Cooking and castle-building

"Lamb or mutton chops are very nice, dipped in beaten egg, covered with bread-crumbs rolled fine, and fried like chicken, in a quantity of boiling lard. When broiled, they should always be done, like steak, in a hot pan, unless they are very much trimmed ; that is, unless the small piece of lean tenderloin is separated entirely from the bone and fat, which should be rejected. These trimmed chops may be broiled over a clear tire in a wire gridiron, such as is used for oysters ; and, when so cooked, are delicious. The rejected bone and fat can be saved in a stew, or in the soup-kettle. But it would be no more wasteful to throw them away, than to retain and broil altogether, as is usually done. For in the latter case the result is generally a badly damaged chop, smoked and burned from the dripping of grease — an unsightly, awkward piece, from which nine persons out of ten select and cat the small bit only, leaving the rest upon their plates to be thrown out with the scraps from the table. But in my cook-book, in connection with this recipe for broiling, I intend to put in staring capitals. Keep the broiling-pan piping hot all the time THE MEAT IS cooking." "Your labor-saving expedients," remarked Emeline, "may do well enough with chops and steaks, and may probably prevent them from being burned or underdone. But by no substitute for the gridiron, or by no make-believe method of the sort you recommend, could a broiled chicken be produced that would begin to approach this in excellence." "Ah, ha ! " said Alice, gayly, "you are in error there. This chicken has never touched a gridiron, nor seen live coals. It was done entirely in a hot oven, after one of Cousin Kate's labor-saving methods. This is the way it was cooked : The chicken was prepared for broiling by being opened down the back, washed in cold water, and wiped dry with a soft cloth. The breast-bone was flattened with a mallet, the wings were twisted back, to leave the breast exposed, and the chicken was placed, skin up, in a dripping-pan, and pressed close to the pan, to make it lie as flat as possible. After being thus fixed, I put it into a hot oven and shut the door. In about five minutes I heard a sputtering inside, and began to think something was wrong ; but Cousin Kate dissipated my fears by assuring me that it was cooking nicely. From time to time I peeped into the oven, just to see that it was not burning, and at the expiration of twenty or twenty-five minutes I placed the chicken on a heated platter, seasoned it with pepper, salt, and butter, and here it is before us." " Incomparable as a broiled chicken ! " was Emeline's response. " So thinks my fiistidious mamma ? But would you have thought so had you known before you tasted it that it was oven-cooked ? " "I do not think my prejudice in favor of broiling could prevent my appreciating so perfectly cooked a chicken as you have served us this morning, Alice. Bat why do you not season, and baste it with butter, before 3^ou put it in the oven ? I would do so ; and would also put water in the pan, to keep it from burning."