deal of talking to be done in connection with it. It does not make any
difference whether you use hot water or cold in boiling potatoes. What
you want to watch is the stage at which you take the potatoes out of the
water. That is what determines whether they are to be mealy or not. The
cause of the potatoes being mealy is the rupture of the starch cells
and the escape of the steam just at the right moment, just when the
potatoes are tender; and if you leave them in the water after they are
tender, then the membrane of the starch cells being broken permits the
water to penetrate; even if the skins are not cut or broken, the
moisture in the starch cells themselves will condense and make the
potato heavy, so that you want to give the steam a chance to escape as
soon as the potatoes are tender. If you will do that you are sure of
mealy potatoes, provided the potatoes are ripe. Unripe potatoes, or new
potatoes, or sprouted or frosted potatoes, you cannot well make mealy,
because the starch cells in the new potatoes are not fully matured, in
the old sprouted potatoes they are disorganized, especially as the
little sprouts take up the nutritive properties which enable them to
grow. But if you use ripe potatoes, before they are beginning to sprout,
and pour the water off of them when they are tender and allow the steam
to escape, you will be sure to have the potatoes mealy, unless they are
watery potatoes; the ordinary market potatoes will be sure to be mealy.
Now you can insure the escape of the steam by draining the potatoes and
covering them with a towel folded several times; that is, draining off
all the water as soon as the potatoes are tender enough to enable you to
run a fork through them. Do not wait until they begin to break apart,
because by that time the starch cells are being broken up, and the water
will have begun to penetrate to the interior of the potato.
After boiling the potatoes, either in cold or hot water, until they are
tender, drain them and put a folded towel over them in the sauce pan.
Set the sauce pan on the back part of the stove where the potatoes can
not burn, or put it up on a brick on the back part of the stove. The
potatoes may be peeled or not, as you choose; if you peel the potatoes
in the most careful way, that is, cutting the thinnest possible skin
off, you will waste at least an ounce in every pound. A very good way to
peel potatoes is to take off just a little rim of the skin all around
them and boil them; then if you want to peel them before they go to the
table, it will be easy to strip off the two pieces of skin remaining. In
order to save time I shall put the potatoes into boiling water enough to
cover them, with a tablespoonful of salt. Take about a quart of water
and a tablespoonful of salt. I have already said that as soon as the
potatoes are tender enough to pierce with a fork, not when they are
beginning to break, and they are drained, cover them with a cloth and
keep them hot as long as you like. In about three or four minutes after
they have been covered with the cloth they will begin to grow mealy, as
the steam escapes; and you can keep them hot and mealy for three or four
hours. It makes very little difference with potatoes, although with some
kinds of vegetables it makes a decided difference, whether you boil them
in hard or soft water. But as a rule soft water is best for boiling
vegetables. You can always soften the water by putting a very little
carbonate of soda in it, to counteract the extreme hardness of the
water, which is caused by lime or mineral elements. The hardness of
water slightly hardens the surface of vegetables, but it has an entirely
different action on meats. It slightly hardens the surface--not enough
to make the vegetable tough, by any means, but enough to retain all the
juices and all the flavors. Do not have the potatoes tightly covered
after they are cooked, because the steam will condense on the inside of
the cover and fall back on the potatoes, thus making them watery. In
serving potatoes on the table after they are cooked, do not put a cover
on the dish; put a folded napkin over the potatoes. Do not put the dish
cover on--it will have the same effect that it would have if you put the
cover on the pot. The steam arising would condense, and fall back on the
potatoes in the form of moisture, and make the potatoes watery.
