Common Sense in the Household 37

Common Sense in the Household 37

“COLLARDS,” OR CABBAGE-SPROUTS.

 

Pick over carefully, lay in cold water, slightly salted, half an hour;

shake in a cullender to drain, and put into boiling water, keeping at

a fast boil until tender. A piece of pork seasons them pleasantly.

In this case put the meat on first, adding the greens when it is

parboiled, and cooking them together. Boil in an uncovered vessel.

Drain very well; chop and heap in a dish, laying the meat on top.

 

 

LADIES’ CABBAGE. ✠

 

Boil a firm white cabbage fifteen minutes, changing the water then

for more from the boiling tea-kettle. When tender, drain and set

aside until perfectly cold. Chop fine, and add two beaten eggs, a

tablespoonful of butter, pepper, salt, three tablespoonfuls rich milk

or cream. Stir all well together, and bake in a buttered pudding-dish

until brown. Eat very hot.

 

I can conscientiously recommend this dish even to those who are not

fond of any of the ordinary preparations of cabbage. It is digestible

and palatable, more nearly resembling cauliflower in taste than its

coarser and commoner cousin—_German_.

 

 

FRIED CABBAGE.

 

Chop cold boiled cabbage, and drain very dry, stirring in a little

melted butter, pepper, and salt, with three or four tablespoonfuls

of cream. Heat all in a buttered frying-pan, stirring until smoking

hot; then let the mixture stand just long enough to brown slightly on

the under-side. It is improved by the addition of a couple of beaten

eggs. Turn out by putting a flat dish above the pan, upside-down, and

reversing the latter. This is a breakfast dish.

 

 

SAUERKRAUT.

 

Shred or chop the cabbage fine. Line a barrel, keg, or jar with

cabbage-leaves on the bottom and sides. Put in a layer of the cut

cabbage, three inches in depth; press down well and sprinkle with four

tablespoonfuls of salt. When you have packed five layers in this way,

press hard with a board cut to fit loosely on the inside of the barrel

or jar. Put heavy weights on this, or pound with a wooden beetle until

the cabbage is a compact mass, when remove the board and put in more

layers of salt and shred cabbage, repeating the pounding every four or

five layers, until the vessel is full. Cover with leaves, and put the

board on the top of these with a heavy weight to keep it down. Set all

away to ferment. In three weeks remove the scum, and if need be, cover

with water. Keep in a cool, dry cellar. It can be eaten raw or boiled,

and seasoned with pork.

 

This is the mode _simple_ if not _pure_ of preparing this, to nostrils

unaccustomed to it, malodorous compound. Some add to the salt whole

black peppers, cloves, garlic, and mace,—“then put it away,” as a

mild, motherly Teuton dame once told me, “in the cellar to r—”—“Rot!”

interpolated a disgusted bystander, anticipating her deliberate

utterance. “No, my dear,” drawled the placid Frau, “to _ripen_.”

 

 

 

CAULIFLOWER.

 

 

BOILED CAULIFLOWER.

 

Pick off the leaves and cut the stalk close to the bottom of the bunch

of flowers. Lay in cold water for half an hour. Unless _very_ large,

do not cut it; if you do, quarter neatly. Tie a close net of coarse

bobbinet lace or tarlatan about it to prevent breaking or bruising; put

into boiling water salted, and cook until tender. Undo and remove the

net, and lay the cauliflower in a hot dish. Have ready a large cupful

of nice drawn butter and pour over it. A little lemon-juice makes of

this a _sauce tartare_.

 

Cut with a silver knife and fork in helping it out, and give a little

of the sauce to each person. Take it out of the water as soon as it is

done, serve quickly, and eat hot. It darkens with standing.

 

 

STEWED CAULIFLOWER.

 

Use for this dish the smaller and more indifferent cauliflowers. Cut

them into small clusters; lay in cold salt and water half an hour,

and stew fifteen minutes in boiling water. Turn most of this off,

leaving but half a teacupful in the saucepan. Add to this a half-cupful

of milk thickened with a very little rice or wheat flour, and two

tablespoonfuls of melted butter, pepper, and salt. Shake the saucepan

over the fire gently until it boils; take out the cauliflowers with a

perforated skimmer, lay in order upon a dish, and pour the sauce over

them.

 

 

SCALLOPED CAULIFLOWER.

