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Title: The ladies' new book of cookery : a practical system for private families in town and country; with directions for carving, and arranging the table for parties, etc. Also, preparations of food for invalids and for children.
Author: Sarah Josepha Buell Hale
Publisher: New York, H. Long & Brother

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> THE LADY'S NEW BOOK OF COOKERY.

> CHAPTER I.

> GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR SOUPS AND STOCK.

Cleanliness Essential--Proper Meats--Water--Time--Ingredients--To Clarify--Seasoning--Stock--Brown--White--Veal Gravy--Jellies--Coloring.

THE perfection of soup is, that it should have no particular flavor: this can only be secured by careful proportion of the several ingredients.

The kettles in which the soups are made should be well tinned, and kept particularly clean, by being washed in hot water and rubbed dry before they are put away; otherwise they will have a musty smell, which will give a disagreeable taste to all things afterwards cooked in them. If they are not kept well tinned also, the taste as well as the color of the soup will be liable to be affected by the iron; and if the soup-kettle be made of copper and the tinning not quite perfect, every thing cooked in it will be in a greater or less degree poisonous as every thing which is sweet, salt, or sour, extracts verdigris from copper.

Soup must never be suffered to stand in any vessel of tin, or copper, or iron, to get cold; but always must be poured off, while hot, into a shallow, well-glazed earthenware pan, and be stirred about, every five minutes, till it is nearly cold, otherwise, the liquor will become sour.

Lean, juicy, fresh-killed meat, is best for soup: stale meat will make it ill-flavored; and fat meat is very wasteful. An economical cook will save, as ingredients for soup, the liquor


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in which meat has been boiled; for example, leg of pork liquor may be easily made into peas' soup; and calf's head liquor, and knuckle, be made the base or stock of white soup. The trimmings of undressed meat and game will be useful to enrich soups; and the bones of dressed or undressed meat assist to make a good stock. Ham gives fine flavor, as well as the bone of a dressed ham, taking care to allow for its saltness.

Soft water should always be used for making soup, unless it be of green peas, in which case hard water better preserves its color; and it is a good general rule to apportion a quart of water to a pound of meat, that is to say, flesh without bone; but rich soups may have a smaller quantity of water.

Meat for soup should never be drowned at first in water, but put into the kettle with a very small quantity and a piece of butter, merely to keep the meat from burning until the juices are extracted; by which means of stewing the gravy will be drawn from it before the remainder of the water is added. A single pound will thus afford better and richer soup than treble the quantity saturated with cold water.

The water in the soup-kettle, when first put on, should not be allowed to boil for at least half an hour; else the water will not penetrate, but harden the meat, and keep in the impurities which, in slow heating, will rise as scum. Long and slow boiling, for at least four or six hours, is necessary to extract the strength from meat; but the pot should never be off the boil from the time it commences. The fat should be taken off as it rises. If, however, as is generally thought desirable, the soup should be prepared the day before it is wanted, the fat can be removed when cold, in a cake; and the soup attains more consistence without losing the flavor; but it need not be seasoned till wanted, and then slowly heated till boiling.

When put away to cool, the soup should be poured into a freshly scalded, and thoroughly dried earthen pan; and, when to be kept for some days, occasionally simmered for a few minutes over the fire, to prevent its becoming mouldy; in re-warming soup be careful not to pour in the sediment.

All vegetables, bread-raspings, or barley, for plain common soups, when merely intended to thicken and flavor the soup, should be put in as soon as the pot is skimmed; but if the vegetables are to be served in the soup, none, with the exception of onions, should be put down to stew at the same time as the meat, and the different sorts should be put down at different


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times. Onions, whether whole, or sliced and fried, at once; pot-herbs, carrots, and celery, three hours afterwards; and turnips and others of a delicate kind, only about an hour before the soup is ready.

Spices should be put whole into soups; allspice is one of the best, though it is not so highly esteemed as it deserves.

Seville orange-juice has a finer and milder acid than lemon-juice; but both should be used with caution.

Sweet herbs, for soups or broths, consist of knotted marjoram, thyme, and parsley,--a sprig of each tied together. Tarragon is also used in soups.

The older and drier onions are, the stronger their flavor; in dry seasons, also, they are very strong: the quantity should be proportioned accordingly.

Although celery may generally be obtained for soup throughout the year, it may be useful to know, that dried celery-seed is an excellent substitute. It is so strongly flavored, that a dram of whole seed will enrich half a gallon of soup as much as will two heads of celery.

Mushrooms are much used, and when they cannot be obtained fresh, mushroom ketchup will answer the purpose, but it should be used very sparingly, as nothing is more difficult to remove than the over-flavoring of ketchup.

A piece of butter, in proportion to the liquid, mixed with flour, and added to the soup, when boiling, will enrich and thicken it. Arrow-root, or the farina or flour of potato, is far better for the thickening of soups than wheaten flour.

The finer flavoring articles, as ketchup, spices, wines, juice, &c., should not be added till the soup is nearly done.

A good proportion of wine is, a gill to three pints of soup, this is as much as can be used without the vinous flavor predominating, which is never the case in well made soups. Wine should be added late in the making, as it evaporates very quickly in boiling.

Be cautious of over-seasoning soups, with pepper, salt, spices, or herbs; for it is a fault that can seldom be remedied: any provision over-salted is spoiled. A tea-spoonful of sugar is a good addition in flavoring soups.

Vermicelli is added to soups in the proportion of a quarter of a pound for a tureen of soup for eight persons: it should be broken, then blanched in cold water, and is better if stewed in broth before it is put into the soup.

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If soups are too weak do not cover them in boiling, that the watery particles may evaporate; but if strong, cover the soup-kettle close. If they want flavor, most of the prepared sauces will give it to meat-soups, and anchovy with walnut ketchup and soy, will add to those of fish, but must be used sparingly.

If coloring be wanted, a piece of bread toasted as brown as possible--but not blackened--and put into soup to simmer for a short time before its going to be served, will generally be found sufficient. Burnt onions will materially assist in giving a fine brown color to soup, and also improve the flavor, or burnt sugar, the usual browning may be used.

To clarify soup, put into it, when first set on, the whites of 1 or 2 eggs beaten to a stiff froth; skim the pot constantly, and the liquor will be clear when strained. Soak the napkin in cold water before you strain hot soup through it, as the cold will harden the fat and only allow the clear soup to pass through. Clarifying destroys somewhat of the savor of the soup, which ought, therefore, to be more highly seasoned.

It is very usual to put force-meat balls, of various sorts, into many different soups, for the purpose of improving their flavor and appearance.

There is sometimes great prejudice against the use of particular sorts of seasoning and spices. Garlic is amongst these; and many a dish is deprived of its finest flavor for want of a moderate use of it.

Tomatoes would also be found a great improvement in many kinds of soup. If onions are too strong, boil a turnip with them, and it will render them mild.

In stirring soup, do it always with a wooden spoon.

By a tureen of soup is generally meant 3 quarts.

Soup-Herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish, is an excellent article to keep on hand; it may always be used when fresh herbs cannot be had. Make it in the following manner. Take dried parsely--winter savory--sweet marjoram--lemon-thyme of each two ounces; lemon peel, cut very thin and dried--and sweet basil, one ounce each. Dry these ingredients in a warm (not hot) oven, or by the fire, till you can pound them fine in a mortar, and pass the powder through a hair-sieve. Put this powder in a clean dry bottle, and keep it closely corked. The fragrance will be retained many months. It is an economical and delicious flavoring.

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> STOCK.

[Illustration: An illustration of a tall pot with a handle on each side and a lid.]

The basis of all well-made soups is composed of what English cooks call "Stock," or broth, made from all sorts of meat, bones, and the remains of poultry or game; all of which may be put together and stewed down in the "Stock-pot;" the contents of which are, by the French, termed Consommé.

This is chiefly used for the preparation of brown or gravy soups: that intended for white soups being rather differently compounded, though made in nearly the same manner.

Brown Stock. -- Put 10 lbs. of shin of beef, 6 lbs. of knuckle of veal, and some sheep's trotters or a cow-heel, in a closely covered stew-pan, to draw out the gravy very gently, and allow it nearly to dry in until it becomes brown. Then pour in sufficient boiling water to entirely cover the meat, and let it boil up, skimming it frequently; seasoning it with whole peppers and salt, roots, herbs, and vegetables of any kind. That being done, let it boil gently 5 or 6 hours, pour the broth from off the meat, and let it stand during the night to cool. The following morning take off the scum and fat, and put it away in a stone jar for further use.

Or:--Put into a stew-pan a piece of beef, a piece of veal, an old fowl, some slices of ham or bacon, and all the trimmings of meat that can be obtained; add to these materials, where such things are abundant, partridge, grouse, or other game, which may not be sufficiently young and tender for the spit. Put a little water to it, just enough to cover half the meat, and stew very gently over a slow fire or steam apparatus. When the top piece is done through, cover the meat with boiling water or broth; season with spices and vegetables; stew all together for 8 or 10 hours in an uncovered stew-pan; skim off the fat, and strain the liquor through a fine sieve, or woollen tamis,known by cooks as a "tammy."

Brown stock may be made from an ox-cheek, ox-tail, brisket,


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flank, or shin of beef; which will, either together or separately, make a strong jelly if stewed down with a piece of ham or lean bacon, in the proportion of 1/2 lb. to every 7 lbs. of meat; but the shin of beef alone will afford a stronger and better flavor.

This stock may also be reduced to a glaze by boiling the skimmed liquor as fast as possible in a newly-tinned stew-pan, until it becomes of the desired consistence and of a good brown color; taking care at the same time to prevent it from burning.

White Stock. --Take scrag or knuckle of veal, ox-heel, or calf's-head, together with an old fowl and the trimmings of any white poultry or game which can be had, and lean ham in the proportion of 1 lb. to every 14 lbs. of meat. Cut it all into pieces (add 3 or 4 large unroasted onions and heads of celery, with a few blades of mace; but neither carrots, pepper, nor spice of any kind but mace); put into the stock-pot with just water enough to cover it: let it boil, and add 3 onions and a few blades of mace; let it boil for 5 hours, and it is then fit for use.

Veal Gravy. --When all the meat has been taken from a knuckle of veal, divide the bones, and lay them in a stew-pot, with a pound of the scrag of a neck, an ounce of lean bacon, a bunch of parsley, a little thyme, a bit of lemon-peel, and a dessert-spoonful of pepper: add as much water as will cover them. Boil and skim it; stop the pot down close, and let it simmer, as slowly as possible, 3 hours. Strain off, and let it stand till cold; then skim it, and take the jelly from the sediment. Pound some mace fine, and boil it with 2 spoonsful of water, and add to the gravy. If cream is to be put to it, do not add the salt until the gravy comes off the fire.

Savoury, or Aspic Jelly. --Bone 4 calves' feet, clean them, boil, and skim till the water is quite clear; simmer till the feet are done, add 1/2 lb. of lean ham, and strain, remove the fat, add the juice of two lemons, a tea-spoonful of whole pepper, a blade of mace, some salt, a sprig of knotted marjoram, thyme, and parsley, and 2 onions; whisk in the whites of 10 eggs, and boil till they are curdled; then pass the whole through a jelly-bag till clear. 2 table-spoonsful of tarragon vinegar will heighten the flavor.

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This jelly may be put into meat pies, when warm, or upon the tops of cold pies: cold meats, and fish, are likewise garnished with it; for which purposes it is sometimes colored pink with cochineal, or green with spinach-juice.

Cow-heel Jelly --Is useful to thicken and improve weak soups. It may be made as follows:--soak the heels 12 hours; boil them 3 hours, and when cold, take off the fat; when nearly clear, lay white paper on the jelly, and rub it with a spoon to remove any grease that may remain.

Brown Coloring for Soup or Made Dishes. --Put in a small stew-pan 4 oz. of lump sugar, and 1/2 oz. of the finest butter, and set it over a gentle fire. Stir it with a wooden spoon till of a bright brown. Add 1/2 pint of water; boil, skim, and when cold, bottle and cork it close. Add to the soup or gravy as much of this as will give a proper color.

To restore Soups or Gravy. --Should brown gravy or mock turtle soup be spoiling, fresh-made charcoal roughly pounded, tied in a little bag and boiled with either, will absorb the bad flavor and leave it sweet and good. The charcoal may be made by simply putting a bit of wood into the fire, and pounding the burnt part in a mortar.

Mullagatawny means, simply, pepper-water. The following is the receipt to make it. Slice and fry 1 or 2 large onions, add 1 table-spoonful of Chili vinegar, and a spoonful of curry powder; mix it well with a pint of water, or more, according to taste, and salt. Let it boil for an hour, well covered, over a slow fire. This is excellent in flatulencies and bilious complaints, and may be used to flavor the broths for invalids.

Curry Powder. --Put the following ingredients in a cool oven all night, and the next morning pound them in a marble mortar, and rub them through a fine sieve:--Coriander seed, 3 oz.; turmeric, 3 ounces; black pepper, mustard, ginger, 1 oz. each; allspice and less cardamons, 1/2 oz. each; cummin seed, 1/4 oz.; thoroughly pound and mix together, and keep the powder in a well-stopped bottle.

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> CHAPTER II.

SOUPS.

Utensil for cooking Soup--White--Veal--Currie--Potage Harrico--Chicken--Cottage--Pepper-pot-- Portable--Glaze--Clear Gravy--Maccaroni--Sago--Vermicelli--Potato--Asparagus--Tomato--Peas--Ochra--Gumbo--Rice--Onion--Carrot--Venison--IIure-Mullagatawny--Pigeon--Maigre--Turtle--Lobster--Clam--Oyster--Chowder--Eel--Fish--Broths.

A COMMON camp-kettle will be found an excellent utensil for making soup, as the lid is heavy and will keep in the steam. An earthen pipkin or jar of this form, if of a long and narrow make, widening a little in the centre, is perhaps one of the best vessels for soups, and universally used by foreign cooks, who insist "that it renders the gravy more clear and limpid, and extracts more savor from the meat, than when made in tin or copper."

[Illustration: An illustration of a camp-kettle.]

White Soup. --Take a good knuckle of veal, or 2 or 3 short shanks; boil it in 4 quarts of water about 4 hours, with some whole white pepper, a little mace, salt, 2 onions, and a small piece of lean ham; strain it, and when cold take off all the fat and sediment; beat up 6 yolks of eggs, and mix them with a pint of cream; then pour the boiling soup upon it. Boil the cream before putting it in the soup.

Veal Soup. --Skin 4 lbs. of a knuckle of veal; break it and cut it small; put it into a stew-pan with 2 gallons of water; when it boils skim it, and let it simmer till reduced to 2 quarts;


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strain and season it with white pepper, salt, a little mace, a dessert-spoonful of lemon juice, and thicken it with a large table-spoonful of flour, kneaded with an ounce of butter.

Currie Soup. -- Season 2 quarts of strong veal broth with 2 onions, a bunch of parsley, salt, and pepper; strain it, and have ready a chicken, cut in joints, and skinned; put it in the broth with a table-spoonful of curry powder; boil the chicken till quite tender. A little before serving, add the juice of a lemon, and a tea-cupful of boiling cream. Serve boiled rice to eat with this soup.

N.B. Always boil cream before putting it in soup or gravy.

Veal Potage. --Take off a knuckle of veal all the meat that can be made into cutlets, &c., and set the remainder on to stew, with an onion, a bunch of herbs, a blade of mace, some whole pepper, and 5 pints of water: cover it close; and let it do on a slow fire, 4 or 5 hours at least. Strain it, and set it by till next day; then take the fat and sediment from the jelly, and simmer it with either turnips, celery, sea-kale, and Jerusalem artichokes, or some of each, cut into small dice, till tender, seasoning it with salt and pepper. Before serving, rub down half a spoonful of flour, with half a pint of good cream, and butter the size of a walnut, and boil a few minutes. Let a small roll simmer in the soup, and serve this with it. It should be as thick as middling cream, and, if thus made of the vegetables above mentioned, will make a very delicate white potage. The potage may also be thickened with rice and pearl-barley; or the veal may be minced, and served up in the tureen.

Potage a la Reine. -- Is so called from its having been said to be a favorite soup at the table of Queen Victoria.

Stew 2 or 3 young fowls for about an hour in good fresh-made veal broth: then take them out, skin them and pound the breast, or only the white meat, in a mortar until it becomes quite smooth. That done, mash the yolks of 3 or 4 hard-boiled eggs with the crumb of a French roll, soaked either in broth or in milk, and mix this with the pounded meat to form a paste, which must be afterwards passed through a sieve. During this operation the bones and skin have been left stewing in the broth, which must then be strained, and the paste


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put gradually into it: then, let it boil briskly for a short time, stirring it all the while to ensure its thorough mixture. When that is done, take it from the fire; warm a pint or more of cream, and pour it gently into the soup.

This being a delicate white soup, the broth should only be seasoned with salt and mace, nor should there be any other vegetable used than celery; but the cream may be flavored with almonds.

Hurrico Soup. --Cut some mutton cutlets from the neck; trim and fry them of a light brown; stew in brown gravy soup till tender. Have ready some carrots, turnips, celery, and onions; fry them in butter for some time, and clear the soup from the fat; then add the vegetables, color it, and thicken it with butter and flour; season, and add to it a little port wine and ketchup. If the gravy be ready, the soup will require no more time to prepare than may be necessary to render the chops and vegetables tender, and is an excellent family dish. If wished to be made more highly flavored, put in a little curry powder.

Soup for an Invalid. --Cut in small pieces, 1 lb. of beef or mutton, or part of both; boil it gently in 2 quarts of water; take off the scum, and when reduced to a pint, strain it. Season with a little salt, and take a tea-cupful at a time.

Chicken Soup. --Cut up a large fowl, and boil it well in milk and water; thicken with cream, butter, and flour. Add vegetables of different kinds cut in small pieces, such as potatoes, turnips, the heart of cabbage, one or two onions, celery, &c., with thyme, parsley, cayenne or black pepper, and mace. Boil all together: and just before you dish it, add wine, or a little lemon juice, and salt to your taste.

Shin of Beef Soup. - Put on the shin at 7 o'clock in the morning to boil--at 9 o'clock add the vegetables; take a large head of cabbage cut fine, 12 carrots cut small, 5 or 6 turnips, 2 or 3 potatoes, 2 onions roasted in hot ashes, and, if tomatoes are in season, add 2 or 3. Put in thyme, parsley, black pepper, salt, allspice, and a little mace.

When you serve, take out the meat first, and with a skimmer


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take from the bottom the thick part of the vegetables; mash them to a pulp, and pour on them the more liquid part. Serve the meat separately in a dish. This soup is excellent the second day, if kept quite sweet. Some people add mushrooms, parsnips, &c.

