for this dish. Put it over the fire in cold water, a cupful of hominy to
about four cupfuls of water. Boil it and stir it often enough to prevent
sticking, until it begins to be tender. Boil it for an hour, until it
begins to grow tender. Then place it where there is no danger of
burning, pour off the water, or leave off the cover of the sauce pan so
that the water will evaporate. The hominy will need to cook pretty
nearly an hour, and when it is done or nearly done it should be as thick
as hasty pudding. If you have a double boiler you can put in very much
less water, for there is no danger of burning. I think you would need
only about half or a little more than half as much water. Only take care
to leave the cover off the kettle if you find that the hominy is going
to be thinner than hasty pudding when it is nearly done. If the hominy
is used rather coarse, about five minutes before it is done mix a
tablespoonful of flour with just enough water or milk to make it a thin
liquid, and stir it into the hominy. That will hold it together when it
is cold, so that it can be cut into slices. In making hasty pudding you
can put that tablespoonful of flour in to hold it together when it is
cold. You want to allow long enough for the flour to boil thoroughly;
before dishing the hominy when it is tender pour it into an earthen dish
or shallow tin pan wet with cold water, and let it get cold and hard.
Always make this in advance of your fried chicken. You want the hominy
cold and solid so that you can cut it. Cut it in little cakes about an
inch thick and two inches square. These little cakes of hominy are to be
fried either in the pan with the chicken or in another pan by the side
of the chicken, and served on a dish with the chicken.
FRIED FISH.
I have here some fish which I shall fry. We will not try broiled fish,
because this has been frozen; we will do that some other day. In frying
fish use either Indian meal or flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, to
roll the fish in. Fry the fish in lard or the drippings from salt pork.
In case you use salt pork, fry it brown. Olive oil is one of the nicest
fats for frying fish. You may have your choice whether I fry with lard
or oil. We will fry in oil. If you use lard at all you want it to be
very nice. In the frying pan I shall put about half an inch of oil; that
is less than half a cupful. Put it over the fire and let it get hot,
just as I did for the chicken. This is frozen fish that has been thawed.
Cut the fish in pieces about two inches square and roll them either in
flour seasoned with pepper and salt, or Indian meal, as I told you; put
them into the oil when the oil is hot. As soon as the fish is browned
nicely it will be done. You can add more seasoning than there is in the
flour. Use Indian meal with pork; it is particularly nice.
LECTURE SEVENTH.
Our lesson this morning, ladies, will begin with pea soup with crusts.
This soup I shall make with the addition of a little onion. You remember
the other day we made pea soup perfectly plain. We shall cook salt
codfish stewed in cream, venison with currant jelly, stewed carrots, and
cabinet pudding. First the peas will be put on the fire to boil, and I
shall begin to make the pudding.
CABINET PUDDING.
The cabinet pudding as I shall make it to-day will be rather elaborate.
You can make it more plainly. It is made of cake,--sponge cake is the
best,--French candied fruit, eggs and milk. So that, first, I shall give
you the recipe for the pudding as I make it to-day, and then I will give
you the recipe for the plainer form. For the pudding use a pudding mould
of the size I have in my hand (holding about a quart), about half a
pound of French candied fruit, which you can get at the confectionaries
here; I have to-day candied cherries, a little candied pear, a green
lime candied, a small orange, and an apricot. I shall also use a very
little citron, about an ounce of citron. That I want simply for the
effect of the green part of the citron. Put the citron in the form of
small leaves. The large fruits cut in slices, which you may leave round
or cut in the form of stars or to imitate a flower bud. After you have
cut the fruit, butter a perfectly plain tin pudding mould thickly with
cold butter,--quite thickly. Have the butter cold; lay the fruit against
the mould in the form of a wreath, or a star, or any fanciful form you
like, some on the bottom of the mould and some on the sides. The cold
butter will hold the fruit in place. After part of the fruit is laid
against the sides and bottom of the mould, then cut the sponge cake in
large slices about half an inch thick, one slice the size and shape of
the bottom of the mould, and either one long slice that will go round
the sides of the mould inside; or two or three pieces, according to the
size of your cake. Generally, in cities where there are confectionaries,
you can buy sponge cake baked in large thin sheets. You know the form in
which it is used for the bakers' _charlotte russe_. This is baked in
large sheets; cut it in small sheets and fit it into the moulds.
