The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families

M

Macaroni. The usual way of preparing macaroni is to boil it in milk, or weak veal broth, flavoured with salt. When tender, put it into a dish without the liquor. Add to it some bits of butter and grated cheese; over the top grate more, and add a little more butter. Set the dish into a Dutch oven a quarter of an hour, but do not let the top become hard. – Another way. Wash it well, and simmer in half milk and half broth, of veal or mutton, till it is tender. To a spoonful of this liquor, put the yolk of an egg beaten in a spoonful of cream; just make it hot to thicken, but not to boil. Spread it on the macaroni, and then grate fine old cheese all over, with bits of butter. Brown the whole with a salamander. – Another. Wash the macaroni, then simmer it in a little broth, with a little salt and pounded mace. When quite tender, take it out of the liquor, lay it in a dish, grate a good deal of cheese over, and cover it with fine grated bread. Warm some butter without oiling, and pour it from a boat through a small earthen cullender all over the crumbs; then put the dish into a Dutch oven to roast the cheese, and brown the bread of a fine colour. The bread should be in separate crumbs, and look light.

MACARONI PUDDING. Simmer in a pint of milk, an ounce or two of the pipe sort of macaroni, and a bit of lemon and cinnamon. When quite tender, put it into a dish with milk, two or three eggs, but only one white. Add some sugar, nutmeg, a spoonful of peach water, and the same of raisin wine. Bake with a paste round the edges. A layer of orange marmalade, or raspberry jam, in a macaroni pudding, is a great improvement. In this case omit the almond water, or ratifia, which would otherwise be wanted to give it a flavour.

MACARONI SOUP. Boil a pound of the best macaroni in a quart of good stock, till it is quite tender. Then take out half, and put it into another stewpot. Add some more stock to the remainder, and boil it till all the macaroni will pulp through a fine sieve. Then add together the two liquors, a pint or more of boiling cream, the macaroni that was first taken out, and half a pound of grated parmesan cheese. Make it hot, but do not let it boil. Serve it with the crust of a French roll, cut into the size of a shilling.

MACAROONS. Blanch four ounces of almonds, and pound them with four spoonfuls of orange water. Whisk the whites of four eggs to a froth, mix it with the almonds, and a pound of sifted sugar, till reduced to a paste. Lay a sheet of wafer paper on a tin, and put on the paste in little cakes, the shape of macaroons.

MACKAREL. Their season is generally May, June, and July; but may sometimes be had at an earlier period. When green gooseberries are ready, their appearance may at all times be expected. They are so tender a fish that they carry and keep worse than any other: choose those that are firm and bright, and sweet scented. After gutting and cleaning, boil them gently, and serve with butter and fennel, or gooseberry sauce. To broil them, split and sprinkle with herbs, pepper and salt; or stuff with the same, adding crumbs and chopped fennel.

MAGNUM BONUM PLUMS. Though very indifferent when eaten raw, this fruit makes an excellent sweetmeat, or is fine in the form of tarts. Prick them with a needle to prevent bursting, simmer them very gently in a thin syrup, put them in a china bowl, and when cold pour the syrup over. Let them lie three days, then make a syrup of three pounds of sugar to five pounds of fruit, with no more water than hangs to large lumps of the sugar dipped quickly, and instantly brought out. Boil the plums in this fresh syrup, after draining the first from them. Do them very gently till they are clear, and the syrup adheres to them. Put them one by one into small pots, and pour the liquor over. Reserve a little syrup in the pan for those intended to be dried, warm up the fruit in it, drain them out, and put them on plates to dry in a cool oven. These plums are apt to ferment, if not boiled in two syrups; the former will sweeten pies, but will have too much acid to keep. A part may be reserved, with the addition of a little sugar, to do those that are dry, for they will not require to be so sweet as if kept wet, and will eat very nicely if boiled like the rest. One parcel may be done after another, and save much sugar, but care must be taken not to break the fruit.

MAHOGANY. To give a fine colour to mahogany, let the furniture be washed perfectly clean with vinegar, having first taken out any ink stains there may be, with spirits of salt, taking the greatest care to touch the stained part very slightly, and then the spirits must be instantly washed off. Use the following liquid. Put into a pint of cold-drawn linseed oil, four pennyworth of alkanet root, and two pennyworth of rose pink. Let it remain all night in an earthen vessel, then stirring it well, rub some of it all over the mahogany with a linen rag; and when it has lain some time, rub it bright with linen cloths. Dining tables should be covered with mat, oil cloth, or baize, to prevent staining; and should be instantly rubbed when the dishes are removed, while the board is still warm.

