Beat one egg well, add one-half teaspoon of salt, three-fourths cup of flour and one-third cup of water, stirring to a stiff, smooth batter.
Drop by teaspoons into boiling soup ten minutes before serving.
EGG CUSTARD
Beat slightly the yolks of two eggs, add two tablespoons of milk and a few grains of salt. Pour into small b.u.t.tered cup, place in pan of hot water and bake until firm; cool, remove from cup and cut in fancy shapes with French vegetable cutters.
GRATED IRISH POTATO
Peel, wash and grate one large Irish potato, or two medium-sized ones.
Put it in a sieve and let hot water run over it until it is perfectly white. Have the white of one egg beaten to a very stiff froth, then stir in the potatoes and twenty minutes before serving add it to the boiling soup. Beat the yolk of one egg up in the soup tureen, and pour the hot soup over it, stirring carefully at first.
FARINA DUMPLINGS
Put in a double boiler one kitchen spoon of fresh b.u.t.ter, stir in one cup of milk. When it begins to boil stir in enough farina to thicken.
Take off the stove and when cold add the yolks of two eggs and the stiffly-beaten whites, and a little salt and nutmeg and one-half cup of grated almonds if desired. Let cool, then make into little b.a.l.l.s, and ten minutes before soup is to be served, drop in boiler and let boil up once or twice.
BOILED FLOUR b.a.l.l.s WITH ALMONDS
Two yolks of eggs beaten very light, add a pinch of salt, pepper and finely-chopped parsley. Add six blanched almonds grated, enough sifted flour to make stiff batter, then add the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs and one-half teaspoon of baking powder. Drop by teaspoons in soup ten minutes before serving.
EINLAUF (EGG DROP)
Beat one egg, add one-eighth teaspoon of salt, three tablespoons of flour and one-fourth cup of water, stir until smooth. Pour slowly from a considerable height from the end of a spoon into the boiling soup. Cook two or three minutes and serve hot; add one teaspoon of chopped parsley to the soup.
EGG DUMPLINGS FOR SOUPS
Rub the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs to a smooth paste, add a little salt and grated nutmeg and one-half teaspoon of melted b.u.t.ter. Add the chopped whites of two eggs and a raw egg yolk to be able to mold the dough into little marbles, put in boiling soup one minute.
SCHWEM KLOESSE
Take three tablespoons of flour; stir with one egg and one-half cup of milk; pour this in a pan in which some b.u.t.ter was melted; stir until it loosens from the pan. When it is cold, add two more eggs and some salt, and shortly before needed form in little dumplings and put in boiling hot soup for five minutes.
DUMPLINGS FOR CREAM SOUPS
Scald some flour with milk or water, mix in a small piece of b.u.t.ter and salt, and boil until thick. When cool beat in yolk of an egg, if too stiff add the beaten white.
DROP DUMPLINGS
Break into a cup the whites of three eggs; fill the cup with milk; put it with a tablespoon of fresh b.u.t.ter and one cup of sifted flour in a spider and stir as it boils until it leaves the spider clean. Set aside until cool and stir in the yolks of three eggs. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, mix thoroughly and drop by teaspoons in the boiling soup ten minutes before ready to be served.
LIVER KLOESSE (DUMPLINGS)
Brown a small onion minced in one tablespoon of chicken fat, add a small liver chopped fine, chopped parsley, two tablespoons of flour. Season with nutmeg, red and white pepper, and add two eggs. Drop with teaspoon in the boiling soup, let cook ten minutes--serve.
FRITTER BEANS
Beat one egg until light, add three-fourths teaspoon of salt, one-half cup of flour and two tablespoons of water. Put through colander into deep hot fat and fry until brown. Drain and pour hot broth over them.
SPONGE DUMPLINGS
Separate three eggs, beat the yolks, and add one cup of soup stock, one-fourth teaspoon of salt, then add the beaten whites. Pour into a greased cup and place in pan of hot water and steam until firm; cool, remove from cup and cut into small dumplings with a teaspoon; pour the boiling soup over and just before serving add chopped parsley.
*FISH*
Fish that is not fresh is a very dangerous food and great care should be taken in selecting only fish fit to eat. If the fish is hard in body and the eyes are clear and bright, the gills a bright red and slimy, the flesh so firm that when pressed the marks of the fingers do not remain, the scales not dry or easy to loosen, then the fish is fresh.
In the refrigerator fish will taint b.u.t.ter and other foods if placed in the same compartment, so that in most cases it is better to lay it on a plate on a pan of ice, or wrap it in parchment or waxed paper and put it in the ice box.
Pickerel weighing more than five pounds should not be bought. If belly is thick it is likely that there is another fish inside. This smaller fish or any found in any other fish may not be used as food.
Salt fish should be soaked in fresh water, skin side up, to draw out the salt.
Each fish is at its best in its season, for instance:--
Bluefish, b.u.t.terfish, Sea, Striped Ba.s.s, Porgies, Sea-trout or Weakfish are best from April to September.
Fluke and Flounders are good all year round, but the fluke is better than the flounder in summer. Carp may be had all year, but care must be taken that it has not been in polluted water.
Cod, Haddock, Halibut, Mackerel, Redsnapper, Salmon, Whitefish are good all year.
In the different states of the United States there are laws governing the fishing for trout, so the season for that fish differs in the various states.
Black Ba.s.s, Perch, Pickerel and Pike are in season from June 1st to December 1st.
Shad, April to June.
Smelts, November 10th to April.
TO CLEAN FISH
The fish may be cleaned at the market, but needs to be looked over carefully before cooking.