Chapter 3
Baked potatoes that are left over must be made into stuffed potatoes before they are heavy and cold. At the close of the meal at which they were first served, cut the potatoes directly into halves, scoop out the inside portion, put it through an ordinary vegetable press, or mash it fine; add a little butter, salt, pepper and sufficient milk to make a light mixture; stand this over hot water and beat until light and smooth. Put it back into the shells, and stand them aside in a cold place. When ready to serve, brush the top with beaten egg, run them into a quick oven until hot and golden brown.
Potato Croquettes
Cold mashed potatoes may be made into croquettes by adding to each pint four tablespoonfuls of heated milk, the yolks of two eggs, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of grated onion, a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper; stir over the fire until the mixture is thoroughly heated; form into cylinder-shaped croquettes, dip in egg and rolled bread crumbs and fry in smoking hot fat. Potato croquettes are more difficult to fry than meat croquettes; the fat must be at least 365 degrees (Fahr.) and the rolling carefully done.
Potato Puff
The above mixture may have the whites of the eggs beaten and stirred in, and baked in the oven; serve in the same dish in which it was baked.
Potato Roses for Garnishing
Cold boiled potatoes may have added sufficient milk to make a soft paste; stir it over the fire until smooth; put it into your pastry bag, using a star tube; hold the bag firmly, pressing out on greased papers these little potato roses; brown in the oven and use them for garnishing fish dishes.
Potato Custards
Stir two cups of cold mashed potatoes, with four tablespoonfuls of milk, over the fire until they are warm and light; take from the fire and add three eggs beaten light with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Add a teaspoonful of vanilla, stir in carefully a pint and a half of milk. Put this mixture into greased custard cups; stand in a baking pan of boiling water and bake in a moderate oven until set, about twenty or thirty minutes.
Where a little cooked meat and, at the same time, mashed potatoes, are left over, the meat may be seasoned with a savory sauce, turned into a baking dish, the mashed potatoes slightly thinned with hot milk and then slightly thickened with flour, and used as a crust. This makes what we call a potato pie. Four tablespoonfuls of milk and four of flour would be a good allowance to each cupful of mashed potatoes.
POTATOES--COLD BOILED
Hashed Brown Potatoes
Chop two cold boiled potatoes rather fine, season with salt and pepper. Put a tablespoonful of butter in an ordinary sauté pan; when hot, put in the potatoes, smoothing and patting them down; stand over a moderate fire and allow them to cook undisturbed for at least eight minutes; then with a limber knife fold over one half as you would an omelet; stand again over the fire for about three minutes and turn at once on to a heated dish. These are exceedingly difficult to make. Directions must be carefully followed; the butter must be hot when you put in the potatoes; the whole must be packed firmly down so that it will not break when turning out.
O'Brien Potatoes
Chop one green pepper rather fine. Chop sufficient red pepper to make two tablespoonfuls. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying pan, add the peppers, which must be sweet; shake until the peppers are soft, cover over four cold boiled potatoes, chopped rather fine, that have been seasoned with a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Press them down as you do hashed brown potatoes, let them stand for a moment, stir them up, mix well, without breaking, and press down again. Let these stand until brown, fold over as you would an omelet and turn out on a heated platter.
Potatoes au Gratin
To each four good-sized cold potatoes chopped fine allow a pint of cream sauce, to which you have added four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese; mix the potatoes with the sauce, turn them into a baking dish, dust with cheese, and brown in a quick oven.
Scalloped Potatoes
Cut cold boiled potatoes into dice; to each pint allow a half pint of cream sauce. Put a layer of the sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, put in the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, cover with another layer of cream sauce, dust the top with bread crumbs, dot here and there little bits of butter, and bake in a moderate oven until a golden brown.
Potatoes in Milk
Cold boiled potatoes may be cut into slices and cooked in milk in a double boiler until the whole is thoroughly heated; season with salt and pepper and serve.
Sweet Potatoes
Cold boiled or roasted sweet potatoes may be mashed while warm, seasoned with salt, pepper and butter and formed at once into croquettes; dip and fry the same as white potato croquettes.
