Part 42
Fourth Week. Saturday. —— Ox-head Soup. Pork Steaks. Apple Sauce. Mashed Turnips. Potatoes Scalloped with Eggs. —— Apple Pie and Cream. ——
OX-HEAD SOUP.
½ an ox’s head, well cleaned, including the fresh tongue; 6 potatoes, boiled and mashed; 3 turnips; 3 onions; 4 carrots; 4 stalks of celery; pepper, salt, and mace; bunch of sweet herbs; 8 quarts of water; the stock already in your jar.
Put the head, tongue, and vegetables (leaving out the potatoes) over the fire, with the water, early in the day. Bring slowly to boiling, and keep this up five hours. At the end of three hours take out the tongue with enough liquor to cover it, and let it get cold. When the five hours have passed, strain off the liquor; take out bones and meat; season highly, and put into your emptied and scalded stock-jar. Pulp the vegetables into the soup; season it, and pour all not needed for to-day into the stock-pot. Add to that kept out the skimmed and strained broth made yesterday from the chicken-bones; the potatoes, boiled and rubbed hot through the colander. Boil slowly ten minutes, and pour out. When tongue and the stock in the jar are both cold, add the one to the other.
PORK STEAKS.
Cook precisely as you do beefsteak, only for a much longer time, and turn oftener. When you have laid them upon a hot dish, anoint on both sides with butter mixed and heated with pepper, salt, powdered sage, and a little minced onion. Cover, and let them stand for a few minutes before serving.
APPLE SAUCE.
See Wednesday, Second Week in November.
MASHED TURNIPS.
See Wednesday of this week.
POTATOES SCALLOPED WITH EGGS.
2 cups of mashed potatoes; 3 tablespoonfuls of milk, and 2 of butter; yolks of 4 hard-boiled eggs; 1 beaten raw egg; handful fine crumbs; salt and pepper.
Beat the hot potatoes smooth with milk, butter, and raw egg, and season well. Put a layer in the bottom of a buttered bake-dish; then one of sliced yolks, peppered and salted. Fill the dish in this order, having potatoes on top. Strew with crumbs; cover; bake half an hour, and brown.
APPLE PIE AND CREAM.
Pare, core, and slice juicy, well-flavored apples; line pie-dishes with a good crust; put in a layer of fruit; strew well with sugar; scatter half a dozen whole cloves upon these; lay on more apples, and so on, until the dish is full. Cover with crust, and bake. Sift powdered sugar upon the top and eat, just warm, with—or without—cream.
DECEMBER.
First Week. Sunday. —— Soup à la Langue. Roast Haunch of Venison. Sweet Potatoes. Moulded Potatoes. Stewed Celery. Currant Jelly. —— Martha’s Cake. Barley Custard. ——
SOUP À LA LANGUE.
Take fat from your soup-stock. Pour out two quarts into the soup-kettle; heat slowly and skim carefully. Meanwhile, take out the beef’s tongue from the jar; skin, and cut up the best parts of it into small dice. There should be a large cupful of these. Drop into the soup, add a tablespoonful of catsup, and nearly a teaspoonful of French mustard. When the soup begins to boil again, pour it out.
Return the refuse parts of the tongue to the stock-jar.
ROAST HAUNCH OF VENISON.
Wash well in lukewarm water; then, rub all over with butter. Cover on all sides with a stiff paste of flour and water, and put down to roast, pouring a little water into the baking-pan. Now and then, wet the paste to keep it from cracking. Roast from three to four hours. Half an hour before taking it up, remove the paste, and test with a skewer to see if it is done. Set down again to roast, and baste every five minutes, with claret and melted butter. At the last, dredge with flour, baste with butter, and brown. For gravy, add to the liquid in the dripping-pan a thickening of browned flour, a teaspoonful of currant jelly, a glass of claret, pepper and salt to taste. Boil up, and serve in a boat.
SWEET POTATOES.
Boil in hot water until a fork will enter the largest easily; peel; lay in a dripping-pan, and set in a good oven a few minutes to dry out.
