LARGE breakfasts, or déjeûners à la fourchette, are not a very common form of entertainment in this country, and yet they may be made charming. Unlike luncheons, where there are usually only women present, both men and women may be invited to a breakfast. The hour is usually twelve, although it may be a little earlier or later. One o'clock is the latest hour which it is advisable to set for a breakfast.
The number of guests invited is optional, but a small party, consisting of from six to twelve, is pleasanter than a crush. Indeed, unless one has an exceptionally spacious salle à manger, it is difficult to accommodate comfortably more than a dozen guests, and an over-crowded table is always unpleasant. The writer preserves a vivid memory of a dinner she once attended where fourteen people were packed about a table of the proper size for ten guests. There was hardly room for the waiters to pass the dishes between the convives. Each one elbowed his neighbor, and what might have been a delightful repast became a struggle at close quarters with the difficulties of getting through the courses without nudging his next companion, knocking over his glass, or materially interfering with his eating.
At a ceremonious breakfast the table should be spread with a handsome breakfast or lunch cloth, either of pure white, hem-stitched or adorned with drawn-work, or one containing more or less color. If the table is very handsome, the cloth may be left off. The floral ornamentation is less formal than at a dinner. There may be a bowl of flowers in the centre of the table, but quite as pretty as this are three or four graceful vases scattered here and there, each holding a few choice blossoms, and supplemented, if the table is large, by a few tiny globes or little dishes filled with short-stemmed flowers that look well, massed, like pansies, violets, primroses, etc., mixed with plenty of delicate feathery green. If a central ornament for the table is desired, there is nothing prettier than a wicker or metal basket filled with growing ferns, grasses, or lycopodium, with possibly one or two plants in bloom among them.
In setting the table for a large breakfast, a plate, napkin, water-glass, and a butter-plate holding a tiny pat or ball of butter, are laid at each place, and a salt-cellar also, if individual salts are used. At the right of each plate is the silver butter-knife, and one other knife; to the left is the fork. The taste of the hostess must decide the point of placing more small silver than is needed at each course by the plates when the table is first spread. Laying it all at once saves waiting, but some good authorities ordain that a waiter should bring in a fresh knife and fork with each course for each guest, while others, equally reliable, advocate placing the knife and fork upon a cold plate in front of each person at the beginning of every course. The guest instantly removes them, and a hot plate is substituted by the waiter for the cold one before the next dish is passed. This system involves much additional waiting, and should not be attempted unless an exceptionally well-trained butler is in charge.
The little dishes of bonbons, marrons, and glacé fruits that are always en règle at a luncheon should not appear on the breakfast-table. There may, however, be olives, radishes, and salted almonds placed here and there.
The first course should consist of fruit. The plates, holding each its doily, finger-bowl, fruit-knife, fork, and spoon, may be on the table when the guests enter the room, or be put there as soon as they are seated. The variety of fruit offered must be decided by the time of year. When they are in season, nothing could be more delicious than big strawberries, served uncapped. These may be passed in a dish, and each guest allowed to help himself. Sugar into which to dip the berries may then be served to each. Prettier still is it to place in front of each guest a plate bearing a tiny decorated basket filled with the berries. The sugar may be in tiny individual sugar-cellars or be passed in a bowl. Unless the berries are fine large ones, it is better to serve them hulled, and to eat them with sugar and cream. In that case they are eaten from saucers.
Peaches, pears, apricots, nectarines, etc., in summer, and oranges, apples, mandarins, bananas, and the like in winter, all add greatly to the beauty of a breakfast-table when they are garnished with leaves and heaped upon a large flat salver, or in a cut-glass bowl, or an open-work one of china or silver.
After the fruit may come a course of oysters cooked à la poulette, broiled, steamed, panned, or in croquettes. For these may be substituted lobster or crab in some form, if preferred, or both the oysters and the other may be served in successive courses. Next may come some such entrée as sweetbreads roasted, broiled, fricasseed, or in vol-au-vent with mushrooms, or chickens may be served in some such dainty form as pâtés, timbales, à la marengo, or au suprême. Next are chops, cutlets, or small beef tenderloins, with potatoes in some fanciful style. There should be no other vegetable. French bread or rolls must be passed frequently.
The next course may consist of a game pie, either cold or hot, or of boned fowl, and may be followed by a salad. The name of these is legion, but the plain lettuce salad is better reserved for dinner, and in its stead at breakfast there may be served something like tomatoes and lettuce with mayonnaise dressing, celery mayonnaise garnished with radishes, and accompanied by crackers and cheese, or a fruit-salad of oranges, grape fruit, or pineapple.
The dessert may be of any cold sweets, and if ices are used they should be of the punch order—one of the many varieties known as Roman, Siberian, creole, cardinal, etc. If crackers and cheese are not served with the salad, they may be passed at the close of the breakfast. Brie, Gorgonzola, or Roquefort may be used.
