Chapter XL

ENGLISH MUFFINS AND CRUMPETS—PICKLING AND CURING—ROAST BEEF-HEART—SOUSED MACKEREL.

MRS. WELLES’S visit was to have been a week only; but at the end of it it seemed as if they had but just got to the point of enjoying each other, and Mr. Welles was induced to spare her for a few days longer.

“I declare, Molly, when I came here I expected to do so much, both for you and myself, and I’ve done nothing.”

“Oh, yes; just consider my entertainment, what you did to help me in that; but there’s one thing I want this very day, that is, English muffins and crumpets. I have tried once or twice from recipes in my English cook-books, but they always give the quantities for a bakery,—a peck of flour, sometimes a bushel,—and it is difficult to reduce to my small needs; besides, I know success depends on consistency, and there is very little guidance given. ‘Water to make a soft dough’ is only stated; _how_ soft is not hinted, and the so-called English muffins in our books are very good as muffins, only they don’t happen to be the thing at all.”

“I know it is really only a question of consistency. I will make some this very day, if you have yeast in the house.”

“Yes, I am especially anxious to have them, because they are as good two days old as one, and in a little family like ours that is a great thing.”

It was Monday, and by the time the muffins had risen, washing would be over and the top of the fire free.

“We’ll go out and set them now.”

The setting was very simple, being only the making of a stiff bread-sponge. Half a cake of yeast was dissolved in a pint and a half of warm milk, into which a scant tea-spoonful of salt, two of sugar and one large one of butter warmed, were stirred. Into this as much dry, sifted flour was mixed (_about_ three pints) as would make an exceedingly stiff batter, in fact “stiffer than batter, softer than dough” may serve as an indication of the consistency, or “_almost_ too stiff to stir, _quite_ too soft to knead.” When this was beaten long and hard, one third was put into another bowl and this was thinned down with warm milk to a batter that would pour slowly. This was for crumpets, the only difference between the two being in consistency. They were covered and put behind the range to rise.

“Now let me have your book, Charlotte; I have the time, and will copy out what I want; but first give me a recipe for cooking beef heart. I remember what a good dish it was, and they are only ten or fifteen cents each, and there must be at least two pounds of solid meat in one.”

“There is; the only objection is the quickness with which heart chills, and the taste of cold suet is very disagreeable. This may be obviated by careful preparation, however; here is the recipe:

“Cut off the gristle and the ‘deaf ear,’ as the tough red lobe at the top is called, if the butcher has not done it, and trim off all the fat as closely as possible; then lay the heart in boiling water for half an hour, keeping it just simmering. When thus parboiled, dry it well and fill the three holes with nice stuffing, either sage, onion and bread crumbs made with equal proportions of boiled onions and crumbs, and chopped with ten large sage leaves to the pint, which must be dried till they powder, or highly seasoned veal-stuffing made as follows:

“VEAL-STUFFING.—Two ounces of beef suet, chopped very fine, four ounces of bread crumbs, one table-spoonful of chopped parsley, and half one each of thyme and marjoram, and the juice of half a lemon, half a tea-spoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper and a suspicion of nutmeg.

“Fill the heart full of whichever of these stuffings is preferred, but do not press it in tight. Skewer over the top several thin slices of fat pork, dredge it with flour, and bake it one hour and a half in a good oven. Make gravy of a cup of good soup or broth, poured into the pan in which the heart was baked, and thickened with a tea-spoonful of brown thickening. Many people like red currant jelly made hot and served with it as sauce. The platter and plates must be very hot and the heart covered as it goes to table.

“The next day it can be warmed over by cutting it into slices and gently stewing it in a rich gravy. It is nicer than venison thus prepared.”

When Molly had this written in her book she opened the one Mrs. Welles handed to her and, to select from the many there, read, before copying, the recipes that would be most useful to herself and Mrs. Lennox.

“I see you have preliminary remarks which will be valuable.”

