LIBRARY Michigan State University Gift of t T H E COMPLETE P L A I N A N D COOK P R A C T I C A L DIRECTIONS FOR COOKING AND H O U S E K E E P I N G ; WITH UPWARDS OF SEVEN HUNDRED RECEIPTS: CONSISTING OF DIRECTIONS FOR T H E CHOICE OF MEAT AND POULTRY\ P R E P A R A T I O N S FOR C O O K I N G , M A K I N G OF B R O T H S A N D S O U P S ; BOILING, ROASTING, BAKING, AND OF M E A T S , F I S H , &c. FRYING SEASONINGS, COLOURINGS, COOKING VEGETABLES , P R E P A R I N G SALADS, CLARIFYING; MAKING OF PASTRY, PUDDINGS, GRUELS, GRAVIES, GARNISHES, Sea. AND, WITH G E N E R A L D I R E C T I O N S F O R MAKING W I N E S . WITH ADDITIONS BY J. M. AND ALTERATIONS, SANDERSON, Of the Franklin House. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. • ' L I P P I N C O T T 1864. & CO. Wintered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by W. A. L E A R Y. in the clerk's office of the district court of the United States in an«» toi the eastern district of Pennsylvania. TO T H E E N G L I S H E D I T I O N . THE following' work has been written, not only with the view O: furnishing a complete Cookery Book, but also for the purpose of in structing, in a simple manner, inexperienced mistresses and servants, in the elementary principles of the culinary science; not losing sight of endeavouring to inculcate the relative duties of the employer and the employed. Almost the only cookery book in our language, is which reasons are given for the doctrine laid down, is " The Cook's Oracle," by the late Dr. Kitchiner. The Doctor's work, though exceedingly valuable, is a book fitted more fdV the improvement of the initiated, than for the instruction of those who possess no knowledge of the subject. There are many other books of cookery to which exceptions might be taken, but we have no wish to enhance our own work by depreciating the labours of others. W e have done our best to produce a book, which all who can read may understand, and by which all may be instructed. Dr. Kitchiner says, in his 44 Rudiments," and says truly, " I have taken much more pains than any of my predecessors to teach the young cook how to perform, in the best manner, the common business of her profession." In our " rudiments," we have endeavoured to teach that which a woman should know before she can be called a " young cook," as well as that which a young cook has to learn. To conclude; ours is a book intended for the use of persons who keep servants, and those who keep none. If we give expensive receipts, we also show, that good, substantial dishes, and the most delicate, may be prepared at as little, or even less, expense than the ordinary, or common preparations of food. In our receipts, in particular, we have written, necessarily written, many things whj^h have been written before, but we feel assured that, taken as a whole, our work will not be found devoid of originality. For the art of baking, and all the little knick-knacks of fancy bread, such as biscuits, sweet cakes, &c., and for confectionary, we refer our readers to two little works, by the Editor of « The Cook," called " T h e Baker," and " T h e Confectioner,"* which form part of the seriea of " Industrial Guides." « ® \ THE TO AMERICAN EDITION. IT is said that " Good wine needs no bush," and according to the same rule a good book should require no apology, (as a pieface generally appears to be). In this instance, as we are not the author, we intend to devote the small space allowed us, to the praise of this our adopted work; for, of all the English books on this subject, none, according to our ideas, possess half the claims to public approval as this one does. The author, whoever he is, is certainly a proficient in his business; and, although making no pretensions to a literary character, has laid down his rules and precepts in a clear and concise manner. Very few additions or alterations have been made in this work; in fact none, excepting where circumstances rendered it necessary; it being considered best to send it forth to the American world with all its beauties untouched; at the same time we wish it to be understood that we do so, not because the subject is a barren o n e ; on the contrary, were we to condense all the necessary information we have on this science, we should swell our small book to the dignity of a three-volumed work; but, by so doing, we should place it beyond the reach of that class to whom its precepts will prove most valuable. W e hav therefore concluded, after due reflection, to leave such labour* alone until we have more time and experience. The American stomach has too long suffered from the vile concoctions inflicted on it by untutored cooks, guided by sense ess and impracticable cook-books; and it is to be hoped, that 1** (5) as this subject is now becoming more important in these days of dyspepsia, indigestion, &c., a really good book will be well patronised, and not only read, but strictly followed; and let it not be said hereafter that " the American kitchen is the worst in the world." As we have made but few alterations or improvements, we do not consider it at all necessary to offer to the public any apology for our seeming presumption in thus undertaking, at our age, to edit a work which we think requires little improvement, and consequently no great degree of talent on our part. Should we ever undertake anything original, we shall then act with more humility. All that we ask, in the present case, ia the wide and extended use of the " Complete 6ook." THE COMPLETE GOOK. RELATIVE DUTIES OF MISTRESS AND MAID. IN this our little work, we more particularly address ourselves to Cook Maids in small families, where two maid servants only are kept, and where, consequently, all the business of the kitchen falls upon tbs cook, both as regards cleaning and cooking. In such families, it is true, the mistress in the house will take a part in the business of cooking upon herself; a most laudable custom, both as regards economy, and the real interests of the cook maid. To such mistresses, particularly the younger portion, it is hoped our little book will not be unacceptable. Cooking is neither ^ mean, nor a simple art. To make the best and the most of everything connected with the sustenance of a family, requires not only industry and experience, but also considerable mental capacity, or, at any rate, an aptness to learn. One of the principal, if not the principal, requisite, in a cook, is order—that faculty by which a person is enabled to keep all things in their proper places. Without order there can be no cleanliness, another indispensable requisite in a cook: to be always cleaning, is not to be clean. There are some foolish, fussy women, who, with all the disposition on earth to be clean, not having order, dirty one thing as fast as they clean another. Nor is order an essential requisite, as regards the cleanliness of a kitchen, and of kitchen utensils, only; in dressing food, without order there can be no good cooking. W e have said, that the mistress will take a part in a small family in the business of cooking. We, perhaps, should have rather said, ought to take a part; for we are sorry to say, that there is too much reason to believe, that good housewifery is much jieglected in the educating of young ladies now-a-days. If a mistress be really not acquainted with the general principles of Rooking, she ought to do one of two things—either to make herself acquainted with them aa an humble learner, or to keeprout of the kitchen altogether; for her ignorant interference with a good cook maid will do no good, but may do a great deal of harm. And while on this subject we must give a word of friendly advice to the unfortunate cook, who may happen to fall in with an ignorant, irritable mistress. Let her take care to refrain from going into a passion with her: if the mistress scolds, let the maid be mild; and above all, let her not scold again, or answer in an angry or insulting manner. This is a hard thing to do, we are aware, particularly where a servant feels herself injured; but if she can do it, she will not only gain the victory over her mistress, but she {13; 4 will also feel a consciousness, a happy consciousness - ving lefi undone those things which she ought not to have don ^ and of having done those things which she ought to have done. But if the tempers and habits of the mistress and maid are incompatible to that good understanding which ought always to subsist between the employer and the employed, the best course for the servant tij do is, to give i^otice and leave. Let not this, however, be done in anger: before giving warning, let her consult her pillow. It has been well observed, that it behovas every person to be extremely careful whom she takes into her service; to be very minute in investigating the character she receives, and equally cautious and scrupulously just in giving one to others. Were this attended to, many bad people would be incapacitated for doing mischief, by abusing the trust reposed in them. It may be fairly asserted, that the robbery, or waste, which is but a milder epithet for the unfaithfulness of a servant, will be laid to the charge of that master or mistress, who knowing, or having well-founded suspicions, of such faults, is prevailed upon by false pity, or entreaty, to slide him, or her, into another place. There are, however, some who are unfortunately capricious, and often refuse to give a character, because they are displeased that a servant leaves their service; but this is unpardonable, and an absolute robbery; servants having no inheritance, and depending on their fair name for employment. To refuse countenance to the evil, and to encourage the good servant, are actions due to society at large; and such as are honest, frugal and attentive to their duties, should be liberally re varded, which would encourage merit, and inspire servants with zeal to acquit themselves well. Servants should always recollect, that everything is provided for * them, without care and anxiety on their part. They run no risks, are subject to no losses, and under these circumstances, honesty, industry, civility, and perseverance, are in the end sure to meet with their reward. Servants possessing these qualifications, by the blessing of God, must succeed. Servants should be kind and obliging to their fellow-servants; but if they are honest themselves, they will not connive at dishonesty in others. They who see crimes committed and do not discover them, are themselves legally and morally guilty. At the same time, however, well recollect, that tittle-tattling and talebearing, for the sake o%etting in your mistress's good graces, at the expense of your fellow-servants, is, to the last degree, detestable. A sensible mistress will always discourage such practices. W e have known servants imagine, that because their employers are kind to them, that because they do not command them to do this or that, but rather solicit them, that, therefore, they cannot do without them, and instead of repaying their good-nature and humanity by gratitude and extra attention, give themselves airs, and become idle and neglectful. Such conduct cannot be too much condemned, and those servants, who practise it, may depend upon it, that, sooner or later, they will have cause to repent. Let it be remembered, that vice as well as virtue has its reward, though of a very different character. W e shall conclude this our friendly advice to young cooks, by an extract from the " Cook's Best Friend," by the late Dr. Kitchiner. Nothing can be done in perfection, which must be done in a hurry, (except catching of fleas),—" Therefore," says the Doctor, " if you wish the dinner to be sent up to please your master and mistress, and do credit to yourself, be punctual; take care, that as soon as the clock strikes the dinner bell rings. This shows the establishment is orderly, is extremely gratifying to the master and his guests, and is most praiseworthy in the attendants. But remember you cannot obtain this desirable reputation without good management in every respect; if you wish to ensure ease and independence in the latter part of your life, you must not be unwilling to pay the price for which only they can be obtained, and earn them by a diligent and faithful performance of the duties of your station in your young days, in which if you steadily persevere, you may depend upon ultimately receiving the reward your services deserve." All duties are reciprocal; and if you hope to receive favour, endeavour to deserve it by showing yourself fond of obliging, and grateful when obliged. Such behaviour will win regard, and maintain it; enforce what is right, and excuse what is wrong. Quiet, steady perseverance, is the only spring which you can safely depend upon infallibly to promote your progress on the road to independence. If your employers do not immediately appear to be sensible of your endeavours to contribute your utmost to their comfort and interests, be not easily discouraged; persevere, and do all in your power to MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL. * Endeavour to promote the comfort of every individual in the family; let it be manifest that you are desirous to do rather more than is required of you, than less than your duty; they merit little who perform nothing more than what would be exacted. If you are desired to help in any business that may not strictly belong to your department, undertake it cheerfully, patiently, and conscientiously. The foregoing advice has been written With an honest desire to augment the comfort of those in the kitchen, who will soon find, that the ever-cheering reflection of having done their duty to the utmost of their ability, is in itself, with a Christian spirit, a never-failing source of comfort in all circumstances and situations, and that " Virtue ia its own reward." Having thus briefly touched upon the relative duties of mistress and maid, we shall now proceed to make some general remarks (and though general, we think them most important) as respects the business of Cooking as an art, or, more properly speaking, as a science. INTRODUCTORY GENERAL REMARKS ON COOKERY—IM PORTANCE OF GOOD COOKERY AS REGARDS HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE. IT is an old, and somewhat vulgar saying, though very expressive, that " God sends meat, and the devil cooks." This adage shows, that cooking has always been considered of some importance in this country, even among the lowest classes of society. A great deal too little attention, however, is paid to the art of preparing food for the use of those who eat; and we think we may say, without much exaggeration, that in many families, even to this day, one-half of their meat is wasted, and the other half spoilt. But the mere waste arising from this system of cooking, or rather want of system, is not the greatest evil, though this is an enormous one; the diseases that badly dressed food occasions to the stomach are even a greater evil than the one to which we have first referred. A bad cook will turn that which was intended by the Giver of all good for the nourishment of the body into a sort of poison. The functions of the stomach, when loaded with crude, undressed, or half-dressed meat, are unable to digest it. Hence the stomach is not only injured, but a train of diseases is engendered, sufficient to render one's life miserable. From the cause alluded to arises acidity, or sourness of the stomach, which gives rise again to heart-burns, hiccups, flatulencies, or wind; which again creates pains in the stomach and head, and, indeed, in other parts of the body. Then again we have, from the same cause, the various descriptions of nightmare, horrid dreams, and restless nights. Country people, in agricultural districts in particular, think themselves, when so afflicted, bewitched, or possessed by the devil, when, in fact, if possessed at all, they are possessed by bad cookery and indigestible diet. Instead of resorting to charms, such persons ought to resort to a dose of opening medicine, and take care to eat food which is not spoilt by dressing. But the greatest of all ills by which we can be afflicted, ill-dressed, indigestible food will bring about—intellectual confusion— perhaps madness—for be assured, that a deranged stomach is always, more or less, accompanied with a deranged head. In support of these opinions we might adduce many authorities of the highest reputation, but we shall content ourselves with the following :—" It cannot be doubted," says Dr. Cheyne, " that the clear, ready, and pleasant exercise of the intellectual faculties, and their easy and undisturbed application to any subject, is never to be obtained but by a free, regular performance of the natural functions, which the lightest (most digestible) food can only procure." Again, Dr. Cheyne says, " h e that would have a clear head must have a clean stomach. It is sufficiently manifest how much uncomfortable feelings of the bowels affect the nervous system, and how immediately and completely the general disorder is relieved by an alvine evacuation." Then we have the testimony of Abernethy, who says, " we cannot reasonably expect tranquillity of the neivous system, whilst there is disorder of the digestive organs. As we can imbibe no permanent source of strength but from the digestion of our food, it becomes important on this account, that we should attend to its quantity, quality, and the periods of taking it, with a view to ensure its proper digestion." But what says Dr. Kitchiner, who was an able physician, and the most learned and scientific writer upon the culinary art ? " The stomach," he asserts, " is the main-spring of our system; if it be not sufficiently wound up to warm and support the circulation, the whole business of life will, in proportion, be ineffectually performed—we can neither think with precision—walk with vigour—sit down with comfort—nor sleep with tranquillity. There would be no difficulty in proving, that it influences (much more than people imagine) all our actions." " One of the greatest, perhaps the greatest, moral writers of our age, Dr. Samuel Johnson, was a man," says Boswell, " of very nice discrimination in the science of cookery." He often remarked, " that some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat; for my part, I mind my belly very studiously and very carefully, and I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind any thing else." To this, Kitchiner adds, "the Doctor might have said, cannot mind any thing else." The energy of our brains is sadly dependent on the behaviour of our bowels. Those who say, 'tis no matter what we eat, or what we drink, may as well say, 'tis no matter whether we eat, rr whether we drink. Again, as to the relative importance of cookery as a science. Mr. Sylvester, in his Domestic Economy, says, that it is not difficult to foresee, that this department of philosophy must become the most popular of all others, because every class of human beings is interested in its result." Again, the same writer says, " if science can really contribute to the happiness of mankind, it must be in this department. The real comfort of the majority of men in this country is sought for at their own fire-sides: how desirable then it becomes to give every inducement to be at home, by directing all the means of philosophy to increase domestic happiness!" Dr. Waterhouse, in his Lectures, thus speaks of the stomach " T h e faculty the stomach has of communicating the impressions made by the various substances that are put into it is such, that it seems more like a nervous expansion from the brain than a mere receptacle for food." From allusions in the great Milton's writings, it is quite evident, that he appreciated the science of cookery highly. Speaking of phi. losophy, he says, Again, ** 'Tis a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns." " That which is not good is not delicious To a well-govern'd and wise appetite." But we have better evidence than these allusions, of Milton's at- tachment to nicely dressed dishes. In his brother's, the judge's testimony, in support of a nuncupative will, which it was alleged he made before his death in favour of his third and last wife, a passage occurs, to the effect, that, approving of his dinner on a certain occasion, he said, "this will do; get something nice for me to eat, for when I am gone it will be all your's." We quote from memory. The celebrated Dr. Parr, the great Grecian and theologian, was much attached to good eating himself, and thought it very necessary, both for the health of the body and the mind. A few weeks before his death, for he was perfectly conscious that he had but a short time to live, he made arrangements for his funeral; and, amongst other things, he prepared a bill of fare for his funeral dinner. The dishes were all cold. He expressed his regret to a clerical friend of ours, that he could not give them a hot dinner, "but that is impossible," he said, "for there is not convenience in the house to cook for so large a number. I am much afraid," he continued, " lest you parsons should get a hot dinner for yourselves, and leave the poor laymen to the cold meat; but I should be very angry if I could know it. I always liked to take care of my own stomach, and of other people's. If that is wrong, nothing can be right." There are people who imagine, that it is beneath the dignity of a philosopher to trouble himself about eating; such a one was that gay fribble of a marquis, who, finding Descartes enjoying himself over a good dinner, exclaimed, " Hey! what, do you philosophers eat dainties 1" " D o you think," replied Descartes, "that God made good things only for fools]" There is a point with regard to the importance of good cookery, upon which we have not touched, though one of first-rate consequence, namely, temperance, from the neglect of which so many, and such deadly, evils arise. Let a man load his stomach with crude, indigestible food, that is, ill-dressed meats or other substances, and what is the consequence] he feels ill—in fact, he is ill—his mind does not possess its proper vigour and elasticity; in one word, the whole man, mind and body, is disordered—unhinged. He seeks relief in spirits, and he obtains it, perhaps, temporarily. Hence is the beginning of dram drinking, and all its concomitant evils; which it would fill a volume to enumerate. The members of temperance societies, and the promoters of temperance in general, would do well to turn their attention to this point, and we think they will agree with us on the importance of diffusing the art of cookery—the art of preparing good and wholsome food—as widely as possible among the people. In this country we have the best of all descriptions of butcher's meat in the world, and, with a few exceptions, the worst cooks. If the poor, half-fed meats of France, were dressed as our cooks, for the most part, dress our well-fed excellent meats, they would be absolutely •ineatable. In France, the cooks, both private and public, contrive to make most excellent and easily digestible food, out of substances that we should throw away, as perfectly incapable of being rendered fit to eat, or at least palatable. It hits been proved by Dr. Prout, that sugar, butter, or oil, and white of egg, or substances partaking of their nature, form the chief alimentary food of man. The saccharine, or sugary principle, in its extended sense, is mostly derived from vegetables. A proper knowledge of these principles forms the basis, or foundation, of French cookery, or, indeed, every other good system of cookery. It does not follow, however, that it is necessary that a cook should understand these things philosophically, so as to be able to give a reason for them. It is sufficient for him or her to take for granted the maxims or rules that have been deduced from them, and act accordingly. In France, most substances intended for food are exposed, by means of oil or butter, or grease, in a frying-pan, to a heat of 600° Fahrenheit, that is, nearly three times hotter than boiling water. This is done by frying, or by some other method similar to frying. They are then put into a macerating or stewing vessel, with a little water, and kept for several hours at a temperature, or heat, below the boiling point; that is to say, the liquid is never allowed to bubble up, nor yet scarcely to simmer. By these united processes, it has been clearly proved, that the most hard and tough substances, whether vegetable or animal, are, more or less, reduced to a state of pulp, fit for the action of the stomach, and consequently for easy digestion. In this country, the majority of cooks, particularly in small families, toss the meat into a large quantity of water, make the water boil as speedily as possible, and as fast as possible; and foolishly imagine, that it will be sooner and better done. But what is the consequence % The outside of the meat is rendered so tough, that it will not admit the heat to penetrate the inside, which remains undone, and the result is, that both the outside and inside meat are spoilt, or at least greatly damaged, both as respects flavour and wholesomeness. Here an anecdote occurs to us, which, though it has been before related, will serve to illustrate our subject. An Irishman was ordered by his master to boil him an egg for his breakfast, and was particularly enjoined to boil it soft. After waiting for more than ten minutes, the master inquired after his egg, which, however, was not forthcoming; the servant was seeing about it. Another five minutes elapsed, when the impatient master was coolly told his egg was not done—" Yer honour told me to bile it soft, and sure I've biled it a quarter of an houi, and it is as hard as ever." Our ignorant, and too often unteachable, cook maid, would laugh at the simplicity of the Irishman—not considering that the very means she uses to make meat tender and palatable, that i^, fast boiling, are just as absurd as those taken by Paddy to boil an egg soft. There is no rule, they say, without an exception; but, generally speaking, ill-dressed meats, or even solid food well-dressed, taken in large quantities, are indigestible. It is a mistake to imagine, that people who take violent exercise in the open air, are always free from indigestion, and those numerous diseases to which it gives rise. That they are not so Jiable as those confined to a house, or a workshop is true; and there are some stomachs that appear to be able to digest any thing; but these are exceptions to the general rule—they do not affect the truth of the rule itself. PHILOSOPHICAL COOKERY.—COUNT ROMFORD. The first person, perhaps, with any pretensions to learning and philosophy, who studied the dressing of meat, for food, as a science, was a gentleman of the name of Thompson, who was afterwards created Count Romford, by one of the German princes. This excellent and ingenious individual lived in the last century. He demonstrated, by experiments, the principles which in our foregoing remarks we have merely asserted. We are about to give an abstract of some of his observations and experiments on this subject, which are so simply and clearly detailed, that they are perfectly intelligible to every common intellect, and we are sure will be read with interest and advantage, not only by cooks, but also by all classes of persons interested in the health and welfare of society at large. The process by which food is most commonly prepared for the table —BOILING—is so familiar to every one, and its effects are so uniform, and apparently so simple, that few have taken the trouble to inquire how, or in what manner, these effects are produced; and whether any and what improvements in that branch of cookery are possible. So little has this matter been made an object of inquiry, that few, very few indeed, it is believed, among the millions of persons who for so many ages have been daily employed in this process, have ever given themselves the trouble to bestow one serious thought on the subject. The cook knows from experience, that if his joint of meat be kept a certain time immersed in boiling water it will be done, as it is called ir .he language of the kitchen; but if he be asked what is done to it] or how, or by what agency, the change it has undergone has been effected 1 if he understands the question, it is ten to one but he will be embarrassed; if he does not understand it, he will probably answer, without hesitation, t h a t " the meat is made tender and eatable by being boiled." Ask him if the boiling of the water be essentia1 to the success of the process] he will answer, "without doubt* Push him a little farther, by asking him whether, were it possible t( keep the water equally hot without boiling, the meat would not be cooked as soon and as well, as if the water were made to boil ] Here it is probable that he will make the first step towards acquiring know ledge, by learning to doubt. When you hav$ brought him to see the matter in its true light, and to confess, that in this view of it, the subject is new to him, you maj venture to tell him (and to prove to him, if you happen to have a ther mometer at hand,) that water which just boils is as hot as it can pos sibly be made in an open vessel. That all the fuel which is used in making it boil with violence is wasted, without adding in the smallest degree to the heat of the water, or expediting or shortening the process of cooking a single instant: that it is by the heat-— its intensity—and the lime of its duration, that the food is cooked; and not by boiling or ebullition or bubbling up of the water, which has no part whatever in that operation. Should any doubts still remain with respect to the inefficacy and inutility of boiling, in culinary processes, where the same degree of heat may be had, and be kept up without it, let a piece of meat be cooked in a Papin's digester, which, as is well known, is a boiler whose cover (which is fastened down with screws) shuts with so much nicety that no steam can escape out of it. In such a closed vessel, boiling (which is nothing else but the escape of steam in bubbles from the hot liquid) is absolutely impossible; yet, if the heat applied to the digester be such as would cause an equal quantity of water in an open vessel to boil, the meat will not only be done, but it will be found to be dressed in a shorter time, and to be much tenderer, than if it had been boiled in an open boiler. By applying a still greater degree of heat to the digester, the meat may be so much done in a very few minutes as actually to fall to pieces, and even the very bones may be made soft. Were it a question of mere idle curiosity, whether it be the boiling of water, or simply the degree of heat that exists in boiling water by which food is cooked, it would doubtless be folly to throw away time in its investigation; but this is far from being the case, for boiling cannot be carried on without a very great expense of fuel; but any boiling hot liquid (by using proper means for confining the heat) may be kept boiling hot for any length of time, without any expense of fuel at all. The waste of fuel in culinary processes, which arises from making liquids boil unnecessarily, or when nothing more would be necessary than to keep them boiling hotf is enormous ; there is not a doubt but that much more than half the fuel used in all the kitchens, public and private, in the whole world, is wasted precisely in this manner. But the evil does not stop here. This unscientific and slovenly manner of cooking renders the process much more laborious and troublesome than otherwise it would be; and (what by many will be considered of more importance than either the waste of fuel, or the increase of labour to the cook) the food is rendered less savoury, and very probably less nourishing, and certainly less wholesome. It is natural to suppose that many of the finer and more volatile parts of food (those which are best calculated to act on the organs of taste) must be carried off with the steam, when the boiling is violent: but the fact does not rest on these reasonings: it is proved to a demonstration, not only by the agreeable fragrance of the steam that rises from vessels in which meat is boiled, but also from the strong flavour and superior quality of soups which are prepared by a long process over a very slow, gentle fire. But the volatile parts of food are not only delightful to the organs of taste—the Editor has no doubt that they are also stimulating and refreshing to the stomach. In many countries where soups constitute the principal part of the food of the inhabitants, the process of cooking lasts from one meal time to another, and is performed almost without either trouble or expense. As soon as the soup is served up, the ingredients for the next mea. are put into the pot (which is never suffered to cool, and does not require scouring;) and this pot, which is of cast iron, or of earthenware, being well closed with its thick wooden cover, is placed