Practical home cookery

poultice. The way to make the former is as follows : Have ready some dry bread-crumbs, put these in some milk, or, still better, cream, and boil them, with an onion and a few peppercorns, for about ten minutes ; take out the onion, add a pinch of salt, and a little butter, keep stirring till the butter is dissolved and well mixed in ; add, if you like, a suspicion of nutmeg, and the sauce is finished. Take care in taking out the onion that it does not break, as it is extremely disagreeable to have a piece of onion left in the sauce ; it is apt to get into the mouth by mistake, and give notice of its presence by a crunch which is not at all pleasant. With regard to gravy for game, what is required is that it should be good and strong, yet without any predominant flavour. For instance, some cooks like to add mushroom ketchup to gravy. This, when the gravy is intended for roast goose or fowl, would be unobjectionable, but should certainly be avoided when the gravy is intended for game. Again, the flavour of garlic should be guarded against. There is an old proverb which says, “ It is a pity to spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar.” So, too, it is a pity to spoil a brace of grouse for the sake of a little gravy-beef, and recollect a little and good is better than plenty and poor. Equal quantities of good gravy-beef and knuckle of veal should be used ; of course, less gravy-beef is necessary when extract of meat is used. The gravy may be thickened with a llittle brown thickening, but not too much. A very little arrowroot may be used, but the gravy for game should be by no means thick, yet at the same time it should look of a rich dark colour. To make a salmi of game. It is almost always the case that the game has been previously cooked. Take, therefore, any game-bones or trimmings that can be got, and place them, with a bay-leaf, to stew as long as possible in some gravy similar to what we have described, which is simply good strong stock made from gravy-beef, knuckle of veal stewed with an onion in which a few cloves have been stuck, a head of celery, a carrot and turnip, and a large handful of parsley, flavoured with pepper and salt, etc. After stewing all the game-bones, you can strain off the gravy from them and the bay-leaf ; make the gravy a trifle thicker with a little more brown thickening ; make this gravy hot in stew-pan and then add the remains of the game, cut off as neatly as possible ; let it soak in the gravy, but do not let it boil i about a quarter of an hour before serving, add a wine-glassful of madeira, or good golden sherry. A pale dry sherry is not nearly so good for the purpose. It is really the addition of the wine that makes the gravy into the salmi sauce — just as in nearly all the French restaurants in London it will often be seen in the bill of fare, something with sauce Mad ere, which simply means some ordinary gravy to which has been added a spoonful of sherry.