71. The well-known “Eagle” Patent Adjustable Bottom Grate, for

regulating the fire, made under licence from the original patentees, being adapted to this range in combination with the above patent, establishes it as one of the most efficient and at the same time most economical ranges in the market, the slight extra initial cost of the range over that of an ordinary range being very soon covered by the great saving in fuel. Our illustration shows a high class range, but the same principles can be adapted to ranges of the cheaper class, though we do not advocate cheap ranges. Of all the fittings in a house, the kitchen range should be the first consideration, as so much of the comfort of a tenant depends upon its quality and efficiency. We cannot too highly recommend this range to the notice of our readers. _See advertisement in front of title page._ [Illustration: Fig. 70. Fig. 71.] Fig. 70 is a sectional elevation through centre of fire from front to back when range is used as an open fire; the bottom grate being shown in a level position or half way up. Fig. 71 is a sectional elevation on the same line as above, showing the position when in use as a close fire, and also shows the bottom grate in its lowest position. To convert a close fire into an open fire, all that is necessary is to draw forward the top of the plate B, which then assumes a horizontal position, the same single movement opening the back, and forming a complete open hood or bonnet to convey the smoke from the fire into the chimney. The fire-cap C then slides back, the fall-bar turns down, and a complete open fire is formed. There are no wheels or cranks to get out of order, and there are no projections at back to interfere with back boiler or flues. _The “Eagle” Bottom Grate_ is so well known that it scarcely needs description, and when intelligently used is most economical. For heating the ovens or the hot plates a shallow fire only is necessary, and the consumption of fuel is thereby greatly reduced, and the deeper fire is only required for roasting or toasting, and even then the amount of fuel need not be greatly increased, as the bottom grate being worked on a pivot at back, when it is lowered to full extent in front, throws all the fuel to front of fire and the bars being vertical and slightly curved outwards, a large radiating surface is afforded, making a most perfect fire for roasting in front. This arrangement does away entirely with the objectionable “false bottom” of the ordinary kitchener, which is always burning out and very frequently checks the proper action of the boiler. _See advertisement in front of title page._ [Illustration: 72. Underfed Smoke-consuming Kitchener.] Brown and Green’s “Underfed Smoke-consuming Kitchener” (Brown & Green, 69 Finsbury Pavement, London), Fig. 72, is made in all sizes, from 8 ft. to 7 ft., with 1 to 4 ovens. The fire of this range is underfed, i.e. the fire is replenished at the bottom instead of at the top as usual, thus all gas, smoke, &c., are perfectly consumed, and the range is practically smokeless. This is an advantage of importance from an hygienic point of view, and greatly decreases the flue-cleaning, chimney-sweeping, &c. The ovens of this range are of the Leamington type, and the flues have to be constructed in brickwork. This firm also make the “Gem” cooking range, which is used as an auxiliary range, being quite portable, with iron flues, and requiring no brickwork whatever. It is made from 1 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. wide. [Illustration: 73. Wilson Grate.] The “Wilson” range (Wilson Engineering Co., 227 High Holborn), Fig. 73, is a portable range requiring no brickwork, and made in all sizes from 2 ft. to 10 ft. The range is fitted with a means of consuming the major portion of the smoke. The fire-door and sides of fire-box are chambered in such a manner as to cause a swift current of superheated air to mingle with the smoke as it leaves the fire-box, and this causes combustion to take place, producing flame and very materially lessening the quantity of soot. The ovens are upon the Leamington principle, but with a series of gills or heat collectors fitted at the bottom (in the flue), which equalises the heat at top and bottom (so necessary for pastry baking, &c.). [Illustration: 74. Treasure Range.] The “Treasure” range (T. J. Constantine, 61 Fleet Street, London), Fig. 74, is a portable range made in all sizes from 2 ft. upwards, and is similar in nearly every respect to the “Wilson” range last mentioned, excepting that the “Treasure” is now being made with an open-fronted fire for roasting, and with a movable bottom grating by which the size of fire can be increased or decreased at will. This range requires no brick-setting. This firm make a tray to slide (upon rollers), and closely fit under the range, which is of great convenience for heating plates, dishes, &c. The “Sine qua Non” range (Albion Iron Co., 175 Upper Thames Street, London) is made in all sizes, and has the following advantages. Closed or open fire (one movement only); the heat can be directed to the top or to the bottom of ovens at will, and an improved ventilating arrangement at the back of range lessens draught and takes off excess heat and objectionable smells, &c., created at the hot plate. This is a brick-flue range. Cooking operations can be carried on with this range when the fire is open. [Illustration: 75. Dow’s Patent Range.] “Dow’s” patent range (J. B. Colbran & Co., 247 High Holborn, London), Fig. 75, is made in all sizes. It is a closed or open fire (one movement only), and the heat can be directed to the top or bottom of the oven at will. It is a brick-flue range, and cooking operations can be carried on when the fire is open. The “Mistress” range (Smith and Welstood, Ludgate Circus, London), Fig. 76, is a portable range, made in various sizes, with one or two ovens and boiler. This is what is commonly known as an “American” range. This term originated with ranges made for the use of American settlers, being quite portable, very compact, and provided with a complete set of utensils. They were then made light for convenience of transit, and being provided with rather high legs they could be stood down anywhere, and worked safely at a moment’s notice after attaching a few feet of flue-pipe. [Illustration: 76. Mistress Range.] The “Mistress” is made with a convertible open and closed fire, and can be had with doors, forming a hot closet for plates, &c., underneath (between the legs). The fire of this range is suited for roasting in front, and every range is fitted with a set of cooking utensils. The ovens are upon the Leamington principle. This firm also make many other patterns of this type of range suited for various requirements. The “Yorkshire” range (so named as it is the pattern in general use in that county) is made to suit many purposes. It is a range especially adapted for bread, cake, and pastry baking, the ovens invariably having an excess heat at bottom; the flues are ascending, and the range therefore works with less draught. The range consists of a fire-box situated in the usual position, and the flues are carried from the top of the fire to the right or left, as in the Leamington range, but the bottom of the oven or ovens forms the upper surface of this first flue instead of the hot plate, i.e. the bottom of the oven is on a level with the top of the fire-box; the flue passes from the fire under the bottom of the ovens, then up the further side, and lastly across the top into the chimney, the results being like those obtained with the “Thorncliffe” range, but the only available hot-plate is that immediately over the fire and on top of the ovens. The space under the ovens (where the ovens of a Leamington pattern range would exist) is sometimes entirely closed, but more usually occupied by hot closets, which are heated by the fire that passes across the top of them, similar to the “Thorncliffe” before mentioned. This description of range is not commonly met with in the south of England, but any range maker is prepared to supply it. There is a combination of the Yorkshire and Leamington ranges made with an ordinary Leamington oven on one side with hot plate above it, and a Yorkshire oven on the other side with hot closet below it. This is a good and useful combination, but the hot plate is necessarily contracted. This and the Yorkshire range require brick flues. It must be understood that the ranges mentioned are but a few well-known patterns that possess certain improvements upon the Leamington range. There are numberless other makes equally good, but it would occupy the major portion of this work to treat them all; and although those mentioned possess improvements upon the Leamington pattern, we must leave it to the intending purchaser to say whether the improvements are to his advantage. It must be said in favour of the Leamington range, that for general good results and simplicity in working and cleaning, it has always met with general approval, and probably no other make of range will remain in favour without interruption for upwards of 30 years as this has done. Although certain makes of ranges have been specified, as having brick flues, yet the majority, if not all of them, can be had with iron flues at a proportionate extra expense, if so ordered, and this extra expense is a good investment if permanency is desired. A most useful arrangement is to have a small portable range fixed in the scullery, or any other convenient position, to act as an auxiliary to the large range. The convenience of this arrangement is especially felt when the large range, during some repair, or the periodical boiler cleaning, cannot be used; or when company increase the requirements, or in summer, when only a small amount of cooking is needed, the small range will do the necessary work, and this also applies when only servants are remaining in the house. This auxiliary range can be connected into a copper flue, or into the large range flue, but it must be seen that the damper of this small range is tightly closed when it is not in use, otherwise it will seriously interfere with the efficiency of whatever else is being worked by the flue. With the old-fashioned open ranges there is a common complaint of the chimney smoking. This will be found in probably every instance to be effectually cured by the adoption of a close-fire range or “kitchener.” Fire-bricks.--This is a subject upon which much misunderstanding has often arisen between manufacturers and users of kitchen ranges, as it is unfortunately no rare occurrence for the fire-bricks of quite a new range to be found cracked, after, say 2-3 months’ wear, whereas another set of bricks of exactly the same make and the same clay, in the same range, will last 2-3 years, or even longer. This may be sometimes caused by negligence. For instance, if fire-bricks are fitted tightly, they will, when heated, crack, as no room is left for expansion; but, what is more commonly the cause of failure, is firstly, the influence of the poker, and secondly the practice of putting out the fire (at night) with water. This rapid cooling and contraction causes a fracture, the same as putting cold water into a hot empty boiler. Most makers are now making iron cheeks of suitable construction to take the place of fire-bricks, and the results are said to be satisfactory, though quite contrary to the principles already laid down as to a minimum use of iron in grates. There is a rather general idea that fire-bricks assist in heating the ovens. This, however, is incorrect; the object of fire-bricks is to protect the oven sides from the direct action of the fire, as this would in a short time injure them. There are now to be obtained several makes of fire-resisting cement. This material is gaining favour, and will no doubt come into general use for the purposes for which it is intended. It is a clay-like material, and is used for repairing cracked fire-bricks or the interior lining of any description of furnace or fire-box; for rendering the joints of stoves and ranges air-tight; and it is also successful in temporarily repairing cracked boilers as it adheres to an iron surface as well as to any other material. After cementing up the crack or damaged part, a fire is immediately made, and in 10 minutes the cement will be found to have set as hard as the iron itself, and it has a valuable property in not shrinking as it dries. This material is also used for lining the fire-boxes of kitchen ranges in place of fire-bricks, as it is much more lasting; its applications are very numerous, it being suitable for any and every purpose where heat is to be resisted. There are a few directions that must be followed to make the application successful, but these are provided by the manufacturers. Two of the best makes that have had considerable trial and are now in favour are the “Etna” cement (Verity Bros., 98 High Holborn), and the “Purimacos.” [Illustration: 77. Eagle Grill Stove.] Grills.--Grilling stoves, for coke or charcoal fuel, invariably take the form of an open-topped shallow furnace, above which is suspended the gridiron; Fig. 77 shows the general details. The furnace is sometimes supported on legs, but more generally the space underneath is utilised as a hot closet for plates, &c., and in some instances a hot closet is fitted above (as illustrated). The gridiron, which is made with fluted or grooved bars, is suspended at such an angle as to cause the gravy to run down freely into the pan in front provided to receive it. The method of suspending the grid permits of its being raised or lowered as the heat dictates. All grills are constructed to work with a down draught, i.e. the air that passes into the chimney has to first pass _downwards_ through the fire and then up the flue provided behind. By this means, all products of combustion are carried away, and the fire may be said to be burning upside down. Grills are also made to work with a series of Bunsen (atmospheric) burners in place of fuel beneath the gridiron. Grills are made in various sizes for domestic or business requirements. The one illustrated in Fig. 77 is made by the Eagle Range & Foundry Co., 76 Regent Street, London, but they can be obtained of all range merchants and manufacturers. Steam.--It has been long anticipated by many competent authorities that steam cooking would come into general favour, to the prejudice of cooking ranges, and although this has not come to pass, any description of food cooked by steam (in a proper manner) is by many considered superior to that cooked by any other method. But it may be here mentioned that to gain good results the steam must be dry, i.e. there must be a moderate pressure developed in the boiler and the steam should not be permitted to condense too quickly; if the steam pipe is of any length it should be felted, or covered with some non-conducting material. Steam at no pressure (atmospheric pressure only), although a gas, may be said to be saturated with moisture, whereas if a little pressure is developed it becomes dry, and may be compared to hot air. Steam without pressure has the further disadvantage of condensing very rapidly, and the moisture is objectionable for several reasons. One advantage possessed by steam cooking is that the kitchen does not become over heated, as the boiler, if desired, can be placed in a basement or elsewhere, provided it is convenient for stoking; and there is, of course, economy of space. Steam can be economically used for every description of cooking purpose, and for heating water, by placing a coil of steam pipe in the water that is to be heated. [Illustration: 78. Steam Boiler.] Fig. 78 represents a steam boiler which requires to be fixed in brickwork. They are also made cylindrical (vertical) in shape with the furnace within them, and so require no setting, except connection with the chimney. A description of a steam boiler will be found under “motors,” the boiler and fittings in each case being nearly identical, except that a pressure-gauge is not always used with a boiler for cooking purposes, and a different means is provided for water supply generally, as illustrated. The reference letters indicate:--_a_, inlet valve, regulated by stone float _c_ and balance-weight _h_; _b_, cold supply-pipe from main; _d_, safety-valve; _e_, water gauge; _f_, steam delivery pipe; _g_, manlids. In many instances, especially when the boiler is in a kitchen range, a steam chest is used. This is a square wrought-iron box, of nearly the same capacity as the boiler, and situated somewhere near but in a more conveniently accessible position. All the fittings are attached to this chest, which is connected to the boiler by 2 pipes one above and one below water level (2 pipes being necessary to equalise the pressure). The chest is of service when the boiler is not easily accessible, as the fittings should always be situated where they can have regular attention, cleaning, &c., and it is very necessary to see that the water inlet valve and safety valve are in proper working order. Sometimes in small steam boilers in kitchen ranges the inlet valve is dispensed with, and an ordinary cast-iron supply cistern is used, with a ball valve in the usual way; but the cistern must have a lid that can be secured, and the pipe between the cistern and boiler must have a deep syphon to prevent the water being blown back by the steam. This system, however, cannot be recommended, as it is not reliable. When this system is adopted it is generally where the boiler is also used for hot-water supply, and only when comparatively no pressure of steam is required for 1-3 small kettles. See also p. 1004. Gas.--Gas cooking stoves are now growing in favour, as being very convenient and cleanly, instantaneously lighted and extinguished, and producing no smoke, soot, or ashes. They are portable, and the cost of fixing is generally small; but, as with all gas contrivances, they can only be adopted where gas is to be obtained. The makers claim economy over coal-burning ranges, greater simplicity in working and cleaning, less attention, unvarying heat, &c. There are, however, drawbacks in not having means of working a high-pressure boiler for bath supply, &c. (this, however, is now being overcome), and there are sometimes complaints of waste of gas, as servants cannot always be relied upon to turn off or lower the gas at intervals when it is not required. Gas ranges have now attained a high degree of perfection, and the results are very satisfactory. There is no obnoxious taste commonly associated with meat cooked by this means, and it has been proved that no difference can be discerned even by the most fastidious between joints cooked in gas and coal-burning ranges. Gas ranges are made in numberless sizes and shapes to meet every requirement, from the small “Workman’s Friend,” which is large enough to cook a steak and boil a quart of water, to those that are used in large institutions, hospitals, &c., to cook for hundreds daily. [Illustration: 79. Eureka Gas Cooker.] Ordinary gas is sometimes used, but more generally it is “atmospheric gas,” which is a mixture of gas and air burnt by a “Bunsen” burner, giving a blue flame. In lighting an atmospheric burner, it should be turned on full for a ¼ minute before the match is applied, otherwise it will light back in the air chamber of the burner, which will also happen if the burner is not turned on full when lighting. If necessary, the gas can be turned down immediately after it is lighted. When one of these burners lights back, it will be found to be burning the ordinary gas as it issues from the nozzle in the air chamber. This of course gives no heat where it is required, and if allowed to burn for a short time it will choke the burner with soot. There is a little objection experienced at first in lighting an atmospheric burner, as it lights violently with a slight explosion, but one quickly gets used to this. Fig. 79 is the “Eureka” gas cooker (John Wright & Co., 155A Upper Thames Street, London). This range is double cased and jacketed on the sides, back, and door with a non-conducting material to prevent loss of heat. The top of the oven is formed of fire-brick, over which the waste heat passes, heating it to a high temperature, and adding to the efficiency. The oven interior can be had either galvanised or enamelled by a new process which the makers highly recommend, and the oven fittings are so made that they can be removed wholly for cleaning purposes and leave no ledges inside where grease could accumulate. The hot plate is formed of loose wrought-iron bars, which can be removed for cleaning purposes. This range is made in all sizes, with from 1-4 ovens, and boilers are fitted when desired. Hoods can be fitted to these (and to any other make) to carry away any objectionable smell and vapour from the hot plate, the hood being connected with a flue. A hood is of course not necessary when the range stands in an opening under a chimney. [Illustration: 80. Fletcher’s Cellular Cast-iron Cooker. 81. Leoni’s Nonpareil Gas Kitchener.] Fig. 80 is a Fletcher’s cellular cast-iron cooker (Thos. Fletcher & Co., 83 Upper Thames Street, London). This cooker is jacketed with slagwool, to prevent loss of heat; the whole is constructed of cast iron, the interior being in panels to prevent cracking. This range is also made in all sizes, with every convenience, and is of very strong construction. It will be noticed with gas ranges that they are especially well adapted for pastry and bread baking, as the ovens have a perfect bottom heat. Fig. 81 is Leoni’s “Nonpareil” gas kitchener (General Gas Apparatus Company, 74 Strand, London). These cookers are greatly patronized for large works, institutions, &c. They are fitted at W. Whiteley’s where they cook for 3000 persons daily. They are also made in small and medium sizes for domestic requirements. This and other makes of gas ranges are provided with means of grilling by deflected heat, which is very successful. [Illustration: 82. Metropolitan Gas Kitchener.] Fig. 82 is the “Metropolitan gas kitchener” (H. and C. Davis & Co., 198 and 200, Camberwell Road, London). This is constructed of wrought iron, the whole of the top, sides, door, and back being jacketed with a non-conductor. The outer casing is of galvanized iron, the inner casing is not galvanized, but is treated with a preparation to prevent rust. These are made in all sizes. The ovens of gas ranges are ventilated upon the same principle as the ovens of other ranges, but as there are no flues to discharge the steam and smell into, a hood, as just spoken of, must be provided, otherwise the smell may pervade the house. These are but a few of the many makes of gas stoves. In addition to ranges many other forms of gas apparatus adapted for cooking are made, such as hot-closets, hot-plates, salamanders, grills, coffee roasters, &c., &c. Gas ranges can now be obtained upon hire from nearly all gas companies at very low charges, in fact, the charges can but barely cover first cost, but the reason for this low charge is obvious. See also p. 1004. Oil.--Oil cooking stoves are to be recommended for their convenience where gas and the more bulky fuel, coal, are not attainable. They are especially well adapted for camping out, picnics, &c., and in many instances they can be recommended for domestic use. With ordinary care, they may be said to be odourless and smokeless, very cleanly, and the makers assert that they are very economical. They are so constructed that neither the oil nor products of combustion in any way come in contact with whatever is being cooked, and consequently there is no faint or objectionable flavour. They can be stood upon a table or in almost any position with perfect safety, and as will be seen from the illustration (Fig. 83), every part is easily accessible. [Illustration: 83. Rippingille’s A B C Oil Kitchener.] Fig. 83 is Rippingille’s “A B C Oil Kitchener” (Holborn Lamp and Stove Company, 118 Holborn, London), with oven, boiler, and hot-plate, price 3_l._ 18_s._ 6_d._ These stoves are made in sizes from the breakfast-cooker (15_s._) to those with 2 ovens, and suitable for a family, costing about 5_l._ They are also made for boiling only, in different sizes, and even fitted with a small hot-water circulating apparatus for heating. _Pots and Pans._--Iron is cheap, and lasts. It is all very well so long as it is kept clean; but that seldom happens. Buy a saucepan brush and silver sand, and see that it is used. See that your iron saucepans are lined with tin, and not with brown rust and dirt, and know once for all that an iron saucepan 6 months old should be as bright inside as it was on the day when it was bought. Understand yourself, and then try to explain to others, that a saucepan, whether of tin, iron, or anything else, must be scrubbed both outside and in. How common it is to see a saucepan crusted outside with soot, which no one has ever attempted to remove. It gets red hot, and burns the saucepan as well as its contents, and the bill of the ironmonger grows apace, and the soup is burnt and spoilt, and every one blames the cook, while no one thinks of the scrubber. There are not a few cooks, old enough to know better, who direct that the scrubbing of saucepans should be done by the hand. Why the hand is to be hardened and the nails to be ground down to the quick, in order to do slowly what a 6_d._ saucepan-brush would do quickly, is hard to say. Another excellent saucepan scrubber, though not so common or so cheap as the brush, is a small square piece of steel chainwork--a piece of chain armour, in fact. A bunch of twigs or a wisp of straw, though better than nothing generally, leaves something to be desired in the way of brightness. When the soot disappears from the outside, and the dirt from inside, half the faults of iron saucepans disappear also. For beef tea, however, some recommend glass or earthenware--a soda-water bottle or a jampot, if there is nothing better--to be set inside the saucepan of boiling water, however bright it may be; for invalids are fastidious, and beef tea always tastes of the saucepan if possible. Tin saucepans, especially the low-priced ones, are by no means cheap. They are often met with in the homes of the poor, and in poor localities in towns ironmongers underbid each other until the cost of a saucepan only reaches a few pence. How dear these saucepans are in the long run, no one knows who has not used them on the open fireplace, upon which in these poor homes they are generally placed. It is impossible to fry in them without risk of losing the bottom; it is difficult to stew, because the heat passes through very rapidly. Tin is little trouble to clean, so there is no excuse for dirt or dulness, outside or in. The fault often lies in leaving the lid on after cleaning is done, and the result is damp and rust. All saucepans should be kept in a dry place, bottom upwards, and without their lids; if they are dried before the fire so much the better. A clean tin saucepan may be used for many purposes where iron is inadmissible; but “clean” is not to be interpreted as meaning a saucepan carelessly wiped out with a greasy cloth, and left to dry or to rust as chance may befall. Rust and dirt are not flavourless articles of cookery. Suppose clear soup or jelly is to be made. In an iron pan it will be not clear, but thick; in a clean tin pan or even a fish-kettle it will be not the fault of the pan, but of the cook, if the jelly be not as clear as glass. The least speck of rust, the smallest remainder of yesterday’s cooking will spoil either jelly or soup. Why, indeed, should not tin serve all purposes, since it is with tin that all copper pans are (or should be) lined? And copper pans are the _ne plus ultra_ of culinary furniture. The grand difference lies in the fact that tin pans are thin, the heat penetrates them quickly, and therefore they are apt to burn, while copper is thick and a slow conductor of heat. Perhaps something may also be said on the score of shape. There is an ugly seam round the bottom of tin pans, where rust is likely to collect; and the best block-tin saucepans are generally made with sides sloping in towards the top, as if for the express purpose of producing lumps in all gravies and rust in all weathers. Why this form ever was or continues to be fashionable, it is not easy to say. There is, however, another argument in favour of copper stewpans, namely this--that cooks will take the trouble to clean them, while they think half the time and labour wasted on tin, which can be replaced at small cost. Let us grant, as readily as you please, that copper is the best material; still it is certain that its cost will always place it out of reach of modest housewives; therefore the first substitute is plenty of soap, sand, and labour expended on iron or tin. The next substitute and a more common one, is enamel-lined iron. The difficulties here are two. First, the enamel is apt to chip, when all the defects of the native iron appear; secondly, the heat quickly penetrates, and is not quickly evaporated. An enamelled pan keeps its contents at boiling heat for some time after it is removed from the fire. It very often boils over, and it needs careful watching to prevent burning. An enamelled pan is not one to be selected for slow stewing. The substitute in many ways best of all is but little used in England. Earthenware pots have the many advantages of being cheap to buy, easy to clean, slow to burn, giving no unpleasant flavour to anything cooked. Perhaps the reason of their unpopularity is to be sought in the prevalence of open fires, and the fact that not all earthenware will stand any closer proximity to the fire than the top of an iron stove. Those delicate brown porcelain cooking utensils lined with white are excellent for delicate cookery on a close stove, but they are not suited to the rough wear and tear of an every-day kitchen, and considering their fragility, one cannot call them cheap. What we want is good strong brown earthenware, glazed inside, hardy enough to be set on an open fire, strong enough to withstand a few taps, and withal cheap enough to be readily replaced. That such a thing may be had, every one knows who has travelled out of England and kept their eyes open. They are common enough in Switzerland, in many parts of Germany, and our grandmothers would have said they were common in this country, as indeed they were 50 years ago. Though not common now, they are still to be bought, in price ranging from a few pence to 2_s._ One purpose for which they are particularly suited is the