Chapter 11

Boil a quart of spinach about fifteen minutes, drain thoroughly through a colander and chop extremely fine. Heat one tablespoon of drippings in a saucepan, rub one tablespoon of flour in it, add salt, pepper and ginger to taste. Add one cup of soup stock to the whole or some beef gravy. Put the spinach in the sauce, let boil for five minutes. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs or use only the hard-boiled whites for decoration, rub the yolks to a powder and mix through the spinach.

SAVOY CABBAGE

Cut off the faded outside leaves and hard part of the stalk, and wash the vegetable well. Cook in boiling salted water. Drain, chop very fine and proceed as with spinach in the foregoing recipe.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Remove any wilted leaves from the outside of the sprouts, and let them stand in cold salted water from fifteen to twenty minutes. Put the sprouts into salted, rapidly boiling water and cook, uncovered, fifteen or twenty minutes or until tender, but not until they lose their shape. Drain them thoroughly in a colander; then place them in a saucepan with butter, pepper and salt, and toss them until seasoned; or mix them lightly with just enough white sauce to coat them.

OYSTER PLANT--SALSIFY

Wash, scrape and put at once in cold water with a little vinegar to keep from discoloring. Cut one-half inch slices and cook in boiling, salted water until soft. Drain and serve in white sauce. Or boil in salted, boiling water until tender and cut in four pieces lengthwise, dredge with flour and sprinkle with a little salt and fry in hot butter or fat until nicely browned.

SCALLOPED SALSIFY

Boil and slice the salsify as in preceding recipe. Butter a baking dish; fill it by adding alternate layers of salsify and small bits of cheese. Season with salt, pepper and butter. Pour over it a sufficient quantity of milk or cream to moisten thoroughly. Bake one-half hour. Bread crumbs may be added if desired.

PLUMS, SWEET POTATOES AND MEAT

Wash one pound of prunes or plums and put on to boil with one pound of brisket of beef or any fat meat; when the meat is tender add five medium-sized sweet potatoes which have been pared and cut in small pieces. Place the meat on top, add one-half cup of sugar and a piece of sour salt (citric acid). Cover and bake until nicely browned. If gravy should cook away add some warm water.

TSIMESS

Take equal portions of parboiled spinach and sorrel, season to taste with ground nutmeg, pepper and salt, and add sufficient drippings to make all moist enough. Place in a covered dish in a slow oven.

This is prepared on Friday and left in the oven to keep hot until needed for Shabbas dinner. All green vegetables may be prepared in the same way.

TURNIPS

Do not spoil turnips by overcooking. The flat white summer turnip when sliced will cook in thirty minutes. The winter turnip requires from forty-five to sixty minutes.

BOILED TURNIPS

Have the turnips peeled and sliced. Drop the slices into a stew-pan with boiling water enough to cover generously. Cook until tender, then drain well. They are now ready to mash or chop. If they are to be served mashed, put them back in the stew-pan; mash with a wooden vegetable masher, as metal is apt to impart an unpleasant taste. Season with salt, butter, and a little pepper. Serve at once.

HASHED TURNIPS

Chop the drained turnips into rather large pieces. Return to the stew-pan, and for one and one-half pints of turnips add one teaspoon of salt, one-fourth teaspoon of pepper, one tablespoon of butter, and four tablespoons of water. Cook over a very hot fire until the turnips have absorbed all the seasonings. Serve at once. Or the salt, pepper, butter, and one tablespoon of flour may be added to the hashed turnips; then the stew-pan may be placed over the hot fire and shaken frequently to toss up the turnips. When the turnips have been cooking five minutes in this manner add one-half pint of meat stock or of milk and cook ten minutes.

When meat or soup stock is used substitute drippings for the butter in the above recipe.

KOHL-RABI WITH BREAST OF LAMB

Strip off the young leaves and boil in salt water. Then peel the heads thickly, cut into round, thin slices, and lay in cold water for an hour. Put on to boil a breast of mutton or lamb, which has been previously well salted, and spice with a little ground ginger. When the mutton has boiled one-half hour add the sliced kohl-rabi, and boil covered. In the meantime, drain all the water from the leaves, which you have boiled separately, and chop them, but not too fine, and add them to the mutton. When done thicken with flour, season with pepper and more salt if needed. You may omit the leaves if you are not fond of them.

