Part 33
FRENCH WAY OF DRESSING ASPARAGUS.--Having boiled the asparagus-tops as above; drain them on a sieve, and put them into a deep dish with a large lump of the best fresh butter. Mix the butter well among the asparagus, till it is melted throughout, and sprinkle in (if you like) a very little pepper. Cover the dish, and keep it hot by the fire till it is time to send it to table. You may lay in the bottom, of the dish two thin slices of toast, spread over with butter, after being first dipped in the asparagus water.
Another way is to substitute salad oil for butter, mixed among the asparagus.
ONION EGGS.--Boil a dozen eggs quite hard. Slice and fry in fresh butter five or six onions. Slice (whites and yolks together) ten of the eggs, reserving two for the seasoning. Drain the sliced onions, and lay them on a dish with the sliced eggs placed upon them. Cover the dish, and keep it hot. Take the two remaining eggs; grate the yolks; and mix them with cream and grated nutmeg, and a very little cayenne. Put this mixture into a very small sauce-pan; give it one boil up; pour it over the eggs and onions; and send it to table hot. For those who have no objection to onions, this is a nice side dish.
EGG BALLS.--Boil eight eggs till quite hard; and when done, throw them directly into cold water. Then put the yolks into a mortar, and pound them to a paste, moistening them as you proceed with the beaten yolks of three _raw_ eggs, seasoned with as much salt as will lie _flat_ upon a shilling, and a little cayenne, and powdered nutmeg and mace. Mix the whole well together, and make it up into small, round balls. Throw them into mock-turtle soup, or into stewed terrapin, about two minutes before you take it up.
CURRY BALLS.--Take a sufficiency of finely-grated bread-crumbs; hard-boiled yolk of egg, grated; fresh butter; and a little curry powder. Pound the whole in a mortar, moistening it with raw yolk of egg (well-beaten) as you proceed. Make it into small balls, and add them to stewed chicken or stewed rabbit, about five minutes before you take it up.
TOMATA PASTE.--Scald and peel as many ripe tomatas as will fill a large, deep, stone jar. Set them into a warm oven for an hour. Then skim off the watery liquid that has risen to the top, and press and squeeze the tomatas in a sieve. Afterwards add salt, cayenne, pounded mace, and powdered cloves to your taste; and to every quart of tomatas allow a half a pint of cider vinegar. Stew the whole slowly in a porcelain kettle for three hours, (stirring it frequently from the bottom,) till it becomes a smooth, thick paste. Then put it into small jars or glasses, and cover it closely; pasting paper over each. It is an excellent sauce, at the season when fresh tomatas are not to be had, and is very good to thicken soup.
DRIED OCHRAS.--Take fine large fresh ochras; cut them into thin, round slices; string them on threads, and hang them up in festoons to dry in the store-room. Before using, they must be soaked in water during twenty-four hours. They will then be good (with the addition of tomata paste) to boil in soup or gumbo.
BEEF GUMBO.--Put into a large stew-pan some pieces of the lean of fresh beef, cut up into small bits, and seasoned with a little pepper and salt. Add sliced ochras and tomatas, (either fresh, or dried ochras and tomata paste.) You may put in some sliced onions. Pour on water enough to cover it well. Let it boil slowly, (skimming it well,) till every thing is reduced to rags. Then strain and press it through a cullender. Have ready a sufficiency of toasted bread, cut into dice. Lay it in the bottom of a tureen, and pour the strained gumbo upon it.
FRIED CAULIFLOWER.--Having boiled the cauliflower in milk till thoroughly done; take it out, drain it, and cut it up into very small pieces, adding a _very little_ salt and cayenne. Have ready in a frying-pan, sufficient fresh butter; and when it comes to a boil and is bubbling all over, put in the cauliflower and fry it, but not till it becomes brown. Make a slice or two of toast, dip it in hot water, butter it; lay it on a dish; and put the fried cauliflower upon it.
FRIED CABBAGE.--Parboil a fine cabbage. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it a while in cold water to remove the cabbage smell. Next put it into a clean pot of fresh water, and boil it again till thoroughly done. Afterwards chop it small, season it with a little pepper and salt, and fry it in fresh butter.
A less delicate way is to fry it in boiling lard.
