Title : Left-over foods and how to use them
with suggestions regarding the preservation of foods in the home
Author : Elizabeth O. Hiller
Release date : January 30, 2024 [eBook #72831]
Language : English
Original publication : Kendallville: McCray refrigerator co
Credits : Carol Brown, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
With suggestions regarding
the preservation of
foods in the
home
Written by
ELIZABETH O. HILLER
for the
McCray Refrigerator
Co.
KENDALLVILLE, INDIANA
COPYRIGHT, 1910
McCRAY REFRIGERATOR
CO.
KENDALLVILLE,
IND.
Left-over foods
and
how to use them
I cannot say that I altogether agree with the statement, “Scraps are accidents to be taken care of, no doubt, but the very last objects on which to bestow either expense or labor.” The “scraps” or “left-over” bits of food that accumulate in the average household, are worthy of consideration and with little labor and expense are convertible into the most palatable viands. There is always some labor attendant on any and all household duties, for we have all learned that the Earl of Chesterfield uttered a great truth when he said (away back in the 17th century), “Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.” I have discovered that this old maxim applies to household management as well as all other vocations.
It is the careless tossing together of “left-over” food and giving the creation when finished, a name quite as unattractive as itself, that has caused this great antipathy so prevalent among people, for serving or partaking of “made-up” dishes. Hash , itself, is a very much abused term as well as the mixture thus named.
This little book of helpful suggestions has been carefully prepared and if followed by the housewife, fortunate enough to receive one, she will find immediate help over some of the “rough places” too often found in the daily routine of house work, where the preparation for such duties has been limited.
Study the chapter on “How to Measure Accurately, and Combining Ingredients,” and all the others and you cannot fail to learn, thoroughly, the lesson “Left-Overs and How to Use Them.”
Every one seems to have “a way of their own” for marketing and taking care of food. There are, however, but two methods of marketing and but one proper way to take care of food.
One of the methods of marketing is that followed by the French and Mexican housekeeper; that is, buying just enough for the daily needs and no more. The other method is that in vogue in America and England. It is buying provisions in large quantities (in some cases wholesale) flour, sugar and apples by the barrel, butter by the firkin, canned goods by the case, sides of bacon, whole hams, etc. Both methods have their advantages. The one adopted by the prudent housewife will be that which best suits the conditions under which she lives; the income, the size of the family, and the conveniences provided for storing provisions.
Where the family is small and the home is an apartment, if it is equipped with a fine large glass- or tile-lined McCray refrigerator, the problem of preserving food is not difficult (see chapter on Care of Refrigerator, page 10 ). For the small family, buying just what is needed for the day and no more is the best. This method, does, however, require most careful thought, and very accurate estimates must be made by the housewife, lest she buy more than she can use and thereby sustain great waste.
Herein lies the necessity for housekeepers in general having a better knowledge of food values. For the large family with a generous income, and where cold storage provisions are made, buying in large quantities is by far the most economical method to follow. Every housekeeper should do her own marketing if possible; she thereby becomes acquainted with the market and market prices, makes her selections, buying little or much as the case requires. In this way she will soon learn the advantages gained by the French and Mexican housekeepers’ methods. The latter carries her daily supplies home in a receptacle made of a gourd holding less than a quart, while the former does not hesitate to buy small portions of birds, fish, meats, etc. It is obvious that the foreign methods show the greater economy.
Food is at its best when in season. The price is at its minimum and the flavor and quality all that can be desired.
Out of season, all food becomes a luxury and is lacking in flavor as well as quality. The provident housekeeper will take advantage through the year, of fruits and vegetables, when seasonable, beginning in the early spring to put away her stores for the following winter. To these she may add dried and canned fruits that have proved by use to be most wholesome and palatable.
Fresh vegetables should be cooked as soon as possible after being taken from the garden. Where it is necessary to keep them, all wilted leaves and unsightly portions should be removed and vegetables spread out in a cool, well ventilated place. If placed in the refrigerator, first prepare them for cooking, then fold them in cheese cloth, wrung from fresh cold water, and place them on the top shelf of the refrigerator. The leaves of such vegetables as lettuce, endive, cress, dandelions, etc. may be kept fresh and crisp. After picking them over wash and drain, put them in a covered lard pail, and place in the refrigerator. Wilted vegetables may be restored by soaking in fresh cold water. Cucumbers may be pared and thinly sliced, placed in a fruit jar, closely covered, and kept crisp and fresh in the refrigerator for several days.
All fruits may be kept in fine condition where the luxury of a large cold storage room is installed. Where a refrigerator is used, great care should be exercised in placing fruits and vegetables in their respective places. (See frontispiece, page 2 ).
There are some fruits, owing to their strong odor, that should never be placed in the refrigerator; these include, bananas, musk-melons, canteloupe, etc. Other food will soon become flavored from contact with such fruits when confined in the refrigerator or even in a store-room. Milk, cream, butter and other fats most readily absorb flavors when exposed to odorous fruits, flowers, etc. The greatest care should be given the left-over food. It should be put in small vessels (jelly glasses) with closely fitting covers, then placed in the refrigerator; there will then be little danger of contamination.
Over ripe vegetables (especially tomatoes) and fruits should not be kept in the refrigerator. Berries should be carefully picked over, and washed, when necessary, before putting them in the refrigerator. Strawberries may be picked over, placed in a colander or a croquette basket and cold water poured over them before removing the hulls.
Potatoes keep better and are lower in price before they have been stored. It is therefore economy for the large consumer to buy them, early in the season, when they are most plentiful. They may be kept in barrels or bins, raised three inches from the floor, in a cool dry room or cellar. For the small family, where space is a consideration, it is more economical to buy not less than a peck at a time. They may be kept in a box lined with heavy paper in a cool dry place.
Sweet potatoes are in season from August to May, and should be bought in small quantities. The kiln-dried sweet potatoes are the best. These fleshy roots of plants belong to a different family from the white potato, they contain a large percentage of sugar and have not the keeping qualities of the white potato. They, too, should be kept in a cool dry place.
A loin of beef or a side of mutton is a profitable investment for the large consumer. With proper cold storage facilities the meat can be kept well and is much improved by “hanging.”
