browned almost to blackness, and salt as the briny waves. You will
seldom find a market-man who will take the time and pains to slice it
as thin as it should be, even though they are supposed to have knives
especially adapted for thin slicing. For that reason I prefer always to
buy it by the strip, and slice it as needed.
“With a strong, sharp knife, begin at one end, trim off the outside
strip of lean, the smoked edges and the rind, down about three or four
inches; then shave off in thinnest possible slices, as thin as can be
cut, and have them whole. When you come to the rind, trim off more of
it if more slices are needed. Some prefer to turn the strip over and
slice from the lower side down to the rind, but not dividing from the
rind until sufficient is sliced. But whichever way you do it, keep the
strip entire—that is, do not cut off three inches, or half a pound,
and then trim and slice that amount, for the last slice will be quite
difficult to hold firmly enough to slice uniformly.
“It can be cut thin much easier if very cold. By wrapping it securely
in thick brown paper and changing the paper frequently, it may be kept
in the refrigerator without affecting the other food.
“Have a smooth frying-pan hot, and everything else ready. Lay in the
bacon and turn it frequently as it changes to the transparent stage,
moving it about so all portions will cook equally. The heat should be
sufficient to cook it quickly, but not to brown it. As soon as it loses
the transparent appearance and begins to crisp, draw it from the liquid
fat toward the edge, and you will soon tell by the way it dries off and
the sound whether it is cooked enough to be crisp.
“Tilt the pan so the fat will run down away from the bacon, and let
it drain thoroughly in the pan. By watching and turning it carefully,
every piece will be of a uniform light and color, more or less curly,
crisp as a Saratoga potato, and so dry and free from grease that it
might be picked up with gloved fingers and leave no stain.
“It is less likely to brown when a little of the fat from a previous
frying, or a bit of lard, is put in the pan first, as this keeps the
bacon from sticking to the pan.”
I seldom borrow a recipe, for two reasons: First, because I have a few
old-fashioned prejudices as to the rights of proprietorship in such
products; secondly, because, to be frank, I seldom find one upon which
I think I could not improve in the matter of simplicity and directness.
I could not write out more clearly my ideas on the subject of cutting
and cooking breakfast bacon than my distinguished fellow-laborer
has expressed them. I hereby grant her permission to honor me by
abstracting the same number of words from any of my printed pages.
Bacon and apples
This is a favorite southern dish, and good enough to be transplanted.
Slice bacon thin and fry it crisp. Transfer to a platter and keep it
hot while you fry thick slices of unpeeled sweet apples in the bacon
fat. When these are tender, drain and put in the center of a hot
platter. Lay the fried bacon about the edge of the dish, sprinkle sugar
over the apples, and serve.
Bacon and polenta
Wet a cupful of fine Indian meal with two cupfuls of cold water and
stir it into a quart of boiling water. Add a teaspoonful of salt, beat
up hard, and let it cook steadily for two hours, stirring up often to
prevent lumping. Should it thicken too much, add boiling water.
When done, pour out into a broad platter and set aside until perfectly
cold and stiff. If you are to have it for breakfast, cook it over
night. Cut in squares, triangles or rounds, roll in raw meal (salted),
and fry in plenty of boiling dripping or cottolene or other fat to a
delicate brown. As each piece is done, transfer to a hot colander to
drain. Serve in the center of a hot dish, with thin slices of fried
bacon laid about it.
A pretty way of varying a plain but excellent dish is to pour the hot
polenta into fancy molds wet with cold water, leaving it there until
you are ready to cook it, when turn out and fry.
Bacon and sweet peppers
Cut the stem ends from green sweet peppers, handling very cautiously,
lest the seeds should touch the walls of the peppers and make them
“hot.” With a small sharp knife extract core and seeds and throw them
away. Cut the peppers into rings, lay in ice-cold water slightly salted
for half an hour. Fry sliced bacon in a clean pan, take up and keep
hot. Dry the peppers by patting between two clean cloths and fry until
clear and tender in the fat left in the pan. Arrange the peppers in the
center of a hot dish, the bacon around them.
Barbecued ham
Fry slices of cold boiled ham on both sides. Transfer to a hot dish.
Cook together in a frying-pan four tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a
teaspoonful of granulated sugar, a teaspoonful of French mustard, and
a dash of paprika. Stir until very hot and pour over the fried ham. If
raw ham be used, cook for fifteen minutes in a frying-pan in boiling
water to which has been added a tablespoonful of vinegar; lay in cold
water for ten minutes, wipe dry and fry as directed.
