The handy dictionary of cookery

Onions should always be scalded before cooking them in any form as follows : — Peel the onion, place it in a basin, cover it with boiling water, add half a teaspoonful of salt and a small piece of soda the size of a pea ; put a plate on the top of the basin and allow it to stand ten minutes. This draws out the green indigestible part from the onion. Onions, Boiled. Take some Spanish onions peeled and scalded ; put them on to boil in milk and water ; boil till soft ; thicken the milk with a tablespoonful of flour. Serve hot w'ith the white sauce round in a vegetable dish. Orange Jelly. Put into a clean pan one ounce of gelatine, one pint of cold water, half a pound of loaf sugar, the rind and juice of one lemon, the juice of six good oranges, and the rind of three, the whites and shells of two eggs. Whisk all over the fire until a stiff froth is formed on the top, which somewhat resembles soap-suds ; remove the whisk, taking care not to break the froth ; allow it to boil up to the top of the pan twice, put on a lid, leave it quite still twenty minutes. Pass some hot water through a clean thin kitchen towel to warm it ; keep it near the fire; pour the jelly very carefully through the cloth. If it is not perfectly clear the first time, then pass it through again. Note. — There is no need to have a flannel bag for straining jelly. The coagulated albumen from the egg, and the acid from the fruit, form the filter on the top which really clears it. Ox Tail Soup, Thick. Take an ox tail; cut it up into joints. Put into a pan one ounce of butter, brown the joints in it; pour off the fat and add two and a half pints of water; bring it to the boil; throw in half a teaspoonful of salt ; remove the scum from the surface ; add a piece of turnip, carrot, onion, celery, a sprig of parsley and thyme, a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper. Simmer slowly five hours. Break a tablespoonful of rice flour with a little ketchup, Harvey’s sauce, and browning; add it to the soup. Boil two minutes, and serve with the small joints of tail in it. Ox Tail, Stewed. Cut the tail in neat pieces, remove any fat, and place it in a saucepan ; when the fat is well melted, put in the tail to brown ; remove it ; take away all the fat, . break a tablespoonful of rice flour with ketchup and Harvey’s sauce ; put this into the saucepan, cover it well with stock or water, stirring carefully till boiling. Put in the tail, add a little celery seed, six cloves, ten peppercorns in a muslin bag. Stew three hours. Oyster Patties. Cut some rounds of puff pastry with a tin cutter ; take a smaller one, and cut them half through about an inch from the edge. Bake them in a hot oven. Put into a pan one ounce of butter ; when it is melted stir in one ounce of flour, next add the liquor from a tin of oysters, stir carefully to boiling, season with a little salt and cayenne pepper, the juice of half a lemon ; take about twelve fresh oysters or half a tin, cut them in half, and drop them into the panada, also two tablespoonfuls of cream ; mix well. When the rounds of pastry are baked, remove the lid and any soft part from the inside ; fill with the oyster mixture, put on the lid, and serve. JVble. — Patty-pans may be used instead of the rounds, and baked with a crust of bread in each one. Oyster Sauce.