butter and one cup of chicken stock, added gradually. Season with
celery salt and pepper and pour half of this sauce into a small,
shallow, buttered pan. Chop one cupful of cold chicken quite fine,
season and spread it evenly over the top of the sauce after it has
thickened. Cover with the remainder of the sauce, place on ice, and
when very cold and hard cut into rounds or squares. Dip them quickly
into batter and fry in deep, hot cottolene or other fat, or in
clarified chicken dripping.
These should be prepared over night. The fritters will keep their shape
if left a long time before the paste is cut up.
Chicken omelet
Beat four eggs very light, season with salt and pour into a greased
frying-pan. Have ready a cupful of minced chicken (heated) and a pint
of hot white sauce in which a tablespoonful of minced parsley has been
stirred. When the omelet is “set” and ready to be removed from the pan,
sprinkle over it the minced chicken, fold it over and transfer to a hot
platter. Pour the white sauce about the omelet.
Chicken mince on the half-shell
Cut fine sweet peppers in half lengthwise; remove core and seeds,
taking care not to touch the sides of the peppers, and soak for an hour
in cold water slightly salted.
Mince fine the cold meat of a chicken and add it to one-fourth as much
fine crumbs as you have chicken; moisten with gravy or sauce; fill the
peppers, sprinkle fine crumbs over the top, dot with bits of butter,
bake half an hour covered, then brown.
Creamed chicken
Make a white roux of two tablespoonfuls of butter and half as much
flour; when it bubbles add a cupful of cold chicken cut into dice, a
teaspoonful of onion juice, salt and pepper to taste and enough stock
to keep all from burning. Cook for ten minutes before stirring in two
hard-boiled eggs chopped fine and a cup of rich milk heated with a
pinch of soda stirred in.
Imitation terrapin
Proceed as directed in last recipe, adding at the last, the juice of
half a lemon and a glass of sherry. Boil up and serve at once.
Turkey croquettes
Mince enough cold roast turkey to make two cupfuls, season with salt,
pepper and a half pint of oyster liquor. Put into a saucepan and
make scalding hot. Thicken a cupful of hot milk with a tablespoonful
of white roux, stir it into the turkey mince, and when the boiling
point is reached remove it from the fire. When cold and stiff form
into croquettes, crumb these and set on the ice for two hours before
frying to a golden brown in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat, or in
clarified chicken drippings, if you have it.
Turkey scallops
Mince remnants of cold turkey rather coarsely and mix with it one-third
as much stuffing or bread crumbs. Moisten with gravy, oyster liquor
or stock, season well; fill scallop shells or _pâté_ pans with the
mixture, cover with fine crumbs, with dots of butter over all and bake
in a quick oven.
Stewed calf-brains
Heat a great spoonful of butter in the frying-pan and when hot, stir
in a tablespoonful of flour. Add a gill of cream with salt and pepper,
chopped parsley and a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet. Put a pinch of
soda into the cream. When heated, put in the brains, which have been
previously blanched and cut into large dice. Cook ten minutes, stirring
constantly, and serve hot.
Brain fritters
Blanch the brains by boiling them in salted water for ten minutes.
Throw into ice-cold water and leave there for half an hour. When cold,
mash to a paste with a wooden spoon. Stir into them two eggs, beaten
light, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a half-teaspoonful of salt
and enough flour to make a fritter batter. Beat hard for three minutes
and drop this mixture into deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. When
golden brown in color, drain free of grease in a hot colander. Serve
very hot.
[Illustration: LAMB CHOPS
CROQUETTES
CHICKEN SCALLOP
ENTREES]
Fried brains
Blanch as above directed, leave in cold water until firm, and wipe dry.
Slice into pieces of uniform size; pepper and salt, roll in beaten egg,
then in fine crumbs. Do this over night. In the morning roll again in
egg and cracker-dust; leave on the ice for half an hour and fry quickly
in hot cottolene or other fat. Drain free from fat and serve hot. Pass
thin slices of crisp toast with them.
Broiled veal chops
Trim neatly and broil over a clear fire, turning several times. Allow
ten minutes to the pound. Transfer to a hot dish and cover with a
mixture of butter, lemon juice and minced parsley. Cover and set in a
hot oven for a few minutes before serving.
Fried veal chops or cutlets
Dip in egg, then in cracker crumbs, and set on ice until morning.
Repeat the process, leave on ice for half an hour and fry in deep, hot
cottolene or other fat. Drain, dish and send to table with tomato sauce.
