The Community Cook Book Part 7

BEEFSTEAK WITH OYSTER BLANKET.

Broil an inch-thick sirloin steak, remove to platter, spread with b.u.t.ter, sprinkle with salt and pepper; cover steak with one pint of oysters, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dot with b.u.t.ter, place on grate in hot oven until the oysters are plump.

BEEF TENDERLOIN.

Take tenderloin of beef and lard it with pork. Put one can of mushrooms with the beef and cook in oven twenty minutes. Then cut the meat in slices one and one-half inch thick. On top of each slice place a few of the mushrooms and a little of the gravy, and set back in the oven five minutes to keep hot. Serve the slices on a chop plate, forming a circle, and filling in the center with peas.

BLANKETED HAM WITH SWEET POTATOES AND APPLES.

Cut off the fat close to the edge of a slice of ham one-half inch thick.

Put fat through meat chopper, spread on top of ham, then sprinkle one-half cup of brown sugar and wine-gla.s.s of sherry over it. Peel and quarter four large sweet potatoes and four large apples. Put ham in oven in covered roasting pan. After it has cooked a quarter of an hour add apples and sweet potatoes. Now cook all of it three-quarters of an hour.

This makes a delicious and savory dish, and is so substantial that little else is required for a meal.

BROWN STEW.

Thirty-five-cent beef off the shoulder; cut in pieces, cover with water and stew two hours until tender. Add one tablespoonful b.u.t.ter, and thicken with flour. Cook until brown.

CHICKEN CROQUETTE.

One-half pound chicken or veal, chopped very fine; season with one-half teaspoonful salt, one-half teaspoonful celery salt, one-fourth teaspoonful onion juice, one teaspoonful chopped parsley, one teaspoonful lemon juice, one saltspoonful white pepper, one-fourth saltspoonful cayenne. Mix with enough cream sauce to be easily handled; let cool, then shape into rolls. Roll on fine bread crumbs, dip in beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs and fry in smoking-hot fat, drain on tissue paper. Boil meat in three quarts hot water, cold for soup, season with one teaspoonful salt, four grains pepper.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES.

Two pair sweetbreads, boiled and chopped fine, one teacupful boiled chicken chopped (use nothing but the white meat), one teacupful boiled bread and milk, pretty stiff; one-half pound b.u.t.ter, salt and pepper to taste, mold in shape, roll in cracker crumbs, beaten egg, and again in cracker crumbs, and fry in boiling lard.

Chicken Croquette Remarks.

Prepare meat and seasoning first. Put flour in hot b.u.t.ter dry, two tablespoonfuls cold water in the egg. Boil meat very slowly, until very tender. Make a hole in the flour when pouring in any liquid. Drop bread into hot fat, count forty slowly, until brown, fat then at proper heat.

Cut a large potato in the hot grease; it takes out impurities.

CROQUETTES.

Cold turkey, chicken, veal or lamb, chopped fine; add one-fourth as much bread crumbs as meat; salt, pepper and herbs to taste; then to one cup of the mixture one well-beaten egg. Make in small b.a.l.l.s egg-shaped, and fry in boiling lard.

FRICATELLI.

Chop raw fresh pork very fine, add salt and pepper and two small onions chopped fine, half as much stale bread as there is meat, soaked until soft, two eggs; mix all well together, make into oblong patties, and fry as you would oysters or other patties. A nice breakfast dish. Serve with sliced lemon.

HAM TOAST.

One-fourth pound of either boiled or fried ham; chop it fine, mix with the yolks of two eggs well beaten; one tablespoonful b.u.t.ter, enough cream or milk to make it soft, a little pepper; stir this over the fire until it thickens, dip toast into hot salted water for just an instant, spread with melted b.u.t.ter, then turn over the ham mixture. Dried beef may be subst.i.tuted, adding, if fancied, a little chopped onion or parsley.

HUNGARIAN GOULASH.

