Part 27

First Week. Thursday. —— Italian Paste Soup. Cold Beef à la Mode. Broiled Spanish Mackerel. Mashed Potatoes. Green Peas. Raw Tomatoes. —— Cream Raspberry Pie. ——

ITALIAN PASTE SOUP.

Take the fat from your cold soup-stock; pour off from the sediment; boil and skim, adding a tablespoonful of walnut or mushroom catsup. When the scum ceases to rise, put in a quarter of a pound of Italian paste—_i. e._, something like macaroni cut into small figures, letters, stars, and the like. Simmer twenty minutes and pour out.

BROILED SPANISH MACKEREL.

Clean, wash, and wipe dry. Split, so that when laid flat the backbone will be in the middle. Sprinkle with salt and lay, inside down, upon a buttered gridiron, over a clear fire, until it is nicely colored, then turn. When done, put upon a hot dish, butter plentifully and pepper. Put a hot cover over it and send to table.

COLD BEEF À LA MODE.

Smooth the round on the top and garnish with pickled beets and parsley. _Shave_ off horizontal slices in carving.

MASHED POTATOES.

Pass with the fish, and, if you like, again when the meat comes on.

GREEN PEAS.

Shell, lay in cold water fifteen minutes; cook from twenty to twenty-five minutes in boiling salt water, adding a lump of sugar unless they are just gathered. Drain very well, dish, pepper, salt, and butter.

RAW TOMATOES.

Pare and slice with a sharp knife. Lay in a glass dish and pour over them a dressing made thus: Rub a teaspoonful of sugar, half as much each of salt, pepper, and made mustard, into two tablespoonfuls of oil. Beat into this the yolk of a raw egg, and then, a few drops at a time, five tablespoonfuls of vinegar.

CREAM RASPBERRY PIE.

Line a pie-dish with puff paste, and fill with raspberries, sweetened bountifully. Cover with a paste-crust, but do not pinch this down at the edges. Also rub the edge of the lower crust with butter to prevent adhesion. Bake in a good oven. While it is cooking, heat a small cup of rich milk, putting in a pinch of soda—stir into it half a teaspoonful of corn-starch, wet in cold milk, one tablespoonful of white sugar, and cook three minutes. Take it off, and beat in the frothed whites of two eggs. Whip to a cream, and let it get cold. When the pie comes out of the oven, lift the top crust and pour in the mixture. Replace the crust and set aside to cool. Sift sugar upon the top before serving.

First Week. Friday. —— Tomato Soup without Meat. Chicken, Stewed Whole. Baked Squash. Rice Croquettes. Potato Omelette. —— Cherry Bread Pudding. ——

TOMATO SOUP WITHOUT MEAT.

12 large red tomatoes, peeled and sliced. 1 small onion, sliced. 2 tablespoonfuls nice dripping. 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley. 2 tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in flour. Pepper and salt. 1 teaspoonful of sugar. 1 small cupful of hot boiled rice. 1 quart of boiling water.

Fry the onion in the soup-pot in the dripping. When they are of a reddish-brown, add the tomatoes and stir all up until very hot, when put in the boiling water and parsley. Stew half an hour, and strain, rubbing the tomato through a sieve into the hot liquid. Return to the pot, season, and when boiling again, stir in the floured butter, and a minute later the rice. Simmer ten minutes and pour out.

CHICKEN—STEWED WHOLE.

Truss as for roasting; but do not stuff it. Put a layer of fat salt pork in the bottom of a saucepan; then, some sliced onion and parsley. Lay in the chicken and put in a cupful of gravy made by boiling the feet and giblets, and, when these are taken out, add a good spoonful of butter to the weak broth. Cover the saucepan closely, and stew one hour, _slowly_. Turn the fowl, and stew one hour more, keeping it covered. Take it out of the pot; lay upon a dish, and thicken the gravy, after straining it, with a little browned flour. Pepper, also, to taste, and pour over the fowl, which should be so tender as to fall apart under the carver’s knife.

