Enquire Within Upon Everything Part 107

[SECOND TRIALS OFTEN SUCCEED.]

1163. Palatable Stew.

Cut pieces of salt beef and pork into dice, put them into a stewpan with six whole peppercorns, two blades of mace, a few cloves, a teaspoonful of celery-seeds, and a f.a.ggot of dried sweet herbs; cover with water, and stew gently for an hour, then add fragments of carrots, turnips, parsley, or any other vegetables at hand, with two sliced onions, and some vinegar to flavour; thicken with flour or rice, remove the herbs, and pour into the dish with toasted bread, or freshly baked biscuit, broken small, and serve hot. When they can be procured, a few potatoes improve it very much.

1164. Ragout of Cold Veal.

Either a neck, loin, or fillet of veal will furnish this excellent ragout with a very little expense or trouble. Cut the veal into handsome cutlets; put a piece of b.u.t.ter, or clean dripping, into a frying pan; as soon as it is hot, flour and fry the veal to a light brown; take it out, and if you have no gravy ready, put a pint of boiling water into the frying-pan, give it a boil-up for a minute, and strain it in a basin while you make some thickening in the following manner:

Put an ounce of b.u.t.ter into a stewpan; as soon as it melts, mix as much flour as will dry it up; stir it over the fire for a few minutes, and gradually add the gravy you made in the frying-pan: let them simmer together for ten minutes; season with pepper, salt, a little mace, and a winegla.s.sful of mushroom ketchup or wine; strain it through a tammy, or fine sieve, over the meat, and stew very gently till the meat is thoroughly warmed, If you have any ready-boiled bacon, cut it in slices, and put it to warm with the meat.

1165. Economical Dish.

Cut some rather fat ham or bacon into slices, and fry to a nice brown; lay them aside to keep warm; then mix equal quant.i.ties of potatoes and cabbage, bruised well together, and fry them in the fat left from the ham. Place the mixture at the bottom, and lay the slices of bacon on the top. Cauliflower, or broccoli, subst.i.tuted for cabbage, is truly delicious; and, to any one possessing a garden, quite easily procured, as those newly blown will do. The dish must be well seasoned with pepper.

1166. Mock Goose

(being a leg of pork skinned, roasted, and stuffed goose fas.h.i.+on).--Parboil the leg; take off the skin, and then put it down to roast; baste it with b.u.t.ter, and make a _savoury powder_ of finely minced or dried or powdered sage, ground black pepper, salt, and some bread-crumbs, rubbed together through a cullender: add to this a little very finely minced onion; sprinkle it with this when it is almost roasted; put half a pint of made gravy into the dish, and goose stuffing under the knuckle skin; or garnish the dish with b.a.l.l.s of it fried or boiled.

1167. Roast Goose.

When a goose is well picked, singed, and cleaned, make the stuffing, with about two ounces of onion--if you think the flavour of raw onions too strong, cut them in slices, and lay them in cold water for a couple of hours, add as much apple or potato as you have of onion, and half as much green sage, chop them very fine, adding four ounces, _i.e._, about a large breakfast cupful, of stale breadcrumbs, a bit of b.u.t.ter about as big as a walnut, and a very little pepper and salt, the yolk of an egg or two, and incorporating the whole well together, stuff the goose; do not quite fill it, but leave a little room for the stuffing to swell. Spit it, tie it on the spit at both ends, to prevent it swinging round, and to prevent the stuffing from coming out. From an hour and a half to an hour and three-quarters will roast a fine full-grown goose. Send up gravy and apple sauce with it.

[SECOND THOUGHTS ARE OFTEN BEST.]