Veal cutlets and bacon
Chop raw lean veal fine, season well with celery salt and pepper, and
with your hands mold into oval shape. Roll in egg and fine crumbs and
leave on ice all night. In the morning fry thin slices of bacon, remove
them to a hot dish and fry the cutlets slowly in the fat left in the
pan. Drain, arrange on a platter and lay the bacon about them. Pass
tomato sauce with them.
Lamb chops
Trim off the fat, broil carefully and arrange them around a mound of
mashed potatoes. Garnish with a garland of parsley laid about the base
of the mound.
Barbecued lambs’ tongues
Open a can of lambs’ tongues and spread on a platter. Sprinkle with
salt, pepper and a little onion juice. Lay in a sauce made by stirring
together three tablespoonfuls of salad oil and one of vinegar. Let them
stand in this mixture over night. In the morning heat a little butter
in the frying-pan, lay the tongues in this and _sauté_, turning often.
Mince of mutton
Chop the meat fine, removing bits of fat and gristle. Season with salt,
pepper and a little onion juice. (It is always better to grate, than
to slice onions for seasoning.) Mix with the minced meat one-fifth
of its bulk of fine bread crumbs wet with the gravy and work in the
beaten yolk of a raw egg to “bind” the mixture. Mold into flat cakes,
dip these into a beaten raw egg, then in cracker crumbs and set in a
cold place over night. Fry quickly, as you would doughnuts, in deep
cottolene or other fat (never in lard) made very hot. Take up as soon
as they are done, drain off every drop of fat and lay upon rounds of
lightly browned toast in a heated dish. Garnish with sprigs of parsley.
Minced mutton and tomato toast
Make three cups of good well-seasoned tomato sauce, thickened with a
heaping teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Keep hot in a
double boiler set at the side of the range.
Toast slices of bread, butter them, spread on a platter and put a
tablespoonful of tomato sauce on each. Into the remainder of the tomato
sauce turn two cupfuls of minced mutton, put the saucepan over the
fire, stir until the meat is thoroughly heated, season to taste and
pour upon the toast.
[Illustration]
BREAKFAST GAME
Broiled rabbit
Have your butcher skin and clean the rabbit, remove the head and open
it from end to end on the under side. Wipe it inside and out with a
damp cloth and lay it open on a greased gridiron. Cut gashes across
the back that the heat may penetrate to the thickest part. Broil over
a clear fire, turning often. It should cook for about twenty minutes.
Transfer to a hot dish, rub with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper
and serve.
Barbecued rabbit
Cook precisely as in the last recipe and keep hot on a platter while
you make a sauce of two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, two of melted
butter, a dash of salt and a teaspoonful of French mustard. Pour this
sauce over the hot rabbit and send to table. This is a delicious and
savory dish.
Smothered rabbits
Skin and clean a pair of rabbits; lay in a covered roaster; pour a
cup of boiling water over them and cook, covered, until tender. Baste
five or six times with a mixture of butter and water mixed with a
teaspoonful of onion juice. When the rabbits are done transfer to a
platter and keep hot, while you thicken the gravy in the pan with a
tablespoonful of browned flour rubbed up with one of butter. Cook one
minute, add two teaspoonfuls of vinegar, a saltspoonful of paprika and
a generous teaspoonful of made mustard. Boil up once, pour over the
rabbits and leave, covered, over hot water five minutes before serving.
Venison steak
Grease your gridiron thoroughly before laying your steak upon it.
Broil the steak, turning frequently over the fire of clear coals. As
it is better rare, do not cook the venison too long. When done lay the
meat upon a hot platter, put upon it several spoonfuls of butter and a
little currant jelly, cover and set in the oven long enough to melt the
butter and to soften the jelly, then send immediately to the table.
Broiled quails and woodcock
Clean and split down the back. Wash carefully and dry inside and out
with a clean cloth. Leave on ice half an hour and broil over a clear
hot fire. Dish, pepper and salt, put a piece of butter upon, and lay
under each bird a round of delicate toast.
Small birds
Can be cooked in the same way.
Breakfast stew of squirrels
Clean and joint a pair of large gray squirrels; lay in vinegar and
water for an hour; wipe dry and brown them slightly in pork fat in
which a sliced onion has been fried. Pack the squirrels in a pot, pour
over them the fat and onion from the frying-pan and a cup of weak
stock. Cover closely and simmer until tender. Season with pepper,
celery salt and kitchen bouquet; thicken with browned flour rubbed
to a paste with butter, boil up and serve. Stew the squirrels tender
overnight, seasoning and thickening the gravy when you warm them up in
the morning.
