II.

(_Economical_.)

651. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of underdone cold roast beef, bread crumbs, 1 shalot finely minced, pepper and salt to taste, gravy made from the beef bones, thickening of butter and flour, 1 tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup.

_Mode_.--Cut some slices of underdone roast beef about half an inch thick; sprinkle over them some bread crumbs, minced shalot, and a little of the fat and seasoning; roll them, and fasten with a small skewer. Have ready some gravy made from the beef bones; put in the pieces of meat, and stew them till tender, which will be in about 1-1/4 hour, or rather longer. Arrange the meat in a dish, thicken and flavour the gravy, and pour it over the meat, when it is ready to serve.

_Time_.--1-1/2 hour. _Average cost_, exclusive of the beef, 2d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

BROILED OX-TAIL (an Entree).

652. INGREDIENTS.--2 tails, 1-1/2 pint of stock, No. 105, salt and cayenne to taste, bread crumbs, 1 egg.

_Mode_.--Joint and cut up the tails into convenient-sized pieces, and put them into a stewpan, with the stock, cayenne, and salt, and, if liked very savoury, a bunch of sweet herbs. Let them simmer gently for about 2-1/2 hours; then take them out, drain them, and let them cool. Beat an egg upon a plate; dip in each piece of tail, and, afterwards, throw them into a dish of bread crumbs; broil them over a clear fire, until of a brownish colour on both sides, and serve with a good gravy, or any sauce that may be preferred.

_Time_.--About 2-1/2 hours. _Average cost_, from 9d. to 1s. 6d., according to the season.

_Sufficient_ for 6 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--These may be more easily prepared by putting the tails in a brisk oven, after they have been dipped in egg and bread-crumb; and, when brown, they are done. They must be boiled the same time as for broiling.

STRANGE TAILS.--Naturalists cannot explain the uses of some of the strange tails borne by animals. In the Egyptian and Syrian sheep, for instance, the tail grows so large, that it is not infrequently supported upon a sort of little cart, in order to prevent inconvenience to the animal. Thin monstrous appendage sometimes attains a weight of seventy, eighty, or even a hundred pounds.

TO DRESS BEEF PALATES (an Entree).

653. INGREDIENTS.--4 palates, sufficient gravy to cover them (No. 438), cayenne to taste, 1 tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup, 1 tablespoonful of pickled-onion liquor, thickening of butter and flour.

_Mode_.--Wash the palates, and put them into a stewpan, with sufficient water to cover them, and let them boil until perfectly tender, or until the upper skin may be easily peeled off. Have ready sufficient gravy (No. 438) to cover them; add a good seasoning of cayenne, and thicken with roux, No. 625, or a little butter kneaded with flour; let it boil up, and skim. Cut the palates into square pieces, put them in the gravy, and let them simmer gently for 1/2 hour; add ketchup and onion-liquor, give one boil, and serve.

_Time_.--From 3 to 5 hours to boil the palates.

_Sufficient_ for 4 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--Palates may be dressed in various ways with sauce tournée, good onion sauce, tomato sauce, and also served in a vol-au-vent; but the above will be found a more simple method of dressing them.

BEEF PICKLE, which may also be used for any kind of Meat, Tongues, or Hams.

654. INGREDIENTS.--6 lbs. of salt, 2 lbs. of fine sugar, 3 oz. of powdered saltpetre, 3 gallons of spring water.

_Mode_.--Boil all the ingredients gently together, so long as any scum or impurity arises, which carefully remove; when quite cold, pour it over the meat, every part of which must be covered with the brine. This may be used for pickling any kind of meat, and may be kept for some time, if boiled up occasionally with an addition of the ingredients.

_Time_.--A ham should be kept in the pickle for a fortnight; a piece of beef weighing 14 lbs., 12 or 15 days; a tongue, 10 days or a fortnight.

_Note_.--For salting and pickling meat, it is a good plan to rub in only half the quantity of salt directed, and to let it remain for a day or two to disgorge and effectually to get rid of the blood and slime; then rub in the remainder of the salt and other ingredients, and proceed as above. This rule may be applied to all the recipes we have given for salting and pickling meat.

