressed as above. Some per- sons will prefer the peas fried in butter instead of bits of bacon; and the dish, if not so rich, will be at least as refined. Take out the parsley and onions before serving, Chickens are excellent cooked in this manner, or with asparagus. 528. To Stew Ducks with Cabbage.-Stew the cut cabbage in top-fat with seasonings. Par-roast a large fat duck, and then stew it in gravy well seasoned with herbs, onions, sage, pepper, and salt. Thicken the gravy, and serve the duck with the cabbage under it and the sauce in the dish. -Obs. Ducks thus dressed may be served with mashed turnips, onion purée, or saur croute. OF DUCKS. 353 529. To Ragout Ducks.-Put the gizzards, livers, necks, &c., to a pint of good strong beef-broth, or other well- seasoned good stock. Season the ducks inside with salt and mixed spices. Brown them on all sides in a frying- pan, and then stew them till tender in the strained stock. When nearly ready, thicken the sauce with browned flour and butter. 530. Another way.-Clean, and season the ducks with pepper and salt inside. Par-roast them, and stew them in beef-gravy, with shred onions fried in the stew-pan before the gravy is put in. When the ducks have simmered for twenty minutes, and been turned, put in a few leaves of sage and of lemon-thyme chopped very fine, or, in the season, a pint and a half of young green peas. When these are tender, thicken the sauce with butter rolled in flour, and serve the ducks and peas together in a deep dish.–Obs. When peas are not in season, a dozen of small button-onions may be first par-roasted and then stewed with the ducks; or sliced cucumbers and onions, first fried.* -See No. 527. In Ireland ducks are often boiled, and very good. 531. To Hash Duck.-Nothing hashes better than a fat duck. Cut it into pieces as in carving at table, and soak these by the side of the fire in a little boiling gravy till thoroughly hot. Add a glass of wine and a sufficient quantity of mixed spices, to give the sauce a high relish : or cut up the duck, add a gravy of the trimmings to some fried onions, thicken it, when strained, with butter browned with flour, stew the cut duck gently till ready, and, having seasoned the sauce, serve the hash on fried sippets.-Obs. A cold goose may be dressed in the same way, adding a little finely-shred sage and onion to the hash-sauce ;-and the legs of the goose may be scored, seasoned, and grilled, as directed for a turkey, and served * Fillets cut from the breast of plump under-roasted ducks (that have been stuffed with chopped young sage and onion before they were roasted,) served in hot orange-gravy and the juice that flows from the birds, with cayenne and high seasonings, are esteemed a rare luxury by the skilful gourmand. This is a dish for the solitary epicure, not for the table. Wives, children, and friends bave no portion in such dainties. It is, moreover, the French Table Salmi. 3.5+ CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES. over the hash. Cold poultry, rabbits, and game may all be hashed as above. See that the hash-sauce be well thick- ened, smooth, and carefully cleared of all fat. Where there is any cold stuffing left, cut it into slices, and serve it warmed in the Dutch oven round the hashed meat. 632. To Hash cold Wild Fowl.-Carve them as at table, and let them soak till hot in boiling gravy thickened with bread-crumbs, and seasoned with salt, mixed spices, a glass of claret, and a spoonful of lemon-pickle or orange- juice. Garnish with fried sippets. For partridges and pheasants use only white pepper and white wines. — N.B. Some gourmands dislike bread-crumbs here. — See pp. 120, 121. 533. T. Ragout Wild Duck or Teal.-Half-roast the birds. Score the breast, but not deeply, and into each in- denture put mixed spices and the squeeze of a lemon. Let the birds lie a few minutes, and then stew them till tender in good brown gravy. Take up the birds and keep them hot; add a glass of wine and three finely-shred eschalots to the gravy, and pour it over the ducks.-Obs. This is a dish of very high gout, and it is prized accordingly. In carving ducks, whether wild or domestic, after scor- ing the breast, it is an improvement to put a little butter over it, as in shoulder of lamb, and above that, to squeeze a bitter orange or lemon. Ducks. are also l'e-dressed as currie, brown ragout, or even a stew-soup. Ducks, and particularly the wild, may be dressed as civet of hare.See also French Cookery, Salmis, and No. 29. To Mince or scollop a cold Fowl.-Follow No. 464, Minced cold Veal, adding any egg-sauce left, or chopped hard yolks of eggs to the mince, and garnish with fried parsley. 534. CHICKEN, RABBIT, AND VEAL, &c. AS CURRIE. This common and favourite dish is at once economical, convenient at table, and of easy preparation. Our ex- tending and intimate relations with India had made curries popular, before the failure of the potato, and the greater necessity of using rice had introduced this mode of cookery into general use. All kinds of viands, cooked or raw, may be dressed as currie. The only important rule is, to have good stock; and the sole art consists in hitting CURRIE. 355 the just medium in seasoning, or in suiting the tastes of the individuals for whom the currie is prepared. Our Indian friends must forgive us for just hinting that their censure of English curries is somewhat unqualified. We have elsewhere [No. 154,7 said that any positive formula for the preparation of currie-powders is quite as absurd as it would be to give every sort of ragout or fricassee the same quantity of seasoning, consisting of the same ingre- dients. There are no prepared general currie-powders for all purposes in India. The Indian cook suits his seasonings to the particular dish he is dressing, and the taste of his employers. The fashion of having compound dry powders was adopted to suit voyagers six months at sea, where the ingredients could not be got fresh. Now that we may have green chilies, and when cocoa nuts are selling in barrows on all our streets, with an endless variety of cul- tivated vegetables and fruits, acid and sub-acid, which India never knew, it is idle to talk longer of the supe- riority of the native currie seasonings. In the first place, the kind of meat to be curried should be ascertained, and the seasoning in every case adapted to the character and quality of the meat. A currie of chicken, for example, and one of mutton, or of cod, require very different powders, even with the helps or correctives the cook may administer in the course of her labours. We do not wish to become “ an advertising medium” for particular Italian ware- houses ; but many of them sell currie-powders which have at least a chance of being fresh ; and those scientifically prepared by chemists and sold in druggists' shops, are as good as any wholesale preparations of one thing for every kind of currie can ever be. Besides, we never yet knew an old Indian who had not his own favourite recipe. To Currie Meat or Chickens.—Cut up the chickens, fowls, rabbits, veal, lamb, fish, &c. &c. into pieces proper to be helped at table, and rather small than clumsily large. Fry this cut meat in butter, with sliced Spanish or button-onions, and a few chopped mushrooms, or mush- room-powder, till of a fine amber colour. When the meat is browned, add nearly a pint of good mutton or veal stock unseasoned; and when this has simmered slowly for a quarter of an hour, or more if the fowls are old, add from 356 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISH ES. two to three dessert-spoonfuls of currie-powder, and a spoon- ful of rice flour, both rubbed very smooth, and carefully stirred into the sauce. Rasped cocoa-nut is a good in- gredient in currie. Put it in as thickening, using less rice- flour. When the currie is just ready, add also a glass of good thick cream, and either the juice of a lemon or a proportionate quantity of citric acid. Skim off all fat, and if the sauce be not rich enough, stir in, before dishing, a small quantity of melted butter. If the sauce be too thick, add a little stock to thin it. Our favourite Family Currie Cut from one to three pounds of lean mutton into cubes of about an inch and half. For each pound of meat fry two large mild onions in butter, and when they are brown and pulpy throw in the meat, and fry it for ten minutes, stirring and turning it round; add in the proportion of a dessert-spoonful of currie-powder for each pound of meat, rubbing very smooth. Moisten with a very little broth or water, and stew very slowly till the meat is quite tender. This is a mild currie. Cayenne, lemon-juice, and mushrooms may be added according to taste, and the currie may be made thinner. Serve boiled rice, No. 535. Some cooks pound part of the meat and all the scraps to thicken the currie, and also the boiled livers, &c. Others first marinade, in lemon-juice and sliced onion, the meat they currie.-Obs. Currie may be made of cold chicken, slices of dressed veal, lamb, hard-boiled eggs, macaroni, &c. and is an acceptable variety, in place of toujours hash, though very inferior to currie of undressed meat. Some cooks add a few small onions that have been cooked in broth; others a few capsicums or a fresh chili, which is peculiarly acceptable to those who like hot-spiced dishes. See Fish-Currie, p. 211, and No. 757. 535. To Boil Rice for Currie.-Pick and soak good rice, and boil it quickly in boiling water and salt till it be tender but not soft ; drain it, and put it to dry before the fire on a sieve reversed. Either heap it lightly on a dish by itself, or if the dish of currie be small, it may be served round the dish, en casserole, in which the currie is placed in the centre. - Obs. To avoid hardness or over-boiling, some cooks shower cold water upon the boiled rice, and CURRIE, 357 set it to evaporate before the fire, so that every grain may be distinct, and yet the whole tender enough to eat. When over-boiled, the rice may, after draining, be smoothed, brushed over with yolk of egg, and coloured in the oven, — though this necessity ought never to be courted. Handle it very lightly. Spooning spoils it,- toss it lightly up with two forks. It may be moulded in a shape, with the meat served in the heart of it. See National Dishes, and No. 209. 536. To Boil Rice nearly M. Soyer's, or the Reform Club way.--Like ourselves, the Chef of the Reform Club prefers Carolina to Patna rice. Wash a pound of the best Caro- lina rice in two waters. Throw it into a half gallon of boiling water, and boil till three parts done, when drain. Butter the inside of a stew-pan, into which tumble the drained rice : fix the lid tight, and set the stew-pan on a trivet in a warm oven until the rice is quite tender. Dish it lightly. Rice should never be spooned nor much handled in any way. The above we have found the best and easiest receipt for boiling rice to serve with currie or other dishes. 537. Hindostanee Mode of boiling Rice.-After picking, soak it in cold water a quarter of an hour. Strain and put it into boiling water, which shall rise three inches above the rice. Cover, and boil about six minutes, skimming when necessary. Add a gill of sweet milk for each pound of rice, and in two minutes more remove the pot from the fire ; strain without squeezing; return it dry into the pot upon a slow fire, pour over it half an ounce of melted butter mixed with a spoonful of the hot water in which the rice was boiled, and in six minutes it will be ready for table. — From an Indian Correspon- dent. 538. Brain-Balls and Cakes for Made-Dishes.—These may be made either for lamb's or calf's head by the same process. Clear the brains of all the fibres and skins that hang about them, and having scalded them, beat them up in a basin with the yolks of two eggs, a spoonful of bread- crumbs, another of flour, a little grated lemon-peel, and a small dessert-spoonful of finely-shred parsley, and if for ვენ CHAP, I,--MADE-DISH ES. calf's head, a little shred sage and thyme. Put seasonings to the mixture, and a large spoonful of melted butter ; and dropping the batter in small cakes, fry them in lard of an amber colour. They may either be served as a garnishing, or as a small corner-dish to accompany a dressed calf's head or lamb's head. See No. 748. 539. For Balls. — Roll the above mixture into small balls with more egg and flour. 540. Croquets and Rissoles. — These little useful dishes differ from savoury patties only in shape. They are alike made of cold chicken, sweetbreads, veal, or any nice bit of white meat that is left cold. Mince the meat, season it, and stew it for two minutes in gravy. Croquets are minced meat of various kinds rolled up as small sausages, dipped in egg, and rolled in bread-crumbs, fried a light brown, and served with nicely-fried parsley. We give an example : Croquets of Shrimps. -Pound to a fine paste a quart of fresh-shelled shrimps, with two ounces of butter, and mace, nutmeg, and cayenne, to taste. Pour hot milk over two ounces of stale bread, and soak for twenty minutes. Make it a dry panada, as at No. 694, and pound it with the shrimp paste, mixing in gradually two whisked eggs. When cold and firm, roll the mixture into croquets the size of olives; and egg, crumb, and fry or poach them for five or six minutes, according to their size. Rissoles are made in thin puff-paste, in any form you please, spreading a little of the mince on the paste, and doubling it up like an apple-pasty; or they are served as balls rolled up in paste, and fried, and garnished with parsley.-See French Cookery, Hors d'ouvres. 541. Canapés.- Take the crumb of a large loaf, cut it in slices the thickness of three quarters of an inch ; afterwards cut the slices into pretty forms, and fry them of å nice colour in oil or butter; mince separately the hard yolks and whites of eggs, cucumbers, capers, anchovies, in strips, different fine herbs, small salad herbs, &c., and put them in a little oil; season the canapés (i. e. fried bread) with salt, pepper, and vinegar; dress handsomely, and garnish tastefully with cut hard eggs, ham, beetroot, small radishes, anchovies, capers, cresses, &c. &c., and SAUSAGES. 359 sarve upon dishes as Hors d'æuvres, i. e, relishes. Canapés are also made of skates' livers, and other things, like other Hors d'æuvres. 542. Pork Sausages. — Mince the fat and lean of pork, keeping out skins and gristles, and season it well with salt, black and Jamaica ground pepper, and chopped sage. Clean and half fill the guts, and fry the sausages. Sausage meat of all sorts may be cemented with egg and cooked in rolls, i. e. cannelons, or in small cakes. 543. Oxford Sausages. – Take equal quantities of veal and pork, mince them, and add a half of the weight of beef- suet; mix and season this well, as directed above, and add a small quantity of the crumb of fresh bread, steeped in water.-Obs. A chopped anchovy is an improvement to these sausages. Lemon-peel, grated nutmeg, lemon-thyme, savoury and sweet marjoram, and basil, formerly used for these compositions, are now getting obsolete. 543.” Oxford John.--Cut thin small collops from a leg of mutton, and clear them of fat and sinews. Season to your taste, and put into a small stew-pan in which a good lump of butter (proportioned to the collops) has been melted. Stir with a wooden spoon until the collops are three parts done, when add gravy in proportion to the quantity, a bit of roux, and a squeeze of lemon or any flavoured vinegar you prefer. Siminer for five minutes and serve in a hash dish with sippets. Oxford John of Venison, No. 502, is a superb dish. 544. Epping Sausages.—Take equal quantities of young tender pork and beef-suet. Mince them very finely, and season with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, a sprinkling of sage, and some thin rind of bacon. Roll up with egg and fry it. 545. Bologna Sausages.-Take equal weight of bacon, beef, pork, and veal. Mince, and season high with pepper, salt, and sage. Fill a well-cleaned gut, and boil for an hour; or smoke and dry them. 546. Beauvillier's Sausages. —— Mince what quantity of fresh pork will be necessary; mix with it equal to a quarter of lard ; add salt and fine spices ; fill the skins and tie them; hang them in the smoke for three days ; 360 CHAP, 1.-MADE-DISHES. then cook them in bouillon for three hours, with salt, a clove of garlic, thyme, bay, basil, parsley, and young onions; when cold, serve upon a napkin. 547. Smoked Scotch Sausages, to keep and eat cold.-Salt a piece of beef for two days, and mince it with suet. Season it highly with pepper, salt, onion, or eschalot. Fill a large well-cleaned ox-gut, plait it in links, and hang the sausage in the chimney to dry.* Boil it as wanted, either a single link or altogether. 548. Common Beef-Sausages. These are made of minced beef, with seasonings, and a proportion of suet. The crumb of a penny loaf, soaked in water, is allowed to every three pounds of meat, before filling the skins. 549. Savaloys.- Take a piece of tender pork, free from skin and gristles, and salt it with common salt and a little saltpetre. In two or three days mince it, and season with pepper, chopped sage, and a little grated bread. Fill the gut, and bake the savaloys for a half-hour in a moderate oven. If to be eaten cold, let them lie a day or two longer in the salt.-Obs. Sausage meat may be broiled in a veal-caul, as a cake, first pressed in a flat shape. It may be reddened with a little saltpetre. If to be used im- mediately, oysters, mushrooms, &c., may be put to sausages to heighten the flavour.–See Boudins, French Cookery. 550. DEVILS AND DIABLOTINS. Though what go by the ugly name, devils, are often served at supper or luncheon, they are most commonly considered as provocatives and stimulants,—a relish with wine, or a spur to a jaded appetite. Their preparation must accordingly vary with the momentary tastes or necessities of the consumers. The only indispensable attribute of the common familiar cock-crow devil for the rere-supper, is scorching heat, and tear-compelling pungency Devils are made of the legs, rumps, backs, * Some of these sausages used to be made when a Mart was killed : they formed an excellent article of supply for the hill, the moor, or the boat; and in the Hebrides and remote parts of the Highlands they still hold' an honoured place in the wide open chimney. Real Bologna sausages labour under the imputation of being made of asses' flesh. It is said the celebrated Fetter Lane sausages owed their flavour and fame to sweet basil. DEVILS AND DIABLOTINS. 361 and gizzards of cold turkey, goose, duck, capon; and of all kinds of game, particularly the backs of moor-game, which have a peculiarly stimulating bitter; and also of venison, veal, and mutton-kidney, fish-bones, (p. 189.) and of biscuits or rusks. The meat to be dressed in this way must be scored, that the seasonings may find suitable places of retreat. The seasonings, which consist of salt, pepper, cayenne, and currie, mushroom, anchovy, or truffle powder, must be administered at the discretion of the consumer. It is a good mode to have the things seasoned at table, and then sent to the kitchen fire. The devils must be broiled on a strong clear fire, and served in a hot-water dish, or one with a spirit-lamp. When not served dry as a relish with wine, the proper sauces for devils are grill- sauce, anchovy-sauce, or any very piquant sauce. Dry toasts or rusks are a proper accompaniment to deviled poultry, &c.* 551. Deviled Biscuit. — Heat the biscuits before the fire, and spread over them the same ingredients, with a little cayenne, as for anchovy-toasts, No. 554. Many other ingredients are used, and also the medicated Zests sold in the shops. The anchovy powder, No. 326, answers well. - See Le Bon Diable, National Dishes, and Hors d'ouvres. * The following receipt for the preparation of devils is the best that has yet been disclosed; for in this philosophic and amateur department of cookery profound mystery has hitherto been observed :—“ Mix equal parts of common salt, pounded cayenne, and currie-powder, with double the quantity of mushroom or truffle powder. Dissect a brace of wood- cocks (if under-roasted so much the better,) split the heads, divide and subdivide the legs, wings, back, &c., and powder all the pieces with the seasonings well mixed. Bruise the trail and brains with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, a very little pounded mace, the grate of half a lemon, and half a spoonful of soy. Rub these together till they become smooth, and add a table-spoonful of catsup, a glass of Madeira, and the juice of two Seville oranges. Throw this sauce, along with the birds, into a silver stew-dish to be heated by a lamp. Cover it close, and keep gently simmering, occasionally stirring, until the flesh has imbibed the greater quantity of the liquid. When you have reason to suppose it is completely saturated, throw in a small quantity of salad oil, and stirring it all once more well together, serve it round instantly.” The only remaining direction the writer of this admirable receipt gives, is, that as in picking the bones your fingers must necessarily be impreg- pated with the flavour of the devil, you must be careful, in licking them, not to swallow them entirely. These are nearly the French Tables Salmis. 362 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES. 552. Sandwiches.—These are a convenient and economical, but, at the same time, a rather suspicious order of culinary preparations, especially in hotels and public gardens. Sandwiches may be made of chicken, ham, or tongue, sliced or grated ; of German or common pork sausage, cold salted rump, anchovies, shrimps, sprats, potted cheese, or hard yolks of egg, and Parmesan or Cheshire cheese pounded with butter ; also of forcemeat, and potted meat of various kinds, cold poultry, with whatever seasonings, as mustard, currie- powder, &c. &c., are most suitable to the meat of which the sandwich is made. The only particular directions that can be given, are, to have them fresh-made, and to cut the bread in neat even slices, of any shapes that are fancied, and not too large - about two mouthfuls — nor thick, and to butter it very slightly. Mustard is added where suitable. Twist neatly up in paper. — See Sweet Sandwiches. 553. A Cheese Sandwich.—Take two parts of grated Par- mesan or Cheshire cheese, one of butter, and a small pro- portion of made-mustard ; pound them in a mortar ; cover slices of bread with a little of this, and over it lay thin slices of ham, or any cured meat; cover with another slice of bread, press them together, and cut this into mouthfuls, that they may be lifted with a fork.-Obs. An anchovy may be pounded with the mixture. 554. Anchovy and other savoury Toasts. — Cut slices of bread as for sandwiches, but keep them larger, and fry them nicely in fresh butter. Spread them with anchovy- butter, or boned anchovies and butter freshly pounded, and lay some quartered anchovies above all. Brown this, if you like, with a salamander, and serve very hot. Toasts. - The old French cookery possessed an endless variety of Toasts, some of which are still worthy of attention ; as Friar's Toast, which was exactly our modern Anchovy Toast sprinkled over with chopped parsley, eschalot, and capers. Brittany Toasts were made of chopped salad- herbs, with salad-sauce. Veal-kidney Toasts were rather a luscious mess; the minced kidney, seasoned with eschalot and parsley, and mixed with egg and bread-crumbs, was in fact a piquant forcemeat spread on a toast, which was baked and served hot. Ham Toasts were made thus : RAMAKINS--MACARONI. 363 ces were soaked to freshen them, in the first place, us was needful, or the ham was minced. After- .us they were soaked in a stew-pan in butter and seasonings for a few minutes; the toasts were fried in the same pan. They were drained and dished hot, and a little gravy with pepper, salt, and vinegar poured over them. There were toasts still more recherché made of fat livers, skate-livers, &c, all appropriate to the rere-supper of old convivial times, but scarcely admissible into the cookery of modern regularly-constituted families. See Hors d'æuores, French Cookcry. 555. Ramakins. – Take equal parts of sound Cheshire and double Gloucester cheese and of fresh butter, and hav- ing crumbled or grated the cheese, beat the whole to a paste, with three or four raw yolks of eggs, and the crumb of a new French roll previously soaked in hot milk. Mix the paste with the whites of two of the eggs first well · whisked. Season with a little salt, pepper, and pounded mace. Fill small paper pans, or very small saucers, half full with the mixture, and bake the ramakins in a Dutch oven. Serve them quite hot, which is peculiarly requisite for every relishing preparation of cheese.-Obs. This batter is also served over boiled macaroni; or with stewed celery, asparagus, cauliflower, or brocoli. Stilton, Parmesan, or Gruyere cheese will make a more relishing ramakin where expense is not considered.--See Fondu, French Cookery, Nos. 678 and 553. 556. Pastry Ramakins.-Take any bits of puff-paste that remain from covering pies, tarts, &c. and roll them lightly out. Sprinkle grated cheese over them of any rich high-flavoured kind. Fold the paste up in three, or only double it, but sprinkle it repeatedly with grated cheese. Shape the ramakins with a paste-runner to any shape, and bake and serve them hot on a napkin or as relishes. This is almost the Brioche au fromage. 557. To dress Macaroni in the best way. – Wash it well, and boil it slowly in water, till it is tender but not soft,—from twelve to fifteen minutes. Strain it, and add strong well-flavoured stock to it. When quite tender, serve with white pepper and cayenne, and when soft, but 364 CHAP. I.--MADE-DISHES. 14 not broken, put it into the dish and serve over it in layers, grated Stilton, Parmesan, Gruyere, or other piquant cheese, in the proportions of eight or ten ounces to half a pound of macaroni. Brown it in a Dutch oven.-N.B. The more cheese, the more piquant is the macaroni. The old ewe-milk cheese of the Scottish Border we have found an admirable substitute for Gruyere. This dish is fashionably made en timballe. The timballe shape is lined with slices of bacon, which are taken off before the moulded macaroni in paste is turned out and served, either with a brown sauce, or with gravy in the dish. Obs. In- stead of gravy-stock, butter is often put to it. It may also be covered with ramakin-batter, or boiled with milk instead of water, or stewed in white ragout-sauce, with a little chopped lean ham. The grated cheese may also be laid in layers mixed up with the boiled macaroni, when having dished it, strew fine bread-crumbs lightly over it, and pour melted butter on the crumbs through a col- ander. Brown it in a Dutch oven, as above, or with a salamander.-See Macaroni Pudding, and Sughlio. 558, To Pot Cheese. — Cut down half a pound of good sound mellow Stilton, with two ounces of fresh butter; add a little mace and made-mustard. Beat this well in a mortar, and pressing it close in a potting-can, cover with clarified butter if to be long kept.-Obs. Currie or anchovy powder, cayenne, or pepper, may all be added to the cheese, and we consider them more suitable than mace. 559. Toast and Cheese. — Pare the crust off a slice of bread cut smooth, and of about a half-inch in thickness. Toast it, but do not let it wither or harden in the toasting. Butter and cover the toast with slices of sound fat Stilton, Gouda, or Dunlop cheese of the first quality. Lay the toasts on a cheese-toaster, and notice that the cheese is equally done. Pepper, salt, and made-mustard are to be added at discretion.- Obs. The toasts may be covered with the cheese previously grated or chopped, which will facilitate the equal melting of it; or the cheese may be toasted on the under side before being put upon the bread. 560. Cheese-Fritters. - Pound good cheese with bread- crumbs, raw yolks, rasped ham, and butter. Make this CHEESECAKES-SCOTCH RABBIT, &c. 365 into small oval balls; flatten, dip in stiff fritter-batter, and fry them. 561. Savoury Cheesecakes.—Take four ounces of butter, four of good grated cheese, four beat eggs, a little cream, salt, and pepper; mix and bake in paste cases. 562. Braised Cheese.—Melt some slices of fat mild cheese in a small dish over a lamp or over steam. Add butter and pepper, and mustard if chosen. Have ready a soft toast in a hot-water dish or cheese-dish with a hot-water reservoir, and spread the cheese on the toast. 563. Welsh Gallimaufry. - Mix well, in a mortar, cheese with butter, mustard, wine, flavoured vinegar, or any ingredient admired, ad libitum.' 564. A Scotch Rabbit.-Cut, toast and butter the bread, as in No. 559, and keep it hot. Grate down mellow Stil- ton, Gouda, Cheshire, or good Dunlop cheese ; and, if not fat, put to it some bits of fresh butter. Put this into a cheese-toaster which has a hot-water reservoir, and add to to it a glassful of well-flavoured brown-stout porter, a large tea-spoonful of made-mustard, and pepper (very finely ground) to taste. Stir the mixture till it is completely dissolved, brown it, and then filling the reservoir with boiling water, serve the cheese with the hot, dry, or buttered toasts on a separate dish. — Obs. This is one of the best plain preparations of the kind that we are acquainted with. Some gourmands use red wine instead of porter ; but the latter liquor is much better adapted to the flavour of cheese. Others use a proportion of soft putrid cheese, or the whole of it in that state. This is, of course, a matter of taste beyond the jurisdiction of any culinary dictator. To dip the toasts in hot porter makes another variety in this pre- paration.-Rasped Parmesan is largely used by Italian and French cooks to flavour ragouts and soups, and many dishes of vegetables. It is seldomer employed in our in- sular cookery than it should be. 565. Cheese to serve as a Relish.—Grate three ounces of good mellow cheese, and the same quantity of bread. Mix these with two ounces of butter, the beat yolks of two eggs, some made-mustard, pepper, and salt. Mash in a mortar, and spread this paste on small toasts, which cut as 366 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES, sippets. Toast, brown, and trim these, and serve them very hot.* DIFFERENT WAYS OF DRESSING EGGS AND OMELETS. 566. To Poach Eggs.--Boil and skim spring-water. Put a little vinegar to it. Break the eggs (which should be at least two days laid) with the point of a knife, that the meat may slide gently out without breaking. Take off the stew-pan, and slide them gently into the boiling water, taking care to break their fall. Turn the shell above the egg asyou dip it into the water to gather in all the white. Let the saucepan stand by the side of the fire till the white is set, and then put it on the fire for two minutes. Take up the eggs with a slice; trim away the broken parts of the white, and serve them on toasts, slices of cold meat, broiled pork sausages, spinage, brocoli, sorrel; also with veal- gravy.–Obs. Poached eggs may be served with a sauce of. grated ham, shred onions, parsley, pepper, and salt, stewed for ten minutes in weak stock. When ready, thicken and strain the sauce, and when it is a little cool, cover the eggs with it. They may be poached in butter or stock, and neatly served in silver table-spoons. · 567. To fry Eggs. — Carefully break the eggs into a small frying-pan, in which is butter, and have ready some * Toasted Cheese. — This academic, histrionic, and poetical prepara- tion has produced a good deal of discussion in its day. The Welsh Rabbit, (by the way, we are inclined to think with a learned friend, that the true reading is Welsh Rare Bit,) has ever been a favourite morsel with those gentlemen who think a second supper fairly worth the other three regularly administered meals of the day. The twenty- eighth maxim of O'DOHERTY is wholly dedicated to this tasteful subject, and his culinary opinions are worthy of profound attention. « It is the cant of the day," quoth Sir MORGAN, “ to say that a Welsh Rabbit is heavy eating. I know this, — but did I ever feel it in my own case ? -Certainly not. I like it best in the genuine Welsh way, however ; - that is, the toasted bread buttered on both sides profusely, then a layer of cold roast beef, with mustard and horseradish, and then on the top of all a superstratum of Cheshire thoroughly saturated while in the process of toasting with cwrw, or, in its absence, porter-genuine porter —black pepper, and eschalot-vinegar. I peril myself upon the assertion, that this is not a heavy supper for a man who has been busy all day till dinner in reading, writing, walking, or riding,—who has occupied him- self between dinner and supper in the discussion of a bottle or two of sound wine, or any equivalent, and who proposes to swallow at least three tumblers of something hot ere he resigns himself to the embrace of Somnus. With these provisoes, I recommend toasted cheese for supper." EGGS, 367 butter fried in another pan to pour over them. Fry them at a good distance from the fire.—See No. 51. 568. Mushroom and Egg Dish.—Slice, fry, and drain some large onions, and a few button-mushrooms. Slice hard-boiled eggs, the yolks and white separately, and either simmer the whole in fresh butter with pepper, salt, mustard, and eschalot-vinegar, or in good gravy. Put in the sliced yolks last, and only let them remain about a minute. Serve very hot, and garnish with curled parsley and a few light rings of the white of the eggs. 569. Swiss Eggs.-Mix two ounces of grated cheese and two of melted butter with six beat eggs. Season with salt, pepper, shred parsley, and young onions. Cook the mixture lightly in the frying-pan. Brown the upper side with a salamander, and serve very hot. 570, To Butter Eggs. — Beat six eggs well up in a basin. Set two ounces of fresh butter to melt in another basin placed in boiling water. Stir the eggs and butter together; add pepper and salt, and a finely-minced onion, if it is liked. Pour the mixture into a small saucepan, and toss it over a slow fire for a few seconds, then pour it into a large basin; skink the mixture backwards and forwards, setting it on the fire occasionally, but keeping it constantly briskly agitated till ready. Serve on toasts, or as an accompaniment to salt fish, or red herrings; or serve over a toast, and garnish with sprigs of brocoli. 571. Scotch Eggs.-Five eggs make a dish. Boil them hard as for salad. Peel and dip them in beat egg, and cover them with a forcemeat made of grated ham, chopped anchovy, crumbs, mixed spices, &c. Fry them nicely in good clarified dripping, and serve them with a gravy sauce separately.- Obs. Eggs may be boiled half-hard, wrapped in puff-paste, dipped in egg and crumbs, fried and served as a corner-dish or supper-dish. Eggs for a small dish may be boiled hard, sliced, and served in a white ragout-sauce, dishing them with a whole yolk in the middle. Curled slips of bacon, toasted sippets, fried parsley, mushrooms, &c., form appropriate accompaniments and garnishings to dishes of eggs.-See French Cookery for other Preparations of Eggs. 368 CHAP. I.-MADE-DISHES. 572. An Omelet.—Beat up six eggs with salt, pepper in fine powder, a large spoonful of parsley very finely shred, half the quantity of chives or green onions, a small bit of eschalot, if liked, some grated ham or tongue; or if for maigre days, to which this dish is considered appro- priate, lobster-meat, the soft part of oysters, shrimps, or grated cheese, may be used. Let the several things be very finely minced or rubbed through a sieve, and well mixed with the batter, adding a large spoonful of flour and some bits of butter. Fry the omelet in plenty of very hot butter in a nicely-cleaned small frying-pan, stir- ring it constantly with a spoon till it firm, and then lift- ing the edges with a knife, that the butter may get below. It must not be over-dressed, or it will get tough and dry. Carefully turn the omelet, by placing a plate over it, and return it into the frying-pan to brown on the other side : or, without turning, brown with a salamander, or hold the pan before the fire till the raw is taken off the upper side :- double it, trim, and serve very hot.Obs. A more delicate but less relishing omelet may be made by seasoning the batter with lemon-peel, mace, nutmeg, &c., and using neither meat nor fish. Some cooks put a little pulped apple, or mashed potato, to omelets; others flavour them with tarragon and mushroom-powder. Omelets may have grated ham, minced roast-veal, kidney, or grated Parmesan cheese, sprinkled over them. In the old French cookery, omelets were garnished with anchovies, fat livers, red herrings, and all the pungent herbs used for toasts. To a simple omelet, the squeeze of a lemon or Seville orange is an improvement. Sweet omelets are made by rolling up apricot jam, currant-jelly, or any suitable preserved sweetmeat, in fine pancakes.See Nos. 879 and 958. 573. Asparagus and Eggs.Beat three or four eggs well with pepper and salt. Cut some dressed asparagus into pieces the size of peas, and stir them into the eggs. Melt two ounces of butter in a small stew-pan, and, pouring in the mixture, stir it till it thicken, and serve it hot on a toast. — Obs. Eggs may be made into a pie, using mince- pie meat with the hard-boiled chopped eggs. They may be served as a vol-au-vent, or with sippets, &c. Eggs VOL-AU-VENT-BREAD-BORDERS. 369 may be filled with a relishing forcemeat, using the hard yolks as a part of the farce.See No. 51. 574. Vol-au-vent.—With a paste-runner cut puff-paste which has got six turns and been doubled, into the shape of the dish in which the vol-au-vent is to be served. Lay it on a baking-tin with a ledge, and ornament and brush it over with yolk of eggs. Open it lightly all round, with the point of a knife, leaving an edge, and when baked in a sharp oven, open the place marked, without breaking the top ; scrape out all the inside paste, fill with any white fricassee, as chickens, rabbits, sweetbreads, or with scollops of turbot or cod, fillets of soles, &c., and put on the top. Obs. One main use of a vol-au-vent is, that it gives a handsome form to things left cold, which could not other- wise make part of an entertainment for company. For second courses vol-au-vents may be fancifully marked round the border in a wreath of leaves, and have sweet- meats or delicate dressed vegetables served in them. 575. Edgings to Dishes. — These are made (to serve made-dishes in) of bread, rice, mashed potato, hard-boiled eggs, sliced beet, lemon, &c., and ornamented pastry edgings; and for sweet dishes, served in glass or china, of small drop-biscuit, caramelled fruit, nuts, or almonds, stuck on with candied sugar. These edgings, and casseroles, croustades, casserolettes, and other garnitures, are most suitable to French dishes. 576. Bread-Borders. - Take firm stale bread, cut the crumb into slices of the thickness of the blade of a knife; stamp those slices into any form ; heat pot-top oil in a stew- pan, and put in the sippets ; make them both white and brown; when they are very dry, drain them. Make white paper cases, and put them up separately, according to their form and colour ; when they are wanted to garnish dishes, pierce the end of an egg, let a little of the white out, and beat it with the blade of a knife ; mix a little flour; heat your dish a little ; dip one side of the sippet into the beaten paste, and stick it on the dish; in this manner continue till the border is finished. Care must be taken not to heat the dish too much, or the sippet will not adhere. 2 A 370 CHAP. 1.-MADE-DISHES. 577. Rice Casserole, in the French style.—Anglo-French cooks often serve several dishes for which paste is used in a crust made of boiled rice, or en casserole. There are sweet and savoury casseroles, and the rice must be seasoned accordingly. Cold as well as undressed things may be thus served. Fowls, chicken, lamb's and sheep's trotters, veal and lamb rumps, palates, fillets of turbot, soles, &c., all previously cooked, may be served en casserole, which is both a handsome and an unexpensive mode. Boil slowly one or two pounds of rice, as you require. Put to it when quite soft and dry, some consommé, if wanted for a savoury dish, and (at first two onions and salt. Water, about a quart to the pound of rice. When you feel it quite soft, let it cool, and then work it well with a wooden spoon into a paste. Cover a baking tin with this paste, laid four inches high by seven wide for an ordinary casserole. Make the outside very smooth; carve it in bold relief; and mark on the top a cover, about four inches in diameter. Make round this cover an incision pretty deep ; pour clarified butter over the whole, and bake it on a trivet about an hour, or till it become a fine yellow. Take off the cover, now become an upper crust; scoop out the pulp below, leaving the bottom thin ; fill the hollow, or centre of the casserole with your prepared ragout, of whatever kind. Pour in a little of some appropriate sauce; put on the cover, and before serving glaze the prominent parts of orna. mental design : the casseroles are easier made in moulds. 578. An English Casserole, or rice border for made-dishes, is thus prepared :-Soak and stew the rice with salt and a blade of mace. If wanted very rich, put butter and the beat yolks of eggs to it when ready. Place it neatly on the dish as an edging three inches high ; glaze with egg, and set in the oven to colour before heaping the currie, hash, pilau, or whatever the dish is, in the middle of it. 579. Croustades, or Bread prepared in which to serve Ragouts, fc. — Loaves are baked in egg or heart-shaped moulds about from six to eight inches long. Scoop out the crumb; fry these crusts or cases in butter or top-fat; drain, dry, and line them with gratin, and fill with any fresh or re-dressed ragout. They are made small also. FAIRY BUTTER, 371 Moulds of this kind are made in Scotland of mashed pota- toes, (waxy ones are best, or a little flour may be added to them. These potato crusts may be made as Westphalia loaves, No. 225, and filled with any mince, and piled up in the dish pyramidically. What we call rolls and loaves are the same as croustades. 580. Fairy Butter. – To six hard-boiled yolks add a half-pound of fresh butter, and the same weight of sifted sugar. Pound this with a spoonful or two of orange- flower water to keep it from oiling, and squirt it, or rub it through a tightened cheese-cloth, or sieve. It is served over ham and bread for breakfast, and for garnishing ; or by itself, as a little dish garnished with savoury jelly. See also Nos. 81, 86, 262, 385, and 1201. *** We must at the close, as at the beginning of this Chapter, again state, that if it be impossible to teach the simplest processes of plain cookery by written directions, to the uninitiated, or im- perfectly instructed, it is not less so to teach the business of the Pastry-cook. Vol-au-vents, for example, of whatever size, tim- bales, or casseroles of rice, and a long list of such showy and tasteful articles, must be seen to be properly understood ; and also require both aptitude to learn, and the long practice which alone can give the requisite manual dexterity. CHAPTER II. A COMPENDIUM OF FRENCH COOKERY, REVISED AND ENLARGED; CONSISTING OF RECEIPTS FOR SOME OF THE MOST APPROVED FRENCH MADE- DISHES, SOUPS, FISH, SAUCES, AND PASTRY. La gloire de la cuisine Française remplit l'univers entier ! Le Gastronome Français. Muse, sing the man that did to Paris go, That he might taste their Soups, and Sauces know. DR. KING. It will save much trouble to admit at once, that the French are the greatest cooking nation on earth. They, at least, insist that it is so, and perhaps they may be in the right. This much is certain, that in France alone the culinary art is regarded as an exact science, of which 372 CHAP, II.-FRENCH COOKERY. every one understands something, and feels pride in his knowledge. French cooks, no doubt, like French milliners and perfumers, like to magnify their art, and, like other professional people, to make a mighty fuss about trifles, to keep up a show of doing work. How grandly that superlative coxcomb, M. Carême, for example, speaks of his art! Hear him on the decorations of the aspic, the aspics à la moderne, and his own designs for them :- “ These designs,” he says, “belong to the highest walk of art, and attest our modern taste. Whilst inferior cooks compose their decorations with an infinity of trifling details, signifying nothing, mingling five or six colours to form a single decoration, which thus becomes truly insup- portable,”-it is a good rule of Carême and his modern brotherhood to have decorations of two colours only. Both French millinery and cookery are greatly refined in colouring, and really in advance of the rest of Europe. It must also be allowed that the various branches of economy connected with the kitchen are well understood; and that the art of making the most and best of every thing is diligently practised. The causes of the acknowledged superiority of the French it is not our present business to investigate ; our concern being only with those matters in which this confessed excellence consists. But there is one cause of superiority so obvious, that it must be mentioned, -namely, the extreme patience and anxiety with which the most restless people in the world, upon all other occasions, attend to culinary processes. A French cook will give a half- day to the deliberate cookery of a dish, which an English one would toss off in a half-hour ; and will watch the first popple of his stew-pan as if it were the last pulse of life. Any one who has seen a French cook attending to the relouté, preparing the Mayonnaise, decorating a salad, or pounding quenelles, as if life and death depended on his function, may have some idea of the importance of his art in his own estimation. Another evident cause of French superiority, is the comparative plenty of game, fine herbs, and vegetables, mushrooms, truffles, &c.; the cheapness of poultry, and of wines of high flavour; and also, paradoxical as it may seem, the scarcity of fuel in France. So scientifically is the culinary art understood by our FRENCH COOKERY. 373 neighbours, that a French kitchen, previous to a grand dinner, is a perfect arsenal of consommé, gravies, glaze, rout, and mixed spices, all prepared in the best, and generally in the most economical manner; for, however it may be in this country with those ministers of vanity imported to English kitchens by luxury and ostentation, economy, we say it again, is thoroughly understood in France. Though ob- jections are brought to the high relish of French dishes, we will venture to affirm, that the receipts given in our English Cookery Books, with their heterogeneous mixture of a thousand and one ingredients, are not only more ex- pensive, but less simple than those of Beauvilliers or Balaire. We speak not of Carême : he was the cook of emperors and millionaires. But if bonne chère is so well understood by our neighbours, bon gout, in all matters con- nected with the table, or rather with the fête, is their un- doubted forte. The French are allowed to excel in soups and entrées, and in the refined preparation of their sauces. They have also many more and better ways of dressing vegetables than are known to us, by which they can, at small expense, add to the variety, fulness, and good ap- pearance of a table. Their modes of cookery, by braising, dressing in a blanc, or in a poêle, deserve the serious atten- tion of every lover of good cheer. The French have also ever been pre-eminent as a larding nation, and as skilful in glaze. Now, though we seldom prize varnished meat, nor over admire larding, where meat is good, we do highly value that union of economy with bon gout, which enables the French to turn every cold left dish to good account, in the well-known elegant varieties of timbales, scallops, vol-au-vents ; or by dressing in casserole, or as croquets, &c. This branch of French cookery is worth the atten- tion of every refined economist; for though one, for ex- ample, does not go to the expense of serving a piece of cold turbot as a dressed salad or a vol-au-vent, it is excellent to know how the cold fish is best prepared for serving in a plainer style. There is already much French · cookery blended with our own, and of late we are taking to the names as well as to the dishes. Every modern cook who would thoroughly know her art must study the best French dishes, as modi- 374 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. fied by English taste and usage; and to do this she must be acquainted with the leading features of the French system. In this Chapter, therefore, besides a copious selection of receipts for the best French dishes, we have given the Elements of French cookery ; and throughout our work, wherever the French mode seemed to deserve approbation in any particular receipt, the variation has been carefully pointed out to the attention of the cook. This we take leave to consider a feature as beautiful as it is original in THE CLEIKUM INSTITUTES OF MODERN ANGLO- FRENCH COOKERY. There are, in fact, ten times more French receipts intermixed with our English ones than we give in the following Compendium. It has already been mentioned that the GRAND DIVISIONS of a French dinner are, the First Course, or entrées, and the Second Course, or entremêts. The entrées are made- dishes, generally or nearly universally served with sauce poured over or about them. The entremêts are sweet dishes; all sorts of pastry, creams, moulded jellies ; iced puddings; cakes with preserved fruits ; pancakes ; sweet omelets, &c. The glory of a French dinner-to the cook at least-consists principally in the number and excellence of the entrées and entremêts ; though the soups, roasts, fish, side-dishes or flanks, and removes, are not overlooked. At a small but recherché dinner, while a rump-steak stewed, or a piece of salmon-both à la something or other-fills the centre of the table, and constitutes the solid part, there are arranged round it four highly-dressed entrées ; or, if economy is studied, two entrées, and two dishes of vegetables dressed. We give two examples by M. Soyer :- Bill of Fare for a Dinner for a party of two or three ladies.-Centre, fillets of soles à la Hollandaise, and round this, two lamb cutlets, with peas; a fillet of game, with a purée of mushrooms; two quenelles of rabbits with truffles ; and half a partridge in Salmi. A plainer Bill of Fare for a gentleman or two.-In the centre a slice of cod and oyster-sauce round it. -1st, Two mutton cutlets, à la Reforme; 2d, Four Jerusalem artichokes, à la Bechamel ; 3d, Fried potatoes ; 4th, Minced beef, with sauce piquante. • ANGLO-FRENCH DINNERS. 375 Recherché Bill of Fare for a small Anglo-French Dinner.-Centre, a slice of salmon, en matelote. Entrées 1st, Two fillets of grouse, à la Bohemienne; 2d, Two escalopes of beef, with poivrade sauce; 3d, Two croquets of chicken, with a purée of fat livers ; 4th, A veal sweet- bread, à la Financière. For larger Anglo-French dinners, with four entrées, may be served soup-the indispensable potage-fish of some kind, (dressed with a particular sauce having a fine name,) and removes, which consist of all manner of roasts, fries, and stews; a loin of veal, with celery, or roots; neck of veal, with Brussels sprouts; breast of veal, with peas; calf's head dressed in several ways, or as turtle ; beef tongues stewed, &c. Turkey, pheasants, hare, game, and poultry, &c., are all proper removes of top and bottom dishes. Side-dishes, or flanks, consist of such things as small hams; tongues glazed and dressed in various ways; loins and necks of veal, mutton, and lamb, in many ways; spring chickens, with asparagus or mushrooms; ducklings, with green peas; hot small pies, of several sorts ; casseroles of rice, of various kinds, suitably filled. The flanks ought properly to consist of one solid dish; but it is some- times convenient to dispense with so many solid pieces ; and in this case some of the hors d'oeuvres may occupy the place flanks ought to take in a fully furnished table. If so, the pastry cases of the particular article ought to be made larger than when hors d'oeuvres are handed round; and more of them should be placed in the dish. We shall give a bill for a French-English dinner, which ought to content the great Carême himself. Top.-Hare soup, à la St. George. Remove.---Boiled Turkey, with celery sauce.-Epergne. Bottom.-Slices of turbot, with lobster sauce. Two Flanks.-Tongue glazed, and neck of lamb à la Maître d'Hôtel. Four entrées for the corners.—1st, Tendrons de veau, with tomata sauce ; 2d, Fillets of chickens, with cucumbers; 3d, Salmi of grouse ; 4th, Fillets of rabbit, with mushrooms. Sauce and vegetables on the side-table. For the Second Course. Top.—a pheasant with cresses. Bottom.--Smaller birds of some game sort. Two Flanks. 376 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. Nesselrode pudding; and a pyramid of pastry. Corners. 1st, Pine apple jelly; 2d, Bavaroise of apricots; 3d, Pears in rice; 4th, Omelets à la Celestine.—These bills may be mul- tiplied and varied ad infinitum.-Besides the divisions of dishes we have enumerated, the French-English kitchen has its Fish, its Vegetable, and its savoury dishes. In France the savoury dishes are served in the first course only; but in England they are, at convenience, served with either the first or second course ; and are as appro- priate to luncheons, collations, dejeuners à la fourchette, and suppers. Large savoury dishes consist of large game pies ; cold tongues ornamented, cold hams decorated, galantines of different sorts, cutlets of mutton, veal, or lamb, dressed in various ways; cold and hot savoury pies ; salads of all sorts of game, and of lobsters ; Mayonnaise or gratins of lobster, soles, and oysters ; cold salmon and trout, cooked in a marinade ; and an endless number of savoury and piquant things in character resembling hors d'oeuvres, but differing in size, and in the manner of serving. The above gives a general idea of the grand divisions in French cookery. In that cookery there is much that is admirable, and in the cooks themselves much that is fantastical or positively absurd. Yet a French salad is a very good preparation, though there are so many trifling, elaborate, and really nonsensical ways employed to decorate it. English cooks must use their discretion in adopting those finical and endless fillets of egg and anchovies, and bits of carved carrot, alternated with morsels of beet, which the simplicity of good taste dis- claims altogether as much as it does the profusion of bows and cocques of ribbon, bits of fringe, and gimp, a button here, and a tag there, of French milliners. The great Carême seems to have a chaster taste in garnitures than most of his contemporaries; yet the minister of pampered luxury and boundless wealth, of the Emperor Alexander and of Rothschild, cannot be the best model or guide for the cook of a modest English family of middle rank, nor even for families of higher station. This much premised, and these useful cautions given, we proceed to our com- pendious exposition of—the FRENCH CULINARY SYSTEM SAUCES. 377 581. FIRST STEP in French Cookery, STOCK BROTH, or Grand Bouillon. This foundation of soups and sauces is prepared exactly as directed in Nos. 59 and 60 of this work. Study these receipts; and read the receipts which follow them. French, like English cooks, have two basis sauces,—white sauce and brown sauce, which are continually in requisi- tion in the kitchen. We give the most choice of what are considered their best sauces, where these are not already given in our Chapter SAUCES ; from being now, under their French names, familiarized in the English kitchen, and in frequent use. 582. Grand Consommé, the second step in systematic French Cookery.—Take a knuckle of veal, a shin of beef, any fresh trimmings of veal, giblets, poultry, rabbits, or game, or an old fowl, or brace of partridges. Cut these in pieces (except such as you wish to serve as dishes,) and put them into a nice clean stew-pan with a bunch of parsley and young onions, and, if the flavour of foreign cookery is admired, a clove of garlic. Moisten this with fresh stock, and let the meat sweat over a slow fire till heated through. Prick it with a sharp-pointed knife to let the juices flow out, and add as much boiling stock as will suit the quantity of meat you have. Skim this, and let it simmer for three hours. Let it settle. Skim and strain it.- Obs. Consommé, wholly of poultry or game, to suit dishes of fowl or game, may be made as above without using beef. For such a gravy a little ham is an improvement, and for game consommé, a partridge. Always keep in mind, that the flavour of the consommé in fine cookery should not be at variance with the flavour of the dish of which it is to form the sauce. For example, if intended for a dish dressed with mushrooms, which always have a very peculiar and decided flavour, season the consommé with mushrooms. Grand consommé is the second important step in French cookery. 583. Blonde de Veau, Veal Gravy, or Consommé. Heat and rub a stew-pan hard with a towel, then rub it with butter. Lay some slices of lean fresh bacon in the bottom of it, and over these four or five pounds of a leg of 378 CHAP, II.-FRENCH COOKERY. veal cut into slices. Moisten with a ladleful of grand consommé, and in this let the meat sweat. When it has catched a golden tinge over a rather brisk fire, prick it with a sharp knife to let its juice flow out; let it sweat for twenty minutes more; when reduced to a jelly of a topaz colour, moisten it with boiling broth (Grand Bouillon, No. 69,) and season with onions, parsley, and mushrooms. Let this boil for an hour, and strain it for use. 584. Grande Sauce.-See Savoury Brown Gravy, No. 257.-it is the same thing. 585. Sauce Espagnole.—Put some slices of ham, accord- ing to the quantity of sauce you want, into a stew-pan, with double the quantity of sliced veal. Moisten these with a small quantity of consommé, and when you have drawn a strong amber-coloured glaze, put in a few spoon- fuls more to float this off. [N. B. This is a proper direction for detaching all glaze.] Put in a little more consommé of poultry or rabbits, if you have it; if not, some strong blonde de veau. Season with a little parsley, green onions, a half bay-leaf, two sprigs of basil and thyme, and two cloves." Simmer for a half-hour, skim and strain.-Obs. This is used for many dishes ; it is a favourite general sauce; and, when wanted, is thickened with roux, and seasoned with Madeira. It is sometimes made of game, especially when to sauce game. 586. Velouté, or White Cullis.— This is a very deli- cate sauce, made sometimes by a tedious and complicated process : our receipt is simple.—(See No. 258.)-Sweat slowly over the fire some slices of very nice bacon, a knuckle of very white veal, any trimmings of poultry or game you have, the white part of two carrots, and a bunch of young onions. When you have got all the juices out of it, and it is just ready to catch, moisten it with consommé, and season with a small fagot of sweet herbs. When all the strength is got from the meat, let the gravy settle, skim it, strain it, and reduce by quick boiling till it is nearly a jelly. Meanwhile mix three spoonfuls of rice-flour with three half-pints of cream; and when this boils, pour it to your sauce, and boil till the velouté is of a proper consistence and very smooth. Work SAUCES. 379 it well, continually lifting it by spoonfuls and letting it fall, and do this till it is cold, to prevent a skin from gathering on it. It will take probably more flour; and butter may be substituted for part of the cream. It should be smooth as velvet. 587. Sauce à la Bechamel.- Take as much velouté as you choose, and moisten it with blonde de veau. Mix with this a pint of boiling cream, or what quantity you wish; flavour with seasonings fit for the dish you intend to sauce.See No. 279. 588. Brown Italian Sauce, or Italienne Rousse, a favourite French Sauce.-- Take two spoonfuls of chopped mushrooms, one of parsley, half a one of eschalot, half a bay-leaf, pepper and salt to taste. Moisten with Espa- gnole, No. 585, and stew the vegetables. Add more pepper, if necessary, and the quantity of consommé required to bring the sauce to the proper thickness. 589. Italian White Sauce, or Italienne Blanche. — Use velouté instead of Espagnole. This is all the difference between the white and brown Italian sauce. 590. Sauce à la Maître d'Hotel.-Melt a quarter-pound of butter, and thicken it with flour; add in the stew-pan a little scalded and finely-minced parsley, salt, pepper, and afterwards a squeeze of lemon. Work it well with a wooden spoon to make it smooth. It should not be made till wanted. Another and better Maître d'Hotel Sauce.— To two glassfuls of Bechamel, put one of white stock. Boil this up, and stir in three ounces of Maître d'Hotel butter; when the butter is melted, it is ready. 590.2 Maître d'Hotel Butter. Mix four ounces of butter, with two spoonfuls of chopped parsley, salt, a salt spoon- ful of white pepper, and the juice of two lemons. 591. Sauce Hachée.—Take of chopped mushrooms and gherkins a spoonful each, half a spoonful of scalded minced parsley, with pepper, salt, and vinegar. Moisten with a little consommé, or with brown Italian sauce. 592. French Sauce à la Tartare. -Mix a minced eschalot and a few leaves of chervil and tarragon finely minced, with a tea-spoonful of inade-mustard, a glass of 380 CHAP. II. - FRENCH COOKERY. vinegar, and a sprinkling of oil. Stir this constantly, and, if necessary, thin it with more vinegar. 593. Sauce Tournée.—Moisten some white roux with consommé of poultry or blonde de veau, till it is thin. Stew in it a few chopped mushrooms, parsley, and onions. Skim and strain the sauce.-For Roux, see p. 259. 594. Sauce à la Pluche.-Blanch and drain some curl- leafed young parsley and a little tarragon. Put to this a pint of velouté and a half-pint of clear consommé. Stir in a bit of butter; work it well to make it smooth.-Obs. This is a proper French sauce for Lamb's stove. 595. Sauce à l'Allemande, or German Sauce. - Thicken Sauce Tournée with the beat yolk of an egg or two, according to the quantity. This sauce is extensively used for dressed meat-dishes. 595.2 To make a liaison à la Française, for sauces and vegetable dishes : beat up three yolks of eggs with a quarter-pint of cream : strain through a tammy, and use to thicken and whiten. 596. Sauce à la Matelote for Fish.—Take a large pint of brown roux heated, or of Espagnole ; put to this six onions slieed and fried, with a few mushrooms, (or a little mushroom-catsup,) a glass of red wine, and a little of the liquor in which the fish was boiled. Give it a seasoning of parsley, chives, a bay-leaf, salt, pepper, allspice, and a clove. Skink it up (using a large spoon,) to make it blend well. Put veal-gravy to it, if wanted more rich, or a good piece of butter. Strain it, and, if wanted ex- ceedingly rich, add small quenelles (forcemeat-balls,) made of ingredients proper for a fish-dish, glazed onions and mushrooms, a little essence of anchovy, and a squeeze of lemon. Serve over stewed carp or trout.- Obs. This sauce is exceedingly admired by some fish-eaters ; indeed, fish served with it is preferred by them to all other ways of dressing fish. 596.- Sauce Hollandaise for Fish.-Melt a quarter pound of butter, into which stir by degrees the beat yolks of two eggs, the juice of a lemon, white pepper and salt previously mixed with a little milk or cream. Stir diligently to prevent curdling, and add more melted butter, about a SAUCES. 381 half-pint: half this quantity of eggs and butter will be enough for a small tureen. 597. Common Sauce à la Matelote.-- Take a heaped spoonful of minced parsley, chives, and mushrooms, and give them a fry in butter. Dredge them with flour, and moisten with consommé till sufficiently thin. When stewed a few minutes, add to this the beat yolks of two eggs, and take care they do not curdle.--Obs. This is a cheap, general, useful sauce for mutton-cutlets, palates, and sweetbreads, as well as for fish. Beauvillier's Mate- lote is made of Espagnole reduced, small onions fried in butter, and dressed mushrooms and artichoke bottoms. It is an excellent composition. 598. Remoulade. - Pound the hard-boiled yolks of two eggs in a mortar, with a little sour cream, or the raw yolk of an egg, à spoonful of made-mustard, pepper, salt, cayenne, one spoonful of vinegar and two of oil. Rub this salad-sauce through a sieve, and it is ready. 599. Salmi Sauce à l'Espagnole, a Game Sauce. - This is a sauce of high relish. Fry in butter, over a slow fire, three eschalots chopped, a sliced carrot, a bunch of parsley, some bits of ham, and a sprig of thyme. Let them just catch, and moisten them with Madeira. Let this reduce a little, and add to it any trimmings of the game, and a little Espagnole. Let this stew till it is very good; season it with salt and pepper; skim and strain it. This sauce is served over salmis of partridge, duck, &c. 600. Poiorade-Sauce.-Cut six ounces of ham into bits, and fry them in butter with a few sprigs of parsley, a few young onions sliced, a clove of garlic, a bay-leaf, a sprig of sweet basil, one of thyme, and two cloves. When well fried over a quick fire, add pepper, cayenne, celery if you like, and a little tarragon vinegar, and a half- pint of consommé. Let it simmer by the side of the fire for a good while, skim it, and strain it through a tammy sieve. 601. Montpelier Butter. - To dressed ravigote (see below,) add six hard yolks, a spoonful of capers, eight ounces of butter, a clove of garlic, a seasoning of nutmeg, mace, allspice, and tarragon vinegar, and a glassful of 382 CHAP. II.- FRENCH COOKERY, salad-oil. Pound for eight minutes, then gradually add spinage-juice to green the butter. Pound till very smooth; set in ice to firm. This is used in decorating cold dishes of fish, meat, or salads, along with ornamental savoury jelly or aspic. 602. Dressed Ravigote.-Take a suitable quantity of burnet, chervil, tarragon, and celery, with two leaves of balm. Clean and boil them. Throw them into fresh water, and drain and pound them with a little salad-oil, and vinegar, pepper, and salt. Rub this, when sufficiently done through a sieve. 602.2 Ravigote Butter.-Make as Maitre d'hotel butter, substituting two spoonfuls of chopped chervil and tarragon for the parsley, and for lemon-juice a spoonful of Chili vinegar. 603. Ravigote Sauce and Cold Ravigote. — Make the sauce exactly as directed for Maitre d'hotel, substituting Ravigote butter for Maitre d'hotel butter. These are useful sauces for made-dishes of meat. Cold Ravigote. - This is just a piquant salad-sauce. Clean, mince, and pound the above herbs with a few capers and a boned anchovy or two. Pound the whole well with a raw egg, and add a little good vinegar to keep it from clagging. Rub through a sieve.* 604. Mushroom-Sauce, Bcauvilliers' Receipt.—Take two handfuls of mushrooms, wash them in several waters, rubbing them lightly; put them into a drainer; mince them with their stalks; put them into a stew-pan, with the size of an egg of butter; let them fall over a slow fire, and, when nearly done, moisten them with two skimming spoonfuls of celouté ; let them simmer three-quarters of an hour more ; rub them through a searce, and finish with boiling cream.-See No. 267. 605. La Ducelle, Beauvilliers' Receipt.-Mince mush- rooms, parsley, young onions or eschalots, equal quantities * We cannot here resist the Ravigote à l'Ude, on which that cele- brated Chef prides himself not a little. Take of Chili vinegar, cavice, catsup, and Reading sauce, each a tea-spoonful ; the size of an egg of butter, three spoonfuls of Bechamel, a little cream, salt, pepper, a little chopped parsley blanched, and cayenne. SAUCES, 383 of each, put some butter into a stew-pan with as much rasped bacon; put them upon the fire; season with salt, pepper, fine spiceries, a little grated nutmeg, and a bay- leaf; moisten with a spoonful of Espagnole or velouté; let it simmer, taking care to stir it: when sufficiently done, finish it with a thickening of yolks of eggs well beaten, which must not boil; the juice of a lemon is not necessary, but may be added. Put it into a dish, and use it for any thing that is served en papillote. 606. L'Aspic, or Savoury Ornamental Jelly.-Make the jelly-stock of fowls, knuckles of veal and ham, rabbits, or whatever gelatinous meat is convenient. Flavour it with vinegar, in which a large fagot of aromatic herbs has been boiled, as basil, burnet, tarragon, and chervil. Season with aromatic spices. Strain the jelly ; let it cool; take off the top, and keep back the sediment, and clarify it with the whites of four eggs well whisked in it, and the broken shells. Continue to whisk it over the fire till it look curdled and white, then draw it to the side of the stove, and throw cloths over it. When quite settled, clear and bright, strain it off gently, and keep it to use in garnishing dishes.-Obs. If for moulding, the jelly must be made very stiff. This jelly does to ornament fish, lobster-salads, and dressed dishes of various kinds. If for meat-dishes, the jelly must be seasoned so as best to suit the kind of viands it is to garnish, whether ham, turkey, cold game, &c. It must be run repeatedly through the jelly-bag till clear and amber-coloured.-See No. 174. N. B. The other popular sauces used by the French- as Bechamel, Mayonnaise, &c.—are either the same as our own that go under similar names, or the difference is pointed out in the receipts given for them in the Chapter SAUCES.—See Obs. Nos. 268, 274, 289, &c. . 607. FRENCH SOUPS. Soups, under the French names, or, what is the same thing, under a different name, though the same soup, are so common at English tables, that the best part of them will be found in the Chapter Soups. There are still a few entitled to a place here.—See also Nos. 68, 72, 63, 64, &c. 608. Potage au Riz, or Rice-Soup.-Have a strong, 38+ CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. clear bouillon (No. 59 or 63) of veal or beef, or of a mix- ture of these meats, made as directed for stock-broth. Put a sufficient quantity of this (well seasoned) boiling hot into a tureen, in which are two ounces of rice, prepared as directed for Mullagatawny, in Chapter National DISHES. Another way, which makes two Dishes.—Boil a neatly- trussed large fowl or capon in grand bouillon with two cloves, two onions, a fagot of sweet herbs, and salt. Skim it well to make the soup clear. Serve the fowl with a little great salt sprinkled on the breast (au gros sel,) and a spoonful of the clear soup about it. Serve the soup on boiled rice, taking out the onions, and cloves, and herbs, and put a little brown beef or veal gravy to it to improve the colour.–See Nos. 66 and 98. 609. Potage de Lévrauts à la Saint George.-(Carême's receipt for Hare-soup, named from St. George the Patron Saint of England. —Take the fillets from two leverets, cut up their carcasses, and sweat them with a little fresh butter over a slow stove, mix a ragout-spoonful of flour, and let them sweat a few minutes longer ; then add half a bottle of champagne, one of claret, and four ladlefuls of consommé, a pottle of mushrooms, a truffle cut in quarters, two onions, and a bunch of parsley tied up, with half a bay-leaf, a little thyme, basil, marjoram, and savory, whole pepper, two cloves, mace, cayenne, and a clove of garlic. Let it boil gently by the side of a stove, and skim the sauce; strain, and reduce it one-fourth, and when serving put it into the tureen in which you have placed the fillets of the leverets sautéd in escalopes, and thirty small que- nelles made of the flesh of a partridge, with three pottles of mushrooms turned, and four truffles sliced and sautéd in butter. The ingredients composing this soup require much care that they be perfectly done, and of a relishing flavour. The soup must not boil, or the escalopes will become hard. 610. Potage au Vermicelli.—Prepare four ounces of vermicelli by blanching it, and boiling it in broth. Make the soup of grand bouillon, of blonde de veau, or consommé, or a part of each. Let the previously-cooked vermicelli boil in it five minutes, and no more.See No. 66. SOUPS. 385 611. Potage à l'Italienne, a Brown-Soup. - Cut young carrots and turnips in scrolls like ribbons; and some white of leeks, two heads of celery, and three onions in fillets. Fry these in butter; moisten with enough strong, clear, deep-coloured gravy-stock, and some blonde de veau. Season with salt, and serve on toasted crusts soaked in a little stock.See No. 81. N.B. If the roots are old, blanch them. This, in the season, is made a sort of vegetable hotch-potch, with green lettuce and other vegetables. 612. Potage à la Baveau, a clear Brown-Soup.*- Scoop out some yellow turnips the size of marbles, with a scooper. Blanch them, and boil them in a clear strong consommé with a little browned sugar. Colour the soup deeper with veal-gravy, and serve it on grilled crusts. .612.2 Potage Anglais à la Rothschild. — (In honour of Baron Rothschild.) Put into a stock-pot two slices of ham, a turkey three-parts roasted, but somewhat coloured, also a partridge, a knuckle of veal, and the necessary beef-stock; let the consommé be skimmed ; add the skins of a pound of truffles, a pottle of mushrooms, two onions, a carrot, a head of celery, and two leeks, the whole sliced ; half a bay-leaf, a little thyme, basil, savory, marjoram, a little grated nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and two cloves. When it has boiled gently five hours, mix with it two whites of eggs beaten up with half a pint of hock, and a quarter of an hour after strain it through a napkin ; set it again on to boil, and pour it afterwards into a tureen containing some quenelles of fowl, with an essence of mushrooms mixed in them; cocks' combs, and kidneys, and twenty small white mushrooms.