Paper-bag Cookery Part 12

is a delicious morsel. Make a nice flaky paste crust, roll it out and cut into two squares. Melt three ounces of grated cheese and one ounce of b.u.t.ter with a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Spread this over one half of the paste, cover with the other, brush over with milk, put into a well greased bag, and cook fifteen minutes.

FRIED CHEESE.

Cut some slices of cheese, two inches long, one inch wide, and half an inch thick. Dry cheese may be used up in this way. Pour over the slices a little oiled b.u.t.ter, sprinkle with pepper, and leave for half an hour, turning once during that time. Make a thick batter, dip each piece in it; lay in a b.u.t.tered "Papakuk" bag and cook fifteen minutes in a hot oven.

CHEESE BISCUITS.

This is a very simple but a very nice savoury. Split open several of Crawford's b.u.t.ter puffs, lay a slice of toasted cheese between the halves, put into a greased bag, and cook for ten minutes.

CHEESE PUFFS.

Melt one ounce of b.u.t.ter in a small saucepan, add a tablespoonful of water, and when it boils sift in gradually two tablespoonfuls of self-raising flour, and three of grated cheese; season to taste. Stir till the mixture leaves the saucepan, and then take off the fire. When cool, stir in a well beaten egg and set aside till quite cold. Then shape into b.a.l.l.s, put into a b.u.t.tered bag, and cook fifteen minutes in a fairly hot oven.

MACARONI AND CHEESE.

Break half a pound of macaroni into small pieces; put into a greased bag with half a cup of water, and cook for half an hour. Then put into another bag which has been thickly b.u.t.tered; add four ounces of grated cheese and one ounce of b.u.t.ter, a little pepper and salt. Cook for ten minutes.

Many people enjoy a little stewed fruit with breakfast, and all fruits gain in flavour cooked in a "Papakuk" bag. Prunes, a recipe for which has already been given, are particularly nice cooked in this way and so are other dried fruits.

Put the fruit into a large basin, and pour boiling water over them, covering them completely. This plumps them up nicely. Cover with a plate and leave till cold. Then pour off the water, drain the fruit quite dry, and just cover with fresh, cold water. Replace the plate and leave till the morning. Then place in a large and very thoroughly greased bag, add to each pound of fruit two ounces of sugar and any flavouring preferred, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, one of sherry or of essence of vanilla or almond. Cook for forty-five minutes.

BAKED APPLES

are unsurpa.s.sed cooked in a paper bag. Simply wash the apples, or pare them if preferred, put into a greased bag with a gill of water, and bake forty minutes. Add sugar to taste.

STEWED GOOSEBERRIES.

Put into a greased bag with sugar and a gill of water and cook thirty minutes. Or they may be first put into a dish and the dish enclosed in a bag. Currants and raspberries are best thus cooked. Fruit tarts and meat pies when cooked in a dish which is afterwards put into a bag, must have some holes p.r.i.c.ked in the bag.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING

for eating with meat can be cooked in a "Papakuk" bag, but must first be poured into a shallow round tin which has had a slice of roast-beef dripping or of b.u.t.ter melted in it. Make the pudding in the usual way; 4 to 6 ozs. of self-raising flour, a pinch of salt, two well beaten eggs, and enough milk or water mixed to make a batter about as thick as cream.

Put the tin into a bag and cook twenty-five minutes.

WARMING UP "LEFTOVERS."

Paper-bag cookery is invaluable as a means of warming up cold meats.

Apart from the various ways of serving up cold meat in hashes, stews, and other dishes, recipes for which have already been given, it is an excellent means of warming food which is required dished up in the same form as before.

RE-HEATING ROAST LEG OF MUTTON.

This is merely put into a well-greased "Papakuk" bag and placed in the oven to get thoroughly hot, the time depending on its weight; it will then taste exactly as if it had been freshly roasted. If part of the leg has been already consumed, cold mashed potatoes should be pressed into the s.p.a.ce left, and shaped so that when heated and browned the leg will appear untouched.

DEVILLED MUTTON.

This is never so nice as when cooked in a "Papakuk" bag. A cold shoulder of lamb is delicious when devilled. Cut over night large gashes in the meat, and fill these gashes with dripping or b.u.t.ter, in which has been mixed plenty of pepper, salt, dry mustard, and a few drops of lemon juice if that flavour is liked. Leave the meat until it is nearly dinner-time, then put into a "Papakuk" bag and cook fifteen minutes.

It is the same with other joints; simply putting them into a greased bag and thoroughly heating them restores the flavour so completely that no one can tell that the meat has been previously cooked and then re-heated. This is possible only in paper-bag cookery; in ordinary cooking reheated meat is always dry and flavourless. The exact time in the oven cannot be given, as it depends on the weight; but as opening the oven door does not injure paper-bag cookery, a watch can be kept.

Practice and experience are the safest guides, and the paper-bag cook will soon learn the exact time each dish requires. There will not be many failures, for a little too long will not dry up the food in the bags, and if it be underdone, it may be turned into another bag and put back into the oven. Always have the bags large enough; they may split when the food is being put in if they are a tight fit. Also, unless the bag is full large for the contents, it is somehow awkward in dishing up.

Some dexterity is required in freeing the food from the bag. If the paper is very brown, it may fall to pieces before it can be removed and bits of paper be found among the gravy. The bags should be intact and scissors used to split them open. If there is any fear of some paper remaining in the food, two hot dishes should be employed, one on which to place the bag while it is being removed, the other into which to turn the food when freed from the bag.

Many other recipes might be given, but the cook who is interested in paper-bag cookery will be able to experiment for herself in fresh directions. All the recipes in the best-known cookery-books may be worked out in paper-bag cookery, for even those which cannot be put straight into a bag without injuring their appearance--for instance, cakes of the nature of plum cake, pound cake, seed, or Madeira--can be put first into tins and then into a "Papakuk" bag with the certainty that they will gain immensely in flavour and delicacy of taste.