making of broth or stock out of odds and ends. Earthenware may be kept on the fire day after day, and finally lifted off the fire to grow cold with its contents; no draining or trouble is necessary, and no sour or metallic flavour will remain to shock the most fastidious palate. You may make by turns jelly and oatmeal porridge, and the same pot serves equally well for both--good for slow stewing on the hob, but perfectly serviceable on an open fire. There is perhaps no cooking material for common use to equal earthenware. Copper must be lined with tin, for unlined copper, whether clean-scoured or not, is extremely unwholesome. Upon this point much indecision prevails in the public mind, and it is well to speak positively, as many cases of poisoning from copper saucepans are on record. Turning to frying-pans, there is for the impecunious householder no refuge from iron and tin. A copper frying or sauté pan is not found in many houses. Nevertheless, there is no occasion to burn the outside of cutlets; and if the inside is raw, the cook is to blame, not the metal. “Once burnt will burn again.” A new pan does not burn; therefore, why should an old one? No frying-pan should be washed or scoured; it should be wiped while hot with a cloth. But this rule presupposes no scraps left on the edges, no burning on the bottom; it assumes, in fact, that the frying be well done. If the pan be burnt, you must scrub and scour it until it is bright, for nothing so effectually spoils both the flavour and the appearance of cooking as the black bits that detach themselves from the sides of dirty pans. For omelets, copper, enamel, tin, are all used effectually by a careful cook; while no one of the three will serve the purpose with unskilful fingers. But every housewife who wishes first-class omelets served on her table will do well to invest in a copper pan, since there are few dishes to which the utensils at command of the cook make so great a difference. Then, again, porcelain and earthenware might be used with great advantage. The great art in making omelets is that they shall not be cooked so slowly as to be tough, nor yet so quickly as to be over-coloured; and the happy medium is difficult to attain when cooking with metal that, like iron, is a very rapid conductor of heat. English middle-class kitchens are often furnished with a strange mixture of niggardliness and extravagance. Any one accustomed to foreign customs will have been struck with the modest but well-chosen _batterie de cuisine_ commonly seen abroad in houses of the lower middle classes. There the mistress selects her own stock by the light of her own experience; here an order is given to some ironmonger, who furnishes the kitchen according to precedent, and in sublime indifference as to the first principles of cookery. The general absence of so trifling a luxury as wooden spoons may account for the quality of the unpleasant mixture commonly known as melted butter. And the extreme reluctance of mistresses to invest in such an article as a frying-basket, while they waste double its cost every week by bad frying without it, may be cited as another example of ignorant saving (E. A. B. in the _Queen_.) An extensive catalogue might here be given of the various appliances used in the kitchen, such as mincing, cutting, slicing, whisking, mixing, knife-cleaning, bread-making, and other domestic machines, but it could serve no useful purpose. All ordinary requisites can be purchased at any ironmonger’s, in all degrees of size and quality. Sundry new and ingenious implements are introduced to public notice every year, and a great many may be found in the price lists of the large firms, such as Mappin and Webb, 18 to 22 Poultry; Farrow and Jackson, 8 Haymarket; Spong, 226 High Holborn; Kent, 199 High Holborn; J. Baker and Sons, 58 City Road; Wilson and Son, King William Street, Strand; and several others. In the _Ironmonger_ for May and June, 1885, appeared an account of an ingenious machine for washing crockery, adapted to the needs of large establishments. See also p. 1006. THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY. Much useful information is to be derived from Prof. Mattieu Williams’s Cantor Lectures on the Scientific Basis of Cookery, from which some of the following paragraphs are borrowed. _Roasting._--Williams shows that “in roasting a joint before the fire without any screen, the radiant heat from the coal is only used; the meat is heated only on one side, that next to the fire, and, as it turns round, is radiating its heat away from the other side to the wall, &c., of the kitchen. If a meat screen of polished metal is placed behind the meat, the rays of heat not intercepted by the meat itself are received upon the screen, and reflected back towards the meat, and thus both sides are heated.” There is an old rule well known all over the world of cookery, and that is, “white meats well done, black meats underdone;” this applies to all meats of the four as well as of the two-legged sort, but then it means properly well done, and properly underdone. To attain this end the first thing which demands attention is the making up of the fire. It should be regulated according to the size and the nature of the article which is to be roasted, and should be so managed as to last all-aglow the whole length of time which the roasting will take. In the case of joints of meat the following are the main points to be attended to. The joint should be trimmed neatly; cut off the end or flaps of a sirloin of beef (this makes a very good stew for the kitchen dinner, or maybe used to make stock with greater advantage than roasting it with the joint in the point of view both of economy and of taste), a piece of buttered paper should be tied on with string over the fat, and not removed until just before the joint is done. If it can possibly be avoided do not use skewers to fix up the joints, but use string instead; and when practicable perpendicular roasting is preferable to horizontal, as not requiring the use of the spit. Place the meat at first 18 in. from the fire, or even farther off if it be a large joint and the fire greater in proportion. When the meat is well warmed, gradually bring it nearer, and from that time never cease basting the joint at regular intervals, but this you must not overdo. The time that meat takes to roast is usually set down at 15-20 minutes for every lb. the joint weighs, but this is a very broad rule, so many circumstances tending to modify it. The quality of the meat, the age of it, whether it be fresh killed or not, the season of the year, the nature of the fire, and the position of it as regards currents of air in the kitchen, must all be taken into consideration. One thing only is certain, and that is, that when the joint begins to smoke it is nearly if not quite done, and at this stage 2-3 minutes more or less at the fire will make or mar the success of the joint as a piece of artistic roasting. (The G. C.) In Ovens.--“The oven is an apparatus for cooking by radiation. In this case the meat or other object of cookery receives radiant heat from the heated walls of the oven. If this chamber, with radiant walls, be so arranged that the heat shall be radiated equally on all sides, and is capable of regulation, it becomes a roaster, which theoretically does its work more perfectly than an open fire, even when aided by a screen.” (Williams.) Williams has “not the slightest hesitation in affirming that moderate-sized joints properly roasted in a closed chamber, are far better than similar joints cooked with the utmost skill in front of a fire. The smaller the joint, the greater the advantage of the closed chamber.” Roasting-ovens are now attached to all the best forms of kitcheners. On one point in the philosophy of roasting, Williams differs from Rumford. He thinks “it desirable--and has tested this theory experimentally--to begin at a temperature above that which is to be maintained throughout the roasting. The object of this is to produce a crust on the surface of the meat that shall partially seal it, and keep in the juices as much as possible. Then the temperature may fall to the average, which should be well kept up, and rather raised towards the last. This comes about automatically in the ordinary course of cooking with a roasting-oven.” He adds that “sealing is more demanded by a joint of beef than by one of mutton of given size, because in the beef there is more of cut surface, exposing the ends of the fibres of the meat. In a leg of mutton, for example, this exposure is only at one end, the rest is partially protected by the skin of the leg.” _Basting._--“The _rationale_ of basting appears to be that it assists in the sealing, and diminishes the evaporation of the juices of the meat, the chief difference between well-roasted and ill-roasted meat depending upon this.” In roasting, “the meat is stewed in its own juices. The flavour depends on this: no water being used, these juices are not diluted--they are, on the contrary, more or less concentrated by evaporation; but if this evaporation be carried too far, a drying-up occurs, and this desiccation is accompanied with toughness and indigestibility, as well as sacrifice of flavour. The smaller the joint, the greater the risk of such desiccation.” _Grilling._--“This principle brings us at once to grilling, which is another kind of roasting, i.e. of cooking by radiation. A beef steak or mutton chop is not roasted by turning it round and round in front of the fire, because so large a surface is exposed in proportion to the mass, and such treatment would evaporate from that large surface too much of the juices. Rapidity is the primary condition of success in grilling. When a large and specially-constructed grill, placed over a large coke or charcoal fire, is available, the heat radiated on the exposed surface of the meat rapidly browns or carbonises the exposed surface, and partially seals its pores.” _Boiling._--“When water is heated in a glass vessel over a flame where the action may be watched, bubbles are first seen growing on the sides of the glass, gradually detaching themselves, and rising to the surface. These are merely bubbles of air that was dissolved in the water. After this, other and larger bubbles form on the bottom just above the flame. At first they are flat, and continually collapsing. Presently they become hemispherical, but still they collapse; then they become more and more nearly spherical, and afterwards quite spherical; afterwards they detach themselves, and start upwards, but perish in the attempt, by collapsing somewhere on the way. At last they reach the surface, and break there, ejecting themselves as steam into the air. Now the water boils, and a thermometer dipped into it registers 212° F. After this, it matters not whether the boiling is very violent or only the gentlest simmering, no further rise of the thermometer is perceptible, showing that the simmering temperature and the ‘galloping’ temperature are the same.” “The actual cooking temperature for animal food is considerably below the boiling point of water, and is regulated by the coagulation of albumen, which commences at rather below 160° F., i.e. more than 50° below the boiling point of water.” To “apply this practically to the boiling of an egg for breakfast. By the ordinary method of the 3 minutes’ immersion in continually boiling water, the white becomes hard and indigestible before the yolk is fairly warmed, and ½ minute too much, or ½ minute too little, will nearly ruin the operation.” “The proper mode is to place the egg in boiling water, and then remove the saucepan from the fire altogether, and leave the egg in the water from 10 minutes to ¼ hour. About ½ pint for 1 egg, ¾ pint for 2 eggs, or 1 pint for 4 eggs, is the quantity demanded if the saucepan is well covered.” _Stewing._--“The prevailing idea in England is that stewed meat only differs from boiled meat by being kept in the water for a longer time--that stewing is simply protracted boiling. I venture, nevertheless, to declare the total fallacy of this, and to assert that, so far as flesh food is concerned, boiling and stewing are diametrically opposite, as regards the special objects to be attained. In boiling a joint--say, a leg of mutton--the best efforts of the cook should be directed to retaining the juices within the meat, and allowing the smallest possible quantity to come out into the water. In stewing, the business is to get as much as possible out of the meat, to separate the juices from the meat and convey them to the water. This is the case, whether the French practice of serving the liquid _potage_ or _bouillon_ as a separate dish, and the stewed meat or _bouilli_ as another, or the English and Irish fashion of serving the stewed meat in its own juices or gravy, as in the case of stewed steak, Irish stew, &c. “The poor French peasant does more with 1 lb. of meat, in the way of stewing, than the English cook with three or four. The little bit of meat, and the large supply of vegetables are placed in a pot, and this in another vessel containing water--the _bain-marie_ or water bath. This stands on the embers of a poor little wood fire, and is left there till dinner-time, under conditions that render boiling impossible, and demand little or no further attention from the cook; consequently, the meat, when removed, has parted with its juices to the _potage_, but is not curled up by the contraction of the hardened albumen, nor reduced to stringy fibres. It is tender, eatable, and enjoyable, that is, when the proper supply of saline juices of the meat _plus_ the saline juices of the vegetables, have been taken into the system. “Whether the _potage_ and the meat should thus be separated, or whether they should be stewed together, as in an Irish stew, &c., is merely a matter of taste and custom; but that a stew should never be boiled, nor placed in a position on the fire where boiling or ‘simmering’ is possible, should be regarded as a primary axiom in cooking where stewing is concerned.” _Braising._--This takes its name from the French word _braise_, the red embers of a wood fire being so called. There are proper pans sold for this kind of cooking, called braising-pans; they are rather shallower than ordinary stewpans, and they have the edges of the lid turned up to hold live coals, it being necessary to have heat from above as well as below in braising. It is also necessary as much as possible to exclude the air. Should there be no braising-pan in the house it is possible to do it, but less well, in an ordinary stewpan, which will have to be put into the oven. _Frying._--“Frying ranks with boiling and stewing, rather than with grilling. When properly conducted, it is one of the processes in which the heat is communicated by convection, the medium being hot fat instead of the hot water used in the so-called, and mis-called ‘boiling’ of meat. I say ‘when properly conducted,’ because it is too often very improperly conducted in domestic kitchens. This is the case whenever fish, cutlets, &c., are fried on a merely greased plate of metal, such as a common frying-pan. Pancakes or omelettes may be thus fried, but no kind of fish or meat. These should be immersed in a bath of fat sufficiently deep to cover them completely. To those who have not reasoned out the subject, such complete immersion in so large a quantity of fat may appear likely to produce a very greasy result. The contrary is the case. “Let us take, as an example, the frying of a sole. On immersing this in a bath of fat raised to a temperature above that of boiling water, a violent hissing and crackling noise (‘frizzling’) is heard. This is caused by a series of small explosions due to the sudden conversion of water into steam. The water was originally on the surface and between and within the fibres of the flesh of the sole. The continual expansion of this water into vapour, and its outbursting, prevent the fat from penetrating the fish, so long as the temperature is maintained above 212° F., and thus the substance of the sole is cooked by the steam of its own juices, and its outside is browned by the superheated fat. “Now, let us suppose that a merely greased plate, like the bottom of a frying-pan, is used. Only one side of the sole is cooked at first--the side in contact with the pan--therefore it must be turned to cook the other side. When thus turned, the side first cooked with its adhering fat is cooling; its steam is condensing between its fibres, and the fat is gradually entering to supply the place of steam, while the other side is cooking. Thus it is more greasy than if rapidly withdrawn from the bath of hot fat, and then allowed to drain before the steam commences to condense. A stew-pan, or any other suitable kind of kettle, may be used, if provided with a wire basket for lifting; or a frying-pan of the ordinary kind, if deep enough.” To fry rissoles, or anything which requires to be fried all over at one time, a wire basket must be used, a stewpan large enough round to receive the basket, and deep enough to hold a sufficient quantity of melted fat to completely cover whatever is to be fried. Place the rissoles in the basket, set the stewpan containing the fat on the fire, and when the fat is boiling, at once plunge the basket into it and hold it there until they are sufficiently cooked, which will be when they have attained a delicate golden colour. The greatest care will be necessary in watching for the moment of boiling, this will be when the fat ceases to bubble and splutter; it will then become perfectly silent, and almost immediately a light blue steam will rise from it, which is the sign of boiling, the frying must then instantly commence, for it will soon after begin to smoke, and if put into the fat while in this condition the rissoles would be quite spoilt, both in colour and flavour. For cutlets, soles, or anything flat, you may use a cutlet-pan or frying-pan and fry one side at a time. Lard, butter, and sweet oil are all used, and for very delicate frying they are necessary. Whitebait must be done in oil, omelettes in butter, as also cutlets if you wish them to be particularly nice; but for most things and for all ordinary occasions there is nothing better than good well-clarified dripping. _Kitchen odours._--All “greens,” to use a familiar expression, especially cabbage, as we know, have a horrible tendency to create noxious vapours; whilst onions, it need not be said, permeate the remotest recesses of a building, not only while they are cooking, but while they are being prepared for the saucepan or the frying-pan. To thoroughly deodorise the boiling cabbage or the frying onion is next door to impossible, but the effluvium may be mitigated. A large piece of bread is sometimes put upon the knife’s point whilst onions are being peeled, in order to prevent the tearful effect which the pungent esculent produces on the eyes; and we have lately been told in a popular cookery book that the offensive results of cabbage boiling may be well nigh got rid of, by wrapping up in a piece of clean white linen rag a large lump of bread, and putting it in the saucepanful of water in which the cabbage is being cooked. The same plan, no doubt, would be equally effective in the case of broccoli, which, if possible, is a greater offender than cabbage in emitting offensive fumes. The obnoxious reek is mitigated, we are told, by some cooks, by boiling broccoli in two waters--parboiling them to begin with; then taking them out of the saucepan, straining them, allowing cold water to run over them for a few minutes, and placing them in a fresh pot of boiling water. What applies here may be extended, no doubt, with beneficial results to most greenery, not forgetting the cauliflower--another marked offender in the way of creating bad odour. It is, however, very frequently the careless manner in which the water used in the boiling of vegetables is thrown away, which produces the worst stench of which the kitchen is guilty. Nothing is so detestable as this smell of “green water,” and the cook who allows it to get the upper hand of her is either very careless or very incompetent. If the water be thrown recklessly down the sink, and no means are adopted to deodorise it, hours will elapse ere the fumes can be dissipated, during which they will have found their way all over the house. Where the drainage and such like appliances are in perfect order (or, indeed, where they are not more particularly), it should be held as an essential part of the scullery-maid’s duty to pour gallons of fresh water, both boiling and cold, down the sink immediately after the cabbage water. If this be done freely, and a liberal sprinkling of Sanitas Powder or other inoffensive deodoriser be then distributed about the sink or drain trap, we need not be troubled, as we constantly are, by bad smells when dinner is over. RECIPES FOR DISHES. In the presence of such a number of cookery books as already exist, it is obviously impossible to offer a selection of original recipes. Every known dish has been subjected to variations till the list is practically endless. The idea which has guided the writer of this section is general utility. Many of the recipes are gleaned from the replies of experienced housewives in the correspondence columns of recent numbers of the ‘Queen’ newspaper; than this, no more valuable and inexhaustible source of current information exists, and the reader in quest of additional recipes or instructions cannot do better than consult the weekly pages of that pre-eminent “ladies’” newspaper. =Soups.=--The foundation of all soups is or should be found in the stockpot, an institution that is too often neglected, especially in small households where economy is most necessary. As the nutritive elements of all foods, both animal and vegetable, are readily extracted by the prolonged application of hot water, it follows that much feeding material which is of too coarse or rough a character to be brought to table can be made useful by simmering till all its virtue is exhausted. Hence the value of the stockpot. If the odds and ends accumulated in the kitchen do not suffice to make the quantity of stock required, they must be supplemented by stock prepared specially. The following recipes for making stock are sufficient for all ordinary needs. _Common Stock._--(_a_) 6 lb. shin of beef, 6 qt. water. Cut all the meat off the bones, and cut the meat across and across, and sprinkle a teaspoonful of salt over it and put it at once into the 6 qt. water in an earthen vessel, while you do as follows: wash and cut up 2 carrots and 2 turnips and leave them in clear water; then put at the bottom of your soup pot (the digesters are the best) 2 slices of bacon, a piece of butter as large as 2 walnuts, a Spanish onion stuck all over with cloves, another cut up in rings, 2 large lumps of white sugar, a few peppercorns, a small bunch of marjoram and thyme tied up in muslin, as much grated lemon peel as would cover sixpence, and then put in the carrots and turnips. Let these all be browned at the bottom of the stockpot, stirring all the time, until the bacon looks well enough done to be eaten, then put in the meat and the water it has stood in, and the bones broken; leave the lid off at first, so that you may watch for the rising of the scum, which must be instantly removed, or the colour of your soup will be spoiled; when you have carefully skimmed it, and no more rises, put the lid tightly on the digester, and leave your soup to simmer gently and evenly for 5 hours. Do not throw away the scum; it is not dirty, provided you have wiped the shin of beef clean before you cut it up; and this scum, although it would spoil the clearness of your soup, is really beef-tea, and worth using in the stockpot. When the 5 hours are nearly elapsed, have ready a large kettle of quite boiling water, then strain the soup through a close sieve into a perfectly clean earthen jar, and immediately put back into the digester all the contents of the sieve, and pour the kettle of boiling water upon them, and let this stew all night. The next morning strain it into another earthen jar, and leave it to set. The first stock is now ready to scrape every atom of fat from the top of it, then wipe the top with a clean soft cloth, and all the edges of the jar, then turn it upside down on a large dish, and scrape the fat and sediment from the other side. Wash the earthen jar, and dry well before the fire, and then put your stock back, and you will have a perfectly clean soup with a delicious flavour, and without requiring any clearing with whites of eggs, which always impoverishes the soup. To colour it, take pieces of bread, toasted very brown, and put into the stock when you warm it: and before sending to table put a teaspoonful of sherry at the bottom of the tureen, and pour the almost boiling soup upon it. Of course, it must be strained, to prevent the pieces of toast going in; and you can either use it plain, or with cut vegetables in it. Those sold in tins are best; but they require washing in water, and then warming in some inferior stock, and must be well strained, and then put with the wine at the bottom of the tureen, before you pour your soup into it. The next day scrape and wipe your second stock, and do just the same with it, and it comes in for gravies, for entrées, or for thick soups, and sometimes is as clear as the first stock. (_b_) Slack’s patent digester is the most useful and economical of stockpots. Its management is quite simple, but care must be taken when filling it to leave sufficient room for the steam to pass away through the hole in the cover. A sheep’s milt is a good foundation for stock. (_c_) Procure from a heel shop a cowheel that has been boiled, crack it up and simmer for several hours in salt and water; when done, strain, and there will be about a gallon of good jelly. If the heel is uncooked, boil till half done, then throw the first water away, or the jelly will be too rancid for soup. (_d_) Take about 3 lb. shin of beef, seeing that the butcher does not send it all bone; put this into the stockpot with 2 large onions well fried, 2 raw onions, 2 large carrots cut down the centre, a head of celery, and a few sprigs of sweet herbs; add to this 3-4 qt. cold water, and set it on the fire to boil; let it remain boiling for 3-4 hours, draw it to the side, and let it simmer for the rest of the day; in the evening strain the liquor through a sieve into a large basin, put the rest on a dish, set both in the larder, and have the stockpot well washed out before putting away for the night. The next morning take the meat from the bones to use for potted meat, put the bones and vegetables into the stockpot, together with any bones, whether large or small, left from the previous day, trimmings of meat, cooked or uncooked, gristle, skin, &c.: bones from poultry and game of any kind should be used with the rest, and a ham or bacon bone, or trimmings from a tongue, all help to improve the flavour of the stock. Carefully skim the fat from the stock made yesterday, measure off as much as may be required for soup, gravies, &c., during the day, and pour the remainder into the stockpot, filling it up with cold water (one which holds about 4 qt. is a useful size for a moderate-sized family); freshly fried onion, well browned, must be added every day, and every second or third day the vegetables must be changed for fresh ones. Every morning the bones, &c., must be looked over, taking away those in which no goodness remains as others are added; and every now and then, when there happens to be a good supply of fresh bones, such as perhaps a ham bone and those from a sirloin of beef (which will be none the worse for having been previously broiled for breakfast), it will be as well to get rid of all which have been already used, and start afresh as before. The water in which rice has been boiled, or in which bread has been soaked for puddings, should all go into the stockpot, and of course that which has been used in boiling fresh meat or poultry. Rabbit bones do not improve stock, and those from a hare should be used by themselves. _Clear Stock (Consommé)._--Put 2 lb. lean beef cut in small pieces, and a fowl half roasted, and also cut in pieces, bones and all, into a saucepan, which fill up with common stock or broth (cold). Set the saucepan on the fire, and when the contents get hot skim the liquor carefully, then add salt to taste, and the following vegetables cut up in small pieces; 2 or 3 carrots, 2 onions, a head of celery (a pinch of celery seed will do as well if no celery is procurable), one tomato (fresh or dried), and a handful of parsley. Also add in due proportions, and according to taste, chervil, marjoram, thyme, cloves allspice, whole pepper, mace, and bay leaf. This done, set the saucepan by the side of the fire to simmer very gently for at least 4 hours; then strain the liquor through a cloth, free it absolutely from fat, and clarify with white of egg or raw meat. _Fish Stock._--(_a_) Take 2 lb. any kind of fish, such as skate, plaice, flounders, small eels, or the trimmings of soles that have been filleted, pack them into a saucepan with a head of parsley including the root, a head of celery, 2 blades of mace, a few cloves, some white pepper, salt to taste, and a bay leaf; put in as much cold water as will cover the contents of the saucepan, and set it to simmer gently for 2 hours, then strain off the liquor and it is ready. A small onion may be put in with the other vegetables. (The G. C.) (_b_) Put the bones, trimmings, and skin of any fish you may have into the liquor in which fish has boiled, with a suitable assortment of vegetables and flavouring herbs, a few peppercorns, a little spice, and boil the whole for 2 hours. Strain it off, add to each quart 1 oz. boiled rice, a teacupful of milk, and half a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley. Serve at once. Small pieces of cooked fish improve the soup. If it is intended to make this soup, the liquor must not be made very salt, nor acid with vinegar. This is a slight drawback, for these expedients both have the effect of making the flesh firm and flaky. It is said that fish is never so good as when boiled in sea water, and whether that be true or not, it certainly is a good plan to make the water decidedly brackish to boil white fish like cod. _Gravy Stock._--Place a layer of slices of onion in a saucepan, holding a gallon, over this a layer of fat bacon, and over all about 2 lb. shin of beef chopped up in small pieces; 1 pint common stock, or even water, being poured on the whole, set