Part 5

_Molds._--Fig. A, a circular tin mold for _blanc-manges_, jellies, etc. Fig. B, supposed to be a _blanc-mange_ filled with strawberries. These centres may be filled with any kind of berries, _compotes_, fresh fruits, creams, etc., and make exceedingly pretty dishes. With a small mold of this kind one can prepare a very dainty-looking dish for an invalid. It may be filled with _blanc-mange_, tapioca jelly, Irish moss, wine, or chicken jellies, etc., and filled with a _compote_, a whipped cream, beaten eggs, or any allowable relish. Fig. C, a circular mold, of more elaborate pattern, yet quite as easy to manage as the simple one. Fig. D, wine jelly, filled with whipped cream. Fig. E, a casserole mold. Fig. F, a casserole of rice or mashed potatoes, filled with fried (_sautéd_) spring chickens, with cream sauce, and surrounded with cauliflower blossoms. A pretty course for dinner, tea, or supper.

_Little Silver-plated Chafing-dish._--It is about four and a half inches square, for serving Welsh rare-bits, or for small pieces of venison-steak, with currant jelly. One is served to each person at table. The lower part is a reservoir for boiling-hot water. I have seen them also made with little alcohol-lamps underneath, when the thin slices of venison-steak can be partly or entirely cooked at table, in the currant jelly. At least, the preparation served is kept nicely hot.

_An Instrument for drawing Champagne, Soda, and other Effervescing Liquids at pleasure, leaving the last Glass as sparkling as the first._--The instrument D is driven through the cork in the bottle, the wire A is withdrawn, the button C turned, when the Champagne is drawn through the tube B. When enough is drawn, the button is again turned, and the wire replaced before the bottle is raised. The bottle should then be kept bottom side up. The instrument is a perfect success, and can be obtained of H. B. Platt & Co., 1211 Broadway, New York. It costs $1 85.

_Paper Cases for Soufflés, Chickens à la Bechamel, or for any thing that can be served scolloped, or en coquille._--These cases are easily and quickly made. They furnish a pretty variety at table, filled with any of the materials described among the receipts for articles to be served in paper cases or in shells. To make the paper cases, choose writing-paper: fold and crease it at the dotted lines in Fig. A, then cut the paper at the dark lines in Fig. B. By turning the corner squares, so that they may lap over the sides, the box is formed. Sew the sides together, all around the box, hiding the stitches under the small piece of paper at the top, lapped over the outside. They should be buttered just before filling. Fig. D is a case filled with a rice _soufflé_. Figs. E and F are small cases made of round pieces of paper (four inches in diameter), creased with a penknife. The top may be left unturned, as Fig. F, or turned twice, as Fig. E. These cases may be purchased already made; however, it is a pleasant diversion to make them.

_Paper Handles for Lamb-chops, Cutlets, etc._--A long strip of thin writing-paper is doubled, and cut half-way down with scissors, in as thin cuts as can be easily made (Fig. A, a fragment of the paper). One edge of the paper is then slipped a little distance farther than the corresponding edge, which gives the fine cuts a round shape, as in Fig. B. The edges can be held in this position, with the aid of a very little mucilage. Now roll the paper spirally over a little stick, about the size of a cutlet bone. Fasten the end with a little mucilage, and the paper handle is quite ready to slip over cutlet bones, just as they are about to be sent to the table. Larger-sized paper handles can be made in the same manner for boiled hams.

_Silver-plated Scallop Shell, for any thing served en coquille._--Articles served _en coquille_ make a pretty course for lunch or dinner. The shells in plated silver are quite expensive, costing sixty dollars a dozen at Tiffany’s. I imagine they could be made as well of block-tin, with a single coating of silver, and with the little feet riveted, so as to stand the heat of the oven.

_A Méringue Decorator._--The little tin tube A (one-third of an inch in diameter), or B, is put in the bottom of the bag. _Méringue_ (whipped whites of eggs, sweetened and flavored), or frosting for cakes, is put in the bag, and squeezed through the tube on puddings, lemon or _méringue_ pies, or on cakes, forming any design that may suit the fancy. If it is squeezed through the tube A, the line of frosting will be round; if through tube B, it will be scalloped, when leaves and flowers can easily be formed. The lady-fingers are shaped by pressing the cake batter through a tube half an inch in diameter. The bag is easily made with tightly woven twilled cloth. The little tin tubes can be made at the tinsmith’s, or at home, with a piece of tin, a large pair of scissors, and a little solder. With this little convenience, the trouble of decorating dishes is very slight, and their appearance is very much improved.

