Housekeeping in Old Virginia
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Title: Housekeeping in Old Virginia
Editor: Marion Cabell Tyree
Release date: March 31, 2013 [eBook #42450]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
On page 51, the phrase starting "the over-night" may be missing
words.
On page 214, the phrase "half a cup of water" may be missing words.
Index spellings were made consistent with the text.
[Illustration: Cook preparing fowl in kitchen]
HOUSEKEEPING
IN OLD VIRGINIA.
CONTAINING
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY
LADIES IN VIRGINIA AND HER SISTER
STATES,
_DISTINGUISHED FOR THEIR SKILL IN THE CULINARY ART AND
OTHER BRANCHES OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY._
EDITED BY
MARION CABELL TYREE.
"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
rubies.... She looketh well to the ways of her household
and eateth not the bread of idleness."
_Prov., chap. 31, verses 10 and 27._
JOHN P. MORTON & CO.,
_LOUISVILLE, KY._
1878.
COPYRIGHT BY
MARION CABELL TYREE.
1877.
_Dedicated_
TO
THE SISTER HOUSEKEEPERS,
WHOSE KIND ASSISTANCE AND CONTRIBUTIONS HAVE SO MUCH
LIGHTENED THE LABORS OF THE WRITER AND
ENHANCED THE VALUE OF HER WORK.
GENERAL CONTENTS.
PAGE
_Preface_ 7
_List of Contributors_ 11
Bread 19
Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate 61
Milk and Butter 65
Soup 68
Oysters and other Shell Fish 85
Fish 97
Game 107
Meats 114
Beef and Veal 136
Mutton and Lamb 168
Poultry 176
Salads 190
Sauces 200
Brunswick Stews, Gumbo, and Side Dishes 211
Eggs 232
Vegetables 238
Pickles and Catsups 255
Cake 304
Icing 348
Gingerbread 350
Small Cakes 353
Puddings 365
Pudding Sauces 401
Pastry 404
Fritters and Pancakes 416
Jelly, Blanc-mange, Charlotte Russe, Baked Custard,
Creams, and Miscellaneous Desserts 417
Ice Cream and Frozen Custard 430
Fruit Desserts 442
Preserves and Fruit Jellies 443
Confectionery 458
Wines 461
Beverages, Cordials, etc. 468
The Sick-Room--Diet and Remedies for the Sick 476
House-cleaning, etc. 497
Recipes for Restoring Old Clothes, Setting Colors,
Removing Stains, etc. 505
Miscellaneous Recipes 508
PREFACE.
Virginia, or the Old Dominion, as her children delight to call her,
has always been famed for the style of her living. Taught by the
example of her royal colonial governors, and the numerous adherents of
King Charles, who brought hither in their exile the graces and
luxuriousness of his brilliant court, she became noted among the
colonies for the princely hospitality of her people and for the beauty
and richness of their living. But when at length her great son in the
House of Burgesses sounded the cry of war, and her people made haste
to gird themselves for the long struggle, her daughters, not to be
outdone either in services or patriotism, set about at once the
inauguration of a plan of rigid retrenchment and reform in the
domestic economy, while at the same time exhibiting to their sisters a
noble example of devotion and self-sacrifice.
Tearing the glittering arms of King George from their sideboards, and
casting them, with their costly plate and jewels, as offerings into
the lap of the Continental Congress, they introduced in their homes
that new style of living in which, discarding all the showy
extravagance of the old, and retaining only its inexpensive graces,
they succeeded in perfecting that system which, surviving to this day,
has ever been noted for its beautiful and elegant simplicity.
This system, which combines the thrifty frugality of New England with
the less rigid style of Carolina, has been justly pronounced, by the
throngs of admirers who have gathered from all quarters of the Union
around the generous boards of her illustrious sons, as the very
perfection of domestic art.
It is the object of the compiler of this book, for she does not claim
the title of author, to bring within the reach of every American
housekeeper who may desire it, the domestic principles and practices
of these famous Virginia homes. In doing this she has not sought to
pursue the plan adopted by so many authors of such books--to depend
upon her own _authorship_ for her rule. She confesses that in this
matter her labors have been largely editorial.
Through a long life it has been her good fortune to be a frequent
visitor, and often the intimate guest and kinswoman, at many of these
homes; and she has sought, by the opportunities thus afforded, and
guided by her own extensive experience as a housekeeper, to gather and
select from these numerous sources those things which seemed to her
best and most useful to the practical housewife, and which, carefully
observed, would bring the art within reach of all who have the
ambition to acquire it.
It will be seen that she is indebted to near 250 contributors to her
book. Among these will be found _many names famous_ _through the
land_. Associated with them will be discovered others of less national
celebrity, but who have acquired among their neighbors an equally
merited distinction for the beautiful order and delightful cuisine of
their homes.
The labors of the writer have been greatly lightened by the kindness
of these contributors. And she desires in this public way to renew her
thanks for the aid which they have given her, but even more for the
goodness which prompts them, at cost of their sensitiveness, to allow
her to append their names to the recipes which they furnish.
The book, after great care in its preparation, is now offered to the
public with much confidence. All that is here presented has been so
thoroughly tested, and approved by so many of the best housekeepers in
Virginia, that she feels it must meet with a cordial and very general
reception at the hands of all accomplished housewives throughout the
land, and will supply a long-felt and real need.
If she shall thus succeed in disseminating a knowledge of the practice
of the _most admirable system of domestic art known in our country_;
if she shall succeed in lightening the labors of the housewife by
placing in her reach a guide which will be found _always trusty and
reliable_; if she shall thus make her tasks lighter and home-life
sweeter; if she shall succeed in contributing something to the health
of American children by instructing their mothers in the art of
preparing light and wholesome and palatable food; _if she, above all,
shall succeed in making American homes more attractive to American
husbands, and spare_ _them a resort to hotels and saloons for those
simple luxuries which their wives know not how to provide_; if she
shall thus add to the comfort, to the health and happy contentment of
these, she will have proved in some measure a public benefactor, and
will feel amply repaid for all the labor her work has cost.
MARION CABELL TYREE.
LYNCHBURG, VA., January, 1877.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS.
MRS. ROBERT ALEXANDER Fredericksburg, Va.
MRS. JOHN J. AMBLER Lynchburg.
MRS. JUDGE ANDERSON Lexington.
MRS. CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG Richmond.
MISS NANNIE AVERETT Amherst Co.
"MOZIS ADDUMS." Richmond.
MRS. R. T. H. ADAMS Lynchburg.
MRS. JOHN T. ANDERSON Virginia.
MRS. JOHN THOMPSON BROWN Nelson Co.
MRS. BENJAMIN J. BARBOUR Orange Co.
MRS. JUDGE BARTON Fredericksburg.
MISS MARY BELLA BEALE Richmond.
MRS. ORVILLE BELL Liberty.
MRS. C. S. BLISS Lynchburg.
MRS. S. BRADY Wheeling, West Va.
MRS. EMMA BRECKENRIDGE Fincastle.
MRS. JULIA BRECKENRIDGE "
MRS. BRINCKERHOFF Fredericksburg.
MRS. JOHN BROOKE Lexington.
MRS. M. B. Warrenton, Fauquier Co.
MRS. BRUCE Virginia.
MRS. MARCUS B. BUCK Front Royal, Warren Co.
MRS. ARMSTEAD BURWELL Franklin Co.
MRS. CHARLES W. BURWELL Ellicot City, Md.
MRS. WM. BURWELL Georgia.
MRS. CHARLES BUTTON Lynchburg.
DR. BURNEY Montgomery, Ala.
MRS. GEORGE A. BURKS Lynchburg.
MRS. BROADDUS Mecklenburg Co.
MRS. BYRD Virginia.
MRS. WILLIAM CAMERON Petersburg.
MRS. CLARA CABELL Nelson Co.
MRS. LOUIS W. CABELL Buckingham Co.
MRS. MARGARET C. CABELL " "
MRS. H. COALTER CABELL Richmond.
MRS. MARY C. CAMPBELL Baltimore, Md.
MRS. THOS. CAMPBELL Bedford Co.
MRS. WM. CAMPBELL " "
MRS. ELIZA H. CARRINGTON Halifax Co.
MRS. PAUL CARRINGTON " "
MRS. FANNIE CARRINGTON Charlotte Co.
MRS. HENRY CARRINGTON " "
MRS. THEO. M. CARSON Lynchburg.
MR. EDWARD CAMM "
MRS. FANNIE CHALMERS "
MRS. ADDISON COBBS Charleston, West Va.
MRS. ALICE COLEMAN Halifax Co.
MRS. DR. COLEMAN Williamsburg.
MRS. JOHN L. COLES Northumberland Co.
MRS. PEYTON COLES Albemarle Co.
MRS. TUCKER COLES " "
MRS. RALEIGH COLSTON Richmond.
MRS. H. P. CHEW Fredericksburg.
MRS. CAMILLUS CHRISTIAN Lynchburg.
DR. E. A. CRAIGHILL "
MRS. D. CONE Warren Co.
MRS. DAVIS Chesterfield Co.
MRS. ROBERT J. DAVIS Lynchburg.
MRS. MARY M. DAME Danville.
MRS. JOHN B. DANGERFIELD Alexandria.
MRS. ADDISON M. DAVIES Lynchburg.
MRS. HORATIO DAVIS Pittsylvania Co.
MRS. FRANK DEANE Lynchburg.
MRS. JOS. DEANS Gloucester Co.
MRS. JUDGE ASA DICKINSON Prince Edward Co.
MRS. MELVILLE DUNN Richmond.
MRS. ANDREW DUNN Petersburg.
MRS. DUKE Suffolk Co.
MISS D. D. Norfolk.
MISS DIDLAKE Lynchburg.
MRS. MARIA EDMONDS Prince Edward Co.
MRS. JOHN T. EDWARDS Lynchburg.
MRS. DR. EARLY "
MRS. EARLY "
MRS. J. D. EWING Harrisonburg.
MRS. ELAM Virginia.
MRS. FITZ HUGH "
MRS. F. B. FICKLIN Fredericksburg.
MRS. F. F. FITZGERALD Farmville.
MRS. J. H. FIGGAT Fincastle.
MRS. COL. FORSBERG Lynchburg.
MRS. GRAVES Kentucky.
MRS. CAROLINE GARLAND Lynchburg.
MRS. MARY L. GARLAND "
MRS. JOHN F. GARDNER Nelson Co.
MRS. JUDGE GEO. H. GILMER Pittsylvania Co.
MRS. F. D. GOODWIN Wytheville.
MRS. JUDGE GOOLRICK Fredericksburg.
MRS. JANE V. GOOLRICK "
MRS. E. P. GOGGIN Lynchburg.
MRS. SUSAN GOGGIN Bedford Co.
MRS. NEWTON GORDON Lynchburg.
MRS. ISABELLA GILMER "
MRS. ISABELLA HARRISON Charles City Co.
MRS. ELVIRA HENRY Charlotte Co.
MRS. E. WINSTON HENRY " "
MRS. MARY G. HARDING Staunton.
MRS. FRED. HICKEY Lynchburg.
MRS. JOHN W. HOLT "
MRS. ANN HOLT Liberty.
MRS. FERDINAND C. HUTTER Lynchburg.
MRS. J. P. HUBBARD Shepherdstown, West Va.
MRS. WM. L. HYLAND Parkersburg, West Va.
MRS. EDWARD INGLE Roanoke Co.
MRS. J. J. IRBY New Orleans, La.
MRS. JOSEPH M. JONES Kentucky.
MRS. DR. JONES Bedford Co.
MRS. ARTHUR JOHNS Northampton Co.
MRS. COL. JOHNSON Lexington.
MRS. J. JOHNSON Abingdon.
MRS. THOMAS L. JOHNSON Lynchburg.
MRS. DAVID KENT Pulaski Co.
MRS. D. B. KINCKLE Lynchburg.
MRS. KINSOLVING Halifax Co.
MRS. KNOX Fredericksburg.
MRS. DR. HENRY LATHAM Lynchburg.
MRS. K. Norfolk.
MRS. L. D. LEIGHTON Petersburg.
MRS. COL. AUGUSTINE LEFTWICH Lynchburg.
MRS. GEN. ROBERT E. LEE "Arlington," Westmoreland Co.
MISS MILDRED C. LEE Lexington.
MRS. GOV. JOHN LETCHER "
MRS. DR. ROBERT T. LEMMON Campbell Co.
MRS. ANDREW LEWIS Harrisonburg.
MRS. JAMES LANGHORNE Lynchburg.
MRS. JOHN A. LANGHORNE Montgomery Co.
MRS. NANNIE A. LANGHORNE Lynchburg.
MRS. RICHARD T. LACY "
MRS. M. L. "
MRS. GEO. D. LAWRENCE Mis.
MRS. WM. H. LITTLE Fredericksburg.
MRS. J. D. L. Lynchburg.
L. D. L. Albemarle Co.
MRS. GOV. MARYE Fredericksburg.
MRS. JOHN MASON "
MRS. O. MASSIE Brooklyn, N. Y.
MRS. PATRICK MASSIE Nelson Co.
MRS. SARAH MEEM Abingdon.
MRS. JOHN F. MILLER Lynchburg.
MRS. CHARLES L. C. MINOR Blacksburg.
MRS. C. C. MCPHAIL Charlotte Co.
MRS. JOHN R. MCDANIEL Lynchburg.
MRS. MARY MCNUTT Prince Edward Co.
MRS. R. K. MEADE Petersburg.
MRS. WM. H. MOSBY Amherst Co.
MRS. ALICE MURREL Lynchburg.
MRS. WM. MCFARLAND Missouri.
MRS. C. V. MCGEE Ala.
MRS. MCGAVOCK Pulaski Co.
GEN. M. Virginia.
MRS. JAMES J. MOORE Richmond.
MRS. GEO. NEWTON Norfolk.
MISS FANNIE NELSON Yorktown.
MRS. GEO. NICHOLS Bedford Co.
MRS. GEN. F. T. NICHOLS New Orleans, La.
MRS. CHARLES NORVELL Lynchburg.
MISS NORWOOD Richmond.
MRS. ROBERT L. OWEN Lynchburg.
MRS. GEO. W. PALMER Saltville.
MRS. R. L. PAGE Norfolk.
MRS. DAVID PIERCE Wytheville.
MRS. JOHN D. POWELL Portsmouth.
MRS. WM. BALLARD PRESTON Montgomery Co.
MRS. GEN. ROBERT PRESTON " "
MRS. JAS. PRESTON " "
MRS. PRESTON Virginia.
MRS. ANNIS E. PRESTON Lynchburg.
MRS. RICHARD POLLARD "
MRS. JAMES F. PAYNE "
MISS ELIZA PAYNE "
MRS. ANNIE PHILLIPS Fredericksburg.
MRS. EDMUND H. PENDLETON Cincinnati, Ohio.
MRS. PRICE Charlotte Co.
MRS. JOHN H. PARKER Chesterfield Co.
MRS. REID Norfolk.
MRS. MATTIE REID Winchester.
MRS. DAVID S. READ Roanoke Co.
MRS. WM. C. RIVES Albemarle Co.
MRS. J. HENRY RIVES Lynchburg.
MRS. ROANE "
MRS. J. H. ROBINSON "
MRS. W. RUSSELL ROBINSON Richmond.
MRS. DR. EDWARD T. ROBINSON "
MRS. JOHN ROBERTS Fredericksburg.
MRS. E. M. RUGGLES "
MRS. DR. SALE Liberty.
MRS. GEO. D. SAUNDERS Buckingham Co.
MRS. ANN SAUNDERS Lynchburg.
MRS. JAMES A. SEDDON Goochland Co.
MRS. DR. SEMPLE Ala.
MRS. H. H. SERVICE Alexandria.
MRS. J. W. SHIELDS Richmond.
MRS. JAS. W. SHIELDS King Geo. Co.
MRS. H. T. SILVERTHORN Lynchburg.
MRS. WM. A. STROTHER "
MR. WM. A. STROTHER "
MRS. JOHN W. STONE "
MRS. JOHN F. SLAUGHTER "
MISS LILLIE SLAUGHTER "
MRS. KATE SLAUGHTER "
MRS. JUDGE SPENCE "
MRS. HENDERSON SUTER Liberty.
MRS. HARRIET STANSBURY New Orleans, La.
MRS. SHANNON Miss.
MISS ELLEN SHUTE New Orleans, La.
MISS REBECCA SMITH Norfolk.
MRS. CHARLES SHARP "
MRS. SPARKS Virginia.
MRS. COL. SMITH Pittsylvania Co.
MRS. A. H. M. TALIAFERRO Orange Co.
MRS. MARY W. TAYLOR Campbell Co.
MRS. MAJOR THOS. L. TAYLOR Campbell C. H.
MISS JULIA THOMPSON Williamsburg.
MRS. C. L. THOMPSON Richmond.
MRS. J. HANSON THOMAS Baltimore, Md.
MRS. ELI TUTWILER Lexington.
MRS. SAMUEL TYREE Lynchburg.
MRS. JOHN H. TYREE "
MRS. JAS. TAYLOR Fredericksburg.
MISS EDMONIA TAYLOR Orange Co.
MRS. TUCKER Virginia.
MRS. JUDGE WATSON Abingdon.
MRS. DR. THOS. WALKER Lynchburg.
MRS. COL. W. "
MRS. COL. ROBERT E. WITHERS Wytheville.
MRS. PHILIP T. WITHERS Lynchburg.
MRS. DR. R. W. WITHERS Campbell Co.
MRS. EDMUND WITHERS Nelson Co.
MRS. DR. WINGFIELD Maryland.
MRS. R. M. C. WINGFIELD Portsmouth.
MRS. J. C. WHEAT Winchester.
MRS. JUDGE WHARTON Liberty.
MISS EMILY WHITEHEAD Norfolk.
MRS. ROBERT WHITEHEAD Nelson Co.
MRS. JOHN M. WARWICK Lynchburg.
MRS. WM. N. WELFORD "
MR. PHILIP WITHERS "
MISS KATE WILSON "
DR. THOS. L. WALKER "
MISS NANNIE S. LANGHORNE "
HOUSEKEEPING IN OLD VIRGINIA.
BREAD.
Bread is so vitally important an element in our nourishment that I
have assigned to it the first place in my work. Truly, as Frederika
Bremer says, "when the bread rises in the oven, the heart of the
housewife rises with it," and she might have added that the heart of
the housewife sinks in sympathy with the sinking bread.
I would say to housewives, be not daunted by one failure, nor by
twenty. Resolve that you _will_ have good bread, and never cease
striving after this result till you have effected it. If persons
without brains can accomplish this, why cannot you? I would recommend
that the housekeeper acquire the practice as well as the theory of
bread-making. In this way, she will be able to give more exact
directions to her cook and to more readily detect and rectify any
blemish in the bread. Besides, if circumstances should throw her out
of a cook for a short time, she is then prepared for the emergency. In
this country fortunes are so rapidly made and lost, the vicissitudes
of life are so sudden, that we know not what a day may bring forth. It
is not uncommon to see elegant and refined women brought suddenly face
to face with emergencies which their practical knowledge of household
economy and their brave hearts enable them to firmly meet and
overcome.
To return to the bread question, however. Good flour is an
indispensable requisite to good bread. Flour, whether old or new,
should always be sunned and aired before being used. In the morning,
get out the flour to be made up at night for next morning's breakfast.
Sift it in a tray and put it out in the sun, or, if the day is damp,
set it near the kitchen fire. Only experience will enable you to be a
good judge of flour. One test is to rub the dry flour between your
fingers, and if the grains feel round, it is a sign that the flour is
good. If after trying a barrel of flour twice, you find it becomes wet
and sticky, after being made up of the proper consistency, you had
better then return it to your grocer.
The best flour is worthless without good yeast. Yeast made up in the
morning ought to be fit for use at night. It should be foamy and
frothy, with a scent slightly like ammonia. After closely following
the directions for yeast-making, given in the subsequent pages, the
bread will be apt to succeed, if the flour employed is good.
There is a great art in mixing bread, and it is necessary to observe a
certain rotation in the process. To make a small quantity of bread,
first sift one quart of flour; into that sift a teaspoonful of salt,
next rub in an Irish potato, boiled and mashed fine, then add a piece
of lard the size of a walnut, and next a half teacup of yeast in which
three teaspoonfuls of white sugar have been stirred. (Under no
circumstances use soda or saleratus in your light dough.) Then make
into a soft dough with cold water in summer, and lukewarm in winter.
Knead without intermission for half an hour, _by the clock_. Otherwise
five minutes appear to be a half hour when bread is being kneaded or
beaten. Then place it in a stone crock, greased with lard at the
bottom, and set it to rise. In summer, apply no artificial heat to it,
but set it in a cool place. As bread rises much more quickly in summer
than in winter, you must make allowance for this difference, during
the respective seasons. The whole process, including both the first
and second rising, may be accomplished in seven or eight hours in
summer, though this will be regulated partly by the flour, as some
kinds of flour rise much more quickly than others. In summer you may
make it up at nine o'clock P.M., for an eight o'clock breakfast next
morning, but in winter, make it up at seven P.M., and then set it on a
shelf under which a lighted coal-oil lamp is placed. If you can have a
three-cornered shelf of slate or sheet-iron, placed in a corner of the
kitchen, just above the bread block, it will be all the better, though
a common wooden shelf, made very thin, will answer, where you cannot
get the other. The coal-oil lamp underneath without running the risk
of burning the shelf (if wooden), will keep the bread gently heated
all night, and will answer the double purpose of keeping a light
burning, which most persons like to do at night, and which they can do
with scarcely any expense, by using a coal-oil lamp.
Never knead bread a second time in the morning, as this ruins it.
Handle lightly as possible, make into the desired shapes and put into
the moulds in which it is to be baked. Grease your hands before doing
this, so as to grease the loaf or each roll as you put it in, or else
dip a feather in lard and pass lightly over the bread just before
putting it in the oven to bake. Let it be a little warmer during the
second rise than during the first. Always shape and put in the moulds
two hours before breakfast. If hot bread is desired for dinner,
reserve part of the breakfast dough, keeping it in the kitchen in
winter, and in the refrigerator in summer till two hours before
dinner.
In baking, set the bread on the floor of the stove or range, never on
the shelf. Always turn up the damper before baking any kind of bread.
