Have ready an ample quant.i.ty of paste, made in the proportion of a pound of b.u.t.ter to two large quarts (or pounds) of flour, or a pound and a half of b.u.t.ter to three quarts of flour, and rolled out thick. b.u.t.ter the inside of an iron pot, and line the sides with paste, till it reaches within one-third of the top. Then put in the pieces of terrapin, with the eggs, b.u.t.ter, &c., and with all the liquid. Lay among the terrapin, square pieces of paste. Then pour in sufficient water to stew the whole properly. Next, cover all with a circular lid, or top-crust of paste, but do not fit it so closely that the gravy cannot bubble up over the edges while cooking. Cut a small cross slit in the top crust. Place the pot, with the pie, over a good fire, and boil it till the whole is thoroughly done, which will be in from three quarters to an hour after it comes to a boil. Take care not to let it get too dry, but keep at hand a kettle of boiling water to replenish the pot when necessary. To ascertain if the pie is done, lift up with a fork a little of the paste, at one side, and try it low down in the pot.

It may be much improved, by mixing among the pieces of terrapins, (before putting them into the pie,) some yolks of hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced. They will enrich the gravy.

A pot-pie may be made, (a very fine one too,) of some of the best pieces of a green turtle.

A SEA-COAST PIE.--Having boiled a sufficient number of crabs and lobsters, extract all the meat from the sh.e.l.ls, and cut it into mouthfuls. Have ready some fine large oysters drained from the liquor.

Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with puff-paste; and put in a thick layer of crab or lobster, seasoned with a little cayenne pepper, and a grated lemon-peel. Mix it with some hard-boiled yolk of egg, crumbled fine, and moistened with fresh b.u.t.ter. Next, put a close layer of oysters, seasoned with pounded mace and grated nutmeg. Put some bits of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour on the top of the layer. Proceed in this manner with alternate layers of crab or lobster, and of oysters, till the dish is nearly full. Then pour in, at the last, a tea-cupful or more of the oyster liquor, with an equal quant.i.ty of rich cream. Have ready a thick lid of puff-paste. Put it on the pie, pressing the edges closely, so as to unite them all round; and notch them handsomely. Make a wreath of leaves cut out of paste, and a flower or knot for the centre; place them on the top-crust; and bake the pie well. While it is baking, prepare some b.a.l.l.s made of chopped oysters; grated bread-crumbs; powdered nutmeg, or mace; and grated lemon-peel; also, some hard-boiled yolks of eggs, grated. Having fried these b.a.l.l.s in b.u.t.ter, drain them, and when the pie is baked, lay a circle of them round the top, between the border of paste-leaves and the centre-knot.

This pie will be found so fine that it ought to be baked in a dish which will contain a large quant.i.ty.

TO DRESS A TURTLE.--The turtle should be taken out of water, and killed over night in winter, and early in the morning in summer. Hang it up by the hind fins, and before it has had time to draw in its neck, cut off its head with a very sharp knife, and leave the turtle suspended. It should bleed two or three hours or more, before you begin to cut it up.

Then lay it on its back upon a table: have at hand several vessels of cold water, in which to throw the most important parts as you separate them; also a large boiler of hot water. Take off the fins at the joint, and lay them by themselves in cold water; next divide the back-sh.e.l.l from the under-sh.e.l.l. The upper part of the turtle is called the calipash--the under part the calipee. In cutting open the turtle, be very careful not to break the gall, which should be taken out and thrown away; if broken, its bitterness will spoil all around it. Take out the entrails and throw them away. The practice of cooking them is now obsolete. So it is with the entrails of terrapins. Using a sharp knife, cut off the fins carefully, also the liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, &c.

Wash them well, and lay them in a pan of cold water, the liver in a pan by itself. If there are eggs, put them also into cold water. Having extracted the intestines, stand up the turtle on end, to let the blood run out. Afterwards cut out all the flesh from the upper and under sh.e.l.ls, and remove the bones. Cut the calipee (or meat belonging to the under-sh.e.l.l) into pieces about as large as the palm of your hand, and break the sh.e.l.l. The calipash, or meat next the back-sh.e.l.l, may be cut smaller--the green fat into pieces about two inches square. Put all the meat into a large pan, sprinkle it slightly with salt, and cover it up.

