two pounds of mutton chops, either from the loin or neck; part of the
fat should he taken off; beef, two pounds, six large onions sliced, a
slice of ham, or lean bacon, a spoonful of pepper, and two of salt.
This stew may be done in a stewpan over the fire, or in a baker's
oven, or in a close-covered earthen pot. First put a layer of
potatoes, then a layer of meat and onions, sprinkle the seasoning,
then a layer of potatoes, and again the meat and onions and seasoning;
the top layer should be potatoes, and the vessel should be quite full.
Then put in half a pint of good gravy, and a spoonful of mushroom
ketchup. Let the whole stew for an hour and a half; be very careful it
does not burn.
[SECOND TRIALS OFTEN SUCCEED.]
1163. Palatable Stew.
Cut pieces of salt beef and pork into dice, put them into a stewpan
with six whole peppercorns, two blades of mace, a few cloves, a
teaspoonful of celery-seeds, and a faggot of dried sweet herbs; cover
with water, and stew gently for an hour, then add fragments of
carrots, turnips, parsley, or any other vegetables at hand, with two
sliced onions, and some vinegar to flavour; thicken with flour or
rice, remove the herbs, and pour into the dish with toasted bread, or
freshly baked biscuit, broken small, and serve hot. When they can be
procured, a few potatoes improve it very much.
1164. Ragoût of Cold Veal.
Either a neck, loin, or fillet of veal will furnish this excellent
ragoût with a very little expense or trouble. Cut the veal into
handsome cutlets; put a piece of butter, or clean dripping, into a
frying pan; as soon as it is hot, flour and fry the veal to a light
brown; take it out, and if you have no gravy ready, put a pint of
boiling water into the frying-pan, give it a boil-up for a minute, and
strain it in a basin while you make some thickening in the following
manner:
Put an ounce of butter into a stewpan; as soon as it melts, mix as
much flour as will dry it up; stir it over the fire for a few minutes,
and gradually add the gravy you made in the frying-pan: let them
simmer together for ten minutes; season with pepper, salt, a little
mace, and a wineglassful of mushroom ketchup or wine; strain it
through a tammy, or fine sieve, over the meat, and stew very gently
till the meat is thoroughly warmed, If you have any ready-boiled
bacon, cut it in slices, and put it to warm with the meat.
1165. Economical Dish.
Cut some rather fat ham or bacon into slices, and fry to a nice brown;
lay them aside to keep warm; then mix equal quantities of potatoes and
cabbage, bruised well together, and fry them in the fat left from the
ham. Place the mixture at the bottom, and lay the slices of bacon on
the top. Cauliflower, or broccoli, substituted for cabbage, is truly
delicious; and, to any one possessing a garden, quite easily procured,
as those newly blown will do. The dish must be well seasoned with
pepper.
1166. Mock Goose
(being a leg of pork skinned, roasted, and stuffed goose
fashion).--Parboil the leg; take off the skin, and then put it down to
roast; baste it with butter, and make a _savoury powder_ of finely
minced or dried or powdered sage, ground black pepper, salt, and some
bread-crumbs, rubbed together through a cullender: add to this a
little very finely minced onion; sprinkle it with this when it is
almost roasted; put half a pint of made gravy into the dish, and goose
stuffing under the knuckle skin; or garnish the dish with balls of it
fried or boiled.
1167. Roast Goose.
When a goose is well picked, singed, and cleaned, make the stuffing,
with about two ounces of onion--if you think the flavour of raw onions
too strong, cut them in slices, and lay them in cold water for a
couple of hours, add as much apple or potato as you have of onion, and
half as much green sage, chop them very fine, adding four ounces,
_i.e._, about a large breakfast cupful, of stale breadcrumbs, a bit of
butter about as big as a walnut, and a very little pepper and salt,
the yolk of an egg or two, and incorporating the whole well together,
stuff the goose; do not quite fill it, but leave a little room for the
stuffing to swell. Spit it, tie it on the spit at both ends, to
prevent it swinging round, and to prevent the stuffing from coming
out. From an hour and a half to an hour and three-quarters will roast
a fine full-grown goose. Send up gravy and apple sauce with it.
[SECOND THOUGHTS ARE OFTEN BEST.]
1168. Jugged Hare.
Wash it very nicely, cut it up in pieces proper to help at table, and
put them into a jugging-pot, or into a stone jar, just sufficiently
large to hold it well; put in some sweet herbs, a roll or two of rind
of a lemon, and a fine large onion with five cloves stuck in it; and,
if you wish to preserve the flavour of the hare, a quarter of a pint
of water; but, if you wish to make a ragoût, a quarter of a pint of
claret or port wine, and the juice of a lemon. Tie the jar down
closely with a bladder, so that no steam can escape; put a little hay
in the bottom of the saucepan, in which place the jar; let the water
boil for about three hours, according to the age and size of the hare,
keeping it boiling all the time, and till up the pot as it boils away.
