Beef Noodle Soup.
First—to borrow an idea from worthy Mrs. Glass—make the noodles.
Take 4 eggs, beaten one minute; 3 tablespoonfuls of water; enough flour (prepared) for stiff dough, and a saltspoonful of salt. Make up, and knead fifteen minutes. Roll into a thin sheet, and cut half of it into long strips, less than half an inch wide, and these, again, across at intervals of four inches. Now, roll the other half of the sheet up very closely, making a long scroll like a quill. Cut this across, with a keen knife, into little wheels less than a quarter of an inch wide. Lay all in a sunny window to dry. Those intended for to-day will be fit to use in two hours. The rest will keep in a dry, cool place several days, and can be used as a vegetable, or in soups.
Make a stock of 2 lbs. of beef bones, the same of mutton bones and a slice of lean ham boiled in three quarts of water, with 1 onion, 1 carrot, and a bunch of herbs chopped. Boil down to two quarts, strain; cool, skim and season, and put in a good handful of the noodles—a few at a time—so soon as it boils. Simmer twenty minutes.
Boiled Chickens and Tongue.
Clean, wash, and truss the chickens; bind legs and wings down closely by tying up the fowls in white, perfectly clean bobbinet lace, or mosquito net. Put on in plenty of boiling salted water and cook one hour, unless they are large and tough. In that case cook very slowly and long. Have ready a tongue, which has soaked several hours in warm water—boiled, skimmed, and trimmed. Lay upon a dish with a chicken on each side. Pour a few spoonfuls of melted butter, heated, with a little chopped parsley, over all three; set in a quick oven three minutes; anoint again with the butter and parsley, and send to table upon a hot, clean dish. Pass a boat of drawn butter with them. Save the chicken liquor, well seasoned, for to-morrow’s soup, also the water in which the tongue was boiled. If it is a smoked tongue, you can use the fat from the top for dripping. If corned, the liquor can be added to soups and gravies.
Fried Egg-plant.
Please refer to Sunday of this week.
Lima Beans.
Shell and cook in boiling salted water about thirty minutes. Drain, dish, and stir in salt, pepper, and a good lump of butter.
Potato Puffs.
6 boiled potatoes, mashed soft, with a tablespoonful of milk, and as much butter; 3 beaten eggs; 6 tablespoonfuls of prepared flour, or enough to enable you to make into soft dough. Make into balls like doughnuts; roll these in flour, and fry to a fine brown in hot lard.
Peaches and Cream.
Pare and slice the peaches just before dinner, and cover the glass dish containing them to exclude the air as much as may be, since they soon change color. Do not sugar them in the dish. They then become preserves—not fresh fruit. Pass “fruit sugar” and cream with them.