until thick as can be stirred with one hand; serve with milk or cream
and sugar, or butter and syrup. It will be improved by removing from
the kettle to a pan, as soon as thoroughly mixed, and steaming three
or four hours. It may also be eaten cold, or sliced and fried, like
corn meal mush.
OATMEAL.
Soak one cup of oatmeal in a quart of water over night, boil half an
hour in the morning, salted to taste. It is better to cook it in a
dish set into a dish of boiling water.
RICE CROQUETTES.
Boil for thirty minutes one cup of well-washed rice in a pint of milk;
whip into the hot rice the following ingredients: Two ounces of
butter, two ounces of sugar, some salt, and when slightly cool add the
yolks of two eggs well beaten; if too stiff pour in a little more
milk; when cold, roll into small balls and dip in beaten eggs, roll in
fine cracker or bread crumbs, and fry same as doughnuts. Or they may
be fried in the frying pan, with a tablespoonful each of butter and
lard mixed, turning and frying both sides brown. Serve very hot.
HOMINY.
This form of cereal is very little known and consequently little
appreciated in most Northern households. "Big hominy" and "little
hominy," as they are called in the South, are staple dishes there and
generally take the place of oatmeal, which is apt to be too heating
for the climate. The former is called "samp" here. It must be boiled
for at least eight hours to be properly cooked, and may then be kept
on hand for two or three days and warmed over, made into croquettes or
balls, or fried in cakes. The fine hominy takes two or three hours for
proper cooking, and should be cooked in a dish set into another of
boiling water, and kept steadily boiling until thoroughly soft.
HOMINY CROQUETTES.
To a cupful of cold boiled hominy, add a teaspoonful of melted butter,
and stir it well, adding by degrees a cupful of milk, till all is made
into a soft, light paste; add a teaspoonful of white sugar, a pinch of
salt, and one well-beaten egg. Roll it into oval balls with floured
hands, dipped in beaten egg, then rolled in cracker crumbs, and fry in
hot lard.
The hominy is best boiled the day or morning before using.
BOILED RICE.
Take half or quarter of a pound of the best quality of rice; wash it
in a strainer, and put it in a saucepan, with a quart of clean water
and a pinch of salt; let it boil slowly till the water is all
evaporated--see that it does not burn--then pour in a teacupful of new
milk; stir carefully from the bottom of the saucepan, so that the
upper grain may go under, but do not smash it; close the lid on your
saucepan carefully down, and set it on a cooler part of the fire,
where it will not boil; as soon as it has absorbed the added milk,
serve it up with fresh new milk, adding fruit and sugar for those who
like them.
Another nice way to cook rice is to take one teacupful of rice and one
quart of milk, place in a steamer, and steam from two to three hours;
when nearly done, stir in a piece of butter as large as the yolk of an
egg, and a pinch of salt. You can use sugar if you like. The
difference in the time of cooking depends on your rice--the older the
rice, the longer it takes to cook.
SAMP, OR HULLED CORN.
An old-fashioned way of preparing hulled corn was to put a peck of
old, dry, ripe corn into a pot filled with water, and with it a bag of
hardwood ashes, say a quart. After soaking a while it was boiled until
the skins or hulls came off easily. The corn was then washed in cold
water to get rid of the taste of potash, and then boiled until the
kernels were soft. Another way was to take the lye from the leaches
where potash was made, dilute it, and boil the corn in this until the
skins or hulls came off. It makes a delicious dish, eaten with milk or
cream.
CRACKED WHEAT.
Soak the wheat over night in cold water, about a quart of water to a
cup of wheat; cook it as directed for oatmeal; should be thoroughly
done. Eaten with sugar and cream.
OAT FLAKES.
This healthful oat preparation may be procured from the leading
grocers and is prepared as follows: Put into a double saucepan or
porcelain-lined pan a quart of boiling water, add a saltspoonful of
salt, and when it is boiling add, or rather stir in gradually, three
ounces of flakes. Keep stirring to prevent burning. Let it boil from
fifteen to twenty minutes and serve with cream and sugar.
Ordinarily oatmeal requires two hours' steady cooking to make it
palatable and digestible. Wheaten grits and hominy one hour, but a
half hour longer cooking will not injure them and makes them easier of
digestion. Never be afraid of cooking cereals or preparations from
cereals too long, no matter what the directions on the package may be.
STEAMED OATMEAL.
To one teacupful oatmeal add a quart of cold water, a teaspoonful of
salt; put in a steamer over a kettle of cold water, gradually heat and
steam an hour and a half after it begins to cook.
