Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book: A Practical and Exhaustive Manual of Cookery and Housekeeping

with three leaves of green mint. Cover again and cook until the peas are tender, but not until they break. Have ready a broad dish lined with slices of toast soaked in tomato sauce. Take up meat and peas in a perforated skimmer and lay upon the toast. Keep hot, while you thicken the gravy left in the pot with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of browned flour; season, boil up and pour over the stew. Let it stand one minute and serve. Casserole of lamb chops Trim two pounds of lean chops and proceed as with the meat in last recipe until they have been browned in the fat. Now turn meat and fat into your casserole, in the bottom of which is a layer of pared and sliced tomatoes. Have ready half a cupful of potato balls cut with a “gouge” and parboiled for five minutes, a dozen button onions, also parboiled, and half a can of champignons (mushrooms). Sprinkle these over and between the chops. Pour in a cupful of good stock, or gravy, well seasoned; lastly, another layer of sliced tomatoes, salted, peppered, sprinkled with sugar and dotted with butter. Cover the casserole and set in a moderate oven for two hours. Drain off all the gravy without disturbing the rest of the contents of the casserole. Skim, thicken with browned flour, add the juice of half a lemon, boil up, pour in a glass of sherry, pour gently back into the casserole, cover, set in the oven for three minutes and send to table, covered. If you once try this recipe you will not be satisfied until the dish it represents becomes a frequent visitor to your table. MEAT AND POULTRY PIES Chicken pie Cut at every joint a pair of _young_ chickens. Lay on ice while you make a gravy of the pinions, necks and feet—scalding and skinning the feet before putting with the rest over the fire, covering deep with cold water and bringing slowly to the boil. Cook until the flesh is in rags, and the liquor reduced by one-half.