COLD MUTTON

Worcester, or any other sauce, may be added with advan- tage, if in due proportions. A squeeze of lemon or a little tarragon vinegar may be used instead of tomato sauce, but no acid imparts so pleasant a flavour to a dish of this kind, and in fact to all kinds of hashes, as that of tomatoes. The main thing is to know how much of it to put in, and this can only be learned by practice. The mince should be kept in the saucepan at a gentle heat for an hour or two before serving ; it should not be allowed to boil. There are numerous ways of dishing up or serving mince besides simply putting a circle of bread sippets fried in butter round it. Poached or fried eggs may be disposed on the top of a mince. An omelet can be made, and, instead of doubling it up in the frying pan, as soon as one side has taken the least colour, you can slip it into a very hot dish, place the mince upon half of it, double over the other half, pass a salamander over it, to give it a better colour should it require it, and serve. A clove of garlic, or a shallot should be placed in the mince when first put into the saucepan, and removed at the time of serving ; or onions, or shallots, minced very fine, may be added to it, as well as finely chopped parsley. If you are an adept at making puff paste, you can manu- facture a vol-au-vent case, or small patties, and fill them up with meat minced as above. Of course your vol-au-vent will not be so recherche a dish as if it contained an elabo- rate ragout of sweetbreads, cockscombs, truffles, and what not; but nevertheless, if the paste be light and crisp, and the mince nicely flavoured, the dish will have its merits.

Another way is as follows : Cut out of the crumb of stale bread half a dozen cylindrical pieces an inch deep and two inches in diameter. Make an incision round the top of each, about the eighth of an inch from the outside,