BAKED SQUASH.

Boil, mash, and let it get cold. Then, beat up light with a tablespoonful of melted butter, two raw eggs; three tablespoonfuls of milk, with pepper and salt to liking. Put into a buttered bake-dish; sift dry crumbs over the top, and bake in a quick oven.

RICE CROQUETTES.

Boil a cup of rice soft; work into it, while hot, a tablespoonful of butter, one of grated cheese, pepper, salt, and a beaten egg. Spread out to cool. Chop the boiled giblets of your chicken fine with a slice or so of your cold beef, wet with a little gravy, but not too soft. Make the cold rice into square, flat cakes. Lay in the centre of each a teaspoonful of the mince. Close the cakes so as to have this in the middle; mould into oval balls; dip in beaten egg; then, roll in cracker-crumbs and grated cheese, and fry in good dripping, or lard. Drain well, and heap upon a hot dish.

POTATO OMELETTE.

6 eggs. ½ cup of milk. 1 small cup mashed potato, seasoned with pepper and salt. Butter for frying.

Beat yolks and whites together. Thin the potato with the milk, and strain through a colander. Stir into the eggs, have the butter warm in the pan, pour in the mixture; shake, and loosen with a spatula, and when nearly done, hold it under the red-hot grate to brown the upper side. Invert the pan above a very hot dish, and turn out without folding. Serve at once, as it soon falls.

CHERRY BREAD PUDDING.

1 quart of milk, with a pinch of soda stirred in. Loaf of stale baker’s bread, pared and sliced. Butter to spread the bread. 4 eggs. 1 cup of sugar. 1 full cup of stoned cherries.

Butter the bread on both sides. Put a layer into a buttered bake-dish; pour upon it a little raw custard, made of the eggs, sugar, and milk. Strew over this some of the cherries, and lay in more buttered bread. Proceed in this order until the dish is full. The upper layer should be bread particularly well-buttered and soaked. Cover the dish closely; set in a dripping-pan full of boiling water, and cook one hour; then uncover, and brown delicately. Turn out upon a plate, and eat hot with sauce.

First Week. Saturday. —— Consommé Soup. Braised Veal. Cauliflower with Sauce. Raw Cucumbers. Green Corn Pudding. —— Cottage Puffs. ——

CONSOMMÉ SOUP.

1 old chicken. 3 lbs. of lean beef. 1 onion. 1 turnip. 2 carrots. Bunch of sweet herbs. 7 quarts of cold water. ½ cup sago, soaked in cold water. Pepper and salt.

Cut the beef into strips, and joint the chicken. Slice the vegetables, chop the herbs, and put on all with the water, to cook slowly for six hours. Take out the chicken and beef; salt and pepper and put into a jar. Strain the soup, pulping the vegetables through a colander. Season and divide it; pouring half upon the meat in the jar, and setting in a pot of hot water to cook, covered, two hours more. Heat the rest, and skim; put in the sago, and simmer for half an hour; then pour out.

When the two hours have elapsed, pour out the stock into a bowl, and, when cold, put upon ice.

BRAISED VEAL.

The breast is a good piece for this purpose. Put three or four spoonfuls of sweet dripping in a broad saucepan, and when hot, lay in the veal and fry on both sides. Pour over it two cupfuls of broth, taken from your soup; a minced onion and a couple of sliced tomatoes. Cover and stew forty-five minutes. Take out the veal and keep warm, while you strain and skim the gravy, and return to the pot with pepper, salt, and minced summer savory, also, a pinch of mace, a lump of sugar, and a pinch of grated lemon-peel. Put back the meat, and stew half an hour more. Lay on a dish, thicken the gravy, boil once, and pour over the veal.

CAULIFLOWER, WITH SAUCE.

1 head of cauliflower. 1 cup of drawn butter. Juice of a lemon.