1168. Jugged Hare.

Wash it very nicely, cut it up in pieces proper to help at table, and put them into a jugging-pot, or into a stone jar, just sufficiently large to hold it well; put in some sweet herbs, a roll or two of rind of a lemon, and a fine large onion with five cloves stuck in it; and, if you wish to preserve the flavour of the hare, a quarter of a pint of water; but, if you wish to make a ragout, a quarter of a pint of claret or port wine, and the juice of a lemon. Tie the jar down closely with a bladder, so that no steam can escape; put a little hay in the bottom of the saucepan, in which place the jar; let the water boil for about three hours, according to the age and size of the hare, keeping it boiling all the time, and till up the pot as it boils away.

Care, however, must be taken that it is not overdone, which is the general fault in all made dishes. When quite tender, strain off the gravy from the fat, thicken it with flour, and give it a boil up; lay the pieces of hare in a hash dish, and pour the gravy over it. You may make a pudding the same as for roast hare, and boil it in a cloth, and when you dish up your hare, cut it in slices, or make forcemeat b.a.l.l.s of it for garnish. For sauce, red currant jelly.

1169. Stewed Hare.

A much easier and quicker way is the following:--Prepare the hare as for jugging; put it into a stewpan with a few sweet herbs, half a dozen cloves, the same of allspice and black pepper, two large onions, and a roll of lemon peel; cover it with water: when it boils, skim it clean, and let it simmer gently till tender (about two hours); then take the meat up with a slice, set it by a fire to keep hot while you thicken the gravy; take three ounces of b.u.t.ter and some flour, rub together, put in the gravy, stir it well, and let it boil about ten minutes; strain it through a sieve over the meat, and it is ready.

1170. Curried Beef, Madras Way.

Take about two ounces of b.u.t.ter, and place it in a saucepan, with two small onions cut up into slices, and let them fry until they are a light brown; then add a tablespoonful and a half of curry powder, and mix it up well. Now put in the beef, cut into pieces about an inch square; pour in from a quarter to a third of a pint of milk, and let it simmer for thirty minutes; then take it off, and place it in a dish, with a little lemon juice. Whilst cooking stir constantly, to prevent it burning. Send to table with a wall of mashed potatoes or boiled rice round it. It greatly improves any curry to add with the milk a quarter of a cocoa-nut, sc.r.a.ped very small, and squeezed through muslin with a little water; this softens the taste of the curry, and, indeed, no curry should be made without it.

1171. Ragout of Duck, or any kind of Poultry or Game.

Partly roast, then divide into joints, or pieces of a suitable size for helping at table. Set it on in a stewpan, with a pint and a half of broth, or, if you have no broth, water, with any little tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of meat to enrich it; a large onion stuck with cloves, a dozen berries of allspice, the same quant.i.ty of black pepper, and the rind of half a lemon shaved thin. When it boils, skim it very clean, and then let it simmer gently, with the lid close, for an hour and a half. Then strain off the liquor, and take out the pieces, which keep hot in a basin or deep dish.

Rinse the stewpan, or use a clean one, in which put two ounces of b.u.t.ter, and as much flour or other thickening as will bring it to a stiff paste; add to it the gravy by degrees. Let it boil up, then add a gla.s.s of port wine, a little lemon juice, and a teaspoonful of salt; simmer a few minutes. Put the meat in a deep dish, strain the gravy over, and garnish with sippets of toasted bread. The flavour may be varied at pleasure by adding ketchup, curry powder, or vinegar.

1172. To Dress Cold Turkey, Goose, Fowl, Duck, Pigeon, or Rabbit.

Cut the cold bird or rabbit in quarters, beat up an egg or two (according to the quant.i.ty to be dressed) with a little grated nutmeg, and pepper and salt, some parsley minced fine, and a few crumbs of bread; mix these well together, and cover the pieces with this batter: broil them, or put them in a Dutch oven, or have ready some dripping hot in a pan, in which fry them a light brown colour; thicken a little gravy with some flour, put a large spoonful of ketchup to it, lay the fry in a dish, and pour the sauce round it; garnish with slices of lemon and toasted bread.

[READ FREQUENTLY THE MEDICAL HINTS.]

