Broccoli may be thus stewed with sweetbreads.
STEWED SWEETBREADS WITH OYSTERS.—Take four fine sweetbreads; cut them open; extract the gristle, and lay them in warm water till all the blood is soaked out. Then transfer them to another vessel, and scald them with boiling water, to render them white and firm. Cover them closely, and let them boil ten minutes in the hot water. Then throw them directly into a pan of cold water. Take them out when quite cold; drain them; and put them into a stew-pan with the liquor of three dozen large fine oysters seasoned with half a grated nutmeg, or more; and eight or ten blades of mace. Add two ounces of fresh butter, mixed very smoothly with a tea-spoonful of flour. Cover the pan; and let them stew gently for half an hour or more. Then put in the oysters, and let them stew with the sweetbreads a little more than five minutes. Lastly stir in a jill (two wine-glasses) of cream, immediately before you take the stew from the fire. Sent it to table in a deep dish with a slice of buttered toast at the bottom.
CLAM SWEETBREADS may be stewed exactly as above, only that clams must be substituted for oysters; the clams being cut up very small, and put in at the beginning along with the liquor, &c. The flavour they impart to the stew is by many persons considered superior to that of oysters.
In stewing sweetbreads you may either divide them into halves or quarters.
When cooked with oysters or clams they require no salt.
Sweetbreads should be large, fine, of a delicate colour, and perfectly fresh; otherwise they are unfit to eat. They spoil sooner than any part of the calf.
SWEETBREAD OMELET.—For an omelet of six or seven eggs, take two fine sweetbreads. Split them; take out the gristle; and soak them in two lukewarm waters, to extract all the blood. Then put them into very hot water; boil them ten minutes; take them out; set them away to cool; and afterwards mince them small, and season them with a very little salt and cayenne pepper, and some grated nutmeg. Beat the eggs (omitting the whites of two) till very light. Then mix in the chopped sweetbreads. Put three ounces or more of fresh butter into a small frying-pan, and place it over the fire. Stir the butter with a spoon, as it melts; and when it comes to a boil, put in the mixture, stirring it awhile after it is all in. Fry it a rich brown. Heat the plate or dish in which you turn it out of the pan. An omelet should never be turned while frying. The top may be well browned by holding about it a salamander or a red-hot shovel.
If you wish it very thick have three sweetbreads.
While frying the omelet, lift the edge occasionally by slipping a knife-blade under it, that the butter may get well beneath.
If the omelets are cooked too much they will become tough, and leather-like. Many persons prefer having them sent to table as soft omelets, before they have set, or taken the form of a cake. In this case, serve up the omelet in a deep dish, and help it with a spoon.
A ROUND OF BEEF STEWED BROWN.—Take a round of fresh beef; the larger it is the more tender it will be: a small round is always, comparatively, hard and tough. Remove the fat; with a sharp knife make deep cuts or incisions all over the meat, and stuff into them a seasoning of finely minced onions, mixed with powdered mace, nutmeg, and a little pepper and salt. Then go all over the meat with the drippings or cold gravy of roast beef, and dredge it slightly with flour. Have ready an iron dutch-oven and its lid, well heated by standing up both lid and oven before the fire. Then put the meat into the oven, cover it, and let it brown on all sides. Have ready, cut into small pieces, two turnips; four carrots; four oyster plants or salsify; three stalks of celery; two small onions; and two large tomatoes, or a large table-spoonful of tomato catchup. After the meat is browned, raise it up, and place the vegetables underneath it, and pour on three half-pints of water, or more if the round is very large. Let it cook slowly in the oven, with a regular fire, for several hours, till it is entirely done all through; taking care to keep it closely covered. After the meat is taken out, place it on a large hot dish, with the vegetables round it. Cover it, and keep it hot while you thicken the gravy with a small tea-spoonful of flour, and the beaten yolk of an egg. Simmer this gravy a few minutes, then put it into a sauce-boat, and serve it up with the meat.
What is left will be very good stewed over again the next day, with fresh vegetables; letting the meat cook no longer than till the vegetables are sufficiently done. Observe this rule with all stews, soups, hashes, &c., when cooked the second time.
STEWED BEEF STEAKS.—Take beef steaks from the sirloin. Cut them thin; remove the fat and bone, and trim them nicely. Beat them well with a beetle or a rolling-pin. Season them slightly with pepper and salt, and spread them over some finely minced onions, or some chopped mushrooms. Lay among them some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Put them into a stew-pan with a very close cover, and without any water. Set the pan not on the fire, but before it or beside it, (turning it round frequently,) and let them stew slowly for two or three hours, or till they are thoroughly done. Then serve them up in their own gravy.
A BEEF STEAK POT-PIE.—Remove the fat and bone from two pounds or more of fine, tender beef steaks, and cut them into small pieces. Season them slightly with a very little salt and pepper; put them into a pot with a piece of fresh butter rolled in flour, and just water enough to cover them. Let them stew slowly (skimming them as soon as the water comes to a boil) for an hour. Boil in another pot some white potatoes, (a dozen small or eight large ones,) cut into quarters. While the steak is stewing, make a paste of finely minced beef-suet and flour, in the proportion of a pound and a half of suet to three pounds of flour. For a large pot-pie, you should have more than the above quantity of paste; the paste being always considered the best part of the pie, and much liked by those who eat it at all. Having rubbed the minced suet into the pan of flour, add a very little salt, and as little water as will suffice to make it into a lump of dough. Beat the dough hard on both sides with the rolling-pin, to assist in making it light and flaky. Divide the dough into two portions; roll out one sheet thicker than the other. Line the sides of a clean iron pot about half-way or two-thirds up with the thin paste. Then, having poured a little of the gravy into the bottom of the pot, put in a layer of the half-stewed beef; then a layer of the thick paste, cut into long squares. Then a layer of the quartered potatoes; then meat; then paste; then potatoes, and so on till the whole is in. Pour on the remainder of the gravy, and add also a pint of warm water. Cover the whole with a sheet of thin paste for a top crust, which must not fit closely round the edge, as there must be room for the gravy to boil up over it. Then place the pot over a moderate fire, and boil it for an hour and a half. Send it to table on a large dish,—the meat, and potatoes, and soft crust in the middle, and the hard crust cut into pieces and laid round. Serve up the gravy in a boat.
This pie will be much improved by a few fresh mushrooms, cut from the stalks, peeled, and put in when the stewed meat is transferred to the pie-pot.
A pot-pie of fowls or rabbits may be made as above.
If you prefer butter to suet for making the paste, allow half a pound of fresh butter to each pound of flour. Cut up the butter into the pan of flour, rub it fine with your hands, wet it with as little water as possible, beat and roll it out as above.
BEEF STEAKS WITH MUSHROOMS.—Take four pounds of the best sirloin steaks, cut thin. Season them with black pepper, and a very little salt. Put four table-spoonfuls of butter into a frying-pan, and set it over the fire. When it is quite hot, put in the steaks and let them brown. Have ready a quart of mushrooms, stemmed and skinned, and moistened with a pint of water, seasoned with a little pepper and salt, and thickened slightly with a good dredging of flour. Pour it over the steaks in the frying-pan, and then let them cook till thoroughly done.
Venison steaks will be found excellent dressed in this manner, but the venison must be fresh.
MINCED BEEF.—Take the lean of some cold roast beef. Chop it very fine, adding a small minced onion; and season it with pepper and salt. Put it into a stew-pan, with some of the gravy that has been left from the day before, and let it stew for a quarter of an hour. Then put it (two-thirds full) into a deep dish. Fill up the dish with mashed potatoes,