Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers Part 28

A New Method of Curing Beef.

Take six gallons of water, nine pounds of salt, (fine and coa.r.s.e mixed,) three pounds of sugar, one quart of mola.s.ses, three ounces of saltpetre, and one ounce of pearl ash or salaeratus, boil and skim it well, and let it stand till entirely cold, when pour it on beef that has been sprinkled with salt for several days. You can boil of this beef from the brine all winter, or hang it up, and smoke it with your bacon.

To Cure a Dozen Tongues.

Soak the tongues an hour in a tub of cold water to extract the blood, and cut off most of the root, mix together a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, finely powdered, one pound of brown sugar, and a pint of salt, rub the tongues with this, and put them in a tight barrel; then make a pickle that will bear an egg, which pour over them, turn them every three days, and let them stay in the pickle two weeks, then smoke them two days, and hang them up in a dry place; boil and skim the pickle that the tongues have been in, and it will do for a round of beef.

Pickle for Two Rounds of Beef.

Cut the rounds in a suitable shape for drying, mix together two pints of salt, one of mola.s.ses, or a pound of sugar, and half a pound of saltpetre, rub them with this, and pack them in a tight vessel, make a pickle that will bear an egg, and pour it over, put a weight on the top, and let it lay for ten days, when take it out, and smoke it two days, hang it up in a dry place, it will be fit to slice and broil in a week, or cut it very thin, and stew or fry it with b.u.t.ter and cream. Legs of mutton may be salted as rounds of beef, and will resemble venison, when dried and chipped.

In preparing pickle for any kind of meat, observe that one gallon of water will hold, in solution, a quart of salt and two ounces of saltpetre.

To Corn Beef, Pork or Mutton.

Rub the meat well with salt, and pack it in a tub. If the weather is warm, it will require a good deal of salt, but no saltpetre.

To Restore Meat that has been kept too long.

When meat has been kept too long in summer, it may be improved by putting it in sour milk for several hours, or was.h.i.+ng it in vinegar is good, some hours before it is cooked, you must wash it well in cold water several times, if it lays all night in sour milk, or salt and vinegar, it should be put in soak early in the morning in cold water. In very hot weather, when you have fresh meat, fowls, or fish left at dinner, sprinkle them with strong vinegar, salt and pepper, warm this up the next day, either as a fry or stew, the vinegar will evaporate, and not injure the taste. Cold rock fish is good, seasoned with salt, pepper and vinegar, to use as a relish for breakfast or tea.

To Keep Meat Fresh.

Where persons live a distance from market, and have no fresh meat but what they kill, it is important to know how to keep it fresh. In winter, if it is hung up in an out-house, it will keep very well for six weeks, or more, when it has once frozen, it is safe till a thaw comes on, when rub it with salt. In the summer, if you have an ice-house, you can keep it without trouble. If rubbed with salt, and pinned in a cloth, it will keep in the cellar two days, or by lowering it down your well, attached to a rope, and changing the cloth every other day, it will keep good a week in hot weather.

To Put up Herring and Shad.

Those that put up their own fish should be careful to have the barrels tight and well cleaned, if the pickle leaks from them, they are liable to spoil. Scale the fish and wash them, as it will save much time, when you prepare them for cooking, take out the gills, but leave on the heads of herrings.

The heads should be taken off the shad, and split them down the back, put a layer of fish, then a layer of ground alum salt,--and after they are packed, put on a weight to keep them down. If herring are well cured, they will be good at the end of two years.

To Put up Herring, _According to the Harford Mode_.

First put the herring into the brine left from curing bacon, or, if you have none of that description, make a brine that will bear an egg, and let them remain in it thirty or forty hours; then, if for pickled herring, change them into new brine, which must also bear an egg, and head them up to keep. If for red herring, hang them up, and smoke them thoroughly. A little saltpetre, added to the brine, is an improvement.

It is better to take out the roe.

b.u.t.tER, CHEESE, COFFEE, TEA, &c.

b.u.t.ter.

It is of the first importance that every thing connected with milk and b.u.t.ter should be kept clean; if the milk acquires an unpleasant taste, it communicates it to the b.u.t.ter. Tin pans are best to keep milk in, and they should be painted on the outside to keep them from rusting when they are put in water.

In summer, milk should be kept as cool as possible; before it is strained, the pans and strainer should be rinsed with cold water, and the milk not covered until it is cold, as soon as the cream rises sufficiently, it should be skimmed, and put in a large tin bucket with a lid that fits down tight, and stirred every day. b.u.t.ter will be spoiled by neglecting to stir the cream, a yellow sc.u.m will form on it, which gives it an unpleasant taste. And if you leave a pan of milk till the cream is covered with spots of mould, you had better throw it away than put it in, as it will spoil the taste of a whole churning.

If you have no way of keeping your cream cool in hot weather, it ought to be churned twice a week, the earlier in the morning the better.

