Part 25

Boil young sweet beets until nearly done—say forty-five minutes. Skin and slice them. Have ready in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, one tablespoonful of vinegar, a _small_ onion minced, salt and pepper. When this begins to simmer, put in the beets, and cook ten minutes, shaking the saucepan frequently, to prevent scorching. Put the beets into a root-dish, and pour the dressing upon them.

CREAM PUDDING.

1 quart of milk. 1 cup of hot boiled rice well cooked, but not broken. 1 cupful of sugar. 1 heaping tablespoonful of corn-starch. 5 eggs. ¼ teaspoonful of cinnamon and the same of grated lemon peel.

Heat the milk, stir in the corn-starch wet up with cold milk; then the beaten yolks and sugar. Add to these the heaping cup of boiled rice. Stir until it begins to thicken, add the seasoning, and pour into a buttered bake-dish. Bake until well “set”; spread with a _méringue_ of the whites and a little sugar, made very stiff. When this has colored lightly, take from the oven.

Make on Saturday, and set on ice until Sunday. The colder it is, the better.

Third Week. Monday. —— Green Pea Soup. Beef Miroton. Asparagus Omelette. Tomato Salad. Green Peas. —— Mountain Custard, or “Junket.” Tea and Fancy Biscuits. ——

GREEN PEA SOUP.

Take the fat from the top of the corned-beef liquor; add the beef-bones and any others you may have. Boil gently one hour, skimming often. Strain, and put in two quarts of green peas, a minced onion, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Cook forty-five minutes and rub to a pulp through a colander. Add pepper, heat to a boil and pour upon dice of fried bread laid in the tureen.

BEEF MIROTON.

Mince the remains of your corned beef; season with pepper, salt, a little chopped pickle, two boiled eggs chopped fine; wet with whatever gravy you may have, and put into a greased pudding-dish. Cover with mashed potatoes, made _very_ soft with milk and butter, sift bread-crumbs over all, and bake, covered, half an hour, then brown. This is a nice way of warming over cold meat.

ASPARAGUS OMELETTE.

6 eggs beaten very light. 1 bunch of asparagus, the green tops only. (The stalks will be an improvement to your soup.) 2 tablespoonfuls of milk.

Beat whites and yolks together, add the milk, then the boiled asparagus heads, _cold_ and chopped fine. Have ready a frying-pan with a tablespoonful of butter in it, hot, but not frying. Pour in the mixture; shake well from the bottom as it forms, loosen from the pan with “spatula” or cake-turner; fold over in the middle, and turn the pan upside down upon a hot dish.

TOMATO SALAD.

Peel and slice your tomatoes, put into a salad-dish, and pour over them a dressing prepared as follows:

3 yolks of hard-boiled eggs, pounded. 1 beaten raw egg. 1 teaspoonful of salt. A pinch of cayenne. 1 teaspoonful white sugar. 2 tablespoonfuls of salad oil. 1 teaspoonful of made mustard. ½ teacupful of vinegar.

Rub yolks, mustard, pepper, salt, sugar and oil to a paste. Beat in the raw egg with your whisk, finally, the oil, a little at a time. Stir a great lump of ice into the dressing, whirling rapidly for half a minute. Take it out and pour the mixture over the salad.

GREEN PEAS.

For Green Peas Receipt, see Sunday of First Week in this month.

MOUNTAIN CUSTARD, OR “JUNKET.”

2 quarts of milk. 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Vanilla, or other essence. 2 teaspoonfuls of liquid rennet—to be had at most of the grocers and all the druggists.

Pour the milk, slightly warmed, into a glass bowl; sweeten, flavor, and stir in the rennet. Set in a rather warm place until it is firm, like “loppered” milk or blanc-mange; then put on ice. If at the end of an hour it remains liquid, put in more rennet. Do not let it stand until the whey separates from the curd. Two hours in warm weather should be enough. Eat with cream and sugar.

TEA AND FANCY BISCUITS.

