dish full of food
CLAYTON'S Quaker Cook-Book.
The foundation—so to speak—and first great essential in compounding every variety of appetizing, and at the same time wholesome and nourishing soups, is the stock. In this department, as in some others, the French cooks have ever been pre-eminent. It was said of this class in the olden time that so constantly was the "stock"—as this foundation has always been termed—replenished by these cooks, that their rule was never to see the bottom of the soup kettle. It has long been a fixed fact that in order to have good soup you must first have good stock to begin with. To make this stock, take the liquor left after boiling fresh meat, bones, (large or small, cracking the larger ones in order to extract the marrow,) bones and meat left over from a roast or broil, and put either or all of these in a large pot or soup kettle, with water enough to cover. Let these simmer slowly—never allowing the water to boil—taking care, however, to keep the vessel covered—stirring frequently, andpouring in occasionally a cup of cold water, and skimming off the scum. It is only where fresh meat is used that cold water is applied at the commencement; for cooked meat, use warm. The bones dissolved in the slow simmering, furnish the gelatine so essential to good stock. One quart of water to a pound of meat is the average rule. Six to eight hours renders it fit for use. Let stand over night; skim off the fat; put in an earthen jar, and it is ready for use. Every family should keep a jar of the stock constantly on hand, as by doing so any kind of soup may be made from it in from ten to thirty minutes.
Having prepared your stock according to the foregoing directions, take a sufficient quantity, when soup is required, and season, as taste may dictate, with sweet and savory herbs—salpicant, celery salt, or any other favorite seasoning—adding vegetables cut fine, and let the same boil slowly in a covered vessel until thoroughly cooked. If preferred, after seasoning the stock, it may be thickened with either barley, rice, tapioca, sago, vermicelli, macaroni, farina or rice flour. A roast onion is sometimes added to give richness and flavor. It is a well-known fact that soups properly prepared improve in flavor and are really better on the day after than when first made. By substituting different materials, garnitures, flavorings and condiments, of which an endless variety is available, the intelligent housewife may be able to furnish a different soup for every day of the year. In following these, as in all other directions for every department of cookery, experience will, after all, be found the great teacher and most valuable aid and adjunct to the learner of the art.
Take a calf's head of medium size; wash clean, and soak it an hour or more in salted water; then soak a little while in fresh, and put to boil in cold water; add a little salt and a medium-sized onion; take off the scum as it rises, and as the water boils away add a little soup stock; when quite tender take the meat from the bone, keeping the brain by itself; strain the soup, and if you think there is too much meat, use a portion as a side-dish dressed with brain sauce; do not cut the meat too fine—and season the soup with allspice, cloves and mace, adding pepper and salt to taste; put back the meat, and taking one-half the brain, a lump of butter, and a spoonful of flour, work to a thin batter, stirring in claret and sherry wines to taste, and last of all add a little extract of lemon, and one hard-boiled egg, chopped not too fine; if desirable add a few small force-meat balls.
[Turtle soup may be made in the same manner.]
Take one ox-tail and divide into pieces an inch long; 2 pounds of lean beef cut in small pieces; 4 carrots; 3 onions sliced fine; a little thyme, with pepper and salt to taste, and 4 quarts cold water; boil four hours or more, according to size of the ox-tail, and when done add a little allspice or cloves.
One large slice of ham; 1 pound of beef, veal or chicken, and 1 onion, all cut in small pieces and fried in butter together until brown, adding black or red pepper for seasoning, along witha little salt, adding in the meantime, delicately sliced thin, sufficient okra, and put all in a porcelain kettle. For a family of four use 30 pods of okra, with 2 quarts water, over a steady, but not too hot fire; boil slowly for 3 or 4 hours; when half done add 2 or 3 peeled tomatoes.
[Mrs. E. A. Wilburn's Recipe.]
For the stock, take two chickens and boil in a gallon of water until thoroughly done and the liquid reduced to half a gallon. Wipe off 11⁄2pounds of green okra, or if the dry is used,1⁄2pound is sufficient, which cut up fine and add to this stock while boiling; next add 11⁄2pounds of ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped fine, adding also1⁄2coffee cupful of rice; let these boil for six hours, adding boiling water when necessary; then take out the chickens, carve and fry them brown in clear lard; into the fat put 1 large white onion, chopped fine, adding 2 tablespoonfuls of flour. Just before serving, put the chicken, boned and chopped, with the gravy thus prepared, and add to the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
Take 25 or 30 small Eastern and 50 California oysters; wash clean, and put into a kettle over the fire, with a little over a pint of water. As soon as they open pour into a pan and take the oysters from the shells, pouring the juice into a pitcher to settle. If the oysters are large, cut in two once; return the juice to the fire, and when it boils put in a piece of butter worked in flour; season with pepper and salt, and let it boil slowly for two minutes; put in a cupful of rich milk and theoysters, along with a sufficient quantity of chopped crackers, and let the liquid boil up once. Should you need a larger quantity of soup, add a can of good oysters, as they will change the flavor but little. In my opinion nutmeg improves the flavor of the soup.
Take 4 pounds of fresh codfish—the upper part of the fish is best; fry plenty of salt pork cut in small strips; put the fat in the bottom of the kettle, then a layer of the fried pork, next a layer of fish; follow with a layer of potato sliced—not too thin—and a layer of sliced onions, seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper; alternate these layers as long as the material holds out, topping off with a layer of hard crackers. Use equal parts of water and milk sufficient to cook, which will not require more than three-quarters of an hour, over a good fire. Great care should be taken not to scorch in the cooking.
[Clam Chowder may be made according to the foregoing formula, substituting 3 pints of clams for the fish.]
Take 50 small round clams; rinse clean, and put in a kettle with a pint of water; boil for a few minutes, or until the shells gape open; empty into a pan, pick the meat from the shells, and pour the juice into a pitcher to settle; chop the clams quite small; return the juice to the fire, and as soon as hot, work in a good-sized lump of butter, with a little flour, and juice of the clams; stir in a teacup of milk; season with black pepper, and after letting this boil for two minutes, put in the clams, adding at the same time chopped cracker or nudels, and before taking up, a little chopped parsley.
