Chapter 3

The larger share of dressed pork is almost entirely clear fat, which should be white, firm and evenly distributed. Skin should be thin and smooth. Any detailed description of the various cuts of pork would be superfluous here. Not all our eloquence could adequately picture the delight with which an epicure gazes upon a ham boiled or baked by an experienced Kentucky or Virginia cook. The "roasting pig" is also a favorite in many places, and long has been, for, according to Irving, it was much prized by Ichabod Crane of Sleepy Hollow, and it has been mentioned by so great and learned a poet as Shakespeare.

Regarding all meats, we wish to say that as a rule the cheaper cuts have as much food value as the more expensive ones. Careful cooking will render the less expensive cuts delightfully appetizing. It is an advantage to housekeepers to know that meat need not be the highest in price to be nutritious and palatable.

BAKED BREAST OF MUTTON.

Sew up breast of mutton in a thin cloth, put into a stewpan, nearly cover with cold salt water, and let simmer, allowing ten minutes to each pound. Take out of pan and cloth, put into baking dish, rub over with mutton drippings, butter or fat, sprinkle with flour and bake one-half hour in hot oven, basting frequently with its own broth. Just before removing from oven, strew with bread crumbs and butter and let brown. Serve with brown sauce made from broth in which meat was cooked.

BEEF OMELET.

Three pounds chopped steak, three eggs, one and one-half cup rolled crackers, lump of butter size of a walnut, salt and pepper to taste, one-half cup milk. Mix thoroughly, make out in rolls, wrap in cloth, and bake two hours.

BEEFSTEAK WITH OYSTER BLANKET.

Broil an inch-thick sirloin steak, remove to platter, spread with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper; cover steak with one pint of oysters, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dot with butter, place on grate in hot oven until the oysters are plump.

BEEF TENDERLOIN.

Take tenderloin of beef and lard it with pork. Put one can of mushrooms with the beef and cook in oven twenty minutes. Then cut the meat in slices one and one-half inch thick. On top of each slice place a few of the mushrooms and a little of the gravy, and set back in the oven five minutes to keep hot. Serve the slices on a chop plate, forming a circle, and filling in the center with peas.

BLANKETED HAM WITH SWEET POTATOES AND APPLES.

Cut off the fat close to the edge of a slice of ham one-half inch thick. Put fat through meat chopper, spread on top of ham, then sprinkle one-half cup of brown sugar and wine-glass of sherry over it. Peel and quarter four large sweet potatoes and four large apples. Put ham in oven in covered roasting pan. After it has cooked a quarter of an hour add apples and sweet potatoes. Now cook all of it three-quarters of an hour. This makes a delicious and savory dish, and is so substantial that little else is required for a meal.

BROWN STEW.

Thirty-five-cent beef off the shoulder; cut in pieces, cover with water and stew two hours until tender. Add one tablespoonful butter, and thicken with flour. Cook until brown.

CHICKEN CROQUETTE.

One-half pound chicken or veal, chopped very fine; season with one-half teaspoonful salt, one-half teaspoonful celery salt, one-fourth teaspoonful onion juice, one teaspoonful chopped parsley, one teaspoonful lemon juice, one saltspoonful white pepper, one-fourth saltspoonful cayenne. Mix with enough cream sauce to be easily handled; let cool, then shape into rolls. Roll on fine bread crumbs, dip in beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs and fry in smoking-hot fat, drain on tissue paper. Boil meat in three quarts hot water, cold for soup, season with one teaspoonful salt, four grains pepper.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES.

Two pair sweetbreads, boiled and chopped fine, one teacupful boiled chicken chopped (use nothing but the white meat), one teacupful boiled bread and milk, pretty stiff; one-half pound butter, salt and pepper to taste, mold in shape, roll in cracker crumbs, beaten egg, and again in cracker crumbs, and fry in boiling lard.

Chicken Croquette Remarks.

Prepare meat and seasoning first. Put flour in hot butter dry, two tablespoonfuls cold water in the egg. Boil meat very slowly, until very tender. Make a hole in the flour when pouring in any liquid. Drop bread into hot fat, count forty slowly, until brown, fat then at proper heat. Cut a large potato in the hot grease; it takes out impurities.

CROQUETTES.

Cold turkey, chicken, veal or lamb, chopped fine; add one-fourth as much bread crumbs as meat; salt, pepper and herbs to taste; then to one cup of the mixture one well-beaten egg. Make in small balls egg-shaped, and fry in boiling lard.

