913.—PICKLED ROUND FOR HANGING. (Fr.—Bœuf Mariné.)
Ingredients.—14 or 16 lb. of round of beef. For the brine 1 lb. of coarse salt, ½ a lb. of coarse brown sugar, ½ an oz. of saltpetre.
Method.—Mix the salt, sugar and saltpetre together, and rub the mixture well into the meat. Keep it in an earthenware pan, turn twice a week for 3 weeks, then drain and bind into shape with strong tape. The meat may be at once cooked, or, if preferred, it may be hung in a kitchen, in which a fire is constantly kept, for 3 weeks. Pork, hams and bacon may be similarly treated, but will require double the quantity of brine, and after being hung for 3 weeks they should be either smokedried or placed in tubs filled with dry oat-rusks.
Time.—3 weeks in the brine, 3 weeks hung. Average Cost, 8d. to 10d. per lb. Seasonable at an time.
914.—POTTED OX-TONGUE.
Ingredients.—Cooked ox-tongue. To each lb. allow 3 ozs. of butter, powdered mace, cloves, nutmeg, cayenne.
Method.—Chop the tongue finely, then pound it well in a mortar, gradually adding clarified butter, and the above flavourings until the whole is reduced to a moist smooth paste. Rub through a fine sieve, press into pots, and cover with the remainder of the clarified butter.
The Tongue of Animals.—The tongue in most vertebrate animals is the organ of taste. It is composed of fleshy muscular tissue, and in man is attached by its base to the hyoid bone, but is free at its other extremity. In many fishes the muscular tissue is absent. The tongue of the parrot tribe is fleshy, but in some birds, as the wood-pecker, it serves the purpose of a dart in capturing insects, which it transfixes. The characteristic roughness of the tongue is caused by the presence of papillae, or minute spots protruding from the surface of the skin; and these in the carnivora, as the lion, tiger, etc., are large and horny, and act like a rasp in tearing off the flesh from the bones of their prey. A curious solid body is found in the under surface of the tongue of the dog, called the "worm," or "lytta." The top and edges are the most sensitive portions of the tongue, and the sense of touch, as well as that of taste, is highly developed. Three main sets of nerves are situated in the tongue, the gustatory and the lingual nerves, which are connected with the sense of feeling and taste, and the hypo-glossal nerve, which acts upon the motor nerves of the muscles of the tongue. The tongue of the ox somewhat resembles that of the horse, which is sometimes substituted by dishonest dealers for the former. The deception may, however, be detected by observing the spoon-like expansion which characterizes the tongue of the horse.
915.—POTATO PASTY. (Fr.—Pâté de Pommes de terre.)
Ingredients.—½ a lb. of paste, ¼ of a lb. of raw lean beef cut into dice, ¼ of a lb. of parboiled potatoes cut into dice, 1 very small onion cooked and finely-chopped, pepper and salt, gravy or water.
Method.—Make the paste as directed, roll it out, keeping it as round as possible. Mix the meat, potato and onion together, season well, and moisten with 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of gravy or water. Place the
