Chapter XVII: Part 17

3 lbs. of lean beef; 3 lbs. of marrow bones; 3 lbs. coarse mutton; 3 onions; 3 carrots; 3 turnips; 3 sprigs of parsley, and same of thyme and marjoram; 6 quarts of water; 3 blades of mace; 3 tomatoes; 3 ears of corn; 3 tablespoonfuls of rice; pepper and salt.

Chop the vegetables; cut up the meat and crack the bones. Put onions, carrots, turnips, herbs and mace into the soup-pot; cover with three quarts of water; stew gently three hours; strain off the broth into a bowl; pour the remaining three quarts of water, boiling hot, upon the meat, bones, and vegetables in the pot, and put back over the fire. Cool that which you have strained; take off the fat, and put on in another kettle, with the tomatoes, the corn cut from the cob, and the rice. Season, and cook gently for another hour, then pour out.

Boil the soup left in the pot, three hours longer at the back of the range; add boiling water as the liquid shrinks. At the end of that time, season well; pour, without straining, into the stock-pot, and keep in a cold place. You have now stock for three days—a good investment of time, materials, and labor.

VEAL AND HAM CUTLETS, À LA POLONAISE.

Slice cutlets of veal, of equal size, with as many slices of corned ham, previously cooked. Flatten the cutlets with a hatchet; dip in beaten egg, then in cracker-dust, mixed with minced parsley, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Fry in dripping; drain, and lay upon a dish, with alternate slices of the ham, broiled, and spread with a dressing of butter and a little French mustard.

STEWED POTATOES.

Pare, and cut the potatoes into dice. Stew, with a small onion, in enough hot water to cover them. Turn off most of the water; take out the onion; pour in a cup of cold milk, and, when this boils, stir in a little chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour. Boil up once, and serve.

CREAM SQUASH.

Mash, and press in a hot colander. Return to the fire, with a good spoonful of butter, three or four spoonfuls of milk, and a quarter spoonful of flour, wet up in the milk. Stir for five minutes; season with pepper and salt, and dish.

SCALLOPED TOMATOES.

Pare and slice. Scatter fine crumbs in the bottom of a bake-dish; cover with slices of tomatoes, seasoned with sugar, pepper, salt, and butter. Cover with crumbs, and these with tomatoes. Fill the dish in this order, covering all with crumbs, with bits of butter sprinkled upon them. Bake, covered, half an hour, and brown.

BAVARIAN CREAM.

1 pint rich milk, and the same of sweet cream; yolks of 4 eggs; ½ oz. gelatine; 1 small cup of sugar; 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla or other extract.

Soak the gelatine two hours in enough cold water to cover it. Heat the milk, and stir in the gelatine until melted. Pour this upon the beaten yolks and sugar, and heat until it begins to thicken. It should not boil. Take from the fire, flavor, and let it cool somewhat. The cream should have been whipped stiff in a syllabub-churn. Beat, a spoonful at a time, into the lukewarm custard, until it is like sponge-cake batter. Pour into a wet mould, and set on ice to form. It will be formed in a few hours, if buried in the ice.

Fourth Week. Sunday.
——
Fancy Macaroni Soup.
Fricasseed Chicken. Spinach à la Crême.
Devilled Tomatoes. Sweet Potatoes, Browned.
——
Baked Pears and Cream.
Orange Cake.
——

FANCY MACARONI SOUP.

Take the fat from your soup-stock, add a pint of boiling water, and bring to a slow boil. Strain all through a colander. Pour off two quarts, through a soup-sieve, into your soup-kettle, and set over the fire to simmer clear. Pulp the vegetables left in the colander, and press the juice out of the meat into the rest of the broth. Remand this to the stock-pot. When that in the soup-kettle has boiled ten minutes, and been skimmed carefully, add a half cup of what is known as “fancy macaroni,” cut into fantastic shapes, expressly for soups. It should have been boiled twenty minutes, or until tender, in hot salted water. Simmer one minute in the soup; add seasoning, if needed, and serve.

FRICASSEED CHICKENS.

Clean, wash, and joint a pair of chickens. (Salt the giblets slightly, and keep on ice until Monday; or, should the weather be warm, boil them in a pint of water; salt it well, and set away with the giblets in it.) Scald the pieces of chicken in boiling water, leaving them in it four minutes. Lay in ice-water ten minutes, to blanch them. Add to the quart of boiling water used for scalding them, the skimmed fat, the necks, and the heads, cleaned by scalding, picking off the feathers and cutting off the beaks. Stew for one hour, or until there is but a pint of gravy. Strain, cool, and take off the fat. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a saucepan, with a very finely minced onion and a dessertspoonful of flour. When they begin to simmer, put in the joints of chicken; turn several times in the butter, and, after they begin to color, add enough gravy to keep them from scorching, and stew, covered, at least an hour. Keep the chicken hot; strain the gravy; add parsley, pepper, and salt. Have in another saucepan a half cup of hot milk. Pour upon two beaten eggs, make very hot, and add to the gravy when you have taken the latter from the fire. Stir up, and pour over the chickens.

SPINACH À LA CRÊME.

Boil in plenty of hot salted water; drain, and chop fine upon a board or in a wooden tray. Return to the saucepan with a tablespoonful of butter, and when hot, add a little sugar, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Stir until very hot, and serve in a deep dish, with sippets of fried bread laid over it.

DEVILLED TOMATOES.

1 quart fine ripe tomatoes, pared and cut in thick slices; yolks of 3 boiled eggs, pounded; 3 tablespoonfuls melted butter; 4 tablespoonfuls vinegar; 1 raw egg, beaten light; 1 teaspoonful powdered sugar; 1 saltspoonful salt, and same of made mustard; a _soupçon_ of cayenne.

Rub a tablespoonful of butter into the pounded yolks; add the seasoning, then the vinegar, and put into a tin or porcelain saucepan. Heat, and stir in the beaten egg. Set in boiling water while you heat the rest of the butter in a frying-pan, and put in the sliced tomatoes. Shake over the fire eight minutes, turning several times. Lay the tomatoes upon a hot dish. Strain the butter in which they were fried into the dressing, stir well, and pour over the tomatoes.

SWEET POTATOES—BROWNED.

