Chapter VII (13)

In frying, use a slice to lift the articles in and out of the pan, and drain them.

To make batter for frying: melt two ounces of butter in a little warm water, and pour it upon half a pound of flour; stir it and add water enough to form a batter, thick enough to adhere to whatever is put into it; but it should run freely: add some salt and the beaten whites of two eggs.

A small shallow frying-pan, or _sauté_ pan, as it is called, is very useful to fry articles to be stewed: this method differs from common frying, as it only requires butter enough to keep the article from sticking to the pan and burning.

The fire for frying should be free from smoky coals, sharp, and even. Charcoal makes the best frying fire.

The fat should be carefully drained from all fried articles; indeed, they should be so dry as scarcely to soil a cloth. Fish is best drained by wrapping it in soft white-brown paper, by which it will so dry as not to soil the napkin upon which it is served.

STEWING.—All articles to be stewed should first be boiled gently, then skimmed and set aside in an even heat: on this account, charcoal makes the best fire for stewing.

All stews, or meat dressed a second time should be only simmered, as the meat should only be made hot through.

A stewpan is the most advantageous vessel in which stews, hashes, soups, or gravies, can be made; indeed, for all purposes of boiling, a stewpan is preferable to a deep saucepan, as, in the former, the articles are exposed to more even heat than when they are placed one upon another in the saucepan, and are likely to be broken in stirring.

The best stewpans are made of copper or iron; they should be kept covered as much as possible, unless you wish to reduce the gravy.

Be careful not to fry in a stewpan; or, if so, with great care, and sufficient butter to save the tinning from melting.

Most of the directions for making soups and gravies apply also to this branch of cookery.

BAKING.—Baking is the least advantageous mode of cookery; for by it meat loses about one-third of its weight.

Iron ovens are ill-adapted for baking meat or meat-pies; fruit-pies, pastry, and puddings, may, however, be baked in them.

LARDING.—Have ready larding-pins of different sizes, according to the article to be done; cut slices of bacon into bits of proper length, quite smooth, and put on a larding-needle to suit it, with which pierce the skin and a very little of the meat, leaving the bacon in, and the two ends of equal length outwards. Lard in rows the size you think fit.

The same effect with regard to flavour, may be produced by raising the skin and laying a slice of fat bacon beneath it.

DOUBING consists in passing bacon _through_ meat, while _larding_ is on the surface only.

BRAISING.—Put the meat you would braise into a stewpan, and cover it with thick slices of fat bacon: then lay round it six or eight onions, a faggot of sweet herbs, some celery, and if to be brown, some thick slices of carrots, and trimmings of any fresh meat-bones you have, with a pint and a half of water, or the same quantity of stock, according to what the meat is, and add seasoning. Cover the pan close, and set it over a slow stove; it will require two or three hours, as its size and quality may direct. Then strain the gravy; keep the meat quite hot; take the fat off by plunging the basin into cold water, which will cause the fat to coagulate; and boil it as quickly as you can till it thickens. If, however, you wish the gravy to adhere to the meat; it must be still further thickened; then with a brush kept for the purpose do over the meat, and if that has been larded, put it into the oven for a few minutes. This is called “glazing,” and is much in use for made-dishes.

GLAZING is done by brushing melted glaze or jelly over the article, and letting it cool; in some cases it is requisite to cover the articles with two or three coats of glaze, allowing each to cool as it is laid on. The glaze should be of a clear yellow brown, and as thick as good treacle.

If you have not the glaze ready, sift a little sugar over the article to be glazed, and finish in the oven, with a salamander, or red-hot shovel.

BONING.—In disengaging the flesh from the bones, work the knife always _close_ to the bone, and take care not to pierce the outer skin. Minute directions are given in other parts of the work for boning fowls, &c.

BLANCHING makes the article plump and white, and consists in putting it into cold water over the fire, allowing it to boil up, and then plunging it into cold water, where the article should remain until cold.

DANGER FROM COPPER SAUCEPANS.—The precise danger from the use of copper saucepans, or stewpans, imperfectly tinned, is far from rightly understood. It appears that the acid contained in stews and other made-dishes, as lemon-juice, though it does not dissolve copper by being merely boiled in it a few minutes, nevertheless, if allowed to cool and stand in it for some time, will acquire poisonous matter, as verdigris, in the form of a green band, or crust, inside the vessel. It has likewise been proved that _weak_ solutions of common salt, such as are daily made by adding a little salt to boiling vegetables, fish, or meat, act powerfully on copper vessels, although _strong_ solutions or brine would not affect them.

It is, however, in vain to hope that cooks will attend to the nice distinctions by which copper stewpans may be rendered safe; the general advice given by prudent physicians is, therefore, against their use at all.

The kettles in which the soups are made should be well tinned, and kept particularly clean, by being washed in hot water and rubbed dry before they are put away. If they are not kept well tinned, the taste as well as the colour of the soup will be liable to be affected by the iron; and if the soup-kettle be made of copper, and the tinning not quite perfect, everything cooked in it will be more or less poisonous, as everything which is sweet, salt, or sour, extracts verdigris from copper.

HOW TO TOAST WELL.

