Part 18

Boil a calf’s head on Saturday until the flesh slips from the bones. Salt and pepper the meat and set away, with the brains—also salted and cooked—in a cool place. Return the bones to the liquor with the vegetables and herbs cut small, the fried beef and onions, and boil one hour. Season highly and put by in a cool cellar until Sunday. Take off the fat, and melt the soup-jelly under it by heating all together in a soup-kettle. When hot, strain, and set aside half the stock for Monday. Boil up that meant for to-day, stir in the butter and flour, and a cupful of dice made from one cheek of the cold head. Simmer ten minutes, add sauce and wine, and pour out.

IMITATION TURTLE.

The cold calf’s head, with the tongue. 1 cup of good gravy. If you have nothing else, borrow a cupful from your soup-jelly. A dozen force-meat balls, made of the ears chopped fine, mixed with bread-crumbs, bound with beaten egg and rolled in flour. 1 teaspoonful minced parsley and thyme. A little minced onion. Browned flour. 4 hard-boiled eggs. Pepper and salt.

Slice the meat from the head neatly. Heat the gravy with seasoning, herbs, and onion, and boil ten minutes. Strain; put the meat into the saucepan; pour the gravy over it, and set all in boiling water fifteen minutes. Put over the fire with the sliced eggs and force-meat balls. Let them begin to boil, and take off. Lay the meat evenly upon a dish, and the eggs upon it, the force-meat balls around all, and pour half the gravy over it, sending up the rest in a boat.

CHOPPED MACARONI.

Boil half a pound of macaroni tender in hot salted water, and let it cool. Then chop small. Have ready in a saucepan a cupful of hot milk in which an onion has been boiled and strained out. Stir into this a great spoonful of butter, pepper, salt, and two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. When these are well mixed, put in the macaroni, and shake—not stir—until very hot. Turn into a deep dish, and grate more cheese on the top. Pass a red-hot shovel over this until the cheese browns—or if dry, takes fire. Blow it out, and serve.

STRING-BEANS AND FRIED BRAINS.

Cut the beans into short lengths and cook in boiling water salted. Drain, stir in butter, pepper, and salt, and dish. Garnish with the brains, rubbed smooth, seasoned, beaten up with a raw egg and a little flour, and fried by the spoonful in hot fat.

BERMUDA POTATOES.

Put on in boiling water; cook until a fork will go in easily; dry off, and serve in their skins.

ALICE’S PUDDING.

1 quart of milk. 4 eggs. 1 cup dry crumbs. ½ cup of strawberry or other sweet jam. ½ cup of sugar.

Sprinkle the bottom of a buttered bake-dish with crumbs. Pour in the jam, and cover this with the rest of the crumbs, wet with a little milk. Scald the remainder of the milk, and pour, gradually, upon the beaten eggs and sugar. Heat and stir three minutes; put it, spoonful by spoonful, upon the crumbs, so as not to displace them, and when all is in, bake until well set and slightly colored by the heat. Eat cold—with cream, if you can get it.

COFFEE AND WHIPPED CREAM.

Whip a little cream in a syllabub churn, and lay a spoonful upon the surface of each cup of made coffee.

Third Week. Monday. —— A Good White Soup. Ham and Eggs. Succotash. Oyster Salad. Stewed Potatoes. —— Plain Macaroni Pudding. ——

A GOOD WHITE SOUP.

Skim the stock set aside yesterday; heat and season, then strain through thin muslin, and return to the fire. Skim again; add a great spoonful of butter, cut up in flour, and boil up. Have ready in your tureen a cupful of hot milk, in which has been soaked half a cupful of bread-crumbs; beat into these the whites of two eggs; pour in the soup, by degrees, stirring in well, and serve.

HAM AND EGGS.

Cut slices of ham of equal size; cover with boiling water, and cook ten minutes, then let them get cold. Cut off the rind and fry in their own fat, until browned. Lay upon a hot dish; strain the fat, returning it to the pan with a little butter, and when hot break in the eggs. Fry upon one side; trim off the ragged edges, and lay upon the ham. Dust with pepper, and serve.