Because it is very thin you can work with it very much better than you
can with that which is thicker. This will be very apt to break, because
it is very stiff. If you are to shape the cake to your mould the cake
should be perfectly soft and flexible.
After the first layer of cake is put against the mould, then use the
rest of the cake cut in small pieces, or broken, and put into the mould
in layers with the rest of the fruit. You see, first you use some of the
fruit to ornament the inside of the mould, then some of the cake to line
the inside of the mould. That gives you what will be the outside of your
pudding when it is done. Then when the mould is decorated with fruit and
lined with cake, put the rest of the cake and fruit into the mould in
layers. Make a custard of a pint of milk and six eggs, because for this
pudding the custard must be firm enough to hold the pudding in shape so
that it can be turned out of the mould; also a quarter of a pound of
sugar; that is about four heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar.
After the custard is made, pour it into the mould which you have filled
with cake and fruit, and let it stand so that all the custard may be
absorbed by the cake. When the custard has been entirely absorbed by the
cake, set the mould in the steamer or in the sauce pan with water to
reach two-thirds up the side of the mould. Put the cover on the steamer,
or sauce pan, and steam it until the custard is firm. That will
generally take about an hour and a half. It may take a little longer,
but be quite sure that the custard is firm. Do not cook the custard
first, just mix it up. In order to be sure that the custard is firm
before you attempt to turn the pudding out, you want to run a fork or a
small knife down through the thickest part in the middle of the pudding;
move it backward and forward; look into the pudding to make sure that
the custard is done. As long as the custard looks liquid at all, you
must keep on cooking. When the pudding is done take the mould out of the
steamer, using a towel, because the mould will be hot. Take a dish or
platter that fits just over the top of the mould; have the inside of the
platter the size of the top of the mould; put the platter over the mould
and turn it upside down; then you will find that you can lift the mould
from the pudding without any trouble, and the pudding will remain there
on the platter. This pudding I shall serve with-powdered sugar. It is
exceedingly rich. It is not necessary to have a sauce with it because it
is so rich. But you can use, if you wish, any of the nice pudding
sauces that I have told you of. This is a pudding which in Europe is
served as the greatest luxury. It takes its name "cabinet" pudding from
the fact that it is served in the little rooms, or cabinets, that is,
the private rooms where special dinners or suppers are given in the
European restaurants. What is called cabinet pudding in the restaurants
and hotels in this country is usually a nice bread pudding made with
fruit, and it is not decorated in this way. Trouble is not taken to
decorate the mould. It is simply a nice bread pudding made with custard,
with some raisins or currants in it. That is what is called cabinet
pudding in this country in the restaurants and hotels. So you can make
the memorandum that you can use instead of the cake, bread; and instead
of the French fruit, simply raisins, currants and citron. You can spend
as much time and ingenuity decorating the pudding as you like, but I
have done this very quickly and very simply. The pudding can be served
hot, or it can be cooled and then put on the ice and made very cold. You
noticed that in filling the mould I pressed the cake down on the inside,
because, as it is saturated with the custard, of course it would sink
down. You want to press the cake well down in the mould, and have a
layer of cake on top, the last layer of cake.
_Question._ If you made it of bread wouldn't you have to use more sugar
in it?
MISS CORSON. Yes, if you use bread you would have to use more sugar.
_Question._ Do you have any salt in it?
MISS CORSON. You don't need to put any salt in it. You can if you want
to. There is no necessity for it, because there will be salt both in
your bread and in your cake.
_Question._ Do you flavor the custard?
MISS CORSON. No, just the plainest custard. You will find that the
French fruit will give the custard all the flavor you require. You will
find that if you put the custard into a pitcher after it is made you can
pour it into the pudding very much more readily than if you try to pour
it from the bowl. Either put it into a pitcher or use a cup, because you
will have to pour it slowly in order to let it thoroughly absorb.
PEA SOUP WITH CRUSTS.
