rub through a colander. Heat one pint of milk to boiling, then add a
tablespoonful of cornstarch dissolved in a little cold milk, and the
beaten yolks of three eggs. When thickened, allow to cool, then stir
in the oranges. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add two
thirds of a cup of sugar, and spread on the top of the custard; place
in the oven till slightly brown. Serve cold.
PINEAPPLE CUSTARD
Make a custard of one quart of milk, two thirds of a cup of sugar, and
four eggs: heat the milk to boiling in a double boiler; then add the
eggs and sugar beaten together. Stir well, and when done set aside to
cool. Have a nice, ripe pineapple picked to pieces with a fork, and
sprinkled with sugar. Just before serving the custard, stir in the
pineapple.
TAPIOCA CREAM
Wash and soak four even tablespoonfuls of tapioca in a cup of water
until soft; then add a little salt and a pint of milk, and heat to
boiling in a double boiler; add the yolks of three eggs well beaten,
and one-half cup of sugar; cook for a few minutes, then turn into an
earthen dish; when cool, spread over the top the whites of the eggs
beaten stiff with two tablespoonfuls of sugar, adding vanilla to
flavor; place in the oven to brown slightly.
RICE CUSTARD
Wash one-half cup of rice, and cook in a double boiler in three cups
of water or milk, or equal parts of each, until tender, adding a
little salt; then add, while still on the range, one pint of milk, the
yolks of three eggs well beaten, and five tablespoonfuls of sugar;
stir gently, and cook only until thickened. Then turn into a pudding
dish. Beat well the whites of three eggs, add three tablespoonfuls of
powdered sugar, flavor with lemon or vanilla, and spread over the top
of the custard; place in a slow oven to brown slightly.
SAUCES
Rich sauces and highly-seasoned dishes provoke thirst.—_Selected._
Rich sauces are even worse than heaping several meats upon each
other.—_Pliny._
A wrong course of eating or drinking destroys health, and with it the
sweetness of life.—“_Christian Temperance._”
[Leaf]
SAUCES FOR VEGETABLES
TOMATO SAUCE
Cook one pint of fresh or canned tomatoes with a little onion, salt,
and herb-flavor for fifteen minutes, then strain through a colander,
and add two tablespoonfuls of flour browned with a tablespoonful of
butter.
CREAM SAUCE
Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan over the fire, stir in
two tablespoonfuls of flour, and cook about one minute, but do not let
it brown. Add one cup of milk gradually, stirring constantly to keep
smooth until thickened; cook very slowly, or steam over hot water, for
ten minutes; add one-half teaspoonful of salt, and serve.
LENTIL SAUCE
Rub a cupful of cooked lentils through a colander into a saucepan; add
a cup of milk and a little salt. When boiling, stir in a tablespoonful
of browned flour rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Add a little
chopped parsley, if desired. For browned flour, see page 12.
BROWN SAUCE, NO. 1
Put a teaspoonful of butter into a frying-pan, and brown slightly; then
pour in a pint of milk, and heat to boiling; stir in two tablespoonfuls
of browned flour rubbed to a paste in a little cold water or milk;
season with salt, boil until thickened, and serve.
BROWN SAUCE, NO. 2
Put a tablespoonful of butter into a frying-pan; when melted, sprinkle
in two tablespoonfuls of flour, stirring until nicely browned; then
add enough boiling water to make of the consistency of cream, stirring
constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Add salt to taste.
PARSLEY SAUCE
Make a brown sauce, and add a little finely chopped parsley just before
serving.
EGG AND MILK SAUCE
To a pint of milk add a tablespoonful or two of cream, or a teaspoonful
of butter, and heat to boiling; then stir in one even tablespoonful
of flour rubbed smooth in a little cold water or milk; let boil a few
minutes, stirring constantly; then stir in rapidly the well-beaten yolk
of one egg; season with salt, boil up, and serve.
BREAD SAUCE
Put a tablespoonful of oil and a teaspoonful of grated onion into a
saucepan, and allow to heat, but not scorch; then add a cupful of rich
milk, or nut milk, and a little salt. When heated nearly to boiling,
stir in one-half cupful of sifted bread crumbs. Let boil slowly a few
minutes, and serve. Nice with protose cutlets or baked potatoes.
MINT SAUCE
Take fresh, green mint, wash, and chop very fine. Put into a glass, and
for each two tablespoonfuls of mint allow one tablespoonful of sugar,
and the juice of one lemon diluted with an equal amount of water.
