The Virginia Housewife Part 13

To have this delicate dish in perfection, the lettuce, pepper gra.s.s, chervil, cress, &c. should be gathered early in the morning, nicely picked, washed, and laid in cold water, which will be improved by adding ice; just before dinner is ready to be served, drain the water from your salad, cut it into a bowl, giving the proper proportions of each plant; prepare the following mixture to pour over it: boil two fresh eggs ten minutes, put them in water to cool, then take the yelks in a soup plate, pour on them a table spoonful of cold water, rub them with a wooden spoon until they are perfectly dissolved; then add two spoonsful of oil: when well mixed, put in a tea-spoonful of salt, one of powdered sugar, and one of made mustard; when all these are united and quite smooth, stir in two table spoonsful of common, and two of tarragon vinegar; put it over the salad, and garnish the top with the whites of the eggs cut into rings, and lay around the edge of the bowl young scallions, they being the most delicate of the onion tribe.

TO BOIL POTATOS.

Wash them, but do not pare or cut them, unless they are very large; fill a sauce-pan half full of potatos of equal size, (or make them so by dividing the large ones,) put to them as much cold water as will cover them about an inch; they are sooner boiled, and more savoury, than when drowned in water; most boiled things are spoiled by having too little water, but potatos are often spoiled by having too much; they must merely be covered, and a little allowed for waste in boiling, so that they must be just covered when done. Set them on a moderate fire till they boil, then take them off, and set them by the fire to simmer slowly, till they are soft enough to admit a fork; (place no dependence on the usual test of their skin's cracking, which, if they are boiled fast, will happen to some potatos when they are not half done, and the inside is quite hard,) then pour off the water, (if you let the potatos remain in the water a moment after they are done enough, they will become waxy and watery,) uncover the sauce-pan, and set it at such a distance from the fire as will secure it from burning; their superfluous moisture will evaporate, and the potatos will be perfectly dry and mealy. You may afterwards place a napkin, folded up to the size of the sauce-pan's diameter, over the potatos, to keep them dry and mealy till wanted, this method of managing potatos, is, in every respect, equal to steaming them, and they are dressed in half the time.

TO FRY SLICED POTATOS.

Peel large potatos, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them in shavings round and round, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that your fat and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a quick fire, watch it, and as soon as the lard boils and is still, put in the slices of potatos, and keep moving them till they are crisp; take them up, and lay them to drain on a sieve; send them up with very little salt sprinkled on them.

POTATOS MASHED.

When the potatos are thoroughly boiled, drain and dry them perfectly, pick out every speck, and rub them through a colander into a clean stew-pan; to a pound of potatos put half an ounce of b.u.t.ter, and a table-spoonful of milk; do not make them too moist; mix them well together. When the potatos are getting old and specked, and in frosty weather, this is the best way of dressing them--you may put them into shapes, touch them over with yelk of egg, and brown them very slightly before a slow fire.

POTATOS MASHED WITH ONIONS.

Prepare some onions by putting them through a sieve, and mix them with potatos; in proportioning the onions to the potatos, you will be guided by your wish to have more or less of their flavour.

TO ROAST POTATOS.

Wash and dry your potatos, (all of a size,) and put them in a tin Dutch oven, or cheese toaster; take care not to put them too near the fire, or they will get burned on the outside before they are warmed through.

Large potatos, will require two hours to roast them. To save time and trouble, some cooks half boil them first.

TO ROAST POTATOS UNDER MEAT.

Half boil large potatos, drain the water from them, and put them into an earthen dish or small tin pan, under meat that is roasting, and baste them with some of the dripping; when they are browned on one side, turn them and brown the other; send them up around the meat, or in a small dish.

POTATO b.a.l.l.s.

Mix mashed potatos with the yelk of an egg, roll them into b.a.l.l.s, flour them, or cover them with egg and bread crumbs, fry them in clean dripping, or brown them in a Dutch oven. They are an agreeable vegetable relish, and a supper dish.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES.

Are boiled and dressed in the various ways we have just before directed for potatos. They should be covered with thick melted b.u.t.ter, or a nice white or brown sauce.

CABBAGE.

Pick cabbages very clean, and wash them thoroughly; then look them carefully over again; quarter them if they are very large; put them into a sauce pan with plenty of boiling water; if any sk.u.m rises, take it off, put a large spoonful of salt into the sauce pan, and boil 'them till the stalks feel tender. A young cabbage will take about twenty minutes, or half an hour; when full grown, nearly an hour; see that they are well covered with water all the time, and that no or smoke arises from stirring the fire. With careful management, they will look as beautiful when dressed as they did when growing. It will much ameliorate the flavour of strong old cabbages, to boil them in two waters, _i.e._ when they are half done, to take them out, and put them into another sauce pan of boiling water.

SAVOYS.

Are boiled in the same manner; quarter them when you send them to table.

SPROUTS AND YOUNG GREENS.

The receipt written for cabbages will answer as well for sprouts, only they will be boiled enough in fifteen minutes.

ASPARAGUS.

Set a stew-pan with plenty of water on the fire, sprinkle a handful of salt in it, let it boil, and skim it; then put in the asparagus prepared thus: sc.r.a.pe all the stalks till they are perfectly clean; throw them into a pan of cold water as you sc.r.a.pe them; when they are all done, tie them in little bundles, of a quarter of a hundred each, with ba.s.s, if you can get it, or tape; cut off the stalks at the bottom, that they may be all of a length; when they are tender at the stalk, which will be in from twenty to thirty minutes, they are done enough. Great care must be taken to watch the exact time of their becoming tender; take them just at that instant, and they will have their true flavour and colour; a minute or two more boiling destroys both. While the asparagus is boiling, toast a slice of a loaf of bread, about a half an inch thick; brown it delicately on both sides; dip it lightly in the liquor the asparagus was boiled in, and lay it in the middle of a dish; pour some melted b.u.t.ter on the toast, and lay the asparagus upon it; let it project beyond the asparagus, that the company may see there is a toast.

Do not pour b.u.t.ter over them, but send some in a boat.

SEA-KALE.

Is tied up in bundles, and dressed in the same way as asparagus.

TO SCOLLOP TOMATOS.

Peel off the skin from large, full, ripe tomatos--put a layer in the bottom of a deep dish, cover it well with bread grated fine; sprinkle on pepper and salt, and lay some bits of b.u.t.ter over them--put another layer of each, till the dish is full--let the top be covered with crumbs and b.u.t.ter--bake it a nice brown.

TO STEW TOMATOS.

Take off the skin, and put them in a pan with salt, pepper, and a large piece of b.u.t.ter--stew them till sufficiently dry.

CAULIFLOWER.

Choose those that are close and white, and of a middle size--trim off the outside leaves, cut off the stalk flat at the bottom, let them lie in salt and water an hour before you boil them. Put them in boiling water, with a handful of salt in it--skim it well, and let it boil slowly till done, which a small one will be in fifteen minutes, a large one in twenty--and take it up the moment it is enough: a few minutes longer boiling will spoil it.