forming in the pods. Take off the string with a knife, leaving no bits
of string adhering to the beans, either at top or bottom. Do not split
them. Cut each bean into three pieces, _not more_, and as you cut them
throw them into a pan of cold water, kept beside you for the purpose.
The old-fashioned way is now obsolete of cutting them into dice or
diamonds, or of splitting them. The more they are cut up (beside the
trouble and time wasted,) the more the water gets through them when
cooking; the more tasteless they become, and the more difficult they are
to drain. We have never met with beans that, when cut small, had not a
puddle of greasy water in the bottom of the dish, and sometimes the
water was all through the dish, and the beans floating in it. Shame on
such bean-cooking! When the beans are all ready for the pot, throw them
into boiling water very slightly salted, and they will generally be done
in half an hour after they have come to a boil. Transfer them to a
sieve; and press, and drain them well, till no water is left about them.
Then put them into a deep dish, mix them with fresh butter, and dredge
them with black pepper.
LIMA BEANS.--Shell the lima beans into a pan of cold water. Let them lie
in it an hour. Put them in boiling water, little more than enough to
cover them, and boil them till soft and tender. When done, drain and
serve them up in a deep dish, adding among them a good piece of butter.
The Lima beans now raised in North America have become coarse and white,
requiring a renewal of fresh stock or new seeds from Peru. They will
then be green and delicate again, as formerly.
SWEET POTATOS.--Choose the sweet potatos large, and nearly of the same
size, then you can either boil or roast them. When small they should
always be boiled; as, when baked or roasted, the skin becomes so thick
and hard, that it takes up nearly the whole potato. Wash them very
clean, and cut off a bit from each end. Put them into a large pot of
boiling water without salt, and boil them steadily for at least an
hour. Probe them with a narrow-bladed sharp knife, and if it does not
easily penetrate all through the largest potato, (in at one side and out
at the other) continue the boiling till all are soft throughout. Then
take them up, peel them, and keep them warm till sent to table.
_To Bake Sweet Potatos_ they should all be large. Wash them, dry them,
and cut off the ends. Then bake them in an oven, lying side by side, not
piling one on another. Or else (which is better) roast them in hot
ashes. They will not be done in less than an hour and a half, perhaps
longer. Then wipe them clean, and serve them up in the skins. Eat them
from the skins, with cold butter and a tea-spoon.
_To Stew Sweet Potatos._--Wash and wipe them. Then scrape off the skins
with a sharp knife. Split them, and cut them into long pieces. Stew them
with fresh pork, veal, or beef; first putting at the bottom a very
little butter or water to start them, and then the gravy of the meat
will suffice for cooking them--skimming it well. Water to stew should be
hot.
_Mashed Sweet Potatos_ are very nice. When well boiled, mash them
smoothly with a potato beetle. Mix them with fresh butter, and then stir
them well, or beat them with a large wooden spoon to render them light.
Afterwards, you may make them into round thick cakes, and touch the
surface of every one with pepper--red or black. This is a breakfast dish
for company.
BOILED TURNIPS.--Have all your turnips nearly of the same size. Pare
them; and if large cut them in half. Put them into boiling water, very
slightly salted, and keep them closely covered. Twenty minutes will boil
them if very small and young; their flavor is then very fine.
Afterwards, according to their size, they will require of gentle
boiling, from three-quarters to a full hour. Keep them boiling till, on
trying them with a fork, you find them perfectly tender all through.
Then take them up, drain them well, and pour melted butter over them;
touch the top of each with a spot of black pepper. If very old and
spongy, they are only fit for the pig barrel. It is said that if boiled
in their skins, (though requiring a much longer time to cook well) they
have a fine flavor, and are less watery. You can try it.
If the turnips are to be mashed, cut them into small pieces, boil them
very soft, and drain and squeeze them till all the water is pressed out.
Then mash them very smooth. Transfer them to a deep dish, and mix them
with a _moderate portion_ of fresh butter. Turnips are generally served
with too much butter. Season them with pepper. When sent to table take
care not to set them in a sunny place, as it will give them a bad taste.
Turnips, baked in an oven, are very good--for a change.
