Common Sense in the Household 13

Common Sense in the Household 13

CLAM CHOWDER. ✠

 

Fry five or six slices of fat pork crisp, and chop to pieces. Sprinkle

some of these in the bottom of a pot; lay upon them a stratum of clams;

sprinkle with cayenne or black pepper and salt, and scatter bits of

butter profusely over all; next, have a layer of chopped onions, then

one of small crackers, split and moistened with warm milk. On these

pour a little of the fat left in the pan after the pork is fried, and

then comes a new round of pork, clams, onion, etc. Proceed in this

order until the pot is nearly full, when cover with water, and stew

slowly—the pot closely covered—for three-quarters of an hour. Drain

off all the liquor that will flow freely, and, when you have turned

the chowder into the tureen, return the gravy to the pot. Thicken with

flour, or, better still, pounded crackers; add a glass of wine, some

catsup, and spiced sauce; boil up, and pour over the contents of the

tureen. Send around walnut or butternut pickles with it.

 

 

 

POULTRY.

 

Poultry should never be eaten in less than six or eight hours after

it is killed; but it should be picked and drawn as soon as possible.

There is no direr disgrace to our Northern markets than the practice of

sending whole dead fowls to market. I have bought such from responsible

poultry dealers, and found them uneatable, from having remained undrawn

until the flavor of the craw and intestines had impregnated the whole

body. Those who are conversant with the habit of careful country

housewives, of keeping up a fowl without food for a day and night

before killing and dressing for their own eating, cannot but regard

with disgust the surcharged crops and puffy sides of those sold _by

weight_ in the shambles. If you want to know what you really pay for

poultry bought in these circumstances, weigh the offal extracted from

the fowl by your cook, and deduct from the market weight. “But don’t

you know it actually poisons a fowl to lie so long undressed?” once

exclaimed a Southern lady to me. “In _our_ markets they are offered for

sale ready picked and drawn, with the giblets—also cleaned—tucked under

their wings.”

 

I know nothing about the poisonous nature of the entrails and crops. I

do assert that the custom is unclean and unjust. And this I do without

the remotest hope of arousing my fellow-housekeepers to remonstrance

against established usage. Only it relieves my mind somewhat to grumble

at what I cannot help. The best remedy I can propose for the grievance

is to buy live fowls, and, before sending them home, ask your butcher

to decapitate them; the probabilities being greatly in favor of the

supposition that your cook is too “tinder-hearted” to attempt the job.

 

One word as to the manner of roasting meats and fowls. In this day

of ranges and cooking-stoves, I think I am speaking within bounds

when I assume that not one housekeeper in fifty uses a spit, or even

a tin kitchen, for such purposes. It is in vain that the writers of

receipt-books inform us with refreshing _naïveté_ that all our meats

are baked, not roasted, and expatiate upon the superior flavor of

those prepared upon the English spits and in old fashioned kitchens,

where enormous wood-fires blazed from morning until night. I shall

not soon forget my perplexity when, an inexperienced housekeeper and

a firm believer in all “that was writ” by older and wiser people, I

stood before my neat Mott’s “Defiance,” a fine sirloin of beef ready

to be cooked on the table behind me, and read from my Instruction-book

that my “fire should extend at least eight inches beyond the roaster

on either side!” I am not denying the virtues of spits and tin

kitchens—only regretting that they are not within the reach of every

one. In view of this fact, let me remark, for the benefit of the

unfortunate many, that, in the opinion of excellent judges, the

practice of roasting meat in close ovens has advantages. Of these I

need mention but two, to wit, the preservation of the flavor of the

article roasted, and the prevention of its escape to the upper regions

of the dwelling.

 

 

ROAST TURKEY.

 

After drawing the turkey, rinse out with several waters, and in next to

the last mix a teaspoonful of soda. The inside of a fowl, especially

if purchased in the market, is sometimes very sour, and imparts an

unpleasant taste to the stuffing, if not to the inner part of the legs

and side-bones. The soda will act as a corrective, and is moreover very

cleansing. Fill the body with this water, shake well, empty it out,

and rinse with fair water. Then prepare a dressing of bread-crumbs,

mixed with butter, pepper, salt, thyme or sweet marjoram. You may, if

you like, add the beaten yolks of two eggs. A little chopped sausage

is esteemed an improvement when well incorporated with the other

ingredients. Or, mince a dozen oysters and stir into the dressing. The

effect upon the turkey-meat, particularly that of the breast, is very

pleasant.

 

Stuff the craw with this, and tie a string tightly about the neck, to

prevent the escape of the stuffing. Then fill the body of the turkey,

and sew it up with strong thread. This and the neck-string are to be

removed when the fowl is dished. In roasting, if your fire is brisk,

allow about ten minutes to a pound; but it will depend very much upon

the turkey’s age whether this rule holds good. Dredge it with flour

before roasting, and baste often; at first with butter and water,

afterward with the gravy in the dripping-pan. If you lay the turkey in

the pan, put in with it a teacup of hot water. Many roast always upon

a grating placed on the top of the pan. In that case the boiling water

steams the underpart of the fowl, and prevents the skin from drying too

fast, or cracking. Roast to a fine brown, and if it threaten to darken

too rapidly, lay a sheet of white paper over it until the lower part is

also done.

