A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery Part 6

SALT CODFISH, STEWED IN CREAM.

Next take the recipe for salt codfish, stewed in cream. First, to freshen salt codfish; that, of course, is always the first thing you do with salt codfish, no matter how you finish. You can do that by soaking it over night in cold water; if it has any skin on it be sure to have the skin side up. If you put it in the water with the skin side down, the salt which soaks out of the fibre of the fish simply falls against the skin and stays there. The fish does not get any fresher. A great deal of codfish in these days is sent to the market without either skin or bone. Supposing we have the regulation dried codfish, we skin and bone it, then soak it over night in cold water, and next morning put it over the fire in more cold water, plenty of it, and put the kettle or pan containing the fish and the cold water on the back part of the stove, where it will heat very gradually. Do not let it boil at all, but keep it at a scalding heat. Do not more than let it simmer. The effect of the boiling on any salted fibre, whether it is fish or meat, is simply to harden it. Keep it at a scalding heat until the fish is tender. Of course that will depend upon the dryness of the fish. It may take a half hour, it may take an hour. That is one way to freshen fish.

Another way--the way I am doing now--is accomplished more quickly by putting the fish over the fire in plenty of cold water, enough to cover it; set it on the stove where it will heat gradually. When the water is nearly hot on the fish pour it off and put more cold water on. Let that get scalding hot; do not let it boil at all; simply let it get scalding hot--that is, let the steam begin to rise from it. Change the water as often as it gets scalding hot, until the fish is tender. If you are careful to change the water often enough, that is, if you do not let it begin to boil, probably the fish will be tender in half an hour--from half to three-quarters of an hour. The time will depend upon the dryness of the fibre of the fish. Generally in about half an hour it will be tender. As soon as the fish is tender drain it, and then it is ready to dress in any way you wish to use it. To-day I shall make a little cream sauce, and heat the fish in it. That will be codfish stewed in cream sauce. Boiled codfish you would serve with boiled potatoes, and the white sauce is made either with water or milk and hard-boiled eggs. That is the old New England salt fish dinner. Usually, with a salt codfish dinner there were boiled parsnips and sometimes boiled beets; and it is very nice if you like codfish. For codfish hash, the old-fas.h.i.+oned codfish hash, use simply boiled codfish torn apart, forked in little fine flakes or chopped in fine flakes; of course all the skin and bone is taken off, mixed with an equal quant.i.ty of boiled potatoes, either mashed or chopped fine, palatably seasoned with pepper; of course the fish would be salt enough, usually; for a pint bowl full of fish and potatoes, use a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter. The fish and potatoes are thoroughly mixed, then put into a frying pan, with just enough b.u.t.ter or drippings to keep it from burning. You may put, for the quant.i.ty I have given you, a heaping tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter in the frying pan, and let it melt; then put in the fish, and continue stirring it. Remember there is some b.u.t.ter in the hash already, and that will melt with the heat and probably be enough; but if you need any more to prevent its burning, add a tablespoonful. Stir the hash until it is scalding hot; then push it to one side of the frying pan with the knife you are stirring it with, and form it into a little oval cake at one side of the frying pan. When the hash is thoroughly hot, the b.u.t.ter in it will begin to fry out of it, and there probably will be b.u.t.ter enough to prevent its burning. Let it stand in the little cake at the side of the pan until it is browned on the bottom. You want to watch it a little, and now and then run a knife under it and loosen it from the pan, to make sure that it is not burning. Then, when the bottom is browned, hold a plate in one hand and the frying pan in the other, and turn the fish out in a little cake on the plate or dish.

CODFISH CAKES.

To make codfish cakes, first make the fish fine; after freshening it and taking off the skin and bone, chop it or tear it in fine flakes; mix it with an equal quant.i.ty of potato either mashed or chopped--mashed potato is rather better for codfish cakes because you can pack it a little more closely in the form of cakes. To a pint bowlful of codfish hash add a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, a palatable seasoning of pepper and the yolk of one raw egg. That is, half codfish, half potato, a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter and the yolk of one raw egg, and a palatable seasoning of pepper.

