vegetable. If you break the skin of beets, or cut them in any way, the
color escapes in the water. So that to prepare the beets for boiling,
wash them very carefully without breaking the skin. Do not cut off the
roots or the tops of the beets close; leave some of the roots and three
or four inches of the stalk. Do not trim them off close, because if you
cut the roots or stalks close to the beet you make a cut whence the
color can escape; wash them very carefully without breaking the skin.
Put them over the fire in boiling water. You do not need to salt it, in
fact, it is better not to salt it. Boil them until they grow tender to
the touch. If you puncture the beet with a fork or knife, to try it, you
let the color out, but you can take one of the beets up on a skimmer and
use a thick towel and hold it in your hand and squeeze it to see if it
is growing soft. Do not break the skin, always remember that. When the
beet is tender you will find that it will yield a little, between your
fingers, and the length of time required for cooking them will be from
half an hour to two hours and a half, perhaps even longer than that.
Young, tender, juicy beets may be cooked in half an hour. The older they
are, the later it is in the season, the harder the woody fibre will be,
and the longer it will take to cook them. After they are cooked really
tender, then throw them into a bowl of cold water and rub off the skin
with a wet towel. Do not leave them soaking in cold water.
VENISON WITH CURRANT JELLY.
Take the recipe for venison now, ladies. Enough butter to cover the
bottom of the pan about a quarter of an inch. Let it get smoking hot,
then put in the venison. You must have the pan large enough to hold the
venison. As soon as the venison is brown on one side turn it and brown
it on the other. Brown it very fast. As soon as the venison is browned
put with it the currant jelly. For every pound of venison use two
tablespoonfuls of currant jelly--not heaping spoonfuls; or you might put
one heaping tablespoonful for every pound of venison. As soon as the
venison is brown put the currant jelly in with it. Put the pan back
where it will not be too hot, and finish cooking the venison until it is
done to suit your taste. It will cook, if it is an inch thick, pretty
well done in about twenty minutes. Season it with salt and pepper, and
when it is done put it on the platter and pour the currant jelly and
butter over it. The cooking of the jelly with the venison makes it a
nice sauce or gravy.
_Question._ Wouldn't this be a nice way to cook buffalo or any other
kind of game?
MISS CORSON. Yes, it is a very good way.
LECTURE EIGHTH.
MEATS AND VEGETABLES.
We will begin to-day with so-called roast beef, it is really baked. This
is what is called a shoulder cut of beef, and is just as the butcher has
sent it home, that is, without any of the bones being taken out. This
thin part of the beef can be either roasted with the rest or cut off and
used as a stew. It is not very available at the table. It almost always
is tough, and there is a great deal of fat proportionately. The lean
that is there is very apt to dry and harden in the baking. So that the
best way to use the part is to cut it off and cook it separately. Have
the beef cut large enough to give a roast from the thickest part. The
white line of cartilage will be sure to bother in carving, and the best
way is to cut it out before you cook the meat. You can cut it out
without any difficulty. You can also cut off the bone entirely. You will
not find that doing this will make the meat waste if you bake it or
roast it properly, and you can carve it more easily and more
economically. Carving when the bone is in the meat you are sure to leave
more meat on than you really want to, and it is quite a difficult matter
to carve even slices when the bone is in the meat. It is a very easy
matter to take the bone out, and then either use the bone for soup meat
or put it in the pan with the meat and let it bake as the basis for
gravy. You will notice both in cutting the cartilage and the bone, I do
not take off any meat. I simply cut close, and take away the parts I
wish to remove without wasting any of the meat. That leaves a solid
piece of meat which offers no difficulty in carving; you can either
fasten it in shape by tying a string around it or by running a few
skewers through it. The better way is to tie it with a string, because
the skewers will make holes and permit the juice to escape. You can
either take off the thin, outside skin of the beef or wipe it as I have
already said, with a wet towel. With good beef the skin is so
exceedingly thin that it is not objectionable in carving or to the
taste. With poor beef, the skin is decidedly leathery, and then it is
advisable to take it off.
_Question._ How many pounds were there in your piece altogether, before
you began to cut it?
