Four quarts of cider vinegar, five pounds of sugar, a quarter of a
pound of cinnamon, and two ounces of clove, to seven pounds of fruit.
Scald the vinegar and sugar together, and take off the scum; add the
spices and boil it up again, and pour it immediately upon the fruit.
Scald the vinegar twice more at intervals of three or four days, and
cover the jar close after it is poured in.
A less expensive way is found to be very good. Put four pounds of
sugar to eight of fruit, half the quantity of spice, a spoonful of
salt, and one also of powdered allspice.
TEA, COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, COCOA, ETC.
=Tea.=
See that the water boils. Scald the pot, and put in a teaspoonful for
each person. Upon green tea, pour a little water, and allow it to stand
two or three minutes where it will keep hot; then fill the pot from the
teakettle. Green tea should never be boiled, and it is rendered dead by
being steeped long.
Of black tea the same measure is used; the pot being filled up at
first, and set immediately upon the stove, just long enough to boil up
once. Water should be added to the teapot from the teakettle; never
from the water pot, as in that case it cannot be boiling hot. Black
and green tea are good mixed. If tea is made from a boiling urn at the
table, which is, on several accounts, a very good practice, make black
tea in the same way as green.
=To roast Coffee.=
As this must be done well in order to have good coffee, directions for
it may not be amiss. There are often little stones in coffee, of the
same color with it; therefore, pick it over carefully. If you have no
coffee-roaster, put it into a round-bottomed, iron kettle, and let it
be where it will be hot an hour or two without burning; then put it
where it will brown, and stir it constantly until it is done. If it is
left half a minute, the kernels next to the kettle may be burnt black,
and this is enough to injure all the rest. It should be a dark, rich
brown, but not black. Before taking it up, stir in a piece of butter
the size of a small nut. Put it, while steaming hot, into a box with a
close cover.
In a small family, not more than two pounds should be roasted at
once, as it loses its freshness by being roasted long before use. For
the same reason it should be ground as it is wanted. The practice of
grinding up a quantity for two or three weeks, is a poor one. The best
kinds are the Java and the Mocha, and it is considered an improvement
to mix the two. West India coffee, though of a different flavor, is
often very good.
=To make Coffee.=
Put a coffee-cup full into a pot that will hold three pints of water;
add the white of an egg, or a few shavings of isinglass, or a well
cleansed and dried bit of fish-skin of the size of a ninepence. Pour
upon it boiling water and boil it ten minutes. Then pour out a little
from the spout, in order to remove the grains that may have boiled into
it, and pour it back into the pot. Let it stand eight or ten minutes
where it will keep hot, but not boil; boiling coffee a great while
makes it strong, but not so lively or agreeable. If you have no cream,
boil a saucepan of milk, and after pouring it into the pitcher, stir
it now and then till the breakfast is ready, that the cream may not
separate from the milk.
If you use a coffee-biggin, let the coffee be ground very fine and
packed tight in the strainer; pour on boiling water, stop the spout of
the pot, shut the lid close, and place it upon a heater kept for the
purpose. This is made at the table.
=Coffee Milk.=
Put a dessert spoonful of ground coffee into a pint of milk; boil it
a quarter of an hour with a shaving or two of isinglass; then let it
stand ten minutes and pour it off.
=Chocolate.=
For those who use a great deal of chocolate, the following is an
economical method. Cut a cake into small bits and put them into a pint
of boiling water. In a few minutes set it off the fire and stir it
well till the chocolate is dissolved; then boil it again gently a few
minutes, pour it into a bowl, and set it in a cool place. It will keep
good eight or ten days. For use, boil a spoonful or two in a pint of
milk, with sugar.
=Another.=
Shave fine an inch wide across a cake of chocolate; pour on it a quart
of boiling water; boil it twenty minutes; add milk in such proportion
as you like, and boil it up again.
=Cocoa.=
The cracked cocoa is considered the best. Two large spoonfuls put into
three pints of cold water, and boiled from one to two hours, is a good
rule to make it for four or five persons. It should be boiled over
several times, as it is very strong. Boil milk for it by itself.
=To make the ground Cocoa.=
Boil two large spoonfuls in a quart of water half an hour; skim off the
oil, pour in three gills of milk, and boil it up again. It is the best
way to make it the day before it is used, as the oily substance can be
more perfectly removed when the cocoa is cold.