Then dust your hands, with dry flour; take a tablespoonful of this mixture up in your hand and either form it in the shape of a round ball or flat cake, as you like. Have ready a frying kettle or deep frying pan with enough fat or drippings, or lard, in it to cover three or four of the codfish cakes or b.a.l.l.s, when you drop them into it. So that if you use a frying pan you must have a deep frying pan. You may make in that case codfish cakes, not b.a.l.l.s. If you have a frying kettle you can make little round b.a.l.l.s. When the fat is smoking hot drop the codfish cakes or b.a.l.l.s into it and fry them just a golden brown, light brown. Take them out of the fat with a skimmer and lay them on brown paper for a moment to free them from grease, then serve them hot.

You will notice that I always tell you in frying everything to take it out of the fat and lay it for a moment on brown paper, because then you are sure to free it from grease. Not necessarily very coa.r.s.e paper; just ordinary brown wrapping paper. I do not mean manila paper, but the common brown wrapping paper that comes around groceries and meat, that tradesmen generally use. The paper must be porous so that the grease will be easily absorbed. That is the only point you have to remember.

The usual way of frying codfish cakes is simply to put fat enough in the pan to keep them from sticking, and in that way they are not browned all over, that is, they are not browned on the sides. They are simply browned on the top and on the bottom, and the fat has, of course, generally soaked into them so that you get them thoroughly greasy unless you have fat enough to cover them and have the fat smoking hot when you put them in. In frying it is very easy to use the fat repeatedly, if you only remember one thing. The fat you fry fish in you want to keep always for fish; then you can fry anything else, meat, chicken, fritters or doughnuts, in the other fat. Generally keep two jars or crocks of fat, and take care only to let the fat get smoking hot in frying, and as soon as you have done frying set the kettle off the stove so that the fat does not burn; let it cool a very little, then strain it through a cloth into an earthen bowl and let it get cold. Wash the frying kettle out and clean it thoroughly, and then you can put the fat back in it, and it will be ready for the next time, if you use a porcelain-lined kettle; if you use a metal kettle for frying, tin or anything of that sort, do not put the fat in it till you are ready to use it again, because it might rust it a little. If you strain it through an ordinarily thick towel there will be no sediment. If you strain it through a sieve there will be a little sediment that will settle to the bottom of the fat, and you can turn the cake of fat out of the bowl when it is cold and sc.r.a.pe that off. The best way is to strain through a cloth in the first place. If you are careful with the fat you can use it repeatedly,--use it a dozen times or more, until it really is nearly used up. But if you are careless and let it burn, of course you very soon get it so dark in color that it colors anything directly you put it in, before it is cooked, and it has a burnt taste. But if you use it at the heat I tell you, just smoking hot, and do not let it burn, you can use it repeatedly. Sometimes you can lift it out in one solid cake when it is cold; sometimes you will have to break it and take it off in more than one piece. On the bottom of the cake you will find a little brownish sediment which you must sc.r.a.pe off. Then you have the fat clarified and ready for use. For ordinary frying purposes the straining through the towel will answer. An earthen bowl is the best for keeping the fat in the kitchen, very much better than metal of any kind.

STEWED CARROTS.

Next take the recipe for stewed carrots. Carrots, peeled, as many as you wish to make a dishful; cut them in rather small slices, a quarter of an inch thick, put them over the fire in salted boiling water enough to cover them; boil them steadily until they are tender. That will be in perhaps half or three-quarters of an hour; if the carrots are young and fresh they will boil in half an hour; longer as the season advances and the carrots grow denser in their fibre. Late in the winter it may take an hour or even an hour and a half if they are very large and woody.

Boil them until they are tender. Then drain them and throw them into plenty of cold water, and let them get thoroughly cold. While they are cooling make a sauce of water or of milk, as you like. If you have an ordinary vegetable dish full of carrots you want about a pint of sauce.

In that case you will make the sauce as I have told you several times: a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, and a tablespoonful of flour for a pint of sauce; melt the b.u.t.ter and flour together over the fire, stirring them constantly until they bubble and are smoothly mixed; then begin to add half a cupful at a time the milk or water that you are going to use in making the sauce; stir each half cupful in smooth before you add any more water. If the milk or water is hot, of course the sauce will be cooked all the more quickly. Let the sauce boil for a minute, stirring all the time, then season with a level teaspoonful of salt for a pint of sauce, a quarter of a saltspoonful of pepper, remembering what I have said about using white pepper. Drain the carrots from the cold water and put them into the sauce to heat. While they are heating--and that will only take three or four minutes--chop a tablespoonful of parsley fine, and stir it among the carrots; then serve them as soon as they are hot.

