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THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
THE NATIONAL
. COOK BOOK
BY
MARION HARLAND
AND
CHRISTINE TERHUNE HERRICK
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1896
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TROW DIRECTORY
4TINQ AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
Aftermath, 526-530
Appetizers, 1-9
Beverages, 472-430
Bread, 328-354
Broths, * 18-28
Cakes and Cake-making, . 357-377
Candies, Home-made, . . . . 481-483
Canned Fruits, . . . . . . 484-488
Catsups, Relishes, Flavoring Vinegars, etc*, 506-509
Chafing-dish, With the, -'. . V^ -T 520-525
Cheese Dishes, . .* . . . '. 209-214
Custards, Blanc-mange, Jellies, etc*, * ' . 436-450
Eggs, . . ..* .' ; . . , . J88-206
Fish, . * * . . . . 50-90
Fritters, 409-4J4
Fruit Desserts, * '"* ^ *' ' 458-46J
Game, V ^ * * J76-J83
Ices, ^, . . ^ . . 451-457
Jellies, Fruit, . . - <T . * 488-490
yi GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
Meats, ...,*** 94-146
Mushrooms, * * 284-291
Nursery Table, The, 513-519
Pickles, 498-505
Pies, 423-433
Poultry, 149-173
Preserved Fruits, 493-497
Puddings, .* 378-399
Salads, . 294-312
Sandwiches, 466-471
Sauces, Pudding, 403-408
Sauces, Something About, . * * 313-327
Savories, 462-465
Shortcakes, Tea-cakes, et<%, . * . 415-417
Soups, ..*** 10-44
Sweet Omelets, * . * ^ ',. . 434-435
Vegetables, j 221-291
V Thanks are due to Messrs. Harper &> Brothers for permission
to use certain recipes and directions, which, under a slightly different
form, were printed in " Harper's Bazar."
C. T. H.
INTRODUCTORY
THE thousand recipes in this volume represent seven years of
accumulation and selection of material which we believe will be
of value to our sister housekeepers. We have collected these
recipes from all quarters of the globe, and adapted them to the
American kitchen, making patient test of each before admitting
it to our store of available matter.
Circumstances have brought both of us into constant and close
association with housewives all over this dear land of ours. We
have made them, their needs, their ambitions, and their capa-
bilities, a study, and in offering THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK to
them, have more than a mere author's interest in our readers.
They are our fellow-workers and friends. Recollections of the
gracious acceptance they have accorded to former works have
cheered us in the endeavor to prepare the very best Manual of
Practical Cookery ever put upon the American market.
We bespeak for it a fair trial in the hundreds of thousands of
homes and kitchens in which " COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSE-
HOLD " has found a loving welcome and has proved itself a trust-
worthy friend.
MARION HARLAND.
CHRISTINE TERHUNE HERRICK.
THE
NATIONAL COOK BOOK
APPETIZERS.
A SIGNIFICANT token of the advance of the average domestic
caterer in knowledge of the structure of the human stomach
and in aesthetic taste is the honorable position now given on
all well-appointed tables to what are technically termed hors-
d'oeuvres. We are moved to repudiation of the foreign phrase
by the torture it suffers in the mouths of chef and confectioner,
and by the desire to call a good thing by its right name.
Hors-d* (Kuvres means, literally, out-of-course, or out-of-order.
The misnomer is palpable when applied to the incentives to the
business and pleasure of eating, and to the assistants in the work
of digestion that are classed under the conventional heading.
Each has place and course, and all are in order.
Especially is this true of the dainty devices that precede and
enliven the regular progress of the social luncheon and "course
dinner." The ingenuity of the professional cook and the lighter
fancy of the accomplished housemother are taxed to swell the
number of these and to contrive such as will play well their part.
We see peculiar fitness in supplying a goodly assortment of such
"aids and comforts" as a prelude to the more serious opus
which is to follow.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
RAW OYSTERS.
Small oysters are most fashionable for this purpose, but many
epicures cannot forego the pleasure of seeing and eating the large,
luscious bivalves which have made the American oyster famous
through the world.
If not served upon the half-shell as is always best lay each
oyster carefully upon a bed of pounded ice in the cavity intended
to receive him in your oyster-plate. Put a slice of lemon in the
centre of the plate. If you use the half-shells, set them also
upon pounded ice. This is better than scattering bits of ice over
them, which in melting make the oysters insipid.
RAW CLAMS.
Use the Little Neck Clams when you can get them, and serve
as you would oysters.
OYSTER COCKTAILS. (No. J.)
Mix together a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, half a tea-
spoonful of Harvey's sauce, a tablespoonful of lemon-juice, a
pinch of paprica, one of salt, and five drops of Tobasco sauce.
Have ready in cold claret glasses or cocktail glasses small
oysters, which should have been kept on ice until wanted.
Put four or five in each glass, and pour a generous teaspoonful of
the mixture on them.
OYSTER COCKTAILS. (No. 2.)
Thirty small oysters. For sauce have two tablespoonfuls of
lemon-juice, a teaspoonful of finely grated horseradish, a tea-
spoonful of tomato catsup, a pinch of salt, and a smaller pinch of
cayenne, ten drops of Tobasco. Mix well and divide between
six cocktail glasses, each containing five oysters.
CAVIARE SAUTE.
Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter in the chafing-dish or frying-
pan, and when it is very hot turn into it the contents of a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 3
*
two-pound can of caviare. Stir until the caviare is heated
through. Season with as much red pepper as will lie on the
point of a penknife, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and
serve the caviare upon small squares or crescents of buttered toast.
CAVIARE BARS.
Open a box of caviare two hours before you are to use it, and
turn into a china or stone-ware vessel, to rid it of the airless
taste and smell imparted by the can. Half-an-hour or so before
serving, beat into it the juice of a lemon and two tablespoon-
fuls of olive oil until it is like thick cream. Have ready thin
slices of buttered bread an inch and a half wide and a little over
three inches long. Spread the caviare mixture upon the but-
tered side of one slice and lay the other upon it as with sand-
wiches. When all are prepared, pile the bars neatly upon a cold
plate, and cover with a napkin until they are sent to table.
ANCHOVY BARS.
For these use the whole anchovies. Scrape them fine, leaving
out the skins, and work to a paste with butter, lemon-juice, and
a little cayenne pepper or paprica. Then proceed as with the
caviare bars.
ANCHOVY STRIPS.
Cut strips of buttered bread less than an inch wide and about
three inches long, and spread the buttered sides with anchovy
paste, sprinkled very lightly with cayenne pepper or with the
Hungarian sweet red pepper, known as paprica.
BACON ON TOAST.
Toast or fry thin slices of bacon until crisp, drain from fat, and
serve on thin buttered toast.
SMOKED SALMON.
Cut smoked salmon into strips, and broil it over a clear fire
until it is hot through and well marked with the bars of the
4 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
broiler. Transfer it to a hot plate which has been rubbed with
a piece of lemon-peel, baste it liberally with butter, and squeeze
over it the juice of a lemon.
SMOKED SPRATS.
Butter a baking-pan lightly, lay in it smoked sprats, and leave
them in the oven until they are smoking hot. Serve French
mustard and pass lemon with them.
GRILLED SARDINES.
Drain and skin boneless sardines. Heat two tablespoonfuls of
butter in a chafing-dish and saute the sardines in this, turning
them once. When very hot season with salt, a little cayenne,
and the juice of a lemon. Serve on toast.
SARDINE AND OLIVE SANDWICHES.
Scrape the sardines to a paste, rejecting the skins and bones,
and rub smooth with butter, lemon -juice, and a dash of red pep-
per. Have ready small, triangular slices of bread, buttered upon
the loaf, and then cut evenly and thin, spread the buttered sides
with the mixture, press together lightly, and heap upon a dish.
You can vary these sandwiches agreeably by mincing olives fine
and working into the paste above described, then making this
into sandwiches.
CHICKEN SANDWICHES.
Chop the white meat of a boiled chicken very fine, work into
a paste with sweet cream, season with paprica or cayenne and
celery salt, and make into sandwiches as already directed. If you
cannot get cream, use butter for mixing.
CHICKEN AND ALMOND SANDWICHES.
To the chicken-meat prepared as in the last recipe add half
as much almond paste, made by chopping almonds that have
been blanched, then set in a cold place until stiff and crisp.
Moisten to the right consistency with sweet cream, season smart-
ly with cayenne or paprica and celery salt, and make into sand-
wiches with thin slices of buttered brown bread not Graham,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
DEVILED EGG SANDWICHES.
Rub, or pound, the yolks of hard-boiled eggs that are per-
fectly cold and mealy, to a powder, and wet up with salad
oil, seasoning to taste with French mustard, cayenne or paprica,
and salt, with a dash of lemon-juice. Work to a smooth yellow
cream and spread between thin slices, or strips, of buttered
brown bread.
If seasoned piquantly, these will be delicious and a pleasant
spur to appetite.
BRUNETTES.
Dip the crisp inner leaves of lettuce in a French dressing of
salad oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt. Lift each out with the tips
of your fingers and lay them between thin slices of buttered brown
bread cut into triangles and spread with cream cheese Philadel-
phia or Neufchatel, or the home-made cottage cheese worked
soft with cream.
The lettuce must not lie one instant in. the dressing if you
would have it crisp and juicy. Dip it in, roll it over, and take
it out at once.
These are especially acceptable at hot-weather luncheons and
afternoon teas.
LETTUCE SANDWICHES
are made like the Brunettes, leaving out the cheese. They are
best with brown bread, although palatable if fresh home-made
white bread, light and sweet, be used.
CRESSLETS.
Pick, without bruising, the leaves of fresh, succulent water-
cresses from the stems, toss them over and over quickly, with a
silver fork, in a French dressing, and spread between thin tri-
angles of buttered brown bread spread with cream cheese.
These, and other sandwiches made with green salads, must be
eaten as soon as possible after they are made, and be kept on ice
until they go to table.
.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
NASTURTIUM SANDWICHES.
Butter and cut into thin slices a light white loaf, and spread
between them fresh petals of nasturtium flowers, each petal
overlapping the next half-way in its length to give substance to
the sandwich "filling." These need no other seasoning than
their own native piquancy. Garnish the dish with whole
flowers, or, if served singly on plates, lay a flower upon each
square or triangular sandwich.
OLIVE AND CAPER BARS.
Mince very finely olives and mix with one-third the quantity
of finely chopped capers. Work up smoothly with butter, or
oil, paprica or cayenne, and celery salt, and spread between thin
strips of buttered brown bread.
You can vary this spicy appetizer by substituting green nas-
turtium pods for the capers.
PEA-NUT SANDWICHES.
Skin fresh-roasted pea-nuts, and pound fine. Work to a paste
with melted butter, season with salt and cayenne, or paprica,
and spread between thin squares, triangles, or bars of brown or
white bread.
They will be really very good.
DEVILED SHRIMPS.
Chop canned or fresh shrimps fine ; beat to a paste with olive
oil or melted butter ; season with lemon-juice, Worcestershire
sauce, cayenne, and celery salt, and spread them between but-
tered and toasted " sal tines " or small "snowflake" crackers,
or, should you prefer, thin slices of buttered bread.
SALTED ALMONDS.
Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water upon them, let-
ting them stand ten minutes in this, closely covered, then, pour-
ing it off and covering the nuts with more water from the boiling
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK J
kettle. As soon as you can bear your fingers in the water, begin
to strip the skins from the almonds, and spread upon a sieve or
cloth to dry. They should be cold and crisp before you do
anything more with them. The neglect of this precaution has
spoiled many a batch of salted nuts.
Have ready a flat baking-pan in which is a good lump of
butter, soft, but not melted. Set the pan with butter and al-
monds in it upon the range and stir briskly until each nut is
well coated. Then put pan and contents into a brisk oven,
stirring every few minutes until the nuts are lightly browned.
Sprinkle thickly with fine salt while hissing hot, and turn out
upon tissue-paper to cool.
Or-
Cover the blanched, cooled, and dried almonds with salad
oil, and spread them upon a shallow dish. Leave in a cold
place for an hour or two, stirring them up several times to keep
the nuts coated ; turn oil and nuts into the baking-pan (there
should be just enough oil to keep them from burning), and roast
briskly in a quick oven, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
Transfer to a broad platter, sift fine salt over them, tossing them
with a fork to get each kernel well salted, and put upon a paper
to dry.
SALTED PEA -NUTS.
Blanch and, when cold and dry, proceed as with almonds, to
which they are preferred by some people. Filberts may be
treated in the same way, also English walnuts and pecans. The
last two need not be blanched.
Almonds, pea-nuts, filberts, and walnuts are often mixed to-
gether when served, that the eater may take his choice.
Fresh fruits are among the most popular and efficient of appe-
tizers. The juices arouse the digestive organs to their duty by
clearing the coat of the stomach of the mucus lining that has
gathered upon it during a period of inactivity. Clogged by this,
8 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
the much-abused organ acts sluggishly, and is overloaded before
it fairly appreciates what work is laid out or in for it.
GRAPE-FRUIT OR SHADDOCKS.
Both names are absurd. The now much sought-after delicacy
is a species of sour orange. The botanical name is Citrus decu-
mana, and tradition says it was brought to Europe first by a cer-
tain Captain Shaddock. By what system of analogical reason-
ing it acquired the title of " grape-fruit " is an unsolved mystery.
In growth, appearance, and taste it bears no resemblance to the
fruit of the vine, but the name will be used in this book as a
matter of convenience, a large majority of readers and consum-
ers knowing it by no other. Each lobe or section is separated
from the rest by a white membrane as bitter as gall. The first
care of the caterer upon cutting the fruit in half crosswise must
be to get rid of this. It is easily drawn out. Now with a
silver spoon dig out or bore a small hole in the exact centre of
each half of the fruit, fill and heap with all the fine sugar it can
be persuaded to hold, pour a teaspoonful of sherry or Jamaica
rum over the sugar, and send at once to table, as the sugar and
liquor will soon toughen the pulp. The fruit should be made
ice-cold before it is cut.
Dislike of the bitter membrane leads some caterers to take
the pulp from the peel and, cutting it into small squares, to serve
it in small glasses. In this case fine sugar is sprinkled upon each
layer and the rum or wine poured in when the glass is full.
TUTTI-FRUTTI IN BOWLS.
Remove the fruit carefully from the halves of the grape-fruit
and lay the emptied and scraped peels in ice-water while you
prepare the filling.
Cut the pulp into small cubes, and several bananas into pieces
of like size and shape ; skin, halve, and seed white grapes, and if
you can get them, add a few ripe strawberries to the mixture.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 9
Wipe the bowls made of the peels and fill with this, sprinkling
sugar among the fruits as they go in. Add a good teaspoonful
of sherry, claret, or rum, and set in ice until served. Waiting
increases the quantity of juice at the expense of flavor and ten-
derness.
A pleasing variety of this dish may be obtained by cutting
grape-fruit into baskets instead of bowls, /.<*., leaving a strip of
the peel in the shape of a handle uj>on one-half of the fruit. It
is prettier than the bowls, but one loses half the peel of each
shaddock.
A bow of ribbon tied to the handle enhances the gay effect.
ORANGES
may be prepared as a first course or dessert according to any
of the foregoing recipes for grape-fruit, or served whole and ice-
cold. They are cut into halves at table and eaten from the peels
with a spoon.
GRAPES.
A bunch of hot-house grapes, decorated with a bow of narrow
ribbon tied to the stem, is a pleasant provocative to appetite at
breakfast or luncheon-time. The grapes should be kept on ice
until they are served. They cannot be made too cold.
SOUPS.
AN essay upon this subject lately published asserts that " Noth-
ing is easier than to make good soups." The reader who has sat
at many tables in town and country is driven to the necessity of
questioning the truth of the statement or to the conviction that
the Average American Cook is the stupidest of scholars. So
general is the impression that soup-making is an intricate busi-
ness, and, as our A.A.C., just alluded to, would put it " a mussy
and fussy piece of work " that, when done, does not pay for the
time and labor expended, that the everyday family dinner of the
great middle class does not as a rule include this dish. Our men
and boys are disposed to despise, or be impatient of, it, being in
a hurry to fall to work upon the weightier matters of the meal.
Each of them could dispose of his pound of meat with potato
accompaniment in the time consumed in swallowing a dozen
mouthfuls of that which a representative man of the people com-
plained openly, " did not stick to his ribs."
There may be a reason for this popular prejudice more worthy
of respect than silly contempt for new-fangled ways and foreign
fads would be. It can be stated in a single sentence :
The Average American Cook has never mastered this, accord-
ing to our essayist, easiest of culinary arts. When custom or con-
vention, or invalidism, dictate "soup for dinner," our A.A.C.
buys a bone and " some ' ' soup-meat ; puts them over the fire with
"some" water, cooks all together for "some" time, and serves
it up in " some " fashion. If her dishes are washed with a like
disregard of common sense and comfort, there is little choice
between her soup and her dish-water. Both are dingy, greasy,
unpalatable, and indigestible. It is well for the household to
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK II
which she ministers that this article of food api>ears but rarely at
the head of her board.
Yet the making of soup in the right way is one of the simplest
of kitchen duties. Once in the pot, and set at the side of the
range, the prospective savoriness takes care of itself for hours, and
is the better for being left alone. When removed from the fire,
turned into an earthenware vessel, and seasoned, it requires an-
other period of wholesome neglect that the fat may arise and
form into a solid cake. Take this o(T, and, should you find as
is probable and desirable a firm jelly below, warm the soup
until it will flow freely through a fine soup-sieve and strain out
meat, bones, and vegetables. You have now so many pints, or
quarts, of " stock," the strength of which depends upon the raw
material that went into the kettle, and slow cooking. As the end
to be gained is the extraction of every particle of nourishment
from the meat, etc., the soup should never boil fast. This is a
rule without exception. Soup-making is a process that cannot
be hurried. Therefore, keep a long look ahead upon the stock -
pot, which should never be of metal. The hireling's practice of
letting soup get cold in the kettle in which it was cooked is un-
clean and unwholesome.
Upon this stock there may be founded an endless variety of
gravy soups, clear soups, and, what some judges of really good
living rate as most useful and relishful of all the great and re-
spectable family of broths, purees, and cream soups. In the manu-
facture of these, the ingenious housewife finds scope for many
inventions. The laws governing clear soups have a certain con-
servative rigor becoming the rank they take in the family bill-of-
fare. They must be made of fresh, raw meat, and, when twice
strained, require to be also clarified, and if too pale, must be arti-
ficially colored. Compared with them the broths are Bohemian,
a hearty, happy-go-lucky tribe, adapting themselves easily to
divers and incongruous constituent elements and thickening up
in a jolly, democratic spirit which commends them to children
and homely folk.
12 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CLEAR SOUPS.
STOCK FOR CLEAR SOUPS.
Four pounds of beef bones, well cracked. One pound of
chopped lean beef. One pound of lean veal, also minced fine.
Six quarts of cold water. Salt and pepper to taste. One table-
spoonful of kitchen bouquet.
Put meat and bones, without seasoning, into a clean soup-
kettle, cover with cold water, and let them stand in a cool place
one hour. See then that the chopped meat is broken apart and
softened so that it will not be likely to form into a tough mass
while cooking. Set at one side of the range where it will not
reach the boiling point under an hour, and when this is reached
keep it simmering for five hours longer.
Remove from the fire, turn into a stoneware bowl or crock,
season to taste, and let it stand all night, or until it is perfectly
cold. Take off all the fat, strain out the meat and bones, and
set away for use.
You have now a nearly colorless bouillon, susceptible of many
and agreeable modifications. Some cooks put into the soup-
kettle a carrot, a turnip, and an onion, cut into dice. The
vegetables give body and flavor to the stock, but undeniably risk
the perfect clearness of amber soups and bouillons.
AMBER SOUP.
To one quart of jellied stock add the unbeaten white and
broken shell of an egg. Stir well for a minute and set over the
fire where it will heat quickly, not withdrawing the spoon or
ceasing to stir gently until it is smoking hot. Boil fast for five
minutes, draw to the side of the range and throw in a piece of
ice the size of an egg, or a little cold water, to check the boil sud-
denly. In three minutes more lift very carefully, not to stir the
dregs, and strain through a double cloth laid in a colander. Do
not press or stir the soup until all has dripped through that will
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 13
pass the cloth, then take up the latter by the four corners and
squeeze it over another bowl. The clouded stock may be used
in making broths and as a foundation for a puree. Heat the
cleared soup quickly to the boil and pour into the tureen.
SOUP A LA RUSSE.
Having cleared your stock according to the foregoing recipe
and reheated it, pour it into the tureen and lay carefully upon the
surface as many nicely poached eggs as there are people at table.
SWEETBREAD SOUP.
Boil, blanch, cool, and chop very fine two sweetbreads ; mix
with them one-half their bulk of fine crumbs, previously soaked
and rubbed smooth with a little cream. Beat up the yolk of a
raw egg, and work all with pepper and salt to a paste. Make
into small balls with floured hands, and set by for half an hour in
a cold place. Strain off a quart of soup from your stock jar,
when you have skimmed it. Heat and boil slowly five minutes,
skimming it well. Drop in the balls carefully not to break
them ; simmer ten minutes gently, and pour into the tureen.
CLEAR BROWN SOUP.
Clear the stock as directed in recipe for Amber Soup, and stir
in enough caramel to color it to your liking, bearing in mind
that too much will give a sweetish taste to the liquid.
The caramel is made by heating granulated sugar in a tin cup
or agate iron saucepan until it bubbles brownly all over. Add,
at once, boiling water a tablespoonful for each spoonful of the
sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. It will keep well in
the refrigerator for a week or more.
Some palates enjoy the flavor of cloves and allspice in browned
soup. The whole spices are used and strained out before the
caramel goes in. Allow six cloves and four allspice to a quart
of stock. Onion flavor should be imparted by grating a raw
onion and squeezing the juice through a cloth into the heating
stock.
14 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
JULIENNE SOUP.
Cut into small dice and parboil two carrots, two turnips, three
stalks of celery, and two small onions. Drain off the water and
let the vegetables get almost cold before dropping them into a
quart of clear boiling stock. Bring rapidly again to the boil-
ing point, cook ten minutes more gently, and turn into a tureen.
This is the simplest form of Julienne Soup. There are many
varieties. Some shred the vegetables fine and add tomatoes and
parsley, in which case it ceases to be a clear soup. The toma-
toes will cloud it. The shredded vegetables look well if cut into
short lengths. There is neither comeliness nor convenience in
long, hair-like shavings that hang from the sides of the spoon
when lifted to the mouth.
A dash of Worcestershire sauce improves the flavor of this
soup.
JULIENNE PRINTANIERE.
This differs from the ordinary Julienne soup only in being
made of Spring (le printemps) vegetables. Peel and cut into
short shreds two young turnips and three young carrots. Shred
two Spring onions. Heat an ounce of butter or dripping in a
frying-pan and add the shredded vegetables. When partly
cooked add a quart of clear stock, a tablespoonful each of green
pease and asparagus tops ; simmer until the vegetables are cooked,
season to taste, and serve with croutons.
CELERY CONSOMME ROYALE.
Consomme is nothing more than a clear bouillon flavored to
suit the taste. A pleasing variety is made by boiling in a quart
of good stock four stalks of tender celery until they are ready to
fall to pieces. Put away the stock without removing the celery.
When perfectly cold take them out, breaking as little as pos-
sible, heat the soup, clearing it with white of egg if necessary,
strain through a cloth, without pressing, into a clean kettle, and
when it boils add the little cubes that give it its name. Cook gen-
tly one minute and turn into the tureen. Some authorities ad-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 15
vise that the cubes be placed in the tureen without cooking in
the soup and the hot liquid be poured upon them. The objec-
tion to this is that a good handful of the cold royales will cool
the soup perceptibly.
To make the royales :
Heat in one saucepan three tablespoon fuls of milk ; in another
the same quantity of clear stock. When the milk is scalding hot,
add it gradually to two well-beaten eggs. Mix with the boiling
stock a roux made by heating a tablespoonful of butter to a bub-
bling boil, and stirring into it a tablespoonful of flour until you
have a smooth paste. Season the stock with paprica and salt.
Stir the custard made with a beaten egg and milk over the fire
for one minute, or until it thickens, and add, still stirring, to
the stock. A pinch of soda in the hot milk will prevent curd-
ling. Mix stock and custard away from the fire, spread upon a
flat dish, and set in a cold place to harden. When cold and
stiff, cut with a sharp knife into cubes or diamonds half an inch
square, or into strips ; or, if you like, into more fanciful shapes.
This is a nice show soup for a dinner party. The custard is
better if prepared the day before it is to be used and left on ice.
VERMICELLI OR SPAGHETTI SOUP.
Break the vermicelli or spaghetti into inch lengths, and cook
tender and clear in boiling salted water. Drain this off; spread
the vermicelli upon a dish and allow it to get almost cold, when
drop into a quart of (cleared) boiling stock ; let it just boil
again, and serve. The pipe macaroni may be used in like man-
ner, cut into quarter-inch lengths after it is cooked.
CLEAR TAPIOCA SOUP.
Soak two tablespoonfuls of pearl tapioca in a large cup of cold
water four hours, then stir into a quart of well-seasoned boiling
clear stock, and simmer ten minutes.
Pearl sago may be substituted for tapioca if desired, but should
be soaked four hours in cold water, and one hour in hot* before
it goes into the soup.
1 6 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CLEAR SOUP WITH CROUTONS.
Cut slices of stale bread into small squares, and fry to a light
brown in good dripping or butter. Shake off every drop of fat
through a colander, spread upon tissue-paper laid over a hot
plate, leaving them thus for five minutes. Put them into the
tureen and pour in a quart of boiling consomme.
CLEAR SOUP WITH GREEN PEASE.
Boil the pease until done, but not broken, in salted water.
Drain perfectly dry, put into the tureen, and add the boiling
soup. Allow a cup of pease to a quart of soup.
CLEAR CELERY SOUP.
Cut into inch lengths crisp white celery, and cook tender in
boiling salted water. Drain well, put into the tureen, and add
a quart of boiling clear stock.
GREEN PEA ROYALE SOUP.
Mash, while warm, three tablespoonfuls of green pease to a
pulp ; work into this a tablespoon ful of soup stock, a teaspoon ful
of corn-starch, and the beaten white of an egg. Mix thoroughly
and spread upon an earthenware (not tin) pie-plate. Fit above
a pudding-dish of hot water, which will just touch the bottom
of the plate when at a hard boil, cover, and set in a quick oven.
The mixture will be firm in a few minutes. Let it get cold on
the plate ; cut into diamonds or squares, and drop them into the
hot soup three minutes before it goes to the table. The soup
must not boil after they go in, as they are rather friable.
CHICKEN CONSOMME, OR BOUILLON.
This, the most relishful of the bouillon family, is in great re-
quest at luncheons, afternoon receptions, or "high teas," and in
the sick-room.
One fowl, weighing four pounds, jointed, as for fricassee.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK IJ
Four quarts of cold water. Haifa sliced onion. Two stalks of
white celery. White pepper and salt to taste.
Put the chicken over the fire in an agate-iron or porcelain -
lined pot, and, covering with the cold water, set at the side of
the range. It should not boil under one hour, and then boil
very slowly for three hours. When so tender that it will drop
from the bones, add the onion and celery, and cook gently an
hour longer. Turn into an earthenware bowl, cover closely, and
let it get cold with the chicken and vegetables in it.
Now remove the fat from the top ; put the soup again over
the fire to melt the jelly from the bones, etc. When liquefied,
strain through a colander lined with a bit of mosquito net or
coarse muslin, and let all run through that will pass without
pressing the cloth. (What will not, can be squeezed into another
vessel for broth -stock.)
Clear the soup with the unbeaten white and the broken shell
of an egg stirred into it while lukewarm; continue to stir while
it heats to a quick boil, and strain for the last time, still without
squeezing the cloth.
Serve hot or ice-cold. There is no middle ground with soups
as to degrees of temperature.
The chicken meat should be saved for chicken bisque. It will
make, also, tolerable croquettes.
BROWN CONSOMME.
Three pounds of lean beef. (The coarser cuts will do for this
purpose.) Two pounds of lean veal. Five quarts of cold water.
One fine stalk of celery, cut into inch lengths. One small carrot,
cut into dice. One good-sized onion, sliced. Six cloves, six
whole peppers, and six allspice. One tablespoonful of parsley.
One tablespoonful of " kitchen bouquet." Half a teacupful of
butter.
Cut the meat into small bits, less than an inch square. Heat
half the butter in a frying-pan and fry the vegetables to a fine
brown in this. Strain them out and set aside in the colander ;
put browned butter into the soup-kettle with the half you have
1 8 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
not used, and when again hot add the meat. Stir briskly over hot
coals to make sure that each piece is first coated with the butter,
then browned, lastly not scorched. Lift from the fire and
cover with cold water. Return to the range and simmer slowly
for an hour, after it is smoking-hot.
Now put into the pot a gallon more of cold water, bring
back, very slowly, to the boil, cover the pot and leave it to
seethe and bubble leisurely for at least five hours. At the end of
four hours add the browned vegetables, with the spices. By
the time the six hours of slow simmering are up you should have
about three quarts of strong brown stock besides the meats and
vegetables. Do not remove these until the liquid is cold, but
do not wait until the fat has hardened upon the surface. Strain
them out then, through a colander, return the soup to the fire,
with a good tablespoonful of salt, and bring to a hard boil.
The salt will throw up the scum to the top. Skim this off and
strain the liquid again, now through a coarse cloth, without
shaking or squeezing. Keep in an earthenware crock or bowl.
This process may sound tedious, but examination of the
recipe will show that the amount of time and labor expended in
actual work is trifling. Most of the work is done by the soup
itself if the fire be properly regulated.
As a basis for a fine gravy, and other brown soups, this stock
cannot be excelled. Served alone as a nourishing bouillon, it is
most satisfactory.
BROTHS.
Under this head may be gathered such a noble army of tooth-
some and economical soups, purees, and potages as would fill
half this book were the attempt made to register and give recipes
for all of them. They are especial favorites of the thrifty house-
mother who would look well after ways and means, yet feed
wisely and agreeably her growing family. It cannot be denied
that, while clear soups are, as been said already, elegant and
conventional, the best of them are deficient in such nourishment
THE NATIONAL COO A' BOOK 1 9
as is to be found in what the French call the pot-au-feu y and
what we know as " a good, substantial broth."
In a well-managed household the family stock-pot need never
be emptied except to be washed and re-filled. It is humiliating
and depressing to an intelligent caterer to reflect how much that
is palatable and nourishing goes into that one of our national in-
stitutions familiarly defined as "a swill-pail." This much-per-
verted receptacle should receive nothing that can be converted
into aliment for human creatures. Excepting always the scrap-
ings of the plates used at table and such bones and bits as are
found upon them, all " left-overs" should be inspected by the
mistress of a house before they are condemned as " no good."
Bones, meat-rinds, the heels and crusts of loaves, stale bis-
cuits and hard chunks of cheese, cold vegetables of all sorts, the
fat of all kinds of meat in a word, odds and ends of every de-
scription have capabilities in the eye of the accomplished
cook whose own the kitchen is, and to whose interest it is to get
the full worth of a hundred and one cents out of every dollar.
To cite one item of unconsidered waste, apropos to our family
stock-pot : Who, among even notable housekeepers, insists that
the water in which rice or macaroni is boiled be set aside in a
cool place to make thicker and better to-morrow's broth ? Look
next morning at the rice-water Bridget would have thrown into
the sink, and you find a tolerably firm jelly, more nutritious than
the cereal which was strained out of it. It works well into any
kind of white soup, and, joined to the cupful of superfluous liq-
uid drained from yesterday's stewed tomatoes, and a couple of
cold boiled onions, can be wrought up. by means of a good roux
and judicious seasoning, into a really palatable broth for the
luncheon, which is often the nursery dinner.
Instead of throwing away bones and the outside slices of roast
and boiled, the gristly remnants of chops and steaks, the carcasses
and stuffing of fowls, the tablespoonful of gravy and the tea-
spoonful of white or brown sauce, the single cold potato, or beet,
or turnip, or boiled egg left from to-day's meals, study possibili-
ties especially broth ward.
2O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
SCOTCH BROTH.
One generous quart of stock made by boiling down the water
in which a leg of mutton was cooked until you have half the
original quantity.
Or by boiling for eight hours the bones left from roast mut-
ton, or the "trimmings" sent home by the butcher who pre-
pared the roast and chops for the table. If raw meat and bones
are used, allow one quart of water to each pound. Be careful to
skim all the fat from the stock. Mutton-fat is tallow, unpalata-
ble and indigestible.
Half a cup of pearl barley, or rice. One medium-sized onion,
minced. One tablespoonful of minced parsley. Two tablespoon-
fuls of white roux.
Wash the barley or rice and soak in cold water one hour.
Put the stock over the fire with the onion and bring to a rapid
boil. Add the barley (or rice) and simmer for three-quarters of
an hour ; put in the parsley and cook five minutes more before
stirring in a
WHITE ROUX.
This same roux is so essential to the right making of thick
soups that explanation should be made here of the meaning of
the term.
Heat one tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and when it
hisses stir in boldly a tablespoonful of flour, until the paste
is smooth. The flour will not lump. This is the roux. Into
this pour, gradually, beating it in well, half a cupful of the hot
broth ; pour back into the soup-kettle and let it boil up once be-
fore serving. Season to taste.
CHICKEN BROTH.
The carcass, neck, pinions, stuffing, etc., of a roast or boiled
chicken.
Or the water in which a fowl has been boiled, simmered down
to half the original quantity.
Or the gravy left from fricasseed chickens, freed of fat and
thinned with a little hot water.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 21
By any of these means get a quart of good stock ; set over the
fire to heat quickly, and when it boils add three tablespoon fuls
of rice which has been soaked for an hour in cold water ; a
small onion, cut up small ; salt and pepj)er to taste, and cook
steadily for half an hour, or until the rice is soft. Add a table-
spoonful of chopped parsley, and cook ten minutes more. Have
ready in another saucepan a cup of milk made scalding hot, and
stir into it a tablespoon ful of butter rubbed smooth with a tea-
spoonful of corn-starch. Cook three minutes, stirring to pre-
vent lumping, remove from the fire and beat in a well-whipi>ed
egg. Return to the fire for one minute ; beat up hard, and turn
into the tureen. Pour the soup carefully upon this, stirring all
the while lest the egg should curdle. A bit of soda no larger
than a pea, boiled in the milk, will help to prevent this catas-
trophe.
ENGLISH BARLEY BROTH.
One quart of strong stock made by boiling the bones of a rib-
roast, or steak well broken, with a pound of underdone beef for
six hours.
Or if raw meat is at hand, allow for a pound of chopped lean
beef and the cracked cooked bones aforesaid, three pints of
water and stew it down in four hours to one quart. (Let it get
cold and take off the fat, of course.)
One onion, one carrot cut into dice, and one small turnip
also cut up small.
Haifa cup of barley soaked for an hour, with minced parsley
and sweet marjoram, pepper and salt to taste.
, Parboil the vegetables, drain them and put into the soup-kettle
with the barley and the cold stock. Bring to a slow boil and
keep this up for an hour, before the parsley goes in.
For this broth you want a
BROWN ROUX.
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan until it bubbles
and browns, but not until it burns. Stir in a tablespoonful of
22 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
lightly browned flour until all is smooth. Pour into the fry-
ing-pan gradually, a half-cupful of the boiling broth, and when
well mixed, put back into the soup-kettle. Boil up once and
serve without straining out the vegetables.
A NEW JERSEY BROTH.
One quart of good stock, beef, mutton, chicken, or miscellane-
ous. One pint of tomatoes, peeled and sliced. One cupful of
green pease. One stalk of celery cut into small bits. One small
onion, chopped. Two tablespoon fuls of boiled rice. Pepper
and salt to taste. Two tablespoonfuls of white roux. Minced
parsley, and summer savory (if you have it).
The water in which rice has been boiled may be used effec-
tively in this broth.
Heat the stock and add the vegetables, which must have been
parboiled with the exception of the tomatoes. Vegetable
' left-overs ' ' can be utilized here. Simmer all together for half
an hour, add the parsley, cook one minute, and stir in the roux
as before directed.
Simmer five minutes longer, and pour out.
WHITE VEAL BROTH.
The best use to which this often indigestible meat can be put
is soup-making. In this form its best elements the gelatinous
come into play, and the dreaded fibres are thrown aside.
Three pounds of coarse lean veal, chopped, or a knuckle of
veal well-cracked. Three tablespoonfuls of raw rice. Four
quarts of cold water. One onion, sliced. Two stalks of celery
cut into inch lengths.
Put all together over the fire, and cook slowly for six hours.
Season with salt, pepper, and kitchen - bouquet, pour into a
crock or bowl, and set away until perfectly cold. , Remove the
fat, warm the soup to free the meat, etc., of jelly, and strain into
a bowl. There should be over two quarts of strong meat-jelly.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2$
To one quart of this allow three tables poonfu Is of soaked rice ;
put over the fire cold, and cook gently forty-five minutes.
Have ready in a saucepan a cupful of boiling milk in which
has been dropped a pinch of soda, stir into this two tablespoon-
fuls of white roux, and pour into the broth.
Veal stock is rendered less insipid if the carcass of a chicken
be cooked in it. A slice of cold corned ham is also an im-
provement. It should be minced, cooked in the stock, and
then strained out. The rind of salt pork may be utilized in the
same way.
VEAL AND SAGO BROTH.
Make as above, substituting pearl sago for the rice, and add-
ing to the thickened milk the frothed white of an egg. It is
excellent for invalids, and may be made yet better if a table-
spoonful of rich cream be stirred into each cupful when served.
TOMATO AND RICE BROTH. (WITHOUT MEAT.)
One pint of tomatoes, cut up, or the juice from a can of to-
matoes. Half a cup of rice boiled tender, but not broken, and
a good cupful of the water in which it was cooked. One small
onion, minced. One cup of milk. Three tablespoon fuls of
butter made into a white roux with as much flour. A teaspoon-
ful of white sugar.
Season with pepper, celery salt, and minced parsley. Add a
good pinch of soda to the milk. Stew tomatoes and onion to-
gether for half an hour and rub through a colander, into a
saucepan. Return to the fire with the boiled rice and rice-
water, season to taste, add the sugar, then the roux made liquid
with a little of the hot broth ; boil up, stirring well, and pour
into a tureen where you have already put the scalding milk and
soda.
Serve while still foaming. The merit of this broth depends
largely upon the seasoning. When rightly compounded, it is
delicious.
24 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CHICKEN BISQUE.
This is a good way of using the remains of boiled or roasted
fowls. One quart of stock made from the carcasses, etc., of the
fowls, well -seasoned. Two tablespoonfuls of white roux. Half
a cup of fine dry bread-crumbs. Nearly two cups of minced
chicken (very fine). Chopped parsley, pepper, and salt.
Heat the stock, add the bread-crumbs, let it boil, put in the
minced meat, bring again to a boil, and stir in parsley and the
roux. Boil one minute.
If you are short of stock, heat a cup of milk, stir in a table-
spoonful of butter, then the crumbs, and add to the scalding stock
in which the chopped meat has been heated. Boil one minute,
take from the fire and beat in a well-whipped egg before serving.
Cold turkey and duck may be used instead of chicken, also
cold lamb, but not mutton.
VEGETABLE BROTH. (WITHOUT MEAT.)
One carrot, one turnip, one salsify root; a tablespoonful of
minced cabbage ; two potatoes, parboiled and sliced thin ; two
stalks of celery ; three tomatoes or a cupful of canned tomatoes ;
half a cupful of green pease or Lima beans ; two ears of green
corn, or half a cupful of canned corn ; one large onion, sliced.
Parsley, salt, and pepper. Three full tablespoonfuls of butter.
One large spoonful of brown roux.
Cut carrot, turnip, salsify, and celery into dice, mince the cab-
bage, cover with hot salted water, and boil with the beans or
pease, hard for fifteen minutes. Drain out the vegetables and
leave them to cool while you fry the onion to a light brown in the
butter in the bottom of the soup-pot. Take the pot from the fire
and stir in the onion and butter and all the other ingredients, in-
cluding the parboiled potatoes, the tomatoes, and the corn. This
last should be chopped fine. Cover with a quart of cold water,
and cook gently for one hour. Stir in the parsley and seasoning ;
thicken with the roux to prevent the mixture from becoming
watery and separating in the tureen, and serve.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK' 2$
You can make a white broth of this by leaving out the toma-
toes, heating in a separate vessel a cupful of milk, thickening it
with a teaspoonful of corn -starch, and beating into the mixture a
couple of eggs just before it goes into the tureen. This should be
put first into the tureen, and the vegetable-broth, made as above
directed, be stirred in afterward. Otherwise the eggs may
" break," and curdle the milk.
A good Lenten broth.
ANOTHER LENTEN BROTH.
Twelve ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced, or a can of tomatoes ;
one small onion, sliced and fried to a light brown in butter ; two
tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in the same quantity of flour ; one-
half cupful of hot boiled rice, very soft ; one teasi>oonful of
sugar ; one quart of boiling water ; pepper, salt, and chopped
parsley or celery tops. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into the
soup-pot, bring to a boil, and fry the sliced onion. Add the
tomatoes, and stir together over the fire until smoking-hot be-
fore the boiling water goes in. Stew steadily forty minutes, and
put all through the colander back into the pot ; season, bring
again to a boil, add the rice ; simmer ten minutes, stir in the
floured butter, boil one minute, and pour out.
CAULIFLOWER BROTH. (WITHOUT MEAT.)
One fine cauliflower ; two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in one
of corn-starch ; one onion ; bunch of parsley ; two blades of
mace ; two quarts of water ; two cups of milk ; pepper and salt ;
a pinch of soda in the milk. Cut the cauliflower into bunches,
reserving about a cupful of small clusters to put whole into the
soup. Chop the rest, also the onion and herbs, and put on in
the water, with the mace. Cook an hour, and rub through a
colander. Return the puree thus obtained to the pot,\md sea-
son with pepper and salt. As it boils, stir in the whole clusters,
previously boiled tender in hot, salted water, and left to cool.
When the soup is again hot, put in the butter and corn-starch ;
26 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
stir until this has thickened ; pour into the tureen, and add the
boiling milk. Pass sliced lemon and cream-crackers with it.
CORN CHOWDER.
Twelve ears of green corn, and two onions sliced ; three large
potatoes, or six small, parboiled. Six Boston crackers, well but-
tered and soaked five minutes in boiling water. Three table-
spoonfuls of butter and one cup of milk. Parsley, pepper, and
salt. A pinch of soda in the milk. One beaten egg. One
quart of boiling water.
Fry the onions in two tablespoonfuls of butter in the soup-
kettle. Remove this to the table and take out the onions with a
skimmer, leaving the browned butter in the bottom. Put into
this a layer of corn cut from the cob, then of crackers, next of
sliced parboiled potatoes, seasoning as you go, until all the in-
gredients are in. Cover with the hot water, and cook gently
for about forty minutes after it begins to boil.
Heat the milk in a separate vessel, stir into it a tablespoonful
of butter rolled in flour, and at last a beaten egg. Pour the milk
into the tureen, then the chowder, stirring all the while. This
broth or chowder may be made in winter with canned corn, but
is not nearly so good as when fresh is used.
CORN AND TOMATO CHOWDER.
One quart of tomatoes, peeled and sliced. One-quarter pound
of chopped salt pork. Two onions, sliced. Six ears of corn,
sliced from the cob with a sharp knife. Two tablespoonfuls of
rolled cracker. One tablespoonful of flour and one of butter. A
dash of cayenne or paprica. One pint of boiling water.
Fry the chopped pork in the soup-kettle, and, when it begins
to'crisp, add the sliced onion and cook to a light brown. Then
stir in the flour, and cook, stirring all the time, three minutes.
Upon this put tomatoes and corn in alternate layers, seasoning
as you go and scattering the rolled crackers over each. Cover
with hot water and cook slowly forty-five minutes. Season to
taste, stir in the floured butter, boil up well, and serve.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2?
HIGHLANDER'S DELIGHT.
Two pounds of veal and three pounds of bones (well-cracked)
from neck or knuckle of the calf; one onion, minced fine; one
turnip, one carrot, grated. Bunch of sweet herbs, chopped ; half
cupful of barley, salt and pepper, one tablespoonful of oatmeal,
four quarts of cold water. Put meat, cut into dice, bones,
chopped vegetables, and herbs on in the water and boil very
slowly six hours.
Season and set away in a cold place until next day. Take off
the fat two hours before dinner, strain out the soup into a kettle
and add the barley, which has been already soaked in warm
water two hours, and cooked fifteen minutes in enough boiling
water to cover it well. Put in with it the water in which it has
been cooked, and simmer all together for half an hour. The
oatmeal should have been soaked several hours in a little warm
water. Stir it into the soup, and let all boil gently together
for one hour before pouring out. This broth should be judi-
ciously seasoned.
CHICKEN AND CORN BROTH.
Even in the country, where old fowls must be disposed of in
some way, it is seldom economical to boil them to pieces just to
make soup. But if you will save the liquor in which these have
been boiled the day before for the table, a delightful broth may
be made.
One quart of the liquor cleared of fat after it is cold ; one can
of corn, chopped ; or eight ears of green corn grated from the
cob ; one tablespoonful of butter cut up in one of flour ; one
tablespoonful of minced parsley and same of green onion-tops ;
pepper and salt ; one cup of boiling milk. Boil corn and liquor
slowly together one hour after they begin to bubble. Rub
thoroughly through a colander, season, and add herbs. Heat to
boiling, stir in the floured butter, simmer five minutes, pour
into the tureen, and add the boiling milk.
28 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
VIRGINIA GAME BROTH.
Two squirrels (the wild gray squirrel) or two wild rabbits,
called " hares " at the South jointed as for fricassee. Two cups
of Lima beans; six potatoes, parboiled and sliced; seven ears
of green corn, shaved from the cob with a keen knife; six
tablespoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour ; one quart of tomatoes,
peeled and cut up small ; one-half pound fat salt pork, chopped ;
half teaspoonful paprica or cayenne, and twice the quantity of
black pepper. Salt to taste. One large onion, minced. Two
teaspoonfuls of white sugar ; four quarts of water (boiling).
Lay the game, when jointed, in cold water, slightly salted, and
leave it there one hour. Then put into a large pot, alternately
with the pork and all the vegetables except the tomatoes, cover
closely, and stew for three hours very slowly. At the end of that
time add the tomatoes and sugar and cook for another hour.
Season to taste ; stir in the floured butter, cook ten minutes
longer, and dish in a vast tureen. Some cooks add half a cup
of bread-crumbs. Under the name of " Brunswick Stew " this
was a famous dish at the barbecues of Old Virginia, but it is
really a broth.
CREAM SOUPS.
CREAM OF CELERY SOUP.
Two cups white stock. Two cups milk. One bunch celery.
Two tablespoonfuls flour. Two tablespoonfuls butter.
Wash the celery and cut it into inch lengths. Cook it three-
quarters of an hour in enough boiling water, slightly salted, to
cover it, and then rub it through a colander. Rub butter and
flour together, put them in a little saucepan over the fire, and
stir until they bubble. Pour upon them the milk and the
stock, which have been previously heated, and stir until they are
thick and smooth. Add to this the celery and season to taste.
It is a good plan to reserve half a cupful of the celery after it is
THE NATIONAL COOK' BOOK 2$
cooked and before it is rubbed through the colander to put into
the soup when it is in the tureen.
CREAM OF ONION SOUP.
The large Bermuda onions or very young Spring onions are
best for this. Simmer five tablespoon fu Is of minced onion for
one hour in a quart of good stock beef, mutton, or veal, or
chicken. Rub then through a fine colander, and put back over
the fire with two tables poonfu Is of white roux, stirred gradually
into the hot soup. Heat in another saucepan a cupful of milk
(with a bit of soda), add this to the stock, beat in the frothed
white of an egg, and season with salt, pepper, and minced parsley.
CREAM OF TURNIP SOUP.
One quart of lamb or mutton broth. Two cups of turnip
dice. Use white, young turnips. Cook in the liquor half an
hour after the boil begins, and when very tender, rub through a
colander. Return to the fire and proceed as with cream of
celery soup, only putting in both white and yolk of the egg.
CREAM OF LETTUCE SOUP.
Shred finely two heads of lettuce the greener the better.
Cook for half an hour in a quart of good stock, nib through a
colander ; return to the fire, stir into a cup of this two table-
spoonfuls of white roux and a tablespoon ful of cold boiled onion,
minced fine, and one of minced parsley. Heat a cup of milk
in another vessel, season with pepper and salt, stir in a well-
whipped egg, and pour this mixture into the tureen, adding fi-
nally the lettuce soup.
Send around Huntley and Palmer's crisp " dinner biscuits,"
which the eaters can, if they like, drop into each portion of
soup.
CREAM OF SORREL SOUP.
This is best when made from the more delicate species of sor-
rel, such as infests our flower-borders, but the commoner red
sorrel of the farm can be used.
30 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Wash the leaves and stems thoroughly and cut them up with
a silver knife. Cook a cupful of the minced sorrel in a quart of
stock, rub through an agate-iron (never a tin) colander back
into the stock, and put again over the fire. Cook a quarter of
an hour longer and treat precisely as you managed the cream of
lettuce in the last recipe. The bit of soda in the milk will cause
a slight frothiness that adds to the pleasing appearance of the
soup.
CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP.
One can of tomatoes or the equivalent in raw tomatoes. One
quart of milk. Three tablespoonfuls of butter and one of corn-
starch. Salt and pepper to taste. Quarter teaspoon ful of soda.
A tablespoonful of minced parsley. A good teaspoonful of sugar.
Cook the tomatoes soft and rub through a fine colander. Re-
turn to the fire, season, and stir in the butter rolled in corn-
starch, cooking until it begins to thicken. Have ready in
another saucepan the milk scalding hot, add the soda; stir in
well and pour into the tureen. Pour the tomatoes into this,
keeping the spoon busy as you do it, beat up vigorously, and serve
at once.
CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP.
Cut the tops off and parboil by themselves. Cut the stalks
into short lengths and cook slowly one hour in a quart of weak
stock, with half a minced onion. Strain and press through a
colander ; put the soup back on the range and cook the re-
served tips very soft in the liquid. Pass again through the
strainer, rubbing all the pulp through the meshes. Afterward,
proceed as with other cream soups. (See preceding recipes.)
SWEDISH CREAM OF GREEN-PEA SOUP.
Boil the pea-pods in a quart of weak stock with a sprig of
mint for half an hour, when strain them out and put in the
pease, also a lump of sugar and a pinch of soda. The latter will
preserve the color of the pease. Allow a pint of pease to a quart
of stock. Rub to a pulp through a colander when they have
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK' 31
been boiled soft ; thicken this with two tablespoon fu Is of white
roux \ season with pepper and salt, and keep hot while you heat
a cup of milk in a saucepan, and when it boils jxmr it gradually,
beating steadily with an egg-whip, upon two well- whipped yolks.
Do not cook this in the soup, but pour into the tureen, and
then the pea-broth.
Drop a handful of croutons (dice of fried bread) upon the sur-
face.
CREAM OF LIMA BEAN SOUP
is made precisely as above, only omitting the jxxls from the
stock. It is very fine.
CREAM OF SPINACH SOUP.
Two quarts spinach. One quart milk. One tablespoon ful
each of flour and butter. Salt and white pepper to taste. Tiny
pinch of soda.
Wash the spinach thoroughly, stripping each leaf from the mid-
rib. Put the leaves on in a double boiler, with the soda, and
cook an hour, or until tender. It is not necessary to have any
water in the inner vessel. When the spinach is cooked soft rub
it through a colander. Make a roux of the butter and flour, add
the milk and the pulped spinach, season, and serve. A delicious
as well as a pretty soup.
CREAM OF BEET SOUP.
Select six large, bright-red beets and boil carefully in their
skins, lest they bleed white. Scrape off the skins, chop finely
and quickly and rub through a colander into a quart of white
stock veal, chicken, lamb, or mutton and treat as you would
other cream soups, adding a little more floured butter, or roux,
as beets are naturally watery and thin-blooded. The soup should
l>e of a delicate pink. Season with white pepper, or, better still,
with paprica, and salt.
32 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CREAM OF CORN SOUP.
Shave the corn fine from the cob, or if canned corn is used,
chop it small, and proceed as with the other cream soups, for
which directions have been given.
PUREES.
POTATO PUREE. (Without Meat.)
Boil and mash very soft and fine twelve potatoes. Heat one
pint of milk in a saucepan, add a parboiled onion (chopped),
and cook slowly ten minutes. Strain out the onion ; thicken
the milk with two tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed in one of
flour, boil three minutes to cook the flour, and put into the
soup-pot with the mashed potato, a tablespoonful of chopped
parsley, pepper and salt to taste. Cook three minutes, beat up
well, and serve.
If you can spare a pint of good stock you can leave out the
milk, thicken the stock with a white roux, and having cooked
the stock and potato together for five minutes, pour the puree
into the tureen upon two well-beaten eggs. Put in your egg-
beater, incorporate the ingredients with a few swift whirls, and
serve.
BROWNED POTATO PUREE.
Put three tablespoonfuls of good dripping into your soup-kettle
and fry in it one dozen potatoes which have been pared, quar-
tered, and laid in cold water for an hour. With them should
go into the boiling fat a large sliced onion. Cook fast but do
not let them scorch.
When they are browned add two quarts of boiling water, cover
the pot, and simmer until the potatoes are soft and broken.
Rub through a colander back into the kettle and stir in a great
spoonful of butter rolled in brown flour, a tablespoonful of
chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 33
In another saucepan make a sugarless custard of a cup of boil-
ing milk and two well-beaten eggs ; take from the fire and beat
fast for one minute, put into a heated tureen, beat in the potato,
and serve. This is a German puree, and very savory.
PUREE OF SPLIT PEASE.
One quart of split pease soaked in soft water all night ; one
pound of streaked salt pork, cut into thin strips; two pounds of
beef-bones cracked well ; two stalks of celery, and one onion,
chopped ; salt and pepper to taste ; four quarts of cold water ; a
sliced lemon. Put soaked pease, pork, bones, and vegetables over
the fire, with the water, and boil slowly for four hours, until the
liquid is reduced nearly one-half. Strain through a colander,
rubbing the pease into a pure into the vessel below. Season,
simmer ten minutes over the fire, and pour over the lemon, sliced
and pared and laid in the tureen.
If the soup is watery, bind with a brown roux stirred in before
the last simmer.
PUREE OF MOCK TURTLE SOUP BEANS.
One quart of mock turtle soup beans ; one onion chopped ;
four stalks of celery, cut small ; two quarts of liquor in which
corned beef has boiled; pepper; dice of fried bread; two
lemons ; one quart of cold water ; one tablespoonful of butter
rolled in flour. Soak the beans over night. In the morning
pour on a quart of cold water, and set them where they will
heat for an hour without burning. Stir up often from the
bottom. At the end of this time add the beef liquor (after tak-
ing off the fat), the onions, and the celery. Cook gently three
hours until the beans are boiled to pieces. Strain, rubbing
through a colander, season, put back into the kettle, boil up,
season with pepper, stir in the butter rolled in flour. Simmer
five minutes, and pour upon the fried bread in the tureen. Pare
the lemons, slice thin, and lay on the surface of the soup before
serving.
34 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
GREEN PEA AND TOMATO PUREE.
Cook one pint of green pease and the same of tomatoes, and a
small onion, one hour in a quart of weak stock. Rub through a
colander. Return to the fire with two tablespoon fuls of butter
rubbed into one of flour, a teaspoonful of sugar and a teaspoon ful
of minced parsley.
Boil five minutes, and pour upon a handful of fried bread-dice
in the bottom of your tureen.
RICE AND CURRY PUREE.
Boil, in a quart of heated chicken stock, a half cupful of soaked
raw rice, a minced onion, and a tablespoonful of chopped pars-
ley, for half an hour, or until the rice is tender. Stir in a good
teaspoonful of curry powder ; cook one minute, and turn into a
tureen.
A pleasing accompaniment to this, or any preparation of
curry, is an ice-cold banana, laid with a silver fruit-knife at each
place. The eater strips back the skin and takes a slice of the
cooling fruit between every few mouthfuls of the pungent curry.
This is an East Indian fashion and much in favor with all who
have tried it.
OX-TAIL SOUP.
One ox-tail ; one stalk of celery ; one onion, sliced ; one car-
rot, : cut into dice ; two tablespoon fuls of butter ; two quarts of
weak stock ; pepper, salt, and chopped parsley ; a sprig of
thyme ; one bay leaf.
Fry the tail, cut into joints, in the butter ; take them out and
fry the onions and the carrots in the same. Cover with the stock
and cook slowly for four hours. Season and turn into a covered
bowl or crock to get cold. When several hours have elapsed,
take off the cake of fat ; warm the stock slightly and strain
through a colander, reserving a few joints to drop into the soup.
Heat to a boil, color with caramel, and serve.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 35
CALFS HEAD, OR MOCK TURTLE, SOUP.
One calf s head ; one cupful of strained tomatoes ; four table-
spoonfuls of butter made into a dark roux with a like quantity
of browned flour ; five quarts of cold water ; one sliced onion
and a grated carrot ; one large tablespoon ful of caramel ; one
teaspoonful of allspice ; one saltspoonful of paprica ; a bunch
of soup herbs ; salt to taste ; juice of a lemon ; glass of brown
sherry.
Boil the head until the meat leaves the bones, and let it get
cold in the water. Leave it thus until the next day, when take
out the head, scrape off the jelly, and extract the bones. Set
aside the meat from the cheeks and skull to be cut into dice,
and reserve, also, the tongue. Return the jellied stock with the
bones, the coarser parts of the meat, and the ears (chopped),
the soup herbs, the scraped carrot, the onion (which should pre-
viously be fried in butter), and the seasoning. Cook steadily
one hour. Take out the bones, strain the soup, thicken with the
brown roux ; boil up sharply, drop in the meat and tongue dice,
add lemon -juice and wine, and pour upon the forcemeat balls in
a hot tureen.
The balls are made of the brains, nibbed to a paste with the
yolk of a hard-boiled egg, stiffened with a little browned flour,
bound with a raw yolk, then rolled in browned flour and set in a
quick oven until a crust forms that will hinder them from break-
ing in the hot liquid.
This is a delicious and an elegant company soup.
GUMBO. (No. J.)
One quart of strong chicken stock ; two slices of corned ham,
cut into small bits ; one pint of strained tomatoes ; two dozen
okra pods. Paprica and salt to taste. One onion, sliced and
fried in a tablespoonful of butter.
Cook ham, fried onion, and sliced okra in the stock until the
okra is tender ; season and turn out.
36 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
GUMBO. (No. 2.)
Joint a tender fowl, wash well, and roll in salted flour, then
fry in good dripping with a sliced onion to a light brown. Or
you may fry half a pound of sliced salt pork with the onion,
strain out the fat and cook the chicken in it, until tender and
ready to fall to pieces. Add now a cupful of strained tomatoes,
season with salt and paprica or cayenne, and when the boil is
again reached, put in two dozen fine okra-pods sliced, and cook
half an hour after the boil is reached.
The " far-Southerners " do not consider gumbo perfect with-
out a teaspoonful of sassafras powder, or two or three teaspoon -
fuls of chopped sassafras leaves, an addition that is hardly con-
sidered an improvement by the uninitiated palate.
GffiLET SOUP.
Heat one quart of chicken stock. You can utilize for this the
liquor in which a fowl has been boiled, or that in which the car-
casses of cooked fowls have been boiled for hours. When it
boils, stir in the finely minced giblets of two fowls with a little
chopped parsley, cook half an hour and thicken with two table-
spoonfuls of brown roux. Season judiciously.
This popular soup is made still better if force-meat balls of
hard-boiled yolks, rubbed to a paste with a little butter, bound
with a raw egg and rolled in browned flour, be dropped in one
minute before the soup leaves the fire.
LIVER SOUP.
A palatable and inexpensive soup is made of one quart of
stock, obtained by boiling four slices of corned lean ham, or a
corned ham-bone, with a sliced onion in two quarts of water un-
til it is reduced one-half. Chop the ''left-overs" of fried or
stewed liver fine with a little ham, and add to the stock. Sea-
son to taste ; thicken with a-brown roux, and pour upon a hand-
ful of croutons in the bottom of the tureen. The heart, that
THE NATIONAL COOK ROQK 37
usually comes with the liver, if boiled tender in the ham -stock,
may be minced and added. Any slices of fried breakfast bacon
left in the pantry, if chopped fine, will improve the flavor. If
while on the look-out for " left-overs," you espy a cold boiled,
fried, or poached egg on the shelf, mince it, and let it also go
into the soup. Season with pepper and minced parsley. You
will be surprised to find how good the product of the hunt
proves to be.
RABBIT OR "OLD HARE" SOUP.
One rabbit, jointed as for fricassee. One-half pound of salt
pork, minced finely. One large onion, also chopped. One
stalk of celery, and chopped parsley. A teaspoonful of Worces-
tershire sauce ; a tablespoonful of tomato-catsup ; a glassful of
brown sherry ; the juice of half a lemon ; two tablespoon fu Is of
good dripping, and a heaping tablespoonful of brown roux.
Salt and pepper to taste. One gallon of water.
Fry the onion in the dripping, and when lightly browned,
add the pieces of rabbit, cover with cold water and cook very
slowly for four hours, or until the meat is in rags. Season with
salt and pepper. Let all get cold together. Skim off the fat ;
strain through a coarse cloth, return to the fire and when it boils
thicken with the roux; put in the catsup, wine, lemofi-juice,
and, if you fancy, a pinch of ground allspice. If not brown
enough, color with a little caramel.
Pass Huntley & Palmer's dinner-biscuit with it. You can
cook gray squirrel in this way, and indeed tough game of almost
any kind grouse, wild ducks, etc.
MULLIGATAWNEY SOUP.
One qtlart of chicken, veal, or calf s-head broth. One small
onion, minced. A pinch of mace. Half a cupful of soaked
rice. Juice of a lemon. One generous tablespoonful of brown
roux. One teaspoonful of curry powder. Salt to taste. One
teacupful of strained tomato-juice.
38 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Cook the rice half an hour in the broth with the onion and
tomato-juice. Stir in seasoning, lemon-juice, and roux, lastly the
curry powder. Boil one minute, and serve.
Send around ice-cold bananas with this dish.
CREAM OF OYSTER SOUP.
One quart oyster liquor. Two dozen oysters. One quart
milk. Two tablespoonfuls butter. Two tablespoonfuls flour.
Juice of half a lemon. Salt, pepper, and a tiny pinch of mace.
Heat the milk and the strained oyster liquor in separate ves-
sels. -Rub the butter and flour together, cook them in a sauce-
pan until they bubble, and pour on them the hot milk, stirring
until the mixture is thick and smooth. Add the oyster liquor,
drop in the oysters and cook three minutes. Season and serve
at once, adding the lemon-juice after the soup is in the tureen.
CLAM SOUP
is m#de in the same way, using only the soft parts of the clams
and cooking them half an hour in the liquor.
OYSTER BISQUE. (Deliciotis.)
Strain the liquor from a quart of oysters into a porcelain or
agate-iron saucepan, and set over the fire. Chop the oysters
quite fine and having seasoned the liquor with paprica or cay-
enne and salt, stir in the chopped oysters, and bring to a steady
boil. Have ready in another saucepan a cupful of hot milk into
which put a great spoonful of butter rolled in a teaspoonful
(even) of corn-starch, and half a cupful of finely powdered crack-
ers. Boil one minute, pour into the tureen, add the oyster soup,
and serve.
You may, if you like, enrich this soup by beating an egg into
the thickened milk. Do not forget to drop a bit of soda into
this last while heating it.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 39
OYSTER BISQUE A LA REINE.
Make as directed in the foregoing recipe, but add a pint of
strained chicken-broth to the oyster-liquor, and stir into the milk
and crumbs half a cup of finely minced white chicken meat.
Season also with parsley as well as with salt and pepper. The
beaten egg must always go into this bisque, than which there is
no better.
CLAM BISQUE.
Make as you would oyster bisque, but cook the chopped
clams for fifteen minutes after the boil is reached, and add to
the liquor a cupful of good stock, beef, lamb, or veal. Clams
are less rich than oysters in themselves.
FLORIDA CLAM BISQUE.
Drain the liquor from fifty clams and put it over the fire with
a pint of veal stock (chicken is even better), a teaspoonful of
minced onion, the same of carrot dice, a bay leaf, a stalk of cel-
ery and a little chopped parsley. Cook fifteen minutes after it
begins to boil, strain out the vegetables and add two tablespoon-
fuls of soaked rice to the liquor. Cook twenty minutes, put in
the clams chopped fine, and simmer twenty minutes more before
putting into a tureen, where you have already a cupful of hot milk
thickened with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in corn-starch.
This mixture should have been cooked in a vessel set in boiling
water for ten minutes before it went into the tureen. You may
have a handful of croutons, i.e., fried bread dice, also in the
tureen.
LOBSTER BISQUE.
Meat of one boiled lobster, or a can of preserved lobster ; one
quart of milk ; one quart of boiling water ; one cupful of rolled
cracker ; four tablespoon fuls 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
40 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
through the colander back into the water. Cut the rest of the
lobster-meat into dice, and pour 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.
FISH BISQUE.
A delicious soup may be made of halibut or any other good
white fish that has not too many bones in it. Even fresh cod
that has been cooked in two waters will do for this dish.
Heat a quart of good stock to a boil. The water in which
halibut has been cooked may be used if you have no other, but
veal, or beef, or chicken is better. As soon as it boils, stir in
the fish, minced finely, and freed from fat, skin, and bones.
Add pepper, salt, a little chopped parsley, and a great spoonful
of butter. Have in another kettle a cup of milk, heated to
scalding, stir into it a tablespoonful of white roux and half
a cupful of pounded cracker. Boil up once, pour into the tu-
reen. When the fish has cooked five minutes after the butter
goes in, stir into the thickened milk and serve.
An egg, well-beaten into the milk and crumbs with an egg-
whip before the mixture is turned out of the saucepan is an im-
provement to this excellent bisque.
Cold fish can be thus utilized with satisfactory results.
SALMON BISQUE.
Salmon "left-overs" or canned salmon steak is very nice
treated according to directions given in the last recipe. Pass
sliced lemon with it.
CREAMED CLAM BISQUE.
Chop twenty-five clams fine and cook for half an hour in
their own liquor and a cupful of boiling water in which an onion
has been cooked and then strained out. Have, in another sauce-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 41
pan, a cupful of milk and the same of cream, with a bit of soda no
larger than a pea. When it boils, stir in two large tablespoon-
fuls of butter, cooked to a white roux with one of flour. Cook
three minutes, take from the fire and beat in, until you have a
creamy mixture, the yolks of three well-whipped eggs. Set this
mixture in a pot of boiling water, and stir steadily for two min-
utes, then pour into the tureen. Season the chopped clams with
paprica, or cayenne, salt, and minced parsley, and turn, smoking
hot, upon the custard in the tureen. Serve at once before it
can curdle.
MARTHA WASHINGTON CRAB SOUP.
Two cupfuls of " picked-out ' ' crab meat. Two quarts of boil-
ing water in which one pound of corned pork has been boiled
one hour. Yolks of two eggs, well beaten. Two cupfuls of
milk half cream if you can get it. Salt and cayenne.
Let the stock made from the pork get perfectly cold ; skim off
the fat and re-heat the liquor ; add the crab meat and cook half
an hour. Heat the milk in a separate sauce-pan ; take from the
fire and pour gradually upon the beaten yolks. Put this into a
bowl and stir in the minced crab with the liquor in which it
was cooked. Season to taste. Set in boiling water for five min-
utes before serving.
Tradition has it that this is the identical recipe used by Mar-
tha Washington when at her tide-water home, The White House,
in New Kent County, Va. The soup made by it fifty years
later is referred to in the following note from ex-President Tyler
to a friend with whom he had dined the preceding day.
" VILLA MARGARET, TUESDAY.
"My DEAR SIR : Will it give Mrs. Cary too much trouble
to furnish me with a recipe for making the delicious crab-soup
she had served up for dinner yesterday? If not, you would
much oblige me by furnishing it to the servant for me.
"Truly yours,
"J. TYLER."
42 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
F.F.T, SOUP.
Fresh-water eels are especially good for this purpose.
Four pounds of eels ; three quarts of water ; one chopped
onion ; minced parsley ; a blade of mace ; pepper, salt and
lemon-juice ; two tablespoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour ; drip-
ping. Clean the eels, removing all the fat, and cut into short
pieces. Fry a chopped onion brown in plenty of dripping ;
wipe the eels dry and fry them in the same. Put into a pot with
the onion and mace, cover with three quarts of cold water, and
stew slowly two hours. Then season ; stir in the floured butter,
simmer three minutes, add the lemon-juice, and pour out.
CLAM CHOWDER, (No. J.)
One-half pound of fat salt pork ; seventy-five clams ; one
onion, parboiled and minced ; one tablespoonful of parsley ;
twelve Boston crackers, split and soaked half an hour in a cup of
milk, slightly warmed ; cold water, pepper and salt. Chop the
pork and sprinkle a layer in the bottom of a pot. Cover this
with the clams, also chopped, season, scatter on it minced on-
ion, and lay in a coating of the split, soaked crackers. Proceed
in this order until the materials are used up ; cover with cold
water and bring to a slow simmer. Cook gently forty* five min-
utes after the bubble begins. Strain the chowder, but do not
shake or press it. Put the clams and crackers into a hot tureen,
the liquor back in the pot, stir in a generous tablespoonful of
fine crumbs, and, if you have it, half a cupful of tomato-juice.
Boil up once and pour over the chowder.
CLAM CHOWDER. (No. 2.)
Fifty ("long") clams, chopped; eight potatoes, peeled,
sliced, and parboiled ; one medium-sized onion, sliced ; two
quarts of fresh tomatoes or a one-quart can ; six pilot-biscuits,
soaked in milk ; half a pound of fat salt pork, minced ; twelve
whole cloves and the same of pepper-corns, tied in a lace or mus-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 43
lin bag ; salt and paprica or cayenne to taste ; two quarts of cold
water. A generous teaspoonful of butter cut up in flour.
Fry the pork in your soup-pot, and when it has made enough
fat, put in the sliced onion, and cook to a light brown. Pour in
the water upon this, add all the other ingredients except the
chopped clams and the soaked biscuits, and cook, closely cov-
ered and steadily for three hours before clams and biscuits are
put into the pot. Cook half an hour longer after the boil re-
commences ; stir in the floured butter, boil up well and serve.
Pass sliced lemon and crackers with it. It is extremely nice and
always popular.
CLAM AND OYSTER CHOWDER,
A Maryland Tidewater Recipe.
Thirty clams. The hard part is thrown away and the soft
part chopped. Two large onions, minced ; eight potatoes
sliced and parboiled; one quart of tomatoes, peeled and cut
small ; thirty fine oysters (drained), served whole. Season with
salt, cayenne, and Worcestershire or Harvey's sauce. One pint
of cold water ; half a pound of chopped salt pork ; butter.
Fry the pork in the soup-pot ; add everything else except the
oysters, and cook, covered, for three hours. Stir in then a table-
spoonful of butter rolled in browned flour, cook one minute, drop
in the oysters, simmer for ten minutes and serve.
FISH CHOWDER. (No. J.)
Two pounds firm fish, cod, halibut, or haddock ; four pota-
toes, peeled, sliced, and parboiled ; one large onion ; one quart of
hot water ; one-half pound of fat salt pork, chopped ; two cupfuls
of milk and two tablespoonfuls of butter ; six Boston crackers,
or " water thin " biscuits. Pepper, salt, and parsley.
Put the chopped pork into the soup-kettle and fry crisp. Add
the onion and color lightly. Lay in this fat the fish, cut into
inch-dice, the sliced parboiled potatoes and bits of the fried
44 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
pork and onion in layers ; season as you go. Cover with boil-
ing water and cook half an hour.
Heat the milk separately ; butter the crackers well and break
them into the milk. When they are soft, cover the bottom of a
deep platter with them, pepper and salt them, put the chowder
upon them and pour the rest of the milk on top.
FISH CHOWDER. (No. 2.)
Use the same ingredients as above with the addition of a pint
of sliced tomatoes, laid upon the strata of fish, etc.
Instead of breaking the crackers up in the milk, heat the
butter and milk together, soak the crackers thoroughly in it,
and when the chowder is dished, lift them carefully and arrange
them like a crust upon the pile. In taking up the chowder, re-
serve half a cupful of gravy ; stir into it a tablespoonful of butter
rolled in flour, add what milk you have left, heat for one minute
and pour, spoonful by spoonful, over the crackers.
A NEW JERSEY CHOWDER*
Six mealy potatoes, parboiled and sliced ; one-half pound of
sweet firm salt pork, cut into dice ; one good-sized onion, sliced;
two cupfuls of milk the richer the better ; two cupfuls of boil-
ing water; one heaping tablespoonful of butter rolled in one
of flour. Pepper and celery -salt to taste. Chopped parsley.
Fry the pork and onion together in a pan. Arrange potatoes,
fried pork, and onion in neat layers, and sprinkle with parsley,
seasoning all with pepper and salt. Upon the top pour the hot
fat from the frying-pan ; cover with boiling water and cook
gently half an hour. Take out the potatoes with a skimmer and
lay in a vegetable dish. Have ready the milk heated to boiling
and thickened with the floured butter ; add to the liquor in the
pot, boil one minute and pour over the potatoes.
A savory and an economical dish.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 45
FAMILIAR TALK*
THE DIGNITY OF ECONOMY.
Byron, coarse in thought, word, and deed, in spite of gentle
blood and genius, called miserliness " the amiable vice of gen-
tlemen."
Like some other sayings intended to be severely sarcastic, it
sets us to searching for the grain of serious truth buried in the
bushel of chaff. Economy at its extreme is an honester virtue
than the extreme of extravagance, and more humane. It would
be a curious study to trace the crooked, unlikely ways by which
the eternal principle enunciated by Him whose were, and are, all
things that were ever made " Gather up the fragments, that
nothing be wasted" has been reversed in general belief and
practice. In all the universe of God not one atom is squan-
dered. The decay of to-day feeds the growth of to-morrow ; the
many littles are wrought, each in its way, time, and place, into
the mighty whole.
Coming down to human enterprises where public interests are
involved, we commend the wise economy that looks narrowly
after minute expenditures. No contempt mingles with the admi-
ration with which we read that the sweepings of the mint are
treasured and appraised, the clothing and shoes of operatives
dusted before they leave the rooms in which the coin is filed and
burnished."
" The management of the concern is faultless," said one of a
corporation that counts its gains by the million. " Not a post-
age stamp is wasted."
It is only when we descend to individual action that lavish-
ness becomes fine and frugality mean. He who manipulates
hundreds of thousands of dollars may be scrupulous in the matter
of wasted pennies. He who counts his earnings by units, rises
in the estimation of his fellows when he trumpets the boast that
" he may be poor, but he won't be mean ! "
46 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
I heard, the other day, a young fellow who has his fortune to
make, read aloud to a circle an anecdote of the Dowager-Em-
press of Germany, when she was Crown Princess, illustrative, said
the paper that gave it, of hereditary parsimony, her mother, the
Queen of England, being cited as " the stingiest old lady in her
realm." The story set forth that the princess, soon after she
took possession of her own palace, noted, one day, that a roast
chicken which had been taken off the royal table untouched had
not reappeared at any subsequent meal, and inquired what had
become of it. It was represented to her that all the whole " left-
overs " were among the perquisites of the butler-in-chief.
" By whose order? " demanded the royal housewife.
" By the custom of immemorial age," was the reply.
" It should be discontinued," said the princess. " If his sal-
ary is insufficient, let him report the fact. He has no right to
meddle with what does not belong to him."
The outcry from the audience was unanimous, and renewed
when an elderly woman asked, quietly, " What is a perquisite? "
Webster, when consulted, gave: "An allowance paid in
money or things beyond the ordinary salary or fixed wages, for
services rendered."
"Then," proceeded the protestant, "unless the princess to
whom the fowl belonged by right of purchase agreed to allow
him the left-over, it was not a perquisite. What was it, then ?
Her property, or his ? If he did not buy it, and it was not
given to him didn't he steal \\."> "
The plain talk brought out the sentiment of the party. It
was me^n, it was niggardly, it was vulgar in a woman of wealth
and rank to stoop to such a petty economy ! It argued a small
soul and a grasping disposition.
My old friend spoke but twice, in answer, and with no haste
of self-vindication.
Once she said, "It is not the value, but the/#<r/ of the saving
that makes it right and a duty."
And again, " Economy and elegance are compatible. Wan-
ton waste is always vulgar. ' '
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 47
One at least, of those who listened, will not forget the brace
of apothegms. There was arrant vulgarity in Byron's and Shel-
ley's manufacture of toy-skiffs out of five-pound notes, and pre-
tension as tawdry in the practice imputed to an American de-
faulter, by a witness in court, who testified that he was "a
free-handed gentleman, and would give a five-dollar tip to a
restaurant-waiter where most men would give a quarter." The
most ignoble trait attributed to a distinguished divine, now de-
ceased, was that he never knew the worth of money or how to
take care of it yet the admirers who cite the amiable peculi-
arity seem never to suspect that the admission belittles their
idol.
Another clergyman, almost as eminent in his generation, on
one occasion digressed from the main matter of a lecture to
amuse an audience by ridicule of poor Richard's "A penny
saved is a penny got," and the alliterative proverb, "Wilful
waste makes woful want." There were people present whose
laughter would have been more whole-hearted had he not been
in debt to them for dollars they were not likely ever to get or
save; and others who could not smile for very contempt of a
man who borrowed money with a laugh to squander with both
hands upon pet luxuries and pet charities (?).
Judicious economy is many besides my elderly friend being
witnesses altogether compatible with elegance. It is significant
that those who have for years had wealth and the refinements of
daily living which wealth commands, are more apt to spend
money sensibly, and to take care of their costly possessions, than
the nouveaux riches.
"She cannot see a thing without wanting to buy it," said a
shrewd woman of a fellow-traveller in the Old World. " I know
nothing of her antecedents, but I venture the assertion that she
has not always been used to having plenty of money to spend."
The inference was severe, -but just, and of wide application.
The solution of the terrible problem of broken china, and wasted
provisions in pantry and kitchen, lies, for the most part, just
here. She who has eaten from wooden platters and drunk from
48 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
stone mugs until she crossed the sea to draw high wages for
underdone labor, will handle old Indian china and cut-glass as
she used platter and mug, and, poor fool ! so far imitates our
shoddy dame, as to imagine that she proves her "quality"
by such brutish indifference to the worth of what she abuses.
Write it down, young housewife, as an adage that will endure
any degree of strain, that people who have been accustomed to
have and use the best of everything, take the best care of the
same. Walter Raleigh had spent a month's income upon the
first handsome cloak he ever owned, yet scrupled not to throw
it down to bridge the puddle for the feet of his dainty queen. A
member of the ancien regime who had had fine cloaks enough to
know how to rate them aright, would have looked about for a
board or a big stone, and proved his breeding by his prudence.
" Maggie ! " exclaimed a housekeeper, rescuing six large po-
tatoes from the parings the cook was about to cast into the swill-
pail " you surely are not going to throw these away ? "
"An' why not, mum? There's four barrels full of 'em in
the cellar! "
No need of further proof that Maggie had not been bred to
the sight of potatoes by the barrelful. For like reason, she
thinks it " mane to save drippin' when there's lashin's o' but-
ter in the pantry," and burns the bread-crusts she " hasn't the
face to offer" to the beggar at your gate. The " dhrop o'
crame " left in the jug after your breakfast, the scarcely cut
butter-ball from the "individual" plate; the spoonful of po-
tato in one dish, the cupful of tomato in another, and all the
gravy and soup left from the family and kitchen tables, go into
what should figure as the vulgar housewife's coat-of-arms the
garbage-pail.
If it were only such as Maggie and her compeers who con-
found wastefulness and generosity, thrift and meanness, the
pity and the shame would be so much the less that we might
hope to lift the stigma of undignified prodigality from American
households. Some mistresses are weak enough to stand in awe
of the tribe of locusts who ravage the home-tract. A woman
THE NATIONAL COO AT BOOK 49
who would seem, judging from my stand -point, to have sense
enough to make her own ground, and strength enough to hold it,
confided to me that she dared not enforce economy in her
kitchen lest she should lose the respect of her servants.
"That class has an overweening reverence for riches," she
represented. " Were I to look after candle-ends and soup-
stock, they would set me down as poverty-stricken, and esteem
my authority accordingly. They have their own code of laws,
and enforce it. For instance, we had an unusually large turkey
for dinner, the other day. Our family is small, and when it was
carried out after its second appearance upon our table, so much
of the fowl remained that I meditated a dish of scalloped turkey
for lunch the next day. It was Friday, and I knew none would
be eaten in the kitchen. Next morning, I asked for the rem-
nant, and was told that it had been thrown away. Expostulat-
ing upon the extravagance, I was met with, ' It's the rule in the
best families, mem, that a dish isn't to be called for after the
second sending in to the family's table.' The price of vigi-
lance on the part of our native housewives is eternal warfare and
incessant change. Does it pay ? "
I replied with a bit of serpent-like wisdom learned of and for
myself, years ago, that may strengthen other weak sisters, and be
a stepping-stone to the right comprehension of the true dignity
of economy. Maggie is not so simple as you might think. She
has a reserve of shrewdness which leads her to respect rich peo-
ple who respect riches. Once give her to understand that you
have money and to spare but that you do not mean to spare
it ; that you value it as highly as she can, therefore are deter-
mined to save it when you can. She may despise the poor I
never saw one of her kind who did not but she holds in honor
her who has, but withholds that she may have the more.
Catch her with this guile, if you will, but put your better-
taught, better-purposed self to school in the practical lore out-
lined by our elderly mentor :
" Economy and elegance are compatible. Wanton waste is
always vulgar ." M. H.
FISH,
BROILED SHAD.
THIS is the simplest, and is considered by some epicures to be
the best, way of preparing a justly popular fish.
Clean and wash the shad, doing the last quickly, over a pan
of cold water, not in it. Even a minutes' bath in the liquid in-
jures the exquisite flavor of the fish. Split it down the back,
wipe perfectly dry and rub all over, inside and out, with oil or
butter to keep it from sticking to the gridiron bars. Broil upon
a double wire broiler over clear coals, turn it every other min-
ute until both sides are lightly and evenly browned ; open the
broiler cautiously, not to tear the fish, and transfer the latter to
a hot dish. Rub all over with a mixture of butter, salt, pepper,
and lemon-juice : garnish with parsley, cresses, or sliced lemon,
and serve.
A pretty garnish for shad is made by using the half of a
lemon from which the pulp has been taken, leaving an empty
shell. Fill this with a sauce of butter whipped to a cream with
lemon-juice and colored by beating into the mixture enough
finely minced parsley to make it green. Serve one of these
cups of sauce with each portion of fish, and let the eater use it
for himself.
BLUEFISH, FRESH MACKEREL, AND FLOUNDERS,
are cooked the same way as shad.
BAKED SHAD AU COURT BOUILLON.
Bake a plump shad in a " covered roaster " for half an hour
in a steady oven, having just water enough under the grating to
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 5 I
prevent burning. Lift the cover and rub the fish with a mixture
of butter and lemon-juice, pepper and salt ; cover again and cook
until it is done, allowing from the time it goes into the oven fif-
teen minutes per pound.
Now lay the fish upon a hot dish and pour over it a sauce
made by thickening a cupful of good veal stock with a brown
roux, adding this by degrees to the beaten yolks of two eggs
with a dash of lemon-juice. Set the dish containing the sauce
in boiling water for three minutes, but it must not cook. As
soon as it is poured over the fish, serve.
BOILED SHAD WITH EGG SAUCE.
In Lower Virginia, where shad are so abundant for nearly
three months of the year as to be almost "a drug in the mar-
ket," the larger fish are often boiled and, if rightly seasoned, are
not insipid.
Sew the fish up in a piece of thin muslin, or mosquito-netting,
fitted to the shape, and cook ten minutes to the pound in boiling
water to which a tablespoonful of vinegar has been added for
every two quarts. When done, clip the threads, unwrap the
shad carefully and dish, pouring a gpod egg sauce over it, and
sending in more in a gravy-boat.
To make the sauce, whip into a cupful of hot drawn-butter,
one raw egg, and one hard-boiled and chopped very fine. Add
a little minced parsley and a teaspoonful of capers, set in boiling
water for five minutes, stirring often, and it is ready for use.
BOILED SHAD AU COURT BOUILLON.
The foreign touch is given to this and other large fish fit for
boiling by cooking them in stock made thus :
Chop coarsely an onion, a carrot, and a stalk of celery, and fry
them in two tablespoonfuls of nice beef-dripping or in butter.
Pour over them in the pot two quarts of boiling water, two
tablespoonfuls of vinegar or white wine, season with a blade of
mace, four or five whole peppercorns, two cloves, a bay leaf (if
52 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
you can get it), and salt. Boil all together for half an hour, hard,
strain, and cook the fish in the hot liquid.
Serve with butter, or egg sauce. Garnish with slices of hard-
boiled eggs.
FRIED SHAD.
Clean, wash, and wipe the fish, split down the back, and cut
each side crosswise into four pieces, about as wide as your four
fingers laid closely together. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and
dip in beaten egg, then in salted cracker-dust, and leave in a
cold place for an hour that the coating may stiffen. Fry in
plenty of hot fat (clarified dripping will do) to a yellow-brown ;
shake the fat from each piece and serve upon a hot folded nap-
kin laid on a hot platter. Garnish with cresses or lemon slices.
PLANKED SHAD.
A Potomac Delicacy.
At the river picnics that gave this dish renown, it used to be
cooked upon a plank set up at a sharp slant before a blazing wood-
fire. The fish was pinned fast to the board with skewers, or
even tin-tacks, and basted plentifully while cooking. Those
who fancy that the flavor of shad prepared for eating in this
primitive fashion can be gained in no other way, may be glad to
know that a hard, well-seasoned hickory or oaken board, that
will fit into a range-oven, will gratify their caprice.
Heat the plank very hot, turning it several times ; skewer the
fish, salted and peppered and buttered, to the board, skin down-
ward, and set in a moderate oven for half an hour, basting three
times with butter, at intervals of ten minutes. Serve upon the
plank, twisting a napkin about the edge as the board lies upon the
platter, or binding the wood with a wreath of parsley or cresses.
SHAD ROES.
As soon as the fish is cleaned, wash the roes, pur into a sauce-
pan with a slice of onion and a teaspoonful of minced parsley,
cover them with boiling water slightly salted, and cook them for
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 53
fifteen minutes. Let them get perfectly cold in the liquor, take
them out, wipe dry, roll in beaten egg and cracker-dust, and
fry in butter to a light brown. Remove to a hot dish, strain
the liquor in which they were boiled into the frying-pan, stir in
a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, and the same of good cat-
sup and heat to a boil. Thicken with a brown roux, add a
small wineglassful of sherry, and pour over the roes.
CROQUETTES OF SHAD ROE.
Scald the roes in boiling salted water in which you have put a
tablespoonful of vinegar. Cook them in this for fifteen minutes
and drop them into ice-cold water to stiffen and blanch. Break
them apart with the back of a silver spoon, taking care not to
crush them. They should look like so many tiny grains when
you have done.
Have ready a cupful of hot milk thickened with two table-
spoonfuls of white roux, and seasoned with salt and pepper.
Cook for three minutes, add the roes, and cook two minutes
after the boil begins. Take from the range and add gradually
to two well-beaten eggs in a bowl with seasoning to taste. A
dash of lemon-juice and a little anchovy paste will give piquancy.
Set in a pan of boiling water over the fire and stir three or four
minutes longer. Pour out upon a broad dish and set away until
stiff and cold, when mould into croquettes ; roll in egg and
cracker-dust and let them stand in a cold place for at least one
hour before frying in deep cottolene.
They make an appetizing luncheon dish.
BROILED SHAD ROES.
Drop the roes into boiling salted water, cook gently for ten
minutes and transfer them to ice-water for ten minutes more to
blanch and make them firm. Wipe and set them on the ice
until cold and stiff. Rub all over with oil and lemon-juice, or
vinegar, and broil over clear coals. When dished, cover with a
sauce made of butter whipped light with lemon-juice and minced
parsley.
54 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
SCALLOPED SHAD ROES,
Roes of two shad ; one cupful of drawn butter and yolks of three
hard-boiled eggs ; one teaspoonful of anchovy paste or essence ;
one teaspoonful of parsley ; juice of half a lemon ; one cupful of
bread-crumbs ; salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Boil the roes
in salted water ; lay in cold five minutes, then wipe dry. Break
them up with the back of a silver spoon into a granulated heap.
Pound the hard-boiled eggs to a powder. Beat this into the
drawn butter, then the parsley and other seasoning ; lastly, mix
in the roes. Strew the bottom of a buttered dish with bread-
crumbs, put in the mixture, spread evenly, and cover with very
fine crumbs. Stick bits of butter thickly over the top, cover
and bake in a quick oven until bubbling hot. Brown, uncov-
ered, on the upper grating of the oven.
STUFFED SHAD.
Clean, wash and dry, stuff and sew up as you would a fowl.
Dredge with salt, pepper, and flour ; lay four or five very thin
slices of salt pork in the baking-pan (a "covered roaster" if
you have it), place the fish upon them, cover with more sliced
pork (you cannot get it too thin) pour in half a cupful of boiling
water, and bake twelve minutes to the pound.
Serve with browned butter sauce, seasoned with lemon-juice
and a glass of claret.
STUFFING FOR THE FISH.
Rub a good tablespoonful of butter into a cupful of cracker-
crumbs ; wet with a teaspoonful of onion-juice ; mince a dozen
capers and a little parsley, and mix in well with salt and pepper ;
Or
Put a good spoonful of dripping pork, beef, or veal into a fry-
ing-pan and cook in it, when hot, half an onion, minced fine.
Wet up a cupful of dry, fine bread-crumbs with hot milk, and
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 55
stir, next, into the frying-pan. Season with pepper, salt, and
lemon-juice, beat to a mush ; take from the fire and whip in the
yolk of a raw egg.
BOILED BASS.
Put enough water in the pot for the fish to swim in easily.
Add half a cupful of vinegar, a teaspoonful of salt, an onion, a
dozen black peppers, and a blade of mace. Sew up the fish in a
piece of clean mosquito netting, fitted to its shape. Heat slowly
for the first half hour, then boil twelve minutes to the pound,
quite fast. Unwrap, and pour over it a cup of drawn butter,
based upon the liquor in which the fish was boiled, with the
juice of half a lemon stirred into it. Garnish with sliced lemon.
GRILLED BASS.
Ask your fishmonger to take out the backbone without splitting
the fish apart. Season with salt and pepper, roll in egg and
pounded cracker, and fry whole in hot fat. Salad oil is best for
this purpose, if you would have the fish very nice.
Garnish with sliced lemon.
BLUEFISH FILLETS.
Have the backbone taken out, and cut the fish cross-wise into
pieces about two inches in width. Leave them in a mixture of
olive oil and lemon-juice for half an hour ; then dip in beaten
egg and coat thickly with pounded crackers salted and peppered,
and set them in a refrigerator for an hour before frying them in
deep fat.
Garnish with parsley and serve with lemon or a sauce tartare,
or a mayonnaise dressing
BAKED HALIBUT.
Lay the piece of fish in cold salt and water for an hour to
draw out the fish-oil flavor so unpleasant to most palates. Wipe
dry, score the skin on top, and put into your baking-pan. Pour a
cupful of boiling water over it, cover and bake twelve minutes to
the pound, basting four times, and generously, with melted butter
56 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and lemon-juice into which you have squeezed a teaspoonful of
onion-juice.
Transfer the fish, when done, to a hot dish, cover and set over
boiling water while you stir into the liquor it has left in the pan
a teaspoonful of catsup, and two tablespoon fuls of brown roux,
adding hot water should it be too thick, finally, a glass of claret.
Strain a few spoonfuls over the fish, the rest into a gravy-boat.
HALIBUT STEAKS (BOILED AU GRATIN).
Lay them in salt and water for an hour ; wipe dry and rub
all over with oil and lemon-juice, leaving them, when anointed,
in a cold place for half an hour. Then put into a covered bak-
ing-pan ; pour over them a cupful of fish stock if you have it, or
court bouillon, or boiling water into which has been squeezed a
teaspoonful of onion-juice and then, melted, a tablespoonful of
butter. Cover and cook twelve minutes to the pound. At the
last, sprinkle thickly with fine, dry browned crumbs, and let
these form into a crust.
Serve with sauce tartare.
HALIBUT STEAKS (BROILED).
Lay in salt and water for an hour, wipe dry, rub on both sides
with olive oil and lemon-juice, and broil over clear coals. Trans-
fer to a hot dish, baste with butter and lemon-juice, plentifully,
cover, let them stand in an open oven for three minutes and
serve.
HALIBUT STEAK A LA JARDINIERE.
Leave in salt and water for one hour, wipe dry, rub melted
butter on both sides of the steak and lay upon some rings of
onion in your covered roaster. About the steak lay a parboiled
carrot cut into dice, half a dozen small tomatoes, peeled but whole ;
a green pepper sliced, and half a cupful of green peas, each veg-
etable in its own place and separate from the rest. Add just
enough hot water (salted) to keep the fish from scorching, put a
tablespoonful of butter on top and bake covered, twelve minutes
to the pound, basting three times.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 57
Dish upon a hot platter, the vegetables laid in heaps about
the fish ; add a little white wine to the liquor left in the pan
with a teaspoonful of browned flour rolled in butter, boil up
once and send in as a sauce.
BOILED SALMON.
Sew up the fish in a piece of thin muslin, or mosquito-netting,
fitted well to it, and boil in salted boiling water to which two
tablespoonfuls of vinegar have been added. Take off the cloth
carefully when the fish has boiled twelve minutes to the pound,
and lay upon a hot platter. Pour over it a few spoonfuls of egg
sauce into which has been stirred a tablespoonful of capers, and
serve the rest in a gravy-boat.
Garnish with nasturtiums, or parsley, or cresses.
BOILED SALMON AU COURT BOUILLON.
Put a great spoonful of butter into a frying-pan and when it
hisses, add a minced carrot, an onion also cut small, and a stalk
of celery cut into inch lengths. Add half a cupful of vinegar,
four whole black peppers, four cloves, a bay-leaf, a sprig of pars-
ley, and three pints of boiling water.
Cook, covered, for one hour, strain, pour the liquor into a
fish-kettle, put in the salmon sewed up in coarse muslin, and boil
twelve minutes to the pound.
You can use the same bouillon three times if it has not boiled
away too much to cover the fish. Serve the salmon with a Becha-
mel Sauce (See Sauces), and garnish with nasturtium flowers, pars-
ley, or cress.
SALMON STEAKS.
Cook as you would halibut steaks, but they need not be laid
in salted water first, being more delicate in flesh and flavor.
A PALATABLE SALMON RECHAUFFE AL NAPOLITANO.
This fish is at once so delicious and so expensive that a wise
housewife is careful not to lose so much as an inch of it. A good
58 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
accompaniment to boiled salmon is spaghetti, or some other form
of macaroni, baked with cheese. On the morrow, pick the
bones and skin from the remnants of the fish, and flake it fine
with a silver fork. Cut the cold spaghetti up small and mix with
the fish, seasoning to taste. Have ready in a sauce-pan a cupful
of white sauce, or drawn butter, in which has been beaten an
egg. Perhaps you may have another " left over " in the shape
of the egg sauce that went with yesterday's fish. Heat it to
scalding, put in the fish and macaroni, toss and stir with a sil-
ver fork, now and then, to prevent lumping, but do not beat
the mixture to a pulp or mush. The salmon should keep its in-
dividuality. A few capers in the sauce will give piquancy to the
rechauffe. As soon as it is smoking hot, dish.
If you have no spaghetti on hand, use a handful (not more) of
bread-crumbs. Do not spoil the salmon flavor with mashed
potato.
CANNED SALMON STEAK
is excellent, treated as above. Or, you may broil and dress it
with a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise, or butter and lemon-juice
rubbed together with minced parsley.
Or you may steam it and treat as you would boiled salmon.
Or, still again, divide into cutlets with a keen knife, roll in
egg and cracker-crumbs, set away for two or three hours to
harden, and fry in deep cottolene.
SALMON CROQUETTES.
The remains of yesterday's fish may be used for this, or
canned salmon, as may be convenient.
Flake fine with a silver fork, and season with paprica, or cay-
enne, salt, and a tiny pinch of mace. Heat a cupful of white
sauce in a saucepan, beat into it a raw egg, stir in the picked
salmon and a handful of very dry crumbs. When heated all
through, spread upon a flat dish to cool. It should be cold and
just stiff enough to handle before you mould your Croquettes.
Flour your hands and make a great spoonful of the paste into a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 59
roll two-and-a-half inches long and an inch in diameter, or into
a small cone. Roll this upon a floured dish to get it quite
smooth, dip into beaten egg, then roll in fine cracker-crumbs ; lay
upon a flat dish, lightly floured, not near enough to touch one
another, and set in a cold place for several hours before you fry
them in deep cottolene brought slowly to a boil before they go in.
Croquettes made according to this rule are sure to be good.
Many fail with them because unwilling to take the forethought
to prepare them early enough in the day to insure firmness.
Others get them too stiff. A hard croquette is worse than a
leathery doughnut. You can use almost any kind of cold fish for
this purpose.
SALMON CHOPS.
Prepare a paste precisely as directed for croquettes, and when
cold and stiff, mould into the form of mutton chops. Egg and
crumb them, set in the refrigerator for two hours and fry as
you would croquettes or doughnuts. When they are done,
stick a bit of macaroni in the small end to simulate the chop-
bone.
Send in sauce tartare or tomato sauce with them. Garnish
with sliced lemon.
Halibut, blue-fish, lobster, etc. , may be treated in this way.
FLOUNDER FILLETS.
Have the backbone taken neatly out of the fish, and cut each
half into two long strips. Trim them into uniform size and lay
for an hour in salad oil and lemon-juice, or vinegar, setting the
dish on ice. Roll each fillet then into a coil, the thin end out-
ward, and skewer firmly into place with slivers of wood tooth-
picks will do. Dip in beaten egg, then in cracker-dust, leave
again on the ice for an hour, and fry in hot cottolene. (Bear in
mind that fat for frying should be put into a cold pan, and
brought slowly to the boil.) Shake off every drop of grease, pull
out the skewers carefully, and dish.
Serve with tomato sauce.
60 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
FRIED PERCH, WEAK-FISH, BUTTER-FISH, AND OTHER
PAN-FISH.
The general treatment is the same with all. They can be
floured and fried, but are invariably nicer and more comely
when rolkd in egg and fine crumbs. Clean, wash, and dry them
inside and out; rub with salted and peppered flour, then dip in
egg and roll in cracker-dust, or very dry fine crumbs. Heat
the fat gradually, and have it deep enough to float the fish.
Otherwise they are saute, not fried.
Strain the fat and set it away against you wish to fry other
fish. Unless you are so unfortunate as to let it get scorched,
you can use it more than once.
FILLETS, STEAKS, AND CUTLETS OF FISH SAUTE.
You can use good, sweet dripping for this purpose, or the fat
that runs from a few slices of fat salt pork cooked in a frying-pan.
Lay the fish in olive, oil and lemon for an hour. Rub well
with peppered and salted flour, and set in a cold place for half
an hour. Put into the hot fat, cook steadily until browned on
the lower side, turn with care, and cook the other.
Drain off the fat and serve. Small fish may also be cooked in
this manner.
FRIED SMELTS.
Dip them in milk (or cream is still better), then roll in
salted and peppered flour. Set aside for an hour or more in a
cold place, and fry in hot deep cottolene. Serve upon a folded
napkin, or upon several folds of tissue-paper fringed at the ends.
Pass sauce tartare with them.
BROILED SMELTS.
Ask your fish merchant to split them down the back and
with a narrow, sharp blade, to remove the bone. Perhaps you
can do it neatly, and perhaps not. Broil quickly upon a well-
oiled gridiron; have ready some nice mayonnaise, or butter,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 6 1
lemon, and chopped parsley beaten to a cream; lay the smelts,
skin downward, upon a hot dish ; anoint well with this, and
serve.
Saratoga or Parisienne potatoes should be passed with them.
SCALLOPED FISH.
Heat one cupful of milk to boiling, and stir it gradually into
three tablespoon fu Is of flour rubbed to a cream with two table-
spoonfuls of butter. When it is well mixed set over the fire and
cook, stirring often, three minutes. Add then a teaspoonful of
anchovy sauce, and pour the mixture upon a well-beaten egg.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Pick the fish free from bones and skin, and shred not chop
it fine. Put a layer of fish into a buttered pudding-dish, season,
cover with the sauce ; more fish and more sauce, in alternate
layers, until the materials are used up. Cover with fine, dry
bread-crumbs salted and peppered ; stick bits of butter upon
them, and bake covered until the scallop begins to bubble, when
uncover and brown.
Salmon is especially good prepared in this way, but the re-
mains of any firm fish, boiled or baked, can be scalloped satis-
factorily.
SALMON LOAF.
Pick and flake cold salmon. Canned will do if you can-
not get fresh. Have ready the pounded yolks of two hard-
boiled eggs ; mix with the shredded fish, season with pepper,
salt, a pinch of mace, some minced parsley, and a tablespoonful
of capers, and set aside in a cold place. There should be two
cupfuls of the fish.
Have ready a little fish stock. If you have boiled fresh
salmon for the dish, strain a cupful of the liquor in which it
was cooked. If not, cook half a pound of some other fish, sea-
son, and strain it. Do not use the liquor from canned salmon ;
it is unwholesome and greasy. Heat the stock, add a tablespoon-
ful of lemon-juice and pour upon a tablespoonful of soaked gela-
tine. Return to the fire and stir until scalding hot, mix with the
62 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
fish, and turn into a buttered mould, in which you have arranged
rings of the whites of the boiled eggs in fanciful shapes. Press
the mixture gently but firmly into the mould, put a plate on top,
and a weight upon this, and let it get perfectly cold. Turn out
upon a platter. It should be firm and lightly glazed. Cut into
slices ; lay each slice upon a lettuce leaf, and serve mayonnaise
sauce with it.
SALMON PUDDING,
Pick the fish, add half as much finely crumbed bread, and a
tablespoonful of butter, season with pepper and salt, with a dash
of onion-juice. Beat two eggs light and into these two table-
spoonfuls of cream, and work into the fish mixture. Put all into
a greased mould ; fit on the top and set into a pot of boiling
water. Cook steadily for one hour and a half. Dip the mould
into cold water to loosen the pudding, and invert upon a hot
dish.
Eat with a white sauce, with, if you like, a teaspoonful of an-
chovy and a little lemon-juice stirred into it.
BROOK TROUT.
Clean, wash, and dry the fish, handling tenderly, not to mar
its beauty or flavor, roll in salted and peppered flour, and fry in
deep fat to a delicate brown. Serve upon folded tissue-paper in
a hot-water dish, if you have one. The simpler the seasoning
the better.
GRAYLING.
This second-best of game-fish is cooked as you would cook
trout. In the opinion of some he outranks his better-known
brother in deliciousness. He is found at his best estate in the
Michigan woods, in a river which he has honored with his name.
CREAMED SALMON TROUT.
Having cleaned and washed it, rub all over with butter and
lay in your covered baking-pan with just enough water under the
grating to keep him from burning, and bake ten minutes to the
pound, basting four times and freely with butter and water.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 63
When done, transfer deftly to a heated dish and pour over him
a white sauce made of a cup of cream (a pinch of soda will keep
it from curdling), heated to scalding in an outer vessel of boiling
water, and thickened with a great spoonful of butter rolled in
corn-starch, then cooked one minute. Add a little chopped
parsley to this cream sauce. Cover the dish and leave the gallant
beauty for three minutes to his cream bath, before serving.
CREAMED PICKEREL.
Bake as you would salmon trout.
FRIED PICKEREL.
Clean, wipe dry, roll in salted and peppered flour, or dip in
egg and roll in seasoned cracker-dust, and fry quickly in deep
cottolene or oil brought slowly to the boil.
CAT-FISH (FRIED).
Skin, cut off the heads, season, roll in egg and cracker-crumbs,
and fry in deep cottolene.
You can make an almost elegant affair of the plebeian fish by
treating them, after they are skinned, to a " marinade" of salad
oil and lemon-juice or vinegar, letting them lie in this for half an
hour, then egging and crumbing them before they are fried.
CAT-FISH (STEWED).
Let them lie in cold salt and water for half an hour after skin-
ning them ; put into a saucepan with a tablespoonful of chopped
onion for each pound of fish ; cover with cold water and stew
until they are tender. Take them out, salt, pepper, and butter
them, and keep hot over boiling water, while you add to the
water in which they were cooked, a great spoonful of butter
cooked to a roux with a tablespoonful of flour, and stirred into
three tablespoon fu Is of cream (also hot), and a little chopped
parsley. Stir until it boils, and pour the sauce over the fish.
Let them stand in it for five minutes and serve. A beaten egg
will enrich this sauce.
64 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
BOILED COD.
Lay in salt and water for half an hour ; sew up in coarse, thin
muslin fitted to the shape, and cook ten minutes to the pound,
after the boil begins, in boiling salted water in which a table-
spoonful of vinegar has been mixed. Cut the stitches, remove
the cloth, lay the fish upon a hot platter, rub over with butter
and lemon-juice, pour over it a good egg sauce and serve more
of the same in a boat.
COD-STEAKS.
Leave in salt and water fifteen minutes ; wipe dry and cover
with salad oil and vinegar for half an hour or more. Broil then
upon a well-greased gridiron ; butter well, pepper and salt, and
serve with a garnish of potato-balls, made by beating a raw egg
into mashed potato, forming the paste into balls, rolling them
in flour and setting upon the upper grating of a quick oven to
brown.
SCALLOPED CODFISH (FRESH).
Fry a sliced onion in two tablespoonfuls of butter, strain it
out, return the butter to the pan and stir in two tablespoonfuls
of flour until it bubbles all over. Take from the fire and add
gradually, stirring well, a cupful of hot milk. Season with salt
and paprica, or cayenne.
Whip to a cream, with a little milk and butter, four hot mealy
boiled potatoes, and when light beat in an egg. Fill a deep
dish with alternate layers of cold boiled codfish, picked fine and
seasoned to taste and the sauce just described, and spread the
mashed potato like a crust over the top. Wash the crust with
melted butter and sift finely grated cheese over the butter.
Bake to a light brown in a quick oven and serve in the dish.
HALIBUT LOAF.
Two cupfuls of picked halibut boiled and cold. Two table-
spoonfuls of butter. Two eggs. Four tablespoonfuls of milk or
cream. One tablespoonful of flour, stirred to a roux in the hot
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 65
butter. Pepper, salt, and onion -juice to taste. One teaspoonful
of anchovy paste. Half a can of mushrooms chopped fine.
Chop the fish as fine as it can be made and seasoned ; mix into
this the mushrooms, the roux, and the milk, which should have
been heated and whipped light with the eggs. Pour into a well-
greased mould with a close top, set in a deep pan of hot water
that yet will not float the mould, and cook steadily one hour.
Dip the mould in cold water to loosen the pudding from the
sides, and turn out upon a heated dish.
This excellent side-dish may be made ornamental by cooking
it in a mould that has a funnel in the centre, and when it is
dished, filling the hole in the centre with Parisienne potatoes,
i.e., cut into marble-shaped balls with a potato-gouge, then
boiled. Butter the potato-balls plentifully after they go in, and
sprinkle with pepper and salt.
Any firm fish may be cooked in the same way.
STURGEON STEAKS.
Skin and lay for an hour in cold salt and water. Wipe dry,
let them soak in a marinade of oil and vinegar for an hour.
Broil over clear coals, turning dexterously twice. Butter and
sprinkle with cayenne and garnish with sliced lemon.
BAKED STURGEON.
Prepare as you would the steaks, then parboil for fifteen min-
utes and let it cool, Rub the marinade now well into the flesh
of the fish, and bake, covered, ten minutes to the pound, with
just enough water to prevent burning. Serve with caper sauce.
Or
After the parboiled fish is perfectly cold and has lain in the
marinade half an hour, gash the surface nearly an inch deep
and rub in a forcemeat of bread-crumbs, finely chopped salt
pork, parsley, a little lemon-juice, pepper, and butter. Then
bake.
66 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
STEWED EELS.
Skin and clean, removing all the fat. Cut into inch lengths,
cover with cold water and cook gently three-quarters of an hour.
Season with onion -juice, chopped parsley, pepper and salt, stew
fifteen minutes, and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of white
roux.
FRIED EELS.
Prepare as for stewing ; leave in olive oil and vinegar for half
an hour, pepper and salt ; roll in egg and cracker-dust, and fry
in deep cottolene.
SALT FISH.
BROILED SALT MACKEREL.
Wash and scrape the fish. Soak all night, changing the
water at bed-time for tepid, and again early in the morning for
almost scalding. Keep this hot for an hour by setting the vessel
containing the soaking fish on the side of the range. Wash,
now, in cold water with a stiff brush or rough cloth, wipe per-
fectly dry, rub all over with salad oil and vinegar, or lemon-
juice, and let it lie in this marinade for a quarter of an hour be-
fore broiling it over clear coals.
Lay on a hot dish and spread with a mixture of butter, lemon-
juice, and minced parsley. The mackerel will be so far superior
to that cooked in the old-fashioned way that it will amply repay
you for the trifling additional work.
BOILED MACKEREL.
Wash, scrape, and soak as directed in the last recipe. In the
morning lay in hot water for an hour. Throw this away, put
the fish into a large frying-pan, cover with boiling water, to
which has been added a tablespoonful of vinegar, and simmer
gently for twenty minutes. Dish upon a heated platter and
pour over it a white sauce. Cover it and leave it to stand over
THE NATIONAL COOK ROOK 6/
boiling water for five minutes that the sauce may soak into it,
and it is ready for the table.
SALT MACKEREL WITH TOMATO SAUCE.
Proceed as with boiled mackerel, but when dished, pour over
it, instead of the white sauce, one of tomatoes, stewed, strained,
seasoned with onion-juice, pepper, salt, and sugar, and thickened
with a brown roux of butter and flour. Let the fish lie in this
for ten minutes and serve.
CREAMED CODFISH (SALT).