=Shells.=
Put a heaping teacupful to a quart of boiling water. Boil them a great
while. Half an hour will do, but two or three hours is far better.
Scald milk as for coffee. If there is not time to boil shells long
enough before breakfast, it is well to put them into the water over
night.
=Syrup of Cream.=
To a pint of fresh cream, put a pound and a quarter of loaf sugar; boil
it in an earthen pot or saucepan; pour it into a jar or basin, and let
it stand till it is cold; then put it into phials and cork close. It
will keep good for several weeks, and is convenient to carry to sea.
=To raise a Thick Cream.=
Put new milk into an earthen pan, and set it on a stove, or over clear
embers till it is quite hot. Then set it aside till the next day, and
it will produce excellent cream for coffee or fruit.
CONVENIENT COMMON DISHES, AND WAYS OF USING REMNANTS.
=Baked Pork and Beans.=
For a family of six or seven, take a quart of white beans, wash them
in several waters, and put them into two or three quarts over night.
In the morning (when it will be easier to cull out the bad ones, than
before they were soaked), pick them over, and boil them until they
begin to crack open; then put them into a brown pan, such as are made
for the purpose. Pour upon them enough of the water they were boiled
in almost to cover them. Cut the rind of about a pound of salt pork
into narrow strips; lay it on the top of the beans, and press it down
so that it will lie more than half its thickness in the water. Bake
several hours; four or five is not too much. Where a brick oven is
used, it is well to let beans remain in it over night. If they are
baked in a stove, or range, more water may be necessary, before they
are done.
Many persons think it a decided improvement to put in a large spoonful
or two of molasses. It is a very good way.
Those who object to the use of pork, can have a very good dish of
beans, by substituting two table-spoonfuls of nice beef-drippings, and
adding two teaspoonfuls of salt.
To heat over baked beans, put them in a spider with a little water;
heat them slowly at first, and cover close. If they are too moist,
remove the cover and stir them often.
=Salt meat and Vegetables, boiled together.=
Put in the beef first, and allow twenty-five minutes or half an hour
for every pound. Skim the water when it begins to simmer. An hour and a
half before the dinner-hour, put in the pork, well scraped and washed,
and again skim off the froth. Wash the vegetables with special care,
and allow for boiling turnips, carrots, and cabbage, an hour, or an
hour and a quarter; for parsnips three quarters, and for potatoes,
half an hour. If the potatoes are not pared, a small piece of the skin
should be cut off from each end. When the dinner is served, the pot
should be set away in a cool place, and the fat taken from the top the
next day, and put aside for soap grease. It will not be good for any
other use, as it will have the flavor of the vegetables.
=Remnants of Roast Beef.=
Take off with a sharp knife all the meat from the bones. If there are
a few nice slices, reserve them, if most convenient, to be eaten cold.
Chop the rest fine in a tray. Take cold gravy, without the fat, and
put into a spider to heat. If you have not this, some of the stock,
or water in which meat has been boiled. When it boils up, sprinkle in
salt, and put in the minced meat; cover it, and let it stand upon the
fire long enough to heat thoroughly, then stir in a small piece of
butter. Toast bread and lay in the dish and put the meat over it. The
common error in heating over meat, sliced or minced, is the putting it
into a cold spider, with too much fat, and cooking it a long time. This
makes it oily and tasteless. Almost all meats, when cooked a second
time, should be done very quick. The goodness of these dishes depends
much upon their being _served hot_.
=Another.=
When tomatoes are to be had, cut up several, according to the size of
your family, and the quantity of cold meat; put them into a covered
saucepan or kettle. When it boils put in the remnants, large and small,
of cold roast beef, and also of roast mutton and lamb, if you have
them. Add half a spoonful of brown sugar, salt, and a small bit of
butter unless you have cold gravy. This, with the fat taken off, is
nearly as good. Boil it again, fast, but only long enough to heat the
meat thoroughly. Five minutes is enough.
=Remnants of Boiled Meat.=
Chop fine cold pieces of soup meat, or other boiled meat, salt or
fresh; then add cold potatoes, and when these are chopped and mixed
with the meat, heat in a spider some cold soup, or water in which meat
has been boiled. As it boils up, put in the meat and potatoes, add
salt, and cover it close for two or three minutes, then stir in a small
piece of butter, let it stand a minute or two longer and then serve in
a warm dish.