TO PICKLE PART OF A ROUND OF BEEF FOR HANGING.

655. INGREDIENTS.--For 14 lbs. of a round of beef allow 1-1/2 lb. of salt, 1/2 oz. of powdered saltpetre; or, 1 lb. of salt, 1/2 lb. of sugar, 4 oz. of powdered saltpetre.

_Mode_.--Rub in, and sprinkle either of the above mixtures on 14 lbs. of meat. Keep it in an earthenware pan, or a deep wooden tray, and turn twice a week during 3 weeks; then bind up the beef tightly with coarse linen tape, and hang it in a kitchen in which a fire is constantly kept, for 3 weeks. Pork, hams, and bacon may be cured in a similar way, but will require double the quantity of the salting mixture; and, if not smoke-dried, they should be taken down from hanging after 3 or 4 weeks, and afterwards kept in boxes or tubs, amongst dry oat-husks.

_Time_.--2 or 3 weeks to remain in the brine; to be hung 3 weeks.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--The meat may be boiled fresh from this pickle, instead of smoking it.

BEEP RAGOUT (Cold Meat Cookery).

656. INGREDIENTS.--About 2 lbs. of cold roast beef, 6 onions, pepper, salt, and mixed spices to taste; 1/2 pint of boiling water, 3 tablespoonfuls of gravy.

_Mode_.--Cut the beef into rather large pieces, and put them into a stewpan with the onions, which must be sliced. Season well with pepper, salt, and mixed spices, and pour over about 1/2 pint of boiling water, and gravy in the above proportion (gravy saved from the meat answers the purpose); let the whole stew very gently for about 2 hours, and serve with pickled walnuts, gherkins, or capers, just warmed in the gravy.

_Time_.--2 hours. _Average cost_, exclusive of the meat, 4d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

ROAST RIBS OF BEEF.

657. INGREDIENTS.--Beef, a little salt.

_Mode_.---The fore-rib is considered the primest roasting piece, but the middle-rib is considered the most economical. Let the meat be well hung (should the weather permit), and cut off the thin ends of the bones, which should be salted for a few days, and then boiled. Put the meat down to a nice clear fire, put some clean dripping into the pan, dredge the joint with a little flour, and keep continually basting the whole time. Sprinkle some fine salt over it (this must never be done until the joint is dished, as it draws the juices from the meat); pour the dripping from the pan, put in a little boiling: water slightly salted, and _strain_ the gravy over the meat. Garnish with tufts of scraped horseradish, and send horseradish sauce to table with it (_see_ No. 447). A Yorkshire pudding (_see_ Puddings) sometimes accompanies this dish, and, if lightly made and well cooked, will be found a very agreeable addition.

_Time_.--10 lbs. of beef, 2-1/2 hours; 14 to 16 lbs., from 3-1/2 to 4 hours.

_Average cost_, 8-1/2d. per lb.

_Sufficient_.--A joint of 10 lbs. sufficient for 8 or 9 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

MEMORANDA IN ROASTING.--The management of the fire is a point of primary importance in roasting. A radiant fire throughout the operation is absolutely necessary to insure a good result. When the article to be dressed is thin and delicate, the fire may be small; but when the joint is large, the fire must fill the grate. Meat must never be put down before a hollow or exhausted fire, which may soon want recruiting; on the other hand, if the heat of the fire becomes too fierce, the meat must be removed to a considerable distance till it is somewhat abated. Some cooks always fail in their roasts, though they succeed in nearly everything else. A French writer on the culinary art says that anybody can learn how to cook, but one must be born a roaster. According to Liebig, beef or mutton cannot be said to be sufficiently roasted until it has acquired, throughout the whole mass, a temperature of 158°; but poultry may be well cooked when the inner parts have attained a temperature of from 130° to 140°. This depends on the greater amount of blood which beef and mutton contain, the colouring matter of blood not being coagulable under 158°.

ROAST RIBS OF BEEF, Boned and Rolled (a very Convenient Joint for a Small Family).

