CHAPTER IX.

MADE DISHES. Under this general head we range our receipts for HASHES, STEWS, and RAGOUTS,[106-*] &c. Of these there are a great multitude, affording the ingenious cook an inexhaustible store of variety: in the French kitchen they count upwards of 600, and are daily inventing new ones. We have very few general observations to make, after what we have already said in the two preceding chapters on _sauces_, _soups_, &c., which apply to the present chapter, as they form the principal part of the accompaniment of most of these dishes. In fact, MADE DISHES are nothing more than meat, poultry (No. 530), or fish (Nos. 146, 158, or 164), stewed very gently till they are tender, with a thickened sauce poured over them. Be careful to trim off all the skin, gristle, &c. that will not be eaten; and shape handsomely, and of even thickness, the various articles which compose your made dishes: this is sadly neglected by common cooks. Only stew them till they are just tender, and do not stew them to rags; therefore, what you prepare the day before it is to be eaten, do not dress quite enough the first day. We have given receipts for the most easy and simple way to make HASHES, &c. Those who are well skilled in culinary arts can dress up things in this way, so as to be as agreeable as they were the first time they were cooked. But hashing is a very bad mode of cookery: if meat has been done enough the first time it is dressed, a second dressing will divest it of all its nutritive juices; and if it can be smuggled into the stomach by bribing the palate with _piquante_ sauce, it is at the hazard of an indigestion, &c. I promise those who do me the honour to put my receipts into practice, that they will find that the most nutritious and truly elegant dishes are neither the most difficult to dress, the most expensive, nor the most indigestible. In these compositions experience will go far to diminish expense: meat that is too old or too tough for roasting, &c., may by gentle stewing be rendered savoury and tender. If some of our receipts do differ a little from those in former cookery books, let it be remembered we have advanced nothing in this work that has not been tried, and experience has proved correct. N.B. See No. 483, an ingenious and economical system of FRENCH COOKERY, written at the request of the editor by an accomplished ENGLISH LADY, which will teach you how to supply your table with elegant little made dishes, &c. at as little expense as plain cookery. FOOTNOTES: [106-*] Sauce for ragoûts, &c., should be thickened till it is of the consistence of good rich cream, that it may adhere to whatever it is poured over. When you have a large dinner to dress, keep ready-mixed some fine-sifted flour and water well rubbed together till quite smooth, and about as thick as butter. See No. 257. THE COOK'S ORACLE. BOILING. [Read the first chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery.] _Leg of Mutton._--(No. 1.) Cut off the shank bone, and trim the knuckle, put it into lukewarm water for ten minutes, wash it clean, cover it with cold water, and let it simmer _very gently_, and skim it carefully. A leg of nine pounds will take two and a half or three hours, if you like it thoroughly done, especially in very cold weather. For the accompaniments, see the following receipt. N.B. The _tit-bits_ with an epicure are the "knuckle," the kernel, called the "_pope's eye_," and the "_gentleman's_" or "_cramp bone_," or, as it is called in Kent, the "CAW CAW," four of these and a bounder furnish the little masters and mistresses of Kent with their most favourite set of playthings. A leg of mutton stewed _very slowly_, as we have directed the beef to be (No. 493), will be as agreeable to an English appetite as the famous "_gigot[108-*] de sept heures_" of the French kitchen is to a Parisian palate. When mutton is very large, you may divide it, and _roast the fillet_, i. e. the large end, and _boil the knuckle end_; you may also cut some fine cutlets off the thick end of the leg, _and so have two or three good hot dinners_. See Mrs. MAKEITDO'S receipt how to make a leg of mutton last a week, in "_the housekeeper's leger_," printed for Whittaker, Ave-Maria Lane. _The liquor the mutton is boiled in_, you may convert into good soup in five minutes, (see N.B. to No. 218,) and Scotch barley broth (No. 204). Thus managed, a leg of mutton is a most economical joint. _Neck of Mutton._--(No. 2.) Put four or five pounds of the best end of a neck (that has been kept a few days) into as much cold soft water as will cover it, and about two inches over; let it simmer very slowly for two hours: it will look most delicate if you do not take off the skin till it has been boiled. For sauce, that elegant and innocent relish, parsley and butter (No. 261), or eschalot (No. 294 or 5), or caper sauce (No. 274), mock caper sauce (No. 275), and onion sauce (No. 