MISS BEECHER’S
DOMESTIC RECEIPT BOOK:

DESIGNED AS A

SUPPLEMENT

TO HER

TREATISE ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET.

1846.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Clerk’s Office of the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

The following objects are aimed at in this work:

First, to furnish an original collection of receipts, which shall embrace a great variety of simple and well-cooked dishes, designed for every-day comfort and enjoyment.

Second, to include in the collection only such receipts as have been tested by superior housekeepers, and warranted to be the best. It is not a book made up in any department by copying from other books, but entirely from the experience of the best practical housekeepers.

Third, to express every receipt in language which is short, simple, and perspicuous, and yet to give all directions so minutely as that the book can be kept in the kitchen, and be used by any domestic who can read, as a guide in every one of her employments in the kitchen.

Fourth, to furnish such directions in regard to small dinner-parties and evening company as will enable any young housekeeper to perform her part, on such occasions, with ease, comfort, and success.

Fifth, to present a good supply of the rich and elegant dishes demanded at entertainments, and yet to set forth a large variety of what is both healthful and good, in connexion with warnings and suggestions which it is hoped may avail to promote a more healthful fashion in regard both to entertainments and to daily table supplies. No book of this kind will sell without receipts for the rich articles which custom requires, and in furnishing them, the writer has aimed to follow the example of Providence, which scatters profusely both good and ill, and combines therewith the caution alike of experience, revelation, and conscience, “choose ye that which is good, that ye and your seed may live.”

Sixth, in the work on Domestic Economy, together with this, to which it is a Supplement, the writer has attempted to secure in a cheap and popular form, for American housekeepers, a work similar to an English work which she has examined, entitled the Encyclopædia of Domestic Economy, by Thomas Webster and Mrs. Parkes, containing over twelve hundred octavo pages of closely-printed matter, treating on every department of Domestic Economy; a work which will be found much more useful to English women, who have a plenty of money and well-trained servants, than to American housekeepers. It is believed that most, in that work, which would be of any practical use to American housekeepers, will be found in this work and the Domestic Economy.

Lastly, the writer has aimed to avoid the defects complained of by most housekeepers in regard to works of this description, issued in this country, or sent from England, such as that, in some cases, the receipts are so rich as to be both expensive and unhealthful; in others, that they are so vaguely expressed as to be very imperfect guides; in others, that the processes are so elaborate and fussing as to make double the work that is needful; and in others, that the topics are so limited that some departments are entirely omitted, and all are incomplete.

In accomplishing these objects, the writer has received contributions of the pen, and verbal communications, from some of the most judicious and practical housekeepers, in almost every section of this country.

CONTENTS.

THE
DOMESTIC RECEIPT BOOK.

[CHAPTER I.]
ON SELECTING FOOD AND DRINKS WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH.

A work has recently been republished in this country, entitled, “A Treatise on Food and Diet; by Dr. J. Pereira. Edited by Dr. Charles A. Lee.” “The author of this work,” says Dr. Lee, “is well known throughout Europe and America, as one of the most learned, scientific, and practical men of the age;—a physician of great experience and accurate observation, and a highly successful writer. To the medical profession he is most favorably known as the author of the best work on the Materia Medica which has appeared in our language.”

This work contains the principles discovered by Leibig, Dûmas, and Brossingault, and applies them practically to the subject of the proper selection of food. All the opinions, expressed in what follows, are sanctioned by the above work, by Dr. Combe, and by most of the distinguished practitioners of our age and country.

In selecting food, with reference to health, the following principles must be borne in mind.

First, that there are general rules in regard to healthful food and drink, which have been established, not by a few, but by thousands and thousands of experiments, through many ages, and in an immense variety of circumstances. It is these great principles, which must be the main dependance of every mother and housekeeper, to guide her in selecting healthful food and drinks for her children and family. These rules are furnished by medical writers and practitioners.

Secondly, there are occasional exceptions to these general rules, and when such occur, two errors should be avoided. One is, giving up all confidence in the deductions of a wide experience, established by extensive experiments, and assuming that we have no rules at all, and that every person must follow the guidance of mere appetite, or his own limited experience. The other is, making the exception into a general rule, and maintaining that every person must conform to it.

For example, it is found by general experience, that milk is a very safe and healthful article of food, and that alcoholic drinks are very unhealthful. But there are cases which seem to be exceptions to this rule; for some children never can eat milk without being made sick, and there are cases known where men have lived to a very advanced age and in perfect health, who have daily used alcoholic drinks, even to the point of intoxication.

Still, it is very unwise to throw away the general rule and say, that it is just as well for children to drink alcoholic drinks as to use milk,—and as unwise to claim that every person must give up the use of milk because a few are injured by it.

The true method is, to take the general rules obtained by abundant experience for our guide, and when any exceptions are found, to regard them as exceptions, which do not vacate the general rule, nor make it needful to conform all other cases to this exception.

It will be the object of what follows, to point out the general rules, which are to regulate in the selection of drinks and diet, leaving it to each individual to ascertain, by experiments, what are, and what are not the exceptions.

In the first place, then, it is a general rule that man needs a variety of aliment, so that it is unfavorable to health to be confined to only one kind of food.

The various textures of the human body are composed of chemical compounds, which differ from each other, both as to ingredients, and as to modes of combination. It is true, that every portion of the body may be resolved to a few simple elements, of which oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen are the chief. But the bodily organs have not the power of forming all the various animal tissues from these simple elements. Instead of this, they must be introduced into the body in various complex and different combinations, as they exist in the forms of gluten, fibrine, albumen, caseine, and other animal and vegetable compounds.

Thus the sugar, starch, and oils, found in certain kinds of food, supply the carbon which sustain the combustion ever carried on in the lungs by the process of breathing, and which is the grand source of animal heat. On the contrary, the blood, muscles, skin, cartilages, and other parts of the body, are daily nourished and renewed, some by the gluten contained in wheat, others by the albumen of eggs, others by the caseine of milk, and others by the fibrine of animals. All these are found in a great variety of articles used as food. When received into the stomach, the organs of digestion and assimilation prepare, and then carry them, each to its own appropriate organ, and then the excreting organs throw off the surplus.

In order, then, to have every portion of the body properly developed, it is necessary to take such a variety of food, that from one source or another, every organ of the body shall be sustained by its appropriate nourishment. The experiments which prove this, have been conducted on a great scale, and the method and results are detailed in the work of Dr. Pereira.

This fact exhibits one cause of the craving, sometimes felt for certain kinds of food, which usually is the call of nature for some ingredient, that the daily round of aliment does not supply. The statistics furnished in the work of Dr. Pereira, from various armies, prisons, almshouses, and asylums, show, that, where many hundreds are fed on the same diet, the general health of the multitude is better sustained by a considerable variety and occasional changes, than by a more restricted selection. Experiments on dogs and other animals, also, have been tried on a large scale, which prove that there is no kind of food, which, alone, will preserve full and perfect health; while every kind (except the food containing gluten, which is the chief ingredient of wheat and other bread-stuffs), when given exclusively, eventually destroys life. The exclusive use of wheat bread and potatoes, as found by experiment, will sustain life and health more perfectly, for a great length of time, than any other kinds of food.

The above fact is a striking exhibition of the beneficence of Providence, in providing such an immense variety of articles of food. And no less so is the instinct of appetite, which demands not only a variety, but is wearied with one unchanging round.

Having ascertained that it is needful to health, that a due variety of food should be secured, we next proceed to examine the principles that are to guide us in the selection.

It is found that the articles used for food and drink may be arranged in the following classes:—

First, articles that furnish no other stimulation to the animal functions than is secured by the fresh supply of nutrition. All food that nourishes the body, in one sense, may be called stimulating, inasmuch as it imparts renewed energies to the various bodily functions. In this sense even bread is a stimulant. But the more common idea attached to the word stimulant is, that it is a principle which imparts a speed and energy to the organs of the system above the ordinary point secured by perfect and appropriate nourishment. The first class, then, are those articles that serve to nourish and develop perfectly every animal function, but do not increase the strength and speed of organic action above the point of full nourishment. The bread-stuffs, vegetables, fruits, sugar, salt, acid drinks, and water are of this class.

Secondly, those articles, which serve to nourish perfectly all the animal system, and at the same time increase the strength and speed of all functional action. All animal food is of this class. All physiologists and medical men agree in the fact, that the pulse and all the organs of the body, are not only nourished, but are quickened in action by animal food, while speed and force are reduced by confining the diet to farinaceous, vegetable, and fruit diet.

Thirdly, those articles which impart no nourishment at all to the body, but act solely to stimulate all the organs to preternatural action. Alcoholic drinks, condiments, and aromatic oils are of this description.

Fourthly, articles that are neither nourishing nor stimulating, but pass out of the system entirely undigested and unassimilated. The bran of coarse bread is an example.

Fifthly, articles that, either from their nature or modes of combination and cooking, are difficult of digestion, unhealthful, and, of course, tend to weaken the organic powers by excessive or unnatural action. Animal oils, either cooked or rancid, and many articles badly cooked, are of this kind.

NOURISHING AND UNSTIMULATING FOOD.

The following presents a list of the articles which are found to be healthful and nourishing, and not stimulating, except as they supply the nourishment needed by the various bodily functions.

The first and most important of these are called the farinaceous substances. Of these, wheat stands at the head, as the most nutritive, safe, and acceptable diet to all classes and in all circumstances. This can be used in the form of bread, every day, through a whole life, without cloying the appetite, and to an extent which can be said of no other food.

Wheat is prepared in several forms, the principal of which are the common Fine Wheat Flour, the Unbolted, or Graham Flour, and Macaroni, Vermicelli, and Cagliari Pastes. The last are flour paste prepared, or cut into various shapes and dried.

Wheat flour is made into bread of two kinds, the fermented, or spongy breads, and the unfermented, or hard breads.

The spongy breads are made by using either yeast, or the combination of an acid and alkali. In yeast bread, the fermentation of the particles of diffused yeast evolve carbonic acid. This expands the flour in a spongy form, in which it is retained by the tenacity of the gluten of the flour, until baking hardens it. Corn meal and some other bread-stuffs cannot be raised thus, because they do not contain gluten sufficient to hold the carbonic acid as it evolves.

When an alkali and acid are used to raise bread, their combination evolves carbonic acid by a more sudden process than the yeast fermentation. The lightness produced by eggs is owing to their adhesive porosity when beaten and mixed with flour and baked.

Bread is also made of rice, rye, Indian meal, and barley. These varieties of bread-stuffs are useful in various ways. In cases when persons are troubled with looseness of bowels, rice bread, rice gruel, and rice water for drink, prevent the necessity of resorting to medicine. In cases where the opposite difficulty exists, a diet of unbolted wheat, or rye mush with salt and molasses will remedy the evil. These articles also can, all of them, be formed into a great variety of combinations that are at once healthful, and acceptable to the palate.

The next class of healthful and unstimulating articles are the amylaceous, or starchy articles of diet. Of these Sago, Tapioca, Arrow Root, and the Lichens, are those in most frequent use. These are nourishing and remarkably easy of digestion. They are very much used for invalids, and for young children when first weaned.

The next most valuable articles of food are the vegetables. Of these the Potato is at once the most healthful, and most universally relished. In the form of Starch, it makes, when cooked, a light and agreeable article for the sick, and is convenient to housekeepers as forming a fine minute pudding to meet an emergency.

Of the great variety of vegetables that are furnished at market, or from our gardens, almost all are palatable and healthful to a stomach that is strong. Peas, Beans, Onions, and cooked Cabbage and Turnips, usually are not good for persons whose powers of digestion have been weakened.

The next most valuable articles of food are the Fruits. Almost all kinds of fruit, when fully ripe, are healthful to those who are not suffering from weakness of digestion. Grapes, Apples, Peaches, Strawberries, Raspberries, and Currants, are least likely to prove injurious. The skins and seeds of all fruits consist of woody matter, that is perfectly undigestible, and should never be taken in large quantities. It is the skins and seeds of the grape that make raisins so often injurious to young children. If the skins and stones can be removed, nothing can be found that is more safe and healthful, in moderate quantities, than raisins and grapes.

The next articles of healthful unstimulating food are the Saccharine substances, Sugar, Molasses, and Honey. On this point, Dr. Pereira remarks, “The injurious effects which have been ascribed to sugar are more imaginary than real. The fondness of children for saccharine substances may be regarded as a natural instinct; since nature, by placing it in the mother’s milk, evidently intended it to form a part of their nourishment. Instead, therefore, of repressing this appetite for sugar, it ought rather to be gratified in moderation. The popular notion, of its having a tendency to injure the teeth, is totally unfounded. During the sugar season of the West Indies, every negro on the plantations, every animal, and even the dogs, grow fat. And no people on earth have finer teeth than the negroes of Jamaica. It is probable that this erroneous notion has been propagated by frugal housewives, in order to deter children from indulging in an expensive luxury. Sugar is readily digested by a healthy stomach. In dyspeptics, it is apt to give rise to flatulence and acidity of stomach.”

These remarks, without other considerations, may lead to erroneous conclusions. There is no doubt that both children and adults are often injured by the use of sugar, but it is not because it is unhealthful in its nature, but because it is used in excess or in an improper manner. In the “Domestic Economy,” pg. 105, it is shown that highly concentrated food is not favorable to digestion, because it cannot be properly acted on by the muscular contractions of the stomach, and is not so minutely divided as to enable the gastric juice to act properly. Now Sugar, Candy, and the like, are highly concentrated nourishment, and should not be used except when mixed with other food. The reason, then, why children are injured by sugar is, that they eat it too frequently, in too large quantities, and unmixed with other food. A stick or two of pure candy, eaten with crackers or bread, never would injure any healthy child. It is too often the case, that candies are mixed with unhealthful coloring matter, or with nuts and other oily substances, that make them injurious.

The next article of healthful, unstimulating food, is jellies and preserved fruits. As it has been shown that uncooked fruits and sugar are both healthful, it may not seem surprising that jellies and fruits cooked in sugar, when eaten moderately, with bread or crackers, are regarded as among the most nourishing and healthful of all aliments. When they prove injurious, it is owing either to the fact that they are taken alone, or with rich cream, or else are taken in too great quantities. Eaten moderately, as a part of a meal, they are safe and nourishing to all, except persons of poor digestion. Healthful stomachs need not be governed by rules demanded by the invalid, which has too often been attempted.

The preceding presents a vast variety of articles suitable for food, containing in abundance all the principles demanded for the perfect development of all the animal functions, and which physiologists and medical men unitedly allow to be healthful. These can be combined by the cook in an endless variety of agreeable dishes, involving no risk to a healthful stomach, when taken in proper quantities and in a proper time and manner.

NOURISHING AND STIMULATING FOOD.

The second general division of food, embraces articles which serve perfectly to nourish and develop every animal organ, but, at the same time, increase the speed and strength of all functional action beyond the point which is attained by the system, when fully and perfectly nourished by vegetables, fruits, and bread-stuffs. There is no dispute among physiologists and physicians as to the fact, that animal food produces chyle which is more stimulating to the various organs, than that which is formed from an exclusive vegetable diet. The only question debated is, whether this increase of stimulus is favorable, or unfavorable to health and long life.

Those who maintain that it is unfavorable, say, that all other things being equal, that machine must wear out the soonest which works the fastest; that, it is proved, both by analysis and by facts, that a vegetable diet contains every principle needed for the perfect development of the whole bodily system, as much so as animal food; and that the only difference is the stimulation in the animal food, which makes the system work faster, and of course, wear out sooner.

To this it is replied, that the exact point of stimulation, which is most safe and healthful, cannot be determined, and that it is as correct to assume, that to be the proper medium, which is secured by a mixed diet, as to assume that the proper point is that, which is secured by an exclusive vegetable diet. Moreover, the fact that the teeth and digestive organs of man, which seem to be fitted both for vegetable and animal food, and the fact that the supplies of food on the earth make it needful to adopt sometimes animal, and sometimes vegetable diet, and sometimes a mixture of both, furnish an à priori argument in favor of a mixed diet.

In deciding which kinds of animal food are most healthful, several particulars are to be regarded. The flesh of young animals is more tender than that of the old ones, but yet they usually are not so easily digested. Beef, and Mutton, and Venison, when tender, are considered the meats which are most easily digested, and best for weak stomachs. Venison is more stimulating than Beef and Mutton. These meats, when tough, are not so easily digested as when tender.

All meats are made more tender and digestible by hanging.

Solid meats, properly cooked, are more easily digested than soups and broths. For it is found that these liquids are never digested till the water is absorbed, leaving a solid mass more undigestible than was the solid meat. When useful to invalids, it is because they supply the loss of the withdrawn fluids of the body, but not because more easily digested. The white meats, such as Chicken and Veal, are best for invalids, because less stimulating than dark meats.

Liver contains so much oil that it is not good for invalids or dyspeptics.

The digestibility and healthfulness of meat depends very much upon the mode of cooking. Boiled meats are most easily digested, when properly boiled. Roasting, broiling, and baking, are healthful modes of cooking, but frying is a very pernicious mode of preparing meats, the reason of which will be explained hereafter.

Though there is a disagreement of opinion among practitioners and physiologists, as to the propriety of using any animal food, they are all agreed in regard to certain general principles that should regulate its use. They are as follows:—Less animal food should be used in warm climates than in cold, and less, also, in summer than in winter. The reason of this is, that heat is stimulating to the system, and as meat diet is also stimulating, when heat increases, meat, as a diet, should decrease, or fevers may ensue.

Another principle is, that the proportions of meat diet should depend somewhat on the constitution and circumstances. When a person is of full habit, or inclined to inflammatory attacks of any kind, the proportion of animal food should be much less than in other cases.

On the contrary, when there is a state of the system that demands gentle stimulus, an increase of meat diet is sometimes useful.

Persons subject to cutaneous eruptions are sometimes entirely cured by long abstinence from animal food, and all kinds of oily substances.

FOOD THAT STIMULATES WITHOUT NOURISHING.

