Chapter V · Milk Cookery
Reading edition
Milk should also be used a great deal more than it is by grown persons, not only as a drink but in the daily cookery. In some homes milk in some form is a part of every menu and the meals are more delicious, attractive and nourishing than the ordinary milkless diet, and are also less expensive, as the milk takes the place of part of the meat. Dr. Graham Tusk of Cornell University, who represented the United States on the Interallied Council of Alimentation, says:
“No family of five should spend any money for meat until three quarts of milk have been purchased, and this should be done even though the price of milk should go to twenty cents a quart. Absolutely nothing in the food line will keep children so healthy as their daily supply of milk.”
In cooking with milk it is well to remember:
1. That, although milk is a liquid, it contains a large amount of solid food and of exceedingly nourishing, palatable and easily digestible food, much more than many vegetables or fruits. While milk has 13% of solid matter, water-melon has only 2%, turnips 4%, beets 12%, etc. When substituting milk for water, you add nourishment to the food and it is well to keep in mind the ingredients,—the amount of protein, fat, etc., added in the form of milk, which may take the place of other similar ingredients in the combination.
1552. That if milk is even but slightly sour, or if some other acid is added to it,—in the form of fruit, for instance,—it is apt to curdle by scalding or boiling.
The limits of a single chapter do not allow many recipes to be given, but a few are furnished under each of the several kinds of milk dishes, and a clever domestic science pupil or the ordinary good housekeeper and cook can easily add to these recipes indefinitely, by following out the simple suggestions offered.
All measurements are level.
SOUPS
Cream Soups.—So-called cream soups may be made with or without the addition of meat stock. For example:
Asparagus Soup
3 cups veal or chicken broth
1 can asparagus
¼ cup butter
¼ cup flour
1 qt. scalded milk
Salt and pepper
Reserve tips of asparagus. Add stalks to cold stock, boil fifteen minutes, rub through sieve, thicken with butter and flour cooked together, add milk, tips, salt and pepper. If fresh asparagus is used, cut one bunch in small pieces, boil in as little water as will cover, remove tough bits of stalk, add two cups stock and proceed as above.
Cream of Celery Soup
3 cups veal or chicken broth
3 cups celery cut in inch pieces
4 cups milk
Yolks 2 eggs
½ cup cream
Salt and pepper
Boil celery in broth till tender. Rub through sieve, add milk, bring to the boiling point and add egg yolks beaten and diluted with cream.
156Spinach Soup
4 cups broth
2 qts. spinach
3 cups boiling water
2 cups milk
¼ cup butter
½ cup flour
Salt and pepper
Wash the spinach and cook thirty minutes in boiling water to which ⅛ teaspoon soda has been added. Drain and chop fine. Add stock and butter and flour cooked together, milk and seasoning.
Cauliflower, mushrooms, lettuce, string beans, onions and other vegetables may be used for soups in the same way. In all of these recipes milk may be substituted for the stock. The soups will be more nourishing, many like them better, and they are more easily prepared.
If canned vegetables are used they may be added to the thickened milk, which should be made in the proportions of one quart of milk to two tablespoons butter or substitute and two tablespoons flour. One can of beans, peas, asparagus, or corn, may be added to three pints of thickened milk.
If fresh vegetables are used, they should be boiled in as little water as possible and this water added with the vegetables to the hot, thickened milk. The addition of one-half to one cup of cream to these soups improves their taste but is not necessary. If the cream is whipped and added just before serving, the appearance is also much improved. The vegetables may be pressed through a sieve or not, as preferred. If the soup is to be served in cups it is better to do this or chop the vegetables very fine, but if the soup is to be served in soup plates it looks attractive and is more substantial if the vegetables are cut in inch pieces and left in the soup.
All cooks are familiar with cornlet soup, tomato 157bisque, and oyster and clam stews, the foundation of which is also milk. Plenty of good recipes for them can be found in any standard cook book.
Cereal Cream Soups.—There is another class of soups used much in Europe but, unfortunately, little known here. They are very nourishing, easy of preparation, and delicious.
A few recipes will suffice to introduce the housewife to this class of soups and she can then easily add to the varieties herself. Her family will enjoy the new dishes for their good taste and their novelty. Croutons, crackers, zwieback, or toast may be served with any of them. They should always be prepared in a double boiler.
Rice Soup
1 qt. milk
⅓ cup rice
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Heat the milk in a double boiler, add the rice and cook two hours. Add sugar and butter. Sprinkle cinnamon on each plate of soup when serving.
Sago Soup
1 qt. milk
4 tablespoons sago
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons sugar
Heat the milk in a double boiler, add sago and cook one-half hour. Care must be taken to stir the mixture often when the sago is first added or it will lump. Add butter and egg yolk beaten with sugar.
Oatmeal Soup
1 cup oat flakes
1 pint boiling water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 pint milk
1 tablespoon butter
Add oat flakes to water and boil one-half hour. Add milk and boil one-half hour, add sugar and butter.