298), turnips (No. 130), or spinage (No. 121), are the usual accompaniments to boiled mutton. _Lamb._--(No. 3.) A leg of five pounds should simmer very gently for about two hours, from the time it is put on, in cold water. After the general rules for boiling, in the first chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery, we have nothing to add, only to send up with it spinage (No. 122), broccoli (No. 126), cauliflower (No. 125), &c., and for sauce, No. 261. _Veal._--(No. 4.) This is expected to come to table looking delicately clean; and it is so easily discoloured, that you must be careful to have clean water, a clean vessel, and constantly catch the scum as soon and as long as it rises, and attend to the directions before given in the first chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery. Send up bacon (No. 13), fried sausages (No. 87), or pickled pork, greens, (No. 118 and following Nos.) and parsley and butter (No. 261), onion sauce (No. 298). N.B. For receipts to cook veal, see from No. 512 to No. 521. _Beef bouilli_,--(No. 5.) In plain English, is understood to mean boiled beef; but its culinary acceptation, in the French kitchen, is fresh beef dressed without boiling, and only very gently simmered by a slow fire. Cooks have seldom any notion, that good soup can be made without destroying a great deal of meat; however, by a judicious regulation of the fire, and a vigilant attendance on the soup-kettle, this may be accomplished. You shall have a tureen of such soup as will satisfy the most fastidious palate, and the meat make its appearance at table, at the same time, in possession of a full portion of nutritious succulence. This requires nothing more than to stew the meat very slowly (instead of keeping the pot boiling a gallop, as common cooks too commonly do), and to take it up as soon as it is done enough. See "Soup and bouilli" (No. 238), "Shin of beef stewed" (No. 493), "Scotch barley broth" (No. 204). Meat cooked in this manner affords much more nourishment than it does dressed in the common way, is easy of digestion in proportion as it is tender, and an invigorating, substantial diet, especially valuable to the poor, whose laborious employments require support. If they could get good eating put within their reach, they would often go to the butcher's shop, when they now run to the public-house. Among the variety of schemes that have been suggested for bettering the condition of the poor, a more useful or extensive charity cannot be devised, than that of instructing them in economical and comfortable cookery, except providing them with spectacles. "The poor in Scotland, and on the Continent, manage much better. Oatmeal porridge (Nos. 205 and 572) and milk, constitute the breakfast and supper of those patterns of industry, frugality, and temperance, the Scottish peasantry. "When they can afford meat, they form with it a large quantity of barley broth (No. 204), with a variety of vegetables, by boiling the whole a long time, enough to serve the family for several days. "When they cannot afford meat, they make broth of barley and other vegetables, with a lump of butter (see No. 229), all of which they boil for many hours, and this with oat cakes forms their dinner." COCHRANE'S _Seaman's Guide_, p. 34. The cheapest method of making a nourishing soup is least known to those who have most need of it. (See No. 229.) Our neighbours the French are so justly famous for their skill in the affairs of the kitchen, that the adage says, "as many Frenchmen as many cooks:" surrounded as they are by a profusion of the most delicious wines and most seducing _liqueurs_, offering every temptation and facility to render drunkenness delightful: yet a tippling Frenchman is a "_rara avis_;" they know how so easily and completely to keep life in repair by good eating, that they require little or no adjustment from drinking. This accounts for that "_toujours gai_," and happy equilibrium of spirits, which they enjoy with more regularity than any people. Their stomach, being unimpaired by spirituous liquors, embrace and digest vigorously the food they sagaciously prepare for it, and render easily assimilable by cooking it sufficiently, wisely contriving to get the difficult part of the work of the stomach done by fire and water. _To salt Meat._--(No. 6.) In the _summer_ season, especially, meat is frequently spoiled by the cook forgetting to take out the kernels; one in the udder of a round of beef, in the fat in the middle of the round, those about the thick end of the flank, &c.: if these are not taken out, all the salt in the world will not keep the meat. The art of salting meat is to rub in the salt thoroughly and evenly into every part, and to fill all the holes full of salt where the kernels were taken out, and where the butcher's skewers were. A round of beef of 25 pounds will take a pound and a half of salt to be rubbed