round of the beef or the end of sirloin steak. I have here a piece of
round of beef. Cut the beef in pieces about two inches wide and five
long; lay these strips of meat on the cutting board and season them with
salt and pepper. In the middle of each one put a little piece of salt
pork about a quarter of an inch thick. Roll the meat up in such a way
that the pork is inclosed in the middle of the little roll. Tie the roll
to keep it in shape. You can use instead of salt pork pieces of fat from
the meat. After all the little rolls are tied up put a very small
quantity of beef drippings or butter in the bottom of the saucepan or
kettle. Put the saucepan over the fire with the drippings or butter in
it and let the fat get hot. As soon as it is hot put the little rolls of
meat in it and let them brown. As soon as the little rolls of meat are
brown sprinkle flour over them, a tablespoonful of dry flour to half a
dozen little rolls of meat. Let the flour brown. As soon as the flour
is brown pour in boiling water enough to cover the rolls; add salt. Then
put the cover on the sauce pan and set the meat where it will cook very
gently. Remember what I have told you about cooking meat slowly if you
want it to be tender. When the meat is quite tender--and that will be in
from half an hour to an hour and a half--the time will depend, of
course, upon the fibre of the meat, then take off the strings and serve
the rolls in the gravy in which they have been cooking. You see the
brown flour and water and butter will have make a nice gravy for the
rolls. Now if the meat is very tough remember what I have told you about
the action of the vinegar on the meat fibre. For a pound of meat add
about two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, when you begin to stew the meat,
and let it cook with the meat; that will make it tender. You can vary
the dish by cooking with it vegetables of any kind that you like to use.
Add potatoes when it is within half an hour of being done, turnips
peeled, cut in small pieces; carrots peeled and sliced.
CARAMEL CUSTARD.
I will make a caramel custard next. For caramel custard use a plain tin
mould, oval or square in shape, that will hold about three pints. Put a
teaspoonful of sugar in the bottom of the mould and set the mould on the
top of the stove where the sugar will brown. You may want to shake the
mould a little to scatter the sugar evenly over the bottom. When the
sugar is brown set the mould off the fire on the table where the burnt
sugar will get cold; that forms what is called a caramel or coat of
burnt sugar on the bottom of the mould. Make a custard by beating
together six eggs, a quarter of a pound of sugar and a pint of milk.
After the custard is made pour it into the mould and set the mould in a
sauce pan with boiling water that will come half way up the sides of the
mould, and steam the custard until it is firm. When the custard is firm
you can turn it out of the mold and use it hot or leave it until it is
quite cold and use it cold. I have used granulated sugar this time. You
can make the same custard, preparing it just exactly as for steaming,
but bake it, if you like, only you would set the mould in the dripping
pan with water in it, baking it just until it is firm, in a moderate
oven. You could make it in teacups; in that case you would burn the
sugar in an iron-spoon or in the frying pan and while it still is liquid
put just a little in the bottom of each cup, because you remember it
hardens directly. Then bake the cups of custard in a pan of water. Use
the custard in the cups either hot or cold. If the custard is to be used
cold leave it in the mould; it will stand better than if it is turned
out hot. But it is stiff enough to retain its form even when it is hot.
And the sugar that is in the mould forms a little sauce around it on the
dish.
TOMATO SOUP.
Next take a recipe for tomato soup. A can of tomatoes; put them over the
fire. In the summer use about two quarts of fresh tomatoes. You will
find that about two quarts will be sufficient. After the fresh tomatoes
are peeled and sliced (you will remember canned tomatoes are already
peeled), put them over the fire and stew them gently for about half an
hour, or until they are tender. If the canned tomatoes are entirely
solid you may need to add a little liquid, but I find there is generally
more liquid in the can than you need. When the tomatoes are tender
enough to rub through a sieve, put them through the sieve with a potato
masher. That gives you pulp, or _puree_, of tomatoes. And you will add
to the tomatoes, after they have been passed through the sieve, half a
salt spoon of baking soda, and then milk enough to thin them to the
proper consistency of soup. Season with salt and pepper, and let them
boil, and serve the soup. If you want a thick soup, add to the tomatoes
a quart of milk, and thicken the soup with cracker dust, very finely
powdered and sifted. Thicken as much as you like, beginning with two
heaping tablespoonfuls; add more if you want it. Of course you can put
butter in either of these soups, but it is not necessary. The way I
shall make the soup to-day will be to thicken it with butter and flour
after the tomatoes have been passed through the sieve. Do not confuse
these two recipes. You have got one of thin soup; you have got another
with milk, salt and pepper, thickened with cracker dust. Now a third:
Put a tablespoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of flour in a
saucepan. Stir them over the fire until they are melted together, then
put in a pint of water gradually--a pint of hot water--stirring it
smooth; and the tomato pulp. If that does not make the soup as thin as
you desire--and it should be about the consistency of good cream--add a
little more boiling water. Season with salt and pepper, and stir it
until it boils, and then it is ready to use.