At a breakfast of ceremony the tea or coffee tray is never placed on the table, but breakfast coffee or cocoa is served in large cups after the fruit, and is passed by the butler, instead of being poured by the hostess. Tea may also be offered. Wines are not strictly selon les règles at a breakfast, although occasionally claret is served about the middle of the meal.
The waiting at such a breakfast as this is about as ceremonious as it would be at a luncheon. No large dishes are placed on the table, but everything is passed by the butler or waitress. Each dish may go the rounds, and the guests be allowed to help themselves, or a plate containing a portion may be placed by the butler in front of each person. The guest always helps himself to cheese and hors-d'œuvres, but the ices are served separately on plates. Bouquets de corsage, boutonnières, cards and menus are not necessary at a breakfast.
A wedding breakfast is conducted on much the same line as that described above, except that there are usually fewer hot and more cold dishes served, such as salmon, lobster, or chicken à la mayonnaise, boned turkey and chicken, pâté-de-foie-gras, jellied tongue and fowl, and a greater variety of such sweets as creams and jellies. Wines, too, are quite comme il faut.
The giving of a breakfast need not be a matter of dread to the hostess who has confidence in her cook and waitress. The menu suggested may be so modified or increased as to make it as simple or as elaborate as preference may dictate. A breakfast is a pleasant style of entertainment, for, while both sexes are admitted, as at dinner, there is not the formality of dress essential at that meal, the men appearing in morning coats, and the women in handsome high-necked and long-sleeved house or calling costumes.
FAMILY BREAKFASTS FOR SPRING
WHILE the principal features of the home breakfast remain essentially the same throughout the year, variety is gained by adapting the different articles of food to the season of the year in which they are served. A lighter, less carbon-producing diet is not only more agreeable, but more healthful, in warm weather than one containing much animal food, while the latter is preferable and almost necessary in winter. To this consideration is added the eminent propriety of making one's bills of fare seasonable, and thus achieving fitness and economy.
With the desire to aid the housewife in her labors, a few selected menus for each meal and each season will be given, none of them too costly to be beyond the reach of people of moderate means, and appended to each bill of fare will be recipes for the preparation of certain dishes therein mentioned which may possibly be unfamiliar to the readers of these chapters.
1.
Oranges.
Cracked Wheat.
Parsley Omelet. Corn Muffins.
Buttered Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.
Parsley Omelet.—Five eggs, two tablespoonfuls milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful finely minced parsley; pepper and salt to taste. Beat the whites and yolks of the eggs separately and very light; add the milk to the yolks and stir in the whites, not mixing them in thoroughly, however; season to taste. Pour into the omelet pan in which the butter has been heated, and set over the fire in a moderately hot spot. Keep the omelet from adhering to the pan by slipping a knife between them from time to time. Just before the omelet is "set," sprinkle it thickly with the chopped parsley. When done, fold one half over the other, slip to a hot dish, and serve at once, as it falls quickly.
Corn Muffins.—One and a half cups flour, one and a half cups yellow corn-meal, three tablespoonfuls sugar, two tablespoonfuls butter, two eggs, one and a half cupfuls milk, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, half teaspoonful salt. Sift the salt and baking-powder with the flour; beat the eggs light; add the milk, the butter (melted), and the sugar. Stir in the flour and meal; beat hard, and bake in muffin-tins.
Buttered Potatoes.—Slice cold boiled potatoes, heat them in a steamer, thence transfer them to a hot dish. Put on them a large tablespoonful of butter into which have been worked a teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a saltspoonful of lemon juice. Set the dish, covered, over hot water for two minutes, and serve.
2.
Mandarins.
Cerealine Porridge.
Creamed Cod, with Potatoes. Griddle Muffins.
Coffee. Chocolate.
Creamed Cod, with Potatoes.—To two cupfuls of boiled cod, salt or fresh, well picked to pieces, allow one cupful of mashed potato. Season to taste. Put into the frying-pan over the fire with a half-cupful of milk and a large tablespoonful of butter. Stir and beat constantly while it heats, and soften it by adding to it boiling water at discretion. When a creamy, smoking mass, transfer it to a hot dish. If you have drawn butter in the house, or sauce tartare, or egg sauce left over from the first appearance of the fish, this may be used in place of the milk and butter.
Griddle Muffins.—One egg, one tablespoonful butter, one cupful milk, one teaspoonful baking-powder, pinch of salt, flour enough to make a soft dough. Mix the milk, beaten egg, and melted butter together; sift the baking-powder and salt into one cupful of the flour; then add the rest; roll out the dough as thick as for biscuit, cut into rounds with a biscuit-cutter, and bake slowly on a griddle, turning when done on one side. Tear open, and butter while hot.
3.
Graham Brewis.
Baked Mince. Feather Muffins.
Water Cress.
