Temperance cook book

The first and most important thing to be remembered is, have the ingredients cooked on the day you wish them to be eaten. Put your codfish to soak the night before, then simmer (not boil), until tender. Have the potatoes freshly cooked and hot. When the fish is done, take out all the bones and pull every lump, no matter how small, apart, until it is light and feathery. Mash the potatoes until they are perfectly smooth; add a little cream or milk and the whites of four eggs and a little pepper. Mix all together, and make into round balls; dip in the yolks of four well beaten eggs, then in bread crumbs, and fry in hot lard like doughnuts. They will not absorb the fat, but will immediately crisp a beautiful brown; turn them over and in a moment they are done. Great care must be taken to have the lard boiling hot. Remember, the beauty is to have them fine and white inside, like a cream-puff. If rightly made, they are delicious, and far superior to the heavy, butter-soaked articles, usually termed codfish balls. CODFISH BALLS. (No. 2.) Prepare the codfish as in number one. Take one and one-half coffeecupfuls of the codfish, two cups of freshly mashed potatoes, three well beaten eggs; season highly with pepper and a little salt; beat the whites to a stiff froth, and put in last. Take a tablespoonful of the batter at a time and fry in hot lard like doughnuts. SHELL-RISH. FRIED OYSTERS. Drain the oysters from the liquor. Have ready some finely rolled crackers or corn-meal into which sprinkle some pepper and salt. Have ready in the frying-pan equal quantities of butter and lard; dip the oysters into the fine crackers or corn-meal, and fry a light brown. Another way: Make a batter in the proportion of two eggs to a cup of cream, dip the oysters into the batter, then into the crumbs, seasoned with pepper and salt. Or, you may make the batter a little thicker and omit the cracker crumbs. Fry in hot lard and butter mixed — a light brown. STEWED OYSTERS. Drain the oysters from their liquor. Put them on the fire without any water or liquor and cook them till nearly done. Then drain them from the liquor that has been drawn. To one quart of oysters, add one-half pint of sweet cream or new milk, a lump of butter the size of an egg, and yolk of one egg. Season with pepper and salt to suit your taste, and thicken with a spoonful of flour. Stew all together until the egg and flour are cooked. The butter, yolk, and flour should be beaten together and made smooth before stirring into the oysters. ESCALLOPED OYSTERS. Drain the oysters from the liquor; butter the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Use bread crumbs instead of crackers; they are better. Place in the bottom a layer of oysters, bits of butter strewn over them, a little salt and pepper, just a shade of nutmeg, and so make each layer till the dish is full, having bread crumbs and butter on the top. Bake half an hour. FRICASSEED OYSTERS. Take a quart of large, fine oysters, pick them from the liquor. Heat in the skillet a large piece of butter almost to boiling, turn into it the oysters without the juice. When they are heated through and have begun to swell, and the ruffles stand out, stir into them a paste made of a piece of butter the size of an egg and a large tablespoonful of flour. Let it cook a minute or two longer, then serve.