Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches.
by Eliza Leslie.
PREFACE
The success of her little book ent.i.tled "Seventy-five Receipts in Cakes, Pastry, and Sweetmeats." has encouraged the author to attempt a larger and more miscellaneous work on the subject of cookery, comprising as far as practicable whatever is most useful in its various departments; and particularly adapted to the domestic economy of her own country. Designing it as a manual of American housewifery, she has avoided the insertion of any dishes whose ingredients cannot be procured on our side of the Atlantic, and which require for their preparation utensils that are rarely found except in Europe. Also, she has omitted every thing which may not, by the generality of tastes, be considered good of its kind, and well worth the trouble and cost of preparing.
The author has spared no pains in collecting and arranging, perhaps the greatest number of practical and original receipts that have ever appeared in a similar work; flattering herself that she has rendered them so explicit as to be easily understood, and followed, even by inexperienced cooks. The directions are given as minutely as if each receipt was "to stand alone by itself," all references to others being avoided; except in some few instances to the one immediately preceding; it being a just cause of complaint that in some of the late cookery books, the reader, before finishing the article, is desired to search out pages and numbers in remote parts of the volume.
In the hope that her system of cookery may be consulted with equal advantage by families in town and in country, by those whose condition makes it expedient to practise economy, and by others whose circ.u.mstances authorize a liberal expenditure, the author sends it to take its chance among the mult.i.tude of similar publications, satisfied that it will meet with as much success as it may be found to deserve,--more she has no right to expect.
_Philadelphia, April 15th, 1837_.
INTRODUCTORY HINTS.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
We recommend to all families that they should keep in the house: a pair of scales, (one of the scales deep enough to hold flour, sugar, &c., conveniently,) and a set of tin measures: as accuracy in proportioning the ingredients is indispensable to success in cookery. It is best to have the scales permanently fixed to a small beam projecting (for instance) from one of the shelves of the store-room. This will preclude the frequent inconvenience of their getting twisted, unlinked, and otherwise out of order; a common consequence of putting them in and out of their box, and carrying them from place to place. The weights (of which there should be a set from two pounds to a quarter of an ounce) ought carefully to be kept in the box, that none of them may be lost or mislaid.
A set of tin measures (with small spouts or lips) from a gallon down to half a jill, will be found very convenient in every kitchen; though common pitchers, bowls, gla.s.ses, &c. may be subst.i.tuted. It is also well to have a set of wooden measures from a bushel to a quarter of a peck.
Let it be remembered, that of liquid measure--
Two jills are half a pint.
Two pints--one quart.
Four quarts--one gallon.
Of dry measure--
Half a gallon is a quarter of a peck.
One gallon--half a peck.
Two gallons--one peck.
Four gallons--half a bushel.
Eight gallons--one bushel.
About twenty-five drops of any thin liquid will fill a common sized tea-spoon.
Four table-spoonfuls or half a jill, will fill a common wine gla.s.s.
Four wine gla.s.ses will fill a half-pint or common tumbler, or a large coffee-cup.
A quart black bottle holds in reality about a pint and a half.
Of flour, b.u.t.ter, sugar, and most articles used in cakes and pastry, a quart is generally about equal in quant.i.ty to a pound avoirdupois, (sixteen ounces.) Avoirdupois is the weight designated throughout this book.
Ten eggs generally weigh one pound before they are broken.
A table-spoonful of salt is generally about one ounce.
MISS LESLIE"S COOKERY.
SOUPS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Always use soft water for making soup, and be careful to proportion the quant.i.ty of water to that of the meat. Somewhat less than a quart of water to a pound of meat, is a good rule for common soups. Rich soups, intended for company, may have a still smaller allowance of water.
Soup should always be made entirely of fresh meat that has not been previously cooked. An exception to this rule may sometimes be made in favour of the remains of a piece of roast beef that has been _very much_ under-done in roasting. This may be _added_ to a good piece of raw meat. Cold ham, also, may be occasionally put into white soups.
