Part 2

Potatoes are to my mind one of the most ill-used vegetables we have. They require simple care to make them a useful and welcome addition to at least two meals in the day. Too often I have found the greatest carelessness in the cooking of a simple potato. Often at an English inn potatoes are impossible, even more so than other vegetables, and yet we English people have the best potatoes in the world! It is indeed a fact that in the case of the poor potato, God sends the food, and the devil the cooks! One common error is to peel the potatoes hours before they are to be cooked and to leave them in water; another to peel them (because the weather is cold) in quite hot water, or, worse still, then shut them down in a saucepan on the side of the stove ever so long before they are required. In this way the potato is spoilt before it has even boiled. It is quite possible to use up even cold potatoes in an appetising manner. None need ever be wasted if the following hints are taken and the sound advice of many years’ experience is followed. For new potatoes pick out those as much of a size as possible, carefully scrape them, remove any eyes, rinse in clear cold water and put into enough boiling water to cover well; add a sprig of mint (in one piece) and a piece of salt put in a saucepan preferably not iron and boil gently till tender which can easily be found by trying them with a fork. When cooked, strain, remove the mint, put into the saucepan a knob of butter while the potatoes are there and serve as quickly as possible with a little finely chopped parsley on them. The object of the butter is not only to improve the taste and appearance but it also helps to prevent the sort of preserved taste one so often gets in hotel cooking. As the potatoes get older it is better to put them to boil into cold water, and directly they are too old to scrape freely, no mint is necessary or advisable. Some potatoes are best strained before they are quite cooked and then shut down in the saucepan to finish in their steam. If the potatoes are not to be used at once (say when a meal is delayed longer than expected for some reason), it is a good idea either to rice them in a ricer or to mash them. In that way they will not have an unpleasant taste and can be kept hot for some time and still be quite palatable.

Often one has some cold potatoes left say from lunch, cut them into slices, put about ½ an oz. of butter into a frying pan and when melted and hot lay each slice of potato flat in the hot butter, fry quickly over a brisk fire till they attain a golden-brown colour. Care must be taken that they do not burn.

Cold potatoes can also be used for hot cakes as follows: Take the remains of any boiled potatoes, break them into a bowl, take a breakfast cup and a half of flour (for this quantity of flour about the value of eight potatoes would be necessary) rub them smoothly into the flour, add two ounces of butter, salt, a little baking-powder (unless self-raising flour is used) mix as for pastry with a little milk (sour will do) and if possible an egg beaten into it, form into small cakes and bake on larded paper in a quick oven, serve hot with sugar and butter to be spread on them.

For fried potatoes care should be taken to follow these directions carefully: Peel your potatoes and cut them into slices about one-half an inch thick, then into strips, each slice let us say into four, let them lay in a bowl of cold water till wanted for frying. Take a large deep frying pan in which you have melted one-fourth pound of best tub lard, place over a quick fire taking care not to let it burn, and when it is ready (which is easily found out by dropping one piece of potato into the fat--it should sizzle at once), take the potatoes out of the water by hand and drop straight into the boiling lard. Turn carefully from time to time with a knife blade. Remove them with a slice into a vegetable dish in which there is a strainer (stone for preference), and place in the oven with an open door till required; but serve as soon as possible. Never put the cover on the dish or allow the oven door to be shut as the potatoes would not then keep quite crisp. Never add salt till ready in the dish, when a little should be sprinkled over the potatoes.

For straw potatoes proceed in the same way; only these will require less time for cooking and will need to be cut very much thinner and smaller.

For soufflé potatoes cut them into thin slices and dry them on a clean cloth. Lay them in a little milk for a moment and then put them into the boiling fat straight out of the milk. If these directions are carefully followed there should be a crisp brown bubble on each side of the slice of the potato. These also must not be covered or have the oven door closed on them.

