Part 2

SAUCE FOR OYSTER PATTIES.--One cupful of solid oysters. Melt two large tablespoons of butter in a stew pan, blend in two heaping tablespoons of flour and rub smooth; add one scant pint of cream or rich milk; stir until smooth and thick. Drain the oysters and add them with one level teaspoon of salt and a good dash of pepper. When the oysters are plump remove to back of range and stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs mixed with a little cream. For canned oysters add one large teaspoon of curry powder before serving. Serve in pattie shells of baked pastry or in timbal cases or on buttered toast.--Mrs. Whitehead.

OYSTER PIE.--Line a baking dish with rich pastry, either pie crust or biscuit crust. Put one quart of oysters in a double boiler with one cup of milk, and two thirds cup of butter and steam until oysters are plump. Slice six hard boiled eggs, mix with one half cupful of cracker crumbs and a cupful of sweet cream; add one full teaspoon of salt and a generous sprinkling of pepper. Mix with the prepared oysters and fill the lined baking dish. Cover with the top crust and bake about twenty minutes in a hot oven or the pastry shell may be baked separately if preferred and filled with the cream. The thickened, creamed oyster patty filling makes a good filling for oyster pie, also it may be served with steamed dumplings or small baking powder biscuits.--Contributed.

FRIED OYSTERS.--Select large, fresh oysters. Drain them and season with salt and pepper. Roll bread crumbs that have been crisped in the oven very fine and then sift them. Dip each oyster in the prepared crumbs and then into beaten egg and again into the crumbs. Heap the crumbs in thick little piles and roll the oysters in them until a nice thick crust is formed over each oyster. Have an iron kettle or skillet filled two inches deep with smoking hot lard, lay the oysters in a nice frying basket, if you have one, and plunge it into the hot grease. Cook until nicely browned. Drain and serve hot with lemon points, tomato catsup or any preferred sauce.--Mrs. Whitehead.

SALMON TIMBALES.--One can salmon, flaked, add the beaten yolks of three eggs, two tablespoons of thick cream, one teaspoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper and lastly cut in the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Pour into greased individual molds, set in a pan of hot water and bake about twenty minutes.

BAKED FISH SCALLOPS.--Two cups cold cooked fish. Remove the bones and break fish into small flakes. Mix with a thick cream sauce, well seasoned. Butter baking shells or individual dishes, fill with the creamed fish, cover with fine bread or cracker crumbs, dot with butter and bake until brown. Serve with lemon points.

CODFISH BALLS.--One cup of flaked cod fish soaked in clear water, then drained. Boil three large potatoes until tender, then drain and mash with the cod fish. Season with salt, pepper and butter and add one beaten egg. Drop by the spoonful into smoking hot grease and fry like doughnuts. Serve immediately.

SCALLOPED FISH.--Add flaked cold cooked white fish, halibut or salmon to a thick cream sauce seasoned with minced onions, thyme or parsley and butter, alternate with layers of cracker crumbs and bake brown.

CREAMED FISH CANAPES.--Beat an egg with half a cup of milk and add a dash of salt. Dip circles of bread, cut half an inch thick, in this and fry brown in butter, turning once. Spread with creamed fish or chicken and place a poached egg on top. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve for breakfast or lunch.

Game

"Variety is the spice of life."--Cooper.

WILD DUCK ROASTED.--Prepare as for roasting the same as any fowl, parboil for fifteen minutes with an onion in the water to remove the strong flavor. A carrot will answer the same purpose. Stuff with bread crumbs, a minced onion, season with pepper and salt, a little sage and a good supply of butter, roast until tender. Use butter plentifully in basting. One half hour will suffice for young ducks. If bread crumb dressing is not liked, sliced apple stuffed in the duck is very nice.--Mrs. A. McKay.

TO PREPARE VENISON.--Wash clean, dry well with clean dry cloth, salt, pepper and dredge with flour, cut long gashes into roast, place in gashes strips of salt pork or bacon; lay strips on top; place in a bake pan with a very little water, cover roast until nearly done, take off cover, baste and brown slightly.--Mrs. A. McKay.

BROILED PRAIRIE CHICKEN.--After dressing lay on ice for a few hours, then divide in halves, again divide the thick sections of the breast, sprinkle with salt and pepper and lay the pieces on a gridiron the inside down. Broil slowly at first. Serve with cream gravy and currant jelly.

