Cookery book and general axioms for plain cookery

Ingredients : — About \ lb. cold meat (any |craps will do). About 2 lbs. cooked potatoes. A little milk. A little flour. Salt and pepper to taste. Hot stock, gravy, or water. A little scalded onion or herbs to taste, if liked.. Method : — Chop the meat finely and dredge it well with flour, then sprinkle it lightly with salt and pepper. Mash the potatoes finely, and beat them with a wooden spoon until very light, adding enough milk to make them moist, and a little salt. Line the bottom of a pie-dish or baking-tin with potato, put the meat in, pour a few tablespoonfuls of hot gravy over, and pile the remainder of the potato on the top as lightly as possible. Finish it with a fork, and bake in a hot oven about 20 minutes, browning it nicely. N.B. — (1) When the dish is lined with potato the heat cannot reach the meat as readily as if it were at the bottom, and so it is not hardened. See “ Axioms for Cold Meat Cookery ” (10). For the same reason the meat is dredged with flour to protect it before adding the salt, as the salt hardens it also. (2) If the potato is not browned in the 20 minutes, place it before the fire, as cold meat simply requires heating through. BONE STOCK OR GRAVY. Ingredients : — Bones, cooked or uncooked. 1 onion stuck with four cloves. 1 small carrot. Cold water. 1 teaspoonful salt ] „ 0 , 1 teaspoonful sugar J 0 f^s’ wa*'cr* Method : — Chop the bones a little (if uncooked, wash in a little warm water), then put them with the onion, carrot, sugar and salt, in a large saucepan, and just cover with cold water. Simmer for 5 or G hours, removing the scum as it rises. When the bones look dry and full of little holes, the goodness has all been extracted. Strain the stock into a basin, and when cold remove all the fat. It is then ready for use. N.B. — This will do for soups, stews, hashes, gravies, <fcc. BAKING POWDER. Ingredients : — | lb. rice-flour or corn-flour, 6 oz. bi-carbonate of soda, 4 „ tartaric acid. 4 „ cream of tartar. Method : — Mix the rice-flour and soda together well on a sheet of clean paper ; crush the lumps out with a rolling-pin, then add the tartaric acid and mix well again. Pass it through a hair or wire sieve, if there be one • if not, mix and roll well again. Then put it into a bottle or canisber, and keep it well corked. SUET PUDDING Ingredients: — 10 oz. flour. 2 „ bread crumbs. 3 or 4 „ suet. 1 tablespoonful brown sugar. 1 teaspoonful baking powder. A pinch of salt. Cold water or sour milk. Method : — Have ready a saucepan of boiling water. Skin, shred and chop the suet finely. Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, and mix into a rather moist paste with the water or sour milk. If it is to be boiled, dip the pudding cloth into the boiling water, wring, and sprinkle it with flour, turn the mixture into it, tie it tightly, leaving room for it to swell, put it into the saucepan, and boil from 2 to 4 hours. But if steamed, grease a basin or mould well, put the mixture in, cover it with greased kitchen-paper, and put it into a steamer, or into a saucepan with only sufficient boiling water to reach half-way up the basin. Have a kettle of boiling water to renew it occasionally. N.B. — (1) If this is wanted with a savoury dish, the sugar must be omitted. (2) Sour milk makes very light puddings and cakes, and should not be wasted.