Line a two-quart pudding basin with some beef suet paste; fill the lining with thick mutton cutlets, slightly trimmed, or, if preferred, with steaks cut from the leg; season with pepper and salt some parsley, a little thyme and two slices of onion chopped fine, and between each layer of meat, put some slices of potatoes. When the pudding is filled, wet the edges of the paste around the top of the basin, and cover with a piece of paste rolled out the size of the basin. Fasten down the edge by bearing all around with the thumb; and then with the thumb and forefinger twist the edges of the paste over so as to give it a corded appearance. This pudding can be set in a steamer and steamed, or boiled. The time required for cooking is about three hours. When done, turn it out carefully on a platter and serve with a rich gravy under it.
This is a very good recipe for cooking small birds.
SCRAMBLED MUTTON.
Two cups of chopped cold mutton, two tablespoonfuls of hot water, and a piece of b.u.t.ter as large as an English walnut. When the meat is hot, break in three eggs, and constantly stir until the eggs begin to stiffen. Season with pepper and salt.
SCALLOPED MUTTON AND TOMATOES.
Over the bottom of an earthen baking-dish place a layer of bread crumbs, and over it alternate layers of cold roast mutton cut in thin slices, and tomatoes peeled and sliced; season each with salt, pepper and bits of b.u.t.ter, as laid in. The top layer should be of tomatoes, spread over with bread crumbs. Bake three-quarters of an hour, and serve immediately.
LAMB SWEETBREADS AND TOMATO SAUCE.
Lamb sweetbreads are not always procurable, but a stroll through the markets occasionally reveals a small lot of them, which can invariably be had at a low price, owing to their excellence being recognized by but few buyers. Wash them well in salted water and parboil fifteen minutes; when cool, trim neatly and put them in a pan with just b.u.t.ter enough to prevent their burning; toss them about until a delicate color; season with salt and pepper and serve, surrounded with tomato sauce. (See SAUCES.)
ROAST QUARTER OF LAMB.
Procure a nice hind-quarter, remove some of the fat that is around the kidney, skewer the lower joint up to the fillet, place it in a moderate oven, let it heat through slowly, then dredge it with salt and flour; quicken the fire, put half a pint of water into the dripping-pan, with a teaspoonful of salt. With this liquor baste the meat occasionally; serve with lettuce, green peas and mint sauce.
A quarter of lamb weighing seven or eight pounds will require two hours to roast.
A breast of lamb roasted is very sweet and is considered by many as preferable to hind-quarter. It requires nearly as long a time to roast as the quarter, and should be served in the same manner.
Make the gravy from the drippings, thickened with flour.
The mint sauce is made as follows: Take fresh, young spearmint leaves stripped from stems; wash and drain them or dry on a cloth, chop very fine, put in a gravy tureen, and to three tablespoonfuls of mint add two of finely powdered cut-loaf sugar; mix, and let it stand a few minutes, then pour over it six tablespoonfuls good cider or white-wine vinegar. The sauce should be made some time before dinner, so that the flavor of the mint may be well extracted.
TO BROIL THE FORE-QUARTER OF LAMB.
Take off the shoulder and lay it upon the gridiron with the breast; cut in two parts, to facilitate its cooking; put a tin sheet on top of the meat, and a weight upon that; turn the meat around frequently to prevent its burning; turn over as soon as cooked on one side; renew the coals occasionally, that all parts may cook alike; when done, season with b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt--exactly like beefsteak. It takes some time to broil it well; but when done it will be found to be equal to broiled chicken, the flavor being more delicate than when cooked otherwise. Serve with cream sauce, made as follows: Heat a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter in a saucepan, add a teaspoonful of flour and stir until perfectly smooth; then add, slowly stirring in, a cup of cold milk; let it boil up once, and season to taste with salt and pepper and a teaspoonful of finely chopped fresh parsley. Serve in a gravy boat, all hot.
LAMB STEW.
Cut up the lamb into small pieces (after removing all the fat) say about two inches square. Wash it well and put it over the fire, with just enough cold water to cover it well, and let it heat gradually. It should stew gently until it is partly done; then add a few thin slices of salt pork, one or two onions sliced up fine, some pepper and salt if needed, and two or three raw potatoes cut up into inch pieces.
Cover it closely and stew until the meat is tender. Drop in a few made dumplings, made like short biscuit, cut out _very_ small. Cook fifteen minutes longer. Thicken the gravy with a little flour moistened with milk. Serve.
PRESSED LAMB.
The meat, either shoulder or leg, should be put to boil in the morning with water just enough to cover it; when tender, season with salt and pepper, then keep it over the fire until _very_ tender and the juice nearly boiled out. Remove it from the fire-place in a wooden chopping bowl, season more if necessary, chop it up like hash. Place it in a bread-pan, press out all the juice, and put it in a cool place to harden. The pressing is generally done by placing a dish over the meat and putting a flat-iron upon that. Nice cut up cold into thin slices, and the broth left from the meat would make a nice soup served with it, adding vegetables and spices.
CROQUETTES OF ODDS AND ENDS.
These are made of any sc.r.a.ps or bits of good food that happen to be left from one or more meals, and in such small quant.i.ties that they cannot be warmed up separately. As, for example, a couple of spoonfuls of frizzled beef and cream, the lean meat of one mutton chop, one spoonful of minced beef, two cold hard-boiled eggs, a little cold chopped potato, a little mashed potato, a chick"s leg, all the gristle and hard outside taken from the meat. These things well chopped and seasoned, mixed with one raw egg, a little flour and b.u.t.ter, and boiling water; then made into round cakes, thick like fish-b.a.l.l.s and browned well with b.u.t.ter in a frying pan or on a griddle.
