FEBRUARY. (continued 2)

Celery.

Wash, scrape, trim off the green tops, and throw aside for seasoning soups, vinegar, etc., the rank green stalks. Lay the better parts in cold water until wanted for the table. Put into a tall glass or celery-stand.

Essex Pudding.

2 cups of fine bread-crumbs.

2 tablespoonfuls of sago, soaked three hours in a little water.

¾ of a cup of powdered suet.

5 eggs, beaten light.

1 cup of milk.

1 cup of sugar.

1 tablespoonful flour, wet in cold milk.

½ lb. of whole raisins, “plumped” by laying them in boiling water for two minutes.

A little salt.

Cook the sago in enough water to cover it until tender and nearly dry. Heat the milk and pour upon the beaten eggs and sugar, add the crumbs, beating into a good batter in a bowl; then suet, flour, sago, and salt. Butter a mould thickly and lay the raisins, dredged with flour, in the bottom and sides, in whatever designs you fancy. Fill the mould with the batter—well beaten up at the last—putting it in by cautious spoonfuls not to dislodge the raisins, which should be imbedded in the butter. Put on the lid of the pudding mould, and boil one hour, never relaxing the heat. Dip in cold water and turn out upon a flat dish. Eat with jelly sauce.

Jelly Sauce.

½ cup of currant jelly.

2 tablespoonfuls of melted butter.

1 lemon—juice and half the grated peel.

½ teaspoonful of nutmeg.

1 tablespoonful of powdered sugar.

1 glass of wine.

1 cup of boiling water.

1 teaspoonful flour.

Beat the hot water gradually into the jelly, and add the butter, lemon, and nutmeg. Warm almost to a boil, put in the sugar, then the flour wet up with cold water. Boil up once sharply; add the wine, and take from the fire. Set, closely covered, in a vessel of hot water until wanted. Stir well before pouring it out.

Fourth Week. Wednesday.

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Julienne Soup.

Veal and Ham Pie. Halibut Steaks, Broiled.

Scalloped Potatoes. Stewed Cauliflower.

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Pancakes with Preserves.

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Julienne Soup.

2 lbs. of mutton, and a like quantity of veal, with some beef-bones.

2 carrots.

2 turnips.

Half a cabbage.

3 onions.

3 stalks of blanched celery.

½ can of tomatoes.

5 quarts of cold water.

2 tablespoonfuls of butter.

2 teaspoonfuls of sugar.

Bunch of sweet herbs.

Pepper and salt.

Cut the meat small, crack the bones, and put on to cook in five quarts of water with the herbs. While it simmers, prepare the vegetables, with the exception of the cabbage and tomatoes, by cleaning, paring, and cutting them into narrow strips about two inches long, and as nearly as possible of uniform size. Lay them in cold water for one hour. Drain very dry, and put them into a frying-pan in which you have melted, but not cooked, the butter, and dissolved the sugar. Toss them over a hot fire until they are coated with the butter, but do not let them scorch. Set aside in a clean vessel set within one of hot water. When the meat has boiled to rags, and the liquid is reduced one-third, strain it and set by until the fat rises and can be taken off. Return the soup to the fire, season, boil up and skim; add the glazed vegetables, with the chopped cabbage—which should have been parboiled, then drained—and the tomatoes, cut up small. Stew gently for one hour. Serve with the vegetables in it.

This will make enough soup for two days, unless your family be large.

Halibut Steaks—Broiled.

Wash and wipe the steaks dry. Broil upon a buttered gridiron, turning when the lower side is done. Remove carefully to a chafing-dish, and anoint with a mixture of butter, salt, pepper, and a little lemon-juice.

Always serve fish upon hot plates. Pass potatoes, and no other vegetable, with it.

Scalloped Potatoes.

3 cups of mashed potatoes.

3 tablespoonfuls of milk.

2 tablespoonfuls of butter.

Yolks of four hard-boiled eggs. (Cut the whites in rings to garnish your fish.)

Handful of dry bread-crumbs.

Salt and pepper.

