pepper and salt it; fry the pieces until brown in hot butter or lard;
sprinkle with flour. Add 2 chopped onions, a little finely minced
parsley, together with pounded mace, and a clove or two, and sweet
herbs--thyme and marjoram. Pour over a little white stock or broth,
and then stir gently to prevent burning, until cooked. Then add
sufficient stock and the liquor from 1 qt. oysters. Boil until it
is wanted. Just before serving put in the oysters, and sift into it
a tablespoonful of the gumbo filet. Stir well to the bottom, let it
come to the boil, and serve immediately. Rice boiled as for curry,
each grain distinct, should be served with it. Gumbo filet is made of
the tender young leaves of the sassafras, picked in spring, and dried
carefully in the shade, powdered fine, bottled, and corked.
Ham Steaks.--Cut some slices of raw ham, and put them into a frying
pan, with ½ teacupful water. When the water has boiled away, and the
steaks (which should be turned) have become a light brown on both
sides, dredge them over with flour, and pour over them the following
sauce: Take ½ teacupful cream and ½ teacupful milk, put them into a
saucepan with a small piece of butter, a teaspoonful of mustard, and
a dash of cayenne; let it just boil, and pour over the ham.
Lemon Sauce for Fish.--Put into a saucepan ¼ lb. butter and the
juice of a good-sized lemon, with pepper and salt to taste; beat up
altogether until thick and quite hot; do not allow it to boil. Remove
it from the fire and add the beaten-up yolks of 2 eggs. Serve with
boiled fish.
Milk, Thickened.--This is a very popular breakfast dish in New
England households. Take 1 qt. milk, 1 small teacupful flour, ½
teaspoonful salt, and 5 lumps white sugar. Take 1 teacupful of the
milk to mix the flour, place the rest on the fire. When boiling add
the mixed flour, salt, and sugar. Boil 5 minutes. To be eaten with
cream, sugar, and spice.
Milk Toast.--Another favourite dish. Take ½ pint milk, 2 teaspoonfuls
butter, and a little sauce. Put to heat over the fire; toast slices
of bread; lay each slice, as soon as toasted, in a deep dish, and
pour the heated milk over it, placing the next slice upon it, with
more of the milk. When the dish is filled pour over the remainder of
the milk, cover it, and serve hot.
Okra.--Take 2 lb. lean beef, and cut it up into small pieces. Peel ½
gal. tomatoes, remove the seeds and hard parts, and put them, with
a small onion chopped up and the beef, into a stewpan (not iron).
Simmer gently in some butter for a short space, stirring well, then
add the okra--previously cut into slices--and stir again for about 10
minutes. Then add 1 gal. boiling water, season to taste with spices,
pepper, and salt. Boil slowly, stirring frequently, and mashing up
the okra. Just before serving add a small pat of butter.
Pan Dowdy.--Fill a pudding pan with apples pared, quartered, and
cored. Cover the top with a crust rolled out of light bread dough,
make a hole in the lid, and set the pan in a brick oven. After it has
cooked, lift the crust and add molasses, or brown sugar, a little
powdered cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, also 1 tablespoonful butter.
Stir it well, cut the crust into square bits, mix all together, cover
it with a large plate, return it to the oven for 3-4 hours. Serve
hot. A pan dowdy may be baked in a stove oven, in which case the
apples had better be stewed, and the crust baked separately, then mix
all together and bake 2 hours.
Pork and Beans.--1 qt. navy beans, ½ lb. pickled pork, 2 teaspoonfuls
thickly mixed mustard, 1 large tablespoonful molasses. Soak the beans
in tepid water all night. Next day change the water, place them on
the fire, and boil them a few minutes, not long enough to crack them,
drain them, place them in a “bean pot,” or deep earthenware pan,
nearly bury the pork in the middle of the beans, add the mustard,
molasses, pepper and salt, with enough water to cover the whole. If
they become too dry, add a teacupful of water when they are half
done. Serve with Boston brown bread.
