SHELL FISH

["TO CHOOSE OYSTERS.--Insert a knife, and if the shell instantly closes firmly on the knife, the oysters are fresh. If it shuts slowly and faintly, or not at all, they are dying, or dead. When the shells of raw oysters are found gaping open they are fit for nothing but to throw away, and should not have been seen in the market, as they are quite dead and decomposition has commenced. Clams the same.", "TO FEED OYSTERS.--When it is necessary to keep oysters a day or two before they are cooked, they must be kept clean and fed, otherwise they will die and spoil. Put them into a large tub of clean water; wash from them the mud and sand, and scrub them with a birch broom. Then pour off _that_ water, and give them a clean tubful, placing the oysters with the deep or large side downward, and sprinkling them well, with salt mixed with it, allowing about a pint of salt to every two gallons of water. But if you have a very large quantity of oysters, add to the salt and water several handfuls of indian meal. Repeat this every twelve hours, with fresh water and meal. Always at the time of high water, oysters may be seen to open their shells, as if in expectation of their accustomed food. If this is carefully continued, they will remain plump and healthy for two days.", "Terrapins also, and other shell fish, should have the salt and water changed every twelve hours, and be fed with corn meal.", "Turtle must also be well fed, and allowed salted water to swim in.", "STEWED OYSTERS.--Get two hundred or more fine large fresh oysters. Drain them from their liquor, (saving it in a pitcher,) and put them into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and set them over the fire. When they have simmered, and have almost come to a boil, remove them from the fire; and have ready a pan of very cold water. Take out the oysters, (one at a time, on a fork,) and put them into the cold water. This will plump them, and render them firm. Having saved about half their liquor, put it into the stew-pan, seasoned well with blades of mace, grated nutmeg, whole pepper-corns, and a little cayenne. Stir in half a pint or more of thick rich cream; and if you cannot procure cream, an equal quantity of nice fresh butter divided into bits, slightly dredged with a very little flour. Boil the liquor by itself, and when it comes to a boil, take the oysters out of the cold water, and put them into the boiling liquor. In five minutes remove the pan from the fire, (the oysters having simmered,) and transfer them to a tureen or deep dish, in the bottom of which has been laid a buttered toast, that has previously been dipped a minute in hot water or milk.", "FRENCH STEWED OYSTERS.--Wash fifty fine large oysters in their own liquor, then strain it into a stew-pan, putting the oysters in a pan of cold water. Season the liquor with a large glass or half a pint of white wine, (sherry or Madeira,) the juice of two lemons, six or seven blades of mace, and a small grated nutmeg. Boil the seasoned liquor; and skim, and stir it well. When it comes to a boil, put in the oysters. Give them one good stir, and then immediately take them from the fire, transfer them to a deep dish, and send them to table. They are not to boil.", "Many persons consider this the finest way of cooking oysters for company. Try it. The oysters must be of the very best.", "FRIED OYSTERS.--For frying, take only the largest and finest oysters. They should be as fresh as you can get them. Salt oysters are not good for frying. Take them out of their liquor, carefully, with a fork, picking off whatever bits of shell may be about them. Dry them in a clean napkin. Prepare some grated bread-crumbs, or pounded cracker, or soda biscuit, seasoned with cayenne pepper. Have ready plenty of yolk of egg beaten till very light; and to each egg allow a large tea-spoonful of rich cream, or of the best fresh butter. Beat the egg and cream together. Dip each oyster first into the egg, &c., and then into the crumbs. Repeat this twice till the oysters are well-coated all over. Have ready boiling, in a frying-pan, an equal mixture of fresh butter and lard. It must come nearly to the edge or top of the frying-pan, and be boiling fast when the oysters go in; otherwise they will be heavy and greasy, and sink to the bottom. Fry them of a yellow brown on both sides. Send them to table very hot.", "Oysters will be found much the best when fried in grated bread-crumbs. Cracker-crumbs form a hard, tough coating that is very indigestible, and also impairs the flavor. Use no salt in making the batter. Omit it entirely. It overpowers the taste of the oysters.", "OYSTER FRITTERS.--Allow to each egg a heaped table-spoonful of flour, and a jill or small tea-cupful of milk. Beat the eggs till very light and thick; then stir them, gradually, into the pan of milk, in turn with the flour, a little at a time. Beat the whole very hard. Have ready the oysters, that you may proceed immediately to baking the fritters. The oysters should be fresh, and of the largest size. Having drained them from their liquor, and dried them separately in a cloth, and dredged them with flour, set over the fire a frying-pan nearly full of lard. When it boils fast, put in a large spoonful of the batter. Then lay an oyster upon it, and cover the oyster with another spoonful of batter. Fry the fritters of a nice yellow. As they are done, take them up, drain off the lard from the oysters, and keep them hot till they go to table. This will be found a very fine receipt if _exactly_ followed.", "CLAM FRITTERS.--Put a sufficient quantity of clams into a pot of boiling water. The small sand-clam will be best. When the shells open wide, take them out, extract the clams from the shells, and put them into a stew-pan. Strain their liquor, and pour about half of it over the clams; adding a little black pepper. They will require no salt. Let them stew, slowly, for half an hour; then take them out; drain off all the liquor; and mince the clams as fine as possible, omitting the hardest parts. You should have as many clams as will make a large pint when minced. Make a batter of seven eggs, beaten till very thick and light, and then mixed gradually with a quart of milk, and a pint of sifted flour, stirred in by degrees, and made perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Then, gradually, mix the minced clams with the batter, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready in a frying-pan over the fire, a sufficiency of boiling lard. Put in, with a spoon, the batter so as to form fritters, and fry them light brown. Drain them well when done and serve them up hot.", "Oyster fritters may be made as above: except that the oysters must be minced raw, and mixed into the batter without having been stewed.", "_Soft-crab Fritters._--Use only the bodies of the crabs, and proceed as above.", "SCOLLOPED CLAMS.--Having boiled a quantity of small sand-clams till they open of themselves, remove them from the shells. Drain away the liquor, and chop them small, omitting the hardest parts. Season them with black pepper and powdered mace, and mix them with grated bread-crumbs and fresh butter. Get some large clean clam-shells, and fill them to the edge with the above mixture, moistened with _a very little_ of the liquor. Cover the surface with grated crumbs, and add to each one a small bit of butter. Set them in an oven, and bake them light brown. Send them to table in the shells they were baked in, arranged on large dishes. They are eaten at breakfast and supper. Clams must always have the shells washed before they are boiled.", "Oysters are frequently scolloped in this manner, minced, and served up in large _clam_ shells.", "Boiled crabs, also, are cooked, minced, and prepared in this way, and sent to table in the back-shell of the crab.", "All these scollops are improved by mixing among them some hard-boiled eggs, minced or chopped; or some raw egg beaten.", "ROASTED OYSTERS.--The old-fashioned way of roasting oysters is to lay them on a hot hearth, and cover them in hot cinders or ashes, (taking them out with tongs when done,) or to put them into a moderate fire. When done, their shells will begin to open. The usual way now is to broil them on large gridirons of strong wire. Serve them up in their shells on large dishes, or on trays, at oyster suppers. At every plate lay an oyster knife and a clean coarse towel, and between every two chairs set a bucket to receive the empty shells. The gentlemen generally save the ladies the trouble of opening the oysters, by performing that office for them.", "Have on the table, to eat with the oysters, bread-rolls, biscuits, butter, and glasses with sticks of celery scraped, and divested of the green leaves at the top. Have also ale or porter.", "Or, you may take large oysters out of their shells, dredge them lightly with flour, lay them separately on a wire gridiron, and broil them. Serve them up on large dishes, with a morsel of fresh butter laid on each oyster.", "SCOLLOPED OYSTERS.--Drain the liquor from a sufficient quantity of fine fresh oysters; and season them with blades of mace, grated nutmeg, and a little cayenne. Lay about a dozen of them in the bottom of a deep dish. Cut some slices of wheat bread, and put them to soak in a pan of the oyster liquor (previously strained.)", "Soak the bread till it is soft throughout, but not dissolved. Cover the oysters in the bottom of the dish, with some slices of the soaked bread, (drained from the liquor,) and lay upon the bread a few small bits of nice fresh butter. Then put in another layer of seasoned oysters; then another layer of soaked bread with bits of butter dispersed upon it. Repeat this with more layers of oysters, soaked bread, and bits of butter, till the dish is full, finishing with a close layer of bread on the top. Set this into a hot oven, and bake it, a short time only, or till it is well browned on the surface. Oysters require but little cooking, and this bread has had one baking already. The liquid that is about the bread is sufficient. It requires no more.", "Scolloped oysters may be cooked in large, clean, clam-shells and served up on great dishes.", "PICKLED OYSTERS.--Take a hundred fine large oysters--set them over the fire in their own liquor--add two ounces of nice fresh butter, and simmer them slowly for ten minutes; skimming them well. If they boil fast and long, they will become hard and shrivelled. Take them off the fire and strain from them their liquor; spread the oysters out on large dishes, and place them in the air to cool fast, or lay them in a broad pan of cold water. This renders them firm. Strain the liquor, and then mix with it an equal quantity of the best and purest clear cider-vinegar. Season (if the oysters are fresh,) with a small tea-spoonful of salt, two dozen whole pepper-corns, and a table-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg, mixed. Let the liquor boil till it is reduced to little more than enough to cover the oysters well. Put the oysters into a tureen, or a broad stone jar. Pour the hot liquor over them, and let them grow quite cold before they are eaten. You may give them a fine tinge of pale pink color by adding to the liquor (while boiling,) a little prepared cochineal.", "PICKLED OYSTERS.--_For keeping._--Have five or six hundred oysters of the finest sort and largest size. Proceed as in the foregoing receipt, but increase, proportionately, the quantity of spice and vinegar. Put them in stone-ware jars, securing the covers by pasting all round, bands or strips of thick white paper; and place on each jar, on the top of the liquor, a table-spoonful of salad oil.", "Use no other than _genuine cider-vinegar_. Much that is sold for the best white-wine vinegar is in reality a deleterious compound of pernicious drugs, that will eat up or dissolve the oysters entirely, leaving nothing but a sickening whitish fluid. This vinegar is at first so overpoweringly sharp and pungent, as to destroy, entirely, the taste of the spices; and, while cooking, emits a disagreeable smell. The oysters immediately become ragged, and in less than an hour are entirely destroyed. This vinegar acts in the same manner on all other pickles, and the use of it should always be shunned.", "_Drugs_ should not be employed in any sort of cookery, though their introduction is now most lamentably frequent. They ruin the flavor and are injurious to health.", "OYSTER PATTIES.