Part 16

Boil a cupful of rice in two quarts of water. When tender, turn into a colander, drain, shake hard and stand at the side of the range ten minutes to dry. Now stir into the rice, first, a tablespoonful of melted butter, then four tablespoonfuls of Parmesan cheese and a dash of cayenne pepper. Serve very hot.

Tomatoes and cheese

Cut the stem-end from large tomatoes, and with a small spoon scoop out the insides. To two tablespoonfuls of the tomato pulp add a teaspoonful of bread-crumbs and the same quantity of cheese crumbled into bits. Season to taste and return this mixture to the tomatoes. Replace the stem-ends and bake the tomatoes for twenty minutes in a roasting-pan. Transfer to a hot platter and serve.

Cheese straws

To a half pint of prepared flour add two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, moisten with the yolk of an egg and enough milk to make a paste that can be rolled out. Roll into a thin sheet and cut into narrow “straws.” Bake to a delicate brown. While they are hot sift grated cheese over them.

Cheese puffs

In a saucepan of boiling water melt two tablespoonfuls of butter. When the water and butter are boiling, stir into them four tablespoonfuls of flour, wet with a little cold water, and four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Cook for three minutes, stirring all the time. Remove from the fire, and when the mixture is cold add two eggs and beat hard for fifteen minutes. Line a baking-pan with greased paper and drop the mixture upon it, a spoonful at a time, leaving ample space between each puff for the swelling caused by baking. When puffed up and brown they are done and must be eaten at once.

Cheese fritters

Make small sandwiches of buttered white bread (from which the crust has been removed) sliced thin and thin slices of cheese. Press each sandwich firmly, that the two pieces of bread may not separate in the cooking, and drop into boiling fat. Fry to a golden brown and remove to a colander lined with tissue paper.

Egg and cheese timbales

Beat six eggs very light and add to them a gill of warm milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, five tablespoonfuls of grated cheese and a pinch, each, of paprika and salt. Butter small timbale molds, or pâté pans, fill with the egg mixture and set in a baking-pan of boiling water until the egg is set. Turn out carefully on a hot platter and pour hot tomato sauce about them. Serve at once, as they soon fall. A nice luncheon _entrée_.

Cheese soufflé

Cook together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls, each, of butter and flour, and when they are blended pour upon them a half pint of milk. Stir to a smooth white sauce and stir into this eight tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of baking-soda and a dash of paprika. Have ready beaten four eggs, white and yolks separate. Remove the cheese mixture from the fire and gradually beat into it the yolks of the eggs; last of all, fold in lightly the stiffened whites. Turn the mixture into a greased pudding-dish and bake in a steady oven to a golden brown. Serve immediately.

Cheese ramakins

Cut slices of bread very thick, pare off the crusts and press a round cake-cutter half-way through the middle of each slice. Take out the crumb enclosed in this circle. Butter the bread and set in the oven until dry and crisp. Now fill the hollow in each slice with a mixture made of a tablespoonful of butter, four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a tablespoonful of cream and a little salt and pepper. Set for five minutes in a hot oven.

Cheese biscuits

Cook together in a small saucepan three tablespoonfuls of butter and four of flour. When these are blended pour upon them a half pint of boiling water and stir until thick and smooth; add four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a dash of celery salt and of cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until very thick; remove from the fire and add, slowly, two beaten eggs. Beat for ten minutes and drop by the spoonful upon a greased baking-pan. Drop these cakes so far apart that they will not touch each other. Lay a sheet of brown paper over the top of the pan and set in a hot oven for ten or fifteen minutes. When the biscuits are puffed up and seem nearly done, remove the paper and brown them. Slip a thin-bladed knife carefully under the biscuits to loosen them from the pan and serve at once, as they soon fall.

Cheese crackers

On buttered crackers lay slices of American cheese cut thin; arrange in a baking-pan and set in the oven until the cheese is melted. Serve hot. A little cayenne sprinkled upon the crackers is liked by many.

Cheese fingers

Cut puff-paste into strips as long and as wide as your middle finger, sprinkle with a layer of cheese (grated), press upon this another strip of pastry, sprinkle with more cheese and bake in a quick oven.

