FOOD AND COOKERY FOR THE MONTHS.

FOOD FOR JANUARY.

Those Fish, Poultry, etc., distinguished by Italics, are to be had in greater perfection.

Meat.—Beef, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal, and doe-venison.

Fish.—Barbel, brill, carp, cod, crabs, cray-feet, dabs, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, ling, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon-trout, shrimps, skate, smelt, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.

Poultry and Game.—Capons, chickens, ducks, wild ducks, fowls, geese, grouse, hares, larks, moor-game, partridges, pheasants, pigeons (tame), pullets, rabbits, snipes, turkeys (hen), widgeons, woodcocks.

Vegetables.—Beet, brocoli (white and purple), Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cardoons, carrots, celery, chervil, colewort, cresses, endive, garlic, herbs (dry), kale (Scotch), leeks, lettuces, mint, mustard, onions, parsley, parsnips, potatoes, rape, rosemary, sage, salsify, savoy, scorzonera, shalots, skirrets, sorrel, spinach (winter), tarragon, thyme, turnips.

Forced Vegetables.—Asparagus, cucumbers, Jerusalem artichokes, and mushrooms.

Fruit.—Almonds, Apples—French pippin, golden pippin, golden russet, Kentish pippin, nonpareil, winter pearmain. Pears—Bergamot, d’Hollande, Bon Chrétien, Charmontelle, Colmar, winter beurré. Grapes—English and Foreign. Chestnuts, medlars, nuts, oranges, walnuts.

COOKERY FOR JANUARY.

SOUPS.

Pea Soup.—The cheapest and most wholesome way, is to make it by “A. Braden’s Prepared Peas,” a sixpenny packet of which will make six or eight quarts of good soup; or, take a third of the packet, mix with enough soup to form a thick batter, add two or three quarts of the common soup given below, and boil fifteen minutes.

Common Soup.—Take the bones of beef, (ribs, sirloin, &c.) break small, put into a digester or a large pan, cover with water, boil, and keep covered; then add a crust of bread toasted, a pound of pearl-barley, two onions in slices, a faggot of sweet herbs, a bay-leaf, two carrots cut small, and other vegetables; fill up to a gallon with the liquor that corned beef, bacon, pork, or any other meat has been boiled in, and season with pepper and salt to taste.

Hare Soup.—Take a hare and cut in pieces, put into an earthen jar, with two onions cut small, three blades of mace, a pinch of salt, two anchovies, or three-quarters of a red herring, three quarts of water, and wine to flavour, perhaps a pint of red wine. Bake in a quick oven for three hours, then strain the liquor into a stewpan. Have ready boiled four ounces of fine pearl-barley, add this, scald the liver, and rub it through a sieve with a wooden spoon, put this into the soup, set over the fire, and keep it stirring till near boiling—but it must not boil—then remove. Put some toasted bread into the tureen, pour the soup on, and serve hot.

FISH.

Fish.—In cleaning cod-fish, haddock, whiting, whiting-polluck, hake, ling, &c., they should be cut open for some distance below the vent; the sound of one side being carefully cut up with a sharp knife, as close to the back-bone as possible, and the blood must be scraped out with a knife, or scrubbed with a brush. The back-bone of a hake is extracted entire by separating it with the fore-finger and thumb of the right hand, from behind the poll, and tearing it out. Fish that are dressed with the scales on, should be dipped in water, and rubbed with a coarse towel from the head downwards.

Salt Fish should be properly soaked in water previous to being dressed, for at least twelve hours, then taken out, scrubbed with a coarse cloth, and laid on a stone or table to drain for six or eight hours, when it should be again put into water, just lukewarm, to remain there ten or twelve hours.

Hake Cutlets.—Cut a moderate sized hake into cutlets length-wise, about the size of ordinary veal cutlets, dry well with a cloth, egg well, dip in bread crumbs, and fry light brown; then serve hot on a napkin, with fried parsley garnish.

Barbel, to Fry.—Split the barbel, if large; pepper and salt it well, fry a light brown, and serve with melted butter.

Dace, to Fry.—Open the belly, cut the fins close off, scale them well, dry in flour, and fry a light brown; serve with melted butter.

Dace, to Marinade.—Clean well, cut off the heads, and rub plenty of pepper, salt, and allspice, into the inside; place them in layers in a baking-dish, with bay between the layers; and add three parts vinegar and one of water, sufficient to fill the dish; add a little whole pepper, and a blade or two of mace. Bake slowly for about five hours. When cold, shift the fish and marinade into another dish, taking care not to bruise or break them.

Haddock, to Boil.—Boil entire, if not very large; and throw a little salt, vinegar, and horse-radish into the water, which improve the look of the fish, and prevent the skin breaking. Serve hot, with oyster sauce.

Perch and Tench as Water Souchy.—Take a dozen fish, place in a stewpan, with about two quarts of water, some parsley roots and leaves chopped, but not fine. Boil until nearly the whole of the flesh of the fish will run through a coarse sieve with the gravy; place another dozen in the stewpan, with finely chopped parsley, and add the gravy to them, season with pepper and salt, and stew until done; then turn gravy and all into a soup tureen. Some add onions, but in our opinion it spoils the flavour of the souchy.

POULTRY, GAME, ETC.

Curry.—Cut up a rabbit or chicken as for a fricassee; fry them a light brown, and stew in gravy. Add a table-spoonful of curry powder, and, if necessary, cayenne pepper and salt. When stewed sufficiently, thicken with butter rolled in flour, and add lemon-juice, shalots or garlic; then serve with rice, and garnish with lemon.

To Broil a Pigeon.—Split it down the back, spread it open, season with pepper and salt, and broil over a quick clear fire. Serve with mushroom and salt.

Rabbits, to Stew.—Divide the rabbit into quarters, lard them with large slips of bacon, and fry them; then put into a stewpan, with a quart of good broth, a glass of white wine, a bunch of sweet herbs, a little pepper and salt, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. When done, dish up, and pour the gravy sauce on them, garnishing with sliced lemon.

Larks, to Roast.—Spit them on a little bird-spit, and roast; when done enough, sprinkle with fried bread crumbs, and serve on toast, with thick brown gravy.

Turkey Patties.—Mince part of the breast fine, season with salt, nutmeg, grated lemon, white pepper, and a little butter warmed. Fill the patties, and bake as usual.

MEAT.

Beef.—We have already given receipts for cooking cold beef, among which will be found those for minced beef, cold roast beef and mashed potatoes, bubble and squeak, lobscous, and beef rissoles. We shall therefore enter on new ground.

To Dress the Inside of a Cold Sirloin of Beef.—Cut out all the inside (free from fat) of the sirloin, in pieces about two inches long; flour it well, and fry it a light brown; drain, and toss it up in a rich gravy, well seasoned with pepper, salt, and shalots. Before sending it up, add two tea-spoonfuls of caper vinegar, and garnish with fried potatoes, horse-radish, or boiled spinach.

Fricassee of Cold Roast Beef.—Cut some thin slices of under-done beef, an onion in quarters, chop some parsley very small; put these into a stewpan, with some strong broth, a small piece of butter, and a little salt and pepper. Simmer gently a quarter of an hour, then add a table-spoonful of white wine and vinegar, and the yolks of two eggs; stir quickly over a brisk fire for a few minutes, and then serve in a deep hot dish.

Mutton Ham.—Take a leg of mutton of about seven pounds, shape like a ham, and hang two days. Take six ounces of coarse sugar, an ounce of saltpetre, four ounces of bay, and three ounces of common salt. Mix, and rub them well into the ham, lay it in a tub, with the skin downwards, and rub every day for a fortnight; then have it smoked, or hung in wood smoke for a week. It is excellent cut in rashers and broiled.

To Cook a Loin of Pork Portuguese Way.—Cut the skin of the loin across with a sharp knife, at distances of half an inch; roast as usual. Cut two onions small, and put them into the dripping-pan, with a pint of vinegar; baste well with this, and serve hot.

Spare-rib of Pork should be basted with very little butter, well floured, and then sprinkled with dried sage, powdered. Serve hot, and have apple-sauce.

Veal Sausages.—Chop half a pound of lean veal and fat bacon very fine; add sage, salt, pepper, and allspice to taste; beat well in a mortar, roll into balls, flatten and fry them.

Liver Pudding.—Boil a lamb’s liver well, grate it down; add an equal quantity of grated bread; cut some onions small with plenty of suet, add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste, and fill them in the white end of the pudding.

Lamb’s Brain Cakes.—Take the brains, and remove any veins, &c., that may be among them, chop well with a knife, and add salt, nutmeg, or pepper, a little raw egg, and flour enough to make them stick together; mix well, make into cakes about the size of the top of a wine-glass, and fry them brown on both sides with lard.

Venison, to Broil.—Cut thin slices; mix stale crumbs of bread, with salt, pepper, and spices; egg the slices, dip into the seasoned bread, broil over a clear fire, serve with a gravy sauce.

VEGETABLES.

Potatoes.—Several ways of cooking potatoes are given at p. 243, viz.: potato mashed with onions; potato snow; potato scones; potatoes fried whole, escalloped, fried in slices; and potato pie.

PASTRY.

Elegant Bread Pudding.—Take light white bread, and cut in thin slices. Put into a pudding shape a layer of any sort of preserve, then a slice of bread, and repeat until the mould is almost full. Pour over all a pint of warm milk, in which four well-beaten eggs have been mixed; cover the mould with a piece of linen, place in a saucepan with a little boiling water, let it boil twenty minutes, and serve with pudding sauce.

Mince Pies.—Take a piece of puff-paste, roll to the thickness of a penny-piece; butter the pans lightly; line the pans with the puff-paste, place in the mincemeat made as under:—trim and wet the edges of the paste with milk, cover with the paste, trim, press the edges closely and crimp, prick a hole in the centre of the top, egg, and dust some fine white sugar over. Bake for twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

Mince Meat.—Take seven pounds of currants well picked and cleaned; of finely chopped beef suet, the lean of a sirloin of beef minced raw, and finely chopped apples (Kentish or Golden Pippins), each three and a half pounds; citron, lemon-peel, and orange-peel cut small, each half a pound; fine moist sugar, two pounds; mixed spice, an ounce; the rind of four lemons and four Seville oranges; mix well, and put in a deep pan. Mix a bottle of brandy and white wine, the juice of the lemons and oranges that have been grated together in a basin; pour half over, and press down tight with the hand, then add the other half, and cover closely. Some families make one year, to use the next.

Malcolm Puddings.—Take any number of eggs, which are to be used first as weights, and then mixed with the ingredients. Place the eggs in one scale and weigh their equal balance successively in flour, brown sugar, and butter. Make into a mass by means of the eggs, work well, and bake in small moulds, with or without currants. Serve hot with wine sauce, or cold without.

