LETTER V.

IMPROMPTU COOKERY.--SOUPS.--POULTRY.--PIGEONS.--GAME.--SALADS OF COLD MEAT AND POTATOES.--MODES OF DRESSING POTATOES AND CARROTS.--SAUCES.--OMELETTES, CREAMS, AND SIDE DISHES.--MISCELLANEOUS COOKERY.--NATIONAL COOKERY.--THE FRENCH POT-AU-FEU.--ITALIAN MACARONI.--GERMAN SAUER KRAUT.--POLISH BARSCH.--SPANISH OLLA PODRIDA AND PUCHERO.--SCOTCH HAGGIS, BARLEY BROTH, AND HOTCH-POTCH.--ENGLISH PLUM-PUDDING.

The anxiety you express to see my promised hints on cookery has induced me to send them to you without waiting till I had finished all that I have to say of the servants' offices of your house; and you will observe that I shall first confine myself to what may be styled _Impromptu Cookery_, or cookery for the country, in contradistinction to cookery in towns; my principal aim being to enable you to have a nice little dinner ready in a short time on any emergency, without keeping an expensive table in ordinary. I have already advised you always to have a supply of salted meat in the house; but this is not enough, as a single dish of meat with vegetables and pudding, though quite sufficient as far as regards mere eating, does not form such a dinner as your husband would like to see on his table, if he were to bring a friend home unexpectedly. If, however, you are able to give them a well-flavoured soup, and two or three nicely cooked made-dishes to support the joint, (or _pièce de résistance_, as the French call it,) you have at once a dinner that is not expensive, and yet gives an air of elegance and refinement to the table.

I suspect indeed it would be a good plan to have several dishes on your table every day, whether you have company or not. It is not more expensive; for made dishes, by employing more vegetable matter, actually save the consumption of solid meat: and it is certainly more wholesome, as the stomach will more easily digest food of several kinds than a dinner taken from a single dish. The French know this perfectly well; and hence, however heartily a Frenchman may eat, he is scarcely ever troubled with indigestion, while many English people find indigestion the misery of their lives. "The Frenchman," says a writer on Domestic Economy, "begins his dinner with light soup, and successively disposes of his four dishes and his dessert. The whole quantity that he has eaten is, however, much less than the Englishman's meal from his single joint, and he experiences no inconvenience. In eating of a number of dishes, a little of each, the imagination is acted upon, and exaggerates the quantity really taken; the appetite is, therefore, satisfied with much less. The different matters received into the Frenchman's stomach, independently of their greater or less approximation to chyme by the process of cookery they have undergone, form a light heterogeneous mass or tissue, through which the gastric juice readily passes, whilst many of the different varieties he has swallowed act upon each other as solvents, and help the work of digestion." Besides, it is well that the servants should be accustomed to the same style of living when you are alone as when you have company, to prevent the awkwardness inevitable when persons do any thing that they are not in the habit of doing frequently. One of the greatest dangers of a country life is, indeed, that of getting into habits of slovenliness, both of the person and the table. If you once allow yourself to say, "It is of no consequence how I dress, or what we have for dinner to-day, for we are not likely to see any one," all my exhortations will have been thrown away.

In the first place, in order always to keep up a good table at a small expense, take care never to be without plenty of _Stock for soup_. The best way of preparing this is to have two or three pounds of lean beef cut into pieces, and put into a stewpan with five quarts of water, a bunch of sweet herbs, two onions sliced, and a little pepper and salt. Let it stew very gradually for two or three hours, without being suffered to boil. When all the goodness is drawn from the meat, the gravy should be strained off clear and kept in an earthen jar for use. When a stock like this has been provided, it is easy to make any kind of soup from it that may be required. For instance, if hare soup be wanted, it is only necessary to cut a hare in pieces, and to let it stew gradually in this gravy till it becomes tender. If a vegetable soup be desired, it is simply adding onions, carrots, and turnips cut into dice, with perhaps a little celery and a few cabbage lettuces cut small: or these vegetables may be cut in slices and fried in butter, and then stewed till tender in the soup, which should have been previously thickened with a little butter worked up with flour. On other occasions, the soup may be varied by adding macaroni, rice, or vermicelli, or, in fact, any thing else usually put into soups; or partridges or giblets may be stewed in it, according to circumstances. The receipt for this excellent stock is taken from Dr. Hunter's _Receipts in Modern Cookery_; and the following is another from the same work, of much richer quality, but which I have also tried and found excellent:--Take beef, mutton, and veal, of each equal parts. Cut the meat into small pieces, and put it into a deep saucepan with a close cover; the beef at the bottom, then the mutton, with a piece of lean bacon, some whole pepper, black and white, a large onion in slices, and a bundle of sweet herbs. Over this put the veal. Cover up close, and put the pan over a slow fire for ten minutes, shaking it now and then. After this pour on as much boiling water as will a little more than cover the meat. Stew gently for the space of eight hours, then put in two anchovies chopped, and season with salt to the taste. Strain off and preserve for use. If properly made, this gravy will become a rich jelly, which will keep good a long time, and a piece of which may be cut out occasionally, when a made dish or a rich soup is wanted in haste.

The two following receipts for _impromptu_ soups are from a French cookery book. The first is called _Soup made in an hour_. Cut into small pieces a pound of beef and a pound of veal; put them into a casserole, or wide shallow saucepan, with a carrot and an onion cut in slices, a few slices of bacon, and half a glass of water. Hold it over the fire for a short time till the meat and vegetables begin to brown, taking care, however, that they are not burnt; then pour over the whole a pint of boiling water, and let the soup stew gently for about three quarters of an hour; after which the soup only requires to be strained through a sieve to be fit for use. The other is for _Soup made in a minute_, and it consists in taking the congealed gravy from roast meat, either from the dish or from under the dripping, after the dripping has become cold and has been removed, in the proportion of a quarter of a pint of jelly to a quart of boiling water, and adding pepper and salt to the taste.

An excellent _white soup_ may be made by boiling a knuckle of veal down to a strong jelly, with a bundle of sweet herbs, and another of parsley. The liquor should then be strained from the meat and herbs, and flavoured with mace and nutmeg, adding milk or cream, and thickening with arrow-root. A few Jerusalem artichokes or young turnips (particularly the Teltow turnips), boiled quite soft and rubbed through a sieve, and a little celery, are a great improvement to this soup. Partridges stuffed with forcemeat and stewed in the stock of this soup till they are perfectly tender, but not so much so as to fall to pieces, make a delicious dish; but in this case the soup will not require either to be flavoured with mace and nutmeg, or to be thickened, unless it is wished to be very rich. Vegetable marrow or pumpkin, boiled and rubbed through a sieve, will form a variety to thicken this soup; or chestnuts boiled, peeled, and mashed, may be used for that purpose; celery may also be employed occasionally to flavour it.

