Part 12

Fresh fish or clam chowder and oyster stew are good dishes for school lunches in localities where fresh sea food is abundant. Dried and salt fish or vegetables alone may also be used as the flavoring in chowders that children will find attractive and wholesome. The ingredients are milk, whole or skim; a fatty substance, which is usually salt pork, though butter may be used; potatoes or crackers, often both, and in addition to these one of the following: Fish, either fresh or salt; green corn, fresh or canned; parsnips, vegetable oysters, kohl-rabi or celery. A chowder consisting mainly of milk, potatoes and crackers, and flavored with a little salt codfish is perhaps the most economical of these dishes.

SALT CODFISH CHOWDER

½ lb salt codfish, 1½ oz or 1½″ cube fat salt pork, 1 tbp chopped onion, 3 c cooked potatoes, or diced carrots and potatoes, 1 qt milk, 8 soda crackers (about 2 oz).

Break the codfish into small pieces, soak it in lukewarm water until it is soft and the salt has been removed; cut the pork into small pieces and cook it until a delicate brown, adding the onions during the last part of the cooking; to the pork and onions add the potatoes; cover with water and boil them until tender; add the milk and the fish and reheat; add the crackers shortly before the chowder is served.

POTATO CHOWDER

¼ lb salt pork, diced, 1 tbp chopped onion, 6 medium-sized potatoes, sliced, 1 tbp butter or other fat, 1 tbp flour, 1 pt milk, 1 pt water, 1 tsp salt.

Fry the pork and onion together until both are a delicate brown; put a layer of sliced potatoes into a kettle then a layer of onion and pork, and sprinkle with salt; repeat this until those materials are all used; pour over them the grease from the pan in which the pork and onion were fried, and add the water; cover and simmer for 20 min, or until the potatoes are tender; thicken the milk with the flour mixed with the fat and pour it over the potatoes; stir carefully, so as not to break the potatoes; serve very hot.

LOBSTER CHOWDER

2 c lobster meat, ¼ c onion, ¼ c salt pork fat, 2 tbp butter, 4 c milk, salt, cayenne, blade of mace, 1 c hot cream, 2 tbp flour.

Cook onion in salt pork fat; melt butter; add flour, milk and seasonings and cook in db with lobster cut in cubes 20 min; add strained salt pork fat, hot cream and serve.

CLAM CHOWDER

1½ doz clams chopped fine, 1 c water, 3 large potatoes, cut into dice, 2 slices pork or bacon, cut into dice, 1 slice onion, 1 qt milk, 2 level tbp butter, 2 level tbp flour, 1 tsp chopped parsley, 1 level tsp salt, pepper to season, 8 crackers.

Fry out the pork or bacon and fry the onion in the fat; add the clam liquor, water and potatoes; cook until tender; season, and add the clams and milk; cook 10 min longer, then thicken with the butter and flour creamed together; pour the chowder over the crackers and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

CORN CHOWDER

1 c fresh corn, 1½″ cube salt pork, diced, 1 onion, sliced, 1 qt potatoes, sliced, 1 c milk or cream, salt and pepper, 8 crackers.

Fry the salt pork; add the onion, and cook until the onion is tender; boil the potatoes 5 min in 1 qt of boiling water; add the fat, and cook until the potatoes are soft; add the corn and milk and bring to the scalding point; add the butter and seasoning; pour over the crackers and serve hot.

MILK STEW

1 qt milk, 1 c raw potatoes, cut into small pieces, 2 tbp butter or bacon fat, 1 c salt codfish, cut into small pieces or just enough to flavor the stew.

Soak the fish in lukewarm water until it is soft and the salt removed; cook the potatoes in water until tender; drain them; add the milk and codfish, and bring to the boiling point; add the butter and salt to taste.

In place of the codfish, any other salt or fresh fish, oysters, or a little chipped beef may be used. Or the fish may be omitted and the soup made savory and palatable by adding a few drops of onion juice, or a vegetable cut into small pieces and cooked thoroughly.

VEGETABLE CHOWDER

4 potatoes, 3 carrots, 3 onions, 1 pt tomatoes, 2 tsp salt, 2 tbp fat or a small piece salt pork, 3 tbp flour, 2 c skim milk.

Cut the potatoes and carrots into small pieces; add water to cover, and cook 20 min; brown the chopped onion in the fat; add the flour and the tomatoes, and when thickened, add to the vegetables; heat the milk and combine with the vegetables just before serving.

LAMB STEW

2 lb breast of lamb, 2 c boiling water, 2 c potato cubes, 2 tbp butter or pork fat, ½ c sliced onion, 2 tbp rice, 1 c strained tomato, salt and pepper.

