Chapter XIX: Part II: Choice Family Receipts (2)

=Fish-Balls.=--Salt codfish is usually preferred for making fish-balls, although any fresh boiled fish left over from dinner is very nice. When the salt cod is used, it should be put in a damp place for a day or two before using, to soften. Early in the evening, before needed, it should be thoroughly washed in several waters, rubbing it well, then put to soak in a large quantity of lukewarm water. Just before bedtime pour off the first water, and add more lukewarm water; wash again in clean water in the morning, rubbing off all the salt crystal that may adhere, particularly on the under side, and place over the fire, in enough warm water to fully cover it. Let it come to the boiling point slowly, but don’t let it really boil; keep it simmering a half-hour. If the fish is very salt, turn off this water and cover again with boiling water, and let it simmer fifteen or twenty minutes, then drain and spread it out to cool; remove every bone and bit of skin, and when perfectly cold pick to pieces very fine with a fork. While the fish is cooling have nice mealy potatoes boiling over the fire; when done, mash smooth and light, and add to the picked-up fish a little more than its weight of potatoes, say a pound and a quarter of potatoes to a pound of fish. For a dozen balls add one well-beaten egg, or two if plenty, or two table-spoonfuls of rich cream, two spoonfuls of butter; beat all together and form into neat balls with your hands--which should be well floured--and drop them into a kettle or large saucepan of boiling lard or drippings, and fry a good clear brown. Plainer fish-balls may be made if desirable, omitting eggs and cream, and using less butter.

=Codfish Balls.=--Soak in warm water as much salt codfish as is needed, judging by the size of the family. Let it stand in the water all night. In the morning pick out all the bones, press out the water, and chop fine. Boil the potatoes in the skin. When done, peel and mash while hot twice as much potato as you have fish; mix well together and moisten with cream or a little new milk, with a great spoonful of butter. Have some well-clarified drippings or sweet lard ready in a saucepan. Let it get boiling hot, and then put in the fish-balls. They should be made a little more than half an inch thick. Fry a good, clear brown, taking care not to scorch them. One egg well beaten is an improvement.

=Scalloped Crabs.=--Wash the crabs and put into a kettle of boiling water, throw in a handful of salt. Boil from twenty minutes to half an hour. Take them from the water when done, and pick out all the meat; be careful and not break the shell. To a pint of meat put a little salt and pepper; we cannot give the exact amount, as tastes differ so widely; but taste, and if there is not enough add more, a little at a time till suited. Grate in a very little nutmeg, and add one spoonful cracker or bread crumbs, two eggs well beaten, and two table-spoonfuls of butter (even full); stir all well together; wash the shells clean and fill each shell full of the mixture; sprinkle crumbs over the top and set in the oven till of a nice brown; a few minutes will do it. Send to the table hot.

=Oyster Pie.=--Line a deep dish with good puff paste, not too rich. Roll out the upper crust, and lay on a plate just the size of the oyster-dish; set it on the top of the dish and put into the oven, as the crust must be nearly cooked before the oysters are put in, for they require less time than the crust. While the crust is baking, strain the liquor from the oysters; thicken it with the yelks of eggs, boiled hard and grated,--three eggs for seventy-five oysters; add two even table-spoonfuls of butter, and the same quantity of bread or cracker crumbs; season with pepper, salt, and mace or nutmeg,--a very little of either,--and by tasting, be sure that you do not season it too much; to add is very easy, but to take out seasoning in cooking is a difficult task. Let the liquor just boil; then slip in the oysters, and as soon as they come to a boil, stir well and remove the plate with top crust, and pour them and their gravy into the hot bake-dish; place the top crust over, and return to the oven for five minutes. Send to the table hot.

=Oyster Fritters.=--Drain off the liquor and wipe the oysters dry; season with a little pepper and salt, if not salt enough. Make a batter with a pint of milk and flour enough to mix not very stiff. Beat the yelks of three eggs thoroughly, and put to the batter, beating all a good deal. Whisk the whites to a stiff, dry froth, and stir in gently the last thing. Take up a spoonful of batter on a spoon, lay an oyster on top, and cover with a little more batter, and with a broad knife slip this off gently into a pan of boiling lard. When brown on both sides, drain on a perforated plate, and send to the table hot.

=To Fry Oysters.=--Take from the shells carefully so as not to tear or break them; dry in a clean fish-cloth; beat the yelks of eggs with thick cream,--one yelk to two table-spoonfuls of cream; rub together some bread or cracker crumbs, a little salt and cayenne pepper. Have half a pound of butter boiling hot in a skillet; dip each oyster in the beaten yelks and cream; then roll in the cracker crumbs, taking pains to have the crumbs adhere thickly to the oyster. Drop into the skillet, and fry of a light brown on each side. They should be crisp and light. Drain free from all grease, and serve hot.