You may make the addition of parsley or not, as you like, but it is very nice. In some seasons of the year you can not have the parsley. If you have not parsley, and have made the sauce of water, you will improve the dish very much if you stir the yolk of a raw egg into the sauce and carrots when you take them off the fire, just before you dish them. I will do that to-day. I will make a sauce of water and add the yolk of an egg. You had better put two or three tablespoons of sauce into a cup with the egg and mix it, and then pour that into the sauce and stir it well. In chopping parsley use just the leaves, not the stalks; put them in the chopping bowl and chop them fine. If you chop on a board steady the point of a knife with one hand and use an up-and-down motion with the other hand. Of course you can understand that using a long knife in chopping you can chop very much more quickly than you could in a chopping bowl, where you only get a circular cut. One of the ladies asks me the object of putting the carrots in cold water. They are put first in boiling salted water-to set their color. The action of the salt in the boiling water slightly hardens the surface so that the color does not boil out. Then if you take them at the point when they are tender you check the boiling at once by the cold water and secure the color entirely. Of course you will understand that by draining them and throwing them into cold water you check the heat at once. If you simply let them stand in the water and gradually soften and soak, letting the water keep warm, you would soak the color out. That follows with all boiled vegetables. Where we want to preserve the color this is the simplest and easiest way to do it.

_Question._ Can the color of beets be preserved in the way you speak of?

MISS CORSON. No, beets have to be boiled differently from any other vegetable. If you break the skin of beets, or cut them in any way, the color escapes in the water. So that to prepare the beets for boiling, wash them very carefully without breaking the skin. Do not cut off the roots or the tops of the beets close; leave some of the roots and three or four inches of the stalk. Do not trim them off close, because if you cut the roots or stalks close to the beet you make a cut whence the color can escape; wash them very carefully without breaking the skin.

Put them over the fire in boiling water. You do not need to salt it, in fact, it is better not to salt it. Boil them until they grow tender to the touch. If you puncture the beet with a fork or knife, to try it, you let the color out, but you can take one of the beets up on a skimmer and use a thick towel and hold it in your hand and squeeze it to see if it is growing soft. Do not break the skin, always remember that. When the beet is tender you will find that it will yield a little, between your fingers, and the length of time required for cooking them will be from half an hour to two hours and a half, perhaps even longer than that.

Young, tender, juicy beets may be cooked in half an hour. The older they are, the later it is in the season, the harder the woody fibre will be, and the longer it will take to cook them. After they are cooked really tender, then throw them into a bowl of cold water and rub off the skin with a wet towel. Do not leave them soaking in cold water.

VENISON WITH CURRANT JELLY.

Take the recipe for venison now, ladies. Enough b.u.t.ter to cover the bottom of the pan about a quarter of an inch. Let it get smoking hot, then put in the venison. You must have the pan large enough to hold the venison. As soon as the venison is brown on one side turn it and brown it on the other. Brown it very fast. As soon as the venison is browned put with it the currant jelly. For every pound of venison use two tablespoonfuls of currant jelly--not heaping spoonfuls; or you might put one heaping tablespoonful for every pound of venison. As soon as the venison is brown put the currant jelly in with it. Put the pan back where it will not be too hot, and finish cooking the venison until it is done to suit your taste. It will cook, if it is an inch thick, pretty well done in about twenty minutes. Season it with salt and pepper, and when it is done put it on the platter and pour the currant jelly and b.u.t.ter over it. The cooking of the jelly with the venison makes it a nice sauce or gravy.

_Question._ Wouldn't this be a nice way to cook buffalo or any other kind of game?

MISS CORSON. Yes, it is a very good way.

LECTURE EIGHTH.

MEATS AND VEGETABLES.

