Common Sense in the Household 42

Common Sense in the Household 42

BOILED HOMINY.

 

The large kind, made of cracked, not ground corn, is erroneously

termed “samp” by Northern grocers. This is the Indian name for the

fine-grained. To avoid confusion, we will call the one large, the other

small. Soak the large over night in cold water. Next day put it into

a pot with at least two quarts of water to a quart of the hominy, and

boil slowly three hours, or until it is soft. Drain in a cullender,

heap in a root-dish, and stir in butter, pepper, and salt.

 

Soak the small hominy in the same way, and boil in as much water,

slowly, stirring very often, almost constantly at the last. It should

be as thick as mush, and is generally eaten at breakfast with sugar,

cream, and nutmeg. It is a good and exceedingly wholesome dish,

especially for children. The water in which it is boiled should be

slightly salt. If soaked in warm water, and the same be changed once or

twice for warmer, it will boil soft in an hour. Boil in the last water.

 

 

FRIED HOMINY.

 

If large, put a good lump of butter or dripping in the frying-pan, and

heat. Turn in some cold boiled hominy, and cook until the under-side

is browned. Place a dish upside down on the frying-pan and upset the

latter, that the brown crust may be uppermost.

 

Eat with meat.

 

Cut the small hominy in slices and fry in hot lard or drippings. Or,

moisten to a soft paste with milk; beat in some melted butter, bind

with a beaten egg, form into round cakes with your hands, dredge with

flour and fry a light brown.

 

 

HOMINY CROQUETTES. ✠

 

To a cupful of cold boiled hominy (small-grained) add a tablespoonful

melted butter and stir hard, moistening, by degrees, with a little

milk, beating to a soft light paste. Put in a teaspoonful of white

sugar, and lastly, a well-beaten egg. Roll into oval balls with floured

hands, dip in beaten egg, then cracker-crumbs, and fry in hot lard.

 

Very good!

 

 

BAKED HOMINY. ✠

 

To a cupful of cold boiled hominy (small kind) allow two cups of milk,

a heaping teaspoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of white sugar, a little

salt, and three eggs. Beat the eggs very light, yolks and whites

separately. Work the yolks first into the hominy, alternately with the

melted butter. When thoroughly mixed, put in sugar and salt, and go on

beating while you soften the batter gradually with the milk. Be careful

to leave no lumps in the hominy. Lastly stir in the whites, and bake in

a buttered pudding-dish, until light, firm, and delicately browned.

 

This can be eaten as a dessert, but it is a delightful vegetable, and

the best substitute that can be devised for green corn pudding.

 

 

RICE CROQUETTES. ✠

 

Half a cup of rice.

1 pint milk.

2 tablespoonfuls sugar.

3 eggs.

A little grated lemon-peel.

1 tablespoonful melted butter.

A saltspoonful salt.

 

Soak the rice three hours in warm water enough to cover it. Drain

_almost_ dry, and pour in the milk. Stew in a farina-kettle, or one

saucepan set in another of hot water, until the rice is very tender.

Add the sugar, butter and salt, and simmer ten minutes. Whisk the eggs

to a froth, and add cautiously, taking the saucepan from the fire while

you whip them into the mixture. Return to the range or stove, and stir

while they thicken, not allowing them to boil. Remove the saucepan,

and add the grated lemon-peel; then turn out upon a well-greased dish

to cool. When cold and stiff, flour your hands and roll into oval or

pear-shaped balls; dip in beaten egg, then in fine cracker-crumbs, and

fry in nice lard.

 

 

_Or,_

 

You can make a plainer dish of cold boiled rice, moistened with milk

and a little melted butter to a smooth paste. Add sugar and salt, bind

with two or three beaten eggs; make into cakes or balls, and proceed as

directed above. Eat hot with roast or boiled fowls. If you shape like a

pear, stick a clove in the small end for the stem.

 

 

BOILED RICE.

 

Pick over carefully and wash in two waters, letting it stand in the

last until you are ready to boil. Have ready some boiling water

slightly salted, and put in the rice. Boil it just twenty minutes, and

do not put a spoon in it, but _shake_ up hard and often, holding the

cover on with the other hand. When done, drain off the water, and set

the saucepan uncovered upon the range, where the rice will dry, not

burn, for five minutes.

 

Eat with boiled mutton or fowls.

 

 

BAKED MACARONI. ✠

 

Break half a pound of pipe macaroni in pieces an inch long, and put

into a saucepan of boiling water slightly salted. Stew gently twenty

minutes. It should be soft, but not broken or split. Drain well and

put a layer in the bottom of a buttered pie or pudding-dish; upon this

grate some mild, rich cheese, and scatter over it some bits of butter.

Spread upon the cheese more macaroni, and fill the dish in this order,

having macaroni at the top, buttered well, without the cheese. Add a

few spoonfuls of cream or milk, and a very little salt. Bake covered

half an hour, then brown nicely, and serve in the bake-dish.

