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.