VEGETABLE SOUP
Slice thinly 3 potatoes, 3 carrots, 3 turnips, the undesirable parts of 2 heads of celery, 2 stalks of parsley and 3 onions. Cook the onions in a little butter until they turn a yellow brown, thenadd the other ingredients. Season well with salt and black pepper, also a pinch of red pepper. Put all together in a stew-pan, cover with three quarts of water, stand on range and simmer about three hours. Strain soup into stew-pan, place on range, and when hot add Marklose Balls.
MARKLOSE BALLS
Take marrow from uncooked beef soup bones, enough to fill 2 tablespoons, cut fine, add 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful grated onion to flavor, pepper and salt, stiffen with 1 cup of bread crumbs, shape into balls size of marbles, drop into hot broth and cook uncovered from 15 to 20 minutes.
Aunt Sarah purchased two good-sized soup bones containing considerable meat. After extracting 2 tablespoonfuls of marrow from the uncooked bones, she put the bones in a stew-pan with a couple of quarts of water, a large onion, chopped fine, and a piece of celery, and cooked for several hours, then skimmed off scum which arises on top of broth, removed the soup bones and meat and added a couple of tablespoonfuls of grated carrot, pepper and salt to taste, cooked a short time, and then added the marrow balls, a little chopped parsley and a couple of tablespoonfuls of boiled rice. Two tablespoonfuls of marrow will make about 15 balls, with the addition of crumbs, eggs, etc.
EGG BALLS FOR SOUP
Mash the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs fine and smooth with a little soft butter. Beat the white of 1 egg, and add with about 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, salt and pepper. Mix all together. Use a little flour to mold the mixture into balls the size of quite small marbles. Do not make too stiff. Drop these into hot broth or soup and cook about five minutes. This quantity will make 12 small balls.
"SUPPEE SCHWANGEN"
Mary was taught to make these by the Professor's wife. Shebeat together either 1 or 2 raw eggs, ½ cup flour, 1 tablespoonful butter, a little salt, and just enough milk to thin the mixture enough so it may be dropped by half teaspoonfuls into hot soup stock or broth. Cook these small dumplings about 10 minutes. Serve in soup broth.
CREAM OF OYSTER BOUILLON
Put two dozen oysters through food chopper, cook oyster liquor and oysters together five minutes, heat 1 pint milk and 1 tablespoon flour, mixed smooth with a little cold milk, and 1 tablespoonful butter. Let come to a boil, watching carefully that it does not burn. Pour all together when ready to serve. Serve in bouillon cups with crackers. This recipe was given Mary by a friend in Philadelphia, who thought it unexcelled.
GERMAN NOODLE SOUP
Place about 3 pounds of cheap stewing beef in a cook-pot with sufficient water and cook several hours, until meat is quite tender; season with salt and pepper. About an hour before serving chop fine 3 medium-sized potatoes and 2 onions and cook in broth until tender. Ten or fifteen minutes before serving add noodle.
To prepare noodles, break 2 fresh eggs in a bowl, fill ½ an egg shell with cold water, add the eggs, and mix with flour as stiff as can conveniently be handled. Add a little salt to flour. Divide dough into sheets, roll on bake-board, spread on cloth a short time and let dry, but not until too brittle to roll into long, narrow rolls. Cut this with a sharp knife into thin, thread-like slices, unroll, drop as many as wished into the stew-pan with the meat and cook about 10 or 15 minutes. Place the meat on a platter and serve the remainder in soup plates. The remaining noodles (not cooked) may be unrolled and dried and later cooked in boiling salted water, drained and placed in a dish and browned butter, containing a few soft, browned crumbs, poured over them when served. The very fine noodles are generally served with soup and the broad or medium-sized ones served with brownbutter Germans usually serve with a dish of noodles, either stewed, dried prunes, or stewed raisins. Both are palatable and healthful.
