Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

custom, and causes waste of time and trouble. The only suitable decoration for a ham or a tongue is a simple white paper frill to conceal the knuckle end or the tongue root. Pressed Beef, if properly coated with transparent glaze, needs no decoration at all. Fish Glaze is most useful for fish sauces. It is made by boiling fish broth made from the cuttings of white fish until it is reduced to the consistency of an ordinary thick sauce. When Fish Glaze is cold it becomes solid like Meat Glaze. Real Aspic Jelly. — Do not use any gelatine. Get one oxfoot, or, as it is generally called, cow-heel, or four sheep’s feet. Clean and cut up the foot or feet. Put them into a stewpan with a bacon bone if you have it ; if not, with a couple of slices of ham or bacon and any scraps you can get of absolutely raw meat, such as cutlet trimmings or fowl giblets. The scraps must be raw. Add a few mixed vegetables as for soup. When all is in the stewpan add a quarter or half a pint of cold water. Cover the pan, set it on a moderate fire, and shake it occasionally. When the pieces of meat begin to take colour add a very little more water, and in about half an hour after that pour in enough warm water to cover the contents of the pan completely. Let it simmer very gently for three hours. When done, strain the liquid into a bowl, let it get cool, skim carefully, and stir in a teaspoonful of sugar and a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar. To clarify the stock, put into the cool broth half a pound of finely-minced raw beef quite free from fat. Put the stock on the fire again, and stir well till it boils. Take the pan off the fire, let the broth settle, and pour it gently into a basin, taking great care not to disturb the sediment. Strain it finally through a clean cloth. You will have a clear yellow liquid, which will set of its own accord if put on ice. If more colour is required use a teaspoonful of caramel ; never use burnt onion for colouring. Add the teaspoonful of caramel colouring to the Aspic before you set it to simmer. If caramel cannot be conveniently made, the Parisian essence, or sue colorant , is an excellent browning, quite tasteless and quite wholesome. Sir Henry Thompson’s recipe for Aspic Jelly is the result, as all his recipes are, of personal trials and consideration given under his own eye. I prefer, however, to use good glaze instead of the Liebig’s Extract recommended by him, for Liebig and all such preparations of meat are never free from a peculiar burnt flavour, very unpleasant to some palates. Sir Henry Thompson considers that to make Aspic Jelly there is no need, as in old days, to prepare an expensive clear stock with fresh meat and calf’s feet. He proceeds : “ Slice a large carrot or “turnip, and a small head of celery, add two cloves, pepper and “salt, a bay leaf and a small bunch of sweet herbs. Put all into “ a saucepan with three pints of water, and allow it to simmer for “two hours until reduced to two pints. Pour off through a “strainer and let it stand until cold. When required, add “two ounces of gelatine in hot summer weather [one ounce and “a half suffices when it is cool] to a pint of the cold liquor, and “let it stand two hours.