Next take directions for boiling vegetables, so that the color is
perfectly kept. I told you yesterday that we should have spinach if we
could get it, if not, that we would use lettuce. I think that next week,
in the course of the lessons, I shall succeed in having some spinach
from Cleveland. However, I shall use lettuce to-day. First, thoroughly
wash it in salted water. For a quart of water use a tablespoonful of
salt. As I told you the other day, the salt in the water is for the
purpose of killing any little insects that are in the leaves, especially
of the lettuce. You know that it is very troublesome to dislodge them,
but the salt kills them, and of course you can wash them out. As long as
they are alive they cling there. If you sprinkle salt on the leaves it
will wither them, but if you put it in the water it will not. Salted
water is intensely cold, you know, and it would restore the freshness of
the leaves of lettuce, even if they were wilted, unless they were really
on the verge of decay. If you will remind me, after I have finished
giving the recipe for cooking the vegetables, I will tell you how to
keep lettuce fresh. After your vegetables, whatever they may be, whether
lettuce, or spinach, or asparagus, or string beans, are washed perfectly
clean--I do not say wash peas, and I will tell you after a little the
reason why--after they are thoroughly washed put them over the fire in
enough boiling salted water to more than cover them--plenty of water, so
that they can float about--the water to be salted with a tablespoonful
of salt in a quart of water, and to be actually boiling when you put in
the vegetables. This same rule applies to the cooking of peas, only that
the peas are treated a little differently in the cleaning, but they are
cooked in the same way. Boil the vegetable (whatever it is) in salted
water, fast, just till they are tender. Remember what I said about
boiling carrots yesterday. As soon as the vegetables are tender, drain
them and throw them into plenty of cold water. Leave them in the cold
water until you want to use them. Then, if peas or beans, drain them,
heat them quickly, with a little salt and pepper and butter, very
quickly, or any sauce or gravy you wish to serve them in, and serve them
hot. If lettuce or spinach, to make a _puree_, after having boiled in
boiling salted water and then put in cold water, rub them through a
sieve with a potato masher. After they are rubbed through the sieve they
are ready to be used in different ways. In Europe the _puree_ of lettuce
is served as a vegetable, just as the _puree_ of spinach is. We do not
often cook it in that way, but it is very nice; it is such an
exceedingly tender vegetable that it takes proportionately more than of
spinach. After the lettuce or spinach is rubbed through the colander or
sieve with a potato masher it is ready to be seasoned with salt, pepper
and vinegar, or any sauce you like, and used as a vegetable, or used in
soup. You remember what I told you about spinach soup yesterday--_puree_
of spinach with cream soup, colored green with spinach. Put in just
enough spinach to cover it. If I succeed in getting spinach next week I
shall make, at one of the lessons, spinach soup, and also boil and serve
some as a vegetable.
Now about peas. I spoke about washing string beans but not washing peas.
If the shells of the peas are at all dirty, and sometimes they are so
that they blacken your fingers in shelling, wash the shells of the peas
before you begin to shell them, but do not wash the peas after they are
shelled. Of course the inside of the pod is perfectly clean, and if your
hands are clean and the shells are clean, you do not need to wash them.
In using green peas in summer time it is well to have a quantity of
them, perhaps twice as many as you are likely to use for one meal, and
shell them, because you know they are of different sizes always. Shell
them and separate them into two different sizes, the smallest and the
largest, and then cook one size for one day, putting the others in a
very cool place, or refrigerator, and cook them the next day, because if
you have the large and small ones mixed they do not cook evenly. You
will find them very much nicer; if you keep them in a cool place it will
not hurt to keep them.
