TO KEEP TOMATAS.
Take fine ripe tomatas, and wipe them dry, taking care not to break the skin. Put them, into a stone jar with cold vinegar, adding a small thin muslin bag filled with mace, whole cloves, and whole peppers. Then cork the jar tightly with a cork that has been dipped in melted rosin, and put it away in a dry place. Tomatas pickled in this manner keep perfectly well and retain their colour. For this purpose use the small round b.u.t.ton tomatas.
ADDITIONAL RECEIPTS.
FRENCH GREEN PEA SOUP.
This soup is made without meat. Put into a soup-pot four quarts of sh.e.l.led green peas, two large onions sliced, a handful of leaves of sweet marjoram shred from the stalks, or a handful of sweet basil; or a mixed handful of both--also, if you like it, a handful of green mint. Add four quarts of water, and boil the whole slowly till all the peas are entirely to pieces. Then take off the pot, and mash the peas well against its sides to extract from them all their flavour. Afterward strain off the liquid into a clean pot, and add to it a tea-cup full of the juice of spinach, which you must prepare, while the soup is boiling, by pounding some spinach in a mortar. This will give the soup a fine green colour. Then put in a quarter of a pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter rolled whole in flour; and add a pint and a half more of sh.e.l.led young peas. If you wish the soup very thick, you may allow a quart of the additional peas. Season it with a very little salt and cayenne; put it again over the fire, and boil it till the last peas are quite soft, but not till they go to pieces.
Have ready in a tureen two or three slices of toasted bread cut into small squares or dice, and pour the soup on it.
This soup, if properly made, will be found excellent, notwithstanding the absence of meat. It is convenient for fast days; and in the country, where vegetables can be obtained from the garden, the expense will be very trifling. What is left may be warmed for the next day.
GIBLET SOUP.
Take three pounds of shin of beef or of neck of mutton. Cut off the meat and break the bones. Then put the meat with the bones into a soup-pot, with a tea-spoonful of salt, and three quarts of water. Add a bunch of sweet marjoram, one of sweet basil, and a quarter of an ounce of black pepper-corns, all tied in a thin muslin rag; a sliced onion, and six or eight turnips and carrots, cut small. Let the whole boil slowly for two or three hours, skimming it well. In the meantime, have ready two sets of goose-giblets, or four of duck. They must he scalded, and well washed in warm water. Cut off the bills and split the heads; and cut the necks and gizzards into mouthfuls. Having taken the meat and bones out of the soup, put in the giblets, with a head of celery chopped. Boil it slowly an hour and a half; or more, taking care to skim it. Make a thickening of an ounce and a half of b.u.t.ter, and a large table-spoonful of flour, mixed together with a little of the soup. Then stir it into the pot, adding a large table-spoonful of mushroom catchup, and some small force-meat b.a.l.l.s, or little dumplings. Boil the soup half an hour longer. Then send it to table with the giblets in the tureen.
GUMBO.
Take an equal quant.i.ty of young tender ochras, and of ripe tomatas, (for instance, a quarter of a peck of each.) Chop the ochras fine, and scald and peel the tomatas. Put them into a stew-pan without any water. Add a lump of b.u.t.ter, and a very little salt and pepper; and, if you choose, an onion minced fine. Let it stew steadily for an hour. Then strain it, and send it to table as soup in a tureen. It should be like a jelly, and is a favourite New Orleans dish. Eat dry toast with it.
HAM OMELET.
Take six ounces of cold coiled ham, and mince it very fine, adding a little pepper. Beat separately the whites and yolks of six eggs, and then mix them together add to them gradually the minced ham.
Beat the whole very hard, and do not let it stand a moment after it is thoroughly mixed. Have ready some boiling lard in a frying-pan, and put in the omelet immediately. Fry it about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. When done, put it on a hot dish, trim off the edges, and fold it over in a half moon. Send it to table hot, and covered. It is eaten at breakfast.
If you wish a soft omelet, (not to fold over,) fry it a shorter time, and serve it in a deep dish, to be helped with a spoon.
A similar omelet may be made of the lean of a cold smoked tongue.
BATTER PUDDING.
Take a quart of milk, and stir into it gradually eight table spoonfuls of sifted flour, carefully pressing out all the lumps with the back of the spoon. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them by degrees to the milk and flour. Then stir the whole very well together.
Dip your pudding-cloth into boiling water, and then dredge it with flour. Pour in the pudding, and tie it tightly, leaving room for it to swell. Put it into a pot full of boiling water, and boil it hard for two hours. Keep it in the pot till it is time to send it to table. Serve it up with wine-sauce, b.u.t.ter and sugar, or mola.s.ses and cold b.u.t.ter.
PEACH MANGOES.
