they soon become worm-eaten if not speedily salted. They should be well
examined. Cut off the stalks of four quarts of nice mushrooms. Put the
flaps into a deep earthen pan, and break them up with your hands. Strew
among them half a pound of salt, reserving the largest portion of it for
the top. Let them stand for three days, stirring them gently every
morning. The fourth day, put them into a sieve, and draw off the liquor
without pressing the mushrooms. When all the liquor has drained through,
measure it, allowing to each quart a tea-spoon of cayenne, a dozen
blades of mace, and a nutmeg broken up. Put the whole into a porcelain
kettle, and boil it slowly till reduced one half. Then pour it into a
clean white-ware pitcher, cover it with a folded napkin, and keep it in
a cool dry place till next day. Then, through a funnel, pour it gently
from the sediment into small bottles. Finish with a tea-spoonful of
sweet oil on the top of each. Cork the bottles tightly, and seal the
corks.
The next time you make catchup, proceed as above with the new mushrooms,
and other ingredients; and, when it is done, strain it, and put it into
a clean kettle. Then add to it a quart of _last year's_ mushroom
catchup, and boil it a quarter of an hour. Then bottle it as above.
This double catchup is very fine.
WALNUT CATCHUP.--Take two hundred walnuts or butter-nuts, while the
green shell is still so soft that you can pierce it with the head of a
pin. Bruise them to small pieces, in a marble mortar. Transfer them to a
broad stone-ware pan, and stew among them six handfuls of salt. Stir
them three times a day, for ten days or two weeks. Then squeeze and
strain them through a cloth, pressing them very dry, till no more juice
comes out. Boil up the liquor with two quarts of cider vinegar, half an
ounce of mace, half an ounce of whole pepper, half an ounce of nutmegs
broken up, and two roots of ginger cut small, and half a dozen shalots
or small onions, peeled and cut up, and a large bunch of sweet herbs.
Let the whole boil for half an hour. Then pour off the liquor into a
large pitcher, leaving out the bunch of sweet herbs. Pour off the liquor
(through a funnel,) into small bottles, having first put into the bottom
of each bottle a portion of the spice. Fill the bottle up to the top
with the catchup, finishing with a tea-spoonful of salad oil, which will
greatly assist in keeping the catchup good. Cork the bottles very
closely, and seal the corks.
TOMATO CATCHUP.--Take a peck of large ripe tomatos. In the middle States
they are in perfection the last of August. Late in the autumn they are
comparatively insipid and watery. Cut a slit down the side of every
tomato. Put them into a large preserving kettle without any water. Their
own juice is sufficient. On no account boil tomatos in brass or copper,
their acid acting on those metals produces verdigris, and renders them
poisonous. Boil them till they are quite soft, and easily mashed,
stirring them up frequently from the bottom. Press and mash them through
a hair sieve, till all the pulp has run out into the pan below, leaving
in the sieve only the skins and seeds. Season the liquid with a little
salt, some cayenne, and plenty of powdered nutmeg and mace. Mix it well,
and when cold put up the catchup in small jars, the covers pasted all
round with bands of white paper. This catchup, when done, should be very
thick and smooth.
LEMON CATCHUP.--Take six fine large ripe lemons, and roll them under
your hand to increase the quantity of juice. Grate off all the yellow
rind, and squeeze the juice into a pitcher, removing all the seeds.
Prepare two ounces of finely scraped horse-radish, and two ounces of
minced shalots, or very small onions. Put them into a pint of boiling
vinegar, in which half an ounce of bruised ginger and a quarter of an
ounce of mace have been simmered for five minutes. Add to this the
lemon-juice and the grated peel, and two grated nutmegs. Boil all
together for half an hour, and then transfer it with all the ingredients
to a glass jar with a lid. Paste a band of strong white paper round the
lower part of the lid. Set it in a dry cool place, and leave it
undisturbed for three months. Then, through a funnel, pour off the
liquid into small bottles, putting a tea-spoonful of salad oil at the
top of each. Cork and seal them.
CUCUMBER CATCHUP.--For a small quantity of this catchup, take twelve
fine full-grown cucumbers, and lay them an hour in cold water. Then pare
them, and grate them down into a deep dish. Grate also two small onions,
and mix them with the grated cucumber. Season the mixture to your taste
with pepper, salt, and vinegar, making it of the consistence of very
thick marmalade or jam. When thoroughly amalgamated, transfer it to a
glass jar. Cover it closely, tying over it a piece of bladder, so as to
render it perfectly air-tight.