CREAM OF CELERY
Cook 1 large stalk of celery, also the root cut up in dice, in 1 pint of water, ½ hour or longer. Mash celery and put through a fine sieve. Add 1 pint of scalded milk, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour, mixed with a little cold milk. Add 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, pepper and salt, and simmer a few minutes. Just before serving add a cup of whipped cream. Serve with the soup, small "croutons" of bread.
OYSTER STEW
Rinse a stew-pan with cold water, then put in 1 pint of milk and let come to a boil. Heat 15 oysters in a little oyster liquor a few minutes, until the oysters curl up around the edges, then add the oysters to one-half the hot milk, add a large tablespoonful of butter, season well with salt and pepper, and when serving the stew add the half pint of boiling hot milk remaining. This quantity makes two small stews. Serve crackers and pickled cabbage. When possible use a mixture of sweet cream and milk for an oyster stew instead of all milk. An old cook told Mary she always moistened half a teaspoonful of cornstarch and added to the stew just before removing from the range to cause it to have a creamy consistency.
CLAM BROTH
Clam broth may be digested usually by the most delicate stomach. It can be bought in cans, but the young housewife may like to know how to prepare it herself. Strain the juice from one-half dozen clams and save. Remove objectionable parts from clams, cut in small pieces, add ½ pint of cold water and the clam juice, let cook slowly about 10 minutes, strain and season with pepper and salt, a little butter and milk, and serve hot.
TURKEY SOUP
Take broken-lip bones and undesirable pieces of roast turkey, such as neck, wings and left-over pieces of bread filling, put in stew-pot, cover with water, add pieces of celery, sliced onion and parsley, cook several hours, strain, and to the strained liquor add a couple tablespoonfuls of boiled rice, season with salt and pepper and serve. Some of the cold turkey might also be cut in small pieces and added to the soup.
CREAM OF PEA SOUP
Cook quarter peck of green peas until very tender, reserve one-half cup, press the remainder through a sieve with the water in which they were boiled. Season with salt and pepper. Mix 1 tablespoonful of flour, 1 tablespoonful of butter with 1 cup of hot milk. Mix flour smooth with a little cold milk before heating it. Cook all together a few minutes, then add the one cup of peas reserved. If soup is too thick add a small quantity of milk or water.
TOMATO SOUP
One quart of canned tomatoes, 1 tablespoonful sugar, 1 onion, and a sprig of parsley, cut fine, and 1 carrot and 2 cloves. Stew until soft enough to mash through a fine, wire sieve. Place one quart of sweet milk on the stove to boil. Mix 1 large tablespoonful of cornstarch smooth, with a little cold milk, and stir into the hot milk. Add 1 large tablespoonful of butter and ¼ teaspoonful (good measure) of soda. Let cook one minute, until it thickens, add 1 teaspoonful of salt. Do not add the milk to the strained tomatoes until ready to serve. Then serve at once.
FRAU SCHMIDTS CLAM SOUP
Chop 12 clams fine, add enough water to the clam broth to measure one quart, cook all together about 15 minutes; add 3 pints of scalding hot milk, season with 1½ tablespoonfuls butter and salt and pepper to taste. Serve crackers with the soup.
CLAM CHOWDER
Cut ¼ pound of rather "fat" smoked bacon in tiny pieces the size of dice; fry until brown and crisp. Take 25 fresh clams, after having drained a short time in a colander, run through a food chopper and place in ice chest until required. Pour the liquor from the clams into an agate stew-pan; add 6 medium-sized potatoes and 4 medium-sized onions, all thinly sliced; also add the crisp bits of bacon and fat, which had fried out from the bacon, to the clam juice. Cook all together slowly or simmer 3 or 4 hours. Add water to the clam liquor occasionally as required. Ten or fifteen minutes before serving add 1 cup of hot water and the chopped clams (clam juice if too strong is liable to curdle milk). Allow clams to cook in the clam broth 10 to 15 minutes. Boil 2 quarts of sweet milk, and when ready to serve add the hot milk to the chowder, also 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley. One-half this quantity will serve a small family. Serve crisp crackers and small pickels, and this chowder, served with a dessert, makes an inexpensive, nourishing lunch.