Take free-stone peaches of the largest size, (when they are full grown, but not quite ripe,) and lay them in salt and water for two days, covered with a board to keep them down. Then take them out, wipe them dry, cut them open, and extract the stones. Mix together, to your taste, minced garlic, sc.r.a.ped horseradish, bruised mustard seed, and cloves; and a little ginger-root soaked in water to soften, and then sliced. Fill the cavity of the peaches with this mixture. Then tie them round with packthread, and put them into a stone jar till it is two-thirds full. Strew among them some whole cloves, broken cinnamon, and a little cochineal. Season some cold vinegar, (allowing to each quart a jill of fresh made mustard, and a little ginger, and nutmeg,) and having mixed this pickle well, fill up the jar with it.
BROILED TOMATAS.
Take large ripe tomatas; wipe them, and split them in half. Broil them on a gridiron till brown, turning them when half done. Have ready in a dish some b.u.t.ter seasoned with a little pepper. When the tomatas are well broiled, put them into the dish, and press each a little with the back of a spoon, so that the juice may run into the b.u.t.ter and mix with it. This is to make the gravy. Send them to table hot.
Tomatas are very good sliced, and fried in b.u.t.ter.
PRESERVED TOMATAS.
Take large fine tomatas, (not too ripe,) and scald them to make the skins come off easily. Weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound of the best brown sugar, and the grated peel of a large lemon. Put all together into a preserving kettle, and having boiled it slowly for three hours, (skimming it carefully,) add the juice of the lemons, and boil it an hour longer. Then put the whole into jars, and when cool cover and tie them up closely. This is a cheap and excellent sweetmeat; but the lemon must on no account be omitted. It may be improved by boiling a little ginger with the other ingredients.
TOMATA HONEY.
To each pound of tomatas, allow the grated peel of a lemon and six fresh peach-leaves. Boil them slowly till they are all to pieces; then squeeze and strain them through a bag. To each pint of liquid allow a pound of loaf-sugar, and the juice of one lemon. Boil them together half an hour, or till they become a thick jelly. Then put it into gla.s.ses, and lay double tissue paper closely over the top.
It will be scarcely distinguishable from real honey.
PRESERVED CUc.u.mBERS.
Your cuc.u.mbers should be well shaped, and all of the same size.
Spread the bottom and sides of a preserving kettle with a thick layer of vine leaves. Then put in the cuc.u.mbers--with a little alum broken small. Cover them thickly with vine leaves, and then with a dish. Fill up the kettle with water, and let them hang over a slow fire till nest morning, but do not allow the water to boil.
Next day, take them out, cool them, and repeat the process with fresh vine leaves, till the cuc.u.mbers are a fine green. When cold drain them, cut a small piece out of the flat side, and extract the seeds. Wipe the cuc.u.mbers in a dry cloth, and season the inside with a mixture of bruised mace and grated lemon-peel. Tie on with a packthread the bit that was cut out.
Weigh them, and to every pound of cuc.u.mbers allow a pound of loaf-sugar.
Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, a half pint of water to each pound, and the beaten white of an egg to every four pounds. Boil and skim the sugar till quite clear, adding sliced ginger and lemon parings to your taste. When cool, pour it over the cuc.u.mbers, and let them lie in it two days, keeping them covered with a plate, and a weight on it to press it down. Then boil up the syrup again, adding one-half as much sugar, &c. as you had at first; and at the last the juice and grated peel of two lemons for every six cuc.u.mbers. The lemon must boil in the syrup but ten minutes. Then strain the syrup all over the cuc.u.mbers, and put them up in gla.s.s jars.
If they are not quite clear, boil them in a third syrup.
Small green melons may be preserved in this manner.
APPLE RICE PUDDING.
Wash half a pint of rice, and boil it till soft and dry. Pare, core, and cut up six large juicy apples, and stew them in as little water as possible. When they are quite, tender, take them out, and mash them with six table-spoonfuls of brown sugar. When the apples and rice are both cold, mix them together. Have ready five eggs beaten very light, and add them gradually to the other ingredients, with five or six drops of essence of lemon, and a grated nutmeg. Or you may subst.i.tute for the essence, the grated peel and the juice of one large lemon. Beat the whole very hard after it is all mixed; tie it tightly in a cloth, (leaving but a very small s.p.a.ce for it to swell,) and stopping up the tying place with a lump of flour moistened to paste with water. Put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it fast for half an hour. Send it to table hot, and eat it with sweetened cream, or with beaten b.u.t.ter and sugar.
BAKED APPLE DUMPLINGS.
Take large, fine, juicy apples, and pare and core them, leaving them as whole as possible. Put them into a kettle with sufficient water to cover them, and let them parboil a quarter of an hour.
Then take them out, and drain them on a sieve. Prepare a paste in the proportion of a pound of b.u.t.ter to two pounds of flour, as for plain pies. Roll it out into a sheet, and cut it into equal portions according to your number of apples. Place an apple on each, and fill up the hole from whence the core was extracted with brown sugar moistened with lemon-juice, or with any sort of marmalade. Then cover the apple with the paste, closing it neatly.
Place the dumplings side by side in b.u.t.tered square pans, (not so as to touch,) and bake them of a light brown. Serve them warm or cool, and eat them with cream sauce.
They will be found very good.
INDIAN LOAF CAKE.