The housewife's referee

Cutlets a la Melpomene. — Make a sauce with the liquor of fowls or rabbits which have been boiled ; free it from all fat, add a small carrot scraped and cut in slices, half a leek, a bouquet garni, a bay leaf, and a couple of cloves, salt and pepper to taste. Boil this till it is reduced one half, and keep it well skimmed, thicken with fresh butter and fine flour, or one of Groult's farina preparations, then add some good cream, gradually stirring the liquor all the time, but do not let it boil after the cream has been added. Dissolve half an ounce, or an ounce of gelatine or isinglassine (according to the quantity of the liquor) in milk, and strain it into the same. Divide this mixture into four equal parts : colour one with beetroot juice and cochineal ; a second orange, with carrot grated and strained ; the third green, with spinach ; and leave the fourth white. Have ready some little cutlet pans, and when the mixtures are all nearly set, half fill the cutlet pans, some with one colour, some with the others, and fill up the cutlet pans with chicken and rabbit cream. Mount a salad high in the centre of the dish, turn out the cutlets, brush them with aspic, decorate each cutlet with a device in truffle, and arrange them round the salad. Cutlets, His Excellency's. — Take a plain round mould, place an inner mould inside it (a tumbler or gallipot will do). Chemise the inside of the outside mould with pale clear savoury jelly, putting a layer of it at the bottom of the mould to the depth of half an inch. Have ready some small neck of mutton cutlets nicely and neatly trimmed, the bone being cut to half an inch of the meat ; lay these en couronne all round, one just overlapping the other ; place on ice, and when firm take out of ice and put in a little more savoury jelly, then another row of the cutlets, but reversing them so that each row is different ; when cool add a little more liquid savoury jelly, and embed the mould in ice for two hours. When it is ready to be turned out, the inner mould must be taken out by pouring hot water into it and instantly removing it, and then quickly putting the mould on ice again, after which, dip the mould in hot water, and turn out. The centre of the mould should be filled with salad a la russe, and the outside decorated with chopped aspic and little round cherry tomatoes placed at equal distances. Cutlets, Hyderabad. — Parboil a nice joint, remove all bone, skin, and sinew ; pound the flesh in a mortar, mix with it a small cupful of fine breadcrumbs that have been passed through a sieve, two packets of Edwards's tomato soup, one dessertspoonful of best mild curry powder, an onion, and one clove of garlic (chopped very fine) ; add salt to taste, bind the mixture with two well-beaten eggs, form them into cutlet shape, egg and breadcrumb them, and fry a nice colour ; drain, on a sieve before the fire, of all superfluous fat. Dish neatly on a stand of mashed potatoes, and decorate with green parsley. Tomato sauce may be served with these cutlets, but most people prefer them as they are.