HOMINY.
Hominy is a preparation of Indian corn, broken or ground, either large
or small, and is an excellent breakfast dish in winter or summer. Wash
the hominy thoroughly in on 3 or two waters, then cover it with twice
its depth of cold water and let it come to a boil slowly. If it be the
large hominy, simmer six hours; if the small hominy, simmer two hours.
When the water evaporates add hot water; when done it may be eaten
with cream, or allowed to become cold and warmed up in the frying pan,
using a little butter to prevent burning.
TOAST.
Toast should be made of stale bread, or at least of bread that has
been baked a day. Cut smoothly in slices, not more than half an inch
thick; if the crust is baked very hard, trim the edges and brown very
evenly, but if it happens to burn, that should be scraped off. Toast
that is to be served with anything turned over it, should have the
slices first dipped quickly in a dish of hot water turned from the
boiling tea-kettle, with a little salt thrown in. Cold biscuits cut in
halves, and the under crust sliced off, then browned evenly on both
sides, make equally as good toast. The following preparations of toast
are almost all of them very nice dishes, served with a family
breakfast.
MILK TOAST.
Put over the fire a quart of milk, put into it a tablespoonful of cold
butter, stir a heaping teaspoonful of flour into half a gill of milk;
as soon as the milk on the fire boils, stir in the flour, add a
teaspoonful of salt; let all boil up once, remove from the fire, and
dip in this slices of toasted bread. When all are used up, pour what
is left of the scalded milk over the toast. Cover and send to the
table hot.
CREAM TOAST.
Heat a pint of milk to boiling and add a piece of butter the size of
an egg; stir a tablespoonful of flour smoothly into a cup of rich
cream, and add some of the boiling milk to this; heat it gradually and
prevent the flour from lumping; then stir into the boiling milk and
let it cook a few moments; salt to taste. After taking from the fire
stir in a beaten egg; strain the mixture on to toast lightly buttered.
AMERICAN TOAST.
To one egg thoroughly beaten, put one cup of sweet milk and a little
salt. Slice light bread and dip into the mixture, allowing each slice
to absorb some of the milk; then brown on a hot buttered griddle or
thick-bottomed frying pan; spread with butter and serve hot.
NUNS' TOAST.
Cut four or five hard-boiled eggs into slices. Put a piece of butter
half the size of an egg into a saucepan and when it begins to bubble
add a finely chopped onion. Let the onion cook a little without taking
color, then stir in a teaspoonful of flour. Add a cupful of milk and
stir until it becomes smooth; then put in the slices of eggs and let
them get hot. Pour over neatly trimmed slices of hot buttered toast.
The sauce must be seasoned to taste with pepper and salt.
CHEESE TOAST. No. 1.
Toast thin slices of bread an even, crisp brown. Place on a warm
plate, allowing one small slice to each person, and pour on enough
melted cheese to cover them. Rich new cheese is best. Serve while
warm. Many prefer a little prepared mustard spread over the toast
before putting on the cheese.
CHEESE TOAST. No. 2.
Put half an ounce of butter in a frying pan; when hot add gradually
four ounces of mild American cheese. Whisk it thoroughly until melted.
Beat together half a pint of cream and two eggs; whisk into the
cheese, add a little salt, pour over the crisp toast, and serve.
The two above recipes are usually called "Welsh Rarebit."
OYSTER TOAST.
Select the large ones, used for frying, and first dip them in beaten
egg, then in either cracker or bread crumbs and cook upon a fine wire
gridiron, over a quick fire. Toast should be made ready in advance,
and a rich cream sauce poured over the whole. After pouring on the
sauce, finely cut celery strewn over the top adds to their delicacy.
Or wash oysters in the shell and put them on hot coals, or upon the
top of a hot stove, or bake them in a hot oven; open the shells with
an oyster-knife, taking care to lose none of the liquor. Dip the toast
into hot, salted water quickly and turn out the oyster and liquor over
the toast; season with salt and pepper and a teaspoonful of melted
butter over each.
Oysters steamed in the shell are equally as good.
MUSHROOMS ON TOAST.
Peel a quart of mushrooms and cut off a little of the root end. Melt
an ounce of butter in the frying pan and fry in it half a pound of raw
minced steak; add two saltspoonfuls of salt, a pinch of cayenne and a
gill of hot water; fry until the juices are extracted from the meat;
tilt the pan and squeeze the meat with the back of the spoon until
there is nothing left but dry meat, then remove it; add the mushrooms
to the liquid and if there is not enough of it, add more butter; toss
them about a moment and pour out on hot toast.
