drawing, and served on a toast. Grey plovers may either be roasted, or
stewed with gravy, herbs, and spice.
ROAST PORK. Pork requires more doing than any other meat; and it is best
to sprinkle it with a little salt the night before you use it, and hang
it up; by that means it will take off the faint, sickly taste. When you
roast a chine of pork, lay it down to a good fire, and at a proper
distance, that it may be well soaked, otherwise it eats greasy and
disagreeable. A spare-rib is to be roasted with a fire that is not too
strong, but clear; when you lay it down, dust on some flour and baste
it with butter: a quarter of an hour before you take it up, shred some
sage small; baste your pork; strew on the sage; dust on a little flour,
and sprinkle a little salt just before you take it up. A loin must be
cut on the skin in small streaks, and then basted; but put no flour on,
which would make the skin blister; and see that it is jointed before you
lay it down to the fire. A leg of pork is often roasted with sage and
onion shred fine, with a little pepper and salt, and stuffed at the
knuckle, with gravy in the dish; but a leg of pork done in this manner,
parboil it first, and take off the skin; lay it down to a good clear
fire; baste it with butter, then shred some sage fine, and mix it with
pepper, salt, nutmeg, and bread crumbs; strew this over it the time it
is roasting; baste it again with butter, just before you take it up,
that it may be of a fine brown, and have a good froth; send up some good
gravy in the dish; a griskin roasted in this manner eats finely.
ROAST PORKER'S HEAD. Clean it well, put bread and sage into it as for a
young pig, sew it up tight, and put it on a hanging jack. Roast it in
the same manner as a pig, and serve it up the same.
ROAST POTATOES. Half boil them first, then take off the thin peel, and
roast them of a beautiful brown.
ROAST PULLET. To roast a small hen turkey or a pullet with batter, the
bird must first be boned, and filled with forcemeat or stuffing. Then
paper it round, and lay it down to roast. When nearly half done, drop
off the paper, and baste the bird with a very smooth light batter. When
the first basting is dry, baste it again, and repeat this till the bird
is nicely crusted over, and sufficiently done. It will require ten
minutes or a quarter of an hour longer roasting than a bird of the same
size in the common way, on account of its being stuffed with forcemeat.
Serve it up with white gravy, or mushroom sauce.
ROAST QUAILS. Quails may be dressed and served up like woodcocks; or
dressed with the insides stuffed with sweet herbs and beef suet chopped
fine, and mixed with a little spice. They must roast rather a shorter
time than woodcocks.
ROAST RUMP OF BEEF. Let it lie in salt for two days, then wash it, and
soak it an hour in a quart of claret, and a pint of elder vinegar. Baste
it well with the liquor while roasting. Make a gravy of two beef palates
cut thin and boiled, and thickened with burnt butter. Add to it
mushrooms and oysters, and serve it up hot.
ROAST SIRLOIN. When a sirloin of beef is about three parts roasted, take
out the meat from the under side, and mince it nicely. Season it with
pepper and salt, and some shalot chopped very small. By the time the
beef is roasted, heat this with gravy just sufficient to moisten it.
Dish up the beef with the upper side downwards, put the mince in the
inside, and strew it with bread crumbs ready prepared. Brown them of a
fine colour on a hot salamander over the fire, and then serve up the
beef with scraped horseradish laid round it.
ROAST SNIPES. Snipes and land rails are dressed exactly in the same
manner as woodcocks, but only require a shorter time in roasting.
ROAST STURGEON. Put the fish on a lark spit, then tie it on a large
spit, and baste it constantly with butter. Serve it with a good gravy,
an anchovy, a squeeze of Seville orange or lemon, and a glass of
sherry.--Another way is, to put into a stewpan a piece of butter rolled
in flour, with four cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, two onions, pepper
and salt, half a pint of water, and a glass of vinegar. Stir it over
the fire till hot, then let it become lukewarm, and steep the fish in it
an hour or two. Butter a paper well, tie it round, and roast it without
letting the spit run through. Serve it with sorrel and anchovy sauce.
ROAST SWEETBREADS. Parboil two large ones, and then roast them in a
Dutch oven. Use gravy sauce, or plain butter, with mushroom ketchup.
ROAST TONGUE. After well cleaning a neat's tongue, salt it for three
days with common salt and saltpetre. This makes an excellent dish, with
the addition of a young udder, having some fat to it, and boiled till
tolerably tender. Then tie the thick part of one to the thin part of the
other, and roast the tongue and udder together. A few cloves should be
stuck in the udder. Serve them with good gravy, and currant-jelly sauce.
