Required: Two ox tails.

One onion, carrot, and turnip. Four cloves.

A bunch of parsley and herbs.

Twelve peppercorns. Three allspice. The juice of half a lemon. One ounce of butter. One ounce of flour. One pint of stock.

One tablespoonful of Worcester or other sauce. (Sufficient for four to six.)

Wash the tails and divide them at the joints. Put them into a pan with cold water to cover them, and bring them to the boil. Skim the pan and continue boiling the ox tails for ten minutes ; then strain off the water and trim all rough-looking pieces off the joints, so that they have a neat, round appearance.

Put them into a saucepan containing about two pints of water, with the onion, the carrot and turnip cut into neat dice, also the herbs and spice. Cover the pan and simmer it very gently for about two and a half hours or till the meat is tender. Strain off the gravy into a basin, let it get cold, and then skim off the fat.

Steak-and-mushroom pic. A meat pic is always a favourite dish, and the addition of mushrooms gives a rich flavour to the gravy

Take out the onion, herbs, and spice, and save the cut carrot and turnip. Melt the butter in the saucepan, stir in the flour smoothly, and fry it a nice brown. Add a pint of the stock in which the tails were cooked, and stir the whole over the fire till it boils. Add the lemon-juiceand sauce, and season this carefully. Put in the pieces of tail and warm them gently in the sauce for about fifteen minutes.

Then arrange the pieces neatly on a hot dish, and strain the sauce over them. In the centre put the carrot and turnip in a little of the sauce, which has been re-warmed.

Note. - Green peas, fresh or bottled, or cooked spinach, can be put in the centre, and are excellent. Cost, 4s. 6d.