MOULDED POTATOES.
Mash boiled potatoes with milk, butter, and salt—not too soft; press hard into a greased mould, and turn out upon a hot dish.
STEWED CELERY.
Scrape and cut into equal lengths the best stalks of a bunch of celery. Cook tender in boiling water, a little salt; drain, pepper and salt, and when dished pour on a cupful of drawn butter in which has been stirred the juice of half a lemon.
BARLEY CUSTARD.
½ cup of pearl barley; 1 quart of milk; 5 eggs; 1 dessertspoonful of corn-starch wet up in a little cold milk; nearly a cupful of sugar; a pinch of salt; vanilla, or other flavoring.
Boil the barley tender in just enough water to cover it, with a pinch of salt. Drain, and put into a custard-kettle with the milk. Heat slowly, and when it fairly boils, pour upon the beaten eggs and sugar. Return to the fire; stir until thick; turn into a bowl, and, when cold, flavor. On Sunday, pour into custard-cups, with, if you like, a spoonful of whipped cream upon the top of each.
MARTHA’S CAKE.
Please consult “COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSEHOLD,” Series No. 1, General Receipts, page 314.
First Week. Monday. —— Tapioca Soup. Venison Pasty. Stewed Tomatoes. Kidney Beans au Maître d’Hôtel. Potato Cakes. —— Apple Jelly. Fruit, Nuts, and Raisins. ——
TAPIOCA SOUP.
Pour off as much stock as will suffice for the wants of your family to-day. Strain, and heat it. Take off the scum, and add a generous handful of tapioca, soaked two hours in a little cold water. Simmer until clear.
VENISON PASTY.
Cut off slices of the least-done part of your roast venison; divide into neat squares, season with pepper and salt. Make a gravy by cooking bits of skin and refuse pieces of meat in a little water; boiling the liquid down one-half; cooling; taking off the top and seasoning well. Cut the best parts of the tongue left from yesterday’s soup very small. Put a layer of venison into a deep dish; sprinkle with butter-bits rolled in flour, and cover with the minced tongue. Upon this drop a few bits of currant jelly. Fill the dish thus; pour on the gravy, and put a thick crust of paste (kept over from Saturday’s pastry-making) above all. Bake to a pale brown; wash over with white of egg, and, when this hardens, with butter, and shut the oven-door to glaze it.
STEWED TOMATOES.
Empty a can of tomatoes into a saucepan. Cook twenty-five minutes; season with sugar, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of butter rolled in pounded cracker. Simmer ten minutes longer.
KIDNEY BEANS AU MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL.
Soak the beans all night. Boil soft in water, slightly salt. Drain, and put hot into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter, a little parsley, chopped fine, pepper, salt, and a little minced onion. Shake over the fire until hissing hot, add the juice of half a lemon, and dish.
POTATO CAKES.
Make the cold mashed potato left from yesterday into flat, round cakes; flour abundantly; lay in a floured baking-pan and set in a hot oven to brown. Serve upon a hot flat dish.
APPLE JELLY.
12 fine pippins; 2 cups of powdered sugar; juice of 2 lemons; grated peel of one; ½ package Coxe’s gelatine soaked in 1 cup of cold water.
Pack the apples, when pared and cored, into a stoneware or glass jar with a cup of cold water; put on the top loosely to allow the escape of the steam; set in a pot of warm water, heat slowly, and boil until the apples are very soft. Have ready in a bowl the soaked gelatine, sugar, lemon-juice and grated peel. Strain and squeeze the hot apples over them; stir until the gelatine is dissolved, strain again through a flannel bag. Wet a mould and pour it in. This can be made on Saturday and kept in a cold place.
FRUIT, NUTS, AND RAISINS.
Put apples, pears, and oranges upon one dish; nuts and raisins together.
First Week. Tuesday. —— Canned Pea Soup. Beefsteak. Graham Savory Pudding. Baked Potatoes. Cream Parsnips. —— Susie’s Bread Pudding. ——
CANNED PEA SOUP.
