minutes and allow it to settle, or, if made in a percolator it will be
better. Use three-quarters of a cup boiling milk and one-quarter of
strong coffee, with sugar to suit the taste.--_Mrs. J. W. S._
GREEN TEA.
Scald the teapot, and add one-half pint boiling water to two
teaspoonfuls of the best green tea. Set it where it will keep hot, but
not boil. When it has drawn fifteen or twenty minutes, add boiling
water till it has the strength desired.--_Mrs. J. R. McD._
_Green Tea._
Scald the teapot. If you wish a pint of tea, put in one heaping
teaspoonful tea after putting in a pint boiling water. Set this where
it will keep hot, but not quite boil.--_Mrs. S. T._
_A good Cup of Green Tea._
Before putting in any water, set the teapot with the tea in it before
the fire and let it get thoroughly hot. Then fill the pot with boiling
water and let it stand five minutes.--_Mrs. M. E. L. W._
BLACK TEA.
If you wish a quart of tea, put that quantity of boiling water into
the teapot, after scalding it. Add four teaspoonfuls of tea. Boil
twenty minutes. It is a great improvement to put in a little green
tea.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Black Tea._
Add one and one-half pint boiling water to a half-teacupful of the
best black tea. Boil gently for ten or fifteen minutes. If too strong,
weaken with boiling water.--_Mrs. J. R. McD._
ICED TEA.
After scalding the teapot, put into it one quart of boiling water and
two teaspoonfuls green tea. If wanted for supper, do this at
breakfast. At dinner time, strain, without stirring, through a
tea-strainer into a pitcher. Let it stand till tea time and then pour
into decanters, leaving the sediment in the bottom of the pitcher.
Fill the goblets with ice, put two teaspoonfuls granulated sugar in
each, and pour the tea over the ice and sugar. A squeeze of lemon will
make this delicious and healthful, as it will correct the astringent
tendency.--_Mrs. S. T._
CHOCOLATE.
Scrape fine one square of Baker's chocolate (which will be an ounce).
Put it in a pint of boiling water and milk, mixed in equal parts. Boil
it ten minutes, and during this time mill it or whip it with a Dover
egg-whip (one with a wheel), which will make it foam beautifully.
Sweeten to the taste, at table.--_Mrs. S. T._
COCOA.
To one pint milk and one pint cold water add three tablespoonfuls
grated cocoa. Boil fifteen or twenty minutes, milling or whipping as
directed in foregoing recipe. Sweeten to taste, at the table. Some
persons like a piece of orange-peel boiled with it.--_Mrs. S. T._
BROMA.
Dissolve one large tablespoonful broma in one tablespoonful warm
water. Pour on it one pint boiling milk and water (equal parts). Boil
ten minutes, milling or whipping as above directed. Sweeten to the
taste.--_Mrs. S. T._
A cream-pitcher of whipped cream should always accompany chocolate or
any preparation of it, such as cocoa or broma.--_Mrs. S. T._
MILK AND BUTTER.
The most exquisite nicety and care must be observed in the management
of milk and butter. A housekeeper should have two sets of milk vessels
(tin or earthenware, never stoneware, as this is an absorbent). She
should never use twice in succession the same milk vessels without
having them scalded and aired.
In warm weather, sweet milk should be set on ice, if practicable, or
if not, in a spring-house. Never put ice in sweet milk, as this
dilutes it. One pan of milk should always be set aside to raise cream
for coffee. A bucket with a close-fitting lid should be filled with
milk and set aside for dinner, one for supper, one for breakfast, and
a fourth for cooking purposes.
For making butter, strain unskimmed milk into a scalded churn, where
the churning is done daily. This will give sweeter butter and nicer
buttermilk than when cream is skimmed and kept for churning, as this
sometimes gives a cheesy taste to the butter. Do not let the milk in
the churn exceed blood heat. If overheated, the butter will be white
and frothy, and the milk thin and sour. Churn as soon as the milk is
turned. In summer try to churn early in the morning, as fewer flies
are swarming then, and the butter can be made much firmer.