by the side of the fire, where its contents are kept simmering for many hours, but are seldom made to boil, and never but in the gentlest manner possible. Were the pot put in a close fire-place (which might easily be constructed, even with the rudest materials, with a few bricks or stone, or even with sods, like a camp-kitchen,) no arrangement for cooking could well be imagined more economical or more convenient. Soups prepared in this way are uncommonly savoury, and there is little doubt that the true reason why nourishing soups and broths are not more in use among the common people in most countries, is because they do not know how good they really are, nor how to prepare them ; in short because they are not acquainted with them. There is another important reason which the Editor must add—the common people for the most part cannot spare time from their laboui to stay at home and attend to them. To form a just idea of the enormous waste of fuel that arises from making water boil and evaporate unnecessarily in culinary processes, we have only to consider how much heat is expended in the forma tion of steam. Now it has been proved by the most decisive and un exceptionable experiments that have ever been made by experimental philosophers, that if it were possible that the heat which actually combines with water, in forming steam (and which gives it wings to fly up into the atmosphere,) could exist in the water, without changing it from a dense liquid to a rare elastic vapour, this water would be neated by it to the temperature of red-hot iron. Many kinds of food are known to be most delicate and savoury when cooked in a degree of heat considerably below that of boiling water; and it is more than probable that there are others which would be improved by being exposed to a heat greater than that of boiling water. In many of the seaport towns of our New England States, it has been a custom, time immemorial, among people of fashion, to dine one day in the week (Saturday) on salt fish, and a long habit of preparing the same dish has, as might have been expected, led to very considerable improvements in the art of cooking itt We have often heard foreigners who have partaken of these dinners, declare that they never tasted salt fish dressed in such perfection. The secret of this cooking is to keep the fish a great many hours in water, which is just scalding hot, but which is never made actually to boil. The Count being desirous of finding out whether it was possible to roast meat with a much gentler heat than that usually employed, put a shoulder of mutton in a machine contrived for drying potatoes: the result, which we give in the Count's own words, was as follows: "After trying the experiment for three hours, and finding it showed no signs of being done, it was concluded that the heat was not sufficiently intense, and, despairing of success, it was abandoned to tbo cookmaids. •It being late in the evening, and the cookmaids thinking, perftaps, that the meat would be as safe in the drying machine as any where else, left it there all night; when they cam'e in the morning to take it away, intending to cook it for their dinner, they were much surprised to find it already cooked, and not merely eatable, but perfectly done, and most singularly well tasted. This appeared to them the more miraculous, as the fire under the machine was quite gone out before they left the kitchen in the evening to go to bed, and as they had locked up the kitchen when they left it and taken the key. This wonderful shoulder of mutton was immediately brought in tri umph, and though we were at no great loss to account for what had happened, yet it certainly was unexpected: and when the meat was tasted we were much surprised indeed to find it very different, both in taste and flavour, from any we had ever tasted. It was perfectly •ender, but though it was so much done it did not appear to be in the /east sodden or insipid; on the contrary, it was uncommonly savoury and high-flavoured. It was neither boiled, nor roasted, nor baked. Its taste seemed to indicate the manner in which it had been prepared : that the gentle heat to which it had for so long a time been exposed, had by degrees loosened the cohesion of its fibres, and concocted its juices, without driving off their fine and more volatile parts, and without washing away or burning and rendering rancid its oils." Having given an abstract of Romford's opinions and experiments on boiling water as a medium for the preparation of meat for the food of man, we shall now take an opportunity of remarking, that the same rule will not apply to the cooking of the greater part of vegetables, which must be put into the water boiling hot, and which cannot be boiled too quickly. This does not apply, however, to potatoes, which cannot be boiled too slowly. These things, however, will be treated of more particularly in the receipts, which we shall give for the cookingof different kinds of vegetables. Seasoning is a very important element in the art of cookery. Experience is absolutely necessary to acquire this art, which to be properly done, requires great judgment and delicacy of taste. All the recommendations of Dr. Kitchiner and others to season by weight and measure, as apothecaries serve out drugs, are in the nature of the thing impracticable. " W h a t ' s one man's meat is another man's poison," is a homely proverb, but a true one. So in seasoning, what one person likes, another may dislike. The writers we have alluded to ridicule the idea of directing the cook to use a pinch of that, and a dust of the other. M. Ude justly observes, " that where the quantities are indefinite, it is impossible to adjust the exact proportions of spice, or other condiments, which it will be necessary to add in order to give the proper flavour." If these remarks are correct, and who can doubt it, the general terms " handful, pinch, and dust," are the best that can be applied as directions upon such a subject. In the use of salt in cooking, considerable judgment is required. The best rule is to employ as little as possible. It is easy to make a dish too fresh, salt; but if made too salt, it cannot be made fresh again. Sugar may be applied with advantage in various dishes, where it is not generally used in this country, and which will be enumerated hereEtfter, but great care must be taken, that in such preparations it should be employed to enrich, not to sweeten. The taste of sugar should not predominate, or even be recognised. W e allude more particularly to soups and gravies, and in some cases in vegeta. bles, such as green peas for instance. Meat intended to be broiled or fried, should be well peppered, but never salted; salt renders it hard. The author of " Domestic Cookery" says, that " salt should not be put into the water in which vegetables are boiled." W e disagree with this lady; indeed, she disagrees with herself; for in another part of her book she directs salt to be put into the water in which potatoes are to be boiled; and we are quite sure it is very necessary in boiling cabbage, savoys, and most other descriptions of greens. It ought to be well understood, that pepper and all descriptions of spice require to be subjected to the action of heat to bring out their genuine flavour. Thus it will be seen, that though it is very practicable to sweeten or salt "things after they are dressed, it is not so as respects flavouring them with spice. In the use of spices it is, however, very important to take care that the aroma (commonly called smell), which they give forth, should not be allowed to evaporate or escape. Druggists and medical men always keep their essential oils, tinctures, volatile spirits and volatile gums, in ground stopper bottles, which are perfectly air-tight. This puts us in mind of a foolish custom, which cannot be too much deprecated, of exposing in the open air aromatic herbs, such as marjoram, thyme, mint, and several others, which are known by the general term of sweet herbs, and which are extensively used in seasoning. These herbs ought always to be kept as much as possible excluded from the air. This may be partially effected by tying the dried herbs in paper bags, but it is much better to reduce the leaves to a coarse powder, and confine it in well-corked bottles. RULES AND MAXIMS OF THE KITCHEN. In our foregoing remarks we have endeavoured to explain the leading principles upon which the art of cookery is founded—principles with which the young cook should become thoroughly acquainted. "We now proceed to lay down a series of rules or maxims, relative to tne dressing of meat, and the general management of the kitchen. These rules should be well studied, and the most important of them committed to memory. By doing this a cook will save a great deal of trouble and loss of time, and she will also, by her knowledge of the general principles of the art, be enabled to vary, and probably improve the receipts, which she may have occasion to consult. In short, when she knows what must be always done, and what must neve» be done, she is, in a great measure, mistress of her art, inasmuch as the details will be easily acquired by practice. WHAT MUST A L W A Y S BE DONE, AND NEVER BE DONE. WHAT MUST 1. Keep yourself clean and tidy; let your hands, in particular, be always clean whenever it is practicable. After a dirty job always wash them. A cleanly cook must wash her hands many times in the course of the day, and will require three or four aprons appropriated to the work upon which she is employed. Your hair must never be blowsy, nor your cap dirty. 2. Keep apart things that would injure each other, or destroy theii flavour. 3. Keep every cloth, saucepan and all other utensils to their proper use, and when done with, put them in their proper places. 4. Keep every copper stewpan and saucepan bright without, and perfectly clean within, and take care that they are always well tinned. Keep all your dish-covers well dried, and polished; and to effect this, it will be necessary to wash them in scalding water as soon as removed from the table, and when these things are done let them be hung up in their proper places. 5. The gridiron, frying-pan, spit, dripping-pan, &c., must be perfectly cleaned of grease and dried before they are put in their proper places. 6. Attention should be paid to things that do not meet the sight in the way that tins and copper vessels do. Let, for instance, the pudding cloth, the dish-cloth, and the dish-tub, be always kept perfectly clean. To these may be added, the sieve, the cullender, the jellybag, &c., which ought always to be washed as soon after they are used as may be practicable. 7. Scour your rolling-pin and paste-board as soon after using as possible, but without soap, or any gritty substance, such as sand or brick-dust; put them away perfectly dry. 8. Scour your pickle and preserve jars afler they are emptied; dry them and put them away in a dry place. 9. Wipe your bread and cheese-pan out daily with a dry cloth, and scald them once a week. Scald your salt-pan when out of use, and dry it thoroughly. Scour the lid well by which it is covered when in use. 10. Mind and put all things in their proper places, and then you ivill easily find them when they are wanted. 11. You must not poke things out of sight instead of cleaning fliem, and such things as onions, garlick, &c., must not be cut with the same knife as is used in cutting meat, bread, butter, &c. Milk must not be put in a vessel used for greasy purposes, nor must clear liquids, such as water, &c., be put into vessels, which have been used for milk, and not washed; in short, no vessel must be used for any purpose for which it is not appropriated. 12. You must not suffer any kind of food to become cold in any metal vessel, not even in well-tinned iron saucepans, &c., for they will impart a more or less unpleasant flavour to it. Above all things you must not let liquid food, or indeed any other, remain in brass or copper vessels after it is cooked. The rust of copper or brass ia absolutely poisonous, and this will be always produced by moisture and exposure to the air. The deaths of many persons have been occasioned by the cook not attending to this rule. 13. You must not throw away the fat which, when cold, accumulates on the top of liquors in which fresh or .salt meat has been boiled; in short, you ought not to waste fat of any description, or any thing else, that may be turned to account; such as marrow-bones, or any other clean bones from which food may be extracted in the way of soup, broth, or stock, or in any other way: for if such food will not 6uit your table, it will suit the table of the poor. Remember, " Wilful waste makes woful want." 14. A very essential requisite in a cook is punctuality: therefore rise early, and get your orders from your mistress as early as possible, and make your arrangements accordingly. What can be prepared before the business of roasting and boiling commences should always be prepared. 15. Do not do your dirty work at a dresser set apart for cleanly preparations. Take care to have plenty of kitchen cloths, and mark them so as a duster may not be mistaken for a pudding-cloth, or a knife-cloth for a towel. 16. Keep your spit, if you use one, always free from rust and glust, and your vertical jack clean. Never draw up your jack with a weight upon it. 17. Never employ, even if permitted to do so, any knives, spoons, dishes, cups, or any other articles in the kitchen, which are used in the dining room. Spoons are sure to get scratched, and a knife used for preparing an onion, takes up its flavour, which two or three cleanings will not entirely take away. 18. Take great care to prevent al. preparations which are delicate in their nature, such as custards, blancmange, dressed milks, &c., &c., from burning to which they are very liable. The surest way to effectually hinder this is to boil them as the carpenter heats his glue, that is, by having an outside vessel filled with water. 19. You ought not to do any thing by halves. What you do, do well. If you clean, clean thoroughly, having nothing to do with the " slut's wipe," and the "lick and a promise." 20. And last, though not least, be teachable: be always desirous to learn—never be ashamed to ask for information, lest you should appear to be ignorant; for be assured, the most ignorant are too frequently the most self-opinionated and most conceited; while those who are really well informed, think humbly of themselves, and regre* that they know so little. CHOICE AND PURCHASING OF BUTCHERS' MEAT. Inferior joints of the best animals should always be preferred to the prime joints of the ill-fed or diseased beasts. Inferior joints cf good meat such as sticking, legs and shins of beef, shoulders of mutton and veal, may, if well dressed, be made as nourishing and palatable as the superior joints, and may be bought much cheaper; but no cooking however well executed, will ever make bad meat good. Ill-condi tioned beasts, too, are for the most part unhealthy. 21. Beef.—Ox beef is considered, truly, the best. Bull beef is coarse, tough, and has a strong, disagreeable smell and taste. Next to ox beef,°that of a young heifer (if spayed the better) is preferred. Some persons, indeed, think it is the best. It is the most delicate and tender of all description of beef. Cow beef, particularly a young cow that has not had more than two or three calves, is very good. The grain is closer, and the fat whiter, than ox beef. Good beef has a fine, smooth, open grain, interlarded with thin streaks of delicate fat; and is of a deep healthy looking red colour. When the fat is of a dirty yellow colour, the meat is not good : it indicates its having been fed upon artificial food, such as oil cake. Grass-fed meat, or that fed upon hay and corn meal, is the best. When beef is old, a horny streak runs between the fat and lean; the harder this is, the older the meat. The flesh is not good flavoured, and eats tough. 22. Mutton.—Good mutton is firm in the grain; of a bright red colour; the lean delicately interlarded with thin streaks of fat; the fat itself being of a brightish white, tinted with a delicate pink. The fat of rotten mutton, in which the sheep was afflicted with a liver disease, is always of a dead white, and the flesh is of a pale colour. Such mutton is both unwholesome and unsavoury. The best way to detect this kind of mutton, is to examine the liver before it is removed from the sheep. If the liver be without bladders, or other marks of disease, the mutton is sound. Ewe mutton is not so good as wether mutton; the flesh is generally paler, and the texture finer. The best mutton is that which is fed upon the natural grasses. This is the reason why the Welsh and mountain Scotch muttons are so firm, short, and sweet. The sheep have liberty to choose their own food. Mutton fed on rape and turnips does not eat so well, nor near so well, as the grass-fed. Ram mutton has a strong, and, in some seasons of the year, an exceedingly disagreeable flavour. It is said that wether mutton, to be eaten in perfection, should be five years old; but it is scarcely ever kept to that age. In wether mutton there is a knob of fat on the part of the leg, where in the ewe you will find a part of the udder. 23. Venison when young has the cleft of the haunch smooth and close, and the fat is clear, bright and thick. In old venison, the cleft is wide and tough. If, after running a long, narrow, sharp knife into the lean of venison, it comes out without smelling, the venison is sweet. Some persons like it a little gone, and others a good deal. This state of putrescency is called by gourmands haut gout, high tasted; we should rather say at once, stinking. Venison requires more keeping than any other sort of meat to make it tender, unless it be dressed immediately it is killed, that is, before it is cold. 24. Veal.—This meat, to be truly good, delicate, fine flavoured, ano tender, ought not to be more than five or six weeks old, and, of course, fed exclusively upon the milk of the mother. Writers on cookery gravely tell us, that the whiteness of veal is partly caused bv the calf licking chalk. This is nonsense. The chalk is given to prevent calves from scouring, not to make their flesh white. However, whiteness is no proof of veal being good and juicy; it is caused by frequent bleeding. The flesh of the bull calf is said to be the firmest, but not so white. The fillet of the cow calf is sometimes preferred for the udder. The kidney of good veal is well covered with healthy looking fat, thick and firm. The bloody vein in the shoulder should look blue ; if it be of any other colour, the meat is stale. Fresh veal is dry and white. When it is spotty and clammy it is stale. The kidney is gone when the fat or suet upon it is not firm. The kidney goes first. 25. Lamb that is fresh will have the veins bluish in the neck and fore-quarter. If there be a faint smell under the kidney it is not fresh. When the eyes are sunk in the head, it is a sure sign the lamb has been killed too long. Grass lamb, which is the only lamb that is in perfection, comes in in April, but it is better in May and June ; that is to say, when men with hard hands can afford to eat it, and when there are green peas to eat with it. House lamb, for those who can afford to pay for it, and like to eat it, may be obtained all the year round. 26. Pork.—The quality of this kind of meat depends in a great measure upon its feeding. If grossly fed, it is bad, for the pig will eat any thing in the absence of delicate food. Dairy-fed pork we are told is the best: it is good, but we think not the best. To our taste, that is to be preferred in every respect which is fed not merely on dairy food, but upon good wholesome corn meal, whether of barley, oats, peas, or beans. Cookery writers tell us, that "if the rind is tough, and cannot easily be impressed by the finger, the meat is old ;" and they add, that a thin rind is a merit in all pork." These directions are no guide whatever to the choice of pork: the rind may be made thin by dressing, but there are those, and no bad judges either, who prefer thick rinds. Moubray, on Poultry, &c., says, " the western pigs from Berks, Oxford, and Bucks, possess a decided superiority over the eastern of Essex, Sussex, and Norfolk ; not to forget another qualification of the former, at which some readers may smile, a thickness of the skin, whence the crackling of the roasted pig is a fine gelatinous substance, which may be easily masticated, whilst the crackling of the thin-skinned breeds is roasted into good block tin, the reduction of which would almost require teeth of iron." So much for thin rinds. When pork is fresh, the flesh will be smooth and dry; when stale, clammy. What is called measly pork is to be avoided as a poison. It may be known by the fat being full of kernels, and by the general unwholesomeness of its appearance. 27. Bacon is good when the fat is almost transparent and of a delicate transparent pink tinge. The lean should adhere to the bone, be of a good colour, and tender. Yellow streaks in bacon show it is becoming rusty; when all is yellow, all is rusty and unfit to e a t Bacon and hams are frequently spoilt in the curing. Taste a little of the lean, and you will be able to judge whether it be too salt or not. 28. Hams are the best part of the pig when properly cured, per^ctly sweet, and not too salt. To ascertain whether a ham is tainted, run a sharp knife under the bone, and if it comes out with a pleasant smell, and clean, the ham is good. Summary of Directions.—Choose meat that has a clear red liver, free from knots and bladders, with kidneys firm, close, and well surrounded with firm, hard fat; the skirts which line the ribs should be full and fat. Meat possessing these qualifications may be depended on as of the first quality; but if the kidney or kernels of an animal have spots resembling measles, as is too frequently the case with pork, the meat is unwholesome. We have said thus much on the choice of meats, but persons who keep up what is called an establishment, will do best to trust to their butcher, porkman, fishmonger, and poulterer, and not to choose at all, excepting tradesmen, taking care to deal only with the most respectable in the neighbourhood. CHOICE OF POULTRY, EGGS, AND FISH, AND SEASONS OF FISH. Poultry of all kinds are preferred of a short thick make, broad and plump in the breast and thick in the rump and fat in the back. The spurs should be short as indicating youth, and the comb red as indicating health. The beak, bill, and claws, in a young bird will be tender, and the skin of the legs comparatively smooth; the contrary are certain indications of an old bird. But the best test of a fowl, as respects its age, is to try the two bones which run by the side of the belly to the vent; if these are gristly and easily broken at the end, the fowl is young. To judge of the age of geese or ducks, little or no dependence is to be placed upon the colour of the legs and bills— this varies according to complexion; but if the bills and feet have coarse red streaks, or a tinge of red in them, the bird is old. In young geese and dticks the above marks are not to be seen, and the webs will be smooth and thin. 29. Rabbits, young and in good condition, will be fat about the kidneys, and by the side of the belly. The flesh should be white, and if young, the legs will break easily. 30. Fowls are plentiful from August to January; chickens come in about April, tame ducks in May, continue through the summer months, and go out in October. Young geese may be dressed in the latter end of May and throuo-h the summer, but a goose is not thoroughly ripe till after stubbling, that is, about Michaelmas. Turkey poults are in season from May onwards, but turkeys are in high season about Christmas. 31. Rabbit? and Pigeons may be had the year roucd; wild rab bits ire best m the winter season; young pigeons may be had in February, and till September* wood-pigeons in December and January. 32. Game. — Hares, partridges and pheasants from September through the winter: the game season closes with February. All kinds of water-fowl are most plentiful in keen, dry weather, especially \v cold weather, after snow; also larks, wood-cocks, snipes, &c. 33. Eggs.—New eggs have always a rough fresh-looking shell, but this appearance may be effected by artificial means, and the purchaser be cheated with rotten ones, instead of getting fresh. A new-laid egg will sink in water, bad ones are more or less buoyant; but this is a tedious way of testing eggs. The best way is to form a sort of tube with the left-hand, holding with the right hand the egg, close and opposite to this tube, in the light. If the egg is good the meat will look clear, and partly transparent; if bad, it will look dark with black spots in it. 34. Fish should be broad and thick of their kind, their eyes bright, gills red, and the scales close and shining: fish should feel firm to the touch and stiff. Stale fish have always a loose, limber feel, especially about the vent; their eyes are sunk and dim, the scales loose and flabby, and the whole has a dingy, disagreeable appearance. Lobsters and crabs are to be judged by their weight; if they feel light, they have wasted themselves by long keeping. 35. Seasons of Fish.—There are some kinds of fish absolutely poisonous eaten out of season; such are salmon, and skate. The following will give some idea of the seasons of fish, but they vary according to the weather. Cod comes in about October, and goes out about February; it is sometimes good for a short time about August. Salmon comes in in February, is in high season during May, June, and July, declines in August, and is quite out in September. Pickled salmon is good from May till September. Herrings are in season as long as they are full of roe; when shotten, they are worthlnss. Sprats are best in frosty weather. Lobsters and crabs are plentiful in the spring and early part of the summer. Haddock, flounders,muscles, come in in September or October, and are out about April or May. Jacks or pikes, eels, perch, tench, carp, and other fresh water fish, become plentiful about April or May, according to the weather. Eels are never out of season, but in cold weather are hardly to be procured. Hallibut is in season from the beginning of May until the end of September. PREPARATIONS FOR COOKING. 36. A great deal has to be done before the cook can commence the operation of cooking. She has to truss her fowls and prepare her fish, butcher's meat, and vegetables, with other things not necessary to mention here. Never wash butcher's meat except for the purpose of cleansing it of blood, which would otherwise disfigure it when dressed. Few joints require this operation; heads, hearts and scrags always require to be well washed before they are cooked, but if they or any thing else are intended for roasting or frying, they should first be rendered perfectly dry, by rubbing with a coarse cloth, or otherwise. Salt rubbed in with warm water will speedily remove the blood and cleanse the meat. Hares must be always well washed with salt and water, or milk and water. 37. Trussing is little required in butcher's meat; but loins, boned and stuffed, such as those of beef, mutton and pork, must of course be trussed. This is done by spreading the stuffing and seasoning over them, then rolling them up as tightly as possible, tying up with a tape or string, and securing all by skewers. The long flap of the fillet of veal must be filled with stuffing, and then secured as above directed. 38. All kinds of poultry should be killed the first thing in the morning, when their crops are empty. They should be plucked while they are warm; be sure take out all the flues, and let the hair be singed off with white paper. It is recommended to crop fowls and pigeons immediately you have them; but there is a difference of opinion as to the time of drawing them; some say they should be drawn as soon as killed, or at least as soon as bought, which prevents the disagreeable flavour so often perceived in chickens; others say, and indeed the generality of cooks are of this opinion, that they should not be drawn till just before they are dressed, as it is apt to make them dry : we are of opinion that poultry should be drawn soon after they are killed ; we do not believe that this makes them dry, though we are sure that to leave them undrawn will be apt to make them stink. 39. In drawing poultry, or removing the entrails, a very small slit may be made under the vent with a penknife, at which slip in the fore-finger, and if there is any internal fat about the vent, draw it out, as it is in the way of taking out the entrails, and, if left in, would be very strong when roasted. Next get hold of the gizzard, which may be known by its being the hardest part of the interior; draw it out carefully; it will generally bring the whole of the intestines with it, but if the liver should be left, again slip in the finger and take hold of the heart, which will bring out with it the liver, which you must not touch for fear of bursting^the gall-bladder. The heart is generally left in by poulterers, but it is much better out, as it is apt to give a bloody appearance to the interior of the fowl. Trim round the vent with a pair of scissors. 40. Be careful to take away the gall-bladder from the liver without breaking it, for if one drop of the gall escapes, the whole liver is spoilt. The gizzard consists of two parts, with a stomach or bag in the middle, containing gravel and undigested food; one part of the skin by which the two parts of the gizzard are united is rather narrower than the other; slit this witn a knife, and turning the gizzard inside out, remove the stomach bag and trim round the gizzard, but avoid cutting the skin by which it is joined in the middle. 41. In trussing poultrv, cut off the neck about two joints from ita 32 THE COMPLETE COOK. commencement at the shoulders, but be suie to leave halt'an »nch, or more, of the skin longer than the part of the neck remaining, for tha purpose of wrapping over on being tied. 42. The legs of fowls intended to be roasted should be taken ofF about one inch below the first joint; the feet and legs of young chickens are generally left on, but they must be scalded in boiling water, and the claws and outside scaly skin taken off. Thrust the liver through a slit made in the skinny part of one pinion, and the gizzard through the other; then turn the top of the pinion over the back, lay the legs close to the sides; with a wire skewer fix the middle joint of the pinion outside of the knee joint of the leg, and so through the body to the other knee and pinion ; with a short skewer fix the lower joint to the lower part of the body; then the feet, or whatever part of them is Jeft, may turn back over the belly. The skewer for this purpose must go through the sidesmen, fixing the stumps or feet between them. For a fowl that is to be boiled, a slit is made on each side of the belly, and the leg-stump tucked in. 43. To remove the crop and windpipe of those whose heads are left on, open the skin a little just in front of the throat; then pull each separately gently, first from the beak or bill, then from the stomach. Fowls whose heads are taken off may have the crop removed by putting the finger down the throat. The windpipe is easily removed in the same way. [Trussed Fowl for roasting.] 44. Before dressing, a little flour should be dusted over fowls Poulterers, to make the bird look plump, often break the breast bone; this is a bad practice—it lets the air into the fowl, and drys the meat; it often breaks the gall-bladder, and, of course, spoils the fowl, and it always renders the bone troublesome. The head of capon, we ought to observe, is oflen twisted under the wing in the same way as a pheasant's. 45. Ducks have the feet always left on, but the wings must be taken off at the middle joint; in doing this, leave more skin than belongs to the bone. The feet must be scalded, and the skin and clawa taken away; they then must be tumed over the back. In placing the skewers, keep the thigh joints outside of the pinions, and run the skewer through the leg, then through the bit of skin that hangs below the pinion, then through the body, the other pinion, skifi, and the other leg The short skewer must be inserted just above the joint, which is twisted to turn back the feet. Tie the skin round the throat; put in the seasoning at the vent and turn the rump through a small slit in the apron. [Trussed Duck for roasting.] 46. Geese are trussed exactly in the same way as ducks, except the feet are cut off, and dressed with the giblets. The liver is sometimes dressed separately, and considered by some persons a great delicacy. A piece of greased white paper should be laid over the breast, and secured with a string, not skewers, before a goose is put down to roast. 