uppermost. Drain and wipe dry, remove the head and tail; place it upon a
butter broiler, and slowly broil to a light brown. Place upon a hot
dish, add pepper, bits of butter, a sprinkling of parsley and a little
lemon juice.
BOILED SALT MACKEREL
Soak mackerel over night in cold water, with the skin side up, that the
salt may be drawn out, change the water often, and less time is
required. Drain. Place mackerel in shallow kettle, pour water over to
cover and boil ten to fifteen minutes or until flesh separates from the
bone. Remove to platter and pour hot, melted butter over and serve with
hot potatoes.
They may also be boiled and served with a White Sauce.
MARINIRTE FISH
Take pickerel, pike or any fish that is not fat, cut into two-inch
slices, wash well, salt and set aside in a cool place for a few hours.
When ready to cook, wash slightly so as not to remove all salt from
fish. Take heads and set up to boil with a whole onion for twenty-five
minutes, then add the other pieces and two cups of vinegar, one cup of
water, four bay leaves and twelve allspice, a little pepper and ginger.
Cook for thirty-five minutes longer. Taste fish, add a little water or a
little more vinegar to taste. Then remove fish carefully so as not to
break the pieces and let cool. Strain the sauce, return fish to same,
adding a few bay leaves and allspice. Set in a cool place until sauce
forms a jelly around the fish. Can be kept covered and in a cool place
for some time.
SOUSED HERRING
Split and half three herrings, roll and tie them up. Place them in a pie
plate, pour over them a cup of vinegar, add whole peppers, salt, cloves
to taste and two bay leaves. Bake in a slow oven until soft (about
twenty minutes).
SALMON LOAF
Blend together one can of salmon, one cup of grated bread crumbs, two
beaten eggs, one cup of milk, one teaspoon of lemon juice, one-half
teaspoon of paprika, one-half teaspoon of salt, one tablespoon of
chopped parsley and one tablespoon of onion juice. Place in a greased
baking dish. Sprinkle top with thin layer of bread crumbs. Bake in hot
oven for thirty minutes or until the crumbs that cover the dish are
browned. Serve with a white sauce.
CREAM SALMON
Remove salmon from the can, place it in a colander and wash under
running water or scald with boiling water. Break into small pieces, stir
into one cup of hot cream sauce; bring all to a boil and serve in patty
cups or on toasted bread or crackers.
PICKLE FOR SALMON
Take equal parts of vinegar, white wine and water. Boil these with a
little mace, a clove or two, a bit of ginger root, one or two whole
peppers and some grated horseradish. Take out the last named ingredient
when sufficiently boiled, and pour the pickle over the salmon,
previously boiled in strong salt and water.
KEDGEREE
Cut up in small pieces about a pound of any kind of cooked fish except
herring. Boil two eggs hard and chop up. Take one cup of rice and boil
in the following manner:--After washing it well and putting it on in
boiling water, with a little salt, let it boil for ten minutes, drain it
almost dry and let it steam with the lid closely shut for ten minutes
longer without stirring. Take a clean pot and put in the fish, eggs,
rice, a good dessertspoon of butter, and pepper and salt to taste. Stir
over the fire until quite hot. Press into a mould and turn it out at
once and serve.
SWISS CREAMED FISH
Mix smoothly in one cup of cold water a teaspoon of flour. Stir it into
one cup of boiling milk and when thick and smooth add the meat of any
cold fish, picked free from skin and bones. Season with salt, pepper and
a tablespoon of butter. If the cream is desired to be extra rich one
well-beaten egg may be added one minute before removing from the fire.
Serve hot. A pinch of cayenne or a saltspoon of paprika is relished by
many.