Fresh fish should be dressed at the market and removed from the paper as soon as delivered. Salt should never be sprinkled over fish “to keep it.” The salt extracts the rich juices and leaves the fish tasteless. Simply cover it closely and put it in a cold place. If securely covered it may be placed, with safety, in the refrigerator.
Butter should be placed in the refrigerator as directed above, namely: under the ice chamber which is the coldest part of the refrigerator; this space should be reserved for the butter, cream, milk, eggs and meat.
Butter should always be closely covered. An earthen jar, with a close fitting cover, may be purchased at any house furnishing shop for ten cents; this size will hold five pounds and will prove very satisfactory.
Too much care and attention cannot be given to this food; even though it does not sour as quickly in winter as it does in hot weather, it should have just the same care. Never allow either cream or milk to stand uncovered. There is nothing gained by paying a fancy price for milk which has been pasteurized and kept clean, under the most sanitary conditions in the dairy, before delivery to the consumer, if the latter does not know how to take care of it and leaves it uncovered, in a hot kitchen or in a refrigerator, with other uncovered food. There need be no surprise if it sours quickly and develops an unpleasant flavor; for both milk and butter will absorb odors and flavors when thus exposed, which will render them unfit for use. Make it an invariable rule, never to allow these foods to remain uncovered.
Wash the eggs, when they come from the market, in cold water. The shells are then clean and ready for use. They are used for clearing soup stock, coffee, etc. Eggs, too, should be kept in the coldest part of the refrigerator along with milk, cream and butter.
MEASURING CUP MARKED IN QUARTERS
MEASURING CUP MARKED IN THIRDS
A system of accurate measurements is absolutely necessary to insure success. Scientific training has exploded the old idea, that “with good judgment and experience measuring ingredients by sight will do.” The exact quantity called for, measured each time in the same utensil whatever it be, cup, tablespoon or teaspoon are definite guides that must be followed if success would be attained. Enameled measuring cups marked plainly in quarters or thirds each holding a half-pint, a teaspoon holding sixty drops, a tablespoon of ordinary size (do not mistake a dessert spoon for this spoon) and a case-knife are the few essentials that must be used for measuring ingredients in the recipes incorporated in this book. These utensils may be purchased at any kitchen-furnishing shop for a nominal sum.
All flour, meal, confectioners’, powdered and granulated sugar, soda and other dry ingredients, that are put into cartons or cans, that are apt to settle and in some cases harden, should be sifted before measuring. This suggestion is not to be ignored if you would be successful as well as economical, for by sifting these ingredients they are lightened and made to go further.
A cupful means all the cup will hold; the cup is filled with a tablespoon heaping full, then leveled with a knife. Great care must be taken not to shake the cup. All dry ingredients are tossed lightly into the cup, then leveled with a knife.
Place the cup to be filled on a saucer, and fill it to the brim. A cupful of liquid could not be carried safely across the kitchen without spilling some of its contents.
Fats used for shortening are packed solidly in cups, table or teaspoon and leveled with a knife. A pair of measuring cups will be found very convenient when measuring ingredients. One for the dry and the other for the shortening and liquids. One cup may serve the purpose if dry ingredients are measured first, then liquids and fats when such ingredients are called for.
Tablespoons of regulation size are filled and leveled with a knife. A teaspoon is filled and leveled with a knife. To measure liquids, a table or teaspoon means all the spoon will hold. To measure dry ingredients in table or teaspoon, dip the spoon in the ingredient. When filled, lift, and level with knife, sharp edge of blade turned toward handle of spoon. Dividing with knife lengthwise of the bowl of spoon is a half-teaspoonful. Dividing the half crosswise is a fourth, and dividing the fourth crosswise is one-eighth. Divisions are made in the teaspoon the same. Less than an eighth of a teaspoon is a few grains.
FULL TABLESPOON HALF TABLESPOON QUARTER TABLESPOON FULL TEASPOON HALF TEASPOON QUARTER TEASPOON
The next very important step toward success in all cookery, is in combining ingredients and mixtures; and one too often disregarded by the amateur. There are three movements considered in combining ingredients—stirring, beating, and cutting and folding.
Stirring is combining ingredients by circular motions, enlarging and repeating these motions until all ingredients are thoroughly blended. This motion is most commonly used in all cookery, either alone or alternating with beating.
Beating is accomplished by cutting down through ingredient or ingredients with a mixing spoon, or a similar utensil, from top to bottom, turning ingredients over and over, cutting through them until all are thoroughly blended and lightened. By this motion ingredients are not only blended, but air, also, is incorporated which increases the lightness of the mixture.
Cutting and Folding means to combine two mixtures, one made very light by thorough beating or whipping, as heavy cream or whites of eggs. This is a combination of the two former motions. It is best accomplished with a wooden spoon made for this purpose. These repeated vertical downward motions, made with this spoon, is called cutting, and turning the ingredients over and over, allowing the spoon with each turn to come in contact with the bottom of the bowl is called folding. Repeat these motions until the ingredients are thoroughly blended without destroying the air bubbles previously made by beating or whipping one part of the mixture. Briefly—
To stir means blending ingredients.
To beat means lightening the mixture by incorporating air.
To cut and fold is combining two mixtures (one of which has been made light by beating) in such a manner as to prevent the escape or loss of air previously introduced.
For the preservation of food before cooking, and for the left-overs after a meal, there is no appliance placed in the home that is of so much importance as the refrigerator. It should be a McCray Refrigerator, a perfectly beautiful, practical, convenient and entirely sanitary accession to the needs of the kitchen, the chief essential of its furnishings. It should be large and well adapted to the wants and necessities of the household, with an ice capacity of at least one hundred pounds. It is the best made refrigerator, offered for sale and for the consumers comfort, in the world to-day. When planning your kitchen, be sure you have a place, well-selected, for one of these refrigerators. Its drain pipes should never be connected directly with the sewer, and if possible locate it so that the ice compartment may be reached from the outside from a rear porch—that is opening out of doors. This will save much annoyance from the iceman, with soiled shoes, trailing dripping ice across the clean kitchen floor. The refrigerator should be easy of access for the cook, for plain as well as fancy cooking, demands many steps. Much time and energy is saved by a little judicious planning in locating the kitchen appliances. Remember the old adage, “Let your head save your heels.”
