The Skilful Cook Part 72

_Method._--The potatoes should be well cooked, and be dry and floury.

Put them quickly through a wire sieve.

Mix them well in a saucepan with the b.u.t.ter, cream, and seasoning.

Make them quite hot.

Heap them in a mound-like form in a vegetable dish, and smooth over with a knife.

Mashed Potatoes (a plainer way).

Add to the potatoes, while in the saucepan, some b.u.t.ter or dripping.

Season with pepper and salt.

Beat with a fork until perfectly smooth and free from lumps.

Where economy must be studied, nice beef dripping will be found an excellent subst.i.tute for b.u.t.ter.

Potato b.a.l.l.s.

Form some mashed potatoes into b.a.l.l.s.

Brush them over with beaten egg.

Put them on a greased baking-tin, and bake in a quick oven until brown.

Serve garnished with parsley.

This is a nice way of using up cold potatoes.

Flaked Potatoes.

Rub some nicely-cooked floury potatoes through a wire sieve into a hot vegetable dish. This must be done quickly, that the potatoes may be served quite hot.

Rice for a Curry.

Well wash some Patna rice. Throw it into plenty of quickly-boiling water with salt in it, and boil until the rice is nearly cooked, but not quite. This will take from eight to ten minutes. Strain the rice on a sieve and pour hot water over it, rinsing it well. Then put it in the saucepan again, cover it and let it stand in a hot place to finish cooking in its own steam.

SOUPS.

These are very valuable preparations, and are useful to the poor as well as to the rich, as many of the most nutritious soups are the cheapest.

Pea soup, haricot soup, and lentil soup are all rich in nourishment, and may be made at a trifling cost, stock not being _necessary_ for their manufacture. The boilings from meat, when not too salt, may be used with advantage in making these soups; but if this is not available, they may be made quite well with water; and, if carefully prepared, will have all the flavour of a meat soup.

In making stock for meat soups, it must be borne in mind that in order to extract the juices from the meat it must be put into _cold_ water, which should be heated very gradually, and only allowed to _simmer_. In this way a rich stock is procured, as all the virtue of the meat is drawn into the water. Boiling would produce a poor and flavourless stock, as the extreme heat applied, by hardening the alb.u.men, would tend to keep in the juices of the meat instead of drawing them out.

In making stock from bones, the method to be pursued is quite the opposite. Bones must be boiled, otherwise the gelatine in them will not be extracted; simmering would be of little use. The gelatine can only be thoroughly extracted when they are boiled at higher pressure than is possible in ordinary cookery. Bones contain so much gelatine that after they have been once used in stock they should be broken up in pieces and again boiled, so that the gelatine from the _inside_ may also be extracted.

An economical cook will often make excellent stock for soup from bones alone, with the addition of suitable vegetables for flavouring.

First Stock for Clear Soup.

_Ingredients_--4 lb. of shin of beef, or 2 lb. of shin of beef and 2 lb. of knuckle of veal.

5 pints of water.

2 carrots.

2 turnips.

1 onion.

The white part of a leek.

1 dozen peppercorns.

1 sprig of parsley, thyme, and marjoram.

A bay leaf.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Cut the meat into pieces about one inch in size.

Break up the bone and remove the marrow.

Put bones and meat into a stockpot with the cold water.

Let them soak for half an hour.

Then put the pot on the fire; add some salt and pepper to it, and gently simmer the contents for half an hour.

Next put in the vegetables sliced, and the herbs tied together.

Simmer for 4 hours longer, skimming occasionally.

Strain into a clean pan, and set aside to get cold.

White Stock.

This may be made by the directions in the preceding recipe, using white meat instead of beef; knuckle of veal is considered the stock meat for white soup. Knuckle of veal and a rabbit make excellent stock.

Very good economical white stock may be made by using bones only in making the stock, and no meat; use a ham-bone, if possible, with the others, as this gives a nice flavour.

Second Stock.

Take any sc.r.a.ps of cooked or uncooked meat; any bones, cooked or uncooked, to make second stock. Allow one pint of water to every pound of meat and bones, and vegetables in the same proportion as for first stock. The bones should be broken up. Boil gently until all the virtue is extracted from the meat, bones, and vegetables. The contents of the stockpot should be emptied into a pan every night, and the stock strained from the meat, bones, and vegetables. These should be looked over, and the bones, meat, &c., which are of no further use removed; the remainder should be set aside to use with fresh stock material. Bones may be boiled for a very long time before the gelatine will be perfectly extracted.