New system of domestic cookery, formed upon principles of economy, and adapted to the use of private families

by Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell

ON DRESSING MEATS.

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.

To Boil.

Clean it very nicely, and soak it in water, that it may look very white. Take out the tongue to salt, and the brains to make a little dish. Boil the head extremely tender; then strew it over with crumbs and chopped parsley, and brown them; or, if preferred, leave one side plain.

Bacon and greens are to be served to eat with it.

The brains must be boiled, and then mixed with melted butter, chopped scalded sage, pepper, and salt.

If any be left of the head, it may be hashed next day, and a few slices of bacon just warmed and put round.

Cold calf’s head eats well.

Hashed Calf’s Head.

When half boiled, cut off the meat in slices, half an inch thick, and two or three inches long. Brown some butter, flour, and sliced onion, and throw in the slices with some good gravy, truffles, and morels. Give it one boil, skim it well, and set it in a moderate heat to simmer till very tender.

Season with pepper, salt, and Cayenne, at first; and ten minutes before serving, throw in some shred parsley, and a very small bit of tarragon, and knotted marjorum, cut as fine as possible. Just before you serve, add the squeeze of a lemon. Forcemeat balls and bits of bacon rolled round.

Mock Turtle.

Bespeak a calf’s head with the skin on: cut in half, and clean it well; then half boil it. Have all the meat taken off in square bits, and break the bones of the head: boil them in some veal and beef broth, to add to the richness. Fry some shalot in butter: dredge in flour sufficient to thicken the gravy, which stir into the browning, and give it one or two boils: skim carefully, then put in the head. Put in a pint of Madeira wine, and simmer till the meat be quite tender. About ten minutes before you serve, put in some basil, tarragon, chives, parsley, Cayenne pepper, and salt to your taste; and two spoonfuls of mushroom catsup, and one of soy. Squeeze the juice of a lemon into the tureen, and pour the soup upon it. Forcemeat balls, and small eggs.

A cheaper way.

Prepare half a calf’s head, without the skin, as above. When the meat is cut off, break the bones, and put into a saucepan, with some gravy made of beef and veal bones, and seasoned with fried onions, herbs, mace, and pepper. Have ready two or three ox palates, boiled so tender as to blanch, and cut in small pieces; to which a cowheel, likewise cut in pieces, is a great improvement. Brown some butter, flour, and onion, and pour the gravy to it; then add the meats as above, and stew. Half a pint of sherry wine, an anchovy, two spoonfuls of walnut catsup, the same of mushroom, some chopped herbs as before. Balls, &c.

Forcemeat as for Turtle, at the Bush, Bristol.

A pound of fine fresh suet, one ounce of ready dressed veal or chicken, chopped fine, crumbs of bread, a little shalot or onion, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, mace, pennyroyal, parsley, and lemon; thyme finely shred: beat as many fresh eggs, yelks and whites separately, as will make the above ingredients into a moist paste: roll into small balls, and boil them in fresh lard, putting them in just as it boils up. When of a light brown, take them out, and drain them before the fire. If the suet be moist or stale, a great many more eggs will be necessary.

Balls made this way are remarkably light; but being greasy, some people prefer them with less suet and eggs.

Another Forcemeat, for Balls or Patties.

Pound cold veal or chicken: take out the strings: add some fat bacon; and, if you like, the least portion of scraped ham: herbs, as for the preceding: pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, crumbs of bread, a little onion, and two eggs.

Note. When forcemeat is to be eaten cold, as in pies, bacon is far better than suet, and the taste is always higher.

Another Mock Turtle.

Put into a pan a knuckle of veal, two fine cowheels, two onions, a few cloves, peppers, Jamaica peppers, mace, and sweet herbs: cover with water, and then, tying a thick paper over the pan, set it in an oven for three hours. When cold, take off the fat very nicely: cut the meat and feet into bits an inch and half square: remove the bones and coarser parts; then put the other on to warm, with walnut and mushroom catsup, a large spoonful of each, half a pint of sherry or Madeira wine, a little mushroom powder, and the jelly of the meat. When hot, if it want any more seasoning, add it, and serve with hard eggs, forcemeat balls, a juice of lemon, and a spoonful of soy.

This is a very easy process, and the dish is excellent.

Another Ditto.

Stew a pound and a half of scrag of mutton, with three pints of water to a quart; then set the broth on, with a calf’s foot and a cowheel: cover the stewpan tight, and simmer till you can cut off the meat from the bones in proper bits. Set it on again, with the broth, a quarter of a pint of Madeira or sherry wine, a large onion, half a teaspoonful of Cayenne pepper, a bit of lemonpeel, two anchovies, some sweet herbs, and eighteen oysters cut in pieces, and then chopped fine, a teaspoonful of salt, a little nutmeg, and the liquor of the oysters: cover tight, and simmer three quarters of an hour. Serve with forcemeat balls, and hard eggs in the tureen.

Note. Cowheels, with veal or head, are a great improvement; and if not too much boiled, have a very fine flavour stewed for turtle; and are more solid than the calf’s feet.

Calf’s Head Pie.

Stew a knuckle of veal till fit for eating, with two onions, a few isinglass shavings, a bunch of herbs, 2 blade of mace, and a few peppercorns, in two quarts or less of water. Keep the broth for the pie. Take off a bit of the meat for the balls, and let the other be eaten; but simmer the bones in the broth till it is very good. Half boil the head, and cut it in square bits: put a layer of ham at the bottom, then some head, first fat then lean, with balls and hard eggs cut in half, and so on till the dish be full; but be particularly careful not to place the pieces close, or the pie will be too solid, and there will be no space for the jelly. The meat must be first pretty well seasoned with pepper and salt, and a scrape or two of nutmeg. Put a little water and a little gravy into the dish, and cover it with a tolerably thick crust: bake it in a slow oven; and when done, pour into it as much gravy as it can possibly hold, and do not cut it till perfectly cold: in doing which, observe to use a very sharp knife, and first cut out a large bit, going down to the bottom of the dish; and when done thus, the different colours, and the clear jelly, have a beautiful marbled appearance.

A small pie may be made to eat hot; which, with high seasoning, oysters, mushrooms, truffles, morels, &c. has a very good appearance.

The cold pie will keep some days. Slices make a pretty side dish.

The pickled tongues of former calves’ heads may be cut in, to vary the colour, instead of, or besides ham.

Calf’s Head Fricasseed.

Clean, and half boil half a head. Cut the meat in small bits, and put into a tosser, with a little gravy made of the bones, and some of the water it was boiled in, a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion, and a blade of mace. If you have a sweetbread, or young cockerels in the house, use the cockscombs; having first boiled them tender and blanched. Season the gravy with a little pepper, nutmeg, and salt: rub down some flour and butter, and give all a boil together; then remove the herbs and onion, and add a little cup of cream, but do not boil it in. Serve with small bits of bacon rolled round, and balls.