Tie the cauliflower in a net and boil in hot, salted water from thirty-five to fifty minutes, in proportion to its size. Take up, undo the net, lay in a deep dish, blossom upward, and pour over it a cup of rich drawn butter, with the juice of a lemon stirred in.

RAW CUCUMBERS.

See Saturday, Fourth Week in June.

GREEN CORN PUDDING.

Grated corn of 12 large ears. 1 quart of milk. 3 eggs. 2 tablespoonfuls of melted butter. 1 tablespoonful of sugar. A little salt.

Beat the yolks well; then add the corn, the butter and salt, and stir up hard with your “beater.” Then comes the milk, next the sugar; lastly, the whites. Bake in a greased pudding-dish, covered, one hour. Then brown well. Serve hot in the bake-dish.

COTTAGE PUFFS.

1 cup of milk and one of cream. 4 beaten eggs. 1 tablespoonful of butter, rubbed into the flour. A little salt. 4 cups of prepared flour, or enough for cake batter.

Mix the whipped yolks with the milk and cream; then the salt and the whites; lastly, the flour. Beat fast and well, and bake in “gem” pans. The oven should be quick. Eat hot, with sauce.

Second Week. Sunday. —— Béchamel Soup. Boiled Mutton. Chicken Rissoles. String Beans. Green Peas. Raw Tomatoes. —— Self-freezing Ice-Cream. ——

BÉCHAMEL SOUP.

Take the fat from the jellied stock in your refrigerator; dip it out carefully from the meat—taking care of the chicken—and heat in a saucepan. Scald a quart of milk in another vessel, and stir into it a large spoonful of corn-starch, wet with cold milk. Pepper and salt to taste (the milk should have had a pinch of soda in it), and pour into the tureen. Add the boiling soup, stir up well, and serve.

BOILED MUTTON.

The leg is best for this purpose, and will look much nicer when served, if it has been tied up in very coarse, thin muslin, or in white mosquito-netting. Put on in plenty of boiling salted water, and cook a quarter of an hour to the pound. Unwrap when done, brush all over with butter, and serve with a boat of drawn butter, in which have been stirred two dozen capers or pickled nasturtium-seed. Take care of the liquor.

CHICKEN RISSOLES.

Cut the chicken, boiled in your soup, from the bones, and chop fine. Add to it a cupful of mashed potato, whipped to a cream, a beaten egg, pepper and salt; wet soft with a little of the soup, and heat in a frying-pan, in which has been melted a little butter. Stir until very hot, and let it get perfectly cold. You can see that this is done before morning service, if you have an early dinner on Sunday. When cold, make into bails; roll in egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and fry to a light brown in lard or nice dripping. Drain off the fat, and serve hot upon a folded napkin.

STRING-BEANS.

See Monday of Fourth Week in June.

GREEN PEAS AND RAW TOMATOES.

See Thursday of First Week in July.

SELF-FREEZING ICE-CREAM.

1 quart of rich milk. 8 beaten eggs. 3 pints of rich, sweet cream. 4 cups of sugar. 1 vanilla bean, broken in two, and boiled in the custard, or 5 teaspoonfuls of vanilla essence.

Heat the milk; pour it upon the eggs and sugar. Cook, stirring steadily fifteen minutes, or until it has thickened well. When perfectly cold, add the cream. Make the custard on Saturday, and set on ice. Early Sunday morning, beat in the cream, and put all in an old-fashioned upright freezer, set in its pail. Put a block of ice within a stout sack, or between the folds of a piece of carpeting, and beat _small_ with a hammer. Put a thick layer into the outer part, then one of _rock-salt_. Fill the pail in this order, and, before covering the freezer with ice, beat the custard for five minutes with a flat stick or ladle. Shut tightly; pack pounded ice and salt over it, and put a folded carpet over all. In an hour and a half, open the freezer, first wiping off the salt from about the top. Dislodge the frozen custard from sides and bottom with a long knife, and beat and stir with your stick, faithfully, until the custard is a smooth paste. Replace the cover; let off the water, and pack more pounded ice and salt about it, completely concealing the freezer. Put back the folded carpet. The cream will take care of itself for three hours, and more, and you can, if you like, leave it all day, with a visit of three minutes every few hours, to let off the water and pack in more salt and ice. Do not open the freezer until you are ready for the cream. Then take it out, wipe it off, wrap a towel wrung out in hot water about the lower part, and invert it upon a flat dish. Should the weather be very hot, you may have to let off the water oftener than once in three hours; but this seldom happens if the freezer be set in a cool cellar.