Slice a peeled onion and cook it until brown in three tablespoonfuls of fat tried out of salt pork; take out the onion and turn in one and one-half pound lean uncooked veal cut into inch cubes. Stir and cook the meat until slightly browned, then, rejecting the fat, if there be any in the pan, place the meat in a ca.s.serole; add about a pint of broth or boiling water, a teaspoonful pepper, cover the dish and set to cook in the oven. In the meantime add more fat to the pan; when hot, brown in it a dozen b.a.l.l.s cut from pared potatoes and a dozen small onions; when the onions are well browned, add to the ca.s.serole, and after the meat has been cooking an hour, add a teaspoonful salt and the potatoes, and if desired two tablespoonfuls flour mixed to a thin paste with cold water.

Let cook in all about two hours. Serve from the ca.s.serole.

JELLIED VEAL.

A knuckle of veal, with the bone chopped; cover it with cold water and boil till the meat drops from the bone, pa.s.s the meat through a chopper; let the liquor continue boiling, as there must not be too much when you return it to the meat to cook a few minutes longer, adding pepper and salt to taste. Before removing from the fire, add quickly one egg. It is nice poured into individual molds.

LAMB AND RICE.

Cut lean lamb from the neck into small pieces. Put on in cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer for one and a half or two hours. Put in salt as desired soon after putting on to cook. When done add freshly boiled rice and simmer till the rice has absorbed the seasoning from the meat.

LIVER AND BACON.

Fry bacon till crisp. Then dip liver in the flour and fry until brown on both sides. Remove from skillet and cook in the skillet for a few minutes a chopped onion and a bunch of parsley. Then put back the liver and bacon, cover all with water and let simmer about one hour.

MEAT SOUFFLE.

Make one cup of cream sauce and season with chopped parsley and onion juice. Stir one cup chopped meat (chicken, fresh tongue, veal or lamb) into the sauce. When hot, add the beaten yolks of two eggs, cook one minute, and then set away to cool. When cool, stir in the whites, beaten stiff. Bake in a b.u.t.tered dish about twenty minutes and serve immediately. If for lunch, serve with a mushroom sauce.

MEAT STEW.

Get five pounds of a cheap cut of beef. Cut into little pieces, taking off the fat. Try out the fat, brown the meat in it, and when well browned, cover with boiling water, boil five minutes, then cook in lower temperature until the meat is done. During the last hour of cooking add two-thirds cup of turnips and the same amount of carrots cut in small cubes, one-half an onion chopped fine, salt and pepper. About fifteen minutes before taking up put in four cups of potatoes cut in small pieces. Use one-quarter cup of flour for thickening and put in dumplings made as follows:

Mix and sift two cups flour, four teaspoonfuls baking powder, one-half teaspoonful salt. Work in two teaspoonfuls b.u.t.ter, add gradually two-thirds cup milk. Roll to one-half inch thick, and cut out with biscuit cutter.

POT ROAST.

Thirty-five-cent beef off the shoulder. Sear all over in hot fat, cover with water, add two cloves, one onion, one bay leaf, cover and cook slowly two and one-half hours. For gravy, thicken the liquor with flour.

POT ROAST. (Old Style.)

Take a piece of fresh beef, about five or six pounds, not too fat. Put into a pot with just enough water to cover it. Set over a _slow_ fire and let stew an hour, then add salt and pepper. Stew until tender, putting in a little onion if liked. Let nearly all the water boil away.

When thoroughly tender take the meat out and pour the gravy in a bowl.

Put a large lump of b.u.t.ter in the pot, dredge the meat with flour and return it to the pot to brown, turning it often to prevent burning. Skim fat from gravy poured off of meat; pour gravy in with the meat and stir in a large spoonful of flour; wet with a little water; let boil ten or fifteen minutes and pour into gravy dish. Try sometimes cooking in this way a piece of beef which has been placed in spiced pickle for two or three days.

RAGOUT OF BEEF.