Some add a little sherry to the dish before removing from the fire.
TOMATO TOAST.
Pare and stew a quart of ripe tomatoes until smooth. Season with salt,
pepper and a tablespoonful of butter. When done, add one cup sweet
cream and a little flour. Let it scald, but not boil; remove at once.
Pour over slices of dipped toast, well buttered.
EGGS ON TOAST.
Various preparations of eggs can be served on toast, first dipping
slices of well-toasted bread quickly in hot salted water, then turning
over them scrambled, poached or creamed eggs, all found in the recipes
among EGGS.
BAKED EGGS ON TOAST.
Toast six slices of stale bread, dip them in hot salted water and
butter them lightly. After arranging them on a platter or deep plate,
break enough eggs to cover them, breaking one at a time and slip over
the toast so that they do not break; sprinkle over them salt and
pepper and turn over all some kind of thickened gravy--either chicken
or lamb, cream or a cream sauce made the same as "White Sauce;" turn
this over the toast and eggs and bake in a hot oven until the eggs are
set, or about five minutes. Serve at once.
HAM TOAST.
Take a quarter of a pound of either boiled or fried ham, chop it fine,
mix it with the yolks of two eggs, well beaten, a tablespoonful of
butter, and enough cream or rich milk to make it soft, a dash of
pepper. Stir it over the fire until it thickens. Dip the toast for an
instant in hot salted water; spread over some melted butter, then turn
over the ham mixture. Serve hot.
REED BIRDS ON TOAST.
Remove the feathers and legs of a dozen reed birds, split them down
the back, remove the entrails, and place them on a double broiler;
brush a little melted butter over them and broil the inner side
thoroughly first; then lightly broil the other side. Melt one quarter
of a pound of butter, season it nicely with salt and pepper, dip the
birds in it, and arrange them nicely on slices of toast.
MINCED FOWLS ON TOAST.
Remove from the bones all the meat of either cold roast or boiled
fowls. Clean it from the skin, and keep covered from the air until
ready for use. Boil the bones and skin with three-fourths of a pint of
water until reduced quite half. Strain the gravy and let it cool.
Next, having skimmed off the fat, put it into a clean saucepan with
half a cup of cream, three tablespoonfuls of butter, well mixed with a
tablespoonful of flour. Keep these stirred until they boil. Then put
in the fowl finely minced, with three hard-boiled eggs, chopped, and
sufficient salt and pepper to season. Shake the mince over the fire
until just ready to serve. Dish it over hot toast and serve.
HASHED BEEF ON TOAST.
Chop a quantity of cold roast beef rather fine and season it well with
pepper and salt. For each pint of meat add a level tablespoonful of
flour. Stir well and add a small teacupful of soup-stock or water. Put
the mixture into a small stewpan and, after covering it, simmer for
twenty minutes. Meanwhile, toast half a dozen slices of bread nicely
and at the end of the twenty minutes spread the meat upon them. Serve
at once on a hot dish. In case water be used instead of soup-stock,
add a tablespoonful of butter just before spreading the beef upon the
toast. Any kind of cold meat may be prepared in a similar manner.
_Maria Parloa_.
VEAL HASH ON TOAST.
Take a teacupful of boiling water in a saucepan, stir in an even
teaspoonful of flour, wet in a tablespoonful of cold water, and let it
boil five minutes; add one-half teaspoonful of black pepper, as much
salt and two tablespoonfuls of butter, and let it keep hot, but not
boil. Chop the veal fine and mix with it half as much stale bread
crumbs. Put it in a pan and pour the gravy over it, then let it simmer
ten minutes. Serve this on buttered toast.
CODFISH ON TOAST. (Cuban Style.)
Take a teacupful of freshened codfish picked up fine. Fry a sliced
onion in a tablespoonful of butter; when it has turned a light brown,
put in the fish with water enough to cover it; add half a can of
tomatoes, or half a dozen of fresh ones. Cook all nearly an hour,
seasoning with a little pepper. Serve on slices of dipped toast, hot.
Very fine.
Plain creamed codfish is very nice turned over dipped toast.
HALIBUT ON TOAST.
Put into boiling salted water one pound of fresh halibut; cook slowly
for fifteen minutes, or until done; remove from the water and chop it
fine; then add half a cup of melted butter and eight eggs well beaten.
Season with salt and pepper.
