Baked Pork and Beans.
For a family of six or seven, take a quart of white beans, wash them in several waters, and put them into two or three quarts over night. In the morning (when it will be easier to cull out the bad ones, than before they were soaked), pick them over, and boil them until they begin to crack open; then put them into a brown pan, such as are made for the purpose. Pour upon them enough of the water they were boiled in almost to cover them. Cut the rind of about a pound of salt pork into narrow strips; lay it on the top of the beans, and press it down so that it will lie more than half its thickness in the water. Bake several hours; four or five is not too much. Where a brick oven is used, it is well to let beans remain in it over night. If they are baked in a stove, or range, more water may be necessary, before they are done.
Many persons think it a decided improvement to put in a large spoonful or two of molasses. It is a very good way.
Those who object to the use of pork, can have a very good dish of beans, by substituting two table-spoonfuls of nice beef-drippings, and adding two teaspoonfuls of salt.
To heat over baked beans, put them in a spider with a little water; heat them slowly at first, and cover close. If they are too moist, remove the cover and stir them often.
Salt meat and Vegetables, boiled together.
Put in the beef first, and allow twenty-five minutes or half an hour for every pound. Skim the water when it begins to simmer. An hour and a half before the dinner-hour, put in the pork, well scraped and washed, and again skim off the froth. Wash the vegetables with special care, and allow for boiling turnips, carrots, and cabbage, an hour, or an hour and a quarter; for parsnips three quarters, and for potatoes, half an hour. If the potatoes are not pared, a small piece of the skin should be cut off from each end. When the dinner is served, the pot should be set away in a cool place, and the fat taken from the top the next day, and put aside for soap grease. It will not be good for any other use, as it will have the flavor of the vegetables.
Take off with a sharp knife all the meat from the bones. If there are a few nice slices, reserve them, if most convenient, to be eaten cold. Chop the rest fine in a tray. Take cold gravy, without the fat, and put into a spider to heat. If you have not this, some of the stock, or water in which meat has been boiled. When it boils up, sprinkle in salt, and put in the minced meat; cover it, and let it stand upon the fire long enough to heat thoroughly, then stir in a small piece of butter. Toast bread and lay in the dish and put the meat over it. The common error in heating over meat, sliced or minced, is the putting it into a cold spider, with too much fat, and cooking it a long time. This makes it oily and tasteless. Almost all meats, when cooked a second time, should be done very quick. The goodness of these dishes depends much upon their being served hot.
Another.
When tomatoes are to be had, cut up several, according to the size of your family, and the quantity of cold meat; put them into a covered saucepan or kettle. When it boils put in the remnants, large and small, of cold roast beef, and also of roast mutton and lamb, if you have them. Add half a spoonful of brown sugar, salt, and a small bit of butter unless you have cold gravy. This, with the fat taken off, is nearly as good. Boil it again, fast, but only long enough to heat the meat thoroughly. Five minutes is enough.
Remnants of Boiled Meat.
Chop fine cold pieces of soup meat, or other boiled meat, salt or fresh; then add cold potatoes, and when these are chopped and mixed with the meat, heat in a spider some cold soup, or water in which meat has been boiled. As it boils up, put in the meat and potatoes, add salt, and cover it close for two or three minutes, then stir in a small piece of butter, let it stand a minute or two longer and then serve in a warm dish.
To heat over Beefsteak.
Cut it up small, or chop it; put it into a spider or saucepan with a little hot water. Season it with salt and a little butter.
All these dishes of remnants are much improved by using, instead of water, some of the stock for which a receipt is given on page 123.
Minced Veal.
Chop fine the pieces left of roast veal. Heat the gravy in a spider, or, if you have none left, melt a piece of butter half the size of an egg in a gill of hot water; stir it till it is melted lest it become oily. When it boils, put in the veal and cover it; stir it two or three times in the course of eight or ten minutes; season it with salt and pepper. Toast two or three slices of bread and lay in the dish. Put the veal upon the toast.
Brawn.
Boil a hock of beef, and any little pieces you may have besides, several hours. When the meat is ready to fall from the bones, take it out into an earthen pan, salt it, and season it with pepper, sage, and sweet marjoram. Put it into a coarse linen cloth or towel, twist it up tight and lay a weight upon it. A good deal of fat will thus be pressed out. When it has lain twenty-four hours take off the cloth. Cut thin slices for breakfast. It is very good, and will keep in a cool place several weeks. The water in which it was boiled will make excellent soup, or stock for gravies.
Head Cheese.
Take the head, feet, ears, and tail of a hog, and boil them until every bone falls out. Then take all the meat, both fat and lean, and put into an earthen pan. Season it with salt, pepper, sage, cloves, and summer savory, or any spice and herbs you may prefer. Put it into a coarse cloth, twist it up, and lay a weight upon it. This is a favorite article of food in some parts of the country, and certainly it is very good. Great care is necessary in cleaning such giblets of pork.