-Carême. 613. Potage au Choux, Cabbage-Soup.-Parboil three firm white small cabbages. Drain them, and braise them in top-fat, with a few slices of bacon and seasonings. Drain them again from this fat; quarter them, and slide them into the tureen, and over them pour strong, well- seasoned, boiling beef stock-broth. ters alfa hole rlic the -ving Gillet que Jottle sauté equir lishini es mi nces / Take i * The French sometimes brown their carrots and turnips in butter, and rub them through a sieve if for carrot or turnip soup. - See No. 63, 18013 ermic 2 B 385 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. 614. German Cabbage-Soup.—Mince the parboiled cab- bage. Stew them in butter, and serve them in strong stock (No. 63,) with toasted bread cut in dice. 615. Potage Printanier, or Spring-Soup.-Cut carrots, turnips, celery, and onions into small dice. Fry them gently, and drain and boil them slowly in clear veal-stock, with a bit of browned sugar. Boil separately very green asparagus tops, and French beans cut as small diamonds, also very green peas. Mix and serve. 616. Potage à la Camerani,* by H. J.-For this soup, to make it in perfection, the cook must have genuine Naples macaroni, the best Parmesan cheese, and mellow Dutch butter, with two dozen livers of fat pullets, celery, turnip, parsnips, leeks, carrots, parsley, and young onions. Mince the livers, the celery, and the blanched pot-herbs very well, and stew them all together in butter. Meanwhile boil the macaroni twelve minutes; season it with white pepper and fine spices, and drain it well. You must now (to do the thing in style) have a soup-dish that will bear the fire ; spread over it a layer of macaroni, next a layer of the cooked mincemeat, then a layer of grated Parmesan. Proceed in this order till the soup-dish is filled sufficiently, and end with Parmesan. Place the dish on embers, and let it simmer slowly for an hour. FRENCH DISHES WHICH ARE SERVED IN TUREEN, OR SOUP-DISHES IN THE FIRST COURSE. 617. Civet of Hare, a favourite Dish. —Cut the hare into small pieces, and carefully save the blood. Cut some firm white bacon into small cubes, and give them a light fry with a bit of butter. Strain the gravy they give out, and thicken it with browned flour dusted over it in the stew-pan. Put aside the bits of bacon, and place the cut hare in the stew-pan in the gravy. When firmed with * There is an immense quantity of gastrology in our late fashionable novels ; not always very judiciously given, nor with very profound or accurate knowledge of that mystery in which we profess ourselves adepts, but with so much apparent good will and enthusiasm for the science as to disarm criticism. Among the compositions lauded, with at least as much zeal as knowledge, is M. Camerani's celebrated soup. A dish of this soup has cost five pounds! How can it fail to be good ? SOUPS. 387 frying, moisten with good stock and a pint of red wine, and season with parsley, young onions, salt, pepper, a few mushrooms or catsup, or mushroom-powder. Let the meat stew slowly till done, and skim off the fat. Now lift all that is good of the hare, and also the bacon that you put aside, into a clean stew-pan. Strain the gravy over this, and now put to the civet, the bruised liver, the blood, some small mushrooms and onions ready cooked. Do not let it boil lest the blood curdle. Put the gravy in which the mushrooms and onions were cooked to the civet when it (the gravy) has been well boiled down.-Obs. If cooking for palates trained on the Continent, add to the seasonings a bay-leaf, a sprig of thyme, and two cloves of garlic. The civet is very similar to the old Scotch hare- soup. Pick out the herbs. 618. Civet of Roebuck. — Make this exactly as civet of hare, but without the blood of the animal. Use small cutlets of the neck and breast. It is an admirable way of dressing venison.-See No. 503. FRENCH MADE-DISHES OF BEEF. 619. Boeuf à la Flamande.See No. 394. 620. Bæuf de Chasse, No. 410; Beef Steaks with Potatoes, No. 39. 621. Palais de Boeuf à l'Italienne, Beef Palates with Italian Sauce.-Rub the palates with salt ; parboil and skin them. Cut them into scollops, not too large, and stew them slowly in a brown Italian sauce well thickened by a previous boiling down. Add a squeeze of lemon, and serve them.- Obs. This will be found an exceedingly good way of dressing palates.-See also Nos. 395, and 406. 622. Entre-Côte de Boeuf.-By this is meant what lies under the long ribs, or those thick slices of delicate meat which may be got from between them. Cut this into narrow steaks. Flatten and broil these, and either serve the steaks à la Bif-tik Anglais, No. 38, or with sauce hachée, No. 591, under them. 623. Langue de Boeuf en Miroton.-Cut a cold skinned tongue into nice round slices. Heat them in Espagnole, with pepper, salt, and a little stock. Dress them hot 388 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. round a dish, each slice leaning on the edge of the other, which is called en miroton. They may be glazed if liked. 624. Langue de Bæuf à la Braise, Tongue braised.- Clean a large tongue, as directed No. 397. Parboil and skin it, and lard it all across with lard, season with cooks' pepper. Put it in a stew-pan that will just hold it. Cover it with good stock, and a glass of wine. Season with a bay-leaf, two cloves, two carrots, and three onions, and with any trimmings of veal, poultry, or game, you have. Put paper over it, and fire over the lid, and stew it slowly with fire under and over for two hours and a half. Gar- nish with the roots, and sauce the tongue with the strained gravy seasoned, to which add a little Espagnole. – N. B. This is of a very high gout. 625. Stewed Rump of Beef with glazed onions à la Française. --Bone and lard a rump of from twenty to twenty-five pounds, slantwise, with lardons of bacon six or seven inches long : put the sawed bone, and five pounds of trimmings of the meat, and a pound of ham, into a stew-pan of the proper size. Add three onions, two car- rots, à turnip, a head of celery, a leek, a bunch of parsley, and one of sweet herbs, with four bay-leaves, a dessert spoonful of peppercorns, and two blades of mace. Put in a pint of water, or rather more, to prevent the cut meat from burning, and when it has become a glaze, put in the rump, and fill up the stew-pan, which must simmer, with a little salt added, for six hours. With a packing-needle try if the beef is done: previous to this, have ready eighteen onions of middle size, blanched, and fried in butter in a sauté-pan, with a half ounce of pounded sugar : cover them with stock when browned, and let this simmer till it become a thin glaze. Have, also, eighteen slices of car- rot, and eighteen of turnip, shaped like small pears, and prepared as the onions. Dish the rump. Dress the vege- tables round it; and have ready a gravy for it of the glaze of the vegetables, a quart of brown gravy, and a pint and a half of stock. Season with pepper and salt, and reduce by a rapid boil, and pour it over the vegetables and onions. Glaze the top of beef; brown it lightly with a salamander and serve. VEAL. 389 Another French mode, or aux Oignons glacés. — Stew the rump as above, but prepare three dozen of onions ; make a border of mashed potatoes round the dish, and dress the onions on this, with a very small, dressed Brussels cabbage upon each onion, or a head of asparagus. Put a quart of brown sauce into a stew-pan, the glaze of the cooked onions, and four spoonfuls of tomata sauce. Boil it quickly for five minutes; pour it over the onions ; put the beef into the dish, and glaze the top of the beef, and brown as before with a salamander. The Brussels sprouts very green, may either be laid alternately with the onions, or one above each onion. The stewed rump may also be served with Tomata sauce, and the dish ornamented with a very white cauliflower at each end. To dress a cold Stewed Rump.-Cut slices a quarter of an inch thick. Trim them neatly: soak them till heated through in a little consommé, or glaze them, after heating through in an oven, and serve with Tomata sauce or sauce piquant. The above grosses pieces, are of course for large or sumptuous dinners : but they may be cooked on a smaller scale, and the stew liquor may form the sauce. The larding may also be omitted. Ox-Rumps in the French manner, see No. 401. 626. Gras Double, or Tripe, to dress. Take the fattest thick tripe well cleaned, and repeatedly scalded and scraped. Boil it in water two hours, and clean it again : then stew it in a blanc for four or five hours. Cut it in lozenges, and serve it in white Italian sauce. VEAL. 627. The French manner of dividing and dressing the Fillet. — The fillet is formed of three distinct parts ; the large fat fleshy piece inside of the thigh, which the Frau ch call the noix. Of this they make a principal First-course dish. The piece below this they call the under noix, and the side part the centre noix. Of the principal noix they make a fricandeau, or a small roast, by stuffing and skew- ering this piece, to which in a cow-calf the udder is attached; or they fry it, à la Bourgeoise. Of this part they also make cutlets, and grenadins. The under noix they use for pie-meat, forcemeat, &c.; and the centre noix, or fat 390 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY, marrowy piece of the fillet next the rump, for godiveau, sauce tournée, &c. The trimmings and bones help to make Espagnole, or any soup or sauce. The part next the rump, or centre noix, is also dressed d la Bourgeoise, i. e. fried. 628. Noix de Veau en Bedeau,-or in the Beadles Fashion.-Flatten the noix, and lard it lengthwise with lard seasoned with minced parsley, green onions, and cooks' pepper. Line a stew-pan, that will just hold it, with trimmings of veal, and lay slices of white bacon over the noix where not larded. Put onions, carrots, parsley, &c. into the stew-pan, and a little Espagnole or roux. Cook slowly ; serve with or over sorrel, spinage, or a purée of onions. A Purée of onions, turnips, mushrooms, &c., is a pulpy mash or sauce of the vegetable specified, thinned with boiling cream or gravy. 629. Grenadins de Veau,- Veal Grenadins. These are small slices from the fillet about an inch thick, flat- tened, and one piece being cut round, the others must be shaped as lozenges to lie round this centre. Lard them, stew them in a pan lined with bacon, and trimmings of veal: season as above; put fire over the pan. Serve on a purée of mushrooms, or with sorrel, or endive, dishing the grenadins with their points to the centre where the round piece is laid. See No. 442. 629.” Tendrons de Veau-Or gristles cut out of the breast of veal-make a nice and favourite French dish, and are now common at refined tables in England. The tendrons are cut from one or two breasts of veal, stewed in white or brown rich stock, with herbs and seasonings ; allowed to cool, and cut into different shapes, as ovals, diamonds, oysters. The following we consider the best mode of cooking :-The tendrons lie round the front of the breast; cut them neatly out, not to spoil the joint for roasting or stewing. Put them into a deep small stew-pan, with two carrots, three onions, a bay-leaf, some slices of lemon, and cloves, (if you like,) and a small fagot of sweet herbs and parsley. Moisten with a pint of good stock, and simmer for two or three hours till the point of a knife will easily enter the meat. Lift them, and pull out any bones or hard parts MADE-DISHES OF VEAL. 391 remaining. Press them between two trenchers on which a weight is laid, and when cold cut them into the shape you want, but let it not be above an inch and a half in size. Egg and crumb the bits, and fry them in a sauté- pan, of a golden brown; and serve with a sauce made of six spoonfuls of white stock, two of chopped mushrooms, and an onion parboiled and chopped, with salt and pepper to taste. A glass of white wine may be put to the sauce, which may be thickened with yolk of egg, and improved by cream. Tendrons are dressed and dished under various names. Our No. 639 is a very good mode. They may be dished upon a potato-paste border, or with sippets fried and glazed, or not. They are also served cold, over different sauces, as Poivrade or Pauvre Homme. We have said more of this pretty dish than we should have done, if the ten- drons of large veal were not often lost by remaining under- done when the brisket is stewed; which, besides, cooks much better when they are cut out. 629.3 To Currie Calf's Head à la Francaise. -- Prepare the head as Nos. 456, 457, 458, 459. Boil a pound of rice as for currie, and dress it pyramidically in the centre of a dish. Have ready a sauce made of two acid apples and four mush- rooms sliced ; a sprig of thyme, a few leaves of parsley, a blade of mace, and four cloves. Fry these in two ounces of butter, and when browned slightly, rub to this a table- spoonful of currie-powder. Stir well in, and add three pints of white sauce. Boil the whole for fifteen minutes, strain into another stew-pan, add white pepper, a little cayenne, and salt, and pour it hot over the hash of the head kept warm. Serve the pyramid of rice, with the top flattened into a well, in which the brains, cooked as No. 631, are laid. For Indians, and others, more currie-pow- der or currie-paste will be required, and many will prefer brown to white sauce. Instead of mushrooms, rasped cocoa-nut may be put in with the meat. 630. Calf's Brains à la Ravigote.* -Skin the brains, and carefully remove all the fibres. Soak them in several * We do not conceive these dishes as of much importance ; but wbere there is a table to furnish every day, and a cook who delights in 392 CHAP. 11.--FRENCH COOKERY. waters. Parboil in salt and water, with a glass of vine- gar, for ten minutes ; and when firm, divide and fry them. Serve with Ravigote-sauce. 631. Calf's Brains à la Maître d'Hôtel. — Boil the brains as above, with a little butter in the water ; don't fry them. Fry some bread cut like scallop-shells. Dish the brains divided, with the bread between, and cover with a Maître d'hôtel sauce. Another pretty dish of brains may be made by serving very green fried parsley in the middle of the dish, and the brains around, saucing with browned butter and a little Chili vinegar. See No. 538. 632. Boudins of cold Veal à la Reine.-Chop cold roast veal, leaving out skin, gristles, &c. Season with white pepper, salt, lemon-grate, and a little lemon juice. Heat the mince in velouté, or any white sauce, and when cold roll it up into boudins about the size of small sausages. Cover these with beat eggs, and strew with bread-crumbs till they are well crumbed. Fry of a fine brown, drain and serve them with fried parsley. 633. Calf's Ears. The French dress these in various ways; -farced with dressed forcemeat, — with Italian sauce, or à la Ravigote. Clean them, cook them in a blanc, dip them in eggs and crumbs with seasonings, and fry them of a fine brown colour, or dip in a light frying batter. Garnish with fried parsley. Fat sauces would be improper with all such gristly tender meats, as calf's feet or ears, or sheep's or lamb’s trotters.--As a specimen of finical, or false-ornament in French cookery, we may mention calf's ears cut in tendrils or fringes, and a plover's egg—a rich jewel !- deposited in each ear. 634. Ris de Veau aux Mousserons, -Veal-Sweetbreads, with Mushrooms.-Choose sweetbreads large and white. Soak them and blanch in boiling water till they firm. Cut in nice pieces, and stew them in a little velouté, with mushroom-sauce,* ready prepared. Take them up. Boil her office, such trifling things may be found useful ; and where good dinners are constantly given, and sauces prepared at any rate, the ex- pense is trifling. ** The French rub this sauce, celery, onion, &c., through a sieve, so that they are all purées, i. e. smooth, and of pulpy consistence, MADE-DISHES OF VEAL. 393 down the sauce, and, when well reduced, thicken with beat yolks of eggs, and season with a little blanched parsley, nicely minced, and a squeeze of lemon. They are also served with young peas, or mushrooms; or are egged, crumbed, and fried.-See No. 639. 635.Calf's Liver, with fine Herbs.-Cut a sound white liver into oblong slices less than an inch thick. Form these into the shape of hearts about two inches broad, dredge them with flour, and put them to fry with onions, mushrooms, parsley previously shred, and stewed in butter, pepper, and salt. Fry all this gently till ready, and dust it with more pepper. Keep the pieces hot, put a little broth or gravy to the herbs to moisten them, and stew for three minutes, and serve over the liver, which must be dished in form, arranging the bits neatly.-Obs. This dish is often served for the Dejeuner à la fourchette, and must then be highly seasoned, and very hot.-See Nos. 452 and 54. 636. Blanquettes of Veal.-Cut a cold roast loin or shoulder of veal into small pieces, using only the white part. Trim away the browned outside, and fat, and mince the veal. Stir it till warm in velouté, well reduced ; but do not let it boil. Thicken with the yolk of an egg or two, and add a squeeze of lemon when ready to serve. See Nos. 464 and 465. 637. Blanquettes with Cucumbers.--Cut cold veal as above into scollops, and heat them in sauce tournée. Quarter and cut four or five cucumbers also in scollops. Cook these also in sauce tournée. Drain them; reduce the strained sauce: thicken it with the beat yolks of two eggs. Put in a little cream, salt, and a bit of sugar. Serve the sauce over the meat and cucumbers, neatly dished. 638. Blanquettes à la Paysanne.-Prepare the veal as above in scollops. Heat the meat in a reduced sauce tournée. Thicken with egg, and season with minced parsley, and, before serving, add a good squeeze of lemon. These preparations may be served in dishes with borders. 639. Cold Sweetbreads. — Cut them into scollops or square bits. Stew them in strong gravy till heated through. Fry scollops of bread : dish, placing meat and bread scollops alternately, and garnish with fried parsley., 391 CHAP. 11.-FRENCH COOKERY, 640. Veal Cutlets à la Chingara.*-Cut and trim cutlets from the fillet. Put them into the stew-pan with butter and ham, onions, parsley, carrot, and herbs. Warm in soup a slice of smoked tongue for each cutlet. When the cutlets are enough done, take them out; boil down the stock to a glaze, and put them back. Glaze the slices of tongue. Dish one on each cutlet, shaping them together. Dish them in a round form. Put a little Espa- gnole into the stew-pan, and a bit of butter ; warm in it the remains of the boiled tongue minced, and pour this sauce into the centre of the dish.-N.B. Fillets of cold roast fowls or turkey are excellent dressed with tongue in this way.-See Nos. 48, 445, 446. 641. Cotelettes au Jambon.—These are precisely the same as the former, only ham (the prime slices) is used instead of tongue. 642. Cutlets with Fine Herbs, or, à la Venetienne.- Chop a handful of mushrooms, two eschalots, a little parsley, and a sprig of thyme. Stew these in rasped bacon and butter; when done, put in, and stew the cutlets over a very slow fire. Add pepper and salt. Skim off the fat carefully. Put in a large spoonful of Sauce Tournée or white roux. Thicken with yolks of eggs beat with a little cream. Add the juice of a lemon, which is proper for all dishes made of veal, and a little cayenne. 643. Loin of dressed Veal à la Bechamel.- A loin of veal, when used as a remove, very often comes back from the table untouched, or with very little taken off it. Make a mince of the fillet or inside of the loin. Cover the loin with buttered paper, and warm it in a Dutch oven. Place it above the stewed mince, and serve with a white sauce. 644. MUTTON.T Gigot à la Gasconne, or Leg of Mutton Gascon Fashion. * These were the favourite cutlets of the NABOB. JEKYLL pre- ferred cutlets à l’Italienne, i. e. dipped in butter, nicely broiled, and served with a white Italian sauce. + Families in the country, and those who “kill their own mutton." depend so much upon this favourite food, that it is impossible to know too many good ways of dressing it; though, when all is done, none can DISHES OF MUTTON. 395 This is a dish of very high gout, and seldom now seen, but it still has devoted admirers. Lard a leg of mutton with garlic and fillets of anchovies ; roast it, and serve with Spanish or garlic-sauce. If for English palates, first blanch the garlic in several waters, until it becomes mellow.–See from Nos. 467 to 477. 645. Cotelettes à la Soubise, Soubise Mutton-Cutlets. -Cut chops from the ribs, or cutlets from the leg, rather thick than otherwise. Trim off the superfluous fat, and sweat them in a stew-pan in strong gravy or butter-sauce, with green onions, parsley, pepper, and salt. When thus cooked, take out the herbs, and reduce the sauce nearly to a glaze. Drain the cutlets. Dish them very hot with the sauce in the middle, and a dozen small onions, cooked as directed, around, (No. 262.)–Obs. Soubise cutlets used to be larded, and braised in bacon with all sorts of herbs; but there has been a considerable revolution of late on the side of refinement even in French cookery. They may be served with French beans, or cucumber. 646. Cotelettes à l'Italienne and au Naturel. These are nearly the same. Cut, trim, and dip the chops in butter and bread-crumbs. Broil them a little. Put pepper and salt over them, then butter and crumbs again, and broil till ready. Press out the fat between folds of hot paper, and serve with Brown Italian sauce. 647. Cotelettes à la Minute -— or in their Juice for Dejeuners à la Fourchette.—Take rather thin slices from the gigot, as in carving a roast leg. Put them into a thin-bottomed frying-pan in which is hot butter. Turn them continually. Keep them hot in a dish by the fire ; and put into the pan a little gravy and a few chopped herbs, stewed as for Venetian cutlets, No. 642 ; give this a toss, and skim and serve it round the hot cutlets. 648. Rognons de Mouton, or Mutton-Kidneys. These are also served at the Dejeuner à la Fourchette. Skin and split a dozen kidneys without wholly separating them. Pin them out with small wire skewers to keep them open ; rub them with a little salt and pepper ; dip them in butter, surpass a roast or boiled leg ; hotch-potch ; or boiled scrag with onion- sauce ; our family currie, or a well-grilled mutton-chop.-P. T, 396) CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. and broil first the inside, that, when turned on the grill to be finished, the gravy may be preserved. Dish on a hot dish, with a very little chopped blanched parsley and butter dropped over each.-Obs. In France these are also dressed as a mince, stewing the mince in butter, draining and serving it in a well-reduced Italian brown sauce with a very little champagne.—See Nos. 398, 478. 649. Beef-Kidneys are dressed as above, and served at the Dejeuner à la Fourchette.-N.B. With brains, kidneys, and liver, always use cayenne. 650. Haricot brun, or à la Bourgeoise.--Brown mutton- chops in the frying-pan. Make a roux of the butter in which they were fried, with a little more butter and browned flour. Add a little veal-gravy, or good consommé, well seasoned, and some bits of turnip, with parsley and green onions. Skim the sauce often to clear it of fat. Have some turnips scooped into balls ready boiled, as for soup Baveau, No. 612. Put them with the chops into a clean stew-pan, and strain the sauce over them. When the sauce looks clear and brown, and the turnips are done, dish the chops round, and serve the sauce and turnip-balls in the middle. Cold mutton is dressed as haricot the same way. 651. Hachis de Mouton à la Portuguaise. - Prepare the meat as for any hash. Heat it in a thick, well-reduced Espagnole, with butter, pepper, and salt. Serve with eggs over it, poached rather hard, and with dressed onions between, en cordon, or chain-wise. 652. Minced Mutton with Cucumbers. See No. 285. 653. Pied de Mouton à la Sauce Robert, Sheep's Trotters.-Cook the cleaned trotters in a blanc. When slowly stewed till tender, bone them. Roll them in a dressed forcemeat. Dip them in thin frying batter, and fry them. Obs. They may also be stuffed with forcemeat, and braised, and so served. Serve with Robert sauce.- See No. 480. 654. Pieds – Agneau, or lamb’s trotters, are dressed as above.-See No. 480. 655. Cervelles des Moutons, Sheep's Brains. — These are dressed exactly as No. 631, but more pungent seasonings DISHES OF MUTTON. 397 are proper. - Obs. Of mutton the French also make fricandeaux, mortadelles, or large sausages, grenadins, and many other dishes.-See Sheep's Tongues, No. 481. . 656. Cochon de Lait au Moine blanc, en Galantine. - Prepare the pig as directed at page 108, and bone it all except the head and feet; but take care not to break the skin. Make a forcemeat of any degree of richness you choose, of veal, beef suet, calf's udder, &c. Mince basil, thyme, and sage, panada; add some eggs to bind. [Read Quenelles, French Cookery.] Add plenty of spices. Now proceed as directed for godiveau. Lay the boned pig on a cloth, and cover it inside with the forcemeat. Rasp some ham over all. Try to keep the pig as near its natural shape as possible. Sew it up. Bind it in a napkin with tape, and boil it in stock seasoned with roots and herbs. When unswaddled, after two hours' slow boiling, wipe it dry, and serve with brown Espagnole, or if cold, on a napkin.* 657. Jambon à la Broche. — Take a Bayonne ham, large, fresh, well-selected, and at least twenty pounds weight. Trim it all round. Steep it for two or three days according to the size. — See No. 10. If it be very superior you must steep it in Spanish wine. Spit it, and cover it all over with slices of lard. It must have a slack fire for at least five hours, and be basted frequently with hot water to freshen it, and dilate the pores, which basting with wine would contract. When nearly ready remove the skin and cover the surface lightly with fine bread-crumbs.For Sauce, boil down the wine in which the ham was steeped, * Dr. REDGILL, whose experiments on pig, from first to last, were extremely interesting, totally lost one stuffed pig by overboiling; and had another considerably injured by the sewing tearing the skin. But his final success was triumphant ; and he wrote down as a canon of cookery, that all stuffed meats, as pig au moine blanc, haggis, sausage, &c., are not to be boiled by their apparent size, but by their solidity; as forcemeats of kind will ill cook in a third or even a half less time than a joint of meat of the original compact texture. The sewing should be the stitch surgeons use in sewing up wounds. If the cook would avoid the catastrophe of her pig, goose, or haggis, bursting, she will boil these important articles on a fish-drainer, that, if an accident do occur, ready help may be administered. Silk thread is more apt to tear the integument than any other thread; the cook should there- fore for her purposes take soft thread made of cotton.-See Pig's Cheek, National Dishes. 398 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. and put to it the juice which will flow from the ham when taken from the spit, and the juice of two lemons. Skim this and serve all hot. The above is one of the precious receipts of the Society of the Caveau Moderne. If any one choose to attempt this piece of extravagance, a good Yorkshire or Westmoreland ham, well cured, will answer his purpose quite as well. Our authorities all speak with enthusiasm of the Jambon à la Broche, “ un tel rôti est très superieure à tous ceux que la boucherie, la basse-cour, la poulailler, les forêts, les plaines, les étangs, et les mers pouvaient nous offrir. Heureux celui qui peut une fois en sa vie manger un jambon à la broche ! Il ne plus rien a regretter des sensualités de ce bas monde !” This dish, even in France, would cost ten crowns. — See Nos. 11 and 12. 658. Hure de Cochon, or Pig's Face stuffed. — Make the head as large as you can, by cutting down to the shoulders. Singe it carefully. Put a red-hot poker into the ears. Clean and carefully bone the head without breaking the skin. Rub it with salt, and pour a boiled cold brine over it, with a large handful of chopped juniper- berries, a few bruised cloves, and four bay-leaves, with thyme, basil, sage, a head of garlic bruised, and a half- ounce of saltpetre pounded. Let the head steep in this for ten days, and turn it and rub it often. Then wipe, drain. and dry it, and make a forcemeat for it thus:- Take equal quantities of undressed ham, and the breast of bacon. Season this highly with cooks' pepper, and fine spices, if you choose. Pound the meat very small, and mix with it some seasoned lard, parsley, and young onions, finely minced. Prove the quality of the forcemeat as directed at No. 692. Improve it where deficient. Spread it equally over the head. Roll up, and sew it, and bind it in a cloth, and stew it in a braise made of any trimmings and sea- sonings left, with stock enough to cover it. It will take nearly four hours to cook; and will be still richer if larded before it is stuffed. Pierce it with a larding-pin. If the pin enters easily it is done. When cool, take off the binding cloth. Trim the ends of the collared head, and serve it on a napkin.- Obs. This dish is well worth the attention of the gourmand and of the country house- HARE, POULTRY, AND GAME, 399 keeper. It will keep a long while, and the liquor will make a savoury pease-soup ; boil to a glaze, or braise vegetables. Independently of the stuffing, this French mode of curing pig's face is excellent. This is, besides, exactly the Hure de sanglier of Carême, when stewed in brandied Madeira, and decorated en galantine. See Pig's Cheek, National Dishes. 659. To dress cold roast Pig à la Bechamel, or in white Sauce. -Carve what remains of the pig into neat pieces, and let these just heat in Bechamel-sauce, or serve them as blanquettes, i. e. as a mince.—See No. 636. FRENCH DISHES OF HARE, POULTRY, AND GAME. 660. Gateau de Lièvre, i. e. Hare Cake for the second Course. — Prepare the hare as directed at No. 35, and save the liver and the blood. Scrape the meat from the skin and sinews, and mince with it the liver, a piece of a calf's liver, and a good piece of the best part of an undressed ham. Pound the whole to a paste with a little cold stock, or with hare or game-soup. Add equal to a third part of the whole bulk of rasped lard. Again pound the whole well together, with salt, pepper, young onions, and parsley, previously blanched ;-give a seasoning also of one spoon- ful of brandy, and No. 334. Mix with the pounded meat six or eight eggs, one by one, and, if foreign cookery is admired, the expressed juice of a clove of garlic. When the whole is exceedingly well pounded and mixed, line a stew-pan with slices of lard, and put the forcemeat over it to the thickness of an inch and a half, and quite level and smooth. Then put in a layer of lard, pistachios, and truffles, all cut in strips and neatly laid down like mosaic; then the forcemeat an inch and a half thick. Cover with slices of bacon, and then with paper. Close the pan, and bake the cake slowly for two hours, or for three, if you have a cake of three layers of forcemeat. Let it cool ; dip the mould or pan in hot water to loosen the cake, and turn it out. Serve on a napkin. Garnish to your fancy. It makes a handsome dormant dish.- Obs. Hare is also dressed in France as cotelettes, boudins, &c. 661. Rabbits à la Venetienne, i. e. with fine Herbs. — Carve two white young fat rabbits neatly, and brown 400 CHAP, 11,-FRENCH COOKERY. the pieces in butter with some rasped bacon and a handful of chopped mushrooms, parsley, and eschalot, with pepper, salt, and allspice. Rub a tea-spoonful of flour into a little consommé, and pour this into the stew-pan with the rabbits. Stew slowly till they are cooked ; skim and strain the sauce, and serve it hot about the meat, with a seasoning of cayenne and a good squeeze of lemon.–Nos. 506, 503. 662. Dindon en daube.- Truss the turkey as for boiling. Have strips of lard seasoned with salt, pepper, fine spices, and herbs. Lard the breast and the thighs. Put slices of bacon in a braising-pan, and place the turkey on it with a cut hock of ham, and a calf's foot broken, the trimmings of the turkey, five onions, stuck with four cloves, three carrots, two bay-leaves, three or four sprigs of thyme, a bunch of parsley, and young onions. Lay slices of bacon over the turkey; moisten with four spoonfuls of melted butter ; cover with three rounds of buttered paper, and let it simmer for five hours ; take it from the fire, but do not lift it for another half-hour, that it may not get dry. Strain the gravy, and boil it down. Beat an egg well in a saucepan, and pour the gravy (or jelly rather) into this. Whip it well ; put it on the fire ; when just come to boil, place it on the side of the furnace; cover it with a lid which will bear embers over it; let it remain for a half- hour with embers over; strain again, and with this jelly cover the dished turkey. Lièvre en daube, the same. Turkey stuffed with truffles, or Dindon aux truffes, is now imported, ready to cook. 663. FOWL À LA CHINGARA, a favourite small dish. Cut a fat white fowl in four, across and down the back. Melt the least bit of butter in a stew-pan, and lay four slices from a good part of an undressed ham in the pan. Place the cut fowl on this, and stew it very slowly on embers. When done, drain off the fat. Pour over the glaze, which will have formed at the bottom, a little Espagnole, and rub in a little cayenne, salt, and pepper. Meanwhile have ready four toasts. Fry them in the fat you poured off the fowl, dust them with pepper and salt, and serve them between the slices of ham, on each slice of which a quarter of the fowl is to be laid. See No. 640. HARE, POULTRY, AND GAME. 401 664. Fowls à la Ravigote.-Roast the fowls, and serve them with Ravigote-sauce. 665. Poulets à la Tartare.-Roasted young fowls with Tartar-sauce. See Nos. 592, 27, and Turkey en galantine. 665. Fowl à la Campire. Slit the breast of a roasted fowl to let the juice flow out; lay sliced raw onions in the slits, and serve with a brown poivrade in the dish. 666. Game Salad.-Cut a cold fowl roasted, if for this purpose with vegetables, into ten handsome pieces. Soak them in a basin with sliced onion, oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt. Toss them about to imbibe the seasonings, and when they have lain an hour, dress the dish meant to receive them with a border of hard-boiled eggs cut, and stuck into a thin border of butter. Garnish with slices divided of beetroot, cucumbers, and gherkins; and upon each piece of egg place a fillet of anchovy. Fill the centre of the dish with finely chopped salad herbs, and, dipping each piece of fowl into Mayonnaise sauce, build them up as a pyra- mid, the handsomest uppermost; and when ready to serve, pour sauce Mayonnaise over the centre. This is nearly M. Soyer's way, and we give it as a sort of general receipt for dressing meat and fish salads; the only thing left to the cook is the sauce to select for the salad, and the proper seasonings. By salad herbs we mean lettuce, endive, cress, and whatever of this kind is eaten undressed, 667. Poulets aux Huîtres—young Fowls with Oyster- sauce. -Stiffen a quarter of a hundred of oysters in their own strained juice. Then beard and stew them in a little velouté, or in two ounces of butter melted, and thickened with a little flour; add white pepper, the squeeze of a lemon, and two spoonfuls of cream, and pour this hot over two roasted fowls, or serve the sauce in a tureen separately. See No. 515. 668. Fricassée des Poulets à la Paysanne, a plain Fricassee' of Chickens.- Singe two fat white chickens very well. Skin and carve them smoothly with a very sharp knife exactly as at table. Wash them in lukewarm water, and blanch them over the fire a few minutes to firm the flesh. Plunge them in cold water, and then put them into a very nice stew-pan with three ounces of 20 404 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. They are in fact a species of moist devils. For thorough- bred English palates more hot seasonings will be requisite than are used by the French ; and this must be attended to. 674.” To boil and peel Eggs.-Boil them for fifteen minutes; drop them into cold water; roll them below your hand, and the shell will come off like any other mould. Plovers' or Sea-birds' Eggs. Boil fifteen minutes ; serve hot on a napkin, or cold, laid in moss. 675. Eggs à la Tripe. — Peel, slice, and fry in butter, three or four Spanish onions. When done, dust in some flour, and let it catch to a light brown. Put in a little hot milk, salt, and pepper, and let the sauce reduce. Put to this a dozen small hard-boiled eggs cut in pieces. Mix them gently with the sauce not to break the slices. Arrange the eggs neatly in the dish. 676. Eggs in Sauce Robert.-Proceed as above directed ; but brown the onions over a brisk fire, and moisten with soup. Reduce the sauce by boiling. Add a tea-spoonful of made-mustard, and stir in the sliced eggs. — See Nos. 567, 568. 677. Eggs à la Maître d'Hôtel. - Do these white as eggs à la Tripe, but throw in a good lump of butter and minced parsley.-Obs. These dishes, though the best of their kind, seem of little comparative importance; but when the cook, or the mistress of a family, as is often the case, is racked for something to fill up an odd corner, they afford a cheap and ready resource. Eggs dressed in this last way will afterwards make an admirable sauce for poultry, salt cod, or ling. 678. Fondu. — This is prepared in various ways. Mix grated Parmesan and Gruyère cheese, in equal quantities, or substitute good Glo'ster or Cheshire for the latter ; add to the rasped cheese about double the weight of cream, or melted butter, with beat yolks of eggs; beat the whites of the eggs separately, and having whisked the mixture very well, put pepper and a little salt to it, and then stir the beat whites lightly in. Either bake the whole in a silver or block-tin soufflé-dish, or in paper cases. Fill them only half-full, as the mixture should rise very much. VARIOUS SMALL DISHES. 405 Serve very hot in the second course. Fonci'u is cheese soufflé. — See Ramalins, No. 555. 678.Hors d'oeuvres, or small dishes handed round the table as relishes or whers. - For small wol-au-vents, perites bouchées, rissoles, and other Hors d'eurres, roll out a pound of the richest puff paste ; cut the vol-au-vents with a fluted cutter about two inches wide. Place them on a floured baking-tin, egg them with a paste brush, and, dipping a plain cutter in hot water, mark out the top of each deeply. Bake them in a quick oven for about twenty minutes; take off the marked lid with a knife ; scoop out the inside paste, and fill the space with the particular preparation, which gives the name. 678.3 Petites Vol-au-vents of Lobster. Prepare from about a pound of puff-paste a dozen or more small vol-au- vents. When they are baked have ready the meat of a hen lobster cut in dice, and the spawn pounded with an ounce of butter, and rubbed through a sieve. Put eight spoonfuls of white sauce, and four of white stock, into a saucepan with cayenne, pepper, salt, and a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovies. Stir the meat into the hot sauce ; heat it through, and, filling the vol-au-vents, dress them on a napkin pyramidically. Fish and shell-fish of various sorts, skates' livers, and mackerels, may be prepared in the same way as Hors d'oeuvres. Another kind of hors d'ouvres, named Petites Bouchées, or small mouthfuls, are only about an inch and a half in diameter, and the paste is thin in proportion. They are made of several sorts of fish, of skate livers, oysters, fish roes, beef marrow, game, chicken. Small rissoles are yet another form of the same relishing or stimulating prepara- tions; and so are small croustades, croquettes, and c8ca- lopes. When the cook knows how to prepare the paste cases under their various names and forms, the rest is more easily accomplished, as the relishes for all of them are made in nearly the same way, and only the sauce and seasonings varied to suit each sort. They are all dressed pyramidically upon a napkin. Anchovies, anchovy or piquant salads, olives, &c. are all tastefully dressed in France, and served as whets and zests, or hors d'ouvres. FISH. 407 put in at first. It will form a good basis for maigre sauces to fish. This is also called eau de sel. 680. Court Bouillon for Fish dressed au bleu.- Take the same herbs as above, but less in quantity, and fry them a little in butter. Over this pour two bottles of white and one of red wine, and a little water. In this stew the fish, nicely cleaned. This rich and expensive marinade will do repeatedly ; water to be added to it when again used.- Obs. We consider this receipt useless where fish are to be got fresh. Fish dressed au bleu are eaten with oil and vinegar, mustard, &c. 681. Trout or Pike à la Genevoise.—Clean the fish, but do not scale it. Put a little court bouillon in a stew- pan with parsley-roots, cloves, parsley, two bay leaves, and onions, also a carrot if you like. When these have stewed an hour, strain the liquor over the pike or trout in a small oval fish-pan, and add a little Madeira to it. When boiled, drain the fish, and take off the scales thoroughly; then put it in the pan, with a little of the liquor to keep it moist and hot. Make a roux or thickening, and add to it veal-gravy (or, if for a maigre dish, wine ;) season this sauce with bits of mushroom, parsley, and green onions. Let it stew till smooth. Thicken with butter kneaded in flour if needful. Strain the sauce hot over the dished fish, with a squeeze of lemon, and a little essence of anchovy. - Obs. For red trout use claret or some red wine, with mace, and more cloves. N. B. Saumon à la Genevoise is dressed exactly in this way, which, though rich cookery, is now more out of vogue than fish served à la Matelote. The head of the fish must be bound up to keep it from breaking, which is proper in dressing all large fish. 682. Turbot à la Crême d’Anchois, Soyer's way.- Boil the fish, and dish without a napkin, as the following sauce must be poured over the turbot : To a quart of melted butter, add, when it nearly boils, five or six ounces of anchovy butter, and four spoonfuls of whipped cream. Mix, but do not allow it to boil. Pour it over the dished turbot, and sprinkle with chopped capers and gherkins. Cold Turbot à la Crême (gratiné.)-Form a thick 408 CHAP, II.- FRENCH COOKERY. smooth batter of a quart of milk and a pound of fiour ; to which add two eschalots, with a bay-leaf, a bunch of parsley, and a sprig of thyme, tied together; with a little salt, white pepper, and grated nutmeg. Stir con- stantly, and boil the batter over a sharp fire till it becomes a thick paste, when take it off, and stir in a half-pound of butter, and the beat yolks of two eggs. Pass it through a tammy, and pour some into the bottom of a dish, over which place a layer of the boned (and, if you like, skinned,) cold turbot. Then sauce, and again fish in alternate layers, finishing with sauce; strew lightly over the whole grated crumbs, and grated Parmesan. Bake for twenty minutes in a temperate oven, brown with a salamander, and serve in the baking-dish, which, if not a fine one, may be served on another with a puff napkin : soles, brill, and any other cold white fish of a previous day, may be thus dressed d la crême. 682.? Fillets of Haddocks, Whitings, or Codlings, with Maître d'Hotel Sauce. - The French dress fish very fre- quently in fillets, cut neatly from the bone the long way on both sides. The practice is good, and now generally adopted, as it saves trouble to the eater, the dish looks better, and if the debris is put to the stock-pot for fish- soups or sauces, there is no waste. Take the two sides or long fillets clean off the bone. -- Dry and flour, or better, egg and crumb them. Fry them, and, when ready, serve under them a simple Maître d'Hotel sauce, made thus:- Stew in butter a large spoonful of chopped young onions, parsley and mushrooms, with pepper and salt to taste. This we conceive a useful general receipt. 683. Fish-Pudding, a common and favourite way of dressing cold Fish.—Take any sort of fish. Trim and chop from one to two pounds of it, and season this with chopped onions, parsley, and mushrooms; also salt and pepper ; pound this with two raw eggs. Line a pudding- mould with slices of fat bacon, and put in alternate layers of the fish, and of godiveau, No. 692.2 Cover with bacon, and bake for an hour and a half, if the pudding is large. Pick off the bacon, or paper; turn it out, and serve with a plain brown sauce poured over it. FISH. 409 684. To dress fillets of cold Pike à la Maître d'Hotel. -Cut them neatly. Stew them in butter with pepper and salt. Dish the fillets neatly, and sauce them with a maître d'hotel sauce, to which you put a little essence of anchovy. — Obs. French cooks serve cold fish, re-dressed as vol- au-vents, croquets, salades, boudins, and in many ingenious modes as to outward show. See No. 123, and onwards. 685. Matelote de Carp à la Royale. — Clean what number of carp you choose. Cut them into three or four pieces, according to the size. Dry these, and stew them very slowly in red wine. Make a sauce matelote (see No. 596,) but use the wine in which the carp is stewed both from economy and to have the full flavour of the fish, Add also a dozen of cleaned mushrooms. Dish the fish, the heads in the middle, and strain the prepared sauce hot over them. Place the small stewed onions and the mush- rooms, dressed in the sauce, round the fish, and garnish with the soft roes stewed in vinegar.- Obs. This sauce, and all fish-sauces, should be of good consistence, that it may adhere to the fish. 686. Perches au Vin, Perches in Wine. -Scale and clean the perch. Cook them in good stock and a little white wine, with a high seasoning of parsley, chives, cloves, &c. Thicken a little of this liquor for sauce. Add to it salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a little anchovy- butter.- Obs. Always use white wine with white fish, and red wine with red-coloured fish. 687. Perche à la Maître d'Hotel. — Boil some salt, pepper, parsley, and chives in water, and in this bouillon boil the perch. Drain and dish them, and cover them with a maître d'hotel sauce. 688. Soles,* Flounders, and other small flat Fish, or Fillets of Turbot, fc. au Gratin.- Have a flat silver dish, or tin baking-pan, and spread a bit of fresh butter over it. Mince, very finely, parsley, eschalots, mushrooms; season with pepper and salt, fry the herbs, and lay them in your buttered dish. Place your fish, neatly cut and trimmed, over this, and cover with fine bread-crumbs. * This and canapés of skates' livers are among the recettes alimen- taires of a celebrated Parisian Society of Gourmands. 410 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. Over this stick a few bits of butter; moisten with a little white wine ; cook under a furnace with a few embers, that the gratin may get crisp ; squeeze lemon over your dish, and serve it very hot. The gratin may be browned with a salamander, and fried sippets may be stuck over the dish. Small undressed fish may be divided, have the bones taken out, and be baked au gratin, arranging the pieces neatly en miroton.-No. 623. 689. OTHER French dishes of fish.-John Dorée en Ma- telote. -Stuff with half a pound of a fish forcemeat, No. 149. Boil the fish in a roomy kettle, throwing in a bunch of sweet and one of savoury herbs, three onions, a carrot, a turnip, a bay-leaf, a head of celery, a table-spoonful of salt, two glasses of red wine, and two of vinegar. Serve with a matelote sauce, to which add three dozen oysters, blanched and bearded. Serve hot. Slices of brill, or large soles, or turbot may be served en matelote ; à la mai- tre d'hotel, or à la Hollandaise. One is rejoiced to find that French cooks, in England, are beginning to dress sal- mon at least — au naturel. We must again express ad- miration of their ways of dressing cold fish, au gratin, à la creme, d' anchois, and so forth, but doubt of their excessive meddling with fresh fish. We would except some of their dishes of fresh cod, of which we like the cabillaud à la Hollandaise and à la Juive, made thus. Stew four spoonfuls of chopped onions in two of salad oil. Add a half-pound of melted butter, two spoonfuls of Harvey's sauce, two essence of anchovies, and two of white vinegar. In this prepared sauce, stew two cuts of cod. Give them a quick boil up, and simmer for thirty-five minutes. Dish the slices. Keep them hot, and with a little sugar boil down the sauce and pour it over the fish. Garnish with fried slices of onion, and quenelles of cod's liver,—an addi- tion better omitted. M. Soyer has a receipt nearly the same as this, for haddocks, which he christens à la Walter Scott. 690. Morue à la bonne Femme, Salt Cod in a plain way.- Prepare the salt fish as directed at No. 161. Have some boiled potatoes in the shape of corks, cut these in 412 CHAP. 11.- FRENCH COOKERY. the farce, or in adding another egg to give firmness, or more water to liquify the godiveau, or whatever it wants. 693. Gratin. _ This farce may be made either of the white parts of a fowl or of veal. Cut a half-pound of the fillet into small bits, and toss them over the fire, in butter, for ten minutes, with salt, pepper, and herbs. Drain off the butter. Mince the meat, and then pound it, if for fowls, with the livers parboiled, veal-udder parboiled and skinned, or butter instead of udder, and panada, (see next receipt.) Have as much butter or veal-udder as of each of the other ingredients, 2. e. a third of each. Pound the whole together, adding an egg at a time till you have three, as in the godiveau. Prove the forcemeat by poach- ing a small ball of it. 694. Panada for Forcemeats.-Soak slices of bread in hot milk. Press out the milk when the bread is quite moist, and beat up the bread with a little rich broth or white sauce, and a lump of butter. Stir till this becomes somewhat dry and firm. Add the yolks of two eggs, and pound the whole well together. 695. Quenelles de Volaille, or Forcemeat-Balls of Poultry as a Dish. — Strip off the skin, pull out the sinews, and mince and pound the best parts of young fowls, till the meat will rub through a sieve. Have one part of this, one of panada, and another of veal-udder, parboiled and skinned. Pound the whole well together, and season with salt, white pepper, and mace. Put raw yolks to the com- pound, and beat it perfectly smooth. Prove it as directed, No. 692. If not firm enough, add more eggs, one at a time. Make up the quenelles of egg-shapes, and poach or bake them.-N. B. Quenelles may be made of rabbit, partridge, or pheasant, in the same way. Serve with clear gravy. They are considered a delicate dish. . 696. Boudins à la Richelieu, (Puddings of Rabbits or Poultry.) – Make a forcemeat of rabbits or poultry, as directed for quenelles ; but instead of panada use pounded potatoes. Put to the farce dressed onions or mushrooms chopped, in suitable quantity. Spread the forcemeat smooth on the dresser, and with a knife roll it up in small sausages or boudins ; or mould it to a proper shape, and FORCEMEAT IN GENERAL. 413 bake the boudins. Whether boiled or baked, serve with Brown Italian sauce. Boudins may be made of all sorts of game, poultry, also of whitings, craw-fish, &c. 696. Boudins Blanc, an exceedingly good kind of Whitc Puddings.—Cook a dozen small onions in broth. Make a rather dry panada of cream or milk, and pound this with the onions and some pounded sweet almonds. Put to this pig's caul, cut in little bits, some yolks of eggs, a little cream, the white parts of raw chickens finely minced, with salt and spices. Pound the whole well, and try it by dressing a little in a small pan before you fill the skins. Boil the boudins in milk and water, and prick the skins to prevent them from bursting. When wanted, dip them in boiling water to heat, and finish them in a paper case in a Dutch oven.-See National Dishes, No. 738. 696.3 Macaroni in the richest Italian mode. — Prepare pipe or ribbon Macaroni as at No. 557. Prepare also Sughlio as at No. 769. Drain the boiled macaroni, stew it very slowly in the sughlio for fifteen minutes. Dish and grate Parmesan and bread-crumbs, with bits of butter over it, which brown with a salamander, and serve hot. To sughlio French cooks, of any refinement, prefer veal gravy, or for a more delicate dish, Espagnole. MODES OF FRENCH COOKERY. 697. Many of these modes we have seen; and as many more remain. The galantine is important; and as an example we take the galantine de dinde. Bone a turkey ; truss the. legs inside ; spread over it a layer of prepared forcemeat, and on that strips of cooked lean ham, fat bacon, and lean veal. These must be laid in alternately, and thus con- trasted. Season with pepper and salt; then cover with a layer of forcemeat, and fill the turkey, keeping it of a good shape. Sew it up, to keep shape, and put it in a cloth to stew in veal or turkey stock. Stew for three hours. Probe it; and if ready, undo the bandages ; place it in a dish where it can be pressed with a weight till cold, but kept in shape. Have aspic jelly ready, with which, in croutons and roughed bits, like crystals, decorate the galantine, forming in aspic a star, a flower-de-luce, or any 416 CHAP. II.-FRENCH COOKERY. dress them high on the dish. – Pease-sauce or purée of Peas.-Stew a pint or quart of very young peas till tender, with chopped lettuce, parsley, and young onions. Rub the purée through a tammy-cloth, and add good gravy. It is served with various meats. — Obs. Consommé added to any left Petit Pois will make an excellent extempore potage. 700. Sea Kale for the second Course. — We do not know that this vegetable is naturalized in France even yet ; but after boiling it in plenty of water, with salt, French cooks in this country drain it, and serve with sauce blanche or velouté. Sauce blanche, 2. e. butter melted in cream, is perhaps the most appropriate sauce for all vegetables, but for the danger of its running to oil, which makes veloutè or cream-sauce preferable in nice cookery.-See No. 190. 701. Artichoke-bottoms en Canapés. -- Have the boiled artichokes nicely trimmed, and the chokes removed. When cold, fill the bottoms with anchovy-butter, and decorate with pickled capers, gherkins, and beetroot carved, con- trasting the colours.--See No. 191. 702. Artichokes à l’Italienne. --Trim and quarter the artichokes, and boil them in salt and water. Take out the chokes. Drain and arrange the quarters with the leaves outwards. Pour a white Italian sauce over them, and garnish with cresses. 703. French Beans à la Poulette. — When boiled (as directed page 232) very green, drain them. Reduce some sauce tournée. Thicken it with beat yolks of eggs, and pour this over the boiled beans. 704. Windsor Beans à la Poulette, — Boil fresh young beans. Stew them, first taking off the skins, and sauce them with velouté. 704.” Navets Vierge.—Peel and scoop out to the size of marbles, five or six good white turnips. Fry them with two ounces of butter and one of sugar. When covered with glaze, add above a quarter pint of Bechamel or any good white sauce, and a half glass of cream. Season with a very little salt, and white pepper. Yellow turnips may be dressed as above, brown, by using a quarter pint of brown sauce, a glassful of Espagnole, and seasoning with a bunch of VEGETABLES, FRUIT, &c. 417 parsley, and a bay leaf, pepper and salt: skim carefully. Pick out the parsley and bay leaf, and serve the ragout. 705. Potatoes a la Maître d'Hotel.-Peel boiled potatoes, and turn them the size of thick corks. Cut these in slices a half-inch thick. Put them into a stew-pan with some sliced green onions and parsley, pepper, salt, and butter. Moisten with stock, and toss them till the parsley is cooked. 706. Endive for the second Course. — Clean the en- dive by frequent washing, and plunge it head down- most in salt and water, to draw out those insects which often lodge in the leaves of vegetables. Blanch the heads, drain them, and, when cold, chop them fine. Stew them in veal-gravy with salt. When tender, add a little Espagnole, and serve with poached eggs for second-course dishes, or under fricandeau, or with hashed mutton. 707. Compôte de Cerises,—Preserved Cherries. — To a half-pound of clarified sugar put a pound of cherries, of which half the stalk is cut away. Give them a boil of three minutes. Skim, and serve them in a glass dish. Take out the stones and cut away the stalks, if wished. 707. Abricots au Riz.—Divide eighteen or twenty-four apricots. Fry them quickly, with the kernels blanched and skinned in a syrup made of—for twenty-four-a half-pound of sugar, and the juice of two lemons. When tender, take them up to cool, and to the syrup add three table-spoonfuls of apricot marmalade. Have previously prepared six ounces of rice slowly cooked in milk, sweetened with four ounces of sugar, and enriched with four of butter, and four beat eggs. Let the rice, with these additions, thicken, stirring it. Dress it on the dish, eight inches wide and three high, with a hollow in the centre to receive, heaped pyramidically, the prepared apri- cots. Garnish to taste with preserved angelica.-Obs. This receipt is applicable to pears and apples, au riz; and the latter may be served hot. 708. Pears in Sugar.-Put a clove into the eye of each pear. Throw them into hot water to scald them. Pare and keep them in water to preserve the colour Boil them in a very thin syrup of a large pint of water to a half- 2 D 418 CHAP, 11.-FRENCH COOK ETY. pound of sugar. Add the juice of a lemon, and serve in a glass dish, in the syrup. Another way.-- Divide large pears. Take out the seeds. Blanch them in hot water and lemon juice, to keep the colour white. Pare them. Throw them into fresh water, and give them a few boils in thin syrup before serving them in it. Apples may be dressed in the same way. 709. Apples à la Portuguaise. — Wash and core fine large rennets, but do not pare them. Prick them with a knife, and boil them in thin syrup. Then put them in an earthen dish under a small furnace, or in a Dutch oven, to brown, basting them with the syrup. 710. Peaches in Sugar.- Blanch six or eight in hot water that they may easily peel, then give them a boil in syrup, and serve. The French serve all sorts of fruit en compôtes, which form tasteful and economical dishes. Serve all these in a compôte dish or any suitable glass dish. See Ornamental Dishes. 710.2 Miroton de Pomme. — Pare a dozen russet, or best American apples. Slice them about a quarter of an inch thick. Pierce out the cores with a marked paste- cutter. Melt two ounces of fresh butter, to which put six of best pounded sugar, and the juice of two lemons and grate of one. Fry the apples gently in this, and dress them either en miroton, or piled up in the dish, and pour over them a spoonful of white currant jelly, heated in a glass of Madeira, 711. OMELETTES À LA CELESTINE. Make a smooth batter, with four ounces of pounded sugar, four of sifted flour, four eggs, and a pint of rich milk. Have a very little butter very hot, in an omelette-pan, into which pour two large table-spoonfuls of the batter. When firmed, turn over the omelette upon a flat saucepan lid, buttered and hot, and from this to a cloth. Make as many omelettes in this manner as you wish. Lay a tea- spoonful of apricot-jam, orange marmalade, or any kind of preserve you like, upon each. Lay also a little frangi- pane upon each : fold up each omelette, and trimming the edges neatly, sift sugar over them, and glaze lightly with 420 CHAP. 11.- FRENCH COOKERY. stirring briskly with a wooden spoon, till it come easily from the sides of the stew-pan. Put it in another pan. Let it cool. Break an egg into it, and stir it well to mix, and afterwards three or four more eggs, till the paste becomes tenacious and smooth. This is used for many small articles, as Pains a la Duchesse, Chour, Chantilly baskets; in short, it may be moulded or stamped into any form, according to the ingenuity of the cook. The things made of it, when arranged on paper, may be iced, baked in a moderate oven, and dried before the fire. This paste swells very much, which must be considered in forming things of it.-See Paste, 771-779. 713. Choux of Paste Royal. — Form the chouc in the shape of balls larger than children's marbles. Bake in a moderate oven. Dry them, and make a small opening in the side, into which put a little of any sweetmeat you like. 714. Pains à la Duchesse. — Make as the choux, but flatten them with the rolling-pin to the length of four inches. When baked, slit them open at the end, and introduce the sweetmeat. 715. Les Gimblettes à l’Artois. — Make as the choux, but give them a deep dint in the middle before baking. Widen this by turning your finger round it. Sift sugar over them when just done ; glaze with a salamander, and put the sweetmeat in the cavity. 716. Les Petits Choux et les Gimblettes Pralines.* - Make them rather smaller than above directed ; and before baking, but when glazed, sprinkle finely-chopped sweet almonds and sugar over them, and garnish with sweetmeats, as the others. Pâte Royale may, as formerly said, be rolled out, stamped with paste-cutters, and dressed in any form you choose, serving any sort of preserved sweetmeat neatly upon it. 717. Brioche Paste.-Every one who has had the happi- ness of seeing Paris, has, of course, paid for it in many ways, besides by being deafened with shrill. cries of “ Brioches,” “Gateaux de Nanterre,” &c. The brioche paste is, notwithstanding, the first-rate article of its kind in * What we would call confected. PASTRY. 421 Europe, when properly prepared, and by a variation in the shapes of the Gateaux and a few additions, it may be produced in fifty forms of cake. It is made (in the best way) in the following manner and proportions :-Have four pounds [equal to four and a half English weight] of dry fine flour; take one-fourth of this to make the leaven in this manner : make a hole in the centre of the pound of flour, into this pour a small wine. glassful of sweet yeast, and over this as much hot water as will make it a rather thick leaven. Set this covered before the fire, making a few transverse incisions on the surface. Give it fifteen or twenty minutes to rise. Then leaven the remaining flour thus :— Throw a little beat salt, and some sugar, both melted in water, over the flour. Make a hole in the middle of it. Crumble down two pounds of butter, and break a dozen eggs into it. Knead it up quickly, once and again, till well mixed, and pour the leaven equally over it. Divide it into pieces, which knead and toss about, changing their place continually to blend the whole materials equally and well. Next beat up the whole together, and keep the brioche paste in a medium temperature (according to the state of the weather) rolled up in a cloth, dusted with flour, and spread another over the deep vessel in which it is laid. Next day (for it works the better for lying over a night) break and mould the paste into any form you please, large or small. By the addition of currants or sugar, you have sugar-loaves and Gateaux de Nanterre. Add currants and fine stoned raisins, and you have the Gateaux de Compeigne. Tinge the paste with saffron diluted in water, and add a glass of Madeira or sweet wine, and by moulding in proper shapes you have Babas. The moulds should be buttered; and care must be taken that the babas are not scorched a-top, as the colour is of consequence. A still better preparation for a full-tooth epicure, is Brioche au Fromage, made by strewing well-flavoured Swiss, Italian, or English cheese in very small dice into the paste before baking it. The Brioche cakes are generally made with a head and sole or flat part like our buns. These are separately shaped in the hand, and then stuck together; a smaller 422 CHAP. 11.-FRENCH COOKERY. top or button of the paste is clapped on above all, and the top a little dinted in. The cakes are brushed with beat eggs, and baked in a quick oven. If large, Brioche cakes, like all cakes, require a steady, but not quick heat, else they will scorch before getting baked to the heart.- By H, J., Ecuyer tranchant to the Sr. Ronan's CLUB. 718. Chantilly Baskets. French cooks often make these of very small choux of páté-royale, instead of the ratafia- biscuits used in this country. The method is the same. When the little biscuits or choux are baked quite crisp, have ready some sugar clarified and boiled to crackling height. Stick a small skewer into each biscuit, and dip the edge in the sugar. Fix them one by one, as dipt, round a dish or mould that will shape your basket. When one row is done, begin another. The candied sugar will make the biscuits instantly stick. Use rather larger biscuit for the upper tiers, as the basket should widen towards the top. Three or four tiers will be enough of height. The handle will be most easily made by sticking the biscuits together round the ledge of a stew-pan, first ascertaining the width of the arch; for really what is ordered in common receipt-books about “throwing over an arch,” is easier said than done. An ornamental border of coloured drops of gum-paste may be given to the basket. Serve any dry sweetmeat you choose in the basket, which should first be lined with tissue-paper. 719. Bouchées de Dames, Ladies' Lips or Kisses.*- Make a paste as for fine biscuits, of six fresh eggs, with six ounces of sifted sugar, and three of rice-flour. Beat this very well; spread it thinly, and bake on paper on a buttered oven-tin for nearly twenty minutes. When fired, stamp out the paste the size of dollars, with orna- mental stamps, and glaze with white, rose, or violet coloured icing.–See To Ice Cakes, No. 1005. 719.2 — Petites Bouches à la Patissière. Cut fifteen pieces out of puff-paste, rolled out to the eighth of an inch, with an oval fluted cutter, about two inches long, and one and a half broad. Roll out more paste, from which * Properly ladies' mouthfuls. PASTRY 423 cut twenty pieces with a smaller stamp, and again with one yet smaller stamp cut out the centre. Wet the pieces. Place the largest undermost, then the next, and lastly those stamped out like rings, having first dipped them in pounded sugar. Bake on a baking tin, and fill the ring with any sort of jelly or jam, or a preserved cherry, &c. 720. The Twins, or Méringues Jumeaux. - Whip the whites of eight eggs to a solid froth, and add to this a pound of fine sifted sugar; or clarify and boil it to the second degree. Season with lemon-grate, and beat all very well together. Drop the Jumeaux on paper in the shape of an egg. Sift sugar over them. Bake them in a slow oven. When firm, draw them out, and stick two and two together, and put them to dry before the fire or in a hot closet.-Obs. These meringues or gemini may be made as above, and flavoured with marasquin or orange-flower- water; but they must then be made smaller. As has been said, an endless variety of trifles is made of paste-royal, by purchasing the proper cutters or stamps. Among the neatest are the Petits Paniers and Petites Brioches, of which the proper stamp will direct the form- ing.–See Pastry and Cakes. 721. A plain Fruit-cake.—Roll out any bits of puff-paste you have left from more important preparations. Spread any kind of marmalade over these. Decorate with paste bands or straws. Glaze the cake with yolk of egg ; bake it, and cut it into oblong pieces, and pile them on the dish.-See Pastry and Sweet and Ornamental Dishes. 721.2 To serve Jelly in Orange skins, CAREME. Choose ten well-shaped large oranges, of a rich colour. Cut a piece an inch wide at the stalk end with a cutter, and with a tea-spoon gently raise the rind and empty the orange. Clear away the pulp and seeds, and throw the skins into cold water to harden and plump out. Be care- ful not to break; but if broken, stop the crack with a little butter. Filter the juice with the juice of two lemons through blotting-paper, rolled up like a funnel. Add syrup and an ounce and a half of isinglass. Now place the skins on a large sieve two inches from each other. Surround them with ice, and fill them with the jelly ; 424 CHAP. II. - FRENCH COOKERY. replace the piece of skin removed to empty them. Lay six on a napkin, and a seventh on the top, and garnish with orange or laurel leaves. They may also be served in a paste-basket, or more simply and gracefully piled in a glass-dish. CHAPTER III. SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES, There be livers out of England. Cymbeline. It has been remarked, that every country is celebrated for some culinary preparation, and that all National Dishes are good. The reason of this is sufficiently obvious; had they not been acceptable to the palate, they never could have either gained or maintained their supremacy. Ac- cordingly, the Spanish olio and puchero, the Italian maca- roni, the French ragout, the Turkish pillau, and though last not least in our good love, the Scotch Haggis, differing essentially as they do, are, nevertheless, all equally good after their kind. We give precedence to the " Great chieftain of the pudding race," premising, in all good faith, that ours is the exact formula by which the Prize Haggis was prepared at the famous COMPETITION OF Haggises held in Edinburgh, when the Sr. Ronan's Haggis carried the stakes, and that of CHRISTOPHER NORTH came in second. Among the judges on that ever-memorable day were G. P. R. James, Esq., and the author of “Cyril Thornton," not to mention the Director-General of the Fine Arts, who was himself a competitor. 722. The Scotch Haggis.—Clean a sheep's pluck tho- roughly. Make incisions in the heart and liver to allow the blood to flow out, and parboil the whole, letting the windpipe lie over the side of the pot, to permit the phlegm and-blood to disgorge from the lungs ; the water may be changed after a few minutes' boiling for fresh water. The SCOTCH HAGGIS. 425 Mini lights cannot be overboiled. A half-hour's boiling will be sufficient for the rest ; but throw back the half of the liver to boil till it will grate easily. Take the heart, the half of the liver, and part of the lights, trimming away all skins and black-looking parts, and mince them together finely. Mince also a pound of good beef-suet, and four or more onions. Grate the other half of the liver. Have four mild large onions, peeled, scalded, and minced, to mix with the haggis mince. Have ready some finely- ground oatmeal, toasted slowly before the fire for hours till it is of a light-hrown colour, and perfectly nutty and dry. A large tea-cupful of meal will do for this quantity of meat. Spread the mince on a board, and strew the meal lightly over it, with a high seasoning of black pepper, salt, and a little cayenne, first well mixed. Have a haggis-bag (i. e. a sheep's paunch) perfectly clean, and see that there be no thin part in it, else your whole labour will be lost by its bursting. Some cooks use two bags, or a cloth as an outer case. Put in the meat with a half-pint of good beef-gravy, or as much strong stock. Be careful not to fill the bag too full, but allow the meat room to swell; add the juice of a lemon, or a little good vinegar; press out the air, and sew up the bag ; prick it with a long needle when it first swells in the pot to prevent bursting ; let it boil slowly for three hours if large.-Obs. This is a genuine Scotch haggis; the lemon and cayenne may be omitted, and instead of beef-gravy, a little of the broth in which the pluck is parboiled may be taken. More suet may be given. A finer haggis may be made by parboil- ing and skinning sheep's tongues and kidneys, and sub- stituting these minced, for the most of the lights, and soaked bread or crisped crumbs for the toasted meal. There are, moreover, sundry modern refinements on the above receipt,—such as eggs, milk, pounded biscuit, &c. &c.,—but these, by good judges, are not deemed improve- ments. Some cooks use the small fat tripes, as in making lamb’s haggis. Mr. Allan Cunningham, in some of his Tales, orders the parboiled minced meat of sheep's head for haggis. We have no experience of this receipt, but it promises well. A haggis boiled for two hours may be 426 CHAP. III.-SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. kept for a week or two; and when cold, gets so firm that haggises are often sent from Scotland to distant places and countries. They must in this case be made very dry, and covered with oatmeal; nor will a haggis keep so well if there is much onion put to it. For some tastes—our own for example the above receipt contains too much onion. Haggis meat, by those who cannot admire the natural shape, may be poured out of the bag, and served in a deep dish. No dish heats up better. A ragout of the cold haggis, heated up in a stew-pan in which a little shred onion, with pepper, is first fried, and the whole covered over with the haggis-bag, to keep the meat sappy, is better than on the first day. We advise M. Soyer to try haggis with a paste or mashed potato border, à l'Ecossaise. Lamb's Haggis is often made as sheep's haggis. 723. A Lamb's Haggis.