Made-Over Dishes Part 1

Made-Over Dishes.

by S. T. Rorer.

PREFACE

Wise forethought, which means economy, stands as the first of domestic duties. Poverty in no way affects skill in the preparation of food. The object of cooking is to draw out the proper flavor of each individual ingredient used in the preparation of a dish, and render it more easy of digestion. Admirable flavorings are given by the little leftovers of vegetables that too often find their way into the garbage bucket.

Economical marketing does not mean the purchase of inferior articles at a cheap price, but of a small quant.i.ty of the best materials found in the market; these materials to be wisely and economically used. Small quant.i.ty and no waste, just enough and not a piece too much, is a good rule to remember. In roasts and steaks, however, there will be, in spite of careful buying, bits left over, that, if economically used, may be converted into palatable, sightly and wholesome dishes for the next day's lunch or supper.

Never purchase the so-called tender meat for stews, Hamburg steaks or soups; nor should you purchase a round or shoulder steak for broiling, nor an old chicken for roasting. Select a fowl for a frica.s.see, a chicken for roasting, and a so-called spring chicken for broiling. Each has its own individual price and place.

Save for stock, every bone, whether beef, mutton, poultry or game, as well as all the juices that are left in the meat carving dishes on the table, and the water in which meats are boiled and in which certain vegetables are boiled. Into this storehouse--for such a stock pot is--will go also the tough ends from the rib roasts, which would become tasteless and dry if roasted; the bits that are taken from the French chops; the bone that is left on the plate from the sirloin steak; and every piece of the carca.s.s left on the general carving plate of all sorts of game and poultry. After the meat has been taken from the roast, these bones will also be used.

STOCK

In all good cooking there is a constant demand for a half pint or a pint of stock. Brown sauce and tomato sauce, in fact, all meat sauces, are decidedly better made from stock than water, and as it comes to every household without the additional cost of a penny, there is no excuse whatever for being without it. Save the bones collected on Sat.u.r.day, Sunday and Monday. Chicken and veal bones may be kept together; beef, mutton and ham in another lot; one makes a white stock, the other brown.

If the quant.i.ty is small, put them all together. Crack the bones, put them in the bottom of a large soup kettle, cover with cold water, bring slowly to boiling point and skim. Push the kettle to the back part of the stove, where the stock may simmer for at least three hours, then add an onion into which you have stuck twelve cloves, a bay leaf, a few celery tops, or a little celery seed, and a carrot cut into slices; simmer gently for another hour and strain. Tuesdays and Sat.u.r.days are the best days for making stock, as they are the days on which you have long, continuous fires; Tuesdays for ironing purposes; Sat.u.r.days for bread baking; in this way you will economize in coal, heat and time.

In making tomato soup, to each pint of tomatoes add a pint of this stock instead of water; or the stock may be simply heated, nicely seasoned and used as clear soup. By adding a little cooked rice or macaroni, you will have a rice or a macaroni soup.

In cream soups, where stock takes the place of water, less milk gives equal, perhaps better, results. For instance, in cream of celery soup, cover the celery with cold stock instead of water, using a quart instead of a pint of water, and then use only a pint of milk, having in the end the same quant.i.ty of a much more tasty soup at a less cost. One soon learns that all made-over dishes are more savory where stock is used in place of water. If peas, beans or cabbage are being cooked, this water may be added to that in which beef or mutton has been boiled, the whole reduced carefully by rapid boiling, strained and put aside for use.

COOKED FISH

Canapes

Cold boiled fish makes excellent canapes. To each half pint of fish allow six squares of toasted bread. If you have any cold boiled potatoes left over, add milk to them, make them hot and put them into a pastry bag.

Decorate the edge of the toast with these mashed potatoes, using a small star tube; put them back in the oven until light brown. Make the fish into a creamed fish. Rub the b.u.t.ter and flour together, add a half pint of milk, add the fish and a palatable seasoning of salt and pepper. Dish the centers on top of the toast with this creamed fish and send at once to the table. A very little fish here makes a good showing, and is one of the nicest of the hot canapes.

Baked Sardines

After sardines have once been opened it is best to remove them from the can and make them into some dish for the next meal. They may be broiled and served on toast, or made with bread crumbs into sardine b.a.l.l.s and fried, or baked. To bake them, stir the oil from the can into a half cupful of water, add a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Put the fish into a baking pan, run them into the oven until very hot, then dish them, baste them with the sauce and send them at once to the table.

Fish Croquettes

Any cold boiled fish that is left over may be made into croquettes. To each cupful of the cold fish allow one level tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, two level tablespoonfuls of flour and a half cupful of milk. Rub the b.u.t.ter and flour together, add the milk; when boiling take from the fire. Add to the fish a level teaspoonful of salt, a dash of black pepper, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a few drops of onion juice; mix this carefully with the paste and turn out to cool. When cold, form into small cylinders, dip in beaten egg and fry in deep hot fat.