Veal Patties.

Mince some veal, that is not quite done, with a little parsley, lemonpeel, a scrape of nutmeg, and a little salt: add a little cream and gravy just to moisten the meat; and if you have any ham, scrape a little bit and add to it. Do not warm it till the patties are baked; and observe to put a bit of bread into each, to prevent the paste from rising into cake.

Fricandeau.

Cut a large piece out of the prime part of a leg of veal, about nine inches long, and half as broad and thick: beat it with a rolling pin; then lard it very thickly on one side and the edges. Put it in a small stewpan, with three pints of water, a pound of veal cut in small bits, and four or five ounces of lean ham, and an onion: simmer till the meat be tender; then take it out; cover to keep it moist, and boil the gravy till it be a fine brown, and much reduced: then put the larded meat back into the gravy, and pour a little of it over with a spoon. When quite hot, serve the meat and gravy round in the dish, with the following sauce in a boat.

Sorrel Sauce.

Wash a quantity of sorrel, and boil it tender in the smallest quantity of water you can: strain and chop it: stew it with a little butter, pepper, and salt; and if you like it high, add a spoonful of gravy.

Be careful to do it in a very well tinned saucepan; or if you have a silver one, or a silver mug, it is far better; as the sorrel is very sour, especially in spring.

Veal Olives.

Cut long thin collops: beat them, and lay on them thin slices of fat bacon, and over a layer of forcemeat seasoned high, with the addition of shred shalot, and Cayenne. Roll them tight, about the size of two fingers, but not more than two or three inches long: fasten them round with a small skewer: rub egg over, and fry them of a light brown.

Serve with brown gravy.

Calf’s Liver.

Sliced: seasoned with pepper and salt, and nicely broiled. Rub a bit of cold butter on it, and serve hot and hot.

Roasted.

Wash and wipe it: then cut a long hole in it, and stuff it with crumbs of bread, chopped anchovy, herbs, a good deal of fat bacon, onion, salt, pepper, a bit of butter, and an egg. Sew the liver up; then lard or wrap it in a veal caul, and roast it.

Serve with a good brown gravy, and currant jelly.

Sweetbreads.

Half boil, and stew in a white gravy. Add cream, flour, butter, nutmeg, salt, and white pepper: or, in brown, seasoned: or, after parboiling, cover with crumbs, herbs, and seasoning, and brown in a Dutch oven. Serve with butter, and mushroom catsup, or gravy.

Sweetbread Ragout.

Cut them about the size of a walnut: wash and dry them; then fry of a fine brown. Pour to them a good gravy, seasoned with salt, pepper, allspice, mushrooms, or the catsup. Strain, and thicken with butter, and a little flour. You may add truffles, and morels, and the mushrooms.

Veal Sausages.

Chop equal quantities of lean veal and fat bacon, a handful of sage, a little salt, pepper, and a few anchovies. Beat all in a mortar; and, when used, roll and fry it, and serve with fried sippets.

Spadbury’s veal and pork sausages, under the article of pork.

To make excellent meat of a Hog’s Head.

Split the head, take out the brains, cut off the ears, and sprinkle it with common salt for a day; then drain. Salt it well with common salt and saltpetre three days; then lay salt and head into water (a small quantity) for two days. Wash it, and boil it till all the bones will come out: remove them, and chop the head as quick as possible; having skinned the tongue, and taken the skin carefully off the head, to put under and over. Season with pepper, salt, a little mace or Jamaicas. Put the skin into a small pan: press the cut head in, and put the other skin over: press it down. When cold, it will turn out and make a kind of brawn. If too fat, you may put a few bits of lean pork to go through the same process. Add salt and vinegar, and boil with some of the liquor for a pickle to keep it.

To scald a Sucking Pig.

The moment the pig is killed, put it into cold water for a few minutes; then rub it over with a little rosin, beaten extremely small, and put it into a pail of scalding water half a minute; take it out, lay it on a table, and pull off the hair as quickly as possible. If any part does not come off, put it in again. When perfectly clean, wash it well with warm water, then in two or three cold waters, lest any flavour of the rosin should remain. Take off the four feet at the first joint: make a slit down the belly, and take out the entrails: put the liver, heart, and lights to the feet; wash the pig well in cold water, dry it thoroughly, and fold it in a wet cloth to keep it from the air.

To roast a sucking Pig.

If you can get it when just killed, it is of great advantage. Let it be scalded, which those who sell usually do. Then put some sage, crumbs of bread, salt, and pepper in the belly, and sew it up. Observe to skewer the legs back, or the under part will not crisp.

Lay it to a brisk fire till thoroughly dry; then have ready some butter, in a dry cloth, and rub the pig with it in every part. Dredge as much flour over as will possibly lie, and touch it no more till ready to serve; then scrape off the flour, with the greatest care, with a blunt knife: rub it well with the buttered cloth: take off the head while yet at the fire, and take out the brains, and mix them with the gravy that comes from the pig. Then take it up, and, without withdrawing the spit, cut it down the back and belly: lay it in the dish, and chop the sage and bread quickly, as fine as you can, and mix with a large quantity of fine melted butter, which has very little flour. Put the sauce into the dish after the pig has been split down the back, and garnished with the two ears, and the two jaws; the upper part of the head being taken off down to the snout.

In Devon, it is served whole if very small; the head only being cut off.

Pettitoes.

Boil them, and the liver and heart, in a small quantity of water very gently; then cut the meat fine, and simmer it with a little of the water and the feet split, till the latter be quite tender. Thicken with a bit of butter, a little flour, a spoonful of cream, a little salt, and pepper: give a boil up, and pour over a few sippets of bread, and put the feet on the mince.

Porker’s Head roasted.

Choose a fine young head, clean it well, and put bread and sage as for pig: sew it up tight, and put it on a string or hanging jack. Roast it as a pig, and serve with the same sauce.

Pig’s Cheek for boiling.

Cut off the snout, and clean the head: divide it, take out the eyes and the brains, and sprinkling the head with salt, let it drain twenty four hours. Salt it with common salt and saltpetre. Let it lie eight or ten days, if to be dressed without stewing with peas; but less, if to be dressed with peas; and it must be washed first, and then simmered till all is tender.

Collared Head.

Scour the head and ears nicely: take off the hair and snout, and take out the eyes and the brain: lay it in water one night; then drain and salt it extremely well with common salt and saltpetre, and let it lie five days. Boil it enough to remove the bones, then lay it on a dresser, turning the thick end of one side of the head towards the thin end of the other, to make the roll of equal size, sprinkle it well with salt and white pepper, and roll it with the ears; and if you approve, put the pig’s feet round the outside when boned; or the thin parts of two cowheels. Bind it in a cloth and with a broad tape, and boil it till quite tender; then put a good weight upon it, and do not remove the covering till cold.