-Slit up all the little fat tripes with scissors, and clean them. Clean the kernels also, and parboil the whole, and cut them into little bits. Clean and shred the web and kidney fat, and mix it with the tripes. Season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg: Make a thin batter with two eggs, a half-pint of milk, and the necessary quantity of four. Season with chopped chives or young onions. Mix the whole together. Sew up the bag, which inust be very clean, and boil for an hour and a half. We have been requested by a correspondent to give the following receipt for Calf's haggis publicity, for the benefit of mankind. The St. Ronan's Club had originally no experience of it, but Dr. RedGILL was willing to stake his reputation upon it untried, and he was found right. 723.Calf's Haggis.--Take the veal-caul (or web of fat,) the udder, the kidney, and best part of the calf's pluck. Blanch and boil the udder, and the split kidney and pluck, for twenty minutes. When cool, mince them; mince also the caul. Blanch and hash two dozen sprigs of picked young parsley, a few green onions very young, a bit of eschalot, and a few mushrooms, if you have them. Stew the herbs in butter for three or four minutes, and moisten them with a glass of Madeira. When this gets dry, season with salt and pepper. Mix the ingredients, i, e. the herbs and mince. Calf'S HAGGIS. 427 Put them into a bag as other haggis; but for security have two bags, one casing the other, for fear of a breach. Mix meanwhile the beat yolks of two eggs with a half-pint of rich and highly-seasoned veal or beef gravy, and two spoonfuls of pounded and soaked rusks. Put this into the bag with the other materials, and the squeeze of a lemon, and when sewed up, toss it about to blend them all, and boil in water, fresh broth if you have it; pricking the bag to let out the air, as in your other receipts. Boil three hours. 723.3 Haggis Royal.-We find this receipt for Haggis Royal in the Minutes of Sederunt of the St. Ronan's CLUB: —“Three pounds of leg of mutton chopped ; a pound of suet chopped ; a little, or rather as much beef-marrow as you can spare ; the crumb of a penny loaf (our own nutty- flavoured, browned oatmeal is, by the way, far better ;) the beat yolks of four eggs; a half-pint of red wine; three mellow fresh anchovies boned: minced parsley, lemon grate, white pepper, crystals of cayenne to taste,-crystals alone ensure a perfect diffusion of the flavour,-blend the ingredients well : truss them neatly in a veal caul; bake in a deep dish, in a quick oven, and turn out. Serve hot as fire, with brown-gravy, and venison-sauce.” 724. Scottish Fat Brose.— Boil an ox-head, sheep's head, ox-heel, or shin of beef, till an almost pure oil floats on the top of the pot. Have some oatmeal well toasted before the fire, as in making haggis ; put a handful of the meal into a basin with salt, and pouring a ladleful of the fat broth over it, stir it quickly up with the handle of a spoon, so as not to run into one doughy mass, but to form knots. 725. Kail-brose is inade as in the above receipt, but of fat broth in which shred greens have been boiled. 726. Cock-a-leekie. - Boil from four to six pounds of good shin-beef, well broken, till the liquor is very good. Strain it, and put to it a capon, or large fowl, trussed as for boiling, and, when it boils, half the quantity of blanched leeks intended to be used, well cleaned, and cut in inch-lengths, or longer. Skim this carefully. In a half-hour add the remaining part of the leeks, and a seasoning of pepper and salt. The soup must be very 428 CHAP, III.-SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. thick of leeks, and the first part of them must be boiled down into the soup till it becomes a green lubricous com- pound. Sometimes the capon is served in the tureen with the cock-a-leekie. This makes good leek-soup without a a fowl.-Obs. Some people thicken cock-a-leekie with the fine part of oatmeal. Those who dislike so much of the leeks may substitute shred German greens, or spinage and parsley, for one-half of them, and we consider this an im- provement, the greens especially, if tender and long boiled, without being too finely shred. Reject the coarse green part of the leeks. Prunes and raisins used to be put into this soup. The practice is obsolete. 727. Balnamoon Skink, an Irish Soup.-Clean and cut into pieces two or three young cocks, or fowls. Have one larger neatly trussed as for boiling. Boil the cut fowls till the broth is as strong and good as they can make it; but do not overboil the uncut fowl. Strain the broth, season it with parsley, chives, and young onions chopped, and, if in season, a few tender green peas. Add white pepper and salt, and serve the whole fowl in the tureen, or separately.-Obs. This soup may be immensely improved in quality and appearance by adding, before serving, a liaison of two beat eggs, and a little cream. It is another variety of the Scottish Friars’ Chicken, or Cock-a-leekie : dishes which, under some name, are, with whatever modifi- cation of seasonings, familiar in every country where a backward system of husbandry renders indifferent poultry plentiful, and shambles-meat scarce. N.B.— Without desiring to innovate on these national preparations, we would recommend, for the sake of the ladies' dresses, and the gentlemen's toil in fishing it up, that the fowl be carved before it is served in the tureen. 728. Scottish Hotch-potch. — Make the stock of sweet fresh lamb or mutton. Grate the zest of two or three large young carrots ; slice down as many more. Slice down also sweet young turnips, young onions, lettuce, and parsley. Have a full quart of these things when shred, and another of young green peas and sprigs of cauliflower. Put in the vegetables, withholding half the peas till nearer the end of the process. Cut down three pounds of ribs of HOTCH-POTCH. 429 lamb into small steaks, trimming off superfluous fat, and put them to the stock. Boil well and skim carefully ; add the remaining peas, white pepper, and salt; and when thick enough, serve the steaks in the tureen with the hotch-potch.-Obs. The excellence of this favourite dish depends mainly on the meat, whether lamb or mutton, being perfectly fresh, and the vegetables being all young, and full of sweet juices, and boiled till of good consistence. The sweet white turnip is best for hotch-potch, or the small, round, smooth-grained yellow kind peculiar to Scot- land, and almost equal to the genuine Navet of France. Mutton-chops make excellent hotch-potch without any lamb-steaks. Parsley shred, white cabbage, asparagus- points, or cauliflower may be added to the other vegetables or not, at pleasure. The meat may be kept whole, and served separately.-See No. 99. Of this receipt when it first appeared in our work, a great poet, and no con- temptible gastronome, said, “Eve might have prepared it for Adam in paradise.” There are many varieties of Scottish hotch-potch; we give what we consider the best. 729. Winter Hotch-potch, or German Broth.—This dish may be made of either fresh beef, or of a neck or back- ribs of mutton, or of a mixture of both. Cut four pounds of meat into handsome pieces. Boil and skim this well, and add carrots and turnips sliced, sniall leeks and parsley cut down, and some German greens finely shred, and if tender, put in only a half-hour before the soup is com- pleted. Season with pepper and salt. The quantity of vegetables must be suited to the quantity of meat, so that the soup may have consistence, but not be disagreeably thick. Serve the meat and soup together. Have, if you like, rice or dry green peas boiled in it, which last is an im- provement.--Obs. The meat may be kept whole and served as Bouilli Ordinaire, No. 99. Another way.--Take a neck of mutton, a large pint of cut carrot and turnip, and three-quarters of a pound of well-soaked peas. Boil for an hour and a half. In half an hour add a few small mutton-chops to serve in the tureen, and minced parsley and onion. The peas may be FISH AND SAUCE. 431 pieces may previously be browned in the frying-pan. Season highly with mixed spices and a half-cupful of catsup. This dish may be enriched with oysters, shrimps, or muscles prepared : or with fish farce-balls. The sauce or soup should be rather thicker than in the former receipt. Serve as above. Some will like celery in this dish. For modern taste, the fish may be filleted, which gets rid of the bones, and the dish looks better. 733. Friar's Chicken. - Make a clear stock of veal or mutton knuckles, or trimmings of fowls, or butter. Strain this into a very nice saucepan, and put a fine white chicken, or young fowl or two, cut down as for currie, into it. Season with salt, white pepper, a blade of mace, and shred parsley. Thicken, when the soup is finished, with the beat yolks of two eggs and a glass of cream, and take great care that they do not curdle. Serve with the carved chicken in the soup. — Obs. The stock may be simply made of butter, and the meat may be lightly browned in the frying-pan and strained before it is put to the soup. Rabbits make this very well. Some like the egg curdled, and egg in great quantity, making the dish a sort of ragout of eggs and chicken. 734. Scottish Minced Collops and Beef Gobbets.- Mince a fleshy piece of beef, free of skins and gristles, very fine, and season it with salt and mixed spices. Mix up the collops thoroughly with a little water or stock; and, hav- ing browned some butter in a saucepan, put them to it, and beat them well with a wooden spoon, till they are nearly ready, to keep them from going into lumps. Put more gravy to them, or a little broth made of the skins and gristles. Cook for twelve minutes. -Obs. Minced col- lops of beef may be dressed like Dr. Hunter's dinner for an invalid, No. 1248, and will be as light. Shred onions are relished by some persons, and a little made-mustard : pickles* or vinegars, plain or flavoured, are also used. Minced collops will keep some time, if packed in a can and covered * Though in all Scottish cookery-books pickles are ordered to be mixed with minced collops and other ragouts, the Sr. Ronan's CLUB refuse their sanction to the semi-barbarous practice of mingling crude vegetables with fresh-dressed meat. Hashes require piquancy - P.T. 432 CHAP. 111.—SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. like potted meats. Some cooks scrape the meat, or beat it, instead of mincing it: with herbs, chopped eggs, suet, and seasonings, it is then a good forcemeat. Beef may be cut into bits, or beef gobbets, the size of a pigeon's egg, dressed as above, with a little of any nice gravy seasoned, and be covered with bread-crumbs, browned with a sala- mander, and served as a small made-dish. Veal may also be dressed in gobbets in the same manner, and both make an inexpensive variety. There are several varieties of the above useful National dish, but none so good as the freshly prepared simple Minced Collops. As a lighter dish for an invalid, mashed turnips may be put to it. It is lightest made thin, and cooked for fifteen minutes. Some people come to like minced collops after the mince is soured in the potting-cansor, in fact fermenting. 735. Hare, Venison, and Veal Collops are made the same as Beef minced collops, using the seasonings appro- priate to those savoury preparations. See No. 55. 736. Potted Head, Potted Heels, 8C.-Dress a bullock's head as directed for ox-cheek-soup, No.91, and, when boiled till very tender, cut the meat into small pieces as directed, No. 460. Strain the gravy ; season it highly with mixed spices and mace, and return the whole into a clean saucepan. Boil for some time, and pour it out into stoneware shapes or basins, and when cold and wanted, turn it out. This makes a pretty corner-dish, or supper-dish. Garnish with a wreath of curled parsley, or sliced beetroot pickled. Cow- HEELS and Calf's HEAD are potted in the same manner; but season potted calf's head with lemon-peel and juice of lemon.–See No. 91. 737. A Stoved Howtowdie, with Drappit Eggs.- Prepare and stuff with forcemeat a young plump fowl. Put it into a yetlin concave-bottomed small pot with a close- fitting lid, with six button-onions, spices, and at least a quarter-pound of butter. Add some fine herbs. When the fowl has hardened, and been turned, add a half-pint or rather more of boiling water or stock. Fit on the lid very close, and set the pot over embers. A cloth may be wrapped round the lid, if it is not luted on. An hour will do a young fowl, and so on in proportion. Have a little WHITE PUDDINGS. 433 seasoned gravy, in which parboil the liver. Poach* nicely in this gravy five or six eggs. Dress them on flattened balls of spinage round the dish on which you serve the fow). Rub down the liver to thicken the gravy and liquor in which the fowl was stewed, which reduce and pour over it for sauce, skimming it nicely, and serv- ing all very hot.- Obs. This is a nice small Scottish dish. Mushrooms, oysters, forcemeat-balls, &c., may be added to enrich it; or celery may be put to the sauce; the spinage may be, and often is, omitted. Slices of curled broiled ham may be served round the fowl. Two young boiled or stewed fowls, with a small salted tongue between them, make a good family-dinner dish. — Obs. Chickens and young fowls are dressed, in Germany, exactly like the Scottish howtowdie ; from which we discard all oysters and farce-balls, using simply the drappit-egg and spinage; or, at most, a few very thin slices of broiled bacon, with fried eggs. In Germany, chickens are steeped in lemon- juice, spices, and parsley, and cut up, fried, and served with fried eggs. 738. Scottish White Puddings.—Mince good beef-suet, but not too finely, and mix it with about a third of its own weight of highly-toasted oatmeal. Season highly with pepper and salt. Have the skins thoroughly cleaned and cut of equal lengths. Fill them with the ingredients, and sew or fasten the ends with a wooden pin or small feather, Boil the puddings for an hour, pricking them as they swell in the pot with a needle to let out the air. They will keep for months laid in bran or oatmeal. When to be used, warm them through in hot water; then cook on the gridiron, on oiled paper, (or without,) and serve very hot. -See No. 697. 739. Liver Puddings are made as above, using par- boiled liver grated in the proportion of one-fourth; the rest suet and meal, with the above seasonings, and onions shred. 740. To Roast a Pig, Scottish way. The directions of a thorough-bred Scottish cook, sanctioned by experience, authorize us to recommend that a pig intended for roast- ing should be slightly rubbed with melted butter whenever * This is exactly the French dish Eufs pochés au jus. 2 E 434 CHAP. 111.—SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. it has warmed at the fire : then quickly dredge every part with fine flour; keep the spit turning continually, but slowly, allowing twenty minutes for each pound-weight in the roast; and frequently dredging it, that the skin may have a complete superficies of flour, unifornı as on the locks of an antiquated beau of the last century, shrouding the encroachments of Time beneath the powder of Fashion. When the pig has performed the specified revolutions be- fore a clear fire, let the flour be blown off with a small handy pair of bellows; and with a large piece of butter, within a single press of clean linen, rub the skin all over, turning the roast with great deliberation. Persevere in this unction a quarter of an hour, and the pig-crackling will be exquisitely crisp. (From a Correspondent.)—See also No. 20, and French Mode, No. 656. 741. Pig's Cheek, by a Scottish Lady's Receipt, equal to Le Moine Blanc.—Split a large fat head, take out the brains, cut off the ears. Lay the head in water and salt for one day, and boil slowly till the bones will come out. Care- fully take off the skin. Mince the meat while still hot. Season with pepper and allspice (nutmeg and mace if you please.) Press the mince in a pudding-pan, very firmly. Put a weight over it. It will get quite firm, and slice like Bologna sausage. It may be kept in a cold pickle made of its liquor, with vinegar and salt boiled in it. Serve with vinegar and mustard.-See Nos. 20, 656, 658. 742. Glasgow and Birmingham Hot Tripe. -- When fat tripe is well cleaned and blanched as directed at No. 16, cut it into pieces ; roll these up neatly, fasten with a thread, and with a sawed marrow-bone, or knuckle, or trimmings of veal, place them in a jar or tin vessel, like a pudding-mould, or steamer with a close-fitting lid, with pepper and salt. Place the closed jar in a pot of water, which keep full as it boils away. It will take eight hours at least. Or the jar may be placed in a slack oven, if more convenient, and boil away. Keep the tripe in its own jelly in the jar, and dress it as wanted, as directed in Nos. 16, 56, 626, 743, 765. Birmingham, and some other English towns, are as famous for tripe as Glasgow is, and as, in the olden time, Edinburgh was. The tripe, if not TO FRY TRIPE. 435 dressed for private consumption, is sold hot; the dealers giving a piece of each sort, and a quantity of the liquor, which with salt and mustard, or stewed or roasted onions, forms the sole sauce. 743. To Fry Tripe, Scottish fashion. — This dish is economical, palatable, and agreeable to the eye. The pieces of tripe left after an ordinary stew, are quite fit for the present purpose ; or if you are to use tripe just taken from its own jelly, it must be wiped and stewed in warm milk, with a small piece of butter and salt. Simmer it slowly till very tender. This should be done in time to let it be thoroughly cold, before the finishing ingredients are added. For these make a batter with three eggs well beaten, allowing a spoonful of flour to each egg, and as much milk as will make a thick batter; Season with ginger, onions, or chives, and parsley minced very fine. Cut the tripe in small cutlets, dip in the water, and fry in beef-dripping. If you think the batter is not thick enough to cover the tripe with a fine brown crust when fried, add a little more flour to it.--See Nos. 626, 16, 56, 742. 744. Scottish Fine Puddings in Skins.--Mince apples and grate plain biscuits ; take an equal weight to these of minced suet. Sweeten this with sugar, and season with cinnamon and grated nutmeg. Moisten the whole with wine or any well-flavoured liquor, and mix and fill the skins, but not too full, as the biscuit swells. Boil two hours, and serve hot.- Obs. These will keep for a week or ten days, and re-warm by boiling ; they may then be browned in the Dutch oven. - Another kind of fine skin pudding is made of rice boiled in milk, with suet, currants, sugar, and seasonings. The suet in these puddings should not be shred too small, which makes it thaw and disap- pear; nor yet left in lumps. See Boudins, No. 697. 745. Scottish Black Puddings. – Salt the hog's blood when drawn; strain it; mix it with a little sweet milk or stock ; stir into it shred suet and dried oatmeal, with plenty of pepper, salt, and minced onions. Fill the skins, and boil and then broil as white puddings, 738. Savoury herbs may be added.-N.B. Blood will curdle if boiled too quick. This national preparation is much superior to 436 CHAP, III.-SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. the English receipts.-See No. 718. Of all blood that of the hog is thought the richest, and this is always employed in France in their boudins of this kind, which are excellent. The blood of the hare has the most delicate flavour of any, but is not to be got in sufficient quantity for pud- dings.See BOUDINS— French Cookery. 746. — Oatmeal Dumpling, or a Fitless Cock. — This antique Scottish dish, which is now seldom seen at any table, is made of suet and oatmeal, with a seasoning of pepper, salt, and shred onions, as for white puddings, the mixture being bound together with an egg. It must be boiled in a cloth, like a dumpling, or a collar. 747. Crappit Heads, or Fish with Forcemeat. — The original Scottish farce for fish, was simply oatmeal, minced suet or butter, pepper, salt, and onions, made into a coarse forcen eat, for stuffing the heads of haddocks and whitings. Modern CRAPPIT HEADS are farced with the ingredients mentioned in Nos. 134, 149; or with the fleshy parts of a boiled lobster or crab, minced ; a boned anchovy, the chopped yolk of an egg, grated bread or pounded biscuit, white pepper, salt, cayenne, a large piece of butter broken down into bits, with beat eggs to bind, and a little oyster- liquor. A plainer and perhaps as suitable stuffing may be made of the soft roe of haddock or cod parboiled, skinned, and minced, mixed with double its bulk of pounded rusks or bread-crumbs, a good piece of butter, shred parsley, and seasonings, with an egg to cement the forcemeat. Place the crappit or stuffed heads on end, in the bottom of a buttered stew-pan; pour the fish-soup gently over them ; cover and boil a half-hour. Rizzared Haddocks. - This receipt we consider the ne plus ultra of haddock cookery. Clean thoroughly a Cromarty Bay or Moray Firth moderate sized haddock. Rub it with a very little salt. Hang it on a fish-hake, and next morning cut off the head, take out the back-bone, skin, dust with flour, and broil it and serve with slices of fresh butter. In two days its flavour will have deterio- rated. It is an excellent dish for a convalescent. 748. Sheep's-Head Broth.*-Choose a large, fat, young * This National preparation was wont to be a favourite Sunday- SHEEP'S-HEAD BROTA. 437 ever W head. When carefully singed by the blacksmith, if it cannot be done at home, soak it and the singed trotters dinner dish in many comfortable Scottish families. Where gentle- men“ killed their own mutton,” the head was reserved for the Sunday's broth ; and to good family customers and victuallers, a prime tup's head was a common Saturday's gift from the butchers with whom they dealt. By the way, nationally speaking, we ought to say fleshers, as our countrymen would, till very lately, have been mortally offended at the designation of“ butcher.” Sheep's-head broth is reckoned medicinal in certain cases; and was frequently prescribed as an article of diet by the celebrated Dr. Cullen. This dish has furnished whole pages to Joe Miller and his right witty contemporaries. In one of the most pleasing pieces of biography that was written, “ The Life of Lady Grizel Baillie,” there is an amusing “Sheep's-head anecdote,” which at once affords a glimpse of the simplicity of the National manners, and of the dexterity and good sense of the affectionate and very juvenile heroine. Her father, Sir Patrick Home, proscribed after the Restoration, was hidden near his own mansion, - his lady and his daughter Grizel being alone privy to place of concealment. It was the duty of this young girl, not only to carry food to her father during the night, but to abstract these sup- plies from the dinner-table, so that neither the servants nor younger children might be aware that there was an invisible guest to feed. Her inordinate appetite and stratagems to procure food became the cause of many jokes at table; and one day, when a sheep's head — a favourite dish with Sir Patrick-was produced, she had just conveyed nearly the whole into her lap, when her young brother, afterwards Earl of March- inont, looked up, and exclaimed, — “ Mother, mother, look at Grizel ; while we have been taking our broth, she has eaten up the whole sheep's head !”—The consternation of young Home could not, however, exceed that of a learned gentleman, who lately filled a chair in the Edinburgh University, upon a somewhat similar occasion. Before filling his late honourable situation, Professor - - was for some W years a professor in S- - College ; and, as might have been sur- mised, in the lapse of those years of exile, experienced a natural and national longing for that savoury food, which to a Scotsman is like his mother's milk. A sheep's head was accordingly procured by his orders, and sent to the blacksmith's to be singed. The hour of dinner arrived ; the chops of the learned professor watered with expectation ; when, lo! to his disappointment and horror, the fleshless skull was presented ; and, doubly worse, accompanied with the sauce of a bill, setting forth, “ To polishing a sheep's head for Professor - -, one shilling and fourpence !” — Thus making the unfortunate philosopher come down with sixteen shillings, Scots money, for being deprived of the exquisite pleasure which he had anticipated in polishing the skull himself. The village of Duddingston was long celebrated for “ sheep's head," and consequently a favourite resort of the frugal citizens of Edinburgh. Sheep's head clubs were not unfrequent throughout the country, and “ THE Tup's HEAD DINNER” about Michaelmas-day is still a high and appropriate solemn festival with the official dignitaries in certain of our Scottish Royal boroughs. — This was first said before the days of REFORM. They may, alas ? have changed all that now. 438 CHAP. III.-SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. for a night, if you please, in lukewarm water.—Take out the glassy part of the eyes only, scrape the head and trotters, and brush till perfectly clean and white; then split the head with a cleaver, and lay aside the brains, &c.; clean the nostrils and gristly parts, split also the trotters, and cut out the tendons. Wash the head and feet once more, and let them blanch till wanted for the pot. Take a large cupful of barley, and about twice that quantity of soaked white, or dried or fresh green peas, with a gallon or rather more of water. Put to this the head tied up, and from two to three pounds of scrag or trimmings of mutton, perfectly sweet, and some salt. Take off the scum very carefully as it rises, and the broth will be as limpid and white as any broth made of beef or mutton. When the head has boiled rather more than an hour, add sliced carrot and turnip, afterwards some onions, and lastly parsley shred. A head or two of celery sliced is admired by some modern gourmands, though we rather approve of the native flavour of this really excellent soup. The more slowly the head is boiled, the better will both the meat and soup be. From three to five hours' boiling, according to the size of the head and the age of the animal, and an hour's simmering by the side of the fire, will finish the soup. Many prefer the head of a ram to that of a wether, but it requires much longer boiling. In either case the trotters require rather less boiling than the head. Serve with the trotters, and sliced carrot round the head. A pound or two of scrag is a great addition. Sheep's head, not too much boiled, makes a good pie, if nicely cut down with the peeled tongue, or an excellent ragout or hash of higher flavour than calf's head ragout. -Obs. The sauces ordered for boiled mutton and cow-heel are well adapted to this dish, if sauce must be had where it is so little required.* For the ragorit, a sauce may be * The reviewer of the first edition of this work in Blackwood's Maga- zine suggests that there should be two heads and eight trotters, which admirable emendation certainly more than doubles the value of our receipt. LAMB'S HEAD. 439 made of the broth seasoned and thickened with butter, flour, and chopped parsley. See No. 99. 748.2 The Scottish dressed Lamb's Head - a remove of fish or soup as a top-dish. – This dish is a universal favourite in its native land, and in nothing inferior to the best French style of dressing. See Nos. 457 and 499. Take out the watery part of the eyes; scald and clean the head. Boil it and the appurtenances as directed at No. 722; but keep one half of the liver to fry. Boil the lights for at least two hours, the heart, head, and half the liver and heart, for one hour. Mince the heart, half the liver, and the tongue peeled ; season the mince with pepper, salt, and chopped parsley, and put it to stew with a little good stock. Split the head and take out the brains, of which to make brain-cakes, as directed at No. 538. Brushı the spread-out split head with egg, and crumb it with fine crumbs seasoned with pepper, salt, and minced parsley ; stir more egg into the crumbs, and crumb again and again until the meat of the head is well covered with a thick layer as it browns in the Dutch oven. Stick bits of butter over it, and baste with its own gravy. Have the brain-cake batter ready; slice in scollops the half liver reserved, and fry as directed at No. 53. Fry the brain- cakes, in cakes of about the size of the mouth of a small tea- cup. Add a squeeze of lemon, or a point of cayenne to the hash if you choose, and serve it under the browned head, with brain-cakes and scollops of liver alternately around it. This dish is not nearly so savoury where the neck is not left on the head as it is in Scotland. The neck cooked as above is perhaps the most delicate preparation of lamb. 749. Leek-Porridge.* - Make this as cock-a-leekie, and thicken with toasted or fried bread. Prunes are sometimes * The Leek is one of the most honourable and ancient of pot- herbs. It is called par excellence “ the herb ;” and learned critics assert that our word porridge or pottage is derived from the Latin porrus, a leek. 6 From Indus to Peru," the adoration of the garlic, onion, and leek is universal. The leek is the badge of a high-spirited, honourable, and fiery nation-the Ancient Britons. In the old poetry 440 CHAP. 111.-SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. put into this composition. The custom is nearly obsolete. -See No. 726. 750. Pan-Kail, a Maigre Soup.-Mince cabbage, savoys, or German greens; boil them in water, thickened with oatmeal, and add a piece of butter or dripping, salt, and pepper. Kail is also made by parboiling and mashing the greens, putting them to hot pot-liquor, and thickening the soup with bread or pounded biscuit. Both must be a rather thick pottage. 751. Plum-Porridge. — Boil ten pounds of a shin for five hours in a gallon of water. Skim carefully. Strain off the liquor, and put to it a piece of veal cut from the fillet. Soften the crumb of a penny loaf in the soup, and beat it smoothly. Thicken the soup with this, and put to it a half pound of stoned raisins, and a half pound of stoned prunes, a pound of currants well cleaned, and some pepper, mace, and grated nutmeg. When the fruit is soft, the dish is ready. A little more bread may be used, if greater consistence is wanted, and the veal may be omitted. 751.2 Breakfast Potatoes. - We must confess, that in Ireland, and the Highlands and Isles of Scotland, our gorge has rebelled against the usual dish of boiled potatoes at breakfast time; but the mashed potatoes of the former day, sliced and broiled, are an admirable accom- paniment to broiled ham, or a rizzared haddock. 752. A Pilau. — Stew some rice in stock, or with butter, and season it with white pepper, mace, cayenne, and cloves. Place two small boiled fowls, or a few dressed veal or mutton cutlets, in the centre of a large dish, and Jay some slices of boiled bacon around them. Cover with boiled rice; smooth and glaze the rice with egg, and set the dish before the fire or in the oven, to brown. Garnish with divided yolks of hard-boiled eggs and fried onions, or use forcemeat balls.--Obs. This is no bad dish, what- ever country owns it. A more Oriental complexion may of the Northern nations, where a young man would now be styled the flower, he was called “the leek of his family, or tribe," -- an epithet of most savoury meaning. PILAU OF VEAL. 441 be given to the dish by frying the rice in butter, stirring it with a fork till of a light brown, and then stewing it in stock till soft.* -See No. 755. 753. Pilau of Veal — Half-roast a breast of veal, and cut it into small neat pieces. Season these highly, and stew them in rich gravy. Lay a casserole of rice round a dish, and put the meat in the centre. Cover with more rice, and set the dish in the oven for a short time, having first glazed it with eggs.—Obs. Currie-powder may with advantage be used for this pilau ; and it may be made of dressed veal. Pilau is also made baked, of a mix- ture of bacon, chicken, and onions, in layers. A fowl, capon, or small turkey, trussed as for boiling, makes an handsome pilau dressed as in this receipt; but cover the breast with bacon, which remove before dishing. A hind- quarter of lamb makes a nice pilau. Braise the leg, fry the loin in steaks, and treat it as above. 754. An Olio. — Boil in a close-covered pot, a fowl, a couple of partridges, a piece of a leg of mutton, a knuckle of veal, and a few rump-steaks; also a piece of good bacon or ham. Brown the meat first; add boiling water; and when it has boiled an hour, add parsley, celery, young onions, peas, carrot, turnip, and a bit of garlic, if it is liked, with salt and mixed spices. Serve the whole to- gether, first picking out the bacon. Seasoning herbs may also be used.—See Pepper-pot, p. 172. An olio is properly a Spanish dish ; but Spain as a nation is not eminent in cookery, though the Olio, and a few more of its omne- gatherum stews of meat, pulse and roots, are worthy of atten- tion. In “ Murray's Hand-book of Spain," will be found as many Spanish receipts as any one cares for. 755. China Chilo. — Mince a pound and a half of good mutton and four ounces of mutton-suet. Stew this in stock or with butter, and add a pint of green peas, young onions, and a little shred lettuce. Skim off the fat. Season with salt, cayenne, and white pepper. Heap boiled rice round a shallow soup-dish, and serve the stew * This is the same dish known in French cookery as Capons à la Turque, except that the bodies of the fowls are then stuffed with the boiled rice. 442 CHAP. 111.—SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. or chilo in the middle.-Obs. Veal or fowl may be dressed as above. A little currie-powder may be added to the seasoning. The zest of carrots, cut in very small cubes, will supply the place of peas in winter; so will celery. 756. Fricandelle. — Take one pound of the lean of a leg of veal, half a pound of veal suet, four rusks soaked in milk, four eggs, (leaving out two whites,) some onions, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and lemon-peel ; chop all together very fine, and make three balls of it, which you must put into boiling water, and let boil four minutes. Make a gravy of the skin, bones, &c. all which must be carefully taken out of the veal. Fry the balls a light brown in butter, and stew them half an hour in the gravy. Gar- nish the dish with slices of lemon ; thicken the sauce with butter rolled in flour, if too thin. It ought to be very thick. (From a Correspondent.) — Obs. This may be made of beef, or of fowl, or game ; it may also be baked in a mould and turned out.—See No. 692. 757. Mullagatauny, or Currie Soup, as made in India.-Have ready pounded and sifted an ounce of cori- ander seeds, the third of an ounce of cassia, three drachms of black and two of cayenne pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of China turmeric; mix them well. This quantity will do either for two chickens, a large fowl, or three pounds of meat. Cut down the meat in small pieces, and let it boil slowly for a half-hour in two quarts of water ; then put to it four onions, and three cloves of garlic shred and fried in two ounces of butter. Mix down the season- ings with a little of the broth and rice-flour, and strain them into the stew-pan, which must simmer till the soup is smooth and thick as cream. When it is within five minutes of being finished, add the juice of a lemon, or citric acid in the same proportion. Serve the meat and soup in a tureen ; and boiled rice in a hot water dish. This is a good plain currie soup; but for plain English people, use fewer coriander seeds, and less turmeric ; and blanch the garlic in two waters. Though there is no acid for cookery equal in delicacy to lemon acid, sour apples, tamarinds, and other things are often used to acidulate curries.—See Nos. 82, and 355. RECIPES FOR CURRIE POWDERS. 413 VARIOUS RECIPES FOR CURRIE POWDERS. 758. — Have of fresh seeds of the best quality, coriander four ounces, cummin two ounces, fenugræck two ounces, cayenne a quarter of an ounce, China turmeric six ounces. Dry, pound, sift, and weigh the seeds, and use them in the above proportions, adding more cayenne, with acids and turmeric as required, when the dish is dressing. The usual acids are very acid apples, or lemon-juice; or for some curries tamarinds. If to this you add black pepper, mustard-flour, and ginger pounded, about a half ounce of each, you have Dr. Kitchiner's Currie-Powder. See Simple Currie-powder, No. 1124. 758.2-Rabbit Currie, Scottish.–From causes with which we have here no concern, Scotland within the last twenty years, and especially in the neighbourhood of the preserves of great landed proprietors, is overrun with rabbits : they are, however, though perhaps not worth their keep, found very useful to small families far from markets They are dressed in every way for which we have given receipts, but perhaps, next to the oldest way of No. 15, there is none better than the modern mode of-currie.--Choose one or two, as you wish, fat, fresh rabbits : examine the kidney. Carve each into at least twelve nice pieces : brown these in butter, with onions. When browned, if you wish deli- cate cookery, pour off the butter, and add three quarters of a pint of well-seasoned stock for each rabbit, a spoonful of currie-powder, and one of flour, and six ounces of streaky bacon cut in half inch cubes or dice, and also a half dozen button onions for each rabbit : season with a tea-spoon- ful of mushroom-powder. Simmer this slowly for half an hour at least ; stirring it like all curries. Add what more seasoning you think required, as cayenne, a little turmeric, or some acid. Pile up the pieces of rabbit, and pour the sauce,—which should be thickish, as in all currie dishes-over : serve plain boiled rice in a separate dish as. with all curries. Fresh cocoa-nut, now obtained so reason- ably, is an excellent ingredient in mild curries. Rasp and stew it the whole time : we do not like green vegetables in curries, though they are sometimes used. Mushrooms are an enrichment, and celery is good. 441 CHAP. 111.---SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. 759. The Spanish Puchero.-Cut down as for our family currie, three pounds of shin of beef, a half pound of salt pork, a fowl, with the gizzard and liver, a turnip and carrot cut down ; three onions, and a clove of garlic, a bunch of parsley, a high seasoning of black pepper, and salt to taste. Add the small peas called Garbanzas, (if you can get them, or substitute cooked chestnuts : stew very slowly in three pints of water. This, we fear, is but a poor imitation of the genuine Puchero, and yet no bad dish. 760. The Garbure, a Dish of the North of Europe.- Take a fresh hock of ham, a knuckle of veal, and six pounds of the flank piece of beef well beat Sweat this over a slow fire, with a bunch of parsley, three onions stuck with cloves, and three carrots, putting in a pint of stock or water at the first. When the meat is well heated, and the juices drawn out, add five or six pints of stock, and stew the whole slowly for two hours. Have some firm white cabbages cleaned, quartered, and blanched, and braise them between layers of bacon with a little broth till rich and mellow, when they must be put to the broth; now add ten small sausages, or the legs of salted geese previously dressed. Toast slices of rye-bread, (or brown bread as a substitute,) and on a bed of this lay the cabbage, drained of fat, with the ham above it in the middle, and the sausages or geese-legs round it. Serve the broth separately as a soup. Make the quantities to suit, as in all receipts, but the above are the proportions. 761. German Onion Beef, or Zwiebel Fleisch.-Put six pounds of the thin flank (skinned if you choose) to two quarts of water or weak fresh broth; stew it an hour in a close stew-pan. Add to it the thin rind of two lemons, a quarter-ounce of bruised cloves, two bay-leaves, one dozen black and two dozen Jamaica peppercorns, in a spice-bag, and salt; stew a half-hour. Add a dozen large sliced onions, and stew till they are tender. Skim off the fat, and thicken the gravy. Boil up, season and dish, taking out the pepper, rinds, and bay leaves. 762. German Sauer Crout, a substitute for Potatoes.- Shred down, as if for pickling, eighteen or twenty large, RECIPES FOR CURRIE POWDERS. 445 firm, white drum-cabbages, fully ripened, and better if mellowed by frost. Fumigate a tight, clean cask, or butter tub, by burning a handful of green wood in it. Rub the seams with a dough made of vinegar and flour, or leaven, and strew in a handful of salt, with a few carra- way seeds; and so proceed with alternate layers of sliced cabbage, and salt and carraway seeds, till the vessel is filled, pressing every successive layer firmly down. Pour off part of the liquor which will collect on the top when the cabbage is pressed down. Cover, and place the vessel in a rather warm temperature, when the cabbage will quickly ferment. When it has fermented for above a fortnight, take off the scum ; throw a piece of cloth over the cabbage, and put on the head of the cask, which press down on the cabbages with heavy stones, keeping them always covered with the pickle-liquor. In a cool, dry cellar, it will keep for years. Two ounces of salt will be sufficient for a large cabbage. (Gin, juniper-berries, and wine, are suggested by French cooks for Sauer Crout. Absurdities :) When wanted, boil in water for three or four hours; drain and stew in broth, or with a piece of coarse beef or a knuckle of ham. It is served with or over dry hashes, or sliced meat re-dressed ; also, instead of potato-paste, and over beef-steak pie, or stewed duck (next receipt) or goose salted ; and is a good accompaniment to many meat dishes that used to be served with mashed potatoes. Old cheese is sometimes grated over the cooked crout. 762.2 Duck with Sauer Crout, German. - Braise a half- pound of drained sauer crout with a good piece of bacon, parsley, onions, spices, and sweet herbs, and any fresh braise liquor you have. Lay the duck in the middle of it, cover with more slices of bacon; moisten with top-fat, and stew slowly. When about half-done, add some small sausages. Drain the sauer crout when ready to serve, and place the duck over it, with the sausages around.-Obs. These dishes are for the first course in place of our soups, and must be served in deep dishes. 763. Provence Brandade, an excellent way of dressing Salt Fish.-Soak in water and brush the fish, (some use - lime-water to whiten, but we do not recommend it.) Stew 448 CHAP. III.-SCOTCH AND OTHER NATIONAL DISHES. palatable and even elegant dish somewhat resembles the Italian pastes. Potatoes, and a species of pumpkin, are roasted, the pulp taken out and kneaded with salt and eggs. The paste is then rolled out, cut into little bits about the size of a dollar, and boiled for a quarter of an hour in milk sweetened. 768. Le Bon Diable.—This favourite bonne bouche, for which we have obtained the receipt from a lady who has contributed many valuable articles to this work, is thus prepared at Pondicherry : – Score the devil (whether of duck, goose, or turkey) deeply in all directions; and, sea- soning it highly with mixed spice3, send it from the table to be broiled. Meanwhile, take from each dish at table a spoonful of sauce or gravy, and, stirring this well in a silver saucepan over the fire, have it ready, boiling-hot, to pour over the grill, or bon diable, which is then handed round.–Obs. The parts usually deviled are the rump, the gizzard, and drumsticks. Soy, lemon-juice, and made- mustard may be added to the sauce.-See Devils and Salmis, Nos. 550, 672, 3, 4.- Deviled Almonds to serve with Wine. Blanch, dry, and fry them in fresh butter, of a light brown. Drain, dust with salt and cayenne pepper, and serve hot as a relish. 769. Indian Burdwan. — This eastern preparation is of the English genus Devil, or French Salmi. It is made of cold poultry, kid, rabbits, venison, or other game, but is best of venison. Make a sauce of melted butter with cayenne, or, if possible, a fresh Chili; a bit of garlic, essence of anchovy, and a sliced Spanish onion. Stew over a spirit- lamp till the onion is pulpy, when the Burdwan will be ready. Squeeze in å lime or Seville orange. Serve round very hot.* * It would be very easy to swell this section of our MANUAL with a formidable array of uncouth dishes and strange names, with Indian, Syrian, Turkish, and Persian Yaughs, Cabaubs, and Cuscussuies, &c. as modern travellers, and particularly the French, have paid consider- able attention to Asiatic cookery ; but this we consider mere waste of space, which may be more usefully employed. We have however been requested to make room for this Italian preparation :- Sughlio, or Gravy of Beef extracted in Wine.- This Italian prepara- tion is a rich gravy, in which fowls, game, mullet, truffles, macaroni, PASTRY, PIES, &c. 449 On other NATIONAL Dishes we have nothing more to say. When not French or Anglo-French, they are barbarous; of the fourteenth century, or earlier.— The cookery of our ancestors is not to be boasted of; but in improvement, if France took the lead, England has followed. CHAPTER IV. Beasts of chase, or fowl, or game, In pastry built. MILTON. Chimeras from the poet's fancy flow; The cook contrives his shapes in real dough. King. PASTRY, PIES, PASTIES, PATTIES, PUDDINGS, &c. That grand movement in cookery, to which the experi- ments of the St. Ronan's Club have contributed not a little, has in some things produced almost an entire revo- lution. This mighty change is peculiarly visible in pastry. We have already, and repeatedly, spoken of the tendency of the age, to simplicity, elegance, and true refinement, both in the preparation of all sorts of dishes, and in table embellishments. Carême, a great cook, is great, indeed, as a pastry cook. Indeed he more excels in the entremêts than the entrées. He might have peppered a cream-tart to Haroun Alraschid, though he might not have hit the taste of George III. in that inonarch's plain chervil-seasoned vermicelli soup; nor that of his more luxurious son in turtle or punch. French pastry-cooks have nearly as many kinds of paste for their several entremets, as the meat-cooks have sauces for their entrécs. They have their and other delicacies are cooked. Prepare beef as at Nos. 59, 60, 256, but substitute Madeira or sherry for water. The pot must be carefully closed to prevent the escape of the precious steams : or the Sughlio may be prepared as well by placing the meat and wine in a jar, set in boiling water, or in an oven. Season with mace, cloves, ginger, and what other seasonings are appropriate to the thing to be afterwards cooked in this rich cullis. Onions, garlic, mushrooms, and celery are the suitable vegetables, with aromatic herbs. The meat from which the gravy is drawn need not be cut, and should not be overdone, as it will of itself afford a luxurious dish, and after being sauced will allow sufficient juices or gravy to remain to cook any thing wished in Sughlio. 2 F PUFF-PASTE. 451 tłat the icing, if put on at first, be not scorched before the fruit is sufficiently baked. A few general plain directions may be given ; but if practice and observation are essential to the proper preparation of plain pie-crust, much more are they to the finer pastes, and the management of an oven. All pies to be eaten cold must be more highly seasoned than hot ones. Fine crust for fruit should have a little sugar, and some sorts, lemon grate or juice-must not be handled much, and should be made in a room of cool temperature. Have a feather-brush to wipe off superfluous flour. Pastry- cutters and stamps of all kinds are bought in the shops. Ornaments of paste-foliage upon the edges of dressed dishes, upon dressed hams, &c., are often appropriate. To Ice, see No. 1005. 771.2 To make Puff-paste. – Have the best flour sifted, fresh, and free of damp. Take half its weight, or rather more, of fresh, or well-washed salt butter. Crumble a third part of the butter among the flour, and mixing it well and gradually, make it into dough with a proper quantity of water. Throw dry flour on the table or slab to pre- vent it from sticking, and work it up quickly to a stiff paste by kneading it beneath your hands. Roll out the paste till it is smoothly kneaded, which will be known by pressing it between the finger and thumb. Always roll from you, and not back. Divide what remains of the butter into four parts. Take the first, break it into bits, and stick it equally over the paste. Strew a little flour lightly on the butter, and clap it down to make it stick; fold up the paste in three, roll it out, and repeat the process till all the butter is used. The sooner puff-paste is baked after it is made the lighter it looks, from the folds rising distinctly. Till it is to be used, lay the folds of a wet cloth over it. It should rather be too soft than too dry ; but if too soft from heat, put it in a vessel plunged in cold water or ice. French cooks give this paste (feuilletage) five turns, or more, to make it rise lightly into many leaves. This paste, when for vol-au-vents, should get six turns and a half; that is, six turns, and be then doubled up. The more turns the more butter is required. The oven, if 4.52 CHAP. 1V.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. possible, should not be opened till puff-paste, or pâté-royale is baked; for draughts of cold air always flatten paste. French Puff-Paste of Beef Suet. — Prepare, as else- where directed, and pound good dry suet in a mortar, with a spoonful of olive oil, to which more and more is gradually added till the suet becomes like butter. Use it exactly as butter. Lard also may be employed, using half lard and half beef suet. It makes excellent paste if to be eaten hot. Cold paste eats best when made of butter only. French Puff-Paste of Lard. - To twelve ounces of flour take two of lard, and two yolks of eggs, with a little salt. Work the paste, and let it rest a few minutes, then roll it out as puff-paste, and cover it lightly with lard, (about the consistence of soft pomatum,) with a paste brush. Fold it in three layers, and roll it. Let it rest a few more minutes and brush again with lard, and proceed thus until twelve ounces of lard have been used with six- teen of four. This receipt is useful where butter is either dear or not to be had from heat of climate.- Obs. An excellent light crust is made of the fresh leaf of a fat pig, by clear- ing it of skin and fibres, and, having well washed it, incor- porating it with flour and making a paste. French Paste for Hot Pies.—To thirteen ounces of flour put, in the usual manner, (in a well or fountain,) six ounces of butter, two yolks of eggs, a tea-spoonful of salt, and a half tea-cup of water. Work it up, rubbing between the hands. 772. Savoury pies, made of fresh materials, properly seasoned, and not overdone — their besetting fault — are, whether hot or cold, very generally liked. They are eco- nomical, since a good pie may be made of a small piece of meat that would neither stew, roast, nor boil, so as to make a handsome dish ; and they are convenient at table, since they may be divided and subdivided to any length, with little trouble to the carver. Pies can be made of almost every thing, and they eat better cold than meat dressed in any other way. A solid pie is a larder in itself, and is as useful on the moors or at sea as in country situa- PASTE FOR PIES. 453 tions, where families are liable to the incursions of voracious chance visiters. ALL PIE-MEAT SHOULD BE BONED. To bone meat for pies is as requisite as to fillet fish. 772.Cheap Crust for Raised Meat-pies.-Boil an ounce of lard, and rather more of fresh dripping or butter, in about a pint of water, and make the paste of this. Knead it strongly, and beat it well with a rolling-pin. Let it stand to cool, and then raise the pie ; or cut out pieces for the top and bottom, and a long piece for the sides ; cement the bottom to the sides with egg, bringing the bottom piece beyond the sides, and pinching both together to make them join closely. Fill up the pie. Put on the top, and pinch it again close to the sides. Small raised pies may be made by lining a tin shape with a sliding bottom with paste on the bottom and sides, and putting on a top. Practice is necessary to make a raised pie.* 773. Common Paste for Savoury Pies.—To two pounds of good flour take six ounces of butter; break it down among the flour, and mix it with a couple of beat eggs and a pint of hot water. Knead it smooth, and roll out and double it three or four times. Cold paste is made as above, only use cold water. 774. Rich Paste of Beef-suet for Common Meat-pies. Cut the suet in bits, and melt it in water. Strain it into fresh water, and when cold, press out the water, and pound it in a mortar with a little oil, till it come to the consistence of butter. Use this for making pie-crust, half a pound to a pound of flour.—See Clarified Suet, No. 44. 775. Common Tart-paste. — Make as No. 773, only use a little inore butter, and a spoonful of sugar, if requisite. 776. Short Crust for preserved Sweets.—To a pound of the finest flour put a half-pound of fresh butter, the beat yolks of two eggs, and three ounces of fine sifted loaf-sugar. Mix this up with hot milk, knead it lightly, but smoothly, and ice the paste when ready. Cream may be used, and more butter.—Obs. The more finely the butter is * Cooks also use strong pasteboard rims or moulds for fortifying the walls of raised pies. The thing must be seen. We cannot describe it. 454 CHAP. IV.—PASTRY, PIES, &c. crumbled down among the flour, the shorter will the crust eat. Those who dislike sweet crust may either entirely omit or use only half the quantity of sugar. The above paste is generally employed to line tart pans. This paste may be perfumed by tincturing it with rose or orange- flower water, — almond-paste will enrich it. It may, where suitable, be flavoured with lemon-juice. In this department, like every other, mach is left to the taste and discretion of the cook. 777. Venison-Pasty Crust. - Make a paste in the pro- portion of two pounds of flour to twenty ounces of butter, with six beat eggs and hot water. Roll it out three times, double it, and the last time let the part intended for the top-crust remain pretty thick. This paste is also adapted to line timbales. 778. Rice-paste for Savoury Pies.-Clean and simmer the rice in milk and water till it swell. Cover veal, lamb, chicken, or game pies, equally with a layer of this, using heat egg to make it adhere, and glaze it. 779. Fine Crust for Cheesecakes, or delicate preserved Fruits. — Sift a pound of the best flour, well dried, and mix it well with two ounces of finely sifted sugar. Beat half a pound of fresh butter to a cream by working it cold with a spoon or knife. Mix the flour and sugar very gradually with this, and work into it the well-beat whites of three eggs. If the paste is not stiff enough to roll out, put more flour and sugar to it.-See Paste-Royal, Brioche Paste, and Household Bread. SAVOURY PIES OF MEAT, &c. 780. To make a Beef Steak Pie.-Any tender and well mixed piece of beef will answer for a pie, though the rump is best. Cut four pounds into handsome small steaks ; flatten and season highly with mixed spices; place fat and lean pieces together, and either roll them up as olives, or place them neatly in the dish, rising as all pies should do in the middle. Put in either a half-pint of gravy or the same quantity of water. A few small half-cooked onions may be added.--Obs. Cut pickles, a little catsup, or other seasonings, may be put to the pie, and either force- 456 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. place them in the dish, making the middle part highest, as is proper in all pies. Add a glass of water, and cover the dish ; or add good gravy, thickened with cream and flour. A little forcemeat spread on each olive, before rolling up, will be an improvement. 785. Rich Veal Olive Pie, Scottish.—Make a forcemeat of minced veal and a little suet or veal-kidney, a few bread-crumbs, some finely-chopped parsley, lemon-grate, salt, and mixed spices. Work up the forcemeat with the yolks of two eggs, and place a little of it in the middle of each slice of the meat cut for olives. Let the olives be previously flattened and seasoned. Roll them neatly up, and fill up the pie-dish. Make a dozen or more small force- meat balls, round and oval, of the remaining forcemeat, and lay them in the dish, with the yolks of four hard- boiled eggs divided, two small pickled cucumbers cut in round and oblong slices, and a few pickled mushrooms. Make a gravy of the bones and trimmings of veal, seasoning it with parsley and onion. Thicken and strain this gravy, and put to it a glass of white wine and the juice of a lemon. Pour this into the pie, and cover it with a good puff-paste. 786. Calf's Head Pie, to eat cold.—Scald and soak the head, and simmer it for a half-hour in a very little water, with a large knuckle of veal, the rind of a lemon, two onions, a fagot of parsley and winter savory, a few white peppercorns, and two or three blades of mace. Take up the head, and, when cold, cut it into bits of different forms, as directed at No. 460. Peel and cut the tongue into square pieces. Boil the broth in which the head was sim- mered with a few chips of isinglass till it is reduced to a strong jelly-gravy. Put a layer of thin slices of lean ham in the bottom of the pie-dish; then some of the head and tongue, mixing fat and lean, and forcemeat halls made of the knuckle ; add hard yolks of eggs cut in two. Strew above each separate layer a seasoning of white pepper, salt, nutmeg, and lemon-grate. Fill up the dish with the jelly- gravy ; cover with puff-paste ornamented; bake the pie. -Obs. This pie will keep cold for a fortnight, and slices of it, garnished, make a nice supper-dish, from the variety of colours and forms. A BRIDE'S PIE. 457 787. Calf's Foot Pie. — Clean and boil two feet till tender, but not slobbery. Mince the meat, when cold, with suet and pared apples, in the proportion of a third- part apples and suet. Mix cleaned currants, sugar to taste, and a quarter-pint of white or raisin-wine with the mince. Cover the dish with rich puff-paste. A half-hour or little more will bake this delicate Scottish pie. 788. A Bride's Pie,-a Scottish Pie. - This is just a very nice mince-pie. Chop the meat of two calves' feet, boiled as in the former receipt, a pound of mutton-suet, and a pound of pared apples, separately, till they are fine. Mix them, and add to them a half-pound of picked and rubbed currants, and the same quantity of raisins stoned and chopped. Season with a quarter-ounce of cin- namon in powder, two drachms of grated nutmeg and pounded mace, an ounce of candied citron, and double the quantity of lemon-peel, both sliced thin, a glass of brandy, and another of Madeira. Line a tin pan, which has a slip- bottom, with puff-paste, and put the minced meat, &c. into it. Roll out a cover for the pie, which usually has a glass or a gold ring concealed somewhere in the crust, and should be embellished with appropriate ornaments and devices, as Cupids, turtles, torches, flames, darts, and other emblematic devices of this kind. 789. A Mutton Pie.-Cut two or three pounds of the back-ribs or loin into handsome chops; chop off the bone, flatten and season the chops with pepper and salt. Place them neatly in the dish; put in a glassful of gravy or water, and strew parsley and a minced onion over the meat, and, with a paste of a pound of flour, and a half-pound of butter, cover it.* Less paste will do for this pie, and of a cheaper kind.- Obs. Mutton or veal pie may be sea- soned with currie-powder. Mutton or veal may be made into small raised pies of an oval, or other shape, and re- warmed in a Dutch oven when wanted for hot suppers or luncheon. A Squab Pie is made of mutton chops, cut apples, and shred onions, with spices and a little sugar. Nearly obsolete. * A corresponding member of the Club recommends Sauce Robert for mutton-pie, made without lemon-juice. 458 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. 790. Lamb Pie.—This is made of either the loin, back- ribs, or breast, not too fat, cutting out the bone if wished, but always leaving the gristles. Do not season this deli- cate meat over highly. Put a little jelly-gravy in the dish if the pie is to be eaten cold, in which state a lamb- pie is exceedingly good. Hard-boiled eggs may be added. Use puff-paste. 791. Pigeon Pie.-Clean and season the pigeons well in the inside with pepper and salt. Put into each bird a little chopped parsley mixed with the livers parboiled and minced, and some bits of butter. Cover the bottom of the dish either with a beef-steak, a few cutlets of veal, or slices of dressed bacon. Lay in the birds ; put the sea- soned gizzards, and, if approved, a few hard-boiled yolks of eggs into the dish. A thin slice of lean cooked ham laid on the breast of each bird is an improvement to the fla- vour. Cover the pie with puff-paste, first laying a border of paste round the rim. A half-hour will bake it if small. -Obs. It is common to stick two or three feet of pigeons or moorfowl into the centre of the cover of pies as a label to the contents, though we confess we see little use and no beauty in the practice.-Forcemeat balls may be added to enrich the pie; and a few chopped inushrooms are with us a favourite addition. Some cooks lay the steaks above the birds, which is sensible, if not seemly. 792. PIES OF GAME.—Grouse or Moorfowl Pie.-If the birds are small, keep them whole ; if large, divide or quarter them. Season them highly, and put plenty of butter into the dish above and below thein; or put a beef- steak into the bottom of the dish. Cover it with good puff-paste, and take care not to bake the pie too much. A half-pint of a hot sauce made of melted butter, the juice of a lemon, and a glass of claret, and poured into the pie when to be served hot, is an improvement, and does not overpower the native flavour of the game. Woodcocks and snipes, when very plentiful, are sometimes made into pies. Clean the intestines, which are so highly prized. . Parboil and pound them with seasonings, scraped lard, chopped herbs, and truffles. Stuff the birds with this forcemeat. PIES OF GAME. 459 793. A Hare Pie.-Cut up the good parts of a hare; season and put them in a pie-dish with plenty of butter ; or if to be very rich, forcemeat-balls and yolks of hard- boiled eggs. If to eat cold, which this pie does very well, fill the dish with a gravy when the top is taken off, which will jelly when cooled. 794. Chicken Pie.—Skin and cut up, as for helping at table, as many young fowls as the size of your pie requires. Season the joints with white pepper, salt, and a little mace and nutmeg, all in fine powder. Put the pieces into the pie-dish, with thin slices of fresh ham, or veal-chops, or veal-udder. Forcemeat-balls, layers of forcemeat, and yolks of hard eggs, may be added at pleasure. Make a good gravy of knuckle or scrag of veal or of mutton, seasoning it with white peppercorns, onions, and parsley. Strain this gravy, which must be boiled to a jelly, and put it to the pie. Cover with a rich ornamented puff- paste; and bake the pie, if large, for an hour and a quar- ter, covering it with paper, or a tin dish cover, lest the paste be scorched or over-done.- Obs. The chickens may be stuffed, if small, and laid on forcemeat. It may be made flat like a tourte, in the French style. This pie, and all pies, may be made plainer at the discretion of the cook. It is the favourite pie of France and England, next to a game pie, and is as good cold as hot. If to eat cold, bone the chicken, and place alternate layers of chicken and forcemeat. 795. Giblet Pie.-Clean and stew the giblets in broth, with peppercorns, onions, and parsley. When tender, take them up, and when cold, cut them in neat pieces. Lay a beef-steak in the bottom of a small pie-dish, or a layer of forcemeat inade of seasonings, minced veal or beef, and a little ham. Put in the cut giblets, and strew in shred onion. Strain the liquor over them in which they were stewed, and place a few boiled potatoes sliced above all. Cover with a common crust, or for a plain dish with mashed potatoes.- Obs. A giblet pie is sometimes made with a pudding in it, composed of the blood of the goose or ducks strained, a little boiled rice, suet and onion shred fine, with pepper and salt. Keep the skin of the neck of 460 CHAP. IV.—PASTRY, PIES, &c. the goose, and stuff it with this. Close the pudding at both ends, turn it round, and place it in the centre of the pie. 796. Rabbit or Fife Pie.—This may be made as directed for chicken-pie; or more plainly as giblet-pie, making a forcemeat of the livers parboiled, chopped parsley, and anchovies, or eschalot, pepper, salt, and a little butter or shred suet. A few thin slices or gobbets of well flavoured bacon will greatly improve a rabbit-pie. It is now some- times called a Fife-pie, in honour of the Thane, we presume.-Obs. Rabbit-pie may be made with onion-sauce ; but first parboil the onions to take off the excess of their flavour. 797. Partridge-Pie.-Clean and truss four, or, if large, three partridges, cutting off the legs at the second joint. Season with pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.* Place veal and ham forcemeat, or sausage meat, or slices of veal and ham, at the bottom of the dish, then put in the par- tridges, with a good many bits of butter stuck about them, and either a few scalded button-mushrooms or a glassful of mushroom catsup. Cover the ledge of the dish with strips of puff paste, and then put on the cover. About an hour will bake this pie. 798. A Goose Pie.--This is generally made in a raised crust. For a common pie, quarter, or cut the goose into eight pieces ; season, and bake it with plenty of butter. Two green geese will make a still better pie. They may be baked with either a plain paste, as potato-pasty, or with mashed potatoes laid over the baking-dish, and neatly marked. They may be previously braised. 799. An English Christmas Goose Pie.t-Bone and * French cooks chop the livers with parsley, and stuff with this. They also barde the birds with seasoned lard., Partridges done thus make an admirable cold pie in a raised crust. + This receipt still keeps its place in cookery books, though the pie itself is now comparatively as rare as the capercailzie or the wild boar. Still in the north of England one hears of the wains groaning, about Christmas-tide, under the load of these enormous pies. At such times the hostess of a well-frequented inn, of the old school, will construct a pie of circumference riva amference rivalling her own ; and the county newspaper will record its dimensions. But Yorkshire Pie is a mere joke to those with which a German baron or Italian noble was wont to regale his vassals, PERIGORD PIE. 461 season highly a goose and a large fowl. Stuff the latter with forcemeat made of minced tongue or ham, veal, parsley, suet, pepper, and salt, with two eggs, or No. 516. Stew them for twenty minutes in a little good stock in a close stew-pan. Put the fowl within the goose, and place that in a raised pie-crust, filling up the vacancies with forcemeat, or slices of parboiled tongue or pigeons, partridges, &c. Put plenty of butter over the meat. This pie will take three hours to bake. It will eat well cold, and keep a long while. 800. Perigord Pie. — This is a dish which can scarcely be ever prepared in this country, where truffles are scarce, and very inferior to those of France. The Perigord-pie is, however, so celebrated, that it would be unpardonable to treat it with neglect. Truss as for boiling six par- tridges. Singe and wipe them. Season them with salt, pepper, and mixed spices, minced parsley, and young onions, and lard them. Brush, wash, and peel two pounds of truffles. Hash the small and broken ones; and pound them with the livers of the partridges and a fat goose- liver, or fat livers of poultry, or a piece of veal-udder par- boiled. Mince all these things, and pound them in a mortar, adding raw egg, as directed for quenelles, Nos. 092, 695. Season this forcemeat very highly. Cut open the trussed partridges at the back, and stuff each of them with the forcemeat, and some whole truffles. Bake them in a raised pie-crust, either of a round or oval shape; first lining the crust with slices of bacon and forcemeat. Game- pies of the richest description, with truffles, &c. are now regularly imported to London, where every thing may be had for money. 801. Venison-pasty.--A modern pasty is made of what does not roast well, as the neck, the breast, the shoulder. The breast makes a good pasty. Cut it into little chops, trimming off all bone and skins. Make some good gravy A bullock the outwork,-containing a deer, which contained poultry or game, which contained ortolans and quails, which contained oysters and craw-fish ; and all boned and seasoned. How magnificent a Pièce de resistance ! Such was the cookery of the feudal age.- A Christmas pie of tremendous dimensions broke down in 1832 when going from Sheffield as a tribute to Lord Chancellor B FRUIT-PIES, &c. 463 and salt; and in a deep tin buttered pudding-dish lay meat and paste, layer and layer alternately, till the dish is full. Fill up the dish with water, and let it bake slowly, . stew, or steam,—turn out and serve hot. FRUIT- PIES, &c. FRUIT-PIES require a light and rich crust. Fruits that have been preserved are generally baked in an open crust, and are ornamented with paste-bars, basket-work, stars, &c. Preserved fruit need not be put in till the crust is baked, as the oven often injures their colour.-See Flans. 804. Apple-pie. — Wipe, pare, and slice the apples ; core with the instrument. Lay a strip of puff-paste round the edge of the dish. Put in a layer of the sliced fruit, then sugar and whatever seasonings you use. A mixture of quince greatly improves the flavour. Proceed in this manner till the dish is heaped, keeping the fruit highest in the middle. Cover it with puff-paste, ornament the border and the top with leaves, flowers, &c. — Obs. A variety of apples besides codlins are used for baking, though russetings, Ribstone pippins, golden pippins, and such as are a little acid, are esteemed the best. Apple-pie used to be seasoned with pounded cinnamon and cloves; now lemon- grate, quince-marmalade, candied citron, or orange-peel, are preferred. If the apples have become dry and insipid, the parings and cores may be boiled with a stick of cinna- mon, and the strained liquor added to the pie. Apple-pie is liked hot. It is eaten with plain cream, made cream, or frangipane. It was wout to be buttered ; and this is still the practice in some provincial situations in England, though buttered peas, and buttered apple-pie, for reasons which we do not comprehend, have latterly come to be con- sidered ungenteel, if not absolutely vulgar. Buttering is performed by putting a piece of butter into the hot pie when it is cut open. Apples must be thrown into plenty of water as they are pared, or they will become black. 805. Ripe Fruit Pies. — Black cherries and currants, damsons, plums of all kinds, currants, or raspberries and cranberries, apricots, and gooseberries suitably mixed oralone, are all made into fruit-pies. Place the fruit, picked and washed, in a flattish pie-dish, raising it high in the middle. 464 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. Allow enough of sugar, and cover with a rich light paste, which fruit-pies require more than those made of meat. 806. Green Gooseberry-pie. — Top and tail as many unripe gooseberries as will fully fill your dish. Line the dish, or merely border it with paste. Put in the fruit, and plenty of moist sugar, and cover the pie with good puff- paste. The gooseberries may be first stewed in the sugar. - Obs. All fruit, as it goes on to ripen, requires more sugar till fully ripe. 807. Rhubarb-pie. — Peel off the skin from stalks of young rhubarb, and cut them slantwise into bits of about an inch and a half. Some kinds need no peeling. Stew them slowly in sugar, or in butter and a little water, till soft; sweeten, and make them into a covered pie or open tart.- Obs. Gooseberry, apple, rhubarb, and other fruit- pies, eat very well cold; or the fruit may be stewed and sweetened for common use, without further preparation. Fresh good cream is a very great improvement to all fruit pies and tarts. The next best thing is plain custard. In England the cream is often sweetened, thickened with beat yolks of eggs, made, in short, into a custard, and poured over the fruit. In Scotland, cream for tarts is usually served either plain or merely whisked; or served whipt over the cold, stewed fruit. 808. Fruit-tarts of Preserved Fruits. — These are made of all sorts of marmalades, jams, and preserved small fruits. If of apples, pare, core, and quarter them, Stew and mash them, and sweeten them with fine beat sugar. Season with the squeeze and grate of a lemon, a little beat cinnamon, an ounce of candied orange-peel, and a little white wine or cider. Cover a flat dish with paste, and place a broad rim of puff-paste round the edges, which decorate, as with leaves, roses, &c. Bake the paste, and put in the jam, either when the crust is ready, or a few minutes before. Paste-stars, flowers, &c. may be stamped, and baked on tins to ornament the top; or if the fruit is put in at first, it may be covered with pastry trellis-work, -Obs. Tarts of preserved fruit, when much ornament is wanted, are served under a paste croquante of sugar boiled to caramel ; but this is rather the business of the SCOTTISH FLANS. 