BROWN POTATO CHOWDER
Put a pint of diced, raw potatoes in a stew-pan over the fire, cover with 1 quart of water, to which a pinch of salt has been added. Cook until tender, but not fine, then add water so that the water in the stew-pan will still measure one quart should some have boiled away. Place a small iron fry-part on the range, containing 1 tablespoonful of sweet lard; when melted, it should measure about 2 tablespoonfuls. Then add 4 tablespoonfuls of flour, a pinch of salt and stir constantly, or rather mash the flour constantly with a spoon, being careful not to allow it to scorch, until a rich brown; add this to the diced potatoes and the quart of water in which they were boiled, stir until the consistency of thick cream, or like clam chowder. Should there be a few, small lumps of the browned flour not dissolved in the chowder, they will not detract from the taste of it; in fact, some are very fond of them. Perhaps some folks would prefer this, more like a soup; then add more hot water and thin it, but be careful to add more seasoning, as otherwise it would taste flat and unpalatable. Very few people know thegood flavorofbrowned flour. It has a flavor peculiarlyits own, and does not taste of lard at all. I would never advocateanyseasoning except butter, but advise economical housewives to try this, being very careful not to scorch the flour and fat while browning.
A mixture of butter and lard may be used in which to brown the flour should there be a prejudice against the use of lard alone.
BEAN CHOWDER
Another palatable, cheap and easily prepared dish is called Bean Chowder. Small soup beans were soaked over night in cold water. Pour off, add fresh water and cook until tender. Then add browned flour (same as prepared for Potato Chowder) and the water in which the beans were cooked. When ready to serve, the beans were added. More water may be added until broth is thin enough for soup, then it would be called "brown bean soup."
BOUILLON
Buy a soup bone, cook with a chopped onion, one stalk of celery and a sprig of parsley until meat falls from bone. Season with salt and pepper. Strain the broth into a bowl and stand aside until perfectly cold. Then remove the cake of fat formed on top of soup and add it to drippings for frying. The broth may be kept several days if poured into a glass jar and set on ice. When wanted to serve, heat 1 pint of broth, add 2 tablespoonfuls of cream to yolks of 2 eggs. Stir well. Pour boiling hot broth over the cream and yolks of eggs and serve at once in bouillon cups. Serve crackers also. Do not cook mixture after cream and yolks of eggs have been added. This is very nourishing.
FARMER'S RICE
One and one-half quarts of milk, poured into a double boiler and placed on the range to heat. One cup of flour was placed in a bowl; into the flour 1 raw egg was dropped and stirred with a knife until mixed, then rubbed between the fingers into fine rivels.It may take a littlemoreflour; the rivels should be dry enough to allow of being rubbed fine. When the milk commences to boil drop the rivels in by handfuls, slowly, stirring constantly. Salt to taste. Let cook 15 minutes. Eat while hot, adding a small piece of butter as seasoning. This should be a little thicker than ordinary rice soup.
PHILADELPHIA "PEPPER POT"
This recipe for far-famed "Philadelphia Pepper Pot" was given Mary by a friend living in the Quaker City, a good cook, who vouched for its excellence:
The ingredients consist of the following:
The day before you wish to use the "Pepper Pot" procure 2 pounds of plain tripe and 2 pounds of honeycomb tripe. Wash thoroughly in cold water place in a kettle. Cover with cold water and boil eight hours; then remove tripe from water, and when cold cut into pieces about ¾ of an inch square. The day following get a knuckle of veal, wash and cover with cold water—about three quarts—bring slowly to the simmering point, skimming off the scum which arises, simmer for three hours. Remove the meat from the bones, cut into small pieces, strain broth and return it to the kettle. Add a bay leaf, one large onion, chopped, simmer one hour; then add four medium-sized potatoes, cut like dice, and add to the broth. Wash a bunch of pot-herbs, chop parsley (and add last), rub off the thyme leaves, cut red pepper in half and add all to broth; then add meat and tripe and season with salt;if liked hot, use a pinch of cayenne pepper. For the dumplings, take 1 cup of beef suet, chopped fine, 2 cups flour, pinch of salt, mix well together and moisten with enough cold water to allow of their being molded orrolled into tiny dumplings, the size of a small marble. Flour these well to prevent sticking together. When all are prepared drop into soup, simmer a few minutes, add parsley and serve at once.