=Lobster Patties.=--Boil two or three good lobsters; take out all the meat, and chop very fine; mash the coral smooth, and mix with the meat. Boil three or four eggs hard, and _grate_ the yelks, mashing or rolling the whites to make them heavy and waxy. Season the whole with salt, cayenne, a very little pounded mace or nutmeg, and a small portion of lemon-rind, grated. Moisten the whole with cream, fresh butter, or salad-oil. (Be careful that you do not use too much of any of these seasonings. It will make the whole bitter. In all of these strong flavors, only just an _intimation_ that they are present is necessary.) Put it into a stewpan, add a little water, put over the fire till it just comes to a boil; then remove from the fire. Make puff paste, and line deep patty-pans. Bake the paste before filling, while preparing the lobster. As soon as the lobster has been removed from the fire, and is partially cooled, take the crust from the oven and fill the patty-pans with the mixture to the top. Crabs or prawns may be made into patties in a similar manner.

=Lobster Rissoles.=--Boil the lobster, take out the meat, mince it fine; pound the coral smooth, and grate the yelks of three hard-boiled eggs for one lobster. Season with cayenne pepper, a little nutmeg, and salt. Make a batter of milk, flour, and well-beaten eggs,--two table-spoonfuls of milk and one of flour to each egg. Beat this batter well, and mix the lobster with it gradually, till it is stiff enough to roll into balls the size of a large plum. Fry in fresh butter, or the best salad-oil, and serve up either warm or cold. Similar rissoles may be made of raw oysters minced fine, or of boiled clams. These should be fried in lard.

=Fish Sauce.=--Four ounces of butter blended with three table-spoonfuls of flour; stir in gradually half a pint of boiling water, stirring all the time. When smooth, put it into a farina-kettle or milk-boiler, and let boil five minutes. If too thick, add a little more water. Beat two eggs to a foam, and stir in the last thing before removing it from the fire. A little parsley chopped fine added to this sauce, or an onion, is relished by some.

=A good Breakfast Dish.=--When any boiled fresh fish is left from dinner, take out all the bones carefully, and pick the fish up in small bits. Cover the bottom of a deep dish with some of the fish, and, if needed, a little pepper and salt, and a few spoonfuls of the fish sauce, if any was left from dinner; then sprinkle over some fine bread crumbs; then another layer of fish, with sauce; then bread crumbs, until the dish is full. If all the fish sauce is used without making the composition quite moist, beat two eggs very light, and add a cup of milk and pour over the whole; then cover with more bread crumbs, and set in the oven long enough to heat through and brown delicately. If no fish sauce is left over, take two great spoonfuls of butter, cut in little bits, and lay in alternately with the fish and crumbs; use four eggs instead of two, and a pint of milk.

=Best Mode of Roasting Fish, Ducks, &c.=--The very best way of cooking fish and fowl ever devised is familiar to woodmen, but unknown to city epicures. It is this: Take a large fish,--say a trout of three or four pounds, fresh from its gambols in the cool stream,--cut a small hole in the neck and abstract the intestines. Wash the inside clean, and season it with pepper and salt; or, if convenient, fill it with bread crumbs or crackers chopped up with meat. Make a fire outside the tent, and when it has burned down to embers, rake it open, put in the fish, and cover it with coals and hot ashes. Within an hour take it from its bed, peel off the skin from the clean flesh, and you will have a trout with all its original juices and flavors preserved within it,--a dish too good, as Izaak Walton would say, “for any but very honest men.”

Grouse, ducks, and various other fowls can be cooked deliciously in a similar way. The intestines of the bird should be taken out by a small hole at the vent, and the inside washed and stuffed as before. Then wet the feathers thoroughly, and cover with hot embers. When the cooking is finished, peel off the burnt feathers and skin, and you will find underneath a lump of nice juicy flesh, which, when once tasted, will never be forgotten. The peculiar advantage of this method of roasting is that the covering of embers prevents the escape of juices by evaporation. This comes from the “Trappers’ Guide,” and we know it is good.

MEATS.

BEEF.

=Leicestershire Hunting Beef.=--Take four ounces saltpetre or one of allspice. Rub it over a nice round of beef very thoroughly. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then rub it in as much common salt as will be needed to salt it to suit your taste. Keep it in a cool place twelve days, turning it every day, then put it into a deep pan and cover it, upper and under side, with three pounds of beef suet. Then cover with a thick paste, and bake slowly for six hours. It will keep for six months, and is highly spoken of by English people. We have never tried it, but by request give the receipt, which we have had for a long time in our possession.

=Spiced Beef.=--Boil a shin of ten or twelve pounds of beef until the meat readily falls from the bone. Pick the meat to pieces and mash the gristle very fine, rejecting all parts that are too hard to mash. Set the liquor in which it was boiled away till cool, then take off all the fat. Boil the liquor down to a pint and a half; then return the meat to the liquor, and, while hot, add any salt and pepper that may be needed, a half-teaspoonful of cloves, the same of cinnamon, a little nutmeg, a half-spoonful of parsley chopped fine, a very little sage and summer savory, if agreeable, not quite half a salt-spoonful. Let it boil up once, and put it into a mold or deep dish to cool. Cut in thin slices for breakfast or tea.