SYDNEY SMITH'S SALAD-DRESSING.--Have ready two well-boiled potatos,
peeled and rubbed through a sieve; they will give peculiar smoothness
to the mixture. Also, a very small portion of raw onion, not more than a
_quarter_ of a tea-spoonful, (as the presence of the onion is to be
scarcely hinted,) and the pounded yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Mix
these ingredients on a deep plate with one tea-spoonful of salt, one of
made mustard, three table-spoonfuls of olive oil, and one table-spoonful
of vinegar. Add, lastly, a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy; mash, and
mix the whole together, (using a boxwood spoon) and see that all the
articles are thoroughly amalgamated. Having cut up a sufficiency of
lettuce, that has been well washed in cold water, and drained, add to it
the dressing immediately before dinner, mixing the lettuce through it
with a boxwood fork.
This salad dressing was invented by the Rev. Sydney Smith, whose genius
as a writer and a wit is well known on both sides the Atlantic. If
_exactly_ followed, it will be found very fine on trial; no peculiar
flavor predominating, but excellent as a whole. The above directions are
taken from a manuscript receipt given by Mr. Smith to an American
gentleman then in London.
In preparing this, or any other salad-dressing, take care not to use
that excessively pungent and deleterious combination of drugs which is
now so frequently imposed upon the public, as _the best white wine
vinegar_. In reality, it has no vinous material about it; and it may be
known by its violent and disagreeable sharpness, which overpowers and
destroys the taste (and also the substance) of whatever it is mixed
with. It is also very unwholesome. Its color is always pale, and it is
nearly as clear as water. No one should buy or use it. The first quality
of _real_ cider vinegar is good for all purposes.
The above receipt may be tried for lobster dressing.
A Spanish proverb says, that for compounding a _good_ salad, four
persons are required--a spend-thrift for oil; a miser for vinegar; a man
of judgment for salt; and a madman for stirring the dressing.
FINE CHICKEN SALAD.--Having skinned a pair of cold fowls, remove the
fat, and carve them as if for eating; cut all the flesh entirely from
the bones, and either mince it or divide it into small shreds. Mix with
it a little smoked tongue or cold ham, grated rather than chopped. Have
ready one or two fine fresh lettuces, picked, washed, drained, and cut
small. Put the cut lettuce on a dish, (spreading it evenly,) or into a
large bowl, and place upon it the minced chicken in a close heap in the
centre. For the dressing, mix together the following ingredients, in the
proportion of the yolks of four eggs well beaten, a tea-spoonful of
powdered white sugar, a salt-spoon of cayenne; (no salt if you have ham
or tongue with the chicken,) two tea-spoonfuls of made mustard, six
table-spoonfuls of salad oil, and five of celery vinegar. Stir this
mixture well: put it into a small sauce-pan, set it over the fire, and
let it boil three minutes,(not more,) stirring it all the time. Then set
it to cool. When quite cold, cover with it thickly, the heap of chicken
in the centre of the salad. To ornament it, have ready half a dozen or
more, hard-boiled eggs, which, after the shell is peeled off, must be
thrown directly into a pan of cold water to prevent them from turning
blue. Cut each egg (white and yolk together) lengthways into four long
pieces of equal size and shape; lay the pieces upon the salad all round
the heap of chicken, and close to it; placing them so as to follow each
other round in a slanting direction, something in the form of a circular
wreath of leaves. Have ready, also, some very red cold beet, cut into
small cones or points all of equal size; arrange them in a circle upon
the lettuce, outside of the circle of cut egg. To be decorated in this
manner, the salad should be placed in a dish rather than a bowl. In
helping it, give each person a portion of every thing, and they will mix
them together on their plates.
This salad should be prepared immediately before dinner or supper; as
standing long will injure it. The colder it is the better.
CARROTS.--Having washed the carrots, and scraped off the outer skin with
a sharp knife, or taken off a very thin paring, split them a few inches
down, leaving a long cleft in the upper half only, and put them on to
cook in plenty of boiling water, with a little salt in it. There is no
table vegetable that needs more boiling than a carrot. Small young
carrots require at least half an hour. If large, they must boil from one
to two hours, according to their size. When you find them tender
throughout, dish them, with melted butter poured round them. They are
eaten plain, only with boiled beef or boiled mutton. They are often
added to soups and stews, when they must be put in long before the other
vegetables. For soups and stews the nicest way is to grate them (before
boiling,) on a coarse grater. This way they improve both the taste and
color.
Carrots are very nice, sliced thin after boiling, put into a sauce-pan,
with bits of butter dredged with flour, seasoned with pepper, and stewed
soft without any water.