As you set the bread in the stove, lay a piece of stiff writing paper
over it to keep it from browning before heating through. Leave the
door ajar a few minutes, then remove the paper and shut the door. When
the top of the loaf is a light amber color, put back the paper that
the bread may not brown too much while thoroughly baking. Turn the
mould around so that each part may be exposed to equal heat. Have an
empty baking-pan on the shelf above the bread, to prevent it from
blistering: some persons fill the pan with water, but I think this is
a bad plan, as the vapor injures the bread. When thoroughly done, wrap
the bread a few moments in a clean, thick, bread towel and send to the
table with a napkin over it, to be kept on till each person has taken
his seat at table.
I would suggest to housekeepers to have made at a tinner's, a
sheet-iron shape for bread, eight inches long, four and one-half
inches wide, and five and one-half deep. This is somewhat like a
brickbat in shape, only deeper, and is very desirable for bread that
is to be cut in slices, and also for bread that is to be pulled off in
slices. A quart of flour will make eight large rolls, six inches high,
for this mould, and three or four turnovers. It is a nice plan after
making out the eight rolls to roll them with greased hands till each
one will reach across the pan (four and one-half inches), making eight
slices of bread which will pull off beautifully when well done, and
thus save the task of slicing with a knife. It requires an hour to
bake this bread properly.
Do not constantly make bread in the same shapes: each morning, try to
have some variation. Plain light bread dough may be made into loaves,
rolls, twist, turnovers, light biscuit, etc., and these changes of
shape make a pleasant and appetizing variety in the appearance of the
table. The addition of three eggs to plain light bread dough will
enable you to make French rolls, muffins, or Sally-Lunn of it. As
bread is far more appetizing, baked in pretty shapes, I would suggest
the snow-ball shape for muffins and egg bread. Very pretty iron shapes
(eight or twelve in a group, joined together) may be procured from
almost any tinner.
If you should have indifferent flour of which you cannot get rid, bear
in mind that it will sometimes make excellent beaten biscuit when it
will not make good light bread. In making beaten biscuit, always put
one teaspoonful of salt, a piece of lard the size of an egg, and a
teacup of milk to a quart of flour, adding enough cold water to make a
stiff dough: no other ingredients are admissible. Make the dough much
stiffer than for other breads, beat steadily a half hour, _by the
clock_. Cut with a biscuit cutter or shape by hand, being careful to
have the shape of each alike and perfect. Make them not quite half an
inch thick, as they rise in baking. Do not let them touch each other
in the pan, and let the oven be very hot. It is well not to have
beaten biscuit and light bread baked at the same time, as they require
different degrees of heat. When two kinds of bread are required, try
to have two such as require the same amount of heat. Egg bread and
corn muffins require the same degree of heat as beaten biscuit, while
Sally-Lunn and muffins need the same as light bread.
There is no reason why the poor man should not have as well prepared
and palatable food as the wealthy, for, by care and pains, the finest
bread may be made of the simplest materials, and surely the loving
hands of the poor man's wife and daughter will take as much pains to
make his bread nice and light as hirelings will do for the wealthy.
The mistake generally made by persons in restricted circumstances is
to make too great a use of soda bread, which is not only less
wholesome, but is more expensive than light bread or beaten biscuit,
as it requires more ingredients. The bread, coffee and meat, which
constitute the poor man's breakfast, properly cooked, furnish a meal
fit for a prince.
The furnishing of the kitchen is so important that I must here say a
few words on the subject. First, the housekeeper must have a good
stove or range, and it is well for her to have the dealer at hand when
it is put up, to see that it draws well. Besides the utensils
furnished with the range or stove, she must provide every kitchen
utensil needed in cooking. She must have a kitchen safe,--a bread
block in the corner, furnished with a heavy iron beater; trays,
sifters (with iron rims) steamers, colanders, a porcelain preserving
kettle, perforated skimmers and spoons, ladles, long-handled iron
forks and spoons, sharp knives and skewers, graters, egg beaters (the
Dover is the best), plenty of extra bread pans, dippers and tins of
every kind, iron moulds for egg bread and muffins, wash pans, tea
towels, bread towels, and hand towels, plates, knives, forks and
spoons for use of the servants, a pepper box, salt box and dredge box
(filled), a match safe, and last, but not least, a clock. Try as far
as possible to have the utensils of metal, rather than of wood. In
cases where you cannot have cold and hot water conveyed into the
kitchen, always keep on the stove a kettle of hot water, with a clean
rag in it, in which all greasy dishes and kitchen utensils may be
washed before being rinsed in the kitchen wash pan. Always keep your
cook well supplied with soap, washing mops and coarse linen dish rags.
I have noticed that if you hem the latter, servants are not so apt to
throw them away. Insist on having each utensil cleaned immediately
after being used. Have shelves and proper places to put each article,
hooks to hang the spoons on, etc. If you cannot have an oilcloth on
your kitchen floor, have it oiled and then it may be easily and
quickly wiped over every morning. Once a week, have the kitchen and
every article in it thoroughly cleaned. First clean the pipe of the
stove, as the dust, soot and ashes fly over the kitchen and soil
everything. Then take the stove to pieces, as far as practicable,
cleaning each part, especially the bottom, as neglect of this will
prevent the bread from baking well at the bottom. After the stove is
thoroughly swept out,--oven and all, apply stove polish. I consider
"Crumbs of Comfort" the best preparation for this purpose. It comes in
small pieces, each one of which is sufficient to clean the stove once,
and is thus less apt to be wasted or thrown away by servants than
stove polish that comes in a mass. Next remove everything from the
kitchen safe and shelves, which must be scoured before replacing the
utensils belonging to them, and these too must first be scoured,
scalded, and wiped dry. Then wash the windows, and lastly the floor,
scouring the latter unless it is oiled, in which case, have it merely
wiped over.
Never let a servant take up ashes in a wooden vessel. Keep a
sheet-iron pan or scuttle for the purpose. At night, always have the
water buckets filled with water and also the kettles, setting the
latter on the stove or range, in case of sickness or any emergency
during the night. Have kindling wood at hand also, so that a fire may
be quickly made, if needed.
Sometimes a discoloration is observable in iron kettles or other iron
vessels. This may be avoided by filling them with hay before using
them. Pour water over the hay, set the vessel on the fire and let it
remain till the water boils. After this, scour in sand and ashes--then
wash in hot soap-suds, after which process, there will be no danger of
discoloration.
HOUSEHOLD MEASURES.
Wheat Flour. 1 lb. is 1 quart.
Indian Meal. 1 lb. 2 oz. are 1 quart.
Butter, when soft, 1 lb. is 1 pint.
Loaf sugar, broken, 1 lb. is 1 quart.
White sugar, powdered, 1 lb. 1 oz. are 1 quart.
Best brown sugar, 1 lb. 2 oz. are 1 quart.
Ten eggs are 1 lb.
Flour. 8 quarts are 1 peck.
" 4 pecks are 1 bushel.
16 large tablespoonfuls are ½ pint.
8 large tablespoonfuls are 1 gill.
2 gills are ½ pint.
A common sized tumbler holds ½ pint.
A tablespoonful is ½ oz.
60 drops are equal to a teaspoonful.
4 teaspoonfuls are equal to 1 tablespoonful.
YEAST.
Boil one quart of Irish potatoes in three quarts of water. When done,
take out the potatoes, one by one, on a fork, peel and mash them fine,
in a tray, with a large iron spoon, leaving the boiling water on the
stove during the process. Throw in this water a handful of hops, which
must scald, not boil, as it turns the tea very dark to let the hops
boil.
Add to the mashed potatoes a heaping teacupful of powdered white sugar
and half a teacupful of salt; then slowly stir in the strained hop
tea, so that there will be no lumps. When milk-warm add a teacupful of
yeast and pour into glass fruit jars, or large, clear glass bottles,
to ferment, being careful not to close them tightly. Set in a warm
place in winter, a cool one in summer. In six hours it will be ready
for use, and at the end of that time the jar or bottle must be
securely closed. Keep in a cold room in winter, and in the
refrigerator in summer. This yeast will keep two weeks in winter and
one week in summer. Bread made from it is always sweet.--_Mrs. S. T._
IRISH POTATO YEAST.
1 quart of potatoes, boiled and mashed fine.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
½ teacup of sugar.
Put two cups of flour in a bowl, and pour over it three cups of strong
hop-water, scalding hot, and stir it briskly.
Then put all the ingredients in a jar together, and when cool enough,
add a cup of yeast, or leaven.
Set it by the fire to rise.
It will be ready for use in five or six hours.--_Mrs. E._
_Another Recipe for Yeast._
12 large potatoes, boiled and mashed fine.
1 teacup of brown sugar.
1 teacup of salt.
1 gallon of hop tea.
Mix the ingredients well, and when milk-warm, add a pint of yeast. Set
it in a warm place to rise. Put one teacupful of this yeast, when
risen, to two quarts of flour.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
_Yeast that Never Fails._
Boil twelve potatoes in four quarts of water till reduced to three
quarts.
Then take out and mash the potatoes, and throw into the water three
handfuls of hops.
When the hops have boiled to a good tea, strain the water over the
potatoes, a small quantity at a time, mixing them well together.
Add one teacup of brown sugar.
1 teacup of salt.
1 tablespoonful of ground ginger.
When milk-warm, add yeast of the same sort to make it rise.
Put it in bottles, or a jug, leaving it uncorked for a day.
Set it in a cool place.
Put two large tablespoonfuls of it to a quart of flour, and when
making up, boil a potato and mix with it.
This yeast never sours, and is good as long as it lasts.--_Mrs. A. F._
ALUM YEAST.
On one pint of flour pour enough boiling water to make a thick batter,
stirring it until perfectly smooth, and then let it stand till
milk-warm.
Then add a teaspoonful of powdered alum.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 tablespoonful of sugar.
Half a teacup of yeast.
After it ferments, add enough meal to make it a stiff dough.
Let it stand till it works, and then spread it in the shade to dry.
To a quart of flour put a tablespoonful of crumbs.--_Mrs. P._
LEAVEN.
2 tablespoonfuls of flour.
1 tablespoonful of lard or butter.
2 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
2 eggs.
1 potato.
2 teaspoonfuls of sugar.
Make the leaven soon after breakfast in winter, and at one o'clock
P.M. in summer. Let it be of the consistency of batter. Put it in a
small bucket, in a warm place, to rise till four o'clock P.M. This
amount of leaven is sufficient for two quarts of flour. If for loaf
bread, leave out the eggs and butter.--_Mrs. M._
EXCELLENT BREAD FOR BREAKFAST.
1 quart of flour.
Lard the size of a walnut.
1 small Irish potato, boiled and mashed fine.
1 heaping teaspoonful of salt.
Half a teacup of good yeast, into which put a tablespoonful of
white sugar.
Make up a soft dough with cold water in summer and milk-warm water in
winter. This must be kneaded for thirty minutes, and then set to rise,
in a cool place in summer, and a warm one in winter; must never be
kept more than milk-warm.
Two hours before breakfast, make the dough into the desired shapes,
handling it lightly, _without kneading it_, first rubbing lard over
the hands, and taking especial care to grease the bread on top. Then
set it to rise again.
Thirty minutes are sufficient for baking it, unless it be in the form
of a loaf or rolls, in which case, it must be baked fifteen minutes
longer. Excellent muffins may be made by the above receipt, adding two
eggs well beaten, so that from the same batch of dough both plain
bread and muffins may be made.
Iron moulds are best for baking.
For those who prefer warm bread for dinner, it is a good plan to
reserve a portion of the breakfast dough, setting it away in a cool
place till two hours before dinner, then make into turnovers or twist,
set it to rise and bake it for dinner, as for breakfast. Very nice on
a cold day, and greatly preferable to warmed-over bread.--_Mrs. S. T._
RECIPE FOR FAMILY BREAD.
2 quarts of flour.
2 tablespoonfuls of lard or butter.
2 teaspoonfuls of salt.
Enough sponge for a two-quart loaf of bread.
Mix with one pint of sweet milk.
Make into rolls and bake with very little fire under the oven.--_Mrs.
A. C._
LOAF BREAD.
First make a batter of the following ingredients.
1 pint of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 teaspoonful of sugar.
A cup of water.
A cup of good yeast.
Set this to rise and when risen work in two pints of flour, or, if the
batter is not sufficient to work up this flour, add a little water.
Work it smoothly and set it to rise.
When risen, add a small piece of lard, work it well again, let it
stand an hour and then bake it slowly.--_Mrs. P. W._
OLD VIRGINIA LOAF BREAD.
Sponge for the same.
Boil one large Irish potato, until well done, then peel and mash it
fine, adding a little cold water to soften it. Stir into it
1 teaspoonful of brown sugar.
1 tablespoonful of sweet lard.
Then add three tablespoonfuls of good hop yeast.
Mix the ingredients thoroughly, then put the sponge in a mug with a
close-fitting top, and let it stand several hours to rise.
Sift into the tray three pints of the best family flour, to which add
a teaspoonful of salt. Then pour in the sponge and add enough cold
water to the flour to work it up into a rather stiff dough. Knead it
till the dough is smooth, then let it stand all night to rise. Work it
over in the morning, using just enough flour to keep it from sticking
to the hands. Allow it one hour to rise before baking and one hour to
bake in a moderate oven. Then it will be thoroughly done and well
dried.
Use a little lard on the hands when making out the loaf, as it keeps
the crust from being too hard.--_Mrs. S._
_Another Recipe for Loaf Bread._
Good flour is the first requisite, and next, good yeast and sufficient
kneading.
For a loaf of ordinary size, use
2 lbs. of flour.
Lard the size of a hen's egg.
A saltspoonful of salt.
2 gills of yeast.
Mix up these ingredients into a moderately stiff dough, using for the
purpose, from three gills to a pint of water. Some flour being more
adhesive than others, you have to learn by experience the exact amount
of water required.
Knead the dough till perfectly smooth, then set it to rise, in a cool
place, in summer, but in a warm place, free from draughts, in winter.
In the latter season it is better to keep a blanket wrapped around it.
This amount of flour will rise to the top of a gallon and a half jar
or bucket. If it is ready before time, stir it down and set it in a
cooler place.
When you put it in the baking-pan (in which it will be in an inch of
the top, if the pan be of a suitable size for the amount of flour)
cover it well, or a hard crust will form from the effects of the
atmosphere. Keep it a little warmer during the second rise than during
the first. When ready for baking, set it in the oven and bake it for
three-quarters of an hour with a moderate fire, evenly kept up. It
will then come out without sticking, if the pans are well cared
for.--_Mrs. J. J. A._
LIGHT BREAD.
2 quarts of flour.
1 teaspoonful of sugar.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Half a teacup of yeast.
One egg, well beaten.
1 pint of water.
Sift the flour and divide it into three parts. Mix one third in the
batter, one third in the jar to rise in, and pour the other third over
the batter. Let it stand two hours and then work it well, adding a
small piece of lard before baking.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
RECIPE FOR HOT ROLLS OR COLD LOAF BREAD.
Mix the following ingredients.
Four pints of flour.
1 pint of fresh milk.
2 eggs, well beaten.
1 large tablespoonful of melted lard.
1 large tablespoonful of hop yeast.
Set it to rise at eleven o'clock in the morning, for early tea. Make
into rolls at five o'clock P.M., and bake as soon as risen. In cool
weather, set before the fire, both before and after making it into
rolls.--_Mrs. S._
FRENCH ROLLS.
1 quart of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
2 eggs.
1 large tablespoonful of lard.
2 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
Work and knead it well at night, and in the morning work it well
again, make it into rolls, put them in the oven to take a second rise,
and when risen, bake them.--_Mrs. Col. W._
_Another Recipe for French Rolls._
3 pints of flour.
1 gill of yeast.
1 egg (beaten up).
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Mix up with milk and warm water and set to rise.--_Mrs. Dr. E._
_Another Recipe for French Rolls or Twist._
1 quart of lukewarm milk.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 teacup of yeast.
Enough flour to make a stiff batter.
When very light, add one beaten egg and two teaspoonfuls of butter,
and knead in the flour till stiff enough to roll. Let it rise a second
time, and, when very light, roll out, cut in strips and braid it. Bake
thirty minutes, on buttered tins.--_Mrs. S._
VELVET ROLLS.
Three pints of flour.
Two eggs.
One teacup of sweet milk.
One teacup of yeast.
1 tablespoonful of lard, and the same of butter.
Mix well and beat the dough till it blisters.
Let it rise, work in a small quantity of flour, beat as before and
make into rolls. After the second rising, bake quickly.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
POCKETBOOK ROLLS.
1 quart of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
2 teaspoonfuls of sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls of lard.
3 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
2 eggs.
Mix up these ingredients with warm water, making up the dough at ten
A.M. in summer and eight A.M. in winter. Put in half the lard when it
is first worked up, and at the second working put in the rest of the
lard and a little more flour.
Roll out the dough in strips as long and wide as your hand, spread
with butter and roll up like a pocketbook. Put them in buttered tins,
and, when they are light, bake them a light brown--_Mrs. L. C. C._
TURNOVERS.
1 quart of flour.
1 large Irish potato, boiled and mashed.
3 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of butter or lard.
2 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
1 teacup of milk.
Rub the potato in the flour, then the lard and other ingredients,
making it into a soft dough. Then set it to rise, at night if you wish
it for breakfast next morning. Early in the morning, take off a piece
of dough, the size of a biscuit, roll it out, about five inches long,
then turn it about half over. When you have made up all the dough, in
shapes like this, place them on a dish or board, cover with a napkin
and set aside for a second rising. When ready to bake, dip a feather
in water and pass over them to prevent the crust being too hard. If
the dough should be sour, knead in a little soda, which will correct
it--_Mrs. A. C._
_Another Recipe for Turnovers._
1 quart of flour.
4 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of lard or butter.
1 tablespoonful of yeast.
Set it to rise, then make them up round and flat, greasing the upper
side with lard and turning over one side. When well risen the second
time, bake--_Mrs. I._
TWIST.
From the dough of loaf bread or French rolls, reserve enough to make
two long strips or rolls, say, fifteen inches long and one inch in
diameter. Rub lard well between the hands before handling and shaping
these strips. Pinch the two ends so as to make them stick together.
Twist them, pressing the other ends together to prevent
unrolling.--_Mrs. S. T._
POCKETS.
1 quart of flour.
4 eggs.
1 cup of butter.
1 cup of yeast.
1 large Irish potato, boiled and mashed into the flour.
Add the yeast, butter and eggs, after mashing the potato in the flour.
Knead all together and set to rise.
SALLY-LUNN.
1 quart of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 tablespoonful of white sugar.
Rub in a heaping tablespoonful of butter and lard in equal parts,
then rub in an Irish potato, mashed fine.
Half a teacup of yeast.
3 eggs well beaten.
Make up the dough to the consistency of light bread dough, with warm
water in winter, and cold in summer. Knead half an hour. When it has
risen light, handle lightly, put into a cake-mould and bake without a
second kneading.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Another Recipe for Sally-Lunn._
1 quart of flour.
1 tablespoonful of yeast.
4 eggs well beaten.
2 oz. of butter or lard.
1 pint of milk.
Set it to rise in the pan in which it is to be baked.--_Mrs. A. C._
_Another Recipe for Sally-Lunn._
3 pints of flour.
1 tablespoonful of butter and the same of lard.
3 eggs.
1 light teacup of yeast.
2 large tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Use as much milk in mixing as will make a soft dough. Work this well,
as it gets only one working. Then grease it, put it in a greased pan,
and set it in a warm place to rise. Bake about an hour.--_Mrs. Dr. T._
_Recipe for the Same._
1 quart of flour.
3 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
3 eggs.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
Butter the size of an egg.
Make up with new milk into a tolerably stiff batter. Set it to rise
and when risen pour into a mould and set to rise again, as light
bread. Bake quickly.--_Mrs. L._
QUICK SALLY-LUNN.
1 quart of flour.
Half cup of butter.
2 eggs.
2 cups of milk.
Two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
2 tablespoonfuls of sugar.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
Bake fifteen minutes.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
MUFFINS.
1 quart of flour.
6 eggs, beaten very light.
2 tablespoonfuls of butter.
2 tablespoonfuls of yeast.--_Mrs. Dr. E._
SWEET SPRING MUFFINS.
Sift three good pints of flour. Beat well six eggs, leaving out one
and a half of the whites. Then beat into them as much flour as they
will take in; then add milk and flour alternately (beating all the
while) till all the flour is used. Add five tablespoonfuls of yeast,
and when this batter is well beaten, stir into it two ounces of melted
butter, cooled but liquid. The batter must be as stiff as can be
beaten with an iron spoon. Bake in a hot oven.--_Mrs. L._
SALT SULPHUR MUFFINS.
Work together, about twelve o'clock in the day, one pint of yeast,
half a pint of water, six eggs, one pound of butter and enough flour
to make a dough just stiff enough not to stick to the fingers. After
the dough is risen, make it out in biscuit and allow half an hour or
more for them to rise before baking.--_Mrs. L._
SUPERIOR MUFFINS.
1 quart of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 tablespoonful of white sugar.
Rub in one heaping tablespoonful of butter and lard mixed, and one
tablespoonful of Irish potato, mashed free from lumps.
Pour in three well beaten eggs and a half teacup of yeast. Make into a
soft dough with warm water in winter and cold in summer. Knead well
for half an hour. Set to rise where it will be milk-warm, in winter,
and cool in summer. If wanted for an eight o'clock winter breakfast,
make up at eight o'clock the night before. At six o'clock in the
morning, make out into round balls (without kneading again), and drop
into snow-ball moulds that have been well greased. Take care also to
grease the hands and pass them over the tops of the muffins. Set them
in a warm place for two hours and then bake.
These are the best muffins I ever ate.--_Mrs. S. T._
PARKER HOUSE MUFFINS.
Boil one quart of milk. When nearly cool stir in one quart sifted
flour, one teaspoonful salt, one half cup of yeast. Then stir in three
well beaten eggs. Let it rise in a warm place in winter and a cool one
in summer, eight or ten hours. When risen light, stir in one
tablespoonful melted butter and bake in iron muffin moulds.--_Mrs. W.
H. M._
MUFFINS.
1 quart of flour.
1 pint milk.
3 eggs.
1 heaping tablespoonful lard.
1 " " butter.
½ cup yeast.
1 teaspoonful sugar.
Mix and beat till perfectly light.--_Mrs. W. S._
_Another Recipe for Muffins._
One quart of milk, one dozen eggs, one pound of butter. Beat the
butter and yolks together. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Make the
batter the consistency of pound cake, and bake in snow-ball cups as
soon as made.--_Mrs. C. W. B._
MUFFIN BREAD.
3 pints of flour.
4 eggs.
1 pint of milk.
1 large tablespoonful of butter.
1 gill of yeast.
A little salt.
Make up at night. This makes two loaves.--_Mrs. A. F._
SODA MUFFINS.
1 quart of flour.