Soak all night, changing the water several times and having
the last bath quite hot. Boil tender in hot water with a table-
spoonful of vinegar. Take out the bones while hot, and let it
cool before picking or shredding it into fine flakes. Heat a
cupful of milk, stir into it a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one
of flour, cook until it thickens well, take from the fire and add
two beaten eggs. When these are well mixed, add the shredded
fish, and cook two minutes, stirring steadily. A tablespoonful
of minced parsley is an improvement, also, a little lemon-juice.
Season with cayenne or paprica. Serve hot.
SMOKED SALMON.
Soak over night, changing the water three times for warmer.
In the morning rub hard to get rid of the smoke and rust, leave
in ice-water half an hour, wipe dry, rub with olive oil and
vinegar and broil over a clean fire. Pass sliced lemon with it.
A QUICK RELISH OF SMOKED SALMON.
Half a pound of smoked salmon cut into narrow strips ; two
tablespoonfuls of butter ; juice of half a lemon ; cayenne pepper.
Parboil the salmon ten minutes; lay in cold water for the same
length of time ; wipe dry, and broil over a clear fire. Butter
while hot, season with cayenne and lemon-juice, pile in a " log-
cabin " square upon a hot plate, and send up with dry toast.
68 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
SARDINES AU GRATIN.
Lift each fish carefully from the oil in which it was put up,
hold suspended for a moment to let most of the oil drip from it,
squeeze a few drops of lemon-juice upon it and roll in very fine,
peppered, cracker dust. Lay upon a buttered tin, or stoneware
plate, and brown lightly upon the upper grating of a quick oven.
Pass crackers, heated and buttered, and sliced lemon with them.
They are a good luncheon or supper-dish.
SMOKED HERRING, ALEWIVES, BLOATERS, ETC
Wash thoroughly, wipe dry, wrap them in clean, wet manilla
paper, and leave in a quick oven for fifteen minutes. Serve with
sliced lemon.
"FINNAN HADDIE/'
A Scotch delicacy that is becoming popular with us. Wash
thoroughly, leave in cold water half an hour, then for five
minutes in very hot. Wipe, rub over with butter and lemon-
juice and broil fifteen minutes.
CODFISH BALLS.
The purified, shredded codfish, to be bought by the box from
any grocer, is best for these. Soak it for two or three hours,
then boil for fifteen minutes in water that has had a tablespoon-
ful of vinegar stirred into it, and spread upon a sieve to get
cold.
Allow to each cupful of fish half as much mashed potato
whipped to a soft cream. Mix them together well, make very
hot over the fire and beat in a frothed egg for every cupful of
fish. Season with pepper. Let the mixture get quite cold,
make into balls, roll in flour, and set in a cold place to stiffen.
If you wish them for breakfast you will do well to make them
the night before.
Roll again in flour and fry in deep fat to a yellow -brown.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 69
SHELL-FISH.
ROASTED OYSTERS,
Wash thoroughly and lay upon hot coals, or in a shallow pan
on the top of the stove, the deeper shell downward, until they
open wide. Take off the loosened upper shell, carefully, to re-
tain the juice, and lay upon a hot platter, or upon hot plates, a
bit of butter upon each steaming oyster, and send at once to
table. Pass pepper, salt, and sliced lemon, also pepper sauce,
that the eaters may have their choice of seasoning.
CREAMED OYSTERS.
One quart of oysters. One cupful of milk, with a tiny pinch
of soda dissolved in it. One cupful of oyster liquor. Three ta-
blespoonfuls of butter. Two tablespoon fuls of flour. One egg.
Juice of half a lemon. Pepper and salt.
Cook the butter and flour together until they bubble ; add the
milk and the oyster liquor, and stir until you have a thick sauce.
Into this drop the oysters, freed from their liquor. Have ready
an egg beaten light in a cup, mix some of the hot sauce with it,
turn all back into the saucepan, stir one minute no longer and
take from the fire. Season with pepper, salt, and lemon-juice.
Have ready buttered scallop-shells, fill them with the creamed
oysters, sprinkle lightly with crumbs, dot thickly with bits of
butter, and brown delicately in a quick oven. Eat very hot.
PANNED OYSTERS. (No. J.)
Heat a dozen pate-pans, and lay a scant half teaspoonful of
butter in each. Fill with raw oysters from which all the juice
has been drained, cover closely and cook for ten minutes in a
quick oven, or until the oysters plump and ruffle. Send to
table in the pans with a firm sauce of lemon-juice, butter, and
parsley beaten light.
7O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PANNED OYSTERS. (No. 2.)
Butter the heated pans and fit in the bottom of each a round
of buttered, peppered, and salted toast. Lay the drained oysters
upon this, cover and cook. Serve in the tins. If you have sil-
ver pate pans, this is really an elegant dish, and one that pre-
serves the flavor of the oysters to perfection.
BROILED OYSTERS. (No. J.)
Drain fine fat oysters and dry well by laying them upon a
cloth, covering with another and gently patting the upper.
Sprinkle with salt and paprica, or cayenne, and broil upon a
hot buttered gridiron. Heat the liquor strained from them
and add a white roux a tablespoonful to a cup of liquor boil
up, season with kitchen bouquet and serve in a gravy-boat with
the oysters. These should go to table in a hot- water dish.
BROILED OYSTERS. (No. 2.)
Salt and pepper large fine oysters, roll them in fine cracker-
dust and broil upon a well-greased wire oyster-broiler for three
minutes, turning twice. Serve upon rounds of buttered toast,
put a little sauce of lemon -juice beaten up with butter on each,
and serve in a hot-water dish.
FRIED OYSTERS.
Drain and wipe fine large oysters, dip each first in cracker-
dust (peppered and salted), then in beaten egg, and again in the
cracker, and arrange upon a large cold platter. Set upon ice for
half an hour and fry in butter that has been gradually brought to
a boil. Cook a few at a time, and if the crumbs come off in the
fat, strain them out before the next instalment goes in.
FRIED OYSTERS AU SUPREME.
Drain the liquor from twenty-five large oysters, heat it and
when it boils put in the oysters and cook one minute after the
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 7 1
liquor grows scalding hot again. Take them out, spread upon a
folded cloth laid within a sieve and set in the refrigerator to get
cold. Meanwhile make a good white sauce of two tablespoon-
fuls of butter rolled in as much flour and stirred into a cupful of
boiling milk. Season with a little onion-juice, salt, and cayenne ;
take from the fire and beat in the yolks of two eggs to each
cupful of sauce. Put back over the fire and stir one minute, but
do not let it boil. Pour upon a broad platter, and when luke-
warm and thick, remove the oysters to a clean dry cloth spread
upon a tray ; with a spoon coat each with the sauce on both
sides and set at once on ice. Leave them there until the coating
is firm ; trim off the edges, take up each in a wire spoon and
cover with raw egg, then with fine cracker-dust, and fry them in
a wire basket immersed in boiling fat.
SCALLOPED OYSTERS.
Cover the bottom of a greased bake-dish with oysters, and the
oysters with fine cracker-crumbs. Sprinkle these with pepper,
salt, and bits of butter ; then lay in more oysters and go on in
this order until all are in. The top layer should be of crumbs
and well buttered. Pour over each layer of oysters, as it goes
in, a few spoonfuls of oyster liquor, and upon the crumbs the
same quantity of cream. Bake, covered, in a quick oven until
hot all through, uncover and brown lightly.
Serve with sliced lemon.
You may fill clam-shells, or silver or china scallop shells in
like manner.
SCALLOPED OYSTERS AU SUPREME.
Drain the oysters and reserve the liquor for some other dish.
Butter a pudding-dish, cover the bottom with oysters, and these
with fine cracker-crumbs ; sprinkle the crumbs with bits of but-
ter, minced parsley, celery-salt, here and there a few capers and
a dust of paprica, and moisten with cream or with milk which
has been heated and thickened slightly with a white roux, and
allowed to cool. Now another layer of oysters, more seasoned
72 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
crumbs and cream, until the dish is full, having crumbs thickly
dotted with butter on top.
Bake covered until it bubbles, uncover and brown lightly. It
should require not more than half an hour.
OYSTER PATES.
Heat the liquor to a boil, drop in the oysters and cook three
minutes after the boil begins. Drain and cut them into quar-
ters, and keep hot over boiling water. For each quart of oys-
ters put one tablespoonful of butter into a frying-pan and when
hot, stir in an equal quantity of flour. Toss and stir three min-
utes, take from the fire and pour gradually upon it a cupful of
hot milk in which a bit of soda has been dissolved. Season,
and let it get lukewarm, then beat in the yolk of a raw egg for
each cupful of sauce. Heat again, setting the saucepan in boil-
ing water. When smoking hot, put into a bowl and add the
oysters. Fill heated shells of baked pastry and send to table.
Cooks sometimes fail with this mixture because the oysters are
cooked in the sauce, and make it watery. If they are small, you need
not quarter them.
OYSTER PIE.
Line the dish with fine puff paste. Fill with dry crusts of
bread and lay the top crust over these. Bake in a quick oven ;
remove the upper crust with care, take out the crusts and fill
with such a mixture as you would prepare for pates, but leaving
the oysters whole. Set in the oven a few minutes to re-heat
before serving.
CURRIED OYSTERS.
Make a roux of two tablespoonfuls of butter in which half a
sliced onion has been fried, then strained out, and a heaping
tablespoonful of flour with a teaspoonful of curry powder. Cook
for three minutes, stirring diligently ; add a cupful of oyster-
liquor, heated to boiling and strained. Toss and stir until you
have a smooth, thin paste, " old-gold " in color, and pour upon
broiled oysters arranged in a hot-water dish.
Send around boiled rice with it.
THE NAl^IONAL COOK BOOK 73
FRIED OYSTERS A LA BROCHETTE.
Drain the oysters, roll each in a slice of breakfast bacon, no
thicker than writing paper ; pass a stout straw or a toothpick
through both, and then through other two, making three oysters
and three slices of bacon upon each toothpick. Heat and but-
ter well a clean frying-pan, lay the " brochettes " in it, and
turn often while cooking, that the heat may get at all parts of
oysters and bacon. The fat from the pork should be sufficient
to fry the oysters. The bacon should curl and be clear when
done. Serve upon squares of thin buttered toast, and garnish
with parsley and sliced lemon.
ROAST OYSTERS A LA BROCHETTE.
These are sometimes called spindled oysters. Run a slender
skewer (a sharp knitting-needle will serve the purpose well)
through the hard parts of six oysters and the upper edges of six
thin slices of breakfast bacon. When you have five or six
needles thus strung, lay them across the top of a narrow tin-pan
or bake-dish. Oysters and bacon should be suspended from
the skewers, but not quite touch the bottom of the pan. Set
upon the upper grating of a hot oven, and cook nearly ten
minutes.
Serve upon buttered strips of toast ; season the liquor that
has dripped from them with lemon-juice and cayenne or pap-
rica, pour over the oysters and toast and serve immediately.
STEWED TERRAPIN.
Kill the terrapins by dropping into hard-boiling water. Cook
one hour or until the skin comes off easily from the heads and
feet. Let them get perfectly cold ; take off the shells, remove
intestines, lights, heads, hearts, tails, and feet. Be careful not to
break the gall-bag. Cut into dice, put into a saucepan, and just
cover with water and stew, after they reach the boil, for fifteen
minutes. Have ready the yolk of one hard-boiled egg for each
74 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
terrapin, rub to a powder, and then to a paste with butter, allow-
ing a teaspoonful for each terrapin. Heat three tablespoon -
fuls of cream in a saucepan, for each terrapin (dropping in a
bit of soda). Pour upon the egg-and-butter paste by degrees,
season with paprica or cayenne, salt, a pinch of nutmeg or mace,
and stir into the stewed terrapin. Cook two minutes or until
scalding hot, add a teaspoonful of sherry for each terrapin, and
serve hot at once.
This is the Baltimore recipe for the expensive delicacy.
PHILADELPHIA TERRAPIN.
Cook as above directed, but instead of the pounded yolks add
to the hot cream three raw yolks beaten light, after which the
stew should not be suffered to boil. Bring up the heat by set-
ting it in boiling water for ten minutes. If there are no eggs
in the terrapin, make force-meat balls of pounded yolks worked
to a paste with butter, and seasoned with pepper and salt, and
made manageable by a little flour. Mould with floured hands,
drop into boiling water, and simmer three minutes, then put
into the stew.
CLAMS.
How to Open Them.
If they are to be eaten raw, have your fishmonger open them
with a knife made for the purpose.
If they are to be cooked, wash the shells well and put them
into a steamer, or, if you have none, into a broad colander, taking
care to have the clams in such a position that the juice will not
leak down into the lower vessel as they open. Set this over
boiling water, cover the steamer closely and keep the water at a
furious boil until the clams gape. Take them out, one by one,
drain off the liquor and strain it through a cloth to get rid of
sand or dust.
ROAST CLAMS.
Prepare as you would oysters, but roast three minutes longer.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 75
BAKED CLAMS.
Open as directed at head of this article, but be careful to re-
serve to every shell all the juice that belongs to it. Leave the
clams in the lower shells, put a bit of butter, a drop of onion-
juice, and a sprinkle of paprica or cayenne, with a mere dust of
salt upon each ; replace the top shell, tying it on with a bit of
cotton string ; arrange the shells upon a hot pan and bake fif-
teen or eighteen minutes, according to the size of the clams.
Remove the upper shells, squeeze upon each clam a few drops of
lemon and the same of tomato-catsup, and serve on the shells.
CREAMED CLAMS.
Steam the clams until wide open, drain off the liquor, set it
aside, chop the clams fine and set in a vessel of boiling water
upon the range, while you make the sauce by adding to two
tablespoonfuls of white roux the heated liquor, and stirring it
smooth over the fire. Season with salt and cayenne, or paprica.
Have hot in another vessel for a cupful of the chopped clams
half a cup of cream, or rich milk, in which has been put a pinch
of soda, pour it upon a beaten egg, cook two minutes, stirring all
the while. Put the chopped clams into a bowl, stir in the thick-
ened liquor, lastly the hot cream and egg, mix quickly, and pour
over buttered toast laid upon a hot platter.
SCALLOPED DEVILED CLAMS.
Chop thirty clams fine, set in a closed vessel and this in an-
other of boiling water over the fire.
Fry a sliced onion light-brown in two tablespoonfuls of butter;
strain out the onion, return the butter to the range and stir into
it three chopped tomatoes, a pinch of mace, salt, and paprica to
taste. Cook four minutes, dust with flour from a dredger, take
from the fire and pour upon two frothed eggs. Lastly, add the
clams, fill scallop- or clam-shells with the mixture, cover with
fine cracker-crumbs, sticking bits of butter in the top and bake
in a quick oven fifteen minutes, or until browned.
76 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
SCALLOPED CLAMS.
Drain and chop two dozen clams. Make a white sauce by
stirring into a cup of hot milk a heaping tablespoonful of flour
rolled in two teaspoonfuls of corn-starch. When it thickens add
the pounded yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, a little minced pars-
ley, a pinch of mace, and the beaten yolk of a raw egg, with salt
and pepper to taste. Stir one minute, remove from the fire and
pour upon the chopped clams, which should be steaming hot.
Fill shells or pate-pans with the mixture, cover with fine crumbs,
stick bits of butter upon these, and bake in a hot oven until
browned.
CLAM FRITTERS,
Chop two dozen "long" clams fine; pepper and salt them.
To make the batter, sift into a bowl twice, through a pint of
flour, a level teaspoonful of Cleveland's baking powder, and a
saltspoonful of salt. Beat two eggs light, add a cupful of milk
and half as much clam liquor and pour this into a hole in the
middle of the flour. When the deep cottolene in your frying-
pan is hot, and not until then, add the clams to the batter, and
drop it, by the spoonful, into the boiling fat. Turn each fritter
as it browns upon the lower side.
You can make the clam batter into pancakes by frying it upon
a griddle.
They are a nice breakfast dish.
CLAM PIE.
An Old New England Seashore Dish.
Chop the clams if large, saving the liquor that runs from them.
Heat, strain, and season this and cook the chopped clams for ten
minutes in it.
Have a thick top-crust of good pastry, but none at the bottom
of the bake-dish. Fill it with alternate layers of the minced
clams, seasoned with salt, pepper, a few drops of onion-juice,
some bits of butter and a few teaspoonfuls of strained tomato-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 77
sauce, and thin slices of boiled potatoes. Dredge each layer of
clams with flour. Lastly, pour in a cupful of clam-juice, put on
the crust and bake half an hour in a quick oven.
CREAMED SCALLOPS.
Scald scallops in their own or in oyster liquor, leaving them
in only two minutes after the liquid reaches the boil. Heat a
cupful of milk, thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed
smooth with a teaspoonful of butter, drain the scallops and put
them into this sauce. Season to taste, and serve on squares of
toast.
FRIED SCALLOPS. (No. J.)
Dry them with a soft bit of old linen, roll in finely pounded
cracker, salted and peppered, then in a beaten egg and again in
the crumbs before dropping them into boiling cottolene. Cook
to a light golden brown.
FRIED SCALLOPS. (No. 2.)
Drop the scallops into boiling water and cook fast for five
minutes ; drain and spread them upon a cloth to get cold.
Meanwhile, make a batter by sifting twice, through a cupful of
flour, a half teaspoonful of Cleveland's baking powder, and the
same quantity of flour ; wetting it with half a cupful of milk into
which has been beaten two well-whipped eggs and a teaspoonful
of melted butter. Beat hard. The scallops should be cold and
stiff when they are dipped into this batter, and fried in deep cot-
tolene.
LOBSTERS.
It is always safe to cook your lobster yourself unless you
have an exceptionally honest fish-merchant, or are yourself an
apt judge of shell-fish in all their varieties. The enclosed excel-
lent directions for choosing, killing, and preparing " the tooth-
some lobster ' ' for cooking are copied gratefully from The New
York Sun.
' ' Lobsters are more easily prepared for the table than young
78 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
housewives imagine, and many delicious dishes may be made
with them.
"Should ready-boiled lobsters be purchased, test them by
gently drawing back the tail, which should rebound with a
spring. If the tail is not curled up and will not spring back
when straightened, the lobster was dead when boiled and should
not be eaten. Choose the smaller lobsters that are heavy for
their size, as the larger ones are apt to be coarse and tough.
Lobsters weighing from one and one -half to three pounds are the
best in size.
" All parts of the lobster are wholesome and may be used ex-
cept the stomach, which is a small hard sack and contains poi-
sonous matter, and lies directly under the head, and a little vein
which runs the entire length of the tail.
"To boil a lobster, put into a kettle water enough to cover
the lobster. When the water is hot, but not boiling, put in the
live lobster, head first. In this way the lobster will be instantly
smothered to death. Put a tablespoonful of salt into the water,
cover the kettle, and boil a medium-sized lobster thirty minutes.
Cooking too long will make the meat tough and dry. When the
lobster becomes cold, twist off the claws and break apart the
tail and body, take out the green fatty part, which is the liver
of the lobster, and coral, and lay them one side to use with
the meat. Remove the stomach, which is below the head, and
throw it away. Break open the body and take out all the small
pieces of meat. Cut the under side of the tail shell open and
loosen the meat, taking it out in one piece. Open the meat and
remove the little vein and throw it away. In cracking the claws
hold them on the edge of the table. By doing so the shell will
be cracked and the meat will not be crushed. Save the small
claws to garnish with."
BROILED LOBSTER.
When convenient, have your fish -merchant remove the
stomach and the long intestine running through the body, when
he has split the wriggling crustacean down the back. If you
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 79
cannot h-ive this done, drive a sharp knife into the back just
where the shells of body and tail overlap, and remove the objec-
tionable parts. Lay the divided sides upon the gridiron, shell
downward, and broil for over half an hour. Baste the meat
four times while in cooking with butter and lemon-juice beaten
to a cream. When half-done, turn the flesh side down, for a
few minutes. When done, sprinkle with salt and cayenne and
split up the claws with a pair of sharp scissors. Serve melted
butter and pass oyster-crackers and sliced lemon with it.
FARCIED LOBSTER.
Make a thick sauce of
Two tablespoon fuls of butter heated to hissing, and two table-
spoonfuls of flour stirred into it at this point. Take from the
fire, add gradually a cupful of hot milk seasoned with salt,
cayenne, and parsley (not forgetting the pinch of soda). Re-
turn to the fire, and when it boils draw to one side and stir in
Pounded yolks of three hard-boiled eggs. A tablespoonful of fine
bread-crumbs. Two cupfuls of lobster meat (boiled and cold),
cut into neat dice.
The shell of the lobster should not have been broken in
taking out the meat. Have it now washed and dried and stuffed
with the mixture. Cover the open side with fine crumbs, with
bits of butter here and there, sprinkle with salt and paprica,
and brown in a quick oven.
Serve with sliced lemon, and garnish with curled parsley.
BUTTERED LOBSTER.
Meat of two boiled lobsters, or one can of preserved lobster ;
three tablespoonfuls of butter (heaping) ; two lemons juice
only ; one cup of cracker-crumbs ; half a teaspoon ful of made
mustard ; a go_od^pinch of cayenne pepper ; salt. Open the
lobster-can and empty it into a bowl an hour before using it.
Mince evenly. Put lemon-juice, butter, and seasoning into a
saucepan, and when it simmers add the lobster and half the
SO THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
crumbs. Cook slowly, covered, ten minutes, stirring occasion-
ally. Fill pate-pans or scallop-shells with the mixture, put a bit
of butter on each, cover with fine crumbs and bake to a light-
brown. Serve in the shells, hot. Pass sliced lemon and crack-
ers with them.
CREAMED LOBSTER.
Four pounds of lobster-meat cut into small dice. * One cup of
cream and one of milk. White roux made of two tablespoon-
fuls of butter, heated, with two of flour, and cooked smooth.
Salt and cayenne to taste. Fine bread-crumbs. A pinch of
soda in the milk. Heat milk and cream together, stir in roux
and seasoning ; add the lobster-meat and turn into a buttered
mould, or into scallop-shells. Cover with fine crumbs and
brown in a quick oven.
LOBSTER CHOPS.
Make a roux by frying half a sliced onion and a little chopped
parsley one minute in a tablespoonful of butter, then putting in
a tablespoonful of flour and stirring to a pale brown. Heat a
cupful of cream or rich milk in another vessel, and pour gradu-
ally upon the roux, beating smooth as you go. Season two cup-
fuls of finely chopped lobster-meat with salt, cayenne, a pinch of
mace and a teaspoonful of lemon-juice. Take the cream from the
fire, add two beaten yolks, heat again to a boil, turn into a
bowl, mix in the lobster and a great spoonful of fine crumbs,
and set aside on the ice to get cold and stiff. When it is of
the right consistency, make into the form of mutton chops, dip
into whipped egg, then into cracker-dust, and leave again on the
ice for some hours. Fry in hot, deep cottolene. Stick a claw
in the small end of each chop.
Serve with sauce-tartare and pass deviled crackers with it.
LOBSTER AND OYSTER RAGOUT.
Eighteen oysters. Meat of one large boiled lobster, or of two
small, cut into inch lengths. Onion-juice to taste. One great
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 8 1
spoonful of butter for frying ; cayenne, lemon-juice, and salt.
Yolks of two beaten eggs. One small glass of sherry. One
tablespoonful of butter, cooked to a brown roux, with one of
flour.
Heat the butter in a frying-pan, and when it hisses put
in the lobster dice, upon each of which has been squeezed
three drops of onion-juice. Saute the lobster in the scalding
butter until it is smoking hot. Drain the liquor from the
oysters and heat in a saucepan while the lobster is cooking.
When the liquor boils, strain and return to the fire with the oys-
ters. Cook two minutes after the boil is reached ; strain out
the oysters, arrange the fried lobster dice in a deep dish and
upon them the oysters ; cover and keep hot over boiling water
while you reheat the oyster liquor, season with salt, cayenne,
lemon-juice, and parsley, thicken with the brown roux, and
boil up once. Take from the range and pour, a few spoonfuls at
a time, stirring slowly, upon the beaten yolks. At the very last
put in the sherry, and do not put back upon the fire. Turn
out, at once, upon the oysters and lobster, and serve.
CURRIED LOBSTER.
Two cups of lobster-dice. Two cups of weak soup stock.
One teaspoonful of minced onion, and two of curry powder.
Saltspoonful of salt.
Fry the onion in the butter, add the salt, the stock, and the
curry, and cook gently for five minutes, before putting in the
lobster. Serve as soon as this is thoroughly heated. Pass plain
boiled rice with this dish.
DEVILED LOBSTER,
Cut into pieces as large as an oyster and coat each piece with
a paste made of a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of cur-
ry powder, half as much made mustard, half a teaspoonful of
Worcestershire sauce, and a little salt, worked into a well-mixed
sauce. Heat three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan and
saute the lobster in this.
6
82 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CROQUETTES OF LOBSTER.
Meat of one fine lobster, well boiled ; two eggs ; two table -
spoonfuls of butter ; half a cupful of fine bread-crumbs ; one tea-
spoonful of anchovy sauce, yolks of two eggs, boiled hard and
rubbed to a powder, then beaten into the butter ; one good tea-
spoonful of lemon-juice ; season well with salt and cayenne pep-
per ; also, a pinch of mace and lemon-peel ; yolks of two raw
eggs, beaten very light. Mince the meat, work in the butter,
melted, but not hot ; then the seasoning, the raw eggs, and lastly
the bread-crumbs. Make into oblong balls, set on the ice for
two hours and fry quickly in deep cottolene. Drain them of
every drop of fat by rolling each, for an instant, very lightly
upon a hot, clean cloth. Be sure your dish is well heated.
Crab croquettes are made in the same way.
FRICASSEE OF LOBSTER AND MUSHROOMS.
One large lobster, cut into pieces over an inch long, and half
as wide. Three tablespoonfuls of brown roux. Two cups of
veal or chicken stock. One tablespoonful of corned ham minced
fine. One-half onion chopped. Teaspoonful of minced par-
sley. Six large mushrooms cut into quarters, or twelve cham-
pignons, cut into halves. Paprica and salt. A liqueur glass of
sherry.
Heat the stock with the ham, seasoning, and onion. Boil ten
minutes and strain ; thicken with the roux, put in the pieces of
lobster and the mushrooms, and cook for half an hour in a sauce-
pan set within a vessel of boiling water. Add the sherry after
the fricassee is turned into a deep dish.
LOBSTER A LA NEWBURG. (No. J.)
Two cups of lobster- dice, and the same of cream. Beaten
yolks of three eggs. One glass of sherry. Half teaspoonful of
salt, and a dash of cayenne.
Put cream, wine, and beaten yolks together in a saucepan over
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 83
boiling water and cook, stirring steadily until thick. Add the
pieces of lobster, let them get smoking hot, season, and serve.
This is the simplest form (and a good one) of this fashionable
and popular delicacy.
LOBSTER A LA NEWBURG. (No. 2.)
Meat of one fine boiled lobster cut into large dice. The
pounded yolks of two eggs. One cupful of cream. Two table-
spoonfuls of butter and one scant tablespoon ful of flour. A small
glass of sherry. Salt to taste, a pinch of mace, a dash of cayenne.
Heat the butter in a saucepan and when just melted, stir in the
flour and mix well. Rub the pounded eggs (which should be
like a powder) smooth with a little of the cream and stir into the
flour and butter. Let it get hot ; put in the rest of the cream,
and heat to scalding in a saucepan set in one of water at a hard
boil. When at the right temperature, put in the rest of the cream,
and when this heats, the lobster and the seasoning, all except the
wine. Toss with a silver fork for two minutes, add the wine and
serve.
LOBSTER A LA NEWBURG. (No. 3.)
Two tablespoon fuls of butter. One-and-a-half cupfuls of lob-
ster cut into inch lengths with a sharp knife ; two truffles chopped
fine ; cayenne and salt to taste. One cupful of cream. Yolks of
two eggs beaten light. One glass of sherry.
Heat the butter in a saucepan, but do not let it brown. When
it begins to hiss season with salt and pepper and put in the lob-
ster-dice and truffles. Cover closely and set in a vessel of boil-
ing water over the fire. Heat the cream in another vessel,
dropping in a bit of soda to prevent curdling. Take from the
fire and mix with the lobster, add the wine and serve at once.
LOBSTER A LA BROCHETTE.
Meat of one fine lobster cut into clean dice with a keen blade.
Two dozen fresh mushrooms. Cayenne, salt, and mace. A
dozen slices of breakfast bacon, cut as thin as writing-paper.
84 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Rounds of toasted bread. Two tablespoon fuls of butter ; juice
of half a lemon ; minced parsley.
Sprinkle the pieces of lobster with salt, cayenne, and mace and
string them upon slender skewers alternately with the mush-
rooms, having four pieces of lobster and three mushrooms upon
each skewer. Broil over clear coals, turning the skewers often.
Have ready the bacon broiled clear ; cut the toast into slender
strips over an inch wide ; lay a slice of bacon upon each and on
the bacon a skewer of lobster and mushrooms. Spread these
last with a sauce of the butter beaten to a cream with the lemon-
juice and minced parsley.
FRIED LOBSTER.
Cut the meat into pieces of uniform length, roll in egg, then
in fine cracker-crumbs ; set in a cold place for an hour and fry
in boiling fat to a light brown. Pile upon a hot platter ; gar-
nish with cresses and nasturtiums, and serve with this sauce :
Beat the yolks of two raw eggs to a cream with a teaspoonful of
French mustard, one of sugar, a good pinch of cayenne and
a little salt. When you have a smooth mixture, add half a
cupful of salad oil, gradually, beating steadily, thinning, as you
go on, with lemon-juice. Add a dash of onion -juice and a table-
spoonful of chopped capers.
LOBSTER GUMBO.
A Creole Dish.
Two pounds of lobster-meat taken from the shell in two large
pieces, breaking as little as possible. Two teaspoonfuls of but-
ter and one of salad oil. A tablespoonful of minced onion.
Three fresh tomatoes large and ripe ; one sweet green pepper ;
six okra pods; cayenne and salt to taste; one cup of boiling
water.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, lay in the lobster, turn over to
coat it thoroughly, add the hot water and stew gently, covered,
half an hour. Strain from the meat, which should be kept hot
over boiling water until you are ready for it again. Heat in an-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 85
other pan the oil, minced onion, and green pepper, the sliced
tomatoes and okras. When the mixture smokes turn in the
lobster-broth ; simmer half an hour, rub through a fine colander
and stir almost dry over the fire. Turn out upon a hot platter,
lay the lobster upon this bed, and serve.
Pass sliced lemon \\ith it, and toasted crackers.
SOFT SHELL CRABS, SAUTE.
Take off the fringe or loose shell found under the side points,
also the sand-bag found under the shell under the eyes ; wash
them quickly, salt and dust with cayenne and roll in salted flour.
Have ready some hissing hot butter in a frying-pan, and saute
them, turning once to brown the upper side.
Or
You may roll them in raw egg, then in peppered and salted
cracker-dust, and fry them.
If they are not alive when you are ready to use them, throw
them away. Keep wrapped in wet moss or sea- weed in the
refrigerator until they are needed. A few minutes, uncovered,
in a hot kitchen would kill them.
BROILED SOFT-SHELL CRABS.
Have three tablespoon fuls of butter melted in a deep platter
and mix with it the juice of half a lemon and a dash of cayenne.
Sprinkle salt upon the cleaned crabs, roll them in the butter
mixture, drain for a second and dredge well with salted flour.
Cook in an oyster broiler over clear coals.
Serve with sauce tartare.
HARD CRABS.
Like lobsters, they must be bought alive and killed just be-
fore they are cooked. The most merciful method is to plunge
them head downward into boiling water. The first plunge kills
them. Cook at least half an hour in salted boiling water.
86 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
SCALLOPED CRABS, WITH MUSHROOMS.
Two cupfuls of crab-meat cut into dice. One dozen fresh
mushrooms. One cupful of milk. Half teaspoonful of onion-
juice. One cupful of cream or rich milk. A great spoonful of
butter and a smaller one of flour. Powdered yolks of three
hard-boiled eggs. Juice of half a lemon. Half cupful of fine
crumbs. Salt and cayenne.
Cut the crabs and mushrooms into pieces of equal size.
Heat the butter and onion-juice in a frying-pan and stir
to a roux with the flour. Take from the fire and work into
the hot cream or milk. Season with salt and cayenne, add
the yolks and the crab-meat. Lastly, stir in the mushrooms ;
fill the crab-shells or scallop-shells of silver or china with the
mixture; sift crumbs on top, sticking bits of butter in them,
and bake in a quick oven. Squeeze the lemon-juice over
them and serve.
A CRAB WELSH RAREBIT.
Make a white roux of a tablespoonful of butter and the same of
flour. When hot and smooth, add four tablespoonfuls of veal or
chicken stock gradually, and bring again to the boil. Take
from the fire, pour in half a cupful of cream, a little at a time
(put a bit of soda in the cream), then stir in a cupful of crab
dice, less than half an inch square ; simmer in hot water for
ten minutes, add two tablespoonfuls of Parmesan cheese, cook
one minute, lift from the range and pour in two tablespoonfuls
of sherry.
Have ready in a flat dish rounds of bread toasted and but-
tered. Spread the smoking crab mixture upon them, cover with
more cheese, set upon the top grating of a hot oven three min-
utes to melt the cheese, and serve.
Eat at once.
A lobster Welsh Rarebit may be made in the same way, also
one of halibut and of chopped shrimps.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 87
DEVILED CRABS.
Two cupfuls of crab-meat, cut small not chopped. Two
tablespoonfuls of butter, one of flour, and a level teaspoonful of
mustard. One cupful of milk, or cream, or fish stock. Salt,
cayenne, and the juice of half a lemon. Crumbs and butter.
Heat the butter and stir to a roux with the flour and mustard.
In another vessel heat the milk, and mix with the roux when it
is scalding hot. Cook three minutes, turn into a bowl, add the
crab-meat, salt, pepper, and lemon-juice. With the mixture fill
shells or pate-pans, cover with crumbs and bits of butter and
bake in a quick oven.
CRABS AU GRATIN.
Two cupfuls of crab-meat cut into pieces an inch long. One
tablespoonful of flour and a larger spoonful of butter. One cup-
ful of good white stock. Half a cupful of cream. One table-
spoonful of sherry. Salt, cayenne, and half a teaspoonful of
Worcestershire sauce.
Lay the crab-dice in a deep buttered dish. Heat the butter
and flour to a roux, and when smooth, stir in the hot stock.
Cook three minutes and work into it the cream, which should
have been heated with a bit of soda not larger than a pea. Sea-
son and pour the sauce over the crab-meat. Cover with cracker-
dust, sprinkle this with paprica and bits of butter, and brown in
a quick oven.
FRICASSEE OF CRABS.
One cupful of crab-meat, picked out coarsely. Yolks of three
hard-boiled eggs. Two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour.
Three cupfuls of milk. Juice of half a lemon. Half a teaspoon-
ful of French mustard. Cayenne and salt and a pinch of mace.
Pound the yolks to a powder, and work into them the butter,
flour, mustard, salt, pepper, and mace. Heat the milk to a boil,
lift from the fire and add, gradually, stirring all the while, to the
paste just made. Stir in the crab-meat ; set, covered, in boiling
88 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
water for five minutes, stirring often, add a glass of sherry, and
pour upon thin slices of peeled lemon in a deep dish.
COQUILLES OF SHRIMPS A LA TORQUAY.
One cupful of milk or cream. One tablespoonful of butter and
one of flour. Six fresh mushrooms minced. A cupful of minced
shrimps or prawns. Salt, cayenne, cracker-crumbs, and butter-
bits.
Melt the butter, rub in the flour when the butter hisses, and
stir two minutes. Take from the fire and add the hot milk,
slowly. Reheat and whip steadily in a bowl for two minutes.
Season with salt and cayenne ; set back on the range and cook
for five minutes in a vessel of hot water, putting in your egg whip
now and then to keep it smooth and light. Stir in the shrimps,
let the mixture come to a boil, cook one minute, and fill buttered
scallop shells with it ; sift crumbs on top ; stick bits of butter in
these and brown in a quick oven.
STEWED SHRIMPS.
If canned shrimps are used, rinse them in cold water before
they are cooked. If fresh, take off the shells, taking care to get
the fish out as whole as possible.
Heat in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter, and when it
hisses, add a cupful of shrimps. Toss with a silver fork to coat
them well with the butter, and when they are heated through, add
a cupful of boiling water and a tablespoonful of tomato-catsup,
with a teaspoonful of lemon-juice, half a teaspoonful of sugar, and
a pinch of cayenne. Stew gently three minutes and turn them
out. Pass toasted crackers, buttered, with them.
DEVILED SHRIMPS.
Make a brown roux with two tablespoonfuls of butter and the
same of browned flour, add when smooth to half a cupful of good
stock ; stir one minute and put in a large cupful of minced
shrimps, the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, rubbed to powder, a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 89
saltspoonful of made mustard, a pinch of cayenne, a few drops
of onion-juice, with salt to taste. Mix well, stir over the fire un-
til smoking hot, and fill clam or scallop-shells or pate-pans with
the mixture, cover with fine crumbs, with bits of butter here
and there and brown quickly.
Send around sliced lemon with them.
CREAMED SHRIMPS.
One can of shrimps, two tablespoon fuls of butter, and one of,
flour. Two cupfuls of milk. Salt and cayenne to taste. Pinch
of soda in the milk.
Make a roux of butter and flour, and when smooth stir into
the hot milk. Cook two minutes, add the shrimps, season, sim-
mer until smoking hot, and turn into a deep dish. You can,
if you like a richer dish, stir in a beaten egg at the last. The
mixture must not cook after it goes in.
CURRIED SHRIMPS.
One can of shrimps ; one tablespoonful of butter, and the
same of flour ; two teaspoonfuls of curry powder, and one of
Chutney sauce ; two cupfuls of boiling water ; salt to taste ; one
teaspoonful of minced onion. Cook onion and butter in a sauce-
pan for two minutes after they boil ; add flour and curry, and
when they bubble, the boiling water gradually, stirring all the
time. Finally, put in the shrimps; cook five minutes and serve
in a hot- water dish.
Send around bananas, ice-cold, with them, and boiled rice.
FRIED FROGS' LEGS.
Only the hind-legs are eatable. They are very good, having
a curious resemblance to the most delicate spring chicken.
Skin, wash, and lay in milk for fifteen minutes. Without
wiping them, pepper and salt, and coat with flour. Fry in deep
boiling fat to a light brown.
Or
Wipe off the milk, dip in egg and pounded cracker, and fry.
90 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
STEWED FROGS' LEGS.
Skin, lay in milk for fifteen minutes ; roll in peppered and
salted flour, and saute in hot butter for three minutes. Cover
(barely) with hot water, and stew tender. Twenty minutes
should suffice. Heat half a cupful of cream to boiling, stir in a
tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, boil up, and turn into the
saucepan where the frogs' legs are simmering. Season with
pepper, salt, and a little chopped parsley. Cook gently for three
minutes and serve.
FAMILIAR TALK.
WRINKLES FOR HOUSEKEEPERS.
Not the care-lines that tell of work and worry. These are not
the " wrinkles " that one woman wishes to receive from another.
But there are, to use another expressive bit of contemporary
slang, "tips" fragments of practical knowledge accumulated
by every woman who looks well to the ways of her household
which are of distinct value to all housekeepers. Sometimes they
have been discovered almost by accident, at other times they
have come as the working out of pet theories. Still again they
may have been hardly acquired after many failures have taught
the experimenter how not to do it.
Some of the wrinkles thus gathered may be old and familiar to
many housekeepers. To others they may be entirely fresh and
helpful.
How many women who like a dainty table know, for instance,
that the flavor of a broiled fish is rendered richer and finer if the
fish is laid in salad oil for an hour before it is cooked ? The fish
should be placed on a flat plate, two or three tablespoonfuls of
the oil poured upon it, and when this has soaked in thoroughly
the fish may be turned over and the other side treated in the
same fashion.
This same expedient of steeping in salad oil adds a delicious
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 91
flavor to the cold chicken or turkey that is to be warmed up in a
cream sauce. If the sauce is flavored with a suspicion of onion-
juice and celery salt, the result is an appetizing rechauffe which
has been aptly compared to hot chicken salad.
The superiority of onion-juice over the chopped onion so often
used in seasoning is manifest to all who have tried the former.
The juice may be procured most readily, perhaps, by tearing the
onion upon a vegetable grater. The juice quickly trickles from
the bottom of the grater. Or the onion may be cut in half and
pressed in a lemon-squeezer. For seasoning minces, hashes,
Hamburg steaks, and in all chafing-dish concoctions, the onion-
juice is invaluable.
Welcome to those who enjoy soft-shell crabs, but object to the
odor of the frying fat that usually accompanies their cookery,
should be the " tip " that the crabs may be broiled, instead of
fried, and that the flavor is the same whichever of the two ways
they are cooked. The crab should be cleaned, dipped in olive
oil, laid on the gridiron over a bed of broiling-coals, and cooked
until the outside is red-brown, the meat white and tender.
Another " wrinkle " worth knowing is that vinegar added to
the water in which fish is boiled will make the fish firmer and im-
prove its flavor, while when it is put into the water in which meat
or poultry is stewing it will make the flesh more tender. The
proportion varies a little. A tablespoonful is enough for the fish,
while twice that quantity may safely be used for the meat. It
expedites the boiling of tough poultry.
Of great help to the woman who wishes to broil steak or chops,
when she is baking bread or cake, is the knowledge that she can
do this without cooling her ovens by uncovering the top of the
stove. With proper care meats may be broiled not fried in a
frying-pan so that they will be quite as juicy and nutritious as
though they had been grilled over the coals. The mode of cook-
ing is simple. The frying-pan should be put on the stove until
it is hissing hot. If the meat has very little fat on it, the pan
may be rubbed lightly with a bit of butter no larger than a hick-
ory nut. This is to keep the meat from sticking when it first
92 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
goes in. The pan should be so hot that the albumen on the sur-
face of the meat will coagulate the moment it touches the pan.
By this the juices are sealed in the meat, and this may be turned
and cooked in the pan as it would be on the gridiron until it is
done to suit the taste of the eaters. Fish may be broiled in the
oven, if this is very hot, nearly as well as over the fire. Both
with fish and meat the after-treatment should be the same a
transfer to a hot platter and plentiful basting with butter. An
added savoriness may be given by rubbing the platter with onion
or with garlic, and working minced parsley into the butter used
in basting.
Garlic, so much dreaded by those who have used it too much
or not at all, is a valuable article when employed in moderation.
It cannot be handled as carelessly as onion, but if it is rubbed
on the inside of a salad-bowl, or of the dish in which the salad
dressing is mixed, its flavor will be found both delicate and
delicious.
The problem of how to whip cream without changing it into
butter is one that has troubled many housekeepers who like this
simple and popular sauce for puddings and fruit. The secret of
success is to have the cream-churn (which may be a glass egg-
beater) and the cream ice cold. One excellent cook always fills
her cream-churn with ice, and puts it in the refrigerator for half
an hour or more before using, while the cream too is kept on the
ice. Given sweet, rich cream, the whipping under these circum-
stances cannot fail to be successful. In the same coldness of
utensils and ingredients lies the secret of a quickly mixed mayon-
naise.
In cooking cream or milk the danger of curdling is much re-
duced if a pinch of soda the size of a pea is added. There is
also risk of curdling milk if it is salted when put over the fire.
The salt should go in the last thing.
When greasing pans for cakes or muffins, or a griddle for frying
cakes, it is a common mistake to use too much fat. The greasy
crust that means an attack of indigestion for the person who eats
it may be avoided if a flat paint-brush is dipped into melted fat,
\ "
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 93
and the pan lightly brushed with this. It has the added merit
of reaching the cracks and corners that sometimes escape the
touch of the time-honored greased paper or cloth, which coats
the cook's fingers more effectually than the pan to which it is
applied.
There are many other " wrinkles " of more or less value. As,
for instance, the fact that vinegar will restore the color of hands
white and sodden from dish-washing, that the fumes from a freshly
lighted sulphur match will take the stains of berries from the
finger-tips and nails if used before they have been washed with
soap, that boiling in buttermilk will sometimes take out mildew
when everything else fails, that chlorinated soda will remove ink-
spots from white cotton or linen goods without injuring the
fabric, that Benares brass should be cleansed with a soft cloth
dipped in lemon-juice and brightened with chamois-skin, that
the tarnish is most easily removed from silver if the flannel used
in cleaning is moistened with alcohol before being dipped into
the silicon and rubbed on the silver, that silver keeps bright for
a long time if each piece is wrapped in fine white tissue-paper.
One might go on indefinitely were it not that space and a
reader's patience have limits.
C. T. H.
MEATS.
As a nation we eat too much meat, and spend too much
money for the quantity we use. The provincial butcher who
told a customer that she would better buy from somebody else if
she would have choice cuts every day, had hold of one thread of
a common-sensible fact, although he could not state it even to
himself. What are known as second-best portions, not because
of freshness or sweetness, but on account of their location upon
the body of the slain beast, have capabilities never suspected by
the Average Cook. A very low order of culinary skill may suffice
to make tolerably palatable and masticable a tender fillet, or
chop, or rib-roast, even a beefsteak of prime quality. Unfort-
unately, these usually set forth rich men's tables and are handled
by first-class cooks. Culinary genius and much experience are
needed to make tough meats tender, yet nutritious, and to con-
coct dainty entrees out of coarse bits that are uneatable if treated
according to the Average Cook's faith and practice.
A few general rules are needful as a foundation for the more
explicit instructions which are to follow.
The darker meats, such as beef, mutton, venison and wild
ducks, are wholesome and digestible if cooked to the " rare "
which is not the raw point. All white meats chicken, veal,
turkey, pork, etc., must be well done, or they are unpalatable,
indigestible, and to people who are used to good cookery, dis-
gusting.
The secret of making tough meat tender is slow and steady
cooking, especially braising, boiling, and stewing. It was the
boast of a celebrated chef that he could make lignum vitae
tender, if he were given all the time he asked. The heat should
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 95
be low, but steady. The toughest fowl can be reduced to tooth-
some tenderness if steamed in a close kettle, or boiled, or
braised in a covered roaster several hours. It should not reach
the boil under one hour, and must never be allowed to cook
briskly, from post to finish.
The first step in roasting meats is to make a close coating on
the outside that will exclude air and keep in juices. This may
be done by dashing a little boiling water over it, as it goes into
the oven, or setting for ten minutes in a hot oven, then, remov-
ing to a slower. Chops and steaks may be similarly encased by
holding the gridiron over a fierce fire for a few minutes, then
broiling more deliberately. Fowls that are to be fricasseed are
kept juicy by frying in boiling fat for a few minutes, then laid
in a pot and covered with cold water.
Do not corn meat by seasoning it before it goes into the oven
or frying-pan, or upon the gridiron, or into the saucepan. You
will draw the juices out, instead of retaining them, and harden
the fibres.
BEEF*
RIB ROAST OF BEEF.
Wipe with a clean cloth, but do not wash it. Dash a cupful
of boiling water over it to sear the surface, dredge with flour
to make a yet more impervious coating, and set upon the grating
of your roaster. Cook fast for fifteen minutes, then change to a
slower oven or draw off the heat by means of dampers. If you
have a covered roaster (as you should have), there is no need of
basting more than twice during the roasting ; otherwise, baste
every two minutes with the juice that drips from the meat.
Roast ten minutes to the pound. Fifteen minutes before the
meat is taken up, open the valve of the roaster, wash the meat
over with butter, dredge with flour, and leave the valve open to
brown the roast.
Serve with horse-radish sauce, or mustard, and as the red
juice (the "dish-gravy") follows the carving knife, put a little
96 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
upon each slice when laid upon a plate. It is no longer the
custom upon well-served tables to send in made gravy with roast
meat, and few educated palates tolerate it. Set the gravy from
the pan aside in a bowl. The fat that forms upon the surface
will make excellent dripping, and the lower stratum can be util-
ized in soup-stock.
ROLLED ROAST OF BEEF.
If your butcher has not done it for you, remove the ribs, and
roll up the meat, the thicker part in the centre, bind into a round
with stout twine, secure the outer flap with a couple of skewers,
and proceed as with the rib roast. When it is cooked, clip the
string and withdraw carefully, but leave the skewers in to keep
the meat in shape.
Carve horizontally.
BRAISED ROUND OF BEEF,
This is a pleasing variation of the " pot-roast " of our grand-
mothers, and is an admirable way of cooking a tough piece of
beef.
Chop a carrot, a turnip, an onion, and a stalk of celery
coarsely and lay half of them in the bottom of your roaster.
Place the meat upon them, dash a large cupful of boiling water
over all, dredge the meat with flour and set, uncovered, in a hot
oven for twenty minutes to brown. Mask now with the reserved
vegetables, cover closely and cook very slowly twenty-five min-
utes to each pound, basting four times.
Take up the meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper and keep hot,
rub the gravy left in the pan through a colander, season to taste,
stir in a tablespoonful of browned flour and half a teaspoonful of
French mustard, boil up once ; pour a few spoonfuls over the
meat, and send in the rest in a gravy-boat.
BRAISED BEEF, A LA JARDINIERE.
Cook as directed in the foregoing recipe. Have ready when
the meat comes from the fire and the sauce has been made, a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 9/
cupful of green peas, or of string-beans, cut into short pieces, or
Lima beans; the same quantity of potatoes cut into dice and
boiled tender ; a cooked carrot and turnip cut into dice, a dozen
button onions, boiled, and six tomatoes of uniform size, baked
whole in their skins, or stuffed and then baked.
Arrange these vegetables in small heaps around the meat as it
lies on the dish, each kind by itself, and the color contrasting
agreeably with the next pile. Pour some spoonfuls of sauce over
them and the meat, and serve. In carving help out at least two
kinds of vegetables with each portion of beef.
ROLLED BEEFSTEAK (BRAISED).
A tough steak may be brought to tender terms in this way :
Make a forcemeat of crumbs, butter or bits of suet, if you
have them, pepper and salt. A fresh tomato, minced, is an im-
provement. Cover the steak with this, roll it up and secure into
a " stumpy " cylinder with stout cord and a skewer. Lay it in
your bake-pan, or a pot on the top of the stove, upon a pallet of
vegetables, such as is described in the recipe for braised round of
beef; add a cupful of stock or water, cover closely and cook
twenty minutes to the pound. Take out the meat, strain and
rub the gravy through a colander ; season and boil up, before
pouring it over the steak. Cut the strings and withdraw them,
but do not remove the skewer.
You may, if you like, omit the stuffing, but the meat will be less
savory.
ROAST BEEF WITH YORKSHIRE PUDDING.
One pint of milk ; two eggs ; two cups of prepared flour, or, if
you use plain flour, add an even teaspoonful of Cleveland's baking
powder. One teaspoonful of salt.
Roast the beef in the usual way and when nearly done, take
out four or five tablespoonfuls of dripping from the roaster and
put them into a bake-pan, which keep warm until the pudding
is ready. Sift salt and baking powder twice with the flour ; beat
the eggs very light, add them to the milk and pour this upon the
7
98 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
flour, stirring swiftly and lightly with a wooden spoon. Heat
the dripping to hissing, pour in the batter and bake quickly.
Cut into oblong pieces and lay about the beef in the dish, like a
garnish.
BEEF A LA MODE.
For this dish you will require a piece of beef from the round,
free from sinews or gristle, and compact in character. It is much
easier to prepare a large piece of beef a la mode satisfactorily
than a smaller cut, and nothing less than seven or eight pounds
should be selected. Ten, twelve, and even fourteen pound pieces
may be used with good results. Direct your butcher to " plug "
the beef with strips of salt pork. Or you may do this yourself
with the aid of a larding-needle, or a long, sharp, narrow-bladed
carving-knife. Pierce the beef with this from top to bottom, and
draw through the hole thus made a strip of fat salt pork about
the thickness of your middle finger, and long enough to project
about half an inch each side of the beef. These lardoons should
be about two inches'apart. Between them make deep incisions,
and fill these with a forcemeat composed of bread-crumbs and
finely minced pork, in the proportion of one part of the pork to
two of the bread-crumbs. Season this highly with pepper, all-
spice, minced parsley, thyme, and sweet-marjoram, and moisten
with vinegar and a little Worcestershire sauce. Cram the holes
to overflowing with this mixture, and crowd it into all crevices
and interstices of the meat. Bind a stout piece of muslin around
the sides of the beef, to keep the round in shape, and then lay it
in a broad pot, cover it with cold water, and strew over it a
minced onion, a sliced cartot, a bay-leaf, six cloves, a couple of
blades of mace, a few sprigs of pa sley and of celery-tops. Cook
the meat very slowly, fifteen minutes to the pound. It should be
tender enough to be pierced easily with a fork when it is done.
Let it cool in the water, take it out, lay it between two flat sur-
faces, under a heavy weight^ ? Jo not take off the cotton band
until just before it goes to the table. If properly prepared, it
will show a prettily mottled surface when sliced across with a
sharp knife, and will be an attractive as well as a delicious dish.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 99
FILLET OF BEEF
may be roasted plain, or larded with strips of fat salt pork and
braised, as directed in the foregoing recipes.
BROILED BEEFSTEAK.
Speaking by the card, there is but one way of cooking a first-
class beefsteak, and that is by broiling. It may be said with
equal positiveness that a steak should always be cut more than
one inch thick. An inch-and-a-half is better than an inch.
Grease the broiler well with beef-suet, or butter. You may
also rub it with a raw onion. Lay the beefsteak upon it and
hold close to the coals for one minute, turn the broiler and hold
the other side in the same way, to cauterize the surface and hold
back the juices. Now withdraw to the top of the range and cook
over clear coals, the lids having been removed for this purpose
from fifteen to seventeen minutes. The time will depend upon
the thickness of the steak and the strength of the fire.
Transfer to a hot dish, salt and pepper, rub all over on both
sides with butter, or butter and lemon-juice, and cover for one
minute before it goes to the table. Tough or doubtful steaks are
improved by letting them lie in olive oil and a little vinegar for
two hours before they are cooked.
MIGNON FILLETS
are cut from the end of the fillet or tenderloin. Broil when you
have trimmed them neatly, salt, pepper, and butter, or cover
with a sauce of butter, lemon-juice, and chopped parsley.
CHATEAUBRIAND STEAK WITH MUSHROOMS.
What often passes upon Freu^u restaurant menus and some-
times at state breakfasts for this elegant dish, which- should be
cut from the heart of the fillet, is only a prime tenderloin steak,
trimmed into shape. The real and the imitation articles are
100 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
alike broiled as directed in recipe for broiled beefsteak, served
upon a hot dish seasoned and plentifully buttered.
An added touch of deliciousness and elegance is imparted
by broiling a dozen or so fine fresh mushrooms (peeled and
trimmed), and arranging them upon the steak. It then becomes
a dish fit for a king.
BEEFSTEAK AND ONIONS,
While your steak is in broiling have two large, or three small
onions sliced very thin and fried lightly in butter. When the
steak has been dished, seasoned, and buttered, cover with the
fried onions and let all stand, closely covered, for five minutes
over hot water to draw the meat-juices toward the onions and
the flavor of the onions into the meat.
RUTH PINCH'S BEEFSTEAK PUDDING.
Cut the steak into strips an inch long and less than half as
wide, put over the fire in a saucepan, cover closely, set within
another of cold water and bring the water slowly to a boil. Let
the meat get cold before opening the inner saucepan. Butter a
baking-dish well, and line with strips of good crust put in the
meat, seasoning with pepper, salt, and a few drops of onion-juice
and dredging with browned flour from time to time. When you
have a layer an inch or more deep, cover with other thin strips
of crust, then more meat, seasoning, and flour, until the dish is
full, when pour in the juice from the meat and a cupful of cold
water. Cover then with a top-crust and bake in a moderate
oven three-quarters of an hour. Serve in the dish.
BEEF STEW.
Cut up two pounds of beef the coarser pieces will do into
inch lengths and saute in two tablespoonfuls of dripping in which
a sliced onion has been already fried. Cover with cold water,
then set at the side of the range and simmer until the meat can
be broken up with a fork. Set away in a covered vessel for five
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK IOI
or six hours, or all night. Take off the fat an hour before you
wish to use the stew, add a teaspoonful, each, of summer savory
and sweet marjoram, a little chopped onion and parsley, and bring
to a steady boil. Stir in now, a tablespoonful of tomato catsup,
and a generous tablespoonful of browned flour, a level teaspoon-
ful of allspice, wet up with cold water, the juice of half a lemon,
and half a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce. Boil up sharp-
ly, turn in a glass of brown sherry and you have an excellent and
inexpensive breakfast or luncheon dish. Provided, always, that
the recipe is followed faithfully and that you have yourself a
just taste for flavoring.
CURRIED ROAST BEEF,
Cut two cups cold roast beef into small bits, put a large piece
of butter into a saucepan, and lay in it the meat and two onions,
sliced vry thin. Brown for five minutes, add one cupful of
boiling water and one dessertspoonful of curry powder. Let
this simmer for ten or fifteen minutes. Line an earthen vege-
table dish with boiled rice and pour the curried beef into it.
Serve hot.
HAMBURG STEAKS.
To one pound of lean beef, chopped twice and rid of every bit
of fibre and gristle, allow one beaten egg, one teaspoonful of
onion -juice, half as much salt, a fourth as much paprica, and a
pinch of ground mace. Mix well.
Mould into flat cakes, dredge them with salted flour, set in a
cold place for one hour, roll again in flour and saute them in
good dripping or butter.
They can be also made of rare roast beef.
HASH CAKES.
Chop underdone roast beef fine and mix with one-third as
much smoothly mashed potato. Season to taste with pepper, salt,
and mustard. Knead lightly, and when the ingredients are well
incorporated, work in a beaten egg to bind the mixture. Set
102 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
aside to cool and stiffen. When ready to cook them, roll them
in beaten egg and cracker-dust, leave them in a cold place again
for an hour or so, and fry in boiling dripping. Serve dry.
MINCE OF BEEF AND POTATO,
Chop under-done and well-done beef together, season with
pepper, salt, a few drops of onion-juice and with mustard, and
mix with one-third as much mashed potato as you have beef.
Heat in a frying-pan a cupful of stock of any kind, except fish,
for every two cupfuls of meat and potato, and when it boils stir
in the beef mixture thoroughly, scraping from side to side
toward the middle until the contents of the pan bubble all over
the surface. It should be soft enough to pour out into a hot-
water dish.
Edge with sippets, i.e., triangles of fried bread.
If you have no stock, use boiling water with a generous spoon-
ful of butter heated in it before the rest of the ingredients are
added. A little strained tomato sauce or a teaspoonful of tomato
makes the mince more piquant.
CORNED BEEF.
Wash thoroughly, and if very salt leave in cold water for one
hour. Put over a moderate fire, or at the side of the range, in
enough cold water to cover it deeply. If you mean to use the
liquor for soup, fill the pot with water and cut up in it half an
onion, a carrot, and a small turnip. Cook slowly half an
hour to each pound, and when done, let it stand in the liquor
for at least fifteen minutes. Scrape the top of the meat and
trim off the ragged edges. Serve with a white sauce made by
straining through a cloth a cupful of the "pot liquor" and
thickening it with a white roux, then stirring in a tablespoon-
ful of capers or chopped pickles.
When dinner is over, cover the beef with a flat plate, and lay
a heavy weight upon this, to press the meat.
Corned beef is best cold or made into hash. There is a grow-
ing dislike to it when served hot.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 1 03
While the round is considered the choice cut, the brisket, or
the " plate," pro perly cooked is less solid and sweeter, and makes
a good family dinner dish.
CORNED BEEF AND DUMPLINGS -
Wash the beef thoroughly, and let it lie in cold water fifteen
or twenty minutes. Plunge then into a pot of boiling water, and
plenty of it, that every part of the meat may be covered. Cook
steadily, never intermitting the boil, fifteen minutes for each
pound of beef, after the boil recommences. When the meat is
done, take it out and cover to keep warm. Strain the liquor
through a coarse cloth and return to the pot, keeping out a cup-
ful for drawn butter. When it again begins to boil, put in the
dumplings and cook fifteen minutes. Take these up with a split
spoon, and arrange about the beef when dished.
For dumplings : One cupful of flour, mixed with a heaping
tablespoonful of corn-meal, one teaspoonful of Cleveland's baking
powder, one teaspoonful of cottolene, one saltspoonful of salt. Sift
the powder and salt through flour and meal three times. Chop in
the shortening, and stir in very cold water until a soft dough is
obtained. Cut into rounds with a small tumbler, or top of
pepper-box. They should puff out like balls in boiling. For
drawn butter : Heat the cupful of reserved pot-liquor to a boil ;
stir in a heaping teaspoonful of butter, and thicken with one of
flour wet with cold water. Add, just before taking from the
fire, a tablespoonful of chopped green pickle, and half a tea-
spoonful of made mustard. Send to table in a gravy-bowl.
TO CORN BEEF.
Rub hard on all sides with a mixture of nine parts of salt to
one of saltpetre, until the meat will take no more and the salt
lies dry upon it. Repeat this rubbing daily for three days, keep-
ing the meat in a cold place. On the fourth day wipe each
piece dry and clean, and put into pickle.
For the pickle mix five gallons of water, one gallon of salt,
four ounces of saltpetre and one and a-half pounds of brown
104 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
sugar; boil ten minutes, let it get perfectly cold; pack down
the beef, and pour the pickle over the top.
Look at your meat every week to see if it is keeping well.
If not, wipe clean, rinse with clear water, rub in dry salt, and
put into other and stronger pickle.
This is an Old Virginia plantation recipe and warranted
good.
PRESSED CORNED BEEF.
Select a firm piece for this purpose. The brisket is good, or
for those who like a streak of fat and a streak of lean, the plate-
piece is excellent, but this must be chosen carefully. Tie the
meat tightly in a piece of cotton cloth that has been shrunk,
making the beef take the shape you wish it to have when cold.
Lay it in a pot andcover it with cold water, and put into this a
stalk of celery, half a carrot sliced, a sliced turnip, an onion,
and a few cabbage-leaves. Let the meat simmer gently. The
time of cooking will depend upon the size of the piece of beef.
Six pounds will require between four and five hours' cooking,
but it must be very slow boiling only the quietest of bubbling
at the side of the pot. A hard galloping boil will cook the
taste out of the meat and reduce it to a mass of insipid shreds.
When the beef is done leave it in the water until this is nearly
cold, then take it out and lay it between two flat surfaces and
put heavy weights upon it. It should remain thus all night. In
the morning remove the cloth, trim the beef into comeliness, if
there are any ragged edges, and garnish it with watercress, or
parsley and small pickles.
STEWED TRIPE.
Cut into dice, and saute in hot fat in which a sliced onion has
been fried. Cook the tripe ten minutes, and cover with boiling
water. Stew half an hour gently ; season with salt, pepper, a
great spoonful of tomato-juice, a tablespoonful of chopped celery
and the same of parsley, and cook slowly until the tripe is tender
and clear.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 10$
Before tripe is used it should be soaked five or six hours, then
scraped clean, and simmered in hot water, slightly salted, for
three hours longer. Drain and let it get cold. You can buy it
ready for cooking in the markets.
BOILED BEEFS TONGUE (FRESH).
Trim away the uneatable root. (It may go into the stock-pot
as fresh meat.) Put the tongue on in hot, salted water and boil
it an hour if small, an hour and a half if large. Remove the skin
carefully and serve with a piquante sauce poured over it, and
more of the same served in a boat.
BRAISED BEEFS TONGUE (FRESH).
Boil for one hour, take off the skin and lay the tongue in a
covered roaster, or in a pot with a broad bottom, upon a bed of
vegetables, a small carrot cut into dice, a small onion sliced, a
stalk of celery minced, and chopped parsley. Just cover all with
water from the pot in which the tongue was boiled, fit a close
lid upon the baking pan and simmer gently two hours. Take
out the tongue and keep it warm over hot water while you season
the vegetables and gravy well, and rub them through a colander.
Lay the tongue in an open baking-pan ; pour the gravy over it,
set on the upper grating of a quick oven a few minutes to brown,
and serve with the gravy about it.
BOILED TONGUE (SMOKED).
Wash the tongue carefully, and let it lie in cold water for sev-
eral hours before cooking over night if possible. Lay it in a
kettle of cold water when it is to be cooked, bring the water to a
boil slowly, and let it simmer until the tongue is so tender that
you can pierce it with a fork. A large tongue should be over
the fire for about four hours. When it has cooled in the liquor
in which it was boiled, remove the skin with great care, begin-
ning at the tip, and stripping it back. Trim away the gristle
and fat from the root of the tongue before serving.
106 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
JELLIED BEEF'S TONGUE.
Boil a smoked tongue as directed above, and when cold slice
thin, and pack it (not too tightly) in a mould. When all the
slices are in pour over all aspic jelly enough to cover it well, but
not to float it, and set on ice.
ASPIC JELLY.
Two cups of well seasoned clear stock veal, chicken, or con-
somme of any kind. Half a package of gelatine that has been
soaked three hours in enough cold water to cover it. Two table-
spoonfuls of vinegar and the same of sherry. Heat the stock to
boiling, stir in the gelatine, bring to a boil, add the vinegar,
cook one minute, strain, without squeezing, through a thick bag,
add the wine, and when more than blood-warm pour over the
tongue.
Calves' and lambs' tongues may be treated in the same way.
You can vary the dish by alternating the slices of tongue with
olives split in half, or slices of cold boiled egg.
MOULDED BEEF.
Pass two pounds of lean, raw beef twice through the meat-
chopper and pick out all bits of fibre and gristle. Season well
with paprica, salt, a little French or English made mustard, and
a dash of onion-juice ; mix in half a cupful of fine dry crumbs, a
raw egg well beaten, two tablespoonfuls of minced fat pork, and
half a can of champignons (French mushrooms) cut into quar-
ters. Wet with half a cupful of stock, and press into a buttered
mould that has a close cover, or into a bowl, and tie a thick cloth
tightly over it. Set in boiling water that does not come up
quite high enough on the sides to float the mould, and cook
steadily upon the top of the range for nearly three hours. With-
out removing from the mould, fit over the meat a plate that
presses equally upon all parts, lay a heavy weight on this and set
away to get perfectly cold. Turn out and cut in horizontal
slices.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK IO/
You make this nice supper or picnic dish ornamental by ar-
ranging olives cut into halves in a ring or in perpendicular lines
within the mould before pressing the beef mixture carefully upon
them, or by disposing halved champignons in like designs.
MOCK HARE.
Beat a sirloin steak (having removed bone and fat) from end
to end with the flat of a hatchet and trim the edges. Lay in two
tablespoonfuls of vinegar and the same of oil for two hours. Pile
in the centre, then, half a cupful of force-meat made of bread-
crumbs and fine bits of fat pork seasoned well with parsley, pep-
per, salt, and onion-juice ; draw together the sides of the steak in
a long cylinder, enclosing this and sew the edges together; lay
in your covered roaster upon minced carrot and onion, cover
the "hare" with thin slices of fat corned pork, bound into
place by cotton -strings, pour about him two cupfuls of weak
stock or of butter and water ; cover and roast steadily one hour ;
uncover, remove the pork, baste well with butter and brown.
Transfer to a hot dish and set, covered, in an open oven, while
you strain the gravy, and thicken with browned flour, adding
then the juice of half a lemon, a little French mustard, and a
tablespoonful of wine. Lay the pork about the beef, pour a
few spoonfuls of gravy over him, and send the rest to table in
a boat. If you can withdraw the stitches by careful clipping
without injuring the " hare's" shape, it is neater than to send
them to the table with him. Cooked thus, a tough steak is ten-
der, and has really a " gamey " flavor.
BEEF ROULETTES.
Chop lean raw beef very fine, season well with paprica, onion-
juice, and salt. For every cupful of the minced meat allow a
tablespoonful of almonds, chopped fine. Bind the mixture with
a raw egg beaten light, and make it with floured hands into
round balls about as large as an English walnut. Flour well,
and fry them in deep fat made very hot before they go in.
108 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Shake off every drop of fat in a hot sieve ; arrange in a heated
platter, and pour this gravy about them :
One tablespoonful of flour stirred two minutes into one of
heated butter, and thinned with half a cupful of stock or con-
somme ; boiled two minutes ; seasoned well and poured over the
roulettes.
You may substitute chopped champignons for the almonds,
and stir a tablespoonful of them into the gravy. As tough meat
can be utilized for roulettes, you have a pretty and toothsome
entree at a trifling expense.
STUFFED BEEFS HEART,
Wash thoroughly, clearing the ventricles of all coagulated
blood, and stuff with a good force-meat of crumbs, minced pork,
onion, parsley, and other seasoning. Fill all the orifices with
this, packing it in well ; sew the heart up in mosquito-netting
fitted to the shape, and boil two hours in weak stock, which, by
the way, you may use again for soup. Let the heart get al-
most cold before taking it out, put a weight upon it, and do not
undo the cloth until the heart is cold, stiff, and flattened. Cut
perpendicularly into thin slices. Cook calf's heart in the same
way.
CHIPPED BEEF.
This especial form of much-misnamed "relish" is neither
digestible nor palatable as usually served upon the tea-table of
tired housewives who " do their own work," and have no heart
to study variety of fare. Plain bread-and-butter and cottage
cheese, with a glass of milk or really good tea, would be better
for stomach and soul.
If nothing else in the shape of an " appetizer " is at hand, put
the sliced or chipped beef into a frying-pan, cover with boiling
water in which has been mixed a tablespoonful of vinegar.
Cover and leave on the table for ten minutes; put, then, over
the fire and bring slowly to a boil, after which simmer for ten
minutes longer. Drain and chop the beef, and stir into a white
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK IOQ
sauce enriched by a beaten egg, and seasoned with pepper and
chopped parsley. Do not cook after the meat goes in.
Or
You may return the minced beef to the fire, adding a table-
spoonful of butter and a little pepper for each cupful, and when
hot, " scramble " quickly with four or five beaten eggs, dishing
while the eggs are still soft.
- VEAL.
While veal of the right age and cooked judiciously may not
be unwholesome, so much that is put upon the market espe-
cially a country market is so immature when it comes into the
cook's hands and is so barbarously misused by her that dis-
trust of the calf as an article of family diet grows and strengthens
with the study of dietetics. "Bob Veal," i.e., calves slaugh-
tered with the mother's milk upon their lips, is an atrocity and
should be dealt with by law as such. The flesh thereof has a
bloodless look, the muscles are flaccid, the whole creature is a
matter of pulp and cartilage. At its best estate, veal should
not be kept long before it is cooked, and requires more skilful
management to make it nutritious even to the normal stomach
than beef, mutton, lamb, game or poultry. To some otherwise
well-conducted digestions it is rank poison. If there be any ir-
regularity in the alimentary organs, it is wise to let it alone.
With respect to this, as in most other questions of diet, every
general law has a list of exceptions that sets known rules at de-
fiance. The recipes herewith given are designed for the use of
those who can eat veal with satisfaction and impunity and who
like the various savory preparations thereof.
In soup-making, we cannot dispense with it, and the sweet-
breads yielded by the despised calf are dear to the heart and
rest lightly upon the stomach of the epicure all over the civilized
world.
IIO THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ROAST LOIN OF VEAL.
Lay upon the grill of your covered roaster, dash a cupful of
boiling water over it, cover closely and set in a hot oven for fif-
teen minutes, after which draw the heat, or change the oven, rub
all over with butter, and roast eighteen minutes to the pound.
If you use the covered roaster, turn twice while cooking and
baste four times. It must be thoroughly done. Half an hour
before taking the meat up, dip out a cupful of gravy, set in cold
water to throw up the grease ; skim carefully ; add half a cupful
of strained cooked tomatoes and boil fast ten minutes before
thickening with browned flour and seasoning with pepper and
salt.
Fifteen minutes before serving, rub the meat over with butter,
pepper and salt, dredge with flour and set on the upper grating
of the oven to brown.
ROAST FILLET OF VEAL.
Have the bone taken out > and fill the hole thus left with a stuff-
ing of crumbs, chopped pork or ham, chopped parsley, pepper and
salt. Pin the fillet into shape with skewers and bind with stout
cords. The stuffing should also be pressed well down between
the folds of the fillet, and thin slices of ham or pork be laid over
the top after it goes into the roaster. These must be removed
fifteen minutes before the meat comes from the oven, the top be
rubbed with butter, peppered, and dredged with flour to brown
it. Proceed in all things else as with the roast loin. Cook
eighteen minutes to the pound.
BRAISED BREAST OF VEAL.
Run a sharp knife between the ribs and the flesh and fill the
space thus cleared with force-meat made as directed in last recipe.
Lay in the roaster upon a bed of chopped carrots, onions, cel-
ery, and tomatoes. Pour a cupful of boiling water over the meat,
cover closely and cook slowly, allowing fully twenty minutes
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK III
per pound. Fifteen minutes before serving transfer the meat to
an open pan (heated), rub with butter, pepper, salt, dredge with
browned flour and set in a quick oven to brown. Meanwhile,
strain and press the gravy and vegetables through a colander
into a saucepan, return to the fire, season to taste, thicken with
browned flour, boil up, and when the meat is dished pour a few
spoonfuls over and about it. Serve the rest in a boat.
ROAST SHOULDER OF VEAL.
Cook as above, omitting the vegetables, and roasting two
minutes less per pound. Bear in mind that all the juices must be
kept in so dry a meat as veal, and that the bacon and butter are
needful additions to that which would otherwise be insipid.
VEAL CUTLETS AND CHOPS.
Pepper and salt, dip in beaten egg, then in fine cracker-crumbs
salted and peppered.
If you wish the cutlets fried, lay them with care in deep fat
hissing hot, and cook rather slowly, but steadily.
If you would saute them cook slices of fat ham or of salt pork
in a frying-pan, take them out when crisp, and put in the veal,
turning when the underside is browned.
Serve on a hot- water dish, anoint with butter and lemon-
juice, or send them dry to table, and pass tomato-sauce with
them.
Serve spinach with veal whenever you can.
VEAL STEAKS
are really "better eating" than chops or cutlets, and should
be better known.
Cut them but half an inch thick and broil more slowly than you
would beefsteak, also turning oftener. Dish upon a heated plat-
ter and pour over them a sauce made of four young onions sliced
and fried in a generous tablespoonful of butter, two tablespoon-
fuls of strained stewed tomatoes, a teaspoonful of minced parsley
112 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and half a cupful of stock simmered together for half an hour,
then strained, thickened with browned flour, and boiled one
minute. If you have no stock, use boiling water and more but-
ter. Let the steaks lie in this five minutes before you send to
table, keeping hot over boiling water.
STEWED FILLET OF VEAL.
Prepare as for roasting, put into a pot with two cupfuls of
stock, cover closely and cook gently for four hours. If you
have no stock add three tablespoonfuls of chopped salt pork to two
cupfuls of hot water, and use instead. Take up the meat when
done, undo the strings, and keep hot, while you add to the gravy
left in the pot a tablespoonful of butter rolled in as much browned
flour, the juice of half a lemon, a great spoonful of tomato cat-
sup, salt and pepper to taste. Boil up sharply and strain and
rub through a colander over the meat.
Have eight or ten baked tomatoes, plain or stuffed, to lay
about the meat on the dish, and pass spinach with it.
STEWED KNUCKLE OF VEAL WITH DUMPLINGS.
Crack the knuckle well and put over the fire with four slices
of corned ham cut into dice, or as much salt pork (the ham is
nicer), a carrot minced, an onion sliced thin, a tablespoonful of
chopped parsley, and a tomato cut up small. Coven with a
quart of boiling water, and cook slowly two hours. Season them
to taste with pepper and salt, put on the lid and cook one hour
longer, or until the meat slips easily from the bones. Take out
the bones, arrange the meat upon a hot dish, surround it with
the dumplings, and pour over all the gravy when you have
strained it, thickened it with flour, and boiled it one minute.
DUMPLINGS FOR THIS STEW.
One cupful of flour, sifted twice, with a teaspoonful of Cleve-
land's baking powder, and half a teaspoonful of salt ; half a cup-
ful of milk ; one teaspoonful of butter. Rub or chop the butter
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 113
into the prepared flour, wet up with the milk into a soft dough ;
flour your hands well, and handling as lightly as possible, form
the dough into balls, and drop into boiling water. Cook ten
minutes. They should be ready at the same time with the gravy,
as they get clammy with waiting.
This stew is good when made with lean mutton.
VEAL AND HAM PIE.
Cut the meat into strips half an inch wide and over an inch
long. Have ready half as much cooked ham cut up in the same
way, and six eggs boiled hard. Before you begin to make the pie
have the gravy ready and cold. Make it by stewing slowly
bones and refuse bits of veal in a pint of water until you have
reduced the liquid one-half, when strain out the meat and bones,
add a small onion minced, a tablespoonful of strained tomato-
sauce, and one of chopped sweet herbs, with pepper to taste (the
ham supplying the salt), and cook five minutes before setting
aside to cool.
Now put in the bottom of a pudding-dish a layer of the veal,
pepper lightly, and dust with flour ; cover with a layer of ham,
and this with slices of hard-boiled egg, each with a bit of butter
upon it. Another layer of veal, peppered and floured, more ham
and eggs, and so on until all the materials are in. A few drops
of lemon-juice on the ham, or a few capers sprinkled here and
there, improve the flavor. Pour in the gravy, cover with a good
paste, cutting a slit in the middle, and bake slowly an hour and
a half for a medium-sized pie ; two hours if it be large. Lay
stout, clean paper over it for the first hour, and keep the oven
steady, not too hot.
This is a delicious pie.
SCALLOPED VEAL.
Use cold cooked veal for this purpose. Chop it we'll, clearing
it of bones and gristly bits, season to taste and lay a stratum in
the bottom of a buttered bake -dish. Cover with cracker-
crumbs, salted and peppered, with bits of butter dropped over
114 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
them ; moisten with stock, or with milk, or, if convenient, with
oyster-juice, and put in more veal. Use up your ingredients
in this order, having a thick layer of cracker-crumbs on top,
well buttered and moistened ; set in the oven, bake, covered, for
half an hour, then brown quickly.
Chicken is very nice scalloped according to this recipe.
VEAL AND HAM PATES.
Mince cold cooked veal and ham in the proportion of two-
thirds veal and one-third ham. A few champignons are a pleas-
ing addition. To each cup of the mixture allow a tablespoon-
ful of fine crumbs ; season piquantly with salt, a dash of cayenne,
a little lemon-juice and a teaspoonful of catsup. Wet up with
stock, or butter and water, and heat in a vessel set in another of
hot water, to a smoking boil. Take from the fire, stir in a
beaten egg and a glass of sherry and fill shells of pastry that have
been baked empty. The shells should be hot when the mince
goes in. Set in the oven for two or three minutes, but the mixt-
ure must not cook.
SCALLOP OF VEAL AND MUSHROOMS.
A " Left-over."
Make this the day after you have had a roast fillet of veal.
Chop cold veal and stuffing ; put a layer into a greased bake-
dish ; season, and wet with the cold gravy. Lay chopped
mushrooms upon this ; then bread-crumbs, with butter scattered
over them. More meat seasoning, mushrooms, and crumbs
should fill the dish, with plenty of crumbs profusely buttered on
top. Wet each layer of meat with gravy. Cover the dish, and
bake until it bubbles on top. Brown lightly, and send to table
in the dish in which it was cooked.
A "COMPANY-DISH" OF VEAL.
Take the large bones from a piece of loin of veal ; stuff the
cavities thus made with a good force-meat of chopped pork-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 115
crumbs and seasoning a few chopped mushrooms are an
improvement cover the sides with greased sheets of thick writ-
ing-paper ; put a cupful of soup-stock or other gravy in the drip-
ping-pan, and baste well for one hour with butter and water,
afterward with the gravy. Cook fully twelve minutes to the
pound. Take off the paper during the last half hour ; dredge
with flour, baste with butter, and brown nicely. Take up and
keep hot while you skim the fat from the gravy, stir into it half
a cupful of chopped mushrooms and a little browned flour.
Serve this, having cooked it three minutes, in a boat. Have
ready some green pease, boiled and seasoned, and make a fence
of them about the veal when dished.
MOCK PIGEONS.
Take the bone from two fillets of veal cut an inch thick ; flat-
ten 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 cupfuls of boiling
stock. Turn a pan over them and bake nearly two hours, bast-
ing 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 and pull
them carefully from the meat.
VEAL LOAF.
Cut the last shavings from the almost naked bone of a boiled
ham. If you have no " left-overs " of cold veal, boil a pound
of this meat. The coarsest piece will do, but it must be lean.
While the veal cools, boil down the liquor in which it was
cooked to a half cupful. If your veal is already cooked treat a
cupful of gravy in the same way. Add to this a teaspoonful of
butter, the juice of half a lemon, pepper and salt, with a pinch of
mace. Chop veal and ham very fine, mix up well together,
wet with the gravy, and press hard into a bowl. Lay on the sur-
Il6 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
face a saucer or small plate, and set on this a flat-iron or other
weight. By the morrow it will be firm. Turn out bottom up-
ward, and cut in thin perpendicular slices. Scraps of poultry
can be worked up nicely in this way, mixing them with ham.
By keeping a long look ahead and paying wise heed to the " bits
and sups " that would otherwise be thrown away as worthless,
the housekeeper can grace her board with many a pretty " relish "
unknown to most people whose " obligation to live prudently "
implies coarseness, if not meanness of fare.
PRESSED VEAL OR GALANTINE.
Have a veal steak cut thin ; trim into a neat shape with no
ragged edges. Lay flat upon a dish and butter the inside well ;
then spread with a mixture of a half-cupful of cold boiled tongue
(or ham), a great spoonful of minced mushrooms and the same of
almonds, blanched and chopped fine. Season with paprica and
a few drops of onion-juice the tongue or ham salting it suffi-
ciently. Roll as you would a valise-pudding, and sew up in a
piece of cheese-cloth, fitted to the shape. Put into a saucepan ;
cover with weak stock or consomme (which you can use again for
soup), drop in a sliced onion, a stalk of celery minced, and a
teaspoonful of chopped soup-herbs, and cook slowly at a steady
simmer three hours, closely covered. Set away until lukewarm
in the liquor ; then lift it out and put it upon a dish with a
plate on top, and on this a heavy weight. Leave thus all night.
Take off the cloth when ready to use it, and cut perpendicularly
in thin slices.
A delightful relish for tea, or picnic, or luncheon on a hot
day. It is made elegant by laying the roll of pressed meat,
after removing the cloth, in an oblong mould and pouring over
it aspic jelly. Set on the ice, and turn out when the jelly is
firm.
VEAL EGGS IN A NEST A LA TURIN.
Mince cold veal, season to taste, and wet slightly with a good
gravy. To each cupful allow a tablespoon ful of finely minced
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK I \J
blanched almonds, or the same quantity of champignons chopped
small. Bind the mixture with a beaten egg, stir over the fire
one minute and set aside to cool. Flour your hands and form
into balls the size and shape of an egg; let them get cold, roll
in egg and cracker-dust, and fry in deep fat.
Arrange upon a platter a border of spaghetti boiled tender in
salted water and drained. Butter plentifully and pour carefully
over it a cupful of strained tomato-sauce. Heap the eggs in the
centre, and you have an attractive and most palatable entree,
especially if almonds be used.
VEAL SOUFFL&
Two cupfuls cold veal, minced fine. One cupful bread-crumbs,
dry and fine. One cupful boiling milk. One tablespoonful
butter. One slice cold boiled ham, minced. One egg, beaten
very light. A pinch of soda dissolved in the milk. Pepper and
salt to taste.
Soak the crumbs in the boiling milk, stir in the butter and let
the mixture cool. Stir in the meat first when the bread is
nearly cold, season, and last put in the beaten eggs. Beat all
up well and pour into a well-greased pudding-dish. Set in a
brisk oven, covered, and bake half an hour, uncover, brown
lightly, and serve immediately.
CALFS HEAD AU GRATIN.
Wash the head, which should be cleaned with the skin left on.
Take out and set aside for other dishes the tongue and brains,
parboiling both, and sprinkling lightly with salt. Put the head
over the fire in enough cold water to cover it, bring quickly to
a boil, and as soon as this is reached, lift it out and plunge it
into ice-water. This will make it white and firm. When per-
fectly cold (the water should be changed twice for colder), wash
all over with vinegar and put on again, now in plenty of boiling
water in which have been mixed two tablespoon fuls of vinegar.
Add half a sliced onion, a sliced carrot, some minced parsley,
six black peppers, and a heaping teaspoonful of salt. Cook
Il8 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
gently two hours for a small head, longer for a large, or until
you can slip out the cheek-bones.
Transfer with care to a baking-pan, draw out the bones and
teeth, injuring the shape as little as may be, rub well with butter,
cover thickly with fine crumbs, peppered and salted, and brown
upon the upper grating of an oven.
Serve with tomato-sauce.
The liquor in which the head was boiled will make a fine
soup.
BOD-ED CALF'S HEAD.
Cook as in the last recipe, but when the head is drawn from
the liquor, tender, but not dropping to pieces, lay it upon a hot
dish, with the tongue, boiled and cut into four strips, about it,
and pour over all a sauce made of two tablespoonfuls of butter
heated with four of vinegar, a half-teaspoonful of onion-juice, a
tablespoonful of chopped capers, pepper and salt to taste.
Or
Add to this sauce the brains, cooked soft, freed from strings, and
beaten to a cream, with a little of the water in which the
head was cooked.
FRIED CALFS BRAINS*
Boil the brains in hot, salted water for fifteen minutes and
drop instantly into ice-cold water to blanch them. Wipe dry
when cold. Take off the skins and clear away the strings, cut
each lobe into halves, pepper and salt, roll in egg and cracker-
dust, set aside to get cold and stiff, and then fry in deep fat.
They make a savory entree, but are usually a garnish to larger
meats.
TIMBALES OF CALFS BRAINS,
One calf's brain, parboiled \ a heaping tablespoonful of
blanched and chopped almonds (very fine) ; whites of four eggs,
salt and white pepper to taste.
Beat the brains to a cream, stir in the other ingredients ; fill
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 119
small buttered moulds or pate-pans, set in a pan of boiling water
and cook in a good oven fifteen minutes after the boil recom-
mences. Turn out carefully on a hot dish, and serve with a
good white sauce. These may be made of pig's brains also.
BROILED SWEETBREADS.
Let them stand in cold water for an hour ; then parboil in
boiling, slightly salted, water for ten minutes, then plunge into
ice-cold, to plump and blanch them. No matter how you intend
to cook them, do these things as soon as the sweetbreads are
brought in, as they are very perishable. When cold, take from
the water, wipe well, and if you are not ready to cook them,
sprinkle with salt and set on ice. When you wish to broil them,
rub all over with melted butter, or salad oil, and broil over clear
coals, turning often. When about half done, roll them over and
over in melted butter or in hot oil, and return to the fire.
Serve dry upon a hot dish, or dress with butter beaten to a
cream with lemon-juice.
STEWED SWEETBREADS.
Parboil and blanch the sweetbreads, and let them get cold.
Cut into small dice of uniform size. Make a white roux of one
tablespoonful of butter and the same of flour, and stir into it a cup-
ful of hot milk, continuing to stir until it bubbles all over ; add
now a cupful of chopped mushrooms, the sweetbread dice, a little
chopped parsley, pepper and salt to taste, and set the saucepan
in boiling water for five minutes before serving.
ROASTED SWEETBREADS.
Parboil and blanch as directed, and when rather more than
blood-warm, sew each up in a bit of mosquito-net, cheese-cloth,
or coarse, thin muslin, drawing it into the form of an egg or a
pear, as you may fancy, and fitting the cloth as smoothly as you
can. Now lay them between two plates, with a weight upon the
upper, and leave in a cold place for several hours. Remove the
I2O THE NATIONAL COOK
cloths ; with a slender skewer perforate each in half a dozen
places, and pass a lardoon of fat salt pork through it, the ends
projecting at each side. Arrange in a baking-pan ; add a cupful
of weak stock, and cook brown in a quick oven, basting four or
five times.
Transfer to a hot dish, and cover while yon strain the gravy;
add a large spoonful of minced mushrooms ; return to the fire
and thicken with browned flour. Boil up once sharply ; pepper
to taste, and send to table in a boat, after you have put a spoon-
ful upon each sweetbread.
BRAISED SWEETBREADS.
Prepare as for roasting, but instead of larding lay them upon
thin slices of salt pork, and strew about them a carrot, an onion,
and a stalk of celery, cut into dice. Add a cupful of hot water
or weak stock ; cover closely and cook half an hour. Uncover,
baste well with butter, then with their own gravy, and brown.
Strain and rub the gravy through a sieve ; thicken with browned
flour ; boil up and pour over the sweetbreads.
FRIED SWEETBREADS.
Parboil, blanch, and lard with fat salt pork, and fry in the fat
that runs from the pork when they are lain in the hot frying-pan.
Or
Cut them into slices after parboiling, blanching, and chilling
them ; roll these in beaten egg and cracker-crumbs ; set on ice
for an hour and fry in deep fat. Serve dry and hot, with
tomato-sauce.
SWEETBREADS A LA POULETTE.
Parboil and blanch them. When cold, cut into neat dice,
add a tablespoonful of chopped mushrooms for each sweetbread ;
put them all together in a saucepan, cover with white stock, or
with butter and water, pepper and salt, and heat to a boil.
Strain off the gravy, and return to the saucepan, heaping sweet-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 121
breads and mushrooms upon a dish and keeping them hot.
Thicken the gravy with a white roux; stir in a great spoonful
of cream and pour over the dice. You may omit the mush-
rooms if you choose.
SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES.
Parboil, blanch, and mince sweetbreads. Put over the fire
with just stock enough to cover them, season to taste, and bring
to a boil. Thicken well with a white roux, heat again, stir in a
beaten egg for each cupful of sweetbread dice, and pour out
upon a dish to cool. When stiff, make, with floured hands, into
croquettes, roll in egg and fine cracker -crumbs and set in a cold
place for at least two hours before frying them in deep fat.
CROQUETTES OF SWEETBREADS AND BRAINS.
Make as above, but beat into the sweetbread dice the brains,
which have been washed, scalded, and freed from membranes.
Add for each cupful of the mixture a tablespoonful of fine crumbs,
wet up with stock and heat in a vessel set in another of boiling
water, then stir in a beaten egg, and when smoking hot, turn out
to cool and stiffen. When cold proceed as with sweetbread cro-
quettes.
Or
Make them of the brains alone, omitting the stock, and pro-
ceeding in all things else as with other croquettes. Serve with
pressed spinach, heaping the croquettes or balls about the base
of the mounded vegetable.
IMITATION TERRAPIN.
Boil and blanch a calf's head, and when the flesh is loose from
the bones set away in the liquor to get cold. Take it out, wipe
it and let it get firm. Cut into dice an inch long and half as
wide and set aside. Thicken a cupful of the liquor in which the
head was boiled with a roux of browned flour and butter, drop
in the dice and simmer fifteen minutes; season with salt, a pinch
122 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
of nutmeg and a dash of cayenne ; lift from the fire and keep hot
in a vessel of boiling water while you prepare the sauce.
Heat a cupful of cream (this is for two cupfuls of the meat
dice), putting in a bit of soda to prevent curdling, and, taking
from the fire, pour gradually upon the yolks of three beaten eggs.
Stir well together, add to the meat and gravy, and just before
serving, pour in a glass of sherry. This imitation is the better
for a dozen balls, made by rubbing together the yolks of six
hard-boiled eggs with calf's brains, a raw egg, butter, and a
tablespoonful of finely minced boiled tongue. Roll them in flour,
set in a hot oven until a crust forms upon them, and put into the
* < terrapin ' ' stew. They must be no larger than marbles.
SCALLOPED CALFS (OR BEEF'S) BRAINS,
Soak the brains in cold water one hour, rid them of all fibres
and skin, and parboil for ten minutes. Drain and leave in ice-
water until firm. Cut up small, and lay in buttered pate-pans,
alternately with a layer of finely chopped cooked ham, seasoning
as you go with cayenne, bits of butter, and a few drops of onion-
juice. Wet with hot stock, or butter and water, cover with
cracker -dust dotted with butter, and brown on the upper grating
of a hot oven.
CALF'S LIVER A LA JARDINIERE.
Wash the liver and dry with a soft cloth ; lard it with strips
of fat salt pork, half an inch apart, and lay upon a bed of vegeta-
bles a carrot cut into dice, a parboiled young turnip, also cut
up ; a cupful of green peas, or of lima beans ; a chopped onion
and a tablespoonful of minced parsley. Dust with paprica, cover
with boiling water, or weak stock ; fit on a close lid and cook
one hour before adding three sliced tomatoes. Cook about forty
minutes longer ; dish the liver, lay the drained vegetables close
about it and keep hot over boiling water while you strain the
gravy left in the pan and thicken it with browned flour. Boil
up sharply, add the juice of half a lemon, pour part of it over the
liver, and the rest into a boat.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 12$
Carve the liver horizontally and serve some of the vegetables
with each portion. Should there be any of the liver left, put a
plate upon it, and a weight on this, and press to be eaten cold.
Sheep's liver or lamb's liver is quite as good as calf's liver,
and far cheaper.
STEWED CALF'S LIVER.
Cut a liver into dice and throw them into cold water to lie
there ten minutes. Heat two tablespoon fuls of butter in a sauce-
pan and fry in it half an onion sliced thin. Take out the onion,
dry the liver dice between two soft cloths, pepper and salt them
and dredge with flour before frying them in the butter to a light
brown. Pour upon them then a cupful of stock, of consomme, or
of boiling water ; cover closely and simmer half an hour ; take
up the pieces of liver and keep hot on a platter ; thicken the
gravy with browned flour, season with salt, parsley, a teaspoon-
ful of tomato catsup and the juice of half a lemon. Boil up,
add a glass of sherry and pour over the liver.
Half a can of champignons improves this dish.
CALF'S LIVER AND BACON.
Fry the bacon until it begins to curl, when add half a sliced
onion, and cook three minutes longer. Take out the bacon and
keep hot on a hot-water dish, strain out the onion and return
the fat to the fire. As it begins to hiss lay in the slices of liver
which have been peppered, salted, and rolled in flour. Cook
rather slowly, turning frequently until brown and tender. If
cooked rapidly it will become dry and hard on the outsicle and
remain rare at heart.
Lay in the middle of a hot platter and garnish with the bacon.
Or
You may, after taking the meat from the pan, add to the fat
a small cup of stock, or of boiling water, a teaspoonful of tomato
catsup or sauce, a little chopped parsley and a tablespoonful of
browned flour. Boil up, stirring all the while and pour over the
meat.
124 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CALFS LIVER SAUTE.
One pound of liver, sliced thin ; two tablespoon fuls of butter ;
one teaspoonful of minced onion ; one tablespoonful of catsup,
and two of sherry. Salt, paprica, and flour.
Heat the butter in a frying-pan, and fry the onion in it.
Pepper and salt the liver and roll in flour. Lay in the butter
and cook to a light brown, turning often. Transfer to a hot
dish, stir into the butter in the frying-pan the catsup and wine.
Boil up once, and pour over the liver.
STUFFED CALF'S LIVER.
Wash the liver and leave it in cold water half an hour. Wipe
dry and run a sharp knife into one side, almost but not quite
through. Leave an inch on the side opposite that at which the
blade entered. Work the knife to and fro, without enlarging
the outer aperture, until you have a space cleared that will hold a
small cupful of force-meat. This should be made of bread-crumbs,
chopped ham or pork, chopped mushrooms (if you have them),
and a few capers, and be well seasoned with pepper, salt, pars-
ley, and onion-juice. Bind it with a raw egg. Plump out the
liver with this, and sew up the outer gash. Then, sew the
whole liver up in mosquito-net or cheese-cloth, fitted closely to
the new shape, lay in a saucepan upon a bed of chopped carrot,
onion, and tomato ; just cover with hot water or stock and cook
in a close vessel for an hour and a half. Let the meat get almost
cold in the liquor, take it out and put between two plates, with
a weight upon the upper, to get cold and firm. When you are
ready to use it, remove the cloth, and carve horizontally in thin
slices.
It is a palatable supper, or luncheon entree.
LIVER PATE.
Boil a calf's liver very tender in salted water, also, in another
vessel a calf's tongue. Cut half a can of champignons into
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 12$
halves and boil. When liver and tongue are dead-cold, pound
the liver with a potato-beetle, or rub with the back of a wooden
spoon to a paste, moistening with butter as you go on. When
it is soft and smooth, season the paste with onion-juice, cayenne
or paprica, salt, a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, and half
as much French mustard. Work all the ingredients together
well, and pack the paste in small jars, interspersing it with tiny
dice of tongue and the halved champignons. Butter the jars or
glasses and press the mixture down very hard. Smooth the tops
and cover with melted butter. These pates will keep for a month
in winter and are convenient and popular.
They are even better if made of turkey and chicken livers, bits
of the gizzards, freed from cartilage, taking the place of truffles.
BRAISED CALF'S LIVER.
Wash well and wipe dry. Cover the bottom of your baking-
pan with thin slices of salt pork, and these with a carrot minced
small, also a sliced onion and turnip and a tablespoonful of
chopped parsley. Lay the liver upon this ; dredge with salt and
pepper; pour in two cups of boiling water ; cover closely and
cook two hours, for the last twenty minutes uncovered to brown.
Keep the liver hot in a covered platter, rub the gravy and
vegetables through a colander, thicken, if necessary, boil up
sharply, add the juice of half a lemon and a teaspoonful of to-
mato sauce, and pour over the liver.
CALF'S LIVER A LA MODE.
One fine, fresh liver ; one half pound of salt pork, cut into lar-
doons ; three tablespoonfuls of good dripping; two sliced onions,
small ones ; one tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce ; two table-
spoonfuls of vinegar ; one teaspoonful of mixed spices ; one table-
spoonful of sweet herbs, chopped ; pepper. Wash the liver, and
soak half an hour in cold, salted water. Wipe dry and lard with
the fat pork, allowing it to project on both sides. Heat drip-
ping, onion, herbs, and spices in a frying-pan. Put in the liver
126 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and fry both sides to a light brown. Turn all into a saucepan,
add the vinegar, and water enough to cover it ; put on a close
lid and stew gently one hour and a half. Lay the liver on a
hot dish, add the sauce to the gravy, strain it, thicken with
browned flour, boil up ; pour half over the liver, and send the
rest up in a sauce-boat.
LAMB AND MUTTON.
When over six months old it is no longer lamb, even by
butcherly courtesy, but young mutton. It begins to lose claim
to the honorable title after two months of terrestrial life. In
this particular the conscience of the meat vender is more elastic
than in any other direction. The solid fact that there is no dis-
grace in calling mutton by the right name would seem to be in-
conceivable to his imagination, and there are housekeepers who
survey, without winking, a leg, at spring-lamb prices, weighing
ten pounds and warranted to melt in the mouth. The fraud
becomes palpable to eye and teeth when the meat comes upon
the table, underdone to rawness and unmasticable.
Lamb may be cooked as soon as the animal heat is fairly out
of it, and to be at its best must be fresh. Mutton should be
hung for several days before it is cooked. Lamb is sold, usu-
ally, by the quarter. The hind quarter, including the heavier
legs, are the prime cut. The fore-quarter, including the shoul-
der, costs less, and if judiciously cooked, is quite as palatable.
The chops are trimmed from both quarters.
ROAST LEG OF LAMB.
Put into the covered roaster, dash a cupful of boiling water
over it, cover and cook about fifteen minutes to the pound.
Twenty minutes before taking it up, take off the cover, rub all
over with butter, dredge with pepper, salt, and flour, and brown.
Serve with mint sauce, and never with made gravy from the
pan. Mutton and lamb gravy from plain roasts tastes of tallow.
Green pease are always en regie as the accompanying vegetable
with mutton and lamb. Asparagus is the next choice.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK I2/
ROAST SHOULDER OF LAMB.
Cook as you would the leg, but with more water in the pan
and more slowly. When nearly done, baste plentifully with the
gravy, and, five minutes later, with butter into which a little
lemon-juice has been beaten. Brown lightly, after dredging with
salt, pepper, and flour. Your object should be to make every
part of the shoulder eatable, the muscles soft, and the skin gelati-
nous. As usually served, the thin part of the roast is often hard
and distasteful, more like burnt leather than meat.
You can vary the dish by having the bone of the shoulder
taken out, filling the cavity with a dressing of bread-crumbs and
butter, seasoned with pepper and salt.
BRAISED BREAST OF LAMB.
Lay a breast of lamb, or two scrags, in a broad pot, meat
downward. Scatter over this a sliced turnip, a sliced onion, and
two sliced tomatoes, with a little pepper and salt. Add less than
a cupful of stock, cover, and cook slowly one hour. Turn the
meat then and cook one hour longer, very slowly. When ten-
der, but not ragged, brown, rub with butter and keep hot.
Strain the gravy ; thicken with browned flour ; season, boil up,
and pour over the meat.
STUFFED LEG OF MUTTON.
Have the bone removed, tearing as little as possible. Fill the
cavity with a dressing of a cupful of bread-crumbs worked up
with butter, two tablespoon fuls of finely minced almonds, pepper,
salt, parsley, and a little onion-juice. Sew or tie up the gash, that
the stuffing may not escape. Have ready in your roaster a carrot
cut into dice, a sliced tomato, a small onion, minced, a stalk of
celery, and a little parsley. Lay the mutton upon them, pour
over it two cupfuls of boiling water, cover closely and cook two
hours, basting four times. Remove the cover, brown, after basting
once with butter and sprinkling with pepper, salt, and flour.
128 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Rub the gravy through the colander, thicken with browned flour
and send to table in a boat.
Mashed or stewed young turnips are a good accompanying
vegetable.
LAMB OR MUTTON CHOPS.
Trim off the skin and fat and scrape the bone bare for an inch
and a half or two inches from the end, making, as it were a
handle for the edible part of the chop. Flatten with the potato-
beetle or the broad side of a hatchet, and broil quickly upon a
greased gridiron, turning several times.
Pepper and salt and send in upon a hot dish, the chops over-
lapping one another neatly.
Or, you may ring the chops about a mound of green pease or
mashed potatoes, circling all with parsley os nasturtiums.
A showy dish of chops is made by twisting frills of fringed
white paper about the bare bone left at the end of each.
BREADED CHOPS.
Trim and flatten, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in egg
and then in cracker-dust and fry to a fine brown in deep boiling
fat. Drain and serve dry and hot.
STUFFED MUTTON CHOPS.
Make a white roux of a tablespoonful of butter and the same
of flour. When it has thickened well, stir in a scant half-cupful
of stock ; mix thoroughly until it bubbles ; add half a cupful of
chopped almonds, or, if you prefer, mushrooms, and season to
taste. Boil up once and let it get cold and stiff. The chops
should be tender, juicy, and cut twice as thick as for ordinary
uses. Split each horizontally clear to the bone, leaving that to
hold it together and fill the slit with the cold paste. Close the
sides upon it and quilt a tooth-pick through the edges to hold
them together and broil slowly over clear coals, turning often
for ten minutes. Withdraw the skewers, and dish upon a bed of
green pease.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CREAMED CHOPS.
Real lamb is necessary if you would have the dish successful.
Trim and broil them, sprinkle with pepper and salt and set them
aside until just warm enough to handle comfortably. Have
ready a stiff, cold paste prepared as in the last recipe, only sub-
stituting hot milk for the stock. Put a spoonful upon a cold
dish, lay a chop upon it and enfold the meat in the paste, flat-
tening and moulding with your band and letting the bone pro-
ject beyond the covering. Do this quickly, dip into beaten
egg, then into cracker-dust, and fry in deep, hot cottolene.
Serve at once.
BOILED MUTTON.
Plunge the meat into a kettle of salted water that is boiling
hard ; leave it there for fifteen minutes and draw it to the side of
the range. After this cook slowly fifteen minutes to the pound.
Half an hour before you are ready to serve it, drop in a minced
carrot, a turnip, a small onion both sliced a stick of celery and
a little parsley, also a sprig of mint, and let all cook together.
Take up the meat, wash over with butter and keep hot. Strain
out enough of the liquor to serve as a foundation for a white
sauce, and set away the rest for soup stock.
Set the reserved liquor in cold water to throw up the fat,
skim, and thicken with a white roux ; stir in a great spoonful of
capers and serve in a boat. Lamb should never be boiled.
GAME MUTTON.
Hang a leg of mutton in the cellar for two weeks, washing it
all over with vinegar every other day. When you are ready to
cook it, rub it well with lemon-juice, then with a raw cut onion,
finally with salad oil. Put into your covered roaster with two
cups of boiling water, and set in a hot oven for half an hour.
Transfer to a cooler oven and cook steadily fifteen minutes to
the pound. Half an hour before taking the meat up baste plen-
tifully with a cupful of the gravy in which you have melted three
9
130 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
tablespoon fu Is of currant jelly. Use all the jelly and gravy.
Fifteen minutes later, baste with butter, sprinkle well with
pepper, salt, and flour, and brown it upon the upper grating of
the oven. Before doing this, pour off the gravy into a bowl and
set in cold water to make the fat rise. Skim this off, strain and
return the gravy to the fire, thicken with browned flour ; boil
up, add a glassful of sherry and pour half of it over the meat, the
rest into a boat. The meat will have a pleasing flavor of vei>
ison. Of course this is a cold weather dish.
BONED SHOULDER OF MUTTON.
Have the bone carefully removed from a rather lean shoulder
of mutton, and fill the orifice thus left with a good force-meat.
To make this, chop fine half a pound of lean veal and a quarter
of a pound of ham, and add to these a small cupful of fine bread-
crumbs. Season with a quarter-teaspoonful, each, of ground
mace, cloves, and allspice, and a saltspoonful of black pepper.
Stir in a raw egg to bind the mixture together. When the
force-meat has been put into the hole in the shoulder, sew up the
mutton in a cloth that will close the mouth of the opening,
and lay the meat in a pot with the bone from the shoulder, a
peeled and sliced onion, carrot, turnip, a little parsley and
celery and a bay-leaf. Pour in enough cold water to cover the
mutton entirely, stir in a heaping tablespoonful of salt, and let the
water come gradually to a boil and simmer until the mutton has
cooked twenty minutes to the pound. Let it cool in the broth \
take it out ; lay it under a weight until cold, remove the cloth and
serve. This is also very good hot. The liquor makes excellent
soup.
STEWED LAMB AND GREEN PEASE.
Buy three pounds of the coarser parts of the lamb ; cut into
inch lengths and dredge with flour. Have ready in a saucepan
two tablespoon fuls of good dripping, and when it hisses put in
half a sliced onion, and fry to a light brown. Skim out the
onion and put in the meat, cooking for five minutes and turning
often to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 131
add a cupful of boiling water, or of weak stock, cover closely
and cook gently for one hour. Add then a generous cupful of
green pease. Canned will do, but the fresh are better. Stew
for twenty minutes longer, or until the pease are tender, add a
tablespoonful of brown roux, boil up once, and pour upon slices
of toast that have been soaked in hot tomato sauce. A cheap
and a savory dish.
IRISH STEW.
The coarser pieces of mutton or lamb may be advantageously
utilized in the manufacture of what is an excellent and popular
dish when rightly compounded, and a disgrace to civilized kit-
chens as usually put together.
Cut three pounds of mutton, which must be lean, into pieces
of uniform size, and not more than an inch square. Heat
two tablespoonfuls of butter or beef dripping in a saucepan,
brown a large sliced onion in it and put in the meat. Turn it
over and over until coated with the fat, and slightly browned,
add enough cold water to cover the meat an inch deep, put on a
tightly fitting top, and stew two hours, or until the meat is very
tender. Have ready in another vessel four potatoes, sliced thin,
a carrot cut into dice, a tomato cut into bits, a stalk of celery
minced, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Cook fifteen
minutes, drain off and throw away the water, put the parboiled
vegetables into the stew and season to taste. Cook very gently
half an hour longer, take up meat and vegetables with a perforated
spoon and arrange upon a flat dish, the meat in the centre, the
vegetables on the outside. Cover and keep hot. Add to the
gravy in the saucepan a cupful of canned or fresh pease boiled
tender (" left-overs " will do), with half a cupful of hot milk in
which has been stirred a teaspoonful of corn -starch, cook five
minutes and pour over the meat and vegetables.
A DAINTY DISH."
One dozen tender French chops (lamb or mutton). Three
cepes (large mushrooms). Salt, pepper, one beaten egg.
Cracker-dust. Fat for frying.
132 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Flatten and trim the chops ; divide each cepe into four
strips, make a hole with the point of a knife in the thickest part
of each chop and thrust through it a slice of the mushroom.
Pepper and salt, dip in raw beaten egg, coat with cracker-
crumbs and set in a cold place for one hour. Fry them in deep
fat to a fine brown.
Mrs. Larned in her useful and charming book, "The Little
Epicure," adds to what is substantially the same recipe as this:
" Spread nicely trimmed pieces of toast with pdte-de-foie-gras,
place a chop on each and serve with Madeira sauce poured
around. Use butter instead of the pdte-de-foie-gras if you
prefer."
In either case it is a " dainty dish to set before a king," or an
American epicure. To many tastes a good tomato sauce would
be more acceptable than the Madeira, but even a veteran recipe-
writer must suggest diffidently when the accomplished woman
above quoted directs.
BRAISED MUTTON CHOPS.
Heat two tablespoonfuls of dripping in a frying-pan, and fry a
sliced onion in it, then the chops. Lay them upon a bed of
chopped carrots, onion, celery, turnip, and tomato, in your cov-
ered roaster and pour over them the fat from the pan, and
two cupfuls of hot water or weak stock. Cover closely and cook
slowly for one hour. Turn the chops then, season with pepper
and salt, dust with flour and let them brown, uncovered, turning
once more in fifteen minutes. Transfer to a hot dish, rub the
gravy and vegetables through a colander, boil up sharply, and
pour over the meat.
Tough chops may be made tender and toothsome by this
method.
LAMB CHOPS A LA MILANAISE.
Trim neatly, pepper and salt, roll in egg and cracker -crumbs
and fry in deep cottolene. Lay on a stoneware or metal dish, and
cover on both sides with finely grated Parmesan cheese. Set
upon the upper grating of a hot oven, for three minutes, or hold
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 133
a red-hot shovel close above them to melt or crisp the cheese,
and arrange upon a bed of spaghetti, boiled tender in salted
water, then drained and seasoned with butter, salt, and paprica,
or cayenne.
If you like you may pour over the spaghetti, after it is sea-
soned, enough strained tomato sauce to moisten it well, and then
lay the chops in order upon it.
