Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book Part 41

_Tamarind Water._--This is a pleasant and cooling drink in fevers, allowing half a pint of cold water to as many tamarinds as you can take up with a table-spoon. Cover it, and let it stand for a few minutes.

_Apple Water._--Take four fine large juicy apples, (pippins or bellflowers,) core and pare them, and bake them side by side in a tin pan. When well done and quite soft all through, put them into a pitcher and fill up with warm water. Simmer them over the fire, and when quite soft mash them; and, if necessary, add more water till they become a thick liquid that can be drank. Sweeten well with loaf sugar, and if permitted, add some lemon juice or rose-water. Drink it cool.

_Egg Wine._--Break a nice fresh egg into a tumbler, and beat it till smooth and thick. Add a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, and stir in a gla.s.s of the best port wine. This, when permitted, is very strengthening and cheering for an invalid, to take about the hour of noon or earlier. When wine is not allowed, you may beat the egg into a gla.s.s of new unskimmed milk.

WHEY.--Milk can be converted into a curd by the infusion of rennet water, white wine, lemon juice, tamarind juice, or vinegar, stirred into good milk, covered and set in a warm place till the curd has formed, and has separated from the whey which remains beneath it. Take off the curd carefully, breaking it as little as possible, and put it into a deep dish. Pour the whey into a pitcher. It should look clear, and greenish rather than white, and have none of the milk curd remaining about it.

Set the pitcher on ice. It is an excellent drink in fevers. When approved, the curd may be eaten in a saucer with sugar. For rennet whey, cut a piece of dried rennet about two inches square, and wipe all the salt from the outside, but do not wash it. Soak the bit of rennet for several hours (or all night) in a small tea-cup of lukewarm water. Then pour the rennet water into the milk. For wine whey, boil a jill of sherry in a pint of milk, without stirring it.

TAPIOCA.--Having washed in cold water three heaped table-spoonfuls of tapioca; drain it, put it into a clean quart bowl, pour on water enough to cover it well, and soak it four hours. Then pour on as much more water, transfer the whole to a porcelain skillet, in the bottom of which you have laid the yellow peel of a fresh lemon, pared so thin as to be transparent, and boil the tapioca gently till it looks quite clear. Then take out the lemon peel, and stir in sufficient loaf sugar to make it very sweet. If approved, flavor it with some madeira or sherry, and some grated nutmeg. Tapioca may be boiled in plain milk, with no seasoning but the sugar to sweeten it.

_Sago._--Pick and wash clean, in two cold waters, a half pint of sago.

Put it into a porcelain skillet, with the yellow rind of a lemon pared transparent. Pour on it a quart of water, and let it all soak for two hours. Then set it over the fire, and boil it, gently, till the lemon is all to pieces and nearly dissolved, and the sago looks clear. Take out the lemon peel, and stir in, if permitted, some sherry wine, sugar, and grated nutmeg, and give it another boil.

If the above seasoning is not allowed, boil the sago in milk only, or water only, till the liquid becomes thick and like a jelly.

_Sago Pudding for an invalid._--Boil three table-spoonfuls of _soaked_ sago in a pint of milk till quite soft. Add gradually three ounces of white sugar, and set it away to cool. Beat three eggs till thick and smooth, and stir them by degrees into the sago and milk. Grate in some nutmeg, and bake the pudding in a deep dish. Tapioca pudding is made in the same manner.

SWEETBREADS FOR INVALIDS.--Cut open two fine fresh sweetbreads, and lay them in warm water till all the blood is discharged. Then transfer them to a pan of cold water to blanch or whiten. Stew them in the strained liquid of fresh oysters, till quite tender. When done, take out the sweetbreads, remove the gristle or pipe, and serve them up warm, having laid in the bottom of the dish a slice of nice toast that has been dipped for a minute in hot water. If permitted, the oysters may be cooked with the sweetbread, first removing the hard part.

STEWED SMELTS.--Smelts are considered a delicate and nutritious fish for invalids. They are in season in winter, and early in the spring. Choose them as large as you can find them. Having drawn and cleaned them, cut off their heads and tails. Put sufficient water to cover them in a small stew-pan, adding a very little powdered white sugar, and a few small sprigs of parsley, or sweet marjoram. When the water boils lay in the fish, and simmer them five minutes. Then stir in a very little arrow root, mixed with a few drops of cold water, and let it stew ten minutes longer. Serve up the stew in a small deep dish with a cover, and eat with it some very light bread-roll. It will be a pleasant change from the usual broths and infusions prepared for the sick.