Cream cheese

To every quart of rich milk you use allow a pinch of salt and a teaspoonful of rennet, taking care to buy that which is not flavored in any way. When it is solid, turn into a bag and let it drip. When it is well drained so that all the whey is taken from the curd—it may take more than a day for this, and in that case you must change the bag at the end of the first twelve hours—take it out, chop the curd fine, put it into a cheese box and press two hours. Wrap in two or three folds of tissue paper or in tinfoil, to exclude the air.

Deviled crackers and cheese

Butter thin crackers—water, butter, cream or saltine—dip each lightly into hot milk and lay in a buttered bake-dish. Sprinkle the layers with salt and paprika and every other layer with a spatter of French mustard. Cover each layer with dry, grated cheese. The topmost layer should be soaked crackers dotted with butter. Finally, pour in a cup of milk, heated, with a pinch of soda. Cover closely for the first half-hour of baking, then brown delicately.

Creamed cheese golden buck

This is a good way of using cream cheese which has become a little dry after the tinfoil has been removed.

Rub three tablespoonfuls of cream cheese to a paste with a teaspoonful of butter; salt and pepper it and work in a tablespoonful or two of cream, enough to make it quite soft. Set in a pan of boiling water over the fire and stir until hot, when add a beaten egg, cook one minute and spread upon buttered crackers.

Nonpareil Welsh rarebit

Half a pound of soft grated cheese; one gill of ale; two eggs; one tablespoonful of butter; one teaspoonful of lemon juice and the same of Worcestershire sauce and half a spoonful of celery salt. A pinch of cayenne and one of mustard.

Put a broad saucepan over the fire and melt the butter. When it hisses stir in the cheese, then, still stirring, the dry seasoning. Have ready the eggs beaten separately and very light, before you stir them together in a bowl with a few swift strokes. Add three spoonfuls of the hot mixture to these, rapidly, then pour the eggs (now warmed by the hot cheese) into the saucepan, never letting the spoon rest. In one minute more add the sauce and lemon juice and put upon rounds of hot, buttered toast.

STUFFED EGGS

FONDU OF CHEESE

COVERED CHEESE DISH FOR LIMBURGER, ETC.

CHEESE AND EGG-ENTREES]

Macaroni in cheese shell

Break macaroni into two-inch lengths and boil until tender in plenty of salted water; then drain and blanch by pouring cold water over it. After it has been blanched cut into pieces not over a half inch long. Have ready a cheese-shell, one from which the cheese has been thoroughly scooped out. These shells, which are frequently thrown away, make a nice receptacle for serving macaroni. Stand the shell on a piece of waxed paper and this in a baking-pan. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour in the saucepan, mix and add a pint of milk, stir until boiling, mix in the cold macaroni and stir over the fire until it is just heated through; add a teaspoonful of salt and saltspoonful of pepper and pour the mixture into the shell; cover with a piece of greased paper and leave in the oven fifteen minutes. Lift the shell carefully, putting it on a round plate and send to the table. This process imparts a most delicate cheese flavor and makes a sightly dish. If baked too long, it will become soft and fall apart. For that reason the macaroni must be hot when poured into the shell. If the shell is carefully cleaned, it may be used several times.

Cream celery in Edam cheese shell

Cut the cleaned celery stalks into inch-lengths and cook until tender in boiling water, slightly salted. For three cupfuls of the cut celery allow a pint of white sauce, using the water in which the celery was cooked, with the cream, as the liquid. Turn into the shell of an Edam cheese, cover with half a cupful of fine cracker-crumbs, mixed with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and let it brown in the oven. Send around powdered cheese with this dish.

Cheese rings

(Contributed)

Prepare a dough as for cheese straws, but cut it out with a doughnut cutter, brown slightly in a moderate oven. Draw several cheese straws through the opening in each ring and serve with salad.

Baked cheese

(Contributed)

Dissolve three ounces of butter in a gill of hot water. Melt three ounces each of American and Gruyère cheese. Stir all together until creamy, then add enough sifted flour to make a stiff paste and the beaten yolks of two eggs. Mix the whole thoroughly. Mold with two buttered tablespoons, slip on greased paper, and when all are molded set in a moderate oven. When slightly brown brush them over with the whites of the eggs beaten stiff. Return to the oven for one minute. Take up on a hot dish, dust with pepper and fill the center with grated cheese.

