[AND STUDY ALL THE PRECAUTIONS.]

1180. Curried Eggs.

Slice two onions and fry them in b.u.t.ter, add a tablespoonful of curry powder; let the onions and curry powder stew in a pint of good broth till the former are quite tender; mix a cup of cream, and thicken with arrowroot, or rice flour. Simmer a few minutes, then add six or eight hard-boiled eggs cut in slices; heat them thoroughly, but do not let them boil.

1181. Cold Meat Broiled, With Poached Eggs.

The inside of a sirloin of beef or a leg of mutton is the best for this dish. Cut the slices of equal thickness, and broil and brown them carefully and slightly over a clear smart fire, or in a Dutch oven; give those slices most fire that are least done; lay them in a dish before the fire to keep hot, while you poach the eggs and mash the potatoes. This makes a savoury luncheon or supper. The meat should be _underdone_ the first time.

1182. Curried Oysters.

This receipt may be greatly modified, both in quant.i.ty and ingredients. Let a hundred of large oysters be opened into a basin without losing one drop of their liquor. Put a lump of fresh b.u.t.ter into a good-sized saucepan, and when it boils, add a large onion, cut into thin slices, and let it fry in the uncovered stewpan until it is of a rich brown: now add a bit more b.u.t.ter, and two or three tablespoonfuls of curry powder. When these ingredients are well mixed over the fire with a wooden spoon, add gradually either hot water, or broth from the stock-pot; cover the stewpan, and let the whole boil up. Meanwhile, have ready the meat of a cocoa-nut, grated or rasped fine, put this into the stewpan with an unripe apple, chopped. Let the whole simmer over the fire until the apple is dissolved, and the cocoa-nut very tender; then add a cupful of strong thickening made of flour and water, and sufficient salt, as a curry will not bear being salted at table. Let this boil up for five minutes.

Have ready also a vegetable marrow, or part of one, cut into bits, and sufficiently boiled to require little or no further cooking. Put this in with a tomato or two. These vegetables improve the flavour of the dish, but either or both of them may be omitted. Now put into the stewpan the oysters with their liquor, and the milk of the cocoa-nut, if it be perfectly sweet; stir them well with the former ingredients; let the curry stew gently for a few minutes, then throw in the strained juice of half a lemon. Stir the curry from time to time with a wooden spoon, and as soon as the oysters are done enough, serve it up with a corresponding dish of rice on the opposite side of the table. This dish is considered at Madras the _ne plus ultra_ of Indian cookery.

1183. Fried Oysters.

Large oysters are the best. Simmer for a minute or two in their own liquor; drain perfectly dry; dip in yolks of eggs, and then in bread-crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, cayenne, and salt; fry them of a light brown. They are chiefly used as garnish for fish, or for rump steaks; but if intended to be eaten alone, make a little thick melted b.u.t.ter, moistened with the liquor of the oysters, and serve as sauce.

1184. Stewed Oysters.

The beard or fringe is generally taken off. When this is done, set on the beards with the liquor of the oysters, and a little white gravy, rich, but unseasoned; having boiled for a few minutes, strain off the beards, put in the oysters, and thicken the gravy with flour and b.u.t.ter (an ounce of b.u.t.ter to half a pint of stew), a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg, or mace, a spoonful of ketchup, and three of cream; some prefer a little essence of anchovy to ketchup, others the juice of a lemon, others a gla.s.s of white wine; the flavour may be varied according to taste. Simmer till the stew is thick, and the oysters warmed through, but avoid letting them boil. Lay toasted sippets at the bottom of the dish and round the edges.

[STUDY THE PRECAUTIONS RESPECTING FIRE.]

1185. Bologna Sausages.

Take equal quant.i.ties of bacon, fat and lean, beef, veal, pork, and beef suet; chop them small, season with pepper, salt, &c., sweet herbs, and sage rubbed fine. Have a well-washed intestine, fill, and p.r.i.c.k it; boil gently for an hour, and lay on straw to dry. They may be smoked the same as hams.

1186. Oxford Sausages.

To each pound of lean pork allow one pound of lean veal, one pound of fat, part pork and part veal. Chop and beat well with a lard-beater.

