On Saturday, Molly had ordered two pounds of breast of veal and a pound of very fine ham, cut thin; she would not need much of it, but the rest would be nice for breakfast. The breast of veal was cut up into pieces two inches long and about an inch wide, and put on in boiling water to simmer _very gently_ one hour, the bones with it. The water being just enough to cover the meat, no salt was added, for the meat should retain its juices. When done, the meat was removed from the broth, the bones left in it, and all gristly parts and bones that could not easily be removed when raw cut from it and thrown back into the saucepan; the meat was then put aside, and a salt-spoonful of salt, a quarter one of pepper, and half a bay leaf, with a small pinch of thyme, one of savory, and two sprigs of parsley, were put to the broth and bones, and it was left to cook gently two hours longer; then it was allowed to reduce to half a pint by boiling faster with the cover off, then strained and put away. Molly, at the same time, made some rough puff paste (see recipe, Chapter VI.), and left it on the ice till Monday. This morning, therefore, she had nothing to do but put the pie together, which she did in the following way: The ham she cut in very thin strips, using about a quarter of a pound. These she poured cold water upon, and put where they would come slowly to the boiling-point. Had she had any cold boiled ham, she would have used it in preference; but she could remove any strong taste by this parboiling. While it was doing, she made forcemeat balls thus: Half a cup of fine bread crumbs, a tea-spoonful of finely chopped parsley, the eighth of a tea-spoonful each of powdered thyme and marjoram, one squeeze of lemon juice; flavor with nutmeg by just rubbing it once across the grater, a suspicion of lemon peel, a scant salt-spoonful of salt, a quarter one of pepper. Chop into this a good table-spoonful of butter (or finely chopped suet, she would sometimes have used); the whole made into a stiff paste, with an egg well beaten with a table-spoonful of water. It did not take all the egg; about a table-spoonful was left, which Molly reserved to glaze the pie. In making the forcemeat into paste, she was careful to handle lightly, not to _squeeze_ or _knead_ it, and when it was well mixed she sprinkled flour on her hands, took a tea-spoonful of forcemeat, and made it into a ball. She used the remainder in the same way. Then she took a deep oval dish, and put at the bottom a layer of the ham, then one of veal, and four forcemeat balls (one at each corner), a little salt and pepper, and a few more bits of ham, another layer of veal, and half a dozen forcemeat balls. The dish was now full. She piled more meat and a little ham towards the centre till it was dome-shaped, and then filled every crevice with the strong jelly formed from the meat and bones.