Always put cold water in your churn the night before you use it, and change it in the morning just before you put in the cream. When the b.u.t.ter is gathering, take off the lid of the churn to let the heated air escape, and move it gently, have your b.u.t.ter ladle and pan scalded and cooled, take out the b.u.t.ter and work it till all the milk is out, sc.r.a.pe some lumps of salt, and work in, cover it up, and set away in a cool place till the next morning, when work it again.

If you have neither an ice, or spring house, a box by the side of the pump, with a cover over it, is very convenient to put cream and b.u.t.ter down the well, put them in tin kettles with covers to fit tight, and fasten them to strong tarred ropes twenty feet long. The air of a well will keep b.u.t.ter sweet for several weeks in the hottest weather. It is best to have one kettle or basket to put the b.u.t.ter in that is used at the table, it should be deep enough to hold five or six plates, each covered with a saucer. It can be kept in this way as firm and sweet as in an ice house. You can have a separate kettle to put a large lump of b.u.t.ter in for seasoning vegetables. If you print b.u.t.ter for home use, it is not necessary to weigh it, make it out in little lumps that will weigh about half a pound, scald the print and ladle, and put them in cold water, as you print each lump, lay it on a dish.

In winter it is more difficult to have good b.u.t.ter, as much depends on the food of the cows, the milk should be kept in a cellar, where it will not freeze, if you have a safe to keep it in, it need not be covered.

Cream takes much longer to rise in winter, after it has stood two days, to put it on the top of a moderately heated stove will a.s.sist it, when it is hot, set it away to skim the next day, when the cream will be thick and rich, and churns easier.

If the weather is very cold, and the cream has been chilled, have a large pot of water over the fire, set in the bucket when it is near boiling heat, and keep stirring till it is milk warm, have the churn scalded and put it in, by churning steadily, it will come as quick as in summer, one good working answers very well for b.u.t.ter in winter, always scald the churn before you put in the cream in cold weather.

To put up b.u.t.ter for Winter.

Work it well, and salt it rather more than for table use, and pack it in stone pans or jars, with a thin cloth on the top, and salt on it an inch thick, keep it in a cool place, and if it is sweet when made, it will keep good till spring. It should be tied up with paper to exclude the air.

To Cure b.u.t.ter that will keep for a Length of Time.

Reduce separately to a fine powder two pounds of the best fine salt, one pound of loaf sugar and half a pound of saltpetre. Sift these ingredients one above another, on a large sized sheet of paper, then mix them well together, keep this mixture covered up close in a nice jar, and placed in a dry closet.

When your b.u.t.ter is worked and salted in the usual way, and ready to put in the jars, use one ounce of this composition to every pound of b.u.t.ter, work it well into the ma.s.s.

b.u.t.ter cured in this way, (it is said) will keep good for several years.

I have never kept it longer than from the fall until late in the spring, it was then very sweet and good.

It will not do to use for a month, because earlier, the salts will not be sufficiently blended with it. It should be kept in wooden vessels, or nice stone jars. Earthen-ware jars are not suitable for b.u.t.ter, as during the decomposition of the salts, they corrode the glazing; and the b.u.t.ter becomes rancid and unhealthy.

A friend of mine, and a lady of much experience, remarked on reading the above--"This is an admirable receipt, and by attention to its directions, b.u.t.ter may be packed away with success even in the summer months. Thus in cities during warm weather b.u.t.ter is often cheap, a house-keeper may then purchase her winter supply.

"Select that which is sweetest and most firm, begin by putting a layer of the prints in the bottom of a stone pot, press the b.u.t.ter down close, so that no cavities for the admission of air may remain, then strew more of the mixture over it, proceed in this manner until the vessel is filled, when put on the top a small muslin bag filled with salt, and tie the jar up close. It is very important to keep the b.u.t.ter in a cool place."

A great deal depends on the b.u.t.ter being well worked. Persons that have large dairies should always have a machine to work it. A large churning may be more effectually cleared of the b.u.t.ter-milk in a few minutes, than in the old way in an hour. By doing it quickly, it does not get soft and oily in hot weather.

A Pickle for b.u.t.ter.

To three gallons of water, add four and a half pounds of good brown sugar, one and a half ounces of saltpetre, one ounce of salaeratus; put them into an iron pot, and let them come to a boil; take off the sc.u.m; when cold it is ready for use; the b.u.t.ter should be salted in the usual way, and well worked; then made into rolls of two or three pounds each; have little bags of coa.r.s.e muslin, tie each roll in a bag and put them in a large stone jar or clean firkin; when the pickle is entirely cold, pour it over, and put a plate on the top, with a weight on it to keep the b.u.t.ter under; tie it up close and keep it in a cold place; when a roll is wanted, take it out of the bag, and slice it off for table use.

It should be put on little plates, and each covered with a saucer, to exclude the air. If the b.u.t.ter is good when put up in the fall, it will keep till you can get gra.s.s b.u.t.ter, in the spring. The jars for this purpose should not have been previously used for pickles.

Cheese.