First Week. Monday.
Clam Soup.
50 clams; 1 quart of hot water; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; 1 tablespoonful of flour; 1 teaspoonful chopped onion, and same of mixed thyme and parsley; 2 cups of hot milk; salt and cayenne; 2 blades of mace.
Cut the hard parts off from the clams, putting the soft halves on ice. Strain off all the liquor, and put with the hard bits over the fire, with a quart of hot water, the onion, herbs, and mace. Simmer forty minutes. Heat the milk in another vessel—not forgetting the pinch of soda; stir in the butter, cut up in the flour, and set in hot water until the soup is ready. At the end of the forty minutes, strain the clam broth, leaving out the hard parts. Put in the soft, season with salt and cayenne, and let them just boil. Pour into the tureen, add the milk and butter, and set the tureen in hot water five minutes before serving.
Ragoût of Duck and Green Peas.
Cut the meat from the carcasses left since yesterday, making the slices as neat as you can. If you have not a large cupful of gravy left, make it by stewing down the bones and stuffing in a quart of water, cooling, skimming, and seasoning it. Put this in a saucepan with the pieces of duck, and set where it will get very hot, but not boil. Cook a quart of tender green peas in boiling water twenty minutes; drain, and season them with pepper, salt, and butter. Take out the duck and pile in the centre of a dish; put the peas around it like a green hedge. Boil up the gravy once when you have stirred in a little browned flour, wet with cold water, and pour upon the meat.
Onions.
Boil in two waters, and after draining off the last, cover, barely, with boiling milk; stir in a good piece of butter rolled in flour; season with salt and pepper; boil once, and pour into a deep dish.
Potatoes, with Cheese Sauce.
12 boiled potatoes, mashed soft with milk and butter; 4 tablespoonfuls of dry, grated cheese; 1 cup of rich drawn butter; 2 beaten eggs; pepper, salt, and nutmeg; triangles of fried bread; cracker-dust.