In baking potatoes, the same general principles apply. That is, at the
moment when the potatoes are tender--and that of course depends upon the
oven in which you bake them--the starch cells are ruptured and the
moisture is at the point of escaping if you give it vent by slightly
breaking the potato, then the potatoes will keep mealy for a little
while. But baked potatoes deteriorate every moment they stand after they
are tender. You should serve baked potatoes just the moment they are
done, if you want them to be perfect. If you wrap them up in a napkin it
keeps in the steam. The longer they stand, the more of the hard skin
forms on them, and if you let them stand for half an hour or more you
find the skin sometimes a sixteenth of an inch thick. You can take a
little slice off the end without breaking them, to permit the escape of
the steam. But serve them just as quick as you can. In sending them to
the table do not put the dish cover on them. Throw a napkin over them to
keep the heat in. I have found that in baking potatoes that the hotter
the oven the better the potatoes would be; that is, the more quickly
they would be baked. I have been able to bake them sometimes in twenty
minutes.
To soak potatoes in cold water restores a little of their moisture that
may have been lost by the natural evaporation. For instance, late in the
winter you will find potatoes slightly shriveled. That is caused by the
escape of the moisture. If you had weighed them in the fall, and weighed
them again at that time you would find they weighed less. To soak them
for an hour or more before you cook them is to restore that wasted water
and to increase the substance of the potato. There is very little
nutriment lost in the waste of the moisture; it is only the bulk of the
potato. You do not need to salt the water in which the potatoes are
soaked. The only effect of salting water would be to make it colder. In
soaking green vegetables it is well to salt the water, because if there
are any insects in the vegetables they are killed by the action of the
salt. In lettuce, or cabbage, or cauliflower, there are insects that
hide away among the leaves, and salt kills them. In regard to the
soaking of the green vegetables, of course, directly the insects are
dead they naturally fall of their own weight from among the leaves. But
if the leaves are closely packed, as sometimes they are in cabbage or
lettuce; you want to hold the vegetable by the root and turn it up and
with your hands separate the leaves without tearing; if lettuce is used,
take care not to tear them; if cauliflower is being washed, take hold of
the root and shake it well through the water, so that the motion will
dislodge the little creatures.
CHEESE CRUSTS.
For cheese crusts use bread that is a day or two old, baker's bread or
home-made bread; baker's bread is the best for toast of all kinds, and
this is a sort of toast. Cut the bread in even slices, rather small,
cutting off the crusts. There is no waste in doing that, for I have
already told you how to use up pieces of stale bread by making them into
crumbs. Grate some cheese so that you have a tablespoonful of cheese for
each little slice of bread. On each of the little pieces of bread put a
tablespoonful of the grated cheese, a very little dust of pepper and
salt and a small piece of butter not larger than a white dried bean. Put
the pieces of bread in a pan, set the pan in a rather quick oven, and
just brown the cheese crusts. If the oven is in a good condition it will
toast the bread and brown the cheese in about ten minutes, or even
less; they are very good, those little cheese crusts. You can use them
either hot or cold. They are a very nice supper dish. They are very good
with salad at dinner, with any green salad. Of course, if you serve them
hot the cheese is a little more tender. Any kind of cheese will answer
for making the crusts. I think that the ordinary American factory cheese
is about as good as any other cheese. You do not want a rich expensive
cheese for cheese crusts.
(At this point the stuffed shoulder of mutton was brought forth, done,
the fan-shaped shoulder blade being stuck in to represent the tail of
the duck, which the whole dish strongly resembled.)
GRAVY FOR MEAT.
There are about two tablespoonfuls of drippings in the pan. I am going
to put a heaping tablespoonful of flour with it and stir until it is
brown; then I am going to stir in gradually about a pint of boiling
water, and season it with salt and pepper, and then I will send it down
and show it to you. Make gravy in this way for any baked meat.
LECTURE SIXTH.
Our first dish this afternoon, ladies, will be roast chicken. The lesson
will include fish and poultry. First, to choose a tender chicken,
examine the tip end of the breastbone--the lower end of the breast bone,
to see if it is soft; if it bends without breaking under pressure; in
other words, if the cartilage has not hardened into bone, you may be
sure that the chicken is young, and consequently probably tender. The
market people have a favorite way of showing you that the chicken is
tender by taking hold of the wing and giving the joint a twist. They
say, "You see how tender it is!" But that is no test except of strength.