Oatmeal Gingerbread.—Mix one pound of Scotch meal into a stiff paste with sour buttermilk, let it stay all night, and then add one pound prepared Lentil Powder (Butler and McCulloch’s), into which has been rubbed half an ounce of bi-carbonate of soda, and one pound of brown flour. Add treacle enough to bring it to the requisite consistence, roll any thickness, and bake in a moderate oven. A little sugar may be added.

Unfermented Oat-Cakes.—Soak one pound of meal all night in a pint of sour buttermilk. The next day, rub a quarter of an ounce of carbonate of soda and a little salt into one pound of flour, and mix with the oatmeal. Roll out any thickness required, and bake in a moderate oven.

Oatmeal Pudding.—Soak four ounces of brown bread and two ounces of meal, in one pint of boiling milk; when cold stir in two eggs well beaten, and a little nutmeg and sugar; pour into a buttered basin, and steam or boil one hour.

Flummery, or Sowins.—To three spoonfuls of meal, add one pint of water, let it stand in a warm place until it is sourish. Boil it the same as for porridge, and eat with salt only. This gruel is excellent for hot seasons and climates; taken for breakfast, it assists digestion, and prevents constipation, cools the body, and creates an active and cheerful disposition.

FOOD FOR FEBRUARY.

Meat.—Beef, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Fish.—Barbel, brill, carp, cockles, cod, crabs, cray-fish, dabbs, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, ling, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.

Poultry and Game.—Capons, chickens, ducklings, fowl (wild), green geese, hares, partridges, pheasants, pigeons, tame and wild, pullets with egg, rabbits (tame), snipes, turkeys, turkey-poults, woodcocks.

Vegetables.—Beet, brocoli (white and purple), burnet, cabbage, cardoons, carrots, celery, chervil, colewort, cresses, endive, garlic, dry herbs, leeks, lettuces, mint, mustard, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, parsley, potatoes, radish, rape, rosemary, sage, salsify, savory, scorzonera, shalots, skirrets, sorrel, spinach, sprouts, tarragon, thyme, turnips, winter savory.

Forced Vegetables.—Asparagus, cucumbers, and Jerusalem artichokes.

Fruit.—Apples—French pippin, golden pippin, golden russet, Holland pippin, Kentish pippin, nonpareil, Wheeler’s russet, winter pearmain; chestnuts, oranges. Pears.—Bergamot, d’Pasque, winter Bon Chrétien, winter russelet.

COOKERY FOR FEBRUARY.

SOUP.

Observations on Soups.—Soups, in general, are better if made the day before they are wanted; because they have the advantage of being longer boiled. They should always be made from the freshest meat—if practicable—and should not be put away for any length of time if there are many vegetables in them, as they will speedily ferment, or turn sour. When fat remains on soup, mix a tea-cupful of flour and water, quite intimately, and boil in it: if deficient in richness, boil a pound of butter mixed with flour in it; if too weak, remove the cover whilst boiling. In general, a pound of meat is required for every quart of water. Clear soups must be perfectly transparent; thickened soups about the consistence of cream.

Beef Stock.—Take five pounds of coarse lean beef, cut into small pieces, put into a pot or a digester, with sufficient water to cover it. As it simmers, be careful to skim well; add a faggot of herbs, and season with salt and ground pepper. When the meat is tender, the pot may be removed, the stock skimmed well, the liquor strained through a fine hair sieve, and put aside in a covered pan for use.

Veal Stock.—Take five or six pounds of the neck, leg, &c. of veal, and add half to three-quarters of a pound of ham. Cut the meat into small pieces, break the bones, and put the whole with a faggot of herbs into rather more than a quart of water. Let all simmer until the meat is nearly tender; then add as much of the beef stock as will cover the veal, which must afterwards be kept simmering half an hour longer. Skim it free from fat, strain through a sieve, and keep the same as beef stock.

Browning for Soups.—1. Take two ounces of coarse brown sugar, and pour upon it some thyme water; place it on the fire till it becomes burnt.—2. Take two ounces of powdered lump sugar, and half an ounce of fresh butter; put them together in a frying-pan, and keep on the fire till the mixture becomes a chocolate brown, then add three table-spoonfuls of port wine, and two wine-glassfuls of elder wine, six shalots, half a drachm of mace, a drachm of allspice, a drachm of black pepper, half an ounce of salt, two ounces of ketchup, and an ounce of fresh lemon-juice. Boil all together, let the liquor stand to settle, pour off the clear liquor, bottle, and cork tight.—3. Take some sugar, white or brown, place it in an iron spoon, heat until liquid, and then drop into half a pint of water; repeat until sufficiently brown.

Pigeon Soup.—Take eight good pigeons, cut up two of the worst, and put them on with as much water as will make a large tureen of soup, adding the pinions, necks, gizzards, and livers of the others; boil well, and strain. Season the whole pigeons within, with mixed spices, and salt, and truss them with their legs into their belly. Take a large handful of parsley, young onions, and spinach, pick and wash them clean and shred small; then take a handful of grated bread, put a lump of butter about the size of a hen’s egg in a frying-pan, and when it boils throw in the bread, stirring well until it becomes a fine brown colour. Put on the stock to boil, add the whole pigeons, herbs, and fried bread, and when the pigeons are done enough, dish up with the soup.

Soup à la Sap.—Boil a pound of beef cut in pieces an inch square, a pint of gray peas, half a pound of scraped potatoes, an onion, and three ounces of rice, in six pints of water until reduced to five. Strain through a sieve, pulp the peas into it, and return to the saucepan with a head of celery cut small, and a carrot. Stew well, season with pepper and salt. Put toasted bread into the tureen, pour the soup on, and serve hot.

Beef Broth.—Take a leg of beef, crack the bone in two or three parts, wash clean, put it into a gallon of water, let it simmer; skim well, add three blades of mace, a bundle of parsley, and a crust of bread. Boil well, and serve hot with toasted bread.

Carrot Soup.—Slice up eight or nine large carrots, and stew them in three quarts of common soup, until quite tender; then rub through a sieve, mix well, season with salt and pepper, and add sufficient browning to make it look well. It should be made the day before it is used.

FISH.

Carp, to Stew.—Clean and cut them in two; place in a stewpan, with some broken bread crusts, pepper, salt, and mace, a small onion shred fine, and a few chopped capers. Then add a gill of white wine, the same of red wine, and water enough to cover them; cover the pan close, and let them stew until the liquor is thick, then serve with lemon and horse-radish for garnish.

Oysters Stewed.—Take a pint of oysters, gently simmer them in their own strained liquor. Beard them, and add a quarter of a pint of cream; season with pounded mace, cayenne, and salt; add two ounces of butter and a dessert-spoonful of flour, then simmer for a short time. Lay the oysters in the dish upon a piece of toast, and pour the sauce over. The cream may be omitted, if thought proper.

Prawns, to Curry, Malay Fashion.—Procure sufficient prawns to weigh when picked about a pound. Mince an onion or two very small, put the prawns and onion in a stewpan with a little salt, and a stick of cinnamon; add a pint of cold water, veal or mutton broth, and stew it for half an hour, then add a table-spoonful of curry powder, and let it stew ten minutes longer. Take the stewpan off the fire, strain the sauce through a sieve, wipe the stewpan dry, add the prawns and sauce together, and let them simmer ten minutes longer. Scrape some cocoa-nut into a basin with a gill and a half of warm water, press it well with the back of a spoon, strain through a sieve, and mix a table-spoonful of flour well in the milk, and five minutes before you serve the curry, add the milk to it, shake the pan once or twice, squeeze half a lemon in, and serve it up hot; rice separate. Shrimps or any other fish may be curried in the same manner.

POULTRY, GAME, ETC.

Ducks, to Roast.—After plucking and singeing carefully, let them be well washed and dried. Make a seasoning of onion, sage, pepper, and salt. Fasten it tight at the neck and rump. Paper the breast-bone, baste well, and when the breast is rising take off the paper, and serve before the breast falls, with plenty of good gravy. Be sure to have apple-sauce ready.

Wild Ducks are to be dressed in the same manner.

Goose, to Roast.—Prepare it the same as the ducks, and when done, cut off the apron, and pour a glass of port wine and two tea-spoonfuls of mustard among the seasoning. Apple-sauce must be ready, and plenty of good gravy, in separate tureens.

Hare Pie.—Cut up a hare and season it; bake it with eggs and sausage meat, as usual; or in a raised crust, and when cold, cover with savoury jelly.

Rabbit, Fricassee of.—Wash and cut a young rabbit into joints, put them in a stewpan, with a quarter of a pound of streaky bacon cut small, an onion stuck with cloves, a faggot of herbs, a blade of mace, and some salt; cover the whole with water, and let it simmer twenty minutes, keeping it well skimmed; pass the liquor through a sieve. Into another stewpan put two ounces of butter, a table-spoonful of flour, and a little of the liquor; set on the fire; stir well until it boils; add the rabbit and bacon, with a dozen and a half of small onions; let the whole simmer until the onions are done; skim well; then pour in a wine-glassful of white wine, mixed with the yolks of two eggs, and a little grated nutmeg; leave it to thicken, remove the rabbit, pile it on sippets, sauce over, garnish with sliced lemon, and serve hot.

MEAT.

Curried Beef, Madras Way.—Take about two ounces of butter, and place it in a saucepan, with two small onions cut up into slices, and let them fry until they are of a light brown; then add a table-spoonful and a half of curry powder, and mix it up well. Now put in the beef cut into pieces about an inch square; pour in from a quarter to a third of a pint of milk, and let it simmer for thirty minutes; then take it off, and place in a dish, with a little lemon-juice. Whilst cooking stir constantly, to prevent it burning. Send to table with a wall of mashed potatoes, or boiled rice round it. It greatly improves any curry to add with the milk a quarter of a cocoa-nut, scraped very small, and squeezed through muslin with a little water; this softens the taste of the curry, and, indeed, no curry should be made without it.

PASTRY, ETC.

Bath Buns.—Take a pound of flour, the rinds of three lemons grated fine, half a pound of butter melted in a coffee cup of cream, a tea-spoonful of yeast, and three eggs. Mix; add half a pound of finely powdered white sugar; work well, let it stand to rise well, and it will make thirty-nine buns.

Tea Cakes.—Take a pound of flour, half a pound of butter, and the same of sugar; the peel of a lemon finely grated, a little of the juice, an egg, a little brandy to flavour, and a tea-spoonful of bruised coriander seed. Roll it out thin, make into cakes, and bake them in a quick oven.