KOHL-RABI

Kohl-rabi is fine flavored and delicate, if cooked when very young and tender. It should be used when it has a diameter of not more than two or three inches.

Wash, peel and cut the Kohl-rabi root in dice and cook in salt water until tender. Cook the greens or tops in another pan of boiling water until tender, drain and chop very fine in a wooden bowl. Heat butter or fat, add flour, then the chopped greens, and one cup of liquor the Kohl-rabi root was cooked in or one cup of soup stock. Add the Kohl-rabi, cook altogether, and serve.

Use same quantities as for turnips.

KALE

Remove all the old or tough leaves; wash the kale thoroughly and drain. Put it into boiling water to which has been added salt in the proportion of one-half tablespoon to two quarts of water. Boil rapidly, uncovered, until the vegetable is tender; pour off the water; chop the kale very fine; return it to the kettle with one tablespoon of drippings and two of meat stock or water to every pint of the minced vegetable. Add more salt if necessary; cook for ten minutes and serve at once. The entire time for cooking varies from thirty to fifty minutes.

The leaves are sweeter and more tender after having been touched by the frost. The same is true of Savoy cabbage.

SWISS CHARD

This vegetable is a variety of beet in which the leaf stalk and midrib have been developed instead of the root. It is cultivated like spinach, and the green, tender leaves are prepared exactly like this vegetable. The midribs of the full-grown leaves may be cooked like celery.

STEWED TOMATOES

Pour boiling water over the tomatoes; remove the skins; cut into small pieces and place in a saucepan over the fire. Boil gently for twenty or thirty minutes and season, allowing for each quart of tomatoes one generous teaspoon each of salt and sugar and one tablespoon of butter. If in addition to this seasoning a slice of onion has been cooked with the tomatoes from the beginning, the flavor will be greatly improved.

CANNED TOMATOES, STEWED

Salt, pepper; add a lump of butter the size of an egg and add one tablespoon of sugar. Thicken with one teaspoon of flour wet with one tablespoon of cold water, stir into the tomatoes and boil up once.

FRIED TOMATOES

Cut large, sound tomatoes in halves and flour the insides thickly. Season with a little salt and pepper. Allow the butter to get very hot before putting in the tomatoes. When brown on one side, turn, and when done serve with hot cream or thicken some milk and pour over the tomatoes hot.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

Cut into thin slices large green tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and dip into cornmeal, fry slowly in a little butter till well browned; keep the frying-pan covered while they are cooking, so they will be perfectly tender. These are very delicately flavored, and much easier to fry than ripe tomatoes. They make an excellent breakfast dish.

TOMATO PURÉE

Scald the tomatoes, take off the skins carefully and stew with one teaspoon each of butter and sugar; salt and pepper to taste. This is enough seasoning for a quart of tomatoes. When the tomatoes are very soft strain through a coarse sieve and if necessary thicken with one teaspoon of flour.

SCALLOPED TOMATOES

Drain off part of the juice from one quart of tomatoes and season with pepper, salt, and onion juice. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with rolled crackers, dot over with dabs of butter, pepper, and salt, then another layer of tomatoes, then of crumbs, and so on until a layer of crumbs covers the top.

If fresh tomatoes are used bake one hour, if canned, 1/2 hour.

If the crumbs begin to brown too quickly cover the dish with a tin plate.

STUFFED TOMATOES

Select tomatoes of uniform size, cut a slice from the stem end and scoop out a portion of the pulp. Have in readiness a dressing made from grated bread crumbs, parsley, a slice of minced onion, a high seasoning of salt and paprika and sufficient melted butter to moisten. Fill this into the tomatoes and heap it up in the centers. Place a bit of butter on top of each and bake in a quick oven until the vegetables are tender and the tops are delicately browned.

TOMATOES WITH RICE

Take six large tomatoes, pour boiling water over them and skin them. Scrape all the inside out with a spoon, put in saucepan together with two onions, a tablespoon of butter, one pint of water; let this boil for a little while; strain, place back on stove, pour into this one-half pound of rice, let it cook tender; add salt, pepper, a tablespoon of butter and a little grated cheese. Fill the tomatoes with this mixture, dip them in egg and bread crumbs, then fry till nice and brown.

