Part 6
Brown one tablespoon butter with one minced onion, then add one tablespoon of flour. When brown stir in two cups of tomatoes which have previously been cooked and strained, add also one teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt, pepper, and red pepper, also one tablespoon of vinegar and one tablespoon of tomato catsup.
*SAUCES FOR MEATS*
APPLE SAUCE
Pare and quarter tart apples. Put them in a saucepan with just enough water to keep them from burning; bring to a boil quickly and cook until the pieces are soft. Then press through a colander and add four tablespoons of sugar (or less) to each pint of apples.
If desired, cinnamon or grated nutmeg may be sprinkled over the top after the apple sauce is in the serving dish, or a little stick cinnamon or lemon peel may be cooked with the apples. Serve with goose.
BROWN SAUCE
Fry one tablespoon chopped onion in one tablespoon fat. Add one tablespoon of flour, one cup of soup stock, one teaspoon lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Strain before serving.
The following sauces can be made by using brown sauce as a foundation:
*Mushroom Sauce.*--Add one-half cup mushrooms.
*Olive Sauce.*--Add a dozen olives, chopped fine.
*Wine Sauce.*--Add one-half cup wine and one tablespoon currant jelly. Thicken with flour.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
To one pint of cranberries take one and one-quarter cups of water.
Put the cranberries on with the water and cook until soft; strain through a cloth; weigh and add three-fourths of a pound of sugar to every pint of juice. Cook ten minutes; pour into molds and set aside to cool. Serve with poultry, game or mutton.
STEWED CRANBERRIES
Boil together one and one-half cups of sugar and one cup of water for seven minutes, then add three cups of cranberries, well washed and picked, and cook until the berries burst. Serve the same as cranberry sauce.
SAUCE BORDELAISE
Nice for broiled steaks. Take one medium-sized onion, chopped very fine and browned in fat; add a cup of strong beef gravy and a cup of claret or white wine; add pepper, salt and a trifle of finely-chopped parsley; allow this to simmer and thicken with a little browned flour.
CARAWAY, OR KIMMEL SAUCE
Heat a tablespoon drippings in a spider; add a little flour; stir smooth with a cup of soup stock, added at once, and half a teaspoon of caraway seeds.
ONION SAUCE
Stew some finely-chopped onions in fat; you may add half a clove of garlic, cut extremely fine; brown a very little flour in this, season with salt and pepper and add enough soup stock to thin it.
LEMON SAUCE
Boil some soup stock with a few slices of lemon, a little sugar and grated nutmeg; add chopped parsley; thicken with a teaspoon of flour or yolk of egg. Mostly used for stewed poultry.
MINT SAUCE
Chop some mint fine; boil half a cup of vinegar with one tablespoon of sugar; throw in the mint and boil up once; pour in a sauceboat and cool off a little before serving.
RAISIN SAUCE
Brown some fat in a spider, stir in a tablespoon of flour; stir until it becomes a smooth paste; then add hot soup, stirring constantly; add a handful of raisins, some pounded almonds, a few slices of lemon, also a tablespoon of vinegar; brown sugar to taste: flavor with a few cloves and cinnamon, and if you choose to do so, grate in part of a stick of horseradish and the crust of a rye loaf. Very nice for fat beef.
HORSERADISH SAUCE, No. 1
Grate a good-sized stick of horseradish; take some soup stock and a tablespoon of fat, salt and pepper to taste, a little grated stale bread, a few pounded almonds. Let all boil up and then add the meat.
HORSERADISH SAUCE, No. 2
Heat one tablespoon of fat in a frying-pan, when hot cut up one-quarter of an onion in it, and fry light brown, then brown one tablespoon cracker meal or flour and add two tablespoons of grated horseradish; let this brown a bit, then add some soup stock, one tablespoon of brown sugar, two cloves, two bay leaves, salt, pepper and two tablespoons of vinegar. Let cook a few minutes then add one more tablespoon of horseradish and if necessary a little more sugar or vinegar. Lay the meat in this sauce and cover on back of stove until ready to serve. If gas stove is used, place over the simmering flame.