Stewed Prunes.
Tea. Cocoa.
Graham Brewis.—Two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, one saltspoonful salt; Graham bread crumbs at discretion. Heat the milk in a double boiler, stir in the butter and salt, and add the Graham crumbs until the brewis is as thick as ordinary oatmeal porridge; cook ten minutes, and eat with butter, or butter and sugar.
Baked Mince.—Two cups chopped beef, one cup mashed potato, half an onion minced, one cup gravy or one cup boiling water, and a tablespoonful of butter, two teaspoonfuls Worcestershire sauce; pepper and salt to taste. Mix the ingredients well together, and put into a greased pudding-dish; sprinkle a few fine crumbs over the top; set in the oven and brown.
Feather Muffins.—One cup flour, one cup milk, lump of butter the size of an egg, one teaspoonful baking-powder, pinch of salt, two eggs. Beat the eggs light, the whites and yolks separately. Into the latter stir the milk, the flour, with which has been sifted the salt and baking-powder, and the butter, melted. Last, add the whipped whites, and bake in a quick oven.
4.
Fruit.
Oatmeal Porridge.
Scallop Patties. Graham Gems.
Baked Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.
Scallop Patties.—Cook a pint of scallops in their own liquor for ten minutes. Take out the scallops and add to the liquor a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with one of flour, and pepper and salt to taste. Return the scallops to this sauce, and let it just come to a boil. Fill scallop-shells with the mixture, sprinkle fine crumbs over them, dot with bits of butter, and brown in the oven. Pass lemon with this.
Graham Gems.—Two cups Graham flour, two cups milk, two eggs, two teaspoonfuls butter, two teaspoonfuls sugar, pinch of salt. Melt the butter, warm the milk, and stir these into the unbeaten eggs. Add the flour and salt, and beat well before baking in heated gem-pans in a hot oven.
5.
Fruit.
Corn-meal Hasty Pudding.
Broiled Fresh Mackerel. Saratoga Potatoes.
Buttered Toast.
Tea. Coffee.
6.
Wheat-Germ Meal.
Curried Eggs. Rice Muffins.
Strawberries and Cream.
Tea. Cocoa.
Curried Eggs.—One cup good gravy, six hard-boiled eggs, one teaspoonful curry-powder. Heat the gravy; stir into it the curry-powder wet up in a little cold gravy or water, and lay the eggs, each sliced in three, in the scalding gravy. Set the saucepan at the side of the stove where it will not boil, and let it stand ten minutes before sending to table.
Rice Muffins.—One cup boiled rice, two eggs, two cups flour, one tablespoonful melted butter, pinch salt, three cups milk. Stir together the milk, eggs, butter, and salt; beat in the rice and flour; bake quickly.
7.
Fruit.
Graham Porridge.
Broiled Steak. Stewed Potatoes.
Omelet Bread.
Coffee. Cocoa.
Omelet Bread.—Half-cup flour, three eggs, one tablespoonful melted butter, one teaspoonful sugar, pinch of salt, milk enough to make thick batter. Beat the whites and yolks of eggs separately, and very light; stir the butter, flour, milk, salt, sugar, and yolks together, and add the frothed whites; pour into a well-greased tin pan, and bake, covered, on the top of the stove; uncover and brown in the oven; eat immediately.
8.
Fruit.
Wheatena.
Crisped Smoked Beef. Brown Biscuit.
Chopped Potatoes.
Coffee. Chocolate.
Crisped Smoked Beef.—Boil slices of smoked beef for five minutes; take them out, dry, and put into the frying-pan with a tablespoonful of butter; stir about until crisp, but not too dry.
Brown Biscuit.—One cup white flour, two cups Graham flour, two tablespoonfuls lard, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, a little salt, milk enough to make a soft dough. Handle the dough as little as possible, and bake quickly.
9.
Hominy boiled in Milk.
Poached Eggs. Fried Bacon.
Raspberry Short-cake.
Tea. Cocoa.
Raspberry Short-cake.—Four cups flour, two cups milk, two tablespoonfuls lard, or lard and butter, three teaspoonfuls baking-powder, salt, one quart raspberries. Roll out a little more than half the dough into a sheet to cover the bottom of a deep biscuit-pan. Spread the berries thickly on this, sprinkle with sugar, and of the remaining dough make a top crust. Bake in a steady oven, cut into squares, and eat hot with butter and sugar, or with sugar and cream.
10.
Oranges.
Cracked Wheat.
Broiled Chicken. Saratoga Potatoes.
Boston Brown Bread.
Coffee. Chocolate.
Boston Brown Bread.—One cup Indian-meal, one cup rye-meal, half-cup white flour, one cup milk, half-cup molasses, pinch salt, one small teaspoonful soda. Sift the meal, flour, soda, and salt together, work in the milk and molasses, pour into a well-greased brown-bread mould, and boil two hours, taking care that the water in the outer vessel does not come to the top of the mould. Unless you have a late breakfast, it is well to cook the bread the day before, and warm it the next morning.
