Take twenty good chestnuts and roast them on a slow fire so that they won't color. Remove the shells without breaking the nuts, and put them into a saucepan with one level tablespoon of powdered sugar and one-half glass of milk and a little vanilla. Cover the saucepan and let it cook slowly (simmer) for more than a half-hour. Then drain the chestnuts and pass them through a sieve. Put them back in a bowl with one-half a tablespoon of butter, the yolks of three eggs, and mix well without cooking. Allow them to cool, and then take a small portion at a time, the size of a nut, roll them, dip them in egg, and in bread crumbs, and fry in butter and lard, a few at a time. Serve hot with powdered sugar.
Take some slices of roast or boiled leg of mutton, egg them, and roll in a mixture of breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and a little flower. Fry till the slices are brown on each side; serve with chipped potatoes.
Take a fat Pig and scald him, and cut off his head, slit him and trusse him up like a Lamb, then being slit through the middle, and flawed, then parboyle him a little, then draw him with parsley as you do a Lamb, then roast it and dridge it, and serve it up with Butter, Pepper, and Sugar.
Take a calf's head, wash it well, lay it in an earthen dish, and cut out the tongue lay it loose under the head in the dish with the brains, and a little sage and parsley; rub the head over with the yolk of an egg, then strew over them a few bread-crumbs and shred parsley, lay all over it lumps of butter and a little salt, then set it in the oven; it will take about an hour and a half baking; when it is enough take the brains, sage and parsley; and chop them together, put to them the gravy that is in the dish, a little butter and a spoonful of vinegar, so boil it up and put it in cups, and set them round the head upon the dish, take the tongue and blanch it, cut it in two, and lay it on each side the head, and some slices of crisp bacon over the head, so serve it up.
The general rules are, to have a brisk hot fire, to hang down rather than to spit, to baste with salt and water, and one quarter of an hour to every pound of beef, tho' tender beef will require less, while old tough beef will require more roasting; pricking with a fork will determine you whether done or not; rare done is the healthiest and the taste of this age.
Have the butcher carefully remove the blade from the shoulder and fill the space with a bread stuffing; See "Bread Dressing for Fowl". Sew up the opening, roast in the oven with a very little water in the pan, and baste frequently. Serve with the gravy from the pan after the grease has been carefully removed.
Cut all the meat from cold roast ducks; put the bones and stuffing into cold water; cover them and let boil; put the meat into a deep dish; pour on enough of the stock made from the bones to moisten; cover with pastry slit in the centre with a knife, and bake a light brown.
Take a large pike, scale and clean it, draw it at the gills.--To make a pudding for the Pike. Take a large handful of bread-crumbs, as much beef-suet shred fine, two eggs, a little pepper and salt, a little grated nutmeg, a little parsley, sweet-marjoram and lemon-peel shred fine; so mix altogether, put it into the belly of your pike, skewer it round and lie it in an earthen dish with a lump of butter over it, a little salt and flour, so set it in the oven; an hour will roast it.
There is no form in which ices are more palatable or healthful than in the form of sherbet. This is made of fruit juice, sugar and water. The simplest sherbet is made by mixing the sugar, water and fruit juice together. A richer and smoother ice is obtained by boiling the sugar and water together, then adding the fruit juice, and when the mixture is cool, freezing it. It takes nearly twice as long to freeze the preparation made in this way as when made with the uncooked mixture. Sherbets are usually served at the end of a dinner, but they are sometimes served before the roast.
