firm--otherwise do not buy it. If greenish or yellowish, it is tainted,
and fit only for manure. Never buy any thing that has been kept too
long. The worst may, by some process, be a little disguised, but nothing
can render wholesome any article of food in which decomposition has
commenced, even in the slightest degree. The fat should be quite white.
If there is but little meat on the shoulder it has not been a good lamb.
In America, where food is abundant, there is no occasion to eat any
thing, that has the flavor in the least changed by keeping.
A fore-quarter of lamb comprises the shoulder, the neck, and the breast
together. The hind-quarter is the loin and leg. Lamb comes in season in
the beginning of April, if the spring is not unusually backward.
Jersey lamb is sometimes garlicky early in the season. Avoid buying it;
you can easily tell it by the garlicky smell. It can only be rendered
eatable by stewing, or frying it with plenty of onions. To plain roast
or boil garlicky meat is in vain. Beef, also, is sometimes garlicky.
Lamb may be cooked in every way that is proper for mutton.
ROAST LAMB.--The roasting pieces for lamb are the fore-quarter, and
hind-quarter; and the saddle, or both hind-quarters together, not having
been cut apart. If the saddle is cooked whole, it should be of a small
delicate lamb, nice and fat, and is then a fashionable dish at company
dinners. Like all other young meat lamb should always be thoroughly
done, not the least redness being left perceptible any where about it. A
hind-quarter of eight pounds will require at least two hours--a
fore-quarter, rather longer. It should be placed before a clear brisk
fire, but not very near at first. Put a little water in the
dripping-pan, and baste it with that till it begins to cook, adding a
little nice fresh butter. Then place it nearer the fire, and when the
gravy begins to fall, baste it with that, and repeat the basting very
frequently. When the lamb drops white gravy it is nearly done, and you
may prepare for taking it up. Skim the gravy that is in the dripping-pan
till all the fat is taken off. Then dredge over it a little flour, and
send it to table in a gravy boat, having stirred in one or two
table-spoonfuls of currant jelly. Lettuce is always an accompaniment to
cold lamb.
In carving a fore-quarter of lamb it is usual to take off the shoulder
from the ribs, put in a slice of fresh butter, sprinkle it with a little
cayenne, and squeeze over the divided parts a fresh lemon cut in half;
and put, for that purpose, on a small plate beside the carver.
The vegetables to be eaten with lamb are, new potatos, asparagus, green
peas, and spinach. Mint sauce is indispensable. French cooks seldom
understand how to make it. To do it properly, take a large bunch of
fresh green mint, wash it, and when you have shaken the wet from them,
mince the leaves very fine, omitting the stems. Put the leaves, when
chopped, into a small tureen or sauce-boat, and pour on a sufficient
quantity of the best cider vinegar to moisten the mint thoroughly, but
not to render it the least liquid or thin. It should be as thick as
horse-radish, prepared to eat with roast beef. Mix in sufficient sugar
to make it very sweet. Good brown sugar will do. At table put a
tea-spoonful on the side of your plate. Those who make mint sauce thin
and weak, and pour it over the meat like gravy, know nothing about it.
LAMB STEAKS.--Cut some nice cutlets or steaks (without any bone) from a
hind-quarter of lamb. Lay them in a stew pan, and season them with a
little salt and cayenne, adding some butter rolled in flour. Wash
carefully two fine fresh lettuces. Remove the outside leaves, quarter
the lettuces, and cut off all the stalks. Set the stew-pan, with the
meat, over a clear fire; and let it stew slowly till about half done.
Then put in the lettuce, covering the meat with it, and let them all
stew about half an hour longer. When done, take out the lettuces first.
Put them into a sieve or cullender, press out the water, and chop them
_large_. See if the meat is done all through. If it is, return the
stewed lettuce to the pot, season it with a little cayenne and some
salad oil, and add to it two or three hard-boiled eggs, chopped large.
Cover it, and let it stew five minutes longer. Serve it up on the same
dish.
LAMB CUTLETS.--Cut the cutlets from the loin and trim them nicely,
removing the skin, and most of the fat. Scrape the bone, and cut it
short. Grate plenty of stale bread, and mix it with some minced sweet
marjoram, seasoned with salt and pepper. Have ready a small deep dish of
light beaten egg, flavored with grated nutmeg and fresh lemon-peel,
grated fine, the thin yellow rind only. Put some nice lard or
beef-dripping into a hot frying-pan, and when the lard boils is the time
to put in the cutlets. Dip every cutlet separately into the beaten egg.