in all at first, and requires to be turned and rubbed every day with the brine; it will be ready for dressing in four or five days,[111-*] if you do not wish it very salt. In _summer_, the sooner meat is salted after it is killed the better; and care must be taken to defend it from the flies. In _winter_, it will eat the shorter and tenderer, if kept a few days (according to the temperature of the weather) until its fibre has become short and tender, as these changes do not take place after it has been acted upon by the salt. In frosty weather, take care the meat is not frozen, and warm the salt in a frying-pan. The extremes of heat[111-+] and cold are equally unfavourable for the process of salting. In the former, the meat changes before the salt can affect it: in the latter, it is so hardened, and its juices are so congealed, that the salt cannot penetrate it. If you wish it red, rub it first with saltpetre, in the proportion of half an ounce, and the like quantity of moist sugar, to a pound of common salt. (See Savoury salt beef, No. 496.) You may impregnate meat with a very agreeable vegetable flavour, by pounding some sweet herbs (No. 459,) and an onion with the salt. You may make it still more relishing by adding a little ZEST (No. 255), or _savoury spice_ (No. 457). _To pickle Meat._ "Six pounds of salt, one pound of sugar, and four ounces of saltpetre, boiled with four gallons of water, skimmed, and allowed to cool, forms a very strong pickle, which will preserve any meat completely immersed in it. To effect this, which is essential, either a heavy board or a flat stone must be laid upon the meat. The same pickle may be used repeatedly, provided it be boiled up occasionally with additional salt to restore its strength, diminished by the combination of part of the salt with the meat, and by the dilution of the pickle by the juices of the meat extracted. By boiling, the albumen, which would cause the pickle to spoil, is coagulated, and rises in the form of scum, which must be carefully removed."--See _Supplement to Encyclop. Britan._ vol. iv. p. 340. Meat kept immersed in pickle gains weight. In one experiment by Messrs. Donkin and Gamble, there was a gain of three per cent., and in another of two and a half; but in the common way of salting, when the meat is not immersed in pickle, there is a loss of about one pound, or one and a half, in sixteen. See Dr. Wilkinson's account of the preserving power of PYRO-LIGNEOUS ACID, &c. in the Philosophical Magazine for 1821, No. 273, p. 12. An H-bone of 10 or 12 pounds weight will require about three-quarters of a pound of salt, and an ounce of moist sugar, to be well rubbed into it. It will be ready in four or five days, if turned and rubbed every day. The time meat requires salting depends upon the weight of it, and how much salt is used: and if it be rubbed in with a heavy hand, it will be ready much sooner than if only lightly rubbed. N. B. Dry the salt, and rub it with the sugar in a mortar. PORK requires a longer time to cure (in proportion to its weight) than beef. A leg of pork should be in salt eight or ten days; turn it and rub it every day. Salt meat should be well washed before it is boiled, especially if it has been in salt long, that the liquor in which the meat is boiled, may not be too salt to make soup of. (No. 218, &c. and No. 555.) If it has been in salt a long time, and you fear that it will be too salt, wash it well in cold water, and soak it in lukewarm water for a couple of hours. If it is _very salt_, lay it in water the night before you intend to dress it. _A Round of salted Beef._--(No. 7.) As this is too large for a moderate family, we shall write directions for the dressing half a round. Get the tongue side. Skewer it up tight and round, and tie a fillet of broad tape round it, to keep the skewers in their places. Put it into plenty of cold water, and carefully catch the scum as soon as it rises: let it boil till all the scum is removed, and then put the boiler on one side of the fire, to keep _simmering_ slowly till it is done. Half a round of 15lbs. will take about three hours: if it weighs more, give it more time. When you take it up, if any stray scum, &c. sticks to it that has escaped the vigilance of your skimmer, wash it off with a paste-brush: garnish the dishes with carrots and turnips. Send up carrots (No. 129), turnips (No. 130), and parsnips, or greens (No. 118), &c. on separate dishes. Pease pudding (No. 555), and MY PUDDING (No. 551), are all very proper accompaniments. N.B. The outside slices, which are generally too much salted and too much boiled, will make a very good relish as potted beef (No. 503). For using up the remains of a joint of boiled beef, see also Bubble and Squeak (No. 505). _H-Bone of Beef_,--(No. 8.) Is to be managed in exactly the same manner as the round, but will be sooner boiled, as it is not so solid. An H-bone of 