Have ready a pot of boiling water. When it is boiling very hard put in the terrapins, and let them remain in it till quite dead.
Then take them out, pull off the outer skin and the toe-nails, wash the terrapins in warm water and boil them again, allowing a tea-spoonful of salt to each terrapin. When the flesh becomes quite tender so that you can pinch it off, take them out of the sh.e.l.l, remove the sand-bag, and the gall, which you must be careful not to break, as it will make the terrapin so bitter as to be uneatable. Cut up all the other parts of the inside with the meat, and season it to your taste with black and cayenne pepper, and salt. Put all into a stew-pan with the juice or liquor that it has given out in cutting up, but not any water. To every two terrapins allow a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter divided into pieces and rolled in flour, two gla.s.ses of Madeira, and the yolks of two eggs. The eggs must be beaten, and not stirred in till a moment before it goes to table. Keep it closely covered. Stew it gently till every thing is tender, and serve it up hot in a deep dish.
Terrapins, after being boiled by the cook, may be brought to table plain, with all the condiments separate, that the company may dress them according to taste.
For this purpose heaters or chafing-dishes must be provided for each plate.
PICKLED LOBSTER.
Take half a dozen fine lobsters. Put them into boiling salt and water, and when they are all done, take them out and extract all the meat from the sh.e.l.ls, leaving that of the claws as whole as possible, and cutting the flesh of the body into large pieces nearly of the same size. Season a sufficient quant.i.ty of vinegar very highly with whole pepper-corns, whole cloves, and whole blades of mace. Put the pieces of lobster into a stew-pan, and pour on just sufficient vinegar to keep them well covered. Set it over a moderate fire; and when it has boiled hard about five minutes, take out the lobster, and let the pickle boil by itself for a quarter of an hour. When the pickle and lobster are both cold, put them together into a broad flat stone jar. Cover it closely, and set it away in a cool place.
Eat the pickled lobster with oil, mustard, and vinegar, and have bread and b.u.t.ter with it.
DIRECTIONS FOR COOKING MEAT.
BEEF.
GENERAL REMARKS.
When beef is good, it will have a fine smooth open grain, and it will feel tender when squeezed or pinched in your fingers. The lean should be of a bright carnation red, and the fat white rather than yellow--the suet should be perfectly white. If the lean looks dark or purplish, and the fat very yellow, do not buy the meat.
See that the butcher has properly jointed the meat before it goes home. For good tables, the pieces generally roasted are the sirloin and the fore and middle ribs. In genteel houses other parts are seldom served up as _roast-beef_. In small families the ribs are the most convenient pieces. A whole sirloin is too large, except for a numerous company, but it is the piece most esteemed.
The best beef-steaks are those cut from the ribs, or from the inner part of the sirloin. All other pieces are, for this purpose, comparatively hard and tough.
The round is generally corned or salted, and boiled. It is also used for the dish called beef a-la-mode.
The legs make excellent soup; the head and tail are also used for that purpose.
The tongue when fresh is never cooked except for mince-pies.
Corned or salted it is seldom liked, as in that state it has a faint sickly taste that few persons can relish. But when pickled and afterwards smoked (the only good way of preparing a tongue) it is highly and deservedly esteemed.
The other pieces of the animal are generally salted and boiled. Or when fresh they may be used for soup or stews, if not too fat.
If the state of the weather will allow you to keep fresh beef two or three days, rub it with salt, and wrap it in a cloth.
In summer do not attempt to keep it more than twenty-four hours; and not then unless you can conveniently lay it in ice, or in a spring-house.
In winter if the beef is brought from market frozen, do not cook it that day unless you dine very late, as it will be impossible to get it sufficiently done--meat that has been frozen requiring double the usual time. To thaw it, lay it in cold water, which is the only way to extract the frost without injuring the meat. It should remain in the water three hours, or more.
TO ROAST BEEF.
The fire should be prepared at least half an hour before the beef is put down, and it should be large, steady, clear, and bright, with plenty of fine hot coals at the bottom.
The best apparatus for the purpose is the well-known roaster frequently called a tin-kitchen.
Wash the meat in cold water, and then wipe it dry, and rub it with salt. Take care not to run the spit through the best parts of it.
It is customary with some cooks to tie blank paper over the fat, to prevent it from melting and wasting too fast.