Some people like neats' tongues cured with the root, in which case they
look much larger; but otherwise the root must be cut off close to the
gullet, next to the tongue, but without taking away the fat under the
tongue. The root must be soaked in salt and water, and extremely well
cleaned, before it is dressed; and the tongue should be laid in salt a
day and a night before it is pickled.
ROAST TURKEY. The sinews of the leg should be drawn, whichever way it is
dressed. The head should be twisted under the wing; and in drawing it,
take care not to tear the liver, nor let the gall touch it. Put a
stuffing of sausage meat; or if sausages are to be served in the dish, a
bread stuffing. As this makes a large addition to the size of the fowl,
observe that the heat of the fire is constantly to that part, for the
breast is often not done enough. A little strip of paper should be put
on the bone, to prevent its being scorched while the other parts are
roasting. Baste it well, and froth it up. Serve with gravy in the dish,
and plenty of bread sauce in a sauce tureen. Add a few crumbs and a
beaten egg to the stuffing of sausage meat. Another way. Bone your
turkey very nicely, leaving on the pinions, rump, and legs; then take
the flesh of a nice fowl, the same weight of bread grated, and half a
pound of beef suet, nicely picked; beat these in a marble mortar, season
with mace, one clove, pepper, nutmeg, salt beat fine, a little lemon
peel shred very small, and the yolks of two eggs; mix all up together
very well; then fill all the parts that the bones came out of, and raise
the breast to the form it was before the bone was taken out; sew up the
skin of the back, and skewer down the legs close as you do a chicken for
roasting; spit it and let it be nicely roasted: send good gravy in the
dish.
ROAST VEAL. Veal must be well done before a good fire. Cover the fat of
the loin and fillet with paper. Stuff the fillet and shoulder in the
following manner. Take a quarter of a pound of suet, parsley, and sweet
herbs, and chop them fine. Add grated bread, lemon peel, pepper, salt,
nutmeg, and an egg. Mix all well together, and put the stuffing safely
into the veal. Roast the breast with the caul on: when nearly done, take
it off, and baste and dredge the meat. Lay it in the dish, pour a little
melted butter over it, and serve it up with salad, boiled vegetables, or
stewed celery.
ROAST VENISON. After a haunch of venison is spitted, take a piece of
butter and rub all over the fat, dust on a little flour, and sprinkle a
little salt: then take a sheet of writing paper, butter it well, and lay
over the fat part; put two sheets over that, and tie the paper on with
small twine: keep it well basting, and let there be a good soaking fire.
If a large haunch, it will take full three hours to do it. Five minutes
before you send it to table take off the paper, dust it over with a
little flour, and baste it with butter; let it go up with a good froth;
put no gravy in the dish, but send it in one boat; and currant jelly
melted, in another; or if you have no currant jelly, boil half a pint of
red wine with a quarter of a pound of lump sugar, a stick of cinnamon,
and a piece of lemon peel in it, to a syrup. The neck and shoulder are
dressed the same way; and as to the time, it depends entirely on the
weight, and the goodness of your fire: if you allow a quarter of an hour
to each pound, and the fire be tolerably kept up, you cannot well err. A
breast of venison is excellent dressed in the following way: flour it,
and fry it brown on both sides in fresh butter: keep it hot in a dish,
dust flour into the butter it was fried in, till it is thick and brown.
Keep it stirring that it may not burn; pour in half a pint of red wine,
and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar: stir it and let it boil to a
proper thickness. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, take off the scum
very clean, and pour it over your venison, then send it to table.
ROAST WHEAT-EARS. These birds should be spitted sideways, with a vine
leaf between each. Baste them with butter, and cover them with bread
crumbs while roasting. Ten or twelve minutes will do them. Serve them up
with fried bread crumbs in the dish, and gravy in a tureen.
ROAST WILD DUCK. A wild duck or a widgeon will require twenty or
twenty-five minutes roasting, according to the size. A teal, from
fifteen to twenty minutes; and other birds of this kind, in proportion
to their size, a longer or a shorter time. Serve them up with gravy, and
lemons cut in quarters, to be used at pleasure.
ROAST WOODCOCKS. Whether for woodcocks or snipes, put a toast of fine
bread under the birds while at the fire; and as they are not to be drawn
before they are spitted, let the tail drop on the toast while roasting,
and baste them with butter. When done, lay the birds on the toast in a
dish, and send it warm to the table. A woodcock takes twenty minutes
roasting, and a snipe fifteen.