If you choose it to be more like brawn, salt it longer, and let the proportion of saltpetre be greater, putting in some pieces of lean pork, and then cover it with cowheel, to look like the horn.

This may be kept in or out of pickle of salt, and water boiled, with vinegar; and is a very convenient thing to have in the house.

If likely to spoil, slice and fry it with or without butter.

To roast a Leg of Pork.

Choose a small leg of fine young pork, cut a slit in the knuckle with a sharp knife, and fill the space with sage and onion, chopped, and a little pepper and salt. When half done, score the skin in slices, but do not cut deeper than the outer rind.

Apple sauce and potatoes should be served to eat with it.

To boil a Leg of Pork

Salt it eight or ten days; when to be dressed, weigh it; let it lie half an hour in cold water to make it white; allow a quarter of an hour for every pound, and half an hour over from the time it boils up; skim it as soon as it boils, and frequently after. Allow water enough. Save some of it to make pease soup. Some boil in a very nice cloth, floured, which gives a very delicate look.

Serve pease pudding and turnips.

Different ways of dressing Pig’s Feet and Ears.

Clean them carefully, and soak them some hours: boil them tender, then take them out; and with some of the water boil some vinegar and a little salt, and when cold put over them. When to be dressed, dry them, divide the feet in two, and slice the ears; fry and serve them with butter, mustard, and vinegar. They may be done in butter or only floured.

Feet and Ears Fricasseed.

Put no vinegar in the pickle, if to be dressed with cream. Cut the feet and ears into neat bits, and boil them in a little milk; then pour that from them, and simmer in a little veal broth, with a bit of onion, mace and lemonpeel. Before you serve, add a little cream, flour, butter, and salt.

Jelly of Feet and Ears.

Clean and prepare as in the foregoing receipt; then boil in a very small quantity of water until every bone can be taken out; throw in half a handful of chopped sage, the same of parsley, a seasoning of pepper, salt, and mace, in fine powder; simmer till the herbs are scalded, then pour the whole into a melon form.

Pork Steaks.

Cut them from a loin or neck, of middling thickness: pepper and broil them, turning often. When nearly done, put the salt necessary, rub a bit of butter over, and serve the moment they are taken off the fire; a few at a time.

To cure Hams. First way.

Hang them a day or two; then sprinkle with a little salt, and drain them another day. Pound an ounce and a half of saltpetre, ditto petresalt, half an ounce of sal prunel, and a pound of the coarsest sugar: mix these well, and rub into each ham every day for four days, and turn it. If a small one, turn it every day for three weeks: if a large one, a week longer; but do not rub after four days. Before you dry it, drain and cover with bran. Smoke it ten days.

Another way. Second way.

Choose a leg of a hog that is fat and well fed: hang as above. To it, if large, put, in fine powder, one pound of bay salt, four ounces saltpetre, one pound of the coarsest sugar, and one handful of common salt, and rub it thoroughly. Lay the rind downwards, and cover the fleshy part with the salts. Baste it as often as you can with the pickle; the more the better. Keep it four weeks in the pickle, turning it daily. Drain and throw bran over it; then hang it in a chimney where wood is burnt, and turn it sometimes for ten days.

Another way. Third way.

Hang the ham and sprinkle with salt as above, then rub it daily with the following in fine powder: half a pound of salt, ditto bay salt, two ounces of saltpetre, and two ounces of black pepper, mixed with a pound and a half of treacle. Turn it twice a day in the pickle, for three weeks. Lay it in a pail of water for one night, wipe it quite dry, and smoke it two or three weeks.

Another way, that gives a high flavour. Fourth way.

When the weather will permit, hang the ham three days: mix an ounce of saltpetre with one quarter of a pound of bay salt, ditto common salt, ditto of coarsest sugar, and a quart of strong beer; boil them together, and pour over immediately on the ham; turn it twice a day in the pickle for three weeks. An ounce of black pepper, ditto of pimento, in finest powder, added to the above, will give still more flavour. Cover with bran when wiped, and smoke from three to four weeks, as you approve; the latter will make it harder, and more of the flavour of Wesphalia. Sew hams in hessings, i.e. coarse wrapper, if to be smoked where there is strong fire.

A method of giving a still higher flavour.

Sprinkle the ham with salt after it has hung two or three days: let drain; make a pickle of a quart of strong beer, half a pound of treacle, an ounce of coriander seeds, two ounces of juniper berries, an ounce of pepper, ditto pimento, an ounce of saltpetre, half an ounce of sal prunel, a handful of common salt, and a head of shalot, all pounded or cut fine. Boil these together a few minutes, and pour over the ham: this quantity for one of ten pounds. Rub and turn it every day, for a fortnight; then sew it up in a thin linen bag, and smoke it three weeks. Observe to drain it from the pickle, and rub it in bran previous to drying.

Hogs’ Cheeks to dry.

The snout being cut off, the brains removed, and the head cleft, but not cut apart on the upper side, rub it well with salt. Next day remove the brine, and salt it again; the following day cover the head with half an ounce of saltpetre, two ounces of bay salt, a little common, and four ounces of coarsest sugar. Let the head be often turned. In twelve days smoke for a week like bacon.

To dress Hams.

If long hung, put the ham into water a night, and either dig a hole in the earth, or let it lie on damp stones, sprinkled with water to mellow, two or three days, covering it with a heavy tub, to keep vermin from it. Wash it well, and put it into a boiler with plenty of water. Let it simmer four, five, or six hours, according to the size. When sufficiently done, if before the time of serving, cover it with a clean cloth doubled, and keep the dish hot over boiling water. Remove the skin, and strew raspings over the ham. Garnish with carrot. Preserve the skin as whole as possible, to keep over the ham when cold, which will prevent its drying.

The manner of curing Wiltshire Bacon.

Sprinkle each flitch with salt, and let the blood drain off for twenty four hours; then mix one pound and a half of coarse sugar, ditto of bay salt, not quite so much as half a pound of saltpetre, and a pound of common salt, and rub it well on the bacon, turning it every day for a month; then hang it to dry, and afterwards smoke it ten days. The above salts are for the whole hog.

To pickle Pork.

The quantities proportioned to the middlings of a pretty large hog; the hams and shoulders being cut off.

Mix and pound fine four ounces of saltpetre, one pound of coarse sugar, one ounce of sal prunel, and a little common salt. Having sprinkled the pork with salt, and drained it twenty four hours, rub it with the above, and then pack the pieces light in a small deep tub, filling up the spaces with common salt. Place large pebbles on the pork, to prevent its swimming in the pickle which the salt will produce.

Sausages.

Chop fat and lean of pork: season with sage, pepper, and salt; and you may add two or three pimentos. Half fill hog’s guts, that have been soaked and made extremely clean: or the meat may be kept in a very small pan, closely covered; and so rolled and dusted with a very little flour before they are fried.

An excellent Sausage to eat cold.

