Chapter 1

_ENGLISH_ HOUSEWIFRY

EXEMPLIFIED

In above FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY RECEIPTS, Giving DIRECTIONS in most PARTS of COOKERY; And how to prepare various SORTS of SOOPS, CAKES, MADE-DISHES, CREAMS, PASTES, JELLIES, PICKLES, MADE-WINES, &c.

With CUTS for the orderly placing the DISHES and COURSES; also Bills of Fare for every Month in the Year; and an alphabetical INDEX to the Whole.

A BOOK necessary for Mistresses of Families, higher and lower Women Servants, and confined to Things USEFUL, SUBSTANTIAL and SPLENDID, and calculated for the Preservation of HEALTH, and upon the Measures of _Frugality_, being the Result of thirty Years _Practice_ and _Experience_.

By ELIZABETH MOXON.

WITH An APPENDIX CONTAINING, Upwards of Sixty RECEIPTS, of the most valuable Kind, communicated to the Publisher by several Gentlewomen in the Neighbourhood, distinguished by their extraordinary Skill in HOUSEWIFRY.

THE RETURNS OF SPIRITUAL COMFORT and GRIEF, In a Devout SOUL.

Represented by an Intercourse of Letters to the Right Honourable Lady LETICE, Countess of Falkland, in her Life Time.

Publish'd for the Benefit and Ease of all who labour under Spiritual Afflictions.

1764.

THE PREFACE

It is not doubted but the candid Reader will find the following BOOK in correspondence with the title, which will supersede the necessity of any other recommendation that might be given it.

As the complier of it engaged in the undertaking at the instance and importunity of many persons of eminent account and distinction, so she can truly assure them, and the world, that she has acquitted herself with the utmost care and fidelity.

And she entertains the greater hopes that her performance will meet with the kinder acceptance, because of the good opinion she has been held in by those, her ever honour'd friends, who first excited her to the publication of her BOOK, and who have been long eye-witnesses of her skill and behaviour in the business of her calling.

She has nothing to add, but her humblest thanks to them, and to all others with whom she has received favour and encouragement.

_ENGLISH_ HOUSEWIFRY.

1. _To make_ VERMICELLY SOOP.

Take a neck of beef, or any other piece; cut off some slices, and fry them with butter 'till they are very brown; wash your pan out every time with a little of the gravy; you may broil a few slices of the beef upon a grid-iron: put all together into a pot, with a large onion, a little salt, and a little whole pepper; let it stew 'till the meat is tender, and skim off the fat in the boiling; them strain it into your dish, and boil four ounces of vermicelly in a little of the gravy 'till it is soft: Add a little stew'd spinage; then put all together into a dish, with toasts of bread; laying a little vermicelly upon the toast. Garnish your dish with creed rice and boil'd spinage, or carrots slic'd thin.

2. CUCUMBER SOOP.

Take a houghil of beef, break it small and put it into a stew-pan, with part of a neck of mutton, a little whole pepper, an onion, and a little salt; cover it with water, and let it stand in the oven all night, then strain it and take off the fat; pare six or eight middle-siz'd cucumbers, and slice them not very thin, stew them in a little butter and a little whole pepper; take them out of the butter and put 'em in the gravy. Garnish your dish with raspings of bread, and serve it up with toasts of bread or _French_ roll.

3. _To make_ HARE SOOP.

Cut the hare into small pieces, wash it and put it into a stew-pan, with a knuckle of veal; put in it a gallon of water, a little salt, and a handful of sweet herbs; let it stew 'till the gravy be good; fry a little of the hare to brown the soop; you may put in it some crusts of write bread among the meat to thicken the soop; put it into a dish, with a little stew'd spinage, crisp'd bread, and a few forc'd-meat balls. Garnish your dish with boil'd spinage and turnips, cut it in thin square slices.

4. _To make Green_ PEASE SOOP.

Take a neck of mutton, and a knuckle of veal, make of them a little good gravy; then take half a peck of the greenest young peas, boil and beat them to a pulp in a marble mortar; then put to them a little of the gravy; strain them through a hair sieve to take out all the pulp; put all together, with a little salt and whole pepper; then boil it a little, and if you think the soop not green enough, boil a handful of spinage very tender, rub it through a hair-sieve, and put into the soop with one spoonful of wheat-flour, to keep it from running: You must not let it boil after the spinage is put in, it will discolour it; then cut white bread in little diamonds, fry them in butter while crisp, and put it into a dish, with a few whole peas. Garnish your dish with creed rice, and red beet-root.