It will be found very nice, (when fresh cucumbers are not in season,) to
eat with beef or mutton. And if properly made, and securely covered,
will keep well. It should be grated very fine, and the vinegar must be
of very excellent quality--real cider vinegar.
CAMP CATCHUP.--Take a pint or quart of strong ale or porter, and a pint
of white wine; half a dozen shalots, or very small onions, peeled and
minced; half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of nutmeg, broken up; and
two large roots or races of ginger, sliced. Put all together, over a
moderate fire, into a porcelain-lined kettle, and boil it slowly till
one-third of the liquid is wasted. Next day transfer it to small
bottles, putting a portion of the seasoning in the bottom of each, and
filling them to the top with the liquid. Finish with a tea-spoonful of
salad oil at the top. Cork the bottles with good corks, and seal them.
In a dry place this catchup will keep for years.
TARRAGON VINEGAR.--The fresh leaves of the tarragon plant are in
perfection in July and August, and impart a new and pleasant taste to
soups, hashes, gravies, &c. To use it fresh, wash a bunch of tarragon in
cold water. Afterwards strip off the green leaves, chop or mince them,
and boil a tea-spoonful or more in the dish you intend to flavor. The
best way of keeping tarragon is to strip off as many fresh leaves as
will half fill a glass jar that holds a quart. Pour on as much _real_
cider vinegar as will fill up the jar. Cover it closely, and let the
tarragon infuse in it for a week, shaking the jar every day. Then pour
off that vinegar carefully, and throw away the tarragon leaves that have
been steeping in it. Wash that jar, or take another clean one, put into
it the same quantity of fresh tarragon leaves, and fill up with the same
vinegar in which you have infused the first supply. Let the second
leaves remain in the jar of vinegar. A tarragon bush is well worth
planting; even in a small city garden.
Tarragon is the chief ingredient of French mustard.
FINE FRENCH MUSTARD.--Take a jill or two large wine-glasses of tarragon
vinegar, (strained from the leaves,) and mix with it an equal quantity
of salad oil, stirring them well together. Pound in a mortar, two ounces
of mustard seed till it becomes a fine smooth powder, and mix it
thoroughly. Add to it one clove of garlic (not more) peeled, minced and
pounded. Make the mixture in a deep white-ware dish. If the mustard
affects your eyes, put on glasses till you have finished the mixture.
When done, put it up in white bottles, or gallipots. Cork them tightly,
and seal the corks. Send it to table in those bottles.
This mustard is far superior to any other, the tarragon imparting a
peculiar and pleasant flavor.
It is excellent to eat with any sort of roast meat, particularly beef or
mutton, and an improvement to almost all plain sauces, stews, soups, &c.
French mustard is to be purchased very good, at all the best grocery
stores.
SAUCE ROBERT.--Peel five large onions, and parboil them to take off some
of the strength. Cut them into small dice, and put them into a stew-pan
with a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided into four, and
dredged with flour. When they are well browned, pour on them half a pint
of beef or veal gravy, and let it simmer for a quarter of an hour.
Season it slightly with cayenne. Just before it goes to table, stir in a
table-spoonful of French mustard.
This is a good sauce for any sort of roast meat, or poultry.
GREEN MAYONNAISE.--This is a fine accompaniment to cold poultry, which
must be cut into small pieces as for chicken salad, using only the white
meat. To begin the mayonnaise. Put into a shallow pan the yolks only of
three fresh eggs, having strained out the specks. Having beaten them
till light and thick, add, by degrees, a half pint of salad oil,
stirring it in gradually, so that no oil whatever is to be seen on the
surface. Then add two table-spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar. Next a few
drops of shalot vinegar, or a _very small_ onion minced as finely as
possible. If you have at hand any clear meat gravy (for instance,
veal,) stir in two or three table-spoonsful. Add the grated yellow rind,
and the juice of a lemon. Pound as much spinach as will yield a small
tea-cupful of green juice. Give it a short boil up, to take off the
rawness, and mix it with the mayonnaise. When cool, pour it over the
dish of cold poultry.
EPICUREAN SAUCE.--Pound in a mortar five or six anchovies; a heaped
table-spoonful of minced tarragon leaves; a shalot, or very small onion,
two or three pickled gherkins, finely minced; the yolks of four
hard-boiled eggs, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and a large
table-spoonful of French mustard. If you have no good butter, mix a
sufficient portion of olive oil to moisten it well. Let the whole be
thoroughly mixed. Put it into a bowl, and set it on ice till wanted.
