cut them into shavings, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a
clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that the fat
and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a quick fire, and as soon as
the lard boils, and is still, put in the slices of potato, and keep
moving them until they are crisp; take them up, and lay them to drain
on a sieve. Send to table with a little salt sprinkled over them.
1116. Potatoes Escalloped.
Mash potatoes in the usual way; then butter some nice clean
scallop-shells, pattypans, or tea cups or saucers; put in your
potatoes; make them smooth at the top; cross a knife over them; strew
a few fine bread-crumbs on them; sprinkle them with a paste-brush with
a few drops of melted butter, and set them in a Dutch oven. When
nicely browned on the top, take them carefully out of the shells, and
brown on the other side. Cold potatoes may be warmed up this way.
1117. Potato Scones.
Mash boiled potatoes till they are quite smooth, adding a little salt;
then knead out the flour, or barley-meal, to the thickness required;
toast on the girdle, pricking them with a fork to prevent them
blistering. When eaten with fresh or salt butter they are equal to
crumpets--even superior, and very nutritious.
1118. Potato Pie.
Peel and slice your potatoes very thinly into a pie-dish; between each
layer of potatoes put a little chopped onion, and sprinkle a little
pepper and salt; put in a little water, and cut about two ounces of
fresh butter into bits, and lay them on the top; cover it close with
paste. The yolks of four eggs may be added; and when baked, a
tablespoonful of good mushroom ketchup poured in through a funnel.
Another method is to put between the layers small bits of mutton,
beef, or pork. In Cornwall, turnips are added. This constitutes (on
the Cornish method) a cheap and satisfactory dish for families.
1119. Cold Potatoes.
There are few articles in families more subject to waste, whether in
paring, boiling, or being actually wasted, than potatoes; and there
are few cooks who do not boil twice as many potatoes every day as are
wanted, and fewer still who do not throw the residue away as being
totally unfit in any shape for the next day's meal; yet if they would
take the trouble to beat up the despised cold potatoes with an equal
quantity of flour, they would find them produce a much lighter
dumpling or pudding than they can make with flour alone: and by the
aid of a few spoonfuls of good gravy, they will provide a cheap and
agreeable appendage to the dinner table.
[EVERY RECEIPT IS THE BASIS OF MANY OTHERS.]
1120. Mashed Potatoes and Spinach or Cabbage.
Moisten cold mashed potatoes with a little white sauce: take cold
cabbage or spinach, and chop it very finely. Moisten with a brown
gravy. Fill a tin mould with layers of potatoes and cabbage; cover the
top, and put it into a stewpan of boiling water. Let it remain long
enough to warm the vegetables; then turn the vegetables out and serve
them. Prepare by boiling the vegetables separately, and put them into
the mould in layers, to be turned out when wanted. It forms a very
pretty dish for an entrée.
1121. Cold Carrots and Turnips.
These may be added to soups, if they have not been mixed with gravies:
or if warmed up separately, and put into moulds in layers, they may be
turned out, and served the same as the potatoes and cabbage described
above.
1122. French Beans.
Cut away the stalk-end, and strip off the strings, then cut them into
shreds. If not quite fresh, have a basin of spring water, with a
little salt dissolved in it, and as the beans are cleaned and stringed
throw them in; put them on the fire in boiling water, with some salt
in it; after they have boiled fifteen or twenty minutes, take one out
and taste it; as soon as they are tender take them up, throw them into
a cullender or sieve to drain. Send up the beans whole when they are
very young.
1123. Boiled Turnip Radishes.
Boil in plenty of salted water, and in about twenty-five minutes they
will be tender; drain well, and send them to table with melted butter.
Common radishes, when young, tied in bunches, boiled for twenty
minutes, and served on a toast, are excellent.
1124. Asparagus.
Asparagus (often mis-called "_asparagrass_").--Scrape the stalks till
they are clean; throw them into a pan of cold water, tie them up in
bundles of about a quarter of a hundred each; cut off the stalks at
the bottom to a uniform length leaving enough to serve as a handle for
the green part; put them into a stewpan of boiling water, with a
handful of salt in it. Let it boil, and skim it. When they are tender
at the stalk, which will be in from twenty to thirty minutes, they are
done enough.
Watch the exact time of their becoming tender; take them up that
instant. While the asparagus is boiling, toast a round of a a quartern
loaf, about half an inch thick; brown it delicately on both sides; dip
it lightly in the liquor the asparagus was boiled in, and lay it in
the middle of a dish; melt some butter, but do not put it over them.
Serve butter in a butter-boat.