the saucepan on the fire for 1 hour, or until the liquor is almost evaporated--what is called reduced to a “glaze”--then add sufficient cold common stock or cold water to cover the contents of the saucepan, and 2 or 3 carrots cut in slices, a leek, a head of celery (when in season), or some celery seed, a handful of parsley, half a clove of garlic, a sprig of marjoram and thyme, a bay leaf, 4 or 5 cloves, white pepper and salt to taste. After boiling about 3 hours, strain off the liquor, and, being absolutely freed from fat, it is ready for use. _Veal or White Stock._--Toss 2 onions sliced and 1 lb. lean veal cut in small pieces in a saucepan with some butter until they assume a light colour, then add ½ lb. ham chopped up small, and moisten with a pint of common stock cold and perfectly free from fat. Let the liquor reduce almost to a glaze, but not quite; then add 2 qt. cold common stock, a knuckle of veal or 2 calves’ feet chopped up, 2 carrots, a head of celery, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, mace, pepper, and salt, all in due proportions. After 2-3 hours’ boiling, strain free from fat, and it is ready. _Vegetable Stock._--Take some carrots, turnips, onions, leeks, and celery, in equal quantities; cut them up into small pieces, and toss them in plenty of butter for ½ hour; then add 2 heads of lettuce shred fine, some parsley, and chervil, a little thyme, marjoram, and tarragon, in judicious proportions; toss them a little longer, and then add as much water as you want stock; pepper, salt, cloves, mace to taste, and a pinch of sugar; let the whole stew gently for some hours, then strain the liquor through a cloth. A couple of tomatoes (either from a tin or fresh), or 2 or 3 spoonfuls of _conserve de tomates_, is a great improvement. _White Stock._--See Veal Stock. _Clarifying Stock._--(_a_) For 1 qt. take the white of an egg, beat it up with a cupful of soup (cold), then add the rest, and beat it on the fire with an egg whisk; when it boils, strain through a piece of tammy. (_b_) For same quantity, mince, not too finely, 1 oz. lean raw beef, add it to the liquor and set it on the fire in a saucepan; when it boils, strain it as above. Liver may be used instead of beef, and the white of egg may be used in addition to either. If the soup does not turn out clear enough, the operation of clarifying must be repeated. With stock as a basis, a great variety of soups are made, and generally named from the particular vegetable or dainty employed to give the desired flavour. Following are some recipes. _Apple Soup._--Boil apples with their cores until quite soft with slices of bread and some lemon peel in sufficient water. Strain through a sieve, add sugar, a glass of wine and some powdered cinnamon or nutmeg. Stir in yolks of eggs or cream, if approved. _Apple and Currant Soup._--Proceed with apples, bread, and the lemon peel as in last recipe. After straining, boil again with currants, a cup of milk, and the requisite sugar, with a small teaspoonful of aniseeds, if approved. A few cloves with the first boiling is an improvement. Another way is to leave out the spice, and when the soup is ready for serving, stir in some pounded sweet and bitter almonds. _Artichoke Soup (d’artichauts)._--Boil 3 lb. Jerusalem artichokes in 1 qt. milk, adding to it about a teacupful of water. When the artichokes have become very soft, rub them through a sieve, and add a little pepper and salt and a few grains of cayenne. Just before serving, stir in ¼ pint cream; if not thick enough, add a little flour and butter. Serve with bread cut in small dice and fried in butter, to be handed round with the soup. _Asparagus Soup (d’asperges)._--Take 50 asparagus heads (called sprue asparagus), boil it in a saucepan with 3 pints stock free from fat. When done, remove the asparagus, pound in a mortar, and pass through a hair sieve. Melt about 1½ oz. butter in a saucepan on the fire, and mix with it 2 tablespoonfuls flour; add a little sugar, pepper, and salt, the asparagus pulp, and all the stock in which the asparagus was boiled. Let the whole boil up, adding as much more stock as will make the soup of the right consistency. Then put in a little spinach greening, and lastly a small pat of fresh butter, or stir in ½ gill cream. Serve over small dice of bread fried in butter. _Barley Soup (d’orge)._--Cut up in small pieces carrots, turnips, onions, leeks, and celery in equal quantities; toss them in plenty of butter for ½ hour; add 2 heads of lettuce finely shredded, parsley, chervil, a sprig of marjoram; put in 2 qt. boiling water, pepper, salt, a few cloves, and a pinch of sugar; let the whole simmer for 2 hours, then strain the liquor through a cloth. Boil 1 pint pearl barley in 1 qt. of this stock till it is reduced to a pulp, pass it through a hair sieve, and add as much more stock as will be required to make the purée of the consistency of cream; put the soup on the fire, when it boils stir into it, off the fire, the yolk of an egg beaten up with a gill of cream; add ½ pat of fresh butter, and serve with small dice of bread fried in butter. _Batter-cream Soup._--Mix 2-3 tablespoonfuls flour with water enough to make as thick a batter as you can stir, then add as many eggs as there are spoonfuls of flour, and stir well. Have ready some boiling broth which has been seasoned and strained; pour it into the batter, stirring all the while; set it over the fire to boil a few minutes, and serve. _Bean Soup._--See Haricot. _Beer Soup._--Simmer together 2 qt. beer, not bitter, a stick of cinnamon, a few cloves, the thin rind of a lemon, and sugar to taste. Beat in a tureen or bowl the yolks of 6 eggs and ½ pint cream. Strain on these the scalding beer, stirring all to a foam with the wire whisk. Serve hot, with toast. _Birds’-nests Soup._--One bird’s nest is needed for each person; soak for 12 hours in fresh water; drain and wipe, separating the fibres, and carefully removing all feathers &c., by washing through several waters, until the nests are perfectly clean. Put them in a saucepan, cover with chicken broth, place the saucepan in a bain-marie, and cook very gently for 2 hours in the broth. At the moment of serving, place the nests in a soup dish, and cover with enough very rich, clear, hot chicken broth for the number of guests. Add pepper and salt to taste, and serve at once. _Bone Soup._--Take a good quantity of bones of any kind, cover with water, add carrots, celery, a bunch of all kinds of herbs, a little parsley, onions, a blade or two of mace, and a few cloves, according to the quantity. Make it boil up quick, then pour in a little cold water to make the scum rise, and skim just as you would clear soup. Boil for several hours, then strain off and let it stand till next day. Take off the grease, whip up the whites of 2 eggs in a little cold water, add the shells, and beat all well together in the soup; set it on the fire to boil for ½ hour, till it looks clear, and strain off. Do not let it boil too fast. _Bonne Femme Soup._--Cut up a good-sized onion into very thin rounds, and place these in a saucepan with a good allowance of butter. Take care not to let the onion get brown, and when it is half done throw in 2-3 handfuls of sorrel, 1 lettuce, and a small quantity of chervil, all finely cut; add pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, and keep stirring until the vegetables are nearly done. Then put in 1 tablespoonful pounded loaf sugar, and half a cupful of stock or broth free from fat. Let the mixture reduce nearly to a glaze, when about 1 qt. of stock or broth of the same kind as that used before should be added, and, after the soup has given one boil, it can be put aside until the time of serving. Meanwhile prepare about 18 very thin slices of bread, about 1 in. wide and 2 in. long, taking care that they have a crust along one of their sides. Dry these slices in the oven. When it is time to send up the soup, first remove the superfluous fat from it, then set it to boil, and when it boils take it off the fire and stir into it the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs beaten up with ¼ pint of cream or milk. Pour the soup over the slices of bread, and serve in 3 minutes. (The G. C.) _Brunoise Soup._--Take equal parts of carrots, turnips, onions, and celery; cut them all in the shape of very small dice. Put a good piece of butter in a saucepan, with a little pepper and salt, and a teaspoonful of powdered lump sugar. Toss the carrots in this till they begin to take colour; then put in the celery, after a little time the turnips, and then the onions. When all the vegetables are equally coloured, add as much stock as you want soup, and set the saucepan by the side of the fire to simmer gently for 2 hours. Then skim, and serve. (The G. C.) _Calf’s Head Soup._--Having well washed and soaked the head, put it on the fire in cold water, and simmer it 2½ hours from the time of its coming to a scalding heat. When quite done, take it out. Cut the meat off in neat slices; slice the tongue also, and take out the brains. Throw back the bones into the soup. Dry a pinch of saffron, rub it to powder, put it in the soup, with a small wineglassful of pale vinegar, a tablespoonful of sugar, a little nutmeg, and salt to taste. Shred parsley may be added if approved. The brains, divided into small pieces, must be put into the tureen, with 3 or 4 yolks of eggs beaten, and the scalding soup poured on them. Dip the slices of meat in egg and breadcrumbs, fry them a delicate brown in butter, and serve them after the soup, with any white vegetable. _Carrot Soup (Crécy, Nivernaise)._--Fry a large onion a nice brown colour without burning it, scrape, wash, and well dry 2 or 3 large carrots, cutting out all specks; cut them into thin slices and put them into a stewpan with about 3 pints of stock, let them cook gently over the fire until quite tender, then strain them from the soup, rub them through a tammy with the fried onion back into the soup, warm it again, and season with a very little pepper and salt. Serve with fried croutons on a napkin in a plate to hand round with it. This soup should be made the day before or early in the day on which it is to be used; this gives the fat in which the onions have been fried time to rise to the top, and it can easily be removed when cold. If a very nice colour is wished, only the red parts of the carrots should be used, of course more carrots will then be required; it should be of about the consistency of pea soup. Almost any other vegetable suitable for a purée may be used in the same way, such as turnip, parsnip, vegetable marrow, or potato; or if the stock chance not to be particularly good, it may be thickened either with semolina, tapioca, or sago in the proportion of about three ounces to a quart of stock. For semolina, drop it into the stock when boiling, keep stirring it, and let it simmer gently for about ½ hour. Sago should be washed in boiling water, and added gradually to the boiling stock, stirring and simmering until perfectly soft and transparent. Tapioca must be put into the stock while cold, and must be allowed to boil gradually, it must then be simmered gently till quite soft as for sago; but even greater care will be necessary to keep stirring, or the tapioca will cling together and be lumpy. Should there not be likely to be any sufficiently good stock for next day’s dinner, an excellent soup, as well as a most useful cold dish for family use, may be made by stewing a piece of the thick brisket of beef the day before the soup is wanted. To 6 lb. of beef allow 3 large onions, 2 medium-sized carrots, 12 cloves, a sprig or two of parsley, and a tiny bunch of sweet herbs tied in muslin. Fry one of the onions a dark brown, without burning it, slice up one of the carrots and the remaining onions into a large stewpan, adding the second carrot, merely cut into 2 or 3 pieces, add a small piece of sweet dripping, and set the stewpan on the fire, stirring the vegetables until they are about half cooked, and are slightly browned; then take out half the vegetables; to those remaining in the stewpan add half the fried onion, 6 of the cloves, the bunch of herbs, and the parsley; slightly rub the beef with a small quantity of salt, place it above the vegetables, adding those that were taken from the stewpan, the other half of the fried onion, and 6 cloves, to rest on the top of the beef. Pour in as much of any stock you may happen to have as will well cover the beef, or, if you have no stock, use cold water; set it on the fire, which should not be a very fierce one, and let it remain till it begins to bubble; then remove it to the side, and let it remain simmering for 4-5 hours, or until done enough to be able to draw out the bones; it will require watching to ascertain this, as, when once tender enough for this, it should not cook any more. When the bones are removed, set the beef in a cool place between 2 dishes, with a heavy weight on the top; the next day it will be ready to trim and glaze, and serve as pressed beef. The soup and vegetables should be poured into a basin to stand all night; in the morning remove the fat which has risen to the top, warm the soup, and strain the vegetables from it. Trim off the outer discoloured parts of the larger pieces of carrot and cut them into thin slips, putting them back into the soup to be served in it; the rest of the vegetables may go into the stockpot, as there will still be much goodness in them. A slight shake of pepper will complete the soup, which should be a dark brown gravy soup of excellent flavour. If preferred to the carrots, a small quantity of Naples macaroni may be served in it; boil it in water till tender, then strain it and cut it into fine rings and add it to the soup. _Cauliflower Soup._--Make a clear white soup of mutton, or veal, properly seasoned with salt and white pepper. Mix 2 or 3 spoonfuls of flour in milk to thicken the soup to the consistence of cream. Break up a cauliflower into small tufts; boil them in salted water; drain carefully, and add them unbroken to the soup when about to serve. If extra richness is desired, add the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs, with a little cream beaten up. _Celery Soup._--Put into a saucepan the carcase and other remnants of a roast fowl, with a piece of ham or bacon, and a couple of heads of celery (reserving a few of the best pieces to be sliced finely, boiled in stock, and served in the soup). Fill up with stock and let it simmer 2-3 hours, then strain, clarify with white of egg or a little raw meat, and serve with celery. _Cheap Soups._--These are given more especially for the benefit of those who have charge of soup kitchens for the poor in winter. Many hints, however, may be gained from them, and some are well adapted for households with small means. (_a_) Take the liquor of meat boiled the day before, with the bones of leg and shin of beef, add to the liquor as much water as will make it 130 qt. and also the meat of 10 stone of leg and shin of beef and 2 ox heads cut into pieces, add 2 bunches of carrots, 4 bunches of turnips, 2 bunches of leeks, ½ peck of onions, a bunch of celery, ½ lb. pepper, and some salt. To be boiled for 6 hours. Either oatmeal, barley, or peas may be put in to thicken it if necessary. (_b_) Wash 1 qt. Scotch barley or split peas, put them into a large saucepan or fish-kettle with 3 gal. water, add 3 large Portugal or Spanish onions cut into quarters, 6 large carrots, 6 or 8 turnips, herbs, pepper, salt, and allspice according to taste, one ox heel well divided, 7 lb. shin of beef; boil all together for 8-10 hours. It can be made cheaper and equally good by substituting for the shin of beef a 4 lb. tin of Australian beef or mutton, but this must be added only so as to mix in at the last with the other ingredients. Being thoroughly cooked in Australia, and free from bone, skin, and gristle, it is spoiled if it is cooked more than enough to make it hot for use. This beef or mutton is enveloped in its own jelly. (_c_) Be most particular that the kitchen maid keeps every drop of water in which any meat is boiled; put this in the boiler, and fill up with water. When this boils, put in a few pieces of meat, 10 lb. to the 20 gal. (get 30 lb. of neck and shoulder pieces of beef once a week for it, and slightly salt them), some salt, and either pearl barley, groats, or oatmeal; whilst these are boiling, cut up some turnips and carrots in small pieces, say ½ in. square, cabbage and leeks, not cut too fine. These add to the soup, and boil all for 2 hours. The outer stalks of celery, if kept, make a great addition. Then take out the meat, and cut it up into small portions, putting one or two pieces into the can with the soup, when given to the poor. (_d_) Put 2 oz. dripping into a saucepan capable of holding 2 gal. water, with ¼ lb. leg of beef, without bones, cut into square pieces about ½ in., and two middling-sized onions peeled and sliced; set the saucepan on the fire, and stir the contents round for a few minutes until fried lightly brown; then add (ready washed) the peelings of 2 turnips, 15 green leaves or tops of celery, and the green part of 2 leeks--the whole of which are usually thrown away; cut the above vegetables in small pieces and throw them into the saucepan with the other ingredients, stirring them occasionally; then add ½ lb. common flour (any farinaceous substance would do), ½ lb. pearl or Scotch barley, mixing all well together; then add 2 gal. water seasoned with 3 oz. salt and ¼ oz. brown sugar; stir it occasionally until boiling, and then allow it to simmer for 3 hours gently. You may use all kinds of vegetables cut aslant. _Cherry Soup._--Use black cherries, and proceed as for plum soup. Put a few cloves in at first; 1 lb. cherries to 1 qt. water will be found very good. After straining, break some of the stones, and put the kernels into the soup. Add also a few whole cherries towards the last, only long enough to soften them. _Chestnut Soup (de marrons)._--Boil ½-1 lb. chestnuts until they will peel easily. Put them in a stewpan, sprinkle with salt, and leave to steam soft and mealy. Work through a wire sieve; put butter half the size of an egg in a stewpan, and when it is melted add a small finely minced onion and a few mushrooms. Dredge in a tablespoonful of flour, put in the chestnuts, and stir in enough white or brown soup to give it the consistency of a creamy batter; let it boil up. Serve with sippets of toast or any other soup accompaniment. As a thickening or purée for any kind of good white soup, chestnuts are very delicate. They take less time to cook if the outer rind is peeled off first, and when they have had a scald scrape off the inner peel, boil, and steam them dry; then pass them through a sieve. About a pint will thicken a soup for a small pastry. _Chicken Soup (Sévigné, de volaille, à la reine)._--(_a_) Cut some carrots in slices, and with a column cut out of these a number of discs ¼ in. diameter. Cut similar discs out of some leeks, celery, and sorrel leaves; make an equal quantity (about a wineglassful) of each, and parboil them separately in salted water, leaving the leeks and sorrel discs in the water until wanted. Take 3 pints white stock made with poultry and quite free from grease; when boiling hot put the vegetables into it, then a few tarragon leaves cut small, and a little chervil picked out leaf by leaf. Beat up the strained yolks of 4 eggs with ½ gill cream, stir into them a little of the soup, and then quickly stir in the whole into the soup off the fire, and serve. (_b_) See Poultry Soup. _Clear Soup (Consommé)._--Order in 7 lb. shin of beef (the bones must be broken), and 2 lb. veal, prepare about 8 large onions, 6 carrots, thyme, parsley, cloves, and bay leaves, head or stick of celery, 6 peppercorns. Order your meat, &c., the day before, so that you have it in the house early. First cut up the meat, dividing it from the bones, and casting away all gristle, veins, and fat, then well wash the whole in a basin of cold water. Put aside 1 lb. of the best of the beef, and the whole of the veal; keep them for clearing the soup. Put a little butter, size of a walnut, into a large saucepan to fry the onions in, cutting up and casting in, when the butter has melted, 8 small or 1 large onion. Let them fry till quite brown. While this is doing take out the meat from the basin of water (which beforehand must be washed well with the hand, so as to remove all grease and impurity), take a clean cloth and dry the meat carefully piece by piece; separate it from the bones. First, put the bits of meat (without any water) in, and let them stew for ½ hour, then add to them the bones, and let them stew for ½ hour; remember every few minutes to stir with a wooden spoon, or it will burn at the bottom of the saucepan. Then put the water, 16 tumblers, 1 pint water to 1 lb. meat. This for the best soup, for a dinner party, or for strengthening an invalid. Skim as long as the scum rises; do not keep the lid on. After it is thoroughly skimmed, put in a bunch made of a little thyme, parsley, and bay leaves, a stick of celery (or, if out of season, a muslin bag of seed), also throw in 4 good-sized onions, one of which stick with 4 cloves; then for eleven hours let it simmer, then take it off the fire (a good bright fire must be kept up all day), and strain it through a hair sieve, letting it remain all night. Next morning remove all fat from the surface with a spoon; if, as sometimes happens in hot weather, small bits of fat stick to the surface, take kitchen paper and quickly press it on the places; the fat in this way is easily removed. After this take a clean cloth dipped in boiling water, and wipe the top of the stock over, and the sides of the basin. When all the fat is removed put it into a saucepan (there is always a dark sediment at the bottom of the basin, which must be cast away; care must therefore be taken when spooning out the stock not to disturb this). Put the saucepan on the fire and let it get nearly to a boil; it must never boil till the very last; then put in the raw beef and veal, which must be prepared carefully, as much depends on how this is done. In hot weather keep the clearing meat till wanted in a cool place in salt and water, so as to keep fresh overnight. Take 3 eggs and break them (putting away the yolks, of which soup custard can be made afterwards), and mix the whites in a basin with the shells, and if possible collect beforehand other eggshells. Wash the shells in hot water, mash them, and put them into the basin. Chop up finely 1 large onion, 2 carrots, and with a tablespoonful of water mix all these together in the basin with the hands till all are well mixed; when it comes to a froth move the soup close to the fire, and when just on the boil watch it carefully, so that it does not boil too rapidly; take a whisk, and gradually pour in all that is in the basin with one hand, while whisking the soup briskly with the other, as if not whisked all the time the whites of egg set, and it does not clear. Remove it again, so as only to simmer. Put in 2 drops of colouring; go on whisking till it just comes to the boil after putting in the raw beef, &c.; remove it now off the fire, and let it simmer gently for an hour. Take the soup now off the fire altogether, and bring in a large basin. Take a clean napkin (the finer the better; it is always better than a tammy, as it is much finer), and be careful before using to wash it well in hot water, thereby removing all starch and soap, as often a small neglect in these details, after no end of previous trouble, is the cause of the soup not being perfectly clear. Lay the napkin over the top of the basin, and bring the saucepan to its side, and ladle out with a cup the soup into the basin, keeping the napkin from sinking; some one must hold it while the soup is being put in. Take care not to ladle out too fast, as it then does not give full time to strain gradually. When all is strained through, raise the napkin--in which, of course, there is still a quantity of stock--tie the ends on a hook, placing the basin below, and for several hours, till all is removed, let it drop in.--Hints: Time for making, 24 hours. First, say, begin at 11 A.M., and remove at 10 at night; strain all night. Next day at 11 put on soup, preparing beforehand the raw beef and veal, &c.; take it off at 1 o’clock. No salt or turnip while making; turnips always turn the stock sour. Put salt in just before serving, and so also macaroni and vegetables. They must be boiled by themselves in a small saucepan; when done plunge them into cold water to remove all scum, and have ready a basin of clear boiling water in which to put them again; after which, the last thing, take them out and lay them at the bottom of the tureen, pouring the soup on the top and adding the salt. From the meat and bones of the first day’s straining, excellent thin soup can be made called seconds, and, though not half so strong, it is very good. With the yolks of the eggs before mentioned, soup custard can be made as follows: Take the yolks of 3 eggs, mix them with a little stock, pepper and salt, and put the whole into a mould, cover it over with a piece of paper, and let it steam for about five minutes; then take it out and let it cool. Then cut it into small squares evenly, and, the last thing after the soup is hotted, drop them in. _Clear Soup with Custard (Royale)._--Mix the yolks of 6 eggs with rather less than 1 gill cold water and a pinch of salt; strain the mixture, and divide it into 3 equal parts; colour one with some cochineal, the other with spinach greening, and leave the third plain. Put them into 3 small plain moulds, previously buttered, and set these in a pan of hot water, which place on the fire to boil just long enough to set the mixture. When the water in the saucepan has become quite cold, turn out the contents of each mould on to a wet napkin, and you will have 3 small cakes of firm custard, respectively green, red, and yellow. Cut them into small dice, and, handling them in the gentlest possible manner, spread them out on a plate to be kept till wanted. At the time of serving put a clear and well-flavoured consommé into the soup tureen; slip in carefully the custard dice, and serve at once. _Clear Soup with Poached Eggs (aux œufs pochés)._--Cut up in small pieces 1 lb. lean veal, put it into a saucepan with a couple of onions, 2 or 3 carrots, a head of celery, all cut in small pieces, and a large piece of butter. Shake the saucepan on the fire until the contents have taken a colour, moisten with ½ pint common stock (hot) and keep on stirring over the fire for some time longer, adding during the process ½ lb. of ham cut up small. Then take the saucepan off the fire, and when the contents are cold pile up on them a small knuckle of veal chopped up, bones and all, into small pieces; fill up the saucepan with common stock (cold), and add parsley, sweet herbs, spices, pepper and salt, in due proportions. Set the saucepan to simmer gently by the side of the fire for about 3 hours, then strain the liquor. When cold free it absolutely from fat, and to every quart of liquor add the white of an egg whisked to froth, keep on beating the liquor on the fire at intervals, and as soon as it boils strain it through a fine tammy or a napkin. Put into a shallow sauté pan some water salted to taste, a little vinegar, a few peppercorns, and a few leaves of parsley. As soon as the water approaches boiling point (it should never be allowed to boil), poach some eggs (one for each person and one over) in it, just long enough to set the yolk slightly. Take out each egg with a slice, brush it clean with a paste brush, and cut it with a round fluted paste cutter, about 2 in. in diameter, so as to get all the eggs a uniform shape, and leave neither too much nor too little white round them. Turn the egg over carefully, brush it clean, and lay it in the soup tureen ready filled with boiling-hot clear soup. Add a few leaves of tarragon and chervil, and serve. _Clear Soup with Quenelles._--Put into a saucepan 1 gill water, a pinch of salt, and a small piece of butter; when the water boils stir in as much flour as will form a paste, put the mixture away to get cold. Take ½ lb. lean veal, cut it into small pieces, and pound it in a mortar; add 3 oz. butter and 2 oz. the paste, and thoroughly mix the whole in the mortar, adding during the process the yolks of 2 and the white of 1 egg, salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg to taste; pass the mixture through a sieve, work a little cream into it, and, by means of 2 teaspoons, shape it in pieces the size of pigeons’ eggs; lay these carefully in a saucepan, pour in at the side sufficient boiling stock to cover them, and let them cook gently for a few minutes. Have the tureen ready filled with well-flavoured clear stock, boiling hot; slip the quenelles into it (with or without the stock they are boiled in), and serve. _Cock-a-Leekie Soup._--Wash well 2 or 3 bunches of leeks (if old scald them in boiling water), take off the roots and part of the heads, and cut them into lengths of about 1 in. Put half the quantity into a pot with 5 qt. stock, and a fowl trussed for boiling, and allow them to simmer gently. In ½ hour add the remaining leeks, and let all simmer for 3 or 4 hours longer. It must be carefully skimmed and seasoned to taste. To serve the fowl carve neatly, placing the pieces in the tureen, and pouring over them the soup. This is sufficient for 10 persons. _Cockle Soup (de clovisses)._--Cockles require a good deal of care in cleansing. They must be well scrubbed in 2 or 3 waters until the shells are quite clean, and must then soak for some hours in salt and water. After this put a little hot water at the bottom of a large saucepan, place the cockles in it, and cover them over with a clean cloth; set it on a moderate fire, or rather, hold the saucepan over the fire, for it must be kept moving constantly or the cockles will burn. Keep looking at them, and as each shell opens remove it from the pan. When all are open, remove the fish from the shells, straining the liquor from them. Having trimmed the cockles, put the delicate parts into the soup tureen. Put the trimmings into the liquor. Put into another stewpan a ¼ lb. butter, let it melt over the fire, add 6 oz. flour, stirring it in, still holding it over the fire, but taking care to keep the mixture quite white; let this stand until cool, then add the liquor and trimmings of the cockles, 1 qt. milk, and 2 qt. white stock. Stir this over the fire until it boils, then add a tablespoonful of Harvey sauce, a