Second Week. Monday. —— Brown Soup. Ragoût of Mutton. Squash à la Crême. Mashed Potatoes. Lettuce Salad. —— Raspberries, Cream, and Cake. Iced Coffee. ——

BROWN SOUP.

½ lb. lean bacon; 2 onions; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; 1 scant teaspoonful mixed allspice and cloves; 2 tablespoonfuls browned flour; liquor in which your mutton was boiled; pepper.

Cut the bacon into strips, and slice the onions. Put the butter into your soup-pot with these, and simmer, stirring often, until they are browned, but not scorched. Add the flour, wet up in cold water, and stir until very hot. Then, having taken the fat from the top of your mutton “pot-liquor,” pour it in, with pepper and parsley. Add by degrees, stirring well, not to lump the flour. Cover, and set at the back of the range to simmer for two hours—more would not hurt it. When ready for it, strain into the tureen.

RAGOÛT OF MUTTON.

Slice even, rather thick slices, without skin or fat, from your boiled mutton, and lay in a deep dish. Pour a good glass of claret wine over them, and cover for an hour. Make a gravy of the bones and refuse portions with a quart of cold water. When this has boiled down to a pint, strain it off. Let it cool, and take off the fat. Put into a saucepan with a little minced onion, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, and boil down to a large cupful. Then stir in a tablespoonful of browned flour, wet up in cold water; simmer three minutes; add the sliced meat and wine, with a little grated lemon-peel and a teaspoonful of currant jelly. Let all get hot slowly, but the meat must _not_ boil, or it will be tough. Set at one side of the range to heat, until you are ready to pour it into a deep dish.

SQUASH À LA CRÊME.

Boil and mash in the customary manner; press out all the water, and beat in a tablespoonful of melted butter, with two of cream, heated, pepper and salt to taste; lastly, a beaten egg. Put the mixture into a pail, and set in boiling water fifteen minutes, stirring often, and keeping the water at a boil. It should look like rich custard. Serve in a deep dish.

MASHED POTATOES.

Prepare as usual, and serve without browning.

LETTUCE SALAD.

Pick out and pull apart the hearts; pile in a glass dish; sprinkle with sugar, and season to taste with oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

RASPBERRIES, CREAM, AND CAKE.

Since your soup and ragoût have taken more time and labor than you like to give to Monday’s dinner, make up for the loss by serving the dessert given above, sure that nobody will murmur.

ICED COFFEE.

Make more coffee than usual at breakfast-time, and stronger. Add one-third as much hot milk as you have coffee, and set away. When cold, put upon ice. Serve at dessert, with cracked ice in each tumbler.

Second Week. Tuesday. —— Cabbage Soup. Mock Pigeons. Green Peas. Cucumber Salad. Lima Beans. —— Farina Pudding, Cold. ——

CABBAGE SOUP.

2 lbs. of lean beef, chopped, and the same of mutton-bones, well cracked; 1 small, firm white cabbage; 1 onion; bunch of sweet herbs; 1 cup of milk, heated, with a pinch of soda; 1 tablespoonful of butter, rubbed in one of flour; pepper and salt; 3 quarts of water.

Cook beef, onion, and bones in the water four hours, boiling slowly. Boil the cabbage in two waters; let it get cold, and shred only the white parts into rather coarse dice. Cool the soup, and take off the fat. Put over the fire with pepper and salt and the chopped herbs. Having boiled it one minute, skim, and put in the cabbage. Heat the milk in a separate vessel; stir in the floured butter; boil until it thickens, and pour into the tureen. When the cabbage-soup reaches the boil, pour it upon the milk, and stir up well.