BRUSH FOR
REFRIGERATOR
DRAIN PIPE
In giving the proper attention to the care of the refrigerator, there are three very essential points to observe; the first, and most important, the location of the refrigerator, then the waste pipe, and last but not least a full supply of ice. If economy is an item in the management of the house, then special attention will be given the place in which refrigerator is placed—a cool, dry, well ventilated room, conveniently near the kitchen that steps may be saved and where the direct rays of the sun do not fall on it , and where the iceman can gain access to it without “tracking up” the kitchen with his soiled shoes.
The compartments in which the food is kept should be wiped out carefully once a week. If anything is spilled within the refrigerator it should be removed immediately. All crumbs, drops of liquid or small particles of food should be carefully and instantly removed.
Once a week the supply of ice may be allowed to run low; the ice may then be removed and the ice chamber thoroughly washed, the rack upon which the ice stands washed and rinsed with a solution of sal soda, the drain pipe and the trap also thoroughly swabbed out with a brush attached to a long wire handle, made for this purpose. Pour the solution through the drain pipe as far as it can be reached and then rinse with clear boiling water.
The ice compartment should be kept filled with ice. A large piece of ice keeps better than a small one and insures much better circulation of air. The door to the ice compartment should be kept tightly closed at all times save when it is being filled with ice. The fact is that all the doors should be opened and closed as quickly as possible.
The most scrupulous cleanliness in all its parts should be found in the refrigerator. Food such as meat, potatoes, etc. should never be laid on the shelves of the refrigerator, and the habit of filling the ice chamber with meat, fish, fowl and vegetables is most unsanitary and unhealthful.
When the food is placed on the table in the kitchen by the tradesman, the care of it at once falls upon the one who is in charge of the household and she must know just how to take care of each article.
All meat should be removed from the paper at once; wiped with a piece of cheese cloth wrung from cold water, placed on a plate, another plate turned over it and placed in the position indicated, in frontispiece , on page 2. The butter should be put in a jar, covered and placed on the shelf of the refrigerator immediately under the ice chamber. A space should be left on this shelf for eggs, milk and cream. Cheese should be removed from the manilla paper leaving it wrapped in the wax paper, and placed in a covered vessel in the refrigerator. The care of vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, etc., follows hereinafter.
Process : Remove all fat and gristle from cold roast beef or steak. Chop fine and add ingredients in the order given, moisten with thick Brown Sauce (made by increasing the quantity of flour called for in the recipe for Brown Sauce to half cup). Shape in cones, drip in crumbs, egg and crumbs and fry in deep hot fat. Serve with Brown, Tomato, or Creole Sauce.
Process : Cook onion in butter five minutes; cut peppers in thin shreds with the shears. Add to onion. Add garlic and tomato pulp. Simmer fifteen minutes. Add Worcestershire Sauce, celery salt and Tobasco. Salt to taste. Cut cold roast beef in thin slices and re-heat in sauce. Serve with baked potatoes on the half-shell.
Line the bottom and sides of a well buttered baking dish with hot, highly seasoned mashed potatoes, to which add two tablespoons finely chopped onion or chives; over this, place a thick layer of left-over roast beef cut in small pieces; season with salt, pepper, onion juice, one tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce, moisten with Brown Sauce and cover with a layer of potato mixture, ornament rim of dish with some of the mixture forced through a pastry bag and star tube. Brush over lightly with beaten egg. Bake in a hot oven until mixture is thoroughly heated and potato is delicately browned.
Process : Add seasonings to beef; add bread crumbs, cream or butter and beaten egg yolks; shape in small balls the size of an English walnut, roll in flour, egg and crumbs, and fry in deep hot fat, drain on brown paper. Arrange in a pyramid on a hot platter and serve with Brown or Tomato Sauce.
Beef Cutlets
Chop the flank end of the porterhouse steak very fine, first removing superfluous fat. Season meat with salt, two or three drops Tobasco Sauce, onion piece and Worcestershire Sauce to taste. Shape into cutlets about three-fourths of an inch thick; dip in egg, then in crumbs and fry in deep hot fat five minutes. Do not brown them too quickly. Dispose them around a mound of hot riced potato or well seasoned boiled rice.
Cut left-over cold broiled steak or remnants of cold roast beef in one-half inch pieces. Cover with hot stock or water, add one small onion and simmer slowly until meat is tender. (About one hour). Remove onion and thicken stock with flour diluted with cold water. Season highly with salt and pepper. Add potatoes cut in one inch cubes and previously parboil ten minutes in boiling salted water. Put into a buttered baking-dish and cool; cover with a crust made of biscuit dough, rolled one-fourth inch thick. Make three incisions in top of pie. Bake twenty-five minutes in a hot oven. The top may be brushed over with the white of an egg diluted with two tablespoons milk five minutes before removing from oven.
Chop the flank ends of the porter-house steak fine (there should be one cup packed solidly). Add one-fourth cup uncooked rice, season highly with salt, pepper and a few grains of cayenne. Wrap one rounded tablespoon of this mixture in cabbage leaves which have been previously parboiled two minutes. Simmer one hour in Tomato Sauce, basting three or four times. Cover closely while cooking.
Process : Scald milk with onions and celery. Melt butter in sauce-pan, add flour and stir to a smooth paste. Strain celery and onion from milk; add milk to butter, and flour gradually while stirring constantly, season with salt if necessary, add paprika and bring to boiling point. Add corned beef; mix well and turn into a buttered baking dish. Cover with buttered crumbs. Bake in hot oven until mixture is heated through and crumbs are browned.
Process : Remove all gristle, fat and stringy parts from meat. Chop with chopping knife in bowl. Mix well with chopped potatoes, season highly with salt, pepper, and moisten with milk, cream or stock. Melt butter in spider, when hot turn in mixture and spread evenly. Place clove of garlic in centre; let cook slowly until well-browned underneath, remove garlic and fold as an omelet on to a hot serving platter. Serve with Hollandaise Sauce. Garlic may be omitted.
