Dinner for 18 persons.
_First Course._
Mock-Turtle Soup,
removed by
Broiled Salmon and
Caper Sauce.
Vase of
Red Mullet. Flowers. Perch.
Soup à la Julienne,
removed by
Brill and Shrimp Sauce.
_Second Course._
Haunch of Venison.
Ham, garnished.
Vase of
Capons à la Financière. Flowers. Roast Fowls.
Leveret Pie.
Saddle of Mutton.
_Entrées._
Fricandeau de Veau
à la Jardinière.
Vase of Lamb Cutlets à la Purée
Curried Lobster. Flowers. de Pommes de Terre.
Fillets of Ducks
and Peas.
_Third Course._
Lobster Grouse Cheesecakes.
Salad. removed by
Cabinet Pudding.
Fruit Jelly.
Charlotte Vase of Custards.
à la Flowers.
Vanille.
Vol-au-Vent of
Pears.
Larded Peahen,
Raspberry removed by Prawns.
Tartlets. Iced Pudding.
Dessert and Ices.
Dinner for 12 persons.
_First Course._—Vermicelli soup; soup à la reine; boiled salmon;
fried flounders; trout en matelot. _Entrées._—Stewed pigeons;
sweetbreads; ragoût of ducks; fillets of chickens and mushrooms.
_Second Course._—Quarter of lamb; cotellette de bœuf à la jardinière;
roast fowls and boiled tongue; bacon and beans. _Third Course._—Grouse;
wheatears; greengage tart; whipped cream; vol-au-vent of plums; fruit
jelly; iced pudding; cabinet pudding; dessert and ices.
Dinner for 8 persons.
_First Course._—Julienne soup; fillets of turbot and Dutch sauce; red
mullet. _Entrées._—Riz de veau aux tomates; fillets of ducks and peas.
_Second Course._—Haunch of venison; boiled capon and oysters; ham,
garnished; vegetables. _Third Course._—Leveret; fruit jelly; compôte of
greengages; plum tart; custards, in glasses; omelette soufflé; dessert
and ices.
Dinner for 6 persons.
_First Course._—Macaroni soup; crimped salmon and sauce Hollandaise;
fried fillets of trout. _Entrées._—Tendrons do veau and stewed peas;
salmi of grouse. _Second Course._—Roast loin of veal; boiled bacon,
garnished with French beans; stewed beef à la jardinière; vegetables.
_Third Course._—Turkey poult; plum tart; custard pudding; vol-au-vent
of pears; strawberry cream; ratafia soufflé; dessert.
* * * * *
_First Course._—Vegetable-marrow soup; stewed mullet; fillets of
salmon and ravigotte sauce. _Entrées._—Curried lobster; fricandeau de
veau à la jardinière. _Second Course._—Roast saddle of mutton; stewed
shoulder of veal, garnished with forcemeat balls; vegetables. _Third
Course._—Roast grouse and bread sauce; vol-au-vent of greengages; fruit
jelly; raspberry cream; custards; fig pudding; dessert.
AUGUST, Plain Family Dinners for.
_Sunday._—1. Vegetable-marrow soup. 2. Roast quarter of lamb, mint
sauce; French beans and potatoes. 3. Raspberry-and-currant tart,
custard pudding.
_Monday._—1. Cold lamb and salad, small meat-pie, vegetable marrow, and
white sauce. 2. Lemon dumplings.
_Tuesday._—1. Boiled mackerel. 2. Stewed loin of veal, French beans and
potatoes, 3. Baked raspberry pudding.
_Wednesday._—1. Vegetable soup. 2. Lamb cutlets and French beans;
the remains of stewed shoulder of veal, mashed vegetable marrow. 3.
Black-currant pudding.
_Thursday._—1. Roast ribs of beef, Yorkshire pudding, French beans and
potatoes. 2. Bread-and-butter pudding.
_Friday._—1. Fried soles and melted butter. 2. Cold beef and salad,
lamb cutlets and mashed potatoes. 3. Cauliflowers and white sauce
instead of pudding.
_Saturday._—1. Stewed beef and vegetables, with remains of cold beef;
mutton pudding. 2. Macaroni and cheese.
* * * * *
_Sunday._—1. Salmon pudding. 2. Roast fillet of veal, boiled
bacon-cheek garnished with tufts of cauliflowers, French beans and
potatoes. 3. Plum tart, boiled custard pudding.
_Monday._—1. Baked soles. 2. Cold veal and bacon, salad, mutton cutlets
and tomato sauce. 3. Boiled currant pudding.
_Tuesday._—1. Rice soup. 2. Roast fowls and water-cresses, boiled
knuckle of ham, minced veal garnished with croûtons; vegetables. 3.
College pudding.
