a saucepan with sufficient warm water to cover them.
Sprinkle them with salt and boil them gently for half an hour or more,
until very _nearly_ tender, but not quite.
Then pour the water away.
Peel the potatoes, replace them in the saucepan, sprinkle salt upon
them, cover them with a cloth, and put the lid on the saucepan.
Let them stand by the side of the fire to finish cooking in their own
steam.
Care must be taken that the potatoes cooked in this way are free from
disease. One tainted potato would destroy the flavour of the others.
If cooked without their skins, pare them thinly and treat them in the
same manner, pouring off the water when they are very nearly tender, and
finish cooking them in their own steam.
If the potatoes are good and are cooked according to these directions,
they will be perfectly dry and flowery.
To Steam Potatoes.
Put the potatoes into the steamer, and sprinkle them with salt.
Keep the water in the saucepan underneath quickly boiling the whole time
the potatoes are cooking.
If the potatoes are cooked in their skins,[*] peel them when very nearly
tender, and put them back in the steamer to finish cooking.
Steaming is one of the simplest and best ways of cooking potatoes. If
the potatoes are good and the water is kept briskly boiling, this method
cannot fail to be successful.
[*] This should only be done when untainted by disease.
To Cook New Potatoes.
Put the potatoes into boiling water with some salt, and boil gently for
twenty minutes or more, according to their age.
When very nearly tender pour off the water, cover them with a cloth, and
set the saucepan by the side of the fire, and finish cooking in their
own steam.
Baked Potatoes.
Choose nice potatoes, not too large, and scrub them perfectly clean.
Bake them in a moderate oven for about an hour.
Brussels Sprouts.
Trim them nicely and put them in boiling water, adding salt in the
proportion of a tablespoonful to every two quarts of water.
Put in a little sugar, or, if the water is hard, a little piece of soda
the size of a pea.
Boil them quickly, with the lid off the saucepan, from ten to twenty
minutes, according to the size and age of the sprouts.
When tender, drain them quite dry in a colander.
Dry the saucepan and put them back with a little butter, pepper, and
salt.
Shake them over the fire for a minute or so, and then serve on a hot
dish.
To Boil a Cauliflower.
Soak it in salt and water to draw out any insects, and trim off the
outside leaves.
Put it, with the flower downwards, into a saucepan of boiling water with
salt in it, and cook from twenty to thirty minutes, according to its
age.
Drain it on a sieve or colander.
If liked, it may be served with white or French sauce poured over it
(_see_ Sauces.)
Green Peas.
Put them into plenty of boiling water, with a little sugar and a sprig
or two of mint.
Boil gently with the lid off the saucepan for twenty minutes or more,
according to their size and age.
Drain them in a colander.
Then put them into a saucepan with a little piece of butter, a
teaspoonful of castor sugar, pepper and salt, and shake them over the
fire for a minute or two.
French Beans.
Remove the strings and cut the beans into slices.
Put them into plenty of boiling water, with salt in the proportion of
one tablespoonful to every two quarts of water, a little sugar, or, if
the water is hard, a small piece of soda about the size of a pea.
Boil quickly for fifteen minutes or longer, according to their age.
Drain in a colander.
Then put them into a saucepan with a small piece of butter, pepper and
salt, and shake them over the fire for a minute or two.
Spinach.
Pull off the stalks and wash the spinach well in several waters to
remove all grit.
Put it into a saucepan without any water but that which adheres to the
leaves, and sprinkle a little salt over it.
Cook with the lid off the saucepan until quite tender, stirring it
occasionally.
Drain it in a colander, and wring it dry in a cloth.
Then chop it, or rub it through a wire sieve. The latter method is
preferable.
To dress it, mix it in a saucepan over the fire with a little butter,
pepper, and salt; a little cream may be used also, care being taken not
to make the spinach too moist to serve.
Press it into shape, as a mound or pyramid, in a vegetable dish, and
garnish with fried _croutons_ of bread.