FAMILY BREAKFASTS FOR SUMMER
AS the season advances and the warm weather becomes settled, the preference should be given to fish and egg dishes rather than to those containing meat. For a sultry morning a breakfast of which fruit makes an important part is welcome generally to both palate and digestion.
The many kinds of delicious fresh fish that may easily be procured should hold a prominent place in summer bills of fare; while eggs, usually plentiful and cheap at this season, may be prepared in various tempting fashions.
1.
Strawberries.
Moulded Cerealine.
Broiled Shad. New Potatoes.
Rye Gems.
Tea. Cocoa.
Strawberries.—When served as a first course at breakfast, it is better to have them unhulled, and to eat them with the fingers, dipping each berry into powdered sugar.
Moulded Cerealine.—Prepare the cerealine as usual the day before, and fill small cups with it. Turn it out the next morning, and eat cold, with cream.
Rye Gems.—Three cups rye-flour, three cups milk, three eggs, one tablespoonful sugar, one tablespoonful butter. Beat hard and bake quickly.
2.
Red Raspberries.
Oatmeal.
Shad Roes in Ambush.
Potato Croquettes. Dry Toast.
Radishes.
Tea. Coffee.
Shad Roes in Ambush.—Two shad roes, four hard-boiled eggs, one cup milk, one tablespoonful flour, two teaspoonfuls butter; pepper and salt to taste. Lay the roes in boiling water, and let them simmer for ten minutes. Drain this off, pour cold water upon them, and let them stand in this for ten minutes; then take them out, and set them aside until wanted. Separate the whites and yolks of the boiled eggs, chop the whites coarsely, and rub the yolks through a sieve. Make a white sauce by heating the milk and thickening it with the butter and flour rubbed together. Rub the shad roes to pieces with the back of a spoon, taking care not to crush the eggs too much. Stir them into half of the white sauce, season, let them stand on the fire long enough to be heated through, and pour into a pudding-dish. Mix the whites of the eggs with the rest of the sauce, and cover the shad roes with this; last, strew the powdered yolks over the top. Cover closely, and set in a hot oven for three minutes.
3.
Boiled Hominy.
Chicken Mince. Raw Tomatoes.
Green Corn Fritters.
Blackberries and Cream.
Tea. Cocoa.
Chicken Mince.—From the bones of a cold roast, boiled, or fricasseed chicken cut all the meat, and mince it fine with a sharp knife, chopping with it two hard-boiled eggs. Stir this into a cup of gravy, or, if you have none, use instead a cup of white sauce made as directed in "Shad Roes in Ambush." Season to taste, fill a pudding-dish or scallop-shells with the mixture, and serve very hot.
Green-Corn Fritters.—Two cupfuls green corn cut from the cob, two eggs, two tablespoonfuls milk, one tablespoonful melted butter, flour enough for thin batter. Whip the eggs light, beat into these the corn and the other ingredients, adding the flour last of all. Bake on a griddle.
4.
Black Raspberries.
Wheaten Grits.
Broiled Salt Mackerel, Cream Sauce.
Stewed Potatoes. Graham Pop-Overs.
Broiled Salt Mackerel.—Soak your fish overnight in cold water, and wipe it dry before putting it on the gridiron. Broil over a clear fire, lay on a hot platter, and pour the sauce over it.
Cream Sauce.—Make like white sauce given above, doubling the quantity of butter, seasoning to taste, and using half milk, half cream, if you have the latter.
Graham Pop-Overs.—Three eggs, one and a half cups Graham flour, half cup white flour, two cups milk, pinch salt. Beat the eggs very light, whites and yolks together. Add the milk and salt, and sift in the flour rather slowly, to prevent lumping. Strain the batter through a sieve, and fill heated gem-pans. Bake in a quick oven, and eat immediately.
5.
Melons.
Moulded Oatmeal.
Sardines au gratin. Fresh Eggs, boiled.
Sally-Lunn.
Cocoa. Coffee.
Sardines au gratin.—Open a box of sardines; take them out carefully and lay them in a small pie-plate; squeeze a few drops of a lemon on each fish, sprinkle lightly with fine crumbs, and brown in the oven.
Sally-Lunn.—Two eggs, two tablespoonfuls melted butter, one cup milk, pinch salt, half yeast-cake, two cups flour. Beat the eggs light; stir in the butter, salt, and milk, then the flour, and last the yeast cake, dissolved. Let it rise at least six hours in a very well-greased tin; bake, turn out, and eat hot.
6.
Graham Flakes.
Baked Omelet. Parisian Potatoes.
Quick Biscuit.
Blackberries and Cream.
Coffee. Cocoa.