_Wednesday._—1. Curried fowl with remains of cold fowl; dish of rice,
stewed rump-steak and vegetables. 2. Plum tart.
_Thursday._—1. Boiled brisket of beef, carrots, turnips, suet
dumplings, and potatoes. 2. Baked bread pudding.
_Friday._—1. Vegetable soup, made from liquor that beef was boiled in.
2. Cold beef and dressed cucumber, veal cutlets and tomato sauce. 3.
Fondue.
_Saturday._—1. Bubble-and-squeak, made from remains of cold beef; cold
veal-and-ham pie, salad. 2. Baked raspberry pudding.
AUGUST, Things in Season.
_Fish._—Brill, carp, chub, crayfish, crabs, dory, eels, flounders,
grigs, herrings, lobsters, mullet, pike, prawns, salmon, shrimps,
skate, soles, sturgeon, thornback, trout, turbot.
_Meat._—Beef, lamb, mutton, veal, buck venison.
_Poultry._—Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, pigeons, plovers,
pullets, rabbits, turkey poults, wheatears, wild ducks.
_Game._—Leverets, grouse, black-cock.
_Vegetables._—Artichokes, asparagus, beans, carrots, cabbages,
cauliflowers, celery, cresses, endive, lettuces, mushrooms, onions,
peas, potatoes, radishes, sea-kale, small salading, sprouts, turnips,
various kitchen herbs, vegetable marrows.
_Fruit._—Currants, figs, filberts, gooseberries, grapes, melons,
mulberries, nectarines, peaches, pears, pineapples, plums, raspberries,
walnuts.
BACON, Boiled.
_Ingredients._—Bacon; water. _Mode._—As bacon is frequently excessively
salt, let it be soaked in warm water for an hour or two previous to
dressing it; then pare off the rusty parts, and scrape the under-side
and rind as clean as possible. Put it into a saucepan of cold water;
let it come gradually to a boil, and as fast as the scum rises to
the surface of the water, remove it. Let it simmer very gently until
it is _thoroughly_ done; then take it up, strip off the skin, and
sprinkle over the bacon a few bread raspings, and garnish with tufts of
cauliflower or Brussels sprouts. When served alone, young and tender
broad beans or green peas are the usual accompaniments. _Time._—1 lb.
of bacon, ¾ hour; 2 lbs., 1½ hour. _Average cost,_ 10_d._ to 1_s._
per lb. for the primest parts. _Sufficient._—2 lbs., when served with
poultry or veal, sufficient for 10 persons. _Seasonable_ at any time.
[Illustration: BOILED BACON.]
BACON, Broiled Rashers of.
Before purchasing bacon, ascertain that it is perfectly free from rust,
which may easily be detected by its yellow colour; and for broiling,
the streaked part of the thick flank is generally the most esteemed.
Cut it into _thin_ slices, take off the rind, and broil over a nice
clear fire; turn it two or three times, and serve very hot. Should
there be any cold bacon left from the previous day, it answers very
well for breakfast, cut into slices, and broiled or fried. _Time._—3
or 4 minutes. _Average cost_, 10_d._ to 1_s._ per lb. for the primest
parts. _Seasonable_ at any time.
_Note._—When the bacon is cut very thin, the slices may be curled round
and fastened by means of small skewers, and fried or toasted before
the fire.
BACON and HAMS, Curing of.
The carcass of the hog, after hanging over-night to cool, is laid on
a strong bench or stool, and the head is separated from the body at
the neck close behind the ears; the feet and also the internal fat are
removed. The carcass is next divided into two sides in the following
manner:—The ribs are divided about an inch from the spine on each side,
and the spine, with the ends of the ribs attached, together with the
internal flesh between it and the kidneys, and also the flesh above it,
throughout the whole length of the sides, are removed. The portion of
the carcass thus cut out is in the form of a wedge—the breadth of the
interior consisting of the breadth of the spine, and about an inch of
the ribs on each side, being diminished to about half an inch at the
exterior or skin along the back. The breastbone, and also the first
anterior rib, are also dissected from the side. Sometimes the whole of
the ribs are removed; but this, for reasons afterwards to be noticed,
is a very bad practice. When the hams are cured separately from the
sides, which is generally the case, they are cut out so as to include
the hock-bone, in a similar manner to the London mode of cutting a
haunch of mutton. The carcass of the hog thus cut up is ready for being
salted, which process, in large curing establishments, is generally as
follows:—The skin side of the pork is rubbed over with a mixture of
fifty parts by weight of salt, and one part of saltpetre in powder, and
the incised parts of the ham or flitch, and the inside of the flitch,
covered with the same. The salted bacon, in pairs of flitches with the
insides to each other, is piled one pair of flitches above another on
benches slightly inclined, and furnished with spouts or troughs to
convey the brine to receivers in the floor of the salting-house, to be
afterwards used for pickling pork for navy purposes. In this state the
bacon remains a fortnight, which is sufficient for flitches cut from
hogs of a carcass weight less than 15 stone (14 lbs. to the stone).