Season fat and lean pork with some salt, saltpetre, black and Jamaica pepper, all in finest powder, and well rubbed into the meat. The sixth day cut it small, and mix with it some shred shalot, or garlick, as fine as possible. Have ready an ox gut that has been scoured, salted, and soaked well, and fill it with the above stuffing: tie up the ends, and hang it to smoke as you would hams; but first wrap it in a fold or two of old muslin. It must be high dried. Some eat it without boiling, others like it boiled first. The skin should be tied in different places, making each link about eight or nine inches long.

Spadbury’s Oxford Sausages.

Chop a pound and a half of pork, and the same of veal, cleared of skins and sinews. Add three quarters of a pound of beef suet, mince and mix them. Steep the crumbs of a penny loaf in water, and with a little dried sage, pepper, and salt, mix with the meat.

Black Puddings.

The blood must be stirred with salt till cold. Put a quart of it, or rather more, to a quart of old grits, to soak one night; and soak the crumbs of a quartern loaf in rather more than two quarts of new milk, made hot. In the mean time prepare the guts, by washing and scraping with salt and water, and changing the water several times. Chop fine a little winter savory and thyme, a great deal of pennyroyal, pepper, salt, a few cloves, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg. Mix these with three pounds of beefsuet, and six eggs well beaten and strained, and then beat the bread, grits, &c. all up with the seasoning. When well mixed, have ready some hogs fat cut in large bits, and as you fill the skins put it in at proper distances. Tie them in links, having only half filled them, and boil them in a large kettle, pricking them as they swell, or they will burst. When boiled, lay them between clean cloths till cold, and hang them up in the kitchen. When to be used, scald them a few minutes in water, wipe and put them in a Dutch oven.

If there are not sufficient skins, put the stuffing in basons, and boil, covered with floured cloths; and slice and fry it when used.

Black Puddings another way.

Soak a quart of bruised grits in two quarts of hot milk, or less, if sufficient to swell them. Chop a good quantity of pennyroyal, some savory and thyme; salt, pepper, and Jamaica pepper, finely powdered. Mix the above with a quart of the blood, prepared as before: then half fill the skins, after they have been cleaned most thoroughly, and put as much of the leaf, i. e. fat of the pig, as shall make it pretty rich. Boil as before directed.

White Hogs’ Puddings.

When the skins have been soaked and cleaned as before directed, rinse and soak them all night in rosewater, and put into them the following filling; mix half a pound of blanched almonds, cut in seven or eight bits, with one pound of grated bread, two pounds of marrow or suet, one pound of currents, some beaten cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmeg, a quart of cream, yelks of six, and whites of two eggs, a little orange flour water, a little fine Lisbon sugar, some lemon peel, and citron sliced, and half fill the skins. Boil as before directed.

Hogs’ Lard.

Should be carefully melted in a jar, put into a kettle of water, and boiled and run into bladders that have been extremely well cleaned. The smaller they are, the better the lard keeps; as after the air reaches it, it becomes rank. Put in a sprig of rosemary when melted.

This being a most useful article for frying fish, it should be prepared with care. Mixed with butter it makes fine crust.

Pig’s Harslet.

Wash and dry some liver, sweetbreads, and fat and lean bits of pork; beating the latter with a rolling pin to make it tender. Season with pepper, salt, sage, and a little onion, shred fine. Put all when mixed into a cawl, and fasten it up tight with a needle and thread. Roast it on a hanging jack, or by a string. Or serve in slices with parsley for a fry.

Serve with a sauce of port and water, and mustard just boiled up, and put into the dish.

Loins and Necks of Pork, roast.

Shoulders and breasts put into pickle, or salt the former as a leg.

Rolled Neck.

Bone it. Put a forcemeat of chopped sage, a very few crumbs of bread, salt, pepper, and two or three pimentos over the inside: then roll the meat as tight as you can, and roast it slowly, and at a good distance at first.

To make a Pickle for Hams, Tongues, or Beef, if boiled and skimmed between each parcel of them, that will keep for years.

To two gallons of spring water put two pounds of coarse sugar, two pounds of bay, and two and a half pounds of common salt, and half a pound of saltpetre, in a deep earthen glazed pan, that will hold four gallons, and has a cover that will fit close. Keep the beef or hams as long as they will bear, before you put them into the pickle, and sprinkle them with coarse sugar in a pan, from which they must drain. Rub the hams, &c. well with the pickle, and pack them in close, putting as much as the pan will hold, so that the pickle may cover them. The pickle is not to be boiled at first. A small ham may lie fourteen days, a large one three weeks; a tongue twelve days; beef in proportion to its size. They will eat well out of the pickle without drying. When to be dried, let each piece be drained over the pan, and when it will drop no longer, take a clean sponge and dry it thoroughly. Six or eight hours will smoke them; and there should be only a little sawdust and wet straw burnt to smoke them; but if put into a baker’s chimney, sew them in coarse cloth, and hang them a week.

Excellent Bacon.

When the hog is divided, if a large one, the chine should be cut out. The bacon will be preserved from being rusty, if the spareribs are left in. Salt the bacon six days; then drain it from the first pickle. Mix as much salt as you judge proper with eight ounces of bay salt, four ounces of saltpetre, and one pound of coarse sugar, to each hog, the hams being first cut off. Rub the salts well in, and turn it every day for a month. Drain, and smoke a few days; or dry without, by hanging in the kitchen, not near the fire.

Mutton. The Haunch.

Keep as long as it can be preserved sweet, by the different modes of keeping. Let it be washed with warm milk and water, or vinegar, if necessary; but soak off the flavour from keeping. Put a coarse paste on strong paper, and fold the haunch in: set it at a great distance from the fire, and allow proportionable time for the paste, which do not remove till about thirty five or forty minutes before serving; then baste it perpetually. You will have brought the haunch nearer to the fire before you take off the paste, and must froth it up as you would venison.

A gravy must be made of a pound and a half of loin of old mutton, simmered in a pint of water to half, and no seasoning but salt. Brown it with a little burnt sugar, and send it up in the dish: but there should be much gravy in the meat; for though long at the fire, the distance and covering will prevent its being done dry.

Serve with currantjelly sauce.

Legs roasted, and onion or currantjelly sauce: or, boiled, with caper sauce and vegetables.

Necks are particularly useful, as so many dishes may be made of them; but they are not advantageous for the family. The bones should be cut short; which the butchers will not do unless particularly desired.

Note. When there is more fat to a neck or loin of mutton than is agreeable to eat with the lean, it makes an uncommonly good suet pudding, or crust for a meatpie, being cut very fine.

The best end of the neck boiled, and served with turnips: or roasted: or in steaks, in pies, or harrico.

The scrag stewed in broth, or with a small quantity of water, some small onions, a few peppercorns and a little rice, and served together.

Harrico.

