SHEEP'S TAILS AND KIDNEYS.-E. R.

138.-Cut the tails, boil them for 15 minutes, then put them into a stewpan with pint of gravy, an onion stuck with cloves, a little salt, and cayenne pepper. Stew till tender, strain the gravy, thicken it with flour and butter, and add the juice of a lemon. Boil until the whole is very smooth, broil half a dozen kidneys, and place them in the middle of a dish with the tails and sauce round.

These are the most tasty modes, but kidneys, when meant for breakfast, are usually broiled upon the gridiron, without parsley or lemon; being only split open, well peppered, and a bit of butter put upon them when broiled. They must not be much done, and may be brought to the table in less than 10 minutes. If not quite hot, they are not worth eating.

MUTTON RUMPS AND KIDNEYS.

139. Stew 6 rumps in some good mutton-gravy an hour; then take them up, and let them stand to cool. Clear the gravy from the fat; and put into it 4 oz. 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. Fry in butter of a fine brown. While the rumps are stewing lard the kidneys, and put them to roast in a Dutch oven. When the rumps are fried, the grease must be drained before they are put on the dish, and, the pan being cleared likewise from the fat, warm the rice in it. Lay the latter on the dish; the rumps put round on the rice, the narrow ends towards the middle, and the kidneys between. Garnish with hard eggs cut in half, the white being left on; or with different coloured pickles.

SHEEP'S HEADS, HEARTS, TAILS, AND TONGUES.—E. R.

140. A great variety of excellent dishes may be made from a sheep's head, which in India, where veal is not so easily procurable, answers all the purposes for mock turtle, rolled head, rich hash, or ragoût: the bones make excellent jelly, either savoury or sweet. Parboil the head; cut the meat from the bone; stew the former in a little of the liquor until quite tender; send it to table with a glass of wine in the sauce,

forcemeat-balls and brain-cakes for garnish; or roll up the pieces seasoned in the inside with a thick covering of chopped herbs well seasoned; brush the outside with yolk of egg; dredge it with bread-crumbs; fry it; and send to table with a rich gravy made of the bones and pickles warmed up in it.

Take a sheep's heart and stuff it throughout, using a considerable quantity of chopped bacon in the stuffing; half boil it, and when cooled a little rub it over with pepper and salt, and wrap it in paste in the shape of a cone. Rub the paste over with the yolk of an egg, and strew vermicelli loosely over it. Set it with the broad end downwards and bake it in the oven. When baked, send it to table with

gravy sauce.

Sheep's Tails and Tongues.-Take 3 tails and 3 tongues, cut the tails in half and split the tongues. Stew them gently for 3 hours in as much water as will cover them, adding 3 spoonfuls of vinegar, 3 onions, a teaspoonful of mixed spices, and 1 of salt: these ingredients to be put in after the pot has been skimmed. When the tails, &c., are very tender, take them out, score them, dip them in drawn butter, roll them in grated bread-crumbs, and let them lie for a few minutes, then put on more butter with a knife, and additional bread-crumbs, which latter should be slightly seasoned; brown them before the fire. Strain the gravy, enrich it with butter, squeeze lemonjuice over the tongues and tails, and serve them in the gravy.

SHEEP'S TROTTERS.-E. R.

141. Boil the trotters, or rather stew them gently, for several hours, until the bones will come out. The liquor they are boiled in will make excellent stock or jelly. Take out the bones without injury to the skin, stuff them with a fine forcemeat; stew them for an hour in some of the stock, which must be well flavoured with onion, seasoning, and a little sauce ; take out the trotters, strain the sauce, reduce it to a glaze, and brush it over the feet. Serve with any stewed vegetable.

Or: Prepare them in the same way, and dip them in a batter and fry them. The paste, or batter, for frying, is best made thus: mix 4 spoonfuls of flour with 1 of olive-oil, and a sufficient quantity of beer to make it of the proper thickness ; then add the whites of 2 eggs well beaten and a little salt. Serve with tomata-sauce.

Or: Simply boil them, and eat them cold with oil and vinegar.

CHAPTER X.

LAM B.

LAMB is of two qualities-"house-lamb" and "grass-lamb;" the former coming into season, as a great delicacy, just before Christmas, and the latter not until Easter. Both are, however, dressed in the same manner-chiefly plain, boiled and roasted, only that house-lamb, being the greater nicety, is more frequently boiled, more particularly the leg, and accompanied with white sauce. Though fat, yet, if well chosen, it will not weigh more than about 3 or 34 lbs.

BOILED LEG OF LAMB

142.—Should look as white as possible. Choose a ewe leg, as there is more fat on it; saw off the knuckle, trim off the flap and the thick skin on the back of it, soak it in warm water for 3 hours, then boil it gently (time according to size); pour a little white sauce over it. The loin may be fried in steaks and served round, garnished with dried or fried parsley: spinach or sea-kale to be eaten with it. Or it may be served with parsley and butter, or with oyster-sauce. It will not take more than about 1 hour, if the joint be taken from the house-lamb; but grass-lamb will require an hour longer.

