over the fire until they are warm and light; take from the fire and add
three eggs beaten light with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Add a
teaspoonful of vanilla, stir in carefully a pint and a half of milk. Put
this mixture into greased custard cups; stand in a baking pan of boiling
water and bake in a moderate oven until set, about twenty or thirty
minutes.
Where a little cooked meat and, at the same time, mashed potatoes, are
left over, the meat may be seasoned with a savory sauce, turned into a
baking dish, the mashed potatoes slightly thinned with hot milk and then
slightly thickened with flour, and used as a crust. This makes what we
call a potato pie. Four tablespoonfuls of milk and four of flour would be
a good allowance to each cupful of mashed potatoes.
POTATOES--COLD BOILED
Hashed Brown Potatoes
Chop two cold boiled potatoes rather fine, season with salt and pepper.
Put a tablespoonful of butter in an ordinary sauté pan; when hot, put in
the potatoes, smoothing and patting them down; stand over a moderate fire
and allow them to cook undisturbed for at least eight minutes; then with a
limber knife fold over one half as you would an omelet; stand again over
the fire for about three minutes and turn at once on to a heated dish.
These are exceedingly difficult to make. Directions must be carefully
followed; the butter must be hot when you put in the potatoes; the whole
must be packed firmly down so that it will not break when turning out.
O'Brien Potatoes
Chop one green pepper rather fine. Chop sufficient red pepper to make two
tablespoonfuls. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying pan, add the
peppers, which must be sweet; shake until the peppers are soft, cover over
four cold boiled potatoes, chopped rather fine, that have been seasoned
with a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Press them down as you
do hashed brown potatoes, let them stand for a moment, stir them up, mix
well, without breaking, and press down again. Let these stand until brown,
fold over as you would an omelet and turn out on a heated platter.
Potatoes au Gratin
To each four good-sized cold potatoes chopped fine allow a pint of cream
sauce, to which you have added four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese; mix
the potatoes with the sauce, turn them into a baking dish, dust with
cheese, and brown in a quick oven.
Scalloped Potatoes
Cut cold boiled potatoes into dice; to each pint allow a half pint of
cream sauce. Put a layer of the sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, put
in the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, cover with another layer of
cream sauce, dust the top with bread crumbs, dot here and there little
bits of butter, and bake in a moderate oven until a golden brown.
Potatoes in Milk
Cold boiled potatoes may be cut into slices and cooked in milk in a double
boiler until the whole is thoroughly heated; season with salt and pepper
and serve.
Sweet Potatoes
Cold boiled or roasted sweet potatoes may be mashed while warm, seasoned
with salt, pepper and butter and formed at once into croquettes; dip and
fry the same as white potato croquettes.
Lyonnaise Potatoes
Cut cold boiled potatoes into small dice; to each pint allow a
tablespoonful of butter; put the butter in an ordinary sauté pan, melt it,
add a tablespoonful of chopped onion, shake until the onion is golden
brown; throw in the potatoes, shake or toss over a hot fire until each
piece is slightly browned; sprinkle lightly with a half teaspoonful of
salt, a tablespoonful of parsley, and a dash of pepper; dish and serve.
Broiled Potatoes
Cut cold boiled potatoes into thin slices lengthwise; dip each slice in a
little melted butter, dust it with salt and pepper, and broil it over a
clear fire until a golden brown. For dyspeptics it is better to broil the
potato first and add the butter after, as the heating of the butter
renders it indigestible. Sweet potatoes may be broiled after this same
rule, and would be less greasy than when fried.
Vegetable Browned Hash
Chop two or three cold boiled potatoes rather fine, add an equal quantity
of chopped carrot, and either string beans or peas, which ever you happen
to have left over. You can add to this a cupful of stewed cabbage. Put
two tablespoonfuls of butter into a shallow frying pan, mix the
vegetables, put them into the butter, let them stand over a slow fire
until they are browned thoroughly and crusted in the bottom. Fold one half
carefully over the other, and press the two halves together; cook just a
moment longer, and turn out on to a heated platter. This is a nice dish to
serve with omelet and tomato sauce for luncheon or supper.
CHEESE
The shells of Edam, or pine-apple cheese, after all the available cheese
has been scooped out, will be used as a baking dish for stewed spaghetti
or macaroni or rice. If care is taken, one shell may be used for three or
four bakings. Boil the macaroni in plain water until tender; then drain,
cut it into small pieces and add it to cream sauce. Pour this into the
cheese shell, stand the shell on a piece of oiled paper in a baking pan
and run into a moderate oven for fifteen or twenty minutes. Lift the shell
carefully, put it on to a heated dish, and send at once to the table.