158Farina or Cream of Wheat Soup
3 pints milk
½ cup farina or cream of wheat
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Scald milk and add cereal slowly. Cook one hour and add butter and sugar and a sprinkling of nutmeg.
Milk Chowders
Chowders are also a very acceptable way of serving milk. For rich chowders the proportions used are: Two cups of milk or of milk and water, 1 cup of potatoes cut into small pieces and 1 pound of fish. For flavoring add an onion fried in two tablespoons of fat tried out from salt pork. While these proportions make a rich dish, it is possible to reduce the amount of fish greatly, to leave it out entirely, to use small portions of left-over fish or some salt codfish which has been freshened, or to substitute corn for it. Such dishes are palatable and of reasonably high nutritive value, providing the greater part of the liquid used is milk.
Similar, but less rich and thick, is:
Milk Stew
1 qt. of milk
1 cupful raw potatoes cut into small pieces
2 tablespoonfuls of butter or bacon fat
1 cupful of codfish cut into small pieces or just enough to flavor the stew
Soak the fish in lukewarm water until it is soft and the salt removed. Cook the potatoes in water until tender, drain them, add the milk and codfish, and bring to the boiling point; add the butter and salt to taste.
In place of the codfish, fresh fish, clams, oysters, or a little chipped beef may be used. Or the fish may be omitted and the soup made savory and palatable by adding a few drops of onion juice, or cheese or a vegetable cut into small pieces and cooked thoroughly.
159
MILK CEREALS
Most cereals are better cooked in milk than in water and those not familiar with this method have no idea of the many good dishes which they can thus easily provide for their families. Cereals so prepared make an especially good wholesome breakfast or supper for school children and the writer has never seen an adult, who, on a cold night, did not enjoy a dish of rice, or corn meal, boiled in milk and served with cream and sugar for supper. Milk cereals must always be cooked in a double boiler and the milk must be hot when the cereal is added.
Rice 1 cup to 3 cups milk, boil 2 hours
Cornmeal 1 cup to 4 cups milk, boil 1 to 2 hours
Fine Hominy 1 cup to 4 cups milk, boil 1 hour
Cream of Wheat 1 cup to 4 cups milk, boil 1 hour
Farina 1 cup to 4 cups milk, boil 1 hour
Cream of Wheat or Farina Pudding is also delicious. It is prepared in the same way, but ¾ cup of cereal only is added to 1 quart hot milk. Just before serving, a teaspoonful of vanilla is added, and two beaten eggs are folded in. It is eaten with cream, or milk, and sugar, or with maple syrup.
LUNCHEON AND SUPPER DISHES
Dishes prepared principally of milk, with the addition of either eggs, cheese, meat, or vegetables are particularly adapted for luncheon or supper use. Here again a few standard recipes are given which can be varied to make any desired number of good, wholesome and delicious dishes.
160Creamed Dishes.—The same sauce may be used to cream cold chicken, lamb, veal, chipped beef, and cold boiled or baked fish, canned salmon, lobster or shrimps, according to the following recipe:
Creamed Chicken
2 cups cold cooked chicken cut into dice
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1½ cups milk
Salt and pepper
Melt butter and add the flour and milk. Bring to the boiling point and add diced chicken. Season with salt and pepper.
Many grate a small onion into the sauce before adding the chicken. The writer does not favor indiscriminate use of onion as it tends to make all dishes taste alike. It seems better to use sometimes a little celery or celery salt, sometimes an onion, and again frequently no flavor but the chicken or meat or fish. One’s cooking is thus more distinctive and varied.
If the creamed mixture is turned into a baking dish, covered with buttered bread or cracker crumbs and browned in the oven, the result is even more pleasing.
Such a sauce flavored with cheese makes a good and very nutritious gravy to pour over cauliflower and cabbage or to serve with boiled rice or hominy or poured over toast.
CREAMED VEGETABLES
In creaming vegetables the proportion is usually 1 cup of sauce to 2 cups of vegetables. Potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, boiled onions, beans, and carrots, beets or peas are all delicious served in this way.
161Eggs and Asparagus
Cream asparagus. Arrange in a baking dish, alternate layers of the asparagus and slices of hard boiled eggs. Cover with buttered crumbs and bake till crumbs are a delicate brown.
Souffles.—Souffles are always delightful, and while many consider them difficult to make they are really very simple and if made correctly are always to be depended upon. They should, however, be eaten at once when baked.
Salmon, chicken, lamb, veal, ham and cheese, and also many vegetables such as asparagus, cauliflower and peas may be prepared in this way. Elaborate recipes are often given, but the following is entirely sufficient and always satisfactory:
2 cups chopped meat or vegetables cut fine
2 cups thick white sauce
Yolks of 2 eggs
Whites of 2 eggs
To the meat or vegetables add white sauce (2 tablespoons butter and 3 tablespoons flour to 1 cup milk) and beaten yolks. Cool and add whites beaten stiff. Bake 30 minutes in moderate oven. This makes a dish large enough to serve four or five persons.
A similar dish, Cheese Fondu, is also good, and can stand longer than a souffle before serving.
