Clayton's Quaker Cook-Book Part 2

Stewed Lobsters or Crabs.

Take a two-pound can of lobster, or two large crabs, and cut as for making salad, and season highly with prepared mustard, cayenne pepper, curry powder, or sauce piquant, and salt to taste. Put in a porcelain stewpan, with a little water, to prevent scorching, and, after letting it boil up once, add b.u.t.ter the size of an egg, and one tablespoonful of vinegar, or half a teacupful of white wine, and the juice of half a lemon, and the moment this boils add half a teacupful of cream or good milk, stirring at the same time. Set the stew aside, and heat up shortly before sending to the table. Putting slices of toast in the bottom of the dish before serving is a decided improvement.

Roast, Boiled, Baked, Broiled and Fried.

Retaining the Juices in Cooking Meats.

Too little attention is paid to one of the most important features of the culinary art--particularly in roasting, boiling, and broiling--that is the retention of the natural juices of various meats in cooking.

Existing, as these always do, in a liquid form, unless this is carefully guarded against, these palatable and health-giving essences of all animal food, both tame and game, are apt to be wasted and dissipated in various forms, when the exercise of mature judgment and a little care would confine them to these meats in the course of preparation. By way of ill.u.s.tration, let us suppose that a fowl, a leg of mutton, or some of the many kinds of fish frequently served up in this way, is to be boiled in water. If put in cold water, and the heat gradually raised until it reaches the boiling point, the health-giving alb.u.men--with the juices which give each its peculiar and pleasant flavor--are extracted from the meat and dissolved and retained in the water, rendering the flesh and fish insipid and in some cases almost tasteless. If, however, these are plunged at once into boiling water, thereby on the instant coagulating the alb.u.men of the surface at least, and thereby closing the pores through which the inside alb.u.minous juices would otherwise exude and be lost. Besides this alb.u.men, there are other juices which are among the most important const.i.tuent parts of every variety of animal food in which are embodied much of its fine flavor and nutritive qualities, and deprived of which such food becomes unpalatable and tasteless. All meats, then, instead of being put into cold water, should at the start be plunged into boiling hot water, as this prevents the escape of these juices, and the retaining not only the delicate and fine flavor of the meat, but confining and retaining its nutritive qualities where they naturally and properly belong.

Roast Pig.

Take a sucking pig--one from three to five weeks old is best. When properly dressed lay in salted water for half an hour; take out and wipe dry inside and out; make a stuffing of bread and b.u.t.ter, mixing to a proper consistency with milk and a well beaten egg; season with salt, pepper and sage, with the addition of thyme or summer savory, and an onion chopped fine and stewed in b.u.t.ter with flour. Sew up, and roast for a long time in an oven not too hot, first putting a little water with lard or dripping in the pan. Baste frequently until done, taking care to keep the pan a little distance above the bottom of the range.

To Roast Turkeys and Chickens.

Turkeys and chickens for roasting should never be over a year old. After being properly cleaned, cut the wings at the first joint from the breast, pull the skin down the lower end of the neck, and cut off the bone. Cut the necks, wings and gizzards into small pieces suitable for giblet stew--which should be put on the fire before preparing the fowls for roasting--which should be done by cutting off the legs at the first joint from the feet. Make the stuffing of good bread, rubbed fine, with b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt, and a teaspoonful of baking powder, seasoning with thyme or summer savory, mixing to the consistency of dough, adding eggs, well beaten, with good milk or cream. Fill the breast, and tie over the neck-bone with strong twine, rubbing the sides of the fowl with a dry cloth, afterwards filling quite full. Sew up tight, tie up the legs, and encase the body with strong twine, wrapped around to hold the wings to the body. After rubbing well with salt and dredging lightly with flour, put the fowl in a pan, laying on top two or three thin slices of fat pork, salt or fresh. Put a little water in the pan, and baste frequently, but do not roast too rapidly; raise the pan at least two inches from the bottom of the range. All white meat should invariably be cooked well done, and turkey or chicken, to be eaten cold, should be wrapped while warm in paper or cloth. When prepared in this way they will always be found soft and tender when cooled.

When the giblets are stewed tender--which they must be in order to be good--chop a handful of the green leaves of celery, adding pepper and salt, and put in. Ten minutes before taking from the fire add a lump of b.u.t.ter worked in with a tablespoonful of flour and the yolk of two boiled eggs, letting simmer two or three minutes, then put in the whites of the eggs, chopped fine, with the addition of a little good milk or cream. Some of this stew, mixed with the drippings of the fowl, makes the best possible gravy.

Roasting Beef.