_For Hare Soup_, cut a large hare into pieces, and put it into a stewpan with five quarts of water, one onion, a few corns of white pepper, a little salt, and some mace. Stew over a slow fire for two hours, or till it become a good gravy. Then cut the meat from the back and legs, and keep it to put into the soup when nearly ready. Put the bones into the gravy, and stew till the remainder of the meat is nearly dissolved. Then strain off the gravy, and put to it two spoonfuls of soy, or three of mushroom or walnut catsup. Cayenne pepper to the taste may be added, and wine in the proportion of half a pint to two quarts of gravy, if it is wished to make the soup very rich. Lastly, put in the meat that was cut from the back and legs, and when it is quite hot send the soup to table.

_A Green Peas Soup_ may be made by taking six or eight cucumbers pared and sliced, the blanched part of as many lettuces, a sprig of mint, two or three onions, a little parsley, some white pepper and salt, a full pint of young peas, and half a pound of butter. Let these ingredients stew gently in their own liquor for an hour. Then have in readiness a quart of old peas, boiled tender. Rub them through a cullender, and put to them two quarts of strong beef gravy. When the vegetables are sufficiently tender, mix all together, and serve up the soup very hot. This receipt is very suitable for the country, where vegetables are abundant. In this respect you have a great advantage over the dwellers in towns; and you will find it easy to make a great variety of soups, by boiling any kind of vegetable till it is tender, afterwards rubbing it through a coarse sieve, so as to make what the French call a _purée_, and then mixing it with beef gravy or stock, as before directed. A _purée_ of old peas or carrots makes an excellent soup.

I have only to add to my chapter on soups, that it is an excellent plan to have the bones of a sirloin of beef or roast leg of mutton, the remains of a hare, or, in fact, any thing of that kind, put into a large deep earthen pan, with rather more than enough water to cover them, a couple of carrots sliced, and perhaps a leek or an onion. The pan should then be carefully tied down, or have a cover fitted on it, and it should be put into an oven after the bread has been drawn, and suffered to remain all night. This makes an excellent _consommé_ or stock for any kind of brown soup: and it is a good plan to have a stock of this kind prepared every time there has been a baking of bread, so as to leave the oven in a proper state; as it not only saves the purchase of fresh meat for soup, but makes an excellent use of food that, under other circumstances, would very probably be wasted or given to the dogs. The liquor in which veal or fowls have been boiled should always be saved, and when cold, after the fat has been removed, it should be poured off clear from the sediment and used as a stock for white soups; and the scrag end of a neck of mutton, the root of a tongue, and various other portions of beef and mutton, which would be unsightly if sent to table, should, also, always be stewed down for brown soups. In the latter case, if the stock made in this manner looks pale or dingy, it may have a rich colour given to it by the following composition or _Roux_, which is also useful for made dishes and sauces. Put a quarter of a pound of lump sugar into a pan, and add a quarter of a pint of water, with half an ounce of butter. Set it over a gentle fire, stirring it with a wooden spoon till it appears burnt to a bright brown colour; then add some more water. When it boils, skim, and afterwards strain it; and then put it into a bottle, which should be kept closely corked till the composition is wanted for use.

I shall say nothing about roast meat, or any of the routine of ordinary cooking; but I shall confine myself to a few extemporaneous dishes for the table; and on these occasions the poultry-yard and the dove-cot will be found of the utmost importance.

Any kind of _poultry_ will be tender if cooked as soon as it is killed, though it will be tough if kept till the following day; and the feathers may be removed almost instantaneously by dipping the dead bird for a moment into boiling water. The only objection to fowls is, that many persons, particularly gentlemen, are very apt to become tired of them if they are served too frequently, and it is therefore advisable to vary the modes of dressing them as much as possible.

Sometimes a forcemeat may be made for roast fowl, by boiling about a dozen and a half of sweet chestnuts, and pounding part of them with the boiled liver of the fowl, and about a quarter of a pound of bacon, adding parsley and sweet herbs chopped very fine, with pepper, salt, and other spices, to the taste. Fill both the body and the crop with this mixture, and then roast the fowl; when it is done, make a sauce by pounding the remaining chestnuts very smooth, and putting them with a few spoonfuls of gravy and a glass of white wine into some melted butter. The sauce is generally poured over the fowl when it is served up.

_A broiled fowl_ should be split open at the back, and made as flat as possible, and sometimes the breast-bone is removed. The thick parts are generally scored, and seasoned with salt and pepper, after which it is laid on the gridiron with the inside of the fowl next the fire. The fowl is, however, very much improved by putting it, after it has been split down and seasoned with pepper and salt, into a stewpan, with a little butter, and only enough water to prevent it from burning. When the fowl has stewed in this manner for about twenty minutes, it should be laid for about five minutes over the fire on a gridiron previously made quite hot, and served with a sauce made of the liquor in the stewpan, flavoured with mushroom catsup, or in any other way that may be preferred. Fresh mushrooms stewed and added to the liquor are a great improvement to this dish.

_For a Dunelm of chickens._ Take a few mushrooms, peeled as if for stewing; mince them very small, and put to them some butter, salt, and cream. When put into a saucepan, stir over a gentle fire till the mushrooms are nearly done; then add the white part of a roasted fowl, after being minced very small. When sufficiently heated, it may be served up. If fresh mushrooms cannot be had, a very small quantity of mushroom powder or a little catsup may supply their place.

The French frequently put some rice tied quite loosely in a cloth into the pot with a fowl, when it is to be boiled; and, when the fowl is sufficiently done, they cut it up and _fricassee_ it, by putting the pieces into a casserole, with a lump of butter worked into a paste with a dessert-spoonful of flour and a wine-glassful of water, and the same quantity of new milk, with salt, white pepper, mace, &c., to the taste. Sometimes they add mushrooms, and sometimes small Welsh onions, and artichoke bottoms which have been previously boiled, to the fricassée; and sometimes they make the sauce much richer by adding to it the yolks of four eggs well beaten, in which case they generally put in a little lemon-juice or a very small quantity of vinegar, just before serving up. In the mean time, a little salt is thrown into the water in which the fowl was boiled, and the rice is kept simmering in it till the fowl is ready. The rice is then drained, and, being taken out of the cloth, is heaped round a dish in the centre of which the fricassée is put. When the dish is wished to be of a superior description, only the best parts of the fowl are used, and the back and side bones are kept back.

