A little cook book for a little girl

by Caroline French Benton

PART II.

THE THINGS MARGARET MADE FOR LUNCHEON OR SUPPER

So many things in this part of Margaret's book call for white sauce, or cream sauce, that the rule for that came first of all.

White or Cream Sauce

1 tablespoonful of butter. 1 tablespoonful of flour. 1 cup hot milk or cream, one-third teaspoonful of salt.

Melt the butter, and when it bubbles put in the flour, shaking the saucepan as you do so, and rub till smooth. Put in the hot milk, a little at a time, and stir and cook without boiling till all is smooth and free from lumps. Add the salt, and, if you choose, a little pepper.

Cream sauce is made exactly as is white sauce, but cream is used in place of milk. What is called thick white sauce is made by taking two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and only one cup of milk.

Creamed Oysters

1 pint oysters. 1 large cup of cream sauce.

Make the sauce of cream if you have it, and if not use a very heaping tablespoonful of butter in the white sauce. Keep this hot.

Drain off the oyster-juice and wash the oysters by holding them under the cold-water faucet. Strain the juice and put the oysters back in it, and put them on the fire and let them just simmer till the edges of the oysters curl; then drain them from the juice again and drop them in the sauce, and add a little more salt (celery-salt is nice if you have it), and just a tiny bit of cayenne pepper. You can serve the oysters on squares of buttered toast, or put them in a large dish, with sifted bread-crumbs over the top and tiny bits of butter, and brown in the oven. Or you can put them in small dishes as they are, and put a sprig of parsley in each dish.

Panned Oysters

Take the oysters from their juice, strain it, wash the oysters, and put them back in. Put them in a saucepan with a little salt,—about half a teaspoonful to a pint of oysters,—and a little pepper, and a piece of butter as large as the end of your thumb. Let them simmer till the edges curl, just as before, and put them on squares of hot buttered toast.

Scalloped Oysters

1 pint of oysters. 12 large crackers, or 1 cup of bread-crumbs. 1/2 cup of milk. The strained oyster-juice.

Butter a deep baking-dish. Roll the crackers, or make the bread-crumbs of even size; some people like one better than the other, and you can try both ways. Put a layer of crumbs in the dish, then a layer of oysters, washed, then a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a few bits of butter. Then another layer of crumbs, oysters, and seasoning, till the dish is full, with crumbs on the top. Mix the milk and oyster-juice and pour slowly over. Then cover the top with bits of butter, and bake in the oven till brown—about half an hour.

You can put these oysters into small dishes, just as you did the creamed oysters, or into large scallop-shells, and bake them only ten or fifteen minutes. In serving, put a small sprig of parsley into each.

Pigs in Blankets

These were great fun to make, and Margaret often begged to get them ready for company.

15 large oysters. 15 very thin slices of bacon.

Sprinkle each oyster with a very little salt and pepper. Trim the rind from the bacon and wrap each oyster in one slice, pinning this ``blanket'' tightly on the back with a tiny Japanese wooden toothpick. Have ready a hot frying-pan, and lay in five oysters, and cook till the bacon is brown and the edges of the oysters curl, turning each over once. Put these on a hot plate in the oven with the door open, and cook five more, and so on. Put them on a long, narrow platter, with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley around. Or you can put each one on a strip of toast which you have dipped in the gravy in the pan; this is the better way. This dish must be eaten very hot, or it will not be good.

Creamed Fish

2 cups of cold fish. 1 cup of white sauce.

Pick any cold fish left from dinner into even bits, taking out all the bones and skin, and mix with the hot white sauce. Stir until smooth, and add a small half-teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

You can put this in a buttered baking-dish and cover the top with crumbs and bits of butter, and brown in the oven, or you can put it in small dishes and brown also, or you can serve it just as is, in little dishes.

Creamed Lobster

1 lobster, or the meat from 1 can. 1 large cup of white or cream sauce.

Take the lobster out of the shell and clean it; Bridget will have to show you how the first time. Or, if you are using canned lobster, pour away all the juice and pick out the bits of shell, and find the black string which is apt to be there, and throw it away. Cut the meat in pieces as large as the end of your finger, and heat it in the sauce till it steams. Put in a small half-teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon. Do not put this in a large dish, but in small ones, buttered well, and serve at once. Stand a little claw up in each dish.

Creamed Salmon

1 can salmon. 1 cup of white sauce.

