Household hints

Gravies for fowls may be made in the same way, using the water in which they have been cooked. The hearts and gizzards may be chopped fine and added to the gravy. Oysters also may be cut up and stirred in just before taking the gravy from the. stove. Milk Gravy. — This is made in the same way, using melted butter or a little fried pork gravy as foundation. SOUPS. Beef Soup. — Ask your butcher for a soup-bone, the quantity you buy to depend on the size of your family. Boil it slowly for several hours, or until the meat is tender. Usually the fat and the marrow will make the soup rich enough, but a little butter may be added if you please. Add pepper, salt, and parsley. Pearl-barley, rice, or oatmeal is very nice with it. Beef Soup with Vegetables. — Cook as for plain beef soup ; then add, in time for dinner, some potatoes, carrots, a little cabbage, and turnips. Some sliced onions are preferred by some cooks to turnips and carrots. Tomato Soup. — To one quart of canned tomatoes or eight large raw ones add two quarts of boiling water and one pound of beef cut up in small pieces; boil until the meat is tender ; season with pepper, salt, butter, a pinch of soda, and some rolled crackers. If made with raw tomatoes, cut them up fine before cooking. Lamb, Veal, Chicken, and Turkey Soups may be made in the same way as beef soup. An economical soup is made by taking the remains of roast chicken or turkey, and, with the bones, boiling until the meat is soft. Season to your taste, adding a little boiled rice or barley. For Clam Soup, see "Clams," page 30. FISH. White Fish. — If you are to have the fish for breakfast, see that it is properly cleaned the night before, and that salt, is sprinkled over it and it is set in a cool room. One of the best ways to fry white fish, or any other fish, is to first fry some slices of salt pork, then roll the pieces of fish in fine Indian meal, and fry in the pork gravy. About three slices of pork for a medium-sized fish. White fish needs less fat than almost any other. If you do not use salt pork, lard will do. Fish needs to be cooked a long time, and very slowly, in order to make it flaky and white. Baked White Fish, — Make a dressing as for chicken •, stuff the fish and sew it together ; lay it on a small tin plate in the dripping-pan, so that it will not soak up too much of the fat that will drip out of it. Observe these same directions in the frying or baking of other fish. Salmon, — A delicious way to cook salmon is to boil it and serve with a gravy made of butter, flour, pepper, salt, and plenty of oysters. Cook the oysters in a very little water, then stir into the sauce. You may prepare canned salmon in this way. Mackerel, — The day before you wish to cook the mackerel, take it and wash it in several waters ; then let it soak in cold water with the skin up. Broil it on a bed of coals, and the moment it is done take it off and pour over it some melted butter with a little milk. Mackerel may be steamed, or boiled and seasoned in the same way. Codfish, — If cooked as it ought to be, this is not only, as Josiah Allen's wife says, "nourishing to the mind," but is pleasant to the taste. If you have the boneless fish, all you have to do is to pick it up fine and let it soak for two or three hours, then rinse ; and if fresh enough, then cook in a little milk, thickened with flour ; add butter and eggs to taste. The eggs may be beaten and stirred in, or dropped MEATS, SOUPS, AND FISH 29 into boiling water, and then put into the codfish whole, or laid on a platter and have the fish poured over them. It may also be boiled, and served with a gravy made of melted butter and flour. IVesh Codfish, — Cut it in slices and fry or broil ; if fried, roll it in flour. SHELL FISH.