In toasting bread, we wish to get out the water that remains, and which makes the bread cold, waxy, and heavy of digestion. Perhaps we shall be best understood if we first explain what makes bad toast of a piece of bread, or rather no toast at all, but merely a piece of bread with two burned surfaces, more wet and waxy in the heart than ever; and which not a particle of butter will enter, and if put by for an hour or two and allowed to cool, will get as tough as possible. If the slice of bread is brought into close contact with a strong fire, the surface becomes covered with, or rather converted into charcoal, before the heat produces any effect on the interior of the slice. This being done, the other side is turned, and has its surface converted into charcoal in the same manner. The consequence of this will be, that not a particle of butter will enter such a piece of toast, but only remain upon the surface, and if vexed with additional fire, turns to a rancid oil of the most unwholesome description. Charcoal, as every one knows, is a very bad conductor of heat, and as such is used between the cylinders and casings of steam engines; it is no consequence whether the said charcoal be formed of wood, of flour, or any other substance, for its qualities are in every case the same. Now, when the surfaces of the slice of bread are over-charred in this manner, there is an end to all toasting, as no heat can be communicated to the interior, and not one drop can be evaporated or drawn away. In this state the slice of bread may be wholly burned to charcoal; but until it is altogether so burned, the unburned part will become more and more wet and unwholesome. Hence, if you would have a slice of bread so toasted as to be pleasant to the palate, and wholesome and easily digested, never let one particle of the surface be charred. Chesnut brown is even far too deep for a good toast; and the colour of a fox is rather too deep. The nearer it can be kept to a straw colour, the more delicious to the taste, and the more wholesome it will be. The method of obtaining this is very obvious. It consists in keeping the bread at the proper distance from the fire, and exposing it to a proper heat, for a due length of time; or it may be done, placed on edge the same way as dry toast is brought to table, in a rack, in an iron or brick oven of a proper heat. For those who “make the toast,” especially if a large quantity be required, it is generally a tedious process, and for this reason it is commonly hurried. But if the toasting fork was discarded, and its place supplied by a small apparatus made of wire, long enough to hold three or four pieces at a time, and so contrived as to slide in or out to any required distance from the fire, the bread might be placed in it, and the process of toasting carried on, while the servant was at liberty to do her other work. Of course, the “Toast Holder” would require to be made differently, to suit particular shaped grates and fire-places.

If not cut too thin, if placed at the proper distance from the fire, and continued long enough, care being taken that not a single black, or even dark brown spot, makes its appearance on the surface, the slice of bread may be toasted through and through; and it is this operation which makes properly toasted bread so much more wholesome than bread which is not toasted, and still more preferable to bread burned on the surface and sodden in the interior. By this means the whole of the water may be drawn out of it, and it may be changed from dough, which has always a tendency to undergo the acetous fermentation in the stomach, to the pure farina of wheat, which is in itself one of the most wholesome species of food we have, not only for the strong and healthy, but more particularly so for the delicate and diseased. As it is turned to pure farina, the tough and gluey nature is gone, every part can be penetrated, all parts are equally warm, and no part is so warm as to turn the butter into oil, which, even in the case of the best butter is invariably turning a wholesome substance into an injurious substance. There is another circumstance regarding the buttering of a rightly toasted slice. The dough, being a compound of water, repels the butter, which is an oil; but the dried farina allows the butter to penetrate the whole slice equally through. There is more advantage in this than some may suppose. Butter in masses (whatever may be its quality) is too heavy for the stomach; though butter divided with sufficient minuteness, and not suffered to pass into an oil, makes a most valuable addition to many kinds of food. The properly toasted bread absorbs the butter, but does not convert it to oil: and both butter and farina are in a state of very minute division, the one serving to expose the other to the free action of gastric fluid in the stomach; and that this fluid shall be able to penetrate the whole mass of the food, and act upon it in small portions, is the grand secret of healthful digestion; so that when a slice of toast is rightly prepared, there is, perhaps, not a lighter article in the whole vocabulary of cookery. Unfermented brown bread, treated in this way, forms an excellent substitute for biscuits, and is in some respects superior, as it may be eaten with impunity by those persons with whom biscuits may disagree.

SUGGESTIONS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

The housewife should always, where it is possible, do her marketing _herself_, and pay ready-money for everything she purchases. This is the _only_ way in which she can be sure of getting the best goods at the lowest price. We repeat, that this is the only way compatible with strict economy; because, if a servant be entrusted with the buying, she will, if she is not a good judge of the quality of articles, bring home those she can get for the _least money_ (and these are seldom the _cheapest_), and even if she is a good judge, it is ten to one against her taking the trouble to make a careful selection. When the ready-money system is found inconvenient, and an account is run with a tradesman, the mistress of the house ought to have a pass-book, in which she should write down all the orders herself, leaving the tradesman to fill in only the prices. Where this is not done, and the mistress neglects to compare the pass-book with the goods ordered every time they are brought in, it sometimes happens, either by mistake, or the dishonesty of the tradesman or his shopman, or the servant, that goods are entered which were never ordered, and that those which were ordered are overcharged; and if these errors are not detected at the time, they are sure to be difficult of adjustment afterwards. Let the housewife, therefore, by all means avoid running accounts, and pay ready-money. By so doing she will escape a great deal of trouble and anxiety, besides saving the extra price which the tradesman charges upon all goods sold on credit, and to which he is justly entitled, both as interest for his money and to cover the losses to which the system sometimes subjects him.