Asparagus.
Cut the asparagus all the same length, and scrape the white part
lightly.
Tie it together and put it in boiling water, to which salt has been
added, in the proportion of one tablespoonful to two quarts of water.
Add also half an ounce of butter.
Boil gently with the lid off the saucepan for half an hour, until the
green part is tender--very young asparagus will not take so long.
Dish on toast; if liked, French or white sauce may be poured over the
green ends.
Jerusalem Artichokes.
Peel them, and throw them into boiling water, with salt in the
proportion of one tablespoonful to every two quarts of water.
Boil gently with the lid on the saucepan for about fifteen or twenty
minutes, until quite tender.
They may be served plain, or with French or white sauce poured over
them.
They should be sent to table quickly, or they will be discoloured.
Carrots.
Scrape them and put them into boiling water with salt in it, in the
proportion of one tablespoonful to every two quarts of water.
Boil gently with the lid on the saucepan until they are quite tender.
New carrots will take about twenty minutes, old ones an hour or more,
according to their age and size.
When they are served with boiled meat, they are generally cooked with
it. New carrots are sometimes boiled in second stock.
When tender, they are put on a hot vegetable dish, the stock is rapidly
boiled down to a glaze, and poured over them.
Turnips.
Boil according to directions given for cooking carrots. Turnips
generally take about half an hour; but the time depends on their age and
size. If liked, they may be rubbed through a wire sieve, and mashed with
butter, pepper, and salt.
Parsnips.
Cook like carrots. They may be served plain, or rubbed through a wire
sieve and mashed with butter, pepper, and salt.
Haricot Beans.
Soak them overnight.
Put them into boiling water with a small piece of butter and a small
onion.
Boil gently from three to four hours until quite tender.
Drain them, and before serving shake them over the fire with a little
butter, pepper, and salt.
Spanish Onions.
First blanch them by putting them into cold water and bringing it to the
boil.
Then throw away the water.
Rinse the onions, sprinkle some salt over them, and put them into fresh
water.
Boil gently from two to three hours, until perfectly tender.
Drain them, and serve, if liked, with French, Italian or white sauce.
Spanish onions are sometimes boiled in stock, or milk which is
afterwards used to make the sauce.
Celery.
Clean the celery thoroughly, and tie it in bundles.
Put it in boiling water, milk, or stock, with a little salt and butter,
and simmer gently for twenty minutes or more, until quite tender.
Dish on a piece of toast.
If liked, a sauce may be made with the liquor in which the celery has
been cooked, and poured over it.
Vegetable Marrows.
Peel the marrows thinly, and cut them in quarters, removing the seeds.
Put them in boiling water, with salt in the proportion of one
tablespoonful to every two quarts of water, and boil gently until
tender.
They may be served, if desired, with French or white sauce poured over
them.
Marrows are very nice when boiled in milk; the milk can afterwards be
used to make the sauce.
Cabbage.
Take off the outer decayed leaves, and soak the cabbage in salt and
water, to draw out any insects. If very large, cut into quarters.
Put into boiling water, to which salt should be added, in the proportion
of a tablespoonful to every two quarts of water. If the water is hard, a
piece of soda the size of a bean should be added.
Boil quickly--with the lid off the saucepan--for half an hour, or more,
until tender.
Drain well in a colander before serving.
Broad Beans.
Put them, when shelled, into boiling water, to which salt should be
added in the proportion of a tablespoonful to every two quarts of water.
Boil gently, from fifteen minutes to half an hour, according to their
size and age.
When tender, pour the water away, and shake them in the saucepan over
the fire, with a little butter or dripping, pepper, and salt.
Tomatoes.
These are better baked than boiled: boiling destroys their flavour.
Put them on a baking-tin, greased with butter or dripping.
Sprinkle over them a little pepper and salt, and cover them with a
greased paper.
Put them in a moderate oven, for about ten minutes or a quarter of an
hour.
Seakale.