Another economical use for them is to take out all the bones, as for head cheese, and then return the meat to the liquor, boil it up, and stir in Indian meal, just as in making hasty-pudding. Put in considerable salt, and let it boil very moderately another hour and a half. Then take it up in deep dishes, and when it is cold cut it in slices and brown it on a griddle. A convenient breakfast article for laborers, but too hearty for persons of sedentary habits.
Souse.
Take off the horny parts of the feet and toes of a pig, and clean the feet, ears, and tail very thoroughly; then boil them till the large bones slip out easily. Pack the meat into a stone jar, with pepper, salt, and allspice sprinkled between each layer. Mix some good cider vinegar with the liquor in which it was boiled, in the proportion of one third vinegar to two thirds liquor, and fill up the jar.
To boil Rice.
Rice should be carefully picked over, and then washed first in warm water, and rubbed between the hands; then, five or six times in a good deal of cold water. It will not be white unless it is well washed.
To cook rice as a vegetable to be eaten with meat, put a pint into three or four quarts of hot water, with a teaspoonful of salt for each quart. Boil it fast fifteen minutes, then pour off the water, and set it, uncovered upon the stove where it will not burn, to dry. Boiled in this way, the kernels are separate, and it is considered, by those who live in the rice growing countries, the best, if not the only proper way of cooking it.
To boil rice in milk, is a very good way for families that keep cows, as it is thus a nice substitute for a pudding. Put a pint of rice into nearly two quarts of cold milk, an hour before dinner. Add two teaspoonfuls of salt. Boil it very slowly, and stir it often. It will cook on the back part of the range or stove, and not be liable to burn. When the supply of milk is small, boil rice in skimmed milk, or milk and water. It should, when boiled in a way to lose the distinct form of the kernels, be taken up in a mould, or bowl, wet in cold water, a short time before it is served.
Cracked Wheat.
Take one or two quarts, according to the size of the family, put it into cold water and after stirring it well, let it settle, then pour off the water, and add more, in the proportion of three quarts to a quart of wheat. Let it stand over night, and the next day boil it very moderately two or three hours. Add salt, and stir it very often lest it should burn. If it becomes too thick, add more water. The evaporation is more rapid at sometimes than at others. It should be not quite as thick as hasty pudding. Take it up in dishes wet in cold water. To brown it for breakfast, grease a tin or dripping pan, turn the wheat out of the dish upon it, and set it into the stove oven. It will become heated through, and handsomely browned in half an hour or forty minutes, and many people like it thus, better than when it is first boiled. Either way it is very nutritious and healthful.
Hasty Pudding.
Boil in a pot or kettle about six quarts of water, leaving room for the addition of the meal; mix a pint bowl full of Indian meal and cold water with a small spoonful of salt. When the water boils, stir this into it. After thirty or forty minutes, stir in four or five handfuls of dry meal, and let it boil as much longer; then add more dry meal. Taste it to see if it is salt enough. Stir it very often to prevent its burning. Most people make it too thick, and do not cook it half long enough. Boil it, altogether, at least two hours. When taken out, it should be so soft that it will in a few minutes settle down smooth in the dish. If you wish to fry it, put a spoonful of water into each deep pan or dish into which it is to be put, to keep it from sticking.
Hasty Pudding fried.
Cut cold pudding in slices the thickness of your finger, and lay them on the griddle. More fat will be necessary than for buckwheat cakes, but it fries much slower. If the fire is right it will be ready to turn in fifteen minutes, and will be brown. Turn it and let it lie about half as long as on the first side.
This is a very good breakfast for a winter morning. It does very nicely to be laid in the dripping-pan, and set into a stove oven; it will in that case not need turning, and of course will absorb less fat. It will take forty minutes to brown it in the stove.
The sour apples that drop from the trees early in the autumn, make an excellent pan pie without being pared. The skin then contains much of the richness of the apple, and is often so thin, that when cooked, it cannot be distinguished from the pulp. There are few articles of diet so healthy and palatable as pan pie, that are prepared with so little trouble and expense.
Where a brick oven is used, the following is a good receipt.
Take a potters ware pan, that will hold a gallon, and fill it with apples, quartered and cored; in winter pare the apples; roll out a piece of light bread dough, and lay upon the top; butter the edge of the pan to prevent the dough from sticking to it; cut an opening in the crust to allow the steam to escape, and put it into the oven. After about two hours draw it out and remove the crust, sweeten it with good molasses, or, if you choose, coarse sugar. Some persons use both. Put in a few sticks of cinnamon or some allspice, and a piece of butter as large as a nut. Stir it up thoroughly from the bottom. Your taste must guide you as to the quantity of sugar or molasses. Break up the bread crust and put into the apple. If it is very moist, return the pan uncovered to the oven; but if dry enough, cover it with an old plate; let it stand four or five hours.