The articles which come under this head, are usually called the condiments. In regard to these, Dr. Pereira remarks,—

“The relish for flavoring, or seasoning ingredients, manifested by almost every person, would lead us to suppose that these substances serve some useful purpose beyond that of merely gratifying the palate. At present, however, we have no evidence that they do. They stimulate, but do not seem to nourish. The volatile oil they contain is absorbed, and then thrown out of the system, still possessing its characteristic odor.”

The articles used for food of this kind, are the sweet herbs employed for seasoning, such as Thyme, Summer Savory, and the like, and the spices, such as Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Pepper, and Ginger. Mustard, Horseradish, Water Cresses, Garlic, and Onions, contain these stimulating oils, combined with some nourishing food.

“Condiments,” says Dr. Beaumont, “particularly those of a spicy kind, are non-essential to the process of digestion in a healthy state of the system. They afford no nutrition. Though they may assist the action of a debilitate stomach for a time, their continual use never fails to produce an indirect debility of that organ. They affect it as alcohol and other stimulants do—the present relief afforded is at the expense of future suffering. Salt and Vinegar are exceptions when used in moderation. They both assist in digestion, Vinegar by rendering muscular fibre more tender, and both together, by producing a fluid having some analogy to the gastric juice.”

FOOD THAT IS ENTIRELY UNDIGESTIBLE.

There is no kind of food used which consists exclusively of indigestible matter. But it often is the case, that a certain amount of indigestible matter is mixed with nourishing food, and serves, by its mechanical aid, to promote the healthful action of the stomach and bowels. This is the reason why unbolted flour is deemed more healthful than fine flour, and is consequently preferred for dyspeptics. But where there is too great a quantity of such indigestible matter, or where it is not properly combined with digestible food, it proves injurious and often dangerous. This is the case when the skins and seeds of fruits are swallowed, which always pass off entirely undigested.

FOOD THAT IS UNHEALTHFUL IN NATURE, OR MADE SO BY COOKING.

The most injurious food, of any in common use, is the animal oils, and articles cooked with them. On this subject, Dr. Pereira remarks:—“Fixed oil, or fat, is more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach, than any other alimentary principle. Indeed, in concealed forms, I believe it will be found to be the offending ingredient in nine-tenths of the dishes which disturb weak stomachs. Many dyspeptics who avoid fat meat, butter, and oil, unwittingly eat it in some concealed form. Liver, the yolk of eggs, and brains, such individuals should eschew, as they abound in oily matter.”

“The influence of heat on fatty substances effects chemical changes, whereby they are rendered more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach. Hence those culinary operations in which fat or oil is subjected to high temperatures, are objectionable.”

“Fixed oils give off, while boiling, carbonic acid, an inflammable vapor, and an acrid oil, called Acroleon, while the fatty acids of the oil are, in part, set free. It has always appeared to me that cooked butter proves more obnoxious to the stomach than cooked Olive oil. This I ascribe to the facility with which, under the influence of heat, the acrid, volatile acids of butter are set free. The fat of salt pork and bacon is less injurious to some dyspeptics than fresh animal fats. This must depend on some change effected by curing.”

“In many dyspeptics, fat does not become properly chymified. It floats on the stomach in the form of an oily pellicle, becoming odorous, and sometimes highly rancid, and in this state excites heartburn, disagreeable nausea, eructations, and sometimes vomiting. It appears to me, that the greater tendency which some oily substances have than others to disturb the stomach, depends on the greater facility with which they evolve volatile, fatty acids, which are for the most part exceedingly acrid and irritating. The distressing feelings excited in many dyspeptics by mutton fat, butter, and fish oils, are, in this way, readily accounted for. Butter contains no less than three volatile, fatty acids, namely—the butyric, capric, and capröic. Fats, by exposure to the air, become rancid, and in this state are exceedingly obnoxious to the digestive organs. Their injurious qualities depend on the presence of volatile acids, and in part also on non-acid substances.”

These statements show the reasons why the fried food of all kinds is injurious. Fat is an unhealthful aliment, and when heated becomes still more so. This mode of cooking, then, should be given up by every housekeeper, who intends to take all reasonable means of preserving the health of her family. There are an abundance of other modes of preparing food, without resorting to one which involves danger, especially to children and invalids, whose powers of digestion are feeble.

The most common modes of preparing unhealthful food, is by frying food, and by furnishing bread that is heavy, or sour, or so newly baked, as to become clammy and indigestible when chewed. Though there are many stomachs that can for a long time take such food without trouble, it always is injurious to weak stomachs, and often renders a healthful stomach a weak one. A housekeeper that will always keep a supply of sweet, light bread on her table, and avoid oily dishes, oily cooking, and condiments, will double the chances of good health for her family.

Minuteness of division is a great aid to easy digestion. For this reason food should be well chewed before swallowing, not only to divide it minutely, but to mix it with the saliva, which aids in digestion.

The cooking of food, in most cases, does not alter its nature; it only renders it more tender, and thus more easily divided and digested.

When a person is feverish and loathes food, it should never be given, as the stomach has not sufficient gastric juice to secure its digestion. The practice of tempting the sick by favorite articles, should therefore be avoided.

LIQUID ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.

“Water” says Dr. Pereira, “is probably the natural drink of all adults. It serves several important purposes in the animal economy:—firstly, it repairs the loss of the aqueous part of the blood, caused by evaporation, and the action of the secreting and exhaling organs; secondly, it is a solvent of various alimentary substances, and, therefore, assists the stomach in digestion, though, if taken in very large quantities, it may have an opposite effect, by diluting the gastric juice; thirdly, it is a nutritive agent, that is, it assists in the formation of the solid parts of the body.”

The health of communities and of individuals is often affected by the nature of the water used for drink, and it is therefore important to know how to secure pure and good water.

Rain water is the purest of all water, purer than the best spring water. Of course every person who fears that the water used is the cause of any evil, can obtain that which is known to be pure and good. The cheapest mode of obtaining good rain water, is to have a large cistern dug in the vicinity of some large building, with conducting spouts. This can be lined with water lime, and the water thus obtained, when cooled with ice, is as pure as any that can be found.

A distinguished medical writer, Dr. Cheyne, remarking on the effects of foreign substances in water, states these facts:—

“At the Nottingham Assizes, July, 1836, it was proved on trial, at which I was a witness, that dysentery, in an aggravated form, was caused in cattle by the use of water contaminated with putrescent vegetable matter, produced by the refuse of a starch manufactory. The fish were destroyed, and all the animals that drank of this water became seriously ill, and many died. It was shown, also, that the mortality was in proportion to the quantity of starch made at different times, and that when the putrescent matter (of the manufactory) was not allowed to pass to the brook, the fish and frogs returned, and the mortality ceased among the cattle.”

Dr. Barry, an English physician, states, that when the troops at Cork were supplied with water from the river Lee, which, in passing through the city, is rendered unfit for drinking by the influx from sewers, Mr. Bell suspected that a dysentery, prevailing at the time, arose from this cause. Upon assuming the care of the troops, he had a number of water carts to bring water from a spring, and did not allow the use of river water, and very shortly the dysentery disappeared.

Sir James McGregor states, that, at one time in the Spanish war, when during three months 20,000 dead bodies were interred at Ciudad Rodrigo, all those exposed to emanations from the soil, and who were obliged to use water from sunken wells, were affected by low malignant fevers, or dysenteries.

This shows that burying in large towns affects the health of the inhabitants, first by emanations from the soil, and secondly by poisoning the water percolating through that soil.

Many such facts as these, show the importance of keeping wells and cisterns from the drainings of sinks, barn-yards, and from decayed dead animals. And it is probable that much sickness in families and communities has been caused by neglecting to preserve the water pure, that is used for drink and cooking.

Water is sometimes rendered unhealthful by being conducted through lead pipes, or kept in lead reservoirs, or vessels. It is found that the purer the water, the more easily it is affected by the lead through which it passes. When the water has certain neutral salts in it, they are deposited on the surface of the lead, and thus protect from its poisonous influence. Immersing a very bright piece of lead for some hours in water, will show whether it is safe to use lead in conducting the water. If the lead is tarnished, it proves that the water exerts a solvent power, and that it is unsafe to employ lead in carrying the water.

The continued use of water containing lead, gives rise to the lead cholic, or painter’s cholic, and if the water is still drank, palsy succeeds. One indication of this disease is a narrow leaden blue line on the edge of the gums of the front teeth.

The following are methods to be employed in purifying water:—

The most thorough and effectual way of obtaining perfectly pure water, from that which is noxious, is, to distill it, collecting only the steam.

In cases where water is injured by the presence of animal or vegetable matter, boiling sometimes removes much of the evil.

Two grains of powdered alum to every quart of water, will often serve to remove many impurities.

Filtering through fine sand and powdered charcoal, removes all animal and vegetable substances which are not held in chemical solution.

Sea water serves both as a cathartic and emetic, and the only mode of obtaining pure water from it is by distillation.

The impure water used often at sea, is owing wholly to the casks in which it is carried. When new, the water imbibes vegetable ingredients from the cask, which become putrid. Water, if carried to sea in iron casks, if good and pure, always continues so. Cistern water is often impure, when held in new wooden cisterns, owing to vegetable matter absorbed by the water.

Dr. Lee remarks, “We are satisfied that impure water is more frequently the cause of disease than is generally supposed. It has been thought that decaying vegetable matter, received into the stomach, was innoxious, owing to the antiseptic properties of the gastric juice. But this opinion is evidently erroneous. An immense number of facts could be adduced, to show that this is the frequent cause of disease. The British army ‘Medical Reports,’ and our own Medical Journals, contain many facts of a similar kind. The fever which carried off so many of the United States Dragoons, on a visit to the Pawnees, was occasioned chiefly by drinking stagnant water, filled with animal and vegetable matter. We know that calculus diseases are most frequent in countries that abound in lime water.”

OTHER LIQUID ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.

The other drinks in most common use are arranged thus,—

1. The Mucilaginous, Farinaceous, or Saccharine drinks.

These are water chiefly, with substances slightly nutritive, softening, and soothing. Toast water, Sugar water, Rice water, Barley water, and the various Gruels, are of this kind.

2. The Aromatic and Astringent drinks.

These include Tea, Coffee, Chicory, Chocolate, and Cocoa.

The following remarks on these drinks are taken from the work of Dr. Pereira.

“The peculiar flavor of tea depends upon the volatile oil, which has the taste and smell of tea. Alone, it acts as a narcotic, but when combined (as in tea) with tannin, it acts as a diuretic and diaphoretic (i. e. to promote the flow of urine and perspiration). Its astringency, proved by its chemical properties, depends upon the presence of tannin. Of this quality we may beneficially avail ourselves in some cases of poisoning, as by poisonous mushrooms, by opium, or laudanum.”

“The peculiar influence of tea, especially the green variety, over the nervous system, depends upon the vegetable oil referred to. The influence is analogous to that of foxglove; for both green tea and foxglove occasion watchfulness, and act as sedatives on the heart and bloodvessels. Strong green tea produces, on some constitutions, usually those popularly known as nervous, very severe effects. It gives rise to tremor, anxiety, sleeplessness, and most distressing feelings.”

“As a diluent and sedative, tea is well adapted to febrile and inflammatory disorders. To its sedative influence should be ascribed the relief of headache sometimes experienced.”

On this subject, Dr. Lee remarks, “Green tea undoubtedly possesses very active medicinal properties; for a very strong decoction of it, or the extract, speedily destroys life in the inferior animals, even when given in very small doses. The strongly marked effects of tea upon persons of a highly nervous temperament, in causing wakefulness, tremors, palpitations, and other distressing feelings, prove, also, that it is an agent of considerable power. It not unfrequently occasions vertigo, and sick headache, together with a sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach, shortly after eating. It is also opposed to active nutrition, and should, therefore, be used with great moderation by those who are thin in flesh. From its astringent properties it often is useful in a relaxed state of bowels.”

“We are satisfied that green tea does not, in any case, form a salubrious beverage to people in health, and should give place to milk, milk and water, black tea, milk and sugar, which, when taken tepid, form very agreeable and healthy drinks.”

Coffee. “The infusion, or decoction of coffee, forms a well known favorite beverage. Like tea, it diminishes the disposition to sleep, and hence it is often resorted to by those who desire nocturnal study. It may also be used to counteract the stupor induced by opium, alcoholic drinks, and other narcotics. In some constitutions it acts as a mild laxative, yet it is usually described as producing constipation. The immoderate use of coffee produces various nervous diseases, such as anxiety, tremor, disordered vision, palpitation, and feverishness.”

Chicory, or Succory. This is the roasted root of the Wild Endive, or Wild Succory. It is prepared like coffee, and some prefer its flavor to that of coffee.

Chocolate. This is prepared by roasting the seeds of the Cacoa, or Cocoa, then grinding them and forming them into cakes. “Chocolate, though devoid of the disagreeable qualities of tea and coffee, which disturb the nervous functions, yet is difficult of digestion, on account of the large quantity of oil which it contains, and is, therefore, very apt to disturb the stomach of dyspeptics.”

Cocoa. This is made of the nuts and husks of the cocoa, roasted and ground, and is somewhat less oily than chocolate, and being rather astringent, is adapted to looseness of the bowels. The shells alone are often used to make a drink, which is less rich than the Cocoa, and especially adapted to weak digestive powers.

The seeds of the vegetable called Ochra, roasted and prepared like coffee, are said to equal it in flavor.

3. Acidulous Drinks.

“The employment of vegetable acid, as an aliment, is necessary to health. It seems pretty clearly established, that complete and prolonged abstinence from succulent vegetables, or fruits, or their preserved juices, as articles of food, is a cause of scurvy.”

“Water, sharpened with vegetable acids, oftentimes proves a most refreshing beverage, allaying thirst, and moderating excessive heat. Various acids form cooling, refreshing, and antiscorbutic drinks, and are well adapted for hot seasons, and for febrile and inflammatory cases.”

These drinks are prepared by dissolving vegetable acids or acidulous salts in water, sweetening and flavoring it. Also, by decoctions of acid fruits, which promote secretions in the alimentary canal, and act as laxatives.

The carbonated or effervescing drinks belong to this class. They owe their sparkling briskness to carbonic acid gas confined in the liquid.

4. Drinks containing Gelatine and Osmazome.

Gelatine is that part of animal and vegetable matter that forms jelly.

Osmazome is that principle in meats which impart their flavor.

Beef Tea, Mutton, Veal, and Chicken Broths are the principal drinks of this description, and usually are prepared for invalids.

5. Emulsive, or Milky Drinks.

Animal milk is the principal drink of this class, and as this is the aliment of a large portion of young children, the necessity of guarding against abuses connected with the supplies furnished should be generally known.

A great portion of the milk furnished in New York and other large cities, is obtained from cows fed on distillery slops, and crowded in filthy pens, without regard to ventilation or cleanliness. Thus deprived of pure air and exercise, and fed with unhealthy food, their milk becomes diseased, and is the cause of extensive mortality among young children. Many cows, also, are fed on decayed vegetables, and the sour and putrid offals of kitchens, and these, also, become thus diseased.

A work on this subject, by R. M. Hartly, Esq., of New York, has been published, which contains these facts. Of five hundred dairies near New York and Brooklyn, all, except five or six, feed their cows on distillery slops. And the reason is, that it yields more milk at a cheaper rate than any other food. But it soon destroys the health of the animals, and after most of their fluids are, by this process, changed to unhealthy milk, and the cows become diseased, they are sent to a cattle market and a new supply obtained.

The physicians in New York, in a body, have testified to the unhealthiness of this practice, but as yet no inspectors have been secured to preserve the public from this danger, while the great mass of the people are ignorant or negligent on the subject. Chemists have analyzed this unhealthful milk, and find that, while pure milk is alkaline, slop milk is acid, and also contains less than half the nourishment contained in pure milk. Scarcely any cream rises on slop milk, and what does collect can never be turned into butter; but, by churning, only changes to froth. We have inspectors of flour, meat, fish, and most other food, and every town and city supplied by milk carts ought to have inspectors of milk; and where this is not done, every mistress of a family should narrowly watch her supplies of milk, and ascertain the mode in which the cows are fed.

In cases where children, or adults, find that milk troubles the stomach, it is often owing to its richness, and water should then be mixed with it. Infants generally require diluted milk, a little sweetened, as cow’s milk is, when good, considerably richer than mother’s milk. The fact that oil is placed among the articles most difficult to digest, shows the mistake of many, who give diluted cream instead of milk, supposing it to be better for infants. In all ordinary cases, where an infant is deprived of the mother’s nourishment, the milk of a new milch cow, diluted with one-third, or one-fourth water, and sweetened a little with white sugar, is the safest substitute. Sometimes oat-meal gruel, or arrowroot, are found to agree better with the child’s peculiar constitution.

6. Alcoholic Drinks.

Beer, Wine, Cider, and Distilled Liquors, are the chief of the alcoholic drinks.

“To persons in health,” says Dr. Pereira, in his “Elements of Materia Medica,” “the dietical employment of wine is either useless or pernicious.“ Dr. Beaumont, in his celebrated experiments on St. Martin,[1] found that wines, as well as distilled spirits, invariably interfered with the regularity and completeness of digestion, and always produced morbid changes in the mucous membrane of the stomach. And this, too, was the case when neither unpleasant feelings nor diminished appetite indicated such an effect.

[1] This case of St. Martin’s referred to, was that of a soldier, who by a gun shot, had an opening made into his stomach, which healed up, leaving so large an orifice, that all the process of digestion could be examined, after he was restored to perfect health.

Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, remarks thus: “The recorded experience of men in all situations and climates, under all kinds of labor and exposure, prove that abstinence from alcoholic drinks gives increased ability to go through the labors of the farm and the workshop, to resist heat and cold, to encounter hardships on sea and land, beyond what has ever been done under the unnatural excitement of alcohol, followed, as it is, by depression and debility, if not by fever and disease. The observation and testimony of naval and military surgeons and commanders are adverse to the issue of alcoholic drinks to men in the army and navy.”