Parboil, peel, and lay in a baking-pan. Baste with a little of your soup stock, then with butter, until they are baked to a nice brown.

BAKED PEARS AND CREAM.

Peel ripe pears, and cut them in half, without removing the seeds. Pack in layers in a stoneware jar. Strew each layer with sugar, and drop a pinch of nutmeg in, now and then. Put a small cupful of water in the bottom to prevent burning. Fit on a close cover, and set in a moderate oven. Bake three hours on Saturday, and leave, unopened, in the oven all night. Set upon ice for some hours before you use them. Pour into a glass dish, and eat with cream. They are delicious if the pears are of fair quality.

ORANGE CAKE.

Please see “BREAKFAST, LUNCHEON, AND TEA,” page 318.

Fourth Week. Monday.
——
Giblet Soup.
Brown Beef Stew. Mashed Potatoes.
Lima Beans. Cucumbers and Onion Salad.
——
Bananas, Oranges, and Apples.
Coffee and Albert Biscuit.
——

GIBLET SOUP.

Again skim the contents of your stock-pot. Pour into the soup-kettle with the water in which the giblets were boiled. Add seasoning at discretion, and simmer, after the boil is reached, fifteen minutes. Chop the gizzards very fine, and put into the soup. Pound the livers to a paste, with a heaping tablespoonful of butter, and half as much flour; thin with a little of the boiling soup; stir into the soup; boil one minute, and serve.

BROWN BEEF STEW.

3 lbs. lean beef; 1 onion; a tablespoonful of powdered marjoram; thyme and parsley, mixed; 1 tablespoonful of browned flour; 1 teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce; 1 tablespoonful of tomato catsup; 1 glass of wine; juice of half a lemon, and a pinch of the peel; 1 cup of chopped mushrooms; dice of fried bread.

Cut the beef into strips two inches long; add the minced onion; just cover with water, and cook, at the back of the range, two hours. Add the rest of the ingredients, with the exception of the flour, catsup, sauce, lemon-juice, and wine, and let it simmer one hour longer. Then add the condiments just named, and the flour. Boil up; line a deep dish with small squares of fried bread, and pour the stew upon them.

MASHED POTATOES.

Prepare as usual, and send up without browning.

LIMA BEANS.

See Thursday, First Week in September.

CUCUMBER AND ONION SALAD.

See Monday, First Week in September.

BANANAS, ORANGES, AND APPLES.

Rub clean; arrange effectively as to color and size, put green leaves among them, and give a doily, clean plate, and fruit-knife to each person.

COFFEE AND ALBERT BISCUIT.

Have the coffee hot and strong, and be sure the biscuits are fresh.

Fourth Week. Tuesday.
——
Quick Lobster Soup.
Roast Lamb. Baked Squash.
Green Corn cut from the Cob. Sweet Potatoes.
——
Rock-work.
——

QUICK LOBSTER SOUP.

1 quart of stock, made by adding a little water to the strained remnant of yesterday’s soup. Or, if you have nothing of this sort, make a broth of coarse bits of veal and any bones you may have; 1 can of preserved lobster; 1 cup of milk, with a pinch of soda stirred in; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour; yolks of 2 eggs; minced parsley, cayenne, and salt.

Heat your broth; skim and season. Put in the lobster, picked to pieces; simmer ten minutes, then boil up sharply, once. Heat the milk in a saucepan; stir in the floured butter; pour upon the beaten yolks. Cook one minute. Pour the lobster into the tureen; stir in the thickened milk, and send to table. Pass oyster crackers and butter with it.

ROAST LAMB.

Lay in the dripping-pan. Dash boiling water over it, and cook fifteen minutes for each pound. Baste often with the gravy. Ten minutes before taking it up, dredge with flour, and baste with butter. Pour the fat from the top of the gravy; thicken with browned flour, and stir in a tablespoonful of currant jelly. Boil, and send up in a boat—salting and peppering to taste.

BAKED SQUASH.

Boil, drain, and mash in a hot colander. Season with pepper, salt, and butter; add a few spoonfuls of milk and two beaten eggs. Pour into a buttered dish, and bake to a light brown in a quick oven.

GREEN CORN CUT FROM THE COB.

Boil the corn until tender. Split each row of grains, then shave them close to the cob. Butter, pepper, and salt, and serve hot in a deep dish.

SWEET POTATOES.

Boil with the skins on; peel quickly, and lay in a baking-pan, within a hot oven, a few minutes, to dry, before piling them upon a flat dish.

ROCK-WORK.

1 quart of milk; 5 eggs; 6 tablespoonfuls of sugar; vanilla, or other essence.

Heat the milk: pour upon the beaten yolks and sugar. Cook until the custard begins to thicken. Pour out, and, when cold, flavor, and pour into a glass bowl. Whip the whites stiff with two spoonfuls of the sugar, flavor, and poach by laying, a spoonful at a time, upon boiling milk, and, carefully withdrawing the spoon from underneath, leaving the oval mass of _méringue_ floating upon the surface. Turn it over when one side is done, and, presently, take it up, and lay upon the custard. Heap them irregularly on the top, and let all get cold before serving. Pass light cakes with this custard.

Fourth Week. Wednesday.
——
Julienne Soup.
Cold Lamb. Tomato Sauce.
Eggs and Mushrooms. Breaded Egg-plant.
——
Potato Fritters.
——

JULIENNE SOUP.

4 lbs. of beef; 2 carrots; 3 turnips; ½ head of cabbage; 1 pint green corn; 1 quart tomatoes; bunch of herbs; 4 quarts of water; pepper and salt.

Put on the beef, herbs, and water early in the morning, with some well-cracked bones, if you have them, and let it boil at the back of the range, very slowly, for five or six hours. Should the water sink below two-thirds of the original quantity, replenish from the boiling tea-kettle. An hour before dinner, strain the soup; put meat and bones into the stock-pot, and season well. Pour upon them all that you can spare from the liquor, and leave enough for to-day. Set this in a cool place. Cool, and remove the fat from that meant for to-day; return to the soup-kettle, and put in the vegetables, cut into shreds, and parboiled for ten minutes. The cabbage should have been cooked in two waters. The corn must be cut from the cob, and the tomatoes pared and sliced. Simmer gently half an hour; season; cook one minute, and pour out.

