Common Sense in the Household 35

Common Sense in the Household 35

Or,_ ✠

 

½ lb. old cheese, grated.

1 hard-boiled egg.

½ teaspoonful cayenne.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 teaspoonful white sugar.

1 teaspoonful made mustard.

1 tablespoonful onion vinegar.

1 tablespoonful salad oil.

 

Rub the yolk of the egg to a paste with the oil, adding in order the

salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard, lastly the cheese. Work all well

together before putting in the vinegar. Serve in a crab-shell.

 

These mixtures bear a marvellous resemblance in taste to devilled crab,

and make a good impromptu relish at tea or luncheon. Eat with crackers

and butter. This is still better if you add a cupful of cold minced

chicken.

 

Use none but the best and freshest olive salad oil (_not_ sweet oil,

falsely so called) in compounding your salad-dressing. If you cannot

obtain this, melted butter is the best substitute I know of.

 

 

 

VEGETABLES.

 

RULES APPLICABLE TO THE COOKING OF ALL VEGETABLES.

 

 

1. Have them as fresh as possible. Stale and withered ones are

unwholesome and unpalatable. Summer vegetables should be cooked on the

same day they are gathered, if possible.

 

2. Pick over and wash well, cutting out all decayed or unripe parts.

 

3. Lay them, when peeled, in _cold_ water for some time before cooking.

 

4. If you boil them, put a little salt in the water.

 

5. Cook them steadily after you put them on.

 

6. Be sure they are thoroughly done. Rare vegetables are neither good

nor fashionable.

 

7. _Drain well._

 

8. Serve hot!

 

 

 

POTATOES.

 

 

BOILED POTATOES (_with the skins on._)

 

Boil in cold water with a pinch of salt. Have them of uniform size,

and cook steadily until a fork will pierce easily to the heart of the

largest. Then pour off the water, every drop; sprinkle with salt and

set back on the range, a little to one side, with the lid of the pot

off. Let them dry three or four minutes; peel very quickly and serve in

an uncovered dish.

 

 

_Without the Skins._

 

Pare very thin. The glory of a potato is its mealiness, and much of the

starch, or meal, lies next the skin—consequently is lost by slovenly

paring, which likewise defaces the shape. Lay in cold water for half an

hour, have ready a pot of boiling water slightly salted, drop in the

potatoes, and keep at a rapid boil until tender. Drain off the water,

sprinkle with fine salt, and dry as just described.

 

And here comes a conflict of authorities. Says my kind friend and

neighbor, Mrs. A., an excellent housewife—“I boil my potatoes in cold

water always—with a pinch of salt, of course, and when half-done, throw

away the boiling water and fill up with cold, then boil again. This

makes the potatoes mealy.” Mrs. B., whose reputation as a housekeeper

and cook is in every kitchen, interposes:—“I have tried both ways.

My experience is that potatoes melt into a sort of starchy gruel

when boiled in cold water. The philosophy of the operation is to

heat quickly and thoroughly, and, the instant they are done, to dry

out every drop of water. And—” with a touch of pardonable pride—“we

generally have delightful potatoes.” This is true, but remembering that

Mrs. A.’s are like snow hillocks, ready to crumble at a breath, I come

home and try the cold water plan. My cook, unlike most of her tribe,

is too sensible to suppose that she knows everything, and willingly

abets me. The result of our experiments stands somewhat thus—Garnet,

White Mountain, and Early Rose potatoes _are_ apt to dissolve in cold

water, giving off their starch too readily, perhaps. We boil them in

hot water. Peach Blows, Prince Alberts, and other late varieties are

best cooked as Mrs. A. recommends—_always_ pouring off the water the

instant they are done, and letting the potatoes dry for a few minutes.

My housewifely friends can decide for themselves which method is

preferable.

 

 

MASHED POTATOES. ✠

 

Old potatoes are best mashed. Pare, and let them lie in cold water from

half to three-quarters of an hour. A longer time will not hurt them.

