68. "I have learned by experience, that of all the fats that are used

for frying, the _pot top_ which is taken from the surface of the broth and stock-pot is by far the best." [203-*] To make pease pottage, double the quantity. Those who often make pease soup should have a mill, and grind the pease just before they dress them; a less quantity will suffice, and the soup will be much sooner made. [204-*] If the liquor is very salt, the pease will never boil tender. Therefore, when you make pease soup with the liquor in which salted pork or beef has been boiled, tie up the pease in a cloth, and boil them first for an hour in soft water. [204-+] Half a drachm of celery-seed, pounded fine, and put into the soup a quarter of an hour before it is finished, will flavour three quarts. [204-++] Some put in dried mint rubbed to fine powder; but as every body does not like mint, it is best to send it up on a plate. See pease powder, No. 458, essence of celery, No. 409, and Nos. 457 and 459. [205-*] My witty predecessor, Dr. HUNTER (see _Culina_, page 97), says, "If a proper quantity of curry-powder (No. 455) be added to pease soup, a good soup might be made, under the title of _curry pease soup_. Heliogabalus offered rewards for the discovery of a new dish, and the British Parliament have given notoriety to inventions of much less importance than 'curry pease soup.'" N.B. Celery, or carrots, or turnips, shredded, or cut in squares (or Scotch barley,--in the latter case the soup must be rather thinner), or cut into bits about an inch long, and boiled separately, and thrown into the tureen when the soup is going to table, will give another agreeable variety, and may be called _celery and pease soup_. Read _Obs._ to No. 214 [207-*] The French call this "_soup maigre_;" the English acceptation of which is "_poor and watery_," and does not at all accord with the French, which is, soups, &c. made without meat: thus, turtle, the richest dish that comes to an English table (if dressed without meat gravy), is a maigre dish. [209-*] We copied the following receipt from _The Morning Post_, Jan. 1820. WINTER SOUP.--(No. 227.) 210 lbs of beef, fore-quarters, 90 lbs. of legs of beef, 3 bushels of best split pease, 1 bushel of flour, 12 bundles of leeks, 6 bundles of celery, 12 lbs. of salt, 11 lbs. of black pepper. These good ingredients will make 1000 quarts of nourishing and agreeable soup, at an expense (establishment avoided) of little less than 2-1/2_d._ per quart. Of this, 2600 quarts a day have been delivered during the late inclement weather, and the cessation of ordinary employment, at two stations in the parish of Bermondsey, at one penny per quart, by which 600 families have been daily assisted, and it thankfully received. Such a nourishment and comfort could not have been provided by themselves separately for fourpence a quart, if at all, and reckoning little for their fire, nothing for their time. [211-*] Read No. 176. [214-*] Some lovers of _haut goût_ fry the tails before they put them into the soup-pot. [216-*] Fowls' or turkeys' heads make good and cheap soup in the same manner. [218-*] To this fine aromatic herb, turtle soup is much indebted for its spicy flavour, and the high esteem it is held in by the good citizens of London, who, I believe, are pretty generally of the same opinion as Dr. Salmon. See his "_Household Dictionary and Essay on Cookery_," 8vo. London, 1710, page 34, article 'Basil.' "This comforts the heart, expels melancholy, and cleanses the lungs." See No. 307. "This plant gave the peculiar flavour to the _original Fetter-lane sausages_."--GRAY'S _Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia_, 8vo. 1821 p. 52. [219-*] "Tout le monde sait que tous les ragoûts qui portent le nom de TORTUE, sont d'origine Anglaise."--_Manuel des Amphitryons_, 8vo. 1808, p. 229. [219-+] Those who do not like the trouble, &c. of making mock turtle, may be supplied with it ready made, in high perfection, at BIRCH'S, in Cornhill. It is not poisoned with Cayenne pepper, which the turtle and mock turtle soup of most pastry cooks and tavern cooks is, and to that degree, that it acts like a blister on the coats of the stomach. This prevents our mentioning any other maker of this soup, which is often made with cow-heel, or the mere scalp of the calf's head, instead of the head itself. The following are Mr. Birch's directions for warming this soup:--Empty the turtle into a broad earthen vessel, to keep cool: when wanted for table, to two quarts of soup add one gill of boiling water or veal broth, put it over a good, clear fire, keeping it gently stirred (that it may not burn); when it has boiled about three minutes, skim it, and put it in the tureen. N.B. The broth or water, and the wine, to be put into the stew-pan before you put in the turtle. [219-++] The reader may have remarked, that mock turtle and potted beef always come in season together. See _Obs._ to No. 503*. This gravy meat will make an excellent savoury potted relish, as it will be impregnated with the flavour of the herbs and spice that are boiled with it. [220-*] "Many _gourmets_ and gastrologers prefer the copy to the original: we confess that when done as it ought to be, the mock turtle is exceedingly interesting."--_Tabella Cibaria_, 1820, p. 30. "Turtles often become emaciated and sickly before they reach this country, in which case the soup would be incomparably improved by leaving out the turtle, and substituting a good calf's head."--_Supplement to Encyc. Brit. Edinburgh_, vol. iv. p. 331. [Very fine fat turtles are brought to New-York from the West Indies; and, during the warm weather, kept in crawls till wanted: of these they make soup, which surpasses any mock turtle ever made. A.] [222-*] _Mullaga-tawny_ signifies pepper water. The progress of inexperienced peripatetic palaticians has lately been arrested by these outlandish words being pasted on the windows of our coffee-houses. It has, we believe, answered the "_restaurateur's_" purpose, and often excited JOHN BULL to walk in and taste: the more familiar name of curry soup would, perhaps, not have had sufficient of the charms of novelty to seduce him from his much-loved mock turtle. It is a fashionable soup, and a great favourite with our East Indian friends, and we give the best receipt we could procure for it. [223-*] "The usual allowance at a turtle feast is six pounds live weight per head: at the Spanish dinner, at the City of London Tavern, in August, 1808, 400 guests attended, and 2500 pounds of turtle were consumed."--See BELL'S _Weekly Messenger_ for August 7th, 1808. _Epicure_ QUIN used to say, it was "not safe to sit down to a turtle feast at one of the City Halls, without a basket-hilted knife and fork." We recommend our friends, before encountering such a temptation, to read our peptic precepts. Nothing is more difficult of digestion, or oftener requires the aid of peristaltic persuaders, than the glutinous callipash which is considered the "_bonne bouche_" of this soup. Turtle is generally spoiled by being over-dressed. [In Philadelphia, an excellent turtle soup is made of a small native tortoise, called a _terrapin_, and the article _terrapin soup_. A.] [223-+] "A pound of meat contains about an ounce of gelatinous matter; it thence follows, that 1500 pounds of the same meat, which is the whole weight of a bullock, would give only 94 pounds, which might be easily contained in an earthen jar."--Dr. HUTTON'S _Rational Recreations_, vol. iv. p. 194. In what degree portable or other soup be nutritious, we know not, but refer the reader to our note under No. 185. [223-++] This machine was invented by Dr. Denys Papin, F.R.S., about the year 1631, as appears by his essay on "_The New Digester, or Engine for Softening Bones_;" "by the help of which (he says) the oldest and hardest cow-beef may be made as tender and as savoury as young and choice meat." Although we have not yet found that they do what Dr. Papin says, "make old and tough meat young and tender," they are, however, excellent things to make broths and soups in. Among a multitude of other admirable excellencies obtainable by his digester, Dr. Papin, in his 9th chapter, page 54, on the profit that a good engine may come to, says, "I have found that an _old hat_, very bad and loosely made, having imbibed the jelly of bones became very firm and stiff." GRAVIES AND SAUCES. _Melted Butter,_ Is so simple and easy to prepare, that it is a matter of general surprise, that what is done so often in every English kitchen, is so seldom done right: foreigners may well say, that although we have only one sauce for vegetables, fish, flesh, fowl, &c. we hardly ever make that good. It is spoiled nine times out of ten, more from idleness than from ignorance, and rather because the cook won't than because she can't do it; which can only be the case when housekeepers will not allow butter to do it with. Good melted butter cannot be made with mere flour and water; there must be a full and proper proportion of butter. As it must be always on the table, and is the foundation of almost all our English sauces, we have, Melted butter and oysters, ---- ---- ---- parsley, ---- ---- ---- anchovies, ---- ---- ---- eggs, ---- ---- ---- shrimps, ---- ---- ---- lobsters, ---- ---- ---- capers, &c. &c. &c. I have tried every way of making it; and I trust, at last, that I have written a receipt, which, if the cook will carefully observe, she will constantly succeed in giving satisfaction. In the quantities of the various sauces I have ordered, I have had in view the providing for a family of half-a-dozen moderate people. Never pour sauce over meat, or even put it into the dish, however well made, some of the company may have an antipathy to it; tastes are as different as faces: moreover, if it is sent up separate in a boat, it will keep hot longer, and what is left may be put by for another time, or used for another purpose. _Lastly._ Observe, that in ordering the proportions of meat, butter, wine, spice, &c. in the following receipts, the proper quantity is set down, and that a less quantity will not do; and in some instances those palates which have been used to the extreme of _piquance_, will require additional excitement.[228-*] If we have erred, it has been on the right side, from an anxious wish to combine economy with elegance, and the wholesome with the toothsome. _Melted Butter._ Keep a pint stew-pan[228-+] for this purpose only. Cut two ounces of butter into little bits, that it may melt more easily, and mix more readily; put it into the stew-pan with a large tea-spoonful (_i. e._ about three drachms) of flour, (some prefer arrow-root, or potato starch, No. 448), and two table-spoonfuls of milk. When thoroughly mixed, add six table-spoonfuls of water; hold it over the fire, and shake it round every minute (all the while the same way), till it just begins to simmer; then let it stand quietly and boil up. It should be of the thickness of good cream. N.B. Two table-spoonfuls of No. 439, instead of the milk, will make as good mushroom sauce as need be, and is a superlative accompaniment to either fish, flesh, or fowl. _Obs._ This is the best way of preparing melted butter; milk mixes with the butter much more easily and more intimately than water alone can be made to do. This is of proper thickness to be mixed at table with flavouring essences, anchovy, mushroom, or cavice, &c. If made merely to pour over vegetables, add a little more milk to it. N.B. If the butter oils, put a spoonful of cold water to it, and stir it with a spoon; if it is very much oiled, it must be poured backwards and forwards from the stew-pan to the sauce-boat till it is right again. MEM. Melted butter made to be mixed with flavouring essences, catchups, &c. should be of the thickness of light batter, that it may adhere to the fish, &c. _Thickening._--(No. 257.) Clarified butter is best for this purpose; but if you have none ready, put some fresh butter into a stew-pan over a slow, clear fire; when it is melted, add fine flour sufficient to make it the thickness of paste; stir it well together with a wooden spoon for fifteen or twenty minutes, till it is quite smooth, and the colour of a guinea: this must be done very gradually and patiently; if you put it over too fierce a fire to hurry it, it will become bitter and empyreumatic: pour it into an earthen pan, and keep it for use. It will keep good a fortnight in summer, and longer in winter. A large spoonful will generally be enough to thicken a quart of gravy. _Obs._ This, in the French kitchen, is called _roux_. Be particularly attentive in making it; if it gets any burnt smell or taste, it will spoil every thing it is put into, see _Obs._ to No. 322. When cold, it should be thick enough to cut out with a knife, like a solid paste. It is a very essential article in the kitchen, and is the basis of consistency in most made-dishes, soups, sauces, and ragoûts; if the gravies, &c. are too thin, add this thickening, more or less, according to the consistence you would wish them to have. MEM. In making thickening, the less butter, and the more flour you use, the better; they must be thoroughly worked together, and the broth, or soup, &c. you put them to, added by degrees: take especial care to incorporate them well together, or your sauces, &c. will taste floury, and have a disgusting, greasy appearance: therefore, after you have thickened your sauce, add to it some broth, or warm water, in the proportion of two table-spoonfuls to a pint, and set it by the side of the fire, to raise any fat, &c. that is not thoroughly incorporated with the gravy, which you must carefully remove as it comes to the top. This is called cleansing, or finishing the sauce. *.* Half an ounce of butter, and a table-spoonful of flour, are about the proportion for a pint of sauce to make it as thick as cream. N.B. The fat skimmings off the top of the broth pot are sometimes substituted for butter (see No. 240); some cooks merely thicken their soups and sauces with flour, as we have directed in No. 245, or potato farina, No. 448. _Clarified Butter._--(No. 259.) Put the butter in a nice, clean stew-pan, over a very clear, slow fire; watch it, and when it is melted, carefully skim off the buttermilk, &c. which will swim on the top; let it stand a minute or two for the impurities to sink to the bottom; then pour the clear butter through a sieve into a clean basin, leaving the sediment at the bottom of the stew-pan. _Obs._ Butter thus purified will be as sweet as marrow, a very useful covering for potted meats, &c., and for frying fish equal to the finest Florence oil; for which purpose it is commonly used by Catholics, and those whose religious tenets will not allow them to eat viands fried in animal oil. _Burnt Butter._--(No. 260.) Put two ounces of fresh butter into a small frying-pan; when it becomes a dark brown colour, add to it a table-spoonful and a half of good vinegar, and a little pepper and salt. _Obs._ This is used as sauce for boiled fish, or poached eggs. _Oiled Butter._--(No. 260*.) Put two ounces of fresh butter into a saucepan; set it at a distance from the fire, so that it may melt gradually, till it comes to an oil; and pour it off quietly from the dregs. _Obs._ This will supply the place of olive oil; and by some is preferred to it either for salads or frying. _Parsley and Butter._--(No. 261.) Wash some parsley very clean, and pick it carefully leaf by leaf; put a tea-spoonful of salt into half a pint of boiling water: boil the parsley about ten minutes; drain it on a sieve; mince it quite fine, and then bruise it to a pulp. The delicacy and excellence of this elegant and innocent relish depends upon the parsley being minced very fine: put it into a sauce-boat, and mix with it, by degrees, about half a pint of good melted butter (No. 256); only do not put so much flour to it, as the parsley will add to its thickness: never pour parsley and butter over boiled things, but send it up in a boat. _Obs._ In French cookery-books this is called "melted butter, English fashion;" and, with the addition of a slice of lemon cut into dice, a little allspice and vinegar, "Dutch sauce." N.B. To preserve parsley through the winter: in May, June, or July, take fine fresh-gathered sprigs; pick, and wash them clean; set on a stew-pan half full of water; put a little salt in it; boil, and skim it clean, and then put in the parsley, and let it boil for a couple of minutes; take it out, and lay it on a sieve before the fire, that it may be dried as quick as possible; put it by in a tin box, and keep it in a dry place: when you want it, lay it in a basin, and cover it with warm water a few minutes before you use it. _Gooseberry Sauce._--(No. 263.) Top and tail them close with a pair of scissors, and scald half a pint of green gooseberries; drain them on a hair-sieve, and put them into half a pint of melted butter, No. 256. Some add grated ginger and lemon-peel, and the French, minced fennel; others send up the gooseberries whole or mashed, without any butter, &c. _Chervil, Basil, Tarragon, Burnet, Cress, and Butter._--(No. 264.) This is the first time that chervil, which has so long been a favourite with the sagacious French cook, has been introduced into an English book. Its flavour is a strong concentration of the combined taste of parsley and fennel, but more aromatic and agreeable than either; and is an excellent sauce with boiled poultry or fish. Prepare it, &c. as we have directed for parsley and butter, No. 261. _Fennel and Butter for Mackerel, &c._--(No. 265.) Is prepared in the same manner as we have just described in No. 261. _Obs._ For mackerel sauce, or boiled soles, &c., some people take equal parts of fennel and