COLD LAMB.

Trim the remains of your roast into a presentable shape; garnish with parsley and nasturtium-blooms.

TOMATO SAUCE.

Pare, slice, and stew the tomatoes for twenty minutes. Strain, and rub through a colander, leaving the hard and tough parts behind. Put into a saucepan with a little minced onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil; stir in a good spoonful of butter rolled in flour. Boil up, and serve.

EGGS AND MUSHROOMS.

Slice the rest of the can of mushrooms, opened for Monday’s stew, into halves. Stew ten minutes in a little butter, seasoned with pepper and salt, and a very little water. Drain; put the mushrooms into a pie-dish; break enough eggs to cover them over the top; pepper, salt, and scatter bits of butter over them; strew with bread-crumbs, and bake until the eggs are “set.” Serve in the dish.

BREADED EGG-PLANT.

Slice nearly half an inch thick; pare each slice and lay in salt and water one hour. Wipe dry, dip in beaten egg, then in rolled cracker, and fry to a fine brown in salted lard or dripping.

POTATO FRITTERS.

6 tablespoonfuls mashed potato rubbed through a colander; ½ cup rich milk, or cream; 5 eggs, beaten light; 2 tablespoonfuls sugar; 2 tablespoonfuls prepared flour; juice of 1 lemon, and half the grated peel; ½ grated nutmeg.

Work the cream into the potato; add beaten yolks and sugar, and whip to a froth. Put in lemon, flour, nutmeg, and beat three minutes before stirring in the whites. Drop, by the spoonful, into hot sweet lard, and fry to a light brown. Drain upon clean, heated paper, sift white sugar thickly over them and serve at once. Eat if you like with wine sauce, or with powdered sugar only.

Fourth Week. Thursday.
——
Bread-and-Meat Soup.
Braised Breast of Veal. Cauliflower with Sauce.
Stewed Squash. Fried Potatoes.
——
Boiled Apple Dumplings.
——

BREAD-AND-MEAT SOUP.

Take the fat from the top of your cold stock. Add a pint of boiling water to it, with a sliced onion, and cook slowly, with the meat in, for forty minutes. Strain, pressing all the strength out of the meat; stir in a tablespoonful of catsup, and as much browned flour wet up in cold water. Have ready a sweetbread, boiled and blanched, then cut into neat dice. Put these into the soup, and boil one minute; add a great handful of fried bread, cut into dice, and pour out. If you have any soup left from your “Julienne,” heat, strain, and add to this.

BRAISED BREAST OF VEAL.

Make a deep incision between the ribs and meat: stuff with a good force-meat made of crumbs, chopped salt pork, seasoning and a little onion. Skewer the flap of meat back into its place; put a layer of thin fat salt pork into a broad saucepan; lay the veal upon it. Pour in a cup of gravy—from the soup, if you have no other—cover with more fat pork, or ham, put on a close lid, and cook fifteen minutes to the pound. Take out the meat; set in a very quick oven, dredge with flour, and, as it browns, baste well with butter once. Keep hot upon a dish, while you strain the gravy in the braising-pan; thicken it with browned flour, season to taste, and stir in the juice of half a lemon, and a glass of claret. Boil up and pour a little upon the veal, the rest into a boat.

CAULIFLOWER WITH SAUCE.

See Sunday, Third Week in September.

STEWED SQUASH.

Pare, seed and quarter. Cook in boiling water salted, until soft. Mash in a colander; rub through it, and put back into a saucepan, with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour; a few teaspoonfuls of milk, pepper and salt to taste. Stir until it begins to bubble; then pour into a deep dish.

FRIED POTATOES.

Pare, slice thin, and lay in ice-water half an hour. Dry between two towels, and fry to a pale brown in hot lard, a little salt. Drain by shaking in a colander, and serve in a dish lined with a napkin.

BOILED APPLE DUMPLINGS.

1 quart prepared flour; ¼ lb. suet, powdered; 1 teaspoonful salt; cold water to make a pretty stiff paste; fine juicy apples, pared and cored.

Make the paste; roll into a sheet a quarter of an inch thick; cut into squares; put in the centre of each an apple; bring the corners together, and pinch the edges. Have ready some small square cloths, dipped in hot water, and floured on the inside. Enclose each dumpling in one of these, leaving room to swell, and tie it up, bag-wise, with a stout string. Boil one hour; turn out and serve with plenty of sweet sauce.

Fourth Week. Friday.
——
Onion Soup Maigre.
Baked Blue Fish. Imitation Oyster Scallops.
Potato Puff à la Genève. Raw Cucumbers.
——
Cream Cakes.
——

ONION SOUP MAIGRE.

3 _large_ onions, sliced; 3 boiled potatoes rubbed through a colander; 3 tablespoonfuls of rice boiled in 1 quart of milk; 2 quarts of cold water; 3 tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in one of flour; chopped parsley; pepper and salt to taste.

Parboil the onions ten minutes; throw off the water and let them cool. Then slice, and put over the fire with the cold water, and boil down to three pints. The onions should be reduced to a pulp. Strain; rub through the colander, and set over the fire. When it boils, add the mashed potatoes, the butter, seasoning, parsley, and simmer ten minutes. Have the rice boiled soft in the milk with a pinch of soda; strain it out and add to the soup in the kettle. Cook gently five minutes, and turn into the tureen. Pour in the boiling milk, and it is ready.

BAKED BLUE FISH.

Score the fish down the back, and lay in a dripping-pan. Pour over it a cup of hot water in which have been melted two tablespoonfuls of butter. Bake one hour, basting every ten minutes; twice with butter, twice with the gravy, and again twice with butter. Take up the fish and keep hot, while you strain the gravy into a saucepan; thicken with flour; add a teaspoonful of anchovy paste, the juice of half a lemon with a little of the grated peel, pepper and salt. Boil up, pour half over the fish, the rest into a boat. Garnish the fish with eggs, quartered lengthwise, lettuce hearts, and quartered lemons.

IMITATION OYSTER SCALLOPS.

