Part 5

Boil the bottom half of a leg of mutton in a saucepan three parts full of water for one and a half hours with a teaspoonful of salt. Serve on a flat dish with a little parsley as garniture.

Serve with caper sauce. Proceed as per No. 110 but adding half a cupful of capers (bottled) instead of the parsley, ten minutes before serving in a boat.

_84. Boiled Mutton for an Invalid_

Take a little of the best end of the neck of mutton and, after removing the fat, put it in a stone saucepan which has been previously rinsed in cold water, with half a pint of fresh milk and a little salt. While boiling add half an onion cut up small. Boil gently for an hour and a half. Thicken with a little flour and serve.

_85. Breast of Mutton Stuffed_

Lay the breast of mutton on the pastry board and put sage and onion stuffing (recipe 40) into it. Roll and tie with string and bake for one hour.

_86. Leg of Mutton Cutlets_

Cut the leg of mutton in half, the top part for roasting and the rest of the leg cut into cutlets of about an inch thick (it should cut into four cutlets). Put half an ounce of butter into a pan and melt it over the fire. Fry the cutlets over a clear, brisk fire for five minutes, and turn over once during that time. Put the stove top on and cook the cutlets for fifteen minutes more. Then dish.

_87. Mutton Cutlets and Mashed Potatoes_

Cut three pounds of best end of neck of mutton (it is always best to cut your own cutlets), carefully remove the line of fat and scrape the bone which should not be longer than three inches. Chop the rest off. Put one ounce of fresh butter in an enamelled frying pan and make it hot. Lay the cutlets in the butter and put over a brisk fire for three minutes. Turn once and place on the stove with the top on. Cook for another fifteen minutes. If any doubt is felt as to their being done, it is well to cut one to see whether it is cooked perfectly. It should look red not purple, and the gravy should run. Arrange the mashed potatoes in a pyramid in the centre of the dish and stand the cutlets round it with a little paper frill on each bone.

_88. Boiled Mutton with Mushrooms or Olives_

Take some mutton cutlets from which all the fat has been removed. Put them into a frying pan with a little good dripping and some finely sliced onion. Fry to a light brown. Cut into dice one or more sound turnips and a carrot and put into a small saucepan together with one or two stoned olives or mushrooms cut up, unless the button ones are used. Add the fried meat and onion and if possible a little strong meat gravy to just cover the whole. (The stones of the olives should be put in as well and removed before serving). Add pepper and salt and allow to stew gently an hour and a half. Thicken with a little smoothly mixed flour and water stirred into it. Bring to a boil and serve in a deep dish.

_89. Hot Pot_

Take about two and half pounds of best end of neck of mutton and after removing the bones (which will make mutton stock) cut the meat in two (each cutlet); have two sound turnips and two carrots cut into dice and one large onion finely sliced. Put the vegetables in a pile in the centre of a stone (deep) saucepan. Place the meat round it and add pepper and salt. Pour in a small breakfast cup of cold water and cover the whole with slices of partly cooked boiled potato. Spread liberally with some good beef dripping and cover with the saucepan lid. Put into a good oven and allow two and a half hours for it to cook. Then remove the lid and leave to brown, when it will be ready to serve. It is best served in the saucepan with a white serviette wrapped round it.

_90. Hashed Mutton_

Take the remains of cold roast mutton. Remove the fat and cut the meat into nice small slices not too thin. Fry lightly a large onion cut into thin slices, a little diced turnip, and half a dozen dry chillies. Put all together into an enamelled saucepan and if possible a little mutton stock made from the bone. Stew gently for an hour, add two tablespoonfuls of washed rice, thicken with a little flour and water mixed smooth, and serve hot.

_100. Stewed Lamb and Green Peas_

Take two and a half pounds of lean lamb cutlets; put them into an enamelled saucepan with an onion cut into thin slices, one or two fresh young turnips peeled and cut into squares, salt and pepper, and a piece of loaf sugar. Stew gently for an hour, add a breakfast-cupful of freshly shelled green peas and let them boil all together for twenty minutes. Thicken with a little smoothly mixed flour and water. Serve very hot with a little chopped parsley dusted over the top.