 

Stew the chopped giblets in just enough water to cover them, and when

the turkey is lifted from the pan, add these, with the water in which

they were boiled, to the drippings; thicken with a spoonful of browned

flour, wet with cold water to prevent lumping, boil up once, and pour

into the gravy-boat. If the turkey is fat, skim the drippings well

before putting in the giblets.

 

Serve with cranberry sauce. Some lay fried oysters in the dish around

the turkey.

 

 

BOILED TURKEY.

 

Chop about two dozen oysters, and mix with them a dressing compounded

as for roast turkey, only with more butter. Stuff the turkey as for

roasting, craw and body, and baste about it a thin cloth, fitted

closely to every part. The inside of the cloth should be dredged with

flour to prevent the fowl from sticking to it. Allow fifteen minutes to

a pound, and boil slowly.

 

Serve with oyster-sauce, made by adding to a cupful of the liquor in

which the turkey was boiled, eight oysters chopped fine. Season with

minced parsley, stir in a spoonful of rice or wheat flour, wet with

cold milk, a tablespoonful of butter. Add a cupful of hot milk. Boil up

once and pour into an oyster-tureen. Send around celery with it.

 

 

TURKEY SCALLOP. ✠

 

Cut the meat from the bones of a cold boiled or roasted turkey left

from yesterday’s dinner. Remove the bits of skin and gristle, and chop

up the rest very fine. Put in the bottom of a buttered dish a layer of

cracker or bread-crumbs; moisten slightly with milk, that they may not

absorb all the gravy to be poured in afterward; then spread a layer of

the minced turkey, with bits of the stuffing, pepper, salt, and small

pieces of butter. Another layer of cracker, wet with milk, and so on

until the dish is nearly full. Before putting on the topmost layer,

pour in the gravy left from the turkey, diluted—should there not be

enough—with hot water, and seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, or

catsup, and butter. Have ready a crust of cracker-crumbs soaked in warm

milk, seasoned with salt, and beaten up light with two eggs. It should

be just thick enough to spread smoothly over the top of the scallop.

Stick bits of butter plentifully upon it, and bake. Turn a deep

plate over the dish until the contents begin to bubble at the sides,

showing that the whole is thoroughly cooked; then remove the cover,

and brown. A large pudding-dish full of the mixture will be cooked in

three-quarters of an hour.

 

This, like many other economical dishes, will prove so savory as to

claim a frequent appearance upon any table.

 

Cold chicken may be prepared in the same way

 

 

_Or,_

 

The minced turkey, dressing, and cracker-crumbs may be wet with

gravy, two eggs beaten into it, and the force-meat thus made rolled

into oblong shapes, dipped in egg and pounded cracker, and fried like

croquettes, for a side dish, to “make out” a dinner of ham or cold meat.

 

 

RAGOÛT OF TURKEY.

 

This is also a cheap, yet nice dish. Cut the cold turkey from the bones

and into bits an inch long with knife and fork, tearing as little as

possible. Put into a skillet or saucepan the gravy left from the roast,

with hot water to dilute it should the quantity be small. Add a lump

of butter the size of an egg, a teaspoonful of pungent sauce, a large

pinch of nutmeg, with a little salt. Let it boil, and put in the meat.

Stew very slowly for ten minutes—not more—and stir in a tablespoonful

of cranberry or currant jelly, another of browned flour which has been

wet with cold water; lastly, a glass of brown Sherry or Madeira. Boil

up once, and serve in a covered dish for breakfast. Leave out the

stuffing entirely; it is no improvement to the flavor, and disfigures

the appearance of the ragoût.

 

 

ROAST CHICKENS.

 

Having picked and drawn them, wash out well in two or three waters,

adding a little soda to the last but one should any doubtful odor

linger about the cavity. Prepare a stuffing of bread-crumbs, butter,

pepper, salt, &c. Fill the bodies and crops of the chickens, which

should be young and plump; sew them up, and roast an hour or more, in

proportion to their size. Baste two or three times with butter and

water, afterward with their own gravy. If laid flat within the dripping

pan, put in at the first a little hot water to prevent burning.

 

Stew the giblets and necks in enough water to cover them, and, when you

have removed the fowls to a hot dish, pour this into the drippings;

boil up once; add the giblets, chopped fine; thicken with browned

flour; boil again, and send to table in a gravy-boat.

 

Serve with crab-apple jelly or tomato sauce.

 

 

BOILED CHICKENS.

 

Clean, wash, and stuff as for roasting. Baste a floured cloth around

each, and put into a pot with enough boiling water to cover them

well. The hot water cooks the skin at once, and prevents the escape

of the juices. The broth will not be so rich as if the fowls are put

on in cold water, but this is a proof that the meat will be more

nutritious and better flavored. Stew very slowly, for the first half

hour especially. Boil an hour or more, guiding yourself by size and

toughness. Serve with egg or bread sauce. (See _Sauces_.)