The length of time that it takes to boil lettuce or spinach depends
somewhat on the time of the year. The tenderer the spinach is, of
course, the quicker it will boil; when it is very young and tender it
will boil in two or three minutes; when it is older it may take as long
as ten minutes. Ladies very often make the mistake in boiling spinach
that they do in boiling cabbage. They boil it sometimes until the leaves
are destroyed, in order to soften the stalk. The better way is to tear
away the stalk and use only the leaf. Of course, that gives you a
smaller quantity of spinach than if you use the stalk, but when you use
the tough, woody stalk you waste the leaf in boiling. Lettuce usually
boils in a couple of minutes. One of the ladies speaks about cooking
spinach without any water. You can do that if you wish. Just put in a
sauce pan, after having carefully picked it over and washed it; stir it
a little once in a while to be sure that the uncooked top goes down to
the bottom. There is no special advantage in it, because if you boil it
as I tell you, only until it is tender, the water has no effect upon it
except to cook it more quickly. It is the English way to cook it without
water. If you use boiling salted water, as I told you, it cannot
possibly affect the nutriment of the vegetable. It is when you boil
vegetables a long time, and boil them away before you take up the dish,
that you waste the nutriment. These rules apply to every vegetable that
has color in it except beets. Beets have to be cooked without cutting
the skin or trimming them in any way, in order to keep the color.
Now to keep lettuce fresh. I have kept it fresh, even in the summer
time, for two or three days in this way: When it first comes in from the
market wash it thoroughly in plenty of cold salted water. You do not
need to tear it apart. You know I told you the other day about
separating the leaves slightly from the head of the lettuce and shaking
it in cold salted water. Trim off the outside wilted leaves. Wash it
thoroughly in cold salted water, then wet a towel and lay the lettuce in
it, fold it loosely up over the roots and if you have ice lay the towel
on the cake of ice in the refrigerator or by the side of the cake of
ice. If you haven't any ice and have a cold cellar, after you have
washed the lettuce and wrapped it in the wet towel, put it in a box; a
tight wooden box is the best, or a thick pasteboard box if it is not
broken; and put it in the cellar in the coldest place you can find. If
you wrap it in a wet towel and put it on the ice you do not want to look
at it. It will keep fresh at least two days, and sometimes longer; but
if you put it in the cellar you will have to wet the towel thoroughly
twice a day, morning and night; and you will find that you will have to
take away some of the leaves that have wilted, but if you have it upon
the ice the chances are that you will not lose any leaves. And it is
very much nicer than it is to let it wilt and then try to restore it by
soaking it in water.
FRIED PICKEREL.
Next take a recipe for fried pickerel. Some of the ladies will remember
that a few days ago we were talking about frying fish in this way with
salt pork. If any of the ladies have the recipe, of course they do not
need to take it again. For fried fish of any kind, enough salt pork to
cover the bottom of the frying pan that you are going to use for the
fish. You find you have three or four pounds of fish; you will need at
least half a pound of salt pork. Cut the pork in very thin slices; fat
salt pork is the best. Put it in the frying pan and fry it until it is
light brown. While the pork is being fried get ready the fish, having it
thoroughly cleaned by washing it in cold water. If the fish is small you
do not need to cut it; if it is large, cut it in pieces about three or
four inches square. After the fish has been cleaned dry it in a towel;
season some Indian meal with salt and pepper, roll the fish in the
Indian meal. When the pork is brown take it out of the fat and put the
fish into the drippings and fry the fish brown, first on one side and
then on the other. When the fish is browned nicely serve it in a dish
with the pork--fried pork and fish in one dish. This fish will not get
very brown to-day, because it is still frozen. It did not come in long
enough ago for us to get it thawed out, so, of course, there will be a
little water in the fat, and it will not get quite so brown.
LECTURE TENTH.
CHEAP DISHES AND REWARMED FOODS.
We begin our lesson this afternoon with a dish of rice,--piloff of
rice,--any cold meat cut in small squares, an onion peeled and chopped
fine, and if you have tomatoes, either canned, fresh, or cold stewed
tomatoes, a cupful. Sometimes the dish is made with tomatoes, sometimes
without. Put the onion in the sauce pan with a tablespoonful of
drippings; set it over the fire and let it get light brown. When it is
light brown put with it a cupful of rice, picked over and washed and
dried by the fire. After the onion begins to brown put the rice with it
and stir until the rice is light brown; then put in a quart of hot
water, the meat and tomatoes and a palatable seasoning of salt and
pepper. Of course, the quantity of salt and pepper that you use will
depend on the seasoning of the meat, and this may be any kind of meat.
Then cover the sauce pan in which you have all these things and let the
rice, meat, tomatoes and water all cook together gently. Every ten
minutes you must look to see whether the rice has absorbed all the
water. If it has you must add a little more water, not more than half a
cupful at a time, keeping the rice just moist until it is tender. You
will find that probably in about half an hour the rice will be tender,
and when the dish is done it should not have the gravy about it; it
simply needs to be moist, so you will have to add water cautiously after
the first quart.