Pumpkin Pie.--“Punkin” (pumpkin) pie is an invariable adjunct either
to dinner or to “a high tea,” a species of repast much affected “down
East.” It is prepared in this wise. The prime ripe parts of the
pumpkin are carefully separated from the seeds and rind, and gently
stewed till quite tender. The pumpkin is then strained through a fine
sieve, and eggs and milk are added in sufficient proportion to form a
thick custard-like substance; sugar and allspice are then added, and
the mixture is put into a flat dish previously lined with good paste,
and a little powdered nutmeg is strewed over the top. The pies are
then baked in a moderate oven. The thickness of the layer of pumpkin
should be 1½-2 in. When well prepared, “punkin pie” is a delicious
dish, and is never eaten in America without the accompaniment of a
small fragment of cheese.
Tomatoes.--(_a_) Baked.--Take large tomatoes, wash them, wipe and
cut them in two. Put them in a baking tin with the skin downward,
season well with pepper and salt, and place in a hot oven. When done
put a piece of butter on each tomato, and serve on a hot dish with
or without sharp sauce. (_b_) Cut a very large tomato in half and
flour the cut side; heat the pan and lay the slices in, floured side
down. When brown turn over, and when quite done dish up and pour over
a teacupful of hot cream or milk. (_c_) Hashed.--Well butter a pie
dish, put in a layer of sliced tomato, then a layer of any kind of
cold meat (sliced very thin or minced), then a layer of thin bread
and butter, and so on till the dish is full. Season the whole well
and bake till quite brown. (_d_) Stewed.--Put ripe tomatoes into
hot water, and when scalded take off the skins; throw them into an
earthen pipkin, cut in slices, and stew gently till tender. Season
with butter, pepper, and salt; and serve with sippets of buttered
toast. In some parts of America breadcrumbs and sugar are added to
the stew instead of other seasoning.
Veal Cake.--Take 3 lb. veal and chop it up very finely with ¼ lb.
pork, 1 cupful breadcrumbs, 3 teaspoonfuls salt, 1 of black pepper, ½
teaspoonful cayenne, and a few cloves. Mix all well together with 2
raw eggs. Put it into a plain mould and steam for 2 hours; then put
into a cool oven for a short time just to dry it. Turn it out, when
cold, and cut it into thin slices. Garnished with aspic jelly, it
makes a very nice luncheon dish.
White Cabbage Salad.--Set a firm white cabbage in cold water, and
let it stand some hours, then dry well and shred very fine. For
the dressing take a piece of butter the size of a walnut and a
tablespoonful of flour, mix well, and add 2 tablespoonfuls vinegar;
scald for a minute, then add the beaten yolk of 1 egg and 2
tablespoonfuls cream, with salt and pepper to taste. Pour over and
serve.
Whortleberry Cakes.-¾ cupful sugar, ¼ cupful butter, 1 cupful milk,
3 cupfuls sifted flour, 1 heaping teaspoonful baking powder, 1 small
teaspoonful salt, 2 eggs, 1 heaping pint whortleberries. Mix the
baking powder with the flour, beat the butter and sugar to a cream,
add the milk and beaten eggs, then the flour, stirring in lastly
the berries over which you have previously dredged a little of the
flour. Pour into 12 small tin cups buttered and heated, serve hot for
breakfast or tea, with butter. They can be baked in muffin rings.
_Belgian._--Asparagus.--(_a_) Boil in the usual way as much asparagus
as required, and arrange it neatly on a folded napkin in a flat dish.
Boil some eggs hard (allowing one egg to each person), and divide
them in halves lengthwise. Border the asparagus with these halves,
placing them with the yolks upwards. Serve this dish very hot, and
send to table with it a sufficient quantity of butter, simply melted
and made quite hot, but without any thickening.
(_b_) Having cut all the hard white part from some cold boiled
asparagus, arrange it neatly on a dish, and cover it with a thick
mayonnaise sauce. Place round this some slices of cold boiled ham,
cut very thin and rolled. Alternate these with halves of hard-boiled
eggs, as in (_a_), and garnish with small sprays of parsley. Forced
eggs, flavoured with ham or tongue, may be used with this dish
instead of the ham and eggs, if preferred.