A stone churn is in some respects more convenient than a wooden churn;
but no matter which you use, the most fastidious neatness must be
observed. Have the churn scalded and set out to sun as soon as
possible after churning. Use your last made butter for buttering
bread, reserving the staler for cookery.
Butter should be printed early in the morning, while it is cool. A
plateful for each of the three meals should be placed in the
refrigerator ready for use. Do not set butter in a refrigerator with
anything else in it but milk, or in a safe with anything but milk. It
readily imbibes the flavor of everything near it. After churning,
butter should be taken up in what is called "a piggin," first scalded
and then filled with cold water. With an old-fashioned butter-stick
(scalded) wash and press the butter till no water is left. Then add a
little salt, finely beaten. Beat again in a few hours, and make up in
half-pound prints. I would advise all housekeepers (even those who do
not make their own butter) to keep a piggin, a butter-stick, and a
pretty butter-print.
_To secure nice Butter for the Table in Winter._
In October and November, engage butter to be brought weekly, fresh
from the churn in rolls. Wrap each roll in a piece of old table cloth,
and put in a sweet firkin or stone jar which has been washed with soda
water, scalded and sunned for a month before using. Pour over it a
clear strong brine, which also must have been prepared at least a week
beforehand, by pouring off the settlings and repeated strainings. Have
a nice flat rock washed and weight the butter down with it, being
careful to keep it always under the brine.--_Mrs. S. T._
_Recipe for Putting up Butter._
2 quarts best common salt.
1 ounce pulverized saltpetre.
1 ounce white sugar.
Work the butter over three times, the last time adding an ounce of the
above mixture to every pound butter. Of course, the butter is salted,
when first made. Make the butter into rolls and wrap in cloths or pack
in jars, within four inches of the top of each jar. If the latter is
done, fill the jars with brine and tie up closely. If the former is
preferred, drop the rolls into brine, prepared as follows:
To every gallon brine that will bear an egg, add one pound white sugar
and one-half ounce saltpetre. Boil well and skim. Keep the brine
closely covered. I have used butter on my table in May, put up in this
way, and it tasted as well as when put up in October.--_Mrs. R. C._
CLABBER.
To have clabber in perfection, place in small glass dishes or bowls
enough milk to make clabber for each person. After it has turned, set
it in the refrigerator, if in summer, till called for. By the way,
refrigerators (as well as water-coolers) should be washed every
morning with water in which a tablespoonful of common soda has been
dissolved. They should then be aired before filling with ice for the
day.--_Mrs. S. T._
COTTAGE CHEESE.
When the tea-kettle boils, pour the water into a pan of "loppered"
milk. It will curd at once. Stir it and turn it into a colander, pour
a little cold water over it, salt it and break it up. A better way is
to put equal parts of buttermilk and thick milk in a kettle, over the
fire, heat it almost boiling hot, pour into a linen bag and let it
drain till next day. Then take it out, salt it, put in a little cream
or butter, as it may be thick or not, and make it up into balls the
size of an orange.
SOUP.
As making soup is a tedious process, it is best to make enough at once
to last several days. Beef shank is most generally used in making
nutritious soup. It is best to get this the day before using it, and
soak it all night in cold, clear water. If you cannot do this,
however, get it as early in the morning as you can. Break the bones,
wash it, soak it a few minutes in weak salt and water, and put it in a
large boiler of cold water. As soon as it begins to simmer, remove the
dark scum that rises on top. Keep the boiler closely covered, and boil
very slowly till an hour or two before dinner. Then, with a ladle,
remove all the fat from the top, as it is this element that makes soup
unwholesome. Strain and season, or, if you prefer, season just enough
for one meal, reserving the rest as foundation for another sort of
soup. It is well always to keep some of this stock on hand in cold
weather, as by the addition of a can of tomatoes, or other
ingredients, a delicious soup may be quickly made of it. Never throw
away water in which any sort of meat has been boiled, as it is much
better to simmer hash or a stew in this liquor than in water, and it
is also invaluable for basting fowls or meats that have not been
parboiled.