SUCCOTASH.

Open a can of succotash; drain off the liquor, cut the beans into short lengths, and put on in boiling water, salted. Cook twenty-five minutes; drain off the water, and add as much cold milk. When this is hot, stir in a great spoonful of butter, cut up in flour; pepper and salt, cook three minutes more and serve.

OYSTER SALAD.

Cut the oysters into thirds; pull the hearts out of nice lettuce heads and shred up one-third as much as you have oysters. Make a dressing in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls of best oil to four of vinegar; one teaspoonful of salt and the same of sugar; half as much pepper, and made mustard. Rub all up well, and pour over oysters and lettuce just before serving.

STEWED POTATOES.

Cut into small squares and put on in boiling water, slightly salted. When tender, but not broken, throw off half the water, and proceed as with the succotash, only adding a teaspoonful of finely minced parsley.

PLAIN MACARONI PUDDING.

½ lb. macaroni, broken in pieces an inch long, boiled tender (or about twenty minutes) in hot, salted water. 1 tablespoonful of butter. 1 large cup of milk. 2 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar. 2 eggs. Grated peel of half a lemon. A little cinnamon and salt.

When the macaroni is tender, drain off the water and add the salt and butter. Heat the milk and pour over the beaten eggs, sugar and flavoring. Mix with the macaroni, and bake in a buttered pudding-dish, covered, for half an hour; then brown. Eat with butter and sugar.

Third Week. Tuesday. —— Pot-au-feu. Boiled Leg of Mutton. Potatoes à la Lyonnaise. Stewed Pie-Plant. Caper Sauce. —— Peach Lèche Crèma. ——

POT-AU-FEU.

3 lbs. of lean beef, cut into dice. 1 sliced and fried onion. 2 carrots, cut into small squares. 2 turnips, ditto. 1 bunch of sweet herbs, minced. 2 potatoes, parboiled and sliced. Pepper and salt. 3 quarts of water.

Put on the beef in two quarts of water and cook slowly until it is tender, and the water reduced to one quart. Put the vegetables—except the potatoes—on in boiling water. Cook ten minutes; throw away the water and cover with a quart of cold. Add the potatoes; pepper and salt and cook gently half an hour. Put in the meat and the quart of gravy and simmer ten minutes more, with the minced herbs. Then pour out. This is only a family soup, but is a good one when properly cooked.

BOILED LEG OF MUTTON.

Do not have the shank too long, nor cut it so short as to make the leg “chunky.” The meat will look cleaner and less sodden if you boil it in a piece of mosquito net or tarlatan, sewed about it somewhat tightly. Put on in boiling salted water, plenty of it, and cook fifteen minutes to the pound. Unwrap and lay upon a hot dish. Butter all over, and sprinkle lightly with salt. Twist frilled paper about the end of the shank.

CAPER SAUCE.

Take out a cupful of the liquor in which the mutton was boiled (putting away the rest for soup), strain, heat, and skim; stir in two tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed in a teaspoonful of flour; pepper, boil up, pour upon a beaten egg; return to the fire and stir for a minute; add two dozen capers or nasturtium-seed, and pour into a sauce-boat. Pass, of course, with the mutton.

POTATOES À LA LYONNAISE.

Parboil the potatoes, and cut into dice. Chop a small onion and mince a tablespoonful of parsley. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter or excellent dripping into a frying-pan, and when hot, stir in potatoes, onion, and parsley. Shake and toss until all are hissing hot, but do not let them brown. Shake off the fat in a hot colander, and serve in a deep dish.

STEWED PIE-PLANT.

Skin and wash the stalks, and cut into half inch lengths. Stew tender in a little water, with a handful of seedless raisins. Sweeten to taste. Eat cold with meat.

PEACH LÈCHE CRÈMA.