Baked Omelet.—Five eggs, half cup milk, quarter cup fine bread-crumbs, tablespoonful melted butter; pepper and salt to taste. Soak the crumbs in the milk ten minutes; beat the eggs very light, the whites and yolks separately; stir the soaked crumbs, the milk, the butter, and seasoning into the yolks, and mix the whites in lightly. Pour into a well-greased pudding-dish, and bake in a quick oven.
Parisian Potatoes.—From peeled and washed white potatoes scoop out little balls with the cutter that comes for this purpose. Boil them for five minutes, then put them in the frying-pan with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Stir them about until every ball is well coated with the butter, pour into a colander, and set them in the oven until brown. Sprinkle with salt and a little minced parsley before serving.
Quick Biscuit.—Two cups flour, one tablespoonful mixed lard and butter, one cup milk, one heaping teaspoonful baking-powder, pinch salt. Handle little, roll out and cut quickly, and bake in a steady oven.
7.
Boiled Rice.
Fried Pickerel. Stewed Potatoes.
Cocoa. Coffee.
Peach Short-Cake.
Peach Short-Cake.—Make a dough as for quick biscuit, doubling the materials. Roll two thirds of the dough into a sheet to fit the bottom of a baking-pan, spread thickly with sliced peaches, sprinkle with sugar, and lay over these a crust made of the remaining dough. Bake in a steady oven. Split, butter, and eat hot.
8.
Farina Porridge.
Barbecued Ham. Water-cress.
Butter Cakes.
Huckleberries.
Tea. Coffee.
Barbecued Ham.—Slice cold boiled corned or smoked ham. Fry in its own fat, remove the slices to another dish, and keep hot while you add to the fat in the pan a teaspoonful of white sugar, three dashes of black pepper, a teaspoonful (scant) of made mustard, and three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Boil up once, and pour over the ham.
Butter Cakes.—Prepare a dough as for quick biscuit, roll it out quarter of an inch thick, and cut into small rounds. Roll each of these out until as thin as cookies, prick with a fork, and bake in a quick oven. When done, butter well. Leave in the oven half a minute longer, and send hot to table.
9.
Oatmeal.
Omelet with Corn. Deviled Tomatoes.
Cold Bread.
Peaches and Cream.
Iced Tea. Coffee.
Omelet with Corn.—Prepare as you do baked omelet; but at the last, before putting into the pan, add a cupful of green corn cut from the cob. Pour the omelet into a frying-pan containing two tablespoonfuls of butter, and cook, loosening it constantly from the bottom with a knife to prevent its scorching. When done, double over and serve.
Deviled Tomatoes.—Cut fresh tomatoes into thick slices, broil on a fine wire gridiron over a clear fire, and when done lay in a dish, and pour over them a sauce like that made for barbecued ham, substituting two tablespoonfuls of olive oil or of melted butter for the ham fat.
10.
Peaches and Pears.
Moulded Hominy.
Broiled Bluefish. Stuffed Potatoes.
Corn-meal Gems.
Tea. Coffee.
Stuffed Potatoes.—Bake eight large, fine potatoes until soft; cut off the tops, and scoop out the contents; add to them one egg whipped light, two tablespoonfuls melted butter, half cup milk, pepper and salt. Beat all together, and return to the skins. Set in an oven, top upwards, long enough to become well heated, and serve.
Corn-meal Gems.—Three eggs, two cups milk, two tablespoonfuls butter, two cups corn-meal, one cup flour, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder. Work the butter and milk into the meal, then add the other materials, the flour last. Have your gem-pans very hot, and bake half an hour in a hot oven.
FAMILY BREAKFASTS FOR AUTUMN
DURING the early part of the autumn, and indeed until late in the winter, the supply of fruit is only less abundant than in the summer. Melons and peaches go first, but their place is taken by grapes, pears, apples, bananas, and, later, mandarins, tangerines, and oranges. Meat now begins to be a more necessary article in the bill of fare. By the exercise of a little ingenuity, left-overs from the dinner of the previous day may be rendered even more appetizing than they were in their first estate.
1.
Peaches and Pears.
Oatmeal.
Veal Cutlets à la Maître d'Hôtel.
Potatoes hashed with Cream.
Quick Sally-Lunn.
Cocoa. Coffee.
Veal Cutlets à la Maître d'Hôtel.—Cut veal cutlets into neat pieces, and pound each with a mallet. Broil over a clear fire, transfer to a hot dish, and lay on each cutlet a small piece of maître d'hôtel butter. Set in a hot corner, covered, for five minutes before sending to table.
Maître d'Hôtel Butter.—Into one cupful of good butter work a tablespoonful of lemon juice and two tablespoonfuls of finely chopped parsley, with a little salt and white pepper. Pack into a small jar, cover, and keep in a cool place. It is useful to put on chops, steaks, or cutlets, or to mix with potatoes.