ROBERT SAUCE. Put an ounce of butter into a pint stewpan, and when
melted, add to it half an ounce of onion minced very fine. Turn it with
a wooden spoon till it takes a light brown colour, and then stir into it
a table-spoonful of flour, a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, the
like quantity of port wine, half a pint of weak broth, and half a
tea-spoonful of pepper and salt mixed together. Give them a boil, then
add a tea-spoonful of mustard, the juice of half a lemon, and one or two
tea-spoonfuls of vinegar, basil, taragon, or burnet vinegar. This sauce
is in high repute, and is adapted for roast pork or roast goose.
ROLLS. Warm an ounce of butter in half a pint of milk, put to it a
spoonful or more of small beer yeast, and a little salt. Mix in two
pounds of flour, let it rise an hour, and knead it well. Make the paste
into seven rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. If a little saffron,
boiled in half a tea-cupful of milk, be added, it will be a great
improvement.
ROLLED BEEF. Soak the inside of a large sirloin in a glass of port wine
and a glass of vinegar mixed, for eight and forty hours: have ready a
very fine stuffing, and bind it up tight. Roast it on a hanging spit,
baste it with a glass of port wine, the same quantity of vinegar, and a
tea-spoonful of pounded allspice. Larding it improves the flavour and
appearance: serve it with a rich gravy in the dish, with currant jelly
and melted butter in tureens. This article will be found very much to
resemble a hare.
ROLLED BREAST OF VEAL. Bone it, take off the thick skin and gristle, and
beat the meat with a rolling-pin. Season it with herbs chopped very
fine, mixed with salt, pepper, and mace. Roll the meat in some thick
slices of fine ham, or in two or three calves' tongues of a fine red,
first boiled an hour or two and peeled. Bind the meat up tight in a
cloth, and tie it round with tape. Simmer it over the fire for some
hours, in a small quantity of water, till it is quite tender. Lay it on
the dresser with a board and weight upon it till quite cold. Then take
off the tape, and pour over it the liquor, which must be boiled up twice
a week, or it will not keep. Pigs' or calves' feet boiled and taken from
the bones, may be put in or round the veal. The different colours placed
in layers look well when cut. Boiled yolks of eggs, beet root, grated
ham, and chopped parsley, may be laid in different parts to encrease the
variety, and improve the general appearance.
ROLLED LOIN OF MUTTON. Hang the joint up till tender, and then bone it.
Lay on a seasoning of pepper, allspice, mace, nutmeg, and a few cloves,
all in fine powder. Next day prepare a stuffing as for hare, beat the
meat with a rolling-pin, cover it with the stuffing, roll it up tight
and tie it. Half bake it in a slow oven, let it grow cold, take off the
fat, and put the gravy into a stewpan. Flour the meat, and put it in
likewise. Stew it till almost ready, and add a glass of port, an
anchovy, some ketchup, and a little lemon pickle. Serve it in the gravy,
and with jelly sauce. A few mushrooms are a great improvement; but if to
eat like hare, these must not be added, nor the lemon pickle.
ROLLED NECK OF PORK. Bone it first, then put over the inside a forcemeat
of chopped sage, a very few crumbs of bread, salt, pepper, and two or
three berries of allspice. Then roll the meat up very tight, place it at
a good distance from the fire, and roast it slowly.
ROLLED STEAKS. Cut a large steak from a round of beef, spread over it a
forcemeat, such as is made for veal, roll it up like collared eel, and
tie it up in a cloth. Boil it an hour and a half, and when done enough,
cut it into slices. Prepare a rich gravy, a little thickened, and pour
over the steaks.
ROMAN CEMENT. To make a mortar for outside plastering, or brick-work, or
to line reservoirs, so as no water can penetrate it, mix together
eighty-four pounds of drifted sand, twelve pounds of unslaked lime, and
four pounds of the poorest cheese grated through an iron grater. When
well mixed, add enough hot water, not boiling, to make it into a proper
consistence for plastering, such a quantity of the above as is wanted.
It requires very good and quick working. One hod of this mortar will go
a great way, as it is to be laid on in a thin smooth coat, without the
least space being left uncovered. The wall or lath work should be first
covered with common hair mortar well dried. Suffolk cheese will be found
to make the best cement.
ROOK PIE. Skin and draw some young rooks, cut out the backbones, and
season with pepper and salt. Lay them in a dish with a little water,
strew some bits of butter over them, cover the dish with a thick crust,
and bake it well.
ROSE WATER. When the roses are full blown, pick off the leaves
carefully, and allow a peck of them to a quart of water. Put them in a
cold still over a slow fire, and distil it very gradually. Bottle the
water, and cork it up in two or three days.
