1 tablespoonful of flour.
1 cupful of milk.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
Speck of cayenne.
¼ cupful or 1 ounce grated cheese.
4 slices of toast.
Make a thin white sauce with the flour and milk and seasonings. Add
the cheese and stir until melted. Chop the whites and add them to
the sauce. Pour the sauce over the toast, force the yolks through a
potato ricer or strainer, sprinkle over the toast.
Baked Eggs with Cheese.
4 eggs.
1 cupful, or 4 ounces, of grated cheese.
1 cupful of fine, soft, stale bread crumbs.
¼ teaspoonful salt.
A few grains of Cayenne pepper.
Break the eggs into a buttered baking dish or into ramekins and
cook them in a hot oven until they begin to turn white around the
edge. Cover with the mixture of crumbs, cheese, and seasonings.
Brown in a very hot oven. In preparing this dish it is essential
that the oven be very hot or the egg will be too much cooked by the
time the cheese is brown. To avoid this, some cooks cover the eggs
with white sauce before adding crumbs.
The food value of the dish is very close to that of a pound of beef
of average composition. The estimated cost (see p. 23) is about 14
cents.
For those who are particularly fond of cheese the amount of cheese
in this recipe may be very much increased, thus making a much more
nourishing dish. Or the amount may be reduced so as to give hardly
more than a suggestion of the flavor of cheese.
Scrambled Eggs with Cheese.
½ pound of cheese grated or cut into small pieces.
8 eggs
1 tablespoonful of chopped parsley.
A pinch of nutmeg.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
Beat the eggs slightly, mix them with the other ingredients, and
cook over a very slow fire, stirring constantly, so that the cheese
may be melted by the time the eggs are cooked. In food value the
dish is equal to nearly 2 pounds of average beef. The calculated
cost (see p. 23) is about 30 cents.
Swiss Eggs.
4 eggs.
½ cupful of cream.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Salt and pepper.
¼ cupful of grated cheese.
Heat the butter and cream together, break in the eggs whole,
sprinkle with salt and pepper. When nearly done, add the cheese.
Serve on buttered toast. Strain the cream over the toast.
Cheese Omelet No. 1.
Cheese may be introduced into omelets in several ways. An ordinary
omelet may be served with thin cheese sauce made in the following
proportions:
1½ tablespoonfuls of flour.
¼ cupful of grated cheese.
1 cupful of milk.
This sauce may also be added to omelets in which boiled rice,
minced meat, or some other nutritious material has been included.
Cheese Omelet No. 2.
Grated cheese may be sprinkled over an ordinary omelet before it is
served.
Cheese Omelet No. 3.
Yolks of 2 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls of hot water.
1 cupful of grated cheese.
Salt and pepper.
Whites of 4 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Beat the yolks until lemon colored and add the hot water and the
seasoning. Beat the whites until they are stiff, and add the
cheese. Cut and fold the two mixtures together. Heat the butter in
omelet pan and cook the mixture very slowly until it is brown on
the underside. If possible, cook the top of the omelet in the oven
or by means of a hot plate held over it.
Breakfast Cereals with Cheese.
That cheese combined with cereal foods makes a rational dish as
regards the proportion of nutrients it supplies has been pointed
out on another page (p. 18). Cheese and some of the crisp “ready to
serve” cereal breakfast foods is a combination which is common, the
cheese being melted with the cereal food, or simply served with it.
There are many who relish a piece of cheese with the cooked cereal
so commonly eaten for breakfast and find such a combination
satisfying to appetite and taste. Oatmeal or some other home-cooked
breakfast cereal prepared with cheese is palatable, and such
dishes have an advantage in that they may be served without cream
and sugar. Since such a dish contains considerably more protein
than the breakfast cereals as ordinarily served, it has a further
advantage in that it may well serve as the principal item of a
breakfast menu, instead of a preliminary to other courses. Such
a combination as cereals cooked with cheese, toast, fruit, and
tea, coffee, or chocolate, makes a palatable as well as nutritious
breakfast and one which does not require much work to prepare and
to clear away. A recipe for preparing oatmeal with cheese follows.