_Gravy and Sauce Strainer._--A sauce-strainer made of wire gauze of the form of cut presents so much surface for straining that the operation is much quicker accomplished than when using tin cups with a small circle of gauze or perforated holes at the bottom.

_An Egg-whisk._--Decidedly the best form for an egg-whisk is the one given in the cut. It is equally useful for making _roux_ and sauces. By holding the whisk perpendicularly, and vigorously passing it in the bottom of a saucepan, a small quantity of butter and flour or sauce can be thoroughly mixed.

BREAD, AND BREAKFAST CAKES.

It requires experience to make good bread. One must know, first, how long to let the bread rise, as it takes a longer time in cold than in warm weather; second, when the oven is just of proper temperature to bake it. Bread should be put in a rather hot oven. It is nearly light enough to bake when put in; so the rule for baking bread differs from that of baking cake, which should be put into a moderate oven at first, to become equally heated through before rising. As bread requires a brisk heat, it is well to have the loaves small, the French-bread loaves being well adapted to a hot oven. After the bread is baked, the loaves should be placed on end (covered) at the back of the table until they become cool.

TO MAKE YEAST.

Ingredients: A cupful of baker’s yeast; four cupfuls of flour; two large potatoes, boiled; one cupful of sugar, and six cupfuls of boiling water.

Mix the warm mashed potatoes and sugar together; then add the flour; next, add the six cupfuls of boiling water, poured on slowly: this cooks the flour a little. It will be of the consistency of batter. Let the mixture get almost cold, stirring it well, that the bottom may become cool also. It will spoil the yeast if the batter be too hot. When lukewarm, add the tea-cupful of yeast. Leave this mixture in the kitchen, or in some warm place, perhaps on the kitchen-table (do not put it too near the stove), for five or six hours, until it gets perfectly light. Do not touch it until it gets somewhat light; then stir it down two or three times during the six hours. This process makes it stronger. Keep it in a cool place until needed.

This yeast will last perpetually, if a tea-cupful of it be always kept, when making bread, to make new yeast at the next baking. Keep it in a stone jar, scalding the jar every time fresh yeast is made.

In summer, it is well to mix corn-meal with the yeast, and dry it in cakes, in some shady, dry place, turning the cakes often, that they may become thoroughly dry. It requires about one and a half cakes (biscuit-cutter) to make four medium-sized loaves of bread. Crumb them, and let them soak in lukewarm water about a quarter or half an hour before using.

TO MAKE THE BREAD.

Ingredients: Flour, one and a half cupfuls of yeast, lukewarm water, a table-spoonful of lard, a little salt.

Put two quarts of flour into the bread-bowl; sprinkle a little salt over it; add one and a half cupfuls of yeast, and enough lukewarm water to make it a rather soft dough. Set it one side to rise. In winter, it will take overnight; in summer, about three hours. After it has risen, mix well into it one table-spoonful of lard; then add flour (not too much), and knead it half an hour. The more it is kneaded, the whiter and finer it becomes. Leave this in the bread-bowl for a short time to rise; then make it into loaves. Let it rise again for the third time. Bake.

MRS. BONNER’S BREAD.

This is a delicious bread, which saves the trouble of making yeast. Twenty-five cents’ worth of Twin Brothers’ yeast will last a small family six weeks. I would recommend Mrs. Bonner’s bread in preference to that of the last receipt. It is cheaper and better, at last, to always have good bread, which is insured by using fresh yeast each time.

For four loaves: At noon, boil three potatoes; mash them well; add a little salt, and two and a half cupfuls of flour; also enough boiling water (that in which the potatoes were boiled) to make rather a thin batter. Let it cool, and when it is at about blood-heat, add a Twin Brothers’ yeast-cake, soaked in half a tea-cupful of lukewarm water. One yeast-cake will be sufficient for four loaves of bread in summer; but use one and a half yeast-cakes in winter. Stir well, and put it in a warm place. At night it will be light, when stir in enough flour to make the sponge. Do not make it too stiff. If you should happen to want a little more bread than usual, add a little warm water to the batter. Let it remain in a warm place until morning, when it should be well kneaded for at least twenty minutes. Half an hour or more would be better. Return the dough to the pan, and let it rise again. When light, take it out; add half a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a table-spoonful of water; separate it into four loaves; put them in the pans, and let it rise again. When light, bake it an hour.