Brown the onions in hot fat; cut meat in 2″ pieces; add to onions; cover with hot water and simmer 2 hr; parboil potatoes; add rice when meat has cooked 1 hr; add parboiled potatoes ½ hr before serving; add tomato 10 min before serving; season with salt and pepper. The tomato may be omitted and 1 c of water substituted.

SHEPHERD’S PIE

1 lb chopped cooked meat, 2 lb mashed potatoes, 1 sliced onion, salt and pepper, few grains paprika, 1 tbp butter, ½ c water, ½ tsp meat extract.

Fry the onion in the butter; put into a pudding dish a layer of the potato, a little seasoning, a layer of the meat, then onion, pour over the water, in which the meat extract has been dissolved, and continue the layers until the dish is full; covering over the whole with a layer of potatoes; make the potatoes rough on the top with a fork; put on a few pieces of butter and bake until browned; serve hot.

TOMATO FISH CHOWDER

4 lb cod or haddock, or 1 lb dry salt fish, 4 c potatoes, cut in cubes, 1½″ cube fat salt pork, 1 sliced onion, 2½ c stewed and strained tomatoes, 3 tbp butter, ⅔ c cracker crumbs, salt and pepper.

Buy a whole fish, but have it skinned; cut off head and tail and remove backbone; cut fish in small pieces and set aside; put head, tail and backbone into 2 c cold water, bring to a boil and cook 20 min; cut pork into small pieces; try out; add onion and cook 5 min; parboil potatoes 5 min, then drain and add to fat with 2 c boiling water, also the liquor drained from the bones and the pieces of fish; cover and simmer 10 min; add tomatoes, salt, pepper and butter; just before serving, add cracker crumbs. If dry salt fish is used, freshen it by soaking several hours in 3 or 4 changes of warm water.

MUTTON AND LAMB

Mutton is the meat of sheep and is almost as nutritious as beef.

Lamb is the meat from a lamb. It is less nutritious than mutton. Spring lamb is the meat from a lamb at 6 or 8 weeks.

ROAST LAMB

A leg of lamb is usually sent from market surrounded by a thin membrane known as the caul. If this peels off easily and the fat is hard, white and flaky, the meat is in good condition. Remove the caul, wipe meat with wet cloth, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place in hot roasting pan, dredge the meat and pan with flour, place in a hot oven. Baste with water and drippings as soon as flour in pan browns, and every 15 min afterward until meat is done. The heat in oven should be reduced after the first 30 min of roasting. It will take about 2 hr for roasting.

Good quality mutton should be fine grained and of bright pink color; the fat white, hard and flaky. Lamb chops may be easily distinguished from mutton chops by the red color of bone. As a lamb grows older blood recedes from bones; therefore in mutton the bone is white. Good mutton contains a larger proportion of fat than good beef. Poor mutton is often told by the relatively small proportion of fat and lean as compared to bone.

Lamb is usually preferred well done. Mutton is often cooked rare.

=To Carve a Leg of Lamb.= Cut in thin slices across grain of meat to the bone, beginning at top of the leg.

HOT POT OF MUTTON

1 lb mutton, ½ c pearl barley, celery tops or parsley, 4 potatoes, 3 onions, 1 tbp salt.

Cut mutton in small pieces and brown with onion fat cut from the meat; pour this into a covered saucepan; add 2 qt water and the barley; simmer for 1½ hr; then add the potatoes, cut in quarters, add the seasonings and cook ½ hr longer.

BALLOTIN OF LAMB

Bone a shoulder of lamb, leaving the end for a handle; sew it up with a needle, tie it firmly and boil for 5 min; take out and cool, then lard it; put a slice of bacon in a saucepan with 1 tbp minced onion and 1 carrot; brown the lamb with these for 5 min; remove meat to a kettle and add a pt of white broth and seasoning, and cook for 1¼ hr. The sauce should reduce ½; thicken slightly, pour it over 1 pt boiled green peas and lay the lamb upon them.

BREADED MUTTON CHOPS

Wipe and trim chops, sprinkle with salt and pepper; dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs; fry in deep fat from 5 to 8 min; drain; serve with tomato sauce, or stack around a mound of mashed potatoes, fried potato balls or green peas; allow fat to reheat between fryings; after testing fat for temperature, put in chops and place kettle on back of range, that surface of chops may not be too brown while the inside is still underdone.