Tie it in bundles, and put into boiling water, with a little butter, and
also some salt, in the proportion of a tablespoonful to every two quarts
of water.
Boil, with the lid off the saucepan, until the seakale is tender.
Drain, and serve on toast. French or white sauce may be poured over it.
Seakale is sometimes boiled in milk, which should afterwards be used to
make the sauce.
Mushrooms.
Peel the mushrooms; rinse them to remove any grit, and cut off the ends
of the stalks.
Put them on a greased baking-tin, with the stalks upwards, and put some
little bits of butter on each mushroom, with a little pepper and salt.
Cover them with buttered paper, and bake them in a moderate oven from
ten to twenty minutes, until tender.
Serve on a hot dish, with the gravy poured over them.
Stewed Mushrooms.
Peel and rinse the mushrooms, and cut off the ends of the stalks.
Stew them gently in water, stock, or milk, until quite tender, adding
pepper and salt to taste.
Then thicken the gravy with a little flour, and let it cook well,
stirring carefully.
Before serving, stir in a little cream or butter.
Fried Potatoes.
Take thin peelings of potatoes, and twist into fancy shapes, or cut the
potatoes into thin slices.
Dry them well in a cloth, and drop them into hot fat (_see_ French
Frying) until quite crisp, and of a light brown colour.
Remove them with a fish-slice or colander-spoon, and drain them on
kitchen paper.
Tomato Farni.
_Ingredients_--6 or 8 ripe tomatoes.
1 oz. of butter.
½ oz. of flour.
1 gill of stock or milk.
1 dessertspoonful of chopped parsley.
1 dessertspoonful of chopped cooked ham.
1 dessertspoonful of grated Parmesan cheese.
A few button mushrooms, chopped.
A few drops of lemon juice.
Some white and browned bread-crumbs.
Pepper and salt.
_Method._--Melt the butter in a small stewpan.
Mix in the flour smoothly.
Then add the stock or milk; stir and cook well.
Then mix in sufficient white bread-crumbs to make the mixture stiff.
Add the parsley, mushrooms, cheese, ham, lemon-juice, pepper, and salt.
Scoop out the top of each tomato.
Pile a little of the stuffing on each, and sprinkle a few browned
bread-crumbs over.
Put them on a greased baking-sheet, and cook them in a moderate oven for
about a quarter of an hour.
Cauliflower au gratin.
_Ingredients_--1 cauliflower.
1 oz. of butter.
1 oz. of flour.
1 gill of water.
2 tablespoonfuls of cream.
2 oz. of grated Parmesan cheese.
Pepper, salt, and a little cayenne.
_Method._--Boil the cauliflower; remove the green leaves.
Place it, with the flower upwards, in a vegetable-dish, and press it
into an oval shape.
Melt the butter in a small stewpan.
Mix the flour in smoothly.
Add the water; stir and cook well.
Then add the cream, and one ounce of Parmesan cheese, pepper, salt, and
cayenne.
Pour the sauce over the cauliflower.
Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese over it, and brown, either with a
salamander or in a quick oven.
Potato Croquettes.
_Ingredients_--2 lb. of potatoes.
2 oz. of butter.
2 eggs.
Pepper and salt.
Some white bread-crumbs.
_Method._--Boil the potatoes, and rub them through a wire sieve.
Mash them well with the butter, pepper, and salt.
Mix in one egg, well beaten.
Flour the hands very slightly, and form the mixture in balls, or any
other shape preferred.
Brush them over with beaten egg, and cover them with crumbs.
Slightly mould them again when the crumbs are on them.
Fry in a frying-basket, in hot fat (_see_ French Frying).
Garnish with fried parsley.
Salsify Patties.
_Ingredients_--Some patty-cases, made as for oysters.
½ lb. of salsify.
1 oz. of flour.
½ pint of milk.
2 tablespoonfuls of cream.
A few drops of lemon juice.
Pepper and salt.
A little cayenne.
_Method._--Cook the salsify in milk or water until tender.
