round is seldom tender enough, and is very good cooked in other ways.
Do not cut your slices very thick. Have the gridiron perfectly clean.
Set it over moderately hot coals at first, and turn the steaks in less
than a minute. Turn them repeatedly. If the fat makes a blaze under
the gridiron, put it out by sprinkling fine salt on it. Steaks will
broil in about seven minutes. Have ready a hot dish, and sprinkle each
piece with salt, and a little pepper; lay on small pieces of butter,
and cover close. This is a much better way than to melt the butter in
the dish before taking up the meat. Some persons keep a small pair of
tongs on purpose to turn beef-steaks, as using a fork wastes the juice.
Steaks should be served hot as possible.
=Stuffed Beef Steak.=
Take a thick and tender slice of rump, of about two pounds weight;
make two gills of stuffing, of crumbs of bread, pepper, salt, and
powdered clove, or sweet marjoram, as you choose; roll the dressing up
in the steak, wind a piece of twine around it, taking care to secure
the ends. Have ready a kettle or deep stew-pan, with a slice or two of
pork fried crisp. Take out the pork and lay in the steak, and turn it
on every side, until it is brown. Then put in two gills of the stock,
or of water in which meat has been boiled; sprinkle in a little salt,
cover close, and stew slowly an hour and a half. Add more water after a
while, if it becomes too dry. Some persons like the addition of chopped
onion. There should, however, be very little; half of a small one is
enough. When nearly done, add half a gill of catsup. When you take up
the meat, unwind the string carefully, so as not to unroll it. Lay it
in a fricassee dish, thicken the gravy, if not thick enough already,
and pour it over the meat. Cut the meat in slices through the roll.
=Tomato Steak.=
Take two pounds of beef; cut it in small strips, and put it into
the pot with seven medium-sized tomatoes. Stew it very slowly. Add a
dessert spoonful of sugar, salt, a little clove, and, just before you
take it up, a dessert spoonful of butter. If you have tomato catsup,
add a little, and if you like chopped onion, that also. Very tender
beef is, of course, to be preferred; but that which is tough becomes
more palatable in this than in almost any other way. This dish is quite
as good, if not better, heated over the next day.
=Alamode Beef (in a plain way).=
Take a thick piece of flank, or, if most convenient, the thickest part
of the round, weighing six or eight pounds, for a small family of four
or five persons. Cut off the strips of coarse fat upon the edge, make
incisions in all parts, and fill them with a stuffing made of bread,
salt pork chopped, pepper, and sweet marjoram. Push whole cloves here
and there into the meat; roll it up, fasten it with skewers, and wind
a strong twine or tape about it. Have ready a pot in which you have
fried to a crisp three or four slices of salt pork; take out the pork,
lay in the beef, and brown every side. When well browned, add hardly
water enough to cover it, chop a large onion fine, add eighteen or
twenty cloves, and boil it gently, but steadily, three or four hours,
according to the size. The water should boil away so as to make a rich
gravy, but be careful it does not burn. When you take up the beef, add
browned flour to the gravy, if it needs to be thickened.
=Another (more rich).=
Take seven or eight pounds of the upper part of the round, cut off
the coarse fat upon the side, and make deep incisions in every part.
To a pint bowl of bread crumbs, put pepper, powdered clove, a small
nutmeg, a teaspoonful of salt, some whole allspice, a large spoonful
of butter, and, if you choose, a very little chopped salt pork, and
two beaten eggs. Mix these ingredients well together, and fill the
incisions, but reserve a part of the stuffing. Put in two or three
skewers horizontally, near the edges, and tie twine across to keep in
the stuffing. Push whole cloves into the meat here and there. Lay it,
when thus prepared, into a bake-pan or stew-pan, having a lid which may
be heated; put in water enough just to cover it, and set it where it
will simmer, but not quite boil. Have the lid heated, and a few embers
laid over it. After two hours, pour upon the top the stuffing which
you reserved, heat the lid again, and cover the meat. Let it stew two
hours more. If the gravy is too thin, add browned flour and boil it up
again. Some persons use red wine, but it is very good without. Half the
quantity of meat and stuffing for a small family.
=Stewed Brisket of Beef.=
Put three or four pounds of brisket into a kettle, and cover it with
water. Take off the scum as it rises. Let it boil steadily two hours.
