Veal and Oyster Soup.
Knuckle of veal—meat sliced and bones cracked; 1 qt. of oysters; 1 cup of milk; 2 teaspoonfuls of flour; 1 tablespoonful of butter cut up in the flour; 2 stalks of celery; pepper and salt; 6 quarts of water.
Put meat, bones, celery, and water over the fire and cook slowly four hours. Strain; put meat and bones, highly seasoned, into your stock-jar with all the soup except two quarts, and set away. Cool and take the fat from that kept out for to-day; return to the fire with seasoning. When it boils, add the oysters. Cook five minutes; pour out and add the boiling milk thickened with the floured butter.
Beefsteak Pie.
3 lbs. of steak; 1 chopped onion; 1 tablespoonful of mushroom catsup; a little water; 1 tablespoonful of butter cut up into floured bits; pepper and salt; some good plain paste.
Cut the steaks into small squares; beat each flat, and leave out bone, fat, and gristle. Strew a little onion in the bottom of a bake-dish; put in a layer of meat, peppered and salted; scatter bits of floured butter over it; then more onion. When all are in, pour in the catsup and a little water—or gravy is better—cover with crust, and bake nearly two hours.
Ladies’ Cabbage au Maître d’Hôtel.
Boil a cabbage in two waters. (Salt the second, and put into your stock-pot.) Let it get perfectly cold; chop fine; mix with two beaten eggs, a few spoonfuls of your soup-stock, a great spoonful of butter, the juice of a lemon, pepper and salt. Pour into a buttered pudding-dish, bake covered, forty minutes, brown, and serve in the dish.
Purée of Potatoes.
Whip boiled potatoes light, and rub through a colander. Add milk and butter, salt to taste, and when very soft, pour into a buttered saucepan. Stir until hot and stiff; pour into a deep dish.