parsley; others add a sprig of mint, or a couple of young onions minced very fine. _Mackerel-roe Sauce._--(No. 266.) Boil the roes of mackerel (soft roes are best); bruise them with a spoon with the yelk of an egg, beat up with a very little pepper and salt, and some fennel and parsley boiled and chopped very fine, mixed with almost half a pint of thin melted butter. See No. 256. Mushroom catchup, walnut pickle, or soy may be added. _Egg Sauce._--(No. 267.) This agreeable accompaniment to roasted poultry, or salted fish, is made by putting three eggs into boiling water, and boiling them for about twelve minutes, when they will be hard; put them into cold water till you want them. This will make the yelks firmer, and prevent their surface turning black, and you can cut them much neater: use only two of the whites; cut the whites into small dice, the yelks into bits about a quarter of an inch square; put them into a sauce-boat; pour to them half a pint of melted butter, and stir them together. _Obs._ The melted butter for egg sauce need not be made quite so thick as No. 256. If you are for superlative egg sauce, pound the yelks of a couple of eggs, and rub them with the melted butter to thicken it. N.B. Some cooks garnish salt fish with hard-boiled eggs cut in half. _Plum-pudding Sauce._--(No. 269.) A glass of sherry, half a glass of brandy (or "cherry-bounce"), or Curaçoa (No. 474), or essence of punch (Nos. 471 and 479), and two tea-spoonfuls of pounded lump sugar (a very little grated lemon-peel is sometimes added), in a quarter of a pint of thick melted butter: grate nutmeg on the top. See Pudding Catchup, No. 446. _Anchovy Sauce._--(No. 270.) Pound three anchovies in a mortar with a little bit of butter; rub it through a double hair-sieve with the back of a wooden spoon, and stir it into almost half a pint of melted butter (No. 256); or stir in a table-spoonful of essence of anchovy, No. 433. To the above, many cooks add lemon-juice and Cayenne. _Obs._ Foreigners make this sauce with good brown sauce (No. 329), or white sauce (No. 364); instead of melted butter, add to it catchup, soy, and some of their flavoured vinegars, (as elder or tarragon), pepper and fine spice, sweet herbs, capers, eschalots, &c. They serve it with most roasted meats. N.B. Keep your anchovies well covered; first tie down your jar with bladder moistened with vinegar, and then wiped dry; tie leather over that: when you open a jar, moisten the bladder, and it will come off easily; as soon as you have taken out the fish, replace the coverings; the air soon rusts and spoils anchovies. See No. 433, &c. _Garlic Sauce._--(No. 272.) Pound two cloves of garlic with a piece of fresh butter, about as big as a nutmeg; rub it through a double hair-sieve, and stir it into half a pint of melted butter, or beef gravy or make it with garlic vinegar, Nos. 400, 401, and 402. _Lemon Sauce._--(No. 273.) Pare a lemon, and cut it into slices twice as thick as a half-crown piece; divide these into dice, and put them into a quarter of a pint of melted butter, No. 256. _Obs._--Some cooks mince a bit of the lemon-peel (pared very thin) very fine, and add it to the above. _Caper Sauce._--(No. 274. See also No. 295.) To make a quarter of a pint, take a table-spoonful of capers, and two tea-spoonfuls of vinegar. The present fashion of cutting capers is to mince one-third of them very fine, and divide the others in half; put them into a quarter of a pint of melted butter, or good thickened gravy (No. 329); stir them the same way as you did the melted butter, or it will oil. _Obs._--Some boil, and mince fine a few leaves of parsley, or chervil, or tarragon, and add these to the sauce; others the juice of half a Seville orange, or lemon. _Mem._--Keep the caper bottle very closely corked, and do not use any of the caper liquor: if the capers are not well covered with it, they will immediately spoil; and it is an excellent ingredient in hashes, &c. The Dutch use it as a fish sauce, mixing it with melted butter. _Mock Caper Sauce._--(No. 275, or No. 295.) Cut some pickled green pease, French beans, gherkins, or nasturtiums, into bits the size of capers; put them into half a pint of melted butter, with two tea-spoonfuls of lemon-juice, or nice vinegar. _Oyster Sauce._--(No. 278.) Choose plump and juicy natives for this purpose: don't take them out of their shell till you put them into the stew-pan, see _Obs._ to No. 181. To make good oyster sauce for half a dozen hearty fish-eaters, you cannot have less than three or four dozen oysters. Save their liquor; strain it, and put it and them into a stew-pan: as soon as they boil, and the fish plump, take them off the fire, and pour the contents of the stew-pan into a sieve over a clean basin; wash the stew-pan out with hot water, and put into it the strained liquor, with about an equal quantity of milk, and about two ounces and a half of butter, with which you have well rubbed a large table-spoonful of flour; give it a boil up, and pour it through a sieve into a basin (that the sauce may be quite smooth), and then back again into the saucepan; now shave the oysters, and (if you have the honour of making sauce for "a committee of taste," take away the gristly part also) put in only the soft part of them: if they are very large, cut them in half, and set them by the fire to keep hot: "if they boil after, they will become hard." If you have not liquor enough, add a little melted butter, or cream (see No. 388), or milk beat up with the yelk of an egg (this must not be put in till the sauce is done). Some barbarous cooks add pepper, or mace, the juice or peel of a lemon, horseradish, essence of anchovy, Cayenne, &c.: plain sauces are only to taste of the ingredient from which they derive their name. _Obs._--It will very much heighten the flavour of this sauce to pound the soft part of half a dozen (unboiled) oysters; rub it through a hair-sieve, and then stir it into the sauce: this essence of oyster (and for some palates a few grains of Cayenne) is the only addition we recommend. See No. 441. _Preserved Oysters._[234-*]--(No. 280.) Open the oysters carefully, so as not to cut them except in dividing the gristle which attaches the shells; put them into a mortar, and when you have got as many as you can conveniently pound at once, add about two drachms of salt to a dozen oysters; pound them, and rub them through the back of a hair-sieve, and put them into a mortar again, with as much flour (which has been previously thoroughly dried) as will make them into a paste; roll it out several times, and, lastly, flour it, and roll it out the thickness of a half-crown, and divide it into pieces about an inch square; lay them in a Dutch oven, where they will dry so gently as not to get burnt: turn them every half hour, and when they begin to dry, crumble them; they will take about four hours to dry; then pound them fine, sift them, and put them into bottles, and seal them over. N.B. Three dozen of natives required 7-1/2 ounces of dried flour to make them into a paste, which then weighed 11 ounces; when dried and powdered, 6-1/4 ounces. To make half a pint of sauce, put one ounce of butter into a stew-pan with three drachms of oyster powder, and six table-spoonfuls of milk; set it on a slow fire; stir it till it boils, and season it with salt. This powder, if made with plump, juicy natives, will abound with the flavour of the fish; and if closely corked, and kept in a dry place, will remain good for some time. _Obs._--This extract is a welcome succedaneum while oysters are out of season, and in such inland parts as seldom have any, is a valuable addition to the list of fish sauces: it is equally good with boiled fowl, or rump steak, and sprinkled on bread and butter makes a very good sandwich, and is especially worthy the notice of country housekeepers, and as a store sauce for the army and navy. See Anchovy Powder, No. 435. _Shrimp Sauce._--(No. 283.) Shell a pint of shrimps; pick them clean, wash them, and put them into half a pint of good melted butter. A pint of unshelled shrimps is about enough for four persons. _Obs._--Some stew the heads and shells of the shrimps, (with or without a blade of bruised mace,) for a quarter of an hour, and strain off the liquor to melt the butter with, and add a little lemon-juice, Cayenne, and essence of anchovy, or soy, cavice, &c.; but the flavour of the shrimp is so delicate, that it will be overcome by any such additions. MEM.--If your shrimps are not quite fresh, they will eat tough and thready, as other stale fish do. See _Obs._ to No. 140. _Lobster Sauce._--(No. 284.) Choose a fine spawny hen lobster;[236-*] be sure it is fresh, so get a live one if you can, (one of my culinary predecessors says, "let it be heavy and lively,") and boil it as No. 176; pick out the spawn and the red coral into a mortar, add to it half an ounce of butter, pound it quite smooth, and rub it through a hair-sieve with the back of a wooden spoon; cut the meat of the lobster into small squares, or pull it to pieces with a fork; put the pounded spawn into as much melted butter (No. 256) as you think will do, and stir it together till it is thoroughly mixed; now put to it the meat of the lobster, and warm it on the fire; take care it does not boil, which will spoil its complexion, and its brilliant red colour will immediately fade. The above is a very easy and excellent manner of making this sauce. Some use strong beef or veal gravy instead of melted butter, adding anchovy, Cayenne, catchup, cavice, lemon-juice, or pickle, or wine, &c. _Obs._--Save a little of the inside red coral spawn, and rub it through a sieve (without butter): it is a very ornamental garnish to sprinkle over fish; and if the skin is broken, (which will sometimes happen to the most careful cook, when there is a large dinner to dress, and many other things to attend to,) you will find it a convenient and elegant veil, to conceal your misfortune from the prying eyes of piscivorous _gourmands_. N.B. Various methods have been tried to preserve lobsters, see No. 178, and lobster spawn, for a store sauce. The live spawn may be kept some time in strong salt and water, or in an ice-house. The following process might, perhaps, preserve it longer. Put it into a saucepan of boiling water, with a large spoonful of salt in it, and let it boil quick for five minutes; then drain it on a hair-sieve; spread it out thin on a plate, and set it in a Dutch oven till it is thoroughly dried; grind it in a clean mill, and pack it closely in well-stopped bottles. See also Potted Lobsters, No. 178. _Sauce for Lobster, &c._--(No. 285. See also No. 372.) Bruise the yelks of two hard-boiled eggs with the back of a wooden spoon, or rather pound them in a mortar, with a tea-spoonful of water, and the soft inside and the spawn of the lobster; rub them quite smooth, with a tea-spoonful of made mustard, two table-spoonfuls of salad oil, and five of vinegar; season it with a very little Cayenne pepper, and some salt. _Obs._--To this, elder or tarragon vinegar (No. 396), or anchovy essence (No. 433), is occasionally added. _Liver and Parsley Sauce_,--(No. 287.) _or Liver and Lemon Sauce._ Wash the liver (it must be perfectly fresh) of a fowl or rabbit, and boil it five minutes in five table-spoonfuls of water; chop it fine, or pound or bruise it in a small quantity of the liquor it was boiled in, and rub it through a sieve: wash about one-third the bulk of parsley leaves, put them on to boil in a little boiling water, with a tea-spoonful of salt in it; lay it on a hair-sieve to drain, and mince it very fine; mix it with the liver, and put it into a quarter pint of melted butter, and warm it up; do not let it boil. _Or_, _To make Lemon and Liver Sauce._ Pare off the rind of a lemon, or of a Seville orange, as thin as possible, so as not to cut off any of the white with it; now cut off all the white, and cut the lemon into slices, about as thick as a couple of half-crowns; pick out the pips, and divide the slices into small squares: add these, and a little of the peel minced very fine to the liver, prepared as directed above, and put them into the melted butter, and warm them together; but do not let them boil. N.B. The poulterers can always let you have fresh livers, if that of the fowl or rabbit is not good, or not large enough to make as much sauce as you wish. _Obs._--Some cooks, instead of pounding, mince the liver very fine (with half as much bacon), and leave out the parsley; others add the juice of half a lemon, and some of the peel grated, or a tea-spoonful of tarragon or Chili vinegar, a table-spoonful of white wine, or a little beaten mace, or nutmeg, or allspice: if you wish it a little more lively on the palate, pound an eschalot, or a few leaves of tarragon or basil, with anchovy, or catchup, or Cayenne. _Liver Sauce for Fish._--(No. 288.) Boil the liver of the fish, and pound it in a mortar with a little flour; stir it into some broth, or some of the liquor the fish was boiled in, or melted butter, parsley, and a few grains of Cayenne, a little essence of anchovy (No. 433), or soy, or catchup (No. 439); give it a boil up, and rub it through a sieve: you may add a little lemon-juice, or lemon cut in dice. _Celery Sauce, white._--(No. 289.) Pick and wash two heads of nice white celery; cut it into pieces about an inch long; stew it in a pint of water, and a tea-spoonful of salt, till the celery is tender;[238-*] roll an ounce of butter with a table-spoonful of flour; add this to half a pint of cream, and give it a boil up. N.B. See No. 409. _Celery Sauce Purée, for boiled Turkey, Veal, Fowls, &c._ (No. 290.) Cut small half a dozen heads of nice white celery that is quite clean, and two onions sliced; put in a two-quart stew-pan, with a small lump of butter; sweat them over a slow fire till quite tender, then put in two spoonfuls of flour, half a pint of water (or beef or veal broth), salt and pepper, and a little cream or milk; boil it a quarter of an hour, and pass through a fine hair-sieve with the back of a spoon. If you wish for celery sauce when celery is not in season, a quarter of a drachm of celery-seed, or a little essence of celery (No. 409), will impregnate half a pint of sauce with a sufficient portion of the flavour of the vegetable. See _Obs._ to No. 214. _Green or Sorrel Sauce._--(No. 291.) Wash and clean a large ponnet of sorrel; put it into a stew-pan that will just hold it, with a bit of butter the size of an egg; cover it close, set it over a slow fire for a quarter of an hour, pass the sorrel with the back of a wooden spoon through a hair-sieve, season with pepper, salt, and a small pinch of powdered sugar, make it hot, and serve up under lamb, veal, sweetbreads, &c. &c. Cayenne, nutmeg, and lemon-juice are sometimes added. _Tomata, or Love-apple Sauce._--(No. 292. See also No. 443.) Have twelve or fifteen tomatas, ripe and red; take off the stalk; cut them in half; squeeze them just enough to get all the water and seeds out; put them in a stew-pan with a capsicum, and two or three table-spoonfuls of beef gravy; set them on a slow stove for an hour, or till properly melted; then rub them through a tamis into a clean stew-pan, with a little white pepper and salt, and let them simmer together a few minutes. [_Love-apple Sauce according to Ude._ Melt in a stew-pan a dozen or two of love-apples (which, before putting in the stew-pan, cut in two, and squeeze the juice and the seeds out); then put two eschalots, one onion, with a few bits of ham, a clove, a little thyme, a bay-leaf, a few leaves of mace, and when melted, rub them through a tamis. Mix a few spoonfuls of good Espagnole or Spanish sauce, and a little salt and pepper, with this purée. Boil it for twenty minutes, and serve up. A.] _Mock Tomata Sauce._--(No. 293.) The only difference between this and genuine love-apple sauce, is the substituting the pulp of apple for that of tomata, colouring it with turmeric, and communicating an acid flavour to it by vinegar. _Eschalot Sauce._--(No. 294.) Take four eschalots, and make it in the same manner as garlic sauce (No. 272). _Or_, You may make this sauce more extemporaneously by putting two table-spoonfuls of eschalot wine (No. 403), and a sprinkling of pepper and salt, into (almost) half a pint of thick melted butter. _Obs._--This is an excellent sauce for chops or steaks; many are very fond of it with roasted or boiled meat, poultry, &c. _Eschalot Sauce for boiled Mutton._--(No. 295.) This is a very frequent and satisfactory substitute for "caper sauce." Mince four eschalots very fine, and put them into a small saucepan, with almost half a pint of the liquor the mutton was boiled in: let them boil up for five minutes; then put in a table-spoonful of vinegar, a quarter tea-spoonful of pepper, a little salt, and a bit of butter (as big as a walnut) rolled in flour; shake together till it boils. See (No. 402) Eschalot Wine. _Obs._--We like a little lemon-peel with eschalot; the _haut goût_ of the latter is much ameliorated by the delicate _aroma_ of the former. Some cooks add a little finely-chopped parsley. _Young Onion Sauce._--(No. 296.) Peel a pint of button onions, and put them in water till you want to put them on to boil; put them into a stew-pan, with a quart of cold water; let them boil till tender; they will take (according to their size and age) from half an hour to an hour. You may put them into half a pint of No. 307. See also No. 137. _Onion Sauce._--(No. 297.) Those who like the full flavour of onions only cut off the strings and tops (without peeling off any of the skins), put them into salt and water, and let them lie an hour; then wash them, put them into a kettle with plenty of water, and boil them till they are