There are various ways of making this dish. Some persons prefer to put in the molasses at first, and others use only sugar. It is very easy to improve it by rolling a little butter into the dough, exactly as in pie-crust; and if this is done once only, it makes the crust much more tender. Some persons put any crusts or pieces of bread they happen to have, into the apple, and if the crust that was baked with it is thin, it is a very good way.
Another.
To make a pan pie to bake in a stove oven, or range, cover the bottom of a deep dish with a layer of stewed apple; spread over it brown sugar enough to make it sweet, scatter in a little powdered cinnamon, and add two or three bits of butter the size of a filbert; then lay in pieces of plain pie crust or biscuit, baked rather brown, or crusts of light bread; spread a thick layer of apple over the pieces, scatter more cinnamon, and pour over the whole molasses enough to sweeten the upper layer of apple, then bake it in a moderate heat an hour and a half, or two hours. It is the best way to make it while the stewed apple is hot.
Crumb Cakes.
Keep a bowl or pitcher with sour milk in it, and from time to time throw in the crumbs of bread which break off when it is sliced, and also the dry pieces left of the table. When you next want griddle-cakes, take this mixture and break up all the pieces with your hand, add an egg, salt, and saleratus, and a few spoonfuls of flour. If the proportion of bread is too great, the cakes will not be good. Experience must teach, as no exact rule can be given.
Milk Toast.
Put a quart of milk, except two or three spoonfuls, to boil; rub smooth a small table-spoonful of flour in the reserved milk; when that in the saucepan begins to boil, stir in a piece of butter, rather larger than an egg, cut up in little bits. Stir steadily until it is all melted; then stir in the flour, and add a teaspoonful of salt. When it boils up again, set it where it will keep hot, without boiling, while the bread is toasted. Bread is not good when it is dried in the process of toasting; it should be browned quickly, and dipped while it is hot.
If you have cream, boil it without adding any butter; when boiled, put in a little salt, and a very little flour rubbed smooth in a spoonful of milk; dip the slices of toasted bread, and let them remain half a minute; then lay them into a hot dish with a cover, and pour over the remainder of the boiled cream.
Bruiss.
Take crusts of brown bread, and if they are dry and hard, lay them over night in a little water. In the morning add milk and boil them slowly. Take care they do not burn. Sprinkle in salt, and just before you take them up, add a little butter. If there is too much milk, take off the lid the latter part of the time. Take up the pieces as whole as you can.
Crusts of white bread make a good breakfast dish, in the same way, except that they do not need soaking over night.
Uses for pieces of Bread.
In some families there is always an accumulation of pieces of bread, and a good deal of ingenuity is necessary to prevent waste. If bread is good, and proper care is taken, such a thing as a plate of dry pieces is needless. Some families never have them. But for the benefit of those who, from any cause, cannot always prevent it, the following modes for making good use of pieces are suggested. A bread pudding is easily made, by boiling the pieces in milk. You can make as rich a pudding as you choose, by adding sugar, eggs, suet, spice, and raisins; or as plain a one, putting no sugar, two eggs, and a few sliced apples to a quart of milk, and boil or bake it. Make crumb cakes of some of the pieces. Boil a dish of others in milk for breakfast. If you are cooking meat that requires or admits of a stuffing, soften crusts with a very little boiling water, add butter, herbs, and a beaten egg. In summer, when bread becomes mouldy from long keeping, lay the pieces which cannot be used immediately, upon a tin and dry them in the oven; they are as good pounded for puddings and crumb cakes as before drying, and as nice to dress a ham as cracker crumbs. Nice pieces of bread are good in pan pie, and also in stewed tomato.
It is a good way to have a small board upon which to slice bread; and brush the crumbs from it into a box, or dish kept for the purpose. Such things may seem of little consequence, but the beneficial influence of economical habits is not limited to the actual value of the amount saved.
Care of Fat and Drippings.
In a large family, where much meat is consumed, the care of the fat and drippings is an important item; and every housekeeper should know what is done with them.[15] If she has a young cook, she probably will not be acquainted with the various ways of preventing them from being wasted; if one who is experienced, she may not always care to take the trouble. When meat is of a superior quality, there is usually some fat which should be trimmed off before it is cooked, and more will then roast out, than can be properly used for gravy; therefore, about three quarters of an hour before the meat is done, pour off all the drippings from the roaster, into a dish, and set them away to cool.[16] Save all the nice pieces of fat, and put those that are not so into the soap-grease. In warm weather, the good pieces should be clarified once in three or four days; in winter, once a week. If you have boiled lamb, or boiled beef which has been slightly salted, take the fat which cools on the top of the liquor, and add to that poured off from the roaster; scrape off any specks which may be on the under side of it. To clarify, cut small all the pieces saved, and put them into a small kettle; cover it, and put it on the stove or range where it will not burn. It should be tried slowly; stir it occasionally. When it looks clear, the cakes of drippings, the pieces from the top of the pot, &c., should be added. As soon as it again becomes clear, pour it through a little sieve, or colander with very small holes.
