Part 4

To a gallon of whisky add four pounds of brown sugar, a cup of yeast, and seven gallons of water. Put it into a demijohn or keg. If you set the vinegar in April, it will be good in November to pickle with. Cover the mouth of the vessel with muslin, to keep out flies or insects, which trouble and sometimes ruin vinegar while making. When sharp and clear, bottle it.

NO. 45.--TO MAKE GOOD AND CHEAP VINEGAR

Take three quarts of molasses, add to it eight gallons of rain water; turn the mixture into a clean cask, shake it well two or three times, throw in a few spoonfuls of good yeast, or two yeast cakes; place the cask in a warm place, and in ten days throw in it a sheet of common brown paper, smeared with molasses; it should be torn into narrow strips. This paper seems necessary to form mother, in making vinegar, unless you use whisky to commence the fermentation; then paper is not necessary.

ENTREES

KIDNEY AND MUSHROOM STEW

Cut the kidneys into slices, wash and dry them carefully; pepper and salt them, roll them in flour, and fry in butter till of a delicate brown color. Pour some plain beef stock, or beef gravy, in the pan; add a chopped onion, and stew for half an hour; then put in a cupful of mushrooms, and cook for fifteen minutes. Mushroom catsup will serve as a substitute. Use one-half the quantity of catsup.

STEWED LAMB CHOPS WITH GREEN PEAS

Season the chops with pepper and salt; roll in flour and fry to a pale brown. When done, if the chops are very fat, pour some of it into the stock-pot and cover the chops with boiling water. Parboil a pint of green peas; add them to the chops, together with a large spoonful of sweet butter. Dredge in a spoonful of flour, and let all stew gently for half an hour.

IRISH STEW

Take from one to three pounds of loin of mutton, or ribs of beef; cut it into chops; add by weight as many white potatoes, sliced, as there is beef. Throw in from two to six chopped onions, according to size, some pepper and salt, and a large spoonful of butter to each pound of meat. Let all stew gently for two hours and serve with boiled rice or macaroni.

PIGEON STEW

Pick and wash the pigeons, stuff them with bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, salt and butter mixed; dust with flour, and put into a pan to brown. Add butter and a little soup-stock or gravy. Stew gently until tender. Before dishing add a glass of wine if approved, if not, a little more stock, if the gravy has become too thick.

TRIPE WITH MUSHROOMS

Clean and parboil tripe before cooking. When it is white and tender, cut it into pieces suitable to fry; pepper and salt it, and dip it in flour or rolled cracker, then drop it into hot bacon fat. When browned on both sides, take up and make a gravy of some of the fat in which it was fried, a little flour, and a wineglass of good vinegar. Pour this around the tripe and serve with mushrooms.

STEWED TRIPE, PLAIN

Cut a pound of tripe in long narrow pieces, lay it in a stew-pan and add a cup of milk, or milk and water, a piece of butter as large as a hen’s egg, a tablespoonful of flour sifted in, a bunch of parsley, and a green onion, if desired. Cook slowly for nearly two hours.

TO FRY TRIPE BROWN

It must be thoroughly boiled and tender, or no frying will make it good. Let it be perfectly cold, cut it in pieces, roll each piece in salt, pepper and flour, and fry brown in bacon grease. Frying tripe in lard makes it tasteless. When nicely brown take it up, dredge a little flour in the gravy, and put in a half cup of vinegar. Serve in a sauceboat, or pour over the tripe as preferred.

SCALLOPS OF MUTTON, WITH MUSHROOMS

“Sautez,” or fry the scallops brown, then pour off the fat, add a glass of wine, a dozen button mushrooms, three ounces of truffles cut in pieces, and a cup of broth, or the stock of plain soup without vegetables. Simmer gently, and finish by adding the juice of a lemon.

HASHED BEEF, PLAIN

Slice some beef in very thin pieces, season with pepper and salt, and shake a little flour over it. Next, chop a medium sized onion and put it (without the beef) into a stew-pan with a tablespoonful of mushroom or tomato catsup. Boil for a few minutes, then add a pint of broth stock, or gravy-soup; boil it down to half the quantity. Five minutes before serving, throw in the cold sliced beef; let it boil five minutes and serve on toasted bread.

SANDWICHES. VERY FINE

Take half a pound of nice sweet butter, three tablespoonfuls of mixed mustard, the same of sweet oil, a little salt, pepper and the yolk of an egg. Put it over the fire and stir till it thickens; set it by to cool and chop fine some tongue or boiled ham. Cut the bread thin, then spread on the dressing and over it put a layer of ham or tongue. Press the slices of bread hard together, trim the edges and garnish with curled parsley.