But there is no ingenuity which can simulate that soft cartilage on the
end of the breast bone. That is always a sure test. After choosing the
chicken--of course now I am speaking of dressed chicken, or chickens
that are killed--after choosing the chicken, have it carefully picked
and singed; then, if it is undrawn, wipe it with a wet towel, and
proceed to draw it carefully without breaking the intestines. If it is
drawn already the chances are that it will be imperfectly drawn and you
will have to wash it. There is the disadvantage of having poultry drawn
before it goes to the market, because where people draw poultry in large
quantities they are very apt to do it carelessly. In that case it is
necessary to wash it, but if you draw it carefully yourself you will not
have to do that. By washing, you of course take away the flavor, as I
told you the other day, because you lose more or less of the blood.
Cut the skin of the back of the neck and take out the crop, then out off
the neck close to the body, that leaves the skin so that you can draw it
up and fasten it back. If this chicken was not already cut for drawing I
should cut it at one side under one of the legs, so that when I came to
sew it up and dress it I could hide the cut. This chicken has been drawn
carefully and does not seem to need washing. The liver and gizzard have
been laid back inside. The entrails are all taken away. You can always
tell by looking at the chicken whether the entrails are broken and
whether it needs washing. After you have drawn the chicken very
carefully separate the gall from the liver. The gall is that little
greenish bag that lies on one side of the liver; and you want to cut it
off without breaking, because if you break it it will make bitter
everything that it touches. Save whatever fat there is about the
entrails, and put it in the baking pan with the chicken. The gizzard has
been cut open from one side and the inside bag which contains gravel and
straw taken out. But a very much easier way to dress the gizzard instead
of opening it, is to cut away the bluish skin which lies on the outside,
on both sides, without opening the gizzard at all, and cut out that
piece of flesh. That is the only valuable portion of the gizzard; if you
dress the gizzard in this way when it is not already opened you save
yourself a great deal of trouble, for it is a very hard matter to open a
gizzard like that and take away the bag which contains the gravel,
especially if the poultry has been frozen, as the bag is apt to break
and let out the gravel. Use the gizzard and liver for making gravy, and
the neck also. Cut out the oil sac or bag which lies at the back of the
tail. Then the chicken is ready for stuffing. In cutting off the feet
cut them below the joint, not just at the joint. If you cut them just at
the joint the skin and flesh will draw up in cooking. But if you cut
them just below the joint you will find that they do not draw up. After
cutting off the feet scrape the skin all round to make sure that there
are no bits of feather or anything of that sort, and wipe it with a wet
towel and you have the chicken in readiness to stuff.
Stuff it with any force meat that you like. You remember this morning
that we made force meat by chopping a teaspoonful of onion and frying it
in a tablespoonful of butter, then putting in with the fried onion a
cupful of stale bread soaked in cold water, seasoning with salt and
pepper and sweet herbs. I said also that you could add chopped meat,
cold meat or eggs, or to make any desired addition to the force meat in
the way of seasoning. A little grated cheese in stuffing is very nice.
You scarcely will realize what the seasoning is. I will use a little
grated cheese this afternoon to make a force meat--very like what I made
this morning, except in addition to the chopped onion, fried in a
tablespoonful of butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, I shall put in
half a cupful of grated cheese. You may like to know my way of chopping
onion. In the first place, I make a lot of little cuts in one direction
as far down as I think I shall need in order to get my teaspoonful; then
I make little cuts in the other direction, and then by slicing it across
you get your chopped onion. A very nice addition to force meat is
chestnuts, either our ordinary American chestnut, or French or Italian
chestnuts. These are quite large. I presume they are for sale at the
fruit stores here. Our ordinary American chestnut is very good. Choose
rather large chestnuts and either roast or boil them; take off the husks
and skins and thus use them to stuff the chicken with, either simply
using the chestnuts seasoned with salt, pepper and butter, or if you
have boiled or roasted and skinned them, mix them with bread and
seasoning. Then, after having prepared the force meat, you put it into
the chicken, sew it up and truss it into shape. I will show you directly
how to do that so as to keep the chicken plump, and so that it does not,
in roasting, spread apart. I shall sew it with a trussing needle and a
cord, or you might accomplish the same purpose, by using skewers,
putting the skewers just where I put the cords. In sewing up a chicken
after it is stuffed, remember what I said this morning; take large
stitches with coarse cord so that you can easily see where to take the
threads out when the chicken is done. After the chicken is trussed, if
you are going to bake it, put it into a pan without any water, for the
same reason that I gave you this morning. The water will soak it, half
simmer it; you do not need water to keep it from burning, because a
little drippings will soon come from the chicken; brown it and then
dredge it with flour, and baste it every fifteen minutes or so. Bake it
until it is tender and nicely brown; the time of course depends upon the
heat of the oven. Truss the chicken first, pushing the legs as far up as
you can towards the breast, and run the trussing needle, which is simply
a long needle, through so as to hold the legs fast. Then either bend the
wings back in turning them, or simply fold them together and secure them
with the same string. By drawing the string tight, you keep the bird
plump; keep it drawn together, and when the bird is done all you have to
do is to take these two ends of string in one hand, make one cut and
pull the string out.
