Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Another Irish Stew. — Use the short curved bones of a neck of mutton, putting the actual scrag end in the stock-pot, and reserving the best end for another dish. Allow one bone or two bones for each person, and allow twice the weight of pared and sliced potatoes to the weight of the mutton. Do not cut up the mutton, only divide the bones. Put a layer of the potatoes at the bottom of a stewpan, then a layer of sliced onions, then the mutton, which must be well peppered. Upon the mutton spread a layer of sliced onions and upon that another layer of potatoes. Put the pan in the oven or on the hot plate, and let it stew for half an hour. At the end of that time add by teaspoonfuls at a time one gill of boiling water. Stew on for two hours more. If the best cutlets of the neck can be used so much the better. Irish Stew has the great advantage of never spoiling by keeping hot after it has been cooked. Irish Stew should be helped into soup-plates, and eaten with fork and spoon. A Brady. — This is a favourite stew in South Africa, and is made exactly like Irish Stew, only that the potatoes and onions are replaced by tomatoes. Beef Pie with Potato Crust. — Mince underdone cold roast beef, season it with pepper and salt, and be careful to use no fat. Spread a layer at the bottom of a pudding dish ; over the layer of minced beef spread a layer of mashed potato. Repeat these two layers till your dish is full. For the crust take half a pint or ten ounces of mashed potato, add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, one well-beaten egg, half a pint of milk, and beat all well together until very light. Then work in enough flour to form a pliant paste, and roll it out. Cover the pie with the crust, rolling it rather thick, cut a hole in the middle, and pour in gently a gill of gravy for every pound of meat. Or add to the meat and potato, before you put the crust on, the cold gravy left from the roast beef. Bake till the crust is a light brown. The crust can, if liked, be well brushed over with a well-beaten egg before serving. Every layer of meat should be well dusted with pepper, and a dust of mustard flour on each is generally liked. POTATO OR PEDRO PIE Potato OP Pedro Pie. — ( Family Recipe.) — For this Pie an oval tin is required, about ten inches long and four inches deep. The tin has a perforated lid which can be lifted off, and there is a small valve or chimney in the lid to allow of the escape of steam. Place at the bottom of the tin a pound and a half of cutlets taken from the best end of a neck of mutton, neatly trimmed and quite free from fat. Or the same quantity of tender rump-steak can be used. Dredge the meat lightly with flour on both sides, season with pepper and salt, and add half an onion sliced thin. Pour in a teacupful of good stock. Put the tin in the oven, well covered with buttered paper instead of the lid, and bake from one hour to an hour and a quarter. Boil about three pounds of mealy potatoes, and mash them very smoothly with a quarter of a pint of milk, two teaspoonfuls of salt, and an ounce of butter. Pile the mashed potatoes on the perforated cover of the tin, and rough them to look like rock. The potatoes should be three inches thick, and should be piled high round the valve or chimney. Now take the tin with the meat out of the oven, and quickly skim all fat from the surface.