SANDWICHES OF VARIOUS KINDS, FOR PIC-NICS

Home-made bread cuts better for sandwiches than baker’s bread, so if you wish the sandwiches very nice, it is better to make a loaf at home. For bread and butter sandwiches, cut the bread very thin, spread it evenly with sweet butter, and lay the buttered sides together. Lay them in circles on a plate and put parsley on top of them. Sandwiches may be made with cheese sliced and placed between the buttered bread, or with hard-boiled eggs sliced or chopped, and put between. The best are made with boiled smoked tongue or ham, with French mustard spread over the butter.

TO MAKE FRENCH MUSTARD

Put on a plate an ounce of the best mustard, add to it salt, a clove of garlic or a few tarragon leaves. Mince the garlic, stir it in, and pour on vinegar till it is of the proper thickness for use.

VEAL HASH FOR BREAKFAST. VERY NICE

Take a pint cup of cold veal cut small, dredge it with a spoonful of flour, and add a piece of butter the size of a hen’s egg. Put all in a stew-pan with half a pint of water; cover up and put it on the stove; let it simmer for an hour at least, stir it occasionally and add to it some parsley and sweet herbs. Just before serving add a teacup of milk, and serve on toasted bread.

PLAIN VEAL AND HAM PIE. EASILY MADE

Cut a pound of veal and a pound of ham into slices, salt them slightly; chop a cupful of mushrooms, a bunch of parsley, some eschalots, and fry them lightly; add to them a pint of soup stock, boil it together for five minutes and pour it into the piepan where you have placed your ham and veal. Put a dozen hard-boiled yolks of eggs in among the contents of the pie, cover it with a nice paste and bake it one hour and a half.

FRICANDELLONS OF COLD VEAL OR MUTTON

Mince the meat very fine, soak a thick slice of bread in boiling milk, mash it, and mix it with the cold meat; add a beaten egg (or two if you have more than a quarter of a pound of meat), some chopped parsley and thyme, a little grated lemon peel, pepper and salt; make this into cakes, and fry in butter or lard. Serve them dry on a serviette, accompanied with a gravy made from the bones of the minced meat which must be cooked with an onion, a little butter and flour, and milk; when brown it is ready.

VEAL AND HAM RAISED PIE, OR TIMBALE

Lard two pounds of lean veal well with strips of fat bacon, and add two pounds of ham. Line a deep pan or mould with rich paste; lay in the bottom of this a layer of liver forcemeat, then the veal and ham, and so on in alternate layers, till the dish is full. Season between each layer with thyme, bay leaf, marjoram, or any dried and pounded sweet herbs; fill up the hollow places, and cover the pan with paste. Decorate the top of the pie with cut dough leaves; make a hole in the top to pour in the gravy, and let out the steam. Egg the top of the pie and bake it for three hours; withdraw it from the oven, and place the point of a funnel in the hole in the top, and pour in about a pint of good gravy or veal consommé. This should be eaten cold. It will be jellied all through if cooked enough.

VEAL SALAD FOR LUNCH

To a pint of minced veal add three heads of celery. Pour over this a dressing made of the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs, a tablespoonful of dry mustard, and a large spoonful of olive oil. When this dressing is well beaten and perfectly smooth, add to it slowly (to keep from curdling) four tablespoonfuls of good wine vinegar, a little cayenne and salt. Garnish the dish with parsley and celery leaves.

VEAL SWEETBREADS, WITH TOMATOES

Set over the fire two quarts of ripe tomatoes; stew slowly, and strain through a coarse sieve. Add to them four or five sweetbreads, well trimmed and soaked in warm water; season with salt and cayenne pepper. Thicken with three spoonfuls of flour and a quarter of a pound of butter, mixed; cook slowly till done, and just before serving stir in the beaten yolks of three eggs.

VEAL LOAF FOR LUNCH OR TEA

Mince cold roast veal as fine as possible; add a fourth part as much fat ham, a cup of grated bread, or cracker crumbs, and two well-beaten eggs to bind the crumbs together; season with salt, and pepper (black and red), mix and form it into a loaf. Glaze the outside with yolk of egg, and sprinkle over it fine cracker crumbs. Bake half an hour, and serve with gravy made from the bones, etc., of the veal. Serve the gravy hot.