Cheese Fondu
2 cups milk
2 cups minced cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs beaten
Bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes.
Variations of this dish are made by substituting one cup minced ham for one cup of the cheese, or by 162using two cups of ham and omitting the cheese altogether.
MILK TOAST
A very good way to serve milk toast is to toast bread thoroughly and to pour hot milk over it at the time of serving. In serving milk toast in this way all the dishes should be kept very hot. A heavy earthenware pitcher may be used for serving the hot milk, as it retains heat for a long time.
EGGS POACHED IN MILK
Eggs are much better poached in milk than in water. If served on toast the hot milk may be poured on the egg if a soft toast is desired. If not, dip the eggs out of the milk with a perforated spoon and lay on the toast in the usual way, adding salt and butter.
CHEESE DISHES AS MEAT SUBSTITUTES
Meat is wholesome and relished by most persons, yet it is not essential to a well-balanced meal, and there are many housekeepers who, for one reason or another, are interested in lessening the amount of meat which they provide or to substitute some other foods for it.
Cheese naturally suggests itself as a substitute for meat, since it is rich in the same kinds of nutrients which meat supplies, is a staple food with which everyone is familiar, and is one which can be used in a great variety of ways. In substituting cheese for meat, pains should be taken to serve dishes which are relished by members of the family. A number of recipes for dishes which are made with cheese follow:
163Cheese Soup
1 qt. milk
1 onion grated
1 blade mace
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
½ c. grated cheese
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
Scald milk, onion, mace and pepper pod. Melt butter in saucepan, blend flour with melted butter. Strain milk and seasonings and add gradually to flour mixture, stirring all the time. Return to double boiler to cook. When creamy, add the cheese, salt and pepper, stirring until cheese is melted. Then pour over well-beaten egg yolks, stirring all the time. Whip until frothing and serve.
Delmonico Potatoes
Arrange creamed potatoes and grated cheese in alternate layers. Cover with buttered crumbs and bake till crumbs are brown.
Stuffed Potatoes with Cheese
Split hot baked potatoes lengthwise and remove contents without injuring skin of potato. Put potato through ricer or mash, add salt and pepper to taste and enough hot milk to make of proper consistency. Beat until light, refill the skin, piling up lightly. Sprinkle thickly with grated cheese and reheat in oven until cheese is melted and a delicate brown.
Macaroni with Cheese
1 cup macaroni
2 qts. boiling salted water
2 cups white sauce
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup buttered bread or cracker crumbs
Break macaroni into one-inch pieces. Cook in boiling water until tender. (If macaroni is put in a wire basket in kettle, it will not stick to the kettle.) Drain and run cold water through it.
Make sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
Add cheese and macaroni. Cover with crumbs and bake until crumbs are brown.
164Rice Baked with Cheese
1 cup rice
2 qts. boiling salted water
½ lb. grated cheese
Milk
Buttered crumbs (bread or cracker)
Add rice to boiling water. When tender drain, cover bottom of buttered baking dish, sprinkle with grated cheese and a little paprika. Add alternate layers of rice and cheese until dish is full. Add milk nearly to fill dish. Cover with crumbs and bake until milk is absorbed and crumbs are brown.
Cheese Souffle with Bread Crumbs
1 cup scalded milk
1 cup soft, stale bread crumbs
¼ lb. mild cheese, cut in small pieces
1 tablespoon butter
¼ teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
Mix milk, bread crumbs, cheese, melted butter and salt. Add yolks of eggs beaten until lemon colored. Cut and fold in whites of eggs beaten until stiff. Pour into a buttered baking dish and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven.
Cheese Souffle
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
½ cup scalded milk
½ teaspoon salt
Few grains cayenne
¼ cup grated cheese
Yolks of 3 eggs
Whites of 3 eggs
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and mix well; add scalded milk gradually and seasonings; cook two minutes. Remove pan to back of stove and add cheese and well-beaten yolks of eggs. Set pan where mixture will cool. When cold, add the whites of eggs beaten until stiff and dry. Turn into a buttered baking dish and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Serve the moment it comes from the oven.
165English Monkey
1 cup bread crumbs
2 cups milk
1 cup grated cheese
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper or paprika
1 egg
1 tablespoon melted butter
Scald milk in double boiler and add bread crumbs to it. Then add grated cheese, melted butter and seasonings. Cook in double boiler until cheese is melted; add the slightly-beaten egg gradually. Cook five minutes and serve on dry toast.
Cheese Omelette No. 1
4 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
Few grains pepper
4 tablespoons hot water
1 tablespoons butter
1 cup grated cheese
Beat yolks of eggs thoroughly; add salt, pepper and hot water. Beat whites till stiff and dry; add cheese and fold into first mixture. Melt butter in pan, turn in mixture and cook slowly. When well raised and a delicate brown underneath, place pan in hot oven to cook top. Fold and turn on hot platter.
Cheese Omelette No. 2
Make as above, omitting cheese. Make two cups of hot, white sauce; add 1 cup grated cheese, melt and pour around the omelette.