Peek & Freans, Mackenzie & Mackenzie, and Huntley & Palmer make the best fancy biscuits that come to the American market.

Third Week. Tuesday. —— Vermicelli Soup. Beefsteak. Young Onions. Potato Puffs. Spinach. —— Strawberries and Cream. Mother’s Cup-Cake. ——

VERMICELLI SOUP.

6 lbs. of beef-shin, meat chopped and bones cracked. 2 onions. 2 carrots. 2 turnips. 6 large tomatoes. Bunch of herbs. Pepper, salt, and 1 tablespoonful mushroom catsup. ¼ lb. vermicelli, broken small. 6 quarts of water.

Put meat, bones, and sliced vegetables and herbs on in the water early in the day, and stew gently five hours. Strain and season. Set aside two quarts of stock, with the bones and meat, highly seasoned, until to-morrow, keeping upon the ice. Boil and skim the rest; add the vermicelli; simmer fifteen minutes, and pour out. Put in the catsup after the soup goes into the tureen.

BEEFSTEAK.

Flatten with the broad side of a hatchet, and broil quickly about ten minutes over a clear, hot fire. Lay between two hot dishes, with salt, pepper, and a great lump of butter upon it to draw the juices to the surface, for five minutes before serving.

YOUNG ONIONS.

Cut off stems and tops, skin and cook them in plenty of boiling water for fifteen minutes. Have ready another saucepan with a large spoonful of butter melted in it, but not hissing hot. Put in the onions, with a little chopped parsley, and let them warm slowly ten minutes. Then add a cup of milk in which have been stirred salt, pepper, and half a teaspoonful of corn-starch. Simmer all for three minutes, stirring several times, and pour out.

SPINACH.

Boil in hot, salted water twenty minutes. Drain well, and chop fine. Put into a saucepan with a good spoonful of butter, a little sugar, salt and pepper, a dust of nutmeg, and a few teaspoonfuls of milk, and _beat_ until all resolve themselves into a smooth, soft paste.

POTATO PUFFS.

Mash and whip the potatoes very light with milk, butter, salt and pepper; lastly, the frothed white of an egg. Pile irregularly within a bake-dish, and set in the oven until light and delicately browned. Glaze with butter before taking it from the oven.

STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM.

Cap, but do not wash the berries. Never put berries that need washing upon the table as an uncooked dessert. Pile in a glass bowl, and pass sugar and cream with them.

MOTHER’S CUP-CAKE.

Please see “BREAKFAST, LUNCHEON AND TEA,” page 322.

Third Week. Wednesday. —— Julienne Soup. Lamb Cutlets. Purée of Green Peas. Potato Strips. Lettuce. —— Ristori Puffs. ——

JULIENNE SOUP.

Pare and cut into small dice,

2 carrots. 1 turnip. 1 cup small string-beans. 6 tomatoes. 1 onion. ¼ of a cabbage-heart.

Cook ten minutes in salted boiling water, leaving out the tomatoes. Drain away the water, and spread the vegetables upon a dish to cool, while you take the fat from your cold soup-stock; strain the latter from the bones and meat, and heat to a gentle boil. Continue this for five minutes, skimming well; put in the parboiled vegetables, the tomatoes, and a pint of green peas, and stew steadily, but not fast, for half an hour. Pour out all together.

LAMB CUTLETS.

Trim carefully, lay in a little warmed butter for an hour, turning several times. Then broil upon a greased gridiron, taking care they do not drip. Butter, pepper, and salt each, and lay them in a circle about the peas purée.

PURÉE OF GREEN PEAS.

Boil three pints of green peas until soft. Rub them, while hot, through a fine colander. Work in a tablespoonful of butter, cut up in flour; pepper and salt to taste; add three teaspoonfuls of milk, and stir in a saucepan until very hot and smooth. Put in the centre of a hot, flat dish, with the cutlets about it, and help out both at the same time.

POTATO STRIPS.

Pare large potatoes: cut into long strips; lay in ice-cold water one hour; dry between two towels and fry in salted dripping to a light brown. Drain _well_, and dish upon a folded napkin.