As your stock must be running low, add a quart of boiling water to the contents of the jar, and boil slowly at the back of the stove for an hour and a half. Strain, cool, skim, and add a can of green peas. Cook until these are tender; pulp through a colander into the soup, season with pepper and salt, also a lump of white sugar, stir in a lump of floured butter, and when it has boiled once more, pour upon dice of fried bread placed in the tureen.
BEEFSTEAK.
Flatten and broil upon a greased gridiron over a clear fire. Turn as it drips. It should be done in ten or twelve minutes. Lay upon a hot-water dish; pepper, salt, and butter liberally. Cover with another hot dish, or a heated cover of block-tin.
GRAHAM SAVORY PUDDING.
2 heaping tablespoonfuls of Irish oatmeal, soaked two hours in a little cold water; 2 cups of boiling milk; handful of fine crumbs; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; 1 tablespoonful minced onion; 1 teaspoonful mixed sweet marjoram and parsley; 3 eggs.
Pour the hot milk upon the soaked oatmeal, and stir over the fire for fifteen minutes. Add the bread-crumbs, beat up well; put in the onion, herbs, butter, pepper, and salt, lastly the whipped eggs. When very light, butter a mould, pour in the pudding, set in a pan of boiling water, and this in a moderate oven. Bake one hour, turn out, and send around a boat of drawn butter with it.
BAKED POTATOES.
Bake in a steady oven until soft; wipe, and send to table without peeling them.
CREAMED PARSNIPS.
Boil tender, scrape and slice lengthwise. Put over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of butter, pepper, and salt, and a little minced parsley. Shake until the mixture boils. Dish the parsnips, add to the sauce three tablespoonfuls of cream in which has been stirred a quarterspoonful of flour. Boil once, and pour over the parsnips.
SUSIE’S BREAD PUDDING.
1 quart of milk; 4 eggs; the whites of three, more for _méringue_; 2 cups fine dry crumbs; 1 tablespoonful melted butter; 1 cup of sugar; juice and half the grated peel of 1 lemon.
Beat eggs, sugar, and butter light. Soak the crumbs in the milk, and mix well, beating long and hard. When nearly done spread with a _méringue_ made of the whipped whites of three eggs and a little powdered sugar. Eat cold.
First Week. Wednesday. —— A Plain Soup. Jugged Rabbits. Macaroni with Cheese. Cauliflower. Beets. —— Rusk Fritters. ——
A PLAIN SOUP.
5 lbs. shin of beef—meat sliced and bones cracked; 4 turnips; 4 carrots; 3 stalks of celery; 1 large onion stuck with 6 cloves; bunch of herbs; pepper and salt; 6 quarts of water.
Put meat, bones and sliced vegetables on with the water, and cook slowly four hours. At the end of two hours take out a cupful of the meat, and spread out to cool. When the four hours are up, strain the soup, rubbing the vegetables through a colander; cool, skim, and season; add the cooled meat cut into dice, heat to boiling, and serve. Put the meat and bones left in the colander into the stock-jar, with all of the soup not used to-day.
JUGGED RABBITS.
Skin, clean with care, and joint the rabbits as for fricassee. Lay thin slices of fat salt pork in the bottom of a stoneware jar; lay upon them pieces of rabbits; strew with minced onion and parsley; put in more pork and more rabbit, etc. Add a cup of your soup or other gravy. When all are in put on the cover of the jar, fitting closely, and set in a pot of warm water. Tie a piece of thick paper over the top of the jar to keep in the steam. Cook steadily two hours—longer should you find, upon opening the jar, that the meat is not tender. When it is done, dish the meat, strain the gravy into a saucepan, and set in cold water to throw up the fat. Take this off; add a little currant jelly, browned flour, wet with water, and a glass of claret. Boil one minute and pour over the meat.
MACARONI WITH CHEESE.