Short-Bread.—Rub one pound of butter, and twelve ounces of finely powdered loaf sugar, into two pounds of flour, with the hand; make it into a stiff paste with four eggs, roll out to double the thickness of a penny-piece, cut it into round or square cakes, pinch the edges, stick slices of candied peel and some carraway comfits on the top, and bake them on iron plates in a warm oven.

French Pastry.—Take half a pound of flour, half a pound of butter; put the flour on the board, and the butter in it, just as it is; roll it out once; then roll the butter up, and put it on one side. Mix the flour to about the stiffness of the butter, with a little milk, then let it stand for an hour in a cool place before you roll it out; and before using it roll it out five times.

Gingerbread.—Take one pound of flour, half a pound of butter, sugar, and treacle, an ounce of powdered ginger, and a tea-spoonful of beaten cloves. Mix well, and bake in a slow oven.

To Make a Simnel.—One pound of flour, quarter of a pound of butter, quarter of a pound of lump sugar, one pound of currants, two ounces of candied lemon, a quarter of an ounce of carbonate of soda mixed with an egg, and a little milk; to be put in a tin mould, and baked till enough. [Very good.]—L. B.

Ginger Cakes.—To two pounds of flour add three-quarters of a pound of good moist sugar, one ounce of best Jamaica ginger well mixed in the flour; have ready three-quarters of a pound of lard, melted, and four eggs well beaten; mix the lard and eggs together, and stir into the flour, which will form a paste; roll out in thin cakes, and bake in a moderately heated oven.—Lemon biscuits may be made the same way, substituting essence of lemon for ginger. This is an excellent receipt.

Damson or other Plum Cheese.—Take damsons that have been preserved without sugar; pass them through a sieve, to take out the skins and stones. To every pound of pulp of the fruit, put half a pound of loaf sugar, broken small; boil them together until quite stiff; pour it into four common-sized dinner-plates, rubbed with a little sweet oil; put into a warm place to dry, and when quite firm, take it from the plate, and cut to any chosen shape.—Used in desserts.

FOOD FOR MARCH.

Meat.—Beef, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Fish.—Brill, carp, cockles, cod, conger-eels, crabs, dabbs, dory, eels, flounders, ling, lobsters, mackerel, mullets, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon, salmon-trout, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sturgeon, turbot, tench, and whiting.

Poultry and Game.—Capons, chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, grouse, leverets, moor-game, pigeons, rabbits (tame), snipes, turkeys, woodcocks.

Vegetables.—Artichokes (Jerusalem), beet, brocoli (white and purple), Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cardoons, carrots, celery, chervil, colewort, cresses, endive, garlic, herbs (dry), kale (sea and Scotch), lettuces, mint, mushrooms, mustard, onions, parsley, parsnips, potatoes, rape, rosemary, sage, savoy, shalots, sorrel, spinach, tarragon, thyme, turnips, turnip-tops.

Forced Vegetables.—Asparagus, beans, cucumbers, and rhubarb.

Fruit.—Apples—French pippins, golden russet, Holland pippin, John apple, Kentish pippin, nonpareil, Norfolk beaufin, Wheeler’s russet. Chestnuts; oranges. Pears—Bergamot, Bugi, Charmontelle, St. Martial, winter Bon Chrétien. Strawberries (forced).

COOKERY FOR MARCH.

SOUPS.

Eel Soup.—Take two pounds of eels, a crust of bread, six blades of mace, two onions, a few whole peppercorns, a faggot of herbs, and two quarts of water; boil till half the liquor is wasted, strain, and serve with toasted bread.

Giblet Soup.—Take three sets of giblets, stew them with two pounds of gravy beef, a faggot of herbs, two onions, and pepper and salt to season; add six pints of water, and let it simmer till the gizzards (which must be divided) are perfectly tender. Skim it clean, add mushroom ketchup to flavour, and three-quarters of an ounce of butter rolled in flour; let it boil ten minutes, strain, and serve with the giblets.

Veal Broth.—Stew a knuckle of veal in a gallon of water, add salt, two blades of mace, and three ounces of rice, and let it stew till reduced to two quarts. Serve with toasted bread.

FISH.

Crab, Minced.—Remove the meat, mince small and place in a saucepan with a wine-glassful of white wine, pepper and salt, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and two table-spoonfuls of vinegar. Let it stew for ten minutes; melt a piece of butter the size of a hen’s egg, with an anchovy and the yolks of two eggs; beat up and mix well, stir in with the crab, and add sufficient stale bread crumbs to thicken. Garnish with thin toast cut with a pastry leaf-cutter, or with the claws, and parsley. Lobster may be dressed in the same manner.

Lobster Cutlets.—Choose a large lobster and two small ones, reserve a piece of the coral, pick and pound the remainder with a little fresh butter, a little salt, red and white pepper, a blade or two of mace, a little nutmeg, and a dessert-spoonful of anchovy sauce: when well pounded, add the yolks of two eggs and the white of one; lay the mixture on a paste-board, roll it out with a little flour until an inch thick, cut into small squares, do them over with egg, dip in bread crumbs, and fry a light brown in lard. Mix the coral remaining with a little melted butter and anchovy sauce, pour it into the middle of the dish with the cutlets arranged round, cut the horns of the lobster into pieces an inch and a half long, place them between each cutlet and serve hot. A very pretty way to dress them is to form into the shape of lamb cutlets, placing a piece of the horn in the centre of the extremity to resemble the bone.

Oysters, to Fry.—Take a quarter of a hundred of large oysters; beat the yolks of two eggs, a blade of mace pounded, a little nutmeg, a table-spoonful of flour, and a little salt, mix well; dip the oysters in the mixture, and fry a light brown in lard.

Pike, to Stew.—Take stale bread crumbs, finely chopped sweet herbs and parsley, a little lemon-peel, three ounces of butter, mixed up with the yolks of two eggs, and seasoned with nutmeg, cayenne, common pepper, and salt, and form into a pudding to stuff the fish with. A few pickled or fresh oysters chopped fine and mixed with it improve the flavour considerably. Clean and wash the fish, stuff with the pudding, fix the tail in the mouth, and stew gently in the same manner as for carp (p. 268), and garnish with sliced lemon.

Salmon, to Broil.—Cut the fish in slices an inch thick, season with cayenne and common pepper, a little nutmeg and salt, roll well in buttered white paper, and broil over a slow fire; serve in the paper with plain melted butter, anchovy, lobster, or shrimp sauce.

Soles, to Boil.—Skin them, wash well and boil in common spring water, with a little salt, and three table-spoonfuls of vinegar, taking care to remove the scum as it rises. Serve with lobster, shrimp, or anchovy sauce, or strew scraped horse-radish over them.

POULTRY, GAME, ETC.

Fowls, to Roast.—Singe, dust with flour, put down before a good fire, and baste well. Make a gravy of the necks and gizzards, and when strained add a tea-spoonful of browning (page 254). Take up the fowls, pour the gravy into a dish, frost them and send to table hot.

Pigeons Compote.—Truss six pigeons as if for boiling; grate the crumb of a penny loaf; scrape a pound of fat bacon; chop parsley, thyme, an onion or two shalots, and some lemon-peel, fine; grate some nutmeg, season with pepper and salt, and mix up with two eggs. Put this forcemeat into the craws of the pigeons, lard the breasts, and fry them brown. Place in a stewpan with some beef stock (page 253), stew three-quarters of an hour, thicken with a piece of butter rolled in flour, and dish up with forcemeat balls round the dish; strain the gravy over the pigeons and serve hot.

Snipes, to Roast.—Do not draw them; spit on a small bird-spit, flour, and baste them well with butter; have ready a slice of toasted bread, which lay in a dish and set under the birds while cooking. When done, take them up, place on the toast, put some good gravy in the dish, and garnish with lemon.

Snipe Ragout.—Slit the birds down the back, but do not remove the insides; toss them up with a little melted bacon fat, season with pepper and salt, and a little mushroom ketchup. When done, add some lemon-juice and serve up. Garnish with toast and lemon sliced.

MEAT.

Beef Collops.—Cut the fillet from the under part of a rump of beef into thin slices, and fry until three parts done; add slices of pickled cucumbers, a few oysters, two table-spoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, and stew till tender in beef stock, then serve.

Bologna Sausages.—Take equal quantities of bacon, fat and lean, beef, veal, pork, and beef suet; chop them small, season with pepper, salt, &c., sweet herbs, and sage rubbed fine. Have a well-washed intestine, fill, and prick it; boil gently for an hour, and lay on straw to dry. They may be smoked the same as hams.

Fricadel (a Dutch dish).—Take two and a half pounds of veal, and a quarter of a pound of suet, chop both fine, as if for sausage meat; three eggs beaten well, half a nutmeg, and pepper and salt to taste. Soak a slice of bread in boiling milk, and mix the whole well together with a little flour. Bake for two hours and a half in a moderate oven, or until it is a pale brown, but it should not have a hard crust on the top.

Hams, Tongues, etc., Glazing for.—Boil a shin of beef twelve hours in eight or ten quarts of water; draw the gravy from a knuckle of veal in the same manner; put the same herbs and spices as if for soup, and add the whole to the shin of beef. It must be boiled till reduced to a quart. It will keep good for a year; and when wanted for use, warm a little, and spread over the ham, tongue, &c., with a feather.

Liver, To Roast.—Take a calf’s or lamb’s liver, lard it, and fasten on a spit; baste with butter. Make some melted butter, add a table-spoonful of mushroom or walnut ketchup, and a little vinegar, and serve hot over the liver. Garnish with curled bacon.

Oxford Hash.—Cut thin slices of cold mutton, fat and lean, in pieces about the size of a penny; flour well. Boil an onion in a little water, add a tea-cupful of beef stock or gravy, season with pepper, salt, and mace; make it hot, but do not let it boil, then add four or five table-spoonfuls of piccalilli, and a little red wine, and serve hot with toasted bread.

Strasburg Potted Meat.—Take a pound and a half of the rump of beef, cut into dice, and put it in an earthen jar, with a quarter of a pound of butter at the bottom, tie the jar close up with paper, and set over a pot to boil; when nearly done, add cloves, mace, allspice, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste; then boil till tender, and let it get cold. Pound the meat, with four anchovies washed and boned, add a quarter of a pound of oiled butter, work it well together with the gravy, warm a little, and add cochineal to colour. Then press into small pots, and pour melted mutton suet over the top of each.

Veal Olives.—Take a dozen veal collops cut thin, and longer than broad, egg them, and cover with forcemeat; roll up tight and bake. Make a ragout of oysters and sweetbreads cut in dice, with mushroom ketchup to flavour. Lay the olives in the dish, pour the ragout over, and serve hot with forcemeat balls round.

VEGETABLES.

