The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 62

Peel and wash a pound of full-grown potatoes, grate them on a bread-grater into a deep dish, containing a quart of clear water; stir it well up, and then pour it through a hair-sieve, and leave it ten minutes to settle, till the water is quite clear: then pour off the water, and put a quart of fresh water to it; stir it up, let it settle, and repeat this till the water is quite clear; you will at last find a fine white powder at the bottom of the vessel. (The criterion of this process being completed, is the purity of the water that comes from it after stirring it up.) Lay this on a sheet of paper in a hair-sieve to dry, either in the sun or before the fire, and it is ready for use, and in a well-stopped bottle will keep good for many months.

If this be well made, half an ounce (_i. e._ a table-spoonful) of it mixed with two table-spoonfuls of cold water, and stirred into a soup or sauce, just before you take it up, will thicken a pint of it to the consistence of cream.

_Obs._--This preparation much resembles the "Indian arrow root," and is a good subst.i.tute for it; it gives a fulness on the palate to gravies and sauces at hardly any expense, and by some is used to thicken melted b.u.t.ter instead of flour.

As it is perfectly tasteless, it will not alter the flavour of the most delicate broth, &c.

_Of the Flour of Potatoes._

"A patent has been recently obtained at Paris, a gold medal bestowed, and other honorary distinctions granted, for the discovery and practice, on a large scale, of preparing from potatoes a fine flour; a sago, a flour equal to ground rice; and a semolina or paste, of which 1_lb._ is equal to 1-1/2_lbs._ of rice, 1-3/4_lbs._ of vermicelli, or, it is a.s.serted, 8_lbs._ of raw potatoes.

"These preparations are found valuable to mix with wheaten flour for bread, to make biscuits, pastry, pie-crusts, and for all soups, gruels, and panada.

"Large engagements have been made for these preparations with the French marine, and military and other hospitals, with the approbation of the faculty.

"An excellent bread, it is said, can be made of this flour, at half the cost of wheaten bread.

"Heat having been applied in these preparations, the articles will keep unchanged for years, and on board ship, to China and back; rats, mice, worms, and insects do not infect or destroy this flour.

"Simply mixed with cold water, they are in ten minutes fit for food, when fire and all other resource may be wanted; and twelve ounces are sufficient for a day's sustenance, in case of necessity.

"The physicians and surgeons in the hospitals, in cases of great debility of the stomach, have employed these preparations with advantage.

"The point of this discovery is, the cheapness of preparation, and the conversion of a surplus growth of potatoes into a keeping stock, in an elegant, portable, and salubrious form."

_Salad or piquante Sauce for cold Meat, Fish, &c._--(No. 453.) See also No. 372.

Pound together

An ounce of sc.r.a.ped horseradish, Half an ounce of salt, A table-spoonful of made mustard, No. 370, Four drachms of minced eschalots, No. 409, Half a drachm of celery-seed, No. 409, And half ditto of Cayenne, No. 404,

Adding gradually a pint of burnet (No. 399), or tarragon vinegar (No.

396), and let it stand in a jar a week, and then pa.s.s it through a sieve.

_Curry Powder._--(No. 455.)

Put the following ingredients in a cool oven all night, and the next morning pound them in a marble mortar, and rub them through a fine sieve.

_d._ Coriander-seed, three ounces 3 Turmeric, three ounces 6 Black pepper, mustard, and ginger, one ounce of each 8 Allspice and less cardamoms, half an ounce of each 5 c.u.min-seed, a quarter of an ounce 1

Thoroughly pound and mix together, and keep them in a well-stopped bottle.

Those who are fond of curry sauces, may steep three ounces of the powder in a quart of vinegar or white wine for ten days, and will get a liquor impregnated with all the flavour of the powder.

_Obs._--This receipt was an attempt to imitate some of the best Indian curry powder, selected for me by a friend at the India house: the flavour approximates to the Indian powder so exactly, the most profound palaticians have p.r.o.nounced it a perfect copy of the original curry stuff.

The following remark was sent to the editor by an East Indian friend.

"The ingredients which you have selected to form the curry powder, are the same as are used in India, with this difference only, that some of them are in a raw green state, and are mashed together, and afterward dried, powdered, and sifted." For Curry Sauce, see No. 348.

N.B. Chickens, rabbits, sweetbreads, b.r.e.a.s.t.s of veal, veal cutlets, mutton, lamb, or pork chops, lobster, turbot, soles, eels, oysters, &c.

are dressed curry fashion, see No. 497; or stew them in No. 329 or No.

348, and flavour with No. 455.

_Obs._--The common fault of curry powder is the too great proportion of Cayenne (to the milder aromatics from which its agreeable flavour is derived), preventing a sufficient quant.i.ty of the curry powder being used.

_Savoury ragout Powder._--(No. 457.)

Salt, an ounce, Mustard, half an ounce, Allspice,[288-*] a quarter of an ounce, Black pepper ground, and lemon-peel grated, or of No. 407, pounded and sifted fine, half an ounce each, Ginger, and Nutmeg grated, a quarter of an ounce each, Cayenne pepper, two drachms.

Pound them patiently, and pa.s.s them through a fine hair-sieve; bottle them for use. The above articles will pound easier and finer, if they are dried first in a Dutch oven[288-+] before a very gentle fire, at a good distance from it; if you give them much heat, the fine flavour of them will be presently evaporated, and they will soon get a strong, rank, empyreumatic taste.

N.B. Infused in a quart of vinegar or wine, they make a savoury relish for soups, sauces, &c.

_Obs._ The spices in a ragout are indispensable to give it a flavour, but not a predominant one; their presence should be rather supposed than perceived; they are the invisible spirit of good cookery: indeed, a cook without spice would be as much at a loss as a confectioner without sugar: a happy mixture of them, and proportion to each other and the other ingredients, is the "chef-d'uvre" of a first-rate cook.

The art of combining spices, &c., which may be termed the "harmony of flavours," no one hitherto has attempted to teach: and "the rule of thumb" is the only guide that experienced cooks have heretofore given for the a.s.sistance of the novice in the (till now, in these pages explained, and rendered, we hope, perfectly intelligible to the humblest capacity) occult art of cookery. This is the first time receipts in cookery have been given accurately by weight or measure!!!

(See _Obs._ on "the education of a cook's tongue," pages 52 and 53.)

_Pease Powder._--(No. 458.)

Pound together in a marble mortar half an ounce each of dried mint and sage, a drachm of celery-seed, and a quarter of a drachm of Cayenne pepper; rub them through a fine sieve. This gives a very savoury relish to pease soup, and to water gruel, which, by its help, if the eater of it has not the most lively imagination, he may fancy he is sipping good pease soup.

_Obs._--A drachm of allspice, or black pepper, may be pounded with the above as an addition, or instead of, the Cayenne.

_Horseradish Powder._--(No. 458*.)

The time to make this is during November and December; slice it the thickness of a shilling, and lay it to dry very gradually in a Dutch oven (a strong heat soon evaporates its flavour); when dry enough, pound it and bottle it.

_Obs._ See Horseradish Vinegar (No. 399*).

_Soup-herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish._--(No. 459.)

Dried parsley, Winter savoury, Sweet marjoram, Lemon-thyme, of each two ounces; Lemon-peel, cut very thin, and dried, and Sweet basil, an ounce of each.

? Some add to the above bay-leaves and celery-seed, a drachm each.

Dry them in a warm, but not too hot Dutch oven: when quite dried, pound them in a mortar, and pa.s.s them through a double hair-sieve; put them in a bottle closely stopped, they will retain their fragrance and flavour for several months.

N.B. These herbs are in full perfection in July and August (see No.