KNOBLAUCH SAUCE (GARLIC)
Heat a tablespoon of drippings, either of meat or goose in a frying-pan; cut up one or two cloves of garlic very fine and let it brown slightly in the heated fat; add a tablespoon of flour, a cup of soup stock or warm water, salt, pepper to taste.
MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL SAUCE
Take a heaping tablespoon of drippings or goose-fat, heat it in a spider, stir two teaspoons of flour into this, then add gradually and carefully a small cup of hot soup or water, the former is preferable; add some chopped parsley, also the juice of a lemon; salt and pepper; stir up well. May be used either with roast or boiled meats.
*FRYING*
PREPARED BREAD CRUMBS FOR FRYING
All scraps of bread should be saved for crumbs, the crusts being separated from the white part, then dried, rolled, and sifted, and put away until needed in a covered glass jar.
The brown crumbs are good for the first coating, the white ones for the outside, as they give better color. Cracker crumbs give a smooth surface, but for most things bread crumbs are preferable.
For meats a little salt and pepper, and for sweet articles, a little sugar, should be mixed with the crumbs. Crumbs left on the board should be dried, sifted, and kept to be used again.
FRYING
Frying is cooking in very hot fat or oil, and the secret of success is to have the fat hot enough to harden the outer surface of the article to be fried immediately and deep enough to cover these articles of food. As the fat or oil can be saved and used many times, the use of a large quantity is not extravagant.
To fry easily one must have, in addition to the deep, straight-sided frying-pan, a frying-basket, made from galvanized wire, with a side handle. The bale handles are apt to become heated, and in looking for something to lift them, the foods are over-fried. The frying-pan must be at least six inches deep with a flat bottom; iron, granite ware or copper may be used, the first two are preferable. There must be sufficient fat to wholly cover the articles fried, but the pan must not be too full, or there is danger of overflow when heavy articles are put in. After each frying, drain the fat or oil, put it into a receptacle kept for the purpose, and use it over and over again as long as it lasts. As the quantity begins to lessen, add sufficient fresh fat or oil to keep up the amount.
Always put the fat or oil in the frying-pan before you stand it over the fire.
Wait until it is properly heated before putting in the articles to be fried.
Fry a few articles at a time. Too many will cool the fat or oil below the point of proper frying and they will absorb grease and be unpalatable.
Put articles to be fried in the wire frying-basket and lower into the boiling hot fat or oil. Test the fat by lowering a piece of stale bread into it, if the bread browns in thirty seconds the fat is sufficiently hot.
Fry croquettes a light brown; drain over the fat, lift the frying-basket from the hot fat to a round plate, remove the articles from the basket quickly to brown paper, drain a moment and serve.
When frying fish or any food that is to be used at a milk meal, use oil. Olive oil is the best, but is very expensive for general use. Any other good vegetable oil or nut oil will do as substitute.
When the food is intended for a meat meal; fat may be prepared according to the following directions and used in the same manner as oil.
TO RENDER GOOSE, DUCK OR BEEF FAT
Cut the fat into small pieces. Put in a deep, iron kettle and cover with cold water. Place on the stove uncovered; when the water has nearly all evaporated, set the kettle back and let the fat try out slowly. When the fat is still and scraps are shriveled and crisp at the bottom of the kettle, strain the fat through a cloth into a stone crock, cover and set it away in a cool place. The water may be omitted and the scraps slowly tried out on back of stove or in moderate oven. When fat is tried out, pour in crock.
Several slices of raw potato put with the fat will aid in the clarifying.
All kinds of fats are good for drippings except mutton fat, turkey fat and fat from smoked meats which has too strong a flavor to be used for frying, but save it with other fat that may be unsuitable for frying, and when six pounds are collected make it into hard soap.