tender: now skin them, pass them through a colander, and mix a little melted butter with them. N.B. Some mix the pulp of apples, or turnips, with the onions, others add mustard to them. _White Onion Sauce._--(No. 298.) The following is a more mild and delicate[240-*] preparation: Take half a dozen of the largest and whitest onions (the Spanish are the mildest, but these can only be had from August to December); peel them and cut them in half, and lay them in a pan of spring-water for a quarter of an hour, and then boil for a quarter of an hour; and then, if you wish them to taste very mild, pour off that water, and cover them with fresh boiling water, and let them boil till they are tender, which will sometimes take three-quarters of an hour longer; drain them well on a hair-sieve; lay them on the chopping-board, and chop and bruise them; put them into a clean saucepan, with some butter and flour, half a tea-spoonful of salt, and some cream, or good milk; stir it till it boils; then rub the whole through a tamis, or sieve, adding cream or milk, to make it the consistence you wish. _Obs._--This is the usual sauce for boiled rabbits, mutton, or tripe. There must be plenty of it; the usual expression signifies as much, for we say, smother them with it. _Brown Onion Sauces, or Onion Gravy._--(No. 299.) Peel and slice the onions (some put in an equal quantity of cucumber or celery) into a quart stew-pan, with an ounce of butter; set it on a slow fire, and turn the onion about till it is very lightly browned; now gradually stir in half an ounce of flour; add a little broth, and a little pepper and salt; boil up for a few minutes; add a table-spoonful of claret, or port wine, and same of mushroom catchup, (you may sharpen it with a little lemon-juice or vinegar,) and rub it through a tamis or fine sieve. Curry powder (No. 348) will convert this into excellent curry sauce. N.B. If this sauce is for steaks, shred an ounce of onions, fry them a nice brown, and put them to the sauce you have rubbed through a tamis; or some very small, round, young silver button onions (see No. 296), peeled and boiled tender, and put in whole when your sauce is done, will be an acceptable addition. _Obs._--If you have no broth, put in half a pint of water, and see No. 252; just before you give it the last boil up, add to it another table-spoonful of mushroom catchup, or the same quantity of port wine or good ale. The flavour of this sauce may be varied by adding tarragon or burnet vinegar (Nos. 396 and 399). _Sage and Onion, or Goose-stuffing Sauce._--(No. 300.) Chop very fine an ounce of onion and half an ounce of green sage leaves; put them into a stew-pan with four spoonfuls of water; simmer gently for ten minutes; then put in a tea-spoonful of pepper and salt, and one ounce of fine bread-crumbs; mix well together; then pour to it a quarter of a pint of (broth, or gravy, or) melted butter, stir well together, and simmer it a few minutes longer. _Obs._ This is a very relishing sauce for roast pork, poultry, geese, or ducks; or green pease on maigre days. See also Bonne Bouche for the above, No. 341. _Green Mint Sauce._--(No. 303.) Wash half a handful of nice, young, fresh-gathered green mint (to this some add one-third the quantity of parsley); pick the leaves from the stalks, mince them very fine, and put them into a sauce-boat, with a tea-spoonful of moist sugar, and four table-spoonfuls of vinegar. _Obs._--This is the usual accompaniment to hot lamb; and an equally agreeable relish with cold lamb. If green mint cannot be procured, this sauce may be made with mint vinegar (No. 398). _Apple Sauce._--(No. 304.) Pare and core three good-sized baking apples; put them into a well-tinned pint saucepan, with two table-spoonfuls of cold water; cover the saucepan close, and set it on a trivet over a slow fire a couple of hours before dinner (some apples will take a long time stewing, others will be ready in a quarter of an hour): when the apples are done enough, pour off the water, let them stand a few minutes to get dry; then beat them up with a fork, with a bit of butter about as big as a nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of powdered sugar. N.B. Some add lemon-peel, grated, or minced fine, or boil a bit with the apples. Some are fond of apple sauce with cold pork: ask those you serve if they desire it. _Mushroom Sauce._--(No. 305.) Pick and peel half a pint of mushrooms (the smaller the better); wash them very clean, and put them into a saucepan, with half a pint of veal gravy or milk, a little pepper and salt, and an ounce of butter rubbed with a table-spoonful of flour; stir them together, and set them over a gentle fire, to stew slowly till tender; skim and strain it. _Obs._--It will be a great improvement to this, and the two following sauces, to add to them the juice of half a dozen mushrooms, prepared the day before, by sprinkling them with salt, the same as when you make catchup; or add a large spoonful of good double mushroom catchup (No. 439). See Quintessence of Mushrooms, No. 440. N.B. Much as we love the flavour of mushrooms, we must enter our protest against their being eaten in substance, when the morbid effects they produce too often prove them worthy of the appellations Seneca gave them, "voluptuous poison," "lethal luxury," &c.; and we caution those who cannot refrain from indulging their palate with the seducing relish of this deceitful fungus, to masticate it diligently. We do not believe that mushrooms are nutritive; every one knows they are often dangerously indigestible; therefore the rational epicure will be content with extracting the flavour from them, which is obtained in the utmost perfection by the process directed in No. 439. _Mushroom Sauce, brown._--(No. 306.) Put the mushrooms into half a pint of beef gravy (No. 186, or No. 329); thicken with flour and butter, and proceed as above. _Mushroom Sauce, extempore._--(No. 307.) Proceed as directed in No. 256 to melt butter, only, instead of two table-spoonfuls of milk, put in two of mushroom catchup (No. 439 or No. 440); or add it to thickened broth, gravy, or mock turtle soup, &c. or put in No. 296. _Obs._ This is a welcome relish with fish, poultry, or chops and steaks, &c. A couple of quarts of good catchup (No. 439,) will make more good sauce than ten times its cost of meat, &c. Walnut catchup will give you another variety; and Ball's cavice, which is excellent. _Poor Man's Sauce._--(No. 310.) Pick a handful of parsley leaves from the stalks, mince them very fine, strew over a little salt; shred fine half a dozen young green onions, add these to the parsley, and put them into a sauce-boat, with three table-spoonfuls of oil, and five of vinegar; add some ground black pepper and salt; stir together and send it up. Pickled French beans or gherkins, cut fine, may be added, or a little grated horseradish. _Obs._--This sauce is in much esteem in France, where people of taste, weary of rich dishes, to obtain the charm of variety, occasionally order the fare of the peasant. _The Spaniard's Garlic Gravy._--(No. 311. See also No. 272.) Slice a pound and a half of veal or beef, pepper and salt it, lay it in a stew-pan with a couple of carrots split, and four cloves of garlic sliced, a quarter pound of sliced ham, and a large spoonful of water; set the stew-pan over a gentle fire, and watch when the meat begins to stick to the pan; when it does, turn it, and let it be very well browned (but take care it is not at all burned); then dredge it with flour, and pour in a quart of broth, a bunch of sweet herbs, a couple of cloves bruised, and slice in a lemon; set it on again, and let it simmer gently for an hour and a half longer; then take off the fat, and strain the gravy from the ingredients, by pouring it through a napkin, straining, and pressing it very hard. _Obs._--This, it is said, was the secret of the old Spaniard, who kept the house called by that name on Hampstead Heath. Those who love garlic, will find it an extremely rich relish. _Mr. Michael Kelly's[244-*] Sauce for boiled Tripe, Calf-head, or Cow-heel._--(No. 311*.) Garlic vinegar, a table-spoonful; of mustard, brown sugar, and black pepper, a tea-spoonful each; stirred into half a pint of oiled melted butter. _Mr. Kelly's Sauce piquante._ Pound a table-spoonful of capers, and one of minced parsley, as fine as possible; then add the yelks of three hard eggs, rub them well together with a table-spoonful of mustard; bone six anchovies, and pound them, rub them through a hair-sieve, and mix with two table-spoonfuls of oil, one of vinegar, one of eschalot ditto, and a few grains of Cayenne pepper; rub all these well together in a mortar, till thoroughly incorporated; then stir them into half a pint of good gravy, or melted butter, and put the whole through a sieve. _Fried Parsley._--(No. 317.) Let it be nicely picked and washed, then put into a cloth, and swung backwards and forwards till it is perfectly dry; put it into a pan of hot fat, fry it quick, and have a slice ready to take it out the moment it is crisp (in another moment it will be spoiled); put it on a sieve, or coarse cloth, before the fire to drain. _Crisp Parsley._--(No. 318.) Pick and wash young parsley, shake it in a dry cloth to drain the water from it; spread it on a sheet of clean paper in a Dutch oven before the fire, and turn it frequently until it is quite crisp. This is a much more easy way of preparing it than frying it, which is not seldom ill done. _Obs._ A very pretty garnish for lamb chops, fish, &c. _Fried Bread Sippets._--(No. 319.) Cut a slice of bread about a quarter of an inch thick; divide it with a sharp knife into pieces two inches square; shape these into triangles or crosses; put some very clean fat into an iron frying-pan: when it is hot, put in the sippets, and fry them a delicate light brown; take them up with a fish slice, and drain them well from fat, turning them occasionally; this will take a quarter of an hour. Keep the pan at such a distance from the fire that the fat may be hot enough to brown without burning the bread; this is a requisite precaution in frying delicate thin things. _Obs._ These are a pretty garnish, and very welcome accompaniment and improvement to the finest made dishes: they may also be sent up with pease and other soups; but when intended for soups, the bread must be cut into bits, about half an inch square. N.B. If these are not done very delicately clean and dry, they are uneatable. _Fried Bread-crumbs._--(No. 320.) Rub bread (which has been baked two days) through a wire sieve, or colander; or you may rub them in a cloth till they are as fine as if they had been grated and sifted; put them into a stew-pan, with a couple of ounces of butter; place it over a moderate fire, and stir them about with a wooden spoon till they are the colour of a guinea; spread them on a sieve, and let them stand ten minutes to drain, turning them frequently. _Obs._ Fried crumbs are sent up with roasted sweetbreads, or larks, pheasants, partridges, woodcocks, and grouse, or moor game; especially if they have been kept long enough, _Bread Sauce._--(No. 321.) Put a small tea-cupful of bread-crumbs into a stew-pan, pour on it as much milk as it will soak up, and a little more; or, instead of the milk, take the giblets, head, neck, and legs, &c. of the poultry, &c. and stew them, and moisten the bread with this liquor; put it on the fire with a middling-sized onion, and a dozen berries of pepper or allspice, or a little mace; let it boil, then stir it well, and let it simmer till it is quite stiff, and then put to it about two table-spoonfuls of cream or melted butter, or a little good broth; take out the onion and pepper, and it is ready. _Obs._ This is an excellent accompaniment to game and poultry, &c., and a good vehicle for receiving various flavours from the Magazine of Taste (No. 462). _Rice Sauce._--(No. 321*.) Steep a quarter of a pound of rice in a pint of milk, with onion, pepper, &c. as in the last receipt; when the rice is quite tender (take out the spice), rub it through a sieve into a clean stew-pan: if too thick, put a little milk or cream to it. _Obs._ This is a very delicate white sauce; and at elegant tables is frequently served instead of bread sauce. _Browning_,--(No. 322.) Is a convenient article to colour those soups or sauces of which it is supposed their deep brown complexion denotes the strength and savouriness of the composition. Burned sugar is also a favourite ingredient with the brewers, who use it under the name of "essentia bina" to colour their beer: it is also employed by the brandy-makers, in considerable quantity, to colour brandy; to which, besides enriching its complexion, it gives that sweetish taste, and fulness in the mouth, which custom has taught brandy drinkers to admire, and prefer to the finest Cognac in its genuine state. When employed for culinary purposes, this is sometimes made with strong gravy, or walnut catchup. Those who like a _goût_ of acid may add a little walnut pickle. It will hardly be told from what is commonly called "genuine Japanese soy"[246-*] (for which it is a very good substitute). Burned treacle or sugar, the peels of walnut, Cayenne pepper, or capsicums, or Chilies, vinegar, garlic, and pickled herrings (especially the Dutch), Sardinias, or sprats, appear to be the bases of almost all the sauces which now (to use the maker's phrase) stand unrivalled. Although indefatigable research and experiment have put us in possession of these compositions, it would not be quite fair to enrich the cook at the expense of the oilman, &c.; we hope we have said enough on these subjects to satisfy "the rational epicure." Put half a pound of pounded lump-sugar, and a table-spoonful of water, into a clean iron saucepan, set it over a slow fire, and keep stirring it with a wooden spoon till it becomes a bright brown colour, and begins to smoke; then add to it an ounce of salt, and dilute it by degrees with water, till it is the thickness of soy; let it boil, take off the scum, and strain the liquor into bottles, which must be well stopped: if you have not any of this by you, and you wish to darken the colour of your sauces, pound a tea-spoonful of lump-sugar, and put it into an iron spoon, with as much water as will dissolve it; hold it over a quick fire till it becomes of a very dark brown colour; mix it with the soup, &c. while it is hot. _Obs._ Most of the preparations under this title are a medley of burned butter, spices, catchup, wine, &c. We recommend the rational epicure to be content with the natural colour of soups and sauces, which, to a well-educated palate, are much more agreeable, without any of these empyreumatic additions; however they may please the eye, they plague the stomach most grievously; so "open your mouth and shut your eyes." For the sake of producing a pretty colour, "cheese," "Cayenne" (No. 404), "essence of anchovy" (No. 433), &c. are frequently adulterated with a colouring matter containing red lead!! See ACCUM _on the Adulteration of Food_, 2d edit. 12mo. 1820. A scientific "_homme de bouche de France_" observes: "The generality of cooks calcine bones, till they are as black as a coal, and throw them hissing hot into the stew-pan, to give a brown colour to their broths. These ingredients, under the appearance of a nourishing gravy, envelope our food with stimulating acid and corrosive poison. "Roux, or thickening (No. 257), if not made very carefully, produces exactly the same effect; and the juices of beef or veal, burned over a hot fire, to give a rich colour to soup or sauces, grievously offend the stomach, and create the most distressing indigestions. "The judicious cook will refuse the help of these incendiary articles, which ignorance or quackery only employ; not only at the expense of the credit of the cook, but the health of her employers." N.B. The best browning is good home-made glaze (No. 252), mushroom catchup (No. 439), or claret, or port wine. See also No. 257; or cut meat into slices, and broil them brown, and then stew them. _Gravy for roast Meat._--(No. 326.) Most joints will afford sufficient trimmings, &c. to make half a pint of plain gravy, which you may colour with a few drops of No. 322: for those that do not, about half an hour before you think the meat will be done, mix a salt-spoonful of salt, with a full quarter pint of boiling water; drop this by degrees on the brown parts of the joint; set a dish under to catch it (the meat will soon brown again); set it by; as it cools, the fat will float on the surface; when the meat is ready, carefully remove the fat, and warm up the gravy, and pour it into the dish. The common method is, when the meat is in the dish you intend to send it up in, to mix half a tea-spoonful of salt in a quarter pint of boiling water, and to drop some of this over the corners and underside of the meat, and to pour the rest through the hole the spit came out of: some pierce the inferior parts of the joints with a sharp skewer. The following receipt was given us by a very good cook: You may make good browning for roast meat and poultry, by saving the brown bits of roast meat or broiled; cut them small, put them into a basin, cover them with boiling water, and put them away till next day; then put it into a saucepan, let it boil two or three minutes, strain it through a sieve into a basin, and put it away for use. When you want gravy for roast meat, put two table-spoonfuls into half a pint of boiling water with a little salt: if for roasted veal, put three table-spoonfuls into half a pint of thin melted butter. N.B. The gravy which comes down in the dish, the cook (if she is a good housewife) will preserve to enrich hashes or little made dishes, &c. _Obs._ Some culinary professors, who think nothing can be excellent that is not extravagant, call this "Scots' gravy;" not, I believe, intending it, as it certainly is, a compliment to the laudable and rational frugality of that intelligent and sober-minded people. N.B. This gravy should be brought to table in a sauce-boat; preserve the intrinsic gravy which flows from the meat in the Argyll. _Gravy for boiled Meat_,--(No. 327.) May be made with parings and trimmings; or pour from a quarter to half a pint of the liquor in which the meat was boiled, into the dish with it, and pierce the inferior part of the joint with a sharp skewer. _Wow wow Sauce for stewed or bouilli Beef._--(No. 328.) Chop some parsley-leaves very fine; quarter two or three pickled cucumbers, or walnuts, and divide them into small squares, and set them by ready: put into a saucepan a bit of butter as big as an egg; when it is melted, stir to it a table-spoonful of fine flour, and about half a pint of the broth in which the beef was boiled; add a table-spoonful of vinegar, the like quantity of mushroom catchup, or port wine, or both, and a tea-spoonful of made mustard; let it simmer together till it is as thick as you wish it; put in the parsley and pickles to get warm, and pour it over the beef; or rather send it up in a sauce-tureen. _Obs._ If you think the above not sufficiently _piquante_, add to it some capers, or a minced eschalot, or one or two tea-spoonfuls of eschalot wine (No. 402), or essence of anchovy, or basil (No. 397), elder, or tarragon (No. 396), or horseradish (No. 399*), or burnet vinegar; or strew over the meat carrots and turnips cut into dice, minced capers, walnuts, red cabbage, pickled cucumbers, or French beans, &c. _Beef-gravy Sauce_--(No. 329), _or Brown Sauce for Ragoût, Game, Poultry, Fish, &c._ If you want gravy immediately, see No. 307, or No. 252. If you have time enough, furnish a thick and well-tinned stew-pan with a thin slice of fat ham or bacon, or an ounce of butter, and a middling-sized onion; on this lay a pound of nice, juicy gravy beef, (as the object in making gravy is to extract the nutritious succulence of the meat, it must be beaten to comminute the containing vessels, and scored to augment the surface to the action of the water); cover the stew-pan, and set it on a slow fire; when the meat begins to brown, turn it about, and let it get slightly browned (but take care it is not at all burned): then pour in a pint and a half of boiling water; set the pan on the fire; when it boils, carefully catch the scum, and then put in a crust of bread toasted brown (don't burn it), a sprig of winter savoury, or lemon-thyme and parsley, a roll of thin-cut lemon-peel, a dozen berries of allspice, and a dozen of black pepper; cover the stew-pan close, let it stew very gently for about two hours, then strain it through a sieve into a basin. If you wish to thicken it, set a clean stew-pan over a slow fire, with about an ounce of butter in it; when it is melted, dredge to it (by degrees) as much flour as will dry it up, stirring them well together; when thoroughly mixed, pour in a little of the gravy; stir it well together, and add the remainder by degrees; set it over the fire, let it simmer gently for fifteen or twenty minutes longer, and skim off the fat, &c. as it rises; when it is about as thick as cream, squeeze it through a tamis, or fine sieve, and you will have a fine, rich brown sauce, at a very moderate expense, and without much trouble. _Obs._ If you wish to make it still more relishing, if it is for poultry, you may pound the liver with a bit of butter, rub it through a sieve, and stir it into the sauce when you put in the thickening. For a ragoût or game, add at the same time a table-spoonful of mushroom catchup, or No. 343,[250-*] or No. 429, or a few drops of 422, the juice of half a lemon, and a roll of the rind pared thin, a table-spoonful of port, or other wine (claret is best), and a few grains of Cayenne pepper; or use double the quantity of meat; or add a bit of glaze, or portable soup (No. 252), to it. You may vary the flavour, by sometimes adding a little basil, or burnet wine (No. 397), tarragon vinegar (No. 396), or a wine-glass of quintessence of mushrooms (No. 450). See the Magazine of Taste (No. 462). N.B. This is an excellent gravy; and at a large dinner, a pint of it should be placed at each end of the table; you may make it equal to the most costly _consommé_ of the Parisian kitchen. Those families who are frequently in want of gravy, sauces, &c. (without plenty of which no cook can support the credit of her kitchen), should keep a stock of portable soup or glaze (No. 252): this will make gravy immediately. _Game Gravy._--(No. 337.) See _Obs._ to No. 329. _Orange-gravy Sauce, for wild Ducks, Woodcocks, Snipes, Widgeon, and Teal, &c._--(No. 338.) Set on a saucepan with half a pint of veal gravy (No. 192), add to it half a dozen leaves of basil, a small onion, and a roll of orange or lemon-peel, and let it boil up for a few minutes, and strain it off. Put to the clear gravy the juice of a Seville orange, or lemon, half a tea-spoonful of salt, the same of pepper, and a glass of red wine; send it up hot. Eschalot and Cayenne may be added. _Obs._--This is an excellent sauce for all kinds of wild water-fowl. The common way of gashing the breast and squeezing in an orange, cools and hardens the flesh, and compels every one to eat duck that way: some people like wild fowl very little done, and without any sauce. Gravies should always be sent up in a covered boat: they keep hot longer; and it leaves it to the choice of the company to partake of them or not, _Bonne Bouche for Goose, Duck, or roast Pork._--(No. 341.) Mix a tea-spoonful of made mustard, a salt-spoonful of salt, and a few grains of Cayenne, in a large wine-glassful of claret or port wine;[251-*] pour it into the goose by a slit in the apron just before serving up;[251-+] or, as all the company may not like it, stir it into a quarter of a pint of thick melted butter, or thickened gravy, and send it up in a boat. See also Sage and Onion Sauce, No. 300. _Or_, A favourite relish for roast pork or geese, &c. is, two ounces of leaves of green sage, an ounce of fresh lemon-peel pared thin, same of salt, minced eschalot, and half a drachm of Cayenne pepper, ditto of citric acid, steeped for a fortnight in a pint of claret; shake it up well every day; let it stand a day to settle, and decant the clear liquor; bottle it, and cork it close; a table-spoonful or more in a quarter pint of gravy, or melted butter. _Robert Sauce for roast Pork, or Geese, &c._--(No. 342.) Put an ounce of butter into a pint stew-pan: when it is melted, add to it half an ounce of onion minced very fine; turn it with a wooden spoon till it takes a light brown colour; then stir in a table-spoonful of flour, a table-spoonful of mushroom catchup (with or without the like quantity of port wine), half a pint of broth or water, and a quarter of a tea-spoonful of pepper, the same of salt; give them a boil; then add a tea-spoonful of mustard, and the juice of half a lemon, or one or two tea-spoonfuls of vinegar or basil (No. 397), or tarragon (No. 396), or burnet vinegar (No. 399). _Obs._--The French call this "SAUCE ROBERT" (from the name of the cook who invented it), and are very fond of it with many things, which MARY SMITH, in the "_Complete Housekeeper_," 8vo. 1772, p. 105, translates ROE-BOAT-SAUCE. See _Obs._ to No. 529. _Turtle Sauce._--(No. 343.) Put into your stew-pan a pint of beef gravy thickened (No. 329); add to this some of the following--essence of turtle, (No. 343*), or a wine-glassful of Madeira, the juice and peel of half a lemon, a few leaves of basil,[252-*] an eschalot quartered, a few grains of Cayenne pepper, or curry powder, and a little essence of anchovy; let them simmer together for five minutes, and strain through a tamis: you may introduce a dozen turtle forcemeat balls. See receipt, No. 380, &c. _Obs._--This is the sauce for boiled or hashed calf's head, stewed veal, or any dish you dress turtle fashion. The far-fetched and dear-bought turtle owes its high rank on the list of savoury _bonne bouches_ to the relishing and _piquante_ sauce that is made for it; without, it would be as insipid as any other fish is without sauce. See _Obs._ to No. 493. _Essence of Turtle._--(No. 343*.) Essence of anchovy (No. 433), one wine-glassful. Eschalot wine (No. 402), one and a half ditto. Basil wine (No. 397), four ditto. Mushroom catchup (No. 439), two ditto. Concrete lemon acid, one drachm, or some artificial lemon-juice (No. 407*). Lemon-peel, very thinly pared, three-quarters of an ounce. Curry powder (No. 455), a quarter of an ounce. Steep for a week, to get the flavour of the lemon-peel, &c. _Obs._--This is very convenient to extemporaneously _turtlefy_ soup, sauce, or potted meats, ragoûts, savoury patties, pies, &c. &c. _Wine Sauce for Venison or Hare._--(No. 344.) A quarter of a pint of claret or port wine, the same quantity of plain, unflavoured mutton gravy (No. 347), and a table-spoonful of currant jelly: let it just boil up, and send it to table in a sauce-boat. _Sharp Sauce for Venison._--(No. 345.) Put into a silver, or very clean and well-tinned saucepan, half a pint of the best white wine vinegar, and a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar pounded: set it over the fire, and let it simmer gently; skim it carefully; pour it through a tamis or fine sieve, and send it up in a basin. _Obs._--Some people like this better than the sweet wine sauces. _Sweet Sauce for Venison or Hare._--(No. 346.) Put some currant-jelly into a stew-pan; when it is melted, pour it into a sauce-boat. N.B. Many send it to table without melting. To make currant-jelly, see No. 479*. This is a more salubrious relish than either spice or salt, when the palate protests against animal food unless its flavour be masked. Currant-jelly is a good accompaniment to roasted or hashed meats. _Mutton Gravy for Venison or Hare._--(No. 347.) The best gravy for venison is that made with the trimmings of the joint: if this is all used, and you have no undressed venison, cut a scrag of mutton in pieces; broil it a little brown; then put it into a clean stew-pan, with a quart of boiling water; cover it close, and let it simmer gently for an hour: now uncover the stew-pan, and let it reduce to three-quarters of a pint; pour it through a hair-sieve; take the fat off, and send it up in a boat. It is only to be seasoned with a little salt, that it may not overpower the natural flavour of the meat. You may colour it with a very little of No. 322. N.B. Some prefer the unseasoned beef gravy, No. 186, which you may make in five minutes with No. 252. THE QUEEN'S GRAVY OF MUTTON, as made by her Majesty's "_Escuyer de Cuisine_," Monsieur La Montagne. "Roast a juicy leg of mutton three-quarters; then gash it in several places, and press out the juice by a screw-press."--From SIR KENELM DIGBY'S _Cookery_, 18mo. London, 1669. _Curry Sauce_,--(No. 348.) Is made by stirring a sufficient quantity of curry stuff, (No. 455) into gravy or melted butter, or onion sauce (Nos. 297, 298), or onion gravy (No. 299, or No. 339). The compositions of curry powder, and the palates of those who eat it, vary so much, that we cannot recommend any specific quantity. The cook must add it by degrees, tasting as she proceeds, and take care not to put in too much. _Obs._--The curry powder (No. 455) approximates more nearly to the best Indian curry stuff, and is an agreeable and well-blended mixture of this class of aromatics. N.B. To dress curries, see No. 497. _Essence of Ham._--(No. 351.) Essence of ham and of beef may be purchased at the eating-houses which cut up those joints; the former for half a crown or three shillings a quart: it is therefore a most economical relish for made-dishes, and to give _piquance_ to sauces, &c. _Grill Sauce._--(No. 355.) To half a pint of gravy (No. 329), add an ounce of fresh butter, and a table-spoonful of flour, previously well rubbed together, the same of mushroom or walnut catchup, two tea-spoonfuls of lemon-juice, one of made mustard, one of minced capers, half a one of black pepper, a quarter of a rind of a lemon grated very thin, a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovies, and a little eschalot wine (No. 402), or a very small piece of minced eschalot, and a little Chili vinegar (No. 405), or a few grains of Cayenne; simmer together for a few minutes; pour a little of it over the grill, and send up the rest in a sauce-tureen. For anchovy toasts, No. 573, or No. 538. _Or_, _Sauce à la Tartare._ Pound in a mortar three hard yelks of eggs; put them into a basin, and add half a table-spoonful of made mustard, and a little pepper and salt; pour to it by degrees, stirring it fast all the while, about two wine-glassfuls of salad oil; stir it together till it comes to a good thickness. N.B. A little tarragon or chervil minced very fine, and a little vinegar, may be added; or some of the ingredients enumerated in No. 372. _Obs._--This from the French artist who wrote the receipt for dressing a turtle. _Mem._--These are _piquante_ relishes for anchovy toasts (No. 573, or No. 538); for BROILED DEVILS, &c. "_Véritable sauce d'enfer_," see No. 538; and a refreshing excitement for those idle palates, who are as incessantly mumbling out "piquante, piquante," as parrots do "pretty Poll, pretty Poll." "For palates grown callous almost to disease, Who peppers the highest is surest to please." GOLDSMITH. _Sauce for Steaks, or Chops, Cutlets, &c._--(No. 356. See also No. 331.) Take your chops out of the frying-pan; for a pound of meat keep a table-spoonful of the fat in the pan, or put in about an ounce of butter; put to it as much flour as will make it a paste; rub it well together over the fire till they are a little brown; then add as much boiling water as will reduce it to the thickness of good cream, and a table-spoonful of mushroom or walnut catchup, or pickle, or browning (No. 322, or No. 449); let it boil together a few minutes, and pour it through a sieve to the steaks, &c. _Obs._--To the above is sometimes added a sliced onion, or a minced eschalot, with a table-spoonful of port wine, or a little eschalot wine (Nos. 402, 423, or 135). Garnish with finely-scraped horseradish, or pickled walnuts, gherkins, &c. Some beef-eaters like chopped eschalots in one saucer, and horseradish grated in vinegar, in another. Broiled mushrooms are favourite relishes to beef-steaks. _Sauce Piquante for cold Meat, Game, Poultry, Fish, &c. or Salads._--(No. 359. See also No. 372, and Cucumber Vinegar, Nos. 399 and 453.) Pound in a mortar the yelks of two eggs that have been boiled hard (No. 547), with a mustard-spoonful of made mustard, and a little pepper and salt; add two table-spoonfuls of salad oil; mix well, and then add three table-spoonfuls of vinegar; rub it up well till it is quite smooth, and pass it through a tamis or sieve. _Obs._--To the above, some add an anchovy, or a table-spoonful of mushroom catchup, or walnut pickle, some finely-chopped parsley, grated horseradish, or young onions minced, or burnet (No. 399), horseradish (No. 399*, or No. 402), or tarragon, or elder vinegar (No. 396), &c., and Cayenne or minced pickles, capers, &c. This is a _piquante_ relish for lobsters, crabs, cold fish, &c. _Sauce for Hashes of Mutton or Beef._--(No. 360. See also Nos. 451, 485, and to make Plain Hash, No. 486.) Unless you are quite sure you perfectly understand the palate of those you are working for, show those who are to eat the hash this receipt, and beg of them to direct you how they wish it seasoned. Half the number of the ingredients enumerated will be more than enough: but as it is a receipt so often wanted we have given variety. See also No. 486. To prepare the meat, see No. 484. Chop the bones and fragments of the joint, &c., and put them into a stew-pan; cover them with boiling water, six berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, a small bundle of parsley, half a head of celery cut in pieces, and a small sprig of savoury, or lemon-thyme, or sweet marjoram; cover up, and let it simmer gently for half an hour. Slice half an ounce of onion, and put it into a stew-pan with an ounce of butter; fry it over a sharp fire for about a couple of minutes, till it takes a little colour; then stir in as much flour as will make it a stiff paste, and by degrees mix with it the gravy you have made from the bones, &c.; let it boil very gently for about a quarter of an hour, till it is the consistence of cream; strain it through a tamis or sieve into a basin; put it back into the stew-pan: to season it, see No. 451, or cut in a few pickled onions, or walnuts, or a couple of gherkins, and a table-spoonful of mushroom catchup, or walnut or other pickle liquor; or some capers, and caper liquor; or a table-spoonful of ale; or a little eschalot, or tarragon vinegar; cover the bottom of the dish with sippets of bread (that they may become savoury reservoirs of gravy), which some toast and cut into triangles. You may garnish it with fried bread sippets (No. 319). N.B. To hash meat in perfection, it should be laid in this gravy only just long enough to get properly warm through. _Obs._ If any of the gravy that was sent up with, or ran from the joint when it was roasted, be left, it will be a great improvement to the hash. If you wish to make mock venison, instead of the onion, put in two or three cloves, a table-spoonful of currant jelly, and the same quantity of claret or port wine, instead of the catchup. You may make a curry hash by adding some of No. 455. N.B. A pint of No. 329 is an excellent gravy to warm up either meat or poultry. _Sauce