Wash all meats before you dress; if for boiling, the colour will be
better for soaking; if for roasting, dry it.
Boiling in a well floured cloth, will make meat white.
Particular charge must be given that the pot be well skimmed the
_moment_ it boils, otherwise the foulness will be dispersed over the
meat. The more soups or broths are skimmed, the better and cleaner they
will be.
The boiler and utensils should be kept delicately clean.
Put the meat in cold water, and flour it well first. If meat be boiled
quick it will be hard; but care must be taken that in boiling slow it
does not cease, or the meat will be underdone.
If the steam be kept in, the water will not much decrease; therefore
when you wish to evaporate, remove the cover of the soup pot.
Vegetables should not be dressed with the meat, except carrots or
parsnips with boiled beef.
Weigh the joint, and allow a quarter of an hour to each pound, and about
twenty minutes over. If for roasting, it should be put at a good
distance from the fire, and brought gradually nearer when the inner part
becomes hot, which will prevent its being scorched while yet raw. Meat
should be much basted, and when nearly done, floured to make it look
frothed.
Veal and mutton should have a little paper put over the fat to preserve
it. If not fat enough to allow for basting, a little good dripping
answers as well as butter.
The cook should be careful to spit meat so as not to run the spit
through the best parts; and she should observe that her spit be well
cleaned before, and when she is going to serve, or a black stain appears
on the meat. In many joints the spit will pass into the bones, and run
along them for some distance, so as not to injure the prime of the meat;
and she should have leaden skewers to enable her to balance it; for want
of which, ignorant servants often are foiled in the time of serving.
In roasting meat, it is a very good way to put a little salt and water
into the dripping pan, and baste for a little while with it before it be
done with its own fat or dripping. When dry, dust it with flour, and
baste as usual.
Time, distance, basting often, and a clear fire, of a proper size for
what is required, are the first articles of a good cook’s attention in
roasting.
Old meats do not require so much dressing as young: not that they are
sooner done, but they can be eaten with the gravy more in.
Be careful in roasting wild fowls to keep a clear brisk fire. Roast them
of a light brown, but not till their gravy runs; they loose their fine
flavour if too much done. Tame fowls require more roasting: they are a
long time before they are hot through, and must be often basted to keep
up a froth, and it makes the colour better. Pigs and geese require a
brisk fire, and to be turned quick.
Hares and rabbits require time, and care to turn the two ends to the
fire, which are less likely to be done enough than the middle part.
Choose mutton by the fineness of its grain, the deep red of the flesh,
and bright whiteness of the fat. For roasting, it should hang as long as
it will keep, the hind quarter especially, but not so as to taint; for,
whatever fashion may authorize, putrid juices ought not to be conveyed
into the stomach.
Mutton, for boiling, will not look of a good colour if it has long hung.
Small mutton is preferred.
Great care should be taken to preserve by paper the fat of what is
roasted.
_To keep Venison._
Preserve the venison dry; wash it with milk and water very clean; dry it
with clean cloths, till not the least damp remain. Then dust pounded
ginger over every part, which is a good preventive against the fly. By
thus managing and watching, it will hang a fortnight. When to be used,
wash it with a little lukewarm water, and dry it.
_Venison._
A haunch of buck will take about three hours and three quarters
roasting; doe, three hours and a quarter. Put a coarse paste of brown
flour and water, and a paper over that, to cover all the fat: baste it
well with dripping, and keep it at a distance to get hot at the bone by
degrees. When nearly done, remove the covering, and baste it with
butter, and froth it up before you serve.
Gravy for it should be put into a boat, and not in the dish (unless
there be none in the venison), and made thus: cut off the fat from two
or three pounds of a loin of old mutton, and set it in steaks on a
gridiron for a few minutes, just to brown one side: put them in a
saucepan, with a quart of water: cover quite close for an hour, and
gently simmer it; then uncover, and stew till the gravy be reduced to a
point. Season with only salt.
Currantjelly sauce must be served in a boat.
Formerly pap sauce was eaten with venison, which, as some still like it,
may be necessary to direct. Grate white bread, and boil it with port and
water, a large stick of cinnamon; and when quite smooth, remove the
latter, and add sugar. Claret wine may be used for it.
Make the jelly sauce thus. Beat some currantjelly, and a spoonful or two
of port, then set it over the fire till melted. Where jelly runs short,
put more wine, and a few lumps of sugar to the jelly, and melt as above.