In purchasing perishable goods, care should be taken to get everything as _fresh_ and _new_ as possible. This is absolutely necessary in the case of vegetables, ripe fruits, eggs, butter, and fish generally, as these cannot be used in too fresh a condition; but, as butcher’s meat requires to be kept some time, it may, where the butcher’s word can be trusted as to the day on which it was killed, be purchased ready for cooking. Indeed this must often be done when a small supply of cut meat, such as steaks or chops, is required. As, however, it is the butcher’s interest to sell off his meat while it is fresh, in order to avoid the loss arising from its spoiling on his hands, he will seldom have any prime pieces which have been kept long enough for immediate use, so that it is much safer, as a general rule, to ask for it fresh, and keep it at home. Perhaps the best plan is to ascertain which day of the week is the butcher’s regular “killing day,” and to buy upon that day only, a quantity sufficient to last some time,—which quantity must be determined by the season of the year; for, since meat keeps much longer in winter than in summer, a larger stock may be laid in then. Many a good dinner has been spoiled, and many a fine piece of meat wasted, and this not from ignorance of the time it ought to be kept, but from inattention to the above rule.

When it is ascertained where the best and cheapest articles are sold, it is as well to lay in as large a stock as can be afforded at one time, of those provisions which do not spoil by keeping. By so doing, the housewife will not only have a good supply of the best always at hand, but will also be allowed certain discounts from the price, which she would not otherwise obtain, besides saving much time and trouble in shopping. Not only will she have to go _oftener_ to the shop for small supplies, but it may frequently happen that, when she applies for a _second_ small quantity of an article that has been approved of, she may find the dealer’s stock of that particular commodity renewed, and the new supply not so good; and then she will either have to purchase an inferior article, or to wander from shop to shop in search of a better. Of course this rule must be disregarded when, at the time of purchase, there is reason to expect an immediate fall in the price. For instance, it would be absurd to buy a three months’ supply of tea at 4s., with the knowledge that within a month there might be such a reduction of duty upon it as would lower its price to 2s. Such cases, however, occur very rarely.

HOW TO COOK POTATOES.

The goodness of a potato materially depends upon the skill of the cook. We here introduce a few modes of preparing it for the table, not commonly in use:—

POTATOES MASHED WITH ONIONS.—Prepare some boiled onions, by putting them through a sieve, and mix them with potatoes.

POTATO SNOW.—Pick out the whitest potatoes, put them on in cold water; when they begin to crack, strain, and put them in a clean stewpan before the fire till they are quite dry and fall to pieces; rub them through a wire sieve or the dish they are to be sent up in, and do not disturb them afterwards.

POTATO SCONES.—Mash boiled potatoes till they are quite smooth, adding a little salt; then knead out with flour, or barley-meal, to the thickness required; toast on the girdle, pricking them with a fork to prevent them blistering. When eaten with fresh or salt butter, they are equal to crumpets—even superior, and very nutritious.

POTATOES FRIED WHOLE.—When nearly boiled enough, put them into a stewpan with a bit of butter; or some clean beef dripping; shake them about often, to prevent burning, till they are brown and crisp; drain them from the fat. It will be an improvement if they are floured and dipped into the yolk of an egg, and then rolled in finely sifted bread crumbs.

POTATOES ESCALLOPED.—Mash potatoes in the usual way; then butter some nice clean scallop shells, patty-pans, or tea-cups or saucers; put in the potatoes; make them smooth at the top; cross a knife over them; strew a few fine bread crumbs on them; sprinkle them with a paste-brush with a few drops of melted butter, and set them in a Dutch oven. When nicely browned on the top, take them carefully out of the shells, and brown on the other side. Cold potatoes may be warmed up this way.

POTATOES FRIED IN SLICES.—Peel large potatoes, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them into shavings, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that the fat and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a quick fire, and as soon as the lard boils, and is still, put in the slices of potato, and keep moving them until they are crisp; take them up, and lay them to drain on a sieve. Send to table with a little salt sprinkled over them.

POTATO PIE.—Peel and slice the potatoes very thin into a pie-dish; between each layer of potatoes put some chopped onions; between each layer, sprinkle a little pepper and salt; put in a little water, and cut about two ounces of fresh butter into bits, and lay them on the top; cover it close with paste. The yolks of four eggs may be added; and when baked, a table-spoonful of good mushroom ketchup poured in through a funnel.—Another method is to put between the layers small bits of mutton, beef, or pork. In Cornwall, turnips are added. This constitutes (on the Cornish method) a cheap and satisfactory dish for families.

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING PASTRY.

IN making pastry or cakes, it is best to begin by weighing out the ingredients, sifting the flour, pounding and sifting the sugar and spice, washing the butter, and preparing the fruit. Sugar can be powdered by pounding it in a large mortar, or by rolling it on a paste-board with a rolling-pin. It should be made very fine and always sifted. All sorts of spice should be pounded in a mortar, except nutmeg, which it is better to grate. If spice is wanted in large quantities, it may be ground in a mill. The butter should always be fresh and very good. Wash it in cold water before you use it, and then make it up with your hands into hard lumps, squeezing the water well out. If the butter and sugar are to be stirred together, always do that before the eggs are beaten, as (unless they are kept too warm) the butter and sugar will not be injured by standing awhile. For stirring them, nothing is so convenient as a round hard stick, about a foot and a half long, and somewhat flattened at one end. The eggs should not be beaten till after the other ingredients are ready, as they will fall very soon. If the whites and yolks are to be beaten separately, do the whites first, as they will stand longer. Eggs should be beaten in a broad shallow pan, spreading wide at the top. Butter and sugar should be stirred in a deep pan with straight sides. Break every egg by itself, in a saucer, before you put it into the pan, that in case there should be any bad ones, they may not spoil the others. Eggs are beaten most expeditiously with whisks. A small quantity of white of egg may be beaten with a knife, or a three-pronged fork.—I have found the above directions of great use in my housekeeping, and I can confidently recommend them.—J. M.

