Common Sense in the Household 18

Common Sense in the Household 18

MUTTON HAM.

 

For a leg of mutton weighing 12 lbs., take—

 

1 ounce of black pepper, or ½ ounce of cayenne,

¼ lb. brown sugar,

1 ounce saltpetre,

1¼ lb. salt.

 

The day after the sheep is killed, mix the sugar, pepper, and

saltpetre, and rub well into the meat for nearly fifteen minutes, until

the outer part of it is thoroughly impregnated with the seasoning. Put

the ham into a large earthenware vessel, and cover it with the salt.

Let it remain thus for three weeks, turning it every day and basting

it with the brine; adding to this, after the first week, a teacupful

of vinegar. When the ham is removed from the pickle, wash with cold

water, then with vinegar, and hang it up in a cool cellar for a week,

at least, before it is used.

 

Soak an hour in fair water before boiling.

 

Or if you choose to smoke it for several days after it is corned, it

can be chipped and eaten raw, like jerked venison or dried beef.

 

Most of the receipts above given will apply as well to lamb as to

mutton. There are several exceptions, however, which you will do well

to note. Lamb should never be boiled except in stews. It is tasteless

and sodden cooked in this manner, on account of its immaturity. But, on

the other hand, a lamb-pie, prepared like one of beef or venison, is

excellent, while mutton-pies have usually a strong, tallowy taste, that

spoils them for delicate palates.

 

Roast lamb should be eaten with mint sauce (if you fancy it), currant

jelly, and asparagus or green peas. Lettuce-salad is likewise a

desirable accompaniment.

 

 

MUTTON OR LAMB RÉCHAUFFÉ. ✠

 

Cut some slices of cold underdone mutton or lamb; put them in a

frying-pan with enough gravy or broth to cover them. Or, if you have

neither of them, make a gravy of butter, warm water, and catsup. Heat

to boiling, and stir in pepper and a great spoonful of currant jelly.

Send to table in a chafing-dish, with the gravy poured about the meat.

 

 

_Or,_

 

You can put a lump of the butter in the bottom of the pan, and when it

boils, lay in the slices of meat, turning them before they have time

to crisp. As soon as they are thoroughly heated take them out, lay

upon a hot dish, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and serve with a small

spoonful of jelly laid upon each.

 

 

 

VEAL.

 

Despite the prejudice, secret or expressed, which prevails in many

minds against veal,—one which the wise and witty “Country Parson”

has as surely fostered among reading people, as did Charles Lamb the

partiality for roast pig,—the excellent and attractive dishes that

own this as their base are almost beyond number. For soups it is

invaluable, and in _entrees_ and _réchauffés_ it plays a distinguished

part. From his head to his feet, the animal that furnishes us with

this important element of success in what should be the prime object

of cookery, to wit, to please while we nourish, has proved himself

so useful as an ally that it behooves us to lift the stigma from the

name of “calf,” provided he be not _too_ infantine. In that case he

degenerates into an insipid mass of pulpy muscle and gelatine, and

deserves the bitterest sneers that have been flung at his kind.

 

 

ROAST VEAL.

 

 

LOIN.

 

Veal requires a longer time to roast than mutton or lamb. It is fair to

allow _at least_ a quarter of an hour to each pound. Heat gradually,

baste frequently—at first with salt and water, afterward with gravy.

When the meat is nearly done, dredge lightly with flour, and baste once

with melted butter. Skim the gravy; thicken with a tablespoonful of

flour, boil up, and put into the gravy-boat.

 

Should the meat brown too fast, cover with white paper. The juices,

which make up the characteristic flavor of meat, are oftener dried out

of veal than any other flesh that comes to our tables.

 

 

BREAST.

 

Make incisions between the ribs and the meat, and fill with a

force-meat made of fine bread-crumbs, bits of pork, or ham chopped

“exceeding small,” salt, pepper, thyme, sweet marjoram, and beaten egg.

Save a little to thicken the gravy. Roast slowly, basting often, and

the verdict of the eaters will differ from theirs who pronounce this

the coarsest part of the veal. Dredge, at the last, with flour, and

baste well once with butter, as with the loin.

 

 

FILLET.