BRAISED BREAST OF LAMB

With sharp knife remove bones from a breast of lamb; season it well with salt and pepper; roll up and tie firmly with twine; put 2 tbp butter in the braising pan, and when melted add 1 onion, 1 slice of carrot and 1 of turnip, all cut fine; stir for 5 min and then put in the lamb, with a thick dredging of flour; cover and set back where it will cook slowly for an hour; baste often; take up the meat, skim all the fat off the gravy, put it where it will boil rapidly for 5 min; take the string from the meat; strain the gravy and pour over the dish; serve very hot with tomato sauce. Bones put in the pan with the meat improve the gravy.

BROILED CHOPS

Wipe chops, remove superfluous fat, and place in a broiler greased with some of mutton fat. In loin chops, flank may be rolled and fastened with a small wooden skewer.

PAN BROILED CHOPS

Chops for pan broiling should have flank and most of fat removed; wipe chops and put in frying pan rubbed with a piece of fat cut from chops; sear under surface, turn and sear other side; turn often, using knife and fork that the surface may not be pierced, as would be liable if fork alone were used; cook to suit; let stand around edge of frying pan to brown the outside fat; when half cooked, sprinkle with salt; put on hot platter, and spread with butter or serve with tomato sauce.

=Gravy.= Drain off all but 3 tbp of fat from the dripping pan; dredge into it 3 tbp flour, and brown well; add 1 pt cold water; cook slowly, stirring constantly until thick and smooth. If made carefully, this will require no straining.

SADDLE OF MUTTON

The loin is removed whole before dividing into sides; trim meat, wipe with wet cloth, sprinkle with salt and pepper; place on rack in hot roaster; dredge meat and bottom of pan with flour; place in hot oven; baste with water and fat as soon as flour browns and every 15 min afterward. The meat should cook in 1¼ hr.

ROAST MUTTON SHOULDER

Remove the bone and fill space with a moist stuffing made with grated stale bread crumbs, highly seasoned with butter, salt, pepper and thyme; add the yolk of 1 or 2 eggs and enough warm water to soften the bread; put bones and scraps of meat in a kettle with barely enough water to cover; lay the stuffed shoulder on them and let the whole simmer gently for 1 hr; lift onto the rack in a roasting pan; dredge with salt, pepper and flour and bake an hour, or till tender; strain the water in the kettle and use it for basting and for gravy, with a little butter and flour at the last to froth the surface.

MINCED LAMB

Remove dry pieces of skin and gristle from left-over cold roast lamb and chop the meat; heat in well-buttered frying pan; season with salt, pepper and celery salt; dredge well with flour and add enough hot water to make a thin gravy; pour on slices of buttered toast.

SALMI OF LAMB

Cut cold roast lamb in thin slices; cook 5 min 2 tbp butter with ½ tbp finely chopped onion; add lamb; sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover with 1 c brown sauce; cook until thoroughly heated; arrange slices overlapping one another lengthwise of platter; pour around sauce, and garnish with toast points. A few sliced mushrooms or stoned olives improve this sauce.

FRICASSEE OF LAMB

3 lb lamb from the forequarter, cut in pieces for serving; wipe meat; put in kettle; cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until meat is tender; remove from water, cool, sprinkle with salt and pepper; dredge with flour, and saute in butter or mutton fat; arrange on platter and pour around 1½ c brown sauce made from liquid in which meat was cooked after removing all fat.

SCALLOPED LAMB

Remove skin and fat from thin slices of cold roast lamb, and sprinkle with salt and pepper; cover bottom of a buttered baking dish with buttered cracker crumbs; cover crumbs with meat; cover meat with boiled macaroni, and add another layer of meat and macaroni; pour over tomato sauce, and cover with buttered cracker crumbs; bake in hot oven until crumbs are brown. Cold rice may be used in place of macaroni.

LAMB EN CASSEROLE

3 c cold cooked lamb, cut in pieces, 1 tbp butter, 1 c cooked carrots, cut in cubes, 1 c cooked potato balls, 8 small onions, cooked, left-over gravy.

Brown lamb in fat; put in a baking dish; add carrots, potato balls and onions; add left-over gravy and enough hot water to moisten; season with salt and pepper; cover and bake in hot oven 20 to 25 min.

SCALLOPED LAMB

2 c cooked lamb, cut in small pieces, 2 c medium white sauce, 1 c soft bread crumbs, 1 tbp chopped parsley.

Mix lamb and white sauce together; put a layer of lamb in a greased casserole or baking dish; add a layer of bread crumbs and sprinkle with parsley; repeat this process until all the ingredients are used, having a layer of crumbs on top; bake in a hot oven 20 to 25 min, or until crumbs are brown.

CURRIED LAMB

2½ lb lamb shoulder, 2 tbp fat, 1 tsp salt, ⅛ tsp pepper, 1½ tbp curry powder, 2 tbp flour, 2 tbp water, 3 c boiled rice.