=Curried Beef.=--In reply to inquiries how to use “_curry_ powder,” we give the following: Put in a saucepan over the fire two table-spoonfuls of butter, and, when hot, put in two small onions, sliced very thin; fry until brown; then add a table-spoonful and a half of curry powder, mixing all well together. Take three pounds of the best of a round of beef; cut in pieces an inch square; pour over it the milk of a cocoa-nut, and a quarter of the meat of the nut grated very fine and squeezed through muslin; moisten with a little water,--only enough to make it pass through the muslin easily. The cocoa-nut meat and milk soften the taste of the curry, and no _curry_ is ever made in India without it. If this does not make liquor enough, add half a teacup boiling water, and let the whole simmer for thirty minutes. Serve hot, in a dish with sliced lemon, and a wall of mashed potatoes or boiled rice around it.

=Meat Pie.=--Cut up some pieces of good, tender raw beef or mutton, season with pepper, salt, and, if liked, one finely minced onion. Boil a half-dozen good-sized mealy potatoes, mash smooth and wet with enough milk to form a dough to make the crust; salt to please the taste; roll out full half an inch thick, and line a buttered dish large enough to hold the meat. Lay in the meat, add a teacup of water, or less if the pie is to be for a small family, then roll out a thick crust of the potato, covering the top of the pie at least an inch thick, and bake about an hour and a half.

=Beef Collops.=--Cut the fillet from the under part of a rump of beef into thin slices; broil quickly until nearly done, then put into a stewpan with a little beef stock; add two or three slices of lemon or pickled cucumber and two table-spoonfuls of catsup, and stew till tender. Half a pint of oysters added ten minutes before it is done is a great improvement.

=To Cook a Beefsteak.=--Put a frying-pan over the stove till it becomes quite hot. Have your steak well pounded or mangled,--a sirloin steak is very good for this purpose,--lay it on the hot, dry pan and cover it instantly as tightly as possible. When the meat touches the heated pan it will seethe and adhere to it, but in a few seconds it will become loosened and juicy; turn the steak every half-minute, but be careful to do it as quickly as possible, so that it may not be long uncovered. When nearly done, sprinkle on pepper and salt, lay a small piece of butter on the steak, and add a table-spoonful of strong coffee. This makes a delicious broiled steak. Or, if you wish much gravy, shake a little flour over the steak when just done, and pour in three or four table-spoonfuls of cream, let it just boil up, under cover, and when the meat is done, take the pan from the fire, remove the meat, stir in quickly the well-beaten yelk of an egg, and serve hot. If cream is used, omit the coffee. Mutton or ham may be cooked in the same way, only they should be over the fire longer than beef.

=Rump Steak, with Oyster Sauce.=--Broil the steak nicely; put four even table-spoonfuls of butter into a frying-pan, add pepper and salt to your taste; shake in a table-spoonful of flour, and add the juice of half a lemon; when it begins to boil up, put in as many oysters as can be used in this preparation; let them heat through and just boil up once, taking care to shake the pan and keep its contents stirring all the time it is over the fire. When the oysters are done,--a pint to one steak is about the right quantity,--pour all over the steak, and serve.

=A French Broil.=--Select a spider or saucepan with a smooth, clean bottom, set it over the range or stove till really _hot_, then lay on a good tenderloin or sirloin steak; keep the spider very hot, and turn the steak as often as every two minutes,--no longer; when half done, sprinkle over salt and pepper to suit the taste of those who are to eat it; continue to turn the steak often till sufficiently done; just as you are ready to take up and dish the steak, dust a little flour over it, spread on a table-spoonful of butter, or, if a large steak, a little more; turn it over, dust on more flour, and spread on the butter as on the first side; turn again, set the saucepan back from the hot fire, take the steak on to the platter, and set in a heater or oven to keep hot, but not to cook any more; shake more flour into the butter in the saucepan, set again over the fire, and as soon as the butter bubbles up through the flour, rub it smooth with a spoon and pour in a few spoonfuls of boiling water; stir constantly, and as soon as it thickens, pour over the steak, and serve hot.

=Beefsteak Rolls.=--Cut small, thin steaks from the round; fry them slightly; make a stuffing as for roast veal or turkey; spread it over the steaks, roll them up tightly, and sew or tie up neatly. Stew them in rich beef stock or brown gravy twenty minutes, and serve hot, with the gravy poured over. A half-teacup of rich cream added a few minutes before serving is a great improvement.

=Beef Croquettes.=--Chop cold roast beef or veal with one onion very fine; add a little sweet-marjoram, half a teaspoonful of powdered cloves, and as much salt and pepper as will be palatable. Moisten with a rich beef gravy, from which all the fat has cooled and been removed. Roll into balls, dip in beaten eggs, roll in flour, or bread or cracker crumbs, and fry in good, sweet lard.

=Mock Duck.=--Prepare a good dressing, such as you like for turkey or duck; take a round steak, pound it, but not very hard, spread the dressing over it, sprinkle in a little salt, pepper, and a few bits of butter, lap over the ends, roll the steak up tight and tie it closely; spread two great spoonfuls of butter over the steak after rolling it up, then wash with a well-beaten egg, put water in the bake-pan, lay in the steak so as not to touch the water, and bake as you would a duck, basting often. A half-hour in a brisk oven will cook it. Make a brown gravy, and send to table hot.

=A Nice Breakfast Dish.=--Grate some cold tongue or beef, put it into a stewpan with a little pepper and salt, and four table-spoonfuls of cream or milk; when quite hot, put in four well-beaten eggs; stir all the time till the mixture is quite thick; have ready some nicely toasted bread, well buttered, and spread the tongue or beef over it; send to table hot.

