Put over the fire in boiling water, slightly salted, and cook tender.
Turn off the water and pour in a large cupful of hot milk, in which
you have stirred a pinch of soda. Boil one minute and stir in a
tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour. Pepper and salt, add
a tablespoonful of onion juice and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.
Simmer for another minute, and serve.
Stewed potatoes (No. 2)
Peel potatoes and cut them into neat squares. Lay in cold water for an
hour, drain, and put them over the fire in salted boiling water. Stew
until they are tender, but not soft. Turn into a colander to drain.
Cook together in a saucepan a heaping teaspoonful, each, of butter and
browned flour, and pour upon them a pint of weak beef stock. When you
have a smooth, thick sauce, season with pepper, salt and a little onion
juice, and mix with the potato dice.
Hashed and browned potatoes
Pare, cut _very_ small and evenly, and put into a saucepan with a
finely minced onion and a stalk of celery chopped into tiny bits.
Cover with salted boiling water and cook tender. Drain off the water,
supplying its place with milk, heated with a pinch of soda. Bring to a
bubble and stir in a large tablespoonful of butter, rubbed to a cream
with one of flour. Pepper, salt, mix well—but taking care not to break
the potatoes—take from the fire, stir and toss for a moment, then turn
all into a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle crumbs on the top and brown
in a good oven.
Potatoes á la duchesse
Peel and boil enough potatoes to make a pint when mashed. Mix with them
the yolk of an egg, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and the same
quantity of cream. Turn this mixture upon a pastry-board and press it
flat and smooth. With a sharp knife cut the potato paste into squares
of uniform size. Slip a cake-turner under each square and transfer it
carefully to a greased baking-pan. Set in a cold place to stiffen, then
sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, and bake in a quick oven to a
delicate brown.
Potatoes á la Lyonnaise
Cut cold boiled potatoes into tiny dice of uniform size. Put two great
spoonfuls of butter into the frying-pan and fry two sliced onions in
this for three minutes. With a skimmer remove the onions and turn the
potatoes into the hissing butter. Toss and stir with a fork that the
dice may not become brown. When hot, add a teaspoonful of finely
chopped parsley and cook a minute longer. Remove the potatoes from the
pan with a perforated spoon, that the fat may drip from them. Serve
very hot.
Savory potatoes
Heat in a double boiler a quart of milk and put into it three sliced
onions. Boil for ten minutes, strain out the onions, return the milk to
the fire, and stir into it two teaspoonfuls of butter rubbed into two
of flour, and two teaspoonfuls of minced parsley. When the milk is as
thick as cream, add to it two cupfuls of sliced cold boiled potatoes.
Season with pepper and salt, and as soon as the potatoes are hot, pour
all into a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle bread-crumbs over the top and
bake until brown.
Potatoes and corn
(A “left-over.”)
Cut the kernels from six ears of boiled corn. Cut eight cold boiled
potatoes into small dice of uniform size. Put into a frying-pan a
tablespoonful of butter and turn the potatoes and corn into this; salt
and pepper. Fry, tossing and stirring constantly, for ten minutes.
Fried potato hash
Chop cold boiled potatoes, season with salt, pepper and onion juice.
Have two tablespoonfuls of good dripping, hissing hot, in a frying-pan;
put in the potatoes and pat smooth. Cook slowly, turning the frying-pan
occasionally that they may brown evenly on the bottom. In about twenty
minutes they should be nicely colored and crusted into a thick sheet.
Reverse carefully upon a hot platter.
Brown creamed potatoes
Cut eight potatoes into small dice of uniform size, boil tender in
salted water, drain and stir into a pint of milk which has been
thickened with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter;
season. Turn all into a deep dish and bake until brown.
Potatoes with cheese sauce
Boil a dozen potatoes and, while hot, mash soft with hot milk and
melted butter, adding salt and white pepper to taste. Whip light and
heap in the center of a fire-proof platter. Smooth the sides of the
mound with a knife and carefully remove about a cupful of potato from
the center of the mound, leaving a cavity in its place. Dip a feather
or brush in the beaten white of an egg and wash the inside of the
hollow and the top and sides of the mound with this. Now set in the
oven to get very hot and to brown lightly. When done draw to the door
of the oven and fill the hollow with the sauce—made according to the
following recipe—sprinkle the potatoes and cheese with crumbs and
return to the oven for five minutes before sending to the table.
