salt and pepper; cover meat with boiling water and simmer for 1 hr or
until meat is tender; put the meat in a baking dish; thicken the stock
with the flour mixed to a paste with the water; add carrots, potatoes,
celery and onions; pour the gravy over it and dot with shortening; add
more seasoning if necessary; cover top with plain pastry; bake in a
quick oven 10 min; reduce heat to a moderate oven; bake 20 to 25 min.
HAMBURG BALLS
1 lb round steak, ground, 2 eggs, ⅔ c soft bread crumbs, 1 tsp
salt, ⅛ tsp pepper, ⅓ c milk, 2 tbp chopped onion, 1 tbp butter,
1½ tsp flour, 1½ c boiling water.
Mix meat, beaten eggs, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and milk together;
fry onion in grease until a delicate brown and add to the meat mixture;
form in small flat circular cakes and sprinkle with flour; fry on
both sides in a small amount of grease until brown; remove the cakes
to a hot platter; add flour to the grease in the pan and cook until a
delicate brown, stirring constantly; add water and bring to the boiling
point, mixing well; pour around the meat balls.
PLANKED SIRLOIN STEAK
Wipe a sirloin steak, cut 2″ thick; remove flank end and pan broil 10
min, seasoning with salt after first 5 min of cooking; place a border
of mashed potatoes around edge of slightly buttered plank and make 8
nests of mashed potatoes; place steak on plank and put in oven to brown
potatoes and finish cooking steak. Fill potato nests with canned peas,
reheated and seasoned, and arrange equal distances piles of buttered
carrot cubes and stuffed tomatoes; spread steak with butter; fit plank
into nickel frame and serve.
GOULASH FOR FOUR
Slice and chop small 1 large or 2 medium-sized onions; heat 2 heaping
tbp fine lard, in which brown the onions to a deep golden color; then
add a level tsp of Hungarian paprika, a tsp of salt and 2 lb of lean
sirloin or good round steak that has previously been cut in about inch
cubes; let meat simmer, under cover, for a few minutes, being careful
to stir often to avoid burning; then add sufficient water to cover it
well, and let boil. In the meantime peel and cut in good-sized cubes
6 or 7 large potatoes, to be added when meat is fairly done; fill
again up with water to cover about ½″ to 1″ and let boil; season again
according to taste. Potatoes and meat should be done about the same
time, and the gravy have assumed the consistency of cream.
HOMINY MEAT CAKES
2 c cooked hominy grits, ½ c cooked meat, 1 tbp minced onion,
salt, pepper, milk or stock to moisten if necessary.
Form into cakes, brown in fat or brush with melted fat and brown in the
oven.
CREAMED DRIED BEEF
¼ lb dried beef, 1 c medium white sauce.
Remove skin and separate meat into small pieces; cover with lukewarm
water; let stand 10 min and drain; add white sauce and cook in db 10
min.
MEAT MOUSSE
1 c cooked meat, minced, 1 tbp gelatin, 1¼ c clear stock, 2
mushrooms, minced and sauteed, ¼ tsp pepper, ½ c evaporated milk,
½ c cream, 1 tsp salt.
Chicken, ham or sweetbreads may be used; chop meat very fine; soak the
gelatin in the stock; heat stock until gelatin dissolves; then add
meat, mushrooms and seasonings; cool, stirring occasionally. When it
begins to stiffen fold in the evaporated milk and cream, which has been
chilled and beaten stiff; pour mixture into molds and chill at least 2
hr.
CORNED BEEF HASH
Remove skin and gristle from cooked corn beef, then chop the meat. When
meat is very fat, discard most of the fat. To 2 cups chopped meat add
an equal quantity of cold boiled chopped potatoes; season with salt and
pepper; moisten with milk or cream; put into a hot buttered frying pan,
stir until well mixed, spread evenly, then place on a part of the range
where it may slowly brown underneath, the time required being 40 to 45
min; turn and fold on a hot platter; garnish with spring of parsley in
the middle.
CREAM DRIED BEEF (2)
¼ lb smoked dried beef, thinly sliced, 1 c scalded cream, 1½ tbp
flour.