PRAIRIE CHICKEN (STEAMED AND BAKED).--Stuff them with a dressing of bread crumbs and seasoning of pepper and salt, mixed with melted butter, sage, onion or summer savory may be added if liked. Secure the fowl firmly with a needle and twine. Steam until tender, then remove to dripping pan; dredge with flour, pepper and salt, and brown delicately in oven. Baste with melted butter. Garnish with parsley and currant jelly. Above game recipes given in American Cookery demonstration by Mrs. A. McKay.

BROILED VENISON STEAK.--Venison steaks should be broiled over a clear fire, turning often. It requires more cooking than beef. When sufficiently done season with salt and pepper, pour over two tablespoonfuls of currant jelly, melted with a piece of butter. Serve hot on hot plates. Delicious steaks, corresponding to the shape of mutton chops are cut from the loin.--Mrs. C. C. Mackenroth.

ROAST VENISON.--Rub the saddle or haunch of venison with a damp cloth and then rub in butter. Make a thick paste of flour and water and spread it an inch thick on the roast. Lay a buttered coarse wrapping paper or one of the new cooking paper bags over the roast and put the meat in the roasting pan with one cupful of hot water. Lift the paper and baste every fifteen minutes with melted butter and hot water. Roast in a hot oven until the meat is tender, then remove the paper and the coat of paste. Dredge the meat with flour, one teaspoonful of salt and pepper and baste with pan drippings and butter until meat is nicely browned. Add a pint of hot water to the drippings and thicken with flour for a gravy. Add a pinch of cloves, nutmeg and mace and stir in a glass of currant jelly until it is dissolved. Strain and serve with the meat. Venison cooked this way will be moist instead of dry and hard.--Mrs. Whitehead.

ROAST PRAIRIE CHICKEN.--Have chicken skinned and put in cold water at least three hours, then wipe dry and stuff with bread crumb dressing. Put in roaster and dot with bits of butter and two or three slices of bacon, one onion pricked with three cloves, add several pepper and all spice kernels and a teaspoonful of salt and one cupful of water. Roast about one and one half hours and baste occasionally.--Mrs. J. Bruegger.

ROAST WILD DUCK.--It is best to keep wild ducks a few days after they are killed if the weather is cold. As most wild duck have the flavor of fish, therefore it is advisable to parboil them, with a carrot in each duck, before roasting, as this absorbs all the unpleasant taste. An onion has the same effect, but when onion is used in dressing the carrot is preferable. Roast the same as tame duck and use dressing for stuffing fowl with a little onion added; bake about one half hour in very hot oven, carefully turning them, baste them and add a little water if necessary. A few slices of bacon roasted with it adds to the flavor of wild game. Serve hot with the gravy it yields. The canvas back duck requires no spices or flavors to make it perfect, as the meat partakes of the flavor of the food the birds feed upon, which is wild celery, and this delicious flavor is best preserved when roasted quickly with a hot fire.--Mrs. George Bruegger.

PRAIRIE CHICKEN OR SQUAB PIE.--After the chickens are picked and drawn as a large fowl is for roasting, wash them and put them in a saucepan with a close cover; they should be covered with boiling water and boiled slowly till tender, when a little salt and an onion and cloves should be added; then take them out, drain and dry, and put in each squab a teaspoonful of butter, a little pepper, salt, minced parsley and thyme; then put into the cavity of each chicken a hard boiled egg; lay them in a large baking dish three or four inches deep; strain over them the liquor in which they were simmered, add teaspoonful of butter, one teacup of milk or cream; sift in two tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs, put in a few slips of parsley, cover with a rich crust and bake.--Contributed.

Poultry

"Take the goods the Gods provide thee."--Dryden.

ROAST TURKEY.--Select if possible a young turkey, carefully remove all feathers and singe it over a burning paper on the stove, then see that it is carefully drawn and no internals broken; remove the crop carefully; after the head is cut off, tie the neck close to the body, by drawing the skin over it, now wash the inside of the turkey in several clean waters, into the next to the last add a teaspoonful of baking soda, this is to destroy that sour taste which fowls often have, if not freshly killed. After a thorough rinsing and washing of the bird wipe dry both in and outside with a clean cloth, rub the inside with salt, then stuff the body and breast with dressing for stuffing fowls, then sew up with strong thread, rub it over with a little soft butter, sprinkle over some salt and pepper, dredge with a little flour, place in a roaster with a little water and cook from two to two and a half hours, turn it around occasionally so that every part will be browned alike, when it appears done, pierce with a fork and when the liquid runs clear, the bird is done. Serve with cranberry sauce. Garnish with parsley, or fried oysters.--Mrs. George Bruegger.