Lay the sh.e.l.ls and fins in a tub of boiling water, and scald them till the scales can be sc.r.a.ped off with a knife, and all the meat that still adheres to the sh.e.l.ls easily removed, as it is worth saving. Clean the fins nicely, (taking off the dark skin,) and lay them in cold water.

Wipe the back-sh.e.l.l dry, and set it aside. Then proceed to make the soup. For this purpose, take the coa.r.s.er pieces of flesh with the bone likewise. Put them into a pot with a pound of cold ham cut into pieces, and eight large calves'-feet (two sets) that have been singed and sc.r.a.ped, but not skinned. If you cannot conveniently obtain calves'-feet, subst.i.tute a large fore-leg or knuckle of veal. Add four onions, sliced thin; two tablespoonfuls of sweet-marjoram leaves; a large bunch of basil; a dozen blades of mace; and a salt-spoon of cayenne. The ham will make any other salt unnecessary. Pour on as much water as will completely cover the whole, and let it simmer slowly over a steady fire during five hours, skimming it well. If after a while the soup seems to be boiling away too much, replenish it with a little hot water from a kettle, kept boiling hard for the purpose. When it has simmered five hours, take up the whole, and strain the soup through a sieve into a deep pan. Wash out the soup-pot with hot water, and return the strained soup to it, with the liver, &c., cut in small pieces, and some of the best of the meat, and a portion of the green fat. Have ready two or three dozen force-meat b.a.l.l.s, the size of a hickory nut, and made of the usual proportions of minced veal, bread-crumbs, b.u.t.ter, grated lemon-peel, mace, nutmeg, and beaten yolk of egg. Put them into the soup, and let it boil an hour longer; also the eggs of the turtle, or some hard-boiled yolks of eggs. After it has thus boiled another hour, add the juice and grated yellow rinds of two lemons, and a pint of Madeira. Boil the soup a quarter of an hour longer, and it will then be ready for the tureen. It must never boil hard.

In the mean time, stew in another pot the finest of the turtle-meat, seasoned with a little salt and cayenne, and a liberal allowance of sweet-marjoram leaves rubbed fine, and mixed with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, cut into pieces and rolled in flour. When the turtle-meat has stewed an hour, put in the green fat, and add the juice and grated yellow rinds of two lemons, and a pint or more of Madeira, and let the whole stew slowly an hour longer. While the meat is stewing, take the sh.e.l.l of the back; wash it clean, and wipe it dry; lay a band of puff-paste all round the inside of the sh.e.l.l, two inches below the edge, and two inches above it. Notch the paste handsomely, and fill the sh.e.l.l with the stewed turtle. Have ready the oven, heated as if for bread. Lay a large iron baking-sheet or a square pan upon four bricks (one at each corner) to elevate the turtle-sh.e.l.l from the floor of the oven. Place on it the sh.e.l.l with its contents, and let it bake till well browned on the surface. Send it to table with the sh.e.l.l placed on a large dish. At the other end set the tureen of soup.

Have ready (on two side dishes) the fins stewed tender in a little of the soup, and the liver fried in b.u.t.ter.

This receipt is for a turtle of moderate size. A large one will, of course, require an increased proportion of all the articles used in seasoning it--more wine, &c. In serving up turtle at a dinner-party, let it const.i.tute the first course, and have nothing else on the table while the turtle is there.

We have seen elegant silver turtle-dishes, representing the back-sh.e.l.l of the animal, superbly chased and engraved, the feet for it to stand on being paws of silver; and the fins having hollow places to hold the sauce. This was for the stew; making a dish separate from the soup, which is always sent to table in a tureen.

TURTLE PASTY.--When the meat has been all extracted, sc.r.a.pe and wash the large back sh.e.l.l of the turtle till it is perfectly clean. Make a rich puff-paste. Roll it out thin, and line with it the bottom and sides, in fact the whole of the back-sh.e.l.l. Having prepared and seasoned the best pieces of the turtle-meat, as in the preceding receipt, stew them till thoroughly done, and very tender, and when cool, fill the sh.e.l.l with them. Have ready an upper lid of the same puff-paste, rolled out rather _thick_. Cover the pie with it. Unite the edges of the upper and under crusts, very neatly, wetting your fingers with water. Then notch them handsomely all round, and cut a cross slit in the centre of the top or cover. Set it directly into a rather quick oven. Bake the crust of a light brown, and send it to table hot.