Break half a pound of macaroni into short pieces, and cook tender in hot salted water. When nearly done, stir in a tablespoonful of butter. When tender, drain; stir in two great spoonfuls of grated cheese, salt to taste, and a little cayenne. Stir over the fire until the cheese is melted; put in a spoonful of butter, and dish.
CAULIFLOWER.
Boil the cauliflower in plenty of hot salted water. When done, which should be in about twenty minutes, drain and dish, the flower upward. Pour over it a cup of drawn butter, seasoned with pepper, salt, and the juice of half a lemon.
BEETS.
Boil more than an hour, scrape and slice round. Dish, and pour upon them a little butter heated with a like quantity of vinegar, and seasoned with pepper and salt.
RUSK FRITTERS.
12 stale rusks; 5 eggs; 4 tablespoonfuls of white sugar; 2 glasses of sherry.
Cut all the crust from the rusks and divide each into two or three pieces of equal size. The slices should be an inch thick. Pour the wine over them; let them lie in it five minutes, then drain upon a sieve. Beat eggs and sugar together. Lay the soaked rusks in these for a minute, turning over and over, so as to coat them well. Fry in boiling lard to a golden brown. Drain well and sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon, and serve hot with or without sauce.
First Week. Thursday. —— Celery Soup. Boiled Beef Tongue with Sauce Piquante. Baked Beans. Baked Tomatoes. Chopped Potatoes. —— Lemon Puddings. ——
CELERY SOUP.
12 stalks of celery; 3 pints of soup-stock; 1 cup of milk; pepper and salt; 1 teaspoonful of sugar; ½ onion; 1 teaspoonful of flour wet up in cold milk.
Scrape and cut up the celery into inch lengths. Cook fifteen minutes in a little hot water; drain and add three pints of stock with the onion; stew gently until the celery is very soft. Pulp through a colander into the soup; season and return to the fire. Boil up; put in the sugar and pour into the tureen. Add a cup of boiling milk thickened with the flour.
BOILED BEEF’S TONGUE WITH SAUCE PIQUANTE.
Soak the tongue—a corned one—three hours; wash well and cook in plenty of boiling water, fifteen minutes per pound. Trim off the root; skin and dish, pouring over it a cupful of rich drawn butter in which has been stirred a great spoonful of capers, pickled nasturtium-seed, or of green pickle chopped.
BAKED BEANS.
Soak a quart of navy or kidney-beans all night. In the morning put on to boil in cold water, and cook soft. Half an hour before taking them up, put in a piece of streaked salt pork, three or four inches square. When the beans are soft, drain; put into a bake-dish with the pork half browned in the middle. Score the rind of the parboiled pork; cover the dish, and bake one hour—then brown.
BAKED TOMATOES.
Drain off most of the juice from a can of tomatoes (Add to the tongue pot-liquor, by and by; boil together ten minutes, and pour into the stock-jar.) Put the tomatoes into a pudding-dish; season with pepper, salt, sugar, and butter; strew fine crumbs over all; bake, covered, half an hour, and brown quickly.
CHOPPED POTATOES.
Boil potatoes, and let them get cold. Chop rather coarsely; put into a saucepan, with a couple of spoonfuls of butter, a little pepper and salt, and shake and stir until very hot.
LEMON PUDDINGS.
6 butter crackers, soaked in water, and crushed to a pulp; 3 lemons; half the grated peel; 1 cup of molasses; 1 tablespoonful melted butter; a pinch of salt; good pie-paste.
Pare away all the skin of the lemons, when you have grated off half the yellow peel. Chop the pulp very fine, and remove the seeds. Stir this into the crushed crackers with the butter and salt. Beat in the molasses gradually, then the lemon-peel. Have ready small paté-pans lined with paste; fill with the mixture, and cook. Eat cold, but fresh.
First Week. Friday. —— Bread Soup. Lobster Croquettes. Braised Grouse. Salsify Fritters. Sweet Potatoes. —— Indian Meal Puffs. ——
BREAD SOUP.