Wipe lamb with a clean, damp cloth; cut into medium-sized pieces and remove the fat; melt butter in a frying pan; add lamb and cook until delicate brown; cover with boiling water; add salt, pepper and curry powder mixed with a little cold water; cover and simmer for about 2½ hr or until lamb is tender; make a smooth paste of the flour and water and add enough to thicken the liquid; mound hot rice in center of a hot platter and pour the curried lamb around it.

SWEETBREADS, TONGUES, ETC.

SWEETBREADS

A sweetbread is the thymus gland of lamb or calf, but in cookery, veal sweetbreads only are considered. Sweetbreads are a table delicacy, and a valuable addition to the menu of the convalescent. Sweetbreads consist of two parts: The round, compact part is called the heart sweetbread, as its position is nearer the heart; the other part is called the throat sweetbread. When sweetbread is found in market separated, avoid buying two of the throat sweetbreads, as the heart sweetbread is more desirable.

They spoil very quickly, and should be removed from paper as soon as received from market, plunged into cold water and allowed to stand 1 hr; drained, and put into salted boiling water, then cooked slowly 20 min; again drained, and plunged into cold water, that they may be kept white and firm. They are always parboiled in this manner for subsequent cooking.

BROILED SWEETBREAD

Parboil a sweetbread; split crosswise; sprinkle with salt and pepper; broil 5 min; serve with lemon butter sauce.

CREAMED SWEETBREADS

Cook sweetbreads as directed under Broiled sweetbreads; dice in ½″ cubes; heat in cream sauce made from 1 tbp butter substitute, 1½ tbp flour, and 1 c milk; season with salt and pepper.

BRAINS SCRAMBLED WITH EGG

Soak calves’ brains 1 hr in cold water; remove membrane and parboil 20 min in salted water to which a little vinegar or lemon juice has been added; drain, separate into small pieces. To 4 eggs, lightly beaten, add 4 tbp milk or water, salt, pepper, and ½ c brains; scramble in small amount of butter substitute; serve with chopped parsley.

MINCED KIDNEY

Trim kidneys, removing white fat from center; cut in thin slices; dredge with flour, and brown in small amount of fat, to which has been added a sliced onion. Other seasonings, such as green pepper and celery salt, may be added; when brown, add 1 pt water or stock; simmer gently for 5 min; add more flour if necessary to thicken gravy; serve on toast or with mashed potatoes. Kidneys should be cooked only a short time or they become toughened.

FRIED LIVER

Veal liver is preferable because of its tenderness, but beef liver may be used by first boiling until tender; after boiling, cut in ½″ slices; remove outside skin and veins; dredge with cornmeal and fry in hot fat.

BROILED TRIPE

Fresh honeycomb tripe is best for broiling. Wipe tripe as dry as possible; dip in fine cracker dust and olive oil or melted butter; drain, and again dip in cracker dust; place in greased broiler and broil 5 min; cooking smooth side of tripe the first 3 min; place on hot platter, honeycomb side up, spread with butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

TRIPE IN BATTER

Wipe tripe and cut in pieces for serving; sprinkle with salt and pepper; dip in batter; fry in small quantity of hot fat; drain.

=Tripe Batter.= Mix 1 c flour with ¼ tsp salt; add gradually ½ c cold water, and when perfectly smooth add 1 egg, well beaten, ½ tbp vinegar, and 1 tsp olive oil or melted butter.

SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES

1 c mushrooms, cut in small pieces, salt and pepper, 1 c cold cooked sweetbreads, cut in dice, lemon juice and onion juice, 1 c croquette sauce.

Saute mushrooms in butter; add sweetbread, seasonings, sauce; shape; dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs, and fry.

JELLIED TONGUE

Boil, trim and skin either fresh or salt tongue; have 1¼ qt of aspic jelly in liquid state; cover bottom of a 2 qt mould about an inch deep with it and let it harden. With a fancy vegetable cutter cut out leaves from cooked beets and garnish bottom of mould with them; gently pour in 3 tbp jelly, to set vegetables; when this is hard add jelly enough to cover vegetables, and let the whole get very hard; then put in tongue, and about ½ c of jelly, which should be allowed to harden, and so keep meat in place when remainder is added; pour in remainder of jelly and set away to harden. To serve: Dip mould for a few moments in a pan of warm water and gently turn onto a dish; garnish with pickles and parsley. Pickled beet is especially nice.

FILLETS OF TONGUE

Cut cold boiled tongue in pieces 4″ long, 2″ wide, and ½″ thick; dip in melted butter and flour and fry until brown.