MAIDS. This kind of fish, as well as skate, requires to be hung up a day before it is dressed, to prevent its eating tough. Maids may either be broiled or fried; or if a tolerable size, the middle part may be boiled, and the fins fried. They should be dipped in egg, and covered with crumbs.

MALT. This article varies very much in value, according to the quality of the barley, and the mode of manufacture. When good it is full of flour, and in biting a grain asunder it will easily separate; the shell will appear thin, and well filled up with flour. If it bite hard and steely, the malt is bad. The difference of pale and brown malt arises merely from the different degrees of heat employed in the drying: the main object is the quantity of flour. If the barley was light and thin, whether from unripeness, blight, or any other cause, it will not malt so well; but instead of sending out its roots in due time, a part of it will still be barley. This will appear by putting a handful of unground malt in cold water, and stirring it about till every grain is wetted; the good will swim, and the unmalted barley sink to the bottom. But if the barley be well malted, there is still a variety in the quality: for a bushel of malt from fine, plump, heavy barley, will be better than the same quantity from thin and light barley. Weight therefore here is the criterion of quality; and a bushel of malt weighing forty-five pounds is cheaper than any other at almost any price, supposing it to be free from unmalted barley, for the barley itself is heavier than the malt. The practice of mixing barley with the malt on a principle of economy, is not to be approved; for though it may add a little to the strength of the wort, it makes the beer flat and insipid, and of course unwholesome.

MARBLE. Chimney pieces, or marble slabs, may be cleaned with muriatic acid, either diluted or in a pure state. If too strong, it will deprive the marble of its polish, but may be restored by using a piece of felt and a little putty powdered, rubbing it on with clean water. Another method is, making a paste of a bullock's gall, a gill of soap lees, half a gill of turpentine, and a little pipe clay. The paste is then applied to the marble, and suffered to remain a day or two. It is afterwards rubbed off, and applied a second or third time, to render the marble perfectly clean, and give it the finest polish.

MARBLE CEMENT. If by any accident, marble or alabaster happen to be broken, it may be strongly cemented together in the following manner. Melt two pounds of bees' wax, and one pound of rosin. Take about the same quantity of marble or other stones that require to be joined, and reduce it to a powder; stir it well together with the melted mixture, and knead the mass in water, till the powder is thoroughly incorporated with the wax and rosin. The parts to be joined must be heated and made quite dry, and the cement applied quite hot. Melted sulphur, laid on fragments of stone previously heated, will make a firm and durable cement. Little deficiencies in stones or corners that have been stripped or broken off, may be supplied with some of the stone powdered and mixed with melted sulphur: but care must be taken to have both parts properly heated.

MARBLE PAPER. For marbling books or paper, dissolve four ounces of gum arabac in two quarts of water, and pour it into a broad vessel. Mix several colours with water in separate shells: with small brushes peculiar to each colour, sprinkle and intermix them on the surface of the gum water, and curl them with a stick so as to form a variety of streaks. The edges of a book pressed close may then be slightly dipped in the colours on the surface of the water, and they will take the impression of the mixture. The edges may then be glazed with the white of an egg, and the colours will remain. A sheet of paper may be marbled in the same way.

MARBLE STAINS. To take stains out of marble, make a tolerably thick mixture of unslaked lime finely powdered, with some strong soap-ley. Spread it instantly over the marble with a painter's brush, and in two month's time wash it off perfectly clean. Prepare a fine thick lather of soft soap, boiled in soft water; dip a brush in it, and scour the marble well with powder. Clear off the soap, and finish with a smooth hard brush till the stains are all removed. After a very good rubbing, the marble will acquire a beautiful polish. If the marble has been injured by iron stains, take an equal quantity of fresh spirits of vitriol and lemon juice. Mix them in a bottle, shake it well, and wet the spots. Rub with a soft linen cloth, and in a few minutes they will disappear.

MARBLE VEAL. The meat is prepared in the same way as potted beef or veal. Then beat up a boiled tongue, or slices of ham, with butter, white pepper, and pounded mace. Put a layer of veal in the pot, then stick in pieces of tongue or ham, fill up the spaces with veal, and pour clarified butter over it.