Remove skin and separate meat in pieces, cover with hot water, let
stand 10 min and drain; dilute flour with enough cold water to pour
easily, making smooth paste; add to cream, and cook in db 10 min; add
beef, and repeat.
BEEFSTEAK A LA HENRIETTA
½ c butter, yolks 3 eggs, 1 tbp cold water, ½ tbp lemon juice,
¼ tsp salt, 2 tbp tomato puree, 1 tbp Worcestershire sauce, ½
finely chopped parsley, few grains cayenne.
Wash butter and divide in 3 pieces; put 1 piece in saucepan with yolks
of eggs slightly beaten and mixed with water and lemon juice; then add
tomato, parsley and seasonings; pour ½ sauce on a serving dish, lay
a broiled porterhouse steak on sauce, and cover steak with remaining
sauce; garnish with parsley.
MEXICAN BEEF SAUCE
Reheat cold roast beef cut in thin slices; cook 1 onion, finely
chopped, in 2 tbp butter 5 min; add 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, and 1
clove of garlic, each finely chopped, and 2 tomatoes peeled and cut in
pieces; cook 15 min; add 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, ¼ tsp celery salt,
and salt to taste.
CORNED BEEF
Corned beef gives variety to the diet. The best pieces are the rattle
rand and fancy brisket. The fancy brisket commands a higher price and
may be easily told from the rattle rand by the selvage on lower side
and the absence of bones. The upper end of brisket (butt end) is thick
and composed mostly of lean meat, the middle cut has more fat, but is
not well mixed, while the lower (navel end) has a large quantity of fat.
=To Boil=: Wipe the meat, tie securely in shape, if this has not been
already done at market; put in kettle, cover with cold water, and
bring slowly to boiling point; boil 5 min, remove scum and cook at a
lower temperature until tender; cool slightly in water in which it was
cooked, remove to a dish, cover, and place on cover a weight, that meat
may be well pressed. The lean meat and fat may be separated and put in
alternate layers in a bread pan, then covered and pressed.
BOILED TONGUE
A boiled corned tongue is cooked the same as Boiled Corned Beef. If
salty, it should be soaked in cold water several hours, or over night,
before cooking; take from water when slightly cooled and remove skin.
ROAST BEEF GRAVY
Leave 4 tbp of fat in pan; place on front of range; add 5 tbp flour;
stir until well browned; the flour, dredged and browned in pan, should
give additional color to gravy; add gradually 1½ c boiling water; cook
5 min, season with salt and pepper and strain.
TO CARVE A ROAST
Have roast placed on platter, skin side up; with a pointed, thin-bladed
sharp knife cut a sirloin or rib roast in thin slices at right angles
to the ribs, and cut slices from ribs. If there is tenderloin, remove
it from under the bone, and cut in thin slices across grain of meat;
carve back of rump in thin slices with the grain of meat; by so doing,
some of the least tender muscle will be served with that which is
tender; by cutting across grain of meat, the tenderest portion is
sliced by itself, as is the less tender portion.
STEWS
Stews made of meat and vegetables offer a great variety of dishes, good
in themselves and good also because they encourage the eating of bread.
The meat used should, of course, be in good condition, but need not be
from a tender cut. The lower-priced cuts may be used with good results,
provided they are made tender by long, slow cooking. Any vegetable
may be added, including the tougher parts of lettuce and the leaves of
celery. Rice, barley, macaroni, or even crusts of stale bread may be
used in the stew to give variety. A stew containing a little meat, with
one or more vegetables and a cereal, comes near to supplying all the
needed foods other than milk.
MEAT STEW
2 lb of one of the cheaper cuts of beef, ⅔ c each of turnips
and carrots, cut into ½″ cubes, 4 c of potatoes, cut into small
pieces, ½ onion, chopped, ¼ c of flour, salt.
Cut the meat into small pieces, cover with boiling water, boil for
5 min, and then cook at a lower temp until the meat is tender. This
will require about 3 hr on the stove or 5 hr in the fireless cooker;
add the carrots, turnips and onions and salt during the last hour of
cooking, and the potatoes 20 min before serving; thicken with the flour
diluted with cold water. If the dish is made in the fireless cooker,
the mixture must be reheated when the vegetables are put in. If foods
depended on for vitamins are scarce, cook the vegetables separately
from the meat so as to avoid the danger from overcooking them.
