Seasonable-and-Tested Recipes
By Janet M. Hill and Mary D. Chambers
In all recipes where flour is used, unless otherwise stated, the flour is measured after sifting once. Where flour is measured by cups, the cup is filled with a spoon, and a level cupful is meant. A tablespoonful or a teaspoonful of any designated material is a LEVEL spoonful. In flour mixtures where yeast is called for, use bread flour; in all other flour mixtures, use cake or pastry flour.
Potage Parmentier
Cook the well-washed, white stalks of two or three leeks, sliced lengthwise, in two tablespoonfuls of fat in a saucepan, and allow to remain over the fire for five or six minutes, or until slightly colored. Add four large potatoes, pared and sliced, one quart of cold water, and two teaspoonfuls of salt, cover, and cook for twenty minutes after the water boils. Strain out the potatoes and leeks and press through a colander. Thicken the water by adding one-fourth a cup of flour, blended with two tablespoonfuls of butter or a substitute; stir until it has boiled for one minute; add one-half a teaspoonful of white pepper, stir into it the potato purée, and let the whole come to a boil. Pour into the tureen, and add one-half a cup of rich cream, a cup of well-browned croûtons, and a few chervil leaves, or the green leaves of cress or any preferred herb. The addition of the half-cup of rich cream is essential to the soup "parmentier."
Potato-and-Peanut Sausages
Mix one cup of roasted and fine-ground peanuts with one cup and one-half of highly seasoned mashed potatoes. Add one beaten egg, and form the mixture into small sausage-shaped rolls, rolling each one in flour. Roll on a hot pan, greased with bacon fat, or bake in a very hot oven, until the outside of the sausages is lightly browned. Pile in the center of a dish, and garnish with curls of toasted bacon, placed on a border of shredded lettuce.
Roast Turkey
Clean, stuff and truss a twelve-pound turkey, that, when cooked, may rest on the wings level on the platter, the drumsticks close to the body. Rub all over with salt and dredge with flour. Cover the breast with thin slices of salt pork. Set on a rack in a baking-pan (a "double roaster" gives best results). Turn often, at first, to sear over and brown evenly. For the first half hour the oven should be hot, then lower the heat and finish the cooking in an oven in which the fat in the pan will not burn. Cook until the joints are easily separated. It will require three hours and a half. Add no water or broth to the pan during cooking. For basting use the fat that comes from the turkey during cooking.
Turkey Stuffing
Add one teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth a teaspoonful of pepper and one tablespoonful and one-half of poultry seasoning to three cups of cracker crumbs; mix thoroughly and add three-fourths a cup of melted butter.
ROAST TURKEY
Garnish the Roast Turkey with Stuffed Onions
Parboil eight choice onions about one hour. Remove from the water and cut out a circular piece from the top of each to form cups. Chop, fine, the pieces of onion; add an equal measure of cold, cooked ham, salt and pepper to season, one-fourth a cup, each, of fine, soft crumbs and melted butter and mix thoroughly. Season the inside of the cups with salt, then stuff with the prepared mixture. Bake slowly about half an hour, basting with melted butter. Serve decorated with celery tips.
Oyster-and-Onion Purée
Steam one pound of white onions, and when tender sift through a colander. Cook one quart of oysters in their liquor until the gills separate; strain, and chop the oysters in a chopping bowl. Return the liquor to the saucepan, and cook with three tablespoonfuls of flour and three tablespoonfuls of softened butter, rubbed together, stirring constantly until well thickened and smooth. Season with one teaspoonful and one-half of salt and one-half a teaspoonful of pepper. Sift into the onion-pulp one-fourth a cup of flour, and stir until blended; add one-fourth a teaspoonful of celery seed and one bayleaf, and mix with the thickened oyster liquor. Stir until the whole comes to a boil and the purée is thick as porridge. Add the chopped oysters and one pint of thin cream, let heat through, and serve with oysterettes, saltines or other plain crackers.
Salmon à la Creole
Clean and scale a small salmon, stuff with one-half a loaf of stale bread moistened with hot water, seasoned with one-fourth a cup of butter, salt and pepper to taste, and one-half a cup of capers. Mix all well, and bind with one beaten egg. Place the salmon on the rack of a baking-pan in a very hot oven, cover with thin slices of bacon, and let cook until done. Serve on a bed of chopped fresh mushrooms, cooked in a little bouillon, and garnish the dish with small fresh tomatoes.
Brother Jonathan
Make a mush of yellow cornmeal, and mould in cylindrical moulds, such as baking powder boxes or brown bread moulds. Let stand until next day, and cut into slices. Arrange the slices on a large porcelain pie-plate in pyramidal form, sprinkling each layer with some sharp, hard cheese, grated, and seasoned with a very little red pepper. Sift buttered crumbs freely over the whole; brown in a hot oven, and serve as a vegetable with fish, with sour grape jelly melted and poured over it.