Beat butter, milk, and seasoning into the potatoes while hot. Put a layer in the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish; cover this with thin slices of yolk; pepper and salt them; spread another layer of potato over these, and proceed in this order until the dish is full, having the top layer of potato. Strew thickly with bread-crumbs. Bake covered until hot through, then brown quickly. Serve in the bake-dish.

Veal and Ham Pie.

Cut the meat from the cold roast of yesterday. Put the bones, well-cracked, the refuse bits of meat and skin into a saucepan with an onion, a few spoonfuls of tomatoes, and three cups of cold water, and cook slowly until there remains but one cup of gravy. Strain and season, thickening with a tablespoonful of browned flour. Cut the veal into small, even slices. If you have no cold boiled ham, cook half a pound on purpose by boiling in your gravy stock. Slice this also, and lay upon the veal, with now and then a slice of hard-boiled egg. Fill the dish with alternate layers of veal and ham; pour in the gravy, and cover with a thick crust of good pastry, such as you made last Thursday for your pork-pie. Bake one hour.

Stewed Cauliflower.

When your soup is about half done, and before you strain it, take out a cupful, strain through a thin cloth, and put into a saucepan, with a little salt and a tablespoonful of butter. Cut a cauliflower into small bunches, when you have washed and trimmed it, and lay these in the cooled broth. Stew slowly, covered, twenty-five minutes, turning the bunches now and then. When they are tender, take them out, lay in a covered dish to keep warm, stir into the broth a tablespoonful of butter, cut into bits and rolled in flour, with nearly half a cup of milk. Pepper, boil up once, and pour over the cauliflower.

Pancakes with Preserves.

1 pint of prepared flour.

About a quart of milk.

6 eggs.

A little salt.

Beat the yolks light, add the salt and two cups of milk, then the flour and beaten whites alternately, and thin with more milk until the batter is of the right consistency. It should be quite thin. Have ready in a small frying-pan a tablespoonful of butter or sweet lard, hissing hot, but not discolored by too long heating. Pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan, and fry quickly, pouring off the fat so soon as the cakes set. Turn it with a lift of your spatula and a skilful toss of the pan at the same time. As fast as the pancakes are done—the same lard will do for several—let an assistant spread each upon a hot plate and cover with sweet jam or jelly, rolling up neatly so soon as this is done. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and set in a warm oven until you are ready for dessert.

Fourth Week. Thursday.

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Chicken Broth.

Chickens and Rice. Potato Croquettes.

Boiled Sweet Potatoes. Cold Slaw—Cream Dressing.

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Poor Man’s Plum Pudding.

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Chicken Broth.

Draw, stuff, and truss a pair of chickens, as for roasting; tie soft pack-thread around their legs and wings, binding them close to their bodies, and put on to boil in four quarts of cold water, a little salted. They will require at least one hour’s boiling, if they are of fair size. Do not cook fast, especially at first. Try with a fork if they are tender, and if it pierces the breast easily, take them up, butter well, and set in a warm place, covered. Take out a cupful of liquor when they are three-quarters done, in which to cook your rice. Strain the broth after taking out the fowls, season with pepper and chopped parsley and put again over the fire. Take off the scum, as it rises, and boil hard fifteen minutes. Then add a half cupful of rice, previously stewed soft in a very little water. Simmer a quarter of an hour; pour in a cup of milk in which has been stirred a tablespoonful of rice-flour; bring to a slow boil, and pour a few spoonfuls upon two beaten eggs. Return these to the soup, stir them in and take from the fire. Have ready the giblets and one hard-boiled egg chopped fine in the bottom of the tureen, and turn in the broth upon them.

Chickens and Rice.

Parboil a cup of rice in a little water. When it has taken it up, and is about half done, add the cupful of broth taken from the soup, seasoned well. Cook the rice slowly in it until done. (Always cook rice in a farina-kettle, and shake, instead of stirring.) It should absorb all the gravy. At the last, stir in a beaten egg, mixed with a tablespoonful of melted butter. It is best to do this with a fork, and not a spoon. Make a low, flattened mound of the rice upon a hot dish; remove the pack-threads from the chickens and lay them on the top. Pass grated cheese with it.