_To make a Pasty of Beef or Mutton, to eat as well as Venison._
Bone a small rump, or a piece of sirloin of beef, or a fat loin of
mutton: the former is better than mutton, after hanging several days, if
the weather permits. Beat it very well with a rolling pin, then rub ten
pounds of meat with four ounces of sugar, and pour over it a glass of
port wine, and the same of vinegar. Let it lie five days and nights:
wash and wipe the meat very dry, and season it very high with pepper,
Jamaica pepper, nutmeg, and salt. Lay in your dish, and to ten pounds
put one pound or near of butter, spreading it over the meat. Put a crust
round the edges, and cover with a thick one, or it will be overdone
before the meat be soaked. It must be done in a slow oven.
Set the bones in a pan in the oven, with no more water than will cover
them, and one glass of port wine, a little pepper and salt, that you may
have a little rich gravy to add to the pasty when drawn.
_Note._ Sugar gives a greater shortness, and better flavor to meats than
salt, too great a quantity of which hardens; and it is quite as great a
preservative.
_Haunch, Neck and Shoulders of Venison._
Roast with paste, as directed above, and the same sauce.
_Stewed Shoulder._
Let the meat hang till you judge proper to dress it, then take out the
bone: beat the meat with a rolling pin. Lay some slices of mutton fat,
that has lain a few hours in a little port wine, among it: sprinkle a
little black and Jamaica pepper over it, in finest powder: roll it up
tight, and fillet it. Set it in a stewpan that will only just hold it,
with some mutton or beef gravy, not strong, half a pint of port, and
some pepper and pimento. Simmer, close covered, and as slow as you can,
for three or four hours. When quite tender, take off the tape, set the
meat on a dish, and strain the gravy over. Serve with currantjelly
sauce.
This is the best way to dress this joint, unless it be very fat, and
then it should be roasted. The bone should be stewed with it.
_To prepare Venison for Pasty._
Take the bones out, then season and beat the meat. Lay it in a stone jar
in large pieces: pour upon it some plain drawn beef gravy, but not a
strong one: lay the bones on top, then set the jar in a waterbath, that
is, a saucepan of water over the fire; simmer three or four hours; then
leave it in a cold place till next day. Remove the cake of fat, and lay
the meat in handsome pieces on the dish: if not sufficiently seasoned,
add more pepper, salt, or pimento, as necessary. Put some of the gravy,
and keep the remainder for the time of serving. If the venison be thus
prepared, it will not require so much time to bake, or such a very thick
crust as is usual, and by which the under part is seldom done through.
_Venison Pasty._
A shoulder, boned, makes a good pasty; but it must be beaten and
seasoned, and the want of fat supplied by that of a fine well hung loin
of mutton, steeped twenty four hours in equal parts of rape, vinegar,
and port.
The shoulder being sinewy, it will be of advantage to rub it well with
sugar for two or three days; and when to be used, wipe it perfectly
clean from it, and the wine.
A mistake used to prevail, that venison could not be baked enough; but,
as above directed, three or four hours in a slow oven will be sufficient
to make it tender, and the flavor will be preserved. Either in shoulder
or side, the meat must be cut in pieces, and laid with fat between, that
it may be proportioned to each person, without breaking up the pasty to
find it. Lay some pepper and salt, at the bottom of the dish, and some
butter, then the meat nicely packed, that it may be sufficiently done,
but not lie hollow to harden at the edges.
The venison bones should be boiled with some fine old mutton. Of this
gravy put half a pint cold into the dish, then lay butter on the
venison, and cover, as well as line the sides with a thick crust; but do
not put one under the meat. Keep the remainder of the gravy till the
pasty comes from the oven; put it into the middle by a funnel, quite
hot, and shake the dish to mix well. It should be seasoned with pepper
and salt.
_An imitation of Venison Pasty._
Choose a large well fed loin of mutton; hang it ten days, then bone it,
leaving the meat as whole as possible. Cover it with brown sugar a day
and night; then lay it in a pickle of half a pint of port wine, and half
a pint of rape or common vinegar, twenty four hours more: then shake it
well in it to take off the sugar, but do not wash, only wipe it. Season
as above, and bake; making a gravy of the bones.
Crust for the pasty, see under the article of crusts.
_Hashed Venison_,
Should be warmed with its own, or gravy without seasoning, as before,
and only warmed through, not boiled. If there be no fat left, cut some
slices of mutton fat, set on the fire, with a little port wine and
sugar: simmer till dry; then add it to the hash, and it will eat as well
as that of the venison.