If the meat that you use is very fat,--and sometimes beef like this is
very fat,--you may cook the meat, fat and lean together in with the
onion in the first place instead of the tablespoonful of butter or
drippings. If you have no meat you can make the dish in the same way
using tomato, onion and rice; and if you have cold gravy of any kind put
that in it.
FRENCH HASH.
Next take the recipe for a dish called French hash. There is no potato
in it, it is simply meat and gravy, so that you must not let the name
mislead you. Little slices of cold meat, fat and lean together. For a
pint bowlful of meat use about a tablespoonful of chopped onion. First
slightly brown the onion with a tablespoonful of butter or drippings or
fat from the meat; then when the onion begins to brown put in the meat
and let that brown. Next a tablespoonful of dried flour; stir the flour
with the brown meat and onion until the flour is quite brown; then cover
the meat with pork gravy or boiling water. After you have covered the
meat with water or cold gravy just let the water or gravy boil, then
season it palatably with salt and pepper; of course, the seasoning will
depend upon whether you have used gravy or broth or water. If you have
used gravy or broth that already will have been seasoned, so that you
want to taste for the seasoning. After the gravy is both boiled and
seasoned take the sauce pan off the fire and stir in the yolk of one raw
egg with it and dish at once. You must not put the hash back on the fire
after putting the egg in. If you do you will curdle it. Do not stir the
egg in till you are ready to serve it, on toast or plain.
BAKED TENDERLOINS.
The next recipe will be for baked tenderloins. Split the pork
tenderloins in such a way as to make rather thick slices. Tenderloins
are so thick that by cutting you spread them out. Inside the slice of
tenderloin put any stuffing that you like. I have given two or three
recipes for different kinds of stuffing. For this to-day I shall use a
little stale bread, crumbed, seasoned with salt and pepper, and
moistened with butter; a tablespoonful of butter to a scant cupful of
bread, or in place of butter you could use an egg. After you put a
little stuffing in the tenderloins fold them together and either tie or
sew them so as to keep the stuffing inside. Put the tenderloins in the
dripping pan in the oven and bake them until they are thoroughly
browned. Then take off the strings and serve them. They are very nice if
you bake potatoes in the pan with them. If the oven is hot the potatoes
and tenderloins will bake in about the same time. The potatoes should be
peeled. Remember what I told you about always taking large stitches in
sewing up meat, so that you can see to pull them out when the meat is
done. Of course, pork tenderloins will be pretty sure to yield drippings
enough to baste with. I have spoken about that in the baking of meats
two or three times. No water is needed in preparing them. The
tenderloins, when sewed up, will resume their original shape.
FRIED LIVER.
First, wash the liver in cold water, then pour scalding water on it and
let it stand for about ten minutes to draw out the blood; slice it about
half an inch thick. After the liver is scalded and sliced, roll it in
flour, season it with salt and pepper and put it into the frying pan
containing about a quarter of an inch of hot fat, which may be drippings
or fat from bacon or salt pork. In that case you first would fry the
salt pork or bacon to get the fat or drippings, and put the slices of
pork or bacon to keep warm when they are done. After the pork or bacon
is fried put it on a dish to keep warm, and then fry the liver in the
drippings. As soon as the liver is browned on both sides serve it on a
dish with the fried pork or bacon. Fried liver needs to be cooked as
quickly as possible, making sure that it is done. The more quickly you
can cook it the tenderer it will always be. You can take that as a rule
in regard to liver, heart and tongue, that the faster they can be cooked
the tenderer they will be. To-day I simply have fried this with
drippings. I have not fried the bacon with it, but I have told you how
to fry it.
BAKED HASH.
Next take a recipe for baked hash. Equal quantities of chopped meat and
stale bread, meat of any kind. Suppose you have a pint bowl of each. Mix
with the meat and the bread a heaping tablespoonful of butter, a
palatable seasoning of salt and pepper, and that, of course, will depend
upon the seasoning of the meat. You may use corned beef or highly
seasoned meat, and then you will not need so much seasoning as you would
if you used fresh meat. A heaping teaspoonful of chopped parsley, enough
cold gravy, if you have it, or broth to moisten the hash,--just to
moisten it, not make it sloppy,--or if you have not gravy or broth you
must use water and butter. Mix the hash very thoroughly. Have ready an
earthen dish, buttered. See that the oven is hot, then very quickly
dissolve a teaspoonful of baking powder in a teaspoonful of water or
broth and stir it into the hash just as fast as you can and put it into
the oven to bake. As soon as the hash is brown on top it will be done.
