a heaped table-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, half the yellow rind of
a lemon grated, and half the juice; and a half tea-spoonful of powdered
nutmeg or mace. Set the mixture over the fire, and as soon as it boils
add crumbled milk biscuit, or a rusk. Then give it another boil up.
BARLEY WATER.--Having washed clean two ounces of pearl barley, put it
into a sauce-pan with a quart of water, the grated rind and the juice of
a lemon, and two ounces of seeded raisins. Boil it slowly till the
liquid is reduced one half. Then strain it, and sweeten it, while warm,
with loaf sugar.
_Gum Arabic Water._--Take an ounce of the best and cleanest gum arabic.
Put it into a pitcher, and pour on a pint of boiling water, and stir
while dissolving. When cool, squeeze in (if permitted) the juice of a
lemon, and add loaf sugar enough to make it pleasantly sweet. Gum arabic
water, alone, is sometimes given to a patient, whom it is expedient to
keep very low as a preventive to inflammation.
_Tamarind Water._--This is a pleasant and cooling drink in fevers,
allowing half a pint of cold water to as many tamarinds as you can take
up with a table-spoon. Cover it, and let it stand for a few minutes.
_Apple Water._--Take four fine large juicy apples, (pippins or
bellflowers,) core and pare them, and bake them side by side in a tin
pan. When well done and quite soft all through, put them into a pitcher
and fill up with warm water. Simmer them over the fire, and when quite
soft mash them; and, if necessary, add more water till they become a
thick liquid that can be drank. Sweeten well with loaf sugar, and if
permitted, add some lemon juice or rose-water. Drink it cool.
_Egg Wine._--Break a nice fresh egg into a tumbler, and beat it till
smooth and thick. Add a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, and
stir in a glass of the best port wine. This, when permitted, is very
strengthening and cheering for an invalid, to take about the hour of
noon or earlier. When wine is not allowed, you may beat the egg into a
glass of new unskimmed milk.
WHEY.--Milk can be converted into a curd by the infusion of rennet
water, white wine, lemon juice, tamarind juice, or vinegar, stirred into
good milk, covered and set in a warm place till the curd has formed, and
has separated from the whey which remains beneath it. Take off the curd
carefully, breaking it as little as possible, and put it into a deep
dish. Pour the whey into a pitcher. It should look clear, and greenish
rather than white, and have none of the milk curd remaining about it.
Set the pitcher on ice. It is an excellent drink in fevers. When
approved, the curd may be eaten in a saucer with sugar. For rennet whey,
cut a piece of dried rennet about two inches square, and wipe all the
salt from the outside, but do not wash it. Soak the bit of rennet for
several hours (or all night) in a small tea-cup of lukewarm water. Then
pour the rennet water into the milk. For wine whey, boil a jill of
sherry in a pint of milk, without stirring it.
TAPIOCA.--Having washed in cold water three heaped table-spoonfuls of
tapioca; drain it, put it into a clean quart bowl, pour on water enough
to cover it well, and soak it four hours. Then pour on as much more
water, transfer the whole to a porcelain skillet, in the bottom of which
you have laid the yellow peel of a fresh lemon, pared so thin as to be
transparent, and boil the tapioca gently till it looks quite clear. Then
take out the lemon peel, and stir in sufficient loaf sugar to make it
very sweet. If approved, flavor it with some madeira or sherry, and some
grated nutmeg. Tapioca may be boiled in plain milk, with no seasoning
but the sugar to sweeten it.
_Sago._--Pick and wash clean, in two cold waters, a half pint of sago.
Put it into a porcelain skillet, with the yellow rind of a lemon pared
transparent. Pour on it a quart of water, and let it all soak for two
hours. Then set it over the fire, and boil it, gently, till the lemon is
all to pieces and nearly dissolved, and the sago looks clear. Take out
the lemon peel, and stir in, if permitted, some sherry wine, sugar, and
grated nutmeg, and give it another boil.
If the above seasoning is not allowed, boil the sago in milk only, or
water only, till the liquid becomes thick and like a jelly.
_Sago Pudding for an invalid._--Boil three table-spoonfuls of _soaked_
sago in a pint of milk till quite soft. Add gradually three ounces of
white sugar, and set it away to cool. Beat three eggs till thick and
smooth, and stir them by degrees into the sago and milk. Grate in some
nutmeg, and bake the pudding in a deep dish. Tapioca pudding is made in
the same manner.
