Culinary jottings

The only way to cook little joints, such as those I have indicated, is to braise them. You thus obtain all the noui'ishment the meat can give, and a tasty and tender dish into the bargain. This admirable method of cookery is far too rarely adopted : so for the benefit of those who do not understand the process, I had better mention that braising consists in placing meat in a closed pan, with some made-gravy or stock round it, vegetables cut up, and a judicious allowance of salt and pepper. In this the meat is very slowly simmered, whilst it is browned externally by live coals placed on the braising-pan lid. There is thus heat from above and below the pan, and the joint is cooked in its own gravy, while it derives additional flavoui' from the vesretables, &c., associated with it. To braise a little Indian joint successfully, you must first bone it, tlien trim it, tie it with a string into a neat shape, give it a dust of salt and pepper, and put it on one side, whilst you make the best broth you can from the bones you cut out, and the trimmings. This should occupy the cook all morning. Having obtained all you can from the bones, strain off your broth, let it get cool, skim off the fat, and now proceed to cook the meat. Melt some butter or fat at the bottom of your stew-pan fii'st, and turn the meat about in till it begins to take colour, then add your broth (a pint and a half or thereabouts for 3 fts of meat will be found enough) with two carrots, four good sized onions, a tea-spoonful each of marjoram and thyme, pepper, and salt : let it simmer gently for an hour. Tui'n the meat, add a couple of onions, and (says Gouffe) a gill of brandy, let the pan simmer for an hour more, — keeping live coals on the lid throughout the process,— and the braise will be complete. Lift out the joint, and keep it on a hot dish, whilst you strain off the gravy remaining in the stew-pan, — it vrill be half the amount you originally poured in, but much stronger. You can now send up the joint with the gravy jilainly poui^ed round it ; or you can pass the vegetables, with which the meat was braised, through the sieve, thicken the gravy, and add the pulp of the vegetables to it. In this manner you can successfully dress a leg of mutton, a loin of mutton, a small sirloin, a piece of the ribs or a fillet of beef, in fact all small joints. Larding with strips of fat bacon will vastly improve the braise, especially when the meat is very lean, and if you can make some strong broth from any meat and bones, or if you can spare a little stock from the soup-kettle, you need not bone the joint. The vegetables, &c., should, in this case, be boiled in the stock separately, wine should be added to flavour it, and the joint should be cooked in the mirepoix thus made.