COD FISH BALLS
Put the fish to soak over night in lukewarm water. Change again in the
morning and wash off all the salt. Cut into pieces and boil about
fifteen minutes, pour off this water and put on to boil again with
boiling water. Boil twenty minutes this time, drain off every bit of
water, put on a platter to cool and pick to pieces as fine as possible,
removing every bit of skin and bone. When this is done, add an equal
quantity of mashed potatoes, a tablespoon of butter, a very little salt
and pepper, beat up one egg and a little milk, if necessary, mix with a
fork. Flour your hands well and form into biscuit-shaped balls. Fry in
hot oil.
FINNAN HADDIE
Parboil ten minutes and then broil like fresh fish.
To bake, place the fish in a pan, add one cup of milk and one cup of
water; cover. Cook ten minutes in hot oven. Remove cover, drain, spread
with butter and season with pepper.
FINNAN HADDIE AND MACARONI
Break up and cook until tender about a package of macaroni. Pick up the
finnan haddie until you have about three-quarters as much as you have
macaroni. Mix in a greased baking-dish and pour over a drawn butter
sauce, made with cornstarch or with any good milk or cream dressing,
then cover with bread or cracker crumbs or leave plain to brown in oven.
Bake from twenty to thirty minutes.
SCALLOPED FISH, No. 1
Line a buttered baking-dish with cold flaked fish. Sprinkle with salt
and pepper; add a layer of cold cooked rice, dot with butter; repeat and
cover with cracker or bread crumbs. Bake fifteen to twenty minutes.
SCALLOPED FISH, No. 2
Butter a dish, place in a layer of cold cooked fish, sprinkle with bread
crumbs, parsley, salt, butter and pepper; repeat. Cover with white
sauce, using one tablespoon of flour to two tablespoons of butter and
one cup of milk. Sprinkle top with buttered bread crumbs and bake.
*SAUCES FOR FISH AND VEGETABLES*
These sauces are made by combining butter and flour and thinning with
water or other liquid. A sauce should never be thickened by adding a
mixture of flour and water, as in that case the flour is seldom well
cooked; or by adding flour alone, as this way is certain to cause lumps.
The flour should be allowed to cook before the liquid is added.
All sauces containing butter and milk should be cooked in a double
boiler.
If so desired, any neutral oil--that is, vegetable or nut oil--may be
substituted for the butter called for in the recipe.
Care in preparation of a sauce is of as much importance as is the
preparation of the dish the sauce garnishes.
DRAWN BUTTER SAUCE
Melt two tablespoons of butter and stir in two tablespoons of flour. Add
carefully one cup of boiling water, then season with one-half teaspoon
of salt and a dash of pepper and paprika.
Many sauces are made with drawn butter as a foundation. For caper sauce
add three tablespoons of capers.
For egg sauce add one egg, hard-boiled and chopped fine.
BEARNAISE SAUCE
There are several ways of making Bearnaise sauce. This is one very
simple rule: Bring to the boil two tablespoons each of vinegar and
water. Simmer in it for ten minutes a slice of onion. Take out the onion
and add the yolks of three eggs beaten very light. Take from the fire,
add salt and pepper to season, and four tablespoons of butter beaten to
a cream, and added slowly.
*Quick Bearnaise Sauce.*--Beat the yolks of four eggs with four
tablespoons of oil and four of water. Add a cup of boiling water and
cook slowly until thick and smooth. Take from the fire, and add minced
onion, capers, olives, pickles, and parsley and a little tarragon
vinegar.
CUCUMBER SAUCE
Pare two large cucumbers; remove seeds, if large; chop fine and squeeze
dry. Season with salt, vinegar, paprika and add one-half cup of cream.
SAUCE HOLLANDAISE
Mix one tablespoon of butter and one of flour in a saucepan and add
gradually half a pint of boiling water. Stir until it just reaches the
boiling point; take from the fire and add the yolks of two eggs. Into
another saucepan put a slice of onion, a bay leaf, and a clove of
garlic; add four tablespoons of vinegar, and stand this over the fire
until the vinegar is reduced one-half. Turn this into the sauce, stir
for a moment; strain through a fine sieve; add half a teaspoon of salt
and serve. This sauce may be varied by adding lemon juice instead of
vinegar, or by using the water in which the fish was boiled. It is one
of the daintiest of all sauces.