You may make asparagus-soop the same way, only add tops of asparagus, instead of whole pease.

5. _To make_ ONION SOOP.

Take four or five large onions, pill and boil them in milk and water whilst tender, (shifting them two or three times in the boiling) beat 'em in a marble mortar to a pulp, and rub them thro' a hair-sieve, and put them into a little sweet gravy; then fry a few slices of veal, and two or three slices of lean bacon; beat them in a marble mortar as small as forc'd-meat; put it into your stew-pan with the gravy and onions, and boil them; mix a spoonful of wheat-flour with a little water, and put it into the soop to keep it from running; strain all through a cullender, season it to your taste; then put into the dish a little spinage stew'd in butter, and a little crisp bread; so serve it up.

6. _Common_ PEASE SOOP _in Winter_.

Take a quart of good boiling pease which put into a pot with a gallon of soft water whilst cold; add thereto a little beef or mutton, a little hung beef or bacon, and two or three large onions; boil all together while your soop is thick; salt it to your taste, and thicken it with a little wheat-flour; strain it thro' a cullender, boil a little sellery, cut it in small pieces, with a little crisp bread, and crisp a little spinage, as you would do parsley, then put it in a dish, and serve it up. Garnish your dish with raspings of bread.

7. _To make_ PEASE SOOP _in Lent_.

Take a quart of pease, put them into a pot with a gallon of water, two or three large onions, half a dozen anchovies, a little whole pepper and salt; boil all together whilst your soop is thick; strain it into a stew-pan through a cullender, and put six ounces of butter (work'd in flour) into the soop to thicken it; also put in a little boil'd sellery, stew'd spinage, crisp bread, and a little dry'd mint powdered; so serve it up.

8. CRAW-FISH SOOP.

Take a knuckle of veal, and part of a neck of mutton to make white gravy, putting in an onion, a little whole pepper and salt to your taste; then take twenty crawfish, boil and beat them in a marble mortar, adding thereto alittlee of the gravy; strain them and put them into the gravy; also two or three pieces of white bread to thicken the soop; boil twelve or fourteen of the smallest craw-fish, and put them whole into the dish, with a few toasts, or _French_ roll, which you please; so serve it up.

You may make lobster soop the same way, only add into the soop the seeds of the lobster.

9. _To make_ SCOTCH SOOP.

Take a houghil of beef, cut it in pieces, with part of a neck of mutton, and a pound of _French_ barley; put them all into your pot, with six quarts of water; let it boil 'till the barley be soft, then put in a fowl; as soon as 'tis enough put in a handful of red beet leaves or brocoli, a handful of the blades of onions, a handful of spinage, washed and shred very small; only let them have a little boil, else it will spoil the greenness. Serve it up with the fowl in a dish, garnish'd with raspings of bread.

10. _To make_ SOOP _without Water_.

Take a small leg of mutton, cut it in slices, season it with a little pepper and salt; cut three middling turnips in round pieces, and three small carrots scrap'd and cut in pieces, a handful of spinage, a little parsley, a bunch of sweet herbs, and two or three cabbage lettice; cut the herbs pretty small, lay a row of meat and a row of herbs; put the turnips and carrots at the bottom of the pot, with an onion, lay at the top half a pound of sweet butter, and close up the pot with coarse paste; them put the pot into boiling water, and let it boil for four hours; or in a slow oven, and let it stand all night; when it is enough drain the gravy from the meat, skim off the fat, then put it into your dish with some toasts of bread, and a little stew'd spinage; to serve it up.

11. _To stew a_ BRISKET _of_ BEEF.

Take the thin part of a brisket of beef, score the skin at the top; cross and take off the under skin, then take out the bones, season it highly with mace, a little salt, and a little whole pepper, rub it on both sides, let it lay all night, make broth of the bones, skim the fat clean off, put in as much water as will cover it well, let it stew over a slow fire four or five hours, with a bunch of sweet herbs and an onion cut in quarters; turn the beef over every hour, and when you find it tender take it out of the broth and drain it very well, having made a little good strong gravy.