Take off some of the fat, and cut the middle or best end of the neck into rather thin steaks. Put the fat into a fryingpan, and, flouring, fry them in it of a fine light brown, but not enough for eating. Put them in a dish while you fry the carrots, turnips, and onions; the former in dice, the latter sliced; but they must only be warmed, not browned, or you need not fry them. Then lay the steaks at the bottom of a stewpan, the vegetables over, and pour as much boiling water on them as will just cover: give one boil, skim well, and then set the pan on the side of the fire to simmer gently till tender: in three or four hours skim, and add pepper, salt, and one spoonful of catsup.

Mutton Pie.

Cut steaks from a loin or neck of mutton: beat them and remove some of the fat. Season with salt, pepper, and a little onion. Put a little water at the bottom of the dish, and a little paste on the edge; then cover with a moderately thick paste. Or raise small pies, and, breaking each bone in two to shorten it, season and cover it over, pinching the edge. When they come out, pour a spoonful of gravy, made of a bit of mutton, into each. The mutton should have hung.

Mutton and Potatoe Pie.

Season the steaks of a loin or neck; lay them in a dish: have ready potatoes mashed very thick, with some milk, and a bit of butter and salt, and cover the meat as with a very thick crust, and to come on the surrounding edge.

Mutton Pudding.

Season as above. Lay one layer of steaks at the bottom of the dish, and pour a batter of potatoes boiled and pressed through a colander, and mixed with milk and an egg, over them: then putting the rest of the steaks, and batter, bake it.

Batter with flour, instead of potatoes, eats well, but requires more egg, and is not so good.

Mutton Sausages.

Take a pound of the rawest part of a leg of mutton that has been either roasted or boiled: chop it extremely small: season with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg. Add six ounces of beef suet, some sweet herbs, two anchovies, and a pint of oysters, all chopped very small; a quarter of a pound of grated bread, some of the anchovy liquor, and all that came from the oysters; the yelks and whites of two eggs well beaten. Put it all, when well mixed, into a little pot, and use it by rolling it into balls or sausage shape, and fry them. If approved, a little shalot may be added; or garlick, which is a great improvement.

Mutton Steaks

Should be cut from a loin or neck that has hung. If the latter, the bones should not be long. They should be broiled on a clear fire, and seasoned when half done, and frequently turned; when, taking into a very hot dish, rub a bit of butter on each, and serve hot and hot the moment they are done.

They may be covered with forcemeat.

Mutton Collops.

Cut from that part of a well hung loin of mutton which is next the leg, some collops very thin. Take out the sinews. Season them with salt, pepper and mace, and strew over them shred parsley, thyme, and two or three shalots. Fry them in butter till half done. Add half a pint of gravy, a little juice of lemon, and a piece of butter rubbed in flour, and simmer the whole very gently five minutes. They should be served immediately, or they will be hard.

Lamb Steaks.

Fry a beautiful brown. Throw over them, when served, a good quantity of crumbs of bread fried, and crimped parsley: the receipt for doing which of a fine colour, is given under the article of vegetables.

Mutton and Lamb steaks, seasoned and broiled in buttered papers, either with crumbs and herbs, or without, are a genteel dish, and eat well.

Sauce for them, called sauce Robart, under the list of sauces.

Saddle or Loin of mutton, roasted: the former a fashionable dish.

Shoulder of mutton, roasted, and onion sauce. Bladebone broiled.

Shoulder of Mutton boiled with Oysters.

Hang it some days, then salt it well for two. Bone it, and sprinkle it with pepper, and a bit of mace pounded. Lay some oysters over it, and roll the meat up tight with a fillet. Stew it in a small quantity of water, with an onion, and a few peppercorns, till quite tender.

Have ready a little good gravy, and some oysters stewed in it: thicken with flour and butter, and pour over the mutton when the tape is removed. The stewpan should be kept close covered.

Breast of Mutton.

The superfluous fat being cut off, roast, and serve with stewed cucumbers: or, to eat cold, having covered it with chopped parsley: or half boiled, and then grilled before the fire, being covered with crumbs and herbs, and served with caper sauce: or boned, a good deal of the fat being taken off, and covered with bread, herbs, and seasoning; then rolled, and boiled, and served with chopped walnut, or capers and butter.

Rolled Loin of Mutton.

Hang the mutton, to be tender. Bone it, and lay a seasoning of pepper, pimento, mace, nutmeg, a few cloves, all in fine powder, over it. Next day prepare a stuffing as for a hare, beat the meat, and cover it with the stuffing, roll it tight, and fillet it. Half bake it in a slow oven: let it grow cold: remove the fat, and put the gravy into a stewpan: flour the meat, and put in likewise; stew till near ready, and add a glass of port wine, some catsup, an anchovy, and a little lemon pickle, half an hour before serving, which do in the gravy, and with jelly sauce. A few fresh mushrooms are a great improvement, but not if to eat like hare, nor add the lemon pickle.

Rumps, kidneys, livers, and hearts, well washed, seasoned, and broiled, and served with cold butter rubbed on them.

Steaks of Mutton, or Lamb and Cucumbers.

Quarter cucumbers, and lay them in a deep dish; sprinkle them with salt, and pour vinegar over. Fry chops of a fine brown, and put them in a stewpan: drain the cucumbers, and put over the steaks: put some sliced onions, pepper, and salt: pour hot water or weak broth on them: stew and skim well.

An excellent Hotch Potch.

Stew pease, lettuce, and onions, in a very little water, with a beef or ham bone. While doing, fry some mutton or lamb steaks, seasoned, of a nice brown. Three quarters of an hour before dinner put the steaks into a stewpan, and the vegetables over: stew them, and serve all together in a tureen.

Another Hotch Potch.

Knuckle of veal, and scrag of mutton, stewed with vegetables as above.

Mutton Ham.

Choose a fine grained leg of wether mutton, of twelve or fourteen pounds weight. Let it be cut ham shape, and hang two days: then put into a stewpan half a pound of bay salt, the same of common salt, two ounces of saltpetre, half a pound of coarsest sugar, all in powder: mix and make it quite hot; then rub it well into the ham, let it be turned in the liquor daily. At the end of four days put two ounces more of common salt: in twelve days take it out; dry, and hang it up in the wood smoke a week.

Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese way.

Cut the chops, and half fry them, with sliced shalot or onion, chopped parsley, and two bayleaves; seasoned with pepper and salt. Then lay a forcemeat on a piece of white paper, put the chop on it, cover with forcemeat, and twist the paper up, leaving a hole for the end of the bones to go through. Broil on a gentle fire. Serve with sauce Robart; or, as the seasoning makes the cutlets high, a little gravy.

Lamb.

Leg boiled in a cloth to look as white as possible: the loin fried in steaks and served round, garnished with dried or fried parsley. Spinach to eat with it. Or dressed separately, or roasted.

Lamb’s Head and Hinge.

