RICH RICE PUDDING. Boil half a pound of rice in water, till it is quite tender, adding a little salt. Drain it dry, mix it with four eggs, a quarter of a pint of cream, and two ounces of fresh butter melted in the cream. Add four ounces of beef suet or marrow, or veal suet taken from the fillet, finely shred; three quarters of a pound of currants, two spoonfuls of brandy, a spoonful of peach water or ratifia, nutmeg, and grated lemon peel. When well mixed, put a paste round the edge, fill the dish, and bake it in a moderate oven. Slices of candied orange, lemon, and citron, may be added.
RICKETS. This disease generally attacks children between the age of nine months and two years; and as it is always attended with evident signs of weakness and relaxation, the chief aim in the cure must be to brace and strengthen the solids, and to promote digestion and the due preparation of the fluids. These important ends will be best answered by wholesome nourishing diet, suited to the age and strength of the patient, open dry air, and sufficient exercise. The limbs should be rubbed frequently with a warm hand, and the child kept as cheerful as possible. Biscuit is generally reckoned the best bread; and pigeons, pullet, veal, rabbits, or muttonroasted or minced, are the most proper meat. If the child be too young for animal food, he may have rice, millet, or pearl barley, boiled with raisins, to which may be added a little wine and spice. His drink may be good claret, mixed with an equal quantity of water. Those who cannot afford claret, may give the child now and then a wine glass of mild ale, or good porter. The disease may often be cured by the nurse, but seldom by the physician. In children of a gross habit, gentle vomits and repeated purges of rhubarb may sometimes be of use, but they will seldom carry off the disease; that must depend chiefly upon such things as brace and strengthen the system; for which purpose, besides the regimen mentioned above, the cold bath, especially in the warm season, is highly recommended. It must, however, be used with prudence, as some ricketty children cannot bear it. The best time for using the cold bath is in the morning, and the child should be well rubbed with a dry cloth immediately after he comes out of it.
RING WORM. This eruption, which generally appears on the head, in a circular form, attended with painful itching, is sometimes removed by rubbing it with black ink, or mushroom ketchup. The following preparation is also recommended. Wash some roots of sorrel quite clean, bruise them in a mortar, and steep them in white wine vinegar for two or three days. Then rub the liquor on the ring worm three or four times a day, till it begin to disappear.
ROASTING. The first requisite for roasting is to have a clear brisk fire, proportioned to the joint that is to be roasted; without this every attempt must prove abortive. Next to see that the spit is properly cleaned before it enters the meat, and the less it passes through it the better. Neck and loins require to be carefully jointed before they are put on the spit, that the carver may separate them easily and neatly. The joint should be balanced evenly on the spit, that its motion may be regular, and the fire operate equally on every part; for this purpose cook-holds and balancing skewers are necessary. All roasting should be done open to the air, to ventilate the meat from its own fumes, and by the radiant heat of a glowing fire; otherwise it is in fact baked, and rendered less wholesome. Hence what are called Rumford roasters, and the machines invented by economical gratemakers, are utterly to be rejected. If they save any thing in fuel, which is doubtful, they are highly injurious to the flavour and best qualities of the meat. For the same reason, when a joint is dressed, it is better to keep it hot by the fire, than to put it under a cover, that the exhalations may freely escape. In making up the fire for roasting, it should be three or four inches longer at each end than the article on the spit, or the ends of the meat cannot be done nice and brown. Half an hour at least before the roasting begins, prepare the fire, by putting on a few coals so as to be sufficiently lighted by the time the fire is wanted. Put some of them between the bars, and small coals or cinders wetted at the back of the fire; and never put down meat to a burnt up fire. In small families, not provided with a jack or spit, a bottle jack, sold by the ironmongers, is a valuable instrument for roasting; and where this cannot be had, a skewer and a string, or rather a quantity of coarse yarn loosely twisted, is as philosophical as any of them, and will answer the purpose as well. Do not put meat too near the fire at first. The larger the joint, the farther it must be kept from the fire: if once it gets scorched, the outside will becomehard, and acquire a disagreeable taste. If the fire is prevented from penetrating into it, the meat will appear done, before it is little more than half ready, besides losing the pale brown colour which is the beauty of roast meat. From ten to fourteen inches is the usual distance at which it is put from the grate, when first laid down; and afterwards it should be brought nearer by degrees. If the joint is thicker at one end than the other, lay the spit slanting, with the thickest part nearest the fire. When the article is thin and tender, the fire should be small and brisk; but for a large joint the fire should be strong, and equally good in every part of the grate, or the meat cannot be equally roasted, nor possess that uniform colour which is the test of good cooking. Give the fire a good stirring before the meat is laid down, keep it clear at the bottom, and take care that there are no smoky coals in the front, to spoil the look and taste of the meat. If a jack be used, it should be carefully oiled and kept clean, and covered from the dust, or it will never go well. The dripping pan should be placed at such a distance from the fire as just to catch the drippings; if it be too near, the ashes will fall into it, and spoil the drippings. If too far from the fire to catch them, the drippings will not only be lost, but the meat will be blackened, and spoiled by the fetid smoke, which will arise when the fat falls on the live cinders. The meat must be well basted, to keep it