There is also another simple way of treating an old potato. Often toward the end of the year when one’s potatoes run large and we are anxious to give a dish a dainty appearance we find that the large potato served whole looks clumsy. If the potatoes are carefully peeled and any unsightly blemishes are removed such as the eye or as so often happens there are bluey patches due to a bruise perhaps on the potatoes otherwise perfectly sound, the following hint may be found both useful and economical. Take a stout teaspoon and scoop spoonfuls from the _outside_ of a big potato. (The broken remains can be used in soup say either beef or mutton stock. Recipe for this with soups.) When you have sufficient potatoes ready you can either fry in dripping (in which case do not attempt to make them crisp) or boil them very gently, or bake them under a joint, etc. They will be best baked or fried. They can then be served laid round a dish of fish (fried or boiled) or round a dish of roast meat previously carved and laid down the centre of a dish or with kidneys and bacon or with liver and bacon.

Celery used as a vegetable will be found very palatable cooked in the following manner. Take two or three heads of celery, wash carefully in fresh cold water and a little salt, have ready any little beef, veal, or chicken stock, bring this to a boil and cook the celery in it. From 30 to 40 minutes should be long enough to render the celery soft. Serve in a vegetable dish with the gravy poured over it, sufficient only to just cover, having previously stirred a teaspoonful of cornflour mixed with cold water into it.

Beet-root may be prepared either cold to serve with cold beef or as a hot vegetable dish best served with roast mutton.

For cold, have four or five round small beet-roots washed, handling them carefully and taking the greatest care not to break off any tender shoots, and avoiding cutting the leaf-end too near the top of the beet-root. Have a saucepan large enough to take the beet-root without breaking it. Boil gently with a good piece of salt from 40 minutes to an hour, or even a little longer, according to the size. Prick with a carving fork to see if quite tender, then lay them on a strainer and when cool enough to hold in the fingers remove the peel and cut into thin rings. Lay them in a dish of vinegar (a deep glass dish is best), dust over two teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar, and allow to get thoroughly cold before serving. The object of the sugar in the vinegar is to draw the colour out of the beet-root and to remove the sourness. More or less sugar may be used according to individual taste but the proportion given is generally right.

The beet-root already boiled may be used for the following dish:

Cut into a little thicker slices, then into strips, then into little squares. Have ready in a deep enamel frying pan a quantity of melted butter, put the diced beet-root into it with a pinch of salt and a little cream (or, if not available, a little milk) and bring the mixture to a boil, taking care not to break the vegetable when stirring with a knife blade. Mix a teaspoonful of cornflour with a little milk, stir into the beet-root while on the stove, serve round the dish of sliced mutton or separately very hot.

Leeks can often be made to take the place of onions and are a very useful vegetable cooked in either of the following ways. Take from twelve to twenty leeks, wash well in cold water, being careful to remove all grit. It will be found necessary nearly always to split them, to be sure that they are quite clean. Stew them in beef stock till quite tender. (This vegetable does not require any soda in the cooking and is best cooked in stock.) Strain and serve when quite tender. Another way is to cut each leek into four, lengthwise, and bake in dripping, as directed to do with the onion.

The Drumhead or white cabbage has no appearance if cooked only as a cabbage, but a useful dish may be made in the following manner. Take a large cabbage, remove the white stiff stalk running down the leaf with a sharp knife. Put the leaves into a large saucepan of boiling water, cook as for ordinary cabbage except that the leaves will all be separate. When tender spread on a large dish to cool. Prepare some finely minced meat, beef, ham, veal or mutton, chicken or lamb, about half a teacup of freshly boiled rice salted to taste. (The value of two tablespoonfuls of rice will be enough to make half a teacup.) The rice to have been boiled in water and not too soft. Mix with the minced meat and having spread each cabbage leaf open, fill with the mixture, leaving enough of the leaf clear to roll round the meat. Have a deep frying pan on the fire half full of either beef or mutton stock, bring to a boil and place each stuffed leaf in the stock and cook for ten minutes; remove with a slice on to a deep dish and serve at once very hot.

RECIPES

BREAKFAST DISHES, ENTRÉES, SAVOURIES, STUFFINGS, SAUCES, HORS D’ŒUVRES, AND SANDWICHES

_General Remarks_

Small savouries are useful to lengthen a lunch or dinner without making the whole meal too heavy.

