The Fireless Cook Book / A Manual of the Construction and Use of Appliances for Cooking by Retained Heat, with 250 Recipes

XI
FISH

To tell fresh fish. The flesh of fresh fish is firm, and will rise quickly if pressed with the finger; the eyes are bright, and the gills red. Frozen fish may be kept for a long time, but must be used at once when thawed, as it spoils more quickly than fresh fish. Thaw frozen fish in cold water.

Care of fish. Clean it and wipe it, inside and out, with a cloth dipped in strongly salted water. Do not put steaks or cutlets of fish into the water. Lay it on a plate on cracked ice, or in a cool place. It must not be kept in an ice-box unless wrapped in two thicknesses of brown paper, or it will impart an odour to milk, butter, and other foods.

To clean a fish. Before opening it remove the scales by scraping slowly from the tail toward the head, holding the knife nearly flat on the fish. Rinse the knife frequently in cold water. Open the fish on the under side, cutting a slit from the gills half-way down the body. Remove the entrails clear to the backbone, scraping the inside if necessary.

To skin a fish. Cut a slit down the back to the tail, on both sides of the dorsal fins, deep enough to take them out. Insert a sharp-pointed knife under the skin as near the gills as possible. Holding the head by the bony part near the gills, work the knife down toward the tail.

Cooking of fish. Fish is sufficiently cooked when the flesh will easily flake away from the bones. If boiled too long, it becomes soft and watery. An acid flavour is palatable with fish, and for this reason slices of lemon or an acid sauce are often served with it.

Left-over boiled fish may be served in a variety of ways, as creamed fish, scalloped fish, fish soufflé, croquettes, casserole of fish, etc.

TABLE OF THE SEASONS, ETC., OF FRESH-WATER FISH

TABLE OF SEASONS, ETC., OF SALT-WATER FISH

Boiled Fish

Put a three-pound fish, or three pounds of small fish, into four quarts of boiling water to which four teaspoonfuls of salt have been added. Set it at once into the cooker for one hour. Larger fish may be cooked in the same way if more water is used. For instance, a four-pound fish should be put into five or six quarts of water. Or, with large fish, put them into boiling water to cover them, let them come to a boil, and put them into the cooker for three-quarters of an hour or more, according to the size of the fish. Fish when overcooked will be watery, but will not break to pieces, unless very much overdone, if cooked in a hay-box or cooker.

Creamed Salt Codfish No. 1

• 1 lb. fish
• 3 or 4 qts. water

Wash the fish and, without shredding it, put it into the cold water, bring it to a boil, and put it into a cooker for one and one-half hours. Drain, pick into pieces, and bring to a boil in one cup of white sauce, omitting the salt. It is improved by adding a beaten egg before serving.

Serves six or seven persons.

Creamed Salt Codfish No. 2

• 1 lb. codfish
• 3 or 4 qts. water
• ¹⁄₄ cup butter
• 4 eggs
• ¹⁄₂ cup milk
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper

Cook the fish as for creamed salt codfish No. 1. When picked to pieces, put it into a double boiler with the butter. When this is absorbed by the fish add the remaining ingredients beaten together. Cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens like custard. Serve at once or it will curdle.

Serves six or eight persons.

Codfish Balls

• 1 cup raw salt codfish, in small pieces
• 1 heaping pint potatoes in 1-inch pieces
• 3 qts. cold water
• 1 egg
• ¹⁄₂ tablespoon butter
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper

Bring the fish and potatoes to a boil in the water. Put them into a hay-box for one and one-half hours. Drain and shake them, uncovered, over the fire to dry them as boiled potatoes, till white and mealy. Mash them thoroughly, add the other ingredients, and mix them together thoroughly. If necessary, add a little more salt. Take the mixture up by tablespoonfuls and, without moulding them, drop them into hot, deep fat. Fry until they are a rich brown, and drain them on brown paper.

To test the temperature of fat for fish balls, drop a cube of stale bread into the fat. If it grows a rich brown in forty seconds the fat is of the right temperature. If fat is too hot, fried food is injured in flavour and digestibility; if not hot enough the food will be greasy. If fish balls fall apart in the frying, it is because the fish and potatoes were not well dried before adding the other ingredients.