Lyonnaise Potatoes
Cut cold boiled potatoes into small dice; to each pint allow a tablespoonful of butter; put the butter in an ordinary sauté pan, melt it, add a tablespoonful of chopped onion, shake until the onion is golden brown; throw in the potatoes, shake or toss over a hot fire until each piece is slightly browned; sprinkle lightly with a half teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of parsley, and a dash of pepper; dish and serve.
Broiled Potatoes
Cut cold boiled potatoes into thin slices lengthwise; dip each slice in a little melted butter, dust it with salt and pepper, and broil it over a clear fire until a golden brown. For dyspeptics it is better to broil the potato first and add the butter after, as the heating of the butter renders it indigestible. Sweet potatoes may be broiled after this same rule, and would be less greasy than when fried.
Vegetable Browned Hash
Chop two or three cold boiled potatoes rather fine, add an equal quantity of chopped carrot, and either string beans or peas, which ever you happen to have left over. You can add to this a cupful of stewed cabbage. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a shallow frying pan, mix the vegetables, put them into the butter, let them stand over a slow fire until they are browned thoroughly and crusted in the bottom. Fold one half carefully over the other, and press the two halves together; cook just a moment longer, and turn out on to a heated platter. This is a nice dish to serve with omelet and tomato sauce for luncheon or supper.
CHEESE
The shells of Edam, or pine-apple cheese, after all the available cheese has been scooped out, will be used as a baking dish for stewed spaghetti or macaroni or rice. If care is taken, one shell may be used for three or four bakings. Boil the macaroni in plain water until tender; then drain, cut it into small pieces and add it to cream sauce. Pour this into the cheese shell, stand the shell on a piece of oiled paper in a baking pan and run into a moderate oven for fifteen or twenty minutes. Lift the shell carefully, put it on to a heated dish, and send at once to the table. After the macaroni has been taken out, the shell will be cleaned and put aside in a cold place for the next baking. There is just enough cheese imparted by the toasting of this shell to give ah agreeable flavor to the macaroni. Plain boiled rice may be heaped into the shells and steamed, or baked in the oven for a few moments.
Any scraps or bits of common cheese, when too hard and dry to serve on the table should be grated, put into a jar and put aside for cheese balls to serve with lettuce, cheese soufflé, for baked macaroni, or spaghetti, or for croquettes, cheese sauce, or Duchess soup.
Cheese Soufflé
Put one cup of stale bread crumbs with a gill of milk over the fire for just a moment; take from the fire, add the yolks of three eggs, six tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of red pepper; stir in the well-beaten whites of the eggs; put into individual baking dishes; bake in a quick oven about eight minutes and send at once to the table.
Cheese Balls
Grate or chop sufficient common cheese to make a half pint; add to it one pint of stale bread crumbs, a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of red pepper and the whites of two eggs slightly beaten. Form these into small balls the size of an English walnut; dip in egg and then in bread crumbs and fry in smoking hot fat. These may also be made into small cylinder-shaped croquettes, and served with cream sauce.
Duchess Soup
Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and a sliced onion in a saucepan; cook until the onion is soft and yellow; add to this two tablespoonfuls of flour, mix, and then add one quart of milk, a level teaspoonful of salt and a palatable seasoning of red pepper. Add six tablespoonfuls of grated cheese; stir in a double boiler until it is smoking hot; press through a fine sieve; reheat and send at once to the table.
Cheese Pudding
Toast slices of stale bread until a golden brown and crisp to the center. This is best done in the oven. Put a layer of this toasted bread in the bottom of a baking dish; put over a quarter of a cup of grated or chopped cheese, sprinkle with salt and red pepper; then another layer of bread, another of cheese and the last of bread. Pour over sufficient milk to moisten the bread; bake in a quick oven fifteen minutes, and serve at once.
SAUCES
All meat sauces are made after the same rule, changing the liquids to give varieties; for instance, one tablespoonful of butter (which means an ounce), and one tablespoonful of flour (a half ounce) are always allowed to each half pint of liquid. The butter and flour are rubbed together (better without heating), then the liquid added, cold or warm, the whole stirred over the fire until boiling. A half teaspoonful of salt and an eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper is the proper amount of seasoning.
