Part 85

Chowder.--A chowder is always made in a deep iron pot. Cut 6 oz. pickled pork into dice. Put it, with 2 large onions sliced, into the pot; fry till the onion begins to brown; remove the pork and onions. Slice 5 or 6 medium-sized potatoes and 3 lb. fresh cod or other firm fish. Put into the pot a layer of potatoes, then one of fish, seasoning each layer as you proceed with a sprinkling of the fried onions and pork, also a little soup herbs, pepper, and salt. Pour on cold water enough to barely cover the whole, and boil 20 minutes; then add 3 large ship biscuits soaked in milk, also ½ pint hot milk. As soon as it boils again remove it from the fire, and serve it at once. A cup of claret is sometimes added, but in that case the milk is omitted; or clams are frequently used instead of fish, in which case a layer of sliced or canned tomatoes is added.

Clam Fritters.--Put a sufficient quantity of clams into a stewpan, straining the liquor, and pouring about half of it over the clams, adding a little black pepper, but no salt. Let them stew slowly for ½ hour, then take them out, drain off all the liquor, and mince the clams as finely as possible, omitting the hardest parts. You should have enough clams to make a large pint when minced. Make a batter of 7 eggs, beaten till very thick and light, and then mixed gradually with 1 qt. milk and 1 pint sifted flour, stirred in by degrees, and made perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Then gradually mix the minced clams with the butter, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready, in a frying pan over the fire, a sufficiency of boiling lard. Put the batter in with a spoon, so as to form round thin cakes; fry them light brown. Drain well, and serve hot.

Cucumber Sauce.--(_a_) Peel some cucumbers, and then grate sufficient to make 4 tablespoonfuls; to this quantity add an equal quantity of the best olive oil, 1½ tablespoonfuls vinegar, salt and cayenne pepper; stir well until wanted for use. Serve with salmon, lamb, or mutton cutlets. (_b_) Peel some cucumbers, cut them up quite small and put them into a saucepan with a little vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, a small onion, also cut up, and a few celery seeds. Stew gently for 2-3 hours, add a small pat of butter, and serve with cutlets.

Egg Pie.--Boil 1 doz. eggs hard and put them in cold water to get cold; peel and slice them; butter a pie dish, and then put in the eggs in layers, with butter, breadcrumbs, pepper, and salt between the layers until the dish is full, putting breadcrumbs and butter at the top; pour in a cupful of cream, and bake until the top is brown.

Fish Roe Sauce.--Boil 2 pickled herrings, take out the roes, and while hot mix with them ½ lb. butter, a little parsley and onion finely minced, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice; serve poured over broiled mutton chops, or with boiled fish.

Gumbo Filet.--Cut up a chicken, wash and wipe it perfectly dry, pepper and salt it; fry the pieces until brown in hot butter or lard; sprinkle with flour. Add 2 chopped onions, a little finely minced parsley, together with pounded mace, and a clove or two, and sweet herbs--thyme and marjoram. Pour over a little white stock or broth, and then stir gently to prevent burning, until cooked. Then add sufficient stock and the liquor from 1 qt. oysters. Boil until it is wanted. Just before serving put in the oysters, and sift into it a tablespoonful of the gumbo filet. Stir well to the bottom, let it come to the boil, and serve immediately. Rice boiled as for curry, each grain distinct, should be served with it. Gumbo filet is made of the tender young leaves of the sassafras, picked in spring, and dried carefully in the shade, powdered fine, bottled, and corked.

Ham Steaks.--Cut some slices of raw ham, and put them into a frying pan, with ½ teacupful water. When the water has boiled away, and the steaks (which should be turned) have become a light brown on both sides, dredge them over with flour, and pour over them the following sauce: Take ½ teacupful cream and ½ teacupful milk, put them into a saucepan with a small piece of butter, a teaspoonful of mustard, and a dash of cayenne; let it just boil, and pour over the ham.

Lemon Sauce for Fish.--Put into a saucepan ¼ lb. butter and the juice of a good-sized lemon, with pepper and salt to taste; beat up altogether until thick and quite hot; do not allow it to boil. Remove it from the fire and add the beaten-up yolks of 2 eggs. Serve with boiled fish.

Milk, Thickened.--This is a very popular breakfast dish in New England households. Take 1 qt. milk, 1 small teacupful flour, ½ teaspoonful salt, and 5 lumps white sugar. Take 1 teacupful of the milk to mix the flour, place the rest on the fire. When boiling add the mixed flour, salt, and sugar. Boil 5 minutes. To be eaten with cream, sugar, and spice.