Observations on the Dressing of Vegetables.—The great art in boiling greens is to preserve their green colour and sweetness. This can only be done by obtaining those that are quite fresh, picking and washing them carefully in salt and water, to free them from insects, and boiling them in a considerable quantity of water, in a tin or copper pan, by themselves. When they are dressed with meat, or in an iron pot, the colour is generally spoiled, except carrots, which should be boiled with the meat.

All vegetables should be drained as soon as they are boiled enough, otherwise, from neglect of that precaution, and over-boiling, they lose their crispness.

If the water is hard in which they are to be dressed, add a tea-spoonful of potash; and any scum which may arise during the process should be carefully removed, and the lid of the saucepan taken off when they boil, observing that when they sink to the bottom, they are done enough.

Celery, with Cream.—Take the white part of celery, wash clean, cut three inches long, boil it tender, and strain it off; then beat up the yolks of four eggs, strain them into half a pint of cream, add a little salt and nutmeg. Put all into a tossing-pan, set it over a stove until it boils, and is of a proper thickness, then send to table with toasted bread underneath.

Parsnips, to Boil.—1. When they are soft, take them up, scrape the dust off carefully; then scrape them all fine, lay in a saucepan, with milk, and let them simmer till thick; then add a piece of butter, and salt, and serve. 2. When boiled and scraped, serve whole in a dish, with melted butter in a sauce tureen.

Potato Fritters.—Boil and beat half a dozen potatoes, mix with four beaten eggs, about a gill of cream, some salt and nutmeg, a little sugar, some fresh butter oiled, and a table-spoonful of spirit; beat well together, drop in the boiling dripping, fry a light brown, dish hot, and strew sugar over them.

Vegetable Pudding.—Take six ounces each of raw scraped carrot, finely mashed potatoes, currants, flour, and beef suet; mix well without any liquid if for boiling, but add an egg and a little milk if for baking.

PASTRY, ETC.

Shrewsbury Cakes.—Take half a pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of sugar, the same of butter, and enough of an egg well beaten to wet it; grate in some nutmeg, mix well, roll thin, cut with a pastry-cutter or a wine-glass, and bake on buttered paper.

Norfolk Biscuits.—Take three-quarters of a pound of butter, three pounds and a half of flour, and a quarter of a pint of yeast. Melt the butter with water, knead well till stiff, and bake on buttered paper for twenty minutes. An ounce for each biscuit.

Ramakins.—Scrape a quarter of a pound of Cheshire and the same of Gloucester cheese, add a quarter of a pound of butter, then beat all in a mortar with the yolks of four eggs and the inside of a small French roll boiled in cream or milk.

FOOD FOR APRIL.

Meat.—Beef, grass-lamb, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Fish.—Brill, carp, chub, cockles, cod, conger-eels, crabs, dabbs, dory, eels, flounders, halibut, herrings, ling, lobsters, mackerel, mullets, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, prawns, plaice, salmon, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sturgeon, tench, trout, turbot, whitings.

Poultry and Game.—Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, pigeons, pullets, rabbits, turkey-poults, wood-pigeons.

Vegetables.—Asparagus, beans, brocoli, chervil, coleworts, cucumbers, endive, fennel, herbs of all sorts, lettuce, onions, parsley, parsnips, peas, purslane, radishes, sea-kale, sorrel, spinach, small salad, tarragon, turnip-radishes, turnip-tops, and rhubarb.

Fruit.—Apples—Golden russet, John apple, nonpareil, Wheeler’s russet; nuts; oranges. Pears—Bergamot, Bon Chrétien, Bugi; Carmelite, francreal, St. Martial. A few strawberries; walnuts. Forced—Apricots, cherries, and strawberries.

COOKERY FOR APRIL.

SOUPS.

Italian Paste.—Put on a quart of stock (p. 253), and when it boils add two ounces of Italian paste in small stars, rings, &c.; boil for twenty minutes, or rather longer, and serve hot.

Oyster Sauce.—Open the oysters carefully, so as to preserve their liquor; beard and remove the tough parts, which stew in the liquor, adding sufficient water or veal broth to make the proper quantity of sauce, and allow for evaporation of about one-half; when done, strain it off, and put it in a saucepan with the oysters, a tea-spoonful of anchovy sauce, and a good-sized piece of butter rolled in flour; keep turning it round to prevent the butter from curdling.

Rice.—Wash two ounces of the best Patna rice, strain off the water, put the rice with a quart of stock into a stewpan, simmer for half an hour, or until the rice is tender, and serve.

Spanish Pea.—Lay a quart of Spanish peas in water all night; then add them to a gallon of water, with a clove of garlic, a quart of fine sweet oil, and pepper and salt to season; cover the pan close, boil until the peas are soft, and then beat in the yolk of an egg mixed with vinegar to taste; poach some eggs, lay them on the dish with sippets, pour the soup on, and serve hot.

Vermicelli.—Put on a quart of veal stock (p. 253), and when it boils add two ounces of vermicelli; simmer gently for half an hour, stirring frequently.

FISH.

Eel Pie.—Clean a pound or more of eels, cut them in lengths of two and three inches, season with pepper and salt, and put them in a dish with some lumps of butter, and a wine-glassful of water; cover with a light paste, and bake. Some add a couple of bay-leaves and a faggot of herbs, with a few cloves and an onion, and veal stock thickened with flour, instead of water. Cream added after the pie is done, instead of butter before, also improves it vastly.

Eels, Spitchcock.—Take two large eels, split and clean well, but leave the skin on; cut in pieces three inches long, wipe them very dry, egg over both sides, and dip in a mixture of chopped parsley, pepper, salt, sage, and mace. Broil a light brown, and serve with anchovy and butter sauce.

Prawn Jelly.—Put some savoury fish-jelly into the bottom of a deep mould; when cold, lay pickled prawns on it, and all round the sides; pour in a little more jelly, and when cold, put on a second layer, repeating until the mould is filled. Turn the jelly out when cold, and it will look beautiful, especially for a supper. Garnish with parsley.

Savoury Fish-jelly.—Put four pounds of skate into three quarts of water, with a calf’s foot, or cow heel, a stick of horse-radish cut fine, an onion, three blades of mace, some white pepper, a piece of lemon-peel, and a slice of lean bacon. Stew it to a jelly, and strain. When cold, remove every particle of fat, take it up from the sediment, and boil with a wine-glassful of white wine, the whites of four or five eggs, and a slice of lemon. Boil without stirring; after a short time set aside for half an hour, strain through a jelly-bag, and use as required.

Salmon, Collared.—Split enough of the fish to make a handsome roll, wash, and wipe it well; rub the inside and outside well with powdered white pepper, mace, salt, and Jamaica pepper, carefully mixed; roll it tight, and bind it up; put as much water, and one-third of vinegar, as will cover it, add salt, long pepper, allspice, and two bay-leaves; cover it close, and simmer till done enough. Drain and boil the liquid quickly, and pour it over the fish when cold; serve with fennel.

Skate, to Boil.—The fish having been previously skinned, the flesh cut into slips about an inch wide, and then immersed in salt and water for four or five hours, the pieces should be rolled, tied with a piece of string, and boiled for about twenty minutes. The thinner parts not requiring so long should not be put in until a short time after the water boils. Anchovy, and butter sauce, or crab sauce, should be served with it.

Tench, to Fry.—Open them by the belly, cut off the fins close; scale well, dry in flour, and fry a light brown. Serve with parsley and butter, or any fish-sauce and butter.

POULTRY.

Ducklings, to Roast.—Proceed the same as for ducks (p. 255), they must not, however, be too much done, otherwise the flesh will have a rank taste; twenty minutes is generally sufficient. Serve hot, with a good gravy and mustard.

Green Goose, to Roast.—Put a lump of butter the size of an orange into the goose, spit, and lay it down to roast; singe, dredge with flour, and baste well with butter, and when done enough dredge again, and baste till a fine froth rises on it, and it becomes a nice brown. Gooseberry sauce is the correct one; but apple, with a little ginger and sorrel juice, answers very well.

MEAT.

Beef Sanders.—Mince cold beef small with onion; add pepper, salt, and a little gravy; put it into a pie-dish, or scallop shells, until about three parts full, then fill up with mashed potatoes, baked in an oven or before the fire until done a light brown. Mutton may be cooked the same way.

Beef Marrow-bones.—Cover the ends with a piece of flour-and-water paste, and boil. Serve the bones hot in dry toast.

Calf’s Head Fricasseed.—Clean and half-boil part of a head; cut the meat into small bits, put into a stewpan, with a little gravy made of the bones, some of the water it was boiled in, a faggot of sweet herbs, an onion, and a blade of mace. Take a sweetbread, boil tender, and cut small; season with pepper, nutmeg, and salt, rub down some flour and butter, and boil all together with the head. Remove the herbs and onion; just before dishing stir in two or three table-spoonfuls of cream, and serve hot, garnishing with forcemeat balls and rolled bacon.

Mutton Steaks, à la Maintenon.—Half-fry, then strew stale bread crumbs, sweet herbs, and pepper and salt over them; fold while hot in buttered papers, and finish on a gridiron.

Veal Cake.—Boil six eggs hard, cut in halves, and lay some of the pieces at the bottom of an earthen pot, then shake in chopped parsley, some slices of veal and ham about two inches square, and then eggs again, repeating the parsley and seasoning after each layer until the pot is full. Pour in sufficient water to cover it, lay about an ounce of butter on the top, tie it over with thick paper doubled, and bake about an hour. Then press close together with a spoon, and let it stand till cold. If put into a mould instead of the pot, it forms a handsome supper-dish.

Asparagus, to Boil.—Scrape the stalks carefully till they look white, cut the ends even, tie them in separate bundles, and lay in boiling water, with a little salt; boil briskly, and when they are tender, take them up, for if boiled too much they lose both flavour and colour. Dip a round of toasted bread in the liquor the asparagus was boiled in, and lay it on the dish. Then pour melted butter over the toast, and lay the asparagus round the dish, the tops inward. Serve with melted butter in a sauce tureen.

Peas, to Boil.—Shell, but do not wash them, boil in plenty of water, and skim well as soon as they boil. Put in some salt and mint tops, and do not overboil them, or they will be tasteless and of a bad colour. When done, put in a dish with a lump or two of cold butter, and serve hot.

Sea-Kale.—Boil till very white, and serve on toast like asparagus.

Spinach, to Boil.—Carefully pick, wash, and put into a saucepan that will just hold it; sprinkle with salt, and cover close. Set the pan on the fire, and shake frequently; when done, beat it well with a bit of butter, squeeze quite dry between two plates, or press into a mould, and serve with plain melted butter in a tureen.