After the macaroni has been taken out, the shell will be cleaned and put
aside in a cold place for the next baking. There is just enough cheese
imparted by the toasting of this shell to give ah agreeable flavor to the
macaroni. Plain boiled rice may be heaped into the shells and steamed, or
baked in the oven for a few moments.
Any scraps or bits of common cheese, when too hard and dry to serve on the
table should be grated, put into a jar and put aside for cheese balls to
serve with lettuce, cheese soufflé, for baked macaroni, or spaghetti, or
for croquettes, cheese sauce, or Duchess soup.
Cheese Soufflé
Put one cup of stale bread crumbs with a gill of milk over the fire for
just a moment; take from the fire, add the yolks of three eggs, six
tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of
red pepper; stir in the well-beaten whites of the eggs; put into
individual baking dishes; bake in a quick oven about eight minutes and
send at once to the table.
Cheese Balls
Grate or chop sufficient common cheese to make a half pint; add to it one
pint of stale bread crumbs, a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of red
pepper and the whites of two eggs slightly beaten. Form these into small
balls the size of an English walnut; dip in egg and then in bread crumbs
and fry in smoking hot fat. These may also be made into small
cylinder-shaped croquettes, and served with cream sauce.
Duchess Soup
Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and a sliced onion in a saucepan; cook
until the onion is soft and yellow; add to this two tablespoonfuls of
flour, mix, and then add one quart of milk, a level teaspoonful of salt
and a palatable seasoning of red pepper. Add six tablespoonfuls of grated
cheese; stir in a double boiler until it is smoking hot; press through a
fine sieve; reheat and send at once to the table.
Cheese Pudding
Toast slices of stale bread until a golden brown and crisp to the center.
This is best done in the oven. Put a layer of this toasted bread in the
bottom of a baking dish; put over a quarter of a cup of grated or chopped
cheese, sprinkle with salt and red pepper; then another layer of bread,
another of cheese and the last of bread. Pour over sufficient milk to
moisten the bread; bake in a quick oven fifteen minutes, and serve at
once.
SAUCES
All meat sauces are made after the same rule, changing the liquids to give
varieties; for instance, one tablespoonful of butter (which means an
ounce), and one tablespoonful of flour (a half ounce) are always allowed
to each half pint of liquid. The butter and flour are rubbed together
(better without heating), then the liquid added, cold or warm, the whole
stirred over the fire until boiling. A half teaspoonful of salt and an
eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper is the proper amount of seasoning.
White Sauce
If you wish to make a white sauce, use one tablespoonful of butter, one
tablespoonful of flour and a half pint of milk. Called also milk or cream
sauce.
Tomato Sauce
Tomato sauce will have the same proportions of butter and flour and a half
pint of strained tomatoes.
Sauce Bechamel
For sauce Bechamel, fill the cup half full of stock, then the remaining
half with milk, giving again the half pint of liquid and usual quantity of
butter and flour.
Sauce Supréme
This is one of the nicest of all sauces to use with warmed-over chicken,
duck or turkey. Rub together a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour,
then add gradually a half pint of chicken stock; stir constantly until
boiling, take from the fire, add the yolks of two eggs, strain through a
fine sieve, add the seasoning, and serve immediately.
Sauces containing the yolks of uncooked eggs cannot be reboiled after the
eggs are added.
English Drawn Butter
For English drawn butter, use a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful
of flour, and a half pint of water. We usually have the water boiling, and
add it gradually to the butter and flour, stirring rapidly. As soon as it
reaches boiling point, take from the fire and add carefully another
tablespoonful of butter. This may be converted into a plain
Sauce Hollandaise
by adding with the last tablespoonful of butter, the yolks of two eggs,
the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of onion juice and a
tablespoonful of chopped parsley.
Brown Sauce
This is made by rubbing butter and flour together in the above
proportions, then adding a half pint of stock; stir until boiling, add a
teaspoonful of browning or kitchen bouquet and the usual seasoning of salt
and pepper. To change the character of this sauce add garlic, onion,
Worcestershire sauce, mushroom catsup, etc.
Brown Tomato Sauce
An exceedingly nice sauce for Hamburg steaks. After you have taken the
steaks from the pan, add a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour; mix.
Fill your measuring cup half full of strained tomatoes, the remaining half
with stock, making a half pint; add this to the butter and flour, stir
until boiling, add a seasoning of salt and pepper and pour over the
steaks.
