RECIPES FOR MEAT DISHES
Trying out Fat--Extending the Flavor of Meat--Meat Stew--Meat
Dumplings--Meat Pies and Similar Dishes--Meat with Starchy
Materials--Turkish Pilaf--Stew from Cold Roast--Meat with Beans--Haricot
of Mutton--Meat Salads--Meat with Eggs--Roast Beef with Yorkshire
Pudding--Corned Beef Hash with Poached Eggs--Stuffing--Mock Duck--Veal
or Beef Birds--Utilizing the Cheaper Cuts of Meat.
"To be a good cook means the knowledge of all fruits, herbs, balms and
spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in fields and groves,
savory in meats. It means carefulness, inventiveness, watchfulness,
willingness, and readiness of appliance. It means the economy of your
great-grandmother and the science of modern chemistry; it means much
tasting and no wasting; it means English thoroughness, French art,
and Arabian hospitality; it means, in fine, that you are to be perfectly
and always ladies (loaf-givers), and are to see that everybody has
something nice to eat."--JOHN RUSKIN.
RECIPES
(In these directions a _level_ spoonful or _level_ cupful is
called for.)
TRYING OUT FAT
A double boiler is the best utensil to use in trying out small portions
of fat. There is no danger of burning the fat, and the odor is much less
noticeable than if it is heated in a dish set directly over the fire.
Common household methods of extending the meat flavor through a
considerable quantity of material which would otherwise be lacking in
distinctive taste are to serve the meat with dumplings, generally in the
dish with it, to combine the meat with crusts, as in meat pies or meat
rolls, or to serve the meat on toast and biscuits. Borders of rice,
hominy, or mashed potatoes are examples of the same principles applied
in different ways. By serving some preparation of flour, rice, hominy,
or other food rich in starch with the meat we get a dish which in itself
approaches nearer to the balanced ration than meat alone and one in
which the meat flavor is extended through a large amount of the
material.
MEAT STEW
5 pounds of a cheaper cut of beef.
4 cups of potatoes cut into small pieces.
2/3 cup each of turnips and carrots cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
1/2 onion, chopped.
1/4 cup of flour.
Salt and pepper.
Cut the meat into small pieces, removing the fat; try out the fat and
brown the meat in it. When well browned, cover with boiling water, boil
for five minutes and then cook in a lower temperature until the meat is
done. If tender, this will require about three hours on the stove or
five hours in the fireless cooker. Add carrots, turnips, onions, pepper,
and salt during the last hour of cooking, and the potatoes fifteen
minutes before serving. Thicken with the flour diluted with cold water.
Serve with dumplings (see below). If this dish is made in the fireless
cooker, the mixture must be reheated when the vegetables are put in.
Such a stew may also be made of mutton. If veal or pork is used the
vegetables may be omitted or simply a little onion used. Sometimes for
variety the browning of the meat is dispensed with. When white meat,
such as chicken, veal, or fresh pork is used, the gravy is often made
rich with cream or milk thickened with flour. The numerous minor
additions which may be introduced give the great variety of such stews
found in cookbooks.
MEAT DUMPLINGS
2 cups flour.
4 teaspoonfuls baking powder.
2/3 cup milk or a little more if needed.
1/2 teaspoonful salt.
2 teaspoonfuls butter.
Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Work in the butter with the tips of
fingers, add milk gradually, roll out to a thickness of one-half inch,
and cut with biscuit cutter. In some countries it is customary to season
the dumplings themselves with herbs, etc., or to stuff them with bread
crumbs fried in butter, instead of depending upon the gravy to season
them.
A good way to cook dumplings is to put them in a buttered steamer over a
kettle of hot water. They should cook from twelve to fifteen minutes. If
it is necessary to cook them with the stew, enough liquid should be
removed so that they may be placed upon the meat and vegetables.
Sometimes the dough is baked and served as biscuits over which the stew
is poured. If the stew is made with chicken or veal it is generally
termed a fricassee.
MEAT PIES AND SIMILAR DISHES
Meat pies represent another method of combining flour with meat. They
are ordinarily baked in a fairly deep dish the sides of which may or may
not be lined with dough. The cooked meat, cut into small pieces, is put
into the dish, sometimes with small pieces of vegetables, a gravy is
poured over the meat, the dish is covered with a layer of dough, and
then baked. Most commonly the dough is like that used for soda or
cream-of-tartar biscuit, but sometimes shortened pastry dough, such as
is made for pies, is used. This is especially the case in the fancy
individual dishes usually called patties. Occasionally the pie is
covered with a potato crust in which case the meat is put directly into
the dish without lining the latter. Stewed beef, veal, and chicken are
probably most frequently used in pies, but any kind of meat may be used,
or several kinds in combination. Pork pies are favorite dishes in many
rural regions, especially at hog-killing time, and when well made are
excellent.