That of a house lamb is best, but either, if soaked in cold water, will be white. Boil the head separately till very tender, and have ready the liver and lights cut small. After being three parts boiled, stew them in a little of the water in which they were boiled. Season, and thicken with flour and butter, and serve the mince round the head.

Fore Quarter of Lamb.

Roasted whole, or separately. If left to be cold, chopped parsley should be sprinkled over it.

Lamb’s Fry.

Serve it fried a beautiful colour, and a good deal of dried or fried parsley over it.

Turkey to Boil.

Make a stuffing of bread, herbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemonpeel, a few oysters or an anchovy, a bit of butter, some suet, and an egg. Put this in the crop, and fasten up the skin, and boil the turkey in a floured cloth, to make it very white. Have ready a fine oyster sauce, made rich with butter, a little cream, a spoonful of soy, if approved, and pour over the bird. Or, liver and lemon sauce.

Hen birds are best for boiling, and should be young.

Turkey to Roast.

The sinews of the legs should be drawn, whichever way it be dressed. The head should be twisted under the wing; and in drawing, care should be taken not to tear the liver, or 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 bird, observe that the heat of the fire be constantly to that part; for the breast is frequently not enough done. A little strip of paper should be put on the bone to prevent scorching, while the other parts roast. Baste well, and froth it up. Gravy in the dish, and plenty of bread sauce in a sauce tureen.

Pulled Turkey.

Divide the meat of the breast by pulling instead of cutting; then warm it in a spoonful or two of white gravy, a little cream, grated nutmeg, salt, and a little flour and butter: warm, but do not boil it. The leg seasoned, scored, and broiled, put in the dish, with the above round it. Cold chicken does as well.

Turkey Patties.

Mince some of the white parts, and with grated lemon, nutmeg, salt, a very little white pepper, cream, and a very little bit of butter warmed. Fill the patties; they having been first baked with a bit of bread in each, to keep them hollow.

Pheasants and Partridges.

Roast as turkey, and serve with a fine gravy: in which put the smallest bit of garlick, and bread sauce. When cold, they may be made into excellent patties, but their flavour should not be overpowered by lemon.

Potted Partridge.

When nicely cleaned, season with the following, in finest powder: mace, Jamaica pepper, white pepper, and salt. Rub every part well; then lay the breasts downwards in a pan, and pack the birds as close as you possibly can. Put a good deal of butter on them; then cover the pan with a coarse flour paste, and a paper over: tie close and bake. When cold, put into pots, and cover with butter.

A very economical way of Potting Birds.

Prepare as before. When baked, and become cold, cut them in proper pieces for helping, and pack them close into a large potting pot, and leave, if possible, no spaces to receive the butter; with which, cover them, and one third part less will be requisite than when done whole.

To clarify Butter for potted things.

Put it in a sauce boat, and set that in a stewpan that has a little water in, over the fire. When melted, observe not to pour the milky parts over the potted things, they will sink to the bottom.

Fowls.

Boiled, with oyster, lemon, parsley, and butter, or liver sauces; or with bacon and greens.

Ditto roasted.

Egg sauce, bread sauce, or garnished with sausages, scalded, and parsley.

A large barndoor fowl well hung, stuffed in the crop with sausage meat, and gravy in the dish, and with bread sauce.

The head should be turned under the wing.

Fowl split down the back, peppered, salted, and broiled. Serve it with mushroom sauce.

To boil Fowl with Rice.

Stew the fowl very slowly, in some clear mutton broth, well skimmed, and seasoned with onion, mace, pepper, and salt. About half an hour before it be ready, put in a quarter of a pint of rice, well washed and soaked. Simmer till tender; then strain from the broth, and put the rice on a sieve before the fire. Keep the fowl hot; lay it in the middle of the dish, and the rice round it, without the broth; which will be very nice to eat as such; but the less liquor it is done with the better.

Fricassee of Chickens.

Boil them rather more than half in a small quantity of water: let them cool; then cut them up, and put them to simmer in a little gravy, made of the liquor they were boiled in, and a bit of veal or mutton, onion, mace, lemonpeel, white pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs. When quite tender, keep them hot while you thicken the sauce thus: strain off, and put it back into the saucepan, with a little salt, a scrape of nutmeg, a bit of flour and butter: give it one boil; and when you are going to serve, beat up the yelk of an egg, add half a pint of cream, and stir them over the fire, but do not let it boil.

It will be equally good without the egg.

Another white Sauce, more easily made.

Take a little of the water that boiled the fowls, (which must be kept hot) and stew with it some cut onion, a bit of parsley, a blade of mace, and a bit of lemonpeel. Mix with this a bit of butter, flour, and little thick cream, and adding the chicken, warm it with the sauce.

The above for veal or rabbit; but if either are not sufficiently done before, then the cream and flour should be added just before serving, after the meat is a little stewed.

Davenport Fowls.

Hang young fowls a night: take the livers, hearts, and tenderest parts of the gizzards, shred very small, with half a handful of young clary, an anchovy to each fowl, one onion, and the yelks of four eggs, boiled hard, with pepper, salt, and mace to your taste. Stuff the fowls with this, and sew up the vents and necks quite close, that the water may not get in. Boil them in salt and water till near done; then drain, and put them into a stewpan, with butter enough to brown them. Then serve with fine melted butter, and a spoonful of catsup, of either sort, in the dish.

To pull Chicken.

Take off the skin, and pull the flesh off the bones of a cold fowl, in as large pieces as you can. Dredge with flour, and fry of a nice brown in butter; which drain from it, and simmer in a good gravy, well seasoned, and thickened with a little flour and butter. Add the juice of half a lemon.

Chicken Pie.

Cut up two young fowls: season with white pepper, salt, a little mace, and nutmeg, all in the finest powder; likewise a little Cayenne. Put the chicken, slices of ham or gammon, forcemeat, and hard eggs, alternately. If to be in a dish, put a little water; if in a raised crust, none. Against the pie be baked, have ready a gravy of knuckle of veal, with a few shank bones, seasoned with herbs, onion, mace, and pepper. If in a dish, put in as much gravy as will fill it: if in crust, let it go cold; then open the lid, and put in the jelly.

The Forcemeat for Pies of Fowls of any kind.

Pound fine, cold chicken, or veal, a bit of fat bacon, some grated ham, crumbs of bread, a very little bit of onion, parsley, knotted marjorum, and a very small bit of tarragon, chopped fine; a blade of mace, a little nutmeg, white pepper, and salt, in finest powder. When well mixed, add eggs to make into balls.

Chicken Curry.

Cut up the chickens before they are dressed, and fry them in butter, with sliced onions, till of a fine colour: or if you use those that have been dressed, do not fry them: lay the joints, cut in two or three pieces each, into a stewpan, with veal or mutton gravy, a clove or two of garlick, four large spoonfuls of cream, and some Cayenne: rub smooth one or two spoonfuls of curry powder, with a little flour, and a bit of butter, and add twenty minutes before you serve; stewing it on till ready. A little juice of lemon should be squeezed in when serving.

