Chapter X
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=8. Cabbage.=——The method given makes cabbage a delicious and attractive vegetable, as delicate as cauliflower, and the odor in the kitchen is not noticeable.
Select a small cabbage, with the ribs in the leaves not too thick. Prepare the cabbage before washing it by cutting out the stalks from below with a sharp knife. Separate the leaves. Have ready the largest kettle available, nearly full of rapidly boiling water. Drop in one cabbage leaf at a time, pressing each one down with a long-handled spoon or skimmer. Do this so slowly that the water does not stop boiling. Leave the kettle uncovered, and allow the cabbage to cook from 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the leaf stalks. Remove the leaves with a long-handled skimmer, putting them into a colander standing on a plate. _Immediately_ pour the hot water down the sink drain, turn on the cold water to flush away the odor, and fill the kettle with cold water. While the cabbage is cooking, you have made a pint of white sauce, No. 2 (Ch. X), adding a teaspoonful of salt, and have prepared 1/2 cup of buttered crumbs. Cut the cabbage leaves slightly, place them in a baking dish, pour the white sauce over them, sprinkle the crumbs on the top, and brown the crumbs in the oven or under the gas. If you can, prepare this as a surprise at home, and ask the family to “guess” what it is. If the cabbage is a good one, some of the leaves turn a very pretty green with this method of boiling.
=9. Baked beans.=——A nitrogenous vegetable and a meat substitute. A dish known in old days in New England, baked to perfection in the old brick oven. Baked beans seem difficult of digestion for some people. The mustard is supposed to be helpful, and adds something to the flavor. If the molasses is omitted, or but a small amount used, and if butter takes the place of pork or suet, the beans seem more digestible. In different parts of New England the dish is varied. Some people prefer rather dry baked beans, others wish them moist and very sweet.
_Utensils._——A kettle. A covered bean pot.
_Ingredients._——
1 quart of white beans.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
1/4 lb. salt pork or more, _or_
4 tablespoonfuls of beef fat or butter substitute.
Molasses, from two tablespoonfuls to 1/2 cup, _or none._
1 teaspoonful of mustard.
_Method._——Wash, and soak the beans in cold water over night. Pour off any water that remains. Put the beans into the kettle, cover with cold water, add the soda, and cook gently until the beans are slightly softened. The soda aids the softening. Pour off the water again, and put the beans into the pot. Mix the molasses and mustard with a pint of water, and pour this over the beans, adding more water if the beans are not covered. Place the pork or other fat upon the beans, and cover the pot. If fat other than pork is used, salt must be added to the beans. The beans should bake slowly, for from 6 to 8 hours, and even longer in a very slow oven. A stove of the type shown in Fig. 17 is good for this purpose. They can be baked in the ordinary gas oven, if only one burner is used, and that is turned very low.
_Laboratory management._——The last experiment is the only one not easily performed in the school kitchen. The process, can begin perhaps on one day, and be finished the next. If there is some apparatus that cooks at a low temperature, the practical difficulties may be overcome.
=Vegetable, or “cream” soups.=
These are of two classes: the purées (porridge), or thick soups, with vegetable pulp as the thickening material, and the cream soups, which are somewhat thinner, the juices of some vegetable giving the flavor.
Potato purée, or soup, is an example of the first; cream of tomato of the second. The line is not sharply drawn between the two in many cook books. Milk is an important ingredient in these soups, so that they are sometimes known as milk soups. Butter and flour are used in both,——the flour in the purée “binds” the mixture and makes it smoother; in the cream soup the flour is used for thickening as well.
Dried beans, peas, or lentils make a delicious purée, the secret of success being long slow cooking in some low temperature apparatus. They are brought to perfection in the Atkinson Cooker.
=10. Potato Pureé.=
_Ingredients._
Potato 1 cup Milk 1 quart Flour 1 tablespoonful Butter 1 tablespoonful Salt 2 teaspoonfuls Celery stalks, cut small 1 teaspoonful Onion, chopped 1 tablespoonful Pepper, Cayenne To taste.
_Remarks._——If a thicker purée is desired, use more of the mashed potato. If celery salt is used, omit one teaspoonful of the salt. Less onion may be used, and the pepper omitted.
_Utensils._——Make the list yourself, after reading the directions for mixing.
_Method of mixing._——Boil and mash the potato, or use cold mashed potato. Heat the milk in the double boiler with the celery and onion. Add the milk gradually to the mashed potato, beating vigorously.
Put this mixture through a strainer into the double boiler, and reheat it. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, or stir in the flour, add _slowly_ half a cup of the soup to the butter and flour paste, and then pour this slowly into the mixture in the double boiler, stirring all the time. The soup will be ready to serve in about ten minutes.
The _important point_ in this recipe is the quality of the mashed potato. It should be dry and light. It may be made from hot, mealy baked potatoes. If cold mashed potato is used, this should be made light again with a fork. An excellent luncheon dish. Will serve four to six people.
=11. Cream of tomato soup.=
_Ingredients._
Tomato juice 1/2 cup Milk 1 quart Flour 2 tablespoonfuls Butter 2 tablespoonfuls Salt 2 teaspoonfuls Bicarbonate of soda 1/2 teaspoonful Pepper, Cayenne To taste.
_Remarks._——Celery and onion may be added, but are not necessary. When you become expert, you will be able to use a larger amount of tomato juice, and even omit the soda.
_Method of mixing._——This you will be able to work out for yourself. First perform this simple experiment. Stir together a tablespoonful of stewed tomato and a tablespoonful of milk. What happens? Heat this mixture. What further do you notice? How may you best extract the juice from the tomato? You have noticed the effect of the acid tomato upon the milk. The soda is added to partly counteract this effect. Will you stir the soda into the tomato juice or into the milk? Will you stir the tomato juice into the milk, or the milk into the tomato juice? Will you cook the mixture at all? How long before serving will you mix the two? When will you add the butter and flour?
_Laboratory management._——An individual portion of soup may be made with 1/2 cup of liquid, but it is better to allow 1 cup when possible to each pupil, or two pupils may work together.
The important point in this soup is to prevent the curdling, so you safeguard the milk at each step.
Croutons may be served with any of these soups.
=12. Chili sauce.=
_Ingredients._
Tomatoes 12, medium sized and ripe Green pepper 1, finely chopped Vinegar 2 cups Sugar 3 tablespoonfuls Salt 1 tablespoonful Clove 2 teaspoonfuls Cinnamon 2 teaspoonfuls Allspice 2 teaspoonfuls Nutmeg 2 teaspoonfuls grated
_Method._——Peel tomatoes and slice into a preserving kettle. Add other ingredients and heat to the boiling point. Cook slowly two and one half hours. Pour into preserve jars and seal.
EXERCISES
1. What is the distinction between fruits and vegetables?
2. How does the composition of apples compare with that of carrots?
3. Contrast the nutritive values of celery, potatoes, and old beans.
4. What other foods must be served with potato to make a meal complete?
5. How may we best retain the mineral matter of vegetables in cooking?
6. Is it allowable to cook a vegetable in boiling water and throw away the water?
7. Why must more time be allowed for baking a potato than for boiling?
8. Why more time for an old beet than for a young?
9. Find the cost of potatoes in your locality. Estimate the cost of a dish of mashed potato for five people.
10. Estimate the cost of 100-Calorie portions of several vegetables. See Fig. 36.
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