This is delicious either hot or cold.
BEEFSTEAK
Different kinds of steak need to be cooked in different ways.
Tenderloin, porterhouse, and sirloin are best broiled over a hot fire, or pan broiled by being turned frequently on a very hot skillet, with only the fat that comes from the steak itself. Serve on a hot platter, with b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt. Round steak is nice cut in small pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper, rolled in flour, and cooked quickly in some of the suet, first put in the pan until tried out. Lift browned pieces of the steak (for this needs more cooking than tenderer meat), on to a hot platter, add a little b.u.t.ter to the fat in the pan, stir in a scant tablespoon of flour, stir well until smooth and brown, then pour in quickly a cupful of cold water, and continue to stir until well thickened. This gravy will be smooth and of nice flavor, and can be poured over the meat. Season, of course, with salt and pepper to taste.
HASH
Hash, though a dish often laughed at, is always appetizing when well made. Corn beef hash indeed has quite a reputation, and is made by chopping cold corn beef rather fine, adding an equal quant.i.ty of cold boiled potatoes, chopped, wetting with enough boiling water to keep from burning, seasoning with salt, pepper and a little b.u.t.ter, and then allowing to cook gently for at least twenty minutes. All kinds of hash need to simmer for quite a while, in order to blend the flavor of the meat and the potatoes, and give the delicate taste that marks a carefully prepared dish. Beef, particularly browned sc.r.a.ps, finely minced, and mixed with an equal quant.i.ty of minced cold boiled potatoes, seasoned and prepared as just directed, is very good for breakfast served on rounds of b.u.t.tered toast. And either kind can be allowed to brown down in the pan and then turned out on a hot plate, rolled over with a nice thick crust. Any kind of meat can be used, however.
LAMB PIE
A lamb pie is an attractive way of using up small pieces of cold lamb.
Cut off all sc.r.a.ps and gristle, and add enough cold gravy to cover.
Season well with salt and pepper, and simmer twenty minutes. Take a pudding dish, invert a small cup in the bottom, pour in the hot meat, add half a can of peas, cover with a crust of light biscuit dough, and bake until brown. Before sending to the table lift crust and remove cup, which has drawn up the gravy. Serve with either mashed or baked potatoes.
DRIED BEEF
Dried beef dressed in cream is always an appetizing dish and very quickly made ready. The child should first take a half-pound of chipped beef and tear it into small pieces, removing all strings and fat. Then put in a stew-pan, cover with cold water and let come to a boil. While it is heating, however, she should stir smooth one tablespoonful b.u.t.ter and one tablespoonful flour. When the water boils on the beef she must pour off half (or it will be too salty), and add an equal amount of milk. Into this stir slowly the mixed b.u.t.ter and flour, season with pepper and let boil until thick. Some people like the addition of two well-beaten eggs, but I prefer the beef plain, with the gravy rather thick, served on rounds of hot b.u.t.tered toast. The toast could be made first and set where it will keep warm, and thus save the time of making afterwards, for a dish of this kind cools very quickly, and should be sent to the table as soon as ready.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A STANDING ROAST OF BEEF]
ROAST BEEF
A roast of beef, after being sc.r.a.ped and wiped free from all particles of sawed bone, should be seasoned well with salt and pepper, and dredged with flour. Put it in a hot oven, and when it has seared on top, to keep in the juice, turn over and allow to sear on the bottom. Then pour in the pan enough boiling water to keep from burning, and baste frequently.
Allow about one hour for a five pound roast rare, and an hour and a half to cook well done. Serve a rib roast, left on the bone, standing as shown in the ill.u.s.tration, garnished with parsley.
CHAPTER VI
The Interesting Potato
Every girl should know how to cook potatoes properly; yet really there is scarcely any other one vegetable that can be prepared in so many ways and still is often so poorly cooked as to be practically unfit to eat.
It would seem an easy thing to make a light, appetizing dish of mashed potatoes--and what is more inviting?--but how often are they served wet and soggy! To understand the right way to cook and serve potatoes is as much an art as to make a salad or bake a cake.
BOILED POTATOES
Plain boiled potatoes, with the skin on, are delicious when cooked as they should be. The requisite number should be selected, perfect in form and uniform in size, and scrubbed with the vegetable brush, but the skins not broken. If they are old they will be better for soaking half an hour in cold water. A half hour before dinner-time, if they are of medium size, they should be covered with boiling salted water and placed on the stove, where they will boil gently, not hard, until the skins begin to crack open. Test with a fork, and as soon as they are tender, drain off all the water and set on the back of the stove to steam dry. Serve in a hot, open vegetable dish; and if there is company or you are very particular, remove the skins (without breaking the potatoes) just before sending to the table. In case there is to be fish or a meat dish without gravy, serve the potatoes with the white sauce our little cook was taught to make in one of her first lessons.