Cut the tip end of the cold boiled tongue in one-fourth inch slices, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, dip them in egg, then in fine bread crumbs; repeat, saute them in butter and arrange them on a hot serving platter, pour over Tomato Sauce.
Butter a two-quart brick-shape mould, line it with hot boiled rice to three-fourth inch thickness. It would require one and one-half to two cups of rice boiled, to line and cover the mold. To one cup of cold, cooked veal finely chopped and packed solidly, add one egg, slightly beaten, two tablespoons cracker-meal and sufficient Sauce Veloute to moisten mixture. Season highly with salt, pepper, lemon-juice, and one-half teaspoon parsley, finely chopped. Pack meat mixture in centre of lined mold, cover with rice, place cover well-buttered on mold and steam thirty-five minutes. Unmold on hot serving platter, sprinkle with paprika and pour around Tomato or Creole Sauce.
Process : Mix the ingredients in the order given; moisten with sauce. Spread mixture on a plate to cool. Shape, crumb and fry as other croquettes. Serve with Creole Sauce.
Cut cold roast veal in small strips. (There should be two cups). Prepare one and one-half cups of Sauce Veloute, add meat, bring to boiling point and serve in a potato or rice border, sprinkle with finely chopped chives or parsley.
Prepare same as Minced Lamb and serve on toast; garnish with half a broiled tomato placed on each portion.
Prepare a Brown Mushroom Sauce, omit the lemon juice and add one tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce, a few drops onion juice and one-fourth teaspoon paprika. Re-heat thoroughly two cups cold roast veal, cut in one inch cubes, in sauce; serve in a rice or hot mashed potato border. If the latter is used, pass the potato mixture through the pastry bag and star tube. Sprinkle border with paprika.
Process : Melt butter and brown richly in a sauce-pan, add flour and continue browning, add seasoning and stock slowly, stirring constantly; beat the jelly with a fork and add to sauce; when melted add mutton, simmer gently until mutton is heated thoroughly, add wine. Dispose mutton on a platter and pour over sauce. Left-over gravy may be used instead of making Brown Sauce.
Process: Rub the yolks through a sieve and add seasoning. Add mutton, finely minced, and cream. Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add mixture and when thoroughly heated add wine. Serve on toast. Lamb may be used in place of mutton.
Cut cold roast mutton in thin uniform slices. Cook two tablespoons butter with one slice onion, finely chopped, five minutes. Add mutton, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and pour over Brown Mushroom Sauce, to which add one tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce. Simmer until heated throughout. Arrange slices of meat over-lapping one another around a pyramid of fried potato balls; pour around sauce; garnish with toast tri-angles. Lamb, veal, duck or game may be served in this manner.
Process: Cook onion in butter five minutes; remove onion. Add flour and stir to a smooth paste, add stock gradually, stirring constantly; add meat, potato, salt and pepper; simmer gently until meat and potato is blended with sauce. Spread mixture on a plate to cool. Divide the mixture into equal parts (this mixture will make about seven croquettes).
Take up a portion of the mixture and make a depression in centre, put in a teaspoon of left-over cream peas, enclose peas carefully, shape, dip in crumbs, eggs and crumbs again. Fry in deep hot fat. Drain on brown paper and serve with Sauce Bearnaise.
Prepare a thick White Sauce and season it delicately with a very little sage. Add one and one-half cups of finely chopped cold roast pork. Season with salt, pepper and a few drops onion juice. Add one-half teaspoon finely chopped parsley. Spread mixture on plate to cool. Shape; roll in crumbs, egg and crumbs, and fry in deep hot fat. Arrange in a pyramid on hot serving platter, surround with baked apples. Pass “Sauce Soubise.”
Chicken Croquettes
Process: Mix the ingredients in the order given; after adding the sauce let mixture cool. Mold in cork shape croquettes, roll in fine bread crumbs, dip in egg (diluted with cold water in the proportion of two tablespoons water to each egg slightly beaten), then in crumbs again. Fry in deep hot fat. Drain on brown paper and serve with Supreme Sauce.
Prepare mixture as for Chicken Croquettes No. 1. Add one-half cup finely chopped mushrooms. Shape, egg and crumb, and fry as other croquettes. Serve with a Brown Mushroom Sauce.
Add to one and one-half cups of white Bechamel Sauce one and one-half cups of cold cooked chicken cut in one-third inch cubes, one-half cup mushrooms and one green bell pepper, previously cooked ten minutes, the seeds removed and the pepper cut in shreds with the shears. Serve in croustades of bread.
Butter a baking dish well. Arrange alternate layers of cold, cooked chicken or turkey cut in small thin slices and boiled rice or spaghetti. Pour over giblet, White, Brown or Tomato Sauce. Cover with buttered crumbs, garnish with toast-points and bake in the oven until mixture is thoroughly heated and crumbs are brown.
Follow recipe for Casserole of rice with Veal, using chicken instead of veal. Season chicken highly with salt, pepper, celery-salt, onion juice and one teaspoon finely chopped parsley. Moisten mixture with Cream Sauce, using half cup chicken stock and half cup hot thin cream. Unmold on hot platter and serve with Cream Sauce.
Process: Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add bread crumbs and milk, cook five minutes. Add chicken, parsley, and eggs slightly beaten, season with salt, pepper and onion juice. Turn mixture into buttered timbale molds, set molds in a pan of hot water and cover them with a buttered paper. Bake twenty minutes. Turn from molds on serving platter and serve with Celery Sauce.
Process: Add parsley and celery salt to sauce; add chicken and simmer gently until chicken is thoroughly heated. Omit the yolks of eggs when making the sauce for this purpose.
Process: Melt butter in sauce-pan, add flour mixed with seasonings, stir to a smooth paste; add milk gradually, beating constantly, add bread crumbs and cook three minutes; remove from range; add chicken, yolks of eggs and parsley, cut and fold in the whites of eggs. Turn mixture into a well-buttered baking dish and bake thirty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with Cream, Bechamel or Supreme Sauce. Left-over turkey or veal may be used instead of chicken.