Then into the bread-crumbs, &c. Repeat this a second time both with the
egg and bread. The cutlets will be found much better for the double
immersion. Then lay them separately in the boiling lard, and fry them
well. One cutlet must not be laid on the top of another. When done, dish
them and send them to table very hot, with some currant jelly to mix
with the gravy. This is a fine breakfast dish or for a small dinner.
Instead of frying, you may broil them. Dip each cutlet twice into the
egg and twice into the crumbs, and cover each with clean writing paper,
cut of a convenient shape, and secured with pins or packthread, the
paper being twisted round the end of the bone. Broil them in the papers,
which must be taken off before the cutlets go to table.
LAMB CHOPS, STEWED.--Cut a loin of lamb into chops or steaks, removing
the bone, or else sawing it very short. Trim off the skin and part of
the fat. Season the chops with a little pepper and salt, and fry them in
fresh butter till they are of a pale brown color. Then pour off the fat
and transfer the steaks to a stew-pan. Add enough boiling water to cover
them; and having seasoned them with some powdered nutmeg or some blades
of mace, add a pint of shelled green peas that have been already
parboiled, or a pint of the green tops of asparagus cut off after
boiling, and a fresh lettuce stripped of its outside leaves and stalks
and quartered. Finish with a small quarter of a pound of fresh butter
cut in pieces and rolled in flour, and laid among the vegetables. Let
them all stew together with the meat, for half an hour rather slowly.
Serve up all upon one large dish. It will make an excellent plain dinner
for a small family, with the addition of a dish or two of new potatos,
if they are in season.
You may omit the lettuce, and add more peas and asparagus tops.
LARDED LAMB.--Cut off the fillet or round from a nice hind-quarter of
lamb, and remove the bone from the centre. Make a stuffing or forcemeat
of bread-crumbs, fresh butter, sweet marjoram, and sweet basil, minced
finely; the yellow rind of a fresh lemon, grated; and a tea-spoonful of
mixed nutmeg and mace, powdered. Fill with this stuffing the hole from
whence the bone was taken, and secure the flap round the side of the
meat, putting plenty of stuffing between. Then proceed to lard it. Cut a
number of long thin slips of the fat of ham, bacon, or corned pork. All
these slips must be of the same size. Take one at a time between the
points of the larding-needle, and draw it through the flat surface of
the top, or upper side of the meat, so as to leave one end of the ham
in, as you slip the other end out of the needle. Do this nicely,
arranging the slips of ham in regular form, and very near together. Put
the lamb into an iron oven, or bake-pan, with a small portion of lard or
fresh butter under it, and bake it thoroughly. When the meat is about
half done, put in a quart or more of nice green peas with sufficient
butter to cook them well. Serve up the lamb with the peas round it, on
the same dish.
This is a dish for company.
LAMB PIE.--Remove the fat and bone from two pounds or more of nice lamb
steaks, or take some cutlets from the upper end of a leg of lamb, and
cut them into pieces about as large as the palm of your hand. Season
them with pepper and salt very slightly. Put them into a stew pot with a
_very little water_, and let them stew for half an hour or more. In the
mean time, make a nice paste, allowing half a pound of fresh butter to a
pound of flour. Mix with a broad knife half the butter with the flour,
adding gradually enough of cold water to make a dough. Roll out the
dough into a large thin sheet, and spread all over it with the knife the
remainder of the butter. Fold it, sprinkle it with a little flour, and
then divide it into two sheets, and roll out each of them. That intended
for the upper crust to be the thickest. Line with the under crust the
bottom and sides of a pie-dish. Put in the stewed lamb with its gravy.
Intersperse some blades of mace. Add some potatos, sliced, and some
sliced boiled turnips. Cover the meat thick with the green tops of
boiled asparagus, and lay among it a few bits of fresh butter. For
asparagus tops you may substitute boiled cauliflower seasoned with
nutmeg. Put on the paste-lid, closing the edges with crimping them
nicely. Cut a cross-slit on the top. Put the pie directly into the
oven, and bake it of a light brown. Serve it up hot.
VEAL.
VEAL.--Do not buy veal unless the vein in the shoulder looks blue or
bright red. If of any other color, the veal is not fresh. A calf's head
should have the eyes full and prominent. If they are dull and sunken,
the head is stale. The kidney should be well covered with firm white
fat. All the fat must be firm, dry, and white, and the lean fine in the
grain, and light colored. If any part is found clammy or discolored, do
not buy that veal. The best pieces of the calf are the loin and the
fillet. The loin consists of the best and the chump end; the hind
knuckle, and the fore knuckle. The inferior pieces are the neck,
blade-bone, and breast. The brisket end of a breast of veal is very
coarse, hard, and tough; the best end is rather better, having
sweet-bread belonging to it.