658. INGREDIENTS.--1 or 2 ribs of beef.

_Mode_.--Choose a fine rib of beef, and have it cut according to the weight you require, either wide or narrow. Bone and roll the meat round, secure it with wooden skewers, and, if necessary, bind it round with a piece of tape. Spit the beef firmly, or, if a bottle-jack is used, put the joint on the hook, and place it _near_ a nice clear fire. Let it remain so till the outside of the meat is set, when draw it to a distance, and keep continually basting until the meat is done, which can be ascertained by the steam from it drawing towards the fire. As this joint is solid, rather more than 1/4 hour must be allowed for each lb. Remove the skewers, put in a plated or silver one, and send the joint to table with gravy in the dish, and garnish with tufts of horseradish. Horseradish sauce, No. 447, is a great improvement to roast beef.

_Time_.--For 10 lbs. of the rolled ribs, 3 hours (as the joint is very solid, we have allowed an extra 1/2 hour); for 6 lbs., 1-1/2 hour.

Average cost, 8-1/2d. per lb.

_Sufficient_.--A joint of 10 lbs. for 6 or 8 persons.

_Seasonable_ all the year.

_Note_.--When the weight exceeds 10 lbs., we would not advise the above method of boning and rolling; only in the case of 1 or 2 ribs, when the joint cannot stand upright in the dish, and would look awkward. The bones should be put in with a few vegetables and herbs, and made into stock.

ROAST BEEF has long been a national dish in England. In most of our patriotic songs it is contrasted with the fricasseed frogs, popularly supposed to be the exclusive diet of Frenchmen.

"O the roast beef of old England, And O the old English roast beef."

This national chorus is appealed to whenever a song-writer wishes to account for the valour displayed by Englishmen at sea or on land.

ROAST SIRLOIN OF BEEF.

659. INGREDIENTS.--Beef, a little salt.

_Mode_.--As a joint cannot be well roasted without a good fire, see that it is well made up about 3/4 hour before it is required, so that when the joint is put down, it is clear and bright. Choose a nice sirloin, the weight of which should not exceed 16 lbs., as the outside would be too much done, whilst the inside would not be done enough. Spit it or hook it on to the jack firmly, dredge it slightly with flour, and place it near the fire at first, as directed in the preceding recipe. Then draw it to a distance, and keep continually basting until the meat is done. Sprinkle a small quantity of salt over it, empty the dripping-pan of all the dripping, pour in some boiling water slightly salted, stir it about, and _strain_ over the meat. Garnish with tufts of horseradish, and send horseradish sauce and Yorkshire pudding to table with it. For carving, _see_ p. 317.

_Time_.--A sirloin of 10 lbs., 2-1/2 hours; 14 to 16 lbs., about 4 or 4-1/2 hours.

_Average cost_, 8-1/2d. per lb.

_Sufficient_.--A joint of 10 lbs. for 8 or 9 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

The rump, round, and other pieces of beef are roasted in the same manner, allowing for solid joints; 1/4 hour to every lb.

_Note_.---The above is the usual method of roasting moat; but to have it in perfection and the juices kept in, the meat should at first be laid close to the fire, and when the outside is set and firm, drawn away to a good distance, and then left to roast very slowly; where economy is studied, this plan would not answer, as the meat requires to be at the fire double the time of the ordinary way of cooking; consequently, double the quantity of fuel would be consumed.

ORIGIN OF THE WORD "SIRLOIN."--The loin of beef is said to have been knighted by King Charles II., at Friday Hall, Chingford. The "Merry Monarch" returned to this hospitable mansion for Epping Forest literally "as hungry as a hunter," and beheld, with delight, a huge loin of beef steaming upon the table. "A noble joint!" exclaimed the king. "By St. George, it shall have a title!" Then drawing his sword, he raised it above the meat, and cried, with mock dignity, "Loin, we dub thee knight; henceforward be Sir Loin!" This anecdote is doubtless apocryphal, although the oak table upon which the joint was supposed to have received its knighthood, might have been seen by any one who visited Friday-Hill House, a few years ago. It is, perhaps, a pity to spoil so noble a story; but the interests of truth demand that we declare that _sirloin_ is probably a corruption of _surloin_, which signifies the upper part of a loin, the prefix _sur_ being equivalent to _over_ or _above_. In French we find this joint called _surlonge_, which so closely resembles our _sirloin_, that we may safely refer the two words to a common origin.