Home-made sausages
Grind in a sausage-mill or meat-chopper six pounds of lean, fresh pork
and three pounds of fat. Mix with this twelve teaspoonfuls of powdered
sage, six, each, of black pepper and of salt, two teaspoonfuls,
each, of ground cloves and of mace, and one nutmeg, grated. When the
seasoning is well mixed with the meat, pack all down in stone jars and
pour melted cottolene or other fat on top to exclude the air, or put
into long bags of stout muslin. Dip these in melted grease and hang in
the cellar.
They may be made in small quantities and used at once, and are much
better than those we buy in market or shop.
Sausages and apples
Lay the sausages (“bulk sausage meat” is best) in a frying-pan, cover
with hot water and bring quickly to a fast boil. At the end of five
minutes pour off the water and fry on both sides, turning twice. Lift
them, drain over the pan, and lay in a hot colander in the open oven,
while you fry sliced and cored apples in the fat that ran from the
sausages in frying.
If you use link sausage, prick each before boiling.
“Frankfurters”
Cover with boiling water and boil slowly until they rise to the surface
of the water. Drain and rub over with a mixture of butter, lemon juice
and made mustard.
Broiled pork chops
Are too heavy as breakfast food for any stomach save that of a
hod-carrier or ditcher. But people will eat them in the “killing”
season, and should have them properly cooked.
Trim away the fat and the skin from the small end; broil over clear
coals, and thoroughly, for fear of trichinæ. Pepper and salt to taste.
Send around tomato catsup with them.
Cutlets and spare-ribs are cooked in like manner.
Curried pork cutlets
Broil as in foregoing recipe and keep hot (covered) over boiling water.
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and as soon as it
hisses fry in it a tablespoonful of minced onion. When the onion has
browned, strain it from the fat, return the latter to the pan, and pour
in a cupful of boiling water, with half a cupful of apple sauce. Stir
while it simmers for ten minutes. Cook two minutes, and pour over the
chops. Leave covered in the oven for five minutes and serve.
TRIPE
A much-maligned article, meet for good men’s tables. It is despised
and set at naught by people who should know better, because it is
rarely cooked daintily. At its proper estate under the hands of a cook
who recognizes its real worth it is said to be both nourishing and
digestible. It is certainly palatable, if tender and properly prepared.
Buy from your butcher the prepared tripe—that is, tripe which has been
thoroughly cleaned and is ready for boiling. No matter how you intend
to cook it, boil it first.
Boiled tripe
Lay the tripe in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Set at the side
of the range, where it will come slowly to a boil, and simmer steadily
for at least four hours. Drain, and set in a cool place until wanted.
Stewed tripe
Cook as in the preceding recipe, but cut the tripe in half-inch
squares. At the end of four hours drain off all the water except a
gill; add to this a cup of stewed and strained tomatoes, a dash of
onion juice, salt to taste and a pinch of paprika. Rub together a
heaping teaspoonful, each, of butter and flour, and stir into the tripe
mixture. Stir until the sauce is smooth and thick. Some persons like
a teaspoonful of Parmesan cheese added to this stew just before it is
served.
Fried tripe
Lay cold, boiled tripe in a mixture of equal parts of salad oil and
vinegar for two hours. Drain in a colander for fifteen minutes. Dip in
egg, then in cracker crumbs, and set in a cold place for several hours.
_Sauté_ in a frying-pan to a light brown.
Or you may dip squares of cold boiled tripe into good fritter batter
and fry in deep cottolene or other fat. When done, drain free of grease
and serve with a sauce made according to the following recipe:
Into the yolk of an egg beat very slowly, a few drops at a time, a
half-cup of salad oil. When as thick and smooth as cream add, still
slowly, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a coffeespoonful of French
mustard, a tablespoonful of minced parsley and salt and paprika to
taste.
Stewed tripe and oysters
Drop three dozen oysters into their boiling liquor, cook for just one
minute, and drain. Cut cold boiled tripe into pieces of uniform size.
Put it over the fire with enough water to cover it and simmer for
three-quarters of an hour. Drain off the water. Have ready a pint of
fresh, scalding milk in a double boiler and drop the tripe into this.
Cook for fifteen minutes; add two teaspoonfuls of flour rubbed into the
same quantity of butter, and stir until smooth and thick. Season to
taste, add the oysters and cook until they are heated through. Last of
all, stir in very slowly one beaten egg, and remove at once from the
fire.