=Mock Venison.=--Cut a nice piece of _corned beef_ in thin slices and soak three or four hours in tepid water, changing the water often. Be sure and have plenty of water to soak it in. When sufficiently freshened, drain, wipe dry, put on a hot gridiron, and broil quickly, turning often, only enough to be fully hot through. Make a gravy of drawn butter, add a little pepper, taste before adding salt; chop fine the yelk of an egg boiled hard, and, if agreeable, a little boiled onion, and pour over it; or simply butter, pepper, and a little salt, as for beefsteak. This is an excellent dish when so situated as to have little opportunity for fresh meat, but a _fresh_ beefsteak thus seasoned is better.

=To prepare Cold Roast Beef or Mutton.=--Cut off the meat as thin as possible; dip each slice in flour; cover the bottom of a deep dish with a layer of meat thus prepared; dust over it a little pepper, salt, sage, and sweet-marjoram,--_very little_ of each; add another layer of the meat dipped in flour and seasoned in the same way. Continue this till the dish is half full, then pour over it what gravy was left, being careful to remove every particle of fat. If not gravy enough, substitute water. Turn in half a teacup of catsup, or half a pint of tomatoes, adding a little clove or allspice. Add water enough to fill it nearly full, fit a plate tightly over it to keep in the flavor, and bake two hours. Boil some potatoes and mash them, adding a little salt, butter, and milk. Make it into a high wall around the edge of a well-heated platter; beat up an egg and brush over the potatoes, and when the meat is done, turn it into the platter; slip it again into the oven, to remain long enough to brown the potatoes a fine golden brown. The poorest and toughest parts of uncooked beef may be made deliciously tender if prepared in this manner, but it must be in the oven one hour longer.

=Economical Breakfast Dish.=--If you have a few bits of meat or two or three cold potatoes left over, put some “drippings” into a skillet; slice the potatoes thin, cut the meat up fine, and add salt and pepper to taste; then beat two or three eggs, according to the size of the dish to be prepared; stir them into a cup of cream or milk, and pour over the meat and potatoes. If eggs are not plenty, use fewer eggs and more milk or cream. If milk, add a half table-spoonful of butter. Keep it over the fire, stirring constantly, till the eggs are cooked. It takes but a few moments to prepare this; but do not leave it an instant till done, or the eggs will burn and ruin the whole.

=A “Two Story.”=--A genuine farmer’s dish, but fit to set before a king,--so we are assured by one who knows.

Peel and slice thin potatoes and onions (five potatoes to one small onion); cut half a pound of sweet salt pork in thin slices to a pound of beef, mutton, or veal; cut the meat in small pieces; take some nice bread dough and shorten a little, and line the bottom of the stewpan with slices of pork; then a layer of meat, potatoes, and onions; dust over a little pepper, and cover with a layer of crust; then more pork, meat, and vegetables; then more crust. Repeat this till the stew-pot is full,--the size of the pot will depend on the number of the family; pour in sufficient water to cover; finish with crust. Let it simmer till meat, vegetables, etc., are done, but do not let it boil hard. Serve hot.

MUTTON AND LAMB.

=Shoulder of Mutton Boiled.=--All mutton should hang in a cool place till quite tender before being used, but be careful that it does not hang long enough to acquire the least rust or taint. When the shoulder has hung till tender, bone it; rub a little salt over it, and let it lie in a deep dish for two days, turning it over each day and rubbing in a little more salt,--half a table-spoonful each time. Meat to boil requires more salt than for roasting. On the third day, sprinkle over the inside one teaspoonful of pepper and half a teaspoonful of powdered mace. Spread twenty oysters over the inside; roll the meat up tightly and tie securely; put it into the stewpan or boiler with just enough boiling water to cover it; throw in six peppercorns, or seeds of the red pepper, and one onion chopped; shut the cover over very closely, and stew; twenty minutes’ cooking for each pound of meat is the proper time. Stew twenty-four oysters in a pint of good stock or gravy; add a table-spoonful of butter and enough flour to thicken it. When the meat is done, lay it in a good-sized platter and pour the gravy over it.

=Shoulder of Mutton Spiced.=--Bone carefully a shoulder of mutton, after it has hung till tender. For every pound of meat mix two ounces of brown sugar, one salt-spoonful of cloves, one teaspoonful each of mace and pepper, and half a salt-spoonful of ginger; rub these spices thoroughly into the meat; lay it into a deep dish, and the next day rub in two teaspoonfuls of salt for every pound of meat, and add one pint and a half of good beef gravy for the whole joint. Turn the meat over; rub it well with this pickle every day for a week or ten days, letting it remain in the pickle all the time after each rubbing. At the end of the week or ten days, roll it up tightly, bind with a string, and stew gently in beef broth four hours. Serve hot in its own gravy, and eat with any piquant sauce or catsup.

=Mutton Stew.=--Take such scraps of mutton or lamb as are not fit for chops or cutlets; just cover with water; add a little onion and parsley, if not disagreeable, and season well with black and red pepper; boil two eggs hard, or, if making a good-sized stew, use more (two are plenty for five persons); mash or grate the yelks fine, and stir them into a table-spoonful of butter and the same amount of browned flour. Stir this into the stew just before dishing, to season and thicken the gravy. Let it boil up once after adding this, and serve as soon as it thickens.