Then take it from the pot and brown it with butter in a spider. When it
is browned on every side, return it to the kettle, and stew it gently
five hours more. Add more water if it boils away. Put in a carrot and
a turnip or two, cut small, an onion also; a few cloves, and salt and
pepper as you think necessary. Half an hour before dinner add tomato
or mushroom catsup. To serve it, lay the beef upon a dish, and strew
capers over it. The water in which it was stewed is a nice soup.
=Stewed Tongue.=
Boil a fresh tongue three hours, and if the skin does not easily come
off, boil it longer. Remove the skin; strain the water in which it
was boiled. Wash the pot, and return the tongue to it, with enough of
the strained liquor to cover it. Put in it a carrot, a turnip, and an
onion, cut fine, and a table-spoonful of powdered clove and also of
ground pepper, tied up in muslin bags. Boil the tongue gently two hours
and a half. About fifteen minutes before it is taken up, toast two
slices of bread without the crust, cut it up in small bits, and put it
into the pot. When you dish it up, put about a pint of the liquor and
vegetables round the tongue in a fricassee dish.
=To Boil Corned Beef.=
Wash it thoroughly, and put it into a pot that will hold plenty of
water. The water should be cold; the same care is necessary in skimming
it as for fresh meat. It is not too much to allow forty minutes for
every pound, after it has begun to boil. The goodness of corned beef
depends much on its being boiled gently and long. If it is to be eaten
cold, lay it into a coarse earthen dish or pan, and over it a piece of
board the size of the meat. Upon this put a clean stone or some other
heavy weight. Salt meat is very much improved by being pressed.
=To Roast Mutton.=
Any part may be roasted, but the leg is the best. Allow fifteen minutes
for a pound, and do according to the directions for roasting meat.
=To Boil a Leg of Mutton or Lamb.=
Cut off the shank bone. Have water enough to cover the meat. If the pot
is well skimmed, the water will make excellent broth for another day.
A leg of lamb is a very nice dish if boiled well. It requires a little
more time in proportion to the size than mutton, as mutton is good done
rare, while lamb is neither good or healthy, unless well done.
Most people like capers, and drawn butter with mutton and lamb, and cut
parsley added is an improvement.
=Mutton or Lamb Steaks.=
Have the leg cut into steaks at the market, or by the butcher. If
this has not been done, you can do it yourself with a sharp knife. Cut
through the largest part first; have the slices about the thickness of
your finger; separate them from the bone neatly. Broil exactly like
beef steak. The bone and fragments which are left will make a good
broth.
=Roast Lamb.=
If it is a hind quarter, and very fat, take off the thickest from the
kidneys; place it on the spit, or in the dripping-pan as it should lie
on the dish, slightly drawn up. Do exactly as in roasting beef. An hour
and a half will suffice to roast a quarter weighing five or six pounds.
The breast of lamb is very sweet and requires about as much roasting as
the hind quarter.
=Stewed or Alamode Lamb.=
Pick off all the fat from a nice leg of lamb, or small leg of mutton.
Cut off the shank, make deep incisions in various parts of the inside;
fill them with stuffing made of crumbs of bread, salt pork, sweet
marjoram, and pepper; stuff it very full. Fry two or three slices of
pork crisp in the pot, then take them out, and lay in the leg; brown it
on every side, then put hardly water enough into the pot to cover it.
Throw in a dozen or two of cloves, half an onion sliced or chopped very
fine, and a little salt. A half a teacup of catsup or a few tomatoes
added half an hour before it is served, improve it very much. Let it
simmer, steadily, three hours.
When you take up the leg, thicken the gravy, if it is not thick enough.
Put a few spoonfuls over the meat, and the rest in a gravy tureen.
=To Roast a Fillet of Veal.=
Veal requires more time than any other meat except pork. It is
scarcely ever done too much. A leg weighing eight or nine pounds
should roast three hours. If your family is large, so that most of it
will be eaten the first day, it is best to take out the bone, which
is easily done with a sharp knife, the knuckle having been cut off by
the butcher. Put this bone aside with the knuckle for a broth. If you
design to use what is left cold for dinner the next day, let the bone
remain in, as it keeps the leg in better shape. Prepare a stuffing
of bread, pepper, salt pork, and sweet marjoram; make deep incisions
in the meat and fill them with it. Fasten the fold of fat which is
usually upon the fillet over the stuffed incisions with a skewer. Roast
it slowly at first. Put into the dripping-pan some hot water with a
little salt in it, or some of the stock. When the meat has roasted
about an hour, flour it thickly, and skewer upon it four or five slices
of salt pork. After the flour has become brown, baste the veal every
fifteen minutes. If it is very good veal, the pork will flavor it
without the addition of any butter; but if not, or if you wish it to
be particularly nice, add a small piece of butter to the gravy in the
roaster, before you begin to baste the meat. In cutting the incisions,
endeavor to make them wider inside than at the surface, so that the
stuffing may not fall out. See the directions (page 123) for making the
gravy.