=To heat over Beefsteak.=
Cut it up small, or chop it; put it into a spider or saucepan with a
little hot water. Season it with salt and a little butter.
All these dishes of remnants are much improved by using, instead
of water, some of the stock for which a receipt is given on page
123.
=Minced Veal.=
Chop fine the pieces left of roast veal. Heat the gravy in a spider,
or, if you have none left, melt a piece of butter half the size of an
egg in a gill of hot water; stir it till it is melted lest it become
oily. When it boils, put in the veal and cover it; stir it two or three
times in the course of eight or ten minutes; season it with salt and
pepper. Toast two or three slices of bread and lay in the dish. Put the
veal upon the toast.
=Brawn.=
Boil a hock of beef, and any little pieces you may have besides,
several hours. When the meat is ready to fall from the bones, take it
out into an earthen pan, salt it, and season it with pepper, sage, and
sweet marjoram. Put it into a coarse linen cloth or towel, twist it up
tight and lay a weight upon it. A good deal of fat will thus be pressed
out. When it has lain twenty-four hours take off the cloth. Cut thin
slices for breakfast. It is very good, and will keep in a cool place
several weeks. The water in which it was boiled will make excellent
soup, or stock for gravies.
=Head Cheese.=
Take the head, feet, ears, and tail of a hog, and boil them until every
bone falls out. Then take all the meat, both fat and lean, and put
into an earthen pan. Season it with salt, pepper, sage, cloves, and
summer savory, or any spice and herbs you may prefer. Put it into a
coarse cloth, twist it up, and lay a weight upon it. This is a favorite
article of food in some parts of the country, and certainly it is very
good. Great care is necessary in cleaning such giblets of pork.
Another economical use for them is to take out all the bones, as for
head cheese, and then return the meat to the liquor, boil it up,
and stir in Indian meal, just as in making hasty-pudding. Put in
considerable salt, and let it boil very moderately another hour and a
half. Then take it up in deep dishes, and when it is cold cut it in
slices and brown it on a griddle. A convenient breakfast article for
laborers, but too hearty for persons of sedentary habits.
=Souse.=
Take off the horny parts of the feet and toes of a pig, and clean the
feet, ears, and tail very thoroughly; then boil them till the large
bones slip out easily. Pack the meat into a stone jar, with pepper,
salt, and allspice sprinkled between each layer. Mix some good cider
vinegar with the liquor in which it was boiled, in the proportion of
one third vinegar to two thirds liquor, and fill up the jar.
=To boil Rice.=
Rice should be carefully picked over, and then washed first in warm
water, and rubbed between the hands; then, five or six times in a good
deal of cold water. It will not be white unless it is well washed.
To cook rice as a vegetable to be eaten with meat, put a pint into
three or four quarts of hot water, with a teaspoonful of salt for each
quart. Boil it fast fifteen minutes, then pour off the water, and set
it, uncovered upon the stove where it will not burn, to dry. Boiled in
this way, the kernels are separate, and it is considered, by those who
live in the rice growing countries, the best, if not the only proper
way of cooking it.
_To boil rice in milk_, is a very good way for families that keep cows,
as it is thus a nice substitute for a pudding. Put a pint of rice
into nearly two quarts of cold milk, an hour before dinner. Add two
teaspoonfuls of salt. Boil it very slowly, and stir it often. It will
cook on the back part of the range or stove, and not be liable to burn.
When the supply of milk is small, boil rice in skimmed milk, or milk
and water. It should, when boiled in a way to lose the distinct form
of the kernels, be taken up in a mould, or bowl, wet in cold water, a
short time before it is served.
=Cracked Wheat.=
Take one or two quarts, according to the size of the family, put it
into cold water and after stirring it well, let it settle, then pour
off the water, and add more, in the proportion of three quarts to a
quart of wheat. Let it stand over night, and the next day boil it very
moderately two or three hours. Add salt, and stir it very often lest it
should burn. If it becomes too thick, add more water. The evaporation
is more rapid at sometimes than at others. It should be not quite as
thick as hasty pudding. Take it up in dishes wet in cold water. To
brown it for breakfast, grease a tin or dripping pan, turn the wheat
out of the dish upon it, and set it into the stove oven. It will
become heated through, and handsomely browned in half an hour or forty
minutes, and many people like it thus, better than when it is first
boiled. Either way it is very nutritious and healthful.