Cut the best pieces from your cold roast veal, in squares about an inch long and half as thick and wide. Make a cup of rich drawn butter, and put these into it. Set over the fire in a saucepan, and add a _very_ little minced onion and parsley. Heat for ten minutes, but do not boil. Chop a pickled cucumber quite fine, stir into the mixture, season with salt and cayenne; fill scallop, or clam shells, or _paté_-pans lined with baked paste, with the scallop; cover with fine crumbs, and brown in a brisk oven.

POTATO PUFF À LA GENÈVE.

Whip mashed potatoes light and soft with milk, butter, and two raw eggs; season with pepper and salt, and beat in a few spoonfuls of powdered cheese. Pile upon a neat bake-dish, and brown nicely. Serve in the dish.

RAW CUCUMBERS.

See Friday, Second Week in September.

CREAM CAKES.

Some good puff-paste; whites of 2 eggs; ½ cup of sweet jelly; 1 cup of cream, whipped to a froth; 3 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar; vanilla, or other flavoring.

Roll out the paste as for pies. Cut into squares five inches across. Have ready well-greased muffin-rings, three inches in diameter. Lay one in the centre of each square; turn up the four corners so as to make a cup of the paste; pinch the tips upon the upper edge of the ring to keep it in place, and having prepared all, bake in a quick oven. When done, pull out the rings with care; brush the paste, outside and in, with the white of egg, and set back to brown. When cold, wash on the inside with the jelly, and fill with the whipped cream, sweetened and flavored.

Fourth Week. Saturday.
——
Vegetable Soup à la Crécy.
Glazed Ham. Lettuce Salad.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise. Cabbage au Gratin.
——
Peach Pudding.
——

VEGETABLE SOUP À LA CRÉCY.

2 lbs. of coarse, lean beef, cut into strips; 2 lbs. of knuckle of veal, chopped to pieces; 2 lbs. of mutton bones, and the bones left from your cold veal, cracked to splinters; 1 lb. of lean ham; 4 large carrots; 2 turnips; 2 onions; bunch of herbs; 3 tablespoonfuls of butter, and 2 of flour; 1 tablespoonful of sugar; salt and pepper; 7 quarts of water.

Put on meat, bones, herbs and water, and cook slowly five hours. Strain the soup, of which there should be five quarts. Season meat and bones, and put into the stock-pot with three quarts of the liquor. Save this for days to come. While the soup for to-day is cooling that you may take off the fat, put the butter into a frying-pan with the sliced carrots, turnips, and onions, and fry to a light brown. Now, add a pint of the skimmed stock, and stew the vegetables tender; stir in the flour wet with water; and put all, with your cooled stock, over the fire in the soup-kettle. Season with sugar, cayenne and salt; boil five minutes; rub through a colander, then a soup-sieve, heat almost to boiling, and serve.

GLAZED HAM.

Soak and boil a ham twenty minutes to the pound, and let it get almost cold in the water. Skin it neatly, and coat with a paste made of a cup of cracker-crumbs, one of milk, two beaten eggs, and seasoned with pepper. Set the ham in the oven until the glazing is browned, moistening, now and then, with a few spoonfuls of cream. Wind frilled paper about the shank, and garnish with parsley.

LETTUCE SALAD.

Pull out and tear to pieces the hearts of lettuce; pile in a salad-bowl; sprinkle with white sugar, and season with oil, pepper, salt, and vinegar, in the proportions so often given. Toss up with a silver fork.

POTATOES À LA LYONNAISE.

See Saturday, First Week in September.

CABBAGE AU GRATIN.

Quarter a small white cabbage, and boil tender in pot-liquor taken from your ham. Let it get cold; chop and season with pepper, salt, a good spoonful of butter, three or four of milk, and beat smooth with two raw eggs. Put into a buttered dish; strew thickly with crumbs; wet these with pot-liquor, and bake, covered, forty-five minutes,—then brown.

PEACH PUDDING.

12 ripe peaches, pared, stoned, and stewed in a little water; 1 cup bread-crumbs; 2 cups of boiling milk; 5 tablespoonfuls of sugar; 5 beaten eggs; tablespoonful of butter.

Soak the crumbs in the hot milk; stir in the butter, the beaten eggs and sugar, at last the cooled and mashed peaches. Beat up light; put into a buttered pudding-mould; set in a pan of boiling water; cover, and cook one hour in a good oven. Turn out, and eat with sweetened cream.

OCTOBER.

First Week. Sunday.
——
Tapioca Soup.
Fricassee of Ducks. Tomatoes in a Mould.
Sweet Potatoes. Potato Rissoles.
——
Ruby’s Pudding.
——

TAPIOCA SOUP.

Remove the fat from your soup-stock; pour off two quarts; heat, and strain through coarse muslin back into the pot. Stir in half a cup of soaked tapioca—the fine-grained—simmer until clear; add half a glass of brown sherry, and serve.

FRICASSEE OF DUCKS.

Clean, wash, and cut the ducks into four pieces each. Flour, and fry them to a light brown. Drain; put into a saucepan, with a cup of gravy (a little of your soup-stock will do), a glass of claret, some chopped parsley, a small onion, minced, salt and pepper. Cover closely, and stew half an hour, or until the ducks are tender. Take them out; strain, and set the gravy in cold water to throw up the fat. Take it off; thicken with browned flour wet with water; boil up, and, having laid the ducks upon a flat dish, pour the gravy over them. This is a very fine fricassee.

TOMATOES IN A MOULD.

Peel and slice eight tomatoes. Put them in a coarse cloth, and press out most of the juice into a bowl. Save this carefully. Chop the tomatoes; mix in two tablespoonfuls of fine crumbs, pepper, salt, sugar, and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Stir up well, and put into a buttered mould. Fit on the top, and set in a pot of boiling water. Keep at a fast boil for one hour. When done, turn out upon a flat dish, and pour over them this sauce: Heat the tomato-juice; stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, season with pepper, sugar, and salt; boil one minute.

SWEET POTATOES.

See Tuesday, Fourth Week in September.

POTATO RISSOLES.

Mash the potatoes fine, and whip with a fork, adding pepper, butter, and milk, lastly, a beaten egg. Have ready one-third as much chopped ham as you have potato; mix all together; make into round balls a little larger than an English walnut; dip in egg, then in cracker-dust, and fry quickly in plenty of good dripping. Drain upon paper, and serve hot.