ROT IN SHEEP. When sheep are newly brought in, it will preserve their
health to give them a table-spoonful of the juice of rue leaves, mixed
with a little salt. If they are in danger of the rot, this mixture may
be repeated every week or oftener, as the case requires.
ROUND OF BEEF. Cut out the bone first, then skewer and tie up the beef
to make it quite round. Salt it carefully, and moisten it with the
pickle for eight or ten days. It may be stuffed with parsley, if
approved; in which case the holes to admit the parsley must be made with
a sharp-pointed knife, and the parsley coarsely cut and stuffed in
tight. When dressed it should be carefully skimmed as soon as it boils,
and afterwards kept boiling very gently.
ROUT CAKES. To make rout drop-cakes, mix two pounds of flour with one
pound of butter, one pound of sugar, and one pound of currants, cleaned
and dried. Moisten it into a stiff paste with two eggs, a large spoonful
of orange-flower water, as much rose water, sweet wine, and brandy. Drop
the paste on a tin plate floured, and a short time will bake them.
ROYAL CAKES. Put into a saucepan a quarter of a pint of water, a piece
of butter half the size of an egg, two ounces of fine sugar, a little
grated lemon peel, and a little salt. When it has boiled about half a
minute, stir in by degrees four spoonfuls of flour, keeping it
constantly stirring all the time, till it becomes a smooth paste, pretty
stiff, and begins to adhere to the saucepan. Then take it off the fire,
and add three eggs well beaten, putting them in by degrees, and stirring
the paste all the time to prevent its being lumpy. Add a little
orange-flower water, and a few almonds pounded fine. Make it into little
cakes, and bake them upon a sheet of tin well buttered. Half an hour
will bake them in a moderate oven.
ROYAL PUNCH. Take thirty Seville oranges and thirty lemons, quite
sound, and pare them very thin. Put the parings into an earthen pan,
with as much rum or brandy as will cover them. Cover up the pan, and let
them stand four days. Take ten gallons of water, and twelve pounds of
lump sugar, and boil them. When nearly cold, put in the whites of thirty
eggs well beaten, and stir it and boil it a quarter of an hour. Strain
it through a hair sieve into an earthen pan, and let it stand till next
day. Then put it into a cask, strain the spirit from the parings of the
oranges and lemons, and add as much more to it as will make it up five
gallons. Put it into the cask with five quarts of Seville orange juice
and three quarts of lemon juice. Stir it all together with a cleft
stick, and repeat the same once a day for three successive days: then
stop it down close, and in six weeks it will be fit to drink.
RUFFS AND REEVES. These are to be trussed and skewered the same as
snipes and quails. Place bars of bacon over them, roast them in about
ten minutes, and serve with a good gravy in the dish.
RUMP OF BEEF. Take a rump of beef, or about eight pounds of the brisket,
and stew it till it is quite tender, in as much water as will cover it.
When sufficiently done, take out the bones, and skim off the fat very
clean. To a pint of the liquor, add the third part of a pint of port
wine, a little walnut or mushroom ketchup, and some salt. Tie up some
whole white pepper and mace in a piece of muslin, and stew all together
for a short time. Have ready some carrots and turnips boiled tender and
cut into squares, strew them upon the beef, putting a few into the dish.
Truffles and morels may be added, or artichoke bottoms.
RUMP SOUP. Two or three rumps of beef will make a stronger soup, and of
a far more nourishing quality, than a larger quantity of meat without
them. It may be made like gravy soup, and thickened and flavoured in any
way that is most approved.
