Standard Paper-Bag Cookery

Leg of Mutton Cooked in Cider. — Buy the leg of mutton two or three days before you wish to serve it. Take off the " woolly " skin that has the strong taste on the outside and wipe carefully with a damp cloth. Then rub with a mixture of spices, using half a teaspoonful each of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, pepper and nutmeg. Rub thoroughly and hang the mutton in a cool place for two days; then put in a well-greased bag, adding four onions chopped fine, a cupful seedless raisins and a cupful of sweet cider. Put in hot oven and bake half an hour, then reduce the heat, and cook an hour and a half. Serve with a hot cider sauce. Mutton Chops and Sausage. — Place two thick chops in a wooden dish with three links of sausage. Season lightly with salt and pepper, lay two strips of bacon over the top of the chops and seal in bag. Bake from twenty minutes to half an hour in a moderate oven. Ragout of Lamb. — Grease the bag well, and lay in a layer of sliced raw potatoes, seasoned lightly. Put on top of the potatoes a layer of meat, seasoned with salt, pepper and chopped parsley, and lay thin slices of onion across meat. Add one-half cup canned tomato or tomato sauce, cover the whole with another layer of sliced potato, seal, and bake thirty-five minutes. You may use a wooden cooking dish here to advantage. Roast Leg of Lamb. — Trim nicely and rub over with oil, dredge with a little flour and season with salt, pepper and powdered mint. Seal and bake two hours. Serve with mint sauce. A Genuine Irish Stew. — Cut two pounds of chops from the best end of a neck of mutton, and pare away nearly all the fat. A portion of the breast may be cut into squares and used, but a neck of mutton is the best joint for the purpose. Take as many potatoes as will amount after peeling to twice the weight of the meat. Slice them with eight large onions sliced. Put a layer of mixed potatoes and onions at the bottom of the buttered paper bag. Place the meat on this and season it plentifully with pepper and lightly with salt. Pack closely, and cover the meat with another layer of potato and onion. Pour in as much water or stock as will moisten the topmost layer, seal tightly, and let the contents cook gently for two and a half hours. You may use one of the large wooden cooking dishes here. CHAPTER XII. PORK IN VARIED FORMS. Bacon and Apples.— CORE, but do not peel, well flavored apples and cut in crosswise rings about a quarter of an inch thick. Lay on thin slices of streaky bacon in a well buttered bag, dust lightly with sugar, seal and cook eight minutes in a hot oven. Bacon and Bananas. — Peel firm bananas, halve them lengthwise, dust lightly with pepper and wrap each in a thin slice of streaky bacon. Put in a well greased bag, seal and cook in a hot oven ten minutes. Bacon and Calf's Liver. — Pour boiling water over thin slices of calf's liver and let stand ten minutes. Drain, pat dry and dredge with flour, seasoning with pepper and a little salt. Lay slices of bacon in a greased bag and on top put a layer of the liver, seal and bake fifteen minutes. Serve on hot platter.