_Roast Lamb_

To roast lamb proceed as for mutton, only the joints, being smaller, will not require so long to cook. A nice way to serve a leg of lamb is as follows: have some bacon lard cut into strips about an inch long, cut little slits in the outside of the leg and insert a piece of bacon lard in each. Cook in a nice steady oven, allowing about an hour and a half for a leg of four pounds.

If you wish to serve a leg of lamb or any other joint cold it is well to choose a joint not too large for your purpose and to cook it the day before it is required. Avoid cutting it while it is hot. In this way the gravy should run freely when the cold joint is cut and the flavour will be much better. The same applies to any joint intended to be used cold.

The proper sauce for roast lamb is the mint sauce. Take twenty-four leaves of mint chopped very fine, a teacupful of vinegar, and two good teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar. Dissolve the sugar in vinegar and put it with the mint into a sauce boat.

VEAL AND PORK

_Roasting. Boiling_

_General Remarks_

Fillet 5 to 6 lbs. 2 to 2½ hours. Shoulder half shoulder from 7 to 9 lbs. 2 to 2¾ hrs. Loin 4 lbs. 1 hour.

If fillet piece is too large to cook for one joint you may cut off a slice one and a half inches thick, horizontally, to be used later either as veal cutlets or for veal olives.

For dishing and obtaining gravy and dripping proceed as for beef.

Generally speaking, a piece of veal wants a longer time for cooking than a piece of beef or mutton of the same size.

_101. Veal Cutlets_

Chop off the long bones of two pounds of veal cutlets and put them to stew in a stone saucepan with a little salt to make gravy. Melt an ounce of fresh butter or dripping in an enamelled frying pan in the stove with the top off and lay the cutlets in it. Fry briskly for ten minutes turning once or twice. Replace the stove top and cook for another twenty minutes. Place on a dish, pour the gravy already made over them, and serve.

_102. Stuffed Fillet of Veal_

Take about three pounds of veal cut rather flat, score it several times with a sharp knife. Lay the sage and onion stuffing (as per recipe 40) on it and cover with flare or a buttered paper. Tie it with string, put it into a baking tin, and bake for one and a half hours. Place on a hot dish and pour the gravy over.

_103. Roast Pork_

A small leg of pork or about four pounds of loin must be scored on the outside with a sharp knife. Put it into a baking tin and put in the oven for two to two and a half hours. Dish up and treat the dripping as directed for beef or mutton. Serve with onion or apple sauce.

_104. Boiled Shoulder of Pork_

Put into boiling water without salt, and boil for one and a half hours if only half a shoulder; for two hours if whole.

_105. Boiled Ham_

Must be put into boiling water. If a whole ham, boil for three to three and a half hours. Let it steam for a few minutes on a dish (with a strainer under it) and then roll in baked breadcrumbs. Never put the paper collar on the knuckle till thoroughly cold.

_106. Blanquette de Veau_

Take two pounds of breast of veal, cut it in squares about two inches, put into a saucepan, cover with cold water, add a large pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then skim carefully. Add one whole onion stuck with four cloves, one carrot cut in halves, a teacupful of white wine, a bouquet of laurel, thyme, and parsley. Cook for half an hour, then strain the meat and keep the stock boiling. Mix two ounces of butter with the same of flour quite smoothly, stir it in the boiling stock while over the fire. The resulting sauce must be perfectly smooth and not too thick. Put the meat without the vegetables or herbs back into the saucepan and continue to cook for an hour and a half till quite tender, taking the greatest care that it should not burn. Stir the yolks of two eggs and half an ounce of butter and the juice of a lemon together and add it to the meat in the saucepan. Bring to a boil. Arrange the meat in a deep dish and pour the sauce over it. Surround the whole with six croutons of bread cut in the form of triangles and fried a golden brown, in butter.

_107. Calf’s Head_

Half a calf’s head is more than enough for three or four persons. The best plan is to soak the head in a bowl of cold water and a little salt all night, previously removing the brains. It will take from two and a half to three hours’ gentle boiling and care must be taken that the cooking vessel is large enough to allow the head to lie flat and the water to cover it. It must be put into cold water with a good piece of salt, a knob of loaf sugar, one onion (large and whole), two carrots (whole), and two teacupfuls of white wine. Serve with the meat carefully removed from the bone, either cold with ravigote sauce or with the cooked vegetables cut into small squares and a few button mushrooms which have been cooked in the stock. Arrange this on the dish and pour over it the following brown gravy: Fry lightly two slices of onion in a little butter allowing it to get brown a little. Add some of the stock from the head, a few drops of A. 1. sauce, and a good teaspoonful of bovril, or meat juice from some other joint. Thicken with a little mixed flour and water, pour into the frying pan, bring to a boil and strain over the meat and vegetables in the dish. The brains may be cooked separately and beaten into this gravy after it is strained.