Milk Toast.--Another favourite dish. Take ½ pint milk, 2 teaspoonfuls butter, and a little sauce. Put to heat over the fire; toast slices of bread; lay each slice, as soon as toasted, in a deep dish, and pour the heated milk over it, placing the next slice upon it, with more of the milk. When the dish is filled pour over the remainder of the milk, cover it, and serve hot.

Okra.--Take 2 lb. lean beef, and cut it up into small pieces. Peel ½ gal. tomatoes, remove the seeds and hard parts, and put them, with a small onion chopped up and the beef, into a stewpan (not iron). Simmer gently in some butter for a short space, stirring well, then add the okra--previously cut into slices--and stir again for about 10 minutes. Then add 1 gal. boiling water, season to taste with spices, pepper, and salt. Boil slowly, stirring frequently, and mashing up the okra. Just before serving add a small pat of butter.

Pan Dowdy.--Fill a pudding pan with apples pared, quartered, and cored. Cover the top with a crust rolled out of light bread dough, make a hole in the lid, and set the pan in a brick oven. After it has cooked, lift the crust and add molasses, or brown sugar, a little powdered cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, also 1 tablespoonful butter. Stir it well, cut the crust into square bits, mix all together, cover it with a large plate, return it to the oven for 3-4 hours. Serve hot. A pan dowdy may be baked in a stove oven, in which case the apples had better be stewed, and the crust baked separately, then mix all together and bake 2 hours.

Pork and Beans.--1 qt. navy beans, ½ lb. pickled pork, 2 teaspoonfuls thickly mixed mustard, 1 large tablespoonful molasses. Soak the beans in tepid water all night. Next day change the water, place them on the fire, and boil them a few minutes, not long enough to crack them, drain them, place them in a “bean pot,” or deep earthenware pan, nearly bury the pork in the middle of the beans, add the mustard, molasses, pepper and salt, with enough water to cover the whole. If they become too dry, add a teacupful of water when they are half done. Serve with Boston brown bread.

Pumpkin Pie.--“Punkin” (pumpkin) pie is an invariable adjunct either to dinner or to “a high tea,” a species of repast much affected “down East.” It is prepared in this wise. The prime ripe parts of the pumpkin are carefully separated from the seeds and rind, and gently stewed till quite tender. The pumpkin is then strained through a fine sieve, and eggs and milk are added in sufficient proportion to form a thick custard-like substance; sugar and allspice are then added, and the mixture is put into a flat dish previously lined with good paste, and a little powdered nutmeg is strewed over the top. The pies are then baked in a moderate oven. The thickness of the layer of pumpkin should be 1½-2 in. When well prepared, “punkin pie” is a delicious dish, and is never eaten in America without the accompaniment of a small fragment of cheese.

Tomatoes.--(_a_) Baked.--Take large tomatoes, wash them, wipe and cut them in two. Put them in a baking tin with the skin downward, season well with pepper and salt, and place in a hot oven. When done put a piece of butter on each tomato, and serve on a hot dish with or without sharp sauce. (_b_) Cut a very large tomato in half and flour the cut side; heat the pan and lay the slices in, floured side down. When brown turn over, and when quite done dish up and pour over a teacupful of hot cream or milk. (_c_) Hashed.--Well butter a pie dish, put in a layer of sliced tomato, then a layer of any kind of cold meat (sliced very thin or minced), then a layer of thin bread and butter, and so on till the dish is full. Season the whole well and bake till quite brown. (_d_) Stewed.--Put ripe tomatoes into hot water, and when scalded take off the skins; throw them into an earthen pipkin, cut in slices, and stew gently till tender. Season with butter, pepper, and salt; and serve with sippets of buttered toast. In some parts of America breadcrumbs and sugar are added to the stew instead of other seasoning.

Veal Cake.--Take 3 lb. veal and chop it up very finely with ¼ lb. pork, 1 cupful breadcrumbs, 3 teaspoonfuls salt, 1 of black pepper, ½ teaspoonful cayenne, and a few cloves. Mix all well together with 2 raw eggs. Put it into a plain mould and steam for 2 hours; then put into a cool oven for a short time just to dry it. Turn it out, when cold, and cut it into thin slices. Garnished with aspic jelly, it makes a very nice luncheon dish.

White Cabbage Salad.--Set a firm white cabbage in cold water, and let it stand some hours, then dry well and shred very fine. For the dressing take a piece of butter the size of a walnut and a tablespoonful of flour, mix well, and add 2 tablespoonfuls vinegar; scald for a minute, then add the beaten yolk of 1 egg and 2 tablespoonfuls cream, with salt and pepper to taste. Pour over and serve.