(_c_) Cut the tender parts of some boiled asparagus into lengths of
2 in.; mince finely some parsley and young onions with a few leaves
of lettuce; put them in a saucepan with butter, a little water, salt,
pepper, a little nutmeg, and a pinch of flour; simmer, stirring
occasionally, until the onions, &c., are done. Scald the asparagus in
this, and serve very hot with croutons of fried bread. Small sprigs
of cauliflower, broccoli, or peas which have been previously boiled
are also good served in this way. If for peas, a little sugar may be
added when liked.
Flamande Sauce.--This is an excellent sauce with which to serve
almost any vegetable that has been previously cooked. It is made
thus: Put into a saucepan butter, a slice of lemon, salt, pepper, and
a little water; scald in this the vegetable to be re-warmed, drain,
and put it into a dish. Thicken the sauce with a pinch of flour and
the yolks of 2 eggs, and serve with the vegetable at once. Care must
be taken not to curdle this.
Greens.--(_a_) Boil some turnip or any other greens preferred; mince,
drain them well, and put them into an enamelled stewpan, with enough
thick cream to moisten them; add white pepper, salt, and, if liked,
a soupçon of grated nutmeg. Stir well together over the fire until
quite hot. Have ready as many well-flavoured sausages as you require,
baked brown. Arrange the greens in a mould in the centre of an entrée
dish, and garnish them with the sausages. New milk and butter may
take the place of cream if preferred.
(_b_) Prepare some greens, as in (_a_), and arrange them so as to
cover the centre of the dish on which they are served. Poach some
eggs in shapes for the purpose; or, when poached, trim them round.
Place these upon the greens, and arrange round the dish alternately
thin slices of ham rolled and toasted, and sippets of dry toast.
Mackerel.--(_a_) Remove the bones and skin from some cold boiled
mackerel, and arrange the flakes in a rather high mound in the centre
of a flat dish. Cover these with a thick mayonnaise sauce, made green
by mixing with it either finely chopped fennel, parsley, tarragon, or
chives. If either of the two former, it should be just scalded first.
Garnish with prawns or crawfish and sprays of paisley and fennel.
Mustard and cress or Italian corn salad can take the place of the
parsley and fennel for garnish.
(_b_) Having cleaned some fresh mackerel, divide each fish into 4
or 6 pieces, according to size. Stew them until tender in enough
sauce to cover them. For this use white sauce, made with veal stock,
flavoured delicately with essence of shrimps or anchovies, salt,
cayenne, and the juice of a lemon. A strip of lemon peel should be
stewed with the fish, and removed before it is served. Open 2-3 doz.
mussels, remove the yellow part from them, and wash them in their
liquor; blanch them in the sauce, drain, and arrange them round the
fish, and pour the sauce over.
Shoulder of Mutton.--Choose a small fresh shoulder, and steep it
in a marinade. To make this, simmer for 20 minutes in 1 pint water
2 or 3 bay leaves, a bunch of parsley and lemon thyme, an onion, 3
cloves, 1 teaspoonful each pimento berries and black peppercorns, and
a small piece of ginger; add 1 teacupful each claret and brown sugar,
and ½ teacupful vinegar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the
marinade at boiling point. Pour it into a shallow pan that will just
hold your shoulder of mutton, and, when cold, put the mutton in, and
keep it turned and basted with the pickle every day from 4 days to
a week, according to the weather. When ready, remove the bones from
the mutton, and fill the hollows with a forcemeat, as for veal kidney
(below). Bind the shoulder into shape, and roast it until well done.
It should be well floured and basted, that it may be well browned.
Have ready 1 lb. French plums (not prunes) stewed in equal parts of
claret and water, and a lump or two of sugar. Arrange these, with
the liquid in which they were cooked, in the dish round the mutton.
