Gas cookery

Method. — Melt the butter in a stewpan, and fry in it the ham, shalots, thyme, and bay leaf, until a light brown ; then add the vinegar, tomatoes, and gill of stock, and stir over the fire until very soft. Pass through a hair sieve ; return to a stewpan, and add the cornflour, mixed smoothly with the stock. Note. — This sauce can be made with tinned tomatoes. Venetienne Sauce. Ingredients. — 1 oz. Butter, 2 ozs. lean Ham, 1 teaspoonful of chopped Carrot and Shalot, 8 Peppercorns, 1 oz. Flour, 1 Bay Leaf, 1 gill of Fish Stock, 1 gill of Milk coloured with Coral or Spawn. Method. — Fry the vegetables in the butter with the ham, then add the flour smoothly, and pepper and salt, then the fish stock and milk. Pound some lobster spawn (black) in a mortar and put this in to the sauce, and when it comes to the boil the sauce will be a brilliant red colour. Strain and it is ready for use. White Sauce. Ingredients. — 1 y2 ozs. Butter, ozs. Flour, 1 Bay Leaf, blade ',of Mace, 4 white Peppercorns, y2 saltspoonful of Salt, y2 pint of Milk, % pint of white Stock or Water. Method. — Put the butter into a stewpan to melt, add the flour, and mix smoothly. Cook the flour well in the butter (but be careful not to let it brown) with the bay leaf, mace, and seasoning. Add the stock and milk gradually, stirring until it boils. Let it simmer for ten or fifteen minutes, then strain and serve. Asparagus. Scrape the asparagus, wash it well, and cut it all one length. Have ready a stewpan of boiling water, with water about three inches in depth, and a little lemon juice in the water. Tie the asparagus in bundles and stand it upright, so as to leave the tender green above the water. Fit a lid tightly on, and boil rapidly for about 20 minutes. Dish on toast and serve with oiled butter, lemon juice and cayenne. Carrots. Scrape the carrots and let them lie in cold water until wanted ; then plunge them into boiling water with a little salt. Keep the lid on and boil slowly. Cauliflower. This should be well washed in salt and water, then plunged top downwards into boiling water, the lid kept off, and boiled rapidly until tender. Serve with melted butter poured over. Celery with White Sauce. Cut the celery about three inches long, and boil it tender in white stock or milk. Then take I gill of the stock or milk, whichever the celery has been stewed in, add i gill of cream or milk, mix oz. of flour with one egg and salt, and let this sauce cook smoothly. Take the celery up, let it drain well on a sieve, then dish it up and pour the sauce over. Green Vegetables. These must be well picked and washed, then plunge them into plenty of boiling water with a little salt, and let them boil very rapidly with the lid off. potatoes. Wash the potatoes first, then peel very thinly and keep in cold water ; put them in plenty of cold water with a little salt, and bring them slowly to the boil ; strain the water off when nearly done, and let them finish cooking in their own steam. New potatoes must be put into boiling water, and should be scraped instead of being peeled. When they are cooked strain them, and put 1 oz. of butter into a stewpan, make it thoroughly hot, and toss the potatoes about in it for a minute, and then serve. potato Beiqnets.