TO SALT BEEF.

660. INGREDIENTS.--1/2 round of beef, 4 oz. of sugar, 1 oz. of powdered saltpetre, 2 oz. of black pepper, 1/4 lb. of bay-salt, 1/2 lb. of common salt. _Mode_.--Rub the meat well with salt, and let it remain for a day, to disgorge and clear it from slime. The next day, rub it well with the above ingredients on every side, and let it remain in the pickle for about a fortnight, turning it every day. It may be boiled fresh from the pickle, or smoked.

_Time_.--1/2 round of beef to remain in pickle about a fortnight. _Average cost_, 7d. per lb. _Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--The aitch-bone, flank, or brisket may be salted and pickled by any of the recipes we have given for salting beef, allowing less time for small joints to remain in the pickle; for instance, a joint of 8 or 9 lbs. will be sufficiently salt in about a week.

THE DUTCH WAY TO SALT BEEF.

661. INGREDIENTS.--10 lbs. of lean beef, 1 lb. of treacle, 1 oz. of saltpetre, 1 lb. of common salt.

_Mode_.--Rub the beef well with the treacle, and let it remain for 3 days, turning and rubbing it often; then wipe it, pound the salt and saltpetre very fine, rub these well in, and turn it every day for 10 days. Roll it up tightly in a coarse cloth, and press it under a large weight; have it smoked, and turn it upside down every day. Boil it, and, on taking it out of the pot, put a heavy weight on it to press it.

_Time_.--17 days.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

BEEF SAUSAGES.

662. INGREDIENTS.--To every lb. of suet allow 2 lbs. of lean beef; seasoning to taste of salt, pepper, and mixed spices.

_Mode_.--Clear the suet from skin, and chop that and the beef as finely as possible; season with pepper, salt, and spices, and mix the whole well together. Make it into flat cakes, and fry of a nice brown. Many persons pound the meat in a mortar after it is chopped ( but this is not necessary when the meat is minced finely.)

_Time_.--10 minutes. _Average cost_, for this quantity, 1s. 6d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

BEEF-STEAK, Rolled, Roasted, and Stuffed.

663. INGREDIENTS.--2 lbs. of rump-steak, forcemeat No. 417, pepper and salt to taste, clarified butter.

_Mode_.--Have the steaks cut rather thick from a well-hung rump of beef, and sprinkle over them a seasoning of pepper and salt. Make a forcemeat by recipe No. 417; spread it over _half_ of the steak; roll it up, bind and skewer it firmly, that the forcemeat may not escape, and roast it before a nice clear fire for about 1-1/2 hour, or rather longer, should the roll be very large and thick. Keep it constantly basted with butter, and serve with brown gravy, some of which must be poured round the steak, and the remainder sent to table in a tureen.

_Time_.--1-1/2 hour. _Average cost_, 1s. per lb.

_Sufficient_ for 4 persons.

_Seasonable_ all the year, but best in winter.

SLICED AND BROILED BEEF--a Pretty Dish (Cold Meat Cookery).

664. INGREDIENTS.--A few slices of cold roast beef, 4 or 5 potatoes, a thin batter, pepper and salt to taste.

_Mode_.--Pare the potatoes as you would peel an apple; fry the parings in a thin batter seasoned with salt and pepper, until they are of a light brown colour, and place them on a dish over some slices of beef, which should be nicely seasoned and broiled.

_Time_.--5 minutes to broil the meat.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

SPICED BEEF (to Serve Cold).

665. INGREDIENTS.--14 lbs. of the thick flank or rump of beef, 1/2 lb. of coarse sugar, 1 oz. of saltpetre, 1/4 lb. of pounded allspice, 1 lb. of common salt.