There is much to be said in favor of keeping a soup pot on the stove
all the time, provided great care is taken not to allow the contents
to grow stale. Into this pot can go clean portions of uncooked food
and also clean foods left from the table, such as meat, milk, mashed
potatoes, or other vegetables, crusts, cold cereal mashes, and even
fruits. Soups made from such materials may not have great nutritive
value, but, like those made out of materials bought for the purpose,
they encourage the use of a large amount of bread, particularly if
carefully seasoned.
BROWN STEW
For this dish the cheaper and less tender cuts of beef, such as the
rump and round can be used; remove the meat from the bone and cut it
into small pieces; dredge with flour and cook in a small amount of fat
until it is well browned; add hot water, about 1 qt to every pound of
meat; season with salt, pepper and onion, and cook.
CARROT STEW
In these times of “high prices” perhaps the following will be found
helpful in the list of cheap though nourishing dishes: Into 1 qt
boiling water put 2 c grated carrot; add salt to taste and allow to
cook for 15 or 20 min; add 1 qt milk, which has been warming, to which
has been added a piece of butter and broken or rolled crackers; allow
mixture to become very hot, when it is ready for serving. The flavor
will be found delicious, reminding one of salmon. Of course, the more
generous piece of butter the richer the stew.
CHOWDERS
Fresh fish or clam chowder and oyster stew are good dishes for school
lunches in localities where fresh sea food is abundant. Dried and salt
fish or vegetables alone may also be used as the flavoring in chowders
that children will find attractive and wholesome. The ingredients are
milk, whole or skim; a fatty substance, which is usually salt pork,
though butter may be used; potatoes or crackers, often both, and in
addition to these one of the following: Fish, either fresh or salt;
green corn, fresh or canned; parsnips, vegetable oysters, kohl-rabi or
celery. A chowder consisting mainly of milk, potatoes and crackers, and
flavored with a little salt codfish is perhaps the most economical of
these dishes.
SALT CODFISH CHOWDER
½ lb salt codfish, 1½ oz or 1½″ cube fat salt pork, 1 tbp chopped
onion, 3 c cooked potatoes, or diced carrots and potatoes, 1 qt
milk, 8 soda crackers (about 2 oz).
Break the codfish into small pieces, soak it in lukewarm water until it
is soft and the salt has been removed; cut the pork into small pieces
and cook it until a delicate brown, adding the onions during the last
part of the cooking; to the pork and onions add the potatoes; cover
with water and boil them until tender; add the milk and the fish and
reheat; add the crackers shortly before the chowder is served.
POTATO CHOWDER
¼ lb salt pork, diced, 1 tbp chopped onion, 6 medium-sized
potatoes, sliced, 1 tbp butter or other fat, 1 tbp flour, 1 pt
milk, 1 pt water, 1 tsp salt.
Fry the pork and onion together until both are a delicate brown; put a
layer of sliced potatoes into a kettle then a layer of onion and pork,
and sprinkle with salt; repeat this until those materials are all used;
pour over them the grease from the pan in which the pork and onion were
fried, and add the water; cover and simmer for 20 min, or until the
potatoes are tender; thicken the milk with the flour mixed with the fat
and pour it over the potatoes; stir carefully, so as not to break the
potatoes; serve very hot.
LOBSTER CHOWDER
2 c lobster meat, ¼ c onion, ¼ c salt pork fat, 2 tbp butter, 4 c
milk, salt, cayenne, blade of mace, 1 c hot cream, 2 tbp flour.
Cook onion in salt pork fat; melt butter; add flour, milk and
seasonings and cook in db with lobster cut in cubes 20 min; add
strained salt pork fat, hot cream and serve.
CLAM CHOWDER
1½ doz clams chopped fine, 1 c water, 3 large potatoes, cut into
dice, 2 slices pork or bacon, cut into dice, 1 slice onion, 1
qt milk, 2 level tbp butter, 2 level tbp flour, 1 tsp chopped
parsley, 1 level tsp salt, pepper to season, 8 crackers.
