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.