A
HANDBOOK OF COOKERY
THE ART AND PRACTICE OF INNKEEPING.
By ALEXANDER F. PART.
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A GUIDE TO MODERN COOKERY.
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THE COMPLETE INDIAN HOUSEKEEPER AND COOK.
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THE BELGIAN COOK BOOK
Edited by Mrs. BRIAN LUCK.
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_London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, Ltd._
A
HANDBOOK OF COOKERY
FOR A SMALL HOUSE
BY
JESSIE CONRAD
_With a preface by_
Joseph Conrad
[Illustration: Publisher logo]
London
WILLIAM HEINEMANN, Ltd.
_First published, February, 1923._
_Printed in Great Britain_
PREFACE
Of all the books produced since the most remote ages by human talents
and industry those only that treat of cooking are, from a moral point
of view, above suspicion. The intention of every other piece of prose
may be discussed and even mistrusted; but the purpose of a cookery book
is one and unmistakable. Its object can conceivably be no other than to
increase the happiness of mankind.
This general consideration, and also a feeling of affectionate interest
with which I am accustomed to view all the actions of the writer,
prompt me to set down these few words of introduction for her book.
Without making myself responsible for her teaching (I own that I find
it impossible to read through a cookery book) I come forward modestly
but gratefully as a Living Example of her practice. That practice I
dare pronounce most successful. It has been for many priceless years
adding to the sum of my daily happiness.
Good cooking is a moral agent. By good cooking I mean the conscientious
preparation of the simple food of every-day life, not the more or less
skillful concoction of idle feasts and rare dishes. Conscientious
cooking is an enemy to gluttony. The trained delicacy of the palate
like a cultivated delicacy of sentiment stands in the way of unseemly
excesses. The decency of our life is for a great part a matter of good
taste, of the correct appreciation of what is fine in simplicity. The
intimate influence of conscientious cooking by rendering easy the
processes of digestion promotes the serenity of mind, the graciousness
of thought, and that indulgent view of our neighbours’ failings which
is the only genuine form of optimism. Those are its titles to our
reverence.
A great authority upon North American Indians accounted for the sombre
and excessive ferocity characteristic of these savages by the theory
that as a race they suffered from perpetual indigestion. The Noble
Red Man was a mighty hunter but his wives had not mastered the art of
conscientious cookery. And the consequences were deplorable. The Seven
Nations around the Great Lakes and the Horse-tribes of the Plains were
but one vast prey to raging dyspepsia. The Noble Red Men were great
warriors, great orators, great masters of outdoor pursuits; but the
domestic life of their wigwams was clouded by the morose irritability
which follows the consumption of ill-cooked food. The gluttony of their
indigestible feasts was a direct incentive to counsels of unreasonable
violence. Victims of gloomy imaginings, they lived in abject submission
to the wiles of a multitude of fraudulent medicine men--quacks--who
haunted their existence with vain promises and false nostrums from the
cradle to the grave.
It is to be remarked that the quack of modern civilisation, the vendor
of patent medicine, preys mainly upon the races of Anglo-Saxon stock
who are also great warriors, great orators, mighty hunters, great
masters of outdoor pursuits. No virtues apparently will avail for
happiness if the righteous art of cooking be neglected by the national
conscience. We owe much to the fruitful meditations of our sages, but a
sane view of life is, after all, elaborated mainly in the kitchen--the
kitchen of the small house, the abode of the preponderant majority
of the people. And a sane view of life excludes the belief in patent
medicine. The conscientious cook is the natural enemy of the quack
without a conscience; and thus his labours make for the honesty and
favour the amenity of our existence. For a sane view of life can be
no other than kindly and joyous, but a believer in patent medicine
is steeped in the gloom of vague fears, the sombre attendants of
disordered digestion.
Strong in this conviction I introduce this little book to the
inhabitants of the little houses who are the arbiters of the nation’s
destiny. Ignorant of the value of its methods I have no doubt whatever
as to its intention. It is highly moral. There cannot be the slightest
question as to that; for is it not a cookery book?--the only product of
the human mind altogether above suspicion.
In that respect no more need, or indeed can, be said. As regards the
practical intention I gather that no more than the clear and concise
exposition of elementary principles has been the author’s aim. And this
too is laudable, because modesty is a becoming virtue in an artist. It
remains for me only to express the hope that by correctness of practice
and soundness of precept this little book will be able to add to the
cheerfulness of nations.
JOSEPH CONRAD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
A FEW INTRODUCTORY WORDS 1
ON KITCHEN REQUISITES 4
TREATMENT OF VEGETABLES 8
BREAKFAST DISHES, ENTRÉES, SAVOURIES,
STUFFINGS, SAUCES, HORS D’ŒUVRES, SANDWICHES 25
SOUPS AND STOCKS 63
BEEF 71
MUTTON 78
VEAL AND PORK 84
FISH 89
FOWLS AND GAME BIRDS 96
VEGETABLES AND SALADS 102
PASTRIES, SWEETS AND CAKES 115
_A Handbook of Cookery_
_For a Small House_
A FEW INTRODUCTORY WORDS
Cooking ought not to take too much of one’s time. One hour and a half
to two hours for lunch, and two and a half for dinner is sufficient,
providing that the servant knows how to make up the fire in order to
get the stove ready for use. Most girls will quickly learn to do that
and how to put a joint properly in the oven. For my part I never went
into the kitchen before half-past eleven for a half-past one lunch of
three dishes. But once the cooking is begun one must give all one’s
attention and care to it. No dish, however simple, will cook itself.
