Calf's Liver, Braised.
Wash and wipe a calf's liver. Lard one side of it. Cover the bottom of the braising pan with slices of salt pork, using about a quarter of a pound. Cut an onion and half a carrot in small pieces, and spread over the pork. Lay the liver on this, and dredge thickly with salt, pepper and flour. Cover the pan, and place where it will cook slowly for half an hour. Add a bouquet of sweet herbs and three pints of stock or water. Put the pan in a moderate oven and cook for two hours. Baste frequently with the gravy in the pan, and salt, pepper and flour. About twenty minutes before the liver is done, add one teaspoonful of vinegar and one of lemon juice. Strain the gravy over the liver when it is dished.
Beef Stew.
Take the bones and hard, tough parts left from a roast of beef. Remove all the meat from the bones, and cut it in small pieces. Cut about a quarter of a pound of the fat of the meat in very small pieces. Put it in the stew-pan to fry. When it begins to brown, put in half a carrot, one small turnip, and two onions, cut fine. Stir over the fire for ten minutes. Take out the fat and vegetables, and put the bones in the bottom of the kettle. Add the meat and the cooked vegetables, but not the fat. Dredge well with salt, pepper, and flour, shaking in at least half a cupful of flour. Add three pints of water, and simmer gently one hour; then put in six potatoes, pared and cut in slices. Simmer one hour longer. Taste to see if seasoned enough. Draw forward where it will boil more rapidly. Stir the stew, and put in the dumplings. Cook just ten minutes. The cover of the stew-pan must fit tightly. There should be about two pounds of meat for this stew, not counting the bones.
Cold Meat with Purée of Potato.
Six good-sized potatoes, one table-spoonful of butter, one cupful of boiling milk, salt and pepper to taste. Pare and boil the potatoes, and mash light and fine. Add the butter, seasoning and boiling milk. Beat up light, and spread on a hot platter. Lay on this handsome slices of any kind of cold meat, and on each slice put a table-spoonful of hot gravy. Put a little gravy around the dish, and set in the oven for five minutes. Garnish with parsley, and serve. If there is no gravy left from the dinner of the day before, make a pint in the following manner: Put a quart of water with some of the hard pieces and bones of the meat, and boil down to one pint. Put one table-spoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and, when hot, add one table-spoonful of flour. Stir until dark brown, and strain the broth on this. Season with salt, pepper and, if you please, one spoonful of Halford sauce.
Shepherds' Pie.
One quart of any kind of cold meat, eight large potatoes, one small onion, one cupful of boiling milk, salt, pepper, and nearly a pint of gravy or stock, thickened with one table-spoonful of flour. Season the meat and put in a deep earthen dish. Grate the onion into the gravy, and pour over the meat. Pare, boil and mash the potatoes. Add the salt, pepper and milk and one table-spoonful of butter. Cover the pie with this, and bake gently half an hour.
Shepherds' Pie, No. 2.
Cut into dice one quart of any kind of cold meat. Mince very fine two table-spoonfuls of salt pork, and add to the meat. Pare and cut into dice four large uncooked potatoes; grate or chop fine one onion; chop fine one table-spoonful of parsley. Mix, and season well with salt and pepper, and add a large cupful of water. Put in a deep earthen dish. Make a paste with four potatoes, two table-spoonfuls of butter, a large cupful of boiling milk and a pint of flour. Pare, boil and mash the potatoes; then add butter, salt and milk. When all is very light, beat in the flour, gradually. Sprinkle the board with flour, and roll the paste a little larger than the dish. Make a hole in the centre, to let out the air. Cover the dish with the paste, being careful to have the edge come inside the dish. Bake gently one hour.