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SAUCES FOR DESSERTS
ARROWROOT SAUCE
Heat one cup of water to boiling; then add one teaspoonful of sugar,
and one small tablespoonful of arrowroot mixed smooth in a little cold
water, stirring briskly. In a few minutes remove from the fire, and
flavor with lemon or almond. Nice for puddings.
BOILED CUSTARD SAUCE
Beat together in a saucepan, two eggs, one tablespoonful of sugar, and
one-half teaspoonful of cornstarch. Place over the fire one cupful of
milk, and as soon as it begins to boil pour it over the eggs in the
saucepan. Stir well, place over the fire to boil until it thickens,
then pour into a pitcher, and flavor if desired.
CHOCOLATE SAUCE
Mix two tablespoonfuls of shaved chocolate with two cupfuls of sweet
milk, and heat to boiling; then add the well-beaten yolks of two eggs,
stirring briskly; boil a few minutes until thickened, and remove from
the fire; add the whites of the eggs, which have been beaten to a stiff
froth, and two tablespoonfuls of white sugar. Nice with cornstarch
blanc-mange.
ORANGE SAUCE
Heat a pint of water to boiling, and thicken with a tablespoonful of
cornstarch; add a cupful of orange juice extracted from good sweet
oranges, a small piece of the yellow rind for flavoring, and sugar to
sweeten; the beaten yolk of an egg may be added if desired; remove the
orange rind before serving.
LEMON SAUCE
To a pint of boiling water add a slice or two of lemon, and thicken
with a small tablespoonful of cornstarch; remove the lemon, cook a few
minutes until clear, then add two thirds of a cup of sugar, the juice
of one lemon, and a beaten egg if desired; boil up, cool, and serve.
FRUIT SAUCE
Obtain the juice of raspberries, strawberries, grapes, currants, or
any larger fruit, by simmering for a short time with a little water,
and straining through a thin cloth; heat the juice to scalding, then
slightly thicken with cornstarch rubbed smooth in a little cold water,
allowing a tablespoonful of cornstarch for each pint of juice; cook
a few minutes till thickened, and sweeten to taste. Three or four
tablespoonfuls of fruit jelly dissolved in a pint of hot water makes a
good substitute for fruit juice if the latter is not available.
STRAWBERRY SAUCE
Beat one and one-half cups of powdered sugar and one tablespoonful of
butter to a cream. Then add the stiffly beaten white of one egg and
beat till very light. Set in a cool place, and when ready to serve, add
one pint of mashed strawberries.
WHIPPED CREAM
Beat one cup of cold sweet cream with a Dover egg-beater until stiff;
then beat in two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and one-half
teaspoonful extract of vanilla; set in a cool place till ready to
serve. Have the cream cold, and not too thick, or it will turn to
butter while beating. A nice sauce for desserts.
PIES
“To keep in health this rule is wise,
Eat only when you need and relish food,
Chew thoroughly, that it may do you good,
Have it well cooked, unspiced, and undisguised.”
Food for repentance—mince pie eaten late at night.
He who eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.—_Selected._
How many homes are cursed by discomfort and ill health, and thoughts
and bitter words, simply because the wife does not know how to
cook.—_The Young Woman._
[Leaf]
One of the greatest objections to pies is that they are generally made
too rich. When a large amount of grease is employed in making the
crust, and the filling is seasoned heavily with spices and various
condiments, they can hardly fail to be unwholesome.
But pies need not be made in this way. If proper ingredients are used,
and simplicity is studied in making them, there is no reason why they
should be seriously objectionable.
There are two styles of pie in general use,—one, the English style,
baked in a deep dish, frequently with only a top crust; the other, the
American, baked in a shallow dish, usually with two crusts, an upper
and an under. Custard, cream, lemon, and pumpkin pies, however, have
only an under crust. Most of the recipes here given are for the shallow
pies with two crusts.
[Illustration: Pie Dish]
Custard, pumpkin, and other pies in which milk and eggs are used,
should be baked in a slow oven. They will also be improved if the milk
used be hot. To stir beaten eggs into the hot milk, add a few spoonfuls
of cold milk to the eggs, then pour into the hot milk, a little at a
time, stirring well.
The filling for pies should always be prepared before making the crust,
unless the crust is to be baked first. All the material should be
cold, except for custard and pumpkin pies, and should be put together
quickly, handling as little as possible, and without kneading the dough.
[Illustration: Rolling-pin]
When the paste is ready, take sufficient for one crust, and roll out
on a floured board quickly and lightly until about an eighth of an
inch in thickness, and a little larger than the pie dish, as it will
shrink when lifted from the board. When rolled thin, flour or oil the
pie dish, cover smoothly with the crust, and fill, adding sugar as
required. Sprinkle a little flour over the sugar; this thickens the
juice slightly, and prevents the upper crust from becoming soggy. For
custard or fruit pies with wet fillings, brush the bottom crust with
the white of an egg before putting in the filling. The crust will then
remain dry and tender.