A ragoo with sweet-breads cut into pieces, pullets tenderly boil'd and cut in long pieces; take truffles and morels, if you have any mushrooms, with a little claret, and throw in your beef, let it stew a quarter of an hour in the ragoo, turning it over sometimes, then take out your beef, and thicken your ragoo with a lump of butter and a little flour. Garnish your dish with horse-radish and pickles, lay the ragoo round your beef, and a little upon the top; so serve it up.

12. _To stew a_ RUMP _of_ BEEF.

Take a fat rump of young beef and cut off the fag end, lard the low part with fat bacon, and stuff the other part with shred parsley; put it into your pan with two or three quarts of water, a quart of Claret, two or three anchovies, an onion, two or three blades of mace, a little whole pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs; stew it over a slow fire five or six hours, turning it several times in the stewing, and keep it close cover'd; when your beef is enough take from it the gravy, thicken part of it with a lump of butter and flour, and put it upon the dish with the beef. Garnish the dish with horse-radish and red-beet root. There must be no salt upon the beef, only salt the gravy to your taste.

You may stew part of a brisket, or an ox cheek the same way.

13. _To make_ OLIVES _of_ BEEF.

Take some slices of a rump (or any other tender piece) of beef, and beat them with a paste pin, season them with nutmeg, pepper and salt, and rub them over with the yolk of an egg; make a little forc'd-meat of veal, beef-suet, a few bread crumbs, sweet-herbs, a little shred mace, pepper, salt, and two eggs, mixed all together; take two or three slices of the beef, according as they are in bigness, and a lump of forc'd-meat the size of an egg; lay your beef round it, and roll it in part of a kell of veal, put it into an earthen dish, with a little water, a glass of claret, and a little onion shred small; lay upon them a little butter, and bake them in an oven about an hour; when they come out take off the fat, and thicken the gravy with a little butter and flour; six of them is enough for a side dish. Garnish the dish with horseradish and pickles.

You may make olives of veal the same way.

14. _To fry_ BEEF-STEAKS.

Take your beef steaks and beat them with the back of a knife, fry them in butter over a quick fire, that they may be brown before they be too much done; when they are enough put them into an earthen pot whilst you have fry'd them all; pour out the fat, and put them into your pan with a little gravy, an onion shred very small, a spoonful of catchup and a little salt; thicken it with a little butter and flour, the thickness of cream. Garnish your dish with pickles.

Beef-steaks are proper for a side-dish.

15. BEEF-STEAKS _another Way_.

Take your beef-steaks and beat them with the back of a knife, strow them over with a little pepper and salt, lay them on a grid-iron over a clear fire, turning 'em whilst enough; set your dish over a chafing-dish of coals, with a little brown gravy; chop an onion or Shalot as small as pulp, and put it amongst the gravy; (if your steaks be not over much done, gravy will come therefrom;) put it on a dish and shake it all together. Garnish your dish with shalots and pickles.

16. _A_ SHOULDER _of_ MUTTON _forc'd_.

Take a pint of oysters and chop them, put in a few bread-crumbs, a little pepper, shred mace, and an onion, mix them all together, and stuff your mutton on both sides, then roast it at a slow fire, and baste it with nothing but butter; put into the dripping-pan a little water, two or three spoonfuls of the pickle of oysters, a glass of claret, an onion shred small, and an anchovy; if your liquor waste before your mutton is enough, put in a little more water; when the meat is enough, take up the gravy, skim off the fat, and thicken it with flour and butter; then serve it up. Garnish your dish with horse-radish and pickles.

17. _To stew a_ FILLET _of_ MUTTON.

Take a fillet of mutton, stuff it the same as for a shoulder, half roast it, and put it into a stew pan with a little gravy, a jill of claret, an anchovy, and a shred onion; you may put in a little horse-radish and some mushrooms; stew it over a slow fire while the mutton is enough; take the gravy, skim off the fat, and thicken it with flour and butter; lay forc'd-meat-balls round the mutton. Garnish your dish with horse-radish and mushrooms.

It is proper either for a side-dish or bottom dish; if you have it for a bottom-dish, cut your mutton into two fillets.

18. _To Collar a Breast of_ MUTTON.