2 eggs.
3 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
Add enough buttermilk to make a stiff batter, and bake immediately.
WHITE EGG MUFFINS.
1 pint of flour.
Whites of 8 eggs, beaten to a stiff froth.
Add enough milk to make it into a thin batter. Put in a little salt.
Very nice.--_Mrs. C. C. McP._
CREAM MUFFINS.
Beat the whites and yolks of four eggs separately. When well beaten,
mix them and add to them a half pint of cream, a lump of melted butter
half the size of an egg. Then mix in slowly one pint of flour and
bake it quickly, in small tins, without any further beating. A
delicious breakfast bread.--_Mrs. McG., Ala._
_Miscellaneous Yeast Breads._
BUNNS.
1 pint of potato yeast.
4 ounces of sugar.
4 ounces of butter.
1 egg and as much flour as will make a soft dough.
Make as Sally-Lunn and bake in rolls.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
COTTAGE LOAF.
1 quart of flour.
1 tablespoonful of sugar.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
1 tablespoonful of yeast.
2 eggs, and a little salt.
Make up at night for breakfast, mixing it with water. Bake in a quart
tin pan.--_Mrs. A. B._
POTATO BREAD.
1 quart of flour.
4 eggs.
4 good sized Irish potatoes, boiled, mashed and strained
through a colander.
2 ounces of butter.
As much yeast as is needed to make it rise.
To be made up with water, not so stiff as light bread dough. Bake in a
loaf or rolls.--_Mrs. J. H. F._
OLD MAIDS.
Made at night like common light bread. Roll out the size of saucers in
the morning, for the second rising. Bake on a hoe, turning over as a
hoe cake. Then toast the sides, in front of a fire. A very nice,
old-fashioned bread.--_Mrs. Dr. E._
GRAHAM BREAD.
The night before baking, make a sponge of white flour, using half new
milk and half cold water, with a teacup two thirds full of home-made
yeast. In the morning, put four tablespoonfuls of this sponge in a
separate dish, adding three tablespoonfuls of molasses, a little milk
or water, and stirring in as much Graham flour as you can with a
spoon. Then let it rise and mould the same as white bread.
BROWN BREAD.
One quart of light bread sponge, one-half teacup of molasses. Stir
into the above, with a large spoon, unbolted wheat meal, until it is a
stiff dough. Grease a deep pan, put the mixture in; when light, put
the pan over a kettle of hot water (the bread well covered), and steam
for half an hour. Then put in the oven and bake until done. Especially
good for dyspeptics.--_Mrs. D. Cone._
BOX BREAD.
One quart of flour, one teacup of yeast, one teacup of melted lard or
butter, four eggs, one teaspoonful of salt. Let it rise as light
bread, and, when risen, make it into square rolls, without working it
a second time. Let it rise again and then bake it.--_Mrs. R. E. W._
RUSKS.
1 cup of yeast.
1 cup of sugar.
1 cup of cream.
4 eggs.
Enough flour to make a batter, mixed with the other ingredients. Let
it rise; then add enough flour to make rolls, and also add a teacup
of lard and butter mixed. Bake as rolls after they have risen.--_Mrs.
H._
EGG RUSKS.
Melt three ounces of butter in a pint of milk. Beat six eggs into
one-fourth of a pound of sugar. Mix these ingredients with enough
flour to make a batter, adding a gill of yeast and half a teaspoonful
of salt. When light, add flour to make a dough stiff enough to mould.
Make into small cakes and let them rise in a warm place while the oven
is heating.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
GERMAN RUSKS.
1 quart of flour.
2 eggs.
2 cups of sugar.
2 cups of lard and butter mixed.
2 cups of potato yeast.
2 cups of milk.
1 nutmeg.
Put all the ingredients in the middle of the flour, work well together
and set to rise as loaf bread. Wash the rolls over with butter and
sugar.--_Mrs. C. L. T._
FRENCH BISCUIT.
1 quart of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Rub in one tablespoonful of butter and lard mixed.
Pour in half a teacup of yeast, two well beaten eggs, and enough water
to make a soft dough. Knead half an hour. Then set to rise; when well
risen, roll out, without kneading again. Handle lightly, first
greasing the hands with butter. Cut with a biscuit cutter, greasing
one biscuit and placing another on it. Set to rise a second time
before baking.--_Mrs. S. T._
VANITY BISCUIT.
One pint of flour, one of milk, three eggs beaten well together. Bake
in cups.--_Miss D._
BEATEN BISCUIT.
One quart of flour, lard the size of a hen's egg, one teaspoonful of
salt. Make into a moderately stiff dough with sweet milk. Beat for
half an hour. Make out with the hand or cut with the biscuit cutter.
Stick with a fork and bake in a hot oven, yet not sufficiently hot to
blister the biscuit.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Another Recipe for Beaten Biscuit._
1 quart of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 egg.
1 tablespoonful of butter and the same of lard.
Mix up these ingredients with skimmed milk, work them well together
and beat fifteen minutes. Stick with a fork and bake quickly.--_Mrs.
E. B._
SODA BISCUIT.
1 quart of flour.
1 heaping teaspoonful of cream of tartar, the same of soda, and the
same of salt. Sift these together, then rub in a tablespoonful of lard
and make up the dough with milk and water.--_Mrs. E. B._
CREAM BISCUIT.
1 quart of sifted flour.
Four teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and two teaspoonfuls of fine
table salt, which must be well diffused through the flour. Then add
two ounces of fresh, good butter. Take one pint of pure, sweet cream,
put in it two even teaspoonfuls of soda and then add it to the flour.
The dough ought to be very soft; but should it be too soft, add a
little more flour. Work it well, roll it out half an inch thick, cut
with a biscuit cutter and bake in a quick oven five minutes.--_Mrs. J.
H. F._
EXCELLENT LIGHT BISCUIT.
Boil four large Irish potatoes. While hot, mash them with a piece of
lard the size of an egg. Add one teacup of milk and one of yeast. Stir
in enough flour to make a good batter and set it to rise. It will take
about two quarts of flour. When light, make up the dough. You
generally have to add more water or milk. Roll thick, let them rise
slowly, but bake them quickly.--_Mrs. M. G. H._
LIGHT BISCUIT.
Two quarts flour, one large tablespoonful lard, and the same of
butter. Salt to the taste. One teaspoonful soda and enough buttermilk
to make a soft dough. Bake quickly.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
THICK BISCUIT.
One quart flour, one large tablespoonful lard and butter mixed, one
teaspoonful salt, enough morning's milk to make a stiff dough. Work
well and beat with a rolling-pin or iron pestle, at least half an
hour. Make into small biscuit and bake in a quick oven. This will make
sixteen biscuit.--_Mrs. M. A. P._
THIN BISCUIT OR CRACKERS.
One quart of flour, one tablespoonful lard and butter mixed, a little
salt. Make a stiff paste with water. Beat the dough till it blisters.
Roll thin, stick, and bake quickly.--_Mrs. A. C._
SODA CRACKERS.
1 quart of flour.
1 tablespoonful of lard and butter mixed.
1 egg; a little salt.
1 teaspoonful of soda, sifted into the flour.
Make a stiff paste with buttermilk, beat until light, roll tolerably
thin, cut in squares, prick, and bake quickly.--_Mrs. A. C._
HUNTSVILLE CRACKERS.
Take a lump of risen dough, as large as your double fist, a heaping
teaspoonful of loaf sugar, beaten with the yolk of an egg. Mix with
the dough a lump of butter the size of a hen's egg and an equal
quantity of lard, a tablespoonful of soda, dissolved in a cup of
cream. Beat a long time, stirring in flour all the while, till quite
stiff. Roll out, cut in square cakes and bake in a brisk oven.--_Miss
E. P._
WATER CRACKERS.
1 lb. of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt and the same of soda.
1 tablespoonful of lard.
Make up with sweet milk, beat well, roll thin, and bake quickly.
WAFERS.
1 quart flour.
Yolk of one egg.
1 heaping tablespoonful lard.
A little salt.
Mix with milk, as stiff as you would for biscuit. Beat well with the
biscuit beater, roll out thin and put in the wafer irons. Put in the
fire and bake.--_Mrs. W. S._
NUN'S PUFFS.
Boil one pint of milk with half a pound of butter. Stir them into
three-quarters of a pound of flour and let them cool. Then add nine
eggs, yolks and whites to be beaten separately, and whites to be added
last. Fill cups or tins half full and bake. When done, sprinkle with
white sugar while hot. Very nice for tea.--_Mrs. A. D._
_Miscellaneous Flour Breads._
LAPLAND BREAD.
1 quart of flour.
1 quart of cream.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Twelve eggs (whites and yolks beaten separately and very light). Put
the whites in the batter the last thing, beat very light, bake in a
quick oven, in small tins, which must be perfectly dry and sprinkled
with a little flour before being greased. A delicious bread.--_Mrs.
Dr. J._
_A Plainer Recipe for the Same._
1 pint of flour.
1 pint of milk.
2 eggs.
Beat the eggs well and stir in the flour and milk. Bake in little
pans.
NEW BREAD.
1 quart of flour.
1 dessertspoonful of lard and the same of butter.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
Work the lard and butter in the flour, and sprinkle in the soda, with
salt to taste. Mix with buttermilk or clabber to the consistency of
biscuit. Roll it round to the size of a teaplate. Made just before
eating.--_Mrs. F._
HENRIETTA BREAD.
1 pint of flour.
1 pint of sweet milk.
2 eggs, beaten separately.
1 tablespoonful of lard or butter.
Make the consistency of poor man's pudding. Bake in cups.--_Mrs. K._
JENNY LIND BREAD.
1 quart of sifted flour.
A lump of butter the size of an egg.
2 teacups of milk.
4 eggs.
1½ teaspoonfuls of soda.
2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.
Bake twenty minutes.--_Mrs. L._
LUNCH BREAD.
1 pint of flour.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
3 tablespoonfuls of sugar.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar.
2 eggs.
1 cup of milk and a little salt.
Bake in a flat pan in a quick oven. To be eaten hot with
butter.--_Mrs. I. H._
BREAKFAST PUFFS.
One tumbler of flour, one tumbler of milk, and one egg. Beat the yolk
and milk together, then add the flour, and lastly the white of the
egg. Bake a few minutes in a hot oven.--_Mrs. I. H._
_Another Recipe for the Same._
Take two eggs well beaten and stir into a pint of milk; add a little
salt, two spoonfuls of melted butter, one and one-half pints of flour.
Stir thoroughly, so as to avoid lumps. Grease the cups in which you
pour the batter, and fill them two-thirds full.
SALT-RISEN BREAD.
Make into a thin batter:
1 pint of flour.
1 tablespoonful of corn meal.
Half-teaspoonful salt.
Set in a warm place to rise. After it has risen, pour into it two
quarts of flour, with sufficient warm water to make up a loaf of
bread. Work it well, set it to rise again, and when risen
sufficiently, bake it.--_Mrs. T. L. J._
_Another Recipe for the Same._
Into a pitcher, put one teacup of milk fresh from the cow, two teacups
of boiling water, one tablespoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt.
Into this stir thoroughly a little less than a quart of flour. Set the
pitcher in a kettle of moderately warm water and keep it at a uniform
temperature. Keep a towel fastened over the mouth of the pitcher. Set
the kettle in front of the fire to keep the water warm. Let it stand
three hours, then beat it up well, after which do not interrupt it. If
in two hours it does not begin to rise, put in a large slice of apple.
As soon as it rises sufficiently, have ready two quarts of flour, half
a tablespoonful of lard and more salt, and make up immediately. Should
there not be yeast enough, use warm water. Put into an oven and set
before a slow fire to rise, after which bake slowly. The yeast must be
made up at seven o'clock in the morning.--_Miss N. C. A._
WAFFLES.
1 pint milk.
3 tablespoonfuls flour.
1 tablespoonful corn meal.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
1 light teaspoonful salt.
Three eggs, beaten separately, the whites added last. To have good
waffles, the batter must be made thin. Add another egg and a teacup
of boiled rice to the above ingredients, if you wish to make rice
waffles.--_Mrs. S. T._
WAFFLES.
1 quart of flour.
1 quart of sour cream (or buttermilk, if you have no cream).
6 eggs.
1½ teaspoonful of soda.
Half a tablespoonful of melted lard, poured in after the batter
is mixed.
This may be baked as flannel cakes or muffins.--_Mrs. H. D._
_Another Recipe for Waffles._
1 quart of flour.
6 eggs beaten very light,
1½ pint of new milk.
2 teaspoonfuls of salt.
3 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
Set it to rise at night, and stir with a spoon, in the morning, just
before baking. When you want them for tea, make them up in the
morning, in winter, or directly after dinner, in summer.--_Mrs. Dr.
J._
SODA WAFFLES.
1 pint of flour.
1 pint of milk.
1 teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in the milk.
2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, mixed in the flour.
2 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Beat up and bake quickly.
_Another Recipe for Waffles._
1 quart of flour, with a kitchen-spoonful of corn meal added.
3 eggs beaten separately.
1 quart of milk.
1 teacup of water.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Lump of butter large as a walnut, melted and poured in.
Bake in hot irons.
One secret of having good waffles is to have the batter thin.--_Miss
R. S._
SUPERIOR RICE WAFFLES.
1 quart flour.
3 eggs.
1 cup boiled rice, beaten into the flour.
1 light teaspoonful soda.
Make into a batter with buttermilk. Bake quickly in waffle irons.
Batter made as above and baked on a griddle makes excellent breakfast
cakes.--_Mrs. D. B. K._
RICE WAFFLES.
1 pint of flour.
1 pint of new milk.
The yolks of three eggs.
Lump of butter the size of an egg.
Half teacup of boiled rice.
A pinch of salt and a pinch of soda, sprinkled in the flour and
sifted with it.
Beat well.--_Mrs. F._
_Another Recipe for the Same._
Two gills of rice, mixed with three ounces of butter, three eggs,
three gills of flour, a little salt, and cream enough to make the
batter. Beat till very light.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
MUSH WAFFLES.
With one pint of milk, make corn mush. When cool, add a tablespoonful
of butter, a little salt, and thicken with flour to a stiff batter.
Bake quickly in irons.--_Mrs. C. L. T._
BREAKFAST CAKES.
In the morning take the dough of a pint of flour. Beat two eggs light
and mix them with a half pint of milk, then add these ingredients to
the dough, let it stand an hour to rise, and then bake as buckwheat
cakes.--_Mrs. Dr. J._
MADISON CAKES.
Two pounds of flour, two eggs, two ounces of lard, three
tablespoonfuls of yeast. Make up with new milk, the consistency of
roll dough, at night. Flour the biscuit board and roll out the dough
in the morning about three quarters of an inch thick, cutting the
cakes with a dredging-box top. Let them rise, covered with a cloth,
till fifteen minutes before breakfast.--_Mrs. L._
ORANGE CAKES.
1 quart of flour.
1 teacup of butter.
4 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of yeast.
Make into a stiff batter with milk, the over-night. Next morning, add
a teacup of Indian meal. Beat well and put in cups to rise before
baking.--_Mrs. A. C._
VELVET CAKES.
1 quart of flour.
1 quart of milk.
1 tablespoonful of yeast.
1 tablespoonful of melted butter.
3 eggs.
Bake in muffin rings.--_Mrs. A. C._
FLANNEL CAKES.
1 quart of flour.
1 pint of meal.
1 teacup of milk.
1 teacup of yeast.
3 eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls of salt.
Beat well together and let it rise till usual time in a warm place.
Excellent.--_Mrs. W. B._
_Another Recipe for Flannel Cakes._
1 quart of flour.
2 eggs.
1½ pint boiled milk (used cold).
2 teaspoonfuls of salt.
3 tablespoonfuls of yeast (added after the other ingredients have
been mixed).
Beat light, and set to rise till morning.
Bake on a griddle.--_Mrs. Dr. J._
_Another Recipe for the Same._
4 eggs.
1 quart of milk.
Half teacup of butter or lard.
2 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Flour to make the batter like pound cake.--_Mrs. S._
BUCKWHEAT CAKES.
1 quart buckwheat flour.
1 pint sifted corn meal.
Half teacup of yeast.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Enough water to make a stiff batter.
After rising, stir in a half teacup of butter or lard. Let it rise a
second time, grease the griddle, dip the spoon in lightly, and cook
quickly.--_Mrs. P. W._
_Another Recipe for Buckwheat Cakes._
1 pint of buckwheat flour.
1 tablespoonful of meal.
1 tablespoonful of yeast.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Make up with water the over-night, and beat till it bubbles. In the
morning beat again, and just before baking stir in a pinch of soda
dissolved in milk or water.--_Mrs. Col. W._
BUCKWHEAT CAKES.
1 quart buckwheat flour.
1 pint wheat flour.
½ teacup yeast.
A pinch of salt.
Make into a batter with warm water. Set to rise. Thin the batter with
a cup of milk (to make them brown well). Add a pinch of soda and bake
quickly on a griddle. Butter and send to the table hot.--_Mrs. D. B.
K._
_Another Recipe for the Same._
1 pint buckwheat.
½ pint sifted meal.
2 teaspoonfuls of salt.
4 tablespoonfuls of yeast.
1½ pint lukewarm water.
Beat well and set to rise till morning.--_Mrs. Dr. J._
CREAM CAKES.
1 pint of flour.
1 pint of cream (or milk).
2 eggs, well beaten.
Lump of butter size of an egg.
Put the milk and butter on the fire till it boils. Mix and bake
quickly in pans. Salt to taste.
_Another Recipe for Cream Cakes._
1 quart of cream (sour is preferable).
4 eggs.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Flour for a thick batter.--_Mrs. G._
_Another Recipe for the Same._
1 quart of flour.
3 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of lard.
1 pint of cream.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Bake in tins.--_Mrs. A. C._
BOSTON CREAM CAKES.
2 cups of flour.
2½ cups of water.
1 cup of butter.
5 eggs.
Boil the butter and water together, stir in the flour while boiling;
after it is cool, add the eggs, well beaten. Put a large spoonful in
muffin rings, and bake twenty minutes in a hot oven.
The cream for them is made as follows:
Put over the fire one cup of milk and not quite a cup of sugar, one
egg, mixed with three teaspoonfuls of corn starch and one
tablespoonful of butter. Boil a few moments only. When cool, add
vanilla to the taste.
Open the cakes and fill them with this cream.--_M. H. K._
BUTTERMILK CAKES.
1 quart of flour.
2 eggs, well beaten.
1½ pint of buttermilk.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Beat very light, after mixing the ingredients. Just before baking,
stir in a little soda, mixed in a little of the buttermilk.
Bake on a griddle, free from grease.--_Mrs. L._
SOUR MILK CAKES.
1 pint sour milk.
1 pint flour.
Butter size of a small egg.
1 tablespoonful of sugar.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
Half teaspoonful of soda.
Bake in hot and well greased iron clads.
FARINA CAKES.
Melt together one pint of milk and one tablespoonful of butter. Then
add four tablespoonfuls of farina and boil till quite thick. Set aside
to cool. When ready to bake, add three well beaten eggs, a few
spoonfuls of flour, and salt to your taste.--_Mrs. S._
RICE CAKES.
Put one pound of rice in soak the over-night. Boil very soft in the
morning, drain the water from it and mix with it, while hot, a quarter
of a pound of butter. After it has cooled, add to it one quart of
milk, a little salt, and six eggs. Sift over it and stir into it
gradually a half pound of flour. Beat the whole well and bake on a
griddle like other batter cakes.--_Mrs. W._
_Another Recipe for Rice Cakes._
One cup of cold boiled rice, rubbed in a quart of milk, one pint of
flour, a teaspoonful of salt, two eggs beaten light. Beat all till
free from lumps. Bake as soon as made, on a well greased griddle.
BATTER CAKES.
Two eggs beaten separately. Pour into the yolks a pint of buttermilk,
then put in two handfuls of meal and one of flour, then the whites of
the eggs, half a teaspoonful of soda and a little salt. Fry with very
little grease, or with egg shells. Put two spoonfuls of batter to a
cake.--_Mrs. C. L. T._
_Another Recipe for Batter Cakes._
1 quart of flour.
1 pint of meal.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
3 eggs.
Make up with buttermilk.--_Mrs. Dr. J._
_Batter Cakes made of Stale Bread._
Put a loaf of stale bread to stand all day in a pint of milk. Just
before tea add three eggs and one large spoonful of butter. If too
thin, add a little flour.--_Mrs. R._
_Old Virginia Batter Cakes._
Beat two eggs very light in a bowl. Add one teacup of clabber, one of
water, one of corn meal, a teacup of flour, one-half teaspoonful of
salt. Just before baking, sift in half a teaspoonful of soda and stir
well. It is better to grease the griddle with fat bacon than with
lard.
The above proportions will make enough batter cakes for two or three
persons.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Another Recipe for the Same._
1 quart sweet milk.
1 heaping pint corn meal.
4 eggs.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Half teaspoonful of soda.
1 tablespoonful of warmed butter or fresh lard.
Break the eggs, whites and yolks together, beat slightly, then add the
milk, stir in the meal and beat until it looks light. Bake on a
griddle.--_Mrs. J. P._
_Cheap Recipe for Batter Cakes._
1 pint of sour milk.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
1 tablespoonful of flour.
Enough meal to make a good batter.
Bake on a hoe.--_Miss E. P._
INDIAN GRIDDLE CAKES.
1 quart of sour milk.
1 large tablespoonful of butter, melted after measuring.
2 eggs.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
Half a teaspoonful of salt.
Make a thin batter, with two-thirds Indian meal, and one-third flour.
A small bag made of coarse but thin linen or cotton, and filled with
common salt, is much better to rub over the griddle than lard, when
cakes are to be fried or baked.
BATTER BREAD.
Break two eggs into a bowl. Beat to a stiff froth. Pour in one teacup
of clabber or butter-milk, one of water, one of corn meal, one of
flour, half teaspoonful of salt, a heaping teaspoonful of butter
melted. Beat all well together. Have already heated on the stove or
range, iron-clad muffin moulds (eight or ten in a group). Grease them
well with a clean rag, dipped in lard. Fill each one nearly full with
the batter, first sifting in half a teaspoonful soda. Set in a hot
oven and bake a nice brown. Oblong shapes are the nicest. If
preferred, sweet milk may be used instead of sour milk and water. In
this case add another egg and dispense with the soda.--_Mrs. S. T._
BATTER BREAD.
Four cups of meal, two cups sweet milk, four eggs, two tablespoonfuls
flour, one tablespoonful lard, one teaspoonful salt, half teaspoonful
soda.--_Mrs. F._
BATTER BREAD.