_A Mola.s.ses Supper._--Make a thick slice of very nice toast, evenly browned on both sides, but not the least burnt. Lay it in a pint bowl, and pour over it a small half pint of the best _West India_ mola.s.ses, having stirred into the mola.s.ses a heaped table-spoonful of ground ginger. Mix the mola.s.ses with half a pint of hot water, and pour the whole over the toast. Cover it with a plate for a few minutes, and eat it while warm, previous to going to bed. This is a wholesome strengthening palatable supper for an invalid, (as we know by experience) and may be continued as long as the patient continues to like it. It is always a good winter supper for children. The ginger must on no account be omitted. If the mola.s.ses has turned a little sour, stir in a salt-spoonful of soda.

To prevent a jug of mola.s.ses from running over when kept in a warm place, pour out a little into another vessel, and leave the mola.s.ses jug uncorked for two days. Then cork it tightly.

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.

TEA.--No metal (not even silver,) is good for tea-pots. All tea should be made in china or queensware. Wedgewood (whether black or white) imbibes much of the essence of the tea, and from constant use soon becomes unpleasant. Britannia ware is exceedingly unwholesome for any sort of cooking, as one fourth of the composition is copper. Block tin for a common tea-pot is less objectionable, and much cheaper. All tea-pots should, after using, be thoroughly emptied of the old leaves, and washed very clean in warm water, and set open in the sun and air for several hours. To make good tea, the tea itself, whether black or green, must be of excellent quality. There is no economy in buying that which is low-priced. Green tea, if fresh and good, and not adulterated will look green in the cup, and have a fragrant odor. If it draws red, or brown, or blackish, it is old or mixed with something wrong. Begin to make your tea about a quarter of an hour before it is wanted. Scald the tea-pot (twice over) with boiling water. Then put in the tea, allowing three heaping table-spoonfuls to each person, and a pint of water, actually boiling, when put in. Cover it closely with the lid, and set it by the fire for ten or fifteen minutes to infuse. After the first cups have gone round, put some fresh tea into the pot, and pour on it some more boiling water, that the second cups may be as strong as the first, having time to infuse. Weak tea for company is very mean. For those that like it so, have a small pot of water on the server. If the water is not boiling fast when poured on the tea, and is beginning to cool, the tea will be flat and insipid, and the leaves will float on the surface of the cups. There is then no remedy but to make some fresh.

COFFEE.--To drink coffee in perfection, a sufficient quant.i.ty for breakfast should be roasted every morning, and ground hot, as it loses much of its strength by keeping even for a few hours. The best coffee roasters are iron cylinders, (standing on feet) with a door in one side, and a handle that turns the cylinder round towards the fire or from it, that the coffee may be equally done throughout. It must be roasted a bright brown color, and on no account black or burnt. When about half done, put in bits of fresh b.u.t.ter, allowing a table-spoonful to a pound of coffee. Previous to roasting pick the coffee carefully, throwing away the defective grains, and the stones or sand. Coffee should be ground while warm in a mill kept solely for that purpose, and fastened up against the kitchen wall.

For boiled coffee allow four ounces of ground coffee (or a quarter of a pound) to a quart of water. When the water boils, stir in the coffee.

Give it one hard boil up. Then set it farther from the fire, and simmer it for ten minutes, adding the white of an egg, (including the egg sh.e.l.l,) or a small strip of isingla.s.s. Pour out a large cup of the coffee, and then (holding it high above the coffee-pot,) pour it back again. Repeat this till wanted, and then set the coffee-pot beside the fire, (but not over it.) For company, allow six ounces of coffee to a quart of water. Keep the lid always on, but if when boiling hard it rises and seems inclined to run over, remove it instantly from the fire and set it back. Cream is indispensable to first-rate coffee; if not to be obtained sweet, subst.i.tute rich milk boiling hot. On no consideration fill up the coffee-pot with water. A percolator (to be had at the best tin stores) makes excellent coffee without boiling, if properly managed.

CHOCOLATE.--There is no plain chocolate better than Baker's prepared cacao, and none has so much of the true chocolate flavor. The foreign chocolate is generally mixed with sugar, spice, and milk. It cannot be made thick and strong, and therefore to many tastes is not agreeable. To make a pint (or two large cupfuls of chocolate,) sc.r.a.pe down two ounces on a plate, and moisten the chocolate with a jill of water, rubbing it on the plate till quite smooth. Then boil it five minutes, and add a small pint of water. When it has been well stirred with a wooden spoon, and has come again to a boil, serve it as hot as possible, accompanied by a saucer of fine loaf sugar, and a small jug of rich hot cream and a plate of nice dry toast, or some milk biscuits or sponge cake. Milled chocolate is made with rich unskimmed milk instead of water. The chocolate mill is a deep pot, belonging to which is a stick with a broad wheel-shaped bottom, the other end coming up through a hole in the lid.