Fat thus clarified will save butter. It makes very good plain gingerbread and common pie-crust, or if preferred, can be used in each of these with half butter; it is as good as lard, to fry doughnuts or biscuit, and much more healthful; and though not equal for frying fish, to salt pork, does very well for this purpose. It is well to keep a small stone jar for such fat. A brown earthen one soon becomes saturated with it, and smells disagreeably.
The fat of mutton should not be put with other kinds, as it is very hard and tallow-like, and the taste is not agreeable. It however does very well to use on the griddle, or to grease pans for bread.
The fat which is not nice enough for any of these uses, should (unless it is more convenient to dispose of it to the soap boiler) be tried for the purpose of making soap. It should be kept in a dry place where it will not mould, and be covered so that flies will not visit it. Two receipts are given for making soap with very little trouble.
Allow sixteen pounds each of grease and potash for a barrel of soap. The grease should be such as has been well taken care of, viz., tried before it became wormy or mouldy. The potash should be about the color of pumice-stone. That which is red, makes dark soap, unfit for washing clothes. Cut up the grease into pieces of two or three ounces, put it into a tight barrel with the potash; then pour in two pailfuls of rain or spring water. The soap will be soonest made by heating the water, but it is just as sure to be good if made with cold water. Add a pailful of soft water every day, until the barrel is half full, and stir it well each day. A long stick with a cross piece at the lower end, is convenient for the purpose. When the barrel is half full, add no more water for a week or ten days, but continue to stir it daily. After that, add a pailful a day, until the barrel is full. It is the best way to keep soap three or four months before beginning to use it. It spends more economically, and is less sharp to the hands. When half of it has been used, put two pails of soft water to the rest, and stir it up well, from the bottom. The lower half of a barrel of home-made soap is always the strongest. Soft soap, made with clean grease and good potash is of a light nankeen color, and is better for washing flannels and white clothes than any other.
It is good economy to make soap, and it is so little work to make it with potash, and the result is so sure, that no one need to be deterred from it by the fear of trouble or ill-success.
To make Soap with Ashes.
The following method of making soap with ashes has been tried and proved good.
Provide a leach cask, that is, one that is large at the top, and small at the bottom. If this is not readily obtained, procure a hogshead that will not leak, have the head taken out at one end, and set it, propped forward a little, upon logs placed right and left, and high enough from the ground to set a pail under the front side. There should be a hole in the bottom, close to the front, with a tight plug in it. Lay in two or three bricks around the plug hole, and across them some bits of board, so as to reserve a space, and keep the ashes from packing close against the plug hole,—also several bricks here and there over the bottom with straw or brush laid on them. Then have the ashes put in and pressed down, till the hogshead is very full. Scoop a hollow in the centre in which to pour the water, and then fill it with cold soft water, until it will absorb no more. The next day, see if the water has settled away, if so, add more. When it is full, cover it up. After three weeks, draw off the ley, and put it into the soap barrel. Then pour into it twenty pounds of grease, of all kinds, tried and rough, ham skins, and scraps, boiling hot. Stir it very thoroughly, and every day. Have the hogshead filled again, and after three or four weeks draw off the ley, which will, this time, be comparatively weak; fill up the soap barrel, and continue to stir it daily for a week or two. The first ley being very strong will completely eat up even the coarsest of the grease, and after three or four months you will have a barrel of excellent soap, fit for use.
In order to have strong ley the ashes should be of good wood. Walnut and maple ashes are best for the purpose. If you wish to make the soap immediately, the water for filling the leach should be nearly boiling, and it can be drawn off the next day.
Leached ashes are useful to spread upon grass.
No branch of household economy brings a better reward than the making of butter; and to one who takes an interest in domestic employments, it soon becomes a pleasant occupation.
The following instructions are derived from the personal experience of one of the most skilful dairy-women in New England; and by observing them, the youthful house-keeper, hitherto unpractised in such mysteries, will have the pleasure of furnishing her table with the finest butter, the work of her own hands.