You must not leave the kitchen while the cooking is going on--unless of
necessity and only for a very few minutes at a time.
The bane of life in a small house is the smell of cooking. Very few
are free from it. And yet it need not be endured at all. This evil
yields to nothing more heroic than a simple but scrupulous care in
all the processes in making food ready for consumption. That is why
your constant presence in the kitchen is recommended. Unremitting care
should be directed to the following points:
No saucepan should be allowed of course to boil over.
No frying pan should ever be put on the fire without the butter or lard
being first placed in it, and that not before the pan is required for
use.
No joint should be placed in the oven so high as to allow the fat to
splutter against the roof of the oven.
No joint should be baked in a tin which is too small for it.
No vegetables should be cooked without a sufficient amount of water in
the saucepan and no green vegetables should be cooked with the lid on.
No frying pan while in use should be allowed to remain on the fire with
only the fat in it. A piece of whatever you are frying, bacon, fish,
fritters should be left in till another piece is placed in the fat.
The pan must be removed directly finished with.
No fat once used for frying should be kept for future use. The economy
is not worth making. The fat, for instance, in which potatoes have been
fried will always contain a certain amount of moisture and the next lot
of potatoes fried in it will turn out greasy and flabby. Fried potatoes
should be crisp and melting in the mouth and if properly prepared make
a delicate dish for a discriminating palate.
In the same way the fat used for fish however finely strained will
contain particles of fish or breadcrumbs which will be certain to catch
and cause an offensive smell. And the fish fried in such second-hand
fat may perhaps be eatable but will certainly not be worth eating.
The above recommendations are founded on personal experience. The
author advances them with the greater confidence because she had to
find them out for herself. They present no difficulties in practice. If
they are exactly followed, and due regard is paid also to incidental
remarks of the same nature contained in the body of the book, your
little house need never be invaded by the smell of cooking, generally
so offensive and always unnecessary, which too often meets one in the
hall and in nine cases out of ten--if not in every case--means simply
that good food is being spoiled in the kitchen.
The recipes in this book are calculated for a household of four
persons.
GENERAL REMARKS ON KITCHEN REQUISITES AND THEIR CARE
This small book may be called the A. B. C. of cookery and the writer is
mainly anxious to give her experiences as a general guide and help both
for cooking and the preparing of an appetizing meal.
Take for instance either a small flat in town or a cottage in the
country with one maid. It is quite possible to have two dishes for
breakfast with toast, tea or coffee, and to vary those dishes for every
day in the week. Easy breakfast dishes will be found in the body of the
book. All the statements in the book will justify themselves if the
directions are carefully followed.
To begin with let us furnish our kitchen with those most necessary
utensils which should always be kept either in a drawer in the dresser
or in a dry cupboard. We shall need several enamelled basins of various
sizes, a fish slice, vegetable slice, wire salad basket, one or two
wooden spoons, two large iron ones, a good toasting fork; a small
Dutch-oven to hang in front of the fire (either to cook bloaters, or
chops, or even a steak if one prefers that form of cooking to frying);
an apple corer, a potato ricer, one or two enamelled frying pans of
various sizes and depth. It is best to keep the pan that is to be
used for omelettes for that purpose alone, also the one that is to be
used for making pancakes. Care should be taken in purchasing these
articles as you will often find that some frying-pans will be deeper
in the middle while others will be found to rise and be deepest round
the edges. These are serious defects because the one that rises in the
centre will be useless for either omelettes or pancakes; the one that
sinks in the middle would be equally unsatisfactory as both will be
found to catch.
A double saucepan will be needed either for boiling milk or making
porridge. We must not forget a fish kettle and a steamer. The care
of the tea-kettle is also important. Once the tea is made and the
kettle not needed for a time, the water should be turned out and the
kettle removed from the stove. If it is allowed to remain boiling or
nearly empty on the stove it will quickly become coated on the inside
and the water thick and cloudy. We will need an enamelled cullender,
a large cheese grater, a nutmeg grater, some cake tins of different
sizes, and pie-dishes. Our choice of saucepans should also be carefully
considered; it should contain at least two large iron ones and the
rest may be enamel. We need two or three baking tins, some china and
block-tin moulds for jellies and a selection of fire-proof earthenware
of various shapes and sizes; wire strainers, to put under fish or
fried vegetables to drain them; an egg poacher, an egg-boiler which is
so much more reliable than even the best memory or the most accurate
clock. There is this golden rule that must always be observed: Never
attempt to make an omelette unless your fire is hot enough to cook it
with the top ring of the stove on. This rule of course applies also
to the pancakes, fritters, or to any form of frying. For if you are
frying a steak or cutlets, fish, potatoes or bacon, you will require
to put the top of the stove on after the first few minutes. Otherwise
your meat or fish will be liable to burn on the surface and remain raw
inside.
