Scrape and peel the following vegetables:—six carrots, six turnips, six onions, three heads of celery, and three parsnips; slice up all these very thinly, and put them into a two-gallon pot, with four ounces of butter, a handful of parsley, ditto of chervil, and a good sprig of thyme, and fill up with water or pot liquor, if you happen to have any; season with pepper and salt, and put the whole to boil very gently on the fire for two hours; at the end of this time the vegetables will be done to a pulp, and the whole must be rubbed through a colander with a wooden spoon, and afterwards put back into the pot and stirred over the fire, to make it hot for dinner.
[No. 114. Pumpkin Porridge.]
I am aware that pumpkins are not generally grown in this country as an article of food for the poorer classes, and more is the pity, for they require but little trouble to rear, and yield an abundance of nutritious and cooling food, at a small cost; the chief reason for the short supply is, I imagine, the want of knowledge for turning the pumpkin to good account as an article of food. I am now about to supply easy instruction to convey that knowledge to whomsoever may stand in need of it. Peel and slice up as much pumpkin as will produce about eight ounces for each person, and put this into a boiling pot, with two ounces of butter, and a quart of water; set the whole to boil very gently on the fire, until the pumpkin is reduced to a pulp, and then add half-a-pint of buttermilk, or skim milk, to every person who is to partake of the porridge. You then stir the porridge over the fire for about fifteen minutes longer, taking care that it does not boil over; season with salt and a little nutmeg, and eat it with toasted bread for breakfast, or any other meal.
[No. 115. Rice-milk for Six Persons.]
Put one pound of Patna rice into a boiling pot with two ounces of butter, two quarts of water, a small bit of cinnamon or lemon-peel, and a little salt; put the lid on, and set the rice to boil very gently indeed close to the hob, until the rice is done quite soft; this will take about one hour and a quarter; then add three pints of skim milk, and after having stirred the rice-milk over the fire for ten minutes longer, it may be sweetened with a little honey or sugar, and will produce an excellent breakfast for at least six persons.
[No. 116. Knuckle of Veal and Rice.]
A small knuckle, or scrag-end of neck of veal, is sometimes to be purchased very cheap; I will therefore suppose that you may, once in a way, provide such a thing, and this is the way you should cook it to the best advantage. Put the knuckle of veal into a boiling pot, with a pound of bacon, two pounds of rice, six onions, three carrots cut in pieces, some peppercorns, and salt in moderation on account of the bacon; add three or four quarts of water, and set the whole to stew very gently over a moderate fire for about three hours. This will produce a good substantial dinner for at least ten persons.
[No. 117. Irish Stew.]
Inferior parts of any kind of meat make a good Irish stew. Let the meat be cut in pieces the size of an egg, well rubbed all over with pepper and salt, and placed in a good-sized pot or saucepan; add peeled onions in the proportion of six to the pound of meat, and enough water just to cover in the whole. Next, set the stew on the fire to boil very gently for an hour and a-half, then add such quantity of peeled and split potatoes as you may think will suffice for the number of persons about to dine off the stew, and put the whole back on the fire to boil briskly until the potatoes are thoroughly done soft; the Irish stew will then be ready to eat.