Fish a la Creme

One pint of cold boiled fish, mixed with a half pint of white sauce. Turn this into a baking dish and brown. Or when the two are carefully heated together, serve in either ramekin dishes or in a border of browned mashed potatoes.

MEAT

As meat is the most costly and extravagant of all articles of food, it behooves the housewife to save all left-overs and work them over into other dishes. The so-called inferior pieces--not inferior because they contain less nourishment, but inferior because the demand for such meat is less--should be used for all dishes that are chopped before cooking, as Hamburg steaks, curry b.a.l.l.s, kibbee, or for stews, ragouts, pot roasts and various dishes where a sauce is used to hide the inferiority and ugliness of the dish. We have no occasion here to spend money on good looks.

If one purchases meat for soup, the leg and shin are the better parts.

This, however, is not necessary in the ordinary family, as there are always sufficient bones left over for daily stock. All meat left over from beef tea, tasteless as it is, may be nicely seasoned and made into curries or into pressed meat, giving again a nice dish for lunch or supper.

Remember, that where the flavoring of the beef has been drawn out into the water, as in making beef tea, another decided flavor must be added to make the made-over dish palatable. For this reason, curries, pressed meats, served with either Worcestershire or tomato sauce, are chosen.

Cold mutton may be made into pilau, hashed on toast with tomato sauce, hashed with caper sauce, made into escalloped mutton, barbecued mutton, ca.s.serole, or macaroni timbale; all sightly dishes, quite handsome enough to place before the choicest guest. Spiced meats, as beef _a la mode_, may be served cold with cream horseradish sauce and aspic jelly.

If warm, they will be made into ragouts, or some form of dish with a brown or tomato sauce. It is well to bear in mind that white meats will be served with white or yellow sauces; dark meats with brown or tomato sauces. The coa.r.s.e tops of the sirloin steak, the tough end of the rump steak, if broiled, cannot possibly be eaten, as the dry heat renders them difficult of mastication. Cut them off before the steak is broiled, and put them aside to use for Hamburg steaks, curry b.a.l.l.s, timbale or cannelon, making a new and sightly dish from that which would otherwise have been thrown away.

If you use ham, and have had a piece boiled, after the even slices are taken off, chip the remaining tender pieces for frizzled ham, making it as frizzled beef is made. The bits around the bone that cannot possibly be sliced, will be chopped and made into potted or deviled ham. Throw the bone into the stock pot.

A meat chopper or grinder, which costs but a dollar and a half or two dollars, will save its price in the utility of these sc.r.a.ps in less than a month.

The water in which you boil a leg of mutton, chicken, turkey or a fresh beef's tongue, or such vegetables as string beans, peas, rice, macaroni or barley, put aside and use in place of plain water to cover the bones for stock-making. The water in which cabbage is boiled should be saved alone and used the next day for a soup Crecy; the flavor of the cabbage, with a carrot that has been slightly browned in b.u.t.ter, makes a delightful soup without the addition of meat.

BEEF--UNCOOKED

The uncooked tough bits or pieces of beef may be made into any of the following dishes:

Kibbee

Chop uncooked tough meat very fine; put it twice through a grinder. To each pound, allow a tablespoonful of grated onion, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of salt, just a dash of pepper, and a half cup of toasted pinon nuts. Form into b.a.l.l.s about the size of an egg, stand in a baking pan, add a half pint of strained tomatoes, a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, and bake slowly thirty minutes, basting three or four times. If more than one pound of meat is used, all the ingredients must be increased accordingly.

Hamburg Steaks

The genuine Hamburg steaks are rich in onion and very rich in fatty matter, too much so to be wholesome; so we will modify them, that they may be eaten even by dyspeptics or persons with weak digestion. Put twice through a meat chopper the tough ends of steaks or bits of the round. To each pound of this meat allow a half teaspoonful of celery seed, a teaspoonful of grated onion. Form into thick even cakes, being sure that the center and sides are the same thickness. These may now be broiled over a clear fire, or under the gas lights in your gas broiler, or they may be dropped into a thoroughly heated iron pan. As soon as browned on one side, turn and brown the other. If the steaks are an inch thick, it will take eight minutes for perfect cooking. An exceedingly satisfactory way is to brown them quickly over a hot fire, then put the pan in the oven and allow them to cook for five minutes. Dust with salt, season with a little b.u.t.ter and pepper, and send to the table on a very hot dish; or serve with brown or tomato sauce. If they have been cooked over the fire, or in the oven, put a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter into the pan in which they were cooked, add a tablespoonful of flour, a half cup of stock, and a half cup of strained tomatoes. When boiling, add a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and pour over the steaks.

Cannelon

Put twice through the meat chopper one pound of tough meat, season with a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and, if you like, a little celery seed or chopped celery top; take this chopped meat into your hands, and form it into a roll about four inches in diameter and six inches long.

Roll this in a piece of oiled paper, put it in a baking pan, bake in a quick oven thirty minutes, basting the paper with melted b.u.t.ter three or four times. When done, remove the paper, dish the cannelon, and pour around plain tomato sauce.

Brown stew