The reports from all our chief state prisons also prove that intemperate men can be instantly deprived of all alcoholic drinks, not only without danger, but with an immediate improvement of the health.

Wine is often useful as a medicine, under the direction of a physician, but its stimulating, alcoholic principle, makes it an improper agent to be drank in health. The same is true of cider and strong beer. Some wine, beer, and cider drinkers do, by the force of a good constitution, live to a good old age, and so do some persons, also, who live in districts infected by a malaria, which destroys the health and life of thousands. But these exceptions do not prove that either wine, or malaria are favorable to health, or long life. They are only exceptions to a general rule.

Meantime, the general rule is established by an incredible amount of experience and testimony, that alcoholic drinks, in no cases, are needed by those in health, and that the indulgence in drinking them awakens a gnawing thirst and longing for them, that leads the vast majority of those who use them, to disease, debility, poverty, folly, crime, and death.

In this detail of the various drinks that may be used by man, we find that pure water is always satisfying, safe, and sufficient. We find that acid and effervescing drinks, so acceptable in hot weather, are also demanded by the system, and are safe and healthful. We find that milk and broths are also healthful and nourishing.

Black tea, also, when taken weak and not above blood heat, is a perfectly safe and agreeable warm drink.

Chocolate and cocoa are nourishing and safe to persons who can bear the oil they contain; and shells are perfectly healthful and safe to all.

In the vast variety of drinks provided for man, we find very few that are not safe and healthful. Green tea and coffee, as ordinarily used, are very injurious to very many constitutions. They contain but very little nourishment, except what is added by the milk and sugar, and training a family of children to love them (for no child loves them till trained to do it) is making it probable that all of them will be less healthful and comfortable, and certain that some will be great sufferers. Training children to drink tea and coffee is as unreasonable and unchristian, as training them to drink foxglove and opium would be—the only difference is, that in one case it is customary, and the other it is not; and custom makes a practice appear less foolish and sinful.

There is no need, at this period of the world, to point out the wickedness and folly of training children to love alcoholic drinks.

In regard to the use of green tea and coffee, one suggestion will be offered. These are drinks which contain very little nourishment, and their effect is to stimulate the nervous system without nourishing it. They are, also, usually drank hot, and heat also is a stimulant to the nerves of the mouth, teeth, throat, and stomach, inducing consequent reacting debility. For it is the unvarying law of the nervous system, that the reacting debility is always in exact proportion to the degree of stimulation.

It is in vain to expect that the great multitudes, who have been accustomed, from childhood, to drink hot tea and coffee, once, twice, and sometimes thrice a day, will give up such a favorite practice. But it is hoped that some may be induced to modify their course, by reducing the strength and the heat of their daily potations. It will be found by housekeepers that, if once a month the daily quantity of tea, or coffee is slightly reduced, the taste will imperceptibly accommodate; and that, in the course of six or eight months, the habits of a family, by these slight monthly variations, may be changed so as that, eventually, they will love weak tea and coffee as much as they once loved the strong.

Young housekeepers, who are just beginning to rear a family of children, will perhaps permit one plea for the young beings, whose fate in life so much depends on their physical training. It is the weak and delicate children who are the sufferers, where the habits of a family lead them to love stimulating drinks. The strong and healthy children may escape unharmed, the whole evil falls on those, who are least able to bear it. Oh mother, save the weak lambs of your fold! Save them from those untold agonies that result from rasped and debilitated nerves, worn out by unhealthful stimulus! And set before your household the Divine injunction—“We, then, that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

In regard to the selection of food, a housekeeper can have small excuse for ever risking the health of her family by providing unhealthy food, or cooking it in an unhealthful manner. Innumerable dishes, and enough to furnish a new variety for every day of the year, can be made of food that is safe and healthful, and cooked in a healthful manner.

Avoid condiments, fats, and food cooked in fats, and always provide light and sweet yeast bread, is the rule which shuts out almost everything that is pernicious to health, and leaves an immense variety from which to select what is both healthful and grateful to the palate.

There are some directions in regard to times and manner of taking food, that are given more at large, with the reasons for them, in the “Domestic Economy,” but which will briefly be referred to, because so important.

Eating too fast is unhealthful, because the food is not properly masticated, or mixed with the saliva, nor has the stomach sufficient time to perform its office on the last portion swallowed before another enters.

Eating too often is unhealthful, because it is weakening and injurious to mix fresh food with that which is partly digested, and because the stomach needs rest after the labor of digesting a meal. In grown persons four or five hours should intervene between each meal. Children, who are growing fast, need a luncheon of simple bread between meals.

Eating too much is unhealthful, because the stomach can properly digest only that amount which is needed to nourish the system. The rest is thrown off undigested, or crowded into parts of the system where it is injurious.

Eating food when too hot is injurious, as weakening the nerves of the teeth and stomach by the stimulus of heat.

Eating highly seasoned food is unhealthful, because it stimulates too much, provokes the appetite too much, and often is indigestible.

Badly cooked food is unhealthful, because it is indigestible, and in other ways injurious.

Excessive fatigue weakens the power of digestion, and in such cases, a meal should be delayed till a little rest is gained.

Bathing should never follow a meal, as it withdraws the blood and nervous vigor demanded for digestion, from the stomach to the skin.

Violent exercise should not follow a full meal, as that also withdraws the blood and nervous energies from the stomach to the muscles.

Water, and other drinks, should never be taken in large quantities, either with, or immediately after a meal, as they dilute the gastric juice, and tend to prevent perfect digestion. But it is proper to drink a moderate quantity of liquid while eating.

Where there is a strong constitution and much exercise in the open air, children and adults may sometimes violate these and all other laws of health, and yet remain strong and well.

But all, and especially those, who have delicate constitutions, and are deprived of fresh air and exercise, will have health and strength increased and prolonged by attending to these rules.

[CHAPTER II.]
MARKETING—CARE AND USES OF MEATS.

Beef.

Fig. 1.

1. Cheek. 2. Neck. 3. Chuck Rib, or Shoulder having four Ribs. 4. Front of the Shoulder, or Shoulder Clod, sometimes called Brisket. 5. Back of the Shoulder. 6. Fore Shin, or Leg. 7,7. Plate pieces; the front one is the Brisket, and the back one is the Flank, and is divided again into the Thick Flank, or Upper Sirloin, and the Lower Flank. 8. Standing Ribs, divided into First, Second, and Third Cuts. The First Cut is next to the Sirloin, and is the best. 9. Sirloin. 10. Sirloin Steak. 11. Rump, or Etch Bone. 12. Round, or Buttock. 13. Leg, or Hind Shank.

Veal.

Fig. 2.

1. Head and Pluck. 2. Rack and Neck. 3. Shoulder. 4. Fore Shank, or Knuckle. 5. Breast. 6. Loin. 7. Fillet, or Leg. 8. Hind Shank, or Knuckle.

Mutton.

Fig. 3.

1. Shoulder. 2, 2. Neck, or Rack. 3. Loin. 4. Leg. 5. Breast.
A Chine is two Loins.
A Saddle of Mutton is two Legs and two Loins.

Pork.

Fig. 4.

1. Leg. 2. Hind Loin. 3. Fore Loin. 4. Spare Rib. 5. Hand. 6. Spring.
A Lamb is divided into two fore quarters and two hind quarters.
Venison. In this country nothing is used but the hind quarter. Two legs and two loins are called a Saddle.

SELECTION AND USES OF MEATS.

In selecting beef, the best parts are cut from the thick portion, from the shoulder to the rump, and these are the most expensive parts, including sirloin, sirloin steaks, and first, second, and third cuts of the fore quarter. The best steaks are made by sawing up these pieces. Steaks from the round or buttock are tougher and not so sweet as steaks from rib pieces. The best steaks are from the sirloin and sirloin steak. Steaks that have large bits of bone should be cheaper, as the bone is so much loss. A roasting piece cut close to the fore shoulder is always tough and poor. Tough steaks must be pounded with a steak hammer.

MODES OF COOKING AND USING THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF ANIMALS.

Beef.

The Sirloin is to be roasted, and it is considered the best piece for steaks. The piece next forward of the Sirloin is about as good as any for roasting.

The Rump is to be corned, or cooked à la mode.

The Round is used for corning, or à la mode.

The Edge or Etch Bone is corned, or for soup.

The Hock or Shin is used for soups.

The Rib pieces of the fore quarter are used as roasting pieces. The first cut, which is next the Sirloin, is the best, and the others are better for corning.

The Head is used for mince pies, and the Tongue for smoking. The Legs are used for soups.

The remaining pieces are used for salting down, stews, soups, and mince pies, according to various tastes.

The Tallow is to be tried up for candles.

Veal.

The Loin is used for roasting.

The Fillet (which is the leg and hind flank) is used for cutlets, or to stuff and boil, or to stuff and roast.

The Chump end of the loin is used for roasting.

The Knuckles are used for broths.

The Neck is used for stews, pot pies, and broths, as are most of the remaining pieces.

Many persons roast the fore quarter, which is divided into two pieces, called the brisket, or breast, and the rack.

Mutton.

The Leg is boiled, or stuffed and roasted.

The Loin is roasted.

The rest are for boiling, or corning.

The Loin is chopped into pieces for broiling, called Mutton Chops.

The Leg is often cut into slices and broiled.

Many cure and smoke the leg, and call it smoked venison.

Pork.

The Shoulder and Ham are used for smoking.

The Spare Rib is used for roasting, and often is used as including all the ribs.

The Shoulder sometimes is corned and boiled.

That which is to be salted down must have all the lean taken out, which is to be used for sausages, or broiling.

The Feet use for jelly, head cheese, and souse.

MARKETING.

In selecting Fish, take those that are firm and thick, having stiff fins and bright scales, the gills bright red, and the eyes full and prominent. When Fish are long out of water they grow soft, the fins bend easily, the scales are dim, the gills grow dark, and the eyes sink and shrink away. Be sure and have them dressed immediately, sprinkle them with salt, and use them, if possible, the same day. In warm weather put them in ice, or corning, for the next day. Shell Fish can be decided upon only by the smell. Lobsters are not good unless alive, or else boiled before offered for sale. They are black when alive, and red when boiled. When to be boiled, they are to be put alive into boiling water, which is the quickest and least cruel way to end life.

In selecting Beef, take that which has a coarse, loose grain, which easily yields to the pressure of finger, or knife; which is a purplish red, and has whitish fat. Ox Beef is best. If the lean is purplish and the fat very yellow, it is bad Beef. If it is coarse-grained and hard to break or cut, it is tough. Stall-fed has lighter fat than grass-fed Beef.

If meat is frozen, lay it in cold water to thaw. A piece of ten pounds, or more, will require all night to thaw. Beef and Mutton improve by keeping. Meat is better for not being frozen, except fresh Pork.

In selecting Veal, take that which is firm and dry, and the joints stiff, having the lean a delicate red, the kidney covered with fat, and the fat very white. If you buy the head, see that the eyes are plump and lively, and not dull and sunk in the head. If you buy the legs, get those which are not skinned, as the skin is good for jelly, or soup.

In choosing Mutton, take that which is bright red and close grain, with firm and white fat. The meat should feel tender and springy on pressure. Notice the vein in the neck of the fore quarter, which should be a fine blue.

In selecting Pork, if young, the lean can easily be broken when pinched, and the skin can be indented by nipping with the fingers. The fat also will be white and soft. Thin rind is best.

In selecting Hams, run a knife along the bone, and if it comes out clean, the ham is good, but if it comes out smeared, it is spoilt. Good Bacon has white fat and the lean adheres closely to the bone. If the Bacon has yellow streaks, it is rusty, and not fit to use.

In selecting Poultry, choose those that are full grown, but not old. When young and fresh killed, the skin is thin and tender, the joints not very stiff, and the eyes full and bright. The breast bone shows the age, as it easily yields to pressure if young, and is tough when old. If young, you can with a pin easily tear the skin. A goose, when old, has red and hairy legs, but when young, they are yellow and have few hairs. The pinfeathers are the roots of feathers, which break off and remain in the skin, and always indicate a young bird. When very neatly dressed they are all pulled out.

Poultry and birds ought to be killed by having the neck cut off, and then hung up by the legs to bleed freely. This makes the flesh white and more healthful.

ON THE CARE OF MEATS.

Beef and Mutton are improved by keeping as long as they remain sweet. If meat begins to taint, wash it and rub it with powdered charcoal and it removes the taint. Sometimes rubbing with salt will cure it.

Corn-fed Pork is best. Pork made by still-house slops is almost poisonous, and hogs that live on offal never furnish healthful food.

Measely Pork has kernels in it, and is unhealthful.

A thick skin shows that the Pork is old, and that it requires more time to boil.

If your Pork is very salt, soak it some hours.

Take all the kernels out, that you will find in the round, and thick end of the flank of Beef, and in the fat, and fill the holes with salt. This will preserve it longer.

Salt your meat, in summer, as soon as you receive it.

A pound and a half of salt rubbed into twenty-five pounds of Beef, will corn it so as to last several days, in ordinary warm weather.

Do not let Pork freeze, if you intend to salt it.

Too much saltpetre spoils Beef.

In winter, meat is kept finely, if well packed in snow, without salting.

Directions for cutting up a Hog.

Split the Hog through the spine, take off each half of the head behind the ear, then take off a piece front of the shoulder and next the head, say four or five pounds, for sausages.

Then take out the leaf which lies around the kidneys, for lard.

Then, with a knife, cut out the whole mass of the lean meat, except what belongs to the shoulder and the ham.

Then take off the ham and the shoulder. Then take out all the fat to be used for lard, which is the loose piece, directly in front of the ham.

Next cut off a narrow strip from the spring, or belly, for sausage meat. Cut up the remainder, which is clear Pork, for salting, in four or five strips of nearly equal width. Take off the cheek, or jowl, of the head for smoking with the ham; and use the upper part for boiling, baking, or head cheese.

The feet are boiled and then fried, or used for jelly. It is most economical to try up the thin flabby pieces for lard to cook with.

The leaf fat try by itself, for the nicest cooking.

Clean all the intestines of the fat for lard. That which does not readily separate from the larger intestines use for soap grease.

Of the insides, the liver, heart, sweet-breads, and kidneys, are sometimes used for broiling or frying. The smaller intestines are used for sausage cases.

In salting down, leave out the bloody and lean portions, and use them for sausages.

To try out Lard.

Take what is called the leaves and take off all the skin, cut it into pieces an inch square, put it into a clean pot over a slow fire, and try it till the scraps look a reddish brown, taking great care not to let it burn, which would spoil the whole. Then strain it through a strong cloth, into a stone pot, and set it away for use.

Take the fat to which the smaller intestines are attached (not the large ones), and the flabby pieces of pork not fit for salting, try these in the same way, and set the fat thus obtained where it will freeze, and by spring the strong taste will be gone, and then it can be used for frying.

Directions for salting down Pork.

Cover the bottom of the barrel with salt an inch deep. Put down one layer of Pork and cover that with salt, half an inch thick. Continue thus till the barrel is full. Then pour in as much strong pickle as the barrel will receive. Always see that the Pork does not rise above the brine. When a white scum, or bloody-looking matter rises on the top, scald the brine and add more salt.

Leave out bloody and lean pieces for sausages.

The Pork ought to be packed as tight as possible, and always kept under the brine. Some use a stone for this purpose. In salting down a new supply, take the old brine, boil it down and remove all the scum, and then use it to pour over the Pork.

Mr. H. H.’s Receipt for Curing Hams.

Take an ounce of saltpetre for each ham, and one pint of molasses to every pound of saltpetre.

Then take a quarter of a pound of common salt for every pint of molasses used.

Heat the mixture till it nearly boils, and smear the meat side with it, keeping the mixture hot and rubbing it in well, especially around the bones and recesses.

Let the hams lie after this from four to seven days, according to the size of the hams.

Then place them in a salt pickle, strong enough to bear an egg, for three weeks. Then soak eight hours in fresh water.

Then hang in the kitchen, or other more convenient place, to dry for a fortnight. Then smoke from three to five days, or till well smoked.

Then wrap them up in strong tar paper, tying it close.

Then tie them tight in bags of coarse unbleached cotton, stuffing in shavings, so that no part of the paper touches the cotton. Hang them near the roof in a garret, and they will never give you any trouble.

To prepare Cases for Sausages.

Empty the cases, taking care not to tear them. Wash them thoroughly, and cut into lengths of two yards each. Then take a candle rod, and fastening one end of a case to the top of it, turn the case inside outward. When all are turned, wash very thoroughly and scrape them with a scraper made for the purpose, keeping them in warm water till ready to scrape. Throw them into salt and water to soak till used. It is a very difficult job to scrape them clean without tearing them. When finished they look transparent and very thin.

Sausage Meat.

Take one-third fat and two-thirds lean pork and chop them, and then to every twelve pounds of meat, add twelve large even spoonfuls of pounded salt, nine of sifted sage, and six of sifted black pepper. Some like a little summer savory. Keep them in a cool and dry place.

Bologna Sausages.

Take equal portions of veal, pork, and ham, chop them fine, season with sweet herbs and pepper, put them in cases, boil them till tender, and then dry them.

Another Receipt for Sausage Meat.

To twenty-five pounds of chopped meat, which should be one-third fat and two-thirds lean, put twenty spoonfuls of sage, twenty-five of salt, ten of pepper, and four of summer savory.

Pickle for Beef, Pork, Tongues, or Hung Beef.

Mix, in four gallons of water, a pound and a half of sugar or molasses, and of saltpetre two ounces. If it is to last a month or two, put in six pounds of salt; if you wish to keep it over the summer, use nine pounds of salt. Boil all together gently, and skim, and then let it cool.

Put the meat in the vessel in which it is to stand, pour the pickle on the meat till it is covered, and keep it for family use.

Once in two months boil and skim the pickle, and throw in two ounces of sugar and half a pound of salt.

When tongues and hung beef are taken out, wash and dry the pieces, put them in paper bags and hang in a dry, warm place. In very hot weather, rub the meat well with salt before it is put in the pickle, and let it lie three hours for the bloody portion to run out. Too much saltpetre is injurious.