DRESSING FOR STUFFING FOWL.--For an eight or ten pound turkey use about three pints of stale bread crumbs, put into a dish and pour tepid water over it, (not hot for that makes it heavy) let stand for a few minutes, then take up a handful and squeeze dry with both hands, put into another dish and when all is pressed dry toss it up lightly through your fingers, this process makes it very light. Parboil the liver, heart, and gizzard, in a little stew pan. When tender mince very fine and add to the bread, now one teaspoon of salt, a little pepper, half cup of melted butter; peel and chop one cooking apple, two tablespoons of green or dry fine minced parsley; mix well, add one beaten egg, mix again and it is ready for either turkey or chicken. For goose or duck add a few slices of onion chopped fine. The water in which the heart, gizzard and liver were stewed may be used with the gravy of the roast turkey, goose, duck or chicken.--Mrs. George Bruegger.

ROAST GOOSE.--The goose should not be more than eight months old, and the fatter the more tender and juicy the meat. After the goose has been well washed, cleaned and wiped, rub a little salt inside, stuff with the dressing for stuffing fowls with a little onion added to the dressing. Do not stuff too full and stitch the openings firmly to keep the flavor in and the fat out. Place in roaster with a little water and bake about two and a half hours, carefully turning it frequently and baste with water and salt. When done with all parts evenly brown, take up, pour off the fat and to the brown gravy left, add a little water, and some flour to thicken, bring to a boil and serve in a gravy boat. Garnish goose with parsley.--Mrs. George Bruegger.

VIRGINIA FRIED CHICKEN.--Dress and cut up chickens, rub each piece with salt and pepper, then dip it into beaten egg, then into flour and fry brown in deep hot fat or butter and lard mixed, or bacon drippings. Cover the skillet and let chicken cook slowly after it is browned well to be sure it is done. Remove chicken to platter and turn out part of the drippings. Add cooking spoon of flour to remaining drippings and cook a minute, then add milk or cream to make gravy. Season with salt and pepper and just before serving add beaten yolk of one egg mixed with a little milk. Serve with chicken. Garnish chicken platter with slices of cold boiled ham or crisp bacon, and corn dodgers and you will have a typical "Old Dominion" dish. I got above recipe from a Virginia woman.--Mrs. Whitehead.

SMOTHERED CHICKEN.--Split a young chicken down back, season with salt and pepper and put in roaster with one cup hot water. Roast (covered) until tender. As it begins to brown make a paste of two tablespoons each of butter and flour, blended, and spread it over chicken, basting often with pan dipper. Add cupful cream to drippings in pan for gravy. If the chicken is large cut into pieces as for frying before roasting this way.--Mrs. Whitehead.

CREOLE STEWED CHICKEN.--Boil a pint of rice in two quarts of water until half done, then add a cut up fowl with one minced onion, blade of mace, four large mushrooms or half a can, half a chili pepper, teaspoon salt and three or four small tomatoes cut up and one tablespoon butter. Stew gently until chicken is tender, stirring often and adding hot water as needed. Serve in baked pastry shell or on toast. Mrs. Whitehead. Above chicken recipes were demonstrated in Mrs. Whitehead's paper on Southern Cookery.

SWEDISH DUCK FILLING.--One quart of bread crumbs, four good-sized apples, one half cup of browned butter, cinnamon, raisins, and currants to taste. Stuff fowl.--Contributed.