Wheat breakfast foods, either parched or unparched, corn meal, and
hominy may be prepared in the same way.
Oatmeal with Cheese.
2 cupfuls of oatmeal.
1 cupful of grated cheese.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
1 level teaspoonful of salt.
Cook the oatmeal as usual. Shortly before serving, stir in the
butter and add the cheese, and stir until the cheese is melted and
thoroughly blended with the cereal.
The cheese should be mild in flavor and soft in texture. The
proportion of cheese used may be increased if a more pronounced
cheese flavor is desired.
Cheese with Mush.
Cheese may be added to corn-meal mush or to mush made from any of
the corn or wheat preparations now on the market. The addition of
cheese to corn-meal mush is particularly desirable when the mush is
to be fried.
Fried Bread with Cheese No. 1.
6 slices of bread.
1 cupful of milk.
2 ounces of cheese, or ½ cupful of grated cheese.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
½ teaspoonful of potassium bicarbonate.
Butter or other fat for frying.
Scald the milk with the potassium bicarbonate; add the grated
cheese, and stir until it dissolves. Dip the bread in this mixture
and fry it in the butter. The potassium bicarbonate helps to keep
the cheese in solution. It is desirable, however, to keep the milk
hot while the bread is being dipped.
Fried Bread with Cheese No. 2.
Cut stale bread into thin pieces. Put two pieces together with
grated cheese between them; dip into a mixture of egg and milk and
fry in butter or other fat.
Roman Gnocchi.
¼ cupful of butter.
¼ cupful of flour.
¼ cupful of cornstarch.
2 cupfuls of milk.
2 egg yolks.
¾ cupful of grated cheese.
Salt.
Melt the butter; cook the cornstarch thoroughly, and then the flour
in the butter; add the milk gradually; cook three minutes, stirring
constantly; add the yolks and one-half cupful of the cheese. Pour
into a buttered shallow pan and cool. Cut into squares; place them
on a platter a little distance apart; sprinkle with remaining
cheese, and brown in the oven.
The proteid value is that of three-fourths of a pound of average
beef, the fuel value that of 1¾ pounds. Calculated cost (see p.
23), 17 cents.
Cheese Soufflé.
2 tablespoonfuls of butter.
3 tablespoonfuls of flour.
½ cupful of milk (scalded).
½ teaspoonful of salt.
A speck of cayenne.
¼ cupful of grated cheese.
3 eggs.
Melt the butter; add the flour and, when well mixed, add gradually
the scalded milk. Then add salt, cayenne, and cheese. Remove from
the fire and add the yolks of the eggs, beaten until lemon colored.
Cool the mixture and fold into it the whites of the eggs, beaten
until stiff. Pour into a buttered baking dish and cook 20 minutes
in a slow oven. Serve at once.
The proteid of this recipe is equal to that of half a pound of
beef; the fuel value is equal to that of three-fourths of a pound.
Cheese Soufflé with Pastry.
2 eggs.
⅔ cupful of thin cream.
1 cupful of grated cheese.
½ cupful of Swiss cheese cut into small pieces.
Salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.
Add the eggs to the cream and beat slightly, then add the cheese
and seasoning. Bake 15 minutes in a hot oven, in patty tins lined
with puff paste.
Cheese Croquettes.
3 tablespoonfuls of butter.
¼ cupful of flour.
⅔ cupful of milk.
Yolks of 2 eggs.
1 cupful of cheese cut in very small pieces.
½ cupful grated cheese.
Salt and pepper.
Make with a white sauce, using the butter, flour, and the milk. Add
the unbeaten yolks and stir until well mixed, then add the grated
cheese. As soon as the cheese melts, remove from the fire, fold in
the pieces of cheese, and add the seasoning. Spread in a shallow
pan and cool. Cut into squares or strips, cover with an egg and
crumb mixture, and fry in deep fat.
Fried Cheese Balls.