Cottage Soups. --Take 2 lbs. of lean beef, cut into small pieces, with 1/4 lb. of bacon, 2 lbs. of mealy potatoes, 3 oz. of rice, carrots, turnips, and onions sliced, and cabbage. Fry the meat, cabbage, and onions, in butter or dripping, the latter being the most savory; and put them into a gallon of water, to stew gently over a slow fire for 3 hours, putting in the carrots at the same time, but the turnips and rice only time enough to allow of their being well done; and mashing the potatoes, which should be then passed through a cullender: season only with pepper and salt: keep the vessel closely covered. It will make 5 pints of excellent soup.

Or:--To any quantity or kind of broth, add whatever vegetables may be in season, and stew them gently till quite tender. Then strain the soup; thicken it with flour and water, to be mixed gradually while simmering; and, when that is done, and seasoned to your taste, return the vegetables to the soup, and simmer for an hour.

Pepper Pot. --Stew gently in 4 quarts of water, till reduced to 3, 3 lbs. of beef, 1/2 lb. of lean ham, a bunch of dried thyme, 2 onions, 2 large potatoes pared and sliced; then strain it through a cullender, and add a large fowl, cut into joints and skinned, 1/2 lb. of pickled pork sliced, the meat of 1 lobster minced, and some small suet dumplings, the size of a walnut. When the fowl is well boiled, add 1/2 a peck of spinach that has been boiled and rubbed through a cullender; season with salt and cayenne. It is very good without the lean ham and fowl.

Portable Soup. -- Put on, in 4 gallons of water, 10 lbs. of a shin of beef, free from fat and skin, 6 lbs. of a knuckle of veal and 2 fowls, break the bones and cut the meat into small pieces, season with 1 oz. of whole black pepper, 1/4 oz. of Jamaica pepper, and the same of mace, cover the pot very closely, and let it simmer for 12 or 14 hours, and then strain it. The following day, take off the fat, and clear the jelly from any sediment adhering to it; boil it gently upon a stove without covering


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the sauce-pan, and stir it frequently till it thickens to a strong glue. Pour it into broad tin pans, and put it in a cool oven. When it will take the impression of a knife, score it in equal squares, and hang it in a south window, or near a stove. When dry, break it at the scores. Wrap it in paper, and put it closely up in boxes. There should always be a large supply of this soup, as with it and ketchup, no one will ever be at a loss for dressed dishes and soups.

Glaze. --Glaze is made like portable soup; a small portion will flavor a pint of water, and, with an onion, parsley, sweet herbs, allspice, and seasoning of salt and Cayenne pepper, will make a fine soup in a very short time. Sauces and gravies for game or poultry, are likewise quickly made with glaze.

Clear Gravy Soup. --Take solid lean beef in the proportion of 1 lb. of meat and 2 oz. of ham to 1 pint of water; cover the meat with cold water, and let it simmer by the fire for at least 3 hours; during which time it should not be allowed to boil, but, when coming to that point, check it with cold water, and skim it. As the gravy will then be drawn, throw in 3 quarts of warm water, along with 1/4 oz. each of black pepper, allspice, and salt, as well as a bundle of sweet herbs, a few cloves, 2 onions, 2 or 3 carrots and turnips, (the latter an hour afterwards,) together with 2 heads of celery; allow the whole to boil slowly, skimming it carefully, until the meat is done to rags, and the vegetables become tender. Then strain it through a napkin, without squeezing it. Boil the vegetables to be served in the soup separately, a few hours before dinner, in a portion of the broth, and add them to the soup. When soup is sufficiently boiled on the first day, all that it requires on the second is, to be made thoroughly hot.

This soup should be of a clear amber color, without any artificial browning; but if wanted of a deep color, a burnt onion will suffice.

This soup is, in fact, the foundation of all gravy soups, which are called after the names of the ingredients put in them; that is, vermicelli, macaroni, rice, barley, &c.

Macaroni Soups. --Take a quart of gravy soup; break 2 oz. of Naples macaroni into pieces of little more than an inch long,


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putting them, by degrees, into a small portion of the boiling soup, to prevent them from sticking together, and let them boil until quite tender, but not soft or pulpy--from 15 to 20 minutes, if quite fresh, but nearly 1/2 an hour, if at all stale. Vermicelli is used in the same manner. They will improve the consistence of the soup if the quantity above stated be added; but it is useless, and does not look well, to see as at some tables, only a few strings of it floating in the tureen.

Sago Soup. --Take gravy soup, quite clear and brown; add to it a sufficient quantity of sago to thicken it to the consistence of pea-soup, and season it with soy and ketchup; to which may be added a small glass of red wine, or a little lemon juice. It may also be made, as a white soup, of beef, by leaving out the soy and ketchup, and using white wine, adding a little cream and mace.

Vermicelli Soup. --Put into a stew-pan 1 1/2 lbs. of lean veal, a small slice of lean ham, a bunch of sweet herbs, a head of celery, an onion, some whole white pepper, a blade of mace, and 1/4 lb. of butter; set the pan over a clear fire, taking care the articles do not burn; then thicken 2 quarts of white gravy and pour it into the pan, adding a few mushroom trimmings: when it boils, set it aside, remove the scum and fat, and strain the soup upon some vermicelli, which has been soaked a few minutes in cold water, and stewed in strong broth. This soup is sometimes served with a few blanched chervil leaves in it.

potato Soup [Scotch]. --Rasp off the skin of as many potatoes as will make the quantity required; throw them into tepid water to cleanse; have water, with a little clarified dripping, butter, the stock of roast beef bones, or any other stock; put in the potatoes, and fry some onions and add them, and let it simmer till it has thickened, and the potatoes are all dissolved. A salt or red herring is an excellent relish for this soup, or a little cheese. It is astonishing, that Rumford's economical plans have made so very little progress amongst us.

This is an excellent family soup, as well as for the poor Rasped carrots, celery, and sweet herbs, are great improvements; turnips and carrots may be cut down and served in it. Should the potatoes fall to the bottom, mix in a little rice flour or fried crumbs. It may also be made with a mixture of peas.

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Asparagus Soup. --cut off the heads of asparagus about an inch long, blanch and set aside in cold water a 1/2 pint of them; put the remainder of the heads in a stew-pan, with the rest of the asparagus, broken off as low as tender, and stew them in white stock till they can be pulped through a sieve; boil them with the soup, and add the 1/3 pint of whole heads previously dried. Add 2 or 3 lumps of sugar. To make 2 quarts of this soup will require 300 heads of asparagus.

Tomato Soup. --Put in 5 quarts of water a chicken or a piece of any fresh meat, and 6 thin slices of bacon; let them boil for some time, skimming carefully, then throw in 5 or 6 dozen tomatoes peeled, and let the water boil away to about 1 quart, take out the tomatoes, mash and strain them through a sieve; mix a piece of butter, as large as a hen's egg, with a table-spoonful of flour, and add it to the tomatoes; season with salt and pepper; an onion or two is an improvement. Take the meat from the kettle, if it is done, and put back the tomatoes. Let them boil 1/2 an hour. Lay slices of toasted bread in the tureen, and pour on the soup.

Green Peas Soup. --May be made with or without meat. For the former, boil 3 pints of peas, with mint, in spring water; rub them through a sieve, put to them 3 quarts of brown gravy soup, and boil together; then add about 1/2 pint of whole boiled peas; season, and if not green enough, add spinach-juice. Or, if the gravy be not made, boil with the first peas a ham bone, or veal, or beef bones, and trimmings, to make the stock.

To make this soup without meat, put the peas, with some butter, 2 onions, seasoning, and a pint of water, into a stew-pan. Stew till the peas can be passed through a sieve, which being done, add to the liquor and pulp more water, 1/2 pint of young peas, a few fine lettuce-leaves, and some mint, shred finely; stew all together till soft. Thicken with butter and flour, if requisite.

In either of the above cases, the pea-shells, if very young, may be boiled and pulped with the first parcel of peas.

Dried Green Peas Soup. --Simmer in soft water a quart of split green peas, with a small piece of butter, until they can be pulped through a cullender; then add to them a lettuce, boiling


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water to make the soup, and some spinach-juice to color it. Simmer till ready, thicken with butter and flour, boil a few minutes, and season with pepper and salt, and sugar. The lettuce may be taken out, and asparagus-tops, or a few young peas substituted.

Old Peas Soup. --Put 1 1/2 lbs. of split peas on in 4 quarts of water, with roast beef or mutton bones, and a ham bone, 2 heads of celery, and 4 onions, let them boil till the peas are sufficiently soft to pulp through a sieve, strain it, put it into the pot with pepper and salt, and boil it nearly 1 hour. 2 or 3 handsful of spinach, well washed and cut a little, added when the soup is strained, is a great improvement; and in the summer, young green peas in the place of the spinach; a tea-spoonful of celery seed, or essence of celery, if celery is not to be had.

Vegetable Soup. --To 1/4 lb. of fresh butter, boiling hot, add onions chopped very fine. When they are quite soft, throw in spinach, celery, carrots, kidney beans, &c., also chopped fine, with green peas, and any other vegetables that you can collect. Stir them well in the onions and butter till they begin to dry. Have ready a tea-kettle of boiling water, and pour about a pint at a time over your vegetables, till you have as much as you want. Serve up with bread or toast in the bottom of the dish. Pepper and salt to your taste.

Ochra Soup. --Boil a leg of veal with about 4 dozen ochras, an hour; then add 6 tomatoes, 6 small onions, 1 green pepper, a bunch of thyme and parsley, and let it boil till dinner-time. Season it with salt, and red pepper to your taste, and if agreeable, add a piece of salt pork which has been previously boiled. The soup should boil 7 or 8 hours.

Gumbo Soup. --Cut up a chicken or any fowl as if to fry, and break the bones; lay it in a pot with just enough butter to brown it a little; when browned, pour as much water to it as will make soup for four or five persons; add a thin slice of lean bacon, an onion cut fine, and some parsley. Stew it gently 5 or 6 hours; about 20 minutes before it is to be served make a thickening by mixing a heaping table-spoonful of sassafras leaves, pounded fine, in some of the soup, and adding it to the


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rest of the soup; a little rice is an improvement. If the chickens are small, 2 will be required, but 1 large pullet is sufficient.

Ochru Gumbo. --Heat a large table-spoonful of hog's lard on butter. Stir into it, while hot, 1/2 table-spoonful of flour. Add a small bunch of parsley, a large onion, with plenty of ochra, all chopped up very fine. Let it fry till it is quite brown. Then add a common-sized fowl cut up in small pieces, and let all fry together until quite cooked. Then pour in about 3 quarts of hot water, and boil till reduced to one-half.

Rice Soup. --Take white stock, season it, and either whole rice boiled till very tender, or the flour of rice may be used; 1/2 lb. will be sufficient for 2 quarts of broth.

Onion Soup [Plain]. --Simmer turnips and carrots for 2 hours, in weak mutton broth; strain it, and add 6 onions, sliced and fried; simmer 3 hours, skim, and serve.

Rich Onion Soup. --Put into a stew-pan 12 onions, 1 turnip, and a head of celery, sliced, 1/4 lb. of butter, and a quart of white gravy; stew till tender; add another quart of gravy, pulp the vegetables, and boil with the soup, strained, for 1/2 an hour, stirring it constantly; and, just before serving, stir in 1/2 pint of boiling cream, and about 18 button onions nicely peeled, and boiled soft in milk and water. Season with salt. Spanish onions only are sometimes used; and the soup may be thickened, if requisite, with rice flour, worked with butter.

Hotch Potch. --Boil for 2 hours or more if not perfectly tender, 1 lb. of peas with 1/2 ounce of butter, or a little fat; pulp them through a sieve; put on, in a separate sauce-pan, a gallon of water, 3 lbs. of mutton chops, some salt and pepper, 1 1/2 lbs. of carrots, the same of turnips, cut small; boil till the vegetables become tender, which may be in about 2 hours, add the strained peas to it, and let it boil 1/4 of an hour.

Carrot Soup. --Take 6 or 8 full-grown carrots, of the red sort, scrape them clean, and rasp only the outer rind, or soft red part, and if you have a single ripe tomato, add it, sliced, to the raspings, but use no other vegetable except onions. While


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this is doing, the broth of any kind of fresh meat which has been got ready should be heated and seasoned with a couple of onions fried in butter, but without pepper, or any other kind of seasoning, except a small quantity of mace and a little salt. When all is ready, put the raspings into 2 quarts of the skimmed broth, cover the stew-pan close, and let it simmer by the side of the fire for 2 or 3 hours, by which time the raspings will have become soft enough to be pulped through a fine sieve: after which the soup should be boiled until it is as smooth as jelly, for any curdy appearance will spoil it.

Thus all the roots, and most of such vegetables as can be easily made into purées, and combined with any sort of broth, will, in this manner, make excellent soup of different denominations, though all founded upon the same meat-stock. The gravy of beef is always preferred for savory soups, and that of veal or fowls for the more delicate white soups: to which from 1/2 pint to 1 pint of cream, or, if that cannot be had, the same quantity of milk, and the yolks of 2 raw eggs, should be added for every 2 quarts of soup; remembering, however, that the latter will not impart the richness of cream.

Parsnip Soup --is made in the same way as that of carrots; only that the whole of the root is used, and it requires either another tomato or a spoonful of Chili vinegar to cheek its rather mawkish sweetness.

Venison Soup. --Take 4 lbs. of freshly-killed venison cut off from the bones, and 1 lb. of ham in small slices. Add an onion minced, and black pepper to your taste. Put only as much water as will cover it, and stew it gently for an hour, keeping the pot closely covered. Skim it well, and pour in a quart of boiling water. Add a head of celery cut small, and 3 blades of mace. Boil it gently 2 1/2 hours; then put in 1/4 lb. of butter, cut small and rolled in flour, and 1/2 pint of Port, or Madeira. Let it boil 1/4 of an hour longer, and send it to the table with the meat in it.

Clear Hare Soup. --Cut a large hare into pieces, and put it, together with a scrag or knuckle of veal, and a cow-heel, into a kettle, with 5 or 6 quarts of water, herbs, onions, &c., and a little mace; stew it over a slow fire for 2 hours, or until the gravy is good; then take out the back and legs, cut the meat


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off, returning the bones, and stewing the whole until the meat is nearly dissolved. Then strain off the gravy, put a glass of wine to every quart of soup, and send it to table with the meat cut into small pieces, and warmed with the wine, which will take about 10 or 15 minutes. Soup may be made in much the same way of either rabbit or fawn, only not stewing them so long.

French Hare Soup. --Skin and wash perfectly clean 2 young hares, cut them into small pieces, and put them into a stew-pan, with 2 or 3 glasses of Port wine, 2 onions stuck with 2 cloves each, a bunch of parsley; a bay leaf; of thyme, sweet basil, and marjoram, 2 sprigs each, and a few blades of mace; let the whole simmer upon a stove for an hour. Add as much boiling broth as will entirely cover the meat, simmer till it be soft enough to pulp through a sieve, then strain it and soak the crumb of a small loaf in the strained liquor; separate the bones from the meat, pound the meat in a mortar, and rub it along with the liquor through a sieve; season with pepper and salt, and heat the soup thoroughly, but do not let it boil.

Chicken Mullagatawny. --Cut up a young chicken, as for a currie; fry 2 sliced onions with butter until of a light brown color, when add a table-spoonful of currie, and half as much flour; mix these with the onions, and add 1 quart or 3 pints of rich gravy, previously made, either from veal, beef, mutton, or poultry. Boil it, skim off the butter, add a pinch of salt, and put into it the chicken, cut up as above. Simmer the whole until the fowl be tender, when the soup will be ready to serve in a tureen, with a dish of boiled rice. A young rabbit may be substituted for the chicken.

Madras Method of Preparing Mullagatawny. --Cut up a fowl, duck, rabbit, beef, or mutton, and boil the same in 2 quarts of water for 15 minutes. Next, mix 2 table-spoonsful of currie, a table-spoonful of butter, the juice of a lemon, and 6 tea-spoonsful of pea-flour, pour on them 1/2 a pint of boiling water, and, having well stirred them together, strain them through a sieve, over the fowl in a stew-pan, to which add 3 onions, and 2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely, and fried in butter. Boil the whole together for 1/2 an hour, or till the soup is the thickness of cream; but no water should be added late in the process.


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If eaten as soup and bouilli, boiled rice should be mixed with it.

The currie-powder above directed is made as follows: mix 1/2 oz. of turmeric, 1/6 oz. of Cayenne, 1 1/2 oz. of coriander seed, 1/3 oz. of powdered cassia, and about a dram of ground black pepper.

Friar's Chicken. --Take 3 quarts of water, and put into it 3 or 4 lbs. of knuckle of veal; stew gently till all the goodness is out of the meat; skim the fat off, and strain the broth through a sieve. Then take a chicken, or a full-grown young fowl, dissect it into pieces, and put it into the broth, which should be made hot, and seasoned only with salt and parsley. Let it simmer for nearly another hour; beat the whites and yolks of 3 or 4 eggs thoroughly, and mix them effectually with the soup, just before serving; taking care to stir them all one way. Rabbits may be substituted for fowls.

Pigeon Soup. --Make a strong beef stock, highly seasoned as if for brown soup, take 6 or 8 pigeons according to their size, wash them clean, cut off the necks, pinions, livers, and gizzards, and put them into the stock; quarter the pigeons and brown them nicely; after having strained the stock, put in the pigeons; let them boil till nearly ready, which will be in about 1/2 an hour, then thicken it with a little flour, rubbed down in a tea-cupful of the soup, season it with 1/2 a grated nutmeg, a table-spoonful of lemon-juice or of vinegar, and one of mushroom catsup; let it boil a few minutes after all these ingredients are put in, and serve it with the pigeons in the tureen; a better thickening than flour is to boil quite tender 2 of the pigeons, take off all the meat and pound it in a mortar, rub it through a sieve, and put it, with the cut pigeons, into the strained soup.

To make partridge soup, partridge may be substituted for pigeons, when only 4 birds will be required; pound the breast of one.

Rich Soup Maigre [Scotch].-- Take a handful, or sufficient quantity, of 2 or 3 different vegetables; blanch and fry them with a large proportion of onion, in butter or dripping; dredge with flour, and put them into a sauce-pan with fish stock: let it simmer till the vegetables dissolve. Have ready bread or


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vegetable, &c., to put into the soup. Observe, if dripping is used, it is not then maigre. The French use the juice of dry peas for making maigre soups.