TO MAKE WHITE HARD SOAP
Save every scrap of fat each day; try out all that has accumulated; however small the quantity. This is done by placing the scraps in a frying-pan on the back of the range. If the heat is low, and the grease is not allowed to get hot enough to smoke or burn, there will be no odor from it. Turn the melted grease into tin pails and keep them covered. When six pounds of fat have been obtained, turn it into a dish-pan; add a generous amount of hot water, and stand it on the range until the grease is entirely melted. Stir it well together; then stand it aside to cool. This is clarifying the grease. The clean grease will rise to the top, and when it has cooled can be taken off in a cake, and such impurities as have not settled in the water can be scraped off the bottom of the cake of fat.
Put the clean grease into the dish-pan and melt it. Put a can of Babbitt's lye in a tin pail; add to it a quart of cold water, and stir it with a stick or wooden spoon until it is dissolved. It will get hot when the water is added; let it stand until it cools. Remove the melted grease from the fire, and pour in the lye slowly, stirring all the time. Add two tablespoons of ammonia. Stir the mixture constantly for twenty minutes or half an hour, or until the soap begins to set.
Let it stand until perfectly hard; then cut it into square cakes. This makes a very good, white hard soap which will float on water.
*ENTRÉES*
CROQUETTES
Combine ingredients as directed in the recipe, roll the mixture lightly between the hands into a ball. Have a plentiful supply of bread crumbs spread evenly on a board; roll the ball lightly on the crumbs into the shape of a cylinder, and flatten each end by dropping it lightly on the board; put it in the egg (to each egg add one tablespoon of water, and beat together), and with a spoon moisten the croquette completely with the egg; lift it out on a knife-blade, and again roll lightly in the crumbs. Have every part entirely covered, so there will be no opening through which the grease may be absorbed. Where a light yellow color is wanted, use fresh white crumbs grated from the loaf (or rubbed through a purée sieve) for the outside, and do not use the yolk of the egg. Coarse fresh crumbs are used for fish croquettes, which are usually made in the form of chops, or half heart shape. A small hole is pricked in the pointed end after frying, and a sprig of parsley inserted. Have all the croquettes of perfectly uniform size and shape, and lay them aside on a dish, not touching one another, for an hour or more before frying. This will make the crust more firm.
The white of an egg alone may be used for egging them, but not the yolk alone. Whip the egg with the water, just enough to break it, as air-bubbles in the egg will break in frying, and let the grease penetrate. Serve the croquettes on a platter, spread them on a napkin and garnish with sprigs of parsley.
CHICKEN CROQUETTES, No. 1
Cook one-half tablespoon of flour in one tablespoon chicken-fat, add one-half cup of soup stock gradually, and one-half teaspoon each of onion juice, lemon juice, salt, and one-quarter teaspoon of pepper, one and one-half cups of veal or chicken, chopped very fine, one pair of brains which have been boiled, mix these well, remove from the fire and add one well-beaten egg. Turn this mixture out on a flat dish and place in ice-box to cool. Then roll into small cones, dip in beaten egg, roll again in powdered bread or cracker crumbs and drop them into boiling fat, fry until a delicate brown.
CHICKEN CROQUETTES, No. 2
Chop the chicken very fine, using the white meat alone, or the dark meat alone, or both together. Season with salt, pepper, onion-juice, and lemon-juice. Chopped mushrooms, sweetbreads, calf's brains, tongue, or truffles are used with chicken, and a combination of two or more of them much improves the quality of the croquettes.
CROQUETTES OF CALF'S BRAINS
Lay the brains in salt water an hour, or until they look perfectly white, then take out one at a time, pat with your hands to loosen the outer skin and pull it off. Beat or rub them to a smooth paste with a wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper and a very little mace; add a beaten egg and about one-half cup of bread crumbs. Heat fat in a spider and fry large spoonfuls of this mixture in it.
MEAT CROQUETTES
Veal, mutton, lamb, beef and turkey croquettes may be prepared in the same way as chicken croquettes.
MEAT AND BOILED HOMINY CROQUETTES
Equal proportions.
SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES
Cut the boiled sweetbreads into small dice with a silver knife. Mix with mushrooms, using half the quantity of mushrooms that you have of sweetbreads. Use two eggs in the sauce.
VEAL CROQUETTES
Veal is often mixed with chicken, or is used alone as a substitute for chicken. Season in same manner and make the same combinations.