TO PREPARE LARD.--As soon it is cut off from the newly-killed pork, put the fat into a crock; cover it; and let it stand all night in a cool place. Next day, cut it into small bits, (carefully removing all the fleshy particles of lean,) and put the fat into a pot without either water or salt. The pot should not be more than half-full. Let it boil slowly (stirring it frequently from the bottom lest it burn) till it becomes quite clear, and transparent. Then ladle it out into clean pans. When almost cold, put it into stone jars, which must be closely covered, and kept in a cool place. If to go to a distance, tie it up in bladders.
There are two sorts of pork fat for lard. The leaf fat, which is the best; and the fat that adheres to the entrails. These two fats should be boiled separately.
The entrails, whose skins are to be used for sausage-cases, must be well scraped and cleaned out, and thrown into strong salt and water for two days, and afterwards into strong lye for twenty-four hours. This lye, when strained, will afterwards be good to assist in soap-making.
BRINE FOR HAM OR BACON.--To every four gallons of water, allow four pounds of salt; two ounces of salt-petre; three pounds of sugar, and two quarts of molasses. Boil the whole together; skimming it well. When clear, let it cool. Rub the meat all over with ground red pepper. Then put as much meat into the pickling tub as can be very well covered by the brine, which must be poured on cold. Let it remain six weeks in the pickle, turning each piece every day. Afterwards, smoke it well for a fortnight, hanging the large end downward. The fire in the smoke-house should be well kept up. Hickory or oak is the best wood for this purpose. On no account use pine, spruce, fir, or hemlock. Corncobs are excellent for smoking meat.
Sew up the hams closely in thick cotton cloth--or canvas covers, and then white-wash them.
Tongues may be pickled and smoked as above. Also beef.
HOG’S HEAD CHEESE.--Hog’s head cheese is always made at what is called “killing-time.” To make four cheeses of moderate size, take one large hog’s head, two sets of feet, and the noses of all the pigs that have been killed that day. Clean them well, and then boil them to rags. Having drained off the liquid through a cullender, spread out the things in a large dish, and carefully remove all the bones, even to the smallest pieces. With a chopper, mince the meat as small as possible, and season it to your taste with pepper, salt, powdered cloves, and some chopped sage or sweet marjoram. Having divided the meat into four equal parts, tie up each portion tightly in a clean coarse towel, and press it into a compact cake, by putting on heavy weights. It will be fit for use next day. In a cool dry place it will keep all winter. It requires no farther cooking, and is eaten sliced at breakfast, or luncheon.
FRYING FISH.--Fish should be fried in fresh butter or lard; a large allowance of which must be put by itself into the frying-pan, and held over a clear fire till it becomes so hot as to boil hard in the pan. Till it bubbles, the fish must not be put in. They must first be dried separately, in a clean cloth, and then scored on the back, and slightly dredged with flour. Unless the butter or lard for frying is sufficient in quantity to cover the fish well, and bear them up, they will sink heavily to the bottom of the pan, and perhaps stick there and burn. Also, if there is not fat enough, the fish will absorb all of what there is, and be disagreeably greasy.
AXJAR PICKLES.--Take a variety of young fruits or vegetables, and put them into strong salt and water for three days; stirring them well, night and morning. Then take them out, and spread them on trays, or old servers, or large flat dishes; taking care that they do not touch each other. Set them out in the sun every fine morning, and let them remain till sunset; but not if it becomes damp, or even cloudy. Do this till they are perfectly dry. Then wash them well in cold water, drain them, and wipe them separately with a coarse cloth. Put them into large jars. To a three gallon jar, put in half a pound of horse-radish, sliced, and two cloves of garlic; half a hundred small white onions; two ounces of mace; one ounce of cloves; two nutmegs powdered; two pounds of the best crushed sugar; half a bottle of the best ground mustard; one pound of yellow mustard seed; and half a pound of green ginger, sliced or scraped. Then take half an ounce of turmeric powder; mix it with sufficient vinegar to render it liquid, and pour it over the pickles in the jar, which must not be more than half full of them. Have ready some boiling vinegar of the best cider kind, and pour it scalding hot into the jar, till it is three parts full. The pickles will expand to their natural size. When they are perfectly cold, cork the jar tightly, and seal the cork. These pickles will be fit for use in a month; but they improve by keeping.
