The Queen Cook Book: A Careful Compilation of Recipes and Practical ...

Cook one four pound chicken tender as for eating; take out all the bones, skin and gristle. When cold chop fine, add one fourth as much rolled cracker, or bread crumbs as you have meat by measure; one-half pint of cream or milk, boiling hot, or the hot broth of chicken, enough to make it just moist, to cling together nicely and swell the crumbs, a heaping tablespoon of butter, two well-beaten eggs; season. Stir well together, and make up in cone-shaped balls, flatten a little, then dip in beaten egg, and then in rolled cracker, and fry a light brown on both sides in spider, with half butter and half suet. Do not dry them up by cooking too fast, as this destroys the nourishing juices of any thing. Most recipes say cook them in The Queen Cook Book 71 boiling lard, but they are not so healthy. It might do in boiling hot suet. Serve with a napkin on platter, and garnish with parsley or celery tops and half quarters of lemon. Chicken and Oyster Croquettes. These are made the same way with the addition of one pint of oysters to every pint of chicken. Wash the oysters in as little hot water as possible, which scald with the oyster broth, and skim, then use it to moisten the croquettes instead of milk or cream, as far as it will go. Take out the hard lobes of the oyster, season with salt and pepper, chop raw, lightly, then mix with the chicken. Meat Croquettes. Cold roast chicken, turkey, lamb, or beef, can be prepared in the same manner, taking out all the hard bits, for meat croquettes. Tender Chicken. " After a fowl is killed by cutting off its head, hang it in a cool place until it becomes cold; keep it one, two or three days, according to weather; it is then as tender as it ever will be, and the flavor will never be better; no further keeping will ever improve it. This advice should be heeded by those housewives who precipitate a chicken from the hen-coop to the dinner-pot when company comes unexpectedly and then wonder why the chicken is so tough, or lacking in the best flavor." Those who keep chickens can try it. Pork. Pork is considered more indigestible than any other meaty and should not be eaten by persons of weak 72 The Queen Cook Book digestion or by young children. It is particularly injurious to any one that is liable to any skin disease. It is best used in cold weather, and should be thoroughly cooked. In healthy pork the lean is of a fine grain and pale red color, the fat white and the skin smooth. If the flesh is soft, the fat of a yellowish white with small kernels, it is diseased pork, do not eat it under any circumstances. It is the way the pig and hog is fed that causes diseased pork. Many people think any slops they can pick up round town is good enough for a pig, no matter how old it may be. No wonder there is trichina in pork. Feed them as if you were a rational being appointed to care for them and keep their pens clean, take the same forethought and care of them as one ought of his chickens or cow, and you will be rewarded accordingly. Roast Leg of Fresh Pork. Wash and scrape the rind, salt and sprinkle with flour if you like; first take out the bone and fill the cavity with turkey dressing. Gash the rind in half inch squares. Roast in hot oven from three to four hours, according to size. Dip off the fat, add water and make the gravy. Serve with onions and apple sauce. Roast Loin of Pork. Roast a loin the same way, with or without dressing. Bake twenty minutes to the pound and twenty minutes longer. Serve with apple fritters. Roast Spare Rib. Crack the ribs across the middle, double together, fill in with turkey dressing, rub with salt, sprinkle with pepper and flour, sew it up, put it on the rack of drip- The Queen Cook Book 73 ping pan, when one side is brown turn it and brown the other, pour off the fat and make a gravy; or roast plain. Pork Tenderloins.