Part 5

With these thrifty people, cleanliness was really regarded as "akin to godliness," and the principal was thoroughly and practically carried out in all their every day affairs. The most scrupulous attention being paid to the keeping of all the utensils used scrupulously clean, and so thoroughly work the mass, that every particle of milk is expelled. The greatest evil to be guarded against, is the too free use of salt, which for this purpose should be of the utmost purity and refined quality. I am satisfied, from personal observation, that the butter made at the Jersey Farm, at San Bruno, in the vicinity of San Francisco, in every respect equals in quality the celebrated Darlington, Philadelphia.

For the keeping milk fresh and sweet, and the proper setting of the rich cream, an old style spring-house is essentially requisite. Who that has ever visited one of these clean, cool and inviting appendages of a well conducted farm and well ordered household, at some home-farm of the olden time, does not recall it in the mind's-eye, as vividly as did the poet Woodworth when he penned that undying poem of ancient home-life, "The Old Oaken Bucket that Hung in the Well."

Properly constructed, a spring-house should be built of stone, which is regarded as the coolest--brick or concrete--with walls at least twelve inches in thickness. The floor should be of brick, and not more than two feet below the surface of the ground. The roof should be of some material best adapted to warding off the heat, and keeping the interior perfectly cool, while due attention should be paid to the allowance of a free circulation of air, and provision be made for thorough ventilation; only as much light as is actually necessary should be admitted, and where glass is used for this purpose, it should invariably be shielded from the sun. Walled trenches being constructed for this purpose, a constant stream of cool running water should pass around the pans containing the milk and cream, which, for the making of good butter, should never be permitted to become sour. The shelving and other furniture, and all wooden utensils used, should be of white ash, maple or white wood, in order to avoid all danger of communicating distasteful or deleterious flavors. As there is no liquid more sensitive to its surroundings, or which more readily absorbs the flavor of articles coming in contact with it, than pure milk, everything that has a tendency to produce this deleterious result should be carefully excluded. Neither paints or varnish should be used about the structure, and the entire concern should be as utterly free from paint as the inside of an old time Quaker meeting-house.

In making butter, the cream should be churned at a temperature of about 65 degrees. When the churning is finished, take up the lump and carefully work out every particle of milk. Never wash or put your hands in the mass. To each pound of butter work in a little less than an ounce of the purest dairy salt. Set the butter away, and at the proper time work the mass over until not a particle of milk remains.

A Word of Advice to Hotel and Restaurant Cooks.

I wish to say a word to the extensive brotherhood and ancient and honorable guild constituting the Grand Army of Hotel and Restaurant Cooks distributed throughout our country, on the all-important subject of making coffee and heating milk. Some satirical writer has sarcastically said that the way to make good coffee is to ascertain how that beverage is prepared in leading hotels and restaurants, and then make your coffee as they don't! There is no good reason why coffee cannot be as well made in hotel and restaurant kitchens, as in private families or anywhere else, if the berry is good, well-browned, and pains are taken for the proper preparation of this popular beverage.

Twenty years ago the art of making coffee in large quantities, and of properly heating milk for the same, was an unsolved problem--in fact, if not numbered among the many lost arts, might be classed as among the unknown in the culinary art. Twenty-one years ago, the late Mr. Marden--a well-known citizen of San Francisco--and the author of this work--produced, as the result of long practical experience, a form for making a decoction of the ancient Arabian berry, which is now in general use throughout the entire Union. True, attempts have been made to improve upon the mode, which was the crowning triumph of the parties alluded to, but they have invariably proved failures, and to-day Marden & Clayton's coffee and milk urns stand pre-eminent in this important department of cookery. These urns are simply two capacious stone-ware jars, of equal capacity, and made precisely alike, with an orifice one inch from the bottom, in which a faucet is firmly cemented. Each jar is suspended in a heavy tin casing, affording an intervening space of two inches, which is to be filled with hot, but not boiling water, as a too high temperature would injure the flavor of the coffee, and detract from the aroma of the fragrant berry. Suspend a thin cotton sack in the centre, and half the height of the jar. After putting in this the desired amount of coffee, pour on it sufficient boiling water to make strong coffee. As soon as the water has entirely filtered through, draw off the liquid through the stop-cock at the bottom of the jar, and return it to the sack, passing it through, in the same manner, two or three times. After five minutes raise the sack, pour in a cup of hot water, and let it filter through, getting, in this manner, every particle of the strength. Immediately after this remove the sack; for if it is left remaining but a short time, the aroma will be changed for the worse. Cover tightly, and keep the jar surrounded with hot, but not boiling water. Next, put into the milk urn--also surrounded with hot water--one-half the milk for the amount of coffee, and at the proper time add the remaining half of the milk, having it, in this manner, fresh, and not over-cooked. Should the milk become too hot, pour in a cup of cold milk, stirring well at the same time.