Take this between your hands, and turn it round fast till the chocolate is finely frothed. Then transfer it to large cups. Chocolate, after it becomes cold, is unfit to drink. But if made with milk, you can convert what is left into a custard or pudding, with the addition of more sugar and some beaten egg. The low-priced chocolate is both unpalatable and unwholesome, being adulterated with animal fat or lard, and made with _old_ cacao beans.

MILK TOAST.--To a pint of nice rich milk allow a quarter of a pound of excellent _fresh_ b.u.t.ter. Boil the milk, and as soon as it boils take it off, and stir in the b.u.t.ter cut into pieces. When the b.u.t.ter has melted, give it another boil up Have ready a deep plate with four rather thick slices of bread, nicely and evenly toasted on both sides. Pour the milk hot over the toast, and keep it covered till it goes to the breakfast table. Send a spoon with it. Bread should always be toasted by a long-handled fork, such as are made for the purpose. They cost but twenty-five cents, and no kitchen should be without one.

b.u.t.tERED TOAST.--Cut even slices of bread all of the same thickness, and pare off the whole of the crust. With a long-handled toasting fork toast it evenly on both sides, taking care that no part of it is burnt or blackened. b.u.t.ter the slices hot, as you take them off the fork, (using none but nice fresh b.u.t.ter) and lay them evenly on a heated plate. Cover them till they go to table.

All toast prepared for cookery, (to lay in the bottom of dishes,) should have the crust pared off, and be dipped in hot water after toasting.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR.--Take a gallon of fine ripe raspberries. Put them into a large deep earthen pan, and mash them well with a wooden beetle.

Then pour them with all their juice into a large and very clean linen bag, and squeeze and press out their liquid into a vessel beneath.

Measure it, and to each pint of juice allow half a pint of the best and clearest cider vinegar, and half a pound of fine loaf sugar, powdered.

First mix the juice and the vinegar, and give them a boil in a porcelain kettle. Then stir in the sugar, gradually, adding to every two pounds of sugar a beaten white of egg. Boil and skim till the sc.u.m ceases to rise. When it is done, bottle it cold, cork it tightly, and seal the corks. To use it, pour out half a tumbler of raspberry vinegar, and fill up with ice water. It is a pleasant and cooling beverage in warm weather, and for invalids who are feverish. Mixed with hot water, and taken at bed-time, it is good for a cold.

_Strawberry Vinegar_--Is made in the above manner, carefully hulling them. The strawberries must be of the finest kind, and fully ripe. These vinegars are made with much less trouble than the usual way; and are quite as good, if not better.

MACARONI.--In buying macaroni, choose that of a large pipe; see that it is clean and white and that it has not been touched by insects. Half a pound makes one dish. If _soaked_ before boiling it is apt to dissolve or go to pieces, but wash and drain it through cold water in a sieve.

Have over the fire a large pan of boiling water, in which has been melted a piece of fresh b.u.t.ter the size of an egg. If boiled steadily, it will be quite tender in less than an hour; but do not boil it so long that the pipes break up and lose their shape. Having drained it well through a clean sieve, transfer it to a deep dish, dividing it into four layers, having first cut it into even lengths of two or three inches.

Between the layers place on it seasoning of grated cheese of the very best quality, and bits of fresh b.u.t.ter, with some powdered mace. On the top layer, add to the covering of cheese and b.u.t.ter sufficient bread-crumbs to form a slight crust all over the surface. Brown it with a salamander or a red hot shovel. Or (omitting the cheese) you may dress it with rich gravy of roast meat.

_For Sweet Macaroni._--Having boiled it in milk instead of water, drain it, and mix with it powdered mace and nutmeg, with b.u.t.ter, sugar, and rose or peach-water. Macaroni (like vermicelli) has in itself no taste, but is only made palatable by the manner of dressing it. Good soup is rather weakened than improved by the addition of macaroni.

