The "A1" cookery book

Marrons Glaces. — 4 dozen chestnuts, 1 lb. sugar, 1 pint water. Boil the chestnuts gently, take them from the fire, and peel them. Boil the sugar and water to a syrup. Keep stirring the whole time or the sugar will burn. Take off the scum as it rises, add the chestnuts, which must be whole. Boil gently in the syrup for about fifteen minutes, stirring them the wTole time (too fast boiling will break the chestnuts). Then remove from the fire and place them on a sieve until dry. They must be kept in a dry place. Meat Jelly for Invalids. — 2 lbs. shin of beef, ii lbs. of veal. Cut the meat into small pieces quite free from skin and fat, and put them into a jar with two tablespoons of cold water, a very little salt, and six peppercorns. Tie the jar down with bladder or oiled paper, and set it in a saucepan half full of cold water. Let it simmer seven hours without intermission, then strain through muslin. When it is cold take off the fat. Minced Meat for Invalids. — Raw meat or poultry, from which every scrap of skin, fat, and sinew has been removed, very finely minced by hand. Sprinkle a little salt on it, put into a saucepan, and heat it with either a very little bit of butter or a drop of water. When it is hot through it is done. If it boils it is hard. Orange Salad.— 6 oranges, I wineglass brandy, 2 oz. castor sugar, and 6 lumps sugar. Rub 6 lumps of sugar on the rinds of the oranges, and put them in a glass dish. Peel the oranges and carefully remove all the white pithy part. Cut into thin rounds, remove the pips, lay them in the dish, strew with sugar, pour the brandy over them, and cover the dish with a plate till the salad is required. How to lard Poultry or Meat. — A larding needle is necessary. Some fat bacon must be cut into strips about two inches long, a quarter of an inch wide, and an eighth of an inch thick. It is best to use bacon that has been boiled for white meat, or it will colour it red. Put each strip into the larding needle and pass the point of this through as much of the fowl or joint as will hold the bacon safely, then draw the needle and bacon half through so as to leave equal ends projecting. This must be done at equal intervals and in regular rows till the meat is covered evenly. The breasts only are larded of poultry or feathered game, the backs and thighs of rabbits and hares. It is easier to lard poultry if the part to be larded is dipped for a moment into boiling water. Lemonade. — Pare very thin the rind of two lemons and put into a jug, then carefully remove the white pith from the lemons. Slice them and take out the pips, put the slices with the rind into a jug with about an ounce of loaf sugar. Pour over a pint and a half of boiling water, cover with a cloth, and let it stand till cold. Stir, strain, and use. Paste for Sticking. — 2 even teaspoons of flour, 1 breakfastcup of water, powdered alum sufficient to cover a threepennypiece. Stir the flour into a smooth paste with a very little cold water and fill the cup up with boiling water, stirring all the time to prevent it getting lumpy. Then pour it into a saucepan and boil ; stir constantly, and when it is just ready add the alum. Leave it to get cold, it is then fit to use.