If pies are made from raw meat and vegetables longer cooking is needed
than otherwise, and in such cases it is well to cover the dish with a
plate, cook until the pie is nearly done, then remove the plate, add the
crust, and return to the oven until the crust is lightly browned. Many
cooks insist on piercing holes in the top crust of a meat pie directly
it is taken from the oven.
MEAT AND TOMATO PIE
This dish presents an excellent way of using up small quantities of
either cold beef or cold mutton. If fresh tomatoes are used, peel and
slice them; if canned, drain off the liquid. Place a layer of tomato in
a baking dish, then a layer of sliced meat, and over the two dredge
flour, pepper, and salt; repeat until the dish is nearly full, then put
in an extra layer of tomato and cover the whole with a layer of pastry
or of bread or cracker crumbs. When the quantity of meat is small, it
may be "helped out" by boiled potatoes or other suitable vegetables.
A few oysters or mushrooms improve the flavor, especially when beef is
used. The pie will need to be baked from half an hour to an hour,
according to its size and the heat of the oven.
MEAT WITH STARCHY MATERIALS
Macaroni cooked with chopped ham, hash made of meat and potatoes or meat
and rice, meat croquettes--made of meat and some starchy materials like
bread crumbs, cracker dust, or rice--are other familiar examples of meat
combined with starchy materials. Pilaf, a dish very common in the Orient
and well known in the United States, is of this character and easily
made. When there is soup or soup stock on hand it can be well used in
the pilaf.
TURKISH PILAF
1/2 cup of rice.
3/4 cup of tomatoes stewed and strained.
1 cup stock or broth.
3 tablespoonfuls of butter.
Cook the rice and tomatoes with the stock in a double boiler until the
rice is tender, removing the cover after the rice is cooked if there is
too much liquid. Add the butter and stir it in with a fork to prevent
the rice from being broken. A little catsup or Chili sauce with water
enough to make three-quarters of a cup may be substituted for the
tomatoes. This may be served as a border with meat, or served separately
in the place of a vegetable, or may make the main dish at a meal, as it
is savory and reasonably nutritious.
STEW FROM COLD ROAST
This dish provides a good way of using up the remnants of a roast,
either of beef or mutton, The meat should be freed from fat, gristle,
and bones, cut into small pieces, slightly salted, and put into a kettle
with water enough to nearly cover it. It should simmer until almost
ready to break in pieces, when onions and raw potatoes, peeled and
quartered, should be added. A little soup stock may also be added if
available. Cook until the potatoes are done, then thicken the liquor or
gravy with flour. The stew may be attractively served on slices of crisp
toast.
MEAT WITH BEANS
Dry beans are very rich in protein, the percentage being fully as large
as that in meat. Dry beans and other similar legumes are usually cooked
in water, which they absorb, and so are diluted before serving; on the
other hand, meats by the ordinary methods of cooking are usually
deprived of some of the water originally present--facts which are often
overlooked in discussing the matter. Nevertheless, when beans are served
with meat the dish is almost as rich in protein as if it consisted
entirely of meat.
Pork and beans is such a well-known dish that recipes are not needed.
Some cooks use a piece of corned mutton or a piece of corned beef in
place of salt or corned pork or bacon or use butter or olive oil in
preparing this dish.
In the Southern States, where cowpeas are a common crop, they are cooked
in the same way as dried beans. Cowpeas baked with salt pork or bacon
make an excellent dish resembling pork and beans, but of distinctive
flavor. Cowpeas boiled with ham or with bacon are also well-known and
palatable dishes.
HARICOT OF MUTTON
2 tablespoonfuls of chopped onions.
2 tablespoonfuls of butter or drippings.
2 cups of water, and salt and pepper.
1-1/2 pounds of lean mutton or lamb cut into 2-inch pieces.
Fry the onions in the butter, add the meat, and brown; cover with water
and cook until the meat is tender. Serve with a border of Lima beans,
seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and a little chopped parsley. Fresh,
canned, dried, or evaporated Lima beans may be used in making this dish.