 

Boil until tender, clip into neat clusters, and pack—the stems

downward—in a buttered pudding-dish. Beat up a cupful of bread-crumbs

to a soft paste with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and six of

cream or milk; season with pepper and salt, bind with a beaten egg, and

with this cover the cauliflower. Cover the dish closely and bake six

minutes in a quick oven; brown in five more, and serve very hot in the

dish in which they were baked.

 

 

BROCCOLI AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

 

Pick over, wash carefully, cut off the lower part of the stems and lay

in cold water, slightly salted, half an hour. Cook quickly in boiling

water, with a little salt, until tender. This will be in twelve or

fifteen minutes. Cook in an uncovered saucepan. Drain well, lay in a

neat pile lightly heaped in the centre of a dish, and pour drawn butter

over them, or serve this in a tureen.

 

 

BROCCOLI AND EGGS.

 

Boil two or three heads of broccoli until tender. Have ready two

cupfuls of butter drawn in the usual way, and beat into it, while

hot, four well-whipped eggs. Lay buttered toast in the bottom of

a hot dish, and on this the largest head of broccoli whole, as a

centre-piece. Arrange close about this the others cut into clusters,

the stems downward, and pour the egg-sauce over all.

 

 

MASHED TURNIPS.

 

Peel and lay in cold water, slightly salted, until the water boils in

the saucepan intended for them. Put them in and boil until very tender.

The time will depend upon their age. Drain and mash in the cullender

with a wooden spoon, stirring in at the last a tablespoonful of butter

with pepper and salt to taste, and serve hot.

 

If eaten with boiled corned beef, you may take a little of the liquor

from the pot in which the meat is cooking; put it into a saucepan, boil

up once to throw off the scum, skim clean, and cook the turnips in this.

 

 

_Or,_

 

If the turnips are young, rub them when tender _through_ the cullender;

add a little milk, butter, pepper, and salt; heat to boiling in a clean

saucepan and serve.

 

 

YOUNG TURNIPS BOILED WHOLE.

 

Pare smoothly, and trim all into the same size and shape. Lay in cold

water half an hour. Put on in boiling water, with a tablespoonful of

butter, and stew until tender. Drain dry, without crushing or breaking

them; pile in a deep dish, and cover with a white sauce made of butter

drawn in milk. Turnips should be eaten very hot always.

 

 

BOILED SPINACH.

 

In respect to quantity, spinach is desperately deceitful. I never see

it drained after it is boiled without bethinking myself of a picture

I saw many years since, illustrative of the perils of innocent

simplicity. A small (lucky) boy and big (unlucky) one have been

spending their holiday in fishing. While the former, well satisfied

with the result of his day’s sport, is busy putting up his rod and

tackle, the designing elder dexterously substitutes his own string of

minnows for the other’s store of fine perch. The little fellow, turning

to pick it up, without a suspicion of the cruel cheat, makes piteous

round eyes at his fellow, ejaculating, “How they have _swhrunk_!”

 

A young housekeeper of my acquaintance, ordering a spring dinner for

herself and husband, purchased a quart of spinach. When it should have

appeared upon the table, there came in its stead a platter of sliced

egg, she having given out one for the dressing. “Where is the spinach?”

she demanded of the maid of all work. “Under the egg, ma’am!” And it

was really all there.

 

_Moral._—Get enough spinach to be visible to the naked eye. A peck is

not too much for a family of four or five.

 

Pick it over very carefully; it is apt to be gritty. Wash in several

waters, and let it lie in the last half an hour at least. Take out

with your hands, shaking each bunch well, and put into boiling water,

with a little salt. Boil from fifteen to twenty minutes. When tender,

drain thoroughly, chop _very_ fine; put into a saucepan with a piece of

butter the size of an egg, and pepper to taste. Stir until very hot,

turn into a dish and shape into a flat-topped mound with a silver or

wooden spoon; slice some hard-boiled eggs and lay on top.

 

 

_Or,_

 

Rub the yolks of the eggs to a powder; mix with butter, and when your

mound is raised, spread smoothly over the flat top. Four eggs will

dress a good-sized dish. Cut the whites into rings and garnish, laying

them on the yellow surface. This makes a pleasant dressing for the

spinach.

 

 

SPINACH À LA CRÈME.

 

Boil and chop _very_ fine, or rub through a cullender. Season with

pepper and salt. Beat in, while warm, three tablespoonfuls melted

butter (this is for a large dish). Put into a saucepan and heat,

stirring constantly. When smoking hot, add three tablespoonfuls of

cream and a teaspoonful white sugar. Boil up once, still stirring, and

press firmly into a hot bowl or other mould. Turn into a hot dish and garnish with boiled eggs.