Directions for soup making are so fully given in the following pages
that it is needless for me to say anything further on the subject
here.
OYSTER SOUP.
100 oysters.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 tablespoonful black pepper.
¼ pound butter.
Yolks of 3 eggs.
1 pint rich milk, perfectly fresh.
3 tablespoonfuls flour.
Separate the oysters from the liquor: put the liquor to boil, when
boiled add salt, pepper and butter, then the flour, having previously
made it into a batter. Stir all the time. When it comes to a boil, add
the eggs well beaten, then the milk, and when the mixture reaches a
boil, put in the oysters; let them also just boil, and the soup is
done. Stir all the time to prevent curdling.--_Mrs. Judge M._
ECONOMICAL OYSTER SOUP.
1 quart oysters.
2 quarts water.
Boil with salt and pepper.
Cut up one tablespoonful butter with flour and put in while boiling;
beat the yolks of four eggs light, mix them with one-half pint milk.
When the oysters are well cooked, pour on the milk and eggs, stirring
all the time. Let it boil up, and take off quickly, and pour into the
tureen, over toasted bread cut into dice--if preferred rich, leave out
some of the water.--_Mrs. Lt.-Gov. M._
OYSTER SOUP.
Empty the oysters into a colander and drain off all the liquor; then
strain the liquor through a very coarse cloth to rid it of all scum,
etc. To a whole can of oysters take a quart of milk.
Put the milk, oyster liquor, one level tablespoonful flour rubbed very
smooth with one heaping tablespoonful of butter, one tablespoonful
salt, one-half teaspoonful pepper, all on the fire together in a
farina-boiler (or put a skillet one-third filled with boiling water
under the saucepan, to prevent the milk burning). When it comes to a
boil, put in the oysters and let them stew for twenty minutes or till
the gill of the oyster turns and begins to ruffle and crimp at the
edge. Serve immediately, for if they are cooked too long, they become
hard, dark and tasteless. If you put the salt in last, it will not
curdle the soup. Some add one level teaspoonful whole cloves and same
of mace, tied up in a net bag, but they are little improvement.--_Mrs.
R._
PURÉE OF OYSTERS.
For fifty oysters.
Put the oysters on in their own liquor--let them come to a boil--take
them out and mince them; skim the liquor when nearly done. Beat well
together:
1 egg.
1 dessertspoonful butter.
½ pint milk.
1 cracker sifted.
Salt, pepper (mace, also, if liked).
Pour this into boiling liquor and then add the minced oysters. When
done, the soup is smooth. The milk must be fresh or it will
curdle.--_Mrs. John Walker, Alabama._
OYSTER SOUP.
Take two quarts of oysters, wash them, and add,
2 quarts water.
A bundle of herbs.
1 small onion sliced.
Let it boil until all the substance is out of the oysters. Strain the
liquor from the ingredients and put it back in the pot. Add a large
spoonful butter mixed with flour. Have ready two dozen oysters to
throw in just as it is ready to be dished--at the same time stir up
two yolks of eggs with a cup of cream. Cayenne pepper is an
improvement.--_Mrs. E. W._
TURTLE SOUP.
Kill the turtle at daylight in summer, the night before in winter, and
hang it up to bleed. After breakfast, scald it well and scrape the
outer skin off the shell; open it carefully, so as not to break the
gall. Break both shells to pieces and put them into the pot. Lay the
fins, the eggs and some of the more delicate parts by--put the rest
into the pot with a quantity of water to suit the size of your family.
Add two onions, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, cloves and allspice to
suit your taste.
About half an hour before dinner thicken the soup with brown flour and
butter rubbed together. An hour before dinner, take the parts laid by,
roll them in brown flour, fry them in butter, put them and the eggs in
the soup; just before dinner add a glass of claret or Madeira
wine.--_Mrs. N._
_Turtle Soup._
To one turtle that will weigh from four to five pounds, after being
dressed, add one-half gallon water, and boil until the turtle will
drop to pieces, then add:
2 tablespoonfuls allspice.