MEAT SALADS
Whether meat salads are economical or not depends upon the way in which
the materials are utilized. If in chicken salad, for example, only the
white meat of chickens especially bought for the purpose and only the
inside stems of expensive celery are used, it can hardly be cheaper than
plain chicken. But, if portions of meat left over from a previous
serving are mixed with celery grown at home, they certainly make an
economical dish, and one very acceptable to most persons. Cold roast
pork or tender veal--in fact, any white meat can be utilized in the same
way. Apples cut into cubes may be substituted for part of the celery;
many cooks consider that with the apple the salad takes the dressing
better than with the celery alone. Many also prefer to marinate (i.e.,
mix with a little oil and vinegar) the meat and celery or celery and
apples before putting in the final dressing, which may be either
mayonnaise or a good boiled dressing.
MEAT WITH EGGS
Occasionally eggs are combined with meat, making very nutritious dishes.
Whether this is an economy or not of course depends on the comparative
cost of eggs and meat.
In general, it may be said that eggs are cheaper food than meat when a
dozen costs less than 1-1/2 pounds of meat; for a dozen eggs weigh about
1-1/2 pounds and the proportions of protein and fat which they contain
are not far different from the proportions of these nutrients in the
average cut of meat. When eggs are 30 cents a dozen they compare
favorably with a round of beef at 20 cents a pound.
Such common dishes as ham and eggs, bacon or salt pork and eggs, and
omelette with minced ham or other meat are familiar to all cooks.
ROAST BEEF WITH YORKSHIRE PUDDING
The beef is roasted as usual and the pudding made as follows:
3 eggs.
1 pint milk.
1 cupful flour.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Beat the eggs until very light, then add the milk. Pour the mixture over
the flour, add the salt, and beat well. Bake in hissing hot gem pans or
in an ordinary baking pan for forty-five minutes, and baste with
drippings from the beef. If gem pans are used they should be placed on a
dripping pan to protect the floor of the oven from the fat. Many cooks
prefer to bake Yorkshire pudding in the pan with the meat; in this case
the roast should be placed on a rack and the pudding batter poured on
the pan under it.
CORNED-BEEF HASH WITH POACHED EGGS
A dish popular with many persons is corned-beef hash with poached eggs
on top of the hash. A slice of toast is sometimes used under the hash.
This suggests a way of utilizing the small amount of corned-beef hash
which would otherwise be insufficient for a meal.
Housekeepers occasionally use up odd bits of other meat in a similar
way, chopping and seasoning them and then warming and serving in
individual baking cups with a poached or shirred egg on each.
STUFFING
Another popular way to extend the flavor of meat over a large amount of
food is by the use of stuffing. As it is impossible to introduce much
stuffing into some pieces of meat even if the meat is cut to make a
pocket for it, it is often well to prepare more than can be put into the
meat and to cook the remainder in the pan beside the meat. Some cooks
cover the extra stuffing with buttered paper while it is cooking and
baste it at intervals.
MOCK DUCK
Mock duck is made by placing on a round steak a stuffing of bread crumbs
well seasoned with chopped onions, butter, chopped suet or dripping,
salt, pepper, and a little sage, if the flavor is relished. The steak is
then rolled around the stuffing and tied with a string in several
places. If the steak seems tough, the roll is steamed or stewed until
tender before roasting in the oven until brown. Or it may be cooked in a
casserole or other covered dish, in which case a cupful or more of water
or soup-stock should be poured around the meat. Mock duck is excellent
served with currant or other acid jelly.
VEAL OR BEEF BIRDS
A popular dish known as veal or beef birds or by a variety of special
names is made by taking small pieces of meat, each just large enough for
an individual serving, and preparing them in the same way as the mock
duck is prepared.
Sometimes variety is introduced by seasoning the stuffing with chopped
olives or tomato. Many cooks prepare their "birds" by browning in a
little fat, then adding a little water, covering closely and simmering
until tender.
UTILIZING THE CHEAPER CUTS OF MEAT
When the housekeeper attempts to reduce her meat bill by using the less
expensive cuts, she commonly has two difficulties to contend
with--toughness and lack of flavor. It has been shown how prolonged
cooking softens the connective tissues of the meat. Pounding the meat
and chopping it are also employed with tough cuts, as they help to break
the muscle fibers. As for flavor, the natural flavor of meat even in the
least desirable cuts may be developed by careful cooking, notably by
browning the surface, and other flavors may be given by the addition of
vegetables and seasoning with condiments of various kinds.