MUSTARD SAUCE
Mix two tablespoons of vinegar and one of mustard, one teaspoon of oil
or butter melted, pepper and salt to taste. Add this to two hard-boiled
eggs chopped fine, with a small onion and about the same quantity of
parsley as eggs; and mix all well together.
MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL BUTTER
Work into one-half cup of butter all the lemon juice it will take, and
add a teaspoon of minced parsley.
PICKLE SAUCE
Cream two tablespoons of butter, add one teaspoon of salt and one
tablespoon of chopped pickle. A speck of red pepper may be added.
SARDELLEN, OR HERRING SAUCE
Brown a spoon of flour in heated fat, add a quantity of hot fish stock
and a few sardellen chopped fine, which you have previously washed in
cold water, also a finely-chopped onion. Let this boil a few minutes,
add a little vinegar and sugar; strain this sauce through a wire sieve
and add a few capers and a wineglass of white wine and let it boil up
once again and thicken with the yolk of one egg.
SAUCE VINAIGRETTE
Rub the mixing bowl with a clove of garlic, add one-half teaspoon of
salt, dash of white pepper, and a teaspoon of cold water or a bit of
ice, then four tablespoons of oil. Mix until the salt is dissolved,
remove the ice and add ten drops of tabasco sauce, two tablespoons
tarragon vinegar, one tablespoon grated onion, one tablespoon chopped
parsley and one chopped gherkin.
ANCHOVY SAUCE
Mix six tablespoons of melted butter and one and one-half teaspoons
anchovy paste, place in double boiler and allow to boil for about six
minutes. Flavor with lemon juice.
SAUCE PIQUANTE
To one pint of drawn butter add one tablespoon each of vinegar and lemon
juice and two tablespoons each of chopped capers, pickles, and olives,
one-half teaspoon onion juice, a few grains cayenne pepper.
SAUCE TARTARE
Add to a half pint of well-made mayonnaise dressing two olives, one
gherkin and one small onion, chopped fine. Chop sufficient parsley to
make a tablespoonful, crush it in a bowl and add it first to the
mayonnaise. Stir in at least a tablespoon of drained capers and serve
with fried or broiled fish.
WHITE SAUCE (FOR VEGETABLES)
Place two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan; stir until melted: add
two tablespoons of flour mixed with one-fourth of a teaspoon of salt and
a few grains of pepper. Stir until smooth. Add one cup of milk gradually
and continue to stir until well mixed and thick. Chopped parsley may be
added. Used for creamed vegetables--potatoes, celery, onion, peas, etc.
CREAM MUSTARD SAUCE
Make white sauce as directed above. Mix one tablespoon of mustard with a
teaspoon of cold water and stir into the sauce about two minutes before
serving. The quantity of mustard may be increased or diminished, as one
may desire the flavor strong or mild.
CURRY SAUCE
Use one teaspoon of curry in the flour while making white sauce.
SPANISH SAUCE
Cook one onion and green pepper chopped fine in hot butter; add four
tablespoons of flour, stir until smooth. Add two cups of strained
tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
TOMATO SAUCE
Brown one tablespoon butter with one minced onion, then add one
tablespoon of flour. When brown stir in two cups of tomatoes which have
previously been cooked and strained, add also one teaspoon of sugar, a
pinch of salt, pepper, and red pepper, also one tablespoon of vinegar
and one tablespoon of tomato catsup.
*SAUCES FOR MEATS*
APPLE SAUCE
Pare and quarter tart apples. Put them in a saucepan with just enough
water to keep them from burning; bring to a boil quickly and cook until
the pieces are soft. Then press through a colander and add four
tablespoons of sugar (or less) to each pint of apples.
If desired, cinnamon or grated nutmeg may be sprinkled over the top
after the apple sauce is in the serving dish, or a little stick cinnamon
or lemon peel may be cooked with the apples. Serve with goose.
