Culinary jottings

Put into a stew-pan an ox-foot cleaned and cut up, with a bacon bone, or a slice or two of ham or bacon, any scraps of raw meat, such as cutlet trimmings you may have, or, better far, a young fowl cut up as for fricassee, with a few mixed vegetables, &c., as for soup. Add a cup of cold water, cover the pan, set it on the fire, shaking it occasionally : when the pieces of meat begin to take colour, add a little more water, and in about half an hour, pour in enough water to cover the contents of the pan completely ; put in a tea-spoonful of caramel, and then let the vessel simmer for three hours very gently. When ready, strain the liquor off into a bowl, let it get cool, skim it carefully, add a tea-spoonful of sugar, and table-spoonful of tarragon vinegar, clarify it, (q. v. page 33) and strain it finally through a clean clotli, producing a clear, amber-coloured liquid, which will set of its own accord without isinglass, if put in the ice-box. A couple of calf's feet, or four sheep's feet may be used. 7. — In wet weather excellent mushrooms are procurable ^ , , ,, , at nearly every station in this Presi- Baked Mushrooms. . , dency ; assummg that on this occasion we have been fortunate enough to get a dish of a dozen nice ones, a very toothsome entremets can be made of them in this manner : — First, be careful in cleaning them ; cut the stalks down, leaving only a little of them within the hollow of the mushroom, peel off the skin that covers the convex side of the fungus, brush away any particles of earth or sand that may adhere to the pink gills on the concave side, and by patting the top of each mushroom, shake out all grit. It is a very great mistake to wash a mushroom if you can possibly clean it in the way I have described. When satisfactorily prepared, clean the stalks you cut off, and chop them up. Put into a sauce-pan an ounce of butter and stir into it half an ounce of flour, when mixed, add half a pint of made gravy ; stir well and throw in the chopped stalks, a table-spoonful of chopped curled parsley, a tea-spoonful of minced onion, a salt-spoonful of salt, and a dusting of pepper : simmer the sauce until it is thick and rich, add a spoonful of cream, and then strain it. Now butter a silver dish liberally, place the mushrooms upon it head downwards, fill their hollow parts with the thick sauce, and set the dish in the oven (a brisk one) for ten minutes. As soon as the mushrooms flatten themselves, as it were, they are done. Serve on the same dish wrapping a napkin round it. 8. — This dish is not 'a difficult one. Choose a tin of American apricots, drain off their juice and place the fruit at the bottom of a glass dish ; add enough syrup to the juice of the fruit to cover them, pour into it a wine-glassful of noyeau or maraschino, and half an ounce of dissolved gelatine ; when cold, set the glass dish upon ice, and pour the syrup round the fruit by degrees, letting it congeal like jelly and embedding the fruit firmly. Leave the dish in the ice, and then make enough rich custard to form a layer an inch thick on the top of the congealed fruit, mix into the custard half an ounce of dissolved gelatine, and flavour it with vanilla : when quite cold, pour the custard by degrees over the layer of fruit ; it should consolidate also ; garnish