TO MAKE BARLEY WATER PROPERLY.

Either Scotch or pearl-barley may be used. The former is much less expensive, and answers equally well. Soak an ounce in several waters; put it, with some lemon-peel, into a quart of boiling water and infuse it for an hour. Then strain. This will be of a sufficient thickness; but, if it be desired thicker, it is but varying the quantity of barley. This is a cooling drink, and admits of additions either for flavour or medicinal use. The juice and rind of lemons, with loaf sugar, are most agreeable.

Figs, raisins, liquorice root, honey, and gum arabic, are often used either for coughs, cold on the chest, confined bowels, strangury, &c. Powdered nitre is often used in feverish complaints, and given in barley water; a drachm to a quart is a good proportion.

The method of mixing either nitre or powdered gum arabic, is to rub the powder smooth with sugar or honey; then mix it with a spoonful or two of the barley water, and stir it in the whole while in a boiling state. As a nourishing drink, boil the barley in water till it thickens. When reduced, and quite thick, strain, and mix with an equal quantity of new milk; sweeten it to your taste. A bit of cinnamon, or two laurel leaves, may be boiled in it for flavour.

Thick barley water, with milk and _a little_ salt and sugar, is a suitable food for infants, when they begin to take what is at all thickened. Barley may be used in broth or stew, or to make a pudding.

The valuable sanatory qualities of barley have long been known and appreciated. Providence designed it as an especial boon to mankind; for, of all the cultivated grains, it is perhaps that which comes to perfection in the greatest variety of climates, and is found over the greatest extent of the habitable world.

SCOTCH PORRIDGE.

For four persons. Boil three pints of water in a clean saucepan, add a tea-spoonful of salt, mix, _very gradually_, one pound of fine oatmeal, stirring round constantly while you put in the meal with a round stick about twelve inches long, called a “spirtle.” Continue the stirring for fifteen minutes, then pour into soup-plates. Allow them to cool for about ten minutes, then serve with half a pint of sweet milk to each person.

Scotch porridge is one of the most nutritive diets that can be given, especially to young persons. They are sometimes made with milk instead of water, but the mixture is rather rich for delicate stomachs.

ECONOMY IN THE USE OF BUTCHER’S MEAT.

OF BEEF, the round is, in large families, one of the most profitable parts: it is usually boiled, and like most of the boiling parts of beef, is generally sold in London at a penny per pound less than the roasting joints.

The brisket is also a penny a pound less in price than the roasting parts: it is not so economical a part as the round, having more bone to be weighed with it, and more fat. Where there are children, very fat joints are not desirable, being often disagreeable to them, and sometimes prejudicial, especially if they have a dislike to it. This joint also requires more cooking than many others; that is to say, it requires a double allowance of time to be given for boiling it: it will, when served, be hard and scarcely digestible if no more time be allowed to boil it than that which is sufficient for other joints and meats. When stewed it is excellent; and when cooked fresh (_i. e._ unsalted), an excellent stock for soup may be extracted from it, and yet the meat will serve as well for dinner.

The edgebone, or aitch-bone, is not considered to be a very economical joint, the bone being large in proportion to the meat; but the greater part of it, at least, is as good as that of any prime part. It sells at a penny a pound less than roasting joints.

The rump is the part of which the London butcher makes great profit, by selling it in the form of steaks. In the country, as there is not an equal demand for steaks, the whole of it may be purchased as a joint, and at the price of other prime parts. It may be turned to good account in producing many excellent dishes. If salted, it is simply boiled; if used unsalted, it is usually stewed.

The veiny piece is sold at a low price per pound; but if hung for a day or two, it is very good and very profitable. Where there are a number of servants and children to have an early dinner, this part of beef will be found desirable.

From the leg and shin excellent stock for soup may be drawn; and if not reduced too much, the meat taken from the bones may be served as a stew with vegetables; or it may be seasoned, pounded with butter, and potted; or chopped very fine, and seasoned with herbs, and bound together by egg and bread crumbs; it may be fried in balls, or in the form of large eggs, and served with a gravy made with a few spoonfuls of the soup.

Of half an ox cheek excellent soup may be made; the meat, when taken from the bones, may be served as a stew.

Roasting parts of beef are the sirloin and the ribs, and these bear in all places the highest price. The most profitable of these two joints at a family table is the ribs. The bones, if removed from the beef before it is roasted, will assist in forming the basis of a soup. When boned, the meat of the ribs is often rolled up, tied with strings, and roasted: and this is the best way of using it, as it enables the carver to distribute equally the upper part of the meat with the more skinny and fatter parts at the lower ends of the bones.

OF MUTTON, the leg and haunch are the most profitable joints, although in price higher than the shoulder or neck. But these last joints are sold at a less price per pound than others.

The loin and saddle (the two loins not separated) are expensive joints, not in price only, but in the great proportion of fat and bone belonging to them. They are considered to be prime parts.

OF LAMB, the hind quarter is more advantageous in use than the fore, but can scarcely be regarded as an economical part. In hot weather, and in a small family, the joints which the quarters form, when divided, are of so convenient a size as to render them much in request.

OF VEAL, the leg, from which the fillet is taken, the shoulder, the neck, and the loin, are all in turn serviceable in a family. When the leg is purchased altogether, without dividing the knuckle from it, the butcher usually considerably remits the price. In summer, he is often willing to sell the leg altogether at twopence per pound less than he would sell the fillet alone.

HINTS ABOUT SALADS.