BROWN SAUCE
Fry one tablespoon chopped onion in one tablespoon fat. Add one
tablespoon of flour, one cup of soup stock, one teaspoon lemon juice,
salt and pepper to taste. Strain before serving.
The following sauces can be made by using brown sauce as a foundation:
*Mushroom Sauce.*--Add one-half cup mushrooms.
*Olive Sauce.*--Add a dozen olives, chopped fine.
*Wine Sauce.*--Add one-half cup wine and one tablespoon currant jelly.
Thicken with flour.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
To one pint of cranberries take one and one-quarter cups of water.
Put the cranberries on with the water and cook until soft; strain
through a cloth; weigh and add three-fourths of a pound of sugar to
every pint of juice. Cook ten minutes; pour into molds and set aside to
cool. Serve with poultry, game or mutton.
STEWED CRANBERRIES
Boil together one and one-half cups of sugar and one cup of water for
seven minutes, then add three cups of cranberries, well washed and
picked, and cook until the berries burst. Serve the same as cranberry
sauce.
SAUCE BORDELAISE
Nice for broiled steaks. Take one medium-sized onion, chopped very fine
and browned in fat; add a cup of strong beef gravy and a cup of claret
or white wine; add pepper, salt and a trifle of finely-chopped parsley;
allow this to simmer and thicken with a little browned flour.
CARAWAY, OR KIMMEL SAUCE
Heat a tablespoon drippings in a spider; add a little flour; stir smooth
with a cup of soup stock, added at once, and half a teaspoon of caraway
seeds.
ONION SAUCE
Stew some finely-chopped onions in fat; you may add half a clove of
garlic, cut extremely fine; brown a very little flour in this, season
with salt and pepper and add enough soup stock to thin it.
LEMON SAUCE
Boil some soup stock with a few slices of lemon, a little sugar and
grated nutmeg; add chopped parsley; thicken with a teaspoon of flour or
yolk of egg. Mostly used for stewed poultry.
MINT SAUCE
Chop some mint fine; boil half a cup of vinegar with one tablespoon of
sugar; throw in the mint and boil up once; pour in a sauceboat and cool
off a little before serving.
RAISIN SAUCE
Brown some fat in a spider, stir in a tablespoon of flour; stir until it
becomes a smooth paste; then add hot soup, stirring constantly; add a
handful of raisins, some pounded almonds, a few slices of lemon, also a
tablespoon of vinegar; brown sugar to taste: flavor with a few cloves
and cinnamon, and if you choose to do so, grate in part of a stick of
horseradish and the crust of a rye loaf. Very nice for fat beef.
HORSERADISH SAUCE, No. 1
Grate a good-sized stick of horseradish; take some soup stock and a
tablespoon of fat, salt and pepper to taste, a little grated stale
bread, a few pounded almonds. Let all boil up and then add the meat.
HORSERADISH SAUCE, No. 2
Heat one tablespoon of fat in a frying-pan, when hot cut up one-quarter
of an onion in it, and fry light brown, then brown one tablespoon
cracker meal or flour and add two tablespoons of grated horseradish;
let this brown a bit, then add some soup stock, one tablespoon of brown
sugar, two cloves, two bay leaves, salt, pepper and two tablespoons of
vinegar. Let cook a few minutes then add one more tablespoon of
horseradish and if necessary a little more sugar or vinegar. Lay the
meat in this sauce and cover on back of stove until ready to serve. If
gas stove is used, place over the simmering flame.
KNOBLAUCH SAUCE (GARLIC)
Heat a tablespoon of drippings, either of meat or goose in a frying-pan;
cut up one or two cloves of garlic very fine and let it brown slightly
in the heated fat; add a tablespoon of flour, a cup of soup stock or
warm water, salt, pepper to taste.
MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL SAUCE
Take a heaping tablespoon of drippings or goose-fat, heat it in a
spider, stir two teaspoons of flour into this, then add gradually and
carefully a small cup of hot soup or water, the former is preferable;
add some chopped parsley, also the juice of a lemon; salt and pepper;
stir up well. May be used either with roast or boiled meats.
*FRYING*
PREPARED BREAD CRUMBS FOR FRYING
All scraps of bread should be saved for crumbs, the crusts being
separated from the white part, then dried, rolled, and sifted, and put
away until needed in a covered glass jar.
The brown crumbs are good for the first coating, the white ones for the
outside, as they give better color. Cracker crumbs give a smooth
surface, but for most things bread crumbs are preferable.
For meats a little salt and pepper, and for sweet articles, a little
sugar, should be mixed with the crumbs. Crumbs left on the board should
be dried, sifted, and kept to be used again.
FRYING
Frying is cooking in very hot fat or oil, and the secret of success is
to have the fat hot enough to harden the outer surface of the article to
be fried immediately and deep enough to cover these articles of food. As
the fat or oil can be saved and used many times, the use of a large
quantity is not extravagant.
To fry easily one must have, in addition to the deep, straight-sided
frying-pan, a frying-basket, made from galvanized wire, with a side
handle. The bale handles are apt to become heated, and in looking for
something to lift them, the foods are over-fried. The frying-pan must be
at least six inches deep with a flat bottom; iron, granite ware or
copper may be used, the first two are preferable. There must be
sufficient fat to wholly cover the articles fried, but the pan must not
be too full, or there is danger of overflow when heavy articles are put
in. After each frying, drain the fat or oil, put it into a receptacle
kept for the purpose, and use it over and over again as long as it
lasts. As the quantity begins to lessen, add sufficient fresh fat or oil
to keep up the amount.
Always put the fat or oil in the frying-pan before you stand it over the
fire.
Wait until it is properly heated before putting in the articles to be
fried.
Fry a few articles at a time. Too many will cool the fat or oil below
the point of proper frying and they will absorb grease and be
unpalatable.
Put articles to be fried in the wire frying-basket and lower into the
boiling hot fat or oil. Test the fat by lowering a piece of stale bread
into it, if the bread browns in thirty seconds the fat is sufficiently
hot.
Fry croquettes a light brown; drain over the fat, lift the frying-basket
from the hot fat to a round plate, remove the articles from the basket
quickly to brown paper, drain a moment and serve.
When frying fish or any food that is to be used at a milk meal, use oil.
Olive oil is the best, but is very expensive for general use. Any other
good vegetable oil or nut oil will do as substitute.
When the food is intended for a meat meal; fat may be prepared according
to the following directions and used in the same manner as oil.
TO RENDER GOOSE, DUCK OR BEEF FAT
Cut the fat into small pieces. Put in a deep, iron kettle and cover with
cold water. Place on the stove uncovered; when the water has nearly all
evaporated, set the kettle back and let the fat try out slowly. When the
fat is still and scraps are shriveled and crisp at the bottom of the
kettle, strain the fat through a cloth into a stone crock, cover and set
it away in a cool place. The water may be omitted and the scraps slowly
tried out on back of stove or in moderate oven. When fat is tried out,
pour in crock.
Several slices of raw potato put with the fat will aid in the
clarifying.
All kinds of fats are good for drippings except mutton fat, turkey fat
and fat from smoked meats which has too strong a flavor to be used for
frying, but save it with other fat that may be unsuitable for frying,
and when six pounds are collected make it into hard soap.
TO MAKE WHITE HARD SOAP
Save every scrap of fat each day; try out all that has accumulated;
however small the quantity. This is done by placing the scraps in a
frying-pan on the back of the range. If the heat is low, and the grease
is not allowed to get hot enough to smoke or burn, there will be no odor
from it. Turn the melted grease into tin pails and keep them covered.