_108. Calf’s Feet_

Calf’s feet are of great use in the cooking for invalids. Soak as for calf’s head over night. Put into a saucepan with cold water and a good piece of salt, one onion whole and one whole carrot. This will make an excellent soup served with the meat cut into nice little pieces and the vegetables cut as directed for calf’s head. But if the feet are intended for jelly it is better to omit the vegetables. Half a pint of good port wine can be added to the stock after it is cooked. Before straining add a teacupful of cold water to clear it.

_109. Pig’s Trotters_

Pig’s trotters can be served as an addition to a dish of tripe and onions in which case they require soaking over night as they would be already salted. Boil them without salt until tender and add to the cooked tripe. As a separate dish you must, when cooked, roll them in a freshly beaten egg and then in baked breadcrumbs and fry a golden brown in a little butter.

FISH

_Frying. Boiling_

_General Remarks_

Raw fish should be kept in an uncovered dish in the icebox. Always wash in a little vinegar and water before cooking. _Smoked fish_ such as haddock should be boiled always in a deep frying pan allowing the water to cover it.

_Kippers_ are difficult to cook without smell and to keep moist. The best way is to lay the kipper on its back in a flat meat dish. A small piece of butter should be always put into the dish first and a larger piece on the open side of the kipper, with a little white paper. Put into a quick oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. There will be no smell.

_Dried Sprats_, to be treated in the same way but they require only twelve to fifteen minutes in the oven, and a little more butter.

_Bloaters_, like kippers, after removing the head and cleaning and wiping on a damp cloth.

_110. Boiled Fish and Melted Butter_

_Plaice._ Lay your fish on a perforated white stone strainer in a fish kettle. Cover with cold water, add a teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of vinegar. Put over a quick fire, bring to a boil and keep it boiling for about fifteen minutes. Have ready the following sauce:--

Mix one dessertspoonful of flour smoothly with one ounce of butter. Add sufficient boiling milk to make up to half a pint, and a little salt. Put it into a double saucepan the bottom half containing boiling water. Stir with a spoon always the same way until it thickens. Chop about six sprigs of parsley (not stalk) and add to the sauce. Dish the fish in a flat dish and serve the sauce in a sauce boat.

_Cod_ may be cooked in the same way only it must boil for fully half an hour after it has been brought to the boil.

_Hake._ As for cod but boil only for twenty-five minutes.

_Halibut._ Is seldom bought whole. Buy say two pounds and boil for twenty-five to forty minutes according to the thickness.

_Turbot._ Say two pounds. Must be put into _boiling_ water and boiled gently for thirty minutes. Oyster sauce, foundation as above, only the oysters (each cut in two) must be added after the sauce has thickened and kept stirred for four to five minutes.

_111. Fried Fish_

_Plaice._ Cut about two pounds of filleted plaice into four pieces. Beat an egg in a plate, white and yolk together. Put the fish into it and then into rolled rusk crumbs. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan about half a pound of best tub lard and when thoroughly hot (it can be found out by dropping a crumb into the fat when it will sizzle) it is ready for the dish. Lay the fish into it and fry for ten to fifteen minutes. Dish with a slice on a flat dish and serve with a garniture of lemon.

This recipe applies to soles--unless the sole is very thick, when it must fry for twenty minutes. Whiting for twenty minutes and halibut for twenty-five minutes.

_112. Fried Smelts_

Make a batter of one teacupful of flour mixed carefully with milk till it is quite thin enough to run. Add a pinch of salt. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan a quarter pound of best tub lard boiling. Dip each smelt well into the batter and fry in the hot lard for ten to fifteen minutes.

_113. Whitebait_

Are treated like smelts but the batter must be only half as thick and the time required for cooking is from seven to ten minutes. Take up the fish from the batter with a slice and scatter into the boiling fat. Do not crowd the pan on any account.