1125. Artichokes.
Soak them in cold water, wash them well; put them into plenty of
boiling water, with a handful of salt, and let them boil gently for an
hour and a half or two hours: trim them and drain on a sieve; send up
melted butter with them, which some put into small cups, one for each
guest.
1126. Stewed Water-Cress.
The following receipt will be found an agreeable and wholesome
dish:--Lay the cress in strong salt and water, to clear it from
insects. Pick and wash nicely, and stew it in water for about ten
minutes; drain and chop, season with pepper and salt, add a little
butter, and return it to the stewpan until well heated. Add a little
vinegar previously to serving; put around it sippets of toast or fried
bread. The above, made thin, as a substitute for parsley and butter,
will be found an excellent sauce for a boiled fowl. There should be
considerably more of the cress than of the parsley, as the flavour is
much milder.
[A GOOD SUGGESTION IS OFTEN INVALUABLE.]
1127. Stewed Mushrooms.
Cut off the ends of the stalks, and pare neatly some middle-sized or
button mushrooms, and put them into a basin of water with the juice of
a lemon as they are done. When all are prepared, take them from the
water with the hands to avoid the sediment, and put them into a
stewpan with a little fresh butter, white pepper, salt, and a little
lemon juice; cover the pan close, and let them stew gently for twenty
minutes or half an hour; then thicken the butter with a spoonful of
flour, and add gradually sufficient cream, or cream and milk, to make
the same about the thickness of good cream. Season the sauce to
palate, adding a little pounded mace or grated nutmeg. Let the whole
stew gently until the mushrooms are tender. Remove every particle of
butter which may be floating on the top before serving.
1128. Indications of Wholesome Mushrooms.
Whenever a fungus is pleasant, in flavour and odour, it may be
considered wholesome; if, on the contrary, it have an offensive smell,
a bitter, astringent, or styptic taste, or even if it leave an
unpleasant flavour in the mouth, it should not be considered fit for
food. The colour, figure, and texture of these vegetables do not
afford any characters on which we can safely rely; yet it may be
remarked that in colour the pure yellow, gold colour, bluish pale,
dark or lustre brown, wine red, or the violet, belong to many that are
eatable; whilst the pale or sulphur yellow, bright or blood-red, and
the greenish belong to few but the poisonous. The safe kinds have most
frequently a compact, brittle texture; the flesh is white; they grow
more readily in open places, such as dry pastures and waste lands,
than in places humid or shaded by wood. In general, those should be
suspected which grow in caverns and subterranean passages, on animal
matter undergoing putrefaction, as well as those whose flesh is soft
or watery.
1129. To Distinguish Mushrooms from Poisonous Fungi.
i. Sprinkle a little salt on the spongy part or gills of the sample
to be tried. If they turn yellow, they are poisonous,--if black,
they are wholesome. Allow the salt to act, before you decide on the
question.
ii. False mushrooms have a warty cap, or else fragments of membrane,
adhering to the upper surface, are heavy, and emerge from a vulva or
bag; they grow in tufts or clusters in woods, on the stumps of
trees, &c., whereas the true mushrooms grow in pastures.
iii. False mushrooms have an astringent, styptic, and disagreeable
taste. When cut they turn blue. They are moist on the surface, and
generally of a rose or orange colour.
iv. The gills of the true mushroom are of a pinky red, changing to a
liver colour. The flesh is white. The stem is white, solid, and
cylindrical.
1130. Cookery for Soldiers Sailors, Travellers, and Emigrants.
The following seven receipts are due to the inventive genius of the
late Alexis Soyer, who at one time was chief cook of the Reform Club:
1131. Stewed Salt Beef and Pork.
Put into a saucepan about two pounds of well-soaked beef, cut in eight
pieces; half a pound of salt pork, divided in two, and also soaked:
half a pound of rice, or six tablespoonfuls; a quarter of a pound of
onions, or four middle-sized ones, peeled and sliced; two ounces of
brown sugar, or a large tablespoonful; a quarter of an ounce of
pepper, and five pints of water; simmer gently for three hours, remove
the fat from the top, and serve. This dish is enough for six people,
and it cannot fail to be excellent if the receipt be closely followed.
Butchers' salt meat will require only a four hours' soaking, having
been but lightly pickled.
[A GOOD BEGINNING MAKES A GOOD ENDING.]
1132. Mutton Soup.
Put into a pan--half a pound of mutton will make a pint of good family
soup--six pounds of mutton, cut in four or six pieces; three quarters
of a pound of mixed vegetables, or three ounces of preserved, three
and a half teaspoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, and half a
teaspoonful of pepper, if handy; five tablespoonfuls of barley or
rice; eight pints of water; let it simmer gently for three hours and a
half, remove this fat, and serve. Bread and biscuit may be added in
small quantities.
