TURNIPS.
To bake turnips, peel the turnips, either white or yellow ones, cut them in rather small slices, a quarter of an inch thick; put them over the fire in salted boiling water enough to cover them, and boil them fast until they are tender. It may take ten or fifteen minutes, possibly twenty minutes, according to the age of the turnips. Of course you will understand that if the turnips are old and corky they will not be as nice when they are done as if they are in good condition. But as soon as the turnips are tender, drain them, put them in an earthen pudding dish, make a little white sauce, either with milk or water,—for a pint, a tablespoonful of butter, tablespoonful of flour; stir over the fire; then milk added gradually and stirred smooth; seasoned with salt and pepper,—make enough of the white sauce just to moisten the turnips; pour it over the turnips; dust over the top some cracker dust or bread crumbs, just enough to cover the top of the turnips; put a little salt and pepper over the crumbs, and a scant tablespoonful of butter over the top of the crumbs. Then put the dish into the hot oven, and just brown the crumbs on the top of the dish. Serve it as soon as the bread crumbs are brown. That is a very nice and easy dish. If you have cold boiled turnips, slice them, cover them with white sauce and bread crumbs, and cook them just in the same way.
(At this point Miss Corson announced that the cabbage was done, after being in between nine and ten minutes, and no smell was perceptible in the room.)
I am going to moisten the cabbage with cream sauce,—that is white sauce made with milk,—and heat it for a moment and then it will be done.
I will now answer a question that has been asked about cooking corned beef. The same principle applies to the cooking of corned beef that applies to the cooking of salted fish. You remember this morning in talking about codfish I said, if you boil the salted fibre hard and fast, you make it hard and toughen it. That holds good in relation to salted meat or corned meat. You want to boil it very gently. There is comparatively little juice left in corned beef, so that the action of cold water is not so disastrous to it as it would be to fresh meat. Sometimes the beef is so very salt that it is desirable to change the water upon it. Put it over the fire in cold water. Let it slowly reach the boiling point, and then try and see if it is too salt. If the water itself seems very salt, change it. Put fresh water in, let it gradually heat, and boil very gently always. As soon as the meat reaches the boiling point, push it to the back part of the stove and boil it very gently until it is tender. It usually takes about twenty minutes to a pound, but boil it very gently and slowly. Then it will be tender. If you boil it fast it will be hard and tough. If you put a whole dried red pepper in with the beef in boiling, you will find that it will improve the flavor very much. If you intend to use the beef cold, leave it in the water in which it is boiled; take the pot off the stove and let it cool in the water in which it was boiled. Those same directions apply to boiling smoked or salted tongue.
The turnips were just fifteen minutes in boiling.
Nice points about boiled dinners are asked for. I think I have given you the nicest point in cooking beef, so that you will be sure to get it tender, and to cook cabbage so that it is tender and does not smell. Cabbage always goes with a New England boiled dinner, potatoes, onions, parsnips and squash. I told you about cooking beets this morning. All the other vegetables you may cook in boiling water, and salt to suit the taste. The old-fashioned way was to boil all the vegetables in the pot with the beef, adding the vegetables in succession, so that each one was put in just long enough before the beef was done to have it done at the time the beef was done; each one except the squash. The squash is best peeled and cut in small pieces and steamed. If you boil it you want to put it in boiling salted water until it is tender, and then put it into a towel and squeeze it, so as to get out the water; then season it with butter, salt and pepper, and serve it.
I made gravy yesterday; I think if I give you the recipe to-day it will answer. Pour the drippings out of the pan, all except about a tablespoonful; put a tablespoonful of flour in with the brown drippings; set the pan over the fire; stir the drippings and flour together until they are quite brown; then begin to put in boiling water, a little at a time, not more than half a cupful, and stir until the gravy is smooth; then season it palatably with salt and pepper. Onions are very nice cooked precisely as I have cooked cabbage to-day; that is, cooked until they are tender, and dressed with the white sauce that I used in dressing the carrot.
For pressed corn beef the nicest cut is the brisket. Have the cut rather long and narrow, and not a short chunk or piece. Take a long piece of meat, a foot long, or more; have all the bones cut out and roll it up tight. Tie it compactly, in the same way that I tied this meat. Tie it so that you have it in a tight bundle. Then boil it according to the directions I have already given you. After it is done let it partly cool in the liquor; then take it out and lay it on the platter; lay another platter on top of it, and put a heavy weight on the platter, and press it with the string still on until it is cold; then cut off the string and you have it in nice shape. If you want to use part of it hot for dinner, and then have it cold, you would have to boil it, and when it is done cut off enough for your dinner; then press the rest of it between two platters. You could double it over, but you could not press it so very well in shape. Cut it in slices; put it into a tin mould or tin pan and boil down the broth in which you have cooked it until it begins to look thick. Or, you could dissolve a little gelatine in the broth to thicken it, and pour it over the slices of corned beef in the mould. In that case you would depend upon the gelatine to thicken the broth, without boiling it down.