Spinach, to Stew.—Squeeze quite dry, put into a stewpan without water, with a spoonful of gravy, a lump of butter, salt, and pepper, and simmer till ready. If a table-spoonful of cream is added, the flavour is greatly improved.

PASTRY, ETC.

Apple Fool.—Stew a dozen apples in a stone jar on a stove, or a saucepan of water over the fire, adding in the former case two table-spoonfuls of water to the fruit. When soft, peel, and pulp through a cullender; boil some new milk, add a well-beaten egg, and let it cool, then mix gradually with the pulp, and sweeten with fine moist sugar.

Devonshire Junket.—To one quart of new milk, made lukewarm, add a table-spoonful or more of sugar, a wine-glassful of French brandy, four drops of essence of bitter almonds or lemon-peel, a little nutmeg, and four tea-spoonfuls of essence of rennet. Mix well, put into a glass dish, lay aside until set, and cover the surface with clotted cream.

Hampshire Cheese Snaps.—Take a new loaf, steaming hot, pull in halves, dig out pieces about the size of a walnut with a fork, put them on a dish, and set in a quick oven to brown lightly. Stale bread can be used, but does not answer so well. This forms a pretty supper-dish, when heaped in a cake basket, and can be eaten with wine.

Marrow Pudding.—Grate a penny loaf into crumbs, pour on it a pint of boiling cream. Cut very thin a pound of beef marrow, beat four eggs well, add a wine-glassful of brandy, with sugar and nutmeg to taste. Mix all well together, and either boil or bake it for three-quarters of an hour. Cut two ounces of candied citron very thin, and when served up, stick the pieces all over it.

If baked, place a puff-paste round the edge of a shallow dish, and pour the pudding in.

Somersetshire Firmity.—Boil a quart of fine wheat, and add by degrees two quarts of new milk. Carefully pick and wash four ounces of currants, stir them in the jelly, and boil till done. Beat the yolks of three eggs and a little nutmeg, with three table-spoonfuls of milk, add to the wheat, and stir well while over the fire. Sweeten and serve in a deep dish, either warm or cold.

Staffordshire Syllabub.—Put a pint of cider into a bowl, with a wine-glassful of brandy, some sugar and nutmeg. Pour a quart of new warm milk into it from a jug held up high, and moved in a circular direction. Grate nutmeg on the top, or strew with nonpareil comfits.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Lobster Salad.—Take three yolks of hard eggs, two yolks of raw eggs, two tea-spoonfuls of mustard, a little salt and cayenne pepper, four table-spoonfuls of salad oil, one and a half table-spoonful of tarragon vinegar, and one of essence of anchovies; mix well, and add three table-spoonfuls of cream. Cut two large lobsters up small, and mix with finely cut salad, cucumber, hot pickles, and beet-root. Pour the mixture given above over the salad, put in a dish, not a bowl, and garnish with hard boiled eggs cut in thin slices.

Maccaroni.—Put as much of the pipe to soak in cold water as you think proper; then boil it in milk and water till quite tender, with a small onion; when done, strain off the milk, and add a piece of butter the size of a walnut, a little cream, and some nutmeg; some persons, however, prefer cayenne and a little salt to the nutmeg. Mix well together, and put it into a dish, then cover with grated cheese—Parmesan or Cheshire; put it in the oven or before the fire to be lightly browned, and serve hot with mustard.

Mock Brawns.—Put four feet, two ears, and two chaps of a pig into two quarts of water, and let it boil for several hours, till the bones can be picked from the meat, then pour it into a basin, skim off the fat, and take away all the bones; put it again into a saucepan with a little chopped parsley and sweet herbs dried and rubbed small, cayenne pepper, salt, and pounded mace, and let it boil for ten minutes; dip a mould into cold water, pour in the mixture, let it get cool, turn out, and garnish with parsley and barberries, or slices of lemon.

Potted Fish.

FOOD FOR MAY.

Meat.—Beef, grass-lamb, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Fish.—Brill, carp, chub, cod, conger-eels, crabs, cray-fish, dabbs, dace, dory, eels, flounders, gurnets, haddock, halibut, herring, ling, lobsters, mackerel, mullet, perch, pike, place, prawns, salmon, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sturgeon, tench, trout, turbot, whitings.

Poultry and Game.—Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, pigeons, pullets, rabbits, wood-pigeons.

Vegetables.—Angelica, artichoke, asparagus, balm, kidney-beans, cabbage, carrots, cauliflowers, chervil, cucumbers, fennel, herbs of all sorts, lettuce, mint, onions, peas, parsley, new potatoes, purslane, radishes, rhubarb, salad of all sorts, sea-kale, sorrel, spinach, thyme, turnips.

Fruit.—Apples—John apple, golden russet, winter russet. May-Duke cherries; currants; gooseberries; melons. Pears—L’Amozette, winter green. Scarlet strawberries. Forced—Apricots, cherries, nutmeg-peaches, and strawberries.

COOKERY FOR MAY.

SOUPS.

Asparagus.—Cut half a pound of fat bacon into thin slices, place at the bottom of a stewpan, then add five pounds of lean beef cut into dice, and rolled in flour; cover the pan close, stirring occasionally until the gravy is drawn, then add two quarts of water, and half a pint of ale. Cover, stew gently for an hour, with some whole pepper and salt. Strain off the liquor, and skim off the fat. Add some spinach, cabbage-lettuce, white beet leaves, sorrel, a little mint, and powdered sweet marjoram; let these boil up in the liquor, then put in the green tops of asparagus cut small, boil till all is tender, and serve hot.

Green Pea.—Cut a knuckle of veal, and a pound of lean ham into thin slices; lay the ham at the bottom of a stewpan; then the veal; cut six small onions into slices, and put in two turnips, two carrots, a head of celery cut small, a faggot of sweet herbs, four cloves, and four blades of mace. Put a little water at the bottom, cover the pot close, stirring occasionally till the gravy is drawn; then add six quarts of boiling water, stew gently for four hours, and skim well. Take two quarts of green peas, stew in some of the broth till tender, strain, put in a marble mortar, and beat well, or mash with the spoon against the sides of the stewpan. Rub the peas through a hair sieve, or tamis, till thoroughly pulped, then put the soup into a clean pot, with a tea-cupful of spinach juice, and boil for fifteen minutes; season with pepper, salt, and a table-spoonful of brown sugar. If the soup is not thick enough, boil the crumb of a French roll in a little of the soup, and rub through the tamis; then put in the soup and boil. Serve hot in the tureen, with dice of bread toasted very hard. (The celery must be omitted, until July, using a table-spoonful of the seeds instead.)

Italian Turnip.—Cut turnips in different shapes, colour them with butter in a stewpan, and two table-spoonfuls of sweet oil; add slices of chervil, and sea-kale; mix two table-spoonfuls of flour with two quarts of the savoury fish-jelly, (p. 263), and the vegetables, then boil, and serve hot, with dice of bread fried in butter, and dried on a cloth.

FISH.

Crabs, Dressed.—Choose a good heavy crab, boil for about half an hour in salt and water, remove the pot, let the crab get cold; take off the great shell without breaking it, extract the fish from the body and claws, and mince it well. Put some floured butter in a stewpan with six or eight small mushrooms, parsley, and green asparagus tops shred fine, fry a little, and put in the minced fish with half a wine-glass of white wine and pepper, salt and sweet herbs to season; stew gently for fifteen minutes, thicken with flour, and flavour with lemon-juice. Fill the shell with this mixture, having previously removed the herbs, set in a baking-pan, or dish, strew stale bread crumbs over the top, set in an oven to brown, and then serve hot. Garnish with lemon, and parsley.

John Dory Cutlets, to Fry.—Cut the flesh off from the bones in cutlets about three inches broad, egg and dip in bread crumbs, then fry a light brown in plenty of dripping, or lard. Garnish with fried parsley, and serve with anchovy butter sauce.

Trout, Boiled.—Clean, scale well, and boil whole in cold water, allowing it to boil gradually; vinegar and horse-radish put in the water improve the flavour. When done, carefully drain off the water so as not to break the skin, and serve with lobster, shrimp, or anchovy butter sauce.

Carp, to Stew.—Clean well, and cut off the fins; then flour, and fry over a brisk fire until about three parts dressed; remove, and place in a stewpan, with equal parts of beef gravy and water, a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, a slice of lemon, a few pickled mushrooms, a faggot of sweet herbs, and a glass of red wine; season with nutmeg, pepper, or cayenne, and mace. Fry a few onions brown in the fat the fish was fried in, add these, butter and all, to the fish; cover and stew gently for about an hour. Take out the fish, pour the gravy over, and garnish with slices of lemon, and fried bread cut with pastry-cutters. If the fish is suspected to have a muddy flavour, sew up a piece of bread in its belly.

Whiting, to Boil.—Proceed the same as for haddock.

Whiting, to Fry.—Fix the tail in the mouth by means of a small skewer, or by winding a piece of string round the head of the fish; dry well with a cloth, egg, and sprinkle with bread crumbs; then place it on its belly in the frying-pan, with plenty of lard or dripping, fry a light brown, and garnish with fried parsley; place on a napkin, and serve with melted butter.

POULTRY, ETC.

Fowl, Cold, to Dress.—Take the remains of a cold fowl, remove the skin, then the bones, leaving the flesh in as large pieces as possible; dredge with flour, and fry a light brown in butter: toss it up in a good gravy well seasoned, thicken with butter rolled in flour, flavour with lemon, and serve hot with sippets.

Pigeon in Savoury Jelly.—Bone a pigeon, remove the head and feet, stuff with sausage meat, and roast. Take a pound of scrag of veal, a slice of ham, three cloves, a little nutmeg, a faggot of sweet herbs, a carrot, two shalots, two bay-leaves, a pint of beef broth, (p. 254), and an ounce of “Nelson’s Gelatine;” stew gently till it will jelly, pass through a fine sieve, then through a bag, add lemon-juice, and pour a little into a mould previously dipped in cold water. When it is set, lay in the pigeon with the breast down, fill up the mould with the jelly, and when cold, turn out. Garnish with parsley.

Rabbits, Pulled.—Half-boil the rabbits, with an onion, some whole pepper, a faggot of sweet herbs, and a piece of lemon-peel; pull the flesh into flakes, add a little of the liquor to it, a piece of butter rolled in flour, pepper, salt, nutmeg, chopped parsley, and the liver boiled and bruised; boil well, stirring occasionally, add a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, and serve hot.

VEGETABLES.

Artichokes, to Fricassee.—Take artichoke bottoms, put into a mixture of fresh butter and cream, melted, shake over the fire till quite hot, and dish up.