--Make sufficient puff-paste for at least a dozen small patties. Roll it out thick, and line with it twelve small tin patty-pans. Bake them brown in a brisk oven; and when done set them to cool. Have ready two or three dozen large, fine, fresh oysters. Wash and drain them, and put them into a stew-pan with no other liquid than just enough of their own liquor to keep them from burning. Season them with cayenne, nutmeg, and mace, and a few of the green tops or leaves of celery sprigs minced small. Add a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided into bits, and laid among the oysters. To enrich the gravy, stir in, at the last, the beaten yolks of three or four eggs, or some thick cream or butter. Let the oysters stew in this gravy about five minutes. When the patties are beginning to cool, fill each with one or two large oysters. If you choose, you can bake for every patty a small round lid of pastry, to be laid lightly on the top, so as to cover the oysters when they go to table. For company, make a large quantity of oyster patties, as they are much liked.", "OYSTER LOAVES.--Take some tall fresh rolls, or small loaves. Cut nicely a round or oval hole in the top of each, saving the pieces that come off. Then carefully scoop out most of the crumb from the inside, leaving the crust standing. Have ready a sufficient quantity of large fresh oysters. Put the oysters with one-fourth of their liquor into a stew-pan; adding the bread-crumbs, a large piece of fresh butter, some powdered nutmeg, and mace. Stew them about ten minutes. Then stir in two or three large table-spoonfuls of cream; take them off just as they are coming to a boil. If cooked too long the oysters will become tough and shriveled, and the cream will curdle. Fill the inside of your scooped loaves with the oysters, reserving as many large oysters as you have loaves. Place the bit of upper-crust carefully on the top of each, so as to cover the whole. Arrange them on a dish, and lay on each lid one of the large oysters kept out for the purpose. These ornamental oysters must be well drained from any liquid that is about them.", "OYSTER OMELET.--Having strained the liquor from twenty-five oysters of the largest size, mince them small; omitting the hard part or gristle. If you cannot get large oysters, you should have forty or fifty small ones. Break into a shallow pan six, seven, or eight eggs, according to the quantity of minced oysters. Omit half the whites, and, (having beaten the eggs till very light, thick, and smooth,) mix the oysters gradually into them, adding a little cayenne pepper, and some powdered nutmeg. Put three ounces or more of the best fresh butter into a small frying-pan, if you have no pan especially for omelets. Place it over a clear fire, and when the butter, (which should be previously cut up,) has come to a boil, put in the omelet-mixture; stir it till it begins to set; and fry it light brown, lifting the edge several times by slipping a knife under it, and taking care not to cook it too much or it will shrivel and become tough. When done, clap a large hot plate or dish on the top of the omelet, and turn it quickly and carefully out of the pan. Serve it up immediately. It is a fine breakfast dish. This quantity will make one large or two small omelets.", "Clam omelets may be made as above.", "An omelet pan should be smaller than a common frying-pan, and lined with tin. In a large pan the omelet will spread too much, and become thin like a pancake.", "Never turn an omelet while frying, as that will make it heavy and tough. When done, brown it by holding a red-hot shovel or salamander close above the top.", "Excellent omelets may be made of cold boiled ham, or smoked tongue; grated or minced small, mixed with a sufficiency of beaten eggs, and fried in butter.", "BROILED OYSTERS.--Take the largest and finest oysters. See that your gridiron is very clean. Rub the bars with fresh butter, and set it over a clear steady fire, entirely free from smoke; or on a bed of bright hot wood coals. Place the oysters on the gridiron, and when done on one side, take a fork and turn them on the other; being careful not to let them burn. Put some fresh butter in the bottom of a dish. Lay the oysters on it, and season them with pepper and grated nutmeg. Send them to table hot.", "OYSTER PIE.--Having buttered the inside of a deep dish, line it with puff-paste rolled out rather thick; and prepare another sheet of paste for the lid. Pat a clean towel into the dish (folded so as to support the lid) and then put on the lid; set it into the oven, and bake the paste well. When done, remove the lid, and take out the folded towel. While the paste is baking, prepare the oysters. Having picked off carefully any bits of shell that may be found about them, lay them in a sieve and drain off the liquor into a pan. Put the oysters into a skillet or stew-pan, with barely enough of the liquor to keep them from burning. Season them with whole pepper, blades of mace, some grated nutmeg, and some grated lemon-peel, (the yellow rind only,) and a little finely minced celery. Then add a large portion of fresh butter, divided into bits, and very slightly dredged with flour. Let the oysters simmer over the fire, but do not allow them to come to a boil, as that will shrivel them. Next beat the yolks only, of three, four, or five eggs, (in proportion to the size of the pie,) and stir the beaten egg into the stew a few minutes before you take it from the fire. Keep it warm till the paste is baked. Then carefully remove the lid of the pie; and replace it, after you have filled the dish with the oysters and gravy.", "The lid of the pie may be ornamented with a wreath of leaves cut out of paste, and put on before baking. In the centre, place a paste-knot or flower.", "Oyster pies are generally eaten warm; but they are very good cold.", "CLAM PIE.--Take a sufficient number of clams to fill a large pie-dish when opened. Make a nice paste in the proportion of a pound of fresh butter to two quarts of flour. Paste for shell fish, or meat, or chicken pies, should be rolled out double the thickness of that intended for fruit pies. Line the sides and bottom of your pie-dish with paste. Then cover the bottom with a thin beef steak, divested of bone and fat. Put in the clams, and season them with mace, nutmeg, and a few whole pepper-corns. No salt. Add a spoonful of butter rolled in flour, and some hard-boiled yolks of eggs crumbled fine. Then put in enough of the clam liquor to make sufficient gravy. Put on the lid of the pie, (which, like the bottom crust, should be rolled out thick,) notch it handsomely, and bake it well. It should be eaten warm.", "SOFT CRABS.--These are crabs that, having cast their old shells, have not yet assumed the new ones. In this, the transition state, they are considered delicacies. Put them into fast-boiling water, and boil them for ten minutes. Then take them out, drain them, wipe them very clean, and prepare them for frying by removing the spongy part inside and the sand-bag. Put plenty of fresh lard into a pan; and when it boils fast, lay in the crabs, and fry them well, seasoning them with cayenne. As soon as they are done of a nice golden color, take them out, drain off the lard back into the pan, and lay them on a large _hot_ dish. Cover them to keep warm while you fry, in the same lard, all the best part of a fresh lettuce, chopped small. Let it fry only long enough to become hot throughout. When you serve up the crabs cover them with the fried lettuce. Stir into the gravy some cream, or a piece of nice fresh butter rolled in flour; and send it to table in a sauce-boat, seasoned with a little cayenne.", "Soft crabs require no other flavoring. They make a nice breakfast-dish for company. Only the large claws are eaten, therefore break off as useless the small ones.", "Instead of lettuce, you may fry the crabs with parsley--removed from the pan before it becomes brown. Pepper-grass is still better.", "TERRAPINS.--In buying terrapins select the largest and thickest. Like all other delicacies, the best are the cheapest in the end. Small poor terrapins are not worth the cost of the seasoning. A poor terrapin, poorly dressed, is indeed a poor thing, and is always recognized as such, by those who are expected to eat it. _Get fine terrapins only._ Put them into a pot of water that is boiling very hard at the time, and let them boil for about ten minutes. Immediately on taking them out, proceed to rub, with a coarse clean cloth, all the skin from the head, neck, and claws--also, the thin shell, as it comes loose. Having washed them in warm water, put the terrapins into a clean pot with fresh water, and a table-spoonful of salt, and boil them again till they are thoroughly done, and the paws are perfectly soft. Remove the toe-nails. Some terrapins require three hours. When they are quite soft, open them carefully, remove the spongy part, the sand-bag, the gall, and the entrails--it being now the custom to throw away the whole of the disgusting garbage, always tasteless, tough, and disagreeable to look at. Be careful not to break the gall, as it will give an unpleasant bitter taste to the whole. Cut into small pieces all the meat of the terrapins, put them into a stew-pan, (adding the juice they have yielded in cutting up, _but no water_,) and proceed to season them, beginning with cayenne and black pepper, to your taste; also, a handful of flour for the thickening. Stir all well together, and in a short time add four table-spoonfuls of cream, or fresh butter, and a half pint of Madeira or sherry to every four terrapins. If they have no eggs, make up some artificially; crumbling the yolks of hard-boiled common eggs, mashed to a paste with a little nice butter, and then made into balls with beaten raw egg. Add plenty of these to the stew, and let the whole cook together for a quarter of an hour longer. Serve it up hot, in a well heated covered dish.", "Four fine large terrapins generally make one dish; and the above is the usual quantity of seasoning for them.", "NEW WAY OF DRESSING TERRAPINS.--In buying terrapins, select those only that are large, fat, and thick-bodied. Put them whole into water that is boiling hard at the time, and (adding a little salt) boil them till thoroughly done throughout. Then, taking off the shell, extract the meat, and remove carefully the sand-bag and gall; also, _all the entrails_,--they are disgusting, unfit to eat, and are no longer served up in cooking terrapin for the best tables. Cut the meat into pieces, and put it into a stew-pan with its eggs, and sufficient fresh butter to stew it well. Let it stew till quite hot throughout, keeping the pan carefully covered that none of the flavor may escape; but shake it over the fire while stewing. In another pan, make a sauce of beaten yolk of egg, highly flavored with Madeira or sherry, and powdered nutmeg and mace, and enriched with a large lump of fresh butter. Stir this sauce well over the fire, and when it has _almost_ come to a boil, take it off. Send the terrapin to table hot in a covered dish, and the sauce _separately_ in a sauce-tureen, to be used by those who like it, and omitted by those who prefer the genuine flavor of the terrapin when simply stewed with butter.", "This is now the usual mode of dressing terrapins in Maryland and Virginia, and will be found superior to any other.", "No dish of terrapins can be good unless the terrapins themselves are of the best quality. It is mistaken economy to buy poor ones. Besides being insipid and tasteless, it takes more in number to fill a dish. The females are the best.", "A TERRAPIN POT-PIE.