1 can of peaches. Yolks of 3 eggs and whites of four. 3 cups of milk. ½ cup of powdered sugar. 2 tablespoonfuls of corn-starch. 1 tablespoonful of melted butter.

Scald the milk; stir in the corn-starch wet with cold milk, and cook, still stirring, until it begins to thicken. Take from the fire, and beat in the butter, then the whipped yolks, two whites and sugar. Whisk to a light cream. Drain the syrup from the peaches; lay them in the bottom of a bake-dish, and pour the mixture gently over them. Bake in a quick oven ten minutes, then spread with a _méringue_ of four whites whisked stiff with a little sugar. Shut up in the oven until this is slightly tinged. Eat warm with sauce, or cold with cream.

Third Week. Wednesday. —— Scotch Broth. Mutton Pie. Stewed Tomatoes. Cabbage Salad. Mashed Potatoes. —— Lemon Puffs. ——

SCOTCH BROTH.

Take the fat from the top of the broth in which the mutton was boiled yesterday. Chop up an onion, a good sized one, and put in it. Boil half an hour and strain. Add a cup of barley, previously soaked two hours in cold water, and cook for two hours more. Chop up some parsley fine and add. When the barley is very soft, and the broth has boiled down one-half, pour out and serve, having peppered to taste.

MUTTON PIE.

Cut the meat from yesterday’s mutton, into strips two inches long by half an inch wide. Chop a pickled cucumber to pieces, also two boiled eggs. Put a layer of meat in a bake-dish, strew with pickle and egg; salt and pepper and drop, pretty thickly, over it, bits of butter rolled in flour. Go on in this order, until your meat is used up, when pour in a cup of oyster-liquor or cold water. Cover with a good crust, ornamented around the edges; make a slit in the middle, and bake one hour.

N. B.—The bare bones will “help out” to-morrow’s soup.

STEWED TOMATOES.

Receipts for these, as also for plain mashed potatoes, have been given so lately that repetition here is needless.

CABBAGE SALAD.

1 small, firm white cabbage, shred fine. 1 cup of boiling milk. 1 smaller cup of vinegar, also hot. 1 tablespoonful of butter, and the same of sugar. 2 eggs, well beaten. 1 teaspoonful essence of celery. Pepper and salt to taste.

When the vinegar boils, put in butter, sugar, and seasoning. Boil, and add the shred cabbage. When this is scalding hot, take from the fire. Pour the hot milk upon the eggs, and cook one minute, stirring constantly. Turn the cabbage into a bowl, pour over it the smoking custard, toss up and mix well, and set it, covered, in ice-cold water. Eat perfectly cold.

LEMON PUFFS.

1 cup of prepared flour. ½ cup of powdered sugar. 1 tablespoonful of butter. 3 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately. Grated peel of 1 lemon. 3 tablespoonfuls of milk. A little salt.

Cream butter and sugar, whip in the yolks, milk, and lemon-peel; then, the whisked whites and flour, alternately. Bake in small, buttered tins, or in “gem” pans. Turn out while hot, and eat with sweet sauce.

Third Week. Thursday. —— Soup à la Bonne Femme. Corned Beef. Mashed Turnips. Scalloped Cauliflower. Fried Potatoes. —— Orange Cream Pie. ——

SOUP À LA BONNE FEMME.

Bones of cold mutton, cracked. 2 lbs. of lean veal from the knuckle, bones broken, and meat cut up. 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, rubbed in flour. ½ cup of raw rice. ½ cup of milk. 1 onion, chopped. 3 eggs. Minced parsley. Salt and pepper. 3 quarts of water.

Put bones, meat, onion, and rice on in the cold water, and cook slowly three hours. Strain, rubbing the rice and onion to a pulp, through a coarse sieve. Season, boil up, skim, and stir in parsley and butter. Heat the milk, pour upon the beaten eggs, and add to the soup, stirring in well. Let it _almost_ boil, and take from the fire. Pour out, and serve at once.

CORNED BEEF.

