Miss Parloa's Young Housekeeper / Designed Especially to Aid Beginners; Economical Receipts for Those Who Are Cooking for Two or Three

by Maria Parloa

1 teaspoonful of sugar.

1 teaspoonful of molasses.

1/4 teaspoonful of pepper.

1 small onion.

1 level tablespoonful of salt.

Pick the beans free from stones and dirt. Wash them, and let them soak over night in three quarts of cold water. In the morning pour off the water and wash the beans in fresh water; then put them in a stewpan with cold water enough to cover them generously, and place on the fire.

Have the pork mixed lean and fat. Score the rind. Put the pork in the stewpan with the beans, and simmer until the beans begin to crack open,—not a minute longer. Drain all the water from them and rinse with cold water. Put the onion in the bottom of the bean pot. Put about half the beans in the pot, then put in the pork, having the scored side up. Next put in the remainder of the beans. Mix the mustard, salt, pepper, sugar, and molasses with a pint of boiling water and pour over the beans. Add just enough boiling water to cover the beans. Cover the pot and place in a slow oven. Bake for ten hours or more, adding boiling water whenever the beans look dry. The oven must never be hot enough to make the water on the beans bubble, and there should never be more water in the pot than will barely come to the top of the beans.

An earthen pot should be used in baking beans. The onion and molasses may be omitted.

Green Peas.

The time of cooking green peas depends upon the age and the length of time they have been picked. If they be young and freshly picked, they will cook in twenty minutes; but it may take forty or fifty if they have matured too much, or have been picked for a day or more. They should not be shelled many hours before they are cooked. Wash the pea pods and drain them, then shell them. Put them in a stewpan with just enough boiling water to cover them, and cook until tender. They must not boil rapidly, and as soon as they begin to boil the cover of the stewpan should be drawn a little to one side. Pour off a part of the water, and to every pint of peas add one tablespoonful of butter and half a teaspoonful of salt.