_Pigeons_ are still more useful in extemporaneous cooking than fowls, as, being smaller, they are sooner cooked; besides, they are said to lose their flavour when kept. They are very good roasted, either plain or larded (that is, covered with slices of fat bacon, over which are put vine leaves tied on with string): and when the pigeons are nearly done, the string and the remains of the larding are taken off, and the birds browned before the fire. Sometimes they are stuffed with forcemeat before roasting. Another way of dressing pigeons is to cut each in two, and put them into a casserole with a little butter and a few slices of bacon. The casserole should then be held over the fire for a few minutes, shaking it frequently to prevent the pigeons from burning; and, as soon as they have acquired a light brown, a few green peas should be added, and a sufficient quantity of the simple kind of stock I first mentioned poured over them to cover the whole. The pigeons should now stew gradually till they are done, and then a lump of butter worked into a paste with flour should be put into the casserole, to thicken the gravy before dishing up. This is a French dish called _Pigeons aux petits pots_; and the following is another, which is called _Pigeons à la crapaudine_. It is made by splitting pigeons down the back, and flattening them as much as can be done without breaking the bones too much. The pieces are then rubbed over with oil, salt, and pepper; and, some crumbs of bread having been prepared and mixed with parsley and Welsh onions chopped very fine, they are rolled in the mixture so as to be covered with it as much as possible, and then broiled. Sometimes the pieces of pigeon are dipped in yolk of egg instead of oil. They are served with a sauce made of shallots chopped fine, and mixed with pepper, salt, and vinegar, with a little melted butter or oil.

_Ducks_ and _geese_ are generally best plain roasted with green peas, or with apple or onion sauce. Dr. Hunter, however, gives the following receipt for a savoury sauce for a roasted goose:--"A table-spoonful of made mustard, half a tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, and three spoonfuls of port wine. This mixture is to be made quite hot, and poured into the body of the goose through a slit in the apron, just before serving up."

_Game_ is generally very abundant in a country house. _Hares_ may be either roasted, jugged, or made into soup. _Pheasants_ are generally roasted, either larded or plain. Dr. Hunter recommends the inside to be stuffed with the lean part of a sirloin of beef, minced small and seasoned with pepper and salt.

_Partridges_ are cooked in various ways in France; but in England they are generally either roasted, or dressed in the French way with cabbages. The following is the French receipt for dressing _Perdrix aux choux_. Take two partridges, and put them into a casserole with butter, a very little flour, three cupfuls of gravy, a quarter of a pound of fat bacon cut into dice, a little bunch of sweet herbs and a laurel leaf, and let them stew gradually. In the mean time boil a savoy cabbage with three quarters of a pound of pickled pork, or two spoonfuls of dripping, filling the pot with water. When the savoy is tender, take it out and drain it, and then put it into the casserole with the partridges; let the whole stew for about half an hour, and then serve it quite hot. Sometimes a carrot is cut in round slices and stewed with the partridges, and this is a great improvement. Care must be taken to remove the bundle of sweet herbs and the laurel leaf before adding the cabbage, as otherwise it might be difficult to find them, and they would not look well if sent to table. Brussels' sprouts may be used instead of a savoy, and they render the dish more delicate. A half-roasted duck may be stewed in this way instead of the partridges, and is excellent.

Any kind of cold game makes an excellent _salad_, the meat being cut from the bones and mixed with lettuces cut small, and dressed in the usual manner. The French add capers, anchovies, or any other seasoning, to salads, and garnish them with the flowers of the nasturtium and the borage, which may be eaten without danger.

A _Magnonnaise_ is a salad with alternate rows of cold fowl or roast veal, and lettuce, hard eggs cut in quarter slices, or carrot, or beet, gherkins, anchovy, &c. Cold potatoes cut in slices, and dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, make an excellent salad, which may be varied by the addition of fine herbs, slices of beet-root, or anchovies taken from the bones and chopped fine. _Boulettes_ of cold meat, chopped small, and mixed with crumbs of bread or mashed potatoes, are also very useful _impromptu_ dishes. The mixed meat and bread or potatoes is seasoned with pepper, salt, a little parsley, and other herbs, and a shallot or two cut very small; the yolk of an egg or two is then added, and the mixture is made into balls, which are just glazed over with white of egg, and then fried; after which they are served with a little gravy or sauce of any kind, or covered with parsley put before the fire till it is quite crisp. Cold potatoes may also be cut in slices and warmed in a casserole, with some butter mixed first in a plate with a little flour, some parsley cut very fine, pepper and salt, and a very little lemon-juice or vinegar: this is called _à la maître d'hôtel_. They may also be cut in slices and fried, and then served with _sauce blanche_.

_Sauce blanche_ is made by mixing butter with some flour on a plate, and then putting it into a casserole with a little water. It should be held over the fire, and frequently shaken, till it boils; it is then taken off the fire, and a little salt and vinegar thrown in; after which it is again shaken, and held over the fire till it is quite hot, but not boiling, when it is served. Some cooks add a little of the yolk of eggs, well beaten up with the salt and vinegar. _Carrots_ are very good boiled, and then cut in slices, and dressed _à la maître d'hôtel_, or fried and served with _sauce blanche_ like potatoes. Carrots are also very good cut into small pieces and stewed till they are tender, with a little butter, and only just enough water or gravy to prevent them from burning. A sauce is made of the yolk of an egg beaten up with some cream, a little salt being added, and it is poured on the carrots; the saucepan is then again put on the fire, and when the whole is quite hot it is served.

It may be useful here to mention two or three kinds of sauce which may be used either for cold meat or fish; and also some of the ways the French have of dressing cold fowl or veal, which are very nice.

_Dutch sour sauce._ Take the yolks of two eggs, a lump of butter, a little bit of mace, and a table-spoonful of good white-wine vinegar. Put all together into a saucepan over a gentle fire, and keep stirring all one way till the sauce is thick enough for use.

_Onion sauce._ Melt some butter in a little thick cream, but add neither water nor flour. Boil the onions, and take two coats from their outsides. Chop the inside smooth, and put them into the melted butter, with salt to the taste. Stir one way over the fire for a quarter of an hour, and send up the sauce quite hot. Another way is to boil the onions soft, and to rub their pulp through a cullender or coarse sieve before adding it to the butter.

_Sauce à la Bechamel_ is made by putting sliced onions and carrots into a saucepan with a little butter and flour and a pint of cream; pepper, salt, and nutmeg are added, with mushrooms and finely chopped parsley, if desired. The whole is suffered to stew gently three quarters of an hour, and then it is strained and thickened with a liaison of yolks of eggs. Another kind is made by adding an equal quantity of veal stock to the cream; and dressing any dish _à la bechamel_ means serving it up with a white sauce; either made as above or in any other way, provided it consists principally of cream or thickened milk.

_Sauce velouté_ is a white sauce, the base of which is veal stock instead of cream.

_A Liaison of eggs_ is made by taking some fresh eggs (it is essential that they should be quite fresh), and separating the white carefully from the yolk. The yolks are then beaten up, and two or three spoonfuls of the liquor they are wanted to thicken is added to them, stirring them carefully. The saucepan is then taken off the fire while the eggs are gradually mixed with its contents, and only put on the fire again for a minute, carefully stirring the contents so as to make them quite hot, but not boiling, before they are served up.