Fry out the pork or bacon and fry the onion in the fat; add the clam
liquor, water and potatoes; cook until tender; season, and add the
clams and milk; cook 10 min longer, then thicken with the butter and
flour creamed together; pour the chowder over the crackers and sprinkle
with chopped parsley.
CORN CHOWDER
1 c fresh corn, 1½″ cube salt pork, diced, 1 onion, sliced, 1 qt
potatoes, sliced, 1 c milk or cream, salt and pepper, 8 crackers.
Fry the salt pork; add the onion, and cook until the onion is tender;
boil the potatoes 5 min in 1 qt of boiling water; add the fat, and cook
until the potatoes are soft; add the corn and milk and bring to the
scalding point; add the butter and seasoning; pour over the crackers
and serve hot.
MILK STEW
1 qt milk, 1 c raw potatoes, cut into small pieces, 2 tbp butter
or bacon fat, 1 c salt codfish, cut into small pieces or just
enough to flavor the stew.
Soak the fish in lukewarm water until it is soft and the salt removed;
cook the potatoes in water until tender; drain them; add the milk and
codfish, and bring to the boiling point; add the butter and salt to
taste.
In place of the codfish, any other salt or fresh fish, oysters, or a
little chipped beef may be used. Or the fish may be omitted and the
soup made savory and palatable by adding a few drops of onion juice, or
a vegetable cut into small pieces and cooked thoroughly.
VEGETABLE CHOWDER
4 potatoes, 3 carrots, 3 onions, 1 pt tomatoes, 2 tsp salt, 2 tbp
fat or a small piece salt pork, 3 tbp flour, 2 c skim milk.
Cut the potatoes and carrots into small pieces; add water to cover, and
cook 20 min; brown the chopped onion in the fat; add the flour and the
tomatoes, and when thickened, add to the vegetables; heat the milk and
combine with the vegetables just before serving.
LAMB STEW
2 lb breast of lamb, 2 c boiling water, 2 c potato cubes, 2 tbp
butter or pork fat, ½ c sliced onion, 2 tbp rice, 1 c strained
tomato, salt and pepper.
Brown the onions in hot fat; cut meat in 2″ pieces; add to onions;
cover with hot water and simmer 2 hr; parboil potatoes; add rice when
meat has cooked 1 hr; add parboiled potatoes ½ hr before serving; add
tomato 10 min before serving; season with salt and pepper. The tomato
may be omitted and 1 c of water substituted.
SHEPHERD’S PIE
1 lb chopped cooked meat, 2 lb mashed potatoes, 1 sliced onion,
salt and pepper, few grains paprika, 1 tbp butter, ½ c water, ½
tsp meat extract.
Fry the onion in the butter; put into a pudding dish a layer of the
potato, a little seasoning, a layer of the meat, then onion, pour over
the water, in which the meat extract has been dissolved, and continue
the layers until the dish is full; covering over the whole with a layer
of potatoes; make the potatoes rough on the top with a fork; put on a
few pieces of butter and bake until browned; serve hot.
TOMATO FISH CHOWDER
4 lb cod or haddock, or 1 lb dry salt fish, 4 c potatoes, cut in
cubes, 1½″ cube fat salt pork, 1 sliced onion, 2½ c stewed and
strained tomatoes, 3 tbp butter, ⅔ c cracker crumbs, salt and
pepper.
Buy a whole fish, but have it skinned; cut off head and tail and remove
backbone; cut fish in small pieces and set aside; put head, tail and
backbone into 2 c cold water, bring to a boil and cook 20 min; cut pork
into small pieces; try out; add onion and cook 5 min; parboil potatoes
5 min, then drain and add to fat with 2 c boiling water, also the
liquor drained from the bones and the pieces of fish; cover and simmer
10 min; add tomatoes, salt, pepper and butter; just before serving, add
cracker crumbs. If dry salt fish is used, freshen it by soaking several
hours in 3 or 4 changes of warm water.
MUTTON AND LAMB
Mutton is the meat of sheep and is almost as nutritious as beef.