MINCED VEAL AND POACHED EGGS

One pound of cold veal chopped very fine. Boil half a pint of sauce till it begins to thicken or glaze; then add a cup of cream and the minced veal; season with pepper and salt. When dished put six poached eggs around it, alternately with slices of red tongue or ham. This is a nice breakfast dish, and uses to advantage the cold meats from the day previous.

CALF OR PIG BRAINS FRIED

Wash the brains in salt water, and wipe dry and dip in wheat flour or in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs. Fry in butter or lard, and season with pepper, salt and lemon sliced.

CALVES’ AND PIGS’ FEET FRIED IN BATTER

Wash and cook the feet tender, the day before using. When wanted, wash and roll them in a little flour to dry. Set them by, and make a batter of flour, eggs, milk, and a little salt and pepper (one egg is sufficient to two feet); take out the largest bones and roll the feet in batter, or lay them in a pan with hot lard, and pour the batter over them. Fry a delicate brown and serve on toast.

CALF’S HEAD BOILED OR BAKED

Have a head nicely cleaned, and soak it in salt and water to make it look white. Remove the eyes. Take out the tongue and salt it. Of the brains make a separate dish. To boil the head put it in a pot of lukewarm water and boil till very tender. Serve with sauce made of butter, flour and water, some lemon juice and tomatoes. If to bake, dredge flour over it, put on bits of butter, season with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs, set in a hot oven and baste with the water in which it was boiled.

POTTED CALF’S HEAD

Boil a calf’s head or half a beef’s head with a cow-heel until very tender. When done, pick out all the bones and chop the meat and tendons very fine; strain the liquor they were boiled in, and set it away to cool; skim off the fat and pour the jelly over the meat. Season with a teaspoonful of black pepper, salt, and thyme, powdered; boil all together for a few minutes, and pour into bowls or jelly moulds. Serve with parsley. Add a little garlic if the flavor is liked.

COLLARED CALF’S HEAD WITH BRAINS. COLD DISH

Boil half, or the whole calf’s head, as you require. Cover it with water and let it simmer for two hours; take it up, remove the bones, and put them back into the broth; let it continue to stew, adding to it sage leaves, and an onion. Cut the meat of head and brains into a stew-pan, adding to it some slices of ham, pepper and salt, the chopped tongue and an eschalot; let these cook two hours. The brains should be beaten up with two eggs, before putting them in, which should be the last thing. Then pour all in a mould and fill up with the liquor from the head, which should be boiled to a jelly.

CURRY OF COLD ROAST FOWL

Take two large onions, two apples, two ounces of butter, a dessertspoonful of curry powder or paste, half pint of gravy or soup-stock, one spoonful of lemon juice and two tomatoes.

Fry the fowl and the onions in butter to a light brown color; stew the apples, or fry them also. Put all, onions, apples, gravy and fowl, with the tomatoes and lemon juice into a stewing pan and let it stew thirty minutes; then serve with boiled rice. If curry paste is used instead of curry powder, no lemon is required.

WELSH RAREBIT

Cut a pound of cheese in slices a quarter of an inch thick, fry them together five minutes in butter, then add two well-beaten eggs, a little mustard and pepper; stir it up and send it to table hot, on slices of buttered bread.

HAM TOAST FOR LUNCHEON

Beat the yolk of an egg with a tablespoonful of sweet milk; set it on the fire to warm, and thicken it with grated or finely chopped ham; let it simmer a few moments and pour it on buttered toast. This is for one person.

WINTER DISH OF BAKED BEANS AND PORK

This is a very heavy dish, but nourishing, and it is well to know how to cook it, as it is economical.

Pick the beans, wash them, and put them to soak over night in plenty of water. In the morning pour this water off and put the beans in a kettle of cold water; place them on the fire and let them simmer till quite tender. Take them up and drain them; when thoroughly drained, put them in a baking pan with a large piece of salt pork; score the pork and lay it deep in among the beans, not upon them. Pour boiling water over them and bake till brown. If in a range, leave them in all night. This constant change of water improves the beans very much, and makes them less flatulent.

MUTTON, BEEF AND HAMS

REMARKS ON BOILING MEATS

Meat, whether fresh or salted, smoked or dried, should always be put on the fire in cold water. Dried meats should be soaked before boiling. The delicacy of meat and fowls is preserved by carefully skimming while they are boiling.

