Catherine Owen's new cook book ..

Ragout.— A very nice ragout may be made from cold meat thus : Slice the meat, put it in a stew-pan in which an onion, or several if you like them, has been sliced; squeeze half a lemon into it, or a dessert-spoonful of vinegar, cover closely without water, and when it begins to cook, set the stew-pan at the back of the stove for three quarters of an hour, shaking it occasionally. The onions should now be brown; take out the meat, dredge in a little flour, stir it round, and add a cup of gravy, pepper, salt, and a small quantity of any sauce or flavoring you prefer; stew gently a minute or two, then put the meat back to get hot, and serve ; garnish with sippets of toast, or pickles. A Nice Little Breakfast Dish is made thus : Cut two long slices of cold meat and three of bread, buttered thickly, about the same shape and size ; season the meat with pepper, salt, and a little finely chopped parsley; or, if it is veal, a little chopped ham ; then lay one slice of bread between two of meat, and have the other two slices outside ; fasten together with short wooden skewers. If you have a quick oven, put it in ; and take care to baste with butter thoroughly, that the bread may be all over crisp and brown. If you can't depend on your oven, fry it in very hot fat as you would crullers ; garnish with sprigs of parsley, and serve very hot. To Warm a Good-sized Piece of Beef. — Trim it as much like a thick fillet as you can ; cut it horizontally half way through, then scoop out as much as you can of the meat from the inside of each piece. Chop the meat fine that you have thus scooped out, season with a little finely chopped parsley and thyme, a shred of onion, if you like it; or if you have celery boil a little of the coarser part till tender, chop it and add Wanning Over, 79 as much bread finely crumbled as you have meat, and a good piece of butter ; add pepper and salt, and make all into a paste with an egg, mixed with an equal quantity of gravy or milk ; fill up the hollow in the meat and tie, or still better, sew it together. You may either put this in a pot with a slice of pork or bacon, and a cup of gravy; or you may brush it over with beaten egg, cover it -with crumbs, and pour over these a cup of butter, melted, so that it moistens every part; and bake it, taking care to baste well while baking ; serve with nice gravy. Beef Oliyes are no novelty to the ear, but it is a novel thing to find them satisfactory to the palate. Take some stale bread-crumbs, an equal quantity of beef finely chopped, some parsley, and thyme ; a little scraped ham if you have it, a few chives, or a slice of onion, all chopped small as possible ; put some butter in a pan, and let this force-meat just simmer, not fry, in it for ten minutes. While this is cooking, cut some underdone oblong slices of beef about half an inch thick, hack it with a sharp knife on both sides ; then mix the cooked force-meat with the yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of gravy ; put a spoonful of this paste in the center of each slice of meat and tie it up carefully in the shape of an ^gg. Then if you have some nice gravy, thicken it with a piece of butter rolled in flour, roll each olive slightly in flour and lay it in the gravy and let it very gently simmer for half an hour.