for hashed or minced Veal._--(No. 361. See No. 511.) Take the bones of cold roast or boiled veal, dredge them well with flour, and put them into a stew-pan with a pint and a half of broth or water, a small onion, a little grated or finely-minced lemon-peel, or the peel of a quarter of a small lemon, pared as thin as possible, half a tea-spoonful of salt, and a blade of pounded mace; to thicken it, rub a table-spoonful of flour into half an ounce of butter; stir it into the broth, and set it on the fire, and let it boil very gently for about half an hour; strain through a tamis or sieve, and it is ready to put to the veal to warm up; which is to be done by placing the stew-pan by the side of the fire. Squeeze in half a lemon, and cover the bottom of the dish with toasted bread sippets cut into triangles, and garnish the dish with slices of ham or bacon. See Nos. 526 and 527. _Bechamel, by English Cooks commonly called White Sauce._ (No. 364.) Cut in square pieces, half an inch thick, two pounds of lean veal, half a pound of lean ham; melt in a stew-pan two ounces of butter; when melted, let the whole simmer until it is ready to catch at the bottom (it requires great attention, as, if it happen to catch at the bottom of the stew-pan, it will spoil the look of your sauce); then add to it three table-spoonfuls of flour; when well mixed, add to it three pints of broth or water (pour a little at a time, that the thickening be smooth); stir it until it boil; put the stew-pan on the corner of the stove to boil gently for two hours; season it with four cloves, one onion, twelve pepper-corns, a blade of mace, a few mushrooms and a fagot made of parsley, a sprig of thyme, and a bay-leaf. Let the sauce reduce to a quart, skim the fat off, and strain it through a tamis cloth. To make a bechamel sauce, add to a quart of the above a pint of good cream; stir it until it is reduced to a good thickness; a few mushrooms give a good flavour to that sauce; strain it through a tamis cloth. _Obs._ The above was given us by a French artist. _A more economical Method of making a Pint of White Sauce._--(No. 364--2.) Put equal parts of broth and milk into a stew-pan with an onion and a blade of mace; set it on the fire to boil ten minutes; have ready and rub together on a plate an ounce of flour and butter; put it into the stew-pan; stir it well till it boils up; then stand it near the fire or stove, stirring it every now and then till it becomes quite smooth; then strain it through a sieve into a basin; put it back into the stew-pan; season it with salt and the juice of a small lemon; beat up the yelks of two eggs well with about three table-spoonfuls of milk, strain it through a sieve into your sauce, stir it well and keep it near the fire, but be sure and do not let it boil, for it will curdle. _Obs._ A convenient veil for boiled fowls, &c. whose complexions are not inviting. _Mem._ With the assistance of the Magazine of Taste (No. 462) you may give this sauce a variety of flavours. _Obs._ Bechamel implies a thick white sauce, approaching to a batter, and takes its name from a wealthy French Marquis, _maître d'hôtel de Louis XIV._, and famous for his patronage of "_les Officiers de Bouche_," who have immortalized him, by calling by his name this delicate composition. Most of the French sauces take their name from the person whose palate they first pleased, as "_à la Maintenon_;" or from some famous cook who invented them, as "Sauce Robert," "_à la Montizeur_," &c. We have in the English kitchen, our "Argyll" for gravy, and the little "Sandwich," "_monumentum ære perennius_." ----"And thus MONTEITH Has, by one vessel, saved his name from death." KING'S _Art of Cookery_. _Poivrade Sauce._--(No. 365.) This, as its title tells us, is a sauce of French extraction. The following receipt is from "_La Cuisinière Bourgeoise_," page 408. "Put a bit of butter as big as an egg into a stew-pan with two or three bits of onion, carrot, and turnip, cut in slices, two eschalots, two cloves, a bay-leaf, thyme, and basil; keep turning them in the pan till they get a little colour; shake in some flour, and add a glass of red wine, a glass of water, a spoonful of vinegar, and a little pepper and salt; boil half an hour; skim and strain it." _Mustard in a minute._--(No. 369.) Mix very gradually, and rub together in a mortar, an ounce of flour of mustard, with three table-spoonfuls of milk (cream is better), half a tea-spoonful of salt, and the same of sugar; rub them well together till quite smooth. _Obs._ Mustard made in this manner is not at all bitter, and is therefore instantly ready for the table. N.B. It has been said that flour of mustard is sometimes adulterated with common flour, &c. &c. _Mustard._--(No. 370.) Mix (by degrees, by rubbing together in a mortar) the best Durham flour of mustard, with vinegar, white wine, or cold water, in which scraped horseradish has been boiled; rub it well together for at least ten minutes, till it is perfectly smooth; it will keep in a stone jar closely stopped, for a fortnight: only put as much into the mustard-pot as will be used in a day or two. The ready-made mustard prepared at the oil shops is mixed with about one-fourth part salt: this is done to preserve it, if it is to be kept long; otherwise, by all means, omit it. The best way of eating salt is in substance. *.* See also recipe No. 427. _Obs._ Mustard is the best of all the stimulants that are employed to give energy to the digestive organs. It was in high favour with our forefathers; in the _Northumberland Household Book_ for 1512, p. 18, is an order for an annual supply of 160 gallons of mustard. Some opulent epicures mix it with sherry or Madeira wine, or distilled or flavoured vinegar, instead of horseradish water. The French flavour their mustard with Champaigne and other wines, or with vinegar flavoured with capers, anchovies, tarragon, elder, basil, burnet, garlic, eschalot, or celery, see No. 395 to No. 402: warming it with Cayenne, or the various spices; sweet, savoury, fine herbs, truffles, catchup, &c. &c., and seem to consider mustard merely as a vehicle of flavours. N.B. In Mons. Maille et Aclocque's catalogue of Parisian "_Bono Bons_," there is a list of twenty-eight differently flavoured mustards. _Salt_,--(No. 371.) Is ("_aliorum condimentorum condimentum_," as Plutarch calls it,) sauce for sauce. Common salt is more relishing than basket salt; it should be prepared for the table by drying it in a Dutch oven before the fire; then put it on a clean paper, and roll it with a rolling pin; if you pound it in a mortar till it is quite fine, it will look as well as basket salt. Malden salt is still more _piquante_. *.* Select for table-use the lumps of salt. _Obs._ Your salt-box must have a close cover, and be kept in a dry place. _Salad mixture._--(No. 372. See also Nos. 138* and 453.) Endeavour to have your salad herbs as fresh as possible; if you suspect they are not "morning gathered," they will be much refreshed by lying an hour or two in spring-water; then carefully wash and pick them, and trim off all the worm-eaten, slimy, cankered, dry leaves; and, after washing, let them remain a while in the colander to drain: lastly, swing them gently in a clean napkin: when properly picked and cut, arrange them in the salad dish, mix the sauce in a soup plate, and put it into an ingredient bottle,[260-*] or pour it down the side of the salad dish, and don't stir it up till the mouths are ready for it. If the herbs be young, fresh gathered, trimmed neatly, and drained dry, and the sauce-maker ponders patiently over the following directions, he cannot fail obtaining the fame of being a very accomplished salad-dresser. Boil a couple of eggs for twelve minutes, and put them in a basin of cold water for a few minutes; the yelks must be quite cold and hard, or they will not incorporate with the ingredients. Rub them through a sieve with a wooden spoon, and mix them with a table-spoonful of water, or fine double cream; then add two table-spoonfuls of oil or melted butter; when these are well mixed, add, by degrees, a tea-spoonful of salt, or powdered lump sugar, and the same of made mustard: when these are smoothly united, add very gradually three table-spoonfuls of vinegar; rub it with the other ingredients till thoroughly incorporated with them; cut up the white of the egg, and garnish the top of the salad with it. Let the sauce remain at the bottom of the bowl, and do not stir up the salad till it is to be eaten: we recommend the eaters to be mindful of the duty of mastication, without the due performance of which, all undressed vegetables are troublesome company for the principal viscera, and some are even dangerously indigestible. _Boiled Salad._ This is best compounded of boiled or baked onions (if Portugal the better), some baked beet-root, cauliflower, or broccoli, and boiled celery and French beans, or any of these articles, with the common salad dressing; added to this, to give it an enticing appearance, and to give some of the crispness and freshness so pleasant in salad, a small quantity of raw endive, or lettuce and chervil, or burnet, strewed on the top: this is by far more wholesome than the raw salad, and is much eaten when put on the table. N.B. The above sauce is equally good with cold meat, cold fish, or for cucumbers, celery, radishes, &c. and all the other vegetables that are sent to table undressed: to the above, a little minced onion is generally an acceptable addition. _Obs._ Salad is a very compound dish with our neighbours the French, who always add to the mixture above, black pepper, and sometimes savoury spice. The Italians mince the white meat of chickens into this sauce. The Dutch, cold boiled turbot or lobster; or add to it a spoonful of grated parmesan or old Cheshire cheese, or mince very fine a little tarragon, or chervil, burnet, or young onion, celery, or pickled gherkins, &c. Joan Cromwell's grand salad was composed of equal parts of almonds, raisins, capers, pickled cucumbers, shrimps, and boiled turnips. This mixture is sometimes made with cream, oiled butter (see No. 260*), or some good jelly of meat (which many prefer to the finest Florence oil), and flavoured with salad mixture (No. 453), basil (No. 397), or cress or celery vinegar (No. 397*), horseradish vinegar (No. 399*), cucumber vinegar (No. 399), and _Obs._ to No. 116 of the Appendix; tarragon, or elder vinegar, essence of celery (No. 409), walnut or lemon pickle, or a slice of lemon cut into dice, and essence of anchovy (No. 433). _Forcemeat Stuffings._--(No. 373.) Forcemeat is now considered an indispensable accompaniment to most made dishes, and when composed with good taste, gives additional spirit and relish to even that "sovereign of savouriness," turtle soup. It is also sent up in patties, and for stuffing of veal, game, poultry, &c. The ingredients should be so proportioned, that no one flavour predominates. To give the same stuffing for veal, hare, &c. argues a poverty of invention; with a little contrivance, you may make as great a variety as you have dishes. I have given receipts for some of the most favourite compositions, and a table of materials, a glance at which will enable the ingenious cook to make an infinite variety of combinations: the first column containing the spirit, the second the substance of them. The poignancy of forcemeat should be proportioned to the savouriness of the viands, to which it is intended to give an additional zest. Some dishes require a very delicately flavoured forcemeat, for others, it must be full and high seasoned. What would be _piquante_ in a turkey, would be insipid with turtle. Tastes are so different, and the praise the cook receives will depend so much on her pleasing the palate of those she works for, that all her sagacity must be on the alert, to produce the flavours to which her employers are partial. See pages 45 and 46. Most people have an acquired and peculiar taste in stuffings, &c., and what exactly pleases one, seldom is precisely what another considers the most agreeable: and after all the contrivance of a pains-taking palatician, to combine her "_hauts goûts_" in the most harmonious proportions, "The very dish one likes the best, Is acid, or insipid, to the rest." Custom is all in all in matters of taste: it is not that one person is naturally fond of this or that, and another naturally averse to it; but that one is used to it, and another is not. The consistency of forcemeats is rather a difficult thing to manage; they are almost always either too light or too heavy. Take care to pound it till perfectly smooth, and that all the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Forcemeat-balls must not be larger than a small nutmeg. If they are for brown sauce, flour and fry them; if for white, put them into boiling water, and boil them for three minutes: the latter are by far the most delicate. N.B. If not of sufficient stiffness, it falls to pieces, and makes soup, &c. grouty and very unsightly. Sweetbreads and tongues are the favourite materials for forcemeat. MATERIALS USED FOR FORCEMEAT, STUFFINGS, &C. SPIRIT. Common thyme. } Lemon-thyme. } Orange-thyme. } Sweet marjoram. } Summer and } Winter savoury. } Fresh and green, Sage. } or in dried Tarragon (No. 396). } powder (No. 461). Chervil. } Burnet (No. 399). } Basil (No. 397). } Bay-leaf. } Truffles and } Morells. } Mushroom powder (No. 439). Leeks. Onions. Eschalot (No. 402). Garlic. Lemon-peel (see Nos. 407 and 408). Shrimps (No. 175) Prawns. Crabs. Lobsters (Nos. 176 and 178). Oysters. Anchovy (No. 433). Dressed TONGUE (see N.B. to No. 373). Ham. Bacon. Black or white pepper. Allspice. Mace. Cinnamon Ginger. Nutmegs. Cloves. Capers and pickles (minced or pounded) Savoury powder (No. 465). Soup herb powder (No. 467). Curry powder (No. 455). Cayenne (No. 404). Zest (No. 255). SUBSTANCES. Flour. Crumbs of bread. Parsley (see N.B. to No. 261). Spinage. Boiled onion. Mashed potatoes (No. 106). Yelks of hard eggs (No. 574). Mutton. Beef. Veal suet,[263-*] or marrow. Calf's udder, or brains. Parboiled sweetbread. Veal, minced and pounded, and Potted meats, &c. (No. 503.) For liquids, you have meat gravy, lemon-juice, syrup of lemons (Nos. 391 and 477), essence of anchovy (No. 433), the various vegetable essences (No. 407), mushroom catchup (No. 439), and the whites and yelks of eggs, wines, and the essence of spices. _Stuffing for Veal, roast Turkey, Fowl, &c._--(No. 374.) Mince a quarter of a pound of beef suet (beef marrow is better), the same weight of bread-crumbs, two drachms of parsley-leaves, a drachm and a half of sweet marjoram or lemon-thyme, and the same of grated lemon-peel and onion chopped as fine as possible, a little pepper and salt; pound thoroughly together with the yelk and white of two eggs, and secure it in the veal with a skewer, or sew it in with a bit of thread. Make some of it into balls or sausages; flour them, and boil, or fry them, and send them up as a garnish, or in a side dish, with roast poultry, veal, or cutlets, &c. N.B. This is about the quantity for a turkey poult: a very large turkey will take nearly twice as much. To the above may be added an ounce of dressed ham; or use equal parts of the above stuffing and pork sausage meat (No. 87.) pounded well together. _Obs._ Good stuffing has always been considered a _chef-d'oeuvre_ in cookery: it has given immortality to "Poor _Roger Fowler_, who'd a generous mind, Nor would submit to have his hand confin'd, But aimed at all,--yet never could excel In any thing but _stuffing_ of his veal." KING'S _Art of Cookery_, p. 113. _Veal Forcemeat._--(No. 375.) Of undressed lean veal (after you have scraped it quite fine, and free from skin and sinews), two ounces, the same quantity of beef or veal suet, and the same of bread-crumbs; chop fine two drachms of parsley, one of lemon-peel, one of sweet herbs, one of onion, and half a drachm of mace, or allspice, beaten to fine powder; pound all together in a mortar; break into it the yelk and white of an egg; rub it all up well together, and season it with a little pepper and salt. _Obs._--This may be made more savoury by the addition of cold boiled pickled tongue, anchovy, eschalot, Cayenne or curry powder, &c. _Stuffing for Turkeys or Fowls, &c._--(No. 377.) Take the foregoing composition for the roast turkey, or add the soft part of a dozen oysters to it: an anchovy, or a little grated ham, or tongue, if you like it, is still more relishing. Fill the craw of the fowl, &c.; but do not cram it so as to disfigure its shape. Pork sausage meat is sometimes used to stuff turkeys and fowls; or fried, and sent up as a garnish. _Goose or Duck Stuffing._--(No. 378.) Chop very fine about two ounces of onion, of green sage-leaves about an ounce (both unboiled), four ounces of bread-crumbs, a bit of butter about as big as a walnut, &c., the yelk and white of an egg, and a little pepper and salt: some add to this a minced apple. For another, see roasted goose and duck (Nos. 59 and 61), which latter we like as forcemeat-balls for mock turtle; then add a little lemon-peel, and warm it with Cayenne. _Stuffing for Hare._--(No. 379.) Two ounces of beef suet chopped fine; three ounces of fine bread-crumbs; parsley, a drachm; eschalot, half a drachm; a drachm of marjoram, lemon-thyme, or winter savoury; a drachm of grated lemon-peel, and the same of pepper and salt: mix these with the white and yelk of an egg; do not make it thin--it must be of cohesive consistence: if your stuffing is not stiff enough, it will be good for nothing: put it in the hare, and sew it up. *.