Care, however, must be taken that it is not overdone, which is the
general fault in all made dishes. When quite tender, strain off the
gravy from the fat, thicken it with flour, and give it a boil up; lay
the pieces of hare in a hash dish, and pour the gravy over it. You may
make a pudding the same as for roast hare, and boil it in a cloth, and
when you dish up your hare, cut it in slices, or make forcemeat balls
of it for garnish. For sauce, red currant jelly.
1169. Stewed Hare.
A much easier and quicker way is the following:--Prepare the hare as
for jugging; put it into a stewpan with a few sweet herbs, half a
dozen cloves, the same of allspice and black pepper, two large onions,
and a roll of lemon peel; cover it with water: when it boils, skim it
clean, and let it simmer gently till tender (about two hours); then
take the meat up with a slice, set it by a fire to keep hot while you
thicken the gravy; take three ounces of butter and some flour, rub
together, put in the gravy, stir it well, and let it boil about ten
minutes; strain it through a sieve over the meat, and it is ready.
1170. Curried Beef, Madras Way.
Take about two ounces of butter, and place it in a saucepan, with two
small onions cut up into slices, and let them fry until they are a
light brown; then add a tablespoonful and a half of curry powder, and
mix it up well. Now put in the beef, cut into pieces about an inch
square; pour in from a quarter to a third of a pint of milk, and let
it simmer for thirty minutes; then take it off, and place it in a
dish, with a little lemon juice. Whilst cooking stir constantly, to
prevent it burning. Send to table with a wall of mashed potatoes or
boiled rice round it. It greatly improves any curry to add with the
milk a quarter of a cocoa-nut, scraped very small, and squeezed
through muslin with a little water; this softens the taste of the
curry, and, indeed, no curry should be made without it.
1171. Ragoût of Duck, or any kind of Poultry or Game.
Partly roast, then divide into joints, or pieces of a suitable size
for helping at table. Set it on in a stewpan, with a pint and a half
of broth, or, if you have no broth, water, with any little trimmings
of meat to enrich it; a large onion stuck with cloves, a dozen berries
of allspice, the same quantity of black pepper, and the rind of half a
lemon shaved thin. When it boils, skim it very clean, and then let it
simmer gently, with the lid close, for an hour and a half. Then strain
off the liquor, and take out the pieces, which keep hot in a basin or
deep dish.
Rinse the stewpan, or use a clean one, in which put two ounces of
butter, and as much flour or other thickening as will bring it to a
stiff paste; add to it the gravy by degrees. Let it boil up, then add
a glass of port wine, a little lemon juice, and a teaspoonful of salt;
simmer a few minutes. Put the meat in a deep dish, strain the gravy
over, and garnish with sippets of toasted bread. The flavour may be
varied at pleasure by adding ketchup, curry powder, or vinegar.
1172. To Dress Cold Turkey, Goose, Fowl, Duck, Pigeon, or Rabbit.
Cut the cold bird or rabbit in quarters, beat up an egg or two
(according to the quantity to be dressed) with a little grated nutmeg,
and pepper and salt, some parsley minced fine, and a few crumbs of
bread; mix these well together, and cover the pieces with this batter:
broil them, or put them in a Dutch oven, or have ready some dripping
hot in a pan, in which fry them a light brown colour; thicken a little
gravy with some flour, put a large spoonful of ketchup to it, lay the
fry in a dish, and pour the sauce round it; garnish with slices of
lemon and toasted bread.
[READ FREQUENTLY THE MEDICAL HINTS.]
1173. Pulled Turkey, Fowl, or Chicken.
Skin a cold chicken, fowl, or turkey; take off the fillets from the
breasts, and put them into a stewpan with the rest of the white meat
and wings, side-bones, and merry-thought, with a pint of broth, a
large blade of mace pounded, a shalot minced fine, the juice of half a
lemon, and a strip of the peel, some salt, and a few grains of
cayenne; thicken it with flour and butter, and let it simmer for two
or three minutes, till the meat is warm. In the meantime score the
legs and rump, powder them with pepper and salt, broil them in a dish
and lay the pulled chicken round them. Three tablespoonfuls of good
cream, or the yolks of as many eggs, will be a great improvement to it.