Never wash meat; simply wipe with a damp cloth, rub with salt and dredge with flour; put in the pan with a little of the suet chopped fine, and a teacupful of water; set in a hot oven, two inches above the bottom. The oven should be quite hot, in order to close the pores on the surface of the meat as quickly as possible. As the meat hardens reduce the heat a little, basting frequently. Turn two or three times during the roasting, taking care not to let the gravy scorch. Meat cooked in this way will be tender and juicy, and when done will be slightly red in the centre.

Should it prove too rare, carve thin and lay in a hot pan with a little gravy for one minute. Beef will roast in from one and-half to two hours, according to size. All meats may be roasted in the same way, taking care in every case, that the alb.u.minous juices do not escape.

A Good Way to Roast a Leg of Mutton.

Into a kettle, with hot water enough to cover, put a leg of mutton. Let it boil half an hour, and the moment it is taken from the water, salt, pepper, and dredge with flour, and put on to roast with one-half a teacup of water in the pan. Baste frequently, first adding a tablespoonful of lard. Cooked in this way the meat has none of the peculiar mutton flavor which is distasteful to many.

Clayton's Mode of Cooking Canvas-back Ducks.

That most delicately flavored wild fowl, the canvas-back duck, to be properly cooked, should be prepared in the following style:

The bird being properly dressed and cleaned, place in the opening, after drawing, a tablespoonful of salt dissolved in water--some add a stick of celery, or celery salt, to flavor, but this is not necessary. Sew up the opening with strong thread; have your fire in the grate red hot--that is, the oven almost red hot; place your duck therein, letting it remain nineteen minutes--which will be amply sufficient time if your oven is at the proper heat--but as tastes differ in this as in other matters of cookery, some prefer a minute longer and others one less. Serve the duck as hot as possible, with an accompanying dish of hominy, boiled, of course; the only condiment to be desired is a little cayenne pepper; some prefer a squeeze of lemon on the duck; others currant jelly; but the simplest and most palatable serving is the directions given.

Clayton's Mode of Cooking California Quail, or Young Chickens.

Split the birds in the back, and wash, but do not let them remain in the water any time; dry with a cloth; salt and pepper well, and put in a pan with the inside up; also put in two or three slices of fresh or salt pork, and a piece of b.u.t.ter about the size of an egg, with three or four tablespoonfuls of water, and set the pan on the upper shelf of the range when quite hot, and commence basting frequently the moment the birds begin to harden on the top; and when slightly brown turn and serve the under side the same way, until that is also a little brown, taking care not to scorch the gravy. Having prepared a piece of b.u.t.tered toast for each bird, lay the same in a hot dish, place the birds thereon, and pour the gravy over all. Birds cooked in this manner are always soft and juicy--whereas, if broiled, all the juices and gravy would have gone into the fire--and should you attempt cooking in that way, if not thoroughly, constantly basted, they are liable to burn; and if basted with b.u.t.ter it runs into the fire, smoking and destroying their rich natural flavor.

I have been thus particular in the directions detailed in this recipe, from the fact that many people have an idea that the quail of California are not equal to that of the Atlantic States, when, from my experience with both, which has been considerable, I find no difference in the flavor and juiciness of the birds when cooked in the way I have carefully laid down in the foregoing simple and easily understood directions.

To Cook Boned Turkey.

For the filling of the turkey, boil, skin, trim, and cut the size of the end of your finger, two fresh calves' tongues. At the same time boil for half-an-hour in soup stock, or very little water, a medium-sized, but not old, chicken; take all the meat from the bones, and cut as the calves' tongues. Take a piece of ham, composed of fat and lean, and cut small; also the livers of the turkey and the chicken, chopped fine, along with a small piece of veal, mostly fat, cut as the chicken, and half an onion chopped fine.

Put all these into a kettle with water to half cover, and stew until tender. At the time of putting on the fire, season with salt and pepper, ground mace, salpicant, celery salt and a little summer savory. Just before taking from the fire stir in the yolks of two eggs, well beaten, with three or four truffles chopped the size of a pea, and a teacupful of sherry or white wine. When this mixture is cold put it in the turkey, with the skin side out; draw it carefully around the filling, and sew up with a strong thread; and after wrapping it very tightly with strong twine, encase it in two or three thicknesses of cotton cloth, at the same time twisting the ends slightly. These precautions are necessary to prevent the escape of the fine flavor of this delicious preparation.

Boil slowly for four hours or longer, in good soup stock, keeping the turkey covered with the liquid, and the vessel covered also. When taken up lay on a level surface, with a weight, to flatten the two sides a little, but not heavy enough to press out the juice. When quite cold take off the wrapping and thread, and lay on a nice large dish, garnis.h.i.+ng with amber jelly cut the size of peas.