MISS CORSON. Oh, I fancy it weighed five or six pounds. Of course you
use the number of pounds that your family requires. I am speaking of
dividing the meat so as to cook it in the most economical manner. You
would buy a sufficiently large piece in weight to give you the thick
part--large enough for your family for the roast, and the other part you
use for the stew subsequently. We made a beef stew one day, here, I
think. Roasting is cooking meat before the direct blaze of the open
fire. Baking is cooking it in the oven. Nearly all the so-called roast
beef that we get is baked beef. It is not quite so delicate as real
roast beef. You can accomplish the roasting of beef with any range or
kitchen stove that has a large grate, that is, a grate where you can
have a clear surface of coals against the grate, by using what is called
a Dutch oven. This is a tin box, with one side open and a little hook in
the top of the box, from which you can hang the meat. Then in the bottom
part of the tin case there is a pan that catches the drippings. After
you have got the meat all ready, you put the Dutch oven in front of the
grate, standing it so that the open side of the Dutch oven is directly
in front of the grate of your stove or range. You will find that the
bright tin of the oven will reflect heat enough to cook the meat nicely.
There you get a genuine roast. You do not get an old-fashioned roast on
a spit before the open fire, but you get a nice roast. Generally those
little hooks are so arranged that the meat swings a little--swings and
turns, and if the hooks are not so arranged, once in a while, say once
in half an hour, you want to turn it.
Now, suppose you have not that oven, but still have an open fire, you
can roast. I have roasted a chicken before a grate fire in the sitting
room. You can roast small birds of any kind in that way, by putting
something on the mantel piece heavy enough to support the weight of the
bird. Tie a string around the bird or around the piece of beef and let
it hang down in front of the fire. Put a platter under it or a dripping
pan, and put the blower up in front of it. You might be amused at the
idea of doing that as an experiment. I have made coffee in an old tomato
can as an experiment, to see whether it can be done, and it is just as
nice as any you could possibly make in the finest French coffee pot.
After all there are many expedients that you can resort to in cooking
with good results.
After the meat is browned on the outside, whether you are roasting or
baking, season it. Get it browned first on the outside very quickly,
then season it with salt and pepper, and after that moderate the heat
of the oven, or draw the Dutch oven a little away from the fire, and
finish cooking till the meat is done, allowing fifteen minutes to the
pound if you want it medium rare, about twenty minutes to the pound if
you want it very well done. If you are baking the meat put it in the
hottest oven, without any seasoning at all, without any water in the
pan. You will find that the meat will yield drippings enough for
basting. Our chicken that we basted yesterday,--do you remember how nice
and brown that was? Pretty well basted, wasn't it? That had nothing in
the pan for basting except the drippings which flowed from the chicken
itself. Put the meat in the hottest oven until it is browned, and then
moderate the heat and cook the meat fifteen minutes to the pound. We
might do what the French call braise the end of the roast, if you like
to see the effect of slow cooking. One difficulty that we labor under
here is that we have to use a very intense heat, otherwise the flame of
this vapor stove goes out. In order to braise successfully you want a
very gentle and continuous heat,--such as you would get on the back part
of a cooking stove,--just heat enough to keep the meat simmering. We
will do as well as we can by keeping the sauce pan at one side of the
fire, and then I will describe the braising process, so that you can do
it perfectly at home. If we have any cabbage we will braise the meat
with it. That makes a dish that is used very much in the north of
Europe, in Poland and Sweden. I think I will give you the recipe,
whether we have our cabbage or not.