Baked Eggs with Cheese
4 eggs
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup soft bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon salt
Few grains cayenne
2 cups white sauce
Break the eggs into a buttered baking dish and cook in hot oven until they begin to turn white around the edges. Then cover eggs with the white sauce and over this put the mixture of crumbs, cheese and seasonings. Brown in very hot oven, so eggs will not be overcooked by time cheese is brown. If preferred, or for variety, 166the cheese may be added to the white sauce and only the seasoned crumbs put on the top.
Boston Roast
1 can kidney beans or same amount of cooked beans
Salt
½ lb. grated cheese
Bread crumbs
Mash beans or put them through a meat grinder. Add the cheese and sufficient bread crumbs to make the mixture stiff enough to be formed into a roll. Place in buttered baking pan and bake in moderate oven. Baste frequently with one-half cup hot water, in which one tablespoon butter is melted. Serve the roast with tomato sauce. If desired, a few drops of onion juice or a little finely chopped onion may be added to flavor this dish.
Camouflaged Cabbage
Remove the heart from a small cabbage, cut or chop the remainder into half inch pieces, boil in salted water exactly twenty minutes and drain. For one pint of this cooked cabbage make a sauce of:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup milk
½ cup cheese
When thoroughly blended add the cabbage; cover with buttered crumbs and bake twenty minutes. The result is a good dish for supper or luncheon and it is well named.
CHEESE SALADS
Cheese and Pimento Salad
Stuff canned pimentos with cream cheese, cut into slices, place on lettuce leaves and serve with mayonnaise dressing.
Cheese and Celery Salad
Select celery stalks with deep grooves in them; wash and dry on clean towel. Mix a small cream cheese with a bit of salt, and ¼ cup finely chopped nuts (pecans are best). Fill grooves in celery stalk with the cheese mixture and chill. When ready to serve cut 167stalks into small pieces with sharp knife. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing.
For a pleasant addition to fruit salad, fill tender celery stalks with roquefort cheese, and lay one or two on each plate of salad.
Pepper and Cheese Salad
Remove top and seeds from a sweet green pepper. Scald it with boiling water, letting it stand in water about ten minutes. Mix soft cream cheese with chopped nuts, or with tiny cubes of cooked beets and fill pepper with this mixture; chill well, cut in thin slices with sharp knife and serve on bed of head lettuce with French dressing.
Apples can also be used (with cheese and nuts) by removing core without breaking the apple.
COTTAGE CHEESE (See also under the chapter on Cheese)
All that has been said of cheese as a valuable food and as a substitute for meat, applies equally to cottage cheese and it is so easily prepared, inexpensive and generally relished that it should be used much more freely than it is.
The following recipes are only a few of the many that might be given, but the careful cook should evolve other combinations equally attractive.
Cottage Cheese by Government Method
(From Food Administration Bulletin)
Unit, 1 gallon. For lesser amounts, measurements to be divided accordingly.
Take 1 gallon of sweet skim milk; add ¾ cup of clean, sour milk and stir as it is put in. Raise the temperature in hot water to 75 168degrees Fahrenheit, using a dairy thermometer. Remove from heat and place where it is to remain until set. Add ⅛ of a junket tablet thoroughly dissolved in a tablespoon of cold water; stir while adding. Cover with cloth and leave for 12 to 16 hours in even temperature, about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. At end of this period there should be a slight whey on the top and when poured out the curd should cleave sharply. Drain through cotton cloth, not cheese-cloth. When whey has been drained out, work in 1 or 2 teaspoons of salt to the cheese, according to taste; 1½ to 2 pounds of cheese should be obtained from a gallon of milk.
For table use it is advisable to work in 1 or 2 tablespoons of cream to the pound. For use in cooking, this is not necessary.
One may also make cottage cheese of freshly soured milk by simply heating it in a double boiler till whey forms, letting it stand an hour and then turning it into a cheese-cloth bag to drain. To the dry curd formed add sweet or sour cream and salt to taste. When made in this way care must be taken that the milk is freshly soured—if it is old it will have a bitter taste and the cheese will not be good.
Cottage Cheese Sandwiches
Thin slices of rye, brown or white bread, buttered, with fillings of cottage cheese in combination with jelly, marmalade, pimentoes, lettuce or mayonnaise are all good.
Cottage Cheese Club Sandwiches
Toast slices of bread, cut diamond shape and spread with butter and cottage cheese or cottage cheese alone and put together with any one of the following combinations:
Tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise dressing.
Thin slices of ham spread with mustard and lettuce.
Sliced, tart apple, chopped nuts and drops of French dressing.
Sliced orange and mayonnaise.
Sliced Spanish onion, a hot fried egg sprinkled with Worcestershire sauce.
Thin slices of tomato, bacon, chicken, lettuce and mayonnaise dressing.
169Cottage Cheese Salad Dressing
½ cup cottage cheese
1 tablespoon vinegar
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream (either sweet or sour) whipped stiff.
Mix in order given. A chopped hard boiled egg improves it.
A similar salad dressing, although containing no cottage cheese, may be given here also.