Whortleberry Cakes.-¾ cupful sugar, ¼ cupful butter, 1 cupful milk, 3 cupfuls sifted flour, 1 heaping teaspoonful baking powder, 1 small teaspoonful salt, 2 eggs, 1 heaping pint whortleberries. Mix the baking powder with the flour, beat the butter and sugar to a cream, add the milk and beaten eggs, then the flour, stirring in lastly the berries over which you have previously dredged a little of the flour. Pour into 12 small tin cups buttered and heated, serve hot for breakfast or tea, with butter. They can be baked in muffin rings.

_Belgian._--Asparagus.--(_a_) Boil in the usual way as much asparagus as required, and arrange it neatly on a folded napkin in a flat dish. Boil some eggs hard (allowing one egg to each person), and divide them in halves lengthwise. Border the asparagus with these halves, placing them with the yolks upwards. Serve this dish very hot, and send to table with it a sufficient quantity of butter, simply melted and made quite hot, but without any thickening.

(_b_) Having cut all the hard white part from some cold boiled asparagus, arrange it neatly on a dish, and cover it with a thick mayonnaise sauce. Place round this some slices of cold boiled ham, cut very thin and rolled. Alternate these with halves of hard-boiled eggs, as in (_a_), and garnish with small sprays of parsley. Forced eggs, flavoured with ham or tongue, may be used with this dish instead of the ham and eggs, if preferred.

(_c_) Cut the tender parts of some boiled asparagus into lengths of 2 in.; mince finely some parsley and young onions with a few leaves of lettuce; put them in a saucepan with butter, a little water, salt, pepper, a little nutmeg, and a pinch of flour; simmer, stirring occasionally, until the onions, &c., are done. Scald the asparagus in this, and serve very hot with croutons of fried bread. Small sprigs of cauliflower, broccoli, or peas which have been previously boiled are also good served in this way. If for peas, a little sugar may be added when liked.

Flamande Sauce.--This is an excellent sauce with which to serve almost any vegetable that has been previously cooked. It is made thus: Put into a saucepan butter, a slice of lemon, salt, pepper, and a little water; scald in this the vegetable to be re-warmed, drain, and put it into a dish. Thicken the sauce with a pinch of flour and the yolks of 2 eggs, and serve with the vegetable at once. Care must be taken not to curdle this.

Greens.--(_a_) Boil some turnip or any other greens preferred; mince, drain them well, and put them into an enamelled stewpan, with enough thick cream to moisten them; add white pepper, salt, and, if liked, a soupçon of grated nutmeg. Stir well together over the fire until quite hot. Have ready as many well-flavoured sausages as you require, baked brown. Arrange the greens in a mould in the centre of an entrée dish, and garnish them with the sausages. New milk and butter may take the place of cream if preferred.

(_b_) Prepare some greens, as in (_a_), and arrange them so as to cover the centre of the dish on which they are served. Poach some eggs in shapes for the purpose; or, when poached, trim them round. Place these upon the greens, and arrange round the dish alternately thin slices of ham rolled and toasted, and sippets of dry toast.

Mackerel.--(_a_) Remove the bones and skin from some cold boiled mackerel, and arrange the flakes in a rather high mound in the centre of a flat dish. Cover these with a thick mayonnaise sauce, made green by mixing with it either finely chopped fennel, parsley, tarragon, or chives. If either of the two former, it should be just scalded first. Garnish with prawns or crawfish and sprays of paisley and fennel. Mustard and cress or Italian corn salad can take the place of the parsley and fennel for garnish.

(_b_) Having cleaned some fresh mackerel, divide each fish into 4 or 6 pieces, according to size. Stew them until tender in enough sauce to cover them. For this use white sauce, made with veal stock, flavoured delicately with essence of shrimps or anchovies, salt, cayenne, and the juice of a lemon. A strip of lemon peel should be stewed with the fish, and removed before it is served. Open 2-3 doz. mussels, remove the yellow part from them, and wash them in their liquor; blanch them in the sauce, drain, and arrange them round the fish, and pour the sauce over.

