In boiling meats it is important to keep the water constantly boiling, otherwise the meat will soak up the water.

If it is necessary to add more water, be careful that it be boiling water.

Be careful to remove the scum, especially when it first begins to boil, and a little salt thrown in aids in raising the scum.

Put the meat into cold water, let it heat very gradually forty minutes or so, and reckon the time of boiling from the time it commences boiling. Allow about twenty minutes for boiling for each pound of fresh meat, and twenty-four for salt meats.

Do not let the meat remain long, after it is done, as it injures it. Put a plate in the bottom to prevent the part that touches from cooking too much.

Be sure not to let the fire get hot, so as to make a hard boiling, especially at first. The more gently meat boils the more tender it is, and the more perfectly the savory portion is developed and retained. If the meat is fat, skim it and save the fat for other purposes.

Put salt into the water about in the proportion of a great spoonful to a gallon.

To cook a Ham (very fine).

Boil a common-sized ham four or five hours, then skin the whole and fit it for the table; then set it in an oven for half an hour, then cover it thickly with pounded rusk or bread crumbs, and set it back for half an hour.

Boiled ham is always improved by setting it into an oven for near an hour, till much of the fat fries out, and this also makes it more tender. Save the fat for frying meat.

Smoked Boiled Tongues.

Soak them in cold water all night, then wash them and boil for four or five hours, according to the size. When cooked, take off the skin and garnish with parsley.

À la Mode Beef.

Take a round of beef, cut it full of holes entirely through it, roll strips of raw salt pork in a seasoning made of thyme, cloves, and pepper and salt, half a teaspoonful of each; then draw these strips through the holes in the beef.

Put some small onions, say half a dozen, with a quarter of a pound of butter into a sauce-pan with two great spoonfuls of milk and stew them till soft, put your beef and these onions in a pot, (you can stew the onions in the pot instead of the sauce-pan if you prefer it,) pour on hot water just enough to cover it, and let it cook slowly four or five hours. Just before taking it up, add a pint of wine, either Port or Claret. The onions can be cooked separately if preferred.

Another À la Mode Beef.

If you have about five pounds of beef, take one pound of bread, soak it in water, pour off the water and mash it fine, adding a bit of butter the size of half a hen’s egg, salt, mace, pepper, cloves, half a teaspoonful each, pounded fine.

Mix all with a tablespoonful of flour and two eggs.

Then cut holes through the beef and put in half of this seasoning, and put it in a bake-pan with boiling water enough to cover it.

Put the pan lid, heated, over it, and a few coals on it, and let it stew two hours, then take it up and spread the other half of the dressing on the top, and add butter the size of a hen’s egg, heat the pan lid again hot enough to brown the dressing, and let it stew again an hour and a half.

When taken up, if the gravy is not thick enough, add a teaspoonful of flour wet up in cold water, then add a couple of glasses of white wine to the gravy, and a bit of butter as large as a walnut.

To Boil a Leg of Veal or Mutton.

Make a stuffing of bread, and a quarter as much of salt pork, chopped fine and seasoned with sweet herbs, pepper and salt. Make deep gashes, or what is better, take out the bone with a carving knife, and fill up with stuffing, and sew up the opening with strong thread. When there is a flap of flesh, lap it over the opening and sew it down.

Put it into a large pot and fill it with water, putting in a tablespoonful of salt, and let it simmer slowly three hours. If it is needful to add water, pour in boiling water. When it is done take it up, and save the broth for next day’s dinner.

Pot Pie, of Beef, Veal, or Chicken.

The best way to make the crust is as follows. Peel, boil, and mash a dozen potatoes, add a teaspoonful of salt, two great spoonfuls of butter, and half a cup of milk, or cream. Then stiffen it with flour, till you can roll it. Be sure to get all the lumps out of the potatoes. Some persons leave out the butter.

Some roll butter into the dough of bread, others make a raised biscuit with but little shortening, others make a plain pie crust. But none are so good and healthful as the potato crust.

To prepare the meat, first fry half a dozen slices of salt pork, and then cut up the meat and pork, and boil them in just water enough to cover them, till the meat is nearly cooked. Then peel a dozen potatoes, and slice them thin. Then roll the crust half an inch thick, and cut it into oblong pieces. Then put alternate layers of crust, potatoes, and meat, till all is used. The meat must have salt and pepper sprinkled over each layer. The top and bottom layer must be crust. Lastly, pour on the liquor in which the meat was boiled, until it just covers the whole, and let it simmer till the top crust is well cooked, say half or three quarters of an hour. If you have occasion to add more liquor, or water, it must be boiling hot, or the crust will be spoilt. The excellence of this pie depends on having light crust, and therefore the meat must first be nearly cooked before putting it in the pie, and the crust must be in only just long enough to cook, or it will be clammy and hard. When nearly done, the crust can be browned, with hot coals on a bake-lid. Great care is needed not to burn the crust, which should not be put where the fire reached the pot on the bottom.

Calf’s Head.

Take out the brains and boil the head, feet, and lights, in salted water, just enough to cover them, about two hours. When they have boiled nearly an hour and a half, tie the brains in a cloth and put them in to boil with the rest. They should previously be soaked half an hour in cold water. When the two hours have expired, take up the whole, and mash the brains fine, and season them with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and a glass of Port or Claret, and use them for sauce. Let the liquor remain for a soup the next day. It serves more handsomely to remove all the bones.

Curried Dishes.