PARSNIPS.--Scrape the parsnips, and split them half way down. Put them
into boiling water with a little salt. Parsnips require less boiling
than carrots; and, according to their size, will take from half an hour
to an hour. Skim the water while they are boiling. When quite tender
take them up, drain them, dish them, and pour melted butter over them.
They are especially eaten with corned pork, or salted cod; but are good
with various things. They are excellent stewed with fresh beef, or fresh
pork, for a plain dinner.
_Fried Parsnips_ make a nice breakfast dish. They must first be
parboiled; then split, and cut into long pieces, and fried brown in
fresh butter, or in nice dripping of veal or beef.
_Baked Parsnips._--Split and parboil them. Then place them in a large
dish. Lay among them some bits of fresh butter, and bake them brown. Eat
them with any sort of roast meat.
_Parsnip Fritters._--Boil and peel half a dozen large parsnips, and then
split and cut them in pieces. Make a nice batter, allowing four beaten
eggs to a pint of milk, and four table-spoonfuls of flour. Have ready
over the fire, a frying-pan with boiling lard. Put in a large spoonful
of batter; upon that a piece of parsnip, and cover it with another
spoonful of batter. Proceed thus till you have used up the parsnips.
When done, drain them from the lard, and serve them hot at breakfast or
dinner.
BEETS.--Beets must be washed very clean, but not scraped, trimmed, or
cut till after they are boiled. Put them on in boiling water; and,
according to their size, boil them steadily from one hour and a half, to
two hours and a half, but they must not be probed (to ascertain if they
are tender all through,) but pinched with the fingers. Then peel off the
skins, and trim them neatly. Hold the beet in a pan of cold water while
you peel it. Do it quickly. Serve them up either split or sliced, with
melted butter poured over them, and seasoned with pepper. Or else they
may be sliced thick, (allowing them to get cold,) and spiced vinegar
poured over them. Red beets are usually dressed with vinegar; the white
or pale ones with melted butter.
_Baked Beets_ have a finer flavor, and are more nutritious than when
boiled. Wash and wipe them dry, but do not skin or cut them till after
cooking. They must be thoroughly done before they are taken out of the
oven, and then pared and trimmed. According to their size they will
require from four to six hours baking. Their blood-red color makes them
ornamental to the table; but when cooked in soups or stews they add
little to the taste, which is overpowered by that of other ingredients.
SQUASHES OR CYMLINGS.--See that the squashes are not turning old, and
hardening. Wash them, and cut them into four pieces each; but do not
split them. Put them on in boiling water, with a little salt. Boil them
steadily till quite tender throughout. Then take them up, and mash or
drain them through a cullender, pressing them with a broad short-handled
wooden ladle. All the water (of which there will be a profusion,) must
be entirely squeezed out. Serve them up very dry, and smoothly and
evenly mashed, having first mixed with them a _very little butter_; and
season them with very little pepper. Much butter gives them a
disagreeable taste and consistence, and the butter should be fresh and
good. It is better to mash squashes, turnips, pumpkins, &c., without any
butter, than to use that which is salt and bad. The flat white ones are
the best summer squashes; the striped green are more watery; the cashaw,
or yellow winter squash, is best of all, and grows well in the New
England states, from whence, as it keeps well all winter, it is often
brought in barrels. Every family should get a barrel of winter squashes
from Boston. They do not thrive in the middle States. In New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, they cannot be raised even from the best yankee seed,
turning pumpkinish the next year, and afterwards becoming quite
pumpkins, and very bad ones too. But when raised in their native soil
and climate nothing of the squash kind is equal to them. They are very
dry and sweet, and of a rich yellow color. Take them out of the barrel,
and keep them far apart on the shelves or floor of a dry pantry.
STEWED PUMPKIN.--No pumpkin is too large to be good, but they may be too
old. Cut a good deep-colored pumpkin in half, and empty out all the
seeds, &c. Then cut it into pieces, and pare them. Put the pieces of
pumpkin into a pot with barely sufficient water to keep them from
burning. When they are thoroughly done or soft all through, take them
up; drain, mash, and press them through a cullender. They must be _very_
dry. Put the stewed pumpkin into a dish, and mix it with a small portion
of butter. Season it with black pepper, and eat it with boiled corned
beef, or corned pork, or bacon.
Stewed pumpkin is chiefly used for pies and puddings.