One hundred small clams chopped fine;1⁄2pound fat salt pork put in pot and fried out brown; 2 small or 1 large onion, and 1 tomato chopped fine. Put all in the pot with the clam juice and boil for two hours, after which add rolled crackers and 1 pint hot milk, letting it boil up. Season with salt and pepper, adding a little thyme if agreeable to taste.
Take three pints of white peas or army beans; wash very clean; soak eight hours; rinse and put to boil with plenty of water, hot or cold, with 11⁄2pounds beef soup-meat and1⁄2pound of salt pork, letting these boil slowly, and skimming as the scum rises. Stir frequently, as the beans are apt to scorch when they begin to soften. When soft enough to be easily crushed with the thumb and finger, season with plenty of black pepper and salt; after five minutes have elapsed fill a nice baking pan—such a one as will do to set on the table—pour in the liquid until it nearly covers the beans, score the pork and put it half-way down in the beans, and bake in a slow fire until nicely browned.
When the remaining beans are boiled quite soft rub them through a colander into the soup; add 1 pint of milk, and season with ground cloves or mace. Just before taking up cut some toast the size of the end of a finger and add to the soup. Pepper sauce gives a nice flavor.
Soak one quart dry or split peas ten or twelve hours, and put on to boil in 1 gallon of water, with 1 pound soup-beef, and asmall piece of the hock end of ham, nicely skinned and trimmed, (but if you do not have this at hand supply its place with a small piece of salt pork;) season with salt, pepper and a little ground cloves, adding a little curry or sweet marjoram; boil slowly until quite tender; rub the peas through a colander, adding a little rich milk. This soup should be rather thick. Cut bread in pieces the size of the little finger, fry in butter or lard, and put in the tureen when taken up.
To one gallon good beef stock add 11⁄2dozen ripe tomatoes, or 1 two-pound can; 2 carrots, 2 onions and 1 turnip cut fine; boil all together for an hour and a half, and run through a fine tin strainer; take a stewpan large enough to hold the liquid, and put it on the fire with1⁄2pound of butter worked in two tablespoonfuls of flour; after mixing well together add a tablespoonful of white sugar; season with salt and pepper to taste, stirring well until the liquor boils, when skim and serve. The above quantity will provide sufficient for a large family.
To make good celery soup take 2 or 3 pounds of juicy beef—the round is best, being free from fat. Cover with cold water, and boil slowly for three or four hours. An hour before taking from the fire take 1 pound or more of celery, cut 4 or 5 inches long, taking also the root cut thin, and salting to taste, boil until quite tender; then take out the celery, dressing with pepper and salt or drawn butter. If you have some soup stock put in a little, boil a few minutes and strain. This is a most palatable soup, and the celery, acting as a sedative, is one of the best things that can be used for quieting the nerves.
Take thick, fat and tender tripe; wash thoroughly in water in which a little soda has been dissolved; rinse well, and cut in strips half the length of your little finger; after boiling ten minutes, put in a colander and rinse with a little hot water; then, adding good soup stock, boil until tender; season with cayenne pepper and salt, a little Worcestershire or Chutney sauce, and some small pieces of dough made as for nudels. Should the soup not be thick enough add a little paste of butter and flour; you may also add curry if you are fond of it.
This soup was popular in the Quaker City fifty years ago, and has never decreased in favor among the intelligent inhabitants.
Boil 3 eggs seven minutes, and mash the yolks with one raw egg, a tablespoonful of flour and a little milk; season with pepper, salt, and parsley or summer savory; make into balls and boil two or three minutes, and put in the soup just before serving. Excellent for both pea and bean soup.
Rich nudels undoubtedly form the best thickening for nice, delicate soups, such as chicken, veal, oyster and clam. Nudels are made with flour, milk and eggs, and a little salt, mixed to stiff dough, rolled as thin as possible, and cut in fine shreds the length of the little finger. In all soups where nudels are used, a little chopped parsley should be added just before taking up.
The so-termed food fishes are to be found without number in all portions of the world, civilized and savage, and a large portion of the inhabitants of the globe are dependant upon this source for their subsistence. Certain learned physiologists have put forth the theory that food-fish is brain-producing, and adds to the mental vigor of those who subsist upon it. While we are not disposed to controvert this consoling idea—if the theory be true—the South Sea savages, who live upon this aliment, both in the raw and cooked state—and the Esquimaux, whose principal summer and winter diet is frozen fish—should be the most intelligent people on earth.
The modes of preparing fish for the table are equally as numerous as the species. The direction given by Mrs. Glass, in a cook-book of the olden time, is at the same time the most original and most sensible. This lady commences with: "First catch your fish."
Fresh fish should never lie in water. As soon as cleaned, rinse off, wipe dry, wrap carefully in a cotton cloth, and put into salted boiling water. If cooked in this manner the juice and flavor will be fully retained. Twenty minutes boiling will thoroughly cook a medium sized fish.
In frying large-sized fish, cut the slices lengthwise instead of across, for if cut against the grain the rich juices will be lost in the cooking, rendering the fish hard, dry and tasteless. For this reason fish are always better cooked whole, when this can be done. Beat up one or two eggs, with two tablespoonfuls of milk, with salt to season. After dipping the fish in this, dry in cracker dust—never use corn meal—and fry in good lard.
In broiling fish, cut large as in frying, grease the bars of the gridiron. Harden both sides slightly, and baste with butter, seasoning with pepper and salt.
Take large oysters, drain the juice, and dry them with a cloth, and run them in eggs, well beaten with a little milk; season with pepper and a little salt, and after drying in cracker dust, fry in equal parts best lard and butter, until a light brown.