Serves four or six persons.

Salt Fish Soufflé

• 1 cup salt codfish
• 1 heaping pt. potatoes
• 3 qts. water
• 2¹⁄₂ tablespoons butter
• ⁷⁄₈ cup milk
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• 2 eggs

Cook the fish and potatoes as for codfish balls. When drained and dried, add the butter, milk, pepper, and yolks of eggs; then the whites, beaten stiff. Turn into a buttered baking-dish, and bake until puffed and brown (about one-half hour) in an insulated oven, the stones heated until the paper test shows a golden brown.

Serves eight or ten persons.

Salmon Loaf

• 1 can salmon
• ¹⁄₄ cup butter (melted)
• 1 cup soft breadcrumbs
• 4 eggs
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• 1¹⁄₂ teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 small bay leaf

If only hard, dry crumbs can be obtained, add one-fourth of a cup of water to the recipe, mixing it with the eggs, and soaking the crumbs one-half hour in the mixture.

Rub the fish and butter together, add the other ingredients, and put all into a buttered one-quart bread-mould or water-tight empty coffee or baking-powder can. Set the mould in enough cold water to reach two-thirds of the way up its sides. Let this come to a boil, boil fifteen minutes and put into the cooker for one hour. It will not be injured by remaining in the hay-box two hours. Or set the mould into boiling water, boil one-half hour, and put into the cooker for an hour.

Serves eight or ten persons.

Casserole of Fish

• 1 cup cold flaked fish
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed potatoes
• 2 hard-cooked eggs
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper

Butter a quart mould, put into it alternate layers of fish, potatoes, and egg; seasoning each layer. Stand the mould in a cooker-pail of boiling water to reach two-thirds of the way up its sides. Boil ten minutes and put it into the cooker for from three-quarters of an hour to two hours.

Serves six persons.

Cape Cod Turkey

• 1 lb. salt codfish
• 4 qts. cold water
• ¹⁄₄ lb. fat salt pork

Wash the fish and put it on the stove in the water. When boiling, put it into a cooker and let it cook from one and one-half to three hours. While this is cooking cut the pork into one-fourth inch slices, gash the slices occasionally, nearly to the rind. Pour boiling water over it, drain it, and try it out in a frying-pan till brown and crisp. When the codfish is done, drain it and garnish it with a border of the hot, crisp pork. Serve drawn-butter sauce and boiled potatoes with it.

Serves six or eight persons.

Creamed Oysters

• 1 qt. oysters
• 2 cups milk or cream
• ¹⁄₄ cup butter
• ¹⁄₄ cup flour
• ³⁄₄ teaspoon salt
• Few grains of white pepper

Drain and wash the oysters. Strain the liquor through cheese-cloth. Heat the oysters in the liquor by themselves and scald the milk. Rub the butter and flour together, add them to the hot milk or cream, and let it boil. Put this mixture with the boiling oysters and set it in a cooker for one-half hour or more. Just before serving add the seasoning. Serve it on toast or crisped crackers, or in croustades.

XII
BEEF

To select good beef. (1) Quality. “Heavy” beef, that is, taken from fat, heavy animals, is the best. It should be mottled with fat all through the lean, and the large masses of fat should be firm and of a creamy white colour. The grain of tender meat is fine. Coarse-grained meat, and meat streaked with connective tissue or gristle, is sure to be tough. (2) Freshness. Fresh beef is a good red colour, modified, when it is very cold, to a purplish shade. If black or greenish in tint the meat is stale, and its odour will be bad. Meat is flabby after it is killed, but soon grows firm. It is in suitable condition for cooking before this change takes place, or some days after it.

