Part 107 (1/2)

[SECOND TRIALS OFTEN SUCCEED.]

1163. Palatable Stew.

Cut pieces of salt beef and pork into dice, put them into a stewpan with six whole peppercorns, two blades of mace, a few cloves, a teaspoonful of celery-seeds, and a f.a.ggot of dried sweet herbs; cover with water, and stew gently for an hour, then add fragments of carrots, turnips, parsley, or any other vegetables at hand, with two sliced onions, and some vinegar to flavour; thicken with flour or rice, remove the herbs, and pour into the dish with toasted bread, or freshly baked biscuit, broken small, and serve hot. When they can be procured, a few potatoes improve it very much.

1164. Ragout of Cold Veal.

Either a neck, loin, or fillet of veal will furnish this excellent ragout with a very little expense or trouble. Cut the veal into handsome cutlets; put a piece of b.u.t.ter, or clean dripping, into a frying pan; as soon as it is hot, flour and fry the veal to a light brown; take it out, and if you have no gravy ready, put a pint of boiling water into the frying-pan, give it a boil-up for a minute, and strain it in a basin while you make some thickening in the following manner:

Put an ounce of b.u.t.ter into a stewpan; as soon as it melts, mix as much flour as will dry it up; stir it over the fire for a few minutes, and gradually add the gravy you made in the frying-pan: let them simmer together for ten minutes; season with pepper, salt, a little mace, and a winegla.s.sful of mushroom ketchup or wine; strain it through a tammy, or fine sieve, over the meat, and stew very gently till the meat is thoroughly warmed, If you have any ready-boiled bacon, cut it in slices, and put it to warm with the meat.

1165. Economical Dish.

Cut some rather fat ham or bacon into slices, and fry to a nice brown; lay them aside to keep warm; then mix equal quant.i.ties of potatoes and cabbage, bruised well together, and fry them in the fat left from the ham. Place the mixture at the bottom, and lay the slices of bacon on the top. Cauliflower, or broccoli, subst.i.tuted for cabbage, is truly delicious; and, to any one possessing a garden, quite easily procured, as those newly blown will do. The dish must be well seasoned with pepper.

1166. Mock Goose

(being a leg of pork skinned, roasted, and stuffed goose fas.h.i.+on).--Parboil the leg; take off the skin, and then put it down to roast; baste it with b.u.t.ter, and make a _savoury powder_ of finely minced or dried or powdered sage, ground black pepper, salt, and some bread-crumbs, rubbed together through a cullender: add to this a little very finely minced onion; sprinkle it with this when it is almost roasted; put half a pint of made gravy into the dish, and goose stuffing under the knuckle skin; or garnish the dish with b.a.l.l.s of it fried or boiled.

1167. Roast Goose.

When a goose is well picked, singed, and cleaned, make the stuffing, with about two ounces of onion--if you think the flavour of raw onions too strong, cut them in slices, and lay them in cold water for a couple of hours, add as much apple or potato as you have of onion, and half as much green sage, chop them very fine, adding four ounces, _i.e._, about a large breakfast cupful, of stale breadcrumbs, a bit of b.u.t.ter about as big as a walnut, and a very little pepper and salt, the yolk of an egg or two, and incorporating the whole well together, stuff the goose; do not quite fill it, but leave a little room for the stuffing to swell. Spit it, tie it on the spit at both ends, to prevent it swinging round, and to prevent the stuffing from coming out. From an hour and a half to an hour and three-quarters will roast a fine full-grown goose. Send up gravy and apple sauce with it.

[SECOND THOUGHTS ARE OFTEN BEST.]

1168. Jugged Hare.

Wash it very nicely, cut it up in pieces proper to help at table, and put them into a jugging-pot, or into a stone jar, just sufficiently large to hold it well; put in some sweet herbs, a roll or two of rind of a lemon, and a fine large onion with five cloves stuck in it; and, if you wish to preserve the flavour of the hare, a quarter of a pint of water; but, if you wish to make a ragout, a quarter of a pint of claret or port wine, and the juice of a lemon. Tie the jar down closely with a bladder, so that no steam can escape; put a little hay in the bottom of the saucepan, in which place the jar; let the water boil for about three hours, according to the age and size of the hare, keeping it boiling all the time, and till up the pot as it boils away.

Care, however, must be taken that it is not overdone, which is the general fault in all made dishes. When quite tender, strain off the gravy from the fat, thicken it with flour, and give it a boil up; lay the pieces of hare in a hash dish, and pour the gravy over it. You may make a pudding the same as for roast hare, and boil it in a cloth, and when you dish up your hare, cut it in slices, or make forcemeat b.a.l.l.s of it for garnish. For sauce, red currant jelly.

1169. Stewed Hare.

A much easier and quicker way is the following:--Prepare the hare as for jugging; put it into a stewpan with a few sweet herbs, half a dozen cloves, the same of allspice and black pepper, two large onions, and a roll of lemon peel; cover it with water: when it boils, skim it clean, and let it simmer gently till tender (about two hours); then take the meat up with a slice, set it by a fire to keep hot while you thicken the gravy; take three ounces of b.u.t.ter and some flour, rub together, put in the gravy, stir it well, and let it boil about ten minutes; strain it through a sieve over the meat, and it is ready.

1170. Curried Beef, Madras Way.

Take about two ounces of b.u.t.ter, and place it in a saucepan, with two small onions cut up into slices, and let them fry until they are a light brown; then add a tablespoonful and a half of curry powder, and mix it up well. Now put in the beef, cut into pieces about an inch square; pour in from a quarter to a third of a pint of milk, and let it simmer for thirty minutes; then take it off, and place it in a dish, with a little lemon juice. Whilst cooking stir constantly, to prevent it burning. Send to table with a wall of mashed potatoes or boiled rice round it. It greatly improves any curry to add with the milk a quarter of a cocoa-nut, sc.r.a.ped very small, and squeezed through muslin with a little water; this softens the taste of the curry, and, indeed, no curry should be made without it.

1171. Ragout of Duck, or any kind of Poultry or Game.