1174. Hashed Poultry, Game, or Rabbit.
Cut them into joints, put the trimmings into a stew pan with a quart
of the broth in which they were boiled, and a large onion cut in four;
let the whole boil half an hour: strain it through a sieve; then put
two tablespoonfuls of flour in a basin, and mix it well by degrees
with the hot broth; set it on the fire to boil up, then strain it
through a fine sieve: wash out the stewpan, lay the poultry in it, and
pour the gravy on it (through a sieve); set it by the side of the fire
to simmer very gently (it must not _boil_) for fifteen minutes; five
minutes before you serve it up, cut the stuffing in slices, and put it
in to warm, then take it out, and lay it round the edge of the dish,
and put the poultry in the middle; skim the fat off the gravy, then
shake it round well in the stewpan, and pour it over the hash. Garnish
the dish with toasted sippets.
1175. Ducks or Geese Hashed.
Cut an onion, into small dice: put it into a stewpan with a bit of
butter; fry it, but do not let it get any colour; put as much boiling
water into the stewpan as will make sauce for the hash; thicken it
with a little flour; cut up the duck, and put it into the sauce to
warm; do not let it boil; season it with pepper and salt and ketchup.
1176. Broiled Goose.
_The legs of geese, &c_., broiled, and laid on a bed of apple sauce,
form an appetising dish for luncheon or supper.
1177. Grilled Fowl.
Take the remains of cold fowls, and skin them or not, at choice;
pepper and salt them, and sprinkle over them a little lemon juice, and
let them stand an hour; wipe them dry, dip them into clarified butter,
and then into fine bread-crumbs, and broil gently over a clear fire. A
little finely minced lean of ham or grated lemon peel, with a
seasoning of cayenne, salt, and mace, mixed with the crumbs, will vary
this dish agreeably. When fried instead of broiled, the fowls may be
dipped into yolk of egg instead of butter.
1178. A Nice Way of serving up a fowl that has been dressed.
Beat the whites of two eggs to a thick froth; add a small bit of
butter, or some salad oil, flour, a little lukewarm water, and two
tablespoonfuls of beer, beaten altogether till it is of the
consistency of very thick cream. Cut up the fowl into small pieces,
strew over it some chopped parsley and shalot, pepper, salt, and a
little vinegar, and let it lie till dinner-time; dip the fowl in the
batter, and fry it in boiling lard, of a nice light brown. Veal that
has been cooked may be dressed in the same way.
1179. Curry of any Kind.
Cut up a good fowl; skin it or not, as you please; fry it nicely
brown: slice two or three onions, and fry them; put the fried fowl and
onions into a stew-pan with a tablespoonful of curry powder, and one
clove of garlic: cover it with water or veal gravy: let it stew slowly
for one hour, or til very tender; have ready, mixed in two or three
spoonfuls of good cream, one teaspoonful of flour, two ounces of
butter, juice of a lemon, some salt; after the cream is in, it must
only have one boil up, not to stew. Any spice may be added if the
curry powder is not highly seasoned. With chicken, rabbit, or fish,
observe the same rule. Curry is made also with sweetbreads, breast of
veal, veal cutlets, lamb, mutton or pork chops, lobster, turbot,
soles, eels, oysters, &c. Any kind of white meat is fit for a curry.
[AND STUDY ALL THE PRECAUTIONS.]
1180. Curried Eggs.
Slice two onions and fry them in butter, add a tablespoonful of curry
powder; let the onions and curry powder stew in a pint of good broth
till the former are quite tender; mix a cup of cream, and thicken with
arrowroot, or rice flour. Simmer a few minutes, then add six or eight
hard-boiled eggs cut in slices; heat them thoroughly, but do not let
them boil.
1181. Cold Meat Broiled, With Poached Eggs.
The inside of a sirloin of beef or a leg of mutton is the best for
this dish. Cut the slices of equal thickness, and broil and brown
them carefully and slightly over a clear smart fire, or in a Dutch
oven; give those slices most fire that are least done; lay them in a
dish before the fire to keep hot, while you poach the eggs and mash
the potatoes. This makes a savoury luncheon or supper. The meat should
be _underdone_ the first time.
1182. Curried Oysters.
This receipt may be greatly modified, both in quantity and
ingredients. Let a hundred of large oysters be opened into a basin
without losing one drop of their liquor. Put a lump of fresh butter
into a good-sized saucepan, and when it boils, add a large onion, cut
into thin slices, and let it fry in the uncovered stewpan until it is
of a rich brown: now add a bit more butter, and two or three
tablespoonfuls of curry powder. When these ingredients are well mixed
over the fire with a wooden spoon, add gradually either hot water, or
broth from the stock-pot; cover the stewpan, and let the whole boil
up. Meanwhile, have ready the meat of a cocoa-nut, grated or rasped
fine, put this into the stewpan with an unripe apple, chopped. Let the
whole simmer over the fire until the apple is dissolved, and the
cocoa-nut very tender; then add a cupful of strong thickening made of
flour and water, and sufficient salt, as a curry will not bear being
salted at table. Let this boil up for five minutes.