All the utensils must be washed in hot soda water and thoroughly dried
before putting them away. Having regard to the fact that soda is most
injurious to one’s hands, and whether for the mistress or maid the care
and appearance of one’s hands is of great importance, it is best to
place the saucepans, pans, etc. (not earthenware) on the stove with a
certain amount of water and a good piece of soda, and let them stand
to soak on the side of the hot stove, together with such articles as
ricer, poacher, strainer, etc. When ready to wash them up scour well
with a long-handled pot brush, pour off the soda water, rinse in clean
hot water, and dry with a cloth. They can then be placed on the rack
above the stove to dry thoroughly. In this way the hands need not come
in contact with the soda water at all.
We shall also need a nice smooth pastry board, a rolling pin, and a
small board for chopping parsley or mint. The meat chopper and the
mincer and the meat-saw will require to be kept perfectly clean and dry
to avoid rust, and should always be carefully wiped with a dry cloth
before being used. Should earthenware cooking-vessels or pie-dishes
become burnt, as is sometimes unavoidable, a little rough cooking salt,
or a little ashes rubbed on the burnt surface will be found effective.
ON THE TREATMENT OF VEGETABLES
_With a Few Illustrative Recipes_
Great care should be taken in the use of an onion. One often finds that
if by accident a knife used for cutting an onion has been overlooked
and it comes in contact with any article of food the flavour of the
onion will spoil everything. It is also a fact that if an onion is cut
before it is put into soup or sauce, the soup at once becomes cloudy,
while on the other hand if it is merely peeled and put in whole, soup
or sauce will remain perfectly clear. Then again for onion sauce or
soup which would be made with milk, you must never put in any salt or
any other ingredient till _after_ the milk has boiled. If the onion is
added before, the milk will curdle and be spoilt.
If you want to fry onions for steak, etc., have some good beef dripping
already melted in a baking tin and when it is boiling put in the
quantity of onions you may wish to cook cut in thin slices (cut always
round the onion) then add salt and pepper to taste and bake in a steady
oven, turning them once or twice with the blade of a knife.
For stuffing for either meat or poultry never put the onions in water.
Cut thin as above directed (never chop) and _boil_ in a deep frying
pan in butter. By boiling I mean using a larger quantity of fat and
not allowing the onions to be browned: one-fourth lb. will be quite
sufficient for stuffing intended for a goose. Have ready on the board
the crumb of a stale white loaf rubbed through a cheese-grater, and
from four to five large sage leaves chopped fine. Mix the two together
with pepper and salt to taste, turn the whole contents of the pan into
the crumbs and chop finely all together. In this way the stuffing will
be found moist and will not repeat after eating.
In cooking green vegetables use common soda not bi-carbonate. They
should be always put into _boiling_ water.
Fresh peas should never be shelled over night and should be kept in a
covered dish after shelling till it is time for them to be cooked. Peas
will become quite tough if exposed to the air for any length of time.
Always put into boiling water, never add salt or soda till the peas are
boiling. Scarlet runner beans should only be cut in strips in time for
boiling as the edges become hard and dry if left for more than an hour.
These are best kept in cold water. Dwarf beans should be treated in the
same manner, but can be served with only the ends and edges removed.
All salads should be put into a bowl of cold water with a good piece
of salt for not more than ten minutes before needed. A wire basket
swung round vigorously will be found the best mode of drying all salads
before dressing.
If lettuce is to be cooked, cos-lettuce will be found better than the
cabbage variety. It will become greatly reduced in the cooking and is
much improved by being lightly sauté in a frying pan in which a finely
shredded spring onion has been lightly fried in a little butter. Form
into small mounds with a tablespoon, and serve very hot.
Cabbage and cauliflower should be put for awhile before cooking into a
bowl of cold water with a good piece of salt, head down and the stump
cut four times across.
Spinach requires washing in several waters with a liberal quantity of
salt. But the last water without salt. Have ready a large saucepan
at least half full of boiling water. If, as some people direct, you
put spinach into a nearly dry saucepan on the assumption that it has
absorbed enough water to be cooked in, there will be an unpleasant
smell. Add salt and a piece of ordinary soda about as big as a large
pea. Boil with the lid off till quite tender. The spinach should then
be a beautiful shade of green. Treat sorrel the same way; only it
will be noticed that it will change colour directly it is put into the
boiling water, becoming a greeny yellow, and is slightly acid in taste.
It is usually eaten with veal, with poached eggs served on it, or as a
dish by itself served with fried bread round the edge.
Tomatoes are always very useful and can be accommodated in many
different ways. For a breakfast dish--take, for two persons, four
nice sound tomatoes. Place in a large basin and scald with boiling
water over them. The skin will then peel off quite easily leaving the
tomatoes perfectly whole. Cut into slices and put into a cold pan with
a piece of butter about the size of a tablespoon and a pinch of salt
and pepper. Place on the fire and break the tomatoes in the butter
as they cook. Let them fry frequently and serve under poached eggs.
Another way: Take four or more tomatoes, remove the stalk but not the
skin. Cut the top off, scoop the fruit out leaving a wall, have ready
some chopped lean ham, chicken or other meat, add a little onion to
the inside which has been taken out of the tomatoes, pepper and salt.
Put into a small frying pan, and fry lightly, put the mixture into
the tomato, have a little dripping melted in a baking tin, place the
tomatoes into it, when hot put the top on the tomato to form a lid and
bake from 15 to 20 minutes.