_Beef or Pork, to be salted for eating immediately._
The piece should not weigh more than five or six pounds. Salt it very
thoroughly just before you put it in the pot. Take a coarse cloth, flour
it well, put the meat in and fold it up close. Put it into a pot of
boiling water, and boil it as long as you would any salt beef of the
same size, and it will be as salt as if done four or five days.
_Beef Alamode._
Choose a piece of thick flank of a fine heifer or ox. Cut into long
slices some fat bacon, but quite free from yellow. Let each bit be near
an inch thick, and dip them in vinegar, and then in a seasoning ready
prepared of salt, black and Jamaica peppers and a clove in finest
powder, with parsley, chives, thyme, savory and knotted marjorum, shred
as small as possible, and well mixed. With a sharp knife make holes deep
enough to let in the larding; then rub the beef over with the seasoning,
and bind it up tight with tape. Set it in a well tinned pot over a fire
or rather stove. Three or four onions must be fried brown and put to the
beef, with two or three carrots, one turnip, and a head or two of
celery, and a small quantity of water. Let it simmer gently ten or
twelve hours, or till extremely tender, turning the meat twice.
Put the gravy in a pan, remove the fat, keep the beef covered, then put
them together, and add a glass of port wine. Remove the tape, and serve
with the vegetables: or you may strain them off, and send up fresh, cut
in dice for garnish. Onions roasted, and then stewed with the gravy, are
a great improvement. A teacup full of vinegar should be stewed with the
beef.
_Stewed rump of Beef._
Wash it well: season it high with pepper, Cayenne, salt, Jamaica pepper,
three cloves, a blade of mace, all in finest powder. Bind it up tight,
and lay it in a pot that will just hold it. Fry three large onions,
sliced, and put to it, with three carrots, two turnips, a shalot, four
cloves, a blade of mace, and some celery. Cover the meat with good beef
broth, or weak gravy. Simmer as gently as possible for several hours,
till quite tender. Clear off the fat, and add to the gravy half a pint
of port wine, a glass of vinegar, and a large spoonful of catsup; simmer
half an hour, and serve in a deep dish.
Garnish with carrots, turnips, or truffles, and morels, or pickles of
different colours cut small, and laid in little heaps separate, chopped
parsley, chives, beetroot, &c. If when done the gravy be too much to
fill the dish, take only a part to season for serving: the less wafer
the better; and to increase the richness, add a few beef bones and
shanks of mutton in stewing.
A spoonful or two of made mustard is a great improvement to the gravy.
Rump roasted is excellent; but in the country is generally sold whole
with the edgebone, or cut across instead of lengthways, as in London,
when there is one piece for boiling, and the rump for stewing or
roasting.
_Stewed Brisket._
Put the part that has the hard fat into a stew pot, with a small
quantity of water; let it boil up, and skim it thoroughly; then add
carrots, turnips, onions, celery, and a few peppercorns. Stew till
extremely tender; then take out the flat bones, and remove all the fat
from the soup. Either serve that and the meat in a tureen, or the former
alone, and the meat on a dish, garnished with some of the vegetables.
The following sauce is much admired, served with the beef. Take half a
pint of the soup, and mix with a spoonful of catsup, a glass of port
wine, a teaspoonful of made mustard, a little flour, a bit of butter,
and salt: boil all together a few minutes, then pour it round the meat.
Chop capers, walnuts, red cabbage, pickled cucumbers, and chives or
parsley, small, and put in separate heaps over it.
_To salt Beef red, which is extremely good to eat fresh from the pickle,
or to hang to dry._
Choose a piece of beef with as little bone as you can, the flank is most
proper: sprinkle it, and let it drain a day; then rub it with common
salt, saltpetre, and bay salt, but of the second a small proportion; and
you may add a few grains of cochineal, all in fine powder. Rub the
pickle every day into the meat for a week, then only turn it.
It will be excellent in eight days. In sixteen, drain it from the
pickle, and let it be smoked at the oven mouth, where heated with wood,
or send to the baker’s. A few days will smoke it.
A little of the coarsest sugar may be added to the salt.
It eats well boiled tender with greens or carrots. If to be grated as
Dutch, then cut a _lean_ bit: boil it till extremely tender; and while
hot put it under a press. When cold, fold it in a sheet of paper, and it
will keep in a dry place two or three months.
_Pressed Beef._
Salt a bit of brisket, thin part of the flank, or the tops of the ribs,
with salt and saltpetre, five days; then boil it gently till extremely
tender. Put it under a great weight, or in a cheese press, till
perfectly cold.