1½ cupfuls of grated cheese.
1 tablespoonful of flour.
The whites of 3 eggs.
Salt, pepper, cracker dust.
Beat the whites of the eggs; add the other ingredients; make into
balls and roll in cracker dust. If the amount of flour is doubled,
the mixture may be dropped from a spoon and fried without being
rolled in crumbs.
CHEESE SOUPS AND VEGETABLES COOKED WITH CHEESE.
In these dishes the cheese is used not only to add nutritive value,
but also to give its characteristic flavor either to materials
otherwise rather mild in taste (as in potatoes with cheese) or to
combine its flavor with that of some more highly flavored vegetables
(as in cheese and vegetable soup). The ingenious housekeeper whose
family is fond of cheese can doubtless think of many desirable ways
of making such combinations besides those given in the following
recipes:
Milk and Cheese Soup.
3 cupfuls of milk, or part milk and part stock.
1½ tablespoonfuls of flour.
1 cupful of grated cheese.
Salt and paprika.
Thicken the milk with the flour, cooking thoroughly. This is best
done in a double boiler, with frequent stirrings. When ready to
serve, add the cheese and the seasoning.
The proteids in this soup are equal in amount to those in
five-sixths of a pound of beef of average composition; its fuel
value is higher than that of a pound of beef.
Cheese and Vegetable Soup.
2 cupfuls of stock.
2 tablespoonfuls of finely chopped carrots.
1 tablespoonful of chopped onion.
A very little mace.
2 tablespoonfuls of butter.
2 tablespoonfuls of flour.
1½ teaspoonfuls of salt.
1 cupful of scalded milk.
¼ cupful of grated cheese.
Cook the vegetables a short time in one-half of the butter, add
the stock and the mace, boiling 15 or 20 minutes. Strain and add
the milk. Thicken with flour cooked in the remaining butter. Just
before serving, stir in the cheese and cook until it is melted.
Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese No. 1.
Put into a buttered baking dish alternate layers of cheese sauce
No. 1 (see p. 22) and cold boiled potatoes, sliced or cut into
dice. Cover with buttered crumbs and bake.
Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese No. 2.
Put into a buttered baking dish alternate layers of white sauce and
cold boiled potatoes, either sliced or cut into dice. Put over the
top a layer of grated cheese and then a layer of buttered bread
crumbs. Brown in the oven.
Scalloped Cabbage or Cauliflower with Cheese.
Cauliflower or cabbage may be scalloped according to either of
the recipes given for scalloped potatoes and cheese. Sometimes a
cauliflower is boiled whole, spread with grated cheese, then with
buttered bread crumbs. It is browned in the oven and served with
white sauce poured around it.
Cheese with Potato Puffs.
1 cupful of mashed potatoes.
¼ cupful of milk.
1 egg.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
½ cupful of grated cheese.
Beat the potatoes and milk together until thoroughly mixed. Add the
egg and the salt and beat thoroughly. Finally add the cheese. Bake
in muffin tins in a slow oven 10 or 15 minutes.
A similar dish may be made by scooping out the inside of a baked
potato and mixing it with cheese as above. Fill the potato-skin
shell with the mixture, return to the oven, and bake until light
brown.
Potatoes with Cheese Sauce.
Cut boiled potatoes into cubes and serve with cheese sauce No. 1.
(See p. 22.) This is one of the cheese and vegetable dishes most
frequently found on restaurant menus.
CHEESE SALADS, SANDWICHES, AND SIMILAR CHEESE DISHES.
Cheese of one sort or another is a very common accompaniment of
salads, and the combination is rational as well as palatable,
for the constituents of the succulent foods—chiefly water and
cellulose—supplement the protein and fat of the cheese. Cheese is
often used also as a part of the salad.
A number of recipes are given below for cheese salads and other
cheese dishes which may be served with dinner or other regular meals,
or served as part of a special lunch or special supper. Many of the
cheese dishes discussed in other sections are also commonly used for
such occasions when something savory is desired which can be easily
and quickly prepared.