Their materials are often what is left over of various dishes. Therefore the remnants that are kept should be always put away with care and separated from each other.

Cut onion should never be kept in the safe containing butter or milk.

Raw bacon should be laid in the dish on the rind.

A tin of sardines should never be left open more than twenty-four hours.

Tinned salmon must be used at once.

Bottled tomatoes may be partly used and re-corked for a few days.

Bottled olives must be re-corked tightly after use. Take care that the liquid covers the olives. The same for capers, chillies, and anchovies.

The salad basket and potato ricer should be dried on the shelf over the stove after being wiped.

When boiling milk enters into the composition of any dish the saucepan should be first wetted inside with cold water.

_1. Omelettes_

_Plain._ Break four new laid eggs into a basin and beat lightly with a fork. Add a pinch of salt and a dessertspoonful of milk. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan about half an ounce of hot butter, tilting the pan to cause the butter to run all over it. Place the pan over the fire with the stove top on. Pour the beaten eggs into it. Run the knife round the rim of the omelette. Cook not more than seven minutes. Sprinkle over a few fine herbs or a little chopped parsley and fold it over twice on a very hot dish. The omelette when dished should be moist in the centre.

_Truffled._ Prepare the eggs as above. Chop finely three truffles and beat into the eggs. Cook in the same manner as the plain omelette and serve with the rest of the bottle of truffles cut in thin slices and laid down the centre of the omelette after it is folded.

_Savoury._ Take the livers of two fowls, one rasher of bacon, a slice of onion and a pinch of mixed herbs. Melt in the frying pan a piece of butter about the size of a walnut. Put the livers, bacon, and herbs into the hot butter. Fry very gently for about seven to ten minutes and when cooked chop very fine. Cook the omelette as above and spread the mixture along the middle while still in the pan. Turn the omelette sides over and serve on a hot dish.

_Cheese._ Prepare the eggs as above. Rub on a cheese grater a piece of Gruyère cheese to make about four tablespoonfuls. Turn the eggs into the pan. Dust three parts of grated cheese over the omelette whilst still in the pan. Dish with a slice and dust over it the remainder of the cheese; fold and place it in the oven for one minute.

_Green Peas._ Prepare the eggs as above. Take a teacup of cold cooked green peas and stir them into the basin with the eggs. Pour into the hot butter in the pan as for a plain omelette, fold over with the slice and serve on a hot dish. It will be noticed that sometimes the omelette will rise in a bubble and smoke. Directly this is noticed pass the blade of the knife under from the sides and let the air out, otherwise it will burn.

Cold potatoes cut into discs can be used instead of the peas for the omelette.

_2. Eggs and Bacon_

This dish is perhaps the most appetising breakfast dish and yet often the most unpleasant on account of the smell. Cooked in the following way there should be no smell at all. Take the rashers of bacon and carefully remove all the rind. Use preferably an enamelled frying pan in which a piece of butter the size of a walnut has been made hot. Lay the bacon in this. The stove should be hot enough to cook the bacon with the top on. Turn the bacon twice and cook for eight to ten minutes. Dish on a hot flat dish. Allow an egg for each rasher, breaking the eggs lightly without breaking the yolks into a cup one at a time and turn into the pan. Allow the boiling fat to run round the eggs. Cook for three minutes and dish with a slice placing one egg on each rasher of bacon. The pan when removed from the stove must not be put into the sink as the cold water there will cause it to smell unpleasantly.

_3. Boiled Bacon_

Take not less than two pounds cut out of the small back. Plunge in a saucepan three parts full of boiling water. Boil briskly for one hour.

When put on a dish the rind will tear off quite easily. Remove it and dust the part over thickly with baked breadcrumbs.

_4. Sausages_

Prick the sausages well with a fork. Lay in a flat meat dish and cook for twenty to twenty-five minutes not on the stove but in a fairly quick oven. This prevents all smell and they will be well cooked.

_5. Sausage Rolls_

Prick one pound of best pork sausages and bake in the oven for twenty minutes on a flat dish. Cut each sausage lengthwise, roll round each half a thin rasher of raw bacon, put into a paste (as for meat pie, rec: 156), wrap in hot buttered paper and bake for another twenty minutes.