SWEETBREADS FOR INVALIDS.--Cut open two fine fresh sweetbreads, and lay
them in warm water till all the blood is discharged. Then transfer them
to a pan of cold water to blanch or whiten. Stew them in the strained
liquid of fresh oysters, till quite tender. When done, take out the
sweetbreads, remove the gristle or pipe, and serve them up warm, having
laid in the bottom of the dish a slice of nice toast that has been
dipped for a minute in hot water. If permitted, the oysters may be
cooked with the sweetbread, first removing the hard part.
STEWED SMELTS.--Smelts are considered a delicate and nutritious fish for
invalids. They are in season in winter, and early in the spring. Choose
them as large as you can find them. Having drawn and cleaned them, cut
off their heads and tails. Put sufficient water to cover them in a small
stew-pan, adding a very little powdered white sugar, and a few small
sprigs of parsley, or sweet marjoram. When the water boils lay in the
fish, and simmer them five minutes. Then stir in a very little arrow
root, mixed with a few drops of cold water, and let it stew ten minutes
longer. Serve up the stew in a small deep dish with a cover, and eat
with it some very light bread-roll. It will be a pleasant change from
the usual broths and infusions prepared for the sick.
_A Molasses Supper._--Make a thick slice of very nice toast, evenly
browned on both sides, but not the least burnt. Lay it in a pint bowl,
and pour over it a small half pint of the best _West India_ molasses,
having stirred into the molasses a heaped table-spoonful of ground
ginger. Mix the molasses with half a pint of hot water, and pour the
whole over the toast. Cover it with a plate for a few minutes, and eat
it while warm, previous to going to bed. This is a wholesome
strengthening palatable supper for an invalid, (as we know by
experience) and may be continued as long as the patient continues to
like it. It is always a good winter supper for children. The ginger must
on no account be omitted. If the molasses has turned a little sour, stir
in a salt-spoonful of soda.
To prevent a jug of molasses from running over when kept in a warm
place, pour out a little into another vessel, and leave the molasses jug
uncorked for two days. Then cork it tightly.
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
TEA.--No metal (not even silver,) is good for tea-pots. All tea should
be made in china or queensware. Wedgewood (whether black or white)
imbibes much of the essence of the tea, and from constant use soon
becomes unpleasant. Britannia ware is exceedingly unwholesome for any
sort of cooking, as one fourth of the composition is copper. Block tin
for a common tea-pot is less objectionable, and much cheaper. All
tea-pots should, after using, be thoroughly emptied of the old leaves,
and washed very clean in warm water, and set open in the sun and air for
several hours. To make good tea, the tea itself, whether black or green,
must be of excellent quality. There is no economy in buying that which
is low-priced. Green tea, if fresh and good, and not adulterated will
look green in the cup, and have a fragrant odor. If it draws red, or
brown, or blackish, it is old or mixed with something wrong. Begin to
make your tea about a quarter of an hour before it is wanted. Scald the
tea-pot (twice over) with boiling water. Then put in the tea, allowing
three heaping table-spoonfuls to each person, and a pint of water,
actually boiling, when put in. Cover it closely with the lid, and set it
by the fire for ten or fifteen minutes to infuse. After the first cups
have gone round, put some fresh tea into the pot, and pour on it some
more boiling water, that the second cups may be as strong as the first,
having time to infuse. Weak tea for company is very mean. For those that
like it so, have a small pot of water on the server. If the water is not
boiling fast when poured on the tea, and is beginning to cool, the tea
will be flat and insipid, and the leaves will float on the surface of
the cups. There is then no remedy but to make some fresh.
COFFEE.--To drink coffee in perfection, a sufficient quantity for
breakfast should be roasted every morning, and ground hot, as it loses
much of its strength by keeping even for a few hours. The best coffee
roasters are iron cylinders, (standing on feet) with a door in one side,
and a handle that turns the cylinder round towards the fire or from it,
that the coffee may be equally done throughout. It must be roasted a
bright brown color, and on no account black or burnt. When about half
done, put in bits of fresh butter, allowing a table-spoonful to a pound
of coffee. Previous to roasting pick the coffee carefully, throwing away
the defective grains, and the stones or sand. Coffee should be ground
while warm in a mill kept solely for that purpose, and fastened up
against the kitchen wall.
For boiled coffee allow four ounces of ground coffee (or a quarter of a
pound) to a quart of water. When the water boils, stir in the coffee.