465 professed confectioner than of the practical cook, and can- not be taught without actual experiment.-See Flans. 809. Scottish Flans: Flan à la Caleb Balderstone.-Rub butter on a futed tin flan mould, with a loose bottom, and line it with good puff-paste which has been ten times rolled, and has stood to acquire some tenacity. With a pastry-knife Vandyke the edge, and carve each Vandyke as a rose- leaf, veined. Line the paste with paper, and fill it with bran to keep the shape out while baking. Bake in a sharp oven till crisp ; take out the bran and paper, and fill with any sort of preserved fruit, as cherries, apples, apricots, or pears, prepared as for No. 708. Creamed flans are made, by preparing thick frangipane into which six ounces of sweet and one ounce of bitter almonds, blanched and finely chopped, are stirred. — Obs. These delicate pre- parations, we have no doubt, were perfectly well known when Scotland's “Kings kept Court in Holyrood." The art has lingered on, ever since, among old-fashioned pastry-cooks in Edinburgh; and we have seen the flan, most beautifully served, with the green Gascon gooseberry, preserved as only Mrs. Fraser, a celebrated pastry-cook of the last generation, could preserve and flavour this delicate small berry. 810. Tartlettes, and Puffs of Fruit.-Line very small patty-pans, either oval or round, with puff-paste, and pare the edges neatly. Put in a little of any kind of jam or marmalade, and either cross-bar the tarts with paste- straws, cut out with a notched paste-runner, or wreathe paste-straws round them.- Obs. This, or making little patties or pastry ramakins, is a very good way of using up any bit of paste that is left over from a large pie or tart. Small Puffs.-Roll out puff-paste of nearly a half- inch thick. Cut it into pieces about five inches long, to have, when doubled, the form of squares, triangles, cres- cents, &c. Place a little jam of any kind on each, and double them up. Wet and pinch them close at the edges with a fluted paste-runner, and bake them on tins, with paper below.-See No. 818. 2 G 166 CHAP. IV. --PASTKY, PIES, &c. 811. Cranberry-Tart. — This may be made either of fresh or preserved cranberries. Season with beat cloves and cinnamon. Put in a sufficient quantity of sugar. Cover with a puff-paste, and serve with cream, which to this dry fruit is indispensable. 812. Prune or Apricot-Tarts.-Wash and scald the fruit; take out the stones, and either bruise them, and take some of the chopped kernels to add to the tarts, or not, as you choose. Put sugar to taste to the fruit, and bake it as a flan, tart, or pie. 813. To Ice Tarts, &c.—Beat the white of an egg very well, and with this brush the paste with a feather, either at first, or when half-baked, which prevents the icing from becoming scorched in the oven. When brushed well over with egg, sift fine sugar, beat to powder, over it. A heavier kind of varnish for some things is made of beat yolks of eggs and melted butter.-See, for other Icings, Cakes, No. 1005, 1006. 814. Common Glazing for Paste.-Sugar and water : yolk or white of egg beat up with water; white of egg and sugar sifted over : yolk of egg and melted butter. 815. Mince-meat and Mince-pies. These are made in an endless variety of ways. We recommend to every young housekeeper to adopt in this favourite preparation the receipt of her own grandmother. This ought to produce the best mince-meat and Christmas-pies. Indeed, every family receipt-book teems with prescriptions. We select what is, after experiment and mature consideration, con- sidered the best formula. Bake or boil slightly a couple of pounds of the fine lean of good beef or tongue. Mince this, or scrape it. Mince also two pounds of fresh suet, two of apples, pared and cored, three pounds of currants, rubbed, picked, and dried, and a pound and a half of good raisins stoned. Let the things be separately minced till fine, but not so fine as to run together; then mix them well with a pound of beat sugar, and a tea-spoonful of salt, a half-ounce of ground ginger, the same weight of allspice and bruised coriander-seeds, some beat cloves, two mutmegs grated, the juice and grated rind of two lemons and of two Seville oranges, half a pound of candied lemon MINCE-PES, 467 and orange-peel, and a quarter-pound of candied citron sliced. Mix the seasonings equally with the meat. Keep the minced meat closely pressed in cans in a cool, dry place. Put a half-pint of brandy, or pine-apple rum, into a bottle with double that quantity of Madeira or sherry, and a half-pint of orange-flower-water. When to be used, cover baking-pans of any size, small saucers, or a small flat pie-dish, with puff or plain paste. Moisten the mince-meat with the wine and brandy; add some grate and juice of lemon, The chopped apples may also be added at this stage. Fill the pies. Put a cover of puff-paste over them, and, if a plain paste, ice it. Pare the edges neatly, and ornament the top with a paste-knife. Half an hour of a moderate oven will bake them. Slip them out of the tins, and serve them hot.-Obs. Mince-pies may be made cheaper, and yet tolerably good, by substituting gravy for wine ; or by using home-made wine, (ginger wine is best ;) by lessening the quantity of expensive fruits and spiceries, and taking any bit of dressed beef the larder affords. 816. Superlative Mince-pies.-Rub with salt and mixed spices the lean of a fat bullock's tongue. Let it lie for three days, and parboil, skin, and mince or scrape two pounds of it. Mince separately two pounds of beef kidney suet, two of stoned raisins, three pounds of Zante currants, picked, plumped, and dried, a dozen of lemon pippin apples pared and cored, and a half-pound of blanched almonds, with a few bitter ones. Mix the mince, and add a half-pound of candied citron and orange-peel minced, and an ounce of beat cinnamon and cloves, with the juice and grated rind of three or four lemons, half an ounce of salt, and the same quantity of allspice, a pound of fine sugar pounded, and a pint and a half of Madeira, the same quantity of brandy and orange-flower-water. Line the pans with a rich puff- paste, fill, bake, and serve the pies hot with burnt brandy.- Obs. The brandy should be burnt at table as it is used. Though the mince-meat will keep good for a long time, it is best not to be too old. The fruit, suet, and wine may be added when the pies are to be made, as the suet and raw apples are apt to spoil; and the dried fruits, though in less danger, do not improve by keeping in the minced state. Mince-pies warm up very well in a Dutch oven, or in a 468 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. slack oven before the fire, or on the hob. A good addition to mince-meat is a couple of lemons boiled and chopped, taking out the pips and coarse parts. - See Plum-pudding. 817. Common Apple, Gooseberry, or Rhubarb Pasties or Turn-overs.—Make a hot crust with dripping or lard melted in boiling water; roll it out quickly, and cut it so as to be of a semicircular form when turned over. Lay stewed apples, rhubarb, or scalded gooseberries, or any jam, in the crust, with moist sugar to sweeten; add, if apples, quince, lemon-peel, or cinnamon. Cut the edges, double up and pinch the crust, and bake the pasties in a moderate oven. If there be icing at hand they may be iced. PUFFS. Tuese are called apple-puffs, lemon-puffs, cheese-puffs, egg-puffs, &c., taking the name from the principal in- gredient in their composition.—See No. 810. 818. Apple-puffs.-Stew, or roast apples till they will peel and pulp dry. Mix them with good beat sugar and finely chopped lemon-peel. Bake them in rather thin sweet crust, in a quick oven. They are best when made rather small. 819. Lemon or Orange Puffs.-Grate down three-quarters of a pound of refined sugar, and mix it well with the grate of three lemons, or two Seville oranges. Beat the whites of four eggs to a solid-looking froth, and putting this to the sugar, beat the whole together without inter- mission for half an hour. Make this batter into any variety of shapes, and bake it on oiled paper laid on tin plates in a moderate oven. When cold, take off the paper. -There are fifty other little things made of pastry and bits of sweetmeats, which cannot be enumerated here, as Sweet Sandwiches, Gimblettes, Genoises, &c. &c. SAVOURY PATTIES. PATTIEs, like small vol-au-vents, and hors d'oeuvres, (served in paste,) and small rissoles and croquets, are an elegant, though secondary class of culinary preparations, and are as much admired by the genteel economist as the gourmand. They are the petits pâtés of the French kitchen. Where dinners have been given, or are in course of preparation, it is easy to make a dish of savoury patties, with small trouble SAVOURY PATTIES. 469 and almost no expense. Patties, like the preparations named above, are made of a variety of things, as cold veal, fowl, rabbit, hare, lobsters, oysters, &c. They admit of all manner of seasonings, but must be nicely minced and served. They are generally baked as directed below, but may be made by frying, either for a dish or a garnish to other dishes. They are savoury or piquant preparations, proper for first and second courses, between the more solid dishes. 820. To make Crust for Savoury Patties.—Roll out puff- paste thin, and line the patty-pans. Cut out the tops on paper, with a tin stamp in form of a star or any hand- some shape. Mark the tops very neatly, and lay a piece of paper crumpled up or a bit of bread into the lined patty-pan, to support the top when baking, and then put on the top. Bake the patties, and ice them. When to be served, take off the tops and pick out the paper, fill up with the hot mince, and put on the tops neatly, taking care not to fill the patties so full as to run over.-Obs. This plan of baking the crust separately will, on trial, be found much superior to filling patties, or things of the sort, at the first. The icing may be omitted. Have at least a dozen ; dress them on a napkin pyramidically. 821. Chicken and Ham Patties.-Skin and mince very finely the breast or white fleshy parts of a cold chicken, and about half the quantity of lean ham, or of tongue highly flavoured. Have, in a nice small saucepan, a little good gravy drawn from bones or trimmings, or the jelly of roast veal or lamb, thickened with a bit of butter rolled in flour ; add a little grated lemon-peel, white pepper, salt, a very little cayenne, and a tea-spoonful of lemon- juice. Stir the mince in this till quite hot, and fill up the patties, which are best baked empty, as above, as the minced meat hardens in the baking.-Serve as 820. 822. Egg and Ham Patties. In these bread is used for paste, or they are served en croustade. Scoop out part from thick slices of a stale loaf : shape the croustades, and fry of a gold-colour: drain and fill the cavity with ham, prepared as directed for chicken and ham patties ; lay a nicely poached egg on each.- Obs. Small loaves, with a thick bottom-crust, are baked for this purpose ; and what bakers call Sandwich loaves might answer well. 470. CHIP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. 823. Rabbit and Hare Patties.—Mince the best parts of a cold roast rabbit or hare, very fine, with a little finely- shred mutton-suet. Draw a gravy from the bones, or take any other good gravy; thicken it with butter and flour, and season witli salt, cayenne, pepper, nutmeg, mace, the grate of half a lemon, and a very little red wine, or any suitable flavoured vinegar. Stew the mince, and fill the patties as above directed.-Obs. If there be any stuffing of the hare left, it will make, when minced, a good addi- tion to the patties, as will all the native gravy left about veal, hare, &c. 824. Oyster Patties.—Prepare the paste for these patties as in No. 820, and wash in their own liquor, and beard as many small oysters as will make a dozen of patties. Strain the liquor, and put to it an ounce of butter rolled in flour. Cut the oysters into small bits, and stew them in this with a little salt, mace, and white pepper, the grate of half a lemon, and, if liked, a little cayenne. A spoonful of thick cream may be added. Put this hot into the patties when ready to serve. Some good cooks put a little minced parsley to the oysters, with salt and pepper, and no other seasoning.-Fry and serve as 820. 825. Lobster-patties. — Chop the meat of the tail and claws of a boiled hen-lobster, Pound a little of the spawn in a mortar, with a half-ounce of butter crumbled, a little veal-jelly gravy or butter, and a spoonful of cream ; add a seasoning of cayenne, mace, salt, a little essence of anchovy, and a tea-spoonful of lemon-grate. Stew the lobster-meat in this for a few minutes, adding a spoonful or two of water, if over thick, and a very little flour to give consistence to the gravy. Fill the patties with the hot stew when they are ready to serve. — Another way, French. Make the meat into balls the size of a very large pea:-egg and roll the balls in fine crumbs and lobster coral: fry and place five in each prepared patty-case, and a larger one to crown. Moisten with as much sauce l’Abrore as the patties will hold without slopping.--See No. 820. 826. Oyster and Mushroom Patties.--Take two parts of stewed oysters, and one part of fresh mushrooms; cut them separately into small dice. Fry the mushrooms in butter and flour. Moisten this with gravy, the cyster-liquor, OYSTER PATTIES. 471 and a little cream. Season with salt, nutmeg, pepper, and cayenne. Stir in the oysters, and fill the patties. 827. Turkey-patties.--Mince the white part, and a little grated ham. Stew this in a little good gravy, or melted butter. Put a spoonful of cream to the mince, and season with white pepper, salt, and mace. Veal and Ham Patties. — Make and season them as chicken and ham patties, No. 821. 828. French, or Modern English Patties. — These are essentially the same as patties baked in tins, and elaborately carved by the hand as above, but they differ in form, and are in fact just small vol-AU-VENTs, or large pastry hors d'oeuvres, according to the composition with which they are filled. Have some very light puff-paste about a half inch thick: with a fluted pastry stamp of three and a half inches in diameter, cut out as many pieces as you wish patties; and, with one of less than two inches diameter, as many more : wet the smallest, and place it over the largest : and with a third cutter, of one and a-half inch diameter, press lightly, but to make a distinct impression through both. Bake in a baking-tin in a quick oven, till of a good colour - about fifteen minutes : cut out the marked top, keeping the upper crust whole : scoop out the paste below, put in a tea-spoonful of a suitable sauce, and then the prepared mince of oyster, lobster, chicken, or whatever it is : add a little more sauce, and either put on the top, or, for ham and chicken patties, and soine others, as oysters and shrimps, use fried crumbs. Sweet Patties the same; but the paste may have a little sugar, and be seasoned with essence of lemon, or any flavouring ingredient suitable to what is to be served in them, adding a very little custard or frangi- pane.-N.B. Never fill patties so full as to slop. 829. Beef-patties or Podovies. — Shred a tender under- done piece of lean roast beef, with a little of the firm fat. Season with pepper, salt, onion, an anchovy boned and chopped, and a very little eschalot or Chili vinegar. The podovies may be made either by putting the mince into hot paste like apple-pasty, and frying them, or be baked in patty-pans in a good plain crust made of dripping or lard.-See Godiveau, No. 692. 472 PASTRY, FIES, &c. CHAP. IV. 830. To prepare Meat for small Pies for suppers and hot Luncheons ; or for Patties.—Take in the proportion of a pound of fillet of veal, a pound of beef, and a half- pound of suet. Mince the meat roughly, and the suet less than the meat. Season with salt, pepper, and allspice. The meat thus prepared will keep some days if pressed into a jar. When to be baked in saucers, or as little raised pies or patties, add a little minced parsley. Or keep the pies baked, and heat them when wanted. 831. Sweet Patties.-Mince the boiled meat of a calf's- foot, three apples, and a little candied orange and lemon peel : add fresh lemon-grate, and the juice of a lemon, a little fine -sugar, a small glass of sweet wine, a little nut- meg, the chopped yolk of two hard-boiled eggs, and, if wished, a little shred mutton-suet or marrow. Bake the patties in puff-paste. Patties may be made like small mince-pies, and seasoned in an endless variety of ways. They may be made as Turn-overs, and fried in plenty of lard or dripping. They are also a favourite family-dish when baked as Turn-overs on tins. PUDDINGS. WITHOUT pretending to make a good cook by book, we believe that any tolerable cook, however young in the art, may compound a good pudding by attending to the following simple rules and plain directions:-Attention is all that is re- quired, and a little manual dexterity in turning the pudding out of the mould or cloth when this is necessary. Let the several ingredients be each fresh and good of its kind, as one bad article, particularly eggs, will taint the whole composition. Have the moulds and pudding-cloths washed, boiled in wood-ashes, and always laid by quite dry after using. Puddings ought to be boiled in plenty of water, which must be kept on a quick boil : or baked in a quick but not scorching oven. A pudding in which there is much bread must be tied loosely, to allow room for swell- ing. A batter-pudding ought to be tied up firmly. Eggs for puddings must be used in greater quantity when of small size. The yolks and whites, if the pudding is wanted particularly light and nice, should be strained after being separately well beat. A little salt is necessary 477 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. to mix batter puddings smoothly. Let the dried flour bé gradually mixed with a very little of the milk, as in mak- ing mustard or starch, and afterwards, in nice cookery, strain the batter through a coarse sieve. Raisins, prunes, and damsons for puddings must be carefully stoned ; or sultanas may be used in place of other raisins. Cur- rants must be picked, and plumped in hot water, rubbed in a floured cloth and plumped before the fire ; almonds must be blanched and sliced ; and in mixing grated bread, pounded biscuit, &c. with milk, pour the milk on hot, and cover the vessel, which is both better and easier than boiling. Suet must be quite fresh. Mutton-suet for puddings is lighter than that of beef; but marrow, when it can be obtained, is better than either. A baked pudding for company has often a paste-border or a garnishing of blanched and sliced almonds about it, but these borders are merely matters of ornament; if boiled, puddings may also be garnished in various ways, as with bits of currant-jelly. The best seasoning for batter-pud- dings is conserve of Seville orange, lemon-rind, lemon- brandy, or orange-flower water. Spirits, and even wine, are every day less used, both from taste and economy.- Pudding-Sauces, see pp. 276, 477. The sweetness and flavour of all puddings must be determined by particular taste. And sugar can be added at table. Iced-puddings are the greatest modern discovery in this class of dishes. 832. A Common small Plum-pudding.–Take six ounces of shred suet, two of dry flour, four of stoned raisins, three of picked and plumped currants, a little allspice and nutmeg, or cinnamon. Thin this with four beat eggs and a little milk, and put in either a glass of sweet wine or a half-glass of rum or brandy, a salt-spoonful of salt, and sugar to taste. There are a thousand ways of making a huge plum-pudding:-Obs. The wine or spirits may be spared, and the pudding flavoured with distilled waters, as peach-water, orange-flower-water, &c. Bread-crumbs, or a part bread, make the pudding lighter than flour, and a spoonful of treacle improves the colour; the materials, except the milk, eggs, and spirits, should be mixed the night before, and the whole must be vigorously and ro. peatedly stirred; tie firmly up, and boil for four hours. PLUM-PUDDING. 4,5 The Trinity Christmas Plum-pudding. [We have had the felicity, on sundry Merry Christmases, of sitting in the blaze of the “ Yule-clog,” embowered among ever- greens at “a good man's feast," who well understood, and him- self looked, to the due concoction and boiling of the pudding of his nation, weighing from some twenty-five to thirty pounds. For it we give his receipt, which we need not say is excellent; proved and approved.) The Trinity Christmas Pudding. — Three pounds raisins, half Muscatel and half Valentia, three pounds currants, three pounds beef suet chopped very fine, sixty eggs, a pint and a half of milk, three pounds best raw sugar, the rind of six lemons minced very small, four pounds of fine flour, a half-pound treacle, four nut- megs grated, and cinnamon and cloves pounded to taste; one large table-spoonful of salt, two wine-glasses of brandy, two of rum, one of Port; of sliced candied orange and lemon-peel a half-ounce each, citron-peel a half-ounce. The whole must be thoroughly well mixed early on the 24th December, and boiled for ten hours on Christmas Eve, and four hours on Christ- mas Day, or from leaving chapel till dinner-time, taking care the whole time to keep the boiler filled with boiling water, and the fire strong and constant. Farther, in preparing for the boiler, the cloth, first scalded, afterwards squeezed, is put on the dresser and well dredged with flour, and then placed very evenly over a colander, so that it shall be in the middle of it. The pudding is then put into the cloth, being well stirred up, a person plait- ing the cloth so that it shall be evenly taken up that no water shall get into it. It must then be excessively well tied up, allow- ing some room for the pudding swelling, and boiled. The Christ- mas Pudding should be served up with a sprig of arbutus stuck in the middle, with one of its red berries, and a sprig of varie- gated holly with one or two berries on each side of it. This is to keep away the witches. 833. A superfine Plum-pudding.-Take four ounces of pounded pudding-biscuit, or of good common biscuit, and two ounces of the best flour, a half-pound of bloom or muscatel raisins stoned, the same quantity of fresh Zante currants picked and plumped, and a pound of kidney suet stripped of skins and filaments, and shred ; a small tea- spoonful of nutmeg grated, a quarter-pound of fine beat sugar, a drachm of pounded cinnamon, two blades of mace, and a salt-spoonful of salt; two ounces of candied lemon, orange and citron peel sliced, and two ounces of blanched almonds roughly chopped, also the grated rind of two, and the juice of four lemons. Beat six eggs well, and put to them a little sweet milk, a glass of brandy, and then mix in the flour, and all the ingredients minced. 476 CHAP. IV.—PASTRY, PIES, &c. Tie up the pudding firmly, and boil it for four or five hours, keeping up the boil, and turning the cloth. Serve pudding-sauce, pouring some over. — (No. 305.) – Obs. Plum-pudding will keep long, and re-warm when wanted, in slices, in the Dutch oven or frying-pan, or served in a pastry crust. A plum-pudding with meat may be made either according to the receipt for minced pies, or a Bride's pie, adding enough of eggs and milk. The same pudding may be baked. * 834. Marrow-pudding.--Grate as much bread as will fill a large breakfast-cup quite full. Put it into a jug, and pour nearly a quart of boiling sweet milk or thin cream over it, and let it swell and soak, while you shred a half-pound of marrow or kidney suet, and beat up four large or five small eggs. Have two ounces of raisins stoned, and two ounces of currants picked and plumped. Sweeten the pudding to taste, and season it with a very little grated nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of cinnamon in powder. Cover a flat stoneware dish on the edge with strips of puff-paste, and mark this neatly in foliage. Bake the pudding in this dish, or plainly in a deep dish. -Obs. A few blanched cut almonds, or a little candied citron or orange-peel, may be put to this pudding for variety. A little finely-sifted sugar may be strewed on the top, which makes a good veil to puddings when un- luckily scorched in the oven ; and a few blanched almonds sliced may be stuck round it for ornament. In a flat dish twenty-five minutes will bake it. It will require a half-hour in a deep dish : or it may be boiled in a pudding- mould. This pudding, called also Aldermans', will keep and cut in slices, which may be fried, broiled, or heated in a Dutch oven. A Suet-pudding, a Baked Plum-pudding, and a Fat-pudding, are made exactly as the above, only the quantity of fruit may be varied at pleasure, or cheaper fruit substituted. 834.2 The St. Ronan's Plum-pudding, à la Françaisen excellent.-Chop together twelve ounces of fresh beef kid- * Instead of one huge plum-pudding, we prepare at The CLEIKUM a Hen and Chickens, putting the Hen, of ten or twelve pounds, to boil a couple of hours before her Chickens. We have the Hen for Christ. mas or company, and a pluin-Chicken can be heated up any day. PUDDING SAUCE. 477 ney suet, and six of hard marrow, throwing into the mince six ounces of the finest sifted flour. Put this into a large basin, and mix with it a salt-spoonful of salt, four ounces of pounded sugar, a glass of brandy, and a large tea-cupful of milk. Stir well up. Add two ounces of candied orange or citron peel, cut in delicate strips, a quarter of a nut- meg grated, six ounces of currants, cleaned, six ounces of Muscatel raisins, stoned and chopped, with three pared rennets; and, if you have it, four large spoonfuls of apricot jam. Stir the materials well. Add five eggs, and stir briskly; and, lastly, the grate and juice of two lemons. Stir again ; allow to soak for an hour or two, if convenient, to blend and settle, and tie up the pudding firmly in a cloth, and boil for four or five hours.-Sauce, Two beat yolks of eggs, two ounces of pounded sugar, two of fresh butter, a grain of salt, a squeeze of lemon, a large spoonful of cream, and a half-pint of Sherry, or a large glass of Maraschino, or of black cherry brandy, strained and poured over the pudding. 834.3 Carême's Pudding Sauce--the Chaudột.Beat the yolks of two eggs, to which add a half-pint of Madeira, and four ounces of pounded sugar. Set this upon embers or a slow fire, and mill it with a chocolate mill. It will thicken and become smooth, and is a superior pudding sauce. Serve it in a sauce tureen, and the pudding without sauce. The chaudột answers well for all kinds of plum, or other fat puddings. 835. A Hunter's Pudding. This is a convenient variety of plum-pudding. Stone a pound of raisins, and chop them, shred a pound of suet, clean a pound of currants, grate the rind of two lemons over this, and mix up six beat eggs with a pound of flour, a quarter pound of sugar, a very little salt, and what milk will make a stiff batter. Season with a salt-spoonful of Jamaica pepper, and the same quantity of nutmeg ; and add candied citron and orange-peel, if you like. Boil for six or seven hours in a cloth or mould, and serve with sauce, No. 834.2-Obs. This pudding will keep a long while, and in this its utility con- sists; it may either be fried, broiled in slices, or warmed up in a fresh cloth. It will take a long time to get hot quite through if re-warmed whole. If made with 478 CHAP. IV.--PASTRY, PIES, &c. meat instead of suet it will eat cold : and if mince-meat, No. 815, is used with the addition of bread-crumbs, adding to a pound of mince-meat three ounces of dry panada, and mixing up the whole with a glass of spirits, and the grate and juice of a lemon and three beat eggs, and boiling for three hours, you have an excellent Hunter's Mince-meat pudding. 8:36. Plain Bread-pudding. — Pour a pint of boiling milk over what will fill a breakfast-cup of bread-crumbs. Let them soak covered till cold, and mash smooth with a spoon. Sweeten this to taste. Add to it four eggs, well beat, the size of an egg of butter, and season with cinna- mon and nutmeg. Stir in two ounces of currants picked and plumped, or a few cut raisins : or the pudding may be made very rich by the addition of blanched and chopped almonds, candied citron and orange-peel, with more raisins and currants. Boil it in a buttered basin, or bake it in a dish Pounded sweet or plain biscuit may be used instead of crumbs, and for all puddings where bread is used, sponge- cake may be employed without many eggs. A Brown Bread-pudding is made as above, but plainly; and also a Save-all or Crust-pudding. Small bread-puddings may be baked in buttered cups.—The French have their, or our, Brit poudin, as they term it, made with sundry addi- tions and variations, of which the most showy is giving the pudding a raised or Soufflé look, by lightly stirring in the whipt whites of the eggs the instant before putting the pudding to bake, and sifting sugar as glaze over the solid froth, 837. Rice-Pudding.-Wash well in several waters, and pick a half-pound of the best rice. Boil it slowly in a little water for a few minutes, pour off, and put a pint and a half of milk to it with a roll of lemon-peel. Stir it constantly, to prevent it from sticking. When quite soft, pour it into a dish, and mix two ounces of fresh- butter, or of nicely shred suet with it; and when cool, three or four beat eggs, sugar to taste, and a seasoning of cinnamon or nutmeg. Cover the edges of a flattish pie- dish with paste, which cut into leaves, and bake the pudding in it. A few cleaned currants may be put to it. This pudding may be thinned with milk and boiled in a cloth ; 480 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. no soaking. If the milk is hot, a half-hour will do. If - which is a better way-it be first soaked in warm water, drain it and mix with the milk. This is a plain good pudding, to which nutineg alone, which is now cheap, makes a sufficient seasoning, with a little wine.- We know of no more delicate, or indeed delicious preparation than genuine Tapioca, boiled first in milk, then with sugar and lemon seasonings, again boiled in a mould, and when cold turned out and eaten with plain cream. 841. Bakewell Pudding, or preserved Fruit Pudding with custard mixture.—Place a layer of preserved fruit (from humble gooseberries up to exquisite peaches or apricots) in a tart dish bordered with paste. Mix with it a good deal of candied citron or orange-peel cut in thin strips. Make a custard of five beat eggs, five ounces of melted fresh butter, six of pounded loaf-sugar, and three spoonfuls of lemon-brandy. Bake for three-quarters of an hour. This inay be called the successor of the Marrow pudding in many provincial parts of England, and is an improve- ment on that old favourite of John Bull. A Modern Welsh, otherwise The Quaker's Pudding.-To a half-pound of nicely-chopped fresh suet, add a half-pound of grated stale bread, a half-pound of loaf-sugar pounded, the grated rind of a large lemon, and the juice of two. Cement the whole with two beat eggs. Butter a tin mould with a grooved lid, and steam, or set the pudding in a pot of boiling water for two hours. This we consider an excellent plain family pudding, which the lemon seasoning renders somewhat refined, when compared with common fat puddings. 842. Rich Macaroni-pudding.—Simmer the macaroni in milk and water for fifteen minutes, add new milk to thin it; and when cold, add three beat yolks of eggs. Season with nutmeg, cinnamon, and a little almond-flower-water or noyeau, and sweeten with fine sugar. A little ginger- wine or lemon-wine is an improvement. A layer of orange-marmalade, or apricot-jam, in the centre of the pudding, is an excellent addition : Or, French plums, stoned and plumped, with shred marrow finely beat, (or mutton-suet,) and sugar, may be placed in a layer MACARONI PUDDING. 481 over the macaroni. It may be steamed or baked. Stick blanched almonds, sliced longwise, round the edges. 843. Parisian Macaroni-pudding.-Wash six ounces of macaroni, and simmer it in water till tender, but not soft. Strain it; beat up five yolks, and two whites of eggs. Stir into them a very little salt and pepper, and a half- pint of sweet cream. Mince, but not too finely, the skinned breast of a cold fowl, and rather less of dressed lean ham. Grate about an ounce and a half of Parmesan cheese over the mince, and mix the whole ingredients well together with the macaroni. Butter and fill a melon- shaped or other pudding-mould, and expose it to the steains of boiling water till thoroughly done. Turn the pudding carefully out, and serve it hot, with a strong clear gravy flavoured with onions, parsley, and, if the flavour of the French cookery is admired, a little tarragon.- Obs. This, by gourmands of experience, is considered as out of sight the best modern preparation of macaroni, sweetened dishes of this paste being considered by them as only fit for boys and women. But some except our Sughlio macaroni. More cheese may be employed.See Nos. 557, 560–563, which we think better receipts than the following night- mare-creating cheese-pudding. Cheese-pudding.- Grate Cheshire, or new rich Dunlop, or any mild soft cheese, in the proportion of a half-pound to two beat eggs, with a little oiled butter, cream, and a large table-spoonful of finely-grated bread. Bake in a small dish lined with puff-paste, or omit the paste, as in other puddings, at discretion.-Another, plainer and better. Grate the cheese ; use but one egg, and melt the whole in a small saucepan with milk, or, if for a supper-relish, ale or porter; use two table-spoonfuls of finely-sifted crumbs. Pour the mixture into a small buttered pudding- dish, and brown it in the Dutch oven. Mustard may be added. 843.2 Sponge-cake Pudding. - Have five fresh penny sponge-cakes. Butter a mould, and, slicing them, line it as for bread-and-butter pudding. Strew in a layer of candied citron or orange-peel, cut in delicate strips, or of delicate jam ; then lay in more slices of cake and more orange- 2 h ALMOND PUDDINGS. 483 flour, ground rice, or arrow-root may be used, and less of it. 847. Almond or Ratafia Pudding. — Blanch, cut down, and beat in a mortar to a paste, a half-pound of sweet and a half-ounce of bitter almonds, with a spoonful of orange-flower-water or pure water. Add to this paste three ounces of fresh butter melted in a glass of hot cream, four beat eggs, sugar to taste, a scrape of nutmeg, and a little brandy or curaçoa. Bake this in small cups buttered, or in a dish, and serve with a hot sauce of wine, sugar, and butter. See Nos. 304, 305, 834.8 848. Other Almond-puddings. - Beat half a pound of sweet and a few bitter almonds with a spoonful of rose- water. Then mix four ounces of butter with two spoon- fuls of cream warmed in it; four eggs, a spoonful of brandy, and sugar and nutmeg to taste. Butter some cups, half fill them, and bake the puddings. Serve on a napkin, with sauce of butter, wine, and sugar. 849. A baked Almond pudding. -- Beat, as above, six ounces of sweet and a dozen bitter almonds, and -mix the paste with the beat yolks of six eggs, four ounces of butter, the grate and juice of a large lemon, a pint and a half of cream, and a glass of white wine. Add sugar to taste, and bake in a dish with a neatly-cut paste-border. Ornament the top with sliced almonds or citron. This pudding, if plainer, is not worse, made with two ounces of bread-crumbs soaked in milk. 850. Orange-pudding. - To the grated rind of a large Seville orange put four ounces of fresh butter and six of pounded fine sugar. Beat this in a mortar, and gradually add eight well-beat eggs. Scrape a raw apple into the mixture, and put it into a dish lined with paste neatly scolloped on the edge. Cross-bar it with paste-straws, and bake till the paste is done. It may have three sponge biscuits, soaked in milk, put to it.-Obs. Less of the above mixture will do for an ordinary-sized pudding, as this high-flavoured composition goes far. Candied orange-peel beat to a paste makes a fine pudding when used as above. 851. Lemon-pudding.—Melt half a pound of sugar and 484 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. six ounces of fresh butter together, and when cold add six eggs very well beat, (leaving out three of the whites) and the juice and grated rind of two lemons. Mix all well, and bake in a dish with a puff-paste border, neatly marked on the edges. 852. An Apple-pudding.–Pare and grate three quarters of a pound of juicy apples. Put to them six ounces of butter beat cold to a cream, four beat eggs, two pudding- biscuits pounded, the rind of a lemon grated, sugar to taste, a spoonful of brandy, and another of orange-flower- water. Bake in a puff-paste marked in leaves round the border, and when done, strew candied lemon or orange peel sliced over the top. — Obs. Any good sweet biscuit may be used, or grated bread. A little lemon-juice or cider may be added if the apples are too mellow. 853. A Swiss Apple-pudding.–Place alternately a layer of sliced apples and sugar, with a very thin layer of rusks pounded and soaked in milk. Finish with the pounded rusks, and pour melted butter over the pudding. Grate sugar over it when baked. 854. The Manse Apple-pudding.–Pare, slice, core, and stew a pound of apples in a small stew-pan, with a stick of cinnamon, and two or three cloves. When the apples are soft, sweeten them to taste. Pulp them through a sieve, and add the beat yolks of four eggs, a quarter- pound of butter, with the grated peel and the juice of a lemon. Mix the ingredients well, and boil or bake for a half-hour in a dish lined with puff-paste. 855. Nottingham Apple-pudding.–Pare and core six large apples. Fill the hearts with moist sugar and a little cinnamon. Place them in a pie-dish, pour a light batter- pudding, suitably seasoned, over them, and bake till the apples are ready, - about three quarters of an hour. 856. Apricot, Peach, or Nectarine Pudding.–Pour a pint of hot cream over what would fill a cup of bread- crumbs, and cover the jug. When cold, add the beat yolks of four eggs, a glass of white wine, and beat sugar to taste. Scald, till soft, a dozen large apricots. Peel them, cut them, take out the kernels, and pound the whole in · GOOSEBERRY PUDDING. 485 a mortar. Mix them with the other ingredients, and, lastly, the beat whites of two of the eggs, and bake in a dish with a paste-border. The apricots should not be too ripe. This may be made an iced pudding. Page 490. 857. Gooseberry-pudding.–Stew green gooseberries till they will pulp through a sieve. When cold, pulp them, and add to them six ounces of butter, four ounces of Savoy biscuit, pounded sugar to taste, four beat eggs, and a glass of brandy. Bake in a dish with a paste-border. Obs. Excellent plain tartlets, and small pasties or turn- overs, may be made of this material. 858. Bread and Butter, or Newmarket Pudding. Boil a pint and a quarter of good milk for a few minutes, with the rind of half a lemon, a stick of cinnamon, and a bay-leaf. Put in fine sugar to taste, and as the milk cools mix it gradually with the well-beat yolks of six eggs, and three of the whites separately beaten. Let this soak, and cut and butter thinly with fresh butter slices of bread of about a quarter-inch thick. Line a pudding-dish or mould with the bread, and then with a layer of cleaned currants and a few raisins stoned and chopped, then again bread, and then fruit; but have the top layer of buttered bread. Pour the prepared custard through a sieve over this; let it soak for an hour, and bake or steam the pudding for a half-hour, or more. 858.? Another Bread and Butter Pudding.–Proceed as above, but use layers of any kind of rather thick jam instead of currants and raisins. A few large raisins or small French plums, laid in order in the bottom of the mould, and dinted into the bread, have a good effect when the pudding is turned out. 859. Chancellor's or Cabinet Pudding, a very delicate Pudding. — Boil a pint of cream with a bit of lemon-peel, and some fine sugar, and pour it hot over a half-pound of crumbled newly-baked Savoy cake in a basin. Cover the dish. When the cream is soaked up, add the yolks and whites of eight eggs, separately well whisked. Bake the pudding, and serve with custard-sauce. Stoned dates, plums, or raisins may be added, and also minced marrow, almonds, and grated citron. 860. Ginger-Puddings. -- Season a Chancellor's pudding 486 CHAP. IV.—PÁSTRY, PIES, &c. with two ounces of green preserved ginger. Steam it in a shape.-Obs. The fruit in all these puddings should be cut and arranged in form round the mould, to look well when the pudding is turned out. 861. New College Puddings.- Beat six yolks and three whites of eggs, and mix them to a smooth batter with three heaped spoonfuls of flour, a little ginger, and half a nutmeg, with pounded loaf-sugar to taste. Add four ounces of shred suet, four of cleaned currants, and an ounce of candied orange-peel and citron sliced. Bake in patty-pans, or fry these small puddings, making them up of an egg-shape. Serve with pudding-sauce and sliced lemon. — Obs. Bread crumbs or pounded biscuit may be used instead of half the flour when the pudding is to be baked. For all puddings bread-crumbs are much lighter than flour. . 862. Puddings in haste. — Mix a little shred suet with grated bread, a handful of currants, the beat yolks of four eggs, and the whites of two. Add grated lemon-peel and ginger. Mix, and roll this in little balls (the size of a small egg) with flour. Have ready a pan of boiling water, and slip them in. When done they will rise to the top. Serve with pudding-sauce. 863. Northumberland Puddings. — Make a thick batter by boiling and sweetening milk and flour. When cold and firm, mash it up, and add to it four ounces of melted butter, the same weight of currants, two ounces of candied lemon and orange-peel sliced, and a little brandy. Butter teacups, and bake the puddings in them for fifteen minutes. Turn them out on a dish, and pour wine-sauce over them, if to be eaten hot. If to make a cold orna- mental supper-dish, omit the wine-sauce, turn out, and garnish with red currant-jelly. 864. Dutch Pudding, or Albany Cake.—Mix two pounds, or rather less, of good flour with a pound of butter, melted in half a pint of milk. Add to this the whites and yolks of eight eggs separately beaten, a half-pound of fine sifted sugar, a pound of cleaned currants, and a few chopped almonds, or a little candied orange-peel sliced fine. Put to this four spoonfuls of yeast. Cover it up for an hour 488 CHAP. IV.—PASTRY, PIES, &c. thin cream, and season either with nutmeg, cinnamon, or lemon-rind, as best suits the pudding. Boil the cream with a bit of butter and a little rice-flour. Skink it well, and keep it hot by plunging the dish in hot water. When ready to serve, add a glass of sweet wine. Boil it up, and pour over the pudding.–See pages 276-7, and 477. 869. A Charlotte, or French Fruit-pudding.– The preparations known here by this name are much admired on the Continent, and particularly in France, where the solid, lumpy, and doughy English plum-pudding,* and fat pie or tart crust, are not so much esteemed as they are at home. — A Charlotte - a French Fruit-pudding, a Charlotte Russe, or Prussienne, or by whatever other name it be designated, may be made of any kind of fruit, or of a mixture of such as blend well, as apricot and apple marmalade. Cut smoothly slices of bread of nearly half an inch in thickness. Butter them richly on both sides, or dip them in melted butter, and cover the bottom and sides of a buttered mould with them, cutting the bread into dice or long slips, to make the whole join or dovetail compactly. Fill up the dish with apples, first stewed and seasoned as for an apple-pudding, No. 853. For the top, soak slices of bread in melted butter and milk. Cover the apples with these soaked slices. Butter them again and keep them pressed down, while baking in a quick oven, with a plate and a weight placed on it. Turn out, brown with a salamander, and pour two spoonfuls of currant-jelly melted in sherry over.-Obs. This, turned out of the shape when baked, is sometimes in Scotland called an apple-loaf. Any kind of preserved or ripe fruit may be used instead of apples, attending to sweetening and seasoning properly. A few very thin slices of bread, soaked and buttered thus, make a good crust to a rice or other pudding. The French Charlottes, or iced puddings, are of course finer than ours; we afterwards give the most choice of their Iced Puddings. 870. Yorkshire Pudding to bake under a Roast. - Mix * We cannot say whether it be in ignorance or irony that the Frene persist in calling our plum-cakes and plum-puddings, plonıb, i. e., heavy. But plomb enough they are sometimes. YORKSHIRE PUDDING. 489 four ounces of flour very smoothly with a pint and a half of milk, four beat eggs, and a little salt, and also ginger; if liked. Butter a shallow tin pan; pour the batter into it, and place it below the roast. When settling, stir up the batter; and when browned on the upper side, turn over the pudding, * first drawing a knife round the edges to loosen it. Brown the other side. It should be about an inch thick when done. This is the favourite English accompaniment to a sirloin of beef, or a loin of veal or mutton; finely-minced parsley, eschalot, onion, and also suet well-beat, may be added. This pudding, if for roast pork, should have a little minced sage. It is often cut in strips. 871. Potato Pudding to go below a Roast. — Peel, boil, and mash the potatoes, with a little milk, salt, pepper, and a finely-shred onion, if approved. Dish and score this, and set it below the roast to catch the dripping, and to brown. See Nos. 19, 866, and British Tapioca, No. 840. 872. Potato-Pudding, with Meat.- Mash the potatoes ; thin them with milk, and season as above. Cut either fat beef, mutton, or pork, into very small bits, and season these well with salt, pepper, allspice, and shred onion. Place a layer of meat at the bottom of a baking-dish, then potatoes, and proceed thus till the dish is filled. Pour all the potato-batter that remains equally over the top, and stick some butter over that. Bake of a fine brown, cover- ing with paper to prevent scorching. (See No. 764.)–Obs. This dish is in no material respect different from baked Irish stew. The meat may be kept in steaks; and the pudding is then called a Rump-steak potato-pudding. Chicken or veal, with currie seasonings, may be dressed as above, using a batter of boiled rice. A Mutton-chop pudding is also made with potatoes as above. 873. Kidney-pudding, or Dumpling.–Split, soak, and season one or two ox-kidneys. Line a basin with a good paste, made of suet, flour, and hot milk. Put in the kid- neys with a little shred onion and suet, and pinch in the * To turn omelets or puddings, butter a flat tin, or stew-pan lid; which place over the omelet, and turn. 490 CHAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. . paste; cover with a cloth, and boil for two hours. — For Blood-puddings and White-puddings, see National Dishes ; and French Cookery for several excellent meat- puddings. 873.2 Peas-pudding, see page 163. 873.Sauces for Puddings, pp. 276, 277, and Nos. 834,3 868. FASHIONABLE ICED PUDDINGS. 874. Pine-apple Iced Pudding, à la Royale.—Now that pine-apples are got so cheaply from the West Indies, the Pouding d'Ananas may be tried. Peel two ripe middle- sized pine-apples, trimming off corners, and going rather deep. Slice the flesh in quarter-inch thick slices, which cut into large dice. Boil these in six ounces of syrup for ten minutes ; cut the peel also in dice, and boil it in a pint of boiling cream. Let this soak a few minutes, and add six ounces of sugar and twelve yolks of beat eggs; thicken over a slow fire, and strain through a tammy. When this is cold, add to it the syrup of the pines, and freeze the mixture : when frozen, add the pieces of fruit, some pre- served cherries, two ounces of pistachios, cut in strips, and two fine pears, cut in large dice. Mix all up, and freeze again, after which fill the mould, and set it on the ice. These iced Poudings may be varied in many ways, by substituting different fruits and flavouring ingre- dients. 874. Parisian Iced Apple-pudding.–Peel, quarter, and core two dozen of pippins, and make them into a marmalade; add to them a pot of apricot jam, eight ounces of sugar, rubbed on the rind of a Seville orange. Rub all through a tammy, and freeze; then mix in a pot of preserved cherries, drained from the syrup ; four ounces of the best raisins, stoned, washed, and stewed in syrup; with an ounce of fresh citron-peel, cut in dice, and two ounces of pistachio- nuts, also in dice. Add a quarter pint of Maraschino, and as much Curaçoa; mix the whole, and freeze again, and add two platefuls of whipt cream, or as much as the pre- paration will require. Freeze once more ; fill the mould; plunge it into the ice-pot, which work with the handle, to mingle the frozen and unfrozen parts, till all are frozen equally. Serve it, turned out upon a neatly-folded nap- POTATO-PASTY. 493 875. Potato-Pasty. - This favourite preparation, like meat-puddings, curries, small pies, and nicely-dressed small savoury dishes of cold cooked meat, we hold in especial esteem for its use in respectable families in middle life, where a limited income does not preclude the nice cookery which costs nothing save a little (agreeable) trouble, and adds so much to domestic comfort. Tin-moulds, for potato-pasty, are sold at the iron-mongers' shops, like other moulds. The pasty may be made of beef, mutton, veal, pork, game, fish; and, in brief, whatever may be dressed as a savoury pie will answer equally well for a potato-pasty, and whether raw or previously cooked. Have from two to three pounds of the material; cut, trim, season, and lay it in the mould, as if making a pie or meat-pudding. A little more fat may be used with potato than with flour-paste or rice. Add water or gravy, cayenne and catsup, or whatever kind of seasoning is best adapted to the meat used, at discretion ; also mushrooms, catsup, or currie-powder, with veal, and with fish a little Harrey. Put the tin perforated cover down into the mould, and upon it, to the thickness of three or four inches, and rising conically, heap potatoes mashed with milk and a good bit of butter, and seasoned with pepper and salt; and for beef or mutton, with a shred onion, if you like,- Scottish fashion. Mark the paste neatly, and press some of the mash with a spoon through a colander, to form a sort of fretted or coral work on the surface, over which it is a great improvement to stick lightly small bits of butter. If the potatoes are in danger of being too much done be- fore the meat is enough, the cover need not be put on the mould till the meat is partly cooked. Bake as long as an ordinary pie of the same size, and serve with a napkin (or one of the fancy “pie-dish jackets” that ladies knit) round the mould. The frame or cover must not be removed till the pasty is served, when it is placed on another dish; as the potato-crust, we need not say, might break or crumble. Four pounds of potatoes, at least, will be required for the mash, and, if any of it is left, it may either be placed in balls round the ledge, or usefully served in slices, balls, or scallops. Cold mashed potatoes of a former day are quite as good for pasty as those freshly mashed. 494 CHAP. IV.—PASTRY, PIES, &c. The advantage of the potato-pasty pan over ordinary modes, lies in the steams of the meat ascending to the mashed potatoes through the perforated cover, and that a well-looking rich crust is thus obtained. After all, it is not much superior to the old way of dressing a thick border and balls in a dish; browning these, and then putting in any prepared hash or stew. Undressed meat, to be plainly served as potato-pasty, may be half-baked, or rather more, and then covered with mashed potatoes, over which a large old dish-cover may be turned, and only taken off to allow the crust time to brown before serving. DUMPLINGS. DUMPLINGS are made of all sorts of fruit, either fresh or preserved, and also of meat and other things. They are convenient, and sometimes economical, though not parti- cularly elegant, and far from being of easy digestion. The boiled paste of dumplings is dough in its heaviest form ; yeast will lighten it and save eggs. If yeast is used, the dough must stand a little to rise.—Buy bakers' dough. 876. Suet dumplings.-Chop from four to eight ounces of suet fine, and take double the weight of flour and grated bread. Beat two or three eggs with a glassful of milk. Mix all well together, and put a little salt and allspice to the mixture. Work it up into the shape of large eggs, and tie each up separately in a pudding-cloth dredged with flour. Boil three-quarters of an hour. These are eaten hot along with meat, or alone with butter and vinegar. Made small, they are called dough-nuts, and may be boiled thirty-five minutes. 876.2 Plum, Apple, Currant, Raspberry-Jam, Straw- berry-Jam, Gooseberry or Damson Dumpling.-Line a tin basin with a plain crust, and fill with the fruit, either preserved, or prepared as for pies and puddings. Pinch in the paste, tie a floured cloth over the basin, and boil from two to three hours, and turn it out:- Or, roll the paste out long, spread the fruit over it, then roll up as a collar, tie in a cloth at both ends, and boil. 876. Net or Crochet Dumplings.—Ladies ingeniously knit net or crochet cases in which to boil dumplings, which give them at table the appearance of being carved. DUMPLINGS-PANCAKES AND FRITTERS. 495 What is called “ round netting" and Fancy netting, has, we think, the best effect, though the case may be of fifty stitches ; only let the thread be tough, and rather coarse. This refinement is appropriate to fruit dumplings ; suet ones being homely unpretending affairs. 877. Norfolk Dumplings.—Make a very stiff batter with a pound of flour, a little milk, three eggs, and salt. Work this up into balls of the size of small turkey eggs, roll them in flour, and boil in water, or along with meat, thirty minutes : or drop the batter from a spoon into water that boils fast, and boil for ten minutes ; drain, and serve them hot. Currants and sweet spices may be mixed in with suet or batter dumplings. PANCAKES AND FRITTERS. THESE articles make an economical and genteel addition to small dinners, and have the advantage of being quickly forthcoming upon any emergency. 878. Common Pancakes.—Beat from four to eight eggs, according to the number of pancakes wanted, and put in a spoonful of flour for every egg, with sugar, ginger, and a little nutmeg. Stir in milk enough to reduce this to a thick batter. Make a small frying-pan hot, melt a little butter in it, pour it out, and wipe the pan; or rub it with a buttered cloth. Put in a very small piece of butter, and when it froths, a ladleful of batter: toss round the pan to diffuse this equally. Run a knife round the edges, and turn the pancake. Brown very lightly on both sides, double the pancakes up to keep hot, or roll them lightly - up as a collar. Serve a few at a time, hot and hot, with grated sugar and sliced lemon. They are good cold, but should then be thick, have some preserve in them, and be cut as sweet sandwiches. 879. Fine Pancakes.—Beat six eggs, add a pint of cream, and three ounces of butter, if they are wanted rich. Sweeten with sugar, and season with nutmeg, cinnamon, or lemon, as is most agreeable. Sift sugar over them as they are fried, and serve with a cut lemon, to be squeezed over them when helped at table.* * In the Cleikum, and probably in some other old-fashioned inns and Scottish families, pancakes were wont to be served with a layer of 436 CHLAP. IV.-PASTRY, PIES, &c. 880. Irish Pancakes. — These are made as above, with more flour and sugar. 881. Rice-pancakes or Fritters. — Boil four ounces of rice-flour in a quart of cream, or very good milk, till it is as thick as pap. Stir in a quarter-pound of sugar. When cold mix four spoonfuls of flour, a little salt, and eight beat eggs thoroughly together. If not stiff enough, add more flour and sugar, and fry the batter either as fritters or pancakes. Serve with a little melted butter, wine, and sugar, poured into the dish. 892. French Frying Batter for plain Fritters of Fruit, and for frying Vegetables. — Mix with a half-pint of milk and water two ounces of butter, and into it rub smoothly, working it long, ten ounces of flour. When to be used add the whites of two eggs, whisked to a stiff froth, and use it quickly that the batter may be light. The batter may be seasoned, if for vegetables, or sweet- ened if for fruit. English Batter. — Put a half-pound of sifted flour into a dish, with salt, a little melted butter, and the yolks of two eggs. Moisten and work up this with worts, or fresh yeasty beer, till it is of proper consis- tence. Have the whites of the eggs well whipt, and work them into the paste, which should be made hours before it is used. Water, brandy, or wine may be used instead of beer: milk is often used. Top-pot fat makes the best frying material for plain fritters, and next to it the soft kidney-fat of beef, or dripping. 883. Good plain Fritters.--Stir minced apples rolled in sugar with a little finely-shred suet into stiff pancake- batter or fritter-batter, as above-described. Drop this in proper quantities (a large spoonful) into boiling dripping, and fry the fritters; or a few picked currants may be stirred into the batter, and dropped in spoonfuls into the boiling dripping. Serve on a napkin, with sugar grated over them. 884. Apple, Apricot, and Peach fritters. — Put a little currant-jelly between the folds, - a practice for which much might be said by those familiar with it. Is not this the omelette à la Celestine, or au confiture, of our old allies, still lingering in remote places of the country? Pancakes are still better with apricot-marmalade.-P. T. INDIAN MEAL FRITTERS. 497 additional flour to common pancake-batter. Pare, stone, and divide the peaches and apricots. Peel, slice, and core large apples ; * dip them in this thick pancake- batter, or fry them in French batter. Drain and dish them neatly above each other, and grate sugar over them ; or drop batter into the boiling fat in the frying-pan, then a slice of apple, and drop more batter over that. - Obs. Fritters may be made of ripe or preserved fruits of all kinds, and are then called Italian fritters. The batter may be seasoned with wine, brandy, &c. Whole apples may be pared, cored, and baked, then dipped in batter, and fried as fritters, &c. The fritters will be best done if the apples are previously half-cooked, but have most flavour if they are raw.— See Potato-fritters, No. 227.- Oyster-fritters, No. 183. 884.2_INDIAN MEAL FRITTERS, DUMPLINGS, &c. Indian Meal Fritters and Pancakes. — Beat four eggs very well, and mix with a pint of milk, into which stir gradually ten spoonfuls of Indian meal. Work the mixture well till it is a smooth batter, when drop a ladleful at a time into half a pound of boiling lard in a deep frying-pan. Lift out the fritters, when done, one by one with a perforated skimmer, and drain and serve hot and hot. More lard may be required, and thefritters must be care- fully kept separate in the frying fat. The above batter will make pancakes of Indian meal, in the usual way. Serve with butter, sugar, and nutmeg, and a little white wine. A smaller kind of fritters is called Corn Oysters. Indian Flappers are pancakes, with fewer eggs, and baked on the girdle. Slap-Jacks are also nearly the same; but the batter is prepared several hours beforehand, and a little soda is mixed with warm water, and the batter rubbed with this be- fore being fried for breakfast. Indian meal suet dumplings are made almost like flour dumplings, but the suet must be well dredged with flour to prevent it from getting into lumps when boiled. Mix the floured suet with Indian meal. Throw in a little salt, and add milk enough to * French cooks steep rennets for fritters in brandy and cinnamon, or some liqueur, before dipping them in the batter. They make fritters of all sorts of fruits, first half-baking the cored apples or apricots. 2 1 498 CHAP. V.-CONFECTIONARY. make the mass a stiff dough. Knead this well, divide it into dumplings the size of an orange. Flatten the balls with a rolling-pin, and beat them to make them light. Tie up in separate cloths, leaving room to swell and boil as usual. They are eaten with boiled meat, fresh or salted, or along with sugar or treacle. Boiled and baked Indian puddings are made of the above fritter-batter, add- ing picked currants, and raisins stoned and cut. They are cooked like our plum-pudding, and eaten with pudding sauce. Polenta.—When mush, of Indian meal, is nearly cooked, turn it into a buttered shallow baking-dish, and, for every half-pound, stir in two ounces of grated cheese. Stir it well, and bake for from twelve to fifteen minutes.-See p. 248. CHAPTER V. CREAMS, JELLIES, SWEET DISHES, PRESERVES, AND ORNAMENTAL CONFECTIONARY. Make your transparent Sweetmeats truly nice, With Indian sugar and Arabian spice; And let your various Creams enriched be With welling fruit just ravish'd from the tree. Dr. KING. WHERE there is a good confectioner at hand, it will in general be not only more convenient, but as cheap, to pur- chase the greater part of the smaller articles used for desserts and suppers, as wafers, little soufflé cakes, bouchées des dames, and the many fanciful trifles made of brioche, paste-royal, and sugar. Even moulded creams, jellies, iced puddings, and preserved fruits of the finer kinds, where they are not often used, will be obtained as cheap, and in much better style than they can be prepared in small families. But this department of the culinary art, besides affording a pleasing variety to the domestic business of ladies, often in the country becomes a necessary branch of knowledge. We have therefore given a copious selection of RECEIPTS in ORNAMENTAL CONFECTIONARY, according to modern and fashionable practice. CONFECTIONARY. 499 Beginners in confectionary, as in cookery, are often at a loss to know how much of a receipt must be followed according to the letter, and how much is to be understood in the spirit only. Like the Malade Imaginaire, when ordered to walk across the room, they are miserable from not knowing whether to take the breadth or the length of it. In general this is of small consequence, provided they do walk either way. ICES, CREAMS, JELLIES, &c. CREAMS are either shaped in a mould, and turned out, and garnished either with jelly of a contrasting colour, as a little white, or pale rose-colour, with amber, or ruby- red jellies, or with preserved angelica, preserved cherries, or sprigs of myrtle, heaths, or other flowers; or served plain in a glass dish, or in little glass cups. For creams and jellies moulded, freezing is necessary, if you would make sure of having the shape fine and entire ; so always freeze if in your power. If too rich in syrup, cream- jellies will not freeze. If too watery, they will set in a kind of half-dissolved ice. It is a good method to freeze the mixture so far before filling the moulds. Isinglass or gelatine must also be put in considerable quantity to all things of this kind that are made in shapes; but if served in a dish or little cups, only eggs are used, and no isinglass. Melt slowly, in a little water, the isinglass to be used ; and after adding it, try a little of your cream or jelly in a small shape or cup, to see if it be strong enough to take and keep a shape. Moulds of pewter or tin give red jellies a bad colour. All creams are made nearly in the same manner, the chief difference arising from the flavouring ingredient, which generally gives the name, as pine-apple, coffee, choco- late, pistachio, or vanilla cream. Though creams certainly look handsomer when moulded and iced, they are not better than when served in glass cups, from the greater quantity of isinglass in them. The yolk of one fresh egg to every cupful is a good rule in making creams and custards to be served in cups, but many more are often used for moulds. A little grated nutmeg, or cinnamon, may be sprinkled over creams served in cups. The exact quantity of isinglass necessary 500 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. can only be known by experiment at the time of making the cream, this commodity varies so much in strength. For a large mould the material must be stiffer, to keep shape, than for a small one, especially if you have no ice. 885. DIRECTIONS FOR FREEZING CREAMS AND JELLIES.— There are various ways of procuring ice ; the cheapest is to buy it of Nature's making, and to have the necessary apparatus for preserving it after you have got it. Break the ice in a proper ice-bucket, and strew a handful of salt amongst it. Take it from the sides occasionally. Place your mould in the ice-pot, which set amidst the ice, but take care that the cream or jelly be quite cold, else it will melt the ice instead of being frozen itself. Ice-tubs are, we venture to think, not of sufficient diameter, to admit a large enough body of surrounding ice. They are well below and above, but have not enough of space for ice all around. We need give no farther directions, as those who purchase an apparatus are taught the use of it. Let your cream or jelly remain till wanted for the table. Then dip a towel in hot water, and rub it quickly round the mould, to detach it, and turn carefully upside down. You must use a towel dipped in hot water to turn out every thing made in a mould, (as pudding's, &c.) whether iced or hot.-Obs. Several ices, if left, by the addition of rum or brandy will make very agreeable sorts of beverages, and so will the thick part left in running jellies through the jelly-bag:—See Punch de la Romaine. See No. 900. 886. Italian Cream.—Take two parts of sweet cream and one of milk, about a quart in all. Boil this, and infuse in it four ounces of fine sugar, or enough to sweeten sufficiently, which is the only rule in using sugar, and the thin rind of a lemon, or two if small. When flavoured, add the beat yolks of eight eggs, and beat the whole well. Set it on the fire to thicken; and when this is done, put in a little strained melted isinglass, about a half-ounce, (more afterwards, if necessary ;) whip it well; strain it through a lawn-sieve, and try a little in a small mould, before filling the mould. Put it on the ice. 887. Italian Cream, anoiher way.--Whisk up a pint, or rather more, of the richest cream, the yellow rind of a 504 CHAP. V.— ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. cious quality. Cocoa-nuts are now so cheap and plenti- ful, that they have got into common use in English cookery and bakery. 900. To Ice Fruit-Creams, Jellies, fc.-Proceed as before directed for freezing creams in moulds. It is necessary that creams and fruits served with the name of iced, should be thoroughly freezed ; to be so, let them be long enough in the freezer, and only empty the moulds, or fill the glasses when they are wanted at table. All sorts of fruits may be iced. 901. Strawberry Ice-cream. — Mix the fruit-juice, strained and sweetened, in the proportion of a pound to a pint of whipt cream. If to be moulded to a shape, add a little melted and strained isinglass; if in small glasses, this is not necessary. 902. Raspberry Ice-cream.—Make as above. 903. Apricot Ice-cream.-Peel, stone, and pound the apricots with a little sugar. Press the mash through a tammy-sieve, with a wooden spoon. Mix it with sweet- ened whipt cream; put a little melted isinglass to it; whip the whole over ice till it is thoroughly blended ; then fill the mould, and place it in the ice-bucket.-Read No. 885. N.B.- We must again notice, that the necessary quan- tity of isinglass to make creams take a shape can only be ascertained by experiment. 904. Imitation of the Red-Fruit Ice-creams is made by tinging blancmange, &c., with beetroot or prepared cochineal. FRUIT ICE-WATERS. In these, water is generally substituted for cream. There is a great variety of them made all much in the same way. Spirits will at once make them into good punch. They are just in fact the prepared sherbet. 905. Lemon-Water Ice. - Take the zest of six fresh lemons off on lumps of sugar. Scrape this off ; add to it half a pint of lemon-juice, and one pint of syrup. Strain and freeze.- Orange-Water Ice the same. 906. Tamarind- Water Ice.--A pound of tamarinds, a quarter pint of syrup, a little lemon-juice, a pint and quarter of water ; rub through a sieve, and freeze. JELLIES, 505 907. Negus Ice.—A bottle of port-wine, half a nutmeg grated, the zest of a lemon rubbed off on sugar, a pint of syrup or more to taste :-freeze this. 908. Pine-apple-Water Ice, of fresh or preserved Fruit. -Take a half-pint of pine-apple syrup, the juice of three lemons, a pint of water, and a few slices of pine-apple in dice,-freeze. For fresh pine-apple, take a pint of syrup to a pound of grated fruit, and half a pint of water ; rub through a sieve and freeze. JELLIES TO BE SENT TO TABLE IN A SHAPE. CLARIFY the sugar you use, whether the jelly is boiled or worked cold; for although the main excellence of these jellies is no doubt the flavour, their most obvious qualities are colour and transparency. The former depends on the materials employed and on the manner of preparing ; the latter in a great measure upon the straining of the jelly. The utensils should all be brightly clean, the moulds of pewter, but for red jellies, of earthenware, and the spoons of silver or wood. Unless the moulds are set in ice, the cook will often be disappointed of an entire shape. 909. Calves' Feet Jelly.-French cooks candidly allow that Calves' Feet Jelly is an English invention, and give us credit for it. It is the great Chief of the whole tribe of moulded jellies, and deserves both the pains and praise bestowed on it. Prepared gelatines are now extensively sold for jelly, and printed directions are given for their use. They often are convenient, but good cooks disapprove, or are perhaps a little jealous of them. A firstrate female cook lately said to us, “I have a better jelly from my feet; and a nice little dish besides of the meat, for the price of the dry stuff.” It is best to make the plain jelly or stock- if gelatine, the “ dry stuff,” is not used—the day before the dish is wanted. Clean and slit four calves’-feet, and boil them slowly in five quarts of water till rather more than the half is wasted. Skim the stock, strain it off, and when cold and firm, remove the top-fat and the sediment. Put this jelly-stock, when wanted, into a nice preserving- pan, with white sugar to taste, the thin rind of two lemons, and the juice of from four to six ; a half-bottle of Madeira or Sherry, the whites of six eggs well whisked, and the 506 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. shells crushed and thrown into the pan. Stir this well together, and set the pan on the fire, taking care not to agitate the jelly after it begins to heat. Let it boil slowly for from twelve to fifteen minutes, then throw in a little cold water, and let it boil another five minutes. Set the pan, with a flannel cloth thrown over it, to settle for a half- hour or more ; skim, pour the jelly into a flannel jelly-bag ; strain it, and, if necessary, return it into the jelly-bag, till it be perfectly pellucid, and fill the moulds. N. B.-If you have any doubt of your jelly not keeping the shape, add a little inelted isinglass, which also helps to clear the jelly.Obs. This jelly may be made of cow-heels, or a proportion of them; and it may be flavoured with many things, some of them cheap substitutes for what is ordered above. Home-made noyeau, or ginger-wine, may be substituted for Madeira, or less wine may be used, and a little citric acid or verjuice does for part of the lemon- juice. Some very great economists even substitute porter or ale for wine, and flavour with coriander-seeds, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves. Finely-flavoured mild ale is indeed an excellent substitute, but it must not be too bitterly hopped. 910. Madeira-Wine Jelly.—Make this precisely as calves' feet jelly, but add the Madeira wine, and a glass of brandy after the jelly is clarified ; and as this diminishes the strength of the jelly, a little melted isinglass to give firmness. The philosophers of the stove allege that jellies broken, i. e. roughed, eat better than those in shape, the admission of air heightening the flavour. What is left of a broken shape will, roughed, fill glasses.-Obs. Besides the prepared gelatines of Nelson, Cox, and others, jelly is now sold in bottles ; ready for moulding. Set the bottle in hot water, to dissolve the contents, pour this into the mould, and add what wine, spirits, and flavouring ingredients are considered necessary. 911. Orange-Jelly.--Take twenty oranges; divide and squeeze the whole number, as in making orange marma- lade. Infuse the rind of six in a basin with boiling water. Clarify a pound and a quarter of sugar, and when it has reached the second degree (see Clarifying,) put in JELLIES. 507 the strained juice, and the strained infusion of the rind. Let it come to the point of boiling, but not boil. Skim it, and run it through a jelly-bag. If the oranges are too ripe, use a fourth-part bitter oranges, or a couple of lemons, with their rind infused. Add a little clarified isinglass. First try the jelly in a small mould, then fill the moulds.- Obs. The colour should be a pale topaz; a few blades of saffron will improve the colour. 912. Lemon-Jelly.