Sauce for the above
Heat a cupful of milk with a generous pinch of soda; season with
pepper, salt and onion juice, and thicken with a heaping tablespoonful
of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; cook one minute and add
three large spoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese.
Mashed potatoes
Boil and mash white potatoes and whip to a cream with a cupful of hot
milk and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Whip for fully five minutes
with two forks, then pile upon a hot platter.
Potato hillock
Boil potatoes, dry at the back of the range, salting well, and rub
through a vegetable press or colander upon a fire-proof platter. As
they fall let them form a conical hillock in the middle of the platter.
Grate cheese thickly over the hillock and brown lightly upon the upper
grating of your oven.
Potatoes Parisienne
Parisienne potatoes are cut into small balls from raw potatoes with a
French vegetable cutter or a round spoon. They may be either fried, or
boiled and served with maître d’hôtel sauce.
French fried potatoes
Peel potatoes, cut into strips, and lay in iced water for at least an
hour. Drain and pat dry between the folds of a clean dish-towel that
should absorb every drop of moisture. Have ready a kettle of deep
cottolene or other fat, heated gradually until it is boiling hot. Test
this by dropping in a bit of the potato. It should rise to the top and
brown immediately. Put in the potatoes, fry to a golden brown, drain,
first in a hot colander, then shake in heated tissue paper before
transferring to a hot dish lined with a napkin.
Saratoga chips
Peel the potatoes and proceed as directed in preceding recipe when you
have cut them into slices as thin as shavings.
Potatoes au gratin
Slice potatoes thin and put in layers in a greased pudding-dish,
sprinkling each layer with salt, pepper and bits of butter. When all
are in, pour in a gill of hot water or hot milk, and sprinkle the top
layer of potatoes thickly with cracker-crumbs mixed with salt and
pepper and bits of butter. Bake, covered, for half an hour. Uncover and
brown.
Potato omelet
Make an omelet in the usual way; have ready by the time it is done, and
lay upon it, this mixture, then fold down:
Cook one small minced onion in one tablespoonful of dripping until
yellow, add one cupful of cold boiled potatoes, chopped fine, and cook
until slightly colored, stirring frequently. Shake into it a little
pepper and salt and one teaspoonful of finely minced parsley.
Set into the oven to keep warm until the omelet is ready.
Potato dumplings (No. 1)
Grate ten or twelve large raw potatoes. Put the grated pulp into a
muslin bag and press out the juice. Turn into a bowl and add one-third
as much boiled potato that has been run through a vegetable press. Salt
to taste and beat in a raw egg until you have a smooth, creamy paste.
Make into dumplings with well-floured hands, and roll each in flour to
prevent them from sticking together while they are boiling.
Have a pot of water at a hard boil, drop in the dumplings and cook from
ten to twelve minutes. Test by taking one out and cutting in two to see
if it is done in the center. Take up with a skimmer and serve at once,
as they soon get heavy.
Serve them with any kind of roast meat, or alone with gravy.
Potato dumplings (No. 2)
Peel medium-sized potatoes that have been partly boiled (not quite
soft). When cold, grate; to three parts of the potatoes take one part
of grated wheat bread, and add small squares of wheat bread browned in
butter, then crushed into crumbs.
To each pint of the above add two eggs, well-beaten, two ounces of
melted butter and nutmeg to suit taste. Mix all thoroughly and form
into round dumplings the size of an egg, or larger, as preferred. Roll
in flour and boil in salted water until dry inside, or about fifteen
minutes.
Serve with roast meats.
Always use mealy potatoes.
Potato balls (“Kartoffelklösse”)
(A German recipe.)
Peel, boil and mash potatoes; put aside to cool.
Three cupfuls of potatoes, one cupful of bread, two eggs, well-beaten,
separately; pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste, and some chopped parsley
that has been heated in butter. The bread should be prepared as for
croutons, crusts removed, cut in squares, browned in butter in the
oven, then crushed. The mixture should be very stiff. Mold into small
balls and drop into boiling, well-salted water; keep water boiling for
fifteen minutes, when the klösse should be about twice the original
size and done to the center. They may be served with bread-crumbs
browned in butter, placed on the top of each dumpling, or with tomato
sauce. With chopped meat filling the center of the dumplings they can
also be varied. If too moist, use flour or bread-crumbs in molding. A
good cook has the knack of dropping from the spoon without molding, but
this is hard to do. The klösse should be the size of small apples when
finished. Americans very often use a trifle of baking-powder to insure
lightness in these. Germans depend on good beating.