Shoulder of Mutton.--Choose a small fresh shoulder, and steep it in a marinade. To make this, simmer for 20 minutes in 1 pint water 2 or 3 bay leaves, a bunch of parsley and lemon thyme, an onion, 3 cloves, 1 teaspoonful each pimento berries and black peppercorns, and a small piece of ginger; add 1 teacupful each claret and brown sugar, and ½ teacupful vinegar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the marinade at boiling point. Pour it into a shallow pan that will just hold your shoulder of mutton, and, when cold, put the mutton in, and keep it turned and basted with the pickle every day from 4 days to a week, according to the weather. When ready, remove the bones from the mutton, and fill the hollows with a forcemeat, as for veal kidney (below). Bind the shoulder into shape, and roast it until well done. It should be well floured and basted, that it may be well browned. Have ready 1 lb. French plums (not prunes) stewed in equal parts of claret and water, and a lump or two of sugar. Arrange these, with the liquid in which they were cooked, in the dish round the mutton. To make the gravy, put the bones from the mutton in a saucepan with 1 pint stock and 1 wineglassful of the marinade, and simmer until the liquid is reduced to ½ pint. Pour this to the gravy in the pan, remove as much of the fat as possible, and thicken the gravy slightly with brown roux. Send it to table with the mutton as hot as possible. A loin or fillet of mutton will answer as well as the shoulder. The same marinade can be used 2 or 3 times if it be first reboiled and skimmed. This recipe is very useful if you want to keep meat for a few days in hot weather, but it must be watched carefully and protected from flies.

Veal Kidney.--Remove the skin and fat from a veal kidney, and cut it in halves lengthwise. Mix with ½ lb. sausage meat 1 teacupful fine breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoonful truffles cut into pieces the size of very small peas, an egg slightly beaten, pepper and salt. Mix these well together with a fork. Cover each half of the kidney with this stuffing, and wrap them securely in pieces of pig’s caul, large enough to allow for the forcemeat swelling a little. Put them in an enamelled baking tin with a little butter, and bake them ¾-1 hour, according to the size of the kidney, basting now and then until nicely browned. Cut them into slices about 1 in. thick, and arrange them in 2 rows in an entrée dish, with each slice overlapping the other. For the sauce, thicken slightly ⅓ pint strong stock with brown roux (flour and butter stirred together on the fire till brown). Pour this to the gravy in the pan, and strain it into a saucepan; remove as much of the fat as possible, add 1 wineglassful sherry, and stir over the fire until the sauce is at boiling point. Serve in the dish with the kidneys. Pork kidneys not divided are good dressed in this way, as also are thick strips of calf’s liver.

_Canadian._--Codfish Balls.--Take equal quantities mashed potatoes and boiled codfish minced fine; to each ½ lb. allow 1 oz. butter and a well-beaten egg; mix thoroughly. Press into balls between 2 spoons; drop into hot lard, and fry till brown.

Cookies.--Mix together 1 lb. powdered loaf sugar, 1 lb. flour, and ½ teaspoonful soda carbonate; rub in ¼ lb. butter; make into a soft paste, with 3 eggs beaten, 1 dessertspoonful cream or milk, and essence of almond to taste; roll out 1 in. thick, and cut into biscuits with a wineglass. Bake 10 minutes in a moderate oven. They must be kept in a dry place, and will continue good for 3 months.

Corn Bread Loaf.--Ingredients: Yellow meal, 2 cups; flour, 1 cup; cream of tartar, 2 teaspoonfuls; soda and salt, 1 teaspoonful; eggs, 2; sugar (golden) ½ teacup: butter, 2 oz.; new milk, 2 cups. Mode: Mix salt, soda, and cream of tartar with flour and meal, cream the butter, and beat the eggs and sugar together, and add to the mixture, stirring in the milk lastly, and beating the butter well till smooth. Bake in buttered round iron cake pans, 4 in. deep. This loaf should be cut from the centre, like a tart. Sometimes honey is substituted for the sugar, or the loaf made without sugar, split and spread with honey, and then cut as above.

Corn Meal Muffins.--Warm milk, 1 pint; flour, 1 cup; sugar, 1 tablespoonful; salt, 1 teaspoonful; compressed yeast, 1 cake. Mix well, and add enough corn meal to make a thin batter. Set to rise overnight. In the morning add 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in warm water, and 1 oz. melted butter. Bake in muffin tins. These yeast muffins do not, like those made with soda, get heavy when cold.

Cream Toast.--Toast even slices of white bread a light golden brown. Scald the cream, and thicken with a very little cornflour, just the consistency of custard. Simmer till well done and no raw taste left. Stir in a piece of butter, and pour some of it evenly between layers of the hot toast.