For this pickle you may use plums, small peaches; grapes picked from the stems; cherries; barberries; nasturtion seeds; button tomatas; radish-pods; beans, cauliflowers sliced; white cabbages sliced, small cucumbers; and limes or small lemons--mixed together in any proportion you like. The turmeric powder gives the whole a yellow tinge, and is indispensable to this pickle.
Axjar is an East Indian word.
FINE PEACH MANGOES.--Take fine, large, free-stone peaches. They should be ripe, but not the least bruised. The best for this purpose are the large white free-stones. Having rubbed off the down with a clean flannel, cut the peaches in half, and remove the stones. Prepare a mixture, in equal portions, of mace, nutmeg, and root-ginger; all broken up small, but not powdered. Fill with this the cavities of the peaches whence the stones were extracted. Then put together the two halves of each peach, (making them fit exactly,) and tie them round with coarse thread or fine twine. If you choose, you may stick the outside of the peaches all over with cloves. Put them into stone jars, filling each jar rather more than three-quarters full; and laying among them little thin muslin bags of turmeric to colour them yellow. If you prefer to colour them red, tie up some cochineal in thin muslin bags.
Fill up the jars to the top with cold vinegar of the best quality--real white wine vinegar, if you are sure it _is_ real. If the pickles are to be sent to a distant place, or to a warmer climate, boil the vinegar, and pour it on, scalding hot. Close the jars immediately; sealing the corks with red cement, and tie a bladder tightly over the top of each.
These peach mangoes will be fit for use in two months.
TO PICKLE PEPPERS, SMALL CUCUMBERS, AND BEANS.--Put all these vegetables together into a brine strong enough to bear up an egg to the surface; and let them stay in it for three days. Then take them out, and lay them in cold water for an hour. Change that water for fresh, and let them remain another hour. Do this a third or fourth time.
Having washed them well in a fresh water, put them into a preserving-kettle, (one lined with delft-porcelain is best,) and surround and cover them with fresh cabbage leaves, or vine-leaves. Fill up the kettle with cider-vinegar mixed with an equal quantity of water; and during four hours let them simmer without boiling. Then take them off the fire; take them out of the kettle, transfer them to broad pans, and pour the vinegar over them. When they are cold, return the pickles to the kettle, (having first washed it out clean,) and scald them four times with fresh vinegar boiled for the purpose in another vessel. When cold, put them into jars, (three parts full,) and pour on fresh vinegar till it reaches the top. Lay among the pickles, mace; nutmegs broken small; mustard seed; and whole white-pepper-corns, tied up in thin white muslin bags.
PICKLED ONIONS.--Take small button-onions; remove the outer skin, and lay the onions in dry salt for twenty-four hours. Then soak off the salt, in several waters; wash them well; and put them into a porcelain kettle, with equal quantities of vinegar and water. Simmer them till tender. Then take them out; drain them; and, returning them to the kettle, scald them with fresh vinegar boiled in another vessel. When cold, take them out, drain them again; put them into wide-mouthed jars, and fill up with cold vinegar. Place among them thin muslin bags with mace and broken nutmegs. On the top of each jar, put a table-spoonful of sweet oil. Cover them tightly.
PICKLED PLUMS or DAMSONS.--The fruit must be large, fine, fully ripe, and with no blemishes. To every quart of plums allow a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar powdered, and a pint of the best cider vinegar. Damsons being more acid will require half a pound of sugar. Put the fruit with the sugar and vinegar into a preserving kettle, adding little bags with some broken pieces of cinnamon and some blades of mace, and, if you choose, a few cloves. Give them one boil up, and skim them well. Put them warm into stone jars, and cover them closely at once. By winter they will be fit for use.
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_Another way._--Is to pack a jar more than three-fourths full with layers of ripe plums or damsons; and thick layers of powdered sugar between. Fill up with cold vinegar, and cover them tightly.
PICKLED CHERRIES.--Take large, fine, red cherries, perfectly ripe, and cut the stems about an inch long. Put the cherries into jars with layers of powdered sugar between each layer of fruit, interspersing them with little, thin muslin bags of broken cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg. The jars should be three-quarters full of cherries and sugar. Fill up with cold vinegar, and cover them closely.