SWEET POTATOES
Boiled sweet potatoes
Wash and cook in boiling water until soft. Set in a moderate oven for
ten minutes to keep them from being watery.
Baked sweet potatoes
They are seldom cooked in any other way at the South, where they are
native to the soil, and at their best estate.
Wash and wipe and bake in a good oven until tender.
Glazed sweet potatoes
Parboil in their skins, peel and lay in a bake-pan. Cook, basting often
with butter, until they are a golden brown.
Scallop of sweet potatoes and bacon
This is a good “left-over” when you have a little cold corned ham and
some cold boiled or baked sweet potatoes. Mince the meat—the fatter the
better—and put a layer in the bottom of a bake-dish. Cover with sweet
potato dice, pepper, and put in more bacon. When all the materials are
used up, cover with crumbs; add enough milk to wet the crumbs, cover
and bake half an hour. Uncover and brown.
Sweet potatoes au gratin
Parboil the potatoes, peel and slice while hot. Butter a deep dish
well; put in a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with sugar, salt, pepper,
and dot with butter; then a stratum of fine crumbs; season in the same
way, leaving out the sugar. The uppermost layer should be of crumbs and
well buttered. Pour in four tablespoonfuls of warm water to generate
steam, cover closely and bake half an hour. Uncover and brown.
This is an especially nice dish for a family dinner, and always liked
by children.
Buttered sweet potatoes
Boil sweet potatoes and peel them. Lay in a deep dish and upon each
potato put a teaspoonful of butter. Set in the oven and heat until the
butter sizzles about the edge of the dish. Then send to the table.
Sweet potato croquettes
Into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes beat a
tablespoonful of butter, and stir in a saucepan over the fire until
smoking hot. Now remove and add a tablespoonful of cream and the yolks
of two eggs. When cold, form into croquettes and roll each croquette in
beaten egg and cracker-crumbs. Arrange all on a platter and set in a
cold place for several hours before frying in deep cottolene or other
fat to a golden brown.
Sweet potato puff
Into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes beat three whipped
eggs, a cupful of milk, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and
seasoning to taste. Beat hard and bake in a greased pudding-dish.
Sweet potato and chestnut croquettes
Boil and mash enough sweet potatoes to make two cupfuls, and enough
Spanish chestnuts to make one cupful. Rub the nuts and potatoes
together while hot and beat into them two tablespoonfuls of butter,
four teaspoonfuls of cream, two beaten eggs, and season to taste. When
cold, form into croquettes, roll in egg and cracker-crumbs, and set in
a cold place for an hour before frying in deep, boiling cottolene or
other fat.
RICE
Boiled rice
Into three pints of hot salted water, when at a fast boil, throw half
a cupful of raw rice, previously washed and picked over. Keep it at
a furious boil for twenty minutes, when test a grain to see if it is
done. If it is soft, drain away every drop of water; set the uncovered
pot at the back of the range for two minutes to dry off the rice, and
serve. Not a spoon should touch it while cooking, and each grain should
be whole and apart from the rest.
This, the one and only way to boil rice properly, is also the easiest.
Shake the saucepan up three times while the rice is in cooking, to make
sure it does not clog.
Pasty rice is as abhorrent to those who have eaten it cooked according
to this recipe as sodden, gluey potatoes.
Serve in a hot, uncovered dish. Eat with butter, salt and pepper, and
you will not regret the tyrant potato, should he fail to appear.
Buttered rice
Spread three cups of cold boiled rice upon a platter and set in the
open oven that every grain may dry. Meanwhile, heat a little butter
in the frying-pan and fry a sliced onion in it. When the slices are
browned remove them with a perforated spoon, and lay the rice by the
spoonful in the pan. Stir until each grain is coated with the butter;
turn the rice into a heated colander, shake hard, and set at the side
of the range for five minutes. Serve in a deep vegetable dish.
Rice croquettes
Boil as directed in first recipe; drain, and beat in two whipped eggs,
half a cupful of milk (or cream if you have it), a little butter, a
teaspoonful of sugar, a little mace, pepper and salt. Set by until
perfectly cold, form into croquettes, roll in egg and fine crumbs,
leave on ice for an hour and fry in boiling deep cottolene or other fat.
You can make the croquettes of cold boiled rice if you have it, but it
is hardly as good for the purpose as the hot. The croquettes seldom
have the consistency of those made up while the rice is hot.
