Figure No. 9.Diagram of the cuts of veal.
Figure No. 9.Diagram of the cuts of veal.
TABLE SHOWING THE WAYS IN WHICH THE VARIOUS CUTS OF VEAL MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER.
OTHER PARTS OF THE CALF, USED FOR FOOD, WHICH MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER.
Wipe the cutlets with a clean, wet cloth. Cut them into pieces suitable for serving, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Dip them into sifted crumbs, then into the egg, which has been beaten slightly and mixed with one tablespoonful of water. Dip the cutlets again into the crumbs and fry them until they are a rich brown, in one-half the butter or drippings. Put them into a small cooker-pail or pan. MakeBrown Sauce, using the remaining ingredients. Pour the sauce over the cutlets and, when boiling, stand the pail in a large cooker-pail of boiling water. Put it into a cooker for from two to four hours, depending upon the age and toughness of the veal. Reheat them before serving.
Serves six or eight persons.
Wipe the cutlets with a wet cloth, trim off any tough membranes, and cut them into pieces suitable for serving. Brown them in a very hot frying-pan with butter or rendered fat, beingcareful not to let them scorch. Sprinkle them well with salt and pepper and put them into a small cooker-pail or pan. Pour a little boiling water into the frying-pan and, when all the brown juice which has hardened on the pan has been dissolved, pour this over the cutlets. Add enough boiling water to barely cover them and, when boiling, stand the pail or pan in a large cooker-pail of boiling water. Put it into the cooker for from two to four hours, depending upon the age and toughness of the veal. Reheat them before serving, if necessary.
Wipe meat from the cheaper cuts of veal, remove the fat and toughest membranes, and put it through a fine food-chopper. Mix the seasonings with the crumbs, add the melted butter, mix these with the veal, add the pork and, lastly, the eggs. Put the mixture in a well-buttered one-quart brown bread mould or water-tight can. Spread it level but do not pack it in the mould. Stand it in a large cooker-pail with enough boiling water to come at least two-thirds of the way up the mould.Boil it for twenty minutes and put it into the cooker for four hours. Serve it either hot or cold.
Serves eight or ten persons.
Wash and soak the sweetbreads in cold water for one hour. Plunge them into boiling salted water (one teaspoonful of salt for each quart of water). Boil them two minutes and put them into the cooker for two hours. Plunge them into cold water, remove the membrane which covers them, and they are then ready to be broken in pieces for creamed sweetbreads or rolled in crumbs and egg and fried.
Make awhite sauce, using part milk and part cream, if desired. To each cupful of sauce add two cupfuls of prepared sweetbreads broken into small pieces, let them come to a boil and serve them at once, or put them into a cooker to keep warm until they are needed.
Calf’s heart may be cooked asbeef’s heart, except that it will not require so long to cook. Ten minutes is sufficient to allow for cooking over the flame, and ten hours in the hay-box.
Prepare and cook it in the same manner asbeef’s liver, allowing only four hours for it to cook in the hay-box.
These are almost as delicate as sweetbreads. They may be cooked for two hours in the same manner asbeef kidney, or creamed or fried as sweetbreads.
Carefully clean a calf’s head and put it into a cooker-pail. Cover it with boiling water, add one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of water and let it boil for twenty minutes. Put it into a cooker for nine hours or more. Cool it and cut the face meat into small dice. Make a cupful of sauce using the butter, flour, pepper, one-half teaspoonful of salt and one cupful of the water in which the head was boiled. Add the cream and, when boiling, the raw yolks of two eggs which have been slightly beaten. Stir it constantly for about two minutes until the eggs have cooked. Then add two tablespoonfuls of Madeira wine and the yolks of twohard-cooked eggscut into quarters.
Serves five or six persons.
Whatevermay be true of the extent to which pork and pork products are wholesome for particular individuals, there can be no doubt that its delicious flavour will insure its being eaten by a large number of people who either do not know or do not care whether it agrees with them or not. Experiments undertaken under the management of the Department of Agriculture[1]have resulted in the conclusion that pork is as thoroughly and easily digested, under normal conditions of health, as any meat, although personal experience would indicate that pork does not agree with some people as well as other kinds of meat. It is specially important, however, that pork be very well cooked or well cured, in order to insure against the danger from trichinosis. We are told by B. H. Ransom[2]that it is only by eating raw or insufficiently cooked or cured pork that there is thought to be anydanger of this disease. Curing is the process of smoking, salting, or combined salting and smoking of meat, which acts as a preservative for it. We thus see that, not only because it is a white meat, as mentioned in the chapter onveal, pork and pork products should be cooked until very well done.
[1]Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin 193, 1907.[2]U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, Circular 108, 1907.
[1]Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin 193, 1907.
[2]U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, Circular 108, 1907.