The first requisite is to have a good cow. One that has high hips, short fore-legs and a large udder is to be preferred. The cream-colored and the mouse-colored cows generally give a large quantity and of rich quality. Her feeding should be faithfully attended to. She should have a good pasture not far distant, or if this is impracticable, care must be taken that she is not made to run—a piece of mischief frequently practised. Give her a teacupful of salt once a week. Feed her once a day with the waste from the kitchen, adding to it about a pint of Indian meal. Give her the skimmed milk not wanted in the family. If she does not readily drink it, teach her by keeping her a few days without an ample supply of water. Take care that nothing is given her which will injure the taste of the milk, such as turnips and parsnips. Carrots are a fine vegetable for cows. Have her milked by a person who understands the process, or she will not give it freely, and will soon become dry. But the most abundant supply of the richest milk will avail little, unless all the articles used in the care of it are kept in perfect order. They should not be used for other purposes. Keep a cloth for washing them only, and never wash them in the same water with other dishes. After washing, every article, and the cloth with which they are washed, must be scalded. Wash off thoroughly all the milk from the pans, pail, strainer, churn, dasher, skimmer, spoons, &c., before scalding them. If milk remains in them when scalded, the butter will be injured, as may be supposed, from the fact that a cloth strainer, if scalded a few times with milk in it, becomes yellow, and as stiff as if it were starched.
To scald them the water must actually boil. Have a kettle of a size to admit the pail and pans, and plunge all the articles into it; as, if the water is only poured on, the edges of the pan and the ears of the pail will not always be well scalded.
If a cloth strainer is used, it should be of thin, coarse linen. A basin having a fine wire strainer is used by many persons. Tin pails and pans are better than wood and earthen; because tin is more easily kept sweet than wood, and the glazing upon brown earthen pans is sometimes decomposed by sour milk.[17] Large wooden churns, worked by dogs trained to the business, are used in large dairies; but those who keep one or two cows only, will find a stone-ware churn best. No other is so easily kept sweet. For keeping the cream, never use tin, but always stone, cream-colored or fire-proof ware. For working butter, keep a wooden bowl and ladle. This last article is seldom found in New England, but always in the State of New York. Every butter-maker should have it, as the warmth of the hand detracts from the sweetness of the butter.
Have the milk closet on the coolest side of the house, or in the dryest and coolest part of the cellar, and with a window in it covered with wire-net or slats. Good butter cannot be made without a free circulation of fresh air. Allow no drops of cream or milk to remain a day on the shelves. Every inch of such a closet must be kept perfectly clean.
Strain the milk as soon as it is brought in, and set it immediately in its place. To remove milk after the cream has begun to rise, prevents its rising freely. For the same reason the smallest quantity should not be taken from a pan set for raising cream; therefore all that is wanted for the day's use, must be set apart from the other pans. Those who have ice through the summer, have a valuable aid in making good butter. A piece as large as a peach, should be put into a pan containing three quarts of milk, as soon as it is placed in the closet. The milk will not sour as soon, and of course will afford more cream. Skim the cream as soon as the milk has become loppord, which will, in hot weather, be in about thirty hours. To do this, first pass the fore-finger round the edge of the pan; (this is better than to use the skimmer, because there is a hard, wiry edge of cream adhering to the pan, which if taken off will injure the butter;) then take off the cream, clear as possible from the milk.
In very hot weather, especially in August, which is the least favorable month for making butter, a heaping spoonful of salt should be put into a pailful of milk, after the portion for the ordinary family uses is taken out; and at all seasons, fine salt should be put into the cream from day to day, as it is gathered. The effect of this is excellent, in keeping it sweet and giving a rich flavor to the butter.
The finest butter is made where the number of cows renders it necessary to churn every day. The custom of churning once a week is not to be tolerated. Cream that is kept seven days, unless it be in the coldest weather, cannot be made into good butter. If you keep but one cow, churn twice a week; and in dog-days, three times. Do it in the cool of the morning. If the weather is warm, set the churn into a tub of cold water; add ice if you have it, and put a piece also into the churn. Air is necessary to make butter come; therefore, if the cream flies out of the opening around the dasher, do not put any thing round to prevent it. When the butter has come, continue the strokes of the dasher a few minutes to separate all the little particles from the butter-milk. This done, take it out into the wooden bowl with a ladle or skimmer. The bowl and ladle should have boiling water poured on them when you first begin to churn. After a few minutes it should be poured off, and cold water be poured on them, and they should stand till you are ready to use them. This is to prevent the butter from sticking to them.
Work the butter with the ladle, until the buttermilk ceases to come out; then sprinkle it with clean sifted salt, as that which was put into the cream will not be enough; work it in well, and taste it to see if more should be added. Observation and experience must teach you how much to use. Mould the butter with the ladle into balls or lumps of any form you prefer; put it into a covered jar or tureen and set it in the ice-house or cellar.
Butter is sweetest to be worked but once, and if all which you make is used from week to week, it is sufficient, provided it comes hard; if it is soft at first, it must be worked again the next morning. That which is to be laid down for future use, or to be kept two or three weeks, must be worked again after a day or two, and every particle of buttermilk got out. Never work butter a third time.
