Mackerel

Mackerel can be boiled (see No. 1), and served with parsley and butter sauce. (See Parsley.) A little vinegar is a great improvement with this sauce; this can be added on the plate. Mackerel can be cut open and grilled (see No. 5), and served with a little butter and chopped parsley placed in it, as well as a little lemon-juice squeezed over it. Or it can be baked in a pie-dish with equal quantities of vinegar and water, and a few peppercorns, and eaten cold.

Maitre D'Hotel Sauce

Take a small quantity of Bechamel sauce (See Bechamel); say, half a pint. Make this hot in a small saucepan, then dissolve in an ounce of butter; add a brimming tea-spoonful of chopped parsley and the juice of half a lemon. Flavour with pepper and salt.

A cheaper way, but not so good, is to add a brimming teaspoonful of chopped parsley and the juice of half a lemon, and a little pepper and salt, to half a pint of good butter sauce. (See Butter Sauce).

N.B. - Anything, such as potatoes, sole, salmon cutlets, etc., served "a Ia, Maitre d' Hotel," simply means that they are served up in this sauce.

Marrow Bones

Have the bottom of the bones cut so that they will stand upright. Cover the ends where the marrow is with a flour-and-water paste. Boil them in a saucepan, but do not let the water come higher than half-way up the bone. Time to boil, rather more than an hour. Serve a hot dry toast with them. The marrow should be scooped out, quickly spread lightly over the toast, and then freely sprinkled with pepper and salt.

Cold Meat

When meat is served cold, it should always be placed on a clean dish and ornamented with a little parsley. In the case of beef, scraped horse-radish may be added. If it be veal, a little glaze (see Glaze) rubbed over it makes a wonderful difference in its appearance. So also in all kinds of cold fowl or game. (For the various methods- of warming up cold meat, see Curry, Hash, Mince, Rissoles.) Never attempt to spoil a cold joint by making it hot in the oven the second day, even if underdone; it is an idle as well as wasteful procedure. There is great waste in drying-up joints as well as in over-cooking them.

Condensed Milk

Swiss milk in tins is a great assistance in making all kinds of sweets. Cream is very expensive, but a pint of milk in which a tablespoonful of Swiss milk has been dissolved, and a yolk of egg beaten up, is a very good substitute.

Mint Sauce

Chop up enough mint, very finely, to fill a tablespoon piled up. Put this mint in a tureen, with three tablespoonfuls of water and a dessertspoonful of moist sugar. Press and squeeze the mint, and let it soak as long as possible. Add one tablespoonful of vinegar.

N.B. - A small pinch of mint floating in half a pint of vinegar is not mint sauce.

Muffins

Toast the muffin thoroughly on both sides; then cut, or better, tear it open, and butter the inside plentifully. Put the two buttered pieces together, and serve in a dish placed on a basin of boiling water. Cover the muffins with a hot cover. Muffins are an extravagant dish, as, to be nice, they should nearly swim in good fresh butter. Some persons sprinkle salt over muffins, from a salt-box like a pepper-box, called a "muffineer".

N.B. - When muffins are served to be eaten with meat, cut them across right through both halves once. When they are served to be eaten alone, such as at tea-time, cut them into quarters.