Cheese with Salads.
Cheese or cheese dishes are an acceptable addition to salads.
Neufchâtel or other cream cheese, either plain or mixed with
pimientos and olives, may be passed with lettuce or may be cut into
slices and served on lettuce.
Cheese balls are often served with salad. They are made of some
soft cream cheese, and are frequently combined with chopped chives,
olives, sweet peppers, chopped nuts, etc., for the sake of adding
flavor. Cooked egg yolk, spinach extract, etc., are sometimes mixed
in for the sake of color. If the balls are rolled in chopped chives
or parsley, both flavor and color are supplied.
Plain Cheese Salad.
Cut Edam or ordinary American cheese into thin pieces, scatter them
over lettuce leaves, and serve with French dressing.
Olive and Pimiento Sandwich or Salad Cheese.
Mash any of the soft cream cheeses and add chopped olives and
pimientos in equal parts. This mixture requires much salt to make
it palatable to most palates, the amount depending chiefly on the
quantity of pimiento used. The mixture may be spread between thin
slices of bread or it may be made into a roll or molded, cut into
slices, and served on lettuce leaves with French dressing.
Cheese and Tomato Salad.
Stuff cold tomatoes with cream cheese and serve on lettuce leaves
with French dressing.
Cheese and Pimiento Salad.
Stuff canned pimientos with cream cheese, cut into slices, and
serve one or two slices to each person on lettuce leaves with
French dressing.
Cheese Jelly Salad.
½ cupful of grated cheese.
1 tablespoonful of gelatin.
1 cupful of whipped cream.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the cheese with the whipped cream, season to taste with salt
and pepper, and add to the gelatin dissolved in a scant cupful of
water. This may be molded in a large mold or in small molds.
When the jelly begins to harden, cover with grated cheese. The
jelly should be served on a lettuce leaf, preferably with a cream
dressing or a French dressing, to which a little grated cheese has
been added.
Cheese Salad and Preserves.
Epicures have devised a dish which consists of lettuce with
French dressing served with cream cheese and thick preparations
of currants or other fruits preserved in honey or sugar, which,
owing to the fact that the seeds have been extracted by a laborious
process, are fairly expensive. The soft cheese often found in
market is also relatively expensive. There is a suggestion in this
dish, however, for others which are much less costly. Buttermilk
cream (see p. 21), or ordinary cottage cheese served with lettuce
or other green salad and a small amount of rich homemade preserves,
is a combination with much the same character, and also very
appetizing.
Deviled Eggs with Cheese.
In making deviled eggs, either to be eaten alone or upon lettuce
leaves in the form of salad, a little grated cheese may be mixed
with the yolks in addition to the usual salad dressing and
flavorings with which the yolks are mixed.
Cheese and Celery.
Cut stalks of celery having deep grooves in them into pieces
about 2 inches long. Fill the grooves with cream cheese salted or
flavored with chopped pimientos, and serve with bread and butter as
a salad course or serve as a relish at the beginning of a meal.
Although not cheese dishes, strictly speaking, the following salad
dressings made with buttermilk cream (see p. 21) may be included in
this section.
Buttermilk Cream Salad Dressing.
½ cupful of buttermilk cream (see p. 21).
1 tablespoonful of vinegar.
¼ teaspoonful of salt.
Cayenne pepper.
This dressing is particularly suitable for serving with cucumbers.
Buttermilk Cream Horseradish Salad Dressing.
To buttermilk cream add a little grated horseradish and vinegar and
salt. Serve on whole or sliced tomatoes.
Cheese Sandwiches.
Mash or grate American cheese, add salt, a few drops of vinegar and
paprika, and a speck of mustard. Mix thoroughly and spread between
thin slices of bread.
Cheese and Anchovy Sandwiches.
To the mixture mentioned in the preceding recipe, add a little
anchovy essence. Sardines mashed or rubbed into a paste or any
other fish paste may be used in a similar way.
Pimiento, Olive, and Cheese Sandwiches.
