Ox-tail Soup.
2 ox-tails; 1 onion; 2 turnips; 2 carrots; bunch of sweet herbs; 6 whole cloves; 2 tablespoonfuls of catsup; 1 glass of wine; pepper and salt; ½ lb. of lean ham; butter; water.
Joint the tails, and slice the vegetables and ham. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into the soup kettle, with the tails, ham, vegetables, herbs, and a pint of water. Cover closely, and simmer half an hour after they begin to smoke. Add, then, six quarts of water, if the tails are of a fair size, and simmer four hours, or until the vegetables are boiled to pieces and the tails very tender. Do this on Saturday; season the soup, and turn all into the stock-jar. On Sunday take off the fat, and strain the soup, pulping the vegetables, and taking out the pieces of tail. Put these into the stock-jar, with all the soup you do not need for to-day; also the bits of ham. Heat the portion left out for to-day; stir in a good spoonful of browned flour wet in water, the catsup and wine, and boil up fairly before serving.
Ducks à la Mode.
Joint the ducks; pepper, salt, and flour them. Fry to a light brown in a little butter. Put into a saucepan with a cup of your soup-stock—strained off before pulping the vegetables—a tablespoonful of minced onion, pepper and salt to taste. Cover, and stew tender; say about forty minutes from the commencement of the boil. Keep hot over boiling water while you strain the gravy; add a glass of wine, and thicken with browned flour. Boil until thick, and pour over the ducks.
Canned Green Peas.
Drain, cover with boiling water, and cook tender. Pour off the water; dish, and stir in a little hot butter, mixed with pepper, salt, and a dust of powdered sugar. Toss and mix well, and serve hot.
Mashed Turnips.
See Sunday, Second Week in December.
Scalloped Cauliflower.
Boil twenty minutes—tied up in netting—in hot salted water. Cut into small clusters, rejecting the main stalk altogether. Set these closely together in a buttered bake-dish; pour drawn butter over them, and sift fine crumbs thickly upon the top. Bake in a good oven until browned.
Sponge-Cake Soufflé Pudding.
12 square (penny) stale sponge-cakes; 5 eggs; 1 cup of milk; 2 glasses of sherry; ½ cup of sugar.
Lay the cakes in a buttered pudding-dish; pour the wine over them, and cover for half an hour. Heat the milk; pour upon the beaten yolks and half the sugar. Stir over the fire until quite thick. Pour, gradually, upon the cakes, letting it soak in well before adding more. Put into the oven, and, when very hot, cover with the whites, whisked stiff with the rest of the sugar, and shut the oven-door until the méringue is colored. Make on Saturday, and eat cold on Sunday.