A year's cookery

For To-morrow.— A tin of Preserved Lobster ; a tin of Pilchards ; Muffins (January 29th). Breakfast. — Bloaters (January 3rd); Potted Grouse (January 7th); Porridge (January 25th). Luncheon. — Boiled Veal (Note 6, May 15th) ; Boiled Hominy (February 11th). Dinner. — Mackerel, a la Maitre d’Hotel (April 15th); Beef served yesterday; Salad (March 13th). Cucumber. — A cucumber may either be sent to table dressed (that is, peeled, cut into thin slices, seasoned with pepper and salt, then covered with one or two spoonfuls of vinegar and oil) or whole, on a dish covered with a napkin. In old-fashioned country-houses one or two small onions are sometimes sliced and mixed with the sliced cucumber. Mashed Potatoes (May 12th). Stewed Rhubarb. — Wash the rhubarb and cut it into three-inch lengths. For one pound of fruit make a syrup by boiling a quarter of a pint of water with six ounces of loaf sugar till clear. Put in the rliubarb and simmer it very gently till it is soft without having fallen. As the pieces become tender lift them one by one carefully into a glass dish, and when all are done pour the syrup out to cool. Add two or three drops of cochineal to the syrup to colour it, and pour it over the fruit. Early in the season the rhubarb need not be peeled, but when it gets old the skin must be removed. Champagne, or forced rhubarb, when it can be obtained, is the best for this dish. Stewed rhubarb is most delicious when a little cream is served with it. Cheese (June 8th). Things that must not be Forgotten. 1. Turn and rub the ox-cheek in the brine. 2. Watch the rhubarb very carefully when stewing it. It falls very quickly after it has once become tender. May 20th. Breakfast. Luncheon. Dinner. Pilchards. Rissoles of Beef. Lobster Soup. Potted Grouse. Pried Hominy. Roast Shoulder of Mutton. Muffins. Potatoes. Dry Toast. Onions, Glazed. Watercress. Broccoli. Brown and White Bread and Gingerbread Pudding. Butter. Cheese. Milk Toast. Marketing. For the Day.— A well-kept Shoulder of Mutton, not too fat (January 17th) ; Onions ; Potatoes ; Broccoli ; a pennyworth of Parsley ; a pound of Beef Kidney Suet, part of it for to-day and part for to-morrow. Breakfast. — Pilchards (January 23rd) ; Potted Grouse (January 7th) ; Muffins (January 30th); Milk Toast (June 17th). Luncheon. — Rissoles of the remains of Beef (January 6th) ; Fried Hominy (February 12th). Dinner. — Lobster Soup. — Take the stock made from the mutton bones (Note 2, May 18th), and stew it for an hour with a carrot, a turnip, a small onion, a very small pinch of celery-seed tied in muslin, and half a dozen peppercorns. Rub the soup through a sieve, and to each pint of liquor add a dessert-spoonful of corn¬ flour mixed smoothly with half a pint of milk. Stir the soup till it boils, then add pepper and salt to taste, and a quarter of a tea¬ spoonful of essence of anchovy. Break the yolk of an egg into the soup tureen, stir in the soup, and add the preserved lobster, cut into neat pieces. Let these stand for five or six minutes, and serve. The lobster must on no account boil in the soup. Roast Shoulder of Mutton (December 16th); Glazed Onions (February 14th); Boiled Potatoes (April 7th) ; Broccoli (April 25th). Gingerbread Padding.