for either of these. A dessertspoonful of minced eschalots may be strewed over the kidneys with the herbs; or two dozens of very small ones, previously stewed till tender in fresh butter over a gentle fire, may be added after they are dished. This is a very excellent and approved receipt,

Fried 6 minutes.

BROILED MUTTON KIDNEYS.

Split them open lengthwise without dividing them; strip off the skin and fat; run a fine skewer through the points and across the back of the kidneys to keep them flat while broiling; season them with pepper or cayenne; lay them over a clear brisk fire, with the cut sides towards it; turn them in from four to five minutes; and in as many more dish, and serve them quickly, with or without a cold Mâitre d'Hotel sauce under them. French cooks season them with pepper and fine salt, and brush a very small quantity of oil, or clarified butter over them before they are broiled: we think this an improvement. 8 to 10 minutes.

OXFORD RECEIPT FOR MUTTON KIDNEYS. (BREAKFAST DISH, OR ENTRÉE.)

Fry gently, in a little good butter, a dozen croûtons (slices of bread, of uniform shape and size, trimmed free from crust), cut half an inch thick, about two inches and a half wide, and from three to four in length: lift them out and keep them hot. Split quite asunder six fine fresh kidneys, after having freed them from the skin and fat; season them with fine salt and cayenne; arrange them evenly in a clean frying-pan, and pour some clarified butter over them. Fry them over a somewhat brisk fire; dish each half upon a croûton; make a sauce in the pan as for veal cutlets, but use gravy for it instead of water, should it be at hand; add a little wine or catsup; pour it round the croûtons, and serve the kidneys instantly.

10 minutes.

TO ROAST A FORE QUARTER OF LAMB.

This should be laid to a clear brisk fire, and carefully and plentifully basted from the time of its becoming warm until it is ready for table; but though it requires quick roasting, it must never be placed sufficiently near the fire to endanger the fat, which is very liable to catch or burn. When the joint is served, the shoulder should be separated from the ribs with a sharp knife, and a small slice of fresh butter, a little cayenne, and a squeeze of

lemon juice should be laid between them; if the cook be an expert carver, this had better be done before the lamb is sent to table. The cold Maître d'Hotel sauce of page 107, may be substituted for the usual ingredients, the parsley being omitted or not, according to the taste. Serve good mint sauce, and a fresh salad with this roast.

A leg, shoulder, or loin of lamb should be cooked by the same directions as the quarter, a difference only being made in the time allowed for each.

Fore quarter of lamb, 1 to 2 hours. Leg, 11⁄2 hour (less if very small); loin, 1 to 14 hour.

Obs.-The time will vary a little, of course, from the difference in the weather, and in the strength of the fire. Lamb should always be well roasted.

This is an exceedingly nice joint for a small party. It should be roasted at a brisk fire, and kept constantly basted with its own dripping: it will require from an hour and three quarters to two hours roasting. Send it to table with mint sauce, and if convenient, with brown cucumber sauce also, and a salad. 12 to 2 hours.

Obs.-The following will be found an excellent receipt for mint sauce: -With three heaped tablespoonsful of finelychopped young mint, mix two of pounded and sifted sugar, and six of the best vinegar: stir it until the sugar is dissolved.

ROAST LOIN OF LAMB.

Place it at a moderate distance from a clear fire, baste it frequently, froth it when nearly done, and serve it with the same sauces as the preceding joints. A loin of lamb may be boiled and sent to table with white cucumber, mushroom, common white sauce, or parsley and butter.

1 to 14 hour.

STEWED LEG OF LAMB WITH WHITE SAUCE.

(ENTRÉE.)

Choose a small plump leg of lamb, not much exceeding five pounds in weight; put it into a vessel nearly of its size, with a few trimmings, or a bone or two of undressed veal if at hand; cover it with cold water, bring it slowly to a boil, clear off the scum with great care when it is first thrown to the surface, and when it has all been skimmed off, add a bunch of thyme and parsley, and two carrots of moderate size. Let the lamb simmer only, but without ceasing, for an hour and a quarter; serve it covered

with béchamel, or rich English white sauce, and send a boiled tongue to table with it, and some of the sauce in a tureen. 14 hour.

LOIN OF LAMB STEWED IN BUTTER. (ENTRÉE.)

Wash the joint, and wipe it very dry; skewer down the flap, and lay it into a close-shutting and thick stewpan, or saucepan, in which three ounces of good butter have been just dissolved, but not allowed to boil; let it simmer slowly over a very gentle fire for two hours and a quarter, and turn it when it is rather more than half done. Lift it out, skim and pour the gravy over it; send brown asparagus, cucumber, or soubise sauce to table with it; or brown gravy, mint sauce, and a salad.