These sandwiches are referred to on page 34.
Cuban Sandwiches.
This sandwich may be described as a kind of club sandwich with
cheese. It is usually made large so that it is necessary to eat it
with a knife and fork. It may be made in such proportions as to
supply a large amount of nourishment.
Cut the crusts from slices of bread. Between two slices lay first
lettuce with a little salad dressing or salt on it, then a slice
of soft mild cheese and finally thin slices of dill pickles or a
little chopped pickle.
Toasted Cheese Sandwiches.
Plain bread and butter sandwiches with fairly thick slices of
cheese put between the slices are frequently toasted, and on
picnics, or at chafing-dish suppers, are often browned in a pan in
which bacon has just been fried.
CHEESE PASTRY, CHEESE SWEETS, AND SIMILAR DISHES.
In the foregoing pages a large number of recipes have been included
in which cheese is combined with materials without cooking, as
in salads, or used in cooked dishes of creamy or custard-like
consistency, as in soufflés and Welsh rabbit or in combination with
vegetables or cereals, such as rice.
There are a number of cheese dishes of quite different character in
which the cheese is combined with dough, batter, or pastry in various
ways, and a number of dishes in which cheese or cheese curd is used
in combinations suitable for dessert. Such sweet dishes were once
much more common than they are to-day, as reference to old cookery
books will show, but some of them are well worth retaining.
In cheese sweets, flavor and richness are both contributed by the
cheese.
When cheese is used in pastry or dough it may serve simply as a
flavor, as in cheese sticks or cheese straws, or it may wholly or in
part replace with its fat the usual shortening, as butter or other
fat, and with its protein (casein) the protein (albumin) of eggs. As
an illustration of such a use of cheese, cheese gingerbread may be
cited.
Using cheese in this way is often an economy when eggs are scarce.
Better results will be obtained if soft cheese is used which can
be worked into the dough in much the same way as butter or other
shortening. To those who like cheese the flavor which it imparts
would be an advantage. However, if a very mild cheese is used in
combination with molasses or spice the dish differs a little in
flavor from one prepared in the usual way.
CHEESE PASTRIES AND SIMILAR DISHES.
Cheese Biscuit No. 1.
2 cupfuls of flour.
4 teaspoonfuls of baking powder.
2 tablespoonfuls of lard or butter.
⅞ of a cup of milk.
¼ teaspoonful of salt.
Grated cheese sufficient to give desired flavor.
Mix all the ingredients excepting the cheese as for baking powder
biscuits. Roll thin, divide into two parts, sprinkle one half with
grated cheese, lay the other half of the dough over the cheese, cut
out with a small cutter, and bake.
Cheese Biscuit No. 2.
¼ pound of soft cheese.
2 cupfuls of flour.
1 cupful of water.
4 teaspoonfuls of baking powder.
1½ teaspoonfuls of salt.
Mix and sift the dry ingredients, then work in the cheese with
a fork or with the fingers, and add the water gradually. The
approximate amount of water has been given; it is impossible to
give the exact amount, as flour differs in its capacity for taking
up moisture. Toss the dough on a floured board and roll out and
cut with a biscuit cutter. Place in a buttered pan and bake in a
quick oven from 12 to 15 minutes. The biscuit may be sprinkled with
cheese before being put into the oven.
If the cheese is sufficiently soft it can be measured just as
butter is. This recipe, then, would call for ½ cupful.
Cheese Drops.
2½ tablespoonfuls of milk.
1 teaspoonful of butter.
1¼ cupfuls of flour.
⅛ teaspoonful of salt.
1 egg.
2 tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese
or dry American cheese.
Heat the butter and milk to boiling point, add the flour and the
salt and stir thoroughly. Remove from the fire, add the egg and
cheese and stir until well mixed. When cold, drop in small pieces
in deep fat and brown. This makes a good addition to any clear soup
or to consommé.
Cheese Wafers.
Spread grated cheese on thin crackers, heat in the oven until the
cheese is melted. Serve with soup or salad.