LOBSTERS.--If you buy a lobster ready boiled, see that his tail is stiff and elastic, so that when you bend it under, it springs back immediately; otherwise he is not fresh. If alive or unboiled, he will be lively and brisk in his motion when newly caught. The same with prawns, and crabs.

The heaviest lobsters are the best.

To boil a lobster, have ready a pot of fast-boiling water, very strongly salted. Put in the lobster head downward; and if the water is really hot (it is cruel to have it otherwise,) he will be dead in a moment. Crabs, of course, the same. A moderate sized lobster (and they are the best,) will be done in half an hour. A large one requires from three-quarters to an hour. Before it is sent to table, the large claws should be taken off, and laid beside it. The head also should be separated from the body, but laid so near it that the division is nearly imperceptible. The head is never eaten. Split the body, and lay it open all the way down, including the tail. If there is a good dresser of salads in the house, the lobster may be served up ready dressed, in a deep dish, seasoned with the proper condiments, after being cut small or minced, heaped up towards the centre of the dish, and decorated with the small claws laid across on the top, with the addition of green celery leaves, or parsley sprigs.

LOBSTER SALAD--(_plain_.)--Take a well boiled lobster. Extract all the meat from the body and claws, cut it up small, and mash the coral with the back of a spoon or a broad knife. Wash the best part of a fresh lettuce, and cut that up also, omitting all the stalk. Mix together the chopped lobster and the lettuce, and put them into a salad bowl. Make the dressing in a deep plate, allowing for one lobster a salt-spoon of salt, half as much of cayenne, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, (tarragon mustard is best,) four table-spoonfuls (or more) of sweet oil, and three table-spoonfuls of the best cider vinegar. Mix all these together, with the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, mashed to a soft moist paste with the other ingredients, adding the coral of the lobster. When they are all mixed smoothly, add them to the lobster and lettuce. If the mixture seems too dry, add more sweet oil. Toss and stir the salad with a box-wood fork. Also, the things should be mashed with a box-wood spoon.

Cover, and set it in a cool place till wanted. It should be eaten as soon as possible after mixing, as it becomes flat by standing.

Plenty of sweet oil renders a lobster wholesome. Still, persons who are not in good health, had best abstain from lobster.

You may add to the dressing, one or two raw yolks of eggs, beaten well.

FINE LOBSTER SALAD--(_This is for company._)--Boil eight eggs for ten minutes, or till quite hard. Lay them in cold water, or cool them by laying bits of ice among them. When quite cold, cut each egg lengthways into four or six pieces, taking a bit off one end of each piece or slice. Cut up into long pieces the best part of a fresh lettuce, that has just been washed in a pan of cold water. Lay the lettuce in a dish, and surround it closely with the pieces of egg standing up on their blunted ends, with the yolk side outward, and forming a handsome wall all round the bed of lettuce. Upon this, pile neatly the bits of chopped lobster, finishing with the small claws stuck into the top. Have ready the dressing in a sauce-tureen. Make it of the beaten yolks of two raw eggs, and four table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, thickened with the mashed coral of the lobster, and the crumbled yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, and season slightly with a little salt, cayenne, and a spoonful of tarragon mustard. Finish with two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and stir the whole hard with a box-wood spoon or fork. Send it to table with the sauce-tureen, along with the dish of lobster, &c. Pour on each plate of lobster a portion of this dressing. Or, if you can obtain no lettuce, mix this dressing at once with the chopped meat of the lobster. Smooth it in a pile on the dish, (keeping it towards the centre) and stand up the slips of hard egg handsomely surrounding it--the small claws decorating the top.

LOBSTER RISSOLES.--Extract all the meat from the sh.e.l.ls of one or two boiled lobsters. Mince it very fine; the coral also. Season it with a little salt and cayenne, and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Add about a fourth part of finely grated bread-crumbs; and with a sufficiency of fresh b.u.t.ter or a little finely-minced veal suet, or some sweet oil, make it up into b.a.l.l.s or cones. Brush them over with yolk of egg, dredge them lightly with flour, and fry them in lard. Introduce them as a side dish at a dinner party, or as an accompaniment to salmon.

This mixture may be baked in puff-paste as little patties, or you may bake in a soup-plate an empty sh.e.l.l of paste, and when done, (having stewed the rissole mixture made moist) fill the cold paste with it, and serve it up as a lobster pie.

