STEWED CRANBERRIES
Boil together one and one-half cups of sugar and one cup of water for seven minutes, then add three cups of cranberries, well washed and picked, and cook until the berries burst. Serve the same as cranberry sauce.
SAUCE BORDELAISE
Nice for broiled steaks. Take one medium-sized onion, chopped very fine and browned in fat; add a cup of strong beef gravy and a cup of claret or white wine; add pepper, salt and a trifle of finely-chopped parsley; allow this to simmer and thicken with a little browned flour.
CARAWAY, OR KIMMEL SAUCE
Heat a tablespoon drippings in a spider; add a little flour; stir smooth with a cup of soup stock, added at once, and half a teaspoon of caraway seeds.
ONION SAUCE
Stew some finely-chopped onions in fat; you may add half a clove of garlic, cut extremely fine; brown a very little flour in this, season with salt and pepper and add enough soup stock to thin it.
LEMON SAUCE
Boil some soup stock with a few slices of lemon, a little sugar and grated nutmeg; add chopped parsley; thicken with a teaspoon of flour or yolk of egg. Mostly used for stewed poultry.
MINT SAUCE
Chop some mint fine; boil half a cup of vinegar with one tablespoon of sugar; throw in the mint and boil up once; pour in a sauceboat and cool off a little before serving.
RAISIN SAUCE
Brown some fat in a spider, stir in a tablespoon of flour; stir until it becomes a smooth paste; then add hot soup, stirring constantly; add a handful of raisins, some pounded almonds, a few slices of lemon, also a tablespoon of vinegar; brown sugar to taste: flavor with a few cloves and cinnamon, and if you choose to do so, grate in part of a stick of horseradish and the crust of a rye loaf. Very nice for fat beef.
HORSERADISH SAUCE, No. 1
Grate a good-sized stick of horseradish; take some soup stock and a tablespoon of fat, salt and pepper to taste, a little grated stale bread, a few pounded almonds. Let all boil up and then add the meat.
HORSERADISH SAUCE, No. 2
Heat one tablespoon of fat in a frying-pan, when hot cut up one-quarter of an onion in it, and fry light brown, then brown one tablespoon cracker meal or flour and add two tablespoons of grated horseradish; let this brown a bit, then add some soup stock, one tablespoon of brown sugar, two cloves, two bay leaves, salt, pepper and two tablespoons of vinegar. Let cook a few minutes then add one more tablespoon of horseradish and if necessary a little more sugar or vinegar. Lay the meat in this sauce and cover on back of stove until ready to serve. If gas stove is used, place over the simmering flame.
k.n.o.bLAUCH SAUCE (GARLIC)
Heat a tablespoon of drippings, either of meat or goose in a frying-pan; cut up one or two cloves of garlic very fine and let it brown slightly in the heated fat; add a tablespoon of flour, a cup of soup stock or warm water, salt, pepper to taste.
MAiTRE D"HoTEL SAUCE
Take a heaping tablespoon of drippings or goose-fat, heat it in a spider, stir two teaspoons of flour into this, then add gradually and carefully a small cup of hot soup or water, the former is preferable; add some chopped parsley, also the juice of a lemon; salt and pepper; stir up well. May be used either with roast or boiled meats.
*FRYING*
PREPARED BREAD CRUMBS FOR FRYING
All sc.r.a.ps of bread should be saved for crumbs, the crusts being separated from the white part, then dried, rolled, and sifted, and put away until needed in a covered gla.s.s jar.
The brown crumbs are good for the first coating, the white ones for the outside, as they give better color. Cracker crumbs give a smooth surface, but for most things bread crumbs are preferable.
For meats a little salt and pepper, and for sweet articles, a little sugar, should be mixed with the crumbs. Crumbs left on the board should be dried, sifted, and kept to be used again.
FRYING
Frying is cooking in very hot fat or oil, and the secret of success is to have the fat hot enough to harden the outer surface of the article to be fried immediately and deep enough to cover these articles of food. As the fat or oil can be saved and used many times, the use of a large quant.i.ty is not extravagant.
To fry easily one must have, in addition to the deep, straight-sided frying-pan, a frying-basket, made from galvanized wire, with a side handle. The bale handles are apt to become heated, and in looking for something to lift them, the foods are over-fried. The frying-pan must be at least six inches deep with a flat bottom; iron, granite ware or copper may be used, the first two are preferable. There must be sufficient fat to wholly cover the articles fried, but the pan must not be too full, or there is danger of overflow when heavy articles are put in. After each frying, drain the fat or oil, put it into a receptacle kept for the purpose, and use it over and over again as long as it lasts. As the quant.i.ty begins to lessen, add sufficient fresh fat or oil to keep up the amount.
Always put the fat or oil in the frying-pan before you stand it over the fire.
Wait until it is properly heated before putting in the articles to be fried.
Fry a few articles at a time. Too many will cool the fat or oil below the point of proper frying and they will absorb grease and be unpalatable.
Put articles to be fried in the wire frying-basket and lower into the boiling hot fat or oil. Test the fat by lowering a piece of stale bread into it, if the bread browns in thirty seconds the fat is sufficiently hot.
Fry croquettes a light brown; drain over the fat, lift the frying-basket from the hot fat to a round plate, remove the articles from the basket quickly to brown paper, drain a moment and serve.
When frying fish or any food that is to be used at a milk meal, use oil.
Olive oil is the best, but is very expensive for general use. Any other good vegetable oil or nut oil will do as subst.i.tute.
When the food is intended for a meat meal; fat may be prepared according to the following directions and used in the same manner as oil.
TO RENDER GOOSE, DUCK OR BEEF FAT
Cut the fat into small pieces. Put in a deep, iron kettle and cover with cold water. Place on the stove uncovered; when the water has nearly all evaporated, set the kettle back and let the fat try out slowly. When the fat is still and sc.r.a.ps are shriveled and crisp at the bottom of the kettle, strain the fat through a cloth into a stone crock, cover and set it away in a cool place. The water may be omitted and the sc.r.a.ps slowly tried out on back of stove or in moderate oven. When fat is tried out, pour in crock.
Several slices of raw potato put with the fat will aid in the clarifying.
All kinds of fats are good for drippings except mutton fat, turkey fat and fat from smoked meats which has too strong a flavor to be used for frying, but save it with other fat that may be unsuitable for frying, and when six pounds are collected make it into hard soap.