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baste it well as soon as it is put down, and every quarter of an hour all the time it is roasting, till the last halfhour; then take off the paper and make some gravy for it, stir the fire and make it clear; to brown and froth it, sprinkle a little salt over it, baste it with butter, and dredge it with flour; let it go a few minutes longer, till the froth rises, take it up, put it on the dish, &c. Garnish it with hillocks of horseradish, scraped as fine as possible with a very sharp knife.

974. A YORKSHIRE PUDDING is an excellent accompaniment.

975. RIBS OF BEEF. The three first ribs, of fifteen or twenty pounds, will take three hours, or three and a half; the fourth and fifth ribs will take as long, managed in the same way as the sirloin. Paper the fat and the thin part, or it will be done too much, before the thick part is done enough.

976. RIBS OF BEEF BONED AND ROLLED. When you have kept two or three ribs of beef till quite tender, take out the bones, and skewer it as round as possible (like a fillet of veal): before they roll it, some cooks egg it, and sprinkle it with veal stuffing. As the meat is in a solid mass, it will require more time at the fire than in the preceding receipt: a piece of ten or twelve pounds weight will not be well and thoroughly roasted in less than four and a half or five hours. For the first half-hour it should not be less than twelve inches from the fire, that it may get gradually warm to the centre; the last half-hour before it is finished, sprinkle a little salt over it, and if you so wish, froth it, flour it, &c.

977. MUTTON.-As beef requires a large sound fire, mutton must have a brisk and sharp one: if you wish to have mutton tender it should be hung as long as it will keep, and then good eight-tooth, e., four years old mutton, is as good eating as venison.

978. THE LEG, HAUNCH, AND SADDLE, will be the better for being hung up in a cool airy place for four or five days at least; in temperate weather,

a week; in cold weather, ten days. A leg of eight pounds will take about two hours; let it be well basted.

979. A CHINE OR SADDLE-i. e., the two loins, of ten or eleven pounds-two hours and a half. It is the business of the butcher to take off the skin and skewer it on again, to defend the meat from extreme heat, and preserve its succulence. If this is neglected, tie a sheet of paper over it; baste the strings you tie it on with directly, or they will burn. About a quarter of an hour before you think it will be done, take off the skin or paper, that it may get a pale brown colour, and then baste it, and flour it lightly to froth it.

980. A SHOULDER, of seven pounds, an hour and a half. Put the spit in close to the shank-bone, and run it along the blade-bone.

981. A LOIN OF MUTTON, from an hour and a half to an hour and three

quarters. The most elegant way of carving this is to cut it lengthwise, as you do a saddle. A neck, about the same time as a loin. It must be carefully jointed, or it is very difficult to carve.

982. THE NECK AND BREAST are, in small families, commonly roasted together. The cook will then crack the bones across the middle before they are put down to roast. If this is not done carefully, they are very troublesome to carve. A breast, an hour and a quarter.

983. A HAUNCH-i. e., the leg and part of the loin of mutton. Send up two sauce-boats with it; one of richdrawn mutton gravy, made without spice or herbs, and the other of sweet sauce. It generally weighs about fifteen pounds, and requires about three hours and a half to roast it.

984. MUTTON (Venison fashion).— Take a neck of good four or five-yearold Southdown wether mutton, cut long in the bones; let it hang, in temperate weather, at least a week. Two days before you dress it, take allspice and black pepper, ground and pounded fine, a quarter of an ounce each, rub them together, and then rub your mutton well with this mixture twice a day.

When you dress it, wash off the spice with warm water, and roast it in paste. 985. VEAL requires particular care to roast it a nice brown. Let the fire be the same as for beef; a sound large fire for a large joint, and a brisker for a smaller put it at some distance from the fire to soak thoroughly, and then draw it nearer to finish it brown. When first laid down it is to be basted; baste it again occasionally. When the veal is on the dish, pour over it half a pint of melted butter: if you have a little brown gravy by you, add that to the butter. With those joints which are not stuffed, send up forcemeat in balls, or rolled into sausages, as garnish to the dish, or fried pork sausages: bacon and greens are always expected with veal.

986. Fillet of Veal, of from twelve to sixteen pounds, will require from four to five hours at a good fire; make some stuffing or forcemeat, and put it under the flap, that there may be some left to eat cold, or to season a hash: brown it, and pour good melted butter over it. Garnish with thin slices of lemon, and cakes or balls of stuffing, or duck stuffing, or fried pork sausages, curry sauce, bacon and greens, &c.