Cauliflowers, to Boil.—Cut off the green leaves, wash in salt and water to remove caterpillars, &c., then soak for an hour in cold water, and boil in milk and water, skimming the pot frequently to prevent the flower getting dirty. When the stalks are tender, remove carefully, and put into a cullender to drain. They should be served very white, and not boiled too much.

Potatoes, New, to Dress.—Wash well, rub off the skin with a cloth, and dry. Boil until done, then put into a vegetable dish with a lump of salt butter; stir them up, and send to table.

Salads should be very fresh, carefully washed, picked, and dried in a clean cloth, cut up separately, well mixed, and put into a bowl just before using. The salad mixture should be placed at the bottom of the bowl, and the salad on top, for if mixed, the vegetables lose that crispness which is so delicious. Slices of beet, eggs, or boiled potatoes, are placed on top to garnish.

Turnip-tops, to Boil.—Wash well, boil in three waters with salt, drain in a cullender, and chop up fine with pepper, salt, and butter. Put in a jelly-mould, turn out, and send hot to table.

Potato Salad.—Take some cold potatoes, and cut into slices a quarter of an inch thick; cut these into various shapes with tin pastry-cutters, mix with some flakes of boiled cod, in a basin, and pour over them a thick salad mixture; let this remain for an hour or two, then form into a heap, pour over the sauce, and garnish with slices of beef cut in shapes.

MEAT.

Calf’s Head Cheese.—Boil the head until the bones will come out, then put the head, tongue, and brains into a mould with spices and parsley chopped fine, until the mould is quite full, put a plate and a weight over it, and when cold, turn out. Serve with parsley, and slices of rolled ham, placed round the dish.

Spiced Beef.—Sprinkle a piece of beef with common salt, and let it hang a day. Take a pound of bay salt, half a pound of brown sugar, a quarter of a pound of mace, of cloves, allspice, and saltpetre, each half an ounce, and an ounce of pepper, pound all together, and rub well into the beef every day, and turning it as well for four days. When cooking, boil very slowly.

PASTRY.

Apple Jelly—Mould.—Pare, core, and stew six or eight apples with lemon-peel, sugar, and sufficient water to cover them, add half an ounce of “Nelson’s Gelatine,” dip a mould in cold water, pour in, and when cold, turn it out.

Gooseberry Fool.—Scald a quart of berries, and pass them through a sieve, make the pulp sweet, and let it stand to cool; beat up the yolks of three eggs, strain them to a quart of milk, set it over a clear fire, and keep stirring till it boils; remove, stir till cold, and then add the fruit to it gradually.

Gooseberry Pudding with the Wood in it.—Make a paste of flour, chopped beef suet, salt, and water; knead, roll it out thin, sheet a basin with it, and fill with young gooseberries, cover with paste, and boil. When done, cut a piece out of the top, mix sifted sugar, and a lump of butter, or some cream with the fruit, and a little grated nutmeg. The name is derived from the gooseberries tasting a little woody; the consequence of being too young.

Rhubarb Fool.—Scald a quart or more of rhubarb, nicely peeled, and cut into pieces an inch long, pulp through a sieve, sweeten, and let it stand to cool. Put a pint of cream, or new milk, into a stewpan with a stick of cinnamon, a small piece of lemon-peel, a few cloves, coriander seeds, and sugar to taste; boil ten minutes. Beat up the yolks of four eggs, and a little flour, stir into the cream, set over the fire till it boils, stirring all the time; remove, and let it stand till cold. Mix the fruit and cream together, and add a little grated nutmeg.

Soda Cake.—Take a pound of flour, of butter and brown sugar, each a quarter of a pound, half a pound of currants, two ounces of candied lemon-peel, a tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda, and a pint and a half of milk. Mix well, and bake for an hour in a mould. It is better when kept for a few days.

Spanish Fritters.—Cut the crumb of a French roll into square lengths, half an inch thick; mix nutmeg, powdered cinnamon, sugar, and an egg, together. Soak the roll in the mixture, and fry a nice brown. Serve with wine sauce.

Victoria Sandwiches.—Cut sponge-cake into slices a quarter of an inch thick, spread some apricot jam, or other preserve, on the top of one slice, cover with another, dress down gently, and cut into large diamonds; cover with pink icing, and put in an oven to set.

Plain Pudding.—Weigh three-quarters of a pound of any old scraps of bread, either crust or crumb, cut them small, and pour on them a pint and a half of boiling water to soak them well. Let it stand until the water is cool, then press it out, and mash the bread smooth with the back of a spoon. Add to it a tea-spoonful of powdered ginger, moist sugar to sweeten, three-quarters of a pound of picked and cleaned currants. Mix well, and lay in a pan well buttered; flatten it down with a spoon, lay some pieces of butter on the top, and bake in a moderate oven. Serve hot.

Cabinet Pudding.—Over six sponge cakes pour sufficient sherry, or white wine, to soak them thoroughly. Beat up six new-laid eggs with a quart of new milk, and a little nutmeg, and sweeten with white sugar. Put the cakes into the custard without beating them together, and turn the whole into a mould previously buttered; tie a paper over the top, and steam the pudding for an hour. For Sauce to the Pudding.—Beat up the yolks of two eggs, two table-spoonfuls of pounded white sugar, and two wine-glassfuls of white wine; mix well together, simmer gently, stirring all the time, and serve hot. This, also, makes a delicious sweet, which may be eaten when cold, like custard.

A Boiled Batter Pudding.—Take two eggs, beat well, two table-spoonfuls of flour, and enough milk to make a batter. Serve hot, with wine sauce.

SEA COOKERY.

First-watch Stew.—Cut pieces of salt beef and pork into dice, put them into a stewpan with six whole peppercorns, two blades of mace, a few cloves, a tea-spoonful of celery seeds, and a faggot of dried sweet herbs; cover with water, and stew gently for an hour; then add fragments of carrots, turnips, parsley, or any other vegetables at hand, with two sliced onions, and some vinegar to flavour; thicken with flour, or rice, remove the herbs, and pour into the dish with toasted bread, or freshly baked biscuit broken small, and serve hot. When they can be procured, a few potatoes improve it very much.

Sea Pie.—Make a thick pudding crust, line a dish with it, or, what is better, a cake tin; put a layer of sliced onions, then a layer of salt beef cut in slices, a layer of sliced potatoes, a layer of pork, and another of onions, strew pepper over all, cover with a crust, and tie down tightly with a cloth previously dipped in boiling water and floured. Boil for two hours, and serve hot in a dish.

FOOD FOR JUNE.

Meat.—Beef, grass-lamb, house-lamb, mutton, pork, veal, buck-venison.

Fish.—Carp, cod, conger-eels, crabs, cray-fish, dabbs, dace, dory, eels, flounders, gurnets, haddocks, herrings, ling, lobsters, mackerel, mullet, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon, salmon-trout, skate, smelts, soles, sturgeon, tench, trout, turbot, whitebait, whitings.

Poultry and Game.—Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, pigeons, plovers, pullets, rabbits, turkey-poults, wheat-ears, wood-pigeons.

Vegetables.—Angelica, artichoke, asparagus, beans (French, kidney, and Windsor), white beet, cabbage, carrots, cauliflowers, chervil, cucumbers, endive, herbs of all sorts, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsley, peas, potatoes, purslane, radishes, salad of all sorts, spinach, turnips, vegetable marrow.

For Drying.—Burnet, mint, tarragon, orange-thyme.

For Pickling.—Garlic.

Fruit.—Apples—John apple, stone pippin, golden russet. Apricots. Cherries—Duke, bigaroon, black-heart. Currants; gooseberries; melons. Pears—Winter green. Strawberries. Forced—Grapes, nectarines, peaches, pines.

COOKERY FOR JUNE.

SOUPS.

Julienne is made the same as soup santé, omitting the lettuce and chervil.

Soup Sante, or Gravy Soup.—Shred carrots and turnips small, with celery heads about two inches long; wash and steam them separately in a little water till nearly done; when ready, cut the white of the celery small, and a small quantity of cabbage, chervil, Cos lettuces, endive, and leeks; put all to boil till quite tender in three quarts of beef stock; add, if at hand, asparagus tops, green peas, small onions, &c.; and, when done, serve hot.

Spinach.—Shred two handfuls of spinach, a turnip, two onions, a head of celery, two carrots, a little thyme and parsley; put all into a stewpan, with an ounce of butter, and a pint of veal stock, or the liquor in which meat has been boiled; stew till tender, pulp through a coarse sieve, add a quart of fresh water, salt and pepper, and boil all together. Make some small suet dumplings the size of a walnut, put them into the tureen, and pour the soup on hot.

À la Musquetaire.—Take a pint of green peas, and a handful of sorrel, boil in a pint of beef stock, on a slow fire; add a quart of water, and boil a neck of mutton in it, which, when done, glaze as a fricandeau, and serve all together.

FISH.

Lobster Balls.—Take the meat of a lobster, with the coral and spawn, pound in a mortar, add bread crumbs, about a quarter the proportion of the lobster, and season with cayenne, white pepper, mace, and salt. Mix sufficient melted butter with the whole to form into a mass, make into balls the size of small apples, egg well, dip in bread crumbs, and fry a pale brown.

Prawns and Shrimps, to Boil.—Let the water be boiling briskly, with a handful of salt in it, throw in the prawns or shrimps, and, when they are done enough, they will float to the surface; remove, place in a cullender to drain, then throw them into a dry towel, and rub a good quantity of salt among them whilst hot, then wrap them up in the towel, and keep until quite cold.

Salmon Dressed, to Pot.—Take the remains of a dressed salmon, remove the bones, mash it upon a board, season with a little allspice, pepper, and salt; then add some thick melted butter, sufficient to form into a paste; but do not make it too moist; then press into a pot, and pour clarified butter over the top. If at hand, the coral and spawn of a lobster, or a few shrimps or prawns, improve it, both in flavour and appearance.

Skate, to Fry.—Prepare the fish as directed at p. 263, egg well, dip in bread crumbs, and fry carefully in plenty of dripping. Garnish with fried parsley, and serve with crab sauce, anchovy and butter sauce, soy or ketchup.

Whitebait, to Fry.—Dry thoroughly, dip in egg, flour well, and dredge with flour all the time they are frying, until they have a complete coating over them, taking care to keep them moving, or else they will stick to each other or adhere to the pan. Serve with a lemon cut in half. Brown bread and butter rolled, and cold punch, should be partaken of at the same time.

POULTRY, ETC.

Fowl, Curried Malabar Fashion.—Cut a fowl into small joints, and wash it well in cold water. Mince an onion or two, put three ounces of butter in a stewpan, fry the onion a nice brown, then add the meat, a table-spoonful of flour, the same of curry powder, and simmer for ten minutes; then add a pint of veal broth or water, and stew for half an hour, with a stick of cinnamon. Scrape some cocoa-nut into a basin, with a gill and a half of warm water, press it well with the back of a spoon, strain through a sieve, and add with two or three bay-leaves five minutes before serving. Shake the pan once or twice, squeeze half a lemon in, or add a table-spoonful of vinegar, and serve hot, with the rice separate, having previously removed the bay-leaves.