=Roasting a Leg of Lamb.=--Slice salt pork very thin, cutting two slices down to the rind, leaving the rind on to make the piece as large as possible; make as many of these thin slices as will cover the whole leg; then wrap the whole in grape-leaves; pass a string round to keep them on, and roast. It is said the lamb will be exceedingly juicy and of delicious flavor. Never baste meat with butter, but with rich soup stock.

=To use Cold Lamb.=--When lamb or mutton is left in good shape,--and it is the fault of the carver if it is not always left neatly,--cut off some chops; trim off the greater portion of fat, and saw or cut off the end of the bone. Heat a platter, and pour into the centre some nicely cooked fresh green peas, or in winter canned peas. Heap them in the centre in the shape of a pyramid; brown the chops quickly over a bright fire, season in a hot plate with pepper, salt, and butter, and then arrange them around the peas, the small end laid upon the pyramid of peas. Garnish the edge of the dish with slices of hard-boiled eggs, each circled in a fringe of curled parsley. Serve hot.

=Mint Sauce.=--Three table-spoonfuls of fresh mint finely chopped, five table-spoonfuls of vinegar and two of sugar, dissolved in the vinegar. To be used with roast lamb or chops.

If so much vinegar is disagreeable, use one third water and a little more sugar.

VENISON.

=Jerked Venison.=--Take the haunches when the deer is first killed; rub in as much salt as you can; press and squeeze the meat hard with your hands to get out all the blood; then hang it up in some covered alley or shed, where the sun will not directly strike it, but where the dry breezes will sweep over it. If not quite salt enough the next day, rub more salt on; squeeze and press out all the blood which may still remain, and hang up again. Two or three days will dry it. When needed, cut off nice slices, rather thin; lay them in a dish of cold water a short time to soften a little, then broil, serving with pepper and salt. Or, fry a piece of bacon crisp; then lay the pieces of venison into the hot fat, and warm through quickly; shake a little flour over the meat, and when done salt and pepper; place the meat on a hot platter; sift a little more flour into the pan; let it boil up; add a few spoonfuls of boiling water; boil up again, and pour the brown gravy over the venison. It is very sweet and palatable.

In Florida, beef is also cured, or dried, so as to keep for several days. Cellars or ice houses not being common, it is necessary to resort to some means of keeping it. Take a fine round of beef, and cut in slices as large as your hand and about half an inch thick. String them on a strong cord, and hang up high in some place where the sun will not shine directly on it, but where a good breeze of hot air will pass over it. Build a fire of dry leaves or bits of paper, and place at one end of the place where the meat is hung, so that the wind will take the smoke under and over it; this will keep the flies away till the outside of the meat is too dry for them to injure it. A day or two in the dry breezes here will cure it, so that it may be put in paper bags and kept in a dark, dry place several days, to broil as it is needed. It is wonderfully sweet, probably because in drying all the juices of the meat are secured. Our Northern air is not so drying, but we see no reason why, in summer, those who have not smoke or ice houses could not hang meat under the trees, away from the sun, keeping up a smoke sufficient to drive away flies but not strong enough to heat the meat. It is an experiment well worth trying.

=Venison Steaks.=--Heat the gridiron, grease it well. Lay on the steak; broil quickly, without scorching, turning it two or three times; season with salt and pepper. Have the butter melted in a well-heated platter, into which the steak must be laid hot from the gridiron, turning it over two or three times in the butter, and send to table hot. It is well to set the platter into another in which you have some boiling water. Venison should not be overdone, and must be eaten hot.

COOKING IN A “RUMFORD BOILER.”

In one of our “talks” in Part First we said something of the Rumford Boiler. We subjoin here a few hints as to the use of it. Other similar “boilers” or “steamers” or “cookers” can also be advantageously used. The “Rumford” happens to be the one we have used and thoroughly like.

=To Roast Beef or Mutton.=--Have boiling water two or three inches deep in the lower part of the boiler, deep enough to just touch the bottom of the pan to be set over it. Place the meat in the inner pan _without water_, first seasoning it with salt and pepper, if agreeable. Put on the cover, fitting it in tightly.

When the water begins to boil, set the boiler back on the stove or range, where it will keep just at the boiling point, and let it remain cooking the usual time,--fifteen minutes for each pound is generally thought long enough. When done take it out, dredge with flour and put into a quick oven to brown, but not scorch.

It is usually estimated that one pint of gravy is lost when meat is boiled the usual way. Here you have it all saved in the dish, the pure juice of the meat making excellent gravy.

=To Boil a Leg of Lamb or Mutton.=--Keep in the boiler the ordinary length of time, with no water in the receiver or pan (which in all cases should be tightly closed), and send to the table without browning.

=Corned Beef.=--If very salt, the beef should be soaked in cold water three or four hours; then put it in the inner vessel with _cold_ water enough to cover it. Keep the water in the bottom receiver boiling slowly till the beef is done. Salt meat needs to be cooked longer than fresh; fifteen minutes to a pound for fresh, and twenty minutes for salt, is the rule usually given, but we have not found the latter long enough. A piece weighing nine pounds should cook four hours, if without much bone, and three with bone. We think that better--more sure--than twenty minutes to a pound.