47. Turkeys are trussed the same way as fowls, but the sinews of the leg must be drawn out before trussing. The gizzard of a turkey intended to be roasted should be scored, and both gizzard and liver covered with the caul of veal or lamb; but buttered paper does as well, and is more generally used : this is to prevent them becoming dry. The breast should be secured in the same way, with a piece of buttered paper. Nicely clean th? head, and twist it under the wing. 48. Pigeons should be cleaned with great care. For roasting, truss with the feet on ; tie the joints close down the rump, and turn the feet over the front (see engraving). Most people season them. For [Trussed Pigeon for roasting. ; [Trussed Pheasant.J boiling or stewing, cut off the feet, and truss just as fowls for boiling. For broiling, lay them open by cutting them down the back, and lav ing them flat. As pigeons have no gall, no extra care will be required with the liver. 49. Pheasants, Partridges, and Guinea Fowls, are trussed with the head tucked under the wing, and the feet on, which are twisted and tied to the rump, and turned back over the breast. The liver may be used in the stuffing. 50. Wild Ducks, and all other web-footed wild fowl, should have the feet ieft on, and be cleaned and trussed in the same manner a tame ducks. 51. Woodcocks, Plovers, &c., and all other birds that live by sue tion, are not drawn; the feet are left on, the knees twisted round [Trussed Woodcock ] each other, and raised over the breast, by which means each foot turns back and falls on the side of the rump. 52. Hare, trussed for roasting, has the legs turned back without disjointing, so that the haunches are thrown up, much in the form that a cat is often seen sitting—the end bones of the fore and hind legs meet each other, and lie side by side. Two skewers should be inserted, one where the end of the leg meets the fleshy part of the shoulder, and the other where the end of the shoulder meets the fleshy part of the leg; the head is fixed back with a skewer thrust [Trussed Hare.] into the mouth, through the head, and into the back between the shoulders. The belly should be slit no more than is necessary for taking out the paunch. To secure its keeping in place, a string i* employed for bracing it; the string is laid across the back, twisted round the end of both skewers, and brought back across the back and tied. In skinning hares and rabbits, particularly hares, the ears and tails should be preserved entire, as they improve the appearance of these dishes on the table, and are much esteemed. 53. Rabbits for boiling are opened all the way down the belly; joint the legs at the rump so as to admit of thefir turning along the sides; turn the shoulders back to meet them, so that the lower joints of each lie straight along, side by side; the head should be skewered down to the right shoulder. Rabbits for roasting are trussed like hares. [Trussed Rabbit for boiling.] 54. Fawns or Kids are generally trussed and dressed in the same way as hares. As the flesh is of a dry nature, they should be covered with a caul or buttered paper, which should be tied on, not skewered. Fawns will not keep above a day or two at the furthest. 55. Sucking Pigs, the moment they are killed, should be put into cold water for a few minutes. Some persons then rub them over with powdered resin: others object to this on account of the flavour of the resin, which the pig will retain, if not well washed. Put the pig for half a minute into a pail or pan of boiling water, and take it * out and pull off the hair or bristles as quickly as possible. If any should remain, put it again into hot water; when quite free from hair, wash it thoroughly with warm water, and then rinse it several times in cold water, that no flavour of the resin may remain. The feet should be taken off at the first joint: then make a slit down the belly and remove the entrails; once more wash the pig inside and out in cold water, and wrap it in a wet cloth till you are ready to dress it, which should be done as soon as possible. Fill the belly with seasoning, and sew it up; skewer back the legs, and the trussing is completed. The feet, heart, liver, lights, and melt, are to be dressed separately, when well cleaned. This dish is called pig's pettitoes. 56. Fish, in cleaning, should have every particle of the entrails very carefully removed. If the blood has settled down the back-bone, or elsewhere, it should be carefully taken away, and care should be taken not to break the gallbladder of the liver. Some fish must be slit in order to clean thern; others may have their entrails drawn out at the gills, which should be always done when it is practicable. Mackerel, perch, &c. are cleaned in this way. Flat fish may be selied and served hot; others like it sent to table as jelly. 139. Wine Sauce for Venison, Hare, or Haunch of Mutton.— Take equal parts of rich mutton gravy, without any flavourings, and port wine. Simmer them together to half a pint, add a table-spoonful of currant jelly, let it just boil up. 140. Sauce for a Pig.—Three quarters of a pint of good beef gravy, six or eight leaves of sage, chopped very fine, a blade of mace, a teacup full of bread erumbs, and eight white peppercorns; let them boil six or eight minutes, then stir into the sauce the brains, gravy, and whatever sticks about the dish on which you have split the pig, one ounce of butter rolled in flour, two table-spoonfuls of cream, and one or two of catsup, if liked; simmer a minute or two, and serve in a sauce tureen. 141. Turtle Sauce.—To a pint of rich beef gravy, thickened, put a wine glass of Madeira, six leaves of basil, the juice and peel of half a lemon, a few grains of cayenne or curry powder, an eschalot sliced, a table spoonful of essence of anchovy; simmer together five minutes, then strain, and add a dozen turtle force meat balls. This sa ice is used for calf's head, or hashed or stewed veal, or for any other rich dish in imitation of turtle. 142. A Sauce for all sorts of Fish.—Half a pint of port or claret, half a pint of rich gravy, a little nutmeg, three anchovies, two tablespoonfuls of catsup, and salt; simmer all together till the anchovies are done, then add three ounces of butter thickened with flour, arrowroot, or potatoe mucilage; when it boils, add some scraped horseradish, a dozen or two of oysters, a lobster cut in bits, a few smai. mushrooms, and half a pint of picked shrimps or crawfish. This sauce is intended to pour over the fish—boiled carp, tench, pike, whiting, boiled cod, and haddock. 143. Pudding Sauce.—Half a glass of brandy, one glass of white wine, a little grated rind of lertion, half an ounce of grated loaf sugar, and a little powdered cinnamon, mixed with melted butter. It is a good way to keep a bottle of these ingredients to mix with melted butter when wanted. In a bottle containing one pint of brandy and two pints of sherry, steep the kernels of apricots, nectarines, and peaches, with an ounce of shaved lemon rind, half an ounce of mace, and a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar ; pour off clear to mix with butter. Two table-spoonfuls will flavour a boat of sauce; the mace and lemon peel may be steeped in half a pint of brandy, or a pint of sherry, for fourteen days; strain, and add a quarter of a pint of capillaire. 144. Custard Sauce. — For rice or other plain puddings, or with fruit pies, stir a pint of sweet cream in a double saucepan till it boils; beat the yolks of two or three eggs, with a spoonful of cold cream, 5 and an ounce of powdered sugar; pour the boiling cream to them, and pour backwards and forwards'two or three times to prevent CUMIU^ ; then set the inner saucepan ovei the boiling water, and stir it continually one way till it thickens. Serve in a china basin with grated nutmeg, or pounded cinnamon strewed over the top* 145. Roe Sauce. — Boil the soft roes of mackerel, clear away all the skin, and bruise them with the back of a wooden spoon; beat up the yolk of an egg with a little salt and pepper, a little fennel and parsley scalded and chopped fine, rub the whole together, and stir into melted butter. Some people prefer a spoonful of catsup, essence of anchovy, or walnut pickle. B O I L I N G . As this is the most common mode of preparing food for human sustenance, it is therefore the more necessary that its principles should be well understood ; for though the operations of boiling may appear to be very simple, yet a great deal of skill and judgment is required to carry them into effect properly. W e repeat, that the young cook ought to read attentively our observations upon this subject, in the "Introductory Remarks." Instead of using the word boiling, we ought rather to have said, the mode of preparing meats for food by means of hot water; for we are quite convinced, that all meats are more or less injured by being subjected to a boiling heat; that is, a heat of 212° of Fahrenheit. We have dressed salt cod fish in water never exceeding 145® of heat, and it was much more tender, and better flavoured, than when dressed in boiling water: we ought to add, that the fish is required to remain in this partially hot water four or five hours, in which time it becomes divested of the salt, and eats, comparatively speaking, quite fresh. 146. Take care that your vessel is large enough for the water to cover the meat, and to surround it. Do not suffer the steam to escape; and to effect this, see that the lid of the vessel fits it as closely as possible; by this means the water may be kept at a proper heat, that is to say, nearly simmering, but not bubbling, whereby fuel will be saved, and the meat much better dressed. In short, one of the greatest errors that can be committed in boiling meat, is to suffer the water to boil violently. It has the effect of hardening the outside of the joints, or, in other words, making it tough, while the inside will be raw, or only partially done. 147. Always prefer soft water to hard, whenever the former is to be procured. River, or clean rain water, should bemused in preference to hard spring water; but your water must always be as pure and as bright as possible. 148. In making up a fire for cooking, regard must be had a£ to whether it is intended for boiling or roasting, or for both. A moderate fire is best for boiling, but a brisk and somewhat fierce fire is required for roasting. If you are going to roast and boil at the same fire, you must take care that your boiling vessels are sufficiently far removed BOILING. 59 from i t With a good kitchen range, or steam cooking apparatus, all this may be done without difficulty or trouble. 149. All fresh meats are directed by the generality of culinary writers to be put into the pot, or saucepan, when the water is warm, not hot; but salt meat, for the most part, should be put in when the water is perfectly cold; by this means the superfluous salt will be extracted from it. The pot should not, with fresh meat, be allowed to boil, or rather to arrive at the boiling point, under forty or fifty minutes; more time should be taken with salt meat. The usual direction is, as above, to put fresh meat into warm water — but we are convinced, that the better plan is always to use cold. Meat, thoroughly cooked, will take twenty minutes boiling to each pound. Salt, a little more. 150. When the scum rises, let it be carefully removed; and if the heat of the water is checked with a small portion of cold water, it will throw up an additional scum, which must, of course, be also carefully taken away. The scum rises just as the water is beginning to boil. The nice clear appearance of the meat, when done, in a great measure depends upon attending to the above directions. 151. When the liquor in your vessel once boils, after all the scum has been cleared away, let it continue to simmer till the meat is done. From fifteen to twenty minutes is generally directed to be allowed for e^ch pound of meat, but twenty is better. Never stick ycur fork into meat, whether boiling or roasting, upon any account; the effect will be to let out the gravy. Bacon is an exception. 152. Meats of any description, just killed, and still warm, whether to be roasted or boiled, will do as soon, and eat as tender, as meat which has hung the usual time; but if once suffered to become cold after slaughtering, it will require more dressing, and after all will not eat so tenderly, unless hung a proper time. 153. Meat which has been frozen must be immersed in cold water two or three hours, or till the frost is taken out of it, before it is dressed, or it will never be well done. In cold weather meat requires more dressing than in warm. 154. Salt meat will require more boiling than fresh, and thick parts, whether salt or fresh, rather more than thin ones. 155. In boiling bacon, if very salt, it is a good plan to take away a part or the whole of the water, when it is on the point of boiling, and filling up the pot with cold water. This process renders it more mild. Bacon or ham is done when the skin is easily removed, or the fork leaves it readily. 156. Hams, beef, tongues, and even pork, which have been kept long in pickle, should be soaked before they are boiled — if hard, in warm water. A ham weighing twenty pounds, or upwards, will take from five to six hours to dress it well (the water should not boil); and a large dry tongue should be boiled, or rather simmered, for four hours or more. The following is a good plan to dress a ham: Put certain quantity of suet into the pan which is to be used for the cook •ng of the ham; then put in the ham and cover it with paper, over which lay a cover of coarse paste, or the paper may be used without the paste, or the paste without the paper; place the pan in the'oven, where let it remain till the ham is done. The gravy coming from the meat will be a jelly, which, mixed with fresh stock or broth for gravies, &c. will greatly improve it. 157. Meat boiled by steam requires no water unless soup is wanted. Meat boiled in the ordinary way should not be permitted to touch the bottom of the pot. This object may be effected by placing a fish-drain in the pot, or by putting a plate upside down in it, or laying some skewers across it a little way from the bottom. 158. There is a method of boiling meat without allowing it to touch or come in contact with the water. This plan, which is little followed in America, has been strongly recommended. To effect this object, fowls filled with oysters may be boiled in a bladder, or in a close jar, by which means they are deliciously stewed, and the flavour and animal juices are all preserved. Meat of any description may be dressed in a similar manner,* that is, by putting it into a close jar and immersed in water, which is kept boiling till the meat is done. The Scotch dress their haggis in this way, and the custom was followed by the ancient Romans. Similar modes of dressing meat are used by savages in different parts of the world. 159. Any thing that is to be warmed and sent to the table a second time, should be put into a basin or jar, placed in hot water, which is not permitted to come to the boiling point. If allowed to boil, the meat will harden,or the sauce will be reduced and become thick; by avoiding these chances the flavour will be preserved, and the viands may be warmed up more than once without injury. The stearri apparatus now employed in most kitchens, is admirably adapted to this purpose, since the heat can be regulated by the required temperature. 160. The heads, brains, and so forth, of animals, every thing in fact, which in the cleaning process requires soaking, should be soaked in warm, not hot water, as the hot will fix the blood, and injure both the appearance and flavour of the viand. All cooks must be particular in keeping their saucepans well skimmed; nothing will more completely spoil a dish of any kind than the neglect of this essential point. In order to take off the fat from the braise, or any other gravy, plunge the basin containing it into cold water; the fat will immediately coagulate, and may be removed. 161. It is much better to dress meat immediately after it is killed, that is, while it is warm, than to suffer it to get cold, and not let it hang a proper length of time. Indeed, there is no doubt that meat dressed while warm is as tender, or nearly as tender, as when it has been hung for some days. If, therefore, you cannot procure wellhung meat, and can get that which has been just killed, you ought to prefer the latter. 162. Bacon, ham, and salt beef, may be done, if you want to use your fire for vegetables, half an hour before serving, as it will not sustain any injury by remaining that time in the hot liquor; but all other descriptions of meat would be injured by such a course of proceeding 163. Potatoes must never be boiled with meat, or indeed with any thing else, for the meat is injured by the potatoes and the potatoes by the meat. 164. You may boil turnips, carrots, parsnips, and pease pudding, with salt meat; by so doing these vegetables will be improved, and the meat not injured ; but the liquor will not keep so long, though it will be rendered better for some kinds of soup. 165. Green vegetables, such as savoys, &c., should be always put into boiling water with a handful of salt, particularly if they are harsh and strong; they are generally kept boilinsr till they are done. In warm countries, in Italy, for instance, they first boil them in a large quantity of water for a considerable time; but as this will neither make them sweet nor tender, they are frequently taken out of the pot, and well washed in cold spring water; they are then boiled again till they are sweet and tender. Old tough meat may be similarly treated with like effect. 166. Old potatoes must never be put into warm or hot water. On the contrary, the water in which this useful vegetable is boiled should be perfectly cold when the potatoes are first put in. New potatoes are better put in boiling water. BOILING.—BUTCHER'S MEAT AND POULTRY. The general directions which we have given for boiling in the preceding pages, if they have been well studied by the young cook, as we trust they have, render it useless for us to go into the question at any length ; we shall, therefore, content ourselves with a few special directions relative to the dressing of the different things designated at the head of this section. It will not be necessary to give a great multiplicity of receipts; for if the general principles of boiling are well understood, and we have spared neither time nor space to make them so, the cook will find no difficulty in preparing any particular dish without especial directions from us, or any other writer. The receipts which follow are selected according to the best of our judgment. We do not pretend to say that they are original ; upon such a subjeot it is impossible to be original, with the exception, perhaps, of a few instances. Dr. Kitchiner apologises in his " Cook's Oracle," for his " receipts differing a little from those in former cookery books." Very different is this open and candid proceeding from that of a voluminous writer of great pretensions, who claims the following mode of dressing rice, which is as old as the introduction of tha article into this country, as original! " T i e some rice in a cloth, leaving plenty of room for it to swell; boil it in water for an hour or two, and eat it with butter and sugar, or milk." 167. Boiled Beef.—Fresh boiled beef is called beef bouilli by some, but in the French kitchen the term means fresh beef dressed, without absolutely boiling, it being suffered only to simmer till it is done. Indeed, it may be laid down as a general rule, that whether you are dressing beef bouilli, or any other meat, it should never be suffered to go into a boiling gallop, except for a minute or two, for the purpose of throwing up the scum. After the scum is all cleared away, let it simmer till it is done. But you must be careful not to let your meat boil too quickly; for this purpose it should be put over a moderate fire, and the water made gradually hot, or the meat will be hardened, and shrink up as if it were scorched; but by keeping the meat a certain time heating, without boiling, the fibres of the meat dilate, and it not only yields the scum more freely, but the meat is rendered more tender. The advantage of dressing fresh meat in the way practised by the French with regard to fresh beef is twofold. In the first place, meat dressed in this manner affords much more nourishment than it does cooked in the common way, is easy of digestion, and will yield soup of a most excellent quality. (See Soup and Bouilli, and 99.) 168. Boiled Salt Beef.—A piece of beef of fifteen pounds will take three hours, or more, simmering after it has boiled, and it ought to be full forty minutes on the fire before it does boil; skim carefully; put a tea-cup full of the liquor, and garnish with sliced carrots. Vegetables, carrots, turnips, kale, parsnips; sauce, melted butter. Pease pudding is sometimes boiled with salt beef, and the liquor, if not too salt, will make good pease soup. An aitch, or H bone of beef, a round, or ribs salted and rolled, and indeed all other beef, are boiled in the same way. Briskets and other inferior joints require, perhaps, more attention than superior ones; they should in fact rather be stewed than boiled, and in a small quantity of water, by which means, if good meat, they will be delicious eating. 169. Mutton.—A leg will take from two to th^ee hours boiling. Accompaniments — parsley and butter, caper sauce, eschalot, onion, turnips, carrots, spinach, &c., and to boiled mutton in general. 170. Neck of Mutton. —- As the scrag end takes much longer to boil, some people cut it off and boil it half or three-quarters of an hour before the rest, as it is apt to be bloody, however well washed; you had better skim it well. When it is time to put the best end in, add cold water to check the heat, allowing an hour and a half o: three-quarters, after the second boiling up. Cut off some of the fat before dressing, or at least peel off the skin when taken up. For accompaniments, see 169. • 171. Shoulder, boiled.—The whole is sometimes boiled, and sometimes cut in half, taking the knuckle part, and leaving the oyster for roasting ; it will take not less than two hours slow boiling, though it may not weigh above five pounds. Boil it either plain or in broth. Accompaniments, 169. 172. Breast, boiled, will require from two and a half, to three ftours. Accompaniments, 169. 173. Sheeps' Heads, plain boiled.—Boil them two hours; before boil ing, take out the brains, wash them clean and free from all skin ; chop about a dozen sage leaves very small, tie them in a small bag, and let them boil half an hour, then beat them up with pepper and salt, and BOILING. B U T C H E R S ' MEAT, & C. 63 half an ounce of butter; pour it over the head, or serve in a boat or tureen; skin the tongue before serving. Accompaniments, 169. 174. Leg of Lamb, boiled.—From an hour and a quarter to an nour and a half Accompaniments—caper sauce, melted butter, turnips, spinach, carrots, &c. 175. Neck, boiled.—One hour; if very large, an hour and a quarter. 176. Lamb's Head and Pluck.—Parboil the lights and a small bit of the liver till it will chop fine, and boil the head in the same liquor; it will take nearly an hour to boil; scald the brains, tied up in a small bag, with five or six sage leaves, chopped very fine; they will take twenty minutes to do; warm the mince in a little of the liquor, seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg; thicken with flour, and half an ounce of butter, and stir in the brains. Take up the head ; skin the tongue; pour over the mince; sippets of toasted bread and slices of lemon. The liver, heart, and sweetbread, to be fried, and laid round the dish with slices of bacon ; or served in a separate dish, which is preferable, as the liver requires a little brown gravy. Vegetables, turnips, carrots, &c. Browned.—After boiling, wash the head with the yolk of an egg ; sprinkle with bread crumbs and chopped parsley, and brown it in a dutch oven, the mince to be poured round it. Some people like the flavour of catsup in the mince; others like a little sliced lemon peel, and a spoonful or two of cream. 177. Boiled Veal.—A knuckle, whether of leg or shoulder, will take full two hours. A scrag of neck or breast, an hour and threequarters to two hours. Sauce, melted butter, parsley and butter, celery, &c. 178. Calf's Head, boiled.—Let it be cut in half by the butcher, and all the inside bones removed; take out the brains, wash the head well in several waters, with a little salt, to draw out the blood; boil it slowly in plenty of water two hours or two hours and a quarter. Sauce. Well clean the brains, and boil them in a cloth half an hour, with about a dozen sage leaves chopped fine, or parsley, or part of each; when done, beat them up in a small saucepan, with a little salt and pepper, one ounce of butter, and a little lemon juice; have them ready quite hot to pour, over the tongue, when skinned. Some people mix the brains with parsley and butter, and pour over the whole head. However it is dressed, it is usually garnished with sliced lemon. 179. Tripe, when raw, will take four or five hours simmering. If previously well boiled, twenty minutes to three-quarters of an -hour. It may be in milk, or milk and water, or equal parts of milk and its own liquor. Boil with the tripe eight or ten^arge onions. To keep the tripe warm, serve it in the liquor, and beat up the onions with pepper, salt, and butter; or the tripe may be served without liquor, and the onion sauce poured over. If onions are not approved, serve parsley and butter, or caper sauce. Tripe may be cut in pieces the 81z e of a hand, dipped in batter and fried, with rashers of bacon / iaid round the dish.—N. B. Mustard is always an accompaniment of tripe, and generally vinegar also. In some of the English towns, particularly at Birmingham, famous for tripe, the belly or paunch of the animal, after being well cleaned, (in doing which thoroughly great attention and care mue-t be observed,) is sent to the oven in a deep earthenware pot, or jar, closely covered over the top, and baked, or rather stewed, in just a sufficient quantity of water, for four or five hours, or till it is well done. It is sold while yet hot, in the public-houses or tripe shops, at so much a " large or small cut," with a proportionate quantity of " broth," that is, the liquor in which it has been stewed ; nothing else is eaten with it, except mustard and salt. In Birmingham it is usually eaten for supper, and of course by candle-light, and at no other meal; a relation of ours, however, was so fond of it, that he used to have the dining-room darkened, and the candles lit, in order that he might partake of it for /lis dinner, under the same apparent circumstances as at supper. W e have heard of whist devotees who could not play the game with any gusto by daylight, and who resorted to the same expedient to imitate night as our tripe gourmand. Tripe cooked in the Birmingham fashion is delicious—far, very far, superior to that gotten in London; this may be partly accounted for by the fact that all meat ia greatly deteriorated by being twice subjected to heat. 180. Cow-heel in the hands of a skilful cook, will furnish several good meals; when boiled tender, cut it into handsome pieces, egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them a light brown; lay them round a dish, and put in the middle of it sliced onions fried, or the accompaniments ordered for tripe. 181. Pig's Pettitoes consist of the feet and internal parts of a sucking pig. Set on with a quantity of water, or broth ; a button onion or two may be added, if approved—also, four or five leaves of sage chopped small. When the heart, liver, and lights, are tender, take them out and chop fine ; let the feet simmer the while ; they will take from half to three-quarters of an hour to do. Season the mince with salt, nutmeg, and a little pepper, half an ounce of butter, a table-spoonful or two of thick cream, and a tea-spoonful of arrow-root, flour, or potatoe starch; return it to the saucepan, in which the feet are; let it boil up, shaking it one way. Split the feet, lay them round in the mince. Serve with toasted sippets. Garnish. Mashed potatoes. 182. Salt Pork requires long boiling, never less than twenty minutes to a pound, and a thick joint considerably more. A leg of ten pounds will take four hours simmering, a spring two hours, a porker's head the same. Be very careful thafit does not stick to the pot. No sauce is required, except a quarter of a pint of the liquor in which il was boiled, to draw the gravy, and plenty of good fresh mustard. A chine is usually served quite dry. The vegetable accompaniments are pease puddinsr, turnips, carrots, and parsnips. 183. Pickled Pork, which is usually bought pickled, requires to be Well washed before boiling, and must boil very slowly. It is seldom eaten alone, but as an accompaniment to fowls, or other white meat. 184. Bacon, Ham, Tongues.—First, well wash and scrape clean. If very salt, it may soak in cold water a few hours; allow plenty of water, fresh rain or river water is best; put it in when the chill is off; and let it be a good while coming to the boil, then keep it very gently simmering. If time allows, throw away nearly or quite all the liquor of bacon as soon as it boils up, and renew it with fresh cold water; reckon the time from the second boiling. A pound of streaky bacon will require three-quarters of an hour to boil; a quarter of an hour for every additional pound. If good bacon it will swell in boiling, and when done the rind will pull off easily. Take it up on a common dish to remove the rind, and sprinkle it over with bread raspings, sifted through a flour dredge, or grater. A ham of twelve or fourteen pounds will require four or five hours simmering, or four hours baking in a moderate oven. When done, remove the skin as whole as possible, and preserve it to cover over the ham and keep it moist. If to be served hot, strew raspings as above; but if intended for eating cold, omit the raspings. It will be much the more juicy for net cutting hot. Set it on a baking stand, or some other contrivance, to keep it from touching the dish; this preserves it from swamping in the fat that drips from it, keeps the fat nice and white for use, and also makes the ham keep the longer from becoming mouldy, by the outside being perfectly dry. Whether hot or cold, garnish with parsley. A neat's tongue, according to its size, age, and freshness, will require from two hours and a half to four hours slow boiling. When done, it will stick tender, and the skin will peel off easily. A dried chine, or hog's cheek, may be allowed the same boiling as bacon, viz. four pounds an hour and a half, and a quarter of an hour for every additional pound. 185. To poach Eggs.—The best vessel for this purpose is a frying pan; but it must be kept for that purpose only, or the grease witt adhere to the water, and spoil the delicate appearance of the eggs. A wide-mouthed stew-pan will do as well. Both the vessel and water must be delicately clean. Break the eggs into separate cups; when the water boils, gently slip in the eggs, and set the vessel on the hob for a minute or so, till the white has set, then set it over the fire ; let it once boil up, and the eggs are done. The white should retain its transparency, and the yellow appear brightly through it. Take up very carefully with a slice; trim off* any rough edges of white, and serve on buttered toast, a piece for each egg, a little larger than the egg itself; or on a fish drainer. Garnish with sliced bacon or ham, sausages, or spinach. 186. Turkeys, Capons, Chickens, cf-c., are all boiled exactly in the same manner, only allowing time according to their size. A chicken will take about twenty minutes—a fowl, forty—a fine five-toed fowl or a capon, about an hour—a small turkey, an hour and a half—a large one, two hours or more. Chickens or fowls should be killed at least one or two days before they are to be dressed.* Turkeys (espe*If they are dressed immediately after they are killed, before ike flesh is cold fti' Poultry eat equally tender. ciallj larg-e ones) should not be dressed till they have been killed three or four days at least—in cold weather, six or eight—or they will neither look white nor eat tender. Turkeys and large fowls should have the strings or sinews of the thighs drawn out. Fowls for boiling should be chosen as white as possible: those which have black legs should be roasted. The best use of the liver is to make sauce. Poultry must be well washed in warm water ; if very dirty from the singeing, &c., rub them with a little white soap, but thoroughly rinse it off before you put them into the pot. Make a good and clear fire; set on a clean pot, with pure and clean water, enough to cover the turkey, &c..; the slower it boils, the whiter and plumper it will be. When there rises any scum, remove it; the common method of some (who are more nice than wise) is to wrap them up in a cloth, to prevent the scum attaching to them; which if it do by your neglecting to skim the pot, there is no getting it off afterwards, and the poulterer is blamed for the fault of the cook. If there be water enough, and it is attentively skimmed, the fowl will both look and eat much better this way than when it has been covered up in the cleanest cloth; and the colour and flavour of your poultry will be preserved in the most delicate perfection. FISH. 1^7. Salmon to boil.