24 hours.

LAMB OR MUTTON CUTLETS, WITH SOUBISE SAUCE.

(ENTRÉE.)

The best end of two necks of either will be required for a handsome dish. Cut them thin with one bone to each; trim off the fat and all the skin, scrape the bones very clean that they may look white, and season the cutlets with salt and white pepper; brush them with egg, dip them into very fine breadcrumbs, then into clarified butter, and again into the breadcrumbs, which should be flattened evenly upon them, and broil them over a very clear and brisk fire, or fry them in a little good butter of a fine clear brown; press them in two sheets of white blotting paper to extract the grease, and dish them an end, with the points meeting at the top; or place them one over the other in a chain, and pour into the centre a soubise, or a purée of cucumbers. Brown cucumber sauce, or a rich gravy, may be substituted for either of these in serving a quite simple dinner. Cutlets of the loin may be dressed in the same way, after being dipped into crumbs of bread mixed with a full seasoning of minced herbs, and a small quantity of eschalot, when its flavour is liked. The small flat bone at the end of the cutlets should be taken off, to give them a very good appearance.

LAMB CUTLETS IN THEIR OWN GRAVY.

Follow exactly the receipt for mutton cutlets dressed in the same way, but allow for those of lamb fifteen or twenty minutes less of time, and an additional spoonful of liquid.

CUTLETS OF COLD LAMB.

See the receipt for Cutlets of Cold Mutton, page 232.

THIS meat is so proverbially, and we believe even dangerously unwholesome when ill fed, or in any degree diseased, that its quality should be closely examined before it is purchased. When not home-fatted, it should be bought if possible of some respectable farmer, or miller, unless the butcher who supplies it can be perfectly relied on. Both the fat and lean should be very white, and the latter finely grained; the rind should be thin, smooth, and cool to the touch; if it be clammy, the pork is stale, and should be at once rejected; it ought also to be scrupulously avoided when the fat, instead of being quite clear of all blemish, is full of small kernels, which are indicative of disease. The manner of cutting up the pork varies in different counties, and also according to the purposes for which it is intended. The legs are either made into hams, or slightly salted for a few days and boiled; they are also sometimes roasted when the pork is not large nor coarse, with a savoury forcemeat inserted between the skin and flesh of the knuckle. The part of the shoulder called the hand is also occasionally pickled in the same way as hams and bacon, or it may be salted and boiled, but it is too sinewy for roasting. After these and the head have been taken off, the remainder, without further division than being split down the back, may be converted into whole sides,

or flitches, as they are usually called, of bacon; but when the meat is large, and required in part for various other purposes, a chine may be taken out, and the fat pared off the bones of the ribs and loins for bacon; the thin part of the body converted into pickled pork, and the ribs and other bones roasted, or made into pies or sausages. The feet, which are generally salted down for immediate use, are excellent if laid for two or three weeks into the same pickle as the hams, then well covered with cold water, and slowly boiled until tender.

The loins of young and delicate pork are roasted with the skin on; and this is scored in regular stripes of about a quarterinch wide with the point of a sharp knife, before the joints are laid to the fire. The skin of the leg also is just cut through in the same manner. This is done to prevent its blistering, and to render it more easy to carve, as the skin (or crackling) becomes so crisp and hard in the cooking, that it is otherwise sometimes difficult to divide it.

To be at any time fit for table, pork must be perfectly sweet, and thoroughly cooked; great attention also should be given to it when it is in pickle, for if any part of it be long exposed to the air, without being turned into, or well and frequently basted with the brine, it will often become tainted during the process of curing it.

TO MELT LARD.

Strip the skin from the inside fat of a freshly killed and wellfed pig; slice it small and thin; put it into a new or well-scalded jar, set it into a pan of boiling water, and let it simmer over a clear fire. As it dissolves, strain it into small stone jars, or deep earthen pans, and when perfectly cold, tie over it the skin that was cleared from the lard, or bladders which have been thoroughly washed and wiped very dry. Lard thus prepared is extremely pure in flavour, and keeps perfectly well, if stored in a cool place; it may be used with advantage in making pastry, as well as for frying fish, and for various other purposes. It is better to keep the last drainings of the fat apart from that which is first poured off, as it will not be quite so fine in quality.

TO PRESERVE UNMELTED LARD FOR MANY MONTHS.

For the particular uses to which the leaf-fat, or fleed, can be advantageously applied, see fleed-crust, Chapter XVI. It may be kept well during the summer months by rubbing fine salt rather plentifully upon it when it is first taken from the pig, and leaving it for a couple of days; it should then be well drained, and covered with a strong brine: this, in warmer