Onion Soup Maigre. --Slice 12 large onions with 2 turnips and 2 heads of celery. Fry them in 1/2 lb. of butter till quite brown, but not allowing them to burn. When of a nice color, put them in a gallon of boiling water, with either a soft-roed red herring, or 2 or 3 anchovies, or 1 table-spoonful of anchovy sauce, seasoned with a few blades of pounded mace, and some grains of allspice, pepper, and salt, and let the whole stew until it is tender enough to pulp. When ready, have the crumb of a loaf of bread boiled in milk, and pass it, with the vegetables, through the cullender. Put it again over a fire to stew for a few minutes; if not thick enough, add the yolks of raw eggs, to be beaten up into the soup when just going to be put on the table.

potato Soup Maigre. --Take some large mealy potatoes; peel and cut them into small slices, with an onion; boil them in 3 pints of water till tender, and then pulp them through a cullender; add a small piece of butter, a little Cayenne pepper and salt, and, just before the soup is served, 2 spoonsful of good cream. The soup must not be allowed to boil after the cream has been put into it.

N.B. This will be found a most excellent soup, and, being easily and quickly made, is useful upon an emergency, when such an addition is suddenly required to the dinner.

Turtle Soup. --Hang up the turtle by the hind fins, cut off the head, and allow it to drain.

Cut off the fore fins; separate the callipash (upper shell) from the calipee (under shell), beginning at the hind fins. Cut off the fat which adheres to the calipash, and to the lean meat of the callipee. Then cut off the hind fins. Take off the lean meat from the fins, and cut it into pieces 2 inches square and put it into a stew-pan. The callipash, calipee, and fins, must be held in scalding (but not boiling) water a few minutes, which will cause the shell to part easily.

Cut the callipash and calipee into pieces about 6 inches square, which put into a stock-pot with some light veal stock. Let it boil until the meat is tender, and then take it out into


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cold water; free the meat from the bones, and cut it into pieces an inch square. Return the bones into the stock and let it boil gently for 2 hours, strain it off, and it is then fit for use.

Cut the fins across into pieces about an inch wide, boil them in stock with an onion, 2 or 3 cloves, a faggot of parsley, and thyme, a sprig of sweet basil and marjoram. When tender, take them out, and add this stock to the other.

Take the lean meat, put into a stew-pan with a pint of Madeira, 4 table-spoonsful of chopped green shalot, 2 lemons sliced, a bunch of thyme, marjoram, and savory (about 2 table-spoonsful each when chopped), 1 1/2 table-spoonsful of sweet basil (chopped), and 4 table-spoonsful of parsley. Pound together a nutmeg, 1 dozen allspice, 1 blade of mace, 5 or 6 cloves, 1 table-spoonful of pepper and of salt. Mix the whole together with as much curry powder as will lie on a shilling. Put about 2/3 of this to the lean meat, with 1/2 lb. of fresh butter and 1 quart stock. Let the whole be gently sweated until the meat is done.

Take a large knuckle of ham, cut it into very small dice, put into a stew-pan with 4 large onions sliced, 6 bay-leaves, 3 blades of mace, 1 dozen allspice, 3/4 lb. of butter; let it sweat until the onions are melted. Shred a small bunch of basil, a large one of thyme, savory, and marjoram; throw these into the onions, and keep them as green as possible: when sweated sufficiently, add flour according to your judgement sufficient to thicken the soup. Add, by degrees, the stock in which the callipash and calipee were boiled, and the seasoning stock from the lean meat. Boil for an hour; rub through a tammy, and add salt, Cayenne, and lemon juice to palate. Then put in the meat; let it all boil gently about 1/2 an hour; and if more wine be required, it must be boiled before being added to the soup. This is for a turtle of from 40 to 50 lbs. It should, however, be recollected that the animal is of various weight--from a chicken-turtle of 40 lbs. to some cwts.--and the condiments must be apportioned accordingly. It should invariably be made the day before it is wanted.

Forcemeat for Turtle. --1 lb. of fine fresh suet, 1 lb. of ready-dressed veal or chicken chopped fine, crumbs of bread, a little shalot or onion, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, mace, pennyroyal, parsley, and lemon-thyme finely shred; beat as many fresh


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eggs, yolks and whites separately, as will make the above ingredients into a moist paste; roll into small balls, and boil them in fresh lard, putting them in just as it boils up. When of a light brown, take them out, and drain them before the fire. If the suet be moist or stale, a great many more eggs will be necessary.

Balls made this way are remarkably light; but being greasy, some people prefer them with less suet and eggs. They may therefore be made thus:--Chop up the materials with a little white pepper and salt, a sage leaf or two scalded and finely chopped, and the yolk of an egg; make them into small cakes or fritters, and fry them.

Another Turtle Soup. --When the turtle is ready for dressing, cut off all the meat that is good for baking, and put it aside for that purpose. Then take the bones, fins, entrails, heart, and liver; and put them on with a piece of fresh beef and a little salt to stew. When about half done, season with black pepper, Cayenne, mace, cloves, nutmeg, thyme, parsley, and onions, chopped very fine. Thicken with drop dumplings, made by beating together a thick batter of cream, salt, and the yolks of eggs.

Mock Turtle Soup. --Scald and clean thoroughly a calf's head with the skin on; boil it gently an hour in 4 quarts of water, skimming it well. Take out the head, and when almost cold, cut the meat off and divide it into bits about an inch square.

Slice and fry, of a light brown in butter, 2 lbs. of the leg of beef, and 2 lbs. of veal, and 5 onions cut small, and 2 oz. of green sage. Add these to the liquor in which the head was boiled, also the bones of the head and trimmings, 2 whole onions, a handful of parsley, 1 tea-spoonful of ground allspice, and 2 tea-spoonsful of black pepper, salt to your taste, and the rind of a lemon; let it simmer and stew gently for 5 hours--then strain it, and when cold take off the fat. Put the liquor into a clean stew-pan, add the meat cut from the head, and for a gallon of soup add 1/2 pint of Madeira wine, or claret, or the juice of a lemon made thick with pounded loaf sugar; mix a spoonful of flour and a cup of butter with a little of the broth, and stir it in. Let it stew very gently till the meat is tender, which will be about an hour.

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About 20 minutes before it is to be served, add a small tea spoonful of Cayenne, the yolks of 8 or 10 hard-boiled eggs, and a dozen forcemeat balls; some add the juice of a lemon. When the meat is tender the soup is done.

To make the meat balls, boil the brains for 10 minutes, then put them in cold water; when cool, chop and mix them with 5 spoonsful of grated bread, a little grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, and thyme, and 2 eggs; roll the balls as large as the yolk of an egg, and fry them of a light brown in butter or good dripping.

Very good soup, in imitation of turtle, is also made from calves' feet;--4 of these boiled in 2 quarts of water, till very tender--the meat taken from the bones, the liquor strained--a pint of good beef gravy and 2 glasses of wine added, seasoned as the calves' head soup--with hard eggs, balls, &c.

Lobster Soup. --Cut small a dozen common-sized onions, put them into a stew-pan with a small bit of butter, a slice or two of lean ham, and a slice of lean beef; when the onions are quite soft, mix gradually with them some rich stock; let it boil, and strain it through a fine hair sieve, pressing the pulp of the onions with a wooden spoon; then boil it well, skimming it all the time. Beat the meat of a boiled haddock, the spawn and body of a large lobster, or of two small ones, in a marble mortar; add gradually to it the soup, stirring it till it is as smooth as cream; let it boil again and scum it. Cut the tail and the claws of the lobster into pieces, and add them to the soup before serving it, and also some pepper, cayenne, white pepper, and a glass of white wine.

Forcemeat balls may be added to oyster soup and lobster soup, made as directed under the article "Forcemeat for Fish."

Clam Soup. --Take 50 large or 100 small clams, and wash the shells perfectly clean. Throw them into a kettle of boiling water; use only water enough to keep the clams from burning; as soon as the shells open and the liquor runs out, take out the clams and strain the liquor into the soup-kettle. Cut the clams small and put them in the kettle, adding a quart of milk and water each. Add also an onion cut small, some blades of mace, and 12 whole pepper corns. Let it boil 15 minutes, skimming it well; then add 1/4 lb. of sweet butter rolled in flour, cover the kettle a few minutes, and serve it hot.

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Oyster Soup. -- Take 2 quarts of oysters and drain them with a fork from their liquor; wash them in one water to free them from grit; cut in small pieces 2 slices of lean bacon; strain the oyster liquor and put in it the bacon, oysters, some parsley, thyme, and onions tied in a bunch as thick as the thumb, season with pepper and salt, if necessary; let it boil slowly, and when almost done, add a lump of butter as large as a hen's egg, rolled in flour, and a gill of good cream. It will take from 20 to 30 minutes to cook it.

Chowder. -- Fry some slices cut from the fat part of pork, in a deep stew-pan, mix sliced onions with a variety of sweet herbs, and lay them on the pork; bone and cut a fresh cod into thick slices, and place them on the pork, then put a layer of slices of pork, on that a layer of hard biscuit or crackers, then alternately, the pork, fish, and crackers, with the onions and herbs scattered through them till the pan is nearly full; season with pepper and salt, put in about 2 quarts of water, cover the stew-pan close, and let it stand with fire above and below it for 4 hours; then skim it well and serve it.

Eel Soup. --Take 3 lbs. of small eels, and skin them; bone 1 or 2; cut them in very small pieces; fry them very lightly in a stew-pan with a bit of butter and a sprig of parsley. Put to the remainder 3 quarts of water, a crust of bread, 3 blades of mace, some whole pepper, an onion, and a bunch of sweet herbs; cover them close, and stew till the fish breaks from the bones; then strain it off; pound it to a paste, and pass it through a sieve. Toast some bread, cut it into dice, and pour the soup on it boiling. Add the scollops of eel, and serve. The soup will be as rich as if made of meat. 1/4 pint of cream or milk, with a tea-spoonful of flour rubbed smooth in it, is a great improvement.

To every pound of eels add a quart of water, and let the whole boil till 1/2 of the liquor is wasted. The soup of conger eels is also said to be good, but the fish has not the richness of the fresh water eel, and can only be recommended by its cheapness.

Lake and Pond Fish Soup. --For every person take a pound each of pike, perch, roach, dace, gudgeon, carp and tench, eels, or any fresh water fish that can be obtained; wash them in salt


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and water, and stew them with a tomato, carrots, leeks, fried onions, and sweet herbs, in as much water as will cover them; and let them stew until the whole is reduced to a pulp; then strain the liquor, and boil it for another hour until it becomes quite smooth. Then have ready some roots of any sort that may be in season, which have been chopped small, and boiled either in milk or water: add them to the soup, and let it simmer for 15 minutes; season it, if milk has been used, with mace and celery, with a little Cayenne; but if made solely with water, then use Chili vinegar, soy, mushroom ketchup, or any of the savory sauces.

Stock for Fish Soup. --Take a dozen of any small fish, and the same number of perch; gut and clean them carefully; put them into a stew-pan with 2 quarts of strong veal-broth; add a few slices of lean ham, 2 or 3 carrots, celery and onions cut in slices, some sweet herbs and salt, with a little Cayenne; stew till the fish will pass through a coarse sieve; then return it into the stew-pan, with a good lump of butter and some flour to thicken it; add a couple of large glasses of white wine, and a large spoonful of garlic vinegar. The gravy from potted herrings, anchovies, or a little Oude sauce, will also improve the flavor.

This stock, if once re-boiled, will, in cold weather, keep well for a month; or, if served as soup, the quantity may of course be reduced according to the number of the party intended to partake of it, and it will be found excellent. Indeed, any species of fish may be made into soup in the same manner. If meant to be browned, the onions, should be fried, and a good spoonful of mushroom ketchup, or India soy be added; and red wine will be better than either Sherry or Madeira. But if left white, cream should be substituted for ketchup and soy; a glassful of ginger wine will answer the purpose of red wine.

In making this stock it should also be observed, that the bones of the fish are what constitute its best part; for if stewed down in a digester, they will become a jelly of a very rich nature, which may be applied to many sorts of soups and sauces. The bones of large fish--salmon, cod, soles, and turnbot--are never taken from the dish on which they are served; and therefore, should always be returned to the stock-pot; or any remains and trimmings of the fish may be used. Add to


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this a carrot and an onion or two, and let the whole stew until dissolved.

To thicken or enrich white or fish soups, it is a good way to pour them, boiling hot, on the beaten yolks of 2 or 3 fresh eggs.

Fish Soups. --Good soups may be made by simmering a cod's head, or any fish, in water enough to cover the fish; adding pepper and salt, mace, an onion, celery, parsley, and sweet herbs. When done, strain, and thicken the soup with oatmeal, or flour. If for brown soup, first fry the fish.

> BROTHS.

Mutton Broth. --The best part of the mutton from which to make good broth is the chump end of the loin, but it may be excellently made from the scrag end of the neck only, which should be stewed gently for a long time--full 3 hours, or longer if it be large--until it becomes tender; but not boiled to rags, as it usually is. A few grains of whole pepper, with a couple of fried onions and some turnips, should be put along with the meat an hour or two before sending up the broth, which should be strained from the vegetables, and chopped parsley and thyme mixed in it. The turnips should be mashed, and served in a separate dish, to be eaten with the mutton, with parsley and butter, or caper-sauce.

If meant for persons in health, it ought to be strong, or it will be insipid. The cooks usually skim it frequently; but if given as a remedy for a severe cold, it is much better not to remove the fat, as it is very healing to the chest.

Another way--for an Invalid. --Boil 3 lbs. of the scrag end of a neck of mutton, cut into pieces, in 3 quarts of water, with 2 turnips and a table-spoonful of pearl barley or rice. Let it boil gently for 3 hours, keeping it cleanly skimmed.

Veal Broth. --Stew a knuckle of veal of 4 or 5 lbs. in 3 quarts of water, with 2 blades of mace, an onion, a head of celery, and a little parsley, pepper, and salt; let the whole simmer very gently until the liquor is reduced to 2 quarts; then take out the meat, when the mucilaginous parts are done,


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and serve up with parsley and butter. Add to the broth either 2 oz. of rice separately boiled, or of vermicelli, put in only long enough to be stewed tender. Dish the knuckle separately, and serve it with parsley and butter.

Barley Broth. --Take a breakfast-cupful of pearl barley, boil it in a gallon of water gently for 30 minutes, then take 3 lbs. of meat--lamb or mutton chops, with the fat cut off, or lean beef--put them into a separate stew-pan, dress them with a small quantity of water, add to them any kind of vegetables--carrots and turnips, with small onions, celery, and green peas, if in season--salt, pepper, and, with the water and the barley, let the whole boil gently for 2 hours or longer, and serve it up all together.

Or:--Take 3 quarts of good broth, cut into a stew-pan 2 carrots, 3 or 4 turnips, 2 heads of celery, a lettuce, a little parsley, and some small onions, and a little butter and gravy. Stew until the vegetables become quite tender; add to this a few spoonsful of rice, boiled separately; put the whole together, and boil for 15 minutes.

Beef Brose. --Skim off the fat of water in which beef has been boiled: boil it, and stir in oatmeal to thicken it.

Chicken Broth. --Cut a chicken into joints, wash them, and put them into 3 pints of water, with 2 oz. of rice, some pepper, salt, and a blade or two of mace. Boil and skim carefully, and then simmer for 2 hours. Serve with vermicelli, or chopped parsley, boil 5 minutes in the soup.

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> CHAPTER III.

FISH.

Directions for choosing Fish--Cooking in different ways--Marinade--Preserving--Utensils, &c.

[Illustration: An illustration of a rectangular pot with handles and a lid with wholes in the top.]

THE cook should be well acquainted with the signs of freshness and good condition in fish, as many of them are most unwholesome articles of food when stale, or out of season. The eyes should be bright, the gills of a fine clear red, the body stiff, the flesh firm, yet elastic to the touch, and the smell not disagreeable. When all these marks are reversed, and the eyes are sunken, the gills very dark in hue, the flesh itself flabby and of offensive odor, it is bad, and should be avoided. The chloride of soda, will, it is true, restore it to a tolerably eatable state,* if it be not very much over-kept, but it will never resemble in quality fish that is fresh from the water.

[Illustration: An illustration of an oval pot with a handle on the side and the lid.]

A good turbot is thick, and full fleshed, and the under side is of a pale cream color or yellowish white; when this is of a bluish tint, and the fish is thin and soft, it should be rejected.

*We have known this applied very successfully to salmon, which from some hours keeping in sultry weather, had acquired a slight degree of taint of which no trace remained after it was dressed.

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The best salmon and codfish are known by a small head, very thick shoulders, and a small tail; the scales of the former should be bright, and its flesh of a fine red color: to be eaten in perfection, it should be dressed as soon as it is caught, before the curd (or white substance which lies between the flakes of flesh) has melted and rendered the fish oily. In that state it is really crimp, but continues so only for a very few hours.

The flesh of cod fish should be white and clear before it is boiled, whiter still after it is boiled, and firm though tender, sweet and mild in flavor, and separated easily into large flakes. Many persons consider it rather improved than otherwise by having a little salt rubbed along the inside of the back bone, and letting it lie from 24 to 48 hours before it is dressed. It is sometimes served crimp like salmon, and must then be sliced as soon as it is dead, or within the shortest possible time afterwards.

Herrings, mackerel, and whitings, lose their freshness so rapidly, that unless newly caught they are quite uneatable. The herring may, it is said, be deprived of the strong rank smell which it emits when broiled or fried, by stripping off the skin, under which lies the oil that causes the disagreeable odor. The whiting is a peculiarly pure flavored and delicate fish, and acceptable generally to invalids from being very light of digestion.

Eels should be alive and brisk in movement when they are purchased, but the "horrid barbarity," as it is truly designated, of skinning and dividing them while they are so, is without excuse, as they are easily destroyed "by piercing the spinal marrow close to the back part of the skull with a sharp pointed knife or skewer. If this be done in the right place all motion will instantly cease." We quote Dr. Kitchener's assertion on this subject; but we know that the mode of destruction which he recommends is commonly practised by the London fishmongers. Boiling water also will immediately cause vitality to cease, and is perhaps the most humane and ready method of destroying the fish.

Lobsters, pawns, and shrimps, are very stiff when freshly boiled, and the tails turn strongly inwards; when these relax, and the fish are soft and watery, they are stale; and the smell will detect their being so instantly even if no other symptoms of it be remarked. If bought alive, lobsters should be chosen by their weight and "liveliness." The hen lobster is preferred


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for sauce and soups, on account of the coral; but the flesh of the male is generally considered of finer flavor for eating. The vivacity of their leaps will show when prawns and shrimps are fresh from the sea.

Oysters should close forcibly on the knife when they are opened; if the shells are apart ever so little they are losing their condition, and when they remain far open the fish are dead, and fit only to be thrown away. Small plump natives are very preferable to the larger and coarser kinds.

