202 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Aprii. 



it will remove the flavor) and used for making 

 pastry or for frying cakes or meat while it is new. 

 Thicken the gravy as for fried meats and serve in 

 a separate dish. Cooked thus without skewers, 

 frequently basted and floured, the meat retains its 

 juices and is tender and well flavored. 



Unless veal is quite fat slices of salt pork should 

 be skewered or tied to it when it is about half 

 done, and roasted with it ; or else butter be melted 

 in the gravy with which it is basted. 



A leg of veal or of mutton is much improved 

 by stuffing. For this make deep incisions in the 

 meat and fill them with equal portions of fresh 

 bread crumbed and of salt pork cut nearly as 

 small as sausage-meat, seasoned with pepper, pul- 

 verized sage and sweet marjoram or thyme, — and 

 sew up these with a strong thread — to be cut and 

 taken out before carving. Thicken the gravy and 

 serve as with other roast meats. 



A fresh shoulder, or leg, or cheeks of pork to 

 be roasted should have the rind cut through with 

 a sharp knife in stripes half an inch in width. 

 Pulverized sage and pepper should be rubbed into 

 these cuts, and then the rind greased with butter 

 or lard to prevent its blistering. The lean por- 

 tions may be stuffed by making incisions and fill- 

 ing them with bread crumbs moistened with milk, 

 or a beaten egg, and seasoned with sage or marjo- 

 ram, pepper and salt to the taste. Be careful not 

 to scorch the rind — turn it and baste it very fre- 

 quently to prevent this. 



A pig to be roasted should be killed when a 

 month old. Wash it well, cut oflT the feet at the 

 first joint, and sprinkle salt over it an hour before 

 it is stuffed. The stuffing should be similar to that 

 for a leg of pork ; fill it full with this, rub the skin 

 with butter to prevent blisters, and tie the legs to 

 keep them in the proper place. Shake flour over 

 it, and set it on a griddle in the baking pan, the 

 pan being half full of hot water. Turn it and 

 baste and flour it very often. If you like, add but- 

 ter to the gravy when it is half baked. Boil the 

 liver and the feet an hour, and then add the liquor 

 in which they arc boiled to that in the baking pan ; 

 cut open the feet and chop the liver, and after the 

 gravy is thickened add them to it. Three hours 

 will cook it. 



Rabbits and woodchucks are highly esteemed 

 by some persons ; they need similar preparation 

 and cooking to a young pig, but will be baked in 

 two hours. 



Soups and broths, as well as stews, are generally 

 made of fresh meat. Beef and pork make the best 

 soups ; and for these the remnants of a roast, or 

 cold steaks or cutlets, with their gravies, are al- 

 ways desirable. Three hours will cook a soup or 

 stew, if of raw meat, — except when of a beef shin ; 

 for this five hours is none too long. Cooked meat 

 may be made into a soup in two hours. Put the 

 meat, the bones having been broken or chopped, 

 into cold water— a quart for every half pound— and 

 salt and pepper to taste. Heat it gradually and 



boil it slowly and gently. When the water geta 

 hot pour in half a pint of cold water to set the froth 

 that rises, and then skim it off; it will continue to 

 rise for fifteen or twenty minutes, and must be all 

 skimmed off before the water boils. When the 

 meat is ready to fall from the bones, skim ofi" what 

 fat floats on the liquor, (this, if clarified, makes 

 excellent shortening,) and if you have gravy stir it 

 in at this time. Then, if you like cloves, or savory, 

 or thyme, for seasoning, mix a little with cold 

 water and stir this in also ; at the same time put in 

 pared and sliced potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions 

 or garlics; — six large potatoes, two carrots, two 

 onions, and one turnip, are sufficient for a gallon 

 of soup. When these boil add barley, rice, and 

 vermecelli, if you like; and when the vegetables 

 are boiled tender make dumplings, — taking for a 

 dozen a pint and a half of flour, a pinch of salt, a 

 teaspoonful of cream tartar, half a teaspoonful of 

 soda or saleratus, and water enough to make dough 

 that can be easily moulded. Steam these in the 

 steamer that fits the brim of the dinner-boiler, and 

 when they are done — ten minutes will cook them — 

 mix a little flour with cold water and stir into the 

 soup ; let it boil three times, then add the dump- 

 lings and take up the soup and serve immediately. 

 For variety the vegetables may be cut as small as 

 dice, and when done strained from the soup by 

 means of a hair sieve or a colander. Tomatoes — 

 two or three to a gallon — are a great addition; 

 skin and slice them, and boil as long as the other 

 vegetables. — Stews require a third less water and 

 more vegetables than soups. — Broths need the 

 same vegetables as soups, but they are boiled with- 

 out slicing, and the rice, or barley, is the same. 

 Green parsley, or savory, and pepper-grass, and 

 thyme, with the petals of the common marigold, 

 are used as flavoring, — and no seasoning but salt. 

 For a meat-pie the meat should be parboiled half 

 an hour ; the pan, if the pie is to baked, lined with 

 a crust made of a quart of flour, a tables poonfu I of 

 lard, a pint of sour cream and saleratus to sweeten 

 it, and a little salt or sweet milk or cold water with 

 a teaspoonful of cream tartar and half a teaspoon- 

 ful of soda may mix the flour. Lay the meat and 

 place the bones, in such a way as to fill the pan ; 

 or arrange skewers, or set a bowl within for the 

 same purpose. Thicken the gravy, and season 

 with salt and pepper and pour in ; it is a good plan 

 to make gravy enough to reserve a pint or more to 

 replenish what is evaporated in baking. The crust 

 should be a quarter of an inch in thickness for the 

 lining, and a little thicker for the covering. If 

 there is any crust remaining after the cover is 

 laid, cut it into strips and make knots and twists 

 of it to ornament the cover. A pot-pie may be 

 steamed or boiled— (using the same for crust as if 

 it were baked)— on the back of a stove, if great 

 care is used, and the fire covered with ashes to 

 moderate the heat. An excellent soup or broth 

 may be made from the liquor in which a leg of 

 mutton— fresh— is boiled ; or when a calf's head is 