This is a point of proficiency which, with care, it is easy to attain. The main point is, to incorporate the several articles required for the sauce, and to serve up at table as fresh as possible. The herbs should be “morning gathered,” and they will be much refreshed by lying an hour or two in spring water. Careful picking, and washing, and drying in a cloth, in the kitchen, are also very important, and the due proportion of each herb requires attention. The sauce may be thus prepared:—Boil two eggs for ten or twelve minutes, and then put them in cold water for a few minutes, so that the yolks may become cold and hard. Rub them through a coarse sieve with a wooden spoon, and mix them with a table-spoonful of water or cream, and then add two table-spoonfuls of fine flask oil, or melted butter; mix, and add by degrees, a tea-spoonful of salt, and the same quantity of mustard; mix till smooth, when incorporate with the other ingredients about three table-spoonfuls of vinegar; then pour this sauce down the side of the salad-bowl, but do not stir up the salad till wanted to be eaten. Garnish the top of the salad with the white of the eggs cut in slices; or these may be arranged in such manner as to be ornamental on the table. Some may fancy they are able to prepare a salad without previous instruction, but like everything else, a little knowledge in this case may not be thrown away.

FOOD AND COOKERY FOR THE MONTHS.

FOOD FOR JANUARY.

Those Fish, Poultry, etc., distinguished by Italics, are to be had in greater perfection.

MEAT.—Beef, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal, and doe-venison.

FISH.—Barbel, brill, carp, cod, crabs, cray-feet, dabs, _dace_, eels, flounders, _haddocks_, herrings, lampreys, ling, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon-trout, shrimps, skate, smelt, soles, sprats, sturgeon, _tench_, thornback, turbot, _whiting_.

POULTRY AND GAME.—Capons, chickens, ducks, wild ducks, fowls, geese, grouse, _hares_, larks, moor-game, partridges, pheasants, pigeons (tame), pullets, _rabbits_, snipes, turkeys (hen), widgeons, woodcocks.

VEGETABLES.—Beet, brocoli (white and purple), Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cardoons, carrots, celery, chervil, colewort, cresses, endive, garlic, herbs (dry), kale (Scotch), leeks, lettuces, mint, mustard, onions, parsley, parsnips, potatoes, rape, rosemary, sage, salsify, savoy, scorzonera, shalots, skirrets, sorrel, spinach (winter), tarragon, thyme, turnips.

FORCED VEGETABLES.—Asparagus, cucumbers, Jerusalem artichokes, and mushrooms.

FRUIT.—Almonds, Apples—French pippin, golden pippin, golden russet, Kentish pippin, nonpareil, winter pearmain. Pears—Bergamot, d’Hollande, Bon Chrétien, Charmontelle, Colmar, winter beurré. Grapes—English and Foreign. Chestnuts, medlars, nuts, oranges, walnuts.

COOKERY FOR JANUARY.

SOUPS.

PEA SOUP.—The cheapest and most wholesome way, is to make it by “A. Braden’s Prepared Peas,” a sixpenny packet of which will make six or eight quarts of good soup; or, take a third of the packet, mix with enough soup to form a thick batter, add two or three quarts of the common soup given below, and boil fifteen minutes.

COMMON SOUP.—Take the bones of beef, (ribs, sirloin, &c.) break small, put into a digester or a large pan, cover with water, boil, and keep covered; then add a crust of bread toasted, a pound of pearl-barley, two onions in slices, a faggot of sweet herbs, a bay-leaf, two carrots cut small, and other vegetables; fill up to a gallon with the liquor that corned beef, bacon, pork, or any other meat has been boiled in, and season with pepper and salt to taste.

HARE SOUP.—Take a hare and cut in pieces, put into an earthen jar, with two onions cut small, three blades of mace, a pinch of salt, two anchovies, or three-quarters of a red herring, three quarts of water, and wine to flavour, perhaps a pint of red wine. Bake in a quick oven for three hours, then strain the liquor into a stewpan. Have ready boiled four ounces of fine pearl-barley, add this, scald the liver, and rub it through a sieve with a wooden spoon, put this into the soup, set over the fire, and keep it stirring till near boiling—but it must not boil—then remove. Put some toasted bread into the tureen, pour the soup on, and serve hot.

FISH.

FISH.—In cleaning cod-fish, haddock, whiting, whiting-polluck, hake, ling, &c., they should be cut open for some distance below the vent; the sound of one side being carefully cut up with a sharp knife, as close to the back-bone as possible, and the blood must be scraped out with a knife, or scrubbed with a brush. The back-bone of a hake is extracted entire by separating it with the fore-finger and thumb of the right hand, from behind the poll, and tearing it out. Fish that are dressed with the scales on, should be dipped in water, and rubbed with a coarse towel from the head downwards.

SALT FISH should be properly soaked in water previous to being dressed, for at least twelve hours, then taken out, scrubbed with a coarse cloth, and laid on a stone or table to drain for six or eight hours, when it should be again put into water, just lukewarm, to remain there ten or twelve hours.

HAKE CUTLETS.—Cut a moderate sized hake into cutlets length-wise, about the size of ordinary veal cutlets, dry well with a cloth, egg well, dip in bread crumbs, and fry light brown; then serve hot on a napkin, with fried parsley garnish.

BARBEL, TO FRY.—Split the barbel, if large; pepper and salt it well, fry a light brown, and serve with melted butter.

DACE, TO FRY.—Open the belly, cut the fins close off, scale them well, dry in flour, and fry a light brown; serve with melted butter.