Save your crusts for several days for this soup. Break about half a pound of them into small pieces, and lay in an open oven to dry, while you skim your soup-stock; add an onion, and put over the fire to boil. Cook gently half an hour; strain; return to the kettle, and when it boils again put in the crusts. Cook slowly twenty minutes, stir, and beat the bread to a porridge, add seasoning and a little minced parsley, and boil one minute.
LOBSTER CROQUETTES.
1 can of preserved lobster; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; ½ cup fine crumbs; yolks of two hard-boiled eggs—pounded, then worked into the butter; juice of half a lemon; salt, cayenne pepper, a pinch of mace, and one of lemon-peel; beaten yolks of 2 raw eggs.
Mince the meat; work in the warmed butter and pounded yolks, the seasoning, raw eggs—at last, the crumbs. Make into oblong balls or rolls; roll in flour, and fry in sweet lard. Drain upon clean paper, rolling each croquette lightly upon it, and dish. Pass cream crackers and sliced lemon with these excellent croquettes, and make a separate course of them.
BRAISED GROUSE.
Clean thoroughly, washing out the inside in soda and water, and then rinsing and wiping. Truss, but do not stuff the birds; tie them in shape. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with slices of fat salt pork; lay the grouse upon these; sprinkle minced onion and parsley over them with pepper, salt, and a little sugar. Cover with more pork, and pour in a large cupful of soup-stock, or other broth. If you cannot spare this, put butter and water, although it is not so good. Cover very closely; simmer one hour; turn the birds, and cook—always covered—until tender. Dish the grouse; strain the gravy; thicken with browned flour; boil up, and pour into a boat. Partridges, wild pigeons, and tough chickens may be cooked in this way—also ducks.
SALSIFY FRITTERS.
Wash, scrape, and grate the roots, letting them fall from the grater into a batter made of two eggs, half a cup of milk, flour enough for thin batter, and a little salt and pepper. It should be like raw fritters when mixed. Drop, by the spoonful, into the hot fat. As fast as they are fried throw into a hot colander, set over a bowl in the oven. Eat _hot_.
SWEET POTATOES.
See Sunday of this week.
INDIAN MEAL PUDDING.
4 beaten eggs; 1 quart of boiling milk; 2 scant cups white “corn-flour,” or very fine meal; ½ cup of wheat flour; 1 scant cup powdered sugar; 1 tablespoonful butter; a little salt; 1 tablespoonful of cream of tartar, and half as much soda sifted twice through the flour; ½ teaspoonful mixed cinnamon and nutmeg.
Boil the milk; stir in the meal, flour, and salt. Boil fifteen minutes, stirring up well from the bottom. Put into a bowl, and beat hard for three minutes. When cold add beaten eggs and sugar, with the spice. Whip long and thoroughly. Bake in greased cups or muffin-tins, in a steady oven. When done, turn out, and eat with butter and powdered sugar.
First Week. Saturday. —— Mock Turtle Soup. Baked Mutton Chops. Macaroni Pudding. Winter Squash. Cold Slaw. —— Cracker and Jam Pudding. ——
MOCK TURTLE SOUP.
Please refer to Wednesday, Third Week in March, for a long and minute receipt for this soup. Make enough for three days.
BAKED MUTTON CHOPS.
3 lbs. of mutton chops; 5 fine potatoes; 1 onion; 1 kidney; 1 pint of oyster-liquor; pepper, salt, and parsley; 1 tablespoonful of butter.
Lay one-third of the chops—rid of all the fat and skin—in a baking-dish; cover with potatoes and onions, sliced very thin; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put on another layer of chops, more potatoes and onions, then the sliced kidney. Cover with potatoes; season; put in the rest of the chops; cover with onion and potatoes. Pour in the oyster-liquor and melted butter, with parsley, pepper, and salt. Cover very closely, and bake in a moderate oven three hours. Turn out upon a heated flat dish.
MACARONI PUDDING.