Cut four slices of bacon crosswise in shreds, with shears. Saute in spider, add one tablespoon finely chopped onion; when lightly browned add four and one-half tablespoons flour, continue browning; add slowly one and one-half cups brown stock, add sprig of mint and let simmer five minutes; then add one and one-half cups cold roast duck, cut in small pieces, and one-half cup left-over peas (if there is a cup of peas add them), let simmer gently until ingredients are heated through. Remove the mint and season with salt and pepper. Serve on toast.
Process : Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add flour and seasonings; stir to a smooth past. Pour on slowly, while stirring briskly, hot milk and strained oyster liquor. Re-heat chicken in sauce. Plump oysters in their own liquor; drain and add oysters to chicken. Serve in patty shells or croustades of bread.
Process : Add chicken to sauce, rub the yolks of eggs through a sieve; add to first mixture. Add whites of eggs finely chopped. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne, simmer four minutes and add sherry. Turn into deep dish, garnish with triangles of toast or puff paste points.
Process : Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add vegetables and cook five minutes, add flour and stock or milk slowly, stirring constantly. Strain sauce and add chicken and seasonings. Spread mixture on a buttered platter and sprinkle with cracker crumbs. Make five small nests in mixture and into each slip an egg; cover eggs with cracker crumbs and bake in a moderate oven until eggs are cooked.
To one cup of cold roast turkey, chopped moderately, add one-half cup of stuffing finely chopped. Moisten with a sauce made by melting two tablespoons butter in a sauce-pan, brown well, add two and one-half teaspoons flour, continue browning. Add one cup of stock (made by cooking skin and bones of a roast turkey), season with salt, pepper and onion juice. Re-heat turkey and stuffing in sauce. Serve on circles of toast with a poached egg placed in centre of each; garnish with sprays of parsley.
Mix one cup of left-over flaked fish with three “hard boiled” eggs, chopped fine, and one-half teaspoon finely chopped parsley. Re-heat in one and one-half cups, thin White Sauce. Serve in a border of hot riced potato or steamed rice. Sprinkle all with paprika.
Mix well two cups each of cold cooked fish, flaked, and cold boiled potatoes, finely chopped. Season well with salt, pepper and one teaspoon finely chopped parsley. Fry out salt pork cut in small dice. (There should be about four tablespoons fat.) Remove scraps, add fish and potatoes. Stir until mixture is well mixed with fat and thoroughly heated through. Cook until hash is well browned underneath; fold as an omelet and turn on a hot platter. Serve with Cream or Tomato Sauce. Garnish with parsley and slices of lemon.
Press hot boiled potatoes through a ricer. (There should be two cups). Season with salt, pepper, two tablespoons butter and one egg beaten light. Beat mixture thoroughly and add an equal quantity left-over cooked fish, flaked. Moisten slightly with Cream Sauce. Shape into round flat cakes. Saute in hot bacon fat. Drain cakes on brown paper, first on one side, then on the other; a poached egg may be served on top of each cake. Garnish with crisp bacon and parsley.
Line a brick-shaped mold with well seasoned hot steamed rice, to the depth of three-fourth inch. Fill centre with remnants of cold boiled or baked fish, flaked, and seasoned with salt, pepper and slightly moistened with thin White Sauce. Cover with rice, place cover on mold and steam thirty-five minutes. Turn on a hot platter and serve with Egg Sauce. Sprinkle all with finely chopped parsley. A granite brick-shape bread pan may be used as a substitute for covered mold, covered with a buttered paper, butter side next to rice; tie the paper on with twine.
Process : Flake fish with a silver fork. Add seasonings and sauce; spread on plate to cool. Shape, and roll in cracker crumbs, egg and crumbs, and fry in deep hot fat; drain on brown paper. Serve with Egg, Hollandaise, or Tartare Sauce. Garnish with sliced lemon and parsley.
Turban of Fish
Process : Scald milk with onion, mace and parsley. Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add flour, salt and pepper. Remove seasoning from milk, add milk gradually, stirring constantly. Remove sauce to back of range, add yolk slightly beaten. Butter a baking dish; add a layer of fish, sprinkle with salt, pepper and a few drops lemon juice. Cover with part of sauce, continue until both fish and sauce are used, shaping pyramid-like in centre. Cover with crumbs and bake twenty minutes in hot oven. Serve at once.
Process : Beat the yolks thick and light, add seasoning. Beat the whites stiff. Add hot water to yolks of eggs and heat again, add minced ham; cut and fold the whites into the first mixture until they are well blended. Heat the omelet pan, have bottom and sides well buttered. Turn in the mixture and spread smoothly, place on range with asbestos cover placed over flame; let cook slowly, turning the pan occasionally, that omelet may brown evenly. When omelet is “puffed” to top of pan and delicately browned on the bottom, place pan in oven on middle grate to finish cooking on top. The omelet is cooked, if it is dry, a straw color and will not cling to the finger when lightly pressed. Fold and turn on a hot serving platter, surround with thin White Sauce. Minced Chicken, Turkey and Veal may be used alone or in combination in place of Ham.
Melt one tablespoon butter in a sauce-pan; add one-half cup currant jelly; when jelly is melted add a few grains cayenne or one eighth teaspoon paprika; add four tablespoons sherry wine, and a cup and one-half cold cooked ham cut in thin small slices or strips, simmer gently until ham is heated.
Process : Put ham, chicken and pimentoes through the meat chopper; then pound mixture thoroughly in a mortar or chopping bowl. Rub through a sieve and add seasonings. Spread on circles or tri-angles of bread fried and cooled, decorate with the white of egg finely chopped, the yolk passed through a sieve—first laying two thin strips of pimento crossing each at right angles. Fill two opposite spaces with the whites of eggs and two with the yolks. Garnish with sprays parsley.
Process : Beat eggs slightly, add seasoning and milk; add chicken and ham well mixed. Melt butter in omelet pan; pour in mixture and cook until of a creamy consistency; stirring constantly and scraping mixture from bottom and sides of pan. Roll to one side of pan and turn on hot platter, sprinkle with paprika. Garnish with parsley.