_114. Stewed Eels_

Two or three freshly skinned eels cut into small pieces about two inches long. Put into a stone saucepan with a little salt and a piece of loaf sugar, one claret glass of white claret or cooking sherry, and about a teacupful of good beef stock. Cover the eels with water and slice a small Spanish onion into it. Stew gently for three-quarters of an hour, thicken with a little flour mixed with water and serve in the stone saucepan. Care must be taken not to break the fish when stirring in the thickening.

_115. Salmon or Cod Cutlets_

One and a half to two pounds in three or four cutlets, dip into a beaten egg and then roll in crumbs, made preferably of German rusks. Have ready a quarter of a pound of best tub lard in an enamelled frying pan and when hot put the fish in and fry for a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes, turning over once. To ascertain if properly cooked pass the knife down by the side of the bone and if cooked the knife will pass quite easily. Dish with a slice on a flat dish and garnish with parsley and lemon cut in quarters.

_116. Sole for an Invalid_

Lay a filleted sole in a rather deep meat dish and cover with milk and a little salt and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. This will make the sauce. Cover with another dish (flat) and bake in a quick oven for about half an hour. Serve very hot with the sauce and a little chopped parsley sprinkled over it.

_117. Crimped Skate and Black Butter_

Take about one and a half pounds of crimped skate. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan about two ounces of butter made hot and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Put it over the fire and let it slightly burn. Fry the skate in it for twenty minutes and then serve on a hot dish with a few slices of lemon laid round it.

_118. Pickled Herrings or Mackerel_

Have eight fresh herrings or four large mackerel cleaned and remove the heads. Lay not very closely together with the backs upwards in a pie-dish. Fill the dish with vinegar and a few peppercorns, a little salt, an onion (sliced), and a piece of butter about the size of a walnut. Bake in a moderately quick oven for about one and a half hours. Serve in a glass dish and strain the vinegar over them.

_119. Herrings in Paper_

Have ready cleaned and beheaded say six herrings with soft roes if possible. Lay six pieces of paper (buttered) on the hot shelf of the oven to melt the butter, then wrap each fish in a piece of paper. Have ready about a quarter of a pound of tub lard melted in an enamelled frying pan and lay the fish in the papers in the boiling fat. The fire must not be too fierce. Fry for about twenty or twenty-five minutes over a brisk fire. Dish up and serve in the papers.

_120. Red Mullet_

Take for four persons two good-sized mullets. (Remove the head if desired; never split them open.) Have a deep enamelled frying pan ready. Put into it three ounces of butter, four or five wafer-thin slices of onion, two tablespoonfuls of bottled tomato sauce or catsup. Bring to a boil and lay the fish gently in the hot pan. Keep the butter boiling lightly round the fish. Baste frequently with a large spoon; then carefully turn the fish, taking care not to tear the skin (thus spoiling the appearance). Generally it will take from thirty to forty minutes to cook the fish through. This can be easily ascertained by passing the blade of a fine knife gently through the fish by the side of the bone. Have a little more butter and tomato catsup melted together in a basin. Place the fish on a hot dish and pour the melted butter and tomato sauce you have ready over the fish and serve very hot. It should never be allowed to brown, so as to retain its pretty red colour.

FOWLS AND GAME BIRDS

_Roasting and Between Boiling_

_General Remarks_

In roasting birds the great point is to avoid dryness.

Butter should be put _into_ the bird as well as outside.

The fowl should never be washed with water after being trussed but wiped with a damp cloth.

On no account should a fowl intended for roasting be floured on the outside. It is an abominable practice, causing the skin to become leathery and thick.

Fowls or any birds already plucked and trussed cannot be kept for more than two days. But before trussing they may be kept _hanging_ for three or four days providing the weather is not thundery or hot.

_121. Roast Goose_

Have a goose of seven or eight pounds trussed for roasting. Stuff with sage and onion stuffing (rec: 40), butter the breast well and cook in a quick but not fierce oven for three and a half hours. Garnish with sausages.

_122. Roast Duck_

If not stuffed put a piece of butter inside and butter the breast liberally. Cook in a quick oven for one and a half hours. Dish as for roast fowl and serve with green peas as per recipe. If stuffed it must be cooked for one and three quarters hours.

