These are the common ways of spoiling hashes: 1. by frying, instead of merely heating them. Melted butter and oils are good and healthful when only heated, but are unhealthful when fried. 2. Dredging in flour, which, not being well cooked, imparts a raw taste of dough. 3. Using too much water, making them vapid; or too much fat or gravy, making them gross. 4. Using too much or too little salt and other seasoning. The following recipes will save from these mistakes, if exactly followed. When water is recommended in these recipes, cold gravy will be better, in which case the butter may be omitted:
A Seasoned Hash of any Fresh Meats.—Chop, but not very fine, any kinds of fresh meat, but be sure not to put in any that is tainted. To a common tumblerful of chopped meat put three table-spoonfuls of water, a tea-spoonful of sugar, a heaping tea-spoonful of salt, a salt-spoonful of pepper, and butter the size of half an egg. Warm, but do not fry; and when hot, break in three eggs, and stir till they are hardened a little; then serve. Bread-crumbs may be added. This may be put on buttered toast or served alone. This and all the following hashes may be varied in flavor, by adding, in delicate proportions, the mixed flavors on another page.
A Hash of Cold Fresh Meats and Potatoes.—Take two tumblerfuls of meat of any kind, chopped. Add as much cold potatoes, also chopped, two table-spoonfuls of sweet butter in six table-spoonfuls of hot water, and two tea-spoonfuls of salt. Sprinkle half a tea-spoonful of pepper over the meat, and also a spoonful of sugar; mix all, and warm about twenty minutes, but not so as to boil or fry. Tomatoes improve this.
Meat Hash with Eggs, (very nice.)—To a tumblerful of fresh cold meat cut in pieces about the size of peas, put three table-spoonfuls of hot water, two spoonfuls of butter, a tea-spoonful of sugar, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Mix all, warm but not fry; and when hot, break in four eggs, and stir till they are hardened. Spread on buttered toast or serve alone. When eggs are used, the meat should not be chopped fine.
A Meat Hash with Tomatoes.—Cut up a pint of tomatoes into a saucepan, and when boiling-hot, add the cold meat in thin slices, with a table-spoonful of sugar, and salt and pepper, at the rate of a tea-spoonful of salt and half a tea-spoonful of pepper to each tumblerful of meat.
A Nice Beef Hash.—Make a gravy of melted butter, or take cold gravy; season with salt, pepper, and currant jelly or vinegar. Cut cold roast beef or the remnants of cold steak into mouthfuls, and put into the gravy till heated, but not to fry.
Or, season this gravy with the crushed juice of fresh tomatoes or tomato catsup.
A Simple and Excellent Veal Hash.—Chop cold veal very fine; butter a pudding-dish, and make alternate layers of veal and powdered crackers till the dish is full, the first layer of meat being at the bottom. Then beat up two eggs, and add a pint or less of milk, seasoned well with salt and pepper, and two or three spoonfuls of melted butter. Pour this over the meat and crackers; cover with a plate, and bake about half an hour. Remove the plate awhile, and let the top brown a little. This is the best way to cook veal, and children are very fond of it.
Rice and Cold Meats.—Chop remnants of fresh meats with salt pork, or cold ham. Season with salt and pepper and a little sugar; add two eggs and a little butter. Then make alternate layers with this and slices of cold boiled rice, and bake it half an hour.
Bread-Crumbs and Cold Meats.—Take any remnants of cooked fresh meats, and chop them fine with bits of ham or salt pork. Season with salt and pepper; add three eggs and a little milk, and then thicken with pounded bread-crumbs. Bake it as a pudding, or warm it for a hash, or cook it in flat cakes on a griddle.
A Meat Hash with Bread-Crumbs.—One tea-spoonful of flour, (or potato or corn-starch,) wet in four tea-spoonfuls of cold water. Stir it into a tea-cupful of boiling water, and put in a salt-spoonful of pepper, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and two table-spoonfuls of sweet butter. Use cold gravy instead of butter, if you have it. Set this in a stew-pan where it will be kept hot, but not fry. Chop the meat very fine, and mix with it while chopping half as much dried bread-crumbs. Put this into the gravy, and let it heat only ten minutes, and then serve it on buttered toast. Tomatoes, one or two, improve this.
A Hash of Cold Beefsteak alone or with Potatoes and Turnips.—Make a paste with a heaping tea-spoonful of flour in two tea-spoonfuls of water. Stir it into a tea-cup and a half of boiling water, with a salt-spoonful of black pepper, a half tea-spoonful of sugar, and two tea-spoonfuls of salt. Let it stand where it will be hot but not boil. Cut the beef into mouthfuls, and also as much cold boiled potatoes and half as much boiled turnips. Mix all, and then add two table-spoonfuls of butter, (or some cold gravy,) and a table-spoonful of tomato catsup, or two sliced tomatoes. Warm, but do not fry, for ten minutes.
When beef gravy is used, take less salt and pepper.
This is a good recipe for cold beef without vegetables.