Take a breast of mutton, bone it, and season it with nutmeg, pepper and salt, rub it over with the yolk of an egg; make a little forc'd-meat of veal or mutton, chop it with a little beef-suet, a few bread-crumbs, sweet herbs, an onion, pepper and salt, a little nutmeg, two eggs, and a spoonful or two of cream; mix all together and lay it over the mutton, roll it up and bind it about with course inkle; put it into an earthen dish with a little water, dridge it over with flour, and lay upon it a little butter; it will require two hours to bake it. When it is enough take up the gravy, skim off the fat, put in an anchovy and a spoonful of catchup, thicken it with flour and butter; take the inkle from the mutton and cut it into three or four rolls; pour the sauce upon the dish, and lay about it forc'd-meat-balls. Garnish your dish with pickles.

19. _To Collar a Breast of_ MUTTON _another Way_.

Take a breast of mutton, bone it, and season it with nutmeg, pepper and salt; roll it up tight with coarse incle and roast it upon a spit; when it is enough lay it whole upon the dish. Then take four or six cucumbers, pare them and cut them in slices, not very thin; likewise cut three or four in quarters length way, stew them in a little brown gravy and a little whole pepper; when they are enough thicken them with flour and butter the thickness of cream; so serve it up. Garnish your dish with horse-radish.

20. _To Carbonade a Breast of_ MUTTON.

Take a breast of mutton, half bone it, nick it cross, season it with pepper and salt; then broil it before the fire whilst it be enough, strinkling it over with bread-crumbs; let the sauce be a little gravy and butter, and a few shred capers; put it upon the dish with the mutton. Garnish it with horse-radish and pickles.

This is proper for a side-dish at noon, or a bottom-dish at night.

21. _A Chine of_ MUTTON _roasted, with stew'd_ SELLERY.

Take a loyn of mutton, cut off the thin part and both ends, take off the skin, and score it in the roasting as you would do pork; then take a little sellery, boil it, and cut it in pieces about an inch long, put to it a little good gravy, while pepper and salt, two or three spoonfuls of cream and a lump of butter, so thicken it up, and pour it upon your dish with your mutton.--This is proper for a side-dish.

22. MUTTON-CHOPS.

Take a leg of mutton half-roasted, when it is cold cut it in thin pieces as you would do any other meat for hashing, put it into a stew-pan with a little water or small gravy, two or three spoonfuls of claret, two or three shalots shred, or onions, and two or three spoonfuls of oyster pickle; thicken it up with a little flour, and so serve it up. Garnish your dish with horse-radish and pickles.

You may do a shoulder of mutton the same way, only boil the blade-bone, and lie in the middle.

23. _A forc'd_ LEG _of_ MUTTON.

Take a leg of mutton, loose the skin from the meat, be careful you do not cut the skin as you loosen it; then cut the meat from the bone, and let the bone and skin hang together, chop the meat small, with a little beef-suet, as you would do sausages; season it with nutmeg, pepper and salt, a few bread-crumbs, two or three eggs, a little dry'd sage, shred parsley and lemon-peel; then fill up the skin with forc'd-meat, and lay it upon an earthen dish; lay upon the meat a little flour and butter, and a little water in the dish; it will take an hour and a half baking; when you dish it up lay about it either mutton or veal chollops, with brown gravy sauce. Garnish your dish with horse-radish and lemon. You may make a forc'd leg of lamb the same way.

24. _To make_ FRENCH CUTLETS _of_ MUTTON.

Take a neck of mutton, cut it in joints, cut off the ends of the long bones, then scrape the meat clean off the bones about an inch, take a little of the inpart of the meat of the cutlets, and make it into forc'd-meat; season it with nutmeg, pepper, and salt; then lay it upon your cutlets, rub over them the yolk of an egg to make it stick; chop a few sweet herbs, and put to them a few bread-crumbs, a little pepper and salt, and strew it over the cutlets, and wrap them in double writing-paper; either broil them before the fire or in an oven, half an hour will do them; when you dish them up, take off the out-paper, and set in the midst of the dish a little brown gravy in a china-bason; you may broil them without paper if you please.

25. _To fry_ MUTTON STEAKS.

Take a loyn of mutton, cut off the thin part, then cut the rest into steaks, and flat them with a bill, season them with a little pepper and salt, fry them in butter over a quick fire; as you fry them put them into a stew-pan or earthen-pot, whilst you have fried them all; then pour the fat out of the pan, put in a little gravy, and the gravy that comes from the steaks, with a spoonful of claret, an anchovy, and an onion or a shalot shred; shake up the steaks in the gravy, and thicken it with a little flour; so serve them up. Garnish your dish with horse radish and shalots.