It eats excellently cold, and for Sandwiches.
_Hunter’s Beef._
To a round of beef that weighs twenty five pounds, take three ounces of
saltpetre, three ounces of coarsest sugar, an ounce of cloves, one
nutmeg, half an ounce of pimento, and three handfuls of common salt, all
in the finest powder.
The beef should hang two or three days, then rub the above well into it.
Turn and rub it daily for two or three weeks. The bone must be removed
at first. When to be dressed, dip it in cold water to take off the loose
spice: bind it up tight with tape: put it into a pan, and a teacup of
water at bottom: put over the pan a brown crust and paper, and bake it
five or six hours. When cold, remove the paste and fillet.
The gravy is very fine, and a little of it adds greatly to the flavor of
any hash, soup, &c.
Both gravy and beef will keep some time. The latter should be cut with a
very sharp knife, and quite smooth, to prevent waste.
_Collared Beef._
Choose the thin end of the flank of fine mellow beef, but not too fat.
Lay it in a dish with salt, and saltpetre. Turn and rub it every day for
a week, and keep it cool. Then take out every bone and gristle; remove
the skin of the inside part, and cover it thick with the following
seasoning cut small: a large handful of parsley, the same of sage, some
thyme, marjorum, pennyroyal, pepper, salt and pimento. Roll the meat up
as tight as possible, and bind it; then boil it gently for seven or
eight hours. A cloth must be put round before the tape. Put the beef
under a good weight while hot, without undoing it; the shape will then
be oval. Part of a breast of veal, rolled in with the beef, looks and
eats very well.
_Beefsteak and Oyster Sauce._
Strain off the liquor from the oysters, and throw them in cold water to
take off the grit, while you simmer the former with a bit of mace and
lemonpeel; then put the oysters in, stew them a few minutes, and add a
little cream if you have it, and some butter, rubbed in a bit of flour;
let them boil up once, and have rump steaks, well seasoned and broiled,
ready for throwing the oyster sauce over the moment you are to serve.
_Staffordshire Beefsteaks._
Beat them a little with a rolling pin: flour and season them; then fry
with sliced onion to a fine light brown. Lay the steaks in a stewpan,
and pour as much boiling water over as will serve for sauce: stew them
very gently half an hour, and add a spoonful of catsup or walnut liquor
before you serve.
_Italian Beefsteaks._
Cut a fine large steak from a rump that has been well hung; or it will
do from any _tender_ part. Beat it, and season with pepper, salt and
onion. Lay it in an iron stewpan, that has a cover to fit quite close;
set it at the side of a fire, without water. Take care it does not burn,
but it must have a strong heat. In two or three hours it will be quite
tender, then serve with its own gravy.
_Beef Collop._
Cut thin slices of beef from the rump or other tender parts, and divide
them in pieces three inches long: beat with the blade of a knife, and
flour them. Fry the collops quick in butter two minutes; then lay them
in a small stewpan, and cover with a pint of gravy: add a bit of butter
rubbed in flour, pepper, salt, the least bit of shalot shred as fine as
possible, half a walnut, four small pickled cucumbers, and a teaspoonful
of capers cut small. Observe it does not boil; and serve the stew in a
very hot covered dish.
_Beefsteak Pudding._
Prepare some fine steaks as above: roll them with fat between, and if
you approve _shred_ onion, add a very little. Lay a paste of suet in a
bason, and put in the rollers of steaks: cover the bason with a paste,
and pinch the edges to keep the gravy in. Cover with a cloth tied close,
and let the pudding boil slowly, but for a length of time.
_Beefsteak Pie._
Prepare the steaks as above, and when seasoned and rolled with fat in
each, put them in a dish, with puff paste round the edges. Put a little
water in the dish, and cover it with a good crust.
_Baked Beefsteak Pudding._
Make a batter of milk, two eggs, and flour, or which is much better,
potatoes boiled and mashed through a colander. Lay a little of it at the
bottom of the dish, then put in the steaks prepared as above, and very
well seasoned; pour the remainder of the batter over them, and bake it.
_Podovies, or Beef Patties._
Shred raredone dressed beef, with a little fat: season with pepper,
salt, and a little shalot or onion. Make a plain paste, roll it thin,
and cut it in shape like an apple puff; fill it with the mince, pinch
the edges, and fry them of a nice brown. The paste should be made with a
small quantity of butter, egg, and milk.