MARKING INK. Mix two drams of the tincture of galls with one dram of lunar caustic, and for marking of linen, use it with a pen as common ink. The cloth must first be wetted in a strong solution of salt of tartar, and afterwards dried, before any attempt be made to write upon it. A beautiful red ink may also be prepared for this purpose by mixing half an ounce of vermillion, and a dram of the salt of steel, with as much linseed oil as will make it of a proper consistency, either to use with a pen or a hair pencil. Other colours may be made in the same way, by substituting the proper ingredients instead of vermillion.

MANGOES. Cut off the tops of some large green cucumbers, take out the seeds, and wipe them dry. Fill them with mustard-seed, horseradish, sliced onion, ginger, and whole pepper. Sow on the tops, put the mangoes into a jar, cover them with boiling vinegar, and do them the same as any other pickle. Melons are done in the same way.

MARIGOLD WINE. Boil three pounds and a half of lump sugar in a gallon of water, put in a gallon of marigold flowers, gathered dry and picked from the stalks, and then make it as for cowslip wine. If the flowers be gathered only a few at a time, measure them when they are picked, and turn and dry them in the shade. When a sufficient quantity is prepared, put them into a barrel, and pour the sugar and water upon them. Put a little brandy into the bottles, when the wine is drawn off.

MARMALADE. For a cough or cold, take six ounces of Malaga raisins, and beat them to a fine paste, with the same quantity of sugarcandy. Add an ounce of the conserve of roses, twenty-five drops of oil of vitriol, and twenty drops of oil of sulphur. Mix them well together, and take a small tea-spoonful night and morning.

MARROW BONES. Cover the top of them with a floured cloth, boil and serve them with dry toast.

MARSHMALLOW OINTMENT. Take half a pound of marshmallow roots, three ounces of linseed, and three ounces of fenugreek seed; bruise and boil them gently half an hour in a quart of water, and then add two quarts of sweet oil. Boil them together till the water is all evaporated, and strain off the oil. Add a pound of bees' wax, half a pound of yellow rosin, and two ounces of common turpentine. Melt them together over a slow fire, and keep stirring till the ointment is cold.

MASHED PARSNIPS. Boil the roots tender, after they have been wiped clean. Scrape them, and mash them in a stewpan with a little cream, a good piece of butter, pepper and salt.

MASHED POTATOES. Boil the potatoes, peel them, and reduce them to paste. Add a quarter of a pint of milk to two pounds weight, a little salt, and two ounces of butter, and stir it all well together over the fire. They may either be served up in this state, or in scallops, or put on the dish in a form, and the top browned with a salamander.

MATTRASSES. Cushions, mattrasses, and bed clothes stuffed with wool, are particularly liable to be impregnated with what is offensive and injurious, from persons who have experienced putrid and inflammatory fevers, and cannot therefore be too carefully cleaned, carded, and washed. It would also be proper frequently to fumigate them with vinegar or muriatic gas. If these articles be infested with insects, dissolve a pound and a half of alum, and as much cream of tartar, in three pints of boiling water. Mix this solution in three gallons of cold water, immerse the wool in it for several days, and then let it be washed and dried. This operation will prevent the insects from attacking it in future.

MEAD. Dissolve thirty pounds of honey in thirteen gallons of water; boil and skim it well. Then add of rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and sweetbriar, about a handful altogether. Boil the whole for an hour, and put it into a tub, with two or three handfuls of ground malt. Stir it till it is about blood warm, then strain it through a cloth, and return it into the tub. Cut a toast, spread it over with good ale yeast, and put it into the tub. When the liquor has sufficiently fermented, put it into a cask. Take an ounce and a half each of cloves, mace, and nutmegs, and an ounce of sliced ginger. Bruise the spices; tie them up in a cloth, and hang it in the vessel, which must be stopped up close for use. – Another way. Put four or five pounds of honey into a gallon of boiling water, and let it continue to boil an hour and a half. Skim it quite clean, put in the rinds of three or four lemons, and two ounces of hops sewed up in a bag. When cold, put the liquor into a cask, stop it up close, and let it stand eight or nine months.