FRICATELLI.

Chop raw fresh pork very fine, add salt and pepper and two small onions chopped fine, half as much stale bread as there is meat, soaked until soft, two eggs; mix all well together, make into oblong patties, and fry as you would oysters or other patties. A nice breakfast dish. Serve with sliced lemon.

HAM TOAST.

One-fourth pound of either boiled or fried ham; chop it fine, mix with the yolks of two eggs well beaten; one tablespoonful butter, enough cream or milk to make it soft, a little pepper; stir this over the fire until it thickens, dip toast into hot salted water for just an instant, spread with melted butter, then turn over the ham mixture. Dried beef may be substituted, adding, if fancied, a little chopped onion or parsley.

HUNGARIAN GOULASH.

Slice a peeled onion and cook it until brown in three tablespoonfuls of fat tried out of salt pork; take out the onion and turn in one and one-half pound lean uncooked veal cut into inch cubes. Stir and cook the meat until slightly browned, then, rejecting the fat, if there be any in the pan, place the meat in a casserole; add about a pint of broth or boiling water, a teaspoonful pepper, cover the dish and set to cook in the oven. In the meantime add more fat to the pan; when hot, brown in it a dozen balls cut from pared potatoes and a dozen small onions; when the onions are well browned, add to the casserole, and after the meat has been cooking an hour, add a teaspoonful salt and the potatoes, and if desired two tablespoonfuls flour mixed to a thin paste with cold water. Let cook in all about two hours. Serve from the casserole.

JELLIED VEAL.

A knuckle of veal, with the bone chopped; cover it with cold water and boil till the meat drops from the bone, pass the meat through a chopper; let the liquor continue boiling, as there must not be too much when you return it to the meat to cook a few minutes longer, adding pepper and salt to taste. Before removing from the fire, add quickly one egg. It is nice poured into individual molds.

LAMB AND RICE.

Cut lean lamb from the neck into small pieces. Put on in cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer for one and a half or two hours. Put in salt as desired soon after putting on to cook. When done add freshly boiled rice and simmer till the rice has absorbed the seasoning from the meat.

LIVER AND BACON.

Fry bacon till crisp. Then dip liver in the flour and fry until brown on both sides. Remove from skillet and cook in the skillet for a few minutes a chopped onion and a bunch of parsley. Then put back the liver and bacon, cover all with water and let simmer about one hour.

MEAT SOUFFLE.

Make one cup of cream sauce and season with chopped parsley and onion juice. Stir one cup chopped meat (chicken, fresh tongue, veal or lamb) into the sauce. When hot, add the beaten yolks of two eggs, cook one minute, and then set away to cool. When cool, stir in the whites, beaten stiff. Bake in a buttered dish about twenty minutes and serve immediately. If for lunch, serve with a mushroom sauce.

MEAT STEW.

Get five pounds of a cheap cut of beef. Cut into little pieces, taking off the fat. Try out the fat, brown the meat in it, and when well browned, cover with boiling water, boil five minutes, then cook in lower temperature until the meat is done. During the last hour of cooking add two-thirds cup of turnips and the same amount of carrots cut in small cubes, one-half an onion chopped fine, salt and pepper. About fifteen minutes before taking up put in four cups of potatoes cut in small pieces. Use one-quarter cup of flour for thickening and put in dumplings made as follows:

Mix and sift two cups flour, four teaspoonfuls baking powder, one-half teaspoonful salt. Work in two teaspoonfuls butter, add gradually two-thirds cup milk. Roll to one-half inch thick, and cut out with biscuit cutter.

POT ROAST.

Thirty-five-cent beef off the shoulder. Sear all over in hot fat, cover with water, add two cloves, one onion, one bay leaf, cover and cook slowly two and one-half hours. For gravy, thicken the liquor with flour.

POT ROAST. (Old Style.)

Take a piece of fresh beef, about five or six pounds, not too fat. Put into a pot with just enough water to cover it. Set over a _slow_ fire and let stew an hour, then add salt and pepper. Stew until tender, putting in a little onion if liked. Let nearly all the water boil away. When thoroughly tender take the meat out and pour the gravy in a bowl. Put a large lump of butter in the pot, dredge the meat with flour and return it to the pot to brown, turning it often to prevent burning. Skim fat from gravy poured off of meat; pour gravy in with the meat and stir in a large spoonful of flour; wet with a little water; let boil ten or fifteen minutes and pour into gravy dish. Try sometimes cooking in this way a piece of beef which has been placed in spiced pickle for two or three days.