20lbs. will be done enough in about four hours; of 10lbs. in three hours, more or less, as the weather is hotter or colder. Be sure the boiler is big enough to allow it plenty of water-room: let it be well covered with water: set the pot on one side of the fire to boil gently: if it boils quick at first, no art can make it tender after. The slower it boils, the better it will look, and the tenderer it will be. The same accompanying vegetables as in the preceding receipt. Dress plenty of carrots, as cold carrots are a general favourite with cold beef. _Mem._--Epicures say, that the _soft_, fat-like marrow, which lies on the back, is delicious when hot, and the _hard_ fat about the upper corner is best when cold. To make PERFECTLY GOOD PEASE SOUP in _ten minutes_, of the liquor in which the beef has been boiled, see N.B. to No. 218. _Obs._--In "Mrs. Mason's Ladies' Assistant," this joint is called haunch-bone; in "Henderson's Cookery," edge-bone; in "Domestic Management," aitch-bone; in "Reynold's Cookery," ische-bone; in "Mrs. Lydia Fisher's Prudent Housewife," ach-bone; in "Mrs. M'Iver's Cookery," hook-bone. We have also seen it spelled each-bone and ridge-bone; and we have also heard it called natch-bone. N.B. Read the note under No. 7; and to make perfectly good pease soup of the pot-liquor, in ten minutes, see _Obs._ to No. 218, No. 229, and No. 555. _Ribs of Beef salted and rolled._--(No. 9.) Briskets, and the various other pieces, are dressed in the same way. "Wow-wow" sauce (No. 328,) is an agreeable companion. _Half a Calf's Head._--(No. 10.) Cut it in two, and take out the brains: wash the head well in several waters, and soak it in warm water for a quarter of an hour before you dress it. Put the head into a saucepan, with plenty of cold water: when it is coming to a boil, and the scum rises, carefully remove it. Half a calf's head (without the skin) will take from an hour and a half to two hours and a quarter, according to its size; with the skin on, about an hour longer. It must be _stewed very gently_ till it is tender: it is then extremely nutritive, and easy of digestion. Put eight or ten sage leaves (some cooks use parsley instead, or equal parts of each) into a small sauce-pan: boil them tender (about half an hour); then chop them very fine, and set them ready on a plate. Wash the brains well in two waters; put them into a large basin of cold water, with a little salt in it, and let them soak for an hour; then pour away the cold, and cover them with hot water; and when you have cleaned and skinned them, put them into a stew-pan with plenty of cold water: when it boils, take the scum off very carefully, and boil gently for 10 or 15 minutes: now chop them (not very fine); put them into a sauce-pan with the sage leaves and a couple of table-spoonfuls of thin melted butter, and a little salt (to this some cooks add a little lemon-juice), and stir them well together; and as soon as they are well warmed (take care they don't burn), skin the tongue,[115-*] trim off the roots, and put it in the middle of a dish, and the brains round it: or, chop the brains with an eschalot, a little parsley, and four hard-boiled eggs, and put them into a quarter of a pint of bechamel, or white sauce (No. 2 of 364). A calf's cheek is usually attended by a pig's cheek, a knuckle of ham or bacon (No. 13, or No. 526), or pickled pork (No. 11), and greens, broccoli, cauliflowers, or pease; and always by parsley and butter (see No. 261, No. 311, or No. 343). If you like it full dressed, score it superficially, beat up the yelk of an egg, and rub it over the head with a feather; powder it with a seasoning of finely minced (or dried and powdered) winter savoury or lemon-thyme (or sage), parsley, pepper, and salt, and bread crumbs, and give it a brown with a salamander, or in a tin Dutch oven: when it begins to dry, sprinkle a little melted butter over it with a paste-brush. You may garnish the dish with broiled rashers of bacon (No. 526 or 527). _Obs._--Calf's head is one of the most delicate and favourite dishes in the list of boiled meats; but nothing is more insipid when cold, and nothing makes so nice a hash; therefore don't forget to save a quart of the liquor it was boiled in to make sauce, &c. for the hash (see also No. 520). Cut the head and tongue into slices, trim them neatly, and leave out the gristles and fat; and slice some of the bacon that was dressed to eat with the head, and warm them in the hash. Take the bones and the trimmings of the head, a bundle of sweet herbs, an onion, a roll of lemon-peel, and a blade of bruised mace: put these into a sauce-pan with the quart of liquor you have saved, and let it boil gently for an hour; pour it through a sieve into a basin, wash out your stew-pan, add a table-spoonful of flour to the brains and parsley and butter you have left, and pour it into the gravy you have made with the bones and