—The water should be blood-warm: allow plenty to cover the fish, with a good handful of salt, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar; this makes the fish boil firm. Remove the scum as fast as it rises. Keep it at a very gentle boil from half an hour to an hour, according to the thickness of the fish. When the eyes start, and the fins draw out easily, it is done. Lay the fish-drainer across the* kettle a minute or two before shifting the fish. Sauce, lobster, shrimp, anchovy, or parsley and butter. Melted butter is the universal sauce for fish, whether boiled, fried, or baked. Whatever other sauce is served, plain melted butter must never be omitted: we shall therefore only refer to the number of other sauces suitable for particular kinds of fish. Observe, also, potatoes, either boiled or mashed, are the only vegetables eaten with fish, excepting parsnips with salt fish. 188. Broiled Salmon.—This is a good method of dressing a small quantity of salmon for one or two persons. It may be cut in slices the whole round of the fish, each taking in two divisions of the bone; or the fish may be split, and the bone removed, and the sides of the fish divided into cutlets of three or four inches each: the former method is preferable, if done neatly with a sharp knife. Rub it thoroughly dry with a clean rough cloth; then do each piece over with salad oil or butter. Have a nice clean gridiron over a very clear fire, and at some distance from it. When the bars are hot through wipe them, and rub with lard or suet to prevent sticking; lay on the salmon, and sprinkle with salt. When one side is brown, carefully turn and brown the other. They do equally well or better in a tin, or fiat dish, in an oven, with a little bit of butter, or sweet oil; or tney may be done in buttered paper on the gridiron. Sauce, lobster or shrimp. 189. Baked Salmon. — If a small fish, turn the tail to the mouth, and skewer it; force meat qiay be put in the belly, or, if part of a large fish is to be baked, cut it in slices, egg it over, and dip it in the force meat. Stick bits of butter about the salmon (a few oysters laid round are an improvement). It will require occasional basting with the butter. When one side becomes brown, let it be carefully turned, and when the second side is brown, it is done. Take it up carefully, with all that lies about it in the baking dish. For sauce, melted butter, with two table-spoonsful of port wine, one of catsup, and the juice of a lemon, poured over the fish; or anchovy sauce in a boat. 190. Pickled Salmon.—Do not scrape off the scales, but clean the fish carefully, and cut into pieces about eight inches long. Make a strong brine of salt and water; to two quarts, put two pounds of salt, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar; in all, make just enough to cover the fish; boil it slowly, and barely as much as you would for eating hot. Drain off all the liquor; and, when cold, lay the pieces in a kit or small tub. Pack it as close as possible, and fill up with equal parts of best vinegar and the liquor in which the fish was boiled. Let it remain so a day or two, then again fill up. Serve with a garnish of fresh fennel. The same method of pickling will apply to sturgeon, mackerel, herrings, and sprats. The three latter are sometimes baked in vinegar, flavoured with allspice and bay leaves, and eat very well; but will not keep more than a few days. 191. Turbot, Halibut, and Brill, boiled. — Score the skin across the thick part of the back, to prevent its breaking on the breast, which it would be liable to tk> when the fish swells in boiling. Put the fish in the kettle in cold water, with a large handful of salt; as it comes to boil, skim it well, and set it aside to simmer as slowly as possible for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. If it boil fast it will break. It may be garnished with fried smelts or gudgeons, laid all round like spokes of a wheel. Sauce, lobster or shrimp. 192. Soles and Dutch Plaice may be boiled exactly in the same way as turbot, and with the same garnish and sauce, or with parsley, fennel, or chervil sauce. If you have not a turbot kettle, these flat fish boil very well in a large frying pan, provided it admits depth of water to cover them. 193. Soles, fried. — Having cleaned, wipe them thoroughly dry, and keep them in a coarse cloth an hour or two before using. In case any moisture should remain, flour them all over, and again wipe it off. They may be fried either with or without bread crumbs or oatmeal. If bread crumbs are to be used, beat up an egg very finely; wash over the fish with a paste-brush; then sprinkle over it bread crumbs or oatmeal, so that every part may be covered, and one part uot be thicker than another. Lift up the fish by a fork stuck in the head, and shake off"any loose crumbs that may adhere. Have plenty of fat in your pan, over a brisk fire, and let it quite boil before you put the fish in. The fat may be salad oil, butter, lard or dripping If sweet and clean, the least expensive answers as well as the best, but let there be enough to cover the fish. Give the fish a gentle shove with a slice, that it may not stick to the pan. In about four or five minutes one side will be brown ; turn it carefully, and do the other; which, being already warm, will not take so long. The best way to turn a large sole, is to stick a fork in the head, and raise the tail with a slice, otherwise it is liable to be broken with its own weight. If the soles are very large, it is a good way to cut them across in four or five pieces, by which means the thick parts can have more time allowed them, without overdoing the thin. The very same rules will apply to the frying of Dutch plaice, flounders, eels, jack perch, roach, and other fresh-water fish. Jack and eels to be cut in pieces three or four inches long. Sauce, anchovy, parsley and butter, or melted butter flavoured with mushroom catsup. Garnish, sprigs of parsley or lemon juice. 194. Soles or Eels, stewed.—They may be first half fried, so as to give them a little brownness; then carefully drain them from fat; season with pepper and salt, and set them on with as much good beef gravy as will cover them. Let them simmer very gently for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, according to their thickness, but be very careful that they be not overdone. Take up the fish very gently with a slice. Thicken the sauce with flour and butter; flavour with mushroom catsup and port wine; simmer a minute or two, then strain it over the fish. Some people do not like the addition of wine, and instead thereof mix the thickening with a tea-cup full of good cream, seasoned with cayenne and nutmeg, and with or without the addition of a spoonful of catsup. 195. Cod.—The head and shoulders, comprehending in weight twothirds or three-quarters of the fish, is much better dressed separately; the tail being much thinner would be broken to pieces before the thicker parts are done. The best way of dressing the tail, is to fry it. For boiling cod, allow plenty of room and water, that the fish may be perfectly covered. Put it in blood-warm water, with a large handful of salt. Watch for its boiling, that it may be set a little aside. A small cod will require twenty minutes after it boils; a large one, half an hour. When the fins pull easily, and the eyes start, the fish i9 done. Slip it very carefully on the fish plate, that it may not be broken. Take out the roe and liver, which are much esteemed; they will serve to garnish the dish, together with horse-radish and slices of lemon, or fried smelts, or oysters. Sauce, oyster. The sound, a fat jelly-like substance, along the inside of the backbone, is the great delicacy of the fish. Cod is sometimes boiled in slices. Let them be soaked half an hour in salt water; then set on with cold spring water and salt, just enough to cover them. Let it boil up; then carefully skim and set aside for ten minutes. Serve with the same sauce as above. Slices of cod are much better fried as soles. Slices of crimped cod, for boiling, are put in boiling water, and when done served on a napkin. 196. Ling is a large fish, somewhat resembling cod, and may be dressed in the same way, but is very inferior in quality. 197. Haddock is but a poor fish, make the best of it. It may be boiled, and served with egg saucc, but it is better stuffed, and baked or broiled, and served with good gravy, or melted butter, flavoured „with anchovy or mushroom catsup. 198. Whitings may be skinned or not. Fasten the tail to the mouth; dip the eggs and bread crumbs, or oatmeal, and fry as soles, or they may be cut in three or four pieces, and fried. They do not take long to fry; not more than five minutes; but several minutes should be allowed to drain the fat from them, as the */eauty of them is to be perfectly dry. Sauce, anchovy, or parsley and butter. 199. Sturgeon.—If for boiling take off the skin, which is very rich and oily; cut in slices; season with pepper and salt; broil over a clear fire; rub over each slice a bit of butter, and serve with no other iccompaniment than lemon; or the slices may be dipped in seasoning or force meat, twisted in buttered white paper, and so broiled. For sauce, serve melted butter with catsup. Garnish with sliced emon, as the juice is generally used with the fish. 200. Roast Sturgeon.—A piece of sturgeon may be tied securely an a spit, and roasted. Keep it constantly basted with butter, and when nearly done dredge with bread crumbs. When the flakes begin to separate, it is done. It win take about half an hour before a brisk fire. Serve with good gravy, thickened with butter and flour, and enriched with an anchovy, a glass of sherry wine, and the juice of half a Seville orange or lemon. 201. Stewed Sturgeon.—Take enough gravy to cover the fish; set it on with a table-spoonful of salt, a few corns of black pepper, a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion or two, scraped horse-radish, and a glass of vinegar. Let this boil a few minutes; then set it aside to become pretty cool; then add the fish; let it come gradually to boil; and then stew gently till the fish begins to break. Take it off immediately; keep the fish warm; strain the gravy, and thicken with a good piece of butter; add a glass of port or sherry wine, a grate of nutmeg, and a little lemon juice. Simmer till it thickens, and then pour over the fish. Sauce, anchovy. 202. Mackerel, boiled. — Put them on with cold water and salt. When the kettle boils, set it aside, but watch it closely, and take up the moment the eyes begin to start, and the tail to split. Sauce, parsley and butter (fennel), or roe sauce, or gooseberry sauce. Garnish, fennel and slices of lemon. 203. Broiled Mackerel.—Cut a slit in the back that they may be thoroughly done. Lay them on a clean gridiron (having greased the bars), over a clear, but rather slow, fire. Sprinkle pepper and salt over them; when thoroughly done on both sides, take them up on a very hot dish without a fish plate. Rub a bit of butter over each fish, a nd put inside each a little fennel arid parsley, scalded and chopped, seasoned with pepper and salt, and a bit of fresh butter. Fennel ®auce, parsley and batter. 6 5 204. Baked or Pickled Mackerel.—Take off the heads; open tha fish; take out the roes, and clean them thoroughly; rub the inside with pepper, salt, and allspice, and replace the roes. Pack the fish close in a deep baking pan; cover with equal parts of cold vinegar and water, and two bay leaves. Tie over strong white paper doubled, or still thicker. Let them bake an hour in a slow oven. They may be eaten hot, but will keep ten days or a fortnight. Cold butter, and fresh young fennel (unboiled), are eaten with them. Sprats or herrings may be done in the same way. 205. Skate and Thornback.—These fish (like cod) are frequently crimped, that is, slashed in slices, by which means the meat contracts, and becomes more firm as the watery particles escape. Cut them in pieces, and boil in salt and water; serve with anchovy sauce; or they may be fried with egg and bread crumbs, as soles; or stewed as soles. 206. Smelts, Gudgeons, Sprats, or other small Fish, fried.— Clean and dry them thoroughly in a cloth, fry them plain, or beat an egg on a plate, dip them in it, and then in very fine bread crumbs, that have been rubbed through a sieve: the smaller the fish, the finer should be the bread crumbs—biscuit powder is still better; fry them in plenty of clean lard or dripping; as soon as the lard boils and is still, put in the fish; when they are delicately browned, they are done; this will hardly take two minutes. Drain them on a hair sieve, placed before the fire, turning them till quite dry. 207. Trout is sometimes fried, and served with crisp parsley and plain melted butter. This answers best for small fish. They ary sometimes broiled, which must be done over a slow fire, or they will break. While broiling, sprinkle salt and baste with butter; serve with anchovy sauce, to which may be added a few chopped capers and a little of the vinegar. The sauce is generally poured over the fish. 208. Stewed Trout.—When the fish has been properly washed, lay it in a stew-pan, with half a pint of claret or port wine, and a quart of good gravy; a large onion, a dozen berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, and a few cloves, or a bit of mace; cover the fish-kettle close, and let it stew gently for ten or twenty minutes, according to the thickness of the fish ; take the fish up, lay it on a hot dish, cover it up, and thicken the liquor it was stewed in with s little flour; season it with a little pepper, salt, essence of anchovy, mushroom catsup, and a little chili vinegar; when it has boiled ten minutes, strain it through a tamis, and pour it over the fish; if there is more sauce than the dish will hold, send the rest up in a boat. 209. Red Mullets.—These delicate fish are sometimes fried, and served with anchovy sauce; but more frequently either stewed or baked. 210. Eels, fried. — Skin and gut them, and wash them in cold water; cut them in pieces four inches long; season them with pep* per and salt; beat an egg well on a plate, dip them in the egg, and then in fine bread crumbs; fry them in fresh clean lard ; drain thero well from the fat; garnish with crisp parsley. Sauce, plain, and melted butter sharpened with lemon juice, or parsley and butter. 211. Boiled Eels.—Twist them round and round, and run a wire skewer through them. Do them slowly in a small quantity of salt and water, with a spoonful of vinegar, and a handful of parsley. They may be put in cold water, and will take very few minutes after they boil. Sauce, parsley, or fennel, and butter. 212. Pike or Jack.—For either baking or boiling, it is usual to stud'them with pudding. To secure it, bind it round with narrow tape. The fish may be dressed at full length, or turned with its tail in its mouth. For boiling, use hard water with salt, and a tea-cup full of vinegar ; put it in blood-warrn, and when it boils set it aside that it may simmer slowly. It will take from ten minutes to half an hour, according to its size. Sauce, oyster. Garnish, slices of lemon, laid alternately with horse-radish. If baked, being stuffed, put it in a deep dish, with a tea-cup full of gravy, and some bits of butter stuck over it. Serve with rich thickened gravy, and anchovy sauce. For frying, the fish is to be cut in pieces, and may be done with egg and bread crumbs, as soles. The usual sauce is melted butter and catsup, but anchovy or lobster sauce is sometimes used. 213. Carp, fried.—The same as soles; make sauce of the roe, and anchovy sauce with lemon juice. 214. Carp, stewed.—With the addition of preserving the blood, which is to be dropped into port or claret wine, well stirring the whole time, carp may be stewed in the same manner as sturgeon, the wine and blood to be added with the thickening, and the whole poured over the fish. Sippet of bread toasted, sliced lemon and barberries. The same process for lampreys. 215. Perch, boiled.—Put them on in as much cold spring water as will cover them, with a handful of salt. Let them boil up quickly; then set aside to simmer slowly for eight, ten, or fifteen minutes, according to their size. Sauce, parsley and batter, or fennel, or melted buflpr with catsup. 216. Salt Fish.—It should be soaked a considerable time in soft water, changing the water two or three times. The length of time required will be according to the hardness or softness of the fish. One night will do for that which has been but a fortnight or three weeks m salt; but some require two or even three nights' soaking, and to be laid through the intermediate days on a stone floor. Set it on in cold or luke-warm water, and let it be a long time coming to boil. It should be kept at a slow simmer from half an hour to an hour and a half. When done enough, lay the tin fish-drainer across the kettle; remove any straggling bones and skin; pour through a quart of boiling water to rinse it, and serve with plenty of egg sauce, red beetroot, parsnips, and mashed potatoes. Some of the parsnips and beetroots should be served whole, or in slices for garnish, together with horse-radish, and a dish also of equal parts of red beet-root and parsnips, mashed together, with pepper, butter, and cream. Salt fish is sometimes served with the vegetables. When boiled as above, it is broken in flakes, and stewed a few minutes in good gravy, flavoured with onions or eschalots, but not salted, and thickened with flour, butter, and cream; then beat up with it either potatoes, or parsnips and beet-root, mashed with cream and butter. Sauce, egg. Salt fish, whether cod, ling, haddock, or salmon, is often cut in slices, soaked in beer, and broiled as red herrings for a breakfast relish. 217. Terrapins.—This is a favourite dish for suppers and parties; and, when well cooked, they are certainly very delicious. Many persons in Philadelphia have made themselves famous for cooking this article alone. Mrs. Rubicam, who during her lifetime always stood first in that way, prepared them as follows. Put the terrapins alive in a pot of boiling water, where they must remain until they are quite dead. You then divest them of their outer skin and toe-nails; and, after washing them in warm water, boil them again until they become quite tender, adding a handful of salt to the water. Having satisfied yourself of their being perfectly tender, take off the shells and clean the terrapins very carefully, removing the sand-bag and gall without breaking them. Then cut the meat and entrails into small pieces, and put into a saucepan, adding the juice which has been given out in cutting them up, but no water, and season with salt, cayenne, and black pepper, to your taste; adding a quarter of a pound of good butter to each terrapin, and a handful of flour for thickening. After stirring a short time, add four or five table-spoonfuls of cream, and a half pint of good Madeira to every four terrapins, and serve hot in a deep dish. Our own cook has been in the habit of putting in a very little mace, a large table-spoonful of mustard, and ten drops of the gall; and, just before serving, adding the yolks of four hard boiled eggs. During the stewing, particular attention must be paid to stirring the preparation frequently; and it must be borne in mind, that terrapins cannot possibly be too hot. 218. Oysters an gratin.—Take the best oysters you can find, and dry them on a napkin; you then place them on a silver shell, m ^ c expressly for the purpose, or fine, large, deep oyster shells, if handier, which should be well cleaned, placing in them four or six oysters, according to their size; season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, mushrooms hashed very fine, a small quantity of bread crumbs, with which the surface of the oysters must be covered, placing on top of all a small piece of the best butter. Then put them in a hot oven, and let them remain until they acquire a golden colour. Serve them hot. 219. Oysters, stewed.—For this purpose the beard or fringe is generally taken off. If this is done, set on the beards with the liquor of the oysters, and a little white gravy, rich but unseasoned; having boiled a few minutes, strain off the beards, put in the oysters, and thicken the gravy with flour and butter (an ounce of butter to half a pint of stew,) a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg, or mace, a spoonful of catsup, and three of cream; some prefer a little essence of anchovy to catsupj others the juice of a lemon, others a glass of white wine; the flavour may be varied according to taste. Simmer till the stew is thick, and warmed through, but avoid letting them boil. Lay toasted sippets at the bottom of the dish and round the edges. 220. A more simple, and, as we think,a better method is to put, say two hundred oysters in a saucepan with nothing but their own juice; place them on a brisk fire, and let them remain, stirring them occasionally, until they begin to boil, then remove them, and pass the juice through a tin colander, leaving the oysters to drain. Then mix well together three-quarters of a pound of good butter, and a handful of flour. When this is done, strain the juice of the oysters through a sieve into the saucepan containing the butter and flour, and put it on the fire again, and add pepper and salt to your taste, stirring the whole frequently and briskly. W h e n it begins to boil again, add the oysters, and the following articles, well beaten together, viz., the yolks of three eggs, two table-spoonfuls of milk, and the juice of half a lemon; whilst adding these, stir the whole briskly, and serve immediately. 221. Oysters, fried.—Large oysters are the best for this purpose. Simmer for a minute or two in their own liquor; drain perfectly dry; dip in yolks of eggs, and then in bread crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, cayenne, and salt; fry them of a light brown. They are chiefly used as garnish for fish, or for rump steaks; but if intended to be eaten alone, make a little thick melted butter, moistened with the liquor of the oysters, and serve as sauce. 222. Broiled Oysters.—The oysters should be the largest and finest you can get. Prepare your gridiron, which should be a double one made of wire, by rubbing with butter, and having placed your oysters so that they will all receive the heat equally, set tl em over a brisk fire, and broil both sides without burning them. Let them be served hot, with a small lump of fresh butter, pepper and salt, added to them. Some establishments serve them egged and breaded; either way, however, they are good. ROASTING. 223. Mind that your spit is clean, and take care that it passes through the meat as little as possible. Before it is spitted, see that the meat is jointed properly, particularly necks and loins. W h e n on the spit it must be evenly balanced, that its motion may be regular, and all parts equally done; for this purpose, take care to be provided with balancing skewers and cookholds; a cradle spit is the best. 224. The bottle or vertical jack is an excellent instrument fof roasting, better than spits for joints under forty pounds; but if you have neither of these things, as is often the case in small families, a woollen string twisted round a door key makes a good substitute. In this case a strong skewer should be p^sed through each end of the joint, in order that it may be conveniently turned bottom upwards, which will insure an equality of roasting and an equal distribution of the gravy. A Dutch oven is a convenient utensil for roasting small joints; but by far the best and most economical thing of the kind is, improperly, called the American oven, by which you may roast meat before a sitting-room fire, without any extra fuel, and without the 6* slightest inconvenience to the persons occupying the apartment This contrivance will save, in the course of a year, all the expense, and more, of its original cost, in bakings, with this additional consideration, that meat so dressed will be equal to roasted meat. Meat cooked in a common oven, to say nothing of the abstracting of the dripping by the generality of bakers, is greatly inferior, both in flavour and tenderness, to that dressed in the American oven, where the air is not confined. It is not, however, meat alone that may be dressed in the American oven. All sorts of cakes may be made in it, and indeed, all the operations of baking and roasting may be performed by it, on a limited scale, but sufficiently large for a small family in contracted circumstances; in short, with the addition of the recent improvement, a sort of oval iron covering, we have baked bread before a parlour fire as perfectly as it could be produced by the regular process of baking; in one word, no family, whether in poor or middling circumstances, ought to be without the American oven, which may be had for a few shillings. 225. The fire for roasting should be made up in time, but it is better not to be very hot at first. The fire should, in point of size, be suited to the dinner to be dressed, and a few inches longer at each end than the article to be roasted, or the ends will not be done. 226. Never put meat down to a fierce fire, or one thoroughly burnt up, if you can possibly avoid it; but if not, you must take care and place it a considerable distance from the grate; indeed, meat should always be done slowly at first; it is impossible to roast a joint of very considerable size well under some hours. It is said that George III., who lived principally upon plain roasted and boiled joints, employed cooks who occupied four, five, or even six hours in roasting a single joint; but the result amply repaid the loss of labour and time; the meat was full of gravy, perfectly tender, and of a delicious flavour. 227. In placing paper over the fat to preserve it, never use pins or skewers; they operate as so many taps, to carry off the gravy; besides, the paper frequently starts from the skewers, and is, consequently, liable to take fire, to the great injury of both the flavour and appearance of the meat. For these reasons, always fasten on your paper with tape, twine, or any other suitable string. 228. The fire should be proportioned to the quantity of the meat intended to be roasted, as we have intimated above. For large joints make up a good strong fire, equal in every part of the grate, and well * backed by cinders or small coals. Take care that the fire is bright and clear in the front. The larger the joint to be roasted, the farther tt must be kept from the fire till nearly done—mind, that. When you have to roast a thin and.tender thing, let your fire be little and brisk. 229. When your fire is moderately good, your meat, unless very small, ought not to be put down nearer than from ten to fifteen inches off the grate; in some instances a greater distance would be preferable, but it is impossible to lay down any definite rule on this subject. 230. Slow roasting, like slow boiling, is the best, and the more BIOW, in reason, the better. The time usually directed to be allowed for roasting meat, where the fire is good, the meat screen sufficiently large, and the meat not frosted, is rather more than a quarter of an hour to a pound, but we take this to be too short a time; however, the cook must judge for herself; much will depend upon the temperature of the atmosphere, (fee., and more upon the degree of basting it has undergone. The more the meat is basted the less time it will take to do, for the meat is rendered soft and mellow outside, and consequently, admits the heat to act upon the inside. On the contrary, meat rendered hard on the outside by having too hot a fire, or neglecting to baste, the fire is prevented from operating upon the interior. When the meat is half done the fire should be well stirred for browning, that is, it must be made to burn brightly and clearly. When the steam begins to rise, depend upon it the meat is thoroughly done, that is, well saturated with heat, and all that goes off from the meat in evaporation is an absolute waste of its most savoury and nourishing particles. 231. A good cook will be particular to place her dripping pan so as to catch the dripping, but not the loose hot coals which may chance to fall from the fire. Your dripping pan should be large, not less than twenty-eight inches long and twenty inches broad, and should have a well-covered well on the side from the fire, to collect the dripping; "this," says Dr. Kitchiner, " will preserve it in the most delicate state." 232. Roasting and boiling, as being the most common operations m cooking, are generally considered the most easy; this is a great error: roasting, in particular, requires unremitting attention to perform it well, much more so than stewing, or the preparing many made dishes. A celebrated French author, in the Almanack des Gourmands, says, that u the art of roasting victuals to the precise degree, is one of the most difficult things in this world, and you may find half a thousand good cooks sooner than one perfect roaster; five minutes on the spit, more or less, decide the goodness of this mode of cookery." ROASTING, BROILING, AND FRYING. Before entering into any detail as to the best method of preparing the different dishes under this head, we must recommend the young cook to again carefully read our preliminary observations on roasting. We may here too be allowed to er.ter our most decided protest against baking meat, generally speaking—whether in the common brick oven, or in the iron ovens attached to kitchen ranges, particularly in the latter, unless they have a draught of air through them, when they will dress, or rather roast meat very well. Meat cannot be subjected to the influence of fire without injury, unless it is open to the air, by which the exhalations are carried off, and the natural flavour of the meat is preserved. Under the idea of saving fuel, persons are induced to use stoves in their kitchen instead of ranges. They should con- eider, however, that baking not only injures the meat, but absolutely spoils the dripping, which from roasted meat is much more valuable than the extra cost of coals. For a small family, we recommend the bottle jack—and for large establishments, a kitchen range, a smoke jack, and the usual quantity of plating for stewing, or boiling. In the following receipts we have generally indicated the time which a joint will take roasting, but a good cook will never wholly depend upon time, either in roasting or boiling; she ought to exercise her own judgment, as to whether a thing is done or not. When roast meat streams towards the fire, it is a sure sign that the meat is nearly done. On no account, whatever, should gravy be poured over any thing that is roasted. It makes the meat insipid, and washes off the frothing, or dredging. 233. Sirloin of Beef roasted. — Sirlt>in or ribs, of about fifteen pounds, will require to be before a large sound fire about three and a half or four hours; take care to spit it evenly, that it may not be heavier on one side than the other; put a little clean dripping in the dripping pan (tie a piece of paper over it to preserve the fat), baste it well as soon as it is put down, and every quarter of an hour all the time it is roasting, till the last half hour; then take off the paper, and make some gravy for it; stir the fire and make it clear; to brown and froth it, sprinkle a little salt over it, baste it with butter, and dredge it with flour; let it go a few minutes longer, till the froth rises; take it up. Garnish it with a hillock of horse-radish, scraped as fine as possible with a very sharp knife. A Yorkshire pudding is an excellent accompaniment. The inside of the sirloin should never be cut hot, but reserved entire for the hash, or a mock hare. 234. Rump and Round.—Rump and rounds of beef are sometimes roasted; they require thorough doingr, and much basting to keep the outside from being dry. It should be before the fire from three hours, and upwards, according to size. Gravy and garnish as above. 235. Mock Hare — T h e inside lean of a sirloin of beef may be dressed so as to resemble hare, and is by many people greatly preferred to it. Make a good stuffing. If possible, get the inside meat of the whole length of sirloin, or even of two, lay the stuffing on half the length, turn the other end over and sew up the two sides with a strong twine, that will easily draw out when done; roast it nicely, taking care to baste it well, and serve with sauces and garnishes the same as hare; or, it may be partly roasted and then stewed, in rich thickened gravy with force meat balls, and sauce. 