_6. Eggs in Gravy_

Boil two or three eggs for not longer than three minutes, drop them for a few seconds into a bowl of cold water to chill them sufficiently to be held with the fingers. Carefully remove the shell without breaking the shape of the egg. Lay each carefully in a buttered dish side by side. The eggs if properly cooked will immediately acquire a flat shape. Pour over them a little good meat gravy and serve at once. The eggs thus prepared should not be hard; but it is difficult sometimes when removing the shell to leave the egg whole. Great care is required.

_7. Eggs with Chicken Livers_

Put into a little stone marmite dish (fire-proof) a little butter and half the liver of a good sized fowl. (Two fowls’ livers would make four or five little dishes.) When the liver is nearly cooked (the little dishes having been placed each on the hot top plate of the stove), drop a whole egg without breaking the yolk into each and allow to cook from three to five minutes. Serve in the dishes in which they have been cooked.

Eggs can be also poached in marmite dishes but instead of butter you must half fill each dish with fresh cream and add a pinch of salt and a pinch of chopped parsley at the last moment on top of each egg.

_8. Herring Roes on Toast_

Take the roes from the tin or glass box, gently part with a knife, put them into a shallow pie-dish with a little pepper and butter. Cover with dish cover and stand in the oven for ten minutes. Have ready hot buttered toast and lay the roes on the toast. Put a little white pepper on them and a tiny scrap of butter and replace in the oven for a moment before serving.

_9. Poached Eggs on Anchovy Toast_

Butter several good slices of toast and spread with a little anchovy paste. Take an egg poacher and put over the fire to boil. Turn an egg into each ring, being careful not to break the yolk. Cook for three minutes lightly. Pass the blade of the knife round each rim of the egg, pinch the machine to open it, the eggs then remaining on the flat slice. Run the knife under each one and it is easy then to place them on the toast.

_10. Poached Eggs and Tomato Toast_

Scald four tomatoes and remove the skin, slice them into a small enamelled frying pan in which a piece of butter the size of a walnut has been made hot, a little pepper and salt. Chop them with a knife whilst frying, thus reducing them to a paste. Spread this over the hot buttered toast and put a poached egg on the top.

_11. Breakfast Dish_

Have the paste made ready as for meat pie, take six thin rashers of bacon and cut them in halves. Roll the paste thin on the board and lay half a rasher of bacon on each piece of paste. Cut the paste a little bigger than the bacon. Dust a little finely chopped onion and a tiny pinch of sweet herbs over each piece of bacon. Roll paste and bacon together (paste outside) and cook on hot buttered paper for fifteen minutes in a quick oven.

_12. Haricot Breakfast Dish_

Put to soak for twelve hours a pint of small haricot beans. Strain them and pick out the brown ones which are not needed. Turn them into a saucepan three parts full of boiling water with salt and a little pinch of soda. Boil gently for two hours, or until quite soft but whole; strain and put into a stone jar. Cover them with good beef stock. Add three cut rashers of bacon, fat and lean together, with one slice of very finely chopped onion and some tomato sauce (made after the recipe given with skinned tomatoes). Leave in the oven all night and make it hot in the morning before serving.

_13. Devilled Drumsticks_

Take four drumsticks of fowls, put half an ounce of fresh butter in an enamelled frying pan, make it hot and lay the drumsticks in it. Dust over them a little red pepper and about half a flat teaspoonful of some good curry powder. Roll them over and over in the butter and dish with a strainer.

_14. Devilled Sheep’s Kidneys on Toast_

Remove the skin from say two sheep’s kidneys and cut them in halves. Put into an enamelled frying pan about half ounce of fresh butter and make it hot. Lay the kidneys in the butter the cut side down. Cook over a brisk fire with the stove top off for five minutes. Turn once. Then replace the stove top and stand the frying pan again on it for five to ten minutes more. Have ready enough buttered toast to take half a kidney on each slice of toast. Dust the kidneys with a little red pepper before placing on the toast. Put on each kidney a little fresh butter about the size of a pea, place on the toast and serve very hot. Ox kidney may be used in the same way cut into slices.

