arragon, or elder vinegar, essence of celery (No. 409), walnut or lemon
pickle, or a slice of lemon cut into dice, and essence of anchovy (No.
433).

_Forcemeat Stuffings._--(No. 373.)

Forcemeat is now considered an indispensable accompaniment to most made
dishes, and when composed with good taste, gives additional spirit and
relish to even that "sovereign of savouriness," turtle soup.

It is also sent up in patties, and for stuffing of veal, game, poultry,
&c.

The ingredients should be so proportioned, that no one flavour
predominates.

To give the same stuffing for veal, hare, &c. argues a poverty of
invention; with a little contrivance, you may make as great a variety as
you have dishes.

I have given receipts for some of the most favourite compositions, and a
table of materials, a glance at which will enable the ingenious cook to
make an infinite variety of combinations: the first column containing
the spirit, the second the substance of them.

The poignancy of forcemeat should be proportioned to the savouriness of
the viands, to which it is intended to give an additional zest. Some
dishes require a very delicately flavoured forcemeat, for others, it
must be full and high seasoned. What would be _piquante_ in a turkey,
would be insipid with turtle.

Tastes are so different, and the praise the cook receives will depend so
much on her pleasing the palate of those she works for, that all her
sagacity must be on the alert, to produce the flavours to which her
employers are partial. See pages 45 and 46.

Most people have an acquired and peculiar taste in stuffings, &c., and
what exactly pleases one, seldom is precisely what another considers the
most agreeable: and after all the contrivance of a pains-taking
palatician, to combine her "_hauts gouts_" in the most harmonious
proportions,

"The very dish one likes the best,
Is acid, or insipid, to the rest."

Custom is all in all in matters of taste: it is not that one person is
naturally fond of this or that, and another naturally averse to it; but
that one is used to it, and another is not.

The consistency of forcemeats is rather a difficult thing to manage;
they are almost always either too light or too heavy.

Take care to pound it till perfectly smooth, and that all the
ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

Forcemeat-balls must not be larger than a small nutmeg. If they are for
brown sauce, flour and fry them; if for white, put them