Have ready also a vegetable marrow, or part of one, cut into bits, and
sufficiently boiled to require little or no further cooking. Put this
in with a tomato or two. These vegetables improve the flavour of the
dish, but either or both of them may be omitted. Now put into the
stewpan the oysters with their liquor, and the milk of the cocoa-nut,
if it be perfectly sweet; stir them well with the former ingredients;
let the curry stew gently for a few minutes, then throw in the
strained juice of half a lemon. Stir the curry from time to time with
a wooden spoon, and as soon as the oysters are done enough, serve it
up with a corresponding dish of rice on the opposite side of the
table. This dish is considered at Madras the _ne plus ultra_ of Indian
cookery.
1183. Fried Oysters.
Large oysters are the best. Simmer for a minute or two in their own
liquor; drain perfectly dry; dip in yolks of eggs, and then in
bread-crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, cayenne, and salt; fry them of a
light brown. They are chiefly used as garnish for fish, or for rump
steaks; but if intended to be eaten alone, make a little thick melted
butter, moistened with the liquor of the oysters, and serve as sauce.
1184. Stewed Oysters.
The beard or fringe is generally taken off. When this is done, set on
the beards with the liquor of the oysters, and a little white gravy,
rich, but unseasoned; having boiled for a few minutes, strain off the
beards, put in the oysters, and thicken the gravy with flour and
butter (an ounce of butter to half a pint of stew), a little salt,
pepper, and nutmeg, or mace, a spoonful of ketchup, and three of
cream; some prefer a little essence of anchovy to ketchup, others the
juice of a lemon, others a glass of white wine; the flavour may be
varied according to taste. Simmer till the stew is thick, and the
oysters warmed through, but avoid letting them boil. Lay toasted
sippets at the bottom of the dish and round the edges.
[STUDY THE PRECAUTIONS RESPECTING FIRE.]
1185. Bologna Sausages.
Take equal quantities of bacon, fat and lean, beef, veal, pork, and
beef suet; chop them small, season with pepper, salt, &c., sweet
herbs, and sage rubbed fine. Have a well-washed intestine, fill, and
prick it; boil gently for an hour, and lay on straw to dry. They may
be smoked the same as hams.
1186. Oxford Sausages.
To each pound of lean pork allow one pound of lean veal, one pound of
fat, part pork and part veal. Chop and beat well with a lard-beater.
Allow one pound of bread-crumbs, thyme, a little parsley; an ounce of
sage leaves, chopped very small; two heads of leeks, or a little
garlic, or shalot, chopped very fine; salt, pepper, and nutmeg. To
each pound allow one egg, the yolks and whites separately; beat both
well, mix in the yolks, and as much of the whites as is necessary to
moisten the bread. Then make the sausages in the usual way.
1187. Worcester Sausages.
Worcester sausages are made of beef, &c.; add allspice, and any other
spices and herbs you may choose.
1188. Mutton Sausages.
The lean of the leg is the best. Add half as much of beef suet; that
is, a pound of lean and half a pound of suet (this proportion is good
for all sausages). Add oysters, anchovies chopped very fine, and
flavour with seasoning. No herbs. These will require a little fat in
the pan to fry.
1189. Veal Sausages.
Veal sausages are made exactly as Oxford sausages, except that you add
ham fat, or fat bacon; and, instead of sage, use marjoram, thyme, and
parsley.
1190. Preparing Sausage Skins.
Turn them inside out, and stretch them on a stick; wash and scrape
them in several waters. When thoroughly cleansed, take them off the
sticks, and soak in salt and water two or three hours before filling.
1191. Saveloys.
Saveloys are made of salt pork, fat and lean, with bread-crumbs,
pepper, and sage; they are always put in skins: boil half an hour
slowly. These are eaten cold.
1192. Black Hog Pudding.
Catch the blood of a hog; to each quart of blood put a large
teaspoonful of salt, and stir it without ceasing till it is cold.
Simmer half a pint or a pint of Embden groats in a small quantity of
water till tender; there must be no gruel. The best way of doing it is
in a double saucepan, so that you need not put more water than will
moisten them. Chop up (for one quart of blood) one pound of the inside
fat of the hog, and a quarter of a pint of bread-crumbs, a
tablespoonful of sage, chopped fine, a teaspoonful of thyme, three
drachms each of allspice, salt, and pepper, and a teacupful of cream.