Give it one hard boil up. Then set it farther from the fire, and simmer
it for ten minutes, adding the white of an egg, (including the egg
shell,) or a small strip of isinglass. Pour out a large cup of the
coffee, and then (holding it high above the coffee-pot,) pour it back
again. Repeat this till wanted, and then set the coffee-pot beside the
fire, (but not over it.) For company, allow six ounces of coffee to a
quart of water. Keep the lid always on, but if when boiling hard it
rises and seems inclined to run over, remove it instantly from the fire
and set it back. Cream is indispensable to first-rate coffee; if not to
be obtained sweet, substitute rich milk boiling hot. On no consideration
fill up the coffee-pot with water. A percolator (to be had at the best
tin stores) makes excellent coffee without boiling, if properly managed.
CHOCOLATE.--There is no plain chocolate better than Baker's prepared
cacao, and none has so much of the true chocolate flavor. The foreign
chocolate is generally mixed with sugar, spice, and milk. It cannot be
made thick and strong, and therefore to many tastes is not agreeable. To
make a pint (or two large cupfuls of chocolate,) scrape down two ounces
on a plate, and moisten the chocolate with a jill of water, rubbing it
on the plate till quite smooth. Then boil it five minutes, and add a
small pint of water. When it has been well stirred with a wooden spoon,
and has come again to a boil, serve it as hot as possible, accompanied
by a saucer of fine loaf sugar, and a small jug of rich hot cream and a
plate of nice dry toast, or some milk biscuits or sponge cake. Milled
chocolate is made with rich unskimmed milk instead of water. The
chocolate mill is a deep pot, belonging to which is a stick with a broad
wheel-shaped bottom, the other end coming up through a hole in the lid.
Take this between your hands, and turn it round fast till the chocolate
is finely frothed. Then transfer it to large cups. Chocolate, after it
becomes cold, is unfit to drink. But if made with milk, you can convert
what is left into a custard or pudding, with the addition of more sugar
and some beaten egg. The low-priced chocolate is both unpalatable and
unwholesome, being adulterated with animal fat or lard, and made with
_old_ cacao beans.
MILK TOAST.--To a pint of nice rich milk allow a quarter of a pound of
excellent _fresh_ butter. Boil the milk, and as soon as it boils take it
off, and stir in the butter cut into pieces. When the butter has melted,
give it another boil up Have ready a deep plate with four rather thick
slices of bread, nicely and evenly toasted on both sides. Pour the milk
hot over the toast, and keep it covered till it goes to the breakfast
table. Send a spoon with it. Bread should always be toasted by a
long-handled fork, such as are made for the purpose. They cost but
twenty-five cents, and no kitchen should be without one.
BUTTERED TOAST.--Cut even slices of bread all of the same thickness, and
pare off the whole of the crust. With a long-handled toasting fork toast
it evenly on both sides, taking care that no part of it is burnt or
blackened. Butter the slices hot, as you take them off the fork, (using
none but nice fresh butter) and lay them evenly on a heated plate. Cover
them till they go to table.
All toast prepared for cookery, (to lay in the bottom of dishes,) should
have the crust pared off, and be dipped in hot water after toasting.
RASPBERRY VINEGAR.--Take a gallon of fine ripe raspberries. Put them
into a large deep earthen pan, and mash them well with a wooden beetle.
Then pour them with all their juice into a large and very clean linen
bag, and squeeze and press out their liquid into a vessel beneath.
Measure it, and to each pint of juice allow half a pint of the best and
clearest cider vinegar, and half a pound of fine loaf sugar, powdered.
First mix the juice and the vinegar, and give them a boil in a porcelain
kettle. Then stir in the sugar, gradually, adding to every two pounds
of sugar a beaten white of egg. Boil and skim till the scum ceases to
rise. When it is done, bottle it cold, cork it tightly, and seal the
corks. To use it, pour out half a tumbler of raspberry vinegar, and fill
up with ice water. It is a pleasant and cooling beverage in warm
weather, and for invalids who are feverish. Mixed with hot water, and
taken at bed-time, it is good for a cold.
_Strawberry Vinegar_--Is made in the above manner, carefully hulling
them. The strawberries must be of the finest kind, and fully ripe. These
vinegars are made with much less trouble than the usual way; and are
quite as good, if not better.
MACARONI.--In buying macaroni, choose that of a large pipe; see that it
is clean and white and that it has not been touched by insects. Half a
pound makes one dish. If _soaked_ before boiling it is apt to dissolve
or go to pieces, but wash and drain it through cold water in a sieve.