Prepare this dish exactly as you did the plain creamed white fish. Take it out of the can, remove all the juice, bones, and fat, and put in the white sauce, and cook a moment till smooth. Add a small half-teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, and a squeeze of lemon, and put in a baking-dish and brown, or serve as it is, in small dishes.

Scalloped Lobster or Salmon

1 can of fish, or 1 pint. 1 large cup of cracker or bread crumbs. 1 large cup of white sauce.

Prepare this dish almost as you did the scalloped oysters. Take out all the bones and skin and juice from the fish; butter a baking-dish, put in a layer of fish, then salt and pepper, then a layer of crumbs and butter, and a layer of white sauce, then fish, seasoning, crumbs and butter again, and have the crumbs on top. Dot over with butter and brown in the oven, or serve in small dishes.

Crab Meat in Shells

You can buy very nice, fresh crab meat in tins, and the shells also. A very delicious dish is made by mixing a cup of rich cream sauce with the crab meat, seasoning it well with salt and pepper and putting in the crab-shells; cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven. This is a nice thing to have for a company luncheon.

Creamed Chicken or Turkey

2 cups of cold chicken. 1 large cup of white or creamed sauce. 1/2 teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Salt and pepper.

Pick the chicken or turkey off the bones and cut into small bits before you measure it. Heat it in the sauce till very hot, but do not let it boil, and add the seasoning,—about half a teaspoonful of salt, and a tiny bit of cayenne, or as much celery-salt in the place of the common kind. Put in a large buttered dish and serve, or in small dishes, either with crumbs on top or not.

A nice addition to this dish is half a green pepper, the seeds taken out, chopped very fine indeed, and mixed with the white meat; the contrast of colors is pretty and the taste improved.

Scalloped Eggs

6 hard-boiled eggs. 1 cup cream or white sauce. 1 cup fine bread-crumbs. Salt and pepper.

Cook the eggs twenty minutes, and while they are cooking make the white sauce, and butter one large or six small dishes. Peel the eggs and cut them into bits as large as the end of your finger. Put a layer of bread-crumbs on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of egg, then a sprinkling of salt, pepper, and bits of butter, then a layer of white sauce. Then more crumbs, egg, and seasoning, till the dish is full, with crumbs on top. Put bits of butter over all and brown in the oven.

Eggs in Double Cream

This is a rule Margaret's Pretty Aunt got in Paris, and it is a very nice one. Have half a pint of very thick cream—the kind you use to whip; the French call this double cream. Cook six eggs hard and cut them into bits. Butter a baking-dish, or small dishes, and put in a layer of egg, then a layer of cream, then a sprinkling of salt, and one of paprika, which is sweet red pepper. Put one thin layer of fine, sifted crumbs on top with butter, and brown in the oven. Or you can put the eggs and cream together and heat them, and serve on thin pieces of buttered toast, with one extra egg put through the ricer over the whole.

Creamed Eggs in Toast

Make small pieces of nice toast and dip each one in white sauce. Boil hard four eggs, and cut in even slices and cover the toast, and then spread the rest of the white sauce over all in a thin layer.

Devilled Eggs

6 eggs. 2 saltspoonfuls of dry mustard. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 saltspoonful of cayenne pepper. 1 teaspoonful of olive-oil or cream. 1 large tablespoonful of chopped ham. 1/2 teaspoonful of vinegar.

Boil the eggs hard for twenty minutes, and put them in cold water at once to get perfectly cold so they will not turn dark. Then peel, cut in halves and take out the yolks. Put these in a bowl, and rub in the seasoning, but you can leave out the ham if you like. With a small teaspoon, put the mixture back into the eggs and smooth them over with a knife.

If you do not serve these eggs with cold meat it is best to lay them on lettuce when you send them to the table.

Eggs in Beds

Chop a cup of nice cold meat, and season with a little salt, pepper and chopped parsley. Add enough stock or hot water just to wet it, and cook till rather dry. Put this in buttered baking-dishes, filling each half-full, and on top of each gently slip from a cup one egg. Sprinkle over with salt and pepper, and put in the oven till firm.

Shepherd's Pie

This was a dish Margaret used to make on wash-day and house-cleaning day, and such times when everybody was busy and no one wanted to stop and go to market to buy anything for luncheon.