1133. Plain Pea Soup.
Put in a pan six pounds of pork, well soaked and cut into eight
pieces; pour six quarts of water over; one pound of split peas; one
teaspoonful of sugar; half a teaspoonful of pepper; four ounces of
fresh vegetables, or two ounces of preserved, if handy; let it boil
gently for two hours, or until the peas are tender. When the pork is
rather fat, as is generally the case, wash it only; a quarter of a
pound of broken biscuit may be used for the soup. Salt beef, when
rather fat and well soaked, may be used for pea soup.
1134. French Beef Soup, or Pot au Feu (Camp Fashion).
Put into the kettle six pounds of beef, cut into two or three pieces,
bone included; one pound of mixed green vegetables, or half a pound of
preserved, in cakes; four teaspoonfuls of salt; if handy, one
teaspoonful of pepper, one of sugar, and three cloves; and eight pints
of water. Let it boil gently three hours; remove some of the fat, and
serve. The addition of a pound and a half of bread, cut into slices,
or one pound of broken biscuits, well soaked, will make a very
nutritious soup. Skimming is not required.
1135. How to Stew Fresh Beef, Pork, Mutton, and Veal.
Cut or chop two pounds of fresh beef into ten or twelve pieces; put
these into a saucepan, with one and a half teaspoonfuls of salt, one
teaspoonful of sugar, half a teaspoonful of pepper, two middle-sized
onions sliced, half a pint of water. Set on the fire for ten minutes
until forming a thick gravy. Add a good teaspoonful of flour, stir on
the fire a few minutes; add a quart and a half of water; let the whole
simmer until the meat is tender. Beef will take from two hours and a
half to three hours; mutton and pork, about two hours; veal, one hour
and a quarter to one hour and a half; onions, sugar, and pepper, if
not to be had, must be omitted; it will even then make a good dish;
half a pound of sliced potatoes, or two ounces of preserved potatoes;
either fresh or preserved vegetables may be added if they can be
obtained, also a small dumpling.
1136. Plain Boiled Beef.
Put in a saucepan six pounds of well-soaked beef, cut in two, with
three quarts of cold water; simmer gently three hours, and serve.
About a pound of either carrots, turnips, parsnips, greens, or
cabbage, as well as dumplings, may be boiled with it.
1137. Cossack's Plum Pudding.
Put into a basin one pound of flour, three quarters of a pound of
raisins (stoned, if time be allowed), three quarters of a pound of the
fat of salt pork (well washed, cut into small squares, or chopped),
two tablespoonfuls of sugar or treacle; and half a pint of water; mix
all together; put into a cloth tied lightly; boil for four hours, and
serve. If time will not admit, boil only two hours, though four are
preferable. How to spoil the above:--Add anything to it.
1138. Meat Cookery.
1139. Beef Minced.
Cut into small dice remains of cold beef: the gravy reserved from it
on the first day of it being served should be put in the stewpan, with
the addition of warm water, some mace, sliced shalot, salt, and black
pepper. Let the whole simmer gently for an hour, A few minutes before
it is served, take out the meat and dish it, add to the gravy some
walnut ketchup, and a little lemon juice or walnut pickle. Boil up the
gravy once more, and, when hot, pour it over the meat. Serve it with
bread sippets.
1140. Beef with Mashed Potatoes.
Mash some potatoes with hot milk, the yolk of an egg, some butter and
salt. Slice the cold beef and lay it at the bottom of a pie-dish,
adding to it some sliced shalot, pepper, salt, and a little beef
gravy; cover the whole with a thick paste of potatoes, making the
crust to rise in the centre above the edges of the dish. Score the
potato crust with the point of a knife in squares of equal sizes. Put
the dish before a fire in a Dutch oven, and brown it on all sides; by
the time it is coloured, the meat and potatoes will be sufficiently
done.
[TRY ALL THINGS, HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD.]
1141. Beef Bubble and Squeak.
Cut into pieces convenient for frying, cold roasted or boiled beef;
pepper, salt, and fry them; when done, lay them on a hot drainer, and
while the meat is draining from the fat used in frying them, have in
readiness a cabbage already boiled in two waters; chop it small, and
put it in the frying-pan with some butter, add a little pepper and
keep stirring it, that all of it may be equally done. When taken from
the fire, sprinkle over the cabbage a very little vinegar, only enough
to give it a slightly acid taste. Place the cabbage in the centre of
the dish, and arrange the slices of meat neatly around it.