Use a large pot or sauce pan, large enough to allow you to lay the piece
of meat on the bottom; or, you can use a thick, deep, iron pan. I
remember, several days ago, seeing in the hardware stores pans about ten
inches high, pans made of Russia iron, oval. You can use that for quite
a large piece of meat if you have not a sauce pan. You want a pan deep
enough to allow the water to come just over the beef. Put water in the
pan, enough to cover the beef, and let it get boiling hot. I will give
you two methods of braising. When the water is boiling hot, put the beef
in it; watch it carefully until it just begins to boil again. The moment
it boils, push back the pot or pan in which it is far enough away from
the hot part of the stove to keep the water only simmering, only
bubbling, not boiling. Put in whatever seasoning you like. If you use
spice, cloves for instance, or mace, use it whole. If you use simply
salt and pepper, of course use them in the powder. Keep the cover very
tightly over the pot or sauce pan, and cook the meat in that slow,
gentle way, for at least two hours. A piece weighing not more than four
or five pounds you want to cook at least two hours, or until it is
tender. Remember to cook very, very slowly. That is a very simple and
easy way of braising, which any one can accomplish.
Now I am going to give you the French method of braising. Cut part of
the fat off the meat, about half the fat off the meat. Put the part that
you cut off in the bottom of the pot. Lay the meat on the fat. That is
the way we will cook our meat to-day, because I have decided to cook the
cabbage in another way. After you have put the fat in the bottom of the
sauce pan, lay the meat on it, with the fat part up, so that, you see,
you have fat under and over the meat. On top or by the side of the meat
put an onion of medium size, peeled and stuck with about a dozen cloves.
Put parsley, if you have it, about a tablespoonful of leaves, or some
stalks, or parsley root; but remember that the flavor of parsley root is
very much stronger than the leaf, so that you will use proportionately
less root. One bay leaf, a tablespoonful of carrot, sliced, about a
tablespoonful of turnip, sliced, and a level teaspoonful of
peppercorns--unground pepper--or a small red pepper. Then boiling water
enough just to cover the meat. Then put on the cover of the sauce pan,
and put the meat where it will simmer very gently until it is quite
tender. The French always braise in what is called a braising pan; that
is, two oval pans made in such a way that one sets into the other, and
goes about a third of the way down. They put the article that is to be
braised in the bottom pan, and then in the top pan they put hot ashes,
or coals of wood or charcoal, mixed with ashes; so that there is heat
top and bottom; then they put their braising pan by the side of the fire
or at the back of the stove, where it will have a gentle heat, and cook
it for a very long time. They braise it four or five hours, and it makes
the toughest meat tender. After you once bring the meat to the boiling
point you must not boil it fast; if you boil it fast you will make it
very much tougher. After you get it to the boiling point keep it there,
and cook it slowly, and long enough so that it will be sure to be
tender. If you are sure the meat is tough in the beginning, put half a
cupful of vinegar into the water with it. You won't notice the vinegar
when you come to eat the meat, and it will help to make the meat tender.
The French, of course, use the ordinary wine of the country,--a sour
wine,--it has the same effect; it is about as sour as vinegar, and has
about the same effect. I think, indeed, that is the reason why the
French use so much wine in cooking meat. They use a very acid wine
always, and probably use it for the purpose of making the meat tender in
many instances. Put in salt, but not too much, for the effect of salt,
while the meat is boiling, would be to harden it. Just a little salt,
and then in seasoning your gravy you can add more salt. After the meat
is braised French fashion, it is taken out of the broth, and the broth
is strained and then used as a broth or soup, or made into a gravy.
To make the gravy, for each pint of gravy that you wish to make, use a
tablespoonful of butter or beef drippings and a tablespoonful of flour.
Stir the drippings and flour over the fire in a sauce pan until they are
brown. Then begin to add the seasoned broth in which the meat was
cooked, half a cupful at a time, stirring it until it is smooth each
time, until it boils; then season it with salt and pepper, remembering
that the broth is already seasoned, so that you have to taste it. That
makes a very nice gravy or sauce. Of course, you have plenty of broth,
so you can make as much of it as you like.
Take now a recipe for cooking cabbage to serve with braised meat. For a
cabbage of medium size,--that is, a cabbage about as large as a
breakfast plate,--first wash the cabbage thoroughly, cutting away any
part of the stalk that seems woody. Then cut the cabbage in rather thin
slices. That is very easy. Lay it on the board and cut it down through.