Then mould it into pats of equal size. Arrange them on small glass or
china plates, and send them to table for dinner company, to eat with the
cheese.
EAST INDIA SAUCE FOR FISH.--Mix well together a jill of India soy; a
jill of chili vinegar; half a pint of walnut catchup, and a pint of
mushroom-catchup. Shake the whole hard, and transfer it to small green
bottles, putting a tea-spoonful of sweet oil at the top of each, and
keep the sauce in a cool dry place. If you have not a fish castor, bring
the store sauces to table in the small bottles they are kept in. When
eating fish, mix a little of this with the melted butter on your plate.
CURRY POWDER.--Curry powder originates in India, where it is much used
as a peculiar flavoring for soups, stews, and hashes. With curry dishes,
boiled rice is always served up, not only in a separate dish, but also
heaped round the stew in a thick even border. To make curry powder,
pound in a marble mortar three ounces of turmeric, three ounces of
coriander seed, and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne; one ounce of
mustard, one ounce of cardamoms, a half ounce of cummin seed, and half
an ounce of mace. Let all these ingredients be thoroughly mixed in the
mortar, and then sift it through a fine sieve, dry it for an hour before
the fire, and put it into clean bottles, securing the corks well. Use
from two to three table-spoonfuls at a time, in proportion to the size
of the dish you intend to curry.
It may be mixed into the gravy of any of the preceding receipts for
stews. Two ounces of finely grated cocoa-nut is a pleasant improvement
to curried dishes, and is universally liked.
The curry powder you buy is frequently much adulterated with inferior
articles. The best curry powder imported from India is of a dark green
color, and not yellow or red. It has among its ingredients, tamarinds,
_not_ preserved, as we always get them--but raw in the shell. These
tamarinds impart a pleasant acid to the mixture. For want of them use a
lemon.
MADRAS CURRY POWDER.--Pound separately, and sift, six ounces of
coriander seed, three of turmeric, one of black pepper, two of cummin,
one of fennel seed, and half an ounce of cayenne. Mix all together, put
them into a glass jar or bottle, and seal the cover.
With less turmeric, you may use ginger or sassafras.
Curry powder may be added to any stew of meat, poultry, or game. Boiled
rice must always accompany a dish of curry.
The ingredients indispensable to all curries (and you may make a curry
of any nice meat, or poultry, or even of oysters) is a very pungent
powder, prepared for the purpose with turmeric. Also onions and boiled
rice. In India there is always something acid in the mixture, as lemons,
sour apple juice, or green tamarinds. The turmeric has a peculiar flavor
of its own.
STORE SAUCES.--The celebrated English sauces, for fish and game,
Harvey's sauce, (which is the best,) Quin's, Reading's, Kitchener's,
Soyer's, &c., are all very good, and keep well, if genuine. They are
imported in small sealed bottles, and are to be had of all the best
grocers. To make them at home, is so troublesome and expensive, that it
is better to buy them. They are, however, very nice, and are generally
introduced at dinner parties; a little being mixed on your plate with
the melted butter. If you have no fish castors, bring these sauces to
table in their own bottles, to be carried round by a servant.
FINE PINK SAUCE.--Take a pint of excellent port wine, the juice and
grated yellow rinds of four large lemons, two dozen blades of mace and a
large nutmeg, broken up; with a quarter of an ounce of prepared
cochineal, or a small tea-spoonful of alkanet chips. Add a
table-spoonful of fresh salad oil. Mix the whole well in a wide-mouthed
glass jar with a lid. Let the ingredients infuse a fortnight; stirring
it several times a day. Then strain it, pour it through a funnel into
small bottles, and seal the corks. It will give a fine pink color to
drawn butter. Eat it with any sort of fish or game.
Alkanet produces a much finer color than cochineal, but it must unite
with some substance of an oily nature to give out its color to
advantage. It is very cheap, and very beautiful, and to be had at the
druggist's. Infuse it tied in a thin muslin bag.
WINE SAUCE FOR VENISON OR GAME.--Take the half of a sixpenny loaf of
bread. Cut off all the crust. Put the crumb (or soft part) into a bowl,
and pour on sufficient good port wine to steep it. Soak the bread in the
wine till dissolved. Then add two heaped table-spoonsful of fresh
butter, and two heaped spoonsful of sugar; seasoning with powdered mace
and nutmeg, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon. Beat all
together till very smooth. Put it into a sauce-pan, and give it one boil
up; taking it off as soon as it comes to a boil. Send it to table hot.
