Sheep’s Head and Barley Soup.
1 sheep’s head, carefully cleaned, with the skin on; 4 pig’s feet, also cleaned nicely; 2 onions; 2 turnips; 2 carrots; bunch of sweet herbs; 1 can of tomatoes; ½ cup of soup-barley, soaked two hours in a little water; 7 quarts of water; pepper, salt, mace, and sugar.
Crack the bones of the head and feet; wash very well; put the sliced vegetables and the herbs into a pot with the water, and cook gently five hours. At the end of three hours add the tomatoes. Should the liquid boil down to less than five quarts by the time you are ready to add the tomatoes, replenish from the tea-kettle. When the five hours are up, strain off the soup. Put bones and meat into the stock-jar, and add all the clear soup you do not want to-day. Season, and set aside. Now pulp the vegetables into the soup left out for Saturday’s dinner, season, cool, and skim off the fat. Return to the fire with the barley, and simmer half an hour.
Bacon and Eggs.
Cut one pound of streaked bacon into thin long slices; put into a frying-pan and cook slowly, turning often, until quite crisp. Pour off and strain the fat, and pour two tablespoonfuls of it into a stone-china or block-tin dish. Add two larger spoonfuls of good gravy left from yesterday’s pigeons, with as much cream, in which have been mixed half a teaspoonful of flour and a pinch of soda. Set this in a dripping-pan, with boiling water in the bottom, but not enough to overflow the dish, and stir upon the top of the range until quite hot. Then break upon it seven or eight, or more eggs, and put into a quick oven to “set.” When firm, send to table with the bacon laid about them.
Cheese Fondu.
1 cup dry and fine bread-crumbs; 2 scant cups of milk, with a pinch of soda stirred in; ½ lb. dry cheese, grated; 3 beaten eggs; 1 small tablespoonful of melted butter; pepper and salt.
Soak the crumbs in the milk; beat in eggs, butter, seasoning—finally the cheese. Butter a pudding-dish; pour in the mixture, strew crumbs on the top, and bake in a rather quick oven to a light brown. Serve at once, as it soon falls.
Canned String-Beans.
Cut into short lengths; cover with hot, salted water, and cook forty minutes. Drain; dish, and stir in pepper, salt, and butter.
Mashed Turnips.
See Sunday, Second Week in December.
Lemon Tartlets.
5 eggs; 5 tablespoonfuls of sugar; 1 quart of milk; ⅓ cup of prepared flour; 1 lemon, a large one—juice and grated peel; a pinch of salt.
Heat the milk; stir in the flour wet with a little cold milk, and heat again, stirring all the while. Pour upon the beaten yolks and sugar; cook for one minute. Take from the fire, and beat in the lemon-juice and grated rind. Have ready, baked and hot, some shells of puff-paste lining “patty-pans.” Fill with the mixture and cover each with a méringue made of the whipped whites and a little powdered sugar. Put into the oven to set, and lightly color the méringue. Eat fresh, but not hot.