moist. When it does not supply dripping enough for this purpose, add some that has been saved on former occasions, and nicely prepared, which answers as well or better than butter. Meat should not be sprinkled with salt till nearly done, as it tends to draw out the gravy. Basting with a little salt and water, when the meat is first laid down, is often done, but the practice is not good. Where the fat is very fine and delicate, it is best to cover it with writing paper to prevent its wasting; but in general it is as well to expose it to the action of the fire, and let it fall into the dripping pan. Half an hour before the meat is done, prepare some gravy if necessary; and just before it is taken up, put it nearer the fire to brown it. If it is to be frothed, baste and dredge it carefully with flour. The common fault is that of using too much flour; the meat should have a fine light varnish of froth, not the appearance of being covered with a paste; and those who are particular about the froth, use butter instead of dripping. When the roast is quite done, it is best to take it up directly, as every moment beyond doing it enough does it an injury. If it cannot be sent to table immediately, which is most desirable, it should be kept hot, but so as to suffer the fumes to escape. With respect to the time required for roasting, the general rule of a quarter of an hour to a pound of meat, is a pretty fair one, but it will not do for all kinds of joints. The use of a meat screen must also be considered, as it tends materially to assist the operation, by concentrating the heat, and excluding the cold drafts of air. Attention must be paid to the nature of the joint, whether thick or thin, the strength of the fire, the nearness of the meat to it, and the frequency with which it is basted. The more it is basted the less time it will take, as it keeps the meat soft and mellow on the outside, and the fire acts upon it with greater force. Much will depend on the time the meat has been kept, and on the temperature of the weather. The same weight will be twenty minutes or half an hour longer in cold weather, than it will be in warm weather; and when the meat is fresh slain,than when it has been kept till it is tender. If meat get frozen, it should be thawed by lying some time in cold water; and then be well dried in a clean cloth, before it is laid down to the fire. A sirloin ofBeef, weighing from twenty-five to thirty pounds, will generally take four hours; a part of it, from twelve to fifteen pounds, two hours and three quarters, or three hours. A piece of ribs of the same weight, much the same time, and a rump four hours. A sheet of paper should be tied over the thin part, or it will burn before the thick part is done enough. A leg ofMutton, weighing eight or nine pounds, will require two hours and a quarter; a shoulder of seven pounds, an hour and three quarters; a chine of ten or eleven pounds, two hours and a half; a loin, rather more than an hour and a half; a neck, the same; a breast, an hour. A haunch of mutton should be dressed like venison, only in proportion as it may be less, it must not roast quite so long. A fillet ofVeal, from twelve to fourteen pounds weight, requires three hours and twenty minutes. This is usually stuffed, either in the place of the bone, when that is taken out, or under the flap. A loin takes two hours and a half, a shoulder two hours and twenty minutes, a neck nearly two hours, and a breast an hour and a half. These directions suppose the joints to be of a common size. If they are very thick, a little more time must be allowed. When veal is quite small, the time must be reduced accordingly. A quarter ofLamb, of a moderate size, will require two hours; a leg, an hour and forty minutes; a shoulder, an hour and twenty minutes; a loin, the same; a neck, an hour and ten minutes; a breast, three quarters of an hour; and ribs, an hour and a half. A leg ofPork, weighing seven pounds, will require nearly two hours; a loin of five pounds, an hour and twenty minutes. Both these should be scored across in narrow stripes, before they are laid down to the fire. A sparerib of eight or nine pounds, will take an hour and three quarters; a griskin of six or seven pounds, an hour and a quarter; a chine, if parted down the back-bone so as to have but one side, two hours; if not parted, it will take four hours.—TheBastingsproper for roast meat, are fresh butter, clarified suet, salt and water, yolks of eggs, grated biscuit, and orange juice. For mutton and lamb, minced sweet herbs, butter and claret; and for roast pig, melted butter and cream. TheDredgings, are flour mixed with grated bread; sweet herbs dried and powdered, and mixed with grated bread; lemon peel dried and pounded, or orange peel mixed with flour; sugar finely powdered, and mixed with pounded cinnamon, and flour, or grated bread; fennel seeds, corianders, cinnamon, sugar finely powdered, and mixed with grated bread or flour; sugar, bread, and salt mixed. For young pigs, grated bread or flour mixed with pounded nutmeg, ginger, pepper, sugar, and yolks of eggs.
ROAST BEEF. Take care that your spit and dripping-pan be very clean; and to prepare your fire according to the size of the joint you have to dress. If it be a sirloin or chump, butter a piece of writing paper, and fasten it on to the back of your meat, with small skewers, and lay it down to a good clear fire, at a proper distance. As soon as your meat is warm, dust on some flour, and baste it with butter; then sprinkle some salt, and at times baste with what drips from it. About a quarter of an hour before you take it up, remove the paper, dust on a little flour, and baste with a piece of butter, that it may go to table with a good froth, but notlook greasy. A piece of ten pounds requires about two hours and a half, and others in proportion. Salad and vegetables are eaten with it, also mustard and horseradish.
ROAST CALF'S HEAD. Wash the head very clean, take out the brains, and dry it well with a cloth. Make a seasoning of pepper, salt, nutmeg, and cloves; add a slice of bacon finely minced, and some grated bread. Strew the seasoning over the head, roll it up, skewer and tie it close with tape. Roast and baste it with butter. Make veal gravy thickened with butter rolled in flour, and garnish the edge of the dish with fried brains.
