Cookery and housekeeping

Best end of neck of mutton, 4 lbs. 8 ozs. Take half of this, the least fat end, cut it into tidy chops, taking away any superfluous fat ; have ready a quantity of potatoes cut in slices and two large onions cut in slices. Place in a large saucepan a layer of sliced potatoes, then a layer of onions, dredge with pepper and salt, then a layer of chops, and so on ; the potatoes should lie at the top. Then pour in some cold water until a little is seen at the top ; allow the stew to come gradually to boiling point ; then skim, and put the saucepan at the side to simmer for 2 hours. This makes a delicious Irish stew. Bread pudding. This can be made either with milk or cider. Mode. — Put whatever pieces of bread you may have into a deep dish ; pour over this sufficient cider overnight to soak the bread thoroughly. The next morning beat it well to a pulp with a silver fork ; add some brown sugar, pudding raisins, and currants. Butter the pie dish and put into it the pudding ; place more small lumps of butter at the top ; bake it in a brisk oven for one hour. Slipper. Cafe au lait. Cold bread pudding : there are generally sufficient pieces for two when the dinner's pudding is made. Sardines. Thursday. Breakfast. 4 buttered eggs arranged on 4 pieces of buttered toast. Tea. Bread. Dinner. American dish. Mode. — i lb. fresh pork, the thin streaky part used for bacon. Place it in a steamer with boiling water under- 518 HOMELY FARE, neath ; when cooked, tear off the skin, cut the meat into squares of about \\ inches, place it in a Nottingham jar with a cover ; add one onion cut very small, pepper and salt, and the water over which it was steamed. Cook \ pint of white haricots in another saucepan. The foregoing preparations should be made the day before it is wanted, as the stew must be emptied into a dish, and all the fat taken off before warming it. It must remain in a slow oven for 4 hours the day before it is wanted. The day it is to be eaten the haricots are added to the stew, and cooked in the jar as before for 2 hours. This is a delicious and economical dish, and can be varied by sometimes frying the onions first a nice brown, which will make it a brown instead of a white stew. If it boils again after the first ' boil up,' it is spoiled. Supper. Macaroni cheese. Cafe au lait. Mode of former. — Many people think it necessary to have Parmesan cheese for this dish ; ordinary American cheese will be found good enough. When the cheese is no longer sightly to come to table, cut the rind into suitable pieces and grate into a soup plate with all the inside of the cheese. Boil \ lb. of Naples macaroni in any stock you may have ; butter a flat baking-dish ; place in it a layer of macaroni, drained from the stock in which it has been cooked ; then a thick layer of grated cheese, then pepper and salt, and so on, until the top layer, which must be of cheese. Strew some grated bread, about a teaspoonful, and some little bits of butter, over the top. Bake in a quick oven for ten minutes. If there is no salamander to brown the top, heat the poker and use that. Friday. Breakfast. 4 herrings. Tea. Bread. Toast. Diniier. \\ lbs. veal cutlets, i lb. steamed bacon. Potatoes. Greens (from garden). Apple tart. Corn-flour pudding.