1142. Beef or Mutton Lobscous.
Mince, not too finely, some cold roasted beef or mutton. Chop the
bones, and put them in a saucepan with six potatoes peeled and sliced,
one onion, also sliced, some pepper and salt; of these make a gravy.
When the potatoes are completely incorporated with the gravy, take out
the bones and put in the meat; stew the whole together for an hour
before it is to be served.
1143. Beef Rissoles.
Mince and season cold beef, and flavour it with mushroom or walnut
ketchup. Make of beef dripping a very thin paste, roll it out in thin
pieces, about four inches square; enclose in each piece some of the
mince, in the same way as for puffs, cutting each neatly all round;
fry them in dripping to a very light brown. The paste can scarcely be
rolled out too thin.
1144. Veal Minced.
Cut veal from the fillet or shoulder into very small dice; put into
veal or mutton broth with a little mace, white pepper, salt, some
lemon peel grated, and a tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup or mushroom
powder, rubbed smooth into the gravy, Take out some of the gravy when
nearly done, and when cool enough thicken it with flour, cream, and a
little butter; boil it up with the rest of the gravy, and pour it over
the meat when done. Garnish with bread sippets. A little lemon juice
added to the gravy improves its flavour.
1145. Veal dressed with White Sauce.
Boil milk or cream with a thickening of flour and butter; put into it
thin slices of cold veal, and simmer it in the gravy till it is made
hot without boiling. When nearly done, beat up the yolk of an egg,
with a little anchovy and white sauce; pour it gently to the rest,
stirring it all the time; simmer again the whole together, and serve
it with sippets of bread and curled bacon alternately.
1146. Veal Rissoles.
Mince and pound veal extremely fine; grate into it some remains of
cooked ham. Mix these well together with white sauce, flavoured with
mushrooms: form this mixture into balls, and enclose each in pastry.
Fry them in butter to a light brown. The same mince may be fried in
balls without pastry, being first cemented together with egg and
breadcrumbs.
1147. Mutton Hashed.
Cut cold mutton into thin slices, fat and lean together; make gravy
with the bones whence the meat has been taken, boiling them long
enough in water, with onion, pepper and salt; strain the gravy, and
warm, but do not boil, the mutton in it. Then take out some of the
gravy to thicken it with flour and butter, and flavour it with
mushroom ketchup. Pour in the thickening and boil it up, having
previously taken out the meat, and placed it neatly on the dish in
which it is to go to the table. Pour over it the boiling gravy, and
add sippets of bread.
1148. Lamb.
Fry slices or chops of lamb in butter till they are slightly browned.
Serve them on a _purée_ of cucumbers, or on a dish of spinach; or dip
the slices in bread-crumbs, chopped parsley, and yolk of an egg; some
grated lemon and a little nutmeg may be added. Fry them, and pour a
little nice gravy over them when served.
[WE LEARN SOMETHING, EVEN BY OUR FAILURES.]
1149. Pork.
Slices of cold pork, fried and laid on apple sauce, form an excellent
side or corner dish. Boiled pork may also he made into rissoles,
minced very fine like sausage meat, and seasoned sufficiently, but not
over much.
1150. Round of Salt Beef.
Skewer it tight and round, and tie a fillet of broad tape about it.
Put it into plenty of cold water, and carefully remove the scum; let
it boil till all the scum is removed, and then put the boiler on one
side of the fire, to continue simmering slowly till it is done. Half a
round may be boiled for a small family. When you take it up, wash the
scum off with a paste-brush--garnish with carrots and turnips.
1151. Aitchbone of Beef.
Manage in the same way as the round. The soft, marrow-like fat which
lies on the back is best when hot, and the hard fat of the upper
corner is best cold.
1152. Stewed Brisket of Beef.
Stew in sufficient water to cover the meat; when tender, take out the
bones, and skim off the fat; add to the gravy, when strained, a glass
of wine, and a little spice tied up in a muslin bag. (This can he
omitted if preferred.) Have ready either mushrooms, truffles, or
vegetables boiled, and cut into shapes, Lay them on and around the
beef; reduce part of the gravy to glaze, lay it on the top, and pour
the remainder into the dish.
1153. Baked Brisket of Beef.
Brisket of beef may lie baked, the bones being removed, and the holes
filled with oysters, fat bacon, parsley, or all three in separate
holes; these stuffings being chopped and seasoned to taste. Dredge it
well with flour, pour upon it half a pint of broth, bake for three
hours, skim off the fat, strain the gravy over the meat, and garnish
with cut pickles.
1154. Pork, Spare-rib.
Joint it nicely before roasting, and crack the ribs across as lamb.