BREAKFAST VEGETABLES
Stewed potatoes
Pare the potatoes and cut into small dice. Cook tender in boiling
water, salted. When clear, but not broken, turn off the water and cover
with hot milk into which you have stirred a lump of butter rolled in
flour. Simmer for ten minutes, add a tablespoonful of finely-minced
parsley, boil up once and serve.
Hashed potatoes, browned (No. 1)
Cook as in last recipe, but when ready for the milk turn the stewed
potatoes into a buttered pudding dish, cover with the milk, butter and
flour and bake, covered, half an hour. Then uncover and brown.
This dish is particularly good if a little onion juice and about a
tablespoonful of minced celery be mixed with the potatoes just before
they are put into the bake-dish. The dice should be _very_ small.
Hashed potatoes, creamed and browned (No. 2)
Cut a dozen cold boiled potatoes into very small dice. Thicken a cupful
of hot milk with a tablespoonful of flour, rubbed into one of butter.
Season to taste and stir the potato dice into this sauce. Stir for just
a minute; turn into a greased baking-dish and brown in a good oven.
Lyonnaise potatoes
Cut a dozen cold boiled potatoes into dice of uniform size. Shred
two onions _very_ thin and put them into a frying-pan with two
tablespoonfuls of butter. Fry the onion to a light brown; add the
potatoes and fry until delicately colored, stirring frequently. Strew
with chopped parsley and serve.
Potato croquettes
Into a pint of hot mashed potatoes stir a tablespoonful of butter, a
beaten egg, salt and pepper and enough cream to make the potatoes of
the proper consistency to be formed into croquettes. Roll in egg and
cracker crumbs and set in the ice-box for an hour before frying in deep
cottolene or other fat to a light brown. Drain in a hot colander.
Potato omelet
Beat two cupfuls of mashed potatoes to a cream with milk, salt and
pepper and two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Beat three eggs light
and whip them into the potato mixture. Have a buttered frying-pan
heated, turn the omelet into this and cook until set; turn out upon a
hot platter.
Chopped potatoes sautés
Chop cold boiled potatoes evenly and rather coarsely. Put a
tablespoonful of butter or of good dripping into a frying-pan and when
hot stir the potato-dice into it, tossing and shaking until they are
smoking hot. Pepper and salt and dish.
An equal quantity of sweet potato dice mixed with the white will make
the dish still better.
Potatoes fried whole
Boil potatoes of uniform size until just done. Sprinkle with salt. When
cold roll in beaten egg and cracker crumbs and set in a cold place for
an hour. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat, or in dripping to
a golden brown.
Fried green peppers
Slice green peppers crosswise and remove the seeds and tough, white
membrane. Melt a little butter in the frying-pan and fry the sliced
peppers in this. They are an appetizing accompaniment to fried fish.
Stuffed peppers
Mince enough cold chicken to make a cupful and stir into it two
tablespoonfuls of minced ham and one of melted butter. Season to taste.
Cut the stems from green peppers so that they will stand upright.
Cut off the tops of the peppers, remove the seeds and membrane and
fill with the minced chicken and ham. Stand the peppers on end in a
baking-pan, pour about them a cup of chicken stock and bake half an
hour.
German potato pancakes
Six large raw potatoes grated fine; three eggs; a scant teaspoonful
of soda; salt to taste. Mix as pancake dough and fry in plenty of
cottolene or other fat previously heated gradually to a boil.
Fried eggplant
Cut the eggplant into slices nearly three-quarters of an inch thick,
peel these and lay them in a bowl of cold, salted water, putting a
plate on them to keep them under the surface of the liquid. At the end
of an hour remove the vegetables from the water and wipe dry on a clean
cloth. Dip each slice in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs and lay on
a platter. Set in the ice-box for an hour and fry to a golden brown in
deep boiling cottolene or other fat. Drain in a colander lined with
tissue paper and pile on a folded napkin on a hot platter.
Broiled eggplant
Cut the eggplant in slices half an inch thick, peel and leave for an
hour in cold, salted water, as in the preceding recipe. Wipe the
slices dry and lay in a bath of five tablespoonfuls of salad oil and
two teaspoonfuls of vinegar. At the end of fifteen minutes remove
the eggplant, drain in a colander, sprinkle each slice with salt and
pepper, lay on a gridiron and broil over a clear fire. Cook for five
minutes on one side before turning the broiler. Serve very hot.
Fried ripe tomatoes
Cut firm tomatoes into thick slices, but do not peel them. Sprinkle
each slice with salt, dip into a beaten egg and then in fine cracker
dust. Set in a cold place for an hour and fry in boiling cottolene or
other fat, or in butter.