Save all the juice of the oysters; beat two eggs with two or three spoonfuls of milk or cream, seasoning with pepper; put this into the juice, with the addition of as much flour as will make a rich batter. When the fat is quite hot put into it a spoonful of the batter, containing one oyster, and turn quickly in order that both sides may be nicely done brown.
Roll good puff-paste quite thin—and cut in round pieces 31⁄2inches in diameter, on which put a rim of dough, about 1 inch or less high, which may be stuck on with a little beaten egg; next add a top-piece or covering, fitting loosely, and bake in this until a light brown, and put away until wanted. Stew oysters in their own juice, adding a little butter and cream; fill the patties with this, put on the lid, and set in the oven for five minutes, and send to the table. Can oysters, with a rich gravy, make an excellent patty prepared in this way.
Take a two-pound can of lobster, or two large crabs, and cut as for making salad, and season highly with prepared mustard, cayenne pepper, curry powder, or sauce piquant, and salt to taste. Put in a porcelain stewpan, with a little water, to prevent scorching, and, after letting it boil up once, add butter the size of an egg, and one tablespoonful of vinegar, or half a teacupful of white wine, and the juice of half a lemon, and the moment this boils add half a teacupful of cream or good milk, stirring at the same time. Set the stew aside, and heat up shortly before sending to the table. Putting slices of toast in the bottom of the dish before serving is a decided improvement.
Too little attention is paid to one of the most important features of the culinary art—particularly in roasting, boiling, and broiling—that is the retention of the natural juices of various meats in cooking. Existing, as these always do, in a liquid form, unless this is carefully guarded against, these palatable and health-giving essences of all animal food, both tame and game, are apt to be wasted and dissipated in various forms, when the exercise of mature judgment and a little care would confine them to these meats in the course of preparation. By way of illustration, let us suppose that a fowl, a leg of mutton, or some of the many kinds of fish frequently served up in this way, is to be boiled in water. If put in cold water, and the heat gradually raised until it reaches the boiling point, the health-giving albumen—with the juices which give each its peculiar and pleasant flavor—are extracted from the meat and dissolved and retained in the water, rendering the flesh and fish insipid and in some cases almost tasteless. If, however, these are plunged at once into boiling water, thereby on the instant coagulating the albumen of the surface at least, and thereby closing the pores through which the inside albuminous juices would otherwise exude and be lost. Besides this albumen, there are otherjuices which are among the most important constituent parts of every variety of animal food in which are embodied much of its fine flavor and nutritive qualities, and deprived of which such food becomes unpalatable and tasteless. All meats, then, instead of being put into cold water, should at the start be plunged into boiling hot water, as this prevents the escape of these juices, and the retaining not only the delicate and fine flavor of the meat, but confining and retaining its nutritive qualities where they naturally and properly belong.
Take a sucking pig—one from three to five weeks old is best. When properly dressed lay in salted water for half an hour; take out and wipe dry inside and out; make a stuffing of bread and butter, mixing to a proper consistency with milk and a well beaten egg; season with salt, pepper and sage, with the addition of thyme or summer savory, and an onion chopped fine and stewed in butter with flour. Sew up, and roast for a long time in an oven not too hot, first putting a little water with lard or dripping in the pan. Baste frequently until done, taking care to keep the pan a little distance above the bottom of the range.
Turkeys and chickens for roasting should never be over a year old. After being properly cleaned, cut the wings at the first joint from the breast, pull the skin down the lower end of the neck, and cut off the bone. Cut the necks, wings and gizzards into small pieces suitable for giblet stew—which should be put on the fire before preparing the fowls for roasting—which should be done by cutting off the legs at the first joint from the feet. Make the stuffing of good bread, rubbed fine, with butter, pepper and salt, and a teaspoonful of baking powder, seasoning with thyme or summer savory, mixing to the consistency of dough, adding eggs, well beaten, with good milk or cream. Fill the breast, and tie over the neck-bone with strong twine, rubbing the sides of the fowl with a dry cloth, afterwards filling quite full. Sew up tight, tie up the legs, and encase the body with strong twine, wrapped around to hold the wings to the body. After rubbing well with salt and dredging lightly with flour, put the fowl in a pan, laying on top two or three thin slices of fat pork, salt or fresh. Put a little water in the pan, and baste frequently, but do not roast too rapidly; raise the pan at least two inches from the bottom of the range. All white meat should invariably be cooked well done, and turkey or chicken, to be eaten cold, should be wrapped while warm in paper or cloth. When prepared in this way they will always be found soft and tender when cooled.
When the giblets are stewed tender—which they must be in order to be good—chop a handful of the green leaves of celery, adding pepper and salt, and put in. Ten minutes before taking from the fire add a lump of butter worked in with a tablespoonful of flour and the yolk of two boiled eggs, letting simmer two or three minutes, then put in the whites of the eggs, chopped fine, with the addition of a little good milk or cream. Some of this stew, mixed with the drippings of the fowl, makes the best possible gravy.
Never wash meat; simply wipe with a damp cloth, rub with salt and dredge with flour; put in the pan with a little of the suet chopped fine, and a teacupful of water; set in a hot oven, two inches above the bottom. The oven should be quite hot, in order to close the pores on the surface of the meat as quickly as possible. As the meat hardens reduce the heat a little, basting frequently. Turn two or three times during the roasting, taking care not to let the gravy scorch. Meat cooked in this way will be tender and juicy, and when done will be slightly red in the centre. Should it prove too rare, carve thin and lay in a hot pan with a little gravy for one minute. Beef will roast in from one and-half to two hours, according to size. All meats may be roasted in the same way, taking care in every case, that the albuminous juices do not escape.
Into a kettle, with hot water enough to cover, put a leg of mutton. Let it boil half an hour, and the moment it is taken from the water, salt, pepper, and dredge with flour, and put on to roast with one-half a teacup of water in the pan. Baste frequently, first adding a tablespoonful of lard. Cooked in this way the meat has none of the peculiar mutton flavor which is distasteful to many.
