MISS LESLIE'S
NEW
COOKERY BOOK.

One Volume, 652 pages, bound. Price $1.25.

T. B. Peterson, No. 102 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, has just published MISS LESLIE'S "NEW COOKERY BOOK." It comprises new and approved methods of preparing all kinds of Soups, Fish, Oysters, Beef, Mutton, Veal, Pork, Venison, Ham and Bacon, Poultry and Game, Terrapins, Turtle, Vegetables, Sauces, Bread, Pickles, Sweetmeats, Plain Cakes, Fine Cakes, Pies, Plain Desserts, Fine Desserts, Preparations for the Sick, Puddings, Confectionery, Rice, Indian Meal Preparations of all kinds, Miscellaneous Receipts, etc. etc. Also, lists of all articles in season suited to go together for breakfasts, dinners, and suppers, to suit large or small families, and much useful information and many miscellaneous subjects connected with general housewifery.

This work will have a very extensive sale, and many thousand copies will be sold, as all persons that have had Miss Leslie's former works, should get this at once, as all the receipts in this book are new, and have been fully tried and tested by the author since the publication of her former books, and none of them whatever are contained in any other work but this. It is the most complete Cook Book published in the world; and also the latest and best, as in addition to Cookery of all kinds and descriptions, its receipts for making cakes and confectionery are unequalled by any other work extant.

This new, excellent, and valuable Cook Book is published by T. B. Peterson, under the title of "MISS LESLIE'S NEW COOKERY BOOK," and is entirely different from any other work on similar subjects, under any other names, by the same author. It is an elegantly printed duodecimo volume, of 652 pages; and in it there will be found hundreds of Receipts—all useful—some ornamental—and all invaluable to every lady, miss, or family in the world.

Read what the Editors of the Leading Newspapers say of it.

From the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper.

From the Philadelphia Daily News.

From the Philadelphia Saturday Courier.

From the Philadelphia Daily Sun.

From the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Gazette.

From the Pennsylvania Inquirer.

From the Public Ledger.

From the Boston Evening Traveler.

MISS LESLIE'S
NEW
COOKERY
BOOK.

PHILADELPHIA:
T. B. PETERSON NO. 102 CHESTNUT STREET.
1857.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by

ELIZA LESLIE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

I hope those who consult this book will find themselves at no loss, whether required to prepare sumptuous viands "for company," or to furnish a daily supply of nice dishes for an excellent family table; or plain, yet wholesome and palatable food where economy is very expedient.

Eliza Leslie.

Philadelphia, March 28th, 1857.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Tested and Arranged by Miss Leslie.

LIQUID MEASURE.

DRY MEASURE.

Throughout this book, the pound is avoirdupois weight—sixteen ounces.

GENERAL CONTENTS.

ANIMALS

Mutton.

• 1. Leg.
• 2. Shoulder.
• 3. Loin, Best End.
• 4. Loin, Chump End.
• 5. Neck, Best End.
• 6. Breast.
• 7. Neck, Scrag End.
• Note.—A Chine is two Loins; and a Saddle is two Loins and two Necks of the Best End.

Pork.

• 1. Leg.
• 2. Hind Loin.
• 3. Fore Loin.
• 4. Spare Rib.
• 5. Hand.
• 6. Spring.

Venison.

• 1. Shoulder.
• 2. Neck.
• 3. Haunch.
• 4. Breast.
• 5. Scrag.

MISS LESLIE'S
NEW
COOKERY BOOK.

SOUPS.

Every family has, or ought to have, some personal knowledge of certain poor people—people to whom their broken victuals would be acceptable. Let then the most of their cold, fresh meat be set apart for those who can ill afford to buy meat in market. To them it will be an important acquisition; while those who indulge in fine clothes, fine furniture, &c., had best be consistent, and allow themselves the nourishment and enjoyment of freshly cooked food for each meal. Therefore where there is no absolute necessity of doing otherwise, let the soup always be made of meat bought expressly for the purpose, and of one sort only, except when the flavor is to be improved by the introduction of ham.

In plain cooking, every dish should have a distinct taste of its natural flavor predominating. Let the soup, for instance, be of beef, mutton, or veal, but not of all three; and a chicken, being overpowered by the meat, adds nothing to the general flavor.