One cup meal, one cup sweet milk, one cup butter-milk, two eggs, one
tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful flour, half teaspoonful of
salt, and same of soda. Bake in cups.--_Mrs. G._
CORN MUFFINS.
3 eggs, beaten light.
1 pint of buttermilk (if very sour, use less).
1 teacup of cream or milk.
1 small teaspoonful of soda.
Lard or butter size of an egg.
Meal enough to make the batter of the consistency of pound-cake
batter.--_Mrs. I._
CORN MEAL WAFFLES.
One pint of corn meal scalded. While hot add to it, two tablespoonfuls
of lard or butter, three well beaten eggs, a cup of boiled rice, a
pint of flour, a teaspoonful of salt. Thin to the proper consistency
with milk.--_Mrs. Dr. S._
ST. NICHOLAS' PONE.
1 quart of meal.
1 quart of milk.
4 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of melted butter.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar.
1 teaspoonful of soda.--_Mrs. C. C._
GRIT OR HOMINY BREAD.
2 eggs, beaten separately.
1 pint of milk.
Small piece of butter.
Add enough meal and hominy to make a batter, and bake quickly.--_Mrs.
C. L. T._
HOMINY BREAD.
Mix with two teacups of hot hominy a very large spoonful of butter.
Beat two eggs very light and stir into the hominy. Next add a pint of
milk, gradually stirring it in. Lastly, add half a pint of corn meal.
The batter should be of the consistency of rich boiled custard. If
thicker, add a little more milk. Bake with a good deal of heat at the
bottom, but not so much at the top. Bake in a deep pan, allowing space
for rising. When done, it looks like a baked batter pudding.--_Mrs. F.
D._
CORN CAKE.
1 pint of corn meal.
1 pint of sweet milk.
2 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
2 tablespoonfuls of flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Boil the milk and pour it over the meal, flour, and butter. Beat
light. When cool, add eggs well beaten. Bake in a buttered pan.--_Mrs.
G. W. P._
MUSH BREAD.
Make a thin mush of corn meal and milk (or hot water, if milk is
scarce). Cook till perfectly done, stirring all the time to keep it
smooth. Then add a good lump of butter; and, after it cools a little,
two eggs, one at a time. Beat in a very small pinch of soda and a
little salt.
Butter a yellow dish and bake slowly till brown.--_Mrs. C. L. T._
LIGHT CORN BREAD.
Pour one quart of boiled milk over one pint of corn meal. Add a
teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, half
teaspoonful of soda, three well beaten eggs, four tablespoonfuls of
flour, a little butter.--_Miss E. P._
SOFT EGG BREAD.
1 quart of milk.
Half pint of meal.
3 eggs.
Large spoonful of butter.
Make in a pudding dish. Rice is an improvement to the above.--_Mrs.
P._
OLD-FASHIONED EGG BREAD.
1 pint of meal.
3 eggs well beaten.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
Add enough sweet milk to make a rather thin batter. Bake
quickly.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Another Recipe for Egg Bread._
1 quart of milk.
3 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
1 pint of corn meal.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Beat the eggs very light and add to the other ingredients. Bake in a
pan or dish. Add a little soda dissolved in milk, if you desire
it.--_Mrs. I. H._
INDIAN BREAD.
Beat two eggs very light, mix alternately with them one pint of sour
milk or buttermilk, and one pint of fine corn meal. Melt one
tablespoonful of butter, and add to the mixture. Dissolve one
teaspoonful of soda in a small portion of the milk, and add to the
other ingredients, last of all. Beat hard and bake in a pan, in a hot
oven.
RICE BREAD.
1 pint sweet milk.
1 teacup boiled rice.
2 teacups sifted corn meal,
½ teacup melted butter.
3 eggs, beaten separately,
½ teaspoonful salt.
Bake in a very hot oven, using buttered iron muffin moulds.--_Mrs. S.
T._
CRACKLIN BREAD.
Take one quart sifted corn meal and a teacup of cracklins. Rub the
latter in the meal as fine as you can. Add a teaspoonful of salt and
make up with warm water into a stiff dough. Make into pones, and eat
hot.--_Mrs. P. W._
VIRGINIA ASH CAKE.
Add a teaspoonful of salt to a quart of sifted corn meal. Make up with
water and knead well. Make into round, flat cakes. Sweep a clean place
on the hottest part of the hearth. Put the cake on it and cover it
with hot wood ashes.
Wash and wipe it dry, before eating it. Sometimes a cabbage leaf is
placed under it, and one over it, before baking, in which case it need
not be washed.--_Mrs. S. T._
PLAIN CORN BREAD.
1 pint sifted meal.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Cold water sufficient to make a stiff dough.
Work well with the hands, pat out in long, narrow pones, six or seven
inches long and as wide as the wrist. Bake quickly in a hot
pan.--_Mrs. P. W._
COFFEE, TEA, AND CHOCOLATE.
TO TOAST COFFEE.
Wash and pick the coffee, put it in a very large stove-pan in a hot
oven. Stir often, giving constant attention. It must be toasted the
darkest brown, yet not one grain must be burned. It should never be
glazed, as this destroys the aroma.
Two pints of coffee become three pints after toasting.--_Mrs. S. T._
BOILED COFFEE.
To one quart of boiling water (poured in after scalding the pot) stir
in three gills of coffee, not ground too fine. Boil twenty minutes,
scraping from the sides and stirring occasionally. Five minutes before
breakfast, scrape from the spout, pour out half a teacupful, and
return to the pot. Do this a second time. Set it with the side of the
pot to the fire, so that it will be just at the boiling point. Do not
let it boil, however. Serve in the same coffee-pot.
Coffee should never be glazed.
Have a liberal supply of thick, sweet cream, also of boiled milk, to
serve with the coffee.
If the members of the family drop in at intervals, it is well to keep
the coffee over a round iron weight, heated just enough to keep the
coffee hot, without boiling it. This answers better than a spirit lamp
for keeping coffee hot.--_Mrs. S. T._
COFFEE.
Take equal quantities of Mocha, Java, Laguayra and Rio coffee. Have
the coffee roasted a chestnut brown. To every twelve cups of coffee to
be drawn, use eighteen heaping tablespoons of the ground coffee. Have
the water boiling hot, scald the biggin or percolator, put the ground
coffee in the upper part, then pour on some boiling water for it to
draw--about two teacups if you are to make twelve cups of coffee. Let
it stand a few moments and pour again into the upper part of the
percolator the first drawn coffee. Then add, one by one, the cups of
boiling water required. It will take ten minutes for the coffee to be
ready for the table.
Use the best white sugar, and in winter let the milk stand twenty-four
hours for the cream to rise. Use together with rich cream, a cream jug
of boiling sweet milk.--_Mrs. M. C. C._
_Coffee._
Buy Java and Laguayra mixed, two-thirds Java and one-third Laguayra,
which will give a delightful aroma to the Java.
Scald the pot. Then put in a teacup of coarsely ground coffee,
parched a light brown and mixed with cold water till it forms a paste,
to six cups of boiling water. Before you put in the boiling water, add
to the grounds one or more egg-shells or whites of eggs, to keep it
clear. Let it boil ten or fifteen minutes. Before taking it off the
fire, drop in about a teaspoonful of cold water, which will settle all
the floating grounds.--_Mrs. J. P._
DRIPPED OR FILTERED COFFEE.
If one quart of coffee is desired, grind three gills of coffee, put it
in the filterer and pour boiling water over it. If not sufficiently
strong, pour out and return to the filterer. Then set on the fire and
boil up, taking from the fire immediately.--_Mrs. S. T._
DRIPPED COFFEE.
One-half pint Java coffee ground and put in the dripper. Pour over it
two and one-half pints boiling water. If not strong enough, pass
through the dripper a second time.--_Mrs. J. R. McD._
CAFÉ AU LAIT.
1 cup German chiccory.
2 cups ground coffee.
Put in three pints boiling water with a pinch of isinglass, boil five
minutes and allow it to settle, or, if made in a percolator it will be
better. Use three-quarters of a cup boiling milk and one-quarter of
strong coffee, with sugar to suit the taste.--_Mrs. J. W. S._
GREEN TEA.
Scald the teapot, and add one-half pint boiling water to two
teaspoonfuls of the best green tea. Set it where it will keep hot, but
not boil. When it has drawn fifteen or twenty minutes, add boiling
water till it has the strength desired.--_Mrs. J. R. McD._
_Green Tea._
Scald the teapot. If you wish a pint of tea, put in one heaping
teaspoonful tea after putting in a pint boiling water. Set this where
it will keep hot, but not quite boil.--_Mrs. S. T._
_A good Cup of Green Tea._
Before putting in any water, set the teapot with the tea in it before
the fire and let it get thoroughly hot. Then fill the pot with boiling
water and let it stand five minutes.--_Mrs. M. E. L. W._
BLACK TEA.
If you wish a quart of tea, put that quantity of boiling water into
the teapot, after scalding it. Add four teaspoonfuls of tea. Boil
twenty minutes. It is a great improvement to put in a little green
tea.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Black Tea._
Add one and one-half pint boiling water to a half-teacupful of the
best black tea. Boil gently for ten or fifteen minutes. If too strong,
weaken with boiling water.--_Mrs. J. R. McD._
ICED TEA.
After scalding the teapot, put into it one quart of boiling water and
two teaspoonfuls green tea. If wanted for supper, do this at
breakfast. At dinner time, strain, without stirring, through a
tea-strainer into a pitcher. Let it stand till tea time and then pour
into decanters, leaving the sediment in the bottom of the pitcher.
Fill the goblets with ice, put two teaspoonfuls granulated sugar in
each, and pour the tea over the ice and sugar. A squeeze of lemon will
make this delicious and healthful, as it will correct the astringent
tendency.--_Mrs. S. T._
CHOCOLATE.
Scrape fine one square of Baker's chocolate (which will be an ounce).
Put it in a pint of boiling water and milk, mixed in equal parts. Boil
it ten minutes, and during this time mill it or whip it with a Dover
egg-whip (one with a wheel), which will make it foam beautifully.
Sweeten to the taste, at table.--_Mrs. S. T._
COCOA.
To one pint milk and one pint cold water add three tablespoonfuls
grated cocoa. Boil fifteen or twenty minutes, milling or whipping as
directed in foregoing recipe. Sweeten to taste, at the table. Some
persons like a piece of orange-peel boiled with it.--_Mrs. S. T._
BROMA.
Dissolve one large tablespoonful broma in one tablespoonful warm
water. Pour on it one pint boiling milk and water (equal parts). Boil
ten minutes, milling or whipping as above directed. Sweeten to the
taste.--_Mrs. S. T._
A cream-pitcher of whipped cream should always accompany chocolate or
any preparation of it, such as cocoa or broma.--_Mrs. S. T._
MILK AND BUTTER.
The most exquisite nicety and care must be observed in the management
of milk and butter. A housekeeper should have two sets of milk vessels
(tin or earthenware, never stoneware, as this is an absorbent). She
should never use twice in succession the same milk vessels without
having them scalded and aired.
In warm weather, sweet milk should be set on ice, if practicable, or
if not, in a spring-house. Never put ice in sweet milk, as this
dilutes it. One pan of milk should always be set aside to raise cream
for coffee. A bucket with a close-fitting lid should be filled with
milk and set aside for dinner, one for supper, one for breakfast, and
a fourth for cooking purposes.
For making butter, strain unskimmed milk into a scalded churn, where
the churning is done daily. This will give sweeter butter and nicer
buttermilk than when cream is skimmed and kept for churning, as this
sometimes gives a cheesy taste to the butter. Do not let the milk in
the churn exceed blood heat. If overheated, the butter will be white
and frothy, and the milk thin and sour. Churn as soon as the milk is
turned. In summer try to churn early in the morning, as fewer flies
are swarming then, and the butter can be made much firmer.
A stone churn is in some respects more convenient than a wooden churn;
but no matter which you use, the most fastidious neatness must be
observed. Have the churn scalded and set out to sun as soon as
possible after churning. Use your last made butter for buttering
bread, reserving the staler for cookery.
Butter should be printed early in the morning, while it is cool. A
plateful for each of the three meals should be placed in the
refrigerator ready for use. Do not set butter in a refrigerator with
anything else in it but milk, or in a safe with anything but milk. It
readily imbibes the flavor of everything near it. After churning,
butter should be taken up in what is called "a piggin," first scalded
and then filled with cold water. With an old-fashioned butter-stick
(scalded) wash and press the butter till no water is left. Then add a
little salt, finely beaten. Beat again in a few hours, and make up in
half-pound prints. I would advise all housekeepers (even those who do
not make their own butter) to keep a piggin, a butter-stick, and a
pretty butter-print.
_To secure nice Butter for the Table in Winter._
In October and November, engage butter to be brought weekly, fresh
from the churn in rolls. Wrap each roll in a piece of old table cloth,
and put in a sweet firkin or stone jar which has been washed with soda
water, scalded and sunned for a month before using. Pour over it a
clear strong brine, which also must have been prepared at least a week
beforehand, by pouring off the settlings and repeated strainings. Have
a nice flat rock washed and weight the butter down with it, being
careful to keep it always under the brine.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Recipe for Putting up Butter._
2 quarts best common salt.
1 ounce pulverized saltpetre.
1 ounce white sugar.
Work the butter over three times, the last time adding an ounce of the
above mixture to every pound butter. Of course, the butter is salted,
when first made. Make the butter into rolls and wrap in cloths or pack
in jars, within four inches of the top of each jar. If the latter is
done, fill the jars with brine and tie up closely. If the former is
preferred, drop the rolls into brine, prepared as follows:
To every gallon brine that will bear an egg, add one pound white sugar
and one-half ounce saltpetre. Boil well and skim. Keep the brine
closely covered. I have used butter on my table in May, put up in this
way, and it tasted as well as when put up in October.--_Mrs. R. C._
CLABBER.
To have clabber in perfection, place in small glass dishes or bowls
enough milk to make clabber for each person. After it has turned, set
it in the refrigerator, if in summer, till called for. By the way,
refrigerators (as well as water-coolers) should be washed every
morning with water in which a tablespoonful of common soda has been
dissolved. They should then be aired before filling with ice for the
day.--_Mrs. S. T._
COTTAGE CHEESE.
When the tea-kettle boils, pour the water into a pan of "loppered"
milk. It will curd at once. Stir it and turn it into a colander, pour
a little cold water over it, salt it and break it up. A better way is
to put equal parts of buttermilk and thick milk in a kettle, over the
fire, heat it almost boiling hot, pour into a linen bag and let it
drain till next day. Then take it out, salt it, put in a little cream
or butter, as it may be thick or not, and make it up into balls the
size of an orange.
SOUP.
As making soup is a tedious process, it is best to make enough at once
to last several days. Beef shank is most generally used in making
nutritious soup. It is best to get this the day before using it, and
soak it all night in cold, clear water. If you cannot do this,
however, get it as early in the morning as you can. Break the bones,
wash it, soak it a few minutes in weak salt and water, and put it in a
large boiler of cold water. As soon as it begins to simmer, remove the
dark scum that rises on top. Keep the boiler closely covered, and boil
very slowly till an hour or two before dinner. Then, with a ladle,
remove all the fat from the top, as it is this element that makes soup
unwholesome. Strain and season, or, if you prefer, season just enough
for one meal, reserving the rest as foundation for another sort of
soup. It is well always to keep some of this stock on hand in cold
weather, as by the addition of a can of tomatoes, or other
ingredients, a delicious soup may be quickly made of it. Never throw
away water in which any sort of meat has been boiled, as it is much
better to simmer hash or a stew in this liquor than in water, and it
is also invaluable for basting fowls or meats that have not been
parboiled.
Directions for soup making are so fully given in the following pages
that it is needless for me to say anything further on the subject
here.
OYSTER SOUP.
100 oysters.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 tablespoonful black pepper.
¼ pound butter.
Yolks of 3 eggs.
1 pint rich milk, perfectly fresh.
3 tablespoonfuls flour.
Separate the oysters from the liquor: put the liquor to boil, when
boiled add salt, pepper and butter, then the flour, having previously
made it into a batter. Stir all the time. When it comes to a boil, add
the eggs well beaten, then the milk, and when the mixture reaches a
boil, put in the oysters; let them also just boil, and the soup is
done. Stir all the time to prevent curdling.--_Mrs. Judge M._
ECONOMICAL OYSTER SOUP.
1 quart oysters.
2 quarts water.
Boil with salt and pepper.
Cut up one tablespoonful butter with flour and put in while boiling;
beat the yolks of four eggs light, mix them with one-half pint milk.
When the oysters are well cooked, pour on the milk and eggs, stirring
all the time. Let it boil up, and take off quickly, and pour into the
tureen, over toasted bread cut into dice--if preferred rich, leave out
some of the water.--_Mrs. Lt.-Gov. M._
OYSTER SOUP.
Empty the oysters into a colander and drain off all the liquor; then
strain the liquor through a very coarse cloth to rid it of all scum,
etc. To a whole can of oysters take a quart of milk.
Put the milk, oyster liquor, one level tablespoonful flour rubbed very
smooth with one heaping tablespoonful of butter, one tablespoonful
salt, one-half teaspoonful pepper, all on the fire together in a
farina-boiler (or put a skillet one-third filled with boiling water
under the saucepan, to prevent the milk burning). When it comes to a
boil, put in the oysters and let them stew for twenty minutes or till
the gill of the oyster turns and begins to ruffle and crimp at the
edge. Serve immediately, for if they are cooked too long, they become
hard, dark and tasteless. If you put the salt in last, it will not
curdle the soup. Some add one level teaspoonful whole cloves and same
of mace, tied up in a net bag, but they are little improvement.--_Mrs.
R._
PURÉE OF OYSTERS.
For fifty oysters.
Put the oysters on in their own liquor--let them come to a boil--take
them out and mince them; skim the liquor when nearly done. Beat well
together:
1 egg.
1 dessertspoonful butter.
½ pint milk.
1 cracker sifted.
Salt, pepper (mace, also, if liked).
Pour this into boiling liquor and then add the minced oysters. When
done, the soup is smooth. The milk must be fresh or it will
curdle.--_Mrs. John Walker, Alabama._
OYSTER SOUP.
Take two quarts of oysters, wash them, and add,
2 quarts water.
A bundle of herbs.
1 small onion sliced.
Let it boil until all the substance is out of the oysters. Strain the
liquor from the ingredients and put it back in the pot. Add a large
spoonful butter mixed with flour. Have ready two dozen oysters to
throw in just as it is ready to be dished--at the same time stir up
two yolks of eggs with a cup of cream. Cayenne pepper is an
improvement.--_Mrs. E. W._
TURTLE SOUP.
Kill the turtle at daylight in summer, the night before in winter, and
hang it up to bleed. After breakfast, scald it well and scrape the
outer skin off the shell; open it carefully, so as not to break the
gall. Break both shells to pieces and put them into the pot. Lay the
fins, the eggs and some of the more delicate parts by--put the rest
into the pot with a quantity of water to suit the size of your family.
Add two onions, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, cloves and allspice to
suit your taste.
About half an hour before dinner thicken the soup with brown flour and
butter rubbed together. An hour before dinner, take the parts laid by,
roll them in brown flour, fry them in butter, put them and the eggs in
the soup; just before dinner add a glass of claret or Madeira
wine.--_Mrs. N._
_Turtle Soup._
To one turtle that will weigh from four to five pounds, after being
dressed, add one-half gallon water, and boil until the turtle will
drop to pieces, then add:
2 tablespoonfuls allspice.
1 tablespoonful black pepper.
2 tablespoonfuls butter, and salt to the taste.
When nearly done, put in a small handful pot marjoram, thyme and
parsley tied together, and two large onions; when ready to come off,
add two sliced lemons, one pint good wine, and a small quantity of
curry powder; thicken with flour.--_Mrs. D._
_Turtle Soup._
To 2½ quarts soup add:
1 ounce mace.
1 dessertspoonful allspice.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
Pepper, black and cayenne, and salt to your taste.
Tie up a bunch of parsley, thyme, and onion in a cloth, and throw into
soup when boiling. When nearly done, thicken with two tablespoonfuls
flour. To give it a good color, take one tablespoonful brown sugar and
burn it; when burnt, add a wineglass of water. Of this coloring, put
two tablespoonfuls in soup, and just before serving, add half a pint
Madeira wine.--_Miss E. W._
MOCK TURTLE SOUP.
Put on beef and boil very tender; take out, chop fine, and put back to
boil. Put potatoes, mace, cloves, cinnamon, parsley, thyme, spice,
celery seed, and ten hard-boiled eggs; pepper and salt to your taste.
Thicken with flour and add brandy and wine.--_Miss E. P._
MOCK TERRAPIN SOUP.
Cut up two pounds roast or boiled beef in small pieces. Put one large
teacup new milk, one large teacup of wine, a piece of butter size of
an egg (rolled in flour), a little nutmeg, two or three spoonfuls
mixed mustard--all in a stewpan, and cook ten or fifteen minutes. Good
way to use up cold meats.--_Mrs. S. M._
CLAM SOUP.
Boil half a peck of clams fifteen minutes; then take them from the
shells, clean and wash them. Have ready the stew-kettle; strain the
water, in which clams have been boiled; chop up clams, and put in with
three or four slices of salt pork, some mashed potatoes, salt and
pepper to taste. Thicken with grated cracker, and add two spoonfuls
butter rolled in flour. Let it boil twenty minutes and serve.--_Mrs.
C._
_Clam Soup._
Open the clams and chop them up fine. To twenty clams, add:
½ gallon water.
3 good onions.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
A small bunch of parsley and thyme.
Just before taking off, add one quart rich milk and thicken with
flour.--_Mrs. D._
CRAB SOUP.
Open, and cleanse of the deadman's fingers and sandbag, twelve small
fat crabs raw. Cut the crabs into two parts. Parboil and extract the
meat from the claws, and simply extract the fat from the back shells
of the crabs. Scald eighteen ripe tomatoes, skin them and squeeze the
pulp from the seeds through a colander. Chop them fine and pour
boiling water over the seeds and juice, and strain them. Stew a short
time in the soup-pot one large onion, one clove of garlic, in one
spoonful butter and two spoonfuls lard, and put them in the tomatoes.
