Molly had not entered so fully into matters with Harry as she would have done had he been a woman; but as this story is to tell, not only what Molly did, but how she did it, I must be a little more explicit.
She found herself on Wednesday with a breast of lamb, eight chops, half a box of boned chicken, and a small piece of steak. The chops were good for two breakfasts; the chicken, prepared as for croquettes, would make either eight of those, or three croquettes, three rissoles, and some fritters. Now, as eight croquettes for two people would be waste, since they were only an entrée, the main dinner being something else, she had no idea of that, but rissoles, fritters and croquettes being all prepared alike, and keeping better in that way, she made the mixture, and used enough for the three croquettes, leaving the rest in the ice-box for use another day. Part of the chops she would not want to use till the end of the week, and keeping them quite sweet she made all the fat that had come from the lamb (dripping and trimmings, etc.) boiling hot, then laid the chops in it—seethed them, as it were—for one minute, then put them away with the coat of fat on them, to be scraped off when they were to be cooked.
For the clam soup a pint and a half was all that was needed, and the liquor, with half the clams, was all that she used; the rest she scalloped for breakfast.
It was in making no more of each dish than they could eat (but allowing plenty for kitchen as well as dining-room) that Molly was able to have what seemed a surprising table,—that and one other thing, allowing nothing whatever to be wasted. The piece of steak left from Tuesday’s dinner was fag end; it was put away, and when the hash was made for Friday morning from the remains of à la mode beef, the steak was just the thing to add to it.
For lunch there had always been enough in the house from dinner the night before. As it was her plan to put Marta more on her own responsibility the following week, she had prepared for that purpose the recipes of the principal things; and as Marta’s mistakes and difficulties might occur to others, the working of them out in her hands will be more instructive than recounting Molly’s certain success.
The recipes were as follows:—
Hashed Lamb.—The remains of ragout of lamb, freed from bone, chopped with the vegetables, the gravy, and a tea-spoonful of butter and one of Worcestershire sauce added; the whole made boiling hot, and served on fried bread.
Soufflé Bread.—Two eggs, two table-spoonfuls of flour, in which half a tea-spoonful of baking-powder is sifted; beat yolks and a table-spoonful of butter, melted, together, then add flour and just milk enough to make a very thick batter; add a pinch of salt and a tea-spoonful of sugar; whip whites of eggs to a firm froth, and stir gently in. Have ready a small iron spider (or earthen pan is still better), made hot, with a dessert-spoonful of butter also hot, but not so hot as for frying; pour the mixture, which should be like sponge-cake batter, into the pan, cover with a lid or tin plate, and set it back of the stove if the fire is good—if slow, it may be quite forward. When well risen, almost like omelet soufflé, set it in the oven five minutes to brown the top; if the oven is cool, you may very carefully turn it, so as not to deaden it; serve when done, under side uppermost. It should be a fine golden brown.
Soufflé bread may be baked in a thick tin, with rather more butter than enough to grease it, but the oven must be very hot indeed, and it should be covered till thoroughly puffed up, then allowed to brown.
Tomato Cream Soup.—Put six ripe tomatoes on to stew; when done, boil one pint of milk in a double boiler, mix two tea-spoonfuls (large) of flour with very little milk till smooth, then stir it into the boiling milk; cook ten minutes. To the tomato put a salt-spoonful, scant, of soda, stir well, then rub through a strainer fine enough to keep back seeds; add a dessert-spoonful of butter to the milk, stirring well, then the tomato, and serve immediately.
Breast of Lamb Roasted.—Take out the bones with a small, sharp knife; put them on to boil with a piece of carrot and a slice of onion, a pint of water and a bay leaf; boil for two hours till reduced to less than half. Roll the breast (it may be seasoned with pepper, salt and chopped parsley before rolling) and skewer it, then brush it over with egg and roll in cracker crumbs; bake in a good oven an hour and a half, basting often. It should be very well browned, but not burnt. When done take it up, put a dessert-spoonful of butter in the pan, which set on the stove, then add a scant one of flour; let them brown together, stirring the while; strain to it the gravy from the bones, stirring quickly to prevent lumps, season to taste, add a tea-spoonful of lemon juice or vinegar, and pour round the meat.