You would need a large sauce pan to cook a cabbage as large as a
breakfast plate, because remember when it is cut up it takes up more
space. Put in the bottom of the sauce pan a tablespoonful of butter or
drippings. If you are braising your meat you can open the pot and dip
some of the drippings out of it. A tablespoonful of butter or drippings,
half a cupful of vinegar, a tablespoonful of cloves, a teaspoonful of
peppercorns and a tablespoonful of brown sugar. Then put in the cabbage
on top of these things. Put the cover on the sauce pan, set it over the
fire where it will steam. Be very careful not to let it burn. Keep it on
the back part of the fire where it will simmer. Keep it covered. Every
fifteen minutes take off the cover, and with a large fork or spoon lift
the cabbage from the bottom so that the top uncooked part goes down to
the bottom. In about an hour the cabbage will be tender. You do not need
to begin to cook that until within, say an hour and a quarter of the
time the beef is likely to be done. To serve it, turn it on a dish,
leaving the spice, cloves and pepper in with it, and lay the beef on it.
Just moisten the cabbage with a little gravy or broth from the beef, and
serve the rest of the gravy in a bowl; remember that the broth from the
meat is salted, and that in moistening the cabbage it seasons it, or if
you like very much salt you can put a little with the cabbage in
cooking.
Now, to boil cabbage quickly, and without odor: After thoroughly washing
it take off the decayed leaves, cut it in rather small pieces, but do
not use the stalk of the cabbage--avoid that. Put over the fire a sauce
pan large enough to hold the cabbage twice over. Have plenty of space in
your sauce pan or kettle, fill it half full of water, put plenty of salt
in the water,--that is, a level tablespoonful of salt to about a quart
of water,--let the water boil; be sure that it is boiling fast. Then put
in the cabbage; get it boiling again just as fast as you can, and
continue to boil it just as fast as you can until it is tender. That
will be in from ten to twenty-five minutes, according to the age of the
cabbage. Young cabbage, early in the season, will boil tender in ten
minutes; or it may take 15, 20 or 25. It never takes over a half hour
unless the cabbage is very old or dry. The cabbage is done the moment
the stalk is tender. A great many people have the idea that they must
boil the cabbage until the leaf is almost dissolved. It needs only to be
boiled as tender as you boil the stalks of cauliflower, and you would
try, of course, the thickest part, which would be near the stalk.
Remember, in the first place you would cut out any tough, woody stalk,
but the tender stalk you would leave in, and that is the part you would
try. If you boil it fast it will not take over thirty or thirty-five
minutes at the outside, probably not more than twenty. Just as soon as
the cabbage is tender drain it and put with it whatever sauce or
dressing you are going to serve with it. That sometimes is vinegar,
butter, pepper, and salt. Sometimes a little milk, butter, pepper, and
salt. In that case it is called cabbage stewed with cream. Sometimes you
would simply serve it without any further seasoning, only remember that
the moment it is tender, drain it and serve. As I told you the other
day, the odor of the cabbage comes from letting it boil until after the
substance of the cabbage is so soft that the oil begins to escape from
it, the volatile oil. That makes a strong odor in the room. As soon as
the cabbage is tender it is ready to eat, and should be taken from the
fire.
TURNIPS.
To bake turnips, peel the turnips, either white or yellow ones, 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, and boil them fast
until they are tender. It may take ten or fifteen minutes, possibly
twenty minutes, according to the age of the turnips. Of course you will
understand that if the turnips are old and corky they will not be as
nice when they are done as if they are in good condition. But as soon as
the turnips are tender, drain them, put them in an earthen pudding dish,
make a little white sauce, either with milk or water,--for a pint, a
tablespoonful of butter, tablespoonful of flour; stir over the fire;
then milk added gradually and stirred smooth; seasoned with salt and
pepper,--make enough of the white sauce just to moisten the turnips;
pour it over the turnips; dust over the top some cracker dust or bread
crumbs, just enough to cover the top of the turnips; put a little salt
and pepper over the crumbs, and a scant tablespoonful of butter over the
top of the crumbs. Then put the dish into the hot oven, and just brown
the crumbs on the top of the dish. Serve it as soon as the bread crumbs
are brown. That is a very nice and easy dish. If you have cold boiled
turnips, slice them, cover them with white sauce and bread crumbs, and
cook them just in the same way.