=A Loin of Veal.=
A breast or a loin of veal should be basted a great many times and
roasted thoroughly. It is an improvement to put on slices of pork as in
cooking the leg. Allow two hours for roasting; more, if it is large.
=Veal Pot Pie.=
Take the neck, the shank, and almost any pieces you have. Boil them
long enough to skim off all the froth. Make a paste and roll it about
half an inch thick. Butter the pot and lay in the crust, cutting out a
piece on each side of the circle in such a way as to prevent its having
thick folds. Put in a layer of meat, then flour, salt and pepper it,
and add a little butter or a slice or two of salt pork, as you choose.
Do this until you have laid in all your meat; pour in enough of the
water in which the veal was boiled to half fill the kettle, then lay
on the top-crust and make an incision in it to allow the escape of
the steam. Watch that it does not burn, and pour in more of the water
through the hole in the crust if necessary. Boil an hour and a half.
The objection to this dish is, that boiled crust is apt to be heavy,
and therefore unhealthy; but if it is made after the receipt for cream
tartar biscuit, or of potato crust, it will be light.
=Baked Veal Pie.=
This is made in the same way as the boiled. The dish should be very
deep, and when you are ready to lay on the upper crust, wet the edge of
the under crust all around and flour it; then lay on the upper crust
and press your hand upon the edge, so that the flour and water will
make it adhere, and thus prevent the gravy from escaping. Prick the top
several times with a large fork. If you have pieces of crust left, cut
them into leaves and ornament the pie. Bake it an hour and a half.
=Stewed Breast of Veal.=
Cut it into handsome pieces and fry it brown, either in drippings, or
the fat fried out of salt pork. Brown all parts thoroughly; then pour
in hot water enough barely to cover it. Add lemon peel cut fine and
sweet marjoram. Cover it close as possible, and stew it gently two
hours; then pour off the liquor into a sauce-pan, and thicken it with
browned flour. Take up the veal into a hot fricassee dish, and pour the
gravy over it.
Always allow half an hour for frying veal brown. No other meat requires
as much time.
=Veal Cutlets.=
Take slices from the broad end of the leg. Fry three or four slices
of salt pork crisp, then take them out, lay in the veal half an hour
at least before dinner time. When it has become brown, take it out and
dip the slices, one by one, into a plate of fine bread crumbs, then fry
them a few minutes longer. When done through, take them up on a hot
dish, pour hot water into the spider or frying pan, and instantly when
it boils up dredge in a little flour; pour it over the meat. Lay the
slices of pork around the edge of the dish.
The best veal is to be had at the time when winter vegetables are not
very good, and fresh ones have not come into market. Horseradish,
spring cranberries, or fresh lemons are therefore the more acceptable
with it.
=Broiled Veal.=
It must not be done too fast, and will take longer than beef. It is a
great improvement to broil pork and lay between the slices of veal.
Lay them upon the meat while it is broiling, and if they are not brown
when the veal is done, put them a few minutes longer on the gridiron.
If pork is not used, season with butter. In either case, add pepper and
salt.
=Calf's Head.=
Let the head, feet, liver and lights, soak some hours in a plenty of
cold water. Take out the brains. Boil the head, &c., till very tender,
which will require from two hours to two and a half. Throw some salt
into the water, and skim it thoroughly. Boil the brains ten or fifteen
minutes, tied up in a piece of muslin; chop them, and put them with
melted butter, and parsley cut fine. If you choose, boil an egg hard,
cut it up and add it. Cold calf's head is good. It is also good hashed.
To make it into soup the second day, see the receipt under the head of
Soups.
=Melton Veal, or Veal Cake.=
Cut three or four pounds of raw veal, and half as much ham, into small
pieces. If you have the remains of cooked veal or ham, add them. Boil
six eggs hard, cut them in slices, and lay some of them in the bottom
of a deep brown pan; shake in a little minced parsley; lay in some of
the pieces of veal and ham, then add more egg, parsley, pepper, and
salt; then more meat, and again parsley, pepper, and salt, till all the
meat is laid in. Lastly add water enough just to cover it, and lay on
about an ounce of butter shaved thin; tie over it a double paper, bake
it an hour, then remove the paper, press it down with a spoon, and lay
a small plate with a weight upon it, and let it remain another hour in
the oven. When cold, it will cut in slices.