Chicken Croquettes.—Half a box of boned chicken, or half a chicken; chop it fine, flavor with a few mushrooms, or a little oyster liquor, or oysters chopped, or a very little ham, or simply a piece of onion as large as a hazel-nut, scalded and chopped very fine, and a tea-spoonful of finely chopped parsley. In flavoring this (and other dishes) take advantage of what may be in the house suitable. Put a table-spoonful of butter in a small saucepan with a table-spoonful of flour, stir till they bubble, then put into a half-pint measure a gill of strong stock made from bones (Molly had bruised up the bones from the shoulder of lamb and boiled them down) and, if you have it, a gill of cream or milk (unless you have oyster or mushroom liquor, when half a gill of cream), and fill up with either of them (the liquid, of whatever kind, must be just half a pint to this quantity); pour this on the butter and flour, and stir till it forms a thick, smooth sauce; boil five minutes, season highly, and then mix the chicken with it; stir together, and pour it out on a plate, and put it to get quite cold and firm. If no stock is used, an egg must be stirred into the sauce, moving it a few seconds from the fire before adding it, or it will curdle. When it is cold and stiff, put plenty of cracker meal on a board, beat an egg with a table-spoonful of water, cut the chicken mixture into strips, roll it between the hands into shapes like wine corks, no larger, put each one into the egg, then into the cracker meal, taking care the egg has covered every part and the meal coats it thoroughly. As each is done, lay it on a plate of cracker meal. They may be prepared an hour or two before they are needed. To fry them, the fat must be so hot that bread dropped into it will color well in thirty seconds; arrange a few at a time in a frying basket, set it in the hot fat; two minutes will make them golden brown; if left longer, or made too large, they will burst.
Rissoles.—Take a little fine paste,—any trimmings will do,—roll it as thin as paper, cut it into squares three inches by four, lay on each a strip as thick as your finger of the chicken mixture, and roll up, wetting the edges of the paste and pressing together, so that there will be no oozing out; egg and crumb the same as croquettes, and fry four minutes.
Chicken Fritters.—Make some good batter thus: a cup of flour sifted; melt a table-spoonful of butter in a scant cup of warm water, which pour by degrees to the flour, making a batter thick enough to mask the back of a spoon dipped in it; salt to taste; add, the last thing, the white of an egg well beaten. Make the chicken mixture into balls the size of small walnuts, flatten a little, dip into the batter, and drop from the spoon into very hot fat, the same as croquettes.
Peach Pudding.—A cup of flour, one tea-spoonful of baking-powder sifted in it; make into a very thick batter with three parts of a cup of milk, beat two eggs very light with a quarter cup of sugar, add a pinch of salt, mix, and then stir in as many cut-up peaches as you can; butter a bowl thoroughly, nearly fill with the mixture, tie a cloth over it, and plunge into fast boiling water; boil one hour, taking care that ebullition never ceases while the pudding is in the saucepan, or it will be soggy. Serve with cream, or soft custard, or hard sauce.
Peach Fritters are made by the same recipe, but dropped by the spoonful in boiling lard.
Fried Smelts.—Cleanse and dry them, then dip them in milk, then in flour; shake off superfluous flour, and then egg and crumb them the same as chops, laying each fish when done on a bed of cracker meal. Make the lard as hot as for croquettes, and drop them in five or six at a time. If the lard is hot enough they will brown in two minutes.
Beef à la Mode.—Three pounds of the vein or any coarse part of beef that is solid meat, and half a pound of fat pork. Pierce the meat in several places with a knife, and into each hole thus made put a strip of pork; lay the beef in an earthen pan, with a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, four sprigs of parsley, two onions, medium size, with a clove stuck in each, half a blade of mace, half a carrot and turnip, a wine-glass of cooking-sherry, and a gallon of water, with half a salt-spoonful of pepper. The pan should not be much larger than the meat. Cover closely, using a common flour and water paste round the edges to prevent the steam escaping, and set in a good oven three hours. The wine may be omitted, and a wine-glass more water added, with a table-spoonful of Worcestershire sauce and half one of vinegar. When done, take up the meat carefully, strain the gravy, skim and season, and pour it over the meat. Don’t add the salt till the gravy is done, as pork varies so much that you may get it too salt with very little added; you must go by taste.
Cones of Carrots and Turnips.—Boil them separately in quarters, using white turnips; chop each fine in a chopping-bowl, put a dessert-spoonful of butter with them, season with white pepper and salt, then press them into a cone shape—a wine-glass will answer—and stand them in alternate cones of the yellow carrot and white turnips round the beef à la mode or corned beef.
Cheese Fritters.—Grate two ounces of cheese with two dessert-spoonfuls of bread crumbs, a half tea-spoonful of dry mustard, a dessert-spoonful of butter, a speck of cayenne, and the yolk of an egg; pound with a potato-masher till smooth and well mixed, then proceed as for chicken fritters.
Amber Pudding.—Two eggs, their weight in sugar, butter, flour, and the juice and grated peel of one lemon. Beat the yolks, with the sugar, lemon juice, and butter softened, till very light; sift in the flour and grated peel, butter a small bowl or mould, pour the mixture in and boil two hours.
Bisque of Clams.—For one pint and a half of soup take a dozen large clams; stew them fifteen minutes in their own liquor, to which water is added to make three gills. Boil three gills of milk; stir one dessert-spoonful of butter and one of flour in a small saucepan till they bubble; then pour the boiling milk quickly on them, stirring all the while; stand it aside. Squeeze each clam with a lemon-squeezer, and you will find little but an empty skin remains; strain the clams and liquor to the thick white sauce already made, pressing as much juice out as possible; then stir well, bring all to a boil, and remove from the fire while you beat the yolk of an egg with two table-spoonfuls of the soup; stir it to the rest and season to taste. Take care the soup is boiling hot, yet does not boil after the egg is added, or it will curdle.