To Bone a Turkey.

Use a French boning knife, five inches in length and sharp at the point.

Commence by cutting off the wings at the first joint from the breast; then the first joint from the drum-sticks, and the head, well down the neck. Next place the bird firmly on the table, with the breast down, and commence by cutting from the end of the neck, down the centre of the back, through to the bone, until you reach the Pope's nose. Then skin or peel the flesh as clean as possible from the frame, finis.h.i.+ng at the lower end of the breast-bone.

Chickens may be boned in the same manner.

To Cook Ducks or Chickens, Louisiana Style.

Carve the fowls at the joints, making three or four pieces of the breast; wash nicely in salted water, and put on to boil with water enough to cover, adding a little salt; boil slowly; carefully skimming off the sc.u.m. When the meat begins to get tender and the water well reduced, cook four onions, chopped fine, in a pan with pork fat and b.u.t.ter, dredging in a little flour and seasoning with pepper and salt, adding a little of the juice from the fowls. Next take up the pieces of the meat and roll in browned flour or cracker-dust, and fry slightly. If the b.u.t.ter is not scorched put in a little browned flour; stir in the onion, and put it back in the kettle with the meat of the fowl, simmering until the gravy thickens, and the meat is thoroughly tender.

Breast of Lamb and Chicken, Breaded.

Take the breast of lamb and one chicken--a year old is best--and after taking off the thin skin of the lamb, wash it well in cold salted water; then put on to boil, with sufficient cold slightly-salted water to cover it, and boil until tender--the addition of a medium-sized onion improves the flavor--then take up, and when quite cold, carve in nice pieces, and season with black pepper and salt. Next, beat two eggs, with two or three spoonfuls of milk or cream, and a spoonful of flour. After running the meat through this, roll in cracker-dust or browned flour, and fry in sweet lard and a little b.u.t.ter until a light brown. Next make a cream gravy; take a little of the liquid from the chicken, and make a rich thick drawn b.u.t.ter, and thinning it with cream, pour over the chicken while it is hot.

[The liquid used in boiling the chicken will make any kind of rich soup for dinner.]

Sc.r.a.pple, or Haggis Loaf.

Take three or four pounds best fresh pork, mostly lean, with plenty of bones--the latter making a rich liquid. Put these into a kettle, and cover with hot or cold water, and let the ma.s.s boil slowly for two or three hours, or until quite tender, carefully removing the sc.u.m as it rises, after which take the meat out into a wooden bowl or tray. Pick out the bones carefully, and strain the liquid. After letting these stand for a few minutes, if in your opinion there is too much fat, remove a portion, and then return the liquor to the kettle, adding pepper and salt, and seasoning highly with summer savory. Next stir in two parts fine white corn-meal and one part buckwheat flour (Deming & Palmer's), until the whole forms quite a thick mush, after which, chopping the meat the size of the end of the finger, stir thoroughly into the mush. Next put the mixture into baking pans to the depth of 1-1/2 or 2 inches, and bake in a slow oven for two hours, or until the top a.s.sumes a light brown--taking care not to bake too hard on the bottom. Put in a cool place, and the next morning--when, after warming the pan slightly--so that the sc.r.a.pple may be easily taken out--cut in slices of half-an-inch thick, which heat in a pan to prevent sticking, and serve hot.

[A small hog's head or veal is equally good for the preparation of this dish, which will be found a fine relish.]

Pigs' Feet and Hocks.

Have the feet nicely cleaned, and soaked for five or six hours, or over night, in slightly salted water. Boil until tender, and the large bones slip out easily, which will take from three to four hours. Take up, pull out the large bones, and lay in a stone jar, sprinkling on each layer a little salt and pepper, with a few cloves or allspice. After skimming off the fat, take equal parts of the water in which the feet were boiled, and good vinegar, and cover the meat in the jar.

This nice relish was known as "souse" fifty or sixty years ago, and is good, both cold or hot, or cut in slices and fried in b.u.t.ter for breakfast.

To Cook a Steak California Style of 1849-'50.

Cut a good steak an inch and an eighth thick. Heat a griddle quite hot, and rub over with a piece of the fat from the steak, after which lay on the steak for two or three minutes, or long enough to harden the under side of the steak, after which turn the other side, treating in the same way, thus preventing all escape of the rich juices of the meat. After this, cut a small portion of the fat into small and thin pieces, to which add sufficient b.u.t.ter to form a rich gravy, seasoning with pepper and salt to taste. A steak cooked in this way fully equals broiling, and is at the same time quite as juicy and tender.