From October to June, the best method of raising cream is to set the pans for twelve hours in the milk closet, and then for five hours on a stove, or a furnace having embers in it, where the milk will become hot, but not scald; then return it to the closet, and after it is cold, take off the cream, draining it very clear from the milk. Much more cream will be obtained in this, than in the ordinary method; and at least a quarter more butter will be secured from the same quantity of milk. It also comes very quick—ten minutes' churning being often sufficient. This is the method practised in Devonshire, England; and the clotted cream, as it is there called, is carried up to the London market; for it is not only good for butter, but also for coffee and other uses. Care must be taken that the milk is not made too hot. If it becomes so hot as almost to scald, the cream will have little skinny flakes in it, which will be visible in the butter.
A good Brine for keeping Butter.
To two quarts of water, put one of clean fine salt, a pound of loaf or crushed sugar, and a teaspoonful of saltpetre. When it has stood an hour, in order that the salt and sugar may dissolve, strain it through a flannel bag, and pour it over the butter. Less salt may be enough. The object is to have as much as the water will take up.
To keep Butter sweet a Year.
Take care that the butter is made in the best manner, and the buttermilk entirely worked out of it. Lay it in a white-oak firkin. Make a strong brine of salt and water, and put it into another and larger firkin, and set the one containing the butter into the one in which the brine is. Let the brine come up very near to the top of the butter firkin. Lay on the top of the butter a white bag with fine salt in it, cover it close, and then put on the cover of the outside firkin.
The articles used in making cheese should be kept sweet and clean as in making butter. They should be scalded daily, and never be set away until perfectly dry. The conveniences wanted are a large pine tub, painted white inside; a cheese basket and a ladder, on which to set the basket over the tub; two cheese-hoops, large or small, according to the size of the dairy; two large square strainers of thin coarse linen; two circular boards called followers; and a brass kettle large enough to hold several pails of milk. Presses used are of various constructions. The most convenient one has a lever and weight; and for making very large cheeses, a windlass should be attached to the end of the lever.
To make Cheese.
Strain the night's milk into the tub; in the morning stir in the cream (if you want rich cheese do not let any of it be taken off), and put a part of the milk over a clear fire, in the brass kettle. Heat it enough to make the milk which is still in the tub quite warm, but not hot; pour it back into the tub, and strain in the morning's milk. Put in a spoonful or two of rennet, stir it well, and let it stand half an hour undisturbed. If the curd does not form well by that time put in more rennet.
To prepare rennet. This is the stomach of a calf; and it is often the case that a piece of curd (the last milk eaten by the calf) is found in it. See if there is any thing inside which should be removed, and then return the curd to its place, in the rennet; it is the best part of it. Soak the rennet in a quart of water, then salt it and hang it up to dry where the flies will not find it; keep the water in a jar or bottle. There is a great difference in the strength of rennets; some will make a thousand weight of cheese, while others will scarcely make fifty. Experience alone will teach exactly how much to use.
When the curd is well formed, cut it in squares, making the knife go down to the bottom of the tub at every stroke; let it stand fifteen minutes for the whey to separate. Then break it up very gently, putting the hand down through all parts. It should be done gently, or some of the milk will be lost in the whey. This causes white whey; the greener the whey, the richer the cheese. Lay the strainer on the top of the curd, and dip off the whey that presses up through, until you have dipped about a third of it. Put this immediately over the fire to heat. When hot, but not boiling, pour it back upon the curd and then break up the curd small, and as quickly as possible, with your hand; then lay the strainer into the cheese basket, and pour the curd into it to drain. When this is done, return it to the tub, salt it, put it again into the strainer, and then into the cheese-hoop. Do not twist up the strainer, but lay it over smooth; lay a follower upon it, put it into the press, and press it tight. Let it remain two days, and increase the pressure four or five times meanwhile, turning the cheese over each time. If you make cheese every day, you will need two presses.
After this, turn the cheese out upon a shelf, in a dark closet or room, secure from flies. Rub every day the side that has lain upon the shelf, and turn it over. Rub it all over with butter often. These things must be done for six months. Butter made of whey-cream, is generally used for this purpose. If cheese is rich, a strip of new American cotton, as wide as the thickness of the cheese, should be sewed tight around it, when first taken from the press. Without this, it would soon melt out of shape. During the season, when flies are about, rub cheese now and then with butter sprinkled with cayenne pepper.
Beef Tea.
Cut a piece of lean, juicy beef into pieces an inch square, put them into a wide-mouthed bottle and cork it tight. Set the bottle into a kettle of cold water and boil it an hour and a half. This mode of making beef tea concentrates the nourishment more than any other.
Another (furnished by a physician).
Take a piece of beef cut from the round; take off every particle of fat, then cut it into pieces about an inch square and put into cold water, in the proportion of a pint to the pound. After standing half or three quarters of an hour, set it on the fire and boil it slowly several hours. If the water boils away, add more cold water, so that there will be a pint of tea for every pound of beef. Strain it, add salt, and black pepper also if the case allows it.