DACE, TO MARINADE.—Clean well, cut off the heads, and rub plenty of pepper, salt, and allspice, into the inside; place them in layers in a baking-dish, with bay between the layers; and add three parts vinegar and one of water, sufficient to fill the dish; add a little whole pepper, and a blade or two of mace. Bake slowly for about five hours. When cold, shift the fish and marinade into another dish, taking care not to bruise or break them.

HADDOCK, TO BOIL.—Boil entire, if not very large; and throw a little salt, vinegar, and horse-radish into the water, which improve the look of the fish, and prevent the skin breaking. Serve hot, with oyster sauce.

PERCH AND TENCH AS WATER SOUCHY.—Take a dozen fish, place in a stewpan, with about two quarts of water, some parsley roots and leaves chopped, but not fine. Boil until nearly the whole of the flesh of the fish will run through a coarse sieve with the gravy; place another dozen in the stewpan, with finely chopped parsley, and add the gravy to them, season with pepper and salt, and stew until done; then turn gravy and all into a soup tureen. Some add onions, but in our opinion it spoils the flavour of the souchy.

POULTRY, GAME, ETC.

CURRY.—Cut up a rabbit or chicken as for a fricassee; fry them a light brown, and stew in gravy. Add a table-spoonful of curry powder, and, if necessary, cayenne pepper and salt. When stewed sufficiently, thicken with butter rolled in flour, and add lemon-juice, shalots or garlic; then serve with rice, and garnish with lemon.

TO BROIL A PIGEON.—Split it down the back, spread it open, season with pepper and salt, and broil over a quick clear fire. Serve with mushroom and salt.

RABBITS, TO STEW.—Divide the rabbit into quarters, lard them with large slips of bacon, and fry them; then put into a stewpan, with a quart of good broth, a glass of white wine, a bunch of sweet herbs, a little pepper and salt, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. When done, dish up, and pour the gravy sauce on them, garnishing with sliced lemon.

LARKS, TO ROAST.—Spit them on a little bird-spit, and roast; when done enough, sprinkle with fried bread crumbs, and serve on toast, with thick brown gravy.

TURKEY PATTIES.—Mince part of the breast fine, season with salt, nutmeg, grated lemon, white pepper, and a little butter warmed. Fill the patties, and bake as usual.

MEAT.

BEEF.—We have already given receipts for cooking cold beef, among which will be found those for minced beef, cold roast beef and mashed potatoes, bubble and squeak, lobscous, and beef rissoles. We shall therefore enter on new ground.

TO DRESS THE INSIDE OF A COLD SIRLOIN OF BEEF.—Cut out all the inside (free from fat) of the sirloin, in pieces about two inches long; flour it well, and fry it a light brown; drain, and toss it up in a rich gravy, well seasoned with pepper, salt, and shalots. Before sending it up, add two tea-spoonfuls of caper vinegar, and garnish with fried potatoes, horse-radish, or boiled spinach.

FRICASSEE OF COLD ROAST BEEF.—Cut some thin slices of under-done beef, an onion in quarters, chop some parsley very small; put these into a stewpan, with some strong broth, a small piece of butter, and a little salt and pepper. Simmer gently a quarter of an hour, then add a table-spoonful of white wine and vinegar, and the yolks of two eggs; stir quickly over a brisk fire for a few minutes, and then serve in a deep hot dish.

MUTTON HAM.—Take a leg of mutton of about seven pounds, shape like a ham, and hang two days. Take six ounces of coarse sugar, an ounce of saltpetre, four ounces of bay, and three ounces of common salt. Mix, and rub them well into the ham, lay it in a tub, with the skin downwards, and rub every day for a fortnight; then have it smoked, or hung in wood smoke for a week. It is excellent cut in rashers and broiled.

TO COOK A LOIN OF PORK PORTUGUESE WAY.—Cut the skin of the loin across with a sharp knife, at distances of half an inch; roast as usual. Cut two onions small, and put them into the dripping-pan, with a pint of vinegar; baste well with this, and serve hot.

SPARE-RIB OF PORK should be basted with very little butter, well floured, and then sprinkled with dried sage, powdered. Serve hot, and have apple-sauce.

VEAL SAUSAGES.—Chop half a pound of lean veal and fat bacon very fine; add sage, salt, pepper, and allspice to taste; beat well in a mortar, roll into balls, flatten and fry them.

LIVER PUDDING.—Boil a lamb’s liver well, grate it down; add an equal quantity of grated bread; cut some onions small with plenty of suet, add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste, and fill them in the white end of the pudding.

LAMB’S BRAIN CAKES.—Take the brains, and remove any veins, &c., that may be among them, chop well with a knife, and add salt, nutmeg, or pepper, a little raw egg, and flour enough to make them stick together; mix well, make into cakes about the size of the top of a wine-glass, and fry them brown on both sides with lard.

VENISON, TO BROIL.—Cut thin slices; mix stale crumbs of bread, with salt, pepper, and spices; egg the slices, dip into the seasoned bread, broil over a clear fire, serve with a gravy sauce.

VEGETABLES.

POTATOES.—Several ways of cooking potatoes are given at p. 243, viz.: potato mashed with onions; potato snow; potato scones; potatoes fried whole, escalloped, fried in slices; and potato pie.

PASTRY.

ELEGANT BREAD PUDDING.—Take light white bread, and cut in thin slices. Put into a pudding shape a layer of any sort of preserve, then a slice of bread, and repeat until the mould is almost full. Pour over all a pint of warm milk, in which four well-beaten eggs have been mixed; cover the mould with a piece of linen, place in a saucepan with a little boiling water, let it boil twenty minutes, and serve with pudding sauce.