Place over the fire a thick-bottomed frying pan containing a
tablespoonful of cold butter; when it begins to melt, tip the pan so
as to grease the sides; then put in the fish and eggs and stir one way
until the eggs are cooked, but not _too_ hard. Turn over toast dipped
in hot salted water.
CHICKEN HASH WITH RICE TOAST.
Boil a cup of rice the night before; put it into a square, narrow
bread-pan, set it in the ice-box. Next morning cut it in half inch
slices, rub over each slice a little warm butter and toast them on a
broiler to a delicate brown. Arrange the toast on a warm platter and
turn over the whole a chicken hash made from the remains of cold fowl,
the meat picked from the bones, chopped fine, put into the frying pan
with butter and a little water to moisten it, adding pepper and salt.
Heat hot all through. Serve immediately.
APPLE TOAST.
Cut six apples into quarters, take the core out, peel and cut them in
slices; put in the saucepan an ounce of butter, then throw over the
apples about two ounces of white powdered sugar and two tablespoonfuls
of water; put the saucepan on the fire, let it stew quickly, toss them
up, or stir with a spoon; a few minutes will do them. When tender cut
two or three slices of bread half an inch thick; put in a frying pan
two ounces of butter, put on the fire; when the butter is melted put
in your bread, which fry of a nice yellowish color; when nice and
crisp take them out, place them on a dish, a little white sugar over,
the apples about an inch thick. Serve hot.
CAKES.
SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO CAKE-MAKING.
Use none but the best materials, and all the ingredients should be
properly prepared before commencing to mix any of them. Eggs beat up
much lighter and sooner by being placed in a cold place sometime
before using them; a small pinch of soda sometimes has the same
effect. Flour should always be sifted before using it. Cream of tartar
or baking powder should be thoroughly mixed with the flour; butter be
placed where it will become moderately soft, but _not_ melted in the
least, or the cake will be sodden and heavy. Sugar should be rolled
and sifted; spices ground or pounded; raisins or any ether fruit
looked over and prepared; currants, especially, should be nicely
washed, picked, dried in a cloth and then carefully examined, that no
pieces of grit or stone may be left amongst them. They should then be
laid on a dish before the fire to become thoroughly dry; as, if added
damp to the other ingredients, cakes will be liable to be heavy.
Eggs should be well beaten, the whites and yolks separately, the yolks
to a thick cream, the whites until they are a stiff froth. Always stir
the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the beaten yolks, then the
milk, the flavoring, then the beaten whites, and, lastly, the flour.
If fruit is to be used, measure and dredge with a little sifted flour,
stir in gradually and thoroughly.
Pour all in well-buttered cake-pans. While the cake is baking care
should be taken that no cold air enters the oven, only when necessary
to see that the cake is baking properly; the oven should be an even,
moderate heat, not too cold or too hot; much depends on this for
success. Cake is often spoiled by being looked at too often when first
put into the oven. The heat should be tested before the cake is put
in, which can be done by throwing on the floor of the oven a
tablespoonful of new flour. If the flour takes fire, or assumes a
dark brown color, the temperature is too high and the oven must be
allowed to cool; if the flour remains white after the lapse of a few
seconds, the temperature is too low. When the oven is of the proper
temperature the flour will slightly brown and look slightly scorched.
Another good way to test the heat, is to drop a few spoonfuls of the
cake batter on a small piece of buttered letter paper, and place it in
the oven during the finishing of the cake, so that the piece will be
baked before putting in the whole cake; if the little drop of cake
batter bakes evenly without burning around the edge, it will be safe
to put the whole cake in the oven. Then, again, if the oven seems too
hot, fold a thick brown paper double, and lay on the bottom of the
oven; then after the cake has risen, put a thick brown paper over the
top, or butter well a thick white paper and lay carefully over the
top.
If, after the cake is put in, it seems to bake too fast, put a brown
paper loosely over the top of the pan, care being taken that it does
not touch the cake, and do not open the door for five minutes at
least; the cake should then be quickly examined, and the door shut
carefully, or the rush of cold air will cause it to fall. Setting a
_small dish_ of hot water in the oven, will also prevent the cake from
scorching.
To ascertain when the cake is done, run a broom straw into the middle
of it; if it comes out clean and smooth, the cake will do to take out.
Where the recipe calls for baking powder, and you have none, you can
use cream of tartar and soda in proportion to one level teaspoonful of
soda, two heaping teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.