dessertspoonful of essence of anchovy, a blade of mace, 6 peppercorns, and a teaspoonful of salt. Let this boil quickly for 10 minutes, skim well, and just before serving add 1 gill cream; strain through a hair sieve over the cockles, and serve. About 4 dozen cockles will be required or 6 if very small. _Coconut Soup._--This is a favourite soup in India, and might be more frequently tasted in England than it is, especially by vegetarians. It is made thus: Scrape or grate fine the inside of 2 well-ripened coconuts, put the scrapings into a saucepan with 2 qt. milk, add a blade of mace; let it simmer very gently for about ½ hour, then strain it through a fine sieve; have ready beaten the yolks of 4 eggs with a little milk and sufficient ground rice to thicken the soup; mix into a very smooth batter, which add by degrees to the soup; allow to simmer, and stir carefully until ready; season with salt and white pepper. Do not allow to boil, or it will curdle and be spoilt. If eggs are scarce, cream (½ pint) can be used instead. This soup is made in India with white stock instead of milk, but is equally good as a white soup if made as above. Boiled rice, the grains dry and quite distinct, should be served with it. (Eliot-James.) _Crayfish Soup (d’écrevisses)._--20-50 crayfish, according to the quantity of soup required, should be thrown into boiling water and left to boil ¼ hour. Pick out the tails and rest of the fish, cover the meat, and set it aside. Pound the shells and small claws, adding, by degrees, 3 or 4 oz. butter. Put this mass into a small stewpan, and stir over the fire until the butter is red. Add then 1 pint clear white soup and let it stew slowly ½ hour; then strain it off and add to it sufficient well-seasoned white soup, which, however, must have no strong or prominent flavour. Put in the tails and the pickings of the fish, make the soup quite hot; beat up the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs in the tureen, pour in the scalding soup, and serve with toasted roll. _Conger-eel Soup._--Boil 2 lb. conger-eel in 3 pints water, with a little salt, for 1 hour over a slow fire. Then strain it, and put again upon a slow fire with ½ pint young peas. When they have boiled a short time add some parsley, thyme, borage, leek, and chives chopped fine, and marigold flowers (the petals of the flower). Let it boil again for 5 minutes; then mix together 2 spoonfuls flour, and 1 tablespoonful butter, with a little of the broth. When well mixed add 1 pint new milk, doing it with care so as not to curdle it. Let boil 5 minutes, and serve it up with a slice or two of bread cut very thin, in the tureen. When peas are not in season, cabbage shred very fine, or vegetable marrow chopped small, or asparagus heads, are each good as a substitute. It can be greatly enriched by increasing the quantity of butter and milk. _Crust Soup (Croûte au pot)._--Cut off the bottom crust of a quartern loaf, leaving the same thickness of crumb as there is crust. Cut it out in rounds the size of a sixpence. Soak the rounds in broth; put them (in a tin with some butter) into the oven, and let them be until they are quite dried up (_gratinés_). Then lay them in the soup tureen with rounds of carrots, turnips, leeks, or cabbages boiled in stock, and cut the same size, pour some well-flavoured clear stock over, and after the lapse of 3 or 4 minutes serve. (The G. C.) _Custard Soup._--See Clear soup with custard. _Flemish Soup._--Boil equal parts of potatoes and turnips in water, with one onion and a head of celery, adding pepper and salt to taste. When the vegetables are quite done, pass the whole through a hair sieve. Put the soup in a saucepan on the fire, and as soon as it boils, add a pat of fresh butter, and plenty of chervil, a pinch of parsley, and a few tarragon leaves, all finely minced; then pour it over slices of toast, and serve. _French Soup._--Take one sheep’s head, remove the brains, and steep it. Put it into a saucepan with 3 qt. water, one teacupful pearl barley, 6 onions, 1 turnip, 1 carrot, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a few cloves. Let it simmer gently for about 5 hours, then remove the head; strain and rub the vegetables through a sieve, or leave them whole, according to taste. Let it stand all night, and when cold take off every particle of fat; cut up the meat from the head into small pieces, and warm it up in the soup. Season to taste, add a wineglass of white wine, a little mushroom ketchup, and thicken with butter and flour. Very little inferior to mock turtle soup. _Fried Soup._--3 potatoes, 3 turnips, 3 parsnips, 3 onions, 3 heads of celery, thinly sliced and fried; stew for some hours in weak stock. When quite tender, keep some pieces of each vegetable to put in the soup; pass all the rest through the sieve, and add a good cupful of pea soup, or soaked and boiled peas, to thicken the purée. Season to taste; warm it up; add the fried pieces to it at the last. _Game Soup (de Gibier)._--Take the remnants of any kind of game not high, put them in a saucepan with an onion or carrot, 2 or 3 cloves, a small piece of mace, a bay leaf, some parsley, whole pepper and salt to taste. Cover the whole with veal or poultry stock, and set the saucepan to boil gently for 2 hours. Strain off the soup and set it to boil again, then throw in 1 oz. raw beef or liver coarsely chopped, let it give one boil, and strain the soup through a napkin. If not quite clear, the clarifying process must be repeated. A very small quantity of sherry may be put in before clarifying. _Giblet Soup (gibelette)._--This is generally a favourite soup, is very nutritious, and if flavoured simply, need not be unwholesome. Prepare the giblets as usual. Brown a slice of lean ham in a pan, adding a little water occasionally to collect the brown gravy from it; put this with the ham, giblets, and a teaspoonful of pearl barley, into a stewpan with enough cold water to cover them well; simmer gently until the gizzards are perfectly tender. Take them out, and stew the remainder of the giblets, with a clove or two, celery leaves, and any flavourings considered suitable, until the meat is quite done to rags. If necessary, add a little hot water now and then to keep the giblets covered. Strain off the stock, and allow it to become cold, when every particle of fat must be removed. To ensure this, not only skim, but wipe the surface with a soft cloth dipped into hot water. Mix with this an equal quantity of stock; flavour with a little wine and mushroom ketchup, or the latter only; cut up the gizzards into convenient pieces, and simmer them in the soup for a few minutes. Serve with this a slice of French roll or whole-meal bread as preferred. If salt meat be objected to, brown the soup with a little Liebig instead of the ham. To avoid richness, the gizzards are the only part of the giblets that should be served in the soup, and these are said to be particularly nourishing. _Gniocchi Soup._--Put 1 oz. butter into a saucepan with 1 pint water and a pinch of salt; when the water boils, stir with a spoon (and throw in gradually with the other hand) as much flour as will make a stiff paste that will not stick to the spoon; then add 2 oz. grated Parmesan cheese, mix well, and, removing the saucepan from the fire, work into it 2 or 3 eggs. Next put the paste into a biscuit forcer, and as it is forced out cut it off in even lengths of 1 in., letting them drop into some well-flavoured stock boiling on the fire. A few minutes’ poaching will cook the gniocchi, but expedition is necessary, so that the first that is cut off may not be overdone by the time the last is cut off. The knife used should be dipped now and then in hot water, else the paste will stick to it. _Gravy Soup (Consommé)._--Place a layer of slices of onions in a saucepan holding a gallon, over this a layer of fat bacon, and over all about 2 lb. shin of beef chopped up in small pieces; 1 pint common stock, or even water, being poured on the whole, set the saucepan on the fire for 1 hour, or until the liquor is almost evaporated--what is called reduced to a “glaze”; then add sufficient cold common stock or cold water to cover the contents of the saucepan, and 2 or 3 carrots cut in slices, 1 leek, a head of celery (when in season), or some celery seed, a handful of parsley, have a clove of garlic, a sprig of marjoram and one of thyme, a bay leaf, 4 or 5 cloves, white pepper and salt to taste. After boiling about 3 hours strain off the liquor, and, being absolutely freed from fat, it is ready for use. _Green Corn Soup._--Boil unripe green corn in broth or water till quite soft; pass it through a sieve, in the manner of peas. Add it to some good broth, in which celery or parsley-roots have been boiled, or any flavouring herbs. Give a quick boil, and serve with sippets of toast. The broth or soup should be clear and colourless, not to alter the green tint of the corn. A few spinach leaves may be boiled with it, to give a deeper green. _Green-pea Soup (de pois verts)._--(_a_) Take 1½ pint green peas, boil them in salt and water with a little mint; when thoroughly cooked pound them and pass them through a hair sieve. Put a piece of butter into a stewpan; when melted put in an onion and a carrot cut in thin slices, fry until they begin to colour; add 1 qt. stock, a little salt, pepper, and a pinch of white sugar. Leave it to boil for ¼ hour, stir in the purée of peas, let it come to the boil, strain, and serve with small dice of bread fried in butter. (_b_) When shelling the peas, divide the youngest from the oldest ones; 1 pint of young peas, and 3 pints of the oldest ones will be required. In 2 qt. water boil, until the whole will mash through a sieve, 3 pints old peas, a lettuce, a faggot of thyme and knotted marjoram, 2 blades of mace, 8 cloves, and 4 cayenne pods. After being mashed and rubbed through a sieve, put it in a china-lined saucepan, add the heart of a large lettuce shred, and ¼ lb. butter rolled in about 3 tablespoonfuls of flour; set the saucepan on the stove and stir till it boils, then add the young peas; when these are nearly boiled enough, add a very little green mint, finely chopped, a tablespoonful of juice of spinach, and salt to taste. _Grouse Soup._--Chop up the remains of 2 roast grouse; put them into a saucepan with an onion and a carrot cut in pieces, a faggot of sweet herbs, and pepper and salt to taste. Fill up the saucepan with sufficient common stock to cover the contents; let the whole boil till the meat comes off easily from the bones; strain off the liquor; pick all the meat from the bones; pound it in a mortar, pass through a wire sieve, and add the liquor. Amalgamate in a saucepan a piece of butter with a tablespoonful of flour, add the soup to it, let it come to boiling point, then stir in (off the fire) the yolks of a couple of eggs with or without lemon juice, according to taste. Serve on very small dice of bread fried in butter. _Hare Soup (de levraut)._--Take a hare, skin, draw, and reserve the blood: cut it up and put it into a saucepan with an onion, 2 cloves, a faggot of herbs (parsley, thyme and basil), pepper, salt, and mace, 2 qt. stock and half bottle of red wine; simmer gently till the meat be quite tender; strain it from the soup, soak the crumb of some bread in the soup, and, removing the meat from the bones, chop it up with the soaked bread, and pound it quite smooth in a mortar; add the soup gradually to it, pass through a tammy, hot it up, but do not let it boil. Just before serving add the blood, very gradually stirring it in off the fire, pour the soup into the soup tureen over small dice of fried bread. _Haricot Bean Soup (Condé)._--Soak 1 pint Haricots de Soissons in cold water for 12 hours, throw away that water, and put them into a saucepan with 3 pints cold water, a head of celery, a small onion stuck with 3 cloves, a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, some whole pepper, and salt to taste. Let them boil till the beans are quite tender, then strain off the water, and pass them through a sieve. Put the purée in a saucepan, and work into it, on the fire, 1 oz. or more of butter, moistening if necessary with a little of the liquor in which the beans were boiled. _Herb Soup._--A handful each of chervil, sorrel, spinach, and a few sprigs of parsley must be washed, drained, and chopped small. Put them in a stewpan with a piece of butter to steam until soft. Stir in with them 2 tablespoonfuls of flour. Pour in sufficient clear soup, and simmer 10 minutes. Add salt and a grate of nutmeg. Eggs may be added. _Herring Soup._--Wash well 1½ pint good split peas, and float off such as remain upon the surface of the water. Leave them to soak for one night, and the next morning boil them in 5 pints cold soft water; add a couple of onions, with a clove stuck in each end of them; 2 carrots grated, 3 anchovies, one red herring, a bunch of savoury herbs, one teaspoonful of black pepper, and one teaspoonful of salt, if required. Let all these ingredients simmer gently together until the vegetables are quite tender, when pass the whole through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan. Slice in the white part of a head of celery, add 2 oz. butter, a little more seasoning if required, and a dessertspoonful of mushroom ketchup, if liked. Boil again gently for 20 minutes, and serve with a plate of fried bread, and another of shred mint. If convenient, the liquor that pork, ham, or bacon have been boiled in gives a nice flavouring, instead of the herring or anchovies; but, if this liquor be too salt, as is generally the case, it must be diluted with water, and the teaspoonful of salt omitted. _Hotchpotch (de mouton à l’écossaise)._--Hotchpotch is a strong kail soup, the chief difference between it and common Scotch broth being its extra richness resulting from the meat being almost boiled away in it, what remains coming to table in the tureen, and in its being quite thick with the quantities of fresh green peas, onions and leeks (both the latter shredded), grated carrots, beans from which white skin has been removed, and a carefully limited quantity of turnips and other vegetables of the more watery kinds. Scotch barley is, of course, also an important ingredient. _Hunter’s Soup._--Slice thin a large carrot, or 2 or 3 small ones, a large onion, a head of celery, and some rather lean ham or bacon. Fry these, with some parsley, in butter. When done yellow, dredge in plenty of flour, and let it colour, but not a dark brown. Then add some good beef broth, give it an active stir, and turn it into the soup cauldron; add the requisite quantity of broth, and a pint of red wine. Leave it to simmer slowly. In the meantime roast 3 or 4 partridges, basted with butter. Cut off the breasts in neat slices, and the other meat from the bones. Bruise the bones in a mortar, and throw them into the soup. Boil it well, strain, season with salt and cayenne pepper, and make it hot again; but do not let it boil a second time. Add the meat, to be served in the soup. _Imperial Soup._--Beat 5 eggs well. Add 1 pint rich clear soup, some salt, and a grate of nutmeg. Pour it into a well-buttered pudding mould or basin; set this in boiling water, and let it boil 1 hour. Be sure that water does not flow into the mould. When done, cut the mass into thin slices or little pieces, and serve in clear soup; 2 or 3 fresh yolks may be beaten in the tureen if approved. _Italian Soup._--(_a_) Take the flesh left from the cowheel or calves’ feet that jelly has been made from; cut it into dice. Boil 2 tablespoonfuls of sago, well washed, until it is clear, either in water or inferior stock, and warm just to boiling point some soup stock. Just before dinner, put the pieces of meat into some boiling stock until warmed through, then put them at the bottom of the tureen, also the sago and a large tablespoonful of grated Parmesan cheese, and pour the boiling stock upon these and send to table. (_b_) Minestrone.--Take equal quantities marrowfat peas and carrots cut to the size of peas; boil separately in salted water till done; take as much rice boiled in salted water as there are peas and carrots; put all into a saucepan with sufficient common stock free from fat; add enough French tomato sauce to give the stock a rich colour. Let the whole come to the boil, and serve. Grated Parmesan cheese to be handed round with the soup. _Julienne Soup._--Take about equal quantities carrots, turnips, leeks, onions, and celery; cut them all in thin strips, not much more than ⅛ in. square and about 1½ in. long; put them in a saucepan with a lump of fresh butter, a good pinch of pounded loaf sugar, add pepper and salt to taste; toss them lightly on the fire until they begin to colour, then add one lettuce finely shredded, and a small handful of chervil and sorrel, also finely shred; and, after giving the whole a tossing on the fire for about 5 minutes, moisten with some clear stock, and keep the soup hot by the side of the fire for 2 hours. When wanted, add as much more stock as is necessary, and serve. _Kidney Soup._--Take 3 pints well-flavoured white stock, slice finely one or two gherkins, have ready 6 small button mushrooms previously cooked in a little lemon juice. Slice a small onion, and put it into a saucepan with a little butter, let it just take colour, add to it a veal kidney cut in small dice, season with pepper and salt, and toss together for a few minutes, but do not overcook the kidney; drain them from the butter, and put them into the soup tureen with the gherkins and the mushroom. Make the soup hot, and add to it, off the fire, the yolks of 2 eggs and a little milk or cream; pour it over the kidney, &c., add a dash of cayenne, and serve very hot. _Leek Soup._--Take the green leafy part of the leeks, rejecting any leaves which may be otherwise than quite fresh and tender; soak them in cold water so as to be quite crisp; cut them into lengths of about 1-1½ in., and boil them in as much good stock as may be required for the size of the party. Let them boil until perfectly soft and tender, season with a little salt and a slight shake of pepper stirred in, and serve. This soup should be quite thick from the quantity of leeks in it, and not just gravy soup with a few pieces of leek floating about it. _Lentil Soup (Conti)._--Well wash about 1 pint lentils, and soak them for several hours; add to them 3 qt. water, some bones, which can be purchased for 3_d._, or 2 lb. of shin of beef cut up, 3 or 4 good-sized onions, and the same of carrots and turnips, with the outside leaves of a stick of celery if at hand; add a little seasoning, but be careful not to put too much pepper, and let the soup simmer gently on the side of the hob all day. When the vegetables are quite soft they can be rubbed through a colander, or many people prefer to leave them whole. The latter plan would perhaps answer best for poor people, especially if there is meat in the soup. You can make lentil soup with only the liquor in which meat has been boiled, but if the meat is salted, the lentils, &c., must be cooked first, or they will harden, and the liquor added when they are nearly done, care being taken not to make it too salt. A cowheel makes excellent stock for soup, and can be eaten separately, or cut up and left in the soup. They can be bought for 8_d._ each, and are most nutritious if poor people could only be taught the value of such food. If eaten separately the cowheel should be allowed to simmer gently for about 3 hours. The meat will then separate readily from the bone, and can be fried in batter. The bones should be left to boil up again in the soup, and thus two dinners may be provided at a small cost; but as it is always very difficult to persuade poor people to expend so much time on cookery, it would possibly be better to cut up the meat and let it be eaten with the soup. _Lettuce Soup (aux Laitues)._--Boil some lettuces in salted water, when quite done drain them well, and pass through a hair sieve. Mix a small piece of butter with a tablespoonful of flour in a saucepan, add a little stock, then the purée of lettuce, let it boil for a minute or so, season with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to taste, add as much stock as is necessary to make the soup, and serve with small dice of bread fried in butter. _Liebig’s Beef Tea._--This is rendered much more nourishing and palatable by the addition of milk or cream. If with milk, make with equal parts of milk and water; if cream, add a tablespoonful or two to a breakfastcupful of beef tea. Season with salt. When milk cannot be taken, thin pearl barley water is excellent with Liebig stirred in it, and any approved flavouring. A little stock will also be found very nice with a little Liebig and salt only. Either of these, while containing nutriment, can be taken as simple beverages. _Liver Soup._--Slice ½ lb. liver, dredge with flour, and fry brown in butter, with an onion cut in slices. Then pound the liver quite smooth, season with salt, black pepper, and a grate of nutmeg. Stir in about 3 pints good brown soup, and boil 10 minutes with a French roll sliced in, crust included. Strain, and again make hot, nearly boiling. Pour it on 2 well-beaten eggs in the tureen. Offer lemon juice and cayenne pepper at table. _Lobster Soup (Bisque de Homard)._--Pick out all the meat from a lobster, pound it in a mortar with an equal quantity of butter until a fine orange-coloured pulp is obtained; to this add pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to taste; take as much breadcrumbs as there is lobster pulp, soak them in stock, then melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, amalgamate with it a heaped tablespoonful of flour, mix the lobster pulp with the breadcrumbs, and put both in the saucepan on the fire, stirring the contents until they thicken and boil, draw it then on one side, and carefully skim off superfluous fat; then strain the soup through a hair sieve, make boiling hot, and serve with small dice of bread fried in butter. _Macaroni Soup._--(_a_) Take 4 oz. macaroni, break into small pieces, and simmer gently for ¼ hour in 1 pint water; then add a piece of butter the size of a small nutmeg, pepper, salt, and 1½ pint stock. A teaspoonful of chopped parsley or dried herbs can be added for flavouring; simmer another ½ hour, and serve. (_b_) Boil 2 oz. macaroni (broken up in convenient pieces) in a pint of stock free from grease, to which add a good pinch of salt; when cooked (10-15 minutes), drain them and put them into the soup tureen containing 1 qt. well-flavoured clear stock boiling hot. Grated Parmesan to be handed round with it. _Milk Soup._--Peel 2 lb. potatoes and 2 leeks or onions (leeks are the best). Boil them together in 2 qt. boiling water to become tender. Pass all through a fine wire sieve and put it back as a purée into the stewpan. Add to this 2 oz. butter, let it melt, and then a pint milk; season to taste with a little pepper and salt; keep stirring it over the fire, and, when boiling, sprinkle in gradually 3 dessertspoonfuls of crushed tapioca; keep it boiling for another 10 minutes to cook the tapioca, and serve. _Mock Pea Soup._--Flavour some stock according to taste (a leaf or two of mint should not be forgotten), and thicken to consistency of thin cream, with some revalenta arabica; season with pepper and salt, and serve with it dice of crisp toast and some finely powdered mint on small dishes. A small piece of butter or a little thick cream may be added to the soup, if approved. It will be found a fair imitation of pea soup, is nutritious, easy of digestion, and may be acceptable in not seeming like an invalid dish. If no stock be at hand, a simpler edition of it may be made by making a cupful of revalenta, either with water or equal parts of milk and water, in the usual way. Stir to it Liebig to taste, and season with pepper and salt. Serve with or without the accompaniments given above. _Mock Turtle Soup (fausse tortue)._--(_a_) Boil half a calf’s head with the skin on for ¾ hour. Remove eye, ear, and brains, cut the meat into squares 1½ in., put it into a large stewpan, add to it 2 oz. butter, 1 pint old Madeira, 1 gill veal broth, a small bundle of sweet herbs, a little sage, a small onion chopped very fine with one teaspoonful of white pepper, a little salt, a little cayenne, also a little allspice if liked. Stew gently till the meat is tender, keeping well covered; then add 2 qt. good veal stock, make some thickening with cold veal broth, flour, and herbs; boil, strain, and add to the soup. Take out the meat, boil the soup about 10 minutes, strain over the meat, add lemon juice and some forcemeat and egg balls. This is the simplest to have it good, but it may be made far richer. (_b_) Take an ox foot, cleaned and split, 2 onions with their skins on to darken the soup, a few cloves, one tablespoonful of vinegar, peppercorns and salt to taste, a little celery seed, and carrots, and a small piece of turnip. Take out when the bones slip away easily, about 6 hours, strain through a sieve, then mix 2 tablespoonfuls of arrowroot, add a glass of sherry, let it boil, carefully stirring, add some forcemeat balls, and send to table. _Forcemeat Balls._--One teaspoonful of sage, pepper and salt, one egg slightly beaten, ¼ lb. lean bacon or pork, a few breadcrumbs; mix altogether, the bacon to be finely minced, shape all into balls the size of marbles, and fry in boiling lard until a light brown; sufficient for 12 persons. _Mulligatawny Soup (au kari)._--(_a_) Wash nicely a knuckle of veal in lukewarm water, and put it in to stew gently in 7 pints water, skim it carefully as it comes to the boil, and let it simmer for 1½ hour closely covered; take out the meat, strain the liquor into a stewpan, and have ready 2 lb. best end of a breast of veal cut up into pieces 1 in. square, without gristle or bone; slice 3 large onions into the stewpan, and fry them both together with about a ¼ lb. butter till they are a delicate brown colour; now add the veal liquor, and let it simmer 1 hour altogether, taking care to again skim it carefully on its coming to the boil. Take a little of the liquor and mix into it a good tablespoonful of curry powder, and a tablespoonful of flour; keep stirring until both are well mixed and quite smooth, adding to it a dust of cayenne, ½ teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of ground ginger and a little mace; stir this mixture gradually into the soup, keep it simmering (not boiling) ¼ hour longer, strain off the onions, serve very hot, with the pieces of meat in the soup; it should be perfectly smooth and the consistency of good cream; serve with rice as for curry. The squeeze of a lemon put into the tureen, and the soup poured on it, adds greatly to the flavour. (_b_) Melt 2 oz. butter in a saucepan; cut 2 large onions into fine rings, and then stew them for 5 minutes in the butter, then add 2 qt. water, salt to taste, 2 slices of bacon cut into dice. Mix to a smooth paste 2 tablespoonfuls of curry powder and one of flour. Stir this into the soup, taking care that it is not lumpy, to prevent this stir till it boils. Joint the rabbit neatly, then cut again into medium-sized pieces; soak these thoroughly in salted water to get out the blood. Put them into the soup and stew gently for ¾ hour. Serve with boiled rice and mashed potatoes. If stock is used for this soup the butter is unnecessary. (B. Tremaine.) _Mussel Soup (de moules)._--This is made by mixing a good fish or white veal stock with the half of the mussel liquor, and pouring this over a _roux_ (made by rolling equal quantities of butter and flour together and putting it on the fire for 3 minutes). Stir this well together till it boils, and then let it simmer for ½ hour. Now put the mussels into a tureen, pour the soup over them, and stir in a _liaison_ of yolk of egg and lemon juice. _Mutton Broth._--Fry 5 or 6 onions to a good brown colour in beef dripping, set them in a sieve to let the fat drain off them; cut 6 turnips and 3 or 4 carrots into pieces, add a bundle of sweet herbs, and a teaspoonful of salt. When these are all ready, take a large scrag, or two small ones, of neck of mutton, cut off the best pieces to fry, and make stock of the bones. Take the vegetables (fried), put them at the bottom of your pan, then add a layer of mutton, then vegetables, then mutton, till all is in; then put your stewpan shut close over a moderate fire, and let it stew ¾ hour, shaking it often to keep it from burning; then pour in 2 qt. stock, and let it stew as slowly as possible--scarcely to seem to stew. Put the best pieces of the meat and vegetables into the tureen, and then pour all the rest upon them through the sieve, so as to have a purée with the pieces floating in it. _Nouilles Soup._--Make a paste with the yolks of 4 eggs, the white of 1, a pinch of salt, the least drop of water, and as much of the finest flour as will give a very stiff paste. When worked quite smooth, roll it out as thinly as possible without breaking it; then cut out each sheet of paste into strips or lozenges, and spread them out to dry on a cloth. In 2-3 hours’ time throw the nouilles into some fast-boiling, well-flavoured clear stock, and serve as soon as sufficiently done, grated Parmesan cheese being handed round with the soup. _Okra Soup._--Soak ½ pint dried okra in 3 pints cold water all night. Make some stock with a fresh shin of beef, and after adding the okra with the water in which it was soaked, let it boil at least 7 hours. After 4 or 5 hours add some tomatoes or tomato sauce. Season to taste. _Onion Soup (Cussy, à l’oignon)._--(_a_) Boil some Spanish onions in water until nearly tender, strain off the water, and finish cooking them in milk, or in milk and water. When quite tender pass them through a sieve, and add sufficient well-flavoured stock to make the soup of the right consistency. Make the soup quite hot, add pepper and salt to taste, and just at the last stir in a small piece of fresh butter, and serve with small dice of bread fried in butter. This is very suitable for catch-cold weather. (_b_) Slice 2 Spanish onions, roll them in flour, and let them take a turn or two in a saucepan, with plenty of butter. Before they begin to take colour, add as much water as you want soup, with pepper and salt to taste; let the whole boil till the onions are thoroughly done, then pour the soup into a tureen, over some small slices of stale bread; add a good sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese, and serve. _Ox-tail Soup (hochepot)._--Take 2 ox tails, divide them at the joints, and put them into a saucepan with 3 qt. cold water, and