That most delicately flavored wild fowl, the canvas-back duck, to be properly cooked, should be prepared in the following style:
The bird being properly dressed and cleaned, place in the opening, after drawing, a tablespoonful of salt dissolved in water—some add a stick of celery, or celery salt, to flavor, but this is not necessary. Sew up the opening with strong thread; have your fire in the grate red hot—that is, the oven almost red hot; place your duck therein, letting it remain nineteen minutes—which will be amply sufficient time if your oven is at the proper heat—but as tastes differ in this as in other matters of cookery, some prefer a minute longer and others one less. Serve the duck as hot as possible, with an accompanying dish of hominy, boiled, of course; the only condiment to be desired is a little cayenne pepper; some prefer a squeeze of lemon on the duck; others currant jelly; but the simplest and most palatable serving is the directions given.
Split the birds in the back, and wash, but do not let them remain in the water any time; dry with a cloth; salt and pepper well, and put in a pan with the inside up; also put in two or three slices of fresh or salt pork, and a piece of butter about the size of an egg, with three or four tablespoonfuls of water, and set the pan on the upper shelf of the range when quite hot, and commence basting frequently the moment the birds begin to harden on the top; and when slightly brown turn and serve the under side the same way, until that is also a little brown, taking care not to scorch the gravy. Having prepared a piece of buttered toast for each bird, lay the same in a hot dish, place the birds thereon, and pour the gravy over all. Birds cooked in this manner are always soft and juicy—whereas, if broiled, all thejuices and gravy would have gone into the fire—and should you attempt cooking in that way, if not thoroughly, constantly basted, they are liable to burn; and if basted with butter it runs into the fire, smoking and destroying their rich natural flavor.
I have been thus particular in the directions detailed in this recipe, from the fact that many people have an idea that the quail of California are not equal to that of the Atlantic States, when, from my experience with both, which has been considerable, I find no difference in the flavor and juiciness of the birds when cooked in the way I have carefully laid down in the foregoing simple and easily understood directions.
For the filling of the turkey, boil, skin, trim, and cut the size of the end of your finger, two fresh calves' tongues. At the same time boil for half-an-hour in soup stock, or very little water, a medium-sized, but not old, chicken; take all the meat from the bones, and cut as the calves' tongues. Take a piece of ham, composed of fat and lean, and cut small; also the livers of the turkey and the chicken, chopped fine, along with a small piece of veal, mostly fat, cut as the chicken, and half an onion chopped fine.
Put all these into a kettle with water to half cover, and stew until tender. At the time of putting on the fire, season with salt and pepper, ground mace, salpicant, celery salt and a little summer savory. Just before taking from the fire stir in the yolks of two eggs, well beaten, with three or four truffles chopped the size of a pea, and a teacupful of sherry or white wine. When this mixture is cold put it in the turkey, with the skinside out; draw it carefully around the filling, and sew up with a strong thread; and after wrapping it very tightly with strong twine, encase it in two or three thicknesses of cotton cloth, at the same time twisting the ends slightly. These precautions are necessary to prevent the escape of the fine flavor of this delicious preparation. Boil slowly for four hours or longer, in good soup stock, keeping the turkey covered with the liquid, and the vessel covered also. When taken up lay on a level surface, with a weight, to flatten the two sides a little, but not heavy enough to press out the juice. When quite cold take off the wrapping and thread, and lay on a nice large dish, garnishing with amber jelly cut the size of peas.
Use a French boning knife, five inches in length and sharp at the point. Commence by cutting off the wings at the first joint from the breast; then the first joint from the drum-sticks, and the head, well down the neck. Next place the bird firmly on the table, with the breast down, and commence by cutting from the end of the neck, down the centre of the back, through to the bone, until you reach the Pope's nose. Then skin or peel the flesh as clean as possible from the frame, finishing at the lower end of the breast-bone.
Chickens may be boned in the same manner
Carve the fowls at the joints, making three or four pieces of the breast; wash nicely in salted water, and put on to boil with water enough to cover, adding a little salt; boil slowly; carefully skimming off the scum. When the meat begins to get tender and the water well reduced, cook four onions, chopped fine, in a pan with pork fat and butter, dredging in a little flour and seasoning with pepper and salt, adding a little of the juice from the fowls. Next take up the pieces of the meat and roll in browned flour or cracker-dust, and fry slightly. If the butter is not scorched put in a little browned flour; stir in the onion, and put it back in the kettle with the meat of the fowl, simmering until the gravy thickens, and the meat is thoroughly tender.
Take the breast of lamb and one chicken—a year old is best—and after taking off the thin skin of the lamb, wash it well in cold salted water; then put on to boil, with sufficient cold slightly-salted water to cover it, and boil until tender—the addition of a medium-sized onion improves the flavor—then take up, and when quite cold, carve in nice pieces, and season with black pepper and salt. Next, beat two eggs, with two or three spoonfuls of milk or cream, and a spoonful of flour. After running the meat through this, roll in cracker-dust or browned flour, and fry in sweet lard and a little butter until a light brown. Next make a cream gravy; take a little of the liquid from the chicken, and make a rich thick drawn butter, and thinning it with cream, pour over the chicken while it is hot.
[The liquid used in boiling the chicken will make any kind of rich soup for dinner.]
Take three or four pounds best fresh pork, mostly lean, with plenty of bones—the latter making a rich liquid. Put these into a kettle, and cover with hot or cold water, and let the massboil slowly for two or three hours, or until quite tender, carefully removing the scum as it rises, after which take the meat out into a wooden bowl or tray. Pick out the bones carefully, and strain the liquid. After letting these stand for a few minutes, if in your opinion there is too much fat, remove a portion, and then return the liquor to the kettle, adding pepper and salt, and seasoning highly with summer savory. Next stir in two parts fine white corn-meal and one part buckwheat flour (Deming & Palmer's), until the whole forms quite a thick mush, after which, chopping the meat the size of the end of the finger, stir thoroughly into the mush. Next put the mixture into baking pans to the depth of 11⁄2or 2 inches, and bake in a slow oven for two hours, or until the top assumes a light brown—taking care not to bake too hard on the bottom. Put in a cool place, and the next morning—when, after warming the pan slightly—so that the scrapple may be easily taken out—cut in slices of half-an-inch thick, which heat in a pan to prevent sticking, and serve hot.