In buying lobsters, choose those that are the heaviest and liveliest, or quickest in their motions when touched. They are then fresh. The hen has the broadest tail and the softest fins.

LOBSTER PUDDING.--Take the empty back sh.e.l.l of one large boiled lobster, and all the best meat of two. Clean out the sh.e.l.l very nicely; washing it, and wiping it dry. Mince the meat, and mash the coral with it; adding half a dozen yolks of hard-boiled eggs crumbled among it, and season it well with powdered mace and nutmeg, and a little cayenne.

Moisten it all through with plenty of sweet oil, and the raw yolks of one or two eggs, well beaten. Fill the sh.e.l.l with this pudding, and cover the surface of the mixture with a coating of finely-grated bread-crumbs. Brown it by holding over it a salamander, or a red hot fire-shovel. Send it to table in the sh.e.l.l, laid on a china dish.

Small puddings may be made as above, of crab-meat put into several large crab-sh.e.l.ls, and placed side by side on a dish.

They may be eaten either warm or cold; and they look well with green lettuce or pepper-gra.s.s, disposed fancifully among them.

CRABS.--Crabs are seldom eaten except at the sea-sh.o.r.e, where there is a certainty of their being fresh from the water. They are very abundant, but so little is in them, that when better things are to be had, they are scarcely worth the trouble of boiling and picking out the sh.e.l.l.

They are cooked like lobsters, in boiling salt and water, and brought to table piled on large dishes, and are eaten with salt, pepper, sweet oil, and vinegar. The meat of two dozen crabs, when all is extracted, will make but a small dish. Season it with cayenne, mustard, oil, vinegar, and eat it cold; or stew it with fresh b.u.t.ter, powdered mace, and nutmeg, and serve it up hot.

_Prawns._--The same.

SHRIMPS.--Of all fish belonging to the lobster species, shrimps are the smallest. In England, where they abound, they are sold by the quart, ready boiled. The way to eat them is to pull off the head, and squeeze the body out of the sh.e.l.l by pressing it between your fore-finger and thumb. At good tables they are only used as sauce for large fish, squeezed out of the sh.e.l.l, and stirred into melted b.u.t.ter.

LOBSTER SAUCE.--Take a small hen lobster that has been well boiled.

Extract all the meat, and chop it large. Take out the coral, and pound it smooth in a marble mortar, adding, as you proceed, sufficient sweet oil. Make some nice drawn b.u.t.ter, allowing half a pound of nice fresh b.u.t.ter to two heaped table-spoonfuls of flour, and a pint of hot water.

Mix the b.u.t.ter and flour thoroughly, and then gradually add to them the coral, so as to give a fine color. Then mix this with a small pint of boiling water. Hold the saucepan over the fire, (shaking it about till it simmers) but do not let it quite boil. Put in the chopped lobster, and let that simmer in the sauce, till well heated. To allow it to boil will spoil the color, (which should be pale pink,) and may be improved by a little prepared cochineal. Or, you may tie, in a small bit of thin muslin, a few chips of alkanet, and put it into the sauce, (taking it out, of course, before it goes to table.) Alkanet communicates a beautiful pink color, and has no taste in itself.

This quant.i.ty of sauce is for a large fish--salmon, cod, turbot, or sheep's head. There should always be an ample supply of sauce. It is very awkward for the sauce to give out, before it has gone round the company.

BEEF.

ROASTING BEEF.--The prime piece of beef for roasting is the sirloin; but being too large for a small family, the ribs are generally preferred, when there are but few persons to eat of it. So also is the baron, or double sirloin, undivided along the back. It is chiefly seen at great dinners. Except the sirloin and ribs, there are no very good roasting pieces, all the rest being generally used for stews, soups, &c., and for corning or salting. Unless the animal is a very fine one, the inferior pieces are apt to be tough, hard, and coa.r.s.e. The round is the best piece for corning or salting, and for cooking, as beef _a-la-mode_, or converting into what, in England, is called rump-steaks. These steaks require a rolling-pin, before they can be made tender enough for good eating, or good digestion. The finest and tenderest steaks are those cut from the sirloin. The meat of a young well-fed heifer is very good; and that of an old ox, (that has done working, and afterwards been fattened well on plenty of wholesome food,) may be made of superior excellence.