salt to taste. Let it come gently to the boil, removing carefully the while any scum that rises. Add gradually the following vegetables, cut into convenient pieces: 3 or 4 carrots (according to size), 1 small turnip, 2 onions stuck with 6 cloves, about 20 peppercorns, half a head of celery, a bay leaf, and some parsley. Put in a few drops of sue colorant, and let the soup boil very gently 4-5 hours. Strain the liquor, and remove all fat. Serve with the pieces of ox-tail, omitting the largest ones. _Oyster Soup (aux huîtres)._--Put 24 oysters into a stewpan in their own liquor just to get hot through, but not to boil; take off the beards, and put the oysters into the soup tureen, letting the beards remain with the liquor in a small basin till wanted. The stock for the soup should be prepared the preceding day, by placing a cowheel on the fire in a stewpan of water; when it boils, take it out, cut off the best part of the meat, and throw it into a basin of cold water to remain all night. Put the remainder of the heel back into the stewpan, both meat and bones, with a sliced carrot, some outer leaves of celery, a sprig of thyme, a blade of mace, and some parsley root; let these boil up and then simmer by the fire for 2-3 hours, or until the meat is completely separated from the bones. Then pour it off through a sieve to remain also all night. Next day prepare the oysters as described, remove the fat from the stock, and, having made a thickening of flour and butter, gradually stir the stock into it; add 2 glasses light white wine, cut the meat from the cowheel which has remained in cold water, into small pieces about the size of a bearded oyster, put them into the soup, and let all stew very gradually for 2 hours. Then stir in the strained liquor from the oysters, let it boil up once, add a little lemon juice and a very little cayenne pepper; pour it into the tureen over the oysters, and serve. _Palestine Soup (aux topinambours)._--Boil till tender 40 Jerusalem artichokes in milk and a little salt; boil in milk till quite tender ½ lb. fine picked rice, pound them both together, wet with a good strong chicken or veal broth; rub through the strainer, and add more stock if not thin enough; strain the yolks of 5 eggs and ½ pint cream into the soup tureen; pour the soup in boiling hot, season with salt and pepper, and serve with fried sippets. _Parmesan Cheese Soup._--Grate 2 oz. cheese; toast thin slices of rolls; dip them in cream, cover them with the cheese on both sides; lay them in a tureen, and pour good soup over them; or, instead of the toasted roll, use thin slices of brown bread soaked in milk or cream, and covered with the grated cheese. _Pea Soup (de pois)._--(_a_) 1 gal. any weak stock, obtained from bones or boiled meat, salt or fresh; 1½ pint split peas (previously soaked), 3 onions, 2 carrots, 3 turnips, a little salt. Simmer all well together for 2 hours, then pass once through the hair sieve, and it is ready. This makes enough for 8 people. Double the quantity in the same proportion for 16; costs 6_d._ per gal. This is almost the cheapest soup that can be made, as any stock does for it (even the water in which vegetables have been boiled) as a foundation. (_b_) Take 1½ pint green peas, boil them in salt and water with a little mint; when thoroughly cooked, pound them and pass them through a hair sieve; put a piece of butter into a stewpan, when melted put in an onion and a carrot, cut in thin slices, fry until they begin to colour; add 1 qt. stock, a little salt, pepper, and a pinch of white sugar; leave it to boil for ¼ hour; stir in the purée of peas, let it come to the boil, strain, and serve with small croûtons of bread. (Jane Burtenshaw.) (_c_) Boil the day before it is wanted 1½ pint split peas in 3 qt. stock, from which every atom of fat has been removed; put in ¼ teaspoonful baking soda, and boil till the peas are thoroughly dissolved; strain the soup. Next day take 2 large tablespoonfuls corn-flour, ½ teaspoonful curry powder, well mixed in ½ pint cream, and 2 lumps sugar; boil 5 minutes, and serve with toasted bread cut into dice, handed round. Or rub as much butter into 2 tablespoonfuls of flour as you can, form into balls, and with 2 lumps of sugar and 1 pint milk, add to the soup; boil ¼ hour; have some chopped mint in the tureen; pour boiling soup over, and serve, either with or without toasted bread. The soup may be varied also by adding different spices, such as Jamaica pepper or cloves; and a little made mustard is a great improvement stirred into your plate of peasoup. Salt stock, such as that in which salt meat, or tongue, or a piece of ham, has been boiled (if not too salt) is best for peasoup. (_d_) Soak a quantity of peas in water for 24 hours. Throw the water away, and put the peas in a saucepan with 2 onions stuck with cloves, a bunch of thyme and parsley, 2 bay leaves, whole pepper, and salt to taste. Fill up the saucepan with cold water, and set the contents to boil until the peas are thoroughly done. Drain off the water, pass the peas through a hair sieve, and work them in a saucepan on the fire with a piece of butter, until the purée is quite hot, moistening with a little stock if too stiff. A piece of bacon boiled with the peas is an improvement. _Pear Soup._--Peel and slice 6 pears, boil them soft in 3 pints water, with a few cloves and a sliced roll. Strain through a coarse sieve, and reboil with sugar, a glass or two of wine, and the juice of a lemon. Serve with sponge cake. _Plum Soup._--Brown some flour in butter; stir in water to thin it. Put in plums with some cinnamon or cloves. Let them boil to a mash, strain them, and add sugar, with equal parts wine and water--about 1 pint each to 1 qt. plums. Throw in a few whole plums, and simmer again till these are softened, but not broken. Add slices of toast a minute or two before serving. _Polish Soup (barszcz)._--Fill a good-sized jar with slices of beetroot cut in pieces, and cover them with cold water, to which should be added a slice of bread. The jar should then be covered, and left until the juice, which becomes a deep vermilion colour, is fermented and has a sour taste. In warm weather 3 days will suffice for this, in winter it takes 5-6. The ferment which rises to the top must be removed, and the juice passed through a sieve. It is then boiled with an equal proportion of strong beef stock, to which is added small pieces of ham. The soup comes to table looking clear and red, and for variety may be made pink by adding a pint of sour cream. (H.) See also p. 506. _Pomeranian Soup._--1 qt. white beans must be boiled soft in water; mash half of them, thin with broth, and work through a sieve. Let boil with the broth to a smooth soup, in which has been boiled a head of celery cut small. Add the whole beans, a mild seasoning of sweet herbs, some parsley, salt and pepper. Let all boil ¼ hour, and serve. _Poor Man’s Soup._--See Potato Soup. _Potato Soup (Parmentier, pauvre homme)._--(_a_) Put 1 oz. butter into a saucepan with 3 large onions, shred fine, and fry them a pale brown colour; add 1 teaspoonful flour, stir for a few minutes, but do not allow the mixture to darken; then add 1 qt. common stock previously flavoured with carrots, turnips, celery, leeks, and parsley boiled in it; stir until soup boils, and season to taste with pepper and salt. Peel 1 or 2 potatoes, cut them into small dice, and put to boil with the soup. Cut some crust of bread in long pieces the size, and half the length of, French beans, dry them in the oven, and at the time of serving throw them into the soup; then stir into it off the fire the yolks of 2 eggs, beaten up with a little milk, and strained. (_b_) Peel 8-10 large potatoes, 3 onions, 2 heads of celery, 1 turnip, 1 carrot, a slice of ham or lean bacon, cut all in small squares; boil them with some broth; when done, rub all through the sieve, and season with pepper and salt. (_c_) Boil some potatoes in water with an onion, a head of celery, and salt to taste; when done pass them through a hair sieve, and put them into a saucepan with a lump of butter, adding sufficient stock to bring them to the consistency of soup. Let it boil up, season with pepper and salt, and at the time of serving throw in either minced parsley or small sprigs of chervil. Small dice of bread, fried in butter, to be served in or with the soup. (_d_) Use milk instead of stock, and add, besides pepper and salt, just a small grate of nutmeg. _Pot au feu._--(_a_) Take 6 lb. round of beef, put it in a large earthenware pot, with any stray bones, and 14 qt. cold water; add 3 handfuls of salt, some whole pepper, and a few cloves; let simmer, without allowing to boil, until you can skim; after skimming add 4 turnips, 5 or 6 carrots, 2 parsnips, 1 stick celery, 2 large onions, and a clove of garlic; take a bunch of leeks, and tie up with them a leaf of bay laurel, and a root of parsley (if you have not the whole plant, some leaves alone), and put this into the pot with the other things. Let boil very slowly for 4 hours. Cook apart in a saucepan 2 fine cabbages; do not put any water with them, but when the _pot au feu_ is nearly cooked, take off the top of the soup, put it over the cabbages, and let them cook in it for ½-1 hour. When the soup is ready, take some crusts of bread which have been well browned in the oven, cut them in pieces, let them soak for a few minutes in boiling water, then put them into the soup tureen, and, after skimming the soup, pour it over them. Serve the meat on a dish, arranging the cabbages, carrots, turnips, onions, and parsnips all round. (_b_) Take a piece of fresh silverside of beef weighing 6 lb., and about ½ lb. bones; tie up the meat neatly with string, and put both into a 6-quart saucepan; fill it up with sufficient water to come well over the meat and bones, and set it on the fire; remove carefully with a skimmer the scum that will rise as the water gets warm, but do not allow it to boil. Add at intervals during the process about 1 pint cold water in small quantities; this will have the effect of checking the ebullition, and will help the scum to rise. When the scum is all removed, put in about 1 oz. salt, a small handful of whole pepper and allspice, 1 onion, stuck with 12 cloves, 1 onion toasted almost black before the fire or on the hob, 1 leek, and three carrots of average size cut in 2 inch lengths, 2 turnips of average size each cut in four, and a _bouquet garni_--i.e. 2 bay leaves, 2 or 3 sprigs each of thyme and marjoram, a clove of garlic, and a small handful of parsley, all tied together into a small faggot. The above vegetables should not be put in all at once, but gradually, so as not to check the gentle simmering; now skim for the last time, and place by the side of the fire to simmer gently for at least 4 hours. According to the season, all or some of the following vegetables may be added: A head of celery cut in 2 in. lengths, a couple of tomatoes, a couple of parsnips, a handful of chervil. At the time of serving, strain the broth and skim off all the fat, add the least bit of sugar (not burnt sugar) and more salt if necessary; make the broth boiling hot, and pour it into the soup tureen over small slices of toasted bread, adding, according to taste, a portion of the vegetables cut in thin slices. To serve the meat, having removed the string, garnish it with some of the vegetables, or with mashed potatoes, spinach, &c. _Poultry Soup._--Remains of any kind of poultry will do for this. Cut all the meat off the bones, free it from skin, and pound it smooth in a mortar. Soak a slice or two of bread, without crust, in as much milk as it will absorb; add it, with the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs, to the pounded meat, and pass all through a sieve. While preparing the above, let the broken-up bones boil in some good meat broth. Strain this, and mix with it the pounded meat. Give it one boil up, and serve with Hühner Klösse. In boiling up the bones, any kind of seasoning may be added, such as herbs, vegetables, lemon peel, salt, and pepper. See also Chicken Soup. _Pumpkin Soup (de potiron)._--Peel the pumpkin and cut into pieces (removing the seeds). Put it into boiling water with some salt, and leave it to boil until reduced to a pulp thin enough to pass through a strainer. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan with a wine glass of cream. Add the pulp, when strained, with salt and pepper to taste, and a pinch of flour. Let the whole simmer for ¼ hour, thicken with the yolk of an egg, and serve. _Quenelle Soup._--Put into a saucepan a gill of water, a pinch of salt, and a small piece of butter; when the water boils stir in as much flour as will form a paste, put the mixture away to get cold. Take ½ lb. lean veal, cut it into small pieces, and pound in a mortar; add 3 oz. butter and 2 oz. of the paste, and thoroughly mix the whole in the mortar, adding during the process the yolks of 2 and the white of 1 egg, salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg to taste; pass the mixture through a sieve, work a little cream into it, and, by means of 2 teaspoons, shape it in pieces the size of an olive; lay these carefully in a saucepan, pour in at the side sufficient boiling stock to cover them, and let them cook gently for a few minutes. Have the tureen ready filled with well-flavoured clear stock, boiling hot; slip the quenelles into it (with or without the stock they were boiled in), and serve. _Rice Soup (au riz)._--(_a_) Pick over carefully 6 oz. best Carolina rice, wash in 3 waters, until no dirt remains, blanch in boiling water, and then drain; put 1 qt. milk into a saucepan, and set it over the fire; throw in the rice; let boil for 10 minutes and then simmer; season with salt and white pepper, and add a small cupful of cream just before serving. Send plain toast, not fried, to table with it. (_b_) Pick and wash a handful of rice, boil it in salted water till the grains just burst; drain the water off, and leave the saucepan at the side of the fire, covered with a damp cloth. At the time of serving, put as much rice as is wanted into the saucepan in which the soup (well flavoured and clarified stock) is being made hot, and as soon as it boils send it up to table. Grated Parmesan cheese to be handed round with it. (_c_) The rice must be well washed, first in cold then in warm water; 2 oz. is enough for 5 half-pints of soup. Boil the rice 2 hours at least, either with some of the soup or with water sufficient to boil it to a jelly; then add it to the soup. In the latter case have the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs in the tureen. (_d_) Boil some rice as in (_b_); pass through a hair sieve; add as much white stock as may be necessary; make quite hot, and stir in off the fire 1 gill cream beaten up with the yolk of an egg and strained. Serve with small dice of bread fried in butter. (_e_) Use water and milk in equal parts instead of stock. (_f_) Mix rice flour with either milk and water or white stock cold; then make it hot, and when it has boiled finish the soup as in (_d_). _Rice and Carrot Soup (Crécy au riz)._--Make 1 qt. vegetable stock boiling hot, then strew lightly into it 4 heaped tablespoonfuls Bousquin’s _Riz Crécy_; let gently simmer for ½ hour. Then stir in, off the fire, the yolk of an egg beaten up with a little milk or cream; add half a pat of butter, and serve. _Rice and Pea Soup (de riz aux pois)._--Having prepared the soup as in (_b_) add to it at the time of serving a cupful of very young green peas boiled in salted water and thoroughly drained. _Rice and Sorrel Soup (de riz à l’oseille)._--Boil some rice in water; when half done drain off all the water, and finish cooking the rice in some clear stock; then add, according to taste, more or less sorrel finely shredded, boiled in salted water till done and strained. _Rice and Tomato Soup (de riz aux tomates)._--In 1 qt. vegetable stock boil a handful or more of rice; as soon as this is cooked (not over done), draw the saucepan to the side of the fire, and add an 8_d._ bottle of _conserve de tomates_. As soon as the soup is quite hot (it must not boil) put in a small pat of fresh butter, and serve. _Sago Soup (au sagou)._--(_a_) Wash 5 oz. sago in warm water, set it in a saucepan with 2 qt. milk, and simmer until the sago is thoroughly dissolved; season with pepper and salt, and add a small capful of cream before serving. Good clear stock is generally used for both sago and tapioca soup; but they are even nicer made with milk. (_b_) The stock must be ready seasoned and quite boiling. Strew in the sago by degrees, about the same proportion as in rice soup. Boil ¼ hour, and serve in the tureen with yolks of eggs. _Savoy Cabbage Soup._--Take half a savoy cabbage, shred it very finely, and set it to boil in stock free from fat and well flavoured; parboil a teacupful of rice, and when the cabbage has boiled for 10 minutes throw it in to finish cooking with the cabbage; when both are thoroughly done, put in a handful of grated Parmesan cheese, and serve. _Savoyard Soup._--Peel and slice a small quantify of young turnips, put them into boiling water slightly salted. In another saucepan put the crusts of a quartern loaf previously soaked for 3-4 minutes, in the liquor of the _pot au feu_, and cut into pieces 1 in. square; grate over them some Gruyère cheese, and put the saucepan over a moderate fire till the crusts become dry and crisp; brown the turnips in some grease from the _pot au feu_, put them on the top of the _croûtons_, then reversing the saucepan put them all into a soup tureen, having the turnips at the bottom and the crusts at the top. Pour over them some good stock, and serve. _Scrap Soup._--Obtain from a butcher 6 lb. ends, trimmings, bits, and bones, which he will sell at 7_d._ a lb. or less, if told that it is for a soup kitchen. Place all in a very large saucepan, or, better still, divide the quantity and put each half into a separate saucepan, covering well with water. Throw in any vegetables, either previously cooked or not, that can be had, a few herbs, cold potatoes, crusts of bread, celery and lettuce stalks, and bacon rinds. Simmer all down gently for 6 hours or longer, removing the scum from time to time, and adding water when necessary. Strain through the colander, and it is ready. This should make enough for 12 persons, allowing 1 pint to each, 1½ gal. water being used; 2 gal. water, making it rather poorer, will extend the number to 16. Cost to make 4_s._ = 4_d._ a head. _Scotch Broth._--(_a_) Take ½ lb. Scotch barley, 5-6 lb. mutton (neck or breast), put on the fire with 5 qt. water, and bring it slowly to the boil. Add turnips, carrots, onions, or leeks, and celery cut up small, with ½ pint dried green peas, ½ hour after the meat and barley have boiled. The whole is then to be simmered 2½ hours longer. The fat must be removed as it rises to the surface when boiling. If preferred, the meat can be served as a separate course, with some large vegetables round it. (_b_) The liquor in which a sheep’s head has been boiled is most useful for this soup. If wanted stronger, the remains of the head can be boiled down in it again as for ordinary stock. Wash 1 oz. pearl barley, and put it to 2 qt. stock; chop fine 2 small carrots, 2 turnips, 1 onion, 2 or 3 outside sticks of celery; add pepper and salt to taste, and simmer till the vegetables are tender. Dried vegetables in shreds answer very well for this, and can be bought at about 1_s._ per lb., 1 lb. being sufficient for 8 qt. of stock. _Semolina Soup (à la semoule)._--Have 1 qt. well-flavoured stock boiling fast on the fire. Take in one hand some of the coarsest semolina that can be procured, and slowly strew it in the stock, which is to be continuously stirred with a spoon held with the other hand. One handful will be sufficient for the above quantity of stock, but more may be used according to the thickness the soup is desired to be. Keep on stirring for a few minutes, when the soup will be seen to thicken, and it is then ready. Parmesan cheese may be served with it. _Sheep’s Head Soup._--Let the head and pluck be well soaked in cold water, and then put on in 4 qt. cold water; cut the pluck in pieces, add ½ lb. pearl barley, 4 onions, 2 large carrots, 3 turnips, ¼ oz. mixed cloves, mace, and peppercorns. Take off the head and heart when done, then stew the pluck and other ingredients 2 hours longer; thicken the soup with a little flour and butter; cut the head and heart in pieces, and add forcemeat balls. ½ lb. lean beef is a great improvement to this soup. A wineglassful of sherry, ketchup, and soy to taste. Strain very carefully. _Shrimp Soup (de crevettes)._--Take 1 pint shrimps, pound them in a mortar with the juice of half a lemon and a piece of butter equal in weight to them. When quite a smooth paste, pass it through a sieve, and add pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Take as much breadcrumbs as there is shrimp paste, soak them in stock. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, amalgamate with it a heaped tablespoonful of flour, mix the shrimp paste with the soaked breadcrumbs, and put both into the saucepan. Stir well, adding more stock, until the soup is of the desired consistency. Put the saucepan on the fire, stir the contents till they boil, then draw it aside and carefully skim off all fat, strain through a hair sieve, make the soup hot again. Stir in off the fire the yolk of an egg, beaten up with a little milk or cream, and serve. _Sorrel Soup (a l’oseille)._--A good quantity of sorrel leaves must be picked from the stems and washed, then put into a stewpan with a piece of butter to steam. No water is requisite. Dredge in, continually stirring, a tablespoonful or two of flour, unless the soup is to be clear. Add enough soup, already seasoned and flavoured. Serve with sippets or dice of toasted bread. _Spinach Soup (aux épinards)._--Pick and wash quite clean a quantity of spinach. Put it in a saucepan with sufficient salt, and when quite done squeeze all the moisture out, and pass it through a hair sieve. Dilute the pulp thus obtained with as much well-flavoured stock as will make it of the right consistency; make boiling hot, add a dash of pepper, and at the time of serving put a pat of fresh butter in the soup tureen. _Spring Soup (jardinière, printanier)._--Cut some new carrots and new turnips in the shape of peas; put them in separate saucepans with enough stock to cover them, and a pinch of sugar; keep on the fire till the stock has all boiled away, but mind they do not catch or burn. Cook some peas and some asparagus points in the same way. Have equal quantities of each of these vegetables. Cut out of lettuces and sorrel leaves pieces the size of a sixpence; let them have one boil in some stock. Put all the vegetables so prepared in the soup tureen, add a few sprigs of chervil, pour over them some well-flavoured consommé, and serve. _Strawberry Soup._--Boil ripe strawberries, with some rusks or slices of roll, in sufficient water until dissolved. Stir through a sieve; add wine and sugar to taste; make a thickening of arrowroot or potato flour, and boil the mass up again. When about to be served, add a saucerful of ripe strawberries which have been sprinkled with plenty of powdered sugar an hour or two previously. Any fruit soup can be made according to the foregoing directions, adding or leaving out certain flavours. Sponge cakes and macaroons may be served with any fruit soups. _Sweetbread Soup._--Put a sweetbread on the fire in cold water, with a little salt. When it is warm, pour off the water and supply fresh cold; repeat this a few times as fast as it becomes warm, which process whitens the sweetbread. When it looks delicately white just let it come to a simmer; then take it out and lay it in cold water. Take off the outer skin, cut up the meat in small dice, and give it a boil up in good white veal soup. If for brown soup, fry the little pieces of sweetbread rapidly in butter, and drain them in a napkin. They must only be coloured yellow. _Tapioca Soup._--(_a_) Made as sago, only the tapioca must be soaked for at least ½ hour in warm water before being put into the milk. (_b_) To 1 qt. well-flavoured clear stock add 1 tablespoonful tapioca; leave to boil nearly ½ hour, stirring occasionally until the tapioca is cooked sufficiently. (_c_) Mince an onion finely, fry it in plenty of butter till of a golden colour; add pepper and salt to taste, and 1½ pint water; when the water boils, strain and put it back into a clean saucepan with 2 tablespoonfuls tapioca; let it boil till almost dissolved, then serve. _Tea Kettle Broth._--Cut a thin piece of bread and toast it crisply, cut into small pieces and put in a basin, then add a little salt and pepper, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and half a teacupful of thin cream; fill the basin with boiling water, and serve at once. _Tomato Soup (de tomates)._--(_a_) Pour over 12 ripe tomatoes a small quantity of weak stock, and stew very gently until quite tender. Mash through a sieve, and add the required quantity of good strong stock: add cayenne pepper to taste. Let all boil together for a few minutes, and serve very hot. (_b_) Cut ½ lb. lean raw ham into small pieces, and place in a stewpan with some peppercorns, 2 oz. butter, 4 shallots, 2 bay leaves, a few cloves, a blade of mace, and 2 sprigs of thyme; let these fry until they are a light brown colour. Take either 24 ripe tomatoes or an equal quantity of preserved tomatoes, squeeze well, and add 1½ pint good well-flavoured white stock, and a small quantity of white essence of mushrooms; mix with this the ham, &c., and let all boil together over a quick fire to reduce to the desired thickness. Then rub through a tammy, warm up again, and serve. Dice of bread fried in butter should be handed round with this soup. _Turnip Soup (de navets)._--Peel and slice the turnips, put them in a stewpan with a piece of butter, a spoonful of sugar, and enough clear broth to cook them soft. Work through a sieve, and add the purée to a clear soup. Mix a tablespoonful or two of flour with a cup of cream or milk, add this with salt and white pepper; let boil for 2-3 minutes before serving. _Turtle Soup (tortue)._--(_a_) Kill the turtle by cutting off its head. Then put it in water for 12 hours; divide the shells, remove the entrails, and carefully preserve the green fat, which should be put into cold water to steep. Put the fins and flesh with the shells cut into several pieces into boiling water for a few minutes, then remove the thin outer skin from head, fins, &c. Put the finer parts into some good stock and stew until quite soft, about 4 hours; remove the bones, and put the meat to press between 2 dishes until quite cold, when it must be cut up to put into the soup. Put the bones, entrails, and coarser parts of the turtle into a stockpot with plenty of ordinary stock, and with some onions, celery, mushrooms, a faggot of herbs, parsley, pepper, and salt, add any trimmings, of meat or poultry, and stew until reduced almost to a glaze, about 6 hours; then add the stock in which the meat was stewed; strain, and clarify the soup. Blanch the green fat, cut it up and put it with the cut-up meat into the soup, simmer until quite hot, and then add the juice of ½ lemon, 2 glasses white wine, with cayenne pepper and salt to taste to every 3 pints of soup, and serve. (_b_) Dried.--Soak for 3 days, changing the water each day; then boil for 12 hours in 1½ qt. very good stock, adding a burnt onion, a little ham, and a glass of sherry or Marsala. If too strong with that quantity of stock, a little more can be added each day while it lasts. First-rate for delicate people. _Vegetable Soup (bonne femme, brunoise, chiffonade, colbert, faubonne, de légumes, paysanne, &c.)._--(_a_) Cut up any vegetables, such as celery, carrots, turnips, or onions, or a judicious mixture of all, into small neat pieces as near of a size and shape as possible; place them in boiling water for about ¼ hour, then take out and stew in a little fresh water with a small piece of butter and salt. Into a larger stewpan put a good piece of butter with some leeks, onions, carrots, turnips, a head of celery, all cut up small; add a clove of garlic, if liked, and some thyme, parsley, or chervil. Stew on the fire, without water, for 1½ hour, turning frequently until well coloured; then add sufficient water for the stock, and boil ½ hour. Strain, and add the reserved vegetables; serve hot with small rounds of bread which have been well soaked in some of the stock, and then placed in a buttered tin and dried in the oven. (_b_) Pass through a hair sieve all the vegetables used to make vegetable stock, melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add a little flour, mix well, then add the vegetable pulp; stir well, and moisten with as much of the stock as may be necessary; let the soup boil, stir into it off the fire the yolks of 2 eggs beaten up with a little water and strained. Serve with sippets of bread fried in butter. _Vegetable-marrow Soup (de courges)._--Remove the seeds from 2 or 3 vegetable marrows; cut into convenient pieces, and put to stew in a saucepan with a small quantity of stock, and pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to taste. When quite done, pass through a hair sieve. Take 2 pints of this pulp and 1 pint milk, boil together for ½ hour, then gradually mix with 2 oz. butter, which have been previously amalgamated in a saucepan with 1 oz. flour. Let the whole come to boiling point, then serve. _Vermicelli Soup._--Boil 2 oz. fine vermicelli in 1 pint stock free from grease, to which add a good pinch of salt, when cooked (in 10-15 minutes), drain, and put into the soup tureen containing 1 qt. well-flavoured clear stock, boiling hot. Grated Parmesan to be handed round with the soup. _Victoria Soup._--About 2 tablespoonfuls sago to 1 qt. of good stock; boil gently; then 5 minutes before dinner-time take it off the fire, and have ready the yolks of 2 eggs and ½ pint cream; beat them together and add to the soup; stir all together and serve at once with sippets of fried bread. _White Soup._--Flavour some stock delicately with onion, parsley, mace, bay leaf, lemon peel, thyme, button mushrooms, white peppercorns, and salt. Take equal parts of this and new milk, and thicken slightly with arrowroot. Just before serving, stir in the yolk of an egg beaten up, with a little cold milk or stock. A smaller proportion of cream may be used instead of the milk, if preferred. Serve in a sauce tureen, and be sure to have it and the soup plate well warmed. To vary this soup, a few small dice of sweetbread or the white meat from a chicken, or a little of the meat from a calf’s foot and a few egg balls, may be added. _Egg balls._--Mix with the yolk of 1 hard-boiled egg 1 teaspoonful grated tongue or pounded ham, and 1 saltspoonful minced boiled parsley; season with cayenne and nutmeg. Bind with the yolk of a raw egg, form the paste into balls the size of a small marble, and poach them gently for 2 minutes in milk. Put them hot into the tureen. See also Chicken, Milk, Onion, Palestine, Potato, Rice, and Vegetable-marrow Soups, and Veal Stock. =Fish.