We will begin to-day with so-called roast beef, it is really baked. This is what is called a shoulder cut of beef, and is just as the butcher has sent it home, that is, without any of the bones being taken out. This thin part of the beef can be either roasted with the rest or cut off and used as a stew. It is not very available at the table. It almost always is tough, and there is a great deal of fat proportionately. The lean that is there is very apt to dry and harden in the baking. So that the best way to use the part is to cut it off and cook it separately. Have the beef cut large enough to give a roast from the thickest part. The white line of cartilage will be sure to bother in carving, and the best way is to cut it out before you cook the meat. You can cut it out without any difficulty. You can also cut off the bone entirely. You will not find that doing this will make the meat waste if you bake it or roast it properly, and you can carve it more easily and more economically. Carving when the bone is in the meat you are sure to leave more meat on than you really want to, and it is quite a difficult matter to carve even slices when the bone is in the meat. It is a very easy matter to take the bone out, and then either use the bone for soup meat or put it in the pan with the meat and let it bake as the basis for gravy. You will notice both in cutting the cartilage and the bone, I do not take off any meat. I simply cut close, and take away the parts I wish to remove without wasting any of the meat. That leaves a solid piece of meat which offers no difficulty in carving; you can either fasten it in shape by tying a string around it or by running a few skewers through it. The better way is to tie it with a string, because the skewers will make holes and permit the juice to escape. You can either take off the thin, outside skin of the beef or wipe it as I have already said, with a wet towel. With good beef the skin is so exceedingly thin that it is not objectionable in carving or to the taste. With poor beef, the skin is decidedly leathery, and then it is advisable to take it off.

_Question._ How many pounds were there in your piece altogether, before you began to cut it?

MISS CORSON. Oh, I fancy it weighed five or six pounds. Of course you use the number of pounds that your family requires. I am speaking of dividing the meat so as to cook it in the most economical manner. You would buy a sufficiently large piece in weight to give you the thick part--large enough for your family for the roast, and the other part you use for the stew subsequently. We made a beef stew one day, here, I think. Roasting is cooking meat before the direct blaze of the open fire. Baking is cooking it in the oven. Nearly all the so-called roast beef that we get is baked beef. It is not quite so delicate as real roast beef. You can accomplish the roasting of beef with any range or kitchen stove that has a large grate, that is, a grate where you can have a clear surface of coals against the grate, by using what is called a Dutch oven. This is a tin box, with one side open and a little hook in the top of the box, from which you can hang the meat. Then in the bottom part of the tin case there is a pan that catches the drippings. After you have got the meat all ready, you put the Dutch oven in front of the grate, standing it so that the open side of the Dutch oven is directly in front of the grate of your stove or range. You will find that the bright tin of the oven will reflect heat enough to cook the meat nicely.

There you get a genuine roast. You do not get an old-fas.h.i.+oned roast on a spit before the open fire, but you get a nice roast. Generally those little hooks are so arranged that the meat swings a little--swings and turns, and if the hooks are not so arranged, once in a while, say once in half an hour, you want to turn it.

Now, suppose you have not that oven, but still have an open fire, you can roast. I have roasted a chicken before a grate fire in the sitting room. You can roast small birds of any kind in that way, by putting something on the mantel piece heavy enough to support the weight of the bird. Tie a string around the bird or around the piece of beef and let it hang down in front of the fire. Put a platter under it or a dripping pan, and put the blower up in front of it. You might be amused at the idea of doing that as an experiment. I have made coffee in an old tomato can as an experiment, to see whether it can be done, and it is just as nice as any you could possibly make in the finest French coffee pot.

After all there are many expedients that you can resort to in cooking with good results.

After the meat is browned on the outside, whether you are roasting or baking, season it. Get it browned first on the outside very quickly, then season it with salt and pepper, and after that moderate the heat of the oven, or draw the Dutch oven a little away from the fire, and finish cooking till the meat is done, allowing fifteen minutes to the pound if you want it medium rare, about twenty minutes to the pound if you want it very well done. If you are baking the meat put it in the hottest oven, without any seasoning at all, without any water in the pan. You will find that the meat will yield drippings enough for basting. Our chicken that we basted yesterday,--do you remember how nice and brown that was? Pretty well basted, wasn't it? That had nothing in the pan for basting except the drippings which flowed from the chicken itself. Put the meat in the hottest oven until it is browned, and then moderate the heat and cook the meat fifteen minutes to the pound. We might do what the French call braise the end of the roast, if you like to see the effect of slow cooking. One difficulty that we labor under here is that we have to use a very intense heat, otherwise the flame of this vapor stove goes out. In order to braise successfully you want a very gentle and continuous heat,--such as you would get on the back part of a cooking stove,--just heat enough to keep the meat simmering. We will do as well as we can by keeping the sauce pan at one side of the fire, and then I will describe the braising process, so that you can do it perfectly at home. If we have any cabbage we will braise the meat with it. That makes a dish that is used very much in the north of Europe, in Poland and Sweden. I think I will give you the recipe, whether we have our cabbage or not.