BARBECUED LAMB.
Cut cold lamb into neat, thin slices. Into a rather deep, broad
frying-pan, put a tablespoonful of butter, a dash of cayenne, salt
and pepper, a great spoonful of vinegar and the same of currant
jelly, with a small teaspoonful of French mustard. Heat to boil-
ing, keeping your spoon busy all the while until the ingredients
are thoroughly incorporated. Then lay in the lamb and let them
get smoking hot through. Lay upon a hot-water dish and pour
the sauce over them.
MINCE-BALLS OF LAMB OR MUTTON.
Two cupfuls of cold meat, minced and cleared of gristle and
cartilage. Salt and pepper to taste and a little onion-juice.
Two eggs. Two tablespoonfuls of brown gravy. Half a cupful
of fine bread-crumbs.
Mix the seasoned meat with the gravy, work in the bread-
crumbs, then the beaten egg, make into balls, roll in flour and
set in a cold place to stiffen. When they are firm, drop
them into boiling water or weak stock, carefully, so as not to
break them ; draw the saucepan to the side of the range, and let
all stand for five or six minutes. Take up gently with a split
spoon, arrange upon a hot-water dish and pour about them a good
white or tomato sauce, or rich gravy left from any kind of meat.
The water must not boil after the balls go in.
MOULD OF MUTTON AND RICE.
One cupful of raw rice. Two cupfuls of minced cold mutton
or lamb. Two tablespoonfuls of gravy and as much cream. A
134 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
stalk of celery chopped or cut fine. One egg beaten light.
Pepper and salt to taste. One tablespoonful of butter. Cracker-
crumbs.
Boil the rice twenty minutes in hot salted water in which you
have put the chopped celery. Drain dry, when the grains are
tender, but not broken, work into the rice the butter, pepper,
and salt, lastly the beaten egg, spread the paste upon a dish and
set in a cold place for a couple of hours. When you are ready
for it, season the chopped meat and wet with the gravy. Sprinkle
the inside of a well-greased bowl or a tin mould with plain
sides with fine crumbs, then line with the rice paste. This lining
should be an inch thick. Fill with the meat, cover with the rice
and put into a pan of boiling water in a quick oven, laying paper
or a tin lid over the top. Keep the water at a fast boil for an
hour ; set the mould in cold water for one minute, run a knife
around the inside to loosen the contents and invert upon a flat
dish, shaking very gently to dislodge the rice.
Send to table with the moulded rice and meat, a good sauce or
gravy in a boat. Drawn butter, in which have been beaten an
egg and a tablespoonful of grated cheese, is good for this purpose,
as is oyster or tomato sauce. It is an excellent luncheon-dish.
Save the rice-water, flavored with celery, for soup-stock.
Miniature moulds, prepared like the above, baked in pate-pans,
or custard-cups, then turned out upon a dish, with a sprig of
parsley in the top of each, are pretty.
KIDNEYS.
The kidneys of beef, veal, or lamb, are best for cooking. Veal
and lamb kidneys are preferable to the coarser beef. All should
be fresh and plump, and free from fat. Cut out the hard, white
hearts, and lay the kidneys in cold water, slightly salted, for an
hour before proceeding to cook them.
STEWED KIDNEYS, WITH WDSTE.
Slice the kidneys, after they have been soaked in cold water ;
wipe dry and roll in flour. Have ready in a saucepan a little
THE NATIONAL COOK' BOOK 135
butter in which has been fried a slice of onion. Lay in the
kidneys ; roll them over and over, coating them with the butter,
for two minutes no more and pour in a cupful of boiling
water or heated stock. Simmer not longer than ten or twelve
minutes. Take them up and lay upon a hot dish ; add to the
gravy a tablespoonful of catsup, a dash of paprica or cayenne,
and salt, a small tablespoonful of butter that has been rolled in
browned flour, and when it has boiled up, a generous glass of
sherry or claret. Pour over the kidneys and serve.
DEVILED KIDNEYS.
Slice, and take out hard centres and fat. Have ready, beaten
to a cream, a tablespoonful of butter, an even teaspoonful of
mustard, a pinch of paprica or cayenne, a little salt, and a tea-
spoonful of lemon-juice. Melt, without really heating the mixt-
ure ; coat each slice with it, roll in cracker-dust, and broil, turn-
ing often. They should be done in eight minutes. Put a few
drops of the deviled sauce upon each, and send to table.
KIDNEYS WITH BACON.
Split lamb kidneys in half and fasten open with toothpicks.
Cook in a frying-pan thin slices of fat breakfast bacon until clear,
but not crisped. Take up and keep hot while you cook the kid-
neys in the bacon-fat, turning them frequently. Six minutes
should make them tender. Long cooking toughens them. Ar-
range upon thin slices of toast in a dish, garnish with the bacon,
add a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce to the gravy and pour
over the kidneys.
TOASTED KIDNEYS.
Cut each one of three kidneys into three pieces, and lay upon
a very hot tin plate in front of a hot fire, where a clear glow will
fall upon them. Have ready thin slices of fat bacon, hold each
slice upon a fork close to the red grate so that the gravy will drip
upon a slice of kidney below. Having toasted all the bacon, lay
it upon a second hot plate, taking up the first and draining off
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
every drop of gravy over the bacon. Now, toast the kidneys
over the bacon. When no more juice drips from each kidney it
is done. Lay each in turn upon a slice of toast, in a hot dish,
garnish with the pork, sprinkle with pepper and pour the gravy
over the kidneys. Serve hot.
STUFFED KIDNEYS.
Split the kidneys lengthwise, leaving enough meat and skin on
one side to serve as a hinge. Rub well inside with melted but-
ter, and broil them, back downward, over a bright fire for eight
minutes. Have ready a stuffing of bread-crumbs, cooked salt
pork, parsley and butter, seasoned with pepper, salt, and onion-
juice. Heat in a saucepan set in another of boiling water, stir
in the juice of half a lemon, fill the kidneys with the mixture,
run a toothpick through the outer edges or lips to keep in the
stuffing, pepper them and serve. Send around sauce piquante
with them.
PORK* .
While fresh pork seldom finds a position upon the table of the
housewife who aspires even to modest elegance, it still holds
a place upon hotel menus and in the larders of well-to-do people
in certain sections of the land. Professors of Dietetics warn us
that hot pork is never wholesome at any season, and occasional
trichina and hog-cholera scares lessen the consumption of it year
by year. The fact remains that we cannot do without juicy
hams and breakfast bacon and the well-corned strips of fat salt
pork that season a host of dishes as nothing else can. Sausage
of the best quality is welcome upon the breakfast -table on frosty
mornings, and souse and scrapple are in great request with com-
petent judges of good living. Clearly, then, it is the part of
wisdom to accept the inevitable and to make the best of what
people will have. If farmers and farmers' families depend upon
the pig-sty for the major part of their meat-supply, they should
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 137
learn how to prepare pork for human consumption, and when
and how to eat it.
Hot pork should never be eaten in summer, in any form, and
in cold weather only by those whose digestions are exceptionally
strong, and who lead active lives. Much and vigorous exercise
in the open air is required to dispose of the carbon and oil sup-
plied by this, the most oleaginous meat vended in the markets
of civilized countries.
Pork should always be thoroughly cooked. Underdone ham
is tough, hard, and indigestible ; rare fresh pork is disgusting.
Taste and custom are at one in this decision.
ROAST PORK.
The leg, the loin, the shoulder, and the chine are usually
roasted, and the method is the same with each. The skin is
scored in squares, or in parallel lines, the knife just cutting
through to the flesh. Put into the roaster, dash a cup of boiling
water over it ; heat gradually until the fat begins to run, when
quicken the fire. Baste often and abundantly, that the skin
may be tender, even when crisp. Allow at least twenty minutes
to the pound.
The old-fashioned Virginia cook and there were none better
in her day rubbed well into the deep lines made by the knife
in the rind a force-meat of crumbs, sage and onions, seasoned
with pepper, salt, a little grated lemon-peel, and the juice of a
lemon. This was done before the meat went into the oven and
the cracks were well filled. Do not send made gravy in with the
meat. It is little better than lard, unless left to stand for at least
an hour and then skimmed. Pass apple sauce with roast pork
when you can get it, or Chili sauce, or catsup, or a good bread
sauce. Sharp condiments go well with it and arouse the diges-
tive organs to their work.
PORK CHOPS.
Cut off the skin, trim neatly and dip in beaten egg, then in
cracker- crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, powdered sage, and
138 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
finely minced onion. Set in a cold place for an hour or more
and fry in hot fat, turning often, for at least twenty minutes.
Send in dry and hot, and pass apple sauce with them.
PORK STEAKS AND TENDERLOINS.
Broil over a clear fire, turning every two minutes for twenty
or twenty-five minutes. Lay upon a hot dish and dust with
pepper and salt and powdered sage. Sprinkle with onion-juice
and with lemon-juice, and drop bits of butter here and there.
Cover closely over hot water for ten minutes before sending to
table.
SPARE RIB.
Cook exactly as you would pork steaks, also pork cutlets.
PORK POT-PEE.
Cut two pounds of lean pork into pieces an inch long and half
an inch wide ; cover with cold water, put in some thin slices of
peeled lemon, a little chopped parsley and minced celery, and stew
slowly half an hour. Add, then, four potatoes, sliced very thin
and parboiled for ten minutes in another vessel. Season with
pepper and salt and dredge in a tablespoonful of flour. A table-
spoonful of catsup is an improvement. Cover closely and cook
until the meat is ready to drop to pieces. Stir in a tablespoon-
ful of butter, rolled in flour, boil up and put the pork into a
covered deep dish, leaving the gravy in the saucepan. Have
ready some strips of biscuit-dough, two inches long and half an
inch wide, drop them into the boiling gravy and cook ten min-
utes. Lay half of them across the meat in one direction, the
rest in another, making squares all over it ; pour in the gravy
gently and send to table.
Or
You can cut the biscuit-dough round with a cake-cutter and bake
these rounds in the oven by the time the pork-stew is done. Put
meat and gravy upon a deep platter and cover with the hot bis-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 139
cults laid closely together. They are more wholesome than
boiled dough.
YORKSHIRE PORK-PIE.
Chop lean pork somewhat coarsely ; butter a pudding-dish
and line with a good paste ; put in the pork interspersed with
minced onion and hard-boiled eggs, cut into bits and sprinkle
with pepper, salt, and powdered sage. Now and then dust with
flour and drop in a bit of butter. When all the meat is in,
dredge with flour and stick small pieces of butter quite thickly all
over it. Cover with puff- paste, cut a slit in the middle of the crust
and bake half an hour for each pound of meat. When it begins
to brown, wash the crust with the white of an egg. It will give
a fine gloss to it.
BOILED HAM.
The best ham to select is one weighing from eight to ten
pounds. Take one that is not too fat, to save waste. Soak all
night ; wash it carefully before you put it on to boil, removing
rust or mould with a small, stiff scrubbing-brush. Lay it in a
large boiler and pour over it enough cold water to cover it. To
this add a bay-leaf, half a dozen cloves, a couple of blades of
mace, a teaspoonful of sugar, and, if you can get it, a good
handful of fresh, sweet hay. Let the water heat very gradually,
not reaching the boil under two hours. It should never boil
hard, but simmer gently until the ham has cooked fifteen min-
utes to every pound. It must cool in the liquor, and the skin
should not be removed until the meat is entirely cold, taking care
not to break or tear the fat. Brush over the ham with beaten
egg, strew it thickly with very fine bread-crumbs, and brown in
a quick oven. Arrange a frill of paper around the bone of the
shank, and surround the meat with water-cress, or garnish the
dish with parsley.
BREADED HAM.
Boil as above directed. Brush the top with beaten egg and
sift over it cracker-dust in a thick, even coat. Set in the oven
to brown and let it get perfectly cold before it is carved.
140 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
STUFFED HAM,
Soak the ham over night and scrub well in the morning. Run
a narrow sharp knife along the bone, loosening the meat for the
whole length ; shake and pull the bone while doing this until
you can withdraw it. Then dig out the flat bone from the butt-
end of the ham. With a fair degree of patience the process is
not difficult. Fill the cavity left by the bones with a stuffing of
bread-crumbs, seasoned with pepper, butter, onion, and Worces-
tershire sauce. Pack it in well and sew the ham tightly into
shape in mosquito-netting. Cover with cold water in which
have been stirred two tablespoon fuls of vinegar, and cook
twenty minutes to the pound after the boil begins. Leave the
ham in the water until it is lukewarm, take it out and put to
press under an inverted dish with a heavy weight on top. Leave
it thus for eight or ten hours ; take off the cloth, and then the
skin. Dot the top with black pepper, or Hungarian sweet red
pepper (paprica) using the tip of the middle finger to make the
impressions. If you can arrange the dots in a pattern the effect
will be pleasing. Send to table surrounded by a garland of as-
paragus tops and nasturtium flowers, or parsley and marigolds.
This is a delightful preparation of ham, suitable for luncheon or
Sunday evening suppers.
BAKED HAM.
Soak, wash, and parboil the ham, twelve minutes to the pound.
Skin as soon as you can handle it, and stanch the flow of juices
by rubbing flour into it. Put into a good oven ; slice an onion,
mince a carrot and a fresh tomato, and lay about the meat, pour
in half a cupful of hot water to prevent burning, cover closely,
and bake twelve minutes to the pound. During this time baste
the ham four times with Madeira or sherry or other pale wine,
using two glasses in all, and four times with the pan-gravy. Have
ready some browned cracker-crumbs and sift them thickly over
the ham when done. Leave it in the oven until firm and evenly
colored.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 141
If the ham is eaten hot, make a sauce by rubbing the gravy
through a colander and thickening it with browned flour. If
cold, put aside the pan-liquor for sauce for some other dish. It
is too good to be wasted.
Champagne sauce is an excellent accompaniment to baked
ham.
SUNNYBANK HAM AND EGGS.
Mince cold ham finely and moisten it with sharply seasoned
stock, well thickened. (There is nothing better for this purpose
than the pan-liquor described in the last recipe.) Heat in a
saucepan ; beat in a raw egg to bind it, form into a long-oval
mound upon a hot dish, and set in a moderate oven until a slight
crust forms upon it. Have ready six eggs that have been boiled
for twenty-five minutes, then left in cold water. Take off the
shells, cut the whites into thin circles, and rub the yolks through
a sieve to powder. Take the mounded ham from the oven and
cover all over with the powdered yolks. Arrange the white
rings closely about the bottom, and outside of these a garland of
parsley. The contrast of the golden bank and white and green
base is pleasing and uncommon. It can be eaten cold or hot.
SMOTHERED HAM.
Soak, scrub, and trim away all the blackened underside until
the meat shows clean and red. Wash with vinegar, rubbing it
in well. Cover the underside with a paste of flour and water,
and lay upside down in your roaster. Pour about it two cup-
fuls of cold water and two tablespoon fu Is of vinegar ; stir in a
tablespoonful of sugar and the same of minced onion. Cover
closely and bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes to the
pound. Baste five times to keep the paste from scaling off.
Skin, and remove the paste while hot, sift fine cracker-crumbs
over the top, and brown in a quick oven. It is best cold.
BROILED HAM.
Cut thin, wash well, and lay in a frying-pan full of warm not
hot water. Bring slowly to scalding, take from the fire, and,
142 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
covering closely, leave in the water for half an hour. Pour off
the water and cover the ham with boiling water. Let the meat
stand covered in this fifteen minutes, and transfer to cold.
After five minutes pour this off and wipe the ham dry. Broil
over clear coals, dust with pepper, and serve.
Cold boiled ham is better than raw for broiling.
FRIED HAM.
If raw, soak as for broiling. Fry it in its own fat until the
fat is clear and begins to curl and crisp at the edges. Serve
dry after peppering it.
BREADED HAM, SAUTE.
Cut cold boiled ham into rather thick slices, cover with a mixt-
ure of pepper, olive oil, and mustard; dip in egg, then in
cracker-crumbs, and set in a cold place. Fry slices of fat bacon
or pork crisp, take them out and put the breaded ham into the
hissing fat. Turn when the lower side is brown and cook the
upper.
Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut in slices, serving a slice
upon each portion of ham.
This dish is appetizing and a welcome variety in the monot-
ony of country-fare when " butcher's meat " is hard to get.
BARBECUED HAM.
Fry slices of cold boiled ham in their own fat ; remove from
the pan to a hot-water dish and pour over them a sauce made by
adding to the gravy left in the pan two tablespoon fuls of vine-
gar, the same of sherry, a half teaspoonful of made mustard, a
teaspoonful of sugar, and a dash of paprica or cayenne, just
heating these to a boil. Cover the dish and let meat and sauce
stand together for a minute before serving.
HAM AND EGGS.
If the ham be raw, soak it as before directed. If cooked, it
needs no other preparation than cutting it evenly into slices of
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 143
uniform size. Fry these in their own fat until the fat is clear and
curling ; lay in order upon a hot platter and keep warm while
you break the eggs, one by one, into the hot fat left in the pan.
Three minutes should cook them. If you wish " turned eggs,"
cook two minutes, then slip a bread-knife or a spatula under
each and turn it dexterously to cook one minute longer. Serve
an egg upon each slice of ham.
BACON AND EGGS
are cooked as above.
FRIED BREAKFAST-BACON.
This is growing fast into universal favor as a staple breakfast-
dish. It is so simple and so quickly made ready it seems odd
enough that it should so seldom be set before the listless or eager
breakfaster at its best estate.
To begin with, it can hardly be cut too thin, certainly not by
any knife at the command of the average cook. It should be as
thin as writing-paper made for foreign correspondence, and the
rind be pared away before themeai is cooked. Heat the frying-
pan, lay in the bacon, and as soon as the slices cook clear, turn
them. They should be hardly discolored by the fire when you
serve them, dry and hot, upon a heated platter.
BROILED HAM AND EGGS.
If the sliced ham be raw, soak as for fried ham. Broil over a
clear red fire for from three to five minutes, and arrange upon a
hot platter. Heat a tablespoonful of butter to hissing in a frying-
pan, but not until it colors, and drop the eggs carefully into it.
Cook three minutes, lift with the spatula and lay upon the
broiled ham. Dust both with pepper, and serve.
HAM AND POTATO BALLS.
Work into two cupfuls of mashed potatoes pepper and salt to
taste, a teaspoonful of flour, and the beaten yolk of an egg. Set
aside until cold and stiff ; take a tablespoonful in the hollow of
144 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
your floured hand and shape it into a cup. Put into the centre
a tablespoonful of minced ham, seasoned with pepper and mus-
tard, enfold it with the potato, roll over and over until you
have a round, smooth ball, dip into beaten egg, then into
cracker-crumbs, and set in a cold place until stiff. Cook in
deep boiling fat.
HAM PATES,
Chop cold lean ham fine, season with onion-juice, pepper,
minced parsley, and catsup ; moisten with good stock, and stir
over the fire until smoking-hot. Have at hand pastry forms or
cups, heated, and fill with the mixture.
Or
Fill pate-pans, or fire-proof china "nappies" with the hot
mince, put a raw egg upon each, and set in a quick oven until
the white is " set." Serve in the nappies.
BOILED PIGS' FEET.
Wrap each cleaned foot up in coarse cotton cloth, wind a
string about it from top to bottom to keep the bandage in place,
and when all are ready cover them deep in boiling water in
which has been stirred a tablespoonful of vinegar. Cook four
hours and let them get cold in the water. The feet are now
ready for pickling or frying.
If you wish to use them without other preparation, unroll,
dish them, and pour over them the following sauce :
Heat four tablespoon fuls of vinegar to a boil with a table-
spoonful of minced onion, the same of chopped parsley arid of
capers, a saltspoonful each of salt and pepper and half a tea-
spoonful of made mustard. When they have simmered together
three minutes, take from the fire and beat slowly into four
tablespoonfuls of oil. When you have a creamy sauce, set in
boiling water until hot and pour upon the feet. Cover them
closely and set over boiling water for ten minutes before they
are served.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 145
BREADED PIGS' FEET.
Boil as directed, and let them get cold in the cloths. Undo,
pepper and salt, roll in egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and fry to
a nice brown. Serve with sauce tartare.
PIG'S LIVER AND BACON.
Slice the liver and lay in cold water for half an hour to draw
out the blood. Wipe perfectly dry, salt and pepper and flour
well. Fry slices of thin, fat bacon clear ; take them out and cook
in the same fat a sliced onion. Strain the fat, return to the pan,
and when it hisses lay in the floured slices of liver and fry to a
good brown.
It should be better known that pigs' livers, as well as those of
lambs and even young mutton, are nearly as good when well-
cooked as calf's liver, and cost much less.
Any of the recipes that deal with calf s liver may be applied to
those just mentioned.
SAUSAGES.
If you use the sausages in skins, prick these with a needle in
several places to prevent bursting, put them into a frying-pan
with just enough cold water to cover them, and let them simmer
gently until the water has dried up. The sausages will then be
done, and neither scorched nor broken to pieces.
If your sausage-meat is in bulk, make into flat cakes, roll in
flour and saute in a very little fat. As soon as the sausages be-
gin to cook they will supply all that is needed.
BREADED SAUSAGES.
Put raw sausage-meat into a tin pail with a closely fitting top
and set in a pot of boiling water. Cook half an hour to the
pound and let it get cold in the pot. When you are ready to
cook it, make into balls or cakes or croquettes ; roll in egg, then
in cracker-crumbs ; let them stand for some hours in a cold place,
and fry in deep boiling fat.
146 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
These are more wholesome than the ordinary fried sausage,
and especially nice as garnishes for other dishes, such as roast
turkey and chicken.
APPLES AND BACON.
Fry slices of breakfast-bacon or salt pork until clear ; take
them up and keep hot. Have ready firm, tart apples, sliced
crosswise, without paring or coring, and fry them in the hot fat
left by the bacon. They must be tender, but not broken, when
done. Take from the fat with a split spoon, shake off all cling-
ing drops, and lay upon a hot dish. Sift fine sugar over them
and garnish with the bacon.
Send around corn-bread or brown bread with them.
PORK AND BEANS.
Soak the beans over night in cold water, changing this in the
morning for warm, an hour later for hot. Put over the fire half
an hour afterward, in boiling salted water, and cook until tender,
but not broken. Drain them then, and put into a deep dish or
bean-pot, bury a piece of pork (parboiled) in the centre. Stir
into a large cupful of boiling water half a teaspoonful of dry mus-
tard, half as much extract of celery or celery-salt, and a table-
spoonful of molasses, and pour this over the pork and beans.
Cover closely, set in the oven and bake slowly from four to six
hours according to the size of the pot.
This is a Massachusetts recipe, and there is no better for the
preparation of an ancient and honorable dish. In olden times
the bean-pot stood all of Saturday night in the brick oven, and
was in mellow prime at breakfast-time on the Sabbath day.
Serve Boston brown bread with it always. The two are in-
dissolubly wedded.
APROPOS TO LARD.
The old-fashioned housekeeper may have observed the marked
omission in these pages of the word " lard," even in recipes call-
ing for fat. While we believe that THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 147
is not singular in this respect, we feel that we owe it to our sister
housewives to explain why in the years which have elapsed since
the issue of former works which did contain directions for the
manufacture and the use in the kitchen of lard, we have had good
and sufficient reasons for excluding it from our own kitchens and
for declining to commend the lard of commerce to our constitu-
ents.
Apart from the fact that lard, unadulterated and properly made,
is less wholesome than vegetable oils, and absolutely pernicious
to many stomachs, no intelligent reader of the daily papers and
medical reports can shut his eyes to the recognized practices of
certain manufacturers of " kitchen lard " and the possibilities of
similar iniquities in every such business throughout the country.
It is not enough that hog-cholera and trichina, in the animal
legitimately slaughtered and put upon the market, make doubtful
the quality of the fat tried out even by respectable and conscien-
tious firms. It is an open secret that hundreds of hogs which
have died in transitu from farm to factory, " of disease, thirst, and
exposure," are made to yield their lard, and that this is unblush-
ingly put upon the market for household use.
A prominent lard manufacturer is reported as saying in defence
of the practice :
"As it goes through the boiling process and boiling fat rises
to the highest possible heat, there can be no mischievous germs
left in the lard, even supposing the animal had died of cholera or
other disease."
Leaving this statement to speak for itself, we remark simply
that not a pound of lard per year is consumed in our kitchens, and
that we conscientiously advise the use in public and in private of
almost any other fat.
Butter is expensive in the hands of hirelings, and the salt makes
it objectionable for such purposes as greasing moulds, etc. Really
good dripping from beef, veal, or chicken, while eligible in some
cases, is unfit for frying delicately flavored foods, and cannot be
used for shortening biscuits, pastry, and the like. Olive oil, while
excellent in a large majority of cases where frying and sauteing
148 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
are prescribed, is expensive when of prime quality, and objection-
able when less than prime.
It is but fair to those in whose behalf we have prepared this
manual to mention that we have found, after several years of
faithful testing and trusting, cottolene to be liable to fewer ob-
jections and to combine more advantages than any other fat of
which we have practical knowledge. It is a compound of vege-
table oil and a smaller proportion of the best beef-suet, and is, we
believe, entirely free from any deleterious substance whatsoever.
It is inexpensive, it gives out no unpleasant odor, and for frying
and "shortening" is far more satisfactory than even honest,
home-made lard at its best estate.
Cottolene, as the directions accompanying each can state, must
always be put into a cold frying-pan and brought slowly to the
boil. When this is done there is no danger of spluttering or
scorching.
POULTRY.
AFTER forty years of active housekeeping one housemother
would deliberately record her conviction that there is but one
satisfactory method of securing the appearance of tender fowls
upon her table. When your poultry-merchant sells you chickens
tender under the wings, with smooth, white complexions, hair-
less, and altogether promising, according to the best authorities,
yet which come to table tough and tightly jointed take your
custom to another man, and let him, as well as the discarded,
because dishonest, vendor, know just why you do it.
Some of the fairest fowls in our town angl country markets are
artistically " doctored" and might delude the most experienced
purchaser. The deception is the less excusable because every
tolerably skilful cook can make a tough bird tender and eat-
able by processes known even to humble followers of the craft.
It is cruel to allow her to treat a two-year old as she would a
half-yearling, and reap disappointment as the result of her gener-
ous confidence in the poulterer.
Fowls should always be dressed and drawn by the poulterer
before they are sent home. When it is not done, the duty of
the cook upon receipt of the birds is to empty the bodies forth-
with of offal and giblets. These are first to spoil, and, in spoil-
ing, taint the flesh. The gizzard should be cut open and
cleaned, and, with the liver and heart, be put over the fire in
boiling salted water. Boil fifteen minutes and let them get
cold in the water. Take out, wipe, sprinkle with salt and
pepper, and keep in a cool place until they are needed for gravy
or soup.
Wash the fowl out with cold water three times, dissolving a
1 50 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
little soda in the first water, then rinsing thoroughly. Wipe
perfectly dry inside and out, and dust the cavity of the body
with pepper. Hang now in a cool place until you are ready to
cook it.
CHICKEN.
ROAST CHICKEN.
Wash thoroughly and wipe dry within and without. Stuff the
hollow in the body, also the craw, with a force-meat, but do not
pack it in. It will ooze out or distend the fowl into a clumsy
shape, or become so clammy as to be unfit to eat. Sew up the
body and draw the skin covering the craw up to the neck, fasten-
ing it there with a cotton cord wound tightly about the neck-
bone. Bind the legs and the wings close to the body with tape
or cotton cord. Unless the fowl is very fat, lay a few slices of
fat bacon or pork in the pan and the chicken upon them. Pour
a scant cupful of boiling water over it ; put on the lid of the
roaster and cook quite fast for fifteen minutes, afterward more
moderately, fifteen minutes to the pound. Baste every half
hour if you use the covered roaster, every ten minutes if you
cook it in an open dripping-pan. Each time pour at least ten
large spoonfuls of gravy over the fowl. A quarter of an hour
before you dish it wash it all over with butter, pepper and salt
it well, and dredge it with flour. Take off the cover of the
roaster and brown. Dish and keep warm while you make the
gravy.
Chop the giblets fine, rejecting the cartilage ; stir a spoonful
of browned flour, wet with cold water, into the baking-pan
gravy, boil up, season to taste, add the giblets, and pour into a
boat.
For the stuffing use a cupful of fine bread-crumbs (cracker-
dust will not do) moistened with a tablespoonful of butter and
seasoned with pepper, salt, and parsley. Do not flavor it with
thyme or sage or onion. These are disagreeable to many tastes
and help to give the " dressing " of fowls the reputation of un-.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 15 I
wholesomeness. Moreover, they mar the flavor of the delicate
meat.
The English truss a roasting chicken with the liver under one
wing, and esteem this " liver-wing " a choice morsel in carving
and distributing the bird.
BOILED CHICKEN.
A chicken over a year old should always be boiled or steamed
or fricasseed.
As a rule a boiled fowl is better without stuffing. Cleanse
thoroughly, truss neatly, sew up in a piece of mosquito-netting
or coarse cheese-cloth, fitted to the shape, and cover deeply with
boiling salted water to which has been added a tablespoonful of
vinegar. Cook gently twenty minutes to the pound. It should
not reach the boil in less than half an hour. If really tough,
put on in cold water, after trussing and sewing it up, add a
little vinegar to it, and heat so slowly that it does not boil in the
first hour. After it begins to simmer, cook twenty minutes to
the pound and never let it boil fast. A bit of fat salt pork
dropped into the pot at the end of the first hour and cooked
with it will restore much of the richness -lost by the use of cold
water.
Unwrap, draw out the threads, and dish, pouring four spoon-
fuls of egg sauce over the breast and serving the rest in a boat.
Send around boiled rice with it.
BOILED CHICKEN AND RICE.
Cook as in the last recipe. Half an hour before dishing the
fowl dip out a great cupful of the gravy, season well, and stir in
a beaten egg. Boil a cupful of raw rice fast in two quarts of
salted water with a stalk of celery cut into four pieces, for ten
minutes ; drain and shake in a colander ; pick out the bits of
celery, put the rice into a saucepan and cover with the hot
chicken-gravy. Set in a pan of boiling water over the fire and
cook gently for fifteen minutes, or until the rice, in swelling,
has absorbed all the gravy. Each grain of rice should remain
I $2 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
whole. Rice paste is abhorrent to a just taste. Make a border
of the rice about the chicken when dished, and help a little
with each portion of chicken. ,
BOILED CHICKEN AND OYSTERS.
Prepare in the usual way and stuff with raw oysters cut in
half, peppered and salted, with a few bits of butter among
them. Sew up in cheese-cloth and boil twenty minutes to the
pound. Undo the cloth, and dish, with oyster sauce poured
over them.
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 fat to a fine
brown. Pile upon a hot- water dish ; fry whole bunches of
green parsley in the lard and lay over and about them. This
is the famous fried chicken of the South.
Or
Fry thin slices of fat bacon crisp in a hot pan, take them out
and set aside. Cook the chicken prepared as above in the fat
left in the frying-pan. Dish the chicken, laying the fried bacon
about it as a garnish, cover and keep hot. Stir into the gravy
over the fire a tablespoonful of flour until it begins to brown,
and into this, gradually, a cup of cream or milk heated in an-
other vessel with a tiny bit of soda in it. Continue to stir
until the mixture is smooth ; add a heaping teaspoonful of minced
parsley, and pour over the chicken.
This is Maryland Fried Chicken with Cream Gravy.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN (WHITE).
Otherwise incurably tough fowls can be made manageable by
teeth and digestive organs in this way :
Clean, wash, wipe, and joint neatly. This dissection is an
art to be studied, much of the comeliness of the dish depending
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOfC I S3
upon it. Cut with a sharp knife every joint apart from the
rest, the breast into two pieces, the back into three. Arrange
in layers in a broad pot, sprinkling between these two table-
spoonfuls of minced onion and a quarter of a pound of chopped
fat salt pork, sprinkle with pepper and chopped parsley, and
just cover with cold water. The giblets should be stewed with
the rest of the fowl. Cover closely and set at the side of the
range, until in about an hour (no sooner) the pot begins to
simmer. Set it then where the heat is stronger, but not
where it will boil hard, and stew quietly until the chicken
is tender. If tolerably young this will happen in an hour from
the date of the first simmer. Old fowls sometimes take three,
and even four, hours, but they are bound to succumb finally to
the persuasive influence of the gentle boil, provided they never
reach a hard, rapid ebullition for one minute while on the fire.
Old fowls, yellow of skin, hairy, obdurate of muscle, and with
iron-clad breast-bones must be treated according to their de-
serts. Allow them all the time there is, keep down the boil,
and victory is sure.
When tender take out of the gravy and dispose neatly upon
a hot ,dish. Cover and keep warm. There is probably more
gravy in the pot than you need for sauce. One good cupful is
all you want. Pour off the surplus and set aside for stock.
Never waste so much as a thimbleful. Stir into what is left in
the pot a cupful of hot milk (not forgetting the pinch of soda) in
which has been well mixed a tablespoonful of butter cut up with
one of flour. Let all boil up once, and pour gradually upon
two beaten eggs in a bowl. Without returning to the fire, pour
over the chicken and serve.
Always pass rice in some shape with fricasseed chicken.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN (BROWN),
Clean, wash, wipe, and joint as already directed. Fry a
dozen slices of fat pork in a broad pot, then a sliced onion until
brown, lastly the jointed chicken dredged with flour. Turn
the pieces often to brown them equally. When they are well
154 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
colored add just enough hot not boiling water to prevent
burning. If you have a little stock or consomme it is better
still. Half a cupful is enough. Cover closely and cook slowly
until tender.
Lay the chicken in order upon a dish, cover and keep hot
while you stir into the gravy two tablespoonfuls of brown roux
and a teaspoonful of caramel for coloring, with paprica and
minced parsley to taste. Boil up and pour over the chicken.
SMOTHERED CHICKEN.
Split down the back as for broiling and lay, breast upward, in
your covered roaster. Dust with pepper and salt and pour in a
cupful of boiling water or weak stock or consomme. Cover
closely, and cook gently fifteen minutes to the pound if young,
twenty if the subject be a year old. If it is over the latter age,
cook it in some other way. Lift the cover when the chicken is
half done, and turn it over to cook the other side. Ten minutes
before taking it up turn the breast upward again, baste well with
gravy, then with butter, dredge with flour and cover again, with
the valve open, to brown. Take up and dish the chicken,
thicken the gravy with brown roux, season to taste, and pour a
few spoonfuls over the fowl, the rest into a boat.
The flavor of the chicken is better preserved by this process
than by any other known to cooks. Therefore the simpler the
seasoning the better.
BRAISED CHICKEN.
Lay in the bottom of your roaster a carrot, cut into dice, a
sliced onion, a small young turnip, also sliced, a stalk of celery,
minced, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and three table-
spoonfuls of minced salt pork. Upon this prepared bed put the
chicken, trussed as for roasting, but not stuffed. Over all pour
two cupfuls of boiling water ; cover so tightly that little or no
steam can escape, and cook twenty-five minutes to the pound.
If the fowl be decidedly tough make this half an hour to each
pound, or more. Open the roaster but once ; when you judge
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 1 55
the chicken to be half done, baste it well ; try the breast with a
larding-needle or a skewer to see how it is getting on and leave
it again. Fifteen minutes before taking it up rub over with
butter and dredge with flour to brown it. When done, dish and
keep hot; rub the gravy through a colander, thicken with a
little browned flour, boil up, and serve in a boat.
This, also, is a capital use to which you may put an aged
fowl.
BROILED CHICKEN.
Clean, wash, wipe, and split down the back, leaving the breast
intact. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and wash all over with
melted butter or salad oil. Grease a perfectly clean broiler and
lay the chicken upon it, breast Upward. Put a tin cover or an
inverted pan over it until the juices dropping upon the red coals
below threaten to smoke it. Lift the broiler now and then to
avoid this, and broil about ten minutes to the pound. When
half done, turn to cook the upper side. Remove to a hot
platter, and anoint generously with a great spoonful of butter
mixed with a teaspoonful of lemon-juice and as much minced
parsley. Serve hot.
Garnish with curled parsley or water-cresses.
DEVILED FRIED CHICKEN.
Prepare as for frying in the usual way, jointing it neatly, and
lay for fifteen minutes in a bath of oil, lemon-juice, paprica, salt,
and mustard. Rub the mixture in well and roll in flour. Fry
in boiling deep fat, drain and serve upon a hot folded napkin,
or upon three thicknesses of tissue-paper fringed at the ends.
Garnish with cresses, and serve with a piquante sauce or with
mayonnaise.
ROAST FRIED CHICKEN.
Joint, dust with salt and pepper, dip in beaten egg, then in
salted and peppered cracker-dust. Have two tablespoonfuls of
butter in a baking-pan ; lay the chicken in it, and, covering
closely, roast in the oven for half an hour, or until nicely
156 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
browned. Send to table dry and hot, and pass a good white
sauce with it.
CHICKEN BAKED WITH HAM.
Prepare as for roasting, stuff and truss; then wrap in thin
slices of cold boiled corned ham. Bind the ham closely to the
fowl with cotton string, put into a covered roaster, pour in half
a cupful of hot consomme, or if you have none, or stock of any
kind, butter and water; sprinkle with onion and parsley;
cover and cook slowly, twenty minutes to the pound. Uncover
and baste four times. When a skewer comes out easily and
clean from the Abreast, take the chicken up, undo the wrappings
of ham, lay the fowl upon a hot platter with the ham, cut into
strips about it, and keep hot.
Thicken the gravy with a brown roux, pepper, add three
tablespoon fuls of chopped mushrooms, boil up once, and send to
table in a boat. The flavor of the chicken will be very fine.
CHICKEN CUTLETS.
Chop cold chicken fine ; season with onion -juice, celery salt,
pepper, and chopped parsley. For two cupfuls allow a cupful
of cream or rich milk. Heat this (with a bit of soda stirred in)
in a saucepan, and thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed
in one of corn-starch, stirred in when the cream is scalding.
Cook one minute, put in the seasoned chicken, and cook until
smoking-hot. Beat two eggs light ; take the boiling mixture
from the fire and add gradually to these. Pour into a broad dish
or agate-iron pan and set in a cold place until perfectly chilled
and stiff. Shape with your hands, or with a cutter, into the
form of cutlets or chops. Dip in egg, then in cracker-crumbs,
set on the ice for an hour or two, and fry in deep boiling fat.
Send around white sauce with them.
CHICKEN AND MACARONI A LA MILANAISE.
Boil in the usual way and without stuffing ; unwrap and carve
into eleven pieces with a keen knife. Arrange these neatly upon
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 157
a flat stoneware or other fire-proof platter, the white meat at one
end, the dark at the other, and cover them with pipe macaroni,
or spaghetti, broken into short lengths, and boiled clear, but not
until they break, in boiling, salted water, or, better still, in some
of the pot-liquor in which the chicken was cooked. In either
case boil an onion in the liquor, removing it when you take up
the macaroni. Conceal the mound 'of chicken completely with
this, sift Parmesan cheese all over it, set in the oven until
browned, and serve in the platter.
Another excellent device for disposing of a tough fowl.
DEVILED CHICKEN WITH OYSTER SAUCE.
Cut cold boiled chicken into neat pieces, an inch and a half
long and half as wide, and all as nearly as possible of the same
size. Cover with oil and lemon-juice and let them stand in the
refrigerator two hours. Then sprinkle with pepper, salt, and
a dust of dry mustard, dip in egg and cracker-crumbs, set aside
for an hour, or until stiff, and fry to a light brown.
Heat a cupful of strained oyster-liquor to boiling, skim, season
to taste, and thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed in
one of corn-starch. Boil up, stirring all the while, add a table-
spoonful of cream and a beaten egg. Half fill nappies or shallow
custard-cups with the sauce, lay a piece of chicken upon it, and
pass while hot. Eat from the nappies.
TEVEBALES OF CHICKEN.
Chop very fine the meat of an uncooked roasting fowl, or
a broiler. The meat must be almost like powder. Stir a pinch
of soda into four tablespoonfuls of sweet cream with salt and
white pepper. Beat stiff the whites of three eggs. Mix the
meat with the cream and beat in the frothed whites. Butter well
enough nappies or timbale-moulds to hold the mixture, set in a
pan of boiling water ; cover the pan and bake fifteen minutes in a
quick oven. Turn out upon hot plates, and pour about each a
good white sauce. Serve immediately, as they soon fall.
158 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CHICKEN PIE.
Cut two fowls into joints ; put them on in enough cold water
to cover them and stew very slowly at the side of the fire until
tender. Take out the meat ; add to the gravy a grated onion, a
bay leaf, a stalk of celery, two or three sprigs of parsley, pepper,
and salt. Let all simmer together for an hour, and set the sauce-
pan aside. Arrange the chicken neatly in a large pudding-dish,
pour over it the highly seasoned gravy, and cover all with pastry
made by the recipe given below. Bake to a delicate brown.
PASTRY FOR CHICKEN PIE,
Two pounds of sifted flour ; one and a half pound of butter ;
iced water enough to make a stiff paste.
Have bowl, chopping-knife, butter, and flour well chilled be-
fore beginning work. Chop the butter into the flour, and when
the bits of butter are the size of pease pour in the iced water, mix
it with the chopping-knife into a rough paste, and turn it out on
the board together with any scraps of butter that have not been
worked in. Roll it out quickly into a sheet about half an inch
thick. Flour lightly, fold it in three, turn the rough edges
toward you, and roll out again. Repeat this process three times,
handling the pastry just as little as possible. Set it on the ice for
an hour at least before using.
ENGLISH CHICKEN PIE.
Take a pair of young, tender chickens and cut them into neat
joints. Lay them in a deep pudding-dish, arranging them so
that the pile shall be higher in trie middle than at the sides. Re-
serve the pinions of the wings, the necks, and the feet, scalding
the latter and scraping off the skin. Make small force-meat balls
of fine bread-crumbs seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley, a sus-
picion of grated lemon-peel, and a raw egg. Form this into little
balls with your hands, and lay them here and there in the pie.
Pour in a cupful of cold water, cover the pie with a good crust,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 159
making a couple of cuts in the middle of this, and bake in a
steady oven for an hour and a quarter. Lay a paper over the pie
if it should brown too quickly. Soak a tablespoonful of gelatine
for an hour in enough cold water to cover it. Make a gravy of
the wings, feet, and necks of the fowls, seasoning it highly ; dis-
solve the gelatine in this, and when the pie is done pour this
gravy into it through a small funnel inserted in the opening in
the top. The pie should not be cut until it is cold, when the
meat will be found embedded in jelly. This is a delicious dish.
CASSEROLE OF CHICKEN.
A hungry man seeking his luncheon went, not long ago, to a
certain French restaurant noted for its rare combination of ad-
mirable cookery and reasonable charges. There, moved by a
happy inspiration, he ordered and ate a casserole of chicken. It
was exceedingly good so good that he went home and described
the dish to his wife with an eloquence that moved her to do her
best to reproduce the dainty.
She sought through countless cook-books for the directions she
needed, and found recipes many for casseroles of various sorts.
Some were in the shape of meat-loaves, some took the forms of
moulds of rice or potato filled with minced chicken, fish, or
meat. Dish after dish she prepared, following with what con-
sistency she could the combined directions of the cook-books and
her husband, but in vain. The casserole eluded her efforts. To
complete her discouragement, none of the notable cooks consulted
could offer any satisfactory suggestions.
At last, however, one of the least of them, who had never be-
fore had anything approaching an original idea, was visked by a
lucky thought. This she at once proceeded to put into practice.
Selecting for her companion a bon-vivant who possessed a fine talent
for culinary analysis, she went to the. restaurant where the chef-
d'oeuvre had been found and ordered casserole of chicken. The
two ate and studied and compared impressions and devised for-
mulae, and finally exercised financial blandishments upon the
head- waiter and the chef.
160 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
When the seekers for knowledge left the restaurant they bore
with them lightened purses, satisfied appetites, and an air of tri-
umph. But the most valuable acquisition was a bit of paper,
upon which was jotted down, in kitchen French and in
the chef s own Gallic handwriting, the outline of the longed-
for recipe, and here it is, reduced to the American kitchen
idiom.
Select a plump spring chicken, clean it, and truss it as for
roasting. Place in a casserole two tablespoonfuls of butter, a
carrot, and an onion (both cut into slices), two bay -leaves, and a
sprig of thyme. Set the casserole on top of the stove for about
ten minutes, or until the vegetables are lightly browned in the
butter. Pour in then a pint of well-seasoned consomme, cover
the casserole closely, put it into the oven, and braise the chicken
for three-quarters of an hour. If it is not young and tender it
will require longer. Ten minutes before the time is up add two
tablespoonfuls of sherry or madeira, and cover again. At the end
of the three-quarters of an hour drop into the gravy a dozen or
more small potato-balls which have been cut from the raw potato
with a Parisian cutter and then browned, or saute in butter. At
the same time add an equal number of French champignons.
Season the gravy with pepper and salt, and leave the cover off
the casserole that the chicken may brown. This should take ten
or fifteen minutes. After removing it from the oven, sprinkle
finely minced parsley over the chicken, and send it to table in
the casserole.
The genuine French casseroles are hard to find in this country,
and the imported ones are very expensive. For the benefit of
those who do not possess these utensils already, it may be stated
that any deep earthenware pudding-dish with a closely fitting
cover will serve as a substitute. There is a little curio-shop in
New York where a feature is made of Mexican and Moorish pot-
tery, and here may be found delectable covered pudding-dishes,
of a light terra-cotta ware, which are cheap, artistic, and will
stand any amount of heat. These are more ornamental than the
imported casseroles, and infinitely preferable to the ugly earthen-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK l6l
ware saucepans sold by that name. The only essential differ-
ence lies in the handles, the Mexican dish having a pair of them
instead of the single short one found on the regular casserole.
FRICASSEE OF CHICKEN A LA REDSTE.
Joint a pair of young chickens, and put them on the fire in a
large saucepan with a quart of cold water. Let it come to a
boil slowly ; when it reaches this point put in a couple of stalks
of celery, three or four sprigs of parsley, a bay-leaf, and a couple
of slices of onion. Season with a tablespoonful of salt and a
scant teaspoonful of pepper. Simmer for half an hour, closely
covered. As soon as the chicken is done test it with a fork
take it from the gravy, and keep it warm over hot water
while you make the sauce. Cook together in a saucepan two
tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour until they bubble ; do
not allow them to brown ; when they bubble add to them
slowly, stirring constantly, a pint of the strained gravy of the
chicken. Let this boil for about two minutes. Mix in another
bowl the yolks of two eggs, three tablespoonfuls of milk, a table-
spoonful of melted butter, and a tiny pinch of red pepper, and
add this carefully, almost drop by drop, to the hot sauce, stirring
all the time. Do not let the sauce boil again, but when it is
thoroughly mixed put in a teaspoonful of lemon-juice ; pour the
sauce over the chicken and serve it at once.
HUNGARIAN CHICKEN.
Joint a fowl as for fricassee ; put it on the fire in enough
cold water to cover it ; bring it to a boil slowly, and cook until
tender. Unless the chicken is quite young this should require
from two to three hours. When it has been simmering about an
hour put in a sliced onion, two stalks of celery, three sprigs of
parsley, and a teaspoonful of paprica the Hungarian red pepper.
When the chicken is done, arrange it in a dish ; add to the
gravy salt to taste and the juice of half a lemon, and pour it over
the chicken.
ii
1 62 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
TURKISH CHICKEN WITH RICE.
Cut up a spring chicken as for fricassee, and put it on the
stove in a saucepan with a tablespoonful of butter and a minced
onion. When the pieces are lightly browned, which should be
in about ten minutes, add a gill of tomato-liquor and a pint of
weak chicken-stock, which should have been made from the
neck, feet, giblets, and wing- tips of the fowl. Bring this to a
boil. Wash and pick over a cupful of raw rice, stir it into the
broth, and cook all together for twenty minutes, or until the rice
is soft. Ten minutes before it is done add two tablespoonfuls of
grated Parmesan cheese and a dozen French mushrooms. Be-
fore taking from the fire, season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve very hot.
JELLIED CHICKEN.
Take off every bit of skin and cut the meat into pieces of as
nearly uniform size as you can manage. Boil four eggs for
twenty-five minutes and lay them in cold water for half an hour,
then peel and cut into neat round slices. Cut stoned or stuffed
olives into halves. Butter a mould or bowl well, and line with
alternate rows of the egg-circles and the split olives, the rounded
sides of the olives outward. Put a layer of the chicken into the
mould, seasoning with pepper and salt ; cover with cold and
slightly coagulated jelly (aspic) ; set in a cold place for ten min-
utes ; put in another layer of seasoned chicken, more aspic, and
so on until the mould is full. Now and then add a few bits of
chopped egg and an occasional caper. Set on ice, in warm
weather, until you are ready to use it, when wrap a towel, wrung
out in boiling water, about the mould and invert upon a cold
platter.
ASPIC JELLY FOR THE FOREGOING RECIPE.
Soak half a box of gelatine in cold water enough to cover it
for two or three hours. Boil and clear with white of egg, then
strain through flannel two cupfuls of the liquor in which the
chicken was boiled, or, if you lack this, the same quantity of
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 163
good consomme, which will not need straining. It should be
rather highly seasoned. Take from the fire and stir in the gela-
tine ; bring to a boil, let it cook one minute, and stir in four
tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar if you wish a tart aspic. If
not, omit it. Set aside in a broad bowl to cool.
Claret gives a fine color and a pleasant taste to aspic. Some
fancy that a little sherry improves the flavor, more epicures
object to the somewhat faint " tang " it imparts.
MOULD OF CHICKEN AND RICE.
Boil a cupful of boiled rice in chicken or other stock, seasoned
well with pepper, salt, onion-juice, and celery. Cook twenty
minutes hard in the stock, which should boil when the rice is
dropped in. Drain the rice dry, beat up a raw egg in it while
hot, and let it get cold and stiff. Then line with it a well-
greased mould which has been thickly strewn with fine crumbs.
The rice-lining should be nearly an inch thick and hollowed out
with the hand. Fill with cold chicken, minced and well sea-
soned, put a layer of rice on the top, cover with a tightly fitting
lid, set in a pot or pan of hot water and cook one hour. Turn
out upon a hot platter and serve with curry or tomato sauce.
MARSEILLES BOILED CHICKEN PUDDING.
Chop cold chicken fine, and mix it up with a cupful of well-
seasoned drawn butter for two cupfuls of meat. Better still, if
you have a cupful of good stock or gravy, add to it a few spoon-
fuls of cream, thicken to the consistency of starch and moisten
the chicken well with this. Beat in the yolk of an egg, and, if
convenient, two tablespoonfuls of pounded almonds or of pine-
nuts. The mixture should be creamy and soft. Let it get cold
and stiff; line a pudding-mould that has a close top with light
biscuit-dough, or with family pie-crust, fill with the chicken, put
the crust over the top, fit on the lid, and boil for one hour, or
steam for an hour and a half.
Turn out upon a hot dish and serve egg sauce or a good gravy
with it. It must be eaten as soon as it is turned out.
164 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
TO BROIL A COLD CHICKEN.
Split down the back and lay, breast uppermost, upon a plate ;
pour over and rub into it a marinade of four tablespoonfuls of
olive oil and one of lemon-juice. Invert a plate over it, put a
heavy weight upon the upper plate and set aside for two hours.
Then rub all over well with the oil and lemon-juice, dip in egg,
then in fine crumbs, set on the ice, or in a cold place for an
hour, and broil over a clear, but not fierce, fire, turning often.
Send in a made gravy of the chopped giblets and a large
spoonful of chopped champignons, added to a cup of boiling
stock and thickened with a brown roux.
CHICKEN SCALLOP.
Mix two cupfuls of well-seasoned cold chicken with a cupful
of boiling oyster-liquor ; bring to a boil, add a cupful of hot milk
thickened with a great spoonful of butter rolled in one of flour,
and take from the fire. Stir in a tablespoon ful of chopped al-
monds or of chopped champignons, and the pounded yolks of
two hard-boiled eggs. Butter a pudding-dish ; cover the bot-
tom with a thick layer of crumbs, peppered, salted, and buttered ;
pour in the mixture ; cover with another layer of fine crumbs,
pepper, salt, and stick bits of butter all over it, and cook, cov-
ered, for half an hour, then uncover and brown lightly.
You can cook turkey or lamb or duck in the same way, sub-
stituting a good stock or a white sauce for the oyster-liquor.
CHICKEN CROQUETTES.
Make a mixture precisely as above directed ; let it get cold,
make into croquettes, roll in egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and
set away for several hours to get stiff. Fry in deep, hot cottolene
and serve dry. Pass green pease with them.
CHICKEN AND SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES.
Stir one cupful of minced cold chicken and the same of sweet-
breads, boiled and blanched, into a good drawn butter, or four
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 165
tablespoon fuls of chicken-stock thickened with two tablespoon-
fuls of white roux. Heat in a vessel set in another of boiling
water ; when hot all through take from the fire, add half a cup-
ful of hot cream (with a bit of soda stirred in) and the beaten
yolks of two eggs. Mix well, set in a cold place until solid ;
make into croquettes ; egg and bread them ; set on ice for an
hour and fry in deep, hot cottolene.
CHICKEN FILLING FOR PATES.
One cupful milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful
flour, salt, pepper, and a pinch of mace ; juice of half a small lemon.
Cook the flour and butter together until they bubble, and
pour the milk upon them, stirring until you have a thick, white
sauce. Set the vessel containing it in an outer saucepan of boil-
ing water and stir into it a cupful of the white meat of chicken,
cut, not chopped, with a sharp knife, into small pieces. Let it
get hot through before filling the pastry-shells.
TURKEY.
Turkeys are so near akin to chickens that the directions for
roasting and boiling the latter may be used with hardly an alter-
ation for the former. The same time about fifteen minutes to
the pound if the fowl be tolerably tender is observed in cook-
ing both kinds of poultry. The same kinds of rechauffes may
be made from turkey as from chicken.
FLORENTINE ROAST TURKEY STUFFED WITH
CHESTNUTS.
Prepare the turkey by cleaning, washing, and trussing. Make
a dressing of
One quart of Spanish chestnuts ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ;
one teaspoonful of salt ; pepper to taste.
Roast or boil the chestnuts. If you roast them do not let
them burn. Peel, mash, and chop them. Work in the butter and
seasoning and stuff the turkey as you would with bread-dressing.
1 66 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Of course you could substitute native chestnuts for the Span-
ish, boiling and peeling them. But the time required to get
out enough meat to fill a turkey would seem to put the substitute
out of the question.
OYSTER STUFFING FOR TURKEY,
To the ordinary stuffing for a turkey, of dry bread-crumbs,
seasoned with parsley, thyme, and sweet marjoram, and moistened
with melted butter, add two dozen small oysters, chopped fine.
Stuff the breast of the turkey with this.
A SECOND-DAY TURKEY.
If but one side of a boiled or steamed turkey, or a roast that
is unfortunately underdone, be left intact after the first visit to
the table, it can be made both presentable and palatable by
obedience to the following rules :
Cover the whole side with tolerably thick and fat slices of
boiled cold ham. Bind them in place with cotton-twine or
narrow tapes. Lay the turkey, whole side upward, in your
covered roaster. If you have any gravy left from yesterday thin
it with boiling water, strain, and pour it in the pan about the
turkey. If not, weak chicken or veal, or even beef-stock, will
do. If you have none of these use boiling water and stir in a
tablespoonful of butter. Cover the roaster and cook gently one
hour. Baste four times during this hour. Fifteen minutes be-
fore dishing cut and withdraw the strings, take off the ham and
keep it hot. If the turkey is not brown, dredge with flour and
baste well once more. Shut the oven and brown it. Cut the
ham into strips, and lay about the fowl when dished.
Strain the gravy ; if necessary thicken with browned flour and
boil up before serving in a boat.
SCALLOPED TURKEY.
Cut the remains of a cold turkey into strips an inch and a
half long, salt and pepper and set away, covered, in a cold
place while you make a good gravy of the carcass, broken to
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK l6/
pieces, and the stuffing, with the skin and other uneatable bits.
Cover well with cold water and stew down slowly to half the
original quantity of liquid. Strain and add the beaten yolks of
three eggs for two cupfuls of meat. Stir in the turkey. The
mixture should be very soft and well-seasoned. Cover thickly
with fine crumbs, salt and pepper, stick bits of butter in this
crust, and bake, covered, until it is bubbling hot. Then brown.
TURKEY AND SAUSAGE SCALLOP.
Butter a pudding-dish and fill with alternate layers of cold
minced turkey and cooked minced and cold sausage meat, season-
ing slightly as you go. The sausage will supply nearly all the sea-
soning you wish. Pour in as much gravy or weak stock as the
dish will hold; let it soak in for a few minutes and cover with
a mush of bread-crumbs, peppered, salted, and soaked in cream
or milk, then beaten smooth with an egg and a tablespoonful of
butter, melted. It should be half an inch thick. Cover and
bake for half an hour, then uncover and brown. Serve at once,
as the crust soon falls.
GALANTINE OF TURKEY.
Boil a turkey that is too tough to be served whole. Put it on
in cold water, bring slowly to the boil, and cook until the meat
slips from the bones. Cut it off while hot and let it get cold.
Return the bones to the pot-liquor and cook gently two hours
longer. There should be a full pint of strong stock after the
bones are strained out. Heat now and clear with white of egg,
strain through flannel and color with a little caramel. Have at
hand half a box of gelatine that has been soaked for two hours in
a large cupful of cold water. Stir over the fire until the gelatine
dissolves and the liquid is hot. Add then half a teaspoonful of
onion-juice and a teaspoonful of kitchen - bouquet, with the
juice of half a lemon.
Dip nappies or custard-cups or broad wine-glasses in cold
water, put a notched slice of pickled beet in the bottom of each,
and when the jelly is cold a teaspoonful of this. Upon it lay a
1 68 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
slice of hard-boiled egg yolk, then fill the nappies with minced
and highly seasoned turkey to within half an inch of the top.
Pour in jelly to the brim, letting it sink as it will into the mince
and rise to leave a stratum at top.
Set on ice until they are wanted. Turn out upon crisp lettuce-
leaves and pass mayonnaise dressing with them. You may sub-
stitute a slice of truffle, or half of a stoned olive, the cut side
inward, for the pickled beet.
A handsome and a delightful entrde.
HASHED TURKEY,
Heat in a saucepan the carcass and stuffing with water enough
to cover it two inches deep. Cook slowly for two hours, strain
and season with onion-juice, chopped parsley, pepper, and salt.
Cut the meat into small dice, and half a can of mushrooms
(champignons) into quarters, and stir into the sauce. Heat to
scalding, add a glass of sherry and the juice of half a lemon,
and serve.
BONED TURKEY.
With a narrow, keen knife take the bones out of a raw tur-
key. Follow one bone until you have loosened it along its
length, keeping the blade close to it. Cut the nearest joint and
pull it out, with the tendons attached to it, then go on to the
next. Patience and dexterity will accomplish the task more
easily than you imagine. Now fill the spaces left by the bones
with a good force-meat seasoned to taste. Sausage and mush-
rooms may be worked to advantage into this force-meat, with
bread-crumbs and mashed boiled chestnuts. Sew it up in mos-
quito-netting when it is stuffed, retaining some resemblance to
the original bird, and braise it upon a bed of minced vegetables,
basting with good stock, and keeping it covered the rest of the
time. Put under a light weight, while warm, and do not undo
the cloth until next day. Practise upon a chicken before under-
taking a turkey.
Boning-knives can be procured which make the tedious proc-
ess easier.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 169
GEESE.
A tough chicken is an inconvenience. A tough turkey is a
serious annoyance. When a goose is tough the infliction casts
inconvenience and annoyance into the shade. And he toughens
at such an inconceivably early period of his mortal career ! By
the time he is six months old he is a doubtful character. At
twelve months he is "impossible" from the market point of
view. He is never quite patrician, although tolerated in our best
circles when at his best (tenderest) estate. In middle life and
in his declining months he is hopelessly plebeian. When cooked
at that age the most attractive thing about him is the savory
odor that arises while the process is going on.
"And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing
in, screaming that outside the baker's they had smelled the
goose and known it for their own," moves the initiated reader to
compassionate forebodings of the awakening that might be in
store for the revelers-expectant. There is relief in the sigh of
satisfaction with which we see, on turning the page,
"There never was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and
flavor, size, and cheapness were the themes of universal admira-
tion."
That was an English Christmas and the Cratchits were an ex-
ceptional family. For the sake of such and for less uncommon
folk, with whom size and smell go far in a Christmas dinner, it
behooves us to make the goose of every age as masticable as is
practicable by kindly and cunning devices.
ROAST GOOSE.
It must be under a quarter of a year old. Prepare for roast-
ing as you would a turkey. He is more hairy than other fowls
and needs careful singeing. In mixing the dressing make judi-
cious use of onion and sage. They go well with the strong
meat. Old-fashioned English cooks used to mix a little minced
170 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
apple with the bread-crumbs and seasoning. The acid is pleas-
ant in this combination.
Lay the goose in a covered roaster ; dash a great cupful of
boiling water over him into the dripping-pan below ; dredge
him with flour, salt, and pepper ; cover and cook twenty minutes
to the pound, if young, lengthening the time in proportion to
his age.
Chop the giblets fine and stir into the gravy, with browned
flour for thickening. Serve apple sauce with it.
BRAISED GOOSE,
Prepare as for roasting, but do not stuff. Cut an onion, a car-
rot, a turnip, two stalks of celery, and a fine pippin into thin
slices (chopping the celery), and dispose them in the bottom of
the roaster. Sprinkle the vegetables with powdered sage, pepper,
and salt. Lay the goose upon them ; pour over it two cupfuls of
boiling water, dredge with salt, pepper, powdered sage, and flour ;
cover closely and cook slowly, allowing twenty-five minutes to
the pound. When half the time has expired, turn the goose
over on his side, and an hour later upon the other.
Take him up and keep hot. Rub the vegetables and gravy
through a colander, return to the fire, and stir in a tablespoonful
of browned flour. Boil up once, pour half over the goose and
send in the rest in a boat.
GERMAN RAGOUT OF GOOSE.
Cut up the remains of yesterday's braised or roast goose into
neat pieces. Put into a saucepan and cover with the gravy left
from the former dish. If you have none, cut earlier in the day
a carrot, a turnip, an onion, an apple, and a stalk of celery into
small dice and stew soft in a pint of consomme or weak stock.
Rub through a colander and use it for covering the pieces of
goose. Cover closely and stew gently for an hour and a half,
longer if the fowl be tough. Take up the meat, arrange neatly
upon a flat dish, and pour the gravy over all.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK i'/i
A palatable accompaniment to this ragout is a garnish of small,
well-flavored apples, boiled tender, but not until they break to
pieces. Leave them in the water until you can handle them,
when skin, sprinkle with sugar, and keep hot over boiling water
until the goose is dished. Lay them close about the meat, and
serve one with each portion.
DUCKS*
These pets of the poulterer are as distinctively aristocratic as
our geese are plebeian, an honor for which the buyer has to pay.
They deserve popularity, being more delicate of flesh and flavor
than geese, and retain their good qualities longer.
ROAST DUCKS.
Clean with care, and, after washing well, rinse out with soda
and water. Lay in cold water for half an hour ; wipe dry and
stuff with bread-crumbs, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, a half
teaspoonful of onion-juice, and just a pinch of powdered sage.
Dredge with salt, pepper, and flour ; dash a cupful of boiling
water over them and roast, covered, twelve minutes to the pound,
if you like them rather rare ; fifteen, if you would have them well
done. Baste four times, the last time with butter, after which
dredge with flour and brown.
Chop the giblets for the gravy, and thicken with browned flour.
When green pease can be procured they should accompany ducks.
BRAISED DUCK.
Proceed as with braised goose, omitting the apple from the
" bed " and adding onion and sage very sparingly.
STEWED DUCKS.
Ducks which are no longer in the first flush of youth may be
treated satisfactorily in this way.
Joint as for fricassee ; pepper, salt, and flour them. Heat good
172 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
dripping in a frying-pan and fry a sliced onion to a light brown.
Take out the onion, put in the duck, and cook ten minutes, turn-
ing two or three times. Put into a saucepan a cupful of stock or
consomme, and while it is still cold lay in the jointed duck.
Cover and stew slowly until tender, season with pepper and salt,
a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, and a dash of lemon-juice. Sim-
mer three minutes, stir in a tablespoonful of brown roux, cook a
minute to thicken it, add a glass of sherry, and serve.
SALMI OF DUCK.
Cut up the carcass of a roasted or braised duck, the meat
into neat dice, bones, stuffing, and skin into small pieces. Cover
the meat-dice with a marinade of salad oil and lemon-juice, and
leave in a cold place while you prepare the gravy or sauce.
Cover the bones, etc. , well with cold water, add parsley, pepper,
and salt, and simmer, after this reaches the boil, for two hours.
Strain, thicken the gravy with browned flour rubbed up with a
spoonful of butter ; add the juice of half an onion, boil up and
put in the meat. Draw to the side of the range and let it
almost, but not quite, boil. Take out the meat and arrange
neatly upon a flat dish. Add to the gravy half a can of cham-
pignons (or, if you can get them, fresh mushrooms are far
better). Simmer three minutes and pour over the meat.
Garnish with sippets of fried bread.
ROAST DUCKLINGS.
Whip three tablespoon fuls of mashed potatoes to a white
cream with butter and a tablespoonful of cream. Season with
celery salt and white pepper, add three tablespoon fuls of almonds,
blanched and chopped very fine. With this mixture stuff your
young ducks when you have cleaned and washed them. Do not
distend the bodies, but fill without packing. Truss and bind
legs and wings into position with cotton -twine. Lay the plump
creatures (they must be fat and white) upon the grating of your
roaster, rub the breast with a split onion, dust with pepper, salt,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 1/3
and flour ; put a cupful of boiling water into the pan and cover.
Set in a very quick oven for the first fifteen minutes. Change,
then, to a more moderate, and cook, still covered, ten minutes to
the pound. Uncover, baste well with gravy, then with butter,
dredge with flour, and brown.
Skim the fat from the gravy, thicken with a tablespoonful of
browned flour, rubbed up with two tablespoonfuls of currant
jelly, and send to table in a boat.
This is one of the choicest of summer delicacies.
RAGOUT OF DUCK AND GREEN PEASE.
Cook the remnants of a pair of roast ducks as directed in
recipe for Salmi of Duck, and when done pile the meat in the
centre of the dish ; put a quart of green pease, well boiled and
drained, about them like a green fence, and pour the gravy over
all.
FAMILIAR TALK.
A WORD ABOUT POTS AND PANS.
When you are furnishing your pantry bear in mind that it is
sometimes poor economy to save money. Be a little lavish in
pots and pans, bowls and spoons. Your strength is your
capital. Do not squander it by doing without what you need
in the way of utensils, or wear yourself out washing them again
and again in the course of one morning's work, because you
have an over-scant supply of necessary vessels.
There are plenty of homes where the abundant food served on
handsome china is prepared by the cook with the greatest diffi-
culty because of insufficient utensils. A visit to such kitchens
would reveal make-shifts that are usually associated with poverty.
Cake and puddings mixed in a soup-tureen or vegetable-dish, in
default of regular mixing-bowls, bread set to rise in a dish -pan
for lack of a bread-bowl, left-overs set away in the handsome
china dishes in which they came from the table because there
1/4 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
are not kitchen plates and cups to hold them, worn-out chop-
ping-bowls, leaky measuring-cups, dented and dingy tins, and a
general "down-at-heel" condition of affairs.
This is not always the fault of the mistress. Often it happens
that she has provided all the essentials, and the carelessness of
her servants has brought about the dearth and disorder. Unless
she goes into the kitchen regularly, and looks well to the ways of
her pantries she must expect that loss and breakages will pass un-
reported. The woman who does more or less of her own cook-
ing will be spared this annoyance at least.
The best ware for pots and pans is usually of agate-iron,
although it is difficult to find a make that will not crack or scale.
The blue porcelain-lined vessels are always pretty and clean -
looking. Of these or the agate -iron should be the double-boil-
ers, the double - bottomed saucepans, the frying - kettle, the
pudding-dishes, and sundry other equally useful vessels. Have
an omelet-pan as well as a frying-pan, a waffle-iron as well as a
griddle, muffin-tins as well as biscuit-pans. And, above all, do
not stint yourselves in the matter of bowls. Have of big bowls
one or two, of medium-sized bowls three or four, and of small
bowls as many as your financial conscience will allow you to
get. They are cheap, they take up little room, are easily kept
clean, and are always useful, not only for mixing small quantities,
for beating an egg or two, but for holding a spoonful of this or
half a cupful of that remnant.
Be lavish, also, in spoons for mixing and for measuring, and
in knives of various sizes for cutting meat and bread, for paring
apples and potatoes. Have a split spoon for taking croquettes
and fritters from the boiling fat, meat-forks, cake-turners, and a
palette-knife for lifting and turning an omelette. Provide your-
self with a board to cut bread upon, with a paint-brush to grease
cake-tins, with an iron-handled chain-dishcloth for cleaning pots
and pans, with a long-handled mop, a vegetable-grater, a cheese-
grater, a vegetable-press, a gravy-strainer, a long-nosed pitcher
for griddle-cake batter, and more than one egg-beater.
There are many other no less useful articles that will readily
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 175
suggest themselves, such as fish and meat broilers, toasters, cro-
quette-baskets, and the like. This paper is not meant to give a
complete list of kitchen furnishings, but rather as a plea to the
housekeeper to supply herself with those aids which will lighten
her labors. Of course she can branch out to any extent, but
there is a clearly drawn line between the things she should have
and those she can get along without. Some writers of house-
hold topics fail to recognize this point of division, and enumerate
among the articles necessary to every cook such a collection of
border-moulds, pastry-tubes, boning-knives, salamanders, roasters,
steamers, sieves, and bains-marie that the young housekeeper of
small means is utterly discouraged, while the experienced woman
who has kept house long and well without these appliances is
amused and scornful, and discounts the value of the entire list.
C. T. H.
GAME.
REDHEAD OR CANVASBACK DUCKS (ROASTED),
Singe and draw, but do not wash the ducks. Wipe them, in-
side and out, with a soft, damp cloth. Cut off the pinions and
tie what is left of the wings to the bodies. Instead of stuffing
them, pepper and salt the cavity of the body, wash out with
salad oil and lemon-juice and put a teaspoonful of currant jelly,
or three or four cranberries, in each. Put into your covered
roaster ; pour half a cupful of boiling water into the dripping-
pan beneath ; cover closely and cook half an hour, basting three
times. Uncover, wash all over with a mixture of butter and
lemon-juice, and brown.
Send currant jelly around with them.
REDHEAD OR CANVASBACK DUCKS (BROILED).
Clean and wipe with a soft, damp cloth within and without.
Split down the back and flatten the protuberant breast-bone
with the broadside of a hatchet, then leave them in a marinade
of salad oil and lemon-juice for one hour, setting them in a cold
place. Without wiping them, broil over red, clear coals for
twenty minutes, if they are plump and large ; less time will do
for small birds. Turn them twice.
Send around currant or grape jelly with them, and when dish-
ing put upon each breast a teaspoonful of butter beaten to a
cream with lemon-juice and finely chopped parsley.
ROAST PRAIRIE CHICKENS OR GROUSE.
Test them, after cleaning and wiping, and if they are tough
put them trussed as for roasting into a steamer and set over
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK \TJ
hard-boiling water for half an hour. While still hot rub them
well with butter and lemon-juice, salt and pepper, inside and
out, put a small bit of fat salt pork in each and roast, covered, in
a quick oven half an hour. Baste three times with butter and
hot water, and, just before taking them up, with butter alone.
They are dry birds and need mollifying. Send currant jelly
and bread sauce around with them.
BROILED GROUSE (LARDED).
Singe, clean, wipe well, split down the back, and lard the
breasts with narrow strips of fat salt pork, drawn through the
skin for an inch and out the other side with a larding-needle.
Or, if they are decidedly tough, steam for half an hour and lay
until cold in a marinade of lemon-juice and oil. Pepper and
salt and broil for fifteen minutes. Serve upon squares of toasted
bread, or upon oblongs of fried hominy. Butter well before
sending to table.
SALMI OF GROUSE.
Cut neatly into joints a pair of underdone grouse and divide
the breasts into two pieces each. Put a cupful of good stock or
consomme in a saucepan, season well, add a minced onion, a
chopped carrot, and a stalk of celery, with a little minced parsley,
and cook slowly one hour. Rub through a colander, stir in a
tablespoonful of brown roux, bring to a boil, and put in the grouse.
After this it must not boil, but set it in a saucepan of boiling
water just where it will keep at the scalding-point for half an
hour. At the last put in half a cupful of mushrooms, heated in
their own liquor, and serve.
If you have preserved the giblets of the grouse, mince them fine,
work them to a paste with butter, season with salt and pepper, and
spread them on buttered toast upon the dish intended for the
salmi before it goes in. The toast will absorb the gravy and be
delicious.
ROAST QUAILS.
Draw and wipe carefully within and without with a soft, damp
cloth. Put a whole raw oyster in the body of each, and truss as
12
1 78 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
you would a chicken. Bind thin slices of fat bacon over the
breast; lay upon the grating of your roaster, put a very little
hot water under them and cook, covered, in a lively oven,
for twenty minutes, basting three times with butter and water.
Wash well with butter, pepper, and salt, and serve upon squares
of buttered toast, wet with gravy from the roaster.
BROILED QUAILS.
Draw, wipe, and split down the back, then leave them in a
marinade of salad oil and lemon-juice for half an hour. With-
out wiping, broil on a wire "bird-broiler" for ten minutes,
turning twice. Butter, salt, and pepper them, and serve on
squares of buttered toast, upon each of which has been poured a
teaspoonful of hot stock.
ROAST PARTRIDGES.
Clean and truss as you would chickens. Bind thin slices of
fat salt pork or bacon over the breasts and put into your
roaster with half a cupful of boiling water. Pepper and salt the
birds and wash over with melted butter, letting it drip into the
pan below. Cook, covered, forty-five minutes, basting four
times with butter and water.
Serve with a good bread sauce, but after dishing pour over
the birds several spoonfuls of their own gravy from the pan.
ROAST PIGEONS (WILD).
Unless you are sure that they are tender, stew them or put
them into a pie.
Draw and wash them thoroughly ; wipe dry, salt and pepper
the insides; truss and bind them into shape with cotton string ;
cover the breasts with thin slices of fat bacon tied in place, lay
them, breasts upward, in your roaster, and pour in half a cupful
of hot water or weak stock. Cook, covered, fifteen minutes ;
remove the pork, rub all over with butter and lemon-juice, and
brown. Keep the pigeons hot while you stir into the gravy
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 1/9
a tablespoonful of butter cut up in one of browned flour and
another of currant jelly. Boil up once and pour over the
pigeons.
BROILED SQUABS.
Split down the back, rub all over with butter, salt and pepper
them, and broil over red coals.
Serve upon buttered toast wet with a little hot stock or gravy.
BRAISED PIGEONS WITH MUSHROOMS.
Drain, wash, and stuff with a force-meat of crumbs and chopped
fat pork, seasoned with onion-juice, salt, and pepper. Pre-
pare the usual bed of vegetables minced carrot, onion, celery,
and parsley. Lay the pigeons upon it ; add a cupful of stock,
or of butter and water, cover and cook gently one hour, or until
tender. Dish the birds and keep hot ; rub the gravy through a
colander into a saucepan, season to taste, add a dozen fresh
mushrooms cut into small pieces, simmer five minutes, thicken
with a tablespoonful of brown roux, boil up and pour over the
pigeons.
PIGEON PIE.
Clean, wash, and joint ; wipe dry, pepper, salt, and saute
them in hot dripping in which an onion has been fried. Butter
a deep dish and lay in the meat alternately with layers of fat salt
pork, chopped fine, hard-boiled eggs, and the giblets of the birds,
boiled and minced. Dredge flour over the pigeons as they go
in. When the dish is full pour in a cupful of the water in
which the giblets were cooked, seasoned with pepper and salt.
Cover the pie with a good crust, cut a slit in the middle, and
bake one hour in a moderate oven.
ENGLISH JUGGED PIGEONS.
Clean, wash, and stuff with a good force-meat of crumbs,
chopped fat pork, the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs rubbed to
powder, and a tablespoonful of celery boiled tender and chopped.
Season to taste with onion-juice, pepper, and salt. Truss the
180 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
birds ; tie wings and legs close to the bodies and pack in an agate-
iron pail with a close top. Plunge this into boiling water deep
enough to cover the pail almost to the top, but not to float it.
Put a weight on the top to keep the pail from turning over as
the boiling becomes hard, and cook for three hours if the pigeons
are tough.
Dish the birds, thicken the gravy with browned flour, add a
tablespoonful of tomato catsup, boil up and pour over the
pigeons.
CURRIED PIGEONS.
Cook as above directed, dish and add to the gravy two
teaspoonfuls of curry-powder. Boil one minute before pouring
over the birds. Serve with boiled rice.
Pass ice-cold bananas with this dish.
WOODCOCK, SNIPE, AND OTHER SMALL BIRDS
are usually broiled in the same manner as squabs. They are
also nice (especially woodcock) cleaned and left whole, the
head skinned, the eyes extracted, and the head twisted over the
shoulder until the bill pierces the body. Bind a thin slice of
fat pork or bacon closely about each bird. When all are ready
lay them upon the grating of your covered roaster, pour a very
little boiling water under them, cover and roast fifteen minutes.
Remove the bacon, wash the birds over with butter, and brown.
Boil the giblets and pound fine ; rub to a paste with butter ;
season to taste. Have ready squares of toast, buttered. Wet
with the pan-gravy and spread with the paste, laying a bird
upon each.
BORDEAUX STEWED RABBITS.
Skin, clean, and joint. Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a
saucepan and fry in it a sliced onion. When it is slightly
colored put in the pieces of hare, salted, peppered, and dredged
with flour, and cook five minutes, turning over and over that all
parts may be seared. Cover with cold water or weak stock, add
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK l8l
parsley, sweet marjoram, pepper, and salt, and stew gently until
tender.
Take up the meat with a skimmer and pile upon a dish. Add
to the gravy in the saucepan a great spoonful of brown roux, a
teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, and, if you like, half a cup-
ful of chopped mushrooms or champignons. Boil two minutes,
take from the fire, put in a glass of claret, pour over the meat,
cover, and set in an open oven for five minutes before serving.
ROAST HARES OR RABBITS.
" Old hare " at the South, let the age be what it may. At
the North and West it is a rabbit, tame or wild.
Skin and clean them. The latter process should be thorough.
Good cooks are sometimes less heedful than they should be in
this respect.
Chop the livers fine, also a slice of fat pork, and mix with
bread-crumbs. You may add a few champignons or mushrooms
if you like. Season with pepper, salt, and onion-juice. Stuff
the rabbits with this, sew them up, and anoint well with salad
oil and lemon-juice, leaving them in this marinade for an hour.
Put into the roaster, pour a cupful of weak stock, or con-
somme, or butter and water under them ; cover and cook for an
hour. Take off the bacon, wash over with butter, and brown.
Dish the hares, and keep hot, while you thicken the gravy
with browned flour, boil up, add a teaspoonful of catsup and
half a glass of claret, pour a few spoonfuls over the rabbits, the
rest into a boat.
JUGGED HARE.
Skin, clean, and joint a full-grown rabbit, or hare. Cut the
back into two pieces, and sever every joint. Fry a sliced onion
to a pale brown in hot dripping, put in the meat, peppered,
salted, and floured, and cook for ten minutes, fast, turning often.
Put into the bottom of an agate-iron saucepan a layer of chopped
fat salt pork, sprinkle with onion, parsley, and paprica. Upon
this lay the pieces of hare and cover with another layer of chopped
1 82 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
pork and onion. A few bits of fresh tomato would not be amiss.
Pour in a cupful of cold, weak stock in which a stalk of celery
has been boiled, then removed.
Fit on a tight top, set in a vessel of cold water, and bring
slowly to a boil. Keep this up for three hours, or until the
meat is tender. Dish the pieces of rabbit, thicken the gravy
with browned flour ; add a tablespoonful of currant jelly and
one of lemon-juice, simmer one minute, pour in a glass of sherry
and turn all upon the meat.
Garnish with triangles of fried hominy, serving a bit with each
portion of hare. This is an English dish and good.
ROAST VENISON.
The best pieces for roasting are the leg, the haunch, and,
chiefest of all, the saddle. The general treatment is the same as
that bestowed upon prime mutton. Cook about twelve minutes
to the pound. Venison should be hung for several days before
it is used in winter. If it be frozen, so much the better. When
you are ready to cook it wash it all over with vinegar, rub this
in well, wipe the meat, and rub it as faithfully with butter or with
salad oil.
Send around currant jelly with it, and mix a tablespoonful of
the same in the gravy when you thicken it, with a glass of claret,
or other red wine.
VENISON STEAK.
Cook as you would beefsteak, allowing a little more time, as
the meat is firm and close-grained.
When it is done lay it upon a hot- water dish, pepper and salt,
and put upon it a great spoonful of butter, beaten to a cream, with
one of currant jelly. Cover the dish, let the sauce melt, turn
the steak in it and put another spoonful upon the other side.
Eat hot.
44 VENISON PASTY."
Cut cold, underdone venison into neat dice, season with pep-
per and salt, and lay in salad oil and lemon-juice for one hour.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 183
Make a gravy, some hours before you are ready to make the
pasty, of venison or beef-bones, bits of skin, and refuse bits of
meat, with a chopped carrot, an onion, and a stalk of celery ;
cover with cold water. Boil down to half the original quantity
of liquid, strain and season, thicken with brown roux, boil up
again and let it get cold.
Pack the venison in a deep dish, seasoning each layer as it is
put in with pepper, salt, and onion-juice. Next to the first
thickness put a dozen or more dice of cold boiled tongue (beef
is good, but calf's or lamb's tongue is better), sprinkle with bits
of butter dipped in flour, and here and there a great drop of cur-
rant jelly. On the tongue lay chopped salt pork and minced
parsley. Squeeze a few drops of lemon- and of onion-juice on
each layer. When all are in pour in gravy enough to be seen
through the topmost layer, but not to cover it. Put over all a
thick crust of puff-paste with a slit in the middle, and leaves or
triangles of pastry overlapping the edges toward the centre. Bake
in a steady oven for an hour. As the pasty browns, wash it with
white of egg, and when this hardens, with butter, and leave in
the oven to glaze.
FAMILIAR TALK.
KITCHEN PHYSIC
Nature's treasure-house is continually yielding up new secrets
that are for the healing of nations. By wise application of these
medical science has added within half a century five and a half
years to the average of human life. She has other, and what
may be classed among open, secrets that even sensible people
are slow to comprehend and to use to the advantage of the race.
Fondness for drugs and ignorance of the laws of health usually
go hand in hand. The reader of " The Mill on the Floss " re-
calls as a stroke of genius sallow Mrs. Pullet's mournful pride in
the fact that no other woman in the parish had swallowed such
quantities of doctor's stuff as herself. In proof of which dis-
tinction she points to the empty bottles and boxes on the shelf,
1 84 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and regrets that, " as for the boluses there is nothing to show
for them without it is the bills."
Every parish has its Pullets the wife who doses herself with
physic, and the husband who " draws" his drugs "mild," by
keeping medicated lozenges in his mouth. But for them the
patentees and pedlers of panaceas could not build palaces and
drive four-in-hands. Even conscientious members of the profes-
sion devote more thought to remedial than to preventive meas-
ures. We must go to the antipodes to find a spasm of sense
that pays the family physician for keeping his charges well, and
stops his salary as soon as one of them becomes a ' ' patient. ' '
The American practitioner in good and regular standing who
makes much of " kitchen physic " is rated as old-womanish. The
best of the guild are more ready to say what the sick ought not
to eat than to advise what well people should eat, and when and
how, if they would keep well.
I know a woman who would be handsome but for growing
obesity, and a red muddiness of skin that defies alterative drugs,
mineral waters, and cosmetics. Her physician lately prescribed
walking in the open air for an hour each day.
" Walking ! " cried the perplexed patient. " I do little else.
I walk miles every day of my life. I know nobody who walks
more unless it be our letter-carrier."
The pedestrian's friends whisper among themselves that she
is " a high liver," addicted (the word is not too strong) to gravy-
soups and entrees, teeming with indigestion ; to fat ducks and
salmon and lobster ; to rich puddings and sauces ; to pastry
transparent with butter ; to strong coffee, chocolate, nuts, raisins,
confectionery, and so-called digestive liqueurs. Such things,
when indulged in freely and habitually, will not down for all
the medicines in the Pharmacopoeia, and even bodily exercise
profiteth little, although taken in the life-giving air of heaven.
In the good time coming doctors will league not with drug-
gists but with greengrocers and butchers. Prescriptions for
juicy steaks, tender chops, fish, full of phosphates for bone and
brain, and fresh vegetables, will take the place of mystical
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 185
scrawls ordering quinine, calisaya, antipyrin, phenacetine, the
various bromides, hydrarg. cum creta and myriads of other
mineral and vegetable poisons. Manuals of Domestic Medicine
will be discarded for familiar treatises upon Dietetics and the
Chemistry of Food.
As a means to this end and the health and longevity of
our race, each house-mother should study what kind of food
will most surely build up the systems of growing children
and maintain the vigor of adults. It sounds harsh, but it is
a harsh truth, that thousands of people in otherwise fairly
comfortable circumstances throughout our land suffer, and that
many actually die yearly, from malnutrition. Their stomachs
are distended tri -daily with what passes for food, but it is not
food convenient for human creatures.
The table is the first objective point of economy when econ-
omy becomes necessary. " We must live more plainly," signi-
fies a cutting off and a shutting down upon provision bills.
Salted meats and fish are substituted for fresh ; canned fruits and
vegetables are cheaper in all seasons than those newly gathered,
and are purchased by the family caterer as a matter of principle.
In farming districts, peopled by fairly prosperous freeholders,
" butchers' meat " is a novelty in home bills-of-fare, being re-
served for high-days and holidays, and the slaughter of a fowl for
home consumption is an event bordering upon a solemn cere-
monial. The barrel of pickled pork, the keg of pickled fish, the
store of smoked beef and hams, the bins of potatoes, turnips, and
cabbages, supply with dreary monotony the family table from
October until June, when new potatoes, turnips, and cabbages
"come in." Eggless rice-puddings and leathery apple-pies, on
five days out of seven, fill up the chinks left in disappointed
stomachs by the solids enumerated. The quality of home-made
bread in these households leaves so much to be desired that the
sawdusty loaves left semi-weekly by the neighborhood baker are
a welcome variety.
From this class of a rural and religious population, and from
the corresponding rank of city mechanics, clerks, and small house-
1 86 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
keepers, is recruited the largest constituency of doctors and
apothecaries. Butcher and greengrocer rate them as indifferent
customers. These are the buyers of fowls at twelve cents per
pound when the market-price is sixteen cents ; of equivocal fish
and Saturday bargains in berries and peaches that cannot be
kept over Sunday, and ought to have been sold on Friday. The
purchasers will tell you honestly and patiently, being, as I
have said, religious that they cannot afford choice cuts and
fresh vegetables and fruits ; furthermore, that their children
must be brought up frugally to prepare them for the lives of
working-people. They have but one idea of more palatable and
nourishing food than their own, and that is, that it costs more
money.
Talk of broths, rich in delicious nutriment, that may be evolved
from coarse lean meat and cracked bones and a handful of vege-
tables ; of cereals, any one of which, when properly cooked and
eaten with good milk, is a breakfast in itself for hungry, growing
children ; of methods of cooking tough poultry and joints that
mellow tissues and keep in the juices which are the life-giving
element of the meat ; of the genuine economy of buying firm,
ripe fruits in their season instead of manufacturing leathery pastry
and tasteless puddings is thrown away upon the feminine Bour-
bons of the American kitchen. They receive into credulous
ears, and alas ! into good and honest hearts, the plausible
periods of patent-medicine venders, and estimate the family
doctor's skill by the number of prescriptions he leaves, or the
drugs he compounds in their sight.
The head of such a household told me the other day, with
melancholy complacency, that his doctor's bill last year was $250.
He added pridefully that " having had so much sickness in the
family he and his wife had considered it a duty to be as econom-
ical as possible," and that the butcher's meat for themselves
and five children had not cost $50 in twelve months. The
sallow wife subjoined, with a sickly smile, that she " mostly lived
on tea and toast. Seems 's if meat went against my stomach."
Tea and toast go as naturally together with the weaker vessels
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 1 87
among these sufferers as corned beef and cabbage with those of
stronger physical mould. It is difficult to decide which is the
more unholy combination. Tea and dry or buttered toast as
certainly generate acid in the stomach as corned beef and cab-
bage defy gastric juices and irritate the mucous membranes. Good
meats, vegetables, and fruits at any cost are less expensive than
the doctor and druggist, who try to repair the evil-doing of indi-
gestible food. Excellent materials, badly cooked, are an outrage
to natural laws ; poor materials are made intolerable by poor
cooking. The result gained will be worth all the expenditure of
time, money, and thought on the part of the house-mother who,
by attention to this vital subject, learns to feed her family aright.
The higher physical education of the nation begins in the nursery.
In carrying it forward through childhood, youth, and maturity,
the mother is a whole "faculty " in herself. Hers are the hands
that are to throttle the serpent of National Dyspepsia.
M. H.
EGGS.
AN egg which is more than doubtful will float in cold water
and should be thrown away without further test. An egg that is
not perfectly fresh will have a smooth shell, a newly laid egg a
rough. Within three days from the time of laying, the lime of
the shell begins to disintegrate in the air. Within ten days the
meat of the egg begins to evaporate through the shell ; the latter
loses its pearly whiteness and becomes glossy.
To prevent disintegration and evaporation, the egg may be
dipped in melted fat, or varnished, or coated with beeswax.
Eggs packed down in melted lard will keep for weeks. Pack
them in a jar, the small end downward, pour the melted (not
warm) fat about them until all are covered. They may also be
packed in dry salt, or covered with a solution of saltpetre and
lime in hot water, which should cool before it is poured over the
eggs.
BOILED EGGS.
There are three things which the Average Cook holds and be-
lieves for certain that anybody can do without being taught,
yea, four which are too easy to learn. The three are : Tea-Mak-
ing, Dish-Washing, and Toasting Bread. The fourth is Boiling
an Egg.
" They are as easy as breathing," she says, disdainfully.
Perhaps so. Not one human creature in a thousand knows
how to draw his breath properly.
"There's wit goes to the boiling of eggs," is a pithy old
proverb that rings sadly in the ear of her who must herself see to
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 189
the cooking of every egg every morning in the year if she would
have them "just right."
The best way of all, to the present writer's way of thinking,
and tasting, is to lay the eggs in lukewarm water for a few min-
utes to take off the chill, then to put them into a saucepan of
water which is at a positive and furious boil, and as soon as they
are in, to draw the saucepan out of the way of possible reboil,
cover it closely and leave the eggs in it for six minutes. A
woollen cap, like a tea-cosey, is a good thing to have for such a
purpose. Cover the saucepan with a closed lid, envelop it in
the cap, and let it alone until the time is up.
The white and yolk will be of custard -like consistency, and so
much more digestible than when cooked by actual boiling, that
it is strange the mode is not more generally adopted.
Another Way,
Be sure that the water boils. It is not enough that it simmers.
There must be violent ebullition. Put in the eggs (always with
a spoon, never drop them in) ; cover and cook for three minutes
and a half, take them up and serve immediately, wrapped in a
warmed napkin.
Still Another.
Cover the eggs with cold water ; put them directly over a hot
fire, and as soon as the water boils take them out
STEAMED EGGS.
Break the shells and drop the contents carefully into buttered
nappies of stone china. Put them into the perforated pan of a
steamer, fit on the lid and keep the water below at a hard boil
for seven minutes, or until the whites are set.
SHIRRED EGGS.
Butter the nappies and break the eggs into them, one in
each. Arrange in a perforated pan or in a broad wire basket
and set in boiling water on top of the range. Leave them in
1 90 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
the water until the white is set, when take up the nappies, put a
bit of butter and a dust of salt and pepper upon each, and send
at once to table. Eat from the nappies.
The flavor of eggs cooked in this way is considered more deli-
cate than when they are prepared in any other manner. They
imbibe no taste from the lime of the shell, as sometimes happens
when they are boiled, and are not made insipid by contact with
the boiling water as when poached.
POACHED OR DROPPED EGGS.
The neatest way of poaching eggs is to cook them in muffin-
rings or in rings made expressly for this purpose. Put the rings
or the poacher in shallow boiling water, slightly salted, and with
a tablespoonful of vinegar in it. Let the water begin to bubble
again before you break an egg into each ring. Draw to the side
of the range, where the water will just simmer about the edge of
the pan, and watch the eggs until they are " set " all through.
As usually poached or " dropped," eggs are soft in the middle
and hard on the edges.
Have ready rounds of delicately browned toast thick enough
not to curl with the heat ; butter them well, put a teaspoonful
of boiling, salted water in the centre of each, and lay an egg
upon it.
The dish is made more savory if you will wet the toast with
hot stock or consomme. It is especially nice when wet with
oyster-liquor.
CREAMED POACHED EGGS.
Heat a cupful of cream with a pinch of soda in it, in a small
frying-pan. When it boils break into it an indubitably fresh egg
and cook three minutes, or until it is set. Take it out with a per-
forated spoon, lay upon buttered toast in a hot-water dish, and
drop in a second, then a third. Put a tiny bit of butter upon
each egg, dust with salt and pepper, and serve.
A single egg poached in half a cupful of hot cream makes a
delicious and nourishing breakfast for an invalid. An epicurean
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 1 91
bachelor cooked two eggs in cream every morning for ten years
in his apartment with a chafing-dish, and, with strong, hot coffee
made over a spirit-lamp, and two crisp rolls left by a French
baker, asked for nothing more luxurious.
EGGS A LA CREME.
Heat half a pint of new milk in a pudding-dish on top of the
stove, melt in a tablespoonful of butter, and when the milk boils
break into it six eggs. Season with salt and pepper, cook for
three minutes more. Serve in the dish in which they were
cooked.
EGGS POACHED IN CONSOMME.
Heat a pint of consomme or clear beef-soup to boiling. Poach
six eggs in it, two at a time, lay them in a dish that will stand
the heat, and put the soup on the hot part of the stove where it
will quickly reduce one-half. While it boils sprinkle a table-
spoonful of grated cheese over the eggs, and set them in a hot
oven. Thicken the soup with a tablespoonful of browned flour,
kneaded with half as much butter, and when it is smooth and
thick pour it around the eggs.
EGGS A LA LYONNAISE.
Boil six eggs hard and cut them into slices. Fry a small
onion, sliced, in a tablespoonful of butter. Take out the onion \
stir in half a pint of milk in which has been mixed a table-
spoonful of flour. Cook this to a smooth sauce, add pepper and
salt to taste, put in the sliced eggs, cook two minutes longer,
and serve on small squares of buttered toast.
SAVORY EGGS.
Boil six eggs hard and slice them. Brown half a small onion
in a tablespoonful of butter, add a cupful of broth or gravy, and
boil for ten minutes, until the sauce is reduced to half the original
quantity. Take out the onion ; season with salt, pepper, and a
IQ2 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
small teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, lay in the sliced eggs,
and let them get heated through. The sauce must not boil after
the eggs go in.
POWDERED EGGS.
Boil six eggs hard. Chop the whites coarsely and rub the
yolks through a sieve. Make a white sauce by cooking together
a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour in a saucepan until
they bubble, add half a pint of milk, and stir until thick and
smooth. Season with salt and white pepper, stir in the minced
whites, and when these are heated through, turn them upon a hot
dish. Strew the yolks over them and set in the oven for two
minutes.
CURRIED EGGS.
Six hard-boiled eggs cut into rather thick slices with a sharp
knife. One cupful of gravy in which an onion has been cooked.
One teaspoonful of curry-powder.
If gravy is not available an onion may be stewed in a little
soup-stock, and this strained and thickened with brown flour.
Heat the gravy to boiling, stir in the curry-powder, and lay the
sliced egg in it, taking care not to break the pieces. The gravy
must be deep enough to cover the eggs. Simmer gently fifteen
minutes, turn out into a deep dish, and serve with boiled rice.
DEVILED EGGS.
Six hard-boiled eggs. One saltspoonful of dry mustard. One
tablespoonful of melted butter. Pepper and salt to taste.
Throw the boiled eggs into cold water as soon as they are
taken from the fire, in order that the shells may be easily re-
moved. This done, cut the eggs in two carefully, so as to pre-
serve the whites as perfect as possible. Rub the yolk smooth
with the butter and seasoning, form the mixture into balls as
nearly the size of the yolks as they can be made, and fit these
into the halved whites. Bind the portions together with soft
string, or fasten with fine wooden toothpicks ; roll first in beaten
egg, then in fine crumbs; drop into boiling cottolene and fry to
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 193
a nice brown. Remove the strings before sending to table.
These make a delightful side dish and may be accompanied by
slices of bacon fried crisp. They are also very nice served alone
with a cupful of rich drawn butter poured over them.
SCRAMBLED EGGS (PLAIN).
Break six eggs into a bowl and beat them with a fork just
enough to blend whites and yolks. Heat a tablespoonful of
butter in a frying-pan and turn in the eggs. Stir to a smooth,
soft mass. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and, if you choose,
a few drops of onion-juice. Serve upon a hot- water dish.
CREAMED SCRAMBLED EGGS.
Heat in separate saucepans a small cup of cream and the same
quantity of chicken or veal stock. Beat six eggs, whites and
yolks together, for one minute, season the stock to taste, pour in
the eggs, stir for two minutes over the fire, add the cream and
serve. They should be soft and smooth throughout.
EGGS A LA MILANAISE.
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and break into
this six eggs. Stir constantly, and as soon as they are well
mixed add a tablespoonful of grated cheese. Season to taste
with salt and pepper, and serve on very hot plates.
This makes an excellent luncheon-dish.
JONQUIL EGGS.
Whip the whites to a stiff froth, and half fill buttered nappies
with them. Make a depression in the centre of each and drop a
yolk into the hollow. Set in shallow boiling water, cover and
cook for three minutes.
You can have a large dish of this sort for breakfast or lunch-
eon by making mounds of the stiffened whites upon a buttered
block-tin, or silver, or stone-china platter, and with the back of
a spoon hollowing each hillock to receive the yolk. When all
13
194 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
are in, set the dish in, or over, boiling water, cover, and cook
three or four minutes.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH SHAD ROES.
When you have shad for dinner scald the roes ten minutes
in boiling water (salted), drain, throw into cold water, leave
them there three minutes, wipe dry, and set in a cold place until
next day, or whenever you wish to use them. Cut them across
into pieces an inch or more wide, roll them in flour, and fry to
a fine brown. Scramble a dish of eggs, pile the roes in the
centre of a heated platter, and dispose the eggs in a sort of hedge
all around them. A very nice breakfast or lunch dish.
STIRRED EGGS.
Heat a cupful of rich gravy or of consomme in a saucepan, and
melt in it a scant tablespoonful of butter. When it boils stir
into it six eggs that have been beaten together just enough to
mix whites and yolks. Stir three minutes over the fire, pour out
upon hot buttered toast, and sprinkle with minced parsley.
A SWEDISH DISH OF EGGS.
Melt a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, stir in a few
drops of onion-juice, then a tablespoonful of flour, and when the
roux bubbles, a cupful of hot milk. Keep your spoon busy until
you have a smooth white sauce, and add six eggs, beaten light,
without separating whites and yolks. Season with salt and
white pepper, stir and toss for two minutes, and heap upon
squares of toast that have been buttered and spread with anchovy
paste.
BUTTERED EGGS.
Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan, fry in it
two slices of onion until they are brown, take them out and cook
the butter until it is dark brown. Break, one after the other, six
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
eggs into the dark butter, taking care that they do not run into
one another. Baste with the hot butter until they are well ' ' set,"
and just before dishing them sprinkle with pepper, salt, and
half a teaspoonful of vinegar.
FRIED EGGS. (No. J.)
Heat two great spoonfuls of clarified dripping in the frying-
pan, or the same quantity of butter, and when it hisses drop in
six eggs, one after the other. When set, if you wish to have
" turned eggs," slip a spatula under them, and turn to cook the
underside. Dust with pepper and salt when dished.
FRIED EGGS. (No. 2.)
Fry three slices of onion in three tablespoonfuls of well -sea-
soned dripping ; take out the onion and break into the hissing fat
six eggs, carefully, one after the other. The onion gives a pleas-
ant flavor to them. Cook until set, and dish. Pepper and salt,
and serve. Garnish with parsley.
BACON AND EGGS.
Fry thin slices of breakfast bacon until clear and curling at
the edges. Dish them and keep hot. Strain the fat left in the
pan ; put again over the fire and fry in it six eggs. Lay an egg
upon each slice of bacon and serve together.
EGGS AND TOMATOES.
Make a white roux of a tablespoonful of butter and the same
of flour, and when it bubbles stir into it a cupful of canned toma-
toes or six fine fresh tomatoes peeled and chopped into bits, with
the liquor which runs from them. Add half a teaspoonful of
onion-juice or of grated onion, and when the mixture boils stir
in six well-beaten eggs gradually lest they should curdle. Stir
until they thicken. Season with salt and pepper and serve-
196 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
BARBECUED EGGS AND HAM.
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter, fry in it half a teaspoonful
of finely grated onion. Have ready half a pound of cold boiled
ham which has been minced and seasoned well with pepper, mus-
tard, two tablespoonfuls of salad oil, and one of vinegar, then left
to stand, covered, for two hours in a cold place. Stir this mince
into the butter, cook, still stirring and tossing it, until smok-
ing hot all through, add six well-beaten eggs and cook until the
eggs are "set," but not hard. Serve upon buttered toast that
has been moistened with a little stock.
EGGS AND MUSHROOMS.
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan, add half a
can of champignons, cut into quarters, and heat them thoroughly.
Squeeze over them the juice of half a lemon, stir in five eggs,
well beaten previously, pepper and salt, and cook to a soft mass.
Serve upon crackers that have been toasted, buttered, strewed
with Parmesan cheese, then set in the oven for one minute.
NEAPOLITAN EGGS.
Heat a cupful of milk in a saucepan ; stir into it a tablespoonful
of butter, then six well-beaten eggs, and, as they thicken, one
dozen fresh mushrooms, sliced, and three tablespoonfuls of boiled
spaghetti that has been allowed to get cold and then chopped fine.
Season with pepper, salt, and half a teaspoonful of onion-juice.
Cook until hot and smoking all through, and serve upon a hot
platter, with strips of fried hominy or polenta laid about it.
BREADED EGGS.
Slice cold, hard-boiled eggs, pepper and salt, and dip each slice
in beaten egg, then in cracker-dust. Leave in a cold place for
an hour, and fry in deep fat to a golden brown. Dish, garnish
with parsley, and pass tomato sauce with them.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 1 97
"FANCY DISHES" OF EGGS.
Eggs often appear at elegant luncheons in guises that entitle
them to rank with entrees. The useful ovate is susceptible of in-
finite variations from skilful hands and cultivated tastes. But a
few of these can be given here. If all were written this volume
would be wholly given up to them.
EGG-CUPS AND ANCHOVIES.
Cut thick rounds of stale bread, and with a small cutter mark a
circle in the centre, pressing the cutter half-way through the
bread. Dig out a hollow along this line capable of holding a
tablespoonful of custard or other soft matter. Wash the rounds
of bread all over with butter and let them dry, and crisp slightly
upon the upper grating of a hot oven. Fill the cups with the
following mixture :
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan, and add half a
cupful of cream (not forgetting a bit of soda). When both are
hot stir in five well-beaten eggs and cook to a soft paste. Have
ready a dozen anchovies, skinned and minced fine. Half fill the
" cups" with them, squeeze upon them a few drops of lemon,
and heap upon them the creamed eggs. Stick a bit of parsley in
the top of each.
EGG-CUPS AND SARDINES.
Prepare in the same way, substituting sardines for anchovies.
EGG-CUPS WITH TOMATO.
When the egg-cups are ready, fill with a rich tomato pure,
made by straining tomato sauce, and thickening it with a good
white roux, and seasoning it with grated .onion, pepper, salt,
and a little sugar. Lay a neatly poached egg upon the top of
each.
EGG-BASKETS.
Six hard-boiled eggs \ one cupful of minced cold meat ham,
veal, or poultry well seasoned ; one cupful of drawn butter or
198 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
strained gravy ; a little chopped parsley. Cut the eggs smoothly
around, dividing each into two cups, extracting the yolk. Cut
a small piece from the bottom of each cup, so that it will stand
upright. Mash the yolks to powder with a potato-beetle or bowl
of a spoon; mix with them the chopped meat, and mould into
pellets about the size and shape of a yolk. Put one of these in
each " basket," arrange them in a dish, and pour over them the
gravy or drawn butter, made very hot and seasoned with the
chopped parsley. Set in the oven for five minutes to heat the
eggs, and serve.
Should you wish to add further to this dish, cut stale bread
into rounds with a cake-cutter; scoop out a hollow in each to fit
the bottom of the egg ; toast and butter them, and put one under
each egg-basket before you pour the gravy over all. In this case
there should, of course, be more liquid, as the toast would ab-
sorb much.
EGG-CUPS AND TONGUE.
Prepare the hollowed rounds of bread as before directed, fill the
centres with minced tongue seasoned with a drop or two of onion-
juice, pepper, and French mustard to taste, then wet with a little
consomme. Around the edge of the cup lay a ring of stiffly
frothed white of egg, and in the central space left by this a raw
yolk, with a bit of butter upon it. Set on the upper grating of
a hot oven until the white begins to color slightly and becomes
encrusted. Transfer each "cup" and contents to a small hot
plate of its own, and surround with a close garnish of parsley.
Have the sprigs picked and ready when the cups come from the
oven and serve promptly.
EGG AND TONGUE PATES.
Instead of making cups of rounds of breads, use empty shells
of pastry for holding the minced tongue, the ring of meringue,
and the raw yolk. By the time they are thoroughly heated in
the oven the eggs will be done.
A pretty and savory entree.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 199
TIMBALES OF EGG AND CHICKEN.
Chop cold chicken as fine as it can be made. Put it over the
fire with just enough stock to prevent it from scorching, stir into
a cupful of the meat a tablespoon ful of corn -starch wet in milk,
and cook three minutes, stirring all the time. Take from the fire,
beat in the white of an egg, and spread upon a dish to cool.
When stiff, butter your nappies or pate-pans or timbale-moulds
well and line them with this white paste. Drop the yolk of an
egg in the centre of each, pepper and salt it and lay a bit of butter
upon it. Set in a pan of boiling water upon the upper grating
of a hot oven, cover closely, and cook ten minutes. Invert upon
small hot plates, one for each timbale, and put a spoonful of egg
sauce upon each.
With a little practice you will find the manufacture of these
timbales easy and satisfactory work.
EGG TIMBALES.
Beat the whites and yolks of four eggs light without separating
them, add three tablespoonfuls of cream, a little celery-salt, five
or six drops of onion-juice, and a dash of white pepper. Butter
timbale-moulds or nappies well, pour enough of the mixture into
each to fill it almost to the top ; set in a pan of boiling water,
cover and cook upon the upper grating of a quick oven for ten
minutes, or until the middle of each custard is set. Invert upon
heated individual plates, with a spoonful of rather thick tomato
sauce upon the top.
These are sometimes called " Tom Thumb Omelettes."
EGG FLUMMERY.
Boil six eggs twenty-five minutes ; throw them into cold
water and leave them there for one hour. Peel them, rub the
yolks through a sieve and set aside. Chop the whites until they
can also be pressed through a fine colander or a coarse sieve.
Mince them with two tablespoonfuls of finely minced champig-
nons and season with celery-salt, a few drops of onion-juice, and
200 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
white pepper. Now whip to a close froth the whites of two raw
eggs, stir into the other mixture, and fill with the savory com-
pound a well-buttered mould. Set in boiling water in a quick
oven, cover the top and cook for twenty minutes, or until firm.
Turn out upon a flat dish, sift the pounded yolks all over it, pour
a good sauce Bechamel or white or tomato about the base and
serve at once.
You may make timbales of this mixture by baking it in tim-
bale-moulds and turning them out upon individual plates, then
sifting the yellow powder over them. It is very nice and is
easily made.
EGG TOAST.
Cut rounds of stale bread, toast and moisten slightly with a
mixture of butter and water. Pepper lightly with paprica and
dust with celery-salt.
Chop the whites of six hard-boiled eggs very fine and mix with
a small cupful of drawn butter. Spread this upon the toast
when you have seasoned to taste with pepper, salt, and finely
minced parsley. Cover the sauce with the yolks rubbed through
a colander into yellow powder. Set in a hot oven for three
minutes and serve.
EGGS AND RICE.
Boil six eggs for twenty-five minutes ; leave them in ice-water
for an hour. Peel and separate yolks and whites. Chop the
latter fine and mix them with half a cupful of good drawn butter.
Rub the yolks through a colander. Form in the middle of a
stone-china dish or other fire-proof crockery a ring of cold boiled
rice which has been wet up while hot with butter, and seasoned
with onion-juice, pepper, and salt. Wash this over with raw
yolk of egg and sprinkle thickly with Parmesan cheese. Pour in
the sauce mixture. It should be quite stiff, so as to hold together
and not break down the rice- walls. Cover with the pounded
yolks, put bits of butter here and there upon it, and set upon the
upper grating of a hot oven until heated through. Fifteen
minutes should do it.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2OI
A HEN'S NEST.
Boil six eggs hard, and when they are cold and firm pare
away the whites in slender shavings and arrange them in a circle
upon a platter, in imitation of a nest. Butter them and set in
an open oven, renewing the butter now and then as they warm.
Chop a cupful of cold chicken or veal or shrimps or other cold
fish fine, season well and work into it the pounded yolks of the
eggs, moistening with butter as you go on. When well mixed
form into egg-shaped balls, and heap within the shredded whites.
Pour about them a cupful of drawn butter into which has been
stirred three spoonfuls of chicken -gravy.
STUFFED EGGS.
Boil six eggs hard and drop into cold water. With a sharp
knife cut each in half and chip a piece from each end that they
may stand firmly. Work into the pounded yolks a cupful of
minced chicken, tongue, or ham, moisten with butter and season
to taste. Make into balls the size and shape of the yolks, fill
the halves with these, arrange on a dish, pour a good sauce over
them, set in the oven for five minutes, or until heated, and serve.