Next take the recipe for pea soup. Some of the ladies who were at the
Monday afternoon lesson will need only to make one or two notes, and
the others will take the full recipe. For pea soup, four quarts, use a
cupful of dried peas, yellow split peas. Pick them over, wash them in
cold water, put them over the fire in two quarts of cold water and let
them heat slowly. As the water heats it softens the peas. When it is
boiling add half a cupful more of cold water and let that heat; then add
more cold water; continue to add cold water, half a cupful at a time,
until you have used two quarts more of cold water in addition to the
first two quarts. The object of adding cold water slowly is to soften
the peas, by reducing the heat of the water and then gradually
increasing it again you soften the peas so that you can cook them in
from an hour and a half to two hours. Boil them very slowly without the
addition of salt until they are soft enough to rub through a sieve with
a potato masher. After they are rubbed through the sieve put them again
into the soup kettle with a tablespoonful of butter and a tablespoonful
of flour rubbed to a smooth paste. Stir the soup over the fire until the
butter and flour are entirely dissolved; then season the soup palatably
with salt and pepper and let it boil for two or three minutes. While it
is boiling cut two slices of stale bread--bakers' bread is the best, or
very light home-made bread--in little dice about half an inch square.
Put a couple of tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying pan over the fire
and let the butter begin to brown, then throw the dice of stale bread
into the butter and stir the bread until it is brown. Take it out of the
butter with a skimmer, if it has not absorbed all the butter, and lay it
for a moment on brown paper, and then put it on a hot dish to send to
the table with the soup. Do not put the bread into the soup unless you
are going to serve at once, because it will soften a little; but you
will find that fried bread will soften less quickly than toasted bread.
A great many people put small squares of toast in the pea soup, but that
softens at once. If you have a frying kettle which you use for doughnuts
or fritters, or anything of that sort, partly full of frying fat, you
can heat it and fry the bread in that instead of frying it with the
butter in a frying pan. Have the fat smoking hot; the bread browns very
quickly; take it out on a skimmer and lay it on a brown paper for a
moment; then it is ready for the soup. These little fried crusts of
bread are called _croutons_ or crusts in the cookery books. I am going
to add an onion fried in butter to the soup to-day. Put that in, if you
use it, when you first begin to cook the soup. One onion, peeled,
sliced, and fried light brown in a tablespoonful of butter. You could
also use the bones from ham, cold roast ham, cold boiled ham, or the
bones of beef either raw or cooked, in the place of the onion, or in
addition to the onion, as you like. Remember all those things give
distinct flavors to the pea soup. If you put any kind of bones in, put
them in with the peas at the beginning and boil them with the peas.
SALT CODFISH, STEWED IN CREAM.
Next take the recipe for salt codfish, stewed in cream. First, to
freshen salt codfish; that, of course, is always the first thing you do
with salt codfish, no matter how you finish. You can do that by soaking
it over night in cold water; if it has any skin on it be sure to have
the skin side up. If you put it in the water with the skin side down,
the salt which soaks out of the fibre of the fish simply falls against
the skin and stays there. The fish does not get any fresher. A great
deal of codfish in these days is sent to the market without either skin
or bone. Supposing we have the regulation dried codfish, we skin and
bone it, then soak it over night in cold water, and next morning put it
over the fire in more cold water, plenty of it, and put the kettle or
pan containing the fish and the cold water on the back part of the
stove, where it will heat very gradually. Do not let it boil at all, but
keep it at a scalding heat. Do not more than let it simmer. The effect
of the boiling on any salted fibre, whether it is fish or meat, is
simply to harden it. Keep it at a scalding heat until the fish is
tender. Of course that will depend upon the dryness of the fish. It may
take a half hour, it may take an hour. That is one way to freshen fish.