Use a large pot or sauce pan, large enough to allow you to lay the piece of meat on the bottom; or, you can use a thick, deep, iron pan. I remember, several days ago, seeing in the hardware stores pans about ten inches high, pans made of Russia iron, oval. You can use that for quite a large piece of meat if you have not a sauce pan. You want a pan deep enough to allow the water to come just over the beef. Put water in the pan, enough to cover the beef, and let it get boiling hot. I will give you two methods of braising. When the water is boiling hot, put the beef in it; watch it carefully until it just begins to boil again. The moment it boils, push back the pot or pan in which it is far enough away from the hot part of the stove to keep the water only simmering, only bubbling, not boiling. Put in whatever seasoning you like. If you use spice, cloves for instance, or mace, use it whole. If you use simply salt and pepper, of course use them in the powder. Keep the cover very tightly over the pot or sauce pan, and cook the meat in that slow, gentle way, for at least two hours. A piece weighing not more than four or five pounds you want to cook at least two hours, or until it is tender. Remember to cook very, very slowly. That is a very simple and easy way of braising, which any one can accomplish.

Now I am going to give you the French method of braising. Cut part of the fat off the meat, about half the fat off the meat. Put the part that you cut off in the bottom of the pot. Lay the meat on the fat. That is the way we will cook our meat to-day, because I have decided to cook the cabbage in another way. After you have put the fat in the bottom of the sauce pan, lay the meat on it, with the fat part up, so that, you see, you have fat under and over the meat. On top or by the side of the meat put an onion of medium size, peeled and stuck with about a dozen cloves.

Put parsley, if you have it, about a tablespoonful of leaves, or some stalks, or parsley root; but remember that the flavor of parsley root is very much stronger than the leaf, so that you will use proportionately less root. One bay leaf, a tablespoonful of carrot, sliced, about a tablespoonful of turnip, sliced, and a level teaspoonful of peppercorns--unground pepper--or a small red pepper. Then boiling water enough just to cover the meat. Then put on the cover of the sauce pan, and put the meat where it will simmer very gently until it is quite tender. The French always braise in what is called a braising pan; that is, two oval pans made in such a way that one sets into the other, and goes about a third of the way down. They put the article that is to be braised in the bottom pan, and then in the top pan they put hot ashes, or coals of wood or charcoal, mixed with ashes; so that there is heat top and bottom; then they put their braising pan by the side of the fire or at the back of the stove, where it will have a gentle heat, and cook it for a very long time. They braise it four or five hours, and it makes the toughest meat tender. After you once bring the meat to the boiling point you must not boil it fast; if you boil it fast you will make it very much tougher. After you get it to the boiling point keep it there, and cook it slowly, and long enough so that it will be sure to be tender. If you are sure the meat is tough in the beginning, put half a cupful of vinegar into the water with it. You won't notice the vinegar when you come to eat the meat, and it will help to make the meat tender.

The French, of course, use the ordinary wine of the country,--a sour wine,--it has the same effect; it is about as sour as vinegar, and has about the same effect. I think, indeed, that is the reason why the French use so much wine in cooking meat. They use a very acid wine always, and probably use it for the purpose of making the meat tender in many instances. Put in salt, but not too much, for the effect of salt, while the meat is boiling, would be to harden it. Just a little salt, and then in seasoning your gravy you can add more salt. After the meat is braised French fas.h.i.+on, it is taken out of the broth, and the broth is strained and then used as a broth or soup, or made into a gravy.

To make the gravy, for each pint of gravy that you wish to make, use a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter or beef drippings and a tablespoonful of flour.

Stir the drippings and flour over the fire in a sauce pan until they are brown. Then begin to add the seasoned broth in which the meat was cooked, half a cupful at a time, stirring it until it is smooth each time, until it boils; then season it with salt and pepper, remembering that the broth is already seasoned, so that you have to taste it. That makes a very nice gravy or sauce. Of course, you have plenty of broth, so you can make as much of it as you like.

