Culinary jottings

Open a tin of lobster : chse all the larger pieces for the dish you are going to make, and put all the mashed fragments aside to be used in bouchees or croquettes for some other meal. Having washed and drained the firm pieces aforesaid, dry them, and cut them up into quarter inch collops, and pile them in the centre of a dish that will stand the oven. N'ow cut up a good sized Bombay onion, fry it in an ounce of butter, adding off the fire a sherry glass of chablis or sauterne : when the onion seems cooked, stir in a breakfast-cupful of rich thick brown sauce, and the same quantity of tomato puree ; add a strong suspicion of Nepaul pepper, and reduce the mixture for five minutes. When nice and thick, pour the sauce over the lobster, put the dish into the oven, and when thoroughly hot, serve. oo For a little home dinner. Puree de rognons. Ecrevisse de mer an gratin. " Bifteck" a la jardiniere. Pommes de terre a la duchessc. Bcignets d'aubergines. " Pudding" a la " Sir Watkin." Fromage, hors d'oeuvres. Dessert, 1. — Take your daily allowance of soup meat as usual and make a strong consomme with it. Buy six mutton kidneys and treat them as follows : — Wash them, dry them, slit them in halves, and plunge them immediately into boiling water well salted ; let them remain in this bath for one minute only, take them out, and dry them in a napkin. This is an infallible recipe for the removal of that peculiar taste which many people dislike in kidneys ; it should be followed always, no matter how you intend to cook them. Well, having thus blanched the kidneys, proceed to boil them gently with some dried thyme, marjoram, and a bag containing spice, &c., till they are very tender. Take them out, and pound them in the mortar, with one well washed anchovy : when sufficiently pounded, pass the paste through a wire sieve to get rid of fibre, gristle, &c. When ready, place the consomme in a bowl handy, and keep the kidney paste ready in a soup plate. Take a roomy sauce-pan, melt an ounce of butter at the bottom of it over the fire, stir in a table-spoonful of flour ; when nice and creamy, add a cupful of consomme, stirring vigorously, and continue to add consomme and kidney paste by degrees, working them well together, till you have used them up ; now let the puree come to the boil ; add a glass of port, a tea-spoonful of red currant jelly, a tea-spoonful of good vinegar, and sufficient caramel coloring to give the soup a warm brown tint, stir well for a minute over the fire, and serve with croutons of fried bread. A coffee-cupful of boiling cream, or a coffee-cupful of milk in which the yolk of an egg has been stirred, may be added to this soup off the fire for additional richness. -It will be found so like a game soup that many will doubt its having any connection with kidneys. After a day's hard work, a rich sustaining soup of this kind is often very acceptable. 2. — Choose a nice crab, have it boiled, cleaned, and picked : place the meat in a soup plate. Baked crab. , . . . -i , n -k a ^ and give it a dust oi black pepper. Boil till tender sufficient maccaroni to line the bottom of a small pie-dish, and grate a tea-cupful of mild cheese.