RAGOUT OF BEEF.

Cut two pounds of the upper round of beef into inch squares, dredge them with salt and pepper and roll them in flour. Put into a saucepan some butter and some drippings, or a little suet, and let it fry out, using enough only to cover the bottom of the saucepan; when the grease is hot, turn in the pieces of meat and let them cook until well browned on all sides; watch and turn them as soon as browned, then draw the meat to one side of the pan and add a tablespoonful of flour; let the flour brown, and add a cupful of stock or water, and stir it until it comes to a boiling point; then add a teaspoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful pepper, one-half teaspoonful kitchen bouquet, one carrot cut into blocks, and one teaspoonful onion; cover the saucepan, and let it simmer, not boil, for an hour. Serve a border of rice around the ragout.

ROAST BEEF.

Clean roast by wiping with a wet cloth. Place on a rack in oven, add suet to baste with. Cook a six-pound round roast an hour and twenty minutes; a three-rib roast one and one-half hour. Use no water.

ROUND STEAK.

Cover round steak with raw, chopped onions and bacon. Roll and tie. Put into deep kettle, sear or brown. Cover with water and pot roast for two hours. Boil down and thicken the gravy.

SMOTHERED OR POT-ROASTED BEEF.

Take four or five pounds of the middle of the rump, the flank or the round. Wipe with a clean, wet cloth and sear all over by placing in a hot frying pan and turning until all the surface is browned. Put it in a kettle with one-half pint of water, and place it where it will keep just below boiling point. Add just enough water now and then to keep meat from burning. Have close-fitting cover to keep in the steam. Cook until very tender. Serve hot or cold.

SPANISH STEAK.

Get round steak one and one-fourth inch thick. Cook the same as veal cutlets, only instead of using soup stock use one cup strained tomato juice and a little onion; a few mushrooms add to the flavor.

TURKEY DRESSING.

Cut crust off a loaf of bread, cut loaf in small bits, season with salt, pepper, sage, tablespoonful melted butter; beat one egg, add cup of milk and wet dressing.

VEAL BIRD.

Make a dressing of bread crumbs, melted butter, salt, pepper, and, if desired, a little sage. Cut veal cutlets into pieces about the size of palm of hand. Put a spoonful of dressing into each piece, roll, and fasten with a toothpick. Put in a pan with a cup of hot water or stock, cover and bake. Arrange around a platter or chop plate. Fill center with a pound of peas. This is delicious cooked in a fireless cooker.

VEAL CUTLETS.

Get a thick cutlet, one and a half inch thick, second cut with little round bone; have it scored on both sides. Then chop it all over on both sides with the edge of a china plate, until the meat is very ragged. Salt and pepper it, and rub flour into both sides until it will hold no more. Put two heaping tablespoonfuls of butter in a skillet and when hot put in the cutlet. Brown on both sides a golden brown, then add one cup of soup stock, or one cup boiling water, pouring it into the skillet. Let simmer one hour.

VEAL LOAF.

Three pounds of raw veal chopped very fine, butter size of an egg, three eggs, three tablespoonfuls cream or milk. Mix the eggs and cream together. Mix with the veal four pounded crackers, one teaspoonful black pepper, one large tablespoonful salt, one large teaspoonful sage. Mix well together and form into a loaf. Bake two and one-half hours, basting with butter and water while baking. Serve cut in thin slices.

VEAL LOAF.

Three pounds of veal chopped fine, one-half pound salt or fresh pork, one cup powdered crackers, one cup water, two eggs, three teaspoonfuls salt, three teaspoonfuls sage, one teaspoonful pepper. Bake in rather quick oven.

VEAL PIE.

Crust for veal or chicken pie, two teacups flour, two teaspoonfuls baking powder, one teaspoonful salt, two tablespoonfuls shortening; beat one egg and fill the teacup with milk, add to flour. Boil veal in cold water until quite tender, keep out a quart of the broth after it is cooked. When two-thirds done put in the salt.

Gravy for Pie.

Two tablespoonfuls melted butter, three tablespoonfuls flour; mix well, add salt and pepper, one cup cream, slightly warm; stir in the quart of broth after thickening is added. Cook about fifteen minutes, stir, but do not boil. Put meat and gravy in baking dish, cover with dough and bake twenty minutes.