Uses of the different cuts. Beef is cut variously in different parts of the country, and the same cuts are not always similarly named. Merely to call the cuts by name would, therefore, make this chapter unintelligible to some readers; but by consulting the accompanying chart the pieces can be selected without reference to their names, according to the part of the animal adapted to each particular use. Those muscles which are much used and which have hard work to do will have the most juice and the best flavour, though, at the same time, they will be the toughest. For instance, all cuts, such as round, shoulder, shin, and rump, which come from the legs or parts by which the legs are connected with the body, will be tough and high-flavoured. The neck also, and upper part of the shoulder, by reason of the support they give to the weight of the head, are tough, although rich in flavour. Any cuts from these parts, by whatever name they are called, are not suitable for cooking with dry heat, such as that of baking, or broiling, but will require long, slow cooking with water to make them tender. Such pieces are the ones to buy for cooking in a hay-box. They do not command the price of the tender cuts from the back of the animal, and it is, therefore, a distinct economy to buy these cheap pieces and by skilful cooking make them digestible and palatable. The parts numbered 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, in Fig. 7 are suitable for stews; those marked 11 and 12, as well as all bones, are suitable for soups. Numbers 2, 5, 6, and 10 may be used for stews or broth, but are adapted also to pot roasts, rolled steaks, cannelon, Hamburg steak, etc., while only numbers 3 and 4 are adapted to roasting or broiling.

Other parts of beef used as food, suitable for cooking in the hay-box or cooker, are:

Brains, stewed or scalloped, or for croquettes.

Heart, stuffed and braised.

Liver, braised.

Tongue, boiled; fresh, corned, or pickled.

Kidneys, stewed.

Tail, soup.

TABLE SHOWING SOME OF THE NAMES GIVEN TO CUTS OF BEEF IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.

The numbers indicate the part from which the cuts are taken, as shown on the chart (Fig. No. 7).

•  1. Neck, part of the Rattleran, and Sticking piece.
•  2. Chuck, part of Rattleran.
•  3. Chuck and Rib roasts.
•  4. Sirloin steak, Porter-house steak, Pinbone roast. The latter includes also a part of Number 7.
•  5. Rump, Aitchbone.
•  6. Round.
•  7. Flank, Top of Sirloin.
•  8. Flank, Plate.
•  9. Brisket, Navel.
• 10. Shoulder, Shoulder clod, Rattleran, Bolar, Cross ribs.
• 11. and 12. Fore and hind shin, Soup bones.
• 13. Vein, Veiny piece.

Care of meat. All meat should at once be removed from the wrapping paper when it comes from the store, otherwise the paper absorbs the juices and sticks to the meat. Never put meat into water, except it be such parts as kidney, liver, heart, etc., or the water will soak out the juice which is the part of meat that contains the flavour. Wipe it with a clean, wet cloth, and keep it in a cool place. If it must be kept longer than is safe for raw meat, it may be partially cooked, cooled quickly, and kept cold till time to complete the cooking.

Cooking meat. If meat is put into cold water and gradually heated to the boiling point, a large proportion of the juice will be extracted. The meat will thus be rendered tasteless and the water will contain the flavouring matter. Long cooking in water dissolves the gelatine of the bones and connective tissue. These effects are desirable for soups and broths, but undesirable when the meat itself is also to be used.

If meat is put into boiling water, allowed to boil a few minutes, and then cooked a long time at a lower temperature, the albumen of the juice is hardened on the surface of the meat and the remaining juice is thus kept to a considerable extent. The long cooking may then soften the tough tissue while the meat retains much of its flavour, the water becoming also flavoured. This is desirable for stews, meat pies, pot roasts, poultry, etc., in which cases meat and liquor are both to be served.

Braised Beef

Wipe the beef with a wet cloth, cut off any tough ends and bone if it will not mar the appearance of the meat, as these parts will not become palatable in the length of time required for the remainder of the roast. They will be found useful for soups, stews, cannelon of beef, Hamburg steak, and such dishes. Roast the meat in a hot oven for half an hour, transfer it quickly to a cooker utensil, add enough boiling water to nearly cover it, let the whole become very hot in the oven, and place it quickly in the cooker. The time that is required for completing the cooking will depend upon the size of the piece and the degree of cooking desired. A five-pound roast may be cooked four hours, and if not found done to taste, it can be reheated to boiling point and cooked longer. A larger roast will require more time in the cooker. If preferred, the meat may first be partially cooked in the hay-box and browned in the oven afterward. It must then be boiled for half an hour, cooked three or more hours in the cooker, and then roasted. Lay a piece of raw fat on top of the roast, or baste it with drippings to assist in the browning.

