School and Home Cooking Part 55

Cover and bake 1 hour, or until the potatoes are tender. Baste the potatoes and meat occasionally.

Remove the chops to the center of a hot platter, and surround them with the potatoes. Serve at once with Apple Sauce (for preparation of Apple Sauce, see _Fruit Sauces_).

TURNIPS WITH FRESH PORK

1 1/2 pounds fresh pork (shoulder) 3 medium sized turnips 1 tablespoonful salt 2 tablespoonfuls flour Pepper

Clean the meat, put it in a saucepan, and add enough boiling water to cover. Cook at simmering temperature for 1 1/2 hours.

Pare the turnips, cut them into cubes. When the meat has cooked 1/2 hour, add the turnips and salt and continue cooking for 1 hour or until the meat and vegetables are tender. Mix the flour with enough cold water (about 2 tablespoonfuls) to make a thin batter. Add it to the meat and turnips.

Stir and cook for at least 10 minutes. Add a dash of pepper. Serve hot.

BROILED HAM

Parboil in boiling water for 10 minutes a slice of ham about 1/2 inch thick. Place in a broiler and broil, or place in a "frying" pan and pan- broil, turning often. Garnish with parsley and serve at once.

BACON

Place thin slices of bacon (from which the rind has been removed) in a hot frying-pan. As the fat tries out, drain it from the bacon. Scorching of the fat is thus prevented. Cook the bacon until it is brown and crisp, turning once.

_Bacon fat_ should be saved. It can be used in cooking.

SCALLOPED POTATOES WITH BACON

4 medium potatoes 1/4 pound sliced bacon Flour Salt, used sparingly Pepper Milk

Pare the potatoes and cut them into thin slices. Cook the bacon until brown; cut each slice of bacon into several pieces. Oil a baking-dish and place a layer of potatoes in it, then a layer of bacon and some of the tried-out bacon fat. Sprinkle with flour, salt, and pepper. Repeat, until all the ingredients are used; the top layer should be of bacon. Add milk until it reaches the top layer. Bake in a moderate oven for one hour, or until much of the milk has evaporated and the potatoes are tender. Serve hot.

1/4 cupful of bacon drippings may be used instead of sliced bacon.

QUESTIONS

Why should fresh pork be used in winter rather than in summer?

Why is pork slow in digesting?

Explain why vegetables and Apple Sauce are desirable foods to serve with pork (see Figure 62, Figure 68, and Figure 70).

For what reason should pork be cooked thoroughly?

What is the purpose of parboiling ham before broiling it?

What ingredient, invariably used in Scalloped Potatoes, is omitted in Scalloped Potatoes with Bacon? What is subst.i.tuted for this material?

Why should salt be added sparingly to potatoes cooked with bacon?

How many persons does the given quant.i.ty of Scalloped Potatoes with Bacon and of Turnips with Fresh Pork serve?

To what cut of beef does ham correspond?

From _U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 28_, tabulate the percentage composition of fresh and salted ham. Compare it with the composition of beef steak (see Figure 68).

Obtain the price per pound of each cut of pork. Arrange in tabulated form and record date.

LESSON C

CHICKEN AND RICE

POULTRY.--Poultry includes chicken (or common fowl), turkey, duck, and goose--domestic birds suitable for food. Pigeon and squab are not considered poultry. Chickens that are three or four months old are called _spring chickens_ or broilers. Birds older than one year are sometimes called _fowls_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 71.--REMOVING TENDONS FROM THE LEG OF A FOWL.]

SELECTION OF CHICKEN AND FOWL.--Chickens and fowls have certain characteristics which make them readily distinguishable. Chickens have soft feet, a soft and flexible breast bone, many pin feathers, and little fat. Fowls have hard and scaly feet, rigid breast bone, long hairs, and much fat surrounding the intestines.

DIGESTION OF POULTRY.--The muscle of chicken, fowl, and turkey contains little fat; the fat that exists is in layers directly under the skin and around the intestines. The fibers of the muscle are short. For this reason, and also because they have so little fat, these meats are readily digested. The white meat contains less fat than the dark.

[Ill.u.s.tration with caption: FIGURE 72--FOWL TRUSSED FOR ROASTING. BREAST VIEW]

DRESSING AND CLEANING POULTRY.--Singe, by holding the bird over a flame of gas, alcohol, or burning paper. Cut off the head, push back the skin, and cut off the neck close to the body. Cut through the skin around the leg one inch below the leg joint. If it is a fowl, take out the tendons; remove them separately, using a skewer (see Figure 71). Remove the pin feathers with the point of a knife or with a strawberry huller. Cut the oil bag from the tail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 73--FOWL TRUSSED FOR ROASTING,--BACK VIEW.]

The internal organs are not always removed before the chicken is sold. If they have not been removed, make an opening under one of the legs or at the vent, leaving a strip of skin above the vent. Remove the organs carefully,--the intestines, gizzard, heart, and liver should all be removed together. Care must be taken that the gall bladder, which lies under the liver, is not broken; it must be cut away carefully from the liver. The lungs and kidneys, lying in the hollow of the backbone, must be carefully removed. Press the heart to extract the blood. Cut off the outer coat of the gizzard. The gizzard, heart, and liver const.i.tute the giblets to be used in making gravy. Wash the giblets. Place them all, with the exception of the liver, in cold water; heat quickly and cook (at simmering temperature) until tender. Add the liver a short time before removing the other giblets from the stove, as it does not require long cooking.

Clean the bird by wiping it thoroughly inside and out with a damp cloth, stuff and truss for roasting, or cut into pieces for frica.s.see or stew. If the bird is stuffed, the incision in the skin may be fastened together as directed for Baked Fish.

TRUSSING FOWL.--Insert a skewer through the fowl just underneath the legs, then thrust another skewer through the wings and breast. With a piece of string, tie the ends of the legs together and fasten them to the tail.

Then wind the ends of the string fastened to the tail, around the ends of the skewer beneath the legs. Cross the strings over the back, and wind them around the ends of the skewer through the wings; tie the strings together at the back. If trussed in this manner, there is no string across the breast of the fowl. A fowl should be served breast side up (see Figures 72 and 73).

CUTTING A FOWL.--Cut off the leg, and separate it at the joint into "drumstick" and second joint. Cut off the wing and remove the tip; make an incision at the middle joint. Remove the leg and wing from the other side; separate the wishbone with the meat on it, from the breast, cut through the ribs on each side, and separate the breast from the back. Cut the breast in half lengthwise and the back through the middle crosswise. There should be twelve pieces. The neck and the tips of the wings may be cooked with the giblets for making gravy.

STEWED CHICKEN [Footnote 69: Stewed Chicken may be utilized for _Chicken Croquettes_) or _Creole Stew_.]

Cover the pieces of chicken with boiling water, and cook at boiling temperature for 15 minutes; then add one tablespoonful of salt and cook at simmering temperature until tender.

Arrange the pieces on a platter, placing the neck at one end of the platter and the "drumsticks" at the other, and the remaining pieces in order between. Cover with a sauce.

The chicken may be placed on pieces of _toast_ or served in a border of cooked _rice_.

SAUCE FOR CHICKEN

3 tablespoonfuls tried-out chicken fat or b.u.t.ter or subst.i.tute 1/4 cupful of flour 1 teaspoonful salt 2 tablespoonfuls chopped parsley 1 pint stock 2 egg yolks or 1 egg 1/8 teaspoonful pepper

Prepare the sauce (see _Cream Toast_), and pour it over the well- beaten eggs, stirring until thoroughly mixed. Cook until the eggs are coagulated. Serve at once over chicken.