_Sauce à la Tartare_ is mixed by putting shallots and other herbs cut very fine, with mustard, salt, pepper, oil, and a little vinegar. The ingredients are all mixed well together and served cold, or they may be made hot for fish.

_A Blanquette_ is made by cutting cold meat into thin slices, and then putting it into a saucepan with a lump of butter, a little flour, pepper, salt, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a little gravy. Simmer it gently five minutes, and then put the meat into a dish; and after thickening the sauce with the yolks of eggs beaten up with a very small quantity of vinegar, and putting it over the fire for a minute, pour it quite hot over the meat.

_A Marinade_ is made by stewing the remains of a fowl or slices of cold meat with butter or oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, onions, and sweet herbs; and then draining the pieces, dipping them in white of egg, and flouring them or covering them with bread crumbs, and frying them.

_A Capilotade_ is a brown fricassée or hash, and a _Terrine_ is a pie baked in a dish, but without crust.

_Croustades_ are pieces of stale, firm bread, cut like sippets, but much thicker, and hollowed out into the centre, keeping the piece cut out to serve as a lid. The croustades are then fried a fine brown, and while hot they are filled with minced fowl or veal; or if a sweet dish is required, with some kind of marmalade or jam made hot.

_Omelettes_ are always a great addition to a dinner table, and they are easily made. The following is the French receipt for the _Omelettes aux fines herbes_. Take any quantity of eggs and beat them well, adding pepper, salt, parsley, and any other herbs, with a few shallots or small onions chopped very fine. Melt enough butter in a frying-pan to cover the bottom of the frying-pan with liquid, and when it is boiling pour in the omelette, and fry it till it becomes a fine brown. When served, fold it so that only the brown side may be seen, and pour over it a kind of sauce made by putting a little butter, flour, and catsup in the pan, and shaking it for a few minutes over the fire; or a little gravy may be heated and poured over it. The frying-pan should not be too large, as an omelette should always be rather thick. About six or eight eggs will make an omelette of the ordinary size, and about two ounces of butter will be required for frying it. Other omelettes may be made by omitting the herbs, and adding mushrooms cut very small, or mushroom-powder, grated ham, grated cheese, or, in fact, any other substance that may be thought desirable.

Dr. Hunter gives the following receipt for a _Potato omelette_. Take three ounces of potatoes mashed, and add to them the yolks of five eggs, and the whites of three. Add white pepper, salt, and nutmeg to the taste. Fry in butter, and serve up with clear gravy, to which some add a little lemon-juice. Sweet omelettes may be made by adding to the eggs orange-flower water, and sugar, or grated lemon-peel and sugar, or marmalade of apples or apricots, or raspberry or currant jam. The omelette is then fried in the usual way; but it is usually served without doubling it up, sugar being grated over the upper side after it is put in the dish, which is then set in front of the fire for a few minutes, or the omelette is browned by holding over it a flat red-hot iron called a salamander.

The following is a receipt for making an _Omelette soufflée_, taken from a French cookery book. Break six eggs; separate the whites from the yolks, and beat up the latter with four ounces of grated lump-sugar, and a little orange-flower water, or the rind of a lemon cut very fine, or grated. Then beat the whites of the eggs into a froth, and mix them quickly with the yolks, and pour them into a dish in which two ounces of butter have been melted, and which is quite hot; hold a salamander over the eggs for about five minutes, when they will rise in blisters; then, sprinkling a little powdered sugar over the dish, serve it quite hot, without losing a moment, as, if it be allowed to cool, the puffed up part will fall, and the appearance of the dish will be spoiled. When this dish is made in England, the butter is generally melted in a frying-pan, into which the eggs are poured, and suffered to fry for a minute or two, after which the omelette is put into a hot dish, and set in the oven to rise. A little grated sugar is then sprinkled over it, and it is served immediately.

Apples and apricots cut in slices and dipped in a light batter make a very agreeable addition to a small dinner; and the flowers of the Judas tree, and vine leaves, sugared and steeped in brandy, and the young shoots of the vegetable marrow, all make nice dishes when dipped in batter and fried.

_Frangipane_ is made by beating up two or three eggs, and then adding to them two spoonfuls of flour, mixed quite smooth with a little milk. Put the whole into a casserole, and set it on the fire for a quarter of an hour, shaking it continually that the frangipane may not burn. The dish may be flavoured with sugar, orange-flower water, or crushed macaroons; and it is eaten with tarts or preserved fruit.

_Fromage à la crème_ is a very elegant addition to the dessert. It is made by taking a pint of new milk, and adding to it a spoonful of rennet, and keeping it warm till the curd rises; the curd is then carefully taken up without breaking it, and laid in a wicker basket, or on a sieve, to drain. When nearly all the whey has run off, it is served with cream poured round it, and sugar grated on the top.

For _Syllabubs_, to one quart of cream put the rinds and juice of two lemons, a teacupful of white wine, two table-spoonfuls of brandy, a little nutmeg, and sugar to the taste; and then whip them to a froth with a whisk.

A _Devonshire syllabub_, or _junket_, is made by putting a pint of cider, with two table-spoonfuls of brandy, and sugar to the taste, into a large bowl, and milking upon it till the bowl is nearly full. In twenty minutes some clotted cream is heaped up in the middle of the dish, and powdered cinnamon, grated nutmeg, and Harlequin comfits strewed over the top. When cider cannot be procured, half a pint of port is used instead, omitting the brandy; and when a cow is not accessible, lukewarm milk poured from a coffee-pot spout, held up as high as possible, will do almost as well.

For _impromptu Cheesecakes_. Take a quarter of a pound of butter, and the same quantity of pounded lump-sugar, two eggs well beaten, and the juice of a lemon, with the grated rind. Beat the butter into a cream, and mix the whole well together. Then put some light puff paste in pattypans, and drop a little of the mixture into each. Another way of making impromptu cheesecakes is with butter, sugar, and sweet almonds, taking of each a quarter of a pound, and adding the yolks of four eggs, with the white of two, and the grated rind of a lemon.

_Common Cheesecakes_ made with curd take more time to prepare, but are, I think, better; they are made by turning some milk with rennet into curd, as if for making cheese, and then beating three quarters of a pound of the curd, which should be quite dry so as to crumble, with five ounces of butter till the mixture is quite smooth. Two ounces of sweet almonds and five or six bitter ones, pounded in a mortar, and mixed with four ounces of lump-sugar, crushed and sifted, should be added; and the whole should be moistened with the yolks of four, and the whites of two eggs beaten up with three spoonfuls of cream, two of brandy, and a little nutmeg. The pattypans should be rather large, and rubbed with butter before the paste is put into them, and the space left for the curd should be filled quite full. These cheesecakes should be baked about twenty minutes, and they are excellent. As I have said you are to line your pattypans with puff paste, you will probably now ask how it is to be made. There are numerous receipts given in the cookery books, and I really don't know which is the best; but I will tell you how I have seen most excellent paste made when I was a girl, by one of the best plain cooks I ever met with.