Another by measure, and with less trouble.

For every gallon of cold water, use a quart of rock salt, a tablespoon heaping full of saltpetre, six heaping tablespoonfuls of brown sugar, and two quarts of blown salt. No boiling is needed; keep it as long as there is salt undissolved at the bottom. When scum rises scald it, and add more sugar, salt, and saltpetre. Keep weights on the meat to keep it under.

In very hot weather fresh meat will often spoil if it is put in cold pickle. At such times put the meat into hot pickle and boil it for twenty minutes, and the meat will keep a month or more. If you save the pickle, add a little more salt to it.

To salt down Beef to keep the year round.

To one hundred pounds of beef, take four quarts of rock salt pounded very fine, four ounces of saltpetre made very fine, four pounds of brown sugar, all well mixed.

Scatter some over the bottom of the barrel, lay down one layer, and over that scatter the proportion of salt belonging to such a portion of the meat, allowing rather the most to the top layers. Pack all down very close, and if any scum should rise, sprinkle a pint or more of salt over the top.

To Cleanse Calf’s Head and Feet.

Wash clean, and sprinkle pounded rosin over the hair, dip in boiling water and take out immediately, and then scrape them clean. Then soak them in water four days, changing the water every day.

To Prepare Rennet.

Take the stomach of a new-killed calf, and do not wash it, as it weakens the gastric juice. Hang it in a cool and dry place five days or so, then turn the inside out and slip off the curds with the hand. Then fill it with salt, with a little saltpetre mixed in, and lay it in a stone pot, pouring on a teaspoonful of vinegar, and sprinkling on a handful of salt. Cover it closely and keep for use.

After six weeks, take a piece four inches square and put it in a bottle with five gills of cold water and two gills of rose brandy, stop it close, and shake it when you use it. A tablespoonful is enough for a quart of milk.

[CHAPTER III.]
BOILED MEATS.

In boiling meats it is important to keep the water constantly boiling, otherwise the meat will soak up the water.

If it is necessary to add more water, be careful that it be boiling water.

Be careful to remove the scum, especially when it first begins to boil, and a little salt thrown in aids in raising the scum.

Put the meat into cold water, let it heat very gradually forty minutes or so, and reckon the time of boiling from the time it commences boiling. Allow about twenty minutes for boiling for each pound of fresh meat, and twenty-four for salt meats.

Do not let the meat remain long, after it is done, as it injures it. Put a plate in the bottom to prevent the part that touches from cooking too much.

Be sure not to let the fire get hot, so as to make a hard boiling, especially at first. The more gently meat boils the more tender it is, and the more perfectly the savory portion is developed and retained. If the meat is fat, skim it and save the fat for other purposes.

Put salt into the water about in the proportion of a great spoonful to a gallon.

To cook a Ham (very fine).

Boil a common-sized ham four or five hours, then skin the whole and fit it for the table; then set it in an oven for half an hour, then cover it thickly with pounded rusk or bread crumbs, and set it back for half an hour.

Boiled ham is always improved by setting it into an oven for near an hour, till much of the fat fries out, and this also makes it more tender. Save the fat for frying meat.

Smoked Boiled Tongues.

Soak them in cold water all night, then wash them and boil for four or five hours, according to the size. When cooked, take off the skin and garnish with parsley.

À la Mode Beef.

Take a round of beef, cut it full of holes entirely through it, roll strips of raw salt pork in a seasoning made of thyme, cloves, and pepper and salt, half a teaspoonful of each; then draw these strips through the holes in the beef.

Put some small onions, say half a dozen, with a quarter of a pound of butter into a sauce-pan with two great spoonfuls of milk and stew them till soft, put your beef and these onions in a pot, (you can stew the onions in the pot instead of the sauce-pan if you prefer it,) pour on hot water just enough to cover it, and let it cook slowly four or five hours. Just before taking it up, add a pint of wine, either Port or Claret. The onions can be cooked separately if preferred.

Another à la Mode Beef.

If you have about five pounds of beef, take one pound of bread, soak it in water, pour off the water and mash it fine, adding a bit of butter the size of half a hen’s egg, salt, mace, pepper, cloves, half a teaspoonful each, pounded fine.

Mix all with a tablespoonful of flour and two eggs.

Then cut holes through the beef and put in half of this seasoning, and put it in a bake-pan with boiling water enough to cover it.

Put the pan lid, heated, over it, and a few coals on it, and let it stew two hours, then take it up and spread the other half of the dressing on the top, and add butter the size of a hen’s egg, heat the pan lid again hot enough to brown the dressing, and let it stew again an hour and a half.

When taken up, if the gravy is not thick enough, add a teaspoonful of flour wet up in cold water, then add a couple of glasses of white wine to the gravy, and a bit of butter as large as a walnut.

To Boil a Leg of Veal or Mutton.

Make a stuffing of bread, and a quarter as much of salt pork, chopped fine and seasoned with sweet herbs, pepper and salt. Make deep gashes, or what is better, take out the bone with a carving knife, and fill up with stuffing, and sew up the opening with strong thread. When there is a flap of flesh, lap it over the opening and sew it down.

Put it into a large pot and fill it with water, putting in a tablespoonful of salt, and let it simmer slowly three hours. If it is needful to add water, pour in boiling water. When it is done take it up, and save the broth for next day’s dinner.

Pot Pie, of Beef, Veal, or Chicken.

The best way to make the crust is as follows. Peel, boil, and mash a dozen potatoes, add a teaspoonful of salt, two great spoonfuls of butter, and half a cup of milk, or cream. Then stiffen it with flour, till you can roll it. Be sure to get all the lumps out of the potatoes. Some persons leave out the butter.

Some roll butter into the dough of bread, others make a raised biscuit with but little shortening, others make a plain pie crust. But none are so good and healthful as the potato crust.

To prepare the meat, first fry half a dozen slices of salt pork, and then cut up the meat and pork, and boil them in just water enough to cover them, till the meat is nearly cooked. Then peel a dozen potatoes, and slice them thin. Then roll the crust half an inch thick, and cut it into oblong pieces. Then put alternate layers of crust, potatoes, and meat, till all is used. The meat must have salt and pepper sprinkled over each layer. The top and bottom layer must be crust. Lastly, pour on the liquor in which the meat was boiled, until it just covers the whole, and let it simmer till the top crust is well cooked, say half or three quarters of an hour. If you have occasion to add more liquor, or water, it must be boiling hot, or the crust will be spoilt. The excellence of this pie depends on having light crust, and therefore the meat must first be nearly cooked before putting it in the pie, and the crust must be in only just long enough to cook, or it will be clammy and hard. When nearly done, the crust can be browned, with hot coals on a bake-lid. Great care is needed not to burn the crust, which should not be put where the fire reached the pot on the bottom.

Calf’s Head.

Take out the brains and boil the head, feet, and lights, in salted water, just enough to cover them, about two hours. When they have boiled nearly an hour and a half, tie the brains in a cloth and put them in to boil with the rest. They should previously be soaked half an hour in cold water. When the two hours have expired, take up the whole, and mash the brains fine, and season them with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and a glass of Port or Claret, and use them for sauce. Let the liquor remain for a soup the next day. It serves more handsomely to remove all the bones.

Curried Dishes.

Chickens and veal are most suitable for curries. Boil the meat till tender, and separate the joints. Put a little butter in a stew-pan with the chickens, pour on a part of the liquor in which the meat was boiled, enough nearly to cover it, and let it stew twenty minutes more.

Prepare the curry thus: for four pounds of meat, take a tablespoonful of curry powder, a tea-cup of boiled rice, a tablespoonful of flour, and another of melted butter, a tea-cup of the liquor, and half a teaspoonful of salt, mix them, and pour them over the meat and let it stew ten minutes more.

Rice should be boiled for an accompaniment.

To Prepare Curry Powder.

One ounce of ginger, one ounce of mustard, one of pepper, three of coriander seed, three of tumeric, half an ounce of cardamums, quarter of an ounce of Cayenne pepper, quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, and quarter of an ounce of cummin seed. Pound them fine, sift them, and cork them tight in a bottle.

Veal Stew.

Cut four pounds of veal into pieces three inches long and an inch thick, put it into the pot with water enough to cover it, and rise an inch over. Add a teaspoonful of salt, and put in four or five good slices of salt pork, and half a tea-cup of rice, butter the size of a hens egg, and season with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs, and let it simmer slowly till the rice is quite soft, allowing half an hour to heat and an hour to simmer. If there is too little water, pour in boiling water.

Adding a little curry turns it into a dish of curried veal, of which many are very fond. Be sure and skim it well, just before it begins to simmer.

Another Veal Stew (very fine).

Cut four pounds of veal into strips three inches long and an inch thick, peel twelve large potatoes and cut them into slices an inch thick, then spread a layer of veal on the bottom of the pot, and sprinkle a little salt and a very little pepper over it, then put a layer of potatoes, then a layer of veal seasoned as before. Use up the veal thus, and over the last layer of veal put a layer of slices of salt pork, and over the whole a layer of potatoes. Pour in water till it rises an inch over the whole, and cover it as close as possible, heat it fifteen minutes and simmer it an hour.

Ten minutes before taking up, put in butter the size of a hen’s egg, stir in a thin batter made of two tablespoonfuls of flour. Many add sweet herbs to the salt and pepper.

To Stew Birds.

Wash and stuff them with bread crumbs, seasoned with pepper, salt, butter, or chopped salt pork, and fasten them tight. Line a stew-pan with slices of bacon, add a quart of water and a bit of butter the size of a goose egg, or else four slices of salt pork.

Add, if you like, sliced onions and sweet herbs, and mace. Stew till tender, then take them up and strain the gravy over them. Add boiling water if the liquor is too much reduced.

A fine Mutton Stew.

Take three quarts of peeled and sliced potatoes, three large onions, peeled and sliced, and mutton and ham cut into slices. Make layers first of potatoes, salted, and then with the mutton, sprinkled with salt, pepper, gravy, or butter, and mushroom or tomato catsup, two tea-cups of water, and the ham in small quantities. Cover tight and stew for an hour and a half. Watch, and add boiling water if needed, as there must be a good supply of gravy at the bottom.

A Sausage Stew.

Make a thick layer of slices of peeled potatoes, put on a little salt, and then cut up sausages over the potatoes. Continue alternate layers of potatoes and sausages, the top layer being potatoes, pour in a little water and some gravy, or butter, and if you have bits of ham mix them with the sausages.

To Bake Beef.

Take ten pounds of the buttock, rub it with salt and let it lie a day or two, then wash it, and make openings in the beef and insert bits of salt pork dipped in a mixture of powdered pepper, cloves, and fine minced onions, cover it, and let it bake four or five hours. Put a pint of water and teaspoonful of salt in the baking pan and baste occasionally. Make a gravy of the drippings.

Beef, or Mutton and Potato Pie.

Take a deep dish, butter it, and put in it a layer of mashed potatoes, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt and minced onions. Take slices of beef, or mutton, and season them with pepper and salt, lay them with small bits of salt pork over the potatoes. Then fill the dish with alternate layers, as above described, having the upper one potatoes. Bake an hour, or an hour and a half.

To Cook Pigeons.

Pigeons are good stuffed and roasted, or baked. They are better stewed thus:—Stuff them like turkeys, put them in a pot, breast downwards, and cover them with salted water an inch above the top, and simmer them two hours if tender, and three if tough. When nearly done, stir in a bit of butter the size of a goose egg, for every dozen pigeons. Take them up and add a little flour paste to the gravy, with salt and pepper, and pour some of it over them, and put the rest in a gravy dish.

Beef, or Veal Stewed with Apples (very good).

Rub a stew-pan with butter, cut the meat in thin slices, and put in, with pepper, salt, and apple sliced fine; some would add a little onion. Cover it tight, and stew till tender.

To Boil a Turkey.

Make a stuffing for the craw, of chopped bread and butter, cream, oysters, and the yolks of eggs. Sew it in, and dredge flour over the turkey, and put it to boil in cold water, 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 looks nicer if wrapped in a cloth dredged with flour.

Serve it with drawn butter, in which are put some oysters.

To Boil Corned Beef.

Put the beef in water enough to cover it, and let it heat slowly, and boil slowly, and be careful to take off the grease. Many think it much improved by boiling potatoes, turnips, and cabbage with it. In this case the vegetables must be peeled, and all the grease carefully skimmed as fast as it rises. Allow about twenty minutes of boiling for each pound of meat.

[CHAPTER IV.]
ROASTED AND BAKED MEATS.

General Remarks.

Be sure you have your spit and tin oven very clean and bright, and for this end wash them, if possible, before they get cold. If they stand, pour boiling water on to them.

Have a fire so large as to extend half a foot beyond the roaster each side.

When meat is thin and tender, have a small, brisk fire. When your meat is large, and requires long roasting, have large solid wood, kindled with charcoal and small sticks. Set the meat, at first, some distance from the place where it is to roast, so as to have it heat through gradually, and then move it up to roast.

Slow roasting, especially at first, and still more for large pieces, is very important.

Allow about fifteen minutes for each pound of most kinds of meat, and if it is cold weather, or the meat fresh killed, more time is required, probably twenty minutes for each pound.

When the meat is nearly done, stir up the fire to brown it. The meat should be basted a good deal, especially the first part of the time.

Let meat be spitted so as to be equally balanced. When the meat is nearly done, the steam from it will be drawn toward the fire.

A pale brown is the proper color for a roast.

Some dredge on flour and baste, a short time before roasted meats are done.

Whenever fresh lard is used instead of butter, in the dripping-pan, or to rub on meats, more salt must be used.

Flour thickening in gravies must be wet up with very little water till the lumps are out, and then made thin. Never dredge flour into gravies, as it makes lumps. Strain all gravies.

Roast Beef.

The sirloin, and the first and second cuts of the rack, are the best roasting pieces.

Rub it with salt; set the bony side to the fire to heat awhile, then turn it, and have a strong fire; and if thick, allow fifteen minutes to the pound; if thin, allow a little less. If fresh killed, or if it is very cold, allow a little more time. Half an hour before it is done, pour off the gravy, thicken it with brown flour, and season it with salt and pepper. It is the fashion to serve roast beef with no other gravy than the juice of the meat.

Roast Lamb.

The fore and hind quarter of lamb are used for roasting. Rub on a little softened butter, and then some salt and pepper, heat the bony side first, then turn and roast by a brisk fire, allowing about fifteen minutes to a pound, and rather more if fresh killed, or the weather cold. Put a pint of water and a teaspoonful of salt in the dripping-pan, and a little lard, or butter. Lamb is to be cooked thoroughly.

The following is a very excellent sauce for roast lamb. Pick, wash, and shred fine, some fresh mint, put on it a tablespoonful of sugar, and four tablespoonfuls of vinegar; or, chop some hard pickles to the size of capers, and put them to half a pint of melted butter, and a teaspoonful of vinegar.

Roast Mutton.

The saddle, shoulder, and leg are used for roasting.

Rub the mutton with butter, and then with salt and pepper, and some add pounded allspice, or cloves. Put butter, or lard, in the dripping-pan, with a quart of water, or a pint for a small piece, and baste it often. Set the bony side toward the fire, at some distance, that it may heat through before roasting. Allow about a quarter of an hour for every pound. Mutton should be cooked rare.

Make a brown gravy, and serve it with currant jelly.

Roast Veal.

The loin is the best for roasting, the breast and rack the next best. Wash the piece to be roasted in cold water, rub a little butter softened over it, and then some pepper and salt, put a pint or more water in the dripping-pan, and unless there is a good deal of fat, a bit of lard, or butter, and baste often. Set the bony side first to the fire to heat. Allow twenty minutes for every pound, and if cold, or fresh killed, a little more. Veal should be cooked very thoroughly. In roasting any part except the loin, cut slits in the veal and draw through the bits of salt pork, which, while roasting, impart a flavor to the veal.

To Roast a Fillet or Leg of Veal.

Cut off the shank bone of a leg of veal, and cut gashes in what remains. Make a dressing of chopped raw salt pork, salt, pepper, sweet herbs and bread crumbs, or use butter instead of pork. Stuff the openings in the meat with the dressing, put it in a bake-pan with water, just enough to cover it, and let it bake, say two hours for six pounds. Or put it in a tin oven, and roast it two or three hours, according to the size.

Baked, or Roasted Pig.

Take a pig that weighs from seven to twelve pounds, and as much as five weeks old. Wash it thoroughly outside and inside. Take any fresh cold meat, say one pound, and a quarter of a pound of salt pork, and twice as much bread as you have meat.

Chop the bread by itself, and chop the meat and pork fine and mix all together, adding sweet herbs, pepper and salt, half a tea-cup of butter, and one egg. Stuff the pig with it, and sew it up tight. Take off the legs at the middle joint. Put it into a dripping-pan with cross-bars or a grate to hold it up, and with the legs tied, and pour into the pan a pint of water and set it in the oven. As soon as it begins to cook, swab it with salt and water, and then in fifteen minutes do it again. If it blisters it is cooking too fast; swab it, and diminish the heat. It must bake, if weighing twelve pounds, three hours. When nearly done, rub it with butter. When taken out set it for three minutes in the cold, to make it crisp.

To Roast a Spare Rib.

Rub with salt, pepper, and powdered sage. Put the bone side to warm slowly. Dredge on a little flour, and put a little salted water and butter into the dripping-pan, and baste with it. If large, it requires three hours; if small, only one to cook it. Pork must be cooked slowly and very thoroughly.

Roast Turkey.

Wash the outside and inside very clean. Take bread crumbs, grated or chopped, about enough to fill the turkey, chop a bit of salt pork, the size of a good egg, and mix it in, with butter, the size of an egg, pepper, salt, and sweet herbs to your taste. Then beat up an egg and work in. Fill the crop and the body, sew them up, and tie the legs and wings, and spit them. Set it where it will gradually heat, and turn it once or twice, while heating, for fifteen minutes. Then put it up to the fire, and allow about twenty-five minutes for each pound. Turkey must be cooked very thoroughly. It must roast slowly at first, and be often basted with butter on a fork. Dredge it with flour just before taking it up, and let it brown.

