CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



currants washed and picked, a pound of stoned ' mutton roasted, potatoes in their jackets, broccoli, apple 



and chopped raisins, an ounce of ground cinna- ' dumpling, cheese. Second <&> Remains of cod-fish 



mon, half an ounce of ground ginger, an ounce of au d a dish of stewed steak, coW mutton, roily-poly 



orange and an ounce of lemon peel, and a little 



salt ; half a pound of raw sugar, one nutmeg 



grated, two glasses of brandy, and two of sherry. 



Mix all these ingredients together, and lay the 



bottom of your dish or small tin pans with paste ; 



fill these with the mince, and then cover them 



with puff-paste. Put in the oven, and bake for 



half an hour. If the whole of the mixture be not 



used, what remains over will keep for a long time 



if placed in a close jar. Some persons do not 



put any meat in their mince pies. 



Open Tarts. These are tarts without covers, 

 made in flat dishes. Cover the bottom of the 

 dish with a paste, and cut a strip of it and lay 

 round the edge of the dish. Fill the centre with 

 any jam or preserved fruit. Decorate the top of 

 the jam with narrow bars of paste crossed all over, 

 or stamped leaves. Bake half an hour. With 

 any paste left over, a very good tart may be 

 made by spreading with fine treacle, dusting this 

 with ground cinnamon, doubling up like a puff, 

 and baking for a few minutes in the oven. Eat 

 with cream or milk and raspberry vinegar. 



BILLS OF FARE FOR ALL CLASSES. 



Many housewives, when left to their own re- 

 sources, experience much difficulty in planning a 

 dinner. To those who have not the assistance of 



pudding. Third day Hare soup, boiled gigot of 

 mutton with turnips and potatoes, curried rabbit with 

 rice, apple tart, cheese. Fourth day Boiled haddocks 

 with melted butter, roast goose with apple sauce, 

 mashed potatoes, macaroni pudding. Fifth day 

 Roast of beef-ribs with horse-radish, potatoes and 

 Brussels sprouts, pancakes, fish if deemed neces- 

 sary. (Some families have always a service of fish on 

 Fridays.) Sixth day Kidney soup, fried whitings, a 

 roast fowl with toasted ham, bread-and-butter pudding. 

 Seventh day Pea soup made from bones of beef and 

 parings of ham, a bit of turbot, beefsteak pie, apple 

 fritters, cheese. 



April and May. First day Stewed veal with 

 vegetables, beefsteak pie, rhubarb tart. Second day 

 Brown soup, boiled mackerel, a joint of lamb, batter 

 pudding. Third day Scotch broth, boiled neck of 

 mutton, potatoes and young cabbage, macaroni 

 pudding. Fourth day Brown soup, roast gigot of 

 mutton with a dish of sea-kale, rhubarb dumpling. Fifth 

 day Boiled salmon, roast lamb, cheese. Sixth day 

 Spring soup, baked mackerel, curried fowl, and custard 

 pudding. Seventh day Dressed lamb's head, a dish 

 of stewed steak, gooseberry tart. 



Summer dinners. First day Cold lamb and salad, 

 curried fowl, fruit pudding. Second day Vegetable 

 soup with rice, made from a piece of lean mutton, boiled 

 mackerel, mutton cutlets, cold tart. Third day Ox -tail 

 soup, curried soles, roast lamb and cabbage, gooseberry 

 tart. Fourth day Salmon trout cold, cold veal and 

 ham pie, cold fruit tart, curds and cream. Fifth day 



Green pea soup, roast leg of mutton with cabbage and 

 new potatoes, pancakes. Sixth day Cold boiled beef, 

 boiled gooseberry dumpling, cheese with salad. Seventh 

 day Fore-quarter of lamb roasted with mashed turnips, 

 boiled fowl, bread pudding. 



Miscellaneous dinners. First day Rice soup, fresh 

 herrings boiled in salt water, roast fillet of veal, plum 

 tart, cheese and salad. Second day Vegetable marrow 



a professed cook, but who wish to unite taste 

 with economy in the management of their dinner- 

 table, the following hints may be acceptable. 



The first thing to take into account is the 

 season of the year, and to know what fishes, 

 meats, vegetables, and fruits are in season. Food 

 is always best when it has been allowed to arrive 



at what may be called its natural time of maturity, j soup, fried soles and melted butter, lamb cutlets and 

 ' House-lamb ' is poor eating in February, com- French beans, baked raspberry pudding. Third day 



1 Salmon pudding, macaroni stewed in beef gravy, and 

 baked with grated cheese, stewed beef with new cab- 

 bage, baked raspberry pudding. Fourth day Ox -tail 

 soup with cut carrot, baked soles, roast fowl gar- 

 nished with toasted ham, baked bread pudding, cheese 

 and salad. Fifth day (A fish dinner) Oyster soup, 

 filleted haddocks fried with bread-crumbs, crimped 

 skate, salmon dumpling, baked cod-fish, whitebait, 

 stewed eels, crab pie, crappit heads, fish sauce, curried 

 whitings. Sixth day Julienne soup, fried flounders, 

 roast leg of mutton with onion sauce, boiled fowl, cauli- 



pared to a grass-fed joint of the same animal in 

 July or August ; and strawberries or green peas 

 have a finer flavour when they are grown in. the 

 open air than when they are forced in a hot-house, 

 or brought from Algiers. To affect such 'deli- 

 cacies,' as they are wrongly called, is both extrava- 

 gant and in bad taste. 



The following is a sketch of a few dinners 

 suitable for the early period of the year ; the first 

 may be called a Christmas dinner. 



1. Mock-turtle soup, and clear ox-tail soup, 

 removed with a cod's head and shoulders, and a 

 dish of stewed eels, to be followed with a boiled 

 turkey and a roast saddle of mutton. Plum-pudd- 

 ing, tart of apricot jam, and a few other sweets. 

 Potatoes and Brussels sprouts are suitable 

 vegetables. 



2. A piece of boiled beef and a roast goose may 

 vary the dinner, if it be repeated. Greens ought 

 to be served with the beef, as also a few slices 

 of carrot and turnip. 



3. Leek soup is an excellent soup for use in 

 January and February, as also bare soup. 



We do not think it necessary to indicate a 

 menu for ' stylish' dinners, but the following hints 



flower, apple dumpling, cheese and salad. Seventh day 

 cold salmon in its own sauce, beefsteak pie, cold 

 roast fowl, tongue, a dressed salad with crayfish. 



These bills of fare are only given as examples, 

 and none of them need be rigidly adhered to, as 

 the joint of one bill of fare may follow the soup of 

 another, and so on, till any number of days are pro- 

 vided for. The following is an example of what 

 may be done in this way. Take the rice soup of 

 the first day in Miscellaneous Dinners, the fried 

 soles of the second day, the stewed macaroni of 

 the third day, the roast fowl of the fourth day, and 

 the apple dumpling of the sixth day, and you have 

 an excellent bill of fare. One good dinner ought 

 to serve as a foundation for the next that is to 



for setting out the dinner-table for a succession of I f ollo w; as, for instance, a cod that is baked for one 



seven days, during various seasons, will be found 

 useful. 



January and February. First day Leek soup, 

 baked cod with oysters stewed in beef gravy, leg of 

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day, may be made useful on the next day, as what 

 remains of it may be curried, and so form a 

 palatable dish. The water used for boiling a ham 

 or tongue, or gigot of mutton, may be used 



