Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 45

Crumble cold corn m.u.f.fins, or corn cake, a quant.i.ty sufficient to fill two cups. Soak in 1 quart of sweet milk three or four hours, then add 3 well-beaten eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar and a pinch of salt.

Beat all well together. Place in a pan and bake 1 hour in a moderately hot oven. Serve hot with whipped cream and sugar or with a sauce made by beating to a cream a heaping tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 egg and a very little vanilla flavoring.

MARY'S CORN STARCH PUDDING

1-1/2 quarts of milk.

5 eggs.

2 heaping tablespoonfuls of corn starch.

1 scant cup of sugar.

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Pour milk in a double boiler and place on range to cook. Moisten cornstarch with a little cold milk and add to remainder of the milk when boiling hot. Stir thoroughly, then beat yolk of eggs and sugar until light, stir in stiffly beaten whites and when all are mixed stir into the scalding milk. Let come to a boil again and add vanilla or almond flavoring. Pour into individual molds to cool. Serve cold with a spoonful of jelly or preserved strawberry with each serving.

APPLE JOHNNY CAKE (SERVED AS A PUDDING)

This is a good, cheap, wholesome pudding.

1 cup corn meal.

2 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

1 teaspoonful of soda.

1 tablespoonful of melted b.u.t.ter.

1/4 teaspoonful of salt.

2/3 cup flour.

1 cup sour milk.

Mix batter together as you would for cake, then add 4 pared, thinly sliced, tart apples to the batter. Stir all together. Bake in a quick oven in a bread pan and serve hot with cold cream and sugar. Raisins may be subst.i.tuted for apples if preferred.

A GOOD AND CHEAP "TAPIOCA PUDDING"

Soak over night in cold water 3 even tablespoonfuls of pearl tapioca.

In the morning add tapioca to one quart of milk, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt. Grate nutmeg over top. Bake in a moderate oven about three hours, stirring occasionally.

"GOTTERSPEISE"

Partly fill an earthenware pudding dish with pieces of sponge cake or small cakes called "Lady Fingers;" cut up with them a few macaroons.

Place one pint of wine over fire to heat, add to the wine the following mixture, composed of 1 spoonful of cornstarch mixed smooth with a little water, 3 yolks of eggs and 3 spoonfuls of sugar. Mix all together and stir until thickened. Pour the thickened mixture over the cake. When cooled cover with the stiffly-beaten whites of the 3 eggs, spread sliced almonds thickly over top and brown in oven a few minutes. Serve cold.

SPANISH CREAM

Half a box of Knox gelatine, 1 quart of milk, 4 eggs. Put gelatine in milk, let stand 1 hour to dissolve. Set over fire to boil, then add beaten yolks of eggs with 1 cup granulated sugar. Remove from fire while adding this. Stir well. Return to range and let boil. Stand aside to cool. Beat whites of eggs to a froth and beat into custard when cooled. Pour into a gla.s.s dish in which it is to be served. Stand in a cold place and serve with cream.

GRAHAM PUDDING

One cup of mola.s.ses, 1 egg, 1 cup sweet milk, 1/2 teaspoonful soda, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1 tablespoonful brown sugar, 1 cup raisins, 2-1/2 cups Graham flour. Mix all ingredients together. Steam three hours.

"PENNSYLVANIA" PLUM PUDDING (FOR THANKSGIVING DAY)

One cup milk, 2 eggs, 1 cup mola.s.ses, 1/2 teaspoonful nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoonful salt, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1/2 cup corn meal, 1 cup chopped beef suet, 1/4 cup finely minced citron, 1 cup seeded raisins, 1/2 cup currants. Flour to make a stiff batter. Steam fully three hours, turn from the mold, strew chopped almonds over top. Serve pudding hot with sauce for which recipe is given.

Aunt Sarah invariably served this pudding on Thanksgiving Day, and all preferred it to old-fas.h.i.+oned "English Plum Pudding."