GERMAN VEGETABLE SOUP
Take 6 potatoes, half the quantity of onions, carrots, turnips, cabbage and a stalk of celery, cut up into dice-shaped pieces, place all in a stew-pan and cover with a couple quarts of hot water. Let cook about two hours, until all the vegetables are tender, then add 1 tablespoonful of butter, a large cup of milk, and about a tablespoonful of flour mixed smooth with a little cold milk, cook a few minutes, add a tablespoonful minced parsley, and serve.
A CHEAP RICE AND TOMATO SOUP
Take one pint of rice water which has been drained from one cupful of rice boiled in 2½ quarts of water 25 minutes (the rice to be used in other ways), and after the rice has drained in a sieve add to the rice water 1 cup stewed, strained tomatoes (measure after being strained), 1 teaspoonful butter, 1 teaspoonful flour mixed with a little cold water, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoonful of the cooked rice, and you have a palatable soup, as the water in which the rice was boiled is said to be more nutritious than the rice.
FISH, CLAMS AND OYSTER (BONED SHAD)
How many young cooks know how to bone a shad? It is a very simple process, and one becomes quite expert after one or two trials. And it fully repays one for the extra time and trouble taken, in the satisfaction experienced by being able to serve fish without bones. With a sharp knife cut the fish open along the back bone on the outside of the fish, but do not cut through the bone, then carefully cut the fish loose along the back bone on each side, cut the centre bone away with the smaller bones branching out on each side attached. Cut the shad into sizable pieces after being washed in cold water and dried on a cloth to take up all themoisture. Dip pieces of fish into white of egg containing a teaspoonful of water, roll in fine, dried bread crumbs, season with salt and pepper, drop in hot fat, and fry a rich brown. Serve on a platter, surrounded by a border of parsley.
Some small portions of the fish will adhere to the bones, however carefully the fish has been boned. The meat may be picked from the bones after cooking in salt water until tender. Flake the fish, and either make it into small patties or croquettes.
Shad roe should be parboiled first and then dredged with flour on both sides and fried in drippings or a little butter.
CROQUETTES OF COLD, COOKED FISH
Shred or flake cold, cooked fish, which has been carefully picked from bones. To 2 cups of fish add an equal amount of mashed potatoes, a small half cup of cold milk, 1 tablespoonful butter, yolk of 1 egg, lightly beaten, 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper. Mix all well together, and when cold, form in small croquettes. Dip into white of egg containing 1 tablespoonful of water, roll in fine, dried bread crumbs and fry in hot fat. Shad, salmon, codfish, or any kind of fish may be prepared this way, or prepare same as "Rice Croquettes," substituting-fish for rice.
SHAD ROE
Shad roe should be carefully taken from the fish, allowed to stand in cold water, to which a pinch of salt has been added, for a few minutes, then dropped in boiling water, cooked a short time and drained. Dredge with flour and fry slowly in a couple tablespoonfuls of butter and lard or drippings until a golden brown. Be particular not to serve them rare. Serve garnished with parsley.
Or the shad roe may be parboiled, then broken in small pieces, mixed with a couple of lightly beaten eggs and scrambled in a fry-pan, containing a couple of tablespoonfuls of butter and sweet drippings. Serve at once. Garnish with parsley or water cress.
SCALLOPED OYSTERS
Take about 50 fresh oysters. Place a layer of oysters in a baking dish alternately with fine, dried crumbs, well seasoned with pepper and salt and bits of butter, until pan is about two-thirds full. Have a thick layer of bread crumbs for the top, dotted with bits of butter. Pour over this half a cup or less of strained oyster liquor and small cup of sweet milk. Place in oven and bake from 40 to 50 minutes.
