Miss Parloa's New Cook Book Part 58

Three table-spoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, three teaspoonfuls of flour, one onion, one teaspoonful of curry powder, salt, pepper, one generous pint of stock or water, about two pounds of any kind of cold meat, cut in thin slices. Put the b.u.t.ter in the frying-pan, and, when hot, add the onion. When the onion turns yellow, add the flour and curry powder. Stir two minutes, add the stock or water, simmer five minutes, and strain on the meat. Simmer all together for ten minutes. Serve with a border of rice or mashed potatoes.

Barley Stew.

About a quarter of a pound of cold roasted or broiled meat, two onions, four potatoes, a quarter of a cupful of barley, one table- spoonful of flour, one quart of water, and salt and pepper to taste.

Cut the meat into dice; wash the barley; cut the onions _very fine_. Put all in a stew-pan, and dredge with the flour, half a table-spoonful of salt, and one-eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Add the water, and simmer two hours. Pare and slice the potatoes. Add them to the stew, and simmer one hour longer. Taste to see if there is enough, salt and pepper, and if there is not, add more.

Dumplings.

One pint of flour, measured before sifting; half a teaspoonful of soda, a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one of sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt. Mix all thoroughly and run through the sieve. Wet with a small cupful of milk. Sprinkle a little flour on the board.

Turn the dough (which should have been stirred into a smooth ball with a spoon) on it roll to the thickness of half an inch, cut into small cakes, and cook ten minutes.

By remembering that the soup should be boiling rapidly when the dumplings are put in; that they should not sink too deep in it; that they should boil _just ten minutes_; that the cover should fit tightly, so that the steam shall not escape; and that the pot boils all the time, so that the steam is kept up; and by following the other directions, success is insured.

BREAD.

When you put the bread on the board, pat it lightly. Do not _press down_, but let all motions be as elastic as possible. Knead with the _palm_ until the dough is a flat cake, and then fold. Keep doing this until the dough is light and smooth and will not stick to the board or hands. Use as little flour as possible in kneading. Do not stop until you have fully finished, for bread that has "rested" is not good. Milk can be used instead of water in mixing. It should always be first scalded, and then allowed to cool to blood heat. One table-spoonful of lard or b.u.t.ter makes the bread tenderer when water is used.

In cold weather some kitchens grow cold very quickly after the fire is out. In this case the bread should be made earlier in the evening, and set in a warmer place (about eighty or ninety degrees); because if it begins to rise within the first two hours, it will continue to rise, unless the temperature falls to the freezing point. The reason for letting the rolls rise longer than the loaves is that the former, being smaller, are penetrated by heat much more quickly than the loaves are, and, of course, fermentation is stopped sooner; therefore, the rolls do not rise as much in the oven as the loaves.

Rolls should be made into smooth little b.a.l.l.s, and should be placed in even rows in a shallow pan. Breakfast rolls, are first made into little b.a.l.l.s and then rolled between the hands until three inches long. They are placed close together in even rows in the pan. Dinner and French rolls, after being made into little b.a.l.l.s, are put on a well-floured board, and a little, well-floured rolling-pin, two and a half inches in diameter, is pressed nearly through their centre. The rolls are to be so placed in pans as not to touch each other. Being so small, and baking so quickly, they have a sweet taste of the wheat.

The best-sized pan for loaves is made of block tin; is eight and a half inches long, four and a half wide, and three deep. Those for wheat bread should be greased very slightly with either b.u.t.ter or lard. For rye, Indian, or Graham, they must be greased thoroughly, as the dough clings more to the tins. There are many kinds of bread that can be made readily and safely after once learning to make good common bread. It is difficult to give exact rules for flour, as it varies, some kinds requiring much more water than others. The "new process"

flour has so much more starch, and packs so much more closely than the "old process," that one-eighth less is required, or one-eighth more of liquid; but if the flour is weighed, the same amount of water is taken for a pound of flour made by either process. The best flour is always the cheapest for bread. As there is no one article of food of so great importance for the health and happiness of the family as bread, make it as nearly perfect as possible.

Yeast.

Put two quarts of water and two table-spoonfuls of hops on to boil.

Pare and grate six large potatoes. When the hops and water _boil_, strain the water on the grated potatoes, and stir well.

Place on the stove and boil up once. Add half a cupful of sugar and one-fourth of a cupful of salt. Let the mixture get blood warm; then add one cupful of yeast, or one cake of compressed yeast, and let it rise in a warm place five or six hours. When well risen, turn into a stone jug. Cork this tightly, and set in a cool place. As poor yeast is the chief cause of poor bread, pains should be taken to make yeast properly and to keep it well. It must never be allowed to stand in a warm room after it has risen, and the jug in which it is kept should be carefully washed and _scalded_ each time the yeast is renewed.

As much care must be taken with the stopper as with the jug. When it is convenient to get fresh cakes of Fleischmann's compressed yeast, it will be much better and cheaper to use them than to make your own.

This yeast is wholly free of any injurious substance, and with it good bread can always be made, provided the flour is good and the rules are followed.

Yeast Bread, No. 1.