[Illustration: Pie]
If there is to be a top crust, roll it out in the same manner, and
make a few ornamental cuts in the center to allow the steam to escape.
Wet the edge of the lower crust, and lift on the upper crust, pressing
the edges together so that the juice may not escape. Trim away the
overhanging portions, and with the thumb and fingers press the edge
into a scalloped or ornamental wall, as shown in the accompanying
cut. Especially should this be done when only an under crust is used,
that the pie may be handled with greater ease. It also adds to the
appearance of the pie. Pies are generally better eaten the same day
they are baked.
[Leaf]
PLAIN PIE CRUST
For each pie with two crusts take two small cups of sifted flour, and
work thoroughly into it three tablespoonfuls of butter, adding a little
salt; wet with just sufficient cold water to make a rather stiff dough;
mix quickly, roll out thin, and bake as soon as the pie can be made. A
good crust may be made with olive-oil, or fresh cocoanut or vegetable
oil, instead of butter, using about the same quantity.
CREAM PIE CRUST
Take two scant cups of fine, sifted flour, or equal parts of fine flour
and Graham flour, add a little salt, and moisten with enough cold, thin
sweet cream to make a rather stiff dough; roll out thin, place in the
pie dish, fill, and bake quickly.
APPLE PIE
Pare, core, and slice thin, tart ripe apples; line the pie dish with
a crust, and fill with the apples; sprinkle with sugar, and add two
or three tablespoonfuls of cold water. Cover with an upper crust,
according to general directions, and bake until a light brown. Apples
that do not cook quickly may be stewed until about half done before
making into pies. Apple pie when cold is very nice served with sweet
cream.
PEACH PIE
Pare, remove stones, and make the same as apple pie.
GOOSEBERRY PIE
Remove the stems and blossom ends, wash, and fill a pie dish lined with
a crust. Add a half cup of sugar, and sprinkle with flour. Prepare
the upper crust, cover, and bake. To prevent the juice from running
out while baking, make a paste of a teaspoonful of flour and a little
water, and brush over the edge of the under crust before putting on
the top crust. If desired, beat together the white of an egg and a
tablespoonful of fine sugar, and meringue the top of the pie when done;
return to the oven, and brown slightly.
RHUBARB PIE
Wash, strip off the skin, and cut the stalks into thin slices. Line
a pie dish with crust, and fill with the rhubarb. Add a half cup
of sugar, two or three tablespoonfuls of water, and sprinkle over a
tablespoonful of flour. Wet the edges of the lower crust, place on a
prepared top crust, press the edges together, trim, and bake. Equal
portions of rhubarb and apples may be used in the place of all rhubarb.
RASPBERRY PIE
Look over the raspberries, line a pie dish with a crust and fill with
berries; add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a little water, sprinkle with
flour, and proceed as with gooseberry pie.
BLACKBERRY PIE
Look over about one pint of blackberries, and proceed the same as for
raspberry pie. Blueberry pie may be made in the same way.
CHERRY PIE
Take nice ripe cherries, remove the stones if preferred, and make the
same as raspberry pie, adding sugar according to the acidity of the
fruit.
DRIED CURRANT PIE
Wash the currants in two or three waters through a colander to remove
sand and grit, and stew; when cool, line a pie dish with crust, and
fill with the currants, pouring in a small quantity of the juice; add
a little sugar, then sprinkle over with two tablespoonfuls of flour,
cover with a crust, and bake in a hot oven till done. It should not be
made too dry.
PRUNE PIE
Wash the prunes well in warm water, rinse, soak, and put to cook
without draining, cover, and stew slowly from one to two hours. When
done, put through a colander to remove stones and skins. Bake with two
crusts. Very little sugar will be needed. If the pulp is quite juicy, a
tablespoonful of flour may be sprinkled over.
LEMON PIE
To one cupful of boiling water, add one heaping tablespoonful of
cornstarch blended with a little cold water. Boil up, remove from
the fire, and stir in two-thirds cup of sugar; let cool, then add
the beaten yolks of two eggs, and the juice and grated rind of a
lemon. Bake with under crust only; when done, meringue the top with a
tablespoonful of sugar and the whites of the eggs beaten stiff; return
to a slow oven to brown slightly.
DRIED APPLE PIE
Take good dried apples, wash, and soak for several hours, or overnight,
in sufficient cold water to cover them. Stew, without draining, until
soft; mash fine, adding lemon flavoring and sugar to sweeten; bake with
two crusts, or ornament with strips or lattice-work crust on top. A few
stewed blackberries or raspberries may be added to the apples.