Broiled ripe tomatoes (No. 1)
Cut large, firm tomatoes into half-inch slices, sprinkle with salt
and pepper and dip in fine bread crumbs. Put into a greased broiler
and broil over a clear fire until heated thoroughly. Spread with soft
butter and serve at once.
Broiled tomatoes (No. 2)
Wash and wipe ripe tomatoes. With a very sharp knife cut them in half
and lay, skin side down, upon a buttered broiler. Cook over a clear
fire until done; arrange squares of toast on a hot platter and lay the
broiled tomatoes on this toast—half a tomato to each slice. Handle
carefully that they may not break. Sprinkle with pepper and salt and
pour melted butter over all.
Grilled tomatoes
Cut large, firm tomatoes into thick slices. Do not peel. Rub an oyster
broiler lightly with butter, lay on it the slices of tomato and broil
over a clear fire. Have ready a sauce made by working a teaspoonful,
each, of minced parsley and of lemon juice into two tablespoonfuls of
butter. Sprinkle the tomatoes with pepper and salt, put the sauce on
them, let them stand covered in the open oven or plate-warmer for a
couple of minutes, or until the butter is melted, and serve.
Tomatoes and bacon
Prepare tomatoes as in the preceding recipe, omitting the sauce. Keep
them hot while you broil or fry thin slices of bacon to a delicate
crisp. Arrange the tomatoes on a dish, lay a slice or two of the bacon
on each piece of the tomato and serve. This is an excellent breakfast
dish.
If for any reason it is not convenient to broil the tomatoes, they may
be fried in butter or in olive oil, drained dry and served in the same
fashion.
Broiled green tomatoes
Cut the unpeeled tomatoes into half-inch slices and lay in sweet oil
for five minutes. Transfer the slices carefully to a fine wire broiler
and cook to a delicate brown. When done, sprinkle with salt and pepper,
lay on slices of crisp toast and pour a white sauce over and around all.
Fried green tomatoes
Wipe green tomatoes with a damp cloth, cut them into slices half an
inch thick, dip in beaten egg and cracker crumbs, set in the ice-chest
for half an hour and then fry in butter to a delicate brown. Drain from
grease and serve on a hot platter.
Broiled mushrooms
Peel, lay upon a buttered broiler and cook over clear coals, allowing
three minutes to each side of the mushrooms. Transfer to thin slices of
crustless toast, put a bit of butter and a dash of salt and paprika on
each mushroom and set in an oven just long enough to melt the butter.
Fried mushrooms
Melt a great spoonful of butter in an agate frying-pan. Peel the
mushrooms and cut off their stems, scraping these last. Lay the
mushrooms with their scraped stalks in the frying-pan and cook, turning
often, until done. Serve very hot.
Green pepper toast
Slice bread thin, cut off the crusts and toast on both sides to a
delicate brown, then butter and keep hot in the oven. Heat a cup of
beef stock in the saucepan. Rub together a tablespoonful of butter and
the same quantity of browned flour and stir it into the beef stock.
When you have a very thick brown sauce add salt to taste and a half
cupful of green peppers which have been seeded, freed from the tough
white core and minced very fine. Stir to a paste, remove from the fire
and spread upon the slices of hot toast. Set in the oven long enough to
become very hot and crisp, and serve.
Fried hominy
Warm three cups of cold boiled hominy by setting the vessel containing
it in an outer vessel of boiling water. When hot, add a saltspoonful of
salt and a tablespoonful of melted butter, beat the hominy smooth and
turn into small muffin-tins to get cold and to form. When very stiff,
turn the forms over, roll each in beaten egg and cracker dust and set
all in a cold place for an hour. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or
other fat.
Block potatoes
(Contributed)
Cut raw potatoes in cubes. Wipe them dry and fry in deep fat until a
light brown. Salt, drain on brown paper and serve hot.
FAMILIAR TALK
WITH MARTHA IN HER KITCHEN
(Time—The cook’s “afternoon out.”)
It is the Christian duty of every housemother in this comfort-loving
land to provide a commodious, well-appointed kitchen and laundry, where
daily household work is done, and clean, airy, comfortable chambers for
workers, where they may take rest in sleep when that work is over. I
should fail in observance of the Golden Rule if I were to oblige them
to work where I could not work, or to sleep where slumber would be an
impossibility to me.
My own preference for a kitchen floor-covering is really good linoleum
of conventional design and light in color, therefore cheerful in
effect. Many housewives insist upon oiled hardwood or painted floors.