MOCK PIGEONS.

Take the bone from two nice fillets of veal; flatten them with the broad side of a hatchet, and spread with a good force-meat of crumbs and chopped ham, seasoned well. Roll the meat up on this; bind into oblong rolls with soft string; lay in a dripping-pan, and pour over them two cups of your boiling soup before the cabbage goes in—or any other hot broth will do as well. Turn a pan over them and bake nearly two hours, basting well with the gravy. When done, lay upon a hot dish, while you thicken the gravy with browned flour, and season well with pepper, salt, and tomato catsup. Boil one minute, and pour part over the pigeons, the rest into a boat. Clip the strings carefully, and do not pull them hard in removing them, lest you spoil the shape of the meat.

GREEN PEAS.

See Wednesday, First Week in this month.

LIMA BEANS.

See Thursday of First Week in July.

CUCUMBER SALAD.

See Saturday of First Week in July.

FARINA PUDDING—COLD.

1 quart fresh milk; 3 tablespoonfuls of farina, soaked one hour in a little cold water; 3 eggs; 4 tablespoonfuls of sugar; a little salt; flavoring essence.

Heat three-quarters of the milk, salt it, and stir in the farina. Cook half an hour, stirring often; take it off, and pour upon the eggs, sugar, and the other cup of milk, beaten together. Return to the farina-kettle, and stir ten minutes longer. Pour out, beat in the flavoring, and put into a wet mould. Set on the ice, when cool. It will soon form. Eat with cream, or fruit syrup.

Second Week. Wednesday. —— Crab Soup. Savory Calf’s Head. Stewed Tomatoes. Potato Puff. Boiled Corn. —— Cherry Soufflé. ——

CRAB SOUP.

Two pounds of lean veal chopped, covered with two quarts of cold water, boiled down one-half, strained, cooled, skimmed and seasoned with pepper and salt. Meat of three large crabs, boiled and cold. One pint milk, and a pinch of soda stirred into it. Pepper, salt, nutmeg, one teaspoonful of anchovy paste. One cup of boiled rice—soft and hot. Tablespoonful of floured butter. Return the broth—prepared as directed above—to the fire, with the rice, and simmer until the latter is broken to pieces. Strain, rubbing the rice through the sieve; set over the fire, adding the nutmeg and anchovy; then the crab meat, cut into small dice. Simmer ten minutes longer—it must not actually _boil_—and pour into the tureen. Add the boiling milk, which has been thickened with the floured butter; stir up well and serve. Pass sliced lemon, crackers and butter with it.

SAVORY CALF’S HEAD.

Wash the head well—it should of course have been cleaned with the skin on; take out the tongue and brains; boil them in a separate vessel, and keep on ice for to-morrow’s soup. Put on the head (the two sides tied into the original shape by a band of tape) in plenty of cold water, slightly salt, and cook gently one hour and a half. Take out, wipe dry, score the cheeks in squares, and wash the head on top and sides, with beaten egg. Sift over it a mixture of rolled cracker, pepper and salt; and set in a quick oven. In ten minutes, baste with melted butter; five minutes later, with a cupful of broth from the pot poured gradually over it. Cover with thick white paper and cook ten minutes longer, then dish, with thin slices of crisped ham laid about it. Thicken the gravy in the pan with browned flour, and send up in a boat. Save the pot-liquor for soup, seasoning it, and keeping in a cold place.

STEWED TOMATOES.

Loosen the skins by pouring boiling water upon them. Peel, slice, and put into a saucepan with a little minced onion, pepper, salt and sugar, and stew from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Just before taking them up, add a good lump of butter.

POTATO PUFF.

Mash the potatoes very light and soft; whipping in milk, butter, salt, and two beaten eggs. Heap within a greased bake-dish, and set in a good oven until well browned. Serve in the bake-dish.

