QUINCE MARMALADE.
Ingredients.—To every lb. of quince pulp allow ¾ lb. of loaf sugar. Mode.—Slice the quinces into a preserving-pan, adding sufficient water for them to float; place them on the fire to stew, until reduced to a pulp, keeping them stirred occasionally from the bottom, to prevent their burning; then pass the pulp through a hair sieve, to keep back the skin and seeds. Weigh the pulp, and to each lb. add lump sugar in the above proportion, broken very small. Place the whole on the fire, and keep it well stirred from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, until reduced to a marmalade, which may be known by dropping a little on a cold plate, when, if it jellies, it is done. Put it into jars whilst hot; let it cool, and cover with pieces of oiled paper cut to the size of the mouths of the jars. The tops of them may be afterwards covered with pieces of bladder, or tissue-paper brushed over on both sides with the white of an egg. Time.—3 hours to boil the quinces without the sugar; ¾ hour to boil the pulp with the sugar. Average cost, from 8d. to 9d. per lb. pot. Sufficient.—Allow 1 pint of sliced quinces for a lb. pot. Seasonable in August, September, and October.
RABBIT, Boiled.
BOILED RABBIT.
Ingredients.—Rabbit; water. Mode.—For boiling, choose rabbits with smooth and sharp claws, as that denotes they are young: should these be blunt and rugged, the ears dry and tough, the animal is old. After emptying and skinning it, wash it well in cold water, and let it soak for about ¼ hour in warm water, to draw out the blood. Bring the head round to the side, and fasten it there by means of a skewer run through that and the body. Put the rabbit into sufficient hot water to cover it, let it boil very gently until tender, which will be in from ½ to ¾ hour, according to its size and age. Dish it, and smother it either with onion, mushroom, or liver-sauce, or parsley-and-butter; the former is, however, generally preferred to any of the last-named sauces. When liver-sauce is preferred, the liver should be boiled for a few minutes, and minced very finely, or rubbed through a sieve before it is added to the sauce. Time.—A very young rabbit, ½ hour; a large one, ¾ hour; an old one, 1 hour or longer. Average cost, from 1s. to 1s. 6d. each. Sufficient for 4 persons. Seasonable from September to February.
RABBIT, Curried.
Ingredients.—1 rabbit, 2 oz. of butter, 3 onions, 1 pint of stock, 1 tablespoonful of curry powder, 1 tablespoonful of flour, 1 tablespoonful of mushroom powder, the juice of ½ lemon, ½ lb. of rice. Mode.—Empty, skin, and wash the rabbit thoroughly, and cut it neatly into joints. Put it into a stewpan with the butter and sliced onions, and let them acquire a nice brown colour, but do not allow them to blacken. Pour in the stock, which should be boiling; mix the curry powder and flour smoothly with a little water, add it to the stock, with the mushroom powder, and simmer gently for rather more than ½ hour; squeeze in the lemon-juice, and serve in the centre of a dish, with an edging of boiled rice all round. Where economy is studied, water may be substituted for the stock; in this case, the meat and onions must be very nicely browned. A little sour apple and rasped cocoa-nut stewed with the curry will be found a great improvement. Time.—Altogether ¾ hour. Average cost, from 1s. to 1s. 6d. each. Sufficient for 4 persons. Seasonable in winter.
RABBIT, Fried.
Ingredients.—1 rabbit, flour, dripping, 1 oz. of butter, 1 teaspoonful of minced shalot, 2 tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup. Mode.—Cut the rabbit into neat joints, and flour them well; make the dripping boil in a frying-pan, put in the rabbit, and fry it a nice brown. Have ready a very hot dish, put in the butter, shalot, and ketchup; arrange the rabbit pyramidically on this, and serve as quickly as possible. Time.—10 minutes. Average cost, from 1s. to 1s. 6d. each. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. Seasonable from September to February.