RUBY’S PUDDING.

Some good puff-paste; ¼ lb. of stale sponge-cakes, pounded; 1 cup of milk; 1 tablespoonful of butter; 1 teaspoonful corn-starch wet in milk; yolks of 2 eggs; 1 heaping spoonful of sugar; a little nutmeg; whites of 3 eggs; strawberry, or other sweet jam.

Line a pie-dish with the paste. Put a layer of jam at the bottom, then one, half an inch thick, of the pounded cakes. Heat the milk; stir in the butter and corn-starch; boil one minute. When cold, whip in the yolks and sugar, with nutmeg, and beat light. Fill the dish with this mixture, and bake about half an hour. Then cover with a _méringue_ made of the three whites, a little sugar, and the juice of half a lemon. Spread quickly, and shut the oven-door until it has “set” well. Do this on Saturday, and you will have a delightful Sunday pudding. It is also good warm.

First Week. Monday.
——
Curry Soup.
Breaded Mutton Chops, Baked. Spinach.
Whipped Potatoes. Boiled Rice, with Sauce.
——
Apple Charlotte.
Coffee.
——

CURRY SOUP.

Add a pint of boiling water to your soup-stock, and cook, with the meat in, half an hour, at the back of the range. Strain, squeezing the meat to a tasteless mass in a coarse cloth. Return the soup to the fire, stir in a cup of rice, boiled as I shall presently direct, and season to taste. Finally, put in a teaspoonful of curry-powder, wet up with water, and bring to a boil; then pour out. If you do not like curry, you will find the soup very good without it.

BREADED MUTTON CHOPS—BAKED.

Trim off fat and skin; dip in egg, then in rolled cracker, mixed with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and powdered parsley. Lay upon a dripping-pan. Pour over each a teaspoonful of melted butter, and set in the oven. When they begin to hiss, baste with hot water, in which has been boiled a little onion, mixed with butter. If the oven be good, half an hour should be enough for them. They should be tender, juicy, and brown. Baste six or seven times. Strain the gravy, and thicken with browned flour. Add a little lemon-juice and tomato catsup, and send up in a boat. Lay the chops around your spinach.

SPINACH.

Boil twenty minutes in plenty of boiling salt water. Drain, and chop very fine. Return to the saucepan, with a little sugar, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour. Stir until hot, and dry enough to be moulded. Turn out; shape into a flat-topped ridge upon a hot dish, and lay the chops at the base.

WHIPPED POTATOES.

Whip boiled potatoes to creamy lightness with a fork; beat in butter, milk, pepper, and salt; at last, the frothed white of an egg. Toss irregularly upon a dish; set in the oven two minutes, to re-heat, but do not let it color.

BOILED RICE, WITH SAUCE.

Dilute what gravy you have left from your duck fricassee with water, or make a weak broth of the duck bones, boiled with a little lean ham in a quart of water, until you have less than a pint left. Or, add hot water to the remains of yesterday’s soup, and strain it. But get a pint of weak gravy from _somewhere_, and, having soaked a cup of rice in just enough water to cover it, for an hour, put it over the fire in a farina-kettle, pour in the gravy, and cook until the rice is soft, shaking up from the bottom, now and then, but never stirring. Take out some for your soup. Heap the rest in a deep dish, and pour over it a cup of drawn butter, in which have been stirred a beaten egg and two tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce. N. B.—The gravy should be well seasoned.

APPLE CHARLOTTE.

Beat two cups of nice apple sauce, well sweetened and flavored, to a high froth, with the whipped whites of three eggs. Make into a mound in a glass dish, and cover with lady’s-fingers, or other small sponge-cakes, fitted neatly together. Send around sugar and cream with it.

COFFEE.

Pass, while you are still at table, or afterward, in the library or sitting-room.

First Week. Tuesday.
——
Barley Broth.
Stewed Beef, with Macaroni.
Mashed Turnips. Kidney Beans.
——
Southern Rice Pudding.
——

BARLEY BROTH.

2 lbs. of lean mutton, cut into strips; ½ lb. lean ham, or a cracked ham-bone; 1 onion; 1 turnip; ½ cup of barley, soaked two hours in a little tepid water; 3 quarts of cold water; pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.

Cook meat, bones, and the sliced vegetables together in the water three hours. Strain, cool, and skim the broth; season; put back over the fire, with the barley, and stew gently half an hour.

STEWED BEEF.

Have a piece of beef cut from what is known as the “roll” of the shin. It should weigh between three and four pounds. Put into a large saucepan, with a minced onion, and cover completely with water, in which pour a cup of your soup, so as to make a weak broth. Pepper and salt the meat all over before it goes in. Cover, and cook very slowly an hour and a half. Turn the beef, and cook as long again, making three hours in all. It should have been so slowly cooked as to be tender as butter, yet not broken at the edges. Dish, wash all over with melted butter, and set in the oven three minutes. Then arrange the macaroni about it.

MACARONI.

Boil half a pound of macaroni, broken into short pieces, in hot salted water, ten minutes; drain, pepper and salt, and lay about the beef. Cool and skim the gravy after taking out the beef; strain into a saucepan, thicken with browned flour, add a little French mustard; boil once, pour half over the beef, the rest into a boat.

MASHED TURNIPS.

Pare, quarter, and cook tender, in boiling salted water. Mash in a colander, pressing hard. Stir in butter, pepper and salt, and turn into a deep dish.

KIDNEY BEANS.

Shell; put on in boiling water with an inch or so of fat salt pork, and cook tender. Drain well, salt, pepper, and butter.

SOUTHERN RICE PUDDING.

1 quart fresh, sweet milk; 1 cup of raw rice; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; 1 cup of sugar; 5 beaten eggs; 1 teaspoonful of grated lemon-peel; a pinch of cinnamon and same of mace.

Soak the rice in the milk two hours. Heat in a farina-kettle until the rice is soft. Cream butter and sugar; stir in the beaten eggs and whip hard. When the rice is lukewarm, put all together, and bake in a buttered mould about forty-five minutes. Eat warm with sauce, or cold with sugar and cream.

First Week. Wednesday.
——
Squirrel Soup.
Fricassee of Calf’s Tongues. Fried Egg-plant.
Squash. Stripped Potatoes, Stewed.
——
Jelly Custards and Cake.
——

SQUIRREL SOUP.