Pot Roast

• 3 lbs. beef rump
• 3 cups boiling water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 small onion
• Salt and pepper
• 2 small carrots
• 2 sprigs parsley
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon celery seed, or
• ¹⁄₄ cup celery, cut in pieces
• Flour
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Have the butcher bone and roll the meat, dredge it well with salt, pepper, and flour, and brown it on all sides in a frying-pan with a little of the fat from the meat, or one or two tablespoons of beef drippings or pork fat. Put all the ingredients together in a small cooker-pail, let it simmer thirty minutes, set it into a larger pail of boiling water and put into a cooker for nine hours or more. Reheat it to boiling point; strain and thicken the liquor for gravy. Round of beef may be used for pot roast, but it is drier than the rump, which has some fat on it. Four or five pounds of rump will make three pounds when boned. Have the bone sent from the market to use for soup stock.

Serves ten or twelve persons.

Beef à la Mode

• 3 lbs. beef from the round
• 1 oz. fat, salt pork
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• Flour
• 1 onion
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon allspice
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon nutmeg
• 6 cloves
• 2 tablespoons rendered beef fat
• Water to nearly cover it

Wash the meat, lard it with the pork cut into strips, or gash it deeply and insert the pork in the gashes. Dredge it with the salt, pepper, and flour, and fry it in the beef fat till well browned on all sides. Put the meat and other ingredients into a two or three quart cooker-pail or pan, and nearly cover the meat with boiling water. Let it simmer for half an hour, then stand the pail in a larger cooker-pail of boiling water and put it into a cooker for from nine to twelve hours. Unless several times this recipe is cooked at once, do not allow the meat to cook more than twelve hours, or it may ferment. Reheat it before serving. Strain and thicken the gravy.

Serves ten or twelve persons.

Corned Beef

Order eight or ten pounds of rump of beef corned for four days. Put it into a large cooker-pail and fill the pail with cold water. When it boils, allow it to simmer for thirty or forty minutes, then put it into a hay-box for ten or twelve hours. Reheat it before serving it. If ordinary corned beef is used it will be more delicate if, when it is allowed to come to a boil, the water is changed and fresh boiling water added. It may then be cooked as directed above for that specially corned.

Serves twenty or twenty-five persons.

Boiled Dinner

• 2 lbs. lean, salt pork
• 3 turnips
• 4 beets
• 2 carrots
• 1 head cabbage
• 12 potatoes
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon pepper
• Water to cover

Wash the pork and gash it in slices; wash and pare the vegetables. If preferred, the beets may be cooked separately, without paring them. Put all, except the potatoes, into the cooker-pail and cover them with boiling water. When boiling let them cook ten minutes on the stove, then put the pail into the cooker for six hours or more. Add the potatoes, reheat it to boiling point, and replace it in the cooker for two hours. If more salt or pepper is required add it when the potatoes are put in. In order to save time the potatoes may be cooked separately, drained and added to the dinner before bringing it to a boil for serving. Corned beef may be used in place of pork, if preferred.

Serves eight or ten persons.

Beef Stew à la Mode

• 1¹⁄₂ lbs. beef brisket
• Flour
• 4 tablespoons rendered fat
• 1 onion
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• 6 cloves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 slices lemon
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon nutmeg
• Water to cover (about 1 pt.)

Buy two and one-half or three pounds of brisket to get one and one-half pounds of clear, lean meat. Cut the meat into one inch pieces, roll them in flour, and fry them in the fat till brown. The onion may be sliced and added when the meat is nearly brown. Put the meat with the other ingredients into a small cooker-pail, cover it with hot water, boil for ten minutes, and cook it in a hay-box for five hours or more. If left for many hours the meat becomes a trifle dry, but otherwise the stew is not injured by overcooking. The gravy may be thickened, if desired, with flour and water mixed together in equal parts. The bones may be put in with the stew during the cooking and removed before serving, or they may be used to make soup stock.

Serves five or six persons.