The first of these urns for making coffee and heating milk, were those used for the purpose at the opening of the Occidental Hotel of this city--of which Mr. Piper was at that time the intelligent and experienced head-cook. This mode of making coffee in large quantities is still followed at this hotel, which, from the time of its opening to the present, has maintained the reputation as one of the best of the numerous excellent public houses of this city, and the entire Union.

Clayton's California Golden Coffee.

Let the coffee--which should be nicely browned, but not burned--be ground rather fine, in order that you may extract the strength without boiling--as that dissipates the aroma and destroys the flavor. Put the coffee in a thin muslin sack--reaching less than half-way to the bottom of the vessel--then place it in the pot, and pour over enough boiling water to make strong coffee. Let it stand on the hot range two or three minutes, when lift out the sack, pour the liquid in a vessel, and return it through the sack the second time, after which, raising the sack again, pour through a little hot water to extract all the strength from the grounds. Next, pour into the liquid, cold, Jersey Dairy, or any other pure country milk, until the coffee assumes a rich golden color, and after it reaches a boiling-heat once more, set it back. Should the milk be boiled separately, the richness, combined with its albumen, will be confined to the top; whereas, if added cold, and boiled with the coffee, it will be thoroughly incorporated with the liquid, adding materially to its rich flavor and delicate aroma.

[Never substitute a woolen for the muslin strainer, as that fabric, being animal should never come in contact with heat; while cotton or linen, being of vegetable fibre, is easily washed clean and dried. Neither should tin be used, as that lets the fine coffee through, and clouds the liquid, which should be clear. To extract its full strength, coffee should invariably be ground as fine as oatmeal or finely-ground hominy, and protracted boiling dissipates the aroma and destroys its fine flavor.]

The Very Best Way to Make Chocolate.

After grating through a coarse grater, put the chocolate in a stewpan with a coffee-cup or more of hot water; let it boil up two or three minutes, and add plenty of good rich country milk to make it of the right consistency. Too much water tends to make this otherwise delightful beverage insipid.

[Good Cocoa is made in the same manner.]

Old Virginia Egg-Nog.

Two dozen fresh eggs; 1 gallon rich milk; 1-1/2 pounds powdered sugar; 2 pints cognac brandy, or Santa Cruz rum--or 1/2 pint cognac and 1/2 pint Jamaica, or Santa Cruz rum. Break the eggs carefully, separating the whites from the yolks; add the sugar to the latter, and with a strong spoon beat until very light, adding gradually 2 dessert spoonfuls of powdered mace or nutmeg. Next, add the liquor, pouring in slowly, stirring actively at the same time; after which add the milk in like manner. Meanwhile--having whipped the whites of the eggs with an egg-beater into a light froth--pour the egg-nog into a bowl, add the white froth, and decorate with crimson sugar or nutmeg, and serve. The foregoing proportions will be sufficient to make fourteen pints of very superior egg-nog.

Clayton's Popular Sandwich Paste.