Sour Cream Salad Dressing
1 cup sour cream—whipped
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
(1 teaspoon sugar, if desired)
2 hard boiled egg yolks finely chopped
Mix in order given.
Either of these is particularly good with green vegetables.
For a fruit salad the eggs should be omitted and double the amount of sugar used.
Cottage Cheese Salad
Lettuce, sliced cucumber or green, sweet peppers, cottage cheese formed in small balls or slices, mayonnaise or French dressing.
Cottage Cheese Pie
1 cup cottage cheese
⅔ cup sugar
⅔ cup milk
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 tablespoon melted butter
Salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Mix the ingredients in the order given. Bake the pie in one crust. Cool it slightly and cover it with meringue made by adding 2 tablespoons of sugar and ½ teaspoon of vanilla to the beaten white of 2 eggs and brown it in a slow oven.
170Devonshire Dainty
Serve on individual plates ½ cup cottage cheese to which has been added 2 tablespoonfuls whipped cream (sweet or sour). Over this pour ½ cup currant jam.
Pass saltines or other dry, unsweetened crackers.
MILK BREADS AND BISCUITS
Parker House Rolls
2 cups scalded milk (skim)
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 yeast cake dissolved in ¼ cup lukewarm water
Dissolve yeast in water, melt butter, combine all ingredients except flour. Add 3 cups flour gradually, beating vigorously. Let rise till light; cut down and knead in 2½ cups flour. Cover and allow to rise until three times original bulk. Roll ½ inch thick. Cut, spread half with butter and fold over. Put in buttered tins to rise, placing 1 inch apart. Bake when light in a hot oven 15 to 20 minutes.
Popovers
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ teaspoon melted butter
1 cup milk
Beat eggs thoroughly. Add gradually, while beating, the milk and flour, to which salt has been added. Add butter and beat two minutes with Dover egg beater. Put a half teaspoon of butter in hissing hot iron gem pans. Fill half with batter and bake thirty minutes in a hot oven. Serve immediately.
Boston Nut Bread
½ cup molasses
1 teaspoon soda
2 cups sour milk
2 cups graham flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
1 cup chopped nuts
1½ cups white flour
Mix and sift all the dry ingredients. Add molasses to the milk and combine this gradually with the dry materials. Add the nuts. 171Half fill baking powder cans, with oiled cover, and let stand one-half hour. Bake three-quarters of an hour in moderate oven.
Sour Milk Biscuit
1 qt. flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons butter
Sour milk to moisten (about 1½ cups)
Sift dry ingredients together, cut in butter with knife, add milk to make a stiff dough. Roll out thin and bake in hot oven. Serve with honey or maple syrup.
Gingerbread
4 tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup molasses
2 teaspoons cocoa
½ cup sour milk
1¾ cups flour
¾ teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon allspice
Sift flour and spices, salt and soda together. Mix other ingredients in the order given and combine mixtures. Bake in moderate oven 30 minutes.
Sour Milk Waffles
1 egg
1 cup sour milk
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
Beat egg thoroughly, add sour milk, flour and salt. Dissolve soda in ½ tablespoon cold water. Add to mixture. Beat thoroughly. Cook on oiled, hot waffle iron and serve hot with maple syrup.
Sweet Milk Waffles
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups milk
Yolks 2 eggs
Whites 2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter
Mix and sift dry ingredients, add milk, beaten yolks, butter and egg whites beaten stiff.
172Buttermilk Griddle Cakes
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 egg beaten
Mix in order given.
Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes
1 egg beaten
2 cups milk
3 cups flour sifted with
3 teaspoons baking powder and
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter
Mix in order given.
Boston Brown Bread
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups graham flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sour milk
½ cup molasses
Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Mix the sour milk and molasses. Stir in dry ingredients, beating thoroughly. Turn into well buttered pound baking powder cans. Cover tightly and steam three hours. Take from can and slice, ½ cup raisins or nuts can be added to the dough mixture, if desired.
DESSERTS
For desserts the number of custards, creams and puddings made with milk is legion, and they are so well known and can be so easily varied that only a few stock recipes need be given.
Boiled Custard
2 cups scalded milk
Yolks 2 eggs
¼ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
Beat eggs slightly, add sugar and salt; stir constantly while adding gradually hot milk. Cook in double boiler, continue stirring until 173mixture thickens and a coating is formed on the spoon; strain immediately, chill and flavor. If cooked too long the custard will curdle. Should this happen, by using a Dover egg beater it may be restored to a smooth consistency, but custard will not be as thick. Eggs should be beaten slightly for custard that it may be of smooth, thick consistency. To prevent scum from forming, cover with a perforated tin or sprinkle with granulated sugar when cooling.
Blanc Mange or Cornstarch Pudding
1 qt. milk
½ cup cornstarch
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
½ cup sugar
Heat milk to boiling, add cornstarch dissolved in a little cold milk and a pinch of salt. Boil five minutes, add yolks of eggs beaten with sugar. Boil 2 minutes longer, remove from fire and beat in the whipped whites of eggs. Flavor with vanilla or lemon. Serve cold with cream and sugar or canned peaches or pears.