ROAST CALF'S LIVER. Cut a hole in the liver, and stuff it with crumbs of bread, mixed with chopped onions and herbs, salt, pepper, butter, and an egg. Sew up the liver, wrap it up in a veal caul, and roast it. Serve it up with brown gravy, and currant jelly.
ROAST CHEESE. Grate three ounces of fat Cheshire cheese, mix it with the yolks of two eggs, four ounces of grated bread, and three ounces of butter. Beat the whole well in a mortar, with a dessert-spoonful of mustard, and a little salt and pepper. Toast some bread, cut it into proper pieces, lay the above paste thick upon them, and lay them into a Dutch oven covered with a dish till they are hot through. Remove the dish, to let the paste brown a little, and serve it up as hot as possible, immediately after dinner.
ROAST CHICKENS. Being cleaned and trussed, put them down to a good fire. Singe them, dust them with flour, and baste them well with butter. Make gravy of their necks and gizzards, or of beef. Strain the gravy, and pour it into the dish, adding parsley and butter, or egg sauce.
ROAST COLLARED BEEF. Take out the inside meat from a sirloin of beef, sprinkle it with vinegar, and let it hang till the next day. Prepare a stuffing as for a hare, put this at one end of the meat, roll the rest round it, bind it very close, and roast it gently for an hour and three quarters, or a little more or less, proportioned to the thickness. Serve it up with gravy the same as for hare, and with currant jelly.
ROAST COLLARED MUTTON. If a loin of mutton has been collared, take off the fat from the upper side, and the meat from the under side. Bone the joint, season it with pepper and salt, and some shalot or sweet herbs, chopped very small. Let it be rolled up very tight, well tied round, and roasted gently. About an hour and a half will do it. While this is roasting, half boil the meat taken from the under side, then mince it small, put it into half a pint of gravy; and against the time that the mutton is ready, heat this and pour it into the dish when it is served up.
ROAST COLLARED PORK. When a neck of pork has been collared, and is intended for roasting, the bones must be taken out. Strew the inside with bread crumbs, chopped sage, a very little pounded allspice, some pepper and salt, all mixed together. Roll it up very close, bind it tight, and roast it gently. An hour and a half or little more, according to the thickness, will roast it enough. A loin of pork with the fat and kidney taken out and boned, and a forehand of pork boned, are very nice dressed in the same way.
ROAST DUCK. If two are dressed, let one of them be unseasoned, in order to suit the company. Stuff the other with sage and onion, a dessert-spoonful of crumbs, a bit of butter, with pepper and salt. Serve them up with a fine gravy.
ROAST EEL. Take a good large silver eel, draw and skin it, and cutitin pieces of four inches long. Spit them crossways on a small spit,with bay leaves, or large sage leaves between each piece. When roasted, serve up the fish with butter beaten with orange or lemon juice, and some grated nutmeg. Or serve it with venison sauce, and dredge it with pounded carraway seeds, cinnamon, or grated bread.
ROAST FOWL. A large barn-door fowl, well hung, should be stuffed in the crop with sausage meat. The head should be turned under the wing, as a turkey. Serve with gravy in the dish, and bread sauce. Roast fowl in general may be garnished with sausages, or scalded parsley. Egg sauce or bread sauce are equally proper.
ROAST GOOSE. After the fowl is picked, the plugs of the feathers pulled out, and the hairs carefully singed, let it be well washed and dried. Put in a seasoning of shred onion and sage, pepper and salt. Fasten it tight at the neck and rump, and then roast it. Put it first at a distance from the fire, and by degrees draw it nearer, and baste it well. A slip of paper should be skewered on the breast-bone; when the breast is rising, take off the paper, and be careful to serve it before the breast falls, or it will be spoiled by coming flat to the table. Send up a good gravy in the dish, with apple and gravy sauce. For a green goose, gooseberry sauce.
ROAST GRISKIN. Put a piece of pork griskin into a stewpan, with very little more water than will just cover it. Let it boil gradually, and when it has fairly boiled up, take it out. Rub it over with a piece of butter, strew it with a little chopped sage and a few bread crumbs, and roast it in a Dutch oven. It will require doing but a little while.
ROAST HARE. After it is skinned, let it be extremely well washed, and then soaked an hour or two in water. If an old hare, lard it, which will make it tender, as also will letting it lie in vinegar. But if put into vinegar, it should be very carefully washed in water afterwards. Make a stuffing of the liver, with an anchovy, some fat bacon, a little suet, all finely minced; adding pepper, salt, nutmeg, a little onion, some sweet herbs, crumbs of bread, and an egg to bind it all. Then put the stuffing, a pretty large one, into the belly of the hare, and sew it up. Baste it well with milk till half done, and afterwards with butter. If the blood has settled in the neck, soaking the part in warm water, and putting it to the fire, will remove it, especially if the skin be nicked a little with a small knife to let it out. The hare should be kept at a distance from the fire at first. Serve it up with a fine froth, some melted butter, currant-jelly sauce, and a rich gravy in the dish. The ears being reckoned a dainty, should be nicely cleaned and singed. For the manner of trussing a hare or rabbit, seePlate.