Skin, clean, and cut into quarters a pair of fine gray squirrels. Fry a large onion, sliced, in dripping; take it out, and fry the squirrels in the same fat. Put them then into a soup-pot with the onion, a sliced turnip, a sliced carrot, a slice—thick—of lean ham, some parsley, and two blades of mace; add three quarts of water; cover closely and boil gently three hours; take out the pieces of squirrel, and put away for a breakfast dish. A tolerable fricassee can be made by warming it up in drawn butter, then adding a beaten egg.

_Revenons à nos moutons_—in this case, our soup. Rub the vegetables through the colander; cool, skim and season the broth. Heat again; add a tablespoonful of butter cut up in flour, a tablespoonful of catsup, the juice of half a lemon, a glass of claret, boil up and pour into the tureen.

FRICASSEE OF CALF’S TONGUES.

Boil the tongues one hour. Pare, and cut into thick slices. Roll these in flour, and fry in dripping five minutes. Put the tongues into a saucepan; add sliced onion, thyme and parsley. Cover with a cupful of your soup or other gravy. Simmer half an hour, covered tightly. Take up the tongues and keep them warm; strain the gravy; thicken, put in four or five _thin_ slices of lemon, from which the peel has been taken; boil one minute, and pour over the fricassee.

FRIED EGG-PLANT.

1 fine egg-plant; 2 eggs; ½ cup of milk; flour for thin batter, salt, and fat for frying.

Slice, and pare each slice. Lay in salt and water one hour; dry between two towels and dip each slice in a batter made of the materials above given. Fry in hot fat to a good brown. Drain well.

SQUASH.

Pare, quarter, and cook soft in boiling salted water. Drain, mash smooth in a heated colander, work in butter, pepper and salt, and serve in a deep dish.

STRIPPED POTATOES, STEWED.

Pare, and cut into lengthwise strips; cover with boiling water, and stew twenty minutes. Turn off nearly all the water; put in a cupful of cold milk, with salt and pepper. When this boils, stir in a spoonful of butter, rolled in flour, with a little chopped parsley. Cook two minutes, and serve.

JELLY CUSTARDS AND CAKE.

1 quart of milk; 5 eggs; 1 cup of sugar; vanilla or other flavoring; crab-apple and currant jelly.

Heat the milk; pour upon the beaten eggs and sugar. Heat and stir until it begins to thicken. When cold, flavor; fill your custard-cups nearly to the tops, and lay a slice of firm, bright jelly upon each—tart upon some, sweet upon the rest. Eat with cake.

First Week. Thursday.
——
Marrow-bone Soup.
Roast Chickens. Lima Beans.
Broiled Potatoes. Raw Tomatoes.
——
Squash Pie.
——

MARROW-BONE SOUP.

4 lbs. of marrow-bones, broken to pieces, and the marrow left in (beef-bones are best, but others may be used); 1 lb. salt pork, or ham-bones; 2 onions; 2 stalks of celery; 3 tomatoes; 4 parboiled potatoes, sliced; bunch of herbs; pepper and salt; 5 quarts of water.

Put on the bones in the water, and cook slowly four hours, leaving three quarts of water. Strain into a bowl; surround this with cold water, to make the fat rise; take this off, and return the soup to the fire, with the parboiled potatoes and the sliced onions—which should have lain ten minutes in scalding water, to take off their strong taste—the tomatoes, and herbs. Boil slowly until you can rub the vegetables through a colander. Add them to the soup; season; heat almost to the third boil, and pour out.

ROAST CHICKENS.

Draw, wash, and stuff a pair of full-grown chickens. Truss, and lay in a dripping-pan. Dash a cup of boiling water over them, and roast one hour, or until tender and brown. Baste very often—twice, after they begin to brown, with butter. Sprinkle the giblets with salt, and set away for to-morrow. Pour the gravy, after the chickens are taken up, into a bowl, set in cold water, and take off the fat. Put into a saucepan, thicken with browned flour; season; boil once, and serve in a boat.

LIMA BEANS.

Shell; cook forty minutes in boiling salted water; drain, pepper, salt, and butter, and serve in a vegetable-dish.

BROILED POTATOES.

Slice cold boiled potatoes lengthwise, and rather thick. Lay between the wires of an oyster-broiler, and cook at a hot fire to a light brown on both sides. Sprinkle with pepper and salt; lay a bit of butter upon each, and eat hot.

RAW TOMATOES.

Pare, slice, and put into a salad-dish. Mix in a bowl a teaspoonful of sugar, half as much, each, of made mustard, pepper, and salt; add, gradually, two tablespoonfuls of salad-oil, and the yolk of an egg. Beat to a cream, and whip in, a little at a time, five tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Pour over the tomatoes, and set the salad upon ice until needed.

SQUASH PIE.

1 pint of boiled, mashed, and strained squash; 2 cups of milk; 1 cup of sugar; 4 eggs, beaten light; ½ teaspoonful of ginger, and 1 teaspoonful mixed mace and cinnamon.

Beat all well together, and bake in open shells.

First Week. Friday.
——
Cat-fish Soup.
Scalloped Oysters. Roulettes of Chicken.
Beets. Fried Sweet Potatoes.
——
Amber Pudding.
——

CAT-FISH SOUP.

6 fresh-water cat-fish, in weight about half a pound each; 1 pint of milk; 4 tablespoonfuls of butter; 1 tablespoonful corn-starch, wet with cold milk; 1 onion; 1 teaspoonful essence of celery, and same of anchovy sauce; 2 tablespoonfuls chopped celery; 2 beaten eggs; 3 quarts of cold water.

Cut up the fish, when you have skinned them and removed the heads. Put into a pot, with the onion and water, and boil until the fish are in rags. Strain, return to the pot, add the corn-starch, and, when this has thickened, the butter, a teaspoonful at a time. Season with pepper, salt, celery, and anchovy, and pour into the tureen. Have ready the hot milk, mixed and cooked one minute with the beaten eggs and parsley. Add this to the hot soup; stir well, and serve. Pass sliced lemon and oyster crackers with it.

SCALLOPED OYSTERS.