Take care not to have the fire too fierce. The joint should be basted
with very little butter and flour, and may be sprinkled with fine
dried sage, It takes from two to three hours. Apple sauce, mashed
potatoes, and greens are the proper accompaniments, also good mustard,
fresh made.
1155. Lamb Stove or Lamb Stew.
Take a lamb's head and lights, open the jaws of the head, and wash
them thoroughly; put them in a pot with some beef stock, made with
three quarts of water and two pounds of shin of beef, strained; boil
very slowly for an hour; wash and string two or three good handfuls of
spinach; put it in twenty minutes before serving; add a little
parsley, and one or two onions, a short time before it comes off the
fire; season with pepper and salt, and serve all together in a tureen.
1156. Roast Beef Bones
Roast beef bones furnish a very relishing luncheon or supper, prepared
with poached or fried eggs and mashed potatoes as accompaniments.
Divide the bones, having good pickings of meat on each; score them in
squares, pour a little melted butter over, and sprinkle with pepper
and salt; put them on a dish; set in a Dutch oven for half or three
quarters of an hour, according to the thickness of the meat; keep
turning till they are quite hot and brown: or broil them on the
gridiron. Brown but do not burn them. Serve with piquant sauce.
1157. Marrow Bones.
Saw the bones evenly, so that they will stand steadily; put a piece of
paste into the ends; set them upright in a saucepan, and boil till
they are done enough--beef marrow bone will require from an hour and a
half to two hours; serve fresh-toasted bread with them.
1158. Beef (Rump) Steak and Onion Sauce.
Peel and slice two large onions, put them into a quart stewpan, with
two tablespoonfuls of water; cover the pan close, and set on a slow
fire till the water has boiled away, and the onions have become a
little browned; then add half a pint of good broth, and boil the
onions till they are tender; strain the broth, and chop very fine;
season with mushroom ketchup, pepper, and salt; put in the onions
then, and let them boil gently for five minutes, pour into the dish,
and lay over it a broiled rump steak. If instead of broth you use good
beef gravy, it will be delicious.
[WHEN WE THINK WE FAIL, WE ARE OFTEN NEAR SUCCESS.]
1159. Beef à la Mode and Veal Ditto.
Take about eleven pounds of the mouse buttock,--or clod of beef,--or
blade bone,--or the sticking-piece, or the like weight of the breast
of veal;--cut it into pieces of three or four ounces each; put in
three or four ounces of beef dripping, and mince a couple of large
onions, and lay them into a large deep stewpan. As soon as it is quite
hot, flour the meat, put it into the stewpan, continue stirring with a
wooden spoon; when it has been on about ten minutes, dredge with
flour, and keep doing so till you have stirred in as much as you think
will thicken it; then add by degrees about a gallon of boiling water;
keep stirring it together; skim it when it boils, and then put in one
drachm of ground black pepper, two of allspice, and two bay-leaves;
set the pan by the side of the fire, or at a distance over it, and let
it stew _very slowly_ for about three hours; when you find the meat
sufficiently tender, put it into a tureen, and it is ready for table.
1160. Ox-Cheek Stewed.
Prepare the day before it is to be eaten; clean the cheek and put it
into soft water, just warm; let it lie for three or four hours, then
put it into cold water, to soak all night; next day wipe it clean, put
it into a stewpan, and just cover it with water; skim it well when it
is coming to a boil, then add two whole onions with two or three
cloves stuck into each, three turnips quartered, a couple of carrots
sliced, two bay-leaves, and twenty-four corns of allspice, a head of
celery, and a bundle of sweet herbs, pepper, and salt; lastly, add a
little cayenne and garlic, if liked.
Let it stew gently till perfectly tender, about three hours; then take
out the cheek, divide into pieces fit to help at table; skim and
strain the gravy; melt an ounce and a half of butter in a stewpan;
stir into it as much flour as it will take up; mix with it by degrees
a pint and a half of the gravy; add a tablespoonful of mushroom or
walnut ketchup, or port wine, and boil a short time. Serve up in a
soup or ragoût dish, or make it into barley broth. This is a very
economical, nourishing, and savoury meal.
1161. Hashed Mutton or Beef.
Slice the meat small, trim off the brown edges, and stew down the
trimmings with the bones, well broken, an onion, a bunch of thyme and
parsley, a carrot cut into slices, a few peppercorns, cloves, salt,
and a pint and a half of water or stock. When this is reduced to
little more than three quarters of a pint, strain it, clear it from
the fat, thicken it with a large dessertspoonful of flour or
arrowroot, add salt and pepper, boil the whole for a few minutes, then
lay in the meat and heat it well. Boiled potatoes are sometimes sliced
hot into the hash.
1162. Irish Stew.