Culinary jottings

"Pressed heef" should come to table in a rectangular shape : saltpetre is not wanted in its curing as we do not require the red colour which is generally liked in humps, briskets, &c. Choose a nice fleshy piece of the flank, with fat and lean, pretty equally balanced. Rub it carefully with salt, and " spiced pepper," and let it rest in brine (without saltpetre) for forty-eight hours : then drain it dry, wipe it, and stew it gently till nice and tender. When done, set it on a dish with a weight above it, and let it get quite cold. The weight must then be removed, and the joint must be neatly trimmed in a rectangular form with a sharp knife. Its surface having been glazed, nothing remains to be done in the kitchen. " Ox-head brawn' is not to be despised by dwellers in the plains to whom pork is denied. Skin and clean an oxhead, or purchase one already skinned : split it in two, cut out the eyes, break the bones of the jaws, remove the brains, and let the whole soak for an hour or two in cold water. Then put it into a stew-pan with water enough to cover it. Boil very slowly, and then add vegetables and flavouring as if for soup ; when the meat is quite tender, and you can pick the bones away from it easily, strain the meat from the broth, and vegetables, free it from every fragment of bone, and cut up the meat whilst it is hot and juicy, en masse rather small, seasoning it with salt and " spiced pepper" whilst doing so. If you have no spiced pepper, mix a table-spoonful of powdered dried thyme and marjoram blended, with a tea-spoonful of pepper, and dust it freely into the meat : when seasoned well, cut up, and mixed, press the meat tightly down in a round brawn tin, and let it get cold. After which it can be turned out whole, and sliced for breakfast or lunch. The broth in which the meat was stewed should be blended with the soup stock for it will be gelatinous and strong, the proper basis in fact for a good " mock turtle." An excellent " brawn' can be made with an ox-head, a well cured tongue, and a thick slice of bacon cut into dice. Stew the ox-head as in the foregoing recipe, and boil the tongue, cut up both with the bacon whilst they are quite hot, season as before explained, stir the chopped meats well together, press the whole tightly down in a brawn tin, and let it remain three or four hours with a heavy weight above it. When required, dip the tin into hot water to loosen the sides of the brawn, and it will slip out fully formed, and ready for the table. Minced ham, bacon lean, or Bologna sausage, may be NOTES ON THE CURING OF MEAT. 257 sprinkled in witli the seasoning. Be careful to cut up and work your brawn together whilst the meat is quite hot. Unless this be done, the brawn will not solidify satisfactorily. Turn the meat into the tin as soon as you can. Use an ordinary round cake tin, and place a heavy weight over the meat to press it firmly together. Calves' heads make delicious brawn when associated with ox tongue and bacon, and judiciously seasoned. For brawn of pig's head, follow the rules already given for ox-head brawn. — ♦ — Pastry-making, et cetera.