Have over the fire a large pan of boiling water, in which has been
melted a piece of fresh butter the size of an egg. If boiled steadily,
it will be quite tender in less than an hour; but do not boil it so long
that the pipes break up and lose their shape. Having drained it well
through a clean sieve, transfer it to a deep dish, dividing it into four
layers, having first cut it into even lengths of two or three inches.
Between the layers place on it seasoning of grated cheese of the very
best quality, and bits of fresh butter, with some powdered mace. On the
top layer, add to the covering of cheese and butter sufficient
bread-crumbs to form a slight crust all over the surface. Brown it with
a salamander or a red hot shovel. Or (omitting the cheese) you may dress
it with rich gravy of roast meat.
_For Sweet Macaroni._--Having boiled it in milk instead of water, drain
it, and mix with it powdered mace and nutmeg, with butter, sugar, and
rose or peach-water. Macaroni (like vermicelli) has in itself no taste,
but is only made palatable by the manner of dressing it. Good soup is
rather weakened than improved by the addition of macaroni.
COMMON OMELET.--Beat five eggs till very light and thick. Stir gradually
into the pan of eggs four table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Thin the
batter with a large tea-cup of milk. Take a yeast powder; dissolve the
soda (from the blue paper) in a small quantity of tepid or lukewarm
water, and stir it into the batter. In another cup melt the tartaric
acid, (from the white paper;) stir that into the mixture, and stir the
whole very hard. Have ready in a frying-pan a large portion of lard,
boiling hot. Put in the omelet mixture, and fry it well. When one side
is done turn it, and fry the other. To flavor this omelet, mix gradually
into the batter either grated ham or smoked tongue; minced oysters;
minced onion; mixed with sweet marjoram, or else some mushrooms chopped
very fine.
_For a Sweet Omelet_, add to the above batter powdered sugar, nutmeg,
mace, and powdered cinnamon.
The custom is now to dish omelets without folding them over, it being
found that folding renders them heavy. Spread them out at full length on
a very hot dish. The batter for omelets should always be made in
sufficient quantity to allow them very thick.
There is no use in attempting to flavor an omelet, or any thing else,
with marmalade or lemon, if you put in soda. The alkalies destroy the
taste of every sort of fruit.
A PLAIN POTATO PUDDING.--Having pared a pound of fine large potatos, put
them into a pot, cover them well with cold water, and boil them gently
till tender all through. When done, lay each potato (one at a time,) in
a clean warm napkin, and press and wring it till all the moisture is
squeezed out, and the potato becomes a round, dry lump. Mince as fine as
possible a quarter of a pound of fresh beef suet, (divested of skin, and
strings.) Crumble the potato, and mix it well with the suet, adding a
small salt-spoon of salt. Add sufficient milk to make a thick batter,
and beat it well. Dip a strong square cloth in hot water, shake it out,
and dredge it well with flour. Tie the pudding in, leaving room for it
to swell, and put it into a large pot of hot water and boil it steady
for an hour. This is a good and economical family pudding.
ELLEN CLARK'S PUDDING.--Slice, rather thick, some fresh bread. Pare off
all the crust. Butter the bread on both sides, and lay it in a deep
dish. Fill up with molasses very profusely, having first seasoned the
molasses with ginger, ground cinnamon, and powdered mace or nutmeg. It
will be much improved by adding the grated yellow rind and the juice of
a large lemon or orange. Bake it till brown all over the top, and till
the bread and butter has absorbed the molasses; taking care not to let
it burn.
ARROW-ROOT BISCUIT.--Mix in a pan half a pint of arrow-root, and half a
pint of sifted wheat flour. Cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh butter,
and rub it into the pan of flour, crumbling the bits of butter so small
as to be scarcely visible. Mix a quarter of a pound of powdered white
sugar, and wet it with a beaten egg. Add gradually a very little cream,
just enough to make it into a stiff dough. Flavor it with the grated
yellow rind and juice of a lemon, and half a nutmeg grated. Roll out the
dough into thin sheets, and cut it out into biscuits with the edge of a
tumbler. Prick every biscuit all over with a fork. Lay them in square
pans slightly floured, and bake them immediately. They will be improved
by adding (at the last of the mixture) a table-spoonful of the best
rose-water. If rose-water is put into cakes _early_ in the mixing, much
of its strength will evaporate before baking. It should always be
deferred to the last. These are very nice tea biscuits.
ONTARIO CAKE.--Take a pint and a half (or three large breakfast cups,)
of sifted flour, and the same quantity of powdered white sugar, and half
a pint of milk; a quarter of a pint or half a cup of the best fresh
butter, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a large lemon. Have
ready four well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh
yeast.
