Mutton Pilaff, for which you put a neck or other piece of
mutton in water with seasoning and spice to taste,
and stew it gently and steadily till it is ready, i.e.,
till it can be pulled apart with the fingers, and is, to
European taste, wholly overdone. Half way in its
cooking you add the rice, allowing 4oz. to 6oz. for a
fowl or an equal quantity of meat, and let it stew in
the stock till it is cooked and swollen and has
absorbed most of the stock. It is then served in a
heap with the meat piled on the top. For more
fastidious tastes the meat is withdrawn from the pot
when cooked to taste and kept hot whilst the rice is
finished off in the stock, flavouring it just at the last
with grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, etc. For
Indian Pilaff the rice is coloured with a dash of
turmeric and garnished with crisp rings of fried
onion, chopped hard-boiled egg, almonds, raisins,
pistachio nuts, green ginger, etc., to taste, whilst in
the Levant and Turkey saffron replaces the turmeric,
the rest of the ingredients being much the same,
only varied by the limits of the cook's stores. Dates
are often stewed with the rice in Africa. A South
American dish, bearing evident traces of its Eastern
origin, is the jambolaya, in which an old fowl is