Stuffed Rolled Steak

• 1 flank steak
• 1 cup soft breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon thyme or summer savoury
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Wash the steak and remove the membrane that covers it, unless that has been done at the market. Make a stuffing of the crumbs, melting the butter and adding the crumbs and other ingredients to it. If the steak is large enough, use more stuffing than one cupful. Spread the stuffing over the meat to within two inches of the edge. Roll and skewer or tie it into shape. Brown it well on all sides in a dry frying-pan, or dredge it with flour and fry it in rendered beef fat. Lay it in a small cooker-pail or pan. Make two cupfuls of Brown Sauce, or enough to cover the roll. Boil the roll for two minutes and set the pail in a larger pail of boiling water. Put it for five or six hours into a cooker. When it is to be served, remove the string or skewers, lay the roll on a platter, and pour the gravy over it.

Round steak, cut about one-half inch thick, may be used. Remove the bone before rolling it.

Beef Stew with Dumplings

• 2 cups cooked or raw beef
• 2 cups raw or cooked potatoes
• ²⁄₃ cup tomato
• 1 onion, cut in slices
• 4 tablespoons rendered fat or butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• ¹⁄₃ cup flour
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1¹⁄₂ cups water, or more

If cooked meat and potatoes are used, cut them in three-quarter-inch dice, make a brown sauce of the fat, flour, seasoning, and water, add the vegetables and meat and enough water to just cover the stew. Place the dumplings on top, boil it for five minutes, and cook in a hay-box for one and one-quarter hours. If the meat is tough it will be better to treat it like raw beef. If raw beef is used, cut it in pieces, bring it to a boil with the water, and put it into the cooker for three or four hours before adding the other ingredients.

Dumplings for Stew

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons lard or butter
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
• ³⁄₄ to 1 cup water

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together, work the fat into them with the fingers, or cut it in with a knife. Add enough water to make a stiff dough. Drop it by tablespoonfuls on the top of the stew. The dumplings should rest on the meat and vegetables, as they will not be so light if submerged in the gravy.

Serves six or seven persons.

Irish Stew

• 3 cups meat
• 2 cups potatoes
• ¹⁄₂ cup turnip
• ¹⁄₂ cup carrot
• ¹⁄₃ cup onion
• ¹⁄₂ cup celery
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• ¹⁄₃ cup flour
• 4 tablespoons rendered fat
• 3 cups water

Wash and cut about two pounds of beef, from the leg, brisket or other cheap cuts, into one-inch pieces. Remove most of the fat, or all of it, if desired. Wash and pare the turnip and carrot and cut them into small pieces. Pare the potatoes and cut them into one-inch cubes. Slice the onion and cut the celery into small pieces. Roll the meat in the flour and fry it till it is brown in the fat. Put all the ingredients, except the remaining flour, into a cooker-pail and, when boiling, put them into a cooker for five hours. Mix the remaining flour with an equal quantity of cold water. Stir it into the stew, and when it has boiled it is ready to serve. It will not be harmed by being kept hot in the cooker for another hour or more.

Serves eight or ten persons.

Cannelon of Beef

• 1 lb. lean beef, chopped
• Grated rind ¹⁄₄ lemon
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 cup soft breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon scraped onion
• 2 tablespoons butter or rendered fat beef
• ¹⁄₈ tablespoon nutmeg
• ¹⁄₂ tablespoon salt
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• 2 eggs

Mix in the order given, add the eggs, which have been slightly beaten, put it into a well-greased one-quart brown bread mould or water-tight can. Stand the mould in a large pail of water, arranged on a rack, if necessary to raise the top of the mould to the level of the top of the pail. Fill the pail with boiling water, to within one-third of the top of the mould. Boil it for one-half hour and put it into a cooker for four hours. If several times this recipe is used, and put into larger moulds, it should be boiled a longer time. It is good served hot, with brown sauce, or cold.

Serves six or eight persons.

Meat Pie

• 2 cups cooked or raw meat
• 2 cups potatoes
• 1 cup tomatoes
• 2 sprigs parsley, chopped
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon celery salt
• 2 onions
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• ¹⁄₄ cup flour
• 1 bay leaf, broken fine
• Water (about 1 pt.)

If cooked meat is used, cut it into three-quarter-inch cubes. Cut the potatoes into similar pieces, slice the onions, put all the ingredients, but the flour, together in a cooker-pail or pan, add the boiling water, and, when boiling, add the flour mixed to a paste with an equal quantity of water. Boil five minutes and put it into a cooker for two hours or more. Raw meat will require five hours or more. If the stewed mixture is not in a pan suitable for baking, transfer it to a baking-pan or dish, cover with a crust and bake for one-half hour.