--Take several fine large terrapins, the fattest and thickest you can get. Put them into a large pot of water that is boiling hard; and boil them half an hour or more. Then take them out of the shell, pulling off the outer skin and the toe-nails. Remove the sand-bag and the gall, taking care not to break it, or it will render the whole too bitter to be eaten. Take out also the entrails, and throw them away; as the custom of cooking them is now, very properly, exploded. Then cut up all the meat of the terrapins, taking care to save all the liquid that exudes in cutting up, and also the eggs. Season the whole with pepper, mace, and nutmeg, adding a little salt; and lay among it pieces of fresh butter slightly rolled in flour.", "Have ready an ample quantity of paste, made in the proportion of a pound of butter to two large quarts (or pounds) of flour, or a pound and a half of butter to three quarts of flour, and rolled out thick. Butter the inside of an iron pot, and line the sides with paste, till it reaches within one-third of the top. Then put in the pieces of terrapin, with the eggs, butter, &c., and with all the liquid. Lay among the terrapin, square pieces of paste. Then pour in sufficient water to stew the whole properly. Next, cover all with a circular lid, or top-crust of paste, but do not fit it so closely that the gravy cannot bubble up over the edges while cooking. Cut a small cross slit in the top crust. Place the pot, with the pie, over a good fire, and boil it till the whole is thoroughly done, which will be in from three quarters to an hour after it comes to a boil. Take care not to let it get too dry, but keep at hand a kettle of boiling water to replenish the pot when necessary. To ascertain if the pie is done, lift up with a fork a little of the paste, at one side, and try it low down in the pot.", "It may be much improved, by mixing among the pieces of terrapins, (before putting them into the pie,) some yolks of hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced. They will enrich the gravy.", "A pot-pie may be made, (a very fine one too,) of some of the best pieces of a green turtle.", "A SEA-COAST PIE.--Having boiled a sufficient number of crabs and lobsters, extract all the meat from the shells, and cut it into mouthfuls. Have ready some fine large oysters drained from the liquor. Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with puff-paste; and put in a thick layer of crab or lobster, seasoned with a little cayenne pepper, and a grated lemon-peel. Mix it with some hard-boiled yolk of egg, crumbled fine, and moistened with fresh butter. Next, put a close layer of oysters, seasoned with pounded mace and grated nutmeg. Put some bits of butter rolled in flour on the top of the layer. Proceed in this manner with alternate layers of crab or lobster, and of oysters, till the dish is nearly full. Then pour in, at the last, a tea-cupful or more of the oyster liquor, with an equal quantity of rich cream. Have ready a thick lid of puff-paste. Put it on the pie, pressing the edges closely, so as to unite them all round; and notch them handsomely. Make a wreath of leaves cut out of paste, and a flower or knot for the centre; place them on the top-crust; and bake the pie well. While it is baking, prepare some balls made of chopped oysters; grated bread-crumbs; powdered nutmeg, or mace; and grated lemon-peel; also, some hard-boiled yolks of eggs, grated. Having fried these balls in butter, drain them, and when the pie is baked, lay a circle of them round the top, between the border of paste-leaves and the centre-knot.", "This pie will be found so fine that it ought to be baked in a dish which will contain a large quantity.", "TO DRESS A TURTLE.--The turtle should be taken out of water, and killed over night in winter, and early in the morning in summer. Hang it up by the hind fins, and before it has had time to draw in its neck, cut off its head with a very sharp knife, and leave the turtle suspended. It should bleed two or three hours or more, before you begin to cut it up. Then lay it on its back upon a table: have at hand several vessels of cold water, in which to throw the most important parts as you separate them; also a large boiler of hot water. Take off the fins at the joint, and lay them by themselves in cold water; next divide the back-shell from the under-shell. The upper part of the turtle is called the calipash--the under part the calipee. In cutting open the turtle, be very careful not to break the gall, which should be taken out and thrown away; if broken, its bitterness will spoil all around it. Take out the entrails and throw them away. The practice of cooking them is now obsolete. So it is with the entrails of terrapins. Using a sharp knife, cut off the fins carefully, also the liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, &c. Wash them well, and lay them in a pan of cold water, the liver in a pan by itself. If there are eggs, put them also into cold water. Having extracted the intestines, stand up the turtle on end, to let the blood run out. Afterwards cut out all the flesh from the upper and under shells, and remove the bones. Cut the calipee (or meat belonging to the under-shell) into pieces about as large as the palm of your hand, and break the shell. The calipash, or meat next the back-shell, may be cut smaller--the green fat into pieces about two inches square. Put all the meat into a large pan, sprinkle it slightly with salt, and cover it up. Lay the shells and fins in a tub of boiling water, and scald them till the scales can be scraped off with a knife, and all the meat that still adheres to the shells easily removed, as it is worth saving. Clean the fins nicely, (taking off t", "In the mean time, stew in another pot the finest of the turtle-meat, seasoned with a little salt and cayenne, and a liberal allowance of sweet-marjoram leaves rubbed fine, and mixed with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add a pound of fresh butter, cut into pieces and rolled in flour. When the turtle-meat has stewed an hour, put in the green fat, and add the juice and grated yellow rinds of two lemons, and a pint or more of Madeira, and let the whole stew slowly an hour longer. While the meat is stewing, take the shell of the back; wash it clean, and wipe it dry; lay a band of puff-paste all round the inside of the shell, two inches below the edge, and two inches above it. Notch the paste handsomely, and fill the shell with the stewed turtle. Have ready the oven, heated as if for bread. Lay a large iron baking-sheet or a square pan upon four bricks (one at each corner) to elevate the turtle-shell from the floor of the oven. Place on it the shell with its contents, and let it bake till well browned on the surface. Send it to table with the shell placed on a large dish. At the other end set the tureen of soup. Have ready (on two side dishes) the fins stewed tender in a little of the soup, and the liver fried in butter.", "This receipt is for a turtle of moderate size. A large one will, of course, require an increased proportion of all the articles used in seasoning it--more wine, &c. In serving up turtle at a dinner-party, let it constitute the first course, and have nothing else on the table while the turtle is there.", "We have seen elegant silver turtle-dishes, representing the back-shell of the animal, superbly chased and engraved, the feet for it to stand on being paws of silver; and the fins having hollow places to hold the sauce. This was for the stew; making a dish separate from the soup, which is always sent to table in a tureen.", "TURTLE PASTY.--When the meat has been all extracted, scrape and wash the large back shell of the turtle till it is perfectly clean. Make a rich puff-paste. Roll it out thin, and line with it the bottom and sides, in fact the whole of the back-shell. Having prepared and seasoned the best pieces of the turtle-meat, as in the preceding receipt, stew them till thoroughly done, and very tender, and when cool, fill the shell with them. Have ready an upper lid of the same puff-paste, rolled out rather _thick_. Cover the pie with it. Unite the edges of the upper and under crusts, very neatly, wetting your fingers with water. Then notch them handsomely all round, and cut a cross slit in the centre of the top or cover. Set it directly into a rather quick oven. Bake the crust of a light brown, and send it to table hot.", "LOBSTERS.--If you buy a lobster ready boiled, see that his tail is stiff and elastic, so that when you bend it under, it springs back immediately; otherwise he is not fresh. If alive or unboiled, he will be lively and brisk in his motion when newly caught. The same with prawns, and crabs.", "The heaviest lobsters are the best.", "To boil a lobster, have ready a pot of fast-boiling water, very strongly salted. Put in the lobster head downward; and if the water is really hot (it is cruel to have it otherwise,) he will be dead in a moment. Crabs, of course, the same. A moderate sized lobster (and they are the best,) will be done in half an hour. A large one requires from three-quarters to an hour. Before it is sent to table, the large claws should be taken off, and laid beside it. The head also should be separated from the body, but laid so near it that the division is nearly imperceptible. The head is never eaten. Split the body, and lay it open all the way down, including the tail. If there is a good dresser of salads in the house, the lobster may be served up ready dressed, in a deep dish, seasoned with the proper condiments, after being cut small or minced, heaped up towards the centre of the dish, and decorated with the small claws laid across on the top, with the addition of green celery leaves, or parsley sprigs.", "LOBSTER SALAD--(_plain_.)--Take a well boiled lobster. Extract all the meat from the body and claws, cut it up small, and mash the coral with the back of a spoon or a broad knife. Wash the best part of a fresh lettuce, and cut that up also, omitting all the stalk. Mix together the chopped lobster and the lettuce, and put them into a salad bowl. Make the dressing in a deep plate, allowing for one lobster a salt-spoon of salt, half as much of cayenne, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, (tarragon mustard is best,) four table-spoonfuls (or more) of sweet oil, and three table-spoonfuls of the best cider vinegar. Mix all these together, with the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, mashed to a soft moist paste with the other ingredients, adding the coral of the lobster. When they are all mixed smoothly, add them to the lobster and lettuce. If the mixture seems too dry, add more sweet oil. Toss and stir the salad with a box-wood fork. Also, the things should be mashed with a box-wood spoon. Cover, and set it in a cool place till wanted. It should be eaten as soon as possible after mixing, as it becomes flat by standing.", "Plenty of sweet oil renders a lobster wholesome. Still, persons who are not in good health, had best abstain from lobster.", "You may add to the dressing, one or two raw yolks of eggs, beaten well.", "FINE LOBSTER SALAD--(_This is for company._)--Boil eight eggs for ten minutes, or till quite hard. Lay them in cold water, or cool them by laying bits of ice among them. When quite cold, cut each egg lengthways into four or six pieces, taking a bit off one end of each piece or slice. Cut up into long pieces the best part of a fresh lettuce, that has just been washed in a pan of cold water. Lay the lettuce in a dish, and surround it closely with the pieces of egg standing up on their blunted ends, with the yolk side outward, and forming a handsome wall all round the bed of lettuce. Upon this, pile neatly the bits of chopped lobster, finishing with the small claws stuck into the top. Have ready the dressing in a sauce-tureen. Make it of the beaten yolks of two raw eggs, and four table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, thickened with the mashed coral of the lobster, and the crumbled yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, and season slightly with a little salt, cayenne, and a spoonful of tarragon mustard. Finish with two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and stir the whole hard with a box-wood spoon or fork. Send it to table with the sauce-tureen, along with the dish of lobster, &c. Pour on each plate of lobster a portion of this dressing. Or, if you can obtain no lettuce, mix this dressing at once with the chopped meat of the lobster. Smooth it in a pile on the dish, (keeping it towards the centre) and stand up the slips of hard egg handsomely surrounding it--the small claws decorating the top.", "LOBSTER RISSOLES.--Extract all the meat from the shells of one or two boiled lobsters. Mince it very fine; the coral also. Season it with a little salt and cayenne, and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Add about a fourth part of finely grated bread-crumbs; and with a sufficiency of fresh butter or a little finely-minced veal suet, or some sweet oil, make it up into balls or cones. Brush them over with yolk of egg, dredge them lightly with flour, and fry them in lard. Introduce them as a side dish at a dinner party, or as an accompaniment to salmon.", "This mixture may be baked in puff-paste as little patties, or you may bake in a soup-plate an empty shell of paste, and when done, (having stewed the rissole mixture made moist) fill the cold paste with it, and serve it up as a lobster pie.", "In buying lobsters, choose those that are the heaviest and liveliest, or quickest in their motions when touched. They are then fresh. The hen has the broadest tail and the softest fins.", "LOBSTER PUDDING.