“Peas Porridge Hot.”
Soak a quart of split peas all night. In the morning put on in the liquor from your corned beef, with a sliced onion and a little celery-seed, tied in thin muslin. The liquor should be skimmed and poured cold upon the peas. Cook slowly, until these are soft enough to pulp through a colander. Rub them; if the soup be very salt, add hot water; pepper to taste; boil up, and stir in a cup of hot milk, in which have been dissolved two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch, wet up in water, and a tablespoonful of butter. Add minced parsley; simmer two minutes; have a double handful of fried bread dice in the tureen, and pour on the soup.
Baked Shad.
Clean, wash, and wipe a large shad. Stuff with a dressing of bread-crumbs, butter, salt, and pepper, wet with milk, and sew up carefully with fine cotton. Lay in the dripping-pan; pour over it a cupful of hot water, and bake one hour, covered, except when you are basting it with butter and water. Put into a hot dish, and keep warm, while you add to the gravy a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, the juice of a lemon, a tablespoonful of browned flour, wet up with cold water, and pepper. Boil up well, and serve in a boat. Garnish the fish with sliced lemon, and pass the cress-salad with it.
Miroton of Beef.
Chop your cold corned beef fine. Have ready in a saucepan a cup of drawn butter, into which stir a teaspoonful of minced onion, the yolk of a boiled egg, pounded, and a beaten raw egg. Boil gently three minutes, and add the mince of beef. Stir until hot, but not boiling; pour into a bake-dish; spread with a cover of mashed potatoes, into which have been worked half a cup of milk and a great spoonful of butter. Brown in a good oven, and glaze with butter, when it begins to color well. Serve in the dish. It is very good.
Cresses.
Pick over, wash, and cut into small pieces. Pile in a salad-bowl, and season with vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little sugar, mixing in well.
Spinach with Eggs.
Cut the leaves from the stems, and cook twenty minutes in boiling, salted water. Drain and chop very fine upon a board or chopping-tray. Return to the fire with a good spoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of sugar; salt and pepper to taste. Heat, stirring constantly and beat in the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, rubbed to a fine powder. When well mixed, turn the spinach into a deep dish and garnish with a chain of sliced whites laid on top.
An Ambushed Trifle.
- A round, stale sponge-cake.
- 1 pint of milk.
- 1 teaspoonful of corn-starch.
- 1 cup of sweet jelly or jam.
- 3 eggs.
- Vanilla flavoring.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar.
- A little salt.
Cut the top carefully from the cake in one piece. Scoop out the inside of the loaf, leaving side-walls and bottom an inch thick. Coat these with the jelly. Heat the milk; beat eggs and sugar, with the cake-crumbs, and pour on the hot milk. Stir over the fire until thick, and add the corn-starch wet up with cold milk. Cook one minute and turn out. When cold, flavor and fill the cake with it. Coat the inside of the lid with jelly, and fit into its place; brush the whole cake with white of egg, sift powdered sugar over it, and set in a cool, dry place until wanted.