Put the inwards in a skillet to boil for two hours, chop them up, season them, use the liquor they are boiled in for gravy, and thicken it with brown flour, and a bit of butter, the size of a hen’s egg. This is the giblet sauce. Take the drippings, say half a pint, thickened with a paste, made of a tablespoonful of brown, or white flour, and let it simmer five minutes, and then use it for thin gravy.

Roast Goose.

A goose should be roasted in the same manner as a turkey. It is better to make the stuffing of mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, and onions, to the taste. Apple sauce is good to serve with it. Allow fifteen minutes to a pound, for a gosling, and twenty or more for an older one. Goose should be cooked rare.

Roast Chickens.

Wash them clean outside and inside, stuff them as directed for turkeys, baste them with butter, lard, or drippings, and roast them about an hour. Chickens should be cooked thoroughly. Stew the inwards till tender, and till there is but little water, chop them and mix in gravy from the dripping-pan, thicken with brown flour, and season with salt, pepper, and butter. Cranberry, or new-made apple sauce, is good with them.

Roast Ducks.

Wash the ducks, and stuff them with a dressing made with mashed potatoes, wet with milk, and chopped onions, sage, pepper, salt, and a little butter, to suit your taste. Reserve the inwards to make the gravy, as is directed for turkeys, except it should be seasoned with sage and chopped onions. They will cook in about an hour. Ducks are to be cooked rare. Baste them with salt water, and before taking up, dredge on a little flour and let it brown.

Green peas and stewed cranberries are good accompaniments.

Canvass-back ducks are cooked without stuffing.

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.

Mutton and Beef Pie.

Line a dish with a crust made of potatoes, as directed in the Chicken Pot Pie. Broil the meat ten minutes, after pounding it till the fibres are broken. Cut the meat thin, and put it in layers, with thin slices of broiled salt pork, season with butter, the size of a hen’s egg, salt, pepper, (and either wine or catsup, if liked); put in water till it nearly covers the meat, and dredge in considerable flour, cover it with the paste, and bake it an hour and a half if quite thick. Cold meats are good cooked over in this way. Cut a slit in the centre of the cover.

Chicken Pie.

Joint and boil two chickens in salted water, just enough to cover them, and simmer slowly for half an hour. Line a dish with raised or potato crust, or pie crust, then put the chicken in layers, with thin slices of broiled pork, butter, the size of a goose egg, cut in small pieces. Put in enough of liquor, in which the meat was boiled, to reach the surface, salt and pepper each layer, dredge in a little flour, and cover all with a light, thick crust. Ornament the top with the crust, and bake about one hour in a hot oven. Make a small slit in the centre of the crust. If it begins to scorch, lay a paper over a short time.

Mutton Haricot.

Make a rich gravy by boiling the coarser parts for the liquor, and seasoning with pepper, spice, and catsup. Cut into the gravy, carrots, parsnips, onions, and celery, boiled tender; then broil the mutton, first seasoning it with salt and pepper, put them into the gravy, and stew all about ten minutes. Garnish with small pickles.

To Cook a Shoulder of Lamb.

Check the shoulder with cuts an inch deep, rub on first butter, then salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, over these put the yolk of an egg and bread crumbs, and then bake or roast it a light brown. Make a gravy of the drippings, seasoning with pepper, salt, and tomato catsup, and also the grated rind and juice of a lemon; thicken with a very little flour.

Rice Chicken Pie.

Line a pudding dish with slices of broiled ham, cut up a boiled chicken, and nearly fill the dish, filling in with gravy or melted butter; add minced onions if you like, or a little curry powder, which is better. Then pile boiled rice to fill all interstices, and cover the top quite thick. Bake it for half or three quarters of an hour.

Potato Pie.

Take mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, butter, and milk, and line a baking dish. Lay upon it slices of cold meats of any kind with salt, pepper, catsup, and butter, or gravy. Put on another layer of potatoes, and then another of cold meat as before. Lastly, on the top put a cover of potatoes.

Bake it till it is thoroughly warmed through, and serve it in the dish in which it is baked, setting it in, or upon another.

[CHAPTER V.]
FRIED AND BROILED MEATS.

General Remarks.

It is best to fry in lard not salted, and this is better than butter. Mutton and beef suet are good for frying. When the lard seems hot, try it by throwing in a bit of bread. When taking up fried articles, drain off the fat on a wire sieve.

A nice Way of Cooking Calf’s or Pig’s Liver.

Cut it in slices half an inch thick, pour on boiling water and then pour it off entirely, then let the liver brown in its own juices, turning it till it looks brown on both sides. Take it up and pour into the frying-pan enough cold water to make as much gravy as you wish; then sliver in onion, cut fine, add a little salt and nutmeg, and a bit of butter to season it, let it boil up once, then put back the liver for a minute, and then set it on the table.

Fried Veal Cutlets.

Take half a pint of milk, add a well-beaten egg, and flour enough to make a batter. Fry the veal brown in some sweet lard, then dip it in the batter and fry again till brown. Drop in some spoonfuls of batter, to fry after the veal is taken up, and put them on the top of the veal. Then put a little thin flour paste into the gravy, adding salt and pepper, and after one boil, pour it over the whole. The veal must be cut quite thin, and it should cook nearly an hour in the whole.

Fricassee Chickens.

Wash the chickens and divide them into pieces, put them in a pot, or stew-pan, with several slices of salt ham, or pork, and sprinkle each layer with salt and pepper; cover them with water, and let them simmer till tender, keeping them covered. Then take them up, and mix with the gravy a piece of butter the size of a hen’s egg, and a paste made of two teaspoonfuls of flour wet up with the gravy. Put back the chickens and let them stew five minutes. Then spread crackers, or toasted bread, on the platter, put the chickens on it, and pour the gravy over.

In case it is wished to have them browned, take them out when nearly cooked and fry them in butter till brown, or pour off all the liquid and fry them in the pot.

Meats Warmed over.

Cold beef is best made into pies as in a foregoing receipt. Veal is best made into hashes, or force meat, as in following receipts. 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 are 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 teaspoonfuls, or a little less. Simmer the meat with all the rest for one 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 one hour.

Cold Meat Turnovers.

Roll out wheat dough very thin, and put in it, like a turnover, cold meat chopped fine, and seasoned with pepper, salt, catsup, and sweet herbs. Make small ones, and fry them in lard till the dough is well cooked.

Head Cheese.

Boil in salted water the ears, skin, and feet of pigs till the meat drops from the bones; chop it like sausage meat. Season the liquor with pepper, salt, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon, or with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs, mix the meat with it, and while hot tie it in a strong bag and keep a heavy stone upon it until quite cold.

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. Fry them in lard.

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, or fry or broil it.

Force Meat Balls (another Hash.)

Chop cold veal fine with one-fourth as much salt pork. Season with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs. Make them into balls and fry them brown.

To Prepare Cold Beef Steaks.

Put a fine minced onion into a stew-pan, and add half a dozen cloves and as many pepper corns, pour on a coffee cup of boiling water, and add three large spoonfuls of butter, or some gravy. Let it simmer ten minutes. Then cut up the beef in mouthfuls and put into this gravy to simmer four or five minutes, till heated through, but do not let it cook any more, as it is not healthful.

Three large tomatoes stewed with the onion improves this.

A nice Way of Cooking Cold Boiled Ham.

Make quite a thin batter of flour, water, and eggs, with a little salt. Pour the batter over the bottom of a Dutch oven, or frying-pan, which has a very little hot butter, or lard in it; say three great spoonfuls. Let the batter be no thicker on the bottom than a straw; let it fry a couple of minutes and then cover the batter with very thin slices of ham, and pour a thin cover of batter over them. Let it fry till the bottom looks a yellowish brown (have a hot fire), then cut it into squares, or into triangular quarters, or eighths, and turn it with a knife, and let it fry till the other side is browned.

Another Way of Cooking Cold Ham.

Cut up all the bits and ends, put them in a frying, or sauce pan, with a very little water and some butter. When warmed through, break in some eggs and stir them up with the ham until the egg is hardened.

A Veal Hash.

Cut up cooked veal into strips, flour them and fry them to a light brown, in butter. Then take them up and mix as much hot water as there is gravy, add a little flour paste, season with salt, pepper, catsup, and lemon-juice, then add the meat and heat it hot.

Veal Balls (another Hash).

Chop the cold veal fine, removing hard portions, add as much bread crumbs as there is of meat, and half as much broiled salt pork chopped fine. Moisten all with a glass of white wine if you like it, put in two eggs, and season with salt, pepper, sweet herbs, and a little nutmeg. Form them into balls and fry in butter.

BROILED MEATS.

General Remarks.

It is best to oil the bars of the gridiron with suet and also warm them before putting the meat on. Chalk is sometimes rubbed on to the gridiron, when fish is to be broiled. It is desirable to keep a gridiron expressly for fish, otherwise meat is often made to taste fishy.

Broiled Ham.

Cut the ham into thin slices, and broil it very quickly over a hot fire, then put on butter and a little pepper.

Broiled Veal Cutlets.

Cut the veal into slices a quarter of an inch thick, lay them on the gridiron with an equal number of slices of salt pork beside them. When cooked, put the veal on to the dish, butter, salt, and pepper it well, and lay the salt pork on the top of it. Veal needs to broil a good while, till it looks done when cut open.

Broiled Mutton Chops.

These must be broiled over a quick fire and not cooked so much as veal.

Broiled Pork Steaks.

These must be cut rather thin, broiled quick, and very thoroughly.

Beef Steaks.

Those from the sirloin are best, those from the shoulder clod and round are not so good, but cheaper. Meat, if tough, is made more tender by pounding, if it is done very thoroughly, so as to break the fibres. Cut the steaks from half an inch to an inch thick. Broil on hot coals, and the quicker it is done the better. Ten or twelve minutes is enough time. Turn it four or five times, and when done put on butter, salt, and if you like pepper, and on both sides. Do not let your butter be turned to oil before putting it on. It is best to have beef tongs to turn beef, as pricking it lets out the juices. Often turning prevents the surface from hardening and cooks it more equally.

Beef Liver.

Cut it in slices half an inch thick, pour boiling water on it, broil it with some thin slices of salt pork dipped in flour; then cut the liver and pork up into mouthfuls, put them in a frying-pan with a little butter, pepper, and salt, and stew them three or four minutes.

To Poach Eggs.

Beat the eggs to a froth, pour them into a buttered tin, set it on coals, add salt and butter, stir till cooked, and then put it on to buttered toast.

To Boil Eggs.

Put them into boiling water and allow three minutes if you wish only the white hardened, and five minutes if you wish them hard. Another and more delicate way is to break them into boiling water and let them boil three or four minutes. Then take them up with a skimmer, draining them well, and lay them on buttered toast, and spread a little butter on them.

Another, and the best way to boil them when in the shell, is to pour on boiling water and let them stand five minutes. Then pour it off and pour on more boiling water, and let them stand five minutes longer.

This is the way in which they are cooked in egg boilers, which are set upon the table.

A Salt Relish.

Cut salt pork into thin slices, fry them till crisp, take them out and pour a little water to the fat, dredge in a little flour, and put in a little pepper. Then cut up the pork in mouthfuls and put to this gravy.

Egg Frizzle (very good).

Pour boiling water on to salt, smoked beef slivered. Pour off the water and then frizzle it in the frying-pan with butter. When done, break in two or three eggs, and stir it till the egg is hardened.

Frizzled Beef.

Sliver smoked beef, pour on boiling water to freshen it, then pour off the water and frizzle the beef in butter.

Veal Cheese.

Prepare equal quantities of sliced boiled veal and smoked tongue, boiled, skinned, and sliced.

Pound each separately in a mortar, moistening with butter as you proceed.

Then take a stone jar, or tin can, and mix them in it, so that it will, when cut, look mottled and variegated. Press it hard and pour on melted butter. Keep it covered in a dry place. To be used at tea in slices.

A Codfish Relish.

Take thin slivers of codfish, lay them on hot coals, and when a yellowish brown, set them on the table.

Another Way.

Sliver the codfish fine, pour on boiling water, drain it off, and add butter, and a very little pepper, and heat them three or four minutes, but do not let them fry.

Salt Herrings.

Heat them on a gridiron, remove the skin, and then set them on the table.

[CHAPTER VI.]
SOUPS.

The delicate and proper blending of savors is the chief art of good soup-making.

Be sure and skim the grease off the soup when it first boils, or it will not become clear. Throw in a little salt to bring up the scum. Remove all the grease.

Be sure and simmer softly, and never let a soup boil hard.

Put the meat into cold water, and let it grow warm slowly. This dissolves the gelatine, allows the albumen to disengage, and the scum to rise, and diffuses the savory part of the meat. But if the soup is over a hot fire the albumen coagulates and hardens the meat, prevents the water from penetrating, and the savory part from disengaging itself. Thus the broth will be without flavor, and the meat tough. Allow about two tablespoonfuls of salt to four quarts of soup, where there are many vegetables, and one and a half where there are few.

Be sure not to leave any fat floating on the surface.

A quart of water, or a little less, to a pound of meat is a good rule.

Soup made of uncooked meat is as good the second day, if heated to the boiling point.

If more water is needed, use boiling hot water, as cold or lukewarm spoils the soup.

It is thought that potato water is unhealthy; and therefore do not boil potatoes in soup, but boil elsewhere, and add them when nearly cooked.

The water in which poultry, or fresh meat is boiled should be saved for gravies, or soup, the next day. If you do not need it, give it to the poor.

Keep the vessel covered tight in which you boil soup, that the flavor be not lost.

Never leave soup in metal pots, as sometimes a family is thus poisoned.

Thickened soups require more seasoning; nearly double the quantity used for thin soups.

French Vegetable Soup.

Take a leg of lamb, of moderate size, and four quarts water. Of potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and turnips take a tea-cup full of each, chopped fine. Salt and black pepper to your taste.

Wash the lamb, and put it into the four quarts of cold water. When the scum rises take it off carefully with a skimmer. After having pared and chopped the vegetables, put them into the soup. Carrots require the most boiling, and should be put in first; onions require the least boiling, and are to be put in the last.

This soup requires about three hours to boil.

Plain Calf’s Head Soup.

Boil the head and feet in just water enough to cover them; when tender take out the bones, cut in small pieces, and season with marjoram, thyme, cloves, salt, and pepper.

Put all into a pot, with the liquor, and four spoonfuls of thin batter, stew gently an hour, then, just as you take it up, add two or three glasses of Port wine, and the yolks of eggs boiled hard.

An Excellent Simple Mutton Soup.

Put a piece of the fore quarter of mutton into salted water, enough to more than cover it, and simmer it slowly two hours. Then peel a dozen turnips, and six tomatoes, and quarter them, and boil them with the mutton till just tender enough to eat. Thicken the soup with pearl barley. Some add sliced tomatoes, or the juice and rind of a lemon. Use half a tea-cup of rice if you have no pearl barley.

Pea Soup.

Soak dry peas over night, putting a quart of water to each quart of peas. Next morning boil them an hour in this water, and ten minutes before the hour expires put in a teaspoonful of saleratus. Change them to fresh water, put in a pound of salt pork, and boil three or four hours, till the peas are soft. Green peas need no soaking, and must boil not more than an hour. When taken up, add butter.

Portable Soup.

Boil down the meat to a thick jelly, season it highly with salt, spices, and wine, or brandy; when cold, cut it in square inches, and dry them in the sun. Keep them in a tight tin vessel, and when you use them put a quart of boiling water to one, or two of the cakes, which should be one inch square, and the fourth of an inch thick. Vegetables can be added.

A Rich Mock Turtle Soup.

Divide the lower from the upper part of the head, and put the head in a gallon of water, and boil till tender.

Strain the liquor, and let it stand till the next day, and then take off the fat. Three quarters of an hour before serving it, hang it over the fire and season it with pepper, salt, mace, cloves, and sweet herbs, tied up in a small bag; add half a pint of rich gravy. Darken it with fried sugar, or browned flour; add the juice of two lemons, the yolks of eight eggs, boiled hard, and force meat balls. Just before taking up, pour in half a pint of wine.

Another Dry Pea Soup.

Soak the peas over night. Put a pound and a half of split peas into four quarts of water, with roast beef, or mutton bones, and a ham bone, or slices of ham. Add two heads of celery and two onions, and stew slowly till the peas are soft. Then strain the peas through a coarse sieve, and put them back and season to your taste with pepper and salt. Let it boil one hour longer. When you have no celery use a teaspoonful of essence of celery, or a spoonful of celery vinegar.

Clam Soup.

Wash a peck of clams and boil them in a pint of water, till those on the top open and they come out easily. Strain the liquor, and add a quart of milk. When it just boils thicken with two and a half spoonfuls of flour, worked into three of butter, with pepper, mace, and other spices to your taste. It is better without spice.

Oyster Soup.

Put a gallon of water to a knuckle of veal, boil it to two quarts, strain and add the juice of the oysters you are to use. Add pepper and salt to your taste. Fifteen minutes before taking it up, put in the oysters. Ten minutes before taking up, put in eight rolled crackers, and after it stops boiling, add half a pint of milk.

Veal Soup.

Take the knuckle and put it into salted water, enough to cover it, and also put in a pound of ham. When it is boiled very tender take up the meat, and strain the soup, and add a head of celery, cut small, one onion, a turnip and carrot sliced, four sliced tomatoes, a dozen corns of pepper, and salt to your taste. Thicken with three great spoonfuls of rice, or vermicelli, or a thin flour paste. Simmer it gently till all the vegetables are done.

Almost any kind of meat can be made into soup, by taking the broth, and adding various kinds of seasoning and thickening; such as tomatoes, ochra, vermicelli, sweet herbs, and vegetables, and in such proportions as each one likes best. The preceding kinds of soup will be a guide as to proportions.

