Part 33

SASSAFRAS MEAD.--Mix gradually with two quarts of boiling water, three pounds and a half of the best brown sugar, a pint and a half of good West India molasses, and a quarter of a pound of tartaric acid. Stir it well, and when cool, strain it into a large jug or pan, then mix in a tea-spoonful (not more) of essence of sassafras. Transfer it to clean bottles, (it will fill about half a dozen,) cork it tightly, and keep it in a cool place. It will be fit for use next day. Put into a box or boxes a quarter of a pound of carbonate of soda, to use with it. To prepare a glass of sassafras mead for drinking, put a large table-spoonful of the mead into a half tumbler full of ice-water, stir into it a half tea-spoonful of the soda, and it will immediately foam up to the top.

Sassafras mead will be found a cheap, wholesome, and pleasant beverage for warm weather. The essence of sassafras, tartaric acid, and carbonate of soda, can of course all be obtained at the druggists'.

FINE TOMATA CATCHUP.--Take a large quantity of tomatas, and scald and peel them. Press them through a fine hair-sieve, and boil the pulp in either a porcelain or a bell-metal preserving-kettle, as tin or iron will blacken it. Cover the kettle closely, and keep it at a slow boil during four hours. Then measure the pulp of the tomatas, and to every two quarts allow a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil it an hour after the salt is in, stirring it frequently. Have ready, in equal proportions, a mixture of powdered ginger, nutmeg, mace, and cloves; and to every two quarts of the liquid, allow a large tea-spoonful of these mixed spices, adding a small tea-spoonful of cayenne. Stir in this seasoning, and then boil the catchup half an hour longer. Strain it carefully into a large pitcher, avoiding the grounds or sediment of the spices, and then (while hot) pour it through a flannel into clean bottles. Cork them tightly, and seal the corks. Keep it in a dry, cool place. It will be of a fine scarlet colour.

GREEN TOMATA PICKLES.--Slice a gallon of the largest green tomatas, and salt them over night to your taste. In the morning mix together a table-spoonful of ground black pepper; one of mace; one of cloves; four pods of red pepper, chopped fine; and half a pint of grated horse-radish. Mix them all thoroughly. Have ready a large, wide-mouthed stone jar; put into it first a layer of the seasoning, then a layer of tomatas, then another of seasoning, then another of tomatas, then another of seasoning, another of tomatas; and so on alternately till the jar is filled within two inches of the top, finishing with a layer of seasoning. Then fill up to the top with cold cider vinegar; adding at the last a table-spoonful of sweet oil. Cover the jar closely.

This will be found a very nice pickle, and is easily made, as it requires no cooking. After the tomatas are all gone, the liquid remaining in the jar may be used as catchup.

RED TOMATA PICKLES.--Fill three quarters of a jar with small, round, button tomatas when quite ripe. Put them in whole, and then pour over them sufficient cold vinegar (highly flavoured with mace, cloves, and whole black pepper) to raise them to the top. Add a table-spoonful of sweet oil, and cover the jar closely.

HASHED VEAL.--Always save the gravy of roast meat. Having skimmed off the fat, and poured the gravy through a strainer into a jar, cover it closely, and set it away in a refrigerator, or some very cold place, till next day. When cold meat is hashed or otherwise recooked, it is best to do it in its own gravy, and without the addition of water.

Take some cold roast veal, and cut it into small mouthfuls. Put it into a skillet or stew-pan, without a drop of water. Add to it the veal gravy that was left the preceding day, and a small lump of fresh butter. Cover the skillet, and let the hash stew over the fire for half an hour. Then put to it a large table-spoonful of tomata catchup; or more, according to the quantity of meat. One large table-spoonful of catchup will suffice for as much hash as will fill a soup-plate. After the catchup is in, cover the hash, and let it stew half an hour longer. This is the very best way of dressing cold veal for breakfast. Observe that there must be no water about it. Cold roast beef, mutton, or pork, may be hashed in this manner; but hashed veal is best. You may also hash cold poultry, or rabbits, by cutting them in small bits, and stewing them in gravy, adding mushroom catchup instead of tomata.