For _Puff Paste_, the flour was put in a wide earthen pan set before the fire, till it was quite warm, turning it frequently with the hands. A little butter was then rubbed into the flour, and enough warm water was added to make the whole into a very smooth and even paste, every lump in the flour having been carefully crumbled in the process of mixing. The paste was rolled out rather thick, and little bits of butter stuck all over it; flour was then dusted over the butter, and the paste was folded up so as to cover the flour. This was repeated as often as required, and half a pound of butter to a pound of flour was considered to make a very rich crust, a quarter of a pound of butter to a pound of flour being the usual proportion.

_Short_ or _Sugar Paste_ was made by rubbing two ounces of lump-sugar, crushed by a rolling-pin so as to be very fine, into a pound of dry flour, and adding three ounces of butter, both the butter and the sugar being so mixed as to leave no lumps. The yolks of two eggs were then beaten up well, with some cream, and added to the flour, so as to make it into a paste, and if more moisture was required, milk or cream was used, but no water. This paste only required rolling out once, and it was delicious.

In some of the modern cookery books equal quantities of butter and flour, in addition to the yolks of two eggs, are recommended for rich puff paste; and it is directed that the greater part of the butter should be made into a ball, and the buttermilk having been squeezed out of it, it should be put into the crust and covered with it, like an apple in making an apple-dumpling. The crust is then to be floured and rolled out five or six times. I have never tried this paste, and I should think it would be difficult to make. Regular pastrycooks, I am told, use oil, which they mix with the flour without any water; and lard or dripping is often used in large families to save butter. Eggs give a great richness to paste; but when used the whites should be omitted, as they are apt to make the paste hard.

Having thus broken through my determination to give you only receipts for impromptu cookery, I think I must give you a few hints on what may be called National Cookery, or, in other words, that I may teach you how to make the favourite dishes of most of the nations of Europe. I do this principally to amuse you, and to enable you to produce variety in your entertainments, as the greatest enemy you have to dread is monotony; but you may occasionally find it useful to know how to produce the favourite dishes of foreigners, when you have to entertain them.

_The Pot au Feu_ is the popular soup of France, which is found in every house, from the prince to the peasant: it is made by putting a solid piece of beef into cold water, in the proportion of one pound of meat to a quart of water, and letting it simmer in an earthen pot on a hot hearth for six hours, taking off the scum as it rises. A little salt is thrown in after the liquor has begun to simmer, and carrots, cabbage, an onion or two, and any other vegetable that may be in season are put in, after the scum, caused by the addition of the salt, has been taken off. This pottage can never be made properly unless wood is burned in the kitchen, as it requires to be kept constantly simmering, but never boiling rapidly during the whole of the six hours; and this can scarcely be accomplished with a tin kettle or saucepan placed at the side of a coal fire. In France they generally use a piece of the rump for the _pot au feu_, as they have their meat (which they call _bouilli_) sent to table, with the best of the vegetables, taken carefully out of the liquor, laid round it. The soup is then strained off and poured quite hot on a slice of bread, either toasted or untoasted, according to taste, which is laid at the bottom of the tureen. Sometimes, instead of using bread, the pottage is served plain; or vermicelli is added in the proportion of from one to two ounces to each quart of soup. The vermicelli is put into a saucepan, and enough of the bouillon to cover it is strained over it, and it is stewed very gently for about half an hour, so as to be ready to add to the soup when it is put into the tureen. In winter, instead of vegetables, rice is frequently put into the _pot au feu_ about two hours before it is served up; or it is stewed for about an hour in a separate saucepan, and added when the pottage is served up.

_Macaroni_ is the national dish of Italy, and it is prepared by covering it with ten times its volume of boiling water, and letting it remain till it becomes soft. When this is the case, some salt is thrown into the water, and the saucepan is held over the fire for a minute, till the liquid begins to bubble, when cold water is thrown in to stop the ebullition: the macaroni is then drained, and placed in a dish alternately with small bits of butter, pepper, and grated cheese; or, instead of butter, gravy of any kind may be used, or tomato sauce. The Italians use the same kind of soup as the French, but they always serve a dish of grated cheese to eat with it; and sometimes they add parsley chopped very small to the potage before serving it. The cheese used in Italy is either Parmesan or Gruyere, but any strong flavoured, dry cheese will do.

_Sauer kraut_ is the national dish of Germany, and it is made from very large close cabbages, which are deprived of their outer leaves so as to leave only the hard white part, or head. The first process of preparing them is to scoop out the interior part of the stalk with an iron instrument or scoop; they are then cut into small shreds by a wooden machine, composed of a flat board or tray, which has a ledge on two sides, to steady a box or frame, into which the cabbages are put. In the middle of the board are four flat pieces of steel, similar to the steel part of a spokeshave, placed in an oblique direction, and the near edge of each being a little raised up, with small spaces between each, to let the shreds fall down into a tub placed underneath to receive them. The cabbages are then put into the box before described, which is pushed backwards and forwards, when the cabbages, being cut by the steel, fall in small shreds into the tub placed below. A barrel stands ready to receive them when cut, the sides of which are first washed with vinegar. A man stands on a chair by the barrel, with clean wooden shoes on, whose business it is to salt and prepare them, which is done in the following manner:--The man first takes as much of the cut cabbage as covers about four inches above the bottom; he next strews upon it two handfuls of salt, one handful of unground pepper, and a small quantity of salad oil; he then gets into the barrel, and treads it down with his wooden shoes till it is well mixed and compact. He next takes another layer of cabbage, and puts salt and pepper on it as before, and treads it again, and so goes on till the barrel is filled. A board is then placed on it, and upon the board some very heavy weights are put, and it remains so ten or fifteen days, when it partially ferments, and a great deal of water swims on the surface: it is then put into the cellar for use. The men who prepare sauer kraut are Tyrolese, and carry their machine on their backs from house to house.

In the annexed sketch (fig. 6.), _a_ is the cutting-tray, _b_ the box into which the cabbages are put, _c_ the scoop, and _d_ the tub into which the shreds fall.