26. _To make artificial_ VENISON _of_ MUTTON.

Take a large shoulder of mutton, or a middling fore quarter, bone it, lay it in an earthen dish, put upon it a pint of claret, and let it lie all night; when you put it into your pasty-pan or dish, pour on the claret that it lay in, with a little water and butter; before you put it into your pasty-pan, season it with pepper and salt; when you make the pasty lie no paste in the bottom of the dish.

27. _How to brown Ragoo a_ BREAST _of_ VEAL.

Take a breast of veal, cut off both the ends, and half roast it; then put it into a stew-pan, with a quart of brown gravy, a spoonful of mushroom-powder, a blade or two of mace, and lemon-peel; so let it stew over a slow fire whilst your veal is enough; then put in two or three shred mushrooms or oysters, two or three spoonfuls of white wine; thicken up your sauce with flour and butter; you may lay round your veal some stew'd morels and truffles; if you have none, some pallets stew'd in gravy, with artichoke-bottoms cut in quarters, dipt in eggs and fry'd, and some forc'd-meat-balls; you may fry the sweet-bread cut in pieces, and lay over the veal, or fry'd oysters; when you fry your oysters you must dip them in egg and flour mixed. Garnish your dish with lemon and pickles.

28. _A Herico of a_ BREAST _of_ VEAL, French _Way_.

Take a breast of veal, half roast it, then put it into a stew-pan, with three pints of brown gravy; season your veal with nutmeg, pepper and salt; when your veal is stew'd enough, you may put in a pint of green peas boil'd. Take six middling cucumbers, pare and cut them in quarters long way, also two cabbage-lettices, and stew them in brown gravy; so lay them round your veal when you dish it up, with a few forc'd-meat-balls and some slices of bacon. Garnish your dish with pickles, mushrooms, oysters and lemons.

29. _To roll a_ BREAST _of_ VEAL.

Take a breast of veal, and bone it, season it with nutmeg, pepper and salt, rub it over with the yolk of an egg, and strew it over with sweet herbs shred small, and some slices of bacon, cut thin to lie upon it, roll it up very tight, bind it with coarse inkle, put it into an earthen dish with a little water, and lay it upon some lumps of butter; strew a little seasoning on the outside of your veal, it will take two hours baking; when it is baked take off the inkle and cut it in four rolls, lay it upon the dish with a good brown gravy-sauce: lay about your veal the sweet-bread fry'd, some forc'd-meat-balls, a little crisp bacon, and a few fry'd oysters if you have any; so serve it up. Garnish your dish with pickles and lemon.

30. _A stew'd_ BREAST _of_ VEAL.

Take the fattest and whitest breast of veal you can get, cut off both ends and boil them for a little gravy; take the veal and raise up the thin part, make a forc'd-meat of the sweet-bread boil'd, a few bread-crumbs, a little beef-suet, two eggs, pepper and salt, a spoonful or two of cream, and a little nutmeg, mix'd all together; so stuff the veal, skewer the skin close down, dridge it over with flour, tie it up in a cloth, and boil it in milk and water about an hour. For the sauce take a little gravy, about a jill of oysters, a few mushrooms shred, a little lemon shred fine, and a little juice of lemon; so thicken it up with flour and butter; when you dish it up pour the same over it; lay over it a sweet-bread or two cut in slices and fry'd, and fry'd oysters. Garnish your dish with lemon, pickles and mushrooms.

This is proper for a top dish either at noon or night.

31. _To stew a_ FILLET _of_ VEAL.

Take a leg of the best whye veal, cut off the dug and the knuckle, cut the rest into two fillets, and take the fat part and cut it in pieces the thickness of your finger; you must stuff the veal with the fat; make the hole with a penknife, draw it thro' and skewer it round; season it with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and shred parsley; then put it into your stew-pan, with half a pound of butter, (without water) and set it on your stove; let it boil very slow and cover it close up, turning it very often; it will take about two hours in stewing; when it is enough pour the gravy from it, take off the fat, put into the gravy a pint of oysters and a few capers, a little lemon-peel, a spoonful or two of white wine, and a little juice of lemon; thicken it with butter and flour the thickness of cream; lay round it forc'd-meat-balls and oysters fry'd, and so serve it up. Garnish your dish with a few capers and slic'd lemon.

32. _To make_ SCOTCH COLLOPS.