White Sauce
If you wish to make a white sauce, use one tablespoonful of butter, one tablespoonful of flour and a half pint of milk. Called also milk or cream sauce.
Tomato Sauce
Tomato sauce will have the same proportions of butter and flour and a half pint of strained tomatoes.
Sauce Bechamel
For sauce Bechamel, fill the cup half full of stock, then the remaining half with milk, giving again the half pint of liquid and usual quantity of butter and flour.
Sauce Supréme
This is one of the nicest of all sauces to use with warmed-over chicken, duck or turkey. Rub together a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, then add gradually a half pint of chicken stock; stir constantly until boiling, take from the fire, add the yolks of two eggs, strain through a fine sieve, add the seasoning, and serve immediately.
Sauces containing the yolks of uncooked eggs cannot be reboiled after the eggs are added.
English Drawn Butter
For English drawn butter, use a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of flour, and a half pint of water. We usually have the water boiling, and add it gradually to the butter and flour, stirring rapidly. As soon as it reaches boiling point, take from the fire and add carefully another tablespoonful of butter. This may be converted into a plain
Sauce Hollandaise
by adding with the last tablespoonful of butter, the yolks of two eggs, the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of onion juice and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley.
Brown Sauce
This is made by rubbing butter and flour together in the above proportions, then adding a half pint of stock; stir until boiling, add a teaspoonful of browning or kitchen bouquet and the usual seasoning of salt and pepper. To change the character of this sauce add garlic, onion, Worcestershire sauce, mushroom catsup, etc.
Brown Tomato Sauce
An exceedingly nice sauce for Hamburg steaks. After you have taken the steaks from the pan, add a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour; mix. Fill your measuring cup half full of strained tomatoes, the remaining half with stock, making a half pint; add this to the butter and flour, stir until boiling, add a seasoning of salt and pepper and pour over the steaks.
Roasted Beef Gravy
Roasted beef gravy, which really should be a sauce, is improved by adding a little tomato to the stock before adding it to the fat and flour. In roasting meats, we do not use butter for the sauce; there is always sufficient fat in the bottom of the pan. Pour from the pan all but one or two tablespoonfuls of fat (the amount required) and add to that the flour. A rounding tablespoonful of butter to which we refer weighs an ounce; of liquid fat, as in the pan, you must allow two even tablespoonfuls to the ounce; so, if you are going to make a half pint of sauce take out all but two tablespoonfuls of fat; add one tablespoonful of flour and then the half pint of water or stock.
Browning
Plain burned sugar (caramel) may be used to color soups and sauces, thus saving the trouble of browning the flour or butter. It is also used as a flavoring for sweets. Put one cup of sugar, dry, into an iron saucepan. Stand it over a hot fire, and stir continually until it is reduced to a dark brown liquid. When it begins to burn and smoke, add hastily a cup of boiling water, stir and cook until a thin syrup-like mixture is formed. It must not be too thick. Bottle, and it is ready for use, and will keep any length of time.
Kitchen Bouquet
Add one chopped onion and a teaspoonful of celery seed to one cup of dry sugar, and then proceed as for ordinary browning. Strain and bottle. A very good mixture under this name can be purchased at the grocers.
Mushroom Sauce
Where just a few mushrooms are left over, either fresh or canned, they may be chopped fine and added to a brown sauce and served with steak or beef; or they may be chopped fine and added to a cream sauce and served with chicken or sweetbreads.
Cold Meat Sauces
It is the fashion when one is serving cold meat to pass with it some condiment like Worcestershire sauce, mushroom, walnut or tomato catsup. Of course, these used in any great quantity are more or less injurious. A number of little left-overs in the house may be used to take their place, adding zest to the meat, and are more economical and more wholesome.
Chopped Tomato Sauce
Peel a good-sized tomato, cut it into halves and press out the seeds; chop the flesh of the tomato fine, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, or, if you have it, a little sweet pepper chopped fine; you may add also a little celery chopped very fine, or celery seed, and a teaspoonful of onion juice; rub your spoon with a clove of garlic, and mix the ingredients thoroughly; add a teaspoonful of lemon juice and dish. Pass and use as ordinary catsup.
