Common Sense in the Household 40

Common Sense in the Household 40

FRIED EGG-PLANT. ✠

 

Slice the egg-plant at least half an inch thick; pare each piece

carefully, and lay in salt and water, putting a plate upon the topmost

to keep it under the brine, and let them alone for an hour or more.

Wipe each slice, dip in beaten egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and fry in

hot lard until well done and nicely browned.

 

 

STUFFED EGG-PLANT. ✠

 

Parboil for ten minutes. Slit each down the side, and extract the

seeds. Prop open the cut with a bit of clean wood or china, and lay

in cold salt and water while you prepare the force-meat. Make this of

bread-crumbs, minute bits of fat pork, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley,

and a _very_ little onion, chopped up together. Moisten with cream, and

bind with a beaten egg. Fill the cavity in the egg-plant with this;

wind soft pack-thread about them to keep the slit shut, and bake,

putting a little water in the dripping-pan. Baste with butter and water

when they begin to cook. Test with a straw when they are tender, and

baste twice at the last with butter. Lay the egg-plants in a dish,

add two or three tablespoonfuls of cream to the gravy, thicken with a

little flour, put in a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, boil up once,

and pour over the vegetable.

 

 

BOILED CARROTS.

 

Wash and scrape well, and lay in cold water half an hour. If large,

split them, or cut across in two or three pieces. Put into boiling

water, slightly salted, and boil until tender. Large ones will require

nearly an hour and a half to cook. Young carrots should only be washed

before they are boiled, and the skin be rubbed off with a cloth

afterward. Butter well, and serve hot.

 

 

STEWED CARROTS.

 

Scrape, and lay in cold water half an hour or more. Boil whole

three-quarters of an hour, drain, and cut into round slices a quarter

of an inch thick. Put on in a saucepan with a teacupful of broth—veal,

or beef, or mutton; pepper and salt to taste, and stew gently half an

hour. Just before they are done, add four tablespoonfuls cream or milk,

and a good lump of butter cut into bits, and rolled in flour. Boil up

and serve.

 

If you have not the broth, use water, and put in a tablespoonful

of butter when the saucepan is set on the fire, in addition to the

quantity I have specified.

 

 

_Another Way._

 

Scrape and boil until nearly done. Cut into small squares, and put into

a saucepan, with two small onions, minced; a little chopped parsley,

pepper and salt to taste, and half a cup of rather thin drawn butter.

They will require half an hour’s simmering. Serve hot.

 

 

MASHED CARROTS.

 

Wash, scrape, and lay in cold water a while. Boil very tender in hot

water, slightly salted. Drain, and mash with a beetle or wooden spoon,

working in a large spoonful of butter, with pepper and salt. A little

cream will improve them. Mound as you would mashed potatoes, and stamp

a figure upon them, or mark in squares with a knife.

 

 

FRENCH, OR STRING OR “SNAP” BEANS.

 

Break off the tops and bottoms and “string” carefully. _Then_ pare both

edges with a sharp knife, to be certain that no remnant of the tough

fibre remains. Not one cook in a hundred performs this duty as deftly

and thoroughly as it should be done. I have heard several gentlemen

say that they could always tell, after the first mouthful, whether the

mistress or the hireling had “strung” the beans. It is a tedious and

disagreeable business, this pulling bits of woody thread out of one’s

mouth when he wants to enjoy his dinner.

 

Cut the beans thus cleared of their troublesome _attachés_, in pieces

an inch long, and lay in cold water with a little salt for fifteen or

twenty minutes. Drain them, and put into a saucepan of boiling water.

Boil quickly, twenty minutes if well-grown—less if small—at any rate,

until tender. Drain in a cullender until the water ceases to drip from

them. Dish with a great spoonful of butter stirred in.

 

To my taste, beans _need_ to have a bit of bacon boiled with

them—whole, or chopped into bits that dissolve in the boiling. It

mellows the rank taste you seek to remove by boiling.

 

 

LIMA AND BUTTER BEANS.

 

Shell into cold water; let them lie a while; put into a pot with plenty

of boiling water and a little salt, and cook fast until tender. Large

ones sometimes require nearly an hour’s boiling. The average time is

forty minutes. Drain and butter well when dished, peppering to taste.

 

 

KIDNEY AND OTHER SMALL BEANS.