[A small hog's head or veal is equally good for the preparation of this dish, which will be found a fine relish.]
Have the feet nicely cleaned, and soaked for five or six hours, or over night, in slightly salted water. Boil until tender, and the large bones slip out easily, which will take from three to four hours. Take up, pull out the large bones, and lay in a stone jar, sprinkling on each layer a little salt and pepper, with a few cloves or allspice. After skimming off the fat, take equal parts of the water in which the feet were boiled, and good vinegar, and cover the meat in the jar.
This nice relish was known as "souse" fifty or sixty years ago, and is good, both cold or hot, or cut in slices and fried in butter for breakfast.
Cut a good steak an inch and an eighth thick. Heat a griddle quite hot, and rub over with a piece of the fat from the steak, after which lay on the steak for two or three minutes, or long enough to harden the under side of the steak, after which turn the other side, treating in the same way, thus preventing all escape of the rich juices of the meat. After this, cut a small portion of the fat into small and thin pieces, to which add sufficient butter to form a rich gravy, seasoning with pepper and salt to taste. A steak cooked in this way fully equals broiling, and is at the same time quite as juicy and tender.
Boil a ten or twelve pound ham slowly for three hours; strip off the skin; take a sharp knife and shave off the outer surface very thin, and if quite fat take off a little, and spread over the fat part a thin coating of sugar. Next put the ham in a baking-pan, with one-half pint of white wine, and roast half-an-hour. Baste often, taking care that the wine and juice of the ham do not scorch, as these form a nice gravy. Whether eaten hot or cold the ham should be carved very thin.
Place the gridiron over a clear fire; rub the bars with a little of the fat, to keep from sticking. The moment it hardens a little—which closes the pores of the meat—turn it over, thushardening both sides. You may then moisten with butter, or a little of the fat of the steak, and season with salt and pepper. Lay on a hot dish along with the best butter, which, with the juices of the meat, makes the best of gravy, and cooked in this style you have a most delicious steak.
Take five or six onions; cut fine, and put them in a frying-pan, with a small cup of hot water, and two ounces best butter, pepper and salt; dredge in a little flour, and let it stew until the onions are quite soft. Next broil the steak carefully. Lay on a hot dish, and lay the onions around, and not on top, of the steak, as that will create a steam, which will wilt and toughen it. To be eaten quite hot.
Select a piece of corned beef that is fat. The plate or navel pieces are best, and should only have been in salt five days. Put the piece in boiling water in a pot just large enough to hold it, along with an onion and a spoonful of cloves or allspice; let it boil slowly, skimming the first half hour, if to be eaten cold. Take it up as soon as tender, and when cool enough take out the bones and place the meat in a vessel just large enough to hold it, and pour in the fat, with sufficient hot water to cover it, letting it remain until quite cold.
[Beef tongues should be cooked in the same way, after laying in salt or strong pickle from twenty-four to thirty-six hours.]
Take three pounds lean veal, parboiled, and one-fourth pound salt pork, each chopped fine; six soft crackers pounded;two eggs beaten; two teaspoonfuls of salt, three peppers, one nutmeg and a little thyme or summer savory. Mould up like bread, and place in a pan, leaving a space all around, in which place some of the water in which the meat was boiled. Bake until quite brown, and slice when cold.
Cut both liver and bacon in thin slices, and an inch long, taking off the skin. Place alternately on a skewer, and broil or roast in a quick oven. Dress with melted butter, pepper and juice of lemon.
Slice the liver thin, and season with salt and pepper. Beat an egg with a spoonful of milk or cream. Coat the slices with this, and dry in fine cracker dust. Fry in two parts lard and one of butter until a light brown. If fried too much the liver will be hard and tasteless. Salt pork fried brown is very nice with liver, and the fat from the pork will be found excellent to fry the liver in.
Take 31⁄2pounds lean beef chopped small; six soda crackers rolled fine; 3 eggs well beaten; 4 tablespoonfuls sweet cream; butter size of an egg; 11⁄2tablespoonfuls salt, and one of pepper. Mix thoroughly, make into a loaf, and bake two hours, basting as you would roast beef.
Take the largest-sized oysters; drain off the juice, and dry in a cloth; beat two eggs in a spoonful of milk, adding a little salt and pepper. Run the oysters through this, and fry in equal parts butter and sweet lard to a light brown.
Take six terrapins of uniform size. (The females, which are the best, may be distinguished by the lower shell being level or slightly projecting.) If the terrapins are large, use one pound of the best butter; if small, less, and a pint of good sherry wine. After washing the terrapins in warm water, put them in the kettle alive, and cover with cold water, keeping the vessel covered tight. After letting them boil until the shell cracks and you can crush the claws with the thumb and finger, take them off the fire, and when cool enough, pull off the shell and remove the dark, or scarf skin, next pulling the meat from the trail and the liver—being careful not to break the gall, which would render the liver uneatable. After breaking the meat in small pieces, lay it in a porcelain kettle with a teacupful of water; put in the wine, and one-half the butter, with 2 or 3 blades of mace, 2 or 3 teaspoonfuls of extract of lemon, 2 tablespoonfuls of Worcestershire or Challenge sauce; little salt is required, and if pepper is needed, use cayenne. After stewing for fifteen minutes, add the yolks of 6 hard-boiled eggs—worked to a paste in the remainder of the butter—thinning with the juice of the stew, adding at the same time a teacupful of sweet cream, and after simmering for three minutes, chop the whites of the eggs fine, and add to the mixture; then take from the fire, and make hot five minutes before serving. If kept in a cool place this stew will remain perfectly good for three days.