This is used also as a filling for cream pie, using the beaten whites of eggs, sweetened for a meringue and browning slightly in oven. Bake the crust before filling with the cream.
Baked Custard
4 cups scalded milk
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Few gratings nutmeg
Beat eggs slightly, add sugar and salt, pour on slowly scalded milk, strain in buttered mold, set in pan of hot water. Sprinkle with nutmeg and bake in slow oven until firm, which may be readily determined by running a silver knife through custard. If knife comes out clean, custard is done. During baking care must be taken that water surrounding mold does not reach boiling point or custard will whey. Always bear in mind that eggs and milk combination must be cooked at a low temperature. For cup custards allow three eggs to four cups milk; for large molded custard four or five eggs; if fewer eggs are used, custard is liable to crack when turned on a serving dish.
174Baked Apple, Southern Style
6 choice apples
½ cup sugar
1 qt. milk
Salt
4 eggs
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pare and core apples that are not too sour to hold their shape when baked. Put in a pudding dish, sprinkle the half cupful of sugar over and around them, also filling place where the core was taken out. Put in oven and bake. Remove from oven and pour around them the milk mixture made thus: Beat the eggs well, add sugar and beat again, add milk, salt and vanilla. Bake slowly until a knife-blade will come out clean after insertion in the custard. Serve hot or cold, with or without whipped cream. This is an especially good dessert for children.
Coffee Custard
2 cups milk
1 cup strong coffee
3 eggs
¼ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla
175Beat eggs slightly; add sugar, salt, vanilla, milk and coffee. Strain into buttered individual molds, set in pan of hot water and bake until firm.
Caramel Custard
4 cups scalded milk
5 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup sugar
Put sugar in omelette pan, stirring constantly over hot part of range until melted to a syrup of light brown color. Add gradually to milk, being careful that milk does not bubble up and go over, as is liable on account of high temperature of sugar. As soon as sugar is melted in milk, add mixture gradually to eggs slightly beaten, add salt and flavoring, then strain in buttered mold. Bake as custard. Chill and serve with caramel sauce.
Rice Pudding
1 qt. milk
⅓ cup rice
½ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg, or cinnamon, or grated rind of ¼ of a lemon
Wash the rice thoroughly, mix the ingredients and bake three hours or more in a very slow oven, stirring occasionally at first.
Tapioca Custard
Add to the list of ingredients for boiled custard ¼ cup of pearl tapioca. Soak the tapioca in water for an hour or two, drain it, and cook in the milk until it is transparent. Proceed as for boiled custard.
GENERAL RECIPE FOR CEREAL-MILK PUDDINGS
Bread and rice puddings, made with milk and eggs, are familiar to all cooks. Made without eggs, the following will be found suggestive:
176For a quart of milk allow ⅓ of a cup of any coarse cereal (rice, cornmeal, cracked wheat, oatmeal or barley); add ⅓ of a cup of brown, white or maple sugar, syrup, honey or molasses; ½ teaspoon salt; ⅛ teaspoon spice. The flavoring may be omitted when honey or molasses is used.
The above recipe makes quite a large pudding. It is often convenient to make a smaller one, and enough for a child’s dinner can be made in the double boiler, allowing two level or one rounding tablespoon of cereal to a cup of salted and flavored milk. Cook an hour and sweeten slightly.
These puddings, if made thin, may be poured over stewed prunes or other cooked fruits, and are a good and economical substitute for the cream or soft custard usually used for that purpose.
A very old recipe for a baked corn pudding has recently been given to the author.
Indian Meal Custard
1 pt. sweet milk, when hot add slowly
½ cup cornmeal
Pinch salt
½ teaspoon each cinnamon and ginger
Sugar to taste
1 tablespoon molasses
Boil 5 minutes, and add
2 beaten eggs
1 pt. milk
Bake about one-half hour or till set.
177Milk and Fruit Mold[11]
Milk and fruit mold
3½ cups hot milk,
½ cup cold milk,
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
10 tablespoons cornstarch
2 beaten egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract,
½ teaspoon salt
Candied cherries, cut into small pieces
Heat milk in double boiler. Mix cornstarch with cold milk, stir it into the hot milk, add salt and sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Remove from fire, fold in the beaten whites 178and add the flavoring. Rinse mold in cold water, drain, pour in part of the cooked mixture, add a layer of cherries and continue until mold is filled. Set on ice to chill. May be served in tall glasses, as illustrated, or unmolded on a flat serving platter.
Caramel Rice[11]
6 cups milk
1 cup rice
1¼ cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 slightly beaten eggs
Grated rind of half an orange
Cook rice, salt, the quarter cup of sugar and milk together in a double boiler until rice is tender. Remove from fire, add grated rind and beaten eggs and mix well.
Put the cup of sugar in a small saucepan over the fire and stir constantly until it is a golden brown liquid. Have a mold heating, and when very hot pour the liquid in it, turning the mold so that all parts are coated. Turn the rice into the mold and set it in a pan of water in a hot oven for 20 minutes, having the mold covered the entire time.
