Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 38

"PASTURE" MUSHROOMS

All the members of the Landis family unanimously agreed in declaring the dish "Frau Schmidt" taught Sarah Landis to prepare from the delicious edible Fungi, known as "Pasture" mushrooms (gathered by Professor Schmidt from rich, wind-swept pastures early in the fall of the year until the coming of frost) were good enough to tickle the palate of an epicure.

Sarah Landis was very particular to use _none_ unless p.r.o.nounced _edible mushrooms_, and not poisonous toad-stools, by Professor Schmidt, who was a recognized authority. Said the Professor, "The edible variety may be easily recognized by one having a knowledge of the vegetable. The cap may be readily peeled, and the flesh of the 'Pasture' mushroom, when cut or broken, changes in color to a pale rose pink, and they possess many other distinctive features, easily recognized, when one has made a study of them."

The following is the manner in which the mushrooms were prepared by Fran Schmidt:

STEAMED MUSHROOMS.

One-half pound or about twenty-four small mushrooms were peeled, washed carefully in cold water, placed in a small stew-pan containing two generous tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, covered closely and allowed to simmer or steam for twenty minutes in b.u.t.ter and liquid, drawn from the mushrooms by steaming, then uncover and allow liquid in sauce-pan and mushrooms to cook about ten minutes longer, then sprinkle two teaspoonfuls of flour over the mushrooms, brown a minute, stir into this 1/2 cup of milk, or enough to make a sauce the consistency of cream, season well with salt and pepper to taste. Have ready prepared six crisply toasted and b.u.t.tered slices of stale bread. Place four mushrooms and a couple of tablespoonfuls of the mushroom sauce on each slice of bread and serve hot. The combination of toast and mushrooms results in a particularly fine flavor.

STEWED TOMATOES

Scald ripe tomatoes by pouring boiling water over them and allowing them to stand a few minutes. Skin them and cut in small pieces. Place in a stew-pan with 1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, season _well_ with pepper and salt, cook about 25 minutes, add 1/2 teaspoonful of sugar and thicken with 1 teaspoonful of flour mixed smooth with a little water. Let cook a few minutes, then serve. If tomatoes are very tart a small pinch of baking soda, added when cooked, will counteract acidity.

SWEET CORN

Sweet corn on the cob should be cooked as soon as possible after taking it from stalk, as after being removed it soon loses its sweetness. Do not remove the husk until it is to be boiled. Place corn in a kettle of rapidly boiling water, not salted; rather add a pinch of sugar if corn is not as sweet as liked. Cover the kettle to prevent steam escaping. Do not use a _large quant.i.ty of water_. Corn is sweeter if steamed. Boil from ten to fifteen minutes. If corn is not cooked in that time, it should be used uncooked for corn fritters, as corn if _not_ young and tender may be grated and from it excellent corn fritters may be made.

FRIED TOMATOES WITH CREAM SAUCE

Cut large, solid, ripe tomatoes in half-inch slices; one ordinary tomato makes 3 slices. Dredge thickly with flour. Fry several slices of bacon in an iron pan, take bacon from pan when fried and put in warming oven. Lay the well-floured slices of tomatoes in hot bacon fat and one tablespoon of b.u.t.ter and fry brown on both sides. Serve on hot platter with bacon. Or fry slices of well floured tomato in pan containing just enough b.u.t.ter and drippings to keep them from sticking to the bottom of pan, over a hot fire. Fry quickly, browning on each side. Season with salt and pepper. If the tomatoes are very sour, sprinkle a _very little_ sugar over them before frying. When brown, lift the tomatoes carefully from pan and place in a circle around the inside edge of a warm chop plate, add a lump of b.u.t.ter to the pan and a small half cup of sweet milk. Let come to a boil, thicken with a little flour mixed smoothly with a little cold milk, and cook until the consistency of thick cream. Season with salt and pour in centre of chop plate, surrounded with fried slices of tomatoes. Dust pepper over top and serve hot.

This is a delicious way of serving tomatoes. Or slices of the fried tomatoes may be served on slices of crisply toasted bread over which place a couple tablespoons of the cream dressing.