DRIED PEACH PIE
Stew until soft, mash to a pulp, add sugar to sweeten, and make the
same as dried apple pie. If desired, one-third apricots may be used.
RAISIN PIE
For three pies, stew one pound of raisins for nearly an hour in enough
water to cover them; add the juice of a lemon, and a small cup of white
sugar. Line the pie dishes with crust, fill with raisins and a little
of the juice, and sprinkle two tablespoonfuls of flour over each pie.
Bake with two crusts. For lemon raisin pie add the juice and grated
rind of one lemon.
CREAM PIE
Put one cup of milk to scald in a double boiler. Beat together
two eggs, leaving out the white of one, two even teaspoonfuls of
sifted flour stirred smooth in a little cold milk, and two heaping
tablespoonfuls of sugar. When the milk is scalding hot, add this
mixture, and stir for a minute or two until it thickens. It is better
not to cook after it is thick, and the less it is stirred, except to
keep it from forming into lumps, the better; add vanilla or lemon to
flavor. Line the pie dish with a crust, pricking well with a fork to
prevent blistering, and bake in a quick oven; then put the cream, which
is already sufficiently cooked, into the baked crust. Beat the white of
the egg to a stiff froth with a tablespoonful of sugar, and spread on
top of the pie. Place in the oven to brown slightly.
CUSTARD PIE
Line a pie dish with a crust, and fill with the following: Three eggs,
three tablespoonfuls of sugar, and one teaspoonful of flour; beat
thoroughly together, and add milk enough to fill the dish. Bake slowly
until set, but do not allow to boil. As soon as it puffs, and a knife
can be cut into the custard and come out clean, it is done. To be eaten
cold, and on the same day as baked.
PUMPKIN PIE
Cut the pumpkin in halves, remove the seeds, cut in slices, and stew
until dry and soft. Mash smooth, and for each pie take one cup of
stewed pumpkin, one-third cup of sugar, two eggs, and about a pint
of milk. Beat the eggs and sugar together, stir in the pumpkin, and,
lastly, add the milk; mix well, and bake with an under crust only,
until the custard is set. Squash may be used instead of pumpkin. If
more convenient, two tablespoonfuls of flour may be used in place
of the eggs. A tablespoonful or two of molasses may also be added if
desired.
What moistens the lip, and
What brightens the eye,
What brings back the past,
Like a good pumpkin pie?—_Whittier._
PIE WITH UPPER CRUST ONLY
Take a deep pie dish, place a small cup upside down in the middle of
it, and fill the dish with fruit, adding sugar as desired. Place a
border of crust around the edge of the dish, put on the top crust,
ornament the edges, and bake.
TARTS
Line shallow pie dishes or patty-pans with good crusts, fill with the
fruit, and bake. When done, remove from the oven, and sprinkle with
fine sugar.
Small tarts may be made by rolling crust out thin, and cutting in
shapes with a cake cutter, using half of them for the under crust, and
the other half for tops; ornament the tops by cutting small holes in
the center with a thimble or small fancy mold. Bake quickly, and when
done put together with fruit jelly.
VEGETABLE PIE
Boil for a short time several potatoes and onions, after which slice
them into a deep, buttered pie dish in layers; add to each layer a
little sage and well-steeped tapioca, and season with salt. Cover with
a crust and bake. A very economical and wholesome pie.
SAVORY PIE
Soak one-half cup of tapioca in one cup of cold water for one hour.
Moisten enough stale bread in cold water to make three cupfuls; put
into a dish, and rub in two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour.
Then mix in one-half cup of stewed fresh or canned tomatoes, two beaten
eggs, one small onion chopped fine, one tablespoonful of powdered sage,
and salt to taste. Put into a buttered pudding dish and pour over the
tapioca. Boil two eggs until hard, remove shells, cut into slices, and
place on top of the tapioca; add a few bits of butter, cover with a
crust, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty or thirty minutes. Serve
hot.
MERINGUE FOR PIES
To each stiffly beaten white of an egg, add a tablespoonful of sugar,
and spread on the pie after it is baked and allowed to cool slightly;
place in the oven for a few minutes. Care should be taken that the oven
is not too hot, or the covering will be tough and leathery.
CAKES
Feed sparingly, and defy the physician.
Who lives to eat, will die by eating.