=Hasty Pudding.=
Boil in a pot or kettle about six quarts of water, leaving room for
the addition of the meal; mix a pint bowl full of Indian meal and cold
water with a small spoonful of salt. When the water boils, stir this
into it. After thirty or forty minutes, stir in four or five handfuls
of dry meal, and let it boil as much longer; then add more dry meal.
Taste it to see if it is salt enough. Stir it very often to prevent its
burning. Most people make it too thick, and do not cook it half long
enough. Boil it, altogether, at least two hours. When taken out, it
should be so soft that it will in a few minutes settle down smooth in
the dish. If you wish to fry it, put a spoonful of water into each deep
pan or dish into which it is to be put, to keep it from sticking.
=Hasty Pudding fried.=
Cut cold pudding in slices the thickness of your finger, and lay them
on the griddle. More fat will be necessary than for buckwheat cakes,
but it fries much slower. If the fire is right it will be ready to turn
in fifteen minutes, and will be brown. Turn it and let it lie about
half as long as on the first side.
This is a very good breakfast for a winter morning. It does very nicely
to be laid in the dripping-pan, and set into a stove oven; it will in
that case not need turning, and of course will absorb less fat. It will
take forty minutes to brown it in the stove.
=Pan Pie.=
The sour apples that drop from the trees early in the autumn, make an
excellent pan pie without being pared. The skin then contains much of
the richness of the apple, and is often so thin, that when cooked, it
cannot be distinguished from the pulp. There are few articles of diet
so healthy and palatable as pan pie, that are prepared with so little
trouble and expense.
Where a brick oven is used, the following is a good receipt.
Take a potters ware pan, that will hold a gallon, and fill it with
apples, quartered and cored; in winter pare the apples; roll out a
piece of light bread dough, and lay upon the top; butter the edge of
the pan to prevent the dough from sticking to it; cut an opening in the
crust to allow the steam to escape, and put it into the oven. After
about two hours draw it out and remove the crust, sweeten it with good
molasses, or, if you choose, coarse sugar. Some persons use both. Put
in a few sticks of cinnamon or some allspice, and a piece of butter
as large as a nut. Stir it up thoroughly from the bottom. Your taste
must guide you as to the quantity of sugar or molasses. Break up the
bread crust and put into the apple. If it is very moist, return the pan
uncovered to the oven; but if dry enough, cover it with an old plate;
let it stand four or five hours.
There are various ways of making this dish. Some persons prefer to put
in the molasses at first, and others use only sugar. It is very easy
to improve it by rolling a little butter into the dough, exactly as in
pie-crust; and if this is done once only, it makes the crust much more
tender. Some persons put any crusts or pieces of bread they happen to
have, into the apple, and if the crust that was baked with it is thin,
it is a very good way.
=Another.=
To make a pan pie to bake in a stove oven, or range, cover the bottom
of a deep dish with a layer of stewed apple; spread over it brown sugar
enough to make it sweet, scatter in a little powdered cinnamon, and add
two or three bits of butter the size of a filbert; then lay in pieces
of plain pie crust or biscuit, baked rather brown, or crusts of light
bread; spread a thick layer of apple over the pieces, scatter more
cinnamon, and pour over the whole molasses enough to sweeten the upper
layer of apple, then bake it in a moderate heat an hour and a half, or
two hours. It is the best way to make it while the stewed apple is hot.
=Crumb Cakes.=
Keep a bowl or pitcher with sour milk in it, and from time to time
throw in the crumbs of bread which break off when it is sliced,
and also the dry pieces left of the table. When you next want
griddle-cakes, take this mixture and break up all the pieces with your
hand, add an egg, salt, and saleratus, and a few spoonfuls of flour.
If the proportion of bread is too great, the cakes will not be good.
Experience must teach, as no exact rule can be given.
=Milk Toast.=
Put a quart of milk, except two or three spoonfuls, to boil; rub smooth
a small table-spoonful of flour in the reserved milk; when that in the
saucepan begins to boil, stir in a piece of butter, rather larger than
an egg, cut up in little bits. Stir steadily until it is all melted;
then stir in the flour, and add a teaspoonful of salt. When it boils
up again, set it where it will keep hot, without boiling, while the
bread is toasted. Bread is not good when it is dried in the process of
toasting; it should be browned quickly, and dipped while it is hot.
