Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book. Leslie Eliza

wholesome unless well cooked. The introduction of French cookery has done that much good.

      The onions may be stewed in butter or gravy, and served up in a sauce-boat, seasoned with nutmeg. At the famous beef-steak club of London, each guest is furnished with a small raw onion, to take on his fork, and rub over his empty plate, just before the steaks are served up, which is done one at a time, and as hot as possible, being cooked in the room.

FRIED BEEF STEAKS.—

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      Sirloin steaks should be tender enough without beating. Rump steaks will require some; but do not beat them so much as to tear the meat and exhaust all its juices. We have seen them pounded almost into a mass of dry shreds, scarcely adhering together. Remove the fat and bone. Lay them in a frying-pan, with a little fresh butter dredged with flour, and season them with pepper. Fry them brown, turning them on both sides. Have ready some onions, peeled, washed, and sliced. After you have turned the steaks, cover them with the sliced onions, and then finish the frying, till all is thoroughly done, meat and onions, slightly sprinkling them with salt. The onions had best be boiled in a small sauce-pan by themselves, before they are sliced and fried.

      Put the whole on one dish, the onions covering the meat.

      Mutton chops, or veal cutlets, or pork steaks, may be fried in this manner with onions, adding to them some minced sweet marjoram, or if pork, some sage.

BEEF STEAK WITH OYSTERS.—

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      Take very fine tender sirloin steak, divested of fat and bone; cut them not larger than the palm of your hand; lay them in a stew-pan with some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Strain over them sufficient oyster-liquor to cook them well, and to keep them from burning, and to make a gravy so as to stew, but not to boil them. Season them with some blades of mace, some grated nutmeg, and a few whole pepper-corns. Let them cook till they are thoroughly done, and not the least red. Then put in some fine large oysters. Set the stew-pan again over the fire till the oysters are plump, which should be in about five or six minutes. If cooked too much, the oysters will toughen and shrink. When done, transfer the whole to a deep dish, mixing the oysters evenly among the meat. Before you take them up, make some sippet or thin toast, in triangular or pointed slices, with the crust cut off. Dip the slices (for a minute) in boiling water; then take them out, and stand them in a circle all round the inside of the dish, the points of the sippets upwards.

CORNED OR SALTED BEEF.—

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      For boiling, there is no piece of corned beef so good, and so profitable, as the round. A large round is always better and more tender than a small one, if the ox has been well fed. A small round of beef is generally tough. In buying it, see that it looks and smells well, as sometimes beef is not salted till it begins to taint; and then it is done, with a view of disguising its unwholesome and disgusting condition, which, however, will immediately be manifest as soon as it is put on to boil, if not before. Every sort of food, the least verging on decomposition, is unfit for any thing but to throw away or bury. It is not necessary to buy always a whole round of beef. You can have it cut into a half, third part, quarter, or into as many pounds as you want. If very salt, lay it to soak in cold water the night before, or early in the morning. Half a round (weighing about fifteen pounds) will require about four hours to boil sufficiently. A whole round, double that time. It must boil very slowly. If it boils too fast at first, nothing will afterwards make it tender. The fire must be steady, and moderate, that the heat may penetrate all through, slowly and equally. The pot must be kept closely covered, unless for a minute when the scum is taken off, and that must be done frequently. The beef should, while boiling, be turned several times in the pot. It is much the best way to boil it without any vegetables in the same pot; they imbibe too much of the fat, particularly cabbage. Boil the cabbage by itself in plenty of water, having first washed it well, laid it a while in cold water, with the head downwards, and examined it well to see if there are no insects between the leaves. The leaves on the very outside, should be removed, and the stalk cut short. Tie a string round the cabbage to keep it from falling apart. Put it into a pot with plenty of cold water, and boil it an hour. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it in a pan of cold water, or place it under the hydrant, for the hydrant water to run copiously upon it.

      When the cabbage is perfectly cold, wash out the pot in which it was parboiled, or put it into another quite clean one, and boil it another hour. Then take it up, and keep it warm till wanted. Before you send it to table, lay some bits of nice fresh butter between the inside leaves, and sprinkle on a little pepper. This is much nicer than preparing what is called drawn or melted butter to pour over the cabbage, and far more wholesome. Drawn butter is seldom well made, being frequently little more than a small morsel of butter, deluged with greasy water; and sometimes it is nearly all flour and water. Cabbage cooked as above will be found excellent, and be divested of the cabbage smell which is to many persons disagreeable.

      Carrots are also an usual accompaniment to corned beef. They should be washed, scraped, cut into pieces, and split, if very large; put into boiling water, and cooked, according to their size, from one hour to two hours. Before taking them up, try with a fork if they are tender throughout. When done, they are best cut into slices, a little cold butter mixed with them, and put into a deep dish, to be helped with a spoon.

      Parsnips may be dressed in the same manner.

      For a plain family dinner, corned beef, cabbage, and carrots, cooked exactly as above, with, of course, the addition of potatos, will, on trial, be found excellent.

      Corned beef stewed very slowly, in a small quantity of water, (barely sufficient to cover the meat,) well skimmed, and with the vegetables done separately, is still better than when boiled. Mustard is a good condiment for corned beef—so is vinegar to the cabbage. Pickles, also; French mustard is very fine with it.

      Next to the round, the edgebone is the best piece for boiling. The brisket or plate is too fat, and should only be eaten by persons in strong health, and who take a great deal of exercise. No fat meat should be given to children. Indeed there is generally great difficulty in making them eat it. They are right, as it is very unwholesome for them, unless the very leanest bits are selected from among the mass of fat.

      Have tarragon vinegar on the table to eat with corned beef and cabbage.

FRIED CORNED BEEF.—

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      This is a very homely and economical dish, but it is liked by many persons. Cut thin slices from a cold round of beef, and season them with pepper. Fry them brown over a quick fire, and put them in a covered dish to keep hot. Then wash the frying-pan, cleaning it well from the fat, and put into it plenty of cold boiled cabbage, cut small, and some cold carrots, sliced thin, adding some thin sliced suet, or beef dripping to fry them in. When done, dish the meat with the vegetables laid around it; adding the gravy. This is the dish called in England, Bubble-and-Squeak, perhaps from the noise it makes when frying. It is only designed for strong healthy people with good appetites.