1 tablespoonful black pepper.
2 tablespoonfuls butter, and salt to the taste.
When nearly done, put in a small handful pot marjoram, thyme and
parsley tied together, and two large onions; when ready to come off,
add two sliced lemons, one pint good wine, and a small quantity of
curry powder; thicken with flour.--_Mrs. D._
_Turtle Soup._
To 2½ quarts soup add:
1 ounce mace.
1 dessertspoonful allspice.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
Pepper, black and cayenne, and salt to your taste.
Tie up a bunch of parsley, thyme, and onion in a cloth, and throw into
soup when boiling. When nearly done, thicken with two tablespoonfuls
flour. To give it a good color, take one tablespoonful brown sugar and
burn it; when burnt, add a wineglass of water. Of this coloring, put
two tablespoonfuls in soup, and just before serving, add half a pint
Madeira wine.--_Miss E. W._
MOCK TURTLE SOUP.
Put on beef and boil very tender; take out, chop fine, and put back to
boil. Put potatoes, mace, cloves, cinnamon, parsley, thyme, spice,
celery seed, and ten hard-boiled eggs; pepper and salt to your taste.
Thicken with flour and add brandy and wine.--_Miss E. P._
MOCK TERRAPIN SOUP.
Cut up two pounds roast or boiled beef in small pieces. Put one large
teacup new milk, one large teacup of wine, a piece of butter size of
an egg (rolled in flour), a little nutmeg, two or three spoonfuls
mixed mustard--all in a stewpan, and cook ten or fifteen minutes. Good
way to use up cold meats.--_Mrs. S. M._
CLAM SOUP.
Boil half a peck of clams fifteen minutes; then take them from the
shells, clean and wash them. Have ready the stew-kettle; strain the
water, in which clams have been boiled; chop up clams, and put in with
three or four slices of salt pork, some mashed potatoes, salt and
pepper to taste. Thicken with grated cracker, and add two spoonfuls
butter rolled in flour. Let it boil twenty minutes and serve.--_Mrs.
C._
_Clam Soup._
Open the clams and chop them up fine. To twenty clams, add:
½ gallon water.
3 good onions.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
A small bunch of parsley and thyme.
Just before taking off, add one quart rich milk and thicken with
flour.--_Mrs. D._
CRAB SOUP.
Open, and cleanse of the deadman's fingers and sandbag, twelve small
fat crabs raw. Cut the crabs into two parts. Parboil and extract the
meat from the claws, and simply extract the fat from the back shells
of the crabs. Scald eighteen ripe tomatoes, skin them and squeeze the
pulp from the seeds through a colander. Chop them fine and pour
boiling water over the seeds and juice, and strain them. Stew a short
time in the soup-pot one large onion, one clove of garlic, in one
spoonful butter and two spoonfuls lard, and put them in the tomatoes.
After stewing a few minutes, add the meat from the claws, then the
crabs, and lastly the fat from the back shells. Season with salt,
cayenne and black pepper, parsley, sweet marjoram and thyme, one-half
teaspoonful lemon juice, and peel of one lemon. Pour in the water with
which the seeds were scalded, adding more should there not be the
quantity of soup required. Boil moderately one hour. About a quarter
of an hour before serving, sift in grated bread crumbs or pounded
crackers as a thickening. Any firm fish prepared by this recipe is
excellent.--_Mrs. J. I._
_Crab Soup._
One dozen crabs to one gallon water. Take off top shell; clear body of
crabs. Cut through the middle, put them into a kettle, mix with some
butter, and brown them. Then add one gallon water, and simmer for half
an hour. Skim slightly, and add the hock of an old ham, and strained
tomato juice one pint. Boil two hours. Season with pepper, spice if
liked, and half-pint wine.