Flitches of a larger size, at the expiration of that time, are wiped
dry and reversed in their place in the pile, having, at the same time,
about half the first quantity of fresh, dry, common salt sprinkled over
the inside and incised parts; after which they remain on the benches
for another week. Hams being thicker than flitches, will require,
when less than 20 lbs. weight, 3 weeks; and when above that weight, 4
weeks to remain under the above described process. The next and last
process in the preparation of bacon and hams, previous to being sent to
market, is drying. This is effected by hanging the flitches and hams
for 2 or 3 weeks in a room heated by stoves, or in a smoke-house, in
which they are exposed for the same length of time to the smoke arising
from the slow combustion of the sawdust of oak or other hard wood. The
latter mode of completing the curing process has some advantages over
the other, as by it the meat is subject to the action of _creosote_,
a volatile oil produced by the combustion of the sawdust, which is
powerfully antiseptic. The process also furnishing a thin covering of
a resinous varnish, excludes the air not only from the muscle, but
also from the fat—thus effectually preventing the meat from becoming
rusted; and the principal reasons for condemning the practice of
removing the ribs from the flitches of pork are, that by so doing the
meat becomes unpleasantly hard and pungent in the process of salting,
and, by being more exposed to the action of the air, becomes sooner
and more extensively rusted. Notwithstanding its superior efficacy
in completing the process of curing, the flavour which smoke-drying
imparts to meat is disliked by many persons, and it is therefore by no
means the most general mode of drying adopted by mercantile curers. A
very impure variety of _pyroligneous_ acid, or vinegar made from the
destructive distillation of wood, is sometimes used, on account of
the highly preservative power of the creosote which it contains, and
also to impart the smoke-flavour; in which latter object, however, the
coarse flavour of tar is given, rather than that derived from the smoke
from combustion of wood. A considerable portion of the bacon and hams
salted in Ireland is exported from that country packed amongst salt,
in bales, immediately from the salting process, without having been in
any degree dried. In the process of salting above described, pork loses
from 8 to 10 per cent of its weight, according to the size and quality
of the meat; and a further diminution of weight, to the extent of 5
to 6 per cent. takes place in drying during the first fortnight after
being taken out of salt; so that the total loss in weight occasioned by
the preparation of bacon and hams in a proper state for market, is not
less on an average than 15 per cent. on the weight of the fresh pork.
BACON, to Cure and Keep it free from Rust (Cobbett’s Recipe).
The two sides that remain, and which are called flitches, are to be
cured for bacon. They are first rubbed with salt on their insides, or
flesh sides, then placed one on the other, the flesh sides uppermost,
in a salting-trough which has a gutter round its edges to drain away
the brine; for, to have sweet and fine bacon, the flitches must not be
sopping in brine, which gives it the sort of vile taste that barrel
and sea pork have. Every one knows how different is the taste of fresh
dry salt from that of salt in a dissolved state; therefore change the
salt often,—once in 4 or 5 days; let it melt and sink in, but not lie
too long; twice change the flitches, put that at bottom which was first
on the top: this mode will cost you a great deal more in salt than the
sopping mode, but without it your bacon will not be so sweet and fine,
nor keep so well. As for the time required in making your flitches
sufficiently salt, it depends on circumstances. It takes a longer time
for a thick than a thin flitch, and longer in dry than in damp weather,
or in a dry than in a damp place; but for the flitches of a hog of five
score, in weather not very dry or damp, about 6 weeks may do; and as
yours is to be fat, which receives little injury from over-salting,
give time enough, for you are to have bacon until Christmas comes
again. The place for salting should, like a dairy, always be cool, but
well ventilated; confined air, though cool, will taint meat sooner than
the midday sun accompanied by a breeze. With regard to smoking the
bacon, two precautions are necessary: first, to hang the flitches where
no rain comes down upon them; and next, that the smoke must proceed
from wood, not peat, turf, or coal. As to the time required to smoke a
flitch, it depends a good deal upon whether there be a constant fire
beneath; and whether the fire be large or small: a month will do, if
the fire be pretty constant and rich, as a farm-house fire usually is;
but over-smoking, or rather too long hanging in the air, makes the
bacon rust; great attention should therefore be paid to this matter.