MINCE PIES.—Take a piece of puff-paste, roll to the thickness of a penny-piece; butter the pans lightly; line the pans with the puff-paste, place in the mincemeat made as under:—trim and wet the edges of the paste with milk, cover with the paste, trim, press the edges closely and crimp, prick a hole in the centre of the top, egg, and dust some fine white sugar over. Bake for twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

MINCE MEAT.—Take seven pounds of currants well picked and cleaned; of finely chopped beef suet, the lean of a sirloin of beef minced raw, and finely chopped apples (Kentish or Golden Pippins), each three and a half pounds; citron, lemon-peel, and orange-peel cut small, each half a pound; fine moist sugar, two pounds; mixed spice, an ounce; the rind of four lemons and four Seville oranges; mix well, and put in a deep pan. Mix a bottle of brandy and white wine, the juice of the lemons and oranges that have been grated together in a basin; pour half over, and press down tight with the hand, then add the other half, and cover closely. Some families make one year, to use the next.

MALCOLM PUDDINGS.—Take any number of eggs, which are to be used first as weights, and then mixed with the ingredients. Place the eggs in one scale and weigh their equal balance successively in flour, brown sugar, and butter. Make into a mass by means of the eggs, work well, and bake in small moulds, with or without currants. Serve hot with wine sauce, or cold without.

OATMEAL GINGERBREAD.—Mix one pound of Scotch meal into a stiff paste with sour buttermilk, let it stay all night, and then add one pound prepared Lentil Powder (Butler and McCulloch’s), into which has been rubbed half an ounce of bi-carbonate of soda, and one pound of brown flour. Add treacle enough to bring it to the requisite consistence, roll any thickness, and bake in a moderate oven. A little sugar may be added.

UNFERMENTED OAT-CAKES.—Soak one pound of meal all night in a pint of sour buttermilk. The next day, rub a quarter of an ounce of carbonate of soda and a little salt into one pound of flour, and mix with the oatmeal. Roll out any thickness required, and bake in a moderate oven.

OATMEAL PUDDING.—Soak four ounces of brown bread and two ounces of meal, in one pint of boiling milk; when cold stir in two eggs well beaten, and a little nutmeg and sugar; pour into a buttered basin, and steam or boil one hour.

FLUMMERY, OR SOWINS.—To three spoonfuls of meal, add one pint of water, let it stand in a warm place until it is sourish. Boil it the same as for porridge, and eat with salt only. This gruel is excellent for hot seasons and climates; taken for breakfast, it assists digestion, and prevents constipation, cools the body, and creates an active and cheerful disposition.

FOOD FOR FEBRUARY.

MEAT.—Beef, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

FISH.—Barbel, brill, carp, cockles, cod, crabs, cray-fish, dabbs, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, ling, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.

POULTRY AND GAME.—Capons, chickens, ducklings, fowl (wild), green geese, hares, partridges, pheasants, pigeons, tame and wild, pullets with egg, rabbits (tame), snipes, turkeys, turkey-poults, woodcocks.

VEGETABLES.—Beet, brocoli (white and purple), burnet, cabbage, cardoons, carrots, celery, chervil, colewort, cresses, endive, garlic, dry herbs, leeks, lettuces, mint, mustard, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, parsley, potatoes, radish, rape, rosemary, sage, salsify, savory, scorzonera, shalots, skirrets, sorrel, spinach, sprouts, tarragon, thyme, turnips, winter savory.

FORCED VEGETABLES.—Asparagus, cucumbers, and Jerusalem artichokes.

FRUIT.—_Apples_—French pippin, golden pippin, golden russet, Holland pippin, Kentish pippin, nonpareil, Wheeler’s russet, winter pearmain; chestnuts, oranges. _Pears._—Bergamot, d’Pasque, winter Bon Chrétien, winter russelet.

COOKERY FOR FEBRUARY.

SOUP.

OBSERVATIONS ON SOUPS.—Soups, in general, are better if made the day before they are wanted; because they have the advantage of being longer boiled. They should always be made from the freshest meat—if practicable—and should not be put away for any length of time if there are many vegetables in them, as they will speedily ferment, or turn sour. When fat remains on soup, mix a tea-cupful of flour and water, quite intimately, and boil in it: if deficient in richness, boil a pound of butter mixed with flour in it; if too weak, remove the cover whilst boiling. In general, a pound of meat is required for every quart of water. Clear soups must be perfectly transparent; thickened soups about the consistence of cream.

BEEF STOCK.—Take five pounds of coarse lean beef, cut into small pieces, put into a pot or a digester, with sufficient water to cover it. As it simmers, be careful to skim well; add a faggot of herbs, and season with salt and ground pepper. When the meat is tender, the pot may be removed, the stock skimmed well, the liquor strained through a fine hair sieve, and put aside in a covered pan for use.

VEAL STOCK.—Take five or six pounds of the neck, leg, &c. of veal, and add half to three-quarters of a pound of ham. Cut the meat into small pieces, break the bones, and put the whole with a faggot of herbs into rather more than a quart of water. Let all simmer until the meat is nearly tender; then add as much of the beef stock as will cover the veal, which must afterwards be kept simmering half an hour longer. Skim it free from fat, strain through a sieve, and keep the same as beef stock.