TOMATO CUSTARDS

Simmer for fifteen minutes in a covered saucepan four cups chopped tomatoes, four eggs, one sliced onion, one bay leaf, and sprig of parsley. Strain and if there be not two cups of liquid, add water. Beat four eggs and add to liquid. Pour into greased baking cups, and stand them in a pan of water and bake until firm--about fifteen minutes. Turn out and serve with cream sauce containing green peas.

BAKED TOMATO AND EGG PLANT

Take a deep earthenware dish, pour into it a cup of cream; cut several slices of eggplant very thin, salt well, and line the dish with them; slice two large tomatoes, place a layer of these on the eggplant, next a layer of spaghetti (cooked); sprinkle with grated cheese, pieces of butter, salt, and pepper; cover this with layer of tomatoes; salt well and sprinkle with chopped green pepper, and a top layer of eggplant, which also salt and pepper well. Cook gently an hour and a half in slow, hot oven.

CREOLE TOMATOES

Take one small onion and half a green pepper, chop them fine and cook until tender in a tablespoon of butter. Cut six tomatoes in half, sprinkle with a little sugar, season on both sides with salt, pepper and a little flour, and put them into the pan with skin-side down to cook partially, then turn them once; they must cook over a slow fire. Then sprinkle one tablespoon of chopped parsley over them, pour in one cup of thick cream and when this has become thoroughly hot, and has been combined with the other ingredients, the tomatoes are ready to serve.

They have not been disturbed since the first turning and have retained their shape. Half a tomato is placed on a slice of toast, with sufficient gravy to moisten. At the season of the year, when tomatoes are hard and firm, they may be peeled before cooking. Later they will likely fall to pieces unless the skin is left on. This is one method of cooking tomatoes in which they lose the sharp acid taste, disagreeable to so many persons.

STRING BEANS WITH TOMATOES

Cut off both ends of the beans, string them carefully and break into pieces about an inch in length and boil in salt water. When tender drain off this brine and add fresh water (boiling from the kettle). Add a piece of butter, three or four large potatoes cut into squares, also four large tomatoes, cut up, and season with salt and pepper. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a spider, stir into it one tablespoon of flour, thin with milk, and add this to the beans.

STRING BEANS WITH LAMB

Take a small breast of lamb, two large onions, one-quarter peck of beans (string and cut in long thin pieces); skin six large tomatoes, and add two cups of water. Cook until the beans are tender, then add one tablespoon of flour to thicken.

STRING OR WAX-BEANS, SWEET AND SOUR

Put the beans into sufficient boiling water to just cover them; cook for one hour and a half to two hours, depending upon the tenderness of the beans. Meanwhile, prepare for each quart of beans five sour apples; peel, core and cut in pieces. When the beans are done, add the apples, the thin peel of one lemon, the juice of one and one-half lemons, a small teaspoon of salt, and two tablespoons of cider vinegar. Let the apples cook on top of the beans until they are thoroughly done, then mix well with a good quarter cup of granulated sugar. This dish will be better by being served the next day warmed up.

SWEET SOUR BEANS

If you use canned string beans, heat some fat in a spider and put in one tablespoon of flour; brown slightly; add one tablespoon of brown sugar, a pinch of salt, some cinnamon and vinegar to taste; then add the beans and let them simmer on the back of stove, but do not let them burn. The juice of pickled peaches or pears is delicious in preparing sweet and sour beans.

STRING OR GREEN SNAP BEANS

Cut off the tops and bottoms and "string" carefully; break the beans in pieces about an inch long and lay them in cold water, with a little salt, for ten or fifteen minutes. Heat one tablespoon of drippings in a stew-pan, in which you have cut up part of an onion and some parsley; cover this and stew about ten minutes. In the meantime, drain the beans, put into the stew-pan and stew until tender; add one tablespoon of flour and season with salt and pepper (meat gravy or soup stock will improve them). You may pare about half a dozen potatoes, cut into dice shape, and add to the beans. If you prefer, you may add cream or milk instead of soup stock and use butter.

POTATOES

Potatoes are valuable articles of food and care should be taken in cooking them. The most economical method is to cook them in their "jackets" as there is not nearly as much waste of potato or of the salts that are valuable as food.

POTATOES BOILED IN THEIR JACKETS

Potatoes should be well brushed and put on to boil in a saucepan of boiling water; they should continue boiling at the same degree of heat until they are done, when a fork will easily pierce them. This will take from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Drain, draw the saucepan to a low flame, place a clean cloth folded over the top of the saucepan and press the lid down over it. This dries the potatoes and makes them a good color. Hold the potatoes in a cloth and peel them, then reheat for one minute and serve.