BAKED "STUFFED TOMATOES"

Wash a half dozen ripe red tomatoes. Cut the top from each and remove about the half of the inside of tomato. Sprinkle a very tiny pinch of sugar in each. This small quant.i.ty of sugar is not noticed, but counteracts the acidity of the tomato. To one and one-half cups of soft bread crumbs add one small finely minced onion and season highly with salt and pepper, also add one teaspoon of chopped parsley. Mix all together and fill the tomatoes with the mixture. Place a small bit of b.u.t.ter on each tomato. Place in a bake dish containing a half cup of water, a piece of b.u.t.ter, one teaspoonful of sugar, a sprig of parsley and pepper and salt to season. Stand in a hot oven and bake from 25 to 30 minutes. The centres which were removed from tomatoes may be utilized in various ways.

CANNED TOMATOES--FRIED

Place in a bowl a half pint of canned tomatoes, one-fourth teaspoon of sugar and season with salt and pepper. Add about four tablespoonfuls of flour sifted with one-half teaspoon of baking powder and one tablespoon of b.u.t.ter. Use only flour enough to hold the mixture together when fried. Drop spoonfuls some distance apart in a fry-pan containing several tablespoons of hot lard, b.u.t.ter, suet or drippings.

Fry on both sides and serve hot. In winter, when the housewife is unable to obtain fresh tomatoes, she will find this dish a good subst.i.tute to serve occasionally.

"BUCKS COUNTY" BAKED BEANS

Put one quart of small soup beans to soak over night in cold water to cover. In the morning drain the beans, cover with boiling water, add one tablespoonful of mola.s.ses and cook until tender, but not too soft.

Drain. Do not use this water. Put the beans in an earthen bake dish.

In the centre of the bake dish place one pound of clean, scored smoked bacon, and pour over the beans the water in which the bacon had been simmering for an hour. Add water, if not enough, to almost cover the beans, salt and pepper to taste. Place in oven and bake about three hours, or until beans are tender and a rich brown on top. Add more hot water if beans bake dry, until the last half hour, then allow the water to cook away.

Serve stewed tomatoes, baked apples or apple sauce as an accompaniment to baked beans. This is not a recipe for "Boston Baked Beans." Just a "plain country recipe," but it will be found very satisfactory.

If part of a dish of beans remain after a meal, re-heat the day following in "tomato sauce." Aunt Sarah always baked a pan of corn bread or Johnny cake, to serve hot with baked beans.

When the housewife serves a dish of baked beans at a meal, serve also a quart of stewed tomatoes. The day following a "tomato sauce" may be quickly prepared by adding a well-cooked carrot and an onion to the "left-over" tomatoes. Press all through a coa.r.s.e sieve, adding a little water if too thick; re-heat beans in this; serve hot. A delicious "cream of tomato soup" may be prepared by subst.i.tuting milk or cream to which a small pinch of baking soda has been added, omitting the beans.

COOKED HOMINY

Wash one cup of hominy through several waters. (The grains should resemble kernels of corn.) Cover with cold water and stand in a cool place over night. In the morning, drain. Place the hominy in an agate pudding dish holding 2 quarts, cover with boiling water, add more water as the grains swell and water boils away, and 1 teaspoonful of salt. The hominy should be placed on the range to cook early in the morning on the day it is to be served and continue cooking slowly until late afternoon, when all the water should have been absorbed and each grain should be large, white and flaky. The dish should be about three-quarters full.

A half hour before serving the hominy, at a six o'clock dinner, add a generous tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter and about 3/4 of a cup of hot milk and stand on back of range until served. This is a remarkably cheap, wholesome and appetizing dish if served properly and is easily prepared.

GRATED "PARSNIP CAKES"

Sc.r.a.pe, then grate enough raw parsnips to fill two cups, put in a bowl and add the yolk of one egg, pinch of salt, 1 tablespoonful of milk, 1 tablespoonful of flour, lastly add the stiffly-beaten white of egg.

Form into small round cakes, dust with flour and fry brown on both sides in a pan containing a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter and one of drippings. Or these may be crumbed and fried in deep fat. These are much finer flavored than if parsnips had been cooked before being fried.

