Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher

water is more than half gone; then skim off the grease, and set it in the stove-oven till the water is all gone but about a tea-cupful, which is for gravy, and may be thickened a little. Add boiling water, if it goes too fast, (for in some kinds of weather it will evaporate much faster than in other days). This dish should be very tender, and is excellent cold, especially if it is pressed under a heavy weight. This was a favorite soldier’s dish; and tough meat is as good as it is tender, when thus cooked.

      Boiled Ham.—The best way to cook a ham is first to wash it; then take off the skin and bake it in a pan, with a little water in it, in a stove or brick oven, till tender, which is found by a fork piercing easily. Allow twenty minutes for each pound.

      To boil a ham, soak it over night; then wash in two waters, using a brush. Boil slowly, and allow fifteen minutes for each pound. When cold, take off the skin, and ornament with dots of pepper and fringed paper tied around the shank.

      A nice way to treat a cold boiled ham is, after removing the skin, to rub it over with beaten egg, and then spread over powdered cracker, wet with milk, and let it brown in the oven. Boiled ham is much improved by setting it in the oven half an hour, making it sweeter, while the fat that tries out is useful for cooking.

      Boiled Beef.—Put it in salted water, (a tea-spoonful for each quart;) have enough to cover it. Skim well just before it begins to boil, and as long as the scum rises. Allow about fifteen minutes to each pound, or more for beef. Drain well, and serve with vegetables boiled separately.

      Boiled Fowls.—Wash the inside carefully with soda water, to remove any taint. Stuff with seasoned bread-crumbs, or cracker, wet up with eggs, and sew up the openings. Put them in boiling water, enough to cover, and let them simmer gently till tender. It is a good plan to wrap in a cloth dredged with flour.

      Fricasseed Fowls.—Cut them up, and put in a pot, with cold water enough to cover. Put some salt pork over, and let them simmer slowly till very tender and the water mostly gone. When done, stir in a cup of milk, mixed with two well-beaten eggs, first mixing slowly some of the hot liquor with the milk and eggs.

      Some fry the pork first, thus increasing the flavor, and others leave it out.

      To Boil a Leg or Shoulder of Veal, or Mutton, or Lamb.—Mutton should be cooked more rare than any other meat. Make a stuffing of chopped bread, seasoned with pepper and salt, and mixed with one or two eggs. Make deep gashes in the meat, (or, better, take out the bone;) fill the openings with stuffing and sew them up. Wrap it tight in a cloth, and put it so as to be covered with water, salted at the rate of a tea-spoonful to each quart. Let it simmer slowly about two or three hours. Skim thoroughly just before it comes to boiling heat. If needful, add boiling water. Save the water for broth for next day. If you pour cold water on the cloth before removing it, and let it stand two minutes, it improves the looks.

      Calf’s Feet.—Wash and scrape till very clean. Boil three hours in four quarts of water salted with four even tea-spoonfuls of salt. Take out the bones, and put the rest into a saucepan, with three table-spoonfuls of butter, two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, a great-spoonful of sugar, and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Add three tea-cups of the liquor in which the feet were boiled; dredge in some flour, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Garnish with sliced lemon. (Save the liquor to make calf’s-foot jelly.)

      Calf’s Liver and Sweet-breads.—These are best split open, boiled, and then dressed with pepper, salt, and butter.

      To cook Kidneys.—Wash them clean, and split them. Heat them half an hour in a saucepan, without water. Then wash them again, and cover them with a pint of water, having in it a tea-spoonful of salt and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Boil one hour, and then take off the skin. Cut them in mouthfuls; add two great-spoonfuls of butter, more salt and hot water, if needed, and let them simmer fifteen minutes.

      Pillau, a Favorite Dish in the South.—Fricassee a chicken with slices of salt pork, or with sweet butter or sweet cream. Put the chicken, when cooked, in a bake-dish, and cover it with boiled rice, seasoned with salt, pepper, and one dozen allspice. Pile the rice, pour on some melted butter, smooth it, and cover with yelk of an egg. Bake half an hour.

      To boil Smoked Tongues.—Soak in cold water only two hours, as long soaking lessens sweetness. Wash them, and boil four or five hours, according to the size. When done, take off the skin and garnish with parsley. A table-spoonful of sugar for each tongue, put in the water, improves them.

      To boil Corned Beef.—Do not soak it, but wash it, and put it in hot water, to keep in the juices; allow a pint for each pound. Skim just before it begins to boil. Let it simmer slowly, and allow twenty-five minutes for every pound. Keep it covered with water, adding boiling hot water, if needed. It is much improved for eating cold by pressing it with a board and heavy stone. It is an excellent piece of economy to save the water to use for soup.

      Some think it an improvement to put on a little sugar, and pour a little vinegar on before boiling. Some like to boil turnips, potatoes, and cabbage with it. In that case, they must be peeled, and the potatoes soaked two hours.

      To boil Partridges or Pigeons.—Cleanse and rinse the insides with soda-water, and then with pure water. Wrap them in a damp floured cloth; put them into boiling water which is salted at the rate of a heaping tea-spoonful to a quart; also, two tea-spoonfuls of sugar and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Simmer them twenty minutes to half an hour. When done, make a sauce of butter rubbed into flour and half a cup of milk; put the birds into a dish and pour on this sauce. Some would add cut parsley, or other flavors.

      To boil Ducks.—Let them lie in hot water two hours. Then wrap in a cloth dredged with flour; put them in cold water, salted at the rate of half a tea-spoonful for each pint. Add a tea-spoonful of sugar for each pint. Let them simmer half an hour; then take them up, and pour over them a sauce made of melted butter rubbed into flour, and seasoned with lemon-juice, salt, and pepper, and thinned with gravy or hot water.

      Wild ducks must be soaked in salt and water the night previous, to remove the fishy taste, and then in the morning put in fresh water, which should be changed once or twice.

      To boil a Turkey.—Make a stuffing for the craw of chopped bread and butter, cream, oysters, and the yelks of eggs. Sew it in, and dredge flour over the turkey, and put it in hot water to boil, with a spoonful of salt in it, and enough water to cover it well. Let it simmer for two hours and a half, or, if small, less time. Skim it while boiling. It will look nicer if wrapped in a cloth dredged with flour while cooking.

      Serve it with drawn butter, in which are put some oysters.

CHAPTER VII.

       ROAST AND BAKED MEATS.

       Table of Contents

      The beef of an ox is best, and the next best is that of a heifer. The best pieces for roasting are the second cut of the sirloin, the second cut of the ribs, and the back part of the rump.

      The art of roasting well consists in turning the meat often, to prevent burning, and basting often, to make it juicy.

      Never dredge flour into gravies, as it makes lumps. Strain all gravies.

      Brown Flour for Meat Gravies.—This is used to thicken meat gravies, to give a good color. It is prepared by putting flour on a tin plate in a hot oven, stirring it often until well browned; it must be kept, corked, in a jar, and shaken occasionally.

      Roast Beef.—A piece of beef weighing ten pounds requires about two hours to roast in a tin oven before a fire. Allow ten minutes for each pound over or under this weight. Have the spit and oven clean and bright. They should have been washed before they grew cold from the last roasting.

      Put the meat on the spit so that it will be evenly balanced; set the bony side toward the fire; let it roast slowly at first, turning it often; and when all sides are partly cooked,