Veal, like all other meat, should be well washed in cold water before
cooking. Being naturally the most tasteless and insipid of all meat, it
requires the assistance of certain articles to give it flavor. It is too
weak to make rich soup without various additions. But well cooked, it is
very nice as roasted loin, fillet, or fried cutlets.
ROAST LOIN OF VEAL.--Wash the meat well in cold water, wipe it dry, and
rub it slightly with mixed pepper and salt. Make a stuffing of bread
soaked in milk, or grated bread-crumbs, cold ham minced, sweet marjoram
minced, and the juice and yellow grated rind of a lemon; also, a little
fresh butter. Loosen with a sharp knife the skin, and put the stuffing
under it, skewering down the flap to keep it in. Put the veal to roast
before a strong clear fire, and pour a little water in the bottom of the
roaster. Baste it with this till the gravy begins to run. Then baste it
with that. Set the spit at first not very close to the fire, but bring
it nearer as the roasting proceeds.
Send it to table with its own gravy, well skimmed and slightly thickened
with a little flour.
Always choose a fine fresh loin of veal with plenty of fat about the
kidney. No meat spoils so soon.
The breast and shoulder are roasted in the same manner as the loin, of
which two dishes may be made, the kidney end, and the chump end.
FILLET OF VEAL.--When a fillet is to be roasted or baked, let it be well
washed, and then dried in a clean towel. Take out the bone, fold the
flap round, and skewer it to the meat. Make plenty of forcemeat or
stuffing, of bread soaked in milk, or grated dry and mixed with plenty
of fresh butter, or some of the fat or suet finely minced. Season with
pepper, grated nutmeg, powdered mace, fresh lemon peel grated, and sweet
marjoram and sweet basil minced fine. The hole that contained the bone
must be stuffed full, and also the space between the flap and the side
of the meat. This should be secured by three skewers. Dredge the meat
all over lightly with flour before you put it down. At first, place the
spit at a distance from the fire, which should be strong and clear.
Then, as the meat begins to roast, set it nearer, and till the gravy
begins to fall, baste it with fresh butter, or lard. Just before it is
finished, (it will take about four hours,) dredge it with flour, and
baste it well with its own gravy. When the meat is dished, skim the
gravy, thicken it with a little flour, and pour it round the veal in the
dish, or serve it in a sauce-boat.
A ham is the usual accompaniment to roast veal, whether fillet or loin.
ROAST VEAL HASHED.--Take whatever cold roast veal was left from
yesterday. To prepare it for a breakfast dish, cut it into small bits,
and put it (without any water) into a stew-pan, adding to it the veal
gravy that was left from yesterday, and a table-spoonful of fresh butter
or lard, dredged with flour. Cover it, and after stewing it half an hour
by itself, put in two large table-spoonfuls of well spiced tomato
catchup, an article no family should be without. After the catchup is
in, cover the hash again, and let it stew half an hour longer. If you
have no catchup, put in with the cold veal at the beginning, two or
three large ripe tomatos, peeled and quartered, or sliced, and seasoned
with powdered mace, nutmeg, and ginger; and let all stew together in
gravy or butter. Mushroom catchup is a good substitute for tomato in
hashing cold meat. If you have neither, put in a large table-spoonful of
tarragon or French mustard, to be bought in bottles at all the best
groceries.
Cold roast venison is very good hashed as above.
VEAL A-LA-MODE.--Remove the bone from a fillet of veal, and make a large
quantity of forcemeat or stuffing of grated bread-crumbs; beef-suet or
veal-suet minced fine, the grated yellow rind and juice of a ripe lemon
or orange, or some chopped mushrooms that have been previously stewed,
some grated yolk of hard-boiled eggs, and some sweet marjoram. Press in
the stuffing, till the hole left by the bone is well filled; and also,
put stuffing between the flap and the side of the meat, before you
skewer the flap. Have ready some lardons or slips of cold ham, or
tongue, and with a larding pin draw them all through the surface of the
veal. Or else, make deep cuts or incisions throughout the meat, and
press down into each a small thin square bit of bacon-fat, seasoning
every one with a little of the stuffing. Lay the veal in a deep
baking-pan, or iron bake-oven. Surround it with nice lard, and bake it
till thoroughly done all through. Then take it out, skim the gravy, and
transfer it to a small sauce-pan. Stir in a dessert-spoonful of flour;
add a glass of white wine to the gravy, and give it one boil up. Send it
to table in a sauce-tureen, accompanying the veal.