It is a fine company sauce for venison, or hare, or any sort of game.
FINE PUDDING SAUCE.--Take a large half-pint cup of the best fresh
butter, and the same quantity of powdered loaf-sugar. Put them together
in an earthen pan, and beat them to a light thick cream. Then mix a jill
or wine-glass of boiling water, and a large wine-glass of the best
brandy, with the grated yellow rind and juice of a large lemon or
orange; and a small nutmeg, grated. Mix these ingredients, gradually,
with the beaten butter and sugar; and transfer the sauce to a small
tureen, putting a spoon or ladle into it.
If designed for sauce to a plum-pudding or any other large one, you will
require a pint of butter, a pint of sugar, half a pint of boiling water
with half a pint of brandy, two lemons or oranges, and a _large_ nutmeg,
or two small ones. Divide the sauce in two tureens. A boiled pudding for
company requires no finer sauce than this.
Where _real_ cream is plenty, a bowl of it well sweetened with sugar,
and flavored with nutmeg, is nice for any boiled pudding. If you add
wine or lemon juice to cream sauce, previously mix the acid with the
sugar, and make it very sweet before you put them to the cream, lest it
should curdle.
VANILLA SAUCE.--Split and break up a small stick of vanilla, and boil it
in a very little milk, till all the vanilla flavor is extracted. Then
strain it through very fine muslin, and stir it into the cream. Give it
one boil up in a small porcelain sauce-pan; and sweeten it well with
white sugar.
PLAIN SAUCE FOR PUDDING.--Stir together (as in making pound cake) equal
quantities of fresh butter and white sugar. This is the usual
proportion; but if you can stir or beat it easily, try a little less
butter, and a little more of the sugar. Grate in some nutmeg, and the
yellow rind of a fresh lemon, and send it to table heaped on a small
plate, with a tea-spoon near it.[E]
[E] The butter and sugar sauce is very nice flavored and colored with
the juice of strawberries or raspberries.
Many persons prefer, with plain puddings, cold butter on a butter plate,
and sugar from the sugar-bowl; mixing it for themselves on their own
plate. This is best for boiled fruit pudding or dumplings; and for egg
or batter puddings, molasses or syrup is very good; and costs but
little.
CRANBERRY SAUCE.--Pick the cranberries clean, seeing that no stems,
sticks, or dead leaves are left among them. Put them into a cullender,
or sieve, and wash them through two waters. Cook them in a
porcelain-lined, or enameled stew-pan, without any additional water. The
water that remains about them after washing is quite sufficient for
stewing them properly. No stewed fruit should be too thin or liquid.
Keep a steady heat under the cranberries, stirring them up from the
bottom frequently: and when they are soft, mash them with the back of
the spoon. When they are quite shapeless, take them off the fire, and
while they are very hot, stir in, gradually, an ample quantity of nice
_brown_ sugar. They require much sweetening. Season them with nothing
else. Their natural flavor is sufficient (if well sweetened) and cannot
be improved by spice, lemon, or any of the usual condiments. Always buy
the largest and ripest cranberries. The best things are cheapest in the
end.
In stewing any sort of fruit, do not add the sugar till the fruit is
done, and taken from the fire. If sweetened at the beginning, much of
the strength of the sugar evaporates in cooking; besides rendering the
fruit tough and hard, and retarding the progress of the stew.
In America, sweet sauce is eaten with any sort of roast meat. Send it to
table cold. For company, put it into a blanc-mange mould, and turn it
out in a shape, first dipping the mould, for a minute, in warm water to
loosen it.
APPLE SAUCE.--Get fine juicy apples--bellflowers are the best for
cooking. Sweet apples cook very badly--becoming tough, dry and
tasteless. Green apples, if full grown, cook well, and have a pleasant
acid.
For sauce, pare, core, and quarter or slice the apples. Wash the pieces
in a cullender, and put them to stew, with only water enough to wet them
a little. Apple stews that are thin and watery are disgraceful to the
cook, or to the cook's mistress. Let them stew till you can mash them
easily all through. Then take them off the fire, and sweeten them,
adding the seasoning while the apples are warm. Season with rose-water,
lemon juice, nutmeg; or with all these if for company. If you can get
fresh lemon-peel, cut it into very thin slips, and put it in to stew
with the apples at first. It is still better, and little more trouble,
to grate the lemon-peel.
Fruit for pies should be stewed in the same manner as for sauce, and not
sweetened till taken from the fire. Let the paste be baked empty in
large deep plates, and when cool, filled to the brim with stewed fruit.