Macaroni Soup (Mrs. F.’s Receipt).

Take six pounds of beef, and put it into four quarts of water, with two onions, one carrot, one turnip, and a head of celery. Boil it down three or four hours slowly, till there is about two quarts of water, and let it cool. Next day take off the grease, without shaking the sediment, and pour it off into the kettle, half an hour before dinner (leaving the sediment out), and add salt to suit the taste, a pint of macaroni, broken into inch pieces, and a tablespoonful and a half of tomato catsup.

Southern Gumbo (Mrs. L.’s Receipt).

This is a favorite dish at the South and West, and is made in a variety of ways. The following is a very fine receipt, furnished by a lady, who has had an extensive opportunity for selection.

Fry one chicken, when cut up, to a light brown, and also two slices of bacon. Pour on to them three quarts of boiling water. Add one onion and some sweet herbs, tied in a rag. Simmer them gently three hours and a half. Strain off the liquor, take off the fat, and then put the ham and chicken, cut into small pieces, into the liquor. Add half a tea-cup of ochre, cut up; if dry, the same quantity; also half a tea-cup of rice. Boil all half an hour, and just before serving add a glass of wine and a dozen oysters, with their juice. Ochre is a fine vegetable, especially for soups, and is easily cultivated. It is sliced and dried for soups in winter.

Giblet Soup.

Take the feet, neck, pinions, and giblets of two fowls, and add a pound and a half of veal, and a slice of lean ham. Pour on three quarts of cold water, and boil gently till the meat is very soft. Strain off the liquor, and, when cold, take off the fat. Cut the giblets and meat into half-inch pieces; add a tablespoonful of flour with one of butter, and some of the soup to thin it. Then put into the soup the butter and meat, with some sweet herbs tied in a bag, with salt to your taste. Boil it half an hour and it is done.

[CHAPTER VII.]
FISH.

Put fish into cold water to boil.

Remove any mud taste by soaking in strong salt and water.

It is cooked enough when it easily cleaves from the bone, and is injured by cooking longer.

Put a napkin under, to absorb dampness, when boiled fish is laid on the dish.

To fry, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and use lard, not butter. Garnish with parsley.

Halibut is best cut in slices, and fried, or broiled. Bass are good every way. Black fish are best broiled or fried. Shad are best broiled, and sprinkle them with salt some hours before broiling. Salt shad and mackerel must be soaked over night for broiling. Sturgeons are best fried; the part near the tail is best for this.

Directions for making Chowder.

The best fish for chowder are haddock and striped bass. Cut the fish in pieces of an inch thick, and two inches square. Take six or eight good-sized slices of salt pork, and put in the bottom of an iron pot, and fry them in the pot till crisped. Take out the pork, leaving the fat. Chop the pork fine. Put in the pot a layer of fish, a layer of split crackers, some of the chopped pork, black and red pepper, and chopped onion, then another layer of fish, split crackers, and seasoning. This do till you have used your fish. Then just cover the fish with water, and stew slowly till the fish is perfectly tender. Take out the fish, and put it in the dish in which you mean to serve it; set it to keep warm. Thicken the gravy with pounded cracker; add, if you like, mushroom catsup and Port wine. Boil the gravy up once, and pour over the fish; squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and garnish with slices of lemon.

If not salt enough from the pork, more must be added.

To Fry Fish.

Fry some slices of salt pork, say a slice for each pound, and when brown take them up, and add lard enough to cover the fish. Skim it well, and have it hot, then dip the fish in flour, without salting it, and fry a light brown. Then take the fish up, and add to the gravy a little flour paste, pepper, salt; also wine, catsup, and spices, if you like. Put the fish and pork on a dish, and, after one boil, pour this gravy over the whole.

Fish are good dipped first in egg and then in Indian meal, or cracker crumbs and egg, previous to frying.

To Boil Fish.

Fill the fish with a stuffing of chopped salt pork, and bread, or bread and butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, and sew it up. Then sew it into a cloth, or you cannot take it up well. Put it in cold water, with water enough to cover it, salted at the rate of a teaspoonful of salt to each pound of fish, and about three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Boil it slowly for twenty or thirty minutes, or till the fin is easily drawn out. Serve with drawn butter and eggs, with capers or nasturtions in it.

Fish can be baked in the same way, except sewing it up in a cloth. Instead of this, cover it with egg and cracker, or bread crumbs.

To Broil Fish.

Salt fish must be soaked several hours before broiling. Rub suet on the bars of your gridiron, then put the fish flesh side down (some say skin side down, as it saves the juices better), and broil till nearly cooked through. Then lay a dish on it, and turn the fish by inverting the gridiron over the dish. Broil slowly, and never pile broiled fish one above another on the dish.

Baked Fish.

Cod, bass, and shad are good for baking. Stuff them with a seasoning made of bread crumbs or crackers, butter, salt, pepper, and, if you like, spices. Put the fish in a bake-pan, with a tea-cup of water, and a bit of butter, and bake from forty-five to sixty minutes.

Cod Sounds and Tongues.

Soak them four hours in blood-warm water, then scrape off the skin, cut them up, and stew them in a little milk till tender. Just before taking up stir in butter, and a little flour paste, and scatter cold boiled eggs cut up over them.

To Cook Salt Codfish.

Soak the fish in a pailful of water all night. Then hang it in a good deal of water where it will be kept warm. Put one even great spoonful of saleratus in the water. (This last softens it as nothing else will do.) Change the water an hour before dinner, and hang it where it will get scalding hot. It must not boil, but only simmer. Take it up into a napkin, so as to keep it dry and hot.

To Cook Cold Codfish.

Mash boiled potatoes, mash the fish and mix with them, adding some cream or milk, and a little pepper, make them into round cakes an inch thick, and fry them in fresh lard.

To Cook Oysters.

Oysters are best roasted in the shell, convex side downward, to hold the juices, and cooked till they will open well. They are good also cooked in a batter made by adding wheat flour to the juice till it is a batter, and adding two eggs and a salt spoonful of salt. Fry in hot lard to a light brown.

Lobsters.

These must never be cooked after they are dead. Put them alive into boiling water, and boil them till the small joints come off easily.

Scolloped Oysters.

Take the oysters from the liquor, and place some at the bottom of the dish, then grate some bread over them, a little nutmeg, pepper, salt, and cloves. Add another laying of oysters, and the seasoning, a little butter, and a glass of wine. Cover the whole with grated bread, and bake half an hour, or perhaps a little more. There will be liquor enough without adding any water or oyster broth.

Pickled Oysters.

After taking out the oysters, to each quart of liquor put a teaspoonful of pepper, two blades of mace, three tablespoonfuls of white wine, and four of vinegar, also a tablespoonful of salt. Simmer the oysters in this five minutes, then take them out and put in jars, then boil the pickle, skim it, and pour it over them.

To Crimp Fresh Fish.

Cut in slices and lay them for three hours in salt and water, and a glass of vinegar, then fry or broil them.

To Cook Eels.

Dress them, lay them open flat, rub them with salt and pepper, cut them in short pieces, and broil them. Small ones are best skinned and fried.

To Cook Scollops.

Boil them, take out the hearts (which is the only part used), dip them in flour and fry brown in lard, or stew with butter, pepper, salt, and a little water.

A Good Way of Using Cold Fresh Fish.

Take cold cooked fish, chop it with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and boiled salt pork, or ham; season with salt, pepper, catsup, or wine. Mould into balls with egg and bread crumbs, and fry in lard.

To Cook Clams.

Thin-edged clams are the best ones. Roast them in a pan over a hot fire, or in a hot oven, placing them so as to save the juice. When they open, empty the juice into a sauce-pan, and add the clams with butter, pepper, and very little salt.

To boil them, put them in a pot with a very little water, and so as to save their juices. Proceed as above, and lay buttered toast in the dish when you take them up. Clams are good put into a batter and fried.

[CHAPTER VIII.]
ON THE PREPARATION OF HASHES, GRAVIES, AND SAUCES.

There is nothing worse for the health, or for the palate, than a poor hash, while a good hash is not only a favorite dish in most families, but an essential article of economy and convenience. For this reason, a separate article is devoted to this subject.

The following are the ways in which hashes are spoilt.

The first is by cooking them. Meat, when once cooked, should only be heated. If it is again stewed or fried, it tends to make it hard and tough, and diminishes its flavor.

The second is by frying the butter or gravy in which they are prepared. It has been shown that this is very injurious to the healthfulness of food. Butter and oils may be melted without changing their nature, but when cooked, they become much more indigestible and injurious to weak stomachs.

The third mode of injuring hashes is by putting in flour in such ways that it is not properly cooked. Flour dredged on to hashes while they are cooking generally imparts the raw taste of dough.

The fourth mode is by putting in so much water as to make them vapid, or else so much grease as to make them gross.

The fifth is by seasoning them with so little care, that they either have very little savory taste, or else are so hot with pepper and spice as to be unhealthy.

If a housekeeper will follow these directions, or give them to a cook who will follow them exactly, she will always have good and healthful hashes.

To prepare Gravy for a Cold Beef Hash, or Steak Hash.

For a small dish for six persons, put a tea-cup and a half of boiling water into a small sauce-pan, and make a thin paste with a heaping teaspoonful of flour, wet with a great spoonful of cold water. Stir it in, and boil it three minutes. Then put in half a teaspoonful of black pepper and rather more salt, and let it stand where it will be kept hot, but not boiling, till fifteen minutes before it is to be used.

Then cut the beef into half-inch mouthfuls and take as many mouthfuls of cold boiled potato, and half as many of cold turnip. Put these all together into a tin pan the size of a dining plate. Then stir in two great spoonfuls of butter into the gravy till melted, and, if you like tomato catsup, add a great spoonful, and pour it over the hash, and cover it with a plate and let it heat on the stove, or trivet, ten minutes, and then serve it.

If the hash is made without vegetables, take only a tea-cup full of water, and a teaspoonful of flour, and a little less pepper and salt.

If you have the beef gravy of yesterday, use it instead of butter, and put in less pepper, salt, butter, and water, and only one spoonful of butter.

If tomatoes are liked, peel and slice two large ones, and add with the potatoes and turnips.

Let a housekeeper try this, and then vary it to her own taste, or the taste of her family, and then write the exact proportions for the use of all the future cooks of her family.

Gravy for a Mutton Hash, or Venison Hash.

For a dish for six persons, take a tea-cup and a half of boiling water, and slice fine one small onion (say one an inch in diameter) into it, to give a slight flavor of onion, and thus hide the strong mutton taste. Mix a thin paste made with a heaping teaspoonful of flour, wet with a great spoonful of water, stir it in, and let it boil three minutes, adding a half a teaspoonful of black pepper, and rather more salt. Then set it where it will keep hot, but not boil, till wanted.

Cut the mutton into half-inch mouthfuls, leaving out most of the fat. Cut up the same number of mouthfuls of cold boiled potatoes, and half as much cold boiled turnips, and slice in two large peeled tomatoes, or cold boiled parsnip, or both. Mix them in a tin pan the size of a dining plate, stir two great spoonfuls of butter into the gravy, and, if you like, a great spoonful of tomato catsup, and pour it on to the hash. Cover it with a plate, and set it to heat ten minutes on the stove, or on a trivet over coals.

If you do not put in vegetables, take less water, salt, and pepper. If you do not put in onion, put in a wine-glass of currant, plum, or grape jelly, or squeeze in some lemon juice when you add the butter, and leave out the catsup, or not, as you like. Modify to suit your taste, and then write the proportions exactly, for all future cooks of your family.

To prepare a Veal Hash.

Take a tea-cup of boiling water in a sauce-pan, and mix in an even teaspoonful of flour wet with a spoonful of cold water, and let it boil five minutes. Then add, not quite half a teaspoonful of black pepper, as much salt, and two great spoonfuls of butter, and set it where it will keep hot, but not boil.

Chop the veal very fine, and mix with it, while chopping, half as much stale bread crumbs. Put it in a tin pan and pour the gravy on to it, and let it heat on a stove or trivet ten minutes.

Toast some bread and cut it into triangular pieces, and lay it on the bottom of a dish. Spread the hash over, and pour on the gravy. Cut slices of lemon to lay on the top and around the edge of the platter.

If you like a seasoning of sweet herbs with this hash, the nicest way is to tie some in a rag and boil it in the water of the gravy when you first mix it.

Common Gravies.

Pour out the drippings of the tin roaster through a gravy strainer, into a pan, and set it away till cold. Next day, scrape the sediment from the bottom and then use it to make gravy in place of butter, for hashes. Mutton drippings must never be used for cooking.

It is not fashionable to have gravy made for roast beef or mutton, as the juice of the meat is preferred, which, on the plate, is mixed with catsup or whatever is preferred.

Gravies for poultry are made as directed in the article on roasting meats.

Drawn butter is the foundation of most common gravies, and is to be prepared in either of the two ways described below.

Drawn Butter, or Melted Butter.

Rub in two teaspoonfuls of flour into a quarter of a pound of butter. Add five tablespoonfuls of cold water. Set it into boiling water and let it melt, and heat until it begins to simmer, and it is done. Never simmer it on coals, as it fries the oil and spoils it. Be careful not to have the flour in lumps. If it is to be used with fish, put in chopped eggs and nasturtions, or capers.

If used with boiled fowl, put in oysters while it is simmering, and let them heat through.

Another Mode of preparing Drawn Butter.

Make three teaspoonfuls of flour into a thin batter, and stir it into a tea-cup of boiling water in a sauce-pan, and let it boil five minutes. Then take it off, and cut up a quarter of a pound of butter into pieces, and put in and keep it hot till it is melted. This is the easiest way, and if it is for very rich cooking more butter may be added.

Drawn Meat Gravies, or Brown Gravies.

Put into a sauce-pan fresh meat cut in small pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper and a bit of butter, and heat it half an hour, till brown, stirring so that it shall not stick.

Pour on boiling water, a pint for each pound—simmer three hours and skim it well. Settle and strain it, and set it aside to use. Thicken, when you need it, with brown flour, a teaspoonful to a half pint.

A Nice Article to use for Gravy, or Soup.

Take butter the size of an egg, add a tablespoonful of sugar, put it in a skillet, and stir it till a dark brown, then dredge in flour, and use it to darken gravy or soup.

Burnt Butter for Fish, or Eggs.

Heat two ounces of butter in a frying-pan, till a dark brown, then add a tablespoonful of vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and half a dozen shakes from the pepper box.

Sauce for Salad, or Fish.

Take the yolk of two eggs boiled hard, mash them with a mustard spoonful of mustard, a little black pepper, a little salt, three tablespoonfuls of salad oil, and three of vinegar. A tablespoonful of catsup would improve it for many.

Wine Sauce for Mutton, or Venison.

Take half a pint of the liquor in which the meat was cooked, and when boiling, put in pepper, salt, currant jelly, and wine to your taste; add about a teaspoonful of scorched flour, mixed with a little water.

Oyster Sauce.

Take a pint of oyster juice, add a little salt and pepper, and a stick of mace, boil it five minutes, and then add two teaspoonfuls of flour, wet up in half a tea-cup of milk. Let this boil two minutes, then put in the oysters and a bit of butter the size of an egg; in two minutes take them up.

Lobster Sauce.

Mix in six tablespoonfuls of vinegar, the yolks of two boiled eggs, some of the lobster spawn, a mustard spoonful of mustard, two tablespoonfuls of salad oil or melted butter, and a little salt and pepper.

Apple Sauce.

Boil peeled and quartered tart apples, and put in butter and sugar to your taste. If boiled in cider with quinces, it will keep a long time. The fresh-made is best.

Celery Sauce for Boiled Fowls.

Take four or five celery heads, and cut up all but the green tops into small pieces, and boil it in half a pint of water till tender. Mix two teaspoonfuls of flour with a little milk and put in, with a salt spoonful of salt, and butter the size of an egg. When it boils, take it up.

Celery Vinegar.

This is fine to keep in the castor stand. Pound two gills of celery seed, and add sharp vinegar. Shake every day for a week or two. The flavor of sweet herbs and sage can be obtained by pouring vinegar on to them, and for three successive days taking them out, and putting in a fresh supply of herbs. It must be kept corked and sealed.

Essence of Celery, to flavor Soup.

Bruise celery seed, and steep it in brandy for a fortnight. An ounce to half a pint of brandy is enough. Half a teaspoonful will flavor soup.

Herb Spirit.

It is convenient sometimes to use herb spirit instead of the herbs. It is made thus. Take all the sweet herbs, as thyme, marjoram, sweet basil, and summer savory, dry, pound, sift, and steep in brandy for a fortnight; an ounce to half a pint.

Soup Powder.

The following is a very convenient article for soups. Dry, pound, and sift the following ingredients together. Take one ounce each, of lemon, thyme, basil, sweet marjoram, summer savory, and dried lemon peel, with two ounces of dried parsley, and a few dried celery seeds. Bottle it tight. Horseradish can be sliced thin, dried and pounded, and kept in a bottle for use. Mushrooms can be dried in a moderately warm oven, then powdered with a little mace and pepper, and kept to season soup or sauces.

Soy.

One pound of salt, two pounds of sugar, fried half an hour over a slow fire, then add three pints of boiling water, half a pint of essence of anchovies, a dozen cloves, and some sweet herbs. Boil till the salt dissolves, then strain and bottle it.

Tomato Catsup.

Pour boiling water on the tomatoes, let them stand until you can rub off the skin, then cover them with salt, and let them stand twenty-four hours. Then strain them, and to two quarts put three ounces of cloves, two ounces of pepper, two nutmegs. Boil half an hour, then add a pint of wine.

Mushroom Catsup.

Put the mushrooms in layers, with salt sprinkled over each layer, and let them stand four days. Then mash them fine, and to every quart add two-thirds of a teaspoonful of black pepper, and boil it in a stone jar set in boiling water two hours. Strain it without squeezing, boil the liquor, let it stand to cool and settle, then bottle, cork, and seal it, and set it in a cool place.

Walnut Catsup.