TERRAPIN VEAL.--Take some nice veal, (from the fillet, or the loin) and
cut it into very small mouthfuls. Put it into a stew-pan. Have ready a
dressing made of six or seven hard-boiled eggs, minced fine, a small
tea-spoonful of made mustard, (tarragon or French mustard will be best,)
a salt-spoon of salt, and the same of cayenne; two glasses of sherry or
Madeira, and half a pint of rich cream. If you cannot conveniently
obtain cream, substitute a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided
into four pieces, and each piece dredged with flour. All the ingredients
for this dressing must be thoroughly mixed. Then, pour it over the veal,
and give the whole a hard stir. Cover it, and let it stew over the fire
for about ten minutes. Fresh venison is excellent, cooked in this
manner. So, also, are ducks, pheasants, partridges, or grouse, making a
fine side dish for company.
TO HASH COLD MEAT.--The best way of re-cooking cold roast meat, (veal,
beef, or pork,) is to hash it, cutting it into mouthfuls, and stewing
it in its own gravy, without a drop of water. For this purpose, save as
much as you can of the dripping or gravy that fell from it when
roasting. When you have done basting the roast meat, skim off all the
fat from the surface, and strain the gravy through a small sieve. What
is left of it, should be carefully set away in a cold place. Next day,
when it has congealed into a cake, scrape it with a knife on both sides.
If not wanted for immediate use, cut it in pieces, and put it up in a
jar well covered. Use it (instead of water) for stews and hashes; and if
well seasoned the meat will be found nearly as good (for a breakfast
dish,) as if not previously cooked. Whenever it is possible, make your
hashes without any water; and if you have saved no gravy, substitute
lard, or fresh butter. But gravy or drippings of the same meat is best.
A hash of cold meat, stewed merely in water, and with no seasoning but
salt and pepper, is a poor thing. Cold potatos, when re-cooked, always
remain hard and indigestible. In all cookery it is best to use _fresh
vegetables_, even if the _meat_ has been previously drest. Cold meat is
of no use for soups or pies. It is better to slice it, and eat it
cold--or, better still to give it the poor. Roast beef or mutton, if
very much underdone, may be sliced and broiled on a gridiron, and well
seasoned with pepper. Cold roast pork is best sliced plain, and eaten
cold. Ham also.
VEAL CUTLETS IN PAPERS (_en papillotes_.)--Make a nice sauce of sweet
herbs, bread-crumbs, powdered mace and nutmeg, butter and beaten egg.
Lay the cutlets in a deep dish, (having first broiled them and saved the
gravy,) pour the sauce over them, with the veal gravy added to it. Cover
them, and let them rest till cold. Allow, for each cutlet, a sheet of
foolscap paper, cut it into the shape of a heart, and go over it with
sweet oil, or fresh butter or lard. Lay a cutlet with a little of the
sauce upon it, on one-half of each sheet of paper; turn the other half
over the meat. Fold a narrow rim all round, so as to unite both edges.
Begin at the top of the heart, and pleat both edges together so as to
form a good shape without puckering. When you come to the bottom, where
the paper is to cover the bone, give it a few extra twists. Broil the
cutlets slowly on a gridiron for half an hour, seeing that no blaze
catches the papers--or put them in the oven for half an hour. If the
papers are not too much burnt or disfigured, dish the cutlets still
wrapped in them, to be removed by those who eat them. If the covers are
scorched black, and ragged, take out the cutlets and lay them on a hot
dish. Serve up with them a dish of mashed potatos or potatoe cake,
browned on the surface with a salamander. _Côtelettes à la Maintenon_,
are mutton or lamb steaks cooked in papers, in the above manner.
VEAL STEAKS.--Cut the steaks from the neck, leaving the bone very short,
and polishing what there is of it. Make a seasoning of boiled onions
minced, and sage or sweet marjoram leaves, or of chopped parsley. Lay on
each steak a bit of fresh butter, spread the seasoning thickly over
each, and fry them in the gravy or drippings of cold roast veal or beef.
They will be the better for beating them slightly with a rolling pin.
Put into the frying-pan three or four table-spoonfuls of mushroom or
tomato catchup; or, fry them with fresh mushrooms or fresh tomatos,
sliced.
VEAL CUTLETS.--Cut your veal cutlets from the fillet or round about half
an inch thick. Season them slightly with a little salt and cayenne. Have
ready a pan with grated bread-crumbs, and another with beaten egg. Have
ready, in a frying pan, plenty of boiling lard, or drippings of cold
veal. Dredge each cutlet slightly with flour; then dip it twice in the
pan of beaten egg, and then twice also in the bread-crumbs. Fry them
well, and send them to table in their own gravy. Saffron, scattered
thickly over them while frying, is an improvement much relished by the
eaters.