As pork is the fattest of all meats, it is suitable for a cold-weather diet and will probably be found to agree better at that season. For whatever reason it may be, fresh pork seems to be less wholesome than when cured, bacon having the reputation of being one of the most easily digested of all fats.
Young pigs (four weeks old) are frequently dressed and roasted whole.
Figure No. 10.Diagram of the cuts of pork.
Figure No. 10.Diagram of the cuts of pork.
Pork is usually cut for market in the manner illustrated infigure No. 10.
The back is fat and is used for salt pork or lard. The ribs are used for spare-ribs, and the loin orchine, which is the backbone with its adhering meat, is used for roasts or chops. The legs are roasted, if fresh, or they are cured, by salting and smoking, for hams, sugar being used in the salting process, which gives the name “sugar-cured hamsâ€; the shoulders are treated in the same way and may be used very much as hams, although the flesh is not so thick and the proportion of bone is greater. The belly is cured for bacon, the head and feet are soused or pickled, and the trimmings of fat and lean are chopped, highly seasoned, and used for sausage, or combined with meal and made into scrapple.
To select fresh pork.The meat should be firm and of a pale red colour, the fat hard and white and the skin white and clear. Yellowish fat, with kernels in it, and soft, flabby flesh are an indication of inferior pork.
Put a ham or shoulder in a large enough cooker-pail to allow of its being covered with eight or ten quarts of water. A special oblong or extra deep utensil may be required for cooking hams and such very large cuts of meat. Put in the ham, add cold water to fill the utensil, and bring it to a boil. This will serve to draw out a good deal of the salt from the meat and will not extract much of the meat flavour, if the ham be whole. Acut ham may be covered with boiling water which will seal the pores on the surface of the meat and help to retain its juices. Allow the ham to simmer for twenty minutes, or, if very large, for one-half hour, then put it into a cooker for seven hours or more. The larger the ham the greater the quantity of water must be, a fifteen-pound ham taking as much as fifteen quarts of water. Success in cooking large cuts of meat will depend to a great extent upon using sufficient water.
Wash and gash a two-pound piece of fresh, lean pork into slices. Put it with one quart of sauerkraut into a cooker-pail of boiling salted water. Let it boil for fifteen minutes, tightly covered. Place it in a cooker for eight or ten hours. Reheat till boiling, drain it, and serve the pork in a platter, with the sauerkraut arranged as a border; or put the sauerkraut into a vegetable dish. It grows cold quickly and must be served promptly and on hot dishes.
Serves six or eight persons.
Cut a hog’s head into four pieces. Remove the brain, ears, skin, snout, and eyes. Cut off the fat to try out for lard. Put the lean and bony parts to soak in cold water over night to extract the blood. Clean the head thoroughly,put it into a cooker-pail, cover it with cold water, boil it for fifteen minutes and put it into the cooker for ten hours or more. If the meat will not then slip readily from the bones, bring it again to a boil and put it into the cooker until it will (perhaps six hours more). Remove the bones and hard gristle, drain off the liquor, reserving it for future use. Put the meat through a food-chopper, return it to the cooker-pail with enough of the liquor to cover it, and salt, pepper, and powdered sage to taste. Let it boil, put it into a cooker for an hour or more, then pour it into a shallow pan or dish; cover it with cheese-cloth and a board with a weight, to hold it in place. When cold it will be solid, and is ready to serve, thinly sliced.
Treat a hog’s head in the same manner as forhead cheese, adding a little vinegar with the other seasonings.
Treat a hog’s head in the same manner as forhead cheese, up to the point where the liquor is added to the chopped meat. The heart and liver may also be cooked with the head, and any scraps or bloody parts of the meat may be soaked and cooked with it. When the meat is freed from bone, gristle, and skin, and chopped finely,and all the liquor is added to it, it is seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, thyme or marjoram, and brought to a boil. Enough corn-meal, or corn-meal and buckwheat flour in the proportion of one-third cupful of buckwheat to two-thirds of a cupful of corn-meal, is added, to make the mixture of the consistency of corn-meal mush. About one cupful of the two combined will be required for each three pints of the pork mixture. Let this come to a boil, stirring it constantly; boil it five minutes, and put it into a cooker for four hours or more. Pour it into a mould or bread pan and, when cold, slice and fry it like sausage.
Wash the pigs’ feet, soak them in warm water for one-half hour, then scrub and scrape them well; soak them again for twelve hours in cold, salted water, and clean them again. If necessary, singe them; remove the toes, and bring them to a boil in salted water to more than cover them. Boil them five minutes, and cook them for ten hours or more in a cooker. If not tender, reheat them till boiling, and cook them again. Remove them from the water, split them with a cleaver, unless this is done before cooking, pack them in a jar, and cover them with hot, spiced vinegar, preferably made from white wine. They are eaten cold, or dipped in batter and fried.