* If the liver is quite sound, you may parboil it, and mince it very fine, and add it to the above. _Forcemeat-Balls for Turtle, Mock Turtle, or Made Dishes._ (No. 380. See also No. 375.) Pound some veal in a marble mortar; rub it through a sieve with as much of the udder as you have veal, or about a third of the quantity of butter: put some bread-crumbs into a stew-pan, moisten them with milk, add a little chopped parsley and eschalot, rub them well together in a mortar till they form a smooth paste; put it through a sieve, and, when cold, pound, and mix all together, with the yelks of three eggs boiled hard; season it with salt, pepper, and curry powder, or Cayenne; add to it the yelks of two raw eggs; rub it well together, and make small balls: ten minutes before your soup is ready, put them in. _Egg Balls._--(No. 381.) Boil four eggs for ten minutes, and put them into cold water; when they are quite cold, put the yelks into a mortar with the yelk of a raw egg, a tea-spoonful of flour, same of chopped parsley, as much salt as will lie on a shilling, and a little black pepper, or Cayenne; rub them well together, roll them into small balls (as they swell in boiling); boil them a couple of minutes. _Brain Balls._ See No. 247, or beat up the brains of a calf in the way we have above directed the egg. _Curry Balls for Mock Turtle, Veal, Poultry, Made Dishes, &c._ (No. 382.) Are made with bread-crumbs, the yelk of an egg boiled hard, and a bit of fresh butter about half as big, beaten together in a mortar, and seasoned with curry powder (No. 455): make and prepare small balls, as directed in No. 381. _Fish Forcemeat._--(No. 383.) Take two ounces of either turbot, sole, lobster, shrimps, or oysters; free from skin, put it in a mortar with two ounces of fresh butter, one ounce of bread-crumbs, the yelk of two eggs boiled-hard, and a little eschalot, grated lemon-peel, and parsley, minced very fine; then pound it well till it is thoroughly mixed and quite smooth; season it with salt and Cayenne to your taste; break in the yelk and white of one egg, rub it well together, and it is ready for use. Oysters parboiled and minced fine, and an anchovy, may be added. _Zest Balls._--(No. 386. See No. 255.) Prepared in the same way as No. 381. _Orange or Lemon-peel, to mix with Stuffing._--(No. 387.) Peel a Seville orange, or lemon, very thin, taking off only the fine yellow rind (without any of the white); pound it in a mortar with a bit of lump sugar; rub it well with the peel; by degrees add a little of the forcemeat it is to be mixed with: when it is well ground and blended with this, mix it with the whole: there is no other way of incorporating it so well. Forcemeats, &c. are frequently spoiled by the insufficient mixing of the ingredients. _Clouted or Clotted Cream._--(No. 388.) The milk which is put into the pans one morning stands till the next; then set the pan on a hot hearth, or in a copper tray[267-*] half full of water; put this over a stove; in from ten to twenty minutes, according to the quantity of the milk and the size of the pan, it will be done enough; the sign of which is, that bladders rise on its surface; this denotes that it is near boiling, which it must by no means do; and it must be instantly removed from the fire, and placed in the dairy till the next morning, when the fine cream is thrown up, and is ready for the table, or for butter, into which it is soon converted by stirring it with the hand. N.B. This receipt we have not proved. _Raspberry Vinegar._--(No. 390.) The best way to make this, is to pour three pints of the best white wine vinegar on a pint and a half of fresh-gathered red raspberries in a stone jar, or China bowl (neither glazed earthenware, nor any metallic vessel, must be used); the next day strain the liquor over a like quantity of fresh raspberries; and the day following do the same. Then drain off the liquor without pressing, and pass it through a jelly bag (previously wetted with plain vinegar) into a stone jar, with a pound of pounded lump sugar to each pint. When the sugar is dissolved, stir it up, cover down the jar, and set it in a saucepan of water, and keep it boiling for an hour, taking off the scum; add to each pint a glass of brandy, and bottle it: mixed in about eight parts of water, it is a very refreshing and delightful summer drink. An excellent cooling beverage to assuage thirst in ardent fevers, colds, and inflammatory complaints, &c. and is agreeable to most palates. See No. 479*. N.B. We have not proved this receipt. _Syrup of Lemons._--(No. 391.) The best season for lemons is from November to March. Put a pint of fresh lemon-juice to a pound and three-quarters of lump sugar; dissolve it by a gentle heat; skim it till the surface is quite clear; add an ounce of thin-cut lemon-peel; let them simmer (very gently) together for a few minutes, and run it through a flannel. When cold, bottle and cork it closely, and keep it in a cool place. _Or_, Dissolve a quarter of an ounce (avoirdupois) of citric, _i. e._ crystallized lemon acid, in a pint of clarified syrup (No. 475); flavour it with the peel, with No. 408, or dissolve the acid in equal parts of simple syrup (No. 475), and syrup of lemon-peel, as made No. 393. _The Justice's Orange Syrup for Punch or Puddings._--(No. 392.) Squeeze the oranges, and strain the juice from the pulp into a large pot; boil it up with a pound and a half of fine sugar to each point of juice; skim it well; let it stand till cold; then bottle it, and cork it well. _Obs._--This makes a fine, soft, mellow-flavoured punch; and, added to melted butter, is a good relish to puddings. _Syrup of Orange or Lemon-peel._--(No. 393.) Of fresh outer rind of Seville orange or lemon-peel, three ounces, apothecaries' weight; boiling water a pint and a half; infuse them for a night in a close vessel; then strain the liquor: let it stand to settle; and having poured it off clear from the sediment, dissolve in it two pounds of double-refined loaf sugar, and make it into a syrup with a gentle heat. _Obs._--In making this syrup, if the sugar be dissolved in the infusion with as gentle a heat as possible, to prevent the exhalation of the volatile parts of the peel, this syrup will possess a great share of the fine flavour of the orange, or lemon-peel. _Vinegar for Salads._--(No. 395.) "Take of tarragon, savoury, chives, eschalots, three ounces each; a handful of the tops of mint and balm, all dry and pounded; put into a wide-mouthed bottle, with a gallon of best vinegar; cork it close, set it in the sun, and in a fortnight strain off, and squeeze the herbs; let it stand a day to settle, and then strain it through a filtering bag." From PARMENTIER'S _Art de faire les Vinaigres_, 8vo. 1805, p. 205. _Tarragon Vinegar._--(No. 396.) This is a very agreeable addition to soups, salad sauce (No. 455), and to mix mustard (No. 370). Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with fresh-gathered tarragon-leaves, _i. e._ between midsummer and Michaelmas (which should be gathered on a dry day, just before it flowers), and pick the leaves off the stalks, and dry them a little before the fire; cover them with the best vinegar; let them steep fourteen days; then strain through a flannel jelly bag till it is fine; then pour it into half-pint bottles; cork them carefully, and keep them in a dry place. _Obs._ You may prepare elder-flowers and herbs in the same manner; elder and tarragon are those in most general use in this country. Our neighbours, the French, prepare vinegars flavoured with celery, cucumbers, capsicums, garlic, eschalot, onion, capers, chervil, cress-seed, burnet, truffles, Seville orange-peel, ginger, &c.; in short, they impregnate them with almost every herb, fruit, flower, and spice, separately, and in innumerable combinations. Messrs. Maille et Aclocque, _Vinaigriers à Paris_, sell sixty-five sorts of variously flavoured vinegar, and twenty-eight different sorts of mustard. _Basil Vinegar or Wine._--(No. 397.) Sweet basil is in full perfection about the middle of August. Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with the fresh green leaves of basil (these give much finer and more flavour than the dried), and cover them with vinegar, or wine, and let them steep for ten days: if you wish a very strong essence, strain the liquor, put it on some fresh leaves, and let them steep fourteen days more. _Obs._ This is a very agreeable addition to sauces, soups, and to the mixture usually made for salads. See Nos. 372 and 453. It is a secret the makers of mock turtle may thank us for telling; a table-spoonful put in when the soup is finished will impregnate a tureen of soup with the basil and acid flavours, at very small cost, when fresh basil and lemons are extravagantly dear. The flavour of the other sweet and savoury herbs, celery, &c. may be procured, and preserved in the same manner (No. 409, or No. 417), by infusing them in wine or vinegar. _Cress Vinegar._--(No. 397*.) Dry and pound half an ounce of cress-seed (such as is sown in the garden with mustard), pour upon it a quart of the best vinegar, let it steep ten days, shaking it up every day. _Obs._ This is very strongly flavoured with cress; and for salads and cold meats, &c. it is a great favourite with many: the quart of sauce costs only a half-penny more than the vinegar. Celery vinegar is made in the same manner. The crystal vinegar (No. 407*), which is, we believe, the pyroligneous acid, is the best for receiving flavours, having scarcely any of its own. _Green Mint Vinegar_,--(No. 398.) Is made precisely in the same manner, and with the same proportions as in No. 397. _Obs._--In the early season of housed lamb, green mint is sometimes not to be got; the above is then a welcome substitute. _Burnet or Cucumber Vinegar._--(No. 399.) This is made in precisely the same manner as directed in No. 397. The flavour of burnet resembles cucumber so exactly, that when infused in vinegar, the nicest palate would pronounce it to be cucumber. _Obs._--This is a very favourite relish with cold meat, salads, &c. Burnet is in best season from midsummer to Michaelmas. _Horseradish Vinegar._--(No. 399*.) Horseradish is in highest perfection about November. Pour a quart of best vinegar on three ounces of scraped horseradish, an ounce of minced eschalot, and one drachm of Cayenne; let it stand a week, and you will have an excellent relish for cold beef, salads, &c. costing scarcely any thing. N.B. A portion of black pepper and mustard, celery or cress-seed, may be added to the above. _Obs._--Horseradish powder (No. 458*). _Garlic Vinegar._--(No. 400.) Garlic is ready for this purpose from midsummer to Michaelmas. Peel and chop two ounces of garlic, pour on them a quart of white wine vinegar, stop the jar close, and let it steep ten days, shaking it well every day; then pour off the clear liquor into small bottles. _Obs._--The cook must be careful not to use too much of this; a few drops of it will give a pint of gravy a sufficient smack of the garlic, the flavour of which, when slight and well blended, is one of the finest we have; when used in excess, it is the most offensive. The best way to use garlic, is to send up some of this vinegar in a cruet, and let the company flavour their own sauce as they like. N.B. The most elegant preparation of the onion tribe is the eschalot wine, No. 402. _Eschalot Vinegar_,--(No. 401.) Is made in the same manner, and the cook should never be without one of these useful auxiliaries; they cost scarcely any thing but the little trouble of making, and will save a great deal of trouble in flavouring soups and sauces with a taste of onion. N.B. Eschalots are in high perfection during July, August, and September. _Eschalot Wine._--(No. 402.) Peel, mince, and pound in a mortar, three ounces of eschalots, and infuse them in a pint of sherry for ten days; then pour off the clear liquor on three ounces more eschalots, and let the wine stand on them ten days longer. _Obs._--This is rather the most expensive, but infinitely the most elegant preparation of eschalot, and imparts the onion flavour to soups and sauces, for chops, steaks, or boiled meats, hashes, &c. more agreeably than any: it does not leave any unpleasant taste in the mouth, or to the breath; nor repeat, as almost all other preparations of garlic, onion, &c. do. N.B. An ounce of scraped horseradish may be added to the above, and a little thin-cut lemon-peel, or a few drops of No. 408. _Camp Vinegar._--(No. 403.) Cayenne pepper, one drachm, avoirdupois weight. Soy, two table-spoonfuls. Walnut catchup, four ditto. Six anchovies chopped. A small clove of garlic, minced fine. Steep all for a month in a pint of the best vinegar, frequently shaking the bottle: strain through a tamis, and keep it in small bottles, corked as tightly as possible. _Cayenne Pepper._--(No. 404.) Mr. Accum has informed the public (see his book on Adulterations) that from some specimens that came direct to him from India, and others obtained from respectable oil shops in London, he has extracted lead! "Foreign Cayenne pepper is an indiscriminate mixture of the powder of the dried pods of many species of capsicums, especially of the bird pepper, which is the hottest of all. As it comes to us from the West Indies, it changes the infusion of turnsole to a beautiful green, probably owing to the salt, which is always added to it, and the red oxide of lead, with which it is said to be adulterated." DUNCAN'S _New Edinburgh Dispensary_, 1819, Article _Capsicum_, p. 81. The Indian Cayenne is prepared in a very careless manner, and often looks as if the pods had lain till they were decayed, before they were dried: this accounts for the dirty brown appearance it commonly has. If properly dried as soon as gathered, it will be of a clear red colour: to give it the complexion of that made with good fresh-gathered capsicums or Chilies, some annatto, or other vegetable red colouring matter, is pounded with it: this, Mr. A. assures us, is frequently adulterated with Indian red, _i. e._ "red lead!" When Cayenne is pounded, it is mixed with a considerable portion of salt, to prevent its flying up and hurting the eyes: this might be avoided by grinding it in a mill, which may easily be made close enough, especially if it be passed through a second time, and then sifted through a fine drum-headed sieve, to produce as fine a powder as can be obtained by pounding; however, our English chilies may be pounded in a deep mortar without any danger. The flavour of the Chilies is very superior to that of the capsicums, and will be good in proportion as they are dried as soon as possible, taking care they are not burned. Take away the stalks, and put the pods into a colander; set it before the fire; they will take full twelve hours to dry, then put them into a mortar, with one-fourth their weight of salt, and pound them, and rub them till they are fine as possible, and put them into a well-stopped bottle. N.B. We advise those who are fond of Cayenne not to think it too much trouble to make it of English Chilies; there is no other way of being sure it is genuine, and they will obtain a pepper of much finer flavour, without half the heat of the foreign. A hundred large Chilies, costing only two shillings, will produce you about two ounces of Cayenne, so it is as cheap as the commonest Cayenne. Four hundred Chilies, when the stems were taken off, weighed half a pound; and when dried, produced a quarter of a pound of Cayenne pepper. _Essence of Cayenne._--(No. 405.) Put half an ounce of Cayenne pepper (No. 404) into half a pint of brandy or wine; let it steep for a fortnight, and then pour off the clear liquor. This is nearly equal to fresh Chili juice. _Obs._--This or the Chili vinegar (No. 405*,) is extremely convenient for the extempore seasoning and finishing of soups, sauces, &c., its flavour being instantly and equally diffused. Cayenne pepper varies so much in strength, that it is impossible to season soup any other way to the precise point of _piquance_. _Chili Vinegar._--(No. 405*.) This is commonly made with the foreign bird pepper; but you will obtain a much finer flavour from infusing fifty fresh red English Chilies (cut in half, or pounded) in a pint of the best vinegar for a fortnight, or a quarter of an ounce of Cayenne pepper, No. 404. _Obs._--Many people cannot eat fish without the addition of an acid, and Cayenne pepper: to such palates this will be an agreeable relish. _Chili, or Cayenne Wine._--(No. 406.) Pound and steep fifty fresh red Chilies, or a quarter of an ounce of Cayenne pepper, in half a pint of brandy, white wine, or claret, for fourteen days. _Obs._--This is a "_bonne bouche_" for the lovers of Cayenne, of which it takes up a larger proportion of its flavour than of its fire; which being instantly diffused, it is a very useful auxiliary to warm and finish soups and sauces, &c. _Essence of Lemon-peel._--(No. 407.) Wash and brush clean the lemons; let them get perfectly dry: take a lump of loaf sugar, and rub them till all the yellow rind is taken up by the sugar: scrape off the surface of the sugar into a preserving pot, and press it hard down; cover it very close, and it will keep for some time. In the same way you may get the essence of Seville orange-peel. _Obs._ This method of procuring and preserving the flavour of lemon-peel, by making an _oleo-saccharum_, is far superior to the common practice of paring off the rind, or grating it, and pounding, or mixing that with sugar: by this process you obtain the whole of the fine, fragrant, essential oil, in which is contained the flavour. _Artificial Lemon-juice._--(No. 407*.) If you add a drachm of lump sugar, pounded, and six drops of No. 408, to three ounces of crystal vinegar, which is the name given to the pyroligneous vinegar, you will have an excellent substitute for lemon-juice--for fish sauces and soups, and