3 pints of oysters; 1 cup of rolled cracker; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; pepper; salt; juice of a lemon. (Cayenne pepper is best for this purpose.)

Butter a neat pudding-dish. Strain the oysters from their liquor; spread upon a cloth; take up, one by one, and put on a drop or so of lemon-juice; roll in cracker-dust, pepper, and salt, and lay in the dish. When the bottom is covered, drop bits of butter here and there, and proceed to put on another layer of crumbs and seasoned oysters. Having filled your dish, strew cracker-dust over all; stick bits of butter upon it, and wet well with a cup of oyster-liquor. Bake, covered, half an hour, or until the juice bubbles up at the edges; then brown upon the upper grating of the oven.

ROULETTES OF CHICKEN.

Cut off the meat from the skeletons of your roast chickens. Put on the bones and stuffing in a quart of water, and stew down to one pint. Meantime, chop the chicken meat fine; mix with one-fourth as much fine crumbs, wet with yesterday’s gravy; add the gizzards, boiled and minced, and the boiled livers pounded; season to taste; bind all with beaten egg; make into balls, and dip into a batter made of three-quarters of a cup of milk, two eggs, about one scant cup of prepared flour, or just enough to make rather thin batter, salted to taste. Fry, as you dip each roulette, in hot lard, or dripping; drain off the fat, and pile them upon a dish. Cool, strain, and season the gravy from the bones; thicken, should it need it; boil once, and serve in a boat to go around with the roulettes. They are a nice _entrée_.

BEETS.

Cut off the tops and wash. Boil one hour in hot, salted water; scrape and slice. Dish and pour over them a mixture of one tablespoonful of melted butter heated, with one of vinegar, and seasoned with pepper and salt.

FRIED SWEET POTATOES.

Boil, and let them get cold. Then, scrape off the skins; slice lengthwise, and fry to a light brown in good dripping or salted lard.

AMBER PUDDING.

6 eggs beaten light; 1 cup of sugar, creamed with ½ cup of butter; juice of a lemon, and half the grated peel; a good pinch of nutmeg; puff paste.

Mix sugar, butter, eggs, together; put into a custard-kettle, set in hot water, and stir until it thickens. Stir in lemon and nutmeg, and let it get cold. Put a strip of paste around the edge of a pie-plate; print it prettily; pour in the cold mixture, and bake in a steady, not too hot oven. Eat cold.

First Week. Saturday.
——
Ox-tail Soup.
Corned Beef. Boiled Turnips.
Mashed Potatoes. Horseradish Sauce.
——
Bubble Pudding.
——

OX-TAIL SOUP.

2 ox-tails; 3 lbs. lean beef; 4 carrots; 3 onions; thyme and parsley; 8 quarts of cold water; 4 tablespoonfuls of butter for frying; pepper, salt, and browned flour.

Cut the tails into short pieces, and fry to a good brown. Take them from the pan, and fry two sliced carrots and two sliced onions in the same butter. Lay the meat, cut into strips, in the bottom of a soup-pot; upon them the fried onions and carrots, upon these the ox-tails. Grate the two whole carrots, and slice the whole onion; cover the tails with them. Put in the herbs, and pour in the water. It is a good plan to fry the tails, onions, and carrots overnight, as the soup should have at least six hours’ boil. There should be six quarts of soup. Strain it off. Put meat and tails into your stock-pot, season well, and pour on four quarts of the soup. Keep in a cold place for future use.

Rub the vegetables through the colander into the portion reserved for to-day; cool and skim; put back over the fire; bring to a boil; season and skim; then thicken with browned flour—about two tablespoonfuls—wet up with cold water. Simmer five minutes and pour out.

CORNED BEEF.

Cook in plenty of cold water at the back of the range. Fast boiling toughens meat. Boil eighteen or twenty minutes to the pound. Take out, wipe quickly, and rub all over with butter. Send horseradish sauce around with it. Save the pot-liquor.

BOILED TURNIPS.

Peel and quarter the turnips. Dip out a pint of pot-liquor from your boiling beef; strain, heat, and skim it, and while boiling hot, put in the turnips. Cook soft, but not to breaking; drain, and lay about the beef in its dish, with parsley sprigs or cresses, as an edging.

MASHED POTATOES.

Whip light with a fork until dry and mealy; then beat in butter, milk, and salt.

HORSERADISH SAUCE.

Heat and strain a cupful of the beef pot-liquor. Stir into it a tablespoonful of butter, rolled in a teaspoonful of flour. When it thickens, take from the fire and whip in the whisked white of an egg; then two tablespoonfuls of grated horseradish, and the juice of a lemon. Set in boiling water until wanted.

BUBBLE PUDDING.

1 quart of fresh milk; 5 eggs, well beaten; 3 tablespoonfuls of corn-starch; 1 tablespoonful of sugar; nutmeg to taste; pinch of soda in the milk.

Scald the milk; stir in the corn-starch; cook one minute, and pour upon the beaten eggs and sugar. Season, whip up well; pour into a round-bottomed mould, well buttered; fit on the top; set in a pot of boiling water; boil three-quarters of an hour; turn out upon a dish, and eat with wine sauce. It will almost certainly break in two on the way to table, hence the name.

Second Week. Sunday.
——
Clear Soup.
Chickens and Mushrooms. Squash au Gratin.
Creamed Potatoes. Breaded Egg-plant.
——
Spanish Cream.
——

CLEAR SOUP.

Take the fat from your soup stock; dip out two quarts, or more, as you may need, warm it over the fire with an onion, simmer and skim until clear; strain; add two tablespoonfuls of sparkling gelatine soaked in a very little water; put in, also, a teaspoonful of essence of celery, the juice of a lemon, and a glass of good wine. Boil up once, take off the film from the top, and pour out.

CHICKENS AND MUSHROOMS.

Clean and wash a pair of fine fowls, and stuff their bodies with chopped mushrooms, in which a teaspoonful of onion has been mixed. Fill the craws with the usual dressing of seasoned crumbs with the addition of the pounded yolk of an egg. Lay the trussed chickens in a pot, and pour over them a large cupful of your soup-stock diluted with as much boiling water. Simmer until tender. Take up and keep the chickens hot. Strain the gravy; season to taste, skim off the fat; stir in a tablespoonful of flour wet with milk; boil and stir two minutes to thicken; add half a cup of hot milk; stir in well, and pour some over the chickens; the rest into a boat. Save the giblets for to-morrow.