Inbuying poultry select that which has clean, unbroken skin and is as fat as possible. Young chickens have often a darker appearance than old, owing to the fact that there is less fat under the skin or that the skin is thinner. They have few hairs, many pin-feathers, and the end of the breast-bone, toward the tail, is limber and cartilaginous. In old chickens (fowl) this bone is stiff, there are many hairs, few pin-feathers, and the scales on the legs are hard and horny. The wing joint is firm in old chickens, but is sometimes broken by poultry dealers in order to make the purchaser think the poultry younger than it is.
Chickens are frequently kept in cold storage for months, or even years, and they undergo decided changes during these periods. The effect of eating such storage poultry is still under debate; but, while there is uncertainty as to whether they may not be responsible for some obscure intestinal disorders or other disturbances,it is well to know how to tell them from fresh-killed birds. In an article entitled “Changes Taking Place in Chickens in Cold Storage,†in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, for 1907, we read that the fresh chicken is a pale, soft yellow, without any tinge or suggestion of green in the colour of the skin, while there is enough translucency to show through it the delicate pink of the muscles underneath. It can be plainly seen that the pink tint is not of the skin itself. While the skin is perfectly flexible, and is not adherent over any part of the body, it is well filled by the tissues below, so that areas distended by either fluids or gases are wanting. The feather papillæ are perfectly distinct, and, though of the same tint as the skin, are plainly visible because of their elevation. In those regions where the papillæ are most numerous, or support heavier feathers, they lend a much brighter yellow hue to the skin. The neck is smooth and well rounded, the comb and gills red, and the eye full.
With storage birds the skin becomes somewhat dried, and finally quite leathery and stretched in appearance; is less translucent than that of the fresh, and the feather papillæ tend to flatten and disappear. In time the colour of the skin alters in places to browns, reds, purples, or greenish tints.
Care of poultry.Poultry should be drawn as soon as purchased, if it has not been already done; it should be wiped out with a dry cloth, if not to be cooked immediately, and kept in a cold place. Old chickens can be made as tender as young chickens in a cooker, and will have more flavour.
To draw poultry.Cut off the head, turn back the skin of the neck and cut off the neck close to the body. If the crop has food in it, remove it from the neck, otherwise it will come out with the other organs. Cut off the windpipe. Make an opening above the vent with a small sharp knife, cut around the vent, being careful not to cut into the intestine. Put the hand just inside the wall of the body and work it carefully over the whole inner surface of the body, detaching the organs in one mass. When the hand can pass freely all around them, draw them all out together. The lungs and kidneys, imbedded in the bones, will remain behind and must be removed separately. Cut out the little oil bag on the back of the tail. Singe the chicken, and wash it well inside and outside. The heart, liver, and gizzard are the giblets, and are boiled and often used in the gravy.
To cut up a chicken.After it is drawn, a chicken may be cut for stew or fricassee, into thirteenpieces. First remove the neck, then the legs, by cutting the skin, etc., that holds them to the body; then cut on either side down to the joint which lies almost at the back. Bend the leg out from the body and this will break the ligaments that hold it. Separate the two joints of the leg in large chickens. Remove the wings by cutting around the joints and bending them out as the leg was done. Next cut off the wishbone by placing the knife across the breast and cutting close to the end of the breast-bone toward the neck. If desired, remove the meat from the breast in two fillets, beginning to cut at the top and following the bone closely, separating the meat from the breast-bone and sides of the chicken. Next cut from the back to the front, through the ribs. Separate the “side bone†from one side, and break the back in two where the ribs end.
Figure No. 11.Method of cutting chicken for stew or fricassee.
Figure No. 11.Method of cutting chicken for stew or fricassee.
To truss poultry.Stuff the poultry two-thirdsfull, from the tail opening. It may be skewered into shape, but the quickest and easiest way is to tie it. The slight mark left by the string on the breast may be covered with a garnish of parsley or fine celery leaves. Fold the neck skin under the body, putting the loop end of a doubled piece of string under it; bring the ends of string up and cross them over the breast so as to hold the wings in place; carry the string down over the thighs to the under side of the tail to hold the thighs in place, and bring it up around the tail and the ends of the drumsticks, and tie it securely. This will hold the leg bones down to the tail. If this is not sufficient to hold in the stuffing, close the opening with a skewer, or sew it with heavy thread before trussing the bird. Old chickens, turkeys, and tough ducks or geese can be stuffed, trussed, and cooked for some hours in a cooker, then be removed and browned in an oven.
Figure No. 12.Chicken, trussed for roasting or braising.
Figure No. 12.Chicken, trussed for roasting or braising.
Draw and cut up a fowl. Put it, with the giblets, in enough boiling salted water (one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of water) to cover it. Let it boil for ten minutes and put it into a cooker for ten hours or more. If not quite tender, bring it again to a boil and cook it for from six to eight hours, depending upon its toughness. Skim off as much as possible of the fat from the liquor, pour off some of the liquor and save it to use as soup or stock, and thicken the remainder with two tablespoonfuls of flour for each cup of liquid, mixed to a paste with an equal quantity of water. A beaten egg or two, stirred into the gravy just before serving, improves it. Add pepper and salt to taste, and serve the chicken on a hot platter with the gravy poured around it. The platter may be garnished with boiled rice piled about the chicken.