(At this point Miss Corson announced that the cabbage was done, after
being in between nine and ten minutes, and no smell was perceptible in
the room.)
I am going to moisten the cabbage with cream sauce,--that is white sauce
made with milk,--and heat it for a moment and then it will be done.
I will now answer a question that has been asked about cooking corned
beef. The same principle applies to the cooking of corned beef that
applies to the cooking of salted fish. You remember this morning in
talking about codfish I said, if you boil the salted fibre hard and
fast, you make it hard and toughen it. That holds good in relation to
salted meat or corned meat. You want to boil it very gently. There is
comparatively little juice left in corned beef, so that the action of
cold water is not so disastrous to it as it would be to fresh meat.
Sometimes the beef is so very salt that it is desirable to change the
water upon it. Put it over the fire in cold water. Let it slowly reach
the boiling point, and then try and see if it is too salt. If the water
itself seems very salt, change it. Put fresh water in, let it gradually
heat, and boil very gently always. As soon as the meat reaches the
boiling point, push it to the back part of the stove and boil it very
gently until it is tender. It usually takes about twenty minutes to a
pound, but boil it very gently and slowly. Then it will be tender. If
you boil it fast it will be hard and tough. If you put a whole dried red
pepper in with the beef in boiling, you will find that it will improve
the flavor very much. If you intend to use the beef cold, leave it in
the water in which it is boiled; take the pot off the stove and let it
cool in the water in which it was boiled. Those same directions apply to
boiling smoked or salted tongue.
The turnips were just fifteen minutes in boiling.
Nice points about boiled dinners are asked for. I think I have given you
the nicest point in cooking beef, so that you will be sure to get it
tender, and to cook cabbage so that it is tender and does not smell.
Cabbage always goes with a New England boiled dinner, potatoes, onions,
parsnips and squash. I told you about cooking beets this morning. All
the other vegetables you may cook in boiling water, and salt to suit the
taste. The old-fashioned way was to boil all the vegetables in the pot
with the beef, adding the vegetables in succession, so that each one was
put in just long enough before the beef was done to have it done at the
time the beef was done; each one except the squash. The squash is best
peeled and cut in small pieces and steamed. If you boil it you want to
put it in boiling salted water until it is tender, and then put it into
a towel and squeeze it, so as to get out the water; then season it with
butter, salt and pepper, and serve it.
I made gravy yesterday; I think if I give you the recipe to-day it will
answer. Pour the drippings out of the pan, all except about a
tablespoonful; put a tablespoonful of flour in with the brown drippings;
set the pan over the fire; stir the drippings and flour together until
they are quite brown; then begin to put in boiling water, a little at a
time, not more than half a cupful, and stir until the gravy is smooth;
then season it palatably with salt and pepper. Onions are very nice
cooked precisely as I have cooked cabbage to-day; that is, cooked until
they are tender, and dressed with the white sauce that I used in
dressing the carrot.
For pressed corn beef the nicest cut is the brisket. Have the cut
rather long and narrow, and not a short chunk or piece. Take a long
piece of meat, a foot long, or more; have all the bones cut out and roll
it up tight. Tie it compactly, in the same way that I tied this meat.
Tie it so that you have it in a tight bundle. Then boil it according to
the directions I have already given you. After it is done let it partly
cool in the liquor; then take it out and lay it on the platter; lay
another platter on top of it, and put a heavy weight on the platter, and
press it with the string still on until it is cold; then cut off the
string and you have it in nice shape. If you want to use part of it hot
for dinner, and then have it cold, you would have to boil it, and when
it is done cut off enough for your dinner; then press the rest of it
between two platters. You could double it over, but you could not press
it so very well in shape. Cut it in slices; put it into a tin mould or
tin pan and boil down the broth in which you have cooked it until it
begins to look thick. Or, you could dissolve a little gelatine in the
broth to thicken it, and pour it over the slices of corned beef in the
mould. In that case you would depend upon the gelatine to thicken the
broth, without boiling it down.
LECTURE NINTH.
BEEF A LA MODE ROLLS.