—Make this exactly as the above, but use more sugar, and take care that all the lemons are quite fresh. Much less fruit may do, and the rind may be saved, rubbed off on sugar, for other purposes. 913. Apple-Jelly.-Pare as many juicy apples as you will want, and slice them into a little water. Boil them to a mash, drain them through a jelly-bag, and take equal weight of sugar, boiled to blowing height. Boil for ten minutes, seasoning with the grate and juice of two or more lemons. Mould and freeze, if you like. 914. Peach-Jelly.-Scald, peel, divide, and stone eighteen peaches. Break the stones, and take out the kernels. Boil the peaches and bruised kernels in clarified syrup for a quarter of an hour. Season it with the juice and grate of four fresh lemons. Run it through a jelly-bag, add an ounce of strained melted isinglass, and fill the mould, which must be plunged in ice. Obs. All these jellies may be, and often are made without freezing ; though there is great convenience in having an ice-pot for this and many other purposes in fine cookery. JELLIES OF RED FRUITS IN SHAPES. Make all these with isinglass purified, and do not boil them so long as jellies for preserving, as the colour will suffer. One direction will serve for all. 915. Raspberry-Jelly for a Shape.-Put fresh-picked fruit with a third red currants into an earthenware mortar, with pounded sugar. Mash them well. Put in a little water, run this through a jelly-bag, and stir in what you think a sufficient quantity (about an ounce to the quart) of melted cold isinglass. Fill your mould.--Obs. Straw- berry, Red currant, and Cherry jelly, are all made as above-only for cherries add a little lemon-juice; and 508 CHAP. V.- ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. also for the other fruits, if mawkishly sweet with over- ripeness. 916. Hartshorn-Jelly.-Simmer a half-pound of the shavings in two quarts of water till the half is wasted. Strain and boil up the jelly with the thin rind of three sweet oranges and three lemons. When cool, add white sugar to taste, the juice of the fruit, wine, and the whites of six eggs well whisked up. Let it just come once more to boil, without stirring it, and run it through a jelly-bag till quite clear. A pinch of saffron to tinge with colour may be added. 917. Venus's Jelly.—Make as hartshorn-jelly; tint this a ruby or rose-colour with cochineal, and flavour with Madeira. This is a fashionable jelly. 918. BLANCMANGE. Eschew the reproach of English Blancmange being like shaving lather. Pick and boil two ounces of isinglass for a quarter of an hour in a quart of milk or sweet cream, with the thin rind of a small lemon, sugar to taste, and a blade of mace. Blanch, split, and pound, six bitter almonds, and two dozen sweet ones, with a little rose-water, or plain water, to prevent their oiling, and stir the paste gradually into the hot milk. Strain through a fine lawn sieve or napkin into a basin, and let it settle for a good while, that the sediment may fall. Pour it again clear off from the sediment, and fill the moulds. It is sometimes difficult to take out, and dipping the mould in hot water destroys the fine marble-like surface. Rub the mould with a towel dipped in hot water, raise the jelly from the edges with a fruit-knife, and then use the fingers to get it out. Garnish with croutons of red jelly or flowers. 919. Blancmange as in France. Make the stock of the jelly of calves' feet well blanched, or of white fish, as skate, or of feet of poultry. Season it with lemon-peel and coriander-seeds. In other respects make it as above; but use as little isinglass as possible. Our English blanc- mange is, in fact, just almond-cream. But we have a variety of blancmanges which, except in the name, differ in nothing from our creams in fresh and preserved fruits, pp. 503-504. TRIFLE, OR TIPSY CAKE. 509 919.2 Irish Moss, or Carrageen, is made into a frugal blancmange ; but it is at best a poor substitute for pre- pared gelatine, isinglass, or fresh jelly of calves' feet. Its sea-smell can never be wholly overcome. Soak an ounce of moss twelve hours or more. Drain, and boil it in a pint and a half of milk for half an hour, putting in sugar and cinnamon to taste, stirring it to prevent setting on. Strain it into a mould, and turn out when wanted. It is recom- mended for invalids and delicate persons. TRIFLE, OR TIPSY CAKE. 920. An elegant Trifle.- Whisk in a large bowl, early in the morning, or the day before you make the trifle, a quart of good cream, with six ounces of sifted sugar, a glass of white wine, the juice and fine grate of a lemon, and a few bits of cinnamon. Take off the froth as it rises, with a sugar-skimmer or silver fish-trowel, and place it to drain on a sieve reversed over a bowl. Whisk till you have enough of the whip, allowing for what it will fall down. Always whip cream over ice if you have opportunity. Next day place in a deep trifle-dish six fresh-baked sponge-biscuits broken, or rice trifle-cake, or remnants of any good light cake cut down, a dozen ratafia-drop-biscuits, and some sweet almonds blanched and split. Pour over them enough of white wine, or ginger-wine, to moisten them completely, and add a seasoning of grated lemon-peel, and a thin layer of rasp- berry or strawberry jam. Have ready a rich and rather thick custard, and pour it over this to the thickness of two inches. Heap the whip above this lightly and grace- fully, and garnish with a few light sprigs of flowers of fine colours, or a few bits of very clear currant-jelly stuck into the snow-white whip, or a sprinkling of Harlequin- comfits. This last we consider vulgar, but it is still in fre- quent use. 920. Tipsy Cake.—Crumble a fresh-baked sponge-cake in a trifle-dish. Pour over it as much wine, with one- fourth brandy, as it will imbibe, and heap on it whipt cream seasoned as for trifle.-See Nos. 937 and 1016. 921. Gooseberry or Apple Trifle. — Scald, pulp, sweeten, and season the fruit, if apples, with cinnamon or lemon 510 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. grate ; mix it over the fire with a thin custard ; put it into the trifle-dish, and, when cold, cover it with a whip made the day before, as no whip will be solid unless it has stood a good while. There need be no creain put to the fruit-pulp. CUSTARDS. * 922. Custard for a centre dish, - Scottish. - Make a strong whip of sweetened cream, and have a little of the same cream tinged with cochineal before it is whipt. Heap the white whip over a rich custard, and drop the pink-coloured froth fancifully over that. Garnish with bright green and scarlet preserved fruits, — angelica and preserved cherries and barberries answer well to contrast the colours. 923. Almond Custards. — Blanch and pound nearly a half-pound of sweet and a half-ounce of bitter almonds, using a little rose-water to prevent them from oiling. Sweeten a pint or rather more of boiling sweet milk and another of cream, and mix these gradually with the beat yolks of six eggs, stirring them well as they cool. Rub the almond-paste through a sieve to this, and set it over the fire to thicken, carefully stirring it. Pour it into a jug, and stir till it cools. Instead of boiling, this may be baked in cups, or in a dish with a lightly-cut paste-border. Flour of rice may be used instead of almonds : these are then called Rice CUSTARDS. 924. Baked Custards.—Boil and sweeten with fine sugar a pint of milk, and another of cream, with a stick of cin- namon and a bit of lemon-peel. When cool, mix in the beat yolks of six eggs. Pick out the cinnamon and lemon- peel, fill the cups, and bake for ten minutes. 925. Lemon Custards.-Beat the yolks of eight eggs as well as if for a cake, till they are a strong white cream. Mix in gradually a pint of boiling water and the grated rind and juice of two lemons. Sweeten to taste, and stir this one way over the fire till it thicken, but do not let it boil. Add a little wine and a spoonful of brandy when * Our custards are almost the same thing with the French frangi- pane, an old word of our own ; or the crême patisserie, with which they eat tourtes, i. e. tarts. - CUSTARDS AND CHEESECAKES. 511 the custard is almost ready. Stir till cool. Serve in cups, and grate nutmeg over. 926. Excellent common Custards. Boil a quart of new milk with sugar, a bit of cinnamon and lemon-peel, and a bay-leaf. Mix a spoonful of rice-flour with a little cold milk and the beat yolks of six eggs. Stir the whole gra- dually into the boiling milk in a basin, and then let it thicken over the fire, but not boil. Pour it into a cold dish, and stir one way till cool. For bay-leaf very little ratafia, Curaçoa, or peach-water, may be put to flavour these custards. Grate a little nutmeg, or strew a little ground cinnamon lightly over the top of the cups. 927. Cheesecakes. These are just various pudding in- gredients, more or less rich, baked in paste, and covered. 927. Good old-fashioned Cheesecakes. — Mix with the dry beat curd of a quart and a half of milk, a half- pound of cleaned currants, white sugar to taste, and also pounded cinnamon, the beat yolks of four eggs, the peel of a lemon grated off on lumps of the sugar used for sweet- ening, a half-pint of scalded cream, and a glass of brandy. Mix the ingredients well, and fill patty-pans, lined with a thin light puff-paste, nearly full. Cover : twenty minutes will bake them in a quick oven. They may be iced. 928. Almond Cheesecakes.-Blanch and pound a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds and eight bitter ones, with a glass of common or of orange-flower-water. Add four ounces of sugar, a quarter-pint of cream, and the whites of two eggs beat to a froth. Mix and fill small patty- pans :- or these almond cheesecakes may be made by merely mixing a few beat almonds with the cheesecakes. -No. 927.-See Savoury Cheesecakes, No. 561. 929. Lemon or Orange Cheesecakes.—Grate the rinds of three lemons, and squeeze their juice over three sponge- biscuits soaked in a glass of cream. Add to this four ounces of fresh butter, four of fine sugar, and three eggs well beaten. Season with cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix the whole ingredients thoroughly, and bake in small pans lined with a light thin paste. Lay a few long thin slices of candied lemon-peel along the top before baking. · 930. Whipt Syllabub. Make a strong whip as directed 512 CHAP. V.--ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. for Trifle; or in making a Trifle a little of the whip may be saved, or may even be applied to this use after it has done duty on the Trifle. Mix a large pint of rich sweet cream with a half-pint of sweet wine, sifted sugar to taste, the juice and fine grate of a lemon, and a little cinnamon. Stir this briskly, and fill the glasses within a half-inch of the brim. With a spoon lay a little of the whip lightly on the top of each ; or a whip may be got by whisking the above materials, and draining the froth on a sieve as long as possible before the syllabubs are wanted. 931. Windsor Syllabub. Pour a bottle of sherry into a deep china or glass bowl; sweeten it well, and season it with pounded cloves and grated nutmeg. Milk from the cow nearly double the quantity of milk over it, and stir it up. 932. Staffordshire Syllabub.—It is made as above, sub- stituting cider, with a little brandy, for the wine. 933. Somersetshire Syllabub.—Sweeten a pint of port, and another of Madeira or sherry, in a china bowl. Milk about three pints of milk over this. In a short time it will bear clouted cream (No. 935) laid over it. Grate nutmeg over this, and strew a few coloured comfits on the top, if you choose. 934. Curds and Cream, Scottish. — When the milk is curdled firmly, fill up a melon-shape or Turk’s-cap-shape, perforated with holes to let the whey drain off. Fill up the dish as the curd sinks. Turn it out when wanted, and serve in a glass dish with cream ; or a whip may be poured over the curd, which may be made firm either by squeezing or standing long to drain; or, having drained the curd well, rub through a sieve, and pour cream over it. Garnish with bits of red currant-jelly or barberries. · 935. Clouted Cream. - Season a quarter-pint of new milk with two blades of mace, and put to it a large glass of rose-water. Strain and add to this the beat yolks of two eggs. Stir the mixture into a quart of rich cream, and let it scald, stirring it all the while. The rose-water may be omitted when this is to be eaten with fruit. 936. An Egg-Cheese or Curd-Star. - Boil and season with cinnamon and lemon-peel, a quart of milk or cream, and put to it eight eggs well beat, and a very little salt. WASSAIL-BOWL. 513 Sweeten and season with orange-flower-water, wine, or any seasoning that is preferred. Stir and let this boil till it curdles, and till the whey is completely separated ; then drain it through a sieve, and put it into a star-mould or other shape, that has holes to let the whey drain wholly off. When firm, turn it out, and serve with cream, cus- tard, or wine and sugar, along with it, or around it. 937. Wassail-Bowl, a centre Supper Dish for Christmas- tide.-Crumble down as for Trifle a nice fresh cake (or use macaroons or other small biscuit) into a china punch- bowl or deep glass dish. Over this pour some sweet rich wine, as Malmsey Madeira, if wanted very rich, but raisin-wine will do. Sweeten this, and pour a well- seasoned rich custard over it. Strew nutmeg and grated sugar over it, and stick it over with sliced blanched almonds.-Obs. This is, in fact, just a rich eating posset, or the more modern Tipsy Cake. A very good wassail- bowl may be made, with mild ale, well spiced and sweet- ened, and a plain custard made with few eggs. The wassail-bowl was anciently crowned with garlands and ribbons, and ushered in with carols and songs. 938. Devonshire Junket. -- Milk the cow into a bowl in which a little rennet is put. Stir it up when full; and when firm pour over it scalded cream, pounded sugar, and cinnamon. SWEET DISHES OF APPLES, &c. 939. Gooseberry-Fool.-Put the picked fruit and a glass of water in a jar with a little moist sugar, and set the jar over a stove, or in boiling water, till the fruit will pulp. Press it through a colander, and mix the pulp by degrees with cream, or with common plain custard made with very few eggs. 940. Apple-Fool. - This is made as above. The fruit may either be mixed with sweetened milk, thickened with eggs, or with plain custard or cream. 941. Buttered Apples.—Pare and core pippins or ren- nets. Stew in thin syrup as many as will fill your dish, and make a mash or marmalade of the rest. Cover the dish with a thin layer of the marmalade. Place the apples on this, with a bit of butter in the heart of each. 2 K 514 CHAP, V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. Lay the rest of the marmalade into the vacancies. Glaze with sifted sugar, and give them a fine colour in the oven. This is nearly a compôte in the French style--and a good style it is-or their Pommes au beuvre, 942. Apples in Rice. - Prepare apples as above; but instead of apple-marmalade use seasoned and buttered rice. Glaze and brown as above. · N. B. These are cheap and excellent preparations. For preparing the rice, see Gateau de Riz, No. 1013. 943. To bake Apples or Pears.--Pare, core, and, if large, divide them. Bake them in a stoneware dish with sugar, bruised cloves, a little sweet wine, and grated lemon-peel. The oven should be rather slow.–See Nos. 710, 984. 944. To stew Pears.—Prepare and season them as above, and pack them in a nice block-tin saucepan with a little water or wine. Cover them close, and let them stew very slowly for three hours.—See Nos. 708, 985-6. 945. Black Caps.-Pare, divide, and core some large, juicy apples. Bake them, with white sugar strewed over them. Serve with a sauce of wine, water, and sugar, seasoned with cloves and cinnamon.- Obs. Genuine black cups are neither pared nor divided ; they are merely cored, the holes stuffed with sugar and seasonings, and the apples stewed very slowly in sweet wine in a close-covered tin pan. The tops are then blackened with a salamander, which gives the name.-See also French Dishes of Fruit, Compôtes, and Preserves of Pears and Apples. 946. Chartreuse de Pommes,-Beauvilliers' Receipt. - Take a score of rennets; peel them, and with a very small corer take off all the pulp about the heart ; when there is enough cored to fill the Chartreuse mould, mince the rest of the apples to make a marmalade ; equalize all the little apples, or pieces that have been cut out with the apple-corer: make a little saffron-water; put a little sugar to it; throw in a third of the small apples ; give them a slight boil, take them off, and drain ; do another third in cochineal, and the last in a syrup of white sugar, with an equal quantity of angelica as of the apples ; cover the mould with white paper; make any design in the bottom with the red, green, yellow, and SWEET DISHES OF RICE AND FLUMMERY. 515 white apples; fix them tastefully all round the mould to the top, and fill it up with the marmalade ; it ought to be firm and without any void. When ready to serve, turn up the mould upon the dish, and take off the paper.-Obs. At grand dinners dressed in the French style, roots are often cut in forms, and served in the above way. 947. A Dish of Snow, or Snow-Cream.-Stew and pulp a dozen of apples; beat, and, when cold, stir into this the whites of a dozen eggs whisked to a strong froth; add a half-pound of sugar sifted, and the grate of a lemon. Whisk till it becomes stiff, and heap it in a glass dish, SWEET DISHES OF RICE AND FLUMMERY. 948. Snow-Balls.—Swell a half-pound of rice in water, with a roll of lemon-peel, till tender, and drain it. Divide it into five parts, and roll a pared apple cored, and the hole filled with sugar and cinnamon, into each heap, tying each up tightly in separate cloths. Boil for an hour, untie, and serve with pudding-sauce. 949. Buttered Rice.-Swell the rice till tender in new milk. Pour off the thick milk, and add melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Serve hot. For croquets of rice, see observations on Gateau de Riz, No. 1013. 950. Oatmeal Flummery.- Put finely-ground oatmeal to steep in water for three days. Pour off the thin of the first water, and add more water. Stir up, strain, and boil this with a little salt till of the thickness wanted, adding water at first, if it be in danger of getting too stiff. A piece of butter is an improvement, and a little white sugar. Serve in a basin with milk, wine, cider, or cream. -Obs. This, if allowed to stand to become sour, is neither more nor less than Scotch Sowens, and an excellent dish it is.See Cookery for Invalids. 951. Rice Flummery.—Mix a couple of spoonfuls of rice-flour with a little cold milk, and add to it a large pint of boiled milk sweetened and seasoned with cinnamon and lemon-peel. Two bitter almonds beaten will heighten the flavour. Boil this and stir it constantly, and when of proper consistence, pour it into a shape or basin. When cold turn it out, and serve with cream or custard round it : or with a sauce of wine, sugar, and lemon-juice.--This 616 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. differs in nothing from rice blancmange, except that rice. flour is used instead of unground rice. 952. Dutch Flummery, or Yellow Flummery, the French Jaune Mange, fc., may be made as directed for blanc- mange, using well-beat yolks of eggs instead of cream. Colour with saffron. It may be made either in cups or in a mould of any shape.-N. B. Seldom made. 953. Rice Blancmange.--Swell four ounces of rice in boiling water; drain and boil it to a mash in good milk, with sugar, a bit of lemon-peel, and a stick of cinnamon. Take care it does not burn; and when quite soft, pour it into cups, or into a shape dipped in cold water. When cold, turn it out. Garnish with croutons of currant-jelly, or with any red preserved fruit. Serve with cream, or plain custard. We can find no English word equivalent to croutons-a bit, a diamond, or sippet-nothing will do to convey the idea of this delicate morsel of embellishment. 954. Mille Feuilles, Italian Pyramid, Puit d'Amour.- This is the self-same thing, with different names. A good puff-paste, rather thick, must be stamped out with tin stamps, or any ingenious substitutes, into a number of pieces, each less than the other, the base being of the size of the plate on which the pyramid is to be raised, and the others gradually tapering pyramidically. Bake the pieces of paste on paper laid on tins, and ice them. Pile them up, laying raspberry and other jams of different colours on the ledges, and a bunch of small preserved fruit or some other ornament to crown the pile. 955. Another way, from Beauvilliers.--Take puff-paste, and roll it out as above ; cut it with figured paste-cutters of different sizes ; cut them equal in number, the large and small; put the large upon a leaf; wet them with water, and put a small one on each large one; with the point of a knife cut them out in the middle the size of a thimble ; put them into the oven, and when nearly done powder them with sugar; take out the cut middle, replace it with sweetmeats, and serve. SWEET SOUFFLÉS. These favourite and fashionable preparations too often fail in the hands of ordinary cooks—or of one cook, with SOUFFLES. 517 zat me Emai perhaps a temporary assistant, and distracted with a hundred cares. For soufflés, there should properly, be a soufflé-dish that will stand the oven, and a finer one into which it fits to go to table. For the light and airy appearance of soufflés, much depends on the whisking of the eggs, but more on the baking. Besides, they must be served instantly, or they will flatten. There is often no help for this, and the consolation remains, that what is not a light, delicate soufflé is nevertheless a very good pudding. 956. Soufflé of Ground Rice.-Bleach two spoonfuls of rice-flour, as directed for potato-flour, No. 232, and dry this quantity. Boil it slowly with a half-pint of sweet milk. To a little of it in a basin put the beat yolks of four eggs, and mix them well. Sweeten this, and cook the whole for a few minutes over the fire, as in making cus- tard. Cool this, and gently pour into it the whites of six eggs, beaten to a snow. (If they are not well beaten, the soufflé will never rise.) Put the whole into a soufflé- dish, and bake it in a rather slack oven. It will take from a half hour to forty minutes. All depends upon the state of the oven. Brown with a salamander, and serve instantly. 957. Soufflé of Potato Flour.- Mix a large spoonful of potato-flour and one of sifted sugar, with as much boiled milk or cream as will make a thick batter of them, or a thin paste. Flavour this with rose-water, orange-flower- water, coffee, or chocolate, as you please, and naine the soufflé accordingly, Work into this the beat yolks of six eggs, and afterwards gently add the whites beat to a snow. Bake the soufflé, and glaze it if you please. This dish is susceptible of many forms ; it may be coloured with saffron, &c. The whipping of the eggs and the state of the oven are the main points. 958. Omelette Soufflé. Beat separately, and strain the whites and yolks of six eggs. Sweeten the yolks, and perfume with orange-flower-water or lemon-peel. Beat the whites again to a strong whip, and stir this lightly into the yolks. Melt a bit of fresh butter in an omelet-pan, and pour in the mixture. Cook it over a slow fire not to scorch. Turn it carefully out. Dredge fine sifted sugar OBSERVATIONS ON SWEETMEATS AND PRESERVES. 519 Soutes e Dhunder 2.- Preparo: - CONDE below these papers, or both. We have found lead-foil answer well. The sugar is well bestowed, and it can be afterwards used in making other preserves. To keep stone-fruit, melted mutton-suet is sometimes poured over it, when jellied, which is certainly an efficacious method of excluding the air, though not very pleasant otherwise. Presses lined with wood, shelves, pantry-drawers, or any place that is perfectly dry, and, if possible, not too warm, are best suited for keeping preserves. Brass pans, scoured till brightly clean, are still much used for making pre- serves ; but a vessel of double block-tin, or of iron very thickly tinned, or enamelled, if kept for jellies and sweet things, answers very well, and is more safe, particularly for the coarser jams, which, being generally made with a short allowance of sugar, require long boiling. Sweet- meats are best when rather quickly boiled, that the watery parts may be driven off without a process continued so long as to injure the colour of the fruit.* The shade of colour may be varied in many ways by using white cur- rants to lighten, or black to deepen the colour, or by white or red raspberry-juice. Currant jellies may be made without boiling at all, by merely stirring the sugar finely beaten and sifted into the juice of the fruit, or what is termed worked-cold. But though the flavour is pre- served, they look muddy and eat harshly. It is a good plan to have a sieve, spoons with holes, and two pans of different sizes, kept wholly for preserves and sweet dishes, as the least taint of other things will at once destroy these delicate preparations. Sweetmeats and preserved fruits ought to be looked at several times during the first month ; and if mouldiness gather on them, which is not occasioned by external damp, jellies and jams, and the syrup of pre- serves must be boiled over again till the jelly is firm, and the watery particles are wholly evaporated. Strong glass vessels keep preserves well, and, now that glass is so cheap, are cheaper in the end than earthenware ones.--Obs. The great art in preserving is to avoid having the syrup too rich at first, which would infallibly shrivel the fruits, . * This, we believe, is a culinary heresy, but we avouch it. 520 CHAP. V.—ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. particularly if they be boiled in it, or have it poured too hot over them. OF BOILING SUGARS FOR PRESERVES. CONFECTIONERS reckon several degrees in preparing sugars, from a simple Clarified syrup to caramel. The Saccharometer is as useful to the confectioner and cook as to the brewer.—See it in our Section on Brewing. 960. To Clarify Sugar.-To every pound of broken sugar of the best quality take a quarter-pint of water, and the half of the white of an egg, beat up, or less egg will do. Stir this up till the sugar dissolve, and when it boils, and the scum rises strong and thick, pour in another quarter-pint of cold water to each pound. Let it boil, edging the pan forward from the stove till all the scum is thrown up. Set it on the hearth, and when it has settled take off the scum with a sugar-skimmer, and lay it on a reversed hair-sieve over a dish, that what syrup is in it may run clear from it. Return the drained syrup into the pan, and boil and skim the whole once more.-French artistes allege that our new rapid process of sugar-refining gives an inferior quality of sugar. 961. Candied Sugar, first degree.-Boil sugar, clarified as above, till it rises in the pan like clusters of pearls; or try between the finger and thumb if it have tenuity enough to draw out into a thread. 962. Blown Sugar, second degree.--Boil candied sugar till, on dipping the skimmer into the syrup, and blowing through the holes of it, the sugar forms into bubbles. 963. Feathered Height, third degree.-Boil sugar of the second degree for some time longer, and dip the skim- mer in the pan; shake off the sugar, and give the skim- mer a quick toss, when, if enough done, the sugar will fly off like snow-flakes. 964. Crackling Sugar, fourth degree.-Boil feathered sugar till, on dipping a stick into the pan, and dipping it afterwards in cold water, the sugar will immediately become hard. 965. Caramel Sugar.-Boil crackling sugar till, on dipping a stick into it, and then into cold water, it hardens and snaps like glass.-Obs. This last makes a very elegant FRUIT-JELLIES. 621 cover for sweetmeats, when prepared thus :-Set the pan with the caramel sugar instantly into a vessel of cold water. Have the caramel-moulds oiled with almond-oil, and with a fork spread fine threads of the caramelled sugar over them in form of net-work or chain-work. This, however, is easier said than done. All sorts of fruit may be caramelled, whether fresh or preserved. They must be washed free of sugar, if preserved, and dried in both cases. The process is, however, troublesome, and seldom succeeds but under the hands of thorough-bred confectioners, to whom, in general, all highly-ornamental affairs should, we think, be left. If families can afford ornament, they must not grudge the cost of having it well executed. FRUIT-JELLIES. See also pages 506, 507.: 966. Red Currant Jelly, -Let the fruit be good of its kind, fully ripe, and gathered on, and after, a dry day. Strip it off the stalks; weigh it, and clarify and boil to the second degree an equal weight of refined sugar. Put the fruit to this in the preserving-pan; skim and boil for fifteen minutes. Skiin again, and run the jelly through a hair-sieve ; but do not run it off too much ; pot it, and when cold paper it up, as above directed. What remains in the sieve will make pies, or mix with any common jam, and the jelly will be far more delicate from avoiding all squeezing.–Obs. A small proportion of raspberries greatly improves the flavour of the jelly. It may be made paler by the mixture of a fourth or third part of white currants ; or white raspberries may be used. This jelly may be made with much less boiling, or no boiling, for it may be worked-cold, as it is technically termed; but though this method is suitable for jellies made to serve in shapes, for immediate use in desserts, or for venison and mutton sauce,-it does not, in our opinion, or by our experience, answer for preserving. 967. White Currant Jelly.—Make as above, or heat the fruit in a jar and strain off the juice. Use only a silver skimmer and the finest sugar, and boil only five minutes, as the delicate colour of this sweetmeat is very easily injured. Run it twice through a jelly-bag, if necessary. Apple- 522 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. jelly, or white raspberry-juice, may be put to this preservė. N.B.-Have the sugar previously high-boiled. 968. Black Currant Jelly.-Pick the fruit, and scald it in a jar set in boiling water. Add a little water to it, and squeeze the hot fruit through a sieve. To every pint of the juice allow a pound of sugar and a little water, and boil and skim for twenty minutes. 969. Another way.-Clarify the sugar, and put the fruit to it. Let it boil for twenty minutes : run off soine of the jelly through a sieve, and keep the rest as a jam for common tarts or dumplings, &c. If for sore throats, a little spermaceti may be added to it, or a little calf's-feet jelly. 970. Gooseberry and Cranberry Jellies.-Clarify an equal weight of sugar with that of the fruit. Boil the fruit and sugar for twenty minutes, and run through a sieve, allowing a little to remain to make a plain jam, which may be seasoned with spices and used for dumplings and pies.—Obs. Where cranberries are gathered in this country, old-fashioned good housewives put only cinnamon to those they preserve for tarts. Cloves or inace would be more suitable.See No. 811, and Cranberry Gruel. 971. Raspberry Jam.—Take three parts of picked raspberries and one of red-currant juice, with equal weight of sugar. Put on half the sugar with a little water; skim this and add the fruit. Boil for fifteen minutes, add the other half of the sugar, and boil for another five minutes, and, when cold, pot the jam. This and all other jams may be made with less sugar, if they are longer boiled : but both colour and quality will suffer in the process, and less boiling will serve if the sugar is previously high-boiled. 972. Strawberry Jam.-Gather fine scarlet strawberries, quite ripe. Bruise them, and put about a sixth-part of red-currant juice to them : take nearly an equal weight of sugar, pounded, and strew it over them in the preserving- pan; boil quickly for fifteen minutes ; pot, and cover with brandy papers.—See No. 995. 973. Gooseberry and Black-Currant Jam.-- Take equal weight of pounded lump-sugar and picked fruit, not 524 CHAP, V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. and trussing three or four skins together for despatch, cut them into narrow chips. Clarify the sugar, and put the chips, pulp, and juice to it. Add, when boiled for ten minutes, the juice and grate of two lemons to every dozen of oranges. Skim and boil for twenty minutes ; pot, and cover when cold. — Obs. There are various ways of making this favourite marmalade. The half of the boiled skins may be pounded before they are mixed ; and if the chips look too numerous, part of them may be withheld for pudding-seasoning. The orange-grate, if a strong flavour is wanted, may either be added in substance, or infused, and the tincture strained and added to the marma- lade when boiling. Where marmalade is made in large quantities to keep or for exportation, the various articles are prepared and put at once into a thin syrup, boiled for from four to six hours, and potted in large jars. Orange-marmalade may be thinned with apple-jelly, or when used at breakfast or tea, it may be liquified extempore with a little tea. It keeps best in large quantities, and keeps for years, if properly prepared and potted. 976. Smooth Orange-Marmalade. - This is made as above, only the skins, instead of being cut into chips, must be pounded in a mortar, and gradually mixed with the syrup,—withholding a part, if the marmalade be in danger of becoming too thick. Some use more sugar. 977. Transparent Orange-Marmalade. — Use the juice and pulp of the fruit only. Wash the latter in a very little water, and strain this to the juice. Take a pound and a half of refined sugar to the pint of juice, and boil it to the second degree. Put the juice to the syrup, and boil and skim well for twelve minutes. — Obs. Use the skins for candied orange-peel, No. 1001. Lemon-marmalade may be made as above, but is seldom seen. It requires more sugar. 978. Apple-Marmalade. — Pare and core the apples, Set them in a slow oven all night. Next day boil them, sweetened, and seasoned with lemon-peel, &c., according to your taste.-See No. 974. 979. Black Butter for Children, a Nursery Preserve. - Pick currants, gooseberries, strawberries, or whatever fruit PRESERVES OF FRUIT. 625 you have : to every two pounds of fruit put one of sugar, and boil till a good deal reduced. 980. To preserve Damsons for Pies.—Have equal to the weight of the stoned fruit of clarified sugar. Boil any of the broken damsons in this ; and then add the whole quan- tity, and boil till it jellies. Pot the compôte, and tie paper over the pots. Keep them in a dry place.See No. 989. 981. Four Fruits Jam. — Have three parts in equal quantity of picked black currants, stoned black cherries, and red raspberries, and for every pint have a half-pint of red-currant juice. Boil as other jams, with equal weight of sugar and fruit. 982. Cheap Method of preserving Fruit for Puddings. - Pare apples, pears, plums; or pick whatever sort of small fruit you have, and place it in a stone jar, with as much good brown sugar as will sweeten it. Bake in a cool oven till done. This will eat with rice or with bread, make small pasties, &c. 983. To preserve Fruit without Sugar, for Pies, Puddings, &c. - Gather Morella cherries, greengages, currants in bunches, green gooseberries, &c., not over-ripe, and pick them as soon and as gently as possible. All bruised ones must be laid aside. Drop them softly into wide-mouthed short-necked glass bottles, and shake the bottles gently that the fruit may lie compactly. Stop the bottles with good corks, and set them in a slow oven till the fruit begins to shrivel. Take them out of the oven, and in a little while make the corks firm, dip them in bottle-rosin, and keep till wanted.-Obs. We do not pledge ourselves for this receipt. RECEIPTS FOR BEAUTIFUL PRESERVES AND COMPÔTES FOR DESSERTS, &c. &c. 984. Jargonelle Pears. – Take large, finely-shaped pears, and pare them very smoothly though thinly. Sim- mer them in a thin syrup, and let them lie in this syrup in a covered tureen or basin for a day or two. See that they are covered with the syrup. Drain off the syrup, and put more sugar to it. Clarify it, and simmer the pears in it till they look transparent. Take them up, and pour the syrup over them. About a fourth more sugar than 526 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. the weight of the fruit is the requisite quantity in all. — Obs. The syrup may be seasoned with the juice of lemons. The pears may either be served dry by drying them in the sun, or in a slow oven when wanted; or served in the syrup, which is better and more economical, as the fruit that is not used can be potted up afresh. If the seeds of this and of all preserved fruits are picked out, which may be done by an opening at both ends that will allow an ivory bodkin to be introduced, they will keep much better. Large, finely-shaped pears of any kind done in this way, and iced white, as directed, No. 1006, look exceedingly well. Pears are preserved red, by putting a grain or two of pounded cochineal into the syrup, and pouring red gooseberry or currant jelly over them. - See French- Compótes, Nos. 707 to 711. 985. Preserved Apples, or, en Compôte. — Clarify fine sugar, and boil nicely pared and cored pippins in it, with a little lemon-juice and lemon-rind. Serve in a glass or china dish, with the syrup about them, and garnish with bunches of preserved barberries, or sprigs of myrtle. - See No. 941. 986. Red Apples, served in jelly, are made nearly as above. Pare and core the most beautiful pippins you can get, but leave the stalks. Throw them into a pan of water to keep the colour good; boil them in a very little water. Mix cochineal with the water. When done, dish them heads downmost, and put sugar to the red water, with the rind of a lemon, and boil it till it jellies. Strain it, and, when clear and cold, scoop it up neatly with a tea-spoon, and lay it among the apples in heaps, like roughed calf's-feet jelly. Garnish with sprigs of myrtle, rings of lemon-rind, &c. Isinglass may be added if the jelly is too weak. 987. Oranges in Sugar, a pretty little Dish. — Skin four or five oranges, carefully remove all the scurf and thready parts. Cut them in round slices, and dress them in a small glass dish in hot syrup. Garnish with sprigs of myrtle. 988. To preserve Apricots. — Always choose the finest fruit for preserving. Stone and pare the apricots, keep- PRESERVES OF FRUIT, 527 ing them as firm and entire as possible. Take above their own weight of pounded sugar, and strew it over them for a night, laying the slit part upmost to keep in the juices of the fruit. Break the stones, and blanch what are good of the kernels. Simmer the whole gently till the fruit looks transparent. Skim carefully, and lift out the fruit into pots, pour the syrup and kernels over them, and cover when cold :-or they may be preserved in apple-jelly; or greened, by putting a bit of alum, about the size of a large nutmeg, into the water in which they are alternately scalded and cooled, till they take the desired colour. Peaches and greengages may be preserved as above.--Obs. Sugar for preserved fruit must be boiled to the second or third degree. The fruits should be looked at for the first month, and, if needful, the syrup may be boiled up, allowed to cool, and again be put over them. If you put them into fresh syrup, and use the first for pies, apple- marmalade, &c., the fruit will be better preserved, and the loss nothing.–See No. 974. 989. Magnum Bonum and other Plums.- Do them as directed for apricots, and be sure that the syrup is well clarified and well skin med, and that the first simmering is slow and short, or else, instead of looking clear and plump, the fruit will shrink and shrivel in spite of what- ever may be afterwards done to plump it.- Obs. The Im- peratrice and the Winesour are among the finest preserving plums. 990. To preserve Red Gooseberries. — Clip off the top of each berry, and take weight for weight of fruit and sugar, Clarify the sugar, and put the fruit to it, having made a slit with a needle in each berry, to let the sugar penetrate the fruit. Skim well, and when the skins look very transparent, take up the fruit with a sugar-skimmer into glasses or pots. Boil the syrup till it will jelly, (if the fruit were boiled as long it would become leathery,) strain it through a fine sieve, and pour it on the berries. This is a cheap and beautiful preserve, either served as a tart with a croquante cover, or in a glass dish. Green Gascoignes may be done in the same manner, first greening them, as directed'for pickles, with alum and vine or cabbage 528 CHAP. V.--ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. leaves, though this at best is, we confess, a suspicious pro- cess. The seeds must be picked out of those green goose- berries with a needle, or they will not look nor keep nearly so well.–See No. 973.2 991. To preserve Cherries.—Take a fourth more of sugar than of Morella cherries. Cut the stalks ; take out the stones with a silver bodkin or needle as gently as pos- sible ; or, if this be too troublesome, merely prick the fruit with a needle. Clarify the sugar, and put to it a half-pint of red or white currant-jelly ; and when this has boiled for five minutes, put in the cherries, and let them simmer till they look bright. 992. Dried Cherries.—Take out the stones, and give the cherries a slow boil in a thin syrup. Let them remain in this for a day, and scald them again and again, making the syrup gradually richer. When they look bright and plump, pot them up in the syrup ; and when wanted, drain and dry them on a stove or wire sieve, or in a very cool oven. Cherries, peaches, apricots, &c., may be pre- served in brandy with great ease. Prick them with a needle, and drop them into wide-mouthed bottles, with some fine sugar. Fill up with brandy, and cork and place the bottles in a hot-water bath or cool oven for some hours.-See Widow Barnaby's Cherries. 993. Cherries en Chemise, a pretty little Dish.—Take the largest ripe cherries you can get. Cut off the stalks with scissors, leaving about an inch to each cherry. Beat the white of an egg to a froth, and roll them in it one by one, and then roll them lightly in sifted sugar. Lay a sheet of paper on a sieve reversed, and placing them on this, set them on a stove till they are to be served.-Obs. The same may be done with bunches of currants, straw- berries, hautboys, &c. Fruits en chemise look well and cost little.-See No. 707. 994. Cucumbers, a beautiful Preserve. - Lay finely- shaped cucumbers in a weak pickle of salt and water for two days, and then for the same length of time in fresh water, changing it twice. Green them as directed for pickles, p. 295, and strew a bit of alum over them to assist the process. When alternately scalded and cooled PRESERVED FRUITS. 529 till they look of a fine green, boil them for a few minutes in water with fresh vine or cabbage leaves above and below them, and when cool, cut a bit out of the flat side, and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Dry the cucumbers gently in a cloth, and put into the inside a seasoning of bruised cloves, sliced ginger, thin lemon-rind, mace, and a few white peppercorns. Tie in the bit cut out with a piece of narrow tape. To every pound of fruit have ready clarified a pound of sugar, and when cold pour it over them. Press them down with a plate on which a weight is placed, that they may be covered ; and when they have soaked two days, boil up the syrup, adding one- half more of clarified sugar to it. Repeat the soaking of the fruit, and boiling up of the syrup three times during a fortnight, and, last of all, add to it the juice and fine grate of two lemons for every six cucumbers, and, boiling them in it for ten minutes, pot them up. They may be pre- served by a more simple process, by cutting them in quarters, but look best when done whole and served in a glass dish, with a little syrup round them. A little pine- apple rum put to the syrup gives an imitation of the flavour of West India sweetmeats. Melons are preserved in the above manner. 995. To preseroe Strawberries.-Sprinkle sifted fine sugar equal to half their own weight, over the finest fruit of the scarlet kind, not over ripe. When they have lain in this for a night, take as much sugar again; or, in all, equal weight to the fruit, and with currant-juice make it into a thin syrup, and simmer the fruit in this till it will jelly. Serve either as an iced cream, or in a glass dish. 996. To preserve carved Oranges whóle.—Choose large well-shaped and well-coloured smooth oranges. Rub them hard with a towel; and then, with a sharp penknife, or the knife made for this purpose, carve the rind in deeply- indented leaves, or in groups of dancing-nymphs, &c. according to your fancy (to do this well the thing must be seen.) Boil them, thus carved, in plenty of spring-water, and when quite soft take them up and drain them. Cut a piece out of the top with a sharp knife, and with a mustard-spoon scoop out all the pulp, seeds, and fibres, 21 530 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. Boil them filled with and floated in clarified syrup for forty minutes. In four days repeat the boiling for twenty minutes. Do this four times. Last of all boil the syrup candy-high, adding more syrup, and keep the oranges well covered with it. If the colour fall, boil them up, and add fresh syrup.-Obs. Several pretty dishes are made with preserved oranges. They may be filled with rich custard, with calves' feet jelly, or other jellies, or with a mixture of beat almonds, sugar, cream, and seasonings. - See Oranges in Sugar, page 526. TABLETS AND CONFECTIONARY DROPS. A few receipts in this department may be useful in most families, as these things are cordial and sometimes even medicinal, and may be easily and cheaply prepared at home. 997. To make Cinnamon, Lemon, Horehound, or Ginger Tablet.—Take either oil of cinnamon, fine sifted China ginger, essence or grate of lemon pounded, in the proportion wanted for flavouring the article to be made. Two drops of oil of cinnamon, a half-ounce of ginger, or the grate of two lemons, is a medium quantity to a pound of sugar. Mix the flavouring ingredient very well with the boiling sugar, and pour it out, when boiled candy- height, on a marble slab or stone previously rubbed with sweet oil. Mark the tablet quickly (as it hardens) in small squares, with a roller and knife. Drops may be made with the same material, dropping it regularly on paper, and taking the drops off with a knife when firm. Any kind of sugar-drops may be made by using different flavouring ingredients to moisten the sugar; as, for ex- ample, for coffee-drops use a little strong clear tincture of the coffee-berry; for clove-drops, essence of cloves; for peppermint-drops, essence of peppermint, and so on. 998. Fruit Pastes. — Oranges, apples, cherries, pears, rasp-berries, &c., may all be made into paste. Boil the pared fruit with clarified sugar to a thick marmalade. Season, and mould it into thin cakes. Dry these in a stove. The pastes must be small, but of any form or variety of forms; they may be ornamented by having the impress of some of the Wedgewood-ware seals, groups from the antique, &c. pressed upon them while still moist. TABLETS AND DROPS. 531 999. Ratafia-Drops.—Blanch and pound, with an ounce of fine sugar and a little water, four ounces of bitter and two ounces of sweet alıonds. Add to the paste a pound of sugar, the whites of two eggs, and a little noyeau. Beat the whole well, and when light, drop the batter from a biscuit-funnel on paper, of the size of pigeons' eggs, and bake on tins. 1000. To make Barley-Sugar.-Clarify, and boil sugar to the fourth degree, or crackling height, and when nearly boiled enough, add to it lemon grate, a drop of citron-oil, or a little beat spermaceti, according to the sort of barley- sugar wanted. Rub a slab or dishes with oil, and when the sugar is ready, dip the pan in cold water for two minutes, and then pour it out on the slab. Cut the sugar into slips, and while hot twist it, if you choose. Care must be taken in boiling sugar to this height, that it does not burn or fly over ; to prevent which, a small bit of butter may be thrown in to check the violent ebullition : -add a little lemon-juice if it be in danger of graining, This may also be made as small lozenges or drops. It is often acidulated with pounded tartaric acid, and is then termed Acidulated Drops. 1000. Grand-mamma's Bon-bons. — Cut candied citron or orange-peel into strips an inch long, and as small dice: string them up on a fine wire skewer, or knitting needle, and dip them in boiling barley-sugar flavoured in any way you prefer. Have a baking slab, or large flat dish rubbed with oil, that they may not stick, and lay them to dry. When crisp pack them in paper bags. With candied sugar, for a basis, an endless variety of prepara- tions, as Rock, Brilliants, lozenges of various sorts, are made. Flavour and colour make the min difference. Flour is used to give consistence to the cheaper sorts. 1001. Candied Orange and Lemon Peel. - Soak the peel of lemons or Seville oranges first-in salt and water, and afterwards in fresh water, till their acrid taste is gone. Dry them, and boil them till tender in a thin syrup; afterwards in a stronger syrup boiled higher; next drain and dry them for use. Tofee and Hardbake. — For Tofee, — Boil a pound of 532 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. pounded sugar in eight ounces of melted butter, in a very small preserving pan : boil for ten minutes and add a flavouring of lemon or ginger. Boil for a few minutes more, stirring constantly, and try the tofee, by dropping a particle in cold water. If it get instantly crisp and crack between the teeth, pour it out on slabs or flat dishes rubbed with butter. Tofee may have spermaceti put to it: Hardbake contains no butter : it is prepared as sugar for caramels. 1002. Rose Soufflé Cakes. — Pick a handful of rose- leaves, and give them a boil in a syrup made of a pound of sugar. Have ready an icing made of two ounces of sugar, and the white of an egg well beat up and tinged with cochineal. Stir a spoonful of this into the syrup till it rises ; fill the small moulds, and bake. — Obs. Confec- tioners use carmine or lake-powder for rose-coloured cakes, and so have Rose soufflé cakes in full bloom all the year round. 1003. To make Devices and Ornaments in Sugar.-Make a paste of the finest loaf-sugar and gum tragacanth steeped in rose-water, or any flavoured water, and mould and colour the ornaments as best suits the purpose for which they are intended ; as rose with cochineal, yellow with gamboge ; green with spinage-juice. 1004. Nougat in the French Style.—Blanch a half-pound of almonds and six bitter ones. When the peel is off, cut them into dice. Dry them thoroughly before the fire or in an oven, but do not let them brown much. Put a half- pound of superfine sifted sugar into a small preserving-pan over a very slow fire, without a drop of water. When it is melted, throw in the cut almonds quite dry. Stir and turn out the paste, as it will now be, on a mould rubbed with oil or butter, or on a marble slab. It must be quickly worked, as it will harden. It may be made in a variety of forms. If flat, press it quickly with an oiled rolling-pin, and cut it up in oblong slips. Cinnamon or small white nonpareil comfits may be strewed over the surface while hot. — N.B. Nougat, and the Devices of No. 1003, should be left to the confectioner. OBSERVATIONS ON CAKES. 533 OBSERVATIONS ON CAKES. BEFORE beginning to make any sort of cake, have sugar beat and sifted ; flour of good quality dry and sifted ; the fruit stoned or picked, washed, and dry, and rubbed in å towel; the lemon-peel pared, or beat to paste in a mortar, with a little cream ; the butter, when this is used for light cakes, beaten to a cream; and, above all, have the eggs, yolks and whites separately, well whisked. A large tin basin answers best for this purpose, as the yolks or butter can be heated in this a little over the fire while the whisking is going on, which assists the process. It is a good test of beat eggs when they are so thick as to carry the drop that falls from the whisk. If eggs are not pro- perly managed at first, it is difficult to raise them to a cream afterwards. It ought to be remembered that eggs, besides enriching cakes, are intended to supply the place of yeast. When the several ingredients are well mixed, they ought immediately to be put into the oven, that the fruit may not sink : If, however, yeast is used, the cake must stand for some time to rise. Yeast should be sweet, white, and thick. It may be improved by blanching it repeatedly with water, allowing it to settle, and then pouring the water off. It saves hard labour to half melt butter before beating it to a cream. The thing next to be attended to is the state of the oven. It must not only be thoroughly heated previously, but have a quick heat when the cake is put in. Folds of paper ought to be put over cakes when put into the oven, lest the top get scorched. Plunging a knife into the heart of a cake, and drawing it quickly out, is the best mode of judging whether it be ready. If not enough, the blade of the knife will be glary, and the cake must be instantly re- turned to the oven. The heat ought to be kept up through- out, by adding fresh fuel occasionally till the cake is drawn; but, above all, attention must be given till it is once properly raised. The same observations apply to pastry, and to the setting of puddings. Cakes ought to be kept in a dry place, wrapped up and set in a close jar to keep them from hardening. They will keep thus a very long time. They may be heated on the hob or in a slack 63+ CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. oven to refresh them, when to be used. Cake moulds and hoops are of various kinds and forms, and must be bought. 1005. To ice and glaze Pastry and Cakes. This is done with the whites of eggs and sugar; and in a common way is a very simple process. Yolks of eggs glaze cakes, though coarsely, effectually; but sifting fine sugar over little cakes and biscuits hefore they are put into the oven, or when half-baked, will do them well enongh. - See also p. 466. 1006. To Ice or Frost a Home-made Bride's Cake, or very large Plum-cake.—To a half pound of fine sifted sugar put the whites of two eggs, beaten with a little orange-flower- water, or simple water, and strain. With this whisk the sugar for a long time, till it is quite smooth. This may be tinged with the juice of strawberries or currants, or with pre- pared cochineal. For a bride's cake confectioners use lake or cochineal. Lay the icing equally on large cakes with a flat spoon. Brush small ones with a few feathers dipt in the mixture. Lemon juice well beat with the sugar and white of eggs will make a white icing. No other white icing is admissible, yet dangerous ingredients are sometimes used. 1007. A plain Pound-cake. - Beat a pound of cold butter to a cream, and put to it nine eggs well beat. Beat them together till well mixed and light; and put to them a little shred lemon-peel, or a few blanched almonds chopped, sugar to taste, and a pound and a quarter of dried and sifted flour. Mix well and bake in a pan for an hour, in a rather quick oven ; or two small cakes may be made of the same ingredients. — Obs. This may be made a plain plum-cake, by putting to it a half-pound of currants, a few raisins, and a half-pound of candied lemon and orange- peel, with nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. It may also be converted into a fine Seed-cake, by adding caraway and coriander seeds to the plain cake. 1008. A plain Plum-cake.-Use as much flour, butter, and sugar, as are ordered in the next receipt, but take only half the quantity of fruit, candied peel, and eggs. Season with cloves and nutmeg. Melt the butter in a half-pint of hot cream. Mix with the beat eggs three spoonfuls of good yeast. Beat the whole together; and if the stuff be too thick, add a little sweet wine to it, or PLUM-CAKE. 635 more cream. Pour it into a buttered pan, and let it rise before the fire before it is put into the oven, which should be strongly heated. 1009. A rich Plum-cake.—Take equal weight of cur- rants and flour; about a pound of each will make a cake of good size ; a pound and a half will make a large one. Beat twelve ounces of fresh butter to a cream. Beat also sixteen eggs to a cream with a whisk in a tin pan, and set them over the fire with a pound of sifted sugar, whisking all the time. When warm take them off, and continue to beat till they are cold, when the butter must be well mixed with them, and then the currants, which should be previously picked, dried in a cloth, and rubbed in flour. Put to this a half-pound of candied citron, lemon, and orange-peel cut in long bits, a half-ounce of bitter almonds beat to a paste with a little sugar, two ounces of sweet almonds blanched and sliced the long way, half an ounce of pounded cinnamon and mace, and a little Curaçoa, or any highly-flavoured liquor, or plain brandy. Paper a hoop and pour in the cake.* 1010. Rice-cake. — Mix half a pound of sifted rice-flour with a half-pound of loaf-sugar sifted, and put this to six eggs well whisked and strained. Season with a little ratafia and orange-flower-water, and a drop or two of essence of lemon, or some fine-grated rind of lemon. Beat the whole together for twenty minutes, and fire in a quick oven. - Obs. This is an excellent cake for a trifle, but it will not keep long. A small proportion of wheat flour may be mixed with the rice-flour. 1011. A fine Seed-cake.t - Take a pound and a half of flour, and sixteen eggs well whisked. Mix with them a pound and a half of fine beat sugar, and whisk them tho- roughly together. Throw in a half.pound of cut candied citron, lemon, and orange-peel, and four ounces of almonds blanched and cut. Mix this with a pound and a half of dried flour, and twelve ounces of butter beat to a cream. * Sal volatile is sometimes used to make cakes rise, or more properly to prevent them from flattening, by keeping the butter, &c. from oiling. + “ When,” says ancient Trusser, “the wheat-seed is put into the ground, the village is to be treated with seed-cuke, pasties, and fru- mentie-pot.” Ah! when now do villages get such treats! 636 CHAP. V.–ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. Season with cinnamon and cloves, and throw in a few caraway-seeds. Smooth the top of this (and every sort of cake) when put into the hoop, and throw sugared caraways over it. 1012. A common Seed-cake. — Mix a half-pound of beat white sugar with two pounds of flour in a large bowl or pan. Make a hole in the centre, and pour into it a half- pint of luke-warm milk, and two spoonfuls of yeast. Mix a little of the surrounding flour with this, and, throwing a cloth over the vessel, set it in a warm place for an hour or two. Add to this half a pound of melted butter, an ounce of caraway seeds, a little allspice, ginger, and nut- meg, and milk sufficient to make the whole of a proper stiffness. Mix it up. Butter a hoop, and pour in the mixture. Let it stand a half-hour at the mouth of the oven to rise, and then bake it. 1013. Rice-cake for the Centre of a Table, - the French Gateau de Riz. — Prepare the rice as for a casserole, (see page 370,) and for four ounces of rice take a quart of boiled cream, in which the peel of a lemon has been in- fused. Let them soak till the rice has absorbed all the cream, and is swelled. Sweeten this with fine sugar, and season with essence of lemon. When cool add the beat yolks of eight eggs, the whites well whisked by themselves, and also a good piece of butter. Then pour four ounces of melted butter into the mould, and turn it round and round till the cooling butter adheres in a coat to all sides of it. Next cover the mould with fine bread-crumbs; and this done pour in the cake. Bake it for an hour in a moderate oven, turn it upside down on the dish, and garnish it with flowers, &c.-Obs. If any of the material is left after filling the mould, roll it up in the shape of corks, dip them in butter, and fry as fritters. Dressed round fried parsley, they are called croquets of rice. A dozen sweet and a few bitter almonds chopped may be put to this cake ; and it may be made of vermicelli, or served as a pudding, with a custard-sauce. 1014. Scotch Diet-cake, or Loaf.—Take a pound of fine sugar sifted, the same weight of eggs very well whisked, and mix and beat these together for twenty minutes. Season SHORTBREAD. 537 with lemon-grate and cinnamon. Stir in very smoothly three-quarters of a pound of sifted flour. This is a very light cake, and will bake quickly. It may either be iced, or have sifted sugar strewed over it before baking. 1015. Scottish Shortbread, or Short-cake.—To the fourth of a peck of flour, take six ounces of sifted sugar, and of candied citron, orange-peel, and blanched almonds, two ounces each. Cut these in rather long slices, and mix them with the flour.. Rub down among the flour a pound of butter in very small bits, melt a half-pound more, and with this work up the flour, &c. The less kneading it gets the more short and crisp the cakes will be. Roll out the paste lightly into a large well-shaped oval cake, about an inch thick, and divide this the narrow way, so as to have two cakes somewhat the shape of a Gothic arch. Pinch the cakes neatly at the edges, and dab them on the top with the instrument, the dabber, used for the purpose, or with a fork. Strew caraway.comfits over the top, and a few strips of citron-peel. Bake on paper, rubbed with flour. The cakes may be squares, or oblong figures.- Obs. Plainer shortbread may be made by using less butter and no candied peel. The whole of the butter may be melted, which makes the process easier. Chopped almonds, and butter, are used in larger quantity for very rich shortbread. 1016. Savoy or Sponge Cake. — Whisk twelve eggs till white and thick, and mix with them a pound of sifted sugar. Beat these very well together, and then gradually mix in a half-pound of flour, a seasoning of essence of lemon, or lemon-grate, and a little orange-flower-water. Butter a melon or Turk’s-cap mould, and fill it within two inches of the top. Bake for three-quarters of an hour, and, when ready, take out the cake, shaking the mould to loosen it. Sponge-biscuits of the same material are baked in small tin shapes, and iced or glazed with sifted sugar.- Obs. These light cakes, or the remains of them, are well suited to fine puddings, Trifles, or Tipsy-cake. 1017. Macaroons*—Blanch and pound with the whites : * An endless variety of small biscuit is made in the manner of maca- roons, as light lemon-biscuit, by using grated peel and the yolks of 528 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. of four eggs a pound of Jordan almonds. Add to this two pounds of fine sugar, and pound these ingredients to a paste ; then put in eight more whites of eggs. Beat the whole well together ; fill a biscuit-syringe, and squirt the macaroons on wafer-paper, and fire them slowly on tins. Ratafia-cakes may be made as above, by using one-half bitter alinonds. Drop the biscuit from a knife, instead of a squirt, if you have no squirt. Rice-flour is sometimes substituted for part of the almonds. 1018. Plain Gingerbread. — Mix with a pound and a half of flour, four ounces of butter, four of brown-sugar, a half ounce of ground ginger, and some allspice. Make this into a paste with two ounces of hot treacle, and shape and bake the cakes. 1018. Mrs. Fletcher's Parliament Cakes. With two pounds of the best flour dried, mix thoroughly one pound of good brown sugar and a quarter-pound of ground ginger. Melt a pound of fresh butter, add to it one of treacle, boil this, and pour it on the flour ; work up the paste as hot as your hands will bear it, and roll it out in very large cakes, the sixth of an inch thick or less ; mark it in squares with a knife or paper cutter, and fire in a slow oven only till crisp. Separate the squares while hot. 1019. Fine Gingerbread.-Two pounds of flour, a half- pound of brown sugar, a half-pound of candied orange- peel cut into bits, an ounce of ground ginger, half an ounce of caraway-seeds, cloves, mace, and some allspice. Mix with these a pound and a half of treacle, and a half- pound of melted butter. Mix the ingredients well to- gether, and let them stand for some hours before rolling out the cakes. The paste will require a little additional flour in rolling out. Cut out the cakes, mark the top in diamonds with a knife, and bake them on tin plates. 1020. Gingerbread Nuts or Spice Nuts may be made of the above paste, but a little more ginger and other spices should be employed, and a little more flour. Drop the paste from a spoon on paper, and bake. — Cayenne rather improves gingerbread.-P. T. three eggs ; chocolate biscuit, orange and common biscuit ; Judges' biscuit, i, e. biscuit for hungry lawyers, kept long in court. TEA-CAKES. 639 1021. Wine Biscuit.-Have a pound of the finest flour, “thrice-bolted,” dry and sifted. Rub down among it three ounces of butter ; add sugar and salt to taste. Make a dough of this with warm good milk, and a spoonful of sweet yeast. Knead it quickly up, and let it repose an hour. Roll it out thin and stamp, and then prick the bis- cuits with a dabber. Bake in a quick oven. 1022. Imitation of Leman's * Biscuit. - To the above dough put a bit of volatile salt. Roll out, and mould in the form of Leman's biscuit in square and oblong figures, and balls flattened. Prick and fire them lightly. SMALL TEA-CAKES. + 1023. Good Tea-Cakes.-Rub four ounces of butter into eight ounces of flour, and mix with this six ounces of cleaned currants, the same of beat sugar, and three beat eggs. Make this into a paste, and roll it out about a half- inch thick, and stamp out the cakes of any size you please with an inverted wine-glass, ale-glass, or small tumbler, by running a paste-cutter round the glass. Dust the top with sugar, with which, for all these small cakes, a few finely chopped almonds may be inixed. 1024. Tunbridge and Shrewsbury Cakes.- Make them as * While the House of the Great Leman flourishes in London, and that of the not less famous Littlejohn in Edinburgh, we would say buy biscuits and rusks, and you will be sure to have the best.-W. W.' + The greatest difficulty we have experienced in correcting the various editions of this immortal work, has been in restraining the headlong torrent of our extensive culinary knowledge within reasonable bounds : what to tell, and what to suppress—not when to begin, but where to have done prescribing, has been our stumbling-block. We confess a strong natural leaning to the side of plenty-nay, of abundance—and of good-nature. If the solitary gourmand have his salmi, his roynons, his " soupe à la Camerani.” who would deny to the spinster her co waters, and the petticoat-tails (No. 1026) that grace her tea-table; or to the schoolboy his mince-pie and “ hot cross-bun?" Besides, at our table d'hôte every kind of guest expects to find what will suit both his palate, his purse, and his humour. “We always," says the chief of Modern Reviewers, “ fancied the description of Harriet Byron's wed- ding-clothes (in Sir Charles Grandison ) de trop, till we found that two young ladies of our acquaintance had copied out the whole passage for their private entertainment.” We quote from memory, but this is the idea,-and this must be our apology for the superfluous variety of our puddings, cakes, liqueurs, and even sauces,--the half of the number here noticed cannot be used in any single family ; yet, for the many families into whose hands our work may fall, it is requisite that they should all be known.-P. T. Small tea-cakes, and even shortbread, may be baked in the American Despatch. 549 CHAP. V.—ORNAMENTAL DISTIES, &c. above, of any size you please, and strew caraway-comfits over.-For Shrewsbury Cakes. Beat half a pound of cold butter to a cream, and mix with it six ounces of sifted sugar, eight ounces of flour, a few caraway-seeds, and some pounded cinnamon, two eggs beat, and a little rose- water. Roll out the paste a quarter of an inch in thick- ness, adding a little more flour if necessary, and stamp out the cakes of any shape or size that is liked. 1025. Bath Cakes and Buns.-Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour, and add four beat eggs and a glassful of yeast. Set this before the fire to rise ; then add four ounces of sifted sugar, and a few caraway-seeds. Roll the paste into thin sheets, and stamp them out. Bake them on tins. They should rise very light.-Obs. This is made into Bath-Buns by moulding the paste in the shape of buns, and strewing a few sugar-caraways over the tops. These Bath-buns are almost the same prepara- tion as the Brioche cakes, so much eaten and talked of in Paris. 1026. Scotch Petticoat-Tails.— Mix a half-ounce (or fewer, or none) of caraway seeds with the fourth of a peck of flour. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour into it twelve ounces of butter melted in a quarter- pint of milk, and three ounces of beat sugar. Knead this, but not too much, or it will not be short ; divide it in two, and roll it out round rather thin. Cut out the cake by running a paste-cutter round a dinner-plate, or any large round dish inverted on the paste. Cut a cake from the centre of this one with a small saucer or large tumbler. Keep this inner circle whole, and cut the outer one into eight petticoat-tails. Bake all these on paper laid on tins, serve the round cake in the middle of the plate, and the petticoat-tails as radii round it.-An English traveller in Scotland, and one well acquainted with France, states in his very pleasant book that our Club have fallen into a mistake in the name of these cakes, and that petticoat-tails is a corruption of the French Petites Gatelles. It may be so : in Scottish culinary terms there are many corruptions, though we rather think the name Petticoat-tails has its origin in the shape of the cake, which is exactly that of the bell-hoop petticoat of our ancient Court ladies. TEA CAKES. 541 1027.-Flour Scones, or Slim Cakes, are often used in the Highlands, and in country situations, for breakfast or tea. To a pound of flour allow from two to four ounces of butter, as much hot milk as will make a dough of the flour, and two beat eggs, if the cakes are wished to rise. Handle quickly, and lightly roll out and stamp of any size wanted, with a basin, a saucer, or tumbler. Bake on the girdle, or in a thick-bottomed frying-pan. They must be served hot, kept in a heap, and used newly baked, as on keeping they become tough. Sometimes for rich scones cream only is used. 1027. Johnny Cakes of Indian Meal.-Put a very little salt to a quart of Indian meal. Make a hole in the middle of the heap, and mix in warm water, as in making any other dough, till it is a firm, but not hard dough. Knead it very well, and roll out an inch thick, or rather less. Have the girdle hot over a clear, sharp fire, and rub it with a bit of butter. Lay on the cake, and when one side is done, turn it and toast the other, handling carefully, as it easily breaks. Cut it in slices and serve hot, or split and butter them while hot, and serve. This is the most popular of the American cakes. 1028. Queen's Cakes.--Make these as pound-cake or plum-cake; but bake in small saucers, or in the fluted tins made for the purpose. 1029. Cinnamon-Cakes.—Whisk six eggs with a glass of rose-water; add a pound of sifted sugar and a quarter- ounce of ground cinnamon, with flour enough to make a paste. Roll this out, and stamp it into small cakes. Bake them on paper. They may be iced, or have sifted sugar strewed over them. 1030. Sugar Tea-Cakes.—Make a paste with a pound of flour, twelve ounces of sifted sugar, the yolks of two eggs, a little nutmeg or cinnamon, and a glass of orange-flower- water. Roll it out thin, cut with a stamp or glass in- verted, strew sugar over the cakes, and bake. 1031. Derby Short Cakes.-Rub down a pound of butter into two pounds of flour, and mix with this a half-pound of beat sugar, an egg, and as much milk as will make a paste. Roll this out thin, and cut out the cakes in any 542 CHAP. V. --ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. form. Bake on tin plates for about ten minutes. They may be iced, or have sifted sugar strewed over them. 1032. Kent Drop-Cakes.--A pound of flour, a half- pound of butter, the saine of sifted sugar and currants. Make this into a paste with two eggs, two spoonfuls of orange-flower-water, a glass of brandy, and one of sweet wine. Mix up quickly, and drop the batter through a biscuit-funnel on floured tins, and bake for five or six minutes. 1033. Rout-Cakes.—To the beat yolks of twelve eggs put a half-pound of butter heat to a cream, half a pound of sifted sugar, the fresh grate of a lemon, and twelve ounces of flour dried. Season this with a little orange. flower-water, or a few pounded almonds. When very well mixed, pour the cake into a paper-mould. Let it be scarcely an inch thick ; bake it, and when cool ice it, and cut it with a sharp knife and ruler into squares, lozenges, diamonds, &c. Moisten the edges of these morsels with sugar, and crisp them before the fire. 1034. Common Buns.—Mix two pounds of flour and one of beat sugar. