The "A1" cookery book

Mince Cutlets. — ? lb. minced cooked meat, I oz. minced ham, 3 or 4 tablespoons bread-crumbs, i oz. butter, i pint stock, i egg, i oz. flour, pepper, salt, and cayenne, i dessert-spoon hot sauce. Put the butter and flour into a saucepan and mix into a smooth paste. Add the stock, seasoning, and hot sauce, and let it boil, stirring all the time, pour it into a basin, add the breadcrumbs and minced meat, and mix well. Spread the mixture on a plate firmly and evenly, and put it aside to get cold and firm. With a floured knife cut the mixture on the plate into triangular-shaped pieces, starting from the centre of the plate. Flour a board and shape each piece like a cutlet, put 2 inches of straight macaroni into the narrow end of each cutlet to represent bone. Egg and bread-crumb and fry in very hot fat. Serve with a little brown gravy. Mutton Chops. — These are always best grilled. They should be cut from a loin, be about three quarters of an inch thick, and have about half an inch of fat left round them. They will take about ten minutes to cook. They should be turned four times (but on no account must a fork be stuck into them) and sprinkled with pepper and salt and a little piece of butter put on them. The chief point in broiling is to attend to the fire. Half an hour before you want to cook your chops stir up your fire and clear away the ashes, stir all dead cinders from the bottom, and by the time you are ready to cook the fire will be clear and bright. Mutton Chops and Green Peas. — ij lbs. best end neck of mutton, and 1 pint shelled peas. Trim the chops carefully, making them a good shape, and cutting away most of the fat, dredge them well with flour and lay them in a stew-pan with a sprig of mint and a very small onion, and just cover them with cold water. Bring them slowly to boiling-point, but do not allow them quite to boil or the meat will be very hard. Then draw back the stew-pan from the fire and add the peas. Season with salt and pepper and a dust of cayenne. Simmer gently for half an hour, or longer if the peas are not soft. Dish up the chops and put the peas in the centre of the dish and pour the gravy round. Mutton Cutlets (i). — 2 lbs. best end neck of mutton. Take off the cutlets, shape them and chop off the thick part of the chine bone, beat them flat with a chopper, cut off all the fat. Season with pepper and salt. Egg and bread-crumb, and fry in lard. Place them on paper in front of the fire to drain off the fat. Serve with a puree of tomatoes or potato, etc. Mutton Cutlets (2). — 2 lbs. loin chops, parsley, thyme, 2 eggs, bread-crumbs, 2 oz. butter, 1 lemon, cayenne and salt. Trim the cutlets and lay in a stew-pan with the butter which has been melted, season them and let them stew for a short time, but without getting any colour. Mince the thyme and parsley, and bind with the yolk of an egg. When the cutlets are nearly cold spread the minced herbs over them, sprinkle with bread-crumbs and cayenne, broil them on a gridiron, and when they are brown squeeze lemon juice over them.