SAUCE FOR PUDDING.

Cream together 1 cup of pulverized sugar, scant 1/2 cup of b.u.t.ter, beat whites of 2 eggs in, one at a time, and one teaspoonful of lemon flavoring; stand on ice a short time before serving. Serve sauce very cold.

"SLICE" BREAD PUDDING

Line the sides of a pudding dish holding two quarts with seven slices of stale bread from which crust had been removed. Beat together 3 eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar and 3 cups of sweet milk (and add the juice and grated rind of one lemon, or half a grated nutmeg). Pour in the centre of pudding dish. With a spoon dip some of the custard over each slice of bread. Bake about 30 minutes and serve hot with the following sauce:

One cup of water, 1/2 cup milk, 1 teaspoonful b.u.t.ter, scant tablespoonful of flour mixed smooth with a little water before adding it. Sweeten to taste, add grated nutmeg or vanilla to flavor. Cook all together, then add the yolk of one egg. Place on stove a minute to heat. Add a pinch of salt. Serve hot over the pudding in individual dishes.

CEREALS--OATMEAL PORRIDGE

Oatmeal to be palatable and wholesome should be thoroughly cooked, that is, steamed over a hot fire two hours or longer. Use a double boiler of agateware. Place in the upper half of the boiler about 5 cups of water and stand directly over the hottest part of the range.

When the water boils furiously, and is full of little bubbles (not before), stir into the boiling water about 2 cups of oatmeal (if porridge is liked rather thick), and about 1 teaspoonful of salt.

(Tastes differ regarding the thickness of porridge.) Let stand directly on the front of the range, stirring only enough to prevent scorching, and cook ten minutes, then stand upper part of double boiler over the lower compartment, partly filled with boiling water; cover closely and let steam from two to three hours. In order to have the oatmeal ready to serve at early breakfast the following morning, put oatmeal on to cook about five o'clock in the evening, while preparing supper, and allow it to stand and steam over boiling water until the fire in the range is dampened off for the night. Allow the oatmeal to stand on range until the following morning, when draw the boiler to front part of range, and when breakfast is ready (after removing top crust formed by standing), turn the oatmeal out on a dish and serve with rich cream and sugar, and you will have a good, wholesome breakfast dish with the flakes distinct, and a nutty flavor.

Serve fruit with it, if possible. A good rule for cooking oatmeal is in the proportion of 2-1/2 cups of water to 1 cup of oatmeal.

The cereals which come ready prepared are taking the place of the old-time standby with which mothers fed their growing boys. If you wish your boys to have muscle and brawn, feed them oats. To quote an old physician, "If horses thrive on oats, why not boys who resemble young colts?"

For example, look at the hardy young Scot who thrives and grows hearty and strong on his oatmeal "porritch." Chopped almonds, dates or figs may be added to oatmeal to make it more palatable. Use cup measuring 1/2 pint for measuring cereals as well as every other recipe calling for one cup in this book.

COOKED RICE

Boil 1 cup of whole, thoroughly cleansed, uncoated rice in 3 quarts of rapidly boiling water (salted) about 25 minutes, or until tender, which can be tested by pressing a couple of grains of rice between the fingers. Do not stir often while boiling. When the rice is tender turn on to a sieve and drain; then put in a dish and place in the oven, to dry off, with oven door open, when the grains should be whole, flaky, white and tempting, not the soggy, unappetizing ma.s.s one often sees.

Serve rice with cream and sugar. Some prefer brown sugar and others like crushed maple sugar with it. Or rice may be eaten as a vegetable with salt and b.u.t.ter. Rice is inexpensive, nutritious and one of the most easily digested cereals, and if rightly cooked, an appetizing looking food. It is a wonder the economical housewife does not serve it oftener on her table in some of the numerous ways it may be prepared. As an ingredient of soup, as a vegetable, or a pudding, croquettes, etc., the wise housekeeper will cook double the amