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This composition very agreeably heightens the flavour of white sauces, and white made dishes; and if you add a glass of brandy to it, it will keep good for a considerable time longer than oysters are out of season in England.

Cockle and Muscle Catsup.

These catsups may be made by treating them in the same way as the oysters in the preceding receipt.

Potato Starch.

Peel and wash a pound of full grown potatoes, grate them on a bread grater into a deep dish, containing a quart of clear water; stir it well up, and then pour it through a hair sieve, and leave it ten minutes to settle, till the water is quite clear: then pour off the water, and put a quart of fresh water to it, stir it up, let it settle, and repeat this till the water is quite clear; you will at last find a fine white powder at the bottom of the vessel. (The criterion of this process being completed, is the purity of the water that comes from it after stirring it up.) Lay this on a sheet of paper in a hair sieve to dry, either in the sun, or before the fire, and it is ready for use, and in a well stopped bottle will keep good for many months.

If this be well made, half an ounce (i. e. a table-spoonful) of it mixed with two table-spoonfuls of cold water, and stirred into a soup or sauce, just before you take it up, will thicken a pint of it to the consistence of cream.

This preparation much resembles the Indian arrow root, and is a good substitute for it; it gives a fulness on the palate to gravies and sauces at hardly any expense, and by some is used to thicken melted butter instead of flour.

As it is perfectly tasteless, it will not alter the flavour of the most delicate broth, &c.

Savoury Ragout Powder.

Take of salt, an ounce; mustard, half an ounce; allspice, a quarter of an ounce; black pepper ground, and lemon peel grated, (or of pounded and sifted fine,) half an ounce each; ginger, and nutmeg grated, a quarter of an ounce each; cayenne pepper, two drams. Pound them patiently, and pass them through a fine hair sieve; bottle them for use. The above articles will

pound easier, and finer, if they are dried first in a Dutch oven before a very gentle fire, at a good distance from it: if you give them much heat, the fine flavour of them will be presently evaporated, and they will soon get a strong empyreumatic taste. Infused in a quart of vinegar or wine, they make a savoury relish for soups, sauces, &c.

The spices in a ragout are indispensable to give it a flavour, but not a predominant one; their presence should be rather supposed than perceived; they are the invisible spirit of good cookery: indeed, a cook without spice would be as much at a loss as a confectioner without sugar: a happy mixture of them, and proportion to each other, and the other ingredients, is the chef-d'œuvre of a first-rate cook.

Pea Powder.

Pound together in a marble mortar half an ounce each of dried mint and sage, a dram of celery seed, and a quarter dram of Cayenne pepper; rub them through a fine sieve. This gives a very savoury relish to peas soup, and to water gruel, which, by its help, if the eater of it has not the most lively imagination, he may fancy he is sipping good peas soup.

A dram of allspice, or black pepper, may be pounded with the above, as an addition, or instead of the cayenne.

SAVOURY PIES AND PATTIES.

Observations on Savoury Pies and Patties.

THERE are few articles of cookery more generally liked than relishing pies and patties, if properly made; and they may be made so of a vast variety of things.

There are several things necessary to be particularly observed by the cook, in order that her labours and ingenuity under this head may be brought to their proper degree of perfection.

One very material consideration must be, that the heat of the oven is duly proportioned to the nature of the article to be baked. Light paste requires a moderate oven; if it is too quick, the crust cannot rise, and will therefore be burned; and if too slow, it will be soddened, and want that delicate light brown it ought to have. Raised pies must have a quick oven, and be well closed up, or they will sink in their sides, and lose their proper shape.

Particular care is also requisite in respect to seasoning, which must be always done without any fixed rules, agreeable to the taste of the maker. When pies are intended to be eaten cold, the use of suet must be avoided. Forcemeat is a wonderful improvement to all meat pies.

As respects the managing of savoury patties little need be said, except that they will require a quick oven. Twenty minutes will in general be found sufficient to bake them. If you pour in gravy after the patties are taken out of the oven, be careful not to put in too much, lest it should run out at the sides, and spoil their appearance.

SAVOURY PIES.

Paste for Meat or Savoury Pies.

Sift two pounds of fine flour to one and a half of good salt butter, break it into small pieces, and wash it well in cold water; rub gently together the butter and flour, and mix it up with the yolks of three eggs, beat together with a spoon, and nearly a pint of spring water; roll it out, and double it in folds three times, and it is ready.

Raised Pies.

Put two pounds and a half of flour on the paste-board, and put on the fire in a sauce-pan three quarters of a pint of water, and half a pouna of good lard; when the water boils, make a hole in the middle of the flour, pour in the water by degrees, gently mixing the flour with it with a spoon; and when it is well mixed, then knead it with your hands till it becomes stiff; dredge a little flour to prevent it sticking to the board, or you cannot make it look smooth: do not roll it with the rollingpin, but roll it with your hands about the thickness of a quart

pot; cut it into six pieces, leaving a little for the covers; put one hand in the middle, and keep the other close on the out* tide till you have worked it either in an oval or a round shape: have your meat ready cut, and seasoned with pepper and salt: if pork, cut it in small slices; the griskin is the best for pasties. If you use mutton, cut it in very neat cutlets, and put them in the pies as you make them : roll out the covers with the rolling-pin just the size of the pie, wet it round the edge, put it on the pie, and press it together with your thumb and finger, and then cut it all round with a pair of scissars quite even, and pinch them inside and out, and bake them an hour and a half.

Rump Steak Pie.

Cut three pounds of rump steaks (that have been kept till tender,) into pieces half as big as your hand, trim off all the skin, sinews, and every part which has not indisputable pretensions to be eaten, and beat them with a chopper. Chop very fine half a dozen eschalots, and mix them with half an ounce of pepper and salt mixed, strew some of the mixture at the bottom of the dish, then a layer of steak, then some more of the mixture, and so on till the dish is full; add half a gill of mushroom catsup, and the same quantity of gravy, or red wine, cover it with paste, made as directed for meat pies, and bake it two hours.

Large oysters, parboiled, bearded, and laid alternately with the steaks, their liquor reduced and substituted instead of the catsup and wine, will be a variety.

Beef Steak Pie the usual way.

Take some rump steaks, and beat them with a rolling-pin, then season them with pepper and salt to your palate. Make a good crust, lay in your steaks, and then pour in as much water as will fill the dish. Put on the crust, send it to the oven, and let it be well baked.

Mutton Pie.

Cut steaks from a neck or loin of mutton that has hung; beat them, and remove some of the fat. Season with salt, pepper, and a little onion; put a little water at the bottom of the dish, and a little paste on the edge; then cover with a

moderately thick paste. Or raise small pies, and breaking each bone in two to shorten it, season, and cover it over, pinching the edge. When they come out, pour into each a spoonful of gravy made of a bit of mutton.

Veal Pie.

Take some of the middle, or scrag of a small neck; season it; and either put to it, or not, a few slices of lean bacon or ham. If it is wanted of a high relish, add mace, cayenne, and nutmeg, to the salt and pepper; and also forcemeat and eggs; and if you choose, add truffles, morels, mushrooms, sweetbreads cut into small bits, and cocks'-combs blanched, if liked. Have a rich gravy ready, to pour in after baking. It will be very good without any of the latter additions.

A rich Veal Pie.

Cut steaks from a neck or breast of veal; season them with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a very little clove in powder. Slice two sweetbreads, and season them in the same manner. Lay a puff paste on the ledge of the dish; then put the meat, yolks of hard eggs, the sweetbreads, and some oysters, up to the top of the dish. Lay over the whole some very thin slices of ham, and fill up the dish with water; cover; and when it is taken out of the oven, pour in at the top, through a funnel, a few spoonfuls of good veal gravy, and some cream to fill up; but first boil it up with a tea-spoonful of flour. Truffles, &c. if approved.

Veal and Parsley Pie.

Cut some slices from the leg or neck of veal: if the leg, from about the knuckle. Season them with salt; scald some parsley that is picked from the stems, and squeeze jt dry; cut it a little, and lay it at the bottom of the dish; then put the meat, and so on, in layers. Fill the dish with new milk, but not so high as to touch the crust. Cover it; and when baked, pour out a little of the milk, and put in half a pint of good scalded cream.

way.

Chicken may be cut up, skinned, and made in the same

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