STUFFED EGGS (BAKED).
Boil six eggs hard and when cold cut into halves crosswise.
Make egg-balls as directed in the last recipe, fill the divided
halves and press them closely back into place. Roll each egg in
raw egg and cracker-crumbs and lay within a buttered baking-
pan. Set in a hot oven until slightly browned, and serve with
a white or tomato sauce.
STUFFED EGGS (COLD).
To Be Eaten at Picnics.
Boil eggs hard and throw them into cold water. When cool
remove the shells, cut the eggs in half carefully, and extract the
2O2 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
yolks. Rub these to a powder with the back of a spoon and add
to them pepper and salt to taste, a little very finely minced ham,
and enough melted butter to make the mixture into a smooth
paste. If ham is not at hand any other cold meat will do, and
either anchovies or anchovy paste may be used. Make the com-
pound into balls about the size and shape of the yolks, and
restore them to their place between the two cups of the whites.
Keep these in place by wrapping them in several thicknesses of
tissue-paper, folded square, the ends fringed out and twisted up
close to the egg. Line a basket with green leaves or grasses,
and pile the eggs in this. They are pleasant to the sight and
good to the taste.
PLAIN OMELET.
Beat six eggs just enough to break the yolks into the whites.
A dozen strokes should suffice. Have a scant tablespoonful of
butter heated in a small frying-pan or an omelet-pan. Pepper
and salt the eggs lightly and put in a teaspoonful of cream for
each. As soon as the butter hisses pour in the eggs and
shake gently, always in one direction, to keep the omelet from
sticking to the pan. When it is set, but still soft, slip a broad
knife or a spatula under one half and fold it upon the other.
Invert the pan dexterously over a hot dish and drop the omelet
into the middle of the platter.
Garnish with cress or parsley.
A palette-knife is admirable for folding omelets.
A FROTHED OMELET.
Cook as directed in the last recipe, but beat the whites and
yolks separately and very light, adding the whites after the yolks
are whipped and mixed with the cream and seasoning. The
whites will break up around the edges of the omelet, giving it a
light and pleasing appearance. You may spread minced ham or
tongue, chicken, turkey, veal, fish, in fact almost any kind of
meat, upon the omelet before folding it over, and thus give it a
distinctive character.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2O3
OMELET WITH SMOKED BEEF.
Beat six eggs light, the whites and yolks separately. Put a
tablespoonful of butter into a frying-pan, and cook in it for a
couple of minutes two tablespoon fu Is of finely chopped smoked
beef. Mix the whites and yolks of the eggs lightly together, turn
them into the pan upon the beef, and proceed as with a plain
omelet.
OMELET WITH GREEN PEASE.
Beat up six eggs for omelet as in preceding recipe, mix whites
and yolks, and stir into them half a cupful of canned or cooked
green pease. Season with salt and pepper, put a tablespoonful of
butter into the frying-pan, pour in the omelet, and cook as above
directed.
SAUSAGE OMELET.
Make a plain omelet of six eggs and fry it in a tablespoonful
of butter. Just before folding the omelet lay on it three cooked
sausages, which have been skinned, minced fine, and heated.
Fold the omelet and serve.
TOMATO OMELET. (No. J.)
Beat together the whites and yolks of six eggs, season with
salt and pepper. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-
pan, turn into it a cupful of stewed and chopped tomatoes from
which the liquor has been drained, cook for two minutes, and
then stir in the beaten eggs. Let the omelet brown on the under
side, fold over and serve.
TOMATO OMELET. (No. 2.)
Stir a tablespoonful of flour into one of hot butter in a frying-
pan and cook until it bubbles all over. Add to this half a can
of tomatoes, stewed, strained, and seasoned with a little onion-
juice, salt, and pepper. Cook three minutes, turn into a platter,
and let the mixture cool. When it is stiff whip six eggs light,
204 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
yolks and whites together ; beat in the tomato mixture and fry
in a buttered omelet-pan.
It will be found very good if eaten before it has a chance to
fall.
MUSHROOM OMELET.
Beat . six eggs just enough to break the yolks and mix them
with the whites ; add four tablespoon fuls of cream, a dust of
salt and pepper, lastly, half a can of minced mushrooms. Turn
into an omelet-pan in which you have heated a tablespoonful of
butter, and cook as you would a plain omelet.
CLAM OMELET.
Chop a dozen clams fine. Heat a heaping teaspoonful of but-
ter in a saucepan, stir in the same quantity of flour, and when it
bubbles all over thin with three tablespoonfuls of hot cream and
the same of boiling clam-juice. Season with a pinch of cayenne
or paprica, and a few drops of onion-juice. Mix the chopped
clams with this and set the saucepan in boiling water at the side
of the range to keep hot. It must get scalding hot but not act-
ually boil.
Beat six eggs light yolks and whites together and add two
tablespoonfuls of cream. Have a tablespoonful of butter in
your omelet-pan on the fire, pour in the eggs ; shake the pan to
prevent the omelet from sticking. As soon as it is fairly set
spread the clam mixture upon it and fold.
OMELET AUX FINES HERBES.
Beat six eggs just enough to blend the whites and yolks ; add
three tablespoonfuls of cream, dust with salt and pepper, and
just before it goes into the pan whip in as rapidly as possible
two heaping tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, sweet mar-
joram, celery tops, and as much .grated onion as would lie on
a dime.
Cook in the usual way.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 205
CORN OMELET.
Beat six eggs without separating yolks and whites. A dozen
strokes will mix them sufficiently. Add four tablespoonfuls of
cream and four tablespoonfuls of cold boiled, or of canned, corn,
chopped fine. Mix with three or four whirls of your beater, and
cook in the usual manner.
OMELET AND SHAD ROES.
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan and stir into it
four tablespoonfuls of shad roes that have been boiled, blanched,
and broken into a granulated heap. Season with a saltspoonful
of salt, the same of grated onion, and a dash of cayenne with a
teaspoon ful of chopped parsley. When the mixture is heated
through add two tablespoonfuls of milk (or cream) with a tiny
pinch of soda ; cook three minutes and keep hot over boiling water.
Beat five eggs for one minute, add a tablespoonful of cream, a
little salt and pepper, and turn into an omelet-pan, where a tea-
spoonful of butter is beginning to hiss. Shake until it is set ;
pour the roes upon it, double over and serve.
CHEESE OMELET.
Beat five eggs very light, add a dash of cayenne and of salt
and three tablespoonfuls of cream with a pinch of soda. Have
ready a heaping teaspoonful of butter in an omelet-pan, add with
a few rapid strokes three tablespoonfuls of grated cheese to the
eggs, and cook at once.
Serve as soon as cooked, as it is clammy when it falls. You
may, if you like cheese, sift more upon the omelet when it is
dished, and hold a red-hot shovel so near it that the cheese takes
fire. Blow out and serve.
ASPARAGUS OMELET.
Six eggs, beaten very light ; one bunch of asparagus, the green
tops only (the stalks will be an improvement to your soup) ; two
tablespoonfuls of milk. Beat whites and yolks together, add the
206 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
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, loosening from the pan with cake-turner or palette-
knife ; fold over in the middle, and turn the pan upside down
upon a hot dish.
EGGS AND ASPARAGUS*
Boil two dozen asparagus tips in hot, salted water. Drain
and mix them into a good white sauce, or butter " drawn " in
milk. Season with pepper and salt, pour into a pudding-dish;
break enough eggs upon the surface to cover it ; pepper, salt,
and scatter bits of butter upon them, sift fine crumbs over the
top, and bake until the eggs are set.
A SPANISH OMELET.
Beat six eggs light, add two tablespoonfuls of cream, a dash of
salt and cayenne, and just before it goes into the pan stir in
lightly a green pepper, minced fine, a tablespoonful of grated
onion, a raw tomato, chopped, and a teaspoonful of minced
parsley. Cook in the usual way, fold upon itself, invert the
pan over a heated platter, and sift a tablespoonful of Parmesan
cheese upon the folded omelet. Pour a cupful of tomato sauce,
seasoned with onion-juice, cayenne, butter, salt, and sugar, about
the omelet and serve.
FAMILIAR TALK*
AN INEXPENSIVE LUNCHEON.
They were talking together of the recently popular fifty-cent
luncheons and fifty-cent dinners, the Woman of Small Means,
the Man of the House, and the Friend of the Family.
"My greatest achievement," said the Woman of Small
Means, with modest pride, "was when I had a luncheon for
three people for ninety cents."
"You mean ninety cents apiece," said the Friend of the
Family.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2O/
" No ; ninety cents for all three."
" Did you give them pork and beans? " queried the Man of
the House, with an attempt at jocularity.
" No; I gave them five courses, exclusive of the coffee and
creme de menthe at the end. ' '
The Man of the House is a gentleman, and he suppressed
a half-uttered whistle, and instantly indemnified himself for it.
"Oh, come now," he said. (He has the easy contempt
most men feel for women's financial estimates.) " You may
have spent only ninety cents in direct outlay, but you didn't
count the things you already had in the house."
" Yes, I counted every one," insisted the Woman of Small
Means.
The Man of the House said no more, but his countenance
proclaimed incredulity in loud tones.
" Tell us how you did it," said the Friend of the Family.
"The bill -of- fare was bouillon, oyster pates, chops, and
potatoes a la Duchcsse, salad, crackers and cheese, grape fruit
with rum and sugar, coffee and creme de menthe. ' '
A smothered ejaculation from the Man of the House. The
Woman of Small Means turned her back upon him and addressed
herself to the Friend of the Family.
" Of course," she said, apologetically, " I had to plan for my
luncheon in order to get it at that price. If I had gone out and
bought everything without consideration, the expense would have
been much more. As it was, the actual cost of the food did not
exceed ninety cents.
"Take the bouillon, for instance. I bought a twenty-five-
cent quart can. That holds enough to fill five of my bouillon-
cups. I had used two cupfuls the day before, so I estimated the
cost of the three cups served at luncheon at fifteen cents.
" It was the same way with the oysters. I had planned oyster-
soup for my dinner, and had bought a quart of oysters for thirty
cents. I filched a dozen oysters and a gill of the liquor from the
supply for the soup, and had quite enough with the sauce to fill
the three pate shells I had bought for ten cents at the French
208 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
baker's. I allowed eight cents for the oysters, seven for the gill
of milk, the one egg, and the bit of butter used in preparing them.
" My economical genius had been at work in the purchase of
the meat also. I had bought a fore-quarter of lamb at twelve
cents a pound. You know this includes the shoulder for roast-
ing, the neck and breast for stewing, and the chops. Three of
these weighed less than a pound. The tiny Duchesse loaves of
potatoes took only a cupful of mashed potatoes, and you pay six
cents a quart for old potatoes. So my third course did not cost
more than thirteen cents.
"A head of lettuce was five cents; a Neufchatel cheese we
didn't eat half of it, and had the rest for dinner was five cents
more.
" The grape fruit big ones were three for a quarter, and we
had half a one apiece, and there was a teaspoonful of rum in each.
Call it fifteen cents.
"So you see," jotting down figures on the back of a card,
" the first course was fifteen cents; the second, twenty-five; the
third, thirteen ; the fourth, ten ; the fifth, fifteen. That makes
a total of seventy-eight cents. Twelve cents will cover the three
small cups of coffee, the tiny portions of creme de menthe I used
cordial glasses, and they were filled with ice the bread, butter, oil,
vinegar, etc. That is how it was done," she said, with a glance
of triumph over her shoulder toward the Man of the House.
But he had kept silence too long to be "downed" in this
fashion. He fancied he saw his opportunity, and seized it.
" May I ask," he said, assuming the labored patience and de-
liberation a man exhibits when he wishes to crush an illogical
woman, " where in all this beautiful estimate do you put the cost
of the fire, the skill of the cook, the services of the waitress? "
" Oh, those don't count," replied the Woman of Small Means,
calmly. "They never allow for the salary of the chef in the
fashionable fifty-cent luncheons and dinners. ' '
And the Man of the House, "sad, surprised, astounded by the
sovereign strength of woman's " logic, said no more.
C - T. H.
CHEESE DISHES.
WELSH RAREBIT. (No. I.)
WHILE the respectable and growing tribe of Welsh rarebits can
be made in a frying-pan over the fire, the more graceful, easy,
and popular method is to cook them with the chafing-dish on the
table in the sight of the prospective eaters. The accompanying
comprehensive recipe is taken verbatim from " THE CHAFING-
DISH SUPPER," * by Mrs. Herrick's colleague in the prep-
aration of the present volume.
Melt a heaping tablespoonful of butter in the chafing-dish with
a saltspoonful of dry mustard, and stir into this three cupfuls of
grated cheese. As it begins to soften add about a gill of ale, or
in default of this an equal quantity of boiling water. If water
or boiling milk is used, it produces what is known as a " tem-
perance Welsh rarebit." Stir vigorously all the time, and when
the mixture is thick, smooth, and a rich yellow, it is done.
Three or four minutes should suffice after the cheese is in, but it
is almost impossible to give a positive rule for cooking Welsh
rarebit. If the cooking is checked too soon the cheese becomes
tough and stringy ; if it continues too long there is danger that
it will curdle. Only the eye of experience can tell when the ex-
act point is reached to produce a compound of delicious indiges-
tibility. It should be served on toast, but if this is not at hand
square snowflake crackers make very tolerable substitutes.
* The Chafing-Dish Supper. By Christine Terhune Herrick. Published
by Charles Scribner'^^Sons.
14
2IO THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
WELSH RAREBIT. (No. 2.)
Cut into shavings a pound of soft, mild cheese. The richer
and drier kinds are not suitable for this dish. Put into the
chafing-dish with a gill of the best ale and stir over the blaze
until the cheese melts in the hot ale. Stir in, then, half a tea-
spoonful of dry mustard, the same quantity of salt, and a dash
of cayenne. Pour upon rounds of hot buttered toast and serve
immediately.
WELSH RAREBIT. (No. 3.)
Pour into the saucepan of your chafing-dish and set directly
over the blaze, a pint of good ale. (Bass's is perhaps the best,
but Manhattan beer is excellent, and cheaper.) When it boils
stir in a pound of soft cheese, cut into dice. As it melts add a
tablespoonful of cream, a saltspoonful of dry mustard and the
same of salt, with a generous pinch of cayenne. Stir until the
whole mixture is hot, and ladle out upon hot toasted crackers,
buttered.
WELSH RAREBIT. (No. 4.)
Put a cupful of milk and one of cream into your saucepan, with
a bit of soda the size of a pea. When the boil begins add two
cupfuls of soft, mild cheese (American), with a teaspoonful of
made mustard, a saltspoonful of paprica, and a well-whipped
egg. Pour upon rounds of buttered toast, each of which has been
moistened with a teaspoonful of hot cream.
GOLDEN BUCK. (No. J.)
Melt a tablespoonful of butter over boiling water, add a cupful
of ale or beer, and when this is scalding stir in half a pound of
good American cheese, shaved fine, or grated. When the mixt-
ure is smooth put in an even saltspoonful of celery-salt, the same
of dry mustard, and a pinch of cayenne. Have ready the yolks
and whites of two eggs, beaten separately very light, then stirred
together. Add to this, gradually and rapidly, a great spoonful at
a time of the hot cheese mixture. When well incorporated and
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 211
creamy put in a teaspoonful each of Worcestershire sauce and
lemon-juice. Pour upon hot buttered toast or crackers, and eat
at once.
GOLDEN BUOC (No. 2.)
Make Welsh Rarebit, Nos. i, 2, or 3, pour upon rounds of but-
tered toast and lay a poached egg upon each. Salt, pepper, and
butter the egg.
GOLDEN BUCK. (No. 3.)
Heat together a tablespoonful of butter, a saltspoonful each of
dry mustard and of salt, with a pinch of cayenne. When well
mixed and boiling add a cupful of hot milk (heated with a bit
of soda no larger than a pea) in which has been soaked a half
cupful of cracker-crumbs and a cupful of grated cheese. Cook
all together three minutes, or until smoking-hot, add two well-
beaten eggs, stir one minute no more and heap upon rounds
of buttered toast.
Eat at once.
CHEESE FONDU AU GRATIN.
Soak a cupful of dry bread-crumbs in two cupfuls of hot milk
for fifteen minutes. Dissolve a generous pinch of soda in the
milk while heating. Stir into this paste three well-beaten eggs,
a tablespoonful of melted butter, a pinch of cayenne, and a salt-
spoonful of salt ; lastly, beat in rapidly a cupful of grated cheese.
Pour into a greased pudding-dish, strew dry cracker-crumbs on
top, stick bits of butter in them, dust delicately with cayenne
or paprica, and bake in a quick oven, covered, for fifteen min-
utes, then uncover and brown lightly. Send to table at once, as
it falls very soon. While puffy and hot it is delicious.
CHEESE SOUFFLEE.
Beat four eggs light and pour upon them gradually a cupful of
hot milk in which has been dissolved a large pinch of soda, and
which was then thickened with a teaspoonful of corn-starch.
Stir until well mixed, add a good tablespoonful of butter, a dash
212 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
of cayenne, and a saltspoonful of salt, finally, an even cupful of
dry grated cheese. Beat well and quickly for less than a min-
ute, pour into well-buttered custard-cups or into buttered nappies
and bake in a quick oven, ten minutes, or until puffy and lightly
browned. Cover with paper until they begin to rise.
Serve in the cups and pass with them crackers, toasted, but-
tered, and lightly peppered with cayenne.
CHEESE RAMAKINS.
Beat to a cream two eggs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a
saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of cayenne, and three tablespoon fuls
of grated cheese. Work all well into a smooth paste, stir in a
tablespoonful of cream in which has been wet up a teaspoonful
of flour. Beat one minute, spread upon rounds of buttered toast
or crackers, and brown slightly upon the upper grating of a hot
oven.
CHEESE AND TONGUE RAMAKINS.
Make as directed in the foregoing recipe, but mix with the
paste, besides the grated cheese, one great spoonful of minced
tongue, boiled and cold. Mix all thoroughly together and stir
in at the last a cupful of hot cream in which has been dissolved
half a saltspoonful of soda. Boil up once, and pour upon rounds
of buttered toast.
CHEESE FINGERS,
Cut good puff-paste into strips three inches long and two
inches wide. Strew thickly with Parmesan cheese, sprinkle with
salt and cayenne, double the strips lengthwise, creasing them
firmly so that they shall not open in baking, and bake in a quick
oven. Brush with beaten white of egg three minutes before
taking them up, and sift powdered cheese upon them.
DEVILED CRACKERS AND CHEESE,
Split Boston crackers in two, and toast on the inside. Moisten
them with a mixture of boiling water, butter, French mustard,
and celery-salt. Keep this at a hard boil on the stove, dip each
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 21$
cracker in it, and draw it out almost immediately. Ten seconds
will wet it sufficiently. Spread each cracker with grated cheese,
sprinkle with cayenne or paprica, as you may prefer, and set
them in a broad pan upon the upper grating of your oven until
the cheese melts and the crackers are almost dry.
CHEESE CROUSTADES.
Cut thick rounds of stale bread, and hollow them as directed
in recipe for Egg-cups, by marking a smaller circle within the
outer and digging out the crumb half through the bread. Butter
them well and set in a quick oven until crisp and slightly browned.
Rub to a cream four tablespoon fu Is of grated cheese, a great tea-
spoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of cream, a little salt and
cayenne. Fill the hollowed rounds of toast with the mixture,
and set for four or five minutes longer in the oven. Serve at
once.
CHEESE STRAWS.
Make as you would cheese fingers, but half as wide.
Or
Work up a cupful of prepared flour with four tablespoonfuls of
grated cheese, a little salt and cayenne, the beaten yolk of an egg,
and cream enough to make a soft paste. Roll out thin and cut
into narrow strips as long as your middle finger and one-third as
broad. Bake to a pale brown, and just before taking them up
brush over with white of egg and sift powdered cheese upon
them.
CHEESE BALLS.
Half a cupful of grated cheese ; whites of two eggs, beaten
stiff. Mix quickly with a spoon ; mould with floured hands into
balls twice as large .as English walnuts and drop into scalding
cottolene. Cook five minutes, skim out of the fat, and drain
upon a cloth. Serve hot. They are less indigestible if sea-
soned with salt and cayenne.
214 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
COTTAGE CHEESE.
Set a bowl of loppered milk (bonny-clabber) upon the range
where it will heat very slowly. As soon as the curd has fairly
separated from the whey turn it upon a sieve or into a colander
lined with coarse muslin or mosquito-netting and let it drip dry.
Then gather up the cloth into a bag and squeeze out the few
drops of whey that remain. Set in a cold place until you are
ready to use it, when work soft with a little butter and cream,
salting to taste. Stir and shape the mixture until it is of the
consistency of Brie cheese. When thus handled it is as palatable
as any of the foreign (so-called) fashionable cheeses, and far more
wholesome.
HOME-MADE CREAM CHEESE.
Put a panful of milk, warm from the cow, upon the range and
let it come very slowly to the scalding-point. Watch that
it does not begin to boil. Remove it now to a very cold place
a refrigerator closet, if you have one and leave it for six
hours. Take off the cream and press it gently into glass cups,
bowls, or deep saucers. Sift a little fine salt over the surface of
each portion and set in a cold place, to be eaten upon heated
crackers with salad or with gooseberry jam. It is delicious.
FAMILIAR TALK.
TEA, TEA-MAKING, AND TEA-DRINKING.
Dogberry figured as a masculine type of a mighty class when
he opined that " reading and writing come by nature."
A modern Mrs. Dogberry would give prominence among
things that are too easy to be learned to Tea-Making. She
troubles herself little, to begin with, with the quality of the tea
she buys. So long as it is not costly, if she be in moderate cir-
cumstances, she takes what is offered her by her grocer and asks
no questions. If she be wealthy she satisfies herself that she buys
the best brand of tea when she orders the highest-priced.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Brands of tea are many, and each is warranted to be superior
to all the rest. As a rule, avoid cheap and bulky teas. They
are largely adulterated with foreign and domestic herbs, the
former being represented by dried huckleberry leaves, the latter
by dried -over teas that have been already used, and by inferior
qualities which the Chinese will not drink. Green teas are often
"doctored " by dyes in which Prussian blue holds a conspicuous
place.
Again, teas may be high in price and pure in quality and be
done to their death and the injury of the drinkers by the making
or marring.
We are all, unhappily, well acquainted with the astringent
flavor of stewed tea, which has been left to simmer upon the
range or hob, until all the tannic acid latent in the herb is drawn
out into the decoction. It is even less drinkable when (nomi-
nally) made of unboiled water, reminding the partaker thereof of
tepid dish-water, scantily or abundantly sweetened. Such is the
beverage usually compounded at country hotels and boarding-
houses. It is almost as usually served in cups such as were com-
plained of by the witty tourist who objected to "sipping her tea
over the edge of a stone wall."
It is still a matter of curious inquiry who established the cus-
tom of tea-drinking. It must have been a woman, and it is a
comparatively modern "fad." Queen Elizabeth and her more
refined sister, Mary, had beer and plenty of it for breakfast.
Marie Stuart took nothing stronger than perfumed eau sucre.
Without ice, too. Queen Anne consumed incredible quantities
of brown stout, which, if newspaper gossip is to be received as
evidence, is still popular among feminine sovereigns.
Everybody has heard of the good Yankee house-mother, one of
the first settlers in New England, whose son, a seafaring man,
brought to her a small package of tea from China. The good
soul, delighted with the gift, boiled it, strained off and threw
away the water, and served the leaves as greens, presumably with
the accompaniment of salt pork or corned beef. We know that
our Revolutionary forempthers used tea, but if they had the same
2l6 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
fondness for it their descendants display, they could hardly have
given a greater proof of their patriotism than when they encour-
aged husbands and sons to throw the precious cargo overboard.
Women of all classes become each year more dependent on
this, their favorite beverage. Men, as a rule, prefer coffee
possibly because the proper mode of preparing it is more gener-
ally understood, and, consequently, the chances are in favor of its
palatableness. Our " comfort " is frowned upon by the stronger
sex as " weak, sloppy stuff," disapprobation justified by the fact
that most wives and mothers are so deficient in the knowledge,
or derelict in the practice of the correct method of brewing the
"ladies' nectar," that, on nine tables out of ten, it is a carica-
ture of the fragrant amber fluid that should steam in the cups.
One good woman goes so far as to affirm that while green tea
should " only be drawed quite a while, black tea must always be
boiled!'''
Yet the one and only way is so simple that the wonder is
how a child could err therein.
When you use good mixed tea, the old saying, " A level tea-
spoonful for each person and one for the pot," is about as good
a rule for quantity as you can follow, when the number of
drinkers is not more than six or eight.
First, and above all, have the water boiling. Not "just off
the boil," not already boiled, but actually boiling. Few per-
sons appreciate the great difference between water that has been
cooked some time and that which has just attained the point of
ebullition. One has life and sparkle ; the other is as flat as
two-days' uncorked champagne. You will be obliged to give
this your personal supervision, as the average servant is without
conscience and sense in the matter. She will state, with
the utmost sang-froid, that the water must be all right, for " it
boiled an hour ago. ' '
The only safe and the most convenient way is to make your
tea on the table.
Arrange on the tray in front of you a bowl of block sugar,
cups, spoons, cream -pitcher, and a small tea-canister. This
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
last article may be of silver, solid or plated, or of expensive, or
cheap, though pretty, china. There is in every china-shop
such a large variety of them that the housewife can easily find
one to suit her or her purse. When of porcelain, they have two
tops, that the tea may not lose its strength, and are daintier
and more convenient when not large. For fifty cents one can get
a bit of pretty Japanese ware that would grace any board. When
you buy several pounds of tea, keep it in a tightly closed can-
ister, and fill your little caddy from this.
Try always to have cream for your tea. You need so small
an amount that you will scarcely notice the extra cost, and it
adds immeasurably to the rich flavor of the beverage. Pitchers
are now made in such tiny, dainty shapes, that your half-pint of
cream will fill one to overflowing.
Use a small silver tea-strainer, that the minute leaves and
sticks which escape through the spout may not get into the
cups. A person who habitually drinks unstrained tea can
scarcely imagine the de-appetizing effect it produces upon one
unaccustomed to the sight of the particles, the nature of which
is doubtful, floating about on the surface. It is sometimes, es-
pecially during the summer months, unpleasantly suggestive of
dismembered flies and other insects. Years ago, before the in-
troduction of the strainer, young girls called these atoms of
leaves " beaux," and when the tea was drunk, delighted in tell-
ing fortunes from the mass of sediment in the bottom of the cup.
This was certainly a graceful way of disposing of a most dis-
agreeable subject. But let us, of a more enlightened time, use
strainers.
At your right hand have a brass, copper, or silver kettle,
heated by a small spirit-lamp. Pretty brass kettles range in
price from $3. 50 to $25.00. Some of them rest on a standard
on the table, while others depend from a high crane set on the
floor at the pourer's right hand. These cranes are of iron,
fashioned usually in the shape of the figure 5, and are " the
thing " for five-o'clock tea.
Kettles of solid silver are useful, so long as they do not (as
218 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
sometimes happens) melt when heated by the flame of the alco-
hol lamp. They should never be placed on the stove.
Fill your kettle with hot water, and light the lamp. Put
into the tea-pot the requisite quantity of tea ; when the water
boils pour enough on the leaves to cover them, and put the
kettle again over the lighted wick. Cover the tea-pot closely.
At the end of three minutes the steeping process will be com-
pleted, and you may fill the pot with the still boiling water.
After it has stood a minute longer the delicious drink is ready
to be enjoyed.
If you cannot afford to buy, and if nobody presents you with
one of these almost necessary kettles, make up your mind always
to go into the kitchen yourself and ascertain that the water is
boiling before allowing the servant to wet the tea.
One of the requisites in a good cup of tea is to have it very
hot. This object should not be attained by allowing the pot
to stand on the side of the range, or, after the manner of our
grandmothers, on the hob, where it is almost sure to stew and
be ruined, but by covering it while on the table with a cosey ;
or you may have a basket-cosey. This is a small, round hamper
with a wadded lining, and holds a Japanese tea-pot. The cover
of the cosey clamps down, and as the spout protrudes through an
opening in the basket the tea may, if desired, be poured without
removing the pot from its warm nest. Different sizes of the ham-
per-cosey are kept at Japanese stores.
To make a cosey, cut two semicircles of some thick, rich-col-
ored material, such as tricot, felt, plush, or velvet, and join these
at the top and sides. Cut two half-circles a little smaller than
the others, of very heavy wadding, and still another pair of satin,
or sateen, for the lining. Fit the wadding inside of this, and quilt
or tack the wadding to the lining to prevent its slipping. The
seams at sides and bottom should be finished with a silk cord
fastened in loops at the tops and corners. When finished, the
whole fits over the tea-pot like a snug cap.
Before making the cosey you may have the sides stamped with
your initials, a design, or an appropriate motto. I have seen on
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2 19
the table of a friend a pretty one, the material of which was pea-
cock-blue tricot. Upon one side was embroidered a branch of
tea-flowers, while the other bore the words :
" Come, np % fe's gelkiows <f lofoer ! "
Other appropriate mottoes are :
" $0% |ui tfee Settle en I "
" &ty Cup tfcai <%ers ! "
and
" Come anb Cuke &ea ! "
The housekeeper who has once known the abiding comfort of a
cosey would wrap up her tea-pot in a heavy towel, or improvise a
covering out of still more unlikely material, rather than do with-
out an adjunct to the tea equipage that secures the triple end of
conserving heat, strength, and aroma.
The tea-tray must always be covered with a cloth. A tasteful
design in outline for a tray-cloth is traced around the border, and
runs :
Unless % Jieiile Soiling $e,
filing % &ea-pot Spoils tjje Cea,
Do not use thick china. For a small sum you can purchase
pretty porcelain cups and saucers. The tea drunk from one of
these will taste better than if partaken of over the aforementioned
"stone wall."
The graceful fashion of afternoon tea has done and is doing
more to make simple and easy what has grown in American
society to be the " business of entertaining " one's friends than
anyone who has not studied the subject is willing to believe.
The tea equipage, as arranged upon a rustic stand on the
veranda in summer, and near the library fire in winter, typifies
home comfort and hospitable cheer to those who are used to the
genial refreshment between four and six o'clock every afternoon.
220 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
The modest display and the offered dainties involve no dis-
turbance in the household machinery. A few cups and saucers,
ajar of dinner or Albert biscuits, or a plate of thin bread-and-
butter, with, now and then, a dish of buttered scones ; the tea-
kettle and stand ; the tea-pot and caddy, a sugar-dish, and a
cream-jug and voild tout ! It costs a maid but a few minutes'
work to set it all in place, and to remove the tray when the
canonical hour is over. The hostess makes and dispenses the
tea with her own hands, a young girl visitor, or the son of the
house, or any privileged guest, passes the biscuit-jar. The spirit
of the hour is ease and good-will. Wits arouse and tongues are
unlimbered under the influence of the fragrant nervine.
In summer give your guests their choice between hot and iced
tea, and if the latter be chosen, pass sliced lemon and Jamaica
rum for those who care to disguise the flavor of what is good
enough in itself to satisfy the born or educated tea-lover.
M. H.
VEGETABLES.
POTATOES.
THEY are not placed first upon the list of vegetables in this
work because they are especially nutritious. The potato holds
seventy-five parts of water and eighteen of starch out of one
hundred. The remaining seven parts are albuminoids, one and
a half; organic acids, one and one-fifth ; dextrine, two parts ; fat
nothing and one-third ; cellulose, one part ; minerals, one part.
He who esteems potatoes to be the rod and staff of life may
ponder the analysis and extract what comfort he can from it.
Nor are potatoes to be classed among the most digestible of
vegetables. Starch and water in certain combinations clog the
alimentary organs, and unripe potatoes irritate them. A diet of
the favorite tuber is not wholesome for young children, and the
laboring man, though a fool in the matter of dietetics, speedily
learns that he must combine meat or milk with them if he would
retain strength of muscle and integrity of bone.
So firmly rooted in the average intellect is the belief that this
vegetable deserves the high rank it holds upon the national bill
of fare, and in the affections of housewife and those to whom she
ministers, that an article entitled "The Tyrant Potato," pub-
lished in a leading periodical three years ago, drew down upon
the writer of that and of the present protest a storm of dissent,
and even personal vituperation, conveyed by private letters,
newspaper paragraphs, and resolutions drafted by food conven-
tions.
The Tyrant Potato was not assailed ignorantly or flippantly,
and after further studies of its properties, its works, and its ways,
222 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
the utmost concession that is now made to popular prejudice is
in the declaration that since people will make potatoes nine-
tenths of their vegetable diet, it is essential to the national diges-
tion that the ninety-three parts of water and starch be cooked in
such manner as shall render the edible as palatable and as little
hurtful as is practicable when the constituents are not to be
ignored.
BOILED POTATOES (AU NATUREL).
The work is so simple that it is seldom well done. Wash the
potatoes, cover with plenty of boiling water, slightly salted, and
cook fast until a fork will penetrate easily to the heart of the
largest. Drain off every drop of water ; shake them up lightly,
throw in a little salt, and set the pot at the back of the range
for five minutes. The skins should crack and roll open, mak-
ing the work of removing them easy. Do it rapidly, put a bit
of butter upon each potato, set in the oven for one minute, and
serve.
Never serve potatoes boiled or baked whole in a closely
covered dish. They become sodden and clammy. Cover with
a folded napkin that allows the steam to escape, or absorbs the
moisture.
MASHED POTATOES.
Peel very thin, and drop the potatoes, cut or whole, into
cold water. Leave them there for half an hour, and put over
the fire in plenty of boiling, salted water. Cook until a fork
penetrates the largest easily ; drain and dry as directed in the
last recipe, and beat up with a split spoon or two forks to a
powdery heap, then mix into this a little hot milk in which a
lump of butter has been melted, salt to taste, and beat to a cream.
Stiff mashed potatoes are an offence to eye, taste, and stomach.
Turn into a hot, deep dish, and leave the top rough. The mixt-
ure should be just firm enough to stand alone, and the more
irregular the surface the better. Do not level or mould it or
variegate with dabs of pepper put on with the end of the
thumb.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 22$
MOULDED MASHED POTATOES.
Prepare mashed potatoes as usual with milk, butter, and season-
ing, press them hard into a fluted mould that has been wet with
cold water. Turn out, set the dish on which they are in the
oven for five minutes, and serve. If you wish, brush the potato
over with beaten egg after turning it out, and before setting in
the oven.
NEW POTATOES.
Wash, rub the skins off with a rough cloth, put on the fire in
boiling water, slightly salted, and cook until tender. Serve
whole.
WHOLE STEWED POTATOES.
Peel the potatoes and put them over the fire in cold water.
Bring to a boil and cook until tender. Turn off the water, cover
them with warm milk, and stew ten minutes. Transfer the po-
tatoes to a vegetable dish, thicken the milk in which they were
cooked with a teaspoonful of butter rolled in a tablespoonful of
flour, and season with salt, pepper, and minced parsley. Pour
this over the potatoes, pressing each with a spoon so as to crack
it.
POTATO TURNOVERS.
Chop a few slices of yesterday's roast fine, and season well.
Have ready mashed potato, mix one or two raw eggs with it un-
til it is like a paste and can be spread out, sprinkle with flour
and cut out round cakes ; put a tablespoonful or more of the
meat upon one cake; lay another over it and press the edges
together, and fry in hot cottolene to a delicate brown.
POTATO SCONES.
Two cupfuls of mashed potatoes, salt to taste, three table-
spoonfuls of flour, one tablespoonful of butter.
Work the butter, flour, and salt into the potato and roll out
into thin cakes. Brown on a well-greased griddle and eat with
butter while very hot.
224 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MOULDED POTATO.
Mash, or, rather, beat up lightly with a fork. Work in but-
ter and milk, but do not get it too soft. Fill small cups, wet
with cold water, with the potato, pack down firmly, and turn out
upon a greased bake-pan. Brown in a quick oven until they are
of a russet hue, glazing with butter as they color. Transfer to a
flat, hot dish.
LYONNAISE POTATOES.
Cut or chop cold Irish potatoes into bits about half an inch
square. Heat good dripping in a frying-pan, salt and pep-
per it, and fry in this two or three slices of onion. Take these
out and throw away. Put the potatoes into the hissing fat and
turn often to prevent them from browning, until they are very
hot all through. Mix in with them now a teaspoonful of finely
minced parsley, stir, and toss it into the potatoes for two minutes,
and dish. There should be just enough fat to cook the potatoes,
but not enough to make them greasy to dripping when you take
them out. Serve very hot. This dish is known on hotel bills-
of- fare as " Lyonnaise Potatoes" (pronounced "Xfionnaise"),
and is a general favorite, although seldom really well cooked.
Sometimes the onion is minced and stirred in with the potatoes
while the latter are cooking, a ranker and coarser preparation of
the materials than that here given. The common fault is to
make the whole too greasy, a defect rendered more glaring by
the lukewarm temperature of the mass by the time the guest gets
it. See to it, then, that John gets his Lyonnaise dry, hot,
and savory.
CASSEROLE OF POTATO.
Mash eight or ten potatoes smooth with butter; salt, and
work in the beaten whites of two eggs. Then fill a greased jelly-
mould with the mixture, pressing it in firmly. Set aside to harden.
When cold, scrape about a teacupful, or less, from the middle,
leaving firm, thick walls. Fill the cavity with minced mutton,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 22 5
highly seasoned, mixed with crumbs moistened with gravy,
and not too soft. Fit a piece of fried bread in the mouth of the
filled cavity; turn out the casserole carefully upon a stone-china
or block-tin dish ; wash all over with beaten egg and set in a
hot oven ten minutes to heat and glaze. The mince should be
very hot when it goes in and stiff enough to keep its shape.
POTATOES A LA CREME.
Heat a cupful of milk ; stir in a heaping tablespoonful of but-
ter cut up in as much flour. Stir until smooth and thick ; pep-
per and salt, and add two cupfuls of cold boiled potatoes, minced,
and a little very finely chopped parsley. Shake over the fire
until the potatoes are hot all through, and pour into a deep dish.
POTATO CROQUETTES. (No. J.)
Beat into hot mashed potato a raw egg, a little butter, milk,
nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste, also a very little grated lemon-
peel. Heat and stir three minutes in a saucepan, or until scald-
ing hot. When perfectly cold make into croquettes, roll in flour,
and fry in boiling cottolene or nice dripping. Drain off every
drop of fat and serve in a hot dish lined with a napkin.
POTATO CROQUETTES. (No. 2.)
Boil and mash in the usual way, and for each cupful of potato
add and mix in thoroughly one dozen English walnuts, chopped
fine. Season with salt and pepper, bind with the yolk of a raw
egg, and set in a cold place until stiff. Make into croquettes,
dip in egg and then in cracker-crumbs, let them stand on ice for
half an hour and fry in deep fat.
FRIED POTATOES.
Pare, slice very thin, or cut lengthwise into strips. Lay in
cold water for half an hour; dry between two soft cloths
and fry in deep, hot cottolene, a few at a time, not to cool the fat.
226 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
When lightly colored take up with a split spoon and lay upon
hot paper in an open oven until all are ready. They should be
so dry and crisp as not to soil the napkin lining the dish in
which they are served.
You can cut the raw potatoes into balls with the little potato-
gouge made for this purpose, or into slender " straws," and fry
as above.
SARATOGA POTATOES
are nothing more than raw potatoes shaved, rather than cut,
into translucent slices, and then laid in ice-cold water again be-
fore drying quickly and frying to a very pale brown. As fast as
they are fried put them into a hot colander and set in an open"
oven.
POMMES DE TERRE SOUFFLES.
That is to say, " puffed potatoes." The foreign phrase lifts
them a degree in the gastronomic scale.
Pare the potatoes and cut, lengthwise, into slices less than a
quarter of an inch thick. Lay in ice-water for half an hour ;
dry well with a soft cloth and fry in tolerably hot fat for three
minutes, but not until they begin to color. Take them out and
set aside in the colander for ten minutes in a cool place. Heat
the fat again now very hot, and fry, a few at a time. They
should "swell wisibly before your eyes," like Mr. Weller's tea-
drinker.
Potatoes for this purpose should be perfectly ripe and mealy.
New potatoes and really old are alike unavailable for the souffle.
POTATO SOUFFLE.
Which is a very different thing from souffle potatoes. Beat a
cupful of mashed potato to a cream, add the yolks of three well-
beaten eggs and a tablespoonful of melted butter, season with
pepper and salt and a dash of onion-juice ; whip in by degrees a
cupful of rich milk, lastly the frothed whites of the eggs. Pour
into a buttered bake-dish and cook, covered, until it rises well,
then brown. Serve at once. It soon falls and settles.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 22?
POTATOES BAKED WHOLE.
Select those of fair and of uniform size. Wash and lay upon
the floor of your oven. Bake until soft to the pinch of an ener-
getic finger and thumb.
SWEDISH BAKED POTATOES.
Bake large potatoes whole, cut a cap from the top of each and
scoop out as much of the mealy potato as you can without break-
ing the skins. Fill with a hot mince of boiled fish whipped
light with cream and butter and highly seasoned. Put on the
caps, and set in the oven to re-heat for three minutes, or until
very hot.
BAKED POTATOES STUFFED.
Bake, and empty the skins as directed in the last recipe.
Whip the potato you have taken out to a light cream with hot
milk and butter. Season with salt and a pinch of cayenne, and
stir in, finally, for six potatoes, a large spoonful of grated cheese.
Fill the skins high with this mixture and set again in the oven
until they are lightly browned.
BAKED POTATO DICE.
Pare and cut six large potatoes into dice, or into strips half an
inch thick. Leave in cold water for half an hour. Wipe and
turn over and over in melted butter until each piece is coated.
Pour what remains of the butter into a bake-dish, lay in the po-
tatoes irregularly that the heat may reach all, sprinkle upon them
salt, pepper, a few drops of lemon- and the same of onion-juice.
Cover the dish and bake, covered, fpr three-quarters of an hour,
or until the dice are tender. Serve dry on a hot dish.
POTATO OMELET.
Beat mashed potatoes to a soft cream with milk, salt, pepper,
and mix in a little melted butter a small tablespoonful for each
cupful of potato. Whip in the beaten yolks of two eggs and at the
228 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
last the frosted whites. Have a little hot butter in a frying-pan,
pour in the mixture and cook slowly until it is well set. Ten
minutes should suffice. Double and turn out upon a hot dish.
POTATO FRITTERS,
Beat into a cupful of creamy mashed potato (hot) two table-
spoonfuls of hot milk, one of butter, one egg, and a little salt and
pepper. Mix well and let it get perfectly cold. Cut into
squares, roll in egg, then in cracker-crumbs or in flour only, and
fry in deep boiling fat. Serve dry and hot.
SWEET POTATOES.
They are best when fully ripe and not yet watery or sticky.
They should, in this, their prime, be as mealy as well-cooked
Irish potatoes, and are at once more palatable and more nutri-
tious than their lowlier-born cousins.
BAKED SWEET POTATOES.
A fine, ripe sweet potato never tastes better than when baked
properly. Wash and wipe and lay in a baking-pan. Cover, and
cook until the heart of the largest potato yields to the pressure
of your thumb and finger. Turn several times while they are
baking, that all sides may receive an equal degree of heat. The
fashion of baking or roasting potatoes until the skins are like
leather and on the lower side burned to a cinder is an insult to
this one of the kindly fruits of the earth. Baked and boiled
mealy sweet potatoes have a decided resemblance in texture and
taste to boiled chestnuts.
BOILED SWEET POTATOES*
Select those of uniform size, wash and boil in salted water
until a fork pierces readily to the centre of the largest. Drain
and set in a hot oven five minutes to dry, then peel and serve
hot.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 229
SWEET POTATOES SAUTE.
Slice cold boiled sweet potatoes, pepper, salt, and flour. Heat
in a frying-pan a good spoonful of butter or sweet dripping.
Lay in the potato slices, turning them over and over to coat
each piece with the fat, and sauti until lightly colored.
SWEET POTATOES AU GRATIN.
Slice the potatoes crosswise and arrange in layers in a bake-
dish, sprinkling each layer with salt, pepper, bits of butter, and
a very little sugar. When the dish is full pour in three or four
tablespoonfuls of hot water in which has been melted a teaspoon-
ful of butter. Strew the top thickly with salted and peppered
cracker-crumbs, stick bits of butter here and there, and bake,
covered, until thoroughly heated. Uncover, and brown lightly.
An excellent preparation of an excellent esculent.
SWEET POTATO PUFF.
Boil and mash sweet potatoes. To two cupfuls of this add
three eggs, beaten light, a cupful of milk, two tablespoonfuls of
butter, and a little salt. Beat all together vigorously, turn into a
pudding-dish, and bake.
CREAMED SWEET POTATOES.
Boil dry, mealy potatoes, peel and set in the oven to dry, but
do not let them get hard. Rub through a colander, or grate, or
rub through a vegetable-press into a mealy mass. Beat with a
silver or wooden spoon to a cream with hot milk in which a
lump of butter has been melted. Season with salt and pepper,
pour into a pudding-dish and bake, covered, in a quick oven
until it begins to brown. Wash over with egg and leave in the
oven one minute longer. Serve at once.
SWEET POTATO CROQUETTES.
Beat into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes,
while hot, a tablespoonful of butter, and the whipped yolks of
23O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
two eggs, with a tablespoonful of cream, and let the mixture get
cold before making it into croquettes. Roll in egg and cracker-
crumbs ; set in a cold place for a couple of hours, and fry to a
golden brown in deep fat.
SWEET POTATO AND CHESTNUT CROQUETTES.
Make as above, but add to the potatoes a cupful of Spanish
chestnuts, roasted or boiled, and pounded to powder. Work in
well with the butter, eggs, and cream, season and fry in deep fat.
RICE.
" Rice," says an eminent authority upon dietetics, " is more
largely grown and consumed as human food than any other
cereal. It is said to be the main food of one-third of the human
race. Alone, however, it is not a perfect food, being deficient
in albuminoids and in mineral matters."
Reading on, we find that it contains but fourteen -and-a-sixth
parts of water and seventy-six parts of starch, with seven-and-a-
fifth parts of the useful albuminoids, as against one-and-one-half
parts of the same in potatoes.
" One pound of rice, when digested and oxidized in the body,
might liberate force equal to 2,330 tons raised one foot high.
The greatest amount of external work which it could enable a
man to perform is 466 tons raised one foot high."
Thus another distinguished writer upon the same subject.
Turning to his opinion of the Tyrant Potato, we read with
wicked satisfaction " One pound of potatoes, when digested and
oxidized in the body, might liberate force equal to 619 tons
raised one foot high. The greatest amount of work which
it would enable a man to perform is 124 tons raised one foot
high."
Comment would seem to be superfluous were we less familiar
with the fatuous prejudices of those who, depending upon brawn
and bone for their daily living, should study most needfully the
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2$l
capabilities of their daily food to furnish what they need. Rice,
as a vegetable, is held in light esteem in fact in no esteem at
all by this class. It is spoken of contemptuously as " babies'
victuals," and "sick folks' mess," and is practically unknown
upon the family bill-of-fare except in the shape of rice-pud-
dings. These are reckoned economical and "filling at the
price."
Hodge and his congeners are the less to blame for their stu-
pidity, because rice, as a rule, suffers more in the clutches of
The Average American Cook than any other vegetable. The
pasty mess, stiff enough to stand alone, or so watery as to look
like coarse and ill-made starch, which figures as boiled rice upon
nineteen out of twenty otherwise well-furnished tables, deserves
the reputation it has wrought. That a majority of writers upon
cookery pass over the cereal and the violence done to it lightly,
is a greater puzzle.
The reader will, in consideration of the importance of the
subject, pardon one more extract from our treatise upon " Food
and Some of its Constituents."
"As rice is deficient in natural fat, oil, butter, fat bacon, or
similar articles of food, should be eaten with it."
That is, the " trimmings " that make rice toothsome, also raise
it toward the level of the perfect food. Furthermore it may be
consumed along with substances rich in nitrogenous or flesh-form-
ing matters such as meat, eggs, and any kind of pulse, as pease
or beans.
All of which dicta point to our gentle cereal as a vegetable ac-
companiment of meat and gravies rather than to the final course
which the English name "sweets," the American, "desserts."
The word " gentle " is used with a purpose in this connection.
Rice, properly cooked, is digested without difficulty by the
stomach and holds healing in its soft starches and mild albu-
minoids, poulticing pain, and coating sore surfaces.
Clearly, then, it is the duty of caterer and cook to make it
attractive and popular for the general good of mankind and the
especial benefit of the household.
232 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
BOILED RICE.
Wash a cupful of rice in three waters, leaving it in the last
for ten minutes. Have on the fire a pot containing at least two
quarts of boiling water. A gallon would not be amiss. One
quart would be ruin. Put in a full teaspoonful of salt for each
quart of water. The water should be at a furious boil when the
rice goes in, and this must be kept up all the while it is cooking.
Leave the pot uncovered and do not touch the rice with a spoon.
At the end of twenty minutes take out a few grains with a fork
and bite into them to try if they are tender. They should be
by now. If the test is satisfactory drain off every drop of the
water into the bowl and set aside to be used in broths, etc.
Turn the rice into a heated colander and set at the back of the
range or in the open oven for a few minutes to dry, as you would
potatoes. Every grain should stand up for its own individual
right to be plump, white, and tender, yet consistent. Send to
table in a hot open vegetable-dish, and eat with meat as you
would any other vegetable, or butter it and eat it alone.
SAVORY RICE A LA MILANAISE.
Wash a cupful of rice well. Take a cupful of broth from your
soup-pot ; strain through a thin cloth and add twice as much
boiling water, with a little salt. Put in the rice and cook slowly
until it has taken up all the water and is soft. Pour in a large
cupful of hot milk in which have been mixed two eggs (raw), two
tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, and a tablespoonful of butter.
Stir up well ; add about half a cupful of minced veal and ham ;
turn into a greased mould ; cover and bake one hour and a half
in a dripping-pan of hot water. Dip in cold water and invert
upon a flat dish.
RICE AND CHEESE.
Boil a cupful of rice in a quart of water, slightly salted, and
when half done add two tablespoonfuls of butter. By the time
the rice is soft the water should have been soaked up entirely,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 233
and each grain stand out whole in the mass. Never stir boiling
rice, but shake up the saucepan instead. Stir into the rice at
this point three tablespoon fuls of grated cheese, salt and pepper
to taste. Toss up with a fork until the cheese is dissolved, and
pour into a deep dish.
RICE LOAVES,
Two cupfuls of boiled rice ; two eggs, beaten light ; two table-
spoonfuls of melted butter. Milk at discretion.
Beat the rice smooth with a spoon, add the butter and eggs
and enough milk to make a rather soft paste. Form this with
the hands into small loaves, lay them in a dripping-pan and
bake them, closely covered, for fifteen minutes. When half
done wash with beaten yolk of egg, strew with grated cheese,
and brown.
BAKED RICE CURRY.
An East Indian Dish.
Wash a cupful of raw rice in three waters, and let it soak fif-
teen minutes in water enough to cover it. Boil an onion in a
quart of water with a little salt until the onion is very soft.
Strain the water, squeezing the onion hard in a bit of cloth.
Throw it away, put the water over the fire with a heaping tea-
spoonful of curry-powder, and when it boils again pour upon the
rice and the water in which it was soaked. Turn all into a jar
with a close top, or a casserole dish with a cover, and set in a
moderate oven until the rice has soaked up the liquid and is
swollen and soft, but not broken. Serve in a deep, open dish,
and pour over it a few spoonfuls of melted butter, loosening the
rice gently with a fork to allow the butter to penetrate to the
bottom.
Serve with roast chicken, veal, or fish.
RICE WITH TOMATO SAUCE.
Boil as already directed, and, when dry, dish, and pour over
it a cupful of strained tomato sauce, seasoned with onion-juice,
234 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
pepper, salt, butter, and a little sugar. Stir and lift the grains
lightly with a fork to let the tomato reach the whole mass.
RICE AND TOMATO.
An Italian Recipe.
Cook as in the last recipe, but add to the strained and seasoned
tomato sauce a cupful of good stock or gravy, and when they
have boiled together five minutes stir in two great spoonfuls of
Parmesan cheese. (Season the tomato with cayenne, not with
black pepper.) Dish the rice every grain standing apart from
its fellows and cover with the sauce. Loosen with a fork to
let this sink into the rice, set in an oven for three minutes and
serve. It is a savory and pleasant accompaniment to cold meat.
RICE SAUTE,
Boil as in former recipes, turn out upon a hot platter and put
into the oven to dry for five minutes, loosening the grains with a
fork that each may retain form and consistency. When dry, set
away until perfectly cold. Heat a little butter in a frying-pan
and fry half a dozen slices of onion until they begin to color.
Take them out and put the rice into the butter, a tablespoonful
at a time, to keep the grains apart. Toss lightly with a fork
that the grains may remain distinct, and as they color slightly
take them up with a perforated spoon and lay them in a fine col-
ander (heated). Keep the colander in an open oven until all
the rice is done. Shake up gently to make sure that it is free
from grease and torn into a deep, uncovered dish.
This is a delightful accompaniment to fried fish or broiled
birds, and very wholesome.
BROILED RICE.
Boil as usual, and while hot stir in a tablespoonful of white
sauce for each cupful of rice, and a beaten egg for two cupfuls.
Season with pepper, salt, and a few drops of onion-juice ; fill a
broad, shallow dish with it, and press the bottom of another, or
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 235
a large plate, firmly upon it until it fits down firmly upon every
part. Set a fiat-iron or other heavy weight upon the upper dish
and set away to get cold. When stiff and chilled throughout,
cut into strips or squares or triangles, and broil upon a buttered
gridiron until lightly browned.
Serve hot and dry with game or broiled chicken.
FRIED RICE.
Prepare as above, and when stiff cut into rounds or squares,
roll in egg and cracker-crumbs, let them stand for an hour, and
fry in hot, deep cottolene.
This is a very nice preparation of rice.
BUTTERED RICE.
A Chinese Recipe.
Boil a cupful of rice and dry. Heap in a deep dish and pour
over it this sauce : Fry a sliced onion in two tablespoonfuls of
butter to a light brown ; strain it out and add to the hot butter
a small green pepper, seeded and minced fine, and when this
has cooked tender, a teaspoonful of lemon-juice. Pour over the
rice and serve.
RICE AND CHEESE.
A Swiss Recipe.
Boil a cupful of raw rice in a quart and a pint of hot water,
lightly salted. At the end of fifteen minutes drain off half the
water and add a good tablespoonful of butter with a pinch of
cayenne. When the rice is done all the water should be ab-
sorbed and each grain stand out swollen and whole. Let it dry
out for five minutes. Shake up the saucepan lightly, not to
break the rice, and stir into it, with a fork, three tablespoonfuls
of Parmesan cheese. Turn into a deep dish and serve.
RICE CROQUETTES. (No. J.)
Into a cupful of cold boiled rice beat the well-whipped yolk of
an egg, a teaspoonful of melted butter, a teaspoonful of sugar,
236 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
half as much salt, and enough milk to make a paste that you
can handle. Make this into croquettes, or into balls, with
floured hands. Dip each into beaten egg, then into cracker-
dust, and set aside in a cold place for a couple of hours or more.
Then fry in deep, hot cottolene to a golden brown. Take up
with a split spoon, lay in a heated colander, and set in the open
oven until you are ready to dish them.
RICE CROQUETTES. (No. 2.)
Boil a cupful of rice in plenty of hot, salted water for twenty
minutes. Drain and dry, and while hot work in half a cupful of
milk and the beaten yolks of two eggs, with pepper and salt to
taste, a teaspoonful of butter and a dash of nutmeg, or a pinch
of grated lemon-peel. Set aside the mixture until stiff and cold ;
form into croquettes, egg and crumb them, leave them for two
hours in a cold place, and fry in hot, deep cottolene.
RICE AND MUSHROOM CROQUETTES.
Drain the liquor from half a can of mushrooms ; chop them
and cook for fifteen minutes in a pint of weak stock or in water
in which half an onion, a carrot, cut into dice, and a stalk of cel-
ery have been boiled for one hour, then strained out. Drain the
liquor from the mushrooms and set them aside to get cold.
Cook three tablespoonfuls of washed, raw rice in the liquor left
in the saucepan, until soft, but not broken. It should absorb it
all when done. Now add the chopped mushrooms, a teaspoon-
ful of butter, the yolk of a beaten raw egg, pepper and salt to
taste, and set aside the paste to get cold and stiff.
Make it into croquettes with well-floured hands, egg and
crumb, set them in a cold place for an hour or so, and fry in
deep, hot cottolene.
RICE AND GIBLET CROQUETTES.
A German Recipe.
Boil a cupful of raw rice in plenty of hot, salted water. Drain
and dry, and while hot work into it a teaspoonful of butter, a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 237
tablespoonful of grated cheese, the yolk of a beaten egg, pepper
and salt to taste, and set aside to get cold.
Chop and rub the boiled giblets of chickens, ducks, or geese
smooth, and work to a paste with a very little gravy, seasoning to
taste. Flour a rolling-pin, roll out the rice-paste half an inch
thick, and cut into round cakes. In the centre of each lay a
spoonful of the giblets, enclose it and roll the rice about it in an
egg-shaped ball. Egg and crumb them, leave on the ice for two
hours or more, and fry in deep, hot olive oil.
RICE AND SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES.
Prepare as directed in the foregoing recipe, but substitute
sweetbreads, boiled, blanched, and chopped, for the livers.
SAVORY MOULD OF RICE.
A Neapolitan Recipe.
Boil one cupful of raw rice in two quarts of salted water for
twenty minutes. Drain and dry, and mix with it a cupful of
milk in which has been dissolved a teaspoonful of corn-starch.
Beat into this a raw egg and a tablespoonful of melted butter,
and set aside to get cold. Mince a cupful of chicken, lamb, or
veal, mix with it two tablespoon fuls of chopped pine-nuts. You
may buy them from Italian grocers, and if you cannot get them,
substitute blanched and chopped almonds. Season well, and
work in a tablespoonful of gravy. When the rice is cold put
all the ingredients together, mixing well, and pour into a but-
tered mould, the sides of which you have coated with fine, dry
crumbs, after buttering. Fit on a close top, and cook in the oven,
set in a pan of boiling water, for two hours. Dip the mould for
an instant in cold water, and turn out the pudding upon a hot
dish. Serve with tomato sauce, into which have been stirred
two large spoonfuls of Parmesan cheese.
An excellent and inexpensive entree.
238 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PILAU (No. J.)
A Turkish Recipe.
Boil a cupful of raw rice in a pint of mutton-stock which has
been skimmed and seasoned with onion, tomato, salt, and
cayenne. When the rice is soft and has soaked up all the
liquor add a tablespoonful of butter and a heaping teaspoonful
of curry-powder with one of capers.
Mince cold mutton or lamb until you have a cupful ; heat a
cupful of gravy over the fire, season well and sharply, and
thicken with browned flour, then stir in the minced meat, and
boil up once. Pour upon a heated platter and arrange the
rice like a fence around it.
Pilau is even better when made with chicken-stock and meat
instead of mutton.
PILAU. (No. 2.)
Heat together a cupful of strained tomato-juice and one of
well-seasoned mutton-, or chicken-, or veal-stock. Put in four
tablespoonfuls of washed rice, and cook until it is soft and has
taken up the liquid. Add two tablespoonfuls of butter, salt and
paprica to taste, cook for two minutes and turn out.
Eat with boiled mutton or chicken, and pass with it a dish of
grated cheese, or with a saltspoonful of curry, blended with a
cupful of cheese, for those who like this addition.
RICE AND GIBLET PUDDING.
Boil the giblets tender, and mince fine. Add to the water in
which they were cooked a small grated onion and a tablespoon-
ful of finely chopped salt pork. There should be a pint of the
liquor. Boil three tablespoonfuls of rice in it for twenty minutes.
It should absorb all the liquid. Have ready five tablespoonfuls
of milk, heated in a separate vessel, pour it upon a beaten egg,
stir in a tablespoonful of butter, season to taste with salt and
paprica, add to the rice, and put in the chopped giblets. Sim-
mer for five minutes after the boil is reached, and turn into a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 239
mould which you have greased well and then coated with fine
crumbs. Press firmly into this, and set in the oven for one
minute before turning out upon a hot platter. It should be
just stiff enough to take the shape of the mould. Pass tomato
sauce and grated cheese with it.
CASSEROLE OF RICE.
Boil a cupful of rice in a pint of hot chicken-stock for twenty
minutes, or until tender and dry. Season with salt, pepper, and
onion-juice when half done. When dry, mound it upon a hot
dish, wash with beaten egg and strew with grated cheese, and
brown upon the upper grating of your oven. Send around mush-
room sauce with it.
RICE AND SAUSAGE.
Boil the rice twenty minutes, or until tender ; drain and dry
and mix with an equal quantity of sausage-meat which has been
boiled in water enough to cover it. Season this liquor with a
quarter-spoonful of chopped garlic not onion add a pinch of
allspice and a tablespoonful of walnut- or mushroom-catsup, and
wet up the sausage and rice mixture with it. Press firmly into
a bowl and turn out upon a hot dish. Garnish with fried calf's
brains, or eat with roast veal.
This is a Russian dish and better than it sounds, especially in
winter.
MACARONI.
MACARONI AU GRATIN.
Break half a pound of macaroni into inch lengths. Make a
weak broth by diluting the remains of yesterday's soup with hot
water, and straining it. When it boils, season well and put in
the macaroni. Cook until tender, but not broken. Drain off
all but half a cupful of the liquor; put the hot macaroni upon a
stone-china dish; stir a good piece of butter through it; sift
over it a mixture of grated cheese and fine bread-crumbs. Set
upon the upper grating of the oven to brown,
240 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MACARONI DI LUCCA.
Break half a pound of pipe macaroni into two-inch lengths.
Cook fast in boiling, salted water for twenty minutes, or until
clear, but not broken. Then drain and rinse quickly in cold
water to prevent the pieces from adhering to one another.
Butter a bake-dish, and cover the bottom with macaroni, salt,
drop bits of butter here and there with a slight sprinkling
of cayenne, and cover with Parmesan cheese. Fill the dish in
this order, having a cheese-layer on top.
Have ready in a saucepan a cupful of hot milk, and melt in
it a teaspoonful of butter, a saltspoonful of English mustard, and
a little pepper and salt. Cover the macaroni with it, put a lid
over the dish, and bake, covered, half an hour; then brown.
Serve in the dish.
This is a genuine Italian recipe.
MACARONI IN SPANISH STYLE.
Boil half a pound of macaroni in salted water until clear ;
drain and rinse in cold water in which has been mixed a table-
spoonful of vinegar. Lay the sticks of boiled macaroni upon a
board in parallel rows, and with a sharp knife cut all into pieces
of equal length, about five inches long.
In another saucepan have ready, heated, a cupful of mutton or
lamb or chicken gravy, a teaspoonful of grated onion, a cupful of
strained tomato, a green pepper, chopped fine, a teaspoonful of
sugar, salt and cayenne to taste, and a dust of nutmeg. Put
in the macaroni, simmer slowly for half an hour and pour into
a hot dish which has been rubbed with a freshly cut clove of
garlic.
SPAGHETTI (PLAIN).
Break half a pound of spaghetti into pieces of equal length
and boil twenty minutes fast in plenty of salted water. Drain
off the water, rinse the spaghetti in cold water, and return to
the fire with enough cold milk to cover it. Stir in a table-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 241
spoonful of b itter for each cupful of spaghetti, season with
pepper and salt, and cook gently for ten minutes more. Stir
in, then, three tablespoonfuls of grated cheese and turn into a
deep dish.
MACARONI AND HAM.
Boil half a pound of macaroni tender in hot, salted water.
Drain and rinse in cold water and cut into inch lengths. Make
a roux of a tablespoonful of flour, stirred smooth, in one of hot
butter over the fire ; thin with a cupful of scalding milk, heated,
with a bit of soda to prevent curdling. Put into this the maca-
roni, and a cupful of cold, boiled ham, minced fine and seasoned
with a saltspoonful of dry mustard and a dash of cayenne. Lastly,
stir in a well-beaten egg. Pour the mixture into a buttered bake-
dish, sift cracker-crumbs and grated cheese over all, and cook,
covered, in a steady oven, half an hour. Uncover and brown.
BAKED MACARONI AND TOMATO.
An Italian Recipe.
Boil half a pound of macaroni twenty minutes, or until tender ;
drain and rinse quickly in cold water ; lay it out upon a board
and with a sharp knife cut into inch lengths. Butter a bake-
dish and cover the bottom with macaroni ; season with bits of
butter, paprica, salt, a few drops of onion-juice, and scatter over
it a large spoonful of Parmesan cheese. Upon this lay a stratum
of stewed, seasoned, and strained tomatoes, then more macaroni,
and so on, until the dish is full. Cover with the tomato sauce,
and sift fine crumbs over all with bits of butter on top. You
will need a cupful of the sauce for this dishful. Bake, covered,
half an hour, then brown.
SAUCE FOR THE ABOVE.
Stew a cupful of chopped tomatoes with a teaspoonful of grated
onion and half a teaspoonful of mixed cloves and mace (ground).
Make a brown roux of a tablespoonful of butter and the same of
flour; when it is smooth add the stewed tomatoes, cook one
16
242 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
minute, and rub them through a colander. Turn the macaroni
upside down upon a deep dish, pour the sauce over it, leave it in
the oven for a moment and serve. Send around grated cheese
with it.
STEWED MACARONI A LA TURQUE.
Break half a pound of macaroni into two-inch lengths; boil in
hot, salted water twenty minutes, or until clear; drain, rinse in
cold water, and spread upon a dish to cool, separating the tubes
that they may not stick together. Have ready a cupful of stewed
and strained tomatoes, seasoned with butter, sugar, paprica, and
salt. When cooked and strained add three tablespoonfuls of
pine-nuts, or, if you cannot get them, of almonds, blanched and
chopped. Cook five minutes after it reaches the boil, stir in
three tablespoonfuls of consomme or of strong stock and the
macaroni. Bring slowly to a gentle boil, and as soon as it begins,
take up and dish.
Pass grated cheese with it. You can serve it as a vegetable
with roast beef, or make a separate course of it, as in the for-
eign restaurants.
Spaghetti is nice when prepared in the same way.
SPAGHETTI AND SWEETBREAD TIMBALES.
Boil, drain, and rinse spaghetti without cutting it into short
pieces, and spread it out at length upon a dish or clean board
to cool. Butter or oil some timbale-moulds or nappies, and
when the spaghetti is cold, line these with it, beginning in the
centre of the bottom and winding the spaghetti neatly and
closely around and around until the top is reached. Do this
deftly and patiently, joining closely when a single piece is not
enough to line the whole cup. A little practice will enable you
to do it well. When the mould is lined, dust with paprica or
with cayenne, and with salt. Have at hand sweetbreads that
have been boiled, blanched, chopped, and seasoned with salt,
pepper, and a few drops of onion-juice, then moistened with a
rich white sauce. Fill the lined cups or moulds with this, cover
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 243
with a close coil of spaghetti, and cook twenty-five minutes in a
pan of boiling water set in a hot oven. Keep the timbales
covered for twenty minutes. Or, you may steam them for three-
quarters of an hour.
Dip each mould for an instant in ice-cold water, and turn out
the timbales upon individual plates, made very hot. Serve with
a rich gravy, or with mushroom or tomato sauce.
SPAGHETTI AND MUSHROOM TIMBALES
are made exactly as in the last recipe, substituting mushrooms
for the sweetbreads.
In fact chicken, oysters, turkey, salmon almost any well-
prepared filling may be used instead of either of these materials.
This is a pretty company entree.
GREEN CORN.
BOILED CORN.
Husk, clearing the ear of every strand of silk, and trim off
stem and top neatly. Boil in hot water until the milk does not
escape when a grain is penetrated by the nail. Fifteen or twenty
minutes, according to the age of the corn, will be enough.
Drain, sprinkle the corn with salt, and serve upon a hot napkin
laid upon a platter. Fold the corners of the napkin over the
corn.
STEWED CORN.
Husk and clean the corn, and leave it in cold water for fifteen
minutes. With a sharp knife split each row of grains all the
way down from stem to tip of the ear; then shave, rather
than cut, them off down to the cob. Cover with hot water in
a saucepan, and stew slowly for twenty minutes. Stir in a table-
spoonful of butter for a pint of corn ; pepper and salt and
serve.
244
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
STEWED CORN AND TOMATOES.
Cook as in last recipe, and when the corn has simmered five
minutes add a cupful of chopped tomatoes (peeled). Cook
twenty minutes longer after the boil recommences, season and
serve. If there is much liquid in the stew, roll the butter in flour
before adding it, and boil a minute more than if the flour were
not used.
CORN FRITTERS.
Two cupfuls of grated green corn ; two eggs ; one cupful of
milk; a pinch of soda; salt and pepper to taste ; one tablespoon-
ful of melted butter ; two tablespoonfuls of flour. Mix and fry
as you would griddle-cakes, and send in hot, in acceptable relays.
SUCCOTASH.
Six ears of corn ; one pint of string-beans, trimmed and cut
into short pieces ; one tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour ; one
cupful of milk ; pepper and salt. Cut the corn from the cob,
bruising as little as possible. Put over the fire with the beans in
enough hot water, salted, to cover them, and stew gently half an
hour. Turn off nearly all the water and add a cupful of milk.
Simmer in this, stirring to prevent burning, twenty minutes;
add the floured butter, the pepper and salt, and stew ten
minutes. Serve in a deep dish.
CANNED CORN
may be used satisfactorily in most dishes that call for green
corn. If, before cooking it, the contents of the can be turned
into a fine colander, and cold water poured over it to wash off
the liquor in which it was preserved, the taste will be cleaner and
sweeter. Like all other " canned goods " corn should be opened
and poured out upon an open dish for some hours before it is
used to get rid of the close, smoky flavor and smell.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 245
TOMATOES.
STEWED TOMATOES.
Pour boiling water upon tomatoes to loosen their skins, and
peel them. Slice, or cut into dice, and cook in a porcelain or
agate-iron saucepan for twenty minutes. Drain off the superflu-
ous liquid, pepper and salt it and keep for sauces, stews, and
soups. Stir into the hot tomatoes, for each quart, a tablespoon-
ful of butter rolled in corn-starch or in fine cracker-dust, a tea-
spoonful each of salt and of pepper, and a half teaspoonful of
grated onion. Cook three minutes longer and serve.
TOMATOES AU GRATESL
One quart fine, smooth tomatoes ; one cupful bread-crumbs ;
one small onion, minced fine ; one teaspoonful white sugar ; two
tablespoonfuls butter melted ; cayenne and salt. Cut a piece
from the top of each tomato. Scoop out the inside, leaving a
hollow shell. Chop the pulp fine, mix with the crumbs, butter,
sugar, pepper, salt, and onion. Fill the cavities of the tomatoes
with this stuffing, heaping and rounding each ; scatter fine
crumbs on the top, and arrange in a bake-dish. Set the dish,
covered, in an oven, and bake half an hour before uncovering,
after which brown lightly, and send to table on a hot platter.
BROILED TOMATOES WITH SAUCE.
Six fine, firm tomatoes, pared and sliced nearly half an
inch thick ; yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, pounded ; three
tablespoonfuls of melted butter and same of vinegar ; two raw
eggs, beaten light ; one teaspoonful of sugar and half as much,
each, of made mustard and salt ; a pinch of cayenne. Rub but-
ter, pounded yolks, pepper, salt, mustard, and sugar together.
Beat "hard, add vinegar, and heat to a boil. Put this gradually
upon the beaten eggs and whip to a smooth cream. Set in hot
water while you broil the tomatoes in an oyster -broiler over clear
246 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
coals. Lay this upon a hot-water dish and pour the scalding
dressing upon them.
You may substitute a simpler sauce for this dressing, such as
maitre # hotel sauce, or one made by beating two teaspoonfuls of
lemon-juice in three tablespoonfuls of butter, and seasoning this
with a little mustard or cayenne.
SCALLOPED TOMATOES. (No. J.)
Butter a bake-dish and cover the bottom with fine, dry crumbs.
Next put a layer of sliced and peeled tomatoes ; season with pep-
per, salt, sugar, butter, and a few drops of onion-juice. More
crumbs and more tomatoes until the dish is full. The top layer
should be crumbs, peppered, salted, and buttered. Bake half an
hour, covered. Uncover and brown.
If canned tomatoes are used, drain off half the juice before you
begin the scallop, or it will be too watery. Season the liquor
and save for sauces and soups.
SCALLOPED TOMATOES. (No. 2.)
Peel and slice tomatoes. Chop fine two slices of fat salt pork
and a small onion. Place a layer of tomatoes in a pudding-dish,
pepper and salt lightly, sprinkle with a very little sugar and with
the pork and onion. Cover with crumbs and continue using the
ingredients in this order until the dish is full. Have the top
layer of crumbs. Bake, covered, half an hour, then uncover and
brown ten minutes. Serve in the dish in which they were
baked.
BAKED TOMATOES. (No. J.)
Peel with a sharp knife. Cut a piece from the top and gouge
out most of the pulp, leaving the walls intact. Season what you
have removed with pepper, salt, sugar, a few drops of onion-juice,
and twice as much salad oil when you have chopped the pulp
rather coarsely. Put it back into the tomatoes, replace the top,
sprinkle with oil, paprica, and salt, and arrange upon a baking-
pan. Bake, covered, for twenty minutes, and uncovered for five,
and serve upon buttered Graham-bread toast.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 247
BAKED TOMATOES. (No. 2.)
Peel and cut the tomatoes into halves. Have two tablespoon-
fuls of salad oil hot in a frying-pan and lay the halved tomatoes
in this, turning them over cautiously when they have cooked
for one minute, that they may be equally coated with the hot
fat. Take them up, without breaking, and arrange them close
together in a bake-dish. For six tomatoes, chop half a small
clove of garlic there should not be more than half a salt-
spoonful and allow two tablespoonfuls of oil, a tablespoon ful of
minced parsley, a dash of paprica, and half a teaspoonful of salt.
Mix this sauce well, pour over the tomatoes in the dish, cover,
and bake for twenty minutes. Uncover and cook for five min-
utes longer.
Serve in the bake-dish. This is a German recipe, and a good
one. Serve with roast mutton.
CREAMED TOMATOES.
Cut six firm tomatoes into thick slices and saute them in two
tablespoonfuls of butter three or four minutes, until they are
tender. Stir in then a cupful of hot cream or milk in which has
been mixed a tablespoonful of flour. Stir over the fire until the
sauce thickens well and serve.
They are very good.
STUFFED TOMATOES. (No. J.)
Wash and wipe, but do not peel, fine, smooth tomatoes. Cut
a piece from the top of each, dig out most of the pulp and re-
place it by a force-meat of cold chicken or ham, seasoned with
salt, pepper, sugar, and a little onion-juice. Pack the tomatoes
with this, replace the tops and put into a baking-pan close to-
gether. Fill the interstices with fine bread-crumbs, peppered,
salted, and buttered, and pour over them a cupful of chicken-
stock or consomme. Cover and bake half an hour.
Take up the tomatoes and dish on a hot platter, add to the
248 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
gravy left in the pan half a cupful of cream or milk in which
has been dissolved a bit of soda. Heat to a boil and pour over
the tomatoes.
STUFFED TOMATOES. (No. 2.)
Cut the tops off fine, large tomatoes and scoop out the inside,
taking care not to break the outer skin. Mince what you have
removed fine, add to it as much bread-crumbs, season to taste
with salt, pepper, sugar, and a little butter, and refill the shells.
Replace the tops, and if there is any stuffing left, put it between
the tomatoes as they are placed side by side in a pudding-dish.
Cover closely and bake half an hour. Uncover and brown.
TOMATOES WITH SAUCE PIQUANTE.
Wash and wipe, but do not peel. Cut into slices half an
inch in thickness, and saute in boiling oil for three minutes be-
fore turning. Turn and cook three minutes longer, dish, and
put upon each a small teaspoonful of sauce made by whipping
butter and lemon-juice to a cream, then adding salt and paprica
or black pepper.
CURRIED TOMATOES.
Cook half a teaspoonful of grated onion in two tablespoonfuls
of butter, and when it has simmered two minutes stir in a tea-
spoonful of curry-powder. Cut tomatoes into thick slices and
saute in this mixture. Sprinkle with salt and serve.
Pass them with cold meat or with fish, and serve plain boiled
rice with them.
CALCUTTA CURRY OF TOMATOES. 1
Peel and slice a quart of tomatoes and put a layer of them in
the bottom of a deep bake-dish, or bowl. Season with salt,
butter, sugar, and a sprinkle of curry-powder, allowing a tea-
spoonful for the whole dish. Upon the tomatoes put a layer of
uncooked rice, allowing a scant cupful to the quart of tomatoes.
Cover the rice with sliced okras, of which you should have two
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 249
dozen. Sprinkle these with salt, cayenne, and bits of butter.
Proceed in this way until the materials are all used up. You
may, if you like, cover the top with fine crumbs, but they are
not included in the East Indian recipe. Scatter bits of butter
plentifully over the whole, cover tightly, and bake steadily over
an hour. Serve in the dish or bowl.
FRIED TOMATOES IN BATTER.
A nice side-dish is made by dipping slices of ripe tomatoes
into a batter made of flour, milk, and an egg, and then frying
them a delicate brown.
FRIED TOMATOES (PLAIN).
Wash and wipe, but do not peel, the tomatoes. Slice, dust
each piece with paprica, salt, and sugar, sprinkle with a few
drops of onion-juice ; dip in fine corn-meal, and fry in deep, hot
cottolene, as you would fritters. Serve dry with fish or with
chops.
DEVILED TOMATOES.
Fine, firm tomatoes about a quart ; three hard-boiled eggs
the yolks only ; three tablespoon fu Is of melted butter ; three table-
spoonfuls of vinegar ; two raw eggs, whipped light ; oneteaspoon-
ful of powdered sugar ; one saltspoonful of salt ; one teaspoonful of
made mustard ; a good pinch of cayenne pepper. Pound the boiled
yolks ; rub in the butter and seasoning. Beat light, add the
vinegar, and heat almost to a boil. Stir in the beaten egg until
the mixture begins to thicken. Set in hot water while you cut
the tomatoes in slices nearly half an inch thick. Broil over a
clear fire upon a wire oyster-broiler. Lay on a hot-water dish,
and pour the hot sauce over them.
EAST INDIAN RAGOUT OF TOMATOES.
Break the shell of a cocoanut, saving the milk if it be sweet.
Grate the meat when you have taken off the brown skin. Heat
the milk and pour it over the grated cocoanut. (If the milk be
250 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
not sweet use a cupful of boiling water, slightly sweetened with
loaf-sugar.) Set aside, covered, until perfectly cold, then strain
through a muslin bag, squeezing out every drop of liquid. Peel
and cut up fine enough firm tomatoes to make two cupfuls ; add
a large green pepper, chopped, a tiny pinch of chopped garlic, a
tablespoonful of grated onion, and stew gently for twenty minutes.
Add then a teaspoonful of curry and draw to the side of the
range, while you heat the cocoanut-milk and thin with it a roux
of one tablespoonful of flour, stirred smooth into a larger spoon-
ful of boiling butter. Season with salt to taste, pour all together
in a deep dish, stir in a quarter -teaspoonful of soda, and serve
while frothing.
It will be relished by the lovers of highly seasoned sauces and
stews. Eat with roast, or boiled chicken, or with fish.
PEASE.
GREEN PEASE.
Shell and wash ; put them in slightly salted boiling water, and
cook them in this for twenty-five minutes. Drain well, turn into
a hot dish, put a lump of butter the size of an egg upon them
and a little pepper and salt.
CANNED PEASE.
Drain and leave in cold water for ten minutes, put on in
salted boiling water, cook fifteen minutes ; drop in a lump of
white sugar and a small sprig of mint, and cook five minutes
longer.
Drain, butter, pepper and salt, and serve.
PUREE OF GREEN PEASE.
Shell half a peck of pease and set them in a cold place while
you boil the pods for twenty minutes in just enough hot, salted
water to cover them. Strain them ; return the water to the fire
with the pease and a sprig of mint, and boil until they are soft
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
enough to rub through a colander. When you have pressed all
through that will go, stir into them a cupful of the water in
which they were cooked, season with pepper and salt and put
back into the colander. As they begin to simmer stir in a
roux of one tablespoonful of flour, cooked for three minutes in
two tablespoonfuls of butter, cook one minute, take from the
fire and add three tablespoonfuls of cream, that have been heated
with a tiny bit of soda. Pour upon squares of fried bread laid
on a hot platter.
PLAIN PUREE OF GREEN PEASE.
Boil and rub a quart of pease through a colander, or pass them
through a vegetable -press. Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a
saucepan with pepper, paprica, or a dash of cayenne, half a tea-
spoonful of sugar, and three mint leaves, finely minced. Stir in
the pulped pease and toss and stir with a silver fork until they
are very hot. Pile upon a hot platter and lay triangles of fried
bread about the base.
GREEN-PEA PANCAKES.
Two cupfuls of green pease left over from dinner, or boiled ex-
pressly for this dish, mashed while hot, and rubbed through a
colander. Season with pepper, salt, and butter to taste ; let
them get cold ; then add two beaten eggs and a cupful of milk.
Sift half a teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder twice
through half a cupful of flour, and beat in lightly at the last.
Mix well and bake as you would griddle-cakes. Eat hot.
LIMA BEANS.
After shelling, cook about half an hour in boiling water with
a little salt. Drain dry, and after dishing stir in a lump of but-
ter half the size of an egg and pepper and salt to taste.
LIMA BEANS (STEWED)/
Shell a quart of beans, and boil tender in hot, salted water.
Drain, add four tablespoonfuls of hot milk, in which has been
252 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
melted a tablespoonful of butter rolled in a teaspoon ful of flour.
Simmer for five minutes, season with pepper and salt, and serve.
KIDNEY BEANS.
If fresh, cook them as you would Lima beans. If dried, soak
overnight, and put over the fire in the morning in salted boiling
water, and cook gently one hour, or until soft, but not broken.
Drain, stir in pepper, salt, and a lump of butter, and serve.
KIDNEY BEANS A LA LYONNAISE.
Soak overnight and boil tender, but not until they break ;
drain perfectly dry, throw in a little salt, and leave over an
empty pot in the colander at the side of the range, as you would
potatoes, to "dry off." Have ready in a frying-pan a great
spoonful of clarified dripping (that from roast beef is best), with
half a small onion, grated, and a little chopped parsley. Salt and
pepper to taste, and when hissing hot put in the beans. Shake
over the fire about two minutes, until the contents of the pan are
well mixed, and as hot as may be without scorching, then serve.
"BLACK-EYED PEASE "
are really a species of bean, although known at the South,
where they are abundant, by the name given above. They are
boiled always with a bit of fat bacon, to give them richness.
Drain well, pepper, salt, and serve with the bacon on the top of
the pease.
Or
After they are boiled they are drained and turned into a fry-
ing-pan in which slices of fat bacon have been cooked and then
taken out, leaving the fat in the pan. Saute the pease in this
until dry, hot, and well-seasoned by the fat. Serve dry, and lay
the fried bacon on or about the pease.
Dried black-eyed pease must be soaked overnight.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 253
CAULIFLOWER.
BOILED CAULIFLOWER.
Boil the cauliflower, tied in a net, in plenty of hot, salted water,
in which has been stirred a tablespoonful of vinegar. When
done, drain and dish, the flower upward. Pour over it a cupful of
drawn butter seasoned with lemon-juice, pepper, and salt. Serve
very hot.
BOILED CAULIFLOWER WITH TOMATO SAUCE.
Cook as directed in last recipe, but when dished pour over it,
instead of the white sauce, a cupful of strained tomato sauce, sea-
soned with butter, sugar, salt, and paprica.
CAULIFLOWER (PARISIAN STYLE).
Boil a good-sized cauliflower until tender, chop it coarsely, and
press it hard in a bowl or mould, so that it will keep its form
when turned out. Put the shape thus made upon a dish that
will stand the heat, and pour over it a tomato sauce. Make this
by cooking together a tablespoonful of butter and flour in a
saucepan, and pouring upon them a pint of strained tomator
juice in which half an onion has been stewed. Stir until smooth,
and thicken still more by the addition of three or four tablespoon-
fuls of cracker-dust. Salt to taste, turn the sauce over the
moulded cauliflower, set it in the oven for about ten minutes,
and serve in the dish in which it is cooked.
CAULIFLOWER AU GRATIN.
An Italian Recipe.
Boil in hot, salted water and divide into tiny clusters, a
flower ' ' or two on each. Butter a deep dish and put in a layer of
these, sprinkling with butter, salt, and pepper, and covering first
with Parmesan cheese, then with cracker-crumbs. Wet each
layer with milk, and fill the dish in this order, finishing with a
i i
254 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
layer of crumbs dotted with butter-bits, and dusted with cayenne.
Bake, covered, half an hour, then brown. Serve in the dish.
STEWED CAULIFLOWER A LA HOLLANDAISE.
Cut into large clusters of uniform size and stew tender in
weak stock or bouillon. (This may be utilized afterward for
soup.) Drain, butter, salt, and pepper, and pass with it drawn
butter, into which have been whipped the yolks of two raw
eggs.
This is a Dutch recipe and good.
BAKED CAULIFLOWER.
Cut into clusters and stew tender in boiling, salted water. Or,
if you have a couple of small cauliflowers, boil them whole and
dish together. Drain and lay in a bake-dish. Pour over it a
good white sauce (hot), sprinkle with grated cheese and paprica,
and bake, covered, twenty minutes.
It will be found very nice.
SPINACH.
GERMAN SPINACH.
Pick over a peck of spinach heedfully, removing all decayed
and withered leaves. Less than a peck will not make a dish
of fair size. Pick off the leaves, lay in cold water for half an
hour, and, without shaking off the wet, fill an agate-iron or
porcelain saucepan with them, adding no water. The wet
leaves will not scorch and will presently yield enough liquid to
cook themselves. Cover the saucepan to facilitate the process
and now and then stir up from the bottom. Bring slowly to
the boil, after which cook fast for fifteen minutes. The idea
prevalent in some kitchens that spinach should boil for, at least,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2$$
one hour, accounts partially for the ill-conditioned messes of-
ten dished under this name.
Salt the boiled spinach in the pot, turn into a colander to
drain, then into a chopping- tray, and mince it fine. Heat a
great spoonful of butter in a saucepan and make a roux of it
with a scant tablespoonful of flour. When they bubble togther
season with pepper and salt and stir in the spinach. Heat to
a boil, put in with the mixture four tablespoonfuls of cream,
and stir almost dry. Turn into a deep dish, or mound upon a
platter, and garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg, or triangles
of fried bread.
SPINACH IN A MOULD.
Pick over carefully, wash, clip off the stems, and put the leaves,
without water, in a saucepan over the fire. Boil fifteen minutes.
When done, drain, pressing out all the water. Chop fine,
put back into the saucepan with a piece of butter a large spoon-
ful for a good dish a little powdered sugar, salt and pepper to
taste. Stir and toss until very hot ; press hard into a mould
wet with hot water, and turn out with care upon a heated dish.
Lay round slices of hard-boiled eggs on the top.
FRENCH SPINACH.
Boil as directed in foregoing recipes, chop, heat with the roux,
and season with pepper and sajt. In place of the cream in the
German method, add the same quantity of white stock chicken
or veal adding half a saltspoonful of nutmeg or mace and an
even teaspoonful of sugar, with a pinch of grated lemon-peel.
This seasoning imparts an exquisite flavor to the vegetable.
SPINACH SOUFFLE.
Boil and chop a peck of spinach, and while hot stir in a table-
spoonful of butter and a beaten egg, salt, and nutmeg. Season
with a little sugar, pepper, and set away to get cold. When
256 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
you are ready for it, whip into the cold spinach two table-
spoonfuls of cream and the stiffened whites of three eggs. Pour
into a handsome bake-dish, sift a small teaspoonful of powdered
sugar on top, and bake in a hot oven ten minutes, covered, five
minutes when you have uncovered it. Send immediately to
table, as it soon falls.
It may be served as a separate course at a luncheon. Each
portion should be helped out upon a square of fried bread laid
upon each plate.
As the initiated will at once see, this is also a French recipe.
SPINACH BOILED PLAIN,
Wash a peck of spinach, pick the leaves from the stems, and,
without shaking off the wet, put them into an agate-iron or
porcelain saucepan. Set this in a pot of boiling water, cover
closely, and cook for fifteen minutes. Stir up well from the
bottom, then, and put into the saucepan a tablespoonful of hot
water in which has been dissolved half a saltspoonful of soda.
Beat in well, cover the pot, and cook ten minutes longer.
Drain the spinach in a colander without pressing it at first, sea-
soning with salt, pepper, butter, a little sugar, and half a tea-
spoonful of lemon-juice. Turn into a hot colander, press out
the remaining juice very gently not to bruise the spinach, and
serve on a heated platter. Cover with slices of hard-boiled egg,
and serve one with each portion of spinach. The soda gives a
fine green to this vegetable.
SPINACH A LA GENEVE.
Cook as directed in foregoing recipe, but mound upon a hot
platter and cover completely with the yolks of six hard-boiled
eggs rubbed to a powder, with a narrow border of the whites
minced fine at the lower and outer edge of the mound. The
effect is exceedingly pretty and the pounded egg is a pleasant
addition to the spinach.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ASPARAGUS.
BOILED ASPARAGUS.
Scrape the stalks and lay them in cold water for half an
hour ; tie into a rather loose bundle with soft string, and cook in
hot, salted water for half an hour.
It is no longer considered necessary to lay boiled asparagus
upon toast, many good judges of cooking preferring to serve it
without the sodden underpinning. If you are thus minded,
undo the string and arrange the stalks upon a hot dish. Pour
white or Hollandaise sauce over it, or pass this separately. Or
you may serve melted butter with it.
ASPARAGUS A LA VINAIGRETTE.
Boil as directed, and while the stalks are hot pour over them a
dressing made of three tablespoon fu Is of salad oil to one of vine-
gar, a teaspoonful of French mustard, a little salt and cayenne,
and a saltspoonful of sugar. Set away in a closely covered dish,
and when cold put upon the ice for some hours before serving.
It ranks among salads, but is a delicious accompaniment to cold
lamb or chicken on a hot day.
SCALLOPED ASPARAGUS.
Wash the asparagus and cut off the hard, woody part of the
stalks. Cut the tender part into inch lengths and parboil for ten
minutes in hot, salted water. Drain and put a layer of them in
a buttered? bake-dish. Scatter over this minced, hard-boiled eggs,
season with salt, pepper, and butter-bits, and go on thus until
the ingredients are used up. You need about four eggs to a
bunch of asparagus. Make a roux of a large tablespoonful of but-
ter and one of flour, and thin with a cupful of hot milk. Cook for
a minute, season with paprica, and pour over the asparagus, a
layer of which should be uppermost in the scallop; sift fine
crumbs over all with bits of butter stuck in it and grated
17
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
cheese upon this. Bake twenty minutes, covered, then brown
slightly.
ASPARAGUS TIPS.
Use for this dish only the delicate tips of asparagus, less than
two inches long. Boil in hot, salted water until tender; drain,
turn into a deep dish, pepper, salt, butter, and pour a good
white sauce over them half a cupful to one cupful of the tips.
ASPARAGUS PATES.
Cut rounds of stale bread an inch and a half thick. Press a
small cutter an inch deep into each, and dig out the inside,
leaving a round, saucer-like cavity. Butter these well and set
upon the grating of a hot oven to crisp and to color lightly. Fill
them with asparagus tips prepared as in the last recipe, and
serve hot.
This is a nice luncheon entree.
CABBAGE.
We have not time to enter into the discussion of the problem
why the laboring classes have taken upon trust the dogma that
potatoes and cabbage are especially adapted to their wants, and
may be drawn upon for daily strength for daily needs. While
more nutritious than the turnip, which carries a weight of ninety-
two per cent, of water into the human stomach, it has little to
boast of in the way of food for blood, brain, brawn, or bone.
Out of one hundred parts of constituent matter eighty -nine parts
of cabbage are water ; one and a fifth part albuminoids ; five and
an eighth sugar, starch, and gum ; next to nothing fat ; two parts
cellulose ; one and one half part minerals. The cousins-germ an
of English-born cabbage cauliflower and broccoli are some-
what richer in nutriment-values than itself.
Whether or not it is worth the time and strength of a rational
being to distend his stomach with so much to get so little is a
question the cabbage-loving reader must decide for himself.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2$$
BOILED CABBAGE.
Quarter a firm cabbage, take off the outer leaves, and cut out
the stalk. Wash thoroughly, keeping a sharp lookout for insects,
and put into a pot of boiling water in which have been dissolved
two teaspoonfuls of salt and a bit of carbonate of soda as large
as a filbert. Cook the cabbage fifteen minutes after the boil be-
gins again ; turn off the water and fill up with fresh from the
boiling tea-kettle ; drop in a teaspoonful of salt and cook ten
minutes longer. Turn into a colander, drain off all the water,
pressing until no more runs out. Chop the cabbage in a chop-
ping-tray, quickly ; stir in butter, salt, and pepper ; return to the
fire in a saucepan and stir until it is smoking hot, and dish.
Send around vinegar with it for those who like it.
CREAMED CABBAGE.
Cook as directed in last recipe, chop and turn into a sauce-
pan, and mix with it a sauce made of one tablespoonful of flour
stirred into one of hot butter until it bubbles, then thinned
with four tablespoonfuls of hot milk and seasoned with salt and
pepper. Cook one minute and dish.
SCALLOPED CABBAGE.
Cut a small cabbage into quarters, and boil tender in hot,
salted water. When perfectly cold chop and season with pepper
and a little butter. Beat up a raw egg and stir it in. Moisten
well with liquor from the beef-pot. Turn the mixture into a
greased bake-dish, and cover with fine bread-crumbs. Wet these
with pot-liquor and bake, covered, half an hour, then brown.
The time required to transform the homely farm fare of corned
beef and cabbage into a dinner to which no man need be
ashamed to invite his most honored guest will not transcend the
season usually given to cooking the plainer dish by forty-five
minutes. Perhaps half an hour would suffice.
26O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CABBAGE SCALLOPED WITH CHEESE.
A German Recipe.
Boil the cabbage in two waters, drain and chop fine. Make
a white sauce of one tablespoonful of flour stirred into two of
bubbling hot butter and thinned with a cupful of hot milk, and
seasoned with cayenne and salt with a pinch of nutmeg. Rub a
bake-dish with garlic, and butter it ; spread a layer of cabbage on
the bottom ; squeeze over it a little lemon-juice and less of onion-
juice ; cover with the white sauce and this with grated cheese.
Fill the dish in this order, and put over all fine bread-crumbs
dotted with butter and sprinkled lightly with cayenne. Bake,
covered, half an hour, and brown. Serve in the bake-dish.
STOCKHOLM STEWED CABBAGE.
Shred the cabbage while raw, as for sauerkraut, when you
have washed it well and laid it in cold water for half an hour.
Cover three inches deep in boiling salted water in which has
been dropped a bit of soda ; cook ten minutes after the boil be-
gins again ; turn off the water and cover with more from the
tea-kettle. Cook ten minutes in this and drain well. Return to
the saucepan with a cupful of hot milk, a tablespoonful of butter,
salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg, and stew until soft and
nearly dry. Heap upon a platter and garnish with boiled sau-
sages or balls of fried calf's brains.
This is a genuine Swedish recipe and not unpalatable.
CABBAGE AU MAITRE DTiOTEL.
Boil in two waters and let the cabbage get perfectly cold be-
fore chopping it. Season with paprica and salt, and stir the
chopped cabbage into a saucepan containing a cupful of hot
stock. Cook until heated through and almost dry, add a table-
spoonful of melted butter and the juice of a lemon, and dish.
This is an Alsatian recipe.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 26 1
HOT SLAW.
Shred a small, firm head of cabbage fine, put into a bowl and
pour over it a sauce made thus : Heat in a saucepan a cupful of
vinegar, and when hot add a tablespoonful each of butter and of
sugar, half a teaspoonful of made mustard, a saltspoonful of
salt, and the same of black or white pepper. When well mixed
with this the shred cabbage must be heated to scalding and
poured into a deep dish. Stir into it quickly two tablespoon-
fuls of sour cream, cover and set in hot water ten minutes before
serving.
CABBAGE SPROUTS OR YOUNG GREENS.
Wash, trim, and boil in hot water with a bit of streaked pork
two inches square. W T hen tender, drain, season with pepper
and salt, and mince quickly, lest they get cold. Stir in a tea-
spoonful of melted butter and two tablespoon fu Is of vinegar, and
serve. Slice the pork and lay about the greens.
SEAKALE.
An excellent green that deserves to be better known may be
cooked according to the foregoing recipe, or without pork.
BROCCOLL
Wash and leave in cold water, slightly salted, for one hour.
Cook in boiling salted water for fifteen minutes, or until tender.
Drain very dry, season with salt and pepper, and dish. Pour
over it two tablespoon fuls of melted butter (for two cupfuls of
broccoli) in which has been stirred the juice of half a lemon.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
are cooked in the same way.
KOHLRABL
Boil tender in two waters, salting both, and putting into the
second a tablespoonful of vinegar. Peel off the outer skin, pep-
262 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
per and salt, and serve with white sauce or drawn butter, with the
juice of a lemon stirred into it, poured over the kohlrabi.
ONIONS.
That onions " have a feeding value superior to that of white
turnips ' ' hardly reassures those of us who had classed them
among our most nutritious vegetables until we see them tabu-
lated as bearing ninety-one per cent, of water. The proportion
of mucilage, pectose, and sugar is, however, four and one-eighth
parts, and they have two per cent, of cellulose matter. They
also contain a minute portion of sulphur, represented by their
pungent odor. " The bulb is commonly regarded as a mere
flavorer," writes an English analyst of its properties. In this ca-
pacity <<no family should be without it," and as experience
gratefully attests, the bulbs, when judiciously cooked, sit lightly
upon the digestive organs.
BOILED ONIONS.
Peel and lay them in cold water for half an hour ; then boil
tender in two waters, hot and salted. Drain, pepper and salt, and
cover with a white sauce.
YOUNG ONIONS (STEWED).
They should vary in size from a filbert to a hickory-nut. Cut
off the stalks, skin, wash, and put over the fire in hot, salted
water. Cook twenty minutes in this, drain, and return to the
saucepan with a cupful of hot milk in which has been dissolved a
tiny bit of soda. Stir in, presently, a tablespoonful of butter
rolled in as much flour, and stew gently until the sauce thick-
ens well.
Cooked thus, they are delicious and easily digested. Always
boil onions in an open saucepan. The smell will be much less
offensive than when cooked in a covered vessel. A bit of clean
charcoal, tied in a rag, put into the first water, also lessens this
nuisance, and a cupful of vinegar boiling beside them on the range
is said further to mitigate it.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 26$
BAKED ONIONS,
A Norwegian Recipe.
Cook tender in two waters the second salted and boiling.
Drain well, pressing each onion in a coarse cloth, gently, not to
break it, and when they are dry, lay all together, side by
side, in a bake-pan. Pepper, salt, and butter, and add a cupful
of stock. Brown in a quick oven ; take out the onions and keep
them hot in a deep dish while you thicken the gravy left in the
pan with browned flour. Pour over the onions, set in the oven
for two minutes, and serve.
BERMUDA ONIONS (STUFFED).
Peel large Bermuda or Spanish onions, and parboil them for
ten minutes. Drain, and let them get perfectly cold. With a
sharp knife dig out the centre from each and fill with a force-
meat of minced meat, veal, ham, or chicken, well seasoned, and
mixed with one-third as much fine crumbs. Season with salt and
cayenne and a little butter. Set the stuffed onions close to-
gether in a dish, fill the interstices with crumbs, and scatter more
over the top. Pour about them enough weak stock to keep them
from burning about an inch in the bottom of the dish will do
and cook, covered, half an hour. Uncover and brown lightly.
Onion-lovers will find this very palatable.
BEETS.
You cannot be too careful, in preparing beets for cooking, not
to cut or even scratch the skins. If this accident occurs they
will bleed themselves white in the water and lose flavor and crisp-
ness with their complexions.
YOUNG BOILED BEETS,
After washing them, boil three-quarters of an hour, scrape,
slice, and pour over them a tablespoonful of butter, two of vine-
gar, and a little pepper and salt.
264 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
OLD BEETS (BOILED).
Wash and cook in hot, salted water from two to three hours,
according to age and size. Throw at once into cold water when
done, to loosen the skins ; peel quickly, slice thin, dish, and
pour over them a sauce made of three tablespoon fuls of scalding
vinegar, a tablespoonful of butter, and a little pepper and salt.
Serve hot.
" Left-overs " of beets should be kept for salad and for gar-
nishes.
BEET-TOPS.
A German Recipe.
Cut half a pound of cold boiled ham into dice and fry in a
little salad oil with half a grated onion. Add two tablespoonfuls
of hot vinegar and set in hot water while you wash, pick over,
and boil the greens in hot, salted water. Fifteen minutes should
make them tender. Chop fine, drain well, and mix with the
fried ham and vinegar. Dish hot, with poached eggs on top of
the greens.
BEET GREENS.
An English Recipe.
Choose two quarts of very tender, young beet-tops. Wash
and pick them apart. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter in a
saucepan ; put in the beet-tops, cover closely, and cook twenty
minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching. They should be
very tender. Turn into a hot dish, season with pepper and salt,
and cover all over with slices of hard-boiled eggs.
DANDELION GREENS.
Pick over, wash, and boil in hot, salted water. Drain when
tender, chop, and season with salt, pepper, butter, and a table-
spoonful of vinegar, or the juice of half a lemon. Serve hot.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 26$
CUCUMBERS*
"The fruit contains little besides water, some grape-sugar,
and a trace of volatile flavoring water." Thus a distinguished
dietetist. Cucumbers are by him tabulated as containing
ninety -six parts of water and two parts of sugar (glucose). The
other constituents are put down in fractions.
Nevertheless, millions of people find them toothsome and re-
freshing, and perhaps one-half the number maintain that the
" fruit " does not disagree with them. This latter item of testi-
mony would be more general if cucumbers were eaten fresh and
were sometimes cooked, instead of always appearing upon their
tables raw.
STEWED CUCUMBERS.
Peel and quarter six cucumbers and lay them in ice-cold water
for fifteen minutes. (Do not salt the water.) Then put them into
a shallow saucepan ; cover with boiling water and cook slowly for
half an hour. Drain, without pressing, leaving the quarters
whole; transfer daintily to a heated platter and cover with a
maltre d' hotel sauce (see Sauces). Eat hot.
STUFFED CUCUMBERS.
Cut full-grown cucumbers of uniform size into halves and re-
move the seeds. Fill the halves with a force-meat of minced
chicken, or veal, or lamb, or fish, mixed with one-third the
quantity of fine crumbs, seasoned with salt, butter, and cayenne.
Place two filled halves carefully together, bind in place with soft
string ; lay the cucumbers in a bake-pan and just cover with
good stock. Cover and cook tender in a moderate oven. One
hour should do this. Clip the strings, lay the cucumbers in a
hot dish, and keep them warm over boiling water, while you
thicken the pan-gravy with a roux of browned flour, boiling
up once. Pour about the cucumbers and serve.
266 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
This is a popular Syrian dish, and is much liked by tourists.
Vegetable marrows are prepared in like manner by native cooks.
STUFFED CUCUMBERS WITH TOMATO SAUCE.
Prepare as directed in the last recipe, but stir into the pan-
gravy a cupful of strained and seasoned tomato sauce with the
roux.
FRIED CUCUMBERS.
Pare, cut into slices nearly half an inch thick. Lay in ice-
water for fifteen minutes. Wipe dry, dust with pepper and salt,
and flour, or dip into egg, then into cracker-dust and fry in deep,
hot cottolene. Drain, and serve hot and dry. Pass sliced
lemon with them, or mayonnaise dressing.
CUCUMBERS FRIED IN BATTER.
Pare six cucumbers and cut crosswise into slices half an inch
thick. Lay in ice-water while you make a batter of one cupful of
milk, one egg, well beaten, a saltspoonful of salt, half as much
paprica, and a heaping cupful of flour in which is sifted, twice,
the salt and a scant half-teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Pow-
der. Beat quickly to a light batter, dip the cucumber slices into
it, and drop, one at a time, into deep, hot cottolene. Cook as
you would doughnuts, and drain in a hot colander before serving.
DEVILED CUCUMBERS.
Fry as in recipe for Fried Cucumbers, and when all are done
heap upon a heated platter. Pour over them this sauce :
One cupful of strained hot tomato-juice; half a teaspoonful of
salt and the same of made mustard, a teaspoonful of sugar, a
pinch of cayenne, a dozen drops or so of onion-juice, a table-
spoonful of salad oil, and the juice of half a lemon. Heat all
together until scalding ; pour over the cucumbers and send to
table.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 267
CREAMED CUCUMBERS.
An English Recipe.
Pare the cucumbers, cut crosswise into half-inch slices, and
leave for half an hour in ice- water.
Cover them with boiling water and simmer fifteen minutes.
Drain and throw away this water, and just cover the cucumbers
with more, boiling hot, in which has been melted a tablespoonful
of butter. Salt and pepper, and keep hot in a pan of boiling
water until the sauce is ready.
Make a roux of one tablespoonful of butter heated and worked
smooth with one of flour, then thinned with a cupful of hot
cream, and seasoned with salt and cayenne. Line a hot platter
with slices of buttered toast, turn the cucumbers upon these,
squeeze the juice of half a lemon upon them, and pour the cream
sauce over all.
SCALLOPED CUCUMBERS. (No. J.)
Pare six full-grown cucumbers, and cut into dice half an inch
square. Butter a pudding-dish and put in a layer of the dice,
sprinkling with lemon- and with onion-juice. Cover with fine
crumbs seasoned with celery-salt, cayenne, or paprica, and but-
ter-bits. Fill the dish in this order, covering all with peppered,
salted, and buttered crumbs. Cover closely and bake one hour,
then brown. Pass a sauce piquante with it, and thin slices of
buttered brown bread.
SCALLOPED CUCUMBERS. (No. 2.)
Prepare as directed in last recipe, but instead of layers of
bread-crumbs, spread over each layer of seasoned bread-crumbs
this sauce :
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan and stir into it
one of flour. When it bubbles, thin with a cupful of hot cream
or rich milk. Let the sauce get cold before using. Cover the
top layer of sauce with fine crumbs, bake one hour, covered, then
brown.
268 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
LETTUCE.
Invaluable as it is in the realm of salads, it is not generally
known that it is palatable cooked. Besides the recipe for cream-
lettuce soup, we give here one that has found favor upon good
men's tables abroad, and of late in our country.
BOILED LETTUCE.
Wash firm heads of lettuce. Trim away wilted and coarse outer
leaves and cut the stalks close to the lowest leaves. Tie each
head up separately with a bit of tape or soft string, and lay close
together in a wide saucepan. Cover with good consomme, and
cook slowly, covered, for half an hour, or until the heads are
easily pierced by a straw. Take out with care, drain each head
separately in a colander without bruising, and lay upon a hot
platter. Keep hot while you stir a white roux into the pan-
gravy and boil up once. Pour over the "lettuce when you have
clipped and drawn out the strings.
STEAMED LETTUCE.
Pick apart two large heads of lettuce, wash well, and put into
a steamer over a kettle of hot water, or improvise a steamer by
help of a colander and a pot of boiling water. Cover closely
and keep in all jets of steam by further laying a thick folded
cloth upon the lid. Boil the water furiously for half an hour ;
lift the wilted lettuce and lay upon a hot dish. Sprinkle with
pepper and salt, and pour a sauce piquante over it.
SQUASH.
BOILED SQUASH.
Pare off the outer shell, take out the seeds, and cut into small
pieces. Boil in hot, salted water until tender. If young,
twenty minutes will do this ; a longer time is required for full-
grown squash. Drain well, rub through a vegetable-press, and
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 269
return to the saucepan. Mix with salt, pepper, and a tablespoon-
ful of butter made into a roux with a tablespoonful of flour. Stir
and beat for a whole minute, until you have a creamy, smoking
mass, and pour out. Squash cooked in this way is a very dif-
ferent thing from the watery stuff usually served under that name.
BAKED SQUASH.
Boil and mash the squash, stir in two teaspoonfuls of butter,
an egg, beaten light, a quarter of a cupful of milk, and pepper and
salt to taste. Fill a buttered pudding-dish with this, strew fine
bread-crumbs over the top and bake to a nice brown.
SQUASH FRITTERS.
To two cupfuls of cooked and creamed squash (cold) allow two
of milk, two eggs, a saltspoonful of salt, and half a cupful of flour
in which has been sifted half a teaspoonful of Cleveland's Bak-
ing Powder. There should be just enough flour to hold the
mixture together. Bake on a griddle as you would cakes, and
send to table hot.
EGG-PLANT*
FRIED EGG-PLANT. (No. J.)
Slice the egg-plant about half an inch thick, peeling the
slices. Lay them in salt and water for an hour, placing a plate
on them to keep them down. Wipe each slice dry, and dip
into a batter made of a beaten egg, a cupful of milk, half a cup-
ful of flour, and pepper and salt. Fry in boiling dripping and
serve on a hot dish, first draining off all the grease.
FRIED EGG-PLANT. (No. 2.)
Peel and slice the egg-plant at least half an inch thick ; pare
the pieces carefully and lay in salt and water, putting a plate
upon the topmost to keep it under the brine, and let them alone
270 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
for an hour or more. Wipe each slice, dip in beaten egg, then
in cracker-crumbs, and saute in hot fat until well done and nicely
browned.
BROILED EGG-PLANT.
Peel and cut into rather thin slices and lay in salted ice-water
for an hour; spread upon a soft towel and cover with another, pat-
ting and pressing the slices until they are entirely dry. Leave
them for ten minutes in a mixture of three tablespoonfuls of olive
oil and the juice of half a lemon ; sprinkle then with salt and
pepper, and broil quickly upon a wire broiler. Twelve minutes
should cook both sides.
STUFFED EGG-PLANT,
A Roman Recipe.
Parboil a good -sized egg-plant for ten minutes, and throw at
once into ice-cold salted water. Leave it there for an hour. It
should then be fine and plump. Cut into halves, lengthwise,
and scoop out seeds and pulp, leaving the walls half an inch
thick. Rub the pulp through a colander, add to it two table-
spoonfuls of minced chicken and the same of minced pine-nuts.