Potatoes hashed with Cream.—Chop cold boiled potatoes fine, and stir them into a cup of hot milk in which has been melted two tablespoonfuls of butter. Pepper and salt to taste. Let the potatoes become heated through before you serve them. If you have cream, use this and half as much butter.
Quick Sally-Lunn.—Three eggs, half cup butter, one cup milk, three cups flour, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, half teaspoonful salt. Stir the butter, melted, into the beaten yolks; add the milk, the flour (into which the baking-powder has been sifted), and the whites last. Bake in one loaf, in a steady oven.
2.
Cracked Wheat.
Bananas.
Minced Mutton with Poached Eggs.
Buttered Toast. Baked Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.
Minced Mutton with Poached Eggs.—Chop cold boiled or roast mutton quite fine. Put two cupfuls of this into the frying-pan with half an onion minced, and a half-cupful of good gravy. If you have none, use instead a gill of hot water and a lump of butter the size of an egg. Just before taking the mince from the fire, stir into it a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce or two tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup. Heap the mince on small squares of buttered toast laid on a hot platter, and place a poached egg on top of each mound. Serve very hot.
3.
Apples.
Wheat Granules.
Soused Mackerel. Potato Balls.
Quick Waffles.
Cocoa. Coffee.
Soused Mackerel.—These may be purchased canned at nearly any good grocery, and make an excellent breakfast dish.
Potato Balls.—To two cupfuls cold mashed potato add an egg, a teaspoonful of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Form with floured hands into small round or long balls, and fry in deep fat.
Quick Waffles.—Three cups flour, one tablespoonful butter, two eggs, two cups milk, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, a little salt. Beat the eggs light, add the milk, butter, and salt. Stir in the flour with the baking-powder last. Grease your waffle-irons well with a piece of fat pork.
4.
Grapes.
Wheaten Grits.
Broiled Steak with Mushrooms.
Fried Egg-plant. Unleavened Bread.
Coffee. Chocolate.
Broiled Steak with Mushrooms.—Broil your steak over a clear fire. Before you put it on, open a can of mushrooms, take out half of them, and cut each mushroom in two. Sauté them in a frying-pan with a little butter, unless you have a cup of bouillon or clear beef soup or gravy at hand. If you have, let them simmer in this for ten minutes, and when you dish your steak, pour gravy and mushrooms over it. Leave it covered in the oven five minutes before sending to table.
Unleavened Bread.—Two cups flour, one tablespoonful butter, a pinch salt, enough water to make a dough. Knead this well, roll out very thin, cut in rounds with a biscuit cutter, prick with a fork, and bake in a hot oven.
5.
Pears.
Corn-meal Mush.
Dropped Fish-cakes. Saratoga Potatoes.
Simple Griddle Cakes.
Dropped Fish-cakes.—One cup of salt cod picked very fine, half cup milk, one tablespoonful butter, two teaspoonfuls flour, one egg, pepper to taste. Make a white sauce of the flour, butter, and milk, stir the fish into this, add the egg, beaten light, season, and drop by the spoonful into boiling lard, as is done with fritters.
Simple Griddle Cakes.—Four cups sour milk, one small teaspoonful baking-soda, salt, flour for batter. Stir well and bake quickly.
6.
Grapes.
Rye-meal Porridge.
Broiled Sausages. Stewed Potatoes.
Wheat-flour Gems.
Broiled Sausages.—Make sausage-meat into quite thin cakes with the hands, lay them on a gridiron, and broil them over a hot fire.
Wheat-flour Gems.—Two cups flour, one cup milk, one tablespoonful melted butter, two eggs, saltspoonful salt. Beat the eggs light, stir in the milk, the butter, the salt. Sift in the flour, stir briskly, and bake in gem-pans in a hot oven.
7.
Bananas.
Oatmeal.
Clam Fritters. Boiled Potatoes.
English Muffins.
Tea. Coffee.
Clam Fritters.—Two dozen clams, one egg, one cup milk, two small cups flour, or enough for thin batter, salt and pepper. Chop the clams fine, and stir them into the batter made of the milk, clam liquor, beaten eggs, and the flour. Season to taste, and fry by the spoonful in very hot lard.
English Muffins.—Two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, one teaspoonful sugar, saltspoonful salt, half of a yeast-cake. Four cups flour, or enough to make a very stiff batter. Set to rise for about three hours, or until the batter is like a honeycomb, then bake on a soapstone griddle in very large muffin-rings. Make them the day before they are wanted, and, when ready to use them, split, toast lightly, butter, and eat hot.
8.
Oranges.
Large Hominy.
Fried Smelts. Moulded Potato.
Hasty Muffins.
Tea. Coffee.
Moulded Potato.—Press cold mashed potato into small teacups; turn out, brush over with yolk of egg, put a bit of butter on top of each, and brown in the oven.