Allow one pound of bread-crumbs, thyme, a little parsley; an ounce of sage leaves, chopped very small; two heads of leeks, or a little garlic, or shalot, chopped very fine; salt, pepper, and nutmeg. To each pound allow one egg, the yolks and whites separately; beat both well, mix in the yolks, and as much of the whites as is necessary to moisten the bread. Then make the sausages in the usual way.

1187. Worcester Sausages.

Worcester sausages are made of beef, &c.; add allspice, and any other spices and herbs you may choose.

1188. Mutton Sausages.

The lean of the leg is the best. Add half as much of beef suet; that is, a pound of lean and half a pound of suet (this proportion is good for all sausages). Add oysters, anchovies chopped very fine, and flavour with seasoning. No herbs. These will require a little fat in the pan to fry.

1189. Veal Sausages.

Veal sausages are made exactly as Oxford sausages, except that you add ham fat, or fat bacon; and, instead of sage, use marjoram, thyme, and parsley.

1190. Preparing Sausage Skins.

Turn them inside out, and stretch them on a stick; wash and sc.r.a.pe them in several waters. When thoroughly cleansed, take them off the sticks, and soak in salt and water two or three hours before filling.

1191. Saveloys.

Saveloys are made of salt pork, fat and lean, with bread-crumbs, pepper, and sage; they are always put in skins: boil half an hour slowly. These are eaten cold.

1192. Black Hog Pudding.

Catch the blood of a hog; to each quart of blood put a large teaspoonful of salt, and stir it without ceasing till it is cold.

Simmer half a pint or a pint of Embden groats in a small quant.i.ty of water till tender; there must be no gruel. The best way of doing it is in a double saucepan, so that you need not put more water than will moisten them. Chop up (for one quart of blood) one pound of the inside fat of the hog, and a quarter of a pint of bread-crumbs, a tablespoonful of sage, chopped fine, a teaspoonful of thyme, three drachms each of allspice, salt, and pepper, and a teacupful of cream.

When the blood is cold, strain it through a sieve, and add to it the fat, then the groats, and then the seasoning. When well mixed, put it into the skin of the largest gut, well cleansed; tie it in lengths of about nine inches, and boil gently for twenty minutes. Take them out and p.r.i.c.k them when they have boiled a few minutes.

1193. Scotch Woodc.o.c.k.

Three or four slices of bread; toast and b.u.t.ter well on both sides,--nine or ten anchovies washed, sc.r.a.ped, and chopped fine; put them between the slices of toast,--have ready the yolks of four eggs well beaten, and half a pint of cream--which set over the fire to thicken, but not boil,--then pour it over the toast, and serve it to table as hot as possible.

1194. Sweetbread.

Trim a fine sweetbread (it cannot be too _fresh_); parboil it for five minutes, and throw it into a basin of cold water. Then roast it plain--or beat up the yolk of an egg, and prepare some fine breadcrumbs; or when the sweetbread is cold, dry it thoroughly in a cloth; run a lark-spit or a skewer through it, and tie it on the ordinary spit; egg it with a paste-brush; powder it well with bread-crumbs, and roast it. For sauce, fried bread-crumbs, melted b.u.t.ter, with a little mushroom ketchup, and lemon juice, or serve on b.u.t.tered toast, garnished with egg sauce, or with gravy. Instead of spitting the sweetbread, you may put it into a tin Dutch oven, or fry it.

[READ THE HINTS TO HUSBANDS AND WIVES.]

1195. Sweetbreads Plain.

Parboil and slice them as before, dry them in a clean cloth, flour them, and fry them a delicate brown; take care to drain the fat well, and garnish with slices of lemon, and sprigs of chervil or parsley, or crisp parsley. Serve with sauce, and slices of ham or bacon, or force-meat b.a.l.l.s.

1196. Kidneys.

Cut them through the long way, score them, sprinkle a little pepper and salt on them, and run a wire skewer through to keep them from curling on the gridiron, so that they may be evenly broiled. Broil over a clear fire, taking care not to p.r.i.c.k the kidney with the fork, and turning them often till they are done; they will take about ten or twelve minutes, if the fire is brisk. Another mode is to fry them in b.u.t.ter, and make gravy for them in the pan (after you have taken out the kidneys), by putting in a teaspoonful of flour; as soon as it looks brown, put in as much water as will make gravy. Kidneys will take five minutes more to fry than to broil.