TO MAKE "SAUER KRAUT"

Cut heads of cabbage in half, after tr.i.m.m.i.n.g off outside leaves. Cut out centres or hearts, cut cabbage fine on a regular old-fas.h.i.+oned cabbage cutter, which has a square box on top of cutter to hold the pieces of cabbage when being pushed back and forth over the cutter. If not possible to procure this, use small slaw cutter for the purpose.

Partly fill a large pan with the cut cabbage, and mix enough salt, with the hands, through the cut cabbage to be palatable when tasted, no more. This was the rule taught Aunt Sarah by her Grandmother, and always followed by her. Then put the salted cabbage into a wooden cask or small tub to the depth of several inches. Pound the cabbage down well with a long-handled, heavy, wooden mallet, something like a very large wooden potato masher. Then mix another panful of finely cut cabbage, lightly salted, into the tub and pound down well, as before.

Continue in this manner until the tub is partly filled with cabbage, pounding down well at the last until the liquid formed by the cabbage and salt rises above the cabbage. Cover the kraut with a layer of large, clean cabbage or grape leaves, then cover top with a clean piece of muslin cloth, place a round, clean board on top and put a well-scrubbed, heavy stone on the board to weight it down. Stand the tub in a warm place several days, to ferment. When fermentation begins, the liquor rises over the top of the board. Remove the scrum which rises to top, in about six days, and stand in a cool part of the cellar after was.h.i.+ng stone and cloth with cold water, return to top of kraut and in two weeks the sauer kraut will be ready to use. Should the sauer kraut require extra liquid at any time, add one quart of water in which has been dissolved two teaspoonfuls of salt. Squeeze the sauer kraut quite dry when taking it from the brine to cook. Boil about two quarts of the sauer kraut several hours with a piece of fresh pork and a little water until the pork is thoroughly cooked through, when the sauer kraut should be cooked tender.

Some prefer "frankfurters" cooked with the kraut instead of pork, and others do not care for the German dish without the accompaniment of drop dumplings. Serve mashed potatoes and simple dessert with sauer kraut.

Aunt Sarah taught Mary to save the hearts of the cabbage usually thrown aside when making sauer kraut. The hearts were trimmed all one size, like small triangles. She cooked them in salted water until tender, drained them and served with a cream dressing, and they had much the flavor of a dish of cauliflower.

Frau Schmidt always placed several tart apples among her sauer kraut when making it, and thought it improved the flavor of the kraut; gave it a "winey" flavor, obtained in no other manner. A sour apple, cored and cooked with sauer kraut is considered by some cooks an improvement. The apple, of course, is not eatable. Aunt Sarah _never_ placed apples with her sauer kraut.

DUMPLINGS TO SERVE WITH SAUER KRAUT

For these dumplings, 1 egg was broken into a bowl and well beaten.

Then a pinch of salt was added and 1/2 cup of sweet milk. Enough flour was added to make a soft dough, and one tablespoonful of baking powder was sifted with a very little flour into the batter, then a little more flour was added to make the dough the right consistency. Form the dough into small b.a.l.l.s, handling as little as possible. Drop on top of the hot cooked "sauer kraut" in cook-pot on range and boil, closely covered, about 20 minutes.

Aunt Sarah taught Mary to cook green vegetables, peas, spinach, etc., in a stew-pan _uncovered_, if she wished them to retain their natural color. Also, that old potatoes may be freshened by being allowed to stand a short time in cold water before being cooked, but they should not stand too long a time in cold water, as it draws the starch from them and causes them to be tasteless, and to lose part of their nouris.h.i.+ng qualities.

Also that one teaspoonful of salt will usually season one quart of vegetables, to be put in when the vegetables begin to cook.

Cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce and watercress should stand in a pan containing water and a little vinegar for a half hour. This will cause insects to drop to the bottom of the pan.

Changing the water on cabbage and onions when partly cooked will improve their flavor.

PARSLEY DRIED TO PRESERVE ITS GREEN COLOR

Young housewives possessing a bed of parsley in their kitchen gardens, wis.h.i.+ng to preserve it for use during the winter, may like to know how Aunt Sarah taught Mary to dry it in a manner to preserve its bright green color.