EGGS

Eggs should be kept in cool places. If a recipe calls for just the white of an egg, the yolk may be kept from hardening by putting in a cup of cold water. Eggs may be cooked soft in two ways: Pour boiling water over the egg and cover them from five to ten minutes. Second method: Put eggs into cold water, and when water bubbles they are cooked.

BAKED EGGS.

Twelve hard-boiled eggs, one-half pint cream, butter size of an egg, one teaspoonful fine chopped parsley, one tablespoonful flour, salt and pepper. Mix cream, butter, flour and parsley. Cook till thick. Slice eggs, after each layer of eggs one of bread crumbs; cover with sauce, then bread crumbs, and bake till brown.

CHEESE OMELET.

Four eggs, four tablespoonfuls cold water, one-fourth teaspoonful salt, three level tablespoonfuls grated cheese, two level tablespoonfuls melted butter. Put butter in saucepan, separate whites from yolks. For omelet do not beat yolks too long, only until lemon color. To yolks add water and salt. Beat whites and pour yolks over whites; fold and cut with a spoon. _Do not beat._ Pour in saucepan, loosen with a knife around edges, cook until it sets. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and put in oven for two or three minutes. Serve very hot. Old English dairy cheese is the best.

EGG CUTLETS.

Heaping tablespoonful of butter. When hot, stir in two heaping tablespoonfuls flour, one-half pint of milk, and stir until smooth and well cooked; chop three hard-boiled eggs, and stir in after taking from the fire. Season with salt, pepper and one-half teaspoonful of onion juice; also add parsley. Put away until cold, mold and roll in cracker crumbs, and fry in abundance of hot fat. This may be used for meat croquettes, substituting chopped meat, cooked, for eggs.

EGGS SHIRRED IN TOMATOES.

Cut circular pieces out from the stem end of round tomato and remove part of the pulp. Season with salt and pepper; also with onion, juice and parsley, if liked. Break an egg into each tomato and put in a slow oven until each egg is set. Serve on hot buttered toast.

POACHED EGGS.

Partly fill a shallow pan with boiling water. Break eggs singly into a saucer, sliding each as broken into the boiling water. Keep pan where water will not quite boil. With a spoon baste the water over the yolk until it is covered thinly with white. Remove each egg with a skimmer, trim off ragged edges, and serve on buttered toast.

SHIRRED EGGS.

Shirred eggs are a pleasant change from the usual boiled eggs for breakfast. Drop each egg carefully into a buttered ramikin, season with pepper, salt and a small lump of butter. Set ramikin in a shallow pan filled with water, place in moderate oven and cook until whites are firm.

SOFT BOILED, OR STEAMED EGGS.

Put the desired number of eggs into a kettle and cover with boiling water. Cover the kettle and let stand ten minutes. Drain off the water, put eggs into a bowl, cover again with boiling water and send to the table.

VEGETABLES

"Perhaps if we could penetrate Nature's secrets we should find that what we call weeds are more essential to the well-being of the world than the most precious fruit or grain."--Hawthorne.

The simplest methods of cooking and serving vegetables are generally the best. The most common method of cooking them is in boiling water. All green vegetables, bulbs and tubers should be crisp and firm when put on to cook, and should, of course, be thoroughly cleaned before being cooked.

Almost all vegetables may be served in the form of salad. Our most common green salad plant is lettuce; celery is next, but endive, chicory and dandelion, with many others, may be used to advantage in this way, and furnish pleasing variety to the menu.

Nearly all vegetables are good canned, and if care is taken in preparing and canning, it is possible to have fresh-tasting fruits and vegetables through all seasons.

Thorough sterilization is necessary in canning or preserving. In the first place, use good jars. Glass jars will be found the most satisfactory. Those with glass top and rubber ring held in place by a wire spring are the cheapest in the long run, although the initial expense may be somewhat high. Never use defective rubbers, as vegetables often spoil after being sterilized, because of bad rubbers.

A clothes boiler makes a good container to use in sterilizing. A false bottom made of wire netting cut to fit or strips of wood may be used, as the jars will break if set flat on the bottom of the boiler.

Select vegetables that have not begun to harden or decay. Always can as soon as possible after gathering. Some vegetables are best cooked before putting in jars; among these are beets, pumpkins and turnips, but most of them may be packed while raw in jars and cooked as follows:

Pack jar full, adding salt as desired, fill with cold water to the top of the jar. Put the rubber on the jar and place the glass top on, but do not press down the spring at the side of the jar. Put as many jars in the boiler as it will hold without crowding. Pour into the boiler enough water (cold) to prevent it from going dry during the boiling. Put the cover on the boiler and bring the water to a boil and keep it boiling for an hour. (Hour and a half for half-gallon jars.) At the end of this time remove the boiler cover, and let the steam escape. Press down the spring on each jar, which clamps on the top, and no outside air can enter.