“Yes, my mother’s experience, not my own; but she was a North-of-England woman and thought the London cured meat not worth eating.”

Under the head of _general rules_ Molly read:

Avoid salting meat in hot weather; from October to April is the right season. If forced to do it, however, cut it up and sprinkle it with salt before the animal heat leaves it. If hung even for an hour, there is danger from flies.

In cool weather, meat should hang three or four days to get tender before eating, but be very careful it does not become frost-bitten. In very cold weather, make the salt hot before using it.

The great art in salting meat is to turn it every day carefully, rubbing salt under every flap or double part, and filling all holes with salt wherever a kernel has been cut out, or a skewer has been in.

Use as little salt as will preserve the meat, as it will leave it more juicy and tender. Two ounces of bay salt, two of coarse sugar, and three quarters of a pound of common salt is a good proportion, and is enough for ten or twelve pounds of meat. Do not put on all the salt at once; have it rolled and dried, and use half the first day, and the remainder two or three days after. Then the blood from the first salting must be drained off. Sugar preserves meat as well as salt; hence its use, for it renders less salt necessary, and meat is more tender with it. Saltpetre is only useful for reddening meat, but is apt to harden it; if wanted red, however, take half an ounce of saltpetre and one of coarse sugar; this must be rubbed in the third day after the first slight salting; the common and bay salt the next day.

A small piece—eight or ten pounds—of pork or beef will require six or seven days; a large piece may be allowed a fortnight.

PICKLING MEAT.—Many prefer to boil the meat in water, instead of rubbing dry salt in. The proportions of this pickle are, two gallons of water, three pounds of salt, half a pound of coarse brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre. Boil together and skim very well while boiling. Let it become quite cold before putting in the meat, which must be carefully wiped from slime or blood and any pipes or kernels removed.

All meat, while salting, should be kept closely covered.

DUTCH BEEF.—Get a fine piece of round of beef; rub it well with one pound of coarse sugar. Do this twice a day for three days, using same sugar. When the sugar has thoroughly penetrated the meat, wipe dry, and salt with the following mixture: Common and bay salt, of each four ounces; saltpetre and sal prunel, of each two ounces; black pepper and allspice, of each one ounce. Rub well and continue to do so for a fortnight, then roll the beef tight in a cloth, sew it up, and it is ready for smoking. The smoking should be long enough to thoroughly and slowly dry the meat, but not long enough for the covering to separate.

This beef may be cut and boiled as wanted. It should be pressed with a weight till cold. This will keep two or three months after it is boiled, if it is rubbed all over with hot fat (lard or suet melted), and a layer of fat put over a fresh-cut surface. This is delicious if a piece is cut off, put to dry slowly, and grated for sandwiches.

MUTTON HAMS.—Coarse sugar, bay salt, and common salt, equal parts, and to each pound of this mixture add, of saltpetre and sal prunel, one ounce each, of black pepper, allspice, juniper berries, and coriander seeds, all bruised, half an ounce each. Dry them all before the fire, and rub into the meat while hot. This is an excellent pickle for tongues. Smoke as any other ham. Mutton hams are usually fried or broiled in rashers, or _thin_ slices as you would pork ham.

WORCESTERSHIRE SAUSAGES.—These are made entirely of beef. Choose a fine, juicy round steak; chop it extremely fine. Allow two parts lean, one part fat, and one part bread crumbs; season pretty high with pepper and salt (and allspice if liked). Allow to each pound eight sage leaves, dried and rubbed fine, with half a salt-spoonful of knotted marjoram. Put them in skins if you can, and cook as any other sausage.