Plymouth Succotash
Boil, separately, one chicken and four pounds of corned beef. The next day remove meat and fat from both kettles of liquid, combine liquids, season with salt (if needed) and pepper; when boiling add five quarts of hulled corn; remove to slow fire and let simmer three hours. Have ready three pints of New York pea beans that have been soaked twelve hours, boiled until soft and strained through a sieve; add to soup (for thickening). Boil one yellow turnip (or two white turnips), and six potatoes; when done add to succotash. This recipe makes eight quarts.
PLYMOUTH SUCCOTASH
New England Salad
NEW ENGLAND SALAD
Dress flowerets of cold, cooked cauliflower with oil, salt, pepper and vinegar. From cold, cooked beets remove the top and center portions to make beet cups. Arrange the prepared cauliflower to fill cups, pour over boiled salad dressing and arrange a heart of celery in each filled beet-cup.
GUINEA CHICKENS
Guinea Chickens
Clean and truss two guinea chickens; place on a bed of sliced, uncooked carrots, potatoes and celery, arranged in the bottom of a casserole—(a large bean-pot serves as well). Sprinkle the chicks with salt and pour over them melted butter; set the cover in place. Bake in a moderate oven one hour and one-quarter, basting every fifteen minutes with melted butter. Add no water to the casserole.
Rib Roast of Beef with Yorkshire Pudding
Place a rib roast of beef on a rack in a dripping pan; dredge with flour and sear over the outside in a hot oven, then add salt and pepper and drippings and let cook at a low temperature until done, basting every ten minutes. Remove to a platter and serve with Yorkshire pudding.
Yorkshire Pudding
RIB ROAST WITH YORKSHIRE PUDDING
Sift together one cup and a half of flour, and one-third a teaspoonful of salt; gradually add one cup and one-half of milk, so as to form a smooth batter; then add three eggs, which have been beaten until thick and light; turn into a small, hot dripping pan, the inside of which has been brushed over with roast beef drippings; when well risen in the pan, baste with the hot roast beef drippings. Bake about twenty minutes. Cut into squares and serve around the roast.
Apple Mint Jelly for Roast Lamb
Cut the apples in quarters, removing imperfections. Barely cover with boiling water, put on a cover and let cook, undisturbed, until soft throughout. Turn into a bag to drain. For a quart of this apple juice set one and one-half pounds of sugar on shallow dishes in the oven to heat. Set the juice over the fire with the leaves from a bunch of mint; let cook twenty minutes, then strain into a clean saucepan. Heat to the boiling point, add the hot sugar and let boil till the syrup, when tested, jellies slightly on a cold dish. Tint with green color-paste very delicately. Have ready three to five custard cups on a cloth in a pan of boiling water. Let the glasses be filled with the water; pour out the water and turn in the jelly. When cooled a little remove to table. (English recipe.)
Marinaded Cutlets
Cut a pound of the best end of neck of mutton into cutlets, allowing two cutlets for each bone, beat them with a cutlet bat and trim them neatly. Let them soak for an hour in a marinade made by mixing six tablespoonfuls of red wine vinegar, one tablespoonful of olive oil, half a teaspoonful of salt, six bruised peppercorns, a minced onion, a sprig of thyme, and a bayleaf. At the end of the hour drain the cutlets, and dredge them with flour to dry them. Brush over each one with beaten egg, and roll it in bread-crumbs; repeat the egging and breadcrumbing a second time, and, if possible, leave them for an hour for the crumbs to dry on. Half fill a deep pan with frying-fat, and when it is heated, so as to give off a pale blue vapor, place the cutlets carefully in the pan, and when they float on top of the fat and are of a rich brown color, they are sufficiently cooked, and must be taken from the fat and drained on kitchen paper before being served en couronne, or on a mound of mashed potatoes, green peas, French beans, or Brussels sprouts.
Veal cutlets, fillets of beef, fillets of white fish, or cutlets of cod or hake, are excellent when prepared by the same method. (English recipe.)
Thanksgiving Corn Cake
Sift together two cups of corn meal, two cups of white flour, four heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one level teaspoonful of soda, one teaspoonful of salt, and one-half a cup of sugar. Add one cup of sour milk (gradually), three-fourths cup of sour cream, four eggs and one-third a cup of melted butter.
THANKSGIVING CORN CAKE
Thanksgiving Pudding
Beat the yolks of four eggs; add one pint of soft bread crumbs, one cup of sugar, the grated rind of a lemon, one teaspoonful of salt, and one cup of large table raisins from which the seeds have been removed; mix all together thoroughly, then add one quart of rich milk. Bake in a very moderate oven until firm in the center. When the pudding has cooled somewhat, beat the whites of four eggs dry; beat in half a cup of sugar and spread or pipe the meringue over the pudding; dredge with granulated sugar and let cook in a very moderate oven about fifteen minutes; the oven should be of such heat that the meringue does not color until the last few minutes of cooking.