Put it evenly into the roaster, and do not set it too near the fire, lest the outside of the meat should be burned before the inside is heated.
Put some nice beef-dripping or some lard into the pan or bottom of the roaster, and as soon as it melts begin to baste the beef with it; taking up the liquid with a long spoon, and pouring it over the meat so as to let it trickle down again, into the pan. Repeat this frequently while it is roasting; after a while you can baste it with its own fat. Turn the spit often, so that the meat may be equally done on all sides.
Once or twice draw back the roaster, and improve the fire by clearing away the ashes, bringing forward the hot coals, and putting on fresh fuel at the back. Should a coal fall into the dripping-pan take it out immediately. An allowance of about twenty minutes to each pound of meat is the time commonly given for roasting; but this rule, like most others, admits of exceptions according to circ.u.mstances. Also, some persons like their meat very much done; others prefer it rare, as it is called. In summer, meat will roast in a shorter time than in winter.
When the beef is nearly done, and the steam draws towards the fire, remove the paper that has covered the fat part, sprinkle on a little salt, and having basted the meat well with the dripping, pour off nicely (through the spout of the roaster) all the liquid fat from the top of the gravy.
Lastly, dredge the meat very lightly with a little flour, and baste it with fresh b.u.t.ter. This will give it a delicate froth. To the gravy that is now running from the meat add nothing but a tea-cup of boiling water. Skim it, and send it to table in a boat.
Serve up with the beef in a small deep plate, sc.r.a.ped horseradish moistened with vinegar.
Fat meat requires more roasting than lean, and meat that has been frozen will take nearly double the usual time.
Basting the meat continually with flour and water is a bad practice, as it gives it a coddled parboiled appearance, and diminishes the flavour.
These directions for roasting beef will apply equally to mutton.
Pickles are generally eaten with roast beef. French mustard is an excellent condiment for it. In carving begin by cutting a slice from the side.
TO SAVE BEEF-DRIPPING.
Pour off through the spout of the roaster or tin-kitchen, all the fat from the top of the gravy, after you have done basting the meat with it. Hold a little sieve under the spout, and strain the dripping through it into a pan. Set it away in a cool place; and next day when it is cold and congealed, turn the cake of fat, and sc.r.a.pe with a knife the sediment from the bottom. Pat the dripping into a jar; cover it tightly, and set it away in the refrigerator, or in the coldest place you have. It will be found useful for frying, and for many other purposes.
Mutton-dripping cannot be used for any sort of cooking, as it communicates to every thing the taste of tallow.
BAKED BEEF.
This is a plain family dish, and is never provided for company.
Take a nice but not a fat piece of fresh beef. Wash it, rub it with salt, and place it on a trivet in a deep block tin or iron pan. Pour a little water into the bottom, and put under and round the trivet a sufficiency of pared potatoes, either white or sweet ones. Put it into a hot oven, and let it bake till thoroughly done, basting it frequently with its own gravy. Then transfer it to a hot dish, and serve up the potatoes in another. Skim the gravy, and send it to table in a boat.
Or you may boil the potatoes, mash them with milk, and put them into the bottom of the pan about half an hour before the meat is done baking. Press down the mashed potatoes hard with the back of a spoon, score them in cross lines over the top, and let them, brown under the meat, serving them up laid round it.
Instead of potatoes, you may put in the bottom of the pan what is called a Yorkshire pudding, to be baked under the meat.
To make this pudding,--stir gradually four table-spoonfuls of flour into a pint of milk, adding a salt-spoon of salt. Beat three eggs very light, and mix them gradually with the milk and flour.
See that the batter is not lumpy. Do not put the pudding under the meat at first, as if baked too long it will be hard and solid.
After the meat has baked till the pan is quite hot and well greased with the drippings, you may put in the batter; having continued stirring it till the last moment.
If the pudding is so spread over the pan as to be but an inch thick, it will require about two hours baking, and need not be turned. If it is thicker than an inch, you must (after it is brown on the top) loosen it in the pan, by inserting a knife beneath it, and having cut it across into four pieces, turn them all nicely that the other side may be equally done. But this pudding is lighter and better if laid so thin as not to require turning.
When you serve up the beef lay the pieces of pudding round it, to be eaten with the meat.