FoodNet

Cookery for beginners

1884

Page 23 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Pick over, wash well, and cut out all de- cayed parts. Lay them when peeled in cold water before cooking. If . you boil them put a little salt in the water. Cook steadily after you put them on. Be sure they are thoroughly done. Drain well. Serve hotl Potatoes rboiled). Pare them thin with a sharp knife. The starch or meal lies, in greatest quantities, nearest to the skin. Lay in clean cold water for one hour, if the potatoes are newly gath- ered. Old potatoes should be left in the water for several hours. If very old, they will be the better for soaking all night. New potatoes require half an hour for boiling, and the skins are rubbed off with a coarse cloth before they VEGETABLES. 109 are cooked. Those stored for winter use should be boiled forty-five minutes. Wipe each dry before dropping them into a kettle of boiling water, in which has been mixed a heaping tablespoonful of salt. Boil steadily until a fork will go easily into the largest. Turn off the water by tipping the pot over on its side in the sink, holding the top on with a thick cloth wrapped about your hand, and leaving room at the lowest edge of the cover for the water to escape, but not for a potato to slip through. Set the pot uncovered on the range; sprinkle a tablespoonful of salt over the potatoes, shak- ing the pot as you do this, and leave it where they will dry off, but not scorch, for five minutes. Mashed Potatoes. Boil as directed in last receipt, and when the potatoes have been dried off, remove the. 110 COOKERY FOR BEGINNERS. pot to the sink, or table, break and whip them into powder with a four-tined fork, or a split spoon. When fine, add a great spoonful of butter, whipped in thoroughly, salting to taste as you go on. Have ready a cup of milk almost boiling, and beat in until the potato is soft and smooth. Heap in a deep dish for the table. Onions (boiled). Remove the outer layers until you reach the sleek, silvery, crisp skins. Cook in plenty of boiling, salted water, until tender. Forty minutes should be sufficient, unless the onions are very old and large. Turn off all the water; add a cupful from the tea-kettle with one of warm milk and stew gently ten min- utes. Heat, meanwhile, in a sauce-pan, half a cup- ful of milk with a large tablespoonful of butter. Drain the onions in a hot clean colander. VEGETABLES. Ill turn them into a heated deep dish, salt and pepper lightly, and pour the boiling milk and butter over them. Onions cooked thus are not nearly so rank of flavor as when boiled in but one water. Tomatoes (stewed). Put ripe tomatoes into a pan, pour boiling water directly from the kettle, upon them, and cover closely for five minutes. The skins will then come off easily. When all are peeled, cut them up, throwing away the unripe parts and the cores, and put them into a clean saucepan with half a tea- spoonful of salt Stew twenty minutes before adding a heap- ing tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of white sugar (for a dozen large tomatoes) and a little pepper. Stew gently fifteen minutes, and serve. Scalloped Tomatoes. Scald, skin, and cut each crosswise, into 112 COOKERY FOR BEGINNERS. two or three pieces. Just melt a teaspoonful of butter in a pie-plate, or pudding-dish, and put into this a layer of tomatoes. Lay a bit of butter on each slice, sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper, and white sugar, and cover with fine dry cracker, or bread crumbs. Fill the dish with alternate layers of tomato crumbs, having a thick coating of crumbs on the top, and sticking tiny "dabs*' of butter all over it. Bake, covered, half an hour. Take off the tin pan, or whatever you have used to keep in the steam, and brown nicely before sending to table. Beets. Wash well, taking care not to scratch the skin, as they will "bleed" while in cooking if this is cut or broken. Beets