(If you cannot get them, use almonds blanched and chopped.)
Work in a saltspoonful of salt and half as much pepper, with two
tablespoonfuls of fine, dry crumbs. Fill the divided halves of
the egg-plant with this stuffing and bind them into the original
shape with soft string. Put into a bake-dish with two table-
spoonfuls of water and butter, or the same of stock ; cover
closely and bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. With-
draw the string carefully and dish.
You may, if you like, butter the hot egg-plant well when half-
done and sift fine crumbs over it, then brown lightly. It is a
handsome entree when this is done.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2jl
CARROTS.
Their chief use in the kitchen is in soup-making, braising, and
the like processes. In these nothing takes their place. They are
a wholesome esculent, containing no starch, eighty-nine parts
of water, four and a fifth of sugar, two and a fifth of pectose and
gum, two and one-third of cellulose, and one of mineral matter.
STEWED CARROTS.
Scrape and boil whole three-quarters of an hour, drain, and cut
into cubes half an inch square. Have ready in a saucepan
enough weak stock to cover the carrot-dice. Put them on in it
and cook twenty minutes, or until tender. Add then two
tablespoonfuls of milk, a tablespoonful of butter cut up in one of
flour, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer five minutes and serve.
YOUNG CARROTS A LA PARISffiNNE.
Boil for five minutes; take up and rub off the skins with a
coarse cloth. Return to the fire and cook until tender. Slice
lengthwise, making three pieces of a medium-sized carrot, two of
a small. Have hot in a frying-pan a tablespoonful of butter for
each cupful of the carrots, and when it bubbles lay in the slices.
Sautt on both sides, quickly, and just before taking them up
sprinkle with chopped parsley. Dish dry ; strew over them a
little white sugar, pepper, and salt, and serve very hot.
CREAMED YOUNG CARROTS.
Scald for five minutes and rub off the skins with a rough cloth.
Slice crosswise and thin. Heat in a saucepan a tablespoonful of
butter, two of hot water, salt and pepper to taste, and put in the
sliced carrots. Cook gently, covered, for half an hour. In
another saucepan heat four tablespoonfuls of cream and a tea-
spoonful of chopped parsley. When the mixture boils take from
272 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
the fire and pour upon the beaten yolks of two eggs. Stir up
well, pour over the carrots, cook one scant minute and dish.
This also is a French recipe.
CREAMED WINTER CARROTS.
Pare and boil full-grown carrots, tender ; let them get cold,
and with a potato-gouge cut into small balls like marbles. Make
a white roux of a tablespoonful of butter heated and stirred
smooth with one of flour, thin this with a cupful of hot milk, season
with pepper and salt, cook one minute, and add the carrot-balls.
Cook until they are heated through; throw in a little minced
parsley and serve.
CARROTS SAUTE.
Pare and cut into small cubes or dice. There should be two
cupfuls of these. Boil in hot, salted water for half an hour,
drain, and cover with a cupful of consomme or stock. Cook,
uncovered, and fast, until the stock has evaporated, but not
until the carrots break or scorch. Shake gently in a colander
and transfer to a frying-pan in which is hissing a tablespoonful
of butter. Shake the pan gently until the butter reaches all
cubes and dish.
The carrots will be savory and well flavored.
MASHED CARROTS.
Scrape, wash, cut into quarters, and lay in cold water for half
an hour, then boil tender in hot, salted water. Drain, rub
through' a colander, or a vegetable-press, beat in a good bit of
butter, pepper and salt to taste, whip light, and dish.
GREEN PEPPERS
are rapidly growing into favor with progressive housewives.
They should be full-grown when gathered, but not at all
reddened. In cutting them be careful to handle the seeds as
little as possible, lest you pay for your carelessness with sore and
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2/3
burning finger-tips. Use a small knife or a stick to extract
them. When they are out, the pepper is cool and sweet.
FRIED SWEET PEPPERS.
Cut open crosswise, extract the seeds, cut the peppers into slices,
lay in cold water for fifteen minutes, salt slightly, dust with flour
and fry in hot cottolene for five or six minutes. They are an
appetizing accompaniment to cold meat or to boiled fish.
STUFFED SWEET PEPPERS.
Make an incision in one side, and extract the seeds through
this with a bit of stick. Stuff with a force-meat of tongue,
chicken, ham, or veal, mixed up with boiled rice, and seasoned
with salt, a dash of onion-juice, and a little butter. Sew up the
peppers with a few stitches, pack them into a bake-dish, pour in
enough weak stock to keep them from burning, cover and bake
in a moderate oven for an hour, then dish, withdrawing the
strings. Keep hot while you add to the gravy in the dish a
tablespoonful of brown roux. Boil up once and pour over the
peppers. Should the gravy have boiled away too much, put in
a little boiling water to thin the roux.
This is a Syrian recipe and excellent.
GREEN PEPPERS AU GRATIN.
Cut the stem -end from a dozen peppers and dig out the seeds
with a penknife and a small spoon. Lay the peppers in cold
water for half an hour. Make a force-meat of half a cupful of cold
boiled rice and an equal quantity of cold minced chicken,
seasoned with salt and butter and wet with tomato-juice. Fill
the peppers with the mixture, heaping it up, stand them on end,
close together, in a deep dish, leaving off the stem-tops ; fill the
interstices with the force-meat and pour a good tomato sauce,
thickened with drawn butter, into the dish, leaving the upper part
of the peppers visible; sift fine crumbs over all, stick bits of but-
ter here and there, and cook, covered, one hour, then brown.
Serve in the bake-dish.
18
274 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PEPPER BASKETS.
A pretty luncheon dish is made of green peppers. Cut a
piece from the blossom -end of each and shave off the stem, so
that it will stand steadily upon a plate. Fill with hot minced
chicken or fish, seasoned with a mayonnaise or other piquante
dressing.
SALSIFY, OR OYSTER-PLANT.
SALSIFY FRITTERS.
One bunch of salsify ; two eggs ; half a cupful of milk ; flour
for thin batter ; dripping or cottolene ; salt to taste. Scrape
and grate the roots, and stir into a batter made of the beaten
eggs, the milk, and flour. Grate the salsify directly into this,
that it may not blacken by exposure to the air. Salt, and drop
a spoonful into the hot fat to see if it is of the right consistency.
As fast as you fry the fritters, throw into a hot colander to drain.
One great spoonful of batter should make a fritter.
STEWED SALSIFY.
Scrape a bunch of salsify and drop into cold water as you cut
it into inch lengths. Boil in hot, salted water until tender.
Drain this off, and pour into the saucepan with the salsify a cupful
of hot milk. Simmer five minutes, and stir in a tablespoonful
of butter and three tablespoonfuls of cracker- dust, with pepper
and salt. Stew gently for three minutes and dish.
FRIED SALSIFY.
Scrape and cut into short pieces, dropping them into cold
water as you go on. Boil tender in salted water, drain, and
while hot mash with a silver or wooden spoon, picking out
woody bits and seasoning with salt, pepper, and butter. Let
the salsify get cold, then wet with milk until you have a toler-
ably thick paste, beat in a whipped egg for each cupful of
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2?$
paste ; make with floured hands into round, flat cakes, flour, and
fry in hot fat to a light brown. Serve hot. They taste some-
what like fried oysters.
SALSIFY SAUTE.
Scrape and boil as above directed, drain dry ; cut the roots
into pieces two inches long ; heat two tablespoon fuls of butter
in a frying-pan, with a little pepper and salt, and put in the sal-
sify. Shake and toss for three minutes, but do not let the salsify
burn. Serve dry and hot.
PARSNIPS.
The parsnip is nutritious, containing less water and more
sugar and fat than the carrot, but the odd faint sweetness, com-
bined with a peculiar " tang " of flavoring, makes it unpleasant
to many people. The same qualities make it ineligible for sea-
soning in combination with other vegetables. If used in soup
or sauce it asserts itself disagreeably.
BUTTERED PARSNIPS.
Boil tender and scrape. Slice lengthwise and saute in a little
butter heated in a frying-pan and seasoned with pepper, salt, and
minced parsley. Shake and turn until the parsnips are well
coated and hot through. Dish, and pour the butter over them.
FRIED PARSNIPS.
Boil tender in salted, hot water ; let them get cold, scrape off
the skin and slice lengthwise. Pepper and salt, dredge with
flour, and fry in hot dripping to a light brown. Drain and
serve.
PARSNIP CAKES.
Wash, boil, and scrape the parsnips tender. While hot mash,
season with salt and pepper, and make with floured hands into
small, flat cakes. Flour well and fry in clarified dripping.
276 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CREAMED PARSNIPS,
Boil, scrape, and slice crosswise. Heat a tablespoonful of but-
ter in a saucepan ; put in the parsnips and shake and turn until
all are coated with the butter and very hot. Turn them into a
deep dish and pour over them a sauce made by adding to the
butter left in the saucepan a teaspoonful of flour and thinning it
with three or four tablespoonfuls of hot cream. Boil up once,
and when you have covered the parsnips with it, serve.
TURNIPS,
We hardly need the testimony of our dietetist and chemist to
inform us that " the turnip is very watery and contains but little
nourishment," but it may interest those who depend upon it to
build up the system, to learn that "turnips contain no more
than one-half per cent, of flesh-formers instead of the one per
cent, formerly assigned to them." Those who are studying anti-
fat foods may get a hint from the quotation.
YOUNG TURNIPS.
Peel and quarter. Cook half an hour, or until tender, but
not broken, in boiling, salted water. Drain, still without break-
ing, and dish. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, then butter
plentifully and serve.
Turnips must be served hot, or they are not fit to eat.
YOUNG TURNIPS (STEWED).
Peel and quarter, or slice. Boil fifteen minutes in hot, salted
water, drain and cover with a cupful of milk that has been
heated in a separate vessel with a tiny bit of soda. When they
simmer again stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in half as
much flour, pepper and salt to taste, and stew gently fifteen min-
utes more. Serve in a deep, covered dish, and very hot.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
YOUNG TURNIPS (FRIED).
Pare and slice crosswise a quarter of an inch thick. Lay in
ice-cold water half an hour, then cook tender, but not too soft,
in boiling water without salt. Drain, lay upon a soft cloth until
dry and lukewarm, sprinkle with pepper and salt, flour, and fry
in hot cottolene.
Or
Dip in beaten egg, then in cracker-dust, and fry.
MASHED TURNIPS.
Boil tender, drain, and mash in a colander, to get rid of the
superfluous water ; turn into a saucepan and stir until smoking-hot,
when pepper, salt, and stir in a roux of a tablespoonful of butter,
heated, then stirred smooth with one of flour. Heat and toss
one minute longer, and serve very hot.
PUREE OF TURNIPS.
Pare, slice, and cook tender in hot, salted water. Rub
through a colander into a saucepan, stir into it a roux, as in the
last recipe, pepper and salt, and add at the last a half cupful of
hot cream in which has been dissolved a bit of soda. Take from
the fire when it has boiled up once, and beat in a frothed egg.
After this it must not boil, but be set in boiling water for five
minutes, stirring up well now and then. Some people think this
savory accompaniment of boiled mutton improved by a few drops
of onion-juice.
TURNIPS AND CARROTS A LA PARISffiNNE.
Cut both vegetables into small balls like marbles with a
potato-gouge. Boil the balls tender, the carrots in one saucepan,
the turnips in another, drain and mix them in a deep dish.
Salt, pepper, and butter them well, or, if you like, cover them
with a good white sauce.
278 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ARTICHOKES*
" They have a delicate flavor and agreeable texture, but con-
tain little nutritive matter," says our Food Manual. Which said
agreeable texture and delicate flavor are appreciated by educated
palates. To others, both are obnoxious, and much practice is
required to learn to relish the dainty. For dainty it is esteemed
here as abroad, where it has long been in favor.
Familiarity with English, French, and Italian menus has made
the artichokes a fashionable entree at dinners and luncheons.
Sometimes, if large and fine, they command fifty cents each in
the New York markets.
BOILED ARTICHOKES.
Pare off the stems and the lower and coarser leaves. With a
sharp knife trim the tops evenly, and take out the hard core.
Wash and lay in cold water ten minutes. Shake off the wet and
cook in boiling, salted water for thirty-five minutes, or until the
bottoms are tender. If large, cut into halves ; if of moderate size,
serve whole with drawn butter or sauce piquante poured over
them.
FRIED ARTICHOKES.
The part to be cooked in this way is known as the fond in
French, in English as the " bottom."
Cut off the stalk leaves and scrape away the woolly " fuzz "
that covers the stalk. Boil tender in salted water ; drain and let
them get cold, and dry. Make a batter of four tablespoon fuls of
flour in which have been sifted a saltspoonful of salt and the same
quantity of Cleveland's Baking Powder, an egg and three table-
spoonfuls of milk. Salt and pepper the artichokes, dip into
the batter, and fry in hot, deep cottolene. Serve dry and
hot.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 279
BANANAS.
A ripe banana " is a nutritious food, containing less water and
more nitrogenous matter than is commonly found in fresh fruits,"
is the dictum of our expert. This is especially true of the large
red bananas, now, unfortunately, comparatively rare in our mar-
kets by comparison with the flood of the small yellow fruit best
known under the same name. In reality the yellow imitations are
plantains, and far inferior to those whose title they have stolen.
The recipes given herewith will apply to both kinds of bananas.
The yellow (or plantain) is bettered by cooking, being much
less wholesome raw than the more luscious red.
FRIED BANANAS.
Strip off the skins ; cut each banana (or plantain) into three
slices, and flour well. Saute in hot butter in a frying-pan, or fry
in deep fat. Drain dry and serve hot.
Or
Roll in egg, then in cracker-dust; set on ice for one hour and
fry in hot, deep cottolene.
BANANA CROQUETTES.
For this purpose select small, yellow bananas (or plantains) ;
strip off the skins and cut off the ends, so as to make them look
like croquettes ; pepper and salt, roll in egg, then in cracker-
crumbs, set on the ice for one hour to stiffen them, and fry
in hot, deep cottolene to a golden brown. Serve dry and hot.
They should accompany chicken or lamb, being a delicate
yet piquante vegetable, and unfit to attend roast beef or other
heavy meats.
BAKED BANANAS.
Tear down a narrow strip from each, and lay them, the torn
side upward, in a baking-pan. Cover and cook about half an
28O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
hour. Pare carefully and send to table with hot cream, in which
has been melted a little butter, poured over them.
CELERY*
Besides the aromatic taste and smell that have brought this
vegetable into universal favor in less than three quarters of a
century, celery has a distinct value as a nervine, and as such is
prescribed in certain cases as an article of diet by our best physi-
cians. The nutrient value is low but it is very nice.
CREAMED CELERY.
Cut into inch-long pieces. Cook tender in boiling, salted
water, drain this off, and cover with a cupful of hot milk (half
cream, if you have it) in which has been stirred a tablespoonful
of white roux. Simmer five minutes and serve.
SAVORY CELERY.
Select the whitest and tenderest stalks and lay aside in ice-
water. Cut the outer, coarser stalks into three- inch lengths, and
stew in a cupful of stock, seasoned with a half teaspoonful of
onion-juice, salt, pepper, and parsley. Cook, covered, for an
hour, slowly. Drain and press in a colander. Return the stock
to the fire, and when it boils put the reserved stalks, also cut into
short lengths, into it. Cook gently until tender, thicken with a
good spoonful of roux, boil up and serve.
CELERY STEWED WHOLE.
Cut off the coarse, green stalks and lop the tops of the choicer
to within five or six inches of the roots. Trim and scrape the
roots, removing all rusty parts from these and the stalks. Parboil
for ten minutes in hot, salted water. Drain the heads of celery
and let them lie upon a soft cloth for fifteen minutes. Have
ready in a saucepan enough stock or consomme to cover the
celery heads and put these into it, taking care not to break them.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 28 1
Stew slowly for twenty-five minutes, or until tender. Transfer
the celery to a hot dish, thicken the stock left in the saucepan
with browned roux, boil one minute and strain over the celery.
FRIED CELERY.
Scrape, wash, and cut the stalks into pieces four or five inches
long. Cook tender in boiling, salted water. Drain, and spread
out to dry and stiffen in a cold place. When firm, dip into a
batter made of half a cupful of flour sifted twice with a saltspoon-
ful of Cleveland's Baking Powder and the same of salt, and wet
up with a beaten egg and enough milk to make the batter
manageable. Fry to a pale brown in hot cottolene. Dish and
serve with a sauce piquante.
CELERY AU GRATIN.
Cut into inch lengths the best parts of two bunches of celery,
and cook tender in boiling, salted water. Drain, return to the
saucepan, and cover with a cupful of hot milk in which has
been mixed a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of flour.
Season with paprica and salt, simmer three minutes, and pour
into a bowl to cool. Butter a pudding-dish, and cover the
bottom thickly with fine crumbs. When the stewed celery is
cold, beat into it two well-frothed eggs and pour into the dish.
Strew crumbs thickly over it, sticking dots of butter here and
there, cover and cook half an hour in a good oven, then brown.
Serve in the pudding-dish.
HOMINY.
Indian corn is richer than rice in " flesh-formers," and con-
tains more fat. As a diet it is decidedly laxative, a circumstance
which lends it value in winter, and which should make mothers
wary in the use of it in hot weather. In the form of hominy it
plays an important part in menus in our Southern and Western
States, and as polenta is the chief diet of the Italian peasants.
Nor is it lightly esteemed by the better classes in Southern
282 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Europe. Various dishes of which it is the base are found upon
fashionable hotel tables in those countries, and might be intro-
duced to our advantage and pleasure in the United States.
BOILED HOMINY (LARGE).
The large hominy, called "samp " at the North, is served,
boiled, as a vegetable.
Soak in cold water overnight. In the morning put over the
fire in cold, salted water and cook until swollen and tender. It
will require at least three hours. Put plenty of water into the
pot to allow for swelling. Drain, pepper, salt, and stir in a great
lump of butter.
BROWNED HOMINY (LARGE).
Put a good spoonful of dripping in a frying-pan and turn into
it cold boiled hominy, well seasoned. Shake the pan occasion-
ally to prevent sticking, and when the lower surface is lightly
browned, invert the pan over a hot platter.
BAKED HOMINY (SMALL).
Work a tablespoonful of melted butter into a cupful of cold
boiled hominy until the latter is smooth and free from lumps.
Then work in the yolks of two beaten eggs, and when they
are well mixed with the hominy, a teaspoonful of sugar and
half as much salt. Having now a thick, smooth paste, begin
to thin it with two cupfuls of milk. Whip it in gradually, and,
lastly, beat in with swift, upward strokes the stiffened whites of
the eggs. Pour into a well-greased pudding-dish, and bake, cov-
ered, half an hour, then brown. Serve in the dish. It will be
found almost as delicious as green-corn pudding, and a wel-
come addition to your winter bill-of-fare.
HOMINY AND MEAT CROQUETTES.
Into one cupful of cold boiled hominy, seasoned with salt,
pepper, and, should you fancy it, a few drops of onion-juice, work"
an equal quantity of minced ham, lamb, veal, or chicken.
THE NATIONAL COOK ROOK 283
Moisten it with half a cupful of hot stock, add two beaten eggs ;
stir over the fire in a shallow saucepan until smoking-hot and
set away to cool. When cold and stiff make into croquettes,
with floured hands, roll in egg, then in crumbs, and fry in hot,
deep cottolene to a fine brown.
HOMINY CROQUETTES (PLAIN).
Two cupfuls of fine hominy, boiled and cold, two beaten eggs,
one tablespoonful of melted butter, salt to taste, one teaspoonful
of sugar. Work the butter into the hominy until the latter is
smooth, then the eggs, salt, and sugar. Beat hard with a
wooden spoon to get out lumps and mix well. Make into oval
balls with floured hands. Roll each in flour, and fry in sweet
dripping or lard, putting in a few at a time and turning them
over with care as they brown. Drain in a hot colander.
FREED HOMINY (SMALL).
Boil hominy after soaking it for several hours, and when done
season with salt and a little butter. Turn into small greased
pate-pans to get cold, or upon a large platter. If you mould it
in the pate-pans, turn out when stiff and cold, dip in egg and
cracker-crumbs, and fry in hot, deep cottolene. If upon the
platter, cut into small squares when cold and treat in the same
way.
Squares of fried hominy are much used to lay under small
game-birds and for garnishing larger game.
POLENTA
is, strictly speaking, only boiled mush made of fine, yellow
corn-meal. It is ground as fine as flour, and prepared for the
table precisely as mush would be.
For a scant cupful of the corn-flour allow a quart, at least, of
boiling, salted water. Stir in the meal, a little at a time, stir-
ring all the while with the other hand, and continuing to use the
spoon for five minutes and more after it is all in. Boil, stirring
284 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
often, for half an hour, turn out upon a platter to cool, and
when stiff cut into squares or strips. Roll these in raw meal and
fry in hot cottolene, or in salad oil, and send around with meat.
SAVORY POLENTA A LTTALIENNE.
While boiling, add a large spoonful of butter for a cupful of the
raw meal, and a little later two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese,
then cook twenty minutes longer. Let it get cold, cut out with
a round cutter, arrange these upon a buttered baking-pan, grate
Parmesan cheese over them, dot with specks of butter, and
sprinkle with paprica. Bake in a quick oven until lightly
browned, and pass tomato sauce or a good brown gravy with
them.
In Italy we ate this dish under the name of gniocchi. Polenta
is also made of chestnut-flour.
MUSHROOMS.
One of the latest, and certainly the most charming, of the la-
mented W. Hamilton Gibson's works is Our Edible Toadstools
and Mushrooms, and How to Distinguish Them. The only re-
gret of the reader, who is also the owner, of the superb volume is
that a cheaper edition does not put it within the reach of every
caterer and housewife.
The page facing the Introduction is exquisitely illustrated by
a collection of American mushrooms, and within the oval they en-
close is an extract from the works of a celebrated English natu-
ralist and botanist. Under the caption, The Spurned Har-
vest, we read " Whole hundred- weights of rich, wholesome
diet rotting under the trees ; woods teeming with food, and not
one hand to gather it ; and this, perhaps, in the midst of poverty
and all manner of privations and public prayers against imminent
famine. ' '
A few pages beyond this lament Mr. Gibson breaks forth with
" What a plenteous, spontaneous harvest of delicious feasting
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 285
annually goes begging in our woods and fields ! " And again
" Gastronomically considered, the flesh of the mushroom has
been proven to be almost identical with meat, and possesses the
same nourishing properties."
A passing reference to our gastronomic chemist corroborates
this statement : " Mushrooms are highly nitrogenous. Some
kinds contain much fat or oil."
And yet both of our authors frankly admit the danger of
amateur work in the selection and harvesting of the rich, deli-
cious edible. Mr. Gibson's introductory chapter sets this before
us so graphically that we are inevitably reminded of the heedless
Syrian who "went out into the fields to gather herbs and
gathered wild gourds his lapful and came and shred them into
the pot of pottage, and as they were eating of the pottage one
cried out, and said ' O, thou man of God, there is death in
the pot! ' "
Elisha neutralized the poison with a handful of meal. Mr.
Gibson indicates atropine injected hypodermically, " the treat-
ment to be repeated every half hour until one-twentieth of a grain
has been given, or the patient's life saved."
And yet (again) the rules laid down by our enchanting author
for distinguishing the harmful from the wholesome fungi would
seem to be an effectual guard against the catastrophe pre-figured
by the death's-head introduced into the frontispiece of " The
Deadly Amanita." His " Rules for the Venturesome " are clear
and emphatic.
1. Avoid every mushroom having a cup or suggestion of such
at base. The distinctly fatal poisons are thus excluded.
2. Exclude those having an unpleasant odor, a peppery, bitter,
or other unpalatable flavor, or tough consistency.
3. Exclude those infested with worms or in advanced age or
decay.
4. In testing others which will pass the above probation, let
the specimen be kept by itself, not in contact with, or enclosed
in the same basket with other species.
He lays especial stress upon the danger-signal of the "poison-
286 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
cup," which " may be taken as the cautionary symbol of the
genus Amanita common to all the species. Any mushroom or
toadstool, therefore, whose stem is thus set in a socket, or which
has any suggestion of such a socket should be labelled ' poison.'
But the cup must be sought for."
A secondary "sign" is the "veil which in the young mush-
room originally connected the edge of the cup or pileus with the
stem and whose gradual rupture necessarily follows the expansion
of the cup until a mere frill or ring is left about the stem at the
original point of contact." This sign is sometimes found in
edible mushrooms, and is therefore only ominous when coupled
with the poison-cup at the base of the stem.
We offer no apology for much dwelling upon the possible peril
of indiscriminate mushroom gathering nor for a last extract from
our author's introduction, which should reassure the excessively
timid.
" Of the forty odd species which the writer enjoys with more
or less frequency at his table, he is satisfied that he can select at
least thirty which possess such distinct and strongly marked
characters of form, structure, and other special qualities as to
enable them by the aid of careful portraiture and brief descrip-
tion to be easily recognized, even by a tyro."
It is a pity, as the most thoughtless student of this subject must
admit, that one of the most delicious viands served upon the
table of the rich epicure and which might grace the cotter's
board every day in the week if he would take the trouble to
gather it, should be practically excluded from home bills-of-fare
from one end of the country to the other, through ignorance of
such simple tests as a child might master after a few lessons.
BROILED MUSHROOMS. (No. J.)
This is the simplest and, in the opinion of many epicures, the
best way of preparing this delicacy for the table, since the flavor
of the mushrooms is not marred by sauces or stewing.
Stem and peel, when you have washed half a pound of mush-
rooms, and lay them, gills downward, upon an oyster-broiler
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 287
over clear coals. Cook for two or three minutes, turn, and broil
the other side. Serve upon thin squares of lightly toasted bread,
buttered ; sprinkle with salt and pepper, butter, and serve, very
hot.
BROILED MUSHROOMS. (No. 2.)
Cut off the stalks, wash, peel, and dry the mushrooms tenderly
upon a soft cloth. Baste with melted, not hot, butter, and set on
the ice for fifteen minutes ; then broil upon an oyster-broiler,
five minutes on one side and the same upon the other. Lay upon
rounds of delicately toasted bread ; pepper and salt j put upon
each a bit of butter which has been beaten to a cream with
lemon-juice ; cover and serve hot.
BROILED MUSHROOMS AND BACON.
Cut off the stalks, wash, and peel half a pound of mushrooms,
and broil as directed in " Broiled Mushrooms, No. i," two min-
utes on each side. Lay upon the buttered toast, set the platter
containing them upon a pan of hot water on the range, and
broil close beside it thin slices of fat breakfast-bacon. As they
drip, hold them quickly above the mushrooms, letting every drop
of fat fall upon them and the toast.
They will be found very savory.
FRIED MUSHROOMS.
Cut off the stalks, wash, peel, and dry half a pound of mush-
rooms. Heat a great spoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and
when it hisses lay in the mushrooms, and fry three minutes on
each side. Serve upon rounds of lightly toasted and buttered
bread, dust with salt and pepper, put a bit of butter on each and
serve.
FRIED MUSHROOMS AU MAITRE IXHOTEL.
Fry as directed in the foregoing recipe, but when they are
served put upon them, instead of butter, a mixture of butter
beaten light with lemon -juice and a tablespoonful of very finely
chopped parsley.
288 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
FRIED MUSHROOMS AND BACON.
Lay five or six thin slices of the best breakfast-bacon you can
get in a hot frying-pan. When clear and beginning to curl at the
edges transfer to a hot dish, and fry half a pound of mushrooms,
stemmed, washed, and peeled, in the fat left in the pan. Serve
upon toast, salt and pepper them, and garnish with the bacon.
MUSHROOM CUPS.
Select six or eight large mushrooms which are well curved
and firm. Stem, wash, peel, and wipe them with care. Have
ready a good force-meat of finely minced mushrooms and crumbs,
moistened with a little chicken- or veal-stock, and seasoned with
salt and pepper. Fill the inverted mushrooms with this mixture,
mounding it smoothly with a bit of butter upon each ; put a
very little butter into a bake-dish and set the mushrooms close
together, "stuffed sides upward in the dish. Cover closely, and
bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven, or until the "cups" and
contents are steaming hot.
Serve upon buttered toast, and pour a Bechamel sauce for meat
over them.
They will give universal satisfaction.
BAKED MUSHROOMS (PLAIN).
Stem, wash, and peel the mushrooms, carefully preserving
their shape. Cover the bottom of a greased pie-plate or a bake-
dish with rounds of thin, delicately toasted bread, well buttered ;
lay the mushrooms, gills upward, upon the toast, dust with salt
and pepper ; cover closely and bake from fifteen to twenty min-
utes in proportion to the size of the mushrooms. Butter them,
remove with the toast to a hot platter, and serve.
If you like a suspicion of garlic, rub the hot bake-dish with a
cut clove of garlic before laying in the toast. The flavor will
be faint but exquisitely appetizing.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 289
MUSHROOMS AU GRATIN.
Prepare as you would Mushroom Cups, but set the mush-
rooms, when filled, in a pudding-dish ; fill the interstices with
the force-meat, sprinkle fine crumbs over all ; pour in four table-
spoonfuls of cream; stick butter-bits upon the surface, dust with
pepper and salt, and bake, covered, in a hot oven, fifteen min-
utes. Brown lightly and serve in the bake-dish.
CREAMED MUSHROOMS.
Stem, wash, and peel half a pound of small mushrooms.
Have ready in a saucepan of porcelain or agate-iron half a cupful
of boiling water, and as much milk, slightly salted. Put in the
mushrooms and cook gently ten minutes. Now add a cupful of
cream or rich milk which has been treated with a bit of soda,
then thickened with a white roux of butter and a little flour, and
seasoned with salt, a dust of cayenne, and a good pinch of
ground mace. Simmer all together for three minutes and serve
in a deep, covered dish.
MUSHROOMS STEWED IN WINE.
Stew, wash, and peel a pint of small fresh mushrooms. Put
them over the fire with just enough slightly salted boiling water
to cover them, and cook gently for five minutes. Add a heap-
ing teaspoonful of butter and, when it has melted, half a cupful
of good red wine (claret of excellent quality will do), season with
a little mace and less cayenne, cover, and bring the stew to a
boil. Have ready upon a hot platter the sliced yolks of six
hard-boiled eggs ; pour the stew over them, and garnish with
broiled or fried mushrooms.
An elegant dinner or luncheon entree.
SCALLOPED MUSHROOMS.
Stem, peel, and wash a pint of fresh mushrooms or a can of
champignons, and cook five minutes in just enough boiling, salted
19
290 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
water to cover them. Drain, and keep hot over boiling water.
Make a white roux of a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour
stirred smooth in a saucepan, and thin with half a cupful of hot
cream or rich milk (not omitting a pinch of soda). When it
thickens, stir in the mushrooms, add a dash of cayenne, the
same of nutmeg, and a little salt, and bring to a boil.
Fill pate-pans or scallop-shells or nappies with the mixture,
cover with fine crumbs, dot with butter, and bake to a light
brown.
MUSHROOMS AUX FINES HERBES.
The round mushroom, vulgarly known as " a puff-ball " and,
when old, as " the devil's snuff-box," is best for this dish. They
must be gathered in their early prime and eaten as soon as cooked.
Wash and peel, slice, dip in beaten egg, then in a mixture of
parsley, a little thyme, summer savory, chopped very fine, and
wet with onion-juice. The mushrooms should be thickly coated
with the green bits. Fry in hot butter, a few at a time, and
dish upon buttered toast.
MUSHROOMS AND SCRAMBLED EGGS,
Scramble six eggs soft with a tablespoonful of cream, turn
upon a hot platter, sprinkle with salt, paprica, and finely minced
parsley, and cover with broiled mushrooms.
MUSHROOMS AND SHIRRED EGGS.
Stem, wash, peel, and slice a pint of mushrooms, and stew for
five minutes in boiling milk and water, and a little salt. There
should be just enough liquid to keep them from burning. Take
from the fire, stir in a tablespoonful of white roux, and when
somewhat cool, but still smoking, beat in the yolk of a raw egg,
season with pepper, salt, and a few drops of onion-juice, and
with the mixture fill nappies or pate-pans three-quarters of the
way to the top. Break a fresh egg upon the creamy bed,
sprinkle thickly with bread-crumbs, dot with butter, salt and
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 2QI
pepper at discretion, and bake in a shallow pan of hot water.
Eight minutes should be enough if the oven be quick.
CHESTNUT ROULETTES.
Boil a quart of Spanish chestnuts. Take off the shells while
they are hot, skin, and rub them through a colander, or put
them through a vegetable-press. Work into them a great spoon-
ful of butter, salt and cayenne (or paprica) to taste, a few drops
of onion-juice, two tablespoonfuls of fine crumbs, and the yolk
of an egg. Heat in a saucepan set within another of boiling
water, stirring until the paste is smoking-hot, and let it get per-
fectly cold before making with floured hands into balls or into
croquettes. Roll in egg, then in crumbs ; set in a cold place
for one hour, and fry in deep, hot cottolene. While they are
chiefly used as garnishes of game and poultry, they are very nice
as a vegetable side-dish accompanying the same.
FAMILIAR TALK.
A WOMEN'S LUNCHEON.
Fifty years ago an entertainment in which men were not in-
cluded was an unheard-of thing. While the lords of creation
had what the youths of to-day term " stag-rackets," that is,
dinners, suppers, and theatre-parties from which the gentler sex
were excluded, their wives, sisters, and daughters never thought
of retaliating in kind, and having "a good time" without the
men. Indeed, the fair beings would have doubted the possi-
bility of carrying such a plan into practice.
Consequently, as men are seldom at liberty before 5 P.M.,
daylight gatherings did not exist except in the form of picnics,
for which mild dissipation men were occasionally prevailed upon
to leave office and desk and revel in sylvan joys in the form of
sunburn, a lunch on the ground, shared with unprejudiced im-
partiality by ants and spiders, and a jolting ride home at the
end of the longest and hardest day in the year.
292 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
At last the woman's luncheon was suggested by some sister
exceeding wise in her generation, and the desert places of the
weary housewife's and mother's life blossomed like the rose.
Hitherto the woman with a houseful of little children often
found it impracticable to leave her brood after dark, or she was
too weary from a day of toil to think of going out ; and month
after month dragged its lagging length away without a single
break in the monotony of her daily life.
A veritable drudge must that woman be who cannot spare
two or three hours in the middle of the day to attend a lunch-
eon. Even a very young baby can- be left with the nurse at
noon-time, while mamma will be made brighter and fresher for
the little while spent in the society of pleasant and chatty
women.
A luncheon is an especially easy method of entertainment
for the housekeeper with many cares. Coming as it does in the
middle of the day, there is the whole morning in which to
make ready, and the afternoon in which to clear away the rem-
nants of the feast and wash the dishes before nightfall.
A table groaning beneath the weight of viands set forth upon
it is a figure of speech not used in these modern times. At our
luncheon everything may be served from the sideboard, and the
only eatables upon the table will be small dishes containing
olives, salted almonds, bonbons, radishes, pickles, or jelly, and
fancy cakes, or one large ornamental loaf.
There is such a great variety of tablecloths and napkins suita-
ble for luncheons that the housekeeper may use her own judgment
as to plain white or colored damask, hemmed, hemstitched, or
fringed borders. One exquisite cloth has embroidered violets
dropped at intervals all over it, and would be very beautiful for
a violet luncheon.
The cloth laid, place in the centre of the table a round,
square, or long embroidered centre-piece upon which may rest
a circular mirror (if you are so fortunate as to possess one), and
on this stand a bowl of flowers. If you are to have flowers for
your guests it is a pretty notion to let your floral centre-piece
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
be composed of large pink roses one for each woman present.
To every rose is attached a wide pink satin ribbon, which
passes to the appointed place of the guest whose name appears
on the ribbon in gilt lettering. If you paint, you may easily
decorate these ribbons yourself, and, if you wish, may add the
date to the name. The repast ended, each woman pulls her
ribbon and draws her rose toward her. The ribbons are
pretty souvenirs of the feast.
Never practise the hideous hotel plan of distorting a napkin
into fancy shapes. The square of damask should be plainly
folded and laid by each place. A Vienna roll or finger-rolls
may be put by the napkin, .the knives on the right hand, the
forks on the left.
The woman who lives in or near a town may order fancy
dishes from a caterer. Olives and bon-bons must be bought, but
the almonds are cheaper and often better if salted at home, while
pate-making is a simple matter if one has a good recipe and a
moderate degree of skill.
The following is a good, and not expensive, menu for a wom-
an's luncheon.
If quails are out of season, and consequently unavailable for
the game-course, broiled chicken may be substituted.
LUNCHEON BILL-OF-FARE.
Little Neck Clams, or "grape-fruit," or oranges
cut in halves, or a bunch of white grapes
tied with narrow ribbon.
Bouillon.
Creamed Lobster.
Sweetbread Pates.
Filet of Beef. Green Pease.
Quail on Toast.
Tomato and Lettuce Mayonnaise.
Ice-Cream. Cake. Fruit.
Coffee.
Creme de menthe served in tiny glasses.
M. H.
SALADS.
UNFORTUNATELY for women whose purses are limited in length
and light in weight, there are few dishes which are at once in-
expensive, convenient, elegant, and healthful, during that most
trying of all seasons to the housekeeper's soul, "the heated term."
But salads combine all the above-mentioned qualities, and are,
moreover, grateful to the most fastidious palate.
It takes brains and education to appreciate this fact, and in
the country the farmer's wife or mother is convinced that a meal
is not fit for " folks " to eat unless graced by " something hearty."
This "hearty" viand may be chipped beef, picked-up codfish
(salt), or fried pork. The overwrought woman would open her
eyes in incredulous astonishment if you were to suggest that
salads would be cheaper, more wholesome, and certainly more
palatable. Her only idea of cheap salad is of half-wilted lettuce-
leaves, drenched in a mixture of rancid oil and vinegar, pepper
and salt. Small wonder that her husband and sons " take no
stock" therein !
The varieties of salad are numerous meat, poultry, fish, eggs,
cheese, and vegetables all forming bases upon which the epi-
cure's delight may be founded. On the other side of the Atlan-
tic a dinner without salad is considered a culinary solecism, and
it would be well for us Americans to do away with fries and pies,
and turn our attention in the direction of " greens."
We will be surprised to find how "scraps" maybe utilized
and made delicious. One country housewife, cumbered by many
cares in the way of midsummer cookery, brought up one after-
noon from the cellar a saucerful of cold pease, one of cold beets,
one of beans, and two hard-boiled eggs, which had been left
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
from breakfast, and wondered "what she was to do with these
things, which were too little to use and too good to throw
away. ' '
A city cousin and visitor, passing through the kitchen, which
was bright and clean and cool, had a brilliant idea, and sug-
gested that no fire be built in the freshly polished range before
supper. They had already planned to have cold tea, which had
been set aside in the refrigerator after the mid-day dinner. The
city friend took matters into her own hands, and found that there
were lettuce and berries in the garden, pot-cheese and cream in
the cellar, plenty of crackers, bread and cake and lemons, with
a box of sardines, in the closet. A boy was sent out to pick the
berries and to gather lettuce, and in three-quarters of an hour
the household was summoned to a repast which they pronounced
the most delicious of the season. Sardines were daintily served,
garnished with lemon ; a bowl, lined with crisp lettuce-leaves,
was filled with a salad of pease, beans, and chopped beets, highly
seasoned. Over these was poured a rich mayonnaise dressing.
Two beets had been reserved from those put into the salad, and
were skilfully cut by a sharp knife into star -shapes, and with the
sliced hard eggs, laid upon the surface of the mayonnaise.
Each glass contained cracked ice, powdered sugar, and a slice
of lemon, and was then filled with cold tea. Creamy pot-cheese,
slices of light bread, and crisp crackers completed the first
course, while fresh berries, drowned in rich cream, were served
with the loaf of golden sponge cake.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING.
One egg ; one pint of the best salad oil never use a cheap
oil ; one tablespoonful of vinegar ; half a lemon ; saltspoonful of
salt; half a saltspoonful each of mustard and white pepper.
Separate the white and the yolk of the egg. To the latter
add the juice of the lemon, the salt, pepper, and mustard. Mix
with three or four stirs of a fork. Begin putting in the oil, a
few drops at a time, stirring steadily , increasing the quantity as
296 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
the dressing thickens. When about two-thirds of the oil has
been used the vinegar should be added, little by little, and
after that the remainder of the oil. The steady stirring of the
fork should be unremitting. If oil, egg, and plate have been
well chilled before they are used, this dressing may be made in
ten or fifteen minutes. Place it on the ice until needed, and
just before sending to table whip the white of the egg to a
standing froth and stir it lightly into the dressing.
Should the egg and oil curdle and separate, or obstinately re-
fuse to thicken, do not waste time in the futile attempt to stir
them to a success. Take another egg and begin again in a fresh
plate. When this dressing thickens as it will, unless there is
something radically wrong with egg, oil, or worker add the
curdled dressing carefully, a little at a time, stirring incessantly.
The result should be as good a mayonnaise as could be desired.
In hot weather especial care should be taken to have the uten-
sils and ingredients alike, ice-cold.
The seasoning may be varied by substituting tarragon for plain
vinegar, and by rubbing the bowl in which the dressing is mixed
with a split clove of garlic or by using paprica in place of cay-
enne.
In fancy salads this mayonnaise may be colored green by the
addition of a little spinach-juice (see Green Hollandaise Sauce),
or red by adding to it a small amount of powdered lobster coral
or of strained tomato-liquor which has been boiled down until it
is nearly a jelly. Or the mayonnaise may be made white by
stirring lightly into it at the last moment before serving a gill of
cream whipped very stiff. If a deep yellow is desired, the beaten
white of egg should not be added to the mayonnaise.
ASPIC MAYONNAISE.
Into a cupful of aspic jelly, cold, but not stiff (see recipe for
Aspic), stir oil, drop by drop, as for ordinary mayonnaise. A
half-pint of oil may be used with the given quantity of aspic.
When the dressing begins to thicken stir in a tablespoonful of
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
tarragon or plain vinegar, unless the aspic is quite tart. In that
case omit the vinegar, and season with a little salt and cayenne.
The amount of these to be used depends upon whether or not the
aspic is highly seasoned.
As in making the plain mayonnaise, the utensils and ingredi-
ents should be very cold. It is even well to set the bowl con-
taining the dressing in a larger vessel of cracked ice while you
stir.
This aspic mayonnaise may be used for garnishing salads and
cold meats, and is often used instead of the plain aspic for jellied
chicken, tongue, etc., that are to be formed in a mould.
FRENCH DRESSING FOR SALADS.
One saltspoonful of salt; half a saltspoonful of pepper; one
tablespoonful of vinegar; three tablespoon fu Is of oil.
Rub the spoon or the bowl in which the salad is mixed with a
little garlic.
Put pepper and salt together in the salad-spoon and fill the
spoon with oil. Stir with the fork, and when well mixed pour
upon the salad. Measure out the rest of the oil demanded and
the vinegar, and after all has been turned upon the salad, toss
this about with the fork and spoon until every leaf has received
its share of the dressing.
Or the dressing may be mixed in a small bowl or deep saucer,
and either poured upon the salad by the hostess or passed to the
guests that they may help themselves. It is better to mix it in
a bowl rather than in the spoon, except for such salads as lettuce
or endive.
A French dressing is cheaper, and more easily prepared than
a mayonnaise and far more wholesome. It can be used for many
salads where the latter would seem cloying and is always en regie
at a dinner where the salad course should be light and refresh
the eater rather than surfeit him. A mayonnaise is more in
order for suppers, early or late, for collations, standing luncheons,
and the like.
298 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
BOILED SALAD DRESSING. (No. I.)
Two well-beaten eggs; half a pint of vinegar; one heaping
teaspoonful of granulated sugar ; one-half teaspoonful of English
mustard ; pinch of cayenne ; salt to taste.
Mix well, put over the fire in a porcelain -lined saucepan and
bring it slowly to a boil, stirring incessantly. When it bubbles
add a small teaspoonful of butter and take from the stove. Let
it get cold, bottle and put in a cool place until needed. It will
keep some time.
BOILED SALAD DRESSING. (No. 2.)
With Whipped Cream.
Four tablespoonfuls of vinegar ; one heaping tablespoonful of
butter; one tablespoonful of flour; one egg, beaten light;
one teaspoonful of white sugar; one-half teaspoonful each of
pepper and mustard ; salt to taste ; whipped cream at dis-
cretion.
Beat the butter and flour to a cream, stir in the beaten egg,
and all the seasoning except the salt. Next put in the vinegar,
turn all into a saucepan and cook slowly, stirring until the
sauce is rery thick. Take from the fire, salt, and keep in a cool
place. When it is to be used stir whipped cream into it to
thin it to about the consistency of mayonnaise.
This is a very fine dressing.
BOILED SALAD DRESSING. (No. 3.)
Add the whipped yolks of six eggs to six tablespoonfuls of
boiling vinegar. Pour into a tin pail, set in a pan of boiling
water, and stir until quite stiff. Remove from the fire, add four
tablespoonfuls of butter, and beat until perfectly mixed. When
cold season to taste with salt, pepper, mustard, etc., and thin
with oil to the required consistency. This will keep several days
in a cold, dark place.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 299
BOILED SALAD DRESSING. (No. 4.)
Heat two cupfuls of rich milk (half cream is better) ; stir in
two heaping tablespoon fuls of corn-starch rubbed up with three
tablespoonfuls of butter. Cook one minute. Beat hard, and
when cold season to taste with vinegar, mustard, etc.
CUCUMBER ASPIC
Four large cucumbers ; one small onion; half- box of gelatine
soaked in half a cupful of cold water ; salt and white pepper to
taste.
Peel the cucumbers, cut into thick slices, and put them and
the sliced onion over the fire with a scant quart of water.
Simmer for an hour, stir in the gelatine, and, when this is dis-
solved, season the jelly, strain it, and set it aside to cool. It
may be formed in small moulds and turned out on lettuce-leaves,
or used in a border-mould for garnishing a fish or tomato salad,
or set to form in a salad-bowl and taken out by the spoonful
and served on lettuce-leaves. French dressing is better with it
than mayonnaise.
TOMATO ASPIC
One pint of tomato-liquor, strained from the can or from fresh
tomatoes, stewed. Half a box of gelatine, soaked half an hour
in a cupful of cold water; one slice of onion; one bay -leaf ;
two cloves ; a spray of parsley ; salt and cayenne to taste.
Stew the bay-leaf, onion, parsley, and cloves in the tomato-
liquor for fifteen minutes, stir in the gelatine, season, and strain
the aspic through flannel without squeezing. It may be used
like the cucumber jelly, as a salad, served on lettuce or to garnish
other salads or dishes of cold meats. Some cooks add a little
beef-extract to the jelly, but it detracts from the distinctive flavor
of the tomato.
LETTUCE SALAD.
Pick over the lettuce carefully, rejecting all wilted or bruised
leaves. Throw it into ice-cold water for at least half an hour be-
300 . THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
fore serving. Take it out, dry it carefully between two folds of
a clean kitchen towel and lay it in the salad-bowl, which should
first have been rubbed with a split clove of garlic. Serve with
French dressing.
ROMAINE LETTUCE.
This delicious variety of lettuce is becoming daily more com-
mon in our markets and is preferred by many to the ordinary
lettuce. It may be prepared for the table in the same way.
CRESS, CHICORY, OR ENDIVE SALAD
may be treated like lettuce. An excellent salad may be made
by mixing lettuce with any or all of these.
DANDELION SALAD.
For this only the white leaves, free from any green tips, may
be used, and they should be very carefully washed. Serve with
a French dressing.
DANDELION AND BEET SALAD.
Wash and pick over the dandelion greens. Slice cold boiled
beets thin. Line your salad-bowl with the dandelion and heap
the beets in the middle. Serve with French dressing.
STUFFED BEET SALAD.
Select large red beets, boiling them without peeling and
scrape off the skins while still warm. Cut a slice off the top and
scoop out the inside of the beet, taking care not to break or
pierce the outer wall. Chop celery fine, mix it with a mayon-
naise, and fill the beets with this. Arrange them on lettuce-
leaves and heap more mayonnaise on top of the celery before
sending the dish to table.
The filling may be varied by mixing with the celery some of
the beet that was cut out, chopped fine, or by mincing a cucum-
ber with these or with the celery alone.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 3<DI
CUCUMBER SALAD.
Peel cucumbers, slice them very thin, and throw them into
iced water for an hour before using. Dry them, put them into a
bowl that has been rubbed with garlic, and serve them with a
French dressing. Those who think a cucumber salad incomplete
without onion may either add a teaspoonful of onion-juice to the
dressing or slice a couple of tiny young onions with the cucum-
bers. In their season, minced chives are a pleasant addition to
a cucumber salad.
STUFFED CUCUMBER SALAD.
Select medium-sized cucumbers, peel them and cut them in
half, lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds, lay the boats thus made
in iced water for an hour or two, take them out, dry and arrange
on lettuce-leaves. For each cucumber allow a small tomato, a
stalk of celery, a sprig of parsley, and a bit of onion the size of
a hazel-nut. Peel the tomato and remove the seeds, and chop
the pulp fine with the celery, onion, and parsley. Bind these
with a little mayonnaise, fill the cucumbers, heap more mayon-
naise on the top and the dish is ready. Serve each guest with
a half of one of the cucumber boats and a leaf of lettuce.
SALAD OF STRING-BEANS OR GREEN PEASE.
Heap cold boiled string-beans or green pease in a salad-bowl,
pour over them a French dressing, and serve.
Or
They may be served with Boiled Salad Dressing, No. 2.
MACEDOINE, OR VEGETABLE SALAD.
This is an excellent method of using the remnants of vege-
tables left from dinner of the day before the half dozen slices of
boiled beets, the few stalks of celery, the two or three cold pota-
toes and onions, the saucerful of beans or green pease, the boiled
carrot from the soup. Slice the potatoes and onions, and
3O2 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
heap all the vegetables together upon leaves of lettuce. Pour
over them either a mayonnaise or a French dressing. Almost
any ct>ld vegetable may find a place in this salad.
LETTUCE AND TOMATO SALAD.
Arrange lettuce-leaves in a bowl, chop two tomatoes coarsely
and strew them over the lettuce. Serve with French dressing.
Lettuce and cucumber may be prepared in the same way.
TOMATO AND LETTUCE SALAD.
Do not remove the skin from your tomatoes by scalding, but
by carefully peeling them. Then cut into halves. Arrange on
a cold dish the crispest lettuce-leaves, lay half a tomato on each,
and scatter finely crushed ice over all. Fill a pretty glass bowl
with mayonnaise, and, in serving the salad, pour a ladleful of
dressing over each piece of tomato.
They may also be served with a French dressing and without
the lettuce.
RUSSIAN TOMATO AND SARDINE SALAD.
Skin six medium-sized boneless sardines, remove heads and
tails and cut each sardine into three or four pieces. Peel three
tomatoes that have been thoroughly chilled, remove the seeds,
cut the tomatoes into small squares and mix with the sardines.
Arrange lettuce-leaves in a salad-bowl, sprinkle the tomatoes and
sardines on them, and serve with a French or mayonnaise dress-
ing.
TOMATO BASKETS WITH GREEN PEASE.
Select large, firm tomatoes, peel them, cut off the tops and re-
move the seeds and soft pulp, leaving a thick outer wall of the
firm flesh of the tomato. Fill each basket thus made with cold
boiled green pease and place it upon a leaf of lettuce. Arrange
these in a salad-bowl or upon a platter, and, in serving, heap a
tablespoonful of mayonnaise on each basket, or pass the mayon-
naise in a bowl or pitcher, in which is placed a spoon or small
ladle, and let each guest help himself.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 303
This is an ornamental and delicious salad. Tender beans cut
into small pieces may be used instead of the pease and will be
nearly as good.
TOMATO BASKETS WITH CELERY.
Prepare the tomatoes as in the preceding recipe. Split celery-
stalks lengthwise until not much thicker than straws and cut
them crosswise into half-inch lengths. Fill the tomato baskets
with them and serve on lettuce-leaves with Boiled Salad Dressing,
No. i, or with mayonnaise.
TOMATO BASKETS WITH CUCUMBERS.
Peel cucumbers, cut them into quarters, lengthwise, slice them
thin, and throw them into cold water for an hour. Take them
out, dry them between two folds of a towel, mix with a bit of
onion no larger than a hazel-nut, minced fine, and (if you can
get it) a little chopped green pepper. Season with paprica, and
with this mixture fill tomato-shells, prepared as already directed.
Serve on lettuce with French or mayonnaise dressing.
TOMATO BASKETS WITH SHRIMPS.
Remove shrimps from their shells, arrange them in tomato
baskets, and serve on lettuce with mayonnaise. Canned shrimps
may be used in this delicious salad and are almost equal to the
fresh.
TOMATO BASKETS WITH CHICKEN.
Fill tomato baskets, made as above directed, with the white
meat of chicken, minced fine. Serve on lettuce-leaves with
mayonnaise.
TOMATO BASKETS WITH SWEETBREADS.
Boil and blanch a large pair of sweetbreads, skin them, and cut
them with a sharp knife into dice. Mix a little mayonnaise
with them, and fill baskets made of tomatoes, as directed in
recipe for Tomato Baskets with Green Pease. Arrange on let-
304 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ttice-leaves, put another spoonful of mayonnaise on top of each
tomato, and serve.
These baskets may be made in a different fashion by leaving a
strip of the peel to serve as a handle across the top of the basket,
and carefully scooping out the pulp from under it.
CELERY SALAD.
Cut fine white celery into inch lengths, throw it into iced
water for half an hour, take it out, dry and serve it with a French
dressing or mayonnaise, or with a boiled salad dressing.
CELERY AND RADISH SALAD.
Prepare the celery as directed above, heap it in a bowl and
surround it with a border of small radishes, half peeled, to look
like roses. Put one on top of the mound of celery and dress all
with mayonnaise.
CELERY SALAD WITH TOMATO JELLY.
Prepare and mound the celery as in the preceding recipe and
encircle it with tomato aspic. This may have been formed in a
border-mould the size of the dish, or such a mould may be im-
provised by setting one vessel inside of the other and placing the
jelly to form in the outer one. Both should be wet before the
jelly goes in, and if the inner vessel is filled with ice or iced water
the process of forming will be hastened.
CELERY AND APPLE SALAD.
With one cupful and a half of crisp celery, cut into inch
lengths, mix one cupful of tart apple, cut into dice. Cover with a
mayonnaise. Do not cut the apple until just before serving, as
it darkens after peeling.
POTATO SALAD.
Boil eight potatoes in their skins and do not peel them until
they are cold. Rub the inside of your salad-bowl with a clove
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 305
of garlic (if you dislike the flavor of garlic you may omit this).
Slice or chop the potatoes into the bowl and add to them an
onion which you have minced fine and scalded for five minutes
in boiling water. Season the vegetables with pepper and salt
and pour upon them five tablespoon fu Is of oil and two of vinegar.
Toss and turn them in this and let them stand in it an hour
before serving. Some people relish the addition of a couple of
cold boiled beets, sliced.
An attractive fashion of arranging this dish is to heap the po-
tatoes in the middle of the bowl and arrange a border of the
beets about them.
ASPARAGUS SALAD.
Boil and drain fine asparagus and let it get very cold. Serve
it as a separate course and pass with it a bowl or pitcher of
French or mayonnaise dressing. Most people prefer the former.
CAULIFLOWER SALAD.
Prepare and serve like asparagus salad, dividing the cauliflower
into clusters before sending it to table.
CABBAGE SALAD.
Shred a firm white head of cabbage fine with a sharp knife and
set it on ice. Heat in separate vessels a cupful of sweet milk
and half a cupful of vinegar. When the vinegar is scalding-hot
stir into it a tablespoonful of butter and one of white sugar,
with a teaspoonful of celery essence, a saltspoonful of pepper,
and twice as much salt. Boil up sharply and stir in the cab-
bage. Let it get smoking-hot, but not boil.
Now give your attention to the hot milk. Pour it upon two
well-beaten eggs and cook until they begin to thicken well.
Turn the hot cabbage into a bowl, pour the custard upon it and
stir it rapidly with a silver fork until all the ingredients are well
mixed. Set away in a closely covered vessel where it will cool
suddenly. When cold keep it on ice until needed.
20
306 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
POT-CHEESE SALAD. (No. J.)
Begin by making your mayonnaise and arrange your lettuce-
leaves on a large, flat dish. Break, with the bowl of a spoon, the
pot-cheese into small crumbs, and when this is done moisten it
gradually with the mayonnaise dressing, rubbing and blending it
all together into a creamy mass. When the pot-cheese has
reached this state drop a tablespoonful of it upon each lettuce-
leaf. Set the dish on the ice long enough to chill the contents
thoroughly and serve.
POT-CHEESE SALAD. (No. 2.)
Mould the cheese, mix with cream and butter until it will just
allow of being handled, and form into oval balls about the size
of a bantam's eggs. Lay each of them upon a leaf of lettuce and
pass with them a mayonnaise or boiled dressing.
EGG SALAD. (No. J.)
Boil six eggs for fifteen minutes, then throw them into cold
water and allow them to remain there until cold. Remove the
shells and cut each egg into four pieces ; place crisp lettuce-
leaves on a large platter, lay a piece of egg on each leaf, sprinkle
lightly with salt, and pour mayonnaise over all.
EGG SALAD. (No. 2.)
Boil six eggs perfectly hard, putting them on in cold water
and cooking ten minutes after this reaches the boil, that the
yolks may be dry and mealy. Cut the whites in two, remove
carefully, and rub the yolks to a paste with three tablespoonfuls
of minced ham or chicken, or both, ten drops of onion-juice, a
saltspoonful of mustard, a tablespoonful of melted butter, salt to
taste, and half a teaspoon ful of paprica. Crowd this mixture
back into the halved whites, cutting a bit off the bottom of each
cup that it may stand upright and letting the newly formed yolk
rise above the edge of the white as far as the original yolk would
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 307
have done. Arrange these on lettuce-leaves and serve with a
French dressing or with Boiled Salad Dressing, No. 2.
OYSTER SALAD.
One quart of oysters, cut into quarters with a sharp silver
knife. One head of celery, cut into half-inch lengths ; yolks of
three raw eggs, well beaten ; yolks of two cooked eggs, boiled
for twenty-five minutes, then laid in cold water for an hour;
two tablespoonfuls of salad oil ; one teaspoonful of white sugar ;
one half teaspoonful of salt, and the same each of white pepper
and made mustard ; four tablespoonfuls of vinegar.
Drain the oysters and wipe them between two soft cloths be-
fore you cut them. Set aside upon ice, and when you have cut
up the celery do the same with it, in a separate vessel. Beat
the raw yolks and whip in, first, the sugar, then, gradually, the
oil, next, the powdered yolks, which have been rubbed smooth
with salt, pepper, and mustard. When all are mixed and smooth
put in the vinegar, a few drops at a time, whipping the dressing
lightly and fast, all the time. It should be a soft yellow cream.
Mix oysters and celery in a glass bowl a few minutes before it
is to go to table, tossing gently with a silver fork ; pour half the
dressing upon them while you do this, the rest on top.
Garnish with a wreath of pale-green celery -tufts laid close
within the edge of the bowl, and keep on ice up to the instant of
serving.
SHRIMP SALAD.
Turn out the contents of a can of shrimps several hours be-
fore you make the salad, and set on the ice until needed. Ar-
range lettuce in a bowl, sprinkle it with very finely cracked ice,
and lay the shrimps among the leaves. Add mayonnaise dress-
ing and serve immediately.
LOBSTER SALAD.
Select rather large lobsters, as there is a good deal of waste
about the small ones. Plunge them head downward into boil-
308 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ing water, and cook for about three-quarters of an hour. Break
the shells carefully, remove and throw away the stomach, the
vein that runs through the tail-piece, and the spongy fingers be-
tween the body and the shell. All the other meat is eatable.
Cut into neat pieces, arrange it on lettuce, cover with mayon-
naise dressing, and garnish with the claws of the lobster.
LOBSTER SALAD A L'ALLEMANDE.
Proceed with the lobster as in the preceding recipe, and when
the pieces are arranged on the lettuce-leaves sprinkle over them
a tablespoonful of finely minced parsley and the yolks of four
hard-boiled eggs pressed through a sieve. Serve with French
dressing.
LOBSTER SALAD A LA RUSSE.
Cut the lobster into dice and mix it with a generous quantity
of mayonnaise. Stir in with a pint of the mingled lobster and
dressing about two dozen tiny cubes of young carrots and beets
boiled very tender. Line a salad-bowl with lettuce-leaves, heap
the salad upon them, mask it with more of the yellow mayon-
naise, and garnish it with a little of the dressing, colored red
with the lobster coral, and with a very little Russian caviare.
LOBSTER SALAD EN CASSEROLE*
Prepare exactly as directed above, only, instead of serving in a
large bowl on lettuce-leaves, arrange without the lettuce in tiny
casseroles of china, copper, or silver. These come for cooking
shirred eggs and similar dishes, and differ from the regular nap-
pies in having handles. Garnish as above with red mayonnaise
and caviare. In both cases be sure that salad and dressing are
ice-cold.
CRAB SALAD
may be prepared like lobster salad.
SOFT-SHELL CRAB SALAD.
Broil, or fry, soft-shell crabs, as elsewhere directed, and serve
cold on lettuce with mayonnaise or tartare sauce.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 309
SARDINE SALAD.
One box of sardines, two bunches of celery, mayonnaise.
Drain the oil from the sardines by laying each fish on soft tissue-
paper, turning the sardine first on one side, then on the other,
until the grease is absorbed by the paper. Separate and wash
the celery, using only the finest, whitest stalks. Cut each piece
into inch lengths, season with pepper, salt, and vinegar.
Pile these pieces into a small pyramid upon a glass platter, and
lay the sardines about the base of the mound. Pour gently over
all a thick mayonnaise.
PLAIN FISH SALAD.
Salmon is generally the favorite fish for salad, but any good,
firm fish, like halibut, cod, pickerel, bass, etc., may be used. It
should be boiled until thoroughly cooked, but not overdone, and
allowed to get perfectly cold. The fish should then be cut into
square or oblong pieces, about two or three by three or four inches
in size, and each piece should be laid on a lettuce-leaf. Mayon-
naise dressing may be poured over it in the dish, or passed to
each person. A savory addition to a white fish is that of a sar-
dine picked fine and stirred into the mayonnaise, although this
is not desirable with salmon. Garnish with cucumber jelly.
FRENCH FISH SALAD.
Boil halibut until done, but remove it from the fire while firm
and let it get cold. Cut into pieces, as directed above, lay each
piece on a lettuce-leaf, and place on it a boneless sardine that has
been drained and skinned. Serve with mayonnaise.
FISH SALAD A L'ESPAGNOL.
Boil the fish and cut into pieces, as directed above, and ar-
range a layer of it in the bottom of a bowl lined with lettuce-
leaves. The bowl should first have been well rubbed with gar-
lic. On the fish lay shredded sweet peppers, arrange upon them
3IO THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
stoned olives and hard-boiled eggs, sliced, and serve with a
French dressing.
SALMON AND CUCUMBER SALAD (VERY FINE).
Upon a steak of cold boiled salmon, arranged on lettuce-
leaves, place a layer of very thinly sliced cucumbers and garnish
with cucumber jelly or nasturtium blossoms. Serve with French
dressing.
CHICKEN SALAD.
The meat of a cold boiled chicken, cut into small, neat pieces.
Half as much celery as you have chicken, cut into inch lengths.
One small head of lettuce. Pepper and salt to taste. One table-
spoonful of oil. One tablespoonful of vinegar. One cupful of
mayonnaise dressing.
Mix the cut chicken and celery, season and moisten with
oil and vinegar. Line a salad-bowl with lettuce, and on this
heap your salad. Pour the thick mayonnaise dressing over the
chicken and celery. In summer-time, when celery is scarce and
expensive, it may be omitted from the salad, and then it is well
to use celery-salt in seasoning. Garnish with quarters of hard-
boiled eggs, stoned olives, or capers, as you may desire.
SWEETBREAD SALAD.
As soon as the sweetbreads are brought home plunge them
into scalding water, slightly salted, and allow them to remain
there for ten minutes, then lay in iced water to whiten them.
When entirely cold, cook them for fifteen minutes in salted
boiling water, wipe them dry, and lay them on the ice until they
are cold and crisp, when they may be cut with a sharp knife into
slices. Line your salad-bowl with lettuce-leaves, lay the sliced
sweetbreads upon these, and strew thickly with mayonnaise
dressing.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 311
SWEETBREAD AND CELERY SALAD.
Prepare sweetbreads as directed in preceding recipe, cut them
into dice and mix with them an equal quantity of crisp celery
cut into pieces of the same size. Serve on lettuce with a may-
onnaise dressing.
MELON SALAD.
Lay muskmelons on the ice for five or six hours. Open them
just before they are needed, scrape out the seeds, divide the
melon into crescents, and cut off the rind and green part, leav-
ing only the fully ripe portion. Heap these pieces in a bowl
with bits of ice among them, and pour over them a French dress-
ing; mayonnaise may be used if preferred. Watermelon that
lacks sweetness may be served in the same manner.
ORANGE SALAD*
Let the oranges get very cold ; peel them and divide them into
lobes and serve on lettuce-leaves with mayonnaise dressing. This
is a rather heavy salad, but very good.
i
GRAPEFRUIT SALAD.
Prepare as you do the oranges, taking great pains to remove
every particle of the bitter white skin that coats the lobes. Serve
with or without lettuce with French dressing.
WALNUT SALAD.
Remove the shells from twenty fresh English walnuts, throw
them into boiling water, drain and skin them, and serve on let-
tuce with mayonnaise or French dressing.
WALNUT AND APPLE SALAD.
Prepare as directed in preceding recipe, and mix with them a
cupful of chopped apple. Serve with mayonnaise.
312 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CHESTNUT SALAD.
Shell French chestnuts and boil them fifteen minutes or until
soft. Remove the skins, and when cold serve them upon lettuce
with a French dressing.
CHESTNUT AND WALNUT SALAD
may be made by mixing the nuts prepared, as above, in equal
quantities and serving with a French dressing.
FRENCH FRUIT SALAD.
One head of lettuce ; one dozen English walnuts ; two dozen
white grapes, large and firm ; three bananas ; two oranges ;
half a pint of mayonnaise.
Peel the oranges, divide into lobes, and cut each lobe into
three pieces, removing the seeds. Skin with a very sharp knife
the white grapes and seed these (this is the only tedious part of
the preparation). Shell and halve the walnuts and slice the
bananas with a silver knife. Arrange the fruit on the lettuce,
rejecting all leaves but the crispest and most delicate. Cover all
with mayonnaise dressing and serve ice-cold.
SOMETHING ABOUT SAUCES.
FAMILIAR TALK*
NOTHING differentiates more decidedly the plain from the ele-
gant dinner than the sauces ; in fact, it is often the lack of the
sauce that makes the plain dinner, its presence that converts the
simple into the elegant meal.
Only lately has the American housekeeper begun to appreciate
the culinary value of the sauce ; not even yet has the unpractised
cook overcome her terror of it. The legend appended to reci-
pes that she has read with confidence, " Serve with a Holland-
aise (or a Bechamel, or a Soubise, or a Bordelaise) sauce," is to
her as a red flag that \varns her back from dangerous ground.
Not altogether in vain, however, have culinary missionaries
gone up and down through the country in person or by printed
representative preaching the gospel of good cookery. Their
labors have been already crowned with some measure of success,
and from them the American housewife is learning that closer
acquaintance with French names and dishes robs them of their
terrors, The firmly grounded dread of them has been largely
due to the unfamiliar terms in which they were conveyed, and
when these are swept away and plain, every-day " kitchen Eng-
lish " substituted, the preparation of the formidable compounds
is seen to be a very simple affair after all.
The fancied difficulty of mixing and cooking is not, however,
the only obstacle sauces ha.ve had to vanquish on the road to
popularity. They have long enjoyed a reputation of unwhole-
someness and costliness that has influenced many persons to keep
314 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
them from their tables. There is no more potent enemy than a
well-turned phrase, and the concise saying, " Plain living and
high thinking," has been responsible for many of the defects of
the American cuisine a dearth of sauces among them. (How as
sensible a race as the Yankee could place pie among the articles
of diet that help make up plain living is a problem that has never
been solved.) It is the general opinion that plain living and
sauces are incompatible. Perhaps they are, but people may
" strive mightily ' ' and yet eat generous food, and they are begin-
ning to acquire the valuable knowledge that a palatable diet is,
for good physiological reasons, more likely to be easy of diges-
tion than food which does not tempt the appetite. A well-pre-
pared sauce adds materially to the gustatory properties of a dish,
and, all things being equal, there is no reason in the world why
it should be unwholesome to a person who has a gastric apparatus
in fairly good working order.
Of course there are sauces and sauces. It is possible to make
a rich, highly spiced fat and starch-laden concoction that would
tax the digestion of an ostrich almost as severely as would the
New England doughnut or the Knickerbocker mince-pie. But
the woman of dietetic prudence does not put these before her
family as a steady diet, and she rules them entirely off the
nursery bill-of-fare. In like manner she serves upon ordinary
occasions simple sauces containing a few well-cooked ingredi-
ents and reserves the dyspepsia-producers for high-days and holi-
days when the independent citizen shows his joy in the Christ-
mas or Thanksgiving season by overeating on an assortment of
foods that only American ingenuity would have thought of com-
bining.
The other difficulty that of the expense of sauces may be
best settled by the common-sense of the housekeeper. She is not
the wise woman I think her if she has not, early in her profes-
sional career, established a system of debit and credit by which
the costly viands of one day are offset by the simpler food
of the next. It does not take her long to learn that by the
addition of a savory, though inexpensive, sauce the i cheaper
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 315
meal may be made every whit as palatable as the high-priced
one. The rolled neck of lamb is a popular dish when masked
with tomato sauce; the white sauce makes a dainty //<*/ of the
warmed-over chicken or veal, and a brown sauce, seasoned with
paprica, converts the stew from yesterday's cold beef into an ap-
petizing ragout. And so on through endless combinations which
the good cook is quick to learn and utilize, for the sauce-boat
is only rivalled by the stock-pot as a means of making a satisfy-
ing disposition of odds and ends of left-overs of soups and gravies
and vegetables.
In making sauces it must always be borne in mind that cook-
ery is an exact science. There must be no guessing at quan-
tities, no carelessness in measures. Given amounts, mixed in a
certain way, will produce a sauce of the correct consistency, and
the most experienced chef is the last one to take liberties with
the proportions of solid and liquid ingredients in a sauce.
When the proper method of combining them has once been mas-
tered the secret of all sauces is in the hands of the learner. The
most elaborate are but variations upon the original simple
formula. C. T. H.
WHITE SAUCE.
One tablespoon ful of butter. One rounded tablespoonful of
flour. There must be as much flour above the brim of the spoon
as there is below it. One half-pint of milk ; one saltspoonful of
salt ; pinch of white pepper.
Put the butter into a saucepan. As it melts add the flour, stir-
ring constantly until both are thoroughly blended. As soon as
they are mixed and begin to bubble, but before they have
browned, pour in the milk. Stir unceasingly until the sauce is
smooth and thick enough to mask the back of the spoon. Let it
cook for at least one minute after it reaches a boil, season, and it
is done. If it cannot be used at once, keep it hot over boiling
water. If it stands for some time it will probably thicken, and
in that case it will be necessary to thin it with a little boiling milk
before sending it to table.
316 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CREAM SAUCE
may be made like white sauce, by using cream instead of milk,
or by doubling the quantity of butter.
BROWN OR SPANISH SAUCE.
This, the other "mother-sauce," to use the term French
cooks apply to the two sauces upon which all others are founded,
differs little in essentials from the white sauce.
One rounded tablespoonful of flour ; one tablespoonful of but-
ter ; one-half pint of well-seasoned consomme or brown soup-
stock.
Cook the butter and flour together, as in the preceding recipe,
but instead of adding the liquid as soon as they bubble, allow
them to brown, stirring all the time. When they have reached
this stage put in the stocft, and proceed as with the white sauce.
The use of flour that has been already browned will shorten the
time required for making this sauce. To make it a rich, dark
color it is necessary to use a few drops of caramel or burnt sugar,
or, better still, it may be both colored and seasoned by the addi-
tion of a teaspoonful of kitchen-bouquet.
ROUX, WHITE AND BROWN, TO KEEP.
A valuable hint may be taken from the French cooks, who
have roux for their white and brown sauces always ready. To
prepare the white roux, cook together a quarter of a pound each
of butter and flour, as for white sauces, until they bubble. Cook
one or two minutes, but do not allow them to brown. Take
them from the fire, turn into a small jar, cover, and keep in a
cool place. To make a white sauce, melt two tablespoon fuls of
the roux in a saucepan, and add half a pint of milk. Cook until
smooth, season, and it is ready for use.
The brown roux takes longer to prepare. The same quantities
of butter and flour are used, but they must cook to a good brown
before they are taken from the fire and packed in a jar. This is
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 317
used in the same manner as the white roux. If not dark enough
the addition of the caramel or kitchen-bouquet that will bring it
to the required tint may be postponed until the roux is to be
converted into sauce.
BUTTER SAUCE.
Prepare by the recipe given for White Sauce, but add to the
roux half a pint of boiling water instead of the same quantity of
milk. This sauce is frequently known as " plain drawn butter,"
or " butter drawn in water."
BUTTER SAUCE, TARTARE.
To half a pint of butter sauce add ten drops of onion-juice, a
pinch of English mustard, wet in a few drops of vinegar, a tea-
spoonful of minced gherkins and capers, and a beaten egg, the
last very cautiously. After it is stirred in take the sauce at once
from the fire. This is very good with fish.
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE.
Haifa pint of butter sauce ; one egg ; one teaspoonful of salad
oil ; one teaspoonful of lemon-juice ; salt and white pepper.
When the butter sauce is made move it to the side of the stove,
and add to it the beaten egg, very cautiously, and stirring con-
stantly. As soon as it is all in put in the oil, drop by drop,
steadily, without ceasing to stir. Season the sauce and serve it
at once. If allowed to stand, it is very likely to curdle.
GREEN HOLLANDAISE SAUCE.
As soon as the oil is in the Hollandaise sauce stir in a little
green coloring matter, either of the French vegetable colorings,
which are perfectly harmless, or the green you have procured by
cooking a handful of spinach leaves, without water, in the inner
vessel of a double boiler, until they are tender, and then squeez-
ing them through a cloth. Be careful not to use enough to thin
the sauce.
3l8 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
BECHAMEL SAUCE, No. I. (FOR FISH.)
One heaping tablespoonful of flour and one of butter cooked
to a roux ; half a pint of fish-stock, made by boiling half a pound
of any good fish in a quart of water with a bay-leaf, a slice each
of onion and carrot, a stalk of celery, and two or three pepper-
corns. Boil slowly until the liquid is reduced about one-half,
strain the liquid, return it to the fire and boil it down to the re-
quired amount. Instead of the fish, the trimmings and bones of
a fish may be used.
One gill of cream ; salt and white pepper to taste.
Pour the fish-stock upon the roux, stir until it thickens, add
the cream, season, and take at once from the 'fire. In sauces
where cream is thus added it is well to slightly increase the
amount of flour used in the roux (as has been done in this
recipe), lest the sauce should be too thin.
BECHAMEL SAUCE, No. 2. (FOR MEAL.)
Two tablespoon fu Is of butter ; one heaping tablespoonful of
flour, half a pint of white stock, made from veal or chicken and
very well seasoned. The stock should have had an onion, a bay-
leaf, a piece of carrot, and a stalk of celery cooked in it and
strained out before it is used for the sauce. One gill of cream.
Proceed as with Bechamel Fish Sauce.
SUPREME SAUCE.
Half a pint of Bechamel sauce ; yolks of two eggs ; one tea-
spoonful of minced parsley ; salt and white pepper.
Stir in the yolks, drop by drop, take from the fire, add the
parsley and seasoning.
Especially good with chicken croquettes.
ALLEMANDE SAUCE
is made like the above, except that a dozen chopped mush-
rooms are put in just before the eggs, and a half teaspoonful of
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 319
onion-juice and a grate of a nutmeg are added after the sauce
comes from the fire.
EGG SAUCE.
Half a pint of white sauce ; one hard-boiled egg, chopped
fine ; one raw egg, beaten light ; salt and pepper to taste.
Add the minced egg to the white sauce, and before it returns
to the boil stir in slowly the raw egg. Season, take from the
fire immediately and serve. This may be used with boiled or
baked fish, boiled mutton or chicken.
CURRY EGG SAUCE.
One tablespoonful of flour ; one tablespoonful of butter ; one-
half teaspoon ful of onion-juice ; one-half pint of milk ; one hard-
boiled egg, chopped fine ; one scant teaspoonful of curry-pow-
der ; two tablespoon fuls of cream.
Brown the onion lightly in the butter. Stir in the flour and
the curry-powder, and when all are blended, the milk. Cook
until thick and smooth, add the egg, and after one minute the
cream. Salt to taste, and serve at once.
This sauce is especially fine with any boiled white fish and is
also good with boiled fowl, if rice is served with it.
ANCHOVY EGG SAUCE.
One tablespoonful each of butter and flour ; half a pint of
milk ; one hard-boiled egg, minced ; one teaspoonful of anchovy
paste ; a tiny pinch of cayenne.
Cook the butter and flour together, put in the anchovy paste
and the milk, and stir steadily, rubbing the lumps from the an-
chovy paste with the back of the spoon, until you have a smooth
thick sauce. Add the chopped egg and pepper, and serve. A
couple of tablespoonfuls of thick cream is an improvement. This
is a good as well as an ornamental sauce for boiled white fish
like halibut or fresh cod.
32O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
OYSTER SAUCE. (No. J.)
One tablespoonful each of butter and flour ; one gill of cream ;
twelve small oysters, cooked three minutes in one gill of boiling
oyster-liquor ; half a teaspoonful of lemon-juice ; salt and white
pepper to taste ; tiny pinch of mace.
Cook the oysters, strain the liquor, put it with the cream, and
turn both upon the roux made from the flour and butter. When
the sauce thickens put in the oysters, which should have been
chopped coarsely, add the lemon-juice and seasoning, and serve
the sauce immediately before the oysters have time to toughen.
It is hardly possible to be too sparing with the mace. A very
few grains will suffice.
OYSTER SAUCE. (No. 2.)
Make as directed in the foregoing recipe, substituting milk for
the cream, and add a whipped egg at the same time with the
oysters. Always remember that an egg is to be poured in almost
drop by drop, or it will curdle.
CLAM SAUCE
may be made by either of the recipes given for oyster sauce.
LOBSTER SAUCE. (No. J.)
One -half pint of butter sauce ; three tablespoon fuls of boiled
lobster-meat, minced fine ; one tablespoonful of lobster-coral
rubbed to a paste with as much butter ; one teaspoonful of
lemon-juice ; salt to taste ; pinch of cayenne.
Have the butter-sauce boiling hot, and stir into it the coral
paste until it is smoothly blended with the sauce. Add the lob-
ster-meat, the salt and pepper, and, last, the lemon-juice.
LOBSTER SAUCE. (No. 2.)
One tablespoonful each of flour and butter made into a ronx ;
one-half pint of milk ; one gill of fish-stock ; one-half cupful
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 321
of minced lobster-meat ; salt, red pepper, and a teaspoonful
of lemon-juice.
Add the lobster-meat and seasoning to the sauce made from
the roux, milk, and fish-stock.
LOBSTER SAUCE. (No. 3.)
To half a pint of Hollandaise sauce add half a cupful of boiled
lobster, chopped fine, and a tablespoonful of the coral rubbed
to a paste with a tablespoonful of butter. Season with a little
cayenne.
CUCUMBER SAUCE. (No. J.)
Peel and chop one large or two small cucumbers. There
should be a cupful of the mince. Turn it into a colander, let
the liquid drain from it for a few minutes, and put it into a bowl
that has been rubbed lightly with garlic. Add a tiny pinch of
soda to half a pint of cream, whip it to a froth. Season the cu-
cumbers with half a teaspoonful of onion-juice, salt, a dash of
cayenne pepper, and one teaspoonful of sharp vinegar. Mix the
cucumber and whipped cream together and serve immediately.
This is delicious with fish.
CUCUMBER SAUCE. (No. 2.)
Add a finely chopped cucumber to half a pint of Hollandaise
sauce after this comes from the fire.
CUCUMBER SAUCE. (No. 3.)
Peel and chop two cucumbers, drain them, put them into a
bowl that has been rubbed with garlic, and cover them with a
French dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, half a tablespoonful
of vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a saltspoonful of
white pepper.
TOMATO SAUCE. (No. J.)
One tablespoonful each of butter and flour ; one-half pint of
tomato-liquor in which has been cooked for half an hour a slice
21
322 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
of onion, a bay leaf, and a little parsley ; a bit of soda about the
size of a pea added to the tomato after it has been cooked and
strained ; salt and pepper to taste.
Proceed as with white sauce. If the tomato is very tart, a
scant teaspoonful of sugar may be stirred into it.
TOMATO SAUCE. (No. 2.)
Four firm tomatoes, or the solid part of a can of tomatoes. If
the former are used, they must be cut in half and the seeds
scooped out.
One teaspoonful of onion-juice ; two tablespoonfuls of salad
oil ; a scant teaspoonful of salt ; a little cayenne ; two teaspoon-
fuls of vinegar.
Chop the tomato fine. Rub a small bowl with garlic and
mix in it the oil, the onion-juice, the salt, pepper, and vinegar.
Pour this dressing upon the minced tomato and it is ready.
Good for cold meats or for fish.
MINT SAUCE.
Three tablespoonfuls of mint, minced fine ; three tablespoon-
fuls of granulated sugar ; four tablespoonfuls of vinegar ; a little
white pepper.
Bruise the mint with the sugar, and pour on the vinegar
slowly, stirring until the sugar is well dissolved. Serve cold.
SORREL SAUCE.
One cupful of garden sorrel, washed, stemmed, and chopped ;
one cupful of boiling water ; yolk of an egg, beaten light ; two
tablespoonfuls of butter ; one heaping teaspoonful of browned
flour } salt, and a little red pepper.
Melt the butter, stir in the flour, and when they have blended,
the sorrel. When this is smoking hot, pour in the boiling
water, cook three minutes, season, and add drop by drop the
egg, beating the sauce hard all the time. Serve at once. This
is very good with roast beef, mutton, or veal.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 323
HORSERADISH SAUCE.
One half-pint of cream sauce ; two tablespoon fu Is of grated
and drained horseradish ; one gill of whipped cream ; one tea-
spoonful of vinegar ; salt to taste and a pinch of cayenne.
Stir the horseradish into the hot sauce, and let it become
thoroughly heated. Add the vinegar and seasoning, take from
the fire, stir the whipped cream in lightly and serve.
CAPER SAUCE.
Half-pint of butter sauce ; one tablespoonful of capers ; one-
half teaspoonful of onion-juice.
Cook the onion-juice and capers three minutes in the sauce.
SOUBISE OR ONION SAUCE.
One-half pint of white sauce ; two medium-sized onions,
boiled soft and chopped fine ; salt and white pepper to taste.
Stir the onions into the sauce, boil up once and season.
CELERY SAUCE
may be made in the same way, substituting stewed and minced
celery for the onion.
CHESTNUT SAUCE.
One-half pint of brown, or Spanish sauce ; two cupfuls of boiled,
peeled, and mashed Spanish chestnuts ; salt and pepper.
Into the brown sauce stir the chestnut meal and cook three
minutes. Season, and if necessary, thin the sauce with boiling
water or stock to the consistency of very thick double cream.
MAITRE EKHOTEL SAUCE.
One cupful of butter ; one tablespoonful of lemon-juice ; one
tablespoonful of finely minced parsley ; a little white pepper.
Beat the butter to a cream with a fork, whip in the parsley,
lemon-juice, and pepper, and set on the ice half an hour before
serving.
324 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
BREAD SAUCE.
Three tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs, fine and white ; one
tablespoonful bread-crumbs fried to a light brown crisp in a little
butter; one cupful of milk, one small onion, and one bay-leaf;
one tablespoonful of butter; salt and white pepper to taste, and
a grate of a nutmeg.
Boil the onion and the bay-leaf in the milk for ten minutes,
strain them out, put in the white crumbs and cook three min-
utes, stir' in the butter and the seasoning, boil up once and take
from the fire. Turn into a sauceboat and strew the fried crumbs
over the top.
MUSHROOM SAUCE.
Make half a pint of brown or Spanish sauce, using one gill of
consomme and one gill of mushroom liquor instead of half a pint
of consomme. To this add two tablespoonfuls of sherry or
Madeira, a cupful of champignons, each one of which has been
cut into three pieces, and cook three minutes. If fresh mushrooms
are used add them and the wine to a half pint of ordinary
Spanish sauce, set the saucepan at the side of the fire and sim-
mer for ten minutes, or until the mushrooms, which should have
been peeled and cut into small pieces, are tender. Season with
salt and pepper. This sauce will look richer if colored with a
few drops of caramel or half a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet.
BORDELAISE SAUCE.
Half a pint of brown sauce ; one teaspoonful of onion-juice ;
four tablespoonfuls of claret ; salt and pepper.
Cook together very slowly for twenty minutes.
CHATEAUBRIAND SAUCE.
Three gills of Bordelaise sauce ; one tablespoonful of butter ;
one tablespoonful of flour ; one teaspoonful of lemon-juice ; one
teaspoonful of minced parsley.
Cook the butter and flour together, add the Bordelaise sauce,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 325
stir until smooth, put in lemon-juice and parsley, simmer five
minutes and serve.
BEARNAISE SAUCE.
Yolks of four eggs; four tablespoon fuls of salad oil or melted
butter; one tablespoon ful of tarragon vinegar ; two tablespoon-
fuls of hot water ; salt and a little cayenne.
Set a small bowl in a pan of boiling water and turn the beaten
yolks into it ; stir in the oil, almost as slowly as for mayonnaise,
and then the boiling water in the same way. By the time they
are all in the sauce should be thick arid smooth. Take it from
the fire, stir in the vinegar, salt, and pepper, and set in a cool
place.
This sauce is fine for baked or fried fish, for lobster, shrimp,
and crab croquettes, and for steaks and chops.
CRANBERRY SAUCE. (No. J.)
One quart of cranberries ; one pound of sugar ; one-half pint
of water. Put the cranberries over the fire with the cold water,
and let them cook until broken to pieces. Add the sugar, cook
until this melts, take it from the fire and set aside to cool.
CRANBERRY SAUCE. (No. 2.)
Proceed as in the preceding recipe until the berries are cooked
to pieces. Then take them from the fire, rub them through a
colander, return the pulp to the stove, add the sugar, cook until
it dissolves, and set the sauce aside to cool.
CRANBERRY SAUCE. (No. 3.)
Put a quart of cranberries over the fire in a double boiler,
adding no water to the berries. Cook until these are well broken.
Squeeze the juice through a cloth, measure it and allow sugar in
the proportion of a pound of this to a pint of the liquid. Put
the latter back on the fire, bring to a quick boil, stir in the
sugar, let it dissolve and the jelly boil up once. Turn into a
mould wet with cold water, and set in a cool place to form.
This is rather cranberry jelly than sauce.
326 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CURRANT JELLY SAUCE.
One-half pint of brown sauce ; four tablespoonfuls of currant
jelly.
To the heated brown sauce, add the jelly, arid stir until this
is melted and incorporated with the sauce. Serve with mutton,
poultry, or game.
VELOUTE SAUCE.
Half-pint of Bechamel sauce, No. 2 ; one gill of mushroom
liquor ; a tiny pinch of nutmeg and the same of cayenne.
Add the other ingredients to the sauce, and let it cook, very
slowly, over boiling water, at the back of the stove, for fifteen
minutes. Strain, and heat again before using.
SAUCE ROBERT.
One small onion, sliced ; one tablespoonful of butter ; one
tablespoonful of brown flour ; half pint of stock ; one teaspoon-
ful of vinegar; one teaspoonful of made mustard; one teaspoon-
ful of anchovy paste.
Brown the onion in the butter, add the browned flour, and to
this roux the stock. When it boils, put in the other ingredients,
which should have been mixed together.
CHAUDFROID SAUCE.
One half-pint of well-seasoned Bechamel sauce No. 2 ; one-
half ounce of gelatine soaked in a little water until tender.
Stir the moistened gelatine into the hot sauce, and when it is
well blended take it from the fire, adding a little more salt and
pepper if necessary. This is to garnish cold chicken and turkey
and to use in place of the regular aspic. Set it on ice, and if it
does not grow firm after a time, warm it and add a trifle more
gelatine.
TARTARE SAUCE.
One-half pint of mayonnaise dressing (see salads) ; one small
teaspoonful of English mustard made to a paste with a little oil ;
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
one tablespoonful of minced parsley; one teaspoonful of chopped
cucumber pickles ; one teaspoonful of chopped capers ; ten drops
of onion-juice.
Stir all well together and serve in a pitcher, bowl, or sauce-
boat, with a small ladle or spoon.
Especially good for fish, lobster, crabs, etc.
MUSTARD SAUCE, OR "MADE MUSTARD."
Two tablespoonfuls of English mustard ; one teaspoonful each
of salt and white sugar ; one half teaspoonful of white pepper ;
one saltspoonful of celery-salt ; two teaspoonfuls of salad oil and
vinegar at discretion. Rub a small bowl with garlic and mix
all the ingredients thoroughly. The sauce should be just fluid
enough to pour easily. If covered, it will keep some time.
Make several hours before using.
BREAD.
FAMILIAR TALK.
SWEET, wholesome bread, pure milk, and pure water, are reck-
oned among the commonest blessings of every-day life. The ap-
plicant for board in a hotel or " respectable family'' is stared
at in surprised disdain when he stipulates for one, or all three.
Every ''establishment," high-priced or low, is expected, ac-
cording to the proprietor, to provide these things honest in
the sight of men, however weak he may be in the matter of
entrees, and no matter how grasping he is reputed to be as to
extras.
In a private house the bread, at least, is taken for granted.
The milkman may be responsible for the fluid he dispenses, and
the water-service of city or town for what the hydrant brings
into the house, but she for whom our Saxon ancestors invented
the significant name of " loaf-giver" is guarantee for the qual-
ity of the daily bread she breaks to her household. In general,
she wears the responsibility lightly. If the bread " turns out
well " at the semi-weekly baking, she is satisfied. She is also
resigned to the "turn" in the direction of acidity and to the
slack-bake, and measurably submissive when the dough has taken
cold, and the quartette of batches she "reckons as about
enough " for her family until next baking-day, when drawn from
the oven and set up on edge in a row at the back of the table to
cool, suggest to the college-bred son attracted to the kitchen
by the scent of hot loaves " a requiem in four flats."
" Luck has a deal to do with bread-making," soliloquizes the
loaf- giver. " But I find that, good or bad, it is all eaten up."
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 329
One ultra-parsimonious house-mother once told me that she
comforted herself when her baking turned out badly by thinking
that poor bread went farther than good.
Even the conscientious house- wife is less critical of her own
and her cook's ill-success in this important department of do-
mestic labor than of streaked cake and watery potatoes, not to
mention liquid jellies and curdled custards. In town there is
the baker to fall back upon if the product of the oven be abso-
lutely uneatable, and every country store keeps bread (save the
mark) ! There are thousands of families in this day where what
is known at the South as " light bread," at the North as " home-
made loaf," is never mixed or baked. The staff of life is repre-
sented to parents and children by the unnaturally light bricks
and twists left at the door, or brought around the corner from the
counter where they were laid smoking-hot early in the day. The
dust of street and shop, and bacteria shaken from the clothing
and drifting down with the breath of customers, have settled
upoii them ; flies have crawled over them ; they have absorbed
damps and odors, and lost what freshness they had while new.
The seller wraps the loaf up loosely in brown paper, the small
boy, hurried off by his mother from marbles or hop-scotch, tucks
it under his arm, rushes home and shies it upon the kitchen table.
If it skate off upon the floor, it is only bread. A wipe of a soiled
towel sets all right before it is sliced for the next meal.
To people who have been habitually nourished upon hon-
est home-made loaves and flaky rolls, such stuff as I have mildly
described is an abomination, analyzed loathingly as a compound
of chaff, alum, and ammonia, upon which a sparrow would
starve. By comparison with the fragrant succulence of the
"genuine article," the best quality of French bread even the
Vienna roll becomes at length tasteless and unsatisfying. It
is a domestic truism that one never wearies of good home-made
bread. The stale crusts thereof have more flavor and nutritive
power than the baker's loaf.
That there are cooks who can never learn to make really ex-
cellent bread is an accepted proverb. I have a sickening mem-
330 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ory of a month passed in a household where this chronic inabil-
ity was condoned by an otherwise strict mistress. Delilah, the
colored queen of the kitchen, had mastered every other secret of
excellent cookery. Her muffins, griddle-cakes, batter-bread,
and " pones " were delicious of their kind. Three or four va-
rieties of these smoked every morning and evening upon the
bountiful board. It was a warm summer, and a stomach used
to abstinence in the matter of hot viscidity, especially when the
owner thereof came down languid and headachy to breakfast af-
ter a torrid night, rebelled actively. At the end of a fortnight,
I wrote secretly home for a loaf of cold bread, and devoured it
surreptitiously between meals in my own chamber. Delilah died,
as she had lived, in the complacent persuasion that "some folks
can't make light bread nohow."
My own experience in altering the views of cooks upon this
point has been pleasingly successful. The "toughest case"
came to me when I had established the fact in my own mind
that I had served my generation long enough in the matter of
training would-be cooks. Henceforward I would engage none
but such as were already grounded in the faith and reasonably
skilful in the practice of the culinary art. Anastasia Brady
I 1 filled the bill ' ' in much the same style as Delilah had in her
day. She deserved the description she had given of herself as
" a most an illigant soup-maker ; " her management of meats and
vegetables left nothing to be desired ; in sweets she was satisfac-
tory; her "pop-overs" melted in the mouth; and she had
sense enough to round, not to heap, the teaspoon with Cleve-
land's Baking Powder in manufacturing quick biscuits. Her
semi-weekly loaves were solid and stiff, and stuck to the teeth
when masticated. I broke my rule, and prepared, nothing
doubting, to teach her the art of bread-making. She was will-
ing ; she was ready-witted ; in all things else she was dexterous.
She repeated the directions I gave her with intelligent delibera-
tion, and returned cheerfully to her work. I had instructed her
verbally how to raise the dough with potato-sponge. Her next
production looked like a lax variety of the rock known as " pud-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 331
ding-stone," or a pale species of fruit-cake. It was lumpy, it
was heavy, it was clammy. It went, untasted, to the pigs. I
never inquired if they ate it.
I tied on a broad apron and descended in person to the
kitchen. Investing the operation with such decent solemnity as
might befit a religious rite, I made potato-sponge, set it, in due
season worked in a measured quantity of flour ; after the batch
was puffy and had cracked all over the floury surface, I divided
it into loaves, put them into pans ; waited to see them light ; set
them with my own hands in the oven, and presto ! as the jugglers
say, Bread ! It was soft, spongy, and delicious, and did not go
far. In thirty-six hours the bread-box was empty, and Anastasia
craved earnestly the privilege of making the next batch herself.
I superintended the work in each stage. Result again Bread.
Happy Anastasia now threw away the corks, *>., my personal
supervision, and plunged boldly into the deep water of inde-
pendent action. I did not see the sponge, or the earlier form of
the dough it was expected to raise. Returning home at eleven
o'clock at night from an all day and evening absence, I discovered
Anastasia sitting up with her, as yet, unbaked dough. It was as
flatly lifeless as the poor girl's spirits, after twenty-four hours of
trial and waiting.
" I'm allers that onlooky wid me bread, mem ! " sobbed the
unhappy experimentalist. " There's a spell on me."
My own next lesson was from what, compared with my thir-
ty odd years of housewifery, was very like teaching out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings. A young housekeeper with a
head upon her shoulders, and eyes in the head, with a brain back
of them, told me of a similar case, and how she conquered cir-
cumstances. She had invented a " bread -maki ng-made-easy "
process for the benefit of such spell-bound, unlucky specimens
as my latest incumbent, having had one of the same kind to
deal with. She gave me the recipe, and I straightway repaired
to Anastasia's dominions. Her brow blackened at the word
"bread." She was mortified, sore, resentful of destiny, and
obstinately hopeless as to further endeavors.
332 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
"Listen ! " I said, gently. " Here is something I want to
try. It is never too late to improve one's self in anything. I
am an old housekeeper, but I learn something every day."
At my order she sifted two quarts of best family flour into a
bowl with a half teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of white
sugar. She heated almost to scalding a pint of milk, with a
heaping teaspoonful of butter ; added to it a pint of boiling
water, and let the mixture become lukewarm before pouring it
into a hole made in the sifted flour. With milk and water went
half a cupful of blood-warm water, in which half a cake of com-
pressed yeast had been dissolved, until not a rough grain was to
be seen. The mass was worked with a wooden spoon to a soft
dough, then turned upon a board and kneaded faithfully for ten
minutes before it was set to rise in a bread-pan with a perforated
cover and left in a warm corner. In six hours it was ready to
be made into loaves. The dough was divided into three equal
parts ; each kneaded for five minutes and put into a well-
greased pan ; a clean cloth was thrown over all and they were
left alone for another hour before baking.
The result was eminently satisfactory, and henceforward we
had sweet, light, wholesome bread as long as Anastasia lived sin-
gle and with us. I hope and believe, that, as a married house-
keeper, she continues to esteem it less troublesome, as it is cer-
tainly more economical and nutritious to spend half an hour
twice, or even three times, a week in making bread, than to send
' ' just around the corner ' ' for refined sawdust.
Another easy recipe for the family loaf has been laid upon my
desk since I began this. A housekeeper writes :
" I had a horror of the trouble and time spent in bread -mak-
ing until a neighbor showed me how to overcome my difficulties.
I get half-a-gill of baker's yeast, or dissolve half a cake of com-
pressed yeast in warm water and put it into a glass quart jar. Into
this I pour a pint of the water in which I boil potatoes for dinner
(lukewarm), and leave it to work in a pretty warm place. In a
few hours it is all white and frothy and running over the top of
the jar. I work up two quarts of flour, a little salted, with it.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 333
Sometimes I take more flour and add the rinsings of the quart
jar, using about half a cupful of warm water for this. I stir it up
well, and only knead it long enough to get it into shape ; cover
it up in the bread-bowl, and when it is light, cut into loaves
and set to raise. My bread is delightful as all my family will
tell you. You must have the best family flour for it. Won't you
try my way ? ' '
I have not as yet but I should like to have some discour-
aged housemother give both recipes a fair test, and report the
result. M. H.
YEAST.
Almost every hamlet has now a "store" where compressed
yeast can be bought nominally fresh daily. One of many
threadbare jests at the commuter's expense is that of the man
who arose suddenly in a crowded suburban train and called out,
as to an acquaintance at the far end of the car: " O, I say, did
you get that yeast-cake for your wife?" Forty out of fifty
startled commuters instinctively put their hands to their pockets.
"Back in the country" homemade yeast is still a family
" must have." Dried yeast-cakes cannot be depended upon and
yeast powders are a delusive snare of worse than uncertain age.
The honest, genuine article is easily made, and the peace of
mind it insures is worth ten times the time and trouble expended
upon it.
HOP YEAST.
Boil six medium-sized potatoes, peeled and quartered, and a
handful of dried hops the latter tied up in a bit of mosquito net-
ting in two quarts of water, cold when they go in and heated
rapidly to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are soft and begin to
break. Drain them in a colander, returning hops and water to
the fire, and rub the potatoes through the holes in the colander
into a bowl. Work into them while hot four tablespoonfuls of
flour and two of white sugar, moistening, as you go on, with the
boiling hop-tea left on the fire. Squeeze the bag to get out
the last strong drops. Let the mixture become almost cold
334 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
just blood-warm before adding four tablespoonfuls of lively
yeast or a yeast cake dissolved in warm water. Turn all into an
open wide-mouthed jar to " work," and set in a moderately
warm place. When the bubbles cease to rise, bottle and cork
tightly, or put into jars with close tops, and keep in the refrig-
erator or a cold cellar.
When you wish to use it, send to the cellar or refrigerator for
it, pouring out what is needed, and recorking, or sealing, with-
out bringing the jar into the kitchen. It will keep good as long
as it lasts, if guarded in this way. There is no better yeast than
that made by this recipe, brought from England a hundred years
ago.
HOME-MADE BREAD SET WITH A "SPONGE."
In winter this is the surer method of insuring good light, sweet
bread. The best yeast is coy when the thermometer runs low, and
the " best family flour " has then moods and variations of tenses.
Potato sponge is made by boiling and mashing potatoes (say
four potatoes if you mean to use three quarts of flour) and
working into them while hot a tablespoonful of butter, or of cot-
tolene, and the same quantity of sugar. Stir until smooth, thin-
ning with three cups of lukewarm water. Beat into this two
cupfuls (a pint) of sifted flour, and lastly, four tablespoonfuls of
yeast, or half of a yeast-cake which has been dissolved in warm
water. Throw a cloth over the sponge, or if your bread-bowl
has a perforated cover, put that on, and set to rise four hours in
summer, six hours, or overnight, in winter. In summer, add a
little soda to the sponge.
When ready for use the sponge should be light and the sur-
face rough with air-bubbles. Have ready a dry, clean bread-
tray or bowl, sift two quarts and a pint of flour into it with a
tablespoonful of fine salt. Make a deep hollow in the middle
and pour into this the sponge. Work down the flour into it
with a spoon as long as you can use it easily, then flour your
hands and plunge them in.
Mix the dough as soft as it can be handled with any degree
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 335
of comfort. Stiff dough does not rise readily, and stiff bread
is unpleasant to sight, teeth, taste, and stomach. Rinse out
the bowl in which the sponge was set with warm water, and add
this to the dough if too stiff. When you can manage it, begin
to knead. Scrape away all the dough from the sides or bottom
of the tray or bowl, sprinkling flour beneath to prevent re-attach-
ment. Make a ball of the dough and knead it with your fists
and the balls of the palms, always toward the middle of the ball,
but turning and tossing this that the kneading may reach every
part. Fifteen or twenty minutes should give you an elastic
mass, that rebounds from a blow, and fills up the holes made by
your finger the instant it is withdrawn. Form the dough into
a round, firm ball in the bottom of the bowl, sprinkle flour over
the top, put on the perforated cover, or throw a cloth over the
bowl, and set in a moderately warm place out of possible draughts,
to rise. It should swell to double the original bulk in four
hours in summer perhaps sooner. In winter give it half as
long again. For the second kneading use a pastry-board.
Flour it evenly all over, take out the risen dough when you have
coated your hands, and toss it upon the board. Knead rapidly
and vigorously for ten minutes. It will be easier work this
time, since the elastic dough responds readily to your treatment,
seeming to rise under your very eyes. Make it into as many
loaves as you desire, and set for the final rising in single pans,
well-greased, or mould into oblong rolls and set several, close to-
gether, in one large pan. Cover with a light cloth and let the
loaves rise for one hour longer. Each loaf should double its
size, so do not fill the pans more than half-full.
Now comes what is really the crucial test of good bread-mak-
ing to wit, the baking. Ovens have tempers of their own,
contingent upon fire, wind, and weather, and sometimes, as
many a grievously tormented cook will aver, " upon just nothing
at all but natural contrariness." Study your range and calculate
shrewdly upon its disposition, its " tricks and its manners,"
before you undertake to bake a batch of bread. Brains and
patience carry the day with the most perverse conditions.
336 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Have an even fire. To replenish the grate while the bread is
" in " is downright ruin. It is almost as bad to begin baking
with a low fire and allow it to come up very rapidly. Put a
tablespoonful of flour upon a tin plate and set it at the back of
the oven before putting in your loaves. Should it be lightly
colored in five or six minutes, put in the bread. When it has
risen to the edge of the pan a fact you must ascertain by furtive
peeps, holding the door open a little way and closing quickly
cover with brown or white paper of light weight. Never use
printed paper. This will prevent the premature formation of a
hard crust which would effectually check a further rise, and leave
heavy streaks in the loaf. Fifteen minutes before drawing the
bread from the oven, uncover and brown. One hour should suf-
fice for a loaf containing a quart of flour.
Reverse the pan upon a clean cloth, and prop the loaves deftly
upon one edge that the air may get at all sides. When quite
cold, put into the bread-box and cover with a thin cloth. This
same bread-box or crock should be scalded and sunned before the
new baking goes into it.
These are the fundamental rules for mixing, kneading, and bak-
ing bread. Once mastered, they make comparatively easy the
various processes of making fancy breads, biscuits, etc.
GRAHAM BREAD.
Make a sponge as for white bread, and when light pour it into
a tray into which you have sifted two parts of Graham flour, one
scant third of white, and to make up the full measure, a handful
of Indian meal, with a teaspoonful of salt. Mix and knead as
you would white bread, but add for two quarts of the flour half
a cupful of molasses. Make the dough very soft and set it to
rise. It will not come up so readily as all-white flour would, so
give it half an hour longer. Knead again when it has doubled
the original bulk, and set it down in round pans for the last ris-
ing. Bake in a steady oven, and a little longer than you would
bake white loaves. Be watchful that it does not burn.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 337
WHOLE-WHEAT FLOUR*
A word explanatory of the term is expedient here. Without
entering into technicalities of chemistry or dietetics, we set the
case before the non-scientific reader in the words of A. H.
Church, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in the Royal
Academy of Arts in London.
"Whole wheaten meal" [which we call "flour"] "is now
specially prepared by grinding the whole grain without effecting
any subsequent separation of the resulting product into various
grades according to degrees of fineness or coarseness. A true
brown bread or true wheat-meal bread may be obtained with
this meal. In such bread all the nutrients of the grain will be
present, the albuminoids, the oil or fat, and the mineral matters
existing in larger proportions than in bread made from fine white,
or even from * seconds ' flour. The nitrogenous matters which
are not albuminoid will, of course, also be present in larger pro-
portion in the whole-meal bread."
The best brands of whole-wheat flour in this country are made
from the grain after the outer husk or bran has been removed.
It is hardly necessary to say to the intelligent housewife that
the white family flour in popular use is three-quarters starch with
a fraction of malt sugar. Our chemist remarks, without com-
ment, that "one pound of fine wheaten flour cannot produce
more than one and two-third ounces of the dry, nitrogenous
substance of muscle or flesh."
We eliminate by " bolting," the most valuable elements of
this, our principal farinaceous food.
The introduction of whole-wheat flour into our kitchens is the
result of a resolute effort on the part of our wisest lecturers upon
food and the methods of preparing the same for human con-
sumption, to open the eyes of parents and caterers to the neces-
sity of building up natural forces by natural agencies. In other
words to teach those who feed growing bodies and sustain the
forces of bodies already matured how to supply us with food con-
venient for us.
22
338 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Bread made of whole-wheat flour is palatable as well as whole-
some and deserves its growing popularity.
WHOLE-WHEAT FLOUR BREAD.
Break up a cake of compressed yeast in half a cupful of luke-
warm water ; or if you use yeast, measure half a cupful into a
bowl. Into another vessel pour two cupfuls of milk, and upon
this a like quantity of boiling water. Stir into the liquid a tea-
spoonful of salt and one of sugar, and let it stand until it is a
little more than blood- warm, when add to the yeast. Mix with
this a quart of whole-wheat flour, or enough to make a good bat-
ter. Beat with a wooden spoon up-strokes that touch bottom
every time for five or six minutes. The batter should be as light
as a souffle. Begin now to beat in more flour and keep it up
until you have a soft dough that you can manage with floured
hands. Flour your kneading-board, put the dough upon it.
Knead ten minutes, and set to rise with a light cloth thrown
over it. It should be light in three hours. Knead quickly for
five minutes, make into loaves, and when these are light, bake, if
the loaves are small, three-quarters of an hour, if large, one hour.
BOSTON BROWN BREAD.
Set a sponge overnight as directed in recipe for white bread.
In the evening sift into your bread.-bowl two cupfuls of Graham,
or of rye flour with the same quantity of Indian meal, two tea-
spoonfuls of salt and an even teaspoonful of soda. Mix soft with
the sponge and when all the batter is in, beat in well four table-
spoonfuls of molasses. Knead thoroughly, and let it rise six hours.
Knead again, make into loaves, and set in greased pans for another
hour's rising. Bake from three to four hours in a slow oven.
This is the old New England " rye' n' Injun " bread that used
to stay in the brick oven all of Saturday night.
STEAMED BOSTON BROWN BREAD.
Sift together into a bowl a pint each of yellow corn-meal, of
white flour, and of Graham, and pour upon them a pint of boil-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 339
ing water. Warm a pint of milk slightly and dissolve in it a
level teaspoonful of soda, with a like quantity of salt, lastly a
small cupful of molasses. Pour this gradually upon the scalded
meal and flour, beat hard, for ten minutes, and pour into a round
mould that has a close top. Set in a pot of boiling water and
cook steadily for three hours. Take off the cover, set the mould
in a shallow pan of hot water and leave in a good oven half an
hour to dry out and brown.
QUICK BOSTON BROWN BREAD.
Two cupfuls of Indian meal ; one cupful of flour ; one small
cupful of molasses ; one pint of milk ; one teaspoonful of salt and
one of saleratus. Mix well and rapidly. Steam three hours.
Eat while warm, and break instead of cutting it.
BRAIDED BREAD.
Set the sponge and make the dough as already directed.
When the dough has doubled its first size, knead and divide into
six equal parts. Roll each piece lightly into a long rope one
inch in diameter, handling as little as possible. When you have
six strands of equal width and length make them into two loose,
three-strand braids ; pinch the ends together to keep them from
untwisting, and let them rise for an hour. Brush them with
beaten white of an egg before they go into the oven. Bake
about forty-five minutes.
HORSE-SHOE ROLLS OR CRESCENTS.
Roll a good bread -dough into a sheet less than half-an-inch
thick, cut this into squares five or six inches wide, and this again
into triangles. Roll each three-cornered bit up, from the base or
broadest part, bringing the point on the outside of the roll, and
curve the points toward one another, making a pointed horseshoe.
Lay in a floured baking-pan ; let them rise fifteen minutes, brush
with white of egg and bake.
340 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
A little practice will enable you to grace your table with cres-
cents as comely as those bought from the baker.