Wash the beef well, put on in plenty of boiling water, and cook at least eighteen minutes to the pound, if the piece be tolerably thick. Put away the liquor for to-morrow. Dish the meat. Make a sauce as directed on Tuesday, for mutton, but substituting pickled cucumber, chopped, and a very little pickled onion, for the capers. Serve in a boat.

MASHED TURNIPS.

At this season the yellow turnips are best. Put on, when you have pared and quartered them, in cold water, salted, and cook tender. Mash, and press out the water; stir in a good piece of butter; pepper and salt to taste, and dish very hot.

SCALLOPED CAULIFLOWER.

The cauliflowers in market now are less nice than those to be had earlier, or later in the year. Still, you can get them, now and then. Boil, tied in a net, in hot water. Clip into neat clusters, and set, stems downward, in a buttered bake-dish. Beat up a cupful of bread-crumbs to a soft paste with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, and four of milk. Season with pepper and salt, and whip in a raw egg. Butter, salt, and pepper the cauliflower, and pour the mixture over it. Cover closely, and bake ten minutes, or until very hot, in a brisk oven; then brown lightly and rapidly.

FRIED POTATOES.

Wash, pare, and slice round, very thin. Leave in cold water one hour; wipe, by spreading upon one towel, and pressing another upon it, and fry, not too many at a time, in boiling lard, salted. Cook quickly, take out with a wire spoon, and shake in a hot colander. Serve in a deep dish lined with a hot napkin.

ORANGE CREAM PIE.

1 teacup of powdered sugar. 1 tablespoonful of butter. 1 egg. 1 orange—juice and half the grated peel soaked together, for half an hour, then squeezed in a muslin bag. 1 teacupful boiling water. 1 tablespoonful of corn-starch, dissolved in cold water. Pulp of half an orange.

Stir the corn-starch into the water; cream the butter and sugar, and pour over them the hot mixture. Cool, and add the orange and beaten egg. Take the inner rind from the half-orange, remove the seeds, and chop _very_ fine. Bake in open shells.

Third Week. Friday. —— “Peas Porridge Hot.” Baked Shad. Miroton of Beef. Spinach with Eggs. Cresses. —— Ambushed Trifle. ——

“PEAS PORRIDGE HOT.”

Soak a quart of split peas all night. In the morning put on in the liquor from your corned beef, with a sliced onion and a little celery-seed, tied in thin muslin. The liquor should be skimmed and poured cold upon the peas. Cook slowly, until these are soft enough to pulp through a colander. Rub them; if the soup be very salt, add hot water; pepper to taste; boil up, and stir in a cup of hot milk, in which have been dissolved two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch, wet up in water, and a tablespoonful of butter. Add minced parsley; simmer two minutes; have a double handful of fried bread dice in the tureen, and pour on the soup.

BAKED SHAD.

Clean, wash, and wipe a large shad. Stuff with a dressing of bread-crumbs, butter, salt, and pepper, wet with milk, and sew up carefully with fine cotton. Lay in the dripping-pan; pour over it a cupful of hot water, and bake one hour, covered, except when you are basting it with butter and water. Put into a hot dish, and keep warm, while you add to the gravy a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, the juice of a lemon, a tablespoonful of browned flour, wet up with cold water, and pepper. Boil up well, and serve in a boat. Garnish the fish with sliced lemon, and pass the cress-salad with it.

MIROTON OF BEEF.

Chop your cold corned beef fine. Have ready in a saucepan a cup of drawn butter, into which stir a teaspoonful of minced onion, the yolk of a boiled egg, pounded, and a beaten raw egg. Boil gently three minutes, and add the mince of beef. Stir until hot, but not boiling; pour into a bake-dish; spread with a cover of mashed potatoes, into which have been worked half a cup of milk and a great spoonful of butter. Brown in a good oven, and glaze with butter, when it begins to color well. Serve in the dish. It is very good.

CRESSES.