Potato Croquettes.

To each cupful of mashed potato, add half a raw egg, beaten light, a little salt and pepper, and half a teaspoonful of butter. Beat well. Make into oblong balls, or rolls, flour well and fry, a few at a time, in boiling lard, or dripping. Drain off the fat and serve hot.

Boiled Sweet Potatoes.

Select those of uniform size, wash, wipe, and boil until a fork will penetrate them easily. Skin, set in the oven a moment to dry, and send to table.

Cold Slaw—Cream Dressing.

1 small head of white cabbage, shred fine.

1 cup of milk, scalding hot.

¾ of a cup of vinegar.

1 tablespoonful of butter.

1 egg, beaten light.

1 tablespoonful of sugar.

1 even tablespoonful of corn-starch.

1 teaspoonful essence of celery.

Pepper and salt to taste.

Rub butter and sugar together and pour over them the hot milk. Beat into these the frothed egg. Put into a vessel set within another of hot water, add the corn-starch wet up with cold water, boil slowly until it thickens, and set aside. In another saucepan scald the vinegar; put in the pepper and salt with essence of celery, and pour hot over the cabbage. Mix up well; put back into the saucepan, and stir briskly over the fire until it is smoking all through, but not until it boils. Turn it into a bowl, stir into it the custard with a silver fork, until well mixed; cover, to keep in the strength of the vinegar, and set it where it will cool suddenly. It is very fine.

Poor Man’s Plum Pudding.

3 eggs.

1 quart of milk.

Small loaf of stale bread.

1 tablespoonful of sugar.

½ lb. seeded raisins, cut in two.

Cinnamon to taste.

A pinch of salt.

Butter.

Slice the bread and cut off all the crust. Butter thinly and lay in order in a well-greased pudding-dish, strewing each layer with raisins. Heat the milk, put in sugar and salt, and pour over the beaten eggs. Lay a heavy saucer upon the top of the bread and soak with the custard. Let all stand half an hour, then set in a dripping-pan of boiling water, cover closely, and cook one hour, keeping the pan full of water at a hard boil. Turn out and eat with liquid sauce.

Fourth Week. Friday.

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Wednesday’s Soup.

Boiled Cod.

Chicken Patés. Cheese Fingers.

Mashed Potatoes. Mashed Turnips.

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Sweet Potato Pudding.

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Wednesday’s Soup.

The Julienne soup which, as I stated in the receipt for making it, was sufficient for two days, will have kept perfectly well in the refrigerator, or in any cold closet. You have now only to warm it over—not quite to the boil, and it will be even better than upon the first day. It is wise, sometimes, to skip a day with a réchauffé, for fear of wearying those for whose comfort your bills-of-fare are made up.

Boiled Cod.

Sew up the piece of fish in a thin cloth, fitted neatly to the shape, and boil in salted water (boiling from the first), allowing about fifteen minutes per pound. Unwrap carefully and pour over it a sauce made thus:

Heat half a cup of milk and as much water together; stir in a tablespoonful of butter, cut into bits and rolled in flour, and when it has thickened, pour by degrees upon two beaten eggs. Put back into the saucepan and stir for one minute; add salt, chopped parsley, and a dozen capers or nasturtium seeds. Take at once from the fire.

Chicken Patés.

Line your paté-pans with a good paste, made according to either of the receipts already given this month, and bake in a brisk oven.

Mince the chicken left from yesterday. Put the bones and stuffing into a saucepan with two cups of cold water, and stew down to one cup of gravy. Season this well, add three tablespoonfuls of milk when you have strained out the bones, a tablespoonful of butter, and a very little parsley. The stuffing should thicken it sufficiently. Stir in the chicken, warm until hot, but do not let it boil, or it will be spoiled. Fill the paste-shells, having taken them from the tins; arrange upon a hot dish and set within an open oven until they are sent to table.

Cheese Fingers.