Another way--the way I am doing now--is accomplished more quickly by
putting the fish over the fire in plenty of cold water, enough to cover
it; set it on the stove where it will heat gradually. When the water is
nearly hot on the fish pour it off and put more cold water on. Let that
get scalding hot; do not let it boil at all; simply let it get scalding
hot--that is, let the steam begin to rise from it. Change the water as
often as it gets scalding hot, until the fish is tender. If you are
careful to change the water often enough, that is, if you do not let it
begin to boil, probably the fish will be tender in half an hour--from
half to three-quarters of an hour. The time will depend upon the dryness
of the fibre of the fish. Generally in about half an hour it will be
tender. As soon as the fish is tender drain it, and then it is ready to
dress in any way you wish to use it. To-day I shall make a little cream
sauce, and heat the fish in it. That will be codfish stewed in cream
sauce. Boiled codfish you would serve with boiled potatoes, and the
white sauce is made either with water or milk and hard-boiled eggs. That
is the old New England salt fish dinner. Usually, with a salt codfish
dinner there were boiled parsnips and sometimes boiled beets; and it is
very nice if you like codfish. For codfish hash, the old-fashioned
codfish hash, use simply boiled codfish torn apart, forked in little
fine flakes or chopped in fine flakes; of course all the skin and bone
is taken off, mixed with an equal quantity of boiled potatoes, either
mashed or chopped fine, palatably seasoned with pepper; of course the
fish would be salt enough, usually; for a pint bowl full of fish and
potatoes, use a tablespoonful of butter. The fish and potatoes are
thoroughly mixed, then put into a frying pan, with just enough butter or
drippings to keep it from burning. You may put, for the quantity I have
given you, a heaping tablespoonful of butter in the frying pan, and let
it melt; then put in the fish, and continue stirring it. Remember there
is some butter in the hash already, and that will melt with the heat and
probably be enough; but if you need any more to prevent its burning, add
a tablespoonful. Stir the hash until it is scalding hot; then push it to
one side of the frying pan with the knife you are stirring it with, and
form it into a little oval cake at one side of the frying pan. When the
hash is thoroughly hot, the butter in it will begin to fry out of it,
and there probably will be butter enough to prevent its burning. Let it
stand in the little cake at the side of the pan until it is browned on
the bottom. You want to watch it a little, and now and then run a knife
under it and loosen it from the pan, to make sure that it is not
burning. Then, when the bottom is browned, hold a plate in one hand and
the frying pan in the other, and turn the fish out in a little cake on
the plate or dish.
CODFISH CAKES.
To make codfish cakes, first make the fish fine; after freshening it and
taking off the skin and bone, chop it or tear it in fine flakes; mix it
with an equal quantity of potato either mashed or chopped--mashed potato
is rather better for codfish cakes because you can pack it a little more
closely in the form of cakes. To a pint bowlful of codfish hash add a
tablespoonful of butter, a palatable seasoning of pepper and the yolk of
one raw egg. That is, half codfish, half potato, a tablespoonful of
butter and the yolk of one raw egg, and a palatable seasoning of pepper.
Then dust your hands, with dry flour; take a tablespoonful of this
mixture up in your hand and either form it in the shape of a round ball
or flat cake, as you like. Have ready a frying kettle or deep frying pan
with enough fat or drippings, or lard, in it to cover three or four of
the codfish cakes or balls, when you drop them into it. So that if you
use a frying pan you must have a deep frying pan. You may make in that
case codfish cakes, not balls. If you have a frying kettle you can make
little round balls. When the fat is smoking hot drop the codfish cakes
or balls into it and fry them just a golden brown, light brown. Take
them out of the fat with a skimmer and lay them on brown paper for a
moment to free them from grease, then serve them hot.
You will notice that I always tell you in frying everything to take it
out of the fat and lay it for a moment on brown paper, because then you
are sure to free it from grease. Not necessarily very coarse paper; just
ordinary brown wrapping paper. I do not mean manila paper, but the
common brown wrapping paper that comes around groceries and meat, that
tradesmen generally use. The paper must be porous so that the grease
will be easily absorbed. That is the only point you have to remember.