Preparatory to the dressing, the fish should be carefully gutted, and afterwards cleaned thoroughly by the cook, from all appearances of blood, particularly scraping the blood that lodges about the back bone, and cutting the fish open for some distance below the vent. If, however, the fishmonger does not clean it, fish is seldom very nicely done, for common cooks are apt not to slit the fish low enough, by which, and not thoroughly washing the blood, &c., from the bone, a very disgusting mass is left within, and mistaken for liver; but fishmongers generally wash it beyond what is necessary for cleaning, and by perpetual watering diminish the flavor. It should, in fact, be handled as little as possible, and never left in the water a moment after it is washed. In washing it, the best way is to hold the fish firmly by the head with your left hand, and scrape off the scales or slime; wash it once in clean cold water, and either dry it with a towel or hang it up and leave it to drain.

Some kinds, as whiting, bass, cod, and haddock, eat firmer if salt be put into their gills, and they be hung up a few hours before dressing.

Fish are either boiled, fried, or broiled. Salt may be added to the water in which all kinds of fish are boiled; and the flavor of sea-fish is much improved by boiling it in sea-water. Fish should boil gently, or rather simmer after it has once boiled up, and the water should be constantly skimmed.

Instead of dissolving salt in the water in which fish are to be boiled, some cooks prefer to steep the fish in salt and water from 5 to 10 minutes, before putting it in the kettle to cook: the necessity of using salt in boiling fish is thus avoided; less scum rises, so that the lid has not to be taken off so often to skim it, and the fish comes to table not only nicer, but with a better appearance.

Almost all cookery books direct that fish should be put into as much or more water as will cover them, this is also a very


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bad way: if the fish be a little more than half covered with water, and gradually brought to boil, then well covered down with your sauce-pan lid, and boiled gently till done, it will eat much richer, have a finer flavor, and be more firm than if cooked the old way, or rather drowned in water, which only soddens fish, and takes away the fine firmness so much prized.

To render boiled fish firm, put a small bit of saltpetre with the salt in the water in which it is boiled; 1/4 oz. will be sufficient for a gallon.

To determine when fish is sufficiently boiled, draw it up upon the fish-plate, and if the thickest part of the fish can be easily divided from the bone with a knife, the fish will be done, and should be at once taken from the water, or it will lose its flavor and firmness.

By most cooks it is considered better to put all fish on in boiling than cold water.

An oval pan is best adapted to frying fish. Olive oil is best to fry in, but dripping or lard is commonly used. It should boil before the fish is put in it, and be kept gently boiling until the fish is of a yellowish brown color, when it should be taken out and drained.

To broil fish, have a clear but not fierce fire. Dry the fish in a cloth, season it with pepper and salt, and flour it; then put it on a gridiron, having first rubbed the heated bars with suet, otherwise the fish will stick to them and be broken: it should be often turned in broiling.

In the dressing of flat fish as cutlets, the fillets should be lifted from the bones, and the spine which runs through the centre of the round sorts should be extracted.

The stewing of fish, and dressing it in fillets and cutlets, requires considerably more care in the cookery, as well as cost in the ingredients, than either of the previous modes; and as a preliminary to the operation, a gravy should be got ready, to be made in the following manner:--Take out all the bones, cut off the heads and tails, and, if this should not be sufficient, add an eel, or any small common fish; stew them with an onion, pepper, salt, and sweet herbs; strain it, and thicken it to the consistence of cream, flavoring with a slight addition of wine or any other sauce. The French employ the commonest sorts of their wine as a marinade, or sauce, both for the boiling and stewing of fish.

Marinade--is commonly used in France for the purpose of


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boiling fish, which imbibes from it a more pleasant flavor than it naturally possesses, and has been so generally adopted by English professed cooks that we here insert the receipt:--Cut up 2 carrots, 3 onions, 6 shalots, a single clove of garlic, and put them into a stew-pan with a piece of butter, a bunch of parsley, and a bundle of sweet herbs; fry the whole for a few minutes, then add, very gradually, 2 bottles of any light wine or of cider. Put in a handful of salt, 2 dozen of peppercorns, the same quantity of allspice, and a couple of cloves. Simmer the whole together for 1 1/2 hour, strain the liquor, and put it by for use.

This marinade, if carefully strained after the fish has been taken out, will serve several times for the same purpose, adding a little water each time. Fish dressed in it should simmer very gently, or rather stew than boil, as it affords to mackerel, fresh herrings, perch, roach, and any of the small river fish, the advantage of dissolving, or so thoroughly softening their bones, as to render them more agreeable in eating. For large fish, they should be cut into steaks before being marinaded. Instead of the wine or cider, a quart of table-beer, a glass of soy, 1 of essence of anchovies, and 1 of ketchup, may be used; or a pint of vinegar and these sauces, fennel, chives, thyme, and bay-leaves, may be added with the wine, cider, &c. Or, choose a kettle that will suit the size of the fish, into which put two parts water, 1 of light (not sweet) white wine, a good piece of butter, some stewed onions and carrots, pepper, salt, 2 or 3 cloves, and a good bunch of sweet herbs; simmer 15 minutes, let it become cold, then boil the fish therein. Serve with anchovy-sauce and a squeeze of lemon.

Fresh-water Fish are equally nutritious with those of the sea; they are much lighter as food, and therefore easier of digestion; they are, however, more watery, and it is requisite to use salt, in order to extract the watery particles. Every sort of fresh-water fish, ought, therefore, as soon as killed and cleaned, to have salt well rubbed inside and outside, and should be allowed so to remain for some time before it is cooked, when it should be well washed out with pure spring water, and wiped thoroughly dry with a clean cloth.

If bred in ponds, it often acquires a muddy smell and taste; to take off which, soaking in strong salt and water, or, if of a size to bear it, scalding in the same, will have the proper effect.

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To Preserve Fish Fresh.--Boil 3 quarts of water and a pint of vinegar, in which, when boiling, put the fish, and scald it for 2 minutes. Then hang up the fish in a cool place, and it will keep for 2 or 3 days, and dress as well as if fresh caught.

If the fish should happen to freeze they should be placed in cold water without salt, for an hour or so, to thaw them.

Fish is usually garnished with horse-radish, sliced lemon, or fried parsley; and the roe, melt, and liver. When served up it should not be covered.

Fish-kettles [See cuts at the head of this chapter,] have always a perforated false bottom, with handles affixed, called a fish-strainer, so that it is very easy to take up fish when done, without breaking it; when dished up, it must be slid off this strainer on to a fish-plate, which fits the dish you serve it up in, on which fish-plate a nice clean white napkin is sometimes put to lay the fish on, to absorb all the moisture.

Some people do not approve of a napkin to lay fish on; in which case, of course, you must only slide the fish off the strainer on to the fish-plate, which you put into a dish that it fits, and serve it up.

Should it so happen, that the fish is done before it is wanted, or that the family is not ready to sit down, the best way will be to wrap a wet napkin round the fish, and placing it very carefully on the tin strainer, suspend it in the fish-kettle, over so much of the boiling water as will keep it hot, but not touch it. It will thus be kept ready to serve up when wanted; but it will not be near so nice as if it had been sent up to table the moment it was cooked.

Melted butter to be served with the fish, should be made thicker than when intended for any other purpose, as it is usually thinned at table by one or other of the sauces taken with fish.

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> CHAPTER IV.

FISH.

How to cook Cod-fish--Salmon--Mackerel--Shad--Rock-fish--Bass--Black-fish--Haddock--White-fish--Sturgeon--Halibut--Trout--Perch--Small Fish--Fish Cutlets--Kedgeree--Fillets of Fish--To Scollop Fish--Fish Cake--Casserole of Fish--Croquettes of Fish-- Herrings-- Anchovy Butter--Sandwiches--Toast--Caviare.

COD-FISH.

In highest season from October to the beginning of February; in perfection about Christmas.

To boil Cod-fish. --When this fish is large, the head and shoulders are sufficient for a handsome dish, and they contain all the choicer portion of it, though not so much substantial eating, as the middle of the body, which, in consequence, is generally preferred to them by the frugal housekeeper. Wash the fish, and cleanse the inside, and the back bone in particular, with the most scrupulous care; lay it into the fish-kettle and cover it well with cold water mixed with 5 oz. of salt to the gallon, and about 1/4 oz. of saltpetre to the whole. Place it over a moderate fire, clear off the scum perfectly, and let the fish boil gently until it is done. Drain it well,* and dish it carefully upon a very hot napkin, with the liver and the roe as a garnish. To these are usually added tufts of lightly scraped horse-radish round the edge. Serve well made oyster sauce and plain melted butter with it; or anchovy sauce when oysters cannot be procured. Moderate size, from 20 to 30 minutes; large, from 30 to 45 minutes to boil.

*This should be done by setting the fish-plate across the kettle for a minute or two.

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Slices of Cod-fish fried. --Cut the middle or tail of the fish into slices nearly an inch thick, season them with salt and white pepper or Cayenne, flour them well, and fry them of a clear equal brown on both sides; drain them on a sieve before the fire, and serve them on a well-heated napkin, with plenty of crisped parsley round them. Or, dip them into beaten egg, and then into fine crumbs mixed with a seasoning of salt and pepper (some cooks add one of minced herbs also,) before they are fried. Send melted butter and anchovy sauce to table with them. From 8 to 12 minutes to fry.

Obs. --This is a much better way of dressing the thin part of the fish than boiling it, and as it is generally cheap, it makes thus an economical, as well as a very good dish: if the slices are lifted from the frying-pan into a good curried gravy, and left in it by the side of the fire for a few minutes before they are sent to table, they will be found excellent--would be quite spoiled, if they are boiled with the fish. Garnish the dish with slices of hard boiled eggs, and serve with egg-sauce.

Cod Sounds --are the soft parts about the jowl of the fish, which are taken out, salted, and barrelled. For boiling, they should be soaked in warm water for about 30 minutes, and then scraped and cleaned. Boil them in milk and water till tender, when they should be served with egg sauce.

For broiling cod sounds, scald, and clean them; simmer them till tender, then take them out, flour, and broil them. While this is doing, make a sauce for them with a little brown gravy, seasoned with pepper, salt, a little mustard, and a teaspoonful of soy, with flour and butter; boil together, and pour over the sounds.

To stew Cod-fish. --Cut 4 lbs. of cod in slices, season them with pepper and salt, put them into a stew-pan with 1/2 pint of water, some good gravy, 1/2 pint of wine, the juice of 1/2 a lemon, a dozen or two of oysters with their liquor, a piece of butter rolled in flour, and 2 or 3 blades of mace. When the fish is sufficiently stewed, which will be in 15 minutes, serve it up with the sauce. Any kind of fish-sauce may be substituted for the wine, and a variety given by employing anchovies instead of oysters.

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To bake Cod-fish. --Butter a pan, lay the fish in it with a bundle of sweet herbs, an onion stuck with 6 cloves, a spoonful of black and white pepper, salt, and a quart of water: flour the fish, stick it over with pieces of butter, and add to it raspings of bread. When sufficiently baked, take out the fish carefully, strain the gravy, thicken it, and add to it a pint of shrimps, 1/2 pint of oysters, a spoonful of essence of anchovies, and a glass of Harvey or Reading sauce; warm all together, and pour it round the fish; garnish with lemon, crisped parsley, and fried bread or paste.

Codlings are very good dressed in this manner.

To bake Cod or Haddock. --Choose the middle part of the fish, and carefully take off the skin; then make a stuffing with a little of the roe par-boiled, the hard-boiled yolks of 2 eggs, some grated lemon peel, bread crumbs, a little butter, pepper, and salt, binding the whole with the white of an egg, with which stuff the fish, and sew it up. Bake it for an hour in a tin dish, in a Dutch oven; turning it often, and basting it with butter. Serve with oyster sauce, shrimp sauce, or plain butter.

Crimped Cod. --Cut a fresh cod into slices, lay them for 3 hours in salt and water, to which add a glass of vinegar; when it may be boiled, fried, or broiled.

To dress Salt Fish. --Soak it in cold water, according to its saltness; the only method of ascertaining which, is to taste one of the flakes of the fish. That fish which is hard and dry will require 24 hours' soaking, in 2 or 3 waters, to the last of which add a wine-glassful of vinegar. But less time will suffice for a barrelled cod, and still less for the split fish. Put the fish on in cold water, and let it simmer, but not actually boil, else it will be tough and thready. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs, the yolks cut in quarters, and serve with egg-sauce, parsnips, or beet-root.

Or:--Lay the piece you mean to dress all night in water, with a glass of vinegar; boil it enough, then break it into flakes on the dish; warm it up with cream and a large piece of butter rubbed with a bit of flour, and serve it as above with egg-sauce.

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Fricaseed. --Salt fishthat has been boiled and left until cold is an excellent dish when warmed; break it into flakes, and put it into a pan with sauce thus made: beat boiled parsnips in a mortar, then add to it a cup of cream, a good piece of butter rolled in flour, a little white pepper, and a 1/2 tea-spoonful of mustard, all simmered together; keep the fish no longer on the fire than to become hot, but not boil.

Or:--Shred the fish into very small pieces, break up potatoes which have been already boiled, and put them along with the fish under the rolling-pin, so as to reduce the whole nearly to a paste. Then mix with it some hard-boiled eggs, minced fine; put the whole into a stew-pan to warm with a good piece of butter, and send it up with egg-sauce. Should you prefer not to mix them, build a wall of mashed potatoes, put the fish in the centre, and heat in a Dutch oven; if you have a parsnip, mash it, and add it to the mass.

> SALMON.

To boil Salmon. --Put on a kettle with plenty of spring water, and when it boils, add a handful of salt, and take off the scum as it rises; then put in the fish, and boil very gently. Allow 15 minutes to each pound of fish, for it requires nearly as much boiling as meat. But in some cases the thickness, not the weight, must be considered; so that a quarter of a salmon may take nearly as long boiling as half a salmon.

The best method, therefore, of boiling salmon, is to split the fish from head to tail: if you neglect this, but boil it whole, cut crosswise through the middle, it is scarcely possible to cook it evenly, the thickness of the back and shoulders being such, that if the outside be properly done, the inside will be imperfectly so. On the Tweed, and in other salmon districts, a salmon is never boiled whole, or cut across. Serve with shrimp, anchovy, lobster, or fennel sauce.

About 10 lbs. of a full-grown salmon make a fine dish. Salmon peel, or small salmon, are dished crooked, in the form of an S; they are mostly good fish, but neither so rich nor full flavored as the large salmon. A few slices of culvered salmon make an elegant but very expensive dish.

To broil fresh Salmon. --Cut slices from the thickest part of the fish, an inch thick, dry them, season them with pepper and


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salt, and rub them with butter or salad oil; put the gridiron over a clear slow fire, wipe it clean, and rub the bars with oil or lard: lay on the salmon, and broil it carefully 10 or 12 minutes. Or, the pieces of salmon may be put in oiled paper, thus broiled, and served in the paper. To turn the salmon on the gridiron, lay a stew-pan cover on the fish, turn the gridiron over, and the salmon will be on the cover.

Broiled salmon may be served with anchovy butter, or tomato, or caper sauce.

Salmon is, however, better baked than broiled.

To broil dried Salmon. --Cut in pieces, as above, and broil with or without paper; but it should only be warmed through. It is a relishing addition to breakfast; and is likewise a dinner dish, with egg-sauce and mashed potatoes.

To bake Salmon. --Scale it, and take out the bone from the part to be dressed, but fill up the cavity with forcemeat, and bind the piece with tape. Then flour it, rub it with yolk of egg, and put it into a deep baking-dish, covering it very thickly with crumbs of bread, chopped parsley, and sweet herbs, together with shrimps, if they can be got, and put into the covering a few small bits of fresh butter; place it in a Dutch oven, or, if already boiled and thus re-dressed, heat it only before the fire until browned.

To fry Salmon. --Salmon cutlets should be cut from a piece of a split salmon; cut them without bone about 1/2 an inch thick, and rub them over with egg well beaten; season with pepper and salt, dip them in chopped herbs and bread crumbs, fry them as you would a veal cutlet; serve with Indian-pickle sauce.

Or:--Cut pieces 1/2 an inch thick; season them, and put them in paper, and broil until hot through: serve with lemon only. This is usually eaten at breakfast.

Or:--As in the Hebrew fashion, slice the salmon, and cover it with salt for 2 hours; then dry it, and brush it over with yolk of eggs. Fry it in oil, and serve it cold with salad. Any small pieces of salmon may be dressed with salad, or with salad-sauce.

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To pickle boiled Salmon. --Lay it in a deep dish, and cover it with vinegar and pump water, in equal proportions, with a little salt.

Or: --Add to some of the water in which the salmon was boiled, 1/4 part of vinegar, 2 or 3 bay-leaves, some salt, and whole black pepper; boil this liquor 30 minutes, and when cold, pour it over the salmon, which will be ready in 4 or 5 days.

To pickle Salmon. --Split and clean the fish, and cut it into pieces; boil it for a few minutes in a brine strong enough to bear an egg; then take out the salmon, and lay it on a sloping board to drain off the liquor. Next, boil and skim the liquor in the kettle, mix it with an equal quantity of vinegar, and pour it over the salmon, with a handful of salt, 6 bay-leaves, 6 blades of mace, and 1/2 oz. of whole black pepper. Omitting the spice, this is said to be the Newcastle method of pickling salmon for the London market.

Sturgeon, herrings, sprats, and mackerel, may be pickled in the above manner.

To pot Salmon. --Bone, skim, and clean, but do not wash the salmon, salt it, and when the salt is dissolved and drained off, season it with ground mace, a few cloves, and whole pepper, lay it in a pan, with a few bay-leaves, cover it with butter, and bake it 2 or 3 hours; then drain off the gravy, press the salmon into pots, and pour over it clarified butter.

To stew Salmon. --Scrape the fish, and stew slices of it in a rich white gravy; to which add, just before serving, a table-spoonful of essence of anchovies, a little salt, and some parsley chopped fine.

To dry Salmon. --Cut the fish down, take out the inside and roe, rub the whole with common salt, after scaling it; let it hang 24 hours to drain. Pound 3 or 4 oz. of saltpetre, according to the size of the fish, 2 oz. of bay salt, and 2 oz. of coarse sugar; rub these, when mixed well, into the salmon, and lay it in a large dish or tray 2 days; then rub it well with common salt, and in 24 hours more it will be fit to dry; wipe it well after draining. Hang it either in a wood chimney or in a dry


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place, keeping it open with 2 small sticks. Dried salmon is eaten broiled in paper, and only just warmed through, egg-sauce and mashed potatoes with it; or, it may be boiled, especially the bit next the head.