Lamb is the meat from a lamb. It is less nutritious than mutton. Spring
lamb is the meat from a lamb at 6 or 8 weeks.
ROAST LAMB
A leg of lamb is usually sent from market surrounded by a thin
membrane known as the caul. If this peels off easily and the fat is
hard, white and flaky, the meat is in good condition. Remove the caul,
wipe meat with wet cloth, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place in hot
roasting pan, dredge the meat and pan with flour, place in a hot oven.
Baste with water and drippings as soon as flour in pan browns, and
every 15 min afterward until meat is done. The heat in oven should be
reduced after the first 30 min of roasting. It will take about 2 hr for
roasting.
Good quality mutton should be fine grained and of bright pink color;
the fat white, hard and flaky. Lamb chops may be easily distinguished
from mutton chops by the red color of bone. As a lamb grows older
blood recedes from bones; therefore in mutton the bone is white. Good
mutton contains a larger proportion of fat than good beef. Poor mutton
is often told by the relatively small proportion of fat and lean as
compared to bone.
Lamb is usually preferred well done. Mutton is often cooked rare.
=To Carve a Leg of Lamb.= Cut in thin slices across grain of meat to
the bone, beginning at top of the leg.
HOT POT OF MUTTON
1 lb mutton, ½ c pearl barley, celery tops or parsley, 4
potatoes, 3 onions, 1 tbp salt.
Cut mutton in small pieces and brown with onion fat cut from the meat;
pour this into a covered saucepan; add 2 qt water and the barley;
simmer for 1½ hr; then add the potatoes, cut in quarters, add the
seasonings and cook ½ hr longer.
BALLOTIN OF LAMB
Bone a shoulder of lamb, leaving the end for a handle; sew it up with a
needle, tie it firmly and boil for 5 min; take out and cool, then lard
it; put a slice of bacon in a saucepan with 1 tbp minced onion and 1
carrot; brown the lamb with these for 5 min; remove meat to a kettle
and add a pt of white broth and seasoning, and cook for 1¼ hr. The
sauce should reduce ½; thicken slightly, pour it over 1 pt boiled green
peas and lay the lamb upon them.
BREADED MUTTON CHOPS
Wipe and trim chops, sprinkle with salt and pepper; dip in crumbs, egg
and crumbs; fry in deep fat from 5 to 8 min; drain; serve with tomato
sauce, or stack around a mound of mashed potatoes, fried potato balls
or green peas; allow fat to reheat between fryings; after testing
fat for temperature, put in chops and place kettle on back of range,
that surface of chops may not be too brown while the inside is still
underdone.
BRAISED BREAST OF LAMB
With sharp knife remove bones from a breast of lamb; season it well
with salt and pepper; roll up and tie firmly with twine; put 2 tbp
butter in the braising pan, and when melted add 1 onion, 1 slice of
carrot and 1 of turnip, all cut fine; stir for 5 min and then put in
the lamb, with a thick dredging of flour; cover and set back where it
will cook slowly for an hour; baste often; take up the meat, skim all
the fat off the gravy, put it where it will boil rapidly for 5 min;
take the string from the meat; strain the gravy and pour over the dish;
serve very hot with tomato sauce. Bones put in the pan with the meat
improve the gravy.
BROILED CHOPS
Wipe chops, remove superfluous fat, and place in a broiler greased with
some of mutton fat. In loin chops, flank may be rolled and fastened
with a small wooden skewer.
PAN BROILED CHOPS
Chops for pan broiling should have flank and most of fat removed; wipe
chops and put in frying pan rubbed with a piece of fat cut from chops;
sear under surface, turn and sear other side; turn often, using knife
and fork that the surface may not be pierced, as would be liable if
fork alone were used; cook to suit; let stand around edge of frying pan
to brown the outside fat; when half cooked, sprinkle with salt; put on
hot platter, and spread with butter or serve with tomato sauce.
=Gravy.= Drain off all but 3 tbp of fat from the dripping pan; dredge
into it 3 tbp flour, and brown well; add 1 pt cold water; cook slowly,
stirring constantly until thick and smooth. If made carefully, this
will require no straining.