Take now a recipe for cooking cabbage to serve with braised meat. For a cabbage of medium size,--that is, a cabbage about as large as a breakfast plate,--first wash the cabbage thoroughly, cutting away any part of the stalk that seems woody. Then cut the cabbage in rather thin slices. That is very easy. Lay it on the board and cut it down through.

You would need a large sauce pan to cook a cabbage as large as a breakfast plate, because remember when it is cut up it takes up more s.p.a.ce. Put in the bottom of the sauce pan a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter or drippings. If you are braising your meat you can open the pot and dip some of the drippings out of it. A tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter or drippings, half a cupful of vinegar, a tablespoonful of cloves, a teaspoonful of peppercorns and a tablespoonful of brown sugar. Then put in the cabbage on top of these things. Put the cover on the sauce pan, set it over the fire where it will steam. Be very careful not to let it burn. Keep it on the back part of the fire where it will simmer. Keep it covered. Every fifteen minutes take off the cover, and with a large fork or spoon lift the cabbage from the bottom so that the top uncooked part goes down to the bottom. In about an hour the cabbage will be tender. You do not need to begin to cook that until within, say an hour and a quarter of the time the beef is likely to be done. To serve it, turn it on a dish, leaving the spice, cloves and pepper in with it, and lay the beef on it.

Just moisten the cabbage with a little gravy or broth from the beef, and serve the rest of the gravy in a bowl; remember that the broth from the meat is salted, and that in moistening the cabbage it seasons it, or if you like very much salt you can put a little with the cabbage in cooking.

Now, to boil cabbage quickly, and without odor: After thoroughly was.h.i.+ng it take off the decayed leaves, cut it in rather small pieces, but do not use the stalk of the cabbage--avoid that. Put over the fire a sauce pan large enough to hold the cabbage twice over. Have plenty of s.p.a.ce in your sauce pan or kettle, fill it half full of water, put plenty of salt in the water,--that is, a level tablespoonful of salt to about a quart of water,--let the water boil; be sure that it is boiling fast. Then put in the cabbage; get it boiling again just as fast as you can, and continue to boil it just as fast as you can until it is tender. That will be in from ten to twenty-five minutes, according to the age of the cabbage. Young cabbage, early in the season, will boil tender in ten minutes; or it may take 15, 20 or 25. It never takes over a half hour unless the cabbage is very old or dry. The cabbage is done the moment the stalk is tender. A great many people have the idea that they must boil the cabbage until the leaf is almost dissolved. It needs only to be boiled as tender as you boil the stalks of cauliflower, and you would try, of course, the thickest part, which would be near the stalk.

Remember, in the first place you would cut out any tough, woody stalk, but the tender stalk you would leave in, and that is the part you would try. If you boil it fast it will not take over thirty or thirty-five minutes at the outside, probably not more than twenty. Just as soon as the cabbage is tender drain it and put with it whatever sauce or dressing you are going to serve with it. That sometimes is vinegar, b.u.t.ter, pepper, and salt. Sometimes a little milk, b.u.t.ter, pepper, and salt. In that case it is called cabbage stewed with cream. Sometimes you would simply serve it without any further seasoning, only remember that the moment it is tender, drain it and serve. As I told you the other day, the odor of the cabbage comes from letting it boil until after the substance of the cabbage is so soft that the oil begins to escape from it, the volatile oil. That makes a strong odor in the room. As soon as the cabbage is tender it is ready to eat, and should be taken from the fire.

TURNIPS.

To bake turnips, peel the turnips, either white or yellow ones, cut them in rather small slices, a quarter of an inch thick; put them over the fire in salted boiling water enough to cover them, and boil them fast until they are tender. It may take ten or fifteen minutes, possibly twenty minutes, according to the age of the turnips. Of course you will understand that if the turnips are old and corky they will not be as nice when they are done as if they are in good condition. But as soon as the turnips are tender, drain them, put them in an earthen pudding dish, make a little white sauce, either with milk or water,--for a pint, a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, tablespoonful of flour; stir over the fire; then milk added gradually and stirred smooth; seasoned with salt and pepper,--make enough of the white sauce just to moisten the turnips; pour it over the turnips; dust over the top some cracker dust or bread crumbs, just enough to cover the top of the turnips; put a little salt and pepper over the crumbs, and a scant tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter over the top of the crumbs. Then put the dish into the hot oven, and just brown the crumbs on the top of the dish. Serve it as soon as the bread crumbs are brown. That is a very nice and easy dish. If you have cold boiled turnips, slice them, cover them with white sauce and bread crumbs, and cook them just in the same way.