Roasted Beef Gravy
Roasted beef gravy, which really should be a sauce, is improved by adding
a little tomato to the stock before adding it to the fat and flour. In
roasting meats, we do not use butter for the sauce; there is always
sufficient fat in the bottom of the pan. Pour from the pan all but one or
two tablespoonfuls of fat (the amount required) and add to that the flour.
A rounding tablespoonful of butter to which we refer weighs an ounce; of
liquid fat, as in the pan, you must allow two even tablespoonfuls to the
ounce; so, if you are going to make a half pint of sauce take out all but
two tablespoonfuls of fat; add one tablespoonful of flour and then the
half pint of water or stock.
Browning
Plain burned sugar (caramel) may be used to color soups and sauces, thus
saving the trouble of browning the flour or butter. It is also used as a
flavoring for sweets. Put one cup of sugar, dry, into an iron saucepan.
Stand it over a hot fire, and stir continually until it is reduced to a
dark brown liquid. When it begins to burn and smoke, add hastily a cup of
boiling water, stir and cook until a thin syrup-like mixture is formed.
It must not be too thick. Bottle, and it is ready for use, and will keep
any length of time.
Kitchen Bouquet
Add one chopped onion and a teaspoonful of celery seed to one cup of dry
sugar, and then proceed as for ordinary browning. Strain and bottle. A
very good mixture under this name can be purchased at the grocers.
Mushroom Sauce
Where just a few mushrooms are left over, either fresh or canned, they may
be chopped fine and added to a brown sauce and served with steak or beef;
or they may be chopped fine and added to a cream sauce and served with
chicken or sweetbreads.
Cold Meat Sauces
It is the fashion when one is serving cold meat to pass with it some
condiment like Worcestershire sauce, mushroom, walnut or tomato catsup. Of
course, these used in any great quantity are more or less injurious. A
number of little left-overs in the house may be used to take their place,
adding zest to the meat, and are more economical and more wholesome.
Chopped Tomato Sauce
Peel a good-sized tomato, cut it into halves and press out the seeds; chop
the flesh of the tomato fine, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a
dash of pepper, or, if you have it, a little sweet pepper chopped fine;
you may add also a little celery chopped very fine, or celery seed, and a
teaspoonful of onion juice; rub your spoon with a clove of garlic, and mix
the ingredients thoroughly; add a teaspoonful of lemon juice and dish.
Pass and use as ordinary catsup.
Grated Cucumber Sauce
Grate three or four large cucumbers; drain them on a sieve; to this
drained pulp add a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of red pepper, a
teaspoonful of onion juice, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and their stir
in carefully two or three tablespoonfuls of very thick cream; if you can
whip the cream a little first, so much the better. Cream may also be added
to the tomato.
Chopped Celery Sauce
Chop fine sufficient celery to make a half pint; season it with a quarter
of a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a dash of pepper.
Rub the spoon with garlic, mix thoroughly, stir into it the yolk of an egg
that has been beaten light with two tablespoonfuls of cream; add a few
drops of lemon juice or tarragon vinegar and serve.
Cream Horseradish Sauce
This is one of the most delightful sauces to serve with left-over meats,
especially beef. Press from the vinegar four tablespoonfuls of
horseradish, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, and work in the yolk
of an egg. Whip six tablespoonfuls of cream to a stiff froth, stir it
gradually into the horseradish and dish at once.
Pudding Sauces
The simple method of making a pudding sauce is to add to a half cup of
sugar, a tablespoonful of flour; mix thoroughly, and then add hastily a
half pint of boiling water; boil for a moment and pour while hot into one
well-beaten egg, beating all the while. This may now be seasoned with any
flavoring, as orange, lemon or vanilla.
To change the character of this sauce, a tablespoonful of butter may be
added. Where butter enters largely into the composition of a pudding
sauce, it is better that it should be beaten to a cream, the sugar added
gradually, then the egg and last the liquor. Heat it over a double boiler
just at serving time, or the froth will float on the surface and the
liquid be rather dense at the bottom.
Melted sugar with lemon juice and a little water is called sugar sauce.
SALADS
There comes a time during the week, even in careful housekeeping, when
there is an accumulation of little things, a few olives, a slice or two of
beet, perhaps two or three pieces of cooked carrot, a cold potato, a tiny
little bit of cold fish, or cold meats, and not more than a tablespoonful
or two of aspic jelly; these may all be utilized in a
Russian Salad
Chop or cut carefully the vegetables; mix together, add two or three
tablespoonfuls of toasted piñon nuts, and the meat and fish; dish on
lettuce leaves, or, if you have tomatoes, peel and take out the centers,
and fill the salad into the tomatoes. Serve with French or mayonnaise
dressing; garnish with blocks of aspic jelly.