ROAST HEART. Take some suet, parsley, and sweet marjoram, chopped fine. Add some bread crumbs, grated lemon peel, pepper, salt, mustard, and an egg. Mix these into a paste, and stuff the heart with it. Whether baked or roasted, serve it up with gravy and melted butter. Baking is best, if it be done carefully, as it will be more regularly done than it can be by roasting. Calf's or bullock's heart are both dressed in the same way.
ROAST LAMB. Lay the joint down to a good clear fire, that will want little stirring; then baste it with butter, and dust on a little flour; after that, baste it with what falls from it; and a little before you take it up baste it again with butter, and sprinkle on a little salt.
ROAST LARKS. Put a dozen larks on a skewer, and tie both ends of the skewer to the spit. Dredge and baste them, and let them roast ten minutes. Take the crumb of a penny loaf, grate it, and put it intoa fryingpan, with a little bit of butter. Shake it over a gentle fire till it becomes brown; lay it between the birds on a dish, and pour melted butter over it.
ROAST LEG OF PORK. Choose a small leg of fine young pork, cut a slit in the knuckle with a sharp knife, fill the space with chopped sage and onion, mixed together with a little pepper and salt. When half roasted, score the skin in slices, but do not cut deeper than the outer rind. Eat it with potatoes and apple sauce.
ROAST LOBSTER. When the lobster is half boiled, take it out of the water; and while hot, rub it with butter, and lay it before the fire. Continue basting it with butter till it has a fine froth.
ROAST MUTTON AND LAMB. These require to be well roasted, before a quick clear fire. A small fore quarter of lamb will take an hour and a half. Baste the joint as soon as it is laid down, and sprinkle on a little salt. When nearly done, dredge it with flour. In dressing a loin or saddle of mutton, the skin must be loosened, and then skewered on; but it should be removed before the meat is done, and the joint basted and made to froth up. When a fore quarter is sent to table, the shoulder may be taken off, the ribs a little seasoned with pepper and salt, and a lemon squeezed over them. Serve up the joint with vegetables and mint sauce. For a breast of mutton, make a savoury forcemeat, if the bones are taken out, and wash it over with egg. Spread the forcemeat upon it, roll it up, bind it with packthread, and serve it up with gravy sauce. Or roast it with the bones in, without the forcemeat.
ROAST ONIONS. They should be roasted with all the skins on. They eat well alone, with only salt and cold butter; or with beet root, or roast potatoes.
ROAST PHEASANTS. Dust them with flour, baste them often with butter, and keep them at a good distance from the fire. Make the gravy of a scrag of mutton, a tea-spoonful of lemon pickle, a large spoonful of ketchup, and the same of browning. Strain it, and put a little of it into the dish. Serve them up with bread sauce in a basin, and fix one of the principal feathers of the pheasant in its tail. A good fire will roast them in half an hour. Guinea and pea fowls eat much like pheasants, and are to be dressed in the same way.
ROAST PARTRIDGES. Partridges will take full twenty minutes. Before they are quite done, dredge them with flour, and baste them with fresh butter; let them go to table with a fine froth, and gravy sauce in the dish, and bread sauce in a tureen. The bread sauce should be made as follows. Take a good piece of stale bread, and put it into a pint of water, with some whole pepper, a blade of mace, and a bit of onion: let it boil till the bread is soft; then take out the spice and onion; pour out the water, and beat the bread with a spoon till it is like pap; put in a good piece of butter, and a little salt; set it over the fire for two or three minutes.
ROAST PIG. A sucking pig for roasting, should be put into cold water for a few minutes, as soon as it is killed. Then rub it over with a little rosin finely powdered, and put it into a pail of scalding water half a minute. Take it out, lay it on a table, and pull off the hair as quickly as possible: if any part does not come off, put it in again. When quite clean from hair, wash it well in warm water, and then in two or three cold waters, that no flavour of the rosin may remain. Take off all the feet at the first joint, make a slit down the belly, and take out the entrails: put the liver, heart, and lights to the feet. Wash thepig well in cold water, dry it thoroughly, and fold it in a wet cloth to keep it from the air. When thus scalded and prepared for roasting, put into the belly a mixture of chopped sage, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and sow it up. Lay it down to a brisk fire till thoroughly dry; then have ready some butter in a dry cloth, and rub the pig with it in every part. Dredge over it as much flour as will lie on, and do not touch it again till it is ready for the table. Then scrape off the flour very carefully with a blunt knife, rub it well with the buttered cloth, and take off the head while it is at the fire. Take out the brains, and mix them with the gravy that comes from the pig. The legs should be skewered back before roasting, or the under part will not be crisp. Take it up when done, and without drawing the spit, cut it down the back and belly, lay it into the dish, mince the sage and bread very fine, and mix them with a large quantity of good melted butter that has very little flour. Pour the sauce into the dish after the pig has been split down the back, and garnish with the ears and the two jaws: take off the upper part of the head down to the snout. In Devonshire it is served up whole, if very small; the head only being cut off to garnish the dish.—Another way. Spit your pig, and lay it down to a clear fire, kept good at both ends: put into the belly a few sage leaves, a little pepper and salt, a little crust of bread, and a bit of butter, then sew up the belly; flour him all over very well, and do so till the eyes begin to start. When you find the skin is tight and crisp, and the eyes are dropped, put two plates into the dripping pan, to save what gravy comes from him: put a quarter of a pound of butter into a clean coarse cloth, and rub all over him, till the flour is clean taken off; then take it up into your dish, take the sage, &c. out of the belly, and chop it small; cut off the head, open it, and take out the brains, which chop, and put the sage and brains into half a pint of good gravy, with a piece of butter rolled in flour; then cut your pig down the back, and lay him flat in the dish: cut off the two ears, and lay one upon each shoulder; take off the under jaw, cut it in two, and lay one on each side; put the head between the shoulders, pour the gravy out of the plates into your sauce, and then into the dish. Send it to table garnished with a lemon.