LETTUCE.

Pull out and tear apart the white hearts, and heap within a salad-bowl. Rub together

2 tablespoonfuls of salad oil. 1 teaspoonful, each, of sugar and salt. Half as much made mustard and pepper, and whip in—a few drops a time—4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar.

Pour over the salad.

RISTORI PUFFS.

5 eggs. The weight of the eggs in flour. Half their weight in sugar. One-quarter their weight in butter. Juice of one lemon and half the grated peel. Soda.

Use prepared flour always in this receipt. Cream butter and sugar, and beat in the yolks. Add the lemon; a pinch of soda, dissolved in a teaspoonful of hot water, then the beaten whites, alternately with the flour. Bake in muffin rings in a quick oven. Eat hot, with jelly sauce.

Third Week. Thursday. —— Jelly Soup. Stewed Sheep’s Tongues. Potatoes à la Louise. Spinach. Lima Beans. —— Raspberry Shortcake with Cream. ——

JELLY SOUP.

4 calf’s feet, well cleaned. 2 lbs. of lean veal, cut from the knuckles. 1 onion stuck with three cloves. Teaspoonful of celery essence. Bunch of sweet herbs. 1 blade of mace. Juice of half a lemon. Pepper and salt. 5 quarts of cold water. ½ cup of German sago.

Boil the feet, onion, herbs, and the veal, cut into strips, in the water for four hours, diminishing the liquid to three quarts. Strain, and cool. Put two of the feet and the veal back into one quart of the broth; season, and set by on the ice. Take the fat from the rest; put the liquor, seasoned, over the fire, boil gently and skim, add the sago, previously soaked two hours in a cup of cold water, simmer tender, and pour out. You can, if you like, add a glass of pale sherry.

STEWED SHEEP’S TONGUES.

Speak for six sheep’s tongues several days before you want them, unless you have access to a large market. Wash well in several waters. Boil in hot, salted water half an hour, to loosen the skins. Take these off and trim neatly. Put a cupful of your soup—before adding the tapioca—into a saucepan, with a quarter-pound of sliced salt pork, a teaspoonful of chopped onion, pepper, and a lump of white sugar. Lay in the tongues, sliced lengthwise, and stew half an hour. Lay the slices in rows, overlapping one another, upon a hot dish; thicken the gravy with browned flour, add the juice of a lemon, boil once, and pour upon the tongues.

POTATOES À LA LOUISE.

Mash the potatoes, and whip with a fork to a light cream, adding milk and butter, salt and pepper. Heap upon a shallow pie-plate, well greased, and set in the oven until a white crust has gathered over it. Then, wash the mound well with beaten egg. Set in a moderate oven long enough to harden this, but not until the yellow changes to brown. Slip, without breaking, to another dish, by the help of the spatula.

SPINACH.

See receipt for Tuesday of this week.

LIMA BEANS.

See receipt for Sunday, Second Week in this month.

RASPBERRY SHORTCAKE WITH CREAM.

Substitute white or red raspberries for strawberries in the receipt for shortcake, given on Friday of First Week in this month.

Third Week. Friday. —— Halibut Chowder. Chicken Pot-pie, with Dumplings. Sea-Kale. Baked Tomatoes. Gherkin Pickles. —— Charlotte Russe. ——

HALIBUT CHOWDER.

3 lbs. of halibut, freed from bones, and cut into strips two inches long. 6 parboiled potatoes, sliced. 2 cups of milk. 1 good-sized onion, sliced. Chopped parsley. 3 tablespoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour, with butter for 6 Boston crackers, split. Enough boiling water to cover fish and potatoes. Pepper and salt.

Put a layer of fish in the bottom of a pot; season, and sprinkle with parsley. Hide this with sliced potato. More fish, and yet more potatoes, until all are in, when cover with boiling water. Put on the lid, and simmer half an hour after the boil recommences. Have ready the hot milk in another saucepan; stir in the floured butter. Dip the crackers in boiling water, butter and salt them, and line the bottom of your tureen with them. Pour in the boiling milk; then the fish and potatoes. Send around sliced lemon with it.