In preparing mushrooms, peel carefully the skin, gently pull the stalk
out and lay them dark side down in a little cold water with a good knob
of cooking salt, this will remove any grit or insects. Have ready a
flat frying pan large enough to take the mushrooms lying flat; lay each
one dark side down and boil in butter gently for about seven minutes,
turn them over with the blade of a knife and let them continue cooking
for another ten minutes to a quarter of an hour; pepper and salt to
taste. Or in another way, take a large flat frying pan; put into it
about an ounce of butter, two tablespoonfuls of best malt vinegar,
place over a quick fire and let it burn slightly. That is to say it is
ready when it smokes. Lay the mushrooms as before directed, proceed in
the same way, adding only a little finely chopped onion in the centre
of each mushroom, place dark side up either on toast buttered or on
a flat dish, pour over the butter from the pan and serve very hot.
Sprinkle thinly with chopped onion after the mushrooms are in the dish.
Mushroom rissoles make an excellent breakfast dish and may be served in
little stone marmites instead of pastry. Carefully wash mushrooms as
directed above. Take a little strong beef gravy (not bovril or other
meat essence) cut the mushrooms into lengths, each one into four or
five, put them into a small saucepan with pepper and salt and enough
gravy to cover, stew for an hour. Thicken with a little flour mixed
smoothly with water. This can be kept over night and warmed in the
morning.
Turnips make a very good dish with roast pork, treated as follows:
Carefully peel ten or twelve nice firm turnips, reject the woolly as
they are not worth cooking (except for flavouring); cut into slices,
then into lengths, then into small squares (the appearance of a dish is
as important as the taste); boil gently for about half an hour or until
tender, strain and serve very hot with a little melted butter poured
over them, pepper and salt to taste.
Carrots, if very young, must on no account be peeled, but only lightly
scraped and then cooked in a covered saucepan till tender. Serve very
hot with a little melted butter and a little finely chopped parsley
sprinkled over them. Care should be taken not to boil too long as these
tender young vegetables are apt to become soft and tasteless. When the
carrots are older and bigger they should be carefully peeled and cut in
rings about one-eighth of an inch thick. There is also this pretty and
appetising way to serve carrots. Cook them as above directed and have
ready the following in a lined saucepan (double saucepan): a half pint
of boiling milk with salt to taste, one and a half level tablespoonfuls
of household flour mixed smoothly in a basin with a half ounce of
butter. Should the butter be hard and difficult to mix smooth, place
the basin on the stove till the butter is soft enough to handle with a
firm spoon. When mixed pour the boiling milk straight into the flour
and butter stirring all the time, and always the same way; put back
into the double saucepan and stir till it boils, add the cooked carrot
and serve very hot as an additional vegetable or as a separate dish.
Should the sauce be sticky or too thick judgment which will come with
experience will quickly show the error to be a little too much flour
or careless mixing. This sauce is also useful to compose a lunch dish
with, by adding to it some chopped roast chicken and a thin slice of
onion instead of carrots. Serve in a rather deep dish with croutons of
fried bread or dry toast round the edge. A tin of prawns can be used
instead of chicken in which case a small teaspoonful of anchovy sauce
may be added at the last, instead of salt, as the prawns may be already
a little salt.
Potatoes are to my mind one of the most ill-used vegetables we have.
They require simple care to make them a useful and welcome addition
to at least two meals in the day. Too often I have found the greatest
carelessness in the cooking of a simple potato. Often at an English inn
potatoes are impossible, even more so than other vegetables, and yet
we English people have the best potatoes in the world! It is indeed
a fact that in the case of the poor potato, God sends the food, and
the devil the cooks! One common error is to peel the potatoes hours
before they are to be cooked and to leave them in water; another
to peel them (because the weather is cold) in quite hot water, or,
worse still, then shut them down in a saucepan on the side of the
stove ever so long before they are required. In this way the potato
is spoilt before it has even boiled. It is quite possible to use up
even cold potatoes in an appetising manner. None need ever be wasted
if the following hints are taken and the sound advice of many years’
experience is followed. For new potatoes pick out those as much of a
size as possible, carefully scrape them, remove any eyes, rinse in
clear cold water and put into enough boiling water to cover well; add
a sprig of mint (in one piece) and a piece of salt put in a saucepan
preferably not iron and boil gently till tender which can easily be
found by trying them with a fork. When cooked, strain, remove the mint,
put into the saucepan a knob of butter while the potatoes are there
and serve as quickly as possible with a little finely chopped parsley
on them. The object of the butter is not only to improve the taste and
appearance but it also helps to prevent the sort of preserved taste
one so often gets in hotel cooking. As the potatoes get older it is
better to put them to boil into cold water, and directly they are too
old to scrape freely, no mint is necessary or advisable. Some potatoes
are best strained before they are quite cooked and then shut down in
the saucepan to finish in their steam. If the potatoes are not to be
used at once (say when a meal is delayed longer than expected for some
reason), it is a good idea either to rice them in a ricer or to mash
them. In that way they will not have an unpleasant taste and can be
kept hot for some time and still be quite palatable.
Often one has some cold potatoes left say from lunch, cut them into
slices, put about ½ an oz. of butter into a frying pan and when melted
and hot lay each slice of potato flat in the hot butter, fry quickly
over a brisk fire till they attain a golden-brown colour. Care must be
taken that they do not burn.