Slices of rare done veal, rabbit, or turkey, make a good curry.

A dish of rice boiled plain, as hereafter directed, must be always served to eat with curry.

Another Curry, and more quickly made.

Cut up a chicken or young rabbit; if the former, take off the skin, and rub each piece in a large spoonful of flour, mixed with half an ounce of curry powder: slice two or three onions, and fry in butter, of a fine light brown; then add the meat, and fry altogether, until the latter begin to brown; then put into a stewpan, and pour boiling water over to cover. Let it simmer very gently two or three hours until quite tender. If too thick, put more water half an hour before it be served.

Dressed fowl or meat may be done; but the curry will be better made of fresh.

Grouse.

Are to be roasted like fowls; but their heads twisted under the wing, and served with gravy, and bread sauce, or with sauce for wild fowl. See Sauces.

To pot Grouse, or Moor Game.

Pick, singe, and wash them very clean; then rub them inside and out with a high seasoning of salt, pepper, mace, nutmeg, and allspice. Lay them in as small a pot as will hold them: cover them with butter, and bake them in a slow oven. When cold, take off the butter, move the birds from the gravy, dry, and put them into pots that will just fit one or two; the former, where there are not many. Melt the former butter with some more, so as to completely cover the birds: but take care not to oil it. Do not let it be too hot.

To roast Widgeon, Duck, Teal, or Moorhen.

The flavour is best preserved without stuffing; but put some pepper, salt, and a bit of butter in the birds. Wild fowl require to be much less done than tame, and to be served of a fine colour.

The basting ordered in the foregoing receipt takes off a fishy taste which wild fowl sometimes have. Send up a very good gravy in the dish; and on cutting the breast, half a lemon squeezed over, with pepper on it, improves the taste.

Or stuff them with crumbs, a little shred onion, sage, pepper, and salt, but not a large quantity, and add a bit of butter. Slice an onion, and put into the dripping pan, with a little salt, and baste the fowls with it till three parts done; then remove that, and baste with butter. They should come up finely frothed, and not be overdone.

An excellent sauce under that article.

Duck to boil.

Choose a fine fat duck, salt it two days, then boil it slowly, and cover it with onion sauce made very white, and the butter melted with milk instead of water.

To roast duck: stuff or not, and serve with gravy.

Duck Pie.

Bone a full grown young duck, and a fine young fowl of a good size. Season them both well with mace, pepper, salt and allspice. Put the fowl within the duck, and a calf’s tongue that has been pickled red, and boiled, within the fowl. Make the whole to lie close. The skin of the legs and wings should be drawn inwards, that the body may lie smooth, Put the birds into a raised pie, or small piedish, and cover it with a thickish paste. Bake in a slow oven to eat cold.

The old Staffordshire raised pies were made as above, but a turkey was put over the duck, and a goose over that, forming a very large pie.

Goose to Roast.

After being carefully picked, the plugs of the feathers pulled out, and the hairs singed, let it be well washed, dried, and seasoned with onion, sage, pepper, and salt; fasten it tight at the neck and vent, and roast it.

When half done, let a narrow strip of paper be skewered on the breastbone. Baste it well, and observe to take it up the moment it is done, nicely frothed. When the breast rises, take off the paper, and observe to serve it before it fall, or it will be spoiled, and come to table flattened. Before it is cut up, cut the apron off, and pour in a wineglass of port wine and a teaspoonful of mustard. Cut the breast from one pinion to the other, if for a large party, without leaving meat to the wingbone.

Gravy, and apple sauce.

Green Goose Pie.

Bone two green geese, having first removed every plug, and singed them nicely. Wash them clean; season high with salt, mace, pepper, and pimento: put one within the other, and press them close into your piedish; put a good deal of butter over them, and bake with or without a crust: if the latter, a cover that will keep the steam in, must supply the place of a crust. It will keep long.

Giblet Pie.

Stew duck or goose giblets, when nicely cleaned, with onion, black pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs, till tender. Let them become cold; then put them in the dish with two or three steaks of veal, beef, or mutton, especially if there are not giblets enough to make the sized pie that you wish. A little cup of cream, put in when baked, is a great improvement. Put the liquor in first.

Stewed Giblets.

As above, and add a little butter and flour. Serve with sippets, and cream just scalded in the sauce.

Stewed Pigeons.

Let them be fresh, and carefully cropped, drawn, and washed, then let them soak half an hour: in the mean time cut a hard white cabbage into water in slices as for pickling; drain it, and boil it in milk and water; drain it again, then lay some of it at the bottom of a stewpan; put the birds on it, being well seasoned, and cover them with the remainder; put a little broth into them, and stew till quite tender, before you serve. Add some cream, and a little flour and butter; give it one boil, and serve the cabbage round the pigeons.

Another way.

Stew in a good gravy, stuffed or not, and season well. Add a little mushroom catsup, or fresh mushrooms.

To pickle Pigeons.

Bone the pigeons, turn the inside out, and lard it: season with Jamaica pepper pounded very fine, and a little salt: turn the inside outward again, and tie the neck and rump with thread: put them in boiling water, let them boil a minute or two to plump; take them out, and dry with a cloth. The pickle must be made of an equal quantity of wine, and white wine vinegar; white pepper, Jamaica pepper, sliced nutmeg, ginger, and two or three bayleaves boiled. When it boils, put the pigeons into it, and let them boil fifteen minutes, if small; twenty, if large. Then take them out, wipe, and let them cool. When the pickle is cold, take off the fat, and put them in.

They must be kept in a stonejar, tied down with a bladder to exclude the air. You may in some, instead of larding, put a stuffing of hard yelks of eggs, and marrow, in equal quantities, spices, and sweet herbs.

Pigeons in Jelly.

Save some of the liquor in which a knuckle of veal has been boiled, as likewise a calf’s foot, or else simmer some isinglass in it, a blade of mace, an onion, a bunch of herbs, some lemonpeel, white pepper, and salt. When the pigeons are nicely cleaned and soaked, put them in a pan, and pour the liquor over them; and let them be baked, and remain in it till cold. When served, put jelly over and round them. Season them as you approve.

Potted Pigeons.

Take fresh ones: clean them carefully: season with pepper and salt: put them close in a small pan, and pour butter over: bake, and when cold take them out. Put into fresh pots, fit to serve to table, two or three in each, and pour butter over, using that which was baked with them as part. Observe, that it is necessary to put a good deal of butter if to be kept.

Note. Butter that has covered potted things is good for basting, and will make very good paste for meatpies. If to be high, add some mace, and a few Jamaica peppers to the seasoning.

Pigeon Pie.