 

Shell into cold water, and cook in boiling until tender. A small piece

of fat bacon boiled with them is an advantage to nearly all. If you do

this, do not salt them.

 

 

DRIED BEANS.

 

Wash and soak over night in lukewarm water, changing it several times

for warmer. If this is done they will require but two hours’ boiling.

Drain very thoroughly, pressing them firmly, but lightly, in the

cullender with a wooden spoon; salt, pepper and mix in a great lump of

butter when they are dished.

 

 

BOILED BEETS.

 

Wash, but do not touch with a knife before they are boiled. If cut

while raw, they bleed themselves pale in the hot water. Boil until

tender—if full-grown at least two hours. When done, rub off the skins,

slice round if large, split if young, and butter well in the dish. Salt

and pepper to taste.

 

A nice way is to slice them upon a hot dish, mix a great spoonful of

melted butter with four or five of vinegar, pepper and salt, heat to

boiling, and pour over the beets.

 

Instead of consigning the cold ones “left over” to the swill pail, pour

cold vinegar upon them and use as pickles with cold or roast meat.

 

 

STEWED BEETS.

 

Boil young, sweet beets, until nearly done; skin and slice them. Put

into a saucepan with a minced shallot and parsley, two tablespoonfuls

melted butter, a like quantity of vinegar, some salt and pepper. Set on

the fire and simmer twenty minutes, shaking the saucepan now and then.

Serve with the gravy poured over them.

 

 

BOILED PARSNIPS.

 

If young, scrape before cooking. If old, pare carefully, and if large,

split. Put into boiling water, salted, and boil, if small and tender,

from half to three-quarters of an hour, if full-grown, more than an

hour. When tender, drain and slice lengthwise, buttering well when you

dish.

 

 

FRIED PARSNIPS. ✠

 

Boil until tender, scrape off the skin, and cut in thick lengthwise

slices. Dredge with flour and fry in hot dripping or lard, turning when

one side is browned. Drain off every drop of fat; pepper, and serve hot.

 

 

PARSNIP FRITTERS. ✠

 

Boil tender, mash smooth and fine, picking out the woody bits.

For three large parsnips allow two eggs, one cup rich milk, one

tablespoonful butter, one teaspoonful salt, three tablespoonfuls flour.

Beat the eggs light, stir in the mashed parsnips, beating hard; then

the butter and salt, next the milk, lastly the salt. Fry as fritters,

or as griddle-cakes.

 

 

MASHED PARSNIPS.

 

Boil and scrape them, mash smooth with the back of a wooden-spoon, or a

potato beetle, picking out the fibres; mix in three or four spoonfuls

of cream, a great spoonful of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Heat to

boiling in a saucepan, and serve. Heap in a mound as you would potato

cooked in the same way.

 

 

BUTTERED PARSNIPS.

 

Boil tender and scrape. Slice a quarter of an inch thick lengthwise.

Put into a saucepan with three tablespoonfuls melted butter, pepper

and salt, and a little chopped parsley. Shake over the fire until the

mixture boils. Lay the parsnips in order upon a dish, pour the sauce

over them, and garnish with parsley. It is a pleasant addition to this

dish to stir a few spoonfuls of cream into the sauce after the parsnips

are taken out; boil up, and pour upon them.

 

 

BOILED SEA-KALE.

 

Tie up in bunches when you have picked it over carefully, and lay in

cold water for an hour. Put into salted boiling water, and cook twenty

or thirty minutes until tender. Lay some slices of buttered toast

in the bottom of a dish, clip the threads binding the stems of the

sea-kale, and pile upon the toast, buttering it abundantly. Or, you can

send around with it a boat of drawn butter.

 

 

STEWED SEA-KALE.

 

Clip off the stems, wash well, tie in neat bunches, and when it has

lain in cold water an hour or so, put into a saucepan of boiling water,

slightly salted. Boil fifteen minutes, drain well, clip the threads,

and return to the saucepan, with a little rich gravy if you have it.

If not, pour in three or four tablespoonfuls of butter drawn in milk,

pepper and salt, and simmer eight or ten minutes.

 

 

ARTICHOKES.

 

Strip off the outer leaves, and cut the stalks close to the bottom.

Wash well and lay in cold water two hours. Immerse in boiling water,

the stalk-ends uppermost, with an inverted plate upon them to keep them down. Boil an hour and a half, or until very tender. Arrange in circles upon a dish, the tops up, and pour drawn butter over them.