CALF’S HEAD

1 calf’s head, 1 onion, 1 bay leaf, 6 whole cloves, 1 tbp salt, 1 root of celery.

Split head through center; remove brains and lay them in ice cold salted water; wash head thoroughly in many changes of cold water.

To remove skin, begin from under head, keeping knife close to bone; remove as one piece; singe skin and place in cold water for 1 hr; after which, scrape it with a knife; singe again and place in cold water.

Scald cleaned head with boiling water, then place it, with skin on top. In a soup kettle; pour over it 4 qt cold water; bring to boiling point and skim; reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 2 hr; add seasonings and let simmer for 1 hr more.

PORK

Pork is flesh and fat of pig or hog. It contains the largest percentage of fat of any meat. When eaten fresh it is the most difficult of digestion. By curing, salting and smoking, pork is rendered more wholesome. Bacon, next to butter and cream, is the most easily assimilated of all fatty foods. Pork should always be well cooked.

PORK CHOPS

Wipe chops; sprinkle with salt and pepper; place in hot frying pan; cook slowly until tender and well browned on each side.

PORK CHOPS AND STEAKS

Chops are cut from loin and ribs; cuts from leg and shoulder being known as steaks. Either piece is best cooked by laying them in hot frying pan, cook slowly until well seared on each side; then drain off all fat and set into a hot oven for 5 or 10 min, according to thickness of piece; season with pepper and salt just before laying in pan and serve with fried apples or a pickle gravy.

Pork steaks, chops and even roasting pieces may be cooked ready to serve then covered with lard and kept in a cool place. They will keep perfectly for weeks, and when wanted the lard can be melted, the meat reheated, and any sauce desired served with them.

ROAST PORK

The chine, loin and spareribs are the best pieces for roasting. Trim and wipe meat; rub well with salt, pepper and sage; place in hot roasting pan; dredge with flour; roast in hot oven until surfaces are brown; baste, reduce heat and roast from 3 to 3½ hr, basting every 20 min.

CHOPS WITH APPLES

Arrange pork chops on platter, surround with slices of apples, cut ½″ thick; fried in fat remaining in pan after frying chops.

CHOPS EN CASSEROLE

7 medium-sized potatoes, 2 tbp flour, 1 tsp salt, ⅛ tsp pepper, 3 tbp fat, 3 c milk, 6 pork chops.

Wash and pare potatoes; cut in thin slices; put a layer in greased baking dish and sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper; dot with small bits of fat; add another layer of potatoes and seasoning and repeat until all ingredients are used; pour milk over it; lay pork chops on top; bake in moderate oven 1½ hr or until potatoes are tender.

BAKED PORK CHOPS

Dip each chop in milk with a pinch of salt added to it; roll in bread crumbs evaporated; place in well-greased shallow pan; put a tsp of fat on top of each and bake in hot oven 20 min.

ROAST LEG OF PORK

Trim and wipe meat, if used with skin on; score it in 1-in squares, taking care to cut only through skin; make a cut just below knuckle with boning knife, slide knife up along bone and turn it outward, making a half dozen cuts ⅔ way to the skin and fill them with stuffing; sprinkle with salt and pepper; place on rack in roasting pan; dredge with flour. For roasting, follow directions for Roast Pork: Half hour before serving sprinkle with 1 tbp cracker crumbs seasoned with pepper, salt and sage; serve with apple sauce.

STUFFING

1 c grated bread crumbs, 1 sour apple, 1 small onion, 6 sage leaves, 2 tbp butter, 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, 2 egg yolks.

Chop apple and onion; melt butter; add crumbs, rubbing them hard to distribute butter evenly; add seasoning, apple and onion and 2 beaten egg yolks.

ROAST LOIN RIBS

The meat is usually cut quite close from these and used for steaks. Follow directions for Roast Pork and allow 30 min for each pound; serve with apples roasted in same pan or fried; save all drippings from baking pan and see that the glaze is all dissolved; if the oven has not been too hot this fat will serve for frying and gravy can be made to serve with cold roast pork.

BROILED PORK TENDERLOIN

Trim and wipe meat, split open and broil; season with pepper, salt and 1 sage leaf for each one; place in hot broiler and brown thoroughly; serve on hot platter with melted butter.

SCRAPPLE

Scrapple is usually made from head and sometimes liver and heart of the hog.

10 lb whole hog heads, 2½ lb hog livers and hearts, a small quantity of beef if desired, 6 lb cornmeal, yellow or mixed, ½ lb salt, ½ lb buckwheat or rye flour, 3 oz spices, including pepper, sage, marjoram and thyme in any desired proportions.