To make the gravy, put the bones from the mutton in a saucepan with
1 pint stock and 1 wineglassful of the marinade, and simmer until
the liquid is reduced to ½ pint. Pour this to the gravy in the pan,
remove as much of the fat as possible, and thicken the gravy slightly
with brown roux. Send it to table with the mutton as hot as possible.
A loin or fillet of mutton will answer as well as the shoulder. The
same marinade can be used 2 or 3 times if it be first reboiled and
skimmed. This recipe is very useful if you want to keep meat for
a few days in hot weather, but it must be watched carefully and
protected from flies.
Veal Kidney.--Remove the skin and fat from a veal kidney, and cut it
in halves lengthwise. Mix with ½ lb. sausage meat 1 teacupful fine
breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoonful truffles cut into pieces the size of
very small peas, an egg slightly beaten, pepper and salt. Mix these
well together with a fork. Cover each half of the kidney with this
stuffing, and wrap them securely in pieces of pig’s caul, large
enough to allow for the forcemeat swelling a little. Put them in an
enamelled baking tin with a little butter, and bake them ¾-1 hour,
according to the size of the kidney, basting now and then until
nicely browned. Cut them into slices about 1 in. thick, and arrange
them in 2 rows in an entrée dish, with each slice overlapping the
other. For the sauce, thicken slightly ⅓ pint strong stock with brown
roux (flour and butter stirred together on the fire till brown). Pour
this to the gravy in the pan, and strain it into a saucepan; remove
as much of the fat as possible, add 1 wineglassful sherry, and stir
over the fire until the sauce is at boiling point. Serve in the dish
with the kidneys. Pork kidneys not divided are good dressed in this
way, as also are thick strips of calf’s liver.
_Canadian._--Codfish Balls.--Take equal quantities mashed potatoes
and boiled codfish minced fine; to each ½ lb. allow 1 oz. butter and
a well-beaten egg; mix thoroughly. Press into balls between 2 spoons;
drop into hot lard, and fry till brown.
Cookies.--Mix together 1 lb. powdered loaf sugar, 1 lb. flour, and
½ teaspoonful soda carbonate; rub in ¼ lb. butter; make into a
soft paste, with 3 eggs beaten, 1 dessertspoonful cream or milk,
and essence of almond to taste; roll out 1 in. thick, and cut into
biscuits with a wineglass. Bake 10 minutes in a moderate oven. They
must be kept in a dry place, and will continue good for 3 months.
Corn Bread Loaf.--Ingredients: Yellow meal, 2 cups; flour, 1 cup;
cream of tartar, 2 teaspoonfuls; soda and salt, 1 teaspoonful; eggs,
2; sugar (golden) ½ teacup: butter, 2 oz.; new milk, 2 cups. Mode:
Mix salt, soda, and cream of tartar with flour and meal, cream the
butter, and beat the eggs and sugar together, and add to the mixture,
stirring in the milk lastly, and beating the butter well till smooth.
Bake in buttered round iron cake pans, 4 in. deep. This loaf should
be cut from the centre, like a tart. Sometimes honey is substituted
for the sugar, or the loaf made without sugar, split and spread with
honey, and then cut as above.
Corn Meal Muffins.--Warm milk, 1 pint; flour, 1 cup; sugar, 1
tablespoonful; salt, 1 teaspoonful; compressed yeast, 1 cake. Mix
well, and add enough corn meal to make a thin batter. Set to rise
overnight. In the morning add 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in warm
water, and 1 oz. melted butter. Bake in muffin tins. These yeast
muffins do not, like those made with soda, get heavy when cold.
Cream Toast.--Toast even slices of white bread a light golden brown.
Scald the cream, and thicken with a very little cornflour, just the
consistency of custard. Simmer till well done and no raw taste left.
Stir in a piece of butter, and pour some of it evenly between layers
of the hot toast.