CHICKEN POT-PIE, WITH DUMPLINGS.

Clean and cut up the chicken as for fricassee. Put a good layer of salt pork in the bottom of a broad, not too deep pot; then a small onion, sliced, the chicken, peppered, and enough cold water to cover it well. Over this lay a thick sheet of good “family” pie-crust. Stew one hour and a half; then brown the crust by putting a red-hot stove-cover on the top of the pot. Take off the crust with care, and set by. Take out the chicken and arrange upon a hot-water dish. If the gravy has boiled down too low, add a little hot water. Drop in while the liquor is boiling hot, squares or rounds of raw pie-paste; cook ten minutes, and lay upon the chicken. Stir into the gravy a large spoonful of butter rolled in flour; boil up, and pour upon the dumplings and chicken. Lay the crust on top.

SEA-KALE.

Boil fifteen minutes in hot, salted water. Drain well, and return to the fire, with a spoonful of butter, pepper, salt, and a little lemon-juice. Stir, or toss, five minutes, and heap upon rounds of buttered toast in a hot dish.

BAKED TOMATOES.

Peel and slice large, ripe tomatoes. Chop fine a little streaked salt pork, or ham. Butter a pudding-dish, and cover the bottom with slices of tomato. Season with pepper and sugar, and strew with bread-crumbs. Then scatter chopped pork over it. Fill the dish in this order, having crumbs at the top. Cover closely, and bake half an hour, or until the juice bubbles up at the sides. Brown nicely, and serve in the dish.

CHARLOTTE RUSSE.

A large sponge-cake. 1 pint of cream. ½ lb. of sugar, powdered. Whites of 2 eggs.

Line a tin mould with straight sides with slices of cake, having the bottom in one piece, if possible. Whip the cream in a syllabub-churn, and, with your egg-beater, whisk into this, gradually, the frothed whites and the sugar, flavoring to taste. Fill the cake-lined mould with this, cover with more slices, and set in ice for an hour or so. Pass a knife around the inside of the mould to loosen the cake, and invert upon a plate. Sift powdered sugar over it.

Third Week. Saturday. —— Cream Soup. Boiled Mutton. Hot Slaw. Buttered Potatoes. Mashed Squash. —— Cherry Roley-Poley. ——

CREAM SOUP.

If your jelly-soup stock has been kept upon the ice these two days, it is as good now as on Thursday. Take off the fat, add a pint of boiling water to the soup, and stew slowly for half an hour. Strain, add more seasoning, and skim for a few minutes until quite clear in boiling. Heat in another vessel a pint of milk; stir in a tablespoonful of butter and the same of corn-starch wet up in cold milk, with a little nutmeg. Pour this upon two beaten eggs, cook one minute, and put into the tureen. Add the boiling soup, and stir all up well. It will be wise to put a pinch of soda in the milk before boiling.

BOILED MUTTON.

Put on in plenty of boiling water, salted, and cook twelve minutes to the pound. Take out, wipe carefully with a hot, wet cloth; butter all over, and serve with a cup of drawn butter sent up in a sauce-boat. Season the pot-liquor, and, when cool, put upon the ice.

HOT SLAW.

Shred a small white cabbage. Boil for fifteen minutes in hot water, salted. Throw this away, and add four tablespoonfuls of vinegar, the same quantity of your soup-stock, with pepper and salt. Simmer in this ten minutes, stirring often. Turn out into a deep dish; pour over it half a cupful of drawn butter; set in a pan of boiling water five or six minutes, and serve.

BUTTERED POTATOES.

Slice cold boiled potatoes lengthwise. Put into a saucepan a good lump of butler, with pepper and salt. Add the potatoes as the butter melts, and shake over the fire until they are very hot and covered with a sort of glaze, but not browned.

MASHED SQUASH.

