Have the butcher chop the meat all together for you; then put everything together in a dish and stir in the egg, beaten without separating, and mix very well. Press it into a bread-pan and put in the oven for three hours by the clock.
Every half-hour pour over it a tablespoonful hot water and b.u.t.ter mixed; you can put a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter into a cup of water, and keep it on the back of the stove ready all the time; after the meat has baked two hours, put in a piece of heavy brown paper over the top, and keep it there till it is done, or it may get too brown. This is to slice cold; it is very nice for a picnic.
Pressed Chicken
This was one of the things Margaret liked to make for Sunday night supper. Have a good-sized chicken cut up, and wipe each piece with a clean, damp cloth. Put them in a kettle or deep saucepan and cover with cold water, and cook very slowly and gently, covered, till the meat falls off the bones. When it begins to grow tender, put in a half teaspoonful of salt. Take it out, and cut it up in nice, even pieces, and put all the bones back into the kettle, and let them cook till there is only about a pint and a half of broth. Add a little more salt, and a sprinkling of pepper, and strain this through a jelly bag. Mix it with the chicken, and put them both into a bread tin, and when cold put on ice over night. After it has stood for an hour, put a weight on it, to make it firm. Slice with a very sharp knife, and put on a platter with parsley all around. This is a nice luncheon dish for a summer day, as well as a supper dish.
When you have bits of cold meat which you cannot slice, and yet which you wish to serve in some nice way, make this rule, which sounds difficult, but is really very easy:
Meat Souffle
1 cup of white sauce.
1 cup of chopped meat.
2 eggs.
Teaspoonful of chopped parsley.
Half a teaspoonful minced onion.
Put the parsley and onion in the meat, and mix with the white sauce.
Beat the yolks of the eggs and stir in, and cook one minute, and then cool. Beat the whites of the eggs and fold in, and bake half an hour, or a little more, in a deep, b.u.t.tered baking-dish.
You must serve this immediately, or it will fall.
Cold Meats
Of course, like other people, Margaret"s mother often had cold meat for luncheon or supper, and one of the things her cook-book told her was how to make it look nice when it came on the table.
Always trim off all bits of skin and ragged pieces from the meat, and remove the cold fat, except on ham, and then you must trim it to a rather narrow edge. If you have a rather small dish for a large family, put slices of hard boiled eggs around the edge, or make devilled eggs, and put those around in halves. Sometimes you can cut lettuce in very narrow ribbons by holding several leaves in your hand at once, folding them lengthwise, and using a pair of scissors. Sometimes a dozen pimolas may be sliced across and put about the meat, especially if it is cold chicken or turkey.
Always use parsley with meat, cold or hot. Saratoga potatoes make a good border for lamb or roast beef, and cold peas mixed with mayonnaise are always delicious with either chicken or lamb.
If only the dish looks pretty, it is almost certain to taste well.
Sliced Meat with Gravy
When there are a few slices left from a roast, put them in a frying-pan with some of the gravy left also, and heat; serve with parsley around.
If there is not gravy, take a little boiling water, add a little salt, pepper, and half-teaspoonful of minced onion, and as much chopped parsley. Lay in the meat in the frying-pan, cover, and let it simmer, turning occasionally. A few drops of Kitchen Bouquet will improve this; it is a brown sauce which comes in small bottles.
Some of the things Margaret made for breakfast she made for lunch or supper, too, such as frizzled beef, and scalloped eggs and omelettes. She had some vegetables besides, such as--
Baked Tomatoes
6 large tomatoes.
1 cup bread-crumbs.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.
1 slice of onion.
Put the b.u.t.ter in the frying-pan, and when it bubbles put in the bread-crumbs, the salt and onion, with a dusting of pepper, and stir till the crumbs are a little brown and the onion is all cooked; then take out the onion and throw it away. Wipe the tomatoes with a clean wet cloth, and cut out the stem and a round hole or little well in the middle; fill this with the crumbs, piling them up well on top; put them in a baking-dish and stand them in a hot oven; mix a cup of hot water with a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, and every little while take out the baking-dish and wet the tomatoes on top.
Cook them about half an hour, or till the skins get wrinkled all over.
Serve them in the dish they are cooked in, if you like, or put each one on a small plate, pour some of the juice in the baking-dish over it, and stick a sprig of parsley in the top.
Stuffed Potatoes
Wash six large potatoes and scrub them with a little brush, till they are a nice clean light brown, and bake them for half an hour in a hot oven; or, if they are quite large, bake them till they are soft and puffy. Cut off one end from each and take out the inside with a teaspoon, holding the potato in a towel as you do so, for it will be very hot. Mix well this potato with two tablespoonfuls of rich milk or cream, a half-teaspoonful of salt and just as much b.u.t.ter, and put this back into the sh.e.l.ls. Stand the potatoes side by side in a pan close together, the open ends up, till they are browned.
SALADS
The Other Aunt said Margaret could never, never make salads, but her mother said they were the easiest thing of all to learn, so she did put them in just the same; she bought a tin of olive oil from the Italian grocery, because it was better and cheaper than bottled oil, and she gave Margaret one important direction, ""When you make salads, always have everything very cold,""
and after that the rules were easy to follow, and the salads were as nice as could be.
French Dressing
3 tablespoonfuls of oil.
1/2 teaspoonful lemon juice or vinegar.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
3 shakes of pepper.
Stir together till all is well mixed.
Many people prefer this dressing without pepper and with a saltspoonful of sugar in its place; you can try it both ways.
Tomato and Lettuce Salad
Peel four tomatoes; you can do this most easily by pouring boiling water over them and skinning them when they wrinkle, but you must drain off all the water afterward, and let them get firm in the ice-box; wash the lettuce and gently pat it dry with a clean cloth; slice the tomatoes thin, pour off the juice, and arrange four slices on each plate of lettuce, or mix them together in the large bowl, and pour the dressing over.
Egg Salad
Cut up six hard-boiled eggs into quarters, lay them on lettuce, and pour the dressing over. Or pa.s.s a dish of them with cold meat.
Fish Salad
Pick up cold fish and pour the dressing over it, and put two sliced hard-boiled eggs around it; a few tips of celery, nice white ones, are pretty around the whole.
Cauliflower Salad
Take cold boiled cauliflower and pick it up into nice pieces; pour the dressing over, and put on the ice till you need it.