236. Ribs of Beef boned. — Take out the ribs, &c. and roll it as round as possible; bind with tape; roast with or without veal stuffing, laid over before rolling. Thoroughly soak it, and brown it before a quick fire. Roast beef accompaniments, and, if liked, wow-wow sauce. 237. Roasting Mutton. — A saddle of mutton of ten or twelve pounds will take from two hours and a half to three hours roasting. Mutton should be put before a brisk fire; a saddle of mutton requires to be protected froip the heat by covering it with paper, which should , be taken off about a quarter of an hour before it is done; when of a pale-brown colour, baste it; flour it lightly to froth. The leg oj mutton, the shoulder, the loin, the neck, the breast, and the haunch, require the same treatment as the saddle, with the exception of papering, which, however, may be sometimes required. The haunch should be served with plain but rich mutton sauce, and with sweet sauce; of course separately. 238. Mutton, Venison fashion. — Hang till fit for dressing a good neck of mutton ; two days before dressing it, rub it well twice each day with powdered allspice, and black pepper; roast it in paste, as ordered for the haunch of venison. 239. Roasting Veal.—This meat requires particular care to roast it a nice brown ; the fire should be the same as for beef; a sound large fire for a large joint, and a brisker for a smaller: soak thoroughly, and then bring it nearer the fire to brown; baste on first nutting down, and occasionally afterwards. When done and dished, pour over it melted butter, with or without a little brown gravy. Veal joints, not stuffed, may be served with force meat balls, or rolled into sausages as garnish to the dish ; or fried pork sausages. Bacon or ham, and greens, are generally eaten with veal. 240. Fillet of Veal of from twelve to sixteen pounds will require from four or five hours at a good fire; make some stuffing or force meat, and put it under the flap, that there may be some left to eat cold, or to season a hash ; brown it, and pour good melted butter over it; garnish with thin slices of lemon and cakes or balls of stuffing. A loin is the best part of the calf, and will take about three hours roasting; paper the kidney fat and back. A shoulder from three hours to three hours and a half; stuff it with the force meat ordered for the fillet of veal, or balls made of 271. Neck, best end, will take two hours; same accompaniments as the fillet. The scrag part is best in a pie or broth. Breast from an hour and a half to two hours. Let the caul remain till it is almost done, then take it off to brown i t ; baste, flour and froth it. 241. Veal Sweetbread.—Trim a fine sweetbread (it cannot be too fresh), parboil it for five minutes, and throw it into a basin of cold water. Roast it plain, or beat up the yolk of an egg, and prepare some bread crumbs. When the sweetbread is cold, dry it thoroughly in a cloth; run a lark-spit or a skewer through it, and tie it on the ordinary spit; egg it with a paste-brush ; powder it well with bread crumbs, and roast it. For sauce, fried bread crumbs round it, and melted butter, with a little mushroom catsup, or serve them on buttered toast, garnished with egg sauce, or with gravy. Instead of spitting them, you may put them into a tin dutch oven or fry them. 242. Roasting Lamb. — To the usual accompaniments of roasted meat, lamb requires green mint sauce or salad, or both. Some cooks, about five minutes before it is done, sprinkle it with a little freshgathered and finely minced parsley, or crisped parsley. Lamb and all young meats ought to be thoroughly done; therefore, do not take eithe* lamb or veal off the spit till you see it drop white gravy When green mint cannot be got, mint vinegar is an acceptable substitute for it, and crisp parsley, on a side plate, is an admirable accompaniment. Hind-quarter of eight pounds will take from an hour and three-quarters to two hours; baste, and froth it. A quarter of a porkling is sometimes skinned, cut, and dressed lamb fashion, and sent up as a substitute for it. The leg and the loin of lamb, when little, should be roasted together, the former being lean, the latter fat, and the gravy is better preserved. Fore-quarter of ten pounds, about two hours. It is a pretty general custom, when you take off the shoulder from the ribs, to squeeze a Seville orange, or lemon, over them, and sprinkle them with a little pepper and salt; this may be done by the cook before it comes to table. Some people are not remarkably expert at dividing these joints nicely. Leg of five pounds, from an hour to an hour and a half. Shoulder, with a quick fire, an hour. Ribs, almost an hour to an hour and a quarter; joint them nicely, crack the ribs across, and divide them from the brisket after it is roasted. Loin, an hour and a quarter. Neck, an hour. Breast three-quarters of an hour. 243. Roasting Pork. — If this meat be not well done, thoroughly well done, it is disgusting to the sight and poisonous to the stomach. 14 In the gravy of pork, if there is the least tint of redness," says Dr. Kitchiner, " it is enough to appal the sharpest appetite. Other meats under-done are unpleasant, but pork is absolutely uneatable." A Leg of eight pounds will require about three hours; score the skin across in narrow stripes (some score it in diamonds) about a quarter of an inch apart; stuff the knuckle with sage and onion minced fine, and a little grated bread, seasoned with pepper, salt, and the yolk of an egg. See 252 and 270. Do not put it too near the fire ; rub a little sweet oil on the skin with a paste-brush, or a goose-feather; this makes the crackling crisper and browner than basting it with dripping, and it will be a better colour than all the art of cookery can make it in any other way ; and this is the best way of preventing the skin from blistering, which is principally occasioned by its being put too near the fire. 244. Leg of Pork roasted without the skin; or Mock Goose.— Parboil a leg of pork, take off the skin, and then put it down to roast; baste it with butter, and make a savoury powder of finely minced or dried or powdered sage, ground black pepper, salt, and some bread crumbs rubbed together through a colander; you may add to this a little very finely minced onion; sprinkle it with this when it is almost roasted ; put a half pint of made gravy into the dish, and goose stuffing tinder the knuckle skin, or garnish the dish with balls of it, fried or broiled. 245. Spare rib: when you put it down to roast, dust on some flour, and baste it with a little butter; dry a dozen sage leaves, rub them through a hair sieve, put them into the top of a pepper box, and about a quarter of an hour before the meat is done baste it with butter; dust the pulverised sage, or savoury powder, in, or sprinkle it with duck stuffing ; some people prefer it plain. 246. Loin of Pork, of five pounds, must be kept at a good distance from the fire, on account of the crackling, and will take about two hours—if very fat, half an hour longer: stuff* it with duck stuffing (252 and 270;) score the skin in stripes about a quarter of an inch apart, and rub it with salad oil. You may sprinkle over it some of the savoury powder recommended for the mock goose (244.) 247. Sucking Pig should be about three weeks old, and it ought to be dressed as quickly as possible after it is killed; if not quite fresh, the crackling can never be made crisp. It requires constant attention and great care in roasting. As the ends require more fire than the middle, an instrument called the pig-iron has been contrived to hang before the latter part. A common flat iron "will answer the purpose, or the fire may be kept fiercest at the ends. A good stuffing may be made as follows:—Take five or six ounces of the crumb of stale bread ; crumble and rub through a colander; mince very fine a handful of sage, and a large onion ; mix with an egg, pepper, salt, and a piece of butter about the size of an egg; fill the belly, and sew it up; put it to the fire, and baste it with butter tied up in a rag, by applying it to the back of the pig. Kitchiner recommends basting it with olive oil till it is done. It should never be left. It should be placed before a clear brisk fire, at some distance; and great care should be taken that the crackling should be nicely crisped, and delicately browned. It will require from an hour and a half to two hours, according to the size of the pig. When first put to the fire, it should be rubbed all over with fresh butter, or salad oil; ten minutes after this, and when the skin looks dry, dredge it well with flour all over. Let this remain on an hour, and then rub it off with a soft cloth. A sucking pig being very troublesome to roast, is frequently sent to the oven. A clever baker will do it so as to be almost equal to roasted; he will require a quarter of a pound of butter, and should be told to baste it well. (See 284.) Before you take the pig from the fire, cut off the head, and part that and the body down the middle; chop the brains very fine with some boiled sage leaves, and mix them with good veal or beef gravy, or what runs from the pig when you cut the head off. Send up a tureen full of gravy besides. Currant sauce is still a favourite with some of the old school. Lay your pig back to back in the dish, with one half of the head on each side, and the ears at each end, which you must take care to make nice and crisp, or you will get scolded, and deservedly. When you cut off the pettitoes, feave the skin long, round the end of the legs. 248. Turkey, Turkey Poults, and other Poultry.—A fowl and a turkey require the same management at the fire, only the latter will take longer time. Let them be carefully picked, break the breastbone (to make them look plump,) and thoroughly singe them with a sheet of clean writing paper. Prepare a nice brisk fire for them. Make stuffing according to 269; stuff them under the breast where the craw was taken out; and make some into balls, and boil or fry them, and lay them round the dish; they are handy to help, and you canVse.rve some of the inside stuffing to eat with the cold turkey, or to enrich a hash. Score the gizzard ; dip it in the yolk of an egg, or melted butter, and sprinkle it with salt and a few grains of cayenne; put it under one pinion, and the liver under the other; cover the liver with buttered paper, to prevent it getting hardened or burnt. When you first put your turkey down to roast, dredge it with flour, then put about an ounce of butter into a basting ladle, and as it melts baste the bird. Keep it at a distance from the fire for the first half hour that it may warm gradually, then put it nearer, and when it is plumped up, and the steam draws towards the fire, it is nearly done enough ; then dredge it lightly with flour, and put a bit of butter into your basting ladle, and as it melts baste the turkey with it; this will raise a finer froth than can be produced by using the fat out of the pan. A very large turkey will require about three hours to roast it thoroughly; a middling sized one, of eight or ten pounds, about two hours; a small one may be done in an hour and a half. Turkey poults are of various sizes, and will take about an hour and a half. Fried pork sausages are a very savoury accompaniment to either roasted or boiled turkey. Sausage meat is sometimes used as a stuffing,, instead of the ordinary force meat. If you wish a turkey, especially a very large one, to be tender, never dress it till at least four or five days (in cold weather, eight or ten) after it has been killed, unless it be dressed immediately after killing, before the flesh is cold; be very careful not to let it freeze. Hen turkeys are preferable to cocks for whiteness and tenderness, and the small tender ones, with black legs, are most esteemed. Send up with them oyster, egg, and plenty of gravy sauce. 249. Capons or Fowls must be killed a couple of days in moderate, and more in cold, weather, before they are dressed, unlpss dressed immediately they are killed, or they will eat tough: a good criterion of the ripeness of poultry for the spit, is the ease with which you can pull out the feathers; when a fowl is plucked, leave a few to help you to ascertain this. They are managed exactly in the same manner, and sent up with the same sauces, as a turkey, only they require proportionably less time at the fire—a full-grown five-toed fowl about an hour and a quarter; a moderate sized one, an hour; a chicken, from thirty to forty minutes. Have also pork sausages fried, as they are in general a favourite accompaniment, or turkey stuffing; see Force meats, 278; put in plenty of it, so as to plump out the fowl, which must be tied closely (both at the neck and rump,) to keep in the stuffing; some cooks put the liver of the fowl into this force meat, and others mince it and pound it, and rub up with flour and melted butter. When the bird is stuffed and trussed, score the gizzard nicely; dip it into melted butter; let it drain, and then season it with cayenne and salt; put it under one pinion, and "the liver under the other; to pre« vent their getting hardened or scorched, cover them with double paper buttered. Take care that your roasted poultry be well browned; it is as indispensable that roasted poultry should have a rich brown complexion, as that boiled poultry should have a delicate white ,one. R O A S T ! NO. 61 For sauces, see 111; or liver and parsley, and those ordered in the last receipt. 250. Goose.—When a goose is well picked, singed and cleaned, make the stuffing with about two ounces of onion, and half as much green sage; chop them very fine, adding four ounces of stale bread crumbs, a bit of butter about as big as a walnut, and a very little pepper and salt (to this some cooks add half the liver, parboiling it first,) the yolk of an egg or two, and, incorporating the whole together, stuff the goose; do not quite fill it, but leave a little room for the stuffing to swell. From an hour and a half to an hour and three-quarters will roast a fine full-grown goose. Send up gravy and apple sauce with it. Geese are called green till they are about four months old. 251. Canvass Back Ducks, or Red Neck Ducks.—Let your duck be young and fat, if possible; having picked it well, draw it and singe carefully, without washing it, so as to preserve the blood, and consequently, all its flavour. You then truss it, leaving its head on for the purpose of distinguishing it from common game, and place it on the spit before a brisk fire, for at least fifteen minutes. Then serve it hot, in its own gravy, which is formed by the blood, &c., on a large chafing dish. The best birds are found on the Potomac river; they have the head purple, and the breast silver colour, and it is considered superior in quality and flavour to any other species of w7ild duck. The season is only during the cold weather. 252. Duck.—Mind your duck is well cleaned, and wiped out with a clean cloth ; for the styling, take an ounce of onion and half an ounce of green sage; chjp them very fine, and mix them with two ounces of bread crumbs, a bit of butter about as big as a walnut, a very little black pepper and salt, and the yolk of an egg to bind it; mix these thoroughly together, and put into the duck. From half to three-quarters of an hour will be enough to roast it, according to the size; contrive to have the feet delicately crisp, as some people are very fond of them;—to do this nicely, you must have a sharp fire. Gravy sauce, and sage and onion sauce. To hash or stew ducks, the same as goose. If you think the raw onion will make too strong an impression upon the palate, parboil it. To insure ducks being tender, in moderate weather kill them a few days before you dress them. 253. Hyunch of Venison.—To preserve the fat, make a paste of flour and water, as much as will cover the haunch; wipe it with a dry cloth in every part; rub a large sheet of paper all over with butter, and cover the venison with it; then roll out the paste about threequarters of an inch thick. Lay this all over the fat side, cover it with three or four sheets of strong white paper, and tie it securely on with Packthread; have a strong close fire, and baste your venison as soon as you lay it down to roast (to prevent the paper and string from burnln g;) it must be well basted all the time. A buck haunch which generally weighs from twenty to twenty-five pounds, will take about four hours and a half roasting in wafm, and longer in cold, weather. A naunch of from twelve to eighteen pounds will be done in about three Sours, or three hours and a half. A quarter of an hour before it is d°ne, the string muse be cut, and the paste carefully taken off; now baste it with butter, dredge it lightly with flour, and when the froth rises, and it has got a very light-brown colour, it is done. Garnish he knuckle bone with a ruffle of cut writing paper, and send it up with good strong (but unseasoned) gravy in one boat, and currant jelly sauce in the other, or currant jelly in a side plate (not melted.) See for Sauces, 137, 138, 139. Buck venison is in greatest perfection from Midsummer to Michaelmas, and doe from November to January. Neck and Shoulder of venison are to be treated the same way as the haunch, but they will not take so much time, nor do they need the paste covering. 254. A Fawn should be dressed as soon after it is killed as possible; when very young, it w dressed the same as a hare; but they are better eating when the size of the house lamb, or when they are large enough to be roasted in quarters. The hind-quarter is considered the best. Fawns require a very quick fire. They are so delicate that they must be constantly basted, or be covered with sheets of fat bacon; when nearly done, remove the bacon, baste it with butter, and froth it. Serve with venison sauce. 255. A Kid is very good eating when a suckling, and when the dam is in fine condition. Roast, and serve it like a fawn or hare. 256. Hare when young is easy of digestion, and very nourishing— when old, the contrary, unless rendered so by keeping and dressing. When you receive a hare, take out the liver—if it be sweet, parboil it, and keep it for stuffing. Wipe the hare quite dry; rub the inside with pepper, and hang it in a cool place till it is fit to be dressed, that is to say, till it comes to the point of putrefaction, but not putrefied. Then paunch and skin, wash and* lay it in a large pan of cold water four or five hours, changing the water two or three times; lay it in a clean cloth; dry it well, and truss. To make the stuffing, see 272. Let it be stiff; put it in the belly, and sew it up tightly. The skin must be cut to let the blood out of the neck. Some persons baste it with skimmed milk, but we decidedly prefer dripping; it ought to be constantly basted till it is nearly done; then put a little bit of butter into your basting ladle; flour and froth nicely. Serve with good gravy and currant jelly. Cold roast hare, chopped to pieces, and stewed in water for a couple of hours, will make excellent soup. 257. Rabbit.—Put it down to a sharp clear fire ; dredge it lightly and carefully with flour; take care to have it frothy and of a fine light brown; boil the liver with parsley while the rabbit is roasting; when tender, chop them together; put half the mixture into melted butter, use the other half for garnish, divided into little hillocks. Cut off the head, divide it, and lay half on each side the dish. A fine well-grown and well-hung warren rabbit, dressed as a hare, will eat very much like it. 258. A Pheasant should have a smart fire, but not a fierce one; baste it, butter and froth it, and prepare sauce for it. Some persons, the pheasant being a dry bird, put a piece of beef or rump steak into the inside before roasting. It is said that a pheasant should be suspended by one of the long tail feathers till it falls. It is then ripe and ready for the spit, and not before. If a fowl be well kept, and dressed as a pheasant, and with a pheasant, few persons will discover the pheasant from the fowl. 259. Guinea Fowls, Partridges, Pea Fowls, Blackcock, Grouse, and Moorgame, are dressed in the same way as pheasants. Partridges are sent up with rice sauc^, or bread sauce, and good gravy. Blackcock, moorgame, and grouse, are sent up with currant jelly and fried bread crumbs. 260. Wild Ducks, Widgeon, and Teal, are dressed before a clear fire, and on a hot spit. Wild ducks will require fifteen or twenty minutes to do them in the fashionable way, but to do them well will require a few minutes longer. Widgeon and teal, being smaller birds, of course will require less time. 261. Woodcocks and Snipes are never drawn; they should be tied on a small bird spit, and put to roast at a clear fire; a slice of bread is put under each bird, to catch the trail, that is the excrements of the intestines; they are considered delightful eating; baste with butter, and froth with flour; lay the toast on a hot dish, and the birds on the toast; pour some good gravy into the dish, and send some up in a boat. They are generally roasted from twenty to thirty minutes— but some epicures say, that a woodcock should be just introduced to the cook, for her to show it the fire, and then send it up to table. Garnish with slices of lemon. Snipes are dressed in the same way, but require less time. 262. Pigeons, when stuffed, require some green parsley to be chopped, very fine with the liver and a bit of butter, seasoned with a little pepper and salt; or they may be stuffed with the same as a fillet of veal. Fill the belly of each bird with either of these compositions. They will roast in about twenty or thirty minutes. Serve with parsley and butter, with a dish under them, with some in a boat. Garnish with crisp parsley, fried bread crumbs, br nd use the middle part or the crumb for your frying. The bread should be at least two days old. A good and cheap substitute for bread is oatmeal, which will cost, comparatively speaking, nothing. * It is scarcely necessary to refer the cook to our general remarks upon the above operation. Frying is preferred by many persons tc broiling; and our own opinion is, that steaks, chops, &c., may be dressed with much more certainty and regularity by the former, than by the latter, method. But plenty of oil, butter, or sweet grease, must always be used, or the frying will be imperfect. 300. Steaks.—Cut them rather thinner than for broiling; put some butter, or, what is much cheaper and quite as good, some clarified dripping or suet, into an iron frying-pan, and when it is quite hot put in the steaks, and keep turning them until they are done enough. The sauce for steaks, chops, cutlets, &c., is made as follows:—Take the chops, steaks or cutlets, out of the frying pan; for a pound of meat, keep a table-spoonful of the fat in the pan, or put in an ounce of butt e r ; put to it as much flour as will make it a paste; rub it well together over the fire till they are a little brown; then add as much boiling water as will reduce it to the thickness of good cream, and a table-spoonful of mushroom or walnut catsup, or pickle, or browning; let it boil together a few minutes, and pour it through a sieve to the steaks, &c. To the above is sometimes added a sliced onion, or a minced eschalot, with a table-spoonful of port wine, or a little eschalot wine. Garnish with scraped horse-radish, or pickled walnut, gherkins, &c. Some beef-eaters like chopped eschalots in one saucer, and horse-radish grated in vinegar in another. Broiled mushrooms are favourite relishes to beef-steaks. 301. Beef-steaks and Onions.—The steaks are fried as directed above; the common method is to fry the onions cut small, but the best plan perhaps is to use onions prepared as directed in 115. 302. Sausages.—Sausages are not good unless they are quite fresh. Put a bit of butter or dripping into a frying-pan, before it gets hot put in the sausages, shake the pan, and keep turning them (be careful not to break or prick them in so doing); fry them over a very slow fire till they are nicely browned on all sides; when they are done, lay them on a hair sieve, place them before the fire for a couple of minutes to drain the fat from them. The secret of frying sausages is, to let them get hot very gradually—then they will not burst, if they are not stale. You may froth them by rubbing them with cold fresh butter, and lightly dredge them with flour, and put them in a cheese-toaster for a minute. The common practice to prevent their bursting is to prick them with a fork; but this lets out the gravy. 303. Veal Cutlets should be about half an inch thick; trim and flatten; fry in plenty of fresh butter, or good dripping; when the fire is very fierce, you must turn them often—but when not so, do them brown on one side before you turn them. Make gravy of the trimmings, &c.; you may add some browning, mushroom or walnut catsup, or lemon, pickle, &c. Or you may dress them as follows: Cut the veal into pieces about as big as a crown piece; beat them with a cleaver, dip in egg, beat up with a little salt, and then in fine bread crumbs; fry them a light brown in boiling lard ; serve under them 6ome good gravy or mushroom sauce, which may be made in five minutes. Garnish with slices of ham, or rashers of bacon, or pork sausages. Many persons prefer frying veal cutlets with ham or bacon rashers, which will afford sufficient fat to fry them, but will be done much sooner; remove the rashers, and keep them warm. When the veal is done, take it out, pour off any fat that may remain, and put into the pan a large tea-cup full or more of gravy or broth, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. W hen it boils, add herbs and crumbs of bread, pour over the veal, and lay the rashers round the edge of the dish. Garnish, sliced lemon. 304. Sweetbreads should always be got fresh and parboiled immediately. WThen cold cut them in pieces about three-quarters of an inch thick, dip them in the yolk of an egg, then in fine bread crumbs (some add spice, lemon peel, and sweet herbs;) put some clean dripping into a frying-pan ; when it boils put in the sweetbreads, and fry them a fine brown. For garnish, crisp parsley; and for sauce, mushroom catsup and melted butter, or anchovy sauce, or bacon, or ham. This is called full dressing. They are dressed plain as follows: Parboil and slice them as before, dry them on a clean cloth, flour them, and fry them a delicate brown; take care to drain the fat well from them, and garnish them with slices of lemon and sprigs of chervil, pars'ey, or crisp parsley. For sauce, mushroom catsup, or force meat balls made as 278. 305. Lamb or Mutton Chops are dressed in the same way as veal cutlets, and garnished with crisp parsley, and slices of lemon. If they are bread-crumbed, and covered with buttered writing paper, and then broiled, they are called "Maintenon cutlets 306. Pork Chops.—Take care that they are trimmed very neatly ; they should be about half an inch thick; put a frying-pan on the fire, with a bit of butter; as soon as it is hot, put in your chops, turning them often till brown all over, and done ; take one upon a plate and try it; if done, season it with a little finely minced onion, powdered sage, and pepper and salt. Sauce, sage and onions, or Robert sauce. 307. Fried Eggs.—Well-cleansed dripping, or lard, or fresh butter, is the best fat for frying eggs. Be sure the frying-pan is quito clean; when the fat is hot, break two or three eggs into it; do not turn them, but, while they are frying, keep pouring some of the fat over them with a spoon ; when the yolk just begins to look white, which it will in about a couple of minutes, they are done enough; the white must not lose its transparency, but the yolk be seen blushing through it. If they are done nicely, they will look as white and delicate as if they had been poached; take them up with a tin slice, drain the fat from them, trim neatly, and send them up with toasted bacon round them. For Frying Fish, see section Fish, p. 66, par. 193, (fc. BROILING. 808. Let your gridiron be quite clean, particularly between the bars, and keep it bright on the top. Before using it, you should be careful to make the bars thoroughly hot, or otherwise that part of the meat which is covered by the bars will not be equally done with the other parts of the steak or chop. 309. Chops, steaks, or slices for broiling, should be from half to three quarters of an inch in thickness; if too thick, they will be done outside before the inside—and if too thin, they will be dry and gravyless. 310. In broiling, a brisk and clear fire is indispensable, and to obtain this you should prepare your fire in time, so that it may burn clear. It is a good plan to lay over a pretty strong fire a layer of cinders, or coke ; some use charcoal, but cinders or coke are equally good. If your fire is not bright you cannot give the nice brown appearance to the meat, which is not only pleasing to the eye, but is relishing to the taste. 311. The bars of the best gridirons are made concave, terminating in a trough to catch the gravy, and keep the fat from falling into the fire and making a smoke, which will spoil both the appearance and taste of the broil. Before using the gridiron the bars should be rubbed with clean mutton suet. The cook should watch the moment when the broil is done. Send it to the table immediately on a hot dish, from whence it should be transferred to the mouth all hot!— smoking hot!!! The upright gridiron, which is made of strong wire and may be now bought in the streets for a few pence, is, as Dr. Kitchiner avers, the best, as it can be used at any fire, without fear of smoke, and the trough under it preserves all the gravy. The Dutch oven, or bonnet, may be substituted for the gridiron, when the fire is not clear. 312. Steaks and Chops.—Meat to be broiled should be hung till it is tender; the inside of a sirloin of beef, cut into steaks, is greatly preferred by most people. But steaks are generally cut from the rump (the middle is the best), about six inches long, four inches wide, and half an inch thick. Do not beat them, it makes them dry and tasteless. Steaks should be done quickly; for this purpose, take care to have a very clear brisk fire, throw a little salt on it, make the gridiron hot, and set it slanting to prevent the fat from dropping into the fire, and making a smoke. It requires more practice and care than is generally supposed to do steaks to a nicety; and for want of these little attentions, this very common dish, which every body ia supposed capable of dressing, seldom comes to table in perfection. Some like it under, some thoroughly, done. It is usual to put a table-spoonful of catsup, or a little minced eschalot, into a dish before the fire, while you are broiling; turn the steak with a pair of steaktongs; it will be done in about ten or fifteen minutes ; rub a bit of butter over it, and send it up garnished with pickles and finely scraped horse-radish. Serve with the usual sauces. 313. Kidneys.—Cut them through the long way, score them, Fprinkle a little pepper and salt on them, and run a wire skewer through them to keep them from curling on the gridiron, so that they may be evenly broiled. Broil them over a very clear fire, turning them often till they are done; they will take about ten or twelve minutes, if the fire is brisk: or, fry them in butter, and make gravy from them in the pan (after you have taken out the kidneys), by putting in a tea spoonful of flour; as soon as it looks brown, put in as much water as will make gravy; they will take five minutes more to fry than to broil. Serve with the usual sauce. Some cooks chop a few parsley leaves very fine, and mix them with a bit of fresh butter and a little pepper and salt, and put a little of this mixture on each kidney. 314. A Fowl or Rabbit.—Pick and truss it the same as for boiling, cut it open down the back, wipe the inside clean with a cloth, season it with a little pepper and salt, have a clear fire and set the gridiron at a good distance over it, lay the chicken on with the inside towards the fire (you may egg it and strew some grated bread over it), and broil it till it is a fine brown; take care the fleshy side is not burnt. Lay it on a hot dish, pickled mushrooms or mushroom sauce thrown over it, or parsley and butter, or melted butter flavoured with mushroom catsup. Garnish with slices of lemon, and the liver and gizzard, slit and notched, seasoned with pepper and salt, and broiled nicely brown. 315. Pigeons.