CAULIFLOWER CROQUETTES
Finely chop cold cooked cauliflower, mix in one small, finely chopped onion, one small bunch of parsley finely chopped, one-half cup of bread crumbs and one well-beaten egg. Carefully mix and mold into croquette forms, dip in cracker dust and fry in deep, smoking fat until a light brown.
EGGPLANT CROQUETTES (ROUMANIAN)
Peel the eggplant, place in hot water and boil until tender, drain, add two eggs, salt, pepper, two tablespoons of matzoth or white flour or bread crumbs, beat together; fry in butter or oil by tablespoonfuls.
CROQUETTES OF FISH
Take any kind of boiled fish, separate it from the bones carefully, chop with a little parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Beat up one egg with one teaspoon of milk and flour. Roll the fish into balls and turn them in the beaten egg and cracker crumbs or bread. Fry a light brown. Serve with any sauce or a mayonnaise.
POTATO CROQUETTES
Work into two cups of mashed potatoes, a tablespoon of melted butter, until smooth and soft; add one egg well-beaten and beat all together with a wooden spoon. Season with salt and nutmeg. Roll each in beaten egg then in bread crumbs, fry in hot oil or butter substitute. If desired chicken-fat may be substituted for the butter and the croquettes fried in deep fat or oil.
SWEET POTATO CROQUETTES
Press through a ricer sufficient hot baked sweet potatoes to measure one pint. Place over the fire. Add one teaspoon of butter or drippings, the beaten yolks of two eggs, pepper and salt to taste, and beat well with a fork until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Cool slightly, form into cones, roll in fine bread crumbs; dip in beaten eggs, roll again in crumbs and fry in hot oil or fat.
PEANUT AND RICE CROQUETTES
To one cup of freshly cooked rice allow one cup of peanut butter, four tablespoons of minced celery, one teaspoon of grated onion, one tablespoon of canned tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well; add the white of one egg, reserving the yolk for coating the croquettes. Shape into croquettes and let stand in a cold place for an hour, then coat with the egg yolk mixed with one tablespoon of water and roll in stale bread crumb dust until well covered. Fry in any hot oil or butter substitute.
RICE CROQUETTES, No. 1
Separate the white and yolk of one egg and reserve about half the yolk for coating the croquette. Beat the rest with the white. Mix with two cups of boiled or steamed rice and one-half teaspoon of salt, form into oblong croquettes or small balls. Mix the reserved part of the egg yolk with a tablespoon of cold water. Dip croquettes in this and then roll in fine bread crumbs. Repeat until well-coated, then fry brown in deep oil.
RICE CROQUETTES, No. 2
Put on with cold water one cup of rice, and let boil until tender. Drain, and mix with the rice, one tablespoon of butter, yolks of three eggs, and pinch of salt. About one tablespoon of flour may be added to hold the croquettes together. Beat the whites of the three eggs to a stiff froth, reserving some of the beaten white for egging croquettes, mix this in last, shape into croquettes and fry in hot oil or butter substitute. Place on platter and serve with a lump of jelly on each croquette.
CALF'S BRAINS (SOUR)
Lay the brains in ice-water and then skin. They will skin easily by taking them up in your hands and patting them, this will help to loosen all the skin and clotted blood that adheres to them. Lay in cold salted water for an hour at least, then put on to boil in half vinegar and half water (a crust of rye bread improves the flavor of the sauce). Add one onion, cut up fine, ten whole peppers, one bay leaf, one or two cloves and a little salt, boil altogether about fifteen minutes. Serve on a platter and decorate with parsley. Eat cold.
CALF'S BRAINS FRIED
Clean as described in calf's brains cooked sour; wipe dry, roll in rolled cracker flour, season with salt and pepper and fry as you would cutlets.