trimmings; let it boil up for ten minutes, and then strain it through a hair-sieve; season it with a table-spoonful of white wine, or of catchup (No. 439), or sauce superlative (No. 429): give it a boil up, skim it, and then put in the brains and the slices of head and bacon; as soon as they are thoroughly warm (it must not boil) the hash is ready. Some cooks egg, bread-crumb, and fry the finest pieces of the head, and lay them round the hash. N.B. You may garnish the edges of the dish with slices of bacon toasted in a Dutch oven (see Nos. 526 and 527), slices of lemon and fried bread. To make gravy for hashes, &c. see No. 360. _Pickled Pork_,--(No. 11.) Takes more time than any other meat. If you buy your pork ready salted, ask how many days it has been in salt; if many, it will require to be soaked in water for six hours before you dress it. When you cook it, wash and scrape it as clean as possible; when delicately dressed, it is a favourite dish with almost every body. Take care it does not boil fast; if it does, the knuckle will break to pieces, before the thick part of the meat is warm through; a leg of seven pounds takes three hours and a half very slow simmering. Skim your pot very carefully, and when you take the meat out of the boiler, scrape it clean. Some sagacious cooks (who remember to how many more nature has given eyes than she has given tongues and brains), when pork is boiled, score it in diamonds, and take out every other square; and thus present a retainer to the eye to plead for them to the palate; but this is pleasing the eye at the expense of the palate. A leg of nice pork, nicely salted, and nicely boiled, is as nice a cold relish as cold ham; especially if, instead of cutting into the middle when hot, and so letting out its juices, you cut it at the knuckle: slices broiled, as No. 487, are a good luncheon, or supper. To make pease pudding, and pease soup extempore, see N.B. to Nos. 218 and 555. MEM.--Some persons who sell pork ready salted have a silly trick of cutting the knuckle in two; we suppose that this is done to save their salt; but it lets all the gravy out of the leg; and unless you boil your pork merely for the sake of the pot-liquor, which in this case receives all the goodness and strength of the meat, friendly reader, your oracle cautions you to buy no leg of pork which is slit at the knuckle. If pork is not done enough, nothing is more disagreeable; if too much, it not only loses its colour and flavour, but its substance becomes soft like a jelly. It must never appear at table without a good pease pudding (see No. 555), and, if you please, parsnips (No. 128); they are an excellent vegetable, and deserve to be much more popular; or carrots (No. 129), turnips, and greens, or mashed potatoes, &c. (No. 106.) _Obs._--Remember not to forget the mustard-pot (No. 369, No. 370, and No. 427). _Pettitoes, or Sucking-Pig's Feet._--(No. 12.) Put a thin slice of bacon at the bottom of a stew-pan with some broth, a blade of mace, a few pepper-corns, and a bit of thyme; boil the feet till they are quite tender; this will take full twenty minutes; but the heart, liver, and lights will be done enough in ten, when they are to be taken out, and minced fine. Put them all together into a stew-pan with some gravy; thicken it with a little butter rolled in flour; season it with a little pepper and salt, and set it over a gentle fire to simmer for five minutes, frequently shaking them about. While this is doing, have a thin slice of bread toasted very lightly; divide it into sippets, and lay them round the dish: pour the mince and sauce into the middle of it, and split the feet, and lay them round it. N.B. Pettitoes are sometimes boiled and dipped in batter, and fried a light brown. _Obs._--If you have no gravy, put into the water you stew the pettitoes in an onion, a sprig of lemon thyme, or sweet marjoram, with a blade of bruised mace, a few black peppers, and a large tea-spoonful of mushroom catchup (No. 439), and you will have a very tolerable substitute for gravy. A bit of No. 252 will be a very great improvement to it. _Bacon._--(No. 13.) Cover a pound of nice streaked bacon (as the Hampshire housewives say, that "has been starved one day, and fed another") with cold water, let it boil gently for three-quarters of an hour; take it up, scrape the under-side well, and cut off the rind: grate a crust of bread not only on the top, but all over it, as directed for the ham in the following receipt, and put it before the fire for a few minutes: it must not be there too long, or it will dry it and spoil it. Two pounds will require about an hour and a half, according to its thickness; the hock or gammon being very thick, will take more. _Obs._--See Nos. 526 and 527: when only a little bacon is wanted, these are the best ways of dressing it. The boiling of bacon is a very simple subject to comment, upon; but our main object is to teach common cooks the art of dressing common food in the best manner. Bacon is sometimes as salt as salt can make it, therefore before it is boiled it must be soaked in warm water for an hour or two, changing the water once; then pare off the rusty and smoked part, trim it nicely on the under side, and scrape the rind as clean as possible. MEM.