YANKEE PUMPKIN PUDDING.--Take a pint of stewed pumpkin. Mix together a
pint of _West India_ molasses and a pint of milk, adding two large
table-spoonfuls of brown sugar, and two table-spoonfuls of ground
ginger. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them, gradually, into the
milk and molasses. Then, by degrees, stir in the stewed pumpkin. Put it
into a deep dish, and bake it without a crust. This is a good farm-house
pudding, and _equally_ good for any healthy children.
For a large family, double the quantities of ingredients--that is, take
a quart of milk, a quart of molasses, four spoonfuls of brown sugar,
four spoonfuls of ginger, six eggs, and a quart of stewed pumpkin.
You had best have at hand _more than a quart_ of pumpkin, lest when
mixed it should not hold out. This pudding is excellent made of winter
squash.
STEWED MUSHROOMS.--Peel and wash a quart of very fresh mushrooms, and
cut off all the stems. Button mushrooms are best; but if you can only
procure large ones, quarter them. Sprinkle them slightly with salt and
pepper, and put them into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of nice
fresh butter, cut in pieces and slightly dredged with flour. Keep the
lid closely covered all the time. When quite tender, put the mushrooms
into a deep dish, in the bottom of which is laid a nice toast that has
had all the crust pared off, and been dipped for a minute in hot water,
and slightly buttered. Serve up the mushrooms closely covered. They
require no seasoning.
BAKED MUSHROOMS.--Take large fine fresh mushrooms. Peel them and remove
the stems. Lay them on their backs in a large dish, (not letting them
touch each other) and put into each mushroom, (as in a cup) a bit of the
best fresh butter. Set the dish in an oven and bake them. Send them to
table in the same dish; or transfer them to another, with a large toast
at the bottom. There is no better way of cooking mushrooms than this.
If you cannot procure good butter, cook them in nice olive oil.
TO BOIL INDIAN CORN.--Corn for boiling should be full grown, but young
and tender, and the grains soft and milky. If its grains are becoming
hard and yellow, it is too old for cooking. Strip the ears of their
leaves and the silk. Put them into a large pot of boiling water, and
boil it rather fast for half an hour or more, in proportion to its size
and age. When done, take it up, drain it, dish it under a cover, or
napkin, and serve it up hot. Before eating it, rub each ear with salt
and pepper, and then spread it with butter. Epicures in corn consider it
sweetest when eaten off the cob. And so it is; but _before company_ few
persons like to hold an ear of indian corn in their hands, and bite the
grains off the cob with their teeth. Therefore, it is more frequently
cut off the cob into a dish; mixed with salt, pepper, and butter, and
helped with a spoon.
It is said that young green corn will boil sufficiently in ten minutes,
(putting it, _of course_, into a pot of boiling water.) Try it.
_Another way._--Having pulled off the silk, boil the corn without
removing any but the outside leaves. With the leaves or husk on, it will
require a longer time to cook, but is sweeter and more nutritious.
HOMINY.--Hominy is white indian corn, shelled from the cob, divested of
the outer skin by scalding in hot lye, and then winnowed and dried. It
is perfectly white. Having washed it through two or three waters, pour
boiling water on it; cover it, and let it soak all night, or for several
hours. Then put it into a pot or sauce-pan, allow two quarts of water to
each quart of hominy, and boil it till perfectly soft. Then drain it,
put it into a deep dish, add some butter to it, and send it to table
hot, (and _uncovered_,) to eat with any sort of meat; but particularly
with corned beef or pork. What is left may be made next day into thick
cakes, and fried in butter. To be _very good_, hominy should boil four
or five hours.
CAROLINA GRITS OR SMALL HOMINY.--The small-grained hominy must be washed
and boiled in the same manner as the large, only allow rather less water
for boiling. For instance, put a pint and a half of water to a quart of
small hominy. Drain it well, send it to table in a deep dish _without a
cover_, and eat it with butter and sugar, or molasses. If covered after
boiling, the vapor will condense within the lid, and make the hominy
thin and watery.
SAMP.--This is indian corn skinned, and then pounded or ground till it
is still smaller and finer than the Carolina grits. It must be cooked
and used in the same manner. It is very nice eaten with cream and sugar.
For invalids it may be made thin, and eaten as gruel.