CORNED BEEF HASH.
Now I will give you a recipe for corned beef hash. Yesterday we spoke
about boiling corned beef. You will take cold corned beef and boiled
potatoes, either hot or cold, about equal quantities. Sometimes people
like a little more potato than meat. Mix the meat and potato together;
add just enough water or broth to moisten the meat and potato. Season
palatably with salt and pepper and butter; have the hash nicely mixed
together; put into the frying pan; suppose you have a quart of hash,
about two tablespoonfuls of butter and let it get hot, then put in the
hash. Stir the hash in the butter until it is nearly hot. Then, using a
knife, form it into a cake on one side of the frying pan and let the
bottom brown. Loosen the hash once in a while from the bottom of the pan
to make sure it is not burning and when it is brown on the bottom turn
it out on a dish with the brown side up. Another form of hash is the
moist hash. That is simply prepared and warmed without browning it,
using broth or butter and hot water for moistening it.
LECTURE ELEVENTH.
OYSTERS.
We begin our lecture this morning with roast oysters, Mobile style. All
oysters, when cooked in any way, should be first put in a colander and
the juice allowed to drain off, then strain the juice. Always take each
oyster in the hand and carefully remove all fragments of shell from the
gills. The shells of oysters are dangerous to swallow, and serious
illness is often the result. Hold the oyster by the hard part, removing
pieces of shell with the finger. Then wipe the oyster with a wet towel.
Keep the most perfect specimens for broiling, as the more imperfect ones
will do sufficiently well for soups or stews. For roasting oysters in
the Mobile style, have as many deep oyster shells as you intend to have
oysters, scrubbed very clean; put the shells in a dripping pan and place
them in the oven, until they become so hot as to melt butter when put
into them. When quite hot take the shells out of the oven and put a
small piece of butter and a very little pepper in each shell. If the
oysters are large lay one in each shell, if they are small put two or
three in each shell and put them back in the oven directly. By the time
the edges of the oysters curl they will be done. Oysters when heated
through are done. Do not put any salt on them. Serve them on the shells.
As they are served in Mobile, a large shell is used, laid on a small
charcoal furnace, putting the shell on top of the furnace to get very
hot; the furnace is brought to the table and the oysters opened and
dropped into the hot shell and turned once. The regulation way of
roasting oysters is to thoroughly wash the outside of the shell and lay
them on the fire with the large end down. As soon as the oysters open
serve them.
To use the liquor, take a pint of the oyster liquor after it has been
strained; sift a heaping cupful of flour; mix with it a level
teaspoonful of salt and a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder. Have the
griddle as hot as you would for pancakes. Very quickly stir into the
flour enough of the oyster liquor to make a batter, and fry just as any
pancake; serve hot with butter.
Next take a recipe for oyster fritters. Have the frying kettle half full
of fat, as you would for doughnuts. Strain the oysters and remove all
bits of shell. In the meantime the lard should be heating on the back
of the stove. Cut the oysters slightly. For a pint of oysters use a pint
of flour, sifted, and mixed with a level teaspoonful of salt. Put the
flour in a mixing bowl with the yolk of one egg, a tablespoonful of
salad oil, and a pinch of pepper. Use enough of the oyster liquor to
make a batter thick enough to drop from the spoon. Beat the white of an
egg to a stiff froth. Mix the oysters and the white of egg lightly with
the batter, and as soon as it is mixed drop by the large spoonful into
the hot lard. As soon as brown take the fritters out and lay them for a
moment on brown paper to drain the grease off. In order to keep them hot
while you are frying the rest lay the paper on a dripping pan and set it
in the oven.
Take next a recipe for oyster soup, thickened with cracker dust. For a
quart of oysters, remove all bits of shell, as usual, and mix the oyster
liquor with enough to make a quart. Take one tablespoonful of butter, a
very little white pepper, if you have it, two tablespoonfuls of cracker
dust finely powdered. As I told you the other day, the cracker dust
which you buy at the cracker factories is the nicest. Stir all together
over the fire, and when it comes to a boil put in the oysters, with a
level teaspoonful of salt. Stir till the edges of the oysters curl; then
serve. To thicken with flour, stir one tablespoonful of flour and one of
butter together over the fire. Season with pepper, and put in one quart
of liquor and milk.