_Mode_.--Rub the sugar well into the beef, and let it lay for 12 hours; then rub the saltpetre and allspice, both of which should be pounded, over the meat, and let it remain for another 12 hours; then rub in the salt. Turn daily in the liquor for a fortnight, soak it for a few hours in water, dry with a cloth, cover with a coarse paste, put a little water at the bottom of the pan, and bake in a moderate oven for 4 hours. If it is not covered with a paste, be careful to put the beef into a deep vessel, and cover with a plate, or it will be too crisp. During the time the meat is in the oven it should be turned once or twice.

_Time_.--4 hours. _Average cost_, 7d. per lb.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

BAKING MEAT.--Baking exerts some unexplained influence on meat, rendering it less savoury and less agreeable than meat which has been roasted. "Those who have travelled in Germany and France," writes Mr. Lewis, one of our most popular scientific authors, "must have repeatedly marvelled at the singular uniformity in the flavour, or want of flavour, of the various 'roasts' served up at the _table-d'hôte_." The general explanation is, that the German and French meat is greatly inferior in quality to that of England and Holland, owing to the inferiority of pasturage; and doubtless this is one cause, but it is not the chief cause. The meat is inferior, but the cooking is mainly at fault. The meat is scarcely ever _roasted_, because there is no coal, and firewood is expensive. The meat is therefore _baked;_ and the consequence of this baking is, that no meat is eatable or eaten, with its own gravy, but is always accompanied by some sauce more or less piquant. The Germans generally believe that in England we eat our beef and mutton almost raw; they shudder at our gravy, as if it were so much blood.

STEWED BEEF or RUMP STEAK (an Entree).

666. INGREDIENTS.--About 2 lbs. of beef or rump steak, 3 onions, 2 turnips, 3 carrots, 2 or 3 oz. of butter, 1/2 pint of water, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1/2 do. of pepper, 1 tablespoonful of ketchup, 1 tablespoonful of flour.

_Mode_.--Have the steaks cut tolerably thick and rather lean; divide them into convenient-sized pieces, and fry them in the butter a nice brown on both sides. Cleanse and pare the vegetables, cut the onions and carrots into thin slices, and the turnips into dice, and fry these in the same fat that the steaks were done in. Put all into a saucepan, add 1/2 pint of water, or rather more should it be necessary, and simmer very gently for 2-1/2 or 3 hours; when nearly done, skim well, add salt, pepper, and ketchup in the above proportions, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour mixed with 2 of cold water. Let it boil up for a minute or two after the thickening is added, and serve. When a vegetable-scoop is at hand, use it to cut the vegetables in fanciful shapes, and tomato, Harvey's sauce, or walnut-liquor may be used to flavour the gravy. It is less rich if stewed the previous day, so that the fat may be taken off when cold; when wanted for table, it will merely require warming through.

_Time_.--3 hours. Average cost, 1s. per lb.

_Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

STEWED BEEF AND CELERY SAUCE (Cold Meat Cookery).

667. INGREDIENTS.--3 roots of celery, 1 pint of gravy, No. 436, 2 onions sliced, 2 lbs. of cold roast or boiled beef.

_Mode_.--Cut the celery into 2-inch pieces, put them in a stew-pan, with the gravy and onions, simmer gently until the celery is tender, when add the beef cut into rather thick pieces; stew gently for 10 minutes, and serve with fried potatoes.

_Time_.--From 20 to 25 minutes to stew the celery.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the meat, 6d.

_Seasonable_ from September to January.

STEWED BEEF WITH OYSTERS (Cold Meat Cookery).

668. INGREDIENTS.--A few thick steaks of cold ribs or sirloin of beef, 2 oz. of butter, 1 onion sliced, pepper and salt to taste, 1/2 glass of port wine, a little flour to thicken, 1 or 2 dozen oysters, rather more than 1/2 pint of water.

_Mode_.--Cut the steaks rather thick, from cold sirloin or ribs of beef; brown them lightly in a stewpan, with the butter and a little water; add 1/2 pint of water, the onion, pepper, and salt, and cover the stewpan closely, and let it simmer very gently for 1/2 hour; then mix about a teaspoonful of flour smoothly with a little of the liquor; add the port wine and oysters, their liquor having been previously strained and put into the stewpan; stir till the oysters plump, and serve. It should not boil after the oysters are added, or they will harden.