> MACKEREL

Are so well known, and in such general use as an esteemed fish, that any description is unnecessary. Their season is the months of May, June, and July, after which time they spawn and lose condition; but some have an after season, about October, when they recover their flesh and flavor. They are so tender that they keep worse than any other kind of fish; if not dressed within 45 hours after being caught they become putrid. Their freshness may be ascertained not only by the signs common to all fish, of fulness in the eye and glossiness of the skin, but also by the appearance of the bars on the back, which should be distinctly marked black, those of the male being nearly straight, whilst those of the female are waving; an observation worth attending to, as the flesh of the male is better than that of the female. Their condition should also be looked to, for, if the body be not full and deep from the shoulder downwards, it is a proof that the fish has been diseased, or lost its roe as "shotten mackerel," which is always ill-tasted. They are delicate, though not rich in flavor.

They may be dressed in various ways, but plainly boiled is the most usual, and considered by many good judges as the best mode of preserving their flavor.

To boil Mackerel. --They should be carefully cleaned both inside and out: then washed in vinegar and water, and left to hang a little to dry before being put into the fish-kettle. A handful of salt should be put into the water, which should be at first cold, and only allowed to boil gently from 15 to 20 minutes, though some prefer having the water boiling hot. The fish should be watched about that time, as "when the eye starts, and the tail splits, they are done, and should be immediately taken up; if left in the water they will break."

The most customary sauce is that of fennel, which has partly superseded the gooseberry, but parsley and butter is still in use.

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Or: --Mackerel may beboiled in a marinade made as follows:--Take, with some weak broth, 2 table-spoonsful of vinegar, a bundle of sweet herbs, a few small onions, or a large one stuck with a clove, pepper, and salt; boil these together an hour; then boil the fish in this gravy: take them out when ready, strain the liquor, and thicken it; make it green with chopped parsley and fennel; add a tea-spoonful of any kind of fish sauce, and send it to table.

To broil Mackerel. --Clean and split them open; wipe dry; lay them on a clean gridiron, rubbed with suet, over a very clear slow fire; turn; season with pepper, salt, and a little butter; fine-minced parsley is also used.

Trout and perch are broiled in the same way.

Mackerel boiled whole [An excellent receipt]. --Empty and cleanse perfectly, a fine and very fresh mackerel, but without opening it more than is needful; dry it well, either in a cloth, or by hanging it in a cool air until it is stiff; make with a sharp knife, a deep incision the whole length of the fish, on either side of the back bone, and about 1/2 an inch from it, and with a feather put in a little Cayenne and fine salt, mixed with a few drops of good salad oil, or clarified butter. Lay the mackerel over a moderate fire upon a well heated gridiron, which has been rubbed with suet; loosen it gently should it stick, which it will do unless often moved; and when it is equally done on both sides, turn the back to the fire. About 30 minutes will broil it well. If a sheet of thickly-buttered writing paper be folded round it, and just twisted at the ends before it is laid on the gridiron, it will be finer eating than if exposed to the fire; but sometimes when this is done, the skin will adhere to the paper, and be drawn off with it, which injures its appearance. This is one of the very best modes of dressing a mackerel, which in flavor is quite a different fish when thus prepared, to one which is simply boiled. A drop of oil is sometimes passed over the skin to prevent its sticking to the iron. It may be laid to the fire after having been merely cut as we have directed, when it is preferred so. Large, 30 minutes; 25, if small.

To bake Mackerel. --Cut off the heads and tails, open them, and clean them well; rub them with pepper and salt, put them


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into a deep dish, with a little mace, one or two bay leaves, and some whole black pepper; then pour over them equal quantities of cold vinegar and water, tie the dish over with strong paper, (not brown,) and bake for an hour in a slow oven. Or, the mackerel may be seasoned as before, buttered and baked in a dish with butter, without the vinegar and water, and eaten with fennel or parsley and butter.

Pickled Mackerel, or Caveach. --Clean 6 large mackerel, cut them, split or whole, into 4 or 5 pieces, leaving out the heads and tails. Then mix an ounce of pepper, 2 nutmegs, a little mace, (both finely powdered) and a handful of salt; rub the pieces of fish with this powder, and fry them brown in oil; when cold, put them into a jar, and fill it up with vinegar. Mackerel may thus be kept good for several months, especially if oil be poured upon the vinegar.

To souse Mackerel.-- If kept until cold, to be eaten on the following day, they should be soused in equal proportions of vinegar and water, sufficient to cover them, and containing some whole black pepper, mace, and a few bay-leaves.

> SHAD.

> In season in April, May, and the early part of June.

To bake a Shad. --Empty and wash the fish with care, but do not open it more than is necessary, and keep on the head and fins. Then stuff it with forcemeat. Sew it up, or fasten it with fine skewers, and rub the fish over with the yolk of egg and a little of the stuffing.

Put into the pan in which the fish is to be baked, about a gill of wine, or the same quantity of water mixed with a table-spoonful of Cayenne vinegar, or common vinegar will do. Baked in a moderate oven 1 1/2 or 2 hours, or according to its size.

To broil Shad. --This delicate and delicious fish is excellent broiled. Clean, wash, and split the shad, wipe it dry and sprinkle it with pepper and salt--broil it like mackerel.

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Shad, Touraine Fashion. --Empty and wash the fish with care, but do not open it more than is needful; fill it with forcemeat and its own roe; then sew it up, or fasten it securely with very fine skewers, wrap it in a thickly-buttered paper, and broil it gently for an hour over a charcoal fire. Serve it with caper sauce, or with Cayenne vinegar and melted butter.

We are indebted for this receipt to a friend who has been long resident in Touraine, at whose table the fish is constantly served, thus dressed, and is considered excellent. It is likewise often gently stewed in the light white wine of the country, and served covered with a rich bechamel. The charcoal fire is not indispensable: any that is entirely free from smoke will answer. We would suggest as an improvement, that oyster-forcemeat should be substituted for that which we have indicated, until the oyster season ends. Broiled gently, 1 hour, more or less, according to its size.

To fry Shad. --Clean the fish, cut off the head, and split it down the back; save the roe and eggs when taking out the entrails. Cut the fish in pieces about 3 inches wide, rinse each in cold water, and dry on a cloth; use wheat flour to rub each piece. Have ready hot salted lard and lay in the fish, inside down, and fry till of a fine brown, then turn and fry the other side. Fry the roe and egg with the fish.

To Bake a Shad, Rock-fish, or Bass. --Clean the fish carefully, sprinkle it lightly with salt and let it lie a few minutes; then wash it, season it slightly with Cayenne pepper and salt, and fry it gently a light brown. Prepare a seasoning of bread crumbs, pounded mace and cloves, majoram, parsley, Cayenne pepper and salt; strew it over and in the fish; let it stand an hour. Put it in a deep dish, and set it in the oven to bake; to a large fish, put in the dish 1/2 pint of water, 1 pint of wine, Port and Madeira mixed, or the juice of a lemon made thick with loaf sugar, 1/2 tea-cupful of mushroom or tomato ketchup; to a small one allow in proportion the same ingredients; baste frequently, and garnish with sliced lemon.

To boil Rock-fish, Black-fish, and Sea Bass. --Clean the fish with scrupulous care, particularly the back bone, then lay the fish into the fish-kettle and cover it with cold water, strewing in a handful of salt, (and a small pinch of saltpetre, if you


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have it,) and place it over a moderate fire. Clean off the scum carefully, and let it boil very gently till it is done; then drain it, as directed for cod-fish, and dish it nicely--garnished with hard boiled eggs, cut in halves. Celery sauce, or anchovy sauce, is the proper kind for these fish, or plain melted butter.

To souse Rock-fish. --Boil the fish with a little salt in the water until it is thoroughly cooked. Reserve part of the water in which it was boiled, to which add whole pepper, salt, vinegar, cloves allspice, and mace, to your taste; boil it up to extract the strength from the spice; and add the vinegar after it is boiled. Cut off the head and tail of the fish, and divide the rest in several portions. Put it in a stone jar, and when the fish is quite cold, pour the liquor over it. It will be fit to use in a day or two, and will keep in a cold place two or three weeks.

Black-fish and Bass. --These fish are cooked in a manner similar to Rock-fish and Shad.

> HADDOCK.

To boil Haddock. --They are in season from June till January, and their condition may be tested in the same manner as Cod; but they should be immediately gutted, much below the vent, and carefully cleaned, to prevent the rancidity which would otherwise be occasioned to their flavor by the oiliness of the liver, if it be allowed to remain in the body. The gills and eyes should also be taken out, and a very little salt put into the body, which should be hung up for a short time to dry. Their average weight rarely exceeds 4 to 5 lbs., but the larger they are the better they will generally be found, their firmness being the greatest merit in their quality, and depending much upon their size. The fish is very delicate in flavor, and is most usually left unskinned; plainly boiled, very fast, for about 15 minutes, or 20 minutes if it be large. It may be served with parsley and butter, or oyster sauce.

To fry Haddock. --If of a very small size, they may be turned round with their tails run through their jaws; but this


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cannot be done when they are large; they are in that case either cut in slices or filleted, and fried with crumbs of bread and egg.

To broil Haddock, &c. --The fish is either scored or skinned, and split up, brushed over with a feather dipped in oil, peppered and salted, and laid whole upon the gridiron, without either crumbs of bread or egg, and eaten, if it befresh, with only a squeeze of lemon, or some anchovy sauce; if dried and salted, as the Findhorn, or, as they are commonly called "Finnan haddock," they are merely used as a breakfast relish, without any sauce or condiment but a spoonful of mustard.

To bake Haddock, &c. -- scales should be craped off, but the tail and head must not be removed, though the spinal bone should be taken out, and the body stuffed with any approved forcemeat.

The Scottish mode of Baking is:--Take 2 good-sized haddocks, clean, and wipe them well in a cloth, but do not wash them; keep the breasts as whole as possible. Strew salt over them, and lay them on a board for several hours; then wipe the salt from them, cut off the heads and fins, cut the skin through down the back, and take it off neatly, being careful to keep the fish whole. Beat up the yolks of 3 eggs, dip each in the egg, have ready some bread crumbs, mixed with pepper, salt, and chopped parsley; roll the fish in the crumbs, and stuff the heads and breasts with oysters chopped, but not too small, and bread crumbs blended with an egg. Butter a dish, lay the fish upon it, stick pieces of butter upon each, and bake them. For sauce, take a pint of veal gravy, the same quantity of cream, mix 2 table-spoonsful of flour in a little of the cream, cold, and boil till smooth; add a blade of mace, a little nutmeg, salt, and an onion. When about to dish, take out the onion, add a wine-glassful of wine with the yolk of an egg well beaten. Lay the heads of the fish at each end, and garnish with lemon.

> WHITINGS.

To boil Whitings [French Receipt] --Having scraped, cleaned, and wiped them, lay them on a fish-plate, and put them into water at the point of boiling; throw in a handful of salt,


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2 bay-leaves, and plenty of parsley, well washed, and tied together; let the fish just simmer from 5 to 10 minutes, and watch them closely that they may not be over-done. Serve parsley and butter with them, and use in making it the liquor in which the whitings have been boiled. Just simmered from 5 to 10 minutes.

Baked Whiting, a la Francaise. --Proceed with these exactly as with baked Soles, or, pour a little clarified butter into a deep dish, and strew it rather thickly with finely-minced mushrooms, mixed with a tea-spoonful of parsley, and (when the flavor is liked, and considered appropriate) with an eschalot or two, or the white part of a few green onions, also chopped very small. On these place the fish, after they have been scaled, emptied, thoroughly washed, and wiped dry: season them well with salt, and white pepper, or Cayenne; sprinkle more of the herbs upon them; pour gently from 1 to 2 glasses of light white wine into the dish, cover the whitings with a thick layer of fine crumbs of bread, sprinkle these plentifully with clarified butter, and bake the fish from 15 to 20 minutes. Send a cut lemon only to table with them. When the wine is not liked, a few spoonsful of pale veal gravy can be used instead; or a larger quantity of clarified butter, with a table-spoonful of water, a tea-spoonful of lemon-pickle and of mushroom catsup, and a few drops of soy. 15 to 20 minutes.

> STURGEON.

To boil Sturgeon. --Having cleaned a strugeon well, boil it is as much liquor as will just cover it; add 2 or 3 bits of lemon-peel, some whole pepper. a stick of horse-radish, and a pint of vinegar to every half-gallon of water.

When done, garnish the dish with fried oysters, sliced lemon, and horse-radish, and serve it up with melted butter, with cavear dissolved in it; or with anchovy sauce; and with the body of a crab in the butter, and a little lemon-juice.

To roast sturgeon, place it on a lark spit, which fasten on a large spit; baste it continually with butter, and serve with a good gravy and some lemon-juice.

To stew Sturgeon. --Cut the fish in slices 1 1/2 inch thick, dip them in vinegar, dry them well, flour, and broil the slices;


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then flour and lay them in a stew pan with some good broth, and let them stew gently until perfectly tender; thicken the gravy with butter or cream, add a spoonful of Harvey's sauce, 1/2 a glass of wine, and serve it up with capers strewed over the top, and garnished with slices of lemon.

To roast Sturgeon. --Put a good-sized piece in a large cradle-spit (5 or 6 lbs. will make a handsome dish for the head of the table); stuff it with forcemeat; keep it at the fire for 2 or 3 hours, but remove the skin; cover it with crumbs of bread, and brown it with the salamander; baste it constantly with butter, and serve with a good brown gravy, an anchovy, a squeeze of Seville orange or lemon, and a glass of sherry boiled up, and poured into the dish.

Sturgeon Cutlets. --Cut in slices 1/4 inch thick; dry, flour, and egg them; dip them in crumbs, seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley, and thyme; fry them, and serve with Indian pickle, tomato, or piquant sauce.

> HALIBUT, OR, HOLIBUT,

Partakes somewhat of the flavor of the turbot, and grows to an enormous size, being sometimes caught weighing more than a cwt.; the best size is, however, from 20 to 40 lbs., as, if much larger, it is coarse. The most esteemed parts are the flakes over the fins, and the pickings about the head; but on account of its great bulk, it is commonly cut up and sold in collops, or in pieces of a few pounds weight, at a very reasonable rate. A small one cut in thin slices and crimped, is very good eating.

To boil Halibut. --Take a small halibut, or what you require from a large fish. Put it into the fish-kettle, with the back of the fish undermost, cover it with cold water, in which a handful of salt, and a bit of saltpetre the size of a hazel nut, have been dissolved. When it begins to boil, skim it carefully, and then let it just simmer till it is done. 4 lbs. of fish will require nearly 30 minutes, to boil it. Drain it, garnish with horse-radish or parsley--egg sauce or plain melted butter, are served with it.

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Fillets of Halibut, Black-fish, Bass, &c. --The word fillet, whether applied to fish, poultry, game, or butcher's meat, means simply the flesh of either (or of certain portions of it), raised clear from the bones in a handsome form, and divided or not, as the manner in which it is to be served may require. It is an elegant mode of dressing various kinds of fish, and even those which are not the most highly esteemed, afford an excellent dish when thus prepared. The fish, to be filleted with advantage, should be large; the flesh may then be divided down the middle of the back, next, separated from the fins, and with a very sharp knife raised clean from the bones.* When thus prepared, the fillets may be divided, trimmed into a good form, egged, covered with fine crumbs, fried in the usual way, and served with the same sauces as the whole fish; or each fillet may be rolled up, in its entire length, if very small, or after being once divided, if large, and fastened with a slight twine, or a short thin skewer; then egged, crumbed, and fried in plenty of boiling lard; or merely well floured, and fried from 8 to 10 minutes. When the fish are not very large, they are sometimes boned without being parted in the middle, and each side is rolled from the tail to the head, after being first spread with butter, a few bread crumbs, and a high seasoning of mace and Cayenne; or with pounded lobster mixed with a large portion of the coral, and the same seasoning, and proportion of butter; then laid into a dish, well covered with crumbs of bread and clarified butter, and baked from 12 to 16 minutes, or until the crumbs are colored to a fine brown, in a moderate oven.

The fillets may likewise be cut into small strips or squares of uniform size, lightly dredged with pepper or Cayenne, salt, and flour, and fried in butter over a brisk fire; then well drained, and sauced with a good bechamel, flavored with a tea-spoonful of minced parsley.

[Editorial note: This footnote appears at the bottom of page 48 in the original text.]

* A celebrated French cook gives the following instructions for raising these fillets:- "Take them up by running your knife first between the bones and the flesh, then between the skin and the fillet; by leaning pretty hard on the table they will come off very neatly."

To collop Halibut-- Cut the fish into nice cutlets, of about an inch thick, and fry them; then put them into a broth made of the bones, 4 onions, a stick of celery, and a bundle of sweet herbs, boiled together for 1/2 an hour. Strain this broth, thicken


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it, and stew the fish for 1/2 an hour, adding salt, pepper, a grating of nutmeg, and pounded mace, a spoonful of soy or fish sauce, and half that quantity of lemon juice, with a little shred lemon-peel.

Or:--The collops may be fried in batter, or with beaten eggs and crumbs of bread; or, if made into cutlets, cut quite thin, and fried in sweet oil, without egg and bread crumbs, are very good if eaten with sauce a la Tartare.

To stew the Head of Halibut. --Put a pint of beer, or any kind of wine, a few anchovies, an onion stuck with cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, and some pepper, into a stew-pan; fill it nearly with water, though ale, without water, is used by many good cooks, and stew it for an hour: then strain it, and put in the head of a halibut, stew it till tender; when done enough, thicken the gravy with butter and flour, add a little fish-sauce, and serve it up with forcemeat-balls made of a part of the fish, pounded, and rolled up with crumbs of bread, thyme, marjoram, and nutmeg, bound together with the yolk of an egg. If the fish has been stewed in plain water, a glass of wine should then be added to the sauce.

> TROUT

Are, by many people, thought to be a small kind of salmon, but, though much resembling it in outward appearance and delicacy of taste, they are of a distinct species, only inhabiting rivulets of running water, and never bred, as the salmon is, in the sea. They are very small, seldom exceeding 2 to 3 lbs., and more frequently not reaching more than 3/4 lb. in weight.

To fry Trout. --Clean and dry them thoroughly in a cloth, fry them plain in hot butter; or beat the white of egg on a plate, dip the trout in the egg and then in very fine bread crumbs, which have been rubbed through a sieve--biscuit-powder is better. Fry them till of a delicate brown; it takes but a few minutes, if the trout be small--serve with crisp parsley and plain melted butter.

To bake Trout[in the Foreign Mode]. --Cover the bottom of a small oval paper form with a few very thin slices of fat bacon,


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cut down the back some nicely-washed small trout, and, having removed the bones, lay the fish open, flat upon the bacon; sprinkle with chopped parsley, pepper, salt, a little mace, and 2 cloves finely pounded. Bake 30 minutes in a quick oven, and serve in paper.

Another Mode. --Baking, if you have an oven, is decidedly the best mode of dressing all the larger sort of fresh-water fish, and also the simplest. Dry the fish, lay them in a baking-dish, season with pepper and salt, and put a little butter on them; bake them according to the size; add the juice that comes from the fish to some rather thick melted butter.