GRISINL
Make a good bread-dough and before kneading for the second
rising, work in a tablespoonful of melted butter for each quart of
flour represented in the dough. After it has risen for the second
time roll it into a sheet less than half an inch thick. If the
quantity be large divide the dough into sections before rolling it,
that you may handle it conveniently. Cut this thin sheet into
strips half an inch wide and eight or ten inches long. Roll each
of these lightly with a cool hand into sticks not larger than a
cedar pencil ; lay within a floured baking- pan, let them stand
covered for ten minutes, and bake in a moderate oven to a pale
brown.
FINGER ROLLS
are made in the same way, but are twice as thick and only
half as long as the Grisini. One or both are indispensable at
luncheon parties and high-teas. Pass with bouillon and tea.
VIENNA ROLLS.
Set a sponge and make out dough as before instructed. Work
into it after kneading twenty minutes a tablespoonful of warmed
butter for each quart of flour and let it rise four hours. Knead
again and let it stand two hours longer. Then make into balls
twice .as large as a walnut ; set them in a baking-pan, but not
near enough to each other to touch, and when they have risen to
twice the first size, make a clean gash in each an inch deep.
Brush with milk and sugar or with white of egg and bake.
TEA ROLLS. (No. J.)
Sift a quart of flour into a bowl with one teaspoonful of fine
salt and rub or chop into it a tablespoonful of butter. Dissolve a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 341
third of a yeast-cake in warm water and stir it into a cupful of
blood -warm milk (the fresher the better) with a good tablespoon-
ful of sugar. Pour this into the hollowed flour end mix into a
thick sponge. Cover and leave to rise for six hours. Stir it up
well then with a spoon, and two hours later turn out upon your
kneading-board, add just enough flour to enable you to work it
and knead it two minutes. Cut into round cakes, butter lightly
one-half of each and fold this over upon the other, making a semi-
circular piece. Let them rise for two hours, and bake for twenty
minutes in a brisk oven.
TEA ROLLS. (No. 2.)
Rub or chop a tablespoonful of butter into a quart of sifted
flour in which has been mixed an even teaspoonful of salt. Beat
the yolks of two eggs, and stir into two cupfuls of lukewarm milk,
or enough for a soft dough, and work into the flour with a spoon.
Dissolve one-third of a cake of yeast in a little warm water, add
a teaspoonful of white sugar and stir these ingredients into the
dough, not touching it with your hands, but making the wooden
spoon do its duty valiantly. Set to rise for four hours or until
very light. Roll out quickly, tear off bits and mould with cool
floured hands into rolls, handling as little as may be. Set in
rows in your baking-pan, just touching one another ; cover with
a light cloth and let them rise for half an hour before baking in
a steady oven. They should be eaten while fresh.
BREAKFAST ROLLS.
Rub a tablespoonful of butter or cottolene into a quart of
salted flour, wet up with a cupful of warm milk and a third of a
yeast-cake dissolved in warm water ; add a teaspoonful of white
sugar ; knead twenty minutes, cover and let it rise all night. In
the morning, make into rolls, let them rise for half an hour and
bake half an hour in a steady oven. Cover with paper when
they have been in the oven for fifteen minutes, and uncover just
in time to brown them lightly.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PULLED BREAD. (No. J.)
As soon as a loaf of fresh, home-made bread is cold after bak-
ing, tear off the crust with your thumb and a fork until every
side is stripped and rough. Set in an open oven for one hour,
then close the door and let the bread color slowly to a yellow-
brown. It must not scorch. Let it get cold and crisp before
using. Pass with bouillon, coffee, tea, or chocolate, breaking off
pieces instead of cutting.
PULLED BREAD. (No. 2.)
Tear away the crust from a loaf and pull the crumb apart in
long strips from top to bottom. Begin by tearing the loaf into
halves, then into quarters, then into eighths, if you would have the
strips uniform in size. Dry and color as you would the whole
loaf.
Fresh rolls are nice, stripped of crust and browned lightly until
crisp throughout. The bread must be fresh. It will keep for
days after it is " pulled."
SALLY LUNN.
Beat four eggs very light and stir them into a cupful of warm
water mixed with one of warm milk. Add a teaspoonful of salt
and half as much soda, with half a cupful of melted butter. Pour
the mixture upon a hollowed quart of sifted flour in a bowl, beat
in a half cake of yeast dissolved in four tablespoonfuls of warm
water. Whip up the batter for five minutes ; put into a well-
greased mould ; let it rise for six hours, or until very light, and
bake three-quarters of an hour in a steady oven. Put paper over
it when it has been fifteen minutes in the oven, removing it to
brown ten minutes before you take it out. Turn out upon a hot
plate.
This is the " one and only genuine " recipe for the time-hon-
ored Sally Lunn, named, as Miss Leslie told us a half century
ago, for the inventor.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 343
BAKING POWDERS AND OTHER METHODS OF
LEAVENING.
Many cooks still use sour milk and soda, or cream of tartar and
soda, methods of leavening which at the very best are uncertain
and wasteful because occasionally the whole baking raised in this
way must be thrown away.
No cook can tell just how sour the milk is, that is, the amount
of acidity it contains, and therefore trusts to "guess-work" in
putting in soda to neutralize it.
Cream of tartar and soda are better, but they are unsatisfac-
tory, for it is very difficult for the housewife to get pure cream of
tartar and it varies so much in strength that the cook does not
know just how much soda to use. If she uses too much, yellow
spots appear in the cake or biscuit. If she does not use enough,
it does not raise batter or dough. If she does get pure cream of
tartar it is difficult to get the exact proportions. Spoon meas-
ure, the only practical measure in the kitchen, is not accurate ;
it requires a just weight to produce the best leavening agent.
A dozen years ago we gave up, once for all, the use of the
home-made mixture of cream of tartar and soda, and we find as
a matter of every-day experience that a pure baking powder is
really in the end more economical and better in every respect
than the old-fashioned methods.
In the preparation of chapters upon breads, biscuits, cakes,
muffins, etc. , for this work we have found it necessary (as with
"THE MAJORITY EDITION OF COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSE-
HOLD," published in 1892) to choose a standard baking powder,
the use of which, as enjoined in the recipes, will ensure uniform
results.
Strength and excellence in such compounds vary far more than
in different brands of flour. With the latter the cook soon learns,
by the consistency and general appearance of dough and batter,
whether to hold her hand or to increase the prescribed quantity.
Baking powders give no sign until the fire has made alteration
344 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
impossible. If the writer of the recipe has Baking Powder, No.
I, in mind when she says "Two teaspoonfuls, " and the cook
uses No. 2, which is half or twice as strong, failure is inevi-
table.
Furthermore, boxes bearing the same brand often vary in qual-
ity. When first opened, certain powders are powerful, but lose
virtue steadily by exposure, until, when the bottom of a box is
reached, three spoonfuls hardly do the work that one accom-
plished a fortnight before. Dampness and the chemical action
of the air explain and perhaps palliate this defect. There is no
excuse for the fact that the cook must learn with the using of
each new package of a compound she has handled for years how
much she may safely put into her flour.
At least eight well-advertised baking powders have been pa-
tiently tested in our kitchens within the past fifteen years in the
effort to select one that might be conscientiously recommended
as sure and safe, to our constituency. In adopting as our stand-
ard Cleveland's Baking Powder we are moved by the following
considerations :
1. During the six years in which it has been in regular use in
our households we have never opened a box that was not in per-
fect condition.
2. Every box has been of like quality with all others bearing
the stamp of this company.
3. A rounded teaspoonful is equal in strength and efficiency
to a heaping teaspoonful of any other baking powder tried by
us.
4. Breads and cakes raised with this are less friable than those
in which other compounds are used, and remain fresh longer.
5. Careful tests have failed to detect in this powder the pres-
ence of ammonia, alum, or other deleterious substances.
6. It suffers little from humidity and time. On two occasions
a box that had been partially emptied and left inadvertently in
the store-room for several months was found at the end of the
time uninjured and ready to do its work satisfactorily.
These are some of the recommendations to housewifely confi-
THE NATIOtfAL COOK BOOK 345
dence that justify us in naming Cleveland's Baking Powder as
the basis of such articles of food as are dependent for lightness
and digestibility upon effervescent powders or other volatile
agencies.
TEA BISCUITS.
Into one quart of flour sift a teaspoonful of salt and two
rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder. Sift twice
to ensure thorough incorporation of the ingredients. Chop into
the flour thus prepared a tablespoonful of butter and one of
cottolene. It should be like yellow powder when ready to be
mixed with three cupfuls of milk or enough to make a soft
dough. Use a spoon in mixing. It should be just stiff enough
to handle. Flour your pastry-board, put the dough upon it,
touching only with the tips of your fingers, roll out with a few,
swift strokes of the rolling-pin into a sheet half an inch thick,
cut into round cakes, brush the tops with milk in which has
been dissolved a little sugar, and bake in a quick oven.
The excellence of these tea-cakes depends largely upon light
handling and swift mixing and rolling. They should look rough
on top, like a newly laid egg, when ready for the oven.
WHOLE-WHEAT BISCUITS
are made as above, substituting whole-wheat flour for bolted.
GRAHAM BISCUITS.
Chop a tablespoonful of butter and as much cottolene into
two cupfuls of Graham flour and one of white, which have been
sifted with two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking
Powder, one of salt, and a tablespoonful of white sugar. Wet
to a soft dough with three cupfuls of warmed milk, roll out with
as little handling as may be into a sheet half an inch thick.
Cut into round cakes, prick with a fork and bake.
GRAHAM GEMS.
Pour a quart of warm milk into a bowl. Stir for one minute,
without really beating them, four eggs, put them into the milk
34^ THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
with one tablespoonful of butter and one of cottolene melted to-
gether and a teaspoonful of sugar. Add now a handful at a
time, three cupfuls of Graham flour, or enough for a good bat-
ter. Beat hard for five minutes with quick, deep, upward strokes,
bringing up a great spoonful every time, and bake in greased
gem-pans, that have been already heated. Bake in a fierce
oven.
RUSK.
Make a sponge of one quart of milk and one of sifted flour
with a teaspoonful of salt and half a yeast-cake dissolved in warm
water. Set it overnight, or for five hours, and when light, work
in a cupful of butter that has been creamed with two cupfuls of
powdered or fine sugar, and three well- whipped eggs. Add
flour to enable you to knead it. The dough should be very soft
and kneaded rapidly for ten minutes. Let it rise for four hours,
make into long or round rolls, set them close together in a bake-
pan and leave them for another hour before baking. Just before
you take them from the oven wash the tops with cream and
sugar.
They are very nice.
SUNNYBANK SCONES.
Sift two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder
and a teaspoonful of salt twice with a scant quart of flour into a
bowl. Chop into this a tablespoonful of butter and one of cot-
tolene. Wet with a pint of rich milk (unskimmed), not touch-
ing with your hands. Roll out into a sheet, not more than a
quarter of an inch thick, cut into rounds with a biscuit-cutter,
bake quickly, and while hot tear each open to slip a bit of but-
ter within it. Eat hot.
The dough should be very soft and the scones lightly
browned. If crisped they become bis-cuit (twice cooked).
SCOTCH SCONES.
Sift twice three cupfuls of Scotch oatmeal and one cupful
of white flour with a heaping teaspoonful of salt and two
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 347
rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder. Melt
two tablespoonfuls of butter with one of sugar in a pint of
boiling milk, and pour into the hollowed flour. Stir with a
spoon to a soft dough, turn upon a floured board, roll out quick-
ly and lightly into a sheet less than an eighth of an inch thick,
cut into rounds with a biscuit-cutter and bake on a hot griddle,
turning when the lower side is brown. Butter and eat hot.
They are also good cold.
RICE GEMS.
Work a tablespoonful of melted butter into a cupful of cold
rice until every grain has been reached. Next beat in two well-
whipped eggs with a teaspoonful of salt, and thin the mixture
with a cupful of warmed milk. Lastly, add a cupful of flour
sifted twice with a rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking
Powder ; beat hard for one minute and pour into heated and
abundantly greased gem - pans ; set in a hot oven. Turn out
when done, and eat at once.
GLUTEN GEMS.
Beat two eggs, yolks and whites separately, and both very
light. Stir the yolks into a cupful of milk, next put in a cupful
of gluten flour sifted twice with half a teaspoonful of salt and a
level teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder. Beat hard for
one minute, whip in the frothed whites lightly, and bake in hot
gem -pans in a quick oven.
LOAF CORN-BREAD.
Two heaping cupfuls of Indian meal ; one cupful of flour ;
three eggs ; two and a half cupfuls of milk ; one tablespoonful of
cottolene ; two teaspoonfuls of white sugar ; two teaspoonfuls of
Cleveland's Baking Powder ; one teaspoonful of salt. Beat the
eggs very thoroughly whites and yolks separately melt the
cottolene, sift the baking powder into the meal and flour while
yet dry, and stir this in at the last. Beat hard one minute.
Bake quickly and steadily in a buttered mould. Half an hour
will usually suffice.
348 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
All kinds of corn-bread are spoiled if allowed to cool before
they are eaten.
BOILED CORN-BREAD.
Sift a teaspoonful of salt, one of soda, and two tablespoon fuls
of white sugar twice with two cupfuls of Indian meal and one of
flour. Stir a great spoonful of melted cottolene into two and a
half cupfuls of loppered milk or of buttermilk, and pour this
upon the flour and meal. Beat for five minutes hard, put into a
well-greased mould with a close top and set in a pot of hot water,
taking care that it does not float. Boil steadily for two hours,
take off the cover and set in a moderate oven for ten minutes to
dry. Turn out and heat until hot. It is very good and wholesome.
CORN-MEAL MUFFINS,
Sift one cupful of Indian meal (white) with half a cupful of
flour, add a rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder,
half a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoonful of fine sugar, and
sift again into a bowl. Beat two eggs light, stir them with a
level tablespoonful of melted butter into two cupfuls of milk and
pour, gradually, upon the prepared meal and flour. Beat hard
for five minutes, and bake in well-greased pate-pans or other
small tins.
MUSH MUFFINS.
Cook a scant cupful of salted corn-meal in two cupfuls of boil-
ing milk in a double boiler for one hour, stirring often. While
still hot stir in a tablespoonful of butter, and let it get cool.
Thin then with a cupful of cold milk, beat to a smooth batter,
whip in the beaten yolks of three eggs, and three tablespoonfuls
of Graham flour in which has been well mixed half a teaspoonful
of Cleveland's Baking Powder, beat for another minute, whip in
the stiffened whites of the eggs, and bake in small, well-greased
tins.
BUTTERMILK MUFFINS.
Into three cupfuls of flour sift a teaspoonful of soda and one
of salt. Beat two eggs very light, and stir them into three cup-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 349
fuls of buttermilk or loppered milk. Beat one minute, add the
prepared flour, and whip the mixture hard for another minute.
Bake in small tins or in muffin-tins, in a quick oven.
MINUTE MUFFINS.
Sift a teaspoonful of salt and two rounded teaspoonfuls of
Cleveland's Baking Powder twice with a quart of flour. Beat
the yolks and whites of three eggs separately and very stiff; mix
the yolks with three large cupfuls of milk, and stir in the pre-
pared flour with a tablespoonful of melted butter. Beat three
minutes, add the whites, and bake at once in rings or in small
tins.
HOMINY MUFFINS.
Beat into two cupfuls of cold, boiled small hominy two table-
spoonfuls of cottolene and one of butter melted together. When
you have a smooth paste stir in a heaping teaspoonful of salt
and two tablespoonfuls of sugar ; lastly, the yolks of three beaten
eggs. Work to a cream before adding three cupfuls of loppered
milk, and when this is well mixed in, a large cupful of flour in
which has been sifted twice a teaspoonful of soda. Finally, whip
in the stiffened whites, and bake in small tins, well greased.
These are delicious if rightly made and baked.
OUR GRANDMOTHERS' SHORTCAKE.
One quart of sifted flour ; one cupful of milk and the same of
ice-cold water ; two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking
Powder; one teaspoonful of salt; one tablespoonful of cotto-
lene, and one (heaping) of butter. Chop the shortening into the
flour in a wooden tray, having, first of all, sifted baking powder
and salt three times with the flour, that no suspicion of lumps
or streaks of any of the powders may remain. Much sifting
dries and lightens the flour also. When the shortening is thor-
oughly mixed in and the heap in the tray looks like fine sand,
wet up still using the chopper in preference to the hands with
milk and water. Work quickly, and as soon as the dough is
manageable, turn it out upon the floured pastry-board. Roll
35O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
lightly half an inch thick, fit into greased jelly-cake tins, cutting
off ragged edges as you would the crust of a pie, and bake in a
brisk oven. When done to a nice brown, turn out, split care-
fully, and butter while hot. Cut into triangles with a sharp
knife at the table. These cakes are very nice made of pre-
pared flour, in which case use no baking powder, but sift the flour
twice.
BREAKFAST BERRY SHORTCAKE.
One quart of sifted flour ; two cupfuls of sour or buttermilk ;
one-half cupful of sugar ; yolk of one egg ; one teaspoonful each
of salt and soda sifted three times with the flour ; one heaping
tablespoonful each of cottolene and butter rubbed into
flour ; one quart of berries. Roll the paste into a sheet half an
inch thick, fit into a greased baking-pan, strew thickly with
berries, then with sugar, and cover with another sheet of paste.
Bake to a nice brown, cut into squares, butter, and eat hot with
sugar.
GRIDDLE-CAKES AND WAFFLES.
If you can possibly lay hold of a soapstone griddle, become
the happy possessor forthwith, and keep a sharp lookout that
Bridget, Dinah, or Thekla does not ruin it hopelessly by greas-
ing it surreptitiously. Cakes cooked upon soapstone are baked,
not fried, hence robbed of half the horrors that hang around
them for the dyspeptic. Keep the soapstone clean, heat slow-
ly before using it, and keep every drop of grease aloof
from it.
If, however, the treasure is out of your reach, make the best
of what you have. Wash griddle and waffle-irons thoroughly,
after using them, with a stiff brush and plenty of hot water with
a tablespoonful of ammonia in each quart. Wipe dry and put
out of the dust. If they have lain disused for some time, rub
well with dry salt before heating and greasing. For the latter
purpose use a little cottolene tied up in a bit of cloth, or a bit
of fat salt pork on a fork. Do not flood the hot surface with fat,
but put on just enough to prevent the batter from sticking. Try
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 35 1
a little first to see that batter and griddle, or waffle-iron, are all
right.
BUCKWHEAT CAKES.
Sift a generous teaspoonful of salt through a quart of buck-
wheat flour which has been mixed with a great handful of Indian
meal. Dissolve a yeast-cake in half a cupful of warm water, add
two tablespoon fuls of molasses and a quart of warm water, pour
into the hollowed flour, and beat hard for five minutes. Set
aside to rise overnight in a warm corner. Should the batter
smell sour in the morning, correct it with a little soda dissolved
in warm water and beaten well into the batter.
You can, if you like, substitute oatmeal for the Indian, putting
in one-third oatmeal and two-thirds buckwheat.
FLANNEL CAKES. (No. J.)
Rub a tablespooonful of butter to a cream with one of sugar ;
add two well-beaten eggs and two cupfuls of milk. Sift a rounded
teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder and an even teaspoon-
ful of salt twice through a pint of flour into a bowl. Make a
hollow in the middle, pour in the milk and eggs, and beat just
long enough to make a smooth batter.
FLANNEL CAKES. (No. 2.)
Sift a teaspoonful of salt with a quart of flour into a bowl and
wet it up with a quart of milk. Add half a yeast-cake dissolved
in warm water, beat three minutes, and let the sponge rise all
night. In the morning add a tablespoonful of molasses rubbed
to a cream with one of melted butter, finally, beat in two well-
whipped eggs. Should the batter seem too thin, thicken with a
little flour before the eggs go in.
This is an excellent recipe.
FLANNEL CAKES WITHOUT EGGS.
Set overnight. Sift together with a teaspoonful of salt two
cupfuls of white flour and one of Indian meal, wet up with a
352 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
quart of warmed milk and four tablespoonfuls of lukewarm water,
in which has been dissolved half a cake of compressed yeast. Beat
three minutes and set it to rise, covered lightly. In the morning
beat in a tablespoonful of molasses and the same of melted cot-
tolene. Whip together for three minutes and bake.
Good and economical.
HOMINY CAKES.
Rub two cupfuls of cold boiled hominy smooth, beat into it a
tablespoonful of melted cottolene, then three well-whipped eggs,
a teaspoonful of salt, and one of molasses ; next a quart of milk,
and lastly a cupful of sifted flour. Stir for two minutes and
bake.
RICE CAKES
are made according to the foregoing recipe, substituting rice for
hominy.
BREAD-A3STD-MILK CAKES.
Soak two cupfuls of dry crumbs for an hour in a quart of milk.
Beat in,, then, a tablespoonful of melted butter, three well-whipped
eggs, a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoonful of molasses. Mix
thoroughly, and stir in lightly and swiftly half a cupful of flour,
with which has been twice sifted half a teaspoonful of Cleveland's
Baking Powder.
These cakes are good and wholesome, especially when baked
upon a soapstone griddle.
INDIAN MEAL FLAPJACKS.
Scald two cupfuls of Indian meal with a quart of boiling
milk and let it get lukewarm. Beat into it a tablespoonful of
melted cottolene and one of molasses, a teaspoonful of salt, two
well-beaten eggs, and when these ingredients are well mixed, thin
to the consistency of buckwheat batter with more milk, added
alternately with half a cupful of flour with which has been twice
sifted a saltspoonful of soda, t.e., a quarter teaspoonful.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 353
WAFFLES.
RISEN WAFFLES.
Sift a teaspoonful of salt with a quart of flour into a bowl.
Wet up with a quart of milk and four tables poonfu Is of warm
water in which you have dissolved half a yeast-cake. Beat three
minutes hard, cover and leave all night. In the morning beat
in two well-whipped eggs and a tablespoonful of melted butter,
and bake in waffle-irons.
Try a little of the batter in the irons when they are heated and
greased before risking a whole waffle.
MINUTE WAFFLES.
Sift together twice into a bowl a pint of flour, a rounded tea-
spoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder, and a teaspoonful of salt.
Beat the yolks and whites of three eggs separately, stir the yolks
into two scant cupfuls of milk with a tablespoonful of melted
cottolene. Pour this into the hollowed flour, stir together
quickly, add the stiffened whites and bake.
RICE WAFFLES.
Rub a cupful of cold boiled rice smooth with a tablespoonful
of melted cottolene and a teaspoonful of salt. Beat into it gradu-
ally three well -whipped eggs ; then a quart of milk alternately
with handfuls of three even cupfuls of sifted flour which have been
twice sifted with a rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking
Powder. Do not get the batter too stiff.
TOAST.
Pare the crust from slices of stale bread, and toast delicately,
avoiding blackening and smoking. Butter lightly. Toast
soaked in butter is an abomination.
BAKED TOAST.
Pare rather thick slices of stale bread, and toast. Have on
the range a pan of boiling water, well salted, and dip each slice
23
354 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
into it as it comes from the toaster. A mere dip is all that is
needed, but the water must be boiling. Arrange the dipped
toast in a pudding-dish, sprinkle each layer with salt, and butter
well. When all are in, cover with boiling milk. If you can
spare a little cream it will be still better. Cover and set in a
quick oven for fifteen minutes.
The peculiar richness of this dish is due chiefly to the baking.
It is delicious for well people and nutritious for invalids. A sin-
gle round of toast, dipped in boiling salted water, buttered and
salted, then drowned in hot cream, covered and baked until it is
as soft as jelly, but unbroken, will tempt the most capricious ap-
petite, and prove as digestible as it is tempting.
TOMATO TOAST.
Pare off the crust from slices of stale bread, toast, and as each
comes from the fire, dip in boiling milk, salted. Pack in
layers in a pudding-dish, salt and butter each layer and pour over
it a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce, strained and seasoned with
sugar, butter, pepper, salt, and a few drops of onion-juice. When
the dish is full turn the sauce over all, cover and set for ten min-
utes in a quick oven. There should be enough tomato sauce to
make the toast very wet.
A good dish for luncheon or supper.
FAMILIAR TALK.
THE "QUICK" LUNCHEON.
" I am still so far left to myself as to take beefsteak for my
lunch."
The speaker was one of the great army of women who work
for their living outside of the home. The topic under discussion
was the midday lunch. One girl had said peanut - brittle
and a pickle checked the gnawings of hunger for her. Another
had declared her adherence to those good old stand-bys of the
schoolgirl, cream-puffs. A third had sustained the claims of pie
THE NATIONAL COOfC BOOK 355
as a " filler." It required a distinct effort of moral courage for
any one to mention so homely and simple an article of diet as
steak after these less substantial dainties, and it was evident that
its advocate had stamped herself as hopelessly gross and material.
While the lunch question may be frequently and fervently de-
bated from the stand-points of cheapness and palatableness, there
is seldom much time wasted over such a trifle as nutritive values.
Almost never is thought given to choosing food which will sup-
ply specific wastes. The woman who spends her time in active
physical labor, the woman who toils in an occupation which is a
constant strain upon the nerves, and the woman who exhausts
her brain by steady and concentrated mental work, alike stay
the cravings of hunger in the noon hour by " pie and soda-
water," by pickles and ice-cream, by cream-puffs and caramels.
For a long time patient nature submits to the indignity. The
stomach is a tough muscle, and bears much abuse without
complaint, or with only an occasional murmur or writhing.
But it is composed of ordinary human tissues, after all ; it is
not a cast-iron or gutta-percha repository, as it should be to bear
the outrages inflicted upon it. The time comes when it turns
turns literally when that exact creditor, the body, demands a strict
settlement of long-standing accounts. Then we hear that So-and-
so is a " martyr to dyspepsia," or that she is laid up with nervous
prostration, or that she has "gone all to pieces." And every
one wonders what could have been the cause of the break-down.
The busy worker who gives her best thoughts and energies to
the occupation choice or circumstances has made her own, is
likely to wax impatient at the suggestion that she should bestow
serious consideration upon so unimportant a matter as her diet.
Even those women who abjure the unholy combinations of food
just enumerated usually select their meals entirely at random, or
with but one essential qualification that they shall please the
taste. Yet here is just the point where a little present care may
spare them much future inconvenience and even suffering. A
small amount of knowledge of the specific effects of certain kinds
of food will go far toward supplying strength and repairing wastes.
356 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
For example, the slight, bloodless-looking girl who is always
chilly should eat meat like beef or mutton, that contains good
red blood. She should also take fats and starchy foods that will
produce heat. The stout, flabby girl does not need the starches,
and she should cut sweets, pastry, and white bread from her bill-
of-fare. She may eat meats, salads, green vegetables, fresh fruit.
Neither should depend upon a cup of strong coffee or tea at
noon to brace her for her afternoon toil. That stereotyped re-
freshment of women, a cup of tea and a piece of toast, is proba-
bly as poor a stand-by as any working woman could select. A
sandwich and a glass of beer would be far more sustaining.
The brain worker needs phosphates. She should supply the
demand by fish, brown bread, whole-wheat bread, and cereals.
The woman who does hard physical labor can digest food that
would cause distress to her of sedentary habits. The former can
rely upon cheese in its various forms and will find chocolate
nutritious and strengthening.
It is a great mistake to fancy that nourishing and wholesome
food cannot be appetizing. The palate that craves cakes, can-
dies, and pastry may not be tickled by plainer diet, and the girl
whose ideal of an agreeable lunch is realized in coffee and " sink-
ers," may turn with scorn from a meal that makes less strain
upon digestion. But that woman is hard to satisfy who cannot
select a menu that will be at once pleasing, easy of digestion, and
inexpensive. Such are, eggs in their many styles, fish in the
variety that is possible on the sea-coast, steak, chops (not pork
or veal), stews, minces, poultry, bacon, vegetables, and fruit,
fresh or stewed.
The midday meal need not be heavy. A light lunch, so long
as the food is all of it wholesome, will stand in better stead the
woman who must work in the afternoon than a hearty meal which
demands so much of the force of the body to digest it that it
leaves no energy for other employment. A few experiments will
teach the seeker for knowledge what article of diet she may
safely choose and what she must leave severely alone.
C. T. H.
CAKES AND CAKE-MAKING.
IN Cake- as in Bread-making practical knowledge of a few car-
dinal rules will enable the cook to bring forth an almost infinite
variety of sweets in this line of culinary adventure. She who can
make, once and again, good cup cake is equal to whatever the
layer-cake species may offer for experiment. The filling gives
character and individuality to each of the family. Become
proficient in the manufacture of pound cake, and, to parody Mr.
Wegg, "all cake is open to you." Recipes many and divers
are only suggestions to her whose sponge cake always turns out
well, whose pound cake is never streaky, or her jelly cake -too
stiff or too friable.
We do not, then, propose to clog her memory and these pages
with a host of mere memoranda of the fine art. By the help of
general laws herewith submitted even the Average American
Cook ought to be able to attain excellence, if not perfection, in
what is a much simpler branch of cookery than salads, sauces,
or even soups.
1. Before mixing the cake, weigh or measure the ingredients
as carefully as if you had never made a cake before, and have
them all ready on the table by you.
2. Cream butter and sugar by rubbing them together in a bowl
with a wooden, agate-iron, or silver spoon, until you have a mixt-
ure as white as cream and as bland as oil.
3. Sift baking powder, or soda, and salt twice with the flour,
and if there is the least suspicion of dampness about the flour, set
it near the fire for half an hour, then sift again.
4. Beat whites and yolks separately, the whites to a close-
358 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
grained, standing froth that can be cut with a knife, the yolks to
a smooth, stiff cream.
5. Add the flour last in mixing, or alternately with the
whites of the eggs, whipping in lightly and almost horizontally
with as few strokes as are needful to incorporate all the in-
gredients.
6. Do not let the cake stand after it is mixed, awaiting the
oven's mood, or the maker's convenience. Look to it that the
oven is ready for it before beginning operations.
7. Cottolene is better for greasing the pans than butter. Salt
disposes the batter to stick, and if you use tin- ware (agate-iron is
far preferable) blackens the pans.
8. Give as much attention to baking as mixing. After the
cake goes into the oven do not open the door for at least fifteen
minutes, and then cautiously, to peep at the interior, closing the
door again gently. A "slam" has caused the sudden fall of
many a promising cake. To remove half-baked dough from one
oven to another will almost certainly spoil it irretrievably.
This octave is the foundation of all cake-ly compositions.
POUND CAKE. (No. J.)
One pound of sifted flour ; one pound of fine sugar ; one
pound of eggs ; one (scant) pound of butter ; one tablespoonful
of brandy ; one-half teaspoonful of mace.
Cream sugar and butter ; beat yolks and whites separately.
Just before mixing whip brandy and spice into the creamed but-
ter and sugar. Then stir in the yolks; beat hard for two min-
utes, and add whites and flour alternately, whipping them in
with long side-strokes, lightly and quickly. The heavy work is
done before these go in. Do not stir the batter after they are
added. A pound-cake batter should be stiffer than that of a cup
or sponge cake.
Bake in small greased tins or in square flat pans in a
steady oven. Test the oven with a bit of letter-paper before
putting the cake into it. If pale yellow in five minutes, it is
right.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 359
POUND CAKE. (No. 2.)
One pound of sifted flour ; one of sugar and one of butter ;
ten eggs ; a wineglassful of brandy, and as much nutmeg as
would lie easily upon a dime. Mix as before directed, and bake
three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Cover, when fully
risen, with paper, to prevent scorching, removing to brown.
Some cooks line the pans intended for pound cake with greased
paper. You can take your choice of methods. The tyro would
better not attempt the paper.
CUP CAKE.
"One cup of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, and four
eggs." Thus ran the formula that fixed the proportions of
" one, two, three, and four cake " in our grandmothers' minds.
When we add a cupful of milk and a heaping teaspoonful of
Cleveland's Baking Powder we better the recipe.
You may vary it by beating into the batter, alternately with
the flour, half a cupful of raisins, seeded and halved, then dredged
with flour, or the same quantity of cleaned currants, also floured.
SPONGE CAKE. (No. I.)
Ten eggs ; the weight of the eggs in fine sugar, and half their
weight in flour ; half the grated peel and all the strained juice of
a lemon.
Beat the sugar with the whipped yolks, then the lemon-juice
and peel, next the stiffened whites, finally the flour, folded, rather
than beaten in.
SPONGE CAKE. (No. 2.)
Six eggs ; two cupfuls of powdered sugar ; two cupfuls of
sifted flour ; one even teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder,
sifted twice with the flour.
Beat yolks and whites separately ; add sugar to yolks, then the
whites, lastly the prepared flour.
Bake in small tins, or in two cards.
360 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MARBLED CAKE,
One cupful of butter ; two cupfuls of powdered sugar ; three
cupfuls of flour ; five eggs ; one large cupful of milk ; one
rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder. Haifa cake
of vanilla chocolate, grated.
Mix as you would an ordinary cup cake, reserving two table-
spoonfuls of the milk to wet up the chocolate. After mixing the
rest of the cake dip out three tablespoon fuls of the batter and
beat up hard with the chocolate paste. Fill a greased mould
one-third full of the cake-batter, and drop upon this, here and
there, a large spoonful of the chocolate mixture. Stir in slightly
to give the effect of dark waves and circles blending with the
yellow cake. Pour in more batter, variegate as before, and fill
the mould in this order. Bake forty-five minutes in a steady
oven.
GOLD CAKE.
One cupful of butter creamed with two of sugar ; three cupfuls
of flour sifted with two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Bak-
ing Powder ; yolks of seven eggs ; grated rind of an orange
and the juice of a lemon.
Cream butter and sugar ; add orange-peel and lemon-juice
and beat hard for five minutes before the flour goes in. If you
object to finding bits of orange-peel in the cake, steep it before-
hand in the lemon-juice, strain and squeeze hard through coarse
muslin.
If you ice the cake, flavor with orange-peel and lemon-juice
thus treated.
SILVER CAKE.
One cupful of powdered sugar ; whites of six eggs ; half a cup-
ful of flour sifted with a rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's Bak-
ing Powder.
Mix as you would sponge cake and bake in a mould similar
to that used for your gold cake. When ready to use them, cut
and pile in alternate slices of silver and gold.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 361
PINK-AND-SILVER CAKE.
Make as directed in the last recipe ; take out a small cupful of
batter and stir into it enough powdered cochineal moistened
with rose-water to color it a pretty pink. In filling the mould
drop here and there a teaspoonful of this, spreading slightly
with the tip of a spoon to blend it with the surrounding batter.
GREEN-AND-SILVER CAKE.
Make a good " silver-cake " batter ; reserve a cupful and mix
with it enough spinach-juice to color it green. Add a little
flour to make up for the thinning of the juice. To get the color-
ing matter, put freshly washed leaves of spinach in an inner
boiler, and set in boiling water. Cover and keep the water at a
hard boil until the leaves are scalded and drowned in their own
juices. Squeeze through a cloth and cool before using.
WHITE CUP CAKE.
One cupful of butter rubbed to a cream with two of sugar ;
one cupful of milk; the stiffened whites of six eggs; juice of a
lemon and half the grated peel steeped in the juice, then strained ;
one scant quart of flour, or enough for good batter, sifted twice
with a rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder.
Cream butter and sugar ; whip in the lemon-juice and peel ;
add the whites alternately with the flour ; bake in a loaf, or in
layers for jelly cake.
ORANGE CAKE.
Make a white cup cake, as just directed, bake in layers and
when cold put together with this filling :
Beat stiff the whites of two eggs, whip in a cupful of powdered
sugar, then the juice of half a lemon, and the same quantity
of orange-juice, in which has been steeped for half an hour and
then strained out the grated peel of an orange. Reserve a little
and whip in more powdered sugar to make frosting for the
uppermost layer.
The effect of the white and yellow is pleasing.
362 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ORANGE LAYER CAKE.
Four eggs ; three cupfuls of flour ; two cupfuls of sugar ; half
cupful of butter ; two small oranges ; one cupful of cold water ;
two teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder.
Add the beaten yolks of the eggs to the creamed butter and
sugar, stir in the orange-juice and grated peel, the water, flour,
baking powder, and the whites of the eggs last. Bake in layers,
and spread between these a rilling made by beating into the
whites of two eggs enough powdered sugar to make a tolerably
stiff frosting, and flavoring this with lemon-juice and grated
peel. Add a little more sugar for the top icing than for the
layer filling.
STRAWBERRY LAYER CAKE.
Cut a square sponge cake into halves. Upon one half put a
thick meringue, made from the whites of two eggs and two
tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar ; beat the eggs until light, then
add the sugar and beat again until white. Strew large straw-
berries thickly over this ; put on the upper half, cover with straw-
berries neatly arranged, sprinkle with sugar, and serve with cream.
CREAM CAKE.
Cream half a cupful of butter with one-and-a-half cupfuls of
powdered sugar, or very fine granulated. Add three-quarters of
a cupful of milk, and when well mixed, the stiffened whites of
three eggs alternately with enough prepared flour to make a good
batter. Begin with two cupfuls, and use your discretion. Bake
in layers with this filling :
Heat a cupful of milk, and when it boils thicken with three
tablespoonfuls of flour wet up with a little water. Take from
the fire when it has boiled for a minute and pour upon the yolks
of three eggs beaten light with half a cupful of powdered sugar
or fine granulated. Stir together over the fire until you have
a smooth, thick cream. When cool, put between the layers of
cake.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 363
APPLE CAKE.
Cream half a cupful of butter with two cupfuls of powdered
sugar and beat light ; add half a cupful of milk. Sift with three
scant cupfuls of flour, three tablespoonfuls of corn-starch, and a
rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder, and add to
the milk, butter, and sugar, alternately with the stiffened whites
of six eggs.
Bake in jelly-cake tins.
FILLING FOR APPLE CAKE.
Beat the yolk of an egg light, and into it a cupful of
sugar with the grated peel and the juice of a lemon. Grate
directly into this mixture three fine pippins or other tart apples,
stirring every now and then, to prevent discoloration of the ap-
ple before it is coated. Cook in a double boiler until it is scald-
ing-hot, stirring constantly. Cool before putting into the cake.
Eat fresh, with or without cream. It is very good.
QUICK JELLY CAKE.
Cut a thick loaf of sponge cake, bought at the confectioner's,
horizontally into four parts. Put between alternate layers liberal
instalments of tart and sweet fruit jelly, such as currant or grape
and crab-apple. Fit the slices smoothly into place and cover
the whole cake with an icing made by whipping stiff the whites
of four eggs with enough powdered sugar to make a consistent
frosting. Set in the oven for five minutes to harden, but not to
color, then in a sunny window. You can make this in one-tenth
of the time required for a regular jelly cake. Angel cake, or
any good plain loaf, is suitable for this purpose.
ALMOND CAKE.
One pound of powdered sugar ; one quart of flour sifted twice
with two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder ;
a quarter-pound of butter ; seven eggs, whites and yolks beaten
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
separately; one large cupful of almonds, blanched, pounded,
and ,flavored with a teaspoonful of rose-water, and half as much
essence of bitter almonds.
Cream butter and sugar, beat the whipped whites into this
mixture and whip this two minutes before the almond paste
goes in alternately with the whites. Lastly, whip in the flour
lightly. Bake in a loaf or two cards. To blanch the almonds,
pour boiling water upon them, slip off the skins and set the al-
monds in the sun or in an open oven to dry and crisp. They
should be cold before they are pounded in a mortar and the
essences added while this is going on.
Flavor the icing with rose-water and a little essence of bitter
almonds.
SEEDLESS RAISIN CAKE.
One cupful of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, and six
eggs; one cupful of milk; one pound of seedless (sultana)
raisins dredged with flour; one-half teaspoonful of cinnamon
and the same of mace ; two tablespoonfuls of brandy ; two
rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder, sifted twice
with the flour.
Cream butter and sugar well, add the beaten yolks of the
eggs, then the spice and brandy. Beat for three minutes, add
the milk, finally the prepared flour alternately with the floured
fruit and the stiffened whites. Bake in four small loaves or in
pate-pans.
The raisins should be carefully picked over, stemmed, washed,
and dried before they are dredged with flour.
CURRANT CAKE,
Make as directed in the last recipe, substituting a pound of
cleaned currants for the sultanas.
RAISIN-AND-CITRON CAKE
is made in the same way, putting half a pound of seeded raisins
and the same of citron, finely shredded and clipped into half-
inch lengths, in the place of the currants or sultanas.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 365
NUT CAKE.
One cupful of butter creamed with two of sugar ; three cup-
fuls of flour sifted twice with two teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's
Baking Powder ; one cupful of cold water ; four eggs ; half a tea-
spoonful of mace ; two cupfuls of white walnut kernels or of
hickory nuts, or of blanched almonds dredged in flour, cut up
small and added alternately with the sifted flour and stiffened
whites.
Cream butter and sugar, add the beaten yolks, the water, and
spice, the nuts, whites, and flour.
A delicious cake and a well-tested recipe.
CREAM CHOCOLATE CAKE.
One tablespoonful of butter ; one cupful of sugar ; three eggs ;
two cupfuls of flour ; half a cupful of milk ; one heaping tea-
spoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten yolks, the milk,
the whipped whites, and the flour, which has been sifted with
the baking powder. Bake in jelly- cake tins.
CREAM CHOCOLATE FILLING.
One egg, beaten light ; half a cupful of sugar ; one cupful
of milk ; two teaspoonfuls of corn -starch ; two tablespoonfuls
of grated chocolate.
Wet the corn -starch with a little cold milk, and heat the re-
maining milk in a double boiler. Stir in the corn-starch and
the chocolate. Cook together until smooth, remove from the
fire, and pour, a little at a time, on the beaten egg and sugar.
Return to the stove; cook ten minutes longer, stirring con-
stantly. When cool, spread between the cakes.
CREAM-CAKE FILLING.
One cupful of milk ; one egg ; half a cupful of sugar ; two even
teaspoonfuls of corn-starch ; one teaspoonful of vanilla.
Heat the milk, stir in the corn-starch wet up in a little cold
366 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
milk, add gradually the egg beaten light with the sugar ; return
to the fire and cook, stirring all the time, until thick. Cool,
season, and spread between the layers of cake.
CHOCOLATE FILLING FOR CAKE.
Grate half a cake of vanilla chocolate ; wet with three table-
spoonfuls of milk, rubbing them together gradually ; beat into
an egg which has been whipped light with a cupful of powdered
sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, until thick.
Or
Beat the whites of three eggs stiff with a cupful of powdered
sugar ; wet three tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate with a tea-
spoonful of vanilla and whip into the meringue. Do not cook it.
CARAMEL FILLING.
One cupful of brown sugar and the same of molasses, stirred
for five minutes with a tablespoonful of melted butter ; add half a
cupful of hot milk, and a tablespoonful of flour wet up in two of
colct water. Mix well, heat and boil five minutes, stirring often,
add half a cake of vanilla chocolate (grated), and boil for five
minutes more. Lastly, stir in a generous pinch of soda, and a
minute later take from the fire.
Flavor with vanilla, or other essence ; when cold spread between
the cakes and upon the top. Set in the sun to dry.
RASPBERRY-CAKE FILLING.
Beat stiff the whites of three eggs, adding gradually half a cup-
ful of powdered sugar. Spread the lowest layer of the cake with
this, and strew thickly with raspberries. Proceed in the same
way with each successive layer, sprinkling powdered sugar over
the berries on top of the cake.
COCOANUT FILLING. (No. J.)
Mix a cupful of powdered sugar with a grated cocoanut, and
add the milk of the cocoanut. Put into the oven until the sugar
melts, then spread between layers of cake.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 367
COCOANUT FILLING. (No. 2.)
One grated cocoanut or a like quantity of the desiccated,
soaked in a little rnilk. Divide into two equal parts. Add to
one the stiffened whites of three eggs, and a cupful of powdered
sugar. Beat hard and spread between the layers. Mix with the
other portion half a cupful of powdered sugar and cover the top
of the cake with it. Flavor with rose-water.
COFFEE FILLING.
One cupful of hot milk; half a cupful of sugar; three eggs,
beaten light ; one tablespoonful of corn-starch wet with a little
cold milk ; half a cupful of black coffee. Stir the corn-starch
into the hot milk and this into the beaten eggs and sugar. Set
over the fire and stir three minutes. When almost cold beat in
the cold coffee. You may make this with the yolks of the eggs,
omitting the whites.
COCOANUT LOAF-CAKE. (No. J.)
One cupful of butter creamed with two of sugar ; three cup-
fuls of flour sifted with two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's
Baking Powder ; whites of four eggs ; one-half of a grated cocoa-
nut, stirred in alternately with the flour.
COCOANUT LOAF-CAKE. (No. 2.)
Half a cupful of butter ; two cupfuls of sugar ; five eggs ; one
cupful of milk; two cupfuls of flour; two cupfuls of grated
cocoanut ; two teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder ; one
lemon.
Cream the butter and sugar and stir them into the beaten
yolks of the eggs. Put in the milk and the flour through which
you have sifted the baking powder. Add the juice and grated
peel of the lemon and the cocoanut, and last stir in the whites
of the eggs, beaten stiff. Make into two loaves, or one loaf and a
dozen small cakes, and bake in a steady oven until a straw will
368 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
come out clean from the thickest part of the cake. If icing is
wished, beat a cupful and a half of powdered sugar with the
white of one egg, and after spreading this over the cake sprinkle
it with grated cocoanut.
ENGLISH BUN-LOAF.
One cupful of bread-dough which has had the second rising.
One-half cupful of butter, or cottolene, melted ; one egg ; one-half
teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little milk ; one-half teaspoon-
ful of cinnamon and half as much nutmeg ; one-half cupful of
seeded and chopped raisins dredged with flour ; one-half cupful
of brown sugar.
Cream butter and shortening, beat in the egg, and work these
into the risen dough ; next the spices, the soda, and lastly, the
fruit. Knead for two minutes, make into a loaf or into rolls, let
them stand for half an hour, and bake in a moderate oven.
This is a Lancashire recipe.
JELLY ROLL.
Four eggs and their weight of butter, sugar, and flour.
Cream butter and sugar, then add the beaten yolks and beat for
five minutes. Now put in the stiffened whites alternately with
the flour, which should have been sifted with one rounded tea-
spoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder. Pour into a greased
baking-pan, evenly, less than half an inch deep, spreading with
a broad knife. Bake quickly, but steadily, turn out while hot,
spread with jelly, and roll. Cover with paper, and tie into shape
until cold. You can make this with plain sponge cake also.
CHRISTMAS FRUIT-CAKE.
An Old Virginia Recipe.
Six eggs ; one cupful of butter ; one cupful and a half of pow-
dered sugar ; two cupfuls of flour ; half a pound of raisins ; half a
pound of currants ; quarter of a pound of citron ; one teaspoon-
ful each of cinnamon and nutmeg ; half a teaspoonful of ground
cloves ; three tablespoonfuls of brandy.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 369
Seed and chop the raisins, wash and dry the currants, and
shred the citron ; cream the butter and sugar and mix with the
well-beaten yolks of the eggs; stir in half the flour, the spice, the
whipped whites, the rest of the flour, the fruit well dredged with
flour, and lastly, the brandy. This will make a large cake. It
should be baked about two hours in a steady oven.
FRUIT WEDDING-CAKE.
One pound of flour ; one pound of butter creamed with one
of sugar ; one pound each of cleaned currants and of chopped
and seeded raisins; one-half pound of citron, shredded and
clipped; twelve eggs; one tablespoonful of cinnamon, one tea-
spoonful of mace or nutmeg, and one of allspice ; one wineglass-
ful of brandy.
Cream butter and sugar ; add the beaten yolks and beat for
five minutes before going further. Next, put in the spices, then
the flour and stiffened whites by turns, whipping them in with
sidelong, light, but long, strokes, and as few as possible. Then
comes the brandy. Finally, put in the fruit well mixed and
thoroughly dredged with flour. Beat in quickly, and at once
pour the batter into two large moulds, well greased and lined
with buttered paper. Bake two hours steadily.
This also is an old Virginia recipe, and has been approved by
four generations of housewives and guests.
SMALL CAKES, COOKIES, ETC
ALMOND CAKES.
One pound of shelled, blanched, and pounded almonds or of
prepared almond paste ; two teaspoonfuls of rose-water ; one
pound of sugar ; two eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately ;
one tablespoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat the sugar into
the yolks, add the cinnamon, then the almond paste, alternately
with the stiffened whites. Beat for three minutes, flour your
hands thickly, take up a little ball of the almond compound and
24
3/0 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
flatten into a small, thin cake. As fast as you mould them lay
upon buttered paper, lining baking-pans. Bake in a very hot
oven until lightly colored.
BOSTON CREAM-CAKES.
One-half pound of butter ; three-quarters of a pound of flour ;
eight eggs ; two cupfuls of hot water.
Melt the butter in the water, set over the fire and bring to a
gentle boil. Then put in the flour and boil until it leaves the
sides of the saucepan, never ceasing to stir. One minute should
suffice. Turn out into a bowl to cool. Beat the eggs in, one at
a time, allowing a minute of brisk beating to each, and when all
are in, allow two minutes more to the whole. Set upon ice
for an hour, then drop, in great spoonfuls of equal size, upon but-
tered paper laid in a broad baking-pan, taking care not to let
them touch one another. Bake for fifteen minutes in a tolerably
quick oven, by which time they should be golden brown.
When they are cool make a slit in one side of each and fill
with a cream-cake filling or a coffee filling, or, nicer still, with
whipped cream into which has been beaten a little sugar, and
vanilla or other essence.
ECLAIRS.
Make as directed for Boston Cream- Cakes, but lay the paste
in long loaves, about four inches in length and an inch wide.
When baked and cold slit the side and put in chocolate, vanilla,
or cocoanut filling, icing with the same.
MACAROONS.
Whites of four eggs beaten stiff; half a pound of almonds,
blanched, cooled, and pounded to a paste with a little rose-
water to prevent oiling while you pound (or use confectioners'
almond paste) ; one heaping cupful of powdered sugar ; a tea-
spoonful of corn -starch; ten drops of essence of bitter almonds.
Beat the sugar up with the stiffened whites, then the almond
paste, the corn-starch, and the essence. Beat well and drop, by
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 37 1
the spoonful, upon buttered paper laid upon a baking-pan. Cook
in a hot oven.
COCOANUT MACAROONS.
To a grated cocoanut, or the same quantity of desiccated co-
coanut moistened with milk, add a scant cupful of powdered
sugar, and the stiffened white of an egg. Drop upon buttered
paper and bake in a quick oven.
LADY-FINGERS.
Make a good batter as directed for sponge cake, and put a lit-
tle at a time into a buttered paper funnel with an opening at the
end half an inch wide. Squeeze out, upon buttered papers,
enough batter to make cakes four inches long and one wide, and
bake at once in a hot oven.
JUMBLES. (No. J.)
One egg ; one cupful (scant) of fine sugar ; half a cupful
of butter ; three tablespoonfuls of cream ; one teaspoonful of
Cleveland's Baking Powder sifted with two cupfuls of flour ;
juice and grated peel of a lemon ; flour to make the dough stiff
enough to roll out into a sheet a quarter of an inch thick.
Cream butter and sugar, add the beaten egg, the lemon-juice
and peel, lastly the flour. Cut into round cakes, sift granulated
sugar over them, and bake in a quick oven.
JUMBLES. (No. 2.)
One cupful of sugar creamed light with one of butter ; half a
cupful of sour cream; one egg, beaten well, white and yolk sep-
arately ; one teaspoonful of soda sifted twice with flour enough for
soft dough (begin with two cups) ; half a teaspoonful of ground
mace.
Mix as directed in former recipe, roll out and bake.
SAND TARTS.
Mix according to either of the jumble recipes ; cut round, or
in squares, or in lozenge -shaped cakes, when you have rolled it
372 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
thin. After they are in the greased or floured pan wash the
tops with beaten white of egg ; sift granulated sugar and cinna-
mon thickly over them, and stick a whole raisin and four or five
blanched and split almonds on top of each.
GINGER-SNAPS. (No. J.)
One cupful of butter creamed with one of sugar, and, when
creamed, whipped lighter with a cupful of the best molasses ;
half a cupful of water ; one tablespoon ful of ginger, and the
same of cinnamon; one teaspoonful of allspice, and one of
soda, sifted in three cupfuls of flour. When well mixed, work in
flour for rather stiff dough. Roll thin, and cut out. These lit-
tle cakes will keep well and are good.
GINGER-SNAPS. (No. 2.)
Warm a cupful of molasses, and beat into it half a cupful of
butter. When you have a smooth mixture, some shades lighter
than at first, add half a cupful of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of gin-
ger, and four cupfuls of flour into which you have sifted twice a
teaspoonful of soda. Add flour for stiffish dough, roll very thin,
and cut out.
COOKIES.
POMPTON COOKIES.
An Old New Jersey Recipe.
Beat six eggs light, whites and yolks separately ; cream one
cupful of butter with three of sugar. Work the beaten yolks
into this cream, then add the whites alternately with enough
flour to make a soft dough. Do not attempt to roll it, but
mould with well-floured hands into round cakes, or, if you
prefer, into rings. Lay upon buttered paper and bake in a
quick oven.
SPICE COOKIES.
Cream a cupful of butter with two of sugar ; stir into this the
beaten yolks of three eggs ; whip together well, and add a tea-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 373
spoonful each of nutmeg and cloves. Beat in the whites alter-
nately with two cupfuls of flour sifted twice with an even tea-
spoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder. The dough must be
just stiff enough to roll out. Cut into round cakes, sift granu-
lated sugar mixed with a little cinnamon on top, stick a currant,
a blanched almond, or a raisin, in the centre of each, and bake in
a quick oven.
SUGAR COOKIES.
One generous cupful of sugar creamed with three-quarters of
a cupful of butter ; three tablespoon fuls of milk ; two eggs, yolks
and whites beaten separately ; one heaping teaspoonful of Cleve-
land's Baking Powder sifted twice with two cupfuls of flour. A
half teaspoonful of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add flour to make a soft dough ; roll out and cut into round
cakes. Bake in a quick oven.
PICNIC COOKIES.
One cupful of butter ; two cupfuls of sugar ; three eggs, well
beaten ; one-quarter teaspoonful of soda dissolved in boiling
water ; one teaspoonful of nutmeg ; one teaspoonful of cloves ;
flour to make soft dough, just stiff enough to roll out try two
cupfuls to begin with, working it in gradually. Cut in round
cakes, stick a raisin or currant in the top of each, and bake
quickly.
MOLASSES COOKIES.
Cream a cupful of butter with two cupfuls of molasses, warm-
ing both slightly to enable you to do this ; beat very light and
add a teaspoonful of allspice with a tablespoonful of ginger.
Sift a teaspoonful of soda through two cupfuls of flour twice, and
stir in lightly, adding flour for a soft dough. Mould with
floured hands into round cakes, handling as little as may be, and
bake quickly.
CRULLERS AND DOUGHNUTS.
Almost as much depends upon frying as upon mixing the
doughnut family. A deep " Scotch kettle" or saucepan of
agate-iron ware is far better for cooking them than a frying-pan,
374 'THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and cottolene is the best vehicle for this purpose. Put it into
a cold saucepan or kettle, and bring it gradually to the right tem-
perature. Cottolene, unlike lard, does not boil, or hiss, or sputter.
Test the heat by dropping in a bit of dough. It should sink to
the bottom and arise to the surface almost immediately, puffing
to twice the original size, and quickly begin to color evenly and
lightly all over. Turn when the lower side is of a golden brown.
Put in a few crullers at a time. When done, they must be fished
out with a perforated spoon, and drained in a hot colander.
When all are cooked sift fine sugar over them while still warm.
Keep in a covered jar. They are better the second day than the
first.
NONPAREIL CRULLERS.
Cream half a pound of butter with three-quarters of a pound
of powdered sugar ; when light, stir in the beaten yolks of six
eggs, with a half-teaspoonful of mace and nutmeg mixed. Add
the stiffened whites of the eggs alternately with flour for a pretty
stiff dough. Roll into a thin sheet, cut into shapes with a
jagging iron, and fry in deep cottolene. Cut out a goodly supply
before you begin frying them, and unless you have an assistant
cut out all. They do better if left upon ice to become firm be-
fore they are cooked. Half an hour should get them into the right
condition.
SOUR-CREAM CRULLERS.
Cream a heaping cupful of sugar with one-third of a cupful
of butter ; when light add a beaten egg, and whip well ; put in
half a cupful of sour cream, and work in two cupfuls of flour in
which an even teaspoonful of soda has been sifted twice. Add
flour for a stiff dough.
Fry in deep cottolene, and while warm strew with powdered
sugar and cinnamon.
An economical and good recipe.
POWHATAN CRULLERS.
Cream half a pound of sugar with two tablespoonfuls of butter ;
add the beaten yolks of three eggs, two teaspoon fuls of milk, a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 375
saltspoonful of grated nutmeg, and an even teaspoonful of Cleve-
land's Baking Powder sifted twice with two cupfuls of flour.
Add flour enough for a rather stiff dough, roll out thin, cut into
shapes and fry.
NEW ENGLAND DOUGHNUTS.
Haifa pound of butter and a pound of sugar; two cupfuls
of milk; two eggs ; half a cake of compressed yeast dissolved
in four tablespoonfuls of warm water, or half a cupful of yeast ;
one teaspoonful each of mace and of cinnamon ; flour for
dough.
Cream butter and sugar, stir in the milk, the yeast, and a
scant quart of flour. Set to rise for six hours, or in winter all
night. Then beat the eggs light, and stir in with spice and
enough flour to make a good dough. Let it rise to double the
original size, roll out nearly half an inch thick, cut into circles,
rounds, or other figures, and fry in deep cottolene. Sift sugar
and cinnamon over them while hot. They keep well.
QUICK DOUGHNUTS.
One cupful of sugar creamed with half a cupful of butter ;
one cupful of milk ; two eggs ; a teaspoonful of mixed cin-
namon and nutmeg ; one rounded teaspoonful of Cleveland's
Baking Powder sifted twice with two cupfuls of flour. Work in
flour for soft dough, roll into a rather thick sheet ; cut into
rings or into narrow strips which you may twist into fantastic
shapes ; fry in deep cottolene ; drain, and sift sugar over them.
GINGERBREAD.
SUGAR GINGERBREAD.
Cream one cupful of butter with two of sugar, add the beaten
yolks of three eggs, and a cupful of sour cream, or loppered
milk, or buttermilk, with two teaspoonfuls of ginger and a tea-
spoonful of cinnamon. Work in alternately with the whipped
376 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
v
whites four cupfuls of flour in which has been sifted a teaspoon-
ful of soda. Add flour for a soft dough. Bake in two large
cards ; wash with white of egg while hot.
EGOLESS GINGERBREAD. (No. J.)
Warm a cupful of molasses until it will melt a scant half-cupful
of mixed cottolene and butter, when they are beaten up in it.
Whip until you have a coffee-colored cream, add a cupful of
sour cream or milk, and two tablespoonfuls of ginger. Whip
one minute and stir into the mixture two teaspoonfuls of soda
sifted twice with four cupfuls of flour, or enough for soft dough.
Roll out, cut into two cards the size of your baking-pans, or
into round cakes, and bake.
Gingerbread is more likely to burn than other cake, when
molasses is used.
EGGLESS GINGERBREAD. (No. 2.)
Warm a cupful of molasses slightly and stir into it a cupful of
sugar with a tablespoonful of butter and two teaspoonfuls of
ginger mixed with half as much cinnamon. Beat all together
until smooth ; then whip into the mixture a cupful of sour cream.
Lastly, add four cupfuls of flour in which have been sifted twice
two teaspoonfuls of soda. Beat well, and bake in broad, shallow
card-pans, well greased, or in small tins.
RAISIN GINGERBREAD.
Make as in last recipe, adding at the last half a pound of rai-
sins, seeded and chopped, or halved, well dredged with flour.
GINGERBREAD LOAF.
Cream a cupful of butter with one of sugar, and when light
beat in a cupful of molasses with a tablespoonful of ginger and a
teaspoonful of cinnamon. Warm them slightly and whip in a
cupful of sour cream, or loppered milk, or buttermilk; next, the
beaten yolks of two eggs, then, alternately with the frothed
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 377
whites, four cupfuls of flour in which has been sifted twice a tea-
spoonful of soda. Beat up from the bottom for five minutes and
bake in a greased mould with a funnel in the middle. Take care
that it does not burn. The batter should be of the consistency
of pound cake. Half a pound of cleaned currants, or of seeded
and halved raisins, dredged with flour, make an elegant cake of
this.
ICINGS*
PLAIN ICING.
Break the white of an egg upon a clean cold platter. Allow
a scant cupful of powdered sugar for each egg. Put a tablespoon-
ful of sugar upon the egg and begin at once to whip it in with
sidelong sweeps of fork or egg-beater, folding, rather than stir-
ring, in the frothing egg. Beat them together from the first, add-
ing lemon-juice or other flavoring as you go on. Beat until you
have a smooth, stiff meringue.
Pour the icing upon the middle of the cake, and smooth it with
the wet blade of a knife over top and sides.
BOILED OR FONDANT ICING.
Put a pound of granulated sugar and half a cupful of water
over the fire and let it boil slowly (without stirring) until a little
dropped from the tip of a spoon looks like spun silk, or a hair.
Set aside until a little more than blood-warm, when begin to stir
steadily, always in one direction, and keep it up until you have
a smooth, snowy cream. Apply as above directed. If properly
made it will harden by the time it is on the cake. Flavor to
taste, while stirring.
This icing can be kept for several days or longer, and may be
softened for use in a vessel set in boiling water.
CHOCOLATE ICING.
Add to a cupful of fondant or boiled icing a tablespoonful of
grated chocolate, and stir smooth.
PUDDINGS.
BOILED AND STEAMED PUDDINGS.
ALWAYS put puddings which are to be boiled over the fire in
boiling water, and keep it at a hard bubble until the time for
cooking them is up. If you use a cloth for holding the batter
or dough, have one of strong unbleached muslin, and keep it for
nothing else. When you are ready to use it, rinse it in hot, then
in cold, water, wringing it dry in the last, butter it on the inside
and dredge plentifully with flour. In tying up the pudding
leave room for it to swell, and tie tightly with strong twine or
tape.
When the pudding is done plunge the bag for one instant into
cold water to make the contents shrink away from the cloth ;
leave it for a few minutes on a dish to harden the outside, untie
the strings, and turn out carefully upon a hot dish.
If you prefer a pudding-mould, grease it well, see that the top
fits tightly, do not fill it too full, and look to it that the boiling
water does not upset it in the pot. The mould should not float
in the water. Dip into cold water for an instant when the pud-
ding is done. Should the water boil away too much from- the
cloth or mould, replenish from the boiling tea-kettle.
PLUM PUDDING,
Five cupfuls of flour ; half a pound of suet ; half a pound of
sugar ; quarter of a pound of butter ; one pound of currants : one
pound of raisins ; two tablespoonfuls of shred citron ; one cupful
of milk ; six eggs ; half a teaspoonful of cloves ; half a teaspoon-
ful of mace ; one grated nutmeg ; half a cupful of brandy.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 379
Seed and chop the raisins ; wash and pick over the currants.
Rub the butter and sugar together and stir into them the beaten
yolks of the eggs and the milk. Add the flour and the whipped
whites of the eggs, the spices and the liquor. Dredge the fruit
with flour and stir it in, and after all is well mixed pack it into
greased moulds and boil five hours. After the pudding is turned
out, stick a spray of holly in it, pour a little brandy over the pud-
ding, and touch it with a match into a blaze, just as it is brought
to the table.
SAUCE FOR PLUM PUDDING.
Two tablespoon fuls of butter ; one cupful of powdered sugar ;
half a cupful of boiling water and a wineglassful of brandy.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the brandy and boiling
water, set the vessel containing the sauce in a saucepan of boiling
water, and beat until very light. If you object to brandy, you
may substitute the juice of one large, or two small lemons.
STEAMED PLUM PUDDING.
One cupful of flour ; two cupfuls of bread-crumbs, fine and
dry ; one cupful of sugar ; one cupful of milk ; one cupful of
raisins, seeded ; one cupful of currants, washed and dried ; half a
cupful of molasses ; half a cupful of suet ; quarter of a pound of
citron, sliced ; one ounce of candied orange-peel, minced ; half
a teaspoonful each of mace and cinnamon ; one scant teaspoon -
ful of soda dissolved in a little hot water and mixed with the
milk ; three eggs, beaten light.
Mix all the ingredients together, putting in the fruit, very well
dredged with flour, last of all. Beat hard, and steam in a thor-
oughly buttered mould for five or six hours. Turn it out, pour
a little brandy over it, and light this just before it is put on the
table. Serve with either hard or liquid sauce.
i . "e.
QUICK PLUM PUDDING.
One pound can of plum pudding, put up by a trustworthy
house ; two cupfuls of bread-crumbs soaked in sufficient milk to
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Hoften them; one small cupful of suet ; three eggs, beaten light ;
half a cupful of sugar; half a cupful of stoned raisins.
Crumble the canned pudding, powder the Huet, stone the
raisins, and grate the bread-crumbt overnight. The next morn-
ing mix these with the other ingredients mentioned, turn all
into a well-greased pudding-mould, and boil three hours. Eat
with a rich, sweet sauce.
STEAMED INDIAN PUDDING.
One pint of milk ; two eggs ; one and a half cupfuls of Indian
meal; two small tablespoon fuls of beef-suet ; two tablespoonftils
of molasses ; half a teaspoonful each of cinnamon and ground
ginger; saltspoonful of salt ; pinch of soda.
Heat the milk boiling-hot ; add the soda and pour upon the
meal. Stir well ; add the suet, powdered, and the salt. When
this mixture is cold put with it the eggs, beaten light, the mo-
lasses and spices, and beat all hard. Turn into a well-greased
mould, and steam four hours. Eat with hard sauce.
DATE OR FIG PUDDING.
One cupful of figs or dates, cut into small pieces j one cupful
of bread -crumbs ; two tablespoonfuls of powdered suet j two
eggs ; one cupful of milk ; half a cupful of sugar ; saltHpoonful
each of salt and cinnamon*
Soak the crumbs in the milk for ten minutes, and add to them
the beaten eggs, the spice, the salt, and the sugar. Dredge the
fruit in a heaping tables poonful of Hour, stir it into the pudding ;
beat all vigorously before turning into a well-greased mould and
steam for three hours. Eat with hard sauce.
PEACH OR APPLE PUDDING.
Two cupfuls of flour ; one small cupful of beef-kidney suet ;
half a cupful of cold water ; one even teaspoonful of salt.
I ice the suet from skin and fibre, and chop it fine with the
flour. Add the salt and stir in the water, making a dough just
TIIK NATIONAL COOK' BOOK 381
soft enough to handle. Roll it out in a square sheet. Lay the
fruit, peeled and sliced, in the centre and sprinkle thickly with
sugar. Fold the paste over the fruit, pinching the edges together
as you would with an apple dumpling ; lay the pudding in the
steamer, and cook two hours. Kat with hard sauce.
ORANGE ROLY-POLY.
Two cupfuls of flour ; one cupful of milk ; one tablespoon ful
of butter, or of butter and cottolene mixed ; two small teas|x>on-
fuls of Cleveland's Haking Powder; saltspoonful of salt ; well-
flavored oranges, peeled, seeded, and sliced.
Chop the shortening into the flour after you have twice sifted
this with the salt and baking powder. Mix with the milk into a
soft dough, and roll this into a sheet about half an inch thick.
Cover it with the fruit, and sprinkle this liberally with sugar. Roll
up the dough as you would a sheet of paper, with the fruit inside,
and steam it for two hours. Serve with hard sauce flavored with
lemon.
STEAMED "BROVN BETTY."
One cupful and half of fine bread-crumlw ; two cupfuls of
tart apples, peeled, cored, and minced ; half a teaspoonful each
of cinnamon and mace ; three eggs ; saltspoonful of salt.
Mix the chopped apple and crumbs together, add the eggs,
beaten light, the salt and spice, turn into a buttered mould, and
steam three hours. Serve with liquid sauce.
ENGLISH FRUIT-PUDDING.
Half a cupful of butter ; half a cupful of sugar ; three eggs ;
one ;.iid a li.ill ( iiplul , of Horn ; jiiail-i of ;i pound of lai-.m:, ;
four figs ; two ounces of citron ; grated peel of a lemon.
Cream the butter and sugar and stir it into the eggs, l>eaten
very light. Mix in the flour and the grated lemon-rind, and,
last, pi. i in i he fruit. The raisins should be seeded and cut in
half, Hi- < 1 1 inn and li vs minced fine, and all well dredged with
flour. Steam it in a Creased mould for three hours.
3&2 THE NATIONAL 'COOK BOOK
STEAMED CABINET PUDDING.
Two cupfuls of stale cake ; two eggs ; two cupfuls of milk ;
two tablespoonfuls of white sugar ; saitspoonful of salt ; one
teaspoon ful of vanilla; two tablespoonfuls each of cleansed
currants, sultana raisins, washed and stemmed, and citron cut in
shreds.
Stir the milk into the beaten eggs ; add the sugar, vanilla, and
salt. Grease your pudding-mould, and fill it with alternate
layers of the fruit and the crumbed cake, beginning with the
fruit, and moistening each layer of the cake with a little of the
mixed milk and egg. Should the cake still seem dry when the
mould is filled, add a trifle more milk. Cover the mould and
steam the pudding for two hours.
If a steamed pudding does not turn out readily, dip the mould
for an instant into cold water. This will loosen the pudding
from the sides.
AN ENGLISH POTATO-PUDDING.
Boil six large potatoes quite soft, skin them, and mash with
the back of a spoon. Run them through a fine wire sieve, add
half a cupful of butter melted, the same quantity of sugar, and
four well-beaten eggs. Mix all well together, place the mixt-
ure in a well-buttered mould, tie a wet cloth over it and boil
for thirty minutes, then turn out carefully and cover with the
following sauce :
A tablespoonful of red currant jelly, one of port wine, and the
same of hot butter, thoroughly heated in a small saucepan.
STRAWBERRY PUDDING.
Three cupfuls of firm strawberries, hulled (N.B., don't wash
the berries) ; two cupfuls of milk ; three cupfuls of flour ; two
eggs, whipped light ; one tablespoonful of butter ; two teaspoon-
fuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder sifted with the flour.
Stir the milk and the melted butter into the beaten eggs ; add
the prepared flour gradually, stirring constantly to prevent lump-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 383
m
ing, and last of all, the strawberries, well dredged with flour.
Turn the pudding into a greased mould, and steam for three
hours, filling up the outer vessel with boiling water as fast as the
first supply evaporates. Serve with hard sauce.
CHERRY PUDDING.
This may be made and cooked exactly like the strawberry
pudding, but the cherries should be stoned before using, and, as
they yield their juice freely, the quantity of flour should be in-
creased by half a cupful. Two full cupfuls of stoned cherries
will be sufficient. Dried cherries may be substituted for the
fresh fruit, after undergoing the usual preliminary soaking, and
a delicious pudding may be made of canned cherries, drained of
their juice.
CHERRY-AND-CURRANT PUDDING.
One pint of flour ; half a pound of beef-kidney suet ; one small
cupful of cold water ; half a teaspoonful of salt.
Salt the flour and chop the suet into it, add the cold water,
and make it into a dough as lightly and quickly as possible.
Roll it out half an inch thick ; butter a quart bowl and line it
with the paste, leaving about an inch above the bowl all around.
From the trimmings roll out a top-crust for the pudding ; fill
the bowl with three cupfuls of stoned cherries and one cupful of
currants, sprinkling sugar on each layer. Cover with crust; tie
a cloth over the bowl, and boil for two hours.
RASPBERRY PUDDING.
Three cupfuls of milk ; three eggs ; three cupfuls of berries ;
two heaping teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder; pinch
of salt ; enough flour (about four cupfuls) to make a good batter.
Proceed as with strawberry pudding. Either black or red
raspberries may be used, and a pleasant variety is given by mixing
two cupfuls of red raspberries with one of currants. All fruit
should be thoroughly dredged with flour.
384 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
STRAWBERRY DUMPLINGS.
Make a dough as for shortcake, roll into a thin sheet and cut
with a large round cutter ; put three strawberries in the centre
of each round, fold the dough over, so that you have a neat
dumpling. Stand these dumplings on a buttered plate, place
them in a steamer and steam twenty minutes. Serve with
strawberry sauce.
BOILED LEMON PUDDING.
Two cupfuls of dry bread-crumbs one cupful of powdered beef-
suet ; four tablespoon mis of flour ; two teaspoonfuls of Cleve-
land's Baking Powder ; half a cupful of sugar ; one large lemon,
all the juice and half the peel ; four eggs, whipped light ; one
cupful of milk a large one. Soak the bread-crumbs in the
milk ; add the suet ; beat eggs and sugar together and these well
into the soaked bread. To these put the lemon, lastly the flour
sifted with the baking powder and beaten in with as few strokes
as will suffice to mix up all into a thick batter. Boil three hours
in a buttered mould. Eat hot with wine sauce.
BLACKBERRY PUDDING (RAISED).
Two cupfuls of flour ; two cupfuls of blackberries ; two eggs ;
one cupful of milk ; one tablespoonful of butter ; half a yeast-
cake dissolved in warm water ; one small teaspoonful of soda ;
half a teaspoonful of salt.
Melt the butter, beat the eggs, and mix these, the flour, the
yeast, the salt, and the soda, to a batter. Let it rise in a warm
place until light. Four or five hours will probably be needed for
this. When the pudding has risen sufficiently, stir in the black-
berries, well dredged with flour, turn the pudding into a but-
tered mould, and steam it for three hours. Serve hard sauce
with it.
This pudding is even better when huckleberries take the place
of blackberries.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 385
APPLE DUMPLINGS.
Chop one tablespoonful of butter and one of cottolene into a
quart of flour, which has been sifted twice with one heaping
teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder, and a saltspoonful of
salt. Wet with two cupfuls of milk, or enough to make a soft
dough, and roll into a sheet a quarter of an inch thick. Pare
well-flavored, firm tart apples ; extract the cores, filling the holes
left with a mixture of sugar, butter, and cinnamon to taste.
Cut the crust into squares that will easily enfold the apples ; put
an apple in the centre of each and fold together, pinching the
edges where they join. Tie up in small cloths, leaving a little
room for swelling, and boil one hour.
PEACH DUMPLINGS
are made in the same way. The stones are left in the peaches if
the fruit be large and ripe. They then give a delicious flavor to
the flesh of the peach. If small peaches are used, pare, quarter,
and take out the stones, putting two or three peaches in each
dumpling.
CHERRY DUMPLINGS.
Prepare a crust as already directed, cut into squares, and put a
great spoonful of whole cherries into each. Tie up in cloths and
boil as with other dumplings.
RICE-AND-APPLE DUMPLINGS.
Boil a cupful of rice for twenty minutes without stirring ;
drain and cool upon a coarse cloth spread over a sieve. When
cold, have your dumpling cloths ready wrung out, buttered, and
floured. Put a large spoonful of the cold rice upon each, flatten-
ing it into a round cake. Upon this lay a pared and cored apple ;
fill the hole left by coring with butter and sugar, and stick a
whole raisin in the middle. Draw up the corners of the cloth
so as to enclose the apple in the rice, tie, and boil for an hour.
25
386 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PEACH-AND-RJCE DUMPLINGS,
Make in the same way, substituting whole peaches, pared, but
not stoned, for the apples, and sprinkling with sugar before fold-
ing the rice about them. Serve these dumplings with sweet
sauce, hard or liquid.
FARMERS' DUMPLINGS.
Soak two cupfuls of dry bread-crumbs in one cupful of milk
until they absorb all. Beat into this the whipped yolks of four
eggs, a cupful of beef -suet, powdered fine, and a tablespoonful of
sugar. Half a cupful of flour, sifted twice, with a rounded tea-
spoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder, is worked in next, alter-
nately with the stiffened whites of the eggs. There should be
just enough flour to enable you to form the mixture into large
balls with floured hands. Wring out your dumpling cloths, but-
ter and flour them inside ; enclose the balls, leaving room to
swell, tie up tightly, and boil for an hour.
Eaten with brandy or wine sauce they will be relished by
others besides farmers.
BAKED PUDDINGS.
Nearly all the puddings for which recipes have been given
under the head of ''boiled puddings" may be baked and meet
with favor. The time for baking is, usually, about half of that
required for boiling. When a baked pudding is to be turned
out of the mould, it is well to cook it by setting the bake-dish in
boiling water, and this in the oven.
BAKED HUCKLEBERRY PUDDING*]
One pint of milk ; two eggs ; one quart of flour (sifted) ; one
gill of yeast ; one saltspoonful of salt ; one teaspoonful of boil-
ing water ; nearly a quart of berries dredged with flour. Make
a batter of these ingredients leaving out the berries and set in
a warm place to rise, for about four hours. If light then, stir in
NATIONAL COOK BOOK 387
the dredged berries, pour into a buttered cake-mould, and bake
one houi in a moderate oven. Turn out and eat with hard sauce.
BAKED CANNED PEACH DUMPLINGS.
Empty a can of cheap peaches (put up for pies) into a bowl,
and leave uncovered for three hours or more. Make a good bis-
cuit-dough, roll less than half an inch thick, cut into squares from
four to five inches wide, drain the peaches, and lay two or three
halves in the middle of each square. Fold up as you would ap-
ple dumplings, lay in a floured pan, folded edges down, and bake
to a light brown. Serve hot with sauce made of the strained
peach-syrup sweetened and with a tablespoon ful of butter. Boil
sharply for one minute.
BAKED APPLE DUMPLINGS.
Prepare as for boiling, but after folding the crust over upon
them and pinching the edges together, lay them in a greased
bake-pan, folded edges downward, and bake. Wash over with
cream and sugar just before taking them up.
BAKED CHERRY DUMPLINGS.
One quart of prepared flour ; two heaping tablespoon fu Is of
cottolene ; two cupfuls of fresh milk ; a little salt ; two cupfuls
of stoned cherries ; one-half cupful of sugar. Rub the cottolene
into the salted flour; wet up with the milk; roll into a sheet a
quarter of an inch thick, and cut into squares about four inches
across. Put two great spoonfuls of cherries in the centre of
each; sugar them; turn up the edges of the paste and pinch
them together. Lay the joined edges downward, upon a floured
baking-pan, and bake half an hour, or until browned. Eat
hot with a good sauce.
BAKED BLACKBERRY DUMPLINGS
are made in the same way.
388 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PEACH-BATTER PUDDING.
Twelve rich ripe peaches, pared but not stoned ; one quart of
milk; about ten tablespoonfuls of prepared flour; five beaten
eggs; one tablespoonful of melted butter; one saltspoonful of
salt. Set the peaches closely together in a buttered pudding-
dish, strew with sugar, and pour over them a batter made of the
ingredients above named.
BAKED BLACKBERRY PUDDING.
One quart of berries ; three tablespoonfuls of melted butter ;
one cupful of milk ; one and a half cupfuls of prepared flour
sifted twice with a heaping tablespoonful of salt; three eggs,
beaten light, yolks and whites separately.
Add the milk to the beaten yolks, then the butter, and the
.prepared flour, alternately with the stiffened whites. Pour the
batter into a broad pudding-dish, well greased, and upon it the
blackberries dredged with flour and mixed with four tablespoon-
fuls of sugar. Put in a handful at a time, stirring very gently
into the surface of the batter. Cover and bake half an hour in
a hot oven ; uncover and leave it for five minutes more. Serve
in the dish with hard brandy or wine sauce.
MACARONI PUDDING.
One-half pound of macaroni ; one pint of milk ; two table-
spoonfuls of butter ; four tablespoonfuls of cream ; four table-
spoonfuls of sugar ; nutmeg and vanilla ; a little salt. Break
the macaroni into short pieces, put into a farina-kettle, cover
with the milk, put on the lid of the kettle, and cook with boil-
ing water in the outer vessel, until the milk is soaked up and
the macaroni looks clear, but has not begun to break. Add the
butter, sugar, and flavoring, and, if you have it, a few spoon-
fuls of cream. If you have not, thicken a little milk slightly
with corn -starch, and use instead. Cover, and set in the boil-
ing water for ten minutes before serving in a deep dish. Eat
with powdered sugar and cream.
THE NATIONAL COOK: BOOK 389
INDIAN PUDDING.
Three pints of milk ; four eggs ; one heaping cupful of yellow
Indian meal ; one small cupful of molasses ; two tablespoonfuls
of butter ; one teaspoonful of salt stirred into the meal ; one
teaspoonful of ground ginger ; one teaspoonful of cinnamon and
mace mixed ; one cupful of seeded raisins.
Heat the milk in a double boiler. When it is scalding-hot
pour it on the salted meal, stirring carefully to prevent lumping.
Return to the fire and cook for half an hour, stirring often.
Beat the molasses and butter together, add to these the eggs
whipped light, the spice and the meal and milk, and beat hard.
Last of all, stir in the raisins. Turn all into a buttered pud-
ding-dish and bake covered three-quarters of an hour. Stir the
pudding well up from the bottom and brown. Make a hard
sauce by creaming a tablespoonful of butter with a cupful of
powdered sugar, and season to taste with nutmeg and cinnamon.
Cream, liberally sweetened with maple sugar, makes a good
sauce for this pudding.
SWEET-POTATO PUDDING.
One pound of parboiled sweet potatoes ; half a cupful of but-
ter ; three-fourths of a cupful of white sugar ; one tablespoonful
of cinnamon ; four eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately ;
one teaspoonful of nutmeg; one lemon, juice and grated rind;
one glass of brandy. Let the potatoes get entirely cold, and
grate them. Cream the butter and sugar ; add the yolks, spice,
and lemon. Beat the potato in by degrees, to a light paste;
then the brandy ; lastly the whites. Bake in a buttered dish,
and eat cold.
BREAD PUDDING.
Soak two cupfuls of fine, dry crumbs in a quart of milk, beat
the yolks of four eggs light and stir into the soaked crumbs,
then two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and half a teaspoonful
of soda dissolved in warm water, finally, fold in the whites as
390 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
deftly as if you were mixing a rich cake. Bake in a well-
greased pudding-dish, covered, for half an hour, then brown
delicately and send to table before it falls. It will be found as
delicate as a souffle. Eat with wine sauce.
You may vary this excellent family pudding in a dozen ways,
by the addition of raisins, currants, citron, almonds blanched
and chopped berries, dredged with flour cocoanut, and other
devices that will occur to the ingenious housewife. Since stale
bread must be used, it is well for her to study methods of doing
this to advantage. Crusts are inadmissible and the crumbs must
be fine and dry. Dry slices of stale bread in an open oven and
crush them with a rolling-pin.
BREAD-AND-JAM PUDDING. (No. J.)
Cut the crust from slices of stale bread, butter them thickly
and spread more thickly with jam, marmalade, or fruit-jelly.
Fit a layer of them in the bottom of a greased bake-dish and
saturate with hot custard, made by scalding a quart of milk,
pouring it upon five well- beaten eggs into which have been
stirred five tablespoon fuls of sugar, then stirring over the fire for
one minute, but not until it thickens. Let each layer soak up
the custard before putting another upon it. When all the slices
are in pour in the rest of the custard ; cover the dish and bake
half an hour, then brown lightly. Eat hot with lemon sauce,
or cold with cream.
BREAD-AND-JAM PUDDING. (No. 2.)
Grease a deep bake-dish and cover the bottom an inch deep
with fine crumbs. Pour in, a spoonful at a time, hot custard
made as in last recipe, but without cooking at all after the eggs
and sugar go in. Merely stir it long enough to melt the sugar.
When the crumbs have taken it up, pour half a cupful of straw-
berry, peach, or other jam, or if you have nothing else, of nice
strained apple sauce upon the crumbs and cover with another
inch of crumbs. Pour the custard upon these, a little at a time,
until they are soaked and the custard stands on the surface.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 391
Cover and bake half an hour, and brown lightly. Eat ice-cold,
with cream. It is very nice.
ENGLISH BISCUIT PUDDING.
One cupful of rolled cracker-crumbs (called by the English
" biscuit crumbs") ; half a cupful of powdered beef-suet ; three
eggs; three cupfuls of milk ; three tablespoonfuls of sugar ; piece
of soda no larger than a pea ; one teaspoonful of salt.
Soak the crumbs in the milk until stiff, and stir into this the
beaten yolks ; beat three minutes ; put in suet, salt, and soda, and
then " fold in " the whites dexterously and swiftly with long, al-
most horizontal, sweeps of the spoon. Bake, covered, half an
hour, brown, and eat hot with brandy or wine sauce.
FARINA SOUFFLE.
Soak half a cupful of farina two hours in just enough water to
cover it. Heat two cupfuls of milk in a farina-kettle with a
good pinch of salt. When it boils, stir in the soaked farina and
continue to stir until it thickens well. Take from the fire and
mix with the beaten yolks of four eggs. Beat all together for
three minutes, and set aside until just lukewarm. Now whip in
with long, even side-strokes the stiffened whites of the eggs,
pour into a greased bake-dish, set in a pan of boiling water and
bake in a hot oven, covered for the first ten minutes, and uncov-
ered for fifteen. It should puff up high above the edge of the
dish. Send to table in the bake-dish and eat at once with hot
wine sauce.
TAPIOCA PUDDING.
Soak a cupful of pearl tapioca in two cupfuls of cold water for
two hours, or until it takes up all the water. Warm a quart of
milk to scalding and stir the tapioca into it, taking from the fire
to do it. Let it get almost cold, beat up for one minute from
the bottom, and add two tablespoonfuls of sugar creamed with
one of butter and beaten light with the whipped yolks of five
eggs. When it is well mixed whip in the stiffened whites of the
392 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
eggs ; pour into a buttered dish and bake, covered, half an hour,
then brown delicately.
Eat hot with wine, lemon, or brandy sauce.
SAGO PUDDING.
Make as you would tapioca, but soak the sago an hour longer.
Either of these puddings is made more elegant by reserving two
of the whites, and when the pudding is nearly done, and quite
firm, drawing it to the door of the oven and spreading upon the
surface the reserved whites whipped to a meringue with a table-
spoonful of powdered sugar. Shut the oven for two minutes to
set and lightly color the meringue.
APPLE-AND-TAPIOCA PUDDING.
Cover half a pint of tapioca with one pint of water ; soak
overnight. In the morning add one pint of hot water ; stand a
saucepan over the fire, and cook very slowly, without stirring,
until the tapioca is clear. If the water has been entirely ab-
sorbed add enough to make the mixture soft enough to pour
easily. Pare and core six good-sized apples. Put them in a
pudding-dish, add four tablespoonfuls of sugar and a cupful of
water. Place them in the oven and cook slowly until you can
pierce them with a fork. Now fill the cores with the tapioca
and cover them with what remains. Stand the dish away until
the contents are ice-cold. Serve with sugar and cream. It may
also be eaten warm with cream, or sweet sauce.
PLAIN RICE PUDDING.
Soak half a cupful of raw rice (which has been well washed) in
a pint of warm milk for two hours. Keep the milk warm by
setting the vessel containing it and the rice in another of boiling
water, kept at one side of the range. Put a good pinch of salt
into the milk, with a pinch of soda. By this time it should have
absorbed all the milk. Put in a quart more, turn the mixture
into a pudding-dish, add four tablespoonfuls of sugar, a table-
spoonful of melted butter, and a little vanilla, or nutmeg, or cin-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 393
namon. Set in a pan of hot water in a slow oven, cover and
bake for two hours. Should the rice grow dry, add hot milk
enough to fill the dish.
RICE-AND-RAISIN PUDDING.
Make as just directed, and when the pudding has cooked one
hour, stir in three tablespoon fuls of seeded and halved raisins,
dredged with flour.
CUSTARD RICE PUDDING. (No. J.)
Soak half a cupful of washed rice in a pint of milk for an hour,
then set the saucepan containing it in another of hot water and
bring the latter to a boil, keeping this up until the rice is soft.
Spread upon a platter to cool. Beat the yolks of four eggs light,
stir into them half a cupful of sugar creamed with a tablespoon-
ful of butter, and the cooled rice, with two cupfuls of cold milk,
beat in the stiffened whites, turn into a pudding-dish and bake
covered half an hour, uncovered fifteen minutes. Grate nutmeg
or sprinkle mace on the top.
Eat warm not hot with hot sauce, or cold with cream.
You may add a handful of raisins, seeded and chopped, when
the pudding goes into the oven.
CUSTARD RICE PUDDING. (No. 2.)
One quart of milk ; three well-beaten eggs ; four tablespoon-
fuls of sugar ; one small cupful of boiled and still warm rice ;
one scant tablespoonful of butter; a little salt. Cream butter
and sugar ; add the beaten eggs, salt, then the rice stirred warm
into the milk. Bake in a buttered dish half an hour in a quick
oven. Eat warm. Simple, wholesome, and palatable.
COTTAGE PUDDING.
Cream a cupful of sugar with a large tablespoonful of butter,
beat into this the whipped yolks of two eggs, and into this a
cupful of milk. Stir in alternately with the stiffened whites of
the eggs three cupfuls of flour, sifted twice with one rounded
394 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder, and an even teaspoon-
fulofsalt.
Beat one minute and bake in a buttered mould, until a straw
comes out clean from the centre of the loaf. Turn out and slice
while hot. Pass liquid sauce with it. *
One of the simplest of our popular puddings.
ORANGE PUDDING.
Peel, slice, and seed oranges. Make a good biscuit-crust,
roll out less than half an inch thick, cut an oblong sheet twice as
long as wide, lay the sliced oranges on it, sprinkle with sugar,
roll up and bake.
Eat with sauce.
APPLE COMPOTE AU GRATEST.
Make a quart of good apple sauce, rubbing it very smooth,
and beat in, while hot, sugar to make it quite sweet, nutmeg,
and a great spoonful of butter. Make a heap of it (it should be
rather stiff when cold) upon a deep plate or pie-dish. Wash all
over with beaten egg and sift rolled cracker thickly upon it.
Bake half an hour and eat hot with butter and sugar.
PRUNE SOUFFLE. (No. J.)
Stew a dozen and a half of prunes, drain, and when they are
cold, chop fine. Beat to a stiff meringue the whites of seven
eggs and seven tablespoonfuls of fine granulated sugar. Stir in
the prunes, turn the mixture into a buttered pudding-dish and
bake -half an hour in a good oven.
Serve at once, and eat with whipped cream. It is a delicious
dessert.
PRUNE SOUFFLE. (No. 2.)
A Turkish Recipe.
Soak half a pound of fine Turkish prunes in cold water for six
hours. Stew until soft, remove the stones, drain off the liquor
in which they were boiled, and set aside for sauce ; chop the
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 395
prunes and add four tablespoon fills of sugar, beating to a paste.
Let them get cold, whip the whites of six eggs to a standing
froth, beat in the prune-paste, and bake quickly in a hot oven.
Serve hot with a sauce made of the prune-liquor heated,
sweetened abundantly, and flavored with maraschino, or other
liqueur.
CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE.
Make a roux by heating a tablespoon ful of butter in a sauce-
pan, stirring into it two tablespoonfuls of flour, and, as it thickens,
thinning with five tablespoonfuls of scalding milk. Cook two
minutes. Have ready, beaten light, the yolks of three eggs and
two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Stir the thickened milk into these,
beat one minute and add four tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate.
Beat hard until the mixture begins to cool, then set aside until
cold, closely covered, to keep it from hardening on top. Bake
half an hour in a quick oven, and serve immediately before it
falls. Eat with whipped cream.
This is a fine souffle" for those who like chocolate and most
people do.
PINEAPPLE PUDDING.
Butter a pudding-dish, put into the bottom slices of stale
sponge cake, wet these with a little sherry wine and cover with
freshly chopped pineapple. If it stand even a few minutes the
color changes. Strew powdered sugar over the pineapple. Put
in more cake and wine and more pineapple until the dish is full.
The top layer should be cake and well soaked. Cover closely,
and bake one hour in a good oven. Eat hot with lemon sauce.
"POP-OVERS."
Heat a pint of milk to scalding, and melt in it a large spoon-
ful of butter. While it is still warm a little more than luke-
warm beat in the yolks of five eggs, and three cupfuls of flour
sifted with two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking
Powder. Add flour if needful, for a rather stiff batter, and set
this upon ice, or in a cold place until thoroughly chilled. Then
396 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
beat in the whites whipped stiff, and bake in greased muffin-
rings, or pate-pans, or in custard-cups.
Serve as soon as they are baked. Split, without cutting them
open, and eat with liquid sauce.
APPLE POP-OVERS.
Make a white roux of two tablespoon fuls of flour stirred into
one of hissing butter, and when thick, thinned with two cupfuls
of scalding milk. Stir two minutes and pour upon the beaten
yolks of four eggs. (A bit of soda three times as large as a pea
should go into the hot milk.) Have ready six fine pippins, pared,
and grate them directly into the sugarless custard. Lastly, whip
in the stiffened whites, half fill greased custard-cups or nappies
with the mixture, set in a pan of hot water and bake in a quick
oven until they puff high and are lightly browned.
Turn out at table upon hot plates and serve brandy sauce with
them.
LEMON PUDDING.
Soak two cupfuls of crumbs in a quart of milk until very soft.
Stir a quarter of a teaspoonful of soda into the milk. Beat into
this the whipped yolks of five eggs, and half a cupful of butter that
has been creamed with a cupful of sugar. Add, now, the rind
of a lemon, grated fine, and two tablespoonfuls of lemon-juice.
Beat hard for two minutes; stir in half a cupful of raisins,
seeded, chopped, and dredged with flour, and bake in a greased
pudding-dish until firm and beginning to brown. Have ready
a meringue of the whipped whites, three tablespoonfuls of pow-
dered sugar, and a teaspoonful of lemon-juice. Open the oven
door, spread this high upon the hot pudding, quickly and
smoothly ; shut the door and color lightly. Sift sugar over the
top, and when the pudding cools set on ice until you are ready
to eat it.
ORANGE PUDDING
is made in the same way. You can, if you like, omit the
raisins.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 397
LA REGINA PUDDING.
One cupful of crumbs soaked in half a cupful of milk. Three
quarters of a cupful of sugar, creamed with a tablespoonful of
butter. Six eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately. Half a
pound each of stale sponge cake and the same of macaroons.
Haifa cupful of jelly crab-apple or quince or currant and half
a cupful of sherry. One lemon.
Beat the whipped yolks into the bread-crumbs with the lemon-
juice and grated peel. Stir and beat for a whole minute before
adding the stiffened whites of the eggs. Butter a round mould
with straight sides, or a round one which is not fluted, and put
a layer of fine dry crumbs in the bottom ; upon this arrange one
of macaroons, and another, half an inch deep, of the mixture just
made. Next lay slices of sponge cake, spread thickly with jelly,
more macaroons, wet with wine, more custard, sponge cake and
wine until all the ingredients are in, the custard on top. Cover
closely, set in a pan of boiling water and cook in the oven for
one hour. Then uncover and brown. Turn out upon a hot
platter, and pour a sauce over it made of currant jelly warmed
and beaten light with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and a
glass of sherry.
This is an Italian recipe, and the result is good.
MACARONI SOUFFLE.
Break half a pound of macaroni into inch lengths and boil
tender in a quart of milk slightly salted. It should absorb nearly
if not all the milk. Put aside until cold ; beat into it the
whipped yolks of four eggs and four tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Season with vanilla, or other essence, then whip in the stiffened
whites of the eggs and bake in a deep dish set in a pan of hot
water in a quick oven.
Serve with sweetened cream or with wine sauce.
398 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
VERMICELLI SOUFFLE
is made in the same way.
RHUBARB PUDDING.
Butter a pudding-dish and cover the bottom an inch deep
with fine crumbs. Sprinkle this with bits of butter and lay upon
it raw rhubarb that has been cut into thin pieces half an inch
long. Scatter over this a dozen raisins, seeded and halved, and
two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Cover with buttered crumbs, then
more rhubarb, filling the dish to the top, the uppermost layer
being crumbs, buttered, sugared, and strewed with a teaspoon-
ful of grated orange-peel. Bake, covered, for an hour in a mod-
erate oven. Uncover and brown. Eat hot with sauce.
RHUBARB AND TAPIOCA PUDDING.
Wash a scant cupful of pearl tapioca and soak four hours in a
pint of lukewarm water. It should absorb all the water. But-
ter a pudding-dish and cover the bottom thickly with sliced rhu-
barb cut small. Strew upon this a heaping tablespoonful of sugar.
Scatter a teaspoonful of chopped raisins over the rhubarb and
put half of the soaked tapioca upon it. Dot plentifully with
butter, sprinkle with two tablespoonfuls of sugar, more rhubarb,
raisins, and sugar, then the rest of the tapioca with butter and
sugar as before. There should be two cupfuls of rhubarb in all.
Bake one hour, covered, brown, and send to table in the pud-
ding-dish. Eat hot with hard or liquid sauce.
VERMICELLI PUDDING.
Heat a cupful of milk to scalding, salt slightly and cook ten-
der in it a quarter of a pound of vermicelli. Stir into it while
warm four tablespoonfuls of sugar and two of butter and let it
cool. When quite cold add the beaten yolks of five eggs and
two tablespoonfuls of blanched and chopped almonds. Beat all
well together, and whip in lightly the stiffened whites of the
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 399
eggs. Bake, covered, three-quarters of an hour, then brown.
Eat warm with liquid sauce.
THE QUEEN OF PUDDINGS.
Cream a cupful of sugar with a heaping tablespoonful of butter ;
beat into the cream the whipped yolks of five eggs. Add next
two cupfuls of dry crumbs soaked in a quart of milk. Season
with vanilla, lemon, or bitter almond. Beat two minutes and
pour into a greased pudding-dish. Bake, covered, half an hour,
or until the custard is tolerably firm in the middle. Draw to the
oven door and cover with the jelly, and the jelly with a me-
ringue of the reserved whites, beaten stiff, with two tablespoon-
fuls of powdered sugar. Shut up in the oven until it is very
delicately colored.
Eat cold with cream. In spring and summer substitute straw-
berries or fresh peaches for the jelly. The pudding then really
deserves its name.
FAMILIAR TALK*
WHOLESALE OR RETAIL?
The tradition is current among housekeepers that there is great
economy in buying supplies in large quantities. The learned of
them will dilate upon the amount that may be saved by getting
flour, sugar, and potatoes by the barrel, butter by the tub, coffee
by the bag. They prove to you that you can put money in your
pocket by purchasing a crate of eggs at a time and pickling them
for winter use. They buy meat in the piece, as it were, and tell
you triumphantly how much they can thus save on a pound over
the ordinary retail price.
While all these data are useful and encouraging to the woman
who has big pantries and a roomy cellar, they strike dismay to
the heart of her who must perforce dwell in a flat. There is no
place in her apartment for a barrel of flour. If that came in, one
of the family would probably have to go out. The mere thought
400 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
of buying a bushel of potatoes at a time seems like a dream of ex-
travagance, and in her moments of wildest unreason she never
contemplated a barrel of sugar.
So when she reads or hears all these wise counsels of notable
housewives her heart sinks within her, and she feels that she is
an extravagant wretch who wastes her income, in that she buys
sugar and butter by the pound, potatoes by the quart or < ' small
measure," and eggs by the dozen, or " quarter's worth," as they
say in the vicinity of New York. What does it matter that her
family is small and would take a week to consume a quarter of
mutton ? According to the best judges, she cannot practise true
economy unless she buys her provisions in bulk.
After a while, if she is a woman of spirit, she plucks up heart
and begins to do a little figuring and make a few estimates on
her own account. And if she is clear-headed and practical she
finds before long that there may be as much economy in her
mode of living as there is in that of her neighbor who has larder-
room to spare ; for there are undoubted advantages in buying
provisions in small quantities. In the face of much evidence to
the contrary, one housekeeper might hesitate to make this asser-
tion, were she not backed up by the testimony of the thrifty
French, who bear the reputation among all nations of having re-
duced or elevated elegant economy to a science. The French
housewife never buys her supplies in large quantities. Not only
bread and milk, but butter, potatoes, flour, sugar, and the like
are bought by the day. So closely does she calculate that fre-
quently there is not enough left in the pantry at bedtime to pro-
vide the scantiest of breakfasts. The Italians follow the same
plan, and literally live by the day.
All the traditions of the American housekeeper are against her
following their example to the extreme. Yet she knows that the
system has merit, and after she has modified it to suit New
World ideas she pursues it with exceeding peace of mind and
pocket.
In the first place she sees that she would save little money in
buying dry groceries by the large quantity, and that little would
THE NATI01VAL COOK BOOK 4OI
be more than lost by the extravagance generally induced by
having a practically unlimited supply of any commodity in the
house. Such extravagance is not confined to hirelings. The
careful housekeeper herself feels it when she takes advantage of
the tub of butter just come from the country, or the full barrel
of sugar, to make costly dainties. She would think several times
before she made pound cake or fruit cake or puff paste if she
had to send to the grocer's and pay ready money for the ingre-
dients. She finds that where this is to be done both she and
the cook are more prudent.
Another advantage gained is that of knowing exactly what she
consumes in the week. When she buys three and a half pounds
of sugar, a pound of butter, and a dozen eggs on Saturday, she
knows just about how long these should last. If there is a
waste, she can check it promptly, and she can estimate pretty
nearly what her housekeeping bills should be at the end of the
week.
There is extra labor avoided by her system. For her there are
no unpleasant hours spent in picking over apples, potatoes, and
winter vegetables. She has not to count upon a certain amount
of loss from rotting and withering. Her grocer bears that loss.
His shop is her pantry, to which she goes and gets her vegetables
and fruit by the quart or the half dozen. There will be no
maggots in the corn-meal or Graham flour when she gets only
two or three pounds of it at a time. If a freshly opened package
of oatmeal is musty she knows it reached that state on the
grocer's shelves, and sends it back to him forthwith. The coffee
in her small canister cannot lose its strength, for it is constantly
used and constantly renewed. Butter never grows rancid, eggs
never become stale, on her hands. Sufficient unto the day are
her provisions and the good and the evil thereof. Even when
she buys meat she has her points of privilege ; for, as she says
wisely, where is the advantage of getting so much of one thing
that it is impossible to eat it all ? She shows wisdom when she
purchases her meat as she needs it. She finds the economy of
small cuts. She does not get a leg of lamb at sixteen cents a
26
402 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
pound, but the shoulder at ten cents a pound, and finds it no
whit inferior to the higher-priced piece. A well-cut " Delmon-
ico " or "short" steak is as juicy and tender as a sirloin. A
small roast may be as well cooked with care as a large one. She
acquires a fine taste in ragouts, salmis, scallops, and croquettes,
and it is gradually borne in upon her that there is a common-
sense foundation for the apparent paradox that pronounces the
French nation the best cooks and the most economical providers
of the civilized world.
C. T. H.
PUDDING SAUCES.
MILK-PUDDING SAUCE.
Two eggs, beaten stiff ; one cupful of sugar ; five tablespoon-
fuls of boiling milk ; one teaspoonful of arrow-root or corn-starch
wet with cold milk ; one teaspoonful of nutmeg or mace ; one
tablespoonful of butter. Rub the butter into the sugar, add the
beaten eggs, and work all to a creamy froth. Wet the corn-
starch and put in next with the spice ; finally, pour in by the
spoonful the boiling milk, beating well all the time. Set within
a saucepan of boiling water for five minutes, stirring all the while,
but do not let the sauce boil. This is a good sauce for bread
and other simple puddings.
CREAM SAUCE.
Two cupfuls of rich milk half cream if you can get it ; four
tablespoonfuls of sugar; whites of two eggs, whipped stiff; one
teaspoonful of extract of bitter almonds ; half a teaspoonful of
nutmeg ; one even tablespoonful of corn-starch wet up with cold
water. Heat the milk to scalding ; add the sugar ; stir in the
corn-starch. When it thickens beat in the stiffened whites, then
the seasoning. Take from the fire and set in boiling water to
keep warm but not cook until wanted.
VANILLA SAUCE.
One cupful of boiling water ; two teaspoonfuls of corn-starch
wet up in cold water ; one heaping teaspoonful of butter; half
a cupful of sugar ; juice of half a lemon ; one teaspoonful of
vanilla ; pinch of nutmeg.
404 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Stir the wet corn-starch into the water with the sugar, and
cook clear ; put in the butter and beat one minute before adding
the vanilla and nutmeg.
Use for plain puddings rice, bread, and the like.
SOUFFLE SAUCE (COLD).
Scald a cupful of milk and stir into it a teaspoonful of corn-
starch wet with milk. Cook, stirring all the time, for three
minutes. Take from the fire and beat in the yolk of an egg
which has been whipped light with half a cupful of powdered
sugar. Let the mixture get cold ; flavor with bitter almond or
vanilla, and when you are at dinner let an assistant whip in
the stiffened whites of two eggs. It should look like cream-
colored snow. Eat with fruit or tapioca pudding.
LEMON SOUFFLE SAUCE.
Make as just directed, but, instead of the essence, beat into
the cold mixture the juice and half the grated peel of a lemon.
This is nice with apple puddings.
SHERRY SAUCE.
Cream two tablespoonfuls of butter with a cupful of pow-
dered sugar, beating in the juice of half a lemon until the cream
is light and white ; add two tablespoonfuls of hot water with a
dash of mace. Set in boiling water over the fire, stir for two
minutes or until scalding-hot, and just before it goes to table add
a glassful of brown or pale sherry. Eat with cabinet, fruit, or
batter pudding.
BRANDY SAUCE.
Cream a tablespoonful of butter with a scant cupful of pow-
dered sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Stir in three table-
spoonfuls of boiling water, beat two minutes over the fire, or un-
til hot, stir in quickly the stiffened whites of two eggs, take
from the fire, add a wineglassful of brandy, and serve at once.
Send in with plum pudding or any rich dumpling or fritter.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 405
EGG SAUCE.
Yolks of four eggs, well beaten ; one cupful of sugar and one
tablespoonful of butter ; one level teaspoonful of mixed cinna-
mon and nutmeg ; juice of half a lemon and half the grated
peel ; one wineglassful of wine.
Cream butter, and sugar, add beaten yolks and spice. Beat
hard five minutes, and set in a saucepan of boiling water, stir-
ring until it is hot. It must not boil. Add the wine just be-
fore it goes to table.
CUSTARD SAUCE.
Scald two cupfuls of milk and pour upon a cupful of powdered
sugar, beaten light with the yolks of two eggs. Season with
nutmeg or cinnamon and stir until it thickens slightly. Remove
from the fire, whip in the stiffened whites, set in boiling water
to keep warm, but not over the fire, and just before it goes to
table add a teaspoonful of vanilla or other essence.
JELLY SAUCE.
Heat a large tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan and while
it is still on the fire stir into it half a glassful of currant or other
tart jelly, and a tablespoonful of sugar. When the mixture is
smooth, put in as much corn-starch as would lie upon a dime,
wet up with the juice of half a lemon. This is to prevent the
butter from oiling and separating from the jelly. Cook for two
minutes and keep hot in a vessel of boiling water, and just be-
fore sending to table add two glasses of wine. This is an ex-
cellent sauce for rich puddings.
FRUIT -JUICE SAUCES.
The same rules apply to them all. Squeeze the juice from the
fruit through a coarse bag ; cream a tablespoonful of butter with
a cupful of sugar, and if you wish to have a hard sauce, beat in
the fruit-juice until you have a frothy mass ; then set it on ice to
form.
406 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
If you would like to have a liquid sauce, heat the juice, and
after beating it into the creamed butter and sugar, set it in boil-
ing water to heat, adding, when it is at boiling point, a very
little corn-starch or arrow-root wet up in cold water, to prevent
juice and butter from separating. Cook three minutes, stirring
often.
STRAWBERRY SAUCE. (No. J.)
Beat two ounces of butter to a cream with one cupful of pow-
dered sugar ; add one mashed strawberry, beat it well ; add an-
other, and so continue until the sauce is a pretty pink. If the
strawberries seem to give the sauce a curdled appearance, add
just a little more sugar. Stand on ice to harden.
STRAWBERRY SAUCE. (No. 2.)
One gill of butter ; one cupful of sugar ; one cupful of ripe
strawberries, mashed ; white of one egg.
Cream together butter and sugar ; add the white of the egg
beaten to a very stiff froth, and the strawberries thoroughly
mashed. When well beaten together serve cold.
BRANDED PEACH SAUCE.
Cream one tablespoonful of butter with four of powdered
sugar, and pour upon it a cupful of liquor drained from brand ied
peaches, and heated in a covered saucepan that the brandy may
not evaporate. Stir all together, and add a quarter of a tea-
spoonful of arrow-root wet up in a little cold water. Set in boil-
ing water and cover until scalding-hot, then stir for three
minutes and serve.
The liquor from any canned or brandied fruit may be treated
in like manner. If canned fruit-liquor is used, double the quan-
tity of sugar.
TART CLARET SAUCE.
Instead of throwing away the tart claret left or overlooked in
bottles that have been opened and partly used, make it into pud-
ding sauce.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 40?
Cream a tablespoonful of butter with a cupful of sugar. Heat
a cupful of claret in a saucepan, stir into it half a teaspoonful of
arrow-root or corn-starch, cook one minute, beat gradually into
the creamed butter and sugar, and put away upon ice for hard
sauce, or set it into a vessel of boiling water, and cover until
needed, for liquid sauce.
WHITE HARD SAUCE.
Cream two tablespoon fuls of butter with a heaping cupful of
powdered sugar, beat into it the juice of a lemon, a liberal pinch
of nutmeg, and when the mixture is white and creamy, a glass of
wine or brandy, or a teaspoonful of essence.
PINK HARD SAUCE.
Make as just directed, and whip in enough powdered cochineal
to give a pretty pink.
RUBY HARD SAUCE.
Cream two tablespoon fuls of butter with a cupful of powdered
sugar, and beat in half a cupful of red currant jelly. Set on the
ice to form.
HARD BRANDY SAUCE.
Cream two tablespoonfuls of butter with a cupful of powdered
sugar. Whip in a little lemon-juice to whiten and make light
the cream, then a teaspoonful of mixed cinnamon and mace, and
a wineglassful of brandy.
PUREE OF FRUIT SAUCE.
Crush strawberries, raspberries, and cherries, chop peaches,
pineapples, and apricots, and grate apples, when you would have
a puree of fruit. In any case have ready the invariable creamed but-
ter-and-sugar two tablespoonfuls of one to a cupful of the other.