Draw a fowl and cut it in pieces, cook it as directed forstewed chicken, dredge the cookedpieces with salt and pepper, roll them in flour and sauté them in fat taken from the stewed chicken. When richly browned, place the pieces on a hot platter and pour around them abrown sauce, made with the fat and the stock from the stewed chicken. Chicken fricassee is often served on a platter of hot toast.
Prepare and cook the chicken as forstewed chicken; cut the meat from the bones, put it into a baking-dish, cover it with chicken gravy, and put over the top a crust made as directed for meat pie onpage 102. Bake this for thirty minutes in a moderate oven.
Prepare and cook one fowl as forstewed chicken, adding two onions, pared and cut into slices. Add one tablespoonful of curry powder to the flour when thickening the gravy. Or the chicken may be rolled in flour and browned in butter, and the curry powder added before putting it into the cooker. It is served with a border of boiled rice.
Prepare and cook a fowl as directed forstewed chicken. MakeWhite Sauce, using half chicken stock and half cream for the liquid. A little grated onion and one-fourth can of mushrooms may be added.
Draw, stuff, truss and roast a young chicken in a hot oven until it is brown; put it into a hot cooker-pail with water about one inch deep in the pan. Cover it quickly, bring it to a boil, and put it into a cooker for two and one-half hours or more. Make abrown sauceof the liquor in the pan. The giblets may be added when the chicken is put into the water, and may be chopped and added to the gravy. Only young, tender chicken can be treated in this way.A tough bird may be trussed and cooked in water to half cover it for ten or twelve hours before it is stuffed and browned. Baste it when in the oven with fat taken from the broth.
Draw, clean, and cut up a fowl of about four or five pounds. Put it into a cooker-pail, add one teaspoonful of salt, two or three slices of onion, and cover the fowl with boiling water. Boil it for ten minutes, then put it in the cooker for ten or twelve hours. Boil it up again and replace it in the cooker for six hours or more. Repeat this if the meat is not found to be tender enough to fall readily from the bones. Remove the meat from the bones; take off the skin and season the meat with salt and pepper. Skim off all possible fat from the liquor and boil it downto about one cupful; strain it, and take off the remaining fat. Decorate the bottom of a mould or bread pan with parsley and slices ofhard-cooked egg, pack in the meat and pour over it the stock. Place the meat under a weight, and leave it in a cold place till firm.
Prepare and cook the duck in the same manner asbraised chicken. If the duck is tough it may be cooked for eight or more hours in water in the cooker, then stuffed and browned in the oven, basting it with fat from the broth.
Prepare it asbraised chicken; or, if it is tough, cook it in water in a cooker asold braised chicken, until it is nearly tender. Remove it, stuff it, and brown it in a hot oven, basting it with fat from the broth.
Clean, stuff, and truss six pigeons, place them upright in a cooker-pail and pour over them one quart of water in which celery has been cooked. If the water was not salted for the celery, add one teaspoonful of salt. Cover the pail, boil the birds for five minutes, and put them into a cooker for five or six hours, or till tender. Remove them from the water, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, dredgethem with flour, and brown the entire surface in pork fat. Make two cups ofBrown Sauce, using butter and stock from the pigeons; heat the birds in this, place each one on a piece of dry toast, and pour the gravy over it. Garnish it with parsley.
Theflavour of vegetables is best preserved if they are put on to cook in boiling water. For cooking in a fireless cooker the water must be salted when the vegetables are started. The expression “salted water,†as used in this book, means water to each quart of which one teaspoonful of salt has been added. Such vegetables as asparagus, peas, lima beans, etc., which have a delicate flavour, must be cooked with very little water; usually in a smaller pail or pan set into a larger cooker-pail of water. All vegetables should be washed before cooking, and such as potatoes, beets, turnips, etc., should be scrubbed with a small scrubbing-brush, kept for that purpose. Few vegetables are injured by overcooking in a fireless cooker.
Wash, and if desired, break into two-inch pieces, as much of the asparagus as will snapeasily. That which will not snap, if fresh, will be too tough to eat. Cook it in enough salted water to barely cover the asparagus, setting the pan in a large cooker-pail of boiling water. It may be tender in one hour.
Cut a head of cabbage into two pieces; soak it in a large bowl of salted water for one-half hour or more. Cut it in quarters or smaller pieces, discarding the tough central stalk and any leaves which may not be perfect. Put it into four quarts of salted water to which one-fourth of a teaspoonful of baking soda has been added. Bring it to a boil and put it into a hay-box for from one and one-half to twelve hours. Winter cabbage will require three or four hours of cooking at the least. Drain it into a colander and serve it with White Sauce or with butter, pepper, and salt to taste. If cooked many hours, reheat it before serving.