BOILED CORN.

See Thursday, Fourth Week in June.

CHERRY SOUFFLÉ.

2 cups of milk; 1 cup of prepared flour; 5 eggs; 4 tablespoonfuls sugar; 1 teaspoonful bitter almond flavoring; 1 cup of stoned cherries, dredged with flour; a pinch of salt.

Scald the milk and pour it—a little at a time—upon the flour, stirring constantly, to a smooth batter. Return to the custard kettle, and stir until thick as hasty pudding. Pour, still hot, upon the yolks beaten up with the sugar. Whip up thoroughly and let it cool. Whisk the whites very stiff and beat rapidly into the cold paste. Butter a mould, line thickly with the dredged cherries, and put in the mixture, carefully, not to disturb the cherries, which should stick to the buttered sides. Allow room for swelling in the mould. Put on the top, set in a pot of boiling water, and cook for an hour and a half. Dip into cold water, and turn out upon a hot dish. Eat soon, with a good pudding sauce.

Second Week. Thursday. —— Plain Calf’s Head Soup. Fried Chickens. Fried Kidney-Beans. New Potatoes. Lettuce Salad. Beets, Sautés. —— Blackcap Shortcake, Hot. ——

PLAIN CALF’S HEAD SOUP.

1 lb. of lean beef cut into strips and fried brown, with a sliced onion, in dripping; 1 grated carrot; 1 sliced turnip; bunch of herbs chopped; pot-liquor from yesterday’s calf’s head.

Skim the cold broth, and put on with the fried meat and onions, the herbs and vegetables. Cook gently three hours, and strain. Add a tablespoonful—heaping—of browned flour wet in cold water; simmer a minute, and put in the cold tongue and brains—kept from yesterday—cut into dice. Cook gently three minutes, and pour out.

FRIED CHICKENS.

Cut up a pair of young chickens, as for fricassee. Lay in cold water for one minute, and, without wiping them, pepper and salt each piece; roll in flour and fry in hot lard to a fine brown. Pile upon a hot-water dish; fry some whole bunches of green parsley in the lard, and lay over and about them. This is the famous fried chicken of the South.

FRIED KIDNEY-BEANS.

Boil tender in hot salted water, drain, and when nearly cold, mash them, partially, leaving here and there a whole grain. Have ready in a frying-pan some strips of fat salt pork fried crisp in their own grease. Season this with pepper, and stir in the beans. Cook, stirring briskly, until smoking hot. Dish with the crisped pork on top.

NEW POTATOES.

Rub, or scrape off the skins; cook until tender, in hot salted water; dry in the open pot on the range, after draining them, and serve.

BEETS SAUTÉS.

Boil and slice as for plain boiled beets. Put into a saucepan with a great spoonful of butter, the same of vinegar, with pepper and salt. Shake and toss until they are glazed with the hot butter; then dish.

LETTUCE SALAD.

See Monday of this Week.

BLACKCAP SHORTCAKE—HOT.

Please see Wednesday of Second Week in June.

Second Week. Friday. —— Soup à la Bonne Femme. Mashed Potatoes. Roast Ducks. Raw Tomatoes. Green Peas. —— Currant and Raspberry Tart. ——

SOUP À LA BONNE FEMME.

2 lbs. of good white fish—halibut, bass, or pickerel will do; 3 eggs; 1 cup of milk; 1 onion; bunch of sweet herbs; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed in flour; cayenne and salt to taste; a little nutmeg; 3 quarts of water.

Boil together fish, herbs, and onion in cold water for two hours. Strain; pick the fish from the bones, and chop so fine that you can rub it through the colander into the soup. Season, and put back into the soup-pot. Simmer ten minutes and stir in the butter. Heat the milk in a farina-kettle; pour it upon the beaten eggs, and stir over the fire until it _begins_ to thicken. Pour into the tureen, add the soup, stir up well, and serve. It is well to add a pinch of soda to the milk in heating.

ROAST DUCKS.