Stir this cream to a boil over the fire, beat in a teaspoonful of
arrow-root wet up in cold water, cook two minutes, and add the
fruit before the latter can change color. Apples should be
408 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
grated directly into the hot mixture. Let all get scalding-hot
together and serve. Canned fruits may be used when you have
not fresh.
TUTTI-FRUTTI SAUCE.
Half a cupful of raisins, seeded and chopped ; one tablespoon-
ful each of blanched and chopped almonds, and shredded and
chopped citron, a teaspoonful of lemon-juice, and half the grated
rind of a lemon with the same quantity of orange-peel. One
tablespoonful of butter creamed with a cupful of powdered sugar ;
one cupful of boiling water, and two wineglassfuls of sherry.
As much arrow-root as will lie on a dime.
Heat the water and pour over the fruit, nuts, and grated peels.
Cover, and leave in a vessel of boiling water for an hour. Then
beat in the creamed sugar-and-butter with the arrow-root, heat to
a boil, add the wine, and serve.
This is a very fine sauce and makes a plain batter or bread-
crumb pudding elegant.
FRITTERS.
THE same rules control the frying of fritters that regulate
doughnuts. The fat must be put into a cold frying-pan and
brought gradually to the proper temperature ; it must be deep
enough to float the fritters ; it is wise to try a small fritter be-
fore risking a large, and a few must go in at a time. Should
bits of batter drop off and adhere to the next batch, strain the
fat and return to the kettle. Cottolene is better for frying than
lard ; olive oil is sometimes used both in mixing and in frying
fritters.
FRITTER BATTER. (No. J.)
One cupful of flour, sifted twice with a rounded teaspoonful of
Cleveland's Baking Powder and half a teaspoonful of salt. One
tablespoonful of melted butter or of best salad oil. A cupful of
milk. One teaspoonful of sugar. Two eggs.
Beat yolks and sugar together, add the oil, or butter. Beat
hard for one minute, put in the milk, then the prepared flour
alternately with the stiffened whites. Do not mix until you are
ready to cook the fritters. If you are making plain fritters
drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the hot fat, a few at a
time, and when they are a golden brown take out with a skim-
mer and dry in a hot colander.
FRITTER BATTER. (No. 2.)
One cupful of flour sifted with half a teaspoonful of Cleveland's
Baking Powder and a saltspoonful of salt ; one cupful of warm,
not boiling, water ; the white of one egg ; one tablespoonful of
butter.
Melt the butter in the water ; make a hole in the prepared
4IO THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
flour and pour the water and butter gradually upon it, making a
batter, then beat in the stiffened white of the egg.
FRITTER BATTER. (No. 3.)
One whole egg and the whites of two. One cupful of milk.
One scant cupful of flour which has been sifted with half a tea-
spoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder, and a pinch of salt.
The grated rind of half a lemon.
Beat the whole egg very light, stir into the milk, add the pre-
pared flour and the stiffened white of a second egg, with the
grated lemon-peel.
This is a simple and safe recipe. In giving directions for frit-
ters after this, it will be needless to recapitulate the proportions
and manner of mixing the batter.
CUSTARD FRITTERS.
Beat the yolks of two eggs light with a tablespoonful of sugar
and pour upon them a cupful of hot milk in which has been
stirred a teaspoonful of flour wet up with cold milk. Season
with a pinch of salt and as much nutmeg as will lie on a dime.
Turn the custard into a greased pan or broad dish, set in an-
other of boiling water, and bake until well set. Let it get per-
fectly cold and firm ; cut into squares, coat with a Fritter Batter
(No. 2), and fry.
As the custard is tender, pour the batter around each piece in
a saucer, and lift with a spatula or broad-bladed knife from the
saucer to the fire.
PEACH FRITTERS.
Three eggs; one cupful of milk; one cupful of flour which
has been sifted twice with a level teaspoonful of Cleveland's
Baking Powder, and a saltspoonful of salt.
Make a batter of these ingredients, beating yolks and whites
separately and adding the stiffened whites last, alternately with
the flour. Peel and slice a dozen fine peaches, stir into the bat-
ter and drop by the spoonful into the hot cottolene. When
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 411
they are a golden brown take up and lay on soft paper in a col-
ander to drain. Sprinkle with sugar while hot. Apricot frit-
ters are made in the same way.
CREAM FRITTERS.
Two cupfuls of hot milk ; a saltspoonful of salt ; a cupful of
sugar. One tablespoonful each of corn -starch and of flour wet up
in cold milk. A tablespoonful of butter, three eggs, and a tea-
spoonful of vanilla extract. Heat the milk, stir in the flour and
corn-starch and cook until they thicken, stirring constantly.
Take from the fire, stir in the butter and the eggs, beaten light
with the sugar. Beat until well mixed and light, flavor, and let
the mixture get perfectly cold. Cut, then, into squares or ob-
longs, dip in a good Fritter Batter (No. 3) and fry in hot cotto-
lene. Drain, sprinkle with sugar, and serve.
They are extremely nice.
NUT FRITTERS.
Two cupfuls of fine crumbs, seasoned with mace or nutmeg, a
teaspoonful of bitter almond essence, and beat in the whites of
two eggs whipped light with a teaspoonful of arrow-root and a
tablespoonful of sugar. Mix to a stiff paste with three table-
spoonfuls of hickory-nuts, or blanched almonds, or English
walnuts, chopped fine ; set on the ice for ten minutes ; make
into balls, coat with Fritter Batter No. 2, and fry.
APPLE FRITTERS.
A French Recipe.
Pare fine, firm pippins and slice crosswise into rounds a quarter
of an inch thick. Sprinkle them with sugar, and pour a few
drops of maraschino or of brandy, or of brandied peach-liquor,
upon each. Leave them in this for fifteen minutes, and drain
each for an instant before coating it with Fritter Batter No. i.
Drop, one at a time, into hot cottolene, fry to a yellow brown
and lay on paper in an open oven. Sift sugar over them and
eat with brandy sauce.
412 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ORANGE FRITTERS.
Peel and cut the oranges into slices a quarter of an inch thick.
Pick out the seeds, taking care not to tear the orange, sprinkle
with sugar and at once dip in ratter Batter No. 3. Drain in a
hot colander when they have colored a light brown in the hot
fat ; sprinkle with sugar and serve with wine sauce.
BANANA FRITTERS.
^ An East Indian Recipe.
Peel and cut large, firm bananas crosswise into slices half an
inch thick. Squeeze a little orange-juice upon each, and, if you
like, add a little wine before cooking them, letting them lie in
the juice for ten minutes, turning them over once. Dry between
two soft cloths, dip in fritter batter and fry to a pale brown.
SAUCE FOR BANANA FRITTERS.
Heat three tablespoonfuls of currant jelly with one teaspoon-
ful of butter ; stir in half a cupful of boiling water in which you
have mixed a teaspoonful of arrow-root wet with cold water. Mix
all together until slightly thickened, when add a tablespoonful of
blanched almonds, chopped fine, with the juice and half the
grated peel of an orange. Cook one minute to heat the nuts.
JELLY-CAKE FRITTERS.
Cut stale sponge or plain cup cake into rounds with a cake
cutter and fry in hot cottolene to a golden brown. Dip each
into boiling milk for one second to take off the grease. Pile in
.caps of six upon a hot platter with jelly spread between them.
Eat hot with cream sauce.
RUSK FRITTERS.
This is a good way of using up stale rusk.
Pare off the crusts and make three slices of each if large, two if
small. Trim into uniform size and shape. Pour over each a
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 413
teaspoonful of mingled orange-juice and sherry, and let them
soak for a few minutes. Then drain, and coat with a thin Fritter
Batter (No. 2 is good for this purpose). Fry in hot cottoiene,
drain well, sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon and
serve with or without sauce. They are very good.
BREAD FRITTERS.
Cut thick slices of stale bread into rounds and roll in Fritter
Batter No. i and fry in deep, hot cottoiene. Drain, and eat
with wine sauce.
SWISS FRITTERS.
Cut stale bread into round, thick slices and fry in hot cottoiene
to a light brown. Dip each slice into boiling water for one
second to take off the grease, sprinkle well with sugar and cinna-
mon and pile upon a hot plate.
Eat with a sauce of lemon-juice and sugar thinned with a glass
of wine. You will need no butter in the sauce.
POTATO FRITTERS.
Work light with half a cupful of cream a cupful of hot
mashed potato ; stir into it while warm the beaten yolks of three
eggs and two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Whip light before stirring
in the juice of a lemon, half the grated peel, a tablespoonful of
brandy, and lastly, two tablespoonfuls of flour sifted twice with a
saltspoonful of soda and the same of salt alternately with the
whipped whites of the eggs. Make with floured hands into balls
and set upon ice until cold and stiff. Roll then in beaten egg
and cracker-crumbs, and fry in hot, deep cottoiene. Drain,
sprinkle with sugar and serve hot. They are very nice.
QUEEN'S PANCAKES.
Two eggs ; one tablespoonful of butter ; two cupfuls of flour ;
one and a half cupfuls of milk.
Beat the eggs, add to them the milk slightly warmed, the but-
4H THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ter melted, a little salt, and the flour. Bake in cakes on a griddle,
and when done spread them lightly with jam, jelly, or honey,
roll up, sprinkle with sugar, and serve hot.
By making the batter a little stiffer you can make fritters by
the same recipe, dropping by the spoonful into hot fat, and fry-
ing light brown. Eat with jelly sauce.
STRAWBERRY FRITTERS.
One heaping cupful of flour; one tablespoonful of salad oil^
two eggs ; grated peel of half a lemon ; large strawberries.
Mix the oil, lemon-peel, and flour together ; beat in the yolks,
and add enough white wine to make this the consistence of thick
cream. At the last moment add the whites of eggs beaten to a
stiff froth. Remove the stems from very large strawberries, drop
them into the batter, have hot in a kettle cottolene at least two
inches deep. Drop the mixture by the spoonful into this, allow-
ing one strawberry to each fritter. Fry to a golden brown.
Remove with a skimmer to brown paper laid in the mouth of
the oven, and sift sugar over them.
SHORTCAKES, TEA-CAKES, ETC
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. (No. J.)
INTO one pint of flour rub two ounces of butter ; add half a
tablespoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of Cleveland's Baking Powder,
and not quite a cupful of milk ; turn the dough upon a board,
knead just a moment, and roll out one inch thick. Cut it into
a round, place on a greased pan, brush the top with milk, and
bake in a quick oven fifteen minutes. Have one quart of berries
picked and sugared. As soon as the cake is done, remove it
from the oven and pull it apart. Do not cut it or it will be
heavy. Put the underpart on a plate, dust with sugar, spread a
thick layer of strawberries over the bottom cake, put on the top,
cover it with berries, and sprinkle with sugar. Serve at once.
Pass cream and sugar with the shortcake.
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. (No. 2.)
One cupful of sugar ; one tablespoonful of butter ; one heap-
ing cupful of flour ; quarter of a cupful of milk ; three eggs, the
yolks and whites beaten separately ; one teaspoonful of Cleve-
land's Baking Powder ; one quart of strawberries.
Rub butter and sugar together, add yolks, milk, flour, whites,
arid baking powder. Bake in three jelly- cake tins, and when cold,
place the berries between the layers, sprinkling them with
sugar. Heap whipped cream upon the cake.
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. (No. 3.)
Two cupfuls of prepared flour ; one tablespoonful each of cot-
tolene and butter ; half a cupful of milk ; three tablespoonfuls
4l6 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
of white sugar ; one saltspoonful of salt. Bake in jelly-cake tins.
When cold, spread between the layers one quart of mashed and
sweetened berries. Eat at once, with cream.
ORANGE SHORTCAKE.
Make a crust as directed in last recipe, and while hot, tear it
open, butter the sides, and fill with chopped and seeded oranges,
well sweetened. Eat hot.
BLACK RASPBERRY SHORTCAKE.
Four cupfuls of flour ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; two cup-
fuls of milk ; one egg ; half a teaspoonful of salt ; two teaspoon-
fuls of Cleveland's Baking Powder ; half a cupful of sugar ; one
quart of berries.
Sift the salt and baking powder with the flour, chop in the
butter, and add the milk and beaten egg. Roll this dough into
a sheet half an inch thick, and spread with it the bottom of a
greased baking-tin. Cover it with the berries ; sugar them
liberally, and lay over another sheet of dough a little thinner
than the lower crust. Bake in a steady oven, cut into squares,
and eat hot with butter and sugar.
CURRANT SHORTCAKE.
Make a good biscuit dough ; roll out half an inch thick and
bake in a pie-plate.
While hot run a knife lightly around one side, tear it open,
butter well, without crushing the crumby interior, and lay
between the severed sides a pint of currants, which were
mashed and plentifully sweetened before you began to make
the cake. Wash the top with white of egg, sift powdered
sugar thickly over it and serve, still hot, all this having
been done in three minutes after the crust was taken from the
oven.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 417
BLUEBERRY TEA-CAKE.
A Vermont Recipe.
Three cupfuls of blueberries ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ;
one cupful of sugar ; one cupful of milk ; two cupfuls of flour
sifted twice with two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's
Baking Powder, and a saltspoonful of salt ; two eggs, beaten
very light.
Cream butter, and sugar, add the eggs, then the milk and
prepared flour. Dredge the berries with flour, stir in lightly and
bake in a greased biscuit-tin. Split, butter and eat while warm.
HUCKLEBERRY TEA-CAKE.
One quart of huckleberries; three cupfuls of flour sifted
twice with two rounded teaspoonfuls of Cleveland's Baking
Powder ; four eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately ;
one cupful of butter; two cupfuls of sugar; one heaping
teaspoonful of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg; one cupful of
milk.
Cream butter and sugar, beat in the whipped yolks, then the
milk, spice, and prepared flour, alternately with the whipped
whites, at last the fruit dredged with flour. Bake in muffin-tins
well greased, or in two small loaves. It is good warm, but bet-
ter still cold, on the second day.
ENGLISH TEA-CAKES.
Two eggs; two tablespoonfuls of butter creamed with the
same of sugar ; two cupfuls of flour.
Cream the butter and sugar very light, beat in the whipped
yolks ; stir and beat for a minute and add the flour alternately
with the stiffened whites. Bake in jelly-cake tins ; butter and
eat while fresh.
27
41 8 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
FAMILIAR TALK.
DUST, DUSTING, AND DUSTERS.
In an interesting treatise upon " The Germ Theory of Con-
tagious Diseases ' ' Tyndall remarks :
" There is no respite to our contact with the floating matter
of the air." He alludes, moreover, to " our sufferings from its
mechanical irritation," and tells how astonished he was by the
result of a series of experiments proving that this floating curse
is organic matter.
" I had previously thought that the dust of our air was, in
great part, inorganic and non-combustible.
He subjoins a foot-note to the effect that "in none of the
public rooms of the United States where I had the honor to
lecture was this experiment made. The organic dust was too
scanty."
In the unscientific and domestic mind this engenders the de-
sponding query, "Is the national dust, then, incombustible?"
For years neat housewives have insisted that the contents of dust-
pans should be burned as soon as collected. Organic matter, in-
cluding disease -germs and parasitic larvae, are thus destroyed, to
the evident advantage of family health, but the bulk of inorganic
particles " the atomes," named by another scientific writer,
" which the sun discovers, though they be invisible by candle-
light, and makes them dance naked in his beams" are dis-
pelled for a season only. They reappear unchanged in the at-
tributes of " mechanical irritation," and other undesirable prop-
erties, including ubiquity.
** The dust on which we tread was once alive,"
says the poet No living organism is more lively and viciously
omnipresent to us to-day., The Phoenix was more perishable ;
original sin could be more easily eliminated. Yet and there
would seem to be an element of injustice here visible dust is
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 419
everywhere taken as a token of neglect and untidiness. The
writing upon the Babylonian palace-wall was not more con-
demnatory than the initials of the unwary housewife traced upon
the top of a table by the finger of critical spouse or sarcastic
(and anonymous) visitor.
" You could have written your name upon the furniture," is
a phrase as common as it is crushing.
To avoid the verdict we wage incessant warfare upon an al-
most intangible foe, and one that is no respecter of things or
persons. The most grewsome feature in the case of a cataleptic
sufferer whom I once knew was that the dust settled upon the
immobile eyeballs and had to be wiped away several times each
day. The floor may be swept clean, then scrubbed, then
wiped with a dry cloth, and the empty room, after an hour's
airing, be carefully closed and not opened for twenty-four hours.
At the end of that time a film of dust will be upon cleansed
boards, window-frames, and cornices wherever it can settle
and lie. We carry it with us everywhere, upon our garments,
our hair, our skin until one can imagine the dismayed com-
batant dropping duster and dust-pan in broken-hearted despair,
to mingle finally with what she loathes.
Clearly, then, any practical advice I offer must refer only to
the methods of mitigating the evil I have likened to natural
depravity.
One of the housewife's most efficient allies is the broom. Care-
less sweeping makes more dust than no sweeping at all. The
first step in the work is to remove all the portable furniture from
the room to be treated, the second, to scatter damp not drip-
ping tea-leaves thickly over the carpet, if there be one; the
third, to sweep with long, even strokes of a good broom the dirt
from the four corners into the middle of the floor ; the fourth,
to collect the heap into a dust-pan and carry it directly to a fire,
there to be cremated. Next, wrap a damp cloth securely about
the broom and, slowly and gently, brush down the walls. All
this time the windows through which the wind does not blow
into the room should stand open. The sweeper should keep her
420 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
mouth shut while at work, that the dust she raises, organic and
inorganic, should not eddy down her throat into the lungs. The
hair should be protected by a light, round cap shirred upon
elastic and covering the ears. Upon the hands should be a
pair of very loose gloves, two sizes, at least, too large for
her.
When the walls have been swept, let her open all the doors
and windows wide the more air the better. Much of the
floating matter must, perforce, be carried upon the beneficent
draught into the wide outer world where it belongs. While this
goes on, the furniture may be dusted in hall or piazza, and re-
turned, piece by piece, to its proper place. For this process
have a wicker paddle made for the purpose of beating stuffed
lounges and chairs, a whisk -broom to dislodge the dust from
tufted seats and carved corners ; lastly, a soft cloth duster.
I wish my protest against the bunch of feathers, misnamed " a
duster," could be prevalent with my sister-housewives. It
is the chamber-maid's delight, the lazy woman's stand -by. When
the characters unite in one and the same " girl," she will not
"take a place" where she cannot have it. Her manner of
brandishing it is a gesture of insolent triumph over decency and
order. She sweeps it across mirrors and pictures, wriggles it
into corners, and pokes it into hollows. It leaves a gray arc
of dust within every right angle, and, when conscientiously
wielded, cannot possibly do anything better than to scatter
into the air clouds of floating matter that must fall again, and
shortly.
It was assuredly not a feather-duster the management of which
George Eliot describes in " Adam Bede." " How it went into
every small corner, and on every ledge in and out of sight ; how
it went again and again round every bar of the chairs, and
every leg, and under and over everything that lay on the table !
If you had ever lived in Mrs. Poyser's household you would
know how the duster behaved in Dinah's hand.'*
Such feats are only practicable to the soft cloth spoken of just
now. It must not be too large or too small, and there must
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 421
not be a particle of starchy dressing in it ; it must be of wash-
able material, and it must be washed often.
The cheese-cloth square, hemmed on all sides except where
there is a selvedge (query "self-edge?"), so nearly meets
these requirements that many housekeepers prefer it to any other
fabric. It is cheap, takes up the dust obediently, does not
scratch polished wood or gilt, and grows better with every wash-
ing while it hangs together. It has two defects it soon wears
into holes, and no housekeeper with whom I have compared
notes on the subject ever yet succeeded in getting back from
the laundry five per cent, of the cheese-cloth dusters that are sent
down for cleansing. Some ingenious women feather-stitch the
hems with Turkey-red cotton for convenience of identification ;
one adds to this precaution that of drawing with indelible ink a
great cross in the middle of each square, and another writes the
number of every duster upon it in figures six inches long. The
end of the cheap conveniences, plain and marked, is to be de-
graded into dish-cloths, floor-cloths, wash-cloths every kind of
cloth that your servants like " to have handy." Two days of
this sort of misapplication ruin an article whose chief merit is
flimsiness, and renders recognition on the part of the inquisi-
tive employer impossible.
For several successive seasons I submitted with resignation,
born equally of mean-spiritedness and of philosophy, to this
species of petty larceny, employing each summer a worthy and
needy seamstress to make up four or five dozen cheese-cloth
dusters (feather-stitched with red), and finding myself at the end
of the winter's campaign the possessor of, at the most, four dis-
reputable fragments. Nobody had purloined or misappropriated
so much as one of them. The general opinion in the kitchen-
cabinet was that " they had blown off the line on wash-day
they were that light ! " Chancing to mention my evil case to a
friend, she advised me to try the chamois-cloth duster. I have
used none other since. It is just the right size, the surface is
soft and furry, collecting the dust and holding it until the
duster is shaken sharply. It is the color of a new chamois skin,
422 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and has a border of purple, red, or blue. It can be washed
again and again, and outlasts ten cheese-cloth squares. Its indi-
viduality is so marked that no amount of soaking in dish-water,
or scrubbing of tables, chairs, and candle-sticks can disguise it
into the semblance of a kitchen-rag.
If you would know of what quantity of dust such faithful dust-
ing as fingers with brain and conscience behind them remove
from your rooms, wash your chamois-cloth duster yourself after
two days' use. The grime left in the bottom of the bowl will
incite you .to renewed diligence in keeping organic and inorganic
" atonies " away from your household gods.
With hardwood floors and rugs, the work of dusting is com-
paratively easy, because so much floating matter is carried out of
the house with the rugs, and taken up by the cloth used in wip-
ing the floor. Still, it settles in the shape of non-analyzable
fluff in corners, and beneath sofas and cabinets, and veils pol-
ished surfaces grayly. The price of comparative cleanliness is
daily dusting, done thoroughly as hirelings never do it. The
hall-mark of the eye-server is the neglected soap-dish in the
bedroom and the undusted rungs of chairs all over the house.
Bear continually and bravely in mind the truism with which this
homely chat began :
" There is no respite to our contact with the floating matter of
the air."
M. H.
PIES.
GOOD pastry is expensive. Indifferent pastry is indigestible
and unpalatable ; a mere waste of materials that might be used
to advantage in some other way. When we reflect upon the
small percentage of tolerable pastry one finds in the multitudi-
nous brigades of pies concocted for family and guest throughout
this great land of ours, the wonder remains and grows that The
National Pie maintains its sovereignty. A hopeful feature of the
outlook is that students of dietetics and educated housewives com-
bine to relegate pastry to the background in making up daily
bills-of-fare, and exclude it altogether from the nursery table.
No growing child should be allowed to eat pies, good or indiffer-
ent, which in this connection is a synonym for bad.
The dictum that pastry should be avoided in summer is almost
as rigid as the foregoing sentence of banishment. It is harder
to make good pie-crust in hot weather than in cold, and much
harder to digest it.
Yet, because excellent puff-paste is so deliciously toothsome,
and because people who have once tasted it will have it again
and yet again, a select list of pies is herewith presented, with in-
structions for making the crust that must underpin and mask
their contents. A word as to the same contents. Many of
them would find equal favor with the eaters if they were baked
in deep dishes as puddings, with no crust at all. Many more
notably many kinds of ripe fruit and all kinds of custard and
pumpkin pies would be more acceptable if baked with no bot-
tom crust. This opens a loop-hole of escape for the conscien-
tious house-mother whose "men-folks" must have pie three,
four, six days in the week, let the thermometer be what it may.
424 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Let her make excellent pastry for their delectation half or a third
of the time, and pudding-pies the rest of the week. Puff-paste
on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, costs no more than so-called
family pie-crust from Sunday to Sunday.
A GOOD PUFF-PASTE.
One quart of sifted flour ; one and one-half cupfuls of butter
(three-quarters of a pound) ; one cupful of ice-water.
Before beginning the work make butter, flour, chopping-bowl
and knife, pastry-board and rolling-pin ice-cold, by setting out-
of-doors in winter, and in warmer weather upon the ice. Chop
butter and flour together until the former is in bits no larger
than a pea. Pour in the ice-water and mix with the chopping-
knife to a paste. Do not touch it with your hands.
Turn out upon the well-floured pastry-board, and roll quickly
always from you into a sheet about half an inch thick. Dredge
lightly with flour, fold it into three thicknesses, turn the roll
lengthwise toward you, and roll out again still from you. Dredge,
fold, and roll twice more. Fold lightly, lay upon a dish, and
set on ice until thoroughly chilled. All night is not too long.
When you are ready to make your pies, divide the paste into as
many pieces as you wish to have pies, and roll each piece sepa-
rately. Too much handling and folding makes pastry stiff.
HOW TO MAKE A PIE.
That is, after the paste is made and chilled, and the proposed
contents of the pie are prepared.
Roll out the paste about an eighth of an inch thick for the
lower crust, half as thick again for the upper. Dust the plate
with flour, cut out a round paste larger than the plate, and lay it
lightly upon the place prepared for it, holding the sides up until
the middle touches the plate and then letting it settle into shape.
Press lightly upon it to drive the air from beneath. Brush the
bottom crust with white of egg to keep it from becoming soaked
and soggy. Put in the filling, cover the pie ; moisten the
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 42$
edges of the lower crust to make the upper stick to it. Other-
wise it may " crawl " in baking. Cut a strip of pastry over an
inch wide, wet the under side, and lay upon the outer rim of the
upper crust. Run a sharp knife all around to cut off ragged
bits, and, with the back of knife or jagging-iron, indent the
upper strip into any pattern you like. Or you may merely press
it lightly upon the crust beneath. Make a gash in the centre of
the top crust, or prick in several places with a fork to let out the
steam generated in cooking.
PUMPKIN PIES.
Four cupfuls of stewed pumpkin ; two quarts of milk ; eight
eggs ; two cupfuls of white sugar ; two teaspoonfuls of mixed
mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Beat the yolks of the eggs light and put the sugar with them.
Press the pumpkin through a colander and stir the eggs and sugar
into it. Add the milk, spice, and the whipped whites of the eggs.
Have very deep pie-plates for pumpkin pies, and after you have
floured the plates and lined them with the paste, cut slashes here
and there in this, that it may not puff up too much. Stir the
pumpkin custard well before you pour it in. Of course no top
crust is used.
MINCE PIES.
Four pounds of lean beef; four quarts of chopped apples ; one
quart of chopped suet ; one quart of stoned raisins ; one pint of
cleaned currants; one pound of citron, cut in small pieces; one
scant quart of sugar ; one pint of molasses ; three tablespoonfuls
of mace; three tablespoonfuls of cinnamon ; two tablespoonfuls
of allspice ; three tablespoonfuls of salt ; one and one-half table-
spoonfuls of cloves ; four grated nutmegs ; juice and rind of
three lemons ; two ounces of candied lemon-peel ; two ounces
of candied orange-peel ; half a pint of orange wine ; one quart
of California brandy.
This will make a large quantity of mince meat.
Bake with a bottom crust and lay narrow strips of pastry in a
sort of trellis-work over the top.
426 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
RJCE-AND-RAISIN PIE.
Boil half a cupful of rice in two quarts of water until tender,
or for about twenty minutes. Drain until thoroughly dry.
Beat four eggs light. Add half a cupful of sugar and beat again,
then add one pint of milk, one tablespoonful of vanilla and the
boiled rice. Line two pie-dishes with good, light paste, and
cover the bottom of the dishes with seeded raisins. Fill with the
rice mixture and bake in a quick oven about thirty minutes, or
until the rice is solid. Beat the whites of two eggs to a meringue
with a little powdered sugar, spread over the top and brown
lightly.
APPLE PIE. (No. J.)
Pare, core, and slice well-flavored tart apples, and fill a pie-
dish with them, strewing sugar and nutmeg between the layers.
Have the dish very full, as the fruit shrinks in cooking. Cover
with a good crust. If you have a lower crust, brush with white
of egg before putting in the apples.
APPLE PIE. (No. 2.)
Stew and strain tart apples, season and sweeten to taste, and
while still hot, beat in a tablespoonful of butter for two cupfuls of
sauce. Let it cool, line your pie-plates with crust, wash with
white of egg and pour in the apple sauce. Cover with crust and
bake. It is very good without a lower crust.
Or
Bake without the upper crust, and let them get cold. Send
around cream with them. " Cheese," says a little girl in a pop-
ular novel, " is very good with apple pie."
CREAM-APPLE PIE.
Make and bake according to Apple Pie No. 2, and let it get
ice-cold. Heap with whipped cream and cut through the white
covering, as if it were not there, serving the cream with the pie.
It is delicious.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 42?
MERINGUE APPLE PIE.
Make and bake as you would No. 2, and just before drawing
from the oven, cover evenly with the meringue of the whites of
two eggs, beaten stiff, with a tablespoonful of powdered sugar.
Brown lightly. Eat cold.
APPLE-CUSTARD PEE.
Stew and strain enough finely flavored tart apples to make a
large cupful of sauce. Sweeten well and season with nutmeg or
mace. Beat two eggs light and pour upon them half a cupful
of hot milk to which has been added a bit of soda not larger
than a pea. Let sauce and custard get cold, beat quickly to-
gether, fill a pie -dish lined with good paste (brush the latter with
white of egg before the filling goes in), and bake, without an
upper crust, in a quick oven. It is very nice and will be still
better for the addition of such a meringue as that mentioned in
the last recipe.
Peach pies are delicious when made according to this recipe.
WHOLE PEACH PIE.
Peel small or medium-sized peaches. Fill a deep pie-plate
with them, heaping them toward the centre of the dish, and
sprinkling them liberally with sugar. Cover with a top crust
and bake. Eat while warm.
PEACH-AND-ALMOND PIE.
Peel free-stone peaches, cut open one side of each, extract the
stone carefully and replace with a blanched almond. Sweeten
to taste. Cover with crust and bake.
PEACH MERINGUE PIE.
Peel, stone, and stew enough peaches to fill a pie-plate.
Sweeten well. Line the plate with a good paste, fill with the
stewed peaches, and bake until done. Draw the pie to the mouth
of the oven, and spread over it a meringue made of the whites
428 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
of three eggs, beaten stiff with three tablespoon fu Is of powdered
sugar. Let this come to a delicate brown in the oven, and eat
the pie when it is very cold.
PEACH PIE WITH WHIPPED CREAM.
Make as directed in last recipe, but let the pie get cold before
heaping whipped cream upon the top. Eat as soon as the cream
is put upon it.
PEACH COBBLER.
A South Carolina Dish.
Line a pudding-dish with puff-paste. Peel, halve, and stone
enough ripe peaches to fill the dish. Crack about a dozen peach-
stones and scatter the kernels among the halved peaches.
Sweeten plentifully, and when the peaches are all in pour in a
glass of brandy for every cupful of fruit. Cover with paste,
pinched well down at the edges to keep in the strength of the
brandy. When the crust has hardened, cover with paper to
keep it from burning. A "cobbler" that holds a quart of
peaches (halved and stoned) will take an hour to bake.
OPEN PEACH PIE.
Pare and halve the peaches ; line a pie-plate with pastry and
lay the peaches within it, cut sides downward. Strew two table-
spoonfuls of sugar over the lower layer, and sprinkle with a tea-
spoonful of lemon-juice and bake in a brisk oven. Eat cold with
whipped cream, or just warm with cream and sugar.
PLUM TART AND CREAM.
Select blue plums or ripe green gages ; stem and stone them,
and fill with them a deep pie-plate, or, better still, a shallow
pudding-dish ; strew with sugar ; cover with an upper crust, and
after cutting several slits in the pastry to allow the steam to
escape, bake in a moderate oven. When ready to serve lift the
crust, lay it upside down on a large plate, turn the plums out
upon the paste, and smother all with whipped cream.
This is an English recipe and fine.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 429
STRAWBERRY PIE
is very good made according to the foregoing recipe, also rasp-
berry pie.
CHERRY PIE. (No. J.)
Line a pie-plate with paste ; wash with white of egg and fill
with whole ripe cherries that have been washed and picked over.
Sweeten abundantly. Cover with a crust and bake.
CHERRY PIE. (No. 2.)
Stone ripe cherries. Save every drop of juice that escapes
during the process. Line a pie-plate with crust, sweeten the
cherries plentifully and fill the plate with them. Heat the juice
to scalding, and stir into it half a teaspoonful of corn-starch or
arrow-root ; pour over the cherries and bake twenty minutes in a
good oven, or until the paste edge is lightly browned.
APRICOT TARTS.
Peel, stone, and halve ripe apricots ; line a pie-plate or small
pate-pans with puff-paste and wash with white of egg. Pack the
halved apricots in layers upon the crust, with a blanched almond
in each half. Put in the first layer with cut sides down, hiding
the almonds, and the second with the rounded sides downward,
showing an almond-pit in each. Sugar abundantly and bake
in a quick oven.
Canned apricots, somewhat insipid in themselves, are nice
prepared in this way, as are canned peaches.
CRANBERRY TART.
Prick the cranberries clear through with a needle and allow
for each cupful a heaping tablespoonful of seeded and chopped
raisins. Line a pie-dish with paste, wash with white of egg.
Allow for each cupful half a cupful of sugar. Bake with paper
laid over the pie until the cranberries are broken, then leave in
the oven fifteen minutes longer. You may omit the raisins if
you like.
430 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
RIPE GOOSEBERRY PIE.
Top and tail the berries. Line the pie-dish with crust, wash
with white of egg and fill with berries, sweetening well. Bake
with or without an upper crust.
GREEN GOOSEBERRY TART.
Top and tail the fruit. Put into an agate-iron or porcelain
kettle, with a very little water to prevent burning, and stew
until they break. Sweeten lavishly and let them get cold. Line
a pie-plate with paste, wash with white of egg, fill with the
stewed berries, and bake with or without an upper crust.
CURRANT TART.
Like the green gooseberries, currants deserve the name of tart.
Line a pie-dish with paste, wash with white of egg and fill with
stemmed currants. Sweeten very liberally ; you can hardly get
the currants too sweet. Bake with or without the top crust.
RHUBARB TART.
Skin the stalks and cut into inch lengths. Put into a sauce-
pan with a few spoonfuls of water and stew soft. Sweeten while
hot ; stir in a teaspoonful of butter and a beaten egg for each
cupful of fruit, and bake in an open crust washed with white of
egg-
All of these tarts are good baked with a top crust alone.
RHUBARB PIE.
Skin and cut into small pieces. Line a pie-dish with pastry,
wash with white of egg, and fill with the raw rhubarb, scattering
sultana raisins among the fruit. Sweeten plentifully ; put on a
top crust and bake. Brush with white of egg while hot and
shut the oven door to glaze the crust.
Eat cold.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 431
CUSTARD PEE.
Make a custard by pouring two cupfuls of hot milk upon
three beaten eggs which have been whipped light with four
tablespoonfuls of sugar. Flavor with vanilla or other essence.
Line a pie-dish with paste, wash with white of egg, pour in the
custard, and bake.
COCOANUT-CUSTARD PIE.
Make a custard as in the last recipe, and while still hot stir in
half a cupful of grated cocoanut sweetened with two tablespoon-
fuls of powdered sugar. Heat over the fire for three minutes,
pour into a pie-plate lined with puff-paste, and bake.
COCOANUT PIE.
Cream half a cupful of butter and a cupful of sugar with a
tablespoonful of rose-water and a tablespoonful of sherry. Beat
into this a scant cupful of grated cocoanut, whip in the stiffened
whites of three eggs, and bake in pie-plates lined with puff-paste.
ORANGE PIE.
Cream two tablespoonfuls of butter with three-quarters of a
cupful of sugar, beat in the juice and half the grated rind of
one large orange and half the grated peel and juice of one lemon.
Whip light, add the beaten yolks of three eggs ; fill two pie-
dishes lined with puff-paste with the mixture and bake. When
the pies are done whip the whites of the eggs stiff with two
tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and spread upon them, return-
ing to the oven for a few minutes to bake the meringue.
LEMON PIE. (No. J.)
Peel a lemon, taking all the thick white inner rind off with
the outer. Chop the pulp of the lemon and grate the yellow
peel, removing all the seeds. Pare and core a fine pippin and
chop it also. Cream a tablespoonful of butter with a cupful of
43 2 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
sugar, beat in the lemon, the apple, and the grated peel, and bake
in open shells of pastry. You can, if you like, add a meringue
like that on the orange pie.
LEMON PIE. (No. 2.)
Cream a tablespoonful of butter with a cupful of sugar, beat
into the cream the juice of a lemon and half of the grated peel,
then a large spoonful of raisins, seeded and chopped, and a tea-
spoonful of arrow-root or corn-starch wet with cold water. Beat
hard and bake with upper and lower crusts of puff -paste.
LEMON TARTLETS.
Five eggs ; five tablespoonfuls of sugar ; one quart of milk ; one-
third cupful of prepared flour ; one lemon, a large one, juice and
grated peel ; a pinch of salt. Heat the milk, stir in the flour
wet with a little cold milk, and heat again, stirring all the while.
Pour upon the beaten yolks and sugar ; cook for one minute.
Take from the fire and beat in the lemon-juice and grated rind.
Have ready, baked and hot, some shells of puff-paste lining
pate-pans. Fill with the mixture and cover each with a
meringue made of the whipped whites and a little powdered
sugar. Put into the oven to set, and lightly color the meringue.
Eat fresh, but not hot.
CHRISTMAS LEMON TART.
Two cupfuls of sugar; one cupful of butter; six eggs; two
lemons ; two large tablespoonfuls of brandy ; one teaspoonful of
grated nutmeg.
Beat butter and sugar together, add the whipped yolks, the
juice of one lemon and the rind of two, the nutmeg, the brandy,
and the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Bake in small pastry-
shells and use no top crust.
AMBER, OR "TRANSPARENT," LEMON PIE.
Cream half a pound of butter with a pound of sugar ; beat in
the yolks of six eggs ; the juice and grated peel of a lemon ; half
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 433
a teaspoonful of nutmeg and a tablespoonful of brandy ; finally,
the whites of four eggs, whipped stiff.
Bake in open pie-crust, washed over with the white of an egg.
When done, spread upon the top the whites of two eggs, beaten
to a meringue, with two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and a little lem-
on-juice. Leave in the oven a few minutes to set the meringue.
Eat cold.
28
SWEET OMELETS.
OMELET AUX CONFITURES.
SEVEN eggs ; two tablespoonfuls of sugar ; one-half cupful of
milk (or cream) ; grated peel of half a lemon ; one-half cupful
of marmalade or jam. Beat yolks and whites apart and very
stiff. Add sugar, lemon, and milk to the yolks ; then, with a
few rapid whirls of your egg-beater, the whites. Put the mar-
malade in the bottom of a neat bake-dish (buttered), pour on
the omelet, and bake until it has puffed up high and begins to
"crust" well. Serve in the bake-dish at once or it will fall.
Eight minutes should suffice to cook it.
BAKED OMELET SOUFFLE.
Beat the yolks of four eggs smooth with three tablespoonfuls of
powdered sugar and a teaspoonful of essence. In a separate
bowl whip the whites so stiff that you could cut them with a
knife. Fold the whites lightly into the yolks and the sugar and
turn into a buttered pudding-dish, still lightly. Sift powdered
sugar over the top, and bake in a steady oven until lightly
browned.
Send immediately to the table in the dish.
FRIED OMELET SOUFFLE.
Mix as above, but fry, as you would a plain omelet, in a little
butter in a frying-pan. Turn out upon a very hot platter, sift
powdered sugar over it, and serve instantly.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 435
APPLE OMELET.
Into a cupful of strained apple sauce stir, while it is hot, a
tablespoonful of butter, half a cupful of powdered sugar, and half
a teaspoonful of mace or nutmeg. Let it get cold and add the
beaten yolks of five eggs. Beat hard and high for two minutes,
and put in the stiffened whites very gently with a good pinch of
soda dissolved in a teaspoonful of cream. Turn the mixture
into a buttered and heated bake-dish and bake in a steady oven
until puffy and delicately browned. Send at once to the table.
JELLY OMELET.
Beat the yolks of five eggs light ; add then two heaping table-
spoonfuls of powdered sugar ; next, four tablespoon fuls of cream ;
finally, the stiffened whites. Have ready a tablespoonful of but-
ter in a frying-pan, and when hot pour in the omelet. As it
"sets," spread upon one-half of it several spoonfuls of currant,
grape, or other jelly. Double the omelet upon the jelly and
turn out upon a hot platter. Sift powdered sugar over it, and
serve.
CUSTARDS, BLANC-MANGE, JELLIES,
ETC.
GENERAL RULES FOR CUSTARDS.
1 . Five eggs and as many tablespoonfuls of sugar for each quart
of milk is a safe general rule for custard making.
2. Do not let the milk really boil before adding it to the
eggs.
3. Do not stir the eggs and sugar into the milk, but pour grad-
ually the hot milk upon them.
4. A pinch of soda in the milk is a safeguard against curdling.
5. Always cook custard in a double boiler, or in a vessel set
within another of boiling water. Scorching, or " catching," is
impossible if this precaution be taken.
6. Experience is the only teacher as to the precise moment
when a custard has thickened sufficiently. The mixture should
be as smooth as rich cream and coat the spoon evenly. If the
spoon, dipped in and withdrawn, has a thin, slightly granulated
liquid clinging to it, the custard is still raw. Watch incessantly
for the right instant of removal from the fire.
BOILED CUSTARDS.
One quart of milk ; yolks of five eggs and the whites of seven ;
six tablespoonfuls of sugar ; two teaspoonfuls of vanilla.
Scald the milk, stir in the yolks, beaten light, with the sugar.
Pour the hot milk upon these, " fold " in the whites of five eggs,
return to the fire, and stir until it thickens. When cold, season
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 437
and pour into small cups. Whip the whites of two eggs to a
meringue with a tablespoonful of powdered sugar, and heap a
large spoonful upon each cup.
The meringue is improved by the substitution of half a glass
of currant jelly for the sugar. Whip it up with the whites until
you have a pink froth.
BAKED CUSTARDS.
Make as above directed, but instead of returning to the fire,
after pouring the hot milk upon the eggs, fill buttered custard-
cups with the mixture ; set in a pan of hot water and bake until
set. Then draw to the door of the oven and heap the meringue
high upon the custards. Close the oven door to color the me-
ringue slightly.
CHOCOLATE CUSTARD.
One quart of milk ; five eggs ; one cupful of sugar ; four heap-
ing tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate ; two teaspoonfuls of va-
nilla extract. Scald the milk, rub the chocolate to a smooth
paste in a little cold milk. Stir into the milk and cook two
minutes in it. Beat up the yolks of the five eggs with the whites
of two, and the sugar. Pour the hot mixture, gradually, upon
them, stirring deeply. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish, and
set in a dripping-pan of boiling water. Bake until firm. When
"set" in the middle, spread quickly, without taking from the
oven, with a meringue made by whipping the reserved whites
stiff with a very little sugar. Bake until this is done. Eat
cold.
STRAWBERRY CUSTARD.
Make a custard of one pint of milk, the yolks of three eggs,
and four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Set it aside to cool. Beat the
whites of the eggs until stiff, add to them four tablespoonfuls of
powdered sugar, and beat again until stiff and white. Put about
a pint of strawberries into a deep dish, pour over the custard, heap
the whites in spoonfuls over the top, dust with sugar, place in
the oven a moment to brown. Serve ice-cold.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ARROW-ROOT CUSTARDS.
Scald two cupfuls of milk, and stir into it a heaping table-
spoonful of arrow-root wet up with a little cold milk. Cook
until it thickens ; take from the fire and pour upon the yolks of
two eggs, beaten smooth with four tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Return to the fire-, stir for two minutes, season to taste, and pour
into custard-cups. Set these in a pan of hot water in the oven.
Beat the whites of the eggs to a meringue with two tablespoonfuls
of sugar, and when the cups have been three minutes in the oven,
heap them with the meringue, sift powdered sugar over it, and
leave in the oven to color lightly. Eat ice-cold.
ORANGE CUSTARDS.
Take a pint of orange -juice into which the juice of one lemon
has been squeezed. Put to it the yolks of six eggs very well
beaten, a pound of granulated sugar, and the grated peel of one
orange. Stir these over a slow fire till they are just ready to
boil, then pour into custard-cups. Eat cold.
STRAWBERRY FLOATING ISLAND.
Make a custard of a quart of milk, the yolks of five eggs, and
a cupful of sugar. Cook until smooth, and when it is cool
flavor it with lemon-juice. Beat the whites of the eggs stiff with
three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and into this whip the
sweetened juice from a pint of crushed strawberries. Serve the
custard, when ice-cold, in a glass dish with spoonfuls of the
strawberry meringue floating on top. The meringue should not
be made until just before it is to be eaten.
PLAIN FLOATING ISLAND
is made as in the last recipe, but the meringue is flavored with
vanilla, or other essence, or beaten up with fruit jelly of some
kind. It is pretty when speckled by currant jelly, broken up
just enough to leave red bits here and there in the stiffened
whites.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 439
ARROW-ROOT PUDDING.
Three tablespoonfuls of arrow-root. Get the Bermuda if you
can, or you may require more ; three cupfuls of fresh milk; two
tablespoonfuls of sugar ; one tablespoonful of butter ; one-quarter
pound of crystallized peaches, chopped fine. Heat the milk to
scalding, and stir in the arrow-root wet up with cold milk. Stir
ten minutes, and add sugar and butter. Stir five minutes more,
and pour out. When nearly cold beat in the fruit. Pour into
a wet mould. When cold and stiff turn out upon a dish, and eat
with sugar and cream. It is very good without the fruit, but
needs more sugar in making.
PLAIN BLANC-MANGE.
Soak half a box of gelatine for two hours in a cupful of milk.
Scald three liberal cupfuls of milk and stir into it half a cupful
of sugar. (Put a bit of soda into the milk.) Pour the milk
over the soaked gelatine, stir one minute over the fire to make
sure that the gelatine is dissolved, and strain through a cloth.
When cool, flavor and pour into a mould wet with cold water.
TUTTI-FRUTTI BLANC -MANGE.
Make as just directed, season with rose-water, and when the
blanc-mange begins to thicken in the bowl, add one teaspoonful
of citron, minced fine, a tablespoonful of blanched and pounded
almonds, one of seeded and chopped raisins, and the same of
cleaned currants. The blanc-mange should be firm enough to
hold the fruit and not to let it sink to the bottom of the mould,
into which turn it when all the ingredients are in. Set on ice
and eat with whipped cream.
BAVARIAN CREAM.
Soak half a package of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for two
hours. Heat a pint of rich milk and pour upon the soaked gela-
tine, stirring until it is dissolved. Then add it to the yolks of
four eggs, beaten light, with a scant cupful of powdered sugar.
440 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Stir over the fire for four minutes, remove and flavor, and let it
get cold, but not harden. It should be like yellow cream when
you beat into it, a spoonful at a time, a pint of whipped cream.
When it is all in, put into a wet mould and set in the ice to form.
There are countless varieties of Bavarian cream, but the base
of all is that just given.
TAPIOCA CUSTARD,
Soak four tablespoonfuls of tapioca (pearl) in two cupfuls of
cold water for four hours. Scald a quart of milk and pour upon
the tapioca without draining the latter, adding a good pinch of
salt. Stir over the fire to a boil and turn, gradually, upon the
yolks of three eggs, beaten light, with a cupful of sugar. Cook
in a double boiler until thick. Ten minutes should be enough.
Pour into a bowl, and when it is quite cold, fold into the cus-
tard the whipped white of the eggs, with a teaspoonful of vanilla
or other extract. Set upon ice until it is wanted. The whites
should be added not more than half an hour before you mean to
serve the custard.
Brandied peaches are a pleasant accompaniment to this des-
sert.
TAPIOCA BLANC -MANGE.
One scant cupful of tapioca ; one large cupful of cold water ;
two cupfuls of milk ; one cupful of sugar ; two teaspoonfuls of
vanilla ; pinch of salt and the same of soda in the milk. Soak
the tapioca in the water four or five hours. Scald the milk, stir
in the sugar, then the soft, clear tapioca. Cook and stir fifteen
minutes ; take from the fire, pour into a bowl, put in your egg-
beater and whip two minutes to get out the lumps. Flavor, and
mould in cups or bowls wet with cold water. When firm, turn
out and eat with cream.
CORN -STARCH BLANC -MANGE WITH BRANDIED
PEACHES.
One quart of milk ; four tablespoonfuls of corn-starch wet in
cold water ; three beaten eggs ; one cupful of sugar ; grated peel
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 441
of half a lemon ; one saltspoonful of salt. Scald the milk in a
farina-kettle ; stir in corn-starch, lemon, and salt, and cook five
minutes. Pour this upon the beaten eggs and sugar, return to
the fire, and stir two minutes more. Pour into a wet mould
and set in a cold place for four or five hours. Turn out upon a
broad glass dish and lay brandied peaches about the base. In
helping it out put a peach upon each share of blanc-mange.
COFFEE BLANC-MANGE.
One-half package of gelatine ; two scant cupfuls of milk ;
one cupful strong clear coffee ; one-half cupful of sugar ; pinch
of soda in the milk ; one-half cupful of cold water. Soak the
gelatine two hours in the water. Scald the milk, stir in soda
and sugar until dissolved, add the gelatine, and, this melted, the
coffee, hot and freshly made. Boil all together two minutes and
strain through a thick cloth into a wet mould. Eat with cream
and sugar.
CHOCOLATE BLANC - MANGE.
Make a plain blanc-mange with half a package of gelatine, a
pint of hot milk, and a scant half cupful of sugar ; rub four liberal
tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate smooth with a little milk and
add to the boiling milk. Stir over the fire until the mixture
almost boils. When cold, flavor with vanilla and turn into a
wet mould.
TEA, COFFEE, AND CHOCOLATE BLANC-MANGE.
One quart of milk ; one package of gelatine ; one cupful
of sugar ; two tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate ; one cupful
of strong tea ; one cupful of strong coffee. Soak the gelatine
an hour in a cupful of cold water. Heat the milk to boiling
and add the gelatine. When this is dissolved, put in the
sugar, stir until melted, and take from the fire. Strain through
thin muslin and divide into three parts. Into the largest stir the
chocolate, rubbed smooth in cold water ; into another the tea,
and into a third, equal to the second, the coffee. Return that
containing the chocolate to the farina-kettle, and heat scalding-
442 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
hot. Rinse out the kettle well with boiling water, and put in,
successively, those portions flavored with the tea and the coffee,
scalding the vessel between each. Wet several small cups or
glasses with cold water. Pour the chocolate into some, the tea
into others, and the coffee blanc-mange into the rest. When
cold, turn out upon a flat dish and eat with sugar and sweet
cream.
NARCISSUS BLANC-MANGE.
One quart of milk ; one package of gelatine, soaked in two
cupfuls of cold water ; yolks of four eggs, beaten light ; two
cupfuls of white sugar ; one large cupful of sweet cream, whipped
with a little powdered sugar, and flavored with vanilla; rose-
water for the blanc-mange. Heat the milk to scalding. Stir in
the sugar and gelatine, and when these are dissolved, beat in
the yolks, and cook two minutes. Turn out into a shallow dish
to cool. When it begins to form, put a few spoonfuls at a time
into a bowl, and whip vigorously, flavoring with rose-water.
When it is a yellow sponge, put into a wet mould, with a cylin-
der in the centre. When it is firm, turn into a dish, and fill the
hole in the middle with whipped cream just churned. Lay more
whipped cream about the base. Like all other preparations of
gelatine, this should be kept upon ice until you are ready to
use it.
EASTER EGGS.
Make a quart of blanc-mange in the usual way. Empty twelve
egg-shells through a small hole in one end and rinse well with
cold water. Divide the blanc-mange into four parts. Leave one
white; stir into another two beaten yolks; into a third choco-
late ; into the fourth cochineal coloring. Heat the yellow over
the fire long enough to cook the egg. Fill the shells with the
various mixtures, three of each. Set upright in a pan of meal or
flour to keep them steady, and leave until next day. Then fill
a glass bowl more than three-quarters full with nice wine jelly
broken into sparkling fragments. Break away the egg-shells,
bit by bit, from the blanc-mange. If the insides of the shells
have been properly rinsed and left wet, there will be no trouble
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 443
about this. Pile the vari-colored " eggs " upon the bed of jelly,
lay shredded preserved orange-peel, or very finely shredded
candied citron about them, and surprise the children with them
as an Easter-day dessert.
PEACH TRIFLE.
Three cupfuls of milk ; four tablespoon fuls of sugar ; three
eggs ; one small sponge cake ; peaches peeled and sliced. Make
a boiled custard of the milk, yolks of eggs, and half the sugar.
Slice the cake, lay it in the bottom of a glass dish, soak with
the custard and heap it with the sliced peaches, strewing these
plentifully with sugar. Beat the whites to a meringue with two
tablespoonfuls of sugar, and cover the peaches with this. Have
all the ingredients very cold before mixing them.
SPONGE-CAKE TRIFLE.
Split horizontally a "card " loaf of sponge cake and spread
between the halves a cupful of whipped cream into which has
been stirred a heaping tablespoonful of sugar, the juice and half
the grated rind of a lemon. Do this just before serving. Sift
powdered sugar on the top of the cake. An easy and delightful
dessert.
GOOSEBERRY TRIFLE.
One quart of green gooseberries ; one and one-half cupfuls of
granulated sugar ; two cupfuls of milk ; three eggs ; one pint of
whipped cream. Cook the gooseberries in a double boiler until
they are soft enough to run through a colander and add one cup-
ful of sugar, or more if they are very sour. While they are
stewing make a boiled custard of the milk, eggs, and half a cup-
ful of sugar. When the pulped gooseberries are cool, pour them
into a glass dish, cover them with the cold custard and heap
the whipped cream on top.
RASPBERRY TRIFLE.
Six small sponge cakes, such as are sold for a cent apiece
at bakers' shops ; one quart of milk ; five eggs ; one cupful of
444 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
sugar ; one quart of red raspberries ; one cupful of sweet cream ;
vanilla for flavoring. Make a custard of the milk, the sugar,
and the yolks of the eggs ; let it get cold and flavor to taste
with vanilla. Pour the cold custard into a dish, cover lightly
with the raspberries dredged with powdered sugar. Whip the
cupful of cream, sweeten slightly, and heap irregularly upon the
berries. Set on ice until it is served. It should not stand ten
minutes after the berries go in.
RASPBERRY CREAM.
Half a box of gelatine ; half a cupful of cold water ; half a cup-
ful of boiling water; one cupful of sugar; one pint of cream,
whipped ; one pint of raspberry -juice.
Soak the gelatine one hour in the cold water, then put it with
the sugar and boiling water in a double boiler over the fire and
stir until thoroughly dissolved. Add the raspberry-juice ; strain
and set in a cool place. When it has begun to form stir in the
whipped cream, turn into a mould, and set on the ice to harden.
RASPBERRY FLUMMERY.
One quart of red raspberries ; one small cupful of pearl tapi-
oca ; half a cupful of sugar ; two cupfuls of cold water ; two cup-
fuls of boiling water.
Soak the tapioca several hours in the cold water, then put it
on the fire with the boiling water and stir until clear. Add the
sugar, and when the tapioca is lukewarm, stir in the berries. Eat,
when ice-cold, with cream and sugar.
STRAWBERRY FRENCH CREAM.
Soak half a box of gelatine in a small cupful of cold water for
half an hour. Stir in the juice and rind of one lemon and one
and one-half cupfuls of sugar, and let it stand an hour longer.
Pour on this two cupfuls of boiling water, stir until dissolved,
strain, and set aside to cool. When it begins to harden, whip
the whites of three eggs stiff and beat into it the jelly, a little at
a time, until you have a smooth sponge. Stir in then half a pint
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 445
of fresh, firm strawberries, turn all into a mould, and set on the
ice for a couple of hours. Eat with sWfcet cream.
STRAWBERRIES IN JELLY.
Half a cupful of gelatine ; one and one-half cupfuls of sugar ;
one lemon ; one cupful of cold water ; two cupfuls of boiling
water ; one pint of capped strawberries.
Make a plain lemon jelly, and when it begins to form arrange
the berries in regular order in the bottom of a mould wet with
cold water. Pour the jelly in upon them, and put all on the ice
until the jelly is cold and hard. Turn out on a platter and gar-
nish with whipped cream.
STRAWBERRY FOAM.
Sprinkle a pint of capped strawberries with sugar, and set
them aside in this for an hour, when the juice will be found to
run freely. Press the berries in a sieve and extract all the juice.
Have ready a half-ounce of gelatine soaked in cold water for half
an hour ; add to this three tablespoonfuls of sugar, and heat to
the boiling-point. When the gelatine is thoroughly dissolved,
stir in the strawberry -juice and the juice of one lemon ; strain,
and when it is cool and begins to thicken beat into it a half-pint
of whipped cream. Set on the ice until thoroughly chilled.
STRAWBERRY SPONGE.
Soak half a box of gelatine in half a cupful of cold water.
Hull and mash one quart of strawberries, and sprinkle over
them half a cupful of sugar. Boil one cupful of water and half a
cupful of sugar together twenty minutes, but do not boil hard.
Rub the berries through a hair-sieve or fine colander ; add the
soaked gelatine to the boiling syrup, take from the fire, turn into
a bowl, and add the berry-juice ; stir until the gelatine is all dis-
solved ; add the juice of one lemon, place the bowl in a pan of
crushed ice and beat with an egg-beater for five minutes. Add
the whipped whites of four eggs, and beat the whole until it be-
446 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
gins to thicken. Pour into wet moulds and set on the ice to
harden. Serve very cold with cream.
ROSE CREAM.
Soak one ounce of pink gelatine in a cupful of cold water
until soft. Pour over it two cupfuls of boiling water and stir
until dissolved. Add a cupful and a half of sugar, and enough
of the extract of rose to flavor it very decidedly. Set the jelly
thus made in a cool place, and when it begins to form whip it
into the whites of three eggs which you have beaten to a froth.
Beat until the jelly and the eggs are a stiff sponge, and then turn
this into a prettily shaped mould wet with cold water. Let it
stand on the ice for some minutes before it is used.
FRENCH ORANGE JELLY.
Squeeze the juice from five oranges and one lemon and re-
move every seed. Rub two of the oranges with six lumps of sugar
so as to make each lump very yellow and oily ; in this way you
obtain the flavor of the peel. Add half a pint of boiling syrup
made by boiling one scant cupful of granulated sugar and the
yellow lumps with two tablespoon fu Is of water for five minutes.
When nearly cold add an ounce of gelatine that has been dis-
solved in a little water ; stir well. Turn into a wet mould and
set in a cold place until firm.
STRAWBERRY CHARLOTTE.
Cover one-fourth of a box of gelatine with a quarter of a cupful
of cold water. Whip one pint of cream until it makes three
pints. Boil with one-third of a cupful of granulated sugar a
small cupful of milk ; when boiling add the gelatine and stir un-
til dissolved. Strain it into a bowl and add a tablespoonful of
lemon-juice. Stand the bowl in a pan of crushed ice, stir occa-
sionally, and when the mixture is cold and begins to thicken,
stir in lightly the whipped cream. Line a mould or a plain
bowl with whole strawberries, and when the cream is nearly
stiff enough to drop, pour it into the mould.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 447
SNOW PUDDING.
One-half package of gelatine ; three eggs ; one pint of milk ;
two cupfuls of sugar ; juice of one lemon ; one large cupful of
boiling water. Soak the gelatine one hour in a cupful of cold
water, then stir in two-thirds of the sugar, the lemon-juice, and
the boiling water. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth,
and when the strained gelatine is quite cold, whip it into the
whites, a spoonful at a time, for half an hour. When all is
white and stiff, pour into a wet mould, and set in a cold place.
When the mixture is stiff dip the mould into hot water, and turn
out into a glass dish. Make a custard of the milk, yolks, and the
rest of the sugar, flavoring with vanilla. Boil until it begins to
thicken. When the meringue is turned into the dish, pour this
custard, cold, about the base.
COCOANUT BLANCMANGE.
Make a plain blanc-mange with a scant measure of milk.
When the gelatine has been added, mix in a cupful of boiling
water in which a grated cocoanut has been soaked for fifteen
minutes, then beaten up hard in it, finally strained out of it in a
coarse cloth. The cloth must be squeezed and wrung to get
every drop of moisture from the cocoanut. Whip the mixture
together well and put into a wet mould.
ORANGE TRIFLE.
One pint of cream, whipped stiff; three eggs yolks only;
one cupful of powdered sugar; one-half package of gela-
tine, soaked in a cupful of cold water; juice of two sweet
oranges; grated rind of one orange; one cupful of boiling
water. Stir the soaked gelatine in the boiling water. Mix the
juice, rind, and sugar together, and pour the hot liquid over
them. Should the gelatine not dissolve readily, set all over the fire
and stir until clear. Strain, and stir in the beaten yolks. Heat
quickly within a vessel of boiling water, stirring constantly lest
448 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
the yolks should curdle. If they should, strain again through
coarse flannel. Set aside until perfectly cold and slightly stiff,
when whip in the frothed cream. Wet a mould, fill, and set it
on ice.
CHARLOTTE RUSSE. (No. J.)
Line a dish with sliced sponge cake or with lady-fingers, and
fill the centre with whipped cream sweetened slightly and fla-
vored to taste.
This is the simplest form of the popular delicacy.
CHARLOTTE RUSSE. (No. 2.)
Line a glass dish as directed in last recipe, spread the cake
with jelly or jam and fill with whipped cream.
CHARLOTTE RUSSE. (No. 3.)
Line a mould with sponge cake, sliced, or whole, or with
lady-fingers fitted neatly to the sides and bottom, and fill with
such a mixture as you would prepare for snow pudding. Set on
ice until firm, and turn out carefully upon a flat dish.
TIPSY PARSON.
Line a glass dish with sliced sponge cake, pour upon this two
glasses of sherry, and when the cake is well soaked fill the centre
with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored to taste.
Or
Fill the space in the middle of the cake with a rich, cold cus-
tard, or a snow-pudding mixture.
HEDGEHOG TRIFLE.
Lay an oblong sponge cake in a glass dish and soak with wine.
Stick blanched almonds in it in regular rows from end to end,
half burying them in the cake. Now soak in warm custard,
poured over it, a large spoonful at a time, and when the custard
is absorbed, heap whipped cream about the base. Eat cold. A
pretty dessert and easily made.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 449
PEACH TRIFLE.
Stew peaches soft, run through a colander, sweeten to taste,
and return to the fire to get hot. You should have a pint of
the peach sauce when this has been done. Soak half a box of
gelatine in a cupful of cold water for four hours; when the
peach sauce is again scalding, stir in the soaked gelatine. As
soon as it is dissolved, remove from the fire and let it get cold,
but not stiff before you add, lightly and quickly, two cupfuls of
whipped cream. Fill a wet mould with the mixture and set on
ice. When firm, turn out.
You can use apple sauce, canned peaches, apricots, cherries,
plums, strawberries indeed any canned or ripe fruit for this
purpose, and be satisfied with the result.
VICTORIA PUDDING.
Two cupfuls of milk ; four eggs ; half a package of gelatine ;
half a cupful of sugar ; vanilla or other essence; one sponge cake;
two glassfuls of wine ; raspberry or other jelly. Soak the gelatine
in the milk for one hour. Put into a farina-kettle with a tiny bit
of soda and heat to boiling, stirring until the gelatine is dissolved.
Pour upon the beaten eggs and sugar ; return to the fire and cook
one minute. Pour half, when cold, into a wet mould. After half
an hour, cover this with slices of sponge cake with jelly spread
between them. Wet these well with wine. Add the rest of the
custard and set the mould upon ice or in a cold place.
WHIPPED CREAM.
The secret of success in whipping cream lies mainly in the
coldness of everything employed in the process. Fill a good
syllabub churn there is no better than Silver's upright glass egg-
beater with ice, and put the cream itself in the ice, for an hour
or more before you use it. Turn a cupful of cream into the
chilled churn if you wish to have a pint when it is whipped, and
set the churn in warm weather in a bowl of ice while you
work the piston up and down, steadily, but never fast, until the
20
45O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
cream is smooth and firm, like a good meringue. Sweeten to
taste.
The work is so simple and the cream, when whipped, may be
wrought up into so many delicious compounds, that it is a pity
not to learn how to prepare it.
WINE JELLY.
Soak a package of clear gelatine in a cupful of cold water un-
til it absorbs it all. Have ready the juice of two lemons in
which the grated peel of one has been soaked one hour. Strain
the juice through muslin, squeezing hard, upon three cupfuls of
sugar, add a liberal pinch of cinnamon, put into a bowl with
the soaked gelatine and pour over all a quart of boiling water.
Set over the fire for three minutes, stirring all the time, and strain
through a double flannel bag without squeezing. Let it drip un-
til the bag is empty. When the jelly is cool, put in a cupful of
wine white, or Madeira, or sherry. Wet a mould with cold
water and fill with the jelly. W r hen it is firm and you are ready
for it, wrap a cloth wrung out of hot water about the mould
and invert over a glass dish.
CLARET JELLY.
Make as directed in foregoing recipe, substituting claret for
sherry.
CIDER JELLY
may be made in the same way, using clear cider instead of wine.
LEMON JELLY.
Make like Wine Jelly, but omit the wine and put in its place
one small cupful of cold water. Use three lemons instead of the
two required for wine jelly.
ICES.
1. Rock-salt is better for freezing ices than common salt.
2. Break the ice as fine as possible. If you have no plane
with which to shave it, put it into a stout sack, lay it upon the
floor or upon stone and beat with a wooden mallet or the flat
side of a hatchet until the ice is like coarse snow.
3. Do not turn off the salt water too often. It is the chief
agent in the work of congelation.
4. Pack ice and salt in alternate layers and hard all around
and over the freezer when the contents are frozen and you wish
to hold them at that point until they are to be served.
5. Instead of dipping the freezer into hot water when you
wish to turn out the ice or cream, wrap about it a cloth just
wrung out of hot water, and shake the freezer very gently.
There are freezers now in general use that will freeze a gallon
of cream in fifteen minutes. Get the best and take care of it
when you have it.
DELMONICO ICE-CREAM.
One quart of rich milk. Eight eggs, whites and yolks beaten
together. Four cupfuls of sugar beaten with the eggs, after the
latter are light. One quart of rich cream. One vanilla bean,
broken in two, boiled in the custard, and left in until the latter
is cold, then fished out.
Scald the milk and turn it upon the beaten eggs and sugar.
Pour the hot milk gradually upon the mixture and return to the
fire in a double boiler. Stir for fifteen minutes, or until you
have a thick custard. Let it cool, take out the bean, beat in the
cream, and freeze.
452 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Extract of vanilla may be used instead of the bean, but it is not
so good.
SELF-FREEZING ICE-CREAM.
One quart of milk ; eight beaten eggs ; three pints of rich
cream ; four cupfuls of sugar ; one vanilla bean boiled in the
custard, or five 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 cold add the
cream and set on ice. Early next morning beat in the cream
and put all in a freezer set in a pail. Put a block of ice be-
tween folds of carpeting and beat small. Put a thick layer into
the outer pail, then one of rock-salt. Fill the pail in this order
and beat the custard for five minutes with a flat stick. Shut
tightly; pack pounded ice and salt over it and put a folded car-
pet over all. In an hour and a half open the freezer, first wip-
ing off the salt. Dislodge the frozen custard from sides and bot-
tom with a knife and beat until the custard is a smooth paste.
Replace the cover, let off the water, and pack more pounded ice
and salt about it. Put back the folded carpet. The cream will
take care of itself for four hours, with a visit of three minutes
every two 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.
CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM.
Make as for Delmonico Cream, adding five tablespoonfuls of
grated chocolate, rubbed smooth with a little cold milk.
COFFEE ICE-CREAM.
Scald one pint of pure cream, dropping in a bit of soda; add
two cupfuls of sugar, and when this has melted, one cupful a
large one of black coffee, very clear and strong. Finally, stir
in a heaping tablespoonful of arrow-root wet up with milk. Boil,
stirring constantly for five minutes after the boil recommences.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 453
Let the mixture get cold and beat in a pint of whipped cream.
Freeze.
FRUIT ICE-CREAM, WITH THE FRUIT FROZEN IN.
Make such a custard as that indicated in the recipe for Del-
monico Cream, and when it is half-frozen open the freezer to
beat in a quart of peaches, cut up small, or minced pineapple, or
oranges, or berries, or bananas well sweetened. Replace the top
of the freezer, and proceed to freeze the contents.
FROZEN PUDDING.
Two quarts of vanilla ice-cream ; mace ; cinnamon ; nutmeg ;
one lemon, juice, and grated peel ; one cupful of pale sherry ;
one pound of crystallized fruits, chopped ; one cupful of sugar ;
half a pound of seeded raisins, and same of minced citron. Chop
fruits, raisins, and citron fine ; add wine, lemon-juice, and peel ;
season to taste with spice ; stir in the sugar, and cook in a
closely covered jar or pail, set in hot water, two hours. When
cold beat into the vanilla ice-cream and freeze. In the city
you can prepare the fruit and send to a confectioner to do the
rest. Served with whipped cream it is especially delicious.
TUTTI-FRUTTI ICECREAM.
Make and half-freeze a custard such as is prepared for Delmon-
ico Ice-Cream, and beat into the stiffened mass a pint of crystal-
lized fruit and, if you wish it, minced citron, raisins, and cur-
rants mixed with them. Beat in with the fruits the juice and
grated peel of a lemon and a glass of pale sherry. Put the top
back, and freeze.
LEMON ICE-CREAM.
Stir into a quart of rich, perfectly sweet cream, two cupfuls of
sugar, and when it is dissolved, pour into a patent freezer. When
the crank turns so stiffly that you know the work is half-done,
open the freezer and add the juice of two lemons and the grated
peel of one and a half. Do it quickly, replace the cover, and
turn fast for awhile lest the acid should curdle the cream.
454 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
You can treat frozen custard in the same way, adding the
lemon mid-way in the freezing.
BANANA ICE-CREAM.
Pare and mince six fine ripe bananas (with a silver knife) and
stir into two quarts of lemon ice-cream when half-frozen. Beat
the fruit in well and freeze quickly. City housekeepers can send
the bananas to a confectioner to be minced and frozen. The
product of this receipt is truly luscious.
Cocoanut is also a pleasing addition to ice-cream. It should
be freshly grated, and be added just before freezing.
A FRUIT SURPRISE.
One quart of fruit berries, peaches, bananas, oranges, or
bananas and oranges in combination chopped or crushed. One
cupful of cold water ; two cupfuls of sugar, stirred in with the
fruit ; whites of four eggs unbeaten. Mix and freeze. This
" surprise" will be delightful and complete. Apple sauce,
prunes, or dates, stewed and chopped fine, may be substituted for
fresh fruit, and will defy recognition when the ice is served.
NESSELRODE PUDDING.
Make a rich custard as for Delmonico Ice-Cream, and when
more than half-frozen add half a pound of marrons glaces cut
into dice, taking out the paddle from the centre of the freezer,
and thrusting, with a long-handled spoon, the marrons down into
the centre of the custard. Replace the top of the freezer, turn it
a dozen times to settle the contents, pack down with fine ice and
rock-salt, and leave it for two hours at least.
Turn out the frozen pudding and heap whipped cream about
the base.
BROWN BREAD ICE-CREAM.
One quart of cream ; half a pound of sugar ; three slices of
Boston brown bread, dried and toasted.
Boil half the cream and dissolve the sugar in it. Add the
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 455
uncooked cream, and when cold freeze it. Crush and sift the
brown bread, beat it into the frozen cream, and let it stand
packed in ice for three hours.
STRAWBERRY MOUSSE.
Mash a quart of berries with two cupfuls of sugar, and leave
on ice for three hours. Soak for the same time half a package of
gelatine in a cupful of cold water. Then pour a cupful of boil-
ing water over the soaked gelatine, and stir over the fire until it
is dissolved. Rub the berries through a fine colander, add the
dissolved gelatine, and let it get cold. As soon as it is as thick
as thin starch, beat into it, gradually, a quart of whipped cream,
blending this thoroughly with the other ingredients. Pour into
a freezer and freeze.
SHERBET, OR LEMON ICE.
Six lemons juice of all and half the grated rind ; one large
sweet orange ; three tablespoon fuls of chopped pineapple ; one
pint of cold water ; two cupfuls of sugar. Steep the grated peel
and pineapple for one hour in the lemon-and-orange juice.
Squeeze hard through a muslin bag, mix with the sugar and
water. When the sugar is dissolved turn into a freezer and
freeze.
ORANGE ICE.
Make and freeze as you would lemon ice, using the juice of
six oranges, the grated peel of three, and the juice only of two
lemons, and omitting the pineapple.
CURRANT ICE.
One pint of currant-juice ; one quart of water ; one cupful of
sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, strain, and freeze.
CURRANT AND RASPBERRY ICE.
One pint of currant-juice ; half a pint of juice of red raspber-
ries ; one pint of water ; one cupful of sugar.
When the sugar is dissolved strain the liquid, and freeze.
456 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CURRANT AND RASPBERRY ICECREAM.
Half a pint of currant- juice ; half a pint of raspberry jam ; one
pint of new milk ; one pint of cream ; one cupful of sugar.
Mix all thoroughly and freeze.
CHERRY ICE.
One quart of tart, well-flavored cherries ; two cupfuls of sugar ;
two cupfuls of water ; one gill of brandy or one-half gill of
maraschino.
Stone the cherries, remove the kernels from a dozen of the
stones, rub them to a paste, and put with the crushed cherries.
After these have stood together for an hour squeeze out the
juice, add the sugar and water, stir until the sugar is dissolved,
strain again, add the brandy or cordial, and freeze.
ROMAN PUNCH.
Two quarts of water ; one pound of sugar ; five lemons ; half
a pint of Jamaica rum.
Boil the sugar and water together for fifteen minutes. Take
it from the fire and, when perfectly cold, add the juice of the
lemons. Put it into a freezer and, when about half frozen, add
the rum. Let the punch stand in the freezer, packed in ice, for
two hours before serving.
STRAWBERRY ICE.
Juice of two quarts of strawberries, mashed and strained ;
equal quantity of water ; two pounds of sugar ; whites of four
eggs.
Mash the berries, cover with sugar, let them stand one hour or
more, then press out the juice, add the water, and freeze. When
half-congealed, add the whites of eggs. Close carefully and
freeze again.
RASPBERRY MOUSSE.
One quart of rich cream ; one gill of raspberry-juice ; half a
cupful of powdered sugar.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 457
Sweeten the cream, mix the juice with it, and whip all until
very light and frothy. Freeze as you would ordinary ice-cream.
RASPBERRY ICE.
Four cupfuls of water ; two cupfuls of raspberry-juice ; two
cupfuls of sugar ; two lemons the juice alone.
Mix the juice of the raspberries and lemons with the sugar,
and let them stand for.an hour. Strain through a wire sieve,
add the water, and freeze.
CURRANT AND RASPBERRY ICE.
Make according to the foregoing recipe, but with one quart of
currants and the same of red or white raspberries. The combi-
nation is delicious.
STRAWBERRIES IN AMBUSH.
When a plain custard is frozen pull out the central paddle or
"beater" and fill the space thus left with fine ripe strawberries
that have been thoroughly chilled on the ice, and dredged with
sugar just as they are going into the freezer. Spread frozen
cream over them, replace the top, and pack down the freezer in
rock-salt and fine ice. Leave it thus for two hours, turn out,
and serve.
COFFEE FRAPPE.
To one quart of strong black coffee add four tablespoon fuls of
sugar and a cupful of cream. Pack in a freezer and proceed as
with ice-cream. Serve in glasses.
GINGER ICE-CREAM.
Make a custard as directed for Delmonico Ice-Cream, and,
when half frozen, stir in a cupful of preserved ginger minced
very fine with two tablespoon fuls of syrup from the preserves.
Cover the freezer and freeze until firm.
GINGER ICE
is made by adding the minced preserved ginger to two quarts
of lemon or pineapple ice.
FRUIT DESSERTS.
MELONS.
KEEP on ice until you are ready to serve them. Wipe water-
melons and lay on a large platter with carving-knife at hand.
Wipe "nutmeg" or musk-melons, cut in two, scrape out the
seeds, and put a lump of ice in each half. They are eaten with
fine sugar, with pepper and salt, with a mixture of grated ginger"
and sugar, or without any seasoning other than their own spici-
ness.
APPLES.
Polish and pile in a fruit-dish or basket.
ORANGES.
Send in whole or with the peel half stripped off and curled
up against the fruit, or you may cut them in half crosswise and
serve plain, or with sugar sprinkled thickly over them and a tea-
spoonful of rum or sherry poured on the sugar. When served
thus they are eaten with a spoon.
PEACHES AND PEARS.
Wipe and pile, with bits of ice between, upon a broad dish
or in a basket, with grapes and green leaves.
BLACKBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES, AND RASPBERRIES.
Pick over, capping the strawberries and rejecting unripe or
decayed berries, but never washing them. Water ruins the flavor
irretrievably. Send around " fruit " sugar with the berries, also
cream.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 459
Large strawberries are often served with the stems on and
dipped into sugar by the eater, who holds them by the stem in
doing this. Wash and drain huckleberries and serve with sugar
and cream.
FROSTED CURRANTS.
Whites of two eggs ; four tablespoon fuls of water ; powdered
sugar at discretion.
Select large, fine bunches of currants, dip each in the egg and
water, and then roll in the sugar. Lay on waxed paper to
dry. When all have been treated in this way give the currants
a second dip in the sugar.
BANANAS AND CREAM.
Peel and slice crosswise at table a banana for each saucer,
strew with fine sugar and cover with cream. The bananas
should be ice-cold. They are very nice eaten in this way.
BARTLETT PEARS AND CREAM.
Pare and slice the pears, sugar and cream for each guest as he
is served. Any mild, tender pear can be e*ten with sugar and
cream.
PEACHES AND CREAM.
Peel just before serving the peaches, and if they are to stand
but five minutes, set on ice. Sugar upon the saucer as they are
helped out, and cover with cream.
STRAWBERRIES AND CLARET.
Set the berries in ice until almost frozen. As you serve them,
sprinkle abundantly with sugar, and pour claret over them.
BANANAS AND WINE.
Sprinkle sugar on sliced bananas and pour over them a wine-
glassful of port or sherry. These are very nice.
460 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
TROPICAL SNOW.
Twelve sweet oranges ; one grated cocoanut ; one cupful of
powdered sugar ; four red bananas. Peel and cut the oranges
into small pieces by dividing each lobe crosswise into thirds.
Extract the seeds and put a layer of the fruit in the bottom of a
glass dish. Strew with powdered sugar. Over the layer of or-
anges spread one of cocoanut ; cut the bananas into very thin,
round slices, and lay these, one deep, upon the cocoanut. Re-
peat the order just given until your dish is full and the oranges
and bananas are used up. The top layer must be of cocoanut
sprinkled with powdered sugar and garnished about the base
with slices of banana. Eat soon.
PINEAPPLE AND WINE.
Pineapples cut into dice, mixed with sliced oranges or halved
strawberries, or sliced bananas, sprinkled with sugar and mois-
tened with a couple of tablespoonfuls of sherry or claret, make a
delicious dessert, if served ice-cold.
PINEAPPLE IN THE SHELL.
Cut off the top and lay it aside. Trim the bottom to make it
stand steadily upon a plate. Cut out the inside, leaving a wall
half an inch thick. Pick the part taken out into small bits with
a silver fork. Cut two peeled oranges into small dice, saving all
the juice. Mix with the shredded pineapple, sugar well, put
into a glass jar, and bury in ice for two hours. When you are
ready to serve the fruit fill the shell of the pineapple with this
mixture, pour in a tablespoonful of sherry, put on the top and
send immediately to table.
You may substitute strawberries for oranges.
Or you may serve simply the shredded pineapple with the
wine. In this case, purchase two pineapples. The shredded
contents of two will hardly fill one shell.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 461
AMBROSIA.
Peel and cut into small bits six fine juicy oranges, and lay in a
glass dish alternately with strata of grated cocoanut, strewing
each relay thickly with fruit-sugar. The uppermost layer must be
cocoanut with sugar sifted thickly over it. In helping out the
ambrosia give the guest choice of accompanying nectar in the
shape of a teaspoonful of the best Jamaica rum poured upon each
saucerful, or the same quantity of sherry.
SAVORES.
OUR grandmothers had a fashion of inviting home-people and
guests to take a pickle, a sliver of ham or of salted fish, oftenest of
all, a cracker and a morsel of cheese, " to take the sweet taste out
of the mouth " after dinner. For a like reason modern profess-
ors and amateurs in gastronomic art are bringing into vogue
what, for want of a fitting French phrase, we call "Savories,"
as a sequel to harmonious luncheons and more stately dinners.
Prominent among these stands the genus Cheese, with its
numerous species patrician, middle-class, and plebeian.
"Remember, they say," quotes the author of that graceful
and gracious extravaganza " The Feasts of Autolycus " " Re-
member, they say, ' as well woman with but one eye as a last
course without cheese.' ' Her essay upon "The Indispensable
Cheese" is a prose poem over which the culinary connoisseur
lingers with a tenderly smiling mouth that waters meanwhile.
Another and a homelier proverb says of cheese that " it is war-
ranted to digest everything except itself." This, we take it, ap-
plies to the heavier cheeses, eaten as pieces de resistance at noon-
day dinners and hearty suppers rather than to the delicate
tid-bits that round off course dinners and efface from tongue and
palate the sweet that will be sour presently. Gorgonzola,
Roquefort, and Gruyere demand a degree of education in the
partaker who would appreciate the flavor of each, de Brie and
Camembert must be chosen wisely and eaten sparingly. All are
served with crackers, and as savories demand a touch of piquancy,
there must be a little devilment in this same biscuit or crackers.
Toast and butter saltines, and spread thinly with a coating of
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 463
anchovy paste, caviare, or pate de foie gras, or the butter may
be sprinkled lightly with cayenne, or paprica, then strewed with
grated cheese. Cheese-straws and ramakins may follow a repast
that began with fruit or raw oysters. The sandwich also comes
into service at this stage of the meal.
SAVORY TARTINES.
Cut Boston brown bread thin, buttering it on the loaf, and cut
each slice into two small triangles. Spread one with grated Par-
mesan cheese and sprinkle with cayenne, the other with ancho-
vies rubbed smooth with a little French mustard. Lay them
together, inclosing the mixture.
SWEET PEPPER AND CHEESE TARTINES.
Cut Boston brown bread (buttered) into strips three inches
long and one wide, and cover thickly with cream-cheese or with
Neufchatel. Strew upon the cheese sweet green-peppers, chopped
fine and sprinkled with a few drops of lemon-juice. Close the
strips upon the mixture.
ANCHOVY CROUTONS.
Slice white bread into strips or three-cornered "sippets," and
fry to a pale brown in hot butter. Drain and let them cool sud-
denly that they may be the more crisp. Lay upon one the thin-
nest imaginable slice of cool tomato, a translucent shaving of cu-
cumber, next an anchovy picked into shreds and sprinkled with
paprica and lemon-juice. Press lightly with a silver knife to keep
all in place, and keep cold until served.
SUNNY BITS.
Pick anchovies into shreds, season with paprica, lemon- and
onion-juice, and spread upon thin slices of buttered white bread
or upon heated crackers, also buttered. Cover with yolk of
egg boiled mealy and rubbed to a powder.
464 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
A SCOTCH TID-BIT.
Butter heated "Scotch biscuits" and spread with herring-
roes, seasoned with cayenne or paprica and a few drops of lem-
on-juice. You can substitute pickled shad-roes for the herring,
if you like.
SCOTCH WOODCOCK.
Heat Scotch biscuits (brown crackers known by that name)
very hot, and spread lightly with a mixture made by rubbing to-
gether a tablespoonful of butter with one of anchovy paste and
the same quantity of powdered hard-boiled yolk of egg.
SARDINE CANAPES.
Cut strips or squares of stale bread thin, butter and set in a
quick oven to color lightly. Spread with a mixture of sardines,
skinned and picked fine, then rubbed smooth with butter and
seasoned with lemon-juice, a dash of paprica and a suspicion of
French mustard.
AN ENGLISH SAVORY.
Broil delicate slices of breakfast -bacon, pepper lightly, touc..
yet more coyly with a little made mustard, and lay each slice
between two slices of Graham bread, cut thin and buttered.
A CHICAGO SAVORY.
Carve cold corned beef so thin that it curls in following the
knife. Each piece should be a translucent shaving. Arrange
upon a bed of water-cresses and serve. Each person transfers a
dainty shaving and a sprig of cress with thumb and finger from
dish to plate.
A VIRGINIA POUSSE-CAFE.
Slice cold ham as directed in the foregoing recipe, and curl
the slices upon small crisp lettuce-leaves. Serve a leaf and a
curl of pink ham upon each cool individual plate and send to
table.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 465
STUFFED OLIVES.
With a keen, narrow pen-knife cut the olive in one piece
from the stone, around and around like a thick paring. Fill
the space left by the extraction of the stone with a paste made
by rubbing skinned and boneless sardines smooth with butter,
lemon-juice, and the merest dash of onion-juice. Set the dish
containing them in the ice for at least one hour before serving.
You can buy stuffed olives from the grocers if you would
avoid the trouble of making them. Set the glass dish in which
they are laid upon ice.
MIXED PICKLES.
Line a dish with lettuce or cresses and pile within it tiny
pickled gherkins or cucumbers, olives, pickled limes (small), and
other miniature pickles, keep on ice until very cold and pass at
the conclusion of a hot-weather luncheon or dinner.
BROILED MUSHROOMS.
Peel and stem flat mushrooms, roll in melted butter and broil
quickly. Lay upon thin, crisp slices of toast, each of which has
been wet with a teaspoonful of mingled sherry and lemon-juice.
Pepper and salt the mushrooms while hot. let them and the
toast get very cold, and serve as a savory.
30
SANDWICHES.
HAM SANDWICHES.
MINCE the ham very fine, putting the fat with the lean.
Work into this a suspicion of made mustard, and spread it upon
white buttered bread. Always cut the crust from the bread
unless it is very soft.
CHICKEN SANDWICHES.
Mince cold boiled or roast chicken fine, season it with pepper
and salt to taste, and stir it to a paste with a little melted
butter. Spread this upon thin white or brown bread, buttered
and cut as directed above.
CHEAP CHICKEN-AND-HAM SANDWICHES.
When chickens are scarce and dear, buy for forty cents a can
of boned chicken; mince and mix with a like quantity of
chopped ham, seasoning with pepper, and adding a little melted
butter. This will make two dozen large sandwiches.
ROLL SANDWICHES.
Take finger-rolls that are at least half a day old. Cut them
in two, lengthwise. Scoop out the crumbs and fill the hollow
thus left with chicken, tongue, or ham. Tie the two halves
together with a narrow ribbon. It is a pretty idea to indicate
the filling used by different colored ribbons. Thus, the tongue
sandwiches may be tied with a red ribbon, the ham with pink,
and the chicken with light yellow.
Almost any sort of filling that is good in other sandwiches
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 467
may be used for rolls. The old method of laying slices of meat
between the sides of biscuit or pieces of bread makes graceful
eating extremely difficult, and it is always best to chop the fill-
ing for all meat sandwiches.
SARDINE SANDWICHES,
Lay the sardines upon tissue-paper for a few minutes to free
them from the oil in which they come. Reject all bits of skin
or bone, and break the sardines to bits with a fork. Work into
them a little melted butter and a few drops of lemon -juice, and
spread them upon buttered bread or rolls.
EGG SANDWICHES.
Boil several eggs hard, rub the yolks to a powder, and chop
the whites to extreme fineness. Mix yolks and whites to a paste
with mayonnaise dressing or melted butter, season to taste, and
spread upon brown or white bread.
EGG-AND-ANCHOVY SANDWICHES.
Mix two anchovies fine and add them to your egg-paste.
Spread rolls or biscuit with this. Anchovy paste also makes a
good filling for sandwiches and is excellent to spread thinly upon
buttered crackers.
LOBSTER-MAYONNAISE SANDWICHES.
Chop cold boiled lobster fine and moisten it with a thick
mayonnaise dressing. Select white bread, a day old, butter each
slice on the loaf, and cut very thin. Spread one slice with the
lobster mixture and lay another slice over it. Do not have the
sandwich the size of the whole slice, but cut it into squares, ob-
longs, or triangles that are easily managed. Salmon mayonnaise
or chicken mayonnaise sandwiches are also very good.
CHEESE-AND-LETTUCE SANDWICHES (VERY GOOD).
Cut Boston brown bread into thin slices, butter one of these
lightly, and spread it with Neufchatel or Philadelphia cream-
468 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
cheese. On this lay a leaf of lettuce which has been dipped for
a moment in French salad dressing. Place another slice of but-
tered brown bread upon this and cut the round into three triangu-
lar sandwiches. Water-cress may be used in place of lettuce.
FRENCH SANDWICHES,
Mince and mix a quarter of a pound of tongue and the same
of ham to a paste with two tablespoonfuls of butter and three
minced truffles. Season with paprica, a few drops of lemon-juice,
and five drops of onion-juice. Spread between thin slices of
bread, laying a few water-cress leaves upon the mixture in each
before enclosing between the two slices.
SAVORY SANDWICHES,
Mix a cupful of chopped chicken, a generous slice of boiled
ham (minced), three tablespoonfuls of butter, half a teaspoonful
of mace, and a few drops of onion-juice into a soft paste with a
few spoonfuls of oyster-liquor. Set in a saucepan of boiling
water and stir until smokirig-hot. Set aside to get cold, and
spread between thin slices of Graham bread.
TONGUE SANDWICHES.
Mix a cupful of finely chopped tongue with half as much boiled
ham, stir in three tablespoonfuls of melted butter beaten light
with as much salad oil, half a teaspoonful of made mustard, and
a quarter of a teaspoonful of paprica. When the mixture is
smooth and light set in a saucepan of boiling water over the fire
and cook until it is thoroughly heated. Beat in the yolk of a
whipped egg, take from the fire and set by until perfectly cold.
Spread between thin slices of bread.
MAYONNAISE SANDWICHES.
Mix together a cupful of cold minced chicken and a dozen
champignons, chopped fine ; season with salt and paprica and
beat into the mixture a cupful of good mayonnaise dressing.
Cut thin rounds of bread and spread this mixture between them.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 469
CREAM-CHEESE SANDWICHES.
Rub together half a Philadelphia cream -cheese, a tablespoonful
of butter, the powdered yolks of two hard-boiled eggs; season
with salt and paprica and spread this between crackers sal tines,
ur water-thin biscuits, or "sea-foams."
Home-made cottage cheese can be substituted for the Phila-
delphia.
PIQUANT SANDWICHES.
Cut bread very thin, buttering it lightly on the loaf. Upon
each slice spread a filling made by mixing three hard-boiled eggs,
minced extremely fine, with half their bulk of sharp green pickle
chopped equally small. Season this compound with salt and
pepper to taste, and work in a little butter. Lay another thin
slice of bread, buttered side down, over this, and cut them into
square and triangular sandwiches.
CELERY SANDWICHES.
With a sharp knife cut white tender celery into bits a quar-
ter of an inch long until you have a cupful. Mix with it two
minced eggs that have been boiled twenty-five minutes, then left
in cold water until they have cooled to the heart. Chop them
fine and rub through a coarse sieve, work up well with the celery
and beat in two tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise dressing. Spread
between thin slices of buttered bread.
LETTUCE SANDWICHES.
Cut thin slices from the end of a loaf of Graham bread, but-
tering before slicing. Cut these into rounds with a cake-
cutter. Spread each slice with mayonnaise dressing and enclose
between every two a leaf of crisp "heart " lettuce. Trim off
the projecting edges of the leaves.
CRESS SANDWICHES
are made in the same way.
470 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
TUTTI-FRUTTI SANDWICHES.
Chop together a quarter of a pound each of crystallized cher-
ries, peaches, and apricots, or other tart fruit. Wet the paste
with a tablespoonful of wild-cherry liquor and spread between
buttered water-thin biscuits.
Pass with lemonade or claret cup at afternoon receptions as a
variation upon the everlasting cake and wine, cake and cream,
cake and coffee.
RAISIN SANDWICHES.
Seed and mince fine layer raisins ; moisten with wine, and
spread between thin biscuits, buttered.
WALNUT-AND-CHEESE SANDWICHES.
Chop a cupful of English walnuts, or hickory-nut meats, fine,
mix with one-fourth the quantity of cream -cheese ; salt to taste
and spread between thin slices of buttered Boston brown bread.
SAUSAGE SANDWICHES.
Cook link sausages in enough water to cover them until the
water, evaporating, leaves them dry. Let them get cold, cut
crosswise into the thinnest possible slices. Slice Graham bread
thin when you have buttered it on the loaf, lay upon each slice
a lettuce-leaf, then a slice of sausage, then a mere wafer of cu-
cumber-pickle, put another buttered slice over this, and you
have a relishful sandwich for a winter's afternoon tea or a supper.
BEEF SANDWICHES.
Season a cupful of rare roast beef, chopped fine, with a little
celery-salt, a teaspoonful of tomato catsup, half as much Worces-
tershire sauce, ten drops of onion-juice, and a scant tablespoon-
ful of melted butter.
Mix well and spread between thin slices of buttered bread.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MUTTON SANDWICHES.
Season a cupful of finely chopped rare mutton with salt, to-
mato catsup, and paprica. Chop a tablespoonful of capers fine
and mix with four tablespoon fuls of mayonnaise dressing. Spread
thin slices of bread with this mixture and enclose a layer of the
mutton between every two slices thus prepared.
They are convenient and nice for picnics.
SUPPER CHEESE SANDWICHES,
Cut thin slices of rather stale bread into rounds with a biscuit-
cutter. Work grated American cheese to a paste with a very
little good stock chicken, if you have it ; season with salt and
cayenne. Cut thin slices of buttered bread into rounds with a
cake-cutter, spread with the paste, press firmly together, and
fry them in nice hot dripping or in half butter, half cottolene.
Drain and serve hot. They are very savory.
BEVERAGES.
COFFEE.
BUY none except the very best coffee. A mixture of Mocha
and Java in equal proportions is perhaps the most popular with
good judges of the beverage.
" Coffee," says the dietetist whom we have quoted so often in
these pages, " owes its stimulant effect of the circulatory and
nervous systems to the theime (or caffeine) and aromatic oil
present. In order that coffee may be enjoyed in perfection,
not only must it be free from admixture with the cheap and mis-
erable adulterants commonly stated to improve its taste, but it
must be freshly roasted to the right extent, freshly ground, and
so made into a beverage that its soluble constituents are extract-
ed without dissipating the aroma. ' '
Soyer, the distinguished French cook, contended that coffee
should never be boiled. He was as strenuous in insisting that it
must always be run twice (at least) through the strainer or filter
attached to the French "biggin" or coffee-pot. When made,
the coffee should be clear, bright, and have almost the color of
strong old brandy.
BREAKFAST COFFEE.
A half-pint of ground coffee ; a quart of freshly boiled water.
It must be on the active boil. Put the coffee into the filter, or
strainer, set the pot on the side of the range and pour the water
(measured) from a boiling kettle into the upper strainer, until
the whole quart is in. Wait until it has filtered through, when
pour through the spout of the lower pot into a saucepan or other
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 473
hot vessel, and run it again through the filter. Do this three
times, let the coffee-pot stand for three or four minutes in boiling
water to make it scalding-hot, and serve by pouring it into a
heated silver pot or directly into hot cups. It must not boil
after it is made.
BLACK, OR AFTER-DINNER COFFEE.
One cupful of freshly ground coffee ; three large cupfuls of
freshly boiled water. Make as directed in last recipe, running
through the filter three times. Serve in small cups, and give the
drinkers their choice of sugar or no sugar.
Black coffee is a good digestive agent and is far more whole-
some than coffee mixed with cream or milk.
CAFE AU LAIT.
One-half cupful of ground coffee; two cupfuls of boiling
water ; one cupful and a half of fresh milk.
Make the coffee in the usual way. Strain into a coffee-pot or
pitcher, add the milk, scalding-hot, and set for five minutes,
closely covered, in boiling water.
When allowed to cool and then iced this is a favorite bever-
age at hot-weather luncheons and picnics.
TEA.
Directions for making this have already been given in full in
the FAMILIAR TALK on " Tea, Tea- Making, and Tea- Drink
ing"
CHOCOLATE.
Allow to six tablespoon fuls of grated chocolate a pint of boil-
ing water, and as much milk. Rub the chocolate to a paste
with a little cold water, and stir into the hot water. Boil twenty
minutes; add the milk and boil ten minutes longer, stirring
often. Sweeten in the cups. It is improved by laying upon
the surface of each cup a teaspoonful of cream.
474 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MILLED CHOCOLATE.
When the chocolate has boiled twenty minutes, and before the
milk goes in, take it from the fire and with it more than half fill
one of Silver's tall glass egg-beaters which has been prepared for
the scalding liquid by dipping and rinsing it in hot water.
Churn vigorously for five minutes, return to the saucepan and
set in hot water while you "mill" the rest, if you have too
much for the churn. Add the hot milk and cook for five min-
utes after the chocolate reaches the boil.
Milling makes the beverage lighter in color and in weight,
and is thought by epicures to render it far more delicate and
delicious. Put a heaping teaspoonful of whipped cream upon
each cupful when poured out.
COCOA.
" Cocoa," says a noted writer upon Dietetics, " is, for gen-
eral use, a milder, less stimulating, and more nutritious beverage
than tea or coffee." As it contains fifty per cent, of fat and
twelve per cent, of albuminoids, the chemical analysis bears out
the assertion.
Boil a pint of water, rub three tablespoonfuls of grated cocoa
to a smooth paste with cold water and stir into the hot water.
Boil ten minutes, hard, and pour upon it a pint of hot milk
(with a bit of soda in it). Boil for ten minutes longer, stirring
and beating well. Sweeten in the cups.
COCOA NIBS OR SHELLS.
This is a milder preparation of cocoa. They are called, in-
correctly, "shells," being, in fact, the cocoa seeds dried,
roasted, winnowed from the shells, or husks, and broken into
coarse fragments known as "nibs."
Wet three tablespoonfuls with a little cold water, add to a
pint of boiling ; cook for one hour slowly, strain, and add a
pint of hot milk. Boil one minute and serve.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 475
CAMBRIC TEA.
Put a lump of loaf-sugar in a cup ; fill the cup one-third full
of cream; let it stand a minute to melt the sugar and fill up
with boiling water direct from the kettle. To those whose
nerves forbid the use of tea or coffee, and who do not like choco-
late, this mild, nutritious beverage is cordially commended.
There is no milk-and-water insipidity about it if the cream be
genuine and the water on a fresh, violent boil.
It is especially good for invalids and sickly children.
LEMONADE.
Four lemons, rolled, peeled, and sliced ; four large spoonfuls
of sugar ; one quart of water. Put lemons (sliced) and sugar
into a pitcher and let them stand for an hour, then add water
and ice. If you substitute Apollinaris for plain water you have a
most refreshing drink.
ORANGEADE.
Make as you would lemonade, but add the juice of a lemon,
a few bits of shredded orange-peel, and a slice of pineapple.
Orangeade is insipidly sweet without these additions.
RASPBERRY OR BLACKBERRY VINEGAR.
Put a gallon of berries into a great crock and crush them well
with a potato-beetle or wooden mallet. Cover an inch deep in
cider- vinegar. Set in the hot sunshine for a day and leave all
night in the cellar. Stir six times during the day of sunning.
Strain and squeeze the berries dry and throw them away. Put
another gallon of mashed berries into the strained vinegar and
leave again in the sun all day and another night in the cellar.
On the morrow strain and squeeze the berries and measure the
liquid thus gained.
For each quart allow a pint of water, and for every pint of the
water thus added, five pounds of sugar (you have then five
pounds of sugar for every three pints of mingled juice, vinegar,
476 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and water). Turn into a porcelain-lined or agate-iron kettle
and set over the fire, stirring until the sugar melts. Heat to
boiling, and boil hard one minute to throw up the scum. Skim
well, take from the fire, strain, and, while still warm, bottle.
Seal the corks with a mixture of beeswax and rosin.
RASPBERRY ROYAL
is made as in the last recipe, but a pint of fine brandy is added
to every three quarts of the raspberry vinegar just before it is
bottled.
BLACKBERRY CORDIAL.
Pound and squeeze enough blackberries through a coarse mus-
lin bag to make a quart of juice. Put this into an agate-iron or
porcelain-lined kettle, with a pound of sugar, two teaspoonfuls
each of grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice, and one tea-
spoonful of cloves. Tie the spices up in little thin muslin bags
and stir the sugar until dissolved. Set over the fire and cook
together, after the boil begins, fifteen minutes. Take off the
scum, turn into a jar, and cover closely while it cools. When
perfectly cold strain out the spices and add a pint of good
brandy. Bottle and seal.
This cordial will keep for years and is valuable in case of sum-
mer complaint and other intestinal disorders.
STRAWBERRY SHERBET.
Crush two quarts of strawberries and strain through muslin
upon a pound of granulated sugar. Set in a cold place, stirring
now and then until the sugar melts. Add then a quart of cold
water, the juice of a lemon, and a tablespoonful of maraschino.
Cover closely and set on ice for an hour or more before you use
it. As it goes to table throw in a handful of fine ripe strawber-
ries capped, that one or two may float in each glass.
PINEAPPLE SHERBET.
To three pints of boiling water add a pound of sugar, and cook
briskly for half an hour. While it is cooking pare a fine pine-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 477
apple and grate or chop it fine. Add four teaspoonfuls of lemon-
juice, and an orange cut into small bits. When the boiled syrup
is cold, pour it upon the pineapple and orange, and bury the
vessel containing the mixture in ice for two hours. When you
are ready to use it, put a big block of ice in a punch-bowl and
pour the mixture over it. Stir into it a wineglassful of sherry,
and if they are in season, a handful of fine strawberries. If not,
cut two dozen white grapes in half, take out the seeds, and put
them in instead.
LARNED TEA SHERBET.
Measure four teaspoonfuls of good tea (" Ceylon-Bud," if you
can get it) into a pitcher, and pour from the boiling kettle a
quart of hot water upon it. Cover it closely and let it stand
five minutes. Strain and set in a cold place until cool. Put a
block of ice into a punch-bowl, and about it a cupful and a half of
granulated sugar, and strain over this five tablespoonfuls of lemon -
juice. Add the tea now, and, just before the sherbet is served, a
pint of Apollinaris water.
A handful of strawberries, or bits of fresh orange-peel, floating
on the surface is a pretty touch which you may add to your
sherbet.
Or
You may mix your sherbet in a pitcher, and fill the mouth of it
with sprays of fresh mint.
ORANGE SHERBET.
Peel away all the rind and the white skin from six fine oranges,
and scrape the pulp away from the inner membranes, saving
every drop of juice. Put pulp and juice into a bowl with six
tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar and the juice of a lemon.
Stir until the sugar is melted, add two tablespoonfuls of pine-
apple dice, very small and thin, and set on ice until needed.
Then put a block of ice into a punch-bowl, pour the mixture
about it, and when you are ready to serve the sherbet add two
bottles of Apollinaris water.
478 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
GINGER-ALE JULEP.
Put a scant cupful of granulated sugar into a glass pitcher, and
squeeze upon it the juice of six large lemons. Set on ice until
the sugar dissolves and you are ready to serve the sherbet. Stick
half a dozen long stalks of mint in the pitcher, bruising the lower
leaves slightly by pinching between the thumb and finger ; put
into the pitcher a cupful of pounded ice ; shake hard for one min-
ute and add two bottles of Ginger Ale. Pour out at once. It
is a most refreshing and delicious drink in hot weather. The
mint sprigs make it comely and graceful.
MINT JULEP.
Pound ice enough to fill as many glasses as there are people to
be served. Into each glass put three or four sprigs of green
mint and two lumps of sugar. Fill the glass with ice, stir, press,
and shake until the sugar is dissolved ; pour in, then, enough
water to fill the interstices of the ice within an inch of the top,
stir up the sugar, and add a tablespoonful of the best old whiskey.
Stir this in, and the julep is ready for drinking.
This is the real old Virginia " hail-storm " julep, compounded
and drunk with gusto and comparative impunity in a day when
liquors were pure, and men knew the true meaning of temper-
ance. Now the best place for the fragrant stimulant is the sick-
room, where it does good service.
CLARET CUP.
Squeeze the juice of three lemons upon four tablespoonfuls of
sugar ; add a pint of ice-water ; stir well and pour upon a block of
ice set in a punch-bowl. Peel and slice a lemon as thin as paper,
and float these slices with a few shreds of orange-peel upon the
water before emptying a quart bottle of claret into the bowl.
SHERRY COBBLER.
Put four tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar into a pitcher and
cover it with a lemon, peeled and sliced very thin, also a peeled
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 479
orange cut into tiny bits, and a good tablespoonful of minced
pineapple. Add two cupfuls of pounded ice, cover the pitcher,
and shake hard for a full minute, or until the ingredients are
well mixed. Pour in a pint of ice-water, stir for a minute, and
add four wineglassfuls of good sherry or Catawba. Stir up vig-
orously, and pour out.
Some epicures add a handful of strawberries and two or three
slices of cucumber to the cobbler.
SAUTERNE CUP.
Put four tablespoonfuls of sugar into a bowl, strain over it
five tablespoonfuls of lemon-juice, and set on ice for an hour.
Stir well and mix into the syrup a tablespoonful of pineapple-
dice, a handful of strawberries, or of white grapes, seeded and
halved, and a few thin slices of cucumber. Empty a quart
bottle of Sauterne upon the mixture ; pour over a block of ice
into a punch-bowl, and add a bottle of soda-water that has been
on the ice for several hours. A few leaves of citron-aloes or
lemon-verbena are sometimes laid upon the surface of Sauterne
Cup.
EGG-NOGG.
Beat the yolks of six eggs light, and then with them half a cup-
ful of granulated sugar ; pour upon and mix with them a quart
of milk; mix well and add half a pint of fine old brandy.
Finally, whip in the whites of three eggs. The rest of the whites
must be beaten to a meringue with a tablespoonful of powdered
sugar, and a large spoonful laid upon the surface of each tumbler
of egg-nogg as it is poured out.
MILK SHAKE.
Put a teaspoonful of sugar in the bottom of a half-pint tumbler
and pour upon it milk enough to fill the glass to within an inch
of the top. Stir to dissolve the sugar, flavor with a teaspoonful
of maraschino or other liquor ; put a tablespoonful of whipped
cream upon the surface of the milk ; cover the tumbler with a
piece of clean white paper, put your hand firmly upon it to pre-
480 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
vent the escape of a drop of milk, and shake hard up and down
for a full minute. Grate a little nutmeg on top and drink, or
serve. It is nourishing and palatable for an invalid.
A useful utensil for shaking the milk may be purchased at
house-furnishing stores.
WILD-CHERRY BOUNCE.
Pick over and wash wild cherries and pack in small glass jars,
strewing sugar over each layer and pounding them hard with a
small stick to bruise them and allow the juice to escape. Allow
five tablespoonfuls of sugar to each quart jar. When the cher-
ries and sugar are well mixed and fill the jar, pour in as much
good brandy or whiskey as can find room for itself between fruit
and sugar. It will be gradually soaked up. Return to each jar
until the contents of all are saturated, and the liquor stands on
top. Screw on covers, and do not trouble yourself to think of
the bounce again for four months. Turn out the contents then
into a bowl, pound and crush them with a potato-beetle, and
strain and squeeze a cupful at a time through a coarse cloth.
You have now a fine liquor, palatable and highly medicinal as a
tonic and a corrective to coughs. The liquor will improve with
age and keep for years.
HOME-MADE CANDIES.
CHOCOLATE CARAMELS.
PUT on the fire in a saucepan two pounds of brown sugar,
half a pound of Baker's Chocolate, broken into small pieces, and a
small cupful of cold water. Boil this until a little of it hardens
in water, stir into it two tablespoonfuls of butter and two tea-
spoonfuls of vanilla, turn into buttered pans and cut into squares.
If you like the sugary, soft caramels, stir the mixture hard for
several minutes after you take it from the fire ; but should you
prefer the sticky variety, add four tablespoonfuls of molasses to
your sugar when you put it on to cook, and do not stir it after it
leaves the stove.
CHOCOLATE CREAMS.
To the white of an egg, mixed with as much water, add
enough confectioner's sugar to make a dough-like paste that can
be worked with the fingers into small balls. Grate six table-
spoonfuls of sweetened chocolate, melt it, without water, in a
cup on the stove, and when smooth and thick dip your balls of
sugar- paste into it and then let them dry on waxed paper. They
may have to be dipped several times before they are satisfactory.
MAPLE-SUGAR CANDY. (No. J.)
Take two pounds of maple sugar, broken into small pieces,
and put it in a saucepan with a quart of rich milk part cream is
better. Let this boil until it reaches the stage where it hardens
in cold water ; pour it into pans, and mark it in squares as you
would taffy or caramels.
3'
482 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MAPLE-SUGAR CANDY. (No. 2.)
One pound of maple sugar ; one pint of milk ; one tablespoon -
ful of butter. Break the sugar into small pieces and put it into a
double boiler with the milk. Put it on the stove and cook until the
sugar melts. Set the inner vessel of the double boiler directly
on the stove and boil, stirring constantly, until the syrup reaches
the stage where a little dropped in cold water becomes brittle.
Add your butter then, and when this is melted turn the syrup
into greased pans. As it cools, mark it off in squares with a
knife.
NOUGAT.
The simplest, if perhaps the least scientific, way to make this
is the following :
Boil together a pound of sugar and half a cupful of cold
water until a little of it becomes brittle when dropped in cold
water. Do not stir it after the sugar melts. Butter a shallow
tin a biscuit-pan will answer and cover the bottom closely
with blanched almonds, the kernels of hickory, pecan, and
hazel nuts, thin strips of cocoanut, split and stoned dates,
bits of figs, etc. When the candy is done add to it a table-
spoonful of lemon-juice, and pour it over your nuts and fruits.
Mark it into strips or squares when cool.
FRENCH BON-BONS.
Make a paste of sugar and water as described in the recipe for
Chocolate Creams. Divide it into as many portions as you
wish flavors, and add to one grated and melted chocolate to
taste, to another a drop or two of essence of rose and a little
powdered cochineal, moistened in cold water, to a third a few
drops of coffee essence, or of rum, or of strawberry or other fruit
syrup. Or you may make a fondant like that for Boiled Icing
(see recipe), and melting that over boiling water, proceed as
directed above with flavoring and coloring.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 483
CREAM PEPPERMINTS OR W4TERGREENS.