STUFFED HAM

Smoked hams are much liked stuffed with spices and sweet herbs, which the only kind of stuffing a salt ham will admit, as bread, crackers or oysters would sour before the ham could be used. If you wish to stuff a ham, look at the recipe for “Aromatic Spices for seasoning Meat, Pies, etc.” Soak your ham all night, scrape it nicely, and boil it half an hour to make the skin tender; then take it from the pot, gash it all over, introduce as much of the pounded spices as the incisions will hold, and then close the skin over the gashes and boil in the same manner, with vegetables thrown in, as in recipe for boiled ham.

BAKED HAM

Soak and clean your ham, boil it with onions, cloves, parsley and sweet herbs until it is nearly done, then let it cool in its own liquor; when cold, pull off the skin and place the ham in the oven gate, with a little sugar and bread crumbs over it till it is brown. If it is to be eaten hot, serve with vegetables and some acid or piquant sauce; if cold, send up savory jelly, No. 21.

TO BOIL A HAM

Run a knife, or skewer, into the thickest part of the ham next the bone; if the knife comes out clean the ham is good, if it smells rank and smears the knife the ham is not good. Select your ham, then, according to this rule, and when good lay it in cold water; scrape and wash it carefully, and let it remain in the water all night. In the morning, when the water--enough to cover the ham--is nearly boiling lay the ham in, and keep the water in a simmer. When it has boiled about an hour throw in two carrots, four onions, two heads of celery, a sprig of parsley, two or three blades of mace and four cloves. If the ham is very salty, it is well to change the water before putting in the seasoning. To obtain tenderness and mellowness the ham must not be allowed to boil hard, only simmer. Too much heat hardens all meat, especially salt meat. When the ham is done set it off in its own water, let it cool in it; by this means it will retain its moisture. When cool take it out, skin it, and dredge sugar over it, set it in the oven till it browns, or hold a hot shovel over it.

DAUBE GLACEE OF BEEF, FOR COLD SUPPERS

Take a thick round of beef--from four to six inches is the best size--make holes in it and stuff them with salted pork or bacon; roll each piece, before it is drawn through the beef, in pepper, salt, sugar, and vinegar, with minced parsley, and a very little minced garlic. If the weather is cold it will be better to keep the meat till the next day before cooking it. Boil two calf’s feet or four pig’s feet until they drop to pieces; pick out the bones and strain the liquor; set it away to jelly, or put it on ice to make it jelly. The next morning, put one half the jelly in a large stew pan, then add the beef, and cover it with the remainder of the jelly. Paste the pan over very tight or cover it extremely well, so that none of the flavor can escape. Cook this about four hours; when done, take out, cover with the liquor, and set it aside till it is jellied. This is delicious to eat cold, for suppers and collations.

BOILED BRISKET OF BEEF, STUFFED

A piece weighing about eight pounds requires five or six hours to boil. Before boiling the beef make a dressing of bread crumbs, pepper, butter, salt, sweet herbs, mace, and an onion, all chopped fine and mixed with a beaten egg. Put the dressing between the fat and the lean of the beef; sew it up to keep the dressing in. Flour a cloth, tie the beef up tight in it, and let it boil five or six hours.

ROUND OF BEEF STEWED BROWN

Make incisions in the beef and stuff with chopped onions, salt, pepper, and sweet basil, thyme and parsley. Dredge the meat with flour, lay some slices of bacon over it, and put it to brown in a close oven. Slice two turnips, four carrots, four salsifies, three stalks of celery and two onions; add a quarter of a cup of tomato catsup or two large tomatoes; season with salt and put all in the oven to cook with the meat. After it has been cooking in the oven two hours and is brown, add a cup of water with the vegetables. Cover again closely, and let this stew for one or two hours more, or until the meat and vegetables are tender.

TO FRY A STEAK TO TASTE AS IF BROILED

It sometimes happens that when the fire is low and the coals gone out, you are called on to cook a steak. Then get up a quick blaze in the stove with some kindlings. Put in a pan, over the blaze, a little butter; when it is hot lay in your steak; let it fry quickly; while frying cover the pan. Work some butter, salt and pepper together in a tin pan, and when the steak is done to taste, let it lie in this mixture a few minutes, and then serve. Do not salt a steak until it is cooked as salt will toughen it and draw out its juices.

ROUND OF BEEF A LA BARONNE

Boil a fat round of beef for half an hour, take it up and put in a deep dish; cut gashes in the sides of the meat, put pepper and salt into each gash; fill the dish the meat is in with claret wine; set it in to bake, adding as it goes in the stove three blades of mace, a cup of pickled capers, or nasturtiums, three white onions cut small, and a bunch of parsley cut fine. Stew or bake all together until the meat is tender. Toast some slices of bread very brown, lay them in the bottom of a dish, lay in the beef and pour the gravy around it, unless it is preferred in a sauce boat.