The liver, the gizzard, the heart, the neck and the feet, use in making
gravy. Of course the gizzard, liver and heart are all right as they are
now prepared. If you wish to add the feet, you will scald them and
scrape off the skin. Then cut off the ends of the claws, and you have
the feet perfectly clean; put them with the gizzard, liver and heart to
boil as the basis of your gravy. The French people always save all the
feet of all kinds of poultry. They prepare them in this way and put them
into soups; sometimes they cook them till the bones grow gelatinous,
till they are very soft and tender; they dress them with sauce and serve
them as what they call an _entree_ or side dish. They make a dish which
is more delicate than pigs' feet. Of course in a large kitchen where a
great deal of poultry is used it is possible to make a very good-sized
dish of them.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN.
I shall use this chicken for fricassee; it has been singed, picked and
wiped with a wet towel.
First, cut the skin down back of the neck, and cut off the neck. I shall
talk about this chicken as if it was not drawn at all. Showing you how
to cut it up and draw it at the same time. Cut off the neck and take out
the crop, as I showed you with the other chicken. Then cut off the
wings, taking a little of the breast with the wings. Find the joint
where the wings join the body, cut at that joint; then, instead of
cutting the wing right off short, take a little piece of the breast with
it. That gives you a nice piece. Then cut the wing in two, and cut off
the tip, which is dry; that you can cook in the fricassee, or not, as
you please. It flavors, but there is very little meat on it. The other
part of the wing you want, of course, to use. Put the pieces of chicken
on two plates, putting the good pieces on one plate and the inferior
pieces on the other. Having taken off the wing, take off what is called
the wing side bone. Then cut forward and break off the shoulder bone.
The idea is to cut the breast into several good-sized pieces. Cutting in
this way you sacrifice what is called the merry-thought or wishbone. You
either can cut off the side bone or not. Cut off the other wing in the
same way. Then cut off the leg and second joint together. Instead of
cutting the leg in two pieces at both joints, cut it in three pieces,
that gives you two pieces of the second joint. In cooking chicken for
fricassee you want to have the pieces about one size, so that they will
cook easily. Then if they are one size they are much easier to help.
Next, to separate the breast from the back bone, cut down through the
ribs on each side. If the chicken has not been drawn be careful with
your knife, not to cut into the entrails. Then you can take the breast
off, and if the chicken is not drawn, all the entrails will be exposed,
and you can draw it with perfect ease. The lungs of the chicken, which
are those light red organs on the side of the back bone, are always used
by the French in cookery, not only those organs in chicken but in the
larger carcasses of meat. They are quite as much food as the heart or
liver. I am not in the habit of using them, but they are quite as
available. After the breast has been taken off, cut it up in several
pieces. First, cut off the entire tip, leaving that in one piece. Then
cut the remainder in two or four pieces, according to its size. Next cut
the back bone. There is a natural division in the upper part of the back
bone that breaks there; cut that off and trim off the ribs. In cutting
the lower part of the back bone, instead of cutting it just in two,
making rather queer pieces to help, cut off the upper part of it leaving
it entire, not splitting that part of it. In that way, cut off the
portion called the "oysters,"--two little pieces of flesh in the upper
part of the back bone, that are considered very nice. On one plate we
have the inferior parts, on the other the nice parts of the chicken,
being all cut in pieces of one size. It is easy to help, it cooks more
evenly, and is rather nicer than if you had it in two or three sizes.