=--The first consideration with regard to fish is freshness, as nothing deteriorates more rapidly with keeping. When economy must be practised, fish may be bought at lower rates in the evening, and will keep perfectly well till next day, even in hot weather, by being moistened with vinegar, which treatment is by some people considered to improve the flavour. Before proceeding to give a catalogue of recipes for cooking various fish, it will be useful to introduce some general remarks on dressing and cooking fish as a class. _Dressing._--(_a_) When fish are scaly they must be “scaled” very lightly and carefully with a knife, then well washed with salt and water to remove all slime. The gills and fins should be cut off; then the fish must be opened, and the insides removed, followed by well cleaning inside and out with a linen cloth. If to be fried, they are ready for flouring. (_b_) If no scales, proceed as in (_a_) without scaling. (_c_) If to be boiled, the wiping may be omitted, but they must be washed with salt and water inside and out. (_d_) All cooking must be thorough. _Baking._--This is a good way of cooking any flavourless fish. (_a_) Cut it in slices or pieces and make a mound of it on a flat dish, sprinkling between each layer chopped herbs and parsley, cayenne and lemon juice. Melt 1 oz. butter in a pan, add 1 oz. flour and 1 gill milk, and stir till very thick; squeeze in a little lemon and pour it over the fish. Cover the whole with browned breadcrumbs and cook in a good oven till the fish is done. Keep a few crumbs back to sprinkle over any cracks, and serve on the dish it is baked in. For the lemon juice and the crumbs Parmesan cheese can be substituted. (_b_) Scald and then chop a small piece of onion and a few sprigs of parsley. Butter a baking tin and sprinkle half the mixture over and half under a thick slice of white fish. Cover the whole with browned breadcrumbs and pour round a little stock or water with a dessertspoonful of ketchup or vinegar. Bake for 10-15 minutes, and serve hot or cold, garnished with parsley and cut lemon, and the liquor poured round. Baking is the most economical way of cooking fish, because it does not destroy the flavour, and sauce is not necessary as when boiled. _Boiling._--(_a_) The common way of boiling fish is to draw them, cut out their gills, scale them--if scaly--and wipe clean. Put into a fish kettle, with salt, fennel, a bundle of sweet herbs, enough water with a little vinegar to cover the fish. When quite boiling, put in the fish, and let it boil slowly; when perfectly done, pour off the water and serve in a hot dish with parsley and butter. (_b_) The liquor in which fish is to be boiled should be boiling ¼ hour before the fish are put in; these latter must be boiled very gently, or they will fall to pieces. (_c_) The liquor in which fish has been boiled should never be thrown away, as excellent soup can be made of it with a few cheap additions. _Broiling._--(_a_) After the fish is scaled, &c., notch it 2 or 3 times on the back, strew some salt on, and broil, basting with butter, and turning frequently. _Frying._--(_a_) No way is more successful for cooking the cheaper kinds of fish. Plaice, ling, hake, haddock, small fresh-water fish, conger--all are good. The essential thing is to fry them properly. Cover each piece with egg and breadcrumb, or dip in a thick batter of flour and water; have perfectly fresh fat or sweet oil, and plenty of it; let it be sufficiently hot; and serve the hot fish nicely garnished with lemon and with slices of brown bread and butter. Conger must first be parboiled, or it will not be done enough. As for other fish, it is wise to cut them into strips or fillets. (_b_) Frying fish in batter is often recommended, but it is not nearly so nice as egg-crumbing, and, indeed, when this is considered too troublesome or expensive, it is better merely to pass the fish through flour mixed with pepper and salt. Fish dipped in batter must be fried in a considerable quantity of fat, which, in small and poor households, it is generally impossible to procure. Egg-crumbed or dusted with flour, fish can be cooked in the frying-pan with a little fat, and is very good in this way. (_c_) Plain flour may be used instead of breadcrumbs; in America “cracker-dust” (i.e. pounded biscuit) and Indian meal, the latter occasionally mixed equally with flour, are used instead of breadcrumbs. (_d_) For eating cold. Well wash in water, rub with salt, dry, roll in a cloth, and place for a few minutes before the fire previous to cooking. Salmon, cod, and halibut should be cut into thick slices, other fish into convenient-sized pieces. Soles are done either whole or in fillets. Have ready a dish of beaten eggs, and another of flour; turn the fish well over first in the eggs, and then in the flour, so that each piece is completely covered, then place in a pan with plenty of the best olive oil at boiling heat, fry the fish gently till of a fine golden-brown colour on both sides. When done, place on a drainer before the fire, for the oil to drain off. Great care should be observed that the oil has ceased to bubble before the fish is put in, or the latter will be greasy. It is a good plan to try it with a crust of bread first. Tho oil can be used several times if carefully strained, and put aside in a jar, adding a little fresh each time if necessary. _Stewing._--Put them in a stewpan; cover with water, and either white wine or claret; add some salt, spices, and anchovies, and a bundle of sweet herbs; cover the vessel, and put in a moderate oven. Garnish with green leaves, sippets, &c. The following dishes are mainly adapted for using up remnants of fish, though whole fish may be employed if desired. _Bouillabaisse._--Take several kinds of fish, such as whitings, gurnets, John dory, turbot; cut them in pieces the size of an egg; mince an onion, a small piece of garlic, one tomato, and a few sprigs of parsley; put the whole in a saucepan with ½ tumbler finest olive oil, a pinch of pepper, and one of mixed spice. When the onions are slightly coloured, add the fish, salt, and a very small pinch of powdered saffron; then fill up with sufficient boiling water to come up to, but not cover, the fish. This done, let the bouillabaisse boil fast for 20 minutes, or until the liquor be reduced by one-fourth. Serve the fish on one dish, and the liquor on another over thick but small slices of bread. _Boudin._--Take the raw meat of either whiting, flounder, plaice, or pike; pound in a mortar, and pass through a sieve. Put ½ pint water into a saucepan with a pinch of salt, and a small piece of butter; when it boils, stir it in enough flour to make a thick paste; when cold, take of this paste, half the quantity there is of fish, and take of butter half the quantity there is of paste; thoroughly amalgamate the whole in the mortar, season with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, work in 1 or 2 spoonfuls of white sauce (Béchamel), and lastly as many eggs, in the proportion of two yolks to one white, as will bind the mixture. Butter some small moulds, fill them with the mixture, and steam in a stewpan half full of water for 15-20 minutes. Turn out, and serve with white sauce. _Cakes._--(_a_) Take the remnants of any cold fish, pull them to pieces, and thoroughly incorporate with them a small piece of butter and some mashed potatoes; season the whole with pepper and salt to taste, and a little cayenne. Form the mixture into cakes and fry in butter till of a golden colour. Serve garnished with fried parsley. (_b_) Remove skin and bone from cold fish; to 1 lb. fish add 4 tablespoonfuls breadcrumbs, 2 of suet finely chopped, and 1 of flour; mix well together while dry; then beat 1 egg with ¼ pint milk: mix all well together, and put in a greased mould; steam for 1 hour or bake for ½ hour. _Chowder._--Cover the bottom of the pot in which the chowder is to be cooked with slices of pickled pork, or, if preferred, use a large teaspoonful of lard. Take any kind of firm fish (cod and bass are thought best), lay them over the pork or in the lard. If pork is used, first fry it slightly; if lard, make it boiling hot. Strew over the fish a layer of chopped onions if liked, one of split crackers (biscuits), pepper and salt; spices are used, but are not necessary; another layer of fish, onions, crackers, and seasoning until all the fish is in; dredge with flour, just cover the fish with water; stew gently; ½ hour will cook one of moderate size. Take up the chowder, thicken the gravy by adding a teaspoonful of flour to a teacup of butter, add this to the gravy; stew 2 minutes; add wine or ketchup if liked. Oyster or clam chowder may be made in the same way. _Croquettes._--Take some remnants of boiled turbot, brill, haddock, or salmon; pick out the flesh carefully, and mince not too finely. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add a little flour and some hot milk. Stir on the fire until the mixture thickens, add pepper and salt, a little grated nutmeg, some chopped parsley, lastly the fish; as soon as the mixture is quite hot, turn out on a dish to get cold. Shape like corks, roll in beaten-up egg, and then in baked breadcrumbs; repeat the process in an hour’s time; fry in hot lard, and serve with fried parsley. _Curry._--Take 1 teaspoonful curry powder, 1 of raw rice pounded, 1 of chillies, 2 cloves of garlic, a little ginger, a few peppercorns, a little turmeric, half a coconut (remove the brown skin); grind all up with a coffee cup of water, then put half an onion, half cooked and minced, with ½ oz. butter in a stewpan, and melt it when quite dissolved. Add the curry stuff, also the gravy of ½ lb. beef, or some stock, and a dessertspoonful of vinegar; put 1½-2 lb. fish prepared in pieces about 1 in. square, and stew the whole. _Cutlets._--Melt 1 oz. butter, add 1 oz. flour and ¼ pint milk; let it boil and thicken. Then stir in the flavouring--lemon juice or vinegar, salt, cayenne, a little anchovy sauce or paste, or, as a last resource, a tiny piece of bloater paste. Last of all, add about a breakfastcupful of cold cooked fish cut small. When this mixture is cold, shape it into cutlets or balls, egg and breadcrumb them, and fry in hot fat or oil. _Jelly._--Put several large onions (sliced), some scraped horse-radish, lemon peel, pepper, salt, and mace into a stewpan with good white stock, simmer till the vegetables are tender; strain, remove the bones from 2 lb. turbot, sole, or any white fish; cut the fish into shapely pieces, stew in the liquor till quite done, strain the liquor, let it cool, add a glass of white wine, the whites of 2 or 3 eggs, and some lemon juice; hot it up. Lay the pieces of fish into a flat mould, fill up with the liquor, let get quite cold, turn out, and garnish with slices of cucumber. In very hot weather it will require ice. _Moolie._--Take some fried fish, 2 tablespoonfuls cream, 1 dessertspoonful butter, 3 or 4 onions, green chillies (when they are to be had), a piece of ginger, and 2-3 tablespoonfuls vinegar; boil 10 minutes, then serve. An excellent breakfast dish. _Omelet._--Beat up 3 fresh eggs with a quantity, equal to an egg in bulk, of the flesh of boiled salmon, shredded finely with a fork, a pinch of minced parsley, pepper, salt, and half a dozen bits of butter the size of a pea. Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into the pan, let it melt without browning, and as soon as it is melted and hot pour in your omelet mixture, and, holding the hand of the pan with one hand, stir the omelet with the other by means of a flat spoon. The moment it begins to set, cease stirring, but keep shaking the pan for a minute or so; then with the ladle or spoon double up your omelet, and keep on shaking the pan until one side of the omelet has become a golden colour, when you dexterously turn it out on a hot dish, the coloured side uppermost. (G. C.) _Patties._--1 moderate-sized haddock, 12 cooking oysters, 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley, a very little pounded mace, a pinch of cayenne, a little salt, 1 teaspoonful anchovy essence, 2 oz. butter, ½ pint good white sauce, yolks of 2 eggs, ½ lb. good puff paste, and a little lemon juice. Skin and fillet the haddock, dissolve the butter in a stewpan; put in the fish, sprinkle with a little salt, and let stand on the stove, where it will cook without taking any colour. When the fish is done on one side turn carefully; while the fish is cooking, beard the oysters, put the beards with the liquor from them on the fire, in a small stewpan, and simmer for a few minutes. When done, strain off and save the liquor for the sauce. When the fish is done, which should be in 15-20 minutes, lift it out of the butter on to a plate; and when cool, roughly mince, or cut it into small dice; cut the oysters in quarters, and mix them with the haddock. Put into a small stewpan ½ pint good white sauce, and when it boils stir into it 1 oz. butter, the chopped parsley, anchovy essence, mace, and cayenne. Let it boil up, then draw it back from the fire, and stir in the yolks of the eggs, a little lemon juice, a little salt, and lastly the fish. Let it stand by the fire a few minutes, but do not let it boil, as this would curdle the egg, and harden the oysters. Now turn the fish out on a plate ready for use. Have ready some good puff paste, roll it out to the thickness of ½ in., cut out the patty cases with a tin cutter; and with another, half this size, mark the cover by gently pressing it on the paste, so as to make a slight incision; egg over the top, and bake in a quick oven. When done, take off the covers, scoop out the underdone paste inside, and leave the patties till dinner-time, then fill with the prepared fish, and set in the oven to get hot. Serve as an entrée in the first course. Note: The butter in which the fish was cooked would make a fish sauce. _Pudding._--Equal quantities of fish rubbed through a sieve, and fine breadcrumbs, with seasoning to taste, and eggs sufficient to bind the whole. Steam 1 hour in a buttered mould, turn out, and serve with sauce poured round. (B.) _Pulled Fish._--After any solid fish is boiled, pick it clear from the bones in small pieces, and to 1 lb. fish add ½ pint cream, 1 tablespoonful mustard, 1 oz. anchovy sauce, and 1½ spoonfuls of ketchup, a little pepper, flour, and butter mixed; make it quite hot in a saucepan and serve. _Quenelles._--Pound the raw flesh of any kind of fish, and pass it through a sieve; take of breadcrumbs soaked in milk and squeezed dry, half the quantity there is of fish, and take of butter the same quantity there is of breadcrumbs; amalgamate the whole in a mortar, seasoning with pepper, salt, and nutmeg according to taste; add a little cream, one whole egg, and as many more yolks as may be necessary to bind the mixture. Shape it into small quenelles, and cook them as meat quenelles. _Salad._--Fish makes an agreeable variety in the daily _menu_, and the following mode of cooking plaice may be acceptable as a substitute for soles. Select a moderate-sized one, which will divide into 8 fillets; cover with egg and breadcrumbs, and fry a light brown. Let them drain on white paper, and when quite cold put in the centre of a dish, and surround with salad, garnished with sliced beetroot, hard-boiled eggs, and sprigs of parsley. An excellent supper dish. A small lobster added to the salad is a great improvement. _Toast._--Toast 6 rounds of bread about the size of a large tumbler, and spread them with butter and anchovy or bloater paste. Put in a saucepan the yolks of 2 eggs, 1 gill cream or milk, and any cold fish cut small. When thick, spread it on the toasts, sprinkle some breadcrumbs over, and brown in a very quick oven. Serve very hot on a napkin. Special recipes for each fish will now be given in alphabetical order. _Anchovy_ (Anchois). Butter.--Wash, bone, and pound in a mortar some anchovies, with an equal quantity of fresh butter and cayenne to taste. Mix well together, pass them through a hair sieve, and either spread it on slices of thin toast, or shape the butter into balls; ice, and serve with a piece of toast under each ball. With Eggs and Endive.--Boil 6 eggs quite hard, shell them carefully, then cut the white with a sharp knife carefully across the middle of the egg, and, taking care not to break it, remove it like a case from the yolk. Mix the yolk with a little anchovy sauce. Form it again into a ball, and replace it within the white. Close the latter carefully, and when the eggs are thus prepared, place them in a pile upon a nest of endive, the points of the leaves towards the edge of the dish, which should be round. Fried.--Slightly fry the little fish in their own oil, and serve them on thin fried toast; they make a nice accompaniment to the cheese course at dinner. With Olives, Cold.--9 Spanish olives, 9 croûtons of fried bread, 4 anchovies, a little chopped parsley, ¼ teaspoonful chopped onion; take the stones from the olives in the usual way, wash and fillet the anchovies, and mince them very fine, also the parsley and onion; pound altogether in a mortar, and season with a little red pepper. Take a small portion of this preparation, and put into each olive in place of the stone. Now, with a small tin cutter, stamp out 9 croûtons of bread a little larger than a five-shilling piece; scoop out the middle, fry in some clean lard to a nice golden brown, and drain on a piece of kitchen paper; when cold, put an olive on each croûton, arrange them neatly in a silver dish, and put on each a little mayonnaise sauce and a little round the base. Sandwiches.--Take the contents of a bottle of anchovies, wash them in several waters, remove the bones, and put them in a mortar with a quantity of butter equal to them in bulk; pound thoroughly, so as to get a smooth paste, wherewith spread slices of bread. Toast.--Bone, clean, and wash a number of anchovies; make some slices of toast, butter them on one side very plentifully, cut in pieces the size of finger biscuits; lay 3 fillets of anchovy on each piece, throw a dash of pepper and the least bit of cayenne on them, and put them in the oven just long enough to get thoroughly hot, and so serve. _Barbel_ (Barbeau).--Broiled: see Chub. Roast: see Chub. _Bloater_ (Hareng pee).--On Toast.--Parboil 3 or 4 bloaters just long enough to allow the skin to come off easily; remove it, and take out the meat in fillets (4 to each fish). Have some slices of well-buttered toast of a proportionate shape to the fillets, lay one fillet on each, and trim them all to the same size. Rub each fillet over with some butter, sprinkle a slight dust of cayenne and black pepper over, put them in the oven to get quite hot, and serve. À la Sefton.--The flesh of 3 bloaters well soaked, ½ lb. Parmesan cheese grated; mixed together, seasoned to taste, and divided into pieces the size of respectable minnows; then egged and breadcrumbed, fried, and served hot. (E. P.) _Bombay Ducks or Bumaloes._--(_a_) Soak ½ hour to soften them; then beat out flat with a pestle, sprinkling with flour the while; cut off heads and tails, and toast on an iron plate over the fire, with another plate above to prevent curling up. They should be made quite crisp. (_b_) They are generally bought in tin boxes, prepared for table, and only require crisping in the oven for a few minutes. They are served with or after the cheese course, before the dessert, or, as in India, as an accompaniment to curry, which in that country is always the last dish. _Bream_ (Brème).--Put into a deep dish, or baking tin, a marinade of oil, vinegar, onions, thyme, bay leaf, pepper, salt, and a few cloves; lay a good-sized sea bream in this for some hours, basting occasionally; then cover with oiled paper, and put the dish or tin in the oven till the fish is done (about 30 minutes). Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, mix with it a good pinch of flour, strain the marinade into this, add a little stock, then one shallot and a little parsley chopped very fine; let the sauce boil, add more pepper and salt if necessary; pour over the fish and serve. River bream is far inferior to sea bream--a misunderstood and underrated fish--but may be cooked as a poor substitute for carp. Broiled: see Carp. Roast: see Carp, Chub. Soused: see Carp. Stewed: see Carp, Trout. _Brill_ (Barbue).--Brill is very like turbot, but less firm, thus requiring more care in the dressing. (_a_) After thoroughly cleansing, cut off the fins and rub the fish over with lemon juice 2-3 hours before cooking to make it white. Place it in the fish kettle with sufficient cold water to cover it, add 3-4 oz. salt and a little vinegar to 1 gal. water, heat it gradually by the side of the fire. As soon as it boils, skim, or the scum will fall on the fish and spoil its appearance. Let simmer till well done, but not broken. A large brill will take, after it boils, about 15 minutes, but to make sure of its being nicely cooked, lift up the drainer and try the fish with a fork (not steel). If the fish slips from the bone easily, and the bone is not the least red, the brill is ready to drain. It should be carefully drained before placing it on a hot napkin, garnished with slices of lemon and some lobster coral. Serve with lobster or shrimp sauce in a sauce tureen. Brill, although inferior in plumpness and in the beautiful texture and abundance of skin and fins to the turbot, is nevertheless a very delicate fish, and worthy of the care often bestowed upon it. It is very good when boiled and served with shrimp sauce, and may also be cut into fillets and stewed or fried. (_b_) It is also nice when dressed as follows: Cleanse the brill and cut its back down to the central bone. Butter the bottom of a baking dish, and sprinkle this with finely chopped shallots and mushrooms, a very little onion, and some parsley similarly treated. Moisten these herbs with a mixture of Madeira or brown sherry and some good brown gravy. Lay the brill on his back on the couch of herbs, sprinkle a little more minced mushroom and shallot over him, and pour over some rich melted butter. Put the dish on the fire till it shows signs of boiling, and then into a moderate oven till done. _Carp_ (Carpe).--Au bleu.--A famous cold dish of fish is that called _au bleu_. Trout, carp, and perch are good in this way. Prepare the carp, tie up the head, and put the fish in a kettle. Make some vinegar boiling hot, and pour it (scalding) over the carp; then moisten with red wine, and add 3 large onions cut in rounds, 2 carrots sliced, parsley, sage, shallots, thyme, bay leaves, and a few cloves, pepper, and salt. Put the fish kettle on the fire, and let it simmer only for about 1 hour, when take it off. Let the fish get cold in the liquor, and when wanted for serving take it out and lay on a napkin in a dish. This is very nice when accompanied by a _remoulade_ sauce. Broiled.--Take a fresh carp, gill it, draw, scrape off the slime, and wipe it dry with a clean cloth inside and out, lay it on a dish with vinegar, claret, salad oil, sweet herbs (rosemary, marjoram, &c.), sliced ginger, coarse pepper, cloves, and mace; let them steep 2 hours, then gently broil over a clear fire, turning often, and basting with the liquor and herbs it was steeped in. Serve with the herbs, spices, and liquor boiled up together, and some butter beaten up with the juice of oranges or lemons; or with plain salad oil, and the spawn broiled by itself and laid on the carp; or with sauce made with pickled oyster liquor, white wine, grated nutmeg, juice of oranges, and a little vinegar broiled and beaten up with butter and the yolk of an egg. Pike, mullet, roach, dace, or bream may so be dressed; but their blood and spawn must not be used, and they may be broiled either with scales or without. Also slices of salmon and conger eel can be cut in pieces and cooked in the same way. This latter is best parboiled before broiled. En Matelote.--Clean a fat carp and leave it whole. Take any other fresh-water fish that you may have handy, such as eels, pike, tench, perch, &c., cut them into pieces, put into a stewpan with a liberal allowance of butter and a few small onions blanched, and let them take colour. Now put in the carp surrounded with roes, moisten with equal quantities of red wine and good gravy, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. Let it boil, and when it is half done put in a couple of bay leaves and a little sage. Draw back the stewpan, and cook gently. When the sauce is sufficiently reduced, put the carp into a hot dish, pour the _ragoût_ over it, and garnish with fried sippets and crayfish. In Brown Sauce.--Cut the carp in pieces and pack them in a deep dish, strewing between some salt, pepper, 3 pounded cloves, a bay leaf, 2 slices of lemon, and a small shallot minced; pour over a glass of wine and the same of vinegar; cover, and let them stand a few hours; melt some butter in a stewpan, and dredge in as much flour as it absorbs, to brown; thin this with very little water, just to keep the thickening from burning to a cake; mince a rasher or two of bacon and a small onion; put these in a stewpan, and drain in the pickle from the fish; when the sauce boils, lay in the fish, and simmer gently till done; dish the slices whole, and strain the sauce over them. Pie.--Scale a carp, draw, remove gills, &c.; lay butter in the pie dish, and then the fish, with cloves, mace, nutmeg, 2 handfuls of capers, and currants cleaned; mix some butter and salt, and lay them over; cover with paste; lastly, pour in (at a hole in the top) some white wine, and bake. It is as good hot as cold. Roast.--Leave on the scales, cut out the gills, draw, wash, and remove the spawn. Make a stuffing of grated manchet (breadcrumbs), almond paste, cream, currants, grated nutmeg, new yolks of eggs, candied lemon, or other peel, some lemon and salt. Make it stiff and stuff the fish, but not too full. Roast in the oven on 2 or 3 sticks laid across a dish, turn, and let the gravy drop into the dish. Dish it with slices of lemon, and sauce made with the above gravy; the juice of an orange or lemon, and some cinnamon mixed with butter. Soused.--Draw, but do not scale the fish, save the liver, and wash it well; boil 1 pt. white wine, and 4 of water with some spice and sweet herbs; just before putting in the fish add a little vinegar (to make it crisp); when done, take out the fish. Add to the liquor some white pepper, bruised ginger, and let it boil, then get cold. Put the fish into it for 4-5 days, serve with vinegar and fennel. Stewed.--Scale, cut out gills, wash clean, and dry with a clean cloth, flour, and fry them in butter; put them, when the liquor boils, into a stewpan, with ½ pint claret, grated nutmeg, mace, and anchovy chopped fine, a little sliced ginger, 3 or 4 cloves, salt, and 3 or 4 slices of orange; cover up the stewpan, and stew quickly, turning the fish occasionally. When cooked, dish with sippets of fried bread and slices of orange, lay the spices on and pour over a sauce made with butter and some of the liquor in which the fish was stewed. Garnish with grated breadcrumbs. With Polish Sauce.--Lay thin slices of parsnip, celery, and onion in a stewpan, with a good-sized piece of butter, some salt, pepper, 2 slices of lemon, 2 bay leaves, and 6 cloves. Split open the carp, leaving the back whole. Lay it flat on the seasoning with the back uppermost. Lay the head, tail, liver, and milt on the top, and with these 2 thick slices of brown gingerbread, broken up. Pour over 1-2 tablespoonfuls vinegar, and beer enough to barely cover the fish. Simmer all till the fish is well done, take it up carefully, put the head back into the sauce, and stew this to a rich brown. Season it to taste, and strain it over the fish, which must have a thick brown glazing. _Chub_ (Chabot). Roast.--Scale, wash, and remove the gills, making the hole as small and as near to the gills as possible; put inside some sweet herbs--rosemary, thyme, marjoram, parsley, and winter savory--tie the fish to a spit and roast, basting frequently with vinegar and butter, and plenty of salt. Barbel, tench, bream, &c., may be dressed in the same way, but should be basted only with butter; salt first strewed on. See Carp. Broiled.--Scale, wash, and clean the fish, slit it through the middle, cut it 3 or 4 times across the back, and broil over a clear fire, turning it frequently, and basting with butter, plenty of salt, and a little powdered thyme. Trout, barbel, and tench may be dressed in the same way. Baked.--Put into a fish kettle enough water, with a little vinegar, to cover the fish; add some fennel and a good quantity of salt. When the water boils put in the fish (washed, cleaned, &c.); boil slowly; when done drain for 1 hour, remove the fish from the house, put it into a pie dish with plenty of butter and minced parsley, bake in the oven, and serve very hot. _Cockles_ (Clovisses, Prayres).--Cockles are very good when treated properly, and make excellent sauce as well as stew prepared in this fashion: Put 100 cockles into a pail of water, wash them with a birch broom; then put them into a pail of spring water and salt for 2 hours; wash them out, and put them into a saucepan; cover them close, and stew gently till they open. Strain the liquor through a sieve, pick them out of the shells, and wash well. Now put into a saucepan the cockles, the liquor drained from the settlings, ½ pint of hock, grave, or sauterne, a little grated nutmeg, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. Stew till thick and smooth, and serve in a hot dish garnished with sippets. _Cod_ (Cabillaud, Morue).