FRENCH CHICKEN SALAD.--Take a large, fine, cold fowl, and having removed the skin and fat, cut the flesh from the bones in very small shreds, not more than an inch long. The dressing should not be made till immediately before it goes to table. Have ready half a dozen or more hard-boiled eggs. Cut up the yolks upon a plate, and with the back of a wooden spoon mash them to a paste, adding a small salt-spoonful of salt, rather more of cayenne pepper, and a large tea-spoonful of made mustard. Mix them well together; then add two large table-spoonfuls of salad oil, and one of the best cider vinegar. All these ingredients for the dressing, must be mixed to a fine, smooth, stiff, yellow paste. Lay the shred chicken in a nice even heap, upon the middle of a flat dish, smoothing it, and making it circular or oval with the back of a spoon, and flattening the top. Then cover it thickly and smoothly with the dressing, or paste of seasoned yolk of egg, &c. Have ready a large head of lettuce that has been picked, and washed in cold water; and, cutting up the best parts of it very small, mix the lettuce with a portion of the hard-boiled white of egg minced fine. Lay the chopped lettuce all round the heap of shred chicken, &c. Then ornament the surface with very small bits of boiled red beets, and green pickled cucumbers, cut into slips and dots, and arranged in a pretty pattern upon the yellow ground of the coating that covers the chicken. After taking on your plate a portion of each part of the salad, mix all together before eating it.

Do not use for this, or any other purpose, the violently and disagreeable sharp vinegar that is improperly sold in many of the grocery stores, and is made entirely of chemical acids. Some of these employed for making vinegar, are so corrosive as to be absolutely poisonous. This vinegar can always be known by its very clear transparency, and its excessive pungency, overpowering entirely the taste of every thing with which it is mixed; and also by its entire destitution of the least flavour resembling wine or cider, though it is often sold as "the best white vinegar." You can always have good wholesome vinegar by setting in the sun with the cork loosened, a vessel of cider till it becomes vinegar. In buying a keg of vinegar, it is best to get it of a farmer that makes cider.

NORMANDY SOUP.--Take four pounds of knuckle of veal. Put it into a soup pot with twenty common-sized onions, and about four quarts of water. Let it simmer slowly for two hours or more. Then put in about one third of a six-penny loaf grated; adding a small tea-spoonful of salt, and not quite that quantity of cayenne pepper. Let it boil two hours longer. Then take out the meat, and press and strain the soup through a large sieve into a broad pan. Measure it, and to every quart of the soup add a pint of cream, and about two ounces of fresh butter divided into four bits, and rolled in flour. Taste the soup, and if you think it requires additional seasoning, add a very little more salt and cayenne. Always be careful not to season soup highly; as it is very easy for those who like them to add more salt and pepper, after tasting it at table.

Put the soup again over the fire, and let it just come to a boil. Then serve it up. These proportions of the ingredients ought to make a tureen-full. This soup is a very fine one for dinner company. The taste of the onions becomes so mild as to be just agreeably perceptible; particularly in autumn when the onions are young and fresh. In cool weather it may be made the day before; but in this case, when done, it must be set on ice, and the cream and butter not put in till shortly before it goes to table.

Never keep soup (or any other article that has been cooked) in a glazed earthen crock or pitcher. The glazing being of lead would render it unwholesome. Its effects have sometimes been so deleterious as really to destroy life.

TOMATA SOUP.--Take a fore-leg of beef, and cut it up into small pieces. Put the meat with the bones into a soup-pot, and cover it with a gallon of water. Season it with pepper, and a little salt. Boil and skim it well. Have ready half a peck of ripe tomatas cut up small; and when the soup is boiling thoroughly, put them in with all their juice. Add six onions sliced, and some crusts of bread cut small. The soup must then be boiled slowly for six hours or more. When done, strain it through a cullender. Put into the tureen some pieces of bread cut into dice or small squares, and pour the soup upon it.

Tomata soup (like most others) is best when made the day before. In this case you may boil it longer and slower. Then having strained it into a stone jar, cover it closely, and set it away in a cold place. Next day, add some grated bread-crumbs mixed with a little butter, and give the soup a boil up.

When ochras are in season, this soup will be greatly improved by the addition of half a peck of ochras, peeled and sliced thin.