(At this point Miss Corson announced that the cabbage was done, after being in between nine and ten minutes, and no smell was perceptible in the room.)

I am going to moisten the cabbage with cream sauce,--that is white sauce made with milk,--and heat it for a moment and then it will be done.

I will now answer a question that has been asked about cooking corned beef. The same principle applies to the cooking of corned beef that applies to the cooking of salted fish. You remember this morning in talking about codfish I said, if you boil the salted fibre hard and fast, you make it hard and toughen it. That holds good in relation to salted meat or corned meat. You want to boil it very gently. There is comparatively little juice left in corned beef, so that the action of cold water is not so disastrous to it as it would be to fresh meat.

Sometimes the beef is so very salt that it is desirable to change the water upon it. Put it over the fire in cold water. Let it slowly reach the boiling point, and then try and see if it is too salt. If the water itself seems very salt, change it. Put fresh water in, let it gradually heat, and boil very gently always. As soon as the meat reaches the boiling point, push it to the back part of the stove and boil it very gently until it is tender. It usually takes about twenty minutes to a pound, but boil it very gently and slowly. Then it will be tender. If you boil it fast it will be hard and tough. If you put a whole dried red pepper in with the beef in boiling, you will find that it will improve the flavor very much. If you intend to use the beef cold, leave it in the water in which it is boiled; take the pot off the stove and let it cool in the water in which it was boiled. Those same directions apply to boiling smoked or salted tongue.

The turnips were just fifteen minutes in boiling.

Nice points about boiled dinners are asked for. I think I have given you the nicest point in cooking beef, so that you will be sure to get it tender, and to cook cabbage so that it is tender and does not smell.

Cabbage always goes with a New England boiled dinner, potatoes, onions, parsnips and squash. I told you about cooking beets this morning. All the other vegetables you may cook in boiling water, and salt to suit the taste. The old-fas.h.i.+oned way was to boil all the vegetables in the pot with the beef, adding the vegetables in succession, so that each one was put in just long enough before the beef was done to have it done at the time the beef was done; each one except the squash. The squash is best peeled and cut in small pieces and steamed. If you boil it you want to put it in boiling salted water until it is tender, and then put it into a towel and squeeze it, so as to get out the water; then season it with b.u.t.ter, salt and pepper, and serve it.

I made gravy yesterday; I think if I give you the recipe to-day it will answer. Pour the drippings out of the pan, all except about a tablespoonful; put a tablespoonful of flour in with the brown drippings; set the pan over the fire; stir the drippings and flour together until they are quite brown; then begin to put in boiling water, a little at a time, not more than half a cupful, and stir until the gravy is smooth; then season it palatably with salt and pepper. Onions are very nice cooked precisely as I have cooked cabbage to-day; that is, cooked until they are tender, and dressed with the white sauce that I used in dressing the carrot.

For pressed corn beef the nicest cut is the brisket. Have the cut rather long and narrow, and not a short chunk or piece. Take a long piece of meat, a foot long, or more; have all the bones cut out and roll it up tight. Tie it compactly, in the same way that I tied this meat.

Tie it so that you have it in a tight bundle. Then boil it according to the directions I have already given you. After it is done let it partly cool in the liquor; then take it out and lay it on the platter; lay another platter on top of it, and put a heavy weight on the platter, and press it with the string still on until it is cold; then cut off the string and you have it in nice shape. If you want to use part of it hot for dinner, and then have it cold, you would have to boil it, and when it is done cut off enough for your dinner; then press the rest of it between two platters. You could double it over, but you could not press it so very well in shape. Cut it in slices; put it into a tin mould or tin pan and boil down the broth in which you have cooked it until it begins to look thick. Or, you could dissolve a little gelatine in the broth to thicken it, and pour it over the slices of corned beef in the mould. In that case you would depend upon the gelatine to thicken the broth, without boiling it down.

LECTURE NINTH.