When six pounds of fat have been obtained, turn it into a dish-pan; add
a generous amount of hot water, and stand it on the range until the
grease is entirely melted. Stir it well together; then stand it aside to
cool. This is clarifying the grease. The clean grease will rise to the
top, and when it has cooled can be taken off in a cake, and such
impurities as have not settled in the water can be scraped off the
bottom of the cake of fat.
Put the clean grease into the dish-pan and melt it. Put a can of
Babbitt's lye in a tin pail; add to it a quart of cold water, and stir
it with a stick or wooden spoon until it is dissolved. It will get hot
when the water is added; let it stand until it cools. Remove the melted
grease from the fire, and pour in the lye slowly, stirring all the time.
Add two tablespoons of ammonia. Stir the mixture constantly for twenty
minutes or half an hour, or until the soap begins to set.
Let it stand until perfectly hard; then cut it into square cakes. This
makes a very good, white hard soap which will float on water.
*ENTRÉES*
CROQUETTES
Combine ingredients as directed in the recipe, roll the mixture lightly
between the hands into a ball. Have a plentiful supply of bread crumbs
spread evenly on a board; roll the ball lightly on the crumbs into the
shape of a cylinder, and flatten each end by dropping it lightly on the
board; put it in the egg (to each egg add one tablespoon of water, and
beat together), and with a spoon moisten the croquette completely with
the egg; lift it out on a knife-blade, and again roll lightly in the
crumbs. Have every part entirely covered, so there will be no opening
through which the grease may be absorbed. Where a light yellow color is
wanted, use fresh white crumbs grated from the loaf (or rubbed through a
purée sieve) for the outside, and do not use the yolk of the egg. Coarse
fresh crumbs are used for fish croquettes, which are usually made in the
form of chops, or half heart shape. A small hole is pricked in the
pointed end after frying, and a sprig of parsley inserted. Have all the
croquettes of perfectly uniform size and shape, and lay them aside on a
dish, not touching one another, for an hour or more before frying. This
will make the crust more firm.
The white of an egg alone may be used for egging them, but not the yolk
alone. Whip the egg with the water, just enough to break it, as
air-bubbles in the egg will break in frying, and let the grease
penetrate. Serve the croquettes on a platter, spread them on a napkin
and garnish with sprigs of parsley.
CHICKEN CROQUETTES, No. 1
Cook one-half tablespoon of flour in one tablespoon chicken-fat, add
one-half cup of soup stock gradually, and one-half teaspoon each of
onion juice, lemon juice, salt, and one-quarter teaspoon of pepper, one
and one-half cups of veal or chicken, chopped very fine, one pair of
brains which have been boiled, mix these well, remove from the fire and
add one well-beaten egg. Turn this mixture out on a flat dish and place
in ice-box to cool. Then roll into small cones, dip in beaten egg, roll
again in powdered bread or cracker crumbs and drop them into boiling
fat, fry until a delicate brown.
CHICKEN CROQUETTES, No. 2
Chop the chicken very fine, using the white meat alone, or the dark meat
alone, or both together. Season with salt, pepper, onion-juice, and
lemon-juice. Chopped mushrooms, sweetbreads, calf's brains, tongue, or
truffles are used with chicken, and a combination of two or more of them
much improves the quality of the croquettes.
CROQUETTES OF CALF'S BRAINS
Lay the brains in salt water an hour, or until they look perfectly
white, then take out one at a time, pat with your hands to loosen the
outer skin and pull it off. Beat or rub them to a smooth paste with a
wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper and a very little mace; add a
beaten egg and about one-half cup of bread crumbs. Heat fat in a spider
and fry large spoonfuls of this mixture in it.
MEAT CROQUETTES
Veal, mutton, lamb, beef and turkey croquettes may be prepared in the
same way as chicken croquettes.
MEAT AND BOILED HOMINY CROQUETTES
Equal proportions.
SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES
Cut the boiled sweetbreads into small dice with a silver knife. Mix with
mushrooms, using half the quantity of mushrooms that you have of
sweetbreads. Use two eggs in the sauce.
VEAL CROQUETTES