A pie, (as we have seen them,) only half or one third full, looks very
meanly--and tastes so.
All these fruit-sauces are good receipts for stewing fruit for pies or
any other purpose.
We advise all families to have, among their kitchen utensils, _bain
maries_, or double-kettles, putting the article to be stewed in the
inner kettle, and the boiling water in the outside one. They are to be
had of all sizes at the furnishing stores. They are also excellent for
custards and boiled puddings.
BAKED APPLE SAUCE.--Core very nicely as many fine juicy apples as will
fill a large baking-pan. All coring of apples should be done with a tin
cover. This you can buy at a tinman's for a quarter dollar, and it is
invaluable for the purpose. After coring the apples, pare them smooth
and evenly. Put a large table-spoonful of cold water in the bottom of
the baking-pan, and then put in the apples first, filling, with fine
brown sugar, the hole from whence the core was taken out. To have them
very nice, add some grated lemon-peel, or some rose-water. Set the pan
into an oven, (not too hot,) close the oven, and bake till the apples
are all broken and can be easily mashed. This way of making apple sauce,
by baking in a close oven, will be found far superior to boiling or
stewing them. They require no more water than is barely sufficient to
give them a start at the bottom.
The flavoring (sugar, lemon, or rose,) may be deferred till the apples
are baked, taken out of the oven and mashed. Then mix it in while hot.
Boiled apple sauce is usually spoiled with too much water, rendering it
the consistence of thin pap, weak, washy, and mean.
GOOSEBERRY SAUCE.--Get fine full-grown green gooseberries. Pick them
over, and top and tail them. Wash them in a cullender or sieve through
two waters. Put them into an enameled stew-pan, with only the water
remaining on them after washing, and no sugar till after they are stewed
to a mash, and taken from the fire. Then while hot, stir in brown sugar
enough to make them very sweet. Serve them up cold. For company, before
they are sweetened, press them through a sieve, using only the pulp.
Then add the sugar; and mould the whole in a form.
CURRANT SAUCE.--Take fine ripe currants, and strip them from the stems.
Put them into a pan, and mash them with a large spoon, or a wooden
beetle. Stew them in their own juice (no water,) and sweeten them when
they are taken from the fire. For company, press the fruit through a
sieve before you add the sugar, and shape it in a mould.
It will answer every purpose of regular currant jelly, to eat with game,
venison, &c.
RIPE PEACH SAUCE.--Take juicy freestone peaches; pare and stone them,
and cut them up. Save all the juice, and stew them in it. When quite
soft, take them off the fire, and sweeten them. The flavor will be much
improved by stewing with them a bunch of fresh peach leaves, to be taken
out when the peaches are done. Or, if you cannot readily obtain the
leaves, a handful of the fresh peach kernels, stewed with the fruit,
(and to be taken out afterwards,) will answer the purpose.
It is well, even in the sunny side of a city garden, to plant two peach
stones; so that when they grow into trees, you may have peach leaves at
hand for improving the flavor of custards, and other things. Unless the
trees are perfectly healthy, and the leaves green, do not use them.
DRIED PEACH SAUCE.--The richest and best dried peaches, are those that
are dried with the skins on. The skins (however thick,) entirely
dissolve in cooking, and become imperceptible when the fruit is well
stewed. It is a great error to pare peaches for drying. Apples _must_ be
pared, for the skin is tougher than that of peaches, and does not
dissolve in cooking.
To prepare dried peaches for stewing, pick them over carefully, throwing
away all the imperfect pieces. Wash them in two cold waters, and then
put them into a stew-pan, (_adding no water_,) and stew them till they
are quite soft, and shapeless, and mash easily and smoothly in the pan.
Sweeten them with plenty of brown sugar, as soon as they come off the
fire.
DRIED APPLE SAUCE.--Wash the dried apples through a cullender, and put
_a very little water_ with them in the stew-pan. Being rather insipid,
they require some additional flavor. Add cinnamon, or other spice of
any sort you like, and the yellow rind of a fresh lemon or orange, pared
very thin and cut into slips. When these apples are well stewed and
mashed, sweeten them.
We believe, that when dried peaches can be procured, few will buy dried
apples; they are so far inferior; being the poorest of dried fruit.
Dried cherries also are scarcely worth cooking, even if they _have_ been
stoned. Being tough and indigestible, they are very unwholesome, except
for rough, hard-working people. If the stones are left in, dried
cherries are fit for nothing.