=Venison.=
Roast a haunch like a loin or leg of veal, and about as long. Flour
it thickly. Put some of the stock for gravies, or water in which beef
has been boiled, into the pan, and baste it often. Half an hour before
serving it add a table-spoonful of butter to the gravy, and baste it
again and again.
If you use _blazes_ at the table, roast it but an hour. Most persons
like venison cooked simply, without spices. But if you choose to have a
dressing, make it as for veal, with the addition of powdered clove.
Venison steaks are cooked like beef steaks.
=To Roast a Pig.=
It should not be more than a month old. It is better a little less,
and it should be killed on the morning of the day it is to be cooked.
Sprinkle fine salt over it an hour before it is put to the fire. Cut
off the feet at the first joint. Make stuffing enough to fill it very
full, of bread crumbs moistened with a little milk, a small piece of
butter, sweet marjoram, sage, pepper, and salt. When placed on the
spit, confine the legs in such a manner as to give it a good shape. Rub
it all over with butter or sweet oil, to keep it from blistering. Flour
it at first a little. As soon as it begins to brown, dredge on a _very_
thick covering of flour. Turn the spit every three or four minutes.
If the flour falls off, instantly renew it. When it has all become of
a dark brown color, scrape it off into a plate and set it aside. Put
a piece of butter into the gravy in the roaster, and baste the pig
very often, till it is done, which it is when the eyes fall out. The
feet and liver should be boiled an hour or two, and the gravy from the
roaster be poured into the water in which they were boiled. The liver
should be cut or mashed fine, and the feet cut open and returned to
the sauce-pan, the brains taken out and added, and the gravy thickened
with the browned flour reserved in the plate. A pig of a month old will
roast in two hours and a half.
=A Shoulder of Pork.=
One weighing ten pounds will require full three hours and a half to
roast it. For a small family divide it, and roast one half and corn
the other. With a sharp knife score the skin in diamonds, or in strips
about an inch wide. Make a dressing, as directed under the head of
Stuffing of Various Kinds. Put this into deep incisions made in the
thick part of the meat. Rub a little fine powdered sage into the skin
where it is scored; and then rub the whole surface with sweet oil, or
drippings, to prevent its blistering. Observe the directions respecting
the basting and frequent turning of meat. Pork burns very easily, and
both the taste and appearance are much injured by its being burnt.
=Spare-rib or Chine.=
A spare-rib requires an hour and a half or two hours, according to the
thickness. A very thin one will roast in an hour and a half. Flour
it well, and take care it does not burn. Baste it often. The chine
requires a longer time, being a thicker piece. It is more healthy,
because less fat than the spare-rib, and having more meat in proportion
to the bone, is a more economical piece. Before roasting either, trim
off neatly, with a sharp knife, all the fat which can be removed
without disfiguring the piece, and set it aside to be tried and used as
lard.
=Pork Steaks.=
Cut slices from the loin or neck.
To fry pork steaks requires twenty-five or thirty minutes. Turn them
often. If they are quite fat, pour off all that fries out when they are
half done, and reserve it for some other use. Then dip the steaks in
crumbs of bread with a little powdered sage, and lay them back into the
frying-pan. When done through, take them up, dredge a little browned
flour into the gravy, put in salt, pour in a gill of boiling water, and
turn it instantly, as it boils up, upon the dish of steaks.
=To Fry Sausages.=
Sausages may be kept for some time, but fresh ones are considered best.
Separate them, prick them to prevent their bursting, and lay them in a
spider. If they are properly made, they will need no fat to fry them.
Cook them slowly, at first, but brown every side of them before taking
them up. They cook very well laid in a pan and set in a cooking-stove,
but must be turned often, and care taken that they do not burn. Some
persons fry bread in the fat which remains, in this way. Dip slices
of bread, or crusts which have been cut and become dry, in salt and
water, and lay them in the spider as soon as you take out the sausages.
When brown one side, turn them. Serve them with the sausages. It takes
twenty minutes to fry sausages in a spider, and half an hour to cook
them in a stove. For those persons whose health is injured by eating
them, it is best to lay them into a little water, and cook them thus,
as long as they are usually fried, then pour off the water and brown
them. This renders them comparatively harmless. The bread, fried as
directed, does not absorb much fat.