Then cut it into small pieces.
Melt the butter in a small stewpan, mix in the flour smoothly.
Then add the milk; stir and cook well.
Mix in the cream and let it boil in the sauce.
Then add the lemon juice, seasoning, and salsify.
Fill the patty-cases with the mixture, and put a lid on each.
Tomatoes au gratin.
_Ingredients_--1½ lb. of tomatoes.
1 pint of bread-crumbs.
2 oz. of butter.
Pepper and salt to taste.
_Method._--Slice the tomatoes, and put a layer of them in the bottom of
a pie-dish.
Cover them with crumbs; sprinkle with pepper and salt, and place small
pieces of butter on them.
Then put another layer of tomatoes, covering them in the same way with
crumbs.
Use up all the tomatoes and crumbs in this way, letting the last layer
be of crumbs.
Bake in a quick oven for about twenty minutes.
Mashed Potatoes.
_Ingredients_--1 oz. of butter to every pound of potatoes.
1 tablespoonful of cream, if possible.
Pepper and salt to taste.
_Method._--The potatoes should be well cooked, and be dry and floury.
Put them quickly through a wire sieve.
Mix them well in a saucepan with the butter, cream, and seasoning.
Make them quite hot.
Heap them in a mound-like form in a vegetable dish, and smooth over with
a knife.
Mashed Potatoes (a plainer way).
Add to the potatoes, while in the saucepan, some butter or dripping.
Season with pepper and salt.
Beat with a fork until perfectly smooth and free from lumps.
Where economy must be studied, nice beef dripping will be found an
excellent substitute for butter.
Potato Balls.
Form some mashed potatoes into balls.
Brush them over with beaten egg.
Put them on a greased baking-tin, and bake in a quick oven until brown.
Serve garnished with parsley.
This is a nice way of using up cold potatoes.
Flaked Potatoes.
Rub some nicely-cooked floury potatoes through a wire sieve into a hot
vegetable dish. This must be done quickly, that the potatoes may be
served quite hot.
Rice for a Curry.
Well wash some Patna rice. Throw it into plenty of quickly-boiling water
with salt in it, and boil until the rice is nearly cooked, but not
quite. This will take from eight to ten minutes. Strain the rice on a
sieve and pour hot water over it, rinsing it well. Then put it in the
saucepan again, cover it and let it stand in a hot place to finish
cooking in its own steam.
SOUPS.
These are very valuable preparations, and are useful to the poor as well
as to the rich, as many of the most nutritious soups are the cheapest.
Pea soup, haricot soup, and lentil soup are all rich in nourishment, and
may be made at a trifling cost, stock not being _necessary_ for their
manufacture. The boilings from meat, when not too salt, may be used with
advantage in making these soups; but if this is not available, they may
be made quite well with water; and, if carefully prepared, will have all
the flavour of a meat soup.
In making stock for meat soups, it must be borne in mind that in order
to extract the juices from the meat it must be put into _cold_ water,
which should be heated very gradually, and only allowed to _simmer_. In
this way a rich stock is procured, as all the virtue of the meat is
drawn into the water. Boiling would produce a poor and flavourless
stock, as the extreme heat applied, by hardening the albumen, would tend
to keep in the juices of the meat instead of drawing them out.
In making stock from bones, the method to be pursued is quite the
opposite. Bones must be boiled, otherwise the gelatine in them will not
be extracted; simmering would be of little use. The gelatine can only be
thoroughly extracted when they are boiled at higher pressure than is
possible in ordinary cookery. Bones contain so much gelatine that after
they have been once used in stock they should be broken up in pieces and
again boiled, so that the gelatine from the _inside_ may also be
extracted.
An economical cook will often make excellent stock for soup from bones
alone, with the addition of suitable vegetables for flavouring.
First Stock for Clear Soup.
_Ingredients_--4 lb. of shin of beef, or 2 lb. of shin of beef and 2 lb. of
knuckle of veal.
