Little French dinners

This part of the process is most essential, as it is on the slow cooking of the beef that the tenderness of the meat depends. About a quarter of an hour before the time of serving take out some of the liquor with a cup, and strain it into a jug, then melt one ounce of butter or dripping in a saucepan, add one and a half ounces of flour, and stir together over the fire till a bright brown colour, then add gradually the liquor in the jug, and make a nice thick sauce ; flavour to taste with pepper and salt, and add some colouring to make it a dark, rich brown. Now take the braised beef out of the saucepan, remove the string, and place it on the dish on which it is going to be served ; place a sieve over a large basin, and pour into it the contents of the saucepan, so as to separate the vegetables from the liquor. Pick out all the carrots and turnips, and arrange them round the beef, which should be placed in front of the fire to keep hot. Bring the sauce now to the boil, stir it well, and pour it all over and round the piece of beef, so as to glaze it nicely. Keep some of the thick sauce back, thin it down with some more of the braised beef liquor, bring to the boil, and pour it all over the vegetables round the meat. Braised Beef. \ 1 1 The garnish of this dish may, of course, be varied according to taste. Sprigs of cauliflower, French beans, peas, and Brussels sprouts, etc., may be used, and for a dinner party it would look nicer to cut the carrots and turnips into balls or some other fancy shape, and then they could be arranged in alternate heaps. This dish is exceedingly nice cooked with just sufficient vegetables (not cut up) to flavour the meat and served with macaroni plainly boiled in water and tossed in butter, with the sauce poured over it in the same way as for the vegetable garnish. The liquor from the braised beef in the basin will be found to have on it the following day a thin coating of fat. This can be easily removed (it is very good for frying purposes), and the soup, of which there will be about three quarts, is then, with the addition of perhaps a little more salt and pepper, quite ready for use. The amount of water added to the beef in the first instance may always be varied, according to the amount of soup desired, but the above quantities will be found on an ..average to be the most satisfactory from every point of view. INDEX. Artichokes Served with Salad Sauce, 21 Lamb Fillets with Cucumber, 31 Mutton Cutlets in Jelly 5 Ox-Palates — A la Robert, 79 With Tomato Sauce, 17 Ox-Tail a la Mode, 34 Rabbit Souffles, 83 Spinach au Jus, 29 Sweetbread — Patties, 2 Stewed in Cases, 82 Timbales a la Milanaise, 69 Turnip Tops with Poached Eggs, 62 FISH— Brill, Fillets of, with Watercress Sauce, 14 Caviare, with Oysters, 84 Cod— A la Bechamel, 61 Boiled and Fried Salt Cod, 74 Celadon Sauce, with, 57 Collops of, with Portuguese Sauce, 20 Eels, Matelote of, 69 Flounders, Fillets of, Fried, Haddocks — A la Maitre d'H&tel, 39 Boiled— Diplomate Sauce with, Hollandaise Sauce with, FISH — continued. Mackerel, Fillets of— A la Ravigote, 42 Gooseberry Sauce with, Oysters, Caviare with, 84 Prawns — Fillets of Sole with, 76 Toast, 87 Red Mullet en Papillotes, Roe Toast, 87 Salad, 101 Salmon — A la Hollandaise, 36 Grilled, and Served with