Cheese cutlets

(Contributed)

To the well-beaten yolks of three eggs add one tablespoonful of cream and one ounce of grated Parmesan cheese and season with mace and cayenne. Beat until very light and add one tablespoonful of Béchamel sauce. Pour into a buttered pan and steam over hot water until firm. When cold cut in shapes with a fancy cutter, dredge with grated cheese and fry in boiling fat to a delicate brown. Serve at once on fried bread.

Cheese dates

Cut large dates two-thirds around lengthwise, and extract the seeds, leaving the back of each uncut to form a hinge. Fill them with cream cheese rubbed soft with butter, bring the sides together to hold in the filling, and pile upon a glass dish.

They are a nice accompaniment to afternoon tea.

THE TOAST FAMILY

Toast, pure and simple

Pare the crust from _thin_ slices of bread, cut each slice in two and toast to a golden brown over a clear fire; butter lightly; pile together and throw a napkin over them. The sooner they are eaten the better. This toast is the accompaniment to scores of breakfast and luncheon dishes.

Brown bread toast

Is especially good and goes well with oysters and certain salads.

Deviled toast

Is best when made of stale whole wheat or of graham bread. Toast as just directed and spread with a mixture made by creaming together a great spoonful of butter with a quarter-teaspoonful, each, of lemon juice, dry mustard and paprika. Sift, if you like, dry grated cheese over each round of toast thus deviled and set for one minute upon the upper grating of a hot oven. Eat at once.

Tomato toast

Make a pint of well-seasoned tomato sauce. Toast crustless slices of bread; butter and dip each slice in hot, salted milk, then put the slices in layers in a pudding dish. Put a spoonful of tomato sauce on each layer, and when the dish is full, pour the remaining sauce over all. Cover and set in the oven for ten minutes, then send to the table. It will be found very good.

Celery toast

Stew inch-lengths of celery until soft; run through a vegetable press; mix with a thin white sauce, seasoning with paprika, salt and a dash of onion juice; boil up once and put into a pudding dish with alternate layers of lightly toasted bread which have been dipped into the salted water poured off from the boiled celery. Cover and set in the oven for ten minutes, then serve in the bake-dish. A pleasant accompaniment to chicken or veal croquettes.

Sandwiched toast

Cut bread into very thin slices and remove all the crusts. Butter lightly, and between every two slices lay an extremely thin shaving of chicken or cold roast veal. Press the slices of bread firmly together, lay on a toaster and toast each to a delicate brown. Serve at once. These are especially nice with cucumber salad.

Toasted crackers

Butter seafoam or snowflake crackers and dust with celery salt and a little paprika. Set in the oven until very hot, then serve.

Toasted anchovy crackers

Spread crackers with anchovy paste and set in the oven until very hot before sending to the table.

Anchovy toast

Cut thin slices of bread into rounds; toast delicately on both sides, lay a coiled anchovy on each round and set in the oven for three minutes to heat.

LUNCHEON VEGETABLES

Hashed potatoes, browned

Pare, wash and cut eight fine potatoes into small cubes, not more than half an inch square. Put these over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of minced celery and half as much grated onion. Salt to taste, and cook until tender but not broken; drain off the water and turn the potatoes into a buttered dish. Have ready a cupful of hot milk, into which stir a large tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour. Do not cook them together, but add a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley, and pour over the potatoes. Cover and bake fifteen minutes, then brown upon the upper grating of your oven. Serve in the bake-dish.

The celery and onion impart a most agreeable flavor to the dish.

Potato scallop

Work gradually into your cold mashed potato a cupful of warmed milk (in which has been dissolved a pinch of soda) until you have a smooth mixture; season with pepper and salt, add an egg beaten very light, and bake briskly in a well-greased pudding dish. Serve in the dish before it has time to fall.

Potato chips

Pare, slice very thin with a sharp knife and throw into ice water for an hour. Dry between two towels, and cook until delicately colored in deep, boiling cottolene or the best salad oil, slightly salted. Drain perfectly dry, toss upon hot tissue paper for an instant and serve in a deep dish lined with a napkin, which is drawn over the potatoes.

Potato strips

Prepare in the same way, after cutting into long, thin strips, the length of the potato.