CEREALS
Cold boiled rice left over may be mixed with a small quantity of meat, and
used for stuffing tomatoes or egg plant; or it may be re-heated or made
into pudding, or added to the muffins for lunch, or added to the corn
bread.
A cup of oat meal or cracked wheat or wheatlet may also be added to the
muffins or ordinary yeast or corn breads. These little additions increase
the food value, make the mixture lighter, and save waste.
Southern Rice Bread
Separate two eggs, beat the yolks until light, and add one cup (a half
pint) of milk; add a tablespoonful of melted butter, a half teaspoonful of
salt, and one and a half cups of corn meal; beat thoroughly, and stir in
one cup of cold boiled rice; add a teaspoonful of baking powder; beat for
two or three minutes; stir in the well-beaten whites of the eggs, and bake
in a thin sheet in an ordinary baking pan.
Rice Muffins
Separate two eggs; add to the yolks one cup of milk and a cup and a half
of white flour; beat thoroughly, add a half teaspoonful of salt, a
teaspoonful of baking powder and one cup of cold boiled rice; stir in the
well-beaten whites, and bake in gem pans in a quick oven twenty minutes.
Rice Croquettes
To make cold boiled rice into croquettes, the rice must be re-heated in a
double boiler with a gill of milk and the yolk of an egg to each cup; you
may season with sugar and lemon or salt and pepper, and serve as a
vegetable. Form into cylinder-shaped croquettes; dip in egg and bread
crumbs, and fry in smoking hot fat.
Simple Rice Pudding
Put into a double boiler one quart of milk; allow it to cook for thirty
minutes; then add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a grating of nutmeg, and
one cup of cold boiled rice; turn this into a baking pan, and bake in a
quick oven thirty minutes. Serve cold. Raisins may be added when it is
put into the baking pan.
Lemon Rice
Into one cup of cold boiled rice stir one pint of milk; beat the yolks of
three eggs with a half cup of sugar together until light; add to them the
rice and milk; add the grated yellow rind and the juice of one lemon. Turn
this into a baking pan; bake in a moderately quick oven twenty to thirty
minutes. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add three
tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and beat again. Heap these over the
pudding, dust thickly with powdered sugar; return to the oven to slowly
brown; serve cold.
Paradise Pudding
Pare, core and grate three apples. Separate three eggs; add to the yolks
four tablespoonfuls of sugar; beat until light; add a grating of nutmeg
and a teaspoonful of lemon juice; stir in a half cup of cold boiled rice;
mix with this quickly the apples, and beat well; add a half cup of milk;
turn into a baking dish, and bake for thirty minutes. Make a meringue as
in preceding recipe, from the whites of the eggs; heap it over the top,
and brown. This pudding may be served warm or cold.
Compote of Pineapple
Throw a pint of boiling water over one cup of cold boiled rice; stir for a
moment; drain, and stand at the oven door. Have ready, picked apart, one
small pineapple; add to it a half cup of sugar; heat quickly, stirring
constantly. Arrange the rice in the center of a round dish, making it into
a mound, flat on top; heap the pineapple neatly on this; pour over the
syrup, and send at once to the table. Small quantities or different kinds
of fruits that have been left over may be blended and used in this way.
Monday Pudding
Cut bits of whole wheat bread into dice. Use a half cup of any fruit that
may have been left over, prunes, raisins, chopped dates or candied fruit.
Grease an ordinary melon mold; put a layer of the bread in the bottom,
then a layer of the fruit, and so continue until you have the mold filled.
Beat three eggs, without separating, with four tablespoonfuls of sugar;
add a pint of milk; pour this carefully over the bread; let it stand for
ten minutes; then put the lid on the mold, and steam or boil continuously
for one hour. Serve with lemon or orange sauce.
Apple Farina Pudding
Pour the left-over breakfast porridge into a square mold and stand it
aside. At luncheon or dinner time cut this into thin slices, cover the
bottom of a baking dish with these slices, and cover these with sliced
apples, and so continue until you have the ingredients used, having the
last layer apples. Beat an egg, without separating, until light, add a
half cupful of milk and a saltspoonful of salt, then stir in a half cupful
of flour. When smooth pour this over the apples and bake in a quick oven
a half hour. Serve with milk or with hard sauce.