Whoever eats too much, or of food which is not healthful, is
weakening his powers to resist the clamors of other appetites and
passions.—“_Christian Temperance._”
The best seasoning for food is hunger.—_Socrates._
Reason should direct, and appetite obey.—_Cicero._
Men should be temperate in eating as well as drinking.—_Dr. Brandreth._
[Leaf]
[Illustration: Dover Egg Beater]
It is important that all the necessary materials should be gathered
together before beginning the cake. If baking-powder is used, allow a
teaspoonful to each cup of flour; sift it in the flour, and measure the
sugar; have the pans for baking in readiness. Beat the whites and yolks
of eggs separately in china bowls, using a Dover egg-beater. The whites
should be beaten till stiff enough to cut with a knife, the yolks till
they cease to froth and begin to thicken. Cream the butter by beating
it, first warming the dish by rinsing with hot water, if the weather
is cold. Then add the sugar slowly, then the beaten yolks of eggs; add
a little of the milk, then a part of the flour, thus alternating with
the milk and flour till all are used, being careful to have the mixture
always of about the same consistency.
Next fold in the stiffly beaten whites, add flavoring if desired, and
beat for a few moments. If fruit is used, fold it in, well floured, the
last thing, or it will sink to the bottom of the cake.
The baking is an important part of cake-making. The oven should be at a
proper temperature; if too hot at first, the cake browns too quickly,
and a crust is formed over the top before the cake has sufficient time
to rise; if not hot enough, the air that has been beaten in escapes
before the heat has time to expand it; the result is that the cake is
coarse-grained and heavy.
Have the oven less hot for cake than for bread, but hotter for thin
cake than for loaf cake. It is about right for loaf cake made with
butter when it turns a piece of writing-paper a light brown in five
minutes. About an hour will be required to bake a loaf cake: from
fifteen to twenty minutes for small cakes and layer cakes.
A tube cake pan, as shown in the accompanying cut, is very good for
baking ordinary cakes, as the tube causes the cake to bake more evenly,
and renders it less liable to fall.
[Illustration: Cake Pan]
If it is necessary to move the cake after putting it in the oven, it
should be done carefully, as jarring is liable to make it fall. A cake
is done when a clean broom straw passed through the thickest part comes
out clean.
If a cake rises up, cracks open, and remains that way, it has baked
too fast, or too much flour has been used. To bake properly, it should
rise first on the edges, then in the middle, crack open slightly, then
settle till level, when it will have closed nearly together again. The
outside should be a golden brown, the inside slightly moist, and fine
grained.
In beating the yolks of eggs where both eggs and milk are used, first
rinse the bowl in which the yolks are to be beaten with a little of the
milk.
In beating the whites of the eggs, do not stop until they are stiff,
as they can not be beaten stiff after standing till they have become
liquid again. Eggs will beat stiffer if cold, and beaten in a cold dish
and in a cool room.
Jelly for filling should be beaten till smooth, then spread between the
layers before they are quite cool. In using dessicated cocoanut, first
moisten it with a little sweet cream.
Citron used in cake should be cut into fine strips. Currants and
raisins should be looked over, washed, dried, and then be well floured
before being added to the cake, as they absorb moisture and tend to
make the cake heavy. Rich cake should be avoided. Sponge cake may be
considered the most healthful.
To make sponge cake, beat the yolks till thick and light-colored, then
beat in the sugar, add lemon-juice, or other liquid and flavoring to be
used. Then add the stiffly beaten whites, sift in the flour over them,
and fold all in together without stirring or beating. Beating sponge
cake after adding the flour makes it firm and tough, as also does the
addition of too much flour. Sponge cake should be put together lightly
and quickly, and baked at once.
SPONGE CAKE
Beat the yolks of three eggs; then gradually add one cupful of
granulated sugar, one tablespoonful each of cold water and lemon-juice.
Add the beaten whites and one cupful of flour, following general
directions for making sponge cake as given above.
LEMON SPONGE CAKE
Take four eggs, one cup of sugar, one tablespoonful of lemon-juice,
with a little of the grated rind, and one cupful of flour. Beat the
yolks of the eggs to a foam, then beat in the sugar, adding a little
at a time; then add the lemon-juice and grated rind; beat the whites
of the eggs until very stiff, then lightly fold and chop them into the
mixture. Slowly sift in the flour, carefully working it in. Do not beat
after the flour has been added. Bake in two layers, and put together
with fruit jelly or lemon honey. See page 40.
SPONGE LOAF CAKE
Break ten eggs into a large bowl, add two large cupfuls of granulated
sugar, and beat together for half an hour without pausing. Then add one
cupful of sifted flour, the juice and grated rind of one lemon, and
one-fourth cup of cold water. Turn into deep pans, sprinkle the top
lightly with powdered sugar, and bake about an hour in a moderate oven.
GEM CAKES