Crust for Meat Pie

• 1¹⁄₂ cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ¹⁄₃ teaspoon salt
• 1¹⁄₂ tablespoons butter
• ¹⁄₂ cup water, or more

Mix and sift the dry ingredients, work in the fat, and put in enough water to make a dough stiff enough to roll on a board. Roll it out to the dish and bake it. An inverted cup in the centre of the pie, under the crust, will prevent the gravy from boiling over during the baking.

Serves six or eight persons.

Braised Beef’s Liver

• 1 liver
• ¹⁄₄ lb. fat salt pork
• 1 onion
• Flour
• Fat
• 2 teaspoons sage leaves
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• Water to cover

Lard the liver with the pork. Dredge it with flour and brown it in a frying-pan, with rendered beef or pork fat or butter. Put it into a cooker-pail or pan just large enough to hold it. Cover it with boiling water, boil it for five minutes, set the pail in a larger cooker-pail of boiling water, and put it into a cooker for ten hours or more. Reheat it and serve it on a platter, cutting it through, but not separating the slices. Pour over it the gravy, which has been strained and thickened with flour and water mixed to a paste.

The number of persons that it will serve depends upon the size of the liver. Allow one pound for three or four persons.

Beef Kidney

Wash and soak two kidneys in a large amount of water, for several hours or over night, changing the water at least once. Cut them open, rinse them and put them on to boil in boiling salted water to barely cover them, in a small cooker-pail. Let them boil five minutes, set the pail in a larger pail of boiling water, and cook them ten hours or more in a cooker. When tender, remove the tubes and membranes and slice the kidneys. Thicken as much of the gravy as you wish to use, with one-fourth of a cupful of flour mixed with one-fourth of a cupful of water to each pint of gravy. Add the sliced kidneys and serve them when they are boiling hot.

Stuffed Heart

• 1 heart
• ¹⁄₂ cup crumbs
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• 1 small onion, chopped
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon powdered thyme
• 1 thick slice bacon
• Flour

Wash the heart, remove the arteries and veins and squeeze out any clots of blood that there may be. Stuff it with the soft bread crumbs to which the seasonings and melted butter have been added. Try out the fat from the slice of bacon, dredge the heart with salt, pepper and flour and brown it on all sides in the bacon fat. Put the heart and the crisp bacon into as small a cooker-pail as will hold it, cover it with boiling water, boil it for five minutes and put the pail into a larger cooker-pail with as much boiling water as it will hold when the small pail is in place. Put it into a cooker for ten hours, or over night. Boil it again and cook it for three or four hours. Reheat it when ready to serve it, thickening each pint of the gravy with one-fourth cup of flour and an equal quantity of water mixed to a smooth paste. The heart will look more attractive if sliced and covered with gravy before serving.

Beef or calf’s heart may be cooked without a stuffing and served with caper sauce.

Corned Tongue

Wash the tongue, put it into a cooker-pail of from four to six quarts capacity. Fill the pail with cold water, bring the tongue to a boil and boil it for from twenty minutes to half an hour, depending upon its size. Put it into a cooker for ten or twelve hours. If not perfectly tender, bring it again to a boil and cook it from two to four hours longer. Plunge it into cold water, remove the skin, and serve it cold, cut in thin slices.

Fresh Tongue

• 1 tongue
• 1 onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 8 cloves
• Salt

Wash the tongue, put it into as small a cooker-pail as will easily hold it, add the other ingredients and fill the pail with boiling water, using one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of water. Let it boil for twenty minutes or half an hour, depending upon the size of the tongue. Put it into a cooker for ten hours or more. If not perfectly tender, reheat it to boiling point and cook it for from two to four hours longer in the hay-box. Plunge it into cold water and remove the skin. Serve it hot with caper sauce, using the liquor in which the tongue was boiled in place of water, to make the sauce.