CALVES' FEET SOUP.--Take eight calves' feet (two sets) and season them with a small tea-spoonful of salt, half a tea-spoonful of cayenne, and half a tea-spoonful of black pepper, all mixed together and rubbed over the feet. Slice a quarter of a peck of ochras, and a dozen onions, and cut up a quarter of a peck of tomatas without skinning them. Put the whole into a soup-pot with four quarts of water, and boil and skim it during two hours. Then take out the calves' feet, and put them on a dish. Next, strain the soup through a cullender, into an earthen pan, and with the back of a short wooden ladle mash out into the pan of soup all the liquid from the vegetables, till they are as dry as possible. Cut off all the meat nicely from the bones into small bits, and return it to the soup, adding a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided into four, and rolled in flour. Put the soup again into the pot, and give it a boil up. Toast two or three large thick slices of bread; cut it into small square dice or mouthfuls; lay it in the bottom of the tureen; pour the soup over it, and put on the tureen cover immediately. This soup (which, however, can only be made when tomatas and ochras are in season) will be found excellent. It may be greatly improved by boiling in it the hock of a cold ham: in which case add no salt.

FINE CALVES' HEAD SOUP.--Boil in as much water as will cover it, a calf's head with the skin on, till you can slip out the bones. Then take a fore-leg of beef, and a knuckle of veal; cut them up, and put them (bones and all) into the liquid the calf's head was boiled in; adding as much more water as will cover the meat. Skim it well; and after it has thoroughly come to a boil, add half a dozen sliced carrots; half a dozen sliced onions; a large head of celery cut small; a bunch of sweet herbs; and a salt-spoonful of cayenne pepper. Boil the whole slowly during five hours; then strain it into a large pan.

Take rather more than a pint of the liquid, (after all the fat has been carefully skimmed off,) and put it into a saucepan with two ounces of fresh butter, a bunch of sweet marjoram, a few sprigs of parsley, two onions minced fine, and a large slice of the lean of some cold boiled ham, cut into little bits. Keep it closely covered, and let it simmer over the fire for an hour. Then press it through a sieve into the pan that contains the rest of the soup. Thicken it with a large tea-cupful (half a pint) of grated bread-crumbs; return it to the soup-pot, and boil it half an hour. Unless your dinner hour is late, it is best to make this soup the day before, putting it into a large stoneware or china vessel, (not an earthen one,) covering it closely and setting it in a cool place.

Have ready some force-meat balls, made of the meat of the calves' head, finely minced, and mixed with grated bread-crumbs, butter, powdered sweet-majoram, a very little salt and pepper, and some beaten yolk of egg to cement these ingredients together. Each ball should be rolled in flour, and fried in fresh butter before it is put into the soup. Shortly before you send it to table, add a large lemon sliced thin without peeling, and a pint of good madeira or sherry, wine of inferior quality being totally unfit for soup, terrapin, or any such purposes. Add also the yolks of some hard-boiled eggs cut in half. Then, after the wine, lemon, and eggs are all in, give the soup one boil up, but not more.

THE BEST CLAM SOUP.--Put fifty clams into a large pot of boiling water, to make the shells open easily. Take a knuckle of veal, cut it into pieces (four calves' feet split in half will be still better) and put it into a soup-pot with the liquor of the clams, and a quart of rich milk, or cream, adding a large bunch of sweet majoram, and a few leaves of sage, cut into pieces, and a head of celery chopped small; also, a dozen whole pepper-corns, but no salt, as the saltness of the clam liquor will be sufficient. Boil it till all the meat of the veal drops from the bones, then strain off the soup and return it to the pot, which must first be washed out. Having in the mean time cut up the clams, and pounded them in a mortar, (which will cause them to flavour the soup much better,) season them with two dozen blades of mace, and two powdered nutmegs; mix with them a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and put them into the soup with all the liquor that remains about them. After the clams are in, let it boil another quarter of an hour. Have ready some thick slices of nicely-toasted bread, (with the crust removed,) cut them into small square mouthfuls; put them into a tureen; and pour the soup upon them. It will be found excellent. Oyster soup may be made in the same manner.