Stewed tripe and celery
Cut into inch pieces enough celery to make a cupful, and stew tender in
salted, boiling water. Drain and set aside while you stew the tripe,
first in water, then in milk, as in the recipe for tripe and oysters.
Instead of adding the oysters to the thickened milk, stir in the stewed
celery, and cook for a minute before serving.
BEEFSTEAK
Rub the hot gridiron with a bit of suet before you lay the steak upon
it. The fire should be clear and hot, and yourself at leisure to watch
and to turn quickly when the meat begins to drip. There are houses in
which a flavor of creosote would seem to be inseparable from a broiled
steak. Turn swiftly to keep the smoke from it, and the juices _in_. Try
with the point of a keen knife at the end of ten minutes. If the center
of the steak be ruddy, and not purple, and the outside of a fine brown,
it is done. Remove to a hot platter, pepper and salt and butter well on
both sides. Fit a close cover on the dish and set in the open oven for
five minutes to draw the juices to the surface.
Beefsteak with onions
Cook as just directed. Have ready three tablespoonfuls of minced
onions, cooked for five minutes in hot butter. They should be tender
and clear, but not crisp. After the steak is dished spread the hot
onion thickly over it, let it stand in the open oven, with a close
cover over it, five minutes.
Chateaubriand steak
Broil a neatly-trimmed tenderloin steak, transfer to a hot dish, butter
generously and cover with broiled mushrooms cut into quarters.
Hamburg steaks
Chop a pound of lean beef very fine, and stir into it a beaten egg, a
teaspoonful of onion juice, salt and pepper to taste, and a pinch of
mace. Mix well, mold into flat cakes, dredge with salted flour, set on
the ice for an hour, roll again in flour, and _sauté_ in good dripping
or butter.
Chilli con carni (No. 1)
(A Mexican dish.)
Beefsteak (round), one tablespoonful of hot dripping, two large red
peppers (dry), two tablespoonfuls of rice, one-half pint of boiling
water, salt, onions, flour.
Cut steaks into small pieces. Put into a frying-pan with hot dripping,
hot water and rice. Cover closely, and cook steadily until tender.
Remove seeds and part of rind from red peppers. Cover with the chilli
water, add garlic and thyme. Simmer until cold, then squeeze them in
the hand until the water is thick and red. If not thick enough, add a
little flour. Season with salt and a little onion if desired. Heat and
pour sauce on the meat. Serve very hot.
Chilli con carni (No. 2)
Provide for it two pounds of steak, six red chillies, two cloves, one
tablespoonful of flour, a little garlic, thyme, dripping. Seed the
chillies and cover with boiling water. Soak until tender and then
scrape the pulp into water. Cut steak in small pieces and fry brown
in dripping or butter; add flour and brown it. Cover with the chilli
water, add garlic and thyme. Simmer until the meat is tender and the
gravy of the right consistency.
Beef cakes
Scrape round steak, season to taste with salt and pepper; form with the
hands into small, flat cakes and broil over a quick fire.
Stew of beef’s liver
Cut one pound of liver into slices. Chop a quarter of a pound of fat
salt pork. Spread a layer of the pork in the bottom of the inside
kettle of a double boiler. Cover the pork with slices of liver,
sprinkle this with a teaspoonful, each, of minced onion and parsley,
add more pork, more liver, onion and parsley until all the ingredients
are in the pot. As you do this, sprinkle each layer lightly with
pepper. Pour a half-pint of seasoned weak stock over all, cover the pot
closely and keep the water in the outer pot at a gentle boil for two
hours and a half. Now strain out the meat and keep hot while you return
the gravy in the pot to the fire and thicken it with a brown roux. Boil
up once and pour the gravy over the liver.
KIDNEYS
First of all, they must be perfectly fresh. If not, they have an
odor, and a peculiar “tang” that the unfortunate eater never forgets,
and which causes him to feel an aversion for kidneys henceforth and
forever. Care should also be exercised in removing all bits of fat and
gristle. Last of all, cook the kidneys in a savory way and spare no
pains to make them appetizing.
Brown stew of kidneys
Split the kidneys, wash them, drain and cut into small pieces of
uniform size. Pour cold water over these and set at the side of the
range, where they will come slowly to a boil. Just before the boiling
point is reached turn off the hot water, substitute cold, and bring to
the boil. Drain the kidneys and keep them hot while you cook together
a tablespoonful of browned flour and the same quantity of butter. When
these are blended pour upon them a scant teacupful of salted boiling
water, and stir until thick and smooth. Now add salt and pepper, a
teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, the same quantity of Worcestershire
sauce, a half-teaspoonful of lemon juice and a tablespoonful of currant
jelly. Turn the kidneys into this and stir until very hot.