RED BEEF FOR SLICING COLD.—The best part for this purpose is the thin flank. Take off the skinny inside, and salt the meat for a week or ten days with the following mixture rubbed in and turned morning and night: Common salt, one pound; saltpetre and bay salt, each one ounce; coarse brown sugar, a quarter of a pound. Pound and mix, using of the mixture more or less according to the size of the meat. When salt enough, wipe the meat dry; sprinkle over it black pepper, a little powdered mace and cloves, an onion chopped fine and some parsley. Roll it up, bind it tight with a strip of muslin, and boil it slowly three hours, or longer if large. Press with a heavy weight without removing the band. When cold remove the band and cut in very thin slices as required.

“Well, I think now if Mrs. Lennox and I get meat in large quantities this winter, we shall not need to let any of it spoil for lack of ways to keep it,” said Molly, as she prepared to copy the recipes she had read.

“No; but remember that mutton will keep for six weeks in cold, dry weather, even when not frozen, if it is well floured and a little ginger is put in the crevices. If it freezes and then thaws, it will generally need cooking, but the longer you can keep it the better it will be, so that it does not taint. The outer skin may even get mouldy, but you will only scrape the skin and trim it. If very mouldy and likely to give a taste, plunge it, after scraping, into boiling water; dry it thoroughly and bake in a very sharp oven. But all meat for keeping must _hang_, not _lie_, and hang in a current of _pure_ air.”

“Thank you for the hint. What is this? Soused mackerel?” She had turned to the end of the note-book as she spoke. “I remember eating them at your house, and how good they were; that recipe also is going down in my book.”

SOUSED MACKEREL.—Clean, but do not split, four or six fresh mackerel; boil them in water just to cover, in which are one clove, three allspice, one tea-spoonful of salt and a quarter one of pepper to each fish. Take the fish out as soon as done, and before they break lay them in a deep dish. Boil the water in which they were cooked down to half; put to it an equal quantity of vinegar (unless the latter is very strong, when one-third will do), and pour it over the fish.

SOUSED MACKEREL ANOTHER WAY—“and that is the way I like best,” said Mrs. Welles, and Molly read: Put three or four mackerel in an earthen dish, sprinkle over each mackerel a small tea-spoonful of salt, a sixth of pepper, and allow to each two allspice and half a blade of mace and half a bay leaf; mix vinegar and water in equal proportion, and pour enough over to cover the fish; put them in a very slow oven for three or four hours. By that time the liquor will have diminished until there is only enough to serve with the fish. These fish will keep for several weeks in cold weather. If the vinegar is very strong, use less in proportion.

After luncheon, Mrs. Welles went to look at her muffins. They were hardly light, but the crumpets were so nearly ready that she put on the griddle.

“You happen to have a soap-stone griddle! that is the very thing needed for muffins, though one can manage to bake on an iron one.”

“Yes, I am promising myself inodorous buckwheat cakes this winter with that.”

It took the griddle half an hour to get thoroughly hot.

“Of course you have no crumpet-rings?”

“No; but if these are a success I shall get a few made; meanwhile, won’t muffin rings do? They are the large, old-fashioned sort.”

“We must make them do; but I can’t bear anything not to look _just_ right. I never fancy they eat well if they do not.” Molly handed out a bundle of large old rings which Mrs. Welles greased and laid on the griddle; then, when they were hot, she poured into each batter to the depth of a quarter of an inch, drawing the griddle a little back as she did so. She did not attempt to turn them until the top was full of holes and the batter had dried; then they were turned for about three minutes; except that they were more slowly cooked, the baking was the same as for what are usually called raised muffins, and they appeared the same, but not quite so thick. They should not be more than half an inch thick when cooked. When they were done the muffins were ready to bake; the paste was like honeycomb.

“Now the whole difficulty with these is shaping them, and it requires practice. I don’t know that I shall manage it; for it is years since I made them.”

The pastry-board was put on the table, a good deal of flour spread on it, and the paste turned out very gently.

“You see, Molly, that the griddle is hot, yet not too hot.”