--Take the empty back shell of one large boiled lobster, and all the best meat of two. Clean out the shell very nicely; washing it, and wiping it dry. Mince the meat, and mash the coral with it; adding half a dozen yolks of hard-boiled eggs crumbled among it, and season it well with powdered mace and nutmeg, and a little cayenne. Moisten it all through with plenty of sweet oil, and the raw yolks of one or two eggs, well beaten. Fill the shell with this pudding, and cover the surface of the mixture with a coating of finely-grated bread-crumbs. Brown it by holding over it a salamander, or a red hot fire-shovel. Send it to table in the shell, laid on a china dish.", "Small puddings may be made as above, of crab-meat put into several large crab-shells, and placed side by side on a dish.", "They may be eaten either warm or cold; and they look well with green lettuce or pepper-grass, disposed fancifully among them.", "CRABS.--Crabs are seldom eaten except at the sea-shore, where there is a certainty of their being fresh from the water. They are very abundant, but so little is in them, that when better things are to be had, they are scarcely worth the trouble of boiling and picking out the shell. They are cooked like lobsters, in boiling salt and water, and brought to table piled on large dishes, and are eaten with salt, pepper, sweet oil, and vinegar. The meat of two dozen crabs, when all is extracted, will make but a small dish. Season it with cayenne, mustard, oil, vinegar, and eat it cold; or stew it with fresh butter, powdered mace, and nutmeg, and serve it up hot.", "_Prawns._--The same.", "SHRIMPS.--Of all fish belonging to the lobster species, shrimps are the smallest. In England, where they abound, they are sold by the quart, ready boiled. The way to eat them is to pull off the head, and squeeze the body out of the shell by pressing it between your fore-finger and thumb. At good tables they are only used as sauce for large fish, squeezed out of the shell, and stirred into melted butter.", "LOBSTER SAUCE.--Take a small hen lobster that has been well boiled. Extract all the meat, and chop it large. Take out the coral, and pound it smooth in a marble mortar, adding, as you proceed, sufficient sweet oil. Make some nice drawn butter, allowing half a pound of nice fresh butter to two heaped table-spoonfuls of flour, and a pint of hot water. Mix the butter and flour thoroughly, and then gradually add to them the coral, so as to give a fine color. Then mix this with a small pint of boiling water. Hold the saucepan over the fire, (shaking it about till it simmers) but do not let it quite boil. Put in the chopped lobster, and let that simmer in the sauce, till well heated. To allow it to boil will spoil the color, (which should be pale pink,) and may be improved by a little prepared cochineal. Or, you may tie, in a small bit of thin muslin, a few chips of alkanet, and put it into the sauce, (taking it out, of course, before it goes to table.) Alkanet communicates a beautiful pink color, and has no taste in itself.", "This quantity of sauce is for a large fish--salmon, cod, turbot, or sheep's head. There should always be an ample supply of sauce. It is very awkward for the sauce to give out, before it has gone round the company.", "ROASTING BEEF.--The prime piece of beef for roasting is the sirloin; but being too large for a small family, the ribs are generally preferred, when there are but few persons to eat of it. So also is the baron, or double sirloin, undivided along the back. It is chiefly seen at great dinners. Except the sirloin and ribs, there are no very good roasting pieces, all the rest being generally used for stews, soups, &c., and for corning or salting. Unless the animal is a very fine one, the inferior pieces are apt to be tough, hard, and coarse. The round is the best piece for corning or salting, and for cooking, as beef _a-la-mode_, or converting into what, in England, is called rump-steaks. These steaks require a rolling-pin, before they can be made tender enough for good eating, or good digestion. The finest and tenderest steaks are those cut from the sirloin. The meat of a young well-fed heifer is very good; and that of an old ox, (that has done working, and afterwards been fattened well on plenty of wholesome food,) may be made of superior excellence. The lean of good fresh beef is of a bright red color, a fine close grain, and feels tender to the touch on pinching it between your thumb and finger. The fat is firm and very nearly white. The suet about the kidney, firm and quite white. If, on the contrary, the lean is coarse, tough, and of a dull color, and the fat scanty, yellow, and moist, do not buy that meat for any purpose. The same rules will apply to mutton. If the weather is so cold that the meat is frozen, thaw it by lying it all night or early in the morning in a tub of _cold_ water. If thawed in water the least warm, the meat will spoil, and be rendered unfit to eat. Meat that has been frozen, requires a much longer time to cook, than if that accident had not happened. _All_ frozen animals must be thawed in cold water previous to cooking. Cold roast-beef is much liked in England. In America, where meat is more abundant, and therefore less costly, it is not con", "At first, baste the meat as soon as it begins to roast, with a little fresh butter, or fresh dripping saved from yesterday's beef. Then, when its own fat begins to drip, baste it with that, all the while it is cooking. Gradually move it nearer to the fire, turning the spit round frequently, so that the meat may be cooked equally on all sides. When it is nearly done, sprinkle it slightly, with a little salt. When it is quite done, and you take it from the spit, put it on a large hot dish, and keep it warm while you skim the gravy, thoroughly, so as to remove _all_ the fat. Then mix in the gravy a small tea-cup full of hot water, and thicken it with a very little browned flour. Send it to table very hot.", "As a general rule, a sirloin, weighing fifteen pounds, will require about four hours (or more) before a good steady fire. If it has been frozen, it will take much longer. The fatter it is the more cooking it will require. When sent to table, place near it, a small sauce-shell of horse-radish, washed, scraped fine, and moistened with the best vinegar. Put a tea-spoon on the top to take it with. Pickles, and a bottle of French mustard, at good tables, are generally accompaniments to beef or mutton, whether roasted or boiled.", "The dripping of roast beef, after all the fat has been removed, and the basting of the meat is over, should be strained into a pan, and kept in a cold place, with a cover; and next day, when it is congealed into a cake, scrape off whatever impurities may still adhere to the bottom, transfer it to a covered jar, and set it in the refrigerator, or where it will be cold. The dripping of roast beef is excellent for frying, for plain pie-crust, or for many other purposes. The dripping of mutton (being tallow) is only fit for soap-fat, and will spoil any dish whatever.", "BROILED BEEF STEAKS.--The best steaks are those from the tender-loin. Those from the round or rump require beating with a rolling-pin. A steak-mallet tears them and destroys the juices of the meat. Without beating they will generally be found too tough or hard for an American taste, though much liked in Europe, where tender-loin steaks are considered too expensive. But they are here so much preferred, that, on good tables, any others are seldom seen. Have all the steaks nearly of a size and shape, and about half an inch thick. Trim off the fat, and cut short the bone, or remove it altogether. Season them with black pepper, but sprinkle on no salt till they have done cooking; as salt, if put on at first, hardens them. Set your gridiron over a bed of bright clear coals, having first rubbed the bars with a very little beef suet, or dripping. Not mutton fat, as it will give the taste of tallow.", "A beef steak cannot be cooked in perfection unless over wood coals. To cook them before an anthracite fire, on an upright gridiron, is more like toasting than broiling, and much impairs the true flavor. A gridiron of the usual shape, with grooved or hollow bars to catch the gravy, is best of all. Broil the steaks well; and when done on one side, turn each steak with steak tongs; or a knife and fork, and an inverted plate.", "If onions are liked, peel and boil a few; drain and mince them, and sprinkle them thickly over the surface of each steak. When they are well done, take them off the gridiron, and transfer them to a heated dish, laying a small bit of butter upon it; and put another bit of butter on the surface of each steak, having first sprinkled them with a very little fine salt. What there is of their own gravy, pour round them on the dish. Send it to table as hot as possible.", "The English custom of eating what is called _rare_ or underdone beef or mutton, is now becoming obsolete. To ladies, especially, all food is disgusting that is red and bloody-looking--and physicians have discovered, that nothing is wholesome unless well cooked. The introduction of French cookery has done that much good.", "The onions may be stewed in butter or gravy, and served up in a sauce-boat, seasoned with nutmeg. At the famous beef-steak club of London, each guest is furnished with a small raw onion, to take on his fork, and rub over his empty plate, just before the steaks are served up, which is done one at a time, and as hot as possible, being cooked in the room.", "FRIED BEEF STEAKS.--Sirloin steaks should be tender enough without beating. Rump steaks will require some; but do not beat them so much as to tear the meat and exhaust all its juices. We have seen them pounded almost into a mass of dry shreds, scarcely adhering together. Remove the fat and bone. Lay them in a frying-pan, with a little fresh butter dredged with flour, and season them with pepper. Fry them brown, turning them on both sides. Have ready some onions, peeled, washed, and sliced. After you have turned the steaks, cover them with the sliced onions, and then finish the frying, till all is thoroughly done, meat and onions, slightly sprinkling them with salt. The onions had best be boiled in a small sauce-pan by themselves, before they are sliced and fried.", "Put the whole on one dish, the onions covering the meat.", "Mutton chops, or veal cutlets, or pork steaks, may be fried in this manner with onions, adding to them some minced sweet marjoram, or if pork, some sage.", "BEEF STEAK WITH OYSTERS.--Take very fine tender sirloin steak, divested of fat and bone; cut them not larger than the palm of your hand; lay them in a stew-pan with some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Strain over them sufficient oyster-liquor to cook them well, and to keep them from burning, and to make a gravy so as to stew, but not to boil them. Season them with some blades of mace, some grated nutmeg, and a few whole pepper-corns. Let them cook till they are thoroughly done, and not the least red. Then put in some fine large oysters. Set the stew-pan again over the fire till the oysters are plump, which should be in about five or six minutes. If cooked too much, the oysters will toughen and shrink. When done, transfer the whole to a deep dish, mixing the oysters evenly among the meat. Before you take them up, make some sippet or thin toast, in triangular or pointed slices, with the crust cut off. Dip the slices (for a minute) in boiling water; then take them out, and stand them in a circle all round the inside of the dish, the points of the sippets upwards.", "CORNED OR SALTED BEEF.