Take 2 pounds of Whittaker's Star ham, in small pieces--2/3 lean and 1/3 fat--the hock portion of the ham is best for this purpose. Have ready two fresh calves tongues, boiled and skinned nicely, and cut like the ham. Put these in a kettle, along with 2 good-sized onions, and cover with cold water, boiling slowly until quite tender; when add 1 pound of either fresh or canned tomatoes, stirring for half-an-hour, adding a little hot water, if in danger of burning. Add to the mixture, at the same time, these spices: plenty of best mustard, and a little ground cloves, along with Worcestershire or Challenge sauce, allowing the mixture to simmer five minutes. When cool enough, pour into a wooden bowl, and after chopping fine, pound the mixture well, while it is warm, with a potato-masher. After the mass has cooled it will spread like butter. Should additional seasoning be desired, it can be worked in at any desired time. If not rich enough to suit some palates, one-fourth of a pound best butter may be worked in.

The bread used for the sandwiches must be quite cold and perfectly fresh--cutting carefully in thin slices--using for this purpose a long, thin-bladed and quite sharp knife. Take a thin shaving from the bottom of the loaf, then from the top an inch-wide slice, after removing the crust. Care must be taken to cut without either tearing or pressing the bread. Spread on one side of each slice--as if using butter--and after joining the slices, cut the same to suit the taste.

[As the best bread is the only kind to be used in making sandwiches--without wishing to make invidious distinctions--I must say that Engleberg furnishes from his bakery (on Kearney street), the best I have ever used for this purpose, as it cuts without breaking, and does not dry so soon as other breads I have made use of.]

Welsh Rabbit.

To prepare Welsh rabbit, or rare-bit--both names being used to designate this popular and appetizing dish, which has ever been a favorite with gourmands and good livers, both ancient and modern--take one-half pound of best cheese--not, however, over nine months old--Davidson's, Gilroy, California, or White's, Herkimer County, New York, and cut in small pieces. Put over a slow fire, in a porcelain-lined kettle; when it begins to melt pour in three tablespoonfuls rich milk or cream, and a little good mustard. Stir from the time the cheese begins to melt, to prevent scorching. Have ready a quite hot dish; cover the bottom with toast, buttered upon both sides, upon which pour the melted cheese, spreading evenly over. If you prefer, you may use as a condiment a little mustard, pepper or any favorite sauce. This is a dish that must be eaten as soon as taken from the fire.

Delicate Waffles.

Take 1/2 pound butter; 1/2 pound fine sugar; 9 eggs; 3 pints of milk; 1-1/2 ounces of best baking powder, and 2-1/4 pounds sifted flour. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream; add the yolks of the eggs, the milk, and half the flour; mix well, with the whites of the eggs, beaten to a staunch snow, and add the remainder of the flour. Bake in waffle irons, well greased and heated. When baked, the tops may be dusted well with fine sugar, or with a mixture of sugar and powdered cinnamon.

Force-Meat Balls.

Mix, with 1 pound of chopped veal, or other meat, 1 egg, a little butter, 1 cup, or less, of bread crumbs--moistening the whole with milk or the juice of the stewed meat. Season with summer savory. Make into small balls, and fry brown.

Beef-Tea.

Take 3 pounds of lean beef; chop as fine as coarse hominy, and put in a vessel, covering the meat with cold water. Cover the vessel tightly, and let boil for four hours, carefully keeping the beef just covered with the water. Pass through a colander, pressing out all the juice with a potato-masher, strain through a cotton cloth, and add a little salt. A glass of sherry wine decidedly improves beef-tea.

Crab Sandwich.

Put 1/2 pound boiled crab meat in a mortar, and pound to a smooth paste, adding the juice of a lemon. Season with pepper and salt, with a pinch of curry powder, and mix the paste well with 6 ounces best butter. Cut slices of bread rather thin, trim off the crust, and spread.

Something about Pork.--The Kind to Select, and Best Mode of Curing.