COMMON OMELET.--Beat five eggs till very light and thick. Stir gradually into the pan of eggs four table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Thin the batter with a large tea-cup of milk. Take a yeast powder; dissolve the soda (from the blue paper) in a small quant.i.ty of tepid or lukewarm water, and stir it into the batter. In another cup melt the tartaric acid, (from the white paper;) stir that into the mixture, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready in a frying-pan a large portion of lard, boiling hot. Put in the omelet mixture, and fry it well. When one side is done turn it, and fry the other. To flavor this omelet, mix gradually into the batter either grated ham or smoked tongue; minced oysters; minced onion; mixed with sweet marjoram, or else some mushrooms chopped very fine.

_For a Sweet Omelet_, add to the above batter powdered sugar, nutmeg, mace, and powdered cinnamon.

The custom is now to dish omelets without folding them over, it being found that folding renders them heavy. Spread them out at full length on a very hot dish. The batter for omelets should always be made in sufficient quant.i.ty to allow them very thick.

There is no use in attempting to flavor an omelet, or any thing else, with marmalade or lemon, if you put in soda. The alkalies destroy the taste of every sort of fruit.

A PLAIN POTATO PUDDING.--Having pared a pound of fine large potatos, put them into a pot, cover them well with cold water, and boil them gently till tender all through. When done, lay each potato (one at a time,) in a clean warm napkin, and press and wring it till all the moisture is squeezed out, and the potato becomes a round, dry lump. Mince as fine as possible a quarter of a pound of fresh beef suet, (divested of skin, and strings.) Crumble the potato, and mix it well with the suet, adding a small salt-spoon of salt. Add sufficient milk to make a thick batter, and beat it well. Dip a strong square cloth in hot water, shake it out, and dredge it well with flour. Tie the pudding in, leaving room for it to swell, and put it into a large pot of hot water and boil it steady for an hour. This is a good and economical family pudding.

ELLEN CLARK'S PUDDING.--Slice, rather thick, some fresh bread. Pare off all the crust. b.u.t.ter the bread on both sides, and lay it in a deep dish. Fill up with mola.s.ses very profusely, having first seasoned the mola.s.ses with ginger, ground cinnamon, and powdered mace or nutmeg. It will be much improved by adding the grated yellow rind and the juice of a large lemon or orange. Bake it till brown all over the top, and till the bread and b.u.t.ter has absorbed the mola.s.ses; taking care not to let it burn.

ARROW-ROOT BISCUIT.--Mix in a pan half a pint of arrow-root, and half a pint of sifted wheat flour. Cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, and rub it into the pan of flour, crumbling the bits of b.u.t.ter so small as to be scarcely visible. Mix a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar, and wet it with a beaten egg. Add gradually a very little cream, just enough to make it into a stiff dough. Flavor it with the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon, and half a nutmeg grated. Roll out the dough into thin sheets, and cut it out into biscuits with the edge of a tumbler. p.r.i.c.k every biscuit all over with a fork. Lay them in square pans slightly floured, and bake them immediately. They will be improved by adding (at the last of the mixture) a table-spoonful of the best rose-water. If rose-water is put into cakes _early_ in the mixing, much of its strength will evaporate before baking. It should always be deferred to the last. These are very nice tea biscuits.

ONTARIO CAKE.--Take a pint and a half (or three large breakfast cups,) of sifted flour, and the same quant.i.ty of powdered white sugar, and half a pint of milk; a quarter of a pint or half a cup of the best fresh b.u.t.ter, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a large lemon. Have ready four well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast.

Cut up the b.u.t.ter into the pan of flour. Add the milk and sugar gradually, and then the beaten egg, and then the lemon; next the yeast.

Stir the whole very well, and set it to rise in a b.u.t.tered pan. Place it near the fire, and cover it with a clean flannel or a double cloth. When it has risen and is quite light, and is cracked all over the surface, transfer it to a square baking pan, put it immediately into the oven, and bake it well. When cool, either ice it or sift white sugar over it, and cut it into squares. Or, you may bake it in a round loaf, or in small round cakes.

NEW-YEAR'S CAKE.--Stir together a pound of nice fresh b.u.t.ter, and a pound of powdered white sugar, till they become a light thick cream.

Then stir in, gradually, three pounds of sifted flour. Add, by degrees, a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a small tea-cup of milk, and then a half salt-spoonful of tartaric acid, melted in a large table-spoonful of warm water. Then mix in, gradually, three table-spoonfuls of fine carraway seeds. Roll out the dough into sheets half an inch thick, and cut it with a jagging iron into oval or oblong cakes, p.r.i.c.ked with a fork. Bake them immediately in shallow iron pans, slightly greased with fresh b.u.t.ter. The bakers in New York ornament these cakes, with devices or pictures raised by a wooden stamp. They are good plain cakes for children.