A Hash of Cold Mutton (or Venison) and Vegetables.—Prepare as in the preceding recipe, but add one onion sliced fine, to hide the strong mutton taste. If onion is left out, put in a wine-glass of grape or currant jelly. If the vegetables are left out, put in a little less pepper and salt.
A Hash of Corned Beef.—Chop the meat very fine, fat and lean together; add twice as much cold potatoes chopped fine. For each tumblerful of this add butter half the size of a hen’s egg melted in half a tea-cup of hot water, a salt-spoonful of pepper and another of salt. Heat very hot, but do not let it fry. Some would add parsley or other sweet herb.
A Hash of Cold Ham.—Chop, not very fine, fat and lean together. Add twice the quantity of bread-crumbs chopped, but not fine. Heat it hot, then break in two eggs for every tumblerful of the hash. A tea-spoonful of sugar improves it, and a salt-spoonful of pepper.
Meats warmed over.—Veal is best made into hashes. If it is liked more simply cooked, chop it fine, put in water just enough to moisten it, butter, salt, pepper, and a little juice of a lemon. Some like a little lemon-rind grated in. Heat it through, but do not let it fry. Put it on buttered toast, and garnish it with slices of lemon.
Cold salted or fresh beef is good chopped fine with pepper, salt, and catsup, and water enough to moisten a little. Add some butter just before taking it up, and do not let it fry, only heat it hot. It injures cooked meat to cook it again. Cold fowls make a nice dish to have them cut up in mouthfuls; add some of the gravy and giblet sauce, a little butter and pepper, and then heat them through.
A nice Way of Cooking Cold Meats.—Chop the meat fine, add salt, pepper, a little onion, or else tomato catsup; fill a tin bread-pan one third full, cover it over with boiled potatoes salted and mashed with cream or milk, lay bits of butter on the top, and set it into a Dutch or stove oven for fifteen or twenty minutes.
A Hash of Cold Meat for Dinner, (very good.)—Peel six large tomatoes and one onion, and slice them. Add a spoonful of sugar, salt and pepper, and a bit of butter the size of a hen’s egg, and half a pint of cold water. Shave up the meat into small bits, as thin as thick pasteboard. Dredge flour over it, say two tea-spoonfuls, or a little less. Simmer the meat with all the rest for half an hour and then serve it, and it is very fine.
Dried tomatoes can be used. When you have no tomatoes, make a gravy with water, pepper, salt, and butter, or cold gravy; slice an onion in it, add tomato catsup, (two or three spoonfuls,) and then prepare the meat as above, and simmer it in this gravy half an hour.
Souse.—Cleanse pigs’ ears and feet and soak them a week in salt and water, changing the water every other day. Boil eight or ten hours till tender. When cold, put on salt, and pour on hot spiced vinegar. Warm them in lard or butter.
Tripe.—Scrape and scour it thoroughly, soak it in salt and water a week, changing it every other day. Boil it eight or ten hours, till tender; then pour on spiced hot vinegar and broil it.
CHAPTER VI.
BOILED MEATS.
An Excellent Way to cook Tough Beef.—To eight pounds of beef put four quarts of water, two table-spoonfuls of salt, half a tea-spoonful of pepper, three tea-spoonfuls of vinegar, and four tea-spoonfuls of sugar. Put it on at eight in the morning, and let it simmer slowly till the water is more than half gone; then skim off the grease, and set it in the stove-oven till the water is all gone but about a tea-cupful, which is for gravy, and may be thickened a little. Add boiling water, if it goes too fast, (for in some kinds of weather it will evaporate much faster than in other days). This dish should be very tender, and is excellent cold, especially if it is pressed under a heavy weight. This was a favorite soldier’s dish; and tough meat is as good as it is tender, when thus cooked.
Boiled Ham.—The best way to cook a ham is first to wash it; then take off the skin and bake it in a pan, with a little water in it, in a stove or brick oven, till tender, which is found by a fork piercing easily. Allow twenty minutes for each pound.
To boil a ham, soak it over night; then wash in two waters, using a brush. Boil slowly, and allow fifteen minutes for each pound. When cold, take off the skin, and ornament with dots of pepper and fringed paper tied around the shank.
A nice way to treat a cold boiled ham is, after removing the skin, to rub it over with beaten egg, and then spread over powdered cracker, wet with milk, and let it brown in the oven. Boiled ham is much improved by setting it in the oven half an hour, making it sweeter, while the fat that tries out is useful for cooking.
Boiled Beef.—Put it in salted water, (a tea-spoonful for each quart;) have enough to cover it. Skim well just before it begins to boil, and as long as the scum rises. Allow about fifteen minutes to each pound, or more for beef. Drain well, and serve with vegetables boiled separately.
Boiled Fowls.—Wash the inside carefully with soda water, to remove any taint. Stuff with seasoned bread-crumbs, or cracker, wet up with eggs, and sew up the openings. Put them in boiling water, enough to cover, and let them simmer gently till tender. It is a good plan to wrap in a cloth dredged with flour.