ROAST PIGEONS. Stuff them with parsley, either cut or whole, and put in a seasoning of pepper and salt. Serve with parsley and butter. Peas or asparagus should be dressed to eat with them.
ROAST PIKE. Clean the fish well, and sew up in it the following stuffing. Grated bread crumbs, sweet herbs and parsley chopped, capers and anchovies, pepper, salt, a little fresh butter, and an egg. Turn it round with the tail in its mouth, and roast it gently till it is done of a fine brown. It may be baked, if preferred. Serve it up with a good gravy sauce.
ROAST PLOVERS. Green plovers should be roasted like woodcocks, without drawing, and served on a toast. Grey plovers may either be roasted, or stewed with gravy, herbs, and spice.
ROAST PORK. Pork requires more doing than any other meat; and it is best to sprinkle it with a little salt the night before you use it, and hang it up; by that means it will take off the faint, sickly taste. When you roast a chine of pork, lay it down to a good fire, and at a proper distance, that it may be well soaked, otherwise it eats greasy and disagreeable. A spare-rib is to be roasted with a fire that is not too strong, but clear; when you lay it down, dust on some flour and basteit with butter: a quarter of an hour before you take it up, shred some sage small; baste your pork; strew on the sage; dust on a little flour, and sprinkle a little salt just before you take it up. A loin must be cut on the skin in small streaks, and then basted; but put no flour on, which would make the skin blister; and see that it is jointed before you lay it down to the fire. A leg of pork is often roasted with sage and onion shred fine, with a little pepper and salt, and stuffed at the knuckle, with gravy in the dish; but a leg of pork done in this manner, parboil it first, and take off the skin; lay it down to a good clear fire; baste it with butter, then shred some sage fine, and mix it with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and bread crumbs; strew this over it the time it is roasting; baste it again with butter, just before you take it up, that it may be of a fine brown, and have a good froth; send up some good gravy in the dish; a griskin roasted in this manner eats finely.
ROAST PORKER'S HEAD. Clean it well, put bread and sage into it as for a young pig, sew it up tight, and put it on a hanging jack. Roast it in the same manner as a pig, and serve it up the same.
ROAST POTATOES. Half boil them first, then take off the thin peel, and roast them of a beautiful brown.
ROAST PULLET. To roast a small hen turkey or a pullet with batter, the bird must first be boned, and filled with forcemeat or stuffing. Then paper it round, and lay it down to roast. When nearly half done, drop off the paper, and baste the bird with a very smooth light batter. When the first basting is dry, baste it again, and repeat this till the bird is nicely crusted over, and sufficiently done. It will require ten minutes or a quarter of an hour longer roasting than a bird of the same size in the common way, on account of its being stuffed with forcemeat. Serve it up with white gravy, or mushroom sauce.
ROAST QUAILS. Quails may be dressed and served up like woodcocks; or dressed with the insides stuffed with sweet herbs and beef suet chopped fine, and mixed with a little spice. They must roast rather a shorter time than woodcocks.
ROAST RUMP OF BEEF. Let it lie in salt for two days, then wash it, and soak it an hour in a quart of claret, and a pint of elder vinegar. Baste it well with the liquor while roasting. Make a gravy of two beef palates cut thin and boiled, and thickened with burnt butter. Add to it mushrooms and oysters, and serve it up hot.
ROAST SIRLOIN. When a sirloin of beef is about three parts roasted, take out the meat from the under side, and mince it nicely. Season it with pepper and salt, and some shalot chopped very small. By the time the beef is roasted, heat this with gravy just sufficient to moisten it. Dish up the beef with the upper side downwards, put the mince in the inside, and strew it with bread crumbs ready prepared. Brown them of a fine colour on a hot salamander over the fire, and then serve up the beef with scraped horseradish laid round it.
ROAST SNIPES. Snipes and land rails are dressed exactly in the same manner as woodcocks, but only require a shorter time in roasting.
ROAST STURGEON. Put the fish on a lark spit, then tie it on a large spit, and baste it constantly with butter. Serve it with a good gravy, an anchovy, a squeeze of Seville orange or lemon, and a glass of sherry.—Another way is, to put into a stewpan a piece of butter rolled in flour, with four cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, two onions, pepper and salt, half a pint of water, and a glass of vinegar. Stir itover the fire till hot, then let it become lukewarm, and steep the fish in it an hour or two. Butter a paper well, tie it round, and roast it without letting the spit run through. Serve it with sorrel and anchovy sauce.
ROAST SWEETBREADS. Parboil two large ones, and then roast them in a Dutch oven. Use gravy sauce, or plain butter, with mushroom ketchup.
