Purchase two soup bones (twenty cents). Boil them four or five hours with a few vegetables (as described for stock, see page 79). The stock will make two or three soups. Cut up the meat for _croquettes_. Of course the _croquettes_ are better made with the best of meat, yet may be excellent when made of the soup meat.
MINCE-PIES (_made from Remnants of Cold Beef_).
A good disposition in winter of cold roast beef is to make with it two or three mince-pies, as by the following receipt: One cupful of chopped meat (quarter of it fat), two cupfuls of apple, one tea-spoonful of salt, one table-spoonful of ground allspice, half a table-spoonful of ground cinnamon, half a table-spoonful of ground cloves, one cupful of sugar, half a cupful of raisins, half a cupful of currants, one cupful of cider; or, if one has no cider, use the same amount of cider-vinegar and water mixed--say half of each.
A COMMON POT-PIE OF VEAL, BEEF, OR CHICKEN.
Cut the meat into pieces, and put them into enough boiling water to cover them well; add also two or three strips of pork. Cover the pot closely. Boil an hour, then season with pepper and salt to taste, and a little piece of butter.
Just before taking out the ingredients of the pot to send to table, put into it, when the water is boiling, separate spoonfuls of batter made with two eggs well beaten, two and a half or three cupfuls of buttermilk, one tea-spoonful of soda, and sufficient flour. The batter should be made just before it is cooked. It takes about three or four minutes to cook it, the water not to be allowed to stop boiling. The dish should then be served immediately, or the dumplings will become heavy.
If people generally knew how nice a calf’s heart is, if properly cooked, the butchers would never charge so little as ten cents for it. In France, the calf’s heart and kidneys are considered great delicacies. In America they are often thrown away.
Merely wash off the blood. One could, by soaking, extract all the flavor from the heart. Stuff it with a veal force-meat stuffing, or a common stuffing, often used for turkeys, of bread-crumbs, onion, a little thyme or sage, egg, pepper, and salt. Tie a buttered paper over the mouth of the heart to keep the stuffing in place. Put it into a small baking-pan with a little hot water, pepper, and salt. Bake nearly two hours, basting it very frequently. When done, thicken the gravy with flour; strain, skim, and season it, and pour it on the dish around the heart. Garnish the plate with onions, first boiled until nearly done, then seasoned with pepper, salt, and a little butter, and browned in the oven.