Grated Cucumber Sauce
Grate three or four large cucumbers; drain them on a sieve; to this drained pulp add a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of red pepper, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and their stir in carefully two or three tablespoonfuls of very thick cream; if you can whip the cream a little first, so much the better. Cream may also be added to the tomato.
Chopped Celery Sauce
Chop fine sufficient celery to make a half pint; season it with a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a dash of pepper. Rub the spoon with garlic, mix thoroughly, stir into it the yolk of an egg that has been beaten light with two tablespoonfuls of cream; add a few drops of lemon juice or tarragon vinegar and serve.
Cream Horseradish Sauce
This is one of the most delightful sauces to serve with left-over meats, especially beef. Press from the vinegar four tablespoonfuls of horseradish, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, and work in the yolk of an egg. Whip six tablespoonfuls of cream to a stiff froth, stir it gradually into the horseradish and dish at once.
Pudding Sauces
The simple method of making a pudding sauce is to add to a half cup of sugar, a tablespoonful of flour; mix thoroughly, and then add hastily a half pint of boiling water; boil for a moment and pour while hot into one well-beaten egg, beating all the while. This may now be seasoned with any flavoring, as orange, lemon or vanilla.
To change the character of this sauce, a tablespoonful of butter may be added. Where butter enters largely into the composition of a pudding sauce, it is better that it should be beaten to a cream, the sugar added gradually, then the egg and last the liquor. Heat it over a double boiler just at serving time, or the froth will float on the surface and the liquid be rather dense at the bottom.
Melted sugar with lemon juice and a little water is called sugar sauce.
SALADS
There comes a time during the week, even in careful housekeeping, when there is an accumulation of little things, a few olives, a slice or two of beet, perhaps two or three pieces of cooked carrot, a cold potato, a tiny little bit of cold fish, or cold meats, and not more than a tablespoonful or two of aspic jelly; these may all be utilized in a
Russian Salad
Chop or cut carefully the vegetables; mix together, add two or three tablespoonfuls of toasted piñon nuts, and the meat and fish; dish on lettuce leaves, or, if you have tomatoes, peel and take out the centers, and fill the salad into the tomatoes. Serve with French or mayonnaise dressing; garnish with blocks of aspic jelly.
CEREALS
Cold boiled rice left over may be mixed with a small quantity of meat, and used for stuffing tomatoes or egg plant; or it may be re-heated or made into pudding, or added to the muffins for lunch, or added to the corn bread.
A cup of oat meal or cracked wheat or wheatlet may also be added to the muffins or ordinary yeast or corn breads. These little additions increase the food value, make the mixture lighter, and save waste.
Southern Rice Bread
Separate two eggs, beat the yolks until light, and add one cup (a half pint) of milk; add a tablespoonful of melted butter, a half teaspoonful of salt, and one and a half cups of corn meal; beat thoroughly, and stir in one cup of cold boiled rice; add a teaspoonful of baking powder; beat for two or three minutes; stir in the well-beaten whites of the eggs, and bake in a thin sheet in an ordinary baking pan.
Rice Muffins
Separate two eggs; add to the yolks one cup of milk and a cup and a half of white flour; beat thoroughly, add a half teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of baking powder and one cup of cold boiled rice; stir in the well-beaten whites, and bake in gem pans in a quick oven twenty minutes.
Rice Croquettes
To make cold boiled rice into croquettes, the rice must be re-heated in a double boiler with a gill of milk and the yolk of an egg to each cup; you may season with sugar and lemon or salt and pepper, and serve as a vegetable. Form into cylinder-shaped croquettes; dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry in smoking hot fat.
Simple Rice Pudding
Put into a double boiler one quart of milk; allow it to cook for thirty minutes; then add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a grating of nutmeg, and one cup of cold boiled rice; turn this into a baking pan, and bake in a quick oven thirty minutes. Serve cold. Raisins may be added when it is put into the baking pan.
Lemon Rice
Into one cup of cold boiled rice stir one pint of milk; beat the yolks of three eggs with a half cup of sugar together until light; add to them the rice and milk; add the grated yellow rind and the juice of one lemon. Turn this into a baking pan; bake in a moderately quick oven twenty to thirty minutes. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and beat again. Heap these over the pudding, dust thickly with powdered sugar; return to the oven to slowly brown; serve cold.