Receipt given last Sunday.

CHERRY ROLEY-POLEY.

1 quart of flour—Hecker’s prepared. 1 heaping tablespoonful of lard, and the same of butter. 1 teaspoonful of salt. 2 cups of milk. 2 cups of stoned cherries. 1 cup of sugar.

Make a soft paste of flour, with the shortening chopped into it, and the milk. Roll out, a quarter of an inch thick, into an oblong sheet. Cover this with cherries; sprinkle with sugar, and roll up closely upon the fruit. In spreading the cherries, leave a narrow margin on both sides of the sheet. Baste the roll up in a bag floured well on the inside, and make a “felled” seam at the open end to keep out the water. Fit it exactly, but not tightly, to the shape of the pudding. Plunge into a pot of boiling water and keep it at a steady boil for one hour and a half. Dip the bag into cold water, rip the stitches, and turn out upon a hot dish. Eat with hard sauce.

Fourth Week. Sunday. —— Mutton, Rice, and Tomato Broth. Glazed Ham. Green Peas. Potatoes au Gratin. Stewed Lima Beans. Tomato Salad. —— Spanish Cream. Coffee and Macaroons. ——

MUTTON, RICE, AND TOMATO BROTH.

Take the fat from the surface of the liquor in which your mutton was boiled yesterday. Add to this broth the bones of the cold mutton well cracked, and let them boil slowly one hour and a half. Strain and cool to throw up the fat; remove this, and put the soup over the fire with one quart of ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut very fine, and half a cup of raw rice. Stew forty minutes. Add a lump of sugar; more pepper and salt, if needed, and a tablespoonful of corn-starch, wet in cold water. Boil one minute, and pour out.

GLAZED HAM.

Boil a ham on Saturday, allowing twenty minutes to the pound, and let it get cold in the liquor. Set by then, and, early Sunday morning, skin it carefully, and trim away the rusty edges. Brush all over with beaten egg, and cover with a paste of rolled cracker wet up with milk, seasoned with pepper, and bound with beaten egg. It should be a quarter of an inch thick. Set the ham in the oven until this is lightly browned. Serve cold and slice thin. Garnish with frilled paper about the shank.

GREEN PEAS.

Shell and lay in cold water fifteen minutes. Cook from twenty to twenty-five minutes in boiling salted water. Drain, put into a deep dish with a good lump of butter; pepper and salt to taste.

POTATOES AU GRATIN.

Mash with milk and butter, and press firmly into a pretty mould wet with cold water. Turn out at once; sift fine _dry_ crumbs all over the mould of potato; set in the oven five minutes to get it quite hot again, and serve.

STEWED LIMA BEANS.

Shell; lay in cold water ten minutes. Boil tender in hot, salted water. Drain this off, and add a scant cup of hot milk; a good spoonful of butter, rolled in a very little flour, with pepper and salt. Simmer three minutes and pour into a deep dish.

TOMATO SALAD.

Peel with a keen knife, and slice red, ripe tomatoes. Make a dressing like that for lettuce on Wednesday.

SPANISH CREAM.

½ box of Coxe’s Gelatine. 1 quart of milk. Beaten yolks of 3 eggs. 1 small cup of sugar. 2 teaspoonfuls flavoring extract—orange is very good in this cream. A little soda.

Soak the gelatine in the milk two hours. Stir in the soda, and heat, stirring often. When scalding hot, pour upon the beaten yolks and sugar, and return to the farina-kettle. Boil one minute, stirring ceaselessly. Strain through tarlatan, and when cold, flavor and put into a wet mould. Set on the ice until wanted, and eat with cream and sugar. Make this, of course, on Saturday.

COFFEE AND MACAROONS.

Bring these on last of all.

Fourth Week. Monday. —— Bisque of Lobster. A Good “Pick-up” Dish. Baked Potato Balls. String-Beans. Lettuce. —— Strawberries and Cream. Wine Cake. ——

BISQUE OF LOBSTER.