_Beef Palates._
Simmer them in water several hours, till they will peel; then cut the
palates in slices, or leave them whole, as you choose, and stew them in
a rich gravy till as tender as possible. Before you serve, season with
Cayenne, salt, and catsup. If the gravy was drawn clear, add to the
above some butter and flour.
_Beef Cakes for side dish of dressed meat._
Pound some beef that is raredone, with a little fat bacon or ham. Season
with pepper, salt, and a little shalot or garlic: mix them well, and
make into small cakes three inches long, and half as wide and thick: fry
them a light brown, and serve them in a good thick gravy.
_Potted Beef._
Take two pounds of lean beef, rub it with saltpetre, and let it lie one
night; then salt with common salt, and cover it with water four days in
a small pan. Dry it with a cloth, and season with pepper: lay it into as
small a pan as will hold it; cover it with coarse paste, and bake it
five hours in a very cool oven. Put no liquor in.
When cold, pick out the strings and fat; beat the meat very fine with a
quarter of a pound of fine butter just warm, but not oiled, and as much
of the gravy as will make it into a paste. Put it into very small pots,
and cover them with melted butter.
_Another way._
Take beef that has been dressed, either boiled or roasted: beat it in a
mortar with some pepper, salt, a few cloves, grated nutmeg, a little
fine butter just warm.
This eats as well, but the colour is not so fine.
_Hessian Soup and Ragout._
Clean the root of a tongue very nicely, and half an ox head, with salt
and water, and soak them afterwards in plain water; then stew them in
five or six quarts of water till tolerably tender. Let the soup stand to
be cold: take off the cake of fat, which will make good paste for hot
meat pies, or serve to baste. Put to the soup a pint of split peas or a
quart of whole, twelve carrots, six turnips, six potatoes, six large
onions, a bunch of sweet herbs, and two heads of celery. Simmer them
without the meat, till the vegetables are done enough to pulp with the
peas through a sieve, when the soup will be about the consistence of
cream. Season it with pepper, salt, mace, pimento, a clove or two, and a
little Cayenne, all in the finest powder. If the peas are bad, the soup
may not be thick enough; then boil in it a slice of roll, and put
through the colander; or put a little rice flour, mixing it by degrees.
_The Ragout._
Cut the nicest part of the head in small thick pieces, the kernels, and
part of the fat of the root of the tongue. Rub these with some of the
same seasoning, as you put them into a quart of the liquor, kept out for
that purpose before the vegetables were added; flour well, and simmer
them till nicely tender. Then put a little mushroom and walnut catsup, a
little soy, and a glass of port wine, a teaspoonful of made mustard, and
boil all up together before served.
If for company, small eggs and forcemeat balls.
This mode furnishes an excellent soup, and a ragout at small expense,
and they are uncommon. The other part will warm for the family.
_Stewed Oxcheek plain._
Soak and cleanse a fine cheek the day before you would have it eaten.
Put it into a stewpot that will cover close, with three quarts of water:
simmer it, after it has first boiled up and been well skimmed. In two
hours put plenty of carrots, leeks, two or three turnips, a bunch of
sweet herbs, some whole pepper, and four Jamaica’s. Skim frequently.
When the meat is tender, take it out: let the soup go cold: remove the
cake of fat, and serve it separate or with the meat.
It should be of a fine brown, which may be done by burnt sugar, or by
frying some onions quite brown with flour, and simmering them with it.
The latter improves the flavour of all soups and gravies of the brown
kind.
If vegetables are not approved in the soup, they may be taken out, and a
small roll be toasted, or bread fried and added. Celery is a great
addition, and should be always served. Where it is not to be got, the
seed gives an equally good flavour, boiled in, and strained off.
_To dress an Oxcheek another way._
Soak half a head three hours, and clean it with plenty of water. Take
the meat off the bones; put it into a pan with a large onion, a bunch of
sweet herbs, some bruised pimento, pepper, and salt.
Lay the bones on the top: pour on two or three quarts of water: cover
the pan close with brown paper, or a dish that will fit close. Let it
stand eight or ten hours in a slow oven, or simmer it by the side of the
fire, or on a hot hearth. When done tender, let it go cold, having moved
the meat into a clean pan. Take the cake of fat off, and warm the head
in pieces in the soup. Put what vegetables you choose.
_Marrow Bones._
Cover the top with floured cloth: boil, and serve with dry toast.
_To dress the Inside of a cold Sirloin of Beef._
Cut out all the meat, and a little fat, in pieces as thick as your
finger, and two inches long. Dredge with flour, and fry in butter, of a
nice brown. Drain the butter from the meat, and toss up in a rich gravy,
seasoned with pepper, salt, anchovy, and shalot. On no account let it
boil. Before you serve, add two spoonfuls of vinegar.