--Bacon is an extravagant article in housekeeping; there is often twice as much dressed as need be: when it is sent to table as an accompaniment to boiled poultry or veal, a pound and a half is plenty for a dozen people. A good German sausage is a very economical substitute for bacon; or fried pork sausages (No. 87). _Ham_,--(No. 14.) Though of the bacon kind, has been so altered and hardened in the curing, that it requires still more care. Ham is generally not half-soaked; as salt as brine, and hard as flint; and it would puzzle the stomach of an ostrich to digest it. MEM.--The salt, seasoning, and smoke, which preserve it before it is eaten, prevent its solution after; and unless it be very long and very gently stewed, the strongest stomach will have a tough job to extract any nourishment from it. If it is a very dry Westphalia ham, it must be soaked, according to its age and thickness, from 12 to 24 hours; for a green Yorkshire or Westmoreland ham, from four to eight hours will be sufficient. Lukewarm water will soften it much sooner than cold, when sufficiently soaked, trim it nicely on the underside, and pare off all the rusty and smoked parts till it looks delicately clean. lb. oz. A ham weighed before it was soaked 13 After 12 4 Boiled 13 4 Trimmed for table 10 12 Give it plenty of water-room, and put it in while the water is cold; let it heat very gradually, and let it be on the fire an hour and a half before it comes to a boil; let it be well skimmed, and keep it simmering very gently: a middling-sized ham of fifteen pounds will be done enough in about four or five hours, according to its thickness. If not to be cut till cold, it will cut the shorter and tenderer for being boiled about half an hour longer. In a very small family, where a ham will last a week or ten days, it is best economy not to cut it till it is cold, it will be infinitely more juicy. Pull off the skin carefully, and preserve it as whole as possible; it will form an excellent covering to keep the ham moist; when you have removed the skin, rub some bread raspings through a hair-sieve, or grate a crust of bread; put it into the perforated cover of the dredging-box, and shake it over it, or glaze it; trim the knuckle with a fringe of cut writing-paper. You may garnish with spinage or turnips, &c. _Obs._ To pot ham (No. 509), is a much more useful and economical way of disposing of the remains of the joint, than making essence of it (No. 352). To make soup of the liquor it is boiled in, see N.B. to No. 555. _Tongue._--(No. 15.) A tongue is so hard, whether prepared by drying or pickling, that it requires much more cooking than a ham; nothing of its weight takes so long to dress it properly. A tongue that has been salted and dried should be put to soak (if it is old and very hard, 24 hours before it is wanted) in plenty of water; a green one fresh from the pickle requires soaking only a few hours: put your tongue into plenty of cold water; let it be an hour gradually warming; and give it from three and a half to four hours' very slow simmering, according to the size, &c. _Obs._ When you choose a tongue, endeavour to learn how long it has been dried or pickled, pick out the plumpest, and that which has the smoothest skin, which denotes its being young and tender. The roots, &c. make an excellent relish potted, like No. 509, or pease soup (No. 218). N.B. Our correspondent, who wished us, in this edition, to give a receipt to roast a tongue, will find an answer in No. 82. _Turkeys, Capons, Fowls, Chickens, &c._--(No. 16.) Are all boiled exactly in the same manner, only allowing time, according to their size. For the stuffing, &c. (Nos. 374, 375, and 377), some of it made into balls, and boiled or fried, make a nice garnish, and are handy to help; and you can then reserve some of the inside stuffing to eat with the cold fowl, or enrich the hash (Nos. 530 and 533). A chicken will take about 20 minutes. A fowl 40 A fine five-toed fowl or a capon, about an hour. A small turkey, an hour and a half. A large one, two hours or more. Chickens or fowls should be killed at least one or two days before they are to be dressed. Turkeys (especially large ones) should not be dressed till they have been killed three or four days at least, in cold weather six or eight, or they will neither look white nor eat tender.