The "Queen" cookery books: Entrees

consists of oil and vinegar (four parts of oil to one of vinegar), a shallot or a small onion sliced, a bay leaf, ten or twelve peppercorns, a few cloves, a very tiny pinch of salt, a spoonful of minced parsley (or the broken up stalks may be more economically used, and are equally efficacious), a strip or two of lemon peel carefully freed from any white pith, and, if liked, a very few drops of garlic vinegar. The cutlets may be left in this for two to four hours, according to taste, after which they should be lifted out and well drained, but not wiped, and then cooked as you please. If you have a good deal of Welsh or other small mutton, the following marinade produces a delicious, venisonlike dish of cutlets. Put into a pie-dish a wineglassful (claret) each of port, vinegar, and mushroom ketchup, with a small sliced onion, a tablespoonful of currant jelly (which should have been dissolved in the above mentioned liquids), a few peppercorns, and a little mignonette pepper, with a dessertspoonful of minced thyme and marjoram. Let the meat soak in this, then drain, broil, and serve with a rich brown sauce to which you have added a share of the strained marinade. (N.B. — Cold roast mutton treated thus makes a dish for a king.) As economy is always associated with really good cooking, it may be observed that the cost of cutlets is materially lessened if the whole neck (scrag, best end and all) be taken, for then the trimmings from the cutlets added to the scrag will provide a toothsome Irish stew, or a decidedly enticing haricot, or . 21 Navarin for lunch ; while the cutlets can be trimmed to taste at home. In France, where beef steak is appreciated, or, rather, where slices of meat broiled, fried, or sautes are to be served under that name, the filet is chosen in preference to the parts from whence we obtain our steak, i.e., the rump or the round, which are not abroad considered so tender as the meat derived from what we know as the “ undercut.” But to English ideas what is gained in tenderness by this arrangement is lost in flavour. However, the fact remains that when fillets of beef are spoken of, the sliced undercut is properly meant. At the same time, many a cook ignores this, and quietly utilises her steak, rump or otherwise, by cutting it into the required shape and serving it with the desired garnish. Like mutton, beef also is served both as filets, grenadins, medallions, noisettes, escalopes, Ac., but in these cases the meat is usually more or less larded, and in any case, is smaller than the less pretentious filets. Properly speaking, for filets the fillet is cut out in one piece, and is then sliced in a slanting direction to produce small wedge-shaped slices ; these are then peppered and brushed over with, or dipped into, good salad oil or dissolved butter, and broiled for eight minutes or so, turning them once or at most twice in the process ; they are then arranged on a very hot dish, and served with t.ny vegetable garnish to taste. Usually a little savoury butter is spread on the dish, the fillets laid on this, and then a tiny ball of the same butter is placed on each fillet as it is to be served- after it has been garnished with fried