Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/23

Rh should be kept at it and not allowed to boil for ten minutes, then cool down a quarter of an hour. If you allow this, your meat will not be done, and the people call out about the directions being all wrong. One lady for whom I wrote out my own method complained that her joint was not nearly done, when she allowed only a quarter of an hour for each pound. I asked, was she sure it boiled continuously, or only in fits and starts. Ah, sometimes she had to move it one side of the fire to make room for other things. Of course, if that is done the meat will not be cooked. It should be kept at an even boil the whole time: I do not mean a gallop, but simply a steady heat. All scum should be skimmed off as it rises, if not the meat will be dark. Boiling in a well-floured cloth improves a leg of mutton or lamb, and fowls should always be so enclosed, as well as fish. The only vegetables that should be boiled with meat are carrots and turnips.

Veal.—Veal must be boiled like pork, or it is very unwholesome. Serve it with parsley and butter, or with a dish of bacon and greens.

Leg of Mutton should be served with caper sauce and turnips. Leg of lamb must be boiled in a floured cloth.

Ham.—If it is a large one it must be soaked at least twenty-four hours before cooking; when boiled according to its weight peel off the skin, grate a brown crust over it, and stand in the oven for a few minutes. An excellent plan to preserve the juice in a boiled ham or round of beef, is to plunge it into cold water for a minute or two directly it is taken out of the pot, the colder the water the better; iced if possible.

Ingredients: A round of beef 30 or 40 pounds, 2 or 3 pounds of salt, 1 or 2 lbs. of sugar (if molasses, no sugar), one tablespoonful powdered saltpetre, ¼ lb. pepper, spice, celery salt.

Mode: Get the butcher to cut a round moderately thick and with a piece of suet skewered into the centre—the meat must be well skewered together, so that it can be turned and re-turned. Get it as soon as possible after it is cut from the bullock and place in a large milk dish if nothing else offers.

1st morning: Rub well with plenty of coarse salt (on no account use table-salt), run a thin-pointed or sheath knife through in the thickest parts and press the salt into the incisions, and pass the finger as far down them as possible (do not make too many or you will spoil the beef for slicing, two or three, if the piece is very thick, should do in each fleshy part). The reason for these incisions is to let the salt penetrate all through, so one must use one's own common sense where and how often to stab the meat. When well salted on one side, turn over, and do the other in the same way. Be sure to rub well, especially round the suet, it is a good plan to remove the latter once or twice and replace Also, well rub the outsides, even when there appears to be a thick leathery skin—all needs to come under the influence of the hand and plenty of salt. Upon the first day's rubbing, the whole success of the round depends, it is, in fact, the preparation for the other spices, without which the beef would be tasteless. Keep in a cool place and uncovered. Unless attended to each day in succession the beef will go sour and be uneatable. In very hot weather it is safest to turn and give a slight rub to it at night as well, and all flies must be kept away.