After stewing a few minutes, add the meat from the claws, then the
crabs, and lastly the fat from the back shells. Season with salt,
cayenne and black pepper, parsley, sweet marjoram and thyme, one-half
teaspoonful lemon juice, and peel of one lemon. Pour in the water with
which the seeds were scalded, adding more should there not be the
quantity of soup required. Boil moderately one hour. About a quarter
of an hour before serving, sift in grated bread crumbs or pounded
crackers as a thickening. Any firm fish prepared by this recipe is
excellent.--_Mrs. J. I._
_Crab Soup._
One dozen crabs to one gallon water. Take off top shell; clear body of
crabs. Cut through the middle, put them into a kettle, mix with some
butter, and brown them. Then add one gallon water, and simmer for half
an hour. Skim slightly, and add the hock of an old ham, and strained
tomato juice one pint. Boil two hours. Season with pepper, spice if
liked, and half-pint wine.
The claws are to be cracked and divested of the jaws. A Hampton
recipe.--_Miss E. W._
BEEF SOUP.
Crack the bone of a shin of beef, and put it on to boil in one quart
water. To every pound meat add one large teaspoonful salt to each
quart water. Let it boil two hours and skim it well. Then add:
4 turnips, pared and cut into quarters.
4 onions, pared and sliced.
2 carrots, scraped and sliced.
1 root of celery, cut into small pieces.
When the vegetables are tender, add a little parsley chopped fine,
with salt and pepper to the taste. Serve hot.--_Mrs. P. McG._
_Another Recipe for Beef Soup._
One shin beef in one-half gallon water, put on before breakfast and
boiled until dinner. Thicken with brown flour two or three hours
before dinner. Put in one carrot, two turnips, one onion, thyme,
cabbage, and celery-seed.--_Mrs. H. P. C._
_To prepare a Beef's Head as Stock for Soup._
Cut up the head into small pieces, and boil in a large quantity of
water until it is all boiled to pieces. Take out all the bones as for
souse cheese, and boil again until thick. Then while hot, season very
highly with pepper, salt, catsup, allspice, and onions chopped fine.
Put into a mould to get cold. For a small family cut a thick slice,
say five inches square, whenever you want soup in a hurry, adding
about a quart of water. It need cook for a few minutes only, and is
valuable as keeping well and being ready in times of emergency. By
adding a few slices of hard-boiled egg and a gill of good cooking
wine, this soup may have very nearly the flavor of mock turtle.--_Mrs.
A. M. D._
CALF'S HEAD SOUP.
Take one-half liver and the head of a mutton, veal or beef, and boil
until the meat drops from the bone. Cut up fine and add one-half the
brains; then:
1 onion.
1 spoonful spice.
½ spoonful cloves.
1 spoonful black pepper and a piece of mace.
3 tablespoonfuls flour.
3 tablespoonfuls flour, and salt to the taste.
Put in enough water at first, as adding it makes the soup thin.
Cut up three hard boiled eggs, and add, when done, one glass of wine.
A little brandy and walnut catsup, with more eggs, will improve it,
though it is a delightful soup as it is.--_Mrs. W. A. C._
_Calf's Head Soup._
Clean the head, laying aside the brains. Put the head in a gallon of
water, with pepper and salt. Boil to pieces and take out bones; return
to the pot with--
1 teacup of mushroom or tomato catsup.
1 teaspoonful allspice.
1 lemon rind, grated.
1 grated nutmeg.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 teacup of browned flour.
Fry, and add the brains when nearly ready for the table. About five
minutes before serving, add:
1 teacup of wine.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 teaspoonful mace.
When sent to the table have two hard-boiled eggs sliced and floating
on top.--_Mrs. J. D._
_Calf's Head Soup._
Take a large calf's head and boil it with four gallons water and a
little salt; when tender, bone and chop it fine, keeping out the
brains, and put the meat back in the pot and boil down to a tureenful.
Half an hour before serving the soup, add:
1 tablespoonful mustard.
1 teaspoonful black pepper.
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves.
1 teaspoonful mace.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
Brown a cup of flour to thicken and just as the soup is dished, add
one cup walnut catsup, and one cup port or claret wine.
The brains must be beaten up with an egg, fried in little cakes, and
dropped in the tureen.--_Miss N._
CALF'S HEAD SOUP.
Take the head, split it open and take out the brains; then put the
head, brains, and haslet in salt water--let them soak one hour. Put on
to boil at eight o'clock; after boiling four hours, take it up and
chop up the head and haslet, removing all the bones; return to the
soup, with a small pod of pepper. Thicken it with one pint browned
flour with one tablespoonful butter rubbed in it. Have--
1 tablespoonful mace.
1 tablespoonful allspice.
½ doz. cloves.
Beat all together and put in the tureen with,
1 teacup of tomato catsup.
1 teacup of cooking wine.
Pour the soup on them. Have the brains fried, and two hard boiled eggs
sliced and dropped in the soup.--_Mrs. T. C._
_Brown Calf's Head Soup._
Scald and clean the head, and put it to boil in two gallons water,
with
A shank of veal.
2 carrots.
3 onions.
A small piece of bacon.
A bunch of sweet herbs.
When they have boiled half an hour, take out the head and shank, and
cut all the meat off the bone in pieces two inches square. Let the
soup boil half an hour longer, then strain it and put in the meat, and
season with salt, black and cayenne pepper (and a few cloves, if you
like them). Thicken with butter and brown flour.
Let it now boil nearly an hour longer, and just before serving it,
stir in one tablespoonful sugar browned in a frying-pan, and half a
pint wine. A good substitute for turtle soup.--_Mrs. Col. A. F._
_Calf's Head Soup._
Have a head nicely cleaned, the brains taken out and the head put to
soak. Put it on with,
1 gallon water.
1 piece of fat ham.
Thyme, parsley, pepper and salt.
Boil together until the flesh is tender; take out and chop--strain the
water--two tablespoonfuls brown flour, four ounces butter--returning
the "dismembered" fragments; let it boil till reduced to two quarts.
Season with one-half pint wine, one gill catsup, nutmeg, mace,
allspice.
Cut up the liver, and fry; beat the brains up with an egg, pepper and
salt; fry in cakes and lay in the soup when served up, and hard boiled
eggs sliced up and put in.--_Miss B. L._
_Ox-tail Soup._
Wash and soak three tails; pour on them one gallon cold water; let
them be brought gradually to boil, throw in one and a half ounce salt,
and clear off the scum carefully as soon as it forms on the surface.
When it ceases to rise, add:
4 moderate sized carrots.
2 or 3 onions.
1 large bunch savory herbs.
1 head celery.
2 turnips.
6 or 8 cloves, and ½ teaspoonful peppercorns.
Stew these gently from three hours to three and a half hours. If the
tails be very large, lift them out, strain the liquor and strain off
all the fat. Cut the meat from the tails and put it in two quarts or
more of the stock. Stir in, when this begins to boil, a thickening of
arrow-root or of rice flour, mixed with as much cayenne and salt as
may be required to flavor the soup, and serve very hot.--_Mrs. P._
CHICKEN SOUP.
Put on the chickens with about three quarts water and some thin slices
bacon. Let it boil well, then put in:
A spoonful butter.
1 pint milk.
1 egg, well beaten.
Pepper, salt, and celery or celery-seed or parsley.
Let all boil up. Some dumplings made like biscuits are very nice in
it.--_Mrs. W._
_Roast Veal and Chicken-bone Soup._
Boil the veal and chicken bones with vegetables, and add one handful
maccaroni, broken up fine. Boil the soup half an hour. Color with a
little soy or catsup.--_Mrs. S._
_Chicken Soup._
Put on the fire a pot with two gallons water and a ham bone, if you
have it; if not, some slices of good bacon. Boil this two hours, then
put in the chickens and boil until done: add one-half pint milk and a
little thickening; pepper and salt to the taste. After taking off the
soup, put in a piece of butter size of an egg. Squirrel soup is good
made the same way, but takes much longer for a squirrel to boil
done.--_Mrs. P. W._
GIBLET SOUP.
1 pint dried green English peas.
1 pound giblets.
1 dozen cloves.
1 small piece red pepper.
Nearly 1 gallon water.
Boil peas slowly seven hours. Add giblets, spices, and salt to taste,
two hours before dinner. When peas are dissolved, strain through
sieve; cut giblets into dice and return to soup; boil up and serve.
Will be enough for six or eight persons.--_Mrs. R. R._
OKRA SOUP.
1½ gallons water.
2 quarts young okra, cut very fine.
2 quarts tomatoes.
Onions, prepared as for pea soup.
Pepper; salt.
1 large spoonful butter.
Add the tomatoes about twelve o'clock. Put the soup on early in the
morning.--_Mrs. I._
GUMBO SOUP.
1 fried chicken.
1 quart okra, cut up.
1 onion.
1 bunch parsley.
Few celery tops--fry all together. Put in one quart skinned tomatoes.
1½ gallons water, boil to ½ gallon.
Teacup of wine after taking from the fire.--_Mrs. R. A._
_Gumbo Soup._
Fry two fowls, old or young, with parsley, pepper, salt, onion, lard
or bacon.
Put it in the pot with water sufficient for the soup. One quart sliced
okra, scrap of ham or fried sausage to boil with it.
Sassafras Gumbo is made in the same way, except after the fowl has
boiled until the flesh has left the bone, just before taking off the
fire, stir in one tablespoonful sassafras flour. Oysters are a great
improvement to sassafras gumbo. Gather the sassafras leaves green, and
dry in the shade, as sage; when thoroughly dry, rub through a sieve
and bottle and cork tightly. It is nice in beef soup instead of
okra.--_Mrs. T._
FINE VEGETABLE SOUP.
Put on two pounds of fresh beef, or a good-sized chicken, or ham bone
if you have it, early in the morning. Put your boiler on filled with
water. Keep boiling, and when boiled down, about one hour or more
before dinner, add:
Grated lemon peel.
6 ears corn.
1 dozen good tomatoes.
Beans.
1 small head of cabbage.
A few Irish potatoes.
Sweet herbs, pepper and salt to the taste.
A few leaves of dried sassafras rubbed up will improve the taste.
Serve hot with toast, a small quantity of sugar and vinegar. Boil till
thick.--_Mrs. Dr. L._
VEGETABLE SOUP.
Before breakfast, wash a beef shank in several waters, break the bone,
and put it in a large pot of cold water. Keep it steadily boiling
until one hour before dinner, when the following vegetables,
previously prepared, must be added to the soup after it has been
carefully skimmed of all grease, and strained.
1 quart peeled and chopped tomatoes.
1 pint lima or butter beans.
1 pint grated corn.
1 pint chopped cabbage.
1 pint sliced Irish potatoes.
1 sliced turnip.
1 carrot.
A little minced onion.
Parsley.
1 tablespoonful pepper sauce.
1 heaping tablespoonful flour rubbed into--
1 teacup milk.
1 teacup brown sugar.
1 teaspoonful black pepper.
Boil an hour: thicken with mixed milk and flour, and serve.
A piece of middling, bacon, or any other kind of meat, may be used
instead of the beef shank. The best meat of the shank may be freed
from gristle, chopped fine and made into a nice stew by adding
1 grated turnip.
1 mashed potato.
1 tablespoonful pepper sauce.
1 tablespoonful made mustard.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 teaspoonful celery seed.
1 teaspoonful fruit jelly.
1 teacup milk.
Minced onion and parsley.
Boil up and serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
TOMATO SOUP.
Take one quart ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped up, or a three-pound
can of same, put in an earthenware baking dish with
1 pint grated corn (or, if in winter, dried corn prepared as if
for the table), and add--
1 teacup sugar.
1 teacup grated cracker.
1 teacup butter.
1 teaspoonful black pepper.
2 teaspoonfuls salt.
Set this in a hot oven with a tin plate over it to prevent browning.
Have ready, in a porcelain kettle or pan, two quarts new milk boiling
hot. When the tomatoes and corn are thoroughly done, stir in one large
Irish potato mashed smooth, a little minced onion and parsley, and
pour into the boiling milk and serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Tomato Soup._
A shin of beef, season to your taste with all kinds of vegetables:
Tomatoes, turnips, carrots, potatoes, cabbage cut fine, corn, butter
beans and celery.
When nearly done, take vegetables out and mash them well, and also cut
the beef up fine. It is best to season with salt and pepper when you
first put it on. The beef should be put on very early.--_Mrs. J. L._
_Clear Tomato Soup._
1 large can tomatoes.
1 beef shin.
1 bunch soup herbs.
1 gallon water.
Boil eight hours, stir and skim several times. Strain through wire
sieve, add one tablespoonful Worcester sauce and same of brown sugar.
Serve with dice of toasted bread; pepper and salt to taste.--_Mrs. R.
R._
ASPARAGUS SOUP.
Cut the asparagus into small pieces and put on to boil in salt water,
with slices of middling; just before dinner, taking it off, beat four
eggs and stir in one pint milk or cream, a piece of butter. A piece of
veal may be boiled with it, if you wish meat.--_Mrs. H._
_Asparagus Soup._
Parboil the asparagus with as much water as will cover them; then pour
the water and asparagus into milk, then add butter, pepper and salt,
also bread crumbs, and boil until the asparagus is done.--_Mrs. S._
PEA SOUP.
Soak one pint of split peas in water for twelve hours; drain off the
water, put the peas into a saucepan with three pints cold water,
one-half pound bacon, two sprigs of dried mint, a bay leaf, some
parsley, an onion stuck with one or two cloves, some whole pepper, and
salt to taste.
Let the whole boil three hours, then pass the purée through a hair
sieve; make it hot again and serve with dice of bread fried in
butter.--_Mrs. A._
GREEN PEA SOUP.
Boil one quart peas in two quarts water, and two thin slices bacon.
When done mash through a colander; then put back in the same water,
throwing away the slices of bacon. Season with pepper, salt, spoonful
butter rolled in flour.
Boil well again. Toast some bread and cut in slices, and put in the
tureen when the soup is served. The hulls of green peas will answer;
boil them well with a few peas, then season as above and boil. Two
hours will be enough to boil green pea soup.--_Mrs. W._
_Green Pea Soup._
Boil half a peck of peas in one and a half gallons water, till
perfectly done. Take out, mash and strain through a colander, then
pour a little of the water well boiled over them, to separate the pulp
from the hull. Return it to the water they were boiled in; chop up one
large or two small onions; fry them in smallest quantity of lard, not
to brown them. Add this with chopped thyme, parsley, pepper and salt.
Just before taking off the fire stir in one tablespoonful butter. If
the soup is too thin, cream a little butter with flour to
thicken.--_Mrs. I._
POTATO SOUP.
Mash potatoes, pour on them one teacup cream, one large spoonful
butter.
Pour boiling water on them till you have the desired quantity. Boil
until it thickens; season with salt, parsley, and pepper to your
taste.--_Mrs. R. E._
_Potato Soup._
Pour two quarts water on six or seven large peeled potatoes, adding
two or three slices of middling; boil thoroughly done. Take them out,
mash the potatoes well and return all to the same water, together
with pepper, salt, one spoonful butter, and one quart milk, as for
chicken soup.--_Mrs. W._
OYSTERS AND OTHER SHELL FISH.
STEWED OYSTERS.
Put butter, salt and pepper in a stew-pan, and put the oysters to the
butter and stew until perfectly done.--_Mrs. D._
_Stewed Oysters._
Take one-quarter pound nice butter, put it in a pan and melt, then
pepper and salt, add a small piece of cheese. When it is all melted
add one pint of oyster liquor, and boil; when hot, strain and put back
in pan, then add oysters and boil five minutes.--_Mr. K. N._
_Stewed Oysters._
Pour into a stew-pan ½ gallon oysters.
2 tablespoonfuls pepper vinegar.
1 teaspoonful black pepper.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Let them simmer until the oysters are plump; take them out with a fork
and drop them into a tureen, on a handful of crackers and three
heaping tablespoonfuls fresh butter.
Pour one pint milk to the liquor, let it boil up and strain it on the
oysters. Rinse out the stew-pan and pour the oysters, liquor, etc.,
back into it, and set it on the fire. When it comes to a boil, serve.
This method deprives the oysters of the bits of shell.--_Mrs S. T._
_To Stew Oysters._
Put into the kettle one pint liquor, one-half pound butter, and
pepper.
Let it boil, then put in the oysters, after draining them in a
colander. They will be done as soon as they boil up, or when they curl
right well. When ready to take up, add half teacup cracker crumbs and
a little salt in the stew.--_Mrs. P. W._
_To Stew Oysters._
Put into a shallow stew-pan the oysters. As soon as the gills begin to
open pour off all the liquor. Continue to cook them, stirring all the
time until done. The liquor that was poured off must be thickened with
a good lump of butter rubbed up with flour, and seasoned with pepper
and salt, and poured boiling-hot onto the oysters.
The advantage of this way of cooking is that the oysters become large
and plump.--_Mrs. Dr. E. R._
_To Cook Oysters._
½ gallon oysters.
1 quart fresh milk.
½ pound butter.
1 tablespoonful flour.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 teaspoonful pepper.
1 egg.
Rub the egg and flour together and thin with a little of the milk. Mix
the oysters, pepper and salt, and let them come to a boil; then add
the milk, and when this boils add the egg and flour with the butter.
Let the whole boil three minutes.--_Miss N. S. L._
SCALLOPED OYSTERS.
Do not drain the liquor from the oysters, but fork them out of it as
you use them; in that way as much liquor as you require adheres to
them. Use stale bread, and do not crumb it too fine, or it will be
clammy.
½ teacupful cream.
2 great spoonfuls butter.
Salt and pepper.
Oysters part with a great deal of moisture in cooking, and if the
mixture is too wet it is not as good; it should be rather dry when
done. Cover the bottom of a well-buttered dish with a layer of very
dry bread crumbs, dust over a little salt and pepper, and stick little
bits of butter all over the crumbs; then, with a spoon, moisten it
with cream. Next, place a layer of oysters, alternating with bread
crumbs, until the dish is filled, finishing with butter and cream;
invert a plate over it to keep in the flavor. Bake three-quarters of
an hour, or until the juice bubbles to the top. Remove the plate, and
brown on the upper shelf of the oven for two or three minutes
only.--_Mrs. R._
_Scalloped Oysters._
Those who are fond of oysters prepared in this way will find them much
more delicate when cooked entirely by reflected heat. Have your tinner
make you an old-fashioned "tin-kitchen" with _sloping_ sides. Take
small oblong dishes, such as are in general use at hotels, fill them
with alternate layers of oysters and rolled crackers, and lay lumps of
fresh butter liberally on top of each dish. Arrange them in the
"kitchen," set the open dish in front of a bright fire or very warm
grate, and in fifteen or twenty minutes you will find the oysters
delicious.--_Mrs. D. P._
_Scalloped Oysters._
Put on the oysters with just enough liquor to keep from burning, and
parboil slightly. Season the rest of the liquor as for stewed oysters
with butter, pepper, salt, and a little flour, and boil until done.
Put the parboiled oysters in a baking-dish, with a piece of butter
and a grated cracker or stale bread and pepper, and pour as much of
the gravy as the dish will hold. Put a little of the grated cracker on
top, and set it in the oven to brown.--_Mrs. W._
_Oysters Scalloped in the Shell._
Open the shells, setting aside for use the deepest ones. Have ready
some melted butter, not hot, seasoned with minced parsley and pepper.
Roll each oyster in this, letting it drip as little as may be, and lay
in the shell, which should be arranged in a baking-pan.
Add to each a little lemon juice, sift bread crumbs over it, and bake
in a quick oven till done. Serve in the shells.--_Mrs. S._
_Scalloped Oysters._
Put in the scallop shells as many oysters as each will hold. Season
with butter, salt and pepper; a few bread crumbs.
Cook until well done; add a piece of butter just before they are
served.--_Mrs. R. L. O._
DEVILLED OYSTERS.
Put a layer of raw oysters in a pan, and then a layer of breadcrumbs,
black and red pepper, salt, butter, mustard, and a little vinegar
mixed together.
Put alternate layers of each until full, and then bake.--_Mrs. Duke._
_Devilled Oysters._
Drain one quart oysters; chop thoroughly and season with cayenne
pepper, lemon-juice, salt, and yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, and
yolks of two raw eggs beaten and stirred in; one-half as much bread
crumbs as you have oysters, and one large tablespoonful butter.
Have ready one dozen deep shells, nicely cleaned, and fill them with
the oysters; sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake in a few
minutes.--_Mrs. H. S._
_To Cook Oysters._
Put into a baking-bowl a layer of cracker-crumbs, pepper, and butter.
If the butter is salty do not use any salt. Then a layer of oysters,
after they have been drained from their liquor; do this alternately
till the dish is full. Be sure and put the cracker crumbs at the top
of the dish, and bits of butter, also pepper: this makes it brown
nicely. Set it in a hot oven; as soon as browned it will be ready for
the table.--_Mrs. P. W._
FRIED OYSTERS.
Take each oyster separately and put salt and pepper on them; then roll
them in equal portions of meal and flour. Fry them in hot lard until a
light brown.--_Mrs. D._
OYSTER FRITTERS.
Beat two eggs very light; then stir in two tablespoonfuls cream or
milk, three tablespoonfuls sifted flour, a pinch of salt; dip the
oysters in this and fry them in hot lard.--_Mrs. B._
_Oyster Fritters._
Wipe the oysters dry. Beat 6 eggs light, and stir into them:
6 tablespoonfuls flour.
1½ pint rich milk.
Beat to smooth batter. Have in a pan some butter and lard; when it
begins to froth, put a small ladleful of the batter, with an oyster in
the middle, into it to fry. If too thin, add flour; if too thick,
milk.--_Mrs. R._
TO FRY OYSTERS.
Drain the oysters through a sieve; sprinkle a little salt and pepper
over them. Dip each oyster into meal. Have the pan hot, and drop in an
equal portion of lard and butter; when boiling, put in the oysters and
fry. Do not let them stand, but serve hot.--_Mrs. E._
FRIED OYSTERS.
Drain the oysters through a sieve. Beat up two or three eggs. Have
ready some grated bread crumbs. Sprinkle some salt and a little pepper
over the oysters; then dip each oyster into the egg and bread crumbs.
Have the pan hot and clean; put equal portions of butter and lard into
the pan. Be careful to keep the fat of oysters from burning.--_Mrs.
R._
_To Fry Oysters._
Wash them and dry them on a clean napkin; dip in beaten egg and
pounded crackers sifted, and let them lie several hours before frying,
and they will not shrink.--_Mrs. P._
_To Fry Oysters._
Drain the oysters dry. Three eggs beaten, and grated crackers. Dip the
oyster first in the egg and then in the crackers; do this twice.
Grease the pan with butter or lard. Add pepper and salt to taste, and
fry.--_Mrs. P. W._
_Clam or Oyster Fritters._
Chop up the clam very fine (when of oysters, leave them whole); put
them in a batter and fry them.--_Mrs. D._
BROILED OYSTERS.