To boil Trout. --They should be wiped dry with a coarse towel, rubbed from head to tail, and boiled whole, putting them into cold water mixed with a small quantity of vinegar, into which should be also put some scraped horse-radish; let them boil gradually for about 20 to 30 minutes, according to size, and take care not to break the skin; serve with plain melted butter.

> PERCH.

To boil Perch. --First wipe or wash off the slime, then scrape off the scales, which adheres rather tenaciously to this fish; empty and clean the insides perfectly, take out the gills, cut off the fins, and lay the perch into equal parts of cold and of boiling water, salted as for mackerel: from 8 to 10 minutes will boil them unless they are very large. Dish them on a napkin, garnish them with curled parsley, and serve melted butter with them, or Mâitre d'Hotel sauce maigre.

Very good French cooks put them at once into boiling water, and keep them over a brisk fire for about 15 minutes. They dress them also without taking off the scales or fins until they are ready to serve, when they strip the whole of the skin off carefully, and stick the red fins into the middle of the backs: the fish are then covered with the Steward's sauce, thickened with eggs. In warm water, 8 to 10 minutes; in boiling, 12 to 15.

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To fry Perch or Tench. --Scale and clean them perfectly; dry them well, flour and fry them in boiling lard. Serve plenty of fried parsley round them.

> SMALL FISH.

Roach, smelts, gudgeons, minnows, or other small fish, must be well cleaned and dried, and shaken in a floured cloth, and may then be fried either with a little butter, or in boiling fat. Or they may be first dipped in egg, and sprinkled with fine bread crumbs.

They will scarcely take more than two minutes to make them of a nice brown color, when they are done. Let them be drained on a hair sieve, before the fire, till they are pretty free from fat.

Fish Cutlets. --Chop a considerable quantity of herbs with a small piece of shalot, season it with pepper and salt; and put it into a stew-pan with 2 oz. of butter; as the butter is melting, add a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovies. Do not allow the butter to more than melt, and mix the whole well together; then cut any kind of white fish, dressed or raw, into handsome cutlets, and, when the herb seasoning is nearly cold, spread it on the fish thickly with a knife; dredge the fish with bread crumbs, and cook them on butter-pans in an oven, or before the fire. Stew a few silver button-onions, or a chopped onion, with any green vegetables in season, cut it into dice in a little broth, add nasturtiums, and a little of the pickle; keep them in the middle of a dish, and lay the cutlets round.

Or:--Take any fish previously dressed, pull it in pieces, and mix it with a little good stock, and any fish sauce which may have been left from table; spread it on a flat dish, brush it with egg, and sprinkle thick with bread crumbs, cut it out in cutlets and fry brown.

Kedgeree for Breakfast. --Boil 2 table-spoonsful of rice, add any fish previously cooked, (salmon or turbot is preferable) and nicely picked; beat up an egg well, and stir it in just before serving. The egg must not boil.

Fillets of Fish. --Take any white fish, bone, split, and cut them into handsome fillets, and squeeze the juice of a lemon


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over them, make a fine forcemeat with lobsters or shrimps, lay it thickly on the fillets, roll them up, and tie or skewer them. Put them into a fish gravy, and bake them in an oven: when done, thicken the gravy and serve up the fish in it.

To scollop Fish --Is in some measure to make it into a pie, as the usual mode is to bake it in scollops or shapes resembling the shells; as thus:--

Flake the fish, and imbed it in bread crumbs moistened with thin melted butter or cream, flavored with any approved sauce; cover the top thickly with bread crumbs, lay bits of butter over, and bake it either before the fire or in a Dutch oven; or lay the fish in the bottom of the dish, with a rich white sauce of cream, and cover the top only with bread crumbs.

Fish Cake. --Cut the meat from the bones, put them, the head and fins, over the fire to stew for gravy, with a pint of water, and onion, herbs, pepper, and salt. Mince the meat, put to it 1/3 part of crumbs of bread, a little minced onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and a very small bit of mace: mix well, and make it into a cake with white of egg and a little melted butter; cover it with raspings, and fry it a pale brown, keeping a plate on the top while doing. Then lay it in a stew-pan, with the fish gravy, and stew it gently 15 minutes; turn it twice, but with great care not to break it: cover it closely while stewing.

Cake of dressed meat, done in the same way, is remarkably good.

Casserole of Fish. --Is a title given, among others, by French cooks, to "poisson rechauffé," or fish which has been left after being dressed, and is meant to be re-heated. There are almost as many modes of doing this, as of originally dressing the various sorts; but we here only retain a few of the most simple:--

Take any kind of cold fish, and divide it into large flakes; boil 2 or 3 eggs hard, and cut them into slices; have also some mashed potatoes; butter a mould, and put in the fish, eggs, and potatoes, with a little delicate seasoning of white pepper; moisten the whole with cream, or thin melted butter, and a spoonful of essence of anchovies; boil the mould and turn it out.

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Or:--Take some fish which has been dressed, and rub it through a sieve; to 1/2 lb. of fish allow 1/4 lb. of bread-crumbs, 2 eggs well beaten, 1 tablespoonful of essence of anchovies, 1 of Harvey sauce, and a little salt and cayenne pepper; mix all well together, and put it into a mould; let it boil 1/2 an hour, and serve it with a good fish-sauce in the dish.

Croquettes of Fish. --Take dressed fish of any kind, separate it from the bones, mince it with a little seasoning, an egg beaten with a teaspoonful of flour, and one of milk; roll it into balls; brush the outside with egg, and dredge it well with bread-crumbs, fry them of a nice color: the bones, heads, tails, with an onion, an anchovy, and a pint of water, stewed together, will make the gravy. Lobsters make delicate croquettes; in which case the shell should be broken, and boiled down for the gravy.

> RED HERRINGS.

Red herrings are dried when salted, but those cured in Ireland, Scotland, and Holland are packed and left in the pickle for exportation. Dutch herrings have acquired the highest reputation in consequence of their superior delicacy. They are brought to London in small casks, containing only a dozen each, and in Holland are always eaten raw, though English prejudice spoils them by broiling. They are so highly cured as to make the fish quite transparent; are generally steeped for an hour or two in cold milk, scored across, and form an excellent relish.

Choose those that are large and moist; cut them open and pour some boiling water over them to soak 1/2 an hour; drain them dry, and make them just hot through before the fire; then rub some cold butter over them, and serve. Instead of butter, a little salad oil will add to the richness; but it must be dropped on while before the fire, and in the smallest quantity. A very usual mode is, however, to split them open without any soaking, and hang them separately on the hooks of a cheese-toaster, by which means the soft roe will be browned. Some of them will have hard roes, in which case the belly should be carefully opened, and a little butter inserted between the lobes, but again close up the belly to more readily melt the butter.

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> EELS.

Eels are in season the whole year, excepting in April and May, and when in high condition have a bright, glossy appearance on the back, and a brilliant white on the belly. Unless eels weigh at least half a pound in weight, they are hardly worth purchasing, except for the purpose of enriching fish-stews, or making small eel-patties.

Preparatory to most modes of dressing, they should be well cleaned, gutted, and skinned; the heads and tails cut off, and the rest of the fish cut into short pieces of 3 to 4 inches in length, and left for an hour or two in salt water.

To boil Eels. --They should be of a good size, prepared as above, dried, floured, and boiled in salt and water, with a good deal of parsley, for about 30 minutes, or until tender; then served with parsley and butter, of which a portion may be thrown over them, and they may be garnished with scraped horseradish.

To fry Eels. --They should be rolled in yolk of eggs and bread-crumbs, or a thick coating of sweet herbs, and fried a pale brown. They may be served with any savory or acid sauce that may be preferred.

To broil. --The same process may be adopted by merely changing the frying-pan for the gridiron, and wrapping the eels in buttered paper; but, if thought proper, the bread-crumbs and herbs may be omitted, as well as the envelope of paper, and the eel merely brushed over with the yolk of egg. Turn them frequently, and take them up when quite brown.

Eels stewed in the French way. --Skin the eels, and skewer them round; put them into an earthen pan with all sorts of roots cut small, a few peppercorns, cloves, and a little salt, about a pint of vinegar and ketchup, with as much broth: bake them 1 hour in the oven uncovered with pie-crust, and in the meanwhile thicken the stock with some good cream flavored with a grate of nutmeg. The other modes are more in the difference of sauce than the methods of dressing, though put under various names.

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> ANCHOVY.

Anchovy Butter. --Pick and wipe, but do not wash, six anchovies, and beat them with two or three ounces of fresh butter; rub the paste through a fine hair-sieve; cut it into ornamental forms with warm cutters, and serve at breakfast, or as garnish for salads.

Anchovy Sandwiches. --Wash fine anchovies, split them, and carefully remove the bones; then lay the fish between slices of bread and butter, neatly cut; or spread thinly upon bread anchovy butter.

Anchovy Toast. --Cut the crust off bread, toast it evenly, spread plain butter on the under side, and anchovy butter on the top: serve cut into square pieces. If the butter be not strong enough, lay on the toast also split and quartered anchovies.

Caviare. --Caviare is the roe of the sturgeon; it is served on toasted bread; and is eaten with roast meat, or with cheese.

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> CHAPTER V.

SHELL FISH.

ALTHOUGH crabs and lobsters may be seen at the fish mongers' the whole year round, they are yet only in high season and plentiful from the month of April till the close of October.

If lobsters have not been long taken, the claws will have a strong motion when you put your finger on the eyes and press them. The heaviest, if of good size, are the best, but the largest are not the best. When you buy them ready boiled, try whether their tails are stiff, and pull up with a spring; if otherwise, they are either watery or not fresh. The "cock-lobster," as the male is called, is known by the narrow back part of his tail, and the two uppermost fins within it are stiff and hard; but those of the hen are soft, and the tail broader. The male, though generally smaller, has the highest flavor; the flesh is firmer, and the color, when boiled, is a deeper red; but the female has that fine coral so highly prized by cooks for the improvement of their sauces, which appears with the rudiments of the spawn.

To boil Lobsters. --Put them alive, with their claws tied together, into the water when boiling hot, and keep it so until the fish is done, which, if of a pound weight, will take about fifteen minutes, and if larger will require not quite the same proportion of time, for if boiled too long the meat will be stringy. Many people are shocked at the apparent cruelty of thus killing them, but death takes place immediately, and life cannot be taken away without pain.

When sent to table to be eaten cold, the tail and body should be split from end to end, the claws cracked, but not unshelled, and the meat may be made into salad, or mixed in such manner as each person pleases, and many persons add a


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teaspoonful of white powdered sugar, thinking that it gives a mellowness to the whole. It is scarcely necessary to mention that the head of a lobster, and what are called the "lady-fingers," are not to be eaten.

To stew Lobsters. --Take the meat out of the shells of 1 or 2 boiled lobsters. Put the shells into a pint of water with some whole pepper, salt, and a little mace. Let it boil till all the goodness is extracted from the shells; then strain it. Mix with a little cream, or thin melted butter, the rich portion of the lobster, and the coral: add a small quantity of lemon-juice and 2 tablespoonsful of wine, mix it with the gravy, and warm the lobster in it; a few minutes will suffice.

Or:--Cut the meat of a boiled lobster into pieces, and put them into a covered metal dish with a bit of butter, 2 large spoonsful of any sort of gravy, 1 of soy or walnut-ketchup, a little salt and cayenne, with a glass of port wine, and warm it. If there be a lamp under the dish, you may do it at your own table within a few minutes.

Another mode of stewing lobsters is:--Take the meat of 2 lobsters, mince it small, and put it into a pint of beef-soup. Let it stew a little; thicken it with a piece of butter rolled in flour; add a glass of white wine, with a little pepper; add salt and nutmeg, a spoonful of ketchup, 1 of anchovy, and 1 of lemon-juice. Let the whole stew together, and serve up, garnishing the dish with the small claws.

To fricassee Lobster. --Parboil it, extract the meat from the shell, and cut it into small pieces; season it with white pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and put it into the stewpan, with as much cream or richly-made white sauce as will cover it. Keep the lid close, set the pan on hot coals, and stew it slowly for about as long a time as it was previously boiled.

To roast Lobsters. --When half boiled, take them out of the kettle, butter the shells, lay the fish before the fire, and baste them with butter, till it froths. Serve with high-seasoned melted butter.

Potted Lobsters, Crabs, Shrimps, or Prawns. --Choose fine hen lobsters, full of spawn; boil them, pick out the tail and claws, season with salt, pepper (black or cayenne), and mace,


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and cover them with melted butter; bake them one hour, and strain off the butter; then pound the lobster with the spawn into a paste, put it into pots, clarify the butter and pour upon it, and tie over. Lobsters may also be potted in pieces, with out beating.

Crab, shrimps, and prawns, may also be potted as above; and all, when cut out, make fine sandwiches.

Curried Lobsters. --Lay the meat in a pan, with two or three blades of mace, and equal quantities of veal gravy and cream; then rub with butter, two teaspoonsful of currie-powder, and half the quantity of flour; which put into the pan, and simmer the whole an hour, adding salt, and the juice of half a lemon.

Croquettes of Lobster. --Take the meat from the shell, chop it finely, mix it with a little salt, pepper, and pounded mace; take one quarter part of fine bread-crumbs, make it up into balls with melted butter, brush the balls with yolk of egg, and dredge them with bread crumbs, and fry them, serving with or without gravy: if dry, they must be sent up with crisped parsley.

Lobster Salad. --Take one or two heads of white heart lettuce; they should be as fresh as possible; if they are not "morning gathered," lay them in spring water for an hour or two; then carefully wash them, and trim off all the withered or cankered leaves; let them drain awhile, and dry them lightly in a clean napkin.

To make the dressing; boil 2 eggs for 12 minutes, and put them in a basin of cold water for a few minutes, till the yolks become thoroughly cold and hard. Rub the yolks through a sieve with a wooden spoon, and mix them with a tablespoonful of water; then add 2 table-spoonsful of oil or melted butter; when these are well mixed, add by degrees a tea-spoonful of salt, and the same of made mustard; when these are smoothly united, add very gradually 3 table-spoonsful of vinegar.

Take out the finest parts of a lobster and mince them small. Just before it is to be served, mince the lettuce; mix it with the lobster and the dressing. Cut up the white of the egg, and garnish the salad with it.

Hen lobsters are preferred for salad on account of their coral.

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Lobster salads are also made in moulds, when ornaments of the whites of eggs boiled hard, some cut gherkins, or beet-root, are placed in the moulds with jelly, lobster, &c.; the whole is set in ice, and when frozen, is turned out of the mould, and served with salad sauce. This is an elegant supper-dish, but should be attempted only by a skilful hand.

> CRAB.

Though not so well known as the lobster, is looked upon by many as being a better-flavored fish, and perhaps rather more digestible. The female is considered inferior to the male, and may be known by the claws being smaller, and the tail much wider. The heaviest are usually thought to be the best, but those of a middling size are the sweetest. If light, they are watery; when in perfection, the joints of the legs are stiff; the shell, whether alive or dead, should be of a bright red; and the body has a very agreeable smell. The eyes look dead and loose when stale, or when the fish have died a natural death. They are boiled in the same manner as lobster, but require rather longer time, and are most usually eaten cold with oil and vinegar, as thus:--Pick out all the fish from the shell, divide it into small pieces, mixing the rich part well with the rest; moisten it with salad dressing, and return it to the shell with an edge all round of sliced lemon.

If hot, pick the fish out as above; then put the meat, with a little nutmeg, salt, pepper, bits of butter, crumbs of bread, and 3 spoonsful of vinegar, into the shell again, and set it before the fire. You may brown it with a salamander, but it should be always served in the shell. Dry toast should be served to eat with it. Observe to remove "the lady," as it is called.

To stew Crabs. --Pick the meat carefully out of a large crab and its claws; cut into small pieces, mix it with about a fourth part of bread-crumbs, and a very small quantity of finely shred parsley. Season it well, and return it to the shell with some small bits of butter here and there, enough, when warmed, to keep it moist. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over it, or a spoonful of lemon-pickle or acid sauce. Put a


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thick layer of crumbs of bread upon the top with small bits of butter laid all over it, and bake it in the shell before the fire or in the oven. The shell of one crab will contain the meat of two.

> TERRAPINS.

This is a favorite dish for suppers and parties; and, when well cooked, they are certainly very delicious. Many persons in Philadelphia have made themselves famous for cooking this article alone. Mrs. Rubicam, who during her lifetime always stood first in that way, prepared them as follows:- Put the terrapins alive in a pot of boiling water, where they must remain until they are quite dead. You then divest them of their outer skin and toe-nails; and, after washing them in warm water, boil them again until they become quite tender, adding a handful of salt to the water. Having satisfied yourself of their being perfectly tender, take off the shells and clean the terrapins very carefully, removing the sand-bag and gall without breaking them. Then cut the meat and entrails into small pieces, and put them into a sauce-pan, adding the juice which has been given out in cutting them up, but no water, and season with salt, cayenne, and black pepper, to your taste; adding a quarter of a pound of good butter to each terrapin, and a handful of flour for thickening. After stirring a short time, add four or five table-spoonsful of cream, and a half pint of good Madeira to every four terrapins, and serve hot in a deep dish. Our own cook has been in the habit of putting in a very little mace, a large table-spoonful of mustard, and ten drops of gall;and, just before serving, adding the yolks of four hard boiled eggs. During the stewing, particular attention must be paid to stirring the preparation frequently; and it must be borne in mind, that terrapins cannot possibly be too hot.--Sanderson.

> OYSTERS.

To feed Oysters. --Wash them clean, lay them bottom downwards in a tub or pan, and cover them with water, to 2 gallons of which add a pound of salt. In 12 hours change the salt


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and water. Colchester barrelled oysters, if tightly packed, will be better without water. Barrelled oysters may be kept alive by removing the top hoop of the barrel, and placing a heavy weight upon the head or top, so as to keep the oysters close.

To fry Oysters. --They should be large for this purpose. Simmer them for a couple of minutes in their own liquor, beard and dry them in a cloth, dredge them lightly with flour, dip them in egg and fine bread crumbs, and fry them a delicate brown in boiling lard.

Another way to fry Oysters. --Take a score or two of the largest oysters you can find. The yolks of 4 or 5 eggs well beaten up, with a little nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and a table-spoonful of fine flour. Dip in the oysters, and fry them in butter a light brown.

To scollop Oysters. --Take 12 of the smaller sort, beard them, cut out the hard part which adheres to their shells, and leave them in their liquor; have ready a quantity of crumbs of fresh bread, not too finely grated, and mixed with a little pepper and salt; then grease a scollop shell, strew upon it some of the crumbs with bits of butter, and lay upon them a layer of the oysters; then crumbs, bits of butter, and oysters, layer upon layer, until the shell is filled up; cover it with a thick coating of the crumbs well buttered, and brown it in a Dutch oven. A dozen oysters, with the proper quantity of crumbs, will fill up the largest scollop shell, and take an hour to be thoroughly done.