Savory kidneys
Skin and slice three pairs of lambs’ kidneys. Cut into halves fourteen
canned mushrooms. Heat together a cup of bouillon and a half-cup of
the liquor from a can of mushrooms. Cook together in a saucepan a
tablespoonful, each, of butter and browned flour, and when these
bubble pour upon them the bouillon and mushroom liquor. Stir to a thick
sauce and add a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, the same quantity
of tomato catsup, a half-teaspoonful of onion juice, salt to taste and
a dash of paprika. Now stir in the mushrooms and sliced kidneys. Cook
for five minutes after the boil is reached, stirring constantly.
Fried kidneys
Cut three pairs of lambs’ kidneys into halves. Fry eight thin slices of
bacon until done; remove from the fire and keep hot while you fry the
halved kidneys in the bacon fat. Cook slowly for ten minutes, turning
often. Remove the kidneys and keep hot with the bacon while you stir
a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and the same quantity of catsup
into the gravy left in the pan.
Put crustless slices of toasted bread on a platter, lay the kidneys on
these, pour the gravy over them and dispose the crisp slices of bacon
about the edge of the platter.
Broiled kidneys
Cut the kidneys into thick slices. Melt a little butter and stir into
it a saltspoonful of mustard and a dash of lemon juice. Dip each slice
of kidney in this, roll in cracker dust, and set aside until this
coating stiffens. A half-hour will be long enough. Broil on a small
gridiron over a clear fire, turning often that the kidneys may not
burn. Be sure they are thoroughly done. Serve very hot.
Stewed kidneys
Cut the kidneys in halves, remove all the fat and cover the kidneys
with hot water, bring to the boil and drain. Cover with more hot water,
again bring to the boil and drain. Repeat this process a third time.
Remove them from the liquor, slice thin, and thicken the gravy with
browned flour rubbed smooth with two teaspoonfuls of butter. Return
the kidneys to the gravy, and when very hot add pepper, salt, two
tablespoonfuls of mushrooms, minced, two teaspoonfuls of Worcestershire
sauce, a little lemon juice, and two tablespoonfuls of sherry. Serve
immediately.
Kidneys sautés
Split the kidneys, trim off all fat and cut each kidney into quarters.
Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan, sprinkle the
kidneys with pepper and salt and roll each piece in flour before laying
it in the frying-pan. Cook, turning often, until brown. Lay upon a hot
platter and add to the grease in the pan a wineglassful of sherry, a
quarter of a teaspoonful of onion juice and a tablespoonful of mushroom
catsup. Boil this sauce up once, and pour it over the kidneys.
Kidneys à la brochette
Split the kidneys, put over the fire in cold water, and bring to a
rapid boil. Drain, wipe and slice each half. Cut the same number of
thin slices of bacon the same size and freed from rind and hard lean.
Arrange the bacon and kidney slices alternately on small skewers or
stout straws, and broil them quickly. Send to table on the skewers.
SWEETBREADS
Said a maid to me once: “Indeed, mem, I niver see sich another as
yersel’ for cookin’ wild things and innards!”
The “wild things” to which she referred were quail, woodcock and
hare, while the “innards” of which she spoke with such scorn were
sweetbreads, kidneys and brains. I may remark, _en passant_, that
the lower classes seldom like viands most prized by the epicure, and
the cooking of them, to be done properly, must be performed by the
mistress—not the maid—unless the latter be an accomplished cook.
Broiled sweetbreads
Wash a pair of sweetbreads, throw them in boiling salted water, and
cook for ten minutes. Drain, and lay in iced water until thoroughly
cold. This process is called “blanching” the sweetbreads, and should
be done as soon as the perishable dainties are brought home from the
butcher’s. Wipe them dry, rub with butter, and broil them over a clear
fire. Watch them that they do not scorch. When done, put them on a hot
dish, pour a little melted butter over them, sprinkle lightly with salt
and pepper and serve.
Fried sweetbreads
Blanch and split each sweetbread in half, lengthwise. Dip in beaten
egg, roll in cracker crumbs, and set in a cold place for this coating
to harden. At the end of an hour, fry in deep cottolene or other fat
brought slowly to a fast boil.
Broiled sweetbreads with mushrooms
Blanch the sweetbreads and cut them in half, lengthwise. Grease a small
gridiron, lay the split sweetbreads on this, and broil over a clear
fire, turning frequently and watching carefully lest they scorch. When
done, lay on rounds of crustless toast, rub thoroughly with butter,
salt and pepper to taste, and cover with minced mushrooms fried in
butter.