In recipes where only the whites of eggs are used, “left-over” yolks may be kept by beating them well, then turn them into a jelly glass, cover and place them in the refrigerator. Or, as they are broken from the shells and are whole, they may be slipped carefully into hot water, just below the boiling point, and allow to cook through. Then one may be served in each portion of clear soup. They may also be pressed through the potato ricer as a garnish over the salad, over Creamed Cod Fish or Creamed Toast. (Covering the yolks with cold water as a means of keeping them has not proven satisfactory). If the yolks only are used the whites will keep several days if turned into a bowl or jelly glass, covered, and placed in the refrigerator.
Mix and sift two and one-half tablespoons of flour, three-fourth teaspoon salt, one-half teaspoon mustard and a few grains cayenne. Add two tablespoons grated American cream cheese; add gradually one cup milk and three eggs beaten very light, without separating. Melt one and one-half tablespoons butter in an omelet pan; pour in mixture and as it cooks prick it with a fork and lift it to allow the uncooked parts to flow underneath; when creamy over the top sprinkle with two tablespoons grated cheese, seasoned with salt and cayenne, roll and place on serving platter and sprinkle with grated cheese and paprika.
Process : Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add flour sifted with seasoning, add milk gradually, beating constantly; add cheese when well-blended and cooked, remove from range and add yolks of eggs; then fold in the beaten whites. Pour mixture into a buttered baking dish and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve immediately.
Cheese Balls
Process : Mix cheese, flour and seasonings thoroughly. Cut and fold in whites of eggs. Shape into balls the size of a hickory nut, rolling them in the hands lightly. Roll in cracker meal and fry in deep fat. Drain on brown paper and serve with the salad course.
Spread triangular pieces of bread with French or German mustard; sprinkle thickly with a layer of grated cheese seasoned with salt, paprika and a few grains of cayenne. Place on a tin sheet and bake them until the cheese is melted and delicately brown.
Sprinkle Saratoga Wafers, Zepherettes or Saltines with a thick layer of grated cheese seasoned with salt, paprika and a few grains of cayenne. Place them on a tin sheet and bake them in the oven until the cheese melts and browns delicately. Serve with salad or soup.
Process : Melt butter in sauce-pan, add flour mixed with seasonings; stir to a smooth paste; add hot milk slowly while stirring constantly, bring to boiling point and beat until smooth and glossy, using a Gem egg whip. Do not allow sauce to cook after it has reached the boiling point.
Prepare the same as thin White Sauce, using two tablespoons flour, increasing flour one-half tablespoon.
Process : Prepare same as thin White Sauce. This sauce is very thick, therefore, great care must be taken that it does not scorch.
Process : Prepare the same as thin White Sauce, being careful not to scorch while cooking.
Process : Melt the butter in a sauce-pan, brown it richly; add flour and continue browning, stirring constantly. Add brown stock gradually, continue stirring. Add lemon juice and sherry. Heat the mushrooms in their own liquor; if they are the very small button mushrooms they may be used whole, if larger mushrooms are used they may be cut in quarters. Drain from the hot liquor and add them to the sauce. Reserve one half cup of mushrooms from the can to use in croquette mixture.
Process : Prepare same as thin White Sauce.
Prepare a Brown Mushroom Sauce. Melt two tablespoons butter in a sauce-pan, add one green pepper, finely chopped, one small onion finely chopped and cook five minutes. Add two tomatoes cut in pieces or one cup of canned tomatoes, and ten olives pared from the pit in one continuous curl. Cook three minutes. Add the Brown Sauce and bring to the boiling point. Add two tablespoons sherry wine. Do not strain the sauce. Serve with steaks, chops and Fillet of Beef.
Process : Cook tomatoes and slice of onion fifteen minutes, rub through a strainer. Melt butter in a sauce-pan, brown it richly, add flour and when well browned add seasoning and tomato pulp. A few grains of soda may be added if tomatoes are too acid. Stir until sauce is smooth and reaches the boiling point, then pour over Breaded Tongue.
Process : Brown the butter in a sauce-pan, with onion, carrot, garlic, bay leaf, parsley and thyme. Remove seasonings. Add flour and continue browning, stirring continually; add tomatoes, stock and seasonings. Heat to boiling point and strain.
Process : Press the butter in a circular piece; divide it equally in two parts. Melt one part in a sauce-pan, add flour mixed with salt and pepper, stir to a smooth paste and add boiling water gradually, while stirring constantly; bring to boiling point, remove from range and beat in remaining butter, adding it in small bits, while beating constantly. Add egg yolks, continue beating. Do not allow sauce to boil after adding egg yolks.
Process : Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add flour and stir to a smooth paste, let cook one minute (without browning), add gradually the hot chicken stock, stirring briskly; add the hot cream, continue stirring. Reduce one-third cup mushroom liquor to two tablespoons by simmering slowly, add reduced liquor to sauce, add lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Lemon juice may be omitted and a few grains of nutmeg added. Whip sauce until smooth and glossy.
Process : Mix butter in sauce-pan, add flour mixed with seasonings, stir to a smooth paste and let cook one minute, then add hot stock, stirring constantly, add hot cream, continue stirring. Beat yolks of eggs slightly, dilute with some of the hot sauce. Combine mixture, beat again, but do not allow the sauce to boil after adding egg yolks. Omitting yolks of eggs make White Bechamel Sauce.
Process : Cover onions and garlic with boiling water; boil five minutes, drain and cover again with boiling salted water and let cook until tender, rub through a pure strainer (there should be one cup pulp). Bring sauce to boiling point, add onion and hot cream; add salt and pepper. Garlic may be omitted.
Prepare a rule of Hollandaise Sauce, using Tarrigon vinegar instead of lemon juice and add one teaspoon each of finely chopped parsley, capers and fresh tarrigon. Serve with lamb croquettes, chops, steaks, broiled birds, smelt and boiled salmon, cod or haddock.