When sour milk is called for in the recipe, use only soda. Cakes made
with molasses burn much more easily than those made with sugar. Never
stir cake after the butter and sugar is creamed, but beat it down from
the bottom, up and over; this laps air into the cake batter, and
produces little air cells, which cause the dough to puff and swell
when it comes in contact with the heat while cooking.
When making most cakes, especially sponge cake, the flour should be
added by degrees, stirred very slowly and lightly, for if stirred hard
and fast it will make it porous and tough.
Cakes should be kept in tight tin cake-cans, or earthen jars, in a
cool, dry place.
Cookies, jumbles, ginger-snaps, etc., require a quick oven; if they
become moist or soft by keeping, put again into the oven a few
minutes.
To remove a cake from a tin after it is baked, so that it will not
crack, break or fall, first butter the tin well all around the sides
and bottom; then cut a piece of letter paper to exactly fit the tin,
butter that on both sides, placing it smoothly on the bottom and sides
of the tin. When the cake is baked, let it remain in the tin until it
is _cold_; then set it in the oven a minute, or just long enough to
warm the tin through. Remove it from the oven; turn it upside down on
your hand, tap the edge of the tin on the table and it will slip out
with ease, leaving it whole.
If a cake-pan is too shallow for holding the quantity of cake to be
baked, for fear of its being so light as to rise above the pan, that
can be remedied by thoroughly greasing a piece of thick glazed letter
paper with soft butter. Place or fit it around the sides of the
buttered tin, allowing it to reach an inch or more above the top. If
the oven heat is moderate the butter will preserve the paper from
burning.
FROSTING OR ICING.
In the first place, the eggs should be cold, and the platter on which
they are to be beaten also cold. Allow, for the white of one egg, one
small teacupful of powdered sugar. Break the eggs and throw a small
handful of the sugar on them as soon as you begin beating; keep adding
it at intervals until it is all used up. The eggs must _not_ be beaten
until the sugar has been added in this way, which gives a smooth,
tender frosting, and one that will dry much sooner than the old way.
Spread with a broad knife evenly over the cake, and if it seems too
thin, beat in a little more sugar. Cover the cake with two coats, the
second after the first has become dry, or nearly so. If the icing gets
too dry or stiff before the last coat is needed, it can be thinned
sufficiently with a little water, enough to make it work smoothly.
A little lemon juice, or half a teaspoonful of tartaric acid, added to
the frosting while being beaten, makes it white and more frothy.
The flavors mostly used are lemon, vanilla, almond, rose, chocolate
and orange. If you wish to ornament with figures or flowers, make up
rather more icing, keep about one-third out until that on the cake is
dried; then, with a clean glass syringe, apply it in such forms as
you desire and dry as before; what you keep out to ornament with may
be tinted pink with cochineal, blue with indigo, yellow with saffron
or the grated rind of an orange strained through a cloth, green with
spinach juice and brown with chocolate, purple with cochineal and
indigo. Strawberry, or currant and cranberry juices color a delicate
pink.
Set the cake in a cool oven with the door open to dry, or in a draught
in an open window.
ALMOND FROSTING.
The whites of three eggs, beaten up with three cups of fine, white
sugar. Blanch a pound of sweet almonds, pound them in a mortar with a
little sugar, until a fine paste, then add the whites of eggs, sugar
and vanilla extract. Pound a few minutes to thoroughly mix. Cover the
cake with a very thick coating of this, set in a cool oven to dry,
afterwards cover with a plain icing.
CHOCOLATE FROSTING.
The whites of four eggs, three cups of powdered sugar and nearly a cup
of grated chocolate. Beat the whites a very little, they must not
become white, stir in the chocolate, then put in the sugar gradually,
beating to mix it well.
PLAIN CHOCOLATE ICING.
Put into a shallow pan four tablespoonfuls of scraped chocolate, and
place it where it will melt gradually, but not scorch; when melted,
stir in three tablespoonfuls of milk or cream and one of water; mix
all well together, and add one scant teacupful of sugar; boil about
five minutes, and while hot, and when the cakes are nearly cold,
spread some evenly over the surface of one of the cakes; put a second
one on top, alternating the mixture and cakes; then cover top and
sides, and set in a warm oven to harden. All who have tried recipe
after recipe, vainly hoping to find one where the chocolate sticks to
the cake and not to the fingers, will appreciate the above. In making
those most palatable of cakes, "Chocolate Eclairs," the recipe just
given will be found very satisfactory.
TUTTI FRUTTI ICING.
Mix with boiled icing one ounce each of chopped citron, candied
cherries, seedless raisins, candied pineapple and blanched almonds.
SUGAR ICING.