[120-*] Turkeys, and large fowls, should have the strings or sinews of the thighs drawn out. Truss them with the legs outward, they are much easier carved. Fowls for boiling should be chosen as white as possible; if their complexion is not so fair as you wish, veil them in No. 2 of No. 364; those which have black legs should be roasted. The best use of the liver is to make sauce (No. 287). Poultry must be well washed in warm water; if very dirty from the singeing, &c. rub them with a little white soap; but thoroughly rinse it off, before you put them into the pot. Make a good and clear fire; set on a clean pot, with pure and clean water, enough to well cover the turkey, &c.; the slower it boils, the whiter and plumper it will be. When there rises any scum, remove it; the common method of some (who are more nice than wise) is to wrap them up in a cloth, to prevent the scum attaching to them; which, if it does, by your neglecting to skim the pot, there is no getting it off afterward, and the poulterer is blamed for the fault of the cook. If there be water enough, and it is attentively skimmed, the fowl will both look and eat much better this way than when it has been covered up in the cleanest cloth, and the colour and flavour of your poultry will be preserved in the most delicate perfection. _Obs._ Turkey deserves to be accompanied by tongue (No. 15), or ham (No. 14); if these are not come-at-able, don't forget pickled pork (No. 11), or bacon and greens (Nos. 83, 526, and 527), or pork sausages (No. 87), parsley and butter (No. 261); don't pour it over, but send it up in a boat; liver (No. 287), egg (No. 267), or oyster sauce (No. 278). To warm cold turkey, &c. see No. 533, and following. To grill the gizzard and rump, No. 538. Save a quart of the liquor the turkey was boiled in; this, with the bones and trimmings, &c. will make good gravy for a hash, &c. _Rabbits._--(No. 17.) Truss your rabbits short, lay them in a basin of warm water for ten minutes, then put them into plenty of water, and boil them about half an hour; if large ones, three quarters; if very old, an hour: smother them with plenty of white onion sauce (No. 298), mince the liver, and lay it round the dish, or make liver sauce (No. 287), and send it up in a boat. _Obs._ Ask those you are going to make liver sauce for, if they like plain liver sauce, or liver and parsley, or liver and lemon sauce (Nos. 287 and 288). N.B. It will save much trouble to the carver, if the rabbits be cut up in the kitchen into pieces fit to help at table, and the head divided, one-half laid at each end, and slices of lemon and the liver, chopped very finely, laid on the sides of the dish. At all events, cut off the head before you send it to table, we hardly remember that the thing ever lived if we don't see the head, while it may excite ugly ideas to see it cut up in an attitude imitative of life; besides, for the preservation of the head, the poor animal sometimes suffers a slower death. _Tripe._--(No. 18.) Take care to have fresh tripe; cleanse it well from the fat, and cut it into pieces about two inches broad and four long; put it into a stew-pan, and cover it with milk and water, and let it boil gently till it is tender. If the tripe has been prepared as it usually is at the tripe shops, it will be enough in about an hour, (this depends upon how long it has been previously boiled at the tripe shop); if entirely undressed, it will require two or three hours, according to the age and quality of it. Make some onion sauce in the same manner as you do for rabbits (No. 298), or boil (slowly by themselves) some Spanish or the whitest common onions you can get; peel them before you boil them; when they are tender, which a middling-sized onion will be in about three-quarters of an hour, drain them in a hair-sieve, take off the top skins till they look nice and white, and put them with the tripe into a tureen or soup-dish, and take off the fat if any floats on the surface. _Obs._ Rashers of bacon (Nos. 526 and 527), or fried sausages (No. 87), are a very good accompaniment to boiled tripe, cow-heels (No. 198), or calf's feet, see Mr. Mich. Kelly's sauce (No. 311*), or parsley and butter (No. 261), or caper sauce (No. 274), with a little vinegar and mustard added to them, or salad mixture (No. 372 or 453). Tripe holds the same rank among solids, that water-gruel does among soups, and the former is desirable at dinner, when the latter is welcome at supper. Read No. 572. _Cow-Heel_,--(No. 18.*) In the hands of a skilful cook, will furnish several good meals; when boiled tender (No. 198), cut it into handsome pieces, egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them a light brown; lay them round a dish, and put in the middle of it sliced onions fried, or the accompaniments ordered for tripe. The liquor they were boiled in will make soups (No. 229, 240*, or No. 555). N.B. We give no receipts to boil venison, geese, ducks, pheasants, woodcocks, and peacocks, &c. as our aim has been to make a useful book, not a big one (see No. 82). FOOTNOTES: [108-*] The _gigot_ is the leg with part of the loin. [111-*] _If not to be cut till cold_, two days longer salting will not only improve its flavour, but the meat will keep better. [111-+] In the West Indies they can scarcely cure beef with pickle, but easily preserve it by cutting it into thin slices and dipping them in sea-water, and then drying them quickly in the sun; to which they give the name of _jerked beef_.