Garnish with crimped parsley.
_Fricassee of cold Roast Beef._
Cut the beef into very thin slices: shred a handful of parsley very
small: cut an onion in quarters, and put all together into a stewpan,
with a piece of butter, and some strong broth. Season with salt and
pepper, and simmer very gently a quarter of an hour; then mix into it
the yelks of two eggs, a glass of port wine, and a spoonful of vinegar:
stir it quick, and, rubbing the dish with shalot, turn the fricassee
into it.
_To dress Cold Beef that has not been done enough, called Beef Olives._
Cut slices half an inch thick, and four square: lay on them a forcemeat
of crumbs of bread, shalot, a little suet or fat, pepper, and salt. Roll
them, and fasten with a small skewer. Put them into a stewpan, with some
gravy made of the beef bones, or the gravy of the meat, and a spoonful
or two of water, and stew them till tender. Fresh meat will do.
_To dress ditto, called Sanders._
Mince small beef or mutton, onion, pepper, and salt; add a little gravy:
put into scallopshells or saucers: make them three parts full; then fill
them up with potatoes, mashed with a little cream: put a bit of butter
on the top, and brown them in an oven, or before the fire.
_To dress ditto, called Cecils._
Mince any kind of meat, crumbs of bread, a good deal of onion, some
anchovies, lemonpeel, salt, nutmeg, chopped parsley, and pepper, and a
bit of butter warm, and mix these over a fire for a few minutes. When
cool enough, make them up into balls of the size and shape of a turkey’s
egg, with an egg. Fry them, when sprinkled with fine crumbs, of a yellow
brown, and serve with gravy as above.
_Minced Beef._
Shred fine the underdone part, with some of the fat. Put into a small
stewpan, some onion, or shalot, (a very little will do,) a little water,
pepper, and salt: boil till the onion be quite soft; then put some of
the gravy of the meat to it, and the mince. Do not let it boil. Having a
small hot dish, with sippets of bread ready, pour the mince into it; but
first mix a large spoonful of vinegar with it: or if shalot vinegar,
there will be no need of the onion, or raw shalot.
_Hashed Beef._
Do the same, only the meat is to be in slices; and you may add a
spoonful of walnut liquor or catsup.
Observe, that it is owing to boiling hashes or minces, that they are
hard. All sorts of stews, or meat dressed second hand, should only be
simmered; and the latter only hot through.
_To preserve Suet a twelvemonth._
As soon as it comes in, choose the firmest part, and pick free from skin
and veins. In a very nice saucepan, set it at some distance from the
fire, that it may melt without frying, or it will taste.
When melted, pour it into a pan of cold water. When in a hard cake, wipe
it very dry: fold it in fine paper, and then in a linen bag, and keep in
a dry, but not hot place. When used, scrape it fine; and it will make a
fine crust, either with or without butter.
_Round of Beef_,
Should be carefully salted, and wet with the pickle for eight or ten
days. The bone should be cut out first, and the beef skewered and
filleted, to make it quite round. It may be stuffed with parsley, if
approved; in which case, the holes to admit it must be made with a sharp
pointed knife, and the parsley coarsely cut and stuffed in tight. As
soon as it boils, it should be skimmed, and afterwards kept boiling very
gently.
_To roast Tongue and Udder._
After cleaning the tongue well, salt it with common salt and saltpetre
three days; then boil it, and likewise a fine young udder, and some fat
to it, till tolerably tender; then tie the thick part of one to the thin
part of the other, and roast the tongue and udder together.
Serve them with a good gravy, and currantjelly sauce. A few cloves
should be stuck in the udder.
This is an excellent dish.
_To pickle Tongues for boiling._
Cut off the root, leaving a little of the kernel and fat. Sprinkle some
salt, and let it drain from the slime till next day: then, for each
tongue, mix a large spoonful of common salt, the same of coarse sugar,
and about half as much of saltpetre; rub it well in, and do so every
day. In a week add another heaped spoonful of salt. If rubbed every day,
a tongue will be ready in a fortnight; but if only turned in the pickle
daily, it will keep four or five weeks without being too salt.
If you dry tongues, write the date on a parchment and tie on. Smoke
them, or plainly dry them, if you like best.
When to be dressed, boil it extremely tender: allow five hours; and if
done sooner, it is easily kept hot. The longer kept after drying, the
higher it will be: if hard, it may require soaking three or four hours.