--For boiling, there is no piece of corned beef so good, and so profitable, as the round. A large round is always better and more tender than a small one, if the ox has been well fed. A small round of beef is generally tough. In buying it, see that it looks and smells well, as sometimes beef is not salted till it begins to taint; and then it is done, with a view of disguising its unwholesome and disgusting condition, which, however, will immediately be manifest as soon as it is put on to boil, if not before. Every sort of food, the least verging on decomposition, is unfit for any thing but to throw away or bury. It is not necessary to buy always a whole round of beef. You can have it cut into a half, third part, quarter, or into as many pounds as you want. If very salt, lay it to soak in cold water the night before, or early in the morning. Half a round (weighing about fifteen pounds) will require about four hours to boil sufficiently. A whole round, double that time. It must boil very slowly. If it boils too fast at first, nothing will afterwards make it tender. The fire must be steady, and moderate, that the heat may penetrate all through, slowly and equally. The pot must be kept closely covered, unless for a minute when the scum is taken off, and that must be done frequently. The beef should, while boiling, be turned several times in the pot. It is much the best way to boil it without any vegetables in the same pot; they imbibe too much of the fat, particularly cabbage. Boil the cabbage by itself in plenty of water, having first washed it well, laid it a while in cold water, with the head downwards, and examined it well to see if there are no insects between the leaves. The leaves on the very outside, should be removed, and the stalk cut short. Tie a string round the cabbage to keep it from falling apart. Put it into a pot with plenty of cold water, and boil it an hour. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it in a pan of cold water, or place ", "When the cabbage is perfectly cold, wash out the pot in which it was parboiled, or put it into another quite clean one, and boil it another hour. Then take it up, and keep it warm till wanted. Before you send it to table, lay some bits of nice fresh butter between the inside leaves, and sprinkle on a little pepper. This is much nicer than preparing what is called drawn or melted butter to pour over the cabbage, and far more wholesome. Drawn butter is seldom well made, being frequently little more than a small morsel of butter, deluged with greasy water; and sometimes it is nearly all flour and water. Cabbage cooked as above will be found excellent, and be divested of the cabbage smell which is to many persons disagreeable.", "Carrots are also an usual accompaniment to corned beef. They should be washed, scraped, cut into pieces, and split, if very large; put into boiling water, and cooked, according to their size, from one hour to two hours. Before taking them up, try with a fork if they are tender throughout. When done, they are best cut into slices, a little cold butter mixed with them, and put into a deep dish, to be helped with a spoon.", "Parsnips may be dressed in the same manner.", "For a plain family dinner, corned beef, cabbage, and carrots, cooked _exactly_ as above, with, of course, the addition of potatos, will, on trial, be found excellent.", "Corned beef _stewed_ very slowly, in a small quantity of water, (barely sufficient to cover the meat,) well skimmed, and with the vegetables done separately, is still better than when _boiled_. Mustard is a good condiment for corned beef--so is vinegar to the cabbage. Pickles, also; French mustard is very fine with it.", "Next to the round, the edgebone is the best piece for boiling. The brisket or plate is too fat, and should only be eaten by persons in strong health, and who take a great deal of exercise. No fat meat should be given to children. Indeed there is generally great difficulty in making them eat it. They are right, as it is very unwholesome for them, unless the very leanest bits are selected from among the mass of fat.", "Have tarragon vinegar on the table to eat with corned beef and cabbage.", "FRIED CORNED BEEF.--This is a very homely and economical dish, but it is liked by many persons. Cut thin slices from a cold round of beef, and season them with pepper. Fry them brown over a quick fire, and put them in a covered dish to keep hot. Then wash the frying-pan, cleaning it well from the fat, and put into it plenty of cold boiled cabbage, cut small, and some cold carrots, sliced thin, adding some thin sliced suet, or beef dripping to fry them in. When done, dish the meat with the vegetables laid around it; adding the gravy. This is the dish called in England, Bubble-and-Squeak, perhaps from the noise it makes when frying. It is only designed for strong healthy people with good appetites.", "It is sometimes made of salt pork or bacon; sliced potatos being added to the cabbage.", "DRIED AND SMOKED BEEF.--For this purpose have as much as you want cut off from a fine round. Mix together two ounces of saltpetre, (finely pounded) rub it into the meat, cover it, and let it stand a day. Then mix together half a pound of bay-salt, an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of ground ginger, and an ounce of pounded mace, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves. Rub this mixture well into the beef, put it into a deep pan, and let it lie in this pickle two weeks, turning it every day. Then hang it up in a smoke-house, and smoke it over a fire made of corn-cobs, or maple chips. Never use pine for smoking.", "It may be eaten chipped at tea, or what is much better, stewed and warmed in a skillet. Venison may be spiced, dried, and smoked in the same manner.", "TO STEW SMOKED BEEF.--Having chipped it thin, put it into a skillet, with fresh butter, pepper, and two or three beaten yolks of eggs. Let it stew till the beef is crisp and curled up.", "Never allow yourself to be persuaded to use pyroligneous acid in curing dried beef or ham--instead of the real smoke of a wood fire. It communicates a taste and smell of kreosote, and is a detestable substitute, detected in a moment.", "A SPICED ROUND OF BEEF.--Take a large prime round of beef; extract the bone, and close the hole. Tie a tape all round it to keep it firm. Take four ounces of finely powdered saltpetre, and rub it well into the beef. Put the meat into a very clean pickling-tub that has a close-fitting cover, and let it rest for two days. Next rub it thoroughly with salt, and return it to the tub for eight days. Then take an ounce of powdered mace, a large nutmeg powdered, a half-ounce of pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves, (not more.) Mix these spices well together, and then mix them with a pound of fine brown sugar. Rub the spices and sugar thoroughly all over the beef, which will be ready to cook next day. Then fill the opening with minced sweet herbs, sweet basil, and sweet marjoram, laid in loosely and lightly. Take half a pound of nice beef-suet. Divide it in two, and flatten each half of the suet by beating it with a rolling-pin. Lay it in a broad earthen pan, with one sheet of suet under the meat, and the other pressed over it. Above this place a sheet of clean white paper, and over all put a large plate. Set it in a hot oven, and bake it five hours or more, till by probing it to the bottom, with a sharp knife, you find it thoroughly cooked. It is excellent as a cold standing dish, for a large family. When it is to be eaten cold, boil fresh cabbage to go with it. Also parsnips and carrots.", "_Cabbage._--For this beef, red cabbage is very nice, cut small, and stewed with butter and tarragon vinegar.", "A-LA-MODE BEEF.--Remove the bone from a fine round of fresh beef, and also take off the fat. For a round that weighs ten pounds, make seasoning or stuffing in the following proportions. Half a pound of beef suet; half a pound of grated bread-crumbs; the crumbled yolks of three hard-boiled eggs; a large bundle of sweet marjoram, the leaves chopped; another of sweet basil; four onions minced small, a large table-spoonful of mixed mace and nutmeg, powdered. Season slightly with salt and cayenne. Stuff this mixture into the place from whence you took out the bone. Make numerous deep cuts or incisions about the meat, and stuff them also. Skewer the meat into a proper shape, and secure its form by tying it round with tape. Put it into a clean iron oven or bake-pan, and pour over it a pint of port wine. Put on the lid, and bake the beef slowly for five or six hours, or till it is thoroughly done all through.", "If the meat is to be eaten hot, skim all the fat from the gravy; into which, after it is taken off the fire, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs.", "If onions are disliked you can omit them, and substitute minced oysters.", "BEEF A-LA-MODE--(_Another way._)--Take a fine round of fresh beef, extract the bone, and fill the place from whence it was taken with a stuffing made of bread soaked in milk and then mashed up, butter, and some yolks of hard-boiled eggs crumbled fine, the yellow rind and juice of a large grated lemon, sweet marjoram and sweet basil chopped small, with some powdered nutmeg and mace. Make deep cuts or incisions all over the outside of the meat, and in every cut stick firmly a slip of bacon or salt pork put in with a larding-pin. Bring round the flap and skewer to the side of the round, filling in between with some of the stuffing. And pour round it a pint or more of port wine. Lay it in an oven, and bake it slowly till it is well done all through, which will require some hours. Serve it up with its own gravy under it. It is more generally eaten cold, at a supper party. In this case, cover it thickly all over with double parsley or pepper grass, so as to resemble a green bank. In the centre place a bouquet of natural flowers, rising from the green bank.", "French a-la-mode beef, or beef _a-la-daube_, is prepared as above, but stewed slowly all night in lard.", "BEEF BOUILLI.--Take from six to eight pounds of a fine round of _fresh_ beef. Put it into a soup-pot, with the remains of a piece of cold roast beef (bones and all) to enrich the gravy, but use no other cold meat than beef. Season it slightly with salt and pepper, and pour on just sufficient water to cover it well. Boil it slowly, and skim it well. When the scum ceases to rise, have ready half a dozen large carrots, cut into pieces, and put _them_ in first. Afterwards add six turnips, quartered; a head of celery, cut small; half a dozen parsnips, cut in pieces; and six whole onions. Let it boil slowly till all the vegetables are done, and very tender.", "Send it to table with the beef in the middle of a large dish; the vegetables laid all around it; and the gravy (thickened with fine grated bread-crumbs) in a sauce-boat. Serve up with it, white potatos, boiled whole; and mashed pumpkin, or winter squash.", "This is a good dinner for a plain family.", "Those who like tarragon mustard, or tarragon vinegar, may add it on their plates.", "Tomatos may be skinned and stewed with it.", "TO STEW COLD CORNED BEEF.--Cut about four pounds of lean from a cold round of beef, that tastes but little of the salt. Lay it in a stew-pan, with a quarter of a peck of tomatos quartered, and the same quantity of ochras sliced; also, two small onions peeled and sliced, and two ounces of fresh butter rolled in flour. Add a tea-spoonful of whole pepper-corns, (_no salt_,) and four or five blades of mace. Place it over a steady but moderate fire. Cover it closely, and let it stew three or four hours. The vegetables should be entirely dissolved. Serve it up hot.", "This is an excellent way of using up the remains of a cold round of beef at the season of tomatos and ochras, particularly when the meat has been rather under-boiled the first day of cooking it.", "A few pounds of the lean of a _fresh_ round of beef, will be still better, cooked in this manner, increasing the quantity of ochras and tomatos, and stewing it six hours.", "Cold fillet of veal is very good stewed with tomatos, ochras, and an onion or two. Also, the thick or upper part of a cold leg of mutton; or of pork, either fresh or corned.", "TO STEW SMOKED BEEF.--The dried beef, for this purpose, must be fresh and of the very best quality. Cut it (or rather shave it) into very thin, small slices, with as little fat as possible. Put the beef into a skillet, and fill up with boiling water. Cover it, and let it soak or steep till the water is cold. Then drain off that water, and pour on some more; but merely enough to cover the chipped beef, which you may season with a little pepper. Set it over the fire, and (keeping on the cover) let it stew for a quarter of an hour. Then roll a few bits of butter in a little flour, and add it to the beef, with the yolk of one or two beaten eggs. Let it stew five minutes longer. Take it up on a hot dish, and send it to the breakfast or tea-table.", "Cold ham may be sliced thin, and stewed in the same manner. Dried venison also.", "FRENCH BEEF.