ROAST TONGUE. After well cleaning a neat's tongue, salt it for three days with common salt and saltpetre. This makes an excellent dish, with the addition of a young udder, having some fat to it, and boiled till tolerably tender. Then tie the thick part of one to the thin part of the other, and roast the tongue and udder together. A few cloves should be stuck in the udder. Serve them with good gravy, and currant-jelly sauce. Some people like neats' tongues cured with the root, in which case they look much larger; but otherwise the root must be cut off close to the gullet, next to the tongue, but without taking away the fat under the tongue. The root must be soaked in salt and water, and extremely well cleaned, before it is dressed; and the tongue should be laid in salt a day and a night before it is pickled.
ROAST TURKEY. The sinews of the leg should be drawn, whichever way it is dressed. The head should be twisted under the wing; and in drawing it, take care not to tear the liver, nor let the gall touch it. Put a stuffing of sausage meat; or if sausages are to be served in the dish, a bread stuffing. As this makes a large addition to the size of the fowl, observe that the heat of the fire is constantly to that part, for the breast is often not done enough. A little strip of paper should be put on the bone, to prevent its being scorched while the other parts are roasting. Baste it well, and froth it up. Serve with gravy in the dish, and plenty of bread sauce in a sauce tureen. Add a few crumbs and a beaten egg to the stuffing of sausage meat. Another way. Bone your turkey very nicely, leaving on the pinions, rump, and legs; then take the flesh of a nice fowl, the same weight of bread grated, and half a pound of beef suet, nicely picked; beat these in a marble mortar, season with mace, one clove, pepper, nutmeg, salt beat fine, a little lemon peel shred very small, and the yolks of two eggs; mix all up together very well; then fill all the parts that the bones came out of, and raise the breast to the form it was before the bone was taken out; sew up the skin of the back, and skewer down the legs close as you do a chicken for roasting; spit it and let it be nicely roasted: send good gravy in the dish.
ROAST VEAL. Veal must be well done before a good fire. Cover the fat of the loin and fillet with paper. Stuff the fillet and shoulder in the following manner. Take a quarter of a pound of suet, parsley, and sweet herbs, and chop them fine. Add grated bread, lemon peel, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and an egg. Mix all well together, and put the stuffing safely into the veal. Roast the breast with the caul on: when nearly done, take it off, and baste and dredge the meat. Lay it in the dish, pour a little melted butter over it, and serve it up with salad, boiled vegetables, or stewed celery.
ROAST VENISON. After a haunch of venison is spitted, take a piece of butter and rub all over the fat, dust on a little flour, and sprinkle a little salt: then take a sheet of writing paper, butter it well, and lay over the fat part; put two sheets over that, and tie the paper on with small twine: keep it well basting, and let there be a good soaking fire. If a large haunch, it will take full three hours to do it. Five minutesbefore you send it to table take off the paper, dust it over with a little flour, and baste it with butter; let it go up with a good froth; put no gravy in the dish, but send it in one boat; and currant jelly melted, in another; or if you have no currant jelly, boil half a pint of red wine with a quarter of a pound of lump sugar, a stick of cinnamon, and a piece of lemon peel in it, to a syrup. The neck and shoulder are dressed the same way; and as to the time, it depends entirely on the weight, and the goodness of your fire: if you allow a quarter of an hour to each pound, and the fire be tolerably kept up, you cannot well err. A breast of venison is excellent dressed in the following way: flour it, and fry it brown on both sides in fresh butter: keep it hot in a dish, dust flour into the butter it was fried in, till it is thick and brown. Keep it stirring that it may not burn; pour in half a pint of red wine, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar: stir it and let it boil to a proper thickness. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, take off the scum very clean, and pour it over your venison, then send it to table.
ROAST WHEAT-EARS. These birds should be spitted sideways, with a vine leaf between each. Baste them with butter, and cover them with bread crumbs while roasting. Ten or twelve minutes will do them. Serve them up with fried bread crumbs in the dish, and gravy in a tureen.
ROAST WILD DUCK. A wild duck or a widgeon will require twenty or twenty-five minutes roasting, according to the size. A teal, from fifteen to twenty minutes; and other birds of this kind, in proportion to their size, a longer or a shorter time. Serve them up with gravy, and lemons cut in quarters, to be used at pleasure.
ROAST WOODCOCKS. Whether for woodcocks or snipes, put a toast of fine bread under the birds while at the fire; and as they are not to be drawn before they are spitted, let the tail drop on the toast while roasting, and baste them with butter. When done, lay the birds on the toast in a dish, and send it warm to the table. A woodcock takes twenty minutes roasting, and a snipe fifteen.
ROBERT SAUCE. Put an ounce of butter into a pint stewpan, and when melted, add to it half an ounce of onion minced very fine. Turn it with a wooden spoon till it takes a light brown colour, and then stir into it a table-spoonful of flour, a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, the like quantity of port wine, half a pint of weak broth, and half a tea-spoonful of pepper and salt mixed together. Give them a boil, then add a tea-spoonful of mustard, the juice of half a lemon, and one or two tea-spoonfuls of vinegar, basil, taragon, or burnet vinegar. This sauce is in high repute, and is adapted for roast pork or roast goose.
