The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary Part 34

MUTTON COLLOPS. From a loin of mutton that has been well kept, cut some thin collops nearest to the leg. Take out the sinews, season the collops with salt, pepper, and mace; and strew over them shred parsley, thyme, and two or three shalots. Fry them in b.u.t.ter till half done; add half a pint of gravy, a little lemon juice, and a piece of b.u.t.ter rubbed in flour. Simmer them together very gently for five minutes, and let the collops be served up immediately, or they will become hard.

MUTTON CUTLETS. To do them in the Portuguese way, half fry the chops with sliced shalot or onion, chopped parsley, and two bay leaves. Season with pepper and salt; then lay a forcemeat on a piece of white paper, put the chop on it, and twist the paper up, leaving a hole for the end of the bones to go through. Broil the cutlets on a gentle fire, serve them with a little gravy, or with sauce Robart.

MUTTON HAM. Choose a fine-grained leg of wether mutton, of twelve or fourteen pounds weight; cut it ham shape, and let it hang two days. Then put into a stewpan half a pound of bay salt, the same of common salt, two ounces of saltpetre, and half a pound of coa.r.s.e sugar, all in powder. Mix, and make it quite hot; then rub it well into the ham. Let it be turned in the liquor every day; at the end of four days add two ounces more of common salt; in twelve days take it out, dry it, and hang it up a week in wood smoke. It is to be used in slices, with stewed cabbage, mashed potatoes, or eggs.

MUTTON HASHED. Cut thin slices of dressed mutton, fat and lean, and flour them. Boil the bones with a little onion, season the meat, and warm it up with the gravy, but it should not boil. Instead of onion, a clove, a spoonful of currant jelly, and a gla.s.s of port wine, will make it taste like venison.

MUTTON KEBOBBED. Take all the fat out of a loin of mutton, and that on the outside also if too fat, and remove the skin. Joint it at every bone, mix a small nutmeg grated with a little salt and pepper, crumbs of bread, and herbs. Dip the steaks into the yolks of three eggs, and sprinkle the above mixture all over them. Then place the steaks together as they were before they were cut asunder, tie and fasten them on a small spit. Roast them before a quick fire; set a dish under, and baste them with a good piece of b.u.t.ter, and the liquor that comes from the meat, but throw some more of the above seasoning over. When done enough, lay the meat in a dish. Prepare an additional half pint of good gravy, put into it two spoonfuls of ketchup, and rub down a tea-spoonful of flour with it. Give it a boil, skim off all the fat, and pour it over the mutton. Be careful to keep the meat hot, till the gravy is quite ready.

MUTTON PIE. Cut steaks from a loin or neck of mutton that has hung some time; beat them, and remove some of the fat. Season with salt, pepper, and a little onion. Put a little water at the bottom of the dish, and a little paste on the edge; then cover it with a tolerably thick paste. Or raise small pies, breaking each bone in two to shorten it; cover it over, and pinch the edges together. When the pies come from the oven, pour into each a spoonful of good mutton gravy.

MUTTON PUDDING. Season some chops with salt and pepper, and a taste of onion. Place a layer of meat at the bottom of the dish, pour over them a batter of potatoes boiled and pressed through a cullender, and mixed with an egg and milk. Put in the rest of the chops, and the batter, and bake it. Batter made of flour eats very well, but requires more egg, and is not so good as potatoe. Another way is to cut slices off a leg that has been underdone, and put them into a bason lined with a fine suet crust. Season with pepper and salt, and finely shred onion or shalot.

MUTTON RUMPS AND KIDNEYS. Stew six rumps in some good mutton gravy half an hour; then take them up, and let them stand to cool. Clear the gravy from the fat, and put into it four ounces of boiled rice, an onion stuck with cloves, and a blade of mace. Boil them till the rice is thick. Wash the rumps with yolks of eggs well beaten, and strew over them crumbs of bread, a little pepper and salt, chopped parsley and thyme, and grated lemon peel, fried in b.u.t.ter, of a fine brown. While the rumps are stewing, lard the kidneys, and set them to roast in a Dutch oven. When the rumps are ready, the grease must be drained from them before they are put in the dish; the pan being cleared likewise from the fat, warm up the rice in it. Lay the latter on the dish, place the rumps round upon the rice, the narrow ends towards the middle, and the kidneys between. Garnish with hard eggs cut in halves, the white being left on, or with different coloured pickles.

MUTTON SAUCE. Two spoonfuls of the liquor in which the mutton is boiled, the same quant.i.ty of vinegar, two or three shalots finely shred, with a little salt, put into a saucepan with a bit of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, stirred together and boiled once, will make good sauce for boiled mutton.