The water in which salt meat is thus cooked makes excellent stock for soup. If too salt (it should not be if the beef was properly freshened), add water sufficient to make it right.

=To Cook a Ham.=--Freshen the ham by soaking in cold water three or four hours, then scrape clean and wipe dry. Stick a few cloves into it, rub on a half cup of sugar, and put in the inner vessel _without any water_; _cover closely_, and set over the boiling water in the bottom of the boiler; bring to a boil, and then set back a little that it may cook slowly till tender, about four hours. This will be found very excellent in flavor, far surpassing ham boiled in the common way. If liked, when done, the ham may be set in a quick oven and delicately browned, like roast beef or mutton.

=Fish.=--Season a fresh fish with salt, pepper, and a table-spoonful of butter, and put in the receiver, or inner pan, _without any water_; cover closely, and cook for half an hour. Thicken the juices of the fish which will be found in the pan with a little flour, wet in cold water, and let it simmer a few minutes in the pan, closely covered. This makes an excellent sauce for the fish.

Steaks of cod, salmon, halibut, or any other fish, usually fried, are excellent cooked in this “Rumford Boiler,” and need no butter or sauce besides the juice which will be left in the vessel, and pepper and salt.

We have tried all these receipts since we possessed this excellent boiler, and can testify to the superiority of each dish over that cooked in the usual way.

We have cooked all our vegetables--corn, peas, beets, potatoes--in the pans that are made to fit over the first vessel with tight covers, and are greatly pleased with the improvement. It must be remembered that each vessel should be closely covered, and over all the cover for the whole boiler. Bread of all kinds and loaf cake are delicious cooked in a “Rumford,” and when done put into the oven to brown.

VEAL.

=Meats for June.=--It is more difficult to obtain good meats in June than any part of the year. Lamb is still quite expensive, and “broilers” or spring chickens are dear and very little of them. What you can manage to pick off is dry, stringy, and, we cannot but think, indigestible. Veal is the only meat within the reach of all classes; but be very sure that you obtain that which has been healthily fed, and butchered as humanely as is possible. It is well that we do not see or know all the barbarity of the butchers’ shops, or we should perforce become vegetarians. There are many ways of using the less desirable portions of veal, that when properly carried out make some very inviting breakfast or tea dishes.

=Calf’s Head and Harslet.=--The head to be split open, the grease screened off, and eyes taken out, before bringing from the butcher’s. Wash very carefully, and scrape thoroughly. Take out the brains and put into a bowl of cold water; also lay the head, when cleaned, into a large pan of water. Then see that the harslet is well cleaned; leave the windpipe on the lights, and let all soak in cold water, and plenty of it, for half an hour. Have a large pot of boiling water ready. Two hours before dinner put in the heart and lights, leaving the windpipe a little way out of the pot to carry off the scum that will rise while boiling. Put in salt, black and red pepper,--_very_ little of the latter,--and a little thyme and parsley. One hour after put in the liver; skim often. When the brains have soaked till free from blood, pick out all the veins or fibers, roll half a cracker and put it with the brains and a little parsley into a clean bit of muslin, tie it up, and put into the kettle with the head, etc. Let it boil from ten to fifteen minutes; then take it up, add butter, pepper, and salt, and serve in a small dish by itself. The bones must all be removed from the head; when well done, they will slip out easily. Lay the meat in the center of the platter; skin the tongue, and place it with the meat; remove the windpipe, and lay lights, heart, and liver around. Make a gravy of drawn butter, with parsley, chopped fine, and two eggs beaten, and added just as the gravy comes to a boil. Send all to table hot.

=Head and Harslet Hash.=--Take what may be left from dinner of the calf’s head and harslet, chop very fine, use a few spoonfuls of the drawn butter, moisten with the water in which the meat was boiled, put over the fire till hot, then serve on nice slices of toasted bread, and you have a breakfast dish even better than the dinner.

The water in which calf’s head, etc., is boiled, should be carefully kept, and when cold it will be a stiff jelly. Take off the grease that will harden on top, and the jelly may be made into a fine mock-turtle soup. It is still better if, when boiling the head and harslet, you add two calf’s feet.

=Veal Pie.=--Take the neck of veal, joint it as small as you can, and stew, adding just enough boiling water to prevent it from burning. Season with pepper, salt, and, if liked, a very little onion cut up fine, and a little parsley or summer savory. Make a crust of two potatoes, boiled and mashed smooth and free from lumps, two table-spoonfuls suet chopped _very_ fine, a little salt; stir it together with ice-cold water. Flour the board, roll out, and scatter over it thin shavings of hard butter right from the ice; shake over some flour; lap it together and roll out again. Then put on more butter, using, in all, four table-spoonfuls, _not heaped_. This done, sprinkle again with flour, roll it up and put on the ice till the veal is done, which should not cook over three quarters of an hour. When tender, pick the meat from most of the bones, leaving a few small ones to give shape to the pie; roll the meat in well-beaten eggs; three will suffice to wet it; then roll it in flour; cover the pie-dish with part of the paste, rolled about a quarter of an inch thick. Cut a strip of crust to place around the edge of the dish, and lay the meat in neatly, cutting in a few bits of butter, two table-spoonfuls will do, and pour over the meat the water in which it was cooked, which should have boiled down so as to leave only enough to make the pie juicy. Now roll out the rest of the paste for the upper crust, about three quarters of an inch thick, cover the pie, cut a slit in the top, and bake. Be careful not to scorch the crust.

