À la mode cookery

Take about eight to ten pounds of brisket of beef, cut it as nearly square as possible, bone it, and where the bone is taken out mix in two tablespoonfuls of brown sugar and one of salt and lay well in. Have ready a large stewpan, put the bones at the bottom of it with two shalots, two onions stuck with three cloves, three carrots, one turnip, two bayleaves, a head of celery, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Lay the beef on the top, and just cover with water ; bring to the boil, and then let it simmer slowly for eight hours. When cooked, take it up and place it between two dishes, with a two-pound weight on it. When cold, trim it neatly all round, keeping it as square as possible. Glaze it, and decorate it with aspic jelly as in illustration. It is best to tie broad tape across the beef both ways before putting it into the pot, it is easier to lift out, and keeps it all together better. (See Plate VI.) Fillets of Beef with Mushrooms Take a piece of rump steak, cut it into rounds the size of a five-shilling piece three-quarters of an inch thick, and trim. Melt some butter in a baking-tin, lay the fillets in this, and let them stand in a warm place for an hour or two. Then take them out and fry them in very hot butter or good dripping, turning them so as to let both sides colour. Make some Italian sauce, into which a little tomato ketchup and a liqueur-glass of sherry has been added. Take half a pound of button mushrooms neatly trimmed and washed. Let the sauce cook till the mushrooms are done ; add the juice of half a lemon, pour the sauce on the dish, heap the mushrooms in the centre, and arrange the fillets round in a crown shape. Place on each cutlet a little pat of maitred'hotel butter. Beefsteak Pudding Make a paste with six ounces of chopped suet and three-quarters of a pound of flour, butter a puddingbasin, and line it with the suet. Rub the rump steak with a clove of garlic ; then cut it into small pieces, also a quarter of a pound of ox kidney. Put a good handful of flour on a board, well pepper and salt it, then roll each piece of steak and kidney in it ; add some stock, cover with paste, tie over with a buttered and floured cloth, and boil for four hours. A few oysters are a great improvement added to the pudding. Boudin a la Kaiser Take the flesh of a boiled chicken, remove all skin and gristle, and place it in a mortar. Have some good veloute sauce, and mix in with it pepper and salt to taste. Pound all well together, and rub through a fine wire sieve. Then put it back in the mortar and pour on half a pint of cream and half a pint of liquefied aspic. Blend all well together, then place it in a deep plain-border mould and put on ice. Have some sweetbreads, blanch them and cut them into rounds the size of a five-shilling piece. Simmer them gently in a little Allemande sauce. Season them to taste, put them between two plates to flatten them. When cold, mask them thickly with pink aspic cream, trim them neatly, and alternately ornament with little dots of truffle and white of egg.