Take beef that is fresh smoked and tender—shave it off thin, put it in a stew pan, with water enough to cover it—let it stew ten or fifteen minutes. Three or four minutes before it is taken up, mix a little flour and water together, and stir in, to thicken the water; add a little butter and pepper. This makes a good dish for breakfast—eggs are a nice accompaniment to it.
Boiled or roasted veal makes a nice dish, chopped fine, and warmed up, with just sufficient water to moisten it, and a little butter, salt, and pepper, added. A little nutmeg, and the grated rind of a lemon, improve it—none of the white part of the lemon should be used. When well heated through, take it up on a platter, and garnish it with a couple of lemons cut in slices. Fresh or corned beef is good minced fine, with boiled potatoes, and warmed up with salt, pepper, and a little water—add butter, just before you take it up. Some people use the gravy that they have left the day before, for the meat, but it is not as good when warmed over, and there is no need of its being wasted, as it can be clarified, and used for other purposes. Boiled onions, or turnips, are good mixed with mince meat, instead of potatoes. Veal, lamb, and mutton, are good cut into small strips, and warmed with boiled potatoes cut in slices, pepper, salt, a little water—add butter just before you take it up. Roast beef and mutton, if not previously cooked too much, are nice cut in slices, and just scorched on a gridiron. Meat, when warmed over, should be on the fire just long enough to get well heated through—if on the fire long, most of the juices of the meat will be extracted, and render it very indigestible. Cold fowls are nice jointed, and warmed with a little water, then taken up, and fried in butter till brown. A little flour should be sprinkled on them before frying. Thicken the water that the fowls were warmed in—add a little salt, pepper, and butter, and turn it over the fowls.
Cut boiled or roasted veal in nice slices—flour and fry them in butter, till a light brown—then take them up, and turn a little hot water into the butter they were fried in, mix a little flour and water together, and stir it into the gravy—season it with salt, pepper, (nutmeg, or catsup,) and lemon juice—put in the meat, and stew it till very hot—stew two or three onions with it, if you like.
Mix two or three tea spoonsful of flour with a little cold water—stir it till free from lumps, thin it, and stir it into half a pint of boiling water—let it boil two or three minutes, then cut up about a quarter of a pound of butter into small pieces, and put it with the flour and water—set it where it will melt gradually. If carefully mixed, it will be free from lumps—if not, strain it before it is put on the table. If the butter is to be eaten on fish, cut up several soft boiled eggs into it. A little curry powder sprinkled into it, will convert it into curry sauce.
Put a couple of ounces of butter into a frying pan—set it on the fire—when of a dark brown color, put in half a tea cup full of vinegar, a little pepper and salt. This is nice for fish, salad, or eggs.