BROWNING FOR SOUPS.—1. Take two ounces of coarse brown sugar, and pour upon it some thyme water; place it on the fire till it becomes burnt.—2. Take two ounces of powdered lump sugar, and half an ounce of fresh butter; put them together in a frying-pan, and keep on the fire till the mixture becomes a chocolate brown, then add three table-spoonfuls of port wine, and two wine-glassfuls of elder wine, six shalots, half a drachm of mace, a drachm of allspice, a drachm of black pepper, half an ounce of salt, two ounces of ketchup, and an ounce of fresh lemon-juice. Boil all together, let the liquor stand to settle, pour off the clear liquor, bottle, and cork tight.—3. Take some sugar, white or brown, place it in an iron spoon, heat until liquid, and then drop into half a pint of water; repeat until sufficiently brown.

PIGEON SOUP.—Take eight good pigeons, cut up two of the worst, and put them on with as much water as will make a large tureen of soup, adding the pinions, necks, gizzards, and livers of the others; boil well, and strain. Season the whole pigeons within, with mixed spices, and salt, and truss them with their legs into their belly. Take a large handful of parsley, young onions, and spinach, pick and wash them clean and shred small; then take a handful of grated bread, put a lump of butter about the size of a hen’s egg in a frying-pan, and when it boils throw in the bread, stirring well until it becomes a fine brown colour. Put on the stock to boil, add the whole pigeons, herbs, and fried bread, and when the pigeons are done enough, dish up with the soup.

SOUP À LA SAP.—Boil a pound of beef cut in pieces an inch square, a pint of gray peas, half a pound of scraped potatoes, an onion, and three ounces of rice, in six pints of water until reduced to five. Strain through a sieve, pulp the peas into it, and return to the saucepan with a head of celery cut small, and a carrot. Stew well, season with pepper and salt. Put toasted bread into the tureen, pour the soup on, and serve hot.

BEEF BROTH.—Take a leg of beef, crack the bone in two or three parts, wash clean, put it into a gallon of water, let it simmer; skim well, add three blades of mace, a bundle of parsley, and a crust of bread. Boil well, and serve hot with toasted bread.

CARROT SOUP.—Slice up eight or nine large carrots, and stew them in three quarts of common soup, until quite tender; then rub through a sieve, mix well, season with salt and pepper, and add sufficient browning to make it look well. It should be made the day before it is used.

FISH.

CARP, TO STEW.—Clean and cut them in two; place in a stewpan, with some broken bread crusts, pepper, salt, and mace, a small onion shred fine, and a few chopped capers. Then add a gill of white wine, the same of red wine, and water enough to cover them; cover the pan close, and let them stew until the liquor is thick, then serve with lemon and horse-radish for garnish.

OYSTERS STEWED.—Take a pint of oysters, gently simmer them in their own strained liquor. Beard them, and add a quarter of a pint of cream; season with pounded mace, cayenne, and salt; add two ounces of butter and a dessert-spoonful of flour, then simmer for a short time. Lay the oysters in the dish upon a piece of toast, and pour the sauce over. The cream may be omitted, if thought proper.

PRAWNS, TO CURRY, MALAY FASHION.—Procure sufficient prawns to weigh when picked about a pound. Mince an onion or two very small, put the prawns and onion in a stewpan with a little salt, and a stick of cinnamon; add a pint of cold water, veal or mutton broth, and stew it for half an hour, then add a table-spoonful of curry powder, and let it stew ten minutes longer. Take the stewpan off the fire, strain the sauce through a sieve, wipe the stewpan dry, add the prawns and sauce together, and let them simmer ten minutes longer. Scrape some cocoa-nut into a basin with a gill and a half of warm water, press it well with the back of a spoon, strain through a sieve, and mix a table-spoonful of flour well in the milk, and five minutes before you serve the curry, add the milk to it, shake the pan once or twice, squeeze half a lemon in, and serve it up hot; rice separate. Shrimps or any other fish may be curried in the same manner.

POULTRY, GAME, ETC.

DUCKS, TO ROAST.—After plucking and singeing carefully, let them be well washed and dried. Make a seasoning of onion, sage, pepper, and salt. Fasten it tight at the neck and rump. Paper the breast-bone, baste well, and when the breast is rising take off the paper, and serve before the breast falls, with plenty of good gravy. Be sure to have apple-sauce ready.

WILD DUCKS are to be dressed in the same manner.

GOOSE, TO ROAST.—Prepare it the same as the ducks, and when done, cut off the apron, and pour a glass of port wine and two tea-spoonfuls of mustard among the seasoning. Apple-sauce must be ready, and plenty of good gravy, in separate tureens.

HARE PIE.—Cut up a hare and season it; bake it with eggs and sausage meat, as usual; or in a raised crust, and when cold, cover with savoury jelly.

RABBIT, FRICASSEE OF.—Wash and cut a young rabbit into joints, put them in a stewpan, with a quarter of a pound of streaky bacon cut small, an onion stuck with cloves, a faggot of herbs, a blade of mace, and some salt; cover the whole with water, and let it simmer twenty minutes, keeping it well skimmed; pass the liquor through a sieve. Into another stewpan put two ounces of butter, a table-spoonful of flour, and a little of the liquor; set on the fire; stir well until it boils; add the rabbit and bacon, with a dozen and a half of small onions; let the whole simmer until the onions are done; skim well; then pour in a wine-glassful of white wine, mixed with the yolks of two eggs, and a little grated nutmeg; leave it to thicken, remove the rabbit, pile it on sippets, sauce over, garnish with sliced lemon, and serve hot.

MEAT.