Soak the whole head in a large bowl of salted water for one-half hour or more. If insects are in it this will cause them to crawl out. Bring it to a boil in four quarts of boiling salted water and cook it in a hay-box from one and one-quarter to four hours. If much overcooked it will be difficult to remove the head whole. Takeit out with a skimmer and serve it on a platter, pouring over it one cupful ofWhite Sauce. A large head will require more sauce.
Cauliflower à la Hollandaiseis prepared in the same way, substitutingHollandaise Saucefor White Sauce.
Cauliflower au Gratinis prepared by removing the cooked head to a baking dish, covering it withbuttered crumbsand baking it until the crumbs are brown, or by covering it with grated cheese before the crumbs are added.
Scrub and scrape carrots. (Very young carrots need not be scraped.) Cover them with boiling salted water, bring them to a boil and put them into a cooker for from one to three hours, according to the age and condition of the carrots. They will not be injured by cooking twelve hours. If old and wilted they should be soaked several hours in cold water before being prepared for cooking. When done, cut young carrots in rounds or strips, or serve them whole. Old carrots may be cut into slices before cooking. Drain away most of the water and makeSauce for Vegetables, using the remainder of the water. Or all the water may be drained off and the carrots served with butter, salt, and pepper to taste.
Husk fresh green corn, using a clean whisk-broom to remove the silk that clings to the ear. Put it into a cooker-pail, cover it with salted water, bring it to a boil and put it into the cooker for from fifty minutes to two hours. Drain it and serve it on a hot platter, covering it with a napkin.
Scrub new beets, that is, those freshly pulled. Cut off the stalks three inches from the beets, put them into four quarts or more of boiling, salted water, boil five minutes, and put them into a cooker for five hours or more. Old beets, if wilted, should be soaked till firm, and cooked as new beets. They will require six or more hours according to their age and condition. When sufficiently cooked the skin of beets will easily slip off. Remove them from the water one by one, peel and slice them. Serve them with butter, pepper, and salt. If they cool while slicing them, reheat them before serving.
Wash from one pint to one quart of fresh shelled beans, put them into three quarts of boiling salted water, to which one-fourth teaspoonful of soda has been added, boil, and put them into a hay-box for two and one-half hours. They are not injured by several hours’ cooking. Drainthem and add salt, pepper, and butter to taste. The exact quantity of water in which the beans are cooked is not material. They will bear a large amount, as their flavour is strong.
Wash the beans, cut them into small pieces, and put them on to boil with the water, salt, and soda. Put them into a cooker for six hours. They will not be injured by cooking for ten or twelve hours. If fewer beans are to be cooked, the water must not be decreased, unless the pail of beans is full or set into a larger pail of boiling water.
Serves six or eight persons.
Wash the beans and put them on to cook in boiling salted water, to each quart of which one-eighth of a teaspoonful of soda has been added. If the quantity is small, put them into a small pail set into a larger pail of water. If the whole will fill a two-quart cooker-pail it will cook without the larger pail. Put them into a cooker for one and one-half hours or more.
Soak the beans over night, put them to boil in at least twice their bulk of salted water. Addone-fourth teaspoonful of soda to each quart of water. Boil, and put them into a cooker for three or four hours or more. Drain, add butter, pepper, and salt, and reheat them before serving, if necessary.
Soak one cupful of beans over night. In the morning drain off the water, add three quarts of boiling salted water and one teaspoonful of soda. Boil, and put them into the cooker for eight hours or more. When soft, drain them and add butter, pepper, and salt to taste. Or make pork and beans of them.
Serves five or six persons.
Put a pint of water and a teaspoonful of salt into a cooker-pail. When boiling add, little by little, the well-washed chard. If, after boiling two or three minutes, there is not enough water to cover the chard, add more boiling water. If a small amount of chard is cooked the pail or pan must be set into a cooker-pail of boiling water. Put it into a cooker for three hours or more. Drain in a colander and add salt, pepper, and butter to taste. Serve with slices ofhard-cooked eggsas a garnish.
One dozen stalks and leaves serve four or five persons. Many persons cook the stalks separatelyand serve them with awhite sauce, using only the leaves for greens.
Cook in the same manner aschard, allowing two hours or more in the cooker.
One peck serves six or eight persons.
Cook in the same manner aschard, allowing two and one-half hours or more in the cooker. Do not remove the little beets. When cooked, cut through the greens frequently with a knife, to make them less awkward for serving.
Scrub the celery with a small brush, remove the strings, cut it in one-half-inch pieces and drop it into the boiling salted water. When it is boiling, set the pail or pan into a cooker-pail of boiling water and put it into the cooker for from two to four hours or longer, depending upon the toughness of the stalks. It will not be injured by long cooking. When tender, drain it, saving one-half cupful of the water to use in making the sauce. Serve with one cupful ofSauce for Vegetables.