Beef, Mutton, or Veal, may be Dressed the same.—If a cocoa-nut cannot be procured, blanch four ounces of sweet almonds, pounded to a paste, add a gill of water, and rub through a sieve; this is to be added to the curry in the same manner as the cocoa-nut liquor. A gill of cream or milk, will answer very well, or a table-spoonful of flour, mixed with two ounces of butter, may be substituted when the others cannot be obtained.

Turkey, Dutch Way.—Boil, season with salt, pepper, and cloves; add a quarter of a pound of rice or vermicelli to every quart of broth, and serve hot, garnishing with toasted bread cut with a pastry-cutter.

VEGETABLES.

Beans, French, à la Crême.—String them, cut into slips, and boil in plenty of water, with salt in it. When done, drain them. Put into a stewpan with two ounces of fresh butter, the yolks of three eggs, beaten up in a gill of cream, and set over a slow fire. When hot, add a table-spoonful of vinegar, and the beans; simmer for five minutes, stir with a wooden spoon, to prevent burning or curdling, and serve hot.

Beans, Kidney, to Boil.—String, slit down the middle, and cut them across; cover with salt and water, let them remain some time, boil till tender, and then serve with melted butter.

Beans, Windsor, to Boil.—Boil in salt and water till tender, then serve with parsley and butter.

Chervil, Boiled.—Wash, and pick very clean; put a tea-spoonful of salt into half a pint of boiling water, boil the chervil about ten minutes, drain on a sieve, and serve with good melted butter.

Cucumbers to Stew.—Slice an equal quantity of cucumbers and onions, and fry them together in butter, strain on a sieve, put them with a gill of gravy, two table-spoonfuls of white wine, and a blade of mace, into a saucepan. Stew five or six minutes, add a piece of butter rolled in flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. Shake well together until thick enough, then dish and serve hot.

Onions, to Roast.—Roast with the skins on; when tender, peel carefully, and serve with cold butter, and salt.

Turnips, to Boil and Mash.—Boil until tender, drain on a sieve, and mash well, with butter, pepper, and salt. Observe that there are not any lumps. Serve hot in a vegetable dish, either plain, or previously pressed into a pudding-mould.

Vegetable Marrow, to Dress.—1. Peel the same as apples, cut in halves, and scrape the seeds out of the inside; then boil for about twenty minutes, with a little salt in the water, and when soft, take them up, drain on a sieve, and mash up with pepper, salt, and butter or cream. 2. Peel, cut in halves, remove the seeds, and put into a stewpan with water, salt, lemon-juice, and a small piece of fat bacon. Stew gently till quite tender, and serve up with Dutch sauce.

MEAT.

Mutton, Breast of, Grilled.—Par-boil, score, pepper and salt it well, rub with the yolk of egg, dip in bread crumbs and chopped parsley, and broil, or roast it in a Dutch oven. Serve with caper sauce.

Sausages, Oxford.—Chop a pound and a half of pork, the same of veal, deprived of skin and tendons, add three-quarters of a pound of beef suet. Mince and mix well. Steep the crumb of a penny loaf in water, then mix it with the meat; add sage, salt, pepper, and allspice to taste, roll into balls, flatten, and fry a light brown.

Tripe Stewed.—Cut some nice white tripe into slips, put the pieces into some rich gravy, with a lump of butter the size of a hen’s egg, rolled in flour; shake until the butter is melted, then add a table-spoonful of white wine, some chopped parsley, pepper, salt, a few pickled mushrooms, and a squeeze of lemon; shake all well together, and stew gently till tender.

Sweetbreads, Larded.—Par-boil two sweetbreads; when cold, lard them down the middle with little bits of bacon, then with small slices of lemon-peel on either side, and then with little pieces of pickled cucumber cut very small; stew gently in rich gravy, thickened with flour; add mushroom ketchup to taste, and a squeeze of lemon.

PASTRY.

Apricot Pudding.—Split a dozen large apricots, remove the stones, and scald till quite soft. Pour a pint of boiling cream upon the grated crumbs of a penny loaf; when nearly cold, add four ounces of sifted sugar, the yolks of four well-beaten eggs, and a wine-glassful of white wine. Pound the fruit in a mortar, with half of their kernels; mix the fruit and the other ingredients together. Line your dish with paste, put a layer round the edge, pour in the mixture, and bake for half an hour.

Brentford Rolls.—Mix with two pounds of flour a little salt, two ounces of sifted sugar, four ounces of butter, and two eggs beaten with two table-spoonfuls of yeast, and about a pint of milk. Knead the dough well, and set it to rise before the fire. Make a dozen rolls, butter tin plates, and set them before the fire to rise, till they are of a proper size, then bake for half an hour.

Cheshire Puffs.—Strain some cheese curd from the whey, and beat half a pint of it fine in a mortar, with a table-spoonful and a half of flour, the white of one egg, and the yolks of three; add a table-spoonful of orange-flower water, a quarter of a nutmeg, and sugar to make it pretty sweet. Lay a little of this paste in small round cakes, on a tin plate. If the oven be hot, a quarter of an hour will bake them. Serve with pudding sauce.

Cumberland Pudding.—Mix six ounces of grated bread, the same quantity of well picked and cleaned currants, beef suet finely shred, finely chopped apples, and lump sugar; add six eggs, half a grated nutmeg, a pinch of salt, the rind of a lemon minced as fine as possible, a large table-spoonful of citron, orange, and lemon-peel, cut thin. Mix thoroughly together, put the whole into a mould, cover close with a floured cloth, and boil for three hours. Add the juice of half a lemon to pudding sauce, boil and serve with the pudding.

German Puffs.—Mix two table-spoonfuls of fine flour with two well-beaten eggs, half a pint of cream, or milk, and two ounces of melted butter; stir all well together, add a little salt and nutmeg, put into tea-cups, or small tin moulds, half full, and bake for a quarter of an hour in a quick oven, hot enough to colour them at the top and bottom. Turn them into a dish, and strew pounded sugar over them. Some like wine sauce with them.

FOOD FOR JULY.

Meat.—Beef, grass-lamb, mutton, veal, buck-venison.

Fish.—Barbel, brill, carp, cod, conger-eels, crabs, cray-fish, dabbs, dace, dory, eels, flounders, gurnets, haddocks, herrings, ling, lobsters, mackerel, mullet, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon, skate, soles, tench, thornback, trout.

Poultry and Game.—Chickens, ducks, fowls, green geese, leverets, pigeons, plovers, rabbits, turkey-poults, wheat-ears, wild pigeons, wild rabbits.

Vegetables.—Artichoke, asparagus, balm, beans (French, kidney, scarlet, and Windsor), carrots, cauliflowers, celery, chervil, cucumbers, endive, finochio, herbs of all sorts, lettuces, mint, mushrooms, peas, potatoes, purslane, radishes, rocambole, salads of all sorts, salsify, scorzonera, sorrel, spinach, turnips.

For Drying.—Knotted marjoram, mushrooms, winter savory.

For Pickling.—French beans, red cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, gherkins, nasturtiums, onions.

Fruit.—Apples—codlin, jennetting, margaret, summer pearmain, summer pippin. Apricots, cherries, currants, damsons, gooseberries, melons, nectarines, peaches. Pears—Catherine, green-chisel, jargonelle, musque. Oranges, pine-apples, plums, raspberries, strawberries.

COOKERY FOR JULY.

SOUPS.

Almond.—Take a quart of almonds, scald, remove the skins, and pound in a mortar with the hard yolks of six eggs, until they become a fine paste. Mix with them gradually two quarts of new milk, a quart of cream, and a quarter of a pound of double refined sugar; beat the whole very fine, and stir it well together. When properly mixed, set it over a slow fire, and stir quickly till it becomes pretty thick, then remove and pour into the tureen.

Calf’s Head.—Scald and wash the head clean with salt and water, then place in a stewpan with sufficient water to cover it; add a faggot of sweet herbs, an onion stuck with cloves, six blades of mace, and a table-spoonful and a half of pearl-barley. Stew till tender, and add a head of stewed celery. Season with pepper, pour the soup into the tureen, place the head in the centre, and serve.

Fish Stock.—Take a pound of skate, five flounders, and two pounds of eels, clean them well, cut into small pieces, cover with water when placed in a stewpan, and season with mace, pepper, salt, an onion stuck with cloves, a head of celery, a faggot of sweet herbs, and a tea-spoonful of parsley-seed. Simmer for an hour and a half, closely covered, then strain off for use. As this stock will not keep more than two days, it should only be made as required.

Prawn.—Boil a hundred prawns in a little water, vinegar, salt, and a few sweet herbs, and save the liquor. Pick the prawns, and pound the shells and a small roll. Pour the liquor over the shells in a sieve, and then pour two quarts of fish stock (see p. 276) over them. Tear a lobster into small pieces, and add this with a quart of good beef stock (see p. 253) to the whole. Simmer gently, season with pepper and salt, and thicken with floured butter, then serve.

FISH.

Lobster, to Pot Cold.—Choose a hen lobster. Remove the spawn, coral, flesh, and pickings about the head, and mix with the meat from the claws; pound well in a mortar, seasoning with white pepper, cayenne, and pounded mace; then add some thick melted butter, until it forms a good thick paste. Remove the meat from the tail, pound and season the same, then put half of it in the bottom of the pot, and cover with the other paste. Pour clarified butter over the top of each pot, and keep in a cool place.

Prawns, to Pot.—Boil and pick a sufficient quantity of prawns, then pound them in a mortar, and mix them up into a paste with a little butter; season with white pepper, salt, and a little allspice, then press into the pots, and cover with clarified butter.

Mackerel, to Broil.—Clean, split down the belly, spread open, cut off the heads, and pepper well inside: then flour them lightly to prevent their sticking to the bars of the gridiron, and put over a clear fire, until done a light brown, then serve, spread open with the insides uppermost, with a lump of butter the size of a walnut rubbed over each, or with plain melted butter.

Mackerel, to Marinade.—Prepare the same as dace.

Salmon, to Pickle Cold.—Boil some of the liquor in which the fish was dressed with an equal part of vinegar, and add some whole peppercorns; when it bubbles, remove from the fire, and pour over any cold salmon you have at hand. If the salmon is not well done, boil it up in the pickle until well dressed.

