The home cook book

Upon half a cup of corn meal pour a pint of boiling milk, stirring rapidly. Put in a double-boiler and let cook and thicken for half an hour. Then stir in half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of baking powder, and two eggs. Form into small balls, using flour on the hands, and drop into your kettle of boiling beef, corned beef, or mutton ten minutes before taking off the fire. Skim out of the broth with a skimmer, and serve with the meat. The dumplings may be tied, with room for swelling, in small cloths, wetted, and floured. If you use the cloths you are sure none will dissolve in the meat liquor. Allow more time using the cloths, twenty minutes to half an hour. DUMPLINGS FOR BOILED RUMP OF BEEF Mix a heaping teaspoon of lard lightly through a pint and a half of sifted flour, using the ends of the fingers for mixing. Add an even teaspoon of salt, two heaping teaspoons of baking powder, a beaten egg, and two tablespoons of hot water. Beat thoroughly. Add more hot water, little by little, until you have the dough stiff enough to work into oblong pieces, dipping your spoon constantly into the flour and shaping with it. Drop the pieces in the hot liquor, cover close, and boil slowly fifteen minutes. Do not fork or turn. Serve the moment they are done, put in a hot dish to keep them from chill and falling. BRINE FOR CORNING BEEF When you have your beef ready for corning be sure it is perfectly cold and free from animal heat. It should lie protected from flies or any attacking insect and become solid. Two full days of cool weather should be allowed for this. Have your corning firkin or barrel of clean, sweet, firm wood. Then have it perfectly scoured, and set upon logs so that air can pass between its bottom and the cemented floor of the cellar. Have also flat, square, scoured boards to put in over the meat to keep it from floating. Smooth, large, clean stones should be at hand for weights on the boards. In making the brine use a big kettle, or take the washboiler, scour it perfectly, and use that. Weigh out twenty pounds of coarse salt, two pounds of sugar (or two quarts of pure New Orleans molasses), and use half a pound of saltpetre. Measure fourteen gallons of water. Put all these ingredients into the kettle or boiler, set over the fire, and when the scum begins to rise begin to skim. By the time the brine boils you will have it clear. After it boils a few minutes set it from the fire to cool. Pack your beef in the barrel so that the brine may run easily between the pieces of meat, lay on top your boards and stones, and pour over the cold brine. If after a week or two a scum appears on the brine, take out the meat, scald the brine, and pack anew. TO BOIL CORNED BEEF