Serves six or eight persons.
Break the macaroni into one-inch pieces. Soak it in cold water for one hour, then drain it; or cook it without soaking. Drop it into the boiling water, let it boil, and put it into the hay-box for one and one-half hours if soaked, or two hours if not soaked. Stand the pail or pan in a cooker-pail of boiling water while in the hay-box. Macaroni will break to pieces if cooked too long. When tender, drain it in a colander and serve it plain, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper, or make it into Macaroni and Cheese or Macaroni and Ham.
Serves five or six persons.
Soak the macaroni in cold water for one hour; stick the cloves into the onion. Drain the macaroni, put it into a pan or pail, add the other ingredients, except the cheese, and, when boiling, set the pan or pail into a cooker-pail of boiling water and put it into a cooker for two hours.Remove the onion and bay leaf and add the cheese. If it cannot be served as soon as the cheese is melted, slip the pail back into the cooker.
Serves five or six persons.
Break the macaroni, soak it for one hour, then drain it, and put it, with the other ingredients, except the last three, into a pan or pail. When boiling, set the pan into a cooker-pail of boiling water and put it into a cooker for two hours. Remove the onion and cloves, add the last three ingredients, and when the cheese is melted it is ready to serve. If it cannot be served at once replace it in the cooker.
Serves six or seven persons.
Spaghetti may be treated in the same way asmacaroni. It is a similar paste moulded into a different form. Vermicelli is also the same paste, moulded into still finer threads. It is frequently used in soups, and should be brokeninto short pieces and added not more than two hours before it is served, or it will become so soft as to break to pieces and lose its attractive appearance.
Noodles are made from a richer paste than macaroni, having eggs in place of water to supply the moisture. They may be used exactly as macaroni and similar pastes. They should not be soaked before cooking.
Wash the mushrooms, cut them in slices if they are large, bring them to a boil in enough salted water to nearly cover them. It should take about a pint for each quart of mushrooms. Set the pan or pail in a cooker-pail of boiling water and put it into the cooker for from two to six hours. When it is nearly time to serve them, drain the water off, reserving three-fourths of a cupful to use in making one and one-half cupfuls ofSauce for Vegetables, orWhite Sauce.
Wash the mushrooms and dry them thoroughly on a towel. Let them stand on the towel some time before cooking them, so that they may drain dry. Fry them in butter till they are brown in a cooker-pail or pan, and make one and one-half cupfuls ofBrown Sauceforeach quart of mushrooms, using any liquor that may have come from them, and water for the liquid of the sauce. Pour this sauce over the mushrooms. If a small quantity of mushrooms is being cooked, stand the pail or pan in a large cooker-pail of boiling water. Put them into a cooker for two hours or more.
Pare onions under water, to avoid their irritating effect on the eyes. They are so strong in flavour that they will bear an excess of water in cooking. Salt the water as directed in the General Directions for Cooking Vegetables. Four quarts of water may be used for cooking one quart of onions. Bring them to a boil in a cooker-pail, and put them into a hay-box for from two hours, for very tender, fresh onions, to eight hours or more. When done, drain them dry and add butter, pepper, and salt to taste and, if desired, a little cream of milk. If the onions are very large let them boil five minutes before putting them into the hay-box.
Scrub potatoes well with a small scrubbing-brush. Pare them, and if they are inclined to be black when cooked, let them stand an hour or more in cold water before cooking them. Cook them in a large amount of boiling saltedwater in a cooker-pail. When they have boiled one minute put them into the cooker for from one and one-half to three hours, depending upon their quantity, size, and age. New potatoes will not require so long to cook as old. Large potatoes cut into pieces will cook in one hour.
Wash and pare the potatoes and cut them into thin slices. Four medium-sized potatoes will make a quart when sliced. Put all the ingredients together in a small cooker-pail or pan, set this in a large cooker-pail of boiling water, and when it is steaming hot, put the small utensil directly over the heat until it boils. Replace it in the pail of boiling water and set it in the cooker for one hour.
Serves four or five persons.
Melt the butter in a small cooker-pail or pan, add the flour and blend the two evenly, then add the milk, one-third at a time; when it boils, put in the salt, pepper, and potatoes. Letthe whole reach boiling point and set it in a large cooker-pail of boiling water, unless it fills a small pail full, in which case it can be placed directly in a cooker nest which exactly fits it, and left for one hour or more.
Serves six or eight persons.
Shell young, green peas and bring them to a boil, using about one cupful of salted water for each quart of shelled peas. Put the pail or pan inside of another cooker-pail of boiling water and set all in a cooker for from one to two hours or more. Old peas may be left all night or all day in the cooker.