_123. Wild Duck_

Put some butter inside the duck, butter the breast, and fasten a slice of very fat bacon to the breast with a skewer. Bake in a quick oven for one and a half hours. Serve garnished with parsley.

_124. Roast Fowl_

Put inside a properly trussed fowl about an ounce of butter and spread butter also over the breast. Do not flour your fowl. Bake in a quick oven for one and a quarter hours (roast one and a half hours). When the fowl is done lay on a dish, strain the butter out of the meat tin, boil up a little water in it to make gravy and pour over the fowl in the dish. If to be stuffed see recipe: 41.

_125. Roast Pheasant_

Should be cooked in the same way as chicken and served with cranberry sauce or black currant jelly. To make cranberry sauce take half a pound of cranberries, a good teacupful of powdered sugar and just cover with hot water. Boil gently for an hour. Sometimes the sugar is omitted.

_126. Snipe and Quail_

Snipe must not be trussed, but quail is always trussed. Butter the breasts; a quail should have a piece of butter inside as well. Bake in a quick oven for half an hour. Lay the birds on slices of thick buttered toast. Serve them on toast with red or black currant jelly.

_127. Roast Partridge_

Butter the breast and inside. Bake in a tin in the oven for three-quarters of an hour. Lay the bird on a thick slice of toast. Pour the fat out of the tin, boil up in it a very little water and serve the gravy thus made in a sauce boat.

The best toast for all game birds is made as follows: Remove the crust from as many pieces of bread as required. When the birds are cooked place them in another tin or dish and bring the fat in which they have been cooked to a boil on the stove. Place the slices of bread in the boiling fat and fry till they are a crisp brown.

_128. Roast Pigeons_

Take say two pigeons trussed for roasting. Put a good-sized piece of butter into each and liberally butter the breasts. Put into a baking tin and bake for half an hour to three-quarters. For dishing, split in halves down the breast (it will be easy if the birds are well done) and lay on hot buttered toast. Strain the fat out of the tin and put a little good meat juice into it. Stir in a little well-mixed flour and water and serve with green peas.

_129. Boiled Fowl_

Take a lean fowl and fasten a slice of lean bacon over the breast with a small skewer. Put into a saucepan, with enough boiling water to cover it, with an onion and a little white wine. Stew gently for an hour. Remove the fowl whole and serve with melted butter sauce as for fish without the parsley. The liquid in which it boiled should make excellent soup if you boil in it any remains of chicken carcass just for flavouring, or add some good beef stock.

_130. Venison_

Melt an ounce of butter or dripping in a baking tin and when hot lay in it about three pounds of venison not too fat. Bake in a fairly quick oven for two hours, basting it from time to time with the butter out of the tin. Make the gravy as for beef. Serve with red currant jelly.

_131. Roast Turkey_

Have ready a turkey of about seven pounds trussed for roasting. Stuff it with the best sausage meat and some truffles cut up very small. Butter the breast very liberally and bake in a quick oven for three hours. Garnish with sausages.

_132. Chicken Jelly_

Take an old fowl trussed and slash it well across the breast and thighs with a sharp knife. Place it in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add a little salt, two big pieces of loaf sugar, and one whole onion. Stew gently for three hours, strain from the fowl into a deep basin, add quickly a teacupful of cold water and set it to get cold. It can be used either as chicken broth or, with the addition of a glass of good white wine, as a jelly in which to serve a young roast fowl.

_133. Chicken Rissoles_

Mince finely the remains of cold chicken with a slice of onion. Make a little sauce, stirring smoothly one ounce of fresh butter into a tablespoonful of flour, and pouring half a pint of boiling milk into it. Return it to the saucepan and allow it to boil (a double saucepan is best for all milk cooking); it will then thicken; put the chicken into it, with a pinch of salt. Make some deep light pastry cases and put a thick finger of larded bread into each till the pastry is cooked. If the top edge of the pastry is moistened with a little milk, the lid can be easily removed when cooked. Put the chicken mixture into the cases after removing the bread, replace the top, and serve very hot, in a meat dish.

VEGETABLES AND SALADS

_Green Vegetables_

_Always_ boil without a lid on.

_Always_ put straight into boiling water.