Culinary jottings

" Bnt," says the inquisitive disciple, " what are you to do \i 3'ou have no bones, no gi'avy, and no stock ?" to him I reply as follows : — After having trimmed the meat to your fancy, take all the skin and ugly fragments that remain, and place them on a separate plate. Now, choose a Bombay onion, and mince it fine ; place a good sized sauce-pan on the fire, put a pat of butter at the bottom of it (say a couple of ounces if you can spare as much) melt it, throw in the minced onion, fry it a light golden brown, add hot water now gradually, and throw in your scraps of meat, six pepper corns, a teaspoonful of sugar, a teaspoonful of salt, an anchovy, a piece of celery or its leaves, a carrot cut up, a bunch of curly parsley, the peel of a lime, and a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, with ji dessert-spoonful of vinegar, and let the contents of your sauce-pan simmer away until you are satisfied that you have extracted all the good to be got out of your several ingredients. Taste the broth as it is cooking, and correct any errors that may occur to you on the spot : when ready, strain it into a bowl, and skim off any fat that may rise. Xow, take another sauce-pan, and go tlirougli tlie usual process of thickening the broth ; it will then be ready to receive the meat you desire to re-cook. A table-spoonful of Madeira, or Marsala ; a little red currant jelly, and portwine ; some claret or burgundy if at hand ; the pulp of a couple of tomatoes ; or the strained yolks of two eggs, may be added to enrich your sauce. The egg should be stirred in after the sauce-pan has been removed from the fire. The tomato gives a piquancy to all hashes, and minces, superior to that which can be procured by vinegars. Your selection of the wine that you use must depend, of course, upon the sort of meat you are cooking up. In the case of a mince, remember, that when the meat has been passed through the machine, it must be diluted with a good thick sauce, in which it should be gently heated. Just before serving, it may be enriched with the raw yolks of a couple eggs — off the fire. Having done this, you can diversify the methods of serving it as follows : — 1. Make a light omelette. When all but ready to serve, spread your mince quickly on top of the omelette, toss the omelette in the pan lightly, and roll it oif into the hot dish, enveloping the mince, and serve. This must not look like a " roly-poly" pudding. The omelette should not be made as stilf as a batter dumpling as Ramasamy loves to serve it. I will tell you how to make an omelette, properly in my next chapter. 2- Make a case of mashed potato, with high sides like a vol-an-vent case, and pour your mince into it. 3. Hollow out a number of small dinner rolls, butter them, and fry them a golden yellow : pour your mince into them, put a curl of fried bacon on the top of each, keat them in the oven for five minutes, and serve. 4. Make a number of little potato cases, and fill them in the same way : or if yon have tliem, nse the paper or china cases so universally used in England now. 5. Make some light puff-paste, form it into patties like oyster patty pastry, bake, fill them when ready with the mince, heat thoroughly, and serve.