DEVILED OYSTERS
Drain oysters in a colander and chop rather coarsely.
Mix flour smooth with a little cold milk. Place the remainder of the milk in a saucepan on the range. When it commences to boil add the moistened flour and cook until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly to prevent burning, or cook in a double boiler. Add yolks of eggs and butter, ½ teaspoonful salt and ¼ teaspoonful of black pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Then add chopped oysters, stir all together a few minutes until oysters are heated through. Then turn into a bowl and stand aside in a cool place until a short time before they are to be served. (These may be prepared early in the morning and served at six o'clock dinner.) Then fill good-sized, well-scrubbed oyster shells with the mixture, sprinkle the tops liberally with fine-dried, well-seasoned bread crumbs. (Seasoned with salt and pepper.) Place the filled shells on muffin tins to prevent their tipping over; stand in a hot oven about ten minutes, until browned on top, when they should be heated through. Serve at once in the shells. Handle the hot shells with a folded napkin when serving at table. This quantity fills thirteen oyster shells. Serve with the oysters small pickles, pickled cabbage or cranberry sauce as an accompaniment.
PLANKED SHAD
After eating planked shad no one will wish to have it served in any other manner, as no other method of preparing fish equals this. For planked shad, use an oak plank, at least two inches thick, three inches thick is better. Planks for this purpose may be bought at a department store or procured at a planing mill. Place plank in oven several days before using to season it. Always heat the plank in oven about 15 minutes before placing fish on it, then have plankvery hot. Split a nicely-cleaned shad down the back, place skin side down, on hot plank, brush with butter and sprinkle lightly with pepper and salt. Put plank containing shad on the upper grating of a hot oven of coal range and bake about 45 minutes. Baste frequently with melted butter. The shad should be served on the plank, although not a very sightly object, but it is the proper way to serve it. The flavor of shad, or, in fact, of any other fish, prepared in this manner is superior to that of any other. Fish is less greasy and more wholesome than when fried. Should an oak plank not be obtainable, the shad may be placed in a large roasting pan and baked in oven. Cut gashes across the fish about two inches apart, and place a teaspoonful of butter on each. Bake in oven from 50 to 60 minutes. Serve on a warmed platter, garnished with parsley, and have dinner plates warmed when serving fish on them. Do not wash the plank with soap and water after using, but instead rub it over with sandpaper.
BROILED MACKEREL
When fish has been cleaned, cut off head and scrape dark skin from inside. Soak salt mackerel in cold water over night, skin side up, always. In the morning; drain, wipe dry and place on a greased broiler, turn until cooked on both sides. Take up carefully on a hot platter, pour over a large tablespoonful of melted butter and a little pepper, or lay the mackerel in a pan, put bits of butter on top, and set in a hot oven and bake. Garnish with parsley.
CODFISH BALLS
Soak codfish several hours in cold water. Cook slowly orsimmer a short time. Remove from fire, drain, and when cold squeeze out all moisture by placing the flaked fish in a small piece of cheese-cloth. To one cup of the flaked codfish add an equal quantity of warm mashed potatoes, yolk of 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful of milk and a little pepper. Roll into small balls with a little flour. Dip in white of egg and bread crumbs, and when quite cold fry in deep fat. Garnish with parsley.
FRIED OYSTERS
Procure fine, large, fresh oysters for frying. Drain in a colander carefully, look over, and discard any pieces of shell. Roll each oyster in fine, dried bread crumbs, well seasoned with salt and pepper, then dip them in a lightly-beaten egg, and then in bread crumbs. Allow them to stand several hours in a cool place before frying. Place a few oysters at one time in a wire frying basket, and immerse in smoking hot fat. Should too great a number of oysters be placed in the fat at one time it would lower the temperature of the fat and cause the oysters to become greasy. Drain the oysters when fried on heavy, brown paper, to absorb any remaining fat, and serve at once.