_Time_.--1/2 hour. _Average cost_, exclusive of the meat, 1s. 4d.

_Seasonable_ from September to April.

STEWED BRISKET OF BEEF.

669. INGREDIENTS.--7 lbs. of a brisket of beef, vinegar and salt, 6 carrots, 6 turnips, 6 small onions, 1 blade of pounded mace, 2 whole allspice pounded, thickening of butter and flour, 2 tablespoonfuls of ketchup; stock, or water.

_Mode_.--About an hour before dressing it, rub the meat over with vinegar and salt; put it into a stewpan, with sufficient stock to cover it (when this is not at hand, water may be substituted for it), and be

## particular that the stewpan is not much larger than the meat. Skim well,

and when it has simmered very gently for 1 hour, put in the vegetables, and continue simmering till the meat is perfectly tender. Draw out the bones, dish the meat, and garnish either with tufts of cauliflower or braised cabbage cut in quarters. Thicken as much gravy as required, with a little butter and flour; add spices and ketchup in the above proportion, give one boil, pour some of it over the meat, and the remainder send in a tureen.

_Time_.--rather more than 3 hours. _Average cost_, 7d. per lb.

_Sufficient_ for 7 or 8 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--The remainder of the liquor in which the beef was boiled may be served as a soup, or it may be sent to table with the meat in a tureen.

STEWED RUMP OF BEEF.

670. INGREDIENTS.--1/2 rump of beef, sufficient stock to cover it (No. 105), 4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 2 tablespoonfuls of ketchup, 1 large bunch of savoury herbs, 2 onions, 12 cloves, pepper and salt to taste, thickening of butter and flour, 1 glass of port wine.

_Mode_.--Cut out the bone, sprinkle the meat with a little cayenne (this must be sparingly used), and bind and tie it firmly up with tape; put it into a stewpan with sufficient stock to cover it, and add vinegar, ketchup, herbs, onions, cloves, and seasoning in the above proportion, and simmer very gently for 4 or 5 hours, or until the meat is perfectly tender, which may be ascertained by piercing it with a thin skewer. When done, remove the tape, lay it into a deep dish, which keep hot; strain and skim the gravy, thicken it with butter and flour, add a glass of port wine and any flavouring to make the gravy rich and palatable; let it boil up, pour over the meat, and serve. This dish may be very much enriched by garnishing with forcemeat balls, or filling up the space whence the bone is taken with a good forcemeat; sliced carrots, turnips, and onions boiled with the meat, are also a great improvement, and, where expense is not objected to, it may be glazed. This, however, is not necessary where a good gravy is poured round and over the meat.

_Time_.--1/2 rump stewed gently from 4 to 5 hours.

_Average cost_, 10d. per lb. _Sufficient_ for 8 or 10 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--A stock or gravy in which to boil the meat, may be made of the bone and trimmings, by boiling them with water, and adding carrots, onions, turnips, and a bunch of sweet herbs. To make this dish richer and more savoury, half-roast the rump, and afterwards stew it in strong stock and a little Madeira. This is an expensive method, and is not, after all, much better than a plainer-dressed joint.

THE BARON OF BEEF.--This noble joint, which consisted of two sirloins not cut asunder, was a favourite dish of our ancestors. It is rarely seen nowadays; indeed, it seems out of place on a modern table, as it requires the grim boar's head and Christmas pie as supporters. Sir Walter Scott has described a feast at which the baron of beef would have appeared to great advantage. We will quote a few lines to remind us of those days when "England was merry England," and when hospitality was thought to be the highest virtue.