Another Way.
Choose a lean and juicy piece of beef, the size of your hand; take off all the fat; broil it only three or four minutes, on very hot coals. Lay it in a porringer or bowl, sprinkle it with salt, and pour upon it two or three gills of boiling water; then cut it into small pieces, as it lies in the water. Cover it close, and let it stand where it will keep hot but not boil. It is fit for use in half an hour, and does well where such nourishment is wanted immediately.
This is more agreeable to the taste than tea made by either of the two preceding rules, but it is not as good for a patient who is so sick as to take but very little nourishment at once.
Chicken Broth.
If the weather is warm, use but half a chicken to make broth for one person. If it is cool take a whole one, as the broth will keep several days. Pull off the skin (because there is a good deal of oil in it) and allow two quarts of water for a chicken. Skim it in the neatest manner when it begins to boil. Put in a large spoonful of rice, and a teaspoonful of salt, and boil it slowly two hours. If onion and parsley are to be added, cut them fine; put in the onion when the broth has boiled an hour, and the parsley five minutes before it is served.
It is the best way to boil the chicken the day before it is wanted, and the next day take off the fat, add the rice, &c., and boil it another hour.
Chicken Tea.
Take a leg and thigh of a chicken, lay it into a pint of cold water, and set it on the fire till it boils up long enough for you to skim it. Put in a little salt.
Chicken Panada.
Boil a young chicken half an hour in a quart of water. Then remove the skin, cut off the white meat, and when cold, put it into a mortar with a spoonful or two of the water in which it was boiled, and pound it to a paste. Season it with salt, and a very little nutmeg; add a little more of the water, and boil it up three or four minutes. It should be of such a consistency that it can be drank, though rather thick.
The bones which remain may be returned to the water in which the chicken was boiled; and with the addition of rice, a good broth be made of it.
Calf's foot Broth.
Boil two feet in three quarts of water, until it is wasted to three pints. Strain it, and set it aside in a cool place. When cold, take off the fat. Heat a little at a time as it is wanted, and add salt, nutmeg, and, if approved, a spoonful of good wine.
Wine Whey.
To a pint of milk put two glasses of wine; mix it, and let it stand twelve minutes, then strain it through a muslin bag or a very fine sieve. Sweeten it with loaf sugar.
If it is necessary to have the whey weaker, put a little hot water to the milk.
Barley Water.
Boil an ounce of pearl barley a few minutes to cleanse it, pour off the water, and put a quart of cold water and a little salt to it. Simmer it an hour.
Arrow-root.
The best kinds of arrow-root are the Jamaica and Bermuda.
Wet a large teaspoonful in a little cold water, with half a teaspoonful of salt; pour on it half a pint of boiling water, stirring it very fast. Then set it where it will just boil up for one minute. Sweeten it, and add milk if it is allowed. For a drink, make it very thin, and put in lemon juice and sugar.
Pearl Sago, and Tapioca.
The directions, page 82 are appropriate for the preparation of these articles for invalids.
Milk Porridge.
Put to half a pint of boiling water, two teaspoonfuls of flour wet smooth in cold water, and add salt. Then put in half a pint of milk, stir it well, and let it boil up again. Vary the proportions of milk and water as the case requires. Made wholly with milk it is a very hearty dish.
Oatmeal Gruel.
Put two large spoonfuls of oatmeal, wet in cold water, into three pints of boiling water; boil it gently half an hour, skim it, add a little salt, sugar, and nutmeg. If raisins are also used, a large teacupful stoned, will be enough. But gruel with raisins should be boiled longer than without.
Ground Rice Gruel.
Rub a heaping teaspoonful of ground rice in a small quantity of cold water, and stir it into half a pint of boiling water; add a little salt, and let it boil up half a minute. If milk is allowed, it is an improvement to make the gruel with equal parts of milk and water.
Indian Meal Gruel.
This is made in the same way as the ground rice, but requires much longer boiling. It should never be boiled less than half an hour, and an hour is much better. The white froth that rises upon the top should never be skimmed off, as it is the most nutritious part of the gruel. Nutmeg, sugar, and a spoonful of cream may be added, if approved.
Panada.
Set a saucepan with three gills of water upon the fire, add one glass of white wine, a little loaf sugar, and a very little nutmeg, and grated lemon. Meanwhile, grate some white bread, and the moment the mixture boils, put in the bread, keeping it still on the fire. Let it boil fast, and when of a thickness just to allow of drinking it, set it off.
A Nutritious Jelly.
Take of rice, sago, pearl barley, and hartshorn shavings, each an ounce; add three pints of water, simmer it till reduced to one, and then strain it. When cold, it will be a jelly, to be given dissolved in broth, milk, or wine, as directed by the physician.
Caudle.