Process : Work the butter in the hands, in a bowl of cold water, until it is of a “waxy” consistency. Divide it into three pieces of equal size. Put one part in a sauce-pan with the yolks of eggs and lemon juice; place saucepan in a larger pan containing hot water, stir constantly with a Gem egg whip until butter is blended with the yolks, add the second piece of butter and as sauce thickens add the third piece. At this point in the process the mixture should be the consistency of boiled custard. Add hot water and seasoning, beating constantly. The water in the larger sauce-pan should be kept just below the boiling point.
To one cup Mayonnaise Dressing add one finely chopped shallot, two tablespoons each of finely chopped capers, gerkins, olives and one-half tablespoon finely chopped parsley, one teaspoon fresh or one-half teaspoon powdered tarrigon. Onion juice may be used in place of the shallot.
Melt five tablespoons strained left-over bacon fat in a sauce-pan; add two tablespoons flour, one-eighth teaspoon paprika and one-half teaspoon salt; stir to a smooth paste. Add, gradually, one-fourth cup vinegar and two-thirds cup hot water, beating constantly and let come to boiling point; remove from range and add the yolks of two eggs lightly beaten. Do not allow sauce to boil after egg yolks are added. Chill and thin with cream. Serve with spinach, dandelion, endive, corn and string bean salad.
Beat two cups of left-over mashed potatoes with a very little hot milk to lighten them. Season with a few drops onion juice, salt, pepper, one-half teaspoon parsley finely chopped, and one-fourth cup grated cheese and a few grains cayenne. Shape in small round flat cakes, dip in flour and saute in hot butter (about two tablespoons), brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. This mixture may be packed in a brick-shape mold, then turned on a board and sliced, dipped in flour and sauted in butter as the round cakes.
Cut cold boiled or baked potatoes in one-fourth inch cubes (there should be two cups), sprinkle with salt, pepper, and one half teaspoon finely chopped parsley; add a few drops onion juice if desired. Re-heat in one and one-half cups thin White Sauce. This mixture may be turned into a buttered baking dish, sprinkled with buttered crumbs, and baked in a hot oven until mixture is heated through and crumbs are brown.
Cut fat salt pork in small pieces, fry it out and remove scraps (there should be four tablespoons). Heat fat in an iron spider, add two cups cold boiled potatoes finely chopped, season well with salt and pepper. Toss potatoes until well mixed with fat, cook four minutes, tossing constantly; then press to one side of the spider to form an omelet. When well browned underneath turn on to a hot serving dish, top side down. This gives potatoes the appearance of a folded omelet.
Cook one onion, thinly sliced, in three tablespoons butter until delicately browned. Remove onion and keep in a warm place. Add three cups cold boiled potatoes cut in slices, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and stir until well mixed with butter. Press to one side of spider and let brown richly underneath, then sprinkle onions over potatoes, let heat thoroughly, then turn on a hot serving platter top side down; sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. Cooking the onion separately lessens the danger of burning the onion.
Slice four medium size cold boiled potatoes. Put a layer in the bottom of a well buttered baking dish, sprinkle with a little onion juice, salt and pepper; slice over potatoes, “hard boiled” eggs. Sprinkle eggs with salt and pepper. Repeat until eight eggs and potatoes have been used. Pour over two cups thin White Sauce, cover with buttered crumbs and place in oven until heated throughout and crumbs are brown.
Process : Mix ingredients in the order given; beat mixture thoroughly. Spread on plate to cool. Shape and dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs again, and fry in deep hot fat. Drain on brown paper. Arrange in a pyramid on a folded napkin, garnish with parsley.
Slice cold boiled potatoes one-eighth an inch thick (there should be two and one-half cups). Put four tablespoons “fried out” salt pork fat in an iron spider; when hot, add one sliced onion, cook until onion is delicately browned; remove onion and keep warm, add potatoes, season with salt and pepper, mix thoroughly with fat, shaking the spider occasionally when potatoes are browned, add onion; when thoroughly mixed and heated, turn into hot dish and serve at once.
Arrange creamed potatoes in layer, in a buttered baking dish, adding a sprinkle of grated cheese to each layer, a slight sprinkle of salt and paprika or a few grains cayenne. There should be plenty of Cream Sauce mixed with the potatoes. Cover with buttered crumbs and bake in a hot oven until mixture is heated throughout and crumbs are brown.
Process : Cook onion in butter four minutes, add mushrooms and ham, cook two minutes, add Brown Sauce, bread crumbs and seasoning. Cut a slice from the stem ends of peppers, remove seed and white portions. Cover with boiling water, parboil eight minutes. Drain. Fill peppers with cooked mixture, cover with crumbs and bake in buttered Gem cups in the oven ten minutes. Serve on rings of toast with Brown Sauce.
Remove the outer stalks of celery, cut in four inch pieces. Parboil eight minutes. Drain thoroughly, dip in batter and fry in deep fat. Drain on brown paper and serve with Tomato Sauce.
Batter : Sift one-half cup bread flour with one-fourth teaspoon salt, one-eighth teaspoon celery salt, a few grains pepper, add six tablespoons milk and one egg lightly beaten.
Wash, scrape and cut the outer stalks of celery into three-fourth inch pieces; cook in boiling salted water to cover until tender. Drain. (There should be two and one-half cups). Add one and one-half cups thin White Sauce to which add one-fourth cup grated cheese and a few grains cayenne.
Grate the left-over boiled corn from the cob (there should be one cup of pulp). Add one lightly beaten egg, four and one-half tablespoons flour, season well with salt, pepper and one teaspoon sugar. Drop by spoonfuls on a hot well greased griddle and cook as griddle cakes. They should be the size of New York Counts.
Fill a buttered baking dish with slices of bread from which the crusts are trimmed off, spread each slice generously with butter and turn buttered side. Sprinkle between each layer freshly-grated cocoanut. Beat three eggs slightly, add two-thirds cup sugar, one-fourth teaspoonful salt and one quart scalded milk; strain this mixture over bread, add a slight grating of nutmeg over top of pudding, let stand thirty minutes. Bake slowly one hour in a moderate oven. Brown the top richly and serve hot with Creamy Vanilla or Hard Sauce.