Clean as before: season; and, if approved, put some parsley into the birds, and a bit of butter, with pepper and salt. Lay a beefsteak at the bottom of the dish, and hard eggs between each two birds, and a little water. If you have ham in the house, lay a slice on each: it is a great improvement to the flavour.

Observe, when you cut ham for sauce or pies, to turn it, and take from the underside instead of the prime.

Broiled Pigeons.

Slit them down the back: season, and broil. Serve with mushroom sauce; or melted butter, with a little mushroom catsup.

Roast Pigeons.

Should be stuffed with uncut parsley, seasoned; and served with parsley and butter. Asparagus, or peas, should be dressed to eat with them.

Parsley Pie.

Lay veal or fowl at the bottom of a pie dish, seasoned. Take a colander full of picked parsley, cover the meat with it, and pour some cream into the dish, and a spoonful or two of broth. Cover with crust.

Potatoe Pasty.

Boil, peel, and mash potatoes as fine as possible; then mix pepper, salt, and a little thick cream, or, if you prefer it, butter. Make a paste, and, rolling it out like a large puff, put the potatoe into it, and bake it.

Turnip Pie.

Season mutton chops with pepper and salt: lay them in the bottom of a dish, reserving the ends of the bones to lay over the turnips; which cut and season, and lay over the steaks till the dish be full. Put two or three spoonfuls of water in, and cover with crust. You may add a little onion.

Shrimp Pie. Excellent.

Take a quart of picked shrimps: if very salt, only season with mace, and a clove or two in fine powder; but if not salt, mince two or three anchovies, mix with the spice, and season them. Put some butter at the bottom of the dish, and over the shrimps, and a glass of sharp white wine. Put a good light paste over. They do not require long baking.

Cornish Pies.

Scald and blanch some broad beans: cut mushrooms, carrots, turnips, and artichoke bottoms, and with some peas, and a little onion, make the whole into a nice stew, with some good veal gravy. Bake a crust over a dish, with a little lining round the edge, and a cup within to keep it from sinking: open the lid, and put in the fricassee made hot; seasoning to your taste. Shalots, parsley, lettuce, celery, or any sort of vegetables that you like, may be added.

Fish Pie.

Put slices of cod that have been salted a night; pepper, and between each layer put a good quantity of parsley picked from the stalks, and some fresh butter. Pour a little broth, if you have any, or else a little water. Bake the pie; and when to be served, add a quarter of a pint of raw cream warm, with half a teaspoonful of flour. Oysters may be added.

Mackerel will do well; but do not salt it till used.

Soals, with oysters, seasoned with pounded mace, nutmeg, pepper, an anchovy, and some salt, make an excellent pie. Put in the oyster liquor, two or three spoonfuls of broth, and some butter, for gravy. When come from the oven, pour in a cup of thick cream.

To prepare Meat or Fowls for raised Pies.

When washed, put a good seasoning of spices and salt. Set it over a fire in a stewpan, that will just hold the meat: put a piece of butter, and, covering close, let it simmer in its own steam till it shrink. It must be cool before it be put into the pie. Chicken’s sweetbreads, giblets, pigeon’s meat, almost any thing will make a good pie, if well seasoned, and made tender by stewing. A forcemeat may be put under and over, of cold chicken or veal, fat bacon, shred ham, herbs, bread, and seasoning, bound with an egg or two, or in balls. Or instead of crust, use an earthen pie form.

Hares,

If old, should be larded with bacon, after having hung as long as they will keep, and being first soaked in pepper and vinegar.

If not paunched as soon as killed, hares are more juicy: but as that is usually done in the field, the cook must be careful to wipe it dry every day; the liver being removed, and boiled to keep for the stuffing.

Parsley put into the belly will help keep it fresh.

When to be dressed, the hare must be well soaked; and if the neck and shoulders are bloody, in warm water: then dry it, and put to it a large fine stuffing, made of the liver, an anchovy, some fat bacon, a little suet, herbs, spice, and bread crumbs, with an egg to bind it. Sew it up. Observe that the ears are nicely cleaned and singed. When half roasted, cut the skin off the neck to let out the blood, which afterwards fixes there. Baste with milk till three parts done, then with butter: and before served, froth it up with flour. It should be put down early, kept at a great distance at first from the fire, and drawn nearer by degrees.

Send a rich brown gravy in the dish; melted butter in one boat, and currantjelly in another.

To jug an old Hare.

After it is well cleaned and skinned, cut it up and season it with pepper, allspice, salt, pounded, mace, and a little nutmeg: put it into a jar, with an onion, a clove or two, a bunch of sweet herbs, and over all a bit of coarse beef. Tie it down with a bladder and leather quite close, and put the jar into a saucepan of water up to its neck, but no higher. Let the water boil gently five hours. When to be served, pour the gravy into a saucepan, and thicken it with butter and flour; or if become cold, warm the hare with the gravy.

Hare Soup. See Soups.

Hare Pie.

Season the hare after it is cut up. Put eggs, and forcemeat, and either bake in a raised crust or a dish: if in the former, put cold jelly gravy to it; if for the latter, the same hot; but the pie is to be eaten cold. See Jelly Gravy among similar articles.

Potted Hare.

Having seasoned, and baked it with butter over, cover it with brown paper, and let it grow cold. Then take the meat from the bones, beat it in a mortar, and add salt, mace, and pepper, if not high enough; a bit of fresh butter melted, and a spoonful of the gravy that came from the hare when baked. Put the meat into small pots, and cover it well with butter warmed. The prime should be baked at the bottom of the pot.

Broiled Hare and hashed.

The flavour of broiled hare is particularly fine. The legs or wings peppered and salted first, and when done, rubbed with cold butter.

The other parts warmed with the gravy and a little stuffing.

Rabbits

May be eaten various ways.

Roasted with stuffing and gravy.

Ditto without stuffing; and with liver, parsley, and butter: seasoned with pepper and salt.

Boiled, and smothered with onion sauce; the butter being melted with milk instead of water.

Fried, and served with dried or fried parsley, and liver sauce as above.

Fricasseed, as directed for chickens.

Made into Pies, as chickens, with forcemeat, &c. are excellent, when young.

To make Rabbit taste much like Hare.

Choose a young full grown one: hang it, with the skin on, two or three days: skin, and lay it unwashed in a seasoning of black and Jamaica peppers, in fine powder, putting some port wine into the dish, and baste it occasionally for forty hours: then stuff and roast it as hare, and with the same sauce. Do not wash off the liquor that it lay in.

Potted Rabbit.

Cut up and season three or four after washing them. The seasoning must be mace, pepper, salt, a little Cayenne, and a few pimentos in finest powder. Pack them as close as possible in a small pan, and make the surface smooth. Keep out the carcasses, having taken all the meat off them, and, putting a good deal of butter over the rabbits, bake them gently. Let them remain a day or two, then remove into potting pans; and add some fresh butter to that which already covers them.