_The Beet-root soup called Barszcz or Barch_ is the national dish of Poland. It is made by putting the siftings of rye into a barrel, and filling it with warm water in the proportion of three quarts of siftings to four or five gallons of water. The barrel is set in a warm closet heated to about 70°, and soon begins to ferment. In twelve hours it is ready for use. The liquor is then strained off, and set near the fire, with any meat or poultry that may be required. When the meat is sufficiently stewed it is taken out of the soup, which, after it has been well skimmed and strained, is mixed with a pint of cream in which four table-spoonfuls of flour have been beaten up, and into which a red beet-root has been grated. The soup is then set on the fire for a minute, and when quite hot it is served up. The meat is served on a separate dish, and it is garnished with another beet-root cut in slices, and dried mushrooms which have been previously boiled in a separate saucepan. Another much superior kind of barch, (which may be called a _beet purée_,) is made by boiling several roots of beet, taking care not to break the skin, so that they may preserve their bright red. When quite soft they are taken out of the water, peeled, and rubbed through a sieve. Half a pound of flour is mixed with a quart of thick sour cream, and added to five or six pounds' weight of pulp, and this is thinned with stock from any kind of meat previously boiled and strained. The whole is then suffered to simmer till the raw taste of the flour is gone off, and it is then served quite hot. It should be of the colour and consistency of raspberry cream, and, when properly made, it is delicious. Both these receipts were given to me by an English lady now residing in Poland, so that you may rely upon them as being genuine; and the following receipts for Spanish dishes were procured for me by a friend from a gentleman who is a native of Spain.

_The Olla Podrida_ is decidedly the national dish of Spain, and, prepared according to the receipt I am going to give you, it is really excellent. It is composed of the following ingredients:--a fowl, pieces of beef, mutton, veal, and bacon; half a Spanish sausage, and some garvanzos (Spanish peas). The garvanzos should be soaked all night in, warm water and a little salt. Next morning the whole of the above are to be slowly boiled together for three hours or more; add some onion, one or two cloves, salt, carrot, garlic, and open cabbages. Pour the soup upon _very thin pieces_ of bread, not toasted. After the soup, the vegetables, bacon, and sausage are served on one dish, and the fowl and meat on another. Sometimes vermicelli or rice is put into the soup instead of the thin pieces of bread; but the bread appears to be most generally used.

_To make a Puchero_, put from two to six pounds of beef into a stew-pan, adding a quart of water for every pound of meat. Place the saucepan on a moderate fire, which should be gradually increased in force so that the scum may be carefully removed, which should be done as it rises to the surface until no more of it appears. The saucepan is then to be left on a fire, kept uniformly moderate, for the space of four hours. When it has boiled two hours, put into it three carrots of moderate size, two turnips, four leeks, and a parsnep, each cut in half, a handful of parsley, more or less, a roasted onion pierced with two or three cloves, and a good proportion of salt. Warm water must be occasionally added, according as the soup evaporates. The above, with the addition of a whole fowl, or even the half of a chicken only, the giblets of a turkey, or a bone of roast lamb, makes an excellent dish in the class of plain cooking. There should be put in this dish some garvanzos soaked in warm water the previous night, and put into the saucepan as soon as the soup begins to get warm. A piece of ham or bacon, or a piece of the Spanish sausage, should be put in at the same time as the vegetables.

_A Scotch haggis._ Take the large stomach of a sheep. After being nicely cleaned, put it to soak in cold water for a night. Boil the pluck of a sheep till it becomes very tender; mince it small, together with a large portion of suet, and season with white pepper, salt, and a little onion shred small; add a quart of the liquor in which the pluck was boiled, and as much oatmeal, previously browned before the fire, as will make the mixture as thick as batter. The ingredients are then put into the stomach, which must be firmly sewed, to keep out the water; and, after boiling for three hours, it is served up in a deep dish. Though the pluck is here mentioned generally, we must observe that neither the liver, nor what is called the cat's-piece or spleen, is to be used. When the haggis comes to table a portion of the skin where it is sewed is taken up with a fork, and a hole is made by cutting the skin all round it. If the haggis has been properly made the gravy will spurt out to a great height the moment the skin is pierced.

_Scotch barley broth_ is considered best when made with a sheep's head, the wool from which has been singed off with a red-hot iron. This operation requires great care, as every particle of the wool should be removed, and yet no impression should be made on the skin. When singed the head should be soaked in water all night. In the morning it is scraped and washed, and then it is split open, and the brains taken out. Some persons rub the brains over the skin of the head to remove the blackness; but others do not like either the broth or the head unless both are black. When properly prepared it is put into a kettle with some turnips and carrots cut small, some onions, and some salt; and a gallon of water should be added, in which a teacupful of Scotch or pearl barley has been boiled slowly for half an hour. The whole should then be boiled very gently for two or three hours, or longer, in a close kettle. When served the soup should not be strained, but only the head should be taken out and served on a separate dish, and the broth should be sent to table with the barley and vegetables in it. The meat on the head should be quite tender and thoroughly done. If the taste of the head be disliked, the soup may be made by adding to the stewed barley, the vegetables, and three pounds of the lean end of a neck of mutton, instead of the head. A pint of green peas may also be added, if in season.

_A Scotch hotch-potch._ Take equal quantities of fresh beef and mutton, a pound and a half of each to three pints of water; chop them finely, and let them simmer gently in a stew-pan. When the meat is tender, season with salt and pepper, and add a peck of green peas, three or four or more carrots, two cauliflowers, a few onions, and any other vegetable that may be in season, cutting them small, and dredging them with flour. The whole should stew gradually till the vegetables are tender, when it should be served without straining. In the winter, when other vegetables are scarce, potatoes may be substituted for some of them; but carrots should always be most abundant.

_For an Irish stew._ Take four pounds of potatoes, and a pound and a half of meat, with a few onions, and one carrot, which will make a good stew for six or seven persons. The meat must be cut into small pieces; if it is half mutton it will be all the better; add about three pints of water. When the greater portion of the potatoes are in pulp, it will be done. Season it with salt and pepper.

_The English national dishes_ are, I suppose, roast beef and plum pudding. I need not tell you how to roast your beef, but I may give you a receipt for a pudding under it, as I think puddings of that kind are peculiar to England.

_For an excellent Yorkshire pudding,_ take six eggs, six heaped table-spoonfuls of flour, and one tea-spoonful of salt. Beat the eggs well, strain them, and mix them with the flour, and then add gradually about a pint of milk, so as to make the whole into a rather thin batter. Warm the pan, and rub it with dripping or butter before the batter is poured into it, and let the batter be about an inch thick. When the pudding is browned on one side cut it into quarters, or eight pieces, and turn them to brown the other. In some places the pudding is made very thin, and not turned; and sometimes currants are added. A plainer pudding may be made with half a pound of flour, a tea-spoonful of salt, three eggs, and a pint of milk.

_For a Plum pudding,_ take suet, flour, currants, and stoned raisins, one pound each, the grated rind of a lemon, four eggs, a wine-glassful of brandy, and as much milk as is required to make it of a proper consistence. It should be boiled eight or nine hours in either a cloth or a mould, and served with wine sauce.

_Sir Joseph Brookes's Plum pudding._ "Take the crumb of a twopenny loaf, six ounces of suet, two apples grated, three ounces of sugar, the rind of a lemon grated, a little candied orange, half a pound of currants, two table-spoonfuls of flour, the yolks of four eggs, half a nutmeg, a little ginger, and three table-spoonfuls of brandy. Mix all well together, and boil two hours. Eight ounces of apple or gooseberry pulp, with five ounces of sugar, may be substituted for the suet."