Hasty Muffins.—Two cups flour, two eggs, one tablespoonful mixed butter and lard, two teaspoonfuls white sugar, one teaspoonful baking-powder, saltspoonful salt, one cup milk. Into the eggs, beaten very light, stir the melted shortening, the sugar, the milk, and the flour, well mixed with the salt and baking-powder. Stir well, and bake in thoroughly greased tins.
9.
Grapes.
Cerealine cooked in Milk.
Egg Timbales with Cheese. Lyonnaise Potatoes.
Wheat Puffs.
Egg Timbales with Cheese.—Six eggs, one gill milk, salt and pepper to taste, two tablespoonfuls grated cheese. Beat the eggs well without separating the yolks and whites, add the milk and seasoning, stir in the cheese, and pour into well-greased little tin pans with straight sides; set these in a pan of hot water, and bake in the oven; when the egg is firm, turn out on a flat dish, and pour a white sauce over them.
Lyonnaise Potatoes.—Slice cold boiled potatoes into neat rounds; cut a medium-sized onion into thin slices, and put it with a good tablespoonful of butter or bacon dripping into the frying-pan; when the onion is colored, add the potatoes, about two cupfuls, and stir them about until they are a light brown. Strew with chopped parsley, and serve.
Wheat Puffs.—Two cups milk, two eggs, two cups flour. Beat hard and very smooth, and bake in greased and heated gem-pans or earthenware cups. Eat at once.
FAMILY BREAKFASTS FOR WINTER
A WORD may be said here anent the cooking of porridges. There are as many theories about this apparently simple affair as there are denominational differences in theological circles. One housekeeper soaks the oatmeal overnight; another puts it on when the fire is made; another fifteen minutes before breakfast. Mrs. A. soaks hers in cold water, Mrs. B. uses boiling, while Mrs. C. inclines to having the water just hot. One stirs the porridge frequently; another says it is ruined if touched with a spoon.
On general principles, one may say that oatmeal is never the worse for a soaking, although some varieties need it less than others; that unless carefully and evenly cooked it is apt to become lumpy without stirring or beating; and that the degree of stiffness to which it should be brought must depend upon the taste of those who are to eat it.
1.
Oranges.
Graham Mush.
Sausage Rolls. Rye Muffins.
Baked Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.
Sausage Rolls.—Make a good pastry by chopping into two cups of flour four tablespoonfuls of butter, making this to a paste with half a cup of ice-water, and rolling out three times. Have the ingredients and utensils very cold, and handle the paste as little and as lightly as possible. Cut the pastry with a sharp knife into strips about three inches square. On one of these lay cooked and minced sausage-meat, and cover it with another square of the same size. Pinch the edges together, and bake in a moderate oven. Proceed thus until all the materials are used.
Rye Muffins.—One cup white flour, two cups rye flour, two eggs, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful sugar, saltspoonful salt, milk enough for stiff batter. Beat well, and bake in muffin-tins.
2.
Mandarins.
Boiled Hominy.
Pork Tenderloins. Apple Sauce.
Crumpets.
Coffee. Cocoa.
Crumpets.—Two cups milk, three cups flour, three tablespoonfuls butter, saltspoonful salt, half yeast-cake dissolved in warm water. Warm the milk; beat in the salted flour, the melted butter, and the yeast. Let this sponge stand in a warm place until light. Bake in greased muffin-rings on a hot griddle, or in muffin-pans in the oven. In either case fill the pans or rings only half full, as the crumpets will rise in baking.
3.
Oatmeal.
Veal Croquettes. Stewed Potatoes.
Sour-milk Muffins.
Stewed Prunes.
Tea. Coffee.
Veal Croquettes.—One cup cold veal, minced fine; tiny bit of onion, scalded and chopped; half teaspoonful parsley; one cup milk, or half milk, half soup stock; one tablespoonful flour; one tablespoonful butter; pepper and salt to taste; one egg. Cook the butter and flour together until they bubble; pour the milk or milk and stock on them, and stir until they thicken. Remove from the fire, and pour upon the beaten egg; then stir in the meat, seasoned with the onion, parsley, pepper, and salt. Set this aside until cold enough to handle, then form into croquettes between the floured hands. Roll in egg, and then in fine cracker crumbs, and drop into boiling lard. They are better prepared an hour before frying.
In making veal croquettes, oyster liquor may be used in place of the stock, and a few oysters chopped with the veal will improve the flavor.
Sour-milk Muffins.—One egg, two cups sour milk, half teaspoonful salt, half teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water; flour to make a stiff batter. Beat hard, and bake quickly.
4.
Bananas.
Wheat Flakes.
Apples and Bacon. Loaf Corn Bread.
Saratoga Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.
Apples and Bacon.—Fry thin slices of bacon crisp in its own fat. Take up the bacon and keep hot while you fry in the fat left in the pan apples sliced across and cored, but not peeled. Arrange the apples in the centre of the dish, the bacon around the sides.
