Split Pea Soup.
- 1 quart of split peas, soaked in soft water all night.
- 1 lb. streaked salt pork, cut into thin strips.
- 2 lbs. of beef bones, cracked well.
- 3 stalks of celery, and 1 onion, chopped.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- 4 quarts of cold water.
- A sliced lemon.
Put soaked peas, pork, bones and vegetables over the fire, with the water, and boil slowly for three hours, until the liquid is reduced nearly one half. Strain through a colander, rubbing the peas into a tolerably thick purée into the vessel below. Season, simmer ten minutes over the fire, and pour over the lemon, sliced and pared and laid in the tureen.
Fricasseed Chicken—Brown.
- 1 pair of chickens.
- ½ lb. salt pork, minced.
- 1 small onion.
- Tablespoonful of chopped parsley.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of butter.
- Browned flour.
- Pepper, and a little salt.
Joint the chickens, cutting them with a sharp knife. Put, with the pork, into a pot with a quart of water, and stew until tender. Do not boil fast, especially at first. Strain off the liquor and cover the chickens while you prepare the gravy. Put it into a large frying-pan. There will not be too much after the chickens are taken out of it. Add to it the parsley and chopped onion, with seasoning. Boil up, thicken with browned flour; stir in the butter and cook rapidly, stirring often, ten minutes. Arrange the chickens upon a hot dish and pour the gravy over it. Let all stand for five minutes before sending to the table.
Ladies’ Cabbage.
- 1 firm white cabbage, boiled and left to get cold.
- 2 beaten eggs.
- 1 tablespoonful of butter.
- 3 tablespoonfuls of rich milk.
- Pepper and salt.
Boil the cabbage in two waters. When it is cold, chop fine, and mix with it the beaten eggs, butter, milk, pepper and salt to your liking. Beat up well and bake in a buttered pudding-dish until brown. Serve in the dish in which it was cooked, and eat hot.
Baked Potatoes.
Select large, fair potatoes of equal size, wash, wipe and put into the oven to bake until soft all through. Send to table wrapped in a napkin.
Stewed Salsify.
Scrape and drop into cold water as fast as you clean them. Cut into inch lengths; cover with hot water and stew tender. Turn off the water; put in a cupful of cold milk. Stew in this ten minutes after the boil begins; add a lump of butter rolled thickly in flour; pepper and salt as you fancy. Boil up once and pour into a deep dish.
Soft Gingerbread.
- 1 cup of butter.
- 1 cup of molasses.
- 1 cup of sugar.
- 1 cup of sour or butter milk.
- ½ lb. of raisins, seeded and cut in half.
- 1 teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in boiling water.
- 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon.
- 2 eggs.
- Nearly 5 cups of sifted flour, enough for tolerably thick batter.
Cream butter, sugar, molasses, and spice; set the mixture on the range until lukewarm. Add the milk, then the beaten eggs, the soda, and at last the flour. Beat hard five minutes; put in the fruit dredged with flour; beat three minutes, and bake in small round tins.
Eat warm all that is needed for dessert. The rest will keep well. This gingerbread is uncommonly fine.
Café au Lait.
- 2 cups strong made coffee—fresh and hot.
- 2 cups of boiling milk.
Strain the coffee from the boiler into the table coffee-pot, through thin muslin. Add the boiling milk and set in a vessel of hot water, a “cozey,” or a thick cloth wrapped about it, for five minutes. Then it is ready for use. Pass with the gingerbread.