Bruise ten dozen young walnuts, add a quart of vinegar, and three-fourths of a pound of fine salt. Let them stand two weeks, stirring every day. Strain off the liquor, and add half an ounce of black pepper whole, thirty cloves, half an ounce of bruised nutmeg, half an ounce of ginger, and four sticks of mace. Boil the whole an hour, then strain and bottle tight.

[CHAPTER IX.]
VEGETABLES.

Potatoes.

The great art of cooking potatoes is, to take them up as soon as they are done. Of course it is important to begin to cook them at the proper time.

When boiled, baked, fried, or steamed, they are rendered watery by continuing to cook them after they reach the proper point. For this reason, potatoes, to bake or boil, should be selected so as to have them nearly the same size. Begin with the largest first, and continue to select the largest till all are gone. Be careful that the water does not stop boiling, as thus the potatoes will be watery. Never boil them very hard, as it breaks them.

Boiled Potatoes.

Wash, but do not cut them. Put them in boiling water, having only a small quantity more than enough to cover them. Put salt in, say a great spoonful to half a pailful of potatoes. Boil them moderately; when nearly done, let them simmer slowly, and when cooked (as is discovered, not by their cracking, but by a fork) pour off the water, and let them stand till dry. Medium-sized potatoes, when young, will cook in from twenty to thirty minutes; when old, it requires double the time. When peeled they boil fifteen minutes quicker. Old potatoes, in the spring, are improved by soaking in water all night.

Other Modes of Cooking Potatoes.

After boiling and peeling them, divide them and lay them on a gridiron to brown. Or when cold, the day after boiling, cut them in slices, and cook them on a griddle, with just enough lard to make them brown, or you can brown them on a gridiron.

Another pretty mode for a fancy dish is, to peel large potatoes and then cut them round and round in shavings, as you pare an apple. Fry them with clean sweet lard in a frying-pan, till brown, stirring them to brown alike, drain them on a sieve, and after sprinkling a little fine salt over them, place them on the table.

Another tasteful mode is, after boiling and peeling them, to flour them, then dip them in the yolk of an egg, and roll them in fine bread crumbs. Then fry them till brown and they look very handsomely, and are excellent to the taste. Fry them without this preparation and they are very nice.

When potatoes become old, mash them fine, season with salt and butter, and a little cream or milk, place them in a dish, smoothing and shaping the top handsomely, and making checks with a knife; then brown them in a stove, or range-oven, and they are excellent. These can also be made into balls, dipped in egg and crumbs, and fried as directed above, and they look very handsomely.

Potatoes, when roasted, should be very carefully washed and rinsed, and then roasted in a Dutch oven, or stove oven. Notice, lest they be put in too soon, and thus be made watery by cooking too long.

The following is a very nice way of preparing potatoes for breakfast. Peel them, and cut them in very thin slices into a very little boiling water, so little that it will be evaporated when they are cooked. At this point, add salt to your taste, some cream, or if you have not cream put in a very little milk and a bit of butter. A little practice will make this a very favorite dish in any family. The art is, to cook the potatoes with very little water, so that it will be evaporated at the time the potatoes are done. They must be stirred while cooking occasionally.

Another mode is, to mash the potatoes and add salt, butter, and a little cream, and set them away. Then cut them in slices, and fry for breakfast.

Many think the following the best way of boiling potatoes. Peel them, and soak in cold water two hours. Boil in just enough water to cover them. When about done, pour off the water, and let them steam five minutes uncovered.

Turnips.

Boil turnips in a vessel by themselves. Try them with a fork, and if sweet and good, send them to the table when taken up. If watery, mash them, wring them in a cloth, and add salt and butter, and if the sweetness is gone, add a little white sugar, and they will be as good as new. Boil them in a good deal of water, with salt in it. If they boil too long, they lose their sweetness and become bitter. An hour is the medium time required.

Asparagus.

Keep it cool and moist on the cellar bottom till wanted.

Throw it into cold water, cut off all that is tough, tie it in small bundles, salt the water when boiling, and then put them in and let them boil from fifteen to twenty-five minutes. When done, take it up with a skimmer, lay it on buttered toast, and put butter on to it. Drain it well on the skimmer before putting it on the toast, or it will spoil the dish.

Beets.

Beets must not be cut, as this makes them lose their sweetness. Salt the water, and boil them in summer an hour, and in winter three hours.

Parsnips and Carrots.

Parsnips and carrots must be split, or else the outside is done too much before the inside is cooked sufficiently. Salt the water, and boil them when young half an hour, and two hours when old. Boil enough to have some to slice and fry for the next day’s dinner or breakfast, as they are much the best cooked in this way.

Onions.

Select the white kind, peel them and put them in boiling milk, a little salted, and boil them from half to three quarters of an hour. When taken up, drain in a colander, pour a little melted butter over them, or put on cold butter.

Jerusalem Artichokes.

Scrape them, and put them in boiling salted water. Boil large ones about two hours, then take them up and butter them.

Squashes.

Summer squashes boil whole, when very young. When older, quarter them, and take out the seeds. Put them into boiling salted water; when done, squeeze out the water by wringing in a cloth, and add butter and salt to your taste.

The neck part of the winter squash is the best; cut it into slices, peel it, boil it in salted water till tender, then drain off the water, and serve it without mashing, or, if preferred, wring it and season with butter and salt. What is left over is excellent fried for next day’s breakfast or dinner. It must be in slices, and not mashed. Save the water in which they are boiled, to make yeast or brown bread, for which it is excellent.

Cabbage and Cauliflowers.

Take off the outer leaves of a cabbage, cut the stalky part in quarters, down to the centre, put it in boiling salted water, and boil them from half an hour to an hour. Cabbages, like turnips, must have a good deal of water, or they will taste strong.

For cauliflowers, cut off all the leaves but the small ones mixed with the head, and boil in salted water till it is tender. Some wrap some of the large leaves around the head, and tie them on, and when cooked throw aside the leaves. Drain the cauliflower with a skimmer and eat it with drawn butter.

Most vegetables must be put in water only sufficient to cover them, allowing a little more for evaporation. Strong vegetables like turnips, cabbage, and some of the greens, require a good deal of water.

Peas.

Peas, to be good, must be fresh from the vines. Throw them into boiling salted water, and cook them from fifteen to thirty minutes, according to their age. When old, they are improved by putting a very little saleratus into the water, say a quarter of a teaspoonful to half a peck of shelled peas.

Sweet Corn.

If it is to be boiled on the cob, put it in salted boiling water, and let it cook from twenty minutes to three quarters of an hour after it begins to boil, according to the age of the corn.

Succatosh.

If you wish to make succatosh, boil the beans from half to three quarters of an hour, in water a little salt, meantime cutting off the corn and throwing the cobs to boil with the beans. Take care not to cut too close to the cob, as it imparts a bad taste. When the beans have boiled the time above mentioned, take out the cobs, and add the corn, and let the whole boil from fifteen to twenty minutes, for young corn, and longer for older corn. Make the proportions two-thirds corn and one-third beans. Where you have a mess amounting to two quarts of corn and one quart of beans, take two tablespoonfuls of flour, wet it into a thin paste, and stir it into the succatosh, and let it boil up for five minutes. Then lay some butter in a dish, take it up into it, and add more salt if need be.

Beans.

Throw them into salted boiling water, and cook them from an hour to an hour and a half, according to the age. A little saleratus improves them when old; a piece as big as a pea will do. If you put in too much, the skins will slip off.

Egg Plant.

Boil them in a good deal of water a few minutes, to get out the bitter taste, then cut them in slices, and sprinkle a little salt on them. Then fry them brown in lard or butter. If they are fried on a griddle, with only butter enough to keep them from sticking, they are better than when more butter is used.

Baked Beans.

Pick over the beans the night before, and put them in warm water to soak, where they will be kept warm all night. Next morning pour off the water, and pour on boiling water, and let them stand and simmer till the beans are soft, and putting in with them a nice piece of pork, the skin gashed. Put them into the deep dish in which they are to bake, having water just enough to cover them. Bury the pork in the middle, so that the top will be even with the surface. All the garden beans are better for baking than the common field bean. They must bake in a moderately hot oven from two to three hours.

Tomatoes.

Pour on scalding water, and let them remain in it five minutes, to loosen the skins. Peel them, and put them in a stew-pan with a little salt and butter, and let them stew half an hour, and then pour them on to buttered toast.

Another Way.—Peel them, put them in a deep dish, put salt and pepper, and a little butter over them, then make a layer of bread crumbs, or pounded crackers, then make another layer of tomatoes, and over these another layer of crumbs, till the dish is filled. The top layer must be crumbs. Some persons put nutmeg and sugar with the other seasoning. Bake three quarters of an hour, or more, according to the size.

Another Way.—Peel them, put them in a stew-pan with some salt, boil them nearly half an hour, then put into them three or four beaten eggs, and more salt if needed, and very little pepper. Many would add a few small slices of onion. Most who have tried this last are very fond of it.

Greens.

Beet tops, turnip tops, spinach, cabbage sprouts, dandelions, cowslips, all these boil in salted water till they are tender, then drain in a colander, pressing hard. Chop them a little, and warm them in a sauce-pan, with a little butter.

Lay them on buttered toast, and if you like, garnish them with hard-boiled egg, cut in slices. If not fresh, soak them half an hour in salt and water.

Cucumbers.

The chief art of preparing cucumbers consists in making them cool and crisp. This is done by putting them in cold water for half an hour, and then cut them in thin slices into cold water. Then drain them in a colander, and season them with pepper, salt, and vinegar.

Cucumbers are very nice cooked in this way. Peel and cut them into quarters, take out the seeds, and boil them like asparagus. Put them on to buttered toast, and put a little butter over them.

Macaroni.

Mix a pint of milk, and a pint of water, and a teaspoonful of salt; put in two ounces of macaroni, and boil till the liquor is wasted and the macaroni tender. Put on butter, or pour over some gravy. Cut the macaroni in pieces of three or four inches, in order to help it out more conveniently.

Another Way.

Simmer it in thin gravy; when tender lay it in a dish, and grate on it old cheese, and over that grated bread. Pour over it melted butter, and set in a Dutch oven till of a brown color.

To Cook Hominy.

Wash in several waters, and boil it five hours, allowing two quarts of water, and half a teaspoonful of salt, to every quart of hominy. Drain it through a colander, and add butter and salt, if needed. The small-grained requires less water and time.

Macaroni Pudding, to eat with Meat.

Simmer a quarter of a pound of macaroni in plenty of water, until it is tender. Strain off the water, and add a pint of milk or cream, an ounce of grated cheese, and a teaspoonful of salt. Mix well together, and strew over the top two ounces of grated cheese and crumbs of bread. Brown it well, in baking, on the top. It will bake in a quick oven in half an hour. It is appropriate to be eaten with boiled ham, or forms a course by itself, after meat.

Salad.

Salad, to be in perfection, should be fresh gathered, and put into salted cold water, which will remove all insects. Let them stand half an hour, and then drain them thoroughly.

Mode of Dressing Salad.

Take the yolks of one or two eggs boiled hard, mash them fine, mix with them pepper, salt, mustard, oil, and vinegar to your taste. Then cut up the salad, and mix it with this preparation. This is usually done at table.

Mushroom.

Cut off the lower part of the stem, peel them, and put them in a sauce-pan, with just water enough to prevent their burning at the bottom, put in a little salt, and shake them occasionally while cooking, to prevent burning. When tender, add butter, salt, and pepper to your taste, and wine and spice, if you like them. Serve them on buttered toast.

Celeriac.

This is very good, and but little known. It resembles celery in flavor, and is much more easily cultivated. Scrape and cut the roots in slices. Boil them very tender, drain off the water, add a little salt, and turn in just milk enough to cover them. Then take them up and add a little butter.

Salsify, or Vegetable Oyster.

Boil it till tender, then pour off the water, and add a little milk, and a little salt and butter.

Another Way.—Parboil it, scraping off the outside, cut it in slices, dip it into beaten egg and fine bread crumbs, and fry it in lard.

Another Way.—Make a batter of wheat flour, milk and eggs, and a little salt. Cut the salsify in slices; after it is boiled tender, put it in the batter, and drop this mixture into hot fat by the spoonful. Cook them a light brown.

Southern Mode of Cooking Rice.

Pick over the rice, and wash it in cold water. To a pint of rice, put three quarts of boiling water, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Boil it just seventeen minutes from the time it fairly begins to boil. Then turn off all the water, and set it over a moderate fire, with the lid off, to steam fifteen minutes. Great care must be taken to be accurate. The rice water poured off is good to stiffen muslins.

Common Mode of Cooking Rice.

To a pint of clean rice, put three quarts of cold water, and a teaspoonful of salt. Boil it fifteen or twenty minutes, then pour off the water, add milk and some cream, and let it boil a few minutes longer. It should not be so soft as to lose its form.

In case you wish to fry it next morning, boil it longer in the water, and omit the milk, or not, as you please. It is always a good plan to boil a good deal, so as to have it next day for griddle cakes, or to cut in slices and fry.

Best Mode of Cooking Tomatoes.

This vegetable is much improved by cooking a long time.

Immediately after breakfast, begin by boiling two onions. If they are not liked, omit this part; but it is best to make the trial, as some can eat this, who cannot take onions any other way comfortably.

Pour boiling water over a dozen large tomatoes, and peel them. Cut them into a stew-pan; add a tea-cup and a half of bread crumbs, a teaspoonful of black pepper, a tablespoonful of salt, four tablespoonfuls of butter, and also the cooked onion. Set them where they will stew very slowly all the forenoon, the longer the better. Fifteen minutes before serving them, beat up six eggs, and add, and give them a good boil, stirring all the time. (Indiana Receipt.)

Sweet Potatoes.

The best way to cook sweet potatoes is to bake them with their skins on. When boiled, the largest should be put in first, so as to have all cook alike. Drain them and dry them, then peel them. They are excellent sliced and fried for breakfast next day; much better than at first.

Artichokes.

Boil them till tender, drain them, and serve them with melted butter.

Stewed Egg Plant.

Take the purple kind, stew till soft, take off the skin, mash it with butter and sweet herbs, grate bread over the top, and bake it till brown.

[CHAPTER X.]
OVENS, YEAST, BREAD, AND BISCUIT.

On Constructing and Heating an Oven.

The best ovens are usually made thus. After the arch is formed, four or five bushels of ashes are spread over it, and then a covering of charcoal over that, then another layer of bricks over all. The use of this is, that the ashes become heated, and the charcoal being a non-conductor, the heat is retained much longer. In such an oven, cake and pies can be baked after the bread is taken out, and then custards after them. Sometimes four bakings are done in succession.

The first time an oven is used, it should be heated the day previous for half a day, and the oven lid kept up after the fire is out, till heated for baking.

As there is so little discretion to be found in those who heat ovens, the housekeeper will save much trouble and mortification by this arrangement. Have oven wood prepared of sticks of equal size and length. Find, by trial, how many are required to heat the oven, and then require that just that number be used, and no more.

The fire must be made the back side of the oven, and the oven must be heated so hot as to allow it to be closed fifteen minutes after clearing, before the heat is reduced enough to use it. This is called soaking. If it is burnt down entirely to ashes, the oven may be used as soon as cleared.

How to know when an Oven is at the right Heat.

An experienced cook will know without rules. For a novice, the following rules are of some use in determining. If the black spots in the oven are not burnt off, it is not hot, as the bricks must all look red. If you sprinkle flour on the bottom, and it burns quickly, it is too hot.

If you cannot hold your hand in longer than to count twenty moderately, it is hot enough.

If you can count thirty moderately, it is not hot enough for bread.

These last are not very accurate tests, as the power to bear heat is so diverse in different persons; but they are as good rules as can be given, where there has been no experience.

How to know when Bread is Sour, or Heavy.

If the bread is sour, on opening it quick and deeply with your fingers, and applying the nose to the opening, a tingling and sour odor escapes. This is remedied by taking a teaspoonful of saleratus, for every four quarts of flour, very thoroughly dissolved in hot water, which is to be put in a hole made in the middle, and very thoroughly kneaded in, or there will be yellow streaks.

If the bread is light and not sour, it will, on opening it deep and suddenly, send forth a pungent and brisk, but not a sour odor, and it will look full of holes, like sponge. Some may mistake the smell of light bread for that of sour bread, but a little practice will show the difference very plainly.

If the bread is light before the oven is ready, knead it a little without adding flour, and set it in a cool place.

If it rises too much, it loses all sweetness, and nothing but care and experience will prevent this. The best of flour will not make sweet bread, if it is allowed to rise too much, even when no sourness is induced.

How to treat Bread when taken from the Oven.

Never set it flat on a table, as it sweats the bottom, and acquires a bad taste from the table.

Always take it out of the tins, and set it up end way, leaning against something.

If it has a thick, hard crust, wrap it in a cloth wrung out of cold water.

Keep it in a tin box, in a cool place, where it will not freeze.

Yeast.

The article in which yeast is kept must, when new yeast is made, or fresh yeast bought, be scalded and emptied, and then have a salt spoonful of saleratus put in, and be rinsed out again with warm water. If it is glass, rinsing twice with warm water will answer. Junk bottles are best for holding yeast, because they can be corked tight, and easily cleansed.

Potato Yeast.

By those who use potato yeast, it is regarded as much the best, as it raises bread quicker than common home-brewed yeast, and, best of all, never imparts the sharp, disagreeable yeast taste to bread or cake, often given by hop yeast.

Mash half a dozen peeled boiled potatoes, and mix in a handful of wheat flour, and two teaspoonfuls of salt, and after putting it through a colander, add hot water till it is a batter. When blood warm, put in half a tea-cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much potato, or other home-brewed. When raised, keep it corked tight, and make it new very often in hot weather. It can easily be made when potatoes are boiled for dinner.

Home-made Yeast, which will keep Good a Month.

Four quarts of water, two handfuls of hops, eight peeled potatoes, sliced, all boiled soft, mixed and strained through a sieve. To this, add a batter, made one-third of Indian, and two-thirds of rye, in a pint of cold water, and then boil the whole ten minutes. When cool as new milk, add a tea-cup of molasses, a tablespoonful of ginger, and a tea-cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

Home-brewed Yeast more easily made.