Process : Soak bread crumbs in scalded milk thirty minutes; melt chocolate over hot water, add half the sugar and sufficient milk from the bread and milk mixture to pour readily; add to bread with remaining sugar, salt and vanilla, add eggs, slightly beaten, and shredded nuts. Turn in a buttered pudding dish and bake slowly one hour in a moderate oven. Serve with Hard or Cream Sauce.
Process : Cut bread in one-third inch slices, remove the crusts. Beat eggs slightly, add ingredients in the order given. Soak bread in mixture until soft. Cook on hot, well-greased griddle, brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Add more butter if necessary. Remove from griddle to serving dish, sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar and a few grains cinnamon. Serve for breakfast or luncheon.
Process : Remove the crust from bread and cut in thick slices, grate each slice by rubbing it through the croquette basket or colander. Melt butter in a sauce-pan, add crumbs and toss lightly with a fork, cover bottom of well-buttered baking dish with crumbs and cover with one half the apples, sprinkle with half the sugar, nutmeg, lemon rind and juice mixed together; repeat, having layer crumbs on top. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven, cover with a buttered paper the first thirty minutes of cooking. Remove paper and brown richly.
Cover the bottom of a well-buttered baking dish to one-third its depth with Apple Sauce, arrange stale bread spread generously with soft butter, crusts removed and bread cut in small pieces and fit closely together over Apple Sauce. Sprinkle generously with sugar mixed with one-half teaspoon cinnamon; dot over top with two tablespoons butter. Bake thirty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with Hard Sauce or sugar and cream.
Croustades of Bread
Shape stale bread cut in two and one-half inch slices into boxes, using a biscuit cutter; with a smaller cutter stamp out centre, being careful not to cut through. The wall of boxes should be one-third inch thick. Place boxes on a plate and baste them with egg diluted with cold milk, using two tablespoons milk to each egg. Season egg with salt, and when each box is well-soaked, drain, lift carefully with a spatula, place in a croquette basket and fry in deep, hot fat. Drain on brown paper and fill with creamed chicken, sweetbreads, mushrooms, brains, etc.
Process : Sweeten cream to taste (will require about two-thirds cup sugar), add flavoring desired, constantly beating mixture very slowly with a wire whisk.
Process : Sift together sugar, cornstarch and salt. Add, gradually, boiling water, beating continually; cook six minutes. Remove from range and beat in butter, adding it in small bits. Add vanilla, beat thoroughly; keep hot over hot water. Lemon and Orange Sauce are made same as foregoing, using one teaspoon of lemon or orange extract in place of vanilla. A few grains of nutmeg may be added to Lemon Sauce.
Saute circles of stale sponge cake in butter until delicately browned. Rub the left-over canned peaches drained from their liquor through a sieve, sweeten with powdered sugar, add a few drops lemon juice and a slight grating nutmeg. Pile peach pulp on circles of cake, mask with whipped cream sweetened and flavored, delicately, with peach extract. Serve as dessert.
Process : Cream butter, add sugar gradually, while stirring constantly. Add extracts, drop by drop, while beating. Brandy may be used instead of extracts. Force mixture through a pastry bag and star tube on to a cold plate, sprinkle with nutmeg.
Coffee Jelly
Process : Soak gelatin thirty minutes in cold water, dissolve in boiling water, strain through sieve, add to sugar and coffee, add vanilla. Turn into a ring mold and chill. Unmold on a cold glass platter and fill centre of mold with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored, delicately, with vanilla.
Save the left-over peel from four large thinned-skin oranges cut in quarters or halves. Cover with cold salted water, let stand over night. In the morning drain and rinse thoroughly. Put peel in a sauce-pan and cover with cold water, bring to boiling point, let boil five minutes, pour off water and cover with fresh boiling water; repeat three times. Then add boiling water and let cook until tender. Drain and remove the white portion, using a teaspoon. Cut peel in narrow shreds, using the shears. Prepare a syrup of two cups sugar and one-half cup water, skim syrup if necessary, and let cook until it spins a thread when dropped from the tip of a wooden spoon. Simmer shreds of orange peel in syrup until they have absorbed nearly all the syrup; then boil rapidly, stirring until each shread is well coated with sugar. Drain and coat with fine granulated sugar. Let dry in a warm oven. Then store in tin left over crystalized ginger or marshmallow boxes.
That small piece of ham left from breakfast, finely minced, will doubtless make one tablespoonful, when finely minced, for your omelet.
The half-cup of creamed onions left from dinner, if rubbed through a sieve, added to thin white sauce and served with “hard boiled” eggs, will furnish a delicious dish for luncheon or supper.
The small bits of jelly added to a berry pie will materially improve the richness of its juice, or it may be added to the mince meat, but should never be thrown away. The tablespoonful of apple and other sauces left-over may be used in a similar way.
The leaves and roots of celery, as well as the outer stocks, may all be used either for making cream of celery soup or for flavoring the soup stock.
Broken crackers that cannot be served on the table, may be crushed moderately and used for stuffing, or may be rolled fine and used for crumbing oysters, scallops or fish, croquettes, etc.
There need be no waste of stale bread in the kitchen. For stale bread can be used in an infinite variety of ways. Only the thin brown crust may be removed and this makes good food for the chickens. Smalls bits of bread should be dried in the warming oven, covered with a piece of cheese cloth to protect it from dust, then passed through the meat chopper and sifted. The fine crumbs are used for crumbing purposes, and the coarse crumbs for the top of Au Gratin dishes.
The onion from which a slice has been cut, should be turned “cut side” down on a saucer, and covered with a cup or small bowl, and set aside in a cool place for future use.
When using garlic, break off one section, called “a clove of garlic,” in cooking parlance. The remainder of bulb will keep some time if kept dry.
The outer leaves of lettuce, if not wilted and torn, may be cut in shreds or ribbons and used to garnish salad or cold meat dishes.
Stale cheese has many possibilities, as shown in the chapter on “How to Use Stale Cheese.” If kept in a cool place, in a covered dish, it may be grated and ready for future use.
The stale rye bread makes delicious stuffing, and is also used for making puddings.
Brown bread may be dried, then crumbed and used in ice cream or bisque, and will take the place of macaroons very palatably.
Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged. Misspelled words were not corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.
