German lentils and scald for a minute or two in boiling water to make sure
that they are thoroughly clean. Drain, and put in good-sized saucepan with
plenty of fresh boiling water, and allow to simmer _very gently_ for an
hour. In another stewpan melt 1 oz. butter, and into that shred very
finely two or three onions. Cover, and cook 10 to 15 minutes to bring out
the flavour. They may brown or not as preferred, but there must not be the
least suspicion of burning. Turn the lentils into this pan, add some
chopped celery if at hand--it is very good without, but to my taste most
dishes are improved by celery--and allow to simmer an hour longer. See that
there is plenty of water--there should be a rich brown gravy. Add seasoning
to taste of salt, pepper, Jamaica pepper, parsley, &c. A few tomatoes may
be added, or carrots, turnips, &c. A few ozs. macaroni, par-boiled in
salted boiling water and added an hour or less before, will make one of the
many pleasing varieties of this dish. Serve like a mince, garnished with
sippets of toast or fried bread, or toasted Triscuits.


Savoury Pot-Pie.

Line a pudding basin with suet paste [Footnote: See pastry.], and
fill in with lentils cooked as above, and tomatoes, or any vegetables, such
as carrots, turnips, cauliflower, beetroot, &c., to keep the mixture from
being too heavy, for whatever may be thought to the contrary, there is a
much larger proportion of solid nutriment to the bulk in pulse foods than in
the "too, too solid flesh" which we esteem so highly. And, at the risk of
wearying readers with reiteration, I must say again that herein lies the
danger. Quite a number of people have told me that they would like such
foods, but _they_ could not take enough to keep up their strength, and
were reproachfully incredulous when, ignoring the gentle insinuation as to
_other_ people's capacity, I told them the great difficulty was to take