_Another way._
Clean as above. For two tongues, one ounce of saltpetre, and one ounce
of sal prunella. Rub them well. In two days, having well rubbed them,
cover them with common salt. Turn them daily for three weeks; then dry,
rub in bran, and paper or smoke them. In ten days they will be fit to
eat if not dried.
_Beef Heart._
Wash with care. Stuff as you do hare, and serve with rich gravy, and
currantjelly sauce.
Hash with the same, and port wine.
_Tripe._
Tripe may be served in a tureen. Stewed with milk and onion till tender.
Melted butter for sauce.
Or, fried in small bits dipped in butter: or stew the thin part, cut in
bits, in gravy, and thicken with flour and butter, and add a little
catsup: or fricasseed with white sauce.
_Bubble and Squeak._
Boil, chop, and fry, with a little butter, pepper, and salt, some
cabbage, and lay on it slices of raredone beef, lightly fried.
In both the following receipts, the roots must be taken off the tongue
before salted.
_Stewed Tongue._
Salt a tongue with saltpetre and common salt for a week, turning it
daily. Boil it tender enough to peel. When done, stew it in a moderately
strong gravy. Season with soy, mushroom catsup, Cayenne, pounded cloves,
and salt if necessary.
Serve with truffles, morels, and mushrooms.
_An excellent mode of doing Tongues to eat cold._
Season with common salt and saltpetre, brown sugar, a little bay salt,
pepper, cloves, mace, and pimento, in finest powder, for fourteen days:
then remove the pickle, put it in a small pan, and lay some butter on
it; cover with a brown crust, and bake slowly till so tender that a
straw would pierce it.
The thin part of tongues, if hung up to become dry, grate as hung beef;
and likewise make a fine addition to the flavour of omlets.
_Leg of Veal._
Let the fillet be cut large or small, as best suits the number of your
company. The bone being taken out, fill the space with a fine stuffing,
and let it be skewered quite round, and send the large side uppermost.
When half roasted, if not before, put a paper over the fat, and observe
to allow a sufficient time, and to put it a good distance from the fire,
the meat being very solid. You may pot some of it.
_Knuckle._
As few people are fond of boiled veal, it may be well to leave the
knuckle small, and to take off some cutlets or collops, before it be
dressed; but as the knuckle will keep longer than the fillet, it is best
not to cut off the slices till wanted. Break the bones to make it take
less room; and, washing it well, put it into a saucepan with three
onions, a blade of mace or two, and a few peppercorns; cover with water,
and simmer it till thoroughly ready. In the mean time some macaroni
should be boiled with it, if approved; or rice, or a little rice flour,
to give it a small degree of thickness; but do not put too much. Before
it be served, add half a pint of milk and cream, and let it come up with
or without the meat.
Or, fry the knuckle, with sliced onion and butter, to a good brown, and
have ready peas, lettuce, onion, a cucumber or two, stewed in a small
quantity of water an hour, then add to the veal, and stew till the meat
be tender enough to eat, not to be overdone. Throw in pepper, salt, and
a bit of shred mint, and serve altogether.
_Cutlets Maintenon._
Cut slices about three quarters of an inch thick; beat them with a
rolling pin, and wet them on both sides with egg: dip them into a
seasoning of bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, knotted marjorum, pepper,
salt, and a little nutmeg grated; then put them in papers folded over,
and broil them; and have ready in a boat, melted butter, with a little
mushroom catsup.
_Cutlets another way._
Prepare as above, and fry them. Lay them in a dish, and keep them hot.
Dredge a little flour, and put a bit of butter into the pan, brown it;
then pour a little boiling water into it, and boil quick. Season with
pepper, salt, and catsup, and pour over them.
_Another way._
Prepare as before, and dress the cutlets in a Dutch oven. Pour over them
melted butter and mushrooms. Or, pepper, salt, and broil, especially
neck steaks. They are excellent without herbs.
_Collops dressed quick._
Cut them as thin as paper, with a very sharp knife, and in small bits.
Throw the skin, and any odd bits of the veal into a little water, with a
dust of pepper and salt: set them on the fire while you beat the
collops, and dip them in a seasoning of herbs, bread, pepper, salt, and
a scrape of nutmeg, having first wetted them in egg; then put a bit of
butter into a frying pan, and give the collops a very quick fry; for as
they are so thin, two minutes will do them on both sides. Put them into
a hot dish before the fire, then strain and thicken the gravy. Give a
boil in the fryingpan, and pour over the collops. A little catsup is an
improvement.