Crullers.--Rub 2 oz. butter into 10 oz. flour and 1 tablespoonful
white sugar. Knead into a stiff paste, with 3 eggs beaten--if the
eggs are not sufficient to moisten the flour, 1 spoonful milk can be
added. Flavour with lemon or almond, and leave it an hour covered
with a cloth. Pinch off pieces, the size of small eggs; roll them
out into an oval shape the size of your hand, and the thickness
of half-a-crown. Cut 3 slits with a paste cutter or knife, in the
centre of each oval; cross the 2 middle bars, and draw up the 2 sides
between; put your finger through, and drop the cruller into boiling
lard in a stewpan wide enough to admit of 3 at once. Turn them as
they rise, and, when a light brown, take them up with a fork and
lay them on a dish, with paper underneath them. They are best eaten
within 2 days after they are made; but, if kept longer, it recrisps
them to place them in a moderate oven for 10 minutes; 2-3 lb. lard
are required, and what is left will do again with the addition of a
little more.
Johnny Cake.--Mix together 2 teacups Indian meal, ½ cup flour, 2
tablespoonfuls brown sugar, 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, 1 of soda
carbonate, and 1 of salt. Rub in 1 tablespoonful butter, add milk
enough to make a cake batter, and bake in a greased pound cake tin.
It is best eaten hot, with plenty of butter.
Waffles.--(_a_) Rice.--Boiled rice, 1 cup; eggs, 3; butter, 1 oz.;
sour milk, 2 cups; salt and soda, 1 teaspoonful each. Stir the rice
to separate the grains well; add the butter creamed, and the eggs
frothed; dissolve the soda, stir into the milk; add to the mixture
with flour enough to make a batter, rather thick; heat the waffle
irons and rub well with butter; fill ¾ only, and bake carefully.
(_b_) Raised.--Sifted flour, 1 qt.; salt, 1 teaspoonful; warm milk,
1½ pint; compressed yeast, ½ cake, or 3 tablespoonfuls liquid yeast:
creamed butter, 2 oz. Set the yeast, with the warm milk, butter, and
salt, to rise overnight. When required in the morning, add 3 eggs,
well beaten, and ½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in warm water. Heat the
waffle irons, butter them well, and fill nearly ¾ full; take care not
to scorch them.
(_c_) Cream.--Sifted flour, 4 cups; soda, cream of tartar, and salt,
1 teaspoonful each; eggs, 3; cream, 2 cups. Mix the soda and cream of
tartar, and salt with the dry flour, mix the beaten yolks with the
cream, and make a smooth batter. Add the whites of the eggs beaten to
a froth. Butter the waffle irons, and fill ¾ full. Bake a light brown.
_Cape._--Bobotie.--Take a small leg of mutton and mince it very
fine, add to the bones and sinews 1 pint water and let it simmer
slowly for ½ hour, then soak a thick slice of white bread in the
hot broth and when cool mix it with the meat, to which add 6 eggs,
well beaten. Take 2 large white onions, chop them very fine, with
a clove of garlic and some salt, fry them in butter until brown,
then stir in 1 tablespoonful good Indian curry powder and mix the
whole well together. Put into a pie dish or cups, putting a lemon
leaf and a small lump of butter into each cup, then put in the meat
mixture: beat up an egg with a little milk and rub over the top,
cover with lemon leaves and bake for 1 hour. As lemon leaves are not
always obtainable in England, a small piece of lemon peel for the
flavouring, and vine leaves to keep from burning would perhaps not be
a bad substitute.
Sasatijs.--Much the same as the Indian “kabobs.” Take a leg of mutton
and cut the best part of it--about 3 lb.--into small squares, then
chop a plateful of sliced white onion fried in butter, to which
add 1 tablespoonful of good curry powder and 1 cup tamarind water
or vinegar; stir the meat into the sauce, and let it stand for a
whole night, then thread the meat upon thin bamboo sticks, or very
slender wooden skewers, lean and fat pieces alternately; grill upon
the gridiron just before they are required, and serve very hot with
rice. The sauce must be boiled and also served very hot. This is a
favourite dish at Cape picnics, and when travelling with the bullock
waggon. The sasatijs are always left on the bamboo sticks when
served up. To boil rice for Sasatijs.--To 1 cup good whole rice take
exactly 3 cups cold water, add a pinch of salt; boil in an enamelled
saucepan, but do not stir the rice. When the water is apparently all
absorbed by the rice, tilt the lid of the pot and let it steam dry.