1 cup of chopped meat. 1 cup of boiling water. 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 teaspoonful of lemon juice, or 1/2 teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce. Butter the size of a hickory-nut. 2 cups hot mashed potato.

If the potato is cold, put half a cup of hot milk in it, beat it up well, and stand it on the back of the stove. Then mix all the other things with the meat, and put it in the frying-pan and let it cook till it seems rather dry. Butter a baking-dish, and cover the sides and bottom with a layer of potato an inch thick. Put the meat in the centre and cover it over with potato and smooth it. Put bits of butter all over the top, and brown it in the oven. Serve with this a dish of chow-chow, or one of small cucumber pickles.

Chicken Hash

1 cup of cold chicken, cut in small, even pieces. 1/2 cup chicken stock, or hot water. 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. A pinch of pepper. Butter the size of a hickory-nut.

Put the chicken stock,—which is the water the chicken was cooked in, or chicken broth,—or, if there is none, the hot water, into the frying-pan, and mix in the chicken and seasoning, and cook and stir till it is rather dry. Serve as it is, or on squares of buttered toast. You can make any cold meat into hash this way, having it different every time. Sometimes you can put in the chopped green pepper, as before, or a slice of chopped onion, or a cup of hot, seasoned peas; or, leave out half the soup or water, and put in a cup of stewed tomato.

Broiled Sardines

These little fish are really not broiled at all, but that is the name of the nice and easy dish. Take a box of large sardines and drain off all the oil, and lay them on heavy brown paper while you make four slices of toast. Trim off the edges and cut them into strips, laying them in a row on a hot platter. Put the sardines into the oven and make them very hot, and lay one on each strip of toast and sprinkle them with lemon juice, and put sliced lemon and sprigs of parsley all around.

Cheese Fondu

This was a recipe the Pretty Aunt put in Margaret's book out of the one she had made at cooking school.

1 cup fresh bread-crumbs. 2 cups grated cheese. 1 cup of milk. 1 bit of soda as large as a pea. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 pinch of red pepper. 1 teaspoonful of butter. 2 eggs.

Put the butter in a saucepan to heat while you beat the eggs light without separating them; let these stand while you stir everything else into the pan, beginning with the milk; cook this five minutes, stirring all the time, and then put in the eggs and cook three minutes more. Put six large crackers on a hot platter and pour the whole over them, and send at once to the table to be eaten very hot. Sometimes Margaret made three or four slices of toast before she began the fondu, and used those in place of the crackers, and the dish was just as nice.

Easy Welsh Rarebit

2 cups of rich cheese, grated. Yolks of two eggs. 1/2 cup of milk. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. Saltspoonful of cayenne.

Make three nice slices of toast, cut off the crusts, and cut each piece in two. Butter these, and very quickly dip each one in boiling water, being careful not to soak them. Put these on a hot platter in the oven. Put the milk in a saucepan over the fire, being careful not to have one that is too hot, only moderate, and when it boils up put in the cheese and stir without stopping, until the cheese all melts and it looks smooth. Then put in the beaten yolks of the eggs and the seasoning, and pour at once over the toast and serve very hot. Many people like a saltspoonful of dry mustard mixed in with the pepper. You can also serve this rarebit on toasted and buttered crackers.

Scalloped Cheese

6 slices of bread. 3/4 of a pound of cheese. 2 eggs. 1 tablespoonful of butter. 1 cup of cream. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1/2 teaspoonful of dry mustard. 1/4 teaspoonful of paprika.

Butter the bread and cut it into strips, and line the bottom and sides of a baking-dish with it. Then beat the eggs very light without separating them, and mix everything with them; put in the dish and bake half an hour, and serve at once.

Veal Loaf

1 1/2 pounds of veal and 2 strips of salt pork, chopped together. 1/2 cup of bread-crumbs. 1 beaten egg. 1/2 teaspoonful of grated nutmeg. 1/2 teaspoonful of black pepper. 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls of salt. Bake three hours.

Have the butcher chop the meat all together for you; then put everything together in a dish and stir in the egg, beaten without separating, and mix very well. Press it into a bread-pan and put in the oven for three hours by the clock.

Every half-hour pour over it a tablespoonful hot water and butter mixed; you can put a tablespoonful of butter into a cup of water, and keep it on the back of the stove ready all the time; after the meat has baked two hours, put in a piece of heavy brown paper over the top, and keep it there till it is done, or it may get too brown. This is to slice cold; it is very nice for a picnic.