The flitch ought not to be dried up to the hardness of a board, and
yet it ought to be perfectly dry. Before you hang it up, lay it on the
floor, scatter the flesh side pretty thickly over with bran, or with
some fine sawdust, not of deal or fir; rub it on the flesh, or pat it
well down upon it: this keeps the smoke from getting into the little
openings, and makes a sort of crust to be dried on. To keep the bacon
sweet and good, and free from hoppers, sift fine some clean and dry
wood ashes. Put some at the bottom of a box or chest long enough to
hold a flitch of bacon; lay in one flitch, then put in more ashes, then
another flitch, and cover this with six or eight inches of the ashes.
The place where the box or chest is kept ought to be dry, and, should
the ashes become damp, they should be put in the fireplace to dry, and
when cold, put back again. With these precautions, the bacon will be
as good at the end of the year as on the first day. For simple general
rules, these may be safely taken as a guide; and those who implicitly
follow the directions given, will possess at the expiration of from 6
weeks to 2 months well-flavoured and well-cured bacon.
BACON or HAMS, to Cure in the Devonshire way.
_Ingredients._—To every 14 lbs. of meat allow 2 oz. of saltpetre, 2
oz. of salt prunella, 1 lb. of common salt. For the pickle, 3 gallons
of water, 5 lbs. of common salt, 7 lbs. of coarse sugar, 3 lbs. of bay
salt. _Mode._—Weigh the sides, hams, and cheeks, and to every 14 lbs.
allow the above proportion of saltpetre, salt prunella, and common
salt. Pound and mix these together, and rub well into the meat; lay it
in a stone trough or tub, rubbing it thoroughly, and turning it daily
for two successive days. At the end of the second day, pour on it a
pickle made as follows:—Put the above ingredients into a saucepan, set
it on the fire, and stir frequently; remove all the scum, allow it to
boil for ¼ hour, and pour it hot over the meat. Let the hams, &c., be
well rubbed and turned daily; if the meat is small, a fortnight will
be sufficient for the sides and shoulders to remain in the pickle,
and the hams 3 weeks; if from 30 lbs. and upwards, 3 weeks will be
required for the sides, &c., and from 4 to 5 weeks for the hams. On
taking the pieces out, let them drain for an hour, cover with dry
sawdust, and smoke from a fortnight to three weeks. Boil and carefully
skim the pickle after using, and it will keep good, closely corked,
for 2 years. When boiling it for use, add about 2 lbs. of common salt,
and the same of treacle, to allow for waste. Tongues are excellent put
into this pickle cold, having been first rubbed well with saltpetre and
salt, and allowed to remain 24 hours, not forgetting to make a deep
incision under the thick part of the tongue, so as to allow the pickle
to penetrate more readily. A fortnight or three weeks, according to the
size of the tongue, will be sufficient. _Time._—Small meat to remain in
the pickle a fortnight, hams 3 weeks; to be smoked from a fortnight to
3 weeks.
BACON, to Cure in the Wiltshire way.
_Ingredients._—1½ lb. of coarse sugar, ½ lb. of bay salt, 6 oz. of
saltpetre, 1 lb. of common salt. _Mode._—Sprinkle each flitch with
salt, and let the blood drain off for 24 hours; then pound and mix
the above ingredients well together and rub it well into the meat,
which should be turned every day for a month; then hang it to dry, and
afterwards smoke it for 10 days. _Time._—To remain in the pickle from
three to four weeks, to be smoked 10 days, or rather longer.
BACON, Fried Rashers of, and Poached Eggs.
_Ingredients._—Bacon; eggs. _Mode._—Cut the bacon into thin slices,
trim away the rusty parts, and cut off the rind. Put it into a _cold_
frying-pan, that is to say, do not place the pan on the fire before
the bacon is in it. Turn it 2 or 3 times, and dish it on a very hot
dish. Poach the eggs and slip them on to the bacon without breaking
the yolks, and serve quickly. _Time._—3 or 4 minutes. _Average cost_,
10_d._ to 1_s._ per lb. for the primest parts. _Sufficient._—Allow 6
eggs for 3 persons. _Seasonable_ at any time. _Note._—Fried rashers of
bacon, curled, serve as a pretty garnish to many dishes; and, for small
families, answer very well as a substitute for boiled bacon, to serve
with a small dish of poultry, &c.
* * * * *
=The Bain Marie.=—It is an open kind of vessel, as shown in the
engraving, and is a utensil much used in modern cookery, both in
English and French kitchens. It is filled with boiling or nearly
boiling water; and into this water should be put all the stewpans
containing those ingredients which it is desired to keep hot. The
quantity and quality of the contents of these vessels are not at all
affected; and if the hour of dinner is uncertain in any establishment,
by reason of the nature of the master’s business, nothing is so sure a
means of preserving the flavour of all dishes as the employment of the
bain marie.
[Illustration: THE BAIN MARIE.]