New potatoes, if well brushed or scraped do not require peeling.

POTATOES FOR TWENTY PEOPLE

To serve twenty people one-half peck of potatoes is required.

BOILED POTATOES

Peel six or eight potatoes, and put them on in boiling water to which has been added one teaspoon of salt. Boil as above.

The saucepan used for cooking potatoes should be used for no other purpose.

BAKED POTATOES, No. 1

Select fine, smooth potatoes and boil them about twenty minutes. Drain off the water, remove the skins and pack in a buttered dish. Lay a small piece of butter on each potato, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and sprinkle fine bread crumbs over all, with a few tablespoons of cream. Bake until a nice light brown. Serve in the same dish. Garnish with parsley.

BAKED POTATOES, No. 2

Wash large potatoes and bake in a quick oven until soft, which will take about three-quarters of an hour. This is the most wholesome way of cooking potatoes.

POTATO BALLS WITH PARSLEY

Pare very thin, medium potatoes as near a size as possible. Have ready a pot of boiling water, salted, drop in the potatoes and keep them at a quick boil until tender. Serve with a batter made by beating to a cream two tablespoons of butter, one-half tablespoon of lemon juice and one tablespoon of finely minced parsley; add salt and a dash of cayenne pepper; spread over the hot potatoes, and it will melt into a delicious dressing. This is especially nice to serve with fish.

NEW POTATOES

Brush and scrape off all the skin of six potatoes and boil for half an hour in salted boiling water, drain, salt and dry for a few minutes, and then pour melted butter over them and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

MASHED POTATOES

Old potatoes may be used. Pare as many potatoes as required. Boil in salt water, drain thoroughly when done and mash them in the pot with a potato masher, working in a large tablespoon of butter and enough milk to make them resemble dough, do not allow any lumps to form in your dish. Garnish with parsley.

SCALLOPED POTATOES, No. 1

Grease a pan with butter. Choose the potatoes that are so big or misshapen you wouldn't want to use them for boiling or baking. Cut them in thin slices. Spread them in the pan in a layer an inch thick. Sprinkle with pepper and salt to taste. Dot with butter here and there, perhaps a half teaspoon for each layer. Four or six bits of butter should be sprinkled over each layer. Repeat the layers of the raw potatoes until the pan is full. Cover them with milk. Place in the oven and cook for one hour.

SCALLOPED POTATOES, No. 2

Cut two cups of cold potatoes into cubes; mix well with two cups of cream sauce, adding more seasoning if necessary; pour into a baking dish; cover with one cup of bread crumbs and dot with small pieces of butter and bake for about half an hour.

ROAST POTATOES

Take either sweet or Irish potatoes, or both; pare, wash, and salt them, and lay them around the meat, and let them roast for about three-quarters of an hour. Turn them about once, so they will be nicely browned.

CREAMED POTATOES

Make a cream sauce, a little thinner than usual by adding a little extra milk. Cut two cups of boiled potatoes into small cubes and mix them thoroughly with the same. Cook in a double boiler until the potatoes are thoroughly hot, add a little chopped parsley if desired, and serve.

POTATOES AU GRATIN

Slice two cups of cold boiled potatoes and add them to two cups of hot cream sauce. Bring all to a boil; remove and add three tablespoons of grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Pour all into a baking dish, sprinkle buttered bread crumbs over the top and set in the oven to brown.

GERMAN FRIED POTATOES

Cut up some raw potatoes quite thin, salt and pepper and drop in boiling fat. Cover up at first to soften them. Turn frequently to prevent burning and then remove the cover to brown slightly.

SARATOGA CHIPS

Proceed as above; but do not cover and do not take as many potatoes at one time.

HASHED BROWN POTATOES, LYONNAISE

Finely hash up six cold boiled potatoes and keep on a plate. Heat one tablespoon of butter in a frying-pan, add a finely chopped onion, and lightly brown for three minutes, then add the potatoes. Season with one-half teaspoon of salt and two saltspoons of white pepper, evenly sprinkled over, then nicely brown them for ten minutes, occasionally tossing them meanwhile. Give them a nice omelet form, brown for eight minutes more, turn on a hot dish, sprinkle a little freshly chopped parsley over and serve. These potatoes may be prepared with fat in place of butter.