Boil a handful of hops half an hour in three pints of water. Pour half of it, boiling hot, through a sieve, on to nine spoonfuls of flour, mix, and then add the rest of the hop water. Add a spoonful of salt, half a cup of molasses, and when blood warm, a cup of yeast.

Hard Yeast.

This often is very convenient, especially for hot weather, when it is difficult to keep yeast.

Take some of the best yeast you can make, and thicken it with Indian meal, and if you have rye, add a little to make it adhere better. Make it into cakes an inch thick, and three inches by two in size, and dry it in a drying wind, but not it the sun. Keep it tied in a bag, in a dry, cool place, where it will not freeze.

One of these cakes is enough for four quarts of flour. When you wish to use it, put it to soak in milk or water for several hours, and then use it like other yeast.

Rubs, or Flour Hard Yeast.

This is better than hard yeast made with Indian.

Take two quarts of best home-brewed yeast, and a tablespoonful of salt, and mix in wheat flour, so that it will be in hard lumps. Set it in a dry, warm place (but not in the sun) till quite dry. Then leave out the fine parts to use the next baking, and put up the lumps in a bag, and hang it in a dry place.

In using this yeast, take a pint of the rubs for six quarts of flour, and let it soak from noon till night. Then wet up the bread to bake next day.

Brewer’s and distillery yeast cannot be trusted to make hard yeast. Home-brewed is the best, and some housekeepers say, the only yeast for this purpose.

Milk Yeast.

One pint of new milk, and one teaspoonful of fine salt. One large spoonful of flour. Mix, and keep it blood warm an hour. Use twice as much as the common yeast. Bread soon spoils made of this.

Wheat Bread of Distillery, or Brewer’s Yeast.

Take eight quarts of flour, and two of milk, a tablespoonful of salt, a gill and a half of distillery yeast, and sometimes rather more, if not first rate. Take double the quantity of home-brewed yeast.

Sift the flour, then make an opening in the middle, pour in a part of the wetting, and put in the salt. Then mix in a good part of the flour. Then pour in the yeast, and mix it well, then add the rest of the wetting, using up the flour so as to make a stiff dough. Knead it half an hour, till it cleaves clean from the hand.

This cannot be wet over night, as, if the yeast is good, it will rise in one or two hours.

Some persons like bread best wet with water, but most very much prefer bread wet with milk. If you have skimmed milk, warm it with a small bit of butter, and it is nearly as good as new milk.

You need about a quart of wetting to four quarts of flour. Each quart of flour makes a common-sized loaf.

Wheat Bread of Home-brewed Yeast.

Sift eight quarts of flour into the kneading tray, make a deep hole in the middle, pour into it a pint of yeast, mixed with a pint of lukewarm water, and then work up this with the surrounding flour, till it makes a thick batter. Then scatter a handful of flour over this batter, lay a warm cloth over the whole, and set it in a warm place. This is called sponge.

When the sponge is risen so as to make cracks in the flour over it (which will be in from three to five hours), then scatter over it two tablespoonfuls of salt, and put in about two quarts of wetting, warm, but not hot enough to scald the yeast, and sufficient to wet it. Be careful not to put in too much of the wetting at once.

Knead the whole thoroughly for as much as half an hour, then form it into a round mass, scatter a little flour over it, cover it, and set it to rise in a warm place. It usually will take about one quart of wetting to four quarts of flour.

In winter, it is best to put the bread in sponge over night, when it must be kept warm all night. In summer it can be put in sponge early in the morning, for if made over night, it would become sour.

Baker’s Bread.

Take a gill of distillery yeast, or twice as much fresh home-brewed yeast, add a quart of warm (not hot) water, and flour enough to make a thin batter, and let it rise in a warm place all night. This is the sponge.

Next day, put seven quarts of sifted flour into the kneading tray, make a hole in the centre, and pour in the sponge. Then dissolve a bit of volatile salts, and a bit of alum, each the size of a hickory-nut, and finely powdered, in a little cold water, and add it, with a heaping tablespoonful of salt, to the sponge, and also a quart more of blood-warm water.

Work up the flour and wetting to a dough, knead it well, divide it into three or four loaves, prick it with a fork, put it in buttered pans, and let it rise one hour, and then bake it about an hour. Add more flour, or more water, as you find the dough too stiff, or too soft.

A teaspoonful of saleratus can be used instead of the volatile salts and alum, but it is not so good.

Wheat Bread of Potato Yeast.

This is made like bread made with home-brewed yeast, except that you may put in almost any quantity of the potato yeast without injury. Those who use potato yeast like it much better than any other. The only objection to it is, that in summer it must be made often, as it will not keep sweet long. But it is very easily renewed. The chief advantage is, that it rises quick, and never gives the sharp and peculiar taste so often imparted to bread and cake by all yeast made with hops.

Potato Bread.

Rub a dozen peeled and boiled potatoes through a very coarse sieve, and mix with them twice the quantity of flour, mixing very thoroughly. Put in a coffee-cup full of home-brewed, or of potato yeast, or half as much of distillery yeast, also a teaspoonful of salt. Add whatever water may be needed to make a dough as stiff as for common flour bread.

An ounce or two of butter rubbed into the flour, and an egg beat and put into the yeast, and you can have fine rolls, or warm cakes for breakfast.

This kind of bread is very moist, and keeps well.

Cream Tartar Bread.

Three pints of dried flour, measured after sifting.

Two cups of milk.

Half a teaspoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of soda (Super Carbonate).

Two teaspoonfuls of cream tartar.

Dissolve the soda in half a tea-cup of hot water, and put it with the salt into the milk. Mix the cream tartar very thoroughly in the flour: the whole success depends on this. Just as you are ready to bake, pour in the milk, knead it up sufficiently to mix it well, and then put it in the oven as quick as possible. Add either more flour or more wetting, if needed, to make dough to mould. Work in half a cup of butter after it is wet, and it makes good short biscuit.

Eastern Brown Bread.

One quart of rye.

Two quarts of Indian meal: if fresh and sweet, do not scald it; if not, scald it.

Half a tea-cup of molasses.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt.

One teaspoonful of saleratus.

A tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Make it as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon with warm water. Let it rise from night till morning. Then put it in a large deep pan, and smooth the top with the hand dipped in cold water, and let it stand a while. Bake five or six hours. If put in late in the day, let it remain all night in the oven.

Rye Bread.

A quart of water, and as much milk.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt, and a tea-cup of Indian meal.

A tea-cup full of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Make it as stiff as wheat bread, with rye flour.

Rice Bread.—No. 1.

One pint of rice, boiled till soft.

Two quarts of rice flour, or wheat flour.

A teaspoonful of salt.

A tea-cup of home-brewed, or half as much distillery yeast.

Milk to make it so as to mould like wheat bread.

Rice Bread.—No. 2.

Three half pints of ground rice.

Two teaspoonfuls (not heaping) of salt.

Two gills of home-brewed yeast.

Three quarts of milk, or milk and water. Mix the rice with cold milk and water to a thin gruel, and boil it three minutes. Then stir in wheat flour till as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon. When blood warm, add the yeast. This keeps moist longer than No. 1.

Bread of Unbolted Wheat, or Graham Bread.

Three pints of warm water.

One tea-cup of Indian meal, and one of wheat flour.

Three great spoonfuls of molasses, or a tea-cup of brown sugar.

One teaspoonful of salt, and one teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water.

One tea-cup of yeast.

Mix the above, and stir in enough unbolted wheat flour to make it as stiff as you can work with a spoon. Some put in enough to mould it to loaves. Try both. If made with home-brewed yeast, put it to rise over night. If with distillery yeast, make it in the morning, and bake when light.

In loaves the ordinary size, bake one hour and a half.

Apple Bread.

Mix stewed and strained apple, or grated apple uncooked, with an equal quantity of wheat flour; add yeast enough to raise it, and mix sugar with the apple, enough to make it quite sweet. Make it in loaves, and bake it an hour and a half, like other bread.

Pumpkin Bread.

Stew and strain some pumpkin, stiffen it with Indian meal, add salt and yeast, and it makes a most excellent kind of bread.

Walnut Hill’s Brown Bread.

One quart of sour milk, and one teaspoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of pulverized saleratus, and one tea-cup of molasses put into the milk.

Thicken with unbolted wheat, and bake immediately, and you have first-rate bread, with very little trouble.

French Rolls, or Twists.

One quart of lukewarm milk.

One teaspoonful of salt.

A large tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Flour enough to make a stiff batter.

Set it to rise, and when very light, work in one egg and two spoonfuls of butter, and knead in flour till stiff enough to roll.

Let it rise again, and when very light, roll out, cut in strips, and braid it. Bake thirty minutes on buttered tins.

Raised Biscuit.

Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour.

One beaten egg.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Two great spoonfuls of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

Wet it up with enough warm milk to make a soft dough, and then work in half a pound of butter. When light, mould it into round cakes, or roll it out and cut it with a tumbler.

Very Nice Rusk.

One pint of milk.

One coffee-cup of yeast. (Potato is best.)

Four eggs.

Flour enough to make it as thick as you can stir with a spoon.

Let it rise till very light, but be sure it is not sour; if it is, work in half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a wine-glass of warm water.

When thus light, work together three quarters of a pound of sugar and nine ounces of butter; add more flour, if needed, to make it stiff enough to mould. Let it rise again, and when very light, mould it into small cakes. Bake fifteen minutes in a quick oven, and after taking it out, mix a little milk and sugar, and brush over the rusk, while hot, with a small swab of linen tied to a stick, and dry it in the oven. When you have weighed these proportions once, then measure the quantity, so as to save the trouble of weighing afterward. Write the measures in your receipt-book, lest you forget.

Potato Biscuit.

Twelve pared potatoes, boiled soft and mashed fine, and two teaspoonfuls of salt.

Mix the potatoes and milk, add half a tea-cup of yeast, and flour enough to mould them well. Then work in a cup of butter. When risen, mould them into small cakes, then let them stand in buttered pans fifteen minutes before baking.

Crackers.

One quart of flour, with two ounces of butter rubbed in.

One teaspoonful of saleratus in a wine-glass of warm water.

Half a teaspoonful of salt, and milk enough to roll it out.

Beat it half an hour with a pestle, cut it in thin round cakes, prick them, and set them in the oven when other things are taken out. Let them bake till crisp.

Hard Biscuit.

One quart of flour, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Four great spoonfuls of butter, rubbed into two-thirds of the flour.

Wet it up with milk till a dough; roll it out again and again, sprinkling on the reserved flour, till all is used. Cut into round cakes, and bake in a quick oven on buttered tins.

Sour Milk Biscuit.

A pint and a half of sour milk, or buttermilk.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt.

Two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, dissolved in four great spoonfuls of hot water.

Mix the milk in flour till nearly stiff enough to roll, then put in the saleratus, and add more flour. Mould up quickly, and bake immediately.

Shortening for raised biscuit or cake should always be worked in after it is wet up.

A good Way to use Sour Bread.

When a batch of bread is sour, let it stand till very light, and use it to make biscuit for tea or breakfast, thus:

Work into a portion of it, saleratus dissolved in warm water, enough to sweeten it, and a little shortening, and mould it into small biscuits, bake it, and it is uncommonly good. It is so much liked that some persons allow bread to turn sour for the purpose. Bread can be kept on hand for this use any length of time.

[CHAPTER XI.]
BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES.

General Directions for Griddle and other Breakfast Cakes.

The best method of greasing a griddle is, to take a bit of salt pork, and rub over with a fork. This prevents adhesion, and yet does not allow the fat to soak into what is to be cooked.

In putting cakes on to griddles, be careful to form them a regular round shape, and put on only one at each dip, and so as not to spill between the cakes.

In frying mush, cold rice slices, and hominy cakes, cut them half an inch thick, and fry in fresh lard, with enough to brown them handsomely. Make the slices smooth and regular.

Buckwheat Cakes wet with Water.

Take a quart of buckwheat flour, and nearly an even tablespoonful of salt. Stir in warm water, till it is the consistency of thin batter. Beat it thoroughly. Add two tablespoonfuls of yeast, if distillery, or twice as much if home-brewed.

Set the batter where it will be a little warm through the night. Some persons never stir them after they have risen, but take them out carefully with a large spoon.

Add a teaspoonful of pearlash in the morning, if they are sour. Sift it over the surface, and stir it well.

Some persons like to add one or two tablespoonfuls of molasses, to give them a brown color, and more sweetness of taste.

Extempore Buckwheat Cakes.

Three pints of buckwheat.

One teaspoonful carbonate of soda, dissolved in water enough to make a batter, and when mixed, add a teaspoonful of tartaric acid, dissolved in a few spoonfuls of hot water. Mix it in, and bake immediately.

Use salt pork to grease the griddle.

Buckwheat Cakes wet with Milk.

One quart of flour, and in winter stir in lukewarm milk, till it is a thin batter, and beat it thoroughly, adding nearly an even tablespoonful of salt.

Add a small tea-cup of Indian meal, two tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast, or a good deal more if home-brewed; say half a tea-cup full. Set it where it will keep warm all night, and in the morning add a teaspoonful of saleratus, sifted over the top, and well stirred in. If sour, add more saleratus. This is the best kind of buckwheat cakes.

Griddle Cakes of Unbolted Wheat.

A quart of unbolted wheat, and a teaspoonful of salt. Wet it up with water, or sweet milk, in which is dissolved a teaspoonful of saleratus. Add three spoonfuls of molasses. Some raise this with yeast, and leave out the saleratus. Sour milk and saleratus are not as good for unbolted as for fine flour.

These are better and more healthful cakes than buckwheat.

Best Rice Griddle Cakes.

A pint and a half of solid cold boiled rice, put the night before in a pint of water or milk to soak.

One quart of milk, added the next morning.

One quart of flour stirred into the rice and milk.

Two eggs, well beaten.

Half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water.

One teaspoonful of salt. Bake on a griddle.

Stale, or rusked bread in fine crumbs, are very nice made into griddle cakes by the above rule; or they can be mixed with the rice. The rice must be well salted when boiled.

A very delicate Omelet.

Six eggs, the whites beaten to a stiff froth, and the yolks well beaten.

A tea-cup full of warm milk, with a tablespoonful of butter melted in it.

A tablespoonful of flour, wet to a paste with a little of the milk and poured to the milk.

A teaspoonful of salt, and a little pepper.

Mix all except the whites; add those last; bake immediately, in a flat pan, or spider, on coals, and when the bottom is done, raise it up towards the fire, and bake the top, or cover with an iron sheet, and put coals on it. The remnants of ham, cut fine and added, improve this. Some like sweet herbs added, and some fine-cut onion.

Wheat Waffles.

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One quart of milk, with a tablespoonful of melted butter in it, and mixed with the flour gradually, so as not to have lumps.

Three tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast. When raised, two well-beaten eggs.

Bake in waffle irons well oiled with lard each time they are used. Lay one side on coals, and in about two minutes turn the other side to the coals.

Miss B.’s Waffles (without yeast).

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One quart of sour milk, with two tablespoonfuls of butter melted in it.

Five well-beaten eggs. A teaspoonful or more of saleratus, enough to sweeten the milk. Baked in waffle irons.

Some like one tea-cup full of sugar added.

Rice Waffles.

A quart of milk.

A tea-cup of solid boiled rice, soaked three hours in half the milk.

A pint and a half of wheat flour, or rice flour.

Three well-beaten eggs. Bake in waffle irons.

The rice must be salted enough when boiled.

Good Cakes for Tea, or Breakfast.

One pint of milk, and a salt spoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of molasses, and a great spoonful of butter.

One egg well beaten, and two tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

Stir the ingredients into flour enough to make a stiff batter.

Let it rise all night, or if for tea, about five hours. Add a salt spoonful of saleratus just before baking it, dissolved in warm water.

Bake in shallow pans, in a quick oven, half an hour.

Fried Rice for Breakfast.

Boil the rice quite soft the day before, so that it will adhere well. For breakfast, cut it in slices an inch thick, cook it on a griddle, with enough sweet lard to fry it brown. Cold mush is good in the same way.

It must be salted properly when boiling.

Fried Hominy.

When cold hominy is left of the previous day, it is very good wet up with an egg and a little flour, and fried.

Rye Drop Cake (excellent).

One pint of milk, and three eggs.

A tablespoonful of sugar, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Stir in rye flour, till about the consistency of pancakes.

Bake in buttered cups, or saucers, half an hour.

Wheat Drop Cake.

One pint of milk, and a little cream.

Three eggs, and a salt spoonful of salt.

With these materials make a thick batter of wheat flour, or unbolted flour. Drop on tins, and bake about twenty minutes. If unbolted flour is used, add a great spoonful of molasses.

Corn Griddle Cakes with Yeast.

Three coffee-cups of Indian meal, sifted.

One coffee-cup of either rye meal, Graham flour, or fine flour.

Two tablespoonfuls of yeast, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Wet at night with sour milk or water, as thick as pancakes, and in the morning add one teaspoonful of pearlash.

Bake on a griddle. If Graham flour is used, add a very little molasses.

Pilgrim Cake.

Rub two spoonfuls of butter into a quart of flour, and wet it to dough with cold water. Rake open a place in the hottest part of the hearth, roll out the dough into a cake an inch thick, flour it well both sides, and lay it on hot ashes. Cover it with hot ashes, and then with coals. When cooked, wipe off the ashes, and it will be very sweet and good.

The Kentucky corn cake, and common dough, can be baked the same way. This method was used by our pilgrim and pioneer forefathers.

Sour Milk Corn Cake.

One quart of sour milk, or buttermilk.

A large teaspoonful of pearlash.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Stir the milk into the meal enough to make a stiff batter, over night. In the morning dissolve the pearlash in warm water. Stir it up quickly, and bake it in shallow pans.

If the milk is sweet, it should be made sour by adding to it a tablespoonful of vinegar.