"The fire, with well-dried logs supplied, Went roaring up the chimney wide; The huge hall-table's oaken face, Scrubb'd till it shone, the day to grace, Bore then, upon its massive board, No mark to part the squire and lord. Then was brought in the lusty brawn, By old blue-coated serving-man; Then the grim boar's head frown'd on high, Crested with bays and rosemary. Well can the green-garb'd ranger tell How, when, and where the monster fell; What dogs before his death he tore, And all the baiting of the boar; While round the merry wassel bowl, Garnish'd with ribbons, blithe did trowl. There the huge sirloin reek'd; hard by Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie; Nor fail'd old Scotland to produce, At such high tide, her savoury goose."

When a lord's son came of age, in the olden time, the baron of beef was too small a joint, by many degrees, to satisfy the retainers who would flock to the hall; a whole ox was therefore generally roasted over a fire built up of huge logs. We may here mention, that an ox was roasted entire on the frozen Thames, in the early part of the present century.

STEWED SHIN OF BEEF.

671. INGREDIENTS.--A shin of beef, 1 head of celery, 1 onion, a faggot of savoury herbs, 1/2 teaspoonful of allspice, 1/2 teaspoonful of whole black pepper, 4 carrots, 12 button onions, 2 turnips, thickening of butter and flour, 3 tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, 2 tablespoonfuls of port wine; pepper and salt to taste.

_Mode_.--Have the bone sawn into 4 or 5 pieces, cover with hot water, bring it to a boil, and remove any scum that may rise to the surface. Put in the celery, onion, herbs, spice, and seasoning, and simmer very gently until the meat is tender. Peel the vegetables, cut them into any shape fancy may dictate, and boil them with the onions until tender; lift out the beef, put it on a dish, which keep hot, and thicken with butter and flour as much of the liquor as will be wanted for gravy; keep stirring till it boils, then strain and skim. Put the gravy back in the stewpan, add the seasoning, port wine, and ketchup, give one boil, and pour it over the beef; garnish with the boiled carrots, turnips, and onions.

_Time_.--The meat to be stewed about 4 hours. _Average cost_, 4d. per lb. with bone.

_Sufficient_ for 7 or 8 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE (a Homely but Savoury Dish).

672. INGREDIENTS.--1-1/2 lb. of rump-steak, 1 sheep's kidney, pepper and salt to taste. For the batter, 3 eggs, 1 pint of milk, 4 tablespoonfuls of flour, 1/2 saltspoonful of salt.

_Mode_.--Cut up the steak and kidney into convenient-sized pieces, and put them into a pie-dish, with a good seasoning of salt and pepper; mix the flour with a small quantity of milk at first, to prevent its being lumpy; add the remainder, and the 3 eggs, which should be well beaten; put in the salt, stir the batter for about 5 minutes, and pour it over the steak. Place it in a tolerably brisk oven immediately, and bake for 1-1/2 hour.

_Time_.--1-1/2 hour. _Average cost_, 1s. 9d.

_Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--The remains of cold beef, rather underdone, may be substituted for the steak, and, when liked, the smallest possible quantity of minced onion or shalot may be added.

BOILED TONGUE.

673. INGREDIENTS.--1 tongue, a bunch of savoury herbs, water.

_Mode_.--In choosing a tongue, ascertain how long it has been dried or pickled, and select one with a smooth skin, which denotes its being young and tender. If a dried one, and rather hard, soak it at least for 12 hours previous to cooking it; if, however, it is fresh from the pickle, 2 or 3 hours will be sufficient for it to remain in sock. Put the tongue in a stewpan with plenty of cold water and a bunch of savoury herbs; let it gradually come to a boil, skim well and simmer very gently until tender. Peel off the skin, garnish with tufts of cauliflowers or Brussels sprouts, and serve. Boiled tongue is frequently sent to table with boiled poultry, instead of ham, and is, by many persons, preferred. If to serve cold, peel it, fasten it down to a piece of board by sticking a fork through the root, and another through the top, to straighten it. When cold, glaze it, and put a paper ruche round the root, and garnish with tufts of parsley.

_Time_.--A large smoked tongue, 4 to 4-1/2 hours; a small one, 2-1/2 to 3 hours. A large unsmoked tongue, 3 to 3-1/2 hours; a small one, 2 to 2-1/2 hours.

_Average cost_, for a moderate sized tongue, 3s. 6d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

TO CURE TONGUES.