Select the largest oysters, examining each one, to see that no
particle of shell adheres to it. Dry with a nice linen cloth; then
pepper and salt them, and sift over a little finely-powdered cracker.
Place them on an oyster gridiron over a quick fire. As soon as plump,
dip each one in a cup of melted fresh butter; lay on a hot dish
garnished with scraped horseradish and parsley, and serve.--_Mrs. S.
T._
STEAMED OYSTERS.
Wash shell oysters perfectly clean; lay them on a steamer, so the
juice will not escape from the shells when opened. It is best to lay
the upper shells down. Cover the lid of the steamer with a coarse
towel and press closely on. Set this over a pot of water boiling hard.
In from twenty minutes to half an hour, the shells will have opened.
Have ready a hot dish, on which lay the oysters; sprinkle over them a
little salt and pepper with a bit of fresh butter on each oyster.
Serve immediately.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO ROAST OYSTERS.
Wash and wipe one peck large shell oysters. Put in a hot oven, taking
care to put the upper shell downward, so the juice will not escape. As
soon as the shells open, lay on a hot dish and serve with horseradish
or pepper-sauce, after sprinkling on them a little salt, and putting a
bit of fresh butter on each oyster.--_Mrs. S. T._
PICKLED OYSTERS.
1 gallon oysters.
1 tablespoonful salt.
1 " unground black pepper.
1 " allspice.
6 blades mace.
1 small piece cayenne pepper.
Pick oysters out from the juice with a fork; stew until gills are
opened well, then lay on flat dishes until cold; put in a jar, and
cover with equal parts of stewed juice and vinegar. Let stand two
days.--_Mrs. R. R._
_Pickled Oysters._
Take two hundred oysters of largest size, rinse them in their own
liquor and put them in a stew-pan. Strain the liquor to them, let them
come to a boil, and _no more_. Take them out of the liquor; have ready
one quart or more of pure cider vinegar, with which boil whole pepper,
a little salt, mace, cloves, and nutmeg.
When it is cool, pour over the oysters. Before serving add a few raw
cranberries and thin slices of lemon.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Pickled Oysters._
Take one gallon oysters and cook them in their own liquor till nearly
done. Then skim out the oysters and add to the liquor one teaspoonful
whole black pepper, one teaspoonful allspice, one teaspoonful mace, a
little red pepper and half a pint of strong vinegar.
Let it boil a few minutes and then pour over the oysters. When nearly
cool, slice in them a large fresh lemon.--_Mrs. Col. A. F._
OYSTER PIE.
Stew the oysters, not entirely done, with butter, pepper and one
tablespoonful pepper-sauce, and salt. Make a paste of one pound flour
and one-half pound butter. Line the dish and put in the oysters, grate
bread crumbs over top, and bake.--_Mrs. T._
_Oyster Pie._
Put a paste in a deep dish. Wash the oysters, drain and put them in
the dish, seasoning with butter, pepper, salt, and a little mace, if
liked; then put in a layer of grated cracker. When the dish is full,
cover with paste and slips of paste laid across; then bake.--_Mrs.
W----._
OYSTER PÂTÉS.
Stew some large oysters with a little nutmeg, a few cloves, some yolk
of egg boiled hard and grated, a little butter and as much liquor from
the oysters as will cover them. When stewed a few minutes, take them
out of the pan to cool. Have shells of puff paste, previously baked in
patty pans, and lay two or three oysters in each.--_Mrs. D._
OYSTER SHORT CAKE.
1 quart flour.
3 teaspoonfuls baking powder.
1 tablespoonful butter.
A pinch of salt.
Enough sweet milk to moisten well.
Roll about one inch thick and bake on tin pie plates quickly. While it
is baking, take one quart oysters and one-half cup water and put on
the stove; then take one-half cup milk, and one-half cup butter mixed
with one tablespoonful flour, and a little salt or pepper; add all
together and boil up once.
When the cakes are done, split them open and spread the oysters
between them, and some on the top. Put the oysters that are left in a
gravy-dish and replenish when needed.--_Mrs. K._
OYSTER SAUSAGE.
Chop one pint oysters, with one-quarter pound veal, and one-quarter
pound suet.
Mix with bread crumbs, and pound all in a mortar. Season with salt and
pepper, adding an egg, well beaten.
Make into cakes like pork sausage.--_Mrs. E._
RAW OYSTERS.
Take each oyster separately on a fork and drain from the liquor. Place
on the table in an oyster tureen or salad bowl; have near a pile of
small oblong dishes; scraped horseradish, pepper sauce, and
Worcestershire sauce, etc., so that after being helped, each guest may
season to taste.
When oysters are transported some distance, it is well to boil the
liquor from which they have been taken and pour over them: this makes
them plump and prevents them from being slimy.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO KEEP OYSTERS ALIVE AND FATTEN.
Mix one pint of salt with thirty pints of water. Put the oysters in a
tub that will not leak, with their mouths upwards and feed them with
the above, by dipping in a broom and frequently passing over their
mouths. It is said that they will fatten still more by mixing fine
meal with the water.--_Mrs. R----._
TO COOK CRABS.
Take live crabs and put them in cool water, let them remain for half
an hour. Then put them in a vessel, pour boiling water on them
sufficient to cover them; boil ten minutes. Take them off and wipe
them clean, first removing the dead men, and proceed to remove the
meat. Take the upper shell, clean it. Season the meat with pepper,
salt, mustard, and plenty of butter; put all in the shell again and
bake half an hour.--_Mrs. K. Norfolk._
CRAB STEW.
One peck live crabs, steam twenty minutes, bone and pick the claws and
bodies. Stew with one pint milk or cream, the flesh and eggs of the
crabs, fifteen minutes. Flavor with salt and cayenne pepper.--_Mrs. R.
L. O._
DEVILLED CRAB.
After crabs are picked, season with mustard, pepper, salt, and catsup
to taste. Add olive oil or butter.
Cover with bread crumbs moistened with milk and lumps of butter (put a
little milk in the crab also). Bake in the shells or in a pan.--_Miss
E. W._
DEVILLED CRABS.
To the flesh of one dozen crabs boiled fifteen minutes and picked free
from shell, add:
3 tablespoonfuls of stale bread crumbs.
½ wine glass of cream.
Yolks of 3 eggs.
A little chopped parsley.
1 tablespoonful butter.
Salt and pepper to the taste.
Put them in the shell and bake in a quick oven.--_Mrs. M. E. L. W._
SOFT CRABS.
Turn up the ends of the shells and take out the dead man's fingers and
take off the flap, and cut out the sand-bag; lay them in cold water
until ready to fry. Then dust flour over them, a little salt, and fry
them in hot lard.--_Mrs. D._
DEVILLED CRABS.
After the crabs are boiled, pick them up fine and add one third the
quantity of crab, in cracker dust or bread crumbs, mustard, red and
black pepper, salt, and butter. Return them to the top shells, and
bake.--_Mrs. D._
TO DEVIL HARD CRABS.
Take them while alive, put them in very little water and steam them
till perfectly done and brown, set them away till cold, take all out
of the shell. Mix with eggs, bread crumbs, butter, and pepper. Either
put back in the _top_ shell and bake, or bake in pans.--_Mrs. J. C._
LOBSTER CURRY.
Put the meat of a large lobster into a stewpan with one blade of mace.
1 large cup of meat stock, or gravy.
1 tablespoonful corn starch, mixed smooth, with a little milk or
cream.
Add salt.
1 small piece of butter.
1 dessertspoonful curry powder.
Juice of one lemon.
Simmer for an hour and serve hot.--_Mrs. C._
TURTLE OR TERRAPIN STEW.
After they are well cleaned, parboil the meat, then pick it to pieces.
Season highly with pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, hard-boiled egg,
spices, lemon, and champagne or other wine.
Stew until well done.
STEWED TURTLE.
Make a stew of the turtle and add all the ingredients used in the
turtle-soup, except wine and lemons.--_Mrs. D._
TERRAPIN.
First cut up the head and put it in the pot to boil with the shell on;
when done enough to remove the under shell, take it up and pick to
pieces. Clean the top shell well; add a few crackers, onions, parsley,
allspice, black pepper, butter, and wine.
Return it to the shell, put sliced lemon on and bake it.--_Mrs. D._
TURTLE OR TERRAPIN STEAKS.
Cut the turtle or terrapin in thin slices; broil or fry them with
pepper, salt, and butter.
TURTLE OR TERRAPIN IN BATTER.
Smother the steaks in an egg-batter. Season with pepper, salt, butter,
and with a little bread crumbs; fry or broil.
TO COOK TURTLES.
Drop four turtles into boiling water, and boil one hour; then take
them out and remove the skin from the legs and feet, and replace them
in fresh boiling water, where they should continue to boil one and
one-half hour and then be taken out to cool. When cold, clean them
thoroughly, removing the round liver which contains the gall. Cut them
into small bits and place them in a stewpan, adding pepper, salt, the
eggs that are found within, one quart water, one-half pound butter,
and two tablespoonfuls flour mixed with a little cold water. Stir the
flour and water well into the other ingredients, and stew about twenty
minutes. As you remove them from the fire, pour in one-half pint
Madeira wine.--_Mrs. A. D._
FISH.
In selecting fish, notice if the flesh is firm and hard, the eyes full
and prominent, the scales bright, the fins stiff, and the gills red,
as all these indications denote their being fresh. Wash the fish, rub
it with salt and pepper, and lay it on a dish, or hang it up till
ready to cook. Never keep it lying in water, either in preparing it
for cooking, or in trying to keep it till the next day.
In boiling fish, put it in boiling water, and simmer very slowly. It
will require an hour to boil a large fish, and about twenty minutes
for a small one. Every housekeeper should have a fish-kettle for fish.
Be careful to have boiling-hot lard in the frying-pan when you go to
fry fish. First rub salt and pepper and flour or meal on the fish,
then keep it well covered while frying, as you should do to every
thing that is being fried. Doing this will enable you to fry the fish
(or other article of food) a pretty amber color, while at the same
time it will be perfectly done.
Always have a tin sheet for lifting boiled fish and for turning
broiled fish. Before broiling, rub with pepper and salt, and then
grease with fresh butter. Lay the fish on a gridiron well greased with
sweet lard and lay the tin sheet over it. When you wish to turn, take
the gridiron from the fire, holding the tin sheet on top the fish.
Hold them together, then lay them on a table with the tin sheet down
and the gridiron uppermost. Carefully raise the gridiron, leaving the
fish lying unbroken on the tin sheet. The cook may now easily slide
the fish on the gridiron, put it again on the fire and brown the other
side, putting the tin sheet back on top of it. Every thing should be
covered while being broiled. When done, lay it on a dish and pour over
it melted butter in which has been stirred pepper, salt, and minced
parsley. If devilled fish is desired, add to this dressing, one
tablespoonful pepper vinegar, one of celery vinegar, one of walnut
catsup, one of made mustard, one wine-glassful of acid fruit jelly. In
making sauces for fish, never use the water in which the fish has been
boiled.
Full directions for stewing fish are to be found in the subsequent
pages.
FISH À LA CRÊME.
Boil a firm fish, remove the bones, pick it to pieces. Mix one pint
cream or milk with two tablespoonfuls flour, one onion, one-half pound
butter (or less), and salt.
Set it on the fire and stir until it is as thick as custard. Fill a
baking-dish alternately with fish, cracker, and cream. Bake for thirty
minutes, use four crackers.--_Mrs. W. C. R._
HALIBUT.
Boil one pound halibut, then chop it very fine and add eight eggs well
beaten; pepper and salt to taste, then one cup butter.
Put it in a stewpan and cook until the eggs are done sufficiently.
Serve very hot on toast.--_Miss F. N._
_Halibut._
Halibut should be cut in slices of four pounds each. If to be boiled,
cover with salt water, and skim often; drain off and serve with butter
sauce.
If baked or fried, garnish with horseradish and serve with melted
butter.
FISH CHOWDER.
Fry a few slices of salt pork, cut the fish in small pieces, pare and
slice the potatoes, add a little onion chopped fine.
Place all in layers in the kettle; season with salt and pepper. Stew
over a slow fire thirty minutes.
CAT-FISH CHOWDER.
To be made of New River cat-fish.
Wash the fish in warm water, put it on in just water enough to cover
it, boil until tender or until the bones will slip out; take out the
largest bones, chop up the fish, put it in a stewpan with a pint of
water, a large lump of butter.
1 cup of cream, pepper and not much salt.
1 onion, one teaspoonful mustard, one-half teacupful walnut catsup.
Stew until quite thick, garnish with sliced lemon and serve
hot.--_Mrs. P. W._
CAT-FISH CHOWDER OR HOG-FISH.
Take two cat-fish, skin, and boil till thoroughly done; pick very fine
and add:
2 good sized onions.
¼ pound butter.
1 tablespoonful salt.
1 tablespoonful pepper.
2 tablespoonfuls Worcestershire sauce.
Add a little celery or celery-seed, a little thyme, a little parsley.
Pour over all about one quart of boiling water and cook fast about
half an hour.--_Miss F. N._
FISH CHOWDER.
Take any large fish, and cut in thin slices, lay some slices of fat
bacon at the bottom of the pot and then a layer of fish, onions,
cracker dust, red and black pepper, salt, and butter.
Then more layers, until you have used all the fish. Cover the whole
with water and cook until well done.--_Mrs. D._
BOILED SHEEP'S-HEAD.
Clean the fish and boil well done. Serve hot with butter and egg
sauce.
TO BAKE A SHEEP'S-HEAD.
Put two tablespoonfuls butter and two tablespoonfuls lard in a
skillet; also, with that, two tablespoonfuls flour, a little parsley,
one pint boiling water, a little wine, catsup, salt, and cayenne
pepper. Boil a few minutes; then take four eggs, half a pint cream or
butter; beat well together. Lay the fish in a large deep dish, pour
gravy from skillet over it; spread butter over top of fish. The bottom
of the oven to be quite hot, top slow.--_Miss E. W._
BOILED SHEEP'S-HEAD OR ROCK.
Lay the fish in a fish boiler, in a cloth, to prevent breaking. Throw
into the water a handful parsley, and when the fish is done, lay some
sprigs on it in the dish.--_Mrs. D._
BAKED SHEEP'S-HEAD.
Put the fish in a pan and cover with water; put a little parsley,
onions, and fat bacon, chopped up together, black pepper and salt, in
the fish and over it, and when nearly done, beat up one egg and a
little flour, and pour over it to thicken the gravy. Rock or shad may
be cooked the same way.--_Mrs. D._
_Baked Sheep's-head._
When ready for cooking, salt and pepper well, gash the sides in three
or four places. Cut four onions very fine, to which add one pint bread
crumbs, fat meat minced very fine, as it suits better than lard,
cayenne pepper, thyme, a little salt, and the yolks of two eggs, all
mashed together, with which stuff the fish inside and gashes on the
outside. Then sprinkle over with flour and black pepper; put into a
large pan with one quart cold water. Bake two hours, slowly. Serve
with or without sauce, according to taste.--_Miss F. N._
BOILED ROCK-FISH.
Clean the fish nicely, rub well with salt and pepper. Put into a large
deep pan, that it may lie at full length; cover with cold water,
adding salt and pepper. Boil steadily for three-quarters of an hour;
dish and serve with melted butter and sauce or catsup.--_Miss F. N._
_Boiled Rock-fish._
Clean nicely and hang it up; do not lay it in water, but wash it when
ready for cooking. Put on in boiling water, seasoning with salt to
taste. It takes two hours to boil, if large. Serve with egg sauce, and
send to the table in a napkin to keep hot.--_Mrs. W._
TO STEW ROCK-FISH.
Take a rock, clean and season with parsley, sweet marjoram, onions,
one-half pint water, salt to taste, one pint Port wine, one-half pound
butter, and a little flour. Put them in a dish, and set in a stewpan.
One hour is sufficient for cooking.--_Mrs. J. T._
BAKED ROCK.
Boil the fish and take out the bones. Season with cream, butter,
pepper, and salt, and grated bread crumbs over the top. Bake slightly
in a flat dish or scollop shells.--_Mrs. R._
TO PICKLE ROCK.
Cut a rock-fish into pieces and put in a kettle with sufficient water
to cover it. Put in a handful of salt, some white pepper, one
tablespoonful allspice, a few cloves and mace.
When the fish is nearly done, add a quart of vinegar. In putting away,
use as much liquor as will cover it.--_Mrs. J. W. S._
BAKED SHAD.
Open the shad down the back, wash well and salt it; wipe dry and rub
inside and out with a little cayenne pepper. Prepare a stuffing of
bread, seasoned with pepper, salt, thyme, or parsley, celery-seed, a
little chopped onion, piece of butter, size of a walnut.
Tie up the fish and put in a baking pan with one pint water (to a good
sized fish) and butter, size of a hen's egg. Sprinkle with flour,
baste well and bake slowly an hour and a half.--_Mrs. J. H. F._
TO FRY SHAD.
Clean and hang in a cool place. When ready to use wash thoroughly, cut
up and sprinkle lightly with flour, pepper, salt, and fry with
lard.--_Mrs. R----._
TO ROAST SHAD.
Fill the inside with forcemeat, sew it up and tie it on a board, not
pine, cover with bread crumbs, a little salt, and pepper, and place
before the fire. When done one side, turn it; when sufficiently done,
pull out the thread; dish and serve with drawn butter and
parsley.--_Mrs. D._
TO BROIL SHAD.
Clean, wash, and split the shad, and wipe it dry.
Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and place it over a clear, slow fire,
with the skin down so as to retain the juice; put on a clean gridiron,
rubbed with lard. Turn it when nearly done; take up, and season with a
generous piece of butter, salt, and pepper to taste.--_Mrs. S._
POTTED SHAD.
Cut the fish as for frying; pack in a stone jar with layers of mixed
spices, seasoning with salt; after the jar is filled, pour vinegar
over; cover tightly with a cloth. Put the jar in a large pot of water
and boil until the fish is thoroughly done.
A nice relish for tea.--_Mrs. C. L. T._
TO BARBECUE A SHAD.
Split the back of the fish, pepper and salt it, and put on the
gridiron with the skin down.
Baste the upper side of the fish with butter; brown a little piece of
butter with a small quantity of flour, and when brown add pepper,
salt, and a little water.
Dish in a tureen.--_Mrs. J. W. S._
SCOLLOPED STURGEON.
Four pounds sturgeon, boiled; when cold, pick to pieces and then wash
and squeeze out the water. Make a mayonnaise dressing, using celery,
cayenne pepper instead of black pepper, and salt. Serve on white
lettuce leaves.--_Mrs. R. R._
STURGEON CUTLET.
Remove all the fat from the fish; cut it into steak pieces. Beat up
the yolks of eggs enough to moisten the pieces well; dip them into the
beaten egg. Have ready a dish of grated bread crumbs (stale bread is
best), then roll them in the bread crumbs and pepper them well.
Prepare a vessel of melted lard, have it boiling hot, but not burnt;
lay in the pieces of fish and cover with a lid. Turn them over as
they brown and remove the lid when they are nearly done.--_Mrs. Dr. P.
C._
STURGEON OR DRUM.
Slice it like beefsteak, and roll in a thin egg batter, and fry in hot
lard.
Chopped parsley and black pepper may be added, if liked.--_Mrs. D.,
Suffolk._
BAKED STURGEON.
Wash the skin _well_, put in a pan and bake for three-quarters of an
hour. Then take it out on a dish; pierce it with a knife in several
places. Make a stuffing of pot-meat, bread crumbs, onions, parsley,
thyme, pepper, and salt, all chopped well together. Stuff the holes
with the mixture and put the rest in the gravy; return to the pan and
bake until done.--_Mrs. D._
TO FRY PERCH.
Sprinkle with salt and dredge with flour; after a while dredge with
flour the other side. When the lard boils hard, skim it well and put
in the fish. Serve hot.--_Mrs. W._
TO FRY TROUT.
Split the fish down the back, insert a thin slice of fat pork. Squeeze
lemon juice over it and fry brown.--_Mrs. J. I., La._
BOILED COD-FISH.
Boil over a slow fire and skim frequently. Season with salt. Garnish
with parsley and rings of hard boiled eggs, and serve with butter and
egg-sauce.
COD-FISH BALLS.
One-fourth fish, to three-fourths potatoes, eggs enough to moisten.
Season with pepper and salt, and fry brown.
NANTUCKET COD-FISH.
Cut the thick part out of a firm, white dried codfish, and soak it
over night, then cut into very small pieces and parboil for a few
minutes, changing the water until the fish remains but slightly
salted. Drain off the water, leaving the fish in the saucepan. Pour
over a little more milk than will cover it; when it becomes heated,
add a little butter and pepper, thicken with flour stirred smooth in
milk. Stir constantly for a few minutes.
TO DRESS SALT COD-FISH.
Take one-third of a large fish; soak it from three to four hours;
next, boiling it till thoroughly done, pick the meat fine, taking out
all the bones. Then add:
3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine.
3 to 4 Irish potatoes, boiled and mashed.
Mix all well together in a stewpan, with--
1 teacup of hot water.
Salt and mustard to the taste.
Boil half an hour, and add a liberal supply of butter just before
serving. If preferred, the salt and mustard need not be put in until
during the cooking.--_Mrs. A. C._
BOILED MACKEREL.
Well wash the fish, put it into nearly boiling water with one
tablespoonful salt in it; boil up quickly, then let it simmer gently
for a quarter of an hour, and if the fish be very large, a few minutes
longer. Serve in a hot dish.--_Mrs. B._
TO BROIL MACKEREL.
If the mackerel is fresh, after it is nicely scaled and cleaned, dry
it; pepper and salt and broil it on a gridiron; baste it with fresh
butter. After it is broiled, put it on a hot dish, pour melted butter
over it, and serve. If the fish is salt, pour boiling water over it,
soak it several hours; butter and pepper, and broil; serve in the same
way as the fresh.--_Mrs. R._
TO COOK SALT MACKEREL.
Soak the fish over night in fresh water. In the morning drain off the
water and place on a gridiron to broil, dressing with hot
butter.--_Mrs. T._
BAKED SALMON.
When washed and dried, sprinkle over pepper and salt. Have ready in a
baking-pan a small grating; lay the fish on this, with bits of butter
over it; set in a hot oven, basting often and freely with butter. When
nicely browned, butter a sheet of white paper and lay over it, to
prevent its getting too dry; when done and tender, place on a hot
dish. Add to the gravy one teacupful milk, one tablespoonful pepper
vinegar, pepper, salt, and a mashed Irish potato smoothly mixed in;
boil, and pour over the fish. Sift over all browned cracker. Garnish
with bleached tops of celery and curled parsley alternately.--_Mrs.