Look over the rice and remove any husks or undesirable substances. Wash it by allowing cold water to run through a strainer containing the rice. Sprinkle it, gradually, into the boiling salted water in a cooker-pail. When it is boiling put it into a hay-box for one hour. There is a considerable difference in rice, and the time for cooking it will vary; but one hour will usually be found sufficient. Rice is injured by overcooking. When the rice is soft, drain it in a colander and set this in the oven, with the dooropen, for five minutes. Serve at once. Rice, when cooked, swells to four times its original bulk.
Serves six or eight persons.
Look over and wash the rice as directed in the recipe forRice, No. 1. Bring it to a boil in the salted water, and put it into a hay-box for one hour.
Serves six or eight persons.
Look over and wash rice as directed in theprevious recipes, bring it to a boil in the stock, with the butter, and cook it in a hay-box for one hour, standing the pail or pan that contains it in a larger pail of water, unless more than one cupful of rice is being cooked and the cooker-pail would be at least two-thirds full. Serve with a border of salted peanuts. The rice should be moist but not sticky when cooked.
Serves eight or ten persons.
Pick over and wash the rice, as directed in the recipe forboiled rice, No. 1. Chop the onion or pepper, discarding the seeds, and, if raw tomatoes are used, remove the skins and cut the tomatoes in pieces before measuring them. Put all the ingredients together in a small cooker-pail or pan, and, when boiling, set it in a larger cooker-pail of boiling water. Put it into a cooker for one hour. When ready to serve it, stir it lightly with a fork till all the ingredients are evenly mixed. Pilaf is injured by much overcooking.
Serves five or six persons.
Soak the samp in the cold water for eight hours or more. Add the salt and boiling water; boil it hard for one hour, and put it into a cooker for from six to twelve hours. It is improved by the longer cooking. The pail or pan in which it is cooked should be stood in a large cooker-pail of boiling water. A tablespoonful of butter may be added before serving if it is used as a vegetable.
Serves five or six persons.
Scrub young, tender summer squashes and cook them whole, in the cooker, with enoughsalted boiling water to fully cover them, for from one to three hours. If they are not young enough to have a soft rind, they must be pared and the seeds removed. It will then be better to cook them as winter squash. When they are tender, drain off the water and mash the squashes in a colander. This will allow a little of the juice to drain away and leave the squashes drier. Season them highly with salt and pepper, and add two tablespoonfuls of butter to each pint of squash. If not very hot when mashed, reheat before serving.
Scald and peel the tomatoes, remove the cores, and cut them into pieces before measuring them. Add the other ingredients, omitting the sugar and crumbs, if preferred; bring all to a boil, and put them into a cooker for from one to two hours or more. They will not be injured by indefinite cooking.
Serves five or six persons.
Scrub, pare and cut the squash into pieces, removing the seeds. Put it into a strainer that will fit into the cooker-pail, placing a rack underit to raise it above the water in the pail. Fill the pail below the strainer with boiling water. Steam the squash directly over the fire for ten minutes, then put it into the cooker for from five to eight hours, depending upon the age of the squash and the amount cooked. A pail of not less than six quarts’ capacity should be used, so that there may be at least three quarts of water under the squash. When tender, mash it through the strainer, or drain it in a cheese cloth, squeezing it as dry as possible. If it is to be served as a vegetable, season it highly with salt and pepper, and add two or three tablespoonfuls of butter to each pint of squash. If it is to be made into pies, omit these ingredients.
Select a pumpkin with a soft rind, if possible. Prepare and cook it in the same manner aswinter squash. It may be used as a vegetable or made into pies.
Scrub, pare, and cut turnips into half-inch dice. Cook each pint of prepared turnips with at least one quart of boiling salted water, in the cooker, for from one and one-half to three hours or more. When tender, drain them, reserving enough of the water to make one cupful ofSauce for Vegetablesfor each pint of turnips.
Scrub and pare the turnips and cut them into pieces. Cook each pint of turnip with at least one quart of boiling salted water in the cooker for from one and one-half hours to three hours or more. When tender, drain and mash them in a colander and add to each pint one teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth teaspoonful of pepper, and two tablespoonfuls or more of butter. Serve very hot.
Shell and blanch the nuts by the directions given onpage 189. Bring them to a boil with salted water, put them in a cooker for from two to four hours. Press them through a potato ricer or serve them whole, adding a little butter if desired. One quart of nuts will make about one pint when shelled and blanched.
Serves four or five persons.
Wash the sprouts, bring them to a boil in salted water; put them into the cooker for from one to two hours, drain them and add salt, pepper, and butter to taste.
Serves six or seven persons.