The lean of good fresh beef is of a bright red color, a fine close grain, and feels tender to the touch on pinching it between your thumb and finger. The fat is firm and very nearly white. The suet about the kidney, firm and quite white. If, on the contrary, the lean is coa.r.s.e, tough, and of a dull color, and the fat scanty, yellow, and moist, do not buy that meat for any purpose. The same rules will apply to mutton.

If the weather is so cold that the meat is frozen, thaw it by lying it all night or early in the morning in a tub of _cold_ water. If thawed in water the least warm, the meat will spoil, and be rendered unfit to eat.

Meat that has been frozen, requires a much longer time to cook, than if that accident had not happened. _All_ frozen animals must be thawed in cold water previous to cooking. Cold roast-beef is much liked in England. In America, where meat is more abundant, and therefore less costly, it is not considered a proper dish to place before a visitor; therefore, in our country, a large piece is seldom cooked with a view to next day's dinner. We prefer smaller pieces, always served up fresh and hot. Beef for roasting, should be well washed in plenty of cold water; then dried with a clean cloth. Prepare the fire, in time to be burning well, when the meat is put down. It should have plenty of hot coals, and no part of the fire black, ashy, or smoky, and the hearth swept very clean: _for no sweeping must go on while the meat (or any thing else) is cooking_. The spit should always be kept perfectly clean, when not in use; and well washed, wiped, and rubbed immediately after using. Run it evenly into the meat, which will hang crooked if not well balanced. When first put down, take care not to set it at once too close to the fire, but place it rather more than two feet distant, that the meat may heat gradually. If too near the fire at first, the outside will scorch, and leave the inside red and b.l.o.o.d.y. Underdone meat (foolishly called _rare_) is getting quite out of fashion, being unwholesome and indigestible, and to most Americans its savour is disgusting. To ladies and children it is always so, and even the English have ceased to like it. It is now seldom seen but at those public tables, where they consider it an object to have as little meat as possible eaten on the first day, that more may be left for the second day, to be made into indescribable messes, with ridiculous French names, and pa.s.sed off as French dishes, by the so-called French cook, who is frequently an Irishman.

At first, baste the meat as soon as it begins to roast, with a little fresh b.u.t.ter, or fresh dripping saved from yesterday's beef. Then, when its own fat begins to drip, baste it with that, all the while it is cooking. Gradually move it nearer to the fire, turning the spit round frequently, so that the meat may be cooked equally on all sides. When it is nearly done, sprinkle it slightly, with a little salt. When it is quite done, and you take it from the spit, put it on a large hot dish, and keep it warm while you skim the gravy, thoroughly, so as to remove _all_ the fat. Then mix in the gravy a small tea-cup full of hot water, and thicken it with a very little browned flour. Send it to table very hot.

As a general rule, a sirloin, weighing fifteen pounds, will require about four hours (or more) before a good steady fire. If it has been frozen, it will take much longer. The fatter it is the more cooking it will require. When sent to table, place near it, a small sauce-sh.e.l.l of horse-radish, washed, sc.r.a.ped fine, and moistened with the best vinegar.

Put a tea-spoon on the top to take it with. Pickles, and a bottle of French mustard, at good tables, are generally accompaniments to beef or mutton, whether roasted or boiled.

The dripping of roast beef, after all the fat has been removed, and the basting of the meat is over, should be strained into a pan, and kept in a cold place, with a cover; and next day, when it is congealed into a cake, sc.r.a.pe off whatever impurities may still adhere to the bottom, transfer it to a covered jar, and set it in the refrigerator, or where it will be cold. The dripping of roast beef is excellent for frying, for plain pie-crust, or for many other purposes. The dripping of mutton (being tallow) is only fit for soap-fat, and will spoil any dish whatever.

BROILED BEEF STEAKS.--The best steaks are those from the tender-loin.

Those from the round or rump require beating with a rolling-pin. A steak-mallet tears them and destroys the juices of the meat. Without beating they will generally be found too tough or hard for an American taste, though much liked in Europe, where tender-loin steaks are considered too expensive. But they are here so much preferred, that, on good tables, any others are seldom seen. Have all the steaks nearly of a size and shape, and about half an inch thick. Trim off the fat, and cut short the bone, or remove it altogether. Season them with black pepper, but sprinkle on no salt till they have done cooking; as salt, if put on at first, hardens them. Set your gridiron over a bed of bright clear coals, having first rubbed the bars with a very little beef suet, or dripping. Not mutton fat, as it will give the taste of tallow.