If you have cream, boil it without adding any butter; when boiled, put
in a little salt, and a very little flour rubbed smooth in a spoonful
of milk; dip the slices of toasted bread, and let them remain half a
minute; then lay them into a hot dish with a cover, and pour over the
remainder of the boiled cream.
=Bruiss.=
Take crusts of brown bread, and if they are dry and hard, lay them over
night in a little water. In the morning add milk and boil them slowly.
Take care they do not burn. Sprinkle in salt, and just before you take
them up, add a little butter. If there is too much milk, take off the
lid the latter part of the time. Take up the pieces as whole as you can.
Crusts of white bread make a good breakfast dish, in the same way,
except that they do not need soaking over night.
=Uses for pieces of Bread.=
In some families there is always an accumulation of pieces of bread,
and a good deal of ingenuity is necessary to prevent waste. If bread
is good, and proper care is taken, such a thing as a plate of dry
pieces is needless. Some families never have them. But for the benefit
of those who, from any cause, cannot always prevent it, the following
modes for making good use of pieces are suggested. A bread pudding is
easily made, by boiling the pieces in milk. You can make as rich a
pudding as you choose, by adding sugar, eggs, suet, spice, and raisins;
or as plain a one, putting no sugar, two eggs, and a few sliced apples
to a quart of milk, and boil or bake it. Make crumb cakes of some of
the pieces. Boil a dish of others in milk for breakfast. If you are
cooking meat that requires or admits of a stuffing, soften crusts with
a very little boiling water, add butter, herbs, and a beaten egg. In
summer, when bread becomes mouldy from long keeping, lay the pieces
which cannot be used immediately, upon a tin and dry them in the oven;
they are as good pounded for puddings and crumb cakes as before drying,
and as nice to dress a ham as cracker crumbs. Nice pieces of bread are
good in pan pie, and also in stewed tomato.
It is a good way to have a small board upon which to slice bread; and
brush the crumbs from it into a box, or dish kept for the purpose. Such
things may seem of little consequence, but the beneficial influence
of economical habits is not limited to the actual value of the amount
saved.
=Care of Fat and Drippings.=
In a large family, where much meat is consumed, the care of the fat
and drippings is an important item; and every housekeeper should know
what is done with them.[15] If she has a young cook, she probably will
not be acquainted with the various ways of preventing them from being
wasted; if one who is experienced, she may not always care to take the
trouble. When meat is of a superior quality, there is usually some
fat which should be trimmed off before it is cooked, and more will
then roast out, than can be properly used for gravy; therefore, about
three quarters of an hour before the meat is done, pour off all the
drippings from the roaster, into a dish, and set them away to cool.[16]
Save all the nice pieces of fat, and put those that are not so into the
soap-grease. In warm weather, the good pieces should be clarified once
in three or four days; in winter, once a week. If you have boiled lamb,
or boiled beef which has been slightly salted, take the fat which cools
on the top of the liquor, and add to that poured off from the roaster;
scrape off any specks which may be on the under side of it. To clarify,
cut small all the pieces saved, and put them into a small kettle; cover
it, and put it on the stove or range where it will not burn. It should
be tried slowly; stir it occasionally. When it looks clear, the cakes
of drippings, the pieces from the top of the pot, &c., should be added.
As soon as it again becomes clear, pour it through a little sieve, or
colander with very small holes.
[15] The custom of giving them to the cook as her perquisite, besides
being wasteful is productive of various evils.
[16] See the directions for making gravies.
Fat thus clarified will save butter. It makes very good plain
gingerbread and common pie-crust, or if preferred, can be used in each
of these with half butter; it is as good as lard, to fry doughnuts
or biscuit, and much more healthful; and though not equal for frying
fish, to salt pork, does very well for this purpose. It is well to
keep a small stone jar for such fat. A brown earthen one soon becomes
saturated with it, and smells disagreeably.
The fat of mutton should not be put with other kinds, as it is very
hard and tallow-like, and the taste is not agreeable. It however does
very well to use on the griddle, or to grease pans for bread.
The fat which is not nice enough for any of these uses, should (unless
it is more convenient to dispose of it to the soap boiler) be tried
for the purpose of making soap. It should be kept in a dry place where
it will not mould, and be covered so that flies will not visit it. Two
receipts are given (see page 197) for making soap with very little
trouble.
=To make Soap with Potash.=