T._
BOILED SALMON.
After the fish has been cleaned and washed, dry it and sew it up in a
cloth; lay it in a fish-kettle, cover with warm water, and simmer
until done and tender. Meanwhile have ready in a saucepan one pint
cream, two tablespoonfuls fresh butter, salt, pepper, minced parsley,
and thyme; let it boil up once, not too quickly. Take the fish from
the kettle, carefully unwrap it, lay it for a moment on a folded
napkin to dry. Have ready a hot dish, lay the fish on it carefully,
without breaking it, pour over the cream. Slice some hard-boiled eggs,
and lay over the fish alternately with sliced lemon. Border the edges
of the dish with curled parsley.--_Mrs. S. T._
SALMON STEAK.
When well dried, pepper and salt, sift over powdered cracker, and lay
upon a gridiron, which has been first greased with butter or lard,
over hot coals. As soon as the side next to the fire is brown, turn it
by carefully slipping under it a batter-cake turner and holding the
fish on it with the other hand, lest it should break. When both sides
are of a light brown, lay in a hot dish; pepper and salt again; pour
over melted butter; place the cover on, and serve.--_Mrs. T._
PICKLED SALMON.
Soak the salmon twenty-four hours, changing the water. Put it in
boiling water, with a little vinegar. When done and cold, boil your
vinegar with spice and pour on the fish.--_Mrs. A. P._
GERMAN FISH STEW.
Put the fish in a kettle to boil. Stew together in a saucepan one
onion chopped fine and a wine-glass of sweet oil; when well done, pour
them in with the fish. Then mix yolks of three eggs, juice of two
lemons strained, one tablespoonful sifted flour. Beat these well
together, and pour upon the fish when nearly done. Then add ginger,
pepper, and salt to taste; stew three or four minutes, after mixing
all the ingredients. Oysters may be cooked by the same receipt, only
substituting one quart oysters for the fish.--_Mrs. A. D._
GAME.
HAUNCH OF VENISON.
Rub the venison over with pepper, salt, and butter. Repeat the
rubbing. After it has been put in the oven, put in as much cold water
as will prevent burning and draw the gravy. Stick five or six cloves
in different parts of the venison. Add enough water to make sufficient
gravy. Just before dinner, put in a glass of red wine and a lump of
butter rolled in flour, and let it stew a little longer.--_Mrs. T._
VENISON HAUNCH.
Prepare the venison as you would mutton.
Put in a baking-pan, lard with a little bacon, add a pint of water, a
gill of red wine, salt, and a little cayenne pepper. Bake quickly, and
serve with or without gravy.
STEWED VENISON.
Cut in tolerably thick slices. Put in an oven with two spoonfuls of
water and a piece of lard. Cook till nearly done, then pour off the
gravy and baste it well with a large spoonful of butter, pepper, and
salt.
_Stewed Venison._
Slice cold venison in a chafing dish and add--
A cup of water.
A small teacup of red wine.
A small teacup of currant jelly.
A tablespoonful of butter.
A teaspoonful of made mustard.
A little yellow pickle.
A little chopped celery.
A little mushroom catsup.
Salt and cayenne pepper to the taste.
The same receipt will answer for cold mutton.--_Mrs. R. L. O._
TO BARBECUE SQUIRREL.
Put some slices of fat bacon in an oven. Lay the squirrels on them and
lay two slices of bacon on the top. Put them in the oven and let them
cook until done. Lay them on a dish and set near the fire. Take out
the bacon, sprinkle one spoonful of flour in the gravy and let it
brown. Then pour in one teacup of water, one tablespoonful of butter,
and some tomato or walnut catsup. Let it cool, and then pour it over
the squirrel.
ROAST RABBIT.
Stew the rabbit. After boiling the haslet and liver, stew them with
parsley, thyme, celery-seed, butter, salt, and pepper, for gravy. Soak
a piece of loaf bread, a short time, in water. Mix with it the yolk of
an egg and some butter, for stuffing; then soak it in milk and cream.
Sprinkle the inside of the rabbit with salt and pepper, fill it with
the above dressing, sew it up, and roast or bake quickly.--_Mrs. B._
BARBECUED RABBIT.
Lay the rabbit in salt and water half an hour, scald with boiling
water, wipe dry, grease with butter, and sprinkle with pepper and a
little salt. Lay it on the gridiron, turning often so that it may cook
through and through, without becoming hard and dry. When brown, lay on
a hot dish, butter plentifully on both sides, and add a little salt
and pepper. Set in the oven, while preparing four teaspoonfuls of
vinegar, one of made mustard, and one of currant jelly or brown sugar.
Pour this over the rabbit, rubbing it in, then pour over the gravy and
serve hot.--_Mrs. T._
STEWED RABBIT.
Cut up the rabbit and wash it. Put it in a stewpan and season it with
salt and pepper. Pour in half a pint of water, and when this has
nearly stewed away, add half a pint of Port wine, two or three blades
of mace, and a tablespoonful of flour, mixed with a quarter of a pound
of butter. Let it stew gently till quite tender, and then serve
hot.--_Mrs. C. C._
_Stewed Rabbit._
Cut a rabbit into eight pieces. After soaking in salt and water, put
it in a stewpan, with a slice of pork or bacon, and with more than
enough water to cover it. When nearly done, take out the pieces,
strain the water in which they have boiled, and return all to the
stewpan, with a teacup of milk, a little pepper, salt, chopped onion
and parsley. After this boils up, stir in a heaping tablespoonful of
butter, in which a tablespoonful of flour has been rubbed. Let it boil
up once more; then serve in a covered dish, with four hard-boiled eggs
sliced over it, and grated bread crumbs. The same receipt will answer
for squirrel.--_Mrs. T._
WILD TURKEY.
If the turkey is old, after it is dressed wash it inside thoroughly
with soda and water. Rinse it and plunge it into a pot of boiling
water for five minutes. Make a stuffing of bits of pork, beef, or any
other cold meat, plenty of chopped celery, stewed giblets, hard-boiled
eggs, pounded cracker, pepper, and salt, and a heaping spoonful of
butter. Work this well and fill the turkey. With another large
spoonful of butter grease the bird, and then sprinkle salt and pepper
over it. Lay in a pan, with a pint of stock or broth in which any kind
of meat has been boiled. Place in a hot oven. When it begins to brown,
dredge with flour and baste, turning often, so that each part may be
equally browned. Put a buttered sheet of paper over the breast, to
prevent dryness. When thoroughly done, lay on a dish, brown some
crackers, pound and sift over it, and serve with celery or oyster
sauce.--_Mrs. T._
_A Simpler Way to Prepare Wild Turkey._
Prepare the turkey as usual, rub the inside with salt and cayenne
pepper, and put in the baking-pan, with water enough to make gravy.
Cut up the gizzard and liver with a lump of butter and a spoonful of
cream. Mix with the gravy and serve hot.
_To Roast Wild Fowl in a Stove._
Put them on a rack above a pan, so that the gravy will drip through.
This makes them as delicate as if roasted on a spit. If roasted in a
pan, they will be exceedingly greasy and have the _stovey_ taste to
which so many persons object.--_Mrs. J. W. S._
WILD GOOSE.
After the goose is dressed, soak it several hours in salt and water.
Put a small onion inside and plunge it into boiling water for twenty
minutes. Stuff with chopped celery, chopped eggs, mashed potatoes,
bits of fat pork or other cold meat; a little butter; raw turnip
grated; a tablespoonful of pepper vinegar; a little chopped onion;
pepper and salt to the taste.
A teacup of stock or broth must be put in the pan with the fowl.
Butter it, dredge with flour, and baste often. Pin a buttered paper
over the breast to prevent its becoming hard. Serve with mushroom or
celery sauce, or, for a simpler taste, serve merely with its own
gravy.--_Mrs. T._
_Wild Goose._
Put a small onion inside, a slice of pork, pepper, salt, and a
spoonful of red wine.
Lay in a pan with water enough to make gravy. Dredge with flour, and
baste with butter frequently. Cook quickly and serve with gravy made
as for wild turkey.
WILD DUCK.
When the duck is ready dressed, put in it a small onion, pepper, salt,
and a spoonful of red wine. Lay in a pan with water enough to make the
gravy. Cook in fifteen or twenty minutes, if the fire is brisk. Serve
with gravy made as for wild turkey.
Canvas-back ducks are cooked in the same way, only you leave on their
heads and do not use onion with them.--_Mrs. R. L. O._
_To Cook Wild Duck for Breakfast._
Split open in the back, put in a pan with a little water, butter,
pepper and salt, and cook till tender. Baste with flour. If for
dinner, cook whole.--_Mrs. J. L. C._
TO BROIL PARTRIDGES.
Place them in salt and water, an hour or two before broiling. When
taken out, wipe them dry, and rub them all over with fresh butter,
pepper and salt. First broil the under or split side on the gridiron,
over bright, clear coals, turning until the upper side is of a fine,
light brown. It must be cooked principally from the under side. When
done, rub well again with fresh butter and if not ready to serve them
immediately, put them in a large shallow tin bucket, cover it and set
it over a pot or kettle of boiling water, which will keep them hot
without making them hard or dry and will give time for the many "last
things" to be done before serving a meal. When served, sift over them
powdered cracker, first browned.--_Mrs. T._
TO ROAST PARTRIDGES.
Clean the birds as for stuffing. Rub with butter, salt and pepper. Put
in sheets of letter paper and allow to cook in this way.--_Mrs. W. C._
TO COOK PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS.
Place them in a steamer, over a pot of boiling water, till tender.
Have ready a saucepan of large fresh oysters, scalded just enough to
make them plump and seasoned with pepper-sauce, butter, and a little
salt. Rub the cavity of the birds with salt and pepper, fill with
oysters and sew up. Broil till a light brown. Place on a hot dish and
sift over them browned cracker. Add a large tablespoonful of butter
and one of pounded cracker to the oyster liquor. Boil it up once and
pour into the dish, but not over the birds.--_Mrs. T._
TO BROIL PIGEONS.
Pigeons may be broiled the same as chickens, only cover the breast
with slices of bacon. When nearly done, remove the bacon, dredge with
flour and baste with butter. They will be done in half an hour.
STEWED PIGEONS.
The pigeons must be seasoned with pepper, salt, cloves, mace and sweet
herbs. Wrap the seasoning up in a piece of butter and put it in the
pigeon. Then tie up the neck and vest and half roast the pigeons. Then
put them in a stewpan with a quart of good gravy, a little white wine,
some pickled mushrooms, a few peppercorns, three or four blades of
mace, a bit of lemon peel, a bit of onion and a bunch of sweet herbs.
Stew until done, then thicken with butter and yolks of eggs. Garnish
with lemon.
PIGEON PIE.
Take six young pigeons. After they are drawn, trussed, and singed,
stuff them with the chopped livers mixed with parsley, salt, pepper,
and a small piece of butter. Cover the bottom of the dish with rather
small pieces of beef. On the beef, place a thin layer of chopped
parsley and mushrooms, seasoned with pepper and salt. Over this place
the pigeons, between each putting the yolk of a hard-boiled egg. Add
some brown sauce or gravy. Cover with puff paste and bake the pie for
an hour and a half.--_Mrs. C. C._
TO DRESS REED BIRDS.
Pick open and carefully wash one dozen or more birds. Place them
between the folds of a towel, and with a rolling-pin mash the bones
quite flat. Season with salt and a little cayenne and black pepper.
Either fry or broil on a gridiron made for broiling oysters. This must
be done over a clear fire. When done, season, put a lump of butter on
each bird and serve hot.--_Mrs. A. M. D._
TO COOK SORA, ORTOLANS, AND OTHER SMALL BIRDS.
Prepare as you would a chicken for roasting. Lay in a pan and pour
boiling water over them or, if convenient, steam them. Scald a few
large fresh oysters till just plump, season them with cayenne pepper,
salt and butter. Pour into the cavity of each bird a few drops of
pepper-sauce and then put a large oyster in each. Broil a short time,
frequently turning that they may not become dry. If not ready to serve
them as soon as they are done, lay in a tin bucket, butter them and
sprinkle them again with black pepper, cover the bucket and set it
over boiling water till wanted. When laid in the dish, sift browned
cracker over the birds, and pour gravy into the dish.--_Mrs. T._
_To Cook Sora, Ortolans, and Other Small Birds._
After they are split open in the back and dressed, lay them in weak
salt and water for a short time. Then lay them on a board and roll
with a rolling-pin to flatten the breastbone. Put butter, pepper, and
salt on them. Lay them on a gridiron and broil slowly. When just done,
add more butter and pepper, lay in a flat tin bucket, which set over a
vessel of boiling water to keep the birds hot, juicy, and tender till
wanted.--_Mrs. T._
SORA, ORTOLANS, ROBINS, AND OTHER SMALL BIRDS.
They should be carefully cleaned, buttered, sprinkled with pepper and
salt, and broiled. When they are served, butter them again. If you
like, serve each bird on a piece of toast, and pour over them a sauce
of red wine, mushroom catsup, salt, cayenne pepper, and celery.
MEATS.
All meats are better in winter for being kept several weeks, and it is
well, in summer, to keep them as long as you can without danger of
their being tainted. If it is not in your power to keep meat in an
ice-house, in summer, keep it in a cool dark cellar, wrapped around
with wet cloths, on top of which lay boughs of elderberry. The
evaporation from the cloth will keep the meat cool and the elderberry
will keep off insects.
If you should unfortunately be obliged to use stale meat or poultry,
rub it in and out with soda, before washing it. Tough meats and
poultry are rendered more tender by putting a little vinegar or a few
slices of lemon in the water in which they are boiled. The use of an
acid will save time and fuel in cooking them and will render them more
tender and digestible.
If possible, keep the meat so clean that it will not be necessary to
wash it, as water extracts the juices. When it is frozen, lay it in
cold water to thaw, and then cook quickly, to prevent its losing its
moisture and sweetness.
In roasting or boiling, use but little salt at first, as it hardens
meat to do otherwise. In roasting, baste frequently, to prevent the
meat from hardening on the outside, and try to preserve the juices. If
possible, roast the meat on a spit before a large, open fire, after
using salt, pepper, butter or lard, and dredging with flour. Where an
open fire-place cannot be obtained, however, the meat may be well
roasted in a stove or range. Mutton, pork, shote and veal should be
well done, but beef should be cooked rare.
In boiling, put on salt meat in cold water, but fresh meat in hot.
Remember also that salt meat requires more water and a longer time to
cook than fresh. Boil slowly, removing the scum that rises when it
begins to simmer. Keep a tea-kettle of boiling water at hand to
replenish the water in the pot, as it boils away. Do not let the meat
boil too hard or too long, as this will toughen it and extract the
juices. Add salt to fresh meat, just before it is done.
Lardering beef, veal, and poultry is a great improvement, keeping it
moist whilst cooking and adding richness to the flavor. Lardering
consists in introducing slips of clear fat bacon or salt pork, into
the surface of meat, by means of a pin, sharp at one end and cleft
into four divisions at the other. This pin may be obtained at any
hardware store.
As the housekeeper is sometimes hurried in preparing a dish, it will
save time and trouble for her to keep on hand a bottle of
meat-flavoring compounded of the following ingredients.
2 chopped onions.
3 pods of red pepper (chopped).
2 tablespoonfuls brown sugar.
1 tablespoonful celery seed.
1 tablespoonful ground mustard.
1 teaspoonful turmeric.
1 teaspoonful black pepper.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Put all in a quart bottle and fill it up with cider vinegar. A
tablespoonful of this mixed in a stew, steak, or gravy, will impart
not only a fine flavor, but a rich color. Keeping this mixture on hand
will obviate the necessity of the housekeeper looking through various
spice boxes and packages to get together the requisite ingredients for
flavoring, and will thus save her time and trouble.
HOW TO SELECT MEATS.
Good and wholesome meat should be neither of a pale rosy or pink
color, nor of a deep purple. The first denotes the diseased condition,
the last proves the animal has died a natural death. Good meat has
more of a marble look, in consequence of the branching of the veins
which surround the adipose cells. The fat, especially of the inner
organs, is always firm and suety and never moist, while in general the
fat from diseased cattle is flabby and watery and more often resembles
jelly or boiled parchment. Wholesome meat will always show itself firm
and elastic to the touch, and exhibit no dampness, while bad meat will
appear soft and moist, in fact, often more wet, so that the liquid
substance runs out of the blood when pressed hard. Good meat has very
little smell and diffuses a certain medicinal odor. This can be
distinctly proved by cutting the meat through with a knife and
smelling the blade or pouring water over it. Lastly, bad meat has the
peculiarity that it shrinks considerably in the boiling, wholesome
meat rather swells and does not lose an ounce in weight.
OBSERVATIONS ON PORK, CURING BACON, ETC.
Hogs weighing from 150 to 200 pounds are the most suitable size for
family use. They should not exceed twelve months in age, as they are
much more tender from being young. They should be well kept and should
be corn-fed several weeks before being killed. After being properly
dressed, they should hang long enough to get rid of the animal heat.
When they are ready to be cut up, they should be divided into nine
principal parts, two hams, two shoulders, two middlings, the head or
face, jowl and chine. The hog is laid on its back to be cut up. The
head is cut off just below the ears, then it is split down on each
side of the backbone, which is the chine. This is divided into three
pieces, the upper portion being a choice piece to be eaten cold. The
fat portion may be cut off to make lard. Each half should then first
have the leaf fat taken out, which is done by cutting the thin skin
between it and the ribs, when it is easily pulled out. Just under
this, the next thing to be removed is the mousepiece or tenderloin,
lying along the edge, from which the backbone was removed, commencing
at the point of the ham. This is considered the most delicate part and
is used to make the nicest sausage. Just under this tenderloin are
some short ribs about three inches long, running up from the point of
the ham which are known as the griskin. This is removed by a sharp
knife being run under it, taking care to cut it smooth and not too
thick. When broiled, it is as nice as a partridge.
The ribs are next taken out of the shoulder and middling, though some
persons prefer leaving them in the middling. In this case seven should
be taken from the shoulder, by a sharp knife cutting close to the
ribs, which make a delicious broil. Then cut off the ham as near the
bone as possible, in a half circle. The shoulder is then cut square
across just behind the leg. The feet are then chopped off with a sharp
axe or cleaver. From the shoulder, they should be cut off leaving a
stump of about two inches. From the ham, they should be cut off at the
joint, as smoothly as possible, and then you may proceed to salt the
meat.
In order to impart redness to the hams, rub on each a teaspoonful of
pulverized saltpetre before salting. If the weather is very cold, warm
the salt before applying it. First rub the skin side well with salt
and then the fleshy side, using for the purpose a shoe-sole or leather
glove. No more salt should be used than a sufficiency to preserve the
meat, as an excess hardens the meat. A bushel of salt is sufficient
for a thousand pounds of meat. For the chine and ribs a very light
sprinkling of salt will suffice.
The meat as salted should be packed with the skin side down, where it
should remain from four to six weeks, according to the weather. If the
weather is mild, four weeks will answer. Should the weather be very
cold and the pork in an exposed place, it will freeze, and the salt,
failing to penetrate the meat, will be apt to injure it.
After it has taken salt sufficiently, the old Virginia mode is to
break the bulk, shake off the salt, rub the joint pieces (hams and
shoulders) with good, green-wood ashes (hickory preferred). Then
rebulk it and let it remain two weeks longer, when it should be hung
up with the joints down and the other pieces may be hung up for
smoking at the same time. It is not necessary that the smoke-house
should be very tight, but it is important that the pork should not be
very close to the fire.
A smothered fire made of small billets of wood or chips (hickory
preferred), or of corn cobs, should be made up three times a day till
the middle of March or first of April, when the joint pieces should be
taken down and packed in hickory or other green-wood ashes, as in
salt, where they will remain all the summer without danger of bugs
interfering with them.
This recipe has been obtained from an old Virginia family, famous for
their skill in this department of housekeeping. This mode of curing
makes the best bacon in the world, far superior to what are generally
called Virginia cured hams.
Shoat (which I must explain to the uninitiated is a term applied in
the South to a young pig past the age when it may be cooked whole)
should be kept up and fattened on buttermilk, several weeks before
being killed, as this makes the flesh extremely delicate. It is best
killed when between two and three months old. It should then be
divided into four quarters. It is more delicate and wholesome eaten
cold.
PORK STEAK.
Remove the skin, beat without breaking into holes; scald with boiling
water, wipe dry and broil. When brown lay in a hob dish. Sprinkle over
pepper, salt, a little sage, chopped onion, and parsley; then butter
profusely.
Grate over all hard biscuit or crackers that have been browned and
serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
SPARE-RIBS.
Pork chop and pork cutlet may be cooked in the same way, omitting the
onion if not liked.--_Mrs. T._
PORK SPARE-RIB.
With stuffing of sage and onions, roasted spare-rib, done over the
potatoes, affords a good substitute for goose.
SPARE-RIBS.
Always parboil spare-ribs: then broil with pepper and salt; cut in
pieces three or four bones each.--_Mrs. W._
_Spare-Ribs._
Cut them into pieces of two or three ribs each; put them into a
covered stewpan and boil or stew until perfectly done. Just before you
take them out, add salt, pepper, and minced parsley.
Put on the cover and simmer until well seasoned.
Take them out of the pan, drain and dry them. For one moment let them
scorch on a gridiron over a bed of hot coals; lay on a hot dish;
butter each one; pepper added; sift over browned cracker and
serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO COOK SPARE-RIBS AND GRISKIN OR SHORT-RIBS.
Put them on in a small quantity of water and boil for fifteen or
twenty minutes. Gash them with a knife; sprinkle with pepper and put
them on a hot gridiron as near the fire as possible; broil quickly,
but not too brown. Have some butter melted and pour over the meat and
shut it up in the dish. These are good for breakfast.--_Mrs. P. W._
TO COOK BACKBONE OR CHINE.
Cut the chine in three pieces; the large end must be about a foot
long, the remainder cut in half. Put it in a pot of water and boil for
two hours; then put it in a pan, baste and set it in the stove to
brown. Peel some Irish potatoes and put them in the pot; boil till
done, mash them up and season with pepper, a little salt, and some of
the gravy dripping out of the chine while baking; spread them in the
dish, then lay the chine on top. The largest piece is generally put
aside to eat cold, and is very nice. Turnips are good, cooked in the
same way as potatoes, with the chine.
The chine and ham of a hog are nice, corned like beef.--_Mrs. P. W._
BACKBONE PIE.