Pick over, wash, and cut into small pieces. Pile in a salad-bowl, and season with vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little sugar, mixing in well.

SPINACH WITH EGGS.

Cut the leaves from the stems, and cook twenty minutes in boiling, salted water. Drain and chop _very_ fine upon a board or chopping-tray. Return to the fire with a good spoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of sugar; salt and pepper to taste. Heat, stirring constantly and beat in the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, rubbed to a fine powder. When well mixed, turn the spinach into a deep dish and garnish with a chain of sliced whites laid on top.

AN AMBUSHED TRIFLE.

A round, stale sponge-cake. 1 pint of milk. 1 teaspoonful of corn-starch. 1 cup of sweet jelly or jam. 3 eggs. Vanilla flavoring. 2 tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. A little salt.

Cut the top carefully from the cake in one piece. Scoop out the inside of the loaf, leaving side-walls and bottom an inch thick. Coat these with the jelly. Heat the milk; beat eggs and sugar, with the cake-crumbs, and pour on the hot milk. Stir over the fire until thick, and add the corn-starch wet up with cold milk. Cook one minute and turn out. When cold, flavor and fill the cake with it. Coat the inside of the lid with jelly, and fit into its place; brush the whole cake with white of egg, sift powdered sugar over it, and set in a cool, dry place until wanted.

Third Week. Saturday. —— Clam Soup. Beefsteak. Scalloped Tomatoes and Corn. Whole Bermuda Potatoes. Made Mustard. —— Boiled Custards. ——

CLAM SOUP.

Strain the liquor from the clams, add one-third as much water, bring to a slow boil, skim and strain. Then put in the clams, chopped, with pepper and salt. Stew half an hour, and stir in two great spoonfuls of butter rolled in cracker-dust, one teaspoonful essence of celery (Colgate’s), and the juice of a lemon. Simmer ten minutes, have ready in your tureen a cup of scalding milk, slightly salted. Pour upon this the soup, stirring up well.

BEEFSTEAK.

Cook according to receipt given on Thursday of Second Week in this month. If you use the “Vertical Broiler,” manufactured by the Dover Stamping Company, 88 North Street, Boston, you will save every drop of gravy, and be spared the trouble of watching and turning the steak.—See FAMILIAR TALK, “Touching Saucepans.”

SCALLOPED TOMATOES AND CORN.

Open a can of corn; drain, and cook twenty minutes in boiling water, salted. Throw off the water; cover the bottom of a bake-dish with fine crumbs; put in a layer of corn, butter, pepper, and salt; upon this a layer of canned tomatoes; butter and pepper, and sprinkle with a little sugar. Go on in this order until the dish is full. Cover with bread-crumbs; stick bits of butter over them, and bake, covered, half an hour. Brown and serve in the dish.

WHOLE BERMUDA POTATOES.

Pick out those of uniform size; put on in boiling water, salted slightly, and cook until a fork will pierce the largest. Turn off the water; set back on the range to “dry off;” lay a napkin, heated and neatly folded, upon a dish. Pare the potatoes quickly by pulling off their skins, and heap upon the napkin.

BOILED CUSTARDS.

1 quart of milk. Yolks of 5 eggs and the whites of two—reserving three for the _méringue_. 6 tablespoonfuls of sugar. 2 teaspoonfuls bitter almond or vanilla flavoring.

Heat the milk; beat yolks and two whites light, and pour the milk upon them. Return to the fire and cook, stirring all the while, until the custard begins to thicken. Let it cool. Season and put into glass cups. Whip the whites to a _méringue_ with a little powdered sugar, and heap upon the top of each.

Fourth Week. Sunday. —— Ox Head Soup. Roast Breast of Mutton. Hominy Fritters. Currant Jelly. Lettuce Salad. Browned Potatoes. —— Pine Apple Ambrosia. ——

OX HEAD SOUP.