RUMP STEAKS. The best steaks are those cut from the middle of a rump of
beef, that has been killed at least four days in moderate weather, and
much longer in cold weather, when they can be cut about six inches long,
four inches wide, and half an inch thick. Do not beat them, unless you
suspect they will not be tender. Take care to have a very clear brisk
fire, throw on it a little salt, make the gridiron hot, and set it
slanting, to prevent the fat from dropping into the fire, and making a
smoke. It requires more practice and care than is generally supposed to
do steaks to a nicety; and for want of these little attentions, this
very common dish, which every body is supposed capable of dressing,
seldom comes to table in perfection. It may be underdone or thoroughly
done, as happens to be preferred. It is usual to put a table-spoonful of
ketchup into a dish before the fire, with a little minced shalot. In
broiling, turn the steak with a pair of meat tongs, and it will be done
in about ten or fifteen minutes. Rub a bit of butter over it, and send
it up quite hot, garnished with pickles, and scraped horseradish.--If
onion gravy is to be added, prepare it in the following manner. Peel and
slice two large onions, put them into a stewpan with two table-spoonfuls
of water, cover the stewpan close, and set it on a slow fire till the
water has boiled away, and the onions have got a little browned. Then
add half a pint of good broth, or water with a large spoonful of
ketchup, and boil the onions till they are quite tender. Strain off the
liquor, and chop them very fine. Thicken the broth with butter rolled in
flour, and season it with mushroom ketchup, pepper and salt. Put the
onion into it, let it boil gently for five minutes, and pour it over the
broiled steak. Good beef gravy, instead of broth, will make the sauce
superlative.--If a cold rump steak is to be warmed up, lay it in a
stewpan, with a large onion cut in quarters, six berries of allspice,
and six of black pepper. Cover the steak with boiling water, let it stew
gently for an hour, thicken the liquor with butter rolled in flour,
shake it well over the fire for five minutes, and it is ready. Lay the
steaks and onion on a dish, and pour the gravy over them through a
sieve.
RUSKS. Beat seven eggs well, and mix them with half a pint of new milk,
in which four ounces of butter have been previously melted. Add a
quarter of a pint of yeast, and three ounces of sugar, and put them by
degrees into as much flour as will make a very light paste, rather like
a batter, and let it rise before the fire half an hour. Then add some
more flour, to make it a little stiffer, but not much. Work it well, and
divide it into small loaves, or cakes, about five or six inches wide,
and flatten them. When baked and cold, slice them the thickness of
rusks, and put them into the oven to brown a little. The cakes when
first baked, eat deliciously buttered for tea; or made with carraways,
they eat well cold.
RUSSIAN SAUCE. To four spoonfuls of grated horseradish, put two
tea-spoonfuls of patent mustard, a little salt, one tea-spoonful of
sugar, and a sufficient quantity of vinegar to cover the ingredients.
This sauce is used for cold meat, but makes a good fish sauce, with the
addition of melted butter.
RUST. To prevent iron and steel from rusting, mix with fat oil varnish,
at least half, or at most four fifths of its quantity of highly
rectified spirits of turpentine. This varnish must be lightly and
evenly applied with a sponge; after which the article is left to dry in
some situation not exposed to dust. Articles thus varnished retain their
metallic lustre, and do not contract any spots of rust. This varnish may
also be applied to copper, of which it preserves the polish and
heightens the colour.
S.
SACK CREAM. Boil a pint of raw cream, the yolk of an egg well beaten,
two or three spoonfuls of white wine, sugar, and lemon peel. Stir it
over a gentle fire till it be as thick as rich cream, and afterwards
till it becomes cold. Then serve it in glasses, with long pieces of dry
toast.
SACK DUMPLINS. Grate the crumb of two penny rolls, add three quarters of
a pound of suet cut small, three quarters of a pound of currants washed
clean, a grated nutmeg, a little sugar, the yolks of eight eggs, and two
wine glasses of sack. Make the paste into dumplins of a moderate size,
tie them in cloths, and boil them two hours. Melted butter for sauce,
with white wine and sugar.
SACK MEAD. To every gallon of water put four pounds of honey, and boil
it three quarters of an hour, taking care to skim it. To every gallon
add an ounce of hops; then boil it half an hour, and let it stand till
the next day. Put it into a cask, and to thirteen gallons of the liquor
add a quart of brandy. Stop it lightly till the fermentation is over,
and then bung it up close. A large cask should be suffered to stand a
year.
SACKS OF CORN. Seeds, and various kinds of grain, are liable to damage
when kept in sacks or bins, from the want of being sufficiently aired.
Make a small wooden tube nearly the length of the sack, closed and
pointed at one end, and perforated with holes about an inch asunder,
nearly two thirds of its length from the point end. Then at the other
end fasten a leather tube, and thrust it into the corn to the bottom of
the sack. Put the pipe of a pair of bellows into the leather tube, and
blow into it, so that the air may be diffused among the corn throughout
the holes of the wooden tube. If corn be thus treated every other day
after it is first put into sacks, it will prevent the damp sweats which
would otherwise injure it, and it will afterwards keep sweet with very
little airing.
SADDLE OF MUTTON. When it has been well kept, raise the skin, and then
skewer it on again. Take it off a quarter of an hour before serving,
sprinkle on some salt, baste and dredge it well with flour. The rump
should be split, and skewered back on each side. The joint may be cut
large or small, according to the company: the latter is the most
elegant. Being broad, it requires a high and strong fire.