Chickens and veal are most suitable for curries. Boil the meat till tender, and separate the joints. Put a little butter in a stew-pan with the chickens, pour on a part of the liquor in which the meat was boiled, enough nearly to cover it, and let it stew twenty minutes more.

Prepare the curry thus: for four pounds of meat, take a tablespoonful of curry powder, a tea-cup of boiled rice, a tablespoonful of flour, and another of melted butter, a tea-cup of the liquor, and half a teaspoonful of salt, mix them, and pour them over the meat and let it stew ten minutes more.

Rice should be boiled for an accompaniment.

To Prepare Curry Powder.

One ounce of ginger, one ounce of mustard, one of pepper, three of coriander seed, three of tumeric, half an ounce of cardamums, quarter of an ounce of Cayenne pepper, quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, and quarter of an ounce of cummin seed. Pound them fine, sift them, and cork them tight in a bottle.

Veal Stew.

Cut four pounds of veal into pieces three inches long and an inch thick, put it into the pot with water enough to cover it, and rise an inch over. Add a teaspoonful of salt, and put in four or five good slices of salt pork, and half a tea-cup of rice, butter the size of a hens egg, and season with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs, and let it simmer slowly till the rice is quite soft, allowing half an hour to heat and an hour to simmer. If there is too little water, pour in boiling water.

Adding a little curry turns it into a dish of curried veal, of which many are very fond. Be sure and skim it well, just before it begins to simmer.

Another Veal Stew (very fine).

Cut four pounds of veal into strips three inches long and an inch thick, peel twelve large potatoes and cut them into slices an inch thick, then spread a layer of veal on the bottom of the pot, and sprinkle a little salt and a very little pepper over it, then put a layer of potatoes, then a layer of veal seasoned as before. Use up the veal thus, and over the last layer of veal put a layer of slices of salt pork, and over the whole a layer of potatoes. Pour in water till it rises an inch over the whole, and cover it as close as possible, heat it fifteen minutes and simmer it an hour.

Ten minutes before taking up, put in butter the size of a hen’s egg, stir in a thin batter made of two tablespoonfuls of flour. Many add sweet herbs to the salt and pepper.

To Stew Birds.

Wash and stuff them with bread crumbs, seasoned with pepper, salt, butter, or chopped salt pork, and fasten them tight. Line a stew-pan with slices of bacon, add a quart of water and a bit of butter the size of a goose egg, or else four slices of salt pork.

Add, if you like, sliced onions and sweet herbs, and mace. Stew till tender, then take them up and strain the gravy over them. Add boiling water if the liquor is too much reduced.

A fine Mutton Stew.

Take three quarts of peeled and sliced potatoes, three large onions, peeled and sliced, and mutton and ham cut into slices. Make layers first of potatoes, salted, and then with the mutton, sprinkled with salt, pepper, gravy, or butter, and mushroom or tomato catsup, two tea-cups of water, and the ham in small quantities. Cover tight and stew for an hour and a half. Watch, and add boiling water if needed, as there must be a good supply of gravy at the bottom.

A Sausage Stew.

Make a thick layer of slices of peeled potatoes, put on a little salt, and then cut up sausages over the potatoes. Continue alternate layers of potatoes and sausages, the top layer being potatoes, pour in a little water and some gravy, or butter, and if you have bits of ham mix them with the sausages.

To Bake Beef.

Take ten pounds of the buttock, rub it with salt and let it lie a day or two, then wash it, and make openings in the beef and insert bits of salt pork dipped in a mixture of powdered pepper, cloves, and fine minced onions, cover it, and let it bake four or five hours. Put a pint of water and teaspoonful of salt in the baking pan and baste occasionally. Make a gravy of the drippings.

Beef, or Mutton and Potato Pie.

Take a deep dish, butter it, and put in it a layer of mashed potatoes, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt and minced onions. Take slices of beef, or mutton, and season them with pepper and salt, lay them with small bits of salt pork over the potatoes. Then fill the dish with alternate layers, as above described, having the upper one potatoes. Bake an hour, or an hour and a half.

To Cook Pigeons.

Pigeons are good stuffed and roasted, or baked. They are better stewed thus:—Stuff them like turkeys, put them in a pot, breast downwards, and cover them with salted water an inch above the top, and simmer them two hours if tender, and three if tough. When nearly done, stir in a bit of butter the size of a goose egg, for every dozen pigeons. Take them up and add a little flour paste to the gravy, with salt and pepper, and pour some of it over them, and put the rest in a gravy dish.

Beef, or Veal Stewed with Apples (very good).

Rub a stew-pan with butter, cut the meat in thin slices, and put in, with pepper, salt, and apple sliced fine; some would add a little onion. Cover it tight, and stew till tender.

To Boil a Turkey.

Make a stuffing for the craw, of chopped bread and butter, cream, oysters, and the yolks of eggs. Sew it in, and dredge flour over the turkey, and put it to boil in cold water, with a spoonful of salt in it, and enough water to cover it well. Let it simmer for two hours and a half, or if small, less time. Skim it while boiling. It looks nicer if wrapped in a cloth dredged with flour.

Serve it with drawn butter, in which are put some oysters.

To Boil Corned Beef.

Put the beef in water enough to cover it, and let it heat slowly, and boil slowly, and be careful to take off the grease. Many think it much improved by boiling potatoes, turnips, and cabbage with it. In this case the vegetables must be peeled, and all the grease carefully skimmed as fast as it rises. Allow about twenty minutes of boiling for each pound of meat.