1 ox head, well cleaned. 2 grated carrots. 2 turnips. 2 onions. 1 dozen whole allspice, and the same of whole peppers. 1 bunch sweet herbs, chopped. Browned flour. Pepper and salt. 1 tablespoonful Worcestershire Sauce. 1 glass of sherry. 5 quarts of water. Small bag of celery seed.

Soak the head two hours in cold, salted water. Wash well, and put on in cold water, with the vegetables and herbs. Cover, bring slowly to a boil, and cook four hours. Then, take out the meat of the head; salt well, and set away in a cool place. Salt and pepper the soup, and set by in an earthenware crock, leaving in the bones and vegetables. Do this on Saturday.

On Sunday, take off the fat and heat the soup. Strain, first through a colander, rubbing the vegetables to a pulp, then through a sieve, back into the kettle. Cut the meat into dice and drop in; season with sauce and wine, and having let it barely boil, pour out.

There should be enough for two days. In setting aside Monday’s portion, make an equal distribution of meat and broth.

ROAST BREAST OF MUTTON.

Sew up in a thin cloth and boil ten minutes to the pound. (Take care of the broth for gravy.) When unwrapped, lay in a dripping-pan, wash well with butter, dredge with flour, and set in the oven half an hour, basting freely with its own broth, and lastly with butter. A few minutes before taking it up, strew thickly with crumbs—fine and dry—pepper these, and drop dots of butter over it. Brown, and dish. Garnish with sliced beet-root and cresses.

HOMINY FRITTERS.

2 cups cold boiled hominy—small-grained. 1 tablespoonful of sugar. 2 tablespoonfuls of cream. 2 beaten eggs. ½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in vinegar. A little salt.

Rub the sugar and salt into the hominy; wet with the milk, and when smooth beat in the whipped eggs. Drop by the spoonful into boiling fat, and fry quickly. Drain in a hot colander. Everything depends upon beating and cooking. The soda should go in last of all the ingredients, and be whipped in hard.

BROWNED POTATOES.

Mash soft, with butter and milk; mound smoothly upon a greased plate and brown in a quick oven, glazing with butter. Slip to a hot flat dish.

LETTUCE SALAD.

Pull out the hearts and pick them apart. Heap loosely in a salad-bowl, and season, first sprinkling lightly with powdered sugar—with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss up with a silver fork; lay cold-boiled eggs, cut into sixths, lengthwise, upon the top.

PINE-APPLE AMBROSIA.

1 pine-apple, pared and cut into small squares. 1 cocoanut, pared and grated. 1 cup powdered sugar. 1 large glass good sherry or Marsala.

Put a layer of pine-apple in a glass bowl; strew with sugar, and wet with wine. Next, put a stratum of cocoanut, and sprinkle more sparsely with sugar. More pine-apple, sugar, and wine, and continue to add layers in the order given. The top coating must be of cocoanut. Eat soon, or the pine-apple will wither in the wine and become tough. Pass light cake with it.

Fourth Week. Monday. —— Next Day Soup. Pilau of Mutton. Green Peas. Cheese Fondu. Sweet Pickles. —— Farina Hasty Pudding with Sauce. ——

NEXT DAY SOUP.

Take the fat from the top of the cold soup set by on Sunday; heat it almost to the boil, and pour out. It is better for the second and third warming up. Save every drop that is left over.

PILAU OF MUTTON.

Cut your cold roast into neat strips an inch long. Make a gravy of the cracked bones and skin, hard bits, etc., and a pint of water. While it is stewing down one-half, skim the liquor in which the meat was parboiled; put it over the fire with a cup of washed rice, and cook the latter tender. When there is but one cup of gravy left upon the bones, etc., strain, season highly with pepper, salt, and nearly a teaspoonful of curry powder. Chop, also, a quarter of a pickled onion, and mix in. Roll a tablespoonful of butter in a heaping spoonful of browned flour, and when the gravy is hot stir it in; lastly, put in the mutton, and when nearly on the boil, draw aside. Drain the rice, and season well. Pile the meat upon a hot dish, and make a fence of rice about it.