TO KEEP STRING BEANS AND GREEN PEAS.--String the beans, (which should be full grown but not old,) and cut them into _three_ pieces--not more. Pack them in wide-mouthed stone-jars; a layer of beans and a thin layer of fine salt. The day before they are to be cooked, take out a sufficient quantity, and soak them at least twenty-four hours in a pan of cold water, changing the water several times, till it no longer tastes salt. Having drained them well, boil the beans till quite tender. Then take them up, drain off the water thoroughly, so as to have the beans as dry as possible. Next put them into a sauce-pan, with a piece of fresh butter and a little black pepper. Cover the pan, and stew them in the butter till they almost come to a boil.
Green peas may be kept in a similar manner. They should be fresh and young. When you take them out of the salt, soak them, as above, for twenty-four hours or more; changing the water till it tastes quite fresh. Boil them soft; then drain them, and stew them a while with butter and pepper.
You may, while boiling, add a _very little_ soda to the peas or beans. This will green and soften them. Too much soda will give them a disagreeable taste, and render them unfit to eat.
SCOTCH SHORT-CAKE.[453-*]--Take a pound of Zante currants; and, after they are well picked and washed, dry them on a large dish before the fire, or on the top of a stove. Instead of currants, you may use sultana or seedless raisins cut in half. When well dried, dredge the fruit profusely with flour to prevent its clodding while baking. Have ready a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Sift two quarts of flour, and spread it to dry at the fire. Cut up a pound of the best fresh butter; put it into a clean sauce-pan, and melt it over the fire; shaking it round and taking care that it does not burn. Put the flour into a large pan, and mix with it a pound of powdered white sugar. Pour the melted butter warm into the midst of the flour and sugar; and with a large spoon or a broad knife mix the whole thoroughly into a soft dough or paste, _without using a drop of water_. Next sprinkle in the fruit, a handful at a time, (stirring hard between each handful) and finish with a tea-spoonful of spice, well mixed in. Let all the ingredients be thoroughly incorporated.
Strew some flour on your paste-board; lay the lumps of dough upon it, flour your hands, and knead it a while on all sides. Then cut it in half, and roll out each sheet about an inch thick. With a jagging-iron cut it into large squares, ovals, triangles, or any form you please, and prick the surface handsomely, with a fork. Butter some square pans, put in the cakes, and bake them brown.
For currants and raisins, you may substitute citron cut into slips and floured. This cake will be found very fine if the receipt is _exactly_ followed. In cold weather it keeps well; and packed in a tin or wooden box, may be sent many hundred miles, for Thanksgiving-day, Christmas, or New Year’s.
It is still more Scotch made of fine fresh oatmeal, sifted and dried. When in London, the author has eaten Scotch cake sent from Edinburgh, and made as above, but of oatmeal.
[453-* This receipt, though inserted somewhat out of place, is too good to be omitted.]
RICE WAFFLES.--Take a tea-cup and a half, or a common sized tumbler-full and a half, of rice that has been well boiled, and warm it in a pint of rich milk, stirring it till smooth and thoroughly mixed. Then remove it from the fire, and stir in a pint of cold milk and a small teaspoonful of salt. Beat four eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture, in turn with sufficient rice flour to make a thick batter. Bake it in a waffle-iron. Send them to table hot; butter them; and eat them with powdered sugar and cinnamon, prepared in a small bowl for the purpose.
THE INDIAN MEAL BOOK.
HINTS ON HEATING OVENS, AND BAKING.--Brick ovens are generally heated with dry fagots or small branches, or with light split wood. For baking bread, the oven-wood must be heavier than for pies. A heap of wood should be placed in the centre of the oven on the brick floor, and then set on fire. While the wood is burning, the door of the oven must be left open. When the wood is all burnt down, and reduced to a mass of small red coals, the oven will be very hot. Then shovel out all the coals and sweep the oven floor with a broom, till it is perfectly clean, and entirely free from ashes. Try the heat within. For baking bread, the floor of the oven should look red; and a little flour thrown in should burn brown immediately. If you can hold your hand within the mouth of the oven as long as you can distinctly count twenty, the heat is about right. Pies, puddings, &c., require less heat. When a brick oven is used, a peel, or large broad-bladed, long-handled wooden shovel is necessary for putting in the bread, pies, &c., placing them on the broad or shovel-end of the peel, and then depositing them on the oven floor. Then close up the door of the oven, and leave the things to bake. When done, slip the peel beneath them, and hand them out on it.
