Cookery book and general axioms for plain cookery

Method: — Mix the arrowroot smoothly with a little cold water, then pour the boiling water or milk over it, and stir it well. Add the salt, sweeten to taste, and boil about 3 minutes. N.B. — Lump sugar rubbed on an orange or lemon is a great improvement. RICE WATER. Ingredients : — 1 or 2 oz. rice. 1 qt. water. A pinch of salt. Method : — Wash the rice, put it into a stew-jar or pie-dish with the water and salt ; cover it closely and stew slowly in a cool oven for 3 or 4 hours. Strain and flavour it as liked, and if acids are allowed to the patient, add orange or lemon juice, and sugar to taste. Some invalids like it stewed until it is a pulp, and not strained. STEWED RABBIT. Ingredients: — 1 rabbit. 1 lb. of bacon or pork (if liked). 4 small onions (sliced and scalded). 2 oz. dripping. 1 „ flour. Boiling water. Salt and pepper to taste. Method : — Cut the rabbit in joints, wash them in warm water, dry them and dredge with flour. Heat the dripping in the stew-pan and fry the rabbit and onions until lightly browned. Dram off the dripping, add sufficient water to cover the rabbit, and bacon or pork cut in strips, and cover closely. Remove the scum before it boils, and simmer 1-t hours, or until tender, then put the rabbit on a hot dish. Mix the flour to a smooth paste, stir it in the gravy, letting it boil a few minutes, season to taste, and pour it over the rabbit. N.B. — (1) The stew is much less greasy if the bacon is not cooked with it. It is very nice cut in slices, the rind cut off, rolled, slipped on to a skewer and cooked in the oven or before the fire. Arrange them round the edge of the dish. If pork is used, it can be kept whole and boiled separately. (2) One onion, kept whole and stuck with 3 or 4 cloves, is an improvement. GINGERBREAD. Ingredients : — 1 lb. flour. 1 lb. treacle or golden syrup. -I lb. butter. 2 oz. sugar. 1 oz. lemon peel. 1 oz. grated ginger, or to taste. 1 teaspoonful bi- carbonate of soda. 1 small teacup of milk. 2 eggs. Method : — Put the treacle, butter and sugar into a saucepan over the fire to dissolve. Beat the eggs, and cut the peel finely. Mix the flour, ginger, and peel in a basin, then stir the eggs and treacle in, and beat well ; dissolve the soda in the milk, add it, and beat well again j it should be moist enough to easily pour into a greased shallow tin, and bake in a moderate oven about § of an hour. When done, let it cool a few minutes, and where there is not a sieve, let it lean to allow the steam to escape. N.B.^-(l) A cake containing treacle does not require a very hot oven, as it is liable to burn. (2) Half white flour and half whole-meal makes gingerbread very wholesome. Whole ginger is better, as it cannot'’ be adulterated. SAVOURY COD. Ingredients : — 1 or more lbs. fresh cod. •77 pint hot water. 1 tablespoonful vinegar. 1 dessertspoonful flour. 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley, or to taste. \ oz. butter. 1 egg- \ teaspoonful salt. 3 or 4 peppercorns.