--Cod is popularly supposed to come into season in September, but is not really good till November, and reaches its greatest perfection in December, January, and February, after which month its quality again declines. In choosing this fish, care should be taken to select one that is thick and round, especially about the shoulders, which should present a clumsy and “humpy” appearance, like those of a wild boar, whose general outline is by no means unlike that of a prime codfish. The flesh should be firm, the gills of a lively red, and the eye bright and plump. It may be remarked that, though it is important to buy fresh cod, it is not quite so well to cook it immediately, as when freshly caught it is apt to be watery; but when rubbed with salt and kept for a day or two it acquires the firmness and creaminess so much prized. Cod is better crimped than when cooked whole, the operation of boiling being more successfully performed under these conditions. The fish may be partially crimped by scoring it at equal distances, without absolutely cutting it through into slices; but the effect of the operation is always to improve the fish. After being thoroughly cleaned the cod should be scored or sliced at regular intervals of about 1½-2 in.; then washed clean in spring water, and laid in a pan of spring water in which a handful of salt has been allowed to dissolve. About 2 hours’ soaking in this brine will produce the desired effect, when the fish may be washed and set to drain. Au gratin.--In common with turbot and other white fishes, cod is very good when dressed _au gratin_. The cold fish should be picked out in flakes, perfectly free from skin and bone, and in this case no liver should be added; then take a dish, rub it with garlic, butter it and put in the codfish; season with pepper and salt, and pour over it a liberal allowance of melted butter, made with milk and cream; cover the whole with plenty of finely-sifted baked breadcrumbs, then put the dish in the oven; when well browned it is ready. A little finely-grated Parmesan cheese may be sprinkled over the fish as an agreeable variety. Baked.--The tail-end of a codfish weighing 2-3 lb., or the whole of a small fish, can be cooked as follows: Pass a knife down each side of the backbone, and press in a good stuffing. For the above weight of fish the quantity here given to make the stuffing will suffice: Rub the crumb of a French roll through a coarse gravy-strainer; have very finely chopped 1 oz. beef suet or cooked fat bacon, a pinch of dried parsley and sweet herbs, salt and pepper; mix with egg and ½ teaspoonful essence of anchovy; make ½ pint thin melted butter, squeeze into it the juice of half a lemon, pepper and salt, a teaspoonful of essence of anchovy, and pour into a tin baking dish. Lay in the fish, bake in a moderate oven for about an hour, basting frequently, and taking care it does not brown. Should the sauce reduce too much and get thick in process of cooking, add a little water, a bit of butter, and a few drops of anchovy. When the fish is done, remove it to a hot dish and strain the sauce over it. Boiled.--Tie the fish several times over with string, lay it in cold water plentifully salted, and let it boil gently, carefully skimming the water; when done lift it up and let it drain, then serve. An ordinary-sized piece will be done 2-3 minutes after the water comes to boiling point. Fried.--Any piece of cod can be fried, but the slices should not be more than ½ in. thick, because, if they are so, they take so long to get done through, that either the outside is sodden or dried too much, according to the method of frying. If there is time, sprinkle the slices with pepper and salt, and leave them for 1-2 hours. When ready to fry, wipe the cutlets dry, dip in yolk of egg and very finely sifted breadcrumbs, mixed with an equal proportion of flour, and highly seasoned with pepper and salt. The best plan is to fry the cutlets in a wire basket, with plenty of fat, but if this is not convenient, they can be done in the frying-pan, if care is taken to do them quickly, and to have as much fat at the right temperature as possible. It is best to fillet the tail of cod for frying, and it is an economical dish. Having removed the flesh from the bones, press it flat with the cutlet bat, and divide into neat pieces; finish as directed above. Caper or piquant sauces are suitable for fried cod. The latter can be made by warming finely-minced pickles in plain butter sauce. Mashed Salt (Brandade).--Take some salted codfish that has been soaked for at least 24 hours. Boil in plain water, drain, carefully pick out all the skin and bones, and separate the flesh into small flakes. Put the flakes into a basin, and work them with a fork until every flake is broken into little pieces. Rub a saucepan freely with garlic, put the fish and a small quantity of fine salad oil into it, stir well with a fork. Place the saucepan on a very slow fire, and never cease stirring the contents; pour into it salad oil and milk alternately, in the smallest possible quantities, but continuously, until the mixture assumes the appearance of a thick creamy paste. Season with white pepper, add some lemon juice, and never leave off stirring, for it is upon the thoroughness of this operation that the success of the dish depends. Served piled on a dish, with bread sippets fried in butter. Rock.--Plain boil the cod, remove all the meat, clear it from skin and bone, then mince it fine; mince also an onion; put it in a stewpan with a piece of butter, and steam it soft; then put in the fish, with salt, white pepper, and finely mashed or grated potatoes; stir all well together, with a piece of butter; make hot; serve it well raised, with crumbs browned in butter, sprinkled over or ornamented with narrow strips of pickled beetroot. Roe (Laitance).--Soft roes, which are the best, are to be bought at prices ranging from 2_d._ to 8_d._ each. This last is very large, and will make a dish amply sufficient for 12 persons. The hard roe is generally sold at 6_d._, but, as it does not go so far, it is not so cheap as the soft. It has lately come into use, when cured and smoked, as a breakfast delicacy, but, like all other dried fish, is indigestible. When fresh, it requires to be carefully prepared, or it will be tasteless; but properly managed it makes both a good and elegant dish. Besides the recipes given, there are a number of other ways of utilising this roe. It makes an excellent basis for fish soups of any kind, or mulligatawny, and nothing can be better for stewed oysters. It is also very good curried. Soft Roe Fried.--Take the whole of a small roe or a portion of a large one, about the size of a calf’s sweetbread. Boil ½ pint water with a tablespoonful of vinegar, a large pinch of salt, and a shake of pepper. Put the roe in, and let it boil for 10 minutes; then take up and drain. Beat up half an egg, yolk and white together, in a basin, and pass the rose through it so as to touch every part. Have ready some finely-sifted breadcrumbs mixed with an equal quantity of raspings, and well seasoned with pepper and salt, and dip the roe in them, taking care it is nicely covered. Have ready some good frying fat, and when boiling put in the roe; fry on one side until brown and crisp; then turn and finish on the other. Butter sauce and anchovy may be eaten with it; or butter sauce with a little lemon juice and cayenne pepper added. Hard Roe.--Get the roe the day before it is wanted. Boil it in salt and water until perfectly firm. When cold, slice it into cutlets ¼ in. thick and lay them in a pickle composed of a pinch of saltpetre and of baysalt, a teaspoonful of common salt, pinch of pepper, ground cloves, nutmeg, and allspice, the whole mixed with 2 teaspoonfuls vinegar. Let the cutlets remain in this pickle until the next day, turning them occasionally. A little before cooking drain and dry them, brush them over with egg, and dip them in finely-sifted breadcrumbs, well seasoned with pepper and salt and a pinch of chopped parsley. Fry the cutlets in butter until a nice brown, and when about to serve pour round them a sauce made as follows: Take 4 spoonfuls good gravy, add a few drops essence of anchovy, thicken with ½ teaspoonful flour, chop a tablespoonful of capers, and boil them, for a minute or two in the gravy. The preceding recipes for roe are due to the well-known authority, Mary Hooper. Sauté.--Boil a piece of codfish, but do not over do it. Pick out the flesh in flakes, put them in a saucepan with a piece of butter, pepper and salt to taste, some minced parsley, and the juice of a lemon, with a dust of cayenne. Put it on the fire till quite hot, and serve. Sound (Nau).--(_a_) 6 fine salted sounds will make a good dish. Soak in cold milk and water for several hours, and boil until tender in fresh milk and water; then drain and dish on a napkin as any other fish; serve egg sauce with them. (_b_) After boiling the sounds, as in (_a_), cut into neat pieces, not too small; and having made the egg sauce, put the pieces of sounds into the stewpan containing it. Hold the stewpan over the fire, shaking it about during the time until the fish is quite hot; then dish it without a napkin, piling the sounds in pyramid form, and pouring the remainder of the sauce over. Garnish with boiled parsnips round the dish; cut into neat pieces alike in size and shape. Steaks, with Mock Oyster Sauce.--The most economical way of having cod steaks is to order either the tail of a good-sized cod or a cod’s head and shoulders, so cut that there is sufficient to take off some steaks, and what remains comes in for luncheon or the children’s dinner the following day. Sprinkle the cod with salt, and fry, either with or without breadcrumbs, a golden brown. Stewed.--With a sharp knife remove the flesh in long slices from 2-3 lb. tail end of a codfish; divide each piece into three or four, dip in flour highly seasoned with pepper and salt, and fry lightly. Boil the bone of the fish with a minced onion, 3 or 4 peppercorns, a small bundle of sweet herbs, and 1 qt. water, for 1 hour. Strain the liquor, which should be about 1 pint. Let boil up, and thicken with 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, mixed smooth in a little cold water; add 2 teaspoonfuls essence of anchovy, and pepper to taste. Put in the pieces of fish, and simmer them in this sauce for ¼ hour. When about to serve, a few drops of vinegar may be added. Twice Laid.--Take 1 lb. of the remnants of boiled codfish, remove all skin and bone, taking care to leave the fish in nice pieces. Put 2 oz. butter into a saucepan, when melted add ½ tablespoonful flour; stir it on the fire 2-3 minutes, pour in 1 gill milk, add salt and pepper to taste, and a little nutmeg; stir until the sauce boils. Take 2 hard-boiled eggs, cut each into 8 pieces; put them into the sauce with the fish and about 1 lb. mashed potatoes; mix all lightly together, dish up high on a plate, put into the oven to brown, ornament with some slices of hard-boiled egg, and serve. With Cream.--Pick out carefully in flakes all the flesh from the remnants of some boiled codfish; melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, and add to it a large pinch of flour and 1 gill milk or cream, with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to taste, also the least bit of cayenne; stir well, put in the fish, and gently shake it in this sauce till quite warm. If the composition be too dry add a little milk or cream; then add off the fire the yolks of 2 eggs beaten up with a little milk, and serve. _Crab_ (Écrevisse de mer). Browned.--Take the great shell, clean and butter it; mince all the fish, shred some parsley, mushrooms, truffles, and a little young onion. Brown these in a saucepan with a very little butter; put in the minced crab with the inside bruised, and some cayenne pepper and salt; stir this about, shake in some flour, and add a little corach. Let this simmer up, fill up the shell, strew over crumbs of bread with small piece of butter; brown in a Dutch oven or with a salamander. Dressed.--To produce a successful dressed crab, boil a large and a small crab in salt and water. When cold, open them, pull off and break the claws, and take out the chine. Clear out the shells completely, and put the soft creamy part into a basin. Now pick out all white meat from large and small claws and chine, and put some of this aside. Add to remainder a dressing of oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, and mustard, and mix well. Replace the mixture in the shell of the large crab, strew over the top the reserve of white meat, pulled into fibres, and adorn it with powdered yolk of hard-boiled egg, lobster spawn, and caviar, disposed in stripes, triangles, or diagonals. Devilled.--Take 2 boiled crabs, pick out the meat and put it aside. Mince 2 or 3 shallots very finely, and put them into a stewpan with a goodly lump of butter. Fry the shallots to a gold colour, and then put in a little milk, salt, cayenne pepper, a dash of ketchup, a spoonful of chutnee, and a very little parsley finely chopped. Boil till it thickens; put in the minced crab, and let it boil up; then add the yolk of an egg, a little cream, and amalgamate quickly. Fill the shell of the larger crab, egg and breadcrumb it, put into the oven for 10 minutes, pass a salamander over it, and serve. _Crayfish._--The sea crayfish (_langouste_) may be cooked in every way like lobster, but its flesh is very inferior in texture and richness. Freshwater crayfish (_écrevisse_) are in this country frequently ignored in consequence of the abundance of lobsters, but are excellent morsels even when simply boiled and eaten cold, and are invaluable as garnish. The famous _bisque d’écrevisses_ is made in the same way as lobster soup, save and except that the shells are pounded and added to the soup at an early stage of its confection. The rich, highly flavoured dish known as _écrevisses à la bordelaise_ is made by first getting ready a _mirepois_ thus: Cut into small dice 3 carrots and 3 onions, and add to them a bay leaf, some thyme, parsley, and lean ham, the whole chopped finely. Put all these into a stewpan with a large piece of butter, and let it stew gently without taking too much colour. Having thoroughly cleaned 24 raw crayfish, put them into the _mirepois_ with half a bottle of sauterne, half a glass of good cognac, a piece of glaze, and a little good stock; throw in a little pepper and salt, and cook over a brisk fire. In aspic: see Prawns. _Dab_ (Limande): see Flounder. _Dace_ (Vandoise) Boiled: see Carp. Stewed: see Carp, Trout. _Eels_ (Anguilles).--When intended for frying or stewing, eels are skinned, but for a broil or “spatchcock,” the skin, after thorough scouring and cleansing, should be left on. In all these processes care should be taken that the eels be not overdone. Nothing, of course, can well be more detestable or more unwholesome than underdone fish, but in the case of eels great nicety is required, as if they are cooked too much all springiness and elasticity are lost. This point is often neglected in a stew or _matelote_; all individuality of texture is sacrificed, and a soft, tasteless dish is the consequence. Very large eels may be stuffed with truffle or other stuffing, and roasted; and small ones may be made into a pie; but the broil, fry, and stew are the most popular forms. Broiled.--To “spatchcock” an eel, select a large one. Scour well with salt, wipe clean with a cloth, slit down the back, take out the bone and inside, cut off the head, and wipe off the blood. Cut into 4-5 pieces. Brush these over with yolk of egg, and sprinkle with a mixture of breadcrumbs, sweet herbs, parsley, and the thin rind of lemon rubbed fine, a little grated nutmeg, pepper and salt. Put on a well-anointed gridiron over a clear fire, skin-side downwards. When that side is done, turn on the other, and broil to a fine brown. Lay in a hot dish, and garnish with horseradish and parsley. Serve, separately, anchovy sauce, _ravigote_ sauce, or, best of all, a cold _tartare_. Conger (Anguille de mer). Broiled.--Flay, draw, cut in pieces, and wipe clean; then parboil in water with salt and sweet herbs; lay the pieces on a clean gridiron, over a clear fire, turning often, and basting with butter and sweet herbs. Serve with butter, beaten up with 4 or 5 spoonfuls of hot spring water, and the beaten-up yolk of an egg. See Carp; Ling. Collared, to be eaten cold.--Prepare some large eels as for broiling, divide down the back and take out the bone, strew inside with powdered herbs (thyme, parsley, &c.) and spices (nutmeg, cloves, ginger, pepper), and salt; roll up the eels, tie in a cloth, bound close with packthread, and boil in water and vinegar, with salt, till quite tender--the liquor must boil before putting in the eels. When done, take them out of the liquor, which must be allowed to get cold, then put them back and let remain 5-6 days. Serve either in collars or in round slices, with vinegar. If to keep for a long time, no herbs ought to be put in, only the salt and spices; and the pickle they are kept in must be boiled every fortnight, vinegar and water being added as it wastes. Fricassée.--Scour some moderate sized eels, cut off the heads, draw, &c., and cut them into pieces; put them into a frying pan with as much white wine and water as will cover them; add spice, cloves, mace, nutmeg, pepper, sweet herbs, and salt; boil well; when tender, dish them with 2 pounded anchovies, the yolks of eggs, and butter, added to the liquor and poured over. Fried.--Wash clean, &c., cut them into pieces 3-4 in. long; put into some boiling water, with salt and fennel, and let them partly boil; drain the water well off, flour, and then fry till brown and crisp, first on one side and then on the other. Galantine.--Split a good-sized conger, and take out the bone. Chop and mix a tablespoonful of parsley, the same quantity of sweet herbs, the thin rind of a lemon with a seasoning of salt, cayenne or pepper, and a little ground mace. A few mushrooms are an improvement. Sprinkle this on the inside of the fish, and roll up, beginning at the head end; wrap in a cloth to keep it in shape, and simmer in equal parts vinegar and water until tender. Let remain in the stock till both are cold, then take out of the cloth, and serve cold, garnished with parsley, and if possible glazed. It is also very good cut in slices, and set in a mould of clear jelly with hard-boiled eggs. Matelote.--Take 2 or more eels, cut them up into pieces 2 in. long. Put ½ pint stock and the same quantity of claret into a saucepan with a sliced onion, a pod of garlic, some whole pepper, salt, cloves, thyme, bay leaf, and parsley, all according to taste, lay the eels in this, and let boil gently till done. Strain the sauce, and add to it a liqueur glass of brandy. Melt a good sized piece of butter in a saucepan, stir in 1 tablespoonful flour, then add the sauce; let boil, and pour over the fish which you serve with sippets of bread fried in butter round it. Pie.--Skin, prepare, and cut up the eel, season the pieces with spices (cloves, mace, nutmeg, and pepper, well powdered) and salt; line a pie dish with paste, and lay in the pieces with some currants (well cleaned) and butter; cover over with paste, make a hole in the top, pour in 6-8 spoonfuls of white wine, and bake in the oven. Roast.--Wash a large eel in salt and water, partly pull back the skin as far as to the vent, draw and clean but do not wash again; notch 2 or 3 times with a knife, and stuff with sweet herbs, an anchovy cut very small, and some grated nutmeg. Cut off the head, put the skin back and tie it, to keep in all the moisture, fasten to a spit and roast slowly, basting (till the skin breaks) with salt and water, then with butter. Sauce, melted butter, with the stuffing from the fish. Stewed.--1 middle-sized onion sliced, 1 dessertspoonful chopped parsley, a small quantity of chopped lemon peel, 1 teaspoonful chopped capers. Fry in a stewpan in a little butter, stir a few minutes, add ½ pint good brown stock, with a little caper or tarragon vinegar in it, and pepper and salt to taste; then add 1½ lb. middle-sized eels, not skinned, but cut into pieces rather less than 3 in. long. Put in the heads, but take them away before sending the dish to table. Cook gently ½ hour, then thicken with flour and butter, and boil gently a few minutes to cook the flour. The sauce should adhere to each piece of eel the thickness of good cream. Serve in a hot covered dish, and send at once to table. (S. R.) _Flounder_ (Carrelet).--The flounder may be cooked in any of the ways prescribed for other flat fish, and is capital when fried. Still, the highest expression of the flounder is found in the dish with which he is specially identified--water souchet. Water souchet.--To prepare this dish properly, a good fish stock should be made of the heads, fins, and other trimmings of flounders, or of any fish that may be handy. This may be prepared while the flounders are crimping, an operation which should not be overlooked if the fish are of tolerable size. Throw the trimmings into a stewpan, with pepper and salt and sufficient water; add 6 parsley roots cut up small, and a handful of green parsley; bring this to the boil, let it simmer for 1-2 hours, and strain. Put some of this liquor with a few finely shred and blanched parsley roots into a saucepan, throw in a handful of salt, and boil for 5 minutes; then put in the fish and boil for 5 minutes, when add a large handful of green parsley, nicely washed and picked, and boil for 5 minutes longer. Take up the fish very carefully, strain the parsley and roots in a sieve, put them on the fish, and add enough of the liquor to cover them well. Garnish with lemon, and eat with brown bread and butter, cut very thin. _Grayling_ (Ombre).--Stewed: see Carp, Trout. _Gudgeon_ (Goujon).--Gudgeon requires a world of scraping and cleaning, but are well worth the preliminary pains, as they only need to be treated like whitebait, i.e. floured and fried in boiling lard, to be quite successful. They may or may not be garnished with fried parsley, and should be eaten with lemon, cayenne, and salt, and very thin slices of brown bread and butter. _Gurnet_ (Rouget, grondin). Baked.--Take some fine breadcrumbs, add ¼ their bulk of shallots and the same quantity of mushrooms, both finely minced and lightly fried in butter; then add some chopped parsley and sweet herbs; season with pepper and salt, and make the mixture into a paste by working into it the yolks of 1 or 2 eggs, a pat of butter, and a little milk. Stuff the fish with this, and truss it with packthread. Butter a baking dish, dispose upon it an onion and a carrot cut in slices, a few sprigs of parsley, 2 or 3 cloves, and some whole pepper and salt to taste. Lay the fish on this, then add a good ½ pint stock and a wineglass of white wine, cover the fish with a sheet of buttered paper, and bake it ½-¾ hour, according to the size. Baste it now and then during the process with its own liquor. When done strain the liquor into a saucepan in which a piece of butter has been mixed with a tablespoonful of flour, add a little _suc colore_ to give the sauce a good colour, and as soon as it is boiling hot pour over the fish and serve. With Caper Sauce.--Place the fish trussed with packthread in a fish kettle full of cold water, well salted; when the water comes near boiling point draw the fish kettle aside, let simmer gently till the fish is quite done, lift up to drain, then lay it on a dish; pour plenty of brown caper sauce over. _Haddock_ (Eglefin).--Boiled.--Tie the fish with a string in the shape of an S, or with its tail in its mouth; lay it in plenty of cold water, well salted. Place the fish kettle on the fire, and by the time the water is on the point of boiling, the fish, unless it be a very large one, should be quite done. Let it drain across the kettle, and serve. Broiled.--Split the fish open, wipe dry with a cloth, rub with salad oil and flour it, then broil over a clear fire; meanwhile knead 1 oz. butter with the juice of half a lemon, pepper and salt to taste, and a little parsley blanched, squeezed dry, and very finely minced; put this butter on a hot dish, the fish over, and serve. Dried.--Warm the haddock before the fire, just long enough to make the skin peel off easily. Cut it into pieces down the middle, and 2 or 3 times across. Put it into a closed saucepan with a lump of butter and a small teaspoonful of water, stew gently for a few minutes. In Jelly.--See Trout in Jelly. _Hake_ (Merlus).--See Cod. Roast: see Pike. Stewed: see Ling. _Halibut_ (Flétan).--Of the halibut little need be said. It is a large fish, endowed with firm and white, but rather coarse flesh. It is perhaps best stewed or fried. Boiled halibut is very apt to be woolly. _Herrings_ (Harengs).--Fried.--Take care the fish is well cleaned, without being split; 2-3 hours before cooking, lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper; when ready to cook, wipe and flour the herrings. Have ready in the frying pan as much fat, at the proper temperature, as will cover the herrings. Cook quickly at first, then moderate the heat slightly, and fry for 10-12 minutes, when they should be crisp and brown. When done, lay them on a dish before the fire, in order that all fat and fish-oil may drain from them. With this precaution, fried herrings will be found more digestible than otherwise they would be. When herrings are large, there is sometimes a redness near the bone; this will be prevented by passing a knife, before cooking, a little way down the backbone, near the head. Rolled.--Choose herrings with soft roes. Having scraped and washed them, cut off the heads, split open, take out the roes, and cleanse the fish. Hold one in the left hand, and, with thumb and finger of the right, press the backbone to loosen it, then lay flat on the board, and draw out the bone; it will come out whole, leaving none behind. Dissolve a little fresh butter, pass the inner side of the fish through it, sprinkle pepper and salt lightly over, then roll it up tightly, with the fin and tail outwards, roll it in flour, and sprinkle a little pepper and salt, then put a little game skewer to keep the herring in shape. Have ready a good quantity of boiling fat; it is best to do the herrings in a wire basket, and fry them quickly for 10 minutes. Take them up and set them on a plate before the fire, in order that all the fat may drain from them. Pass the roes through flour mixed with a sufficient quantity of pepper and salt, fry them brown, and garnish the fish with them and crisp parsley. A difficulty is often felt in introducing herrings at dinner, on account of the number of small bones in them, but this is obviated by the above method of dressing, as with care not one bone should be left in. _John Dory_ (Dorée).--Stuffed.--Pick out all the flesh from a whiting, pound it with an equal bulk of breadcrumbs soaked in milk, a piece of butter, a small onion or a shallot, blanched, pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to taste; mix the whole very well, and work it into a paste with the yolks of one or two eggs. Lift up the flesh from the backbone of a good-sized John Dory, stuff it with the above composition, and tie up with string; lay in a buttered tin with a tablespoonful of minced shallots, a couple of bay leaves, some whole pepper, and salt to taste; pour in enough stock and white wine in equal parts to cover the fish, place a sheet of buttered paper over, and put the tin in the oven for about ¾ hour, more or less, according to the size of the fish. Remove the string, and serve with some of the liquor strained and thickened with a little butter and flour. With Caper Sauce.--Place the fish, trussed with packthread, in a fish kettle full of cold water well salted; when the water comes near boiling point, draw the fish kettle aside, let it simmer gently till the fish is quite done, lift up to drain, then lay on a dish, pour plenty of brown caper sauce over. _Lamperns._--These great delicacies are in season from October to April. Many persons confuse them with the lamprey, which is a totally different fish, being larger than an eel, while the lampern is not more than 8 in. long. They should be bought alive, killed by boiling water, cleaned by stirring them briskly round in the bucket in which they are killed, and after rinsing them in cold water, rubbed in a cloth. They should then have the points of their mouths and the tips of their tails cut off, taking care to remove as little as possible, else the gravy is lost, and the nature of these fish is the same as a snipe. Stewed.--Have ready about 3 tablespoonfuls of good rich gravy, ¼ pint claret or port, a blade of mace, 3 cloves, a teaspoonful of salt, ½ teaspoonful of pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, a dessertspoonful of Worcester sauce. This is sufficient for stewing 3 doz. lamperns. Stew them very gently for about 1 hour, set them aside in the gravy till the following day, when they may be rewarmed; the gravy thickened with butter and arrowroot, a little more sauce added; serve very hot, garnished with lemon and horseradish. They should always stand a night in the gravy before being eaten, and will keep for a week. If potted, they should be curled round in a small jar when stewed; about 9 or more fish make a small pot; the gravy requires setting with a little isinglass, and when sent to table they should be turned out and garnished with parsley. The flavour of the lampern is totally unlike that of any other fish, and epicures in Worcestershire will pay a high price for them when they are scarce. (E. B. W.) _Lamprey_ (Lamproie). Baked.--Skin, draw, and split the back from mouth to tail, remove the string in the back and truss it round; parboil it in salted water with sweet herbs, season when cold with nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Line a pie dish with paste, put butter at the bottom, then the lamprey, 2 or 3 onions, cloves, currants, a piece of butter; cover the pie, fill it up (through a hole in the top) with clarified butter--or boiling claret, this will not keep so long--and bake. Eels, lampreys, &c., may be baked in a glazed earthen pot (without paste) rubbed inside well with butter, and--if to keep long--they should be seasoned well with cloves, mace, pepper, and salt. _Ling._--Cut 1 lb. ling into slices, rub with flour, and fry a nice brown. When done, fry a stick of celery and a very small onion. Add ½ pint stock with a dessertspoonful of flour, a sprig of parsley, a piece of lemon peel, a blade of mace, salt, and peppercorns. When it boils, put the fish back in the saucepan, and simmer very gently until done, i.e. 15-20 minutes. Put the slices on a hot dish and strain the gravy over. The sauce may be varied by adding the chopped whites of a hard-boiled egg just before serving, and rubbing the yolk over the dish through a sieve as a garnish. Conger requires longer cooking; hake and most other white fish, which can be used for this same recipe, not so long. _Lobster_ (Homard).