To bake in an iron Dutch oven, (a large deep, cast-iron pan, with a handle, a close-fitting lid, and standing on three or four feet,) you must first stand the lid upright before a clear fire to heat the inside; and it will be best if the oven itself is also stood up before the fire for the same purpose. This should be done while the article to be baked is preparing, that it may be put in as soon as it is ready. The oven may be suspended to the crane, and hung over the fire, or it may be set on a bed of hot wood-coals in the corner of the hearth. As soon as the loaf or pie is in, put on the lid of the oven, and cover it all over with hot coals, replenishing it with more live coals as the baking proceeds. If you find it too hot on the top, deaden it with ashes. If the oven stands on the hearth, keep up the heat at the bottom, by additional live coals placed beneath it. Whether the oven is hung over the fire, or stood on the hearth, there must always be hot coals all over the lid, the hottest near the edge.
To bake on a griddle, you may either hang it over the fire, or set it over hot coals on the hearth. Most griddles have feet. The fire must be quite clear and bright, and free from smoke, or the cakes will be blackened, and have a disagreeable taste. The griddle must be perfectly clean; and while you are baking, it will require frequent scraping, with a broad knife. If it is well scraped after every cake is taken off, it will not want greasing, as there will be no stickiness. Otherwise, some butter tied up in a clean rag and laid on a saucer, must be kept at hand all the time, to rub over the griddle between the baking of each cake; for butter, lard, or nice beef or veal-dripping may be substituted, but it will not be so fine. Never grease with mutton-fat, as it will communicate the taste of tallow. A bit of the fat of _fresh_ pork may do, (stuck on a fork,) but salt pork will give the outside of the cakes a disagreeable saltiness, and therefore should not be used.
A griddle may be placed in the oven of a hot stove. Some close stoves have a hole in the top with a flat lid or cover, which lid can be used as a griddle.
The tin-reflecting-ovens (with shelves for the pies and cakes) that are used for baking in the summer, and that, having a furnace beneath, and a chimney-pipe, can be set out of doors, so that the kitchen may not be kept hot, are very good for things that will bake soon, and that do not require what is called a strong, solid heat. But they are not effective unless the inside is kept _very bright_; otherwise it will not reflect the heat. These tin ovens should (as well as tin roasters) be cleaned thoroughly and scoured bright with sand every time they are used.
The art of baking with anthracite, (or any other mineral coal,) can only be acquired by practice. The above hints on baking, refer exclusively to wood fires.
When a charcoal furnace is used for baking, stewing, or any sort of cooking, it should either be set out in the open air, or the door of the kitchen must be kept open all the time. The vapor of charcoal in a close room is so deleterious as to cause death.
DRIED CORN MEAL YEAST CAKES.--Half a pound of fresh hops.--Four quarts of water.--A pint of wheat or rye flour.--Half a pint of strong fresh yeast, from the brewer or baker.--Three pints, or more of Indian meal. Boil half a pound of fresh hops in four quarts of water, till the liquid is reduced to two quarts. Strain it into a pan, and mix in sufficient wheat flour to make a thin batter; adding half a pint of the best yeast you can procure. Leave it to ferment; and when the fermentation is over, stir in sufficient Indian meal to make a moderately stiff dough. Cover it, and set in a warm place to rise. When it has become very light, roll it out into a square sheet an inch thick, and cut it into flat cakes, about four inches square. Spread them out separately, on a large dish; and let them dry slowly, in a cool place where there is no sun. While drying, turn them five or six times a-day. When they are quite dry and hard, put them separately into brown paper bags, and keep them in a box closely covered, and in a place not the least damp.
When you want them to use for yeast, dissolve in a little warm water, one or more of the cakes, in proportion to the quantity of bread you intend making. When it is quite dissolved, stir it hard, thicken it with a little wheat flour, cover it, and place it near the fire to rise, before you use it. Then mix it with the flour, according to the usual manner of making bread. One yeast cake is enough for two quarts of meal or flour.