HOMINY CAKES.--A pint of small hominy, or Carolina grits; a pint of
white indian meal, sifted; a salt-spoonful of salt, three large
table-spoonfuls of fresh butter; three eggs or three table-spoonfuls of
strong yeast; a quart of milk. Having washed the small hominy, and left
it soaking all night, boil it soft, drain it, and while hot mix it with
the indian meal; adding the salt, and the butter. Then mix it gradually
with the milk, and set it away to cool. Beat the eggs very light, and
add them gradually to the mixture. The whole should make a thick batter.
Then bake them on a griddle, in the manner of buckwheat cakes, rubbing
or scraping the griddle always before you put on a fresh cake. Trim off
their edges nicely, and send them to table hot. Eat them with butter.
Or you may bake them in muffin rings.
If you prefer making these cakes with yeast, you must begin them
earlier, as they will require time to rise. The yeast should be strong
and fresh. If _not_ very strong, use four table-spoonfuls instead of
two. Cover the pan, set it in a warm place; and do not begin to bake
till it is well risen, and the surface of the mixture is covered with
bubbles.
CORN PORRIDGE.--Take young corn, and cut the grains from the cob.
Measure it, and to each heaping pint of corn allow not quite a quart of
milk. Put the corn and milk into a pot, stir them well together, and
boil them till the corn is perfectly soft. Then add some bits of fresh
butter dredged with flour, and let it boil five minutes longer. Stir in
at the last, four beaten yolks of eggs, and in three minutes remove it
from the fire. Take up the porridge and send it to table hot, and stir
some fresh butter into it. You may add sugar and nutmeg.
CORN OYSTERS.--Three dozen ears of large young indian corn, six eggs;
lard and butter in equal portions for frying. The corn must be young and
soft. Grate it from the cob as fine as possible, and dredge it with
wheat flour. Beat very light the six eggs, and mix them gradually with
the corn. Then let the whole be well incorporated by hard beating. Add a
salt-spoon of salt.
Have ready, in a frying pan, a sufficient quantity of lard and fresh
butter mixed together. Set it over the fire till it is boiling hot, and
then put in portions of the corn mixture, so as to form oval cakes about
three inches long, and nearly an inch thick. Fry them brown, and send
them to table hot. In taste they will be found to have a singular
resemblance to fried oysters, and are universally liked if properly
done. They make nice side-dishes at dinner, and are very good at
breakfast.
SUMMER SACCATASH.--String a quarter of a peck of young green beans, and
cut each bean into three pieces, (not more,) and do not split them. Have
by you a pan of cold water, and throw the beans into it as you cut them.
Have ready over the fire a pot or sauce-pan of boiling water; put in the
beans, and boil them hard near twenty minutes. Afterwards take them up,
and drain them well through a cullender. Take half a dozen ears of young
but full-grown indian corn, (or eight or nine if they are not all large)
and cut the grains down from the cob. Mix together the corn and the
beans, adding a very small tea-spoonful of salt, and boil them about
twenty minutes. Then take up the saccatash, drain it well through a
sieve, put it into a deep dish, and while hot mix in a large piece of
butter, (at least the size of an egg,) add some pepper, and send it to
table. It is generally eaten with salted or smoked meat.
Fresh Lima beans are excellent cooked in this manner, with green corn.
They must be boiled for half an hour or more, before they are cooked
with the corn.
Dried beans and dried corn will do very well for saccatash, but they
must be soaked all night before boiling. The water poured on them for
soaking should be hot.
WINTER SACCATASH.--This is made of dried shelled beans and hard corn,
soaked over night in separate pans, and boiling water poured over them
in the morning, after pouring off the first water. Then boil both
together till they are _quite soft_. Drain them dry in a sieve, put them
into a deep dish, and mix in a large piece of butter, seasoned with
pepper. This is a good accompaniment to corned pork or beef. The meat
must be boiled in a separate pot.
CAROLINA WAY OF BOILING RICE.--Pick the rice carefully, and wash it
through two or three cold waters till it is quite clean. Then (having
drained off all the water through a cullender,) put the rice into a pot
of boiling water, with a very little salt, allowing as much as a quart
of water to half a pint of rice. Boil it twenty minutes or more. Then
pour off the water, draining the rice as dry as possible. Lastly, set it
on hot coals with the lid off, that the steam may not condense upon it
and render the rice watery. Keep it drying thus for a quarter of an
hour. Put it into a deep dish, and loosen and toss it up from the bottom
with two forks, one in each hand, so that the grains may appear to stand
alone.