Scalloped Clams.—Take a small cup of the bisque of clams, before the egg is added, and save it for the scallop. Scald ten or a dozen clams, cut out the hard part, chop the rest fine. Butter tin scallop shells or little saucers thickly, strew them with bread crumbs, put a layer of clams with pepper, a layer of crumbs, and enough of the soup to moisten them; then more clams, more pepper, and crumbs over the top, and then a thin covering of the soup, and bake a rich brown. Serve a cut lemon with them. Be careful not to get too much soup on them,—they should be moist, not wet, and be served very hot. Add a little salt if the clams are not salt enough, but it is seldom necessary.
Cauliflower Omelet.—Two eggs, a half cup of cold cauliflower with the sauce; mash the cauliflower and sauce, beat the yolks of eggs with it, then beat the whites till they will not slip from the dish, and stir them gently in; add pepper and salt, and fry as any other omelet.
As Molly had given minute directions to Marta for frying omelet already, she did not repeat them in her recipes. When Molly had made the brown hash for breakfast, she had laid aside some of the nicest slices of the cold à la mode beef and the gravy for
Beef au Gratin.—Put a layer of bread crumbs in a small dish, then a layer of fat pork cut thin as a wafer, then a layer of beef, on which strew a very little chopped onion and parsley, pepper and salt; then another layer of the shaved pork, more beef, and cover the top with bread crumbs; over all pour gravy enough to moisten it well, and bake slowly one hour.
Custard Pie.—Line the dish with light paste (Molly used what was left after making the lemon pie,—puff paste will keep a week in the ice-box), beat one egg, mix with a small cup of milk and one table-spoonful of sugar, pour it into the pie, grate nutmeg over, and bake in an oven that is very hot on the bottom.
Clear Soup.—Three pounds of soup-meat, or a soup-bone weighing that; gash the meat well and put to it three quarts of cold water and three tea-spoonfuls of salt, half one of pepper, one small carrot, one turnip, one large onion—each must weigh three ounces after peeling; stick one clove in the onion, cut the vegetables, and when the meat has slowly boiled two hours, add the vegetables and cook three hours more. By slow boiling is meant just an occasional bubble in the centre of the pot. Skim just as the meat comes to the boil, then throw in half a cup of cold water; take off the scum that will now rise rapidly, adding a little cold water again when it begins to boil. Skim again after the vegetables are in, and when done, strain. When cold, take off the fat; don’t shake the soup, but pour through a clean cloth, all but the sediment, which keep to make gravy. It must never boil fast, or it will be cloudy and taste poor. There will be two quarts and a pint of fine, clear soup, if the boiling has been so slow as to waste very little.
Chicken Pie.—Put the neck, gizzard, and feet, scalded, of a chicken in nearly a pint of water with a small spoonful of salt and a slice of onion and a piece of carrot as big as your thumb. Let them stew slowly till there is not more than a gill of liquid, which strain and put aside; when cold it will be hard jelly. Lay in the bottom of a deep oval dish that holds rather more than three quarts, about half a pound of veal cutlet (or beefsteak if you prefer) finely chopped across, yet not made into sausage-meat; sprinkle on it a scant salt-spoonful of salt and a little pepper, shave nice sweet salt pork and put a thin layer of that; then put in the chicken, neatly divided into small joints, sprinkling each with a little salt and pepper, and always pile toward the centre; when full add forcemeat balls made thus: Chop very finely a heaped tea-spoonful of parsley, rub a scant salt-spoonful of thyme leaves to fine powder (this is easily done if they are put to stand in a hot place a few minutes before rubbing, taking care they do not burn), add to them a tea-cup of fine bread crumbs and just one grate of nutmeg, the nutmeg drawn sharply once up and down the grater; chop into this a good tea-spoonful of butter, and wet all with the yolk of an egg; now add a little salt and pepper, tasting to see when there is enough; make into little round balls and drop into the pie wherever there is a chink, and pour over all half a cup of water. Now roll out some rough puff paste (made as for lemon pie), cut strips half an inch thick and two broad, wet the edges of the dish and lay this round lightly. If the chicken is packed in the shape of a dome it will slope from the sides, and the paste can be pressed round the inside edge to make it adhere to the dish; wet it slightly, then roll the paste for a cover half an inch thick; lay it on, press, with your forefinger laid flat to form a groove between the chicken and the dish, so that the inner edge of the under paste adheres to the upper one; don’t press the outer edge at all; trim round with a sharp knife, make a good-sized hole in the centre and ornament with twisted paste, or as you choose; brush all over with white of egg (not the edges, or they will not rise) and bake an hour and a quarter in a good steady oven. Before it is cold, pour the gravy made from giblets through the hole in the top, using a funnel for the purpose. This pie is excellent cold, but if made the day before using, when made hot it will take quite half an hour to heat through. Lay a paper over to protect the crust.