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, and put in a glassful of thick yeast, and half a pint of warıned milk. Make a thin batter of the surrounding flour and the milk, and set the dish covered before the fire till the leaven begins to ferment. Then put to the mass a half-pound of melted butter, and milk enough to make a soft paste of all the flour. Cover this with a dust of flour, and let it once more rise for half an hour. Then shape the dough into buns, and lay them apart on buttered tin plates in rows to rise for a half-hour. Bake in a quick oven. 1035. Cross-Buns are made of the same sort of dough, with the addition of a little more sugar, and a seasoning of cinnamon, allspice, and mace. They must, when moulded, have the figure of the Cross impressed on them with a stamp. Seed-buns are also made as above, with the addition of caraway seeds. They may be baked in pans, and glazed. 1036. Plum-buns.-Mix with the dough of common cross-buns, currants, strips of candied orange-peel, blanched A SCOTCH CHRISTMAS BUN. 513 almonds chopped, and a seasoning of cinnamon and mace. Mark them round the edge when moulded, and bake as common buns. 1037. A Scotch Christmas Bun, from Mrs. Fraser's Cookery.—Take half a peck of flour, keeping out a little to work it up with ; make a hole in the middle of the flour, and break in sixteen ounces of butter ; pour in a mutchkin (pint) of warm water, and three gills of yeast, and work it up into a smooth dough. If it is not wet enough, put in a little more warm water : then cut off one- third of the dough, and lay it aside for the cover. Take three pounds of stoned raisins, three pounds of cleaned currants, half a pound of blanched almonds cut longwise ; candied orange and citron peel cut, of each eight ounces ; half an ounce of cloves, an ounce of cinnamon, and two ounces of ginger, all beat and sifted. Mix the spices by themselves, then spread out the dough; lay the fruit upon it; strew the spices over the fruit, and mix all together. When it is well kneaded, roll out the cover. Cover it neatly, cut it round the sides, prickle it, and bind it with paper to keep it in shape ; set it in a pretty quick oven, and, just before you take it out, glaze the top with a beat egg.* 1038. WAFERS. We have Wine, Butter, Cream, Brandy, Flemish, Spanish, and Almond wafers. The French have these, and many more, as Pistachio and Vanilla Gauffres, all served as entrêmets. Almond is the sort commonly made. Mix in equal quantities dry flour and sifted sugar. To every six spoonfuls of this which you mean to use, allow three eggs, and four ounces of chopped almonds or pista- * These buns, weighing from four to eight, ten, twelve, and sixteen, or more pounds, are still sent from Edinburgh, from the depots of Littlejohn and Mackie, to all parts of the three kingdoms. Every country town, rural village, and neighbourhood in England, Scotland, and Ireland, has its favourite holiday-cake, or currant-loaf, under some such name as “ Lady Bountiful's loaf,” “Mrs. Notable's cake,” “Miss Thrifty's bun," &c. &c. We do not pretend to give receipts for all these- the formula is endless—and they are all good. – The Irish receipt for Brade Breachd, page 546, is nearly the substance of all of them. That they be well raised and well fired is all besides that is of any importance. They should be baked in a dome-shaped fluted mould or Turk's cap, but look still more imposing at holiday-times, formed like large, respectable, old- fashioned household loaves. Leavened dough should be bought for them. 544 CHAP. V.-ORNAMENTAL DISHES, &c. chios. Beat the mass. Put a very little fresh yeast to it if you have it, and moisten it down to a thickish batter with good cream. Work the ingredients well, and let the whole settle a while. When wanted, rub baking tins with fat bacon, or fine wax. A tea-spoonful of batter will make one wafer. Drop and let it spread. Bake care- fully in a rather warm oven. Detach the wafers one by one with a knife, rolling each up, while still soft, round a small wooden roller or pin. They should be like gossamer. Other kinds are made as above, but flavoured with vanilla, orange-flower-water, mace, cinnamon, &c.; and what are called Brandy scrolls, with ratafia, and the spices used for gingerbread nuts.—N.B. Wafers should be bought, Every year produces something new, either in baking or in combining the materials of which bread may be made. Like novelties in other things, not one in a hun- dred succeeds, and from the time of Cobbett we have little that is both good and new on this subject. We therefore adhere to our old and tried authority for household baking. HOUSEHOLD BREAD, &c. 1039. Common Wheaten Bread, nearly on Cobbett's Plan, -Put a bushel of flour into a trough. Make a deep hole in the middle of the heap, and take for a bushel of flour a pint of good yeast, and stir it well up with as much milk-warm water. Pour this into the hole made in the flour; then take a spoon, and work it round the edges of this body of moisture, so as to bring into it, by degrees, flour enough to make a thin batter, which must be well stirred for a minute or two. Throw a handful of flour over the surface of this batter, and cover the whole with the folds of a cloth to keep it warm. Set it by the fire, regulating the distance by the state of the weather and season of the year. When the batter has risen enough to make cracks in the flour, form the whole mass into dough thus :- Begin by strewing six ounces of salt over the heap; and then beginning round the hole containing the batter, work the flour into the batter, pouring in milk-warm soft water or milk as it is wanted. When the whole mass is mois- tened, knead it well, that the fermented paste may be ROLLS—MUFFINS. 545 duly mixed with the whole mass. Mould the loaves ; let them rise for twenty minutes, and put them into the oven, which should be previously heated. The loaves will require a length of time to fire proportioned to their size. - N. B. To boil the water in bran is a saving of flour. Stale bread may be refreshed by placing it for an hour in a cool oven. Bread may be raised with many substitutes for yeast. The carbonate of soda is now extensively used in small family baking for flat cakes, or what in Scotland are called scones. The only art is to apportion the alkali and acid, the soda and the buttermilk, so as to suit the degree of acidity, and to bake before the effervescence has sub- sided, so that the cakes may rise lightly. 1040. To bake Breakfast Rolls.--To two pounds of flour put a spoonful of salt, a quarter-pint or less of fresh yeast, and as much warmed milk and water as will make a batter. Stir this well till it is smooth, and let it stand covered before the fire to rise for two hours, if you have time to wait so long. Add as much more flour, into which you should have rubbed down what butter you mean to put to the rolls. Work the dough very smooth, divide it, and mould it into rolls ; fire them on tins, and rasp, and keep them covered. 1041. Manheim Rolls,-a French Receipt. — Break two raw eggs among six ounces of flour, with two ounces of sifted sugar. Mix this to a paste, and add half an ounce of anise-seeds in powder. If the paste be too wet, put in more flour. Make this kneaded paste level, and cut it into rolls about twelve inches long and two broad. Bake them on a buttered tin, and glaze with the yolk of an egg. Divide them when done into very small cakes. 1042. Muffins.-A pint of hot milk, a quarter-pint, or rather less of fresh yeast. Stir in flour to make this a batter. Let it repose, covered in a warm place, to rise. Add a little more milk, two ounces of butter, rubbed in flour in very small bits, and add flour enough to make a dough. Mix, cover, and let it again repose a half-hour ; then knead, break, and mould the dough into muffins. Let them repose once more after this operation for a quarter of an hour, and then bake them. 2 M 6.16 CHAP. V.-BREAD AND BISCUITS. N.B. These at a pinch may be baked on the Scotch girdle, or in a thick-bottomed frying-pan, or the cottage oven-pot. 1042.2 Unfermented Bread. - Bread which Dr. Pereira, one of the latest writers upon the interminable subject of Diet, describes as “most delicious," is thus prepared :- Flour, one pound. Sesquicarbonate of soda, forty grains; cold water, half a pint, or as much as may be required. Muriatic acid of the shops, fifty drops ; and a tea-spoonful of powdered white sugar. Stir the supercarbonate of soda and the sugar among the flour in a basin with a wooden spoon. Put the acid to the water, and stir the whole briskly till intimately mixed. Divide the dough into two loaves and bake immediately; the sugar may be omitted. 1043. Brown Bread is made as 1039, with coarser flour, or a proportion of shealings or rusks, added to flour. 1044. French Bread.-Many sorts of fine bread baked with milk, eggs, and butter, receive this name. To a half-peck of the finest flour put a quart of lukewarm milk, a little salt, a quarter-pound of melted butter, and a half- pint of sweet yeast ; whisk the fluids together, and add two or three beat eggs; mix the flour with this, handling it as little as possible ; let the dough rise, and mould the bread into rolls, cakes, &c. Bake on tins in a quick oven, and rasp the loaves. 1045. Sally Lunn Cakes.—Make them as French bread, but dissolve some sugar in the hot milk. Mould into the form of cakes. A blade of saffron boiled in the milk enriches the colour of these or any other cakes.* 1046. Yorkshire Cakes are made as above, only moulded smaller. 1047. Irish Brade Breachd.t — To as much flour as * Obs. Our admirable master, Carême, gives an account of these cakes, under the designation of Soli Lemne. French ears are about as well attuned to English sounds as are those of the New Zealanders. The Soli Lemne are prepared by French pastry-cooks under the name Koques au Beurre ; a preparation which is served as an entremêt. It may, however, be quite possible that the corruption of Soli lemne into Sally Lunn, is English; though the French Brit-poudin, Plomb-cake, and Bif tik de mouton, warrants another conclusion. + This Irish word signifies spotted or freckled. This mottled loaf is the holiday-cake of Munster and Leinster. YEAST. 547 Pereira red :- grains: ruired will make two quartern-loaves put a half-pound of melted butter. Make the dough with fresh yeast, and when it has risen, mix in a half-pound of beat sugar, a half-pound of currants, picked, cleaned, and dried ; the same quan- tity of stoned raisins; a few sweet almonds blanched and chopped, and some candied orange-peel sliced. Mould and bake the loaves. They may be of any size. 1048. Yeast. There are many ways of preparing bread yeast, but no yeast is to be compared with that made of fresh worts—now made expressly for the use of bakers in most towns. Yeast is, however, made of the flour of peas, rye, potatoes, and wheat, mixed with sugar and water, and afterwards fermented with good fresh yeast. Bad yeast may be improved by mixing in it flour and sugar, with a little warm water, or by bleaching it; that is, beating up the yeast with water equal in quantity to itself, and the white of an egg to each quart of yeast. In twelve hours pour off the thin. What remains will be an improved yeast. Strain all yeast put to flour, if necessary. If your yeast is bitter use less of it, but allow the dough double time to rise. 1049. Russian Yeast,—the best Substitute that we know.- Make a thick wort of ground rye or malt, and for a gallon of this take three ounces or more of leaven, and dissolve it in a little of the wort. Mix the whole, and add a half-pound of ground malt; shake the mixture for some time, and in half an hour add two large spoonfuls of good yeast; cover for forty-eight hours, and the whole will be good yeast. 1050. Another Substitute.-To a pound of good mashed potatoes, of the mealy kind, put two ounces of brown sugar. Pulp the potatoes through a colander, and mix them with hot water; add two or three spoonfuls of good yeast. This is not so strong as beer-yeast, but it does for household-bread by using more of it. In the country, this substitute, as it is easily obtained, will be found particularly convenient.-Another. Salt and stir a large spoonful of flour with a pint of new milk. Set it by the fire. In an hour it will be fit to use for tea or breakfast LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. 549 1052. Curaçoa.-Infuse three drachms of oil of orange- peel with a pint of rectified spirits and a pound of clari- fied syrup. - Another way. Macerate five ounces of the dry peel of bitter oranges beaten to a paste with a little sugar, in a quart of pure spirit and a pound of clari- fied sugar. Let the mixture stand for a week in a warm place, and strain it off, first through a jelly-bag, and then patiently through filtering-paper. N.B. This is the mode of clearing all liqueurs and cordials, when mere straining is not sufficient to clear them. Syrup does not easily filtrate. 1053. Noyau.—To a quart of pure brandy, or aquavitæ, put six ounces of clarified syrup, one ounce of French prunes, with the kernels broken, two ounces of sound peach, nectarine, or what is better, apricot kernels bruised; a few grains of celery-seed, and a flavour of essence of lemon or bitter orange. Infuse for ten days or more, and filter, adding a half-pint of water. 1054. Scotch Noyau, a pleasant Compound.—Two quarts of proof-spirit, a pint and a half of water, a pound and a half of syrup, six ounces of sweet and four of bitter almonds blanched and chopped. Infuse for a fortnight, shaking the compound occasionally, and filter. Lemon- juice or grate may be added, but much of the nutty or almond flavour does not harmonize well with acid or citron flavours. 1055. Strong Cinnamon Cordial.- Pour about sixpence worth of oil of cinnamon on a few knobs of sugar, and rub them well together. Mix this with two quarts of spirits and a pound of hot clarified syrup. Shake well and let this infuse for a few days, and then filter it for use. Water may be added at pleasure to reduce the strength.-Obs. This may be made of cinnamon in sub- stance. Cardamom seeds may be added. This and other coinpounds may be coloured with burnt sugar ; but if well strained or filtered, they look better nearly colour- less and bright. 1056, Citron Cordial, a high-flavoured and excellent Com- pound. - Take rinds of citrons, six ounces; of orange- peel, four ounces ; a nutmeg bruised, and a pint and a 550 CHAP. I.-LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. half of clarified syrup. Mix with two quarts of spirits for ten days, keeping the vessel in a warm place. Strain as directed, No. 1052. 1057. Clove Cordial.-Take of bruised cloves and cassia- buds, a quarter of an ounce each, and a dozen Jamaica peppercorns. Infuse the spices in hot water, and keep the bottle by the fire, close stopped, for a night or two. Strain this to three pints of proof-spirit, and add syrup to taste. Filter, and colour with burnt sugar, or a bit of cochineal. Mace or nutmeg, bruised, may be added to Clove Cordial. It is grateful and fancied tonic. 1058. Barbadoes Water.— To two quarts of proof-spirit add syrup to taste, two ounces of fresh orange-peel, four of lemon-peel, and a few bruised cloves. Infuse for ten days, and filter. 1059. Crême d'Orange, a delicious Cordial. - Over a dozen oranges, sliced, pour three quarts of rectified spirit, and a pint of orange-flower-water. Close the vessel care- fully; and in ten days add five pounds of clarified syrup, a quart of water, and a half-ounce of tincture of saffron; close the vessel again, and in a fortnight strain off the liquor through a jelly-bag ; when it has settled, pour it from the lees and bottle it.- Obs. The lees of liqueurs make an ex- cellent addition to those plain puddings and cakes for which spirits are ordered. 1060. Crême d'Absinthe, by M. Beauvilliers' Receipt. — Take in the proportions of twelve pints (old measure) of French brandy and two of water; a small handful of fresh wormwood, or a large half-ounce of the dried herb, a quarter-ounce of cinnamon, and a drachm of mace. In- fuse for some days, and, if convenient, distil the compound. If not, infuse in a warm place for a fortnight, strain the liquor, and add a pound of sugar made into clear syrup, with five pints of water.-Obs. This liqueur, or a glass of Madeira or of rum, forms the coupe-de-milieu at a knowing French dinner ; and, by its stimulating bitter, enables the gourmand to renew the flagging contest. Imitation of the Swiss Kirschwasser. – Take geans and cherries — morellos are best. Bruise them and pound the kernels. For every twenty pints of fruit when bruised add five pints of water LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. 551 animi scrie prudent _lee fied of fied in and two of brandy or flavourless whisky. Ferment for a fortnight. Strain off the liquor and put the sediment in a press, as it contains much of the strength of the fruit and kernels. Pass the liquor through the still twice or thrice till strong enough. 1061. Common Ratafia.—Take an ounce of bruised nut- megs, a half-pound of bitter almonds, blanched and chop- ped, and a grain of ambergris, well rubbed with sugar in a mortar; infuse in two quarts of proof-spirit for two weeks, and filter. 1062. Red Ratafia. - Six pounds of the black-heart cherry, one of small black cherries or geans, and two of raspberries and strawberries. Bruise the fruit, and when it has stood some time, drain off the juice, and to every pint add four ounces of the best refined sugar, or of syrup, and a quart of the best brandy. Strain through a jelly- bag, and flavour to taste with a half-ounce of cinnamon and a drachm of cloves, bruised and infused in brandy for a fortnight before, or with cloves alone, which is more appropriate. 1063. Cherry Brandy or Whisky. -Pick morello, or black cherries, from the stalks, and drop them into bottles, till the bottles are three-quarters full ; fill up with brandy or whisky. In three weeks strain off the spirits, and sea- son with cinnamon and clove mixture, as in last receipt, adding syrup to taste. Ratafia should not be sweet. A second weaker decoction may be obtained by pouring more spirits on the fruit. This is good to flavour plum-pudding sauce. 1063. Lemon-brandy for sweet entremêts. Pour over the żest of a dozen lemons, pared as for punch, and put in a wide-necked bottle a quart of brandy. Cork and macerate for a month, and use as you need it. 1063.3 Maraschino.- A good imitation of this favourite liqueur is made by stoning and mashing as many ripe morellos as will measure a quart. Have the same measure of the small black cherry, the Scottish gean, and mashed raspberries. Pound the stones of half the morello cherries and of half the geans, with two ounces of peach leaves, and two of black currant leaves. To this compound mash fronos the light from the cakes de isur) Diete/ it' ied her it. I MI POEM rain the ESTU prer 552 CHAP. 1.—LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. add two quarts of rectified spirit, or of genuine brandy, with a drachm of catechu in powder. Infuse for a month, and then distil, by a slow heat, till the liqueur begins to look thick. Or simple filtration will do without distillation. 1064. Black-Cherry Brandy. — Put to three quarts of brandy four pounds of stoned black cherries; - bruise the stones, and add them to the mixture. Infuse for a month; - filter, and add the flavouring ingredients and syrup, as directed above. A second infusion may be made, which will require more seasoning than that first drawn. – Obs. Perfumes, though sometimes used, are out of place in com- pounds of this kind. The blossoms of the sloe, infused for six weeks, make a sort of Ratafia. 1064.” Ratafia of four fruits. — Have equal quantities of the juice of ripe morellos, raspberries, strawberries, and currants. Strain the fruits separately. Put their strained juices together. Sweeten to taste with syrup. Strain again, and to every pint allow a quarter pint of genuine brandy; and flavour with cherry or apricot kernels, and mace. 1065. Raspberry Brandy is made precisely as above, and, if strong of the fruit, is best without any other fla- vouring ingredient, but may have syrup. 1065.Loudon's Admirable. — Skin two dozen ripe peaches. Quarter them and take out the stones. Add to this the pulp of two dozen ripe greengages, and of one dozen ripe inagnums. For every four pounds of pulp add six of sugar and two quarts of water. Boil slowly for a half-hour or more. Skim, strain, and, when cool, add three quarts of brandy or flavourless whisky. 1066. Usquebaugh, the Irish Cordial.—To two quarts of the best brandy, or whisky without a smoky or any peculiar taste, put a pound of stoned rasins, a half-ounce of nutmegs, a quarter-ounce of cloves, the same quantity of cardamoms, all bruised in a mortar ; the rind of a Seville orange, rubbed off on lumps of sugar, a little tinc- ture of saffron, and a half-pound of brown candy-sugar. Shake the infusion every day for a fortnight, and filter it for use. — Obs. Not a drop of Water must be put to Irish Cordial. It is sometimes tinged of a pale green with the Aldi, da 553 LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. 24 till the end o the ries: – fase from its and su be made it dram- of place hoe, info (ual que a where their sta Sauna vine time juice of spinage, instead of the saffron tint, from which it takes the name (as we conjecture) of usque-beæ, or yellow water. 1067. L'Eau de la Vie.*- This liqueur is exceeding pleasant, and in quality so similar to verder or milk punch, Norfolk punch, &c., that it is almost unnecessary to give any other receipt for these compounds than the rhyming one subjoined. 1068. Glasgow Punch.--(From Peter's Letters.)—" The sugar being melted with a little cold water, the artist squeezed about a dozen lemons through a wooden strainer, and then poured in water enough almost to fill the bowl. In this state the liquor goes by the name of sherbet, and a few of the connoisseurs in his immediate neighbourhood * L'Eau de la Vie.-. The following rhyming receipt for compound- ing this seductive liqueur is communicated by a lady, who has contri- buted to this volume many useful and some rare receipts :-- “Grown old and grown stupid, you just think me fit To transcribe for my grandmother's book a receipt ; And comfort it is for a wight in distress To be still of some use: - he could scarce be of less. Were greater his talents, fair Ann might command His head - if more worth than his heart or his hand. Your mandates obeying, he sends with much glee The genuine receipt to make l'Eau de la Vie: - Take seven large lemons, and pare them as thin As a wafer, or, what is much thinner, your skin : Six ounces of sugar next take, and bear mind, That the sugar be of the best double-refined. Clear the sugar in near half a pint of spring-water, In the neat silver saucepan you bought for your daughter. Then the fourth of a pint you must fully allow Of new milk, made as warm as it comes from the cow. Put the rinds of the lemons, the milk, and the syrup, In a jar with the rum, and give them a stir up -- A full quart of old rum, (French brandy is better But we ne'er in receipts should stick close to the letter ;) And then to your taste, you may add some perfume, Goa-stone, or whatever you like in its room. Let it stand thus ten days, but remember to shake it And the closer you stop it, the richer you make it. Then filter through paper, 't will sparkle and rise, Be as soft as your lips, and as bright as your eyes. Last, bottle it up, and, believe me, the Vicar Of E- himself never drank better liquor. In a word, it excels, by a million of odds, The nectar your sister presents to the gods!” of me Additions dozen met TM guated 554 CHAP. I.-LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. were requested to give their opinion of it-for in the mix. ing of the sherbet lies, according to the Glasgow creed, at least one-half of the whole battle. This being approved by an audible smack from the lips of the umpires, the rum was added to the beverage, I suppose, in something about the proportion from one to seven. Last of all, the maker cut a few limes, and running each section rapidly round the rim of his bowl, squeezed in enough of this more delicate acid to flavour the whole composition. In this consists the true tour-de-maître of the punch- maker.” Glasgow Punch should be made of the coldest spring water, newly taken from the spring. The acid ingre- dients abovementioned will suffice for a very large bowl.- See Regent's Punch, No. 1077. Tea Punch, note p. 358. 1069. Punch à la Romaine.—Make a good lemon ice, (which see,) as for a dessert, or take any left. To one quart of the ice put the whites of three eggs, well beaten, and add rum and brandy till the ice liquefies. The propor- tions of spirits are three parts rum to one of brandy; water to taste. To this put a cup of strong green tea, and a little champagne. 1069.? Mint Julep.-Put a few leaflets of mint into one of the deep tumblers used in the United States for cordial drams, and over them a spoonful of sugar, pour what wine, brandy, or rum you wish : Have another deep tumbler, half-full of pounded ice ; pour the spirit or wine over the ice, and briskly pour the whole back- wards and forwards until sufficiently mixed : next, if in very hot weather, place the tumbler in a larger glass with ice, — which will act as a freezing apparatus, — and, when frost-work spreads over the glass, drink. For several receipts for these American drinks, which owe half their value to the heat or the cold of the climate, Britain has been indebted to Captain Marryat and an anonymous writer in Taiť s Magazine. The principle is the same in the composition of all of them, whether Sherry Cobblers, Gin Slings, or by whatever name fami- liar; so we shall give but one more variety from Tait. “ By my halidom," says the Rambler in North America, “a Sherry Cobbler is a nectar fit for the gods; and the LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, BEVERAGES, &c. 555 eing a DEPUS st of 2; the role e acidit te po 3 lemini 7. TOA Fell besti The prima most eloquent descriptions will prove inadequate to convey a just idea of a compound so truly delicious. Some pounded sugar, about two table-spoonfuls, is put into a large tumbler, a liberal supply of ice, pure as crystal, two wine-glasses of fine sherry, lemon-peel, cut very thin, a large slice of pine-apple at the top, and the whole violently shaken up, or poured several times from one tumbler to another, and allowed a minute or so to clear: a long reed is then stuck in the glass, and so you imbibe it. The charge for this is sixpence.” 1070, Bishop, Hot or Iced.—The day before this beverage is wanted, grill on a wire-grill, over a clear slow fire, three smooth-skinned large bitter oranges. Grill them of a pale brown. [They may also be done in an oven, or under a furnace.] Place them in a small punch-bowl that will about hold them, and pour over them a full half-pint from a bottle of old Bordeaux wine, in which a pound and a quarter of loaf-sugar is dissolved. Cover with a plate. When it is to be served next day, (though it may lie over two or three days,) cut and squeeze the oranges into a small sieve placed above a jug, containing the remainder of the bottle of wine, previously made very hot. Add more syrup if it is wanted. Serve hot in large glasses ; or in summer it may be iced. Bishop is often made of Madeira in England, and is perfumed with nut- megs, bruised cloves, and mace. It ought, however, to be made of old generous Bordeaux wine, or it fails of its purpose as a tonic liqueur. It is reckoned highly stom- achic, and is served at French dinners, savans et recherchés, either as the coup-d'après, or after the dessert.-See Al- sinthe, Nos. 1060 and 1076. 1071. Norfolk Punch.-Pare thirty-two Seville oranges, and the same number of lemons. Infuse the peel for two days in a large bottle or jar, with a gallon of brandy (or flavourless whisky) a little reduced in strength. Clarify in a gallon of water four pounds of sugar. When cold, strain the brandy (which will now be a tincture) to this. Add the juice of the oranges and lemons to this, previously strained and bottled, when the peel is taken off. Cask the liqueur, or put it in a jar. Stop it well. In six weeks en tes, o t into or cunti ur what ger den spirit as e back nere i varstas drink of the 556 CHAP. 1.-LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, BEVERAGES, &c. it may be gently poured, or drawn off, and bottled. A tincture of bruised nutmegs and cloves may be added to this compound. 1072. Milk Punch.—Rub off on lumps of sugar the zest of a dozen lemons. Pare off what you do not take off on the sugar, but take none of the white stuff. Infuse in two quarts of brandy. Strain off in two days, and add of clarified syrup two pounds, and of water two quarts, with a half-pint of hot new milk. Strain through a jelly-bag, and keep in a close-stopped jar, or small cask, till it fine, which will be in six weeks or less.- Obs. This cordial is rather getting into desuetude. It may be made extempore by adding a little hot milk and brandy to lemonade, and straining through a jelly-bag. 1073. To mull Wine.-Boil the spiceries (cinnamon, nutmeg grated, cloves, and mace) in any quantity ap- proved, in a quarter-pint, or better, of water; put to this a full pint of port, with sugar to taste. Mix it well. Serve hot with thin slips of toast or rusks. -Obs. The yolks of eggs were formerly mixed with mulled wine, as in making custard or egg-caudle, and many flavouring ingredients were employed which are now discarded. * * Hot SPICED WINES.-A variety of these delicious potations were in use until about the beginning of the sixteenth century. The old metrical romances are full of allusions to these favourite compounds, and particularly to the hippocras, sack, and clary. The first of these, which took its name from the bag through which it was strained being called “ Hippocrates' sleeve," was made of either white or red wine, with aromatics, such as ginger, cinnamon, and aromatic seeds, and sugar. Clary was made from claret, with honey and aromatics; and suck from the wine of that name. This medicated vin de coucher was used as a composing draught, or “nightcap,” and also drunk at the conclusion of a banquet. « Of these spiced wines," says Le Grande, in his Vie Privée de François, “ our poets of the thirteenth century never speak without rapture, and as an exquisite luxury. They consider it the masterpiece of art to combine in one liquor the strength and flavour of wine with the sweetness of honey, and the perfume of the most costly aromatics. A banquet at which no piment was served, would have been thought wanting in the most essential article." The only kind of these delicious beverages still in use, besides our common mulled wine, is Bishop, that bewitching mixture made of claret or Burgundy, oranges and spices, with sugar. See receipt Bishop, No. 1070. When this compound is made of Bordeaux wine, it is simply called Bishop; but, according to a German amateur, it receives the name of Cardinal when old Rhine wine is used ; and even rises to the dignity of Pope when “imperial Tokay” is employed. LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, BEVERAGES, &c. 557 RACES, &c. and boruth Zar be selected as of sugar do not talent JE and quarto be a jel telur shis content Lemon or Seville orange-juice may be added, and the water may be strained off from the spices. Ale or porter may be mulled as above, and have toasts or toasted biscuit put to them. 1074. Wine Whey.- Boil in a saucepan a pint of new milk, and pour into it three glasses of sherry or raisin wine. Bring it again to the boiling point; let it stand a minute till the curd forms, and then remove the curd, and strain and sweeten the whey to taste with fine sugar. The whey may be weakened with hot water, if necessary, for invalids, and it may be boiled for five minutes. Vine- gar-whey, Cream of Tartar, Lemon, Mustard-seed, and Alum-whey, &c., may all be made as above. 1075. Scotch Hot Pint.* -Grate a nutmeg into two quarts of mild ale, and bring it to the point of boiling. Mix a little cold ale with sugar necessary to sweeten this, and, gradually, two eggs well beaten. Gradually mix the hot ale with the eggs, taking care that they do not curdle. Put in a half-pint of whisky or rum and bring all once more nearly to boil, and then briskly pour it from one vessel into another till it becomes smooth and bright. 1076. The German Vermoute, or Wormwood Wine. - Infuse two tea-spoonfuls of the extract of wormwood in a quart of St. George, a celebrated Hungarian wine. Any rough or sub-acid wine will answer the same purpose. - See No. 1060. 1077. To make Sack-Posset. — This is made either of good cream and grated sweet biscuits, or of beat eggs and mmonsieu cinnam ix is - Ob. I ed wize flavoura iscandal O DOCES red stituting wine * Egg-posset, egg-flip, &c., &c., are made on the same principle, sub- chern anden T DETE ne for beer, and using a seasoning of lemon-grate rubbed off on knobs of sugar. Beer-flip is exactly the Scotch Hot pint. It is in the Universities—we mean those of Oxford and Cambridge — that this order of preparations are now best understood, as probably they were in the Monasteries formerly. “ Oxford Nightcaps " is the name of a learned work lately dedicated to those of Oxford alone. of This beverage, carried about in a bright copper kettle, is, or was, the celebrated new-year's-morning Het Pint of Edinburgh and Glasgow. In Honest, frugal Aberdeen, half-boiled sowens is used on the same festive occasion. In Edinburgh, in her high and palmy state,- her days of “ spice and wine,” while she had yet a Court and a Parliament, while France sent her wines, and Spain, Italy, and Turkey, fruits and spices, -a far more refined composition than the above was made by substi- tuting light white wine for ale, and brandy for whisky.-W. W. 558 CHAP. 1.--LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, BEVERAGES, &c. it milk instead of cream. Boil the cream or milk, sweeten it, and season with cinnamon and grated nutmeg. Warm the wine (Canary, alias sack) in a separate vessel, and stir it gradually into the milk ; then pour it quickly from one vessel into another till perfectly smooth: this is especially requisite if made with eggs. — See Wassail Bowl. 1078. Ale-Posset. — Boil a pint of new milk with a slice of toasted bread, sweeten and season a bottle of mild ale in a china basin or dish, and pour the boiling milk over it. When the head rises serve it. 1079. Regent's or George the Fourth's Punch. — A bottle of champagne, a quarter-pint of brandy, a glassful of veri- table Martinique, the juice of a lemon, and Seville orange : With this mix a pint or more of a strong infusion of the best green tea strained, and capillaire or simple syrup to taste. Calves' feet jelly is sometimes mixed with this com- position, and it may be iced, and should be strained.--Obs. Other liqueurs may be used with this compound, and also a flavouring of aromatics first infused and strained. - See No. 1069. * 1080. The Pope's Posset. - Sweeten and heat a bottle of white wine. Have a half-pound of sweet almonds, with a few bitter, blanched, pounded, and boiled in water, and ready strained. Mix the boiling-hot ingredients, beat them well up together. 1081. À cool Tankard. — Put two glasses of sherry and one of brandy into a jug with a hot toast and sugar. Pour a bottle of fine ale over it; stir with a sprig of balm, and let it settle for a half-hour. 1081.2" Devonshire cool Tankard. -Sweeten a bottle of cider with lumps of sugar rubbed on the rind of a large lemon. Add the juice of the lemon, a quarter pint of sherry, and the grate of half a nutmeg. Like all summer beverages, it may be placed in ice; and the flavour “ of our ancestors” may be given with thyme, balm, or mint. * The following receipt for making tea-punch is taken from the Journal des Connaissances Usuelles : --Hyson tea, 8 oz. ; black tea, 4 oz. ; boiling water, 3 gallons ; sugar, 16 lbs.; old brandy (Eau de Vie), two and a half gallons; rum, half a gallon ; citric acid, and spirit of citron, of each three ounces. The tea is first infused in the water, the citric acid and sugar are then dissolved, and the other ingredients added. ERAGD, A 559 LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, BEVERAGES, &c. s mikse zutine. Ta Boul. of milde mick me 1082. Athole Brose. - Mix with a cupful of heather- honey two cupfuls of whisky, alias mountain-dew, or in this proportion; brandy and rum are also used, though the combination they form with honey cannot be called Athole Brose. The yolk of an egg is sometimes beat up with the brose. 1083. Auld Man's Milk.—Beat the yolks and whites of six eggs separately. Put to the beat yolks sugar and a quart of new milk, or thin sweet cream. Add to this rum, whisky, or brandy to taste, (about a half-pint.) Slip in the whipt whites, and give the whole a gentle stir up in the china punch-bowl, in which it should be mixed. It may be flavoured with nutmeg or lemon-zest. This inorning cup is nearly the egg-nogg of America. 1084. Lait Sucré.-Boil fine sugar in milk, and flavour with lemon. This, cold, is a refreshment fit for children's balls, and is so used in France. 1085. Eau Sucré.-Sugar in boiling water. This is a frugal beverage much used by French ladies, and considered 1.- di ssful de ille usion de 377 ܢܐ n this dit ned-1 San'at ped. soporific. s wide ater, as the TT &/ Pour 1086. Rum Shrub.- This is made in the easy way by adding the juice and an infusion of the rind of Seville oranges to rum, with a little syrup and plain water or orange-flower-water. Honey, raisin-wine, porter, citric acid, &c., are all employed in compound shrubs. Brandy Shrub is made in the same manner. It is best to buy these compound liquors rectified and distilled. 1087. Currant Shrub,— White or Red,—is made by putting the juice of the fruit to rum or brandy, in the proportion of a pint of juice, or less, to a quart of spirits, and adding syrup to taste. It must then be strained. 1088. Widow Barnaby's Brandy Cherries.-Fill large bottles with small black cherries or geans, till rather more than half full. Fill up with brandy; cork the bottles. The cherries will be ready in a month, and keep for a year; and the brandy for ever. Where spirits are ordered for rich pudding sauces, no plain spirit is equal to the above infusion, which is made a liqueur by adding apricot kernels bruised, cloves, cinnamon, and bitter orange-peel, as in Nos. 1053, 1054. · 1089. Lemonade, and Milk Lemonade. This agreeable 560 CHAP. 1.-LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, BEVERAGES, &c. beverage used formerly to be fermented, now the process is more simple. Take any number of lemons, suitable to the quantity of lemonade wanted; pare them as thin as pos- sible; then rub the surface with knobs of refined sugar, to extract all the zest; put the saturated sugar and half the parings into a basin, and squeeze the lemons over it. Add the best refined sugar to taste. Hot water, (and a little boiling milk, if approved,) must be added, in the propor- tions wished for ; three quarts to two dozen lemons is a fair quantity, using the whole juice, but only half the rinds. Skim the liquor when well mixed, and run it through a jelly-bag. Bottle it. For Milk Lemonade sweeten, and acidulate to your taste with fresh lemon juice equal quantities of milk and water; add what white wine is approved ; mix, and strain through a jelly-bag.“ Obs. Orangeade is made as above.-See No. 1084. 1090. Portable Lemonade, -- useful on Voyages or in the Country. - Take of tartaric acid one half-ounce, refined sugar three ounces, essence of lemon half a drachm. Pound the tartaric acid and sugar very well in a marble mortar, and gradually pour the essence upon the mixture. Mix the whole very well, and paper it up for use in twelve separate parcels ; each of which, when mixed with a tumbler of water, will make a very pleasant and refresh- ing draught. Lemonade may also be made extempore with the concrete of lemon-acid and syrup. No home- made Lemonades can compare with those aerated by the chemists. 1091. Capillaire. - Beat up six eggs and their shells with sixteen pounds of loaf-sugar ; put to this three quarts of water; beat the whole mass, and boil it twice, and skim it well. Perfume with orange-flower-water, or Eau de milles fleurs. — Obs. This syrup answers well for sweetening liqueurs, or, with a little lemon-juice and water, makes a pleasant summer-draught. 1092. Another way.--Infuse what quantity of American capillaire is wanted in boiling water; sweeten with clarified syrup; strain, perfume if you choose, and bottle. N.B. Very little of the fern of which the capillaire is made, is obtained genuine. 1093. Bitters, a Tonic. -- Take of juniper-berries two BETERSKI BRITISH OR HOME-MADE WINES. 561 d-me of le.1904, CH hen as 1200 of refined co sugar and Lemons Drea 1 dagen las hat certain mixed, air - Mi Long with fresh i r; add mbeti ugh a jelek ounces, of gentian-root one ounce and a half, of coriander- seeds a quarter of an ounce, of orange-peel a quarter of an ounce, of calamus-aromaticus a quarter of an ounce, of snake-root a drachm, and of cardamom-seeds a half- drachm. Cut the gentian-root into small pieces, pound the other ingredients in a mortar, and put the whole into a large bottle or jar, with five bottles of the best malt- whisky of the strength of glass-proof, or 15 per cent. below hydrometer-proof. Shake the bottle a little when the ingredients are first put in, but not afterwards. Let it macerate for twelve days, carefully corked, and then strain it off, and bottle it for use. Obs. Gin or brandy may be substituted for whisky : whatever spirit is used must be reduced to the strength of glass-proof. Sherry wine may be substituted for spirits.--See 1076. 1094. Aromatic Tincture. - Take an ounce of bruised cinnamon, and an ounce of the seeds of the lesser carda- mom; take also an ounce of bruised ginger, two drachms of long pepper, and a quart of spirits. Infuse this for a fortnight, keeping it in a warm place, and strain for use. Two or three tea-spoonfuls may be taken in a little capil- laire, or eau sucré, or in wine with a little water or without. This tincture is cordial; and, in cases of indigestion and languor, is considered restorative. No. 1084 alf-ounce, I half a drugi all in a on the mint or us 17 17 mired rid it and retail 18de curtain BRITISH OR HOME-MADE WINES. 2. No here Bersti! “Of wine may be verified the merry induction, that good wine maketh good blood, good blood causeth good humours, good humours cause good thoughts, good thoughts. bring forth good works, good works carry a man to heaven; ergo, good wine carrieth a man to heaven.”— HOWELL. their skyl this the Qi/ ii in prostater is wel die -Jinner American THOSE families who make wine in any quantity will find it useful to procure a treatise on this branch of domestic economy alone. We shall, however, give receipts for making and ordering the best and most admired sorts of wines in sufficient variety to suit private families. 1095. General and important Observations. The fruit ought to be gathered before it is dead ripe, and in dry and sunny weather, which will greatly improve the quality and flavour i Claribel į ilaire is jes those 2 N 562 CHAP. 1.-LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. of the wine. All fruit that is unripe or spoiled should be picked out with care, as one ill-flavoured berry will taint the juice of three dozen of good ones. The fruit must be carefully bruised and put into a vat (or, on the small scale, a cask with the end out of it) to ferment with the softest water and the sugar. The more carefully the husks and seeds are excluded, the better will the wine be in flavour and salutary qualities. The less water that is used the richer will be the wine; and the more the fruit juice, and the less the sugar employed, the more will the desired vinous taste and flavour predominate. Two or three days are generally enough for the white wines to ferment in the vat. Red wines require a day or two longer. Fermentation may be hastened by agitating the liquid, and raising the temperature of the place in which the vat is placed. When the wine has undergone fermentation, it must be cleared by being put into hair-bags, and strained in a wine-press, or be strained through a canvass bag. [Sieves are used in the small scale of wine-making.] The casks are then filled till within an inch of the bung-hole, which should be slightly covered over. The casks must be set in a cool place ; and now another fermentation comes on, called the spiritous, which will throw off the feculence that remains in the must, and greatly purify the wine. When this second fermentation has abated, the spirits ordered for the wine should be added, and the cask filled up and bunged. In six weeks at soonest, the cask must be pegged, to see if the wine is bright, and if so, it must be carefully racked off from the lees into another cask. The best method is this :— Bore a hole about half-way up the cask, and use a small quill to draw off the purest of the wine. Now bore a hole a little lower down, and if what is drawn off be not so bright as that first drawn do not mix them. The lees may be filtered. The chief qualities of home-made wines (for they never will have the flavour of grape-wines) consist, after all, in colour and brightness; so that it is of very great impor- tance to have them carefully racked. When not perfectly translucent on a first racking, the wine must be racked a second and even a third time, and fined. Wine should, MADE-WINES. 563 nust be i scale, softest ks and pur and richer he las s taste Derally wines of the de hai smaid d til Eight it is said, be bottled in clear settled weather. The bottles should be new, or at least perfectly clean, and great atten- tion must be paid to the corking. A variety of things are used for perfuming wines ; such as sweet herbs, peach-leaves, sweet bay-leaves, bruised almonds or kernels of fruit, bergamot, cloves, ginger, &c. &c. Brandy will enrich wines : it ought, when added, to be previously mixed with syrup. Flat wines may be enlivened by adding raisins bruised, mixing first a very little spirits with them. The addition of good wine will better answer the same purpose. Home-made wine is apt to ferment over much; this may be checked by removing the wine into a cool place, putting a little spirits to check it, and making the bung fast, so as to exclude air. But fermentation is sometimes too slow, and by experience we would recom- mend, as a certain means of making the fermentation sure, whether of wines or beers, when yeast is employed, to com- mence the process with a quart of the cooled liquor in a small vessel. This may be gradually increased to two or three quarts, and then put to the whole contents of the vat which you wish to ferment. By this means less yeast will do, and the process will be more certain. This rule is applicable to ginger-beer and to every sort of fermented liquor. After fermentation is over, be sure the cask is kept quite full and close bunged. The sooner wine is bottled after it is fined the more it will sparkle; we do not say it will be the better wine. A good judge will choose a creaming rather than an effervescing or sparkling wine. See Brewing. 1096. Best White Gooseberry Champagne.To every four pints of ripe white gooseberries mashed, add a quart and a half of milk-warm water and twelve ounces of good loaf-sugar bruised and dissolved. Stir the whole well in the tub or vat, and throw a blanket over the ves- sel, which is proper in making all wines, unless you wish to slacken the process of fermentation. Stir the ingre- dients occasionally, and in three days strain off the liquor into a cask. Keep the cask full, and when the spiritous fermentation has ceased, add for every gallon of wine, a half-pint of brandy or good whisky, and the same quan- tity of Sherry or Madeira. Bung up the cask very lace; mains - see od is use Nom . por- 564 CHAP. 1.—LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. closely, covering the bung with clay ; when it clears, rack it carefully off, and rack it again if not quite bright. N.B. The fruit here should be rather under-ripe. A very excellent white currant-wine may be made by this receipt, or a wine of white gooseberries and white cur- rants mixed. Fruit wines ferment spontaneously. 1097. Red Gooseberry Wine.-Take equal measure of water and bruised fruit, or more of the fruit if it be plen- tiful. To every gallon of the mixture add four pounds of loaf-sugar, and a quarter-pound of sliced beetroot. When casked and fermented, add a quart or more of brandy. 1098. British Rhenish.—To every gallon of fresh apple- juice, add two pounds of loaf-sugar. Boil and skim this till quite limpid. Strain it. Ferment it as other wines; and when the head flattens, rack it off clear, and tun it. Next season rack it off again ; add a pint of brandy to every three gallons.--Obs. This is a highly-reputed wine, but we have no actual experience of its qualities. 1099. Red Currant Wine.-To twenty Scotch pints of water put thirty-six Scotch pints or more of red currants, and one pint of raspberries. When these have fermented, add twenty pounds of good sugar, and, after the wine is casked, two pints (if you choose) of brandy. This will make eighteen gallons of wine. N.B. The Scotch pint is about two quarts. Red tartar in fine powder, and a pound and a half of sliced beetroot, may be added to the above to deepen the colour. The skins of the black currant boiled, and the liquid strained and used as part of the water, we have found to answer better than beet for deepening the colour of the dark-red home-made wines. 1100. A cheap Wine of mixed Fruit. — Take equal measure of water and such fruit as you can get ; such as raspberries, cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, and cur- rants, either black, red, or white. Strain and ferment, adding fifteen pounds of treacle or coarse sugar for every twenty gallons. Perfume with a quarter-pound of ginger, and a handful of sweet marjoram and lemon-thyme. Add two quarts of whisky. N.B. A more delicate compound Wine may be made by MADE-WINES. 565 celang met PARTE using loaf-sugar and brandy; the colour may be enriched by red tartar, or, better, black currant-skin liquor. 1101. Elder-flower Wine, or English Frontigniac. Whisk six whites of eggs in six gallons of water, and put to this sixteen pounds of good loaf-sugar. Boil and skim it well. Put to the boiling liquid eight pounds of the best raisins chopped, and a quarter-peck of elder-flowers. Infuse these, but do not boil them. When cool, put a quarter-pint of yeast to the liquid, stirring it well up. Next day put in the juice of four lemons and the thin rind. Let it ferment in the open vessel for three days, and then strain and cask it. 1102. Elder-Wine, made of the elder-berries, is a rich and expensive preparation. It is made in the proportions of three pounds of sugar and three pints of elder-berry juice to the gallon of water, enriched with chopped raisins, and perfumed and flavoured with ginger, nutmeg, cloves, &c. An excellent but very expensive Elder-wine is made by using equal weight of water and Malaga raisins and sugar, and an eighth part elder-berries; and flavouring with cinnamon, cloves, mace, and ginger. Elder-berry wine is, or was, the pride of many English housewives, and no expense nor pains were spared in its preparation. Mulled, or as negus, it forms a pleasant beverage. It may stand in the cask till February to fine before being bottled, and is best hot and spiced as No. 1073. , 1103. Orange-Wine.--Dissolve twelve pounds of loaf- sugar in six gallons of water, in which the whites of a dozen eggs have been whisked. Whisk the whole, and boil and skim it. When nearly cold, put into it six spoonfuls of yeast, and the juice of a dozen lemons. Next morning skim off the top, and add the parings of the lemons, and the juice and yellow rind of four dozen Seville oranges. Ferment for three days, and cask the wine. N.B. This wine may be improved to some tastes by substituting honey for one-third of the sugar. It may be enriched by the addition of some of the high-flavoured wines, and perfumed with ginger, bitter almonds, berga- mot, citron, peach-leaves, &c. &c. The whole of the 41 566 CHAP. 1.--LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. orange-rind is by some thought to give too decided a flavour; less may be used at pleasure, and the rest used as candied chips. 1104. Orange and Lemon Wine of Raisins.—Take two pounds of loaf-sugar, one pound of Malaga raisins, and the juice and peel of a Seville orange, to each gallon of water. Add the orange-juice when the wine is nearly done fermenting. Lemon-Wine is made in the same manner, using the lemon in rather greater quantity than the orange. 1105. Parsnip-Wine.—To every four pounds of pars- nips, cleaned and quartered, put a gallon of water. Boil till they are quite soft, and strain the liquor clear off without crushing the parsnips. To every gallon of the liquor put three pounds of loaf-sugar, and a half-ounce of crude tartar. When nearly cold, put fresh yeast to it. Let it stand four days in a warm room, and then bung it up. N.B. Parsnip-wine is said to surpass the other home- made wines as much as East-India Madeira does that of the Cape. So much is said for it, and on good authority, that it certainly deserves a trial. Horseradish wine is made as above, and is recommended for gouty habits. In Ireland a pleasant table-beer is made from parsnips brewed with hops. 1106. Ginger-Wine, a light Cordial Wine.—To ten gal- lons of water, in which fifteen pounds of loaf-sugar 'have been dissolved, put the beat whites of six eggs; whisk this well, and boil and skim it; then put to it one pound twelve ounces of the best white ginger scraped and bruised. Boil the whole in a covered boiler, to extract the flavour. When the liquor is nearly cold, put a glassful of fresh yeast into the tub. Let it ferment for three days at least, and on the second add the thin parings of four Seville oranges and six lemons. Cask it, and bottle off in six weeks, or when bright. This wine may be aromatized, as it is called, by allspice, a few cloves, some mace, cinna- mon, and nutmegs, bruised and infused in brandy : the strained infusion must be put to the wine just before it is bottled.- Obs. Ginger-wine, an insipid sort, is often made without being fermented ; and in the cheap wholesale way, BEERS. 567 allspice and cayenne are used with ginger to give flavour and poignancy.-See No. 1109. Another way, from a Correspondent.—“To seven gal- lons of water, take one pound and a half of ginger ; bruise and boil it two hours, then strain and cool it ; pour it over fourteen pounds of raw sugar. Add three gallons of strong grain whisky, the juice and rinds of two dozen lemons, one dozen bitter oranges, and three pounds raisins stoned. Barrel it, and stir it well every day for three weeks, then add one half-ounce isinglass dissolved in boil- ing water. After this let it stand in a cool place, well corked, in cask for two or three months, then bottle it.” So far our correspondent; and this is certainly a pleasant cordial decoction,-a Ginger Cordial, but not a wine, which is a fermented liquor. 1107. Birch-Wine.—To every gallon of the sap of the birch-tree, boiled, put four pounds of white sugar, and the thin paring of a lemon. Boil and skim this well. When cool, put fresh yeast to it; let it ferment for four or five days, then close it up. Keep the bung very close, and in four months rack and bottle it. N.B. The pith must be carefully corked up when it is drawn off from the trees, till it is to be used. Less sugar will answer. This wine is sometimes made with a third part raisins, and flavoured with almonds. It ought to be remembered, that in currant and goose- berry wine fermentation is spontaneous; no yeast is em- ployed or required.* The best sort of home-made wines are manufactured from foreign fruits, particularly raisins and imported grapes. The reader may consult Roberts' Treatise on British Wines. BEERS AND OTHER HOUSEHOLD BEVERAGES. 1108. White Spruce-Beer.- To five gallons of water put seven pounds of loaf-sugar, and three-fourths of a * Note on Made Wines. There is a method of preparing what is called home-made brandy for giving body to wines, detailed in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society, which is just gooseberry-wine made without sugar, with the addition of the tenth part port-wine, and distilled. We can see nothing to recommend gooseberry above flavour- less whisky or brandy, 568 CHAP. I.—LIQUEURS, CORDIALS, &c. pound of the essence of spruce. Boil and skim this. Put it into a vessel, and, when nearly cool, add fresh yeast (about a half-pint or less. When the beer has fer- mented for three days, bung the cask, and in a week bottle it off. N.B. For Brown Spruce use treacle or coarse brown sugar, instead of loaf-sugar. · Artificial Lemon-Juice.- Dissolve nine drachms and twelve grains of crystallized citric acid in a pint of water, and flavour it with a drop of essence of lemon dissolved in a tea-spoonful of brandy. Lemon and Kali.-Two parts loaf-sugar, one part dried and powdered citric acid, and powdered bicarbonate of potash one part and a fourth. A better preparation is, Effervescing Concrete Acidulated Alkali.--Mix intimately one part powdered tartaric acid ; one of bicarbonate of soda, and two of pounded loaf-sugar. Flavour with essence of lemon, sixty drops to a pound of the mixture. A tea-spoonful in a half-pint of water, or less, makes the draught. Ginger-Beer Powders.-Thirty grains of bicarbonate of soda, in blue paper; twenty-five of tartaric acid in white paper, to which add five grains of powdered white ginger, and a drachm of pounded sugar. 1109. Ginger-Beer, of a superior kind, for keeping. Take four pounds of loaf-sugar, four ounces or more of bruised ginger, and four gallons of water. Boil for an hour, and skim this. Slice two lemons or more into a tub, and put to them one ounce of cream of tartar. Pour the hot liquor over this, and when milk-warm add a half- pint, or rather less, of fresh beer-yeast. Let this work for three or four days. Strain it off clear from the lees into a cask, and add to it, if it is to be kept, a half-pint of brandy. Bottle in a week or ten days, and wire the corks. Obs. With four times the quantity of cream of tartar this makes aërated ginger-beer.-See 1106. 1109.2 Superior Ginger-Beer.-Dr. Pereira’s receipt. -White sugar, twenty pounds ; lemon or lime-juice, eighteen ounces; honey, one pound; white ginger bruised, twenty-two ounces; water, eighteen gallons. Boil the 570 TIME REQUIRED FOR BOILING. fore they are filled. Bottle-wax is sold ready prepared, or is easily made thus :- 1112. Bottle-Wax. — A pound of rosin, a pound of bees- wax, and a half-pound of tallow. Mix with this red or vellow ochre, soot, or Spanish whiting, whichever colour you want. Melt it carefully, stirring all the while. If likely to boil over, stir with a candle-end, which will allay the ebullition. 1113. To prevent Liquors from having a Corked Taste. Dip the corks in a varnish made of equal quantities of purified wax and suet melted together, and repeat the dip- ping till the cork is covered with the mixture. N. B. We are not sure of this prescription. It will pre- vent a corked taste; but, by contracting the fibres of the cork, will it as effectually exclude the external air ? TABLE OF THE AVERAGE TIME REQUIRED FOR BOILING, ROASTING, AND FRYING DIFFERENT QUANTITIES OF MEAT, FISH, AND VEGETABLES. BOILING, MEAN TIME.* A Salted Round, of twenty to twenty-five pounds, four to five hours. Edge-bone, of ten to fourteen pounds, three hours. Brisket, of ten pounds, three hours. Ham, of twelve to sixteen pounds, simmer four hours, or boil two. Tongues, two hours if fresh; if salt and dry, from three to four · hours. Leg of Mutton, of nine pounds, simmer for three hours. Neck of Mutton, from five to seven pounds, two and a half hours. Shoulder, of seven pounds, two and a balf hours, simmering. Leg of Lamb, five pounds, simmer one hour and twenty-five minutes. Neck of Lamb, three pounds and a half, one hour and quarter. boiling * By Boiling, we mean simmering slowly ; keeping the meat at the ling-point, without ebullition. Potatoes, artichokes, carrots, and other things, must be probed to try if they be done. N. B.--The time specified with butcher's meat is rather under than over, which is the safest side to err on ; for fish rather over, which is the safe side too. TIME REQUIRED FOR BOILING AND ROASTING. 571 herera LE TO catalog 2:21 Leg of Pork, of six to eight pounds, two and a half hours. Hand or Spring of Pork, five to six pounds, two hours. Piece of Bacon, from three to four pounds, one hour and a half. Neck of Veal, five pounds, two hours. Breast of Veal, seven pounds, simmer two hours and half. Knuckle, from five to seven pounds, two hours and half. Calf's Head, unskinned, simmer three hours. Pig's Cheek, two hours, or more. Pig's Feet, three hours. Tripe, to simmer from six to eight hours, or more. Small Hen Turkey, from one hour to one and a half. Fowls, if large, from one hour to one and a half. Rabbits, from one hour to one hour and twenty minutes. Small Chickens, from twenty minutes to a half hour.-Partridges, a half hour.–Pigeons, twenty minutes.-Pheasants from an hour to an hour and quarter, according to the size and age. Greens and Cabbage, quick boiling, twenty-five minutes. Artichokes, thirty-five minutes, when probe. Green Peas, from fifteen to twenty minutes. Turnips and Carrots, from fifteen to fifty or more minutes, accor- ding to age and size, when probe. French Beans, thirty minutes. Brocoli and Cauliflower, from twelve to fifteen minutes. Asparagus, from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Beetroots, two hours and a half, or more. Parsnips, thirty-five minutes, when probe. Spinage, from ten to fifteen minutes. Jerusalem Artichokes, peeled, from twenty-five to thirty minutes. A Turbot, of ten to fourteen pounds, a half hour's simmering, after it fairly boils. Cod's head and shoulders, if large, an hour from the time it is put on a good fire, with cold water and salt. A Salmon, or large Jole, an hour from the time it is put on with cold water and salt. Slices of Salmon, or Cod, crimped, put in boiling water, from twelve to fifteen minutes.-Eels and small Flat Fish are soon boiled.—Haddocks, Whitings, Soles, &c. according to their size. Soles, middle size, put on with boiling water, from six to ten minutes; their texture does not require long cooking. Herrings and Mackerel, from seven to ten minutes. Lobsters and Crabs, about twenty minutes, if of average size. Skate, from twelve to twenty minutes' simmering. ROASTING, MEAN TIME. A Sirloin, from fifteen to eighteen pounds, four hours. Ribs, same weight, four hours. Collared Ribs, about three and a half hours. Haunch of Venison, from three to four hours. Haunch, if in paper and paste, from four to five hours. 572 TIME REQUIRED FOR ROASTING AND FRYING. Leg of Mutton, of eight to ten pounds, two hours and half. Shoulder, of eight pounds, two hours. Fillet of Veal, of ten pounds, stuffed, three hours. Brisket of Veal, of eight pounds, two hours. Loin, of eight to nine pounds, two hours. Leg of Lamb, of six pounds, one and a half hour. Loin, of three to four pounds, one hour and a quarter. Leg of Pork, of eight pounds, two hours and three quarters. Loin of Pork, of six pounds, two hours. Goose, if large, from one hour to one and a half. Green Goose, fifty minutes to an hour. Ducks, if large, fifty minutes. Hare, an hour and quarter to an hour and half. Turkey, from two and a half to three and a half hours, according to size. Leveret, fifty minutes. Rabbits, large, one hour. Wild Duck, thirty-five minutes. Partridges, large, thirty-five minutes. Pigeons, from twenty to twenty-five minutes. Chickens, from twenty to fifty minutes, according to the size. Black Cock, from an hour to an hour and quarter. Pig, from an hour and quarter to two hours, according to the size. Large Fowl, sixty-five minutes. Ox-heart, stuffed, if large, two hours and a half. Calf's heart, one hour. Grouse thirty-five minutes. N.B. — In frosty weather, a few minutes more is to be allowed, and much will always depend on the size of the fire, and the way in which it is kept up; and we reckon upon every thing being held back from the scorching heat of the fire when first put down. It must also be kept in mind that we refer to ordinary kitchen-fires, not to the raging furnaces of the kitchens of club-houses and large hotels, where the pro- cesses are considerably shorter. FRYING. Soles, from seven to ten minutes, according to size. Slices of Cod, or Salmon, or Turbot, or any large thick fish, twelve minutes. Fillets, rolled up circularly, ten to fifteen minutes. Herrings, Whitings, and small Haddocks, from eight to twelve minutes. Whitings and Flounders, six to eight minutes. Skate, in slices, ten minutes. Eels, twelve minutes. Tripe, in batter, four minutes, FIRE PROVISIONS IN SEASON. 573 Is and the Perch and Smelts, if small, five minutes. Oysters, for garnishing, three minutes. Pancakes, from one to three minutes. Fritters, in batter, the fruit previously stewed or roasted, four or five minutes. Fritters of fresh-sliced apples, in batter, eight minutes. Rissoles and Croquets, of mincemeat, five minutes. Potatoes, in slices, three minutes. Eggs, three minutes. N. B. The above time is rather in excess, as the safe side. ree quart NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL MEATS, FISH, AND VEGETABLES, IN SEASON IN THE DIFFERENT MONTHS OF THE YEAR. t'cording » resmi 2e of JANUARY BEEF and mutton, which are to be had good all the year round, are both prime in this month, though they begin to get dearer than in the fall of the year; veal to be had good, but dear at this season; house-lamb and pork generally both dear. Poultry Turkeys, geese, ducks, fowls, pullets, tame pigeons, wild ducks, hares and rabbits, plentiful; the latter cheap; partridges, phea- sants, and a great variety of wild fowl. Fish — Turbot, halibut, skate, cod, haddocks, soles, plaice, flounders, oysters — prime turbot is now scarce; lobsters and crabs hardly to be got at this time; prawns plentiful. Vegetables—The same sorts of vegetables are in season, with little variation, from the beginning of Novem- ber till the end of February: they are Savoys, cabbage, and greens of all the sorts, Brussels sprouts, brocoli sulphur-coloured and purple; spinage, leeks, onions, beetroot, parsnips, turnips, celery, carrots, potatoes, cresses, parsley, endive, and forced asparagus, and mushrooms. Fruits-A variety of apples, pears, and filberts, walnuts, oranges, foreign grapes, and all the dried fruits, now plentiful and excellent. FEBRUARY Meat the same as in January, but veal and house-lamb gene rally rather cheaper. Fish the same, but cod and haddocks fallen off; lobsters and herrings more plentiful; barbel and dace got. Fowls and game the same, save partridges and phea- sants, with spring chickens and ducklings in addition, but at this season enormously dear. Pea and Guinea fowl now come in and continue till July. Vegetables the same, and, in addition, forced kidney-beans and salad herbs. MARCH, Meat as in January, and grass-lamb; house-lamb now cheaper; and mountain-mutton, which begins to fall off about mid-winter, now not so good, particularly in severe seasons; veal gets cheaper. -Poultry the same as last months; no hares from middle of the 37 of the bo Lind that mire they to sweep 574 PROVISIONS IN SEASON. month; close time till September; green geese, ducklings, tame pigeons, (cheaper;) wild pigeons; moor-game close. Fish - Salmon is now got, but dear, — indeed it is to be had in London almost the whole year round. Fish, in an open spring, are plen- tiful about this time, but still more so in April; mackerel, shrimps, and prawns, are now seen. Turbot are now in high request. The John Dory makes its appearance in the London market. Vege- tables-Forced cucumbers and rhubarb; young turnips, and turnip tops, spinage, brocoli, radishes, and forced salad herbs. APRIL Meat of all kinds.- Veal and lamb get cheaper. Poultry same as last three months. Leverets to be got towards the end of the month; young fowls, with eggs, and turkey-poults, but in general extravagantly dear. Vegetables same as the last months, with chervil and lettuce: vegetables now begin to get cheap. Cresses from the end of this month till November. Fruits-Green goose- berries and rhubarb for tarts. Smelts and whitings plentiful, mackerel is got and mullet. MAY. The same in meat as the preceding months, and about Whitsun- tide buck-venison comes in season. Fish-Turbot, lobster, trout, salmon, eels, and plenty of the smaller white fish in favourable weather; oysters go out of season till August, and cod is not liked from about Lady-day till Midsummer, or later. Vegetables of all kinds as before, with forced peas and early potatoes; sea-kale, asparagus, saladings, and carrots, are now obtained of natural growth. JUNE Meat of all kinds, and it generally begins to get cheaper. Fish-Salmon, turbot, skate, halibut, crabs, prawns, lobsters, soles, eels, all in high season, and getting cheaper. Vegetables in great plenty and variety, and cheaper; early cauliflower got, asparagus plentiful, and about the cheapest towards the end of the month. Fruits in fine seasons are strawberries, early cherries, melons, and forced peaches and apricots; also apples for tarts. About the beginning of the month the West India fleets used to arrive with turtle. Now it comes frequently. JULY. Meat of all kinds.-Lamb and veal cheap. Poultry of all kinds as before, and also plovers and wheat-ears. Leverets, turkey. poults, and ducklings, are now worth eating, and cheaper. Wild ducks are often got about this time. Fish is now good of all kinds, save oysters; and the rarer sorts, as turbot and salmon, are about the cheapest, therefore cod is not sought after, though PROVISIONS IN SEASON. 575 ung tunga Doulsbut D! - get chest WhatDe and about Tua Trbot, weet this is the high season of the cod and also of the herring fishery on our coasts. Vegetables of all kinds good and plentiful, as cauliflowers, peas, and French and Windsor beans. Fruits- All the small fruits at their best, also early plums, apricots, melons, cherries, and pine-apples. AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER. Meat of all kinds, and cheap.- Mountain-mutton now excel- lent. Grass-lamb growing coarse. Veal getting scarcer. Poultry as before, with moor-game of all kinds after the 12th of August, and partridges and hares from the beginning of September. Geese and ducks now full grown. Fish - Cod is good,- tur- bot goes rather out, as does salmon. Fresh-water fish now plentiful, as pike, carp, perch, and trout. Herrings, which are in season from July till March, are now excellent. Fruits of all kinds plentiful, as peaches, plums, nectarines, grapes, melons, filberts, pears, apples : retarded small fruits still seen; also quinces, morello cherries, and damsons. Mushrooms most plentiful at this time, also cucumbers. OCTOBER. Meat as before, and doe-venison. Pasture-fed beef and mutton are probably at the best in this month. Poultry and game in all variety, but young fowls get dearer. Pheasants now got, and generally wood-pigeons, snipes, and wild ducks, begin to appear. Fish -- Cod, haddocks, brill, tench, and all sorts of shell-fish. Oysters, which come in at London in August, and at Edinburgh in September, are now excellent. Vegetables - Beans, brocoli, and cabbage of all kinds ; beet, onions, leeks, turnips, carrots, lettuce, cresses, chardoons, endive, celery, skirrets, cucumbers, (scarce) spinage, and dried herbs; asparagus gets rare. Fruits All sorts of apples and pears, nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, grapes, and retarded gooseberries, NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER. Meat-Beef and mutton prime. House-lamb and veal. Suck- ing-pig. Buck-venison goes out. Fish-All good about this time. Salmon dear. Poultry gets very dear in large towns about this season, but is to be got of all kinds; also woodcocks and snipes, mallards and sea-fowl; game generally cheap now. It is, however, quite impossible rigidly to fix the seasons of provisions, and inuch less their price. Meat, generally speaking, is cheapest in the latter end of autumn, and dearest in spring. Beef is found prime all the year round, but small natural pasture. fed beef is at the best in October; so is hill-mutton: both fall away in the winter, and are lean in spring. Veal is good from Christmas till after Midsummer, and is at the cheapest from the end of May until August. It is always rather dearer in propor- tion than lamb. House-lamb is less liable to variation than ܘܶܐ ܐ݈ܢܳܐ :3 Y and models early morning Nor theater GE to et As per. ards the end 5. earlichen Heto Preks, turite exper , fter, tsagai 576 EXPLANATION OF UNUSUAL other meat; in fact, it is seldom cheap, and always very dear till after Christmas. Grass-lamb is one of the few things that is at its best when dearest. In August and September it becomes cheap, but coarser. Pork, as it varies much in quality, also varies in price, from local situation. It is always dear in London. Poultry is found cheapest in great towns in the end of summer; and, in remote places, about Christmas, or before spring; — or wont to be, for now railways and steamers have annihilated space and nearly equalized prices. The same mighty agents have hastened and prolonged the seasons of many table luxuries. Edinburgh, for example, now gets green peas from London so early as May, and returns the gift in September, so that both cities may have a four months' season. Wild-fowl and sea- birds, like fish, depend in price on the supply. Eggs get dearest just before Christmas, and are cheapest about Easter. Vegetables, except perhaps young peas and early small salad. herbs, are always best when cheapest, that is, in June, July, and August. They are often cheap in spring, when the gardeners clear their grounds to receive fresh crops. Eschalots and carrots to store, and beans, cabbage, and cucumbers to pickle, will be best bought in August and September; onions, potatoes, and turnips in October. Beef and mutton may be cured for winter- store, or for hams, with most advantage about the beginning of November, both from quality and price. Hams, tongues, and sausages are in season all the year round, and are absolutely necessary when veal and poultry form the principal fare. Fruits ought to be preserved when their several kinds are at the best and cheapest, as plums and melons about August; oranges in February, &c. GLOSSARY OF THE MORE UNUSUAL CULINARY TERMS, FRENCH AND ENGLISH. Instead of elaborate definitions, we shall, in most instances, merely refer to the page at which the dish or process signified is fully explained. Aspic, see page 383. Assiettes Volantes, small dishes handed round. Atelets, silver ornamental skewers. Bain Marie, p. 187. CULINARY TERMS. 