Paper-bag cookery

Chops in a Hurry. — Take four chops. Trim them well. Dust them lightly with salt and pepper. If no cooked peas are to hand, take a bottle (not tin) of peas, free them from the preserving liquor, and wash well in cold water. Take a liberal quantity of tomato catsup. Pour it into a well-greased bag. Add the peas, and cook for 15 minutes in a hot oven. Meanwhile take another greased bag. Put into it a slice of fat bacon, a few chicken livers and the chops. Fold and cook all together for 20 minutes. Dish up the chops on a very hot dish. Arrange the chicken livers on top of the chops; put the peas and tomato round as a border, and send to table at once. Note— The bacon, which is only used as a flavoring agent, must not be sent to table. I have found that any butcher will be glad to supply the chicken liver at a minute’s notice. Chops a l’lndienne. — For those who like hot things the following may be recommended : — Take a teaspoonful of salted flour, mix with it thoroughly a heaped large teaspoonful of good curry powder — two if liked. Grease a bag very thoroughly. Have ready from four to six chops trimmed as directed before. Dust these with the flour. Put them into the bag, and add to them a heaped dessertspoonful of finely chopped spring onions and half a pint of chicken or other wellflavored stock. Fold and cook gently for three-quarters of an hour. Dish up on hot dish. Stir the sauce round well and serve. If liked, the flour and curry powder can be mixed with the cold stock instead of being dusted on to the chops. Water will do when stock is not to hand, but in this case add a little more salt. Chops for the Nursery. — Every mother is aware of the nourishing properties of barley, but not every child can be got to take the barley in the shape of porridge. The appended recipe solves the difficulty by giving the barley at dinner instead of at breakfast time. Soak 4 oz. thoroughly washed pearl barley for 24 hours. Have ready a well greased bag, six small peeled whole onions (select those about the size of a small Tangerine) and the requisite number of chops. Free the chops from all but the smallest quantity of fat, dust them with salt, place them in the bag. Add to them the onions and the barley, salt to taste, and if any of the water in which the latter was soaked remains, add this also. If not, add half a pint of chicken stock prepared as before indicated. Fold and clip the bag. Place on broiler, and cook gently in an only moderately hot oven for an hour and a half. Empty out on to a dish and serve. Veal can also be cooked in this way, and for invalids the dish can be most highly recommended, as it contains nothing to upset even the most delicate digestion. Economical Stew. — Grease the bag well. Wash il/2 lbs. of fresh pieces of mutton well. Dust them , thickly with salted barley flour and slightly with pepper. Peel and slice I lb. of onions and 2 lbs. of potatoes thinly. Wash them well. Put them wet into the bag with the meat in layers. Then add about half-apint of water. Put the bag on the broiler. Cook slowly for 2 hours. Dish up on a hot dish, and stir round well.