Coffee Fruit Punch
Add one-half a cup of fine-ground coffee to one cup of cold water, bring very slowly to a boil, and let simmer for ten minutes. Strain, allow grounds to settle, decant, and add one cup of sugar. Mix one-half a cup of sifted strawberry preserve with the juice of two lemons, the juice of three oranges and the grated rind of one, and half a cup of pineapple juice. Let the whole stand together for half an hour; then strain, add the coffee, a quart or more of Vichy, or any preferred sparkling water, and serve in tall glasses filled one-third full with shaved ice; garnish each with a thin strip of candied angelica.
SWEET CIDER FRAPPÉ
Sweet Cider Frappé
Make a syrup by boiling one cup of sugar and two cups of water fifteen minutes; add one quart of sweet cider and one-half a cup of lemon juice; when cool freeze—using equal parts of ice and salt. Serve with roast turkey or roast pork.
Fig-and-Cranberry Pie
Chop one-half a pound of figs and cook until tender in a pint of water. Add a pint of cranberries, and cook until they pop. Mix one cup of sugar with four tablespoonfuls of flour and stir into the fig-and-cranberry mixture; let boil, remove from fire, and stir in two tablespoonfuls of butter and the juice of one-half a lemon. Put into a pastry shell, arrange strips of paste in a basket pattern over the top, and bake until these are browned.
Dry Deviled Parsnips
Wash and scrape—not pare—three large parsnips; cut in halves, lengthwise, and place, cut side uppermost, on the grate of a rather hot oven to bake for thirty to forty minutes, or until soft and lightly browned. Soften one-half a cup of butter, without melting it, and rub into it the following mixture: Two teaspoonfuls of salt, four tablespoonfuls of dry mustard, one-half a teaspoonful of cayenne, one teaspoonful of white pepper, and flour enough to stiffen the paste. When the parsnips are cooked make four slanting cuts in each of the halves, and fill each with as much of the paste as it will hold. Spread over the flat side with the remainder of the paste, arrange on the serving dish, sift fine buttered crumbs over them, and place under the gas flame, or on the upper rack of an oven until crumbs are brown.
King's Pudding With Apple-Jelly Sauce
Soak, over-night, one-half a cup of well-washed rice, and cook in one pint of milk in double boiler until very tender. Mix this with three cups of apple sauce, well-sweetened and flavored with cinnamon. Add the beaten yolks of two eggs, one ounce, each, of candied citron and orange peel, very fine-chopped, and one-half a cup of raisins. Add, the last thing, the whites of the eggs, beaten to the stiffest possible froth. Line a deep dish with a good, plain paste, pour in the pudding, bake until both paste and pudding top are brown, invert on serving dish and pour the sauce over it.
Apple-Jelly Sauce
Beat one-half a cup of apple jelly until it is like a smooth batter; gradually add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, the juice of one lemon and one-half the grated rind, and a few gratings of nutmeg. Set into a saucepan of boiling water until ready to use, then beat well and pour over the pudding.
Cranberry Tart
CRANBERRY TART
Spread a round of paste over an inverted pie plate, prick the paste with a fork eight times. Bake to a delicate brown. Remove the paste from the plate, wash the plate and set the pastry inside. When cold fill with a cold, cooked cranberry filling and cover the filling with a top pastry crust, made by cutting paste to a paper pattern and baking in a pan. Arrange tart just before serving.
Cooked Cranberry Filling
Mix together three level tablespoonfuls of cornstarch, three-fourths a teaspoonful of salt and one cup and one-half of sugar; pour on one cup and one-half of boiling water and stir until boiling, then add one-third a cup of molasses, two teaspoonfuls of butter and three cups of cranberries, chopped fine. Let simmer fifteen minutes.
Pumpkin Fanchonettes
Mix together one cup and a half of dry, sifted pumpkin, half a cup of sugar, two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of molasses, one tablespoonful of ginger, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt, and one cup of rich milk. Pour into small tins lined with pastry, and bake about twenty-five minutes. Serve cold; just before serving decorate with whipped cream.
PUMPKIN FANCHONETTES
Pilgrim Cookies
PILGRIM COOKIES
Let soak overnight one cup of seedless raisins, then drain and dry on a cloth. Cream one-third a cup of butter; beat in one cup of brown sugar, one tablespoonful of milk, and two eggs, beaten light. Add the raisins, and one cup of flour, sifted with one-half a teaspoonful, each, of nutmeg and cinnamon and two teaspoonfuls and one-half of baking powder. When thoroughly mixed, add one-half a cup of graham flour, unsifted, and one-half a cup of bran, unsifted.