Part of the chicken I am going to make into a brown fricassee, and part
of it I am going to fry. There would be thirteen pieces if we counted
the two pieces of the back bone. There are half a dozen of the poor
pieces, not counting the wing pieces or neck. The question is asked
whether the cords or sinews should be drawn from the legs. You can do
that with old poultry if you want to, because those cords never get very
tender. It is not necessary to do it with medium tender poultry.
First brown the chicken, using either some of the chicken fat, or
butter, or salad oil for browning it. Now, since the question of using
salad oil in cooking has come up, suppose I cook this chicken with salad
oil so that you can taste it. After all, that is the best test you
possibly can have as to whether you like salad oil in cooking. I shall
put in just salad oil enough to cover the bottom of the sauce pan. That
is enough to prevent sticking. For a chicken of three pounds take about
three or four tablespoonfuls of salad oil; just enough to cover the
bottom of the sauce pan. First put the sauce pan containing the salad
oil over the fire and let it get hot; then put in the chicken and brown
it. Now, can you notice the slightly aromatic odor? That is the oil, and
directly you notice that odor, and the oil begins to smoke, it is hot
enough. As soon as the chicken is brown,--and you can brown it just as
fast as you want to,--then put a heaping tablespoonful of flour over
it--some of the ladies will have seen the same process in making the
brown stew of meat the other day--and stir the chicken until the flour
is brown. When the flour is brown on the chicken,--and that will be by
the time you get it well stirred up,--then add boiling water enough to
cover it. When the flour is brown among the chicken, put in boiling
water enough to cover it, season it with pepper and salt, palatably, and
let it cook until it is tender. That will take from half an hour to two
hours, according to the toughness of the chicken. Remember the more
slowly you cook it after it once begins to cook, the nicer it will be.
Cover up the sauce pan after the fricassee is seasoned, and cook it
until it is tender. In the cooking of chicken the gravy that you make by
putting boiling water on seems to boil away, and you may want to add a
little more; just keep enough gravy over it to cover it, and when it is
tender it is ready to serve. The odor you notice now is the aromatic
odor of that salad oil, and is all that you will get in cooking with
olive oil.
FRIED CHICKENS.
Next the fried chicken, Maryland style, will be prepared. We will fry
the chicken, and then I will tell you about hominy. The Southern cooks
use lard for frying, either lard entirely or half lard and half butter;
enough to cover the bottom of the frying pan about half an inch. Let the
fat get hot, put some flour on a plate, season it with salt and pepper,
and roll the pieces of chicken in it. When the fat is hot in the pan and
the chicken has been rolled in the flour, put it into the hot fat and
fry it brown, first on one side and then on the other. Of course tender
chicken is generally used for this dish so that by the time it is fried
brown it is done. Fry the chicken until it is tender and brown. Take up
the chicken when it is brown, put it on a hot dish; in the frying pan
where it was fried, put enough cream to make a good gravy, stirring it
constantly. You see there will be flour on the pan off the fried chicken
that will thicken the gravy. Season the gravy with salt and pepper, pour
it over the chicken and serve it. Some of the colored cooks whom I have
seen prepare this dish first dip their chicken in water before rolling
it in the butter and flour. That is for the purpose of making more flour
stick to it; but there is always this disadvantage, if you do that there
will be some particles of water remaining, and when you put it in the
hot fat it will sputter very much. You can do that or not as you like.
While the chicken is being browned I will tell you how to prepare the
hominy. Of course the chicken is to be seasoned with more pepper and
salt if you wish, in addition to what you put on in the first place with
the flour.
HOMINY.