FRENCH BREAD (_Grace Melaine Lourant_).

Put a heaping table-spoonful of hops and a quart of hot water over the fire to boil. Have ready five or six large boiled potatoes, which mash fine. Strain the hops. Now put a pint of boiling water (that in which the potatoes were boiled) over three cupfuls of flour; mix in the mashed potatoes, then the quart of strained hot hop-water, a heaping tea-spoonful of sugar, and the same of salt. When this is lukewarm, mix in one and a half Twin Brothers’ yeast-cakes (softened). Let this stand overnight in a warm place.

In the morning, a new process is in order: First, pour over the yeast a table-spoonful of warm water, in which is dissolved half a spoonful of soda; mix in lightly about ten and a half heaping tea-cupfuls of sifted flour. No more flour is added to the bread during its kneading. Instead, the hands are wet in lukewarm water. Now knead the dough, giving it about eight or ten strokes; then taking it from the side next to you, pull it up into a long length, then double it, throwing it down _snappishly_ and heavily. Wetting the hands again, give it the same number of strokes, or _kneads_, pulling the end toward you again, and throwing it over the part left in the pan. Continue this process until large bubbles are formed in the dough. It will take half an hour or longer. The hands should be wet enough at first to make the dough rather supple. If dexterously managed, it will not stick to the hands after a few minutes; and when it is kneaded enough, it will be very elastic, full of bubbles, and will not stick to the pan. When this time arrives, put the dough away again in a warm place to rise. This will take one or two hours.

Now comes another new process. Sprinkle plenty of flour on the board, and take out lightly enough dough to make one loaf of bread, remembering that the French loaves are not large, nor of the same shape as the usual home-made ones. With the thumb and forefinger gather up the sides carefully (to prevent doubling the meshes or grain of the dough) to make it round in shape. Flour the rolling-pin, press it in the centre, rolling a little to give the dough the form of cut.

Now give each puffed end a roll toward the centre, lapping well the ends. Turn the bread entirely over, pulling out the ends a little, to give the loaf a long form, as in cut.

Sprinkle plenty of flour on large baking-pans turned bottom side up, upon which lay this and the other loaves, a little distance apart, if there is room for two of them on one pan. Sprinkle plenty of flour on the tops, and set the pans by the side of the fire to again rise a little. It will take twenty-five or thirty minutes longer. Then bake.

Kneading bread in the manner just described causes the _grain_ of the bread to run in one direction, so that it may be pealed off in layers. Kneading with water instead of flour makes the bread moist and elastic, rather than solid and in crumbs.

PETITS PAINS

are made as in last receipt, by lightly gathering a little handful of dough, picking up the sides, and turning it over in the form of a ball or a biscuit. They are baked as described for French bread, placing them a little distance apart, so that they may be separate little breads, each one enough for one person at breakfast.

TOAST.

I have remarked before that not one person in a thousand knows how to make good toast. The simplest dishes seem to be the ones oftenest spoiled. If the cook sends to the table a properly made piece of toast, one may judge that she is a _scientific_ cook, and may entertain, at the same time, exalted hopes of her.

The bread should not be too fresh. It should be cut _thin_, evenly, and in good shape. The crust edges should be cut off. The pieces shaved off can be dried and put in the bread-crumb can. The object of toasting bread is to extract all its moisture--to convert the dough into pure farina of wheat, which is very digestible. Present each side of the bread to the fire for a few moments to _warm_, without attempting to toast it; then turn about the first side at some distance from the fire, so that it may slowly and evenly receive a _golden_ color all over the surface. Now turn it to the other side, moving it in the same way, until it is perfectly toasted. The coals should be clear and hot. Serve it the moment it is done, on a warm plate, or, what is better, a toast-rack; consequently, do not have a piece of bread toasted until the one for whom it is intended is ready to eat it.