Break half a pound of macaroni into short pieces, and boil twenty minutes in hot, salted water. Drain; add two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, the minced remains of yesterday’s game, or some other cold meat, a little chopped ham, and four beaten eggs. Mix all well, wetting with a little soup-stock—adding, finally, a cup of milk, in which has been stirred a pinch of soda. Pour into a greased mould, and boil one hour. Turn out, and serve with a gravy made of cold gravy left from yesterday, mixed with a little hot stock, strained, thickened, and boiled for one minute.
WINTER SQUASH.
Pare, cut up, and cook soft in boiling water, a little salt. Drain; mash smooth, pressing out all the water; work in butter, pepper, and salt, and mound in a deep dish.
COLD SLAW.
Shred a firm cabbage, and pour over it a dressing made in these proportions: One teaspoonful of sugar, half as much salt, pepper, and made mustard, rubbed smooth in two tablespoonfuls of oil, and then beaten up very gradually with five tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and a teaspoonful Colgate’s essence of celery.
CRACKER AND JAM PUDDING.
3 eggs; ½ cup cracker-crumbs; ½ cup sugar; i tablespoonful of butter; 1 cup of milk; ½ lemon—juice and grated peel; 3 tablespoonfuls of jam.
Heat milk and crumbs together until scalding. Turn out to cool, while you rub butter and sugar to a cream—adding the lemon. Stir in the beaten yolks, the soaked cracker and milk—at last, the whites. Butter a bake-dish; put the jam at the bottom; fill up with the mixture, and bake, covered, half an hour; then brown. Eat cold, with sifted sugar on top. Or, if you like, you can put a _méringue_ over it before taking from the oven.
Second Week. Sunday. —— “That Soup” Again. Roast Turkey, Garnished with Sausages. Mashed Turnips. Canned Corn Pudding. Sweet Potatoes. Cranberry Sauce. —— Orange Snow and Snowdrift Cake. Hot Coffee. ——
“THAT SOUP” AGAIN.
Remove every particle of fat from the top of your stock. Take out what is needed for to-day, and heat to boiling—slowly.
ROAST TURKEY, GARNISHED WITH SAUSAGES.
Wash out the turkey carefully. Stuff as usual, adding a little cooked sausage to the dressing. (Salt the giblets, and keep for to-morrow.) Lay the turkey in the dripping-pan, pour a great cupful of boiling water over it, and roast _about_ ten minutes per pound—slowly for the first hour. Baste faithfully and often, dredging with flour, and basting with butter at the last. Dish the turkey, laying _boiled_ sausages around it. Pour the fat from the gravy; thicken with browned flour; salt, and pepper. Boil once, and serve in a boat.
MASHED TURNIPS.
Pare, quarter, and cook tender in boiling water, a little salt. Mash and press in a heated colander; work in butter, pepper, and salt; heap smoothly in a deep dish, and put “dabs” of pepper on top.
CANNED CORN PUDDING.
Drain, and chop the corn fine, add a tablespoonful of melted butter, four beaten eggs; a large cup of milk, with an even teaspoonful of corn-starch stirred in it, with salt and pepper to taste. Bake, covered, in a greased pudding-dish one hour; then brown quickly.
SWEET POTATOES.
See Sunday of First Week in December.
CRANBERRY SAUCE.
Cook a quart of cranberries with a _very_ little water, slowly, in a porcelain or tinned saucepan. Stir often, and when they are broken all to pieces, and thick as marmalade, take off, sweeten liberally, and rub through a colander. Wet a mould, and put them in to form.
ORANGE SNOW AND SNOWDRIFT CAKE.
4 large sweet oranges, juice of all, and grated peel of one; juice and half the grated peel of 1 lemon; 1 package of gelatine soaked in 1 cup of cold water; whites of 4 eggs, whipped stiff; 1 large cup of powdered sugar; 2 cups of boiling water.
Mix the juice and peel of the fruit with the soaked gelatine, add the sugar, stir well, and leave them for one hour. Pour on boiling water, and stir until clear. Strain, and press through a coarse cloth. When cold, and beginning to congeal, whip a spoonful at a time into the frothed whites. Put into a wet mould. Do this of course on Saturday.
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