The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

BONED SHOULDER OF LAMB AS A DUCK.

Take a shoulder of lamb, with the shank-bone unbroken,
take out all the bones, and saw the shank-bone in a slanting
direction, to resemble the bil! of a duck ; the knuckle-bone
firms the head. Leave two inches of the shoulder-bone in
s 3 IS to form the neck of the duck; be careful not to cat
the skin. Make a rich forcemeat, and stuff the shoulder
where the bones come out ; sew it up to prevent the [nutting
coining out ; then turn it up, the seamed side downwards,
with your hands form it in the shape of a duck, put a
skewer through the neck and tie the bill down; roast it a
tine brown. Serve it up with chopped spinach in the
dish round it, scrape the bill white, and glaze the head;
make it a pair of eyes with some white of egg boiled hard
and cut round, with a clove in the centre : cut a piece of
bread small at one end and broad at the other, notch the
broad end, fry it a nice brown, and make that the tail of
the duck. You must send up mint sauce in a boat to eat
with it. This makes a pretty dish for supper or breakfast
sent up cold, with a savoury jelly round it instead of spi-
nach, and garnished with parsley and barberries, orna-
mented with atlic skewers.
This is really nothing short of conjuring cookery.
After such a display of prestidigitation, we arc
convinced that Mrs. Smith could produce a litter
of pigs out of an old bonnet, or make a silk purse
out of a sow's car, or rival the Wizard of the
North at any sort of culinary legerdemain.
Tennyson talks of dead animals " slowly quicken-
ing into lower forms," but what are the opera-
tions of decomposing nature to the alterative
genius of a Smith ? Onania ,nutantur, nihil
interit, must be inscribed over the entrance to
her laboratory ; from which, probably, hints
might be gathered for a new edition of the
" Vestiges of Creation." "We have been fishes,
and we may be crows," as Mr. Disraeli puts
it ; but "We have been lambs, and we may
be ducks," would conveniently bridge over an
equally difficult chasm in natural history. Pope
philosophically asks,
The limb thy riot dooms to bled today,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play

Had he our reason, and did he know that, after
the shambles, he might become the material
cause of one if not two ducks, would he not
lick the hand upraised to shed his blood at the
t of such a destiny ? The idea of his
shoulders being made into birds would give him
a sort of angelic feeling, as if wings were sprout-
ing from them already. The description of such
changes makes Mrs. Smith quite the Ovid of the
kitchen. C.,eyx and Alcyone were nothing to
her metamorphoses

:-

Fecit avem, sparsaque semel Phlegethoutitle
In rostrum et plumes et grandia lamina vertit.
The conversion of an alderman's daughters into
lambs would of course be a trifle to her, and.
with the paternal till at hand, mint sauce could
not be wanting. Her ideas on the transmutation
of species would form a good hint for an imagi-
native cannibal. The " Big Eagle "or the
" Little Fox," on falling into the clutches of the
hostile tribe. might assume forms corresponding
to their mans de guerre ; and the " cold mission-
ary," whose carcase Sydney Smith pictured as
adorning the sideboard of a New Zealand chief
might figure appropriately under the solemn
aspect of a penguin.
Mr. Walsh's book is a much more elaborate
affair, being not only empirical, like the lady's,
but scientific, not to say severely deductive.
Thus, we set out with a chapter on "Food: its
nature, use, and abuse," under which head is
given a digest of portions of Liebig's Animal
Chemistry. and the respective values of azotized,
non-azotized, and mineral elements ; then follow
remarks on the cook and her implements, and on
the principles of keeping, roasting, boiling, and
frying meat. After some judicious advice on
punctuality as to time, we observe in the former
section some remarks on another category,
which is worth more attention than it usually
receives :

Quantity cornea next to time in importance; and it is
au element still more frequently neglected by those who
c milder themselves professed cooks. Few of these people
weigh or measure the ingredients which they use, but
clorpound their dishes by " rule of thumb." This is in
slum oases of little consequence; but for young cooks, at
it events, it is a very foolish plan, since it so often leads
to a failure, whilst for old ones it insures au early destine.