many other culinary purposes. The flavour of the lemon may also be communicated to the vinegar by infusing some lemon-peel in it. N.B. The pyroligneous vinegar is perfectly free from all flavour, save that of the pure acid; therefore, it is a very valuable menstruum for receiving impregnations from various flavouring materials. The pyroligneous acid seems likely to produce quite a revolution in the process of curing hams, herrings, &c. &c. See TILLOCH'S _Philosophical Magazine_, 1821, No. 173, p. 12. _Quintessence of Lemon-peel._--(No. 408.) Best oil of lemon, one drachm, strongest rectified spirit, two ounces, introduced by degrees till the spirit kills, and completely mixes with the oil. This elegant preparation possesses all the delightful fragrance and flavour of the freshest lemon-peel. _Obs._ A few drops on the sugar you make punch with will instantly impregnate it with as much flavour as the troublesome and tedious method of grating the rind, or rubbing the sugar on it. It will be found a superlative substitute for fresh lemon-peel for every purpose that it is used for: blanc mange, jellies, custards, ice, negus, lemonade, and pies and puddings, stuffings, soups, sauces, ragoûts, &c. See also No. 393. _Tincture of Lemon-peel._--(No. 408*.) A very easy and economical way of obtaining, and preserving the flavour of lemon-peel, is to fill a wide-mouthed pint bottle half full of brandy, or proof spirit; and when you use a lemon, pare the rind off very thin, and put it into the brandy, &c.: in a fortnight it will impregnate the spirit with the flavour very strongly. _Essence of Celery._--(No. 409.) Brandy, or proof spirit, a quarter of a pint. Celery-seed bruised, half an ounce, avoirdupois weight. Let it steep for a fortnight. _Obs._--A few drops will immediately flavour a pint of broth, and are an excellent addition to pease, and other soups, and the salad mixture of oil, vinegar, &c. (No. 392.) N.B. To make celery sauce, see No. 289. _Aromatic Essence of Ginger._--(No. 411.) Three ounces of fresh-grated[275-*] ginger, and two ounces of thin-cut lemon-peel, into a quart of brandy, or proof spirit (apothecaries' measure); let it stand for ten days, shaking it up each day. _Obs._--The proper title for this would be "tincture of ginger:" however, as it has obtained the name of "essence," so let it be called. N.B. If ginger is taken to produce an immediate effect, to warm the stomach, or dispel flatulence, this is the best preparation. _Essence of Allspice for mulling of Wine._--(No. 412.) Oil of pimento, a drachm, apothecaries' measure, strong spirit of wine, two ounces, mixed by degrees: a few drops will give the flavour of allspice to a pint of gravy, or mulled wine, or to make a bishop. Mulled wine made with Burgundy is called bishop; with old Rhenish wine, cardinal; and with Tokay, Pope. RITTER'S _Weinlehres_, p. 200. _Tincture[275-+] of Allspice._--(No. 413.) Of allspice bruised, three ounces, apothecaries' weight. Brandy, a quart. Let it steep a fortnight, occasionally shaking it up; then pour off the clear liquor: it is a most grateful addition in all cases where allspice is used, for making a bishop, or to mulled wine extempore, or in gravies, &c., or to flavour and preserve potted meats (No. 503). See SIR HANS SLOANE'S _Obs. on Allspice_, p. 96. _Tincture of Nutmeg._--(No. 413*.) Is made with the same proportions of nutmeg and brandy, as ordered for allspice. See _Obs._ to No. 415. _Essence of Clove and Mace._--(No. 414.) Strongest spirit of wine, two ounces, apothecaries' measure. Oil of nutmeg, or clove, or mace, a drachm, apothecaries' measure. _Tincture of Clove._--(No. 415.) Cloves bruised, three ounces, apothecaries' weight. Brandy, one quart. Let it steep ten days: strain it through a flannel sieve. _Obs._--Excellent to flavour "bishop," or "mulled wine." _Essence of Cinnamon._--(No. 416.) Strongest rectified spirit of wine, two ounces. Oil of Cinnamon, one drachm, apothecaries' measure. _Tincture of Cinnamon._--(No. 416*.) This exhilarating cordial is made by pouring a bottle of genuine cognac (No. 471,) on three ounces of bruised cinnamon (cassia will not do). This restorative was more in vogue formerly than it is now: a tea-spoonful of it, and a lump of sugar, in a glass of good sherry or Madeira, with the yelk of an egg beat up in it, was called "_balsamum vitæ_." "_Cur moriatur homo, qui sumit de cinnamomo?_"--"Cinnamon is verie comfortable to the stomacke, and the principall partes of the bodie." "_Ventriculum, jecur, lienem, cerebrum, nervosque juvat et roborat._"--"I reckon it a great treasure for a student to have by him in his closet, to take now and then a spoonful."--COGAN'S _Haven of Health_, 4to. 1584, p. 111. _Obs._--Two tea-spoonfuls in a wine-glass of water, are a present and pleasant remedy in nervous languors, and in relaxations of the bowels: in the latter case, five drops of laudanum may be added to each dose. _Essence of Marjoram._--(No. 417.) Strongest rectified spirit, two ounces. Oil of origanum, one drachm, apothecaries' measure. _Vegetable Essences._--(No. 417*.) The flavour of the various sweet and savoury herbs may be obtained by combining their essential oils with rectified spirit of wine, in the proportion of one drachm of the former to two ounces of the latter, or by picking the leaves, and laying them for a couple of hours in a warm place to dry, and then filling a large-mouthed bottle with them, and pouring on them wine, brandy, proof spirit, or vinegar, and letting them steep for fourteen days. _Soup-herb[277-*] Spirit._--(No. 420.) Of lemon-thyme, Winter savoury, Sweet marjoram, Sweet basil,--half an ounce of each. Lemon-peel grated, two drachms. Eschalots, the same. Celery-seed, a drachm, avoirdupois weight. Prepare them as directed in No. 461; and infuse them in a pint of brandy, or proof spirit, for ten days: they may also be infused in wine or vinegar, but neither extract the flavour of the ingredients half so well as the spirit. _Spirit of Savoury Spice._--(No. 421.) Black pepper, an ounce; allspice, half an ounce, pounded fine. Nutmeg grated, a quarter of an ounce, avoirdupois weight. Infuse in a pint of brandy, or proof spirit, for ten days; or, infuse the ingredients enumerated in No. 457, in a quart of brandy, or proof spirit, for the like time. _Soup-herb and Savoury Spice Spirit._--(No. 422.) Mix half a pint of soup-herb spirit with a quarter of a pint of spirit of savoury spice. _Obs._--These preparations are valuable auxiliaries to immediately heighten the flavour, and finish soups, sauces, ragoûts, &c., will save much time and trouble to the cook, and keep for twenty years. _Relish for Chops, &c._--(No. 423.) Pound fine an ounce of black pepper, and half an ounce of allspice, with an ounce of salt, and half an ounce of scraped horseradish, and the same of eschalots, peeled and quartered; put these ingredients into a pint of mushroom catchup, or walnut pickle, and let them steep for a fortnight, and then strain it. _Obs._--A tea-spoonful or two of this is generally an acceptable addition, mixed with the gravy usually sent up for chops and steaks (see No. 356); or added to thick melted butter. _Fish Sauce._--(No. 425.) Two wine-glasses of port, and two of walnut pickle, four of mushroom catchup, half a dozen anchovies, pounded, the like number of eschalots sliced and pounded, a table-spoonful of soy, and half a drachm of Cayenne pepper; let them simmer gently for ten minutes; strain it, and when cold, put it into bottles; well corked, and sealed over, it will keep for a considerable time. _Obs._--This is commonly called Quin's sauce, and was given to me by a very sagacious sauce-maker. _Keeping Mustard._--(No. 427.) Dissolve three ounces of salt in a quart of boiling water, or rather vinegar, and pour it hot upon two ounces of scraped horseradish; closely cover down the jar, and let it stand twenty-four hours: strain, and mix it by degrees with the best Durham flour of mustard, beat well together till quite smooth, and of the proper thickness; put into a wide-mouthed bottle, and stop it closely. For the various ways to flavour mustard, see No. 370. _Sauce Superlative._[278-*]--(No. 429.) Claret, or port wine, and mushroom catchup (see No. 439), a pint of each. Half a pint of walnut or other pickle liquor. Pounded anchovies, four ounces. Fresh lemon-peel, pared very thin, an ounce. Peeled and sliced eschalots, the same. Scraped horseradish, ditto. Allspice, and Black pepper powdered, half an ounce each. Cayenne, one drachm, or curry-powder, three drachms. Celery-seed bruised, a drachm. All avoirdupois weight. Put these into a wide-mouthed bottle, stop it close, shake it up every day for a fortnight, and strain it (when some think it improved by the addition of a quarter of a pint of soy, or thick browning, see No. 322), and you will have a "delicious double relish." *.* This composition is one of the "chefs d'oeuvre" of many experiments I have made, for the purpose of enabling the good housewives of Great Britain to prepare their own sauces: it is equally agreeable with fish, game, poultry, or ragoûts, &c., and as a fair lady may make it herself, its relish will be not a little augmented, by the certainty that all the ingredients are good and wholesome. _Obs._--Under an infinity of circumstances, a cook may be in want of the substances necessary to make sauce: the above composition of the several articles from which the various gravies derive their flavour, will be found a very admirable extemporaneous substitute. By mixing a large table-spoonful with a quarter of a pint of thickened melted butter, broth, or No. 252, five minutes will finish a boat of very relishing sauce, nearly equal to drawn gravy, and as likely to put your lingual nerves into good humour as any thing I know. To make a boat of sauce for poultry, &c. put a piece of butter about as big as an egg into a stew-pan, set it on the fire; when it is melted, put to it a table-spoonful of flour; stir it thoroughly together, and add to it two table-spoonfuls of sauce, and by degrees about half a pint of broth, or boiling water, let it simmer gently over a slow fire for a few minutes, skim it and strain it through a sieve, and it is ready. _Quintessence of Anchovy._--(No. 433.) The goodness of this preparation depends almost entirely on having fine mellow fish, that have been in pickle long enough (_i. e._ about twelve months) to dissolve easily, yet are not at all rusty. Choose those that are in the state they come over in, not such as have been put into fresh pickle, mixed with red paint,[280-*] which some add to improve the complexion of the fish; it has been said, that others have a trick of putting anchovy liquor on pickled sprats;[280-+] you will easily discover this by washing one of them, and tasting the flesh of it, which in the fine anchovy is mellow, red, and high-flavoured, and the bone moist and oily. Make only as much as will soon be used, the fresher it is the better. Put ten or twelve anchovies into a mortar, and pound them to a pulp; put this into a very clean iron, or silver, or very well tinned saucepan; then put a large table-spoonful of cold spring-water (we prefer good vinegar) into the mortar; shake it round, and pour it to the pounded anchovies, set them by the side of a slow fire, very frequently stirring them together till they are melted, which they will be in the course of five minutes. Now stir in a quarter of a drachm of good Cayenne pepper (No. 404). and let it remain by the side of the fire for a few minutes longer; then, while it is warm, rub it through a hair-sieve,[280-++] with the back of a wooden spoon. The essence of anchovy, which is prepared for the committee of taste, is made with double the above quantity of water, as they are of opinion that it ought to be so thin as not to hang about the sides of the bottle; when it does, the large surface of it is soon acted upon by the air, and becomes rancid and spoils all the rest of it. A roll of thin-cut lemon-peel infused with the anchovy, imparts a fine, fresh, delicate, aromatic flavour, which is very grateful; this is only recommended when you make sauce for immediate use; it will keep much better without: if you wish to acidulate it, instead of water make it with artificial lemon-juice (No. 407*), or add a little of Coxwell's concrete acid to it. _Obs._--The above is the proper way to perfectly dissolve anchovy,[281-*] and to incorporate it with the water; which, if completely saturated, will continue suspended. To prevent the separation of essence of anchovy, and give it the appearance of being fully saturated with fish, various other expedients have been tried, such as dissolving the fish in thin water gruel, or barley-water, or thickening it with mucilage, flour, &c.: when any of these things are added, it does not keep half so well as it does without them; and to preserve it, they overload it with Cayenne pepper. MEM.--You cannot make essence of anchovy half so cheap as you can buy it. Thirty prime fish, weighing a pound and a quarter, and costing 4_s._ 6_d._, and two table-spoonfuls of water, made me only half a pint of essence; you may commonly buy that quantity ready-made for 2_s._, and we have seen an advertisement offering it for sale as low as 2_s._ 6_d._ per quart. It must be kept very closely stopped; when you tap a bottle of sauce, throw away the old perforated cork, and put in a new taper velvet cork; if the air gets to it, the fish takes the rust,[281-+] and it is spoiled directly. Essence of anchovy is sometimes coloured[281-++] with bole armeniac, Venice red, &c.; but all these additions deteriorate the flavour of the sauce, and the palate and stomach suffer for the gratification of the eye, which, in culinary concerns, will never be indulged by the sagacious gourmand at the expense of these two _primum mobiles_ of his pursuits. *.* Essence of anchovy is sometimes made with sherry or Madeira wine, or good mushroom catchup (No. 439), instead of water. If you like the acid flavour, add a little citric acid, or dissolve them in good vinegar. N.B. This is infinitely the most convenient way of using anchovy, as each guest may mix sauce for himself, and make it strong or weak, according to his own taste. It is also much more economical, as plain melted butter (No. 256) serves for other purposes at table. _Anchovy Paste, or le Beurre d'Anchois._--(No. 434.) Pound them in a mortar; then rub it through a fine sieve; pot it, cover it with clarified butter, and keep it in a cool place. N.B. If you have essence of anchovy, you may make anchovy paste extempore, by rubbing the essence with as much flour as will make a paste. _Mem._--This is merely mentioned as the means of making it immediately; it will not keep. _Obs._--This is sometimes made stiffer and hotter by the addition of a little flour of mustard, a pickled walnut, spice (No. 460), curry powder (No. 455), or Cayenne; and it then becomes a rival to "_la véritable sauce d'enfer_" (No. 528), or _pâté à la diable_ for deviling biscuits (No. 574), grills (No. 538), &c. It is an excellent garnish for fish, put in pats round the edge of the dish, or will make anchovy toast (No. 573), or devil a biscuit (No. 574), &c. in high style. _Anchovy Powder._--(No. 435.) Pound the fish in a mortar, rub them through a sieve, and make them into a paste with dried flour, roll it into thin cakes, and dry them in a Dutch oven before a slow fire; pounded to a fine powder, and put into a well-stopped bottle, it will keep for years; it is a very savoury relish, sprinkled on bread and butter for a sandwich, &c. See Oyster Powder (No. 280). _Obs._--To this may be added a small portion of Cayenne pepper, grated lemon-peel, and citric acid. _Walnut Catchup._--(No. 438.) Take six half-sieves of green walnut-shells, put them into a tub, mix them up well with common salt, (from two to three pounds,) let them stand for six days, frequently beating and mashing them; by this time the shells become soft and pulpy; then by banking it up on one side of the tub, and at the same time by raising the tub on that side, the liquor will drain clear off to the other; then take that liquor out: the mashing and banking-up may be repeated as often as liquor is found. The quantity will be about six quarts. When done, let it be simmered in an iron boiler as long as any scum arises; then bruise a quarter of a pound of ginger, a quarter of a pound of allspice, two ounces of long pepper, two ounces of cloves, with the above ingredients; let it slowly boil for half an hour; when bottled, let an equal quantity of the spice go into each bottle; when corked, let the bottles be filled quite up: cork them tight, seal them over, and put them into a cool and dry place for one year before they are used. N.B. For the above we are indebted to a respectable oilman, who has many years proved the receipt. _Mushroom Catchup._--(No. 439.) If you love good catchup, gentle reader, make it yourself,[283-*] after the following directions, and you will have a delicious relish for made-dishes, ragoûts, soups, sauces, or hashes. Mushroom gravy approaches the nature and flavour of meat gravy, more than any vegetable juice, and is the superlative substitute for it: in meagre soups and extempore gravies, the chemistry of the kitchen has yet contrived to agreeably awaken the palate, and encourage the appetite. A couple of quarts of double catchup, made according to the following receipt, will save you some score pounds of meat, besides a vast deal of time and trouble; as it will furnish, in a few minutes, as good sauce as can be made for either fish, flesh, or fowl. See No. 307. I believe the following is the best way of extracting and preparing the essence of mushrooms, so as to