MEASLES. In general, all that is needful in the treatment of this complaint is to keep the body open by means of tamarinds, manna, or other gentle laxatives; and to supply the patient frequently with barley water, or linseed tea sweetened with honey. Bathe the feet in warm water; and if there be a disposition to vomit, it ought to be promoted by drinking a little camomile tea. If the disorder appear to strike inward, the danger may be averted by applying blisters to the arms and legs, and briskly rubbing the whole body with warm flannels.

MEAT. In all sorts of provisions, the best of the kind goes the farthest; it cuts out with most advantage, and affords most nourishment. Round of beef, fillet of veal, and leg of mutton, are joints that bear a higher price; but as they have more solid meat, they deserve the preference. Those joints however which are inferior, may be dressed as palatably; and being cheaper, they should be bought in turn; for when weighed with the prime pieces, it makes the price of these come lower. In loins of meat, the long pipe that runs by the bone should be taken out, as it is apt to taint; as also the kernels of beef. Rumps and edgebones of beef are often bruised by the blows which the drovers give the beasts, and the part that has been struck always taints; these joints therefore when bruised should not be purchased. And as great loss is often sustained by the spoiling of meat, after it is purchased, the best way to prevent this is to examine it well, wipe it every day, and put some pieces of charcoal over it. If meat is brought from a distance in warm weather, the butcher should be desired to cover it close, and bring it early in the morning, to prevent its being fly-blown. – All meat should be washed before it is dressed. If for boiling, the colour will be better for the soaking; but if for roasting, it should afterwards be dried. Particular care must be taken that the pot be well skimmed the moment it boils, otherwise the foulness will be dispersed over the meat. The more soups or broth are skimmed, the better and cleaner they will be. Boiled meat should first be well floured, and then put in while the water is cold. Meat boiled quick is sure to be hard; but care must be taken, that in boiling slow it does not stop, or the meat will be underdone. If the steam be kept in, the water will not be much reduced; but if this be desirable, the cover must be removed. As to the length of time required for roasting and boiling, the size of the joint must direct, as also the strength of the fire, and the nearness of the meat to it. In boiling, attention must be paid to the progress it makes, which should be regular and slow. For every pound of meat, a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes is generally allowed, according as persons choose to have it well or underdone. In preparing a joint for roasting, care must be taken not to run the spit through the best parts of the meat, and that no black stains appear upon it at the time of serving.

MEAT SAUCE. Put to a clean anchovy, a glass of port wine, a little strong broth, a sliced shalot, some nutmeg, and the juice of a Seville orange. Stew them together, and mix it with the gravy that runs from the meat.

MEAT SCREEN. This is a great saver of coals, and should be sufficiently large to guard what is roasting from currents of air. It should be placed on wheels, have a flat top, and not be less than about three feet and a half wide, with shelves in it, about one foot deep. It will then answer all the purposes of a large Dutch oven, a plate warmer, and a hot hearth. Some are made with a door behind, which is convenient; but the great heat to which they are exposed soon shrinks the materials, and the currents of air through the cracks cannot be prevented. Those without a door are therefore best.

MEDLEY PIE. Cut into small pieces some fat pork, or other meat underdone, and season it with salt and pepper. Cover the sides of the dish with common crust, put in a layer of sliced apples with a little sugar, then a layer of meat, and a layer of sliced onions, till the dish is full. Put a thick crust over it, and bake it in a slow oven. Currants or scalded gooseberries may be used instead of apples, and the onions omitted.

MELON FLUMMERY. Put plenty of bitter almonds into some stiff flummery, and make it of a pale green with spinach juice. When it becomes as thick as cream, wet the melon mould, and put the flummery into it. Put a pint of calf's foot jelly into a bason, and let it stand till the next day: then turn out the melon, and lay it in the midst of the bason of jelly. Fill up the bason with jelly beginning to set, and let it stand all night. Turn it out the next day, the same as for fruit in jelly: make a garland of flowers, and place it on the jelly.