Cranberry Farina Pudding
2 cupfuls of cold left-over farina porridge
1/2 cupful of cranberries
1/2 cupful of sugar
It is wise to pour the porridge into a mold as soon as you finish
breakfast. At serving time turn this out in a glass dish, pour over the
cranberry that has been pressed through a sieve; dust thickly with the
sugar. Stir the remaining sugar into a half pint of milk or cream and
serve as a sauce with the pudding.
Plain Farina Pudding
2 cupfuls of milk
1/2 cupful of sugar
2 eggs
1 cupful of left-over farina or cream of wheat
1 teaspoonful of vanilla
Put the milk in a double boiler, add the sugar and cold farina porridge.
Stir until thoroughly hot, then add the eggs, well beaten, and the
vanilla. Turn into a baking dish and run in the oven until brown. Serve
cold, with milk or cream.
Farina Gems
2 eggs
1 cupful of milk
1 cupful of cold boiled farina
1 cupful of flour
4 level teaspoonfuls of baking powder
1/2 teaspoonful of salt
Separate the eggs, add the milk and stir this gradually into the cold
farina. When smooth add the salt, baking powder and flour, mixed. Beat,
and then fold in the well-beaten whites of eggs. Bake in gem pans in a
quick oven a half hour.
Hominy Pone
1 cupful of boiled hominy
1 cupful of white corn meal
2 cupfuls of milk
2 level tablespoonfuls of butter
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoonful of salt
If the hominy is cold left-over hominy, add to it the milk, and when
thoroughly smooth add the eggs, well beaten, then the butter, melted, and
the corn meal. Pour into a greased pan and bake in a very hot oven about
twenty to twenty-five minutes.
Oat Meal Muffins
The ordinary muffin recipes, which are always about alike, no matter what
flour is used, may have added to them a cup of well-cooked oat meal; for
instance, separate two eggs as for rice muffins; add to the yolks a cup of
milk; then add one and a half cups of whole wheat flour; beat thoroughly;
add a teaspoonful of baking powder; beat again; add one cup of well-cooked
oat meal, or you may substitute wheatlet or any of the breakfast cereals;
fold in the whites of the eggs, and bake in gem pans in a quick oven
twenty to thirty minutes.
Sandwiches
Little bits of fruit, crisp pieces of celery, cold meats of all kinds, may
be chopped, properly seasoned, and used for making fruit, vegetable and
meat sandwiches.
VEGETABLES
String beans, cauliflower, carrots, beets, peas and even a cold boiled
potato may all be cut into neat pieces, mixed together, and served on
lettuce leaves, dressed with French dressing as a salad. One cold boiled
beet may be used as a garnish for a potato salad. String beans, if you
have sufficient quantity, may be served alone as a salad.
Stuffed Egg Plant
Throw a good-sized egg plant into a kettle of boiling water; boil ten
minutes; when cold cut into halves and with a blunt knife scoop out the
center. Chop this scooped-out portion fine, mix with it an equal quantity
of finely-chopped uncooked meat, add a grated onion, a clove of garlic
mashed, a teaspoonful of salt, a little chopped parsley, if you have it,
and a dash of pepper. Fill this into the egg plant shells, stand them in a
baking pan, add a cup of stock and a tablespoonful of butter, bake slowly
one hour, basting every ten minutes.
Cucumbers
Raw cucumbers are easily wilted, and are then unfit for serving. Soak them
in pure cold, unsalted water until serving time. Pass French dressing in a
separate dish. In this way the "left-overs" may be placed in the
refrigerator and used next day as an addition to the dinner salad.
Left-Over Tomatoes
A half cup of stewed tomatoes may be used with stock for brown tomato
sauce, or for making a small dish of scalloped tomatoes, helping out at
lunch when perhaps the family is less in number. The Italians boil down
this half cup of tomatoes until it has the consistency of dough; then
press through a sieve, add a little salt, pack down into a jelly tumbler
and stand in the refrigerator to use as flavoring. A tablespoonful in a
soup, or in an ordinary sauce, or mixed with the water for baked beans, or
added to the stock sauce for spaghetti or macaroni, adds greatly to the
flavor as well as appearance.
Corn Oysters
6 ears of cold boiled corn
2 eggs
1 cupful of milk
1/2 cupful of flour
1/2 teaspoonful of salt
1 saltspoonful of pepper
Score the corn, press it out, add the eggs, well beaten, and the oil or
butter; then stir in the milk, salt and pepper. Sift the flour, stir it
in, and drop by spoonfuls into shallow hot fat.
Chicken Corn Pie
6 ears of cold cooked corn
4 eggs
1 level tablespoonful of butter, melted
1 cupful of milk
1 teaspoonful of salt
1 saltspoonful of pepper
1 young chicken