A year's cookery

1. Turn and rub the mutton in the pickle. 2. Preserve the remnants of the steak. May 15th. Breakfast. Luncheon. Dinner. Boiled Eggs. Shepherd’s Pie. Milk Soup. Corned Beef. Jam and Bread Pudding, Pigeon Pie. Hot Buttered Toast. Economical, New Potatoes. Dry Toast. Spring Cabbage. Brown and White Bread Lemon Pudding. and Butter. Cheese. Gooseberry Fool. Marketing. For the Day.— A Breast of Veal (February 25th). The butcher should be asked to bone the joint before sending it home. A thin slice of lean uncooked Ham ; a pound of Suet, for forcemeat and for the Lemon Pudding; New Potatoes; Spring Cabbage ; the whole or part of a fresh Ox Cheek ; two or three thin slices of Bacon, cured without saltpetre ; one pound and a half of Rump Steak, half an inch thick, or, if preferred, the same weight of lean Veal ; Gooseberries and Bottled Fruit. For To-morrow.— Half an Ox Kidney, or three Sheep’s Kidneys. Ask the butcher to send in the morning, well assorted, perfectly fresh, and weighing about one pound and a half, a Lamb’s Fry. In many places the fry is so much sought after that it is as well to speak for it beforehand. Half a pound of streaky Bacon in rashers ; Mustard and Cress. Breakfast. — Boiled Eggs (January 5th) ; Corned Beef left yesterday ; Gooseberry Fool (June 24th). Luncheon. — Shepherd's Pie, made of the scraps and trimmings of the broiled steak (January 12th) ; Jam and Bread Pudding, Economical (February 23rd). Dinner.— Milk Soup (January 3rd). Pigeon Pie. — Clean the pigeons, cut them in halves, and put in each one a piece of maitre d'hotel butter that has been mixed with the livers parboiled and minced. Cut the steak, or, if it is preferred, the veal, into neat pieces, season these with salt and pepper, and place them at the bottom of the pie-dish. Over them lay the birds, cut in halves, and place the yolk of a hard-boiled egg between these. Lay a thin slice of bacon over each piece of pigeon, and half fill the dish with strong gravy made from bones. If permitted, a few mushrooms will greatly improve the flavour of the pie. Cover with pastry in the usual way. As this is a good pie, Puff Paste (April 24th), or, if this is too much trouble, Rough Puff (May 29th), will answer excellently for it. When ornamenting the pie, scald and clean three of the feet, and place them in the hole at the top, in order to show what kind of pie it is. Brush over with yolk of egg, and bake in a well-heated oven. This pie should not, even in cold weather, be kept more than two days, as it quickly turns sour after it is baked. New Potatoes (April 12th) ; Spring Cabbage (June 4th); Lemon Pudding (August 12th); Cheese (June 8th). Things that must not be Forgotten, 1. Turn and rub the mutton in the pickle. 2. If bacon or ham cured without saltpetre cannot easily be pro¬ cured, lightly boil the bacon before putting it in the pie. Unless this is done it may turn the contents of the pie red. 3. Pastry is to be made to-day (April 17th) : the pigeon pie, a gooseberry and red currant tart (August 7th) from bottled fruit, lemon cheesecakes (August 18th) ; also sultana cake (August 2nd) and milk rolls (August 26th). If the season is early, fresh goose¬ berries may not be very expensive, and they may then be used.