For all deep frying use two-thirds lard and one-third suet, as suet is considered to be more wholesome and cheaper than lard. Two items to be considered by the frugal housewife.
If fat for deep frying is the right temperature a crust is at once formed, and the oysters do not absorb as great a quantity of fat as when fried in only enough butter and drippings to prevent scorching, as they must then be fried more slowly. Serve pickled cabbage and tomato catsup when serving fried oysters.
PANNED OYSTERS
Aunt Sarah always prepared oysters in this manner to serve roast turkey. At the very last minute, when the dinner was ready to be served, she placed 50 freshly-opened oysters, with their liquor, in a stew-pan over a hot fire. The minute they were heated through and commenced to curl up, she turned them in a hot colander to drain a minute, then turned the oysters intoa stew-pan containing two large tablespoonfuls of hot, melted butter, and allowed them to remain in the hot butter one minute, shaking the pan lo prevent scorching, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and turned all into a heated dish and sent to the table at once. These are easily prepared and are more wholesome than fried oysters.
OYSTERS STEAMED IN THE SHELL
Place well-scrubbed shells, containing fresh oysters, in a deep agate pan, which will fit in a kettle containing a small amount of boiling water. Cover very closely until the shells open easily. These may be served in the shell with hot, melted butter, in a side dish, or they may be removed from the shell to a hot bowl and seasoned with hot butter, salt and pepper.
A RECIPE GIVEN MARY FOR "OYSTER COCKTAIL"
To 2 tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup add ½ tablespoonful of grated horseradish, ½ tablespoonful of lemon juice, ½ teaspoonful of tabasco sause, ½ tablespoonful of vinegar, 1 saltspoonful of salt. Stand on ice one hour at least.
To serve—The freshly-opened oysters on half shell were placed on a plate, in the centre of which was placed a tiny glass goblet containing a small quantity of the mixture, into which the oysters were dipped before being eaten.
OYSTER CROQUETTES
Boil 50 oysters five minutes, drain. When cold, cut into small pieces, add ½ cup of bread crumbs and mix all together with a thick cream sauce composed of ½ cup of cream or milk thickened with flour, to which add 1 large tablespoonful of butter; season with salt, a dash of red pepper and 1 teaspoonful of finely-minced parsley. Stand this mixture on ice until quite cold and firm enough to form into small croquettes. Dip in egg and bread crumbs and fry in deep fat until a golden brown.
Serve at once on a platter garnished with sprigs of parsley From these ingredients was made 12 croquettes.
FRAU SCHMIDTS WAY OF SERVING "OYSTER COCKTAILS"
Place in a bowl 2 tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup, 1 teaspoonful of grated horseradish, 2 tablespoonfuls of very finely cut celery juice and pulp of 2 lemons. Season with salt and pepper. Mix this with oysters which have been cut in small pieces. Serve in halves of lemons, from which the pulp has been carefully removed.
Place on ice a short time before serving. Crisp crackers should be served at the same time this is served.
SALMON LOAF
One can of salmon, from which all bones have been removed, 1 cup of cracker crumbs, ½ cup of milk, 1 tablespoonful of butter, which had been melted; 2 eggs beaten, salt and pepper to season. Mix all together, bake in a buttered pudding dish one-half hour or until browned on top. Serve hot.
CREAMED SALMON
A half cup of canned salmon, a left-over from lunch the preceding day, may be added to double the quantity of cream dressing, and when heated through and served on crisply-toasted slices of stale bread, make a tasty addition to any meal.
Of course, it is not necessary to tell even unexperienced housewives never under any circumstances allow food to stand in tins in which it was canned; do not ever stand food away in tin; use small agateware dishes, in which food, such as small quantities of left-overs, etc, may be reheated. Never use for cooking agate stew-pans, from the inside of which small parties have been chipped, as food cooked in such a vessel might become mixed with small particles of glazing, and such food when eaten would injure the stomach.
OYSTER CANAPES
Season with paprika, tiny pinch of nutmeg and salt. Boil the cream, add bread crumbs and butter. Chop oysters fine, add seasoning. Serve hot in pattie cups or on toast. Serve small pickles or olives. Good dish for chafing dish.
