Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers Part 7

To Bake Tomatoes.

Take out the inside of large tomatoes, make a stuffing of bread, b.u.t.ter, pepper, salt and an egg; fill them with this, and set them in a deep pie-plate; let them bake slowly half an hour.

Tomato Jelly, to eat with Roast Meat.

Wash the tomatoes, and put them in a bell-metal kettle, with a little water; let them boil thirty minutes; take them out and strain them through a sieve, till you get all the pulp; let it settle and pour off the top; put the thick part in deep plates, and set them in the oven after the bread is drawn; season it with pepper and salt to your taste, and put it away in a jar. It can either be eaten cold, or warmed up with crumbs of bread and b.u.t.ter. Some persons slice tomatoes, and dry them on dishes in an oven.

To Frica.s.see Tomatoes.

Wash and cut them in two, if large; if small, leave them whole, but do not peel them or they go too much to pieces; have a broad speeder or stove-pan; put in a half spoonful of b.u.t.ter; season the tomatoes with pepper and salt, and flour them; cover them with a plate; they will cook in ten minutes, stirring them once; pour in half a tea-cup of cream just as they are done; let them boil up and dish them while hot: this dish is much liked either for breakfast, dinner or tea.

To Broil Tomatoes for Breakfast.

Take large round tomatoes, wash and wipe them, and put them on the gridiron over lively coals--the stem side down; when this is brown, turn them and let them cook till quite hot through; place them on a hot dish and send them quickly to table, where each one may season for himself with pepper, salt and b.u.t.ter.

To Bake Tomatoes for Breakfast.

Season them with pepper and salt; flour and bake them in a stove, in a deep plate with a little b.u.t.ter over them.

Tomatoes sliced with Onions.

Pick the best tomatoes; let them stand a little while in cold water, then peel and slice them. To about six tomatoes, you may add two red onions, also sliced; season with pepper, plenty of salt, and a small portion of vinegar.

To put up Tomatoes for Winter.

Gather a quant.i.ty of tomatoes, wash, scald, skin and cut them up; season them highly with pepper and salt, and put them in a large stone jar; set this in the oven with your bread, and leave it till it is cold; stir them, and set them in the oven every time you bake for several weeks; when the juice is nearly dried up, put a piece of white paper over the jar, melt some lard and pour on it. When you use them, stew them with bread, b.u.t.ter and water.

Baked Egg Plant.

Boil them ten minutes; then cut them in half and take out the seeds, fill them with a stuffing of crumbs of bread, seasoned with b.u.t.ter, pepper, salt, the yelk of an egg, and if you choose, the juice of a tomato; close them and tie each one with a string; put a little water in the dutch-oven, and lay them in with some of the stuffing on the top; let them cook slowly half an hour, basting them with b.u.t.ter; take them out, thicken the gravy, and pour it over them on the dish.

To Fry Egg Plant.

Cut them in slices half an inch thick; sprinkle them with salt, and let them stand a few minutes to extract the bitter taste; wash them in cold water, and wipe them dry; season with salt and pepper; dip them in flour, and fry them in b.u.t.ter.

Another way of cooking them is to cut them in thin slices, and bake them on a bake-iron that is hot enough to bake cakes.

Salsify, or Oyster Plant.

Sc.r.a.pe the roots, and boil them till soft; mash them, and put in b.u.t.ter, pepper, salt, and egg and flour enough to stick them together; make this in cakes as large as an oyster, and fry them in b.u.t.ter; or after boiling, you can cut them in slices and stew them in water; then b.u.t.ter and season, and thicken with a little flour and cream.

To Stew or Fry Mushrooms.

Be careful in gathering mushrooms that you have the right kind; they are pink underneath, and white on the top, and the skin will peel off easily, but it sticks to the poisonous ones.

After you have peeled them, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and put them in a stew pan, with a little water, and a lump of b.u.t.ter; let them boil fast ten minutes, and stir in a thickening of flour and cream. They may be fried in b.u.t.ter, or broiled on a gridiron. They are sometimes very abundant in the fall, on ground that has not been ploughed for several years; they appear after a warm rain; they may be peeled, salted, and allowed to stand some hours before cooking.

Cuc.u.mbers, to Fry or Slice.

To fry cuc.u.mbers, take off the rinds in long pieces, a quarter of an inch thick; season them with pepper and salt; dip them in flour, and fry them in b.u.t.ter.

Many persons think cuc.u.mbers unwholesome, and they certainly are if kept for several days before they are eaten; but if sliced thin, with onions, pepper, salt and good vinegar, they may generally be eaten without danger.

Lettuce.

Persons that are fond of lettuce may have it nearly all the year, by sowing the different kinds, and keeping it covered through the winter; the most approved way of dressing it is to cut it fine, and season with oil, mustard, pepper, salt, vinegar, and a hard egg chopped. The essence of ham is also very good to season lettuce.

Where there is a large family, it is a good and economical way to cut the fat of ham in small pieces, fry it, and make a gravy with flour, water and pepper, to eat with lettuce. To cook lettuce you must fry a little ham; put a spoonful of vinegar into the gravy; cut the lettuce, put it in the pan; give it a stir, and then dish it.

Cold Slaw.

Cut hard white cabbage across the leaves, and put it in a deep plate, scald two large spoonsful of vinegar with a piece of b.u.t.ter, some pepper and salt; pour this over the slaw; have an egg boiled hard; chop it fine, and spread it over the top. Some persons like it heated in a pan with vinegar and water, and the yelk of a raw egg mixed through it.

Cauliflowers, &c.

Have a pot with half milk, and the rest water; when this boils, put in the cauliflowers, and let them boil till tender; put in some salt just before you take them up; have ready drawn b.u.t.ter with parsley, to pour over them, or a sauce of cream and b.u.t.ter. Good heads of yellow Savoy cabbage, cooked in this way, resemble cauliflowers. Brocolli is a delightful vegetable, and may be cooked in the same manner.

To Boil Cabbage.

In summer, you should allow a large head of cabbage an hour to boil, but when it has been tendered by the frost, it will boil in half that time.

Most persons prefer cabbage boiled with ham; the pot should be well skimmed before it goes in or the grease will penetrate the cabbage, and make it unwholesome; take it up before it boils to pieces. It is very good boiled with corned beef or pork, or with milk and water, with a little salt added. Some like it with a little salaeratus thrown in while boiling, as that tenders it and makes it of a more lively green.

To Boil Greens and Poke.

After skimming the pot that the bacon has been boiled in, put in cabbage sprouts, and let them boil till the stalks are tender; all greens are best boiled in a net. Spinach cooks in a few minutes; some persons prefer it when boiled in salt and water; you should have drawn b.u.t.ter or hard eggs to eat with it when done in this way. There are several kinds of wild greens to be found in the country in the spring, as wild mustard, poke and lambs-quarter, which are very good cooked as cabbage sprouts. Pour boiling water on poke, after tying it in bunches, as asparagus, let it stand a few minutes; pour off the water; boil it with a little salt in the water, and if you choose a little salaeratus; dress it with b.u.t.ter, and dish it as asparagus.

String Beans.

String beans, if boiled in salt and water, will require fully two hours; but if boiled in a net, in a pot with bacon, they will not take so long; if they are cooked in the same pot with cabbage, it will injure the flavor. It is a good way to boil a very small piece of pork or bacon, or a ham-bone in the pot with beans; when they are done, season them with cream, b.u.t.ter, salt and pepper.

Lima Beans.