--Take a circular piece from the round, (having removed the bone,) and trim it nicely from the fat, skin, &c. Then lard it all over with long slips of fat pork or bacon. The place from whence the bone was taken must be filled with a forcemeat, made of minced suet, grated bread-crumbs, sweet marjoram rubbed fine, and grated lemon-peel; add a little salt and pepper. Tie a tape closely round the outside of the beef, to keep it compact, and in shape. Put it into a broad earthen jar with a cover; or into an iron bake-oven. Add some whole pepper, a large onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, three bay-leaves, a quarter of a pound of butter, divided into small bits, (each piece rolled in flour,) and half a pint of claret, or port wine. Bake or stew it thus in its own liquor, for five, six, or seven hours, (in proportion to its size,) for it must be thoroughly done, quite tender, and brown all through the inside.", "STEWED FRESH BEEF.--Cut a square thick piece of beef from the round or sirloin, and trim off the fat. Put it into a stew-pan with just water enough to cover it, and season it slightly with salt and pepper. Let it stew slowly, till tender all through. Then add potatos pared and quartered, turnips the same; and also, parsnips split and cut short, and (if approved) a few sliced onions. Stew altogether till the vegetables are thoroughly cooked, and then serve up the whole on one large dish.", "Mutton, veal, and fresh pork, may be stewed in the same manner. Sweet potatos, scraped and split, are excellent served with fresh meat. There should be a great plenty of vegetables, as they are much liked in stews. What is called an Irish stew is fresh beef stewed with potatos only--the potatos being first pared, and cut in quarters.", "For economy, cold roast beef may be stewed next day with fresh potatos cut up, and as little water as possible. Cold potatos, if re-cooked, are always hard, tough, and unwholesome.", "STEWED BEEFSTEAKS WITH OYSTERS.--Take some fine tender beef-steaks cut from the sirloin. If they are taken from the round they should be beaten with a rolling-pin to make them tender. Put them into a close stew-pan, with barely sufficient water to prevent their burning, and set them over the fire to brown. When they are browned, add sufficient oyster-liquor to cook them, and some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Let them stew slowly for an hour, or till they are thoroughly done. Then add three or four dozen of fine large fresh oysters, in proportion to the quantity of meat, seasoning them well with nutmeg, a few blades of mace, and a little cayenne. Cover the pan, and simmer them till the oysters are well plumped, but not till they come to a boil. When all is properly cooked, transfer the whole to a deep dish, and send it to table hot.", "The meat, when preparing, should be cut into pieces about as large as the palm of your hand, and an inch thick, omitting the fat. Small clams may be substituted for oysters.", "TOMATO STEWED BEEF.--Take large ripe tomatos, and scald them, to make the skins peel off easily. Pare, quarter them, and sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper. Lay in a stew-pan some thin tender beef-steaks, lamb, mutton-chops, or cutlets of fresh pork. Bury the meat in the tomatos, and add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour and a little sugar to take off the extreme acid of the tomatos; also, an onion or two, very finely minced. Let the whole cook slowly till the meat is thoroughly done, and the tomatos dissolved to a pulp. Send it to table all on the same dish.", "A rabbit or chicken, (cut apart as for carving,) is very good stewed with tomatos. Freshly killed venison is excellent for this stew.", "Many persons mix grated bread with tomato stew. We think it weakens the taste--a thing not desirable in any cooking.", "This stew must not have a drop of water in it; the tomatos will give out sufficient liquid to cook the meat. There is not a more wholesome dish.", "BEEF STEWED WITH ONIONS.--Take a square piece of beef from the sirloin, where there is no bone or fat. With a sharp knife make very deep incisions all over it, but not quite so deep as to cut it through to the bottom. Prepare a forcemeat by peeling and boiling some onions. Then drain and mince them. Mix in with the onions some fine bread-crumbs, and some chopped sweet-marjoram, (seasoning with powdered nutmeg and mace,) and fill tightly all the incisions. Put into the bottom of a stew-pan some drippings of roast-beef, or else a piece of fresh butter rolled in flour. Lay the seasoned meat upon it. Let it stew till completely cooked, and no redness to be found in any part of it. Serve it up hot, and send it to table in its own gravy.", "A round or fillet of fresh pork may be cooked as above, putting into the incisions, or holes, powdered sage instead of sweet marjoram, with the onions and crumbs; and using lard instead of beef-drippings. Eat apple sauce with it.", "BEEF STEWED WITH OYSTERS.--Prepare two or three pounds of the best beef, by trimming off all the fat, and removing the bone. Lay in the bottom of the stew-pan a few bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Then put in the meat, and sprinkle a little pepper over each piece. Have ready a quart of large fresh oysters. Strain the liquor to clear it from bits of the shell, and pour it over the meat in the stew-pan. Stew the meat in the oyster liquor till it is thoroughly cooked, skimming it well, and keeping it covered, except when skimming. Then add grated nutmeg, and a few blades of mace. Lastly, put in the oysters, and let them remain in just long enough to plump, which will be in a few minutes. If cooked too much oysters always shrivel, and become hard and tough. When all is done, serve up the whole in one dish.", "In the same manner clams may be stewed with beef. Never put any salt where there are clams. They are quite salt enough in themselves.", "FRENCH STEW.--Cut into pieces two or three pounds of the lean of fresh tender beef, mutton, veal, or pork, and peel and slice a quarter of a peck or more of ripe tomatos. Season the whole with a little pepper and salt. Add, if you choose, a tea-spoonful of sugar to moderate the extreme acid of the tomatos. Put the whole together into a stew-pot, and cover it closely, opening it occasionally to see how it is doing. Put no water to this stew, the juice of the tomatos will cook it thoroughly. Add a large table-spoonful of minced tarragon leaves. When the tomatos are all dissolved, stir in a piece of fresh butter, dredged with flour. Let it stew about a quarter of an hour longer. When the meat is quite tender all through, and every thing well done, make some sippets of triangular shaped toast, with the crust trimmed off. Dip the toast, for a moment, in hot water; butter and stand it up all round the inside of a deep dish. Then fill it with the stew, and serve it hot. Any meat may be stewed thus with tomatos.", "POTATO BEEF.--This is an excellent family dish. Boil some potatos till well done, all through. Peel them, put them into a large pan, and mash them smoothly, adding, as you proceed, some milk, and one or more beaten eggs, well mixed into the potatos. Rub the bottom of a white ware pudding dish with nice butter, or some drippings of cold beef, and cover it with a thick layer of mashed potatos. Next, put in thin slices of beef, (omitting the fat,) enough to cover the potatos. Next, add another layer of mashed potatos, evenly and thickly spread. Then, more thin slices of beef, and then more potatos. Do this, till the dish is full; finishing it with potatos, on the top, heaping them up in the centre. Bake it in an oven. There must be plenty of potatos, as they will be much liked.", "BEEF AND MUSHROOMS.--Take three pounds of the best sirloin steaks. Season them with black pepper and a very little salt, having removed the fat and bone. Put a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter into a frying-pan, and set it over the fire. When it is boiling hot, put in the steaks, and fry them brown. Have ready a quart of very fresh mushrooms, peeled and stemmed. If large, cut them in four. Season them with a little pepper and salt, and dredge them lightly with flour, and add a few bits of butter. Stew them in a separate pan kept closely covered. When the steaks are done, pour the mushrooms over them with all their juice. Put them all (steaks and mushrooms) into a dish with a cover, and serve them up hot.", "This is a breakfast dish, or a side dish for dinner. Unless the company is very small, four pounds of beef steaks, at least, and three pints of mushrooms, (with butter in proportion) will be required at dinner, as it will be much liked.", "BEEF'S HEART.--Wash the heart well, and soak it in a pan of tepid water till all the blood is drawn out of the ventricles, and it is made very clean and dry. Next par-boil it a quarter of an hour. Then stuff the cavities with a forcemeat made of minced veal, bread-crumbs, butter or minced suet, and sweet herbs, seasoned with a little pepper and nutmeg; or it may be stuffed simply with sage and onions. Sew up the openings with coarse brown thread, lest the forcemeat should fall out. Put the heart on a spit, and roast it before a clear fire, for near two hours; basting it well with nice fresh butter. Thicken the gravy with a little flour, and stir into it a glass of port wine, or of tarragon vinegar. Have ready a hot dish and a heated cover. Serve up the heart as hot as possible, for it soon chills, and pour the gravy around it. The gravy should be heated to a boil in a small sauce-pan.", "_Calves' Hearts_ are cooked in the same manner. As they are small, it takes four calves' hearts to make a dish.", "Hearts may be sliced and stewed with onions and sweet herbs, adding to the stew a little salad oil.", "BEEF PATTIES.--A nice way of disposing of underdone roast beef, is to mince fine all the lean, and a _very little_ of the fat. Season it with cayenne, and powdered nutmeg, or mace, or else chopped sweet herbs. If you have any stewed mushroom-gravy, moisten the meat with that. Make a nice paste, and cut it into small circular sheets, rolled out not very thin. Cover one half of each sheet of paste with the minced beef (not too near the edge) and fold over the other half, so as to form a half moon. Wet your fingers with cold water, and pinch together the two edges of the half moon. Then crimp them with a sharp knife. Lay the patties in square baking pans, prick them with a fork, and bake them brown. Or you may fry them in lard. Serve them up hot, as side dishes.", "Cold veal, minced with cold ham, or tongue, makes very nice patties; also cold chicken or turkey.", "A BEEF STEAK PIE.--Stew two pounds or more, of fine tender sirloin steaks, divested of fat and bone, and cut rather thin. Season them with a very little salt and pepper; and, when about half done, remove them from the fire, and keep them warm, saving all the gravy. Make a nice paste, allowing to two quarts of flour one pound and a quarter of fresh butter. Divide the butter into four quarters. Rub one half into the pan of flour, and make it into a dough with, a very little cold water. Roll it out into a large sheet, and with a broad knife stick over it, at equal distances, one of the remaining divisions of butter. Then sprinkle it with more flour, fold it, and roll it out again into a large sheet. Put on the remainder of the butter in bits, as before. Then fold it again. Cut the paste into equal halves, and roll them out into two sheets, trimmed into round or oval forms. With one sheet line a pie-dish, and fill it with your meat, adding, if convenient, some mushrooms, or some fresh oysters, or the soft part of a few clams, and some blades of mace. Use the other sheet of paste as a cover for the pie, uniting the edges with the under crust by crimping it nicely. Of the trimmings of the paste, make an ornament or tulip, and stick it into the slit at the top of the pie.", "MEAT PIES--May be made in the above manner of lamb, veal, or pork. Also of venison or any sort of fresh meat. Pie crust for baking should be shortened with butter, or with the dripping of roast beef, veal, or _fresh_ pork. Mutton or lamb dripping are unfit for pie crust, as they make it taste of tallow. Suet will not do at all for _baked_ paste, though very good if the paste is to be boiled. Butter and lard will make a nice plain paste for pies, if both are fresh and good; the butter to be rubbed into the flour, mixed with a little cold water, and rolled out; the lard to be spread evenly all over the sheet; then folded and rolled out again. Meat pies should always have a bottom crust, as the gravy it imbibes makes it very relishing. Veal pies are insipid without the addition of some cold ham.", "Pies made of game should have a puff-paste, as they are generally for company.", "On the shores of the Chesapeake, very fine pies are made of canvas-back, or red-neck ducks, when in season. They require puff-paste to be made in perfection. Pot-pies of these ducks are, of course, excellent.", "A BEEF STEAK POT-PIE.