=To Boil a Ham or Shoulder.=
A ham, weighing twelve pounds, should be cooked four or five hours.
Boil it slowly in a plenty of water half the time it should be cooked;
then take off the skin and any excrescences that were not removed by
washing. Cover the fat side with pounded cracker, and lay it in a
dripping pan, or iron basin, and put it into the stove. Let it remain
the other half of the time.
The baking roasts out a great quantity of fat, and leaves the meat
much more delicate. In warm weather it will keep in a dry, cool place,
a long time. If after ten days you perceive a tendency to mould, set it
a little while into the oven again. It is often a more agreeable dinner
in hot weather than fresh meat.
If a ham is very salt, it should lie in water over night. In baking it,
care should be taken that it is not done too much, and thus made hard.
If the oven is a brick one and holds the heat a long time, it will do
to put it in when the bread is taken out.
The fat which bakes out is good to fry eggs or potatoes, and if not
strong, will do to use on the griddle.
=To Fry Ham.=
Cut thin slices, and take off the rind; if very salt, pour hot water
upon them, but do not suffer them to lie long in it, as the juices of
the meat will be lost. Wipe them in a cloth; have the spider ready hot,
lay in the pieces and turn them in a minute or two. They will cook in a
very short time. The secret of having good fried ham is in cooking it
quick, and not too much. The practice of cutting thick slices, laying
them into a cold spider and frying a long time, makes ham black and
hard. It needs nothing added, but to be laid upon a hot covered dish.
=To Broil Ham.=
Cut the slices very thin, for which you must have a sharp knife; pare
off the rind; lay them on the gridiron over hot coals. Do not leave
them a moment, as they must be almost immediately turned, and will need
attention to keep the edges from burning. Two minutes will broil them.
=To Fry Salt Pork.=
Cut slices and lay them in cold water in the spider; boil them up two
or three minutes, then pour off the water and set the spider again on
the coals and brown the slices on each side. Fried pork, with baked
potatoes, and baked or fried sour apples, makes a very good dinner. It
is an improvement to dip the pork, after being par-boiled, into Indian
meal, before frying it.
=Frizzled Smoked Beef.=
Shave thin slices, and put them in a teacupful of milk into a small
kettle or sauce-pan; boil it a few minutes, and then add a small bit of
butter and an egg beaten with a teaspoonful of flour, and stir well.
Put a little more milk to it if needed.
[Smoked beef is good in poached eggs, but in that case the beef should
be boiled a few minutes in the milk before the eggs are added. The last
remnants of a ham may be scraped from the bone, and put into poached
eggs, but will not need the boiling which is necessary in the case of
the smoked beef.]
=To Shave Smoked Beef.=
Use a very thin-bladed, sharp knife, and shave as thin as the thinnest
paper. Do not attempt to cut it across the whole piece; no matter how
small the shavings are, if they are but thin.
TO LAY MEAT AND POULTRY ON THE DISH FOR THE TABLE.
Lay a sirloin of beef with the tenderloin down, and the thick end
towards the left hand of the person who carves.
A loin of veal or a quarter of lamb, with the thick edge toward the
carver, and the inside uppermost. A leg of veal, with the inside up,
and the thick end toward the right hand. A leg of mutton or lamb in the
same way. A fore quarter of lamb or a breast of veal, with the outside
up, and the thick edge toward the carver. A ham, with the outside up,
and the thick end toward the right hand. A turkey or goose upon the
back, with the neck toward the left hand. Fowls on the back, and if
there is more than one, with the legs toward the carver.
The appearance of a fowl or turkey when on the table, depends much on
its having been handsomely skewered.
TO SELECT POULTRY AND PREPARE IT FOR BEING COOKED.
A young turkey has a smooth leg, and a soft bill, and if fresh, the
eyes will be bright, and the feet moist. Old turkeys have scaly, stiff
feet.
Young fowls have a tender skin, smooth legs, and the breast bone
readily yields to the pressure of the finger. The best are those that
have yellow legs. The feet and legs of old fowls look as if they had
seen hard service in the world.
Young ducks feel tender under the wing, and the web of the foot is
transparent. The best are thick and hard on the breast.
Young geese have yellow bills, and the feet are yellow and supple; the
skin may be easily broken by the head of a pin; the breast is plump,
and the fat white. An old goose is unfit for the human stomach.