On the next day raise the spring at the side of the jar and boil as on the first day, clamping on the top as before at the end of operation. Repeat this on the third day. All meats, fruits and vegetables are sterilized on this principle.

Never subject jars to a draft of cold air when removing them from the boiler, as this will be likely to crack them. If, after sterilization seems complete, any jars spoil, increase the time of boiling.

ASPARAGUS.

Cut the tender part into short pieces. Cover with boiling water, and boil until done. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with most of juice; or, if preferred, serve with a cream dressing.

BEETS.

Wash the beets carefully without breaking the skin. Cover with boiling water and boil until tender. Take from the boiling water and drop into cold. Rub off the skin, cut in thin slices and serve at once with salt and butter.

CINCINNATI BAKED BEANS.

Measure beans (marrowfat are best), put them in cold water and parboil fifteen minutes and drain; use the Boston bean pot. For three pints of dried beans add three level teaspoonfuls salt, one-quarter pound pickled pork cut fine, six tablespoonfuls New Orleans molasses or six tablespoonfuls of C sugar, one tablespoonful standard mustard. Mix the above well and put in a three-quart bean pot, and fill within one inch of top with boiling water. May be kept in oven several days, but must never be allowed to get dry, adding boiling water as needed.

CORN.

Cook ears of corn five minutes in boiling water. Then cut through the center of each row of grains and press the grains from the hulls with the back of a knife. Put corn in saucepan and season with butter, salt, pepper and sugar. Add enough hot milk to moisten, and cook ten minutes.

When succotash is desired, add to a pint of corn cooked as above the same amount of cooked and seasoned shelled beans.

CORN PUDDING.

One dozen ears of corn, two eggs, one kitchen spoonful butter, one-half teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful sugar.

CORN PUDDING.

To one can of corn, one pint milk, three eggs, two tablespoonful melted butter, one tablespoonful white sugar, pepper and salt to taste. Beat the eggs very light, add sugar and butter rubbed together; stir hard. Next the corn and seasoning, finally the milk; beat hard, bake in buttered dish one-half hour, covered; then lift top and brown. Serve in baking dish.

CREAMED CAULIFLOWER.

One pint cooked cauliflower, one pint milk, one teaspoonful salt, one-third teaspoonful pepper, one tablespoonful butter, one-half teaspoonful flour, three slices toasted bread. Break cooked cauliflower into branches and season with half of the salt and pepper. Put butter in a saucepan on the fire. When hot add flour and stir until frothy and smooth. Add gradually the milk, constantly stirring. When sauce boils add the salt, pepper and cauliflower. Cook ten minutes and serve very hot on the slices of toast.

GREEN STUFFED PEPPERS.

Clean out peppers and stuff with rice or potatoes, and meat. Moisten with hot water, standing on end in baking dish. Cover and bake until almost done, then remove cover and brown. Cheese or tomatoes may be used instead of meat.

HASHED BROWN POTATOES.

Boil about one quart potatoes, drain and sprinkle with one teaspoonful salt and a little pepper. Add one teaspoonful chopped parsley and a few drops of onion juice, brown one heaping tablespoonful butter, add one tablespoonful flour and gradually one cup hot water. Salt and pepper to taste. Add potatoes, and cook about five minutes, or until they have absorbed nearly all the sauce. Butter a saute pan, add the potatoes and cook until light brown. Turn over like an omelet. Potatoes must not be chopped until cold.

HASHED TURNIPS.

Chop boiled turnips into large pieces. Put in saucepan, and for a pint and a half of turnips add a teaspoonful of pepper, a tablespoonful of butter and four tablespoonfuls of water. Cook over a hot fire until seasoning is absorbed.

HOME-MADE NOODLES.

(_Serve as a Vegetable with Stewed Chicken or Veal._)

Four eggs, one tablespoonful cream, one teaspoonful salt, flour enough to make a stiff dough; roll out very thin and let dry an hour or longer; roll up and cut into fine strips; put into a kettle of boiling water, salted, boil ten minutes; cut a few noodles an inch wide and fry brown in butter to place on top. Serve with plenty of gravy.

KALE CANNON.

(Old Irish Dish.)