With these materials two loaves can be made: Two quarts of flour, half a cupful of yeast, nearly a pint and a half of water, half a table- spoonful each of lard, sugar, and salt. Sift the flour into a bread- pan, and, after taking out a cupful for use in kneading, add the salt, sugar, yeast, and the water, which must be about blood warm (or, say one hundred degrees, if in cold weather, and about eighty in the hot season). Beat well with a strong spoon. When well mixed, sprinkle a little flour on the board, turn out the dough on this, and knead from twenty to thirty minutes. Put back in the pan. Hold the lard in the hand long enough to have it very soft. Rub it over the dough. Cover closely, that neither dust nor air can get in, and set in a warm place. It will rise in eight or nine hours. In the morning shape into loaves or rolls. If into loaves, let these rise an hour where the temperature is between ninety and one hundred degrees; if into rolls, let these rise an hour and a half. Bake in an oven that will brown a teaspoonful of flour in five minutes. (The flour used for this test should be put on a bit of crockery, as it will have a more even heat.) The loaves will need from forty-five to sixty minutes to bake, but the rolls will be done in half an hour if placed close together in the pan; and if French rolls are made, they will bake in fifteen minutes.

As soon as baked, the bread should be taken out of the pans and placed on a table where it can rest against something until cool. It should then be put in a stone pot or tin box, which has been thoroughly washed, scalded and dried, and be set away in a cool, dry place.

Yeast Bread, No. 2.

One cupful of Indian meal, two quarts of flour, one pint and a half of boiling water, one table-spoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, half a cake of compressed yeast. Pour the boiling water on the Indian meal. Stir well, and set away to cool. When blood warm, add the yeast, salt and sugar to it. Stir this mixture into the flour, and proceed as for yeast bread, No. I.

Bread Made with Dried Yeast.

Two quarts of flour, one yeast-cake, one generous pint of water, blood warm; one table-spoonful of sugar, one of b.u.t.ter, one teaspoonful of salt. Dissolve the yeast in the water, and stir gradually into one pint of the flour. Set in a warm place for two hours. It will then be risen to a sponge. Stir it into the remainder of the flour. Knead well, and put in a warm place to rise. It will rise in about five hours if the heat is about seventy-five or eighty degrees. Or, it will rise during the night in a heat of sixty degrees. In the morning treat like yeast bread, No. I.

Sticks.

Four cupfuls of flour, one table-spoonful of sugar, one-fourth of a cupful of b.u.t.ter, one cupful of boiled milk, the white of an egg, one- fourth of a cake of compressed yeast, one scant teaspoonful of salt.

Dissolve the b.u.t.ter in the milk, which have blood warm. Beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth. Dissolve the yeast in three table- spoonfuls of cold water. Add all the other ingredients to the flour, and knead well. Let the dough rise over night, and in the morning make into b.a.l.l.s about the size of a large English walnut. Roll each of these b.a.l.l.s into a stick about a foot long. Use the moulding board.

Place the sticks about two inches apart in long pans. Let them rise half an hour in a cool place, and bake twenty-five minutes in a very moderate oven. Sticks should be quite dry and crisp. They cannot be if baked rapidly.

Graham Bread.

With this material two loaves or two dozen m.u.f.fins can be made: One pint of water or milk, one of flour, one _large_ pint of Graham, half a cupful of yeast, half a cupful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt. Have the milk or water blood warm, and add the yeast. Sift the flour into a deep dish. Add the milk and yeast, gradually, and beat until wholly smooth. Set in a rather cool place (about sixty degrees) to rise over night. In the morning add the salt and sugar and then the Graham, a little at a time, beating vigorously all the while. When thoroughly beaten, turn into pans, and let it rise an hour in a temperature of from 90 to 100. Bake an hour.

Togus Bread.

Three cupfuls of sweet milk and one of sour, three cupfuls of Indian meal and one of flour, half a cupful of mola.s.ses, one teaspoonful of saleratus, one of salt. Steam three hours.

Brown Bread.

One cupful of rye meal, one of Indian meal, one of mola.s.ses, two of flour, one pint and a half of sour milk, a teaspoonful of soda, an egg, one teaspoonful of salt. Mix the dry ingredients together.

Dissolve the soda in two table-spoonfuls of boiling water. Add it and the milk to the mola.s.ses. Stir well, and pour on the other mixed ingredients. Beat the egg and add it. Mix thoroughly, and pour into a well-b.u.t.tered tin pan that holds two quarts. Steam four hours, and then put in the oven for half an hour.

DRINKS.

Cocoa.

Cocoa is rich in nutritive elements. Like milk, it has all the substances necessary for the growth and sustenance of the body. It is the fruit of a small tree that grows in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and other islands. The fruit is in shape like a large, thick cuc.u.mber, and contains from six to thirty beans. There is a number of forms in which it is sold in the market, the most convenient and nutritious being chocolate. Next comes cocoa, then cocoa nibs, and lastly cocoa sh.e.l.ls. The beans of the cocoa are roasted in the same manner as coffee. The husks or sh.e.l.ls are taken off and the beans then ground between hot rollers. Sometimes the husks are not removed, but ground with the bean. The ground bean is called cocoa; and mixed with sugar, after being ground very fine, is termed chocolate. Vanilla is often added as a flavor. Sometimes the cocoa is mixed with starch.

When the bean is broken in small pieces, these are called nibs.

To Make Cocoa.

Put a gill of the broken cocoa in a pot with two quarts of water, and boil gently three hours. There should be a quart of liquid in the pot when done. If the boiling has been so rapid that there is not this quant.i.ty, add more water, and let it boil once again. Many people prefer half broken cocoa and half sh.e.l.ls. If the stomach is delicate, this is better than all cocoa. Sugar and milk are used, as with coffee.

Sh.e.l.ls.

Use twice the quant.i.ty of sh.e.l.ls that you would of broken cocoa, and boil twice as long.