SADDLE OF MUTTON
The loin is removed whole before dividing into sides; trim meat, wipe
with wet cloth, sprinkle with salt and pepper; place on rack in hot
roaster; dredge meat and bottom of pan with flour; place in hot oven;
baste with water and fat as soon as flour browns and every 15 min
afterward. The meat should cook in 1¼ hr.
ROAST MUTTON SHOULDER
Remove the bone and fill space with a moist stuffing made with grated
stale bread crumbs, highly seasoned with butter, salt, pepper and
thyme; add the yolk of 1 or 2 eggs and enough warm water to soften the
bread; put bones and scraps of meat in a kettle with barely enough
water to cover; lay the stuffed shoulder on them and let the whole
simmer gently for 1 hr; lift onto the rack in a roasting pan; dredge
with salt, pepper and flour and bake an hour, or till tender; strain
the water in the kettle and use it for basting and for gravy, with a
little butter and flour at the last to froth the surface.
MINCED LAMB
Remove dry pieces of skin and gristle from left-over cold roast lamb
and chop the meat; heat in well-buttered frying pan; season with salt,
pepper and celery salt; dredge well with flour and add enough hot water
to make a thin gravy; pour on slices of buttered toast.
SALMI OF LAMB
Cut cold roast lamb in thin slices; cook 5 min 2 tbp butter with ½
tbp finely chopped onion; add lamb; sprinkle with salt and pepper,
and cover with 1 c brown sauce; cook until thoroughly heated; arrange
slices overlapping one another lengthwise of platter; pour around
sauce, and garnish with toast points. A few sliced mushrooms or stoned
olives improve this sauce.
FRICASSEE OF LAMB
3 lb lamb from the forequarter, cut in pieces for serving; wipe meat;
put in kettle; cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until meat is
tender; remove from water, cool, sprinkle with salt and pepper; dredge
with flour, and saute in butter or mutton fat; arrange on platter and
pour around 1½ c brown sauce made from liquid in which meat was cooked
after removing all fat.
SCALLOPED LAMB
Remove skin and fat from thin slices of cold roast lamb, and sprinkle
with salt and pepper; cover bottom of a buttered baking dish with
buttered cracker crumbs; cover crumbs with meat; cover meat with boiled
macaroni, and add another layer of meat and macaroni; pour over tomato
sauce, and cover with buttered cracker crumbs; bake in hot oven until
crumbs are brown. Cold rice may be used in place of macaroni.
LAMB EN CASSEROLE
3 c cold cooked lamb, cut in pieces, 1 tbp butter, 1 c cooked
carrots, cut in cubes, 1 c cooked potato balls, 8 small onions,
cooked, left-over gravy.
Brown lamb in fat; put in a baking dish; add carrots, potato balls and
onions; add left-over gravy and enough hot water to moisten; season
with salt and pepper; cover and bake in hot oven 20 to 25 min.
SCALLOPED LAMB
2 c cooked lamb, cut in small pieces, 2 c medium white sauce, 1 c
soft bread crumbs, 1 tbp chopped parsley.
Mix lamb and white sauce together; put a layer of lamb in a greased
casserole or baking dish; add a layer of bread crumbs and sprinkle with
parsley; repeat this process until all the ingredients are used, having
a layer of crumbs on top; bake in a hot oven 20 to 25 min, or until
crumbs are brown.
CURRIED LAMB
2½ lb lamb shoulder, 2 tbp fat, 1 tsp salt, ⅛ tsp pepper, 1½ tbp
curry powder, 2 tbp flour, 2 tbp water, 3 c boiled rice.
Wipe lamb with a clean, damp cloth; cut into medium-sized pieces and
remove the fat; melt butter in a frying pan; add lamb and cook until
delicate brown; cover with boiling water; add salt, pepper and curry
powder mixed with a little cold water; cover and simmer for about 2½
hr or until lamb is tender; make a smooth paste of the flour and water
and add enough to thicken the liquid; mound hot rice in center of a hot
platter and pour the curried lamb around it.
SWEETBREADS, TONGUES, ETC.
SWEETBREADS