DECEMBER 251 



Every plant that Miss Jekyll names is worth getting 

 and growing in gardens that are of considerable size, and 

 which more or less share her Surrey soil and climate. 

 I trust that before long these articles will be republished 

 in book form, for every word in them deserves attention 

 and consideration. 



December 12th. One of the every-day English dishes 

 that is often so bad, and can be so excellent, is the old, 

 much-abused hashed mutton. What I am going to say 

 about it applies equally well to every kind of meat that 

 is warmed up. Make the sauce early in the day with 

 stock, gravy, onions, and other vegetables, or, failing this, 

 a few drops of two or three of the bought sauces, and 

 one or two drops of essence of garlic. Garlic, which is 

 excellent as a flavouring to most sauces, is such a 

 dangerous thing to use in a kitchen that the way I 

 manage it is this : Put five or six cloves of garlic into a 

 wide-necked bottle and cover them with good spirits of 

 wine. When wanted, stick a skewer or fork into the 

 spirit and use a drop or two. The spirit evaporates and 

 the flavour of the garlic remains. But even in this way 

 it must be used carefully for English palates. To return 

 to the sauce for the hash : avoid flour, or, if it must be 

 a little thickened, let it only be with what is called 

 ' brown roux ' in ' Dainty Dishes.' The really essential 

 point is to make your sauce first and let it get cold, and 

 then warm up the meat and the sauce together. If you 

 throw meat of any kind into hot sauce, you are certain 

 to make it hard ; it contracts the fibre of the meat, and 

 spoils it. 



One of the very few ways in which wild duck can 

 be warmed up is to mince it fine and then curry it with 

 some well-cooked curry sauce. This is made on the 

 same principle as the curry mentioned before ; that is to 

 say, the onion and apple (if you cannot get apples, goose- 