The usual way of frying codfish cakes is simply to put fat enough in the
pan to keep them from sticking, and in that way they are not browned all
over, that is, they are not browned on the sides. They are simply
browned on the top and on the bottom, and the fat has, of course,
generally soaked into them so that you get them thoroughly greasy unless
you have fat enough to cover them and have the fat smoking hot when you
put them in. In frying it is very easy to use the fat repeatedly, if you
only remember one thing. The fat you fry fish in you want to keep always
for fish; then you can fry anything else, meat, chicken, fritters or
doughnuts, in the other fat. Generally keep two jars or crocks of fat,
and take care only to let the fat get smoking hot in frying, and as soon
as you have done frying set the kettle off the stove so that the fat
does not burn; let it cool a very little, then strain it through a cloth
into an earthen bowl and let it get cold. Wash the frying kettle out and
clean it thoroughly, and then you can put the fat back in it, and it
will be ready for the next time, if you use a porcelain-lined kettle; if
you use a metal kettle for frying, tin or anything of that sort, do not
put the fat in it till you are ready to use it again, because it might
rust it a little. If you strain it through an ordinarily thick towel
there will be no sediment. If you strain it through a sieve there will
be a little sediment that will settle to the bottom of the fat, and you
can turn the cake of fat out of the bowl when it is cold and scrape that
off. The best way is to strain through a cloth in the first place. If
you are careful with the fat you can use it repeatedly,--use it a dozen
times or more, until it really is nearly used up. But if you are
careless and let it burn, of course you very soon get it so dark in
color that it colors anything directly you put it in, before it is
cooked, and it has a burnt taste. But if you use it at the heat I tell
you, just smoking hot, and do not let it burn, you can use it
repeatedly. Sometimes you can lift it out in one solid cake when it is
cold; sometimes you will have to break it and take it off in more than
one piece. On the bottom of the cake you will find a little brownish
sediment which you must scrape off. Then you have the fat clarified and
ready for use. For ordinary frying purposes the straining through the
towel will answer. An earthen bowl is the best for keeping the fat in
the kitchen, very much better than metal of any kind.
STEWED CARROTS.
Next take the recipe for stewed carrots. Carrots, peeled, as many as you
wish to make a dishful; cut them in rather small slices, a quarter of an
inch thick, put them over the fire in salted boiling water enough to
cover them; boil them steadily until they are tender. That will be in
perhaps half or three-quarters of an hour; if the carrots are young and
fresh they will boil in half an hour; longer as the season advances and
the carrots grow denser in their fibre. Late in the winter it may take
an hour or even an hour and a half if they are very large and woody.
Boil them until they are tender. Then drain them and throw them into
plenty of cold water, and let them get thoroughly cold. While they are
cooling make a sauce of water or of milk, as you like. If you have an
ordinary vegetable dish full of carrots you want about a pint of sauce.
In that case you will make the sauce as I have told you several times: a
tablespoonful of butter, and a tablespoonful of flour for a pint of
sauce; melt the butter and flour together over the fire, stirring them
constantly until they bubble and are smoothly mixed; then begin to add
half a cupful at a time the milk or water that you are going to use in
making the sauce; stir each half cupful in smooth before you add any
more water. If the milk or water is hot, of course the sauce will be
cooked all the more quickly. Let the sauce boil for a minute, stirring
all the time, then season with a level teaspoonful of salt for a pint of
sauce, a quarter of a saltspoonful of pepper, remembering what I have
said about using white pepper. Drain the carrots from the cold water and
put them into the sauce to heat. While they are heating--and that will
only take three or four minutes--chop a tablespoonful of parsley fine,
and stir it among the carrots; then serve them as soon as they are hot.
You may make the addition of parsley or not, as you like, but it is very
nice. In some seasons of the year you can not have the parsley. If you
have not parsley, and have made the sauce of water, you will improve the
dish very much if you stir the yolk of a raw egg into the sauce and
carrots when you take them off the fire, just before you dish them. I
will do that to-day. I will make a sauce of water and add the yolk of an
egg. You had better put two or three tablespoons of sauce into a cup
with the egg and mix it, and then pour that into the sauce and stir it
well. In chopping parsley use just the leaves, not the stalks; put them
in the chopping bowl and chop them fine. If you chop on a board steady
the point of a knife with one hand and use an up-and-down motion with
the other hand. Of course you can understand that using a long knife in
chopping you can chop very much more quickly than you could in a
chopping bowl, where you only get a circular cut. One of the ladies asks
me the object of putting the carrots in cold water. They are put first
in boiling salted water-to set their color. The action of the salt in
the boiling water slightly hardens the surface so that the color does
not boil out. Then if you take them at the point when they are tender
you check the boiling at once by the cold water and secure the color
entirely. Of course you will understand that by draining them and
throwing them into cold water you check the heat at once. If you simply
let them stand in the water and gradually soften and soak, letting the
water keep warm, you would soak the color out. That follows with all
boiled vegetables. Where we want to preserve the color this is the
simplest and easiest way to do it.
_Question._ Can the color of beets be preserved in the way you speak of?