Rice and tomato croquettes
When the rice has boiled ten minutes drain off the water and cover the
rice with tomato juice, already heated and seasoned with pepper, salt
and sugar. Cook ten minutes more, or until the rice is tender. Take
from the fire, add a great spoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of
onion juice; the beaten yolks of three eggs, and, when you have beaten
these in, two tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese. Set in a pan of
boiling water and stir over the fire for five minutes. Turn out and let
it get perfectly cold. Make into croquettes, roll in egg and cracker
crumbs; set on ice for an hour and fry in hot, deep cottolene or other
fat. Drain and serve.
Boiled rice with tomato sauce
Boil in the usual way, dish, and pour over it, loosening with a fork
that the sauce may penetrate to every part, a generous cupful of rich
tomato sauce, seasoned with pepper, salt, onion juice and sugar, and,
finally, with two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese.
Savory rice
Prepare as in last recipe, but add a small cupful of good stock to an
equal quantity of tomato sauce; cook together for two minutes and pour
over the rice.
Rice pudding as a vegetable
Boil one cupful of raw rice twenty minutes, or until soft, but not
broken. Beat four eggs light, and when you have stirred a tablespoonful
of butter into the rice add these and season with pepper and salt. Stir
in, gradually, a scant quart of milk; beat all well for one minute,
turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake, covered, half an hour; then
brown.
It should be as light as a soufflé, and must be eaten at once. A
pleasing accompaniment to roast poultry of any kind.
Savory rice pudding
Boil and drain a cupful of rice. Stir into it, while hot, a
tablespoonful of butter and a cupful of hot milk with which has been
mixed a teaspoonful of corn-starch dissolved in cold water. Add
a well-beaten egg, salt and pepper, and spread upon a platter to
cool. Meanwhile make ready two cupfuls of chopped meat of almost any
kind—poultry, veal, lamb, mutton, beef, giblets, liver—or a mixture of
several—whatever you have on hand. Chop half a can of mushrooms and
work in; season highly with paprika, kitchen bouquet and onion juice.
Some even put in a little curry. Moisten slightly with gravy and when
the rice has cooled mix all well together. Butter a cake mold lavishly,
put the pudding into it; fit on a close top and set in a pot of
boiling water. Cook steadily for at least two hours. Dip the mold into
ice-water to loosen the pudding from the sides, and turn out upon a hot
platter.
Send tomato sauce, mixed with grated cheese, around with it, or any
gravy you may chance to have left over.
Molded rice (No. 1)
Boil a cupful of raw rice ten minutes; drain and pour over it, in place
of the water, two cupfuls of chicken gravy or stock made from chicken,
duck or turkey bones, seasoned well with salt, pepper and onion juice.
Set in boiling water uncovered, and cook gently until quite dry. Turn
into a bowl wet with hot water, press down firmly and reverse the bowl
upon a hot platter. Cover the mound with grated cheese, brush all over
with beaten white of egg, sift grated cheese upon the egg, and set upon
the top grating of your oven to color slightly.
Molded rice (No. 2)
Boil a cupful of rice in plenty of hot salted water until soft. Drain
and dry off. Stir into it a great spoonful of butter, a teaspoonful
of onion juice and the beaten yolks of two eggs, with salt and pepper
to taste. Stir over the fire in a bowl set in boiling water for two
minutes, using a fork that you may not break the rice to pieces. Turn
into a round-bottomed bowl wet with cold water, and press down hard.
Reverse the bowl upon a fireproof platter, cover the molded rice
thickly with a meringue made of the whites of the eggs beaten stiff,
and set upon the top grating of the oven for three minutes to form.
Eat with drawn butter.
Spanish rice (very nice)
Boil one cupful of rice until tender in plenty of boiling water,
salted; drain and dry off. Chop a quarter of a pound of fat salt pork,
and fry in a pan. When it hisses put into the pan two medium-sized
onions, also minced. Chop two green sweet peppers (seeded, of course),
and mix with the rice, then the pork and onions, and enough tomato
sauce to moisten the mixture well. Butter a bake-dish, add salt and
pepper, if needed, to the rice, and put into the dish. Coat thickly
with fine crumbs and bake, covered, for twenty minutes; then brown.
Rice timbales
Pack hot boiled rice in slightly buttered timbale molds; let them stand
in hot water for ten minutes; run a pointed knife around the sides;
turn from the molds and serve as a garnish for curried meats or boiled
fowl.