Cheese Relish.
Spread bread which has been toasted or fried in deep fat with
grated cheese, or with grated cheese mixed with a little mustard,
then heat in the oven until the cheese is melted. This may be
served with salad, or as a relish to give flavor to some dish such
as boiled rice or hominy, which has no very marked flavor.
Cheese Straws.
Roll out plain or puff paste until one-fourth of an inch thick.
Spread one-half of it with grated cheese. Fold over the other half
and roll out again. Repeat the process three or four times. Cut
into strips and bake. Serve with soup or salad.
Salad Biscuit.
½ pound of cheese.
2 cupfuls of flour.
4 teaspoonfuls of baking powder.
1½ teaspoonfuls of salt.
1 cupful of water.
Mix as for cheese biscuits No. 1 or No. 2, depending on whether the
cheese is hard or soft. (See p. 36.)
Cheese Gingerbread No. 1.
1 cupful of molasses.
4 ounces of cheese.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
½ cupful of water.
2 cupfuls of flour.
2 teaspoonfuls of ginger.
½ teaspoonful salt.
Heat the molasses and the cheese in a double boiler until the
cheese is melted. Add the soda and stir vigorously. Mix and sift
dry ingredients and add them to the molasses and cheese alternately
with the water. Bake 15 minutes in small buttered tins.
Cheese Gingerbread No. 2.
½ cupful of molasses.
½ cupful of sugar.
4 ounces of cheese.
2 cupfuls of flour.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
2 teaspoonfuls of ginger.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
¾ cupful of water.
Rub the cheese and the sugar together. Add the molasses. Mix
and sift the dry ingredients and add them to the cheese mixture
alternately with the water.
Cheese Custard.
1 cupful of grated cheese.
½ cupful of cream or rich milk.
Yolks of 2 eggs.
A speck of salt and of paprika.
Mix the cream and the cheese and heat until the cheese is melted.
Remove from the fire and add the yolks of the eggs. Bake in paper
cases or buttered ramekins. Serve with jelly or preserves.
Cheese Cakes.
1 quart of milk.
Rennet.
1 ounce of sugar.
Yolks of 2 eggs.
A speck of nutmeg.
1½ ounces of butter.
1 ounce of dried currants or small raisins.
Warm the milk and add the rennet, using the amount prescribed on
the package. Let the milk stand until the curd forms, then break up
the curd and strain off the whey. Add the other ingredients to the
curd; line patty tins with pastry, fill them with the mixture, and
bake.
Brown Betty with Cheese.
Arrange in a deep earthenware baking dish, alternate layers of
bread crumbs and thinly sliced apples. Season with cinnamon, also a
little clove if desired and brown sugar. Scatter some finely shaved
mild full-cream cheese over each layer of apple. When the dish is
full, scatter bread crumbs over the top and bake 30 to 45 minutes,
placing the dish in a pan of water so that the pudding will not
burn.
If preferred, this may be sweetened with molasses mixed with an
equal amount of hot water and poured over the top, a half cupful of
molasses being sufficient for a quart pudding dish full.
Cheese may be used in place of butter in a similar way in other
apple puddings. Apple pie made with a layer of finely shaved cheese
over the seasoned apple and baked in the usual way is liked by many
who are fond of cheese served with apple pie.
CONCLUSION.
In the foregoing pages information has been summarized regarding the
food value of cheese, an important agricultural product, and ways of
preparing it for the table. It has been pointed out that, judged by
the kind of nutrients it supplies—chiefly nitrogenous material and
fat—and the proportion in which they are present, it resembles such
foodstuffs as meat, fish, and eggs, which means that like them its
rational use in the diet is in combination with other staple foods,
to form well-balanced meals.
Experiments have shown that when eaten either raw or carefully
cooked, cheese is as thoroughly digested as other staple foods and is
not likely to produce physiological disturbance.
An ounce of cheese roughly is equivalent to 1 egg, to a glass of
milk, or to 2 ounces of meat.