=Sweetbread Croquettes.=--Trim the sweetbreads neatly; remove all the gristle; parboil and mince very fine; add grated bread seasoned with salt and pepper, and a very little mace, if agreeable; moisten with cream; stir all well together, and shape them by pressing firmly into a pear-shaped wineglass or small mold, or mold into little cones by rolling in your hands. Have ready a beaten egg and fine rolled and sifted bread or cracker crumbs. Dip each croquette into the egg and roll in the crumbs; stick a fruit-stem into the cone, to look like an apple or pear, and fry in butter. This is good for cold chicken, beef, or raw oysters.

=Veal Patty.=--Four pounds veal-steak, chopped while raw very fine; mix with it eight butter-crackers rolled, a piece of butter of the size of an egg, and two well-beaten eggs. Mix all thoroughly together, and season with pepper and salt. A little sage, thyme, or savory is thought an improvement by some. Mold into a loaf; put small bits of butter on top, and cover with grated bread crumbs. Judge of the quantity of butter necessary by your own taste. If not liked very rich, two table-spoonfuls of butter cut up and sprinkled over will be plenty. Bake two hours. When cold, cut off slices as from a loaf of bread, for tea or side-dishes.

=Minced Veal.=--Mince the veal very fine with a little ham, a table-spoonful of flour, three well-beaten eggs, one small onion scalded for five or ten minutes to remove the coarser flavor and then chopped fine; sweet herbs, pepper, and salt to suit the taste. Butter a deep pie-plate, set a small cup in the center, and fill the plate all around the cup with the mince-meat. Bake of a delicate brown; then remove the cup and fill its place with some nice sauce,--apple, cranberry, or jelly, or, if you please, some scalloped oysters. Beef, lamb, or chicken prepared in the same way is very good.

=Veal Hash.=--Boil a shin of veal which has about three pounds of meat on it in as small a quantity of water as you can, so that when done there shall be one quart of water left. Boil the day before needed, that it may be perfectly cold. When the meat is well done, lay it anywhere where it will be away from the air, but do not wrap it in a cloth. Save all the liquor in a separate dish. The next morning cut up all the meat; chop not quite so fine as for the “mince.” Half an hour before you send it to the table, put it over the fire in a covered stewpan with the liquor; have ready half a pint of hot-drawn butter and eight hard-boiled eggs; remove the shells, mince all but two, and add to the meat. As soon as it boils up, remove from the fire; season with salt, cayenne pepper, and a little black pepper. Cut the two eggs in slices, and when the meat is placed in a dish, lay them over the top neatly. Send to table hot.

=Veal Loaf.=--Three pounds of veal cutlet, a quarter of a pound salt pork chopped very fine. Three Boston crackers rolled fine, three well-beaten eggs, one wineglass claret or currant wine, half a cup of tomato catsup, five ripe tomatoes, if in season, or a teacup of canned tomatoes; one onion chopped fine, if not disagreeable; juice and chopped peel of one orange or lemon, whichever is the most palatable; one small teaspoonful each of pepper, cloves, sweet-marjoram, sage, and salt. Mix these very thoroughly with the meat, and mold into a loaf. Place in a dripping-pan, cover the top with cracker crumbs, and bake three hours. While baking, keep some butter and hot water on the side of range, and baste the loaf with it often and thoroughly. Let it stand in a cool place till the second day before cutting. Excellent as a relish for breakfast or tea.

=Croquettes.=--These are a sort of mince-meat dumpling. Take some cold veal, chicken, lobster, or tender cold beef, chopped fine. Put a half table-spoonful of butter in a saucepan on the fire. When melted, put in a piece of onion chopped fine; fry a little; add half a table-spoonful of flour. When it browns, put in the minced meat; stir it steadily till heated through, adding salt and pepper. Then add a gill and a half of broth, and set the pan a little off the fire to simmer. Chop three stalks of parsley fine, and mix it in on the fire, stirring all the time. Then break in two eggs, stirring faster; in two or three minutes take it from the fire and set it to cool. Thus far has occupied about ten minutes. When the meat is cold, sift some flour on the board; take a lump of the mince the size of an egg or larger, roll it in the fine flour, dip it in a cup of beaten egg, drain and roll it in bread crumbs; have a quantity of boiling suet or drippings in a frying-pan, and fry the croquettes in them for a couple of minutes, till brown. Put in a colander and let the fat drain off.

POULTRY AND GAME.

=Steamed Turkey.=--All poultry, after dressing, should remain in cold water from twenty minutes to half an hour to extract the blood and leave them white; then hang in a cool place for twenty-four hours, in winter even longer. They will be much sweeter and finer flavored for it.