XIII
LAMB AND MUTTON

Spring lamb is the meat of lambs from six weeks to three months old. It is obtainable in March and throughout the spring. Yearling is lamb one year old. The flesh of lamb is lighter in colour than that of mutton and the bones are pinker. It may be distinguished from mutton, also, by the smaller size of the cuts, which are otherwise the same in mutton and lamb. Mutton, as all dark meats, may be served rare; but lamb, being lighter, is classed with white meats in this respect, and should be thoroughly cooked. The rank flavour of mutton is greatly reduced if the pink membrane, which surrounds the animal, is pulled off before cooking. The fat of mutton has a strong, disagreeable flavour, and most of it should be removed. It will not be good for any cooking purposes as veal, beef, and pork fat are.

Cuts of Mutton. The favourite cuts are the rib and loin chops and the leg, but as other parts of the sheep are much cheaper, it is well to know their possibilities. Shoulder, boned and tied into shape, will, when cooked in the hay-box or cooker, make a very good substitute for the leg, while shoulder of lamb makes a good roast for small families who grow tired of perpetual steak and chops.

TABLE SHOWING THE WAYS IN WHICH THE VARIOUS CUTS OF MUTTON AND LAMB MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER

• 1. Neck, stews and broth.
• 2. Chuck, stews, broth, meat pie, casserole of rice and meat, hash.
• 3. Shoulder, braising, plain or boned and stuffed, casserole of rice and meat, hash.
• 4 and 5. Loin chops, cooked as veal cutlets, breaded or plain.
• 6. Flank, soups, stews.
• 7. Leg, braised or boiled.

OTHER PARTS OF THE ANIMAL, USED FOR FOOD, WHICH MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER

• Heart, braised, plain or stuffed.
• Liver, braised, or breaded as veal cutlets.
• Tongue, boiled.
• Kidneys, stewed.

In the chapter on the Insulated Oven directions are also given for roasting some cuts of mutton and lamb. They are not included in this list, since the oven is not an accompaniment of every cooker.

Boiled Leg or Shoulder of Mutton

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, put it into a cooker-pail with boiling salted water enough to cover it, and to permit of at least three or four quarts of water being used, the amount depending upon the size of the leg. Boil it for half an hour and cook it in the cooker for six hours or more. The broth should be saved for soup stock and gravy. Serve it with brown gravy or with caper sauce. Shoulder will not require more than twenty minutes boiling, but will take the full time in the cooker. Lamb may be treated in the same manner.

Braised Leg or Shoulder of Mutton

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, roast it in a hot oven till brown, or dredge it with salt, pepper, and flour, and brown it in a frying-pan; put it, while still hot, into a cooker-pail with enough boiling water to half cover it, or more. Bring it to a hard boil, while tightly covered, put it at once into a cooker for six hours or more. Serve it with brown gravy, saving the remaining broth for soup stock. Lamb may be treated in the same manner.

Mutton Stew

• 2 cups meat
• ²⁄₃ cup tomato
• 1 onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 2 cups potatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon pepper
• 1¹⁄₂ cups water, or more
• ¹⁄₄ cup butter, lard or beef fat
• ¹⁄₃ cup flour

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, cut it into three-quarter-inch cubes, put it into a cooker-pail with all the other ingredients, except the fat and flour. The potatoes should be pared and cut into one and one-half-inch cubes. Bring all to a boil, boil it for five minutes and put it into a cooker for from four to six hours. Make a brown sauce, using the fat, flour, and liquor from the stew. Heat the stew in this till boiling. Or the meat may be dredged with the flour and fried in the fat until meat and flour are brown, before being put into the cooker. If cooked meat is used, one and one-half hours in the cooker will be enough, unless the meat is very tough, in which case it may be cooked as long as raw meat. The addition of one green pepper makes a good variation of this stew.

Serves five or six persons.

Chestnut Stew

• 2 cups raw mutton
• 2 onions
• 2 tablespoons fat
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups blanched nuts
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• Water

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, cut it into three-quarter-inch cubes; peel and slice the onions. Dredge the meat with the flour, brown it and the onions in a frying-pan with any fat suitable for cooking. Put all the ingredients into a cooker-pail, barely cover them with boiling water, and let the stew boil five minutes before putting it into a cooker for four hours or more.

Serves six or eight persons.