Remove from oven, let stand until cold, unmold and serve with the caramel sauce that is in the mold.
Milk Cream[11]
1½ cups hot milk
½ cup cold milk
⅜ cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
½ ounce granulated gelatine
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
Soak gelatine in the cold milk for 10 minutes. Heat balance of milk in a double boiler, add salt, sugar and beaten yolks, stirring 179constantly. Cook until mixture coats the spoon, remove from fire, add soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved. Then set aside to cool and when beginning to thicken add flavoring and mix in lightly the stiffly beaten whites.
Rinse a mold in cold water, drain, pour in mixture and set in a cold place until firm. Unmold and serve plain or with thin cream.
Milk cream
Plain Junket
Heat a quart of milk until lukewarm, not to exceed 100° F. Remove from fire; sweeten and flavor to taste, using vanilla or any other desired flavor. Dissolve one Junket Tablet in cold water and stir the solution quickly into the lukewarm milk. Pour immediately 180into individual serving dishes, sherbet glasses, bowls or the like, and let stand warm until thickened. When “set” remove to ice box or other cool place without stirring and let stand until serving time. Serve with or without whipped cream, a sprinkle of nutmeg, or a few strawberries on the top, etc.
Plain junket
Chocolate Junket
Sweeten a quart of milk with half a cup of sugar. Melt one square of chocolate or two tablespoonfuls of cocoa, add half a cup of the milk and boil one minute. Remove from fire and add the remainder of the milk, which must not be boiled, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Probably the mixture will be lukewarm, if not, warm until it is. Stir in dissolved Junket Tablet, pour at once into serving dishes and leave undisturbed until set. Chill and serve. If whipped cream sweetened and flavored with vanilla is heaped upon the Chocolate Junket when serving, a most attractive dessert is obtained, and Chocolate Junket frozen makes a delicious ice cream.
Coffee Junket
One-half cup very strong coffee, ½ cup sugar, added to 1¾ pints of heated milk. Dissolve. Add your Junket Tablet and finish as ordinary Junket. Serve with cream.
An endless variety of Junkets can be made by varying flavor and color, by adding fruit or preserves, etc., and in the sick room various medicines or stimulants, peptone, wine, etc., may conveniently be administered as an ingredient in the pudding.
“Prepared Junket”
Prepared Junket in which all the ingredients are found except the milk is on the market in the form of a powder called “Nesnah.” It is put up in various flavors and is easily and quickly made when milk is at disposal.
181Heat 1 qt. milk lukewarm, remove from fire, add one package of the prepared Junket and dissolve quickly and thoroughly by vigorous stirring for ½ minute only. Pour immediately into individual serving dishes and let stand in warm room until thoroughly set. Place in ice box until serving time. Serve with or without plain or whipped cream.
MILK BEVERAGES
Whey
1 qt. fresh milk
1 Junket Tablet
1 tablespoon cold water
Heat the milk until lukewarm and add the tablet dissolved in the cold water. Allow it to set in a warm room. Then break up the curd gently and strain it through two thicknesses of cheese-cloth, being careful to remove all the casein. Cool at once and serve cold, without or with sweetening, and flavor as desired.
Lemon Whey
1 qt. hot milk
3 tablespoons sugar
½ cup lemon juice
Heat the milk in a double boiler and add the lemon juice. Cook without stirring until the whey separates. Strain through cheese-cloth and add the sugar. Serve hot or cold, garnished with small slices of lemon.
Cinnamon and Milk
1 qt. new milk
Stick cinnamon
Sugar
Boil milk with sufficient cinnamon to flavor as desired. Sweeten and serve warm or cold.
Rice Milk
1 ounce rice
1 pint milk
1 saltspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Soak the rice twelve hours. Add the scalded milk, salt and sugar. 182Stir well and cook one hour; then rub through a fine sieve. Thin with more hot milk and serve.
Kumyss (see also Chapter II)
⅙ cake Fleischmann’s yeast
1¼ tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 quart milk
Make a thin syrup of the sugar and water and cook one minute. Soften the yeast in two tablespoons of lukewarm milk. Heat the milk until lukewarm, add other ingredients and shake. Put in stone, sterile bottles, place in an upright position for twelve hours, at 70° (kitchen heat); then turn on side and leave at a temperature of 50° (lower part of ice box). Ready for use after the first twenty-four hours; often kept several days, but the longer it is kept the less palatable it is. It should look like thick, foamy cream.
Egg Milk Shake
1 egg
1 cup milk
Sugar
Vanilla
Break the egg into a large glass and beat well. Add sugar and a couple of drops of vanilla or a dust of nutmeg and beat again. Fill up glass with rich milk. This makes a very nourishing drink.
Buttermilk Shake
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
Sugar
Few drops lemon extract
Salt
Break egg into bowl, beat thoroughly with egg beater, add sugar, flavoring, a tiny pinch of salt and buttermilk. Beat again till light and foamy. Turn into glass.
