The Pocumtuc Housewife, a Guide to Domestic Cookery as it is Practised in ...

Directions for a Boiled Dinner may seem unnecessary but are not out of place in a book for Novices. First make sure the fire is good and steady, such as will last until Dinner is served. As soon as breakfast is well out of the way, hang on the big pot half full of cold water, and put in a piece of corned beef and a chunk of salt pork. About nine, if the water is boiling hard, put in the pudding, being careful that the cloth has been dipped in scalding water, squeezed dry and floured, before the pudding is placed in it. Put in the beets about the same time. At half past ten put in the cabbage, at eleven carrots and turnips, and at half past eleven parsnips and potatoes, and squash in quarters on top. Serve the pudding first with butter and molasses. Then dish up the dinner, with the beef and pork in the middle of the platter and the vegetables arranged around them in a tasty manner. Chowder. Fry slices of pork, cut very thin, in the dinner pot, hung high so they will not bum. Then put in a layer of fish cut small, a layer of onions, and then of potatoes, sliced as thin as a four pence, then fish, onions and potatoes again, till all are in, putting salt and pepper on each layer of onions. Cover with water and boil until potatoes are done. Put split crackers on top, and add a cup of milk five minutes before you take it up. Sea Pie. People call this Sea Pie because a Sea-captain told them how to make it. You put your pork or veal or birds or anything you happen to have to boil. Add a quart of sweet dried apples and. salt and pepper. When it is most done pour in a cup of molasses and cover it with dumplings and cook till done. Note — This was the favorite dish of " Uncle Oliver " Smith. During the last year of Unde Oliver's life he was in miserable health. It became necessary for him to make a trip to Boston, a serious undertaking then. He said he felt too weak to go, but a sea pie might set him up. So "Aunt Lois" who looked after him, bestirred herself, and found some sweet dried apples and made a pie and set it before him. Having partaken of it, he was so strengthened, he made his journey, and settled his business successfully. Calf's Head and Pluck. Soak the head in ashes and water, scald and scrape. It must be cleaned with great care. The head, heart and lights should be boiled full two hours. One hour is enough for the pluck. The brains should be washed and put in a bag with a pounded cracker and a little sifted sage, and boiled an hour, then broken up with a knife, peppered, salted and buttered and put in a bowl by themselves. Make a sauce of butter and flour and boiling water and serve with the head. Vegetable Hash. Mrs. Apollos Root Take whatever remains of the meat, beets, carrots turnips and potatoes after a boiled dinner, chop fine, pour into a pan in which a slice of pork has been fried, cover and brown. Fricasseed Chicken. Joint the chicken and boil gently till tender. When done fry slices of salt pork to a delicate brown, take from the fry-pan and arrange on platter. Put the chicken, which has meantime been draining, into the pan and brown in the pork fat. Thicken the chicken broth with flour mixed smooth with water, add some butter the last thing, pour part of this gravy over the chicken which has been placed on the platter with the pork around it. The rest of the gravy should be poured over toast in another dish Fried Cod Fish. Soak cod fish over night in cold water. Cut in pieces about two inches square, roll in Indian meal and fry with salt pork. Pork and Apple. Fry slices of pork until crisp and dry, take out of the frying pan and potir off a part of the fat. Take some large fair apples, cut in round slices leaving the skin on ; place these in the remainder of the fat and salt and when done serve like fritters. Apple is also good fried with sausage. Pork Fried in Batter.