ROASTED BEEFSTEAKS

Tenderloin or porterhouse steaks are the best for broiling. Have a clear fire of coals to broil on; rub the gridiron with a little fat of the meat; lay on the steak without salting, let it broil gently until one side is done, then turn. Catch the blood as you turn it, to make the gravy rich. If the steak is a large firm one, take a quarter of a pound of butter and work into it pepper and salt. When the steak is done lay it on to this seasoned butter, keep it hot until the butter melts, turn the steak in it a few times, put the blood with the gravy, and serve hot, with tomato sauce or catsup.

TO ROAST BEEF IN A STOVE

A fine roasting piece of beef may, if properly managed, be baked in a stove so as to resemble beef roasted before a large, open fire. Prepare the meat as if for roasting, season it well with salt, pepper, and a little onion if liked. Set the meat on muffin rings, or a trivet in a dripping pan, and pour into the pan a pint or so of hot water to baste the meat with. Keep the oven hot and well closed on the meat; when it begins to bake, baste it freely, using a long-handled spoon; it should be basted every fifteen minutes; add hot water to the pan as it wastes, that the gravy may not burn; allow fifteen minutes to each pound of meat unless you wish it very rare. Half an hour before taking it up, dredge flour thickly over it, baste freely and let it brown. Take the meat from the pan, dredge in some flour and seasoning if needed; throw into the gravy a cup of water, let it boil up once, and strain into a sauce boat or gravy tureen.

LEG OF MUTTON BOILED A L’ANGLAISE

Select a fat, fine leg of mutton, put it on the fire in warm water; when it boils skim it, and let it simmer gently for two hours and a half; throw in a tablespoonful of salt. When the mutton is done garnish with turnips mashed in cream, butter, pepper and salt, and send it to table with a sauce boat of caper sauce No. 11.

ROAST LEG OF MUTTON

Select a fine, fat leg, cut holes in it, and lard it with fat bacon; season with parsley, pepper, and salt and put it to bake in a slow oven. Roast it for two hours, and serve with tomato sauce.

MUTTON STUFFED WITH MUSHROOMS

Chop up half a pint of mushrooms, put them in a stew pan with some chopped parsley and onion, and a tablespoonful of grated lean and same of fat ham; season with salt and pepper, add the yolks of four eggs, stir it all together, and introduce it in the leg by taking out the bone or by making incisions in the mutton. Bake very brown, froth it up by dusting flour over it, and serve with a good brown gravy, in which some currant jelly is melted. Sauce No. 28 is very nice for stuffed leg of mutton.

MUTTON HAUNCH

Let it lie in vinegar and water a few hours before it is put to cook. When wanted, rub it all over with pepper and salt, and when going to put it in the oven, cover it with a paste made of flour and water, to keep in the juices while baking; allow fifteen minutes to each pound of mutton. When half done, take off the flour paste, baste the meat well and dredge flour over it. Half an hour before serving, stir into the pan a quarter of a pound of butter, baste the meat freely, dredge flour over it again, and brown. Serve with port wine and jelly in the gravy, or if preferred, use one of the sauces mentioned for roast mutton.

MUTTON THAT WILL TASTE LIKE VENISON

Take a hind quarter of lamb or mutton; rub it well all over with brown sugar, half a pint of wine, and same of vinegar. Let it stay in this pickle for a day or two, if the weather is cold. When it is wanted, wash it, dry it, and roast it, or it may be cut into steaks, or made into a pie like venison. Sugar is a great preservative, and gives a finer flavor than salt, which hardens delicate meats. Salt drains out the juices of mutton or lamb.

FOWLS AND GAME

BOILED CHICKEN

After the chickens are cleaned and trussed fold them in a nice white cloth, put them in a large stew-pan and cover them with boiling water; boil them gently, and skim carefully as long as any scum rises; let them simmer slowly as that will make them plump and white, while fast boiling will make them dark and lose flavor. When done lay them on a hot dish, and pour celery, oyster, or egg sauce over them. Serve some also in a boat, as it keeps hot longer than when poured over the fowls. Boiled tongue or ham should be served with boiled chicken. If the chicken is not very tough, an hour or an hour and a quarter is sufficient to boil it.

COUNTRY FRIED CHICKENS