—Clean them well, and pepper and salt them; broil them over a clear slow fire; turn themvoften, and put a little butter on them; when they are done, pour dfrer them either stewed or pickled mushrooms, or catsup and melted butter. Garnish with fried bread crumbs, or sippets. Or, when the pigeons are trussed for broiling, flat them with a cleaver, taking care not to break the skin of the backs or breast; season them with pepper and salt, a little bit of butter, and a tea spoonful of water, and tie them close at both ends; so, when they are brought to table, they bring their sauce with them Egg and dredge them well with grated bread (mixed with spice and sweet nerbs), lay them on the gridiron, and turn them frequently; if your nre is not very clear, lay them on a sheet of paper well but tered, to keep them from getting smoked. They are much better broiled whole. BRAISING, GLAZING, BLANCHING, LARDING, AND BONING. 316. A braiser, or braising pan, is a sort of oblong camp kettle, with a bordered lid, on which, and secured by the border, is put small burning coal, charcoal, or wood ashes. The lid should fit the pan as close as possible. 317. Braising. To braise your meat, put the meat into the braiser (a good stew-pan will answer the purpose, but not so well) ; then cover the meat with thick slices of fat bacon ; lay round it six or eight onions, a bunch of sweet herbs, some celery, and if it be to brown, some thick slices of carrots; meat trimmings, or fresh meat bones, a pint and a half of water, or the same quantity of stock, which will make it richer than water will; over the meat lay a sheet of white paper, season and put the pan, with the lid well fastened down and tight, over a moderately hot stove, rather slow. It will require two or three hours, according to its size or quality. The meat and gravy are then put into a colander to drain, but be sure to keep it quite hot, skim the gravy very carefully, and boil it as quick as you can till it thickens ; then glaze the meat—and if it has been larded, put it into the oven for a few minutes. 318. Glazing consists in covering meat with a preparation called glaze, which is strong gravy boiled as quick as possible till it thickens, as directed in braising. The glaze is put on with a brush kept for the purpose. Hams, tongues, and stewed beef, may be thus glazed, »f thought proper. 319. Blanching is performed by putting the article in cold water over the fire, and when it boils up, take it out and plunge it into cold water, and let it remain till quite cold. This will make it white and plump. Tongues, palates, &c., are said to be blanched, when after long boiling the skin can be easily peeled off. 320. Larding and Forcing. Possess yourself of larding pins of different sizes; cut slices of bacon into bits of proper length, quite smooth; pierce the skin and a very little of the meat with the larding pin, leaving the bacon in ; the two ends shoufd be of equal length outwards. Lard in rows the size you think proper. Forcing is nothing more than stuffing' 'fowls, &e., with force meat, which is generally put in between the skin and the flesh. 321. Boning. To bone any bird, the cook should begin first to take out the breast-bone; she will then have sufficient space to remove the back with a sharp small knife, and then she must take out the leg bones. The skin must be preserved whole, and the meat of the leg be pushed inwards. COLOURINGS, THICKENINGS, FLAVOURINGS, SEASONINGS, STOCKS, GRAVIES, SAUCES, STUFFING, FORCEMEAT, AND CLARIFYING. Having laid down, as we trust, clearly and fully, under the preceding heads, all that is necessary to be known, generally speaking, with regard to ordinary dishes, we shall now proceed to treat of those preparations which are employed in the compounding of made dishes, together with those articles which the prudent, care-taking cook wilalways keep by her as stores, ready to be used when wanted. Bv «made dishes' we mean not only those commonly so called, but also those in the dressing of which other articles are sometimes, or always, used by way of stuffing, seasoning, &c.—such, for instance, as geese, ducks, and roast pork. This done, we shall then give direo COLOURINO, OR BROWNING. 95 tions for the choice of meat, fish, and poultry, recipes for cooking them, and the best mode of carving them, under separate heads. Recipes for cooking all other dishes, will also, of course, be given. ' C O L O U R I N G , OR B R O W N I N G . 322. T h e greater part of the preparations for colouring are very unwholesome, or, in other words, very indigestible. They are employed to give the appearance of richness, but they are worse than useless, being used for the silly purpose of pleasing the eye only, generaliy at the expense of the stomach and taste. Most of the preparations for colouring are a medley of burnt butter, spices, catsup, wine, flour, and other things not necessary to mention. A French writer says, the generality of cooks calcine bones till they are as black as a coal, and throw them hissing hot into the stew-pan, to give a brown colour to their broths and soups. These ingredients, under the appearance of a nourishing gravy, envelop our food with stimulating acid and corrosive poison. Such things as essence of anchovy are frequently adulterated with colouring matters containing red lead! The following recipes for colouring are pretty harmless, and, except for the purpose of pleasing the eye, as useless as they are innocent. Some persons, instead of colouring or browning their soups after they are made, brown the meat of which they are intended to be made, by putting it into a stew-pan with a little butter, salt, and pepper, but without water; then covering it close, placing it over a clear fire, all the time shaking it to keep it from sticking to the pan, tili the meat becomes of a light brown, when the liquor of which the soup or gravy is to be made is added. The best colouring is, perhaps, the following: Half a pound of powdered lump sugar and a table-spoonful of vvater, put into a clean saucepan, or frying-pan, and set over a slow fire and stirred with a wooden spoon till it is of a fine brown colour, and begins to smoke ; then add an ounce of salt, and dilute by degrees with water, till it is of the thickness of soy ; boil, take ofF the scum, and put it into wellcorked bottles; or you may, provided you do not wish to keep the above by you, colouryour gravies or soups by pounding a tea-spoonful oflumpsugar, and putting it into an iron spoon, vvhich hold over a quick fire till the mixture becomes of a dark-brown colour; mix with the soup or gravy while it is hot. Some persons use butter in the first mixture instead of water. Toasted bread, quite hard and of a deep brown, not burnt, may be put into the boiling gravy, without stirring, ard then carefully strain off the gravy without any crumbs of bread in it. You may also polour with fiour browned on a flat-iron over tne rire. /arious flavour mg articles serve also the purpose of colouring. THICKENINGS. 323. Flour, or some other farinaceous article, is, or ought to be, the basis of all thickenings; starch of potatoes, or indeed any other pure starch, is a g"ood substitute for flour. W e do not recommend preparations of Carraghan moss, ivory dust, or eggs; they are troublesome, and not at all necessary. A table-spoonful of potatoe or any other starch, such as arrow-root, mixed in two table-spoonsful of cold water, and stirred into soup, sauce, or gravy, &c. and afterwards simmered, just before serving, will thicken a pint. Flour will also answer the same purpose. In large establishments, the following thickening is'generally kept ready prepared ; the French call it roux; it is thus made: Put some fresh butter, if clarified the better, (or some use the skimmings of the pots, clean and not impregnated with vegetables,) into a stew-pan over a clear slow fire; when it is melted, add fine flour sufficient to make it the thickness of paste; stir well together when over the fire, for ten or fifteen minutes, till it is quite smooth and of a fine "yellow-boy" colour. Do all this gradually and patiently, or you will spoil your thickening by getting it burnt, or giving to it a burnt flavour, which will spoil your gravy, &c. Pour it into an earthen pan for use, it will keep for a fortnight; and if, when cold, it is thick enough to be cut with a knife, a large spoonful will be enough to thicken a quart of gravy, &c. Most made dishes, such as sauces, soups, and ragouts, are thus thickened. The broth or soup, &c., to which the thickening is put, must be added by degrees, so as to incorporate them well together. To cleanse or finish a sauce, put into a pint two table-spoonsful of broth, or warm water, and put it by the side of the fire to raise any fat, &c., which must be carefully removed as it comes to the top. We would strongly recommend mistresses of families, particularly those residing in the country, where potatoes are cheap, to keep a good stock of potatoe starch always by tjiem. If kept dry and from .he air, it will keep almost for any length of time. Damaged potatoes will yield starch or mucilage, if raw. It may be made from the old potatoes, when by germination in the spring they have become unfit for the table, or from the refuse of a newly gathered crop in the autumn. The starch will be found extremely useful, not oniy in a thickening, but also for mixing with wheat flour in making bread, &c. Starch may be made, and is made, from various vegetable substances, and used as a substitute for corn flour. The following is the mode of making potatoe starch ; arrow-root starch ancUill other starches are made by a similar process: The potatoes must be carefully washed and peeled, and every speck removed; provide yourself with a number of deep dishes, according to the quantity of starch you wish to make; for every pound of potatoes to be prepared in each dish, put a quart of clear water; grate them into the water on a bread grater; stir it up well, and then pour it through a hair sieve, and leave it ten minutes to settle, 01 till the water is quite clear; then pour off the water, and put to it a FLAVOURINGS. 97 quart of fresh water: stir it up, then let it settle, and repeat this till the water is quite clear. You will at last find a fine white powder at- the bottom of the vessel; lay this on a piece of paper in a hair sieve to dry, either in the sun or before the fire; when thoroughly dry, it is ready for use. It is perfectly tasteless, and may be used to thicken melted butter, instead of flour. A great deal of the arrowroot sold in the shops is neither more nor less than potatoe starch. Though we strongly recommend it as effectual and economical for the above purpose, for an invalid it is very inferior in strength and nutricious qualities to the Indian arrrow-root starch. 324. Wkite Thickening.—Put half a pound of good birtter into a sauce-pan, and melt over a slow fire., then drain the butter and take out the buttermilk, then add to the butter enough flour to make a thin paste, and place it on the fire for fifteen minutes, taking care not to let it colour. Pour it into a pan and let it stand until wanted. v FLAVOURINGS. 325. Judiciously prepared flavourings are of the first importance in the higher branches of cookery, and indeed, they are indispensably necessary in all descriptions of made dishes. The principal agents employed for flavouring are mushrooms, onions, anchovy, lemon juice and peel, vinegar, wine, especially claret, sweet herbs, and savoury spices. A good housewife will always take care to have a stock of the principal flavourings by her ready for use, as occasion may require. They are easily prepared for keeping, and the making of essences and flavoured vinegars, &c., from the herbs, is a very agreeable employment, and one highly becoming a good wife and mistress of a family. We by no means wish to undervalue elegant accomplishments in ladies, but accomplishments after all are but ornaments, whereas good housewifery is an essential; so thought our ancestors two hundred years ago, and so continue to think all those who set a proper value on the comforts of domestic life. Markham, in his English Housewife, 1637, says, " to speak then of the knowledge which belongs to our British housewife, I hold the most principal to be a perfect skill in cookery. She that is utterly ignorant therein, may not, by the lawes of strict justice, challenge the freedom of marriage, because, indeed, she can performe but half her vow ; she may love and obey, but she cannot cherish and keepe her husband." Having said enough, we trust, to induce young ladies, particularly in the above quotation, to take our advice into their consideration, we shall proceed to make a few observations on taste, as intimately connected with this part of our subject. A eorrect taste is a qualification which every cook ought to possess, but few persons naturally do possess it, and therefore, the palate requires to be cultivated as much in the culinary art, as the eye in the art of drawing. But tastes difFer in different persons, and therefore, the cook, in providing a dinner, ought, if possible, to consult the tasted of tne parties who are to eat it, rather than her own. This subjec^ however, if pursued, will run us out to a much greater extent than our limits will allow, and, after all, we should not be able to lay down any definite rules of taste. There is one direction which we shall give, and which a cook will find it worth her while to attend to, namely, whenever she finds the palate become dull by repeatedly tasting, one of the best ways of refreshing it is to masticate an apple, or to wash her mouth well with milk. FLAVOURINGS, ESSENCES, POWDERS, &c. 326. To prepare sweet Herbs for keeping.—It is highly desirable, according to the taste and style of living of the family, that preparations of sweet herbs, either in powder, dried bunches (the powder is best,) or in the form of essences and tinctures, be always kept at hand, ready for use. The following is the best way of preparing them:—Gather your herbs, including thyme of the various sorts, marjoram and savoury, sage, mint, and balm, hyssop and pennyroyal, when they are come to full growth, just before they begin to flower; when they must be gathered perfectly free from damp, dust, dirt, and insects. Cut off* the roots, and tie the herbs in small bundles. Dry as quick as possible, either in the sun, in a dutch oven before the fire, or in a dry room with a thorough draught. When quite dry, pick off the leaves, and rub them till they are reduced to a fine powder, when bottle close for use. Seeds of parsley, fennel, and celery, should be kept for the purpose of flavouring, when the green herb cannot be obtained. 327. Savoury Soup Powder is compounded of parsley, winter savoury, sweet marjoram, and lemon thyme, of each two ounces ; sweet basil, one ounce; verbinia leaves and knotted marjoram, of each half an ounce; celery seed and bay leaves (some leave out the bay leaves,) of each two drachms. Dry in a Dutch oven, thoroughly, but not to scorch; then rub the leaves to a fine powder. The seeds will be best ground, but pounding will do; sift all through a hair sieve, and bottle for use. This is an excellent compound. 328. Curry Powder may be made almost, if not altogether, as good as the Indian, by taking three ounces of coriander seeds; turmeric two or three ounces; black pepper, mustard, and ginger, one ounce of each ; allspice and lesser cardamons, half an ounce each, and cumin seed, a quarter of an ounce. Put the ingredients in a cool oven for the night; thoroughly pound and mix together, and close bottle for use. Do not use cayenne in a curry powder. 329. Powder for Ragouts.—A good powder for flavouring ragouts is compounded of salt, one ounce; mustard, lemon peel, and black pepper, ground, of each half an ounce; allspice and ginger, ground, nutmeg, grated, and cayenne pepper, of each a quarter of an ounce. Dry in a Dutch oven before a gentle fire; pound in a mortar, and sift through a hair sieve. 330. Powder for Brown made dishes.—Black pepper and Jamaica, ground, of each half an ounce; nutmeg, grated, half an ounce; cinna- mon, in powder, a quarter of an ounce; cloves, one drachm; dry ; finely powder and bottle. 331. Powder for White made dishes.—White pepper half an ounce; nutmeg a quarter of an ounce; mace one drachm; dried lemon peel, grated, one drachm. 332. Preserved Orange and Lemon Peels.—Shave the thin skin, without a particle of white, off your superfluous Seville orange and lemon peel; put in a mortar, with a small lump of dried sugar to each peel; beat them well till the rind and sugar be blended together in a kind of marmalade; let the mixture be pressed close in a bottle, with a tea-spoonful of brandy at top, and secure from the air with a cork or bladder. This will be found a better flavouring, and more handy than grating dry rinds. 333. Essences, or Tinctures of Herbs, &c.—Combine their essential oils with good tasteless spirits (which is better than brandy, and much cheaper) in the proportion of one drachm of essential oil to two ounces of spirits; or fill a wide-mouthed bottle with the leaves, seeds, roots,#or peel, perfectly dry, then pour over them spirits of wine, vine*>gar, or wine; keep the mixture steeping in a warm place, not hot, for twelve or fourteen days, when strain and bottle close for use. Bottles with glass stoppers are best. These essences are very handy, and are to be had all the year round. 334. Essence of Anchovies.—Purchase the best anchovies, that have been in pickle about a year. Pound twelve of them in a mortar to a pulp, then put them into a well-tinned saucepan, by the side of the fire, with two table-spoonfuls of best vinegar sherry, or brandy, or mushroom catsup; stir it very often till the fish are melted, then add fifteen grains in weight of the best cayenne pepper; stir it well, then rub it through a hair sieve with a wooden spoon; bottle and cork very tight with the best cork. When the bottle is opened, cork it well again with a new. cork, as the least air spoils it. That which remains in the sieve makes a pleasant relish for breakfast or lunch, with bread and butter. If a large quantity is made, press it down in small jars. Cover it with clarified butter, and keep it in a cool place. 335. Anchovy Powder.—Pound the anchovies in a mortar, rub them through a sieve, make them into a paste with the finest flour, dried, roll it into thin cakes; dry them before a slow fire; when quite crisp, pound or grate them to a fine powder, and put into a well-stopped bottle. It will keep good for years, and is a savoury relish sprinkled on bread and butter. 33G. Oyster Powder.—Open the oysters carefully, so as not to cut tham, except in dividing the gristle from the shells; put them into a mortar; add about two drachms of salt to a dozen oysters, pound them and rub them through the back of a hair sieve, and put them into a mortar again, with as much flour, thoroughly dried, as will make them into a paste ; roll - it out several times, and lastly, flour it and f oll it out the thickness of half a crown, and divide it into pieces about an inch square; lay them in a dutch oven before the fire, take ®*re they do not burn, turn them every half hour, and when they D e g i n to dry, c r u m b l e tliern ; t h e y w i l l t a k e a b o u t four h o u r s to dry 4 then pound them fine, sift them, and put them into b o t t l e s ; seal t h e n , over. 337. Spirit of mixed Herbs.—Take winter savoury, lemon thyme, sweet basil, and lemon rind, celery seed one drachm, steep them in a pint of spirits of wine. Then drain and bottle the liquor. The herbs, after draining, will keep two or three weeks, and may be used for flavouring. 338. Tincture of Lemon or Seville Orange Peel.—Half fill a widemouthed bottle with good spirits; shave the thin rind off the lemon, and put it into the bottle until it is full: it may be either strained off into bottles, or suffered to remain on the rind. 339. Spirits of mixed Spice.—Black pepper one ounce, allspice half an ounce, both finely powdered ; nutmeg quarter of an ounce, grated ; infuse in a pint of spirits of wine, strain, and bottle. MADE DISHES. There is little to be added to our general remarks on this subject** under the heads of Stewing, Hashing, Thickening, Flavouring, &c. Made dishes are almost innumerable. They are, however, nothing more than meat, poultry, or fish, stewed very gently till they are tender, with a thickening sauce of some kind or other poured over them. Their difference consists in their flavour, which may be so modified by an ingenious cook as to make them almost endless. Let our preliminary remarks on these subjects be well studied. W e subjoin a few receipts. 340. Calf's Head.—Take the half of one, with the skin on ; put it into a large stew-pan, with as much water as will cover it, a knuckle of ham, and the usual accompaniments of onions, herbs, &c., and let it simmer till the flesh may be separated from the bone with a spoon ; do so, and while still hot cut it into as large a sized square as a piece will admit of; the trimming and half the liquor put by in a tureen; to the remaining half add a gill of white wine, and reduce the whole of that, by quick boiling, till it is again half consumed, when it should be poured over the large square piece, in an earthen vessel, surrounded with mushrooms, white buttoned onion, small pieces of pickled pork, half an inch in breadth, and one and a half in length, and the tongue in slices, and simm«red till the whole is fit to serve up; some brown force meat balls are a pretty addition. After this comas from table, the remains should be cut up in small pieces, and mixed up with the trimmings and liquor, which (with a little more wine,) properly thickened, will make a very good mock turtle soup for a future occasion. 341. Hashed Meat.—Cut the meat into slices about the thickness of two shillings, trim off all the sinews, skin, and gristle, put nothing in but what is to be eaten, lay them on a plate ready ; prepare your sauce to warm in it, put in the meat, and let it simmer gently till it MADE DISHES. 101 is thoroughly warm; do not let it boil, as that will make the meat tough and hard. 342. Hashed Beef or Mutton.—One tea-spoonful of Harvey sauce, one of Tomata sauce, the same quantity of any other sauce ; pepper, salt, cayenne, half a wine glass of port wine, and a couple of. capsicums cut fine; mix with the remains of the gravy of the preceding day, of beef or mutton ; if necessary to thicken, add one shake of the flour dredger. This is a good hash. 343. Sandwiches are an elegant and convenient luncheon, if nicely prepared ; the bread should be neatly cut with a sharp knife; whatever is used must be carefully trimmed from every bit of skin, gristle, &c., and nothing must be introduced but what you are absolutely certain will be acceptable to the mouth. 344. A good Scotch Haggis.—Make the haggis-bag perfectly clean ; parboil the draught, boil the liver very well, so as it will grate, dry the meat before the fire, mince the draught and a pretty large piece of beef very small; grate about half of the liver, mince plenty of suet and some onions small; mix all these materials very well together* with a handful or two of the dried meal; spread them on the table, and season them properly with salt and mixed spices; take any of the scraps of beef that are left from mincing, and some of the water that boiled the draught, and make about a quart of good stock of it; then put all the haggis meat into the bag, and that broth in it; then sew up the bag, but be sure to put out all the wind before you sew it quite close. If you think the bag is thin, you may put it in a cloth. If it is a large haggis, it will take at least two hours boiling. 345. Mr. Phillips's Irish Stew.—Take five thick mutton chops, or two pounds off the neck or loin; two pounds of potatoes, peel them, and cut them in halves; six onions, or half a pound of onions, peel and slice them also. First, put a layer of potatoes at the bottom of your stew-pan, then a couple of chops and some of the onions; then again potatoes, and so on, till the pan is quite full; a small spoonful of white pepper, and about one and a half of salt, and three gills of broth or gravy, and two tea-spoonfuls of mushroom catsup; cover all very close in, so as to prevent the steam from getting out, and let them stew for an hour and a half on a very slow fire. A small slice of ham is a great addition to this dish. Great care should be taken not to let it burn. 346. Mutton Chops delicately stewed, and good Mutton Broth.— Put the chops into a stew-pan with cold water enough to cover them, and an bnion; when it is coming to the boil, skim it, cover the pan close, and set it over a very slow fire till the chops are tender; if they have been kept a proper time, they will take about three-quarters of an hour very gentle simmering. Send up turnips with them—they may be boiled with the chops; skim well, and then send all up in a deep dish, with the broth they were stewed in. 347. Minced Collops.—Take beef, and chop and mince it very email, to which add some salt and pepper; put this, in its raw state, mto small jars, and pour on the top some clarified butter. When in tended for use, put the clarified butter into a frying pan, and slice some onions into the pan, and fry them. Add a little water to it, and then put in the minced meat. Stew it well, and in a few minutes it will be fit to serve up. 348. Brisket of Beef stewed.—This is prepared in exactly the same way as "soup and bouilli.'* 349. Harricot of Beef—A stewed brisket cut in slices, and sent up with the same sauce of roots, &c., as we have directed for harricot of mutton, is a most excellent dish, of very moderate expense. 350. Salt Beef baked.—L(^t a buttock of beef, which has been in salt about a week, be well washed and put into an earthen pan, with a pint of water; cover the pan tight with two or three sheets of foolscap paper; let it bake four or five hours in a moderately heated oven. 351. Beef baked like red deer, to be eaten cold.—Cut buttock of beef longways, beat it well with a rolling pin, and broil i t ; when it is cold, lard it, and macerate it in wine vinegar, salt, pepper, cloves, mace, and two or three bay leaves, for two or three days ; then bake it in rye paste, let it stand till it is cold, and fill it up with butter; let it stand for a fortnight before it is eaten. 352. Shin or Leg of Beef stewed.—Have the bone sawed in three or four pieces, and the marrow either taken out, or stopped with paste. Cover with cold water, and having skimmed it clean, add onions, carrot, celery, sweet herbs, and spice. Let the whole stew very gently three hours and a half or four hours. Meanwhile, cut up the red part of two or three carrots, two or three turnips, peel two dozen button onions, boil them, and drain them dry; as the onions and turnips should retain their shape, and the carrots require longer to boil, they ought to be put in a quarter of an hour earlier. Do not let them be over-done. When the meat is quite tender, take it out with a slice, and strain the soup. Thicken the soup with a small tea-cup full of flour, mixed either with a little butter, or the fat of the soup. Stir this well in till it boils, and is perfectly smooth; if not, it must be strained through a tamis, and carefully skimmed, and then returned to warm the vegetables. The meat may be served whole, or scraped from the bones, and cut in pieces. Season the soup with pepper, salt, and a wine glass each of port wine and mushroom catsup, and pour over the meat; or, if necessary, put the meat in a stew-pan to warm. Serve all together. Curry may be added, if approved—also, force meat balls. 353. Hare.—Instead of roasting a hare, stew it; if young, plain—• if an old one, lard it. The shoulders and legs should be taken off, and the back cut in three pieces; these, with a bay leaf, half a dozen eschalots, one onion pierced with four cloves, should be laid with as much good vinegar as will cover them, for twenty-four hours in a deep dish. In the meantime, the head, the neck, ribs, liver, heart, &c., should be browned in frothed butter, well seasoned; add half a pound of lean bacon, cut in small pieces, a large bunch of herbs, a carrot, and a few allspice. Simmer these in a quart of water till it is reduced to about naif the quantity, when it should be strained, and those parts of the hare which have been infused in the vinegar, should (with the whole contents of the dish) be added to it, and stewed till quite done. Those who like onions may brown half a dozen, stew them in part of the gravy, and dish them round the hare. Every ragout should be dressed the day before it is wanted, that any fat which has escaped the skimming spoon may with ease be taken off when cold. 354'. Jugged Hare.—Wash it very nicely, cut it up in pieces proper to help at table, and put them into a jugging pot, or into a stone jar, just sufficiently large to hold it well; put in some sweet herbs, a roll or two of rind of a lemon, and a fine large onion with five cloves stuck in it; and if you wish to preserve the flavour of the hare, a quarter of a pint of water; if you are for a ragout, a quarter of a pint of claret or port wine, and the juice of a lemon. Tie the jar down closely with a bladder, so that no steam can escape; put a little hay in the bottom of the saucepan, in which place the jar; let the water boil for about three hours, according to the age and size of the hare (take care it is not over-done, which is the general fault in all made dishes,) keeping it boiling all the time, and fill up the pot as it boils away. When quite tender, strain off gravy from fat, thicken it with flour, and give it a boil up; lay the hare in a soup dish, and pour the gravy to it. You may make a pudding the same as for roast hare, and boil it in a cloth, and when you dish your hare, cut it in slices, or make force meat balls of it for garnish. For sauce, currant jelly. Or a much easier and quicker way of proceeding is the following: Prepare the hare as for jugging ; put it into a stew-pan with a few sweet herbs, half a dozen cloves, the same of allspice and black pepper, two large onions, and a roll of lemon peel; cover it with water; when it boils, skim it clean, and let it simmer gently till tender (about two hours;) then take it up with a slice, set it by a fire to keep hot while you thicken the gravy; take three ounces of butter and some flour, rub together, put in the gravy, stir it well, and let it boil about ten minutes; strain it through a sieve over the hare, and it is ready. 355. Slewed Rump Steaks.—The steaks must be a little thicker .han for broiling; let them all be the same thickness, or some will be done too little, and others too much. Put an ounce of butter into a stew-pan, with two onions; when the butter is melted, lay in the rump steaks, let them stand over a slow fire for five minutes, then turn them, and let the other side of them try five minutes longer. Have ready boiled a pint of button onions; they will take from half an hour to an hour; put the liquor they were boiled in to the steaks; if there is not enough of it to cover them, add broth or boiling water to make up enough for that purpose, with a dozen corns of black pepper, and a little salt, and let them simmer very gently for about an hour and a half, and then strain off as much of the liquor (about a pint and a half,) as you think will make the sauce. Put two ounces of butter in a stew-pan; when it is melted, stir in as much flour as will make it into a stiff paste; some add thereto a table-spoonful of claret or port wine, the same of mushroom catsup, half a tea-spoonful of salt, and a quarter of a tea-spoonful of ground black pepper; add the liquor by degrees, let it boil up for fifteen minutes, skim it, and strain it; serve up the steaks with the onions round the dish, and pour the gravy over it 356. Broiled Rump Steaks with Onion Gravy.—Peel and slice two large onions, put them into a quart stew-pan, with two tablespoonfuls of water; cover the stew-pan close, set it on a slow fire till the water has boiled away, and the onions have got a little browned, then add half a pint of good broth, and boil the onions till they are tender; strain the broth from them, and chop them very fine, and season with mushroom catsup, pepper, and salt; put the onion into it, and let it boil gently for five minutes, pour it into the dish, and lay it over a broiled rump steak. If instead of broth you use good beef gravy, it will be superlative. Stewed cucumber is another agreeable accompaniment to rump steaks. 357. Bubble and Squeak.—For this, as for a hash, select those parts of the joint that have been least done; it is generally made with slices of cold boiled salted beef, sprinkled with a little pepper, and just lightly browned with a bit of butter, in a frying-pan; if it is fried too much, it will be hard. Boil a cabbage, squeeze it quite dry, and chop it small; take the beef out of the frying-pan, and lay the cabbage in it; sprinkle a little pepper and salt over it; keep the pan moving over the fire for a few minutes, lay the cabbage in the middle cf the dish, and the meat round it. 358. Hashed or minced Veal.