Take the smallest end of the backbone, cut in pieces two or three
inches long; put in water and boil until done. Make nice rich pastry
as for chicken pie; line the sides of a baking dish with the pastry,
put in the bones, adding some water in which they were boiled; also
salt, butter, and pepper to taste, with bits of pastry.
Cover top of baking-dish with pastry; put in stove and brown
nicely.--_Mrs. G. B._
TO COOK A HAM OF PORK.
Wash off the salt and put it in a pot of water; boil from four to six
hours, according to size. Do not take off the skin, as it preserves
the juice and is much better cold. It is also nice to slice and broil
with pepper and butter over it.--_Mrs. P. W._
LEG OF PORK STUFFED.
Make deep incisions in the meat parallel to the bone, trim it so as to
leave the skin longer than the flesh; then boil some potatoes, and
when they are done, mash them with a piece of butter, cayenne pepper
and salt, an onion finely chopped, and a little rubbed sage.
With this dressing fill the incisions, draw the skin down and skewer
it over to keep the dressing from falling out. Season the outside of
the meat with salt, cayenne pepper and sage.
Roast it slowly; when done, pour the gravy in a pan, skim off the fat
and add some browned flour wet in a little cold water, and boil up
once.
Serve with apple or cranberry sauce.--_Mrs. A. M. D._
TO DRESS CHINE.
Rub the large end with salt and saltpetre, and it will keep some time,
or you may boil it fresh. Cut the bones of the other end apart,
sprinkle with flour and a little salt: add one teacup of water, and
stew.
It will make two large dishes.--_Mrs. W._
ROAST CHINE.
Chine should always be parboiled and stewed before roasting, to take
away the gross taste which the melted fat frying from it gives. After
this lay in the pan with one pint water in which it was boiled, from
which all the fat has been skimmed. Put in this several whole leaves
of sage, to be removed before serving--just to get the flavor; minced
onion, and parsley.
Baste and brown quickly that it may not dry.
This is only stewed chine browned.--_Mrs. S. T._
PORK ROYAL.
Take a piece of shoulder of fresh pork, fill with grated bread and the
crust soaked, pepper, salt, onion, sage and thyme: a bit of butter and
lard. Place in a pan with some water; when about half done, place
around it some large apples; when done, place your pork on a dish,
with the apples round it; put flour and water on your pan, flour
browned, some thyme and sage; boil, strain through a very small
colander over your pork and apples.
SEASONING FOR SAUSAGE.
18 pounds meat.
9 pounds back fat.
2 ounces sage.
4 ounces black pepper.
12 ounces salt.--_Mrs. J. P._
EXCELLENT RECIPE FOR SAUSAGE.
12 pounds of the lean of the chine.
6 pounds " " fat.
5 tablespoonfuls salt.
6 " sage.
2 " thyme.
5 " pepper.
3 " sweet marjoram.
Mix well together.--_Mrs. S. M._
SAUSAGE MEAT.
25 pounds lean pieces cut from the shoulder and tenderloin.
15 pounds fat from the back of the chine.
1 pound salt; a half pound of black pepper.
4 ounces allspice.
1 ounce sage.
Cut the fat in small pieces and then chop it; chop the lean very fine:
mix all together, kneading in the seasoning. Press it down in small
pots and pour melted lard over the top.--_Mrs. J. D._
SWEETBREAD OF HOG.
This nice morsel is between the maw and ruffle piece inside of the
hog. Put them in soak for a day; parboil them and then gash them and
stew them in pepper, butter, one teacup of milk and a little vinegar.
Or they are very nice fried or broiled.--_Mrs. P. W._
SOUSE CHEESE.
Lay the meat in cold water as cut from the hog. Let it stand three or
four days, shifting the water each day. Scrape it and let it stand a
day or two longer, changing the water often, and if it should turn
warm, pour a little salt in the water. The oftener it is scraped, the
whiter will be the souse. Boil in plenty of water to cover it,
replenishing when needed. When tender enough, put it in milk-warm
water, and when cold in salt water. Boil the head until the bones will
almost fall out. Clean one dozen or more ears and boil also; while
hot, chop very fine, and season with pepper and salt.
Put in a mold or bowl with a weight on top. The feet may be soused
whole, or cut up with the head and ears; but it is not so nice. Clean
them by dipping in boiling water and scraping; do not hold them to the
fire to singe off the hair. One head and one dozen ears will make a
good-sized cheese.--_Mrs. W._
TO MAKE SOUSE FROM HOG'S FEET.
As soon as the hog is cleaned, cut off the feet and throw them in a
tub of cold water with a handful of salt; let them remain covered in
water until you are ready to clean them, which should be done as soon
as possible, as they will be much whiter. To get the hoof off, put the
feet in hot water (not above the hoof); as soon as they get hot
enough, slip a knife between the foot and hoof, and slip it off; then
scrape the foot nicely, and throw into a tub of clear water; do this
for several days. When you have scraped and changed the water for a
week, then wash them clean and put them on to boil. First put them in
a clean pot with a thin gruel made of corn meal; boil until half done.
Wash them off, and put on in clear hot water, and boil till done, then
take them up and throw them into a firkin of clean salt and water;
keep closely covered to prevent them from molding. They are now ready
to fry, which should be done by splitting the foot in half and fried
in egg batter.--_Mrs. P. W._
TO CURE LARD.
As soon as it is taken from the hog, cut in small pieces, wash clean,
press out the water, and put in the pot to boil, with one gallon of
water to a vessel holding four gallons. Boil briskly until nearly
done, or until the cracklins begin to brown, then cook slowly to
prevent burning. The cracklins should be of a light brown and crisp,
and will sink to the bottom when done. This is Leaf Lard.
The fat off of the backbone is also very nice, done in the same way,
and does not require soaking, unless bloody. The fat from the entrails
can also be made into nice lard by soaking for a day or two in fresh
water, changing it frequently, and throwing a handful of salt in the
tub of water to draw out the blood and impurities. When ready to
render, wash in warm water twice and boil in more water than you do
for leaf lard. The cracklins will not become crisp, but remain soft,
and will sink to the bottom; they are used for making soap.
VIRGINIA MODE OF CURING HAMS.
Put one teaspoonful saltpetre on the fleshy side of each ham. Salt
_not too heavily_ for five weeks; if the weather is freezing cold, six
weeks; then brush the hams well, and rub them with hickory ashes; let
them lie for one week, then hang and smoke them for six weeks with
green hickory chips. After brushing, pack them in hickory ashes in a
bulk.--_Mrs. P. C. M._
TO CURE BACON.
Pack the meat in salt and allow it to remain five weeks. Then take the
hams up, wash off, and wipe dry. Have some sacks made of about
seven-eighths shirting, large enough to hold the hams and tie above
the hock. Make a pot of sizing of equal portions of flour and corn
meal, boil until thick, and dip each sack until the outside is well
coated with sizing. Put the hams in bags, and tie tight with a strong
twine and hang by the same in the smoke-house.
CURING BACON.
One peck salt to five hundred pounds pork. To five gallons water:
4 pounds salt.
1 pound sugar.
1 pint molasses.
1 teaspoonful saltpetre.
Mix, and after sprinkling the fleshy side of the ham with the salt,
pack in a tight barrel. Hams first, then shoulders, middlings. Pour
over the brine; leave the meat in brine from four to seven
weeks.--_Mrs. Dr. J._
FOR CURING HAMS.
For five hundred pounds hams.
1 peck and 1½ gallons fine Liverpool salt.
1¾ pounds saltpetre.
1 quart hickory ashes well sifted.
1 quart molasses.
2 teacups cayenne pepper.
1 teacup black pepper.
Mix these ingredients well together in a large tub, rub it into each
ham with a brick, or something rough to get it in well. Pack in a
tight, clean tub and weigh down. Let the hams remain six weeks; then
take them out and rub each one on the fleshy side with one
tablespoonful black pepper to avoid skippers. Hang in the meat house,
and smoke with green hickory for from ten to twelve hours a day for
six weeks, not suffering the wood to blaze. On the 1st of April, take
them down and pack in any coal ashes or pine ashes well slaked. Strong
ashes will rot into the meat.--_Mrs. R. M._
AN IMPROVEMENT TO HAMS.
Sometimes very good bacon is found to be of a bad color when cooked.
This may be remedied by keeping it in ashes (hickory is best) for a
few weeks before using. Must then be hung up, with ashes adhering,
until needed. This also prevents skippers.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO BOIL A HAM WEIGHING TEN POUNDS.
Let it soak for twenty-four hours, changing the water two or three
times. Boil it slowly eight or ten hours: when done, put it into a
dish, as nearly as possible the shape of a ham, taking care first to
take out the bone--turn the rind down. When cold, turn it out into a
large dish, garnish with jelly and ornamental paper. Serve with the
rind on. To be eaten cold.--_Mrs. W. C. R._
TO BOIL HAM.
Put in the water one pint vinegar, a bay leaf, a little thyme, and
parsley.
Boil slowly for two hours, if it weighs ten pounds; then bake. Soak
all hams twenty-four hours before cooking.--_Mrs. M._
_To Boil Ham._
The day before you wish to boil a ham, scrape, wash and wipe it dry,
and put it in the sun. At night put it into water and soak till next
morning. Then lay it with the skin down in a boiler of cold water, and
boil slowly for five hours. If the ham is large, boil six hours. When
perfectly done and tender, set the boiler aside, with the ham and
liquor undisturbed, until cold. Then take off the skin, sprinkle black
pepper over thickly, and sift over crackers first browned and pounded;
for special occasions, place at equal distances over the ham, scraped
horseradish in lozenge shape, and edged with curled parsley. This mode
keeps the ham juicy.--_Mrs. S. T._
BAKED HAM.
First of all, soak an old ham overnight, having first washed and
scraped it. Next morning put in a boiler of milk-warm water with the
skin side down. Boil slowly for four or five hours, according to size,
and if a very large ham, six hours. When done, set aside the boiler
with the ham and liquor in it, to remain until cold, when the skin
must be taken off, and it must be trimmed of a nice shape. Sprinkle
over two tablespoonfuls black pepper. Lay the ham on a grating or
twist in the baking-pan, in which pour a pint of water, and set it in
a hot oven. This mode prevents the frying so disagreeable to the
taste. After the ham is heated through, and the pepper strikes in,
sift over cracker; return to the oven and brown, then decorate with
scraped horseradish and parsley, and serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
BAKED HAM OR TONGUES.
Boil the ham and grate some powdered cracker thickly over it; first
rubbing it with beaten yolk of egg. Bake with butter. Lay slices of
currant jelly around the tongue, and garnish the ham with
parsley.--_Mrs. R._
_Baked Ham._
Most persons boil ham, but it is much better if baked properly. Soak
it for an hour in clean water and wipe dry; next spread it all over
with a thin batter, put it into a deep dish with sticks under it to
keep it out of the gravy. When it is fully done, take off the skin and
batter crusted upon the flesh side and set it away to cool.--_Mrs. B.
J. B._
STUFFED AND BAKED HAM.
After your ham is boiled, take the skin off. Take pepper, allspice,
cloves and mace, well pounded; add a little bread crumbs, and a little
brown sugar; mix with a little butter and water.
Gash your ham and take out plugs; fill in with the mixture. Rub the
ham with an egg beaten, and grate on bread crumbs and white sugar.
Put in the oven and brown.--_Mrs. D. R._
TO STUFF FRESH CURED HAM.
Boil the ham.
Take one-half pound grated cracker or bread.
½ pound butter.
1 teaspoonful spice.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
1 teaspoonful ginger.
1 teaspoonful mace.
3 spoonfuls sugar.
Celery-seed or celery.
6 eggs, beaten light.
1 spoonful mustard.
Mix all well together and moisten with cream, if too stiff. Whilst the
ham is hot, make holes to the bone and fill with this mixture. Put in
the stove to brown.
SPICED HAM.
Salt the hams for two days; put them in a keg and for each ham add:
½ cup molasses.
1 tablespoonful spice.
1 tablespoonful black pepper.
A pinch of saltpetre.
Let them stand four days, turning each day, then hang them up.--_Mrs.
D. R._
BROILED HAM.
To have this dish in a perfection, ham must first be soaked, then
boiled nearly done, and set aside to take slices from, as wanted. Cut
rather thin, lay on a gridiron over hot coals; when hot through, lay
on a dish, and pepper well. Pour over fresh butter melted, and serve.
If a raw ham is used, the slices must be cut thicker, dropped in a pan
of boiling water for a few minutes, then broiled as above.--_Mrs. S.
T._
FRIED HAM.
The slices are always taken from a raw ham, but are most delicate when
first simmered a short time: five minutes in a stewpan, dried with a
clean cloth and put in a hot frying-pan, first removing the skin. The
pan must be hot enough to scorch and brown both ham and gravy quickly.
Lay the slices on a hot dish, pour into the gravy half a teacup new
milk, pepper, and minced parsley; boil up and serve.--_Mrs. S. T._
SHOULDER OF BACON.
This piece is not used until cured or smoked, it is then boiled with
cabbage or salad, as you would the middling. It is inferior to the ham
or middling.--_Mrs. P. W._
BACON AND GREENS.
The middling is generally used for this purpose: cut a piece about a
foot square, boil three hours.
Take a good head of cabbage, cut, quarter, and wash clean; press the
water out as dry as you can. Boil them one or two hours with half a
pod of red pepper; put them on a dish and the middling on top. You can
fry the cabbage next day, and make a savory dish, but it does not suit
dyspeptics. The thin part of the middling is used for frying, and is
called "breakfast bacon."--_Mrs. P. W._
FRIED BACON.
Dip the ham or slices of middling in bread crumbs. Put in a frying-pan
with chopped parsley and pepper. Just before taking off the fire, pour
to the gravy a cup of cream.--_Mrs. W._
JOWL AND TURNIP SALAD.
This is an old Virginia dish, and much used in the spring of the year.
The jowl, which must have been well smoked, must be washed clean, and
boiled for three hours. Put in the salad, and boil half an hour; if
you boil too long, it will turn yellow. It is also good broiled for
breakfast with pepper and butter over it.
The jaw-bone should be removed before sending to the table; this is
easily done by running a knife around the lip and under the tongue.
The jowl and salad should always be served with fresh poached
eggs.--_Mrs. P. W._
PICKLED PORK EQUAL TO FRESH.
Let the meat cool thoroughly; cut into pieces four to six inches wide,
weigh them and pack them as tight as possible in a barrel, salting
very slightly. Cover the meat with brine made as strong as possible.
Pour off a gallon of brine and mix with it one tablespoonful saltpetre
for every 100 pounds meat and return it to the barrel. Let it stand
one month, then take out the meat, let it drain twelve hours. Put the
brine in an iron kettle, and one quart treacle or two pounds sugar,
and boil until perfectly clear. When it is cold, return the meat to
the barrel and pour on the brine. Weight it down and keep it covered
close, and you will have the sweetest meat you ever tasted.
HOW TO COOK SALT PORK.
Many people do not relish salt pork fried, but it is quite good to
soak it in milk two or three hours, then roll in Indian meal and fry
to a light brown. This makes a good dish with mashed turnips, or raw
onions cut in vinegar; another way is to soak it over night in skimmed
milk and bake like fresh pork; it is almost as good as fresh roast
pork.
HAM TOAST.
Mince about one pint boiled lean ham.
Add the yolks of three eggs well beaten, two tablespoonfuls cream, and
a little cayenne pepper.
Stir all on the fire until it thickens, and spread on hot toast with
the crust cut off.--_Mrs. J. T. B._
HAM TOAST.
Chop very fine two spoonfuls of lean ham that has been cooked; take
two spoonfuls veal gravy; a few bread crumbs.
Put all together in a stewpan and heat it. Have ready a toast
buttered, spread the above upon it, strew a few bread crumbs over it
and brown it before the fire.--_Mrs. S._
HAM RELISH.
Cut a slice of dressed ham, season it highly with cayenne pepper and
broil it brown; then spread mustard over it, squeeze on it a little
lemon juice, and serve quickly.
POTTED TONGUE OR HAM.
Remove all skin, gristle, and outside parts from one pound of the lean
of cold boiled tongue or ham.
Pound it in a mortar to a smooth paste with either one-quarter pound
of the fat, or with two ounces fresh butter. Season with cayenne,
pounded mace and allspice.
Press it well into pots and cover with clarified butter or fat.
TO ROAST SHOAT.
The hind-quarter is considered best. Cut off the foot, leaving the
hock quite short. Wash well and put into boiling water; simmer until
done, adding salt and pepper just before lifting from the kettle; salt
put in sooner hardens and toughens. Place the meat in a baking-pan and
score across, in the direction in which it is to be carved. Skim
several ladlefuls from the top of the kettle and pour over; after this
has dried off, sprinkle over a little salt and pepper, cover with an
egg beaten stiff, sift over powdered cracker, and set to brown. Lay
around sweet potatoes first parboiled, then cut in thick slices. Serve
with minced parsley and thyme, both on the meat and in the
gravy.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO ROAST A FORE QUARTER OF SHOAT.
Put it on in hot water, boil for half an hour; take it out, put in a
pan, gash it across with a sharp knife, in diamond shapes, grease it
with lard and dredge with flour, pepper and a little salt. Peel some
good Irish potatoes, lay them around the pan and set in the stove to
brown, basting frequently. This meat should be cooked done, as it is
not good the least rare. Grate some bread crumbs over it and
serve.--_Mrs. P. W._
TO BARBECUE SHOAT.
Lay the shoat in water till ready for use; if small, it will cook in
an hour. Put in the oven with two spoonfuls of water, a piece of lard,
and dredge with flour. When ready for use, pour in half a teacup of
walnut catsup, and, if not fat, a piece of butter.
SHOAT JOWL.
The upper half of the head is what is generally used for what is
called "The Pig's-head Stew." Another nice dish may be made of the
under jaw or jowl by parboiling until the jaw-bone can be taken out;
always adding pepper and salt just before it is done. When perfectly
tender, score across; pepper and salt again, cover with beaten egg,
then with cracker. Set in a pan with some of the water in which it was
boiled. Put in a hot oven and brown.--_Mrs. S. T._
ROAST PIG.
When roasted whole, a pig should not be under four nor over six weeks
old. In town, the butcher prepares for roasting, but it is well to
know, in the country, how this may be done. As soon as the pig is
killed, throw it into a tub of cold water, to make it tender; as soon
as cold, take it by the hind leg, and plunge into scalding, not
boiling water (as the last cooks the skin so that the hair can with
difficulty be removed), shake it about until the hair can be removed
by the handful. When all that is possible has been taken off in this
way, rub from the tail up to the end of the nose with a coarse cloth.
Take off the hoofs, scrape and wash the ears and nose until perfectly
clean. The nicest way to dress it is to hang it by the hind legs, open
and take out the entrails; wash well with water, with a little soda
dissolved in it; rinse again and again, and leave hanging an hour.
Wrap in a coarse cloth wrung out of cold water and lay on ice or in a
cool cellar until next morning, when, if the weather is warm, it must
be cooked. It should never be used the same day that it is killed.
First prepare the stuffing of the liver, heart and haslets of the pig,
stewed, seasoned, and chopped. Mix with these an equal quantity of
boiled potatoes mashed; add a large spoonful of butter, with some
hard-boiled eggs, parsley and thyme, chopped fine, pepper and salt.
Scald the pig on the inside, dry it and rub with pepper and salt,
fill and sew up. Bend the fore legs under the body, the hind legs
forward, under the pig, and skewer to keep in position. Place in a
large baking-pan, pour over one quart of boiling water. Have a lump of
fresh butter tied up in a clean rag; rub it all over the pig, then
sprinkle over pepper and salt, putting some in the pan with a bunch of
herbs; invert over it a baking-pan while it simmers, and steam until
entirely done. Underdone pork, shoat, or pig, is both unpalatable and
unwholesome. Remove the pan, rub over with the butter and baste often.
When of a fine brown, cover the edges of a large dish with a deep
fringe of curled parsley; first sift over the pig powdered cracker,
then place it, kneeling, in the green bed. Place in its mouth an
orange or a red apple; and, if eaten hot, serve with the gravy in a
tureen or sauce-boat. It is much nicer cold; served with little mounds
of grated horseradish amongst the parsley.--_Mrs. S. T._
TO STEW PIG'S HEAD AND JOWL.
Clean the head and feet; take out the bone above the nose; cut off the
ears, clean them nicely. Separate the jowl from the head; take care of
the brains to add to the stew. Put the head, jowl, feet and part of
the liver in water sufficient to keep well covered; boil until quite
done. Split the feet to put on the dish; hash the head and liver; but
do not spoil the jowl, which must be put in the middle of the dish and
surrounded with the feet and hash. Put all of the hash, jowl and feet
in the pot and season with a cup of cream, a lump of butter, pepper
and salt, a tablespoonful walnut catsup, an onion chopped fine, a
stalk of celery.
A teaspoonful mustard improves it.
Stew half an hour; thicken the gravy with grated bread.--_Mrs. P. W._
SHOAT'S HEAD.
Get a shoat's head and clean it nicely. Boil and chop in pieces.
Season with:
2 tablespoonfuls tomato catsup.
2 tablespoonfuls walnut catsup.
2 cups water.
A little flour.
1 large spoonful butter.
Pepper and salt.
Have two or three hard-boiled eggs, cut them in half and lay on the
top of the head; set it in the oven to bake.
Veal or mutton head, can be cooked in the same way, but are not so
nice.--_Mrs. R._
SHOAT'S HEAD, TO STEW.
Clean the head and feet; and put them on to parboil with the liver.
Then split up the head, through the nose, taking out the bones. Cut
the meat from the feet and chop up with the liver, season this with
pepper and salt.
Lay the head open and fill it with this mince and the yolks of some
hard-boiled eggs: if this does not fill the head, add some grated
bread crumbs or crackers and butter.
Sew up the head and bind it with thread; put it in the pot with the
water it has been parboiled in and let it stew slowly. Take up the
head, and add to the gravy a lump of butter, rolled in flour, some
browning and some walnut catsup. Pour this over the head, which should
be brown. If the shoat is not very small, use bread and butter instead
of the liver.--_Mrs. R._
TO HASH PIG'S HEAD.
Take head, feet, and haslet of pig; boil them until done, then cut
them up fine, taking out the bones.
Add black pepper, salt, a little sage.
2 onions chopped fine.
A little red pepper.
1 teaspoonful mace.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
Put it back in the same vessel with liquor and cook till done, then
thicken with a little flour. Add two hard-boiled eggs and one cup
walnut catsup.--_Mrs. Dr. J._
BEEF AND VEAL.
In selecting beef, see that the flesh is firm and of a clear red, and
the fat of a yellowish white. In buying a quarter of beef
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