Crullers.--Rub 2 oz. butter into 10 oz. flour and 1 tablespoonful white sugar. Knead into a stiff paste, with 3 eggs beaten--if the eggs are not sufficient to moisten the flour, 1 spoonful milk can be added. Flavour with lemon or almond, and leave it an hour covered with a cloth. Pinch off pieces, the size of small eggs; roll them out into an oval shape the size of your hand, and the thickness of half-a-crown. Cut 3 slits with a paste cutter or knife, in the centre of each oval; cross the 2 middle bars, and draw up the 2 sides between; put your finger through, and drop the cruller into boiling lard in a stewpan wide enough to admit of 3 at once. Turn them as they rise, and, when a light brown, take them up with a fork and lay them on a dish, with paper underneath them. They are best eaten within 2 days after they are made; but, if kept longer, it recrisps them to place them in a moderate oven for 10 minutes; 2-3 lb. lard are required, and what is left will do again with the addition of a little more.

Johnny Cake.--Mix together 2 teacups Indian meal, ½ cup flour, 2 tablespoonfuls brown sugar, 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, 1 of soda carbonate, and 1 of salt. Rub in 1 tablespoonful butter, add milk enough to make a cake batter, and bake in a greased pound cake tin. It is best eaten hot, with plenty of butter.

Waffles.--(_a_) Rice.--Boiled rice, 1 cup; eggs, 3; butter, 1 oz.; sour milk, 2 cups; salt and soda, 1 teaspoonful each. Stir the rice to separate the grains well; add the butter creamed, and the eggs frothed; dissolve the soda, stir into the milk; add to the mixture with flour enough to make a batter, rather thick; heat the waffle irons and rub well with butter; fill ¾ only, and bake carefully.

(_b_) Raised.--Sifted flour, 1 qt.; salt, 1 teaspoonful; warm milk, 1½ pint; compressed yeast, ½ cake, or 3 tablespoonfuls liquid yeast: creamed butter, 2 oz. Set the yeast, with the warm milk, butter, and salt, to rise overnight. When required in the morning, add 3 eggs, well beaten, and ½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in warm water. Heat the waffle irons, butter them well, and fill nearly ¾ full; take care not to scorch them.

(_c_) Cream.--Sifted flour, 4 cups; soda, cream of tartar, and salt, 1 teaspoonful each; eggs, 3; cream, 2 cups. Mix the soda and cream of tartar, and salt with the dry flour, mix the beaten yolks with the cream, and make a smooth batter. Add the whites of the eggs beaten to a froth. Butter the waffle irons, and fill ¾ full. Bake a light brown.

_Cape._--Bobotie.--Take a small leg of mutton and mince it very fine, add to the bones and sinews 1 pint water and let it simmer slowly for ½ hour, then soak a thick slice of white bread in the hot broth and when cool mix it with the meat, to which add 6 eggs, well beaten. Take 2 large white onions, chop them very fine, with a clove of garlic and some salt, fry them in butter until brown, then stir in 1 tablespoonful good Indian curry powder and mix the whole well together. Put into a pie dish or cups, putting a lemon leaf and a small lump of butter into each cup, then put in the meat mixture: beat up an egg with a little milk and rub over the top, cover with lemon leaves and bake for 1 hour. As lemon leaves are not always obtainable in England, a small piece of lemon peel for the flavouring, and vine leaves to keep from burning would perhaps not be a bad substitute.

Sasatijs.--Much the same as the Indian “kabobs.” Take a leg of mutton and cut the best part of it--about 3 lb.--into small squares, then chop a plateful of sliced white onion fried in butter, to which add 1 tablespoonful of good curry powder and 1 cup tamarind water or vinegar; stir the meat into the sauce, and let it stand for a whole night, then thread the meat upon thin bamboo sticks, or very slender wooden skewers, lean and fat pieces alternately; grill upon the gridiron just before they are required, and serve very hot with rice. The sauce must be boiled and also served very hot. This is a favourite dish at Cape picnics, and when travelling with the bullock waggon. The sasatijs are always left on the bamboo sticks when served up. To boil rice for Sasatijs.--To 1 cup good whole rice take exactly 3 cups cold water, add a pinch of salt; boil in an enamelled saucepan, but do not stir the rice. When the water is apparently all absorbed by the rice, tilt the lid of the pot and let it steam dry.

_Dutch._--Bloaters, Pickled.--Take 1 doz. bloaters, wash them thoroughly, well drain and dry them, and lay them in enough milk to completely cover them. When they have lain in this for 24 hours, drain them thoroughly, and lay them in a pie dish with 6 slices of lemon and the same quantity of Spanish or Portugal onion, 4 bay leaves, 2 oz. capers, 12 cloves, and about 18 peppercorns, and as much oil and vinegar in equal proportions as will completely cover the herring. Lay them by in a cool place till wanted.