QUARTERS OF LAMB ROASTED.

143.-Fore Quarter.-Cut off the scrag 1 joint from the shoulder; saw off the chine-bone, and also the bone of the breast, and joint it thoroughly; crack the ribs in the middle; cut off the thick skin which covers the lower part of the breast, and break the bone of the shoulder to allow of the knuckle twisting round, and secure it in its place with a skewer from beneath the breast right up the knuckle. Put 2 large skewers at the thin end; pass the spit between the skewers and the ribs, through the thick part at the shoulder; paper it, having a

double thickness over the thin end. When the quarter is roasted whole, the shoulder should be raised either at table or when dished; a slice of fresh butter laid upon the meat, a little cayenne pepper, and the juice of a lemon. (See Carving.)

The hind quarter is sometimes roasted, and served with mint-sauce. It may also be larded, covered with oiled paper, and when more than half done the paper to be withdrawn, the meat basted with oil or yolk of egg, and slightly covered with crumbs of bread; then put closer to the fire to give it a fine brown; when served, it is sprinkled with the juice of a lemon. If roasted whole, the quarter, of 8 to 10 lbs. weight, will take 21 to 2 hours in dressing, as it ought to be always well done. The fore quarter will require from to 1 hour less.

TO BONE A QUARTER OF LAMB.

144. Take the fore quarter, remove the shoulder and take out the bone; stuff it with fine forcemeat, and skewer it in a handsome shape. Braise it with 2 oz. of butter, add a teacupful of water, stirring the braise until the gravy is drawn. Then cut the brisket into pieces, and stew them in white gravy; thicken it with cream and eggs so that it shall be very white; cut the long bones into chops and fry them; thicken the gravy of the braise, add to it haricots, minced truffles, or anything else of vegetable in season. Place the shoulder in the centre of a dish with its own sauce, lay the brisket covered with white sauce round it, and place the fried chops at the edge.

Lamb à l'Espagnole. An entire lamb is frequently roasted in the Peninsula, without any other preparation than merely skinning it, taking out the fry, and cutting off the feet. It is then, however, extremely young-not more than perhaps 6 weeks or 2 months old; the bones eat like gristle, and the meat is singularly delicate. It is sometimes, but only rarely, stuffed with bread and sweet herbs, and served with bread-sauce; but more frequently eaten with lemon-juice.

Au Pascal.-May be a little older, and is also roasted whole, but boned from the neck up to the shoulders, and the legs fixed into the body, which is then covered with slices of bacon, kept on with small skewers, or tied with twine; all, however, being removed when the meat is nearly done. Both should be placed in a cradle-spit, and will take about 2 hours in roasting.

TO STEW LAMB.

145.-A Quarter of Lamb may be stewed à la Périgord, by putting it into a casserole with a little oil, parsley, chives, and mushrooms, or half a dozen black truffles, either whole or sliced, together with some trenches of bacon. Let it stew gently in any kind of broth, and when thoroughly done take it out, strain the gravy, and serve the joint along with the truffles or mushrooms only. To be well done it will require 4 hours in stewing.

For a Breast of Lamb.-Cut off the thin ends, half boil, then strew with crumbs of bread, pepper, and salt; and serve in a dish of stewed mushrooms.

Cut a Loin of Lamb into steaks, pare off the skin and part of the fat, fry it in butter a pale brown, pour away the fat, and put in boiling water enough to cover the meat, a little pepper and salt, a little nutmeg, pint of green peas, and a coss-lettuce cut lengthways; cover it down, and let it stew gently for an hour.

Shoulder of Lamb.-Bone the shoulder, trim off some of the lean meat, which chop fine with an equal quantity of bacon fat, season with spice; fill up the shoulder and roll it; braise it 2 hours over a slow stove; take it up, glaze it. Serve with sorrel or tomata sauce.

LAMB'S HEAD.-E. R.

146.-Parboil the head, rub it over with yolk of eggs, cover it thickly with chopped herbs, crumbs of bread, and clarified butter, and put it into a Dutch oven before the fire. Mince the heart and the liver very finely, and stew them in a little good gravy, adding a spoonful of lemon-pickle; make some forcemeat-balls and brain-cakes, and fry them; place the mince in the dish with the head upon it, and garnish with the balls, brain-cakes, and lemon sliced, or pickles.

Lamb's Head and Hinge. This part is best from a houselamb ; but any I will be white if soaked in cold water and boiled in a napkin. Boil the head separately till very tender. Have ready the liver and lights three parts boiled, and cut small; stew them in a little of the water in which they were boiled, season and thicken with flour and butter, and serve the mince round the head.