 

Make ready a dressing of bread-crumbs, chopped thyme and parsley; a

little nutmeg, pepper and salt, rubbed together with some melted

butter or beef suet; moisten with milk or hot water, and bind with a

beaten egg.

 

Take out the bone from the meat, and pin securely into a round with

skewers; then pass a stout twine several times about the fillet, or

a band of muslin. Fill the cavity from which the bone was taken with

this stuffing, and thrust between the folds of the meat, besides making

incisions with a thin, sharp knife to receive it. Once in a while slip

in a strip of fat pork or ham. Baste at first with salt and water,

afterward with gravy. At the last, dredge with flour and baste with

butter.

 

 

SHOULDER.

 

Stuff as above, making horizontal incisions near the bone to receive

the dressing, and roast in like manner.

 

 

VEAL CUTLETS.

 

Dip in beaten egg when you have sprinkled a little pepper and salt over

them; then roll in cracker-crumbs, and fry in hot dripping or lard. If

you use butter or dripping, add a little boiling water to the gravy

when the meat is dished; thicken with browned flour, boil up once,

sending to table in a boat.

 

 

_Or,_

 

You can rub the cutlets well with melted butter, pepper, and broil on a

gridiron like beef-steak, buttering _very_ well after dishing.

 

 

VEAL CHOPS

 

Are more juicy and less apt to be tough and solid than cutlets. Trim

the bone as with mutton chops, and fry, dipping in beaten egg and

cracker-crumbs. Add a little parsley and a minced shallot to the gravy.

 

 

VEAL STEAK.

 

This should be thinner than beef-steak, and be done throughout. Few

persons are fond of rare veal. Broil upon a well-greased gridiron

over a clear fire, and turn frequently while the steaks are cooking.

Put into a saucepan four or five young onions minced fine, a great

teaspoonful of tomato catsup, or twice the quantity of stewed tomato,

a lump of butter the size of an egg, and a little thyme or parsley,

with a small teacupful of hot water. Let them stew together while the

steaks are broiling, thickening, before you turn the gravy out, with a

spoonful of browned flour. Add, if you please, a half-glass of wine.

Boil up once hard, and when the steaks are dished, with a small bit of

butter upon each, pour the mixture over and around them.

 

Spinach is as natural an accompaniment to veal as are green peas to

lamb.

 

 

VEAL PIES.

 

Let your veal be juicy and not too fat. Take out all the bone, and put

with the fat and refuse bits, such as skin or gristle, in a saucepan,

with a large teacupful of cold water to make gravy. Instead of chopping

the veal, cut in thin, even slices. Line a pudding-dish with a good

paste and put a layer of veal in the bottom; then one of hard-boiled

eggs sliced, each piece buttered and peppered before it is laid upon

the veal; cover these with sliced ham or thin strips of salt pork.

Squeeze a few drops of lemon-juice upon the ham. Then another layer of

veal, and so on until you are ready for the gravy. This should have

been stewing for half an hour or so, with the addition of pepper and a

bunch of aromatic herbs. Strain through a thin cloth and pour over the

pie. Cover with crust and bake two hours.

 

 

_Or,_

 

Butter a large bowl very thickly, and line with sliced hard-boiled

eggs. Then put in, in perpendicular layers, a lining of veal cut in

thin slices, and seasoned with pepper. Next, one of sliced ham, each

slice peppered and sprinkled with lemon-juice, more veal and more ham,

until the dish is packed to the brim. Cover with a thick paste made of

flour and hot water, just stiff enough to handle with ease. Press this

closely to the outside of the bowl, which should not be at all greasy.

Let it overlap the rim about half an inch. Some cooks substitute a

cloth well floured, but it does not keep in the essence of the meats

as well as the paste. Set the bowl in a pot of hot water, not so deep

that it will bubble over the top. It is better that it should not touch

the paste rim. Boil steadily—not hard—for at least three hours. Remove

the paste the next day, when bowl and contents are perfectly cold,

and turn out the pie into a large plate or flat dish. Cut in circular

slices—thin as a wafer—beginning at the top, keeping your carver

horizontal, and you have a delicious relish for the supper-table, or

side-dish for dinner. Set in a cool place, and in winter it will keep several days.