Take two chickens, one or two years old, and cut each in about fourteen pieces, dividing each joint, and cutting the breast in two pieces; cut the gizzard quite small, and put it and the liver with the chicken. When the chicken is half done, cover with cold water, adding a good-sized onion, and when it reaches a boil, skim carefully; and when the same is about half cooked add sufficient salt and pepper, and also a handful of the green leaves of celery chopped fine, which will give it the flavor of oysters. Boil slowly until you can tear the chicken with a fork, when turn it out in a dish. Next, take one half pound of good butter, the yolks of three boiled eggs, and two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch or flour, and, after working well together, so as to form a thin batter, add the liquor from the chicken, return to the kettle, and, after boiling for five minutes, return the chicken, season with nutmeg or sal-piquant, adding at the same time a teacupful of cream or good milk, also the whites of the eggs, chopped fine. Keep hot until served.
Cut and prepare the tripe as for pepper-pot; season highly; add a pint of soup stock, and four spoonfuls of tomatoes, with a little butter, and half an onion chopped fine. Cook until quite tender.
Boil a good-sized chicken, not less than one year old, in as little water as possible; if you have two calves' feet boil them at the same time, salting slightly, and leaving them in after the chicken is cooked, that they may boil to shreds. This liquidforms a jelly, which is almost indispensable in making good salad. When the chicken becomes cold, remove the skin and bones, after which chop or cut to the size of a pea; cut celery and lettuce equally fine—after taking off the outer fibre of the former—and mixing, add Clayton's Salad Dressing, (the recipe for which will be found elsewhere); also incorporating four eggs, which should be boiled eight minutes, cutting three as fine as the chicken and celery, and leaving the fourth as a garnish on serving. Cold roast turkey, chicken or tender veal make most excellent salad treated in this way.
Take a large bowl, resembling in size and shape an ordinary wash-bowl, and a wooden spoon, fitted as nearly as possible to fit the curve of the bowl. First put in two or three tablespoonfuls of mixed mustard, quite stiff. Pour on this, slowly, one-fourth of a pint of best olive oil, stirring rapidly until thick; then break in two or three fresh eggs, and, after mixing slightly, pour in, very slowly, the remaining three-fourths of the pint of oil, stirring rapidly all the while until the mixture forms a thick batter. Next, take a teacupful of the best wine vinegar, to which the juice of one lemon has been added, along with a small tablespoonful of salt, and another of white sugar, stirring well, until the whole of these ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. When bottled and tightly corked, this mixture will remain good for months. Those who are not fond of the oil, will find that sweet cream, of about sixty or seventy degrees in temperature, a good substitute; but this mixture does not keep so well.
It will be found a good thing before ornamenting a salad, to take a section of garlic, and, after cutting off the end, steeping it in salt, and then rubbing the surface of the bowl, putting in at the same time, small pieces of the crust of French or other bread, similarly treated. Cover the bowl with a plate, and shake well. This gives the salad a rich, nutty flavor.
Unless quite sure the eggs are fresh, never boil them, as the well known remark that even to suspect an egg cooked in this style is undoubtedly well-founded. Hard boiled eggs, to be eaten either hot or cold, must never be boiled more than eight minutes, when they will be found tender and of a fine flavor, whereas, if boiled for a longer time, they will invariably prove leathery, tough, and almost tasteless, and dark-colored where the whites and yolk are joined, giving them an unsightly and anything but attractive appearance.
For soft boiled, three, and for medium, four minutes only, are necessary.
Beat well three eggs, with two tablespoonfuls of cream or milk; add salt and pepper; put in the pan a lump of fresh butter, and, as soon as melted, put in the eggs, stirring rapidly from the time they begin to set; as in order to be tender they must be cooked quickly.
Put butter or lard in a hot pan, and then as many small, deep muffin rings as eggs required. Drop the eggs in the rings. Cooked in this manner the eggs are less liable to burn, look far nicer, and preserve their fine flavor.
Stew a few oysters in a little butter, adding pepper for seasoning, and when the omelette is cooked on the under side, put on the oysters, roll over, and turn carefully. A good omelette may be made of canned oysters treated in this way.
Take a thin slice of the best ham—fat and lean—fry well done, and chop fine. When the omelette is prepared, stir in the ham, and cook to a light brown.
Beat three eggs with two tablespoonfuls of cream, adding a little salt and pepper. Put a lump of butter in the pan, but do not let it get too hot before putting in the mixture. The pan should be about the temperature for baking batter cakes. Fold and turn over quite soon. The omelette should be a lightbrown, and be sent to the table hot. Should you have sausage for breakfast, the bright gravy from the sausage is preferable to butter in preparing the omelette.
Make in the same manner as the cream omelette, but before putting in the pan have ready one-half an onion, chopped fine and fried brown, with a little pepper and salt. When the omelette is cooked on one side, put the mixture on, and turn the sides over until closed tight.
Beat eight eggs thoroughly, with a teacup of rich milk or cream, a tablespoonful of fine white sugar, and a very little salt. Stir well, and make in two omelettes; lay side by side, and sift over a thin coating of fine white sugar. In serving, pour over and around the omelette a wine-glass of good California brandy, and set on fire.
Pick out large, fair tomatoes; cut a slice from the stem end, and, placing them in a pan with the cut side up, put into each one-half teaspoonful of melted butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake until they shrivel slightly.
Cut the skin from both ends; slice moderately thin, and, if you like, add a small piece of onion chopped fine. Season with salt and pepper, and pour over Durkee's or Clayton's salad dressing.
Take off a thick rind, as that portion between the seed and outer skin is the unwholesome part. Slice, rather thin, into cold, salt water, and, after half-an-hour, drain off, and dress with salt, pepper, wine vinegar, and a little Chile pepper-sauce, covering slightly with Durkee's or Clayton's salad dressing.