Cold potatoes can also be used for hot cakes as follows: Take the
remains of any boiled potatoes, break them into a bowl, take a
breakfast cup and a half of flour (for this quantity of flour about the
value of eight potatoes would be necessary) rub them smoothly into the
flour, add two ounces of butter, salt, a little baking-powder (unless
self-raising flour is used) mix as for pastry with a little milk (sour
will do) and if possible an egg beaten into it, form into small cakes
and bake on larded paper in a quick oven, serve hot with sugar and
butter to be spread on them.
For fried potatoes care should be taken to follow these directions
carefully: Peel your potatoes and cut them into slices about one-half
an inch thick, then into strips, each slice let us say into four, let
them lay in a bowl of cold water till wanted for frying. Take a large
deep frying pan in which you have melted one-fourth pound of best tub
lard, place over a quick fire taking care not to let it burn, and when
it is ready (which is easily found out by dropping one piece of potato
into the fat--it should sizzle at once), take the potatoes out of the
water by hand and drop straight into the boiling lard. Turn carefully
from time to time with a knife blade. Remove them with a slice into a
vegetable dish in which there is a strainer (stone for preference), and
place in the oven with an open door till required; but serve as soon
as possible. Never put the cover on the dish or allow the oven door
to be shut as the potatoes would not then keep quite crisp. Never add
salt till ready in the dish, when a little should be sprinkled over the
potatoes.
For straw potatoes proceed in the same way; only these will require
less time for cooking and will need to be cut very much thinner and
smaller.
For soufflé potatoes cut them into thin slices and dry them on a clean
cloth. Lay them in a little milk for a moment and then put them into
the boiling fat straight out of the milk. If these directions are
carefully followed there should be a crisp brown bubble on each side
of the slice of the potato. These also must not be covered or have the
oven door closed on them.
There is also another simple way of treating an old potato. Often
toward the end of the year when one’s potatoes run large and we are
anxious to give a dish a dainty appearance we find that the large
potato served whole looks clumsy. If the potatoes are carefully peeled
and any unsightly blemishes are removed such as the eye or as so often
happens there are bluey patches due to a bruise perhaps on the potatoes
otherwise perfectly sound, the following hint may be found both useful
and economical. Take a stout teaspoon and scoop spoonfuls from the
_outside_ of a big potato. (The broken remains can be used in soup say
either beef or mutton stock. Recipe for this with soups.) When you have
sufficient potatoes ready you can either fry in dripping (in which case
do not attempt to make them crisp) or boil them very gently, or bake
them under a joint, etc. They will be best baked or fried. They can
then be served laid round a dish of fish (fried or boiled) or round a
dish of roast meat previously carved and laid down the centre of a dish
or with kidneys and bacon or with liver and bacon.
Celery used as a vegetable will be found very palatable cooked in the
following manner. Take two or three heads of celery, wash carefully in
fresh cold water and a little salt, have ready any little beef, veal,
or chicken stock, bring this to a boil and cook the celery in it. From
30 to 40 minutes should be long enough to render the celery soft. Serve
in a vegetable dish with the gravy poured over it, sufficient only to
just cover, having previously stirred a teaspoonful of cornflour mixed
with cold water into it.
Beet-root may be prepared either cold to serve with cold beef or as a
hot vegetable dish best served with roast mutton.
For cold, have four or five round small beet-roots washed, handling
them carefully and taking the greatest care not to break off any tender
shoots, and avoiding cutting the leaf-end too near the top of the
beet-root. Have a saucepan large enough to take the beet-root without
breaking it. Boil gently with a good piece of salt from 40 minutes to
an hour, or even a little longer, according to the size. Prick with
a carving fork to see if quite tender, then lay them on a strainer
and when cool enough to hold in the fingers remove the peel and cut
into thin rings. Lay them in a dish of vinegar (a deep glass dish is
best), dust over two teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar, and allow to get
thoroughly cold before serving. The object of the sugar in the vinegar
is to draw the colour out of the beet-root and to remove the sourness.
More or less sugar may be used according to individual taste but the
proportion given is generally right.
The beet-root already boiled may be used for the following dish:
Cut into a little thicker slices, then into strips, then into little
squares. Have ready in a deep enamel frying pan a quantity of melted
butter, put the diced beet-root into it with a pinch of salt and a
little cream (or, if not available, a little milk) and bring the
mixture to a boil, taking care not to break the vegetable when stirring
with a knife blade. Mix a teaspoonful of cornflour with a little milk,
stir into the beet-root while on the stove, serve round the dish of
sliced mutton or separately very hot.
Leeks can often be made to take the place of onions and are a very
useful vegetable cooked in either of the following ways. Take from
twelve to twenty leeks, wash well in cold water, being careful to
remove all grit. It will be found necessary nearly always to split
them, to be sure that they are quite clean. Stew them in beef stock
till quite tender. (This vegetable does not require any soda in the
cooking and is best cooked in stock.) Strain and serve when quite
tender. Another way is to cut each leek into four, lengthwise, and bake
in dripping, as directed to do with the onion.