Sweetbread cutlets
Parboil, blanch and mince enough sweetbreads to make two cupfuls. Put
into a saucepan with a little white stock and bring to a boil. Thicken
with a white roux, and when smooth stir in gradually two beaten egg
yolks; then turn the mixture upon a dish to cool and stiffen. Form with
floured hands into cutlets, and fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other
fat.
Creamed sweetbreads
Blanch and cut two pairs of sweetbreads into neat dice. Cook together
in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls, each, of butter and flour, and pour
upon them a pint of cream. Stir to a smooth sauce, add the sweetbreads
and cook, stirring steadily until very hot. Season with salt, pepper,
and a teaspoonful of minced parsley.
LIVER
It is not known to all housewives, even to those who practise economy
from necessity or from choice—sometimes from both—that lamb’s
liver, which costs one-fourth as much as calf’s liver, is quite as
palatable—some say better than the more expensive viand. The hint may
be borne in mind in studying the following recipes.
Liver and bacon
Slice the liver, sprinkle each slice with salt and pepper, and roll
in salted flour. Set on ice while you fry twice as many thin strips
of bacon as you have slices of liver. Remove the bacon from the pan
and lay in the floured liver. Fry slowly until done, turning often.
It should cook for at least fifteen minutes. Drain the liver, holding
each piece over the pan that the grease may drip off, and arrange on a
heated platter, the bacon around it.
Broiled liver en brochette
Cut the bacon thin and the slices of liver into pieces of the same
length and width. Run a wooden skewer or stout straw through each piece
of liver and, alternately, through a slice of the bacon. Proceed in
this way until each slice of bacon is fastened to a slice of liver,
and each skewer is full. Lay on a broiler and broil over a clear fire.
When done lay the liver and bacon, still skewered together, on a hot
platter.
Fried liver
Cut the liver into strips half an inch wide and four inches long.
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter—or dripping—in a frying-pan and fry
a sliced onion in it. Strain out the onion. Have ready the liver,
peppered and salted and rolled in flour. Put this into the fat and
cook, turning once. Take up the liver and keep hot over boiling water.
Stir into the fat left in the pan two tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce,
one teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, and a heaping teaspoonful of
browned flour wet to a paste in cold water. Add salt and paprika to
taste, boil up once, put in two tablespoonfuls of sherry and pour over
the liver.
There is no nicer way of cooking liver for breakfast.
Mince of liver
Chop, very fine, one pound of calf’s liver. Put one tablespoonful of
butter in a saucepan, add the liver with two tablespoonfuls of chopped
bacon; cover and cook gently for one hour. When nearly done add a
half-teaspoonful of salt, a quarter-teaspoonful of pepper, and two
tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Serve on a platter upon buttered toast.
CHICKEN
Fried chicken
Joint a tender chicken as for fricassee. Dip each piece in beaten egg,
then roll in salted cracker dust until thoroughly coated. Set aside for
an hour before frying in boiling cottolene or other fat to a golden
brown. Be sure to fry long enough for the thickest pieces of chicken to
be cooked all the way through.
Virginia fried chicken
Prepare the chicken as directed in the last recipe. Fry half a pound
of bacon, sliced thin. When crisp, but not burned, strain off the fat
and return to the pan. Keep the bacon hot while you fry the chicken
(prepared with egg and cracker dust) in the fat, turning twice. Should
there not be fat enough, add dripping or cottolene or other fat. When
done, arrange upon a hot dish and garnish with the bacon.
Fried chicken with cream gravy
(A Maryland dish.)
After dishing the chicken cooked as in foregoing recipe, strain the fat
again, stir in a lump of butter rolled in flour that has been slightly
browned, and, when it bubbles, a small cup of hot cream or milk to
which a pinch of soda has been added. Stir for two minutes to prevent
scorching, add a tablespoonful of minced parsley and pour over the
chicken.
Broiled chicken
Use none but undeniably young chickens for broiling. Clean well and
split down the back. Lay for an hour in a marinade of salad oil and
lemon juice, if there is any doubt on this point.
If certain of your subject, wash over with butter and lay upon a
greased and heated gridiron, breast uppermost. The fire should be red
and strong. Broil about ten minutes to the pound, lifting when it
begins to drip and turning four times to insure thorough cooking. When
dished it should be sprinkled with pepper and salt and well buttered.
SOME WAYS OF COOKING COLD CHICKEN
Chicken fritters