Cut up the butter into the pan of flour. Add the milk and sugar
gradually, and then the beaten egg, and then the lemon; next the yeast.
Stir the whole very well, and set it to rise in a buttered pan. Place it
near the fire, and cover it with a clean flannel or a double cloth. When
it has risen and is quite light, and is cracked all over the surface,
transfer it to a square baking pan, put it immediately into the oven,
and bake it well. When cool, either ice it or sift white sugar over it,
and cut it into squares. Or, you may bake it in a round loaf, or in
small round cakes.
NEW-YEAR'S CAKE.--Stir together a pound of nice fresh butter, and a
pound of powdered white sugar, till they become a light thick cream.
Then stir in, gradually, three pounds of sifted flour. Add, by degrees,
a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a small tea-cup of milk, and then a
half salt-spoonful of tartaric acid, melted in a large table-spoonful of
warm water. Then mix in, gradually, three table-spoonfuls of fine
carraway seeds. Roll out the dough into sheets half an inch thick, and
cut it with a jagging iron into oval or oblong cakes, pricked with a
fork. Bake them immediately in shallow iron pans, slightly greased with
fresh butter. The bakers in New York ornament these cakes, with devices
or pictures raised by a wooden stamp. They are good plain cakes for
children.
GOOD YEAST.--Take two handfuls of hops. The best hops have a fresh light
green color, and a pleasant, lively smell. Pour on them two quarts of
boiling water, and let them boil five minutes after they have come to a
boil; not longer, for it makes them bitter. Then strain the liquid into
a pan, and add a table-spoonful of brown sugar and one of salt. When
lukewarm, stir in flour enough to make a thick batter. Add a jill and a
half of fresh baker's yeast. Set it in a warm place till it begins to
ferment; then keep it in the cellar well corked.
This yeast will continue good two weeks. When you open the jug to take
out some yeast, put in always a table-spoonful of flour before you cork
it up again.
A stone jug or pitcher is a good vessel for yeast. Wash it very clean in
hot water, always before you put in fresh yeast, and then rinse the jug
with water in which a spoonful of pearlash has been melted, letting the
pearlash water remain in it five or six minutes, and shaking it round
hard. Then rinse it with plain cold water.
All vessels that have contained acids should have pearlash or soda in
the rinsing water, and then be finished with plain water.
Never clean a bottle by rinsing it with shot. The lead is poisonous, and
has caused death. Some bits of raw potato chopped, and put in the water,
will clean the inside of bottles or jugs, and brighten decanters.
YEAST POWDERS.--Get two ounces of bicarbonate of soda, and one ounce of
tartaric acid. Divide the soda into equal portions, about a level
tea-spoonful in each, and the tartaric acid into level salt-spoonfuls.
By _level_ we mean that the article is not to be heaped in the least,
not rising above the edge of the spoon. Cut some papers of regular and
sufficient size, and fold them nicely. Put the soda into white papers,
and the tartaric acid into blue papers. Place an equal number of each in
a little square or oblong box, standing up the papers on their folded
edges. Dissolve them in two separate cups, in as much tepid water as
will cover the powder. They must be entirely melted before using. Stir
in the soda at the beginning, and the tartaric acid at the conclusion of
the batter or cake mixture.
We do not approve of the introduction of these substances into cakes.
They give a sort of factitious lightness very different from that
honestly produced by a liberal allowance of egg and butter, genuine
yeast, and good beating and stirring--but they destroy the taste of the
seasoning, and are certain destruction to the taste of lemon, orange,
strawberry, pine-apple, and every kind of fruit flavoring. The justly
celebrated Mrs. Goodfellow never used any of them in her school, and the
articles made there by her pupils, (of whom the author was one) were
such as no money can purchase in the present times. Any confectioner who
would _faithfully_ revive them could make a fortune by doing so.
The present introduction of hartshorn into bread and cakes is an
abomination, rendering the articles equally unpalatable and unwholesome.
Cannot the use of hartshorn in food be put down? Which of our _American_
doctors will write a book on "culinary poisons."
VINEGAR.--Mix together in a clean keg three gallons of clear rain water,
(that has been caught in a clean tub without running over the roof of a
house,) one quart of _West India_ molasses, and one pint of baker's
yeast. Cover it, and set it in a warm place where it will be exposed to
the summer sun. Remember to shake the cask every day. In three months it
will be excellent vinegar. Then transfer it to stone jugs, and keep it
closely corked. Begin it in May.