_Dutch._--Bloaters, Pickled.--Take 1 doz. bloaters, wash them
thoroughly, well drain and dry them, and lay them in enough milk to
completely cover them. When they have lain in this for 24 hours,
drain them thoroughly, and lay them in a pie dish with 6 slices of
lemon and the same quantity of Spanish or Portugal onion, 4 bay
leaves, 2 oz. capers, 12 cloves, and about 18 peppercorns, and as
much oil and vinegar in equal proportions as will completely cover
the herring. Lay them by in a cool place till wanted.
Eel Patties.--Skin, clean, and wash an eel, cut it up into small
pieces, and cover it with vinegar. Melt in a saucepan 2 oz. butter,
stir into it 1 tablespoonful flour, and 2 tablespoonfuls stock or
broth, well freed from fat, add the finely minced rind of ½ lemon,
some chopped capers, 1 teaspoonful minced parsley, with salt and
nutmeg to taste. Take the pieces of eel out of the vinegar, put them
into the sauce, and let them stew until thoroughly cooked. Have some
patty-pans lined with short paste, put into each 1, 2, or 3 pieces
of eel, cover over with the same paste, make a small opening in the
cover, brush them over with an egg, and bake in a quick oven. The
sauce should be well reduced, and served separately.
Herring Salad.--Thoroughly wash 4 soft-roed bloaters, remove the
bones and skin, and put the roes aside; arrange the 4 fillets of each
fish neatly round a dish. Chop finely and separately the whites
and yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs, also some parsley, some shallot or
parboiled onion, and some pickled beetroot, keeping each separate.
Lay these different things in some sort of pattern in the centre of
the dish. Take the roes and mash them by means of a spoon with enough
oil and vinegar, in the proportions of 2 to 1, to make a thickish
sauce; add pepper to taste, and pour the same over the herring
fillets, avoiding to disarrange the minced eggs, &c., in the centre.
Oysters.--(_a_) Open some oysters, beard them, and loosen them
carefully from their shells. Sprinkle over each oyster a small
proportion of anchovies, well washed, boned, and finely minced, a
little pounded mace, squeeze over a few drops of lemon juice, add a
small piece of butter, and lastly sprinkle a little flour or fine
breadcrumbs over. Put the shells into a slow oven to bake until the
contents are of a light brown colour. Serve very hot with cut lemons.
(_b_) Remove some oysters from their shells, and put them into a
stewpan with their liquor; add 4 finely minced, boned, and skinned
sardines, the juice of ½ lemon, a few chopped capers, and grated
nutmeg to taste; lastly, add flour and butter in due proportions, and
stew gently until cooked. Have ready some shapes lined with short
paste. Put 2 or 3 oysters into each, cover over with paste, make an
incision in the top, and bake in a quick oven.
(_c_) When they have been well cleaned put them, with some sea-water,
some lemon juice, and grated nutmeg, into a saucepan. Let them just
come once to the boil, remove them from the fire, and let them stand
until the next day, then put them into earthenware jars, pour melted
butter over them, and keep them in a cool place. When prepared
in this way they can be used for patties, sauces, and also for
scalloping.
(_d_) Soak for one night 3 or 4 herring-roes, dry them on a cloth,
and cut them up in 3 or 4 pieces, about the size of an oyster. Get
some scallop shells, put in each a piece of fresh butter the size of
a small nut, the least bit of pounded mace, a few drops of anchovy
sauce, or ¼ anchovy well washed, boned, and minced. Squeeze a few
drops of lemon juice and sprinkle a little flour or breadcrumbs
over; then lay a piece of roe on this, with 3 or 4 capers, and again
sprinkle a little flour or breadcrumbs over, and put them into a slow
oven till they begin to colour.