A year's cookery

Breakfast. — If well cooked, the devil will be regarded by the epicure as the best part of the pheasants. The legs must be prepared over-night. With a sharp knife take the skin off the legs, and score the flesh twice crosswise on each side of the bone. Melt two ounces of butter, and mix with it a dessert-spoonful of salt, a tea-spoonful of pepper, a pinch of cayenne, a spoonful of mustard, and half a tea-spoonful of anchovy. Spread this mixture on the legs, and get it in between the scores as much as possible. Put a cover over the legs, and leave them in a cool place till morning. About a quarter of an hour before they are wanted for breakfast lay them on a gridiron (which has first been rubbed all over with a piece of the fat taken off the neck of mutton, and made hot), and put them over a gentle fire. Broil them slowly, turning them every minute. When done enough, serve them on a very hot dish (a hot-water dish will be the best), and send very hot plates to table with them. If properly dressed, the pheasant, though crisp, will not be at all burnt. A little dissolved butter should be poured over them before being sent to table. If it is wished that they should be very hot, they may be peppered once again before being served. The devilled legs may either be eaten dry, or a little grill sauce in a tureen may accompany them. This may be made as follows : — Chop four shallots or young onions finely, and boil them in half a gill of vinegar for five minutes. Put with them an equal quantity of the gravy preserved from the pheasant, and add a pinch of cayenne, half a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy, and a table-spoonful of sherry, if permitted. If this sauce is used, the dissolved butter need not be poured over the devil. Eggs on the Dish (December 7th) ; Corn Plour Milk (June 19th). Luncheon. — Mutton stevjed with Vegetables. — Divide the neck of mutton into three parts ; that is* chop off about two inches from the long rib bones, and cut the piece quite off. Toad in the hole may be made of it to-morrow. Halve the remaining portion, leaving the best end with as many cutlets as will be required for haricot mutton on Friday ; the other part, or scrag end, may be stewed for to-day. Cut the meat into neat pieces, pepper and salt them, and pack them closely in a stew-pan. Put on the top of them a Spanish onion finely minced, three carrots cut into slices, and two turnips cut into quarters. Cover the saucepan closely, and put it where it will stew as gently as possible in its own gravy. If cooked very slowly indeed, it will not become dry. At the end of an hour and a half turn the meat over. Try the vegetables occasionally, and as soon as they are done enough take them up, and put them in a covered basin in the oven to keep them hot till the meat is ready — that is, till it is tender without being at all ragged. It will require from three to four hours’ gentle stewing. Take it up, and throw a little cold water into the stock in order to make the fat rise to the surface. Skim it carefully, and thicken it with a little flour. . Mince the vegetables, and toss them in a saucepan over the fire with a little butter. Put the meat into the gravy for a few minutes to make it hot, lay it on a dish, and put the vegetables in heaps round it. Serve very hot Baked Omelette (August 6th).