--BROWNRIGG _on Salt_, 8vo. p. 762. [115-*] This, _salted_, makes a very pretty supper-dish. [120-*] BAKER, in his Chronicle, tells us the turkey did not reach England till A. D. 1524, about the 15th of Henry the 8th; he says, "_Turkies_, carps, hoppes, piccarell, and beere, Came into England all in one year." ROASTING. N.B.--_If the time we have allowed for roasting appears rather longer than what is stated in former works, we can only say, we have written from actual experiments, and that the difference may be accounted for, by common cooks generally being fond of too fierce a fire, and of putting things too near to it._ _Our calculations are made for a temperature of about fifty degrees of Fahrenheit._ SLOW ROASTING _is as advantageous to the tenderness and favour of meat as slow boiling, of which every body understands the importance. See the account of Count Rumford's shoulder of mutton._ _The warmer the weather, and the staler killed the meat is, the less time it will require to roast it._ _Meat that is very fat_, requires more time than we have stated. BEEF _is in proper season throughout the whole year._ _Sirloin of Beef._--(No. 19.) The noble sirloin[122-*] of about fifteen pounds (if much thicker, the outside will be done too much before the inside is enough), will require to be before the fire about three and a half or four hours; take care to spit it evenly, that it may not be heavier on one side than the other; put a little clean dripping into the dripping-pan, (tie a sheet of paper over it to preserve the fat,[123-*]) baste it well as soon as it is put down, and every quarter of an hour all the time it is roasting, till the last half hour; then take off the paper, and make some gravy for it (No. 326); stir the fire and make it clear: to brown and froth it, sprinkle a little salt over it, baste it with butter, and dredge it with flour; let it go a few minutes longer, till the froth rises, take it up, put it on the dish, &c. Garnish it with hillocks of horseradish, scraped as fine as possible with a very sharp knife, (Nos. 458 and 399*). A Yorkshire pudding is an excellent accompaniment (No. 595, or No. 554). _Obs._ The inside of the sirloin must never be cut[123-+] hot, but reserved entire for the hash, or a mock hare (No. 66*). (For various ways of dressing the inside of the sirloin, No. 483; for the receipt to hash or broil beef, No. 484, and Nos. 486 and 487; and for other ways of employing the remains of a joint of cold beef, Nos. 503, 4, 5, 6). _Ribs of Beef._--(No. 20). The first three ribs, of fifteen or twenty pounds, will take three hours, or three and a half: the fourth and fifth ribs will lake as long, managed in the same way as the sirloin. Paper the fat, and the thin part, or it will be done too much, before the thick part is done enough. N.B. A pig-iron placed before it on the bars of the grate answers every purpose of keeping the thin part from being too much done. _Obs._ Many persons prefer the ribs to the sirloin. _Ribs of Beef boned and rolled._--(No. 21.) When you have kept two or three ribs of beef till quite tender, take out the bones, and skewer it as round as possible (like a fillet of veal): before they roll it, some cooks egg it, and sprinkle it with veal stuffing (No. 374). As the meat is more in a solid mass, it will require more time at the fire than in the preceding receipt; a piece of ten or twelve pounds weight will not be well and thoroughly roasted in less than four and a half or five hours. For the first half hour, it should not be less than twelve inches from the fire, that it may get gradually warm to the centre: the last half hour before it will be finished, sprinkle a little salt over it; and if you wish to froth it, flour it, &c. _MUTTON._[124-*]--(No. 23.) As beef requires a large, sound fire, mutton must have a brisk and sharp one. If you wish to have mutton tender, it should be hung almost as long as it will keep;[124-+] and then good eight-tooth, _i. e._ four years old mutton, is as good eating as venison, if it is accompanied by Nos. 329 and 346. The leg, haunch, and saddle will be the better for being hung up in a cool airy place for four or five days at least; in temperate weather, a week; in cold weather, ten days. If you think your mutton will not be tender enough to do honour to the spit, dress it as a "_gigot de sept heures_." See N.B. to No. 1 and No. 493. _A Leg_,--(No. 24.) Of eight pounds, will take about two hours: let it be well basted, and frothed in the same manner as directed in No. 19. To hash mutton, No.