The best quality of pork, as a matter of course, is that fed and slaughtered in the country. Corn, or any kind of grain-fed, or, more especially, milk-fed pork, as every one knows, who is not of the Hebrew faith, which entirely ignores this--when properly prepared, well-flavored, oleaginous production--and is fond of pork, from the succulent sucking pig, the toothsome and fresh spare-rib, unrivalled as a broil, to the broiled or boiled ham, and side-meat bacon of the full-grown porker, is vastly superior to the meat of the slop and garbage-fed animal raised and slaughtered in the city--more especially as the butchering of hogs in San Francisco is at this time entirely monopolized by the Chinese population, who seem to have a warm side, in fact a most devoted affection, for the hog, surpassing even that of the bog-trotters of the "Ould Sod" for the traditional pet-pig that "ates, drinks and slapes wid the ould man, the ould woman, and the childer." Charles Lamb's account of the discovery of the delights of roast pig, and invention of that luxury by the Chinaman whose bamboo hut was burned down, in raking his pig, semi-cremated from the ashes, burned his fingers--which, naturally clapping into his mouth to ease the pain--which was changed to delight, causing John's torture-smitten visage to assume in an instant a broad grin of satisfaction at the discovery--is undoubtedly correct, or at least the love for the pork exhibited by the "Heathen Chinee" cannot reasonably be accounted for in any other way. In order, then, to get the best article of pork--wholesome, toothsome, and, what is most important of all, entirely free from any form of disease or taint, great care should be taken to make selections from the small lots fed and slaughtered in the country, and brought into the city most generally in the fall season, and which are to be procured at the stall or shop of any reputable and reliable dealer. Select a carcass of one hundred, or less, pounds, with flesh hard and white, and thin skin. For salting, cut in pieces six by eight inches, and, after having rubbed thoroughly in salt--neither too fine nor too coarse--take a half-barrel, sprinkle the bottom well with salt, and lay the pieces of pork in tightly; then add salt, and follow with another layer of pork, until the whole is packed, with salt sprinkled on top. Set in a cool place, and, after three or four days, make a brine of boiling water with salt--which, when cool, should be sufficiently strong to float an egg--stir in a half pound of brown sugar, pour over the meat sufficient to cover, and place on top a stone heavy enough to keep the pork weighted down.

Home-Made Lard.

Home-made lard is undoubtedly the best as well as cheapest. If leaf is not to be had, take 10 lbs of solid white pork, as fat as possible, which is quite as good, if not better; cut in pieces uniformly the size of your finger, and put in a vessel with a thick bottom--one of iron is preferable--and adding 1 pint of water, put on the range; keep tightly covered until the water has evaporated in steam, when leave off the cover, letting it cook slowly, until the scraps turn a light brown, when take off, and while still quite warm, strain through a colander, pressing the scraps hard with a potato-masher; pour the liquid into cans and set away. The next day it will be found snow-white, solid and of a fine and equal consistence; and for cooking purposes, quite as good as fresh churned butter in making biscuits, any kind of pastry, or frying eggs.

[In frying lard keep a careful watch and see that it does not scorch.]

New Jersey Sausage.

Take the very best pork you can get--one-third fat and two-thirds lean--and chop on a block with a kitchen cleaver. When half chopped, season with black pepper, salt and sage, rubbed through a sieve, and then finish the chopping; but do not cut the meat too fine, as in that case the juice of the meat will be lost. Make the mixture up into patties, and fry on a common pan, placed in the oven of the stove, taking care not to cook them hard. Veal is a good substitute for the lean pork in making these sausages, which are much better if made one day before cooking.

Pot-Pie.

The following I have found the best manner of making any kind of pot-pie. White meat, such as chicken, quail or nice veal, is decidedly the best for the purpose. Stew the meat until tender, in considerable liquid as when you put into the paste much of that will be absorbed. In making the paste take 1 quart of flour and 2 tablespoonfuls of baking powder, rubbed well into the flour, 1/4 pound butter or sweet lard, and a little salt; mix with milk or water into a soft dough; roll 1/2 an inch thick; cut to size, and lay in a steamer for 15 minutes to make light, then put in and around the stew; cooking slowly for ten minutes.