Loaf Corn Bread.—Two eggs, two cups milk, two cups corn meal, one cup flour, one tablespoonful lard, one tablespoonful sugar, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, saltspoonful salt. Beat the eggs light, add the melted lard, the milk, the flour, and meal, sifted with the baking-powder and salt, and beat very hard. Bake in a round tin, one with a tube in the middle, if you have it.
5.
Grapes.
Cerealine.
Broiled Salt Mackerel à la Maître d'Hôtel.
Stewed Potatoes. Risen Muffins.
Tea. Cocoa.
Broiled Salt Mackerel à la Maître d'Hôtel.—Soak the mackerel overnight. In the morning wipe it dry, broil, lay on a hot dish, and anoint plentifully with maître d'hôtel butter, made by directions given in the preceding chapter.
Risen Muffins.—Two cups milk, two eggs, one tablespoonful lard, one tablespoonful sugar, saltspoonful salt, half yeast cake dissolved in a little warm water, flour enough for batter. Set a sponge of all the ingredients except the eggs to rise overnight. In the morning beat these light, add them to the batter, and bake the muffins in tins in a quick oven.
6.
Wheat Germ-Meal Porridge.
Broiled Ham. Canned Pea Pancakes.
Buttered Toast.
Baked Apples.
Cocoa. Coffee.
Canned Pea Pancakes.—One can of green pease, one egg, one cup milk, two teaspoonfuls melted butter, half cupful flour, half teaspoonful baking-powder, salt to taste. Open the can several hours before it is to be used, and drain off the liquor. Rinse the pease in cold water. Mash them with the back of a spoon, and mix with them the butter and salt. Make a batter of the egg, the milk, and the flour, with the baking-powder. Add the pease, beat well, and bake on a griddle.
7.
Tangerines.
Rice Porridge.
Moulded Eggs. Ham Toast.
Baked Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.
Moulded Eggs.—On the bottom of well-buttered patty-pans with straight sides sprinkle finely minced parsley and a little pepper and salt. Break an egg into each pan, set them in a large pan filled with boiling water, and bake until set. Turn out on a flat dish, and pour a white sauce over them.
Ham Toast.—To every cupful of chopped cold boiled ham put a half-teaspoonful of made mustard, as much butter, and a little Worcestershire sauce. Trim the crust from slices of bread, toast and butter them, and spread them with the chopped ham.
8.
Bananas.
Oatmeal.
Broiled Smoked Salmon. Breakfast Biscuit.
Savory Potatoes.
Cocoa. Coffee.
Breakfast Biscuit.—Two cups milk, half cake yeast dissolved in warm water, two teaspoonfuls white sugar, two tablespoonfuls lard, one tablespoonful butter, saltspoonful salt, flour for soft dough. Warm the milk, melt the shortening, and set the sponge overnight. The next morning roll into a sheet, cut out with a biscuit cutter, let them rise twenty minutes in the pan, and bake.
Savory Potatoes.—Two cupfuls cold potatoes sliced, half cup gravy, quarter of an onion sliced. Heat the gravy in a frying-pan with the onion, add the potatoes, and leave them until they are brown, stirring often. Serve potatoes and gravy together.
9.
Oranges.
Cracked Wheat.
Lyonnaise Tripe. Boiled Potatoes.
Bread-and-milk Cakes.
Tea. Coffee.
Lyonnaise Tripe.—One pound boiled tripe, one onion, one tablespoonful butter, one cupful stewed tomatoes, pepper and salt. Brown the onion in the butter, add the tripe, cut into neat pieces, add the seasoning. Brown lightly, add the tomatoes, and, when these are hot, serve.
Bread-and-milk Cakes.—One cup fine bread crumbs, two cups milk, one egg, two teaspoonfuls melted butter, saltspoonful salt, two tablespoonfuls flour. Soak the crumbs in the milk ten minutes; beat in the whipped egg, the butter, the salt, and the flour. Bake on a well-greased griddle.
10.
Apples.
Graham Flakes.
Fried Scallops. Light Loaf.
Hashed Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.
Fried Scallops.—Stew the scallops five minutes in their own liquor. Take out, drain, and roll first in egg, then in fine cracker crumbs. Fry to a light brown in deep fat, lay on a sheet of brown paper in a hot colander, and serve on a small napkin laid on a heated dish.
Light Loaf.—One cup milk, one tablespoonful sugar, one tablespoonful butter, two eggs, two cups flour, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, saltspoonful salt. Beat the eggs light; add the butter, melted, the sugar, salt, milk, and, last, the flour sifted with the baking-powder. Bake in one loaf, and serve hot.
Hashed Potatoes.—Chop cold potatoes fine, have ready in a pan a tablespoonful of bacon dripping made very hot, stir into this two cupfuls of the potatoes, and toss about until well browned.