--Take two pounds or more of tender beef steaks, exclusive of the fat and bone, which must be omitted; the steaks from the sirloin end, cut less than an inch thick, and not larger than four or five inches square. Put them into a pot with enough water to cover them, and season them slightly with pepper and salt. Dredge them with a little flour, and lay on each a morsel of nice fresh butter. Stew the steaks for half an hour. Meanwhile make a large portion of paste; allowing to every quart or pound of flour, a small half pound of nice beef-suet, entirely freed from all its skin and strings, and minced with a chopper as finely as possible. To three pounds of beef allow four quarts of flour and not quite two pounds of suet. A pot-pie with but little paste in proportion to the meat, is no better than a stew. The paste, if good, is always much liked. Divide the minced suet into two halves. Rub or crumble one half the suet into the pan of flour; adding by degrees a little _cold_ water, barely enough to make a stiff dough; first mixing in a small tea-spoonful of salt. Roll out the lump of dough into a large sheet, and spread it all over with the remainder of the minced suet, laid on with a broad knife. Then fold it up, and set it on a dish in a cool place, to get quite cold. Take a large iron pot, made very clean. Lay in the bottom the largest pieces of beef steak, and line round the sides with pieces of the paste, cut to fit. Next put in the remainder of the meat, interspersed with raw potatos sliced, (either white or sweet potatos,) and also pieces of the paste cut into squares, and laid among the meat, to which must be added the gravy saved from the stew. When the pot is nearly full, cover its contents with a large round or circular piece of paste. This must not fit _quite closely_, but a little space or crack must be left all around for the gravy to bubble up as it boils. Before you put on the lid pour in half a pint, or more, of water. Cut a cross-s", "It will be improved by adding to the seasoning some nutmeg or powdered mace. These are the only spices that accord well with meat or poultry.", "POT-PIES.--The preceding receipt is good for any sort of pot-pie. They are all on the same principle. The meat to be divested of the fat, and stewed first in a pot by itself, saving the gravy. The paste (of which there should always be an ample allowance) sufficient to line the sides of the pot all round, and reaching up nearly to the top, besides plenty of small square pieces to intersperse with the meat, and an upper crust to cover the whole. At the very bottom the meat and gravy only, as there the paste might burn. Pot-pies may be made of any sort of fresh meat, or of fowls or any sort of poultry (cut up, as if for carving,) and previously stewed. If made of chickens or pigeons or rabbits, add a few slices of cold ham and put no other salt. For want of suet you may make the paste with butter, but it must be fresh and good. Allow half a pound of butter to a large quart of flour. Potato paste is tolerable for shortening pot-pies, if you make it half mashed potato and half lard. We do not recommend bread dough or any thing raised with yeast or soda for boiled paste; when there is no shortening, boiled paste is always tough and unwholesome.", "Pot-pies may be made of apples pared, cored, and quartered; of peaches quartered and stoned, or of any nice fruit. Fruit pot-pies should have butter paste, and be well sweetened with brown sugar.", "All boiled dough should be eaten warm. It falls and becomes heavy as soon as cold.", "BEEF-STEAK PUDDING.--After clearing it from the skin and strings, mince as fine as possible three quarters of a pound of nice beef suet. Sift into a pan two small quarts of flour. Rub half the suet into the flour, and make it into a paste with a little cold water, (as little as possible.) Roll it out into a large sheet, and spread over it, evenly, the other half of the minced suet. Fold it, flour it, roll it again, and divide it unequally into two pieces, one nearly three times larger than the other. Roll them out, rather thick than thin. Have ready a large pound and a quarter of tender-loin beef steak, that has been cut into thin pieces (without fat or bone, seasoned with a very little salt and pepper, and some nutmeg) and half-stewed, saving its gravy. Lay this meat upon the large thick sheet of crust; pour the stewed gravy among it, and add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Cover it with the small round of paste, cut to fit, only allowing the lid large enough to project a little over, so as to be joined firmly by pressing it all round with your fingers. Do it well and securely, that it may not come apart while boiling. Dip a large square pudding-cloth in hot water--shake it out--lay it in a deep pan, dredge it with flour, lay the pudding into it and tie it firmly, leaving room for swelling. Put it into a large pot of boiling water, and boil it till, on probing with a fork, you find the meat quite tender.", "Or you may boil it in a large bowl with a rim, tying the cloth carefully all over the top. Set the bowl in a pot of boiling water.", "TO BOIL TRIPE.--Clean the tripe very carefully, giving it a thorough scraping, and washing in warm water, and trim off the superfluous fat. Lay it all night in weak salt and water. Then wash it again. Let it lie an hour or two in milk and water, and then boil it five hours or more, putting it on in cold water. It must be perfectly tender throughout. This should be done the day _before_ it is to be cooked for dinner. On that day, cut it into strips or bands, roll them with the fat side inwards. Tie the rolls round with small white twine, and boil them two hours longer; or till they are _perfectly tender throughout, and incline to look transparent near the edges_. Have ready in a saucepan, some onions peeled; and boil in milk and water, till soft enough to mash. Then take them out; drain them; mix with the onion-water some nice fresh butter divided into pieces and rolled in flour. When this has come to a boil, return the onions to the liquor; season them with pepper, and give them one boil up. When the tripe is done, transfer it to a deep dish, and pour the onion sauce over it. When on your plate, add to it some tarragon vinegar or mustard. Take the strings off before the tripe goes to table.", "TRIPE CURRY.--Having boiled two pounds of double tripe, cut it into slips, peel two large onions, cut them also into dice, and put them into a stew-pan, with three ounces, or three table-spoonfuls of fresh butter. Let them stew till brown, stirring frequently, and mixing in a table-spoonful of curry-powder. Add a pint of milk, and the cut-up tripe. Let all stew together for an hour or more, skimming it well. Serve it up in a tureen or deep dish, with a dish of boiled rice to eat with it.", "A good East India receipt for curry-powder, is to pound, very fine, in a marble mortar, (made very clean,) six ounces of coriander seed, three quarters of an ounce of cayenne, one ounce and a half of foenugreek seed; one ounce of cummin seed, and three ounces of turmeric. These articles (all of which can be obtained at a druggist's,) being pounded extremely fine, must be sifted through clean thin muslin, and spread on a dish, and laid before the fire for three hours, stirring them frequently. Keep this powder in a bottle with a glass stopper. It is used for giving an East Indian flavor to stews. The turmeric communicates a fine yellow color.", "Boiled rice is always eaten with curry dishes.", "Curry balls for Mock Turtle, &c., are made of bread-crumbs, fresh butter, hard-boiled yolk of egg, chopped fine, a seasoning of curry powder, and some beaten raw egg, to make the mixture into balls, about the size of a hickory-nut.", "FRIED TRIPE.--Having boiled the tripe till perfectly tender all through; cut it into pieces three or four inches square. Make a batter of four beaten eggs, four table-spoonfuls of flour, and a pint of milk, seasoned with powdered nutmeg or mace. Have boiling in the frying-pan an ample quantity of the drippings of roast veal, or beef. Dip each piece of tripe twice into the batter; then lay it in the pan, and fry it brown. Send it to table hot.", "Tripe was long considered very indigestible. This, it is now found, was a mistake; physicians having discovered that it is quite the contrary, the gastric juice that it contained, as the stomach of the animal, rendering it singularly fitted for digestion, provided that it is thoroughly cooked; so that on trial, a fork can easily penetrate every part of it.", "TONGUES.--Corned or salted tongues are very little in use now. They spoil so soon, that it is scarcely possible to obtain one that has not been salted too late; and when quite fresh, they have a faint, sickening, doubtful taste. It is best always to buy them dried and smoked. Choose the largest and plumpest, and with as smooth an outside or skin as you can. Put a tongue into soak the evening before it is to be cooked; changing the water at bed-time. In the morning wash it in fresh water. Trim off the root, which is an unsightly object, and never carved at table. But it may be cut into pieces, and added to pea-soup, or bean-soup, or pepper-pot. Put on the tongue in a large pot of cold water, and boil it steadily for five or six hours, till it is so tender that a straw, or a twig from a corn-broom, will easily penetrate it. When you find that it is thoroughly done (and not till then) take it up. A smoked tongue requires more boiling than a ham, and therefore is seldom sufficiently cooked. When quite done, peel it carefully, and keep it warm till dinner. If well-boiled, it will seem almost to melt in your mouth. When you dish it do not split it. The flavor is much injured by carving it lengthways, or in long pieces. It should be cut in round slices, not too thin.", "For a large party we have seen two cold tongues on one dish. One of them whole--the root concealed entirely with double parsley, cut paper, or a bunch of flowers cut out of vegetables, very ingeniously, with a sharp penknife--the vegetables raw, of course not to be eaten. Red roses made of beets, white roses or camellias of turnips, marigolds of carrots, &c. The stems are short wooden skewers, stuck into the flowers, and concealed by double parsley. These vegetable bouquets can be made to look very well, as ornaments to cold tongue, or to the end of the shank of a ham, or to stick into the centre of a cold round of a-la-mode beef.", "Where there are two cold tongues on one dish, it is usual to split one to be helped lengthways, and garnish it with the other, cut into circular pieces, and laid handsomely round.", "Cold tongue sliced is a great improvement to a chicken pie, or to any bird pie.", "BAKED TONGUE.--Having soaked a fine large smoked tongue all night, in the morning trim it nicely, and if it still seems hard, soak it again in fresh cold water till it is time to cook it. Then put it into a deep dish, (having trimmed off the root,) and make a coarse paste of flour and water. Cut up the roots into little bits, and lay them round and about the tongue, to enrich the gravy. Lay all along the surface some bits of butter rolled in flour, and season with a little pepper--no salt. Pour in a very little water, and cover the dish with the coarse paste. Bake it till the tongue is very tender. This you may ascertain by raising up with a knife one corner of the paste and trying the tongue. When done, peel it, dish it, strain the gravy over the tongue, and send it to table. Garnish with baked tomatos, or mushrooms, or large roasted chestnuts peeled.", "For a large company have two baked tongues, one at each end of the table. Eat them warm.", "LARDED TONGUE.