Boil in hot or cold water, according to the toughness of texture. A

coarse, waxy potato is best cooked in cold water. In either case, put

in a pinch of salt. Drain thoroughly when done, sprinkle with salt, and

mash them in the pot with a potato-beetle, or whip with a split spoon,

working in a tablespoonful of butter and enough milk to make the paste

about the consistency of soft dough. Leave no lumps in it, and when

smooth, dish. Form into a mound with a wooden spoon, and leave dots of

pepper here and there on the surface, as large as a half-dime.

 

 

_Or,_

 

Brown by setting in the oven until a crust is formed. Glaze this with

butter, and serve.

 

 

TO BOIL NEW POTATOES.

 

If very young, rub the skin off with a rough towel. If almost ripe,

scrape with a blunt knife. Lay in cold water an hour, cover with cold

water slightly salted, boil half an hour. Drain, salt, and dry for two

or three minutes. Send to table plain.

 

 

_Or,_

 

You may crack each by pressing lightly upon it with the back of a

wooden spoon, lay them in a deep dish, and pour over them a cupful

of cream or new milk, heated to a boil, in which a great spoonful of

butter has been dissolved.

 

 

TO STEW OLD POTATOES. ✠

 

This is a good way to cook potatoes which are so rank and tough as

hardly to be eatable in any other form.

 

Pare and quarter, if large. Soak in cold water one hour. Put into a pot

with enough cold salted water to cover them. When almost done, turn off

the water, add a like quantity of milk, and bring to a boil. Before

taking up, stir in a heaping tablespoonful of butter, a little salt, a

handful of chopped parsley, and thicken slightly with flour previously

wet in cold milk. Boil one minute, and pour all into a deep dish.

 

 

STEWED POTATOES FOR BREAKFAST. ✠

 

Pare, cut into dice, and soak in cold water half an hour. Stew in

enough hot salted water to cover them. Before taking up, and when they

are breaking to pieces, drain off half the water, and pour in a cupful

of milk. Boil three minutes, stirring well; put in a lump of butter the

size of an egg rolled in flour, a little salt and a pinch of pepper;

add a little parsley; boil up well and turn into a covered dish.

 

This is an excellent family dish. Children are usually fond of it and

it is very wholesome.

 

 

BAKED POTATOES.

 

Wash and wipe some large ripe potatoes, and bake in a quick oven until

tender, say from three-quarters of an hour to an hour, if of a good

size. Serve in a napkin with the skins on. Tear or cut a hole in the

top when you eat them, put in a bit of butter with salt and pepper.

They are good for boys’ cold fingers at supper-time on winter nights.

 

 

POTATO PUFF. ✠

 

Take two cupfuls of cold mashed potato, and stir into it two

tablespoonfuls of melted butter, beating to a white cream before adding

anything else. Then put with this two eggs whipped very light and a

teacupful of cream or milk, salting to taste. Beat all well, pour into

a deep dish, and bake in a quick oven until it is nicely browned.

If properly mixed, it will come out of the oven light, puffy, and

delectable.

 

 

POTATOES WARMED OVER—_alias au Maître d’Hôtel_.

 

Slice cold boiled potatoes a quarter of an inch thick, and put into a

saucepan, with four or five tablespoonfuls of milk, two or three of

butter, pepper, salt, and some chopped parsley. Heat quickly, stirring

all the time until ready to boil, when stir in the juice of half a

lemon. This last ingredient entitles the dish to the foreign title.

Pour into a deep dish, and serve very hot.

 

 

POTATO CROQUETTES. ✠

 

Season cold mashed potato with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Beat to a

cream, with a tablespoonful of melted butter to every cupful of potato.

Bind with two or three beaten eggs, and add some minced parsley. Roll

into oval balls, dip in beaten egg, then in bread-crumbs, and fry in

hot lard or drippings. Pile in a pyramid upon a flat dish, and serve.