Select medium-sized chickens and wash well, then cut into neat pieces and season them. Mix 1 cupful cornmeal with 1 cupful flour, 1 tablespoonful salt and 1 tablespoonful black pepper. Dip each piece in mixture and fry in hot Crisco twelve minutes. Drain and serve with cornmeal batter bread.
E
Wash young chicken, cut into neat pieces, dust with salt, pepper, and flour, and fry in hot Crisco twelve minutes. Drain, place on hot platter, pour over it 1/2 pint hot sweet cream, sprinkle over with chopped hot roasted peanuts, little salt and pepper.
Fried Chicken, Mexican Style
1 tender chicken Salt and pepper to taste 1 clove garlic 1 seeded green pepper 2 large tomatoes 5 tablespoonfuls Crisco Corn croquettes
For Croquettes
2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 can or 14 ears corn 2 tablespoonfuls flour 2 cupfuls milk 1/2 teaspoonful sugar Pepper and salt to taste 1 egg Breadcrumbs
_For chicken._ Draw, wash and dry chicken, then cut into neat joints, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat Crisco in frying pan, add clove of garlic and pepper cut in small pieces. When garlic turns brown take out, put chicken in, fry till brown, then cover closely, allow to simmer till ready. A short time before covering chicken, add tomatoes peeled and cut in small pieces.
_For croquettes._ Drain liquor from can of corn, or grate ears, and chop kernels fine. Blend Crisco and flour together in pan over fire, add milk, stir till boiling and cook five minutes, stirring all the time, add seasonings, and corn, and cook five minutes, then allow to cool. When cold, form lightly with floured hands into neat croquettes, brush over with beaten egg, toss in crumbs and fry in hot Crisco to a golden brown. Drain. Place chicken on hot platter, garnish with croquettes and serve hot.
Fried Sweetbreads
Sweetbreads Egg Breadcrumbs Crisco Peas or new Potatoes Rich brown gravy
Sweetbreads should always be blanched before using. To blanch, soak in cold water two hours, changing water 3 or 4 times. Put into saucepan, cover with cold water, add little salt, and skim well as water comes to boil. Simmer from ten to thirty minutes, according to kind of sweet-bread used. Remove to basin of cold water until cold, or wash well in cold water and press between two plates till cold. Dry, remove skin, cut in slices, coat with beaten egg and toss in breadcrumbs, and fry in hot Crisco to a golden brown. Serve round peas or new potatoes, with rich brown gravy.
For those whose digestions are at fault, sweetbreads ought to be eaten as a daily ration if the pocketbook will afford it. For this special part of the animal"s anatomy is that one of all the viscera whose mission is to help digestion. It is of the very pancreas itself, that stomach gland of marvelously involved structure which elaborates the powerful pancreatic juice. It is alkaline in nature, able to digest starches, fats, and most of what escapes digestion in the stomach proper. It received its name from a fancied resemblance in its substance and formation to the rising lumps of dough destined for bread.
Kidney Omelet
4 kidneys 6 tablespoonfuls Crisco 6 eggs Salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley 2 tablespoonfuls cream
Melt 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco in frying pan. Skin kidneys and cut into small dice and toss them into hot Crisco three minutes. Whisk whites of eggs to stiff froth, then add yolks, seasonings, parsley, and cream, then add kidney. Make remaining Crisco hot in omelet pan or frying pan, pour in omelet and fry over clear fire six minutes. When the edges are set, fold edges over so that omelet a.s.sumes an oval shape; be careful that it is not done too much; to brown the top, hold pan before fire, or put it in oven; never turn an omelet in the pan.
Slip it carefully on a hot dish and serve the instant it comes from the fire.
Macaroni and Round Steak
1/2 package macaroni 1/2 can tomatoes 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco 2 onions Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cupful grated cheese 1 lb. round steak 1/2 cupful breadcrumbs
Break macaroni into inch lengths and add it with 1 tablespoonful of the Crisco to plenty of boiling water and boil twenty minutes, then drain. Put steak and onions through a food chopper. Put macaroni into Criscoed fireproof dish, then put in meat and onions, add seasonings, tomatoes, cheese, breadcrumbs, and remainder of Crisco melted. Bake in moderate oven one hour.
Meat Cakes
1 lb. round steak 3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco 3 small onions 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley 2 eggs 1/4 lb. grated cheese 2 cupfuls breadcrumbs Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste Tomato sauce
For Sauce
4 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 carrot 1 turnip 2 onions 3 tablespoonfuls flour 2 cupfuls stock 1 can or 1/2 lb. fresh tomatoes 1 tablespoonful tomato catsup 1 bunch sweet herbs Salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste 1 blade mace 1 bay leaf
_For meat cakes._ Grind steak and onions together, add Crisco, cheese, parsley, crumbs, seasonings, and eggs lightly beaten. Mix together; form into small cakes, toss in flour and fry in hot Crisco. Serve hot with tomato sauce.
_For sauce._ Slice vegetables, fry in Crisco ten minutes; then add flour, stock, mace, bay leaf, tomatoes, catsup, and herbs. Stir till they boil, then simmer gently forty-five minutes. Rub through sieve, add seasonings and use.
Sufficient for twelve meat cakes.
Roast Turkey
For Stuffing
1 quart fine breadcrumbs 4 tablespoonfuls Crisco 11/2 teaspoonfuls salt 2 tablespoonfuls chopped onion 1 lemon 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley 1/4 teaspoonful powdered thyme 1/4 teaspoonful white pepper 1 egg 1 cupful country sausage A little warm water 1 turkey Salt pork
Mix sausage with breadcrumbs, add egg well beaten, Crisco, seasonings, grated rind and strained juice of lemon, and moisten with a little hot water. Be careful not to make stuffing too moist. See that turkey is well plucked, singed and wiped; fold over pinions, and pa.s.s skewer through them, thick part of legs and body, catching leg and pining it on other side; now secure bottom part of leg, which should have feet cut off half way to first joint, fill breast of bird with stuffing and skewer down skin. Place 2 strips salt pork in bottom of roasting pan, lay in turkey and place several strips salt pork over breast and sprinkle lightly with flour. Roast in hot oven, allowing fifteen minutes to the pound. Baste occasionally with melted Crisco. Serve hot decorated with cooked onions, celery tips, cranberries, and parsley.
Roast with Spaghetti
2 tablespoonfuls flour 3 lbs. sirloin steak 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 large onion 1/4 lb. bacon Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cupful water 1/2 can tomatoes 1 cupful cooked peas 1 cupful cooked spaghetti 1 cupful cooked mushrooms 8 stuffed olives
Melt Crisco and make very hot in roasting pan, lay in steak, season with salt and pepper, cover with layer of sliced onion, layer of bacon, add water, cover, and cook in moderate oven about three hours.
Have ready peas, mushrooms, and spaghetti. Place meat on hot platter.
Add juice of tomatoes to gravy, and flour moistened with a little cold water, peas and mushrooms, and when hot pour round meat. Spread spaghetti on top and decorate with olives.
Sirloin Steak with Fried Apples
1 sirloin steak weighing 2 lbs.
3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco 1 teaspoonful salt 1/2 teaspoonful white pepper 4 tart apples Milk Flour
Mix salt and pepper with melted Crisco, then rub mixture into steak and let steak lie in it twenty minutes. Broil it over a clear fire till done and serve surrounded with fried apples. Peel and core and slice apples, then dip in milk, toss in flour, and drop into hot Crisco to brown.
VEGETABLES