5 pints of water.
2 carrots.
2 turnips.
1 onion.
The white part of a leek.
1 dozen peppercorns.
1 sprig of parsley, thyme, and marjoram.
A bay leaf.
Pepper and salt.
_Method._--Cut the meat into pieces about one inch in size.
Break up the bone and remove the marrow.
Put bones and meat into a stockpot with the cold water.
Let them soak for half an hour.
Then put the pot on the fire; add some salt and pepper to it, and gently
simmer the contents for half an hour.
Next put in the vegetables sliced, and the herbs tied together.
Simmer for 4½ hours longer, skimming occasionally.
Strain into a clean pan, and set aside to get cold.
White Stock.
This may be made by the directions in the preceding recipe, using white
meat instead of beef; knuckle of veal is considered the stock meat for
white soup. Knuckle of veal and a rabbit make excellent stock.
Very good economical white stock may be made by using bones only in
making the stock, and no meat; use a ham-bone, if possible, with the
others, as this gives a nice flavour.
Second Stock.
Take any scraps of cooked or uncooked meat; any bones, cooked or
uncooked, to make second stock. Allow one pint of water to every pound
of meat and bones, and vegetables in the same proportion as for first
stock. The bones should be broken up. Boil gently until all the virtue
is extracted from the meat, bones, and vegetables. The contents of the
stockpot should be emptied into a pan every night, and the stock
strained from the meat, bones, and vegetables. These should be looked
over, and the bones, meat, &c., which are of no further use removed; the
remainder should be set aside to use with fresh stock material. Bones
may be boiled for a very long time before the gelatine will be perfectly
extracted.
Second stock, when cold, should be a stiff jelly, in consequence of the
gelatine contained in the bones.
White Stock from Bones uncooked.
_Ingredients_--4 lb. of uncooked bones, with a ham-bone, if possible,
amongst them.
5 pints of water.
2 carrots.
2 turnips.
1 large onion.
Half a head of celery.
1 sprig of parsley.
Thyme, marjoram, and a bay leaf.
1 blade of mace.
_Method._--Break up the bones and put them with the vegetables, sliced,
into a stockpot with the water; boil gently for five hours, adding
pepper and salt to taste. Then strain into a clean pan.
Clear Soup.
_Ingredients_--2 quarts of first stock.
¾ lb. of gravy beef.
The white and shell of one egg.
_Method._--Remove _all_ the fat from the stock. If it is in a jelly,
take off as much as possible with an iron spoon, and remove the
remainder by washing the top of the stock with a cloth dipped in very
hot water.
Scrape the beef finely and soak it in two tablespoonfuls of cold water
to loosen the juices.
Put the stock in a stewpan and add the beef to it, the white and shell
of the egg, and a very tiny piece of each kind of vegetable used in
making the stock.
Whisk over the fire until the stock begins to simmer.
Then leave off stirring and let it well boil up.
Remove it from the fire and put it on one side for a crust to form.
Tie a clean cloth to the four legs of a chair turned upside down.
Pour some boiling water through it into a basin, to ensure it being
perfectly clean.
Then put a clean basin underneath and pour all the contents of the
stewpan on to the cloth. The first time the soup runs through it will be
cloudy, because the filter made by the beef and egg will not have
settled at the bottom of the cloth.
Take the soup away; put a clean basin under the cloth, and pour the soup
slowly through.
If this is carefully done the soup will be quite brilliant the second
time of straining, and will not require to go through the cloth again.
Julienne Soup.
This is a clear soup with shred vegetables served in it.
Scrape some carrots and take thin parings of them.
Cut these into very thin strips.
Take some thin slices of turnip and cut them into strips of the same
length.
Boil the turnips for five minutes, and the carrots for fifteen minutes.
Consommée au Royal.
This is clear soup with a savoury custard in it.
Savoury Custard.
_Ingredients_--1 whole egg.
1 yolk.
½ gill of clear soup.
Pepper and salt to taste.