Soup-meat that has been boiled long enough to extract the juices thoroughly, becomes too tasteless to furnish, afterwards, a good dish for the table; with the exception of mutton, which may be eaten very well after it has done duty in the soup-pot, when it is much liked by many persons of simple tastes. Few who are accustomed to living at hotels, can relish hotel soups, which (even in houses where most other things are unexceptionable), is seldom such as can be approved by persons who are familiar with good tables. Hotel soups and hotel hashes, (particularly those that are dignified with French names), are notoriously made of cold scraps, leavings, and in some houses, are the absolute refuse of the kitchen. In most cases, the sight of a hotel stock-pot would cause those who saw it, to forswear soup, &c.

If the directions are exactly followed, the soups contained in the following pages will be found palatable, nutritious, and easily made; but they require plenty of good ingredients.

We have heard French cooks boast of their soup being "delicate." The English would call it "soup meagre." In such a country as America, where good things are abundant, there is no necessity of imbibing the flatulency of weak washy soups.

All soups should be boiled slowly at first, that the essence of the meat may be thoroughly drawn forth. The lid of the pot should be kept close, unless when it is necessary to remove it for taking off the scum, which should be done frequently and carefully. If this is neglected, the scum will boil back again into the soup, spoil it, and make it impure or muddled. When no more scum arises, and the meat is all in rags, dropping from the bones, it is time to put in the vegetables, seasoning, &c., and not till then; and if it should have boiled away too much, then is the time to add a little hot water from another kettle. Add also a large crust of bread or two. It may now be made to boil faster, and the thickening must be put in. This is a table-spoonful or more of flour mixed to a smooth paste with a little water, and enriched with a tea-spoonful of good butter, or beef-dripping. This thickening is indispensable to all soups. Let it be stirred in well. If making a rich soup that requires wine or catchup, let it be added the last thing, just before the soup is taken from the fire.

When all is quite done and thoroughly boiled, cover the bottom of a tureen with small squares of bread or toast, and dip or pour the soup into it, leaving all the bones and shreds of meat in the pot. To let any of the sediment get into the tureen is slovenly and vulgar. Not a particle of this should ever be found in a soup-plate. There are cooks who, if not prevented, will put all the refuse into the tureen; so that, when helped, the plates are half full of shreds of meat and scraps of bone, while all the best of the soup is kept back for the kitchen. This should be looked to. Servants who cannot reconcile it to their conscience to steal money or any very valuable articles, have frequently no hesitation in purloining or keeping to themselves whatever they like in the way of food.

Soup may be colored yellow with grated carrots, red with tomato juice, and green with the juice of pounded spinach—the coloring to be stirred in after the skimming is over. These colorings are improvements both to its look and flavor. It may be browned with scorched flour, kept ready always for the purpose. Never put cloves or allspice into soup—they give it a blackish ashy dirt color, and their taste is so strong as to overpower every thing else. Both these coarse spices are out of use at good tables, and none are introduced in nice cookery but mace, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.

The meat boiled in soup gives out more of its essence, when cut off the bone, and divided into small pieces, always removing the fat. The bones, however, should go in, as they contain much glutinous substance, adding to the strength and thickness of the soup, which cannot be palatable or wholesome unless all the grease is carefully skimmed off. Kitchen grease is used chiefly for soap-fat.

In cold weather, good soup, if carefully covered and kept in a cool place, and boiled over again for half an hour without any additional water, will be better on the second day than on the first.

It is an excellent way in winter to boil the meat and bones on the first day, without any vegetables. Then, when very thick and rich, strain the liquid into a large pan; cover it, and set it away till next morning—it should then be found a thick jelly. Cut it in pieces, having scraped off the sediment from the bottom—then add the vegetables, and boil them in the soup.

MUSHROOM SOUP.—

Cut a knuckle of veal, or a neck of mutton, (or both, if they are small,) into large pieces, and remove the bones. Put it into a soup-pot with sufficient water to cover the whole, and season with a little salt and cayenne. Let it boil till the meat is in rags, skimming it well; then strain off the soup into another pot. Have ready a large quart, or a quart and a pint of freshly-gathered mushrooms—cut them into quarters, having removed the stalks. Put them into the soup, adding a quarter of a pound (or more) of fresh butter, divided into bits and rolled in flour. Boil the whole about half an hour longer—try if the mushrooms are tender, and do not take them up till they are perfectly so. Keep the pot lid closely covered, except when you remove the lid to try the mushrooms. Lay at the bottom of the tureen a large slice of buttered toast, (cut into small squares,) and pour the soup upon it. This is a company soup.