“If, as is generally done, a thick slice of bread is hurriedly exposed to a hot fire, and the exterior of the bread is toasted nearly black, the intention of extracting the moisture is defeated, as the heat will then produce no effect on the interior of the slice, which remains as moist as ever. Charcoal is a bad conductor of heat. The overtoasted surface is nothing more or less than a thin layer of charcoal, which prevents the heat from penetrating through the bread. Neither will butter pass through the hard surface: it will remain on it, and if exposed to heat, to melt it in, it will dissolve, and run over it in the form of rancid oil. _This_ is why buttered toast is so often unwholesome.”

DIXIE BISCUIT (_Mrs. Blair_).

Mix one tea-spoonful of salt into three pints of flour; put one tea-cupful of milk, with two table-spoonfuls of lard, on the fire to warm. Pour this on two eggs, well beaten; add the flour, with one tea-cupful of home-made yeast. When well mixed, set it in a warm place for about five hours to rise; then form into biscuit; let them rise again. Bake.

GRAHAM BREAD.

Make the sponge as for white bread; then knead in Graham flour, only sifting part of it. Add, also, two or three table-spoonfuls of molasses.

RUSKS.

Add to about a quart of bread dough the beaten yolks of three eggs, half a cupful of butter, and one cupful of sugar: mix all well together. When formed into little cakes (rather high and slender, and placed very near each other), rub the tops with sugar and water mixed; then sprinkle over dry sugar. This should fill two pans.

PARKER HOUSE ROLLS (_Mrs. Samuel Treat_).

Ingredients: Two quarts of flour, one pint of milk (measured after boiling), butter the size of an egg, one table-spoonful of sugar, one tea-cupful of home-made yeast, and a little salt.

Make a hole in the flour. Put in the other ingredients, in the following order: sugar, butter, milk, and yeast. Do not stir the ingredients after putting them together. Arrange this at ten o’clock at night; set it in a cool place until ten o’clock the next morning, when mix all together, and knead it fifteen minutes by the clock. Put it in a cool place again until four o’clock P.M., when cut out the rolls, and set each one apart from its neighbor in the pan. Set it for half an hour in a warm place. Bake fifteen minutes.

BEATEN BISCUIT.

Rub one quarter of a pound of lard into one and a half pounds of flour, adding a pinch of salt. Mix enough milk or water with it to make a _stiff_ dough. Beat the dough well with a rolling-pin for half an hour or more, or until the dough will _break_ when pulled. Little machines come for the purpose of making beaten biscuit, which facilitate the operation. Form into little biscuit, prick them on top several times with a fork, and bake.

SODA AND CREAM OF TARTAR BISCUIT.

Ingredients: One quart of flour, one tea-spoonful of soda, two tea-spoonfuls cream of tartar, one even tea-spoonful of salt, lard or butter the size of a small egg, and milk.

Put the soda, cream of tartar, and salt on the table; mash them smoothly with a knife, and mix well together; mix them as evenly in the flour as possible; then pass it all through the sieve two or three times. The success of the biscuits depends upon the equal distribution of these ingredients. Mix in the lard or butter (melted) as evenly as possible, taking time to rub it between the open hands, to break any little lumps. Now pour in enough milk to make the dough consistent enough to roll out, mixing it lightly with the ends of the fingers. The quicker it is rolled out, cut, and baked, the better will be the biscuits.

The biscuits are cheaper made with cream of tartar and soda than with baking-powder, yet many make the

BISCUITS WITH BAKING-POWDER.

They are made as in the last receipt, merely substituting two heaping tea-spoonfuls of baking-powder for the cream of tartar and soda, and taking the same care to mix evenly.

These biscuits are nice rolled quite thin (half an inch), and cut with a small cutter two inches in diameter. They may be served hot or cold, and are often used at evening companies, cold, split in two, buttered, and with chopped ham (as for sandwiches) placed between them. They are preferable to bread sandwiches, as they do not dry as quickly, and are, perhaps, neater to handle. These biscuits are especially nice when made with Professor Horsford’s self-raising flour--of course, the raising powders are omitted. The appreciation of hot biscuits is quite a Southern and Western American fancy. They are rarely seen abroad, and are generally considered unwholesome in the Eastern States.

MUFFINS.

Ingredients: Two eggs, one pint of flour, one tea-cupful of milk or cream, butter half the size of an egg, a little salt, and one tea-spoonful of baking-powder.