Veal is too insipid to be fried or broiled plain.
If you live where cream is plenty, add to this fry two or three
spoonfuls.
Minced veal, cold, is an excellent ingredient for forcemeats.
KNUCKLE OF VEAL AND BACON.--Unless your family is very small, get two
knuckles of veal, and have them sawed into three pieces each. Put them
into a pot with two pounds of ham or bacon; cover them with water, and
stew them slowly, skimming them well. Season them with a little pepper,
but no salt, as the bacon will be salt enough. When the scum ceases to
rise, put in four onions and four turnips, and six potatos pared, and
quartered; also, a carrot and two parsnips, scraped and cut into pieces.
Let the whole boil till all the meat and all the vegetables are
thoroughly done, and very tender. Drain them well, and serve up the
whole on one large dish, having other vegetables served separately.
If you wish to have green vegetables, such as greens, young sprouts,
poke, or string beans, flavored with bacon, put them to boil in a pot
with the bacon only, and take another pot for the veal, and white
vegetables, such as onions, turnips, &c. You may put the veal and bacon
on the same dish.
SOUTHERN STEW (_of veal_.)--Peel and boil a half dozen fresh spring
onions, and then drain them well and slice them thin. Have ready two
pounds or more of nice veal, sliced very thin, small, and evenly. Lay
the veal in a stew-pan, and season it slightly with salt, and _a very
little_ cayenne. Cover the veal with the sliced onions, and lay upon
them some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. If you cannot obtain
very excellent fresh butter, substitute lard, or cold gravy, or
dripping of roast veal, which last will be best if you have enough of
it. Finish with a flavoring of powdered nutmeg or mace, and the grated
yellow rind of a fresh lemon.
This stew is very nice. It may be made with lamb or chicken, cut very
small.
VEAL KEBOBBED, (_or kibaubed_.)--Cut into small thin slices some lean
veal from the loin, chump end, or fillet. Trim them into a round or
circular form. Season them with pepper, salt, and turmeric or curry
powder. If onions are liked, slice some large ones, and lay them on the
pieces of veal. Cover them with slices of ham, cut round like the veal,
but a little smaller. Roll up the slices, (the ham inside,) and tie them
on skewers. Then roast or bake them. When done, take them off the
skewers, and send them to table in the gravy that has fallen from them.
This is a Turkish dish, and is much liked.
VEAL FRITTERS.--Take some thin slices of cold roast veal, and trim them
round or circular. Beat them with a rolling-pin, to make them very
tender, and season them with a little salt and pepper and some powdered
nutmeg. Also some grated fresh yellow rind of lemon-peel. Make a very
light batter, of eggs, milk, and flour; in the proportion of four
well-beaten eggs to a pint of milk; and a large half pint of sifted
flour: the eggs beaten first, and then stirred gradually into the milk
in turn with the flour. Have ready a frying-pan, nearly full of boiling
lard. Drop into it two large spoonfuls of the batter. Then put in a
slice of the veal, and cover it with two more large spoonfuls of the
batter. As the fritters are fried, take them up with a perforated
skimmer, and drain them.
VEAL PATTIES.--Mince very fine, some cold roast veal, or some cold
chicken, mixing with it some cold minced ham, or cold smoked tongue. Add
some yolk of hard-boiled eggs, crumbled or minced. Season the mixture
with powdered mace and nutmeg, moistened with cream or soft fresh
butter. Have ready some nice puff-paste, rolled out thin, and cut into
oval or circular pieces. Cover the half of each with the mixture, spread
on evenly and thickly. Then, upon that, fold over the other half,
(uniting both,) and crimp them together, in very small notches. Brush
their outsides all over with some raw egg, slightly beaten, and lay them
in large square tin pans to bake. Send them to table on china dishes.
These patties are excellent made of cold game. The green tops of boiled
asparagus will improve the mixture.
FRIED LIVER.--Put into a frying-pan some nice thin slices of ham or
bacon, that have soaked all night, and fry them in their own fat. Have
ready your calf's liver, cut into slices not too thin, as that will
render them hard. Take out the ham as soon as it is done, put it into a
hot dish, and cover it closely. Lay the slices of liver into the gravy
of the bacon that is left in the frying-pan, sprinkling it well with
chopped parsley. It must be thoroughly done. Then dish with the bacon.
To those who like them, some onions will be thought an improvement to
fried liver. First parboil the onions: then slice them, season them with
a little salt and pepper, and fry them with the liver.