Beef au Gratin.—Put a layer of bread crumbs in a small dish, then a layer of fat pork cut thin as a wafer, then a layer of beef, on which strew a very little chopped onion and parsley, pepper and salt; then another layer of the shaved pork, more beef, and cover the top with bread crumbs; over all pour gravy enough to moisten it well, and bake slowly one hour.
Custard Pie.—Line the dish with light paste (Molly used what was left after making the lemon pie,—puff paste will keep a week in the ice-box), beat one egg, mix with a small cup of milk and one table-spoonful of sugar, pour it into the pie, grate nutmeg over, and bake in an oven that is very hot on the bottom.
Clear Soup.—Three pounds of soup-meat, or a soup-bone weighing that; gash the meat well and put to it three quarts of cold water and three tea-spoonfuls of salt, half one of pepper, one small carrot, one turnip, one large onion—each must weigh three ounces after peeling; stick one clove in the onion, cut the vegetables, and when the meat has slowly boiled two hours, add the vegetables and cook three hours more. By slow boiling is meant just an occasional bubble in the centre of the pot. Skim just as the meat comes to the boil, then throw in half a cup of cold water; take off the scum that will now rise rapidly, adding a little cold water again when it begins to boil. Skim again after the vegetables are in, and when done, strain. When cold, take off the fat; don’t shake the soup, but pour through a clean cloth, all but the sediment, which keep to make gravy. It must never boil fast, or it will be cloudy and taste poor. There will be two quarts and a pint of fine, clear soup, if the boiling has been so slow as to waste very little.
Chicken Pie.—Put the neck, gizzard, and feet, scalded, of a chicken in nearly a pint of water with a small spoonful of salt and a slice of onion and a piece of carrot as big as your thumb. Let them stew slowly till there is not more than a gill of liquid, which strain and put aside; when cold it will be hard jelly. Lay in the bottom of a deep oval dish that holds rather more than three quarts, about half a pound of veal cutlet (or beefsteak if you prefer) finely chopped across, yet not made into sausage-meat; sprinkle on it a scant salt-spoonful of salt and a little pepper, shave nice sweet salt pork and put a thin layer of that; then put in the chicken, neatly divided into small joints, sprinkling each with a little salt and pepper, and always pile toward the centre; when full add forcemeat balls made thus: Chop very finely a heaped tea-spoonful of parsley, rub a scant salt-spoonful of thyme leaves to fine powder (this is easily done if they are put to stand in a hot place a few minutes before rubbing, taking care they do not burn), add to them a tea-cup of fine bread crumbs and just one grate of nutmeg, the nutmeg drawn sharply once up and down the grater; chop into this a good tea-spoonful of butter, and wet all with the yolk of an egg; now add a little salt and pepper, tasting to see when there is enough; make into little round balls and drop into the pie wherever there is a chink, and pour over all half a cup of water. Now roll out some rough puff paste (made as for lemon pie), cut strips half an inch thick and two broad, wet the edges of the dish and lay this round lightly. If the chicken is packed in the shape of a dome it will slope from the sides, and the paste can be pressed round the inside edge to make it adhere to the dish; wet it slightly, then roll the paste for a cover half an inch thick; lay it on, press, with your forefinger laid flat to form a groove between the chicken and the dish, so that the inner edge of the under paste adheres to the upper one; don’t press the outer edge at all; trim round with a sharp knife, make a good-sized hole in the centre and ornament with twisted paste, or as you choose; brush all over with white of egg (not the edges, or they will not rise) and bake an hour and a quarter in a good steady oven. Before it is cold, pour the gravy made from giblets through the hole in the top, using a funnel for the purpose. This pie is excellent cold, but if made the day before using, when made hot it will take quite half an hour to heat through. Lay a paper over to protect the crust.
CHAPTER XI.
WHAT TO DO WITH A SOUP-BONE.
“I don’t think there is any more painful fact connected with a small income than one’s inability to do anything for the distress one hears of,” said Harry as he chipped an egg at breakfast on Sunday morning.
“I feel that too, very keenly; but are you thinking of any special instance?”
“Yes, a poor fellow was killed a few weeks ago on the track here, and he left a delicate wife and three little children. They were taking up a collection in the cars for her yesterday. I contributed my mite, of course; but what are a few dollars in a case like that? They say he had been out of work for weeks before he got the employment that led to his death, and that if some more permanent help does not reach them, they will be near starvation this winter.”