MASHED POTATOES
For mashed potatoes the mother should tell the child to pick out the imperfect ones, or those too large to bake, to be peeled and cut up.
Have her put them on in boiling salted water half an hour before dinner-time, cook until perfectly tender, then drain and let steam dry.
After standing a few moments (in a hot place), have her mash them thoroughly, first with an old-fashioned wooden masher until all the lumps are removed, and then with a wire one. To each cupful of potato add a teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter and a tablespoonful of hot milk. They should be beaten up creamy with the wire beater, then turned out into a hot covered dish, with a lump of b.u.t.ter in the center and a sprinkling of pepper over the top, and served at once.
If dinner is delayed, however, and there is danger of their getting cold, have her put them in a baking-dish or tin, smooth them nicely over the top and set where they will keep warm. Then when needed, if she will grate a little cheese over the top and put in the oven for a few minutes to brown, she will find that they are even nicer than when first made.
The mashed potatoes left from dinner can be worked up with a little cream and molded into small round cakes, to be fried brown next morning.
CREAMED POTATOES
Often in buying potatoes one finds a quant.i.ty of little ones usually considered "too small to be bothered with." They seem hardly worth peeling, but if scrubbed clean and boiled as directed the skins can be removed quickly when they are tender. Then if a white sauce is made, these little potato b.a.l.l.s can be dropped in and served garnished with finely chopped parsley on top. This is a favorite way of preparing new potatoes and most appetizing.
LYONNAISE POTATOES
If the mother prefers, she can have the child take these little b.a.l.l.s (peeled after they are cooked), cut them up fine, and fry them as follows: In a hot pan melt two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter and add a teaspoonful of finely chopped onion, which should be cooked until a delicate brown before the seasoned potatoes are added.
CHEESE POTATOES
Parboil sliced potatoes, or slice cold boiled ones, line the bottom of a baking dish, sprinkle with salt, pepper, a little flour, grated cheese, and dots of b.u.t.ter. Repeat until the pan is nearly full, cover with milk, sprinkle the top with the grated cheese, and bake until brown, or about half an hour. Cheese potatoes are particularly good served with cold meat.
BAKED POTATOES
Potatoes for baking should be of uniform, medium size and perfect. After being well scrubbed they should be wiped dry and put in a moderate oven three-quarters of an hour before meal-time. If the meal is delayed for any reason they should be p.r.i.c.ked with a fork in several places to let out the steam, and then set where they will keep hot, but not in a covered dish, or they will get wet and soggy.
STUFFED POTATOES
If it is necessary to keep them any length of time, cut off the end of each potato, sc.r.a.pe out the inside, season with salt, pepper, a little b.u.t.ter, a small quant.i.ty of cream and to every three potatoes one egg, the white beaten stiff. After whipping up light put back in the sh.e.l.ls, where they will keep warm. Just before sending to the table, put in the oven for a few moments, until they puff up and brown at the ends.
FRIED POTATOES
Cold boiled potatoes can be used in so many different ways that where there is no servant in the house it often is a saving of time and labor to boil a quant.i.ty at one time and then heat up as needed. They are nice simply sliced thin and fried brown in b.u.t.ter.
HASHED CREAM POTATOES
If this is considered too rich, half the amount of b.u.t.ter will be sufficient to flavor and keep from scorching, and then when they brown as they are hashed in the pan pour in a few spoonfuls of cream. Season well, allow to brown down again, then fold like an omelet and serve on a hot platter garnished with parsley.
SCALLOPED POTATOES
Scalloped potatoes are very nice for a supper dish, as they can be prepared early in the day and set away until needed. The little cook, after washing and peeling her potatoes, next cuts them in thin slices, enough to fill the dish needed and parboils in salted water for ten minutes. Then drain. Arrange a layer of these, with a sprinkling of flour, pepper and salt and a few small pieces of b.u.t.ter, repeating in layers until the pan is full. Pour over enough milk to cover. When ready to cook, allow half an hour for the baking, and from time to time add a little extra hot milk. It is well to set a large pan containing water under the baking-dish to catch any milk that might boil over and burn on the bottom of the oven.