Wash well a pint of split peas and cover them well with cold water, adding a third of a teaspoonful of soda; let them remain in it over night to swell. In the morning put them in a kettle with a close fitting cover. Pour over them three quarts of cold water, adding half a pound of lean ham or bacon cut into slices or pieces; also a teaspoonful of salt and a little pepper, and some celery chopped fine. When the soup begins to boil, skim the froth from the surface. Cook slowly from three to four hours, stirring occasionally till the peas are all dissolved, adding a little more boiling water to keep up the quantity as it boils away. Strain through a colander, and leave out the meat. It should be quite quick. Serve with small squares of toasted bread, cut up and added. If not rich enough, add a small piece of butter.
Mince the onion, parsley, and bacon very finely, and put them into a basin with the seasoning and crumbs, and mix thoroughly. Butter a dish in which the fish can be both cooked and served. Spread half the seasoning on it, wash and dry the fish and lay it on this bed of seasoning; spread the rest of the seasoning on the top, pour over gently the gravy. Cover with a few raspings and put the butter on in tiny pieces. Put it into a quick oven and bake from 15 to 20 minutes, according to the thickness of the fish. Pin a paper collar round the dish, and serve at once.
Cut the veal into rather small pieces or slices, put it in a stewpan with hot water to cover it; add to it a tablespoonful of salt and set it over the fire; take off the scum as it rises; when the meat is tender turn it into a dish to cool; take out all the small bones, butter a tin or earthen basin or pudding-pan, line it with pie paste, lay some of the parboiled meat in to half fill it; put bits of butter in the size of a hickory nut all over the meat; shake pepper over, dredge wheat flour over until it looks white, then fill it nearly to the top with some of the water in which the meat was boiled; roll a cover for the top of the crust, puff-paste it, giving it two or three turns, and roll it to nearly half an inch thickness; cut a slit in the centre and make several small incisions on either side of it, put the crust on, trim the edges neatly with a knife; bake one hour in a quick oven. A breast of veal will make two two-quart basin pies; half a pound of nice corned pork, cut in thin slices and parboiled with the meat, will make it very nice, and very little, if any, butter will be required for the pie; when pork is used not other salt will be necessary. Many are fond of thin slices of sweet ham cooked with the veal for pie.
Take a leg of veal, take off the thick part and cut in thin slices for collops, beat them with a paste-pin 'till they be very thin; season them with mace, pepper and salt; fry them over a quick fire, not over brown; when they are fried put them into a stew-pan with a little gravy, two or three spoonfuls of white wine, two spoonfuls of oyster-pickle if you have it, and a little lemon-peel; then shake them over a stove in a stew-pan, but don't let them boil over much, it only hardens your collops; take the fat part of your veal, stuff it with forc'd-meat, and boil it; when it is boiled lay it in the middle of your dish with the collops; lay about your collops slices of crisp bacon, and forc'd-meat-balls. Garnish your dish with slices of lemon and oysters, or mushrooms.
First make a stuffing of a pound of veal and a quarter of a pound of pork, simmered two hours in water to cover; four crackers, rolled fine; a table-spoonful of salt, a scant teaspoonful of pepper, a teaspoonful of summer savory, a large table-spoonful of butter and one and a quarter cupfuls of the broth in which the veal and pork were cooked. Chop the meat fine, add the other ingredients, and put on the fire to heat. Cut off the rabbit's head, open the vent, and draw. Wash clean, and season with salt and pepper. Stuff while the dressing is hot, and sew up the opening. Put the rabbit on its knees, and skewer in that position. Rub thickly with butter, dredge with flour, and put in the baking pan, the bottom of which should be covered with hot water. Bake half an hour in a quick oven, basting frequently. Serve with a border of mashed potatoes, and pour the gravy over the rabbit.
When the sweetbreads have been cleaned, draw through each one four very thin pieces of pork (about the size of a match). Drop them into cold water for five or ten minutes, then into hot water, and boil twenty minutes. Take out, spread with butter, dredge with salt, pepper and flour, and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven. Serve with green peas, well drained, seasoned with salt and butter, and heaped in the centre of the dish. Lay the sweetbreads around them, and pour a cream sauce around the edge of the dish. Garnish with parsley. One pint of cream sauce is sufficient for eight or ten sweetbreads.