—To make a hash, cut the meat into into slices: to prepare minced veal, mince it as fine as possible (do not chop it); put it into a stew-pan with a few spoonfuls of veal or mutton broth, or make some with the bones and trimmings, as ordered for veal cutlets, a little lemon peel minced fine, a spoonful of milk or cream ; thicken with butter and flour, and season it with salt, a tablespoonful of lemon pickle or basil wine, or a pinch of curry powder. If you have no cream, beat up the yolks of a couple of eggs with a little milk; line the dish with sippets of lightly toasted bread. 359. To make an excellent Ragout of cold Veal.—Either a neck, loin, or fillet of veal will furnish this excellent ragout with a very little expense or trouble. Cut the veal into handsome cutlets: put a piece of butter, or clean dripping, into a frying-pan; as soon as it is hot, flour and fry the veal of a light brown; take it out, and if you have no gravy ready, put a pint of boiling water into the frying-pan, give it a boil up for a minute, and strain it in a basin while you make some thickening in the following manner: Put about an ounce of butter into a stew-pan ; as soon as it melts, mix it with as much flour as will dry it up; stir it over the fire for a few minutes,and gradually add to it the gravy you made in the frying-pan; let them simmer together for ten minutes; season it with pepper, salt, a little mace, and a wine-glassful of mushroom catsup or wine; strain it through 8 tamis to the meat, and stew very gently till the meat is thoroughly warmed. If you have any ready boiled bacon, cut it in slices, unc. put it to warm with the meat. 36(1 Veal Olives.—Cut half a dozen slices off a fillet of veal, half an inch thick, and as long and square as you can; flat them with a chopper, and rub them over with an egg that has been beat on a plate; cut some fat bacon as thin as possible, the same size as the veal; lay it on the veal, and rub it with a little of the egg; make a little veal force meat, and spread it very thin over the bacon; roll up the olives tight; rub them with an egg, and then roll them in fine bread crumbs; put them on a lark-spit, and roast them at a brisk fire; they will take three-quarters of an hour. Rump steaks are sometimes dressed this way. Mushroom sauce, brown or beef gravy. 361. Knuckle of Veal to ragout.—Cut the knuckle of veal into slices of about half an inch thick ; pepper, salt, and flour them; fry them a light brown; put the trimmings in a stew-pan, with the bone, broke in several places; an onion shred, a head of celery, a bunch of sweet herbs, and two blades of bruised mace; pour in warm water enough to cover them about an inch; cover the pot close, and let it stew very gently for a couple of hours; strain it, and then thicken it with flour and butter; put in a spoonful of catsup, a glass of wine, and juice of half a lemon; give it a boil up, and strain into a clean stew-pan; put in the meat, make it hot, and serve up. If celery is not to be had, use a carrot instead, or flavour it with celery seed. 362. Scotch Collops.—The veal must be cut the same as for cutlets, in pieces about as big as a crown piece; flour them well, and fry them of a light brown, in fresh butter; lay them in a stew-pan; dredge them over with flour, and then put in as much boiling water as will cover the vea , pour this in by degrees, shaking the stew-pan, and set it on the fire; when it comes to a boil, take off the scum, put in an onion, a blade of mace, and let it simmer very gently for threequarters of an hour; lay them on a dish, and pour the gravy through a sieve over them. Lemon juice and peel, wine, catsup, are sometimes added. Add curry powder, and you have curry collops. 363. Slices of Ham or Bacon.—Ham or bacon may be fried, or broiled on a gridiron over a clear fire, or toasted with a fork; take care to slice it of the same thickness in every part. If you wish it curled, cuf it in slices about two inches long (if longer, the outside will be done too much before the inside is done enough); roll it up^ and put a little wooden skewer through it; put it in a cheese-toaster, or dutch oven, for eight or ten minutes, turning it as it gets crisp. This is considered the handsomest way of dressing bacon; but we like it best uncurled, because it is crisper and more equally done. Slices of ham or bacon should not be more than half a quarter of an inch thick, and will eat much more mellow if soaked in hot water for a quarter of an hour, and then dried in a cloth before they are broiled. If you have any cold bacon, you may make a very nice dish of it, by cutting it into slices of about a quarter of an inch thick; grate some crusts of bread, as directed for ham, and powder them well with it on both sides; lay the rashers in a cheese-toaster—they will be brown on one side in about three minutes—turn them, and do the other. These are delicious accompaniaments to poached or fried eggs. The bacon having been boiled first, is tender and mellow. They are ap excellent garnish round veal cutlets, or sweetbread, or calf's head hash, or green peas, or beans, &c. 364. A Devil.—The gizzard and rump, or legs, &c., of a dressed turkey, capon, or goose, or mutton or veal kidney, scored, peppered, salted, and broiled, sent up for a relish, being made very hot, has obtained the name of a " Devil." 365. Marrow Bones.—Saw the bones even, so that they will stand steady; put a piece of paste into the ends; set them upright in a saucepan, and boil till they are done enough; a beef marrow bone will require from an hour and a half to two hours; serve fresh toasted bread with them. 366. Ragout of Duck, or any other kind of Poultry or Game.— Partly roast, then divide into joints, or pieces of a suitable size for helping at table. Set it on in a stew-pan, with a pint and a half of broth, or, if you have no broth, water, with any little trimmings of meat to enrich it; a large onion stuck with cloves, a dozen berries each of allspice and black pepper, and the rind of half a lemon shavea thin. When it boils sjjim it very clean, and then let it simmer gently, with the lid close, for an hour and a half. Then strain off the liquor, and take out the limbs, which keep hot in a basin or deep dish. Rinse the stew-pan, or use a clean one, in which put two ounces of butter, and as much flour or other thickening as will bring it to a stiff paste add to it the gravy by degrees. Let it boil up, then add a glass of port wine, a little lemon juice, and a tea-spoonful of salt; simmer a few minutes. Put the meat in a deep dish, strain the gravy over, and garnish with sippets of toasted bread. The flavour may be varied at pleasure, by adding catsup, curry powder, or any of the flavouring tinctures, or vinegar. I ARTIFICIAL PREPARATIONS OF MEAT, FISH. &c., FOR DRESSING, SALTING, DRYING, &c. By the phrase " artificial preparations of meat," we allude to those things which, before dressing, have to undergo the processes of salt ing, drying, smoking, pickling, &c. Before these meats can be cooked they njust be prepared, and we, therefore, think it right (if for nothing else but the sake of order), to deviate from the line of pro ceeding of our predecessors, and to give directions for such preparations previous, to the recipes for cooking them. It is impossible, fo. instance, to dress salt meat before it is salted. SALTING. 367. There are many methods recommended for carrying this operation into effect. The following in our opinion are the best Before salting, particularly in the summer, all the kernels, pipes, and veins, should be taken out of the meat, or all your salting will be in vain. The meat will not keep. The salt should be rubbed thoroughly SALTING. 107 jmd equally into every part of the meat, and great care should be taken to fill the holes with salt, where the kernels have been taken out, any themselves. 435. Cucumbers may be stewed in the same way as celery, with the addition of some sliced onions; or the cucumbers and onions may Je first floured and fried in butter; then add the gravy, and stew tili tender; skim off* the fat. 436. Parsnips.—Clean and dress just the same as carrots, they require boiling from one hour to two, according to their size and freshness; they should be drained well, and set on the hob in a dry saucepan to steam; they are sometimes mashed with butter, pepper, salt, and cream, or milk, the same as turnips; they are eaten alone, or with salt beef or salt pork. Sauce, melted butter and vinegar. P O T A T O E S . 437. In our directions for dressing vegetables, we speak lastly of potatoes—not because the cooking of this every-day food is of the least importance, but because, on the contrary, it is of the greatest. There are few persons, simple as the process may appear to be, who can cook potatoes well with certainty. Potatoes from the same ground, and of the same kind, dressed by the same cook, may come to table one day palatable and nutritious, and the next the very re. verse of these qualities. How does this h a p p e n T h e cook acts upon no principle. By accident the potatoes may be boiled well, and by accident they may be boiled bad : in one word, the boiling of potatoes is, with the generality of cooks, all chance work. A friend of ours, Mr. John Barker, the attorney, no mean judge in such matters, always averred, that a woman who could boil potatoes and melt butter well, was a good cook; he never requires any other proof of the capabilities of a coolt. The fact is, those who thoroughly understand the elements of any art or science, find little or no difficulty in what are called the higher branches. It is for this reason that we have, in our little work, dwelt so much upon elementary principles, in preference to filling it up with long receipts, which every body may obtain, but which do not teach any principle of the art of cookery. Dr. Kitchiner observes, that " tt^pvegetable kingdom affords no food more wholesome, more easily procured, easily prepared, and less expensive, than the potatoe." This is perfectly true, and yet how few are there that can boil potatoes properly! In Ireland, as every body knows, potatoes constitute almost entirely the food of the great mass of the people; in Ireland, therefore, necessity must have taught the people the best mode of cooking them. Their process is this: the potatoes, unpeeled, that is with their jackets on, after being washed, are put into a cast-iron pot of cold water, which is placed on the fire. When the water boils, a small quantity of cold water is put into the pot to check the boiling; this is once or twice repeated. When the potatoes are done, or nearly done, the water is poured away from the potatoes, which are again subjected to the fire to let the steam evapo-, rate, and make the potatoes mealy. They are then served up in the usual way, (we are speaking of the tables of the middling classes,) and each person takes as many potatoes as he chooses; he peels them, depositing the skins by the sidcj of his plate. In the course of the POTATOES. 12. dinner the potatoes on the table will become cold, when a fresh supply is ordered, and when furnished, the host calls out to his guest, " a hot potatoe, Sir." Before the dinner is finished, you will have two or three supplies of hot potatoes, and the last, though all from the same pot, are to our taste better than the first. They are all the time kept on the fire; the action of the heat completely evaporates the moisture from the potatoes, and those at the bottom of the iron pot become partially roasted. Such is the Irish mode of dressing potatoes, and if we could reconcile ourselves to the " bother" of peeling them, and to the disagreeable appearance of a table-cloth nearly covered with potatoe skins, there is no doubt that we should consider the Irish way of dressing and serving potatoes the best. The generality of modern cookery books recommend the dressing of potatoes with their skins on, like the Irish, but direct that they should be peeled before sent to the table; this mode spoils the potatoes by cooling them; when so dressed, they should be eaten hot. We recommend that potatoes, excepting when young, for the table, should be always pared, carefully pared, before they are boiled: that they should be put into cold water with salt, and boiled quickly, till they are nearly done; that then the water should be poured off, and the potatoes again subjected to the fire, covered with a close lid, till they are quite done, when the lid ought to be removed, and the moisture evaporated. They may be then mashed, or served whole. The cook should take care to have potatoes pretty much^of an equal size, or, if this be not practicable, she should divide the large ones. We ought, however, to add, with regard to peeling potatoes, that most people very fond of this root insist upon it, that you do not get the true flavour if you do not dress it with the skin on. Let it be always remembered, that potatoes differ very much in quality, and that no cook can dress a bad potatoe into a good one. This brings us to the choice of potatoes. W e can lay down no rule, notwithstanding what formejfrwriters have said, for the choice of potatoes. As it is with pudding, so it is with potatoes—the proof is in the eating. The dealers in nuts say, "Crack and try before you buy," and We say as regards potatoes, Boil and try before you buy; the expenditure of one half-penny will enable you to do this. Dr. Kitchiner says, that " reddish coloured potatoes are better than the white, but the yellowish ones are the best." The colour of a potatoe is no criterion of its goodness or badness; there are good of all colours, and there are bad of all colours. You should never buy washed potatoes; they should never be washed till they are to be used, and as little as possible exposed to the open air. When frostbitten, they are good for nothing as regards culinary purposes. There are various directions given by writers for dressing potatoes, some of which we subjoin. Kitchiner says, that "most boiled things are spoiled by having too little water; but potatoes are often spoiled by too much." It is sufficient to just cover them with water. Potatoes may be boiled well according to either of the subjoined methods; but after trying all, we prefer our own. 438. Potatoes to boil. —To boil, choose them all of a size, that they may be all done together; put them on with cold water, and a spoonful of si*It, in a saucepan larger than they require, without the lid, and with not quite water enough to cover them. When they boil, put in a little cold water; do this twice or three times as they come tc boil. When a fork will easily go into them, strain off, and put the saucepan on the hob for two minutes, for the steam to evaporate. If done too soon, fold a coarse cloth and cover them up immediately, to keep them hot and mealy; but they are best served immediately they are done. Another Method. The best method in the opinion of some, is to wash the potatoes quite clean and put them in the saucepan with a large table-spoonful of salt, and cover them with water; but when they boil up, pour three parts of the water away, put the lid on the saucepan, and set them where they will boil, but not very fast. Observe if the skins are cracked; if not, carefully crack them with a fork to let the watery matter contained in the potatoe out; this you cannot do until they are nearly done. When they are boiled sufficiently, drain all the water away; take off the lid, and hold them over the fire for a minute, giving them a gentle shake. They are best served immediately, while they are dry and hot. This method is good in a small family, but where there are a great many to dine it would be best to pare them, and take out all the eyes with the point of your knife; wash them, put them in the saucepan with a large table-spoonful of salt, cover them with water, and when they boil, pour three parts of the water off, close the saucepan, and let them boil gently ; when done, dry them over the fire. As potatoes should be always served hot, by this method you lose no time in taking off the skins. 439. Potatoes to steam.—Let the potatoes be washed, and put into the steamer, when the water boils in the saucepan beneath ; they will take about three-quarters of an hour to steam, and should be taken up as soon as done, or they become watery. 440. To roast.—Wash and dry potatoes all of a size; put them in a dutch oven, or cheese toaster, or in the oven by the side of the fire; take care that the heat is not too great, or they will burn before they are baked through. They may be parboiled first; in that case they will take less time in baking. 441. Potatoes mashed.—When the potatoes are thoroughly boiled or steamed, drain them dry, pick out every speck, and while hot rub them through a colander into a clean saucepan, in which warm them, stirring in half an ounce or an ounce of butter, and a table-spoonful of milk, with a little pepper and salt; do not make them too wet; then put them into the scallop shells, or pudding shells buttered, the tops washed over with the yolk of an egg, and browned in an oven by the side of the fire; but best in a dutch oven. Some people consider a mixture of boiled onions an improvement. 442. Potatoes roasted under meat. — Parboil large potatoes; peel them, and put them in an earthen dish, or small tin pan, under meat vhat is roasting. They will partake of the basting, salting, and flour ing, that are put on the meat; when one side is brown, turn and brown the other. They may be baked in the same manner in an over., 443. Potatoes fried or broiled. — Cut cold potatoes into slices a quarter of an inch thick, and fry them brown in a clean dripping-pan. Some people like them shaved in little thin pieces, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and stirred about in the frying-pan till hot through. They are very good fried whole; first dip them in egg and roll them in bread crumbs; they are likewise very good broiled on a gridiron, after being partially boiled. Cold potatoes, which are generally thrown away, are very good when broiled. 444. Potatoe Balls.—Mix mashed potatoes with a beaten egg, roll them in balls and fry them, either with or without crumbs. 445. Potatoe Snow.—Wash very clean some potatoes of a white mealy sort; set them on in cold water, and boil them according to the first direction; when done, strain the water from them, crack the skins, put them by the fire until they are quite dry and fall to pieces; then rub them through a wire sieve on the dish they are to be served on, and do not disturb them. SALADS. 446. Among the principal salad herbs we may reckon lettuce, of which the white cos in summer, and in winter the brown Dutch cos and brown cos, are the best; endive, of which the curled leaf is preferred ; corn-salad and water-cress, both of which are preferred when the leaves have a brownish cast; mustard and cress, or small salading, of which a succession may be kept up through the spring months; celery, young, crisp, and well blanched. All or any of these may be united in the composition of a salad. Cucumbers, either sliced by themselves, or mixed with other articles. Radishes give a lively appearance, by way of garnish, to a salad, but are not themselves improved by dressing. Red-beet also is much in request for winter salads, especially mixed with endive. Young onions or escalions are liked by many people, but much disliked by others; therefore they should not be mixed in the bowl, but sent up on a small dish by them* selves. Sorrel gives a pleasing acid taste; and pimpernel, or burnet, gives a flavour resembling that of cucumber. Dandelion, if well grown and well blanched with a tile or slate (in the same manner as endive), is equally good and wholesome. Let the ingredients of the salad be well picked, and washed and dried; but do not add the dressing till just before eating, as it is apt to make the salad flabby. The most simple way of dressing a salad is, perhaps, the best; certainly the most wholesome; merely salt, oil, and vinegar, to taste; one table-spoonful of vinegar to three of the best olive oil, is a good proportion. For those who do not like oil, or when it is not at hand, the following may be used as a substitute: The gravy that has dropped from roasted meat, good sweet thics cream, a bit of fresh butter rubbed up with fine moist sugar, >r jus* melted, without either flour or water; great care must be taken in ill us melting the butter, or it will be apt to oil or curdle; it must be shaken one way only, and kept near the fire no longer than is necessary to dissolve the lumps — on no account suffered to boil. Eggs boiled for salads require ten or twelve minutes boiling, and should immediately be plunged into cold water. In the more complicated preparation of a salad, great care must be taken that every additional ingredient is thoroughly well blended before proceeding to add another. Prepare the dressings in the bowl, and add the herbs ; after stirring them in, take care that all the various colours are displayed. The coral of a lobster or a crab makes a beautiful variety with a lettuce, onion, radish, beet, and white of egg. The following are the ordinary proportions, but various tastes will suggest variety : The yolks of two eggs rubbed very smooth with a very rich cream; if perfectly rubbed and quite cold, they will form a smooth paste without straining; a tea-spoonful each of thick mustard, salt, and powdered loaf-sugar, or a little cayenne instead of mustard, less than half of the mustard ; when these are well rubbed in, add two table-spoonfuls of oil (or whichever of its substitutes is adopted), and then four spoonfuls of the best white wine vinegar; then lay the herbs lightly on. Cucumbers are only to be pared and sliced, with slices of onion, which correct their crudity, and render them less unwholesome; the pickle for them consists of pepper, salt, oil, and vinegar. VINEGARS FLAVOURED. Vinegar is employed in extracting flavours as well as spirits and wine. But such extracts are principally used with salads, or as relishes to cold meats, and in a few instances to flavour sauces and soups; but, in English cookery, flavours extracted by sherry wine are preferred for soup. 447. Vinegar for Salads. —Take three ounces each of tarragon, chives, eschalots, savoury, a handful of the tops of balm and mint, all dry and pounded ; put these into a wide-mouthed bottle, with a gallon of the best vinegar, cork it close and set it in the sun, and in a fort- * night strain it off, and press the herbs to get out all the juice; let itstand a day to settle, and then strain it through a filtering bag. 448. Basil Vinegar or Wine. — Sweet basil is in perfection about the middle of August; gather the fresh green leaves, quite free from stalk, and before it flowers ; fill a wide-mouthed bottle with them, fill it with vinegar or wine, and steep them ten days ; if you want a very Btrong essence, strain the liquor, put it on some fresh leaves, and let them steep fourteen days more; strain it and bottle, cork it close; it is a very agreeable addition to cold meat, soups, sauces, and to the mixture generally made for salads. A table-spoonful, when the soup is ready, impregnates a tureen-full with the basil and acid flavours at a very little expense, when fresh basil and lemons are very dear. The flavour of other sweet or savoury herbs may be preserved 111 the same manner, by infusing them in wine or vinegar. 449. Burnet Vinegar is made exactly in the same way as the above, and imparts the flavour of cucumbers so exactly, when steeped in vinegar, that the nicest palate could not distinguish it from the fruit itself. This is a nice relish to cold meat, salads, &c. Burnet is best in season from Midsummer to Michaelmas. 450. Cress or Celery Vinegar. — Pour over a quart of the best vinegar to an ounce of celery or cress seeds, when dried and pounded ; let thern steep ten days, shake it every day, then strain and bottle in small bottles. 451. Horse-radish Vinegar. — Pour a quart of best vinegar on three ounces of scraped horse-radish, one drachm of cayenne, and an ounce of shred eschalot; let it stand a week. This is very cheap, and you have an excellent relish for cold beef, salads, &c. Horseradish is in perfection in November. 452. Garlic, Onion, or Eschalot Vinegar. — Put and chop two ounces of the root, pour over them a quart of the best vinegar, in a Dottle, shake it well every day for ten days; then pour off the clear liquor into half-pint bottles. A few drops of the garlic will flavour a pint of gravy, as it is very powerful. 453. Tarragon Vinegar. — Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with fresh gathered tarragon leaves. They should be gathered on a dry day, just before it flowers, between Midsummer and Michaelmas. Pick the leaves off the stalks, and dry them a little before the fire; cover them with the best vinegar, and let them steep fourteen days; then strain them through a flannel jelly-bag till it is fine, then pour it into half-pint bottles, cork them tight, and keep them in a dry place. 454. Elder Flower Vinegar is prepared in the same manner as above, and other herbs also. 455. Green Mint Vinegar is made exactly the same way, and the same proportions, as basil vinegar. In housed lamb season, green mint is sometimes not to be got, it is then a welcome substitute. 456. Camp Vinegar.—Take four table-spoonfuls of soy, a quarter of an ounce of cayenne pepper, six anchovies, bruised and chopped, walnut pickle a quarter of a pint, a clove of garlic shred fine; steep the whole for a month in a quart of the best vinegar, shake it four or five times a week, strain it through a tamis, and put it in half-pint bottles, close corked and sealed, or dipped in bottle cement. 457. Capsicum, Cayenne, or Chili Vinegar. — Pound fifty fresh red chilies, or capsicums, or a quarter of an ounce of cayenne pepper; 6teep in a pint of the best vinegar for a fortnight. CATSUPS. These rank high, and deservedly so, amongst the lists of flavourings, particularly mushroom catsup, with the directions for the making it has risen as high as it will, about two hours. Two ounces of lump sugar, dissolved in a pint of new milk, a quarter of a pound of Dutter rubbed in the flour very fine; then make your dough; let it stand half an hour, then make your cakes and put them on tins; when they have stood to rise, put them in a quick oven. Wnen eggs are plentiful you may put four eggs instead of milk—they will make it much lighter. French rolls are made much in the same way ; instead of using all milk put half water, and use only butter and a little salt. 623. A Plum Cake—A quartern of dough, half a pound of moist sugar, half a pound of butter, a tea-cup full of cream and two eggs, a pound of currants (add raisins if you please) a tea-spoonful of allspice, two ounces of candied orange peel cut small, and an ounce of carraway seeds. Roll the dough out several times, and spread over the several ingredients; flour the pan well, and set it on one side the fire to rise; bake an hour and a half. A richer cake may be made by adding more sweetmeats, butter, eggs, and almonds, and so forth. The dough made as bread ; when risen, melt the butter in warm milk and put to it with the other ingredients, and put to rise. 624. A plain Pound Cake.—One pound each of butter, loaf-sugar, and flour, and nine eggs; work the butter to a cream, pound the sugar, and add then the eggs; beat all together twenty minutes, then lightly add the flour; mix, put in a tin or hoop lined with buttered paper. Bake an hour in a moderate oven.* AMERICAN MODE OF COOKING INDIAN CORN, PUMPKINS, &c. Maize or Indian corn has never been extensively used in Great Britain, and the editor has every reason to believe that this has arisen from the almost total ignorance of the English people as to the mode of preparing it for human food. It is, perhaps, the most productive crop that can be grown, and its nutritious qualities, when properly prepared, are equal to its productiveness. W e are satisfied that it may be grown in that country, or, at any rate, in the south and eastern parts of it, with great advantage; indeed, the experiment has been tried, and with decided success. The late Mr. Cobbett grew an average crop of the dwarf kind on Barn Elms farm, Surrey, for three or four years, as the editor can testify from his own personal inspection, and he himself has succeeded in rearing the large sort to perfection, the cobs or ears, when quite ripe, averaging eight or nine inches; this, however, was effected upon a small scale, and in a garden. 625. Indian Cake, or Bannock.—This, as prepared in our own country, is cheap and very nice food. Take one quart of Indian meal, dressed or sifted, two table-spoonfuls of treacle or molasses, two teaspoonfuls of salt, a bit of " shortening" (butter or lard) half as big as a hen's egg, stirred together; make it pretty moist with scalding water, put it into a well-greased pan, smooth over the surface with a * Full directions for these and all other similar preparations are given in " T h e Baker," the same Editor 6|X)on, and bake it brown on both sides before a quick fire. A little stewed pumpkin, scalded with the meal, improves the cake. Bannock split and dipped in butter, makes very nice toast. 626. Green Indian Corn.—This is a most delicious vegetable. When used as a vegetable the cobs, or ears, are plucked about the time that the corn has arrived at a milky state, or just before it assumes a solid substance. A part of the leaves or filaments by which the cob, or ear, is surrounded, is taken away, and the cobs boiled from twenty to forty minutes, " according to its age." When it is done, it is served with cold or melted butter, and eaten (after being stripped of its remaining leaves) by taking the two ends of the cob in the hands, and biting off the corn. The editor can bear testimony to its delicious quality from having grown it in his own garden and partaken of it. 627. Indian Corn, or Maize Pudding, baked.—Scald a quart of milk (skimmed milk will do,) and stir in seven table-spoonfuls of sifted Indian meal, a tea-spoonful of salt, a tea-cup full of molasses or treacle, or coarse moist sugar, and a table-spoonful of powdered ginger or sifted cinnamon ; bake three or four hours. If whey is wanted, pour in a little cold milk after it is all mixed. 628. Boiled Maize Pudding.—Stir Indian meal and warm milk together " pretty stiff;" a little salt and two or three " great spoonfuls" of molasses added ; also a spoonful of ginger, or any other spic6 that may be preferred. Boil it in a tight-covered pan, or in a very thick cloth ; if the water gets in, it will ruin it. Leave plenty of room, for Indian meal swells very much. The milk with which it is mixed should be merely warmed; if it be scalding hot, the pudding will break to pieces. Some chop suet very fine, and warm in the milk; others warm thin slices of apple to be stirred into the pudding. Water will answer instead of milk. 629. Pumpkin and Squash Pie.—The usual way of dressing pumpkins in England in a pie is to cut them into slices, mixed with apples, and bake them with a top crust like ordinary pies. A quite different process is pursued in America, and the editor can testify to the immense superiority of the Yankee method. In England, the pumpkin is grown for show rather than for use; nevertheless, when properly dressed, it is a very delicious vegetable, and a universal favourite with our New England neighbours. The following is the American method of making a pumpkin pie: Take out the seeds, and pare the pumpkin or squash; but in taking ~>ut the seeds do not scrape the inside of the pumpkin; the part nearest .he seed is the sweetest; then stew the pumpkin, and strain it through a sieve or colander. To a quart of milk for a family pie, three eggs are sufficient. Stir in the stewed pumpkin with your milk and beaten-up eggs till it is as thick as you can stir round rapidly and easily. If the pie is wanted richer make it thinner, and add another egg or two; but even one egg to a quart of milk makes " very decent pies. Sweeten with molasses or sugar; add two tea-spoonfuls of salt, two table-spoonfuls of sifted cinnamon, and one of powdered ginger; but allspice may be used, or any other spice that may De preferred. The peel of a lemon grated in gives it a pleasant flavour. The more eggs, says our American authority, the better the pie. Some put one egg to a gill of milk. Bake about an hour in deep plates, or shallow dishes, without an upper crust, in a warm oven. There is another method of making this pie, which, we know from experience, produces an excellent dish: Take out the seeds, and grate the pumpkin till you come to the outside skin. Sweeten the pulp; add a little ground allspice, lemon peel, and lemon juice; in short, flavour it to your taste. Bake without an upper crust. 630. Carrot Pies.—These pies are made like pumpkin pies. The carrots should be boiled very tender, skinned, and sifted. 