The handy dictionary of cookery

In the summer the stock must be strained every day or two, or it will be sour. Vegetables or herbs are apt to make the soup sour if the weather is hot. The peelings of turnips have as good a flavour as the inside, but they are not good to eat, and the trimmings of carrots and onions scrubbed clean do well for the stock-pot. Thicken soup with rice, sago, pearl-barley, or flour, and put in the vegetables out of the stock-pot, if there be any. Fish-bones may be put in when you have them, or a good soup may be made of fish-bones alone. Note. — Never leave stock standing all night in an iron or metal pan, always strain it into a clean earthenware vessel Sweetbreads. Sweetbreads should be chosen quite fresh : they spoil very quickly. In whatever way they are dressed they should always be soaked in lukewarm water two hours ; then put into boiling water and simmer slowly ten minutes ; and put into cold water for the purpose of blanching or making them white. They may be served in a variety of ways, and are considered, by some, to be a great delicacy; but as they have no decided flavour they should be served with a highly seasoned gravy. They ' are in season from May to August. Sweetbreads and Mushrooms. Wash the sweetbreads, be sure they are quite fresh ; boil them ten minutes ; put them into cold water. Remove any pieces of fat. Tear them into neat pieces with two silver forks ; dry them in a cloth. Break an egg on a plate ; beat it slightly with a little salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg; toss each piece well in this preparation, then cover well with . bread crumbs ; allow them to stand twenty minutes, and give . - > them a second coating of egg and bread crumbs. Fry them 'i i8r in hot butter very slowly to a pale brown on both sides; they must be thoroughly cooked. Remove them from the pan, and put into it some mushrooms peeled ; if large, break them. Add a little salt and pepper. Cook them ten minutes. Dish the sweetbreads in the centre of a hot dish, and the mushrooms round. Pour over them a good brown sauce made in the pan in which they have been cooked, as follows : — Put into the pan a dessertspoonful of rice flour. Add half a pint of good brown stock ; stir till boiling ; flavour with a teaspoonful of ketchup, the same of Harvey’s sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sweetbreads, Cradle of. Secure a sweatbread very fresh ; soak it in warm water two hours. It should then be put into boiling water and boiled ten minutes to blanch it ; lay it in cold water to cool ; take two silver forks, tear it into neat pieces ; roll each in a beaten egg, then toss them well in bread crumbs ; leave them twenty minutes and repeat the egg and bread crumbs. Put into a saucepan two ounces of butter. When quite hot, place in it the sweetbreads ; fry them to a nice brown ; remove them from the pan. Brown well in the butter one ounce of flour, then add one pint of stock; stir till boiling; skim well. Add a tablespoonful of ketchup, a teaspoonful of Harvey’s sauce, and the juice of half a lemon. Return the sweetbreads to the grav}’’, and stew them twenty minutes. Cut a slice of bread two inches in thickness ; mark it an inch from the edge all round with a knife ; put it into a pan of boiling fat, and fry it a nice brown all over ; lift it from the fat; take off the top; remove all the soft part from the bread ; fill up the ce