When ready to cook a turkey, see that every pinfeather is taken out, rinse in cold water, and wipe dry with a cloth used for nothing but such purposes; rub inside with pepper and salt, and fill with oysters carefully washed in their own liquor to remove bits of shells; sew up the turkey, place in a large dish, and set it into a steamer over boiling water, or in a “Rumford Boiler”; lay a clean cloth over the steamer and shut the cover on tight, and steam till tender,--two and a half hours, or, if large, three hours; run a fork into the breast to see if done. If it seems tender, and no reddish juice flows out, it is ready to take up; strain the gravy and put into the oyster sauce, which should be ready while the turkey is cooking, made like stewed oysters and thickened with farina or butter and flour; let it just boil up, and add, if you like it white, a little boiled cream; pour this over the steamed turkey, and serve hot.

Or, if preferred, the turkey may be stuffed as for a common baked turkey and steamed; or it may be stuffed with good plump chestnuts after the skins are removed, and the gravy made with the giblets chopped fine, adding a little flour as you chop, and the gravy from the dish stirred to it, and set over the fire to boil up. While the gravy is being made, rub a little butter over and sprinkle the turkey with flour very slightly, and set in a hot oven to brown delicately. Many prefer this to sending to the table right from the steamer with white gravy poured on.

=Broiled Chickens.=--First boil the giblets, neck, and tips of the wings in just enough water to cover them; season with a little pepper and salt. When tender, pick off what little meat there is on the neck and wing-tips, and chop with the giblets, very fine, shaking over them, while chopping, enough flour to make the whole like a paste; then return it to the water it was boiled in, stirring all together, and leave it on the range to keep hot. This done, put the chicken on a well-heated gridiron over a clear fire, covering it closely with a cover made to fit the gridiron. Cook carefully, turning it often, and do not let it scorch. When done, it should be of a good, rich, clear brown, as uniform in color as possible. When partly cooked, sprinkle salt and pepper over it on both sides.

Put three great spoonfuls of butter on the platter you have ready to take the chickens up in; set it into the oven, leaving the door open lest you break the platter by too strong heat. When the chicken is well cooked, remove from the gridiron to this platter, turning it over several times in the melted butter; then pour over all the water in which the giblets have been put, which should have become a nice thick gravy; let the platter stand a few moments in the oven until all is thoroughly blended and heated, then send to the table hot.

If not in a hurry, it is well to melt butter in a deep kitchen-dish and put the chicken and gravy into the oven in that, and, when thoroughly heated through, remove to a hot china platter for the table. There is a risk of cracking the enamel on nice china or breaking the platter entirely, if set in the oven where a servant may forget and close the door.

=To Bake a Chicken.=--Choose full-grown, plump, well-fattened chickens; remove all the pinfeathers carefully and singe all the hairs off by holding a lighted paper under the chicken before opening; then open with care; see that the gall is not broken in taking out the entrails and giblets, and that none of the crop or windpipe is left in; then wash in plenty of cold water; put inside the gizzard, liver, and heart, when well cleaned and washed, and hang up to drain all night. If very warm weather, put in a piece of charcoal to keep it sweet. When ready the next morning to prepare for baking, cut off the neck and legs, and lay aside with the giblets for gravy; prepare a dressing, or stuffing, of dried bread rolled fine, with a little salt, pepper, sage, and summer savory,--the quantity of seasoning must be determined by the taste of the family; rub salt and pepper inside, fill with the dressing, putting enough into the neck or crop to give it a plump look; sew up and skewer. There should be a grate fitted to every meat-pan on which to lay meat or fowls, to keep them from becoming clammy by resting in the water; rub your fowls with a little butter and salt, place on this grate, pour boiling water into the pan, and put into the oven; let it cook about fifteen minutes, then baste with a little butter and salted water, kept in a bowl close by; dredge over some flour, and baste again; repeat the basting three or four times while the chickens are baking; turn them over every time; cook till a fork will enter the flesh easily, but taking care not to dry up the meat; then remove the skewers and thread with which they were sewed, put them on the platter and place in the heater, or where they will keep hot till the gravy is ready.

=Gravy for Roast or Baked Poultry.=--Put the giblets and neck into a small saucepan, sprinkle over a little salt and pepper, then cover them with boiling water and set on the back part of stove or range to cook slowly, as soon as you have put the poultry into the oven; dip the feet and legs into boiling water long enough to scald off all the leathery skin, and put them into the saucepan to boil with the giblets and neck. The feet and lower part of the leg, usually thrown away, contain a good deal of jelly, which gives a very desirable richness and body to the gravy, and when boiled tender many think them a great delicacy to be served whole. When the giblets are boiled tender, chop very fine, and while chopping dredge over flour till you have made them like a paste, then put back into the water they were boiled in to simmer till the chickens are done, stirring occasionally that the chopped giblets may not stick to the saucepan. After the fowls are taken up, set the meat-pan on the stove and shake some flour into the liquor at the bottom of the pan. By the time the poultry is cooked this should have been done to a brown gravy. After you have put in the flour, do not stir it until the liquor has boiled up over it, then rub it quite smooth, and little by little pour in the water in which the chopped giblets are; stir constantly until it thickens, and if properly managed you will have a smooth brown gravy of fine flavor.