BAKED CLAMS.--In taking out the clams, save several dozen of the largest and finest shells, which must afterwards be washed clean, and wiped dry. Chop the clams fine, and mix with them some powdered mace and nutmeg. Butter the sides and bottom of a large, deep dish, and cover the bottom with a layer of grated bread-crumbs. Over this scatter some very small bits of the best fresh butter. Then put in a thick layer of the chopped clams. Next, another layer of grated bread-crumbs, and little bits of butter. Then, a layer of chopped clams, and proceed in this manner till the dish is full, finishing at the top with a layer of crumbs. Set the dish in the oven, and bake it about a quarter of an hour. Have ready the clam-shells and fill them with the baked mixture, either leaving them open, or covering each with another clam-shell. Place them on large dishes, and send them to table hot.

Oysters may be cooked in a similar manner; sending them to table in the dish in which they were baked. The meat of boiled crabs may also be minced, seasoned, and dressed this way, and sent to table in the back shells of the crabs.

Clams intended for soup will communicate to it a much finer flavour, if they are previously chopped small, and pounded in a mortar.

FINE STEWED OYSTERS.--Strain the liquor from two hundred large oysters, and putting the half of it into a saucepan, add a table-spoonful of whole mace, and let it come to a hard boil, skimming it carefully. Have ready six ounces of fresh butter divided into six balls or lumps, and roll each slightly in a little flour. Add them to the boiling oyster liquor, and when the butter is all melted, stir the whole very hard, and then put in the oysters. As soon as they have come to a boil, take them out carefully, and lay them immediately in a pan of very cold water, to plump them and make them firm. Then season the liquor with a grated nutmeg; and taking a pint and a half of very rich cream, add it gradually to the liquor, stirring it all the time. When it has boiled again, return the oysters to it, and simmer them in the creamed liquor about five minutes or just long enough to heat them thoroughly. Send them to the tea-table hot in a covered dish.

If you stew six or eight hundred oysters, in this manner, for a large company, see that the butter, spice, cream, &c., are all increased in the proper proportion.

Oysters cooked in this way make very fine patties. The shells for which must be made of puff-paste, and baked empty in very deep patty-pans, filling them, when done, with oysters.

SPICED OYSTERS.--To four hundred large oysters allow a pint of cider vinegar, four grated nutmegs, sixteen blades of whole mace, six dozen of whole cloves, three dozen whole pepper corns, and a salt-spoonful of cayenne. Put the liquor into a porcelain kettle, and boil and skim it; when it has come to a hard boil, add the vinegar and put in the oysters with the seasoning of spices, &c. Give them one boil up, for if boiled longer they will shrivel and lose their flavour. Then put them into a stone or glass jar, cover them closely, and set them in a cool place. They must be quite cold when eaten.

You may give them a light reddish tint by boiling in the liquor a little prepared cochineal.

TO KEEP FRESH EGGS.--Have a close, dry keg, for the purpose of receiving the eggs as they are brought in fresh from the hen's nests. An old biscuit keg will be best. Keep near it a patty-pan, or something of the sort, to hold a piece of clean white rag with some good lard tied up in it. While they are fresh and warm from the nest, grease each egg all over with the lard, not omitting even the smallest part; and then put it into the keg with the rest. Eggs preserved in this manner (and there is no better way) will continue good for months, provided they were perfectly fresh when greased; and it is useless to attempt preserving any but new-laid eggs. No process whatever, can restore or prevent from spoiling, any egg that is the least stale. Therefore, if you live in a city, or have not hens of your own, it is best to depend on buying eggs as you want them.

A MOLASSES PIE.--Make a good paste, and having rolled it out _thick_, line a pie-dish with a portion of it. Then fill up the dish with molasses, into which you have previously stirred a table-spoonful, or more, of ground ginger. Cover it with an upper crust of the paste; notch the edges neatly; and bake it brown. This pie, plain as it is, will be found very good. It will be improved by laying a sliced orange or lemon in the bottom before you put in the molasses. To the ginger you may add a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon.