577 in Londe Icelas 2016 came ves, IN Barding, covering with thin lard birds or meat to be dressed. Blanc, a rich stock in which tripe is stewed, note, p. 414. Blanch, to, to soak meat or vegetables in hot water, also to scald them, or give them firmness or whiteness, by a short rapid boil. Blanquettes, minced dishes, see p. 343. Boudin, any French pudding, used in this work only to signify puddings of meat or fish, p. 413. Bouilli, boiled meat of any kind, but generally said of boiled beef. Bouillon, broth or boiled liquor, of many kinds. Bouillon, Court, a liquor for boiling fish, p. 406. Braise, to, see p. 338. Braises, dishes braised or cooked in a braise, p. 338. Brisket, the breast of beef, veal, or lamb. Broth, a term frequently used for stock. Buisson, a cluster, or bush of small pastry, piled up on the dish. Cannelons, small collars or rolls of minced meat, or of rice or pastry with fruit, so named from resembling cinnamon. Casserole, an edging, border, wall, or encasement of rice, paste, or mashed potatoes, in which meats are said to be served en Cas- serole, or saucepan way, p. 370. Chops, slices of meat, usually cut from the ribs or neck of mutton, pork, or lamb, and generally with a bit of bone. Citric Acid, lemon or sorrel acid. Civet, a dark thickish stew, generally of hare or venison, p. 386. Clarify, to, to refine, to purify by boiling, skimming, straining, or filtering, pp. 137, 520. Collar, to, to bone, season, and roll up meat or fish before dressing. Crimp, to, said of fish cut into fillets or slices, as cod, salmon, skate, or turbot, when very fresh, and boiled rapidly, till crisp and curdy. Croquettes, p. 358. Crumb, to, to strew with or dip meat, fish, &c. in bread-crumbs. Cullis, the French Coulis, a rich gravy, the basis of sauces.' Cutlets or Cotelettes, slices of veal, mutton, venison, or salmon, thinner and smaller than chops, and generally without bone. Daubes, an order of French dishes dressed en Daube, p. 414. Déjeuner à la Fourchette, or fork-breakfast, a breakfast at which the use of forks is required from solid dishes being served. Dormants, said of dishes which remain from the beginning to the end of a repast, as the cold pies, hams, or moulded potted meats placed down the middle of a table at large entertain- ments. Dormant, a, a centre-dish which is not removed, and which is used by the French, who never change the tablecloth, p. 687. Drappit Eggs, eggs poached in sauce, p. 432. En Compóte, things served in syrup, generally fresh fruits, pp. 417, 514. En Couronne, things dressed in form of a crown. solutel Fruits he best 20 CULINARY TERMS. 579 Fapon! and eggs, intended to tie or connect the component parts of a dish, p. 380. Soups and sauces, with a liaison should be kept hot, in a pot of water, or bain marie, lest the fire curdle them. Maigre : - Preparations of all kinds, if made without butcher's meat, poultry, or game, and cooked merely with butter, where lard or dripping might at other times be proper, are maigre, in opposition to gras. Maigre Dishes, dishes used by Roman Catholics on the days when their Church forbids flesh-meats; comprehending all fish and vegetable pies and soups, puddings, fruit-pies, egg-dishes, omelets, fritters, macaroni, all preparations of fish, cheese- dishes, fish-sausages, and all creams, jellies, and confectionary, also dressed vegetables, pickles and preserves, cakes and biscuits. Marinade, a, a compound liquor of various kinds, generally made of wine or vinegar, with herbs and spices, in which fish or meats are soaked before they are dressed, to improve their flavour or quality. Marinade, to, to steep in a marinade, as No. 22, and Obs. No. 112. Panada, a batter for mixing with forcemeats, anciently employed for basting, p. 113, note. Pass, to, French passer, to give things a half or third part, cook- ing hastily, in the stew-pan, frying-pan, or sauté-pan. Poêle, to, to cook meat in a particular kind of rich stock, p. 414. Probe, to, to pierce to the heart or inside of butter, cheese, hams, &c. with a probe, to try their qualities by sight or smell ;- also, to try if potatoes, turnips, gourds, &c. are enough boiled. Purée, a, a pulpy mash of onions, celery, turnips, mushrooms, peas, or chestnuts, thinner than a mash, but thicker than a sauce, over which, in French Cookery, meats are often served. Reduce, to, to boil a sauce or soup rapidly down to a jelly, or till it become rich and thick. Refresh, to, to steep or soak meats, but particularly vegetables, in plenty of pure water, changing it, or letting it flow off; as spinage, when boiled, is often held in a colander, under the water-cock, to refresh it before being finished. Roux, thickening, white and brown, p. 259-260. Salads, cold dressed dishes of many things, but in modern Eng- land still generally said of vegetable messes only, p. 248. Sandwiches, a class of relishing, convenient preparations, named from the noble inventor, p. 362. Sauter, to give a light fry, or, Scotticè, a leap. Sauté-pan, a thin bottomed frying-pan. Scallops, or Scollors, small dishes of various kinds, so called from being served either in real scallop-shells, or little shapes re- sembling them, Nos. 178, 669. Sippets, little bits of bread cut in various shapes, soaked in stock, and toasted or fried, to serve with meats as garnishings or borders, p. 369. Iso the Id crise ices of which f any s, and Dieces ottish MILK DISHES. 681 nurseries and boarding-schools, the addition of a very little roughly-shred beef or mutton suet boiled with it, will not only render it more nutritious, but more wholesome. A bit of lemon-peel will give zest. 1114.2 Bread Pudding for young Children or Convalescents. - Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson's Receipt.-Over a half- pound of grated stale bread, pour a pint of boiling milk. Cover the basin and let it soak for an hour. Add to it, when cold, two eggs beat up. Mix and boil for a half hour in the basin tied into a cloth. Eat with only salt or with sugar; and flavour with sherry, if wine is allowed. The Doctor could have no objection to a bit of lemon rind, cinnamon, or a little nutmeg. 1114.3 Dr. A. T. Thomson's Sowens or Flummery for conva- lescents. To any quantity of oatmeal you like to infuse, put double the weight of warm water; stir well, and let the mixture infuse for four or five days in a warm tem- perature. Add more water, stir up and strain. Let the liquid stand till the starch falls down in a white sediment; pour off the water, and mixing as much of the starch or sediment as is wanted with water to thin it, boil, stirring briskly for a quarter of an hour, till a jelly more or less tenacious is formed. Sowens are eaten with milk, butter, or cream, and for convalescents, with wine or milk, as pre- scribed. “ Buttered sowens wi’ fragrant lunt,” was the Hallow Eve supper of rural Scotland. Thin, or raw sowens, are or were drank in Aberdeen, and the northern towns of Scotland, on New Year's Day morning. For some reasons that we do not pretend to understand, sowens, as a supper- dish, wont to be presented at the noblest tables in the north, and also in Ireland and Wales, under the name of flummery. There is no preparation of oatmeal more whole- some, or more palatable, and none so refined. This veritable oatmeal jelly eats well cold, and takes any shape in a mould. We have altered, and, as we think, improved Dr. Thom- son's receipt. No better dish of the kind could be intro- duced by him into England. 1115. Saloop Milk is made as No. 1114; but, from its 532 CHAP. II.-PREPARATIONS FOR THE SICK. native flavour, saloop does not require so much, nor indeed any seasoning. 1116. Sago Milk. — Soak the berries in water for an hour before boiling; or boil first in water for two or three minutes, which water pour off. Boil a large spoonful in a quart of new milk, Sweeten and season to taste. — Obs. The foregoing milks may be made of ground rice and saloop, using the flour in smaller quantity. 1117. Scotch Hatted Kit.-Where this cooling and healthy article of diet is in constant use for children or delicate persons, a kit with a double bottom, the upper one perfo- rated with holes, and furnished with a fosset and a cover, should be got. Into this vessel, put in the proportion of two quarts fresh good butter-milk, and a pint of milk hot from the cow. Mix well by jumbling; and next milking add another pint of milk, mixing all well. It will now firm, and gather a hat. Drain off the whey whenever it runs clear, by the spigot; remove what of the top or hat is necessary, to take up the quantity wanted. This dish if to present at table, may be moulded for an hour in a per- forated mould, and strewed over with a little pounded sugar, and then nutmeg or cinnamon. The kit must be well sweetened with lime-water or charcoal every time it is used; and too much milk should not be made at once, it gets so rapidly very acid. A slight degree of coagulation assists digestion, but milk highly acidulated is not wished for in this dish. 1118. Another and easier way. — Pour a quart of very hot new milk over two quarts of fresh butter-milk. Let it repose. When firm take off the surface, and drain the rest in a milk-sieve, or mould it if you choose. Serve cream in a jug. 1119. Corstorphine or Ruglen Cream, or Lappered Milk. - Pour a quart of new milk into a jar. On this, next morning, pour another, and mix well ; at night do the same ; and next day beat up the thickened milk with moist sugar. This cooling preparation was patronized by Sir John Sinclair. It may be made like hatted kit, of mixed butter-milk and sweet milk. – Indeed there is a learned MILK DISHES AND VEGETABLE JELLIES. 583 Pages controversy on the genuine preparation; and another as to whether its invention really belongs to Corstorphine near Edinburgh, or to the village of Rutherglen in the neigh- bourhood of the western metropolis. 1120, Sour Milk Crowdie. - Pour fresh good butter- milk upon finely ground oatmeal, till as thin as pancake batter. Stir the mixture. 1121. Sago for the delicate, — also a Supper-dish. — Soak the berries, changing the water. Simmer with a bit of lemon-peel till the berries look transparent. When nearly done, add aromatic spices, (i. e. nutmeg, mace, and cloves) to taste, with wine and sugar to taste. Give the whole a boil up before dishing it. — Obs. Sago and patent cocoa, pounded in equal quantities, and a spoonful boiled in milk, with sugar to taste, make a nutritious breakfast. 1122. Arrow-root Jelly. - This may be prepared with either water, inilk, or white wine and water, according to the purpose for which it is wanted, and sweetened and sea- soned to taste. Rub two tea-spoonfuls of the flour well with a little cold water, as in making starch, and pour over it a pint of the boiling liquid to be used. Stir it the whole time it is on the fire. Three minutes will dress it, - Obs. This jelly, made in a shape and turned out, makes a light and pretty supper-dish, garnished with bits of red currant jelly, or may serve for luncheon to young persons and chil- dren. Potato-flour is done in the same way, but it must be boiled longer to be good or safe. Arrow-root need not be boiled, and often is not, though it is best so cooked. 1123. A simple Indian Currie for a Convalescent.—Take a clove of garlic and a small onion ; bruise them in a mor- tar, with three tea-spoonfuls of the powder described in next receipt, and a tea-spoonful and a half of salt. Slice ano- ther onion, and fry it in a stew-pan with a good piece of butter. Let it fry till the onion is brown. Pick out the shreds of onion, and put the mixed ingredients into the pan with a tea-spoonful of good butter-milk, or soured cream ; add to this a young fowl skinned, and carved into joints ; and simmer till it is ready, stirring the whole quickly. 1124. The Simple Currie Powder.-One tea-spoonful of powdered white ginger, two of coriander-seeds. Half a one comes 684 CHAP. II.- PREPARATIONS FOR THE SICK. of turmeric, a quarter one of cayenne ; acid to be added at pleasure to the currie when nearly ready. 1125. Vegetable Marrow or Gourds. — Parboil the fruit. Take it up; and when cool enough to handle, cut out a longitudinal piece reaching to the heart of it; and draining out the moisture from the fruit, replace the piece cut out, and fasten it with thread. Boil in water with salt, till on probing it is found that the marrow is thoroughly done. It may be either served whole or divided on a toast, with melted butter poured over; or mashed with cream and butter; or treated as at Nos. 203-4. · 1126. Meat cubbubed or kebobbed,-a good Dinner for an invalid. -Cut veal, beef, or mutton, lean but juicy, into small bits. Beat them slightly ; run them on wire skewers, and fasten these to the small whirling wire-jack. Baste well with dropt gravy, using a little butter at first; dust with salt when ready, and pepper or currie powder, at discretion. Serve either with grilled toasts or boiled dry rice. N.B. A chicken or rabbit may be skinned, quartered, and done as above. What is called cubbubed currie is made as any other currie, but half of the meat is pork, fresh or pickled, with more garlic and turmeric than are ever employed in our cookery. Fresh pork in any form of fry or currie is not relished in this country, and is seldom seen, save perhaps, of necessity, on board of ship. If for a landward dinner, we would recommend a large allowance of acid with pork currie. It seems an absurdity to currie the flesh of an animal the Hindoos abhor. 1127. Gloucester Jelly for Invalids. This is made of equal parts of rice, sago, pearl-barley, hartshorn-shavings, and eringo-root; four ounces of the ingredients to nearly two quarts -of water. Simmer slowly for an hour, and strain it. The jelly may be dissolved at pleasure in milk, wine, soup, &c., and is reckoned nourishing and light.- Obs. This is sometimes called Dr. Jebl's Restorative Jelly. It makes a good breakfast for invalids, when warmed in milk and sugar. . 1128. Dr. Hunter's Dinner for a delicate Person.-" Cut a piece of veal into slices, beat, and put these into an 586 CHAP. 11.-MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS. 1132. Beef-Tea.-Cut a pound of lean, fresh, juicy beef into thin bits, and pour a quart, or better, of hot water over it ; infuse this for a half-hour by the fire, and then let it boil up quickly with a little salt, and take off the scum. Boil gently for a half-hour, and let it settle; pour carefully from the sediment, or strain it. Beef-tea is sometimes made by simple infusion, but this is a rather disgusting preparation to most people ; and sometimes a steak is half-broiled and then cut down, and has boiling water poured over it. Veal or Chicken-tea is made in the same way as beef-tea. Besides the above preparations, many receipts are scat- tered through this work, for dishes proper for convalescents. Among these are barley-broth, and sheep's-head-broth, if cleared of fat; broiled chickens, skinned; or fowl and chicken plain boiled, with rice; rizzared haddock; chicken à la Paysanne, which Carême upholds as the most whole- some dish that can be prepared. Sweetbreads, plainly dressed; and the various plain preparations of macaroni, vermicelli, semolina, and rice; all of these, well boiled, either with milk or broth. Good broth, not fat, but rich, and thickened with panada, is another excellent dish for those whose strength requires to be supported, and who must not use food too stimulating. Dr. A. T. Thomson mentions tripe as particularly light or easy of digestion, when cooked till very tender : it makes, at least, a variety in the diet of convalescents. Arrow-root, blancmange, or pudding without eggs or with only one egg, is good in early convalescence; and apples, stewed with or without cooked rice. Boiled bread-pudding, with few eggs one or two, is also good; and plain puddings of rice, or tapioca, seasoned with cinnamon or ginger, but with little eggs or sugar. TO MOULD MEAT-CAKE, AND POTTED MEATS for the Second Course, or for Collations and Suppers. 1133. Fill a handsome shape, round, if for a centre- dish, but if for a flank, to which potted meat is more ap- propriate, with No. 455. Press the meat very close into the mould, when quite cold ; if to keep long, pour over it a layer of cool inelted butter. It will keep thus for days or weeks. When required, take off the cake of butter; NA OF COFFEE. 587 et - here i ap za montagne wrap a napkin, dipped in boiling water, round the mould, and gently detach the meat from the sides, and carefully turn it out, placing a dish over the mould to receive it. Lightly demi-glaze it, and ornament the dish with a border of aspic-jelly, cut in diamonds, buttons, &c., interspersed with hard-boiled eggs, -hens', but plovers’ if you have them. Another. Of the remains of this dish you may make a handsome little dish, by dressing circular slices of it, en miròton, round a centre of trimmed endive, or very white cos lettuce.-See No. 455. OF COFFEE 1134. Coffee by the Imperial Percolator.-P.S. Touch- wood's Method.-Pour some boiling water into the perco- lator, and let it remain till the metal of the pot is tho- roughly heated. Put the coffee-powder into the proper receptacle, between the perforated bottoms of the upper and under cylinders. Pour out the hot water from the pot, and put into the upper cylinder of the percolator as much boiling water as will completely saturate the coffee- powder ; a small tea-cupful will be sufficient. In about two minutes, fill the cylinder with boiling water; place the percolator by the fire, or over a hot-water diwh, and, when the coffee has filtered through, pour in again as much water as will make the quantity required. N.B.—This process may appear tedious in detail, but nothing is more simple and easy in daily practice. In about five minutes coffee may be made for four or five persons. When the filtered coffee is poured into a small vessel, brought to the boiling point, and again returned to the cylinder, and filtered a second time, it is exactly the coffee of the Society of Gourmands.--No. 1135. 1134.2 OUR LATEST EXPERIMENTS.—Since the last edi- tion of this MANUAL was published, the art of coffee-mak- ing has been carried nearly to perfection in this country, by the application of steam to the coffee-powder, previous to making the infusion. This is done in a simple and easy way, by means of the Steam FILTER, a discovery for which the coffee-drinking world is indebted to a Member of the St. RONAN'S CLUB, The Steam Filter is adapted to ulazi META 590 CHAP. 11.- MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS. little shred saffron, into a Greque. Pour in boiling water till it bubbles up through the strainer, and then close the vessel, and place it near the fire ; and as soon as the whole water is passed through, the coffee is made. 1138. To make Coffee by a simple and good Method. Pour boiling water in the proportion of six cupfuls to one cupful of freshly-ground coffee ; but double or triple the coffee if for foreigners, and Britons seldom quarrel with this double-strong when they meet with it. Let this be on the point of boiling for two minutes, held over the fire, and taken off at pleasure, so as to keep up the tem- perature, but not to permit any violent ebullition. Pour out a cupful two or three times, returning it; and set the coffee-pot on the hob to keep hot, while the coffee clears. If the hob is too hot, the coffee will not clear. It will spoil from being kept nearly boiling. The receipts for making coffee, which are given in many Cookery-books, must completely drive off the flavour of the berry, from the length of time that the coffee is directed to be boiled. Flour of mustard, in the proportion of a small tea-spoon- ful to the ounce of powder, is thought by some persons to improve the flavour; but is, we think, to be tolerated only for gouty or rheumatic invalids. Coffee made beforehand, and heated up for use, is a vile slop, detested by every coffee-drinker, and every one else who has the taste of his mouth. When coffee must be got ready for travellers, sportsmen, and others, before servants can reasonably be expected to be astir, the Essence is valuable ; but if coffee is prepared over-night, let it be of triple strength, and be reduced by water or milk. Some modern amateurs in coffee like the cream (rich and thick) a little sourish, and beat up with the sugar in the cup to keep it from curdling, before the hot coffee is poured in. To those whom habit has brought to relish the peculiar flavour of the Essence, it will give somewhat of that taste. A soupçon of chicory is an improvement to coffee. It is its excess that gives rise to complaints. We have tried the home manufacture once and again ; but, after all, find no coffee equal to that pre- * A utensil which is used in Paris, similar to our now old-fashioned Imperial Percolator. COFFEE-MILK. 591 12:33 Budih pared systematically, in great quantities, by those great dealers, who have a coffee reputation to maintain. - Obs. By attending to the above simple receipt, if the coffee-powder is good, and not ground too finely, no isin- glass, whites of eggs, &c., will be required to clear it. The bad quality of English coffee is become a sort of national reproach, but we are improving. Its capital defect is a want of material, or that material having either lain too long in powder or in roasted berries. Good cream is essential to good English coffee. Lisbon sugar, or pounded white candy, is often ordered, but coffee-sugar is now prepared. Coffee, like tea, promotes watchfulness; indeed some persons cannot sleep after drinking it in an evening. It is considered good for asthmatic patients. Coffee is also considered beneficial in dull headach. Roasted acorns, beech-mast, rye, peas, beans, &c. &c., are all used as substitutes for coffee ; and, by frugal French families, chicory, in large quantity, put to the coffee-grounds, and boiled up afresh, is allotted to servants and younger members of the household. 1139. Café à la Crême.-Make very strong, clear coffee. Add boiled cream to it, and heat them together. It is always proper to boil the milk or cream for coffee sepa- rately. 1140. Coffee-Milk. - Boil coffee-powder, according to the strength you want it, in new milk, for five minutes. Allow it to settle and pour it off, or clear it with a few bits of isinglass. It is safer to boil the milk first. 1141. Café Noir — The after-dinner small cup of France, and now often served in English drawing-rooms, after dinner, and followed by a small glass of some de- licious liqueur, which a worthy lady in one of Mrs. Trollope's novels takes solely for love of “the flavour,"—is made as strong as possible to be clear, and served with sugar, but noir, and consequently without cream. Essence of coffee is convenient for making extempore café noir, and is useful in particular situations ; but, besides being expensive, it can never be compared with fresh well- made coffee, of good well-roasted berries. A tea-spoonful is put into the cup, and boiling water poured on. 7:2238 Tesi Z WATERS. 593 echib chacuda nded with We mail Il gran Ir Soek - teh portes Indiar 3 POUM anilia' I wit to sui black or red, or cranberries, in their juice, with sugar and nutmeg to taste, or use the jam of those fruits. 1146. Oatmeal Gruel, in the best Manner, as made in Scotland. - Take finely-ground oatmeal, of the best qua- lity. Infuse as much as you wish in cold water for an hour or two. Stir it up, let it settle, and pour it from the grits, (or strain it,) and boil slowly for a long time, stir- ring it up. Add a very little salt and sugar, with any addition of wine, rum, fruit, jelly, honey, butter, &c. &c., that you choose. This gruel will be quite smooth; and when cold will form a jelly. With a toast, it makes an excellent luncheon or supper for an invalid. It may be thinned at pleasure, with warm water, 1147. Sweet Orange or Lemon Juice.-When you make candied chips, preserve the strained juice, by boiling it with an equal weight of fine sugar. It is a great addition to gruel or barley-water, and will be very useful for gargles in fevers and cases of sore throat, &c. 1148. Toast and Water. - An hour or more before it is wanted, toast some thin slices of bread on both sides very carefully. Pour cold water over the bread, and cover the jug :- or use boiled water, which many prefer, allow- ing it tiine to cool. Lemon juice is a grateful addition. 1149. Artificial Ass's Milk. — Take eringo-root, sea- holly, and pearl-barley, each half an ounce; liquorice-root three ounces; water one quart; boil the mixture over a slow fire, till the full half is evaporated. Strain, and, when cool, add an equal quantity of fresh cow's milk. Another.—Dissolve half an ounce of gelatine in barley- water. Sweeten, and pour to this a pint of new milk. Whip up. 1150. Fumigating Mixture for Sick Chambers. Two ounces of salt dried, two ditto of nitre. Mix and put to them, in a stoneware basin or plate, a half-ounce of water, and the same quantity of good sulphuric acid. Remove all polished metal articles from the room, as the vapour would rust them, and close all doors and windows. To procure more advantage, when the process appears to cease, place the basin on hot sand. 1151. As Fomentations and Poultices are usually pre- OI CON Te the Fedor ater liced Little ould zaber 2 P . PREPARATIONS FOR THE TOILET. 595 DES ROIME s, bar hire poco bazén 1153. Freezing Mixtures where Ice cannot be got. Take of sal-ammoniac five parts, of nitre five, and water sixteen. Another : Sal-ammoniac five parts, nitre five, glauber salts eight, water sixteen. Place the vessel contain- ing the water, bottle of wine, or cream, butter, &c. to be cooled, in another containing the freezing mixture, and which should be covered with thick flannel or straw matting. 1154. Substitute for a Water-filter.-Lay a thick bed of pounded charcoal at the bottom of a large common earthen flower-pot, over this lay a bed of fine sand about four inches thick. Make all compact, and suspend the pot over any receiving vessel. A bit of quicklime thrown into a water-puncheon will be useful in purifying water, Agitating the water and exposing it to the air, will both soften it and help to keep it fresh. Water, if muddy, may be strained through a common sieve, in which a cloth and sponge, or layer of fine sand or charcoal, is placed. . uvish a spaced tur, and proteina and mLk 23% fresh butter & Poultice. The ast have not -v simply brele kater, and there -15-root for £; PREPARATIONS FOR THE TOILET, &c. wthing. 1155. Pot Pourri.- Put into a large china jar, used for as apt- this purpose, damask and other single roses, buds, and quantities ad blown flowers, as many as you can collect; add to every peck of these a large handful of jasmine-blossoms, one of they are a vo dame violets, one of orange-flowers; orris-root sliced, an more even ounce; benjamin and storax, each an ouncc, (many dis- alle pires ont like these ;) two or three handfuls of clove-gillyflowers, Hemlocki, Fish red pinks and lavender flowers, cloves, nutmegs, rosemary- padded to 33 flowers, allspice, knotted marjoram, lemon-thyme, rind of lemon, balm of Gilead dry, and a few laurel-leaves. Chop enerally see all these, and inix them well with bay-salt. Cover the mile-Pomers jar; stir occasionally. The various ingredients may be rood, &e. I collected in succession as they flower. To these are water by added woodroof, jonquil-flowers, citron, and many other things. 1156. Eau de Cologne.- Take the essence of Bergamot, lemon-peel, lavender, and orange-flowers, of each an ounce, les are all essence of cinnamon half an ounce, spirit of rosemary, and but this is of the spiritous water of Melisse of each fifteen ounces, strong alcohol seven pints and a half. Mix the whole of Bathie tot together, and let the mixture stand for the space of a fort- ✓ also be mine y dipping to ng decoctine , a rom 990 M Rooms and 596 CHAP. 11.--MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS, &c. night ; after which introduce it into a glass retort, the body of which is immersed into boiling water, contained in a vessel placed over a lamp, while the beak is intro- duced into a large glass retort well luted. By keeping the water to the boiling point, the mixture in the retort will distil over into the receiver, which should be covered over with wet cloths. In this manner will be obtained pure Eau de Cologne, at one-fourth the selling price. N. B.—The above receipt is given on the authority of Dr. Granville, who lately, at Cologne, took some pains to learn the component parts of this favourite accompaniment of an elegant toilet. Only 38,000 bottles of the water are made at Cologne in the year; so that probably two-thirds of the commodity sold as such, is made by a process far inferior to the above. Another Eau de Cologne.—The following have been re- cently ascertained to be the precise component parts of this far-famed liquid. Take of spirits of wine at 32° 1 pint, essence of lemons 123 grains, bergamot 123, cedar 62, lavender 31, orange-flowers 10 drops, tincture of amber 10, mint 31 grains, benzoin 185, essence of roses 2 drops. Mix these ingredients, shake them frequently, and then strain them off. Those who do not like the smell may omit the essence of mint. The quality is greatly improved by age. 1157. A cheap Perfume.-Dip fine cotton wool, such as jewellers use, in olive-oil, and spread it in thin layers over jasmine-flowers, and rose-leaves, in a jar or glass vessel. In a week squeeze out the perfumed oil into a vial for use, and keep the scented wool to perfume clothes- presses, &c.—Obs. One of the most effectual perfumes is fresh-burnt charcoal, as it destroys bad odours, while more elegant preparations only conceal the smell. 1158. Thieves' Vinegar.—Take an ounce of the tops of wormwood; rosemary, sage, mint, and rue, of each half an ounce; flowers of lavender two ounces ; aromatic gum, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, and fresh garlic, two drachms of each ; half an ounce of camphor, and eight pounds of red vinegar; beat all the ingredients well, put them into a proper earthen jar, and pour the vinegar upon them; REALITATE 597 PREPARATIONS FOR THE TOILET. for a full Curite citing here inture de the garlic ought to be sliced. After stopping the jar, put it in the sun or in a hot place, such as a sand-bath, for three or four weeks; wring out the ingredients, and filter through filtering-paper; the camphor must be previously dissolved in a little spirits of wine. This vinegar, like all perfumed liquids, ought to be kept closely corked. 1159. Rose Vinegar for Salads, or for the Toilet.-Put a quarter of a pound of rose-leaves to four pints of good vinegar, and some roots of the Florence lily. Infuse till a fine tincture is obtained, and strain off the infusion. Or use cochineal to colour. Crême de Rose. Put four pounds or more of moss and damask rosebuds into ten English pints of whisky. Let this infuse for six weeks, shaking it occasionally. Drain out the rose-leaves ; wash them in six English pints of water, and strain this water to the spirits. Pass through the still once, and, if not strong enough, a second time. Clarify six pounds of sugar with two quarts of water, and boil till a clear thickish syrup. Let it cool, previously passing it through the jelly-bag. Mix, when cool, with equal quantities of the distilled spiritous tincture of rose- and bottle if clear,-if not quite bright, let it subside pour off, and pass again through the jelly-bag or filter. 1160. Lavender Vinegar-French. - To every pint of the best champagne vinegar put half an ounce of fresh laven- der-flowers, and the thin rind of a lemon. Infuse for twenty-four hours in a stone jar, then take the jar and set it over hot embers to digest for ten or twelve hours. Filter and bottle it, dipping the corks in wax. 1161. Honey-water for the Hair.-Mix three drachms of tincture of ambergris, and one of tincture of musk, with a little spirit of wine. Afterwards add a pint of spirit of wine, or strong spirits, and shake all well and often. 1162. Cold Cream for the Skin.-Take two ounces of oil of sweet almonds, a drachm of white wax, and one of spermaceti. Melt them in an earthen pipkin, and stir in a mortar till quite smooth and cold. Add orange-flower or rose-water till the mixture is as thin as double cream. Keep in a gallipot covered with leather. 1163. Lip-salve.--Put four ounces of the best olive-oil ; ܕܕ݂r like the s Perfe meldi pertum > ctual porting tobus smei. To of most 16, of each anmeca c. to wa upon COOKERY FOR THE POOK. 601 country and ermeo ITS BUTA! comforts of the humblest of her brethren — Mrs Hannah MORE. The rest are original. 1165. Cheap Rice Milk. – A quart of skim milk, a quarter of a pound of rice, with sugar, and a little Jamaica pepper, will make a cheap and a dainty dish. Swell the rice first with water. Hagete ," 1166. Rice Pudding.– Two quarts of skim milk, a half-pound of rice, and two ounces of brown sugar. N. B.-A little shred suet, salt, and a very little ginger, will make this excellent. — Ed. - gat ma 1167. Mrs. White's cheap Stew. — “I remember,” said Mrs. White, “a cheap dish, so nice that it makes my mouth water. I peel some raw potatoes, slice them thin, put the slices into a deep frying pan or pot, with a little water, an onion, and a bit of pep- per. Then I get a bone or two of a breast of mutton, or a little strip of salt pork, and put it into it. Cover it down close, keep cha sv. 330 in the steam, and let it stew for an hour.” 1168. Herring and Potatoes. – Take two or three pickled her- kamerer berichten rings, wash and put them into a stone jar, fill it up with peeled ce of orbisch og potatoes and a little water, and let it bake in the oven till it is done. [This dish is made in Scotland in a close-covered pot by boiling. Place the herrings uppermost. - Ed. 1169. Stew-soup. — Two pounds of beef, four onions, ten tur- nips, half a pound of rice, a large handful of parsley, thyme, and savory ; some pepper and salt; eight quarts of water. Cut the beef in slices, and after it has boiled some time, cut it still smaller. The whole should boil gently about two hours on a slow fire. If fuel be scarce, it may be stewed all night in an oven, and warmed up next day. You may add oatmeal or potatoes. Grey peas will be a great addition. 1170. Another.-Take half a pound of beef, mutton, or pork, cut it into small pieces; half a pint of peas, four sliced turnips, six potatoes cut very small, two onions or leeks ; put to them seven pints of water. Let the whole boil gently over a very slow fire two hours and a half. Then thicken it with a quarter of a pound of oatmeal. After the thickening is put in, boil it a quar- ter of an hour, stirring it all the time; then season it with salt and pepper. [Too much oatmeal.-Ed.] 1171. Stew-soup of Salt Meat.-Take two pounds of salt beef or pork, cut it into very small bits, and put it into a pot with six quarts of water, letting it boil on a slow fire for three quarters of an hour; then put a few carrots, parsnips, or turnips, all cut *** small; or a few potatoes sliced ;, a cabbage, and a couple of car- rots. Thicken the whole with oatmeal. Season with salt and pepper.-See Bullock’s-heart Stew, No. 405. 1172. Cheap Soups. The following soup Mrs. Sparks sold every Saturday in small quantities. A pint of the soup, with a bit of the meat warmed up on a Sunday, made a dinner for a grown person : An ox-cheek, two pecks of potatoes, a quarter of a peck of sret for sekis 7.", nutritive cir, as prome Lowever dere 11) fireಂತೆ z! but not for Parkla as uns : pour bvba ght minutes and - breakfast and ed during seperti every time, da ry and heated has been ese dained to ea sing the domes r editions, le of the not be 602 CHAP. 11.—MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS, &c. onions, one ounce of pepper, half a pound of salt, boiled all together in ninety pints of water till reduced to sixty; any gar- den-stuff may be thrown in. Friendly Hints, by the same writer.-The difference between eating bread new and stale is one loaf in fire. If you turn your meat into broth, it will go much farther than if you roast or bake it. If you hare a garden, make the most of it. A bit of leek, or an onion, makes all dishes sa roury at small expense. If the money spent on fresh butter were spent on meat, poor families would be much better fed than they are. If the money spent on tea were spent on home-brewed beer, the wife would be better fed, the husband better pleased, and both would be healthier. Keep a little Sootch barley, rice, dry peas, and vatmeal in the house. They are all cheap, and do not spoil. Keep also pepper and ginger. 1173. Mrs. White's Breakfasts.-“ Neighbours,” said Mrs. White, “a halfpenny-worth of oatmeal, or groats, with a leek or onion out of your own garden, which costs nothing, a bit of salt, and a little coarse bread, will breakfast your whole family. It is a great mistake at any time to think a bit of meat is so ruinous, and a great load of bread so cheap. A poor man gets seven or eight shillings a-week; if he is careful, he brings it home. I dare not say how much of this goes for tea in the after- noon, now sugar and butter are so dear, because I should have you all upon me; but I will say, that too much of this little goes even for bread, from a mistaken notion that it is the hardest fare. This, at all times, but particularly if bread is dear, is bad management. Dry peas, to be sure, have been very dear lately; but now they are plenty enough. I am certain, then, that if a shilling or two of the seven or eight was laid out for a bit of coarse beef, a sheep's head, or any such thing, it would be well bestowed. I would throw a couple of pounds of this into the pot, with two or three handfuls of gray peas, an onion, and a little pepper. Then I would throw in cabbage or turnip, and carrot, or any garden-stuff that was most plenty; let it stew two or three hours, and it will make a dish fit for his Majesty. The working men should have the meat; the children do not want it; the soup will be thick and substantial, and requires no bread.” [Mrs. Hannah More does not say that“ a poor man” in seven or eight shillings gets by a great deal too little ; but her receipt for a soup breakfast may be useful to those who get twice the sum of weekly wages.) 1174. Another Cheap Soup.-Two pounds of shin of beef, or ox-cheek, a quarter-pound of barley, a halfpenny worth of parsley and onions, with salt, will make four quarts of good soup. A few potatoes, or any cheap vegetable, may be added. 1175. Bean-pudding.--Boil, skin, and pound beans with pep- -- COOKERY FOR THE POOR. 603 NA i to ! 1-TOK Flemmin PACID, SA da, sala chor's TOOS, WO a bit of an A parti for tes at *I sho of this is is thr is dis death per and salt, and a piece of butter or dripping. Tie the pounded mass into a floured cloth, and boil. 1176. Bean-pudding, to eat with Bacon or Pickled Pork, hot Pig's Cheek, 80.—Boil and skin the beans, or take any left. Pound them with pepper and salt, and, if you like, a piece of butter, melted suet, or dripping. Put them in a buttered tin basin. Tie a pudding-cloth round, and boil in water, or better with the pork, for from a half-hour to three quarters. Undo the cloth ; let the pudding cool and firm for a minute ; then place the basin inverted on a dish, and turn it out.' 1177. Cheap Pease-pudding.–To a pound of peas boiled for pudding, add two pounds of mashed potatoes, with dripping of any kind. 1177.2 Cheap Plum-pudding, without eggs or milk. - Eight ounces beef-suet, finely minced; ten ounces flour ; eight ounces currants or raisins; two table-spoonfuls of sugar; one tea-spoonful of salt; the rest of two carrots grated, and one glass of sweet wine. Tie up tight in a cloth, boil three hours, and dish it served up with a sweet sauce. This pudding may be useful at sea. 1178. Cheap Pastry of Potato, in which cheap Mince or Stew may be neatly served.-Mash the potatoes with a little milk, and a bit of butter, with salt, and a point of finely-shred onion if you like. Border a flat dish thickly with this, and mark it, and place a layer of the mash over the dish; brown in the oven or before the fire, and scoop out the centre, or leave it as crust, and serve in it hashed beef-heart, kidney-collop, salt or other fish warmed up, &c. 1179. Milk Porridge.- Stir oatmeal into boiling skimmed milk as in making stir-about. Eat with milk. 1180. Ox-licer, sound and fresh, sliced, steeped for some hours in salt water, and fried with fat bacon, parsley, onions, and all- spice, makes a good cheap dish. 1181. Stew-soup may be made of the rich liquor in which tripe is boiled, with rice or potatoes, parsley, and onions ; of the same liquor a fraudulent jelly is often made for the great. The culinary utensils of the poor are of great importance. Every family ought to have a cheap and small steamer of a sub- stantial kind, fitted to the metal pot, which serves either for boiling or baking. In baking a pudding or meat, the thick metal lid of this sort of pot is first made hot and laid on the hearth, and the pot is turned upside-down over it ; turf embers are placed all around or over this little oven, in which meat with potato-pastry, fish-pie with potato, rice-pudding, or any dish may be cooked, and a loaf may be baked. The lid may be laid over embers, in the grate, and the pot inverted over it forms an oven. Still this is not cheap cookery; and though several interesting experiments have been made, especially in cooking by gas, we cannot perceive that, since the era of Count Rumford, any great advance has been made in economizing heat, fuel, and labour ; rery det ocer for det Ebis into D, and si 2.D, an'a The TS ut it po do with per 604 CHAP, 11.-MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS, &c. though culinary processes are certainly rendered more easy to the servants of the wealthy. How great a benefactor of his species would that man be, who should enable the poor to obtain, at a cheap rate, a regulated degree of warmth in their apartments, and to combine with this the advantages of the best processes of cookery. Economical Marims of ancient Tusser, the first English writer on Domestic Economy, and author of “ The Points of Good Ilusbandry and Housewifery.” “ Save wing for a thresser when gander doth die ; Save feathers of all things the softer to lie : Much spice is a thief, so is candle and fire ; Sweet sauce is as crafty as ever was friar; Save droppings and skimmings whatever ye do, For medicine, for cattle, for cart, and for shoe.” From the maxims of this worthy, it would appear that the jolly English yeoman of the sixteenth century fared fully as well as the gentleman-farmer of the nineteenth-so far as substantials go-and his servants a great deal better. For the yeoman and his household's Lenten diet, Tusser recommends red herrings and salt fish. At Easter, veal and bacon; and at Martinmas, when dainties were no longer to be had, contentment with salted beef. At midsummer, when mackerel went out, there was fresh beef and salads; at Michaelmas, fresh herrings and old crones, (sheep ;) at All Saints, pork and peas, sprats, and sparlings; and at Christmas, in Old England ! Merry England ! all good cheer and play ; with good drink, a rousing fire in the hall, brawn, puddings, and souse, and mustard withal; beef, mutton, pork, and minced pies of the best ; pig, veal, capon, goose,“ turkey, and the chine;" cheese, apples, nuts,-and, to crown all,“ jolly carols.”_ Peace be with thy memory, Thomas Tusser ! From the same judicious person we learn, that in those Catholic times it was customary, and of ancient prescription, that twice a-week the farmer should give his servants roast meat, namely, on Thursday and Saturday evening. He, at the same time, restricts the yeoman and Franklin's family-dinner to three dishes, “ which, being well dressed, will be sufficient to please your friend and grace your hall." Servants are ordered to bed at ten in summer and nine in winter, and to rise at four in summer and five in dark mornings. There are to be fritters and pancakes for dinner on Shrove-Tuesday; and on WAKE-DAY, the vigil of the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated, “ when every wan- ton may dance at her will,” the oven is to be filled with flaunes. The seedcake is to grace the end of seedtime, and the harvest- home goose never to be neglected—Why did not Cobbett give us a new Edition of ancient Tusser ? 605 CHAPTER III. OF SALTING MEAT, TONGUES, HAMS, MAKING CHEESE, FATTEN- ING POULTRY, PRESERVING BUTTER, EGGS, &c. is die yang MEAT should either be salted before the animal heat has left it, or be allowed to hang for a few days, to become tender. It should be wiped free of moisture, blood, &c., and have the kernels and pipes taken out; wash if neces- sary. As a general rule, which is too little attended to, meat should first be rubbed with about the half of the salt ordered ; and, after lying a day or two to disgorge, have the remaining half rubbed in. This twice salting, from getting rid of blood and slime, and the effectual rubbing and mixing it causes, will be found an excellent method, and is good not only for meat, but for butter and fish. Bay- salt is imagined to give meat a better flavour than any other salt. It is thought sweeter than manufactured salt, from being dried by the gradual action of the sun. There are various modes of purifying salt for preserving meat, butter, and fish, but they are too complicated and troublesome for domestic use. The Dutch, the first dis- coverers of preserving fish by salting, and who are cele- brated for the mild mellow flavour of their butter and fish, often refine the salt by boiling it up with whey ; and this method is quite practicable in any daily. Heating and pounding the salt facilitates the salting of meat. Sugar is an admirable ingredient in curing meat and fish. Without making them salt, it preserves and keeps them mellow. Some recommend that the meat should be first rubbed with sugar for some days, and then salted. Mo- lasses is also used. Saltpetre dries up meat so much, that it is daily less and less employed. Much less of it will colour meat, or sausage meat, than is imagined : or san- derswood will give the red colour. Crude sal ammoniac is an article of which a little goes far in preserving meat, without making it salt. All troughs and tubs in which meat is cured ought to be kept closely covered with lids, WISH 606 CHAP, 111.-CURING MEAT, HAMS, &c. with several folds of blanket, or something of the kind. Meat, till it be taken out to hang up, should be kept covered with fresh pickle, not bitter brine, and rubbed, basted, and turned in the troughs once a-day ;-the double parts ought to be looked at, and rubbed ; and if any mouldiness gather on the meat in any stage of curing, it must be carefully taken off. If the brine become rank with blood and slime, it must be boiled up, skimmed, and, when cold, poured over the hams; or, now that salt is so cheap, a fresh pickle should be made. Bruised juniper- berries, coriander-seeds, sweet herbs pounded or not, and all sorts of peppers and aromatic spices, may be used for pickling hams, tongues, rumps, and sausage meat; also garlic ; but this must all be left to the discretion of the cook. 1182. To Cure Hams. Choose the short thick legs of clean-fed hogs. Those which are just old enough to have the flesh of firm texture, and which have roamed at large in a forest, or been fattened about a dairy-farm, are far the best. To each large ham allow half-a-pound of bay- salt, two ounces of saltpetre, eight ounces of coarse sugar, and a half-pound of common salt, with four ounces of Jamaica and black pepper, and one of coriander-seeds. Pound the ingredients, and heat and mix them well ; but first rub in about six ounces of the salt and the saltpetre, and, after two days, drain, and rub in the rest of the salt and the spices. Rub for a long half-hour; lay the hams in the trough ; keep them carefully covered, and baste them with the brine every day, or oftener; turn them occasionally, and rub with the brine. Make more brine if necessary. Bacon and Pig's Face are treated as above. --(See pp. 317, 398.) The latter is the better of being pressed down with a weight. Some persons use weights for all cured meat, to keep it below the brine. Hams are spiced by using aromatic spices and sweet herbs in curing. Smoking with green birch, oak, or the odoriferous woods, as juniper, &c., is an immense improvement to all dried salt meats. 1183. To Cure Hams.-M. Ude's Receipt.-As soon as the pig is cold enough to cut up, cut out the round bone 608 CHAP. III.--CURING MEAT, nams, &c. for one ham a fourth of the salt, but a half of the spices and sugar. Rub the ham very well with the hot pounded salt.-Obs. Ram-mutton, though disliked at table, is, when good, thought to make the best-flavoured hams. In the Highlands, dried juniper-berries are used in curing mutton- hams. No sort of meat is more improved by smoking with aromatic woods, or even peat-reek, than mutton. Mutton-hams, when they are once dried, will keep long enough, but scarcely improve after six months' keeping. -N.B. Roast instead of boiling mutton-ham, if not kept more than six months. Soak as if for boiling. The Scottish Border is famous for the excellence of the mutton-hams. They are carefully salted with salt, a little coarse sugar, and very little saltpetre ; kept in the pickle for three weeks, and hung for months in shepherds' chimneys, where peats are the only fuel. Without pre- vious steeping, they are boiled quickly for an hour, or a little more, if large, and allowed to soak in the liquor for twenty-four hours. 1187. Tongues, to Salt.—Cut off the roots, and steep the tongues in a weak brine; wash them well out, working them with the hand; afterwards salt them with common salt. [The roots eat very well with greens, or will make pease-soup, stew, or Scotch kail.] Scrape and dry the tongues ; rub them with a little common salt and salt- petre; next day rub them very well with salt and brown sugar. Keep them covered with pickle for a fortnight; dry and smoke them.-Obs. When many tongues are salted, use a sinking-board and weights, to keep them below the brine. They may be spiced as No. 1182. 1188. To Salt a Round or Rump of Beef.-A rump of twenty-five pounds will take two ounces of saltpetre, eight of sugar, four of pepper, half-a-pound of bay-salt, and twice as much common salt. Rub the meat very well with the mixed salts and spices; turn it on all sides, and rub it. Baste and rub with the brine every day for a month. It may either be hung and dried, or boiled out of this pickle. - See pp. 307, 309, and 315, for beef cured in various ways with spices. 1189. To Cure Geese.-In Languedoc, and other parts TO CURE GEESE. 609 -, HANS & 14 a halt: Jied at maré. vured hans eved in curie ried, Filib tun-ham, I excellese Sated from sel. Wise -- for an is in the billi ots, and Tell 007 em with me of France, where land is of small value, and geese are plentiful, much of the winter-food of genteel provincial families depends on these birds. As the information may be found useful in Ireland, and remote parts both of England and Scotland, we shall detail the French method of proceeding :- When the geese are very fat, about the end of autumn, they were killed, and the wings and legs cut off, leaving as little flesh on the body as possible. The legs are partly boned, and, for every five geese, a half-ounce of saltpetre is mixed with the necessary quan- tity of common salt, with which the legs and wings are well rubbed, and laid for twenty-four hours in a pan with savoury herbs. Meanwhile, all the fat is collected from the bodies and intestines, and boiled down as lard over a very slow fire, strained, and put to cool. The legs, wings, and the body cut in pieces, are, in twenty-four hours, taken from the salt, passed through fresh water, and stewed over a very slow fire till the flesh will pierce with a straw. They are then taken out, and, when cold, packed in jars, and the melted fat poured over them; when cold, parchment, or paper and bladder, are tied over the jars. A French family has, from this stock of winter-provisions, the power of having a ragout of a leg or wing, heated in a little of the jelly and fat in which the meat is preserved ; or a soupe of a neck, back, or pinion, with the mere addi- tion of herbs, vegetables, and suitable seasonings. The relish is very high; and French cooks speak with rapture of this savoury and economical mode of cooking geese. Young pigs may be treated in the same manner, but their flavour is not nearly so high. If the fat of geese be thus esteemed by our continental neighbours, there is certainly, in this department, much waste in English kitchens. 1189.Prepared Salmon or Cod Roes.-Take the roe from a fish as nearly spawning as possible; wash the roe well in milk and water, and then in cold water, till it come clean off ; afterwards, put the roe in a sieve, and drain fifteen minutes. To salt them, take eight ounces of salt to three pounds of spawn, and let them lie in the brine forty-eight hours. Lay them on a board about three- fourths of a yard from the fire, letting them remain there 2 ape and de salt and is for a forei 7! tongue 10. 1182 altpetrec bar-saleh eat verse all sides i y dar ti er boiled - beef cus other per 610 CHAP. III.-CURING MEAT, HAMS, &c. about half-a-day. Bruise them well with a roller, then put them into a pot, and press them well down. Put on them in the proportion of eight drops of spirit of nitre, and as much salt petre as will lie upon a sixpence to every pound of spawn; cover them with a piece of writing- paper, upon which lay a coating of hog's-lard, as cold as it will spread; then tie over all a piece of dressed sheep- skin, and keep in a warm place summer and winter. This receipt was got from Easton, hair-dresser, Hawick, and one of the best fishers in the South of Scotland, who prepared and sold salmon roe at a high price. It seeins taken from the Russian receipt for making moist caviare, which is largely exported to Italy and Germany, and esteemed a great luxury. Caviare is made of the roe of the sturgeon, the beluga, the sterlet, and other large fish found in the Caspian, and also about the Wolga and Ural. It is of two kinds — moist and dry. The best is thus prepared, and the receipt may be equally applicable to the roe of salmon, cod, and other large fish :—The roes (quite fresh) are cleared of all fibres, and steeped in brine till the grains soften; it is then hung up in quantities of about eighteen pounds, in bags, shaped like jelly-bags, to drain ; when drained, fresh brine is poured in, and it is purified by the second- draining. The roes are then dried, by wringing the bags till all the moisture is expunged; it hangs in the bags for twelve hours, and is then trod down in quantities in tubs, by a labourer in leathern stockings. The fresher the roe, and the less salt used to cure it, it is esteemed the better. In cold weather no salt is used, but then it does not keep long. 1190. To salt a Yule Mart, or whole Bullock. - The following approved receipt has been communicated to us for salting meat for family use, in those families far from markets, where a winter-store, or mart, is still annually cured: - Take as much spring water as you think will cover the pieces of meat, and, with Liverpool salt, or bay- salt, make of this water a pickle so strong as to float a potato. Stir till the ingredients are dissolved ; and after- wards boil the pickle till all the scum is thrown off. When quite cold, pour it over the meat in the salting-tub or beef- t, & 611 CURING MEAT, HAMS, &c. DJ BE cheer stand. - Obs. The meat (and all meat or vegetables salted) must be wholly and constantly covered with the pickle, by occasionally adding fresh supplies as it wastes, and using a sinking-board. If the pickle become turbid, and a scum gather on it, either pour it off, and boil and skim it well before returning it, when cold, to the meat; or use a fresh pickle, which may now be afforded cheaply, and is per- haps better, because purer than the original liquor boiled up. Meat preserved in this way is never disagreeably salt, and will keep for a long time. A little saltpetre boiled with the pickle will tinge the meat. If meat is rubbed with salt, and suffered to drain from the blood for a day and night, it will keep the better. If meat is not liked so salt, substitute sugar for one-third of the salt. -- Obs. Rock salt is usually called Liverpool salt in the north- west of Scotland and in Ireland, because it comes from that port. The best of all salt for preserving meat or fish is what is called bay or Lisbon salt. To it anchovies partly owe their rich mellowness. · 1191. An excellent general Pickle for Meat, Hams, Tongues, fc. - Take in the proportion of six ounces of salt, and four of sugar to the quart of water, and a quar- ter-ounce of saltpetre. Rub the meat with salt, let it drain for two days, and pack it, and over it pour the pickle, first boiled, skimmed, and cooled. Herbs and spices ad libitum. - Obs. Various ways of hastening the process of render- ing meat fit for cooking are proposed. Some recommend hurying in the earth ; others hanging the meat or poultry in a fig-tree. A high but equal temperature appears the most rational plan. Cover the meat with a thin cloth, and leave it as long as is wished for, or convenient, near the kitchen fire, or in a cool oven. If, however, the temper- ature be too high, the meat will be rather hardened than improved. 1192. To salt Beef for immediate use, and to make Soup of.- For this purpose we prefer the thin flank, or what are in Scotland called the nine-holes, the runner, and the brisket. Cut it, as suitable, into pieces of from three to seven pounds. Rub heartily with dried salt. Cover up the meat. Turn it over occasionally (to have it soaked in 612 CHAP. III.-CURING MEATS, &c. brine), and in a week it will eat well as plain bouilli with roots, and make also a good Scotch soup. From that time to six weeks it will eat with greens, while the pot-liquor will make, or help to make, potato or pea soup. 1193. Mutton, either Ribs or Breast, may be salted and served boiled with roots, making at the same time a good potato or pea soup, seasoned with parsley or celery. A boiled leg salted a week, is preferred, with carrot and turnip, to a fresh one, by many excellent judges. The Collier's Roast, a favourite dish with many persons in Scotland, is a leg of mutton salted for a week, roasted and served with mashed turnip, or browned potatoes. 1194. To cure Bacon in Flitches, or whole Sides. - (See pages 606-7.) - When all the lard is removed, and the tail, ears, pettitoes, &c., taken away, rub the skin side of the meat long and briskly with warmed salt in abun- dant quantity. Rub about the shoulders and hams very well, as these are so thick. The pig should either still retain the animal heat, or hang (which we like better ere handling) a few days, to get tender. Turn the thoroughly- rubbed meat, and strew a thick bed of salt in which a small quantity of saltpetre is mixed, over the whole inside. Press this salt down close every where. Throw folds of blanketing over the meat, on the table or trough, and place a gentle weight over it. Let it lie a week, basting with brine. Then rub afresh the outside stoutly and long, and with fresh salt cover the inside ; let the meat lie thus for ten days, and then drain, roll in bran, or coarse barley- meal, and hang it up in the kitchen. When thoroughly dry, remove to a dry place to hang till wanted. It may be smoked. 1195. Rapid Salting.- Lay a piece of meat rubbed well over with salt, over a vessel with water on two or three twigs. Lay salt thickly over the meat. The eva- poration of the water will melt the salt, and accelerate the salting of the beef. N. B. We have no experience of this mode of salting. It is evident that the meat thus treated must either be used immediately, or plunged in pickle. 1196. To smoke Hams and Fish on the small scale. TO MAKE AND CURE BUTTER. 617 sound 121, SOFA brom vrede orbem butter several cross ways, in order to take out any hairs that may remain in it; and if any other motes appear they also are taken out. This part of the work is generally done with the butter among clean spring water, as the water keeps it from turning soft, and washes away any milk that may remain. .“ The butter is then weighed ; and for every stone, ten ounces of salt are taken (after having all the motes carefully picked out) and mixed with it. The salting process is carefully performed with the hand; as I have always found, that if salt is not pro- perly mixed and incorporated with the butter at the time of salt- ing, it never keeps so well. I am very particular in this part of the work, the salt being weighed with the same weight the butter is weighed with. In May and June, each stone of but- ter will take one ounce of salt more; and after the middle of August, it takes one less than the above-mentioned quantity. The butter thus salted is put into a clean well-seasoned kit, and a handful of salt shaken on the top, which keeps it from turning mouldy, or winding, till next week, when the butter is again made as above, and put into the same kit, on the top of what was put in the week before, without stirring it, and a handful of salt shaken upon the top. The same process is continued weekly till the kit is full; after which it is covered up, and set aside till my customer sends for it. It may be proper, however, to examine the kit occasionally, to see that it does not let out the pickle; as butter standing without pickle soon spoils. In- deed, butter salted in this way does not require pickle poured on it, unless the kit is defective. “ I never use saltpetre, since butter made as above always retains the same sweet taste till used, which generally happens within twelve months after it is made. N.B. In this butter there are twenty-four pounds to the stone, and twenty-two ounces to the pound. 1199. To freshen Salt Butter.-Churn it anew in sweet milk,-a quart to the pound. It gains in weight. 1200. To improve rancid Butter. - Wash it, melt it gradually, skim it, and put to it a slice of charred toast, or some bits of charcoal. 1200.Butter on the Continent is cured by putting it, when well freed of the milk, over a slow charcoal fire in a preserving-pan. It is carefully skimmed and suffered to boil for a few minutes, and then stored in potting- cans made very close. Honey Butter is sometimes clarified as above, and preserved by melting about an ounce of honey to the pound with it. It keeps well if potted, and answers admirably for sweet crust, cakes, and shortbread. In the East butter is melted in the sun, and ne Parts vel si scher 018 CHAP. II.-MAKING AND CURING BUTTER, kept in skins like wine. The Icelanders allow their butter to become sour, and seldom use it either fresh or salted. With them, butter, like wine in other countries, is chiefly valued for its age. One pound of old sour butter (Surt smære) is reckoned worth two of fresh. The same people cook their meat in sour whey, esteeming the broth thus made the better half of the dish. They keep sour whey in casks as one of their favourite dainties. 1201. Filbert Butter. - Pound a few filberts to a paste. Chop picked parsley, chives, and tarragon, very fine. Knead them with butter and the nut paste, and roll up in small shapes, for a delicate hors d'ouvre. 1201.To roll Butter for a Cheese-Course, or for Breakfust, and to garnish Supper-Dishes. — Have two small wooden fluted spoons, such as are used for lifting butter. Wash and boil them as often as wanted. Dry them well, and rub them with a bit of butter to clean them perfectly; then, between them lightly roll up bits of butter in form of corks, fir-cones, small pine-apples, shells, &c. Butter is used in many ways for garnishing salads of meat or fish, ham, eggs, anchovies, &c. It looks best when squirted, in little tufts, or little delicate coral branches, or open lacework, or fine basketwork. Borders are made of butter coloured red with carmine, or green with spinage-juice; we do not admire them. They may be carved or stamped in a variety of devices. These are best made of Montpelier butter, a French preparation, (No. 601) but require a French cook. 1202. To scoop Butter.-Dip the tea spoon or scooper in warm water, if in cold weather. Scoop quickly, and heat the spoon again and again if needful. . OF MAKING CHEESE. * Many parts of our island, from the delicate quality of the natural pastures, ought to furnish the very best cheese, We can indeed perceive no good reason why the cheese of Scotland and Wales should not equal in flavour that of * Since the publication of our fifth edition, we have had the pleasure of eating Scotch cheese, made in Ettrick by receipt 1207, as good as Stilton, and taken for it. MAKING CHEESE. 619 G BUTTER ailow the er fresh and suur loce starren 21 paste, un Courget used fa! wanted y roles For gamis Switzerland and Lombardy. Considerable advances have of late years been made in this tardy branch of our rural economy ; but notwithstanding the zeal with which the Highland Society has taken up this subject, the range of improvement is still limited. Though one occasionally sees excellent cheese in private families, little that is very superior comes to market, except the Ayrshire cheese, and cheese of the same sort from several counties; and it is not, after all, a very delicate cheese for the table.* The low price that cheese gives in those remote parts of the country where the milk most resembles that from which the Swiss and Parmesan cheese is made, makes the farmer's wife still consider all the sweet milk that goes to her cheese as so much butter lost; and it will take a few more premiums, and a few more years, to convince those good wives, that a shilling got for cheese will go quite as far as one got for butter, and often be more conveniently obtained. Skim- milk cheese never can be very good, and is hardly worth making. At least one-half of the milk used should be fresh from the cow. Another capital error is making the milk too hot, and then employing too much l'ennet, which makes the curd tough and hard, however rich its basis may have been. The quality of the rennet is also of inuch importance. The more gently the curd is separated from the whey, the milder will the cheese be. Made in a cylindrical form, it will be more mellow than if moulded in a broad flat shape. Particular attention must be given to the cheese in the winding or drying. The wrapping- cloths inust be changed very frequently, that the cheese may dry equally. The salting is also of importance ; and, in preference to either salting the curd, or rubbing the new cheeses, some recommend cheeses being steeped in pickle. We have doubts on this, and no experience of it, and would prefer salting the curd to any mode. A sort of cheese for the table of very high goût, an almost Tar- tarian preparation, is inade in the north, by allowing the * Since our first edition was published, considerable improvements have taken place in cheese-making. Some capital specimens have been exhibited and we place great hopes on the HIGHLAND SOCIETY'S QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE for many more improve- ments, both in-butter and cheese, jes, &c little dal them. 1 ices. 1 preparedi '" SCOOTE qualitri chiesa di le chat ne pleqer 78 goods 620 CHAP. 111.-MAKING CHEESE. milk to become sour, and to coagulate of itself, which gives a flavour even more pungent than that of goat's or ewe milk cheese. Cheese, to keep, should be put in a cool and rather damp place, wrapped in a damp cloth, and placed in a covered jar. It should always be presented at table served on a small damask napkin. The surface of cheese, particularly a cut cheese, when to be kept, should be rubbed with butter or lard. Dried pieces, when they cannot be presented at table, may either be grated down, to eat as a homely kind of Parmesan, or used in macaroni, &c. The offensive mould which gathers on cheese may easily be distinguished from “ the blue," — the genuine cerugo which stamps its value, and must be carefully wiped off. The production of mites may be checked by pouring spirits on the affected parts. The addition of butter to the curd, or of lard rubbed into the new cheeses, is employed to enrich the quality and mellow the cheese. American way to keep.-When the cheese is sufficiently dried, cover it with folds of paper pasted on, so as com- pletely to exclude the air. It will keep for a long while, and keep clean. We now get some adinirable cheese from America. Chopped sage, or the expressed juice of young red sage, caraway-seeds, &c.,* are employed to flavour cheese, and various substances are sold to heighten the colour. Of these saffron and arnatto are the most in- offensive. Housewives, who make this branch of economy their study, will find many observations worthy of attention in “Arthur Young's Tour in France and Italy,”a few in The Farmer's Magazine, and in the papers of the Bath Society. We merely subjoin a few receipts which are not in general circulation, though of approved merit. - See No. 1208. 1203. Rennet or Yearning, to make.-Rennet is useful even where there is no dairy, as whey is often wanted, and with a little rennet a cheap elegant second course or supper-dish for warm weather may be furnished, and an agreeable variety given to the milk diet of schools, nur- * To the herb melilot, which grows in abundance in some of the cheese districts of Switzerland, is ascribed the peculiar flavour of the Swiss cheese, as Cheshire made at particular seasons is fancied to owo its fine flavour to the wild radish on which the cows feed. TO MAKE RENNET. 621 - chest DE series, and invalids. Rennet is generally made of the stomach (i.e. maw) of the calf, and also of that of pigs and hares, and of the membrane which lines the gizzards of fowls and turkeys. This last makes the gallino rennet of Italy. Some plants are also used for rennet, as lady's bed- straw, an acrid species of thistle, and artichoke, also wine and vinegar, in making wheys, &c. Take the stomach of a new-killed calf, of from a week to a month old. Remove any crude food or straws found in it, but not the curdled milk. Put a handful of salt into it. Sew and roll up the bag, and lay it in a jar, and strew another large handful of salt over it. Cover and keep in this pickle for ten days, then drain, wipe, and paper it up, or cover with a thin cloth (a ceremony few of our good-wives observe,) to dry near the kitchen fire. It generally hangs from the spring of one year till another. When rennet is wanted in large quantities for large dairies, a whole dry maw is cut into pieces at once, put in a jar with a handful of salt, and has from six to nine pints of boiling whey, cooled to summer-heat, poured over it, ac- cording to the age of the calf, four weeks being the age at which it yields more rennet than either when younger or older. The steep, as it is called, is then strained and bottled for use, a glass of spirits being sometimes added to each bottle, to increase its effect and make it keep well. A small quantity of water, with salt, is again poured on the maw, and allowed to steep for two more days, and strained and added to the other. In the small way, for family use, a bit of the bag from the pickle may be steeped in lukewarm water, and will repeatedly give rennet; or a bit of the dried maw may be steeped as above. — Gallino Rennet. When cooking fowls or turkeys, keep the skins that line the stomachs or gizzards ; clear them of pebbles and other matters; and salt, dry, and steep as above- directed a few bits the night before rennet is wanted. Rennet may now be bought, and in useful small quantities. The Dutch cheese is said to owe its peculiar, and to some disagreeable, to others delightful flavour, to muriatic acid being used for rennet. Vulgarly this flavour is attributed to swine's milk; 622 CHAP. III.-MAKING CHEESE. 1204. Temperature of Milk at which to put in the Rennet. -From 90° to 96º. The rennet may in temperate weather be put to the milk from the cow, if not allowed to get cool, and the cheese will be all the finer; on the average three quarts of milk will yield one pound of cheese. Cover the pan or dish in which milk is set to coagulate, and do not disturb it for a half-hour or more. 1205. To colour Cheese and Butter, and to produce the Blue Mould.