_Mr. Sopwith's Victoria pudding._ "Take half a pound of flour, half a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of suet shred very fine, a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, half a pound of mashed potatoes, a quarter of a pound of carrots boiled and beaten smooth, and one ounce of lemon-peel. Mix all well together the night before the pudding is wanted, and boil it four hours." Another similar pudding is made as follows:--"Take of flour, suet chopped fine, currants, raisins, and grated carrot, half a pound of each; mix the ingredients well together, without any liquid, and boil five hours. A little grated lemon-peel may be added, and the pudding should be served with sweet sauce poured over it."

I shall now give you a few miscellaneous receipts of various kinds, which I know to be good.

_A Charlotte de pommes_ is a French apple pudding, made by lining a mould or dish with thin slices of stale bread that have been dipped in clarified butter. The middle is then filled with apples, stewed as if for sauce; and a piece of bread being laid on the top, the charlotte is baked with fire above and below.

_A French Apple pudding_ is made by baking or stewing some apples with sugar till they become a sort of marmalade. A custard is then made of half a pound of sweet almonds, blanched and pounded smooth, with an ounce of bitter ones, half a pint of cream, the yolks of two eggs, and the white of one, and poured over the apples, which should then be baked in a slow oven. As this is what is called a French apple pudding in England, it may amuse you to give you now what is called an English apple pudding in France; it is as follows:--Take twelve moderate-sized apples, pare and core them, and then put them into a saucepan with four or five table-spoonfuls of water. Stew them till they are soft, and then mix them with half a pound of powdered lump sugar, the juice of three lemons, and the grated rind of two, and the yolks of eight eggs well beaten. Mix all well together; cover a dish with a light puff paste, and pour the mixture into it. Put it into the oven, and bake it half an hour.

_A Parsnep pudding_ is made by boiling two parsneps, draining the water from them, mashing them, and adding grated bread, the yolks of two eggs, sugar and spice to the taste, and a little cream; the whole, when mixed, is poured into a light puff paste, and baked.

_Mr. Sopwith's Almond pudding._ Take five or six bitter almonds, blanched, and pound them in a mortar, with seven or eight pieces of lump sugar. Then beat up the yolks of two, and the whites of three eggs, and add them to the almonds and sugar, with two spoonfuls of cream made lukewarm. Pour the whole into a mould or basin well buttered, and steam it for twenty minutes.

To make a _Cabinet pudding_. Butter a pudding basin, and line the inside with a layer of raisins that have been previously stoned. Then cut some thin bread and butter, taking off the crust, and fill the basin with it. In another basin beat up three eggs, and add to them a pint of milk, with sugar and spice; mix all well together, and pour the whole into the first basin upon the bread and butter. Let it stand half an hour, and then tie a floured cloth over it in the usual manner, taking care that the basin is quite full. This is a most delicious pudding; and when turned out of the basin it has a singular appearance, the outside being quite covered with raisins.

For _Lemon cream_. Take a quart of lemonade made very sweet, strain it, and put it in a saucepan on the fire. Add the yolks of eight eggs beaten, and stir it always one way till it is of a proper thickness. Serve it in custard-glasses, or in a cream-dish. To make the lemonade, dissolve five ounces of sugar in two pints of boiling water, having previously, with part of the sugar, rubbed the yellow rind off a lemon; then add the juice of three lemons. Some persons put the lemon and sugar into a jug, and pour the boiling water upon them.

_Rice flummery_, which is a very nice side dish, is made by mixing a quarter of a pound of ground rice with a little cold milk, and then adding a pint of hot milk which has been boiled with a stick of cinnamon and a bit of lemon-peel; add sugar to the taste, and, if required, a few drops of essence of almonds. Boil it up, stirring it carefully, and then pour it into a mould.

_Dutch flummery_ is made by boiling two ounces of isinglass in three half-pints of water very gently for half an hour. Strain the liquor, and add a few lumps of sugar which have been rubbed on the rind of two lemons, and the juice of three lemons strained; then beat the yolks of seven eggs, and add them gradually. Put the whole over the fire, and stir it carefully, all one way, till it boils, and then pour it into a mould, or put it first into a basin to settle before putting it into the mould. The whites of the eggs beaten up to a froth will look very pretty over preserves; or they may be coloured with some kind of preserve, to form a dish.

The following is a receipt to make _Rice cream_, which was sent to me by a friend, and is said to be most excellent. Take a quarter of a pound of ground rice, one quart of cream, the peel of a lemon, and a small piece of butter. Put all into a stewpan, and place it over the fire, stirring it carefully till it boils, when it should be of about the same thickness as bread sauce. After boiling two minutes, add a spoonful of prepared isinglass, and turn it out, as you would any other cream. Send it to table with a little raspberry or currant syrup.

_Blancmange_ may be made quickly by boiling, or rather simmering, two ounces of isinglass in three pints of milk till it is dissolved, which will be in about half an hour. Then strain it into a pint and a half of cream; sweeten it, and add a little peach-water, to give the flavour of almonds. Let it boil up once, and then stand a few minutes to settle before it is put into the moulds. Use tin moulds, and set them in cold pump-water changing the water when it becomes warm, and the blancmange will very soon be quite firm.

I will now give you a few miscellaneous receipts, and then I think you will have had enough; for I know, as far as my own experience goes, I have always felt perplexed, when I have taken up a cookery book, by the great number of receipts which I found in it, and all of which appeared to me so excellent that I knew not which to choose. I have, naturally enough, supposed you to have the same feeling; and thus, in what I have written, I have endeavoured as much as possible to save you the trouble of selection, by giving you only such dishes as I either know to be good myself, or which have been given to me by friends I can fully rely upon. But I am forgetting your receipts; they are as follow:--

To make _Potato flour_ or _starch_, to serve also instead of arrow-root. Peel and wash the potatoes, cutting out all the specks; then grate or rasp them into a pan of water; stir it up well, and let it remain for about ten hours, or till all the flour is settled down. Then pour off the water with the fibrous parts of the potatoes, and put some fresh water to the flour, which, as it settles very hard, must be well stirred and strained into another pan, where let it remain till it is again settled down, and so do till the water is quite clear, which will be in four or five times mixing in fresh water; once straining is sufficient. When clear enough, break the flour up into a dish, and dry it gently before the fire; it takes a good while, as it must be thoroughly dried and broken into a fine powder. It may then be put away for use, and keeps a long time. Very small potatoes answer the purpose as well as large; and, when persons grow them, it uses up those that are too small for boiling. Ten ounces and a half of starch have been produced from very small potatoes, which weighed only seven pounds and a half before peeling them. When this flour is made on a large scale, the potatoes may be washed, and then ground in a cider-mill without paring.