The Drumhead or white cabbage has no appearance if cooked only as a
cabbage, but a useful dish may be made in the following manner. Take
a large cabbage, remove the white stiff stalk running down the leaf
with a sharp knife. Put the leaves into a large saucepan of boiling
water, cook as for ordinary cabbage except that the leaves will all
be separate. When tender spread on a large dish to cool. Prepare some
finely minced meat, beef, ham, veal or mutton, chicken or lamb, about
half a teacup of freshly boiled rice salted to taste. (The value of
two tablespoonfuls of rice will be enough to make half a teacup.) The
rice to have been boiled in water and not too soft. Mix with the minced
meat and having spread each cabbage leaf open, fill with the mixture,
leaving enough of the leaf clear to roll round the meat. Have a deep
frying pan on the fire half full of either beef or mutton stock, bring
to a boil and place each stuffed leaf in the stock and cook for ten
minutes; remove with a slice on to a deep dish and serve at once very
hot.
RECIPES
BREAKFAST DISHES, ENTRÉES, SAVOURIES, STUFFINGS, SAUCES, HORS D’ŒUVRES,
AND SANDWICHES
_General Remarks_
Small savouries are useful to lengthen a lunch or dinner without making
the whole meal too heavy.
Their materials are often what is left over of various dishes.
Therefore the remnants that are kept should be always put away with
care and separated from each other.
Cut onion should never be kept in the safe containing butter or milk.
Raw bacon should be laid in the dish on the rind.
A tin of sardines should never be left open more than twenty-four hours.
Tinned salmon must be used at once.
Bottled tomatoes may be partly used and re-corked for a few days.
Bottled olives must be re-corked tightly after use. Take care that the
liquid covers the olives. The same for capers, chillies, and anchovies.
The salad basket and potato ricer should be dried on the shelf over the
stove after being wiped.
When boiling milk enters into the composition of any dish the saucepan
should be first wetted inside with cold water.
_1. Omelettes_
_Plain._ Break four new laid eggs into a basin and beat lightly with
a fork. Add a pinch of salt and a dessertspoonful of milk. Have ready
in an enamelled frying pan about half an ounce of hot butter, tilting
the pan to cause the butter to run all over it. Place the pan over
the fire with the stove top on. Pour the beaten eggs into it. Run the
knife round the rim of the omelette. Cook not more than seven minutes.
Sprinkle over a few fine herbs or a little chopped parsley and fold it
over twice on a very hot dish. The omelette when dished should be moist
in the centre.
_Truffled._ Prepare the eggs as above. Chop finely three truffles and
beat into the eggs. Cook in the same manner as the plain omelette and
serve with the rest of the bottle of truffles cut in thin slices and
laid down the centre of the omelette after it is folded.
_Savoury._ Take the livers of two fowls, one rasher of bacon, a slice
of onion and a pinch of mixed herbs. Melt in the frying pan a piece of
butter about the size of a walnut. Put the livers, bacon, and herbs
into the hot butter. Fry very gently for about seven to ten minutes
and when cooked chop very fine. Cook the omelette as above and spread
the mixture along the middle while still in the pan. Turn the omelette
sides over and serve on a hot dish.
_Cheese._ Prepare the eggs as above. Rub on a cheese grater a piece of
Gruyère cheese to make about four tablespoonfuls. Turn the eggs into
the pan. Dust three parts of grated cheese over the omelette whilst
still in the pan. Dish with a slice and dust over it the remainder of
the cheese; fold and place it in the oven for one minute.
_Green Peas._ Prepare the eggs as above. Take a teacup of cold cooked
green peas and stir them into the basin with the eggs. Pour into the
hot butter in the pan as for a plain omelette, fold over with the slice
and serve on a hot dish. It will be noticed that sometimes the omelette
will rise in a bubble and smoke. Directly this is noticed pass the
blade of the knife under from the sides and let the air out, otherwise
it will burn.
Cold potatoes cut into discs can be used instead of the peas for the
omelette.
_2. Eggs and Bacon_
This dish is perhaps the most appetising breakfast dish and yet often
the most unpleasant on account of the smell. Cooked in the following
way there should be no smell at all. Take the rashers of bacon and
carefully remove all the rind. Use preferably an enamelled frying pan
in which a piece of butter the size of a walnut has been made hot.
Lay the bacon in this. The stove should be hot enough to cook the
bacon with the top on. Turn the bacon twice and cook for eight to
ten minutes. Dish on a hot flat dish. Allow an egg for each rasher,
breaking the eggs lightly without breaking the yolks into a cup one
at a time and turn into the pan. Allow the boiling fat to run round
the eggs. Cook for three minutes and dish with a slice placing one egg
on each rasher of bacon. The pan when removed from the stove must not
be put into the sink as the cold water there will cause it to smell
unpleasantly.
_3. Boiled Bacon_
Take not less than two pounds cut out of the small back. Plunge in a
saucepan three parts full of boiling water. Boil briskly for one hour.
When put on a dish the rind will tear off quite easily. Remove it and
dust the part over thickly with baked breadcrumbs.
_4. Sausages_
Prick the sausages well with a fork. Lay in a flat meat dish and cook
for twenty to twenty-five minutes not on the stove but in a fairly
quick oven. This prevents all smell and they will be well cooked.
_5. Sausage Rolls_
Prick one pound of best pork sausages and bake in the oven for twenty
minutes on a flat dish. Cut each sausage lengthwise, roll round each
half a thin rasher of raw bacon, put into a paste (as for meat pie,
rec: 156), wrap in hot buttered paper and bake for another twenty
minutes.