DAIRY LUNCH CHICKEN SANDWICH.--Make a thin batter of one and one half pints of water, one pint of milk, one egg, scant half teaspoon of soda, one tablespoon of salt, dash of pepper and flour enough to mix like pan cake batter. Cut a young chicken into quarters, dip it in the batter and fry brown in deep fat. Serve between slices of bread. Garnish with dill pickles.--Mrs. T. A. McKay.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES.--One cup of the white meat of boiled fowl packed in solid, then chopped fine and mashed till like fine powder. Add one half level teaspoon salt, one half saltspoon paprika, or white pepper. Make one pint thick cream sauce, with two level tablespoons butter and two heaped tablespoons of cornstarch cooked together, diluted with one pint of hot cream, and stirred till very smooth and thick. Season with one half teaspoon salt and one half saltspoon pepper. Stir as much of the hot sauce into the chicken as it will take up and enable you to handle the mixture in shaping, remembering that the sauce will be much thicker when cold, and so the mixture may be quite soft. The meat varies greatly in its power to absorb the sauce, therefore it is impossible to give an exact amount but if the sauce is thick a large portion may be used and the croquettes will be all the more creamy for it. When cold, shape a tablespoon of the mixture into a ball, then into a cylinder, roll in fine dry bread crumbs, beaten egg diluted with water, then crumbs again, and fry one minute in deep, smoking hot fat. More of the delicious flavor of the meat will be retained with this simple seasoning of salt and pepper than with a variety of condiments.--Contributed.

CREAMED STEWED CHICKEN.--Cut up fowl as for fricassee, put over the fire in enough cold water to cover it well. Bring gradually to a boil. When it begins to bubble, add a stalk of celery, some chopped parsley, and a bay leaf. Simmer until tender before seasoning. Make a white sauce in a frying pan of two tablespoons butter cooked with the same quantity of flour. As soon as well mixed stir into this a large cupful of strained and skimmed gravy from the pot, have ready one half cup cream, heated with a pinch of soda, add this to the thickened gravy, very slowly so as not to curdle. Do not boil after cream is in. Cook dumplings in the gravy left, after the reserved cupful and chicken are taken out.

DUMPLINGS FOR CHICKEN STEW.--In a pint of flour, sift a heaping teaspoon baking powder, one fourth teaspoon salt, sift flour twice, now rub in a tablespoonful of shortening, and wet with enough milk to make a dough that can be rolled out. Cut into rounds and drop into the boiling gravy. Should be done in ten minutes.--Mrs. Paul Leonhardy.

CREAMED CHICKEN.--Three pounds of chicken boiled tender in salted water and freed of bones, skin and gristle. Cut the meat into small pieces. Boil two sweet breads tender in salted water with the juice of half a lemon. When tender, drain and throw them into cold water to blanch; then free from skin and gristle and cut into small pieces; drain a can of French mushrooms and cut them into quarters. Make a cream sauce of two tablespoons of butter, melted and blended with two tablespoons of flour, add one pint of hot thin cream, one teaspoon of salt, juice of one lemon, and juice pressed from half a small onion, and a dash of pepper, cook thick but remove from fire and add one beaten egg yolk mixed with one cup of whipped cream. Add to the heated chicken, mushrooms and sweet breads. Mix well and serve in patty shells, or timbales. (The whipped cream may be omitted.) For escalloped chicken turn the above mixture into a buttered baking dish, cover with fine rolled bread crumbs, dot with butter and bake until well browned. Reserve the chicken broth for soup or make a gravy of it and serve with baking powder biscuit or dumplings.--Contributed.

CROQUETTES.--Cook one large tablespoon of butter with two tablespoons of flour, add one cup milk or cream, one teaspoon onion juice, one teaspoon salt, dash of pepper and nutmeg and one beaten egg. Mix with one cup of minced meat or chicken, form into croquettes after the mixture has stood an hour. Fry brown in deep fat after rolling in egg and bread crumbs.--Contributed.

HOT TAMALES.--Cook a three pound chicken tender in salted water to cover. Chop chicken meat fine and return bones to the kettle. Cut open six large chilli peppers or chillies, wash, cut out seeds and cut into halves. Cover with boiling water and cook until soft and press through a fine sieve. Brown a golden color two medium sized chopped onions in hot butter, add the chilli pulps with half a cup of chicken broth, cover pan and cook slowly fifteen minutes. Put one quart of corn meal into a bowl and pour over it enough hot chicken broth to make a dry paste; work with the hands into a soft but not wet paste. Have broad six inch long corn husks soaked until pliable in warm water. Open these and down the center of each put a wide strip of corn meal paste; mix the chopped chicken with the chilli mixture and spread it on the corn meal paste down the center; roll up the husks, fold in the ends and tie with narrow strips of husks. The corn meal must surround the chicken mixture. Lay the prepared tamales carefully on top of the bones keeping them above the broth. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and cover the kettle and cook steadily one hour, being careful that the broth doesn't boil over the tamales. For the novice, it is easier to steam the tamales over the broth in a flat covered steamer. Serve very hot in the husks. Minced beef may be used instead of chicken and often one cup of chopped tomatoes are added to the chillies before cooking.--Contributed.