Pyramid Birthday Cake
Bake any good layer cake or other simple cake mixture in one or two thin sheets, in a large pan. When done cut into as many graduated circles as the child is years old. Ice each circle, top and sides, with any good cake icing, either white or tinted, and lay one above the other with layers of jelly or preserves between slices. Around each layer arrange a decoration of fresh or candied fruits of bright colors, glacéed nuts, candied rose petals or violets, bits of angelica, or any other effective decoration. Let the cake stand on a handsomely decorated dish, and small flags be inserted in the topmost layer.
FRUIT AND MELONS
Stirred Brown Bread
Measure three cups of graham flour into a large mixing-bowl; add one cup of bran, and sift on to these one cup and one-half of white flour, to which one and one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt has been added. Stir together until mixed. Dissolve one teaspoonful of baking soda in a tablespoonful of hot water, and add to two cups of buttermilk. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of any preferred substitute, mix with one-half a cup of molasses, stir into the buttermilk, and add all to the dry ingredients, stirring vigorously. Lastly, add one-half a compressed yeast cake to the batter, and stir again until the yeast is thoroughly incorporated with the batter, which should be very stiff. Place in a greased bread pan, cover, set in a warm place until batter has risen to top of pan or doubled in bulk. Bake one hour in an oven with gradually increasing heat. This bread keeps fresh for a long time, and is particularly good sliced thin for sandwiches.
Swedish Pancakes With Aigre-Doux Sauce
Beat, until light, the yolks of six eggs; add one-half a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in one tablespoonful of vinegar, then two cups of sifted flour, alternately, with the beaten whites of the eggs, and if necessary add enough milk to make a thin batter. Pour a small ladleful at a time on the griddle; spread each cake, when cooked, with raspberry jam, roll up like a jelly roll, pile on a hot platter, dust over with powdered sugar, and serve with each one a spoonful of Aigre-Doux Sauce.
Aigre-Doux Sauce
Add to two cups of sour cream the juice and fine-grated rind of one large lemon. Stir in enough sugar just to develop a sweet taste, one-half a cup or more, and beat hard and long with a Dover beater until the sauce is quite light.
Sautéed Cucumbers and Tomatoes
Pare four large cucumbers and cut in quarter-inch slices; season by sprinkling with salt and pepper, then dip in beaten egg, and afterwards in fine, sifted crumbs. Proceed in the same manner with two firm tomatoes, removing the skin by dipping first into boiling water, then into cold, and rubbing the skin off. The tomatoes should be cut in half-inch slices. Heat a large spider until very hot; add two or more tablespoonfuls of dripping or other fat, and sauté in this, first the cucumbers, then the tomatoes, turning the slices when browned on one side, and cooking until crisped. Serve in a hot vegetable dish.
Skirt Steak, with Raisin Sauce
Make a rich stuffing by chopping together three-fourths a pound of veal, one-half a pound of ham, and an ounce of beef suet or other fat. Add the grated rind of a small lemon, and a teaspoonful of dried, mixed herbs, or of kitchen bouquet, two beaten eggs, a grate of nutmeg, and one cup of cream. Cook all together over hot water until mixture is the consistency of custard; thicken further with fine bread crumbs, and let cool. Divide a two-pound skirt steak into halves, crosswise, spread the stuffing over both parts, roll up each one and tie. Let steam for half an hour, then put into a hot oven to finish cooking and brown. Serve with Raisin Sauce.
Raisin Sauce for Skirt Steak
Add one-half a cup of seeded raisins to one pint of cold water, set over fire, bring slowly to a boil and let simmer, gently, for fifteen minutes. Blend two tablespoonfuls of flour with one-half a teaspoonful of salt and one-fourth a teaspoonful of white pepper, and stir this into two scant tablespoonfuls of melted butter or butter substitute; add to the raisins and water, and let boil, keeping stirred, for three minutes. Remove from fire and add the juice of one-half a lemon or two tablespoonfuls of vinegar.
Boudin Blanc
Cook a dozen small onions, sliced, in a saucepan with one cup of sweet leaf-lard. While cooking put through the meat chopper one-half a pound, each, of fresh pork and the dark and white meat of a fowl or chicken. Add to saucepan containing onions and lard, and stir in enough fine bread crumbs to make the whole the consistency of a soft dough. Add seasoning of salt and pepper with a spoonful of mixed dried herbs. Lastly, add one cup of sweet cream and three well-beaten eggs, and stir the whole until the eggs are set. Stuff this into pig entrails, making links six inches long. Keep stored in a cool place, and cook like sausage. Or the boudin may be packed into jars, and sliced or cut into dice and sautéed when cold.