Mix the baking-powder and salt in the flour. Beat the eggs; add to the yolks, first, milk, then butter (melted), then flour, then the whites. Beat well after it is all mixed, and bake them immediately in a hot oven, in gem-pans or rings. Take them out of the pans or rings the moment they are done, and send them to the table. The self-raising flour is very nice for making muffins. In using this, of course, the baking-powder should be omitted.

WAFFLES.

Ingredients: Two eggs, one pint of flour, one and a quarter cupfuls of milk or cream, one even tea-spoonful of yeast-powder, butter or lard the size of a walnut, and salt.

Mix the baking-powder and salt well in the flour, then rub in evenly the butter; next add the beaten yolks and milk mixed, then the beaten whites of the eggs. Bake immediately.

RICE WAFFLES (_Mrs. Gratz Brown_).

Ingredients: One and a half pints of boiled rice, one and a half pints of flour, half a tea-cupful of sour milk, half a tea-cupful of sweet milk, one tea-spoonful of soda, salt, three eggs, and butter size of a walnut.

RICE PANCAKES

are made as in the last receipt, by adding an extra half-cupful of milk.

HOMINY CAKE (_Mrs. Watts Sherman_).

Add a spoonful of butter to two cupfuls of whole hominy (boiled an hour with milk) while it is still hot. Beat three eggs very light, which add to the hominy. Stir in gradually a pint of milk, and, lastly, a pint of corn-meal. Bake in a pan.

This is a very nice breakfast cake. Serve it, with a large napkin under it, on a plate. The sides of the napkin may cover the top of the cake until the moment of serving, which will keep it moist.

BAKED HOMINY GRITS (_Mrs. Pope_).

Ingredients: One quart of milk, one cupful of hominy grits, two eggs, and salt.

When the milk is salted and boiling, stir in the hominy grits, and boil for twenty minutes. Set it aside to cool thoroughly. Beat the eggs to a stiff froth, and then beat them well and hard into the hominy. Bake half an hour.

BREAKFAST PUFFS, OR POP-OVERS (_Mrs. Hopkins_).

Ingredients: Two cupfuls of milk, two cupfuls of flour, two eggs, and an even tea-spoonful of salt.

Beat the eggs separately and well, add the whites last, and then beat all well together. They may be baked in roll-pans, or deep gem-pans, which should be heated on the range, and greased before the batter is put in: they should be filled half full with the batter. Or they may be baked in tea-cups, of which eight would be required for this quantity of batter. When baked, serve immediately. For Graham gems use half Graham flour.

HENRIETTES FOR TEA (_French Cook_), No. 1.

Ingredients: Three eggs beaten separately, three-fourths of a cupful of cream or milk, a scant tea-spoonful of baking-powder, salt, one table-spoonful of brandy, a pinch of cinnamon, enough flour to make them just stiff enough to roll out easily.

Roll them thin as a wafer, cut them into about two-inch squares, or into diamonds, with the paste-jagger, fry them in boiling lard, and sprinkle over pulverized sugar.

HENRIETTES FOR BREAKFAST OR TEA (_French Cook_), No. 2.

Ingredients: Three eggs beaten separately, one cupful of milk, a scant tea-spoonful of baking-powder, salt, one table-spoonful of brandy, and flour enough to make a little thicker than for pancakes.

Pass the batter through a funnel (one-third or one-half inch diameter at end) into hot boiling lard, making rings, or any figures preferred. Do not fry too much at one time. When done and drained, sprinkle over pulverized sugar, and lay them on a plate on a folded napkin. Serve.

WAFER BISCUITS.

Rub a piece of butter the size of a large hickory-nut into a pint of sifted flour; sprinkle over a little salt. Mix it into a stiff, smooth paste, with the white of an egg beaten to a froth, and warm milk. Beat the paste with a rolling-pin for half an hour, or longer; the more the dough is beaten, the better are the biscuits. Form the dough into little round balls about the size of a pigeon’s egg; then roll each of them to the size of a saucer. They should be mere wafers in thickness; they can not be too thin. Sprinkle a little flour over the tins. Bake.

These wafers are exceedingly nice to serve with a cheese course, or for invalids to eat with their tea.

CORN BREAD.