Cut large cabbage in four; small in two pieces, and tie up in a bag or cloth. Put in boiling water, with some salt, and boil briskly for half-an-hour. A piece of charcoal in the pot will neutralize the odor given out by the cabbage, boiled in theordinary way. Cabbage should never be cooked with corned-beef, as the fine flavor of the latter is changed to the strong odor of the cabbage.
If the cauliflower is large, divide in three, if small, in two pieces; tie up in a cloth, and put in boiling water with a little salt, and cook not more than twenty minutes. Eat with melted butter, pepper and salt, or nice drawn butter.
(Asparagus may be cooked in the same way, and eaten with similar dressing. Both cauliflower and asparagus may be spoiled with too much cooking. Care should be taken to drain the water from both as soon as they are done.)
The best mode of cooking this most delicate and finely-flavored vegetable—put the peas in a porcelain-lined kettle, with just water sufficient to cover, and let them boil slowly until tender. Add a lump of butter, worked in a teaspoonful of flour, to the rich liquid, with half a teacupful of rich milk or cream; season with salt and pepper.
Take beets of a uniform size; boil until tender; slip off the skin, and slice into a dish or pan; season with salt and pepper, adding a little butter, made hot, and the juice of one lemon. Pour this over the beets, set in a hot oven for a few minutes, and send to the table hot.
Take equal quantities of boiled potatoes and turnips; mash together, adding butter, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly with a little good milk, working all together until quite smooth.
Take small white onions, if you have them; if large, cut and boil until tender, in salted water. Pour off nearly all the water, and add a small lump of butter, worked in a little flour, and a small cup of milk; add pepper, and simmer for a few minutes.
[All the foregoing are desirable additions to roast turkey and chicken.]
If canned corn is used, put a sufficient quantity in a stewpan, with two or three spoonfuls of hot water, and, after adding pepper and salt to taste, put in a good-sized lump of butter, into which a teaspoonful of flour has been well worked, adding, at the same time, a cup of good, sweet milk or rich cream, and let it cook three minutes. Corn cut fresh from the cob should be boiled at least twenty minutes before adding the milk and butter.
Take equal quantities of corn and tomatoes, and stew together half-an-hour, with butter, pepper and salt; and when taken up place slices of buttered toast in the dish in which it is served.
This is the original native American Indian name for corn and beans. In compounding this most palatable and wholesome dish, take two or three pounds of green, climbing, or pole beans—the pods of which are large, and, at the same time, tender. Break these in pieces of something like half-an-inch long, and let them lie in cold water about half-an-hour, at which time drain this off. Put them in a porcelain-lined kettle, covering them with boiling water, into which put a large tablespoonful of salt. When the beans become tender, pour off the greater portion of the water, replacing it with that which is boiling, and when the beans become entirely tender, cut from the cob about half the amount of corn you have of the beans, which boil for twenty minutes; but where canned corn is used five minutes will suffice. About five minutes before taking from the fire, take a piece of butter about the size of an egg, worked with sufficient flour or corn-starch to form a stiff paste. Season with plenty of black pepper and salt to taste, adding, at the same time, a teacupful of rich milk or cream. Then, to keep warm, set back from the fire, not allowing to boil, but simmering slowly. This will be equally good the next day, if kept in a cool place, with an open cover, which prevents all danger of souring. This is a simple, healthful, and most appetizing dish, inexpensive and at the same time easily prepared.
The mode of preparing the world-renowned Saratoga fried potatoes is no longer a secret. It is as follows:
Peel eight good-sized potatoes; slice very thin; use slicing-machine, when available, as this makes the pieces of uniform thickness. Let them remain half-an-hour in a quart of cold water, in which a tablespoonful of salt has been dissolved, and lay in a sieve to drain, after which mop them over with a dry cloth. Put a pound of lard in a spider or stewpan, and when this is almost, but not quite, smoking hot, put in the potatoes, stirring constantly to prevent the slices from adhering, and when they become a light brown, dip out with a strainer ladle.
[If preferred, cut the potatoes in bits an inch in length, and of the same width, treating as above.]
The best way I have yet found to cook this finely flavored and highly delicious vegetable is: First, wash clean, but do not remove the skin. Put the roots in more than enough boiling water to cover them; boil until quite soft; remove the skin; mash; add butter, and season with pepper and salt; make into the size of oysters, and dip in thin egg batter; fry a light brown. If the plant is first put into cold water to boil, and the skin scraped or removed, the delicate flavor of the oyster—which constitutes its chief merit—will be entirely dissipated and lost.
There is no more delicate and finely-flavored esculent to be found in our markets than the egg plant, when cooked in the right manner. Properly prepared, it is a most toothsome dish; if badly cooked, it is anything but attractive. Of all the varieties, the long purple is decidedly the best. Cut in slices, less than one-fourth an inch in thickness; sprinkle with salt, andlet the slices lie in a colander half-an-hour or longer, to drain. Next parboil for a few minutes, and drain off the water; season with salt and pepper, and dip in egg batter, or beaten egg, and fry in sweet lard mixed with a little butter, until the slices are a light brown. Serve hot.
Green corn should be put in hot water, with a handful of salt, and boiled slowly for half-an-hour, or five minutes longer. The minute the corn is done, pour off the water and let it remain hot. All vegetables are injured by allowing them to remain in the water after they are cooked.
American rice for all its preparations is decidedly preferable, the grain being much the largest and most nutritious. In boiling, use two measures of water to one of rice, and let them boil until the water is entirely evaporated. Cover tightly; set aside, and let steam until every grain is separated. When ready to serve, use a fork in removing the rice from the cooking utensil.
[The foregoing recipe was given me by a lady of South Carolina, of great experience in the preparation of this staple cereal product of the Southern Atlantic seaboard.]
Cut into pieces one quart of okra, and put to boil in one cup of water; add a little onion and some tomatoes; salt and pepper to taste; and when all is boiled tender, add a good lump of butter, worked in with a spoonful of flour, and let stew five minutes, stirring frequently.