CURRIED POTATOES

Melt two tablespoons of fat in a frying-pan; add one onion chopped fine and cook until straw color. Add two cups of boiled potatoes, cut in dice, one-half cup of stock, and one tablespoon of curry powder. Cook until the stock has been absorbed; then add one-half teaspoon of salt, a dash of red pepper, and one teaspoon of lemon juice.

POTATO CAKES

Take cold mashed potatoes or cold baked or boiled potatoes that have been mashed and seasoned; roll into balls, dusting the hands well with flour first. Flatten into cakes and sauté in butter, or place on a buttered tin with a small piece of butter on the top of each and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.

POTATOES AND CORN

Butter well a deep baking dish, holding a quart or more. In the bottom place a layer of potatoes, sliced thin, then a layer of corn, using one-half the contents of a can. On this sprinkle a little grated onion and season with salt, pepper and bits of butter. Add another layer of potatoes, then the rest of the corn, seasoning as before, and cover the whole with a layer of cracker crumbs. Dot well with butter, pour on milk until it comes to the top, and bake three-quarters of an hour. Use cooked potatoes, having them cold before slicing.

FRENCH FRIED POTATOES

Pare the potatoes and throw them into cold water until needed. Dry them with a towel; cut into small pieces lengthwise of the potato; drop them into hot fat and remove when lightly browned. It is better to fry only a few at a time, letting those done stand in a colander in the oven to keep hot. When all are done, sprinkle with salt and serve at once.

For variety; and for use in garnishing, cut the potatoes into balls, using the vegetable cutter which comes for this purpose.

POTATOES WITH CARAWAY SEEDS

Boil medium-sized potatoes in their jackets until tender, peel while hot. Put two tablespoons of butter or fat in spider, when hot add potatoes, brown well all over. Drain, sprinkle with salt and one teaspoon of caraway seeds and serve hot.

POTATOES AND PEARS

Heat two tablespoons of fat, add chopped onion and two tablespoons of flour; when flour is brown, add 1-1/2 cups of water, stir and cook until smooth, add salt, brown sugar and a little cinnamon to taste. Quarter four medium-sized cooking pears, but do not peel, cook them in the brown sauce, then add six medium, raw potatoes, pared, and cook until tender.

IMITATION NEW POTATOES

Buy a potato cutter at a first-class hardware store, and with it cut the potatoes to the size of a hickory nut, and then fry or steam them. When cooked they look just like new potatoes. They are especially nice to garnish meats. You may also parboil and brown in fat, or boil and add parsley as you would with new potatoes. The remainder of the raw potatoes may be boiled and mashed or fried into ribbons.

POTATO RIBBON

Pare and lay in cold water (ice-water is best) for half an hour. Select the largest potatoes, then cut round and round in one continuous curl-like strip (there is also an instrument for this purpose, which costs but a trifle); handle with care and fry a few at a time for fear of entanglement, in deep fat.

STEWED POTATOES WITH ONIONS

Take small potatoes, pare and wash them very clean, use one onion to about ten potatoes, add goose-oil (in fact any kind of drippings from roast meat will answer) and put them in a pot or spider. When hot cut up an onion very fine and add to the boiling fat. Then add the potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour some water over all, cover up tight and let them simmer for about 3/4 of an hour.

STEWED POTATOES, SOUR

Put a tablespoon of drippings in a kettle, and when it is hot cut up an onion fine and fry in the hot fat, cover closely. Put in potatoes, which have been previously pared, washed, quartered and well salted. Cover them tight and stew slowly until soft, stirring them occasionally. Then heat in a spider a little drippings. Brown in this a spoon of flour and add some soup-stock, vinegar and chopped parsley. Pour this over the potatoes, boil up once and serve.

STEWED POTATOES

Pare and quarter, and put on to boil. When almost done drain off the water, add one cup of milk, one tablespoon of butter, a little chopped parsley and cook a while longer. Thicken with a little flour (wet with cold water or milk), stir, and take from the fire.

STUFFED POTATOES

Take as many potatoes as are needed; when done, cut off one end and take out inside; mash this and mix with it one tablespoon of butter, a sprig of parsley, pepper, salt, and enough milk to make quite soft. Put back in tine potato skins and brown in oven and serve very hot.

If so desired the open end of each may be dipped in beaten egg before being put in oven.

BOHEMIAN POTATO PUFF