procure and preserve their flavour for a considerable length of time. Look out for mushrooms from the beginning of September. Take care they are the right sort, and fresh gathered. Full-grown flaps are to be preferred: put a layer of these at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and sprinkle them with salt; then another layer of mushrooms, and some more salt on them; and so on alternately, salt and mushrooms: let them remain two or three hours, by which time the salt will have penetrated the mushrooms, and rendered them easy to break; then pound them in a mortar, or mash them well with your hands, and let them remain for a couple of days, not longer, stirring them up and mashing them well each day; then pour them into a stone jar, and to each quart add an ounce and a half of whole black pepper, and half an ounce of allspice; stop the jar very close, and set it in a stew-pan of boiling water, and keep it boiling for two hours at least. Take out the jar, and pour the juice clear from the settlings through a hair-sieve (without squeezing[284-*] the mushrooms) into a clean stew-pan; let it boil very gently for half an hour: those who are for superlative catchup, will continue the boiling till the mushroom-juice is reduced to half the quantity; it may then be called double cat-sup or dog-sup. There are several advantages attending this concentration; it will keep much better, and only half the quantity be required; so you can flavour sauce, &c. without thinning it: neither is this an extravagant way of making it, for merely the aqueous part is evaporated; skim it well, and pour it into a clean dry jar, or jug; cover it close, and let it stand in a cool place till next day; then pour it off as gently as possible (so as not to disturb the settlings at the bottom of the jug,) through a tamis, or thick flannel bag, till it is perfectly clear; add a table-spoonful of good brandy to each pint of catchup, and let it stand as before; a fresh sediment will be deposited, from which the catchup is to be quietly poured off, and bottled in pints or half pints (which have been washed with brandy or spirit): it is best to keep it in such quantities as are soon used. Take especial care that it is closely corked, and sealed down, or dipped in bottle cement. If kept in a cool, dry place, it may be preserved for a long time; but if it be badly corked, and kept in a damp place, it will soon spoil. Examine it from time to time, by placing a strong light behind the neck of the bottle, and if any pellicle appears about it, boil it up again with a few peppercorns. We have ordered no more spice, &c. than is absolutely necessary to feed the catchup, and keep it from fermenting, &c. The compound, commonly called catchup, is generally an injudicious combination of so many different tastes, that the flavour of the mushroom is overpowered by a farrago of garlic, eschalot, anchovy, mustard, horseradish, lemon-peel, beer, wine, spice, &c. _Obs._--A table-spoonful of double catchup will impregnate half a pint of sauce with the full flavour of mushroom, in much greater perfection than either pickled or powder of mushrooms. _Quintessence of Mushrooms._--(No. 440.) This delicate relish is made by sprinkling a little salt over either flap or button mushrooms; three hours after, mash them; next day, strain off the liquor that will flow from them; put it into a stew-pan, and boil it till it is reduced to half. It will not keep long, but is preferable to any of the catchups, which, in order to preserve them, must have spice, &c., which overpowers the flavour of the mushrooms. An artificial mushroom bed will supply this all the year round. To make sauce with this, see No. 307. _Oyster Catchup._--(No. 441.) Take fine fresh Milton oysters; wash them in their own liquor; skim it; pound them in a marble mortar; to a pint of oysters add a pint of sherry; boil them up, and add an ounce of salt, two drachms of pounded mace, and one of Cayenne; let it just boil up again; skim it, and rub it through a sieve, and when cold, bottle it, cork it well, and seal it down. _Obs._--See also No. 280, and Obs. to No. 278. N.B. It is the best way to pound the salt and spices, &c. with the oysters. _Obs._--This composition very agreeably heightens the flavour of white sauces, and white made-dishes; and if you add a glass of brandy to it, it will keep good for a considerable time longer than oysters are out of season in England. _Cockle and Muscle Catchup_,--(No. 442.) May be made by treating them in the same way as the oysters in the preceding receipt. _Pudding Catchup._--(No. 446.) Half a pint of brandy, "essence of punch" (No. 479), or "Curaçoa" (No. 474), or "Noyeau," a pint of sherry, an ounce of thin-pared lemon-peel, half an ounce of mace, and steep them for fourteen days, then strain it, and add a quarter of a pint of capillaire, or No. 476. This will keep for years, and, mixed with melted butter, is a delicious relish to puddings and sweet dishes. See Pudding Sauce, No. 269, and the Justice's Orange Syrup, No. 392. _Potato[286-*] Starch._--(No. 448.) Peel and wash a pound of full-grown potatoes, grate them on a bread-grater into a deep dish, containing a quart of clear water; stir it well up, and then pour it through a hair-sieve, and leave it ten minutes to settle, till the water is quite clear: then pour off the water, and put a quart of fresh water to it; stir it up, let it settle, and repeat this till the water is quite clear; you will at last find a fine white powder at the bottom of the vessel. (The criterion of this process being completed, is the purity of the water that comes from it after stirring it up.) Lay this on a sheet of paper in a hair-sieve to dry, either in the sun or before the fire, and it is ready for use, and in a well-stopped bottle will keep good for many months. If this be well made, half an ounce (_i. e._ a table-spoonful) of it mixed with two table-spoonfuls of cold water, and stirred into a soup or sauce, just before you take it up, will thicken a pint of it to the consistence of cream. _Obs._--This preparation much resembles the "Indian arrow root," and is a good substitute for it; it gives a fulness on the palate to gravies and sauces at hardly any expense, and by some is used to thicken melted butter instead of flour. As it is perfectly tasteless, it will not alter the flavour of the most delicate broth, &c. _Of the Flour of Potatoes._ "A patent has been recently obtained at Paris, a gold medal bestowed, and other honorary distinctions granted, for the discovery and practice, on a large scale, of preparing from potatoes a fine flour; a sago, a flour equal to ground rice; and a semolina or paste, of which 1_lb._ is equal to 1-1/2_lbs._ of rice, 1-3/4_lbs._ of vermicelli, or, it is asserted, 8_lbs._ of raw potatoes. "These preparations are found valuable to mix with wheaten flour for bread, to make biscuits, pastry, pie-crusts, and for all soups, gruels, and panada. "Large engagements have been made for these preparations with the French marine, and military and other hospitals, with the approbation of the faculty. "An excellent bread, it is said, can be made of this flour, at half the cost of wheaten bread. "Heat having been applied in these preparations, the articles will keep unchanged for years, and on board ship, to China and back; rats, mice, worms, and insects do not infect or destroy this flour. "Simply mixed with cold water, they are in ten minutes fit for food, when fire and all other resource may be wanted; and twelve ounces are sufficient for a day's sustenance, in case of necessity. "The physicians and surgeons in the hospitals, in cases of great debility of the stomach, have employed these preparations with advantage. "The point of this discovery is, the cheapness of preparation, and the conversion of a surplus growth of potatoes into a keeping stock, in an elegant, portable, and salubrious form." _Salad or piquante Sauce for cold Meat, Fish, &c._--(No. 453.) See also No. 372. Pound together An ounce of scraped horseradish, Half an ounce of salt, A table-spoonful of made mustard, No. 370, Four drachms of minced eschalots, No. 409, Half a drachm of celery-seed, No. 409, And half ditto of Cayenne, No. 404, Adding gradually a pint of burnet (No. 399), or tarragon vinegar (No. 396), and let it stand in a jar a week, and then pass it through a sieve. _Curry Powder._--(No. 455.) Put the following ingredients in a cool oven all night, and the next morning pound them in a marble mortar, and rub them through a fine sieve. _d._ Coriander-seed, three ounces 3 Turmeric, three ounces 6 Black pepper, mustard, and ginger, one ounce of each 8 Allspice and less cardamoms, half an ounce of each 5 Cumin-seed, a quarter of an ounce 1 Thoroughly pound and mix together, and keep them in a well-stopped bottle. Those who are fond of curry sauces, may steep three ounces of the powder in a quart of vinegar or white wine for ten days, and will get a liquor impregnated with all the flavour of the powder. _Obs._--This receipt was an attempt to imitate some of the best Indian curry powder, selected for me by a friend at the India house: the flavour approximates to the Indian powder so exactly, the most profound palaticians have pronounced it a perfect copy of the original curry stuff. The following remark was sent to the editor by an East Indian friend. "The ingredients which you have selected to form the curry powder, are the same as are used in India, with this difference only, that some of them are in a raw green state, and are mashed together, and afterward dried, powdered, and sifted." For Curry Sauce, see No. 348. N.B. Chickens, rabbits, sweetbreads, breasts of veal, veal cutlets, mutton, lamb, or pork chops, lobster, turbot, soles, eels, oysters, &c. are dressed curry fashion, see No. 497; or stew them in No. 329 or No. 348, and flavour with No. 455. _Obs._--The common fault of curry powder is the too great proportion of Cayenne (to the milder aromatics from which its agreeable flavour is derived), preventing a sufficient quantity of the curry powder being used. _Savoury ragoût Powder._--(No. 457.) Salt, an ounce, Mustard, half an ounce, Allspice,[288-*] a quarter of an ounce, Black pepper ground, and lemon-peel grated, or of No. 407, pounded and sifted fine, half an ounce each, Ginger, and Nutmeg grated, a quarter of an ounce each, Cayenne pepper, two drachms. Pound them patiently, and pass them through a fine hair-sieve; bottle them for use. The above articles will pound easier and finer, if they are dried first in a Dutch oven[288-+] before a very gentle fire, at a good distance from it; if you give them much heat, the fine flavour of them will be presently evaporated, and they will soon get a strong, rank, empyreumatic taste. N.B. Infused in a quart of vinegar or wine, they make a savoury relish for soups, sauces, &c. _Obs._ The spices in a ragoût are indispensable to give it a flavour, but not a predominant one; their presence should be rather supposed than perceived; they are the invisible spirit of good cookery: indeed, a cook without spice would be as much at a loss as a confectioner without sugar: a happy mixture of them, and proportion to each other and the other ingredients, is the "chef-d'oeuvre" of a first-rate cook. The art of combining spices, &c., which may be termed the "harmony of flavours," no one hitherto has attempted to teach: and "the rule of thumb" is the only guide that experienced cooks have heretofore given for the assistance of the novice in the (till now, in these pages explained, and rendered, we hope, perfectly intelligible to the humblest capacity) occult art of cookery. This is the first time receipts in cookery have been given accurately by weight or measure!!! (See _Obs._ on "the education of a cook's tongue," pages 52 and 53.) _Pease Powder._--(No. 458.) Pound together in a marble mortar half an ounce each of dried mint and sage, a drachm of celery-seed, and a quarter of a drachm of Cayenne pepper; rub them through a fine sieve. This gives a very savoury relish to pease soup, and to water gruel, which, by its help, if the eater of it has not the most lively imagination, he may fancy he is sipping good pease soup. _Obs._--A drachm of allspice, or black pepper, may be pounded with the above as an addition, or instead of, the Cayenne. _Horseradish Powder._--(No. 458*.) The time to make this is during November and December; slice it the thickness of a shilling, and lay it to dry very gradually in a Dutch oven (a strong heat soon evaporates its flavour); when dry enough, pound it and bottle it. _Obs._ See Horseradish Vinegar (No. 399*). _Soup-herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish._--(No. 459.) Dried parsley, Winter savoury, Sweet marjoram, Lemon-thyme, of each two ounces; Lemon-peel, cut very thin, and dried, and Sweet basil, an ounce of each. *.* Some add to the above bay-leaves and celery-seed, a drachm each. Dry them in a warm, but not too hot Dutch oven: when quite dried, pound them in a mortar, and pass them through a double hair-sieve; put them in a bottle closely stopped, they will retain their fragrance and flavour for several months. N.B. These herbs are in full perfection in July and August (see No. 461*). An infusion of the above in vinegar or wine makes a good relishing sauce, but the flavour is best when made with fresh-gathered herbs, as directed in No. 397. _Obs._ This composition of the fine aromatic herbs is an invaluable acquisition to the cook in those seasons or situations when fresh herbs cannot be had; and we prefer it to the ragoût powder, No. 457: it impregnates sauce, soup, &c. with as much relish, and renders it agreeable to the palate, and refreshes the gustatory nerves, without so much risk of offending the stomach, &c. _Soup-herb and Savoury Powder, or Quintessence of Ragoût._--(No. 460.) Take three parts of soup-herb powder (No. 459) to one part of savoury powder, No. 457. _Obs._ This agreeable combination of the aromatic spices and herbs should be kept ready prepared: it will save a great deal of time in cooking ragoûts, stuffings, forcemeat-balls, soups, sauces, &c.; kept dry, and tightly corked down, its fragrance and strength may be preserved undiminished for some time. N.B. Three ounces of the above will impregnate a quart of vinegar or wine with a very agreeable relish. _To Dry sweet and savoury Herbs._--(No. 461.) For the following accurate and valuable information, the reader is indebted to Mr. BUTLER, herbalist and seedsman (opposite Henrietta Street), Covent Garden market. "It is very important to those who are not in the constant habit of attending the markets to know when the various seasons commence for purchasing sweet herbs. "All vegetables are in the highest state of perfection, and fullest of juice and flavour, just before they begin to flower: the first and last crop have neither the fine flavour, nor the perfume of those which are gathered in the height of the season; that is, when the greater part of the crop of each species is ripe. "Take care they are gathered on a dry day, by which means they will have a better colour when dried. Cleanse your herbs well from dirt and dust;[291-*] cut off the roots; separate the bunches into smaller ones, and dry them by the heat of a stove, or in a Dutch oven before a common fire, in such quantities at a time, that the process may be speedily finished; _i. e._ 'Kill 'em quick,' says a great botanist; by this means their flavour will be best preserved: there can be no doubt of the propriety of drying herbs, &c. hastily by the aid of artificial heat, rather than by the heat of the sun. In the application of artificial heat, the only caution requisite is to avoid burning; and of this a sufficient test is afforded by the preservation of the colour." The common custom is, when they are perfectly dried to put them in bags, and lay them in a dry place; but the best way to preserve the flavour of aromatic plants is to pick off the leaves as soon as they are dried, and to pound them, and put them through a hair-sieve, and keep them in well-stopped bottles.[291-+] See No. 459. Basil is in the best state for drying from the middle of August, and three weeks after, see No. 397. Knotted marjoram, from the beginning of July, and during the same. Winter savoury, the latter end of July, and throughout August, see _Obs._ to No. 397. Summer savoury, the latter end of July, and throughout August. Thyme, lemon-thyme, orange-thyme,[291-++] during June and July. Mint, latter end of June, and during July, see No. 398. Sage, August and September. Tarragon, June, July, and August, see No. 396. Chervil, May, June, and July, see No. 264. Burnet, June, July, and August, see No. 399. Parsley, May, June, and July, see N.B. to No. 261. Fennel, May, June, and July. Elder flowers, May, June, and July. Orange flowers, May, June, and July. N.B. Herbs nicely dried are a very acceptable substitute when fresh ones cannot be got; but, however carefully dried, the flavour and fragrance of the fresh herbs are incomparably finer. THE MAGAZINE OF TASTE.--(No. 462.) This is a convenient auxiliary to the cook: it may be arranged as a pyramidical _epergne_ for a dormant in the centre of the table, or as a travelling store-chest. The following sketch will enable any one to fit up an assortment of flavouring materials according to their own fancy and palate; and, we presume, will furnish sufficient variety for the amusement of the gustatory nerves of a thorough-bred _grand gourmand_ of the first magnitude (if Cayenne and garlic have not completely consumed the sensibility of his palate), and consists of a "SAUCE-BOX," containing four eight-ounce bottles,[292-*] sixteen four ounce, and eight two-ounce bottles:--