631. American Custard Puddings, sufficiently good for common use, may be made by taking five eggs beaten up and mixed with a quart of milk, sweetened with sugar and spiced with cinnamon, allspice, or nutmeg. It is well to boil your milk first, and let it get cold before using it. "Boiling milk enriches it so much, that boiled skim milk is about as good as new." (We doubt this assertion ; at any rate, it can only be improved by the evaporation of the water.) Bake fifteen or twenty minutes. 632. American Plum Pudding. — Pound six hard fine biscuits (crackers),, soak them for some hours in milk sufficient to cover the mass; add three pints of milk, beat up six eggs, and mix; flavour with lemon brandy, and a whole nutmeg grated; add three-quarters of a pound of stoned raisins, rubbed in flour. Bake not quite two hours. 633. Rennet Pudding or Custard. — A pudding may be made ot this description in five minutes. Take a wine-glass full of wine, in which a small portion of calf's rennet has been kept soaking; put it into a quart of cold new milk, and a sort of custard will be the result. This sweetened with loaf-sugar and spiced with nutmeg is very good. It should be eaten immediately, for in a few hours it begins to curdle. 634. American Apple Puddings.—Take your apples, and bore out the core without cutting them in two. Fill up the holes with washed rice. Tie up each apple very tight, and separately in the corners of a pudding bag. Boil an hour, or an hour and a half. 635. Bird's Nest Pudding.—If you wish to make what is called a bird's nest pudding, prepare your custard; take eight or ten pleasant apples, prepare them and take out the core, but leave them whole; set them in a pudding-dish, pour your custard over them, and bake about thirty minutes. 636. American Souse. — Take pigs' feet, ears, &c. well cleaned, and boil or rather simmer them for four or five hours, until they are too tender to be taken out with a fork. When taken from the boiling water it should be put into cold water. After it is packed down tight, ooil the jelly-like liquor in which it was cooked with an equal quantity if vinegar; salt as you think fit, and cloves, allspice, and cinnamon, at the rate of a quarter of a pound to a hundred weight, must be mixed with it when scalding hot. 637. American dry Bread.—As far as possible, have bits of bread eaten up before they become hard. Spread those that are not eaten, and let them dry, to be pounded for puddings, or soaked for brewis. Brewis is made of crusts and dry pieces of bread, soaked a good while in hot milk, mashed up, and salted, and buttered like toast. 638. Another sort of Brewis. — The author of Domestic Cookery observes, that a very good meal may be bestowed on poor people in a thing called brewis, which is thus made: Cut a very thick upper crust of bread, and put it into the pot where salt beef is boiling, and nearly ready; it will attach some of the fat, and when swelled out, will be no unpalatable dish to those who rarely taste meat. 639. Salt Fish. — The New England mode of dressing salt fish is an excellent one, and ought to be generally adopted. Keep the fish many hours (at least seven or eight) in scalding hot water, which must never be suffered to boil. 640. To preserve Cheese.—Cover the cheese carefully with paper, fastened on with paste, so as totally to exclude the air. In this way cheese may be kept for years. 641. American Mince Meat. — Take the good bits of vegetables, and the cold meat left after dinner. Mash your vegetables fine, and chop your meat very fine. Warm it with what remains of gravy, or roast meat dripping. Two or three apples, sliced and fried to mix with it, are considered an improvement. Some like a little sifted sage sprinkled in it. After it is warmed, lay it upon a large slice of toasted bread. Potatoes should not be used in the preparation of American mince meat. GRUELS, CREAMS, SYLLABUBS, JELLIES, &c., &c. 642. Common Flummery is merely water gruel flavoured, and eaten cold. Soak in cold water a pint of very fine white oatmeal; when it has steeped a day and a night, pour oft'the water quite clear. Then put upon the oatmeal three pints of fresh water, and let that stand also a day and a night; then strain it through a hair sieve, and boil it till it is as thick as hasty pudding, stirring it all the time; sweeten it with loaf-sugar, and put a spoonful of ratafia or noyeau, or a few drops of essence of lemon. Pour it into saucers or shallow dishes. It is eaten with sugar and cream, or wine, or cider. 643. Rice Flummery is ground rice thickened with milk, the same as for good rice pudding. In a pint of new milk, simmer three ounces of ground rice till it is become a very thick paste, sweeten it with loaf-sugar, flavour with ratafia or peach water, put it in a bason or a mould ; when it is cold, turn it out. Sauce; half a pint of new milk, a glass of white wine, a large tea-cup full of ci jam, the juice of a small lemon, sweetened with loaf-sugar. Or you may pour round it cream or custard. 644. French Flummery.—Take two ounces of isinglass to a quart of cream; simmer them a quarter of an hour; sweeten with loaf sugar; flavour with rose water; strain it into a mould; when cold, turn it out, and put round it baked or dried pears. 645. Dutch Flummery is composed of isinglass boiled in water, enriched with lemon, eggs, and wine. Take two ounces of isinglass, boil it half an hour in a pint and a half of water, and grate off with loaf-sugar the yellow rind of two lemons; sweeten with loaf-sugar, a pint of white wine, and the juice of three lemons. Beat up seven eggs, and strain the above to them, stirring all the time. Put it into the saucepan a minute or two to scald—by no means let it boil. Then pour it into a basin, and stir it till nearly cold, and then let it stand a few minutes to settle, and put it into a tin mould previously dipped in cold water. 646. Blancmange.—If for a sick person, boil an ounce of the best isinglass, with a stick of cinnamon, in half a pint of water. The isinglass will become a very thick jelly in half an hour's boiling. Then mix to it a pint of new milk, and sugar to taste. Let it boil up once, and strain through a tamis, or swan-skin jelly-bag, into a bason. Pour it into a mould, or custard cups, when nearly cold; pour it very steadily, and keep back any sediment. When turned out, raise it all round the edges with a silver knife; turn the mould on a dish, shake it once or twice. If properly prepared, it will turn out a beautiful white jelly, like marble; garnish with flowers or with sweetmeats, or sliced lemon. 647. A richer Blancmange.—Simmer an ounce or little more of fine isinglass in a pint and a half of new milk; add the rind of half a lemon, shred very fine a blade or two of mace, a stick of cinnamon, and sweeten with two ounces and a half of loaf-sugar. Blanch and pound, with a spoonful of rose water, half an ounce of sweet almonds and eight or ten bitter; put to the milk, and mix. When the isinglass is quite dissolved, strain through a linen flannel, to half a pint of rich cream, and stir together well. When it has stood an hour, pour it off into another bason, leaving the sediments at the bottom, and when nearly cold, pour it into moulds, jelly glasses, or custard cups. Two table-spoonfuls of noyeau will answer the purpose of the almonds. And the isinglass may be dissolved in a pint of water and half a pint of milk. 648. Arrow-root Blancmange.—Put two tea-cups full of arrowroot to a quart of milk. Flavour it with an ounce of sweet almonds, and fifteen or sixteen bitter, blanched and pounded ; or with noyeau. Moisten the arrow-root with a little cold milk, and pour to it the boil ing milk, stirring all the time. Then put it in the saucepan, and bo? it a minute or two, still stirring. Dip the moulds in cold water. Turr, it out when cold. 649. Italian Cream.—Rub on a lump of sugar the rind of a lemon,' and scrape it off with a knife into a deep dish or china bowl; add two ounces and a half of sifted sugar, a gill of brandy, the juice of a lemon, and a pint of double cream; then beat it up well with a whisk; boil an iunce of isinglass in a gill of water till quite dissolved; strain \t to the other ingredients ; beat some time, and fill the mould ; and when cold and set well, turn it out on a dish. The above may be flavoured with any kind of liquor; strawberry, raspberry, or any kind of fruit; coloured with prepared cochineal, and named to correspond with the flavour given. 650. Clouted or Clotted Cream.—The milk which is put into the pan one morning stands till the next; then set the pan on a hot hearth, half full of water*; put this over a stove from ten to twenty minutes, according to the quantity of the milk; it will be done enough when bladders rise on its surface; this denotes that it is nearly boiling, which it must by no means do, but must be instantly removed from the fire, and placed in a cool place till the next morning, when the cream is thrown up, and is ready for the table, or for butter, into which it may be converted by stirring it with the hand but not very readily. This is sometimes called Devonshire cream and it is imagined by those who do not know better, to be much richei than the common cream. The artificial process employed in raising this cream causes the milk to yield a greater quantity, but the quality and flavour are inferior to cream raised naturally, and so. is the butter made from it. 651. Cream for Fruit Pies.—There are many ways of preparing cream. For fruit pies, simmer a pint of new milk, rind of Seville orange or lemon, cinnamon, either, or all, as you may choose. Whisk up the yolks of three eggs, with half a spoonful of flour, and one or two of cream; gradually add the boiling milk, set it over the fire, and whisk till it is of the consistence of a thick cream. When it is removed from the fire, and rather cool, add a table-spoonful of rose or orange water, or a tea-spoonful of syrup of clove gilly flowers. When quite cold, take off the top of the pie and pour in the cream; return the cover, either whole or cut in quarters. If eggs are dear, one whole egg will whisk up with a spoonful of rice flour or arrowroot, and will answer for thickening. Richer cream may be prepared with an equal quantity of cream and milk, flavoured with almond, lemon, sack, ratafia, or brandy, and called by the name of the article by which it is flavoured principally. Be careful not to let your creams boil, or they will curdle. Creams may be prepared with fresh or preserved fruits. Luscious fruits are improved by the addition of lemon juice. 652. Birch's Receipt for Mock Cream.—Mix half a spoonful of flour with a pint of new milk; let it simmer five minutes to take off the rawness of the flour; then beat up the yolk of one egg, stir it into the milk while boiling, and run it through a fine sieve. A te^spoonful of arrow-root would do better than flour. 653. Trifle.—Mix in a large bowl a quarter of a pound of sifted sugar, a bit of lemon peel grated fine; and the juice of a whole lemon, half a gill of Lisbon or sweet wine, the same of brandy, and a pint and a half of good cream. Whisk the whole well, and take off the froth as it rises with a skimmer, and put it on a sieve; continue to whisk it till you have enough of the whip; set it in a cold place to drain three or four hours. Then put in a dish six or eight sponge biscuits, two ounces of almonds, blanched and split, a quarter of a pound of ratafia, some grated nutmeg and lemon peel, currant jelly and raspberry jam, half a pint of sweet wine, and a little brandy ; when the cakes have absorbed the liquor, pour over about a pint of custard, made rather thicker than for apple pie; and, when wanted, lay on plenty of the whip, and throw over a few nonpariel comfits. 654. Whip Syllabub.-—Make a whip as in the last receipt; mix with a pint of cream half a pint of sweet wine, the juice of a lemon a glass of brandy, six ounces of sifted loaf-sugar, grated nutmeg; nearly fill the custard cups with the mixture, and put on with a spoon some of the whip. ^ 655. Gooseberry or Apple Fool.—Stew green gooseberries or apples, peeled or cored; add to them a little moist sugar, enough to draw the juice, to two quarts of fruit a quarter of a pound of sugar. When quite tender, pulp through a coarse sieve; add what more sugar is necessary to your taste, and a quart of new milk warm from the cow; if not from the cow, warm it by the fire; a tea-cup full of cream; mix with it an egg, or two yolks, well beaten. Let it thicken in the milk; be careful it does not boil. When cold, mix the fruit, and stir all togeth ;r till well united. A little grated ginger is an improvement, nutmeg and lemon rind also, and half a glass of brandy. 655. Calves' Fe*>t Jelly.—Take lour calves' feet, not from the tripe shop, which have been boiled till almost all the gelatine is extracted, but buy them at the butcher's. Slit them in two, take away the fat from between the claws, wash them well in lukewarm water, put them in a large saucepan or stew-pan, cover them with water; when the liquor boils, skim it well, and let them boil gently six or seven hours, that it may be reduced to about two quarts. Then strain it through a sieve, and put it by till next day. Then take off all the oily part which is at the top, with pieces of kitchen paper applied to it; by so doing you may remove every particle of the oily substance, without wasting any of the jelly. Put the jelly in the stew-pan to melt; add a pound of lump sugar to it, the juice of lemons, the peel of two, six whites and shells beat well together, and a bottle of Sherry or Madeira; whisk the whole together until it is on the boil; then put it by the side of the stove, and let it simmer a quarter of an hour. Then strain it through a jelly-bag; what is strained first must be put into the bag, and repeated until it is quite bright and clear. Then ut the jelly in moulds till it is cold and firm. Put it in a cold place, f you wish to have it very stiff, add half an ounce of isinglass, when the wine is put in. It may be flavoured by the juice of various fruits and spices, &c., and coloured with cochineal, saffron, spinach juice, red beet-root juice or claret. It is sometimes made with cherry brandy, noyeau rouge, or essence of punch, instead of wine. Ten shank mutton bones, which may be bought for a trifle, will give as much jelly as a calfs foot. 656. Whey.—Boil a pint of milk, put to it a glass or two of white 14 11 ? wine; put it on the fire till it boils again; then pour it on one side till it has settled. Pour off the clear whey, and sweeten as you like. Cider is often used instead of wine, or half the quantity. When there is no .fire in the sick room, it may be put hot into a bottle, and laid between the bed and mattrass. It will keep warm several hours. 657. Arrow-root.—A dessert spoonful will thicken half a pint. It may be made with milk, and flavoured at pleasure, and according to circumstances, if for the sick. The method of mixing is, to moisten the arrow-root with a very little liquid, and stir it into a smooth paste; then pour the rest of the milk to it in a boiling state, stirring it one way all the time, and a minute or twTo afterwards. If it is not thick, return it to the saucepan, but that wastes it. If you pour it carefully, it will be thick by mixing the milk, and quite smooth. 658. Gruel is made of Scotch oatmeal, or cracked groats, or common oatmeal. The Embden, or cracked groats, or Scotch oatmeal, is preferable to the common, both for flavour and nutriment, but cannot be made so quickly. A block-tin saucepan, or a brass skillet, is the best for preserving the colour of the gruel; and a hair sieve to strain. Set on the groats in cold water, half a pint to three quarts of water. Let it boil three quarters of an hour. In that time it will be reduced to two quarts. Then strain it. The groats may be boiled up again, and will make another quart of gruel, but they must be boiled longer than at first. Scotch oatmeal may be made a mess at a time. To a pint of water two ounces of oatmeal; mix it with a little cold water, and stir it into the rest while boiling. This may be strained or not. Let it boil ten minutes. 659. Robinsons prepared Groats are prepared in the same way, but do not require so much boiling ; a large spoonful of this will make a pint of gruel. A bit of butter and salt are generally stirred in gruel; or sugar and nutmeg, according to taste. 660. Rice Gruel.—This is principally used for bowel complaints, but is not so good as arrow-root. A table-spoonful of ground rice will thicken a pint of milk or water. Mix it in the same manner as oatmeal gruel; boil in a bit of dried orange or lemon peel, and a bit of cinnamon. Let it boil about ten minutes, sweeten with loaf-sugar, and add two glasses of port, or one of brandy, as may be required. 661. Barley Gruel.—This also is used to give to a person in a state of great debility. Either Scotch or pearl barley may be used ; it requires a great deal of washing. If time allows, it should be boiled in a small quantity of cold water; when it boils up, pour off; add fresh boiling water for the gruel. To a quart of water put two ounces of barley; boil till reduced one half, then strain it off. Put to it half as much port wine, and sugar to taste; simmer it together two or three minutes. Rewarm it from time to time as wanted. The barley will do to put in broth. 662. Thick Milk, or Flour Caudle, is used for the same purpose. A large table-spoonful of flour will thicken a pint. It may be fla voured with cinnamon, or dried orange or lemon peel. Great care must be taken that it does not burn. A double saucepan is tfest for the purpose, or a brass kettle. Half water may be used. 663. Barley Water.—Scotch or pearl barley may be used. Wash, or boil up, as for barley gruel; to a quart of water, barley two ounces. Simmer till of an agreeable thickness, and strain. Boil the barley up again, and it will make a pint more. This is a very cooling drink. It also is a pleasant thing to take medicine in. Lemon juice and peel, raisins, figs, liquorice root, sugar, honey, and gum arabic, with these additions it is often used either for complaints of the chest, confined bowels, or stranguary; or powdered nitre a drachm to a quart, is often found good for fever. (Merely for a drink, put sugar and lemon peel.) Rub up the nitre with honey or sugar, mix it with a little barley water, and then pour it on the whole quantity in a boiling state. Stir it well together. 665. Beef Tea.—Take a pound of fleshy beef, cut in slices (without the least bit of fat;) boil it up in a quart of water, and skim it well; then put it on one side to simmer twenty minutes. Season if approved, but generally only salt. 666. Shank Jelly.—Soak twelve shanks of mutton some hours. Brush and scour them well. Put them in a saucepan, put three quarts of water to them, add a bunch of sweet herbs, thirty or forty black peppers, twenty Jamaica, three blades of mace, an onion, and a crust of bread toasted brown, and put them on a hot hearth, closely covered. Let them simmer five hours very gently; then strain it off, and put it in a cool place. It may have the addition of a pound of beef, if approved, for flavour. This is a very good thing for people who are weakly. 667. Tapioca Jelly.—Choose the largest sort. Pour cold water on, and wash it two or three times; then soak it in fresh water five or six hours, and simmer it until it becomes quite clear. Add wine, lemon juice, and sugar. Boil the peel of the lemon in it. It thickens very much. 667. Posset.—This is more potent than whey, and in which the curd is not separated. Either ale or wine will turn it. Put on the fire, in a kettle, a quart of new milk, with a stick of cinnamon; cut a slice of bread ; as the milk boils, lay it at the top, and let it boil a minute or two; then put it aside to soften. Put a pint of very strong ale, with sugar and nutmeg, or white wine. Boil up the milk again, take the bread out with a slice, and lay on the ale or wine; then very gently pour over the boiling milk, and let it stand until the head rises like that of a syllabub. Then serve. A richer posset may be made by substituting Naples biscuits for bread. A brandy posset is a quar of rich custard poured over a glass and a half of brandy. 668. Orgeat.—Boil a quart of new milk with a stick of cinnamon. Put to it two ounces of loaf-sugar, and let it cool. Blanch and beat to a paste, with a little rose water, three ounces of sweet almonds, and two dozen bitter. Stir them to the milk; boil it up again, and continue stirring till cold. Then add half a glass of brandy. 669. Orange Marmalade.—Seville oranges are in perfection about the end of March and beginning of April, at which time marmalade should be made. Allow two pounds of sugar to each pound of Seville oranges; grate the oranges lightly, and slice them down with a very sharp knife, as thin as possible, and straight through. Nothing must be kept out but the seeds. Clarify the sugar, put the fruit in, and boil it slowly for at least an hour, until the chips are perfectly tender and clear, and it will jelly; a little of the grate may be put in, if approved; the rest is good seasoning for puddings. 670. Fruit Jelly.—Put the fruit, carefully picked, into a stone jar; cover close; set it in a kettle of cold water, which reaches not more than three parts the height of the jar. Let it boil half an hour (more or less, according to the nature of the fruit; black currants are much longer running to juice than either red currants or raspberries). Strain through a jelly-bag or lawn strainer; or the juice may be strained more quickly, by setting on the fruit in a preserving pan, and carefully stirring round the sides as it begins to heat, that it may not burn ; strain through a jelly-bag or lawn strainer. To every pint of juice allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Set on the juice over a clear fire; when it boils, put in the sugar. When it has boiled some time, and the scum thickens and gathers together, skim it on to a sieve, and continue to do so while the scum rises; what runs from it may be returned to the rest. When it has boiled forty minutes, try a few drops, by putting on a plate in a cool place. If this become stiff almost immediately, the jelly is done enough. If not, it must be boiled till it will. The jelly may then be strained through a hair sieve, but if it have been properly skimmed this is not necessary, and it is a great waste. The best way is to pour it into a spouted jug that will contain the whole, and then into small jelly pots or glasses. Be very careful not to pour aside, or smear the edges, as an accident of this sort, however carefully wiped away, renders the jelly apt to turn mouldy. White currant jelly shculd be strained through a muslin or lawn sieve. PRESERVES. 671. Jams. — In making jam of very ripe juicy fruit, a portion of jelly may be taken from it which will improve the jam, taking care to have sufficient syrup to jelly round the fruit. Each quart of fruit and two pounds of sugar will admit the removal of half a pint of jelly without injury. Strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and currants: put an equal weight of loaf-sugar and fruit; put the fruit in a preserving pan; bruise it a little and put it on the stove; stir it carefully to keep it from sticking to the bottom and sides of the pan. Let it boil before adding the sugar, and if there is plenty of juice from the fruit, so that ihere is no danger of it burning, let it boil a quarter of an hour before adding the sugar; it must boil half an hour afterwards. Skim on to a sieve, and add that which runs through to it. Try the stiffness of the jelly by putting a little on a plate and setting it in a cool place ; if it becomes stiff when quite cold, it has boiled sufficiently; if not stiff, boil it until itjs. The scarlet or mulberry strawberries are the best for preserving; they must be quite ripe and dry : to three pints of strawberries allow halfapintof red currant jelly. For gooseberry jam, take the small dark hairy sort named Crystal, or a large bright hairy sort called the Warrington. Smooth gooseberries do not do well in preserving. Lisbon sugar answers very well when the jam is wanted for immediate use, and in large families where it is much used. Put six pounds of Lisbon sugar to seven of fruit. Gooseberries and black currants should be boiled an hour; if not stiff in that time, boil it longer. 672. Cherries. — To preserve cherries without boiling, take fine ripe Morello cherries; cut the stalks an inch from the fruit, gnd put them into wide-mouthed bottles; when full, put powdered loaf-sugar over the top, and pour in a little brandy. Cork and cement, or tie over with leather and bladder. They will keep all the winter through, and do very well for desserts. 673. To bottle Damsons or Gooseberries. — Damsons should have attained their dark colour, but not be ripe. Be careful not to bruise them. Fill wide-mouthed bottles: shake them down so that you may get as many in as possible. To each bottle put a wine glass of good home-made wine, either ginger or raisin ; no other sort is good. Tie them over with bladders, and put them to stand in a large pot with cold water to reach the necks of the bottles; put a fire under the pot, and let the water boil; when the bladders begin to rise and puff, prick them with a pin. As soon as the water boils remove the fire, and let the bottles remain there until they are quite cold. Next day remove the bladders, and put over the top a thick layer of powdered loafsugar and a spoonful of brandy; then cork them tight, and seal or cement them. 674. Gooseberries.—The same rules do for gooseberries, but they should be full grown, and gathered when green. 675. Currants.—Currants full grown, but not turned, may be preserved in the same way; cut the stalks off with scissors. 676. To keep Codlins several months.—Gather codlins at Midsummer of a middling size; put them into an earthen pan, pour boiling water over, and cover the pan with cabbage leaves; keep them by the fire till they would peel, but do not peel them; then pour the water off till both are quite cold. Place the codlins in a stone jar with a smallish mouth, and pour on them the water that scalded them Cover the pot with bladder, and tie very close, and then cover it with coarse paper again. It is best to keep them in small pots, such as will be used at once when opened. 677. To preserve Apricots in jelly.—Pare the fruit very thin and stone it; weigh an equal quantity of sugar in fine powder and strew over it. Next day boil very gently tift they are clear; move them into a bowl, and pour the liquor over. The following day pour the liquor to a quart of codlin liquor made by boiling and straining, and a 14* pound of fine sugar; let it boil quickly till it will jelly ; put the fruit into it, and give one boil; skim well and put into small pots. 678. A very nice preserve of Apricots.—Choose the finest uprio )ta when quite ripe; pare them as thin as possible, and weigh them; lay them in nalves on dishes, with the hollow parts upwards; have an equal weight of good loaf-sugar finely pounded, and strew it over them; break the stones, and blanch the kernels; when the fruit has lain twelve hours, put it with the sugar and juice, also the kernels, into a preserving pan ; let it simmer very gently till clear, then take out the pieces of apricots singly; put them into small pots, and pour the syrup and kernels over them. The scum must be taken off as it rises. Cover with brandy paper. Greengages and egg-plums may be preserved in the same way. 679. Dried Apricots. —Proceed as above, but instead of pouring the syrup over them after the last boil, drain them close, strew over sifted sugar to cover them, and dry thern on a wire sieve on a stove, or in a slow oven; they must be turned several times, but ought not to be cold till quite dry. 680. Apricots or Peaches in brandy.—Wipe and weigh the fruit, and take a quarter of the weight of fine powdered sugar; put the fruit into an ice-pot that shuts very close, throw the sugar over it, and then cover the fruit with brandy. Between the top and cover of the pot, put a piece of double cap-paper. Set the pot into a saucepan of water till the brandy be as hot as you can possibly bear to put your * finger in, but it must not boil. Put the fruit into a jar, and pour the brandy on it. When cold, put a bladder over, and tie it down tight. 681. Apricot Jam.—Divide fine apricots that have become yellow, but are not over ripe; lay the hollow part uppermost on china dishes, and strew over twelve ounces of sifted sugar to every pound of fruit; Jet it lie until it becomes moist, then boil it twenty minutes, stirring it well. Blanch the kernels, and boil with the jam. 682. To preserve Ginger.—If your ginger can be had green, it is best. Pare it nicely with a sharp knife, and throw it into cold water as you pare it, to preserve the whiteness. If fresh ginger cannot be procured, have the finest large white races of Jamaica ginger. Boil it several times in water till tender, then pare and proceed as above; set on the ginger in cold water and boil it. Pour off the liquor, and put cold water; then boil it up again. Do this a third time, till the ginger is tender, then throw it into cold water; when quite cold, drain the ginger and put into a china bowl. Clarify sugar for preserving it, in the proportion of eight pounds of sugar to seven of ginger. Let the sugar become cold, then pour over the ginger enough to cover it. Let it stand two days, then strain the syrup from the ginger and boil it with the remainder of the sugar; let them boil together twenty minutes or half an hour. When cold, again pour it over ftie ginger, and let it stand three or four days; by this time the ginger will have finely swollen. Then strain the syrup, boil it up, and pour it hot over the ginger. If the ginger is well swollen, and the syrup quite rich, nothing more is necessary; but if not, boil it again at the interval of three or four days. Wide-mouthed bottles are best for keeping it. Divide the syrup to each; cork and seal, or dip in bottle cement. 693. Cherries in brandy.—Weigh the finest Morellos, having cut off half the stalk; prick them with a new needle, and drop them into a jar or wide-mouthed bottle. Pound three-quarters of the weight of sugar or white candy; strew, fill up with brandy, and tie a bladder over them. 684. Damson Cheese.—It is sometimes made with the whole skins and pulp of the fruit, sometimes with the pulp only. In either case the fruit is first to be baked or boiled in a stone jar till it is tender, and the stones will separate. If the skins are to be used, merely take out the stones with a spoon, then measure it into the preserving pan. If the skins are objected to, rub it through a very coarse sieve, that so they may be retained with the stones. Having measured the fruit, set it over a clear brisk fire, and let it boil quick till the liquid has evaporated and the fruit becomes quite dry; then add loaf-sugar • powdered, in the proportion of half a pound to a quart of fruit, and let it go on boiling till the jam candies to the sides of the pan. The stones should be cracked, and the kernels skinned and boiled in the jam; this gives it a very pretty appearance, but some people object to it. It should be put out in shallow vessels, such as potting jars, saucers, and so forth, and turned out when brought to table. DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING. In preparing meat for the table, and in laying out the table, refer eu*,e ought to be had to the carving department—a very onerous one to all, and to many a very disagreeable one. The carving knife of course ought to be sharp, and if to be used by a lady, in particular, light and handy; dexterity and address in the manner of using it bping more required than strength, either in the knife or the carver. When a lady presides, a seat sufficiently high for her to have a complete command over the joints should be provided, and the dish should be sufficiently deep and capacious, so as not to endanger the splashing of the gravy. It should also be placed as near to the carver as possible, leaving room for his or her plate. A knife with a long blade is required for a large fleshy joint; for ham or bacon a middling sized, sharp-pointed one is preferable, and for poultry or game a short knife and sharp-pointed is best. Some like this knife a little curved. W e do not presume to give any directions as respects the serving of the guests; no one it is presumed would take the head of the table not acquainted with the common rules of politeness, which principally consist in endeavouring to please everybody. 685. Fish.—As fish is the first thing to be carved, or served, we shall first speak of it. In helping fish, take care not to break the flakes, which in cod and fine fresh salmon, and some other sorts, are large. A fish trowel is necessary, not to say indispensable, in serving many kinds of fish, particularly the larger sort. 686. Turbot,