Paradise Pudding
Pare, core and grate three apples. Separate three eggs; add to the yolks four tablespoonfuls of sugar; beat until light; add a grating of nutmeg and a teaspoonful of lemon juice; stir in a half cup of cold boiled rice; mix with this quickly the apples, and beat well; add a half cup of milk; turn into a baking dish, and bake for thirty minutes. Make a meringue as in preceding recipe, from the whites of the eggs; heap it over the top, and brown. This pudding may be served warm or cold.
Compote of Pineapple
Throw a pint of boiling water over one cup of cold boiled rice; stir for a moment; drain, and stand at the oven door. Have ready, picked apart, one small pineapple; add to it a half cup of sugar; heat quickly, stirring constantly. Arrange the rice in the center of a round dish, making it into a mound, flat on top; heap the pineapple neatly on this; pour over the syrup, and send at once to the table. Small quantities or different kinds of fruits that have been left over may be blended and used in this way.
Monday Pudding
Cut bits of whole wheat bread into dice. Use a half cup of any fruit that may have been left over, prunes, raisins, chopped dates or candied fruit. Grease an ordinary melon mold; put a layer of the bread in the bottom, then a layer of the fruit, and so continue until you have the mold filled. Beat three eggs, without separating, with four tablespoonfuls of sugar; add a pint of milk; pour this carefully over the bread; let it stand for ten minutes; then put the lid on the mold, and steam or boil continuously for one hour. Serve with lemon or orange sauce.
Apple Farina Pudding
Pour the left-over breakfast porridge into a square mold and stand it aside. At luncheon or dinner time cut this into thin slices, cover the bottom of a baking dish with these slices, and cover these with sliced apples, and so continue until you have the ingredients used, having the last layer apples. Beat an egg, without separating, until light, add a half cupful of milk and a saltspoonful of salt, then stir in a half cupful of flour. When smooth pour this over the apples and bake in a quick oven a half hour. Serve with milk or with hard sauce.
Cranberry Farina Pudding
2 cupfuls of cold left-over farina porridge 1/2 cupful of cranberries 1/2 cupful of sugar
It is wise to pour the porridge into a mold as soon as you finish breakfast. At serving time turn this out in a glass dish, pour over the cranberry that has been pressed through a sieve; dust thickly with the sugar. Stir the remaining sugar into a half pint of milk or cream and serve as a sauce with the pudding.
Plain Farina Pudding
2 cupfuls of milk 1/2 cupful of sugar 2 eggs 1 cupful of left-over farina or cream of wheat 1 teaspoonful of vanilla
Put the milk in a double boiler, add the sugar and cold farina porridge. Stir until thoroughly hot, then add the eggs, well beaten, and the vanilla. Turn into a baking dish and run in the oven until brown. Serve cold, with milk or cream.
Farina Gems
2 eggs 1 cupful of milk 1 cupful of cold boiled farina 1 cupful of flour 4 level teaspoonfuls of baking powder 1/2 teaspoonful of salt
Separate the eggs, add the milk and stir this gradually into the cold farina. When smooth add the salt, baking powder and flour, mixed. Beat, and then fold in the well-beaten whites of eggs. Bake in gem pans in a quick oven a half hour.
Hominy Pone
1 cupful of boiled hominy 1 cupful of white corn meal 2 cupfuls of milk 2 level tablespoonfuls of butter 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoonful of salt
If the hominy is cold left-over hominy, add to it the milk, and when thoroughly smooth add the eggs, well beaten, then the butter, melted, and the corn meal. Pour into a greased pan and bake in a very hot oven about twenty to twenty-five minutes.
Oat Meal Muffins
The ordinary muffin recipes, which are always about alike, no matter what flour is used, may have added to them a cup of well-cooked oat meal; for instance, separate two eggs as for rice muffins; add to the yolks a cup of milk; then add one and a half cups of whole wheat flour; beat thoroughly; add a teaspoonful of baking powder; beat again; add one cup of well-cooked oat meal, or you may substitute wheatlet or any of the breakfast cereals; fold in the whites of the eggs, and bake in gem pans in a quick oven twenty to thirty minutes.
Sandwiches