Into a pint of thin rice gruel put, while it is boiling hot, a mixture made of the yolk of an egg, beaten well with sugar, a large spoonful of cold water, a glass of wine, and some nutmeg. It should be stirred in by degrees.
Rennet Whey.
Wash a piece of rennet an inch or two square, and lay it into half a gill of warm water for an hour. Warm a pint of milk, but do not make it hot; put it into a shallow dish, and stir the rennet-water into it. Let it stand undisturbed half an hour, then cut it across many times with a knife, and after an hour pour off the whey. Let the dish then remain several hours undisturbed, and more whey will be formed.
In cases of great debility of the stomach, consequent upon inflammation, or attended with it, rennet whey will be retained when every thing else is rejected, and may be given, a teaspoonful at the time, very often, in order to prepare the stomach to receive and retain nourishment.
Apple Tea.
Roast sour apples and pour boiling water upon them. Let them stand till the water is cold.
Another.
Pare and slice thin three or four pleasant sour apples, pour a pint of boiling water on them, and boil them six or eight minutes. Let them stand till they are cold, then pour or strain off the water, and sweeten it a little, unless the invalid prefers it without. It is a refreshing drink.
A Refreshing Draught in a Fever.
Wash a few sprigs of sage, burnet, balm, and sorrel, and put them into a jug with half a sliced lemon. Pour in three pints of boiling water, sweeten it, and stop it close.
Crust Coffee.
Take a large crust of bread; brown is to be preferred, but Graham bread will answer. Dry it in the toaster, and at last almost burn both sides; lay it in a saucepan and pour boiling water on it; boil it up a minute or two, and then strain off the coffee; return it to the saucepan with a little milk or cream, and boil it up again. It should be made strong enough to look like real coffee, of which it is a very good imitation when well made.
Toast Water.
Toast a crust of white bread very brown without burning it, and put it into cold water. After an hour, the water will be a refreshing drink; and it is sometimes grateful to the stomach when no other can be taken.
Herb Drinks.
Herb drinks should be made with boiling water in an earthen pitcher or tea-pot, and be drank after standing a few minutes without boiling. Long steeping makes them insipid and disagreeable.
All food and drink for the sick should be prepared with careful attention and perfect neatness, and should be served in as inviting a manner as possible. The appetite of an invalid is excited or checked by things that escape the observation of a person in health.
Food for a Young Infant.
Pour four spoonfuls of boiling water upon one of sweet cream, and add a very little loaf sugar. This receipt was given by an experienced physician, and has been proved, to be entirely suited to the stomach of the youngest infant. But care must be taken to secure good cream; and this can be done only by providing new milk every day, from one cow. Mixed milk cannot be safely used for a little infant.
For a child just weaned.
There is always danger, especially in warm weather, that the stomach, even of a healthy child, will become disordered by being weaned; and it is important to guard against the evil, by careful attention to the diet, for a little while. Boil every morning new milk enough to last twenty-four hours, and stir into it the best of arrow-root wet in cold water, in the proportion of a large teaspoonful to a quart. Add a very little salt, and boil it up again for one minute, then set it in a cold place.
Flour Gruel (for children sick with teething complaints).
Tie up in a piece of thick cotton cloth a coffee-cup of white flour. Put it into boiling water, and keep it boiling steadily three hours. Then remove the cloth and lay the lump where it will become perfectly dry. To use it, grate it and thicken two gills of boiling milk with a dessert spoonful of it wet in cold water. Put a little salt in the milk. This is excellent food for feeble children.
[The value of the following receipts has been proved in the successful rearing of very feeble infants by the use of them. Several mothers have gratefully testified to their excellence, especially for children reduced to extreme debility by teething complaints. After weighing the articles a few times it will be easy to proportion the ingredients by measure].
Food for an Infant at successive periods.
For the first three months:—5 grains of gelatine; 25 grains of arrow-root; 2 gills of milk; 1 gill of cream; 1½ pints of water.
From three to six months:—gelatine, arrow-root, and water, as above; 3 gills of milk; 1 gill of cream.
From six to nine months:—gelatine, arrow-root, and water, as above; 1 pint of milk; 1½ gills of cream.
From nine to twelve months:—gelatine, arrow-root, and water, as above; 1¼ pints of milk; 1¼ or 2 gills of cream.
If the child is feeble, use in each case one quart of water.
Put the gelatine into 1¼ pints of hot water, and when it boils add the arrow-root dissolved in a gill of cold water. When this has boiled five minutes, add the milk, and when it boils again pour in the cream. Take it from the fire, and sweeten with loaf sugar until it is slightly sweeter than cow's milk. Strain if necessary, through fine muslin, and stir occasionally while cooling. If the child is constipated, use a little more cream, or sweeten with brown sugar. In the opposite case, use a little less cream. This food should be prepared once in twenty-four hours; in warm weather, twice, unless kept in a very cool place.