SWEET CORN SOUP.—

Take a knuckle of veal, and a set of calf's feet. Put them into a soup-pot with some cold boiled ham cut into pieces, and season them with pepper only. Having allowed a quart of water to each pound of meat, pour it on, and let it boil till the meat falls from the bone; strain it, and pour the liquid into a clean pot. If you live in the country, or where milk is plenty, make this soup of milk without any water. All white soups are best of milk. You may boil in this, with the veal and feet, an old fowl, (cut into pieces,) that is too tough for any other purpose. When the soup is well boiled, and the shreds all strained away, have ready (cooked by themselves in another pot) some ears of sweet corn, young and tender. Cut the grains from the cob, mix the corn with fresh butter, season it with pepper, and stir it in the strained soup. Give the whole a short boil, pour it into the tureen, and send it to table.

VENISON SOUP.—

Is excellent, made as above, with water instead of milk, and plenty of corn. And it is very convenient for a new settlement.

TOMATO SOUP.—

Take a shin or leg of beef, and cut off all the meat. Put it, with the bones, in a large soup-pot, and season it slightly with salt and pepper. Pour on a gallon of water. Boil and skim it well. Have ready half a peck of ripe tomatos, that have been quartered, and pressed or strained through a sieve, so as to be reduced to a pulp. Add half a dozen onions that have been sliced, and a table-spoonful of sugar to lessen a little the acid of the tomatos. When the meat is all to rags, and the whole thoroughly done, (which will not be in less than six hours from the commencement) strain it through a cullender, and thicken it a little with grated bread crumbs.

This soup will be much improved by the addition of a half peck of ochras, peeled, sliced thin, and boiled with the tomatos till quite dissolved.

Before it goes into the tureen, see that there are no shreds of meat or bits of bone left in the soup.

FAMILY TOMATO SOUP.—

Take four pounds of the lean of a good piece of fresh beef. The fat is of no use for soup, as it must be skimmed off when boiling. Cut the meat in pieces, season them with a little salt and pepper, and put them into a pot with three quarts of water. The tomatos will supply abundance of liquid. Of these you should have a large quarter of a peck. They should be full-grown, and quite ripe. Cut each tomato into four pieces, and put them into the soup; after it has come to a boil and been skimmed. It will be greatly improved by adding a quarter of a peck of ochras cut into thin round slices. Both tomatos and ochras require long and steady boiling with the meat. To lessen the extreme acid of the tomatos, stir in a heaped table-spoonful of sugar. Add also one large onion, peeled and minced small; and add two or three bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. The soup must boil till the meat is all to rags and the tomatos and ochras entirely dissolved, and their forms undistinguishable. Pour it off carefully from the sediment into the tureen, in the bottom of which have ready some toasted bread, cut into small squares.

FINE TOMATO SOUP.—

Take some nice fresh beef, and divest it of the bone and fat. Sprinkle it with a little salt and pepper, and pour on water, allowing to each pound of meat a pint and a half (not more) of water, and boil and skim it till it is very thick and clear, and all the essence seems to be drawn out of the meat. Scald and peel a large portion of ripe tomatos—cut them in quarters, and laying them in a stew-pan, let them cook in their own juice till they are entirely dissolved. When quite done, strain the tomato liquid, and stir into it a little sugar. In a third pan stew an equal quantity of sliced ochras with a very little water; they must be stewed till their shape can no longer be discerned. Strain separately the meat liquor, the tomatos, and the ochras. Mix butter and flour together into a lump; knead it a little, and when all the liquids are done and strained put them into a clean soup-pan, stir in the flour and butter, and give the soup one boil up. Transfer it to your tureen, and stir altogether. The soup made precisely as above will be perfectly smooth and nice. Have little rolls or milk biscuits to eat with it.

This is a tomato soup for dinner company.