1173. Pulled Turkey, Fowl, or Chicken.

Skin a cold chicken, fowl, or turkey; take off the fillets from the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and put them into a stewpan with the rest of the white meat and wings, side-bones, and merry-thought, with a pint of broth, a large blade of mace pounded, a shalot minced fine, the juice of half a lemon, and a strip of the peel, some salt, and a few grains of cayenne; thicken it with flour and b.u.t.ter, and let it simmer for two or three minutes, till the meat is warm. In the meantime score the legs and rump, powder them with pepper and salt, broil them in a dish and lay the pulled chicken round them. Three tablespoonfuls of good cream, or the yolks of as many eggs, will be a great improvement to it.

1174. Hashed Poultry, Game, or Rabbit.

Cut them into joints, put the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs into a stew pan with a quart of the broth in which they were boiled, and a large onion cut in four; let the whole boil half an hour: strain it through a sieve; then put two tablespoonfuls of flour in a basin, and mix it well by degrees with the hot broth; set it on the fire to boil up, then strain it through a fine sieve: wash out the stewpan, lay the poultry in it, and pour the gravy on it (through a sieve); set it by the side of the fire to simmer very gently (it must not _boil_) for fifteen minutes; five minutes before you serve it up, cut the stuffing in slices, and put it in to warm, then take it out, and lay it round the edge of the dish, and put the poultry in the middle; skim the fat off the gravy, then shake it round well in the stewpan, and pour it over the hash. Garnish the dish with toasted sippets.

1175. Ducks or Geese Hashed.

Cut an onion, into small dice: put it into a stewpan with a bit of b.u.t.ter; fry it, but do not let it get any colour; put as much boiling water into the stewpan as will make sauce for the hash; thicken it with a little flour; cut up the duck, and put it into the sauce to warm; do not let it boil; season it with pepper and salt and ketchup.

1176. Broiled Goose.

_The legs of geese, &c_., broiled, and laid on a bed of apple sauce, form an appetising dish for luncheon or supper.

1177. Grilled Fowl.

Take the remains of cold fowls, and skin them or not, at choice; pepper and salt them, and sprinkle over them a little lemon juice, and let them stand an hour; wipe them dry, dip them into clarified b.u.t.ter, and then into fine bread-crumbs, and broil gently over a clear fire. A little finely minced lean of ham or grated lemon peel, with a seasoning of cayenne, salt, and mace, mixed with the crumbs, will vary this dish agreeably. When fried instead of broiled, the fowls may be dipped into yolk of egg instead of b.u.t.ter.

1178. A Nice Way of serving up a fowl that has been dressed.

Beat the whites of two eggs to a thick froth; add a small bit of b.u.t.ter, or some salad oil, flour, a little lukewarm water, and two tablespoonfuls of beer, beaten altogether till it is of the consistency of very thick cream. Cut up the fowl into small pieces, strew over it some chopped parsley and shalot, pepper, salt, and a little vinegar, and let it lie till dinner-time; dip the fowl in the batter, and fry it in boiling lard, of a nice light brown. Veal that has been cooked may be dressed in the same way.

1179. Curry of any Kind.

Cut up a good fowl; skin it or not, as you please; fry it nicely brown: slice two or three onions, and fry them; put the fried fowl and onions into a stew-pan with a tablespoonful of curry powder, and one clove of garlic: cover it with water or veal gravy: let it stew slowly for one hour, or til very tender; have ready, mixed in two or three spoonfuls of good cream, one teaspoonful of flour, two ounces of b.u.t.ter, juice of a lemon, some salt; after the cream is in, it must only have one boil up, not to stew. Any spice may be added if the curry powder is not highly seasoned. With chicken, rabbit, or fish, observe the same rule. Curry is made also with sweetbreads, breast of veal, veal cutlets, lamb, mutton or pork chops, lobster, turbot, soles, eels, oysters, &c. Any kind of white meat is fit for a curry.