Potatoes on the half-shell

Bake large, smooth potatoes of uniform size until they yield to the pinching fingers. Divide each carefully in half, lengthwise; scrape out the interior, taking care not to break the skin; mash the potato with a little hot milk and melted butter until you can beat it to a cream; salt and pepper, beat in two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese (Parmesan is best) for two cupfuls of potato, and return to the waiting shells. Set in the oven until hot through and slightly browned. Serve in the skins.

They are very good.

Potato puff

Beat a cupful of mashed potato to a soft, creamy mass, with a cupful of warm milk and an even tablespoonful of butter. Have ready two eggs, whipped light, and add to the “cream.” Pepper and salt to your liking; turn into a warmed and buttered pudding dish; set in a quick oven and bake, covered, for half an hour, then brown. Serve at once before it falls.

Potato drop cakes

Pare, wash and grate six good-sized raw potatoes; press out the water, add three well-beaten eggs and a heaping tablespoonful of flour, with salt to taste. Beat well, and drop by the great spoonful in deep, hot cottolene or other fat. Fry to a delicate brown.

Sweet potatoes au gratin

Peel and slice cold, boiled sweet potatoes. Grease a pudding dish, put a layer of potatoes in the bottom of it, sprinkle with salt, pepper, sugar and bits of butter. Put in more potatoes, sprinkle these as you did the others, and when the dish is full pour over the contents a gill of boiling water, in which a tablespoonful of butter has been melted. Strew with fine crumbs, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake, covered, for twenty minutes. Uncover and brown.

Sweet potato puff

Into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes beat three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a cupful of milk and four beaten eggs. Salt to taste, beat hard and turn into a greased pudding dish. Bake to a golden brown.

Pea pancakes

Open a can of green peas several hours before you wish to use them, drain in a colander and cover with cold water until you are ready to cook them. Boil tender in water slightly salted, drain, and while hot rub through a colander or vegetable press. Work in a teaspoonful of butter, with pepper and salt to taste. Stir for a minute, and let the paste get cold. Beat two eggs light and add to the cold paste, alternately with a cupful of milk. Sift half a teaspoonful of baking powder twice with four tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir into the mixture.

Drop upon a soapstone griddle as you would griddle cakes. Eat while hot, as a vegetable. Peas left over from yesterday are nice made up in this way.

Buttered rice

This, too, is a nice “made-over entrée.” Boil rice in the usual way, and, after draining well, press while warm into a bowl or mold. Next day turn it out carefully upon a pie plate and set in a quick oven. When it is hot all through draw to the door of the oven and butter abundantly. Shut the oven door and brown lightly. Butter again and sift a thick coating of grated cheese (Parmesan, if you have it) over all. Leave in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese, and heap irregularly with a meringue of the whites of two eggs beaten up with a pinch of celery salt. Brown very lightly, slip a spatula under the mold and transfer carefully to a hot platter.

It is a pretty yet a simple side dish, good and easily made.

Tomatoes farcies

Carefully peel large, firm tomatoes, and scoop out the centers. In the hollow thus left in each tomato put a layer of minced ham. Set the tomatoes in a bake-pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put a bit of butter upon the top of each and cook for ten minutes. Then drop upon the mince in each tomato a raw egg; dust with salt and pepper and cook until the eggs are “set.”

Tomato caps and saucers

Cut the tops from large, ripe tomatoes, and scoop out the insides with a small spoon. Keep these insides for the sauce, to be used later. Make a mince of cold roast beef or mutton, moisten it with a rich gravy, season to taste and half fill the hollowed tomatoes with this mixture. Set in a covered roasting-pan and bake for twenty minutes in a steady oven. Meanwhile, strain the tomato pulp, heat it and make of it a sauce thickened with two teaspoonfuls, each, of flour and butter, rubbed to a paste. Season to taste. Toast rounds of crustless bread, lay these on a platter and pour the tomato sauce over and around them. Keep hot until the tomatoes are ready. When these have cooked for twenty minutes remove the cover of the roaster and drop into each half-filled tomato a raw egg. Replace the cover and bake just long enough to “set” the eggs. Upon each round of toast lay a stuffed tomato, sprinkle with pepper and salt and send to the table.