Pressed Chicken

This was one of the things Margaret liked to make for Sunday night supper. Have a good-sized chicken cut up, and wipe each piece with a clean, damp cloth. Put them in a kettle or deep saucepan and cover with cold water, and cook very slowly and gently, covered, till the meat falls off the bones. When it begins to grow tender, put in a half teaspoonful of salt. Take it out, and cut it up in nice, even pieces, and put all the bones back into the kettle, and let them cook till there is only about a pint and a half of broth. Add a little more salt, and a sprinkling of pepper, and strain this through a jelly bag. Mix it with the chicken, and put them both into a bread tin, and when cold put on ice over night. After it has stood for an hour, put a weight on it, to make it firm. Slice with a very sharp knife, and put on a platter with parsley all around. This is a nice luncheon dish for a summer day, as well as a supper dish.

When you have bits of cold meat which you cannot slice, and yet which you wish to serve in some nice way, make this rule, which sounds difficult, but is really very easy:

Meat Soufflé

1 cup of white sauce. 1 cup of chopped meat. 2 eggs. Teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Half a teaspoonful minced onion.

Put the parsley and onion in the meat, and mix with the white sauce. Beat the yolks of the eggs and stir in, and cook one minute, and then cool. Beat the whites of the eggs and fold in, and bake half an hour, or a little more, in a deep, buttered baking-dish. You must serve this immediately, or it will fall.

Cold Meats

Of course, like other people, Margaret's mother often had cold meat for luncheon or supper, and one of the things her cook-book told her was how to make it look nice when it came on the table.

Always trim off all bits of skin and ragged pieces from the meat, and remove the cold fat, except on ham, and then you must trim it to a rather narrow edge. If you have a rather small dish for a large family, put slices of hard boiled eggs around the edge, or make devilled eggs, and put those around in halves. Sometimes you can cut lettuce in very narrow ribbons by holding several leaves in your hand at once, folding them lengthwise, and using a pair of scissors. Sometimes a dozen pimolas may be sliced across and put about the meat, especially if it is cold chicken or turkey. Always use parsley with meat, cold or hot. Saratoga potatoes make a good border for lamb or roast beef, and cold peas mixed with mayonnaise are always delicious with either chicken or lamb. If only the dish looks pretty, it is almost certain to taste well.

Sliced Meat with Gravy

When there are a few slices left from a roast, put them in a frying-pan with some of the gravy left also, and heat; serve with parsley around.

If there is not gravy, take a little boiling water, add a little salt, pepper, and half-teaspoonful of minced onion, and as much chopped parsley. Lay in the meat in the frying-pan, cover, and let it simmer, turning occasionally. A few drops of Kitchen Bouquet will improve this; it is a brown sauce which comes in small bottles.

Some of the things Margaret made for breakfast she made for lunch or supper, too, such as frizzled beef, and scalloped eggs and omelettes. She had some vegetables besides, such as—

Baked Tomatoes

6 large tomatoes. 1 cup bread-crumbs. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 tablespoonful of butter. 1 slice of onion.

Put the butter in the frying-pan, and when it bubbles put in the bread-crumbs, the salt and onion, with a dusting of pepper, and stir till the crumbs are a little brown and the onion is all cooked; then take out the onion and throw it away. Wipe the tomatoes with a clean wet cloth, and cut out the stem and a round hole or little well in the middle; fill this with the crumbs, piling them up well on top; put them in a baking-dish and stand them in a hot oven; mix a cup of hot water with a tablespoonful of butter, and every little while take out the baking-dish and wet the tomatoes on top. Cook them about half an hour, or till the skins get wrinkled all over. Serve them in the dish they are cooked in, if you like, or put each one on a small plate, pour some of the juice in the baking-dish over it, and stick a sprig of parsley in the top.

Stuffed Potatoes

Wash six large potatoes and scrub them with a little brush, till they are a nice clean light brown, and bake them for half an hour in a hot oven; or, if they are quite large, bake them till they are soft and puffy. Cut off one end from each and take out the inside with a teaspoon, holding the potato in a towel as you do so, for it will be very hot. Mix well this potato with two tablespoonfuls of rich milk or cream, a half-teaspoonful of salt and just as much butter, and put this back into the shells. Stand the potatoes side by side in a pan close together, the open ends up, till they are browned.