As she spoke she lightly cut off bits of the soft dough about the size of a duck’s egg. She could not touch them easily, for they were too soft, but they were rolled about in the flour (taking care not to press them), which was not worked into them, and they were left in a sort of bed of it. When half a dozen were done, she took one up very gingerly, tossing it gently back and forth between her floured hands, to get rid of the superfluous flour, and also because she could not let them remain in one position for fear of their sticking to her hands, yet so carefully as not to press the lightness out. When she reached the griddle she lightly dropped the muffin in as round a form as possible on it. When half a dozen were put on in the same way, they were left to swell and get round and dry-looking, before the griddle was put forward to give them a slight browning. When the top looked no longer raw, they were gently turned and left five minutes the other side. The baking took about twenty minutes, and they were over an inch thick when done.

“I know one thing,—if _I_ make these, I will have rings made four inches in diameter expressly for English muffins, although I know the real ones are baked without rings. It can’t make much difference to the quality, and will save much trouble to unpracticed hands.”

“I think so too.”

There were a great many more muffins and crumpets than were likely to be used in their small family, and Molly said she should send some to Mrs. Lennox.

“Then pray send the directions how to eat them, or they will simply put them in the oven, and they will be like leather. When some people have offered me real English muffins, bought at Pursell’s, with the crust like leather, I have been astonished that they could like them, and thought how they would enjoy them prepared in real English fashion.”

Molly penned a little note of directions as follows:

DEAR MRS. LENNOX:—I send you some English muffins and
crumpets made by Mrs. Welles, who is anxious that _you_
at least should eat them as they are eaten in her
country. She scouts the idea of their being simply made
hot in the oven, and is only surprised that, eaten
that way, they should be as much in favor as they are.
Both are to be toasted, and are better the day after
they are made. The crumpets are toasted both sides
until hot through, slightly browner and _crisp_; then
butter, very little salted, must be plentifully laid in
little bits on each one as it is toasted; then put it
in the oven while you toast the other. When the second
is done, the butter on the first will be soft enough
to spread without pressure. When all are buttered, cut
once through the middle.

The muffins are also toasted. They must be broken all
round the edge as if you were going to split them, then
toasted on _both_ sides until the crust will crack
under the thumb nail. Rip them open quickly, put a
bountiful supply of butter, in small pieces, on the
inside of each half; close it and put it in the oven
while another is being toasted. When it comes out the
butter will be melted. Never attempt to spread them
first, or they will be heavy. If the butter has not
spread all over, you may gently use a knife to make it
even, but _without pressure_. When each muffin is put
together again, spread a little butter on the outer
crust, and cut them through the middle.

The essentials are that they should be well toasted,
so as to be _hot_ through and crisp outside, then so
quickly buttered as not to get cold, and to be served
very hot. There is a covered dish on purpose, called
a muffineer, but lacking that, a hot bowl should be
turned over them to keep them hot.

It is English fashion, for tea, to serve both muffins
and crumpets. They are handed round together, a plate
of each, some preferring one, some the other. At
breakfast, muffins alone are usual. I just say the last
to round up the matter, not that I suppose you will
care one bit what the English mode of _serving_ is, but
I do think, for the sake of our digestion, we should
either eat them toasted or let them alone. I send you
over my receipt-book, in which I have copied some
things that may be useful to both of us. You tell me
Mr. Lennox writes out such things for you, and you can
keep the book until he has leisure.

Yours sincerely,
MOLLY BISHOP.

The pork hocks had been put on early for the mock brawn, and taken out and boned. The stock was now made, and Molly seasoned and prepared it in accordance with her plan. The pieces of pork, the seasoning, and the best of the beef, cut into pieces about two inches square, and of which there was about twice as much as there was pork, were put into the liquor, heated once together, and then poured into a pan. It looked rather like head cheese. When cold, it turned out in a slab. Part was sent to Mrs. Lennox with an explanation of what it was; part to Mrs. Gibbs, with the rest of the meat made into the usual hash for her; and the remainder was kept for home purposes, for both Mrs. Welles and Marta found it very relishing.