-Arnatto is prepared in cakes, in London, for the use of the dairy, but will do very well as bought in the shops. Tie it up, when reduced to powder, in a bit of muslin, and use it in the milk for cheese, precisely as laundresses do blue in tinging linen, till the desired shade of colour is obtained. For butter, infuse the arnatto in a little milk, and put the tincture to the cream, but pale natural coloured butter is more valued. Cheese is tinged green with juice of spinage ; or flavoured and slightly tinged with the expressed juice of the red sage. The true, blue mould, in cheese, so highly valued by connoisseurs, comes, if it comes at all, no one can tell how. To further its production the cheese is brushed clean while still soft, dipt in whey and rubbed slightly with butter once a day, for from ten days to twenty days, till the desired appear- ance is obtained. The fresh cheese is also inoculated with bits of blue from a blue cheese, and catches the tint by contact. 1206. British Parmesan.-Heat the day's milk to little more than blood-heat; and after it has settled put in the rennet. When it has stood for an hour or more, the coagulated milk is to be placed on a slow clear fire, and heated till the curd separates of itself. When separated, throw in cold water to reduce the temperature, and quickly collect the curd in a cloth, gathering it up at the corners. Place it in, a deep cheese-hoop, and press it as other cheese. Next day it will be firm enough to turn. Let it dry slowly and gradually, often (at first about every hour) changing the wrapping-cloths. Rub it with a little salt daily, for three weeks, or plunge it in pickle for a few days. The curd for this or any other cheese may be coloured with a little saffron, or arnatto, by put- CHEESE. 623 eart noge. 2nd to make ting a tincture of them, extracted in milk, to the milk when to be curdled.-See No. 1205. 1207. Scottish Imitation of Stilton.—To the morning's milk add that of the previous evening, either skimmed or with the cream, as you intend to make a very rich cheese or one of inferior quality. Do not heat the milk too much, and employ no more yearning (i. e. rennet) than will berely serve to curdle it.* When fully coagulated, gently, and without much handling or breaking, place the curd in a deep sieve or net, and afterwards, when firm enough to lift, in a hoop. Afterwards steep the cheese in pickle ; then dry it, changing the binders very frequently, All fine cheese should be rubbed and turned every day for the first two months. + 1208. Imitation of Double Gloucester. Receipt by which the Specimen was made for which the Highland Society gave their first Premium. This specimen was what is called a one-meal cheese, that is, made of the milk obtained at one milking. The morning's milking is reckoned the richest. Strain the milk into the tub. Colour it slightly with arnatto as above described. Put the rennet to it. The quantity of rennet must be proportioned to its strength. In ordinary circumstances a spoonful will coagulate twenty quarts of milk. When the curd has set, press off - 3 Ehe 21st Crean, dande PETAMARA cile er once H esired est neen lataa milk to! ad pud mon, # ear fire 22 separat stun 2 * If the cream is used, which, for a prime cheese, it should be, skim it off ; and heat, and have hot in readiness, as much of the skim-milk as, with the fresh milk hot from the cow, will make the whole warm enough for the rennet: then pour back the cream, Mix and add the rennet. + In Inverness and Ross-shires, there is a rural breakfast article called crowdie, not the common composition, oatmeal and water or milk, but made thus:--Take two parts fresh sweet-milk curd, and one of fresh butter. Work them well together, and press them in a basin or small shape, and turn it out, when it will slice nicely. When whey is much used for drink in hot weather, the curd may be usefully thus disposed of. It is eaten with bread and butter, and keeps a long time, if goût is liked. This preparation, when the curd is well broken and blended with the butter, is sometimes made up in deep narrow cogs, or wooden moulds, and kept for months, when it becomes very high flavoured though mellow. The celebrated Arabian cheese is made in the same way in vats, and both are, of their kind, uncommonly fine, These preparations deserve trial. In the Lowlands this is sometimes seen, but it is not kept, and is, for this reason, called a one day's cheese.-P.T. t up at zh to the Erst ahir ubi mi in piedi Der chenne o by put 62+ CHAP. JII.-MAKING CHEESE. the whey with skimmers; and next press the curd to the sides of the tub till it get firm, Cut it into cubes of an inch ; and, gathering it into a cloth, place it in the sieve or hoop, which should have a cover fitted to slip down within, on which place a weight of a half-hundred to press it moderately. Let it at this time stand near the fire. When drained, which will be in about twenty minutes, cut the curd still sinaller than before, and place it as before in the hoop for another twenty minutes, and near a fire. Next put it into the tub, and mince it into very small bits with the three-bladed knife used for this pur- pose in dairies, or any substitute. Now salt the curd, which must be done to taste, but mix the salt well with it; and, gathering, bind it up into the sort of cloth used in dairies. Place it in the chessel in the cheese-press for a day or more, changing the cloth or binder as often as it gets wet. When the cloth remains dry, the cheese may be presumed dry. For some weeks after, turn frequently. Rub the cheese, and, if you like, wash it moderately with warm whey. In this experiment one hundred quarts of milk produced a cheese of thirty pounds. N.B. Slips of the elder, placed on cheese-racks, are said to keep away the blow-fly. Doubtful. Cloves, lemon- grate, and other things, are sometimes used to subdue the bad flavour of rennet. Their effect is more doubtful still. 1209. Best Dunlop Cheese.—As soon as the milk is taken from the cows, it is poured into a large pail, or pails, and, before it is quite cold, the substance called the steep, 1. e, rennet, is mixed with it. When it is sufficiently coagulated, it is cut transversely with a broad knife made for the purpose, or a broad three-toed instrument, in order to let the curd subside, and to procure the separation of the whey from it. When this separation is observed to have taken place, the curd is lifted with a ladle, or some- thing similar, into the chessel, (for it is to be observed, that where a proper attention is paid to the making of these cheeses, no woman's hand ought ever to touch the curd, from the milking of the cow to the finishing of the whole,) where it remains a few hours, till it has acquired something of a hardness or consistency. It is then taken 028 CHAP. III.--EGGS-HONEY. ley, with the part of wheat-flour called in Scotland paring- meal, mixed with it. In Indian corn meal and buck- wheat we have now admirable articles for fattening poultry. We give no receipts for cramming poultry. To keep hens laying in winter, the French give them nettle-seed and bruised hemp-seed. In establishments where much attention is paid to poultry, besides taking great care to keep them clean and warm, which is neces- sary to the thriving or fattening of every sort of animal, they are fed with toasts and ale, barley sodden and steeped in fresh beer, or messes of peasemeal or rye-flour. The Malay or Chittagong fowls have for some years been favourites of Scotland. They are a handsome and econo- mical variety. The game breed of fowls is of high flavour. 1:13. Eggs, to preserve. — They should, at all times, either when bought or gathered from the nests, be rubbed with butter. A minute will go over two dozen, and this simple process will generally be sufficient to preserve them as long as required in private families, and even when they are to be exported from Ireland, France, Orkney, Jersey, and the many places from which eggs are now sent to the markets of our great cities. They may also be preserved by a solution of lime, salt, and cream of tartar, poured over them in the keg in which they are packed. In Eng- land, old-fashioned housewives, after smearing, hang eggs in a net, which is turned upside-down daily. To keep, if for plain boiling, they may be parboiled one minute. 1214. Another way. - Dip them in a solution of gum- arabic, and pack in dry pulverized charcoal. 1215. To run Honey.-Gently loosen the coinbs. Sepa- rate the best pieces to keep and serve in the comb, if wished, as honey always looks best in the comb. If not, place these singly on open wire frames, laid over a jar, opposite the fire, but not so near as to melt the wax, (an open corn-sieve will be a good substitute for a frame.) Cut the pieces of comb with a long knife twice, horizon- tally; then slice them down as it were into chequers, to permit the honey to flow. When drained completely on one side, turn over the other. The liquid honey is then to be run through a coarse jelly-bag, made of the kind of MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS. 629 stuff used in dairies, and hooked on a stand in the usual manner of running jellies; the jar placed under the bag, when full, must be closely bunged up. The pure or virgin combs being thus disposed of, the inferior sort are to be treated in the same manner, and the refuse, obtained by wringing the bags and scraping the frames and jars, may be turned to account in vinegar, adding double its weight of water, or with hog's lard as a paste for chapped hands. - Honeycomb, to keep entire. The finest pieces are selected, handled as gently as possible, papered and kept in a wide jar, set aslant and covered. · N.B. - Those who have even but three or four hives would do well to consult Loudon's Gardener's Dictionary, which contains the substance of all that is known on the subject of bees, whether theoretically or practically ; or the Bee Preserver, a little work by a Swiss clergyman, M. de Gelieu, lately translated by a lady. *** CHAPTER IV. A SELECTION OF USEFUL MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS FOR CLEAN- ING AND PRESERVING FURNITURE, CLOTHES, &c. che . vzhl 1216. To scour Carpets. – Dust the carpet well, and, if large, pick it asunder into two or more pieces. Have them first well rinsed, in running water if possible, and then scoured in a ley made of boiled soap. Repeat this till the hreadths are clean. Next rinse them, and last of all put them into a tub of clean water in which a large table-spoon- ful of oil of vitrol is mixed, which will brighten the colours and keep them from running. Choose a dry windy day to scour carpets, as remaining long wet will injure the colours. If there are any greasy spots, let them he rubbed with soft or boiled soap before the carpet is wet. Hearth-rugs are done in the same way. Obs.—Carpets may be washed stretched on a clean floor, using sponge and soap-ley, and afterwards rinsed and dried. Nail them tightly out when again laid down. They may also be be the or de het beste MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS. 633 fre wash with soap-ley, using sponge or flannel, but do not wet them much. Rub hard up with dry flannel. A little wax may then be rubbed in, which both improves the appear- ance and preserves the surface. 1234. To polish Furniture, — Nothing, to our taste, im- proves mahogany so much as daily brisk rubbing ; but various préparations are in use. Break down two or more ounces of bees' wax, and melt it in an earthen pipkin, take a half-pint of oil of turpentine, an ounce of alkanet-root, and a very little rose-pink ; pour this on the wax when ready to boil; stir it up and let it cool; rub a very little on the furniture (previously cleaned), and polish with dry · flannel, or use merely one ounce white wax, and two of turpentine. — Obs. Linseed-oil, cold drawn, was wont to be used for mahogany ; but the taste of the day is for light-coloured furniture, and, accordingly, oil which deepens the colour rapidly is not so much used. Two parts lin- seed-oil, with one of turpentine, make a good composition for dining tables ; or use equal parts of oil, vinegar, and turpentine. Wax prevents the action of the light, and keeps wood of a lightish colour for many years. Various pastes and varnishes are sold to colour and polish maho- gany, which, with the exception of wax, if we wish to pre- -serve the wood of its first colour, or of oil to polish, we conceive of little utility, farther than as they may contri- bute to beguile the toil of the fair polisher. 1235. To polish Mahogany, &c. in the Italian Man- ner.-Clean and cover the wood with olive-oil. Melt gum- arabic in spirits of wine, and polish the wood hard with this, which gives a beautiful varnish. — Obs. Pieces of old soft beaver-hats, and of soft smooth cork, are very useful in rubbing furniture. 1236. To preserve Polished Steel. — Smear with mut- ton-suet, and dust over with unslacked lime. A paste of lard or fowl's grease, camphire, and black-lead, will also preserve steel. Caoutchouc-varnish is the most effectual coating for steel, but it is too expensive for common do- mestic purposes. 1237. To clean Steel Grates.-Rub the bars clean while still warm, if it be possible ; then clear with emery-paper, per CARE Test us 1 vorhand 6:34 CHAP. IV.- MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS. or polish by hard rubbing, using a little dry emery, or finely-pounded Bath-brick. When very dirty, a thin paste, made of emery and boiled soap, will be found useful at first. 1238. To clean Brass Grates, Fire-irons, &c.-Make a smooth paste of rotten-stone (pounded finely and sifted) and sweet oil. Keep in a tin-box; rub on, if hard using a drop of oil, and cleaning with a linen rubber ; polish with leather. Pastes for brass are now sold very reasonably. 1239. To clean Knives and Forks.-Use a board covered with leather. Bath-brick is still the best thing known for cleaning knives. Wash off the grease and dry the knives as soon as they come from table ; but do not use water too hot. It is good to have a tin can or jug for this pur- pose more than an inch less in depth than a table-knife blade is long. On a wooden board two knives may be cleaned at once, taking one in each hand, holding them back to back, and rubbing in different directions. Wipe forks well, and plunge the prongs into a jug or other small vessel filled with Bath brick-dust or fine sand, which may be kept compact by a mixture of damp moss. Clean between the prongs with a piece of leather tied to a stick; wipe off all dust, and rub them up. Lay knives and forks not in daily use before the fire when cleaned, and wrap each up sepa- rately in paper. A compact and comprehensive knife- board has lately been introduced. 1240. To clean Plate and Plated Articles. - Clean the plate very well, using a sponge, with soap-ley and boiling water, and brushing all the carved places. Dry and rub with plate powder, hartshorn-powder, or the very finest whiting either wetted with spirits or dry. Polish with the hand and soft leather. The longer plate is rubbed the brighter it will look. Brush the powder carefully from all the carved places. Plated goods should be kept in thick brown paper, in a box, and the interstices filled up with dried bran, never be allowed to get damp nor dirty, nor le rubbed more than can be avoided. Spirit of wine, or strong spirits, is the best thing to clean them with. When candlesticks are smeared with wax or grease, do not scrape, but pour boiling water on the parts before cleaning APPENDIX, CONTAINING A COMPREHENSIVE TREATISE 27 ON DOMESTIC BREWING. 2 IMPLEMENTS NECESSARY FOR DOMESTIC BREWING. that THE BOILER. The object of this brief treatise is to enable the domestic brewer to make excellent ale with apparatus as little expensive as pos- sible. The boiler, for many reasons, should be made of copper and not iron. It will cost more at first, but will always bring at least half its original value as old metal; it is less liable to acci- dents, more easily cleaned, and requires less fuel. The size of the boiler must be regulated by the quantity of ale or beer required to be made at a time. If not less than a hogshead of each is wished, a boiler capable of containing 80 gallons would be most useful, as the whole wort for the ale, and afterwards for the beer, could be got ready for each, at one boiling; but this would re- quire all the other brewing implements on a similar scale, which in many families would be found inconvenient as well as expen- sive. A boiler capable of containing from 45 to 50 gallons will therefore in general suit best. It will boil the worts for a half- hogshead of strong ale at once, and the wort for the table-beer, when a hogshead is wanted, inay be easily managed at two boil- ings. . A pipe of one inch and three quarters diameter, on a level with the bottom of the boiler, should project from it about two inches beyond the brick-work in which it is built; and on this a straight cock or tap must be fixed while the brewing is going on ; if bent, the hops would not get through. To prevent the liquor from being spilt in running through the horizontal tap, a piece of can- cass about twelve inches square may be rolled twice round the extremity of the tap, and allowed to hang down into the sieve through which the contents of the boiler are strained before going into the cooler. A kind of canvass tube is thus formed, which breaks the force of the horizontal pressure. 640 DOMESTIC BREWING. As it is desirable at all times to know what wort is in the boiler, a gauge-stick to determine the quantity may be formed thus:-- Pour into the copper two gallons of water, and at a par- ticnlar part of it, which you have marked, put down the gauge- stick, and where the surface of the water cuts it, mark 2; put in other two gallons, and in the same manner mark 4, going on thus till you have filled the copper and formed the graduated gauge- stick. Let it be marked No. 1. The roof of the brew-house should be as high as possible, and should have a ventilator above the boiler to let the steam escape. THE MASH-TUB. The cheapest way to procure a mash-tub is to purchase a good sherry-pipe, which will contain about 108 or 110 gallons, and may be got for ten or twelve shillings. Cut off about one-fourth of the length of the cask; and the larger portion will form a very good mash-tub, capable of containing about 80 gallons, while the smaller tub will contain nearly 30 gallons, and make an under- back or cooler. A wooden hoop, about two inches in breadth, must be nailed inside round the bottom of the mash-tub, to sup- port a false bottom. The false bottom should be made of several pieces of wood, to prevent warping, and must be perforated with small holes very close to each other. The vacant space between it and the real bottom may be about two inches. Both the false bottom and the hoop should be moveable ; but, while mash- ing, the hoop must be slightly fixed to the sides of the mash-tub by small nails. In the bottom of the mash-tub a straight tap must be fixed near the side to draw off the worts when ready; but great care must be taken that the end of the tap fixed in the mash-tub does not rise above the real bottom, or it will prevent the worts from running off into what is termed the underbuck. When mashing is to commence, the mash-tun must be placed upon a gawntree of sufficient height to allow the under- back to be placed below the tap in the bottom. It should not, if possible, be placed near the wall, as the persons employed in mashing could not use the mashing-sticks with freedom. A set of stout steps of a proper height will be required to enable the per- son mashing to handle the mashing-stick or oar freely; and also that he may stand sufficiently high to stir the wort in the boiler. The Mashing-stick, or Oar as it is termed by the brewer, is formed by an ash pole or handle about six feet long, at the ex- tremity of which is a frame through which the pole passes. This frame is about twelve inches in length, narrower at the bottom than the top, and shaped like an inverted shovel. Five or six spars go across the frame, which has thus something like the appearance of a ladder, with the rounds very close to each other. It is with the mashing-stick that the malt is thoroughly mixed with the water; and the interstices between the spars or rounds of the oar allow the mash to be shaken through, when a mass of DOMESTIC BREWING. 643 54t, d water, at another dette e of me Frau useful and I distille? of extract, — a quarter (eight bushels) must yield 200, and a boll of six bushels, 150 pounds. When in brewing from a certain quantity of malt, then, we have extracted in the first and second worts the principal strength of the inalt, and the third running is too weak for table-beer, the strength may be increased to any ex- tent by the addition of raw sugar. A pound of sugar, when put into a gallon of water, yields a gravity of 34. It is therefore easy to raise your wort to'any degree of strength you think desi- rable. If, for instance, upon applying the saccharometer you find the strength of the last running from the malt to be only 24, by allowing a half-pound of sugar per gallon you raise the gravity to 41,- the sugar giving an additional gravity of 17 ; or if the wort be 32, and you apply a quarter-pound, you raise the gravity by 8 to nearly 41 as before. It will be observed that in a number of the receipts subjoined the use of raw sugar is recommended. For the protection of the agricultural interest, and the revenue derived from the malt- duty, the public brewer is prohibited the use of sugar under a severe penalty ; but there are no restrictions on the domestic brewer, — and there can be none. Were he allowed, the public brewer would frequently use sugar to help up his gravities; but at the present price of this article he cannot afford to do so to any extent. A quarter of malt will yield 200 pounds of saccha- rine extract, which will impart as much gravity as 200 pounds of sugar. But the quarter of malt will not cost the public brewer who makes his own malt above £2, 10s., while 200 pounds of sugar, though much reduced in price, will cost him nearly double that sum. This is certainly prohibition enough without penalties. But the home-brewer is much less able to manage the gravity of his worts than the public brewer; and the use of sugar is therefore of great importance to him. It besides greatly im- proves the quality of the last runnings from the mash, by restor- ing to them saccharine matter, of which they have been almost entirely deprived by the strong-ale wort ; for when the gravity of the last running is very low, the extract is more mucilaginous than saccharine. But, indeed, sugar applied in moderate quan- tity greatly improves all kinds of malt liquors. Professor Dono- van prefers even ale and table-beer made entirely from sugar. He says, “ There is a purity of taste belonging to it quite different from the indescribable jumble of tastes so perceptible in common ales ; and a light sharpness, combined with tenuity, which is more agreeable than the glutinous mucilaginous softness of even the best ales. But it has one advantage which places it above all competition ; and that is its lightness on the stomach. This, when compared with the sickly heaviness of malt ale, is really remarkable.” · In short, to those who wish light, pleasant ale or table-beer, which can be very easily managed in the brewing, we heartily recommend the partial use of raw sugar,-- to those who study 8, this inst d this adAire the samban the linn, n into ano Terefore 2 er, and is one reckon, FRONT s necesare stion marini copper lite nalt will make bushel wat ic Brewers he market saccharines urse of his be ground the ferage 3 646 DOMESTIC BREWING. three gallons and a half per bushel. The heat of the wort when it rus from the tap should be from 145° to 152°. When the tap has been kept running for some time, and the surface of the bed of the mash begins to appear, you must be- gin to sparge* in water at the temperature of 190°, and continue always to sparge in as the surface appears, the tap in the mean. time being kept running, till the number of gallons you require for the ale has been percolated through the mash. The first 44 gallons of worts must be set aside for the half-hogshead of strong ale; the next 40 gallons is for the half-hogshead of middle ale; after which the tap may be stopped, and the table-beer wort allowed to remain in the mash. The 24 gallons of water sparged in for the table-beer may be at the temperature of 1950. The quantity of water which it will be necessary to sparge on the mash for the first and second ales will be 54 gal. lons; besides the 24 gallons for table-beer. By the time you have sparged on the mash about 30 gallons your strong-ale wort will be ready for boiling; and if you have only one copper you must bring the water in it to boil, then damp the fire with wet ashes, throw open the door of the fur. nace, and run into one of the fermenting tuns about fifty gal- lons of boiling water to continue the sparging. To prevent the copper from being injured, the moment the water is run out of it pour in the strong-ale wort, the strength of which you have previously ascertained by the saccharometer. It will require about 44 gallons of this wort to yield 30 gallons after being boiled and cooled; for about two gallons will be absorbed by the hops, and one-fourth of the remainder will go off by evapo- ration. When the wort in the copper attains the temperature of 200°, just before it begins to boil, put into it two pounds of the best East Kent hops, well rubbed and separated with the hand. Clear up the fire, and make the wort boil briskly for 45 minutes, stirring it well during the operation. The more quickly the wort boils, the sooner it will break into flakes and fine itself. At the end of 45 minutes put in other two pounds of the hops, separating them with the hand as before. These are only to boil from 25 to 30 minutes. By this method the strength of the first parcel of hops is extracted; while, by only the partial boiling of the second, their aroma is retained, which imparts a delicate flavour to the ale. * Sparging. — To sparge is to sprinkle the hot water or run it in a shower over the mash, so as to spread it at once over the whole surface. This, in home-brewing, may be easily accomplished with a wooden vessel. the bottom of which is perforated with innumerable small holes. While one pours the hot water into this vessel, the other moves it round the mash-tun, so as to sprinkle the water equally over the whole surface of the mash. A large watering-pan with a wooden handle (not to heat) will serve the same purpose if the rose is turned downwards by a bend in the spout, so as to sprinkle the water more easily upon the mash. DOMESTIC BREWING. 647 set to If 84 of the 150 pounds of saccharine matter contained in the boll of malt are extracted in this first running of 44 gallons, now reduced to about 30 gallons by evaporation and absorption with the hops, each gallon will contain about 24 pounds; and as one pound of extract to the gallon gives a gravity of 34, the 23 pounds will yield a gravity of from 95 to 100. To ascer- tain its exact strength, however, before drawing off, put some of the wort into the sample-tube of the saccharometer, immerse it in cold water till it cool to 60° on the thermometer, and try its gravity by the saccharometer. If a greater strength is wished than the saccharometer indicates, add a half-pound of raw sugar per gallon, or fifteen pounds to the contents of the copper, and the wort will gain an additional gravity of 17. Wort of a gra- vity from 112 to 118 is of sufficient strength to make the best family-ale,-equal indeed to what is sold by the brewers of the far-famed Edinburgh ale at £6 per hogshead. While the boiling of the first wort has been going on, the second wort for the middle ale has run from the mash-tun, and is now in the underback; its strength has been tried with the saccharometer and noted down, and two pailfuls of it are ready to be poured into the boiler the moment it is empty, to prevent the copper from being injured by the fire. After the first wort has boiled from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, and been treated according to the above directions, the fire must be completely damped and the furnace- door thrown open. The piece of canvass must be fixed on the straight tap of the boiler as directed in page 639, and must be allowed to hang down into a large hair-sieve, placed above the tub which is to receive the wort, in order to keep out the hops. Open the tap, and let a person keep stirring the wort while it runs off, to prevent the hops from subsiding to the bottom of the boiler. THE MIDDLE ALE. The moment the copper is empty, let the two pailfuls of the second wort be poured into it. Put in the rest as quickly as possible, and put into the copper other two pounds of fresh hops, reserving the hops which came off with the boiled wort for the table-beer. The strong-ale wort must now go into the coolers, and should not exceed in depth four or five inches. Stir up the fire, and let the second wort boil briskly for one hour and a half. After the wort has boiled one hour, put in a half pound of fresh hops, and, in twenty minutes after this, cool some of the wort to 60°, and try its strength with the saccha- rometer. Should it stand 57 on the instrument,—that is, one pound and two-thirds of saccharine matter to the gallon, or 50 pounds more of the extract,ếput into the boiler sugar to bring it up to 74. If there are 30 gallons of wort, 15 pounds of sugar will do this. After the sugar has been boiled a few minutes with the wort, draw off the contents of the copper as before, and dis- which = ਸਦਾ Bol 648 DOMESTIC BREWING. tribute it in the coolers. This should make ale equal in strength to that which is sold by the Edinburgh brewers at £3 per hogs- head, but, from the addition of the sugar, lighter and more deli- cate in flavour. THE TABLE BEER. As soon as you have drawn off the second running from the boiler, pour into it the table-beer wort, having previously tried its strength with the saccharometer; and put in with it the four pounds of hops boiled in the first copper. It must boil two hours. If, as we supposed, 84 pounds of the saccharide matter were extracted from the malt in the first wort, and 50 pounds in the second, (134 pounds,) the remaining saccharum in the mash will amount to about 16 pounds,—and it may not be possible to extract all this in the process. When the wort begins to boil, make five or six gallons of it to percolate through the 2 pounds of boiled hops from the second copper, to ex. tract the ale-wort from them. Then drain these hops well, and, throwing them away, return the strained wort to the copper. After the wort has boiled in all an hour and three quarters, cool some of it to 60°,ếtry its strength with the saccharometer, and add sugar to raise it as high as you wish. The strength of the wort will perhaps pot be more than from 30 to 34, and a half-pound of sugar per gallon will give an additional gravity of 17, which will raise it to 48 or 50. If then there are 16 gallons in the copper, add eight pounds of sugar. This will form a light refreshing drink during dinner, and when you are not inclined for the middle or strong ale. See that of each kind of ale you have two gallons more than your casks will contain when the ale is put into them; for it will continue fermenting two or three days, or longer, in the casks; and a good deal will be thrown off in this process, which must be sup- plied regularly from this extra quantity. In case of shortcom- ing after all, it is well to have a few extra gallons of the table- beer. You can then fill up the strong-ale cask with the middle ale, and the middle-ale cask with the extra table-beer. FERMENTATION. PROCURE a gallon of brewers' best strong-ale yeast; and for this brewing you will need three fermenting tung. It will be best to have two of them capable of containing about 42 gallons each, which will serve the purpose of fermenting a barrel (36 gallons) should it ever be found necessary. A tun capable of containing a half-hogshead will serve for the table-beer, and will afterwards ferment a kilderkin (18 gallons) if needful. As soon as your strong-ale wort is cooled to 85°, take out about a gallon of it, and pour into it three English pints, or 3 pounds of the yeast. When it begins to ferment, add a little more wort, and a vigorous fermentation will soon take place. If the weather is cool, or the atmosphere from 40° to 45°, commence fermentation as soon as the wort is cooled to 75º. Pour the DOMESTIC BREWING. 649 er; and at Poned ! DE : in the INH the remain Tig Itops the second train these Lined wart und Tour and then Tog mish Dauda an from 30 an additions Then there are This will heart veast-mixture all over the inside of the fermenting tun, as far up as the wort will rise. Turn in the strong-ale wort now, and incorporate it well with the yeast; after which cover up the tun. Follow exactly the same plan with the middle-ale wort, fermenting as before with 3 English pints of the yeast. Fer- ment the 16 gallons of table-beer wort at the temperature of 80° with one English pint of the yeast. You have one English pint of the yeast remaining, in case the fermentation in any of the tuns becomes languid. On the morning after the worts have been put into the tuns, if the fermentation has gone on smoothly, the ale-worts should show a slight white cream. Break this down into the mass, stir well up the contents of the tuns, and take out a little for examination. The saccharometer should show a decrease of gravity, and the thermometer a small increase of heat. Examine the tuns again in the evening, and should the fermentation ap- pear rather languid, add a small portion of yeast, and mix it up well with the mass. On the second morning, if fermentation is going on well, a white frothy head, something like a cauli- flower, should appear on the contents of the tuns, with perhaps patches of dark-brown yeast on its surface. Be careful to remove these patches, or they will impart a harsh disagreeable flavour to the ale. Take out some of the liquor and examine it. If the saccharometer does not indicate a considerable decrease of gra- vity, and the thermometer an increase of heat, break down the head once more into the mass, and stir the whole well up. After this the head must remain unbroken till it is skimmed off, but samples may be occasionally taken out to ascertain to what ex- tent attenuation has taken place. When the head assumes a dark-brown appearance, and begins to be depressed in the cen- tre, it must be removed, or it will fall to the bottom and destroy the flavour of the ale. Be especially careful to prevent this. After skimming apply the saccharometer. Should the gravity not be reduced two-fifths,—that is, that which originally stood at 100 be reduced to 60,—and that which was 65 be reduced to 39,-rouse it well up, and skim every two hours, till this degree of attenuation is, if possible, attained. The table-beer should be put into the cask 24 hours after fermentation has commenced in the fermenting tun. See that the casks are perfectly clean and dry. Place them on a gawntree with the bunghole a little inclined to one side, that the yeast may discharge itself freely from the ale. Fill the casks, and as for some time a considerable discharge will take place from the bunghole, be careful to supply the deficiency every two hours from the pitchers containing the over-contents of the casks. If this be not attended to the yeast will fall to the bottom, and make the ale harsh, besides rendering it liable to new fermentation on every change of weather. When the fermentation has subsided the casks should be roo ano na wa two callow put into them:ht buonger, in the CASS, TRACE DOS - In case of the Ta gallons of the cask with the 3 table-beer. 7g-ale peat: ing tons, livi ping about top penting a bere the table-beter ns) if need tal 1, take out aho ots, or 3 p dd a lite se te place. 11 Iso Pour 630 DOMESTIC BREWING. firmly bunged down with wooden bungs, called by the brewers shires, and a spile-hole made in them, into which a vent-peg is put loosely for a day or two, and then firmly fixed. When ale is made in March and intended to be kept over the summer, it may be advisable to put 4 or 6 ounces of the finest hops into every half-hogshead ; or the half of this quantity if the ale is racked off into quarter-hogsheads or kilderkins, which are per- haps more convenient for domestic use. If notwithstanding all your care the ale should be cloudy, it will be necessary to fine it by artificial means. To do this you must dissolve an ounce of isinglass in a quart of cider or stale beer, allowing it to stand for several days, when another quart of cider or beer may be added. Strain this through a sieve, and put nearly the half of an English pint of it to each quarter-hogs- head or kilderkin, inixing it thoroughly with the ale. Ale should not be fined in this manner unless absolutely necessary; for it has a strong tendency to flatten it and promote acidity. In this brewing the strong-ale wort may have a gravity of from 112 to 115; the middle-ale wort, a gravity of 74; and the table- beer wort, a gravity of from 48 to 50. The expense will stand thus :- BO 6 bushels malt at 7s. 6d. €25 01 The proceeds at cost price. 6. pounds hops at Is. 6d. 0 9 9 14 doz. strong ale at 3s. 4d. £2 6 8 3 gross corks at 3s. 0 9 0 14 doz, middle ale at ls. 10d. 1 5 8 Sugar, perhaps 38 lbs. at 5. d. 0 17 5 7 doz. table-beer at ls. 4d. 0 9 4 £4 1 2 £4 1 8 The cost of the above, if purchased from a retailer in dozens, would stand thus : 14 dozen six-pound ale at 5s. per dozen................£3 10 0 14 dozen three-pound ale at 2s. 6d......... 1 15 0 7 dozen table-beer at Is. 9d..... 0 12 3 £5 17 3 II. To brew from six Bushels of Malt (without Sugar) a Barrel (36 Gallons) of Ale, and a Barrel (36 Gallons) of Table-beer. Have your mash-tub in proper order, as directed at page 640, and mash as before the six bushels of malt with 50 gallons of water at the temperature of 182º. Let the mash remain covered froin two to three hours, and then begin to draw off. When the surface of the mash begins to appear, sparge into the mash-tun, as directed in the last case, 64 gallons of water, at the tempera- ture of 190°, keeping the tap running during the operation. If your boiler is large enough to manage from 50 to 54 gallons, with the hops, put into it that quantity of the strong-ale wort; for the evaporation in boiling and cooling, and the absorption by the 652 DOMESTIC BREWING, best strong-ale yeast, and put it into the cask after 24 hours' fer- mentation in the tun, filling it up carefully as the yeast is thrown out at the bunghole. If the ale wort show a gravity of 84, it will contain nearly two pounds and a half of saccharine matter per gallon, and the result of the mashing will stand thus : 1. 38 gallons ale wort at nearly 24 lbs. extract 94, gravity 84 2. 38 gallons table-beer wort at nearly 13 lbs. extract 56, gravity 50 The cost of the brewing will stand thus:- 6 bushels malt at 7s.6d., 6 pounds hops at ls. 6d., £2 5 0 09 0 36 gallons ale at Is., - 36 gallons table-beer at 6d., £1 16 0 0 18 9 3 gross corks at 38., £2 14 0 0 90 £2 14 0 If bottled, the cost will be 18 dozen ale at 2s. 3d., £2 0 6 18 dozen table-beer at ls. 3d., 1 2 6 cost will £3 3 0 lozen tas at 2. £3 30 The corks used are of the best kind, at 3s. per gross, which considerably increases the cost of the table-beer; but many use a lower-priced cork for it, and others make the corks serve twice. Ferment the barrel of table-beer in a tun capable of containing above 42 gallons; and be sure you have enough to fill your barrel, or two kilderkins, with two or three gallons more to supply what may run over at the bunghole during the fermentation in the cask. Obseroation.— In drawing off the worts from the mash-tun, the greatest care must be taken to turn the tap only partially at first, and to receive the first running into a pail, and return it to the mash-tun till it become perfectly clear. After this the tap may be turned more fully round; taking care, however, that the bed of the mash is not broken, and that the first sparging does not render the wort running from the tap muddy, in which case it would be necessary to receive some more of the wort in a pail, and return it to the mash-tun. This observation, though not repeated, must be carefully attended to in all the receipts. HOW TO MANAGE FOUR BUSHELS OF MALT. III. To Brew from four Bushels of Malt one Kilderkin (18 Gallons or 9 Dozen) of Strong Ale, and one Barrel (36 Gallons or 18 Dozen) of Table-Beer; using Sugar along with the Malt. Mash four bushels of the best pale malt with 36 gallons of water at the temperature of 182º, according to the directions in page 645. Let the mash remain covered two hours and a-half, and then begin to draw off into the underback. When the sur- DOMESTIC BREWING. 653 90 1:12: Ja psa kind, at 3Het he sabit-hepi make the most na capabied Fe enough n il La moes more the fermeture face of the mash appears, begin to sparge into the mash-tun 58 gallons of water at the temperature of 190°, as before, keeping the tap open till you have drawn off into the underback as much as will yield about 38 gallons of wort for the first copper. Stop the tap for some time; but be sure to have the table-beer wort in the underback in time for the second copper. This strong-ale wort will be reduced by evaporation in boiling, &c., to about 27 gallons, which is seven gallons more than you need ; but the surplus will go into the table-beer wort, which otherwise the copper could not, perhaps, at once contain. Put the strong-ale wort into the boiler, with two pounds of the best hops, and make it boil briskly for 45 minutes, after which add another half-pound of hops. Boil for 30 minutes longer, (one hour and a-quarter in all,) and then draw off as directed in page 647. Cool some of the wort to 60° a little before drawing off ; try its strength with the saccharometer; draw off seven gallons for the table-beer wort, and then put into the copper what sugar may be necessary to raise the gravity of the remaining 20 gal- lons to 115, which will give you Edinburgh ale at £6 per hogs- head; or to 102, if you prefer Edinburgh ale at £5 per hogshead. Ferment the strong-ale wort, at the temperature of 75°, with two English pints and a-half, or two pounds and three-quarters of the best strong-ale yeast. Fill the copper again immediately with the table-beer wort; return the hops to the boiler, and add one pound and a-half of fresh hops. Let this copper boil for two hours. Draw it off and mix it with the seven gallons taken from the first copper. Cool a portion of the mixture to 60°; try its strength with the saccharometer, and add what sugar is neces- sary to raise it to 50, if you feel inclined. Ferment the table- beer-wort, at the temperature of 80°, with two pints and a-half of the best strong-ale yeast, according to the directions in page 648. If the gravity of the strong-ale wort is 93, (that is 2 pounds saccharine-matter per gallon,) by adding 13 pounds of sugar to the 20 gallons of wort, the gravity will be raised to 115. In this case, there should remain about 19 ounces per gallon for the 38 gallons of table-beer wort, which will yield a gravity of about 40; eleven pounds of sugar will raise this to 50. The re- sult of the operation will stand thus :- 20 gals. ale wort at 24 lbs. per gal., gravity 93— Saccharum =55 22 115 38 gals. table-beer wort at 19 oz. per gal., do. 40 do. =45 11 lbs. sugar, .. do. 10 --50 The cost will stand thus:- 4 bushels malt at 7s. 6d., £1 10 0.1 9 doz. ale at 3s. 4d., . $1 10 0 4 pounds hops at Is. 6d., 0 6 0 18 doz. table-beer at ls. 4d., 14 0 24 pounds sugar at 52 d. 0 11 0 24 gross corks, 0 6 9 £2 14 0 £2 13 9 Hvorts from the 1080 3 M, DA Ir clear. 42 le tap adik! then obsepryte in all the met 13 lbs. sugar, .......................... do. ring siguro 175 200 M 656 DOMESTIC BREWING. hops to the copper and add another half-pound. Let this second wort boil two hours. Cool a portion of it to 60° and try its strength. Add sugar to give it a gravity of 50, (if you wish it. Draw off, --cool to the temperature of 80', and ferment with one English pint of the best strong-ale yeast, as directed in the first receipt. Ferinent the ale-wort at 75° with one English pint and three-quarters of the best strong-ale yeast. See FER- MENTATION in first receipt. In this small brewing suppose the strong-ale wort to stand 88 of gravity, and the table-beer wort 24. How much sugar will be required to raise the strong.ale wort to 115, and the table- beer wort to 50 ! 115--88=27 x 15=495= 12 pounds nearly for strong ale. 50--24=26 x 16= =12 pounds nearly for table-beer. The cost will be,- 2 bushels malt at 7s. 6d. £0 15 0 1 7 doz. strong ale at 3s. 4d. £l 3 4 24 pounds sugar at 5. d. 0 11 0 | 7 doz. table-beer at ls. 4d. 0 9 4 2 pounds hops at Is. 6d. 14 dozen corks, at 3d. 0 3 6 £1 12 8 If bought in dozens :- £1 12 6 | 7 doz. strong ale at 5s. £1 15 0 7 doz. table-beer at 2s. 0 14 0 0 3 0 £290 The quantity of malt is here so little that the table-beer cannot well be made without sugar. The ale wort may, however, be re- duced to 80, which will allow the beer wort a gravity of about 31, and by adding a quarter pound of sugar to the gallon, or 4 pounds to the weak wort, the gravity will be raised to 40. The result will then be :- 2 bushels malt at 7s. 6d. £0 15 0 ! 7 doz. ale at 2s. 2d. £0 15 2 2 pounds hops at ls. 6d. 0 3 0 7 doz. table-beer at ls. 2d. 0 8 2 14 doz, corks 0 3 6 4 pounds of sugar at 54d. 0 1 10 £1 3 4 £1 3 4! By following the foregoing directions, the home-brewer might, with very simple apparatus, make, in any ordinary kitchen, with a boiler capable of containing ten gallons of water, a quarter hogshead (7 dozen) of table-beer at Is. 6d. per dozen, equal in strength and flavour to the best Prestonpans table-beer at 2s. 6d. per dozen : or, by adding to the wort eight pounds of raw sugar, a delightful light ale at 2s. per dozen, equal in strength, and superior in flavour, to what he could purchase at 3s. per dozen. 658 INDEX. stewers, 388ich ma Bacon hams, to roast, 397. | Beef, to bake a rump of, 128. with Windsor beans, 90. boiled, or bouilli ordinaire garn with Madeira, 96. de choux, or with cabbage, 8 Bain Marie, note, 187. 306. Baking meat, observations on, 127. garni de racines, or with paste, 449 to 456. roots, 150. bread, 544. to ragout or braise a rump of, 305. pears and apples, 514. to stew or ragout a brisket of, 306- Balls, brain, 357. 308. of egg for mock turtle, 167. brisket of stewed, savoury, 308 forcemeat, fish, 182, 194. bachelor's stew of, 310. potato, 245. to boil a bachelor's round of, 307. beverages for children's, 559, 560. fillet of, in Madeira, 316. Ballyshannon pickle, 190. to stew a leg or shin of, 307. Balnamoon skink, 428. à la mode, with obs. on, 307, & BARCLAY, Dr. his experiments on brisket, à la Flamande, 310. making butter, 614. culotte à la gellé, obs. No. 390. Barbadoes water, 550. à la royale, No. 390. Barberries, to preserve, 254, 299. steaks, to broil, 131. Barley-water, to make, 585. note on, 132, 133. broth, 176. steaks, with cucumbers, 311. sugar, to make, 531. collops in the pan, 138. qualities of barley, note, 177. steaks, with potatoes or beans, 133 Basket of sugar, to make a Chantilly, steaks, to fry, 138. 422. entre côte de beuf, 387. Bastings, note, 113. tongues, to stew, 311. Baths, temperature of, 594. to cure, 608. Bath buns, 540. to braise, 388. Batter, and French do. 496. en miroton, 387. Beans, French, to dress, 232. stewed rump of, with glazed à la poulette, 416. onions, 388. pudding of, two ways, 602. another French mode, 389. Windsor, with ham, 96. rumps or tails, à la mode, or in to boil, 232. hoche-pot, 313. and other, 232. soup of tails, 173. à la poulette, 416. tails, to dress, 313. to preserve, by salting, 254. palates, to dress, 310. to pickle French, 296. palates, French way, à l'Italienne, BEAUVILLIERS, a late eminent Pari- 387. sian restaurateur, receipts by, kidneys, to dress, 312. 316, 359, 607. kidneys for dejeuner à la forer. Bechamel, or the French white sauce, chette, 312, 396. 269, 379. to dress a cold stewed rump of, Beef, to boil, observations on, 84, 5, 6. 389. boiled, or bouille ordinaire, 89. tea, 586. qualities of, 42. heart, 314. to salt, 605, 606, 608. udder, 315. to salt a mart, 610. skirts, 314. Dutch, 315. liver, 314, Irish, 316. ox-head soup, and Hessian ragout, Hamburgh, or bouf fumée, 316. 170. hunter's, or spiced, 315. potted heels, 98, 99, 432. bæuf de chasse, 315. sweetbreads, to fry, 142. to press, 316. to pot, 321. olives au roi, 313. to collar, 309. marrow-bones, 314. to roast a sirloin of, 105. mince collops of, 431. to roast the rump, or part of it, 106. sausages of, 360. observations on roasting, 104. for patties and podovies, 471, to roast ribs of, 106. for small pies, 472. to roast collared ribs of, 309. cold, to dress, from 317 to 321. to boil a salted round, or rump, inside of a sirloin or fillet, 317. with greens, obs. on, 88, 89. to fricassee, 317. Isor, withyo ways: 16 oli kes, 3138, to frv., 432 to boost colls of, 10asting, fit, 106 660 INDEX. Burdwan, Indian, 448. Butter, to cure, 614-617. as made in Dunbartonshire, 616. to colour, No. 1205. to melt, 257. to thicken for sauce, 258. to melt in cream, 259. to recover, if oiled, note, 258. to clarify, 137. black, of fruit, for children, 524. anchovy, 284. Fairy, 371. Montpelier, 381. to roll or mould for breakfasts, cheese-courses, or garnishings, 618. to freshen, 617 to scoop, 618. filbert, 618. honey, 617. to improve, if rancid, 617. mean temperature at which cream should be put into the churn, 614. to oil, 258. to brown or burn, that is Black butter, 258. parsley and butter, 259. Buttered lobster, 218. prawns and shrimps, No. 169. apples, 513. eggs, 367. Cakes, Queen's, cinnamon, sugar, 541 Kent and rout, 542. Shortbread, Scottish, or short- cake, 537. Petticoat-tails, Scotch, 540. ratafia, 538. Macaroons, 537. gingerbread, 538. Calecannon, to dress, 246. Calves' feet jelly, 505. tails to dress, 328. feet, 333. liver, 328, 329. liver, with fine herbs, 393. brains, 392. ears, 392. sweetbreads, 328, 392. head, 329, 330, 331. pluck, 327. head to currie, 391. cold sweetbreads to dress, 393. brains à la Ravigote, 391. à la maitre d'hôtel, 392. For all other things see VEAL, from pp. 321 to 334 ; also froze pp. 389 to 394; and Chapter Roasting, Frying, Pies, and Soups. CAMERANI soup, by H. J., 386. Camp-vinegar, 289. yeast, 548. Canapes, 358. Caper-sauce, 269. mock, 269. Capers, substitute for, No. 383. Capillaire, syrup of, to make, 560. Carach sauce, 270. Carrots, to dress, 235. Flemish way, 235. Carrier-sauce, No. 264. CARVING, directions for, 47 to 59. Caramel sugar, 520. Careme, a celebrated modern cook, 46, 372, 373. Carp, to stew, 205. to stuff and bake, 209. Matelote of, à la royale, 409. Casserole, or rice-border, 370, an English, 370. of mutton, 340. Irish stew, in No. 764. cheap, of potato-pastry, 603. Castle puddings, 479. Catsup, to make mushroom, 291. walnut, 291. lemon, 292. tomata, 292 cucumber, 292. oyster, cockle, and muscle, 293. sugar, 293. Caudle, white and brown, 585. Caudle-sauce for a plum-pudding 277 Cauliflowers, to dress, 229. - Cabbage, obs. on, note, 239. to stew red, 239. to pickle red, 298. to boil, 233. to stew, with duck, 352. sauer crout of, 444. Cabinet pudding, 485. Café à la créme, 591. noir, 591. Cakes, obs. on baking, 533. to ice, 534. to frost a bride's, or fine one, 534. a plain pound-cake, 534. a plain plum-cake, 534. a rich plum-cake, 535. rose soufflé, 532. a rice-cake, 535. Gateau de riz, or French rice-cake for centre of a table, 536. fine seed-cake, 535. common seed-cake, 536. diet cake, 536. Savoy, or sponge cake, 537. Yorkshire, 546. flour scones or slim, 541. tea-cakes, various kinds, 539. Sally Lunn, 546. Johnny, of Indian meal, 541. Tunbridge and Shrewsbury, 539. Derby, 541. INDEX. 661 Cauliflowickle, 300.. 496. | Che Wido pię of, so Cauliflowers, with Parmesan, 230. Cherries, pie of, 463. Widow Barnaby's, 559. with lamb, No. 496. Cherry-brandy, black, 552. Caviare, and mock caviare, 220. Cherry-brandy or whisky, 551. Cayenne pepper, to make, 286. Chestnuts, boiled or roasted, 248. essence of, 285. Chetney or Chatné sauce, 276. Celery, to stew, 238. Chicken, friars', 431. sauce of, 267-268. tea of, No. 1133. soup of, obs. No. 63. Chickens, to boil, 93, 94. Crevelles des moutons, (sheep's brains,) cutlets of, 349. to dress, 396. to roast, 116. Chantilly baskets, 422. to broil, 134. Charlotte, 488. to fricassee white, 350. Charlotte Prussienne, 491. to braise with green peas, mush- Chartreuse of apples, 514. rooms, &c., 349. Chatné sauce, 276. to currie, 354, 355. Chaudót, the, Carême's pudding various French modes of dressing, sauce, 477. 400-405. Cheap dishes, obs. 598. to ragout, 348. receipts for preparing, 600-604. croquets and rissoles of, 358. Cheese, obs. on, 618. chicken and ham patties, 469. directions for keeping, 619-620. chicken-pie, 459. rennet for, 620. to poële, 414. to colour, 622. to pull, 351. British Parmesan, 622. scallops of cold, 402. Scotch Stilton, 623. Chili vinegar, 288. Premium cheese, or imitation of China chilo, 441. double Gloucester, 623. Chocolate, to make, 592. best Dunlop, 624. Spanish, excellent, 592. a rich cream, 625. Chops, pork, 134, 140. Shap Zigar, 625. mutton and lamb, 133. crowdie, note, 623. lamb, with potatoes, 342. toasted, or rabbits, 365. sauces for pork chops, Nos. 292, toast and, 364. 293, and 318. American way, to preserve, 620. | Choux of paste royal, 420. to produce the blue mould, 622. Cider vinegar, 287. Scotch, Welsh, and O'Doherty's Cinnamon cordial, 549. rabbits of, 365, 366. drops and tablet, 530. crusts for toasted, No. 81. tincture of, 286. to pot, 364. Citron cordial, 549. pudding of, 481. Civet of hare, 386. to grate and toast as a relish, 365. of venison, 344. fritters of, 364. of roebuck, 387. sandwiches of, 362. Cleaning, 629 to 636. pastry ramakins of, 363. Clove cordial, 550. ramakins of, 363. tincture of, 286. to braise, 365. Coals, obs. on the waste of them, note, Welsh gallimaufry, 365. 102. fondu, 404. Cock-a-leekie, 427. brioche au fromage, No. 717, p. 421. ! Cockles, to stew, 220. an egg-cheese, 512. to scallop, 223. Arabian, note, 623. Cocoa-nut cream, 503. Gouda, 625. Codlings, to dress, No. 136. Cheese-course, bills for, 67, 71. sauces for, 279, 280. Cheese-cakes, almond, lemon, or to currie, 211. orange, 511. Cod, to boil, or haddock, 196. good old-fashioned, 511. head and shoulders of, Scotch way, savoury, 365. 195. Cherries, to preserve, 528. Obs. on, notes, 195, 196. to preserve without sugar, No. 992. cabeached, 197. en chemise, 528. to broil sounds of, 197. en compóte, 417. to currie cold, 197. dried, 528. to crimp, 198. musim 662 INDEX. veniso uops, te, 399; 49. Cod, to dress salt, 198. to currie fresh, 211. pie of salt, 214. French mode of dressing salt cod, or morue à la bonne femme, 410. Provence brandade, 445. Coffee, obs. on, and different ways of making, 587-591. Coffee-milk, 591. Collier's roast, No. 1193. Collared beef, 309. eels, 207 potato, 245. Collops, Scotch, of beef, 138. kidney, 312. minced, of beef, hare, veal, or venison, 431, 432. venison-collops, 142, 344, 432. of mutton à la minute, 395. Colouring of soups and sauces, 149. Colour of provisions a good test of their quality, 42. Consomme and grand do., 151. French, 377. ookery, French, obs. on, 371 to 376, also note, 151, 152. for the sick, 580 to 594. for the poor, 598-604. utensils for, 39, 603. Cook's spices, 286. Cool tankard, two ways, 558. Cordials, cinnamon, citron, 549. clove, 550. créme d'orange, 550. créme d'absinthe, 550. Barbadoes water, 550. Curaçoa, 549. Corstorphine cream, 582. Covers, tin, to heat, note, 187. Cow-heels, to boil, 99. gravy of, for mock-turtle, 167. gravy of, for fish-turtle, 211. sauce for, 99. to pot, 432. to pot heads, 432. Crabs, to boil, 216. to pot, 217. pie of, 218. sauce of, 278. to dress, hot and cold, 218. Cranberry-tart, 466. jelly, 522. gruel, No. 1145. Cranberries, to salt, 254. Crappit heads, 436. Cray-fish, soup of, 181. an ornamental dish of, 219. to dress, 213. Creams, obs. on, 498. to freeze, 499, 500. Cream, Italian, 500. another way, 500. ginger, 501. Cream, Vanilla, 501. coffee, 502. whipt coffee, 501. ratafia, 502. a plain, 502 orange, 502. lemon, 503. canary or sack, 503. raspberry and strawberry, not iced, 503. pine-apple, 503. cocoa-nut, 503. to ice creams of fruit, Nos. 885 and 900. strawberry ice, 504. raspberry ice, 504. apricot ice, 504. imitation of red-fruit ice, 504. clouted, 512. curds and, 512. sour, for curries, No. 154. for coffee, slightly acid, 590. Crême de rose, 597. Créme patissiere, or cold custard, 419. Croquets and rissoles, 358, 402. Crowdie of Inverness and Ross-shires, note, 623. of butter-milk, 583. Crumbs, to prepare, for crumbing and frying, and to fry crumbs and parsley, 143. another way, 144. Crust, pie and tart, observations on, and directions for making puff- paste, 449 to 452. French paste for hot pies, 452. cheap, for raised meat-pies, 453. common, for savoury pies, 453. rich, of beef-suet, 453. common tart-paste, 453. short, for preserved sweetmeats, 453. venison-pasty, also for lining tim- balle shapes, 454. fine, for delicate preserves, 454. paste-royal, 419. brioche paste, 420. French puff-paste of lard, 452. of beef-suet, 452. rice paste for savoury pies, 454. Crusts, to grill, 163. Croustades, 370. Cubbubed mutton, veal, or chicken, currie, 584. Cucumbers, to dress, 252. to preserve, 528. to stew, 238. sauce of, 239. water of, No. 1143. French way, 238. to pickle, 295, 296. to serve with lamb, 340 584. INDEX. 669 Lobsters, to choose, No. 165. Melons, to preserve, No. 994. note on, 216. Miroton de pommes, 418. pie of, 214. Milk, saloop, and sago, 581, 582. to boil, 216. rive, 580. to pot, 217. coffee, 591. haut gout, 217. sugared, or lait sucré, 559. to roast, 218. auld man's, 559. to butter, 218. artificial ass's, 593. to fricassee, 218. soup of, 182. in the French mode, 218. porridge of, 603. soup of, 179. Milk punch, 556. sauce of, for turbot, &c., 278. Mille feuille, or thousand-leaved cake, sauce for, No. 165. two ways, 510. salads of, 250. Milcou, 447. petites vol-au-vents of, 405. Mincemeat, 466, 407. patties of, 470. Mince-pies, common and superlative, Love-apples.—See Tomata sauce, 268. 466, 467. Mince-collops of veal, beef, bare, and Macaroni, or Italian soup, 158. venison, 431, 432. in the richest Italian way, 413. Mince of cold beef, 319. to dress, 363. of veal, 333, and Non. 6:30-8 Parisian pudding of, 481. loin of venl with, No. 643. rich pudding of, 480. of mutton, 340. in Camerani soup, 386. of pig, No. 650, also 640, 070, 071. Macaroons, 537. . Mint-sauce for lamb, 268. Macedoine of roots, 415. Miser's sauce, 270. · Mackerel, to dress, 204. Mixed spices, 286. pie of, No. 162. Mock turtle-soup, 165. to fry, as No. 136. egg-balls for, 167. roe-sauce of, 280. another soup, 107. with fine herbs, the same as No. Mock turtle-soup, baked, 167. 688. call's hend, 171. Made-dishes, observations on, 301, 302, Mock caviare, 220. 303, 304. caper-sauce, 209. of beef, 305. Moorfowl or grouse, to roast, 124. of veal, 321. to broil, 135. of mutton, 334. pie of, 458. Madeira wine jelly, 506. soups of, 168, 169, 170. ham with, 96. and No. 97.-See Salmis, Devil, fillet of beef with, 316. Nos. 517, 673, 674. Magnum bonums, to preserve, 527. salade of, à la Soyer, 124. Maids, to dress, No. 187. sauces for, Nos. 32, 296, 289, Maintenon cutlets, 326, 336. Mullet, to dress, 211. Manheim rolls, to bake, 545. Mullagatawny soup, 164. Marrow-bones, to cook, 314. as made in India, 442. pudding, 476. to boil rice for, 356, 357. Marmalade, Scotch orange, 523. Mulled wine, 556. apricot and plum, 523. Muscles, to stew, 221, 226. smooth orange, 524. to brown in their own juice, No. transparent, 524. 180. apple, 524. soup of, observations, No. 104. peach, nectarine, and quince, No. catsup of, 293. 974, observations on, 523. Mushrooms, observations on, 240. Mayonnaise, 266. to stew white or brown, 241. à la gellée, 267. to grill, à la Bordelais, 242. Meat, to choose, 42, 43. sauces of, 267. to keep, No. 3, p. 100; Nos. 25 Beauvilliers' sauce of, 382. and 20. with veal sweetbreads, 392. to cure, to salt, from 605 to 613. with fowl, No. 514. to preserve without smoking, 613. with eggs, No. 568. Melted butter, to make, 257, 258, 259. catsup of, 291. to recover if oiled, note, 258. to pickle, 296. lard, 138. powder of, 284. 672 INDEX. Perches au vin, or in wine, 409. à la maitre d'hôtel, 409. to fry, No. 145, and p. 202. Perfume, a cheap, 596. Perigord-pie, 461. Pheasants and partridges, to roast, 121. Pickles, obs. on, 294, 295. to hasten the preparation of, 300. to green, 295. Pickle, cucumbers to, 295. French beans to, 296. cucumbers and onions, 296. walnuts to, green, 296. mushrooms, to, 296. onions, 297. red cabbage, 298. beetroot, 293. Indian pickle or picallilli, 298. barberries for garnishing, 299. bitter oranges, to, 300. lemons, to, 300. melons, to, 299. cauliflower and brocoli, 300. nasturtiums, to, 300. various things that are pickled, 300. barberries and sundry vegetables, to salt or keep in pickle, 254. for beef, 610, 11. for salmon, or Ballyshannon, 190. souse, or pickle to keep for cold fish, obs. No. 113. Pie, beef-steak, 454. tripe, No. 780. plain veal, 455. a richer veal, 455. a very rich veal, 455. veal olive, 455. rich veal olive, Scottish, 456. calf's head, to eat cold, 456. calf's feet, 457. a bride's, 457. a mutton, 457. a squab, No. 789. a lamb, 458. pigeon, 458. moorfowl, 458. a hare, 459. a rabbit, or Fife, 460. a chicken, 459. giblet, 459. partridge, 460. a goose, 460. a Christmas, 460. Perigord, 461. venison, 461. a rook, 462. a rich fish, maigre, 213. lobster, 214. eel, mackerel, or herring, No. 162. a shrimp or prawn, 214. an excellent salt-fish, 214. a rich fish, 215. partan or crab, 218. Pies, crust for, 449 to 454. to glaze crust for, 466. sauces for fish, 215. savoury jelly for fish, No. 174. meat for small, to prepare, 472, and No. 692. fruit, crust for, 453. apple-pie, 463. cherry, currant, damson, plum, apricot, raspberry, and goose- berry, No. 805. gooseberry, 464. rhubarb, 464. and tarts of any sort of preserved fruit, 464, 5. mince, common, and superlative, 466. Pig, to roast, and sauce and stuffing for, 108, 9. to roast, English mode, 110. soup of pettitoes, 183. head of, to collar, 398, Scotch way, 433. au moine blanc, 397. to dress cold roast, 399. sausages of pig-meat, 359, 60, to salt, 606, 607, 612. Pig's cheek stuffed, French mode, 398. cheek, by a Scotch lady's receipt, 434. pettitoes, 343. harslet, No. 53, p. 142. Pigeons, to roast, and sauce for, 125. to broil, 134, 35. to stew brown, 351. to ragout brown, 351. to braise with mushrooms, 349. to ragout with asparagus, 351. obs. on ways of dressing, 351. pie of, 458. currie of, as No. 534. soup of, 169. Pike, to stuff and bake, 209. in the French mode, or à la Gene. voise, 407. Isaak Walton's receipt for, note, 209. cold fillets of, à la maitre d'hotel, 409. Pilau of veal, 441. of fowl, 440. Pine-apple cream, 503. water ice, 505. Pipers, to dress, 211. Plaice, to dress, 210. Plovers, to roast, 123. eggs of, in salads, No. 239. Pluck, calf's, 327. lamb's, 330. Plum-porridge, 440. Plum-cakes, 534, 5. Plum-puddings, 474, 5, 6. Plum-buns, 542. pigeons broil, WD, 351. 674 INDEX Punch, Glasgow, 553. milk, 556. Norfolk, 555. Queen's cakes, 541. Queen's, or Soupe à la Reine, 155. Quenelles, 411. of poultry, 412. Quin's fish-sauce, 282. QUIN, note on, 282. Pudding, ratafia, 483. almond, three kinds of, 483. orange, 483. lemon, 483. Swiss apple, 484. apple, 484. Nottingham, 484. apricot, 484. peach, No. 856. nectarine, No. 856. gooseberry, 485. Newmarket, 485. Chancellor's or cabinet, 485. ginger, 485. college, 486. in haste, 486. Northumberland, 486. Dutch, 486. Welsh, old fashioned, 487. another, or onion-cheese, 487. potato-flour, 487. George, 487. French fruit-pudding, or Char- lotte, 488. Yorkshire, 488. potato, 489. kidney, 489. Scotch white, 433. liver, 433. blood or black, 435. fine, in skins, 435. French meat, à la Richelieu, 412. plum, common small, 474. Trinity Christmas, 475. The St. Ronan's Plum, 476. cheap plum, 603. Alderman's, No. 834. Bakewell, 480. Welsh, or the Quaker's, 480. sponge cake, 481. the Manse, 484. Charlotte Prussienne, 491. French iced fashionable, 490. pine-apple, 490. Carême's Nesselrode, 491. Parisian iced apple, 491, rump-steak, 492. kidney, 489. fish, 408. hean, two ways, 602. pease, 163. cheap do. 603. sauces for, 276, 277, 477. cream-sauce for, 487. French, omelettes à la Celestine, 418. frangi pane, 419. créme patissiere, 419. Puit d'amour, Nos. 954, 955. Puff-paste, to make, 451, 452. Puffs, apple, lemon, cheese, 465, 468. Punch à la Romaine, 554. Regent's, 558. Rabbit currie, Scotch, 443. Rabbits of cheese, Scotch, 365. Welsh, note, 336. Rabbits, to boil, obs. 98. to fry, 347. to currie, 354, 443. to ragout, 348. to ragout, N.B. to No. 435. to smother, 98, 347. à la Venetienne, 399. Boudins of, à la Richelieu, 412. soups of, as Nos. 89, 90, 97. pie of, 460. patties of, No. 823. sauces for, Nos. 260, 267, 268. Ramakins, 363. pastry, 363. Raspberry-jam, 522. jelly, 507. vinegar, 289. ice-cream, 504. cream, not iced, 503. brandy, 552. dumpling, 494. tarts, 463. Ratafia, common and red, 551, 552. pudding, 483. cream, 502. drops, 531. cakes, macaroons, 537. Receipts, useful miscellaneous ones, 629-638. Red cabbage, to dress, 239. to pickle, 298. herrings, to dress, 208. Rengill's sauce for stubble goose or pork, 272. sauce piquant, for fish or cold meat, 282. Rennet, to make, 620. Gallino, No. 1203. Rhubarb-pie, 464. dumpling, as No. 876. pasty, No. 817. soup, No. 109. Rice, to boil for currie, 356, 357. Hindostanee mode, 357. savoury, for Gateau de riz, 536. puddings of, two kinds, and note, 478, 479. fritters or pancakes of, 496. snow-balls of, 515. 676 INDEX. Sauces, beef-gravy for sauces, 261. sa voury brown gravy, 262. Sauce, white gravy-sauce, velouté, or white cullis, 263. parsley and butter, 259. fennel, basil, burnet, chervil, tar- ragon, and cress sauces, 264. parsley and celery seed sauce, obs. 264. salad, No. 233, p. 250. onion-sauce, 264. brown onion, 265. sage and onion, 265. eschalot, 265. garlic, 266. Mayonnaise, 266. Mayonnaise à la gellée, 267. white mushroom, for fowls, veal, &c., 267. white celery, for fowls, 267. brown celery, 268. horseradish, white and brown, 268. cucumber, obs. No. 210. chestnut, for turkey and fowls, 272. mint, for lamb, 268. sorrel, 268. tomata, 268. French tomata, obs. 268. apple, 269. gooseberry, 269. caper, 269. mock caper, 269. Bechamel, or the French white, 269, 379. Tartar, 270. olive, for ducks and beef-steaks, 272. for fish and fish pies, 216. lemon, 270. miser's, 270. poor man's, 270. Carach, 270. bread, 271. rice, 271. egg, for fish or poultry, 271. PLEYDEL's, for game, 271. our own, for game, 271. Dr. HUNTER's, for game or cold meat, 272. REDGILL'S, for stubble goose or pork, 272. Reform Club, for mutton cutlets, No. 475. Robert, for mutton or pork chops, Sauce, turtle store, 275. turtle, 275. store, for steaks, 275. currie, 275, 583. chetney or chatné, 276. Ravigote butter, 382. the aspic or savoury ornamental jelly, 383. white hash, 276. custard, 276. caudle, for puddings, 277. store-pudding, 277. cream, 487. ham, or essence of ham, 277. Duke of York's, note, 283. MICHAEL KELLY's, note, 266. grill, for devils, chops, &c., 280. for boiled turkey, fowls, or veal, 94. Sauces for fish-pies, or for fresh-fish, 215. of shell-fish, and fish-sauces, 278. lobster or crab, 278. crab, 278. sauce à l'Aurore, 278. oyster, for boiled turkey or fish, 279. shrimp and cockle, 279. anchovy, 279. liver, for fish, 280. a plain fish-sauce, 280. mackerel roe, 280. old Admiral's, 280, Dutch fish, 281. excellent store English, 281. the General's, 281. Dr. REDGILL'S piquant, for fish or cold meat, 282. KITchiner's store fish, superla - tive, 283. store fish sauce, 226. forcemeats, stuffings, &c., 284. SAUCES, FRENCH. liaison, for thickening, 3 blonde de veau, 377. grande sauce, 378, 262. sauce Espagnole, 378. velouté, 378. à la Bechamel, 379. brown Italian, 379. white Italian, 379. à la maitre d'hôtel, 379. another, 379. sauce Hollandaise, for fish, 380. sauce hachée, 379. à la Tartare, French way, 379. sauce tournée, 380. sauce à la pluche, 380. sauce à l'Allemand, or German, 380. à la matelote, for fish, 380. common sauce matelote, 381. remoulade, 381, 273. lemon and liver, for fowls, 273. liver and parsley, obs. No. 295. cheap, for white fricassees, 273. the Marquis's, for wild fowl, 274. game-gravy, obs., No. 296. venison-sauces, Nos. 21, 22, and p. 274. 682 INDEX. Venetienne, cotilettes à la, 394. Welsh, modern, or Quaker's pudding, rabbits á la, 399. 480. Venison, to keep and roast a haunch rabbit, note, 366. or shoulder of, in the English gallimaufry, 365. mode, 110. leek porridge, 439. notes on, 110. Westphalia hams, 607. to boil, 92. Whey, wine, alum, &c., No. 1074. red and roe deer, to roast, Scot- / White bait, to dress as at Greenwich, tish way, 112. and Lovegrove's, Blackwall, 213. collops of, Scottish way, 142. sauces, Nos. 279, 294, 303, 586-7. another way, 344. icing for cakes, 534. to stew a shoulder, 343. Whitings, au gratin, No. 688. to bake, 344. boudins of, observations, No. 696.2 civet of, 341. to fry, No. 136, p. 202. minced collops of, Scottish, 432. note on, 202, civet of roebuck, 387. another way to fry, No. 145. to stew dressed, 344. to stew, No. 141, p. 206. to hash cold, 345. to currie, 211, soups of, poacher's, or à la Meg Whips of cream, 501, 502, and art. Merrilies, 174, and No. 90. Trifle, 509. stew soup of dressed, observa Whipt syllabub, 511. tions, No. 505. coffee-cream, 501, 502. pasty of, 461. Windsor syllabub, 512. crust for pasty of, 454. beans, 232. sharp and sweet sances for, and ! à la Poulette, 416. gravy, 274, 275, 111. Wines, home-made, or sweet, observa- mnelon pickle for, No. 297. tions on, 561. Verjuice, 287. Wine, best white and red gooseberry, Verder or milk punch, 556. 563, 564. Vermoute, or wormwood! wine, 557. British Rhenish, 564. Vinegars, household, 287. red currant, 564. sugar, cider, gooseberry, 287. a cheap, of mixed fruit, 564. of wine-lees, 287. elder-flower, 565. raisin, 288. elder, 565. alegar, 288. orange, 565. flavoured and herb vinegars, 288. orange and lemon, 566. Vinegar, Chili or pepper, 288. parsnip, 566. eschalot, 288. ginger, 566. garlic, 288. another way, 567. celery or cress, 288 birch, 567. cucumber, 288. jelly of, No. 910. tarragon, 289. sauce for puddings, 277, 477. basil, 289. whey of, 557. horseradishi, 289. wormwood, or bitter, 557. camp, 289, hot spiced wines, note, 556. currie, 289. herb wines, 290. raspberry, 289. eschalot, 290, rose, for the toilet and salads, 597. mulled, 556. lavender, 597. Bishop, 555. thieves', 596. Pope, note, 556. Vinegaret for cold meat, 270. Winter hotch-potch, 429. Vol-au-vent, 369. salad, 252. observations on, 369. Woodcocks, snipes, plovers, rails, and vol-au-vents of lobster, 405. ortolans, to roast, 123. to devil, note, &c. 361, Wafers, several kinds, 543, 544. sauces for, Nos. 289, 290. Walnuts, to pickle green, 296. Yearning, or rennet, 620, 621. WALTON, ISAAK, note, 209. Yeast, to make, 546, 547. Wassail bowl, 513. Russian and camp, 547, 548. Waters for cooling clraughts, 592. Yorkshire pudding, 488. Barbadoes w: t'r, 550. pie, or Christmas, No. 799. Water, filter for, 59.). YORK's, Duke of, sauce, note, 283. Welslı pudding, 487. Zests, notes, 72, 361, 405. INDEX. 683 MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS. Preparations for the Dressing-room. Pot pourri, 595. Eau de Cologne, two ways, 595, 596. A cheap perfume, 596. Thieves' vinegar, 596. Rose-vinegar for salads, or for the toilet, 597. Crême de rose, 597. Lavender-vinegar-French, 597. Honey-water for the hair, 597. Cold cream for the skin, 597. Lip-salve, 597. Paste for chapped hands, 598. Medium temperature of baths, 594. A Selection of Useful Miscellaneous Receipts for Cleaning and Preserving Furniture, Clothes, fc. To scour carpets, 629. | To polish mahogany, &c. in the Italian To wash chintz furniture, shawls, &c., manner, 633." 630. To preserve polished steel, 633. To clean printed calico furniture, 630. To clean steel grates, 633. To scour blankets, 630. To clean brass grates, fire-irons, &c., To wash silk stockings, 631. 634. To take spots of paint from cloth and To clean knives and forks, 634. silks, 631. To clean plate and plated articles, 634. To take greasy stains out of silk, 631. To clean pewter vessels and tin covers, To take out iron mould, 631. 635. To take out stains of wine, fruit, &c., | Directions for cleaning Britannia-metal 631. goods, 635. To remove mildew, 631. To preserve gilding, 635. Clothes-closets, 631. To clean looking-glasses and plate Bonnet-boxes, 632. glass, 635. Fur,-to preserve, 632. To wash wine-decanters, 635. Ink-spots, to take out, 632, To clean japanned goods, 636. To clean marble slabs and chimney. To get oil out of wood and stone, 636. pieces, 632. To take rust out of fire-irons, 636. To clean papered rooms, 632. To clean china and glass, 636. To clean paint, 632. To take stains out of mourning dresses, To take grease from papered walls or 636. books, 632. To clean black silk dresses, 636. To clean floor-cloths, 632. An excellent shoe-blacking, 636. Fomentations, 594. Liquid Japan blacking, 636. Fumigation of rooms, 593. Scalds and burns, 637.* Filter for water, substitute for, 595. To extinguish fire in female dresses, Bottle-wax, 570. 637. To polish furniture, 633. * Scalds and burns--for Gowland's read Goulard's.