Sc.r.a.ps of hash, cold rice, boiled oatmeal left from breakfast, every kind of fresh meat, bits of salt tongue, bacon, pork or ham, bits of poultry, and crumbs of bread may be used. They should be put together with care, so as not to have them too dry to be palatable, or too moist to cook in shape. Most housekeepers would be surprised at the result, making an addition to the breakfast or lunch table. Serve on small squares of b.u.t.tered toast, and with cold celery if in season.
PORK.
The best parts, and those usually used for roasting, are the loin, the leg, the shoulder, the sparerib and chine. The hams, shoulders and middlings are usually salted, pickled and smoked. Pork requires more thorough cooking than most meats; if the least underdone it is unwholesome.
To choose pork: If the rind is thick and tough, and cannot be easily impressed with the finger, it is old; when fresh, it will look cool and smooth, and only corn-fed pork is good; swill or still-fed pork is unfit to cure. Fresh pork is in season from October to April. When dressing or stuffing is used, there are more or less herbs used for seasoning--sage, summer savory, thyme and sweet marjoram; these can be found (in the dried, pulverized form, put up in small, light packages) at most of the best druggists; still those raised and gathered at home are considered more fresh.
ROAST PIG.
Prepare your dressing as for DRESSING FOR FOWLS, adding half an onion, chopped fine; set it inside. Take a young pig about six weeks old, wash it thoroughly inside and outside; and in another water put a teaspoonful of baking soda, and rinse out the inside again; wipe it dry with a fresh towel, salt the inside and stuff it with the prepared dressing; making it full and plump, giving it its original size and shape. Sew it up, place it in a kneeling posture in the dripping-pan, tying the legs in proper position. Pour a little hot salted water into the dripping-pan, baste with b.u.t.ter and water a few times as the pig warms, afterwards with gravy from the dripping-pan. When it begins to smoke all over rub it often with a rag dipped in melted b.u.t.ter. This will keep the skin from cracking and it still will be crisp. It will take from two to three hours to roast. Make the gravy by skimming off most of the grease; stir into that remaining in the pan a good tablespoonful of flour, turn in water to make it the right consistency, season with pepper and let all boil up once. Strain, and if you like wine in it, add half a gla.s.s; turn it into a gravy boat.
Place the pig upon a large, hot platter, surrounded with parsley or celery tops; place a green wreath around the neck, and a sprig of celery in its mouth. In carving, cut off its head first; split down the back, take off its hams and shoulders, and separate the ribs.
ROAST LOIN OF PORK.
Score the skin in strips about a quarter of an inch apart; place it in a dripping-pan with a _very little_ water under it; cook it moderately at first, as a high heat hardens the rind before the meat is heated through. If it is very lean, it should be rubbed with fresh lard or b.u.t.ter when put into the pan. A stuffing might be made of bread crumbs, chopped sage and onions, pepper and salt, and baked separately on a pie dish; this method is better than putting it in the meat, as many persons have a great aversion to its flavor. A loin weighing about six pounds will roast in two hours; allow more time if it should be very fat. Make a gravy with flour stirred into the pork drippings.
Serve with apple sauce and pickles.
ROAST LEG OF PORK.
Choose a small leg of fine young pork; cut a slit in the knuckle with a sharp knife, and fill the s.p.a.ce with sage and onion chopped, and a little pepper and salt. When half done, score the skin in slices, but do not cut deeper than the outer rind. Apple sauce and potatoes should be served with it. The gravy is to be made the same way as for beef roast, by turning off all the superfluous fat and adding a spoonful of flour stirred with a little water; add water to make the right consistency. Serve in a gravy boat.
BOILED LEG OF PORK.
For boiling, choose a small, compact, well-filled leg, and rub it well with salt; let it remain in pickle for a week or ten days, turning and rubbing it every day. An hour before dressing it put it into cold water for an hour, which improves the color. If the pork is purchased ready salted, ascertain how long the meat has been in pickle and soak it accordingly. Put it into a boiling-pot, with sufficient cold water to cover it, let it gradually come to a boil, and remove the sc.u.m as it rises. Simmer it very gently until tender, and do not allow it to boil fast, or the knuckle will fall to pieces before the middle of the leg is done. Carrots, turnips or parsnips may be boiled with the pork, some of which should be laid around the dish as a garnish.
_Time._--A leg of pork weighing eight pounds, three hours after the water boils, and to be simmered very gently.
FRESH PORK POT-PIE.
Boil a sparerib, after removing all the fat and cracking the bones, until tender; remove the sc.u.m as it rises, and when tender season with salt and pepper; half an hour before time for serving the dinner thicken the gravy with a little flour. Have ready another kettle, into which remove all the bones and most of the gravy, leaving only sufficient to cover the pot half an inch above the rim that rests on the stove; put in the crust, cover tight, and boil steadily forty-five minutes. To prepare the crust, work into light dough a _small_ bit of b.u.t.ter, roll it out thin, cut it in small, square cakes, and lay them on the moulding-board until very light. No steam should possibly escape while the crust is cooking, and by no means allow the pot to cease boiling.
ROAST SPARERIB.
Trim off the rough ends neatly, crack the ribs across the middle, rub with salt and sprinkle with pepper, fold over, stuff with turkey dressing, sew up tightly, place in a dripping-pan with a pint of water, baste frequently, turning over once so as to bake both sides equally until a rich brown.
PORK TENDERLOINS.