_6. Eggs in Gravy_
Boil two or three eggs for not longer than three minutes, drop them for
a few seconds into a bowl of cold water to chill them sufficiently to
be held with the fingers. Carefully remove the shell without breaking
the shape of the egg. Lay each carefully in a buttered dish side by
side. The eggs if properly cooked will immediately acquire a flat
shape. Pour over them a little good meat gravy and serve at once. The
eggs thus prepared should not be hard; but it is difficult sometimes
when removing the shell to leave the egg whole. Great care is required.
_7. Eggs with Chicken Livers_
Put into a little stone marmite dish (fire-proof) a little butter and
half the liver of a good sized fowl. (Two fowls’ livers would make four
or five little dishes.) When the liver is nearly cooked (the little
dishes having been placed each on the hot top plate of the stove), drop
a whole egg without breaking the yolk into each and allow to cook from
three to five minutes. Serve in the dishes in which they have been
cooked.
Eggs can be also poached in marmite dishes but instead of butter you
must half fill each dish with fresh cream and add a pinch of salt and a
pinch of chopped parsley at the last moment on top of each egg.
_8. Herring Roes on Toast_
Take the roes from the tin or glass box, gently part with a knife, put
them into a shallow pie-dish with a little pepper and butter. Cover
with dish cover and stand in the oven for ten minutes. Have ready hot
buttered toast and lay the roes on the toast. Put a little white
pepper on them and a tiny scrap of butter and replace in the oven for a
moment before serving.
_9. Poached Eggs on Anchovy Toast_
Butter several good slices of toast and spread with a little anchovy
paste. Take an egg poacher and put over the fire to boil. Turn an egg
into each ring, being careful not to break the yolk. Cook for three
minutes lightly. Pass the blade of the knife round each rim of the
egg, pinch the machine to open it, the eggs then remaining on the flat
slice. Run the knife under each one and it is easy then to place them
on the toast.
_10. Poached Eggs and Tomato Toast_
Scald four tomatoes and remove the skin, slice them into a small
enamelled frying pan in which a piece of butter the size of a walnut
has been made hot, a little pepper and salt. Chop them with a knife
whilst frying, thus reducing them to a paste. Spread this over the hot
buttered toast and put a poached egg on the top.
_11. Breakfast Dish_
Have the paste made ready as for meat pie, take six thin rashers of
bacon and cut them in halves. Roll the paste thin on the board and lay
half a rasher of bacon on each piece of paste. Cut the paste a little
bigger than the bacon. Dust a little finely chopped onion and a tiny
pinch of sweet herbs over each piece of bacon. Roll paste and bacon
together (paste outside) and cook on hot buttered paper for fifteen
minutes in a quick oven.
_12. Haricot Breakfast Dish_
Put to soak for twelve hours a pint of small haricot beans. Strain them
and pick out the brown ones which are not needed. Turn them into a
saucepan three parts full of boiling water with salt and a little pinch
of soda. Boil gently for two hours, or until quite soft but whole;
strain and put into a stone jar. Cover them with good beef stock. Add
three cut rashers of bacon, fat and lean together, with one slice of
very finely chopped onion and some tomato sauce (made after the recipe
given with skinned tomatoes). Leave in the oven all night and make it
hot in the morning before serving.
_13. Devilled Drumsticks_
Take four drumsticks of fowls, put half an ounce of fresh butter in an
enamelled frying pan, make it hot and lay the drumsticks in it. Dust
over them a little red pepper and about half a flat teaspoonful of
some good curry powder. Roll them over and over in the butter and dish
with a strainer.
_14. Devilled Sheep’s Kidneys on Toast_
Remove the skin from say two sheep’s kidneys and cut them in halves.
Put into an enamelled frying pan about half ounce of fresh butter and
make it hot. Lay the kidneys in the butter the cut side down. Cook over
a brisk fire with the stove top off for five minutes. Turn once. Then
replace the stove top and stand the frying pan again on it for five
to ten minutes more. Have ready enough buttered toast to take half
a kidney on each slice of toast. Dust the kidneys with a little red
pepper before placing on the toast. Put on each kidney a little fresh
butter about the size of a pea, place on the toast and serve very hot.
Ox kidney may be used in the same way cut into slices.
_15. Croquettes_
Chop with a mincer very fine any remains of cold chicken or any cold
meat with one ring of Spanish onion and a tiny pinch of salt and a
drain of meat juice. Stir all this well in a plate, break into the
mixture a freshly beaten egg, add a teaspoonful of finely rubbed
breadcrumbs or rusk crumbs. Roll a tablespoonful at a time into another
freshly beaten egg and then into the rolled rusk crumbs. Form into
short sausage shapes or balls and fry in boiling lard or dripping for
seven to ten minutes. Dish with a slice and serve hot, garnished with a
little parsley.
Fish croquettes are made in the same way using any fish that may be
left over, after carefully removing all the bones, and adding a little
cold boiled potato.
_16. To Dress Cold Fowl_
Cut into small pieces, leg generally in two. Put into a saucepan and
cover with milk, first putting a little water in the saucepan to
prevent the milk burning. Grate half a nutmeg, add pepper and salt.
When it has boiled, but not before, slice half of a fairly large
Spanish onion into the saucepan. Boil for three-quarters of an hour.