SOUP À LA LUCY.--Take a large fowl; cut it up; put it with a few small onions into a soup-pot, and fry it brown in plenty of lard. Afterwards pour in as much water as you intend for the soup, and boil it slowly till the whole strength of the chicken is extracted, and the flesh drops in rags from the bones. An hour before dinner, strain off the liquid, return it to the pot (which must first be cleared entirely out) add the liquor of a quart of fresh oysters, and boil it again. In half an hour put in the oysters and mix into the soup two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in flour; some whole pepper; blades of mace; and grated nutmeg. Toast some thick slices of bread (without the crust) cut them into dice, and put them into the soup tureen. For the fowl, you may substitute a knuckle of veal cut up; or a pair of rabbits.

MINT JULEP.--This can only be made when fresh green mint is in season.

Lay at the bottom of a large tumbler, one or two round slices of pine-apple nicely pared; and cover them with a thick layer of loaf-sugar, powdered or well-broken. Pour on it a glass or more of the best brandy. Add cold water till the tumbler is two-thirds full. Finish with a thick layer of pounded ice till it nearly reaches the top. Then stick down to one side a bunch of fresh green mint, the sprigs full and handsome, and tall enough to rise above the edge of the tumbler. Place, in the other side, one of the small tubes or straws used for drawing in this liquid.

The proportions of the above ingredients may, of course, be varied according to taste.

A UNION PUDDING.--The night before you make this pudding, take a piece of rennet, in size rather more than two inches square, and carefully wash off in two cold waters all the salt from the outside. Then wipe it dry. Put the rennet into a tea-cup and pour on sufficient milk-warm water to cover it well. Next morning, as early as you can, stir the rennet-water into a quart of rich milk. Cover the milk, and set it in a warm place till it forms a firm curd, and the whey becomes thin and greenish. Then remove it to a cold place and set it on ice. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels; and two ounces of shelled sweet almonds. Pound the almonds in a mortar, to a smooth paste, one at a time (sweet and bitter alternately, so as to mix them well); and add, while pounding, sufficient rose-water to make them light and white, and to prevent their oiling. Grate upon a lump of loaf-sugar the yellow rind or zest of two lemons, scraping off the lemon-zest as you proceed, and transferring it to a saucer. Squeeze over it the juice of the lemons, and mix the juice and the zest with half a pound and two ounces of finely-powdered loaf-sugar, adding a small nutmeg, grated. Then put the cold curd into a sieve, and drain it from the whey till it is left very dry, chopping the curd small, that it may drain the better. Beat in a shallow pan the yolks of eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth. Then mix into the egg the curd, in turn with the pounded almonds, and the sugar and lemon. Finish with a glass of brandy, or of Madeira or Sherry, and stir the whole very hard.

Butter a deep dish of strong white ware. Put in the mixture: set it immediately into a brisk oven and bake it well. When done, set it in a cold place till wanted, and before it goes to table, sift powdered sugar over it. It will be still better to cover the surface with a meringue or icing, highly flavored with rose-water or lemon-juice. You may decorate the centre with the word UNION in letters of gilt sugar.

The pudding will be found very fine.

COCOA-NUT CANDY.--Take three cocoa-nuts and grate their meat on a coarse grater. Weigh the grated cocoa-nut, and to each pound, allow one pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, and to every two pounds allow a pint of water, and the beaten white of one egg mixed into the water. When the sugar is entirely dissolved in the water, set it over the fire, and boil and skim it. When the scum has ceased to rise, and the sugar is boiling hard, begin to throw in the grated cocoa-nut, gradually, stirring hard all the time. Proceed till the mixture is so thick it can be stirred no longer. Have ready, square or oblong tin pans, slightly buttered with the best fresh butter. Fill them with the mixture, put in evenly and smoothly, and of the same thickness all through the pan. Smooth the surface all over with a broad knife dipped in cold water. Set it to cool, and, when the candy is almost hard, score it down in perpendicularly straight lines with a sharp knife dipped in cold water, the lines being two or three inches apart. These cuts must be made deep down to the bottom of the pan. When it is quite cold and firm, cut the candy entirely apart, so as to form long sticks, and keep it in a cold place.

If any of the grated cocoa-nut is left, you may make it into cocoa-nut maccaroons, or into a cocoa-nut pudding.