--During the early summer months lobsters are in prime condition, and may be bought either alive or dead. As they are very tenacious of life, and indeed will live on till their substance is utterly wasted, it is clearly better to buy them alive, taking care not to kill them till just before cooking. The heaviest are the best; and if the tail strikes quick and strong, they are in good condition, but if weak and light and frothing at the mouth, are exhausted and worthless. In like manner, when buying a boiled lobster put your finger and thumb on the body and pinch it; if it feels firm, and the tail goes back with a strong spring, the lobster--if heavy and of a good colour--is a desirable specimen. À la St. Malo.--Take a lobster, cut in two lengthwise; take out all the flesh, and scallop it, making the claws and coral into lobster butter. Reduce some good gravy with a little double cream, and add two spoonfuls of tomato sauce: stir all well together, with a pinch of cayenne pepper. Roll the lobster scallops in the sauce, and place them in the shell, on the top of a few minced truffles, and cover with the thick sauce; mix a little butter and shallot with breadcrumbs and finely-chopped parsley. Scatter this over the lobster, and cook _au gratin_ for ¼ hour. (Mrs. C.) À l’Enfant Prodigue.--Get a couple of lobsters, and cut them down the back, leaving the shell of the heads intact; remove the non-edible portions and break the claws. Put the whole into a stewpan with a bottle of champagne (sweet champagne will do), 4 spoonfuls fine salad oil, 3 cloves of garlic, a sprig of basil, and a lemon (sliced and freed from peel and pips), salt, pepper, chervil, parsley, a few mushrooms, and 2 lb. truffles (whole). When done, take out the sweet herbs, cut off the heads of the lobsters, place them erect in the middle of the dish, and dispose the other pieces around. Impale the truffles on the antennæ of the lobsters, pour the sauce over, and above all, serve Clos de Vougeôt, Chambertin, or Côte Rôtie with this dish. Au gratin.--Split the tail and body of the lobster, removing the fish and taking care not to break the shells, mince up the fish and put all into a stewpan with a little good stock, and pepper and salt, mix it well, fill the shells with the mixture, cover them with breadcrumbs, brush over with clarified butter, and brown with a salamander. Boiled.--A fine lobster simply boiled and served piping hot is a capital dish. To produce this, tie up the lobster’s tail fast to the body with a string, put on a saucepan or fish-kettle with sufficient water; let it boil, put in the lobster with a handful of salt, and boil for about ½ hour (a small one will not require more than 15-20 minutes), then take it out, wipe all the scum off, break the claws, split it through the tail and back, and lay it in a hot dish, “displayed” with a claw on each side. Melted butter is generally served with this dish, and is much improved by the addition of pounded spawn; but a hot _ravigote_ or _tartare_ sauce will be found an improvement on the traditional accompaniment. Broiled.--After being boiled as above, a lobster may be broiled in this wise: Take the claws off and crack them, split the body and tail in two, season well with pepper, salt, and cayenne, and broil. Serve with plain butter or with a little heated ketchup, dashed with Worcestershire sauce. Roast.--There are 3 methods of roasting a lobster. One is to boil it and put it in a dish before the fire, and baste it with butter till it froths, and then “display” it in a hot dish, and serve. Another plan is only to half boil the lobster, then butter its shell, and tie it to the spit before a brisk fire. After a plentiful basting with butter, it may be served with a hot _sauce tartare_. A more thorough method than either of these is to tie a large uncooked lobster to a long skewer, using plenty of packthread, and attaching it firmly, for a reason to be presently stated. Tie the skewer to a spit, and put the lobster down to a sharp fire; baste with champagne, butter, pepper and salt. After a while the shell of the animal will become tender, and will crumble between the fingers. When it comes away from the body the operation of roasting is complete. Take down the lobster, skim the fat from the gravy in the dripping-pan, add the juice of a Seville orange, pepper, salt, and spice, and serve in a lordly dish. Buttered.--A buttered lobster should be first boiled and broken up. Take out all the meat, cut it small, and put it into a stewpan with plenty of butter, a little pepper, salt, and vinegar, and stir till it is hot. If a handsome dish of 2 or 3 lobsters be desired, the tails should be halved and broiled, and put round the dish with the minced lobster in the middle. Cream.--Take the flesh from 2 lobsters, cut up small, and then pound in a mortar with the spawn until reduced to a smooth paste; then pass through a fine sieve, add pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, and mix gradually sufficient double cream to make it of the consistency of a thick purée. Just before serving, put into small paper cases and serve cold with some of the spawn sprinkled over the top. Croquettes.--Mince the flesh of a lobster to the size of small dice, season with pepper, salt, spices, and as much cayenne as will rest on the point of a trussing needle. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, mix with it 1 tablespoonful flour, then the lobster, and some chopped parsley; moisten with a little stock until the mixture looks like minced veal; then stir into it off the fire 2 yolks of eggs, and put by to get cold. When nearly so, shape into the form of corks, egg them, and roll in baked breadcrumbs. After the lapse of an hour, egg and breadcrumb them again, taking care to preserve the shape. After a little time fry them a nice colour in hot lard. Croustades.--Cut the crumb of a loaf of bread into slices 2 in. thick, and then with a round paste cutter about 2 in. diameter, cut out of each slice as many pieces as you can; with another paste cutter, about 1½ in. diameter, make a mark on one side of each cylinder of breadcrumb. When all are ready fry them a golden colour in very hot lard; a deep frying-pan should be used, and plenty of lard, so that the croustades fairly swim in the fat. When done lay them in front of the fire to drain, and afterwards remove the cover (marked with the smaller paste cutter), and with the handle of a teaspoon scoop out all the inside of each croustade. Then fill them with the following mixture:--Mince the flesh of a hen lobster to the size of small dice, season with pepper, salt, and spice, and as much cayenne as will rest on the point of a trussing needle. Pound some of the spawn with 1 oz. butter, pass it through a hair sieve. Take another ounce of butter, melt it in a saucepan with a teaspoonful of flour, add a very small quantity of white stock and the flesh of the lobster; when the mixture is thoroughly hot, put in a pinch of finely minced parsley, the juice of half a lemon and the butter which was pounded with the spawn. Curry.--Lobster curry is made by frying sliced onions in butter till they are done enough. The flesh of a boiled lobster is then added, and the curry powder (made into a paste) is put in with a liberal allowance of cream. 15-20 minutes will cook this dish, which should be carefully stirred all the time. It may be served within a wall of rice, or, better still, with the rice in a separate dish. Cutlets.--Take out the meat of either a lobster or crab, mince it up, and add 2 oz. butter, browned with 1 tablespoonful flour, and seasoned with a little pepper, salt, and cayenne. Add about ½ pint strong stock, stir the mixture over the fire until quite hot, and lay it in separate tablespoonfuls on a large dish. When cold, form into the shape of cutlets, brush over with yolk of egg (beaten), dip in breadcrumbs, fry of a light-brown colour in clarified beef dripping, and place round a dish, with a little fried parsley in the centre. Kromeskies.--Mince finely a small quantity of the flesh of lobster, toss it in butter on the fire, adding a pinch of flour, a little white stock, salt, pepper, and spices to taste, and lastly the yolk of an egg beaten up with a little lemon juice; but this should be done off the fire. Spread the mixture on a dish to cool; divide it into portions the size of a walnut; wrap each portion in a piece of white wafer, previously wetted; then dip them in batter, and fry a golden colour in hot lard. Serve piled up on a dish, with fried parsley. Omelet.--Slice a quantity of the flesh of a lobster, equal in bulk to 2 eggs, season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg; mix on the fire some butter and a little flour, moisten with a little stock, add the lobster, and stir in, off the fire, the yolk of an egg beaten up with the juice of half a lemon. Insert this ragout in the fold of a plain omelet. Turn out on a dish, and serve. Salad.--Boil 4 eggs hard; when quite cold carefully remove the yolks, beat with a fork, with 2 teaspoonfuls mustard, 1 of salt, 1 of pepper, and a little cayenne; mix well together, add 4 dessertspoonfuls vinegar and 1 of lemon pickle. When quite smooth, add the spawn of the fish and ½ pint cream. Cut up the boiled fish in small pieces, and with an onion nicely minced, stir them into the sauce. Place the lettuce, endive, cress, &c., upon the lobster, garnish with beetroot and slices of whites of egg. Sandwiches.--Take the flesh of a boiled lobster, cut the thick part into thin slices, put on a plate, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, a little oil and cayenne. Put any trimming of lobster and anchovies, or sardines, into a mortar with 2 oz. fresh butter, salt, pepper, and a little anchovy sauce, pound well together and pass through a sieve. Cut slices of thin bread and butter, place the slices of lobster carefully on them, and spread over each the above butter; put on another piece of bread and butter, flatten each sandwich, and cut into any shape you please. Serve either on a napkin with parsley, or over small cress. Potted lobster can be used for this purpose with greater advantage, and likewise a little cress, chopped, may be put next the slices of lobster. (Jane Burtenshaw.) Soufflé.--Take out the meat from a small lobster, break it into pieces, and then pound it in a mortar with some of the spawn of a hen lobster, and an equal quantity of butter; add pepper, salt, and spices to taste, with as much cayenne as can be taken up on the point of a trussing needle; slightly pound the rest of the lobster, and put it into some very good veal stock, simmer gently until well flavoured; then strain and add sufficient of this with a little double cream and a dash of lemon juice, to make the mixture of the consistency of thick lobster sauce, stir over the fire until well mixed; then leave to get nearly cold; now add quickly the yolks of 3 or 4 eggs, according to quantity, and lastly the whites whipped to a stiff froth; pour it at once into a soufflé tin, and bake in the oven. Serve immediately. Stewed.--For stew or _ragoût_, lobsters should be only half boiled, and then transferred to the stewpan. To concoct a stew, proceed as follows: Half boil a fine lobster, and take out the meat in as large pieces as possible. Put it into a stewpan, with a little white stock, 2 glasses hock, sauterne, or very light sherry, a little beaten mace, cayenne pepper and salt, a spoonful of ketchup, a dash of anchovy sauce, and a little butter rolled in flour. Stew gently for 20 minutes, shaking now and then; squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and serve on a hot dish. _Mackerel_ (Maquereau).--In March superb mackerel may be obtained, full of roe and in perfect condition, while throughout the year they may be got in London in fair case for eating. Mackerel cannot be cooked too soon after being caught. The flesh immediately begins to deteriorate, and within a couple of days loses flavour--going in hot weather rapidly “to the bad.” In buying this fish, therefore, great attention must be paid to its condition and freshness. A good mackerel should be of fair size (not the monster called horse mackerel), plump, very thick and round in shape, full and deep from the shoulder downwards. The eye should be full and bright, the skin glossy, and the body stiff. The bars on the back should also be observed, as these are straighter in the male than in the female fish, the former of which is justly preferred, on account of the richer quality of the flesh and the exquisite texture and flavour of the roe. Baked.--Wash and clean 3 or 4 mackerel, divide them down the back and once across, making 4 pieces of each fish. Arrange these pieces compactly in a pie dish in layers, with 3 or 4 bay leaves, 6 shallots sliced, a dessertspoonful of peppercorns, half that quantity of pimento berries, 8 cloves, and a little white pepper. Make a sauce with ½ pint good stock, 1 wineglass each of claret and vinegar, 1 tablespoonful mushroom ketchup, and the same of anchovy and Harvey sauce, with a tablespoonful of Worcester sauce and soy. Bake in a moderate oven with a cover on the dish until the fish is quite done; take from the sauce, and place on the dish you intend serving it on; strain the sauce, and pour over the fish. Serve cold, garnished with sprigs of parsley or fennel. Fish cooked in this way will keep good for 2-3 days, if left in the sauce and covered over. Boiled.--For boiling, mackerel should be carefully cleaned, from the gills, well washed in vinegar and water, and allowed to dry before being put into the fish kettle, when a handful of salt should be put into sufficient water to cover the fish which should be allowed to boil gently for 15-20 minutes. As the critical moment approaches the fish should be carefully watched, as when the eye starts and the tail splits it is done, and must be taken up immediately, or it will break. Serve on a napkin with fennel sauce (in boats) made as follows: Pick and wash a bunch of fennel, tie it up and “blanch” it, i.e. throw it into boiling water and let it remain for a few minutes, drain and chop it finely and add it to some melted butter, make it quite hot, and serve. When fennel is unattainable parsley may be used--albeit a feeble substitute--instead. Another good sauce for boiled mackerel is made thus: throw a large piece of butter rolled in flour into a stewpan, add chopped and blanched parsley and mushrooms, a little chopped shallot and a _soupçon_ of garlic, moisten with a cupful of stock or broth, add salt and a little grated nutmeg, and just before serving stir in a little mustard, amalgamate thoroughly, and serve in a boat. Broiled.--When the fish are split open, wipe carefully with a dry cloth, sprinkle lightly with pepper and salt, and hang up in a cool place with plenty of air until next morning. Take care to keep the fish open when you hang them up. When ready to cook the mackerel, dissolve ½ oz. butter or bacon fat for each fish, and pass them through it on both sides. Lay them on a gridiron over a very slow fire, turn frequently, basting now and then with a little butter. When the fish is last turned, sprinkle finely-chopped parsley on the inner side, and then serve very hot. They must be very slowly cooked; they will take at least 20 minutes. If put over a fierce fire mackerel is rendered hard and indigestible, and the fish itself is unjustly blamed, but if the above recipe is followed a most delicious dish will be produced. Devilled.--Split the mackerel down the back, and remove the bone. Divide the fish into 4 fillets, trim neatly, and season well with made mustard, black pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice; let remain for a short time, 1 hour if possible, then dip in oil or melted butter, and broil over a clear fire; serve with fried parsley and cut lemon, or with a grill sauce, viz. gravy flavoured with French mustard, mushroom ketchup (or any flavouring preferred), a few chopped capers, and with a thickening of butter, flour, and a dash of lemon juice. Fillets.--Split 2 mackerel, remove the bone, cut off the heads and tails, and trim the 4 halves into 12 fillets; remove the skin from each; sprinkle with pepper and salt, and set to cook with plenty of butter in a sauté pan, or in a tin in the oven. Put all the bones and trimmings of the fish to boil for 1 hour in a saucepan, with 1 onion, 1 carrot, some parsley, sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and cloves to taste, and a little water; then strain it. Fry in oil 3-4 shallots finely minced, and as many mushrooms, until they are a light brown; then add 3 tablespoonfuls wine vinegar, mix well, and let it reduce by one-third. Add the above liquor and a little chopped parsley, and dish the fillets with this sauce. Fricassée.--2 mackerel, 1 tablespoonful parsley, juice and rind of one lemon, yolks 2-3 eggs, ¼ pint cream, 2 oz. butter, 1 tablespoonful flour. Clean the mackerel and with a sharp knife just cut through the skin round the head, strip the skin off from the head to the tail, then run the knife down the back close to the bone, on the outside, turn the fish over, and proceed as before, keeping the knife close to the bone; strip the fillet off each side of the bone, cut across in an oblong shape, lay on a dish, sprinkle with a little sauce. Next put the bones of the fish into a stewpan, with the stalks of the parsley, the rind of the lemon pared very thin, and a little water, let them stew about ½ hour; when done strain the liquor from the bones into the basin, rinse the stewpan, and arrange in it the fillets in one layer; pour over them the liquor from the bones, and let them simmer 10-15 minutes very slowly. About 5 minutes before the fish is done add to it a tablespoonful finely-chopped parsley, a little salt, white pepper, the flour and butter previously mixed on a plate, and the cream; shake the stewpan round to mix the butter and flour, let the sauce just boil, add the beaten yolks of 2-3 fresh eggs, and the lemon juice; but be sure not to let it boil after the eggs are put in, or the sauce will curdle. The roes of the fish should be fried, and laid on top of the fricassée; and a wall of mashed potatoes or rice might be put round the dish if liked. Grilled.--Split 2 mackerel down the back, and remove the bone. Mix some olive oil in a dish with pepper and salt, lay the mackerel in this, and turn them over so that they are well oiled on both sides. Place them in a double gridiron, and grill them for about 10 minutes in front of a clear, but not too fierce, fire, turning them frequently during the process. Serve back downwards, with a large piece of _maître d’hôtel_ butter on each fish. Roes.--Blanch some soft roes of mackerel for about 5 minutes in salted water, with a dash of vinegar in it; drain them on a cloth; fry a minced shallot in butter, add some mushrooms finely chopped, a pinch of flour, a little stock, some minced parsley, pepper and salt, and the juice of half a lemon; stir the sauce well. Oil some paper cases; put a little of the sauce in each, then as many slices of roe as it will hold, and fill up with more sauce. Put the cases in a moderate oven, and serve as soon as the contents are hot. _Mullet_ [_Grey_] (Mulet). Boiled.--Choose a good-sized fish, lay it in the fish kettle with plenty of well-salted cold water; when the water boils draw the kettle aside, lift up the fish, and let it drain, covered up over the water until the time of serving. Broiled.--See Carp. In Jelly.--Take a grey mullet, about 5 lb., scale and wash well; put it in a fish-kettle, with sufficient water to just cover it; add the juice of 12 lemons, 6 sweet and 3 bitter oranges, some allspice, and 2 onions, with a few cloves stuck in them. Let the fish boil gently in this liquor till done. Put in a deep dish when cooked; then put 1 oz. isinglass or Nelson’s gelatine, previously soaked in cold water, in the water the fish was cooked in, and let it simmer till dissolved; then strain over the fish till not quite covered, and let it remain till next day, when the jelly ought to be firm, but not so stiff as calves’-foot jelly. (E. G.) Stewed.--Take a grey mullet (3-4 lb.), scale and wash well; sprinkle with salt and let it rest. Put a teacupful of olive oil in a frying pan with 4 or 5 onions; put it on the fire, and fry rather brown; lay the half on the bottom of a deep baking dish, place the fish over, then a good layer of chopped parsley, a layer of tomatoes in slices (or American tinned ones will do) and the remainder of the onions, and another layer of parsley; pour over the oil left in the frying pan ½ teacup French vinegar, 1 teacupful water, with some salt in it and 2 tablespoonfuls conserve de tomates. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour in a moderate heat; lay the fish in the centre of the dish and the vegetables round. This must have no gravy left. Best eaten cold. See Carp. _Mullet_ [_Red_] (Rouget).--This “woodcock of the sea” must never be drawn or cleaned, as, like its land namesake, it is a very clean feeder. As its own flavour is its greatest attraction, it is better to cook it in a manner that does justice to that flavour, without overpowering it. Lay 3-4 red mullet in a deep dish in vinegar, and some whole pepper, and let them do themselves, and be served in the juices that they throw out; or plain boil them, and mix their insides with plain melted butter, without rejecting any part. Baked.--Cut 1 carrot and 2 onions into thin slices; add thyme, parsley, and marjoram, with pepper and salt to taste, and 3 tablespoonfuls salad oil; mix these well together, cover each mullet with the mixture, and roll up in a piece of white paper, previously oiled; bake them in a moderate oven ½ hour, then carefully open the paper, place the fish neatly on a dish, ready to be served, and keep it warm. Melt a small piece of butter, add a large pinch of flour, half a tumblerful of good stock, and the vegetables, &c., the fish were cooked in. Let the sauce boil 5 minutes, add salt if wanted; strain, skim, pour it over the fish, and serve. Broiled.--Wipe each fish quite dry, and lay it on a sheet of note paper well oiled with salad oil; sprinkle pepper, salt, and a little minced parsley on the fish, and a little lemon juice; fold up the paper neatly, and broil them on a gridiron; take them out of the paper, and lay carefully on a dish; pour the following sauce over and serve: Fry in a little salad oil a couple of shallots very finely minced, then add a wineglassful of sherry, 6 mushrooms finely minced, and as much Spanish sauce as may be required. Lastly, put in a little finely chopped parsley, and a little lemon juice. Let the sauce gently simmer for ¼ hour, and, having skimmed off the fat, pour it over the fish. Stewed.--Make a paste in a basin with breadcrumbs soaked in milk and squeezed dry, butter, minced parsley, pepper, salt, and spices to taste; add a yolk of egg to it, and when it is worked quite smooth, stuff the mullets with it, and put them to cook in the oven in a tin, with plenty of olive oil, and pepper and salt to taste. Fry some shallots in oil till they are a good colour, stir in a little flour and as much well-flavoured stock as you want sauce; add spices, pepper and salt to taste; then strain it and add a quantity of Spanish olives previously stoned and parboiled. Let them simmer in the sauce for a short time; then serve with the mullets. Stuffed.--Remove the gills of the mullets, make an incision from the throat half-way down the belly of the fish, and do not remove any of the inside but the small gut, which will come away in pulling out the gills. Take some fine breadcrumbs, add to them a fourth of their bulk of shallots, and the same quantity of mushrooms, both minced as finely as possible, and lightly fried in butter. Then add some parsley and sweet herbs finely chopped, season with pepper and salt, and make the mixture into a paste by working a pat of butter or more into it, and the yolk of one egg; stuff the mullets with this, pack them up securely in buttered paper, and grill them on a clear fire, or bake them in a buttered tin. _Mussels_ (Moules).--Mussels have an evil reputation, and in this country are regarded with especial suspicion, while in France they are eaten by everybody, when in season--that is, during the six winter months. They maybe eaten raw if great care is taken in bearding them. This operation, which is optional in the case of the oyster, is indispensable to the wholesomeness of the mussel. It is, however, more general and perhaps safer to eat mussels stewed. Stewed.--Take 3-6 doz. mussels, put them in a pail of water, and wash well with a birch broom; then put into a pail of spring water and salt for 2 hours; wash out, put into a saucepan without water, and cover close; stew gently till they open, and strain the liquor from them through a sieve; pick them out of the shells, beard carefully and put into a stewpan. Put in about half the liquor carefully drained from the settlings, with a gill of sherry or sauterne, a little grated nutmeg, and a large piece of butter rolled in flour. Stew gently, and keep stirring till the mixture is thick and smooth, and serve on a hot dish with toasted sippets. _Oysters_ (Huîtres). Raw.--Put 4-6 oysters before each guest on a plate, with a lemon quartered, and with the upper shell replaced over each oyster. Serve thin slices of brown bread and butter and cayenne with them. Angels on Horseback.--Take 12 or more large-sized oysters from their shells, removing the beards; cover each with a very thin slice of fat of bacon, dipping each slice into hot water and well drying it with a cloth before rolling it round the oyster; then place them on a fine skewer and suspend them before the fire until the bacon is nicely cooked. A slice of soft buttered toast should be under them while cooking, and on it they should be sent up very hot to table. Broiled.--Many invalids who object to native oysters in the shell can eat them with relish when cooked in this way. Drain the oysters from their liquor and dry them in a napkin. Heat and well butter a gridiron, season well, lay them on, and brown both sides. Serve on a very hot dish, with melted butter. Cream.--Open 1 doz. oysters carefully and save the liquor; take ½ pint milk, add to it a piece of butter the size of a walnut, thicken with flour, and simmer 10 minutes. Add the oysters with their liquor, and seasoning to taste. Have some nicely browned slices of toast, take up the oysters carefully, lay them on the toast, pour the mixture over, and serve. Croustades.--Parboil a quantity of oysters in their own liquor, remove the beards, cut each oyster into 4-6 pieces. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add to it a pinch of flour, the liquid of the oysters, a little cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg, the least bit of cayenne, and some finely minced parsley. Put in the oysters and toss them in this sauce just long enough to make them quite hot. Stir into them, off the fire, the yolk of an egg beaten up with the juice of half a lemon, and strained. Fill some bread croustades, warm them in the oven, and serve. Cutlets.--For these the large stewing oysters are the best. Take about ½ lb. veal, and an equal quantity of oysters. First chop them finely, and then pound them together in a mortar, adding a little finely chopped veal suet, and 3 tablespoonfuls breadcrumbs which have been soaked in the liquor from the oysters when opened. Season with a little salt, white pepper, and a very little piece of mace well pounded; to this add the beaten yolks of 2 eggs. Mix this thoroughly; then pound it a little more, and make it up in the form of small cutlets. Fry them in butter, after having dipped them in the usual way in egg and breadcrumbs. Drain well and send to table very hot. Serve on a napkin, and garnish with little sprigs of parsley. Devilled (à la diable).--Parboil some oysters in their own liquor, take off the beards and hard parts, cut up the remainder into small pieces, season well with cayenne and salt, and add a little lemon juice. Take the liquor in which the oysters were boiled and add to it a thickening of butter and flour, put in the minced oysters, and stir over the fire until quite cooked, then add, off the fire, the yolks of 1 or 2 eggs, beaten up with a little cream. Spread out the mixture to get cold, then divide it into small portions, roll up each portion into the thinnest possible wafer of parboiled bacon. Just before frying dip each roll into some frying batter, put them into the frying basket, and fry in hot lard or butter. Serve garnished with fried parsley. Fricassée.--Take a tablespoonful of cream and the beaten yolk of an egg. Mix them well together, then drain the liquor from 12 oysters, thicken it with butter and flour, add the egg and cream, season to taste, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Lay in the oysters, let them warm through, then pour up over slices of buttered toast. Fried.--The oysters must be first boiled in their own liquor, and drain. Then put them into a frying pan, with butter in the proportion of 2 oz. to 3 doz. oysters, about a tablespoonful of ketchup, a little chopped parsley, and grated lemon peel, and fry them for a few minutes. Serve very hot, with toast separate. (Mrs. B.) Fritters.--Have ready a batter made as follows: Dissolve 1 oz. butter in 2 oz. water or oyster liquor, and stir to this 1½ oz. sifted flour; mix well over the fire. Take it off and mix in, one after the other, 3 eggs and a little salt. Beard and scald the oysters, dip each into the butter, fry lightly, and serve. Kromeskies.--Put 1 doz. oysters (tinned will do), with their liquor, into a saucepan, bring them to the boil, take them out and beard them, cut into pieces about the size of half a pea; return the beards to the saucepan, boil in their liquor to extract the flavour, put them back for 5 minutes to simmer. Make a panada of 1 oz. butter, 1 oz. flour, ¼ gill oyster liquor (add milk if short), pepper, salt, cayenne, and a few grates of nutmeg; put into a saucepan. When it thickens add the yolk of an egg, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce; do not let it boil. Put the pieces of oyster in the panada to get thoroughly warmed through, turn out on a plate to cool. Then shape into cakes, inclose in very thin bacon, dip into frying batter, then drop into boiling fat, and fry. These can be warmed up in the oven. Batter for kromeskies: 4 oz. flour, 2 dessertspoonfuls salad oil, a pinch of salt, 1 gill tepid water, whites of 2 eggs beaten to a stiff froth; put the flour into a basin, make a well in the centre, then add salad oil,