Adeepmould is best for cooking steamed breads and raised puddings, since there will be less risk of the water’s boiling over into the food, and a larger amount may be used. It is important to have one that is the right size for the recipe, for if it is filled too full, the mixture might rise and push off the cover or be heavy from its pressure, and if not sufficiently full, it would be unsteady in the water. The water in the pail should come to two-thirds of the height of the mould. The mould should be not less than half-full of dough, and, generally not more than two-thirds full. If a small mould or a number of small moulds are to be used in a large cooker-pail, stand them upon a rack or similar device to raise them until there may be no difficulty in filling the cooker-pail at least two-thirds full of water. The cover as well as the mould should be greased on the inside withthe same fat as that used in the dough or with butter. If a bread mould is not available, an empty baking-powder can, coffee can, or any tin can or box with straight sides which has a tight-fitting cover may be used, providing it is found by trial to be water-tight. If it leaks, it may be soldered at small expense, and may then be kept for cooking purposes only. Where a tightly covered can or box cannot be procured, an uncovered utensil could be used by tying on securely a cover of heavy, well-greased paper.
Mix and sift the dry ingredients together. Mix the liquid ingredients and add them, gradually, to the dry mixture. Put the dough into a well-buttered, one-quart brown bread mould or water-tight can of the same capacity. Stand the mould in a six-quart cooker-pail in enough warm water to come two-thirds of the way up the mould. Bring it quickly to a boil and boil it half an hour. Put it into a hay-box for five hours. It will not be spoiled by six hours in the cooker, but will not have quite such a dry crust. If sweet milk isused add one tablespoonful of cream of tartar; or omit the soda and use, instead, two tablespoonfuls of baking powder.
Serves six or eight persons.
Melt the butter, add the egg, well beaten, molasses and milk. Mix the dry ingredients and add to them the liquid mixture. Pour it into a well-buttered, one-quart mould or into several smaller moulds. Do not fill them more than two-thirds full. Place the moulds on a rack in a six-quart cooker-pail of warm water, bring quickly to a boil and boil thirty minutes if the larger cans are used; fifteen minutes, if the small cans are used. Put it into the cooker for five hours. If sour milk is available, omit the baking powder and add an extra one-fourth teaspoonful of soda.
Serves six persons.
Mix and sift the dry ingredients, cut the butter into them, or rub it in with the fingers, add the milk, cutting it in, lightly, with a knife. When the dough is barely mixed, so that no loose flour is left, toss it on a floured board and pat or roll it lightly till one-half inch thick. Spread the apples on it and roll it like a jelly roll. Carefully place it in a well-buttered, one-quart bread mould or water-tight can. Cover it tightly and stand it in at least a six-quart cooker-pail with enough warm water to come two-thirds of the way up its sides. Bring it quickly to a boil, boil thirty minutes and place it in a cooker for three hours. Serve immediately with warmapple sauceandHard Sauce. If berries are used add one cupful to the dough, serve with berry sauce and omit the apple-sauce.
Serves five or six persons.
Mix and sift the dry ingredients and add the suet. Mix the milk and molasses and add them to the dry mixture. Put the dough into a buttered, one-quart bread mould or water-tight coveredcan, and stand it in a six-quart cooker-pail of warm water which reaches two-thirds of the way up the can. Boil it one-half hour and put into the cooker for five hours.
Serves six or eight persons.
Wash and seed the raisins; rub the currants with a little flour, then sift out the flour and allow water to run over the currants in the sieve until they are clean. Spread them on a towel and remove any stems, stones, etc., that may be among them. Let them stand, covered with a towel to keep out dust, until they are dry. Cut the orange peel and citron very fine, or put them through a food-chopper. Chop the suet or put it and the raisins through a coarse food-chopper; a trifle of the flour may be mixed with the suet before it is chopped to help to keep it from sticking to the chopping-knife. Beat the eggs till blended. Mix all the dry ingredients very thoroughly, add the eggs and then the brandy. Put the pudding into a covered, greased mould, choppingdown through it a few times with the end of a knife, to be sure that it fills the mould without hollow spaces, and to avoid packing it firmly. Stand it in at least three quarts of warm water, in a cooker-pail. Heat it slowly but steadily till the water boils; let it boil one hour if the pudding is in one mould, or one-half hour if it is in two smaller moulds. Put it into the cooker for five hours. Remove it at once from the mould. If it is not to be used when first made, it may be kept several weeks, replaced in the mould and reheated before serving, by putting it in warm water, heating it to the boiling point and boiling it one-half hour or more. Serve it withbrandy sauce.
Serves ten or twelve persons.
Rub the butter till it is soft and add the sugar gradually. Separate the eggs and add the beaten yolks to the butter and sugar. Mix and sift the baking powder and flour together and add a little flour, alternately with a part of the milk, to the dough. When all is in, add the stiffly beaten whites and the berries. Put the mixtureinto a buttered, one-quart mould, stand it in hot water and bring it, gradually, but steadily, to a boil. Let it boil one-half hour and put it into a cooker for five hours. Serve it with sweetened cream orhard sauce.
Serves six or eight persons.