CHILE-CON-CARNE.--Cook chillies as in tamale recipe, add to the sieved chillies one pint of thick strained tomato pulp, one minced large onion, one fourth teaspoon salt and cover and simmer fifteen minutes. Cut dark meat from a boiled or roasted chicken, into small pieces or use small pieces of cooked veal, cover with the chilli sauce and stew slowly one hour or stand over hot water and steam about an hour or until chicken has practically absorbed the sauce.--Contributed.

CHILLI MINO PAN CAKES.--Make a light fritter or pan cake batter and fry cakes in hot olive oil or butter shaking them until they are set. Spread these cakes with chicken and chilli mixture (as prepared for tamales) roll up the pan cakes, pour over more of the sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese and serve immediately.--Contributed.

RICE AND CHICKEN CON-CARNE.--One pint of stewed chicken cut up in chicken broth and seasoned with three cooked chillies (sieved) half a cup of washed rice, half a pint of finely minced cooked tongue, one teaspoon of salt. Stir often and cook until rice has absorbed most of the broth but do not let it scorch. Serve with half a pint of strained tomato cooked with one tablespoon of butter and a little salt.--Contributed.

Meat

"Room! Make way! Hunger commands. My valour must obey."--Beaumont and Fletcher.

TO JUDGE GOOD BEEF.--Good beef, if young, will be of a bright red color, fine grained and firm to the touch. The fat of a clear straw color with a little of it through the muscles, giving the meat a marbled appearance. The suet should be dry and crumbly and of a darker shade than the fat. In old beef both flesh and fat will be darker, much coarser in fiber and decidedly dry compared with young beef. If the beef is of a pale, dull color, and flabby, it is not well matured; if very dark and colored and coarse grained with deep yellow fat it will be found tough and tasteless and if it bears greenish tints and feels slippery on the surface it is already stale and unfit for use. When meat is tough add a little vinegar or a piece of lemon to the water in which it is boiled. This will result in a shortening of time and a saving of fuel, while the meat will be rendered more easy of digestion; also any slight taint that may be about the meat will be entirely removed by this process. A pinch of baking soda can be used instead of lemon or vinegar.

POT ROAST.--Take a nice piece of the round beef weighing about four pounds, season well with salt and pepper and dust over thoroughly with flour. In a flat bottomed kettle melt a piece of butter the size of an egg, when hot put in the meat, turning until well browned on every side. When roast is brown add a little onion, six cloves, six allspice and enough boiling water to come up half way to the top of the meat. Cook slowly for three hours. When done take out meat, add one tablespoon of flour to a little cold water to thicken gravy.

MEAT BALLS.--Two pounds round steak, put through sausage grinder three times, season with salt and pepper, nutmeg and a little cream. Beat two eggs and mix all together; shape into balls and roll in cracker crumbs and fry in butter to a light brown.

BAKED VEAL CUTLETS.--One and one half pounds of veal cutlets laid in well buttered roasting pan with one cup of water; over this spread dressing made of two cups bread crumbs; two onions chopped fine, two well beaten eggs; butter size of an egg, salt and pepper. Mix well, add water to moisten. Lay tin cover on top of pan to prevent scorching. Bake from half to three quarters of an hour. Remove cover to brown.

ROAST SPARE RIBS.--Trim off ends neatly, crack ribs across the middle, rub with salt, sprinkle with pepper, fold over, stuff with turkey dressing, sew up tightly, place in dripping pan with one pint water, baste often. Turn over once so as to bake both sides equally.

ROAST VEAL LOAF.--Four pounds of veal, one pound of pork, one or two eggs, one cup of crackers rolled fine, one tablespoon of salt, one teaspoon of pepper, one teaspoon of sage, mix and make into roll. Bake three hours.

STEAMED VEAL LOAF.--To two pounds of veal, put through a grinder or chopped very fine, add two teaspoons of salt, one fourth teaspoon pepper, butter size of an egg, one cup freshly grated bread crumbs, two eggs, two tablespoons milk. Knead until well mixed. Butter baking powder cans, coat with bread crumbs and fill compactly with the meat and put on cover. Stand in a kettle of water almost to the top of mold. Boil steadily one and one half hours. When cool take out at once.