MELON MANGOES. There is a particular sort for preserving, which must be carefully distinguished. Cut a square small piece out of one side, and through that take out the seeds, and mix with them mustard-seed and shred garlic. Stuff the melon as full as the space will allow, replace the square piece, and bind it up with fine packthread, boil a good quantity of vinegar, to allow for wasting, with peppercorns, salt, and ginger. Pour the liquor boiling hot over the mangoes four successive days; and on the last day put flour of mustard, and scraped horseradish into the vinegar just as it boils up. Observe that there is plenty of vinegar before it is stopped down, for pickles are soon spoiled if not well covered. Also the greater number of times that boiling vinegar is poured over them, the sooner they will be ready for eating. Mangoes should be pickled soon after they are gathered. Large cucumbers, called green turley, prepared as mangoes, are very excellent, and come sooner to table.

MELTED BUTTER. Though a very essential article for the table, it is seldom well prepared. Mix on a trencher, in the proportion of a tea-spoonful of flour to four ounces of the best butter. Put it into a saucepan, and two or three table-spoonfuls of hot water; boil it quick for a minute, and shake it all the time. Milk used instead of water, requires rather less butter, and looks whiter.

MICE. The poisonous substances generally prepared for the destruction of mice are attended with danger, and the use of them should by all means be avoided. Besides the common traps, baited with cheese, the following remedy will be found both safe and efficacious. Take a few handfuls of wheat flour, or malt meal, and knead it into a dough. Let it grow sour in a warm place, mix with it some fine iron filings, form the mass into small balls, and put them into the holes frequented by the mice. On eating this preparation, they are inevitably killed. Cats, owls, or hedgehogs, would be highly serviceable in places infested with mice. An effectual mousetrap may be made in the following manner. Take a plain four square trencher, and put into the two contrary corners of it a large pin, or piece of knitting needle. Then take two sticks about a yard long, and lay them on the dresser, with a notch cut at each end of the sticks, placing the two pins on the notches, so that one corner of the trencher may lie about an inch on the dresser or shelf that the mice come to. The opposite corner must be baited with some butter and oatmeal plastered on the trencher; and when the mice run towards the butter, it will tip them into a glazed earthen vessel full of water, which should be placed underneath for that purpose. To prevent the trencher from tipping over so as to lose its balance, it may be fastened to the shelf or dresser with a thread and a little sealing wax, to restore it to its proper position. To prevent their devastations in barns, care should be taken to lay beneath the floor a stratum of sharp flints, fragments of glass mixed with sand, or broken cinders. If the floors were raised on piers of brick, about fifteen inches above the ground, so that dogs or cats might have a free passage beneath the building, it would prevent the vermin from harbouring there, and tend greatly to preserve the grain. Field mice are also very destructive in the fields and gardens, burrowing under the ground, and digging up the earth when newly sown. Their habitations may be discovered by the small mounds of earth that are raised near the entrance, or by the passages leading to their nests; and by following these, the vermin may easily be destroyed. To prevent early peas being eaten by the mice, soak the seed a day or two in train oil before it is sown, which will promote its vegetation, and render the peas so obnoxious to the mice, that they will not eat them. The tops of furze, chopped and thrown into the drills, when the peas are sown, will be an effectual preventive. Sea sand strewed thick on the surface of the ground, round the plants liable to be attacked by the mice, will have the same effect.

MILDEW. To remove stains in linen occasioned by mildew, mix some soft soap and powdered starch, half as much salt, and the juice of a lemon. Lay it on the part on both sides with a painter's brush, and let it lie on the grass day and night till the stain disappears.

MILK BUTTER. This article is principally made in Cheshire, where the whole of the milk is churned without being skimmed. In the summer time, immediately after milking, the meal is put to cool in earthen jars till it become sufficiently coagulated, and has acquired a slight degree of acidity, enough to undergo the operation of churning. During the summer, this is usually performed in the course of one or two days. In order to forward the coagulation in the winter, the milk is placed near the fire; but in summer, if it has not been sufficiently cooled before it is added to the former meal, or if it has been kept too close, and be not churned shortly after it has acquired the necessary degree of consistence, a fermentation will ensue; in which case the butter becomes rancid, and the milk does not yield that quantity which it would, if churned in proper time. This also is the case in winter, when the jars have been placed too near the fire, and the milk runs entirely to whey. Milk butter is in other respects made like the common butter.

MILK AND CREAM. In hot weather, when it is difficult to preserve milk from becoming sour, and spoiling the cream, it may be kept perfectly sweet by scalding the new milk very gently, without boiling, and setting it by in the earthen dish or pan that it is done in. This method is pursued in Devonshire, for making of butter, and for eating; and it would answer equally well in small quantities for the use of the tea table. Cream already skimmed may be kept twenty-four hours if scalded, without sugar; and by adding as much pounded lump sugar as shall make it pretty sweet, it will be good two days, by keeping it in a cool place.