SQUASH AU GRATIN.

Pare, quarter, and boil the squash; mash and press to get out the water; beat in a good spoonful of butter with pepper, salt, and a little cream. Pour into a bake-dish; strew with fine crumbs, and bake in a quick oven until these are slightly browned.

CREAMED POTATOES.

Put into a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter, a little minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Stir to hissing, add a small cup of milk (with a pinch of soda), and, when hot, a teaspoonful of flour. Stir until it boils; chop cold boiled potatoes, put into the cream, and serve so soon as they begin to boil.

BREADED EGG-PLANT.

Slice, and pare the slices. Lay in strong salt water one hour; wipe dry; dip in beaten egg, and roll in pounded cracker. Fry to a good brown; drain well, and dish hot.

SPANISH CREAM.

½ box of gelatine; 1 quart of milk; yolks of 3 eggs; 1 small cup of sugar; flavor with vanilla, or other essence.

Soak the gelatine one hour in the milk. Put into a farina-kettle, and stir as it warms. When hot, pour over the beaten yolks and sugar; put back into the kettle, and heat to scalding. Strain through tarlatan; flavor and pour into a wet mould. Do this on Saturday, and set in a cold place. Eat with cream, or without.

Second Week. Monday.
——
Vermicelli Soup.
Mutton Chops. Baked Sweet Potatoes.
Tomato Sauce. Savory Rice Pudding.
——
Oranges, Bananas, and Pears.
——

VERMICELLI SOUP.

Add the remains of yesterday’s soup to what remains in your stock-pot. Dilute with a little boiling water, and heat all to a boil. Strain out the ox-tails, etc., which have done such good service. Although it _is_ Monday, make time to put them into a pot, by and by, with the skeletons of yesterday’s chickens. Cover them with the skimmed liquor in which the corned beef was cooked on Saturday, and warm slowly to a boil, then, put back into the stock-pot for to-morrow’s soup. As to to-day’s soup, add seasoning to taste; boil up and skim, and, ten minutes before serving, drop in a handful of vermicelli, broken small, and cooked ten minutes in boiling water. Boil up once and serve.

MUTTON CHOPS.

Trim off fat and skin; leave a bare piece of bone at the top of each; broil over or under a bright fire; salt, pepper, and butter each one, and lay upon a hot dish, the large end of each overlapping the small end of that beyond it.

BAKED SWEET POTATOES.

Wash, and lay in a moderate oven. When they are soft between the fingers, they are done. Serve in the skins.

TOMATO SAUCE.

Pare, slice, and stew twenty minutes. Then season with pepper, salt, and sugar; stir in a good lump of butter rolled in flour; simmer ten minutes, and serve.

SAVORY RICE PUDDING.

1 cup of boiled rice; ½ cup of gravy from yesterday’s chickens; the giblets, boiled and chopped; 2 eggs; 3 tablespoonfuls of milk; 1 teaspoonful of flour; pepper and salt.

Beat the eggs into the rice; add gravy, milk, seasonings, giblets; lastly, the flour wet up in milk. Beat well; pour into a mould; set in a dripping-pan of hot water, and cook one hour. Turn out, and eat hot.

ORANGES, BANANAS, AND PEARS.

Atone to the so-by-herself-considered queen of the lower realms for such a “quare lot of mussing on a washin’ day,” by serving a pretty fruit dessert, and seeing to it that it _is_ pretty and good.

Second Week. Tuesday.
——
Green Bean Soup.
Beef à la Reine. Purée of Turnips.
Potato Cakes. Lettuce Salad.
——
Custard Bread Pudding.
——

GREEN BEAN SOUP.

Take the fat from your soup-stock; add a quart of boiling water, and strain from the _débris_. Put over the fire; boil, and take off the scum; then put in a scant quart of fresh kidney or Lima beans. Boil slowly at the back of the range until the beans break to pieces. Rub through a colander; season as required; put in a teaspoonful of essence of celery, and pour upon dice of fried bread already in the tureen.

BEEF À LA REINE.

Have a small round of beef, or a piece weighing six or seven pounds cut from the round, bound into a compact shape by a broad strip of muslin, as wide as it is high. Make holes clear through it by passing a keen knife perpendicularly through the round—about an inch apart. Fill one-third of these with chopped fat bacon; one-third with a mixture of crumbs, onion, and herbs; the other with minced oysters. Rub the top of the round with allspice, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, working the mixture well into the incisions, as well as into the flesh. Set the stuffed round in a dripping-pan; pour over it a cup of your soup-stock (before the beans are added), mixed with a glass of claret. Dredge the top with flour when the gravy has soaked in, and cook, in a moderate oven, two hours or more, basting very often. Undo the bandage; dish the beef; strain the gravy; thicken with browned flour, and serve in a boat.

PURÉE OF TURNIPS.

Peel, slice, and boil in hot salted water. Rub through a colander; return to the fire; mix in a great spoonful of butter rolled in a little flour, two tablespoonfuls of cream, and season with pepper and salt. Stir ten minutes, and pour out.

POTATO CAKES.

Stir into a cup of mashed potatoes a tablespoonful of butter (heaping), a beaten egg, two tablespoonfuls of milk, salt, and a tablespoonful of prepared flour. Roll out, half an inch thick; cut round or square; prick with a fork, and bake to a nice brown. Eat hot.

LETTUCE SALAD.

Pull the best leaves to pieces; heap in a salad-bowl, and pour over it a dressing made according to the receipt given on Thursday of First Week in October, but leaving out the raw egg.

CUSTARD BREAD PUDDING.

2 cups fine dry crumbs; 1 quart of milk; 5 eggs, beaten light; 1 tablespoonful corn-starch; 1 teaspoonful of salt, and ½ teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in the milk; flavor to taste.

Soak the crumbs in the milk, and heat in a custard-kettle to a boil. Add the corn-starch wet with cold milk, cook one minute, turn out and beat hard. When smooth and almost cold, whip in the yolks, the flavoring, lastly, the whites. Boil in a buttered mould an hour and a half. Eat hot with sweet sauce. It is excellent.