_To pickle Lemons._ Grate off the rind, then lay them in salt for six days; boil vinegar with a little turmeric, and pour over them boiling; let them stand till next day; then boil in best vinegar, mace, shallots, anchovy, Cayenne pods, and cloves; boil the lemons and liquor together two minutes, and cover them close up. In a few days they will be fit for use, and are much admired with fish, cutlets, or cold meat.

_Mixture for India Pickle._ One gallon of vinegar, a quarter of a pound of garlic, half a pound of salt, a quarter of a pound of ginger, two ounces of white mustard seed, and two teaspoonfuls of Cayenne pepper; mix all well together. Any vegetables, such as small onions, cauliflowers, French beans, radish pods, and gherkins, may be laid in salt three days, dried, and put into the above mixture, and it is an excellent pickle for general use.

_Cucumber Vinegar._ Pare and slice fifteen large cucumbers, and three or four onions, a few shallots, and a clove or two of garlic. Then put a layer of slices of cucumber in a deep jar, and strew over it some pepper and salt, and a little Cayenne pepper; then a layer of onions and shallots, with pepper and salt as before; repeating alternate layers of cucumbers and onions till the jar is about half full, when three pints of vinegar is to be poured on the whole. After standing four days the vinegar is strained off, and is ready for use. It is a great improvement to cold meat.

_Excellent Walnut catsup._ Take walnuts of the size fit for pickling; cut and pound them in a marble mortar to obtain the juice. To a pint of this juice put a pound of anchovies. Boil till the anchovies are dissolved, and then strain through a piece of muslin. Then boil again, and add a quarter of an ounce of mace, half a quarter of an ounce of cloves, some whole white pepper, and seven or eight shallots, a few cloves of garlic, and a pint of white wine vinegar. Boil all together till the shallots become tender; then strain, and, when cold, bottle for use.

_Tomato sauce_ may be made by putting ripe tomatoes into an earthen jar, and setting it in an oven from which the bread has been just drawn. When the tomatoes have become soft, the skins should be taken out, and the pulp should be mixed with vinegar, a few cloves of garlic pounded, Cayenne pepper, powdered ginger, and salt, to the taste. Another way is to stew a gallon of ripe tomatoes with a pound of salt till they are reduced to a pulp; then rub them through a sieve, and add half a drachm of cochineal, and Cayenne pepper, mace, allspice, and ginger to the taste. Let the whole boil gently for twenty minutes, and when cold put into wide-mouthed bottles for use. By adding a little brandy to each bottle, this sauce will keep several years. Tomatoes are also very good, boiled gently in salt and water.

_For Tomato sauce_ (_the Spanish way_). Cut six tomatoes in half, and, having pressed out their juice, put to them a sufficient quantity of gravy, a quarter of a head of garlic, a little parsley, and a few drops of vinegar. All this must be boiled together for a short time and passed through a sieve. This sauce is a great improvement to mutton chops, ham, boiled beef, or beef steaks.

_The Spanish mode of keeping Tomatoes._ Boil some sugar, in the proportion of an ounce to each tomato, until it becomes candied. Add a tenth part of onions; and when they begin to colour put in the tomatoes, with salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg in suitable quantities. Boil the whole on a very quick fire, and, when of sufficient thickness, strain it through a hair-sieve. Place it on the fire again immediately, and, when it becomes solid, put it into jelly-pots. These must be covered with two plies of paper, and kept apart from the light. The onions may be omitted from the above; in which case it can be used as a sauce for a variety of dishes.

_Sirop de Cerises._ Prepare some ripe cherries by pulling out their stalks, crush them, and leave them to ferment for twenty-four hours. Press the cherries, and strain their juice through a sieve. The liquid should be quite clear, and to every seventeen ounces of juice add two pounds of lump sugar. Put the liquid into a stewpan on the fire, and let it boil once, then take off the scum, and when the liquor is nearly cold bottle it. All other syrups of fruit are made in the same manner.

I think you will now be as much tired of reading receipts for cookery as I am of writing them, and therefore I will only add two receipts for making _Pork pies_, the first of which is the mode practised in my native county, Warwickshire.

Half a pound of lard is put into a saucepan containing a quart of water. The saucepan is set on the fire, and stirred till the water boils. The boiling lard and water is then poured slowly into as much flour as will suffice to make it into a smooth and very stiff paste, and mixed with a wooden spoon, after which it must be beaten with a rolling-pin. When the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, the paste is put into an earthen pan, covered with a linen cloth, and placed near the fire, where it is left for about half an hour. The meat is now prepared by being separated from every particle of bone, skin, and gristle, and cut into pieces about the size of dice. Care is taken to keep the fat and lean separate; but both are well seasoned with pepper and salt. A piece of the paste large enough to form one pie is then broken off the mass, and the rest is again covered up, as it cannot be worked if it is too cold, though it will not stand if it is too warm. If it breaks and crumbles, instead of being plastic, it is too cold; and if it is too soft, and falls when raised, it is either too warm or too rich. When it is of just the right heat to bear being moulded, and yet to retain whatever shape may be given to it, the piece of paste is worked with the hands on a pasteboard, into the form of a high-peaked hat, with a broad brim; and then the peak of the hat being turned downwards on the board, one of the hands is put inside the hat, and the other used to raise and smooth the sides, till the pie is gradually worked into a proper shape. The meat is then put into the crust in layers, two of lean to one of fat, and pressed as closely as possible, in order that the pie may cut firm when cold. When the pie is quite full, the lid is put on, and wet round the edge to make it adhere to the top of the walls, on which it is laid, the two being pinched together, in order to unite them more thoroughly.

In Leicestershire, and some parts of Staffordshire, a layer of raisins is often put below the meat, and, in Northamptonshire, pork pies or pasties are made with the same kind of crust as I have described, but, instead of being raised, it is rolled out, and then cut into pieces of a proper size for the top and bottom, with a long piece of the necessary width for the sides. The bottom is cemented to the walls with egg, the two parts which are to adhere being pinched together; and the crust is filled with well-seasoned meat, put in layers of fat and lean as before; the lid is then put on, and, after it has been made to adhere to the walls, it is washed over with a feather dipped in white of egg.

These pies are frequently baked in a tin, which is made so as only to support the walls, and is fastened on one side with a kind of skewer, which may be drawn out, so as to allow the tin to be removed without breaking the crust. As, however, the sides sometimes look too pale, when the pie is baked in a tin, the pie may be put into the oven again for a few minutes after the tin is removed, in order that the walls may be properly browned.

All pork pies should be baked slowly, on account of the solid nature of the meat; and a hole is generally made in the middle of the lid to let out the steam. No water should be put into the pie when it is made; but, when it is baked, a little gravy made from the bones of the pork may be poured in through the hole in the lid. Pork pies are never cut till they are cold. Those persons who dislike lard may use butter instead of it for the crust; but it is not quite so good.