987. A LOIN is the best part of the calf, and will take about three hours roasting. Paper the kidney fat, and the back: some cooks send it up on a toast, which is eaten with the kidney and the fat of this part, which is more delicate than any marrow, &c. If there is more of it than you think will be eaten with the veal, before you roast it cut it out, it will make an excellent suet pudding: take care to have your fire long enough to brown the ends.

988. A SHOULDER OF VEAL, from three hours to three hours and a half: stuff it with the forcemeat ordered for the fillet of veal, in the under side.

989. NECK, best end, will take two hours. The scrag part is best made into a pie or broth. Breast, from an hour and a half to two hours. Let the caul remain till it is almost done, then take it off, to brown it; baste, flour, and froth it.

990. VEAL SWEETBREAD.-Trim a

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fine sweetbread-it cannot be too fresh; parboil it for five minutes, and throw it into a basin of cold water; roast it plain, or beat up the yolk of an egg, and prepare some fine bread-crumbs. 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 round it, and melted butter with a little mushroom ketchup and lemon juice, or serve on buttered toast, garnished with egg sauce, or with gravy.

991. LAMB is a delicate, and commonly considered tender meat; but those who talk of tender lamb, while they are thinking of the age of the animal, forget that even a chicken must be kept a proper time after it has been killed, or it will be tough picking. Woeful experience has warned us to beware of accepting an invitation to dinner on Easter Sunday; and unless commanded by a thorough-bred gourmand, our incisors, molars, and principal viscera, have protested against the imprudence of encountering young, tough stringy mutton under the misnomer of grass-lamb. To the usual accompaniments of roasted meat, green mint sauce or a salad is commonly added: and some cooks, about five minutes before it is done, sprinkle it with a little minced parsley.

992. GRASS-LAMB is in season from Easter to Michaelmas.

993. HOUSE-LAMB from Christmas to Lady-day.

994. WHEN GREEN MINT cannot be got, mint vinegar is an acceptable substitute for it.

995. HIND-QUARTER of eight pounds will take from an hour and three quarters to two hours; baste and froth it.

996. FORE-QUARTER of ten pounds, about two hours.

997. IT IS A PRETTY GENERAL CUSTOM, when you take off the shoulder from the ribs, to squeeze a Seville orange over them, and sprinkle them with a little pepper and salt.

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998. LEG of five pounds, from an hour to an hour and a half.

999. SHOULDER, with a quick fire, an hour.

1000. RIBS, about an hour to an hour and a quarter; joint it nicely; crack the ribs across, and bend them up to make it easy to carve.

1001. LOIN, an hour and a quarter. Neck, an hour. Breast, three quarters of an hour.

1002. Poultry, Game, &c.

A small capon, fowl, or chicken, requires

A large fowl

A capon, full size

Wild ducks, and grouse

Pheasants, and Turkey poults

A moderate sized turkey, stuffed

Quail.

н. м.

0 20

0 10 about 1 0

Partridges

A hare, or rabbit

Leg of pork,

hour for each

above that al

A neck of mutton
A haunch of venison

0 20

. 1 30

about 3 30

1003. ROASTING, BY CAUSING THE CONTRACTION of the cellular substance which contains the fat, expels more fat than boiling. The free escape of watery particles in the form of vapour, so necessary to produce flavour, must be regulated by frequent basting with the fat which has exuded from the meat, combined with a little salt and waterotherwise the meat would burn, and become hard and tasteless. A brisk fire at first will, by charring the outside, prevent the heat from penetrating, and therefore should only be employed when the meat is half roasted.

1004. THE LOSS BY ROASTING varies, according to Professor Donovan, from 143ths to nearly double that rate per cent. The average loss on roasting butcher's meat is 22 per cent.; and on domestic poultry is 201

1005. THE LOSS PER CENT. ON ROASTING BEEF, viz., on sirloins and

ribs together, is 19th; on mutton, viz., legs and shoulders together, 24ths; on fore-quarters of lamb, 22rd; on ducks, 27th; on turkeys, 20; on geese, 191; on chickens, 143ths. So that it will be seen by comparison with the per-centage given of the loss by boiling, that roasting is not so economical; especially when we take into account that the loss of weight by boiling is not actual loss of economic materials, for we then possess the principal ingredients for soups; whereas, after roasting, the fat only remains. The average loss in boiling and roasting together is 18 per cent. according to Donovan, and 28 per cent. according to Wallace-a difference that may be accounted for by supposing a difference in the fatness of the meat, duration and degree of heat, &c., employed.