Thicken before serving with a little flour and butter, which should
be mixed very smooth with a little of the boiling milk out of the
saucepan. Bring to a boil and serve in the saucepan with a napkin
wrapped round it.
_17. Shepherd’s Pie_
Cut the remains of any cold roast beef into small pieces and place in
a dish. Slice about a quarter of a Spanish onion finely on the top,
add two tomatoes cut very small, pepper and salt, half a teaspoonful
of Worcester sauce, half a teaspoonful of bovril stirred in half a
teacupful of water, or a little meat juice. Place in the oven uncovered
for a quarter of an hour. Then take out and fill up the dish with
mashed potatoes. Place a few thin slices of onion on the top, a piece
of butter, and replace in the oven for three-quarters of an hour so as
to brown the top nicely.
_18. Tripe and Onions_
Wash in cold water and remove all fat from two pounds of fresh tripe
and cut into narrow strips about two inches long. Melt in an enamelled
frying pan about two ounces of fresh butter turning the tripe into
it. Fry lightly, not allowing to brown. Dish with a slice into a
stone saucepan, leaving the butter in the pan. In the same butter fry
lightly one and a half Spanish onions sliced and add to the tripe in
the saucepan, with a little salt and a glass of sherry, one piece of
loaf sugar, and a finely cut up carrot. Add enough water to cover and
stew gently for one and a half hours. Thicken with a little flour mixed
smooth with cold water and serve in the stone saucepan with a table
napkin tied round it.
_Note._ Pig’s trotters may be added to this dish but in this case they
must be soaked for two hours before cooking and added to the tripe when
cooked.
_19. Haricot Mutton_
Soak a pint of small haricot beans overnight, carefully pick out the
brown ones and rinse through three waters in the morning. Have ready a
metal saucepan with about three pints of water. When boiling, pour the
haricots into it with a good pinch of salt and a small piece of soda.
Boil gently for two and a half hours. They are then ready to be added
to the mutton. Cut into small pieces two or three pounds of best end of
neck of mutton, remove the fat and put the meat into a stone saucepan,
cover with water, add one turnip cut into long pieces, one Spanish
onion, pepper and salt and a pinch of fine herbs. Remove the scum as it
rises and cook for two hours. Add then the beans which should be quite
soft and peel of their own accord when exposed to the air. Thicken
with a little carefully mixed flour and water and serve in the stone
saucepan with a table napkin wrapped round it.
_20. Sweetbreads_
Soak for half an hour two sweetbreads in cold water with a pinch of
salt. Drop them in boiling water. After twenty minutes take them out,
remove the skin and roll them first in a well-beaten egg and then in
rolled rusk crumbs. Bake in a tin in a quick oven for three-quarters
of an hour with a large piece of butter or dripping. Place on a dish
and after turning the fat out of the tin put in a little good meat
juice and bring it to a boil over the fire. Add then a little smoothly
mixed flour and water and when thickened sufficiently strain through a
gravy strainer over the sweetbreads. Serve very hot.
_21. Sweetbreads--Another Way_
Soak for half an hour in cold water with a pinch of salt, then drop
them into boiling water. At the end of twenty minutes take out and,
after removing the outer skin, cut into slices. Have ready some fresh
butter in an enamelled frying pan. Fry the sliced sweetbreads lightly
for a quarter of an hour. Lay on a dish and squeeze a little lemon
juice on each slice allowing a quarter of a lemon for the whole of the
sweetbread.
_22. Steak and Kidney Pudding_
Take one and a half pounds of thick steak and cut into pieces of about
an inch. Have an ox kidney cut into small pieces and a basin well
buttered. With half a pound of beef suet, chopped fine, and two and a
half to three breakfast-cups of self-raising flour, make a stiff paste,
mixing with tepid water. Line the basin with the paste. Put the steak
and kidney in, add about half a teaspoonful of salt, sprinkle a little
dry flour over the meat, put the crust on and cover the basin with a
wet cloth which should be tied securely with string. Boil for three and
a half hours. At the end of that time take the cloth off and serve in
the basin (stood in a dish) with a fluted paper collar round it. Make a
small hole in the top of the pudding and pour in about half a teacupful
of hot gravy made from any small pieces of meat left over before
serving.
_23. Calf’s Kidney on Toast_
Skin and split in two a calf’s kidney. Melt in a frying pan about an
ounce of fresh butter, and place the kidney in this with one very thin
slice of Spanish onion for each half of kidney--one rasher of bacon,
chopped very fine, to be put in the pan also. Cook as for sheep’s
kidneys, but without the red pepper. Prepare some hot toast, lay upon
it the slice of onion, which should be kept whole if possible, and
then the kidney. Dust a little portion of the bacon over it with a
little pepper and salt. Turn the butter out of the pan, put a little
meat juice from under the dripping (about an egg-cupful) and half a
tablespoonful of white wine, the juice of a quarter of a lemon (half
a teaspoonful of vinegar will serve if the lemon is not available),
thicken with a little flour and water (first mixed smooth), and pour
through a gravy strainer over the kidney. Serve very hot. The best way
to prepare the toast is as follows:--
Take as many pieces of dry bread as required and fry quickly in a
little good dripping to a crisp brown. It should then remain quite
crisp even when the gravy is turned over it.
_24. Bacon Pudding_