_Method._--Beat the eggs and soup together and strain them into a
greased gallipot.
Cover them with buttered paper and steam very gently for a quarter of an
hour until the custard is firm.
Let it cool, then turn it out. Cut into thin slices.
Stamp into dice or diamonds and serve them in the clear soup.
If the custard is not very gently steamed it will be full of holes, and
useless for this purpose.
Consommée à la Princesse.
Serve small _quenelles_ (see _Quenelles_ of Veal), made in teaspoons,
and nicely poached, in the clear soup.
Friar Tuck.
Make one quart of clear soup boiling hot. Beat two eggs well. When the
soup is quite boiling, strain the eggs through a pointed strainer into
it.
Celery Soup.
_Ingredients_--2 quarts of second stock.
4 heads of celery.
4 oz. of flour.
½ pint of cream or good milk.
_Method._--Wash the celery well and cut it in pieces.
Simmer it in the stock for half an hour or more until quite tender.
Make a thickening of the flour; pour it into the soup and boil,
stirring, for three minutes.
Then rub through a sieve.
Put it into the saucepan again.
Add the cream, stir and let it boil up.
Serve with fried _croutons_ of bread.
Oyster Soup.
_Ingredients_--2 dozen oysters.
1½ pint of white stock.
2 oz. of butter.
2 oz. of flour.
1 teaspoonful of anchovy sauce.
A few drops of lemon juice.
Pepper and salt.
_Method._--Beard the oysters and cut them in two.
Put the beards into the stock and simmer them in it for a few minutes.
Melt the butter in another stewpan; mix in the flour smoothly; pour in
the stock; stir and boil well.
Add the cream and let it boil in the soup.
Strain the oyster liquor and scald the oysters in it.
Put them in the soup and add the anchovy sauce and lemon juice.
Haricot Soup.
_Ingredients_--1 pint of haricot beans.
1 onion.
2 quarts of water.
1 pint of milk.
½ oz. of dripping.
Pepper and salt to taste.
_Method._--Soak the beans over night in cold water.
Boil them with the onion, dripping, pepper and salt, in three pints of
water, from three to four hours, until quite soft.
Rub them with their liquor through a wire sieve.
Add the milk, and make the soup hot, stirring it over the fire until it
boils.
Serve with fried _croutons_ of bread.
Note.--This soup is much improved if it is rubbed through a _hair_
sieve after it has been through the wire sieve.
Green Pea Purée.
_Ingredients_--2 pints of shelled peas.
A large handful of pea-shells.
2 or 3 leaves of spinach.
2 or 3 sprigs of parsley.
A few young onions.
A sprig of mint.
A small piece of soda.
1 lump of sugar.
3 pints of second stock.
2 tablespoonfuls of arrowroot.
Pepper and salt to taste.
_Method._--Wash the shells well, and put them, with the peas and other
vegetables, into boiling water, to which is added the soda and the
sugar.
When quite tender, drain off the water, and put the vegetables into the
stock, which should be made boiling.
Let it boil up.
Then rub through a hair sieve.
Make the soup hot; thicken with arrow-root; and, in serving, add, if
liked, a little cream, or glaze.
Potage à l'Américaine.
_Ingredients_--3 pints of second stock.
2 tablespoonfuls of crushed tapioca.
8 good-sized tomatoes.
_Method._--Put the stock into a stewpan on the fire to boil.
When boiling, stir in the crushed tapioca.
Stir and cook for about ten minutes, until it is transparent.
Rub the tomatoes through a hair sieve.
Add them to the stock.
Boil for about two minutes and the soup will be ready to serve.
Cream may be added if liked.
Onion Soup.
_Ingredients_--6 Spanish onions.
3 oz. of butter.
2 quarts of water.
3 oz. of flour.
½ pint of milk or cream.
Pepper and salt to taste.
_Method._--Peel the onions, and cut them in slices.
Fry them in the butter, but do not let them discolour.
Then boil them in the water until quite soft.