The claws are to be cracked and divested of the jaws. A Hampton
recipe.--_Miss E. W._
BEEF SOUP.
Crack the bone of a shin of beef, and put it on to boil in one quart
water. To every pound meat add one large teaspoonful salt to each
quart water. Let it boil two hours and skim it well. Then add:
4 turnips, pared and cut into quarters.
4 onions, pared and sliced.
2 carrots, scraped and sliced.
1 root of celery, cut into small pieces.
When the vegetables are tender, add a little parsley chopped fine,
with salt and pepper to the taste. Serve hot.--_Mrs. P. McG._
_Another Recipe for Beef Soup._
One shin beef in one-half gallon water, put on before breakfast and
boiled until dinner. Thicken with brown flour two or three hours
before dinner. Put in one carrot, two turnips, one onion, thyme,
cabbage, and celery-seed.--_Mrs. H. P. C._
_To prepare a Beef's Head as Stock for Soup._
Cut up the head into small pieces, and boil in a large quantity of
water until it is all boiled to pieces. Take out all the bones as for
souse cheese, and boil again until thick. Then while hot, season very
highly with pepper, salt, catsup, allspice, and onions chopped fine.
Put into a mould to get cold. For a small family cut a thick slice,
say five inches square, whenever you want soup in a hurry, adding
about a quart of water. It need cook for a few minutes only, and is
valuable as keeping well and being ready in times of emergency. By
adding a few slices of hard-boiled egg and a gill of good cooking
wine, this soup may have very nearly the flavor of mock turtle.--_Mrs.
A. M. D._
CALF'S HEAD SOUP.
Take one-half liver and the head of a mutton, veal or beef, and boil
until the meat drops from the bone. Cut up fine and add one-half the
brains; then:
1 onion.
1 spoonful spice.
½ spoonful cloves.
1 spoonful black pepper and a piece of mace.
3 tablespoonfuls flour.
3 tablespoonfuls flour, and salt to the taste.
Put in enough water at first, as adding it makes the soup thin.
Cut up three hard boiled eggs, and add, when done, one glass of wine.
A little brandy and walnut catsup, with more eggs, will improve it,
though it is a delightful soup as it is.--_Mrs. W. A. C._
_Calf's Head Soup._
Clean the head, laying aside the brains. Put the head in a gallon of
water, with pepper and salt. Boil to pieces and take out bones; return
to the pot with--
1 teacup of mushroom or tomato catsup.
1 teaspoonful allspice.
1 lemon rind, grated.
1 grated nutmeg.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 teacup of browned flour.
Fry, and add the brains when nearly ready for the table. About five
minutes before serving, add:
1 teacup of wine.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 teaspoonful mace.
When sent to the table have two hard-boiled eggs sliced and floating
on top.--_Mrs. J. D._
_Calf's Head Soup._
Take a large calf's head and boil it with four gallons water and a
little salt; when tender, bone and chop it fine, keeping out the
brains, and put the meat back in the pot and boil down to a tureenful.
Half an hour before serving the soup, add:
1 tablespoonful mustard.
1 teaspoonful black pepper.
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves.
1 teaspoonful mace.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
Brown a cup of flour to thicken and just as the soup is dished, add
one cup walnut catsup, and one cup port or claret wine.
The brains must be beaten up with an egg, fried in little cakes, and
dropped in the tureen.--_Miss N._
CALF'S HEAD SOUP.
Take the head, split it open and take out the brains; then put the
head, brains, and haslet in salt water--let them soak one hour. Put on
to boil at eight o'clock; after boiling four hours, take it up and
chop up the head and haslet, removing all the bones; return to the
soup, with a small pod of pepper. Thicken it with one pint browned
flour with one tablespoonful butter rubbed in it. Have--
1 tablespoonful mace.
1 tablespoonful allspice.
½ doz. cloves.
Beat all together and put in the tureen with,
1 teacup of tomato catsup.
1 teacup of cooking wine.