MUTTON SAUSAGES. Take a pound of the rawest part of a leg of mutton that has been either roasted or boiled; chop it quite small, and season it with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg. Add to it six ounces of beef suet, some sweet herbs, two anchovies, and a pint of oysters, all chopped very small; a quarter of a pound of grated bread, some of the anchovy liquor, and two eggs well beaten. When well mixed together, put it into a small pot; and use it by rolling it into b.a.l.l.s or sausages, and fry them. If approved, a little shalot may be added, or garlick, which is a great improvement.

MUTTON STEAKS. These should be cut from a loin or neck that has been well kept; if a neck, the bones should not be long. Broil them on a clear fire, season them when half done, and let them be often turned.

Take them up into a very hot dish, rub a bit of b.u.t.ter on each, and serve them up hot and hot the moment they are done.--To do them Maintenon, half fry them first, then stew them while hot, with herbs, crumbs, and seasoning. Rub a bit of b.u.t.ter on some writing paper, to prevent its catching the fire, wrap the steaks in it, and finish them on the gridiron.

N.

NANKEEN DYE. The article generally sold under this t.i.tle, and which produces a fine buff colour so much in use, is made of equal parts of arnetto and common potash, dissolved and boiled in water. The yellow colour called Dutch Pink, is made from a decoction of weld or dyer's weed; and if blue cloths be dipped in this liquid, they will take the colour of a fine green.

NASTURTIONS, if intended for capers, should be kept a few days after they are gathered. Then pour boiling vinegar over them, and cover them close when cold. They will not be fit to eat for some months; but are then finely flavoured, and by many are preferred to capers.

NEAT'S TONGUE. If intended to be stewed, it should be simmered for two hours, and peeled. Then return it to the same liquor, with pepper, salt, mace, and cloves, tied up in a piece of cloth. Add a few chopped capers, carrots and turnips sliced, half a pint of beef gravy, a little white wine, and sweet herbs. Stew it gently till it is tender, take out the herbs and spices, and thicken the gravy with b.u.t.ter rolled in flour.

NECK OF MUTTON. This joint is particularly useful, because so many dishes may be made of it; but it is not esteemed advantageous for a family. The bones should be cut short, which the butchers will not do unless particularly desired. The best end of the neck may be boiled, and served with turnips; or roasted, or dressed in steaks, in pies, or harrico. The scrags may be stewed in broth; or with a small quant.i.ty of water, some small onions, a few peppercorns, and a little rice, and served together. When a boiled neck is to look particularly nice, saw down the chine bone, strip the ribs halfway down, and chop off the ends of the bones about four inches. The skin should not be taken off till boiled, and then the fat will look the whiter. When there is more fat than is agreeable, it makes a very good suet pudding, or crust for a meat pie if cut very fine.

NECK OF PORK. A loin or neck of pork should be roasted. Cut the skin across with a sharp penknife, at distances of half an inch. Serve with vegetables and apple sauce.

NECK OF VEAL. Cut off the scrag to boil, and cover it with onion sauce.

It should be boiled in milk and water. Parsley and b.u.t.ter may be served with it, instead of onion sauce. Or it may be stewed with whole rice, small onions, and peppercorns, with a very little water. It may also be boiled and eaten with bacon and greens. The best end of the neck may either be roasted, broiled as steaks, or made into a pie.

NECK OF VENISON. Rub it with salt, and let it lie four or five days.

Flour it, and boil it in a cloth, allowing to every pound a quarter of an hour. Cauliflower, turnips, and cabbages, are eaten with it, and melted b.u.t.ter. Garnish the dish with some of the vegetables.

NELSON PUDDINGS. Put into a Dutch oven six small cakes, called Nelson b.a.l.l.s or rice cakes, made in small teacups. When quite hot, pour over them boiling melted b.u.t.ter, white wine, and sugar.

NEW CASKS. If not properly prepared before they are used, new casks are apt to give beer and other liquor a bad taste. They must therefore be well scalded and seasoned several days successively before they are used, and frequently filled with fresh water. The best way however is to boil two pecks of bran or malt dust in a copper of water, and pour it hot into the cask; then stop it up close, let it stand two days, wash it out clean, and let the cask be well dried.

NEWCASTLE PUDDING. b.u.t.ter a half melon mould or quart basin, stick it all round with dried cherries or fine raisins, and fill it up with custard and layers of thin bread and b.u.t.ter. Boil or steam it an hour and a half.

NEWMARKET PUDDING. Put on to boil a pint of good milk, with half a lemon peel, a little cinnamon, and a bay leaf. Boil it gently for five or ten minutes, sweeten with loaf sugar, break the yolks of five and the whites of three eggs into a basin, beat them well, and add the milk. Beat it all up well together, and strain it through a tammis, or fine hair sieve. Prepare some bread and b.u.t.ter cut thin, place a layer of it in a pie dish, and then a layer of currants, and so on till the dish is nearly full. Pour the custard over it, and bake it half an hour.

NORFOLK DUMPLINS. Make a thick batter with half a pint of milk and flour, two eggs, and a little salt. Take a spoonful of the batter, and drop it gently into boiling water; and if the water boil fast, they will be ready in a few minutes. Take them out with a wooden spoon, and put them into a dish with a piece of b.u.t.ter. These are often called drop dumplins, or spoon dumplins.