Fricasseed Fowls.—Cut them up, and put in a pot, with cold water enough to cover. Put some salt pork over, and let them simmer slowly till very tender and the water mostly gone. When done, stir in a cup of milk, mixed with two well-beaten eggs, first mixing slowly some of the hot liquor with the milk and eggs.
Some fry the pork first, thus increasing the flavor, and others leave it out.
To Boil a Leg or Shoulder of Veal, or Mutton, or Lamb.—Mutton should be cooked more rare than any other meat. Make a stuffing of chopped bread, seasoned with pepper and salt, and mixed with one or two eggs. Make deep gashes in the meat, (or, better, take out the bone;) fill the openings with stuffing and sew them up. Wrap it tight in a cloth, and put it so as to be covered with water, salted at the rate of a tea-spoonful to each quart. Let it simmer slowly about two or three hours. Skim thoroughly just before it comes to boiling heat. If needful, add boiling water. Save the water for broth for next day. If you pour cold water on the cloth before removing it, and let it stand two minutes, it improves the looks.
Calf’s Feet.—Wash and scrape till very clean. Boil three hours in four quarts of water salted with four even tea-spoonfuls of salt. Take out the bones, and put the rest into a saucepan, with three table-spoonfuls of butter, two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, a great-spoonful of sugar, and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Add three tea-cups of the liquor in which the feet were boiled; dredge in some flour, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Garnish with sliced lemon. (Save the liquor to make calf’s-foot jelly.)
Calf’s Liver and Sweet-breads.—These are best split open, boiled, and then dressed with pepper, salt, and butter.
To cook Kidneys.—Wash them clean, and split them. Heat them half an hour in a saucepan, without water. Then wash them again, and cover them with a pint of water, having in it a tea-spoonful of salt and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Boil one hour, and then take off the skin. Cut them in mouthfuls; add two great-spoonfuls of butter, more salt and hot water, if needed, and let them simmer fifteen minutes.
Pillau, a Favorite Dish in the South.—Fricassee a chicken with slices of salt pork, or with sweet butter or sweet cream. Put the chicken, when cooked, in a bake-dish, and cover it with boiled rice, seasoned with salt, pepper, and one dozen allspice. Pile the rice, pour on some melted butter, smooth it, and cover with yelk of an egg. Bake half an hour.
To boil Smoked Tongues.—Soak in cold water only two hours, as long soaking lessens sweetness. Wash them, and boil four or five hours, according to the size. When done, take off the skin and garnish with parsley. A table-spoonful of sugar for each tongue, put in the water, improves them.
To boil Corned Beef.—Do not soak it, but wash it, and put it in hot water, to keep in the juices; allow a pint for each pound. Skim just before it begins to boil. Let it simmer slowly, and allow twenty-five minutes for every pound. Keep it covered with water, adding boiling hot water, if needed. It is much improved for eating cold by pressing it with a board and heavy stone. It is an excellent piece of economy to save the water to use for soup.
Some think it an improvement to put on a little sugar, and pour a little vinegar on before boiling. Some like to boil turnips, potatoes, and cabbage with it. In that case, they must be peeled, and the potatoes soaked two hours.
To boil Partridges or Pigeons.—Cleanse and rinse the insides with soda-water, and then with pure water. Wrap them in a damp floured cloth; put them into boiling water which is salted at the rate of a heaping tea-spoonful to a quart; also, two tea-spoonfuls of sugar and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Simmer them twenty minutes to half an hour. When done, make a sauce of butter rubbed into flour and half a cup of milk; put the birds into a dish and pour on this sauce. Some would add cut parsley, or other flavors.
To boil Ducks.—Let them lie in hot water two hours. Then wrap in a cloth dredged with flour; put them in cold water, salted at the rate of half a tea-spoonful for each pint. Add a tea-spoonful of sugar for each pint. Let them simmer half an hour; then take them up, and pour over them a sauce made of melted butter rubbed into flour, and seasoned with lemon-juice, salt, and pepper, and thinned with gravy or hot water.
Wild ducks must be soaked in salt and water the night previous, to remove the fishy taste, and then in the morning put in fresh water, which should be changed once or twice.
To boil a Turkey.—Make a stuffing for the craw of chopped bread and butter, cream, oysters, and the yelks of eggs. Sew it in, and dredge flour over the turkey, and put it in hot water to boil, with a spoonful of salt in it, and enough water to cover it well. Let it simmer for two hours and a half, or, if small, less time. Skim it while boiling. It will look nicer if wrapped in a cloth dredged with flour while cooking.
Serve it with drawn butter, in which are put some oysters.
CHAPTER VII.
ROAST AND BAKED MEATS.
The beef of an ox is best, and the next best is that of a heifer. The best pieces for roasting are the second cut of the sirloin, the second cut of the ribs, and the back part of the rump.
The art of roasting well consists in turning the meat often, to prevent burning, and basting often, to make it juicy.
Never dredge flour into gravies, as it makes lumps. Strain all gravies.