Some cooks scald the oysters for 5 minutes in their own liquor, and mix with them minced shalot, or chives, and pot herbs; but these although they may please an epicurean palate, will destroy the natural flavor of the oyster.

Or:--Keep the oysters in their liquor, put a bit of butter in a stew-pan, with minced parsley, shalot, and a little pepper; brown them with a fried onion; then add the oyster liquor, strained, and a little good gravy, work them until they are of the consistence of sauce, but do not add flour to thicken it, as it spoils the taste of the oyster liquor, and gives them a soddened appearance; then toss and put in the oysters, add lemon juice, and fill the scollop shells, which may be put before the


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fire to be kept hot, but without bread crumbs or artificial browning of any sort: they are an admirable addition to a rump-steak.

To broil Oysters. --Take them from the shells, beard them, and put them with their liquor into tin shapes made to imitate scollops, 6 in a shell (not more), with a little pepper and butter. Put the shells upon a gridiron over a good fire, and serve them when plump and quite hot. They are delicious this way; but to be eaten in perfection should be cooked in the room where they are eaten. Squeeze a little lemon juice over them when they come from the fire.

Or:-- They may be put singly in their under shells along with their own liquor, a little minced parsley and spice, and a bit of butter, and thus put upon the gridiron, to be taken off when thoroughly heated.

To stew Oysters. --Take a pint of oysters. Set them over the fire in their liquor, with a glass of white wine, a piece of butter, some salt, a little black pepper, and some blades of mace. Let them stew gently about half an hour: then put in another piece of butter; toss all around together till the butter is melted; and turn out the oysters and liquor upon thin slices of bread.

To pickle Oysters. --Open as many oysters as will fill a gallon, together with the liquor--wash them well in their own liquor, carefully clearing away the particles of shell--then put them into an iron pot, and pour the liquor gently over them, adding 2 table-spoonsful of salt, or a little more if they are fresh; set them on the fire till they are ready to boil, and the fins much shrivelled; if the oysters are large, they may boil a minute or two; then take them out and lay them on a table to cool; take the liqour, putting some mace and whole pepper into it, and let it boil for some time, carefully skimming it as long as any scum remains; then pour it into a pan. When perfectly cold, add a pint of white wine, and half a pint of strong vinegar. Place the oysters gently in a jar; pour the liquor on them so as to cover them.

Oyster Pie. --Butter a deep dish; line it with puff-paste rolled to about half an inch in thickness. Lay a clean napkin


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over the top of the dish, and put on the towel a cover for the pie, of paste. Bake it well. Meanwhile, take oysters enough to fill the pie, and put them in a stew-pan with just enough of their liquor to prevent them from burning; season them with pepper, mace, and some grated nutmeg; add a large portion of butter cut small and rolled in a very little flour. Let the oysters simmer, but not boil, for a few minutes. Then beat the yolks of 3 or 4 eggs, according to the size of the pie, and stir them in the oysters. Let it simmer a few minutes. Pour the oysters while hot into the pie, carefully taking off and replacing the cover. Oyster pies may be eaten warm or cold.

Oysters prepared in the same way but without the egg, may be put into the pie before it is baked, and cooked with it.

For Oyster Patties. --Make some rich puff-paste, and bake it in very small tin patty-pans. When cool, turn them out upon a large dish. Stew some large fresh oysters with a few cloves, a little mace and nutmeg, some yolk of egg boiled hard and grated, a little butter, and as much of the oyster liquor as will cover them. When they have stewed a little while, take them out of the pan, and set them away to cool. When quite cool, lay 2 or 3 oysters in each shell of puff-paste.

Or:--The oysters may be put into the shells when hot, and served immediately.

To boil Hard-shell Clams. --Wash the shells, and put them in a kettle with about a pint or more of water. The less water the stronger will be the flavor of the clams. Lay them with their edges downwards; let them boil constantly, and when their shells open wide take them off, as they are done. Then take them from the shells; lay in a dish some slices of toasted bread buttered; pour the clams with some of their juice upon them; season it with pepper, and if you choose add a little butter.

Sand clams are preferable for every purpose.

To fry Hard-shell Clams. --Take the large sand clams; wash them in their own liquor; beat well the yolks of 4 eggs with a little pepper and a table-spoonful of fine flour. Dip in the clams and fry them in butter a light brown.

To stew Hard-shell Clams. --Take the clams from their shells,


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and put them in a stew-pan with enough of their own liquor mixed with an equal quantity of water to cover them; let them simmer from 30 to 40 minutes, skimming them carefully; mix a table-spoonful of flour with 3 table-spoonsful of butter and stir it in; season it with pepper, but no salt; cover the stew-pan and let them simmer from 15 to 20 minutes.

Sand clams are to be preferred.

Clam Fritters. --Take 12 large, or 25 small clams from their shells; if the clams are large, divide them. Mix 2 gills of wheat flour, with 1 gill of milk, half as much of the clam liquor, and 1 egg well beaten. Make the batter smooth, and then stir in the clams. Drop the batter by table-spoonsful in boiling lard; let them fry gently, turning them when done on one side.

To boil Soft-shell Clams. --When the shells are washed clean, put the clams in a pot with the edges downwards; pour a quart of boiling water over them to open the shells; set them over the fire for nearly an hour. When they are done the shells will be wide open; then take them out of the shells, trim off the black skin that covers the hard part; put them in a stew-pan with some of their own liquor, to which add butter, pepper, and salt. Let them boil a few minutes.

To stew Soft-shell Clams. --Take the clams from their shells, and free them from their black skin; wash them, and put them with a little water in a stew-pan; cover it and let them simmer gently for 30 minutes; then thicken the juice with butter and flour rolled together; season with salt and pepper; let them stew for 10 minutes.

To fry Soft-shell Clams. --Proceed as with hard-shelled clams.

To stew Muscles. --Open them put them intp a pan with their own liquor, to which add a large onion and some parsley, with 2 table-spoonsful of vinegar; roll a piece of butter in flour, beat an egg, and add it to the gravy, warming the whole up very gradually.

In France, muscles are skewered upon a small skewer and roasted, or dipped into a thick batter and fried.

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In preparing muscles for table, care should be taken to destroy the beards, as well also as a small species of crab which is sometimes found in their shells. They are not in season during the summer.

To stew Scallops. --Boil them very well in salt and water, then take them out and stew them in a little of their liquor, a glass of white wine, and a little vinegar; add some grated bread crumbs, and the yolks of 2 or 3 hard eggs minced small. Stew all together till they are sufficiently done, then add a large spoonful of essence of anchovy and a good piece of butter rolled in flour; or stew very gradually in a rich white sauce, with thick cream, until quite hot, but without being allowed to boil, and serve with sippets.

Crayfish, prawns, and shrimps may all be done in the same manner.

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> CHAPTER VI.

RUDIMENTS OF COOKERY.

Plain living not the most wholesome--Diet and Digestion--Advantage of Variety in Food--French mode of Cookery--Hints on Boiling--Roasting--Broiling--Frying--Stewing--Baking--Larding--Glazing--Braising--Blanching--Boning--Danger from Copper Saucepans

THE commonly received idea, that what goes under the denomination of "good plain living"--that is, joints of meat, roast or boiled--is best suited to all constitutions, has been proved to be a fallacy. Many persons can bear testimony to the truth of Dr. Kitchener's remark, that "elaborate culinary processes are frequently necessary in order to prepare food for the digestive organs." It may be truly said that many persons ruin their health by over-indulgence in food rendered indigestible by being badly cooked.

It is our intention to endeavor to correct the prejudice in favor of a family joint--by showing, that it is not only very often improperly cooked, but that the same quantity of meat, if dressed in different ways, still retaining a certain degree of simplicity, will be more pleasant to the palate, more healthful, and quite as economical, if brought to the table, as two or three dishes instead of one.

In French cookery, those substances which are not intended to be broiled or roasted, are usually stewed for several hours at a temperature below the boiling-point; by which means the most refractory articles, whether of animal or vegetable origin, are more or less reduced to a state of pulp, and admirably adapted for the further action of the stomach. In the common cookery of this country, on the contrary, articles are usually put at once into a large quantity of water, and submitted,


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without care or attention, to the boiling temperature: the consequence of which is, that most animal substances, when taken out, are harder and more indigestible than in the natural state.

Diet and Digestion.--From Dr. Beaumont's Tables it appears that the following articles are converted into chyle, i.e.digested, in the times indicated:--

H. M.

Rice, boiled soft.........................................1 0

Apples, sweet and ripe....................................1 30

Sago, boiled..............................................1 45

Tapioca, Barley, stale Bread, Cabbage with Vinegar, raw, boiled Milk and Bread and Milk, cold...................2 0

Potatoes, roasted, and Parsnips, boiled...................2 30

Baked Custard.............................................2 45

Apple Dumpling............................................3 0

Bread Corn, baked, and Carrots, boiled....................3 15

Potatoes and Turnips, boiled: Butter and Cheese...........3 30

Tripe and Pig's Feet......................................1 0

Venison...................................................1 35

Oysters, undressed, and Eggs, raw.........................2 3

Turkey and Goose..........................................2 30

Eggs, soft boiled; Beef and Mutton, roasted or boiled.....3 0

Boiled Pork, stewed Oysters, Eggs, hard boiled or fried...3 30

Domestic Fowls............................................4 0

Wild Fowls; Pork, salted and boiled; Suet.................4 30

Veal, roasted; Pork, and salted Beef......................5 30

When the powers of the stomach are weak, a hard and crude diet is sure to produce discomfort by promoting acidity; while the very same articles when divided, and well cooked upon French principles, or rather the principles of common sense, can be taken with impunity, and easily digested.

There are only a few persons--with the execption perhaps of those who take violent exercise, or work hard in the open air--who can dine heartily upon solid food without suffering from its effects; yet in order to escape indigestion, plain roast or boiled meat should be very sparingly consumed.

The foundation of all good cookery consists in preparing the meat so as to render it tender in substance, without extracting from it those juices which constitute its true flavor; in doing which, the main point in the art of making those soups, sauces, and made dishes of every sort, which should form so large a portion of every well-ordered dinner, as well, also, as in cooking many of the plain family joints--is boiling, or rather stewing, which ought always to be performed over a slow fire. There is, in fact, no error so common among all English and American cooks as that of boiling meat over a strong fire, which renders large joints hard and partly tasteless; while, if simmered during nearly double the time, with less than half the quantity of fuel and water, and never allowed to "boil up," the meat, without being too much done, will be found both pliant to the tooth and savory to the palate.

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For instance. The most common and almost universal dish throughout France, is a large piece of plainly-boiled fresh beef from which the soup--or "potage," as it is there called--has been partly made, and which is separately served up as "bouilli," accompanied by strong gravy, and minced vegetables, or stewed cabbage. Now this, as constantly dressed in the French mode, is ever delicate both in fibre and flavor; while, in the American manner of boiling it, it is almost always hard and insipid. The reason of which, as explained by that celebrated cook, Carême, who superintended the kitchen of His Majesty George IV., is this:--"The meat, instead of being put down to boil, as in the English method, is in France put in the pot with the usual quantity of cold water, and placed at the corner of the fireplace, where, slowly becoming hot, the heat gradually swells the muscular fibres of the beef, dissolving the gelatinous substances therein contained, and disengaging that portion which chemists term 'osmazome,' and which imparts savor to the flesh--thus both rendering the meat tender and palatable, and the broth relishing and nutritive; whilst, on the contrary, if the pot be inconsiderately put upon too quick a fire, the boiling is precipitated, the fibre coagulates and hardens, the ozmazome is hindered from disengaging itself, and thus nothing is obtained but a piece of tough meat, and a broth without taste or succulence."

Meat loses by cooking, from one-fifth to one-third of its whole weight. More is lost by roasting than by boiling meat. In calculating for a family, one pound per day for each individual is a general allowance for dinner.

Meat that is not to be cut till cold must be well done, particularly in summer.

The use of skewers in joints should be avoided as much as possible, as they let out the gravy; twine will answer better, often.

In every branch of cookery much must be left to the discretion of the cook, and knowledge of the family's taste; particularly in force-meats and seasonings.

Suet.--When sirloins of beef, or loins of veal or mutton, are brought in, part of the suet may be cut off for puddings, or to clarify. Chopped fine and mixed with flour, if tied down in a jar, it will keep 10 days or a fortnight. If there be more suet than will be used while fresh, throw it into pickle, made in the proportion of one-quarter pound of salt to a quart of cold


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water, and it will be as good afterwards for any use, when soaked a little.

To remove the taint of meat, wash it several times in cold water; then put it into plenty of cold water, into which throw several pieces of red-hot charcoal. If you fear meat will not keep till the time it is wanted, par-roast or par-boil it, that is, partly cook it; it will then keep two days longer, when it may be dressed as usual, but in rather less time.

When meat is frozen, it should be brought into the kitchen and laid at some distance from the fire, early in the morning; or soak the meat in cold water two or three hours before it is used: putting it near the fire, or into warm water, till thawed, should be avoided.

Meats become tenderer and more digestible, as well as better flavored, by hanging. In summer, two days is enough for lamb and veal, and from three to four for beef and mutton. In cold weather, the latter may be kept for double that time.

Legs and shoulders should be hung knuckle downwards.

An effectual way of excluding the fly is by using a wire meat-safe, or by covering the joints with a long loose gauze or some thin cloth, and hanging them from the ceiling of an airy room. Pepper and ginger should be sprinkled on the parts likely to be attacked by the fly, but should be washed off before the joint is put to the fire.

A larder should always be placed on the north side of the house; the window may be closed with canvass, but wire is preferable. There should be a thorough draft of air through the room.

Articles that are likely to spoil should not be kept in or laid upon wood.

Warm, moist weather is the worst for keeping meat; the south wind is very unfavorable, and lightning very destructive; so that after their occurrence, meat should be especially examined.

Boiling.--This is the most simple of all processes of cooking. Regularity and attention to time are the main secrets.

Much less heat is requisite to keep liquids boiling in copper and iron saucepans than in those made of tin.

There is frequently a great waste of fuel in cooking, which arises from making liquids boil fast, when they only require to be kept slowly boiling. Count Rumford, (the inventor of


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the Rumford stove,) states, that more than half the fuel used in kitchens is wasted in the above manner.

It is a sad waste to put fuel under a boiling pot. There is a degree of heat in water called the boiling-point; and all the coals or wood in the world cannot make water hotter in an open vessel; it can but boil. By this waste, the cook not only loses time, but spoils the cookery.

The average time for boiling fresh meat is from eighteen to twenty minutes for every pound: thus, a joint weighing six pounds will require from one hour and three quarters to two hours boiling. Salted meat requires rather more boiling and water; fresh-killed meat longer time: and all meats longer in cold than warm weather. It is, however, better to be guided, for time, by the thickness of the joint, than by its weight.

Dried or salted fish and meats require soaking in cold water before boiling.

Meat and poultry will lose their flavor and firmness, if left in the water after they are done; as will also fish, which will break to pieces.

The water in which fish, meat, or poultry has been boiled should be saved: this pot-liquor, as it is called, may be made into soup.

Slow boiling is very important for all meats, to ensure their tenderness; fast boiling always makes them hard and tough, less plump, and of darker color, than when they are boiled gradually.

Skimming the pot will alone ensure the good color and sweetness of the meat; a little cold water and salt will aid in throwing up the scum: milk put into the pot does good in few cases only; and wrapping in a cloth is unnecessary, if the scum be carefully removed.

The lid of the saucepan should only be removed for skimming; and, before taking off the lid, be careful to blow from it any dust or blacks from the fire or chimney.

The joint should always be covered with water; above this quantity, the less water, the more savory will be the meat.

In some few instances, however, it may be necessary to boil the articles in a much larger quantity of water: a quart of water is mostly a good proportion to a pound of meat.

If meat be put into cold water, it should be heated gradually, so as not to cause it to boil in less than 40 minutes; if it boil


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much sooner, the meat will shrink and be hardened, and not so freely throw up the scum.

Four skewers, or a plate, inside downwards, should be laid on the bottom of the sauce-pan, especially for large joints and puddings; so that they be equally done, and escape burning, or adhering to the sauce-pan.

When a pot boils, remove it nearly off the fire, but let the lid remain on; a very little heat will then keep up the boiling.

The time of boiling should be reckoned from the time bubbles begin to rise on the surface of the liquid; as the boiling continues, the water will evaporate, and in some cases it may be requisite to fill up the sauce-pan with boiling water.

Vegetables and meat are sometimes steamed: that is, they are put into vessels resembling cullenders, and being placed over boiling water, the steam from it rises through the holes of the vessel, and then through the vegetables and meat, which are thus as effectually boiled as if they were put into the boiling water.

Roasting.--The success of every branch of cookery depends upon the good management of the kitchen fire: roasting, especially, requires a brisk, clear, and steady fire; if made up close to the bars of the grate.

The spit being wiped clean, the joint to be roasted should be carefully spitted even, and tied tight; and if it will not turn round well, balance skewers, with leaden heads, should be used; for, if the meat be not evenly spitted, it will probably be burned on one side, and not done on the other. Avoid running the spit through the prime parts of joints. Cradle spits answer best.

A leg of mutton should never be spitted, as the spit lets out the gravy, and leaves an unsightly perforation just as you are cutting into the pope's eye.

Make up the roasting-fire three or four inches longer than the joint, else the ends of the meat will not be done.

In stirring the fire, be careful to remove the dripping-pan, else dust and ashes may fall in. On no account let the fire get dull and low, as a strong heat is requisite to brown the meat.

A thin joint requires a brisk fire; a large joint, a strong, sound, and even fire. When steam rises from the meat it is done.

Large joints should be put at a moderate distance from the


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fire, and gradually brought nearer; else the meat will be over done half way through the joint, and be nearly raw at the bone.

Such meat as is not very fat should have paper placed over it to prevent it from being scorched.

Do not sprinkle the meat with salt when first put down, as the salt draws out the gravy.

Old meats require more cooking than young. The longer the meat has been killed, the less time it requires to roast it. Very fat meat requires more time than usual.

The general rule is to allow 15 minutes to a pound for roasting with a good fire, and 10 or 20 minutes over, as the family like it well done or not.

Baste the meat first with fresh dripping, and then with its own fat or dripping: and within the last hour of roasting, take off the paper, and sprinkle the meat with salt and flour, to brown and froth it; but some cooks dredge the meat with flour earlier, so that it may imbibe the gravy, a practice which should be specially avoided.

The spit should be wiped dry immediately after it is drawn from the meat, and washed and scoured every time it is used.