Buttermilk Lemonade
A variation may be made from ordinary buttermilk by the addition of lemon juice and sugar. “Buttermilk lemonade” usually requires the juice of three 183lemons to one quart of buttermilk. The quantity of lemon and sugar, however, should be varied to suit the taste of the individual. The beverage is delightful and is especially refreshing on a hot summer day.
One may also use the juice of two oranges and one lemon to one quart of buttermilk, instead of the lemons alone.
Many people like the clear buttermilk slightly sweetened with a few grains of salt added.
Chocolate
1½ squares chocolate
4 tablespoons sugar
Few grains salt
1 cup boiling water
3 cups milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
Scald milk. Melt chocolate in small saucepan and gradually add boiling water. When smooth add to scalded milk, sweeten and add salt and vanilla. Mill with Dover egg beater, and serve, putting a large teaspoon of whipped cream on each cup.
Cocoa
¼ cup cocoa
¼ cup sugar
Few grains salt
1 cup water
3 cups milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
Mix cocoa and sugar, add water and stir into milk already heated in double boiler. Cook 15 minutes, add vanilla and salt. Serve with whipped cream. A famous cook known to the writer adds 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water to the cocoa when nearly ready for the table. It adds to the apparent richness of the beverage.
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MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS
1. A tablespoonful of milk put in the pan before frying eggs will keep them tender.
2. Covering cold chicken or other meat with buttermilk will keep it for twenty-four hours or more, without affecting the meat except to make it more tender.
3. Custards and ice cream kept too long in warm weather may cause ptomaine poisoning.
4. Keep milk covered to shut out flavors from other food.
5. Milk warm from the cow should not be kept in a closed receptacle.
6. Danish cooks soak a piece of veal in skim milk overnight before roasting it, to improve the flavor.
7. Sliced ham covered with milk and baked in a moderate oven for an hour has delicate flavor and is always tender.
THE THERMOMETER
Dairy and household thermometers
In the United States and Canada as well as in England Fahrenheit’s thermometer is generally used according to which water freezes at 32° and boils at 212° at ordinary air pressure, leaving 180 degrees between the freezing and the boiling point. In some countries in Europe Réaumur’s thermometer is used with 0° for the freezing point and 80° for boiling. In France and for scientific work in all countries, however, the Celsius or Centigrade system is employed for measuring heat 185and cold, having 0° for freezing and 100° for boiling. As there are 180° Fahrenheit, 80° Réaumur and 100° Centigrade between freezing and boiling, the divisions are therefore as 9° F. to 4° R. and 5° C.
To change from degrees of F. above the freezing point to the other systems deduct 32, divide the remainder by 9 and multiply by 4 or by 5 respectively. To change from C. to F. divide by 5, multiply by 9 and add 32, etc. As the metric system is gradually being introduced everywhere instead of the old systems for weights and measures, so also is the Centigrade thermometer being substituted for the others and in cookery it may soon be used exclusively.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
1 pound = 16 ounces = 453.6 grams
1 ounce = 16 drams = 28.35 grams
1 kilogram = 1000 grams = 2.2 pounds
1 gram = 15.43 grains = .035 ounces
1 gallon = 4 quarts = 3.785 liters
1 quart = 2 pints =.9464 liters
1 pint = 16 fluid ounces = .4731 liters
1 fluid ounce = 8 drams = 29.57 c.c.
1 liter = 1000 cubic centimeters = 1.0567 quarts
1 mile = 5280 feet = 1.6 kilometer
1 foot = 12 inches = .3048 meter
1 kilometer = 1000 meters = .6214 mile
1 meter = 100 centimeters = 39.37 inches
1 acre = 43,560 sq. ft. = .4047 hectare
1 sq. ft. = 144 sq. inches = 9.29 sq. decimeters
1 hectare = 10,000 sq. meters = 2.471 acres
1 square meter = 100 sq. decimeters = 10.764 sq. ft.
1861 bushel = 4 pecks = .3552 hectoliter
1 hectoliter = 2.8377 bushels
1 U. S. gallon = 128 ounces = 231 cb. inches
1 Imperial gallon (English and Canadian) = 160 ounces = 277 cb. in.
6 U. S. gallons = 5 Imperial gallons
1 gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds
1 gallon of milk weighs 8.6 pounds
A 40 quart can of milk = 86 pounds
Approximate Household Weights and Measures
4 saltspoonfuls = 1 teaspoonful
3 flat teaspoonfuls = 1 heaping teaspoonful
1 heaping tablespoonful of granulated sugar = nearly 1 ounce
1 rounded tablespoonful of butter = 1 ounce
2 ordinary cups of granulated sugar = 1 pound
3 ordinary cups of wheat flour = 1 pound
1 pound of granulated sugar = 1 pint
4 flat teaspoonfuls of liquid = 1 flat tablespoonful = ½ fluid ounce
4 large tablespoonfuls = 1 ordinary wine glass = 2 fluid ounces
1 pint = 2 cups or glasses
1 cup or glass = 8 fluid ounces.
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