Not one cook in twenty takes proper care of an oiled floor, and paint
soon wears off. It is economical to buy a prime quality of linoleum,
and to lay the same pattern on kitchen, laundry and hall. When it wears
out in one room it can be replaced from another. Inlaid linoleum will
last for years.
Thick, strong rugs should be laid before the range and by the tables,
one under the table at which the servants eat. Linoleum is cold to the
feet, and one takes cold readily when over-heated.
I read, last year, that kitchen tables are now, as “a taking novelty,”
covered with zinc. Over a score of years ago I covered what may be
called the work-tables in my kitchen with this useful metal, tacking it
neatly under the edges, lest a loose point might tear hands or clothes.
I have kept it up ever since. The tabletops are cleaned easily; they
never “take” grease or stain of any kind, and they outwear wood by many
years.
Another invaluable invention which I wish I could place in every
kitchen is a sheet-iron hood and asbestos curtain, fitted to the top of
the recess enclosing the range. It works so easily upon pulleys that a
little finger could pull it down. When raised, it is entirely out of
the cook’s way; when down, it shuts in the range like an impervious
screen. Sliding doors in the center allow one to look into pots and
kettles simmering behind it, when oversight is advisable. If left
closed, it will lower the temperature of the kitchen twenty degrees
within two hours. It cost twenty dollars when new, twelve years ago. If
I could not get another, twelve hundred dollars would not buy it.
I long ago discarded the old-fashioned tin and iron cooking utensils in
favor of agate-nickel-steel ware, which is as easily washed as crockery
bowls and plates; is light and neat in appearance; never rusts, and
is altogether satisfactory. All of my kettles have covers, and we use
covered roasters—another boon to housewives—for cooking meats. They
keep in flavor and juices, and lessen the labor of basting.
Always have a rocking-chair convenient into which the cook can drop
for rest between the times of active duty, and one apiece for maids in
the laundry. For yourself, follow the rule I laid down imperatively a
quarter-century ago in COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSEHOLD—“Never stand at
your work when you can sit.” A chair suited in height to the mixing
table will save you many an ache in the feet, back and head.
Do not allow servants to jumble their table crockery, etc., up with
pots, saucepans, kettles, colanders and the like. There is no reason
why the dresser or closet in which the kitchen tableware is kept should
not be as daintily arranged as the dining-room buffet. It should hold
no commerce with the pot closet.
The servants’ chambers must be furnished with iron bedsteads, good
mattresses, plenty of clean blankets and white spreads. The “honeycomb”
spreads are absurdly cheap and easily washed. The rest of the
appointments of the dormitories need not be elaborate. If they are neat
and comfortable the occupants are more likely to try and make them
attractive. When one pins up a crucifix over her bed, her mother’s or
sister’s photograph against the wall, or even a colored lithograph of a
patent medicine—notice it pleasantly. It means that she is catching
the home feeling. Muslin curtains cost next to nothing. Hang them up
at her window; give her a pretty cover for her bureau-top and a plain
one for her washstand, and plenty of towels. The Golden Rule works well
here—where does it not?
[Illustration: RANGE-SCREEN PARTLY RAISED]
I read a little story many, many years ago—before you were born, I
think—a slight, commonplace affair, that has furnished two generations
of busy housewives with a hard-worked _mot de famille_.
Excuse the foreign phrase! We have none in English that exactly
translates it. “Household word” comes nearer to it than anything else,
without quite covering it.
The tale was of a fidgety housekeeper of the sort stigmatized in the
rough parlance of the sensible vulgar as “nasty particular.” A friend,
calling upon her soon after breakfast, found her fairly beside herself
with worry because guests she had expected at noon had telegraphed
that they would be with her at eleven o’clock that morning. Distracted
Martha “could never in the world be ready for them. There was so much
to do that she did not know what to take hold of first. It was enough
to drive a woman out of her senses,” etc., etc., etc.
“But what have you to do?”
“Do! Do! Do! Why—everything!”
The visitor drew off her gloves.
“I will stay and help you. Shan’t I get the spare room ready?”
A gesture of disdain.
“As if I would have put that off until today!”
“Can I help about luncheon?”
“Well! I should be ashamed of myself if the cook hadn’t her orders and
materials and all before this!”
“Perhaps I could dust the parlors? or polish silver? or—” glancing
around the perfectly appointed dining-room, where the luncheon table
was already laid—“I might arrange the flowers in the vases?”
It finally transpired that the frantic and “forehanded” hostess could
specify but one thing that remained to be done before everything should
be in order for the visitors. She had “butter-balls to make” for
luncheon. She always kept the paddles in ice-water for hours beforehand.