Mix 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder with quart of flour, adding 1 teaspoonful salt and sufficient milk or water to make a soft dough, and bake at once in a hot oven. If eaten hot, break; use a hot knife in cutting.
Take 2 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls best lard or butter, 1 teaspoonful salt, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 tablespoonful sugar, 1 quart good milk, and flour to make a moderately stiff batter, and bake at once in muffin-rings.
3 cups of yellow corn-meal, 1 cup flour, 2 sweet, and1⁄2cup sour milk, with1⁄2cup syrup, 1 teaspoonful soda, and a little salt. Bake 4 hours.
Two cups graham and 1 of white flour,1⁄2cup of yeast or1⁄3cake compressed yeast, 2 teaspoonfuls sugar; mix with warm milk or water, and let stand upon range until light.
One pint best yellow corn-meal, 1 pint of butter-milk, 2 tablespoonfuls melted butter, 2 eggs and teaspoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful saleratus; mix well, and bake at a brisk fire.
Before sifting 1 quart of flour, put in 2 or 3 teaspoonfuls of best baking powder, adding a little salt after sifting. Follow this with 3 tablespoonfuls of best lard, and with good milk, mix into soft dough—working as little as possible. Roll full half-an-inch thick; cut and bake in a hot oven until slightly browned on top and bottom.
Take 3 cups of good corn-meal—either yellow or white—and 1 cup of flour; add a teaspoonful of baking powder, stirring well together. Next, put into a vessel, 2 eggs, well beaten, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, a little salt, a large tablespoonful of sweet lard or butter, and milk enough to make a thick batter. Let these come to a boiling heat, stirring well at the same time, then pour in the meal, and beat to a stiff consistence. Turn into a baking pan, and bake until thoroughly done, brown on top and bottom. Use hot milk in mixing, as, in my opinion, it takes the raw taste from the corn-meal.
Two spoonfuls of melted butter, 1 egg, well beaten, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 2 cups milk,1⁄2cup sugar or syrup, 2 cups each, corn-meal and flour. Bake in a moderate oven until brown.
One large sweet potato grated, 1 cup yellow Indian meal, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoonful butter,1⁄2cup molasses,1⁄2cup sugar, salt and spice to taste; add sufficient milk to make the usual thickness of cake.
One pint molasses,1⁄2pint of sour milk, 2 teaspoonfuls ginger, 1 teacup butter, 1 teaspoonful soda, 2 eggs—salt.
One cup syrup,1⁄2cup sugar,1⁄2cup sweet milk, 2 tablespoonfuls vinegar,1⁄2cup shortening; flour to make moderately thick, and large teaspoonful baking powder.
One cup butter, 3 teaspoonfuls ginger, 5 flour,1⁄2cup cider or any spirits, 4 eggs, and a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a teacup of sweet milk.
One cup sugar,1⁄2cup best butter,1⁄2cup of rich milk or cream, 3 eggs, well beaten, 11⁄2cups flour, 1 large teaspoonful baking powder, and a teaspoonful ground nutmeg; and beat the whole thoroughly before baking.
Two cups sugar, 1 cup butter, the yolks of 5 eggs, and whites of 2, 1 cup pure milk, 31⁄2cups flour, 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar,1⁄2teaspoonful bi-carbonate soda, and stir thoroughly before baking.
The following is the mixture for filling.
Whites of 3 eggs, 11⁄2cups sugar, 3 tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, and 1 teaspoonful extract vanilla. Beat well together, and spread between each layer and on top the cake.
[Jelly cake may be made the same way, using jelly instead of chocolate.]
Three eggs, 2 cups sugar, 1 butter, 1 milk,1⁄2teaspoonful soda, 1 cup currants, and a little citron, cut in thin slices, with flour to make a stiff batter. Pour into pans, and bake medium quick.
Four cups of flour, 2 of sugar, 3 of sweet cream, 4 eggs; mix and bake in square tins. When cold, cut in squares about two inches wide.
Rub to a cream a pound of butter and a pound of sugar; mix with a pound and a half of flour, 4 eggs and a little brandy; roll the cakes in powdered sugar, lay in flat buttered tins, and bake in a quick oven.
One cup of sugar, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup butter, 1 egg,1⁄2teaspoonful soda,1⁄2nutmeg grated fine, flour enough to make a stiff batter. Bake in a slow oven.
Five eggs, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour,1⁄2teacup cold water; mix well and bake quickly.
Into 1 pint of molasses put 1 cup lard, 1 tablespoonful of ginger, 1 teaspoonful of soda, and a little salt; boil for a few minutes, and when quite cool, add sufficient flour to make a stiff dough; roll very thin and bake.
One quart flour, 4 eggs,1⁄2cup butter,1⁄2cup sweet lard, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and 1 of salt. Beat the whites and yolks of the eggs separately, until light. Sift the baking powder into the flour. Melt the shortening in a cup of milk with the yolks of the eggs—putting the whites in last. Work into a thick batter, and bake steadily for three-quarters of an hour; to be eaten hot.
There are a number of formulas for the preparation of icings for cake, but the following will invariably be found the simplest, easiest prepared, and the best:
Take the whites of 4 eggs, and 1 pound of best pulverized white sugar, and any flavoring extract most agreeable to the taste. Break the whites of the eggs into a broad, cool dish, and after throwing a small handful of sugar upon them, begin whipping it in with long even strokes of the beater. Beat until the icing is of a smooth, fine and firm texture. If not stiff enough, put in more sugar, using at least a quarter of a pound to eachegg. Pour the icing by the spoonful on top of the cake, and near the centre of the surface to be covered. If the loaf is so shaped that the liquid will naturally settle to its place, it is best left to do so. To spread it, use a broad-bladed knife, dipped in cold water; if as thick with sugar as should be, one coat will be amply sufficient. Leave in a moderate oven for three minutes. To color icing yellow, use the rind of a lemon or orange, tied in a thin muslin bag, straining a little of the juice through it and squeezing hard into the ice and sugar; for red, use extract of cochineal.