STOCK FOR GRAVIES AND SOUPS.
Wash a leg or shin of beef very clean, crack the bone in two or three places, put with it any trimmings you may have of meat or fowls, such as gizzards, necks, &c.; cover them with cold water in a stew-pan that shuts close. The moment it begins to simmer, skim it carefully till it boils up. Then add half a pint of cold water, which will make the remaining scum rise, and skim it again and again, till no more appears, and the broth looks perfectly clear. Then put in a moderate sized carrot, cut up small, two turnips, a head of celery, and one large or two small onions. Stir it several times that it may not burn, or stick at the bottom. Herbs and spices are not to be added until the broth is used for gravies for particular dishes. After these vegetables are added, set the pan where the broth will boil very slowly for four or five hours. Then strain it through a sieve into a stone pan or jar, and when cold, cover it, and set it in an ice-house or some other very cool place. The meat thus stewed may be used as directed for minced meat in the chapter on Common Dishes, &c., p. [187].
ON ROASTING MEAT.
If meat is to be roasted before the fire, allow a quarter of an hour for the cooking of every pound in warm weather, and in winter twenty minutes. Flour it well, and put two or three gills of water in the roaster. Put the bony side to the fire first, and do not place it very near. If meat is scorched in the beginning, it cannot be roasted through afterwards, without burning. Turn it often, and when all parts are slightly cooked, place it nearer the fire. When about half done, flour it again. Baste it very often. Salt it half an hour before serving it.
It is not well to salt meat at first, as salt extracts the juices. In roasting all meats, the art depends chiefly on flouring thoroughly, basting frequently, and turning so often as not to allow any part to burn.
To roast in a cooking stove, it is necessary to attend carefully to the fire, lest the meat should burn. Lay it into the pan with three or four gills of water in it. Turn the pan around often, that all the parts may roast equally. When it is about half done, flour it again, turn it over that the lower side may become brown. If the water wastes so that the pan becomes nearly dry, add a little hot water.
Among the little things which are worthy the attention of a housekeeper, is that of having a dinner served hot. It is often the case, that a well-cooked dinner loses much of its excellence, by a want of care in this particular. All the meat and vegetable dishes should be heated, and in winter the plates should also be warmed.