Perfection in roasting is very difficult, and no certain rules can be given for it, as success depends on many circumstances which are continually changing: the age and size (especially the thickness) of the pieces, the quality of the coals, the weather, the currents of air in the kitchen, the more or less attention of the cook, and the time of serving, are all to be considered. Hence, epicures say of a well-roasted joint, "It is done to a turn."

Roast meats should be sent to table the moment they are ready, if they are to be eaten in perfection.

Broiling.--Broiling requires a brisk and clear fire, proportioned to the article to be broiled; for example, mutton chops require a clear rather than a brisk fire, else the fat will be wasted before the lean is warmed through; but for a beef steak, the fire can neither be too brisk nor clear, if the gridiron be placed at the proper distance. Fish requires a steady fire; as also does under-done meat.

Much, however, depends on the substance of the article to be broiled: if it be thick, it must be placed at a greater distance, at first, to warm it through; if thin, the fire must be brisk, else the meat will not be of a good color.

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The gridiron should be wiped clean after it has been used, so that the bars may be kept bright on top; they should be allowed to get hot before the article is laid on them, but not too hot, else they will burn the meat or fish: the latter, especially. To prevent this, the bars should be rubbed with fat.

A charcoal fire is best for broiling.

To prevent the fat dripping into the fire set the gridiron aslant.

For turning the broiling article, use tongs, as a fork will let out the gravy. When the article is done, it will feel firm if touched with the tongs: by no means cut the meat to ascertain if it be done, as that will let out the gravy.

Frying.--is "to scorch something solid in fat, or oil," or butter. Lard, clarified suet, or dripping, is well adapted for fish, eggs, potatoes, and meat generally. Olive oil is much used for fish; and the same oil will serve for more than one frying. Butter is used, but it is not as well adapted for frying as either of the other articles.

Be careful that the fat or oil is fresh, clean, and free from salt, else what you fry in it will be of bad color and flavor; salt will prevent it from browning.

Fat or oil, to be used again, should be strained through a sieve before it is set aside.

Fat becomes richer from having meat fried into it, and may be used repeatedly; but the fat that has been used for fish cannot be used again for meat.

The fat must have left off bubbling and be quite still before you put in the articles.

To prepare crumbs for frying, dry thoroughly in a warm even, or before the fire, any waste pieces of bread; then pound them in a mortar and sift them, and put them away till wanted. This is much better than grating bread as it is needed, or using oatmeal, &c.

When you wish fried things to look as well as possible, do them twice over with egg and crumbs.

If eggs be very dear, a little flour and water may be substituted for them in preparing fish to fry.

In frying use a slice to lift the articles in and out of the pan, and drain them.

To make batter for frying: melt two ounces of butter in a little warm water, and pour it upon half a pound of flour; stir it and add water enough to form a batter, thick enough to


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adhere to whatever is put into it; but it should run freely: add some salt and the beaten whites of two eggs.

A small shallow frying-pan, or sauté pan, as it is called, is very useful to fry articles to be stewed: this method differs from common frying, as it only requires butter enough to keep the article from sticking to the pan and burning.

The fire for frying should be free from smoky coals, sharp and even. Charcoal makes the best frying fire.

The fat should be carefully drained from all fried articles; indeed, they should be so dry as scarcely to soil a cloth. Fish is best drained by wrapping it in soft whited-brown paper, by which it will so dry as not to soil the napkin upon which it is served.

Stewing.--All articles to be stewed should first be boiled gently, then skimmed and set aside in an even heat: on this account, charcoal makes the best fire for stewing.

All stews, or meat dressed a second time, should be only simmered, as the meat should only be made hot through.

A stew-pan is the most advantageous vessel in which stews, hashes, soups, or gravies, can be made; indeed, for all purposes of boiling, a stew-pan is preferable to a deep sauce-pan, as in the former, the articles are exposed to more even heat than when they are placed one upon another in the sauce-pan, and are likely to be broken in stirring.

The best stew-pans are made of copper or iron; they should be kept covered as much as possible, unless you wish to reduce the gravy.

Be careful not to fry in a stew-pan; or, if so, with great care, and sufficient butter to save the tinning from melting.

Most of the directions for making soups and gravies, apply also to this branch of cookery.

Baking.--Baking is the least advantageous mode of cookery; for by it meat loses about one-third of its weight.

Iron ovens are ill adapted for baking meat or meat-pies; fruit-pies, pastry, and puddings, may, however, be baked in them.

[Editorial note: This illustration appears at the bottom of page 74 in the original text.]

[Illustration: An illustration of a flat iron with a long handle.]

A salamander, which is a flat iron with a long handle, is


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heated and placed over some articles, to brown them after they are dished. The kitchen fire-shovel, if made red hot, will answer the same purpose.

Larding.--Have ready larding-pins of different sizes, according to the article to be done; cut slices of bacon into bits of a proper length, quite smooth, and put into a larding-needle to suit it, with which pierce the skin and a very little of the meat, leaving the bacon in, and the two ends of equal length outwards. Lard in rows the size you think fit.

[Illustration: An illustration of a long, sharp needle.]

[Illustration: An illustraton of a larding needle with a Lardoon inserted at the end.]

The same effect with regard to flavor, may be produced by raising the skin and laying a slice of fat bacon beneath it.

Doubing consists in passing bacon through meat, while larding is on the surface only.

Braising.--Put the meat you would braise into a stew-pan, and cover it with thick slices of fat bacon; then lay round it 6 or 8 onions, a faggot of sweet herbs, some celery, and, if to be brown, some thick slices of carrots, and trimmings of any fresh meat-bones you have, with a pint and a half of water, or the same quantity of stock, (which you will find directed under the head of Soups and Gravies,) according to what the meat is, and add seasoning. Cover the pan close, and set it over a slow stove; it will require 2 or 3 hours, as its size and quality may direct. Then strain the gravy; keep the meat quite hot; take the fat off by plunging the basin into cold water, which will cause the fat to coagulate; and boil it as quickly as you can till it thickens. If, however you wish the gravy to adhere to the meat, it must be still further thickened; then with a brush kept for the purpose do over the meat, and if that has been larded, put it into the oven for a few minutes. This is called "glazing," and is much in use for made-dishes.

[Illustration: An illustration of a tall pot with a lid.]

[Illustration: An illustration of a brush with a short handle and long bristles.]

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Glazing is done by brushing melted glaze or jelly over the article, and letting it cool; in some cases it is requisite to cover the articles with two or three coats of glaze, allowing each to cool as it is laid on. The glaze should be of a clear yellow brown, and as thick as good treacle.

If you have not the glaze ready, sift a little sugar over the article to be glazed, and finish in the oven, with a salamander, or red hot shovel.

Boning.--In disengaging the flesh from the bones, work the knife always close to the bone, and take care not to pierce the outer skin. Minute directions are given in other parts of the work for boning fowls, &c.

Blanching makes the article plump and white, and consists in putting it into cold water over the fire, allowing it to boil up and then plunging it into cold water, where the article should remain until cold.

Danger from Copper Sauce-pans.--The precise danger from the use of copper sauce-pans, or stew-pans, imperfectly tinned, is far from rightly understood. It appears that the acid contained in stews and other made dishes, as lemon-juice, though it does not dissolve copper by being merely boiled in it a few minutes, nevertheless, if allowed to cool and stand in it for some time, will acquire poisonous matter, as verdigris, in the form of a green band, or crust, inside the vessel. It has likewise been proved that weak solutions of common salt, such as are daily made by adding a little salt to boiling vegetables, fish, or meat, act powerfully on copper vessels, although strong solutions, or brine would not affect them.

It is, however, in vain to hope that cooks will attend to the nice distinctions by which copper stew-pans may be rendered safe; the general advice given by prudent physicians is, therefore, against their use at all.

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> CHAPTER VII

BEEF.

How to choose and cook Beef--Sirloin--Rib--Rump--Fillet--Heart--Baked Beed--Potted--Stew--A la Daube--Al-a-mode--Braised--Minced--Collops--Boullie--To Collar--Steaks--Tongue--Tripe, &c. &c.

[Illustration: A diagram of a cow. The numbers below correspond to the diagram.]

No.

1. Sirloin.

2. Rump.

3. Edge bone.

4. Buttock, or Round,

5. Mouse Buttock.

6. Veiny Piece.

7. Thick Flank.

8. Thin Flank.

9. Leg.

10. Fore Rib. (Five Ribs.)

11. Middle Rib. (Four Ribs.)

12. Chuck Rib. (Three Ribs.)

13. Shoulder, or Leg of Mutton Piece.

14. Brisket.

15. Clod.

16. Neck.

17. Shin.

18. Cheek.

To Choose Beef --If young and freshly killed, the lean of ox-beef will be smoothly grained, and of a fine, healthy, carnation-red, the fat rather white than yellow, and the suet white and firm. Heifer-beef is more closely grained, and rather less bright of color, the bones are considerably smaller, and the fat of a purer white.

In choice and well-fed beef, the lean will be found intergrained with fat: very lean meat is always of an inferior quality.

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The ribs, the sirloin, and the rump, are the proper joints for roasting. The round, or buttock, the edge-bone, the second round, or mouse-buttock, the shin, the brisket, the shoulder, or leg of mutton piece, and the clod may be boiled or stewed. The neck is generally used for soup or gravy; and the thin flank for collaring. The best steaks are cut from the middle of the rump; the next best from the veiny piece, or from the chuck-rib. The inside of the sirloin, commonly used for the purpose in France, makes by far the most delicate steaks: but though exceedingly tender, they are considered by epicures to be wanting in flavor.

The finest part of the sirloin is the chump-end, which contains the larger portion of the fillet: of the ribs, the middle ones are those generally preferred by experienced house-keepers.

Keeping Meat. --As soon as the meat is brought in, it should be wiped dry and examined, and the fly-blown parts, if any, should be cut off. This should be attended to daily, else, when dressed, the outer slices are liable to have a musty flavor.

Sirloin of Beef, to Roast. --The sirloin is usually hung a few days, to make it eat short and tender, therefore, before you dress it, you should wash the meat in cold water, wipe it with a clean cloth; when you have made it nice and clean, hang it carefully down to the fire, so that it may turn round evenly; a piece of writing-paper, well buttered, must be tied on with a string, or skewered on with very small skewers, over the fat side, till the meat is about three parts done, to prevent the fat from burning. A good durable fire having been made up, the meat should be so hung down, that the thickest part of the joint will get the strongest part of the fire, but not too near at first, or it will get scorched on the outside, before it is warmed through. Put into the dripping-pan a pint of water, or clean dripping, and begin to baste the meat immediately it is warmed, and continue to baste the meat immediately it is warmed, and continue to baste it every quarter of an hour, till about half an hour before it is done. Then take the meat back from the fire; clean out all grit that has fallen into the dripping-pan; take off the paper that covered the fat, stir the fire, if necessary, that it may burn fierce and clear, baste the meat well; sprinkle


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a little salt all over the joint, and dredge it well with flour. Put it to the fire again, and let it roast till it is done, and the outside is nicely browned and frothed; observing not to baste it for a full quarter of an hour after flouring it.

A sirloin weighing ten pounds, that has been kept a proper time, will take two hours and a half to roast it. Rather more time must be allowed in cold than in hot weather. About twenty minutes to the pound, is a safe rule.

Ribs of Beef. --Ribs of Beef should also be kept hanging a few days to become short and tender, therefore wipe and make it nice and clean before you hang it to the fire, as directed for the sirloin; there are sometimes two and sometimes three ribs to a joint; and it must be cooked the same way as the sirloin; only they are best done, and eat nicest, if they are hung to roast the thick part upwards, at first, till they are full half done, or rather longer; but take care to hang it so that the thick part gets the most of the fire; and be sure to tie well buttered paper over the fat part, as directed for the sirloin. Less time, however, will be required for roasting the ribs than the sirloin, because the joint is thinner. From three hours to three hours and a half, may be allowed for ribs of beef weighing fifteen or sixteen pounds; giving a little more time if a thick joint, and a little less if a thin one. When the joint is a little more than half done, you must hang it the other way upwards, baste it, sprinkle it with salt, and dredge it very slightly with flour; but sprinkle it with salt, and dredge it well again with flour, about half an hour before you take it up, first taking off the paper which covers the fat, as directed for the sirloin.

Rump of Beef. --This is one of the most juicy of all the joints of beef, but is more frequently stewed than roasted. As it is too large to serve whole, generally, cut as much from the chump end to roast as will make a handsome dish. Manage it as the sirloin. When boned and rolled into the form of a fillet of veal, it requires more time.

Gravy Sauce for Roast Beef. --When beef is of a good quality, and roasted with care, the gravy which flows from it is the best sauce for the meat. Clear it of the fat and sediment, add


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a little salt, and if too thin, a dust of browned flour, and boil it up. To the gravy of veal, a little butter may be added.

Pickles or grated horse-radish should always be served with roast beef--with catsup and mustard in the castor. The vegetables most in favor are potatoes, plain boiled or mashed--turnips, beets, and boiled spinach.

To Roast a fillet of Beef. --Raise the fillet from the inside of the sirloin, or from part of it, with a sharp knife; leave the fat on, trim off the skin, lard it through, or all over, or roast it quite plain; baste it with butter, and send it very hot to table, with tomato sauce, or sauce piquante, or eschalot sauce, in a tureen. It is sometimes served with brown gravy or currant jelly: it should then be garnished with forcemeat-balls. If not very large, an hour and a quarter will roast it well with a brisk fire.

Obs. The remainder of the joint may be boned, rolled, and roasted or braised; or made into meat cakes; or served as a miniature round of beef.

To Roast Beef Heart. --Wash it well, and clean all the blood carefully from the pipes; parboil it ten or fifteen minutes in boiling water; drip the water from it; put in a stuffing which has been made of bread crumbs, minced suet or butter, sweet marjorum, lemon thyme, and parsley, seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Put it down to roast while hot, baste it well with butter, froth it up, and serve it with melted butter and vinegar; or with gravy in the dish, and currant jelly in a sauce tureen. To roast, allow 20 minutes to a pound.

To dress the Inside of a Cold Sirloin of Beef. --Cut off the meat, with a little of the fat, into strips 3 inches long and half an inch thick; season with pepper and salt, dredge them with flour, and fry them brown in butter; then simmer them in a rich brown gravy; add of mushroom catsup, onion, and shalot vinegar, a table-spoonful each. Garnished with fried parsley.

Baked Beef. --A rump of 20 to 25 lbs. weight. Take 2 oz. each of pepper and allspice, 1 oz. of pounded cloves, and the same quantity of mace; rub this all over the joint, which should be hung up for a fortnight or 3 weeks, according to the weather--taking care to keep it dry, and to occasionally renew


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the seasoning. When ready for baking, wash off the spice with port wine or warm vinegar and water, and lard the rump throughout, by inserting large lardoons in different parts of the meat. Then put a large quantity of suet, shred fine, both under and over it, and cover it with coarse flour and water paste, between which and the suet you may put a few bay-leaves or some sweet-herbs. If eaten hot, the dough, bay-leaves, and suet must all be taken off; the joint basted, sprinkled with a little salt and flour, over which a salamander should be passed; and served up with strong gravy or brown sauce. If cold, leave on the dough till wanted.

It should be baked in a moderately-heated oven, and will take according to the size, from 6 to 8 hours' baking.

A Round of Beef may be dressed in the same manner; but the bone should in that case be taken out, and the hole filled up with forcemeat. The flap should be filled in like manner, skewered, and tightly bound round with linen or strong tape, in which case the dough and the larding may be omitted, though the latter will be found an improvement. It should be always left until cold.

Brisket. --Take all the bones out of 8 lbs of brisket of beef; make holes in it about an inch asunder, and fill one with fat bacon, a second with parsley, a third with oysters, and so on, each being chopped and seasoned with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. When completely stuffed, lay it in a pan, dredge it well with flour, pour upon it a half pint of water, and the same of broth. Bake it 3 hours, and then skim off the fat; put the meat into a dish, strain the gravy over, and garnish with pickles.

Any piece of fresh beef, even of the coarsest pieces, may be dressed in this manner, or baked before the fire in a Dutch oven with button onions, the meat being previously rubbed over with oil. It is a common mode in Portugal and Spain.

Potted Beef. --Rub two pounds of lean beef with salt and saltpetre, and let it lie for two days; then dry the meat, season it with black pepper, and put it into a small pan with half a pound of butter: cover it with paste, and bake slowly for


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about four hours. When cold, pick out the stringy pieces, cut up the lean, and beat it in a mortar with a quarter of a pound of fresh butter just warmed, and a little of the gravy, seasoning with pounded mace, allspice, and pepper, to taste: when beaten to a very smooth paste, put the beef closely into small pots, and pour on it clarified butter. If to be kept a long time, tie it over with bladder, and set it in a dry place.

Or, the beef may be baked without being previously salted, in which case, salt should be added in beating it.

Or, beat in a mortar with butter, pepper, salt, and nutmeg, beef that has been dressed, either boiled or roasted.

To Stew Beef. --It should be put down in a pot with just sufficient cold water to cover the meat, and closely covered. After boiling 3 or 4 hours, according to the size of the piece, cut in small pieces, not larger than dice, 2 or 3 carrots and heads of celery, with a little sweet herbs, and put them into the pot along with peppercorns, mace, and a couple of large onions stuck full of cloves, and let it then simmer by the side of the fire for 2 or 3 hours, taking care to skim off any grease that may appear on the top.

By this time the meat will probably be tender enough; when take out the whole onions, mince them, and fry them in butter, to be mixed in the gravy made by the meat, which season with salt and cayenne, or chili vinegar, to which add some mushroom or walnut ketchup. Thicken the gravy with a little flour, and brown it, if necessary, with a spoonful of sugar burnt soft; which, besides imparting its color, adds an agreeable flavor. Such is the most simple mode; but the sauce may be much improved by a glass or two of port wine and a spoonful of curry powder: if the odor of garlic be not objected to, a clove boiled in the stew will be found to give it a fine flavor. Garnish with vegetables.

A small piece of beef--say of 4 lbs--will take the time mentioned; but the large joints will require full double that time; and should be put to stew overnight, adding the vegetables in the morning.

To stew a Rump of Beef. --Wash it with care, and season it well with pepper, salt, ground allspice, mace, and cloves; then tie it up, and put it into a pot, upon twigs or wooden skewers, to prevent the meat from sticking; add to it three


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large onions sliced, two turnips, three carrots, a shalot, some celery, and a handful of sweet herbs. Cover the meat with boiling water, add beef or mutton shankbones, and simmer the whole till tender, or about four hours. Then strain the gravy, take off the fat, and add from half a pint to a pint of port wine or sherry, or the juice of a fresh lemon, and a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup; thicken it, simmer for half an hour, and then pour it over the beef. Garnish with carrots and turnips.