Scallop of tomatoes and eggs

Into a pint of stewed tomatoes stir a generous cupful of fine bread crumbs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a half teaspoonful of sugar, pepper and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly and turn into a greased pudding dish. Upon the top of this scallop break as many eggs as will lie upon it side by side. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and bits of butter and bake until the eggs are set.

Rice and cheese pudding

Boil a cup of rice until each grain is tender and stands alone. Now beat in gradually five whipped eggs and a cup of milk, in which have been stirred two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Stir over the fire for a minute and pour the mixture into a greased pudding dish. Bake in a good oven for half an hour.

Pilau of green peppers

Cut green peppers lengthwise, removing the seeds with care, lest they make the green shells too hot. Fill the halves with boiled rice, into which has been stirred a tablespoonful of melted butter for a cupful of the boiled rice, and two tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese, with salt to taste. Mound the rice smoothly and high, and after the pilau has cooked ten minutes in a covered pan brown lightly. Serve hot.

Scallop of sweet peppers and ham

Cut each pepper lengthwise into quarters and remove the seeds carefully, lay in iced water for fifteen minutes, then drain. Cut each quarter in half. Butter a pudding dish and put in the bottom of it a layer of minced ham, on top of this a layer of cut peppers; sprinkle thickly with fine crumbs and moisten all thoroughly with seasoned stock. Now put in more ham, another layer of peppers and crumbs, liberally dotted with bits of butter and sprinkled with salt. Bake, covered, in a good oven for half an hour, then uncover and cook ten minutes longer.

Buttered rice with peppers

Cook an even cupful of rice fast in two quarts of salted boiling water for twenty minutes, or until tender, but not broken. Drain in a colander, and set in an open oven to dry off for five minutes. Have ready one large, or two small green sweet peppers, seeded carefully and chopped fine. Put a heaping tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan; when it hisses add the minced peppers; toss and stir over the fire until smoking hot all through. Put the rice into a dish and pour the contents of the frying-pan all over it, loosening the mass with a fork to allow the sauce to penetrate it.

Boston baked beans

Soak one quart of beans over night in warm—not hot—water. In the morning cook them until the skin curls on a bean when you blow upon it. Pack them in an earthen pot. Score the skin of a pound of streaked salt pork, and almost bury it in the beans. Pour over this one dessertspoonful of molasses, mixed with as much vinegar, a good pinch of pepper and a teaspoonful of mixed mustard. Cover closely and bake six hours in a good oven.

Baked beans and tomatoes

Soak and boil as directed in the last recipe. Then put the beans into a deep pudding dish; bury a piece of pork (parboiled) in the center and pour over them a large cupful of stewed and strained tomatoes seasoned with pepper, sugar, onion juice and a good lump of butter, but not thickened. Cover closely and cook for three hours, if the dish be large.

Fried cucumbers

Peel and slice cucumbers and lay in a dressing of equal parts of oil and vinegar for ten minutes. Drain and dip in beaten egg, roll in cracker crumbs and fry in deep cottolene or other fat. Drain and serve hot.

Mushrooms on toast

Peel and broil fresh mushrooms, spread them with butter, dust with salt and pepper, and serve them on rounds of toast. Or you may cut the mushrooms in quarters, put them in a double boiler with a tablespoonful of butter and cook until tender. They may then be seasoned to taste and poured, sauce and all, on rounds or triangles of crustless toast.

Baked mushrooms

Peel and stem large mushrooms. Line a deep bake-dish with thin slices of toast, each of which has been dipped for an instant in seasoned beef stock. Fill the dish with layers of mushrooms, sprinkling each layer with salt, paprika, and bits of butter. When the dish is full, pour over all a gill of stock, and bake, covered, for twenty minutes. Uncover and cook for five minutes before sending to the table.

Dried mushrooms and eggs

Wash the dried mushrooms, boil until tender and drain the water off. Put into a pan to fry in butter for about ten minutes, sprinkle a very little caraway seed on them, and salt to taste. Break a few eggs over them.

Sauté green tomatoes

Select firm, smooth tomatoes that are fully grown, but which have not begun to redden. Wash, and without paring, cut into disks a quarter of an inch thick. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and sugar, dust with flour and sauté in hot butter. Drain and garnish with thin slices of fried bacon.