Onions in Milk

Ingredients

• large bulbs of the white, silver-skinned onions
• a pint of milk
• a teaspoonful of flour
• a small piece of butter
• salt
• a little black pepper

Method

1. 1

   Boil onions in water, then in milk for an hour.

2. 2

   Thicken milk with flour and butter, season, and serve.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 4 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Virginia Cookery-book (1884) by Mary Stuart Smith, page 63. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

salt, and a slight sprinkling of pepper. To CoOF f'vCUMBBBS. If you wish to fry them pare off the rind, then cut them in slices lengthwise ; dust each side with corn meal or flour, pepper, and salt, and fry them in lard a light brown. If you prefer boiling, cut them lengthwise into quarters, and cook precisely as you do asparagus, serv- ing them up also with butter, cream, and toasted bread. Choose for this purpose medium-sized, full-grown cucum- bers, and you will not be disappointed in having a nice and appetizing dish. Cyclings, ok Summer Squash. In selecting cymlings take none that the thumb-nail cannot easily penetrate, and the white ones are prefera- ble. Cut them into pieces, and boil in just enough water 128 VJROINIA COOKERY-BOOK. to cover them for about three-quarters of an hour, or un- til soft enough to mash ; strain them through a colander to get rid of the seeds; then return them to a skillet or stewpan ; add a large spoonful of cream, a small lump of sweet butter, and a little salt and pepper. Be sure to send them to table hot. Colored cooks need to be warned not to flavor cymlings with bacon-grease, of which they are fond, but which is apt to render this delicious vegeta- ble inedible for more refined palates. To Bake Egg-plant. Peel and cut in slices and boil until soft; then mash and bake with crumbs of bread, butter, pepper, and salt, arranged in layers, as you would oysters or tomatoes. To Fey Egg-plant. Choose them young and fresh (the purple variety is the best) ; pull out the stem and parboil them, to take out the bitter taste ; cut in slices an inch thick, but do not peel ; dip them into the yolk of Qgg, and cover them with grated bread-crumbs dusted with pepper and salt. When dry cover the other side in the same way. Fry them a nice brown. This is a luscious vegetable, and deserves to come into more frequent use, its rarity being probably due to the great difficulty in raising it successfully, on account of its being so peculiarly susceptible to the ravages of bugs. Gkits, or Small Hominy. Samp is another name for this preparation of shelled and dried corn. To half a pint allow one quart of water, after seeing that the grits are well washed and every dark speck picked out; boil carefully in a stewpan set inside of another one, to prevent burning, if you have not one made with double lining specially for such cooking. The VIHGINIA COOKERY-BOOK. 129 great art in cooking small hominy is to have it of just the right consistency, neither too mushy nor too stiff and dry. A little experience teaches one how to manage it. If the water has not been sufficiently evaporated, as the dimier- hour draws near move the kettle to one side, and lifting up the lid from time to time to let the steam escape, it will probably be dry enough. If it becomes too stiff add gradually a little more boiling water and stir well. Serve hot, with a seasoning of butter that should be mixed in, not left floating on top. To Bake Grits. A nice variety in your list of winter vegetables is sup- plied by taking as much boiled small hominy as will nearly fill a small baking-dish, adding one beaten e^^y a gill of sweet milk, and a table-spoonful of butter, and then baking for a good hour or more. Fried Grits. When a dish of grits is left over from dinner spread it out on a dish in a layer half an inch thick. JThe next day, for breakfast or dinner, as you choose, cut it into pieces of convenient size, and fry nicely in lard. With many in the South this is quite a favorite dish. To Boil Hominy. Wash in cold water; then soak twelve hours in tepid soft water ; then boil slowly from three to six hours in the same water, more being added from time to time, to prevent burning. Do not salt while cooking, as either that or hard water will harden the corn, as is true also of rice, peas, or beans in their green or dry state. When you have hominy left from dinner it may be saved and fried for breakfast next morning. 6* laO VIMQINIA VOOKISRTBOOK. Macaboni. Italian macaroni is far superior in quality to what is manufactured either in France or this country, and costs little more, as it swells greatly in cooking. Half a pound will fill a half -gallon dish full. Baking is the best way of preparing it. Throw your macaroni, broken into tol- erably short pieces, in boiling water, allowing it plenty of room to swell, and let it cook for twenty-five minutes; when perfectly tender take it from the water and let it drain through a colander; then put a layer of it in the bottom of a baking-dish ; dot it over with bits of butter, adding grated cheese, Cayenne pepper, and salt; put an- other layer of macaroni, etc., until the dish is filled ; pour in a teacupful of sweet milk; allow a quarter of a pound of butter to the dish ; finish by grating cheese over the top ; place the dish in the stove, and let it bake for about half an hour, or until nicely browned. Do not let it dry up too much by delay in serving. Although baked mac- aroni is the choice way of cooking, it may not always be convenient to» have it done so, when stewing will answer very well. Follow the first part of the directions given above, in case you wish to stew it, only instead of drain- ing pour off the water till nearly dry ; then add a gill of sweet milk or cream, flavor with grated cheese, salt, and Cayenne pepper, and serve simply in a covered vegetable- dish. Okba. This vegetable grows well in Virginia, if not so luxu- riantly as farther South, and yet is rarely used save in soup. It is regarded as indispensable in many families to their daily dish of tomato soup, and for this purpose alone is well worth cultivating. It should be gathered when the pods are so tender as to have no hardness about VJMOlNlA COOKERY-BOOK, 181 them, when they must be aliced thin, and at least a pint allowed to a tureen ; it should be put in an hour before dinner-time. We append a recipe for (booking okra as a vegetable^ given by Miss M. E. W — — , of Selma, Ala.: Put the young and tender pods of long, white okra in salted boiling water, in a porcelain or tin^ined saucepan (as iron discolors it) ; boil fifteen minutes ; take off etems^ and serve with butter, pepper, salt, and vinegar, if pre- ferred ; or, after boiling, slice in rings, season with but- ter, dip in batter, and fry ; season and serve. Or stew an equal quantity of tomatoes and tender-sliced okra with one or two sliced green peppers, in a porcelain kettle, fifteen or twenty minutes; season with butter, pepper, and salt, and serve. Onions. In the early spring large bulbs of the white, silver- skinned onions not only make a very pretty dish, but are thought to possess valuable medicinal qualities. Cut off the stem-leaves, not too close, and after washing clean and peeling drop into cold water and boil ten minutes ; pour off this water ; add fresh cold water, and boil again the same length of time ; pour off again, and to the third water add a pint of milk, and boil for an hour. When ready to dish, thicken a little of the milk-and-water in which the onions have been boiled with a teaspoonful of fiour and a small piece of butter; add a little salt, and, if you like it, sprinkle a little black pepper

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.