Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher
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and tomato catsup. Add two tea-cups of rice, and let it simmer till the rice absorbs as much as it will take up without losing its form—say about fifteen minutes. Cut up a chicken, and season it with salt and pepper, and fry it in sweet butter or cream. Then put the chicken in the centre of the rice, and cover it entirely with rice. Then pour on half a pound of melted butter, and let it stand where it is hot, and yet will not fry, for fifteen minutes. To be served hot.
A Rice or Hominy Stew.—Take four pounds of any kind of fresh meat, cut into pieces two inches square, and put in the stew-pan with one pint of hominy. Then put into two quarts of warm water five heaping tea-spoonfuls of salt, four of sugar, half a one of pepper, and three of vinegar. Let them simmer four or five hours, till the meat is very tender. A tea-cup of rice may be used instead of hominy. A little salt pork improves this, as well as all other stews.
A Favorite English Beef Stew.—Simmer a shank or hock of beef in four quarts of water, with four heaping table-spoonfuls of salt, until the beef is soft and the water reduced to about two quarts. Then add peeled and soaked potatoes cut into thick slices, two tea-spoonfuls of pepper, two of sweet marjoram, and two of either thyme or summer savory. Stew till the potatoes are soft, add bread-crumbs and more salt if needful. One or two onions cut fine, and put in at first, improve it for most persons.
French Stew, or Pot au Feu.—Put three pounds of fresh meat into three quarts of cold water, with two tea-spoonfuls of salt. When it begins to simmer, add a gill of cold water, and skim thoroughly. Then add a quarter of a pound of liver, a medium-sized carrot sliced, two small turnips, two middle-sized leeks, half a head of celery, one sprig of parsley, a bay leaf, one onion with two cloves stuck in it, and two cloves of garlic. Simmer five hours. Strain the broth into a soup-dish, and serve the meat and vegetables on a platter. If more water is needed, add that which is boiling.
When the dish is served all together, it is called Pot au Feu, and the vessel in which it is cooked has the same name. It is the common dish of the French peasantry.
The following is the receipe for the favorite Spanish dish. A superior housekeeper tried it, and it was so much liked that several of her family were harmed by eating too much:
Spanish Olla Podrida.—Fry four ounces of salt pork in the pot, and, when partly done, add two pounds of fresh beef and a quarter of a pound of ham. Add two tea-spoonfuls of salt in cold water, and only enough just to cover the meat. Skim carefully the first half-hour, and then add a gill of peas, (if dried, soak them an hour first,) half a head of cabbage, one carrot, one turnip, two leeks, three stalks of celery, three stalks of parsley, two stalks of thyme, two cloves, two onions sliced, two cloves of garlic, ten pepper-corns, and a pinch of powdered mace or nutmeg. Simmer steadily for five hours. When the water is too low, add that which is boiling. Put the meat on a platter, and the vegetables around it. Strain the liquor on to toasted bread in a soup-dish.
All these articles can be obtained at grocers’ or markets in our large cities, and of course can be procured in the country.
French Mutton Stew.—Take a leg of mutton and remove the large bone, leaving the bone at the small end as a handle; cut off also the bone below the knuckle, and fix it with skewers.
Put it in a stew-pan with a pinch of allspice, four onions, two cloves, two carrots, each cut in four pieces, a small bunch of parsley, two bay leaves, three sprigs of thyme, and salt and pepper to the taste. Add two ounces of bacon cut in slices, a quarter of a pint of broth, and cold water enough to cover it. After one hour of simmering, add a wine-glass of French brandy.
Let them simmer five hours longer, and then dish it; strain the sauce on it, and serve.
The American housekeeper by experiments can modify these foreign recipes to meet the taste of her family, and will find them economical modes of cooking, as well as healthful to most persons.
FRENCH MODES OF COOKING SOUPS AND STEWS.
The writer has examined the recipes of Gouffee, the chief French cook of the Queen of England, set forth in the expensive Royal Cook-Book; also those of Soyer and Professor Blot. She and her friends also have tested many of their recipes.
The following are most of the flavors used by them in cooking soups, stews, hashes, etc. Combination of these is recommended by those authors in these proportions:
One fourth of an ounce of thyme.
One fourth of an ounce of bay leaf.
One eighth of an ounce of marjoram.
One eighth of an ounce of rosemary.
Dry the above when fresh, mix in a mortar, and keep them corked tight in glass bottle.
Also the following in these proportions:
Half an ounce of nutmeg.
Half an ounce of cloves.
One fourth of an ounce of black pepper.
One eighth of an ounce of Cayenne pepper.
Pound, mix, and keep corked tight in glass. In using these with salt, put one ounce of the last recipe to four ounces of salt. In making force-meat and hashes, use at the rate of one ounce of this spiced salt to three pounds of meat.
Soup Powder.—Two ounces of parsley.
Two ounces of winter savory.
Two ounces of sweet marjoram.
Two ounces of lemon-thyme.
One ounce of lemon-peel.
One ounce of sweet basil.
Dry, pound, sift, and keep in a tight-corked bottle.
Let the housekeeper add these flavors so that they will not be strong, but quite delicate, and then make a rule for the cook.
The peculiar excellence of French cooking is the combination of flavors, so that no one is predominant, and all are delicate in force and quantity.
CHAPTER IV.
SOUPS.
General Directions.
Most of the preceding stews will serve also fairly as soups, by adding more water. Rub salt into meat for soups, but not for stews, as the salt extracts the juices; and in stews the meat is to be eaten, while in soups properly so called it is only the liquor that is served. Put meat into cold water for soups, as slowly heating also extracts the juices. For this same reason, meat that is boiled for eating should be put into boiling water to keep the juices in it.
Always skim often, as soon as the water begins to simmer; and do not add the salt and other seasoning till the scum ceases to rise.
Do not boil after the juices are extracted, as too much boiling injures the flavor.
Never cool soup in metal, as there may be poison in the soldering or other parts.
If you flavor your soup by vegetables, do not boil them in the soup, but in very little water, which is to be added to the soup with them, as it contains much of their flavor.
When onion is used for flavor, slice and fry it, and dredge on a little flour; add the water in which the vegetables for soup were boiled, or some meat broth, and then pour it into the soup. If you flavor with wine, soy, or catsup, put them into the tureen, and pour the soup upon them, as the flavor is lessened by putting them into the soup-kettle. Bread-crumbs, toast, or crackers also must be put in the tureen. Keep soup covered tight while boiling, to keep in flavors. If water is added, it must be boiling. The rule to guide in using salt and pepper is a heaping tea-spoonful of salt to a quart of water, and one-sixth as much pepper. But as tastes are different, and the salt and pepper vary in