Salmon, to Pickle Undressed.—Scale the fish, rub well with a cloth, and scrape away all the blood about the back-bone, but do not wash it; cut off the head, and divide the fish into pieces about six inches long, then boil the pieces in a pickle made of equal parts of vinegar and water, with a few cloves, and two or three blades of mace, until done; skim carefully all the time the fish is boiling, and when done remove the fish, and pour the liquor into a jar or tub, so that both may become cold; when cold, put the fish into the liquor, with one-third more vinegar, and some whole pepper.

Trout, to Pickle.—Prepare the same as salmon.

POULTRY, ETC.

Chicken, Roasted.—Clean, singe, and truss them, then put down before a good fire. Dust well with flour, and baste well. Make a gravy of the necks and gizzards, which should be strained and poured into the dish.

Plovers, Roasted.—They are trussed, dressed, and sent to table in the same way as snipes (see page 259).

Rabbits, Mumbled.—Boil well, but not too much, remove the flesh and chop fine, then add nutmeg, salt, lemon-peel, and the juice of a lemon. Put it into a stewpan with twelve eggs, and three-quarters of a pound of butter; stir well, and serve in a dish with carved sippets.

VEGETABLES.

Green Peas, Stewed.—Put a quart of good peas into a stewpan, with a lettuce and small onion sliced small, but not any water; add a piece of butter the size of an orange, pepper and salt to taste, and stew gently for two hours. Beat up an egg, and stir into them (or a lump of butter will do as well). Mint should be stewed (if it can be procured) with them, and ought to be chopped fine, and stirred in with some good gravy.

Herb Pie.—Pick two handfuls of parsley from the stems, half the quantity of spinach, two lettuces, some mustard and cress, a few leaves of borage, and a little mint. Wash and boil them a little, then drain, press out the water and chop small; mix a batter of flour, two eggs well beaten, half a pint of milk and a pint of cream, and pour it upon the herbs. Cover in with a good crust, and bake.

Mushrooms, to Dress.—Take very white button mushrooms, remove the stalks, wash well, put into a stewpan, with the juice of two lemons, a little white pepper, half a glass of white wine, a faggot of sweet herbs, and a table-spoonful of sweet oil. Put all over the fire, and after two boilings take it off, let it cool, and serve hot.

MEAT.

Beef, Pressed.—Salt a piece of the thin part of the flank, the tops of the ribs, or a piece of the brisket, with salt and saltpetre for five days. Boil until very tender, then place between two boards, with a heavy weight upon the top one, and let it remain until cold. Serve as it is, and garnish with parsley.

Devonshire Squab Pie.—Prepare apples as for other pies, and lay them in rows, with mutton chops. Shred some onion, mix with brown sugar, and sprinkle among them, then add a little pepper and salt, pour in a tea-cupful of water, and cover in your pie, having previously lined the dish as usual. Bake it well.

Heart—Beef, Roasted.—Wash it carefully, stuff with the following stuffing, roast well, and serve with rich gravy and currant jelly sauce:—Chop two ounces of beef suet very fine and mix with three ounces of bread crumbs, a little parsley, marjoram, lemon thyme, pepper, salt, half a drachm of nutmeg, a drachm of grated lemon-peel, and one shalot shred fine. When well mixed, add an egg beaten up, and mix well again until of a good consistence.

Veal Cutlets à la Maintenon.—Cut slices of veal into pieces three-quarters of an inch thick, and of a moderate size, beat well with a rolling-pin, and egg over both sides, then dip them into a mixture of bread crumbs, pepper, salt, grated nutmeg, thyme, and parsley, and put into white papers folded down at the sides. Broil, and serve with melted butter and mushroom ketchup in a sauce-boat.

PASTRY.

Damascus Biscuits.—Take the whites of three eggs beaten to a froth, a quarter of a pound of good beef suet chopped very fine, and half an ounce of bitter almonds blanched, chopped fine, and beaten well with the froth of the eggs. Then take the yolks of the eggs, and mix with six ounces of sifted loaf sugar; beat well, pour into the mixture of almonds and whites of eggs; mix well and shake in two ounces of flour, with sufficient lemon to flavour them. Pour into small tins, or moulded papers, and bake in a quick oven.

Derbyshire Bread.—Rub four ounces of butter into four pounds of flour, add four eggs well beaten, a pint of milk, and a table-spoonful of yeast. Mix them into a paste, make into rolls, and let them stand half an hour before the fire to rise; then put them into the oven to bake. Dip them in milk the next day, and let them stand before the fire in a Dutch oven for about twenty minutes.

Devonshire Syllabub.—Make the same as London syllabub, and then put clouted cream on the top, with powdered cinnamon, and sugar.

Housewife’s Cream.—Take half a pint of good cream, a quarter of a pint of white wine, a tea-cupful of powdered white sugar, and the rind and juice of one lemon. Put all into a large basin, and whisk till it becomes quite thick, then put into glasses, and let them remain in a cool place till required. [This cream is better if made the day before it is wanted, and it will keep good for several days, if the weather is not too warm.]

London Syllabub.—Put a pint and a half of white wine into a bowl, sweeten with sugar, and add grated nutmeg to taste. Then milk into it about two quarts of milk, frothed up, but the quantity must depend upon the taste, for it will require more milk if too acid.

Newcastle Pudding.—Butter a basin or mould, stick it all round with sultanas or dried cherries, then put in a slice of bread crumb soaked in milk, and over that layers of thin bread crumb buttered, until three parts filled; fill up with custard, and boil for an hour and a half.

Nourmahal Cake.—Cut four slices of sponge-cake about an inch thick and of an oval shape, but each slice smaller than the others. Spread a thick layer of apricot jam upon the first and largest slice, and then lay the next sized slice upon it; spread the second slice with apple marmalade, and cover with the third size, which is to be spread in like manner with strawberry jam, and covered with the smallest size. Press the top lightly with the hand, and with a sharp knife cut away the central part, so as to leave a wall about two inches and a half thick, which is to be trimmed outside. Mash up the part removed from the centre, with equal parts of white wine and brandy, sufficient to flavour, and stir in some good thick custard, then pour into the centre of the cake. Whip the whites of two eggs into a stiff froth, pour over the whole, heaping it well up in the centre, and shake sifted sugar thickly on, then place in a quick oven until the frosting is set. A few pieces of strawberry jam or any other preserve placed round the bottom of the dish, gives a finish to the whole.

FOOD FOR AUGUST.

Meat.—Beef, grass-lamb, mutton, veal, buck-venison.

Fish.—Barbel, brill, carp, cod, conger-eels, crabs, cray-fish, dabbs, dace, eels, flounders, gurnets, haddocks, herrings, lobsters, mackerel, mullet, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon, skate, soles, tench, thornback, turbot, whitings.

Poultry and Game.—Chickens, ducks, fowls, green geese, grouse (from 12th), leverets, moor-game, pigeons, plovers, rabbits, turkeys, turkey-poults, wheat-ears, wild ducks, wild pigeons, wild rabbits.

Vegetables.—Artichokes, beans (French, kidney, scarlet, and Windsor), white beet, carrots, cauliflowers, celery, cucumbers, endive, finochio, pot-herbs of all sorts, leeks, lettuces, mushrooms, onions, peas, potatoes, purslane, radishes, salad of all sorts, salsify, scorzonera, shalots, spinach, turnips.

For Drying.—Basil, sage, thyme.

For Pickling.—Red cabbage, capsicums, chilies, tomatoes, walnuts.

Fruit.—Apple—codlin, summer pearmain, summer pippin. Cherries, currants, damsons, figs, filberts, gooseberries, grapes, melons, mulberries, nectarines, peaches. Pears—jargonelle, summer Bon Chrétien, Windsor. Plums—greengages, Orleans. Raspberries, Alpine strawberries.

COOKERY FOR AUGUST.

SOUPS.

À la Chartre.—Clean three or four sweetbreads in warm water, then scald in boiling water, and put them into a saucepan with a faggot of parsley, three cloves, four shalots, a few mushrooms, and a quart of good giblet soup (see page 258); stew all gently over a slow fire, and when done, if requisite, season with pepper and salt, and serve hot with the sweetbread and mushrooms in the tureen, the rest being passed through a sieve.

Ox Cheek.—Break the bones of the cheek, and well wash and clean it. Put two ounces of butter in a large stewpan, and lay the cheek in with the fleshy side downwards; then add about half a pound of lean ham sliced, with three large onions, two carrots, three or four heads of celery, and one parsnip, all sliced small; set over a moderate fire for a quarter of an hour, then add three blades of mace, and four quarts of water, and simmer gently till it is reduced to two quarts. Strain off the soup, and add the white part of a head of celery cut in small pieces, with a little browning to colour it. Scald two ounces of vermicelli, and put into the soup; boil for ten minutes, then pour into the tureen, and serve hot. (This soup is seldom made until the latter part of this month, as parsnips do not come in until then, or early in September, but in case it is desired earlier, two potatoes may be substituted for the parsnip. The cheek must be saved for stewing, for which see page 283).

Scotch Leek.—Take the water that has boiled a leg of mutton, put it into a stewpan, with as many pea-shells (washed clean) as you can get; simmer gently for a quarter of an hour, strain off the liquor, throw away the pea-shells, and return the liquor to the stewpan; then add two leeks, chopped fine, to every quart of liquor, and pepper and salt to taste; simmer gently for an hour, then mix some oatmeal, quite smooth, with a little of the soup, set it over a slow fire and simmer again, but take care that it does not burn. When done, pour into the tureen, and serve hot.

FISH.

Eels, Broiled.—Skin and clean them, cut into pieces about three inches long, and boil slowly over a good fire: then serve with melted butter.

Eels, to Pot.—Skin and clean the eels, split them, and remove the back-bone, then cut into pieces two or three inches long, and season with pepper, salt, dried sage rubbed fine, and powdered allspice and nutmeg. Place the pieces in a baking-dish in layers, pour in clarified butter until full; cover with paper, and bake in a moderately quick oven for an hour and a half. When cold, remove them, press into pots, and cover with clarified butter.

Perch, to Fry.—Clean, cut all the fins close off, open by the belly, dry well, dust with flour, and fry a light brown, in plenty of lard or olive oil. Serve with melted butter, anchovy, soy, or ketchup.

Pike, to Bake.—Scale and clean the fish, cut off its fins, and stuff the belly with the pudding-meat given in the volume; then place the tail in the mouth, as recommended for stewing, and put it upon its belly in a baking-dish. Flour the fish well all over, cover with a few lumps of butter, and place in an oven, or a Dutch oven before the fire, taking care to baste it occasionally with some of the fat. When done, remove the pike, place on a clean dish, add a squeeze of lemon, a little soy and melted butter together, mix, and pour into the dish; garnish with sliced lemon, and serve as hot as possible.