MEAT
Every young housewife should be taught that simmering is more effective than violent boiling, which converts water into useless steam. Even a tough, undesirable piece of "chuck" or "pot roast" may be made more tender and palatable by long-continued simmering than it would be if put in rapidly boiling water and kept boiling at that rate. Meat may be made more tender also by being marinated; that is, allowing the meat to stand for some time in a mixture of olive oil and vinegar before cooking it. In stewing most meats a good plan is to put a large tablespoonful of finely-minced beef suet in the stew-pan; when fried out, add a little butter, and when sizzling hot add the meat, turn and sear on both sides to retain the juice in the meat, then add a little hot water and let come to a boil; then stand where the meat will just simmer but not slop cooking for several hours. The meat then should be found quite tender. Cheaper cuts of meat, especially, require long, slow cooking or simmering to make them tender, but are equally as nutritious as high-priced meats if properly prepared.
To quote fromThe Farmers' Bulletin: "The number of appetizing dishes which a good cook can make out of the meat 'left over' is almost endless. Undoubtedly more time and skill are required in their preparation than in the simple cooking of the more expensive cuts. The real superiority of a good cook lies not so much in the preparation of expensive or fancy dishes as in the attractive preparation of inexpensive dishes for every day. In the skillful combination of flavors. Some housewives seem to havea prejudice against economizing. If the comfort of the family does not suffer and the meals are kept as varied and appetizing as when they cost more, with little reason for complaint, surely it is not beneath the dignity of any family to avoid useless expenditure, no matter how generous its income. And the intelligent housekeeper should take pride in setting a good table."
This is such an excellent article, and so ably written and true, that I feel it would be to the advantage of every young housewife to read and profit by it.
"SAUERGEBRATENS" OR GERMAN POT ROAST
Buy about three pounds of beef, as for an ordinary pot roast. Place in a large bowl. Boil vinegar (or, if vinegar is too sharp, add a little water, a couple of whole cloves and a little allspice); this should cover the piece of meat. Vinegar should be poured over it hot; let stand a couple of days in a cool place uncovered; turn it over occasionally. When wanted to cook, take from the vinegar and put in a stew-pan containing a little hot fried-out suet or drippings in which has been sliced 2 onions. Let cook, turn occasionally, and when a rich brown, stir in a large tablespoonful of flour, add 1½ cups of hot water, cover and cook slowly for two or three hours, turning frequently. Half an hour before serving add small pared potatoes, and when they have cooked tender, serve meat, gravy and potatoes on a large platter.
The writer knew an old gentleman who had moved to the city from a "Bucks County farm" when a boy, who said that he'd walk five miles any day for a dish of the above as his mother had prepared it in former years.
Mary was surprised at the amount of valuable information to be obtained from the differentFarmers' Bulletinsreceived at the farm, on all subjects of interest to housewives, and particularly farmers' wives. All books were to be had free for the asking.
The dishes Mary prepared from recipes in theFarmers Bulletinon "economical use of meat in the home," were especially liked at the farm, particularly "Stewed Shin of Beef" and "Hungarian Goulash" (a Hungarian dish which has come to be a favorite in the United States).
HUNGARIAN GOULASH
Cut the beef into 2-inch pieces and sprinkle with flour. Fry the salt pork until a light brown; add the beef and cook slowly for about thirty-five minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover with water and simmer about two hours. Season with salt and pepper or paprika. From the vegetables and spices a sauce is made as follows: Cook in sufficient water to cover for 20 minutes; then rub through a sieve, and add to some of the stock in which the meat was cooked. Thicken with flour, using 2 tablespoonfuls (moistened with cold water) to each cup of liquid, and season with salt and paprika. Serve the meat on a platter with the sauce poured over it. Potatoes, carrots and green peppers cooked until tender and cut into small pieces or narrow strips are usually sprinkled over the dish when served, and noodles may be arranged in a border upon the platter.