Syrian Stew (Yakhni)

• 2 cups raw mutton
• 2 tablespoons fat
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups string beans
• 2 onions
• 2 cups tomatoes
• 1¹⁄₂ teaspoons salt
• ¹⁄₆ teaspoon pepper
• Water

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, cut it into cubes, dredge it with the flour, and brown it in the fat. Put all the ingredients together, scraping from the frying-pan all of the flour and fat. Add enough water to barely cover them, let them boil for five minutes, and put them into the cooker for six hours or more, depending upon the beans. If they are old and tough they may require more than six hours to cook.

In Syria this stew is always served with boiled or steamed rice.

Serves six or eight persons.

Okra Stew

• 2 cups raw mutton
• 2 tablespoons fat
• ¹⁄₈ cup flour
• 2 onions
• 2 cups tomatoes
• 2 cups okra
• 1¹⁄₂ teaspoons salt
• ¹⁄₆ teaspoon pepper
• Water

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, cut it into cubes. Wash and cut the okra in pieces, dredge it and the meat with the flour and fry them, till brown, in the fat. Put all the ingredients into a cooker-pail, add enough water to barely cover them, boil them for five minutes, and put them into a cooker for four hours, or more.

Serves six or eight persons.

Syrian Stuffed Cabbage

• 1 cup raw chopped meat
• 2 tablespoons fat
• ¹⁄₃ cup raw rice
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• 1 head cabbage
• ¹⁄₂ lemon

Strip off the leaves from a head of cabbage, throw them into boiling water, and let them stand till they are wilted. Mix the remaining ingredients, except the lemon, using for the meat either mutton or beef. Lay a cabbage leaf on a plate, remove the thickest part of the midrib, so that it will roll. Spread on it a rounded teaspoonful of the mixture and roll it like a cigarette. Do the same with the other leaves, packing each one, as it is finished, into a pan which will fit over a cooker-pail, unless a pail is used which will be nearly filled by the cabbage. The rolls must be carefully packed or they will float and unroll when the water is added. Cover them with boiling water, bring all to a boil, and boil it for five minutes, then put it directly into a cooker, if the pail is full, or over boiling water if not, and leave it for from four to six hours. Take the rolls out carefully with a cake turner or skimmer, lay them in a platter, and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over them. They are usually served as the meat dish for luncheon.

Serves six or eight persons.

Casserole of Rice and Meat

• 4 cups cooked rice (1 cup raw)
• 2 cups cooked mutton
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon grated onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• ¹⁄₄ cup breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• Stock or water

Line a greased mould of one and one-half quarts’ capacity with three cups of the rice. Remove all the fat from the meat, chop it fine, and mix it with the other ingredients, adding enough stock or water to barely keep it from crumbling. Pack the meat into the mould and cover it with the remaining cupful of rice. Grease the cover and put it on. Stand the mould in a large cooker-pail of water to two-thirds of its depth, or, if it is shallow, prop it on a rack, so that the water will reach half its depth; boil it for fifteen minutes, and cook it for one hour or more in the cooker. Turn it out carefully on to a hot platter, and pour tomato sauce around, but not over it.

Serves six or eight persons.

Ragout of Cold Mutton

• 2 cups cold mutton
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 cup mutton stock
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ¹⁄₂ can peas
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• 1 head of lettuce
• Farina balls

Cut the mutton into one-inch cubes. Put all the ingredients except the lettuce and farina balls into a cooker-pail together, cover it closely, and when boiling put it into a cooker for one hour. Serve it on a platter garnished with lettuce leaves and farina balls.

Serves four to six persons.

XIV
VEAL

Veal varies greatly with the age of the calf from which it is taken. It should be pink, with firm, white fat. Pale, flabby veal comes from calves which have been killed too young, or bled before death, and is likely to be tasteless and stringy when cooked. The older veal grows, the more like beef it appears. The cuts are larger and the colour is darker and more like the red of beef. Veal can be purchased the year round, but the best season for it is spring and summer. Almost all parts of the calf are tender, but the cheaper cuts correspond with the cheaper cuts of beef, except the cutlets or steaks, which are taken from the same part of the animal as the round of beef, and command a good price. Veal, like other white meats, should be thoroughly cooked. Its delicacy commends it for many purposes, but it often requires the addition of pork, or high seasoning, to give it flavour.