NORFOLK PUNCH. To make a relis.h.i.+ng liquor that will keep many years, and improve by age, put the peels of thirty lemons and thirty oranges into twenty quarts of French brandy. The fruit must be pared so thin and carefully, that not the least of the white is left. Let it infuse twelve hours. Prepare thirty quarts of cold water that has been boiled, put to it fifteen pounds of double-refined sugar, and when well incorporated, pour it upon the brandy and peels, adding the juice of the oranges and of twenty-four lemons. Mix them well, strain the liquor through a fine hair sieve, into a very clean cask, that has held spirits, and add two quarts of new milk. Stir the liquor, then bung it down close, and let it stand six weeks in a warm cellar. Bottle off the liquor, but take care that the bottles be perfectly clean and dry, the corks of the best quality, and well put in. Of course a smaller quant.i.ty of this punch may be made, by observing only the above proportions.--Another way. Pare six lemons and three Seville oranges very thin, squeeze the juice into a large teapot, put to it three quarts of brandy, one of white wine, one of milk, and a pound and a quarter of lump sugar. Let it be well mixed, and then covered for twenty-four hours. Strain it through a jelly bag till quite clear, and then bottle it off.

NORTHUMBERLAND PUDDING. Make a hasty pudding with a pint of milk and flour, put it into a bason, and let it stand till the next day. Then mash it with a spoon, add a quarter of a pound of clarified b.u.t.ter, as many currants picked and washed, two ounces of candied peel cut small, and a little sugar and brandy. Bake it in teacups, turn them out on a dish, and pour wine sauce over them.

NOSE BLEEDING. Violent bleeding at the nose may sometimes be prevented by applying lint dipped in vinegar, or a strong solution of white vitriol, with fomentations of the temples and forehead made of nitre dissolved in water. But as bleeding at the nose is often beneficial, it should not be suddenly stopped.

NOTICE TO QUIT. The usual mode of letting houses is by the year, at a certain annual rent to be paid quarterly: therefore unless a written agreement can be produced, to show that the premises were engaged for a shorter period, the law considers the tenant as entered for one whole year, provided the rent exceeds forty s.h.i.+llings per annum, and this consideration must govern the notice to quit. Every tenant who holds from year to year, which is presumed to be the case in every instance where proof is not given to the contrary, is ent.i.tled to half a year's notice, which must be given in such a manner that the tenant must quit the premises at the same quarter day on which he took possession: so that if his rent commenced at Michaelmas, the notice must be served at or before Lady-day, that he may quit at Michaelmas. If a tenant come in after any of the regular quarter days, and pay a certain sum for the remainder of the quarter, he does not commence annual tenant until the remainder of the quarter is expired; but if he pay rent for the whole quarter, he is to be considered as yearly tenant from the commencement of his rent, and his notice to quit must be regulated accordingly.

Should it happen that the landlord cannot ascertain the precise time when the tenancy commenced, he may enquire of the tenant, who must be served with notice to quit at the time he mentions, and must obey the warning agreeably to his own words, whether it be the true time or not.

If he refuse to give the desired information, the landlord, instead of 'on or before midsummer next,' must give in his notice, 'at the end and expiration of the current year of your tenancy, which shall expire next after the end of one half year from the date hereof.' If notice be given up to a wrong time, or a quarter instead of half a year, such warning will be sufficient, if the party make no objection at the time he receives it. When premises are held by lease, the expiration of the term is sufficient notice to quit, without giving any other warning for that purpose. The following is the form of a landlord's notice to his tenant:--'I do hereby give you notice to quit the house and premises you hold of me, situate in the parish of ------ in the county of ------ on or before midsummer next. Dated the ------ day of ------ in the year ------ R. C.'--The following is a tenant's notice to his landlord:--'Sir, I hereby give you warning of my intention to quit your house in the parish of ------ on or before Michaelmas next. Dated the ------ day of ------ in the year ------ C. R.'--These forms will also serve for housekeepers and lodgers, if 'apartment' be added instead of house or premises. Care however must be taken to give the address correctly: 'R.

C. landlord of the said premises, to C. R. the tenant thereof.' Or, 'To Mr. R. C. the landlord of the said premises.'

NOTTINGHAM PUDDING. Peel six large apples, take out the core with the point of a small knife or an apple scoop, but the fruit must be left whole. Fill up the centre with sugar, place the fruit in a pie dish, and pour over a nice light batter, prepared as for batter pudding, and bake it an hour in a moderate oven.

NUTMEG GRATERS. Those made with a trough, and sold by the ironmongers, are by far the best, especially for grating fine and fast.

NUTS. Hazel nuts may be preserved in great perfection for several months, by burying them in earthen pots well closed, a foot or two in the ground, especially in a dry or sandy place.