ROLLS. Warm an ounce of butter in half a pint of milk, put to it a spoonful or more of small beer yeast, and a little salt. Mix in two pounds of flour, let it rise an hour, and knead it well. Make the paste into seven rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. If a little saffron, boiled in half a tea-cupful of milk, be added, it will be a great improvement.
ROLLED BEEF. Soak the inside of a large sirloin in a glass of port wine and a glass of vinegar mixed, for eight and forty hours: have ready a very fine stuffing, and bind it up tight. Roast it on a hanging spit, baste it with a glass of port wine, the same quantity of vinegar, and a tea-spoonful of pounded allspice. Larding it improves the flavour and appearance: serve it with a rich gravy in the dish, with currant jelly and melted butterin tureens. This article will be found very much to resemble a hare.
ROLLED BREAST OF VEAL. Bone it, take off the thick skin and gristle, and beat the meat with a rolling-pin. Season it with herbs chopped very fine, mixed with salt, pepper, and mace. Roll the meat in some thick slices of fine ham, or in two or three calves' tongues of a fine red, first boiled an hour or two and peeled. Bind the meat up tight in a cloth, and tie it round with tape. Simmer it over the fire for some hours, in a small quantity of water, till it is quite tender. Lay it on the dresser with a board and weight upon it till quite cold. Then take off the tape, and pour over it the liquor, which must be boiled up twice a week, or it will not keep. Pigs' or calves' feet boiled and taken from the bones, may be put in or round the veal. The different colours placed in layers look well when cut. Boiled yolks of eggs, beet root, grated ham, and chopped parsley, may be laid in different parts to encrease the variety, and improve the general appearance.
ROLLED LOIN OF MUTTON. Hang the joint up till tender, and then bone it. Lay on a seasoning of pepper, allspice, mace, nutmeg, and a few cloves, all in fine powder. Next day prepare a stuffing as for hare, beat the meat with a rolling-pin, cover it with the stuffing, roll it up tight and tie it. Half bake it in a slow oven, let it grow cold, take off the fat, and put the gravy into a stewpan. Flour the meat, and put it in likewise. Stew it till almost ready, and add a glass of port, an anchovy, some ketchup, and a little lemon pickle. Serve it in the gravy, and with jelly sauce. A few mushrooms are a great improvement; but if to eat like hare, these must not be added, nor the lemon pickle.
ROLLED NECK OF PORK. Bone it first, then put over the inside a forcemeat of chopped sage, a very few crumbs of bread, salt, pepper, and two or three berries of allspice. Then roll the meat up very tight, place it at a good distance from the fire, and roast it slowly.
ROLLED STEAKS. Cut a large steak from a round of beef, spread over it a forcemeat, such as is made for veal, roll it up like collared eel, and tie it up in a cloth. Boil it an hour and a half, and when done enough, cut it into slices. Prepare a rich gravy, a little thickened, and pour over the steaks.
ROMAN CEMENT. To make a mortar for outside plastering, or brick-work, or to line reservoirs, so as no water can penetrate it, mix together eighty-four pounds of drifted sand, twelve pounds of unslaked lime, and four pounds of the poorest cheese grated through an iron grater. When well mixed, add enough hot water, not boiling, to make it into a proper consistence for plastering, such a quantity of the above as is wanted. It requires very good and quick working. One hod of this mortar will go a great way, as it is to be laid on in a thin smooth coat, without the least space being left uncovered. The wall or lath work should be first covered with common hair mortar well dried. Suffolk cheese will be found to make the best cement.
ROOK PIE. Skin and draw some young rooks, cut out the backbones, and season with pepper and salt. Lay them in a dish with a little water, strew some bits of butter over them, cover the dish with a thick crust, and bake it well.
ROSE WATER. When the roses are full blown, pick off the leaves carefully, and allow a peck of them to a quart of water. Put them in a cold still over a slow fire, and distil it very gradually. Bottle the water, and cork it up in two or three days.
ROT IN SHEEP. When sheep are newly brought in, it will preservetheir health to give them a table-spoonful of the juice of rue leaves, mixed with a little salt. If they are in danger of the rot, this mixture may be repeated every week or oftener, as the case requires.
ROUND OF BEEF. Cut out the bone first, then skewer and tie up the beef to make it quite round. Salt it carefully, and moisten it with the pickle for eight or ten days. It may be stuffed with parsley, if approved; in which case the holes to admit the parsley must be made with a sharp-pointed knife, and the parsley coarsely cut and stuffed in tight. When dressed it should be carefully skimmed as soon as it boils, and afterwards kept boiling very gently.
ROUT CAKES. To make rout drop-cakes, mix two pounds of flour with one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, and one poundofcurrants, cleaned and dried. Moisten it into a stiff paste with two eggs, a large spoonful of orange-flower water, as much rose water, sweet wine, and brandy. Drop the paste on a tin plate floured, and a short time will bake them.
ROYAL CAKES. Put into a saucepan a quarter of a pint of water, a piece of butter half the size of an egg, two ounces of fine sugar, a little grated lemon peel, and a little salt. When it has boiled about half a minute, stir in by degrees four spoonfuls of flour, keeping it constantly stirring all the time, till it becomes a smooth paste, pretty stiff, and begins to adhere to the saucepan. Then take it off the fire, and add three eggs well beaten, putting them in by degrees, and stirring the paste all the time to prevent its being lumpy. Add a little orange-flower water, and a few almonds pounded fine. Make it into little cakes, and bake them upon a sheet of tin well buttered. Half an hour will bake them in a moderate oven.