--Take a large cold tongue, that has been well boiled. Trim off the roots. Have ready some slips of the fat of cold boiled ham, cut into long thin pieces, about as thick as straws. With a larding needle, draw them through the outside of the tongue, and leave them there. Arrange the borders in rows, or handsome regular forms, leaving about an inch standing up on the surface.", "Cold meat or poultry is far better for larding than that which is yet to cook.", "TONGUE TOAST.--Make some slices of nice toast, not very thick, but browned evenly all over, on both sides. Trim off the whole of the crust. Butter the toast slightly. Grate, with a large grater plenty of cold tongue, and spread it thickly over the toast. Lay the slices side by side, on a large dish--not one slice on the top of another.", "Serve them up at breakfast, luncheon, or supper.", "HAM TOAST--Is prepared in the same manner, of grated cold ham spread on slices of buttered toast.", "SANDWICHES--Are slices of cold ham, or tongue, _cut very thin_, and laid between thin slices of buttered bread. The meat may be seasoned with French mustard. Roll them up nicely. There are silver cases made to contain sandwiches to eat on the road when traveling.", "Sandwiches for traveling may be made of the _lean_ of cold beef, (roast or boiled,) cut very thin, seasoned with French mustard, and laid between two slices of bread and butter.", "MUTTON.--If mutton is good it is of a fine grain; the lean is of a bright red color, and the fat firm and white. Unless there is plenty of fat the lean will not be good; and so it is with all meat. If the lean is of a very dark red, and coarse and hard, and the fat yellowish and spongy, the mutton is old, tough, and strong. Therefore, do not buy it. If there is any dark or blackish tint about the meat, it is tainted, and of course unwholesome. If kept till it acquires what the English call venison taste, Americans will very properly refuse to eat it.", "We give no directions for disguising spoilt meat. It should be thrown away. Nothing is fit to eat in which decomposition is commencing.", "BOILED LOIN OF MUTTON.--A good loin of mutton is always very fat, so that in cooking it is well to remove or pare off a portion of the outside fat. Unlike most other meats, mutton is the better for being boiled in soup. Put it into a large pot; allow to every pound a quart of water. Boil it slowly and skim it well, adding the vegetables when the scum has done rising. The vegetables should be sliced turnips, potatos, and grated carrots. Have ready plenty of suet dumplings, in the proportion of half a pound of finely minced suet to a pound and a quarter of flour. Rub the suet into the pan of flour, and use as little water as possible in mixing the dough. Make it into thick dumplings, rather larger round than a dollar. Boil them in a pot by themselves, till thoroughly done. Serve up the meat with the dumplings round it. Or put the dumplings in a dish by themselves, and surround the meat with whole turnips. This is an excellent plain dish for a private family. Serve up pickles with it.", "SAUCE FOR BOILED MUTTON.--This particularly applies to mutton that has been boiled in soup, and which is so very generally liked, that it is served up on tables where soup-meat of beef and veal is considered inadmissible. To make a suitable sauce to eat with it--take two or three large boiled onions; slice them and put them into a sauce-pan, with a piece of fresh butter slightly rolled in flour, a table-spoonful of _made_ mustard. French mustard will be best; or, for want of that, two table-spoonfuls of strong tarragon vinegar, and a half-salt-spoon of cayenne, and some pickled cucumbers chopped, but not minced. Green nasturtion seeds will be still better than cucumbers. Put these ingredients into a small sauce-pan, adding to them a little of the mutton soup. Set this sauce over the fire, and when it simmers well, take it off, put into a sauce-boat, and keep it hot till the mutton goes to table.", "To keep nasturtions--take the full-grown green seeds, and put them into a large bottle of the best _cider_ vinegar, corking them closely. They require nothing more, and are far superior to capers.", "BOILED LEG OF MUTTON.--After nicely trimming a middle-sized leg of mutton, wash, but do not soak it. Put it into a pot that will hold it well, and pour on rather more water than is sufficient to cover it. Set it over a good fire, and skim it as soon as it begins to boil, and continue till no more scum appears; having thrown in a small table-spoonful of salt after the first skimming. After the liquid is clear, put in some turnips, pared, and, if large, divided into four pieces. Afterwards it should boil slowly, or simmer gently for about two hours or more. Send to table with it caper sauce; or nasturtion, which is still better. Eat it with any sort of green pickles. Pickles and turnips seem indispensable to boiled mutton. Do not mash the turnips, but let them be well drained.", "Setting boiled turnips in the sun will give them an unpleasant taste.", "Tarragon sauce is excellent with boiled mutton.", "MUTTON STEAKS STEWED.--Take some tender mutton steaks, cut from the leg. Beat them a little with a rolling pin, and season them with pepper and salt. Put them into a stew-pan with sliced potatos, sliced turnips, sliced onions, sliced or grated carrots, and sweet marjoram leaves stripped from the stalks. Pour in just sufficient water to cover the stew, and let it cook slowly till it is tender and well done. Serve it up hot in a deep dish, with a cover. A table-spoonful of tarragon mustard will improve the stew.", "When tomatos are in season, you can stew mutton or any other meat with tomatos only--no water. Having prepared the meat, and laid it in the stew-pan, cover it with tomatos, peeled and quartered. Add some sugar to take off a portion of their acid, and a chopped onion. No water, as the meat will cook in the liquid of the tomatos. They must stew till thoroughly dissolved.", "Tender-loin beef steaks--or veal cutlets, may be stewed as above.", "MUTTON CHOPS BROILED.--The best steaks are those cut from the loin, about half an inch thick. Divest them of the bone, and remove the skin and fat. Then butter them slightly all over, before cooking. This will be found an improvement. The French go over them with salad oil, which is still better. Sprinkle on them a little pepper and salt. Having heated the gridiron well over a bed of very hot live coals, place it somewhat aslant, grease its bars with a little of the mutton suet, and lay on the steaks and broil them well; turning them three or four times, and seeing that they are not scorched or burnt on the outside, and red or raw when cut. Turn them with a knife and fork, or with steak-tongs, an instrument with which every kitchen should be furnished. To cook them well requires a clear glowing fire, without blaze or smoke. They should be done in about a quarter of an hour. When you take them up, turn them on a well-heated dish, and pour their gravy over them.", "If onions are liked, mince one as fine as possible, and strew it over the steaks while broiling; or, boil and slice some onions, mix some butter among them, season them with pepper, and a little powdered mace or nutmeg, and serve them up with the meat on the same dish, or in a sauce-boat.", "MUTTON CHOPS WITH TOMATOS.--Broil some mutton steaks in the above manner, and have ready some baked tomatos. When the steaks are dished, lay on each a large baked tomato with the face downward, or cover each steak with stewed tomato sauce. For baking, take fine ripe tomatos of the largest size. Cut out a piece from the stem end, and extract the seeds. Then stuff each tomato with grated bread-crumbs, butter, and minced sweet marjoram, or finely minced onion. If you have any cold veal or chicken, add a little of that to the stuffing, mincing it, of course. Bake them in a dish by themselves.", "Or, you may send the steaks to table with a slice of fried egg-plant laid upon each; buttered, and sprinkled with bread-crumbs.", "MUTTON STEAKS FRIED.--Make a nice batter of grated bread-crumbs, milk and beaten egg, and put it in a shallow pan. Prepare some fine steaks cut from the loin, divested of fat, and with the bone cut short. Have ready, in a hot frying-pan, some fresh butter or drippings. Dip each steak twice over in the batter, then fry them brown. Send them to table very hot.", "You may fry mutton chops like beef steaks, covered with onions, boiled, drained, and sliced.", "POTATO MUTTON CHOPS.--Cut some nice chops or steaks from the best end of a neck of mutton. The loin will be still better. Trim off all the fat, but leave a small part of the bone visible, nicely scraped. Season them with pepper and salt, and fry them in butter or drippings. Have ready plenty of mashed potatos with which cover the chops all over separately, so as to wrap them up in the mashed potatos. Glaze them with beaten egg, and brown them with a salamander or a red-hot shovel. This is a nice breakfast dish.", "KEBOBBED MUTTON.--This is an Asiatic dish, much approved by those who have eaten it in Turkey or India, and it is certainly very good. Remove the skin from a loin of mutton, and also the whole of the fat. Divide it at every joint, cutting all the steaks apart, and making separate steaks of the whole loin. Make a mixture of grated bread-crumbs, minced sweet-herbs, a little salt and pepper, and some powdered nutmeg. Have ready some beaten yolk of egg. Dip each steak into the egg then; twice into the seasoning. Roll up each steak round a wooden skewer, and tie them on a spit with packthread. Roast them before a clear fire, with a dripping-pan under them to catch the gravy, which must be skimmed frequently. They must be roasted slowly and carefully, taking care to have them thoroughly cooked, even to the inmost of every roll. Baste them with just butter enough to keep them moist. When done, carefully take the kebobs from the skewers, and send them to table hot. Eat with them large Spanish chestnuts, roasted and peeled; or else sweet potatos, split, boiled, and cut into short pieces. Pour the gravy into the dish under the kebobs.", "Instead of rolling up the kebobs, you may fasten them flat (after seasoning,) with the same spit going through them all, and roast them in that manner. They should all be of the same size and shape. To dish them, lay them one upon another in an even pile. Eat mushroom sauce with them, or any other sort that is very nice.", "Venison steaks are very good kebobbed in this manner, at the season when venison can be had fresh, tender, and juicy. For sauce have stewed wild grapes, mashed and made very sweet with brown sugar, or grape jelly, which is still better; or, sauce made of fine cranberries, such as abound in the north-west.", "AN IRISH STEW.--Take three pounds of thick mutton cutlets from the loin, and remove the fat. Slice thick five pounds of fine potatos that have been previously pared. Place a layer of meat in the bottom of a stew-pan, or an iron pot, and lay some of the potatos upon it. Season all with salt and pepper. Upon this another layer of meat--then some potatos again, then meat, and so on till all is in, finishing with potatos at the top. Pour in a pint of cold water. Let it simmer gently for two hours or more, till the meat and potatos are thoroughly done. Serve it up very hot, meat and potatos, on the same dish. If approved, you may add, from the beginning, one or two sliced onions.", "A similar stew may be made of beef steaks and potatos.", "You may stew pork cutlets in the same manner, but with _sweet_ potatos, split and cut in long pieces, or with yams. The seasoning for the pork should be minced sage.", "This is a very plain, but very good dish, if made of nice fresh meat and good potatos, and well cooked.", "LAMB.--The vein in the neck of the fore-quarter should be blueish, and firm--otherwise do not buy it. If greenish or yellowish, it is tainted, and fit only for manure. Never buy any thing that has been kept too long. The worst may, by some process, be a little disguised, but nothing can render wholesome any article of food in which decomposition has commenced, even in the slightest degree. The fat should be quite white. If there is but little meat on the shoulder it has not been a good lamb. In America, where food is abundant, there is no occasion to eat any thing, that has the flavor in the least changed by keeping.", "A fore-quarter of lamb comprises the shoulder, the neck, and the breast together. The hind-quarter is the loin and leg. Lamb comes in season in the beginning of April, if the s