_15. Croquettes_

Chop with a mincer very fine any remains of cold chicken or any cold meat with one ring of Spanish onion and a tiny pinch of salt and a drain of meat juice. Stir all this well in a plate, break into the mixture a freshly beaten egg, add a teaspoonful of finely rubbed breadcrumbs or rusk crumbs. Roll a tablespoonful at a time into another freshly beaten egg and then into the rolled rusk crumbs. Form into short sausage shapes or balls and fry in boiling lard or dripping for seven to ten minutes. Dish with a slice and serve hot, garnished with a little parsley.

Fish croquettes are made in the same way using any fish that may be left over, after carefully removing all the bones, and adding a little cold boiled potato.

_16. To Dress Cold Fowl_

Cut into small pieces, leg generally in two. Put into a saucepan and cover with milk, first putting a little water in the saucepan to prevent the milk burning. Grate half a nutmeg, add pepper and salt. When it has boiled, but not before, slice half of a fairly large Spanish onion into the saucepan. Boil for three-quarters of an hour. Thicken before serving with a little flour and butter, which should be mixed very smooth with a little of the boiling milk out of the saucepan. Bring to a boil and serve in the saucepan with a napkin wrapped round it.

_17. Shepherd’s Pie_

Cut the remains of any cold roast beef into small pieces and place in a dish. Slice about a quarter of a Spanish onion finely on the top, add two tomatoes cut very small, pepper and salt, half a teaspoonful of Worcester sauce, half a teaspoonful of bovril stirred in half a teacupful of water, or a little meat juice. Place in the oven uncovered for a quarter of an hour. Then take out and fill up the dish with mashed potatoes. Place a few thin slices of onion on the top, a piece of butter, and replace in the oven for three-quarters of an hour so as to brown the top nicely.

_18. Tripe and Onions_

Wash in cold water and remove all fat from two pounds of fresh tripe and cut into narrow strips about two inches long. Melt in an enamelled frying pan about two ounces of fresh butter turning the tripe into it. Fry lightly, not allowing to brown. Dish with a slice into a stone saucepan, leaving the butter in the pan. In the same butter fry lightly one and a half Spanish onions sliced and add to the tripe in the saucepan, with a little salt and a glass of sherry, one piece of loaf sugar, and a finely cut up carrot. Add enough water to cover and stew gently for one and a half hours. Thicken with a little flour mixed smooth with cold water and serve in the stone saucepan with a table napkin tied round it.

_Note._ Pig’s trotters may be added to this dish but in this case they must be soaked for two hours before cooking and added to the tripe when cooked.

_19. Haricot Mutton_

Soak a pint of small haricot beans overnight, carefully pick out the brown ones and rinse through three waters in the morning. Have ready a metal saucepan with about three pints of water. When boiling, pour the haricots into it with a good pinch of salt and a small piece of soda. Boil gently for two and a half hours. They are then ready to be added to the mutton. Cut into small pieces two or three pounds of best end of neck of mutton, remove the fat and put the meat into a stone saucepan, cover with water, add one turnip cut into long pieces, one Spanish onion, pepper and salt and a pinch of fine herbs. Remove the scum as it rises and cook for two hours. Add then the beans which should be quite soft and peel of their own accord when exposed to the air. Thicken with a little carefully mixed flour and water and serve in the stone saucepan with a table napkin wrapped round it.

_20. Sweetbreads_

Soak for half an hour two sweetbreads in cold water with a pinch of salt. Drop them in boiling water. After twenty minutes take them out, remove the skin and roll them first in a well-beaten egg and then in rolled rusk crumbs. Bake in a tin in a quick oven for three-quarters of an hour with a large piece of butter or dripping. Place on a dish and after turning the fat out of the tin put in a little good meat juice and bring it to a boil over the fire. Add then a little smoothly mixed flour and water and when thickened sufficiently strain through a gravy strainer over the sweetbreads. Serve very hot.

_21. Sweetbreads--Another Way_