When the blood is cold, strain it through a sieve, and add to it the
fat, then the groats, and then the seasoning. When well mixed, put it
into the skin of the largest gut, well cleansed; tie it in lengths of
about nine inches, and boil gently for twenty minutes. Take them out
and prick them when they have boiled a few minutes.
1193. Scotch Woodcock.
Three or four slices of bread; toast and butter well on both
sides,--nine or ten anchovies washed, scraped, and chopped fine; put
them between the slices of toast,--have ready the yolks of four eggs
well beaten, and half a pint of cream--which set over the fire to
thicken, but not boil,--then pour it over the toast, and serve it to
table as hot as possible.
1194. Sweetbread.
Trim a fine sweetbread (it cannot be too _fresh_); parboil it for five
minutes, and throw it into a basin of cold water. Then roast it
plain--or beat up the yolk of an egg, and prepare some fine
breadcrumbs; or when the sweetbread is cold, dry it thoroughly in a
cloth; run a lark-spit or a skewer through it, and tie it on the
ordinary spit; egg it with a paste-brush; powder it well with
bread-crumbs, and roast it. For sauce, fried bread-crumbs, melted
butter, with a little mushroom ketchup, and lemon juice, or serve on
buttered toast, garnished with egg sauce, or with gravy. Instead of
spitting the sweetbread, you may put it into a tin Dutch oven, or fry
it.
[READ THE HINTS TO HUSBANDS AND WIVES.]
1195. Sweetbreads Plain.
Parboil and slice them as before, dry them in a clean cloth, flour
them, and fry them a delicate brown; take care to drain the fat well,
and garnish with slices of lemon, and sprigs of chervil or parsley, or
crisp parsley. Serve with sauce, and slices of ham or bacon, or
force-meat balls.
1196. Kidneys.
Cut them through the long way, score them, sprinkle a little pepper
and salt on them, and run a wire skewer through to keep them from
curling on the gridiron, so that they may be evenly broiled. Broil
over a clear fire, taking care not to prick the kidney with the fork,
and turning them often till they are done; they will take about ten or
twelve minutes, if the fire is brisk. Another mode is to fry them in
butter, and make gravy for them in the pan (after you have taken out
the kidneys), by putting in a teaspoonful of flour; as soon as it
looks brown, put in as much water as will make gravy. Kidneys will
take five minutes more to fry than to broil.
1197. Devil.
The gizzard and rump, or legs, &c., of a dressed turkey, capon, or
goose, or mutton or veal kidney, scored, peppered, salted, and
broiled, sent up for a relish, being made very hot, has obtained the
name of a "devil."
1198. Bacon.
Dr. Kitchiner very justly says:
"The boiling of bacon is a very simple subject to comment upon; but
our main object is to teach common cooks the art of dressing common
food in the best manner. Cover a pound of nice streaked bacon with
cold water, let it boil gently for three quarters of an hour; take
it up, scrape the under side well, and cut off the rind: grate a
crust of bread not only on the top, but all over it, as you would
ham, put it before the fire for a few minutes, not too long, or it
will dry and spoil it. Bacon is sometimes as salt as salt can make
it, therefore before it is boiled it must be soaked in warm water
for an hour or two, changing the water once; then pare off the rusty
and smoked part, trim it nicely on the under side, and scrape the
rind as clean as possible."
1199. Ham or Bacon Slices.
Ham or bacon slices should not be less than one-eighth or more than a
quarter of an inch thick, and, for delicate persons, should be soaked
in hot water for a quarter of an hour, and then well wiped and dried
before broiling. If you wish to curl a slice, roll it up, and put a
wooden skewer through it; then in may be dressed in a cheese-toaster
or a Dutch oven.
1200. Relishing Rashers of Bacon.
If you have any _cold bacon_, you may make a very nice dish of it by
cutting it into slices about a quarter of an inch thick. Then grate
some crust of bread as directed for ham, and powder the slices well
with it on both sides; lay the rashers in a cheese-toaster,--they will
be browned on one side in about three minutes:--turn them and do the
other. These are a delicious accompaniment to poached or fried
eggs:--the bacon, having been boiled first, is tender and
mellow.--They are an excellent garnish round veal cutlets,
sweetbreads, calf's head hash, green peas, or beans, &c.
1201. Anchovy Sandwiches.
Anchovy sandwiches made with the above, will be found excellent.
1202. Anchovy Toast.
Anchovy toast is made by spreading anchovy paste upon bread either
toasted or fried.
[FIRE IS A GOOD SERVANT BUT A BAD MASTER.]
1203. Scotch Porridge.