Meat of one boiled lobster, or a can of preserved lobster. 1 quart of milk. 1 quart of boiling water. ½ cup rolled cracker. 4 tablespoonfuls of butter. Pepper (cayenne) and salt.

Pound the coral and other soft parts of the lobster to a paste, and simmer five minutes in the boiling water; then rub through a colander back into the water. Cut the rest of the lobster-meat into dice, and put into a saucepan with the cracker-crumbs. Pour the red water over them, and heat to a boil, when add pepper, salt, and the butter. Simmer, covered, half an hour, taking care it does not scorch. Heat the milk, with a pinch of soda, in another vessel, and after the lobster is in the tureen, pour this in, boiling hot. Pass sliced lemon with it.

A GOOD “PICK-UP” DISH.

2 lbs. of calf s liver, boiled and cold. 1 lb. cold cooked ham. A cup of gravy, saved from yesterday’s soup, and strained. ½ cup bread-crumbs. 3 eggs, beaten light. Parsley. A very little minced onion, with pepper and a little salt.

Chop liver and ham; wet with the gravy; mix in seasoning and crumbs, and beat the eggs in. Put the mixture into a well-greased mould; cover this and put into a dripping-pan full of boiling water. Cook thus one hour and a half, keeping plenty of water in the pan, and at a steady boil. Turn out upon a dish; pour a cup of drawn butter over it, and serve.

BAKED POTATO BALLS.

Rub cold mashed potato, left from yesterday, smooth with a spoonful of warmed butter, and soft with warmed milk. Beat up an egg in it, and stir, until hot, in a clean, greased frying-pan, not allowing it to “catch” on the side. Then let it cool. When cold and stiff, make into balls, roll these in flour, and bake upon a greased pan until well browned. Pile upon a hot dish.

STRING-BEANS.

See Thursday of Second Week in this month.

LETTUCE.

See Wednesday of Third Week in this month.

STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM, AND WINE CAKE.

For Receipt for Cake please refer to “BREAKFAST, LUNCHEON AND TEA,” page 341.

Fourth Week. Tuesday. —— Bread-and-Cheese Soup. Breast of Lamb with Macaroni. Whole Baked Tomatoes. Stewed Peas and French Beans. Sweet Pickle. —— Corn Bread Pudding. ——

BREAD-AND-CHEESE SOUP.

3 lbs. lean veal, cut into dice. A ham bone, cracked. 1 sliced onion. 1 cup of milk. 2 beaten eggs. 1 cupful fried bread-dice. ¼ lb. dry cheese, grated. Pepper and salt. Chopped parsley. 3 quarts of cold water. 1 tablespoonful of corn-flour.

Put meat, bone, onion, and water together, and cook slowly four hours. Strain, pressing hard, cool, and take off the fat. Season, and heat to a boil; put in the parsley and corn-starch—the latter wet with cold water—and simmer five minutes. Heat the milk in a farina-kettle, pour upon the eggs, and re-heat, stirring constantly until they begin to thicken. Put bread-dice and cheese into the tureen; pour on the milk and eggs; then the hot soup. Stir up and serve.

BREAST OF LAMB WITH MACARONI.

Cover the bottom of a broad pot with _very_ thin slices of fat salt pork or ham. Lay the lamb upon them. Take all the peel from a small lemon, and slice it, also very thin. Cover the lamb with this; then with more sliced pork. Mince a small onion and a bunch of sweet herbs, and scatter over these. Pour in a pint of boiling water. Put on a close lid with a weight on top, and cook very slowly two hours, turning the meat over at the end of the first hour. Meantime, boil half a pound of macaroni, broken into short pieces, twenty minutes in a little broth, borrowed from your soup; drain, pepper and salt, and arrange into a flat bed, upon a hot meat-dish. Keep hot until the lamb is done, when lay it upon the prepared mound, and set both in the oven while you strain the gravy. Thicken it with a little browned flour, and boil up once. Pour over the lamb and macaroni.

WHOLE BAKED TOMATOES.