ROYAL PUNCH. Take thirty Seville oranges and thirty lemons, quite sound, and pare them very thin. Put the parings into an earthen pan, with as much rum or brandy as will cover them. Cover up the pan, and let them stand four days. Take ten gallons of water, and twelve pounds of lump sugar, and boil them. When nearly cold, put in the whites of thirty eggs well beaten, and stir it and boil it a quarter of an hour. Strain it through a hair sieve into an earthen pan, and let it stand till next day. Then put it into a cask, strain the spirit from the parings of the oranges and lemons, and add as much more to it as will make it up five gallons. Put it into the cask with five quarts of Seville orange juice and three quarts of lemon juice. Stir it all together with a cleft stick, and repeat the same once a day for three successive days: then stop it down close, and in six weeks it will be fit to drink.
RUFFS AND REEVES. These are to be trussed and skewered the same as snipes and quails. Place bars of bacon over them, roast them in about ten minutes, and serve with a good gravy in the dish.
RUMP OF BEEF. Take a rump of beef, or about eight pounds of the brisket, and stew it till it is quite tender, in as much water as will cover it. When sufficiently done, take out the bones, and skim off the fat very clean. To a pint of the liquor, add the third part of a pint of port wine, a little walnut or mushroom ketchup, and some salt. Tie up some whole white pepper and mace in a piece of muslin, and stew all together for a short time. Have ready some carrots and turnips boiled tender and cut into squares, strew them upon the beef, putting a few into the dish. Truffles and morels may be added, or artichoke bottoms.
RUMP SOUP. Two or three rumps of beef will make a stronger soup, and of a far more nourishingquality, than a larger quantity of meat without them. It may be made like gravy soup, and thickened and flavoured in any way that is most approved.
RUMP STEAKS. The best steaks are those cut from the middle of a rump of beef, that has been killed at least four days in moderate weather, and much longer in cold weather, when they can be cut about six inches long, four inches wide, and half an inch thick. Do not beat them, unless you suspect they will not be tender. Take care to have a very clear brisk fire, throw on it a little salt, make the gridiron hot, and set it slanting, to prevent the fat from dropping into the fire, and making a smoke. It requires more practice and care than is generally supposed to do steaks to a nicety; and for want of these little attentions, this very common dish, which every body is supposed capable of dressing, seldom comes to table in perfection. It may be underdone or thoroughly done, as happens to be preferred. It is usual to put a table-spoonful of ketchup into a dish before the fire, with a little minced shalot. In broiling, turn the steak with a pair of meat tongs, and it will be done in about ten or fifteen minutes. Rub a bit of butter over it, and send it up quite hot, garnished with pickles, and scraped horseradish.—If onion gravy is to be added, prepare it in the following manner. Peel and slice two large onions, put them into a stewpan with two table-spoonfuls of water, cover the stewpan close, and set it on a slow fire till the water has boiled away, and the onions have got a little browned. Then add half a pint of good broth, or water with a large spoonful of ketchup, and boil the onions till they are quite tender. Strain off the liquor, and chop them very fine. Thicken the broth with butter rolled in flour, and season it with mushroom ketchup, pepper and salt. Put the onion into it, let it boil gently for five minutes, and pour it over the broiled steak. Good beef gravy, instead of broth, will make the sauce superlative.—If a cold rump steak is to be warmed up, lay it in a stewpan, with a large onion cut in quarters, six berries of allspice, and six of black pepper. Cover the steak with boiling water, let it stew gently for an hour, thicken the liquor with butter rolled in flour, shake it well over the fire for five minutes, and it is ready. Lay the steaks and onion on a dish, and pour the gravy over them through a sieve.
RUSKS. Beat seven eggs well, and mix them with half a pint of new milk, in which four ounces of butter have been previously melted. Add a quarter of a pint of yeast, and three ounces of sugar, and put them by degrees into as much flour as will make a very light paste, rather like a batter, and let it rise before the fire half an hour. Then add some more flour, to make it a little stiffer, but not much. Work it well, and divide it into small loaves, or cakes, about five or six inches wide, and flatten them. When baked and cold, slice them the thickness of rusks, and put them into the oven to brown a little. The cakes when first baked, eat deliciously buttered for tea; or made with carraways, they eat well cold.
RUSSIAN SAUCE. To four spoonfuls of grated horseradish, put two tea-spoonfuls of patent mustard, a little salt, one tea-spoonful of sugar, and a sufficient quantity of vinegar to cover the ingredients. This sauce is used for cold meat, but makes a good fish sauce, with the addition of melted butter.
RUST. To prevent iron and steel from rusting, mix with fat oil varnish, at least half, or at most four fifths of its quantity of highly rectified spirits of turpentine. This varnish must be lightly and evenlyapplied with a sponge; after which the article is left to dry in some situation not exposed to dust. Articles thus varnished retain their metallic lustre, and do not contract any spots of rust. This varnish may also be applied to copper, of which it preserves the polish and heightens the colour.