Soup made of cold meat has always a vapid, disagreeable taste, very perceptible through all the seasoning, and which nothing indeed can disguise. Also, it will be of a bad, dingy colour. The juices of the meat having been exhausted by the first cooking, the undue proportion of watery liquid renders it, for soup, indigestible and unwholesome, as well as unpalatable. As there is little or no nutriment to be derived from soup made with cold meat, it is better to refrain from using it for this purpose, and to devote the leavings of the table to some other object. No person accustomed to really good soup, made from fresh meat, can ever be deceived in the taste, even when flavoured with wine and spices. It is not true that French cooks have the art of producing _excellent_ soups from cold sc.r.a.ps. There is much _bad_ soup to be found in France, at inferior houses; but _good_ French cooks are not, as is generally supposed, really in the practice of concocting any dishes out of the refuse of the table.
And we repeat, that cold meat, even when perfectly good, and used in a large quant.i.ty, has not sufficient substance to flavour soup, or to render it wholesome.
Soup, however, that has been originally made of raw meat entirely, is frequently better the second day than the first; provided that it is re-boiled only for a very short time, and that no additional water is added to it.
Unless it has been allowed to boil too hard, so as to exhaust the water, the soup-pot will not require replenishing. When it is found absolutely necessary to do so, the additional water must be boiling hot when poured in; if lukewarm or cold, it will entirely spoil the soup.
Every particle of fat should be carefully skimmed from the surface. Greasy soup is disgusting and unwholesome. The lean of meat is much better for soup than the fat.
Long and slow boiling is necessary to extract the strength from the meat. If boiled fast over a large fire, the meat becomes hard and tough, and will not give out its juices.
Potatoes, if boiled in the soup, are thought by some to render it unwholesome, from the opinion that the water in which potatoes have been cooked is almost a poison. As potatoes are a part of every dinner, it is very easy to take a few out of the pot in which they have been boiled by themselves, and to cut them up and add them to the soup just before it goes to table.
The cook should season the soup but very slightly with salt and pepper. If she puts in too much, it may spoil it for the taste of most of those that are to eat it; but if too little, it is easy to add more to your own plate.
The practice of thickening soup by stirring flour into it is not a good one, as it spoils both the appearance and the taste. If made with a sufficient quant.i.ty of good fresh meat, and not too much water, and if boiled long and slowly, it will have substance enough without flour.
FAMILY SOUP.
Take a shin or leg of beef that has been newly killed; the fore leg is best, as there is the most meat on it. Have it cut into three pieces, and wash it well. To each pound allow somewhat less than a quart of water; for instance, to ten pounds of leg of beef, nine quarts of water is a good proportion. Put it into a large pot, and add half a table-spoonful of salt. Hang it over a good fire, as early as six o"clock in the morning, if you dine at two.
When it has come to a hard boil, and the sc.u.m has risen, (which it will do as soon as it has boiled,) skim it well. Do not remove the lid more frequently than is absolutely necessary, as uncovering the pot causes the flavour to evaporate. Then set it on hot coals in the corner, and keep it simmering steadily, adding fresh coals so as to continue a regular heat.
About nine o"clock, put in four carrots, one parsnip, and a large onion cut into slices, and four small turnips, and eight tomatas, also cut up; add a head of celery cut small. Put in a very small head of cabbage, cut into little pieces. If you have any objection to cabbage, subst.i.tute a larger proportion of the other vegetables. Put in also a bunch of sweet marjoram, tied up in a thin muslin rag to prevent its floating on the top.
Let the soup simmer unceasingly till two o"clock, skimming it well: then take it up, and put it into a tureen. If your dinner hour is later, you may of course begin the soup later; but it will require at least eight hours" cooking; remembering to put in the vegetables three hours after the meat.
If you wish to send the meat to table, take the best part of it out of the soup, about two hours before dinner. Have ready another pot with a dozen tomatas and a few cloves. Moisten them with a little of the soup, just sufficient to keep them from burning.
When the tomatas have stewed down soft, put the meat upon them, and let it brown till dinner time over a few coals, keeping the pot closely covered; then send it to table on a dish by itself.