Make a fondant as for Boiled Icing (see recipe), stir until it
begins to become creamy, and drop from a teaspoon upon waxed
paper.
MAPLE CREAM.
Proceed as in preceding recipe, using maple sugar instead of
the plain white sugar.
STUFFED DATES.
Remove the stone and put in its place a bit of fondant, or,
better still, a peanut or a blanched almond and dust with fine
sugar.
CANNED FRUITS.
THERE is a general opinion that " canned goods" bought
from a trustworthy grocer are at once as good and cheaper than
those put up at home. This is a great mistake quite as errone-
ous as the idea that baker's sponge cake is the same article as
the golden, porous, home-made loaf, composed of pure sugar,
fresh eggs, with no soda and no ammonia.
Much of the general prejudice against fruit and vegetables put
up in cans is consequent upon the fact that many housewives
know them only as the insipid products of factories that line the
windows of the corner grocery. But even with this class there
are brands and brands. Certain houses have a well-deserved
reputation for putting on the market fruits carefully selected and
preserved with a just regard to quality and flavor.
These goods, it may be remarked, are never cheap, although
they may be well worth all the money asked for them. The
housekeeper of moderate means considers them altogether too
expensive for family use perhaps
Too sweet and good
For human nature's daily food,
especially when the boys and girls, with school-children's appe-
tites, will consume the contents of a large can at one repast,
and then, like the glutton of nursery rhyme, complain that they
have not yet attained the end of their capacity in that line. The
mother of such a flock is forced to content herself with what she
can afford, although it be a second-rate article.
It does not occur to her that, unless her time has a specific
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 48$
market value, and her strength be rated according to the same
standard, she may stock the pantries in the fruit season with
what will vie with the finest brands offered by high-priced gro-
cers.
To many people the very mention of canned goods is produc-
tive of a disgustful qualm for have we not all been obliged to
partake of them, or at least been expected to accept them, at
summer hotels and boarding-houses, on steamboats, and railroad
trains, where they furnish, day after day, the chief dessert ?
Peaches and apricots thus offered have the same faint, sickly
sweetness, and can hardly be distinguished the one from the
other, while berries are only recognizable among the larger
fruits by their shape and seeds. The only use to which these
apologies for the genuine article maybe put is to "doctor"
them for pies and puddings, and even then they will be much
improved by being boiled down and sweetened according to
taste.
Before proceeding to the method of preparing the materials, let
us consider the can question. Shall it be tin or glass ? If you
ask my opinion I should say glass decidedly. Of course they
are more expensive in the beginning, but they are cheaper in the
long run, for, if carefully used for half a dozen seasons, when the
seventh summer approaches they are still there and ready to do
service again. I do not think that I strain a point in saying
that there is no place on this broad, green earth for old tin cans.
In every community, from the tiny hut to the fashionable sum-
mer hotel, from the crowded tenement-house to the palatial
brown-stone front, the tin can is the one indestructible piece of
rubbish. The scavenger cart is loaded with them. In the coun-
try an occasional small boy uses an empty " tomayto can " for
" worms for bait." But were there a small boy for every old
tin can, the danger predicted by Malthus of over-population
would be imminent.
There is a popular superstition to the effect that this blemish
upon the fair face of nature is an article of diet for the omnivo-
rous goat, but while we do not question his capacity to acquire
486 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
adipose tissue from a frugal regimen of newspapers and old shoes,
we doubt if even his digestive juices could extract nutriment
from the tin can.
Let us, then, refuse to make use of the plebeian article, and
fasten our faith to the quart and pint glass jars, always making
sure that tops and rubbers are in good condition and laid ready
to the hand, that they may be adjusted the very second the
glasses are filled. Do not attempt to use the same rubbers year
after year, but purchase new ones each season, that you may be
sure they are firm and strong, and will preclude all air.
In canning there are certain principles which our housewife
should bear in mind, and one of them is that the work must be un-
dertaken when articles to be put up are at the height of the season
in the part of the country in which she lives. The reasons for
this are self-evident, as then the fruit is not forced, but has
ripened naturally, and has not been bruised by transportation
from the South, and, above all, is fresh. It is a great mistake to
think of buying bruised or green peaches, apples, etc., for can-
ning. They may be cooked, sweetened, and boiled down into
marmalade or jellies, but for present purpose your fruit must be
as carefully picked as if intended for eating from the hand.
The peeling of pears, apples, and peaches is an art in itself,
and should be performed with a sharp knife. Handle lightly,
not to bruise, and throw whole fruits into ice-water as soon as the
skin is removed, and peaches when they are halved and the
stones taken out. This serves to retain their original color and
prevents the unsightly " browning " so often seen when this
precaution is neglected.
Plums require no peeling, but they must be carefully selected,
that no b&uised ones are used.
CANNED PEACHES,
To each quart of fruit allow a heaping tablespoonful of granu-
lated sugar. Pour a little water into your kettle to prevent the
contents from burning, then put in a layer of peaches, a sprink-
ling of sugar, another layer of peaches, more sugar, and so on
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 487
until the kettle is full. Bring slowly to a boil, which may con-
tinue for three minutes. Can and seal.
CANNED PEARS OR APPLES.
If your fruit be tough, boil it in water uniil tender. But, as a
rule, this is unnecessary, and may be avoided by buying tender
fruit to begin with. Make a syrup of a pint of water and a quar-
ter of a pound of sugar for every quart of fruit. When this is hot,
drain the cold water in which they were laid after peeling, from
the pears or apples, and drop them carefully, one by one, into
the now boiling syrup, and cook until they can be readily pierced
with a fork. Your cans, meanwhile, should be lying in hot
water, from which you may now remove them, and fill them with
the pears. This done, pour in the syrup until the jars are full to
the brim, and fit on the tops and rubbers immediately.
CANNED PLUMS.
Twelve quarts of greengage plums ; one pint of water ; one
pound of sugar. Put the sugar and water on the stove in the
preserving kettle. Prick each plum with a needle to prevent
bursting, and as soon as the sugar is dissolved, turn the fruit into
the kettle. Heat very slowly to a boil, and cook for five min-
utes. Fill the jars to the rims with the plums alone, pour over
them the scalding liquid until full to overflowing. Purple plums
may be canned in the same way.
CANNED TOMATOES.
Loosen the skins from your tomatoes by pouring boiling water
over them, when you may easily peel them. This done, drain off
all the liquid, lay them gently, not to break them, in the kettle,
and heat to the boiling-point. Take them from the stove and
rub smooth through a colander. Return to the fire, boil for ten
minutes, drain off the surplus juice, pack the tomatoes, still boil-
ing hot, into the cans, fill with the juice, and seal immediately.
488 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CORN
is exceedingly difficult to can, and is so likely to spoil that I do
not give directions for its preparation. But it may be put up
with tomatoes, according to the following recipe :
CANNED TOMATOES AND CORN.
Boil the corn on the cob for twenty minutes, and cut off while
hot. Scald the skin from your tomatoes, and rub to a pulp. To
every one part of cut corn add two of tomatoes. Salt to taste,
boil hard for a moment, and can. Keep in a cool, dark place.
After many experiments I have discovered only one way to
prevent the accumulation of a sticky moisture on the outside of
preserve jars.
In the first place the housekeeper must herself (no hireling will
do it properly) wash each jar in a separate water. This is
troublesome and tedious, but well worth the pains, and is the
only way to have the glass completely clean. Keep your cans
in a closet or pantry that is not only dark and cool, but through
which a current of air may pass. Ventilation of this sort is the
only cure for the condensation of moisture. I have tried keeping
preserves in a large, dark, cool closet, and had them " sweat ; "
while in a room in which there was a door and a window, both
of which were frequently thrown open, they remained clean and
dry. M. H.
FRUIT JELLIES.
With but a few exceptions, noted below, the rule for all fruit
jellies is substantially the same. The directions given, if fol-
lowed closely, cannot fail to produce a clear, sparkling jelly. If
it should after strict adherence to the recipe prove watery, the
fault is in the fruit, not in the method or the maker. Thin
liquid jellies can often be brought to greater firmness if the filled
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 489
glasses are allowed to stand in the hot sun for a season. Some-
times three or four hours will suffice, at other times as many days
may be required. Not until the jelly is at least comparatively
firm should it be covered with waxed or brandied tissue-paper,
and sealed from the air.
CURRANT JELLY.
Select currants that are not over-ripe for this, and put them
into a stone crock. Set it in an outer vessel of hot water, bring
gradually to a boil, and cook until the fruit is so broken that
the jelly flows freely. Squeeze the fruit, a small amount at
a time, in a jelly-bag or fruit-press and measure the juice.
Allow to each pint of this a pound of white sugar. Place the
juice on the fire in the preserving kettle and bring rapidly to a
boil. Put the sugar into shallow pans, and set in the oven,
stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When the juice has
boiled twenty minutes, skim it, turn in the sugar, stir until it
has dissolved and come back to the boil ; boil one minute and
take from the fire. Fill your jelly-glasses at once, setting each
on a wet cloth to prevent cracking. A spoon placed in the
glass is also a safeguard. The jelly will harden quickly. As
soon as it is firm, spread the top with brandied tissue-paper, and
screw on the cover.
STRAWBERRY, BLACKBERRY, AND GRAPE JELLY
may be made by the same recipe.
CRAB-APPLE JELLY.
Quarter, without peeling or coring, ripe crab-apples. Put
on the stove in a preserving kettle and allow them to heat
slowly. If the apples are very dry you may add a little water,
not quite enough to cover the fruit. Boil slowly until the
apples are tender and broken to pieces. Put it into a flannel
bag, a little at a time, and allow the juice to drop through.
Squeezing the pulp will make the jelly cloudy. Measure the
juice and proceed exactly as with currant jelly.
49 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
APPLE JELLY
may be made by the same recipe from any tart, juicy apple.
PEACH JELLY
This is made like apple jelly, except that the stones are re-
moved, a dozen or so of them cracked, and the kernels of these
added to the stewing fruit. When the liquid is strained and
measured, add a tablespoonful of lemon-juice to each pint of the
jelly and then proceed as with other jellies, allowing, as usual, a
pound of sugar to a pint of the juice.
QUINCE JELLY
may be made like apple jelly, although a commoner and more
economical fashion is to use only the peelings and cores for this
purpose, reserving the choice parts of the fruit for preserving.
FRUIT-JAMS, MARMALADES, ETC
RASPBERRY JAM.
Six pounds of berries ; four and one-half pounds of sugar.
Crush the berries with a wooden spoon, and put pulp and
juice in a preserving kettle. After they boil, cook steadily half
an hour, stirring often. Add the sugar, cook twenty minutes
longer, and put boiling hot into jars. If there is a great deal of
juice, dip out part of it, and make jelly of it or reserve it for
raspberry vinegar. Either black or red raspberries may be used
for this, but the latter are especially delicious.
BLACKBERRY OR STRAWBERRY JAM
may be made by the same recipe.
GOOSEBERRY JAM.
Six pounds of ripe gooseberries ; four pounds of sugar.
Stem and top the gooseberries, and boil one hour in a pre-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 491
serving kettle, watching closely that the fruit does not scorch.
Stir often. If the juice increases very rapidly, dip out some of
it. When the fruit has boiled an hour add the sugar, and cook
an hour longer. Put the jam boiling hot into glass tumblers or
small jars and seal. The extra juice from this makes a delicious
tart jelly, almost equal to currant for serving with meats and
game.
DAMSON JAM.
Stone damsons, weigh them, and stew for twenty minutes.
Add then half a pound of sugar for every pound of fruit and
cook together slowly an hour longer, or until the jam is of the
desired consistency. Put up hot in small jars.
PEACH MARMALADE.
To each pound of the peeled and stoned peaches allow three-
quarters of a pound of sugar. Put the fruit on by itself and let
it heat slowly, stirring frequently, that it may not burn. When
it has boiled three-quarters of an hour add the sugar and boil five
minutes, skimming constantly. To every two pounds of fruit
add then the kernels of half a dozen peach-stones, chopped fine,
and the juice of a lemon. Cook ten minutes longer and put in
small jars or jelly -glasses.
APRICOT MARMALADE
may be made by the same recipe as Peach Marmalade.
ORANGE MARMALADE.
Slice very thin and seed twenty-four small, well - flavored
oranges, or twelve large ones, and two lemons. Measure, and if
there is less than six pints of juice, add enough water to reach
this amount. Some persons consider that it improves the flavor
of the marmalade to slice one grape-fruit with this number of
oranges. Let the fruit stand in a covered earthen jar or bowl
for several hours or overnight. Heat it slowly in a preserving
492 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
kettle and simmer gently until the orange-peel is tender. Stir in
then six pounds of granulated sugar (this is allowing a pound of
the sugar to a pint of the juice) and boil until the skin looks
clear and the marmalade is jelly-like. Test it by cooling a little
in a saucer to see if it has reached the right stage. Let it cool
before putting it up in glasses as you would jelly.
SPICED CURRANTS.
Five pounds of stemmed currants; four pounds of sugar; one
pint of vinegar ; two tablespoonfuls of cloves ; two tablespoon-
fuls of cinnamon.
Put on the fire together and cook half an hour after they come
to a boil. Put up in jars or jelly -glasses.
SPICED CHERRIES.
Stem and stone the cherries before weighing them and pro-
ceed as with Spiced Currants.
SPICED GRAPES.
Pulp and seed the grapes before weighing and prepare by the
recipe given for Spiced Currants.
SPICED TOMATOES.
Seven pounds of peeled and sliced tomatoes ; four pounds of
granulated sugar ; one ounce each of whole cloves, cinnamon,
and allspice ; half a nutmeg, grated ; one pint of vinegar.
Boil the vinegar and spice together for ten minutes, put in the
tomatoes, and cook slowly until the mixture is thick. Keep in
sealed jars.
SPICED CANTELOPES.
These may be made by the same recipe. The cantelope must
be cut into strips and the seeds and rind removed before it is
weighed. It must cook in the spiced vinegar until tender enough
to be pierced with a straw.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 493
PRESERVED FRUITS*
For some years it seemed as though canned fruits would event-
ually supersede preserves. Their novelty tickled the fancy of
many people, and to others the cheapness of canning and the
small amount of labor it involved as compared with the lengthy
process of preserving, commended the simpler operation. The
old-fashioned " pound-for-pound " preserves were seen only on
the shelves of the Women's Exchanges, where they found a mar-
ket among a limited class of dainty-lovers, and on the table of
the conservative housewife (generally a Southern woman) who
preferred " good old ways " of cooking to any innovations.
Of late, canned fruits have rather declined in popularity.
They have become too cheap to be a luxury, and even those
whose voices were at first loudest in their praise are forced to
own that the canned fruits are insipid compared with those pre-
served in a rich syrup. The latter are undoubtedly more costly
and more difficult to prepare. On the other hand, they are
eaten less freely than canned fruit, and there can be no question
that they are infinitely more agreeable to the palate.
In the recipes given below there has been no effort at a com-
promise with economy. Good preserves are always expensive,
and those who desire the luxury of having them upon their tables
must be prepared to pay for it.
PRESERVED PEACHES.
Peel and stone firm white peaches, and weigh them. To each
pound of the fruit allow a pound of granulated sugar. Spread a
layer of this on the bottom of a preserving kettle, cover it with
a layer of fruit and proceed with sugar and fruit in alternate
strata until all are used up. Put the kettle at the side of the
stove where it will heat slowly. A pleasant flavor is given by
straining into the sugar, when it is melted, a small cupful of
water in which have been steeped and boiled the crushed kernels
of two dozen peach-stones.
494 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Let the peaches stew in the syrup until they are clear and ten-
der half an hour should suffice take them out with a perforated
skimmer, and lay on flat dishes, arranging them so that they will
not crowd one another. Let the syrup boil fast for fifteen min-
utes, or until clear and thick, skimming it frequently. Fill wide-
mouthed jars nearly full of the peaches, pour in the boiling syrup,
and close the jars.
PRESERVED APRICOTS.
Put up by the same recipe as Preserved Peaches.
PRESERVED PEARS.
Peel without stemming the pears, and proceed as with Pre-
served Peaches.
PRESERVED PLUMS.
Select firm and perfect plums, prick each with a large needle,
and weigh the fruit. Allow a pound of sugar and a pint of
water to a pound of fruit, and make a syrup of the sugar and
water. Let this boil until it is clear, removing all the scum that
rises to the surface. When the syrup is quite clear drop in the
plums, putting in only as many as the kettle can easily hold, and
cook twenty minutes. Remove with a perforated skimmer and
spread out in plates to cool. Proceed thus with each kettleful
until all are done. Put the plums in small jars, pour over them
the boiling syrup, and seal.
Greengages, purple, red, and yellow plums may be put up by
this recipe.
PRESERVED QUINCES.
Peel, core, and quarter firm quinces, weigh them, and put them
in a preserving kettle with barely water enough to cover them
and stew slowly until they are soft. Before they begin to break
take them out with a perforated spoon and lay the pieces care-
fully, side by side, upon flat dishes. To the liquor left in the ket-
tle add a pound of sugar for each pound of the fruit. Bring it to
a boil, skim it, and when it has boiled fifteen or twenty minutes,
put in the quinces. Cook fifteen minutes after the syrup again
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK ' 495
boils, and proceed as with preserved peaches. The skins and
cores of the quinces make excellent jelly.
PRESERVED PINEAPPLE.
Pare, core, cut into slices, and proceed as with Preserved
Peaches.
PRESERVED WATERMELON OR CITRON RIND.
Remove the green outer peel of the melon, and scrape away
the soft inner part. Cut the rind into strips or fancy " shapes "
and steam it for three hours in a closely covered preserving kettle,
lining this and covering the rind with grape-leaves (if you can
get them). In any case scatter a little powdered alum over each
layer of citron. Two teaspoonfuls will be enough for the whole
kettleful. There should be enough water put in to just cover
the rind.
When this has steamed for three hours, take it out and throw
it at once into very cold water. Let it soak for four hours,
changing the water four times.
Make a syrup of a quart of water and two pounds and a half
of granulated sugar, boiling and skimming it until the scum
ceases to rise. When it reaches this point drop in the rind and
let it simmer until tender enough to be pierced with a straw.
Take it out with a skimmer, spread it out on flat dishes, and let it
stand in the sun for a couple of hours. Add to the syrup a small
lemon, sliced, and a little sliced green ginger-root for every
pound of the rind, boil the syrup for about ten minutes and set
it aside. When the rind is cool put it in the jars, let the syrup
come to a boil and pour it over the rind. Seal when it is cool.
PRESERVED CHERRIES.
For this select sour cherries the morellos, if you can get
them. To every pound of stoned cherries allow a pound of
sugar. Lose none of the juice. Arrange fruit and sugar in al-
ternate layers in an agate-iron or porcelain-lined preserving
kettle ; let it stand an hour or two to draw out the juice ; then
496 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
put it over the fire, and boil slowly and steadily until the juice
thickens. Put up the preserves in small glass jars and keep in a
dark closet.
PRESERVED CHERRIES.
German Mode.
Stone tart cherries, preserving all the juice. Weigh the fruit,
and to every pound of this allow one of granulated sugar. Put
the sugar into the preserving kettle with the cherry-juice, and cook
slowly until the sugar is entirely dissolved, when the fruit must
be added. Cook this just five minutes, spread fruit and syrup
out on broad platters and set them in the hot sun. Cover each
platter with a pane of window-glass or with netting and let them
have the full benefit of the sun's rays for three or four days, or
until the fruit is thick and rich. Put up in jelly-glasses or pre-
serve jars.
PRESERVED STRAWBERRIES OR RASPBERRIES
may be put up by either of the preceding recipes, using a little
water to moisten the sugar in place of the juice procured from
the stoned cherries.
BRANDED PEACHES.
One quart of best white brandy ; six pounds of white sugar ;
eight pounds of peaches (peeled) ; three cupfuls of water. Put
water and sugar together on the fire and bring to a boil. Drop
in the peaches and simmer fifteen minutes after the syrup begins
to boil again. Take out the peaches with a perforated skimmer
and pack them in quart glass jars. After they are all out let the
syrup boil fifteen minutes, add the brandy, and pour this boiling
liquor over the peaches in the jars. Seal these and keep them
in a dark place.
They will be ready for the table in about six
BRANDED APRICOTS
are put up by the same recipe as Brandied Peaches.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 497
BRANDED PEARS.
Put up in the same manner as Brandied Peaches, selecting
firm Bartlett pears of uniform size, and paring them carefully, so
as to keep the shape of the fruit. Do not remove the stems.
BRANDIED PLUMS.
Proceed as with Brandied Peaches, pricking the plums instead
of peeling them.
BRANDIED PINEAPPLES.
Peel the pineapple, remove the eyes and tear the fruit from
the core with a fork, or cut it into dice. Pack self-sealing jars
with the fruit, allowing four heaping tablespoon fu Is of granulated
sugar to each jar, and sprinkling it on each layer of pineapple.
When the jars are filled, pour in white preserving brandy slowly,
allowing it to filter through the fruit and sugar, until the jars
can hold no more. Screw down the tops, keep the jars in a
dark place, and let it season some weeks before using.
BRANDIED STRAWBERRIES.
Cap fine fresh strawberries and proceed with them as with the
Brandied Pineapple.
BRANDIED CHERRIES, RASPBERRIES, OR BLACKBERRIES
may be prepared in the same way.
32
PICKLES.
EXCELLENT pickles may now be purchased from first-class
grocers. Still better may be ordered from Women's Exchanges,
or from some of the many housekeepers in reduced circum-
stances who earn an honorable living by preparing kitchen
dainties for sale. In spite of all these facilities, there is a goodly
number of homes beyond their reach, and there are others whose
inmates prefer the pickles made by themselves to any they can
buy. The home-made pickles possess the advantage of cheap-
ness, unless the maker's time is of money value. The cost of the
materials is comparatively slight.
GHERKIN OR SMALL CUCUMBER PICKLES.
Select firm small gherkins, the smaller the better. None
should be more than three inches in length. Lay them smoothly,
with alternate layers of salt, in a large earthenware crock, and after
putting on the top coat of salt, pour in enough cold water to cover
all. Keep the pickles from floating by laying a weighted plate
on top of them. Leave the pickles in brine for at least ten days,
stirring them from the bottom every other day. When they
have lain in the brine for the appointed time, pour it off and
pick over the gherkins, throwing away those that have softened,
and let the firm ones soak two days in fresh water, changing this
once.
To green the pickles, line your kettle, which should be of agate-
iron-ware, or porcelain-lined, with grape-leaves, and arrange the
gherkins in it in layers, scattering a pinch of powdered alum over
each layer. A heaping teaspoonful is sufficient for a large kettle-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 499
ful. Cover the pickles with cold water, spread a triple thick-
ness of grape-leaves over them, put on a closely fitting cover, and
steam the pickles over a slow fire for six hours. The water must
not boil. By the end of this time the pickles should be well-
greened and should be thrown into very cold water. While they
are becoming firm and crisp, four quarts of vinegar, one cupful
of sugar, three dozen whole cloves, three dozen black peppers,
eighteen whole allspice, and twelve blades of mace may be boiled
together for five minutes. The gherkins, drained from the water,
may then be put into jars, the scalding vinegar poured over them
and the jar closely covered. The pickles should be kept in a cel-
lar or a cool, dark closet. They will be ready for use in about two
months.
STRING BEANS
may be pickled like Gherkins.
SLICED CUCUMBER PICKLES.
Slice twenty-four good-sized cucumbers, put them into a pre-
serving kettle with enough vinegar to cover them and boil them
for an hour. Let them stand in the hot vinegar while you pre-
pare the following pickle :
One cupful of sugar ; one teaspoonful, each, of mace, allspice,
and cloves; one tablespoonful, each, of sliced garlic, ground
horse-radish, cinnamon, ginger, celery seed, black pepper, and
turmeric, and a half teaspoonful of cayenne ; one gallon of cider
vinegar. Into this put the sliced cucumbers, simmer two hours,
and put into jars.
PICKLED ONIONS.
Select small white onions of nearly uniform size, peel them, and
put them into strong brine. Leave them in this four days, make
fresh brine, heat it to scalding, put in the onions and boil three
minutes. Drain, pour cold water on them, and set aside for
six hours. Drain again, put them into jars and pour over them
scalding spiced vinegar, prepared as directed in recipe for Pickled
Gherkins. They should ripen for two months before using.
5OO THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PICKLED CAULIFLOWER.
Cut firm white cauliflowers into tiny clusters, and boil them
three minutes in scalding brine. Take them out, drain, put them
into a jar with cold vinegar, and let them stand in this two days.
Turn this off, arrange the clusters in jars, and pour over them the
following spiced vinegar :
One gallon of vinegar ; one cupful of sugar ; one tablespoon-
ful, each, of celery seed, coriander seed, mustard seed, and whole
white peppers, twelve blades of mace, and a small red pepper,
sliced. These should boil together five minutes before putting
the mixture upon the cauliflower.
PICKLETTE.
One large cabbage, peeled and chopped ; six large white
onions peeled and chopped. Arrange these in a large crock in
alternate thicknesses, sprinkling a little salt on each layer, and leave
them thus twenty-four hours. The next day add to a pint of
vinegar half a pound of brown sugar, a heaping teaspoonful each
of powdered alum, turmeric, ground cinnamon, allspice, mace,
black pepper, mustard, and celery seed, and heat all to boiling.
Pour these over the cabbage and onion, let it stand twenty-four
hours, drain off the vinegar, heat it again to boiling, and pour
it over the cabbage. Repeat the process three successive morn-
ings. On the fourth, put all together into the kettle, boil five
minutes, and when cold pack in small jars.
PICKLED CHERRIES.
For every quart of the fruit allow a half-pint of vinegar ; two
tablespoon fuls of white sugar ; twelve whole cloves, and six blades
of mace, and put all but the cherries on to heat together. When
they have boiled ten minutes, set them aside .to cool. Have
ready small jars, fill them nearly full of cherries, strain the cold
vinegar over them, and seal the jars.
Large tart cherries are best for pickling. They should be very
fresh and need not be stemmed.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 5OI
PICKLED CABBAGE.
Cut the outer leaves from white cabbages, quarter, put them
into a pot of scalding water, and boil three minutes. Drain, cover
thickly with salt, let the cabbages dry in the sun, shake the salt
from them, and cover them in cold vinegar in which has been
steeped a tablespoonful of turmeric. They should lie in this two
weeks. At the end of the time pack the cabbages in jars, and
cover with a seasoned vinegar prepared as follows :
One gallon of vinegar ; one pound of sugar ; two tablespoon-
fuls, each, of white mustard-seed, ginger, and black pepper-corns ;
one tablespoonful, each, of cloves, celery-seed, minced garlic, and
grated horse-radish ; one teaspoonful, each, of allspice and mace ;
one sliced lemon.
Pound the spices fine, and boil the mixture five minutes be-
fore pouring it on the cabbage. This will not be fit for use un-
der a couple of months.
ENGLISH CHOW-CHOW.
One cauliflower ; one-half pint of string beans ; six green to-
matoes, sliced ; one pint of tiny cucumbers ; two medium-sized
cucumbers, sliced ; one-half pint of small onions ; four small
long red peppers.
Nasturtium seeds and radish pods may be added, if desired.
Cut the cauliflower into small clusters, and peel the onions.
Place a layer of the vegetables in a wide-mouthed stone jar, and
sprinkle thickly with salt. Over this lay more vegetables, cov-
ering these, too, with salt, and continue thus until your supply is
exhausted. Pour on enough cold water to cover all, keeping the
pickles from floating by pressing down over them a plate or a
disk of wood, and weighting this with a flat-iron. Let the jar
remain undisturbed for three days ; then drain off the brine,
wash the pickles in pure water, cover them again this time with
fresh water and let them lie in this twenty-four hours.
Thus far the process has been the same with that followed for
several varieties of sour pickles, such as the ordinary mixed
502 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
pickle, gherkin pickle, onion, or cabbage pickle, etc. But in
making English chow-chow there is no need of " greening " the
pickle, and so one tiresome process is avoided.
Prepare the vinegar as follows :
One gallon of vinegar ; one teaspoonful of whole black pep-
pers ; one teaspoonful of whole cloves ; two teaspoonfuls of tur-
meric ; one teaspoonful of celery-seed ; one teaspoonful of white
mustard-seed ; one teaspoonful of whole mace ; one teaspoonful
of grated horse-radish ; one cupful and a half of brown sugar ;
three tablespoonfuls of ground mustard. Bring the vinegar and
condiments to a boil, and drop in the pickles, taking care that
none of them are soft or decayed. Simmer five minutes, remove
the pickles with a perforated skimmer, lay them in a stone jar,
and pour the scalding vinegar over them. Leave them in this
for forty-eight hours. Then drain the vinegar off, return it to
the kettle, and add to it a tablespoonful of curry powder. When
the vinegar boils, pour it over the pickles in the crock, let them
stand until cold, then put into wide-mouthed bottles or small
jars, and seal. This pickle must ripen two or three weeks before
it will be ready for the table.
SOUTHERN CHOW-CHOW.
Proceed in salting, etc., as directed for English chow-chow,
substituting sliced green peppers for string-beans, omitting the
onions and increasing the quantity of green tomatoes ; sliced
white cabbage may also be added. The mixture of vinegar,
spices, etc., is the same, except that the ground mustard, tur-
meric, and curry powder are left out. Vinegar, spices, and
vegetables are all boiled together for half an hour, then allowed
to cool, and put up in air-tight jars.
GREEN TOMATO SOY,
Four quarts of green tomatoes ; six onions ; one pound of
sugar ; one quart of vinegar ; one tablespoonful, each, of ground
mustard, ground black pepper, and salt ; one half tablespoonful,
each, of allspice and cloves.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 503
Put all together in a preserving kettle and stew, stirring often,
until tender. Put into glass jars and seal.
Like most other pickles this is better when it is over a month
old.
PICKLED WALNUTS.
These must be gathered while young and green, and belaid in
strong brine. Leave them in this for a week, changing it every
other day. Take them out, dry them between two cloths, and
pierce each with a large needle. Throw them into cold water and
leave them several hours before packing them in small jars and
pouring over them scalding-hot seasoned vinegar prepared like
that for Pickled Gherkins.
Not good under two months.
PICKLED BUTTERNUTS
may be put up by the preceding recipe.
PICKLED MANGOES.
Select small muskmelons, cut a small round opening in each
at the stem end, and through this remove the seeds, saving
the piece cut out to replace when the mango is stuffed. Make
a strong brine, putting in as much salt as the water will take,
and let the melons lie in this for three days. Lay them then in
fresh water for twenty-four hours. Green the melons according
to the directions given in Pickled Gherkins, and lay them again
in cold water. When chilled and firm take them out, drain
them, and fill with a stuffing made by mixing together four
tablespoon fuls of English mustard-seed with two of grated horse-
radish, one teaspoonful, each, of chopped garlic, celery -seed,
whole pepper-corns, ground mace, and white sugar ; half a tea-
spoonful, each, of ground mustard and ground ginger, and two
teaspoonfuls of salad oil. When the stuffing is all in, replace the
pieces cut out and tie them in place with soft cords. Pack
the melons in a stone crock, pour scalding vinegar over them,
and set away in a cool, dark place. They will require at least
four months to ripen.
504 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PEPPER MANGOES.
Select full-grown green peppers that have not begun to red-
den, extract the seeds with a pen-knife or a long-handled coffee-
spoon, as they burn the ringers cruelly. Proceed as with the
Pickled Mangoes.
SWEET PICKLES*
PICKLED PEACHES (PEELED).
Peel firm white peaches, weigh them, and to every pound of
the fruit allow half a pound of sugar. Place this and the fruit
in a preserving kettle in alternate layers. Bring slowly to a boil.
To every six pounds of fruit allow one pint of vinegar. To this
add a tablespoonful, each, of ground mace, cinnamon, and cloves,
mixing them and dividing them into three portions. Tie each
up in a bit of thin muslin. Put the spices into the vinegar, pour
this upon the peaches, and boil five minutes. At the end of this
time remove the fruit and spread it upon a flat dish, boil the
syrup fifteen minutes, or until thick, put into glass jars with the
fruit, pour the boiling syrup upon it and seal.
PICKLED PEACHES (UNPEELED).
Select peaches of uniform size, and after rubbing off the down
with a coarse cloth, like a crash towel, prick each with a fork.
Weigh and put them into a preserving kettle with just enough
water to cover them, and let them become scalding hot. Just
before they reach the boil remove them from the kettle and add
sugar to the water in the proportion of three pounds to every seven
pounds of the peaches. Let this boil for a quarter of an hour,
skimming two or three times, and put in three pints of vinegar
and one teaspoonful, each, of cloves and celery-seed, and one
tablespoonful, each, of ground mace, cinnamon, and allspice,
mixed and tied up in thin muslin bags. Bring the syrup to a
boil and cook together for ten minutes, then put in the fruit and
THE N-ATIONAL COOK BOOK $O$
let it stew until tender. Remove it again from the kettle with a
skimmer, spread on dishes to cool, boil the syrup until thick,
and after you have packed the peaches in glass jars, pour the
scalding syrup upon them and seal.
PICKLED PEARS (UNPEELED).
Put up by the preceding recipe.
PICKLED PEARS (PEELED).
Put up by the recipe given for Pickled Peaches (peeled). All
sweet pickles should for the first few weeks be examined every
two or three days for signs of fermenting. Should these appear,
uncover the jars and set them thus in a kettle of water. Bring
this to a boil, and keep it at this until the contents of the jar
are scalding hot.
PICKLED PLUMS.
Put up by the recipe given for Pickled Peaches (peeled), prick-
ing the plums instead of peeling them.
PICKLED WATERMELON RIND.
Proceed as directed for Preserved Watermelon Rind until you
reach the point where the pieces of rind are put into the syrup.
Weigh them then and make for the pickles a syrup of a pound of
sugar and a half cupful of water for every pound of the rind. Add
to this a half ounce of sliced ginger-root for every eight pounds
of sugar. Heat the sugar and water slowly and when they are
hot lay in the rinds. Let them simmer very slowly until clear
and tender, take them out, spread them upon dishes, add to the
syrup a pint of vinegar for every pound of rind, a tablespoonful,
each, of ground mace, cloves, and cinnamon tied up in thin
muslin, and a tablespoonful of turmeric to every eight pounds of
rind. When the syrup boils, put in the rind again, let it sim-
mer fifteen minutes and put it up in glass jars. It must season
two or three weeks before it is ready for use.
5O6 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
CATSUPS, RELISHES, FLAVORING VINEGARS,
ETC
TOMATO CATSUP.
One peck of ripe tomatoes ; four onions ; half a teaspoonful of
garlic, grated ; twelve sprigs of parsley ; two bay leaves ; one
tablespoon ful, each, of salt, sugar, ground cloves, mace, black
pepper, and whole celery-seed tie the last up in a bit of thin
muslin ; one scant teaspoonful of cayenne ; one pint of vinegar.
Boil the tomatoes and onions together until soft, press through
a colander, and then strain the liquid through a fine sieve. Put
this over the fire with the seasoning and boil five hours, stirring
well from the bottom from time to time. When the liquid is re-
duced nearly one-half and is quite thick, add the vinegar, re-
moving the bag of celery -seed. When the catsup is cold, bottle
it and seal the corks. Keep in a cellar or cool, dark closet.
TOMATO PASTE.
Proceed as in the preceding recipe, adding to the tomatoes
two good-sized carrots, peeled and sliced, and omitting the vine-
gar altogether. Cook the ingredients as for catsup until they
reach the stage where a little of the pulp will jelly in a saucer.
Spread on shallow pie-plates and let the paste dry thoroughly in
the sun or in an open oven. It can be packed in layers in
wooden boxes, with waxed paper between the layers, and is use-
ful for seasoning macaroni, soups, stews, etc. A piece a couple
of inches square melted in a half pint of butter (see Sauce)
makes an excellent tomato sauce.
WALNUT CATSUP.
The walnuts should be young, and tender enough to be read-
ily pierced with a large needle. Prick each in three or four
places, allow salt in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls to
twenty-five walnuts, and lay salt and nuts in a jar with enough
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 507
water to cover them. Leave them in this for a fortnight, pound-
ing them every day with a wooden mallet or potato beetle. At
the end of that time strain off the liquor into a preserving kettle,
cover the nuts with boiling vinegar, pound them in this thor-
oughly, and strain this liquid into the other. Measure it, and
for every quart add a tablespoonful, each, of ginger and black
pepper, a dessert-spoonful, each, of cloves and mace, a teaspoon-
ful, each, of finely minced onion and grated horse-radish, and
a pinch of cayenne. Boil for an hour, cool, bottle, and seal.
Good in two months.
BUTTERNUT CATSUP.
This may be made by the recipe given for Walnut Catsup.
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
Wipe firm, fresh mushrooms and break them into pieces. Al-
low two tablespoon fuls of salt to every quart of the mushrooms,
and arrange the latter in a large crock, sprinkling salt over each
layer. Stand the jar in a cellar or other cool place for three
days, stirring the contents three or four times each day. At the
end of the time turn mushrooms and salt into a preserving ket-
tle, and let them get warm very slowly over a low fire. When
the juice flows freely, strain it off, put it back over the fire and
boil fifteen minutes. Measure it then and allow to each quart
of the liquor a tablespoonful, each, of whole black peppers and
of allspice, two blades of mace, a bay leaf, a tiny section of a
clove of garlic, a bit of ginger root of the same size, and a very
little cayenne. Return the liquor to the fire once more with the
spices and boil until it is reduced to half the quantity ; let it cool,
strain and bottle it. Seal the bottles. The addition of a tea-
spoonful of brandy to each bottle is recommended by some
authorities as an aid in preserving it.
CUCUMBER CATSUP.
<
Peel, seed, and grate large cucumbers. Drain the pulp in a
sieve, measure, and to a quart allow two green peppers, seeded
508 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
and minced, two teaspoonfuls of salt, a grated onion, a gill of
grated horse-radish and a scant half teaspoonful of cayenne.
Mix all well together, add a pint of vinegar, bottle the catsup
and seal.
GRAPE CATSUP.
Wash and stem the grapes and put them over the fire with
enough water to keep them from burning, stew slowly until
tender, and rub through a colander. The seeds and skins should
both be. removed by this process. Measure the pulp and put it
back in the preserving kettle, allowing to three quarts of it, two
pounds of brown sugar, a pint of good cider vinegar, a large
tablespoon ful, each, of ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon, salt,
and black pepper, and an even teaspoonful of cayenne. Boil
the catsup until it is reduced about one-half and is very thick,
skim, take from the fire, and when cool, bottle and seal.
APPLE CHUTNEY.
Peel and chop six large tart apples. Mix with them a small
onion and a section of garlic, grated, a teaspoonful of ground
ginger, two tablespoonfuls of brown sugar, a pinch of cayenne,
and half a pint of vinegar. Boil ten minutes, and bottle when
cool.
CHILI SAUCE.
Twelve large ripe tomatoes ; four onions ; two green, or one
red pepper ; four tablespoonfuls of sugar ; two tablespoonfuls of
salt ; two teaspoonfuls, each, of ground cinnamon, cloves, and
allspice; one teaspoonful of ground ginger ; one quart of vinegar.
Peel onions and tomatoes, seed peppers, and chop all fine.
Add the spices, put over the fire and boil steadily for two hours.
Cool, bottle, and seal.
MINT VINEGAR.
Pick mint leaves from the stems, wash them and dry between
soft cloths and pack a cupful in a glass jar or wide-mouthed bottle.
Cover with vinegar, seal or cork, and let it stand for three
weeks. Strain off the vinegar through a fine cloth, and put into
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 509
a clean bottle. Or you may use two cupfuls of leaves, let them
remain in the vinegar and put into a quart jar of this a table-
spoonful of mustard-seed and a bit of horse-radish. You then
have a mint sauce that only needs the addition of a little sugar
to be ready for the table.
CELERY VINEGAR.
Cut a bunch of celery into small bits and put it into a jar.
Bring a quart of vinegar to a boil, add to it a teaspoonful of salt
and a tablespoonful of white sugar ; pour it, still scalding hot,
upon the celery, let it cool, close the jar and leave it unopened
for two weeks. Then strain off the vinegar, bottle it, and cork
tightly. A quarter of a pound of celery-seed may be used in-
stead of the fresh celery.
ONION VINEGAR,
Peel and chop six large onions, sprinkle over them a table-
spoonful of salt, and let them stand over night. Scald a quart of
vinegar with a tablespoonful of white sugar, pour this over the
onions, let them steep for two weeks, closely covered, strain, and
bottle the vinegar.
TARRAGON VINEGAR,
Prepare like Mint Vinegar and let it stand, closely covered,
three weeks before straining and bottling it.
CHILDREN'S DIET.
ALL matters bearing upon dietetics have sprung into promi-
nence during the past ten years. Physicians have adopted the
practice of recommending diet rather than medicine, and writers
on domestic topics have devoted their best powers to raising the
national standard of food, both in quality and modes of prepa-
ration. In spite of all this, the reforms introduced have been
neither radical nor universal. Men and women still eat at ex-
press rates, devour pie, drink ice-water, and cling to the frying-
pan. The national dyspepsia is yet unsubdued, and worst of all,
the rising generation are planting their feet in the footprints left
by their fathers and mothers.
Henry James has presented a picture of what he evidently con-
siders the typical American boy in Daisy Miller's small brother,
a portrait at which readers have alternately laughed and fumed.
In either case they have been compelled to admit that the de-
scription contained elements of resemblance, although they
might be overdrawn. The pertness of Randolph Miller, his
total absence of respect for parent or guardian, his candy-eating
propensities, and various other disagreeable traits are all familiar,
though seldom all combined in the person of one child. For
any and all of these faults at least nine-tenths of the blame must
rest with the father and mother. Original sin and total de-
pravity may be negatived, but a natural tendency to do wrong
rather than right, cannot be denied by any one who has had
much to do with young children. This acknowledged, it fol-
lows that it is the bounden duty of the guides of the little ones
to do all they can to counteract this disposition in order to pre-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 511
vent their charges from becoming intolerable to themselves and
to all about them.
In no department of the nursery is close guardianship needed
more than in that of children's food. To a casual looker-on, it
seems sometimes that, in becoming mothers, women must have
parted with whatever atoms of common sense they once pos-
sessed. Ignorant of physiology and hygiene though they may
be, ordinary observation and acquaintance with the simplest laws
of nature ought to teach them something. Nevertheless, one
constantly sees women who, in other directions give no evidence
of being candidates for lunatic asylums, trifling with the health
and life of their offspring with a recklessness that, if applied to
other and less important matters, would seem nothing short of
madness.
The mother of several boys was one day bemoaning to a visit-
or the fact that her youngest, a child of five, was subject to sum-
mer complaint. She had been up with him all the preceding
night in an attack resembling cholera morbus. The scourge of
cholera was in the land at the time, and the anxious parent
sighed as she said she knew poor little Tom would have no
chance if exposed to the disease. She had hardly finished her
lament when the guest caught a glimpse of its object. The
morning was a rainy one, but the child wafc standing nearly
knee-keep in wet grass under a plum-tree in the garden, eating
the unripe fruit with gusto. At her friend's exclamation of
horror, the mother glanced from the window, nodded smilingly
to the juvenile culprit, and said calmly, as she resumed her seat :
" I never limit the boys in their allowance of fruit. They
are welcome to all they find on the ground, and the dear fellows
enjoy it thoroughly."
Another child, a girl of four, is " passionately fond of
pickles."
" It does no good to put them out of her reach," laughs the
mother. "I did that for awhile. But after I caught her risk-
ing her neck balancing herself on two chairs and a footstool to
reach the jar on the top shelf of the pantry, I thought it would
512 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
be safer to keep them where she could get them without break-
ing any bones."
Nearly every one is acquainted with children who are as de-
voted to their strong tea and coffee as a regular drinker to his
dram. While these beverages may be helpful in imparting tem-
porary tone and strength to hard- worked men and women, it is
a great mistake to permit a child to begin life by over-exciting
his nervous system by their use. For those who do not like
milk, cold water not iced-water should be sufficient. Thought-
less mothers often lay the foundation for this taste by pouring a
few teaspoonfuls of real tea or coffee into the child's " cambric
tea." Far better is it to have it understood at the outset that
such drinks are not for children, instead of pretending to humor
a whim which can do no good. Nervous digestions and tempers
would all be the better for the abstinence.
But it is not enough to keep from children those articles of
food which will do them harm. It should be the study of the
mother to select and arrange their diet with the view to giving
them what they need for nourishment and growth. In this day
when the dietetic schoolmaster is abroad, when lectures on
cookery are delivered in every town, and the press teems with
tracts and treatises upon wholesome food, there is less excuse
than ever before for ignorance or neglect. Yet all the preach-
ing and printing in the land does no good unless the mother
makes the practical application of the precepts. Upon her, and
upon her alone, it devolves to feed her child with food conven-
ient (or suitable) for him. She must see that while he has
starches to keep up the fires of the body, as it were, he has also
nitrogenous foods that will form flesh and muscle, phosphates that
will feed bone and brain, fats that will warm and nourish. For
no two children can one prescribe a similar bill of fare. One
demands fats, another requires albuminoids, a third needs
starches. Only by patient and intelligent study and experi-
ment can the mother learn what to choose and what to reject.
C. T. H.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK $13
THE NURSERY TABLE.
CEREALS AND VEGETABLES.
At least half the mothers of young children labor under the
impression that they know all there is to be learned about chil-
dren's diet. Many have a lofty contempt for the " fussiness,"
as they term it, that leads sundry young matrons to study the
comparative nutritive qualities of different kinds of food and to
exclude from the baby's bill-of-fare all but the simplest articles.
" I let my baby come to the table and eat with us," said the
mother of a year-old girl not long ago. " She's real fond
of potatoes and green corn, and of sweet things; but" with a
sigh " doctor, he says they ain't good for her while I'm nursin'
her."
The mother of another baby of about the same age was terribly
alarmed by a severe attack of cholera morbus that followed the
infant's supper of boiled ham and cabbage.
" It couldn't be anything he e't," she said, decidedly, " be-
cause the four other children have always been fed just like him,
and they're all right."
True, these instances are selected from an unlearned class,
but the same ignorance or carelessness may be found in a much
higher walk of life. The study of an appropriate diet for
children will not seem unworthy of trained mental powers when one
reflects upon the evil consequences that neglect may entail upon
the body, and, through that, upon the mind of the growing child.
For a little baby there can be, of course, almost no variety.
Milk, sterilized or peptonized, or one of the prepared foods en-
dorsed by physicians, is all that can be offered for many months.
But as the child grows older and acquires his full set of milk-
teeth, a change is not only agreeable to him, but almost essential
to his health. His appetite will be stimulated by variety, and if
his food is properly prepared, it may be toothsome as well as
nourishing. Prominent in his menu are cereals and vegetables
which should serve as the //& de resistance of the nursery-table.
33
514 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
OATMEAL PORRIDGE.
Four heaping tablespoonfuls of fine ground oatmeal ; three
cupfuls of warm water ; one-half teaspoonful of salt.
The manufacturer of one brand of oatmeal declares that it
needs no preliminary soaking. This can do it no harm, how-
ever, and aids in softening the cereal and reducing it to a fit state
for childish or adult digestions. Let the double boiler, con-
taining oatmeal and water, stand at the back of the range over
night. In the morning fill the outer vessel with hot water and
move the boiler to the front of the stove. Let it cook steadily
for at least half an hour. Three-quarters of an hour, or an hour,
will be even better. Just before pouring out the porridge beat
it hard with a wooden spoon, and if it seems too stiff, stir in a
little boiling water. Salt it the last thing before turning it out.
WHEATEN GRITS.
To be properly cooked this should be prepared the day before
it is to be eaten. Put three tablespoonfuls of the wheaten grits,
or cracked wheat, and a pint of warm water into a double boiler
and cook at one side of the stove steadily, but not hard, for four
hours. The next morning warm the porridge and salt it to taste.
HASTY PUDDING OR MUSH.
One quart of boiling water ; one cupful of yellow corn-meal ;
one teaspoonful of salt.
Stir the corn-meal to a paste with a little cold water and add
it to the salted boiling water in a double boiler. Cook steadily
three-quarters of an hour, stirring hard and often. Avoid mak-
ing the mush too stiff.
HOMINY BOILED IN MILK.
One cupful of fine white hominy ; two cupfuls of milk ; salt to
taste.
Wash the hominy in several waters and soak it over night in
enough cold water to cover it. In the morning drain off the
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 51$
water, pour in the milk, and cook in a covered double boiler for
an hour. Stir in a small tablespoonful of butter, and salt to taste
before sending to table.
RICE PORRIDGE.
Two cupftils of milk ; two tablespoonfuls of rice or rice-
flour ; half a cupful of cold water.
If you cannot procure the rice-flour wash the rice thoroughly
and crush it with a rolling-pin or in a mortar with a pestle ; or,
it may be laid between two folds of coarse cloth and hammered
with a potato-beetle until it is well broken. Mix it with the
water and stir it into the milk, which should be scalding-hot, in
a double boiler. Cook for half an hour, salt, and serve.
CORN-BREAD.
One cupful of corn-meal ; one cupful of flour; two tablespoon-
fuls of sugar ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; two teaspoon fuls of
Cleveland's Baking Powder ; two eggs ; one cupful of milk ; one
tablespoonful of salt.
Beat the eggs, add to them the salt, sugar, milk, and melted
butter. Sift the corn-meal and flour together with the baking
powder, and mix with the other ingredients. Beat hard, pour
into well-greased muffin-tins, and bake. These are also good
split and toasted when cold.
GRAHAM BREAD.
Two cupfuls of Graham flour ; one cupful of white flour ; one
yeast cake dissolved in a cupful and a half of warm water ; three
tablespoonfuls of molasses ; one teaspoonful of salt.
Sift the white flour with the salt and mix with the unsifted
Graham flour. Stir in the yeast, the warm water, and the
molasses, and make all into as soft a dough as can be handled.
Should it seem stiff with the above proportions, add a little
warm water. Let the dough rise over night and in the morning
knead it well and make it into small loaves. Set these to rise
for a couple of hours and bake in a steady oven.
$l6 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
This bread should not be cut while hot. It is admirable for
growing children, and makes excellent toast.
GRAHAM BREWIS.
Two cupfuls of milk ; one heaping tablespoonful of white flour ;
one tablespoonful of butter ; slices of Graham bread ; salt to
taste.
Break the bread into small bits, spread it on a pan and set it
in a slow oven for five or ten minutes, until quite crisp. Mean-
while, heat the milk to scalding in a double boiler, and thicken
it with the flour and butter rubbed together.
Into this stir the bread, and let it cook slowly until soft and
smooth.
Should it become too thick to stir easily, add a little more
milk. Salt to taste, and serve.
Brewis may also be made of white bread, or of white and
Graham mixed.
MILK TOAST.
Cut slices of baker's bread an inch thick, trim off the crusts
and toast the bread quickly and lightly over a clear, smokeless
fire. Place ready at the side of the stove a pan of boiling water
and dip each slice into this for a second before spreading it spar-
ingly with butter and laying it on a deep dish. When the dish
is full, pour over it slowly milk that has been heated in a double
boiler, adding a little salt to it just before taking it from the fire.
Cover the dish and set it in a slow oven or in the plate-warmer
for five minutes, uncover, and if all the milk has been absorbed,
add more, and let the dish stand in a warm place five minutes
longer before sending to table. By this process the toast will be
soft throughout.
TOASTED CRACKERS.
Split Boston crackers, toast them on the inside, and butter.
These are especially relished by children when accompanied by
apple sauce or by some simple fruit-jelly, jam, or marmalade.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
PANADA.
Split and toast Boston crackers and arrange them in a bowl,
sprinkling each layer lightly with sugar. When the bowl is full
pour over its contents enough slightly salted boiling water to
cover the crackers. When this is absorbed add a little more,
and let the bowl stand covered in a hot place for fifteen minutes
before serving.
STUFFED POTATOES.
Select six large white potatoes, wash and bake them until
soft. Cut off the end of each one, and with the handle of a
fork or spoon scrape out the contents. Mash them with a fork
and add to them three tablespoon fuls of hot milk, a tablespoon-
ful of butter, and salt to taste. Return the mixture to the skins
and set them in the oven for five or ten minutes until they are
hot through.
STEWED POTATOES.
Peel six large white potatoes and cut them into neat dice with
a sharp knife. Lay them in cold water for twenty minutes and
then put them over the fire in boiling water. Cook until tender,
drain off the water and sprinkle the potatoes with a tablespoon-
ful of flour. Have ready a cupful of milk in which a good tea-
spoonful of butter has been melted ; pour this over the potatoes
and let them come slowly to a boil. Salt to taste, and serve.
POTATO PUFF.
Two cupfuls of mashed potato ; one egg ; half a cupful of
milk ; two teaspoonfuls of butter ; salt to taste.
Beat the egg light, add it with the butter, the milk, and the
salt to the potato, whip all together and bake in a buttered pud-
ding-dish.
SCALLOPED POTATO.
To two cupfuls of mashed potato add one egg, a tablespoonful
of butter, and a cupful of milk. Salt to taste, turn the potato
5l8 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
into a buttered pudding-dish, sprinkle with fine crumbs, dot
with bits of butter, and bake, covered, until the potato is hot
through ; uncover and brown.
POTATOES STEWED WHOLE.
Small potatoes may be selected for this. Peel and boil them.
When they are almost done drain off the water and pour over
them enough milk to cover them. Let them cook in this until
done and stir in a tablespoonful of butter, cut up in a table-
spoonful of flour. Simmer a few moments, season, and serve.
SWEET POTATOES, SCALLOPED.
Boil sweet potatoes and slice them crosswise after peeling.
Arrange the slices in a buttered pudding-dish, sprinkling each
layer with a few crumbs, with bits of butter, and a very little salt.
Make the top layer a thick one of crumbs and dot plentifully
with butter. Cook, covered, twenty minutes, uncover and brown.
SWEET POTATO PUFF.
Two cupfuls of sweet potato, mashed ; two eggs ; one cupful of
milk ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; salt.
Mix and bake like the white potato puff described above.
BUTTERED SWEET POTATOES.
Boil and peel sweet potatoes and slice them lengthwise. But-
ter each piece and lay all in a pan, buttered side up. Set this
in the oven for a few minutes before serving.
SCALLOPED TOMATOES.
Slice ripe tomatoes and place the slices in layers in a pudding-
dish, sprinkling each layer with a little sugar and salt, and put-
ting bits of butter here and there. Bake, covered, for half an
hour, uncover and brown.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 519
RICE AND TOMATO.
Arrange alternate layers of boiled rice and sliced tomatoes in
a baking-dish, making the top layer of tomato. Scatter over
this small pieces of butter, bake, covered, twenty minutes, un-
cover 'and leave in the oven ten minutes longer.
STEWED OYSTER PLANT.
Scrape and slice the roots. Stew until tender, putting them on
in hot water, a little salted. When done, turn off the water, add
a cupful of cold milk, thicken it with a tablespoonful of butter
rolled in a tablespoonful of flour, and serve after it has simmered
about five minutes.
STEWED CELERY.
Cut celery into inch lengths, cook it in water until tender,
drain and pour over it a cupful of milk, thickened with a table-
spoonful of butter rubbed smooth with as much flour. Season
to taste.
STEWED MACARONL
Select spaghetti in preference to the pipe macaroni. Break it
into small pieces, put it over the fire in boiling water and cook ten
minutes. Drain off the water, pour a cupful of milk over the
macaroni, and cook until tender. When done, stir in a good
tablespoonful of butter, and salt to taste.
This makes an excellent nursery dessert when eaten with butter
and sugar.
WITH THE CHAFING-DISH.
A FEW years ago it might have been thought necessary to in-
clude, in a book of this character, an elaborate treatise upon
the methods of cooking with the chafing-dish, and a long list of
recipes. But we have changed all that. Few and far between
are the homes in which the chafing-dish is not a familiar friend,
and each man or woman who handles it has his, or her, own pet
recipes for at least the best-known dishes that can be prepared
over an alcohol flame. Therefore it is not designed to give
elementary instructions here. There follow only such dishes as
have seemed new or unusual, and so worthy of being made
known to the public. Those who desire arguments in favor of
the chafing-dish, minute directions for its use, and an extensive
collection of trustworthy recipes, are respectfully referred to
" The Chafing-Dish Supper" by Christine Terhune Herrick,
published by Charles Scribner's Sons.
DEVILED OYSTERS.
Twenty oysters ; one gill of oyster -liquor ; two tablespoon-
fuls of butter ; one dessertspoonful of flour ; one teaspoon ful of
salt ; half a tablespoonful of curry powder ; one teaspoonful of
Worcestershire sauce ; ten drops of Tabasco sauce j juice of one
lemon.
Melt the butter in the blazer, stir in the flour, and when this
is blended, the oyster-liquor and all of the seasoning except the
lemon-juice. As soon as the sauce is boiling-hot, drop in the
oysters and cook three minutes or until they plump. Add the
lemon -juice and serve them at once on Graham toast.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 521
Huntley & Palmer's Breakfast Biscuits make an excellent sub-
stitute for toast in chafing-dish cookery.
OYSTERS WITH ANCHOVY.
Twenty oysters ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; one heap-
ing teaspoonful of anchovy paste ; a little cayenne ; juice of a
lemon.
Melt the butter and the anchovy together in the blazer, put
in the oysters, cook three minutes, add the cayenne and lemon-
juice and serve on buttered toast or " breakfast-biscuit."
CELERY OYSTERS.
Twenty fine oysters ; one gill of oyster-liquor ; half a cupful
of crisp celery, minced fine ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; one
gill of cream ; one gill of sherry or Madeira ; one teaspoonful,
each, of salt and paprica.
Put the oyster-liquor, celery, and paprica in the chafing-dish
over hot water, and when it comes to a boil simmer three or
four minutes; add the butter and the cream, and when these are
boiling-hot put in the oysters. Cook until the edges curl, stir
in the wine and salt, and serve at once on toast.
CLAMS SAUTE.
Twenty soft clams, from which the tough part has been re-
moved ; two slices of salt pork or fat bacon cut into fine dice ;
a little white pepper.
Fry the pork or bacon crisp in the blazer, and when the dice
begin to brown push them to the side of the pan and lay in the
clams. Saute them, turning once or twice, and serve on Gra-
ham or Boston brown bread toast.
DEVILED SARDINES.
One box of boneless sardines, drained and skinned ; two
tablespoonfuls of butter ; one teaspoonful of paprica, or one
saltspoonful of cayenne ; one saltspoonful of salt ; one table-
spoonful of lemon-juice.
522 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Melt the butter in the blazer and when hissing hot lay in the
sardines. Cook until heated through, turning once, sprinkle with
salt and paprica, add the lemon-juice, and serve on toast.
SHRIMPS WITH ANCHOVY SAUCE.
One can of shrimps ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; one gill
of cream ; one teaspoonful of anchovy paste ; yolks of two eggs ;
saltspoonful of cayenne.
Melt together the butter and anchovy, lay in the shrimps,
pepper them, and saute until they are hot through. Break the
eggs in a bowl, beat the cream into them, and pour into the
chafing-dish. Stir two or three minutes, until the sauce thickens,
and serve at once on toast.
This dish should be prepared over hot water.
SHRIMPS WITH TOMATO SAUCE.
One cupful of tomato sauce (see recipe). This can easily be
prepared in the chafing-dish. One can of shrimps. Salt to taste,
and one saltspoonful of cayenne.
Stir the shrimps into the tomato sauce, bring to a boil, season,
and serve on toast or in scallop-shells, or nappies.
CELERY LOBSTER.
Two cupfuls of lobster-meat, cut into small pieces ; one cup-
ful of crisp celery, minced ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; one
dessertspoonful of flour ; half a pint of milk ; yolks of two eggs ;
one teaspoonful of salt ; one saltspoonful of cayenne ; juice of a
lemon.
Cook together the butter and flour over hot water, add the
milk, stir until smooth, put in the celery and cook three minutes,
add the lobster, seasoning, and yolk of egg ; stir until thick, and
serve.
HUNGARIAN MUSHROOMS.
Half a pound of fresh mushrooms, stemmed and peeled ; three
tablespoonfuls of salad oil ; one teaspoonful of paprica ; one salt-
spoonful of pepper.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK $2$
Heat the oil over boiling water, lay in the mushrooms. Cover
closely, cook ten minutes, or until tender salt and serve on toast
or "breakfast-biscuit."
DEVILED EGGS.
Six hard-boiled eggs ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ; one table-
spoonful, each, of tomato and mushroom catsup ; one teaspoonful
of Worcestershire sauce ; saltspoonful, each, of dry mustard and
cayenne.
Heat the butter and seasoning together in the blazer, lay in
the eggs, cut into four lengthwise and then sliced across four
times, and, when hot through, serve upon toast spread with but-
ter or anchovy paste.
EGGS WITH KIDNEYS.
Four lamb's kidneys, scalded, skinned, and quartered ; two
tablespoonfuls of butter ; one teaspoonful of onion-juice ; one
gill of consomme or gravy; six eggs. Heat the butter in the
blazer, add the onion-juice and put in the kidneys. Cook until
browned, pour in the gravy and stir in the eggs, slightly beaten.
Cook until they are set, and serve.
DEVILED KIDNEYS.
Six lamb's kidneys, scalded, skinned, and split in half; two
tablespoonfuls of butter ; one teaspoonful, each, of onion-juice and
Worcestershire sauce; two tablespoonfuls of sherry or Madeira;
one even teaspoonful of salt ; saltspoonful of cayenne. Heat the
butter and brown the kidneys in the blazer, add the seasoning,
cook two minutes, and serve.
DEVILED BEEF.
Slices of rare roast beef ; three tablespoonfuls of olive oil ; one
teaspoonful, each, of paprica and salt ; half a teaspoonful, each,
of mustard and black pepper ; six olives, stoned and cut in two.
Heat oil and seasoning together in blazer ; lay in the beef and
olives and cook until smoking-hot.
Underdone mutton may be prepared in the same way.
524 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
SAVORY SAUSAGES.
Prick and fry six small sausages in the blazer until almost crisp,
put in a tablespoonful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of minced
celery, and half a teaspoonful of paprica ; toss and turn until hot,
and serve on toast or "breakfast-biscuit."
CELERY CHICKEN.
Prepare like Celery Lobster, adding to the roux a teaspoonful
of onion-juice.
CHICKEN TERRAPIN.
Two cupfuls of the dark meat of chicken or turkey, cut into
small pieces ; half a pint of cream ; two tablespoonfuls of butter ;
one tablespoonful of flour ; yolks of three hard-boiled eggs ; one
teaspoonful, each, of dry mustard and salt ; saltspoonful of cay-
enne ; one gill of sherry or Madeira.
Rub the yolks of the eggs to a paste with the butter, flour, and
seasoning. Heat the cream in the blazer and stir them into it.
Lay in the chicken, cook until smoking-hot, add the wine, and
serve.
HOT CHICKEN SALAD.
Two cupfuls of the white meat of cold chicken or turkey cut
into dice, and steeped one hour in two tablespoonfuls of salad
oil ; one tablespoonful of butter ; one tablespoonful of flour ;
half a pint of milk ; one gill of cream ; one teaspoonful, each, of
onion-juice and celery -salt ; half a teaspoonful of common salt ;
saltspoonful of white pepper.
Melt the butter in the blazer with the onion-juice, add the
flour, and when these are blended, the milk. Stir until thick and
smooth, put in the chicken and any of the oil it has not ab-
sorbed, let it become scalding-hot, season, put in the cream and
serve at once, with or without toast.
LAKE FOREST CHICKEN RECHAUFFE.
Two cupfuls of the white meat of cold chicken or turkey ;
one pint of chicken-stock ; half a cupful of fine white bread-
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK $2$
crumbs ; half a pint of cream ; four hard-boiled eggs ; one table-
spoonful of butter ; salt and white pepper to taste.
Chop the whites of the eggs coarsely. Let the crumbs soak
in the cream until soft, and rub into them the powdered yolks
of the eggs. Melt the butter in the blazer, put in the stock and
bring to a boil ; add the paste of crumbs, cream and yolks, and,
when hot, the chicken and chopped whites. Cook five min-
utes, or until boiling, and serve.
SWEETBREADS WITH ASPARAGUS TIPS.
One large pair of sweetbreads, parboiled, blanched, and sliced ;
half a pint of boiled asparagus tips ; one gill of asparagus liquor ;
half a pint of cream ; one tablespoonful of butter ; one table-
spoonful of flour ; yolks of two eggs ; one teaspoonful of salt ;
saltspoonful of white pepper.
Make a roux of the butter and flour over hot water, stir in the
cream and asparagus-liquor and when these are a smooth sauce,
add the sweetbreads and asparagus. Put in cautiously, drop by
drop, the beaten yolks of the eggs, cook three minutes, season
and serve.
A SWISS WELSH RAREBIT.
Half a pound of Gruyere (Swiss) cheese ; three tablespoon fu Is
of butter ; six eggs ; one teaspoonful of salt ; saltspoonful of
red pepper, or three times as much paprica.
Melt the butter and the grated cheese over boiling water, stir
in the eggs and cook until they are thick, season and serve on
toast or crackers.
Those who find this rarebit too thick as made by the above
recipe may thin it with a gill of beer or of milk.
AFTERMATH.
CRAB BISQUE.
A Creole Dish.
THE meat of four boiled crabs ''picked up" fine; nearly
three cupfuls of rich milk ; two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in
one of flour, and two left plain ; two small onions and one green
sweet-pepper cut up, with the seeds left out ; one large tomato,
peeled and sliced thin ; salt and pepper to taste.
A handful of bread-dice fried.
Melt the unfloured butter in the saucepan, but do not let it
hiss. As soon as it is hot put in with it the minced onions,
pepper, and tomato. Season, cover closely, and stew twenty min-
utes. Add the crab, with a very little boiling water to prevent
the crab-meat from catching on the bottom, and stew ten minutes.
Heat the milk (with a bit of soda) in a separate vessel, thicken
with the floured butter, season with salt and cayenne ; take the
saucepan from the fire and stir in the thickened milk. Pour
upon the croutons laid in the bottom of the tureen.
BAR HARBOR CLAM CHOWDER.
Fifty clams ; quarter of a pound of salt pork, sliced ; one cup-
ful of potato-dice, parboiled ; two tablespoonfuls of flour, stirred
into two of butter ; two cupfuls of milk (half cream, if you can get
it) ; four pilot biscuits ; sweet herbs, minced ; salt and cayenne.
Cook the clams in their own juice for ten minutes ; strain them
out and set aside to cool before they are chopped. Fry sliced
pork and onion together ; add the clam-liquor and the parboiled
potatoes, and cook half an hour. Then add the chopped clams,
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
cook one hour and put in the broken pilot-bread soaked in but-
ter and water. Heat the milk, thicken with the butter and flour,
pour into the tureen, and, after it, the contents of the soup-
kettle. Mix up well and serve.
CLAM BROTH.
Two dozen clams should yield a scant quart of liquor. Strain
it all from them and heat the juice to a boil ; skim off the scum
and drop in the clams. Cook fifteen minutes and strain again, now
through coarse muslin, back into the saucepan, and season with
pepper and salt. Have ready a cupful of rich milk in a saucepan,
stir into it a heaping tablespoonful of butter rolled in Bermuda
arrow-root, and boil two minutes, stirring steadily. Pour this
into the tureen, and upon this the clam -soup.
This will be found both nourishing and delicious. It is highly
recommended for invalids. A teaspoonful of whipped cream
laid upon each portion of the broth is a dainty touch.
BROILED SARDINES.
Drain off the oil, broil on both sides in a double wire broiler
which has been rubbed with a raw onion, then greased. Have
ready as many slices of Graham bread as you have sardines,
toasted, buttered, and sprinkled with cayenne or paprica and
salt. Lay a sardine on each and squeeze lemon-juice upon the
fish.
Or
You may give a foreign touch to this appetizing entree by lay-
ing the broiled sardines upon Holmes & Coutts' Banquet Wafers,
which have been toasted, buttered, and salted, with a dash of
cayenne, and covering these with Parmesan cheese. Sift cheese
also over the sardines, and set in the oven two minutes before
serving.
DUNDEE EGGS.
Boil six eggs for twenty-five minutes and leave them in cold
water for an hour. Make a paste of one cupful of cold chopped
528 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
ham, two tablespoonfuls of fine crumbs, and the same quantity
of milk ; season with a pinch of cayenne and half a teaspoon-
ful of made mustard. Bind with a raw egg. Peel the boiled
eggs, coat them with this mixture, set in a cold place for an
hour, and cook three minutes in hot, deep fat. Serve cold.
MARY HILL'S FINGER-ROLLS.
Heat three cupfuls of milk to a boil and add to it half a cupful
of butter, half a teaspoonful of salt and two dessertspoonfuls of
sugar. Set all aside until lukewarm, when stir into it the whites
of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and half a yeast cake, dis-
solved in a little warm water. Pour upon two quarts of sifted
flour, work into a dough, and knead fifteen minutes. Let it
rise over night. In the morning cut and slash the dough down
with a sharp knife and let it rise again. When light once more,
pull it into long finger -rolls and bake to a delicate brown.
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES.
Cut green tomatoes into thick slices, sprinkle with salt and
pepper, roll in egg and cracker crumbs and fry in deep cottolene,
as you would egg-plant. Serve with bacon, broiled ham, or
other meat, or as a vegetable.
EGG-PLANT FARCE.
Halve a fine egg-plant with care and scrape out the inside,
leaving the walls an inch thick. Chop the pulp taken out with
the pulp (not the seeds) of two ripe tomatoes, season well with
butter, pepper, and salt, and mix with a tablespoonful of dry
crumbs. With this mixture stuff the hollowed egg-plant, bind
the sides together with soft string, put into your covered roaster,
dash a cupful of boiling water over it, cover closely and steam
for an hour. Turn the egg-plant and cook for half an hour
longer. Remove the strings, peel the vegetable deftly and
serve. Pass drawn butter with it. In helping, cut into slices
an inch thick, breaking the stuffing as little as possible. The
walls of the egg-plant should be tender all through.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK $2$
EGG-PLANT FAROE WITH GREEN PEPPERS.
Cook as directed in the last recipe, but substitute green
peppers, seeded and minced, for the tomato-pulp in making the
stuffing.
CREAM TOMATO SALAD.
Pour boiling water over large ripe tomatoes to loosen the
skins, strip these off quickly and set the tomatoes on ice for sev-
eral hours. Cut each in half just before they are to be served,
sprinkle lightly with salt and paprica, lay upon a cold plate that
has been rubbed with garlic, and heap a great spoonful of
whipped cream upon it.
Do not be afraid to try this unusual combination. You will
find it delicious.
SALADE AU NHX
Boil seven eggs for twenty minutes, and when cold remove the
yolks and mash them to a paste with an equal quantity of Neuf-
chatel cream cheese. Season this with a half teaspoonful of salt,
and half as much paprica, or a pinch of cayenne, and make into
egg-shaped balls. Line a salad dish with crisp lettuce-leaves,
shred the whites of the eggs as fine as possible, and form a nest
of these upon the leaves. In this place the egg-balls and mask
them with a white mayonnaise. (See Salads.)
The salad is improved if the dressing is poured over it about
ten minutes before serving.
VEAL LOAF.
Two pounds of leg or loin veal, chopped very fine; quarter of
a pound of salt pork, chopped with the veal ; quarter of a cupful
of milk ; half a cupful of cracker-crumbs ; two eggs ; one tea-
spoonful of pepper ; two teaspoonfuls of salt ; one teaspoonful of
onion-juice ; one teaspoonful of kitchen-bouquet ; quarter of a
cupful of butter.
Mix all the ingredients but the last together, mould into a loaf,
and place in a pan, dot with the butter and sprinkle with flour.
34
53O THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
Bake one hour. Remove to a hot dish, thicken the gravy in
the pan with a tablespoonful of flour, brown, add half a pint of
boiling water, stir until smooth, with one teaspoonful of Worces-
tershire sauce, and pour over meat.
FRUIT BOUILLON.
One quart of tart cherries, or three cupfuls of raspberries and
one of currants ; three cupfuls of cold water ; half a cupful of
sugar ; one even tablespoonful of corn-starch.
Cook the fruit tender, rub through a colander, then through a
sieve, add the sugar, return to the fire and thicken with corn-
starch wet up in cold water. Cook two minutes after the boil is
reached, stirring all the time, and turn into a bowl. You can,
if you like, add a glass of claret when it is cold.
Serve the bouillon cold in punch-glasses, half-full of cracked
ice.
STRAWBERRY SAUCE.
Add to half a pint of cream, whipped light, half a pint of
fresh strawberries, crushed fine and sweetened to taste. Beat
all well together. There will be enough for eight persons. It
is eaten with blanc-mange, jelly, and cold farina pudding.
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 531
MENU
Englteb Sinner
RAW OYSTERS
CLEAR SOUP
BAKED STURGEON
POTATOES X LA PARISIENNE
ROAST SWEETBREADS WITH SAUCE SUPREME
ROAST SADDLE OF MUTTON
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
BOILED TURNIPS
JUGGED HARE WITH CURRANT JELLY
LETTUCE AND CELERY SALAD WITH MAYONNAISE DRESSING
PLUM TART WITH WHIPPED CREAM
FRUIT AND NUTS
COFFEE
HORS D'OZUVRES
OLIVES. PRESERVED GINGER. DAMSON CHEESE.
532 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MENU
German dinner
CAVIARE BARS
CLEAR BROWN SOUP WITH NOODLES
FLOUNDER FILLETS WITH SAUCE TARTARE
LYONNAISE POTATOES
BREADED SAUSAGES
RICE LOAVES
BRAISED BREAST OF VEAL WITH OYSTER SAUCE
BEET TOPS
STUFFED ONIONS
CROQUETTES OF LAMBS' LIVERS WITH SAUCE ALLEMANDE
RUSSIAN TOMATO AND SARDINE SALAD
JELLY OMELET
PEARS AND GRAPES
COFFEE
HORS D'CEUVRES
PATE DE FOIE GRAS. PICKLED BEETS. OLIVES
THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK 533
MENU
frencb Sinner
JULIENNE PRINTANIERE
SALMON WITH SAUCE HOLLANDAISE
POMMES DE TERRE SOUFFLES
FRENCH CHOPS WITH cfiPES A LA BORDELAISE
(8KB "A Dainty Dish," p. 131)
FILET DE BCEUF WITH SAUCE CHATEAUBRIAND
FRENCH SPINACH
BROILED SQUABS
LETTUCE AND ENDIVE SALAD WITH FRENCH DRESSING
NESSELRODE PUDDING
FRUIT
COFFEE
MARASCHINO
HORS D'CEUVRES
OLIVES. STUFFED DATES. RADISHES
534 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK
MENU
Italian Dinner
CREAM OF CELERY SOUP
PARMESAN CHEESE, PASSED WITH SOUP
OYSTER PATE'S
CALF'S HEAD AU GRATIN
FRIED POLENTA
ROAST TURKEY STUFFED WITH CHESTNUTS
STEWED ARTICHOKES
RICE AND TOMATO
MACARONI DI LUCCA
BROILED SNIPES
LETTUCE AND CHICORY SALAD WITH FRENCH DRESSING
FIG PUDDING WITH BRANDY SAUCE
MANDARINS. ORANGES. GRAPES
COFFEE
HORS D'OZUVRES
OLIVES. CANDIED FRUITS. CELERY
INDEX
ALEWIVES, smoked, 68
Almonds, salted, 6
Ambrosia, 461
Anchovy bars, 3
croutons, 463
strips, 3
Appetizers, I
Apple compote au gratin, 394
Apple pop-overs, 396, 458
Apples, 396
and bacon, 146
canned, 487
Apricots, brandied, 496
preserved, 494
Artichokes, 278
boiled, 278
fried, 278
Asparagus a la vinaigrette, 257
Asparagus, boiled, 257
pates, 258
scalloped, 257
tips, 258
Aspic, cucumber, 299
jelly, 106, 162
mayonnaise, 296
tomato, 299
BACON AND EGGS, 143
breakfast, fried, 143
on toast, 3
Baking powders, 343
Bananas and cream, 459
and wine, 459
baked, 279
croquettes, 279
fried, 279
Bass, boiled, 55
grilled, 55
Beans a la Lyonnaise, 252
Beans, kidney, 252
Lima, 251
stewed, 251
Beef a la mode, 98
Beef, braised, a la Jardiniere, 96
round of, 96
chipped, 1 08
corned, 102
and dumplings, 103
pressed, 104
curried roast, 101
fillet, 99
Hamburg steaks, 101
hash cakes, 101
mignon fillets, 99
mince of, and potatoes, IO2
mock hare, 107
moulded, 106
rib roast of, 95
, roast, with Yorkshire pudding,97
rolled roast of, 96
roulettes, 107
stew, 100
to corn, 103
Beef's heart, stuffed, 108
tongue (fresh), boiled, 105
braised, 105
tongue, jellied, 106
(smoked) boiled, 105
Beefsteak and onions, 100
broiled, 99
Chateaubriand, with mushrooms,
99
pudding, Ruth Pinch's, 100
rolled, braised, 97
Beet greens, 264
tops, 264
Beets (old), boiled, 264
(young), boiled, 263
536
INDEX
Beets, graham, 345
Biscuits, tea, 345
whole-wheat, 345
Blackberries, 458
brandied, 497
Blackberry cordial, 476
vinegar, 475
Blanc-mange, chocolate, 441
cocoanut, 447
coffee, 441
cornstarch, with brandied peach-
es, 440
narcissus, 442
plain, 439
tapioca, 440
tea, coffee, and chocolate, 441
tutti-frutti, 439
Bloaters, smoked, 68
Bluefish, broiled, 50
fillets, 55
Bouillon, 12
chicken, 16
_ fruit, 530
Brains (beef's or calf's), scalloped,
122
Brandied fruits, 496
Bread, braided, 339
Boston brown, 338
quick, 339
steamed, 338
corn-, loaf, 347
boiled, 348
graham, 336
home-made, set with sponge,
334
pulled, No. i, 342
No. 2, 342
whole-wheat, 338
Broccoli, 261
Broths, 1 8
Brunettes, 5
Brussels sprouts, 261
Bun-loaf, English, 368
Butter-fish, fried, 60
CABBAGE au maftre d'hotel, 260
Cabbage, boiled, 259
creamed, 259
scalloped, 259
'with cheese, 260
sprouts, 261
Stockholm, stewed, 260
Cafe au lait, 473
Cake, almond, 363
apple, 363
bun-loaf, English, 368
cocoanut loaf, No. I, 367
No. 2, 367
cream, 362
chocolate, 365
cup, 359
white, 361
currant, 364
filling, apple, 363
caramel, 366
chocolate, 366
cocoanut, No. i, 366
No. 2, 367
coffee, 367
cream, 365
chocolate, 365
raspberry, 366
fruit-, Christmas, 368
wedding-, 369
gold, 360
green-and-silver, 361
jelly roll, 368
quick, 363
marbled, 360
nut, 365
orange, 361
orange layer, 362
pink-and-silver, 361
pound, No. i, 358
No. 2, 359
raisin and citron, 364
seedless raisin, 364
silver, 360
sponge, No. i, 359
No. 2, 359
tea, blueberry, 417
English, 417
huckleberry, 417
wedding-, fruit, 369
Cakes and cake-making, 357
almond (small), 369
Boston cream, 370
Calf's head au gratin, 117
Calf's head, boiled, 118
fried, 118
timbales of, 118
Candy, chocolate caramels, 481
creams, 481
cream peppermints, 483
INDEX
537
Candy, cream wintergreens, 483
French bon-bons, 482
maple cream, 483
sugar, No. I, 481
No. 2, 482
nougat, 482
Canned fruits, 484
apples, 487
corn, 488
peaches, 486
pears, 487
plums, 487
tomatoes, 487
and corn, 488
Cantelopes, spiced, 492
Carrots, mashed, 272
saute, 272
stewed, 271
winter, creamed, 272
young, i la Parisienne, 271
creamed, 271
Catfish, fried, 63
stewed, 63
Catsup, apple chutney, 508
butternut, 507
chili sauce, 508
cucumber. 507
grape, 508
mushroom, 507
tomato, 506
walnut, 506
Cauliflower au gratin, 253
Cauliflower, baked, 254
boiled, 253
with tomato sauce, 253
Parisian style, 253
stewed, a la Hollandaise, 254
Caviare bars, 3
Caviare saute, 2
Celery au gratin, 281
Celery, creamed, 280
fried, 281
savory, 280
stewed wh le, 280
Chafing-dish, with the, 520
Celery chicken, 524
Celery lobster, 522
oysters, 521
Chicken rechauffe, Lake Forest,
524
Chicken terrapin, 524
Clams saute, 521
Chafing-dish, with the (Continued):
Deviled beef, 523
kidneys, 523
oysters, 520
sardines, 521
Eggs with kidneys, 523
" Hot chicken salad," 524
Hungarian mushrooms, 522
Oysters with anchovy, 521
Savory sausages, 524
Shrimps with anchovy sauce, 522
with tomato sauce, 522
Sweetbreads with asparagus tips,
525
Swiss Welsh rarebit, a, 525
Charlotte Russe, No. i, 448
No. 2, 448
No. 3, 448
strawberry, 446
Cheese and tongue ramakins, 212
Cheese balls, 213
cottage, 214
cream, home-made, 214
crofistades, 213
deviled crackers and, 212
fingers, 212
Fondu au gratin, 211
ramakins, 212
souffle, 2ii
straws, 213
Cherries, brandied, 497
pickled, 500
preserved, 495
German mode, 496
spiced, 492
Chestnut rofilettes, 291
Chicken and macaroni a la Milanaise,
156
Chicken and oysters, boiled, 152
rice, boiled, 151
mould of, 163
sweetbread croquettes, 164
baked with ham, 156
braised, 154
broiled, 155
cold, 164
casserole of, 159
croquettes, 164
cutlets, 156
deviled, fried, 155
deviled, with oyster sauce, 157
fricassee of, a la reine, 161
538
INDEX
Chicken, fricasseed, brown, 153
white, 152
fried, 152
Hungarian, 161
jellied, 162
pates, 165
filling for, 165
pie, 158
English, 158
prairie, roast, 176
pudding, Marseilles boiled, 163
fried, 155
roast, 150
scallop, 164
smothered, 154
timbales, 157
Turkish, with rice, 162
Chocolate, 473
milled, 474
Chowder, clam, No. I, 42
No. 2, 42
and oyster, 43
Bar Harbor, 526
corn, 26
and tomato, 26
fish, No. i, 43
No. 2, 44
New Jersey, 44
Clam bisque, 39
creamed, 40
Florida, 39
broth, 527
chowder, Bar Harbor, 526
fritters, 76
pie, 76
soup, 38
Clams, baked, 75
creamed, 75
how to open, 74
raw, 2
roast, 74
scalloped, 76
deviled, 75
Claret cup, 478
Cocoa, 474
nibs, 474
Cod, boiled, 64
steaks, 64
Codfish balls, 68
Codfish, fresh, scalloped, 64
salt, creamed, 67
Coffee, 472
Coffee, after-dinner or black, 473
breakfast, 472
frappe, 457
Cookies, molasses, 373
picnic, 373
Pompton, 372
spice, 372
sugar, 373
Cocktails, oyster, No. I, 2
No. 2, 2
Corn, boiled, 243
canned, 244
fritters, 244
stewed, 243
and tomatoes, 244
Corn-bread, boiled, 348
loaf, 347
Crab bisque, 526
Crabs au gratin, 87
Crabs, deviled, 87
fricassee of, 87
hard, 85
scalloped with mushrooms, 86
soft-shell, broiled, 85
saute, 85
Welsh rarebit, 86
Cream, Bavarian, 439
raspberry, 444
rose, 446
strawberry, French, 444
whipped, 449
Cresslets, 5
Croquettes, chicken, 164
and sweetbread, 164
hominy and meat, 282
plain, 283
lobster, 82
potato-, No. i, 225
No. 2, 225
rice, No. i, 235
No. 2, 236
and giblets, 236
mushrooms, 236
sweetbreads, 237
salmon, 58
shad roe, 53
sweetbreads, 121
and brains, 121
sweet potatoes, 229
and chestnut, 230
Crullers and doughnuts, 373
nonpareil, 374
INDEX
539
Crullers, Powhatan, 374
sour cream, 374
Cucumber aspic, 299
Cucumbers, creamed, 267
deviled, 266
fried, 266
in batter, 266
scalloped, No. I, 267
No. 2, 267
stewed, 265
stuffed, 265
Currants, frosted, 459
spiced, 492
Custard, chocolate, 437
strawberry, 437
Custards, arrow-root, 438
baked, 437
boiled, 436
general rules for, 436
orange, 438
tapioca, 440
DANDELION GREENS, 264
Dates, stuffed, 483
Doughnuts, New England, 375
quick, 375
Duck and green pease, ragout of,
173
Duck, braised, 171
salmi of, 172
Ducklings, roast, 172
Ducks, redhead or canvasback,
broiled, 176
roasted, 176
roast, 171
st*wed, 171
Dumplings, apple, 385
baked, 387
blackberry, 387
cherry, 385
baked, 387
farmers', 386
peach, 385
and rice, 386
canned, 387
rice and apple, 385
strawberry, 384
EASTER EGGS (sweet), 442
Eclairs, 370
Eels, fried, 66
stewed, 66
Egg and chicken timbales, 199
and tongue pates, 198
baskets, 197
.cups and anchovies, 197
and sardines, 197
cups and tongue, 198
with tomatoes, 197
flummery, 199
nogg, 479
plant, broiled, 270
farcie, 528
fried, No. i, 269
No. 2, 269
stuffed, 270
Eggs a la creme, 191
a la Lyonnaise, 191
a la Milanaise, 193
and asparagus, 206
bacon, 195
barbecued ham, 196
mushrooms, 196
rice, 200
tomatoes, 195
boiled, 1 88
breaded, 196
buttered, 194
creamed, poached, 190
scrambled, 193
curried, 192
deviled, 192, 523
dropped, 190
Dundee, 527
Easter (sweet), 442
fancy dishes of, 197
fried, No. i, 195
No. 2, 195
jonquil, 193
Neapolitan, 196
poached, 190
in consomme, 191
powdered, 192
savory, 191
scrambled, 193
with shad roes, 194
shirred, 189
steamed, 189
stirred, 194
stuffed, 20 1
and baked, 2OI
cold, 201
Swedish dish of, 194
timbales, 199
540
INDEX
FAMILIAR TALKS :
A Woman's Luncheon, 291
A Word About Pots and Pans,
173
An Inexpensive Luncheon, 206
Bread, 329
Children's Diet, 510
Dust, Dusting, and Dusters, 418
Kitchen Physic, 183
Something About Sauces, 313
Tea, Tea - making, and Tea-
drinking, 214
The Dignity of Economy, 45
The " Quick " Luncheon, 354
Wholesale or Retail ? 399
Wrinkles for Housekeepers,
90
Finnan haddie, 68
Fish cutlets, 60
fillets, 60
saute, 60
scalloped, 61
steaks, 60
Flapjacks, Indian meal, 352
Floating Island, plain, 438
strawberry, 438
Flounder fillets, 59
Flounders, broiled, 50
Flour, whole-wheat, 337
Flummery, raspberry, 444
French dressing for salads, 297
Fritter batter, No. I, 409
No. 2, 409
No. 3, 410
Fritters, apple, 411
banana, 412
bread, 413
clam, 76
corn, 244
cream, 411
custard, 410
jelly cake, 412
nut, 411
orange, 412
peach, 410
potato, 228, 413
rusk, 412
squash, 269
strawberry, 414
Swiss, 413
Frogs' legs, fried, 89
stewed, 90
GEMS, gluten, 347
graham, 345
rice, 347
Gingerbread, eggless, No. I, 376
No. 2, 376
loaf, 376
raisin, 376
sugar, 375
Gingersnaps, No. I, 372
No. 2, 372
Golden Buck, No. I, 210
No. 2, 211
No. 3, 211
Goose, braised, 170
German ragout of, 170
roast, 169
Grape-fruit, 8
Grapes, 9
spiced, 492
Grayling, 62
Griddle-cakes, 350
bread-and-milk, 352
buckwheat, 351
flannel, No. I, 351
No. 2, 351
without eggs, 351
hominy, 352
rice, 352
Grisini, 340
Grouse, broiled (larded), 177
roast, 176
salmi of, 177
HADDIE, finnan, 68
Halibut, baked, 55
loaf, 64
steaks a la Jardiniere, 56
boiled au gratin, 56
broiled, 56
Ham and eggs, 142
broiled, 143
Sunnybank, 141
and potato balls, 143
baked, 140
barbecued, 142
boiled, 139
breaded, 139
saute, 142
broiled, 141
fried, 142
pates, 144
smothered, 141
INDEX
541
Ham, stuffed, 140
Hare, jugged, 181
mock, 107
Hare, roast, 181
Hen's nest, a, 201
Herrings, smoked, 68
Hominy, 281
and meat croquettes, 282
baked (small), 282
boiled (large), 282
browned (large), 282
croquettes (plain), 283
fried, 283
ICE, cherry, 456
coffee frappe, 457
Ice-cream, banana, 454
brown-bread, 454
chocolate, 452
coffee, 452
currant and raspberry, 456
Delmonico, 451
frozen pudding, 453
fruit, with fruit frozen in, 453
ginger, 457
lemon, 453
mousse, raspberry, 456
strawberry, 455
Nesselrode pudding, 454
self-freezing, 452
tutti-frutti, 453
Ice, currant, 455
and raspberry, 455
fruit surprise, 454
ginger, 457
lemon or sherbet, 455
orange, 455
raspberry, 457
Roman punch, 456
strawberry, 456
Icing, boiled or fondant, 377
chocolate, 377
plain, 377
Irish stew, 131
JAM, blackberry, 490
damson, 491
gooseberry, 490
raspberry, 490
strawberry, 490
Jelly, apple, 490
blackberry, 489
Jelly, cider, 450
claret, 450
crab-apple, 489
currant, 489
grape, 489
lemon, 450
orange, French, 446
peach, 490
quince, 490
strawberries in, 445
strawberry, 489
wine, 450
Julep, ginger-ale, 478
mint, 478
Jumbles, No. i, 371
No. 2, 371
KIDNEYS, deviled, 135
stewed with wine, 134
stuffed, 136
toasted, 135
with bacon, 135
Kohl-Rabi, 261
LADY-FINGERS, 371
Lamb and mutton, 126
Lamb, barbecued, 133
braised breast of, 127
chops, 128
a dainty dish, 131
a la Milanaise, 132
breaded, 128
creamed, 129
leg of, roast, 126
minced balls of, 133
shoulder of, roast, 127
stewed, and green pease, 130
Lard, apropos to, 146
Lemonade, 475
Lettuce, boiled, 268
steamed, 268
Liver, calf's, a la Jardiniere, 122
a la mode, 125
and bacon, 123
braised, 125
pate, 124
saute, 124
stewed, 123
stuffed, 124
pigs, and bacon, 145
Lobster a la brochette, 83
a la Newburg, No. I, 82
542
INDEX
Lobster a la Newburg, No. 2, 83
No. 3, 83
and mushroom fricassee, 82
and oyster ragout, 80
broiled, 78
buttered, 79
chops, 80
creamed, 80
croquettes, 82
curried, 81
deviled, 81
farcied, 79
fried, 84
gumbo, 84
Lobsters, how to open, 77
MACARONI AND HAM, 241
and tomato, baked, 241
au gratin, 239
di Lucca, 240
Spanish style, 240
stewed, a la Turque, 242
Macaroons, 370
cocoanut, 371
Mackerel, fresh, broiled, 50
salt, boiled, 66
broiled, 66
with tomato sauce, 67
Marmalade, apricot, 491
orange, 491
peach, 491
Mayonnaise, aspic, 296
dressing, 295
green, red, white, 296
Meats, 94
Melons, 458
Milk shake, 479
Muffins, buttermilk, 348
corn-meal, 348
hominy, 349
minute, 349
mush, 348
Mushroom cups, 288
Mushrooms, 284
and bacon, broiled, 287
fried, 288
scrambled eggs, 290
shirred eggs, 290
au gratin, 289
aux fines herbes, 290
baked (plain), 288
broiled, No. i, 286
Mushrooms, broiled, No. 2, 287
No. 3, 465
creamed, 289
fried, 287
au maitre d'hotel, 287
scalloped, 289
stewed in wine, 289
Mutton and rice, mould of, 133
Mutton, boiled, 129
chops, 128
braised, 132
stuffed, 128
game, 129
leg of, stuffed, 127
shoulder of, boned, 130
NURSERY TABLE, THE, 513
Bread, corn-, 515
graham, 515
Brewis, graham, 516
Celery, stewed, 519
Crackers, toasted, 516
Hominy boiled in milk, 514
Macaroni, stewed, 519
Mush, 514
Oatmeal porridge, 514
Oyster plant, stewed, 519
Panada, 517
Potato puff, 517
Potato, scalloped, 517
Potatoes, stewed, 517
whole. 518
stuffed, 517
sweet, buttered, 518
puff, 518
scalloped, 518
Porridge, oatmeal, 514
rice, 515
Pudding, hasty, 514
Rice and tomato, 519
Rice porridge, 515
Toast, milk, 516
Tomatoes, scalloped, 518
OLIVE AND CAPER BARS, 6
Olives, stuffed, 465
Omelet and shad roes, 205
Omelet, apple, 435
asparagus, 205
aux confitures, 434
fines herbes, 204
cheese, 205
INDEX
543
Omelet, clam, 204
corn, 205
frothed, 202
jelly, 435
mushroom, 204
plain, 202
sausage, 203
souffle, baked, 434
fried, 434
Spanish, 206
tomato, No. I, 203
No. 2, 203
with green pease, 203
smoked beef, 203
Onions, baked, 263
Bermuda, stuffed, 263
boiled, 262
young, stewed, 262
Orangeade, 475
Oranges, 9, 458
Oyster cocktails, No. I, 2
No. 2, 2
pates, 72
pie, 72
Oysters, broiled, No. I, 70
No. 2, 70
creamed, 69
curried, 72
fried, 70
a la brochette, 73
au supreme, 70
panned, No. I, 69
No. 2, 70
raw, 2
roast, a la brochette, 73
roasted, 69
scalloped, 71
au supreme, 71
PANCAKES, green pea, 251
queen's, 413
Panfish, fried, 60
Parsnip cakes, 275
Parsnips, buttered, 275
creamed, 276
fried, 275
Partridges, roast, 178
Pastry, 424
Peaches, 458
and cream, 459
brandied, 496
Peanuts, salted, 7
Pears, 458
and cream, 459
Pease, black-eyed, 252
canned, 250
green, 250
plain puree of, 251
puree of, 250
Pepper baskets, 274
Pepper mangoes, 504
Peppers, green, au gratin, 273
sweet, fried, 273
stuffed, 273
Perch, fried, 60
Pickerel, creamed, 63
fried, 63
Pickles (sour), 498
butternuts, 503
cabbage, 501
cauliflower, 500
cherries, 500
chow-chow (English), 501
(Southern), 502
cucumbers, sliced, 499
small, 498
mangoes, 503
pepper, 504
mixed, 465
onions, 499
picklette, 500
soy, green tomato, 502
string-beans, 499
walnuts, 503
Pickles (sweet), 504
peaches (peeled), 504
(unpeeled), 504
pears (peeled), 505
(unpeeled), 505
plums, 505
watermelon rind, 505
Pie, amber lemon, 432
apple, No. i, 426
No. 2, 426
cream, 426
custard, 427
meringue, 427
cherry, No. i, 429
No. 2, 429
cocoanut, 431
custard, 431
custard, 431
gooseberry (ripe), 430
how to make a, 424
544
INDEX
Pie, lemon, No. i, 431
No. 2, 432
amber or ' ' transparent," 432
mince, 425
orange, 431
peach and almond, 427
cobbler, 428
meringue, 427
open, 428
whole, 427
with whipped cream, 428
pumpkin, 425
rhubarb, 430
rice-and-raisin, 426
strawberry, 429
Pigeon pie, 179
Pigeons, braised with mushrooms, 179
curried, 180
jugged, English, 179
mock, 115
roast (wild), 178
Pigs' feet, boiled, 144
breaded, 145
Pineapple and wine, 460
in the shell, 460
Polenta, 283
savory, a 1'Italienne, 284
Pommes de terre souffles, 226
Pop-overs, 395
apple, 396
Pork, 136
and beans, 146
chops, 137
pie, Yorkshire, 139
pot-pie, 138
roast, 137
spare -rib, 138
steaks, 138
tenderloin, 138
Potato, casserole of, 224
croquettes, No. I, 225
No. 2, 225
dice, baked, 227
fritters, 228
moulded, 224
omelet, 227
scones, 223
souffle, 226
turnovers, 223
Potatoes a la creme, 225
Potatoes, baked, stuffed, 227
Swedish, 227
Potatoes, baked, whole, 227
boiled, au naturel, 222
fried, 225
Lyonnaise, 224
mashed, 222
moulded, mashed, 223
new, 223
Saratoga, 226
stewed whole, 223
sweet, 228
au gratin, 229
baked, 228
boiled, 228
creamed, 229
croquettes, 229
and chestnut, 230
puff, 229
saute, 229
Poultry, 149
Pousse-cafe, a Virginia, 464
Preserved cherries, 495
German mode, 496
peaches, 493
pears, 494
pineapple, 495
plums, 494
quinces, 494
strawberries, 496
water-melon, 495
Pudding, apple, 380
and tapioca, 392
compote au gratin, 394
arrow-root, 439
blackberry, baked, 388
raised, 384
bread, 389
and jam, No. I, 390
No. 2, 390
brown betty, steamed, 381
cabinet, steamed, 382-
cherry, 383
and currant, 383
chocolate souffle, 395
cottage, 393
date, 380
English biscuit, 391
fruit, 381
potato, 382
farina souffle, 391
fig, 380
frozen, 453
huckleberry, baked, 386
INDEX
545
Pudding, Indian, 389
steamed, 380
La Regina, 397
lemon, 396
boiled, 384
macaroni, 388
souffle, 397
orange, 394, 396
roly-poly, 381
peach, 380
batter, 388
pineapple, 395
plum, 378
quick, 379
steamed, 379
prune souffle, No. I, 394
No. 2, 394
queen of puddings, 399
raspberry, 383
rhubarb, 398
and tapioca, 398
rice-and-raisin, 393
rice-custard, No. I, 393
No. 2, 393
plain, 392
sago, 392
snow, 447
strawberry, 382
sweet potato, 389
tapioca, 391
vermicelli, 398
souffle, 398
Victoria, 449
Puff-paste, a good, 424
QUAILS, broiled, 178
roast, 177
RABBITS, Bordeaux, stewed, 180
roast. 181
Raspberry flummery, 444
royal, 476
vinegar, 475
Rice and giblet pudding, 238
sausage, 239
tomato, 234
boiled, 232
broiled, 234
buttered, 235
casserole of, 239
cheese and, 232
Swiss, 235
Rice croquettes, No. i, 235
No. 2, 236
and giblet, 236
mushroom, 236
sweetbread, 237
curry, baked, 233
fried, 235
loaves, 233
pilau, No. i, 238
No. 2, 238
saute, 234
savory, a la Milanaise, 232
mould of, 237
with tomato sauce, 233
Rolls, breakfast, 341
crescent, or horseshoe, 339
finger, 340
Mary Hill's, 528
grisini, 340
tea, No. I, 340
No. 2, 341
Vienna, 340
Roux, brown, 21
white, 20
and brown, to keep, 316
Rusk, 346
SALAD, asparagus, 305
au nid, 529
beet, stuffed, 300
cabbage, 305
cauliflower, 305
celery, 304
and apple, 304
radish, 304
tomato jelly, 304
chestnut, 312
and walnut, 312
chicken, 310
chicory, 300
crab, 308
soft-shell, 308
cream tomato, 529
cress, 300
cucumber, 301
stuffed, 301
dandelion, 300
and beet, 303
dressing, boiled, J*Jo. i, 298
No. 2 (with whipped
cream), 298
No. 3, 298
546
INDEX
Salad dressing, boiled, No. 4, 299
French, 297
mayonnaise, 295
egg, No. i, 306
No. 2, 306
endive, 300
fish, a 1'Espagnol, 309
French, 309
plain, 309
fruit, French, 312
grape-fruit, 311
green pease, 301
lettuce, 299
and cucumber, 302
tomato, 302
romaine, 300
lobster, 307
a 1' Allemande, 308
a la Russe, 308
en casserole, 308
macedoine, 301
melon, 311
orange, 311
oyster, 307
potato, 304
pot-cheese, No. I, 306
No. 2, 306
salmon and cucumber, 310
sardine, 309
shrimp, 307
string-bean, 301
sweetbread, 310
and celery, 311
tomato and lettuce, 302
tomato baskets with celery, 303
with chicken, 303
cucumbers, 303
green pease, 302
shrimps, 303
sweetbreads, 303
tomato cream, 529
Russian and sardine, 302
vegetable, 301
walnut, 311
and apple, 311
Salads, 294
Sally Lunn, 342
Salmon, boiled, 57
au court bouillon, 57
chops, 59
croquettes, 58
loaf, 61
Salmon pudding, 62
rechauffe, 57
smoked, 3, 67
quick relish of, 67
steaks, 57
canned, 58
trout, creamed, 62
Salsify, fried, 274
fritters, 274
saute, 275
stewed, 274
Sand tarts, 371
Sandwiches, beef, 470
celery, 469
cheese-and-lettuce, 467
chicken, 4, 466
and almond, 4
and ham, 466
cream-cheese, 469
cress, 469
egg, 46?
and anchovy, 467
deviled, 5
French, 468
ham, 466
lettuce, 5, 469
lobster mayonnaise, 467
mayonnaise, 468
mutton, 471
nasturtium, 6
peanut, 6
piquant, 469
raisin, 470
roll, 466
sardine, 467
and olive, 4
sausage, 470
savory, 468
supper-cheese, 471
tongue, 468
tutti-frutti, 470
walnut-and-cheese, 470
Sardine canapes, 464
Sardines au gratin, 68
Sardines, broiled, 527
grilled, 4
Sauce (pudding), 403
banana fritters, 412
brandied peach, 406
brandy, 404
hard, 407
cream, 403
INDEX
547
Sauce, custard, 405
egg, 405
fruit-juice, 405
puree of, 407
hard brandy, 407
pink, 407
ruby, 407
white, 407
jelly, 405
lemon souffle, 404
milk-pudding, 403
plum-pudding, 379
sherry, 404
souffle (cold), 404
strawberry, No. i, 406
No. 2, 406
No. 3, 530
tart claret, 406
tutti-frutti, 408
vanilla, 403
Sauces (savory), 313
Allemande, 318
anchovy egg, 319
Bearnaise, 325
Bechamel, No. i (for fish), 318
No. 2 (for meat), 318
Bordelaise, 324
bread, 324
brown or Spanish, 316
butter, 317
tartare, 317
caper, 323
celery, 323 -
Chateaubriand, 324
Chaudfroid, 326
chestnut, 323
clam, 320
cranberry, No. i, 325
No. 2, 325
No. 3, 325
cream, 316
cucumber, No. i, 321
No. 2, 321
No. 3, 321
currant jelly, 326
curry egg, 319
egg, 319
anchovy, 319
curry, 319
Hollandaise, 317
green, 317
horseradish, 323
Sauces (savory) (Continued) :
lobster, No. i, 320
No. 2, 320
No. 3, 321
" made mustard," 327
maitre d'hotel, 323
mint, 322
mushroom, 324
onion, 323
oyster, No. i, 320
No. 2, 320
Robert, 326
sorrel, 322
soubise, 323
Spanish, 316
supreme, 318
tartare, 326
tomato, No. I, 321
No. 2, 322
velofite, 326
white, 315
Sausages, 145
breaded, 145
Sauterne cup, 479
Savories, 462
Savory, a Chicago, 464
an English, 464
Scallops, creamed, 77
fried, No. i, 77
No. 2, 77
Scones, Scotch, 346
Sunnybank, 346
Scotch tid-bit, a, 464
Scotch woodcock, 464
Sea kale, 261
Shad, baked au court bouillon, 50
boiled au court bouillon, 51
with egg sauce, 51
broiled, 50
fried, 52
planked, 52
roes, 52
broiled, 53
croquettes of, 53
scalloped, 54
stuffed, 54
Shaddocks, 8
Sherbet, Lamed tea, 477
orange, 477
pineapple, 476
strawberry, 476
Sherry cobbler, 478
548
INDEX
Shortcake, black raspberry, 416
breakfast berry, 350
currant, 416
orange, 416
our grandmothers', 349
strawberry, No. I, 415
strawberry, No. 2, 415
No. 3, 415
Shrimps, coquilles of , a la Torquay,
88
creamed, 89
curried, 89
deviled, 6, 88
stewed, 88
Slaw, hot, 261
Smelts, broiled, 60
fried, 60
Snipe, 1 80
Soup a la Russe, 13
Soup, amber, 12
another Lenten broth, 25
asparagus, cream of, 30
beet, cream of, 31
brown consomme, 17
calf's head, or mock turtle, 35
cauliflower broth, 25
celery consomme royale, 14
cream of, 28
clam, 38
and oyster chowder, 43
bisque, 39
creamed, 40
Florida, 39
broth, 527
chowder, No. I, 42
No. 2, 42
Bar Harbor, 526
clear brown, 13
celery, 16
tapioca, 15
with croutons, 16
with green pease, 16
chicken and corn broth, 27
bisque, 24
bouillon, 16
broth, 20
consomme, 16
consomme, brown, 17
chicken, 16
corn and tomato chowder, 26
chowder, 26
cream of, 32
Soup, crab bisque, 526
Martha Washington, 41
cream of asparagus, 30
beet, 31
celery, 28
of corn, 32
green pea (Swedish), 30
lettuce, 29
Lima bean, 31
onion, 29
oyster, 38
sorrel, 29
spinach, 31
tomato, 30
turnip, 29
eel, 42
English barley broth, 21
fish bisque, 40
chowder, No. I, 43
No. 2, 44
giblet, 36
green pea and tomato puree, 34
cream of, 30
Gumbo, No. I, 35
No. 2, 36
Highlander's delight, 27
Julienne, 14
printanidre, 14
lettuce, cream of, 29
Lima bean, cream of, 31
liver, 36
lobster bisque, 39
mock turtle, 35
beans, puree of, 33
New Jersey broth, 22
chowder, 44
onion, cream of, 29
ox-tail, 34
oyster bisque, 38
a la reine, 39
cream of, 38
potato puree, 32
browned, 32
rabbit, or " old hare," 37
rice and curry puree, 34
salmon bisque, 40
Scotch broth, 20
sorrel, cream of, 29
spaghetti, 15
spinach, cream of, 31
split pea, puree of, 33
Sweetbread, 13
INDEX
549
Soup, tomato and rice broth, 23
cream of, 30
turnip, cream of, 29
veal and sago broth, 23
vegetable, 24
vermicelli, 15
Virginia game broth, 28
white veal broth, 22
Soups, 10
clear stock for, 12
Spaghetti and mushroom timbales,243
sweetbread timbales, 242
plain, 240
Spinach a la Geneve, 256
Spinach, boiled plain, 256
French, 255
German, 254
in a mould, 255
souffle, 255
Sprats, smoked, 4
Squabs, broiled, 179
Squash, baked, 269
boiled, 268
fritters, 269
Strawberries, 458
and claret, 459
in ambush, 457
jelly, 445
Strawberry Charlotte, 446
foam, 445
French cream, 444
sponge, 445
Sturgeon, baked, 65
steaks, 65
Succotash, 244
Sunny bits, 463
Sweetbread croquettes, 121
Sweetbreads & la poulette, 120
Sweetbreads and brains, croquettes
of, 121
braised, 120
broiled, 119
fried. 120
roasted, 119
stewed, 119
TARTINES, savory, 463
sweet pepper and cheese, 463
Tartlets, lemon, 432
Tarts, apricot, 429
cranberry, 429
currant, 430
Tarts, gooseberry (green), 430
lemon (Christmas), 432
plum and cream, 428
rhubarb, 430
Tea, cambric, 475
making, 214
sherbet, Larned, 477
Terrapin, imitation, 121
Philadelphia, 74
stewed, 73
Tipsy parson. 448
Toast, baked, 353
egg, 200
tomato, 354
Tomato aspic, 299
Tomato paste, 506
Tomatoes au gratin, 245
Tomatoes, baked, No. I, 246
No. 2, 247
broiled, with sauce, 245
Calcutta, curry of, 248
creamed, 247
curried, 248
deviled, 249
East Indian ragotit of, 249
fried in batter, 249
green, 528
plain, 249
scalloped, No. i, 246
No. 2, 246
spiced, 492
stewed, 245
stuffed, No. i, 247
No. 2, 248
with sauce piquante, 248
Trifle, gooseberry, 443
hedgehog, 448
orange, 447
peach. No. i, 443
No. 2, 449
raspberry, 443
sponge-cake, 443
tipsy parson, 448
Tripe, stewed, 104
Tropical snow, 460
Trout, brook, 62
Turkey and sausage scallop, 167
boned, 168
chestnut stuffing for, 165
Florentine roast, 165
galantine of, 167
hashed, 168
550
INDEX
Turkey, oyster stuffing for, 166
scalloped, 166
second day, 166
Turnips and carrots & la Paris-
ienne, 277
Turnips, mashed, 277
puree of, 277
young, 276
fried, 277
stewed, 276
VEAL, 109
and ham pates, 114
and ham pie, 113
and mushroom scallop, 114
braised breast of, no
chops or cutlets, in
" company dish " of, 114
eggs in nest, & la Turin, 116
fillet of, roast, no
stewed, 112
knuckle of, stewed with dump-
lings, 112
loaf, 115, 529
loin of, roast, no
mock pigeons, 115
Veal, pressed, or galantine, 116
scalloped, 113
shoulder, roast, ill
souffle, 117
steaks, ill
Venison pasty, 182
roast, 182
steak, 182
Vinegar celery, 509
Vinegar, mint, 508
onion, 509
tarragon, 509
WAFFLES, minute, 353
rice, 353
risen, 353
Welsh rarebit, No. I, 209
No. 2, 210
No. 3, 210
No. 4, 210
Wild cherry bounce, 480
Woodcock, 1 80
YEAST, 333
hop, 333
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