BRAINS (SWEET AND SOUR)
Clean as described above. Lay in ice-cold salted water for an hour. Cut up an onion, a few slices of celery root, a few whole peppers, a little salt and a crust of rye bread. Lay the brains upon this bed of herbs and barely cover with vinegar and water. Boil about fifteen minutes, then lift out the brains, with a perforated skimmer, and lay upon a platter to cool. Take a "lebkuchen," some brown sugar, a tablespoon of molasses, one-half teaspoon of cinnamon, a few seedless raisins and a few pounded almonds. Moisten this with vinegar and add the boiling sauce. Boil the sauce ten minutes longer and pour scalding over the brains. Eat cold and decorate with slices of lemon.
DEVILED BRAINS
Put one tablespoon of fat in skillet, and when hot add two tablespoons of flour, rub until smooth, and brown lightly, then add one-half can of tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, finely-chopped parsley, and a dash of cayenne pepper, and the brains which have previously been cleaned, scalded with boiling water, and cut in small pieces. Cook a few minutes, and then fill the shells with the mixture. Over each shell sprinkle bread crumbs, and a little chicken-fat. Put shells in pan and brown nicely. Serve with green peas.
BRAINS WITH EGG SAUCE
Wash brains well, skin, boil fifteen minutes in salt water; slice in stew-pan some onions, salt, pepper, ginger and a cup of stock. Put in the brains with a little marjoram; let it cook gently for one-half hour. Mix yolks of two eggs, juice of a lemon, a teaspoon of flour, a little chopped parsley; when it is rubbed smooth, stir it into saucepan; stir well to prevent curdling.
JELLIED CHICKEN
Boil a chicken in as little water as possible until the meat falls from the bones, chop rather fine and season with pepper and salt. Put into a mold a layer of the chopped meat and then a layer of hard-boiled eggs, cut in slices. Fill the mold with alternate layers of meat and eggs until nearly full. Boil down the liquor left in the kettle until half the quantity. While warm, add one-quarter of a cup aspic, pour into the mold over the meat. Set in a cool place overnight to jelly.
PRESSED CHICKEN
Boil one or more chickens just as you would for fricassee, using as little water as possible. When tender remove all the meat from the bone and take off all the skin. Chop as fine as possible in a chopping bowl (it ought to be chopped as fine as powder). Add all the liquor the chicken was boiled in, which ought to be very little and well seasoned. Press it into the shape of a brick between two platters, and put a heavy weight over it so as to press hard. Set away to cool in ice-chest and garnish nicely with parsley and slices of lemon before sending to the table. It should be placed whole upon the table, and sliced as served. Serve pickles and olives with it. Veal may be pressed in the same way, some use half veal and half chicken, which is equally nice.
HOME-MADE CHICKEN TAMALES
Boil till tender one large chicken. Have two quarts of stock left when chicken is done. Remove chicken and cut into medium-sized pieces. Into the stock pour gradually one cup of corn meal or farina, stirring until it thickens. If not the proper consistency, add a little more meal. Season with one tablespoon of chili sauce, three tablespoons of tomato catsup, salt, one teaspoon of Spanish pepper sauce. Simmer gently thirty minutes, then add chicken. Serve in ramekins.
CHICKEN FRICASSEE, WITH NOODLES
Prepare a rich "Chicken Fricassee" (recipe for which you will find among poultry recipes), but have a little more gravy than usual. Boil some noodles or macaroni in salted water, drain, let cold water run through them, shake them well and boil up once with chicken. Serve together on a large platter.
SWEETBREAD GLACÉ, SAUCE JARDINIÈRE WITH SPAGHETTI
Put on some poultry drippings to heat in a saucepan, cut up an onion, shredded very fine and then put in the sweetbreads, which have been picked over carefully and lain in salt water an hour before boiling. Salt and pepper the sweetbreads before putting in the kettle, slice two tomatoes on top and cover up tight and set on the back of stove to simmer slowly. Turn once in a while and add a little soup stock. Boil one-half cup of string beans, half a can of canned peas, one-half cup of currants, cut up extremely fine, with a tablespoon of drippings, a little salt and ground ginger. When the vegetables are tender, add to the simmering sweetbreads. Thicken the sauce with a teaspoon of flour. Have the sauce boiled down quite thick. Boil the spaghetti in salted water until tender. Serve with the sweetbreads.