A year's cookery

Dinner. — Giblet Soup (February 1st). Civet of Leveret. — Supposing there is one leveret, trim a quarter of a pound of bacon, and soak it in water for a few minutes to extract the salt. Divide the leveret into neat joints. Cut the bacon into inch-square pieces and fry them; take them up, and fry the leveret in the bacon fat. Now take up the leveret, put back the bacon, and add an onion, a shallot, a small carrot, a small turnip, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, and a bay-leaf. Turn all over in the frying-pan a few times ; add the pieces of leveret, half a pint of mushrooms neatly trimmed and sliced, and as much stock as will cover the meat. Let the gravy boil, then draw the saucepan back, and stew gently till the pieces of leveret are tender. They will take about an hour and a half. Add a table-spoonful of flour mixed to a smooth paste with water, and season with salt and pepper. Put the meat on a dish; boil the sauce, skim it carefully, stir a glass of dark wine into it, strain it over the leveret, and serve. Potatoes (April 12th); Cauliflower (April 25th). Asparagus. — To boil Asparagus and Seakale. — Asparagus is best when freshly cut. Scrape the stems slightly and throw them into cold water as they are clone, but do not keep them in more than a minute or two. Cut the white ends evenly, to make the stalks the same length, and tie them in bundles with tape or rag, as twine would be likely to cut the stalks. Choose a stewpan large enough to hold the asparagus without bending the stalks. Half fill it with water, throw a little salt into it, skim it, and when it boils quickly put in the asparagus. Leave the lid off the pan, and boil gently till tender. Asparagus will need to boil from twenty to thirty minutes, according to the thickness, and it should be taken up as soon as it is done enough, or it will lose colour and flavour. Drain it, and lay it on a round of toast half an inch thick, well browned on both sides, and that has been dipped into the asparagus water. Send rich Melted Butter (July 17th), Oiled Butter (that is, butter melted but not allowed to brown, then poured away from the curd that settles at the bottom, and slightly salted), Dutch sauce (May 14th), Mayonnaise Sauce (August 30th), or Brown Butter Sauce (February 12th), to table with it. Asparagus is frequently served by itself after the joint. Sauce should never be poured over asparagus, but served in a tureen. Seakale is boiled just like asparagus, though it needs only to be washed and trimmed before it is boiled. When very young it will be done enough in about twenty minutes; large seakale will require boiling from half an hour to three-quarters. Melted butter may, if liked, be poured over the seakale in the tureen. Chocolate Pudding (July 24th); Custard (August 10th) ; Cheese (June 8th). Tea. — Seed Cake (August 14th). Supper. — Russian Salad (April 5th) ; Gooseberry Pie (August 7th). Things that must not be Forgotten. 1. Turn and rub the beef in the brine. 2. Preserve all the bones and trimmings of the leveret. Excellent soup may be made of them for to-morrow. 3. If any asparagus is left it can be cooked with eggs for breakfast to-morrow, instead of savoury eggs (May 4th). June !5th. Breakfast. Luncheon. Dinner. Savoury Eggs. Macaroni and Tongue. Leveret Soup. Collared Tongue. Cake Pudding. Boiled Beef.