SALSIFY, OR OYSTER-PLANT
Stewed salsify
Scrape the roots, throwing them at once into cold water, that they may
not blacken. Cut into inch lengths and put over the fire in boiling
salted water. Stew until tender. Drain off the water and pour upon
the salsify in the saucepan a cup of hot milk. After it has simmered
five minutes add a tablespoonful of butter and three tablespoonfuls of
cracker dust; season to taste and serve.
Mock fried oysters
Wash, trim and cook a bunch of oyster-plant (or salsify) in boiling
salted water until tender. Drain and scrape off the skin. Mash well,
and if stringy rub through a colander.
To one pint of the mashed salsify add one teaspoonful of flour, one
tablespoonful of butter, one well-beaten egg, and salt and pepper to
season highly. Take up a small spoonful and shape it into an oval about
the size of a large oyster; dip each lightly in flour or very fine
cracker crumbs, and brown on each side in hot butter.
Salsify fritters
Scrape the salsify and grate it fine. If you have a machine for
grinding vegetables, use that, as the process of grinding is so
rapid that there is not time for the salsify to discolor before it
is prepared. Have made a batter of two beaten eggs, half a cupful of
flour, a gill of milk, and salt to taste. Beat hard, and whip the
grated salsify into this. Drop by the spoonful into deep, boiling
cottolene or other fat. When the fritters are of the right shade of
brown, drain them quickly in a hot colander to free them of superfluous
grease. Serve very hot.
Scalloped salsify
Wash and trim, but do not scrape fine roots of salsify. Boil in salted
water until tender. Drain, scrape, clean and cut into inch lengths.
Pack into a buttered bake-dish, alternately with thick white drawn
butter, well seasoned, and fine bread-crumbs, seasoned and buttered.
The top layer should be crumbs wet with cream. Cover closely and bake
half an hour; then brown delicately.
Not a bad imitation of scalloped oysters.
SPINACH
“Spinach is one of our most valuable vegetables. It contains salts and
is slightly laxative. In order to retain all the nutritive value and
the salts in the spinach it is best to cook in a steamer. It should
be cooked just long enough to be tender, which is from ten to fifteen
minutes. Spinach, if cooked too long, will lose its flavor and color.”
Thus writes an able authority upon dietetics. In three sentences we
have here condensed the cardinal rules for preparing this queenly
esculent for the use of the human animal. Opposed to one clause of the
summary we have the story of a noted epicure who found spinach so much
better when warmed up for the thirteenth time that he ordered his cook
to cook it thirteen times on the first day of serving.
Boiled spinach, plain
Pick over the spinach, rejecting all yellow or dried leaves. Wash in
four waters, letting it soak in the last cold bath for three-quarters
of an hour. Put into a large pot over the fire with just enough cold
water to cover it. Cook for twenty minutes, or until tender. Drain in a
colander, then turn into a wooden chopping-bowl and chop very, _very_
fine. Return the spinach to the saucepan, stir into it a great spoonful
of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Mound the spinach on a hot
platter, and garnish with slices of hard-boiled eggs.
Spinach á la crême
Pick over and wash the spinach as in the last recipe. After soaking in
the fourth water, put the leaves, with the moisture still clinging to
them, into a large pot, and cover closely. The moisture on the leaves
and the juice of the vegetables will form enough liquor to prevent
scorching. Cook for twenty minutes, stirring well several times during
the process. Sprinkle with salt and turn into a colander to drain.
Press out the liquid, turn the spinach into a chopping-bowl and chop
as fine as possible. Cook together in a saucepan one tablespoonful of
flour and two of butter, and, when they are blended, pour the spinach
upon them. Season and cook for several minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour upon the spinach a small cupful of cream in which a pinch of soda
has been dissolved, and cook three minutes longer, still stirring. Now
add pepper and salt to taste and a pinch of nutmeg, and beat hard for
three minutes. Serve smoking-hot, garnished with small triangles of
toast.
Spinach puff
Boil as in the former recipe, chop “exceeding small,” and beat in a
tablespoonful of melted butter, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Set
aside until cool, then stir in a gill of cream, the whipped yolks of
two eggs and the stiffened whites of three. Beat hard and turn into a
deep, greased pudding-dish. Bake for twenty minutes, and serve at once.
Spinach soufflé
Boil the spinach and chop fine. Add the beaten yolks of two eggs, a
tablespoonful of melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Set this
mixture away to cool. When cold, beat into it a half-gill of cream and
the frothed whites of three eggs. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish,
and bake quickly in a hot oven to a light brown. Serve as soon as it is
removed from the oven.
Spinach pátés