_Another way._
Fry them in butter, only seasoned with salt and pepper: then simmer them
in gravy, white or brown, with bits of bacon served with them.
If white, add lemonpeel and mace, and some cream.
_Veal Collops._
Cut long thin collops: beat them well, and lay on them a bit of thin
bacon the same size; and spread forcemeat on that, seasoned high, with
the addition of a little garlick, and Cayenne. Roll them up tight, about
the size of two fingers, but not more than two or three inches long. Put
a very small skewer to fasten each firm. Rub egg over them, and fry of a
fine brown, and pour over them a rich brown gravy.
_Scollops of cold Veal or Chicken._
Mince the meat extremely small, and set it over the fire, with a scrape
of nutmeg, a little pepper and salt, and a little cream, for a few
minutes; then put it into the scallopshells, and fill them with crumbs
of bread; over which put some bits of butter, and brown them before the
fire.
Veal or chicken, as above prepared, served in a dish, and lightly
covered with crumbs of bread fried (or they may be put on in little
heaps), look and eat well.
_Scotch Collops._
Cut veal in thin bits, about three inches over, and rather round: beat
with a rolling pin: grate a little nutmeg over them: dip in the yelk of
an egg, and fry them in a little butter, of a fine brown: pour it from
them; and have ready warm, to pour upon them, half a pint of gravy, a
little bit of butter rubbed into a little flour, to which put a yelk of
an egg, two large spoonfuls of cream, and a bit of salt. Do not boil the
sauce, but stir it until of a fine thickness to serve with the collops.
_Kidney._
Chop veal kidney, and some of the fat, likewise a little leek or onion,
pepper, salt. Roll it up with an egg into balls, and fry them.
Cold fillet makes the finest potted veal; or you may do it as follows:
Season a large slice of the fillet before dressed, with some mace,
peppercorns, and two or three cloves, and lay it close into a potting
pan that will but just hold it, and fill it up with water, and bake it
three hours. Then pound it quite small in a mortar, and add salt to
taste. Put a little gravy, that was baked, to it in pounding, if to be
eaten soon; otherwise only a little butter just melted.
When done, cover it over with butter.
_To pot Veal or Chicken with Ham._
Pound some cold veal or white of chicken, seasoned as above, and put
layers of it with layers of pounded ham, or rather shred: press each
down, and cover over with butter.
_Neck of Veal._
Cut off the scrag to boil, and cover it with onion sauce. It should be
boiled in milk and water. Parsley and butter may be served with it,
instead of the former sauce; or it may be stewed with whole rice, small
onions, and peppercorns, with a very little water; or boiled and eaten
with bacon and greens.
Best end, roasted, broiled as steaks, or made into pies.
_Breast of Veal._
Before roasted, if large, the two ends may be taken off and fried to
stew, or the whole may be roasted. Butter should be poured over it.
If any be left, cut the pieces in handsome sizes, and putting them into
a stewpan, pour some broth over it; or if you have none, a little water
will do. Add a bunch of herbs, a blade or two of mace, some pepper, and
an anchovy. Stew till the meat is tender: thicken with butter and flour,
and add a little catsup; or the whole breast may be stewed, after
cutting off the two ends.
The sweetbread is to be served up whole in the middle; and if you have a
few mushrooms, truffles, and morels, stew them with it, and serve.
Boiled breast of veal, smothered with onion sauce, is an excellent dish,
if not old, or too fat.
_Rolled Breast of Veal._
Bone it, and take off the thick skin and gristle, and beat the meat with
a rolling pin. Season with herbs chopped very fine, mixed with salt,
pepper, and mace. Lay some thick slices of fine ham, or roll into it two
or three calves’ tongues of a fine red, and boiled first an hour or two
and skinned. Bind it up tight in a cloth, and tape it. Set it over the
fire to simmer in a small quantity of water until it be quite tender.
Some hours will be necessary.
Lay it on the dresser with a board and weight on it till quite cold.
Pigs’ or calves’ feet, boiled and taken from the bones, may be put in or
round it. The different colours, laid in layers, look well when cut; and
yelks of eggs boiled may be put in, with beet root, grated ham, and
chopped parsley.
_Shoulder of Veal._
Cut off the knuckle of the shoulder, for a stew or gravy. Roast the
other part, with stuffing. You may lard it. Serve with melted butter.
Blade bone, with a good devil of meat left on, eats extremely well with
mushroom or oyster sauce; or mushroom catsup in butter.
_Different ways of dressing Calf’s head._