Modern cookery for private families

boil. Two or three carrots and a large bunch of savoury herbs, added after the scum is cleared off, will improve them. They should be simmered until they are extremely tender, when the skin will peel from them easily. A highly dried tongue of moderate size will usually require from three and a half to four hours’ boiling; an unsmoked one about an hour less; and for one which has not been salted at all a shorter time will suffice. BORDYKE RECEIPT FOR STEWING A TONGUE. After the tongue has been soaked, trimmed, and washed with extreme nicety, lay it into a vessel of fitting size, and place round it three or four pounds of the neck, or of any other lean cuttings of beef, with some bones of undressed veal, and pour in sufficient cold water to keep it covered until it is done; or, instead of this, use strong unseasoned beef broth made with the shin, and any odd bits or bones of veal which may be at hand. Let the tongue be brought to boil very gradually, that it may be plump and tender. Remove the scum when it first rises, and when it is quite cleared off add a large faggot of parsley, thyme, and winter savoury, three carrots, a small onion, and one mild turnip. After three hours and a half of gentle simmering, probe the tongue, and if sufficiently done peel off the skin and serve it quickly. If not wanted hot for table, lay it upon a very clean board or trencher, and fasten it down to it by passing a carving fork through the root, and a smaller one through the tip, drawing the tongue straight with the latter before it is fixed in the board; let it remain thus until it is quite cold. It is much the fashion at present to glaze hams and tongues, but this should never be attempted by a cook not well acquainted with the manner of doing it, and the proper flavour and appearance of the glaze. For directions to make it, see page 104.