Pour the soup on them. Have the brains fried, and two hard boiled eggs
sliced and dropped in the soup.--_Mrs. T. C._
_Brown Calf's Head Soup._
Scald and clean the head, and put it to boil in two gallons water,
with
A shank of veal.
2 carrots.
3 onions.
A small piece of bacon.
A bunch of sweet herbs.
When they have boiled half an hour, take out the head and shank, and
cut all the meat off the bone in pieces two inches square. Let the
soup boil half an hour longer, then strain it and put in the meat, and
season with salt, black and cayenne pepper (and a few cloves, if you
like them). Thicken with butter and brown flour.
Let it now boil nearly an hour longer, and just before serving it,
stir in one tablespoonful sugar browned in a frying-pan, and half a
pint wine. A good substitute for turtle soup.--_Mrs. Col. A. F._
_Calf's Head Soup._
Have a head nicely cleaned, the brains taken out and the head put to
soak. Put it on with,
1 gallon water.
1 piece of fat ham.
Thyme, parsley, pepper and salt.
Boil together until the flesh is tender; take out and chop--strain the
water--two tablespoonfuls brown flour, four ounces butter--returning
the "dismembered" fragments; let it boil till reduced to two quarts.
Season with one-half pint wine, one gill catsup, nutmeg, mace,
allspice.
Cut up the liver, and fry; beat the brains up with an egg, pepper and
salt; fry in cakes and lay in the soup when served up, and hard boiled
eggs sliced up and put in.--_Miss B. L._
_Ox-tail Soup._
Wash and soak three tails; pour on them one gallon cold water; let
them be brought gradually to boil, throw in one and a half ounce salt,
and clear off the scum carefully as soon as it forms on the surface.
When it ceases to rise, add:
4 moderate sized carrots.
2 or 3 onions.
1 large bunch savory herbs.
1 head celery.
2 turnips.
6 or 8 cloves, and ½ teaspoonful peppercorns.
Stew these gently from three hours to three and a half hours. If the
tails be very large, lift them out, strain the liquor and strain off
all the fat. Cut the meat from the tails and put it in two quarts or
more of the stock. Stir in, when this begins to boil, a thickening of
arrow-root or of rice flour, mixed with as much cayenne and salt as
may be required to flavor the soup, and serve very hot.--_Mrs. P._
CHICKEN SOUP.
Put on the chickens with about three quarts water and some thin slices
bacon. Let it boil well, then put in:
A spoonful butter.
1 pint milk.
1 egg, well beaten.
Pepper, salt, and celery or celery-seed or parsley.
Let all boil up. Some dumplings made like biscuits are very nice in
it.--_Mrs. W._
_Roast Veal and Chicken-bone Soup._
Boil the veal and chicken bones with vegetables, and add one handful
maccaroni, broken up fine. Boil the soup half an hour. Color with a
little soy or catsup.--_Mrs. S._
_Chicken Soup._
Put on the fire a pot with two gallons water and a ham bone, if you
have it; if not, some slices of good bacon. Boil this two hours, then
put in the chickens and boil until done: add one-half pint milk and a
little thickening; pepper and salt to the taste. After taking off the
soup, put in a piece of butter size of an egg. Squirrel soup is good
made the same way, but takes much longer for a squirrel to boil
done.--_Mrs. P. W._
GIBLET SOUP.
1 pint dried green English peas.
1 pound giblets.
1 dozen cloves.
1 small piece red pepper.
Nearly 1 gallon water.
Boil peas slowly seven hours. Add giblets, spices, and salt to taste,
two hours before dinner. When peas are dissolved, strain through
sieve; cut giblets into dice and return to soup; boil up and serve.
Will be enough for six or eight persons.--_Mrs. R. R._
OKRA SOUP.
1½ gallons water.
2 quarts young okra, cut very fine.
2 quarts tomatoes.
Onions, prepared as for pea soup.
Pepper; salt.
1 large spoonful butter.
Add the tomatoes about twelve o'clock. Put the soup on early in the
morning.--_Mrs. I._
GUMBO SOUP.