1006. Boiling.-This most simple of culinary processes is not often performed in perfection; it does not require quite so much nicety and attendance as roasting; to skim your pot well, and keep it really boiling (the slower the better) all the while-to know how long is required for doing the joint, &c., and to take it up at the critical moment when it is done enough-comprehends almost the whole art and mystery. This, however, demands a patient and perpetual vigilance, of which few persons are, unhappily, capable. The cook must take especial care that the water really boils all the while she is cooking, or she will be deceived in the time; and make up a sufficient fire (a frugal cook will manage with much less fire for boiling than she uses for roasting) at first, to last all the time, without much mending or stirring, and thereby save much trouble. When the pot is coming to a boil, there will always, from the cleanest meat and clearest water, rise a scum to the top of it; proceeding partly from the foulness of the meat, and partly from the water: this must be carefully taken off, as soon as it rises. On this depends the good appearance of all boiled things- an essential matter. When you have scummed well, put in some

cold water, which will throw up the rest of the scum. The oftener it is scummed, and the clearer the surface of the water is kept, the cleaner will be the meat. If let alone, it soon boils down and sticks to the meat, which, instead of looking delicately white and nice, will have that coarse appearance we have too often to complain of, and the butcher and poulterer will be blamed for the carelessness of the cook, in not scumming her pot with due diligence. Many put in milk, to make what they boil look white, but this does more harm than good: others wrap it up in a cloth; but these are needless precautions; if the scum be attentively removed, meat will have a much more delicate colour and finer flavour that it has when muffled up. This may give rather more trouble-but those who wish to excel in their art must only consider how the processes of it can be most perfectly performed: a cook who has a proper pride and pleasure in her business will make this her maxim and rule on all occasions. Put your meat into cold water, in the proportion of about a quart of water to a pound of meat; it should be covered with water during the whole of the process of boiling, but not drowned in it; the less water, provided the meat be covered with it, the more savoury will be the meat, and the better will be the broth in every respect. The water should be heated gradually, according to the thickness, &c., of the article boiled; for instance, a leg of mutton of ten pounds weight should be placed over a moderate fire, which will gradually make the water hot, without causing it to boil for about forty minutes; if the water boils much sooner, the meat will be hardened, and shrink up as if it was scorched-by keeping the water a certain time heating without boiling, its fibres are dilated, and it yields a quantity of scum, which must be taken off as soon as it rises, for the reasons already mentioned. "If a vessel containing water be placed over a steady fire, the water will grow continually hotter, till it reaches the limit

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of boiling; after which, the regular accessions of heat are wholly spent in converting it into steam: the water remains at the same pitch of temperature, however fiercely it boils. The only difference is, that with a strong fire it sooner comes to boil, and more quickly boils away, and is converted into steam." Such are the opinions stated by Buchanan in his "Economy of Fuel." There was placed a thermometer in water in that state which cooks call gentle simmering-the heat was 212°, i.e., the same degree as the strongest boiling. Two mutton chops were covered with cold water, and one boiled fiercely, and the other simmered gently, for threequarters of an hour; the flavour of the chop which was simmered was decidedly superior to that which was boiled; the liquor which boiled fast was in like proportion more savoury, and, when cold, had much more fat on its surface; this explains why quick boiling renders meat hard, &c.-because its juices are extracted in a greater degree.

1007. RECKON THE TIME from the meat first coming to a boil. The old rule, of fifteen minutes to a pound of meat, we think rather too little; the slower it boils, the tenderer, the plumper, and whiter it will be. For those who choose their food thoroughly cooked (which all will who have any regard for their stomachs), twenty minutes to a pound will not be found too much for gentle simmering by the side of the fire; allowing more or less time, according to the thickness of the joint and the coldness of the weather; always remembering, the slower it boils the better. Without some practice it is difficult to teach any art; and cooks seem to suppose they must be right, if they put meat into a pot, and set it over the fire for a certain time-making no allowance, whether it simmers without a bubble, or boils at a gallop.

1008. FRESH KILLED MEAT will take much longer time boiling than that which has been kept till it is what the butchers call ripe, and longer in cold than in warm weather; if it be frozen,