Cut good pastry, left from your patés, into strips three inches long and two inches wide. Strew with grated cheese, season with pepper and salt; double the paste upon this lengthwise, and bake in a quick oven. Brush over with beaten egg just before taking them up, and sift a little powdered cheese upon them.

Pile, log-cabin-wise, upon a folded napkin laid within a flat dish, and eat without delay, as they are not good cold.

Mashed Potatoes and Mashed Turnips.

The receipts for these standard dishes having been already given this month, it is scarcely necessary to repeat them here. Bear in mind, always, that they must be served hot, and the turnips be well drained.

Sweet Potato Pudding.

1 lb. parboiled sweet potatoes.

½ cup of butter.

¾ cup of white sugar.

1 tablespoonful of cinnamon.

4 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.

1 teaspoonful of nutmeg.

1 lemon, juice and grated rind.

1 glass of brandy.

Let the potatoes get entirely cold, and grate them. Cream the butter and sugar; add the yolks, spice and lemon. Beat the potato in by degrees, to a light paste; then the brandy, lastly the whites. Bake in a buttered dish, and eat cold.

Fourth Week. Saturday.

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Bean and Celery Soup.

Jugged Pigeons. Shred Macaroni.

Currant Jelly. Brussels-Sprouts.

——

Sponge-Cake Fritters.

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Bean and Celery Soup.

1 quart of dried beans, soaked all night.

1 bunch of celery—the blanched stalks only.

1 lb. of salt pork, cut into strips.

1 lb. of beef—lean, also cut up.

2 tablespoonfuls of butter.

Pepper.

5 quarts of water—cold.

1 onion, minced.

Cover beans, meat, onions, and half the celery cut into bits, with the water, and boil to pieces, and until the liquid is reduced one-third. Rub the beans and celery through a fine colander into the soup. Return to the fire, season with pepper, put in the rest of the celery, cut into inch-lengths, and simmer half an hour, stirring often, that it may not “catch” on the bottom. Set aside a quart of it, if you can spare as much, for Monday’s soup.

Jugged Pigeons.

Clean and wash well, and stuff with a dressing made of the giblets boiled and chopped, a slice of fat pork also minced fine; the yolks of two hard eggs rubbed to powder, some bread-crumbs, pepper and salt, bound with a beaten raw egg. Tie the legs and wings close to their bodies, and pack the pigeons in a tin pail with a tight top. Plunge this into a pot of boiling water; put a weight on top to keep it steady, and cook two hours and a half. The water should not boil over the top. Drain off the gravy into a saucepan, thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour. Season, boil up, pour over the pigeons. Cover again, and leave in the hot water ten minutes before serving.

Shred Macaroni.

Break half a pound of pipe macaroni into pieces two inches long, and cook in boiling water, a little salted, ten minutes. Drain off the water, and spread the macaroni out to cool upon a dish. When cold, take a sharp knife or a pair of scissors, and split each piece in half, lengthwise. Put on in a farina-kettle with a cup of hot milk and a tablespoonful of butter, seasoning with pepper and salt. Cover and stew tender, but not to breaking. Ten minutes after the boil should do this. Then stir in three tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Serve in a deep dish.

Brussels-Sprouts.

Wash and pick over very carefully. Put on in plenty of boiling water with a little salt, and cook fifteen minutes after the water begins to boil anew. Drain well and pile upon a dish, with drawn butter poured over them.

Sponge-Cake Fritters.

8 penny sponge-cakes—very stale.

1 cup of boiling milk, with a pinch of soda stirred in.

4 eggs whipped light.

1 tablespoonful of flour wet up in cold milk.

¼ lb. currants, washed and dried.

Roll the cakes into fine crumbs; pour over them the hot milk, with the soda and flour stirred into it. Cover for fifteen minutes, then beat until cold. Add the whipped eggs—the yolks first, then the whites; finally, the currants dredged with flour. Beat all well. Drop in great spoonfuls in boiling lard, trying one first to be sure that the batter is of the right consistency; drain quickly in a hot colander; sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with nutmeg, and serve hot.