 

 

STEWED MACARONI—ITALIAN STYLE.

 

Break the macaroni into inch lengths, and stew twenty minutes, or until

tender. Prepare the sauce beforehand. Cut half a pound of beef into

strips and stew half an hour. The water should be cold when the meat

is put in. At the end of that time, add a minced onion and a pint of

tomatoes peeled and sliced. Boil for an hour, and strain through a

cullender when you have taken out the meat. The sauce should be well

boiled down by this time. You do not want more than a pint for a large

dish of macaroni. Return the liquid to the saucepan, add a good piece

of butter, with pepper and salt, and stew until you are ready to dish

the macaroni. Drain this well, sprinkle lightly with salt, and heap

upon a chafing-dish or in a root-dish. Pour the tomato-sauce over it;

cover and let it stand in a warm place ten minutes before sending to

table. Send around grated cheese with it. The Italians serve the meat

also in a separate dish as a ragoût, adding some of the sauce, highly

seasoned with pepper and other spices.

 

 

MACARONI À LA CRÈME. ✠

 

Cook the macaroni ten minutes in boiling water. Drain this off, and add

a cupful of milk, with a little salt. Stew until tender. In another

saucepan heat a cup of milk to boiling, thicken with a teaspoonful of

flour, stir in a tablespoonful of butter, and lastly, a beaten egg.

When this thickens, pour over the macaroni after it is dished.

 

This is a simple and good dessert, eaten with butter, sugar, and

nutmeg, or sweet sauce. If set on with meat, grate cheese thickly over

it, or send around a saucer of grated cheese with it.

 

 

EGGS.

 

To guess (I do not say determine) whether an egg is good, shut one eye;

frame the egg in the hollow of the hand, telescope-wise, and look at

the sun through it with the open eye. If you can distinctly trace the

outline of the yolk and the white looks clear around it, the chances

are in favor of the egg and the buyer. Or, shake it gently at your ear.

If addled, it will gurgle like water; if there is a chicken inside, you

may distinguish a slight “thud” against the sides of the egg. Or, still

again, you may try eggs from your own poultry-yard by putting them into

a pan of cold water. The freshest sink first. Those that float are

questionable—generally worse.

 

The best plan is to break them. In making cake, or anything that

requires more than one, break each over a saucer, that it may be alone

in its condemnation, if bad. Reject doubtful ones without hesitation.

Yield implicit trust, or none at all.

 

Keep eggs in a cool, not cold place. Pack in bran or salt, with the

small end downward, if you wish to use within two or three weeks; and

furthermore, take the precaution to grease them well with linseed oil,

or wash them over with a weak solution of gum tragacanth or varnish.

This excludes the air. Another way is to make some pretty strong

lime-water, allowing a pound of lime to a gallon of boiling water. When

perfectly cold, fill a large jar with it in which you have packed the

eggs, small end downward; lay a light saucer upon the top to keep them

under water, and keep in a cool place. Renew the lime-water every three

weeks. You may add an ounce of saltpetre to it.

 

Eggs for boiling may be “canned” as follows: So soon as they are

brought in from the nests, put two or three dozen at a time in a deep

pan; pour scalding water over them; let it stand thirty seconds, and

turn it all off. Cover immediately with more scalding water, and repeat

the process yet the third time. Wipe dry, and pack in bran or salt when

they cool. This hardens the albumen into an air-tight case for the

yolk. Of course, you cannot use these eggs for cake or syllabubs, or

anything that is prepared with whipped eggs. Pack with the small end

down.

 

 

BOILED EGGS.

 

Put into a saucepan of _boiling_ water with a tablespoon, not to break

or crack them. Only a slovenly cook, or a careless one, drops them

in with her fingers. Boil steadily three minutes, if you want them

soft—ten, if hard.

 

Another way is to put them on in cold water, and let it come to a boil,

which will be in ten minutes. The inside, white and yolk, will be then

of the consistency of custard. Many gourmands like them best thus.

Still another is to put them in one of the silver egg-boilers used on

the breakfast-table (a covered bowl will do as well); cover them with

boiling water, and let them stand three minutes. Pour this off, and

refill with more, also boiling hot, and leave them in it five minutes

longer. Wrap in a napkin in a deep dish, if you have not a regular

egg-dish.

 

 

DROPPED OR POACHED EGGS.

 

Strain some boiling water into a frying-pan, which must also be

perfectly clean. The least impurity will mar the whiteness of the eggs.

When the water boils, break the eggs separately into a saucer. Take

the frying-pan off, and slip the eggs, one by one, carefully upon the

surface. When all are in, put back over the fire and boil gently three

minutes. Take out with a perforated skimmer, drain, and lay upon slices

of buttered toast in a hot dish. Garnish with parsley, and dust with pepper and salt.