Dishes made without meat

by Mrs. C. S. Peel

For example, the only available meat dish for luncheon is a hot pot of mutton and the party is suddenly augmented. Add to the menu a dish of macaroni au jus, or a rissole or corn curry, and supplement the homely pudding with a little cheese savoury, and what more can any one desire?

Then if the meat for a veal and ham pie is scarcely sufficient add a liberal quantity of partly cooked macaroni cut into short lengths, while should the quantity of minced mutton available seem sadly little, add an ample border of savoury rice or an extra dish of potato and cheese balls. If rissoles are required add to them by means of mashed potato or rice.

Then never allow small quantities of cooked vegetables left over from lunch or dinner to be thrown away. Place them on clean plates in the larder; they will prove useful additions to the next day’s bill of fare.

For example, you have two or three young carrots, a cupful of peas, even a smaller quantity of broad beans. Slice the carrots and arrange all three vegetables in china shells, mask with mayonnaise sauce, sprinkle with coralline pepper, and serve with cold meat, or reheat them by steaming, place them in a hot fireproof dish, cover with boiling hot maître d’hôtel sauce, and garnish with rolls of bacon, and serve as a luncheon dish; or add a little onion and use for a vegetable curry, and serve surrounded by well-boiled rice; or reheat, mix with parsley and butter sauce, cover with mashed potato, score the top and brown in the oven, and serve for luncheon in the guise of vegetable pie.

If some new potatoes are left over, slice, fry, and serve with or without bacon for breakfast; while should you have some old boiled potatoes to use up they may be mashed and employed in half a score of ways; incorporated with cabbage, pepper, salt, and a little butter, formed into cakes, and fried to serve with bacon, grilled chicken or ham, for instance.

Thus the clever housekeeper economizes and yet does not allow her economies to be apparent.

Before passing on to the recipes which are the raison d’être of this little volume, I would say a word on the treatment of vegetables.

It is the habit of gardeners to pick fruit, vegetables, etc., in the morning, and to bring in the day’s supply at about eleven o’clock, and on Saturday to provide sufficient for two days’ consumption. Except in the case of strawberries (which should be gathered, if possible, on the day on which they are to be eaten) and asparagus (which is infinitely better when cut just before the time for cooking), there is no objection to this plan, provided the garden produce is stored in the best manner. Carrots and turnips, leeks and onions should be placed in wire racks; and lettuces should be arranged root-end downmost in a shallow pan of fresh water. Cabbages and cauliflower may be treated likewise. Parsley should be placed in water as if it were a flower—not soused head over heels in that liquid. Whether the stalk-end of a cucumber should be placed in water, or whether the vegetable should be left dry in a cool, airy place, is a moot point. I do not feel competent to say which course should be followed, but my cook, who is clever at cooking vegetables, opines that cucumbers should not be placed in water; and, in any case, that they should not be kept long when cut.

Mustard-and-cress should be arranged in a shallow pan of water.

Peas and broad beans should not be shelled unnecessarily long before eating, and if it is necessary to keep them they should be placed in a wire rack in a cool, well-ventilated place.