MILK PORRIDGE. Make a fine gruel of half grits well boiled, strain it off, add warm or cold milk, and serve with toasted bread.

MILK PUNCH. Pare six oranges and six lemons as thin as possible, and grate them afterwards with sugar to extract the flavour. Steep the peels in a bottle of rum or brandy, stopped close twenty-four hours. Squeeze the fruit on two pounds of sugar, add to it four quarts of water, and one of new milk boiling hot. Stir the rum into the above, and run it through a jelly bag till perfectly clear. Bottle and cork it close immediately.

MILK OF ROSES. Mix an ounce of oil of almonds with a pint of rose water, and then add ten drops of the oil of tartar.

MILK SOUP. Boil a pint of milk with a little salt, cinnamon, and sugar. Lay thin slices of bread in a dish, pour over them a little of the milk, and keep them hot over a stove without burning. When the soup is ready, beat up the yolks of five or six eggs, and add them to the milk. Stir it over the fire till it thickens, take it off before it curdles, and pour it upon the bread in the dish.

MILKING. Cows should be milked three times a day in the summer, if duly fed, and twice in the winter. Great care should be taken to drain the milk completely from the udder; for if any be suffered to remain, the cow will give less every meal, till at length she becomes dry before her proper time, and the next season she will scarcely give a sufficient quantity of milk to pay the expences of her keeping. The first milk drawn from a cow is also thinner, and of an inferior quality to that which is afterwards obtained: and this richness increases progressively, to the very last drop that can be drawn from the udder. If a cow's teats be scratched or wounded, her milk will be foul, and should not be mixed with that of other cows, but given to the pigs. In warm weather, the milk should remain in the pail till nearly cold, before it is strained; but in frosty weather this should be done immediately, and a small quantity of boiling water mixed with it. This will produce plenty of cream, especially in trays of a large surface. As cows are sometimes troublesome to milk, and in danger of contracting bad habits, they always require to be treated with great gentleness, especially when young, or while their teats are tender. In this case the udder ought to be fomented with warm water before milking, and the cow soothed with mild treatment; otherwise she will be apt to become stubborn and unruly, and retain her milk ever after. A cow will never let down her milk freely to the person she dreads or dislikes.

MILLET PUDDING. Wash three spoonfuls of the seed, put it into a dish with a crust round the edge, pour over it as much new milk as will nearly fill the dish, two ounces of butter warmed with it, sugar, shred lemon peel, and a dust of ginger and nutmeg. As you put it in the oven, stir in two beaten eggs, and a spoonful of shred suet.

MINCE PIES. Of scraped beef, free from skin and strings, weigh two pounds, of suet picked and chopped four pounds, and of currants nicely cleaned and perfectly dry, six pounds. Then add three pounds of chopped apples, the peel and juice of two lemons, a pint of sweet wine, a nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of mace, and pimento, in the finest powder. Mix the whole well together, press it into a deep pan, and keep it covered in a dry cool place. A little citron, orange, and lemon peel, should be put into each pie when made. The above quantity of mince meat may of course be reduced, in equal proportions, for small families. – Mince pies without meat, are made in the following manner. Pare, core, and mince six pounds of apples; shred three pounds of fresh suet, and stone three pounds of raisins minced. Add to these, a quarter of an ounce each of mace and cinnamon, and eight cloves, all finely powdered. Then three pounds of the finest powder sugar, three quarters of an ounce of salt, the rinds of four and the juice of two lemons, half a pint of port, and half a pint of brandy. Mix well together, and put the ingredients into a deep pan. Prepare four pounds of currants, well washed and dried, and add them when the pies are made, with some candied fruit.

MINCED BEEF. Shred fine the underdone part, with some of the fat. Put it into a small stewpan with some onion, or a very small quantity of shalot, a little water, pepper and salt. Boil it till the onion is quite soft; then put some of the gravy of the meat to it, and the mince, but do not let it boil. Prepare a small hot dish with sippets of bread, mix a large spoonful of vinegar with the mince, and pour it into the dish. If shalot vinegar is used, the raw onion and shalot may be dispensed with.