Curried Crab.

Put into a saucepan 1/4 pound butter with a little flour; cook together and stir till cool; then add a gill of cream, a little cayenne pepper, salt, and a dessert-spoonful of East India Curry Powder. Mix well together, and add 1 pound boiled crab meat, chopped fine; stir well together--make very hot and serve. The addition of a glass of white wine adds to the flavor of this curry.

To Toast Bread.

Cut bread in slices 1/2 an inch thick; first taking a thin crust from top, bottom and sides, or shave the loaf before cutting--otherwise the crust will scorch before the soft part is sufficiently toasted.

Cream Toast.

To make a delicious cream toast, mix well a teaspoonful of corn-starch with a little cold milk, and put in a stewpan with a piece of butter the size of an egg. Pour in hot milk, and stir two minutes, adding a little salt--a little sugar is also an improvement--and pour over the toast while hot.

Fritters.

Four eggs, well beaten; 1 quart of milk; 1 quart of flour; 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder; one tablespoonful sugar, and a little salt. Cook in best lard, and serve with hard or liquid sauce, highly flavored with California brandy or white wine.

Hash.

It is a mistaken idea (labored under by many), that hash can be made of waste material, that would otherwise be thrown away. This is a most excellent and palatable dish if properly prepared. Take the shank, or other parts of good beef you may have at hand, and boil, with as little water as possible, until quite tender, and let stand until quite cold. Then take of potatoes, that have been peeled before boiling, one-third the amount of the meat used, and chop moderately fine, adding plenty of pepper and salt, to taste. Next, chop two or three onions fine, and stew them in some of the liquid in which the meat was boiled, dredging in a little flour, and when thoroughly done, put in the hash, and chop and mix thoroughly. If you think the mass requires moistening add a little of the fat and juice. Put the whole in a pan, and bake in a quick oven until slightly browned at top and bottom.

Should you have good corned-beef--not too salt--it is very nice made in this manner. Use the marrow from the bones in making hash.

Hashed Potatoes with Eggs.

Chop fine 8 or 10 cold boiled potatoes; heat a pan (cast-iron is preferable,) quite hot; put in butter the size of an egg, and as soon as melted add the potatoes; salt and pepper; slightly stirring frequently, and, when heated thoroughly, stir in four well-beaten eggs. Serve on a hot dish.

Baked Macaroni.

Break the macaroni rather short; wash and put in salted water; boil about twenty minutes. Drain off the water, replace it with a cup of good milk and 1 tablespoonful of best butter, and as soon as boiling hot put in a baking-dish. If you like cheese, grate over it the best California article--old cheese should never be used--and bake to a light brown.

For stewed macaroni omit the baking and the cheese, if you like.

Drawn-Butter.

To make drawn-butter, take two tablespoonfuls of flour; good butter, the size of an egg; a little milk, and make to a smooth paste. Then work in slowly one-half pint of water, until the flour is cooked. Season to taste. The foregoing will be found a good basis for nearly all hot sauces, for fish, beet, and other vegetables, as well as for puddings.

Spiced Currants.

Two boxes of currants, washed and stemmed; 3 pounds sugar, 1 tablespoonful allspice, 1 tablespoonful of cloves, 1 tablespoonful cinnamon; boil half-an-hour.

The Best Method of Canning Fruits.

There are various modes of canning fruits, almost every housekeeper having a method of her own. For the benefit of those who are at loss in this particular, we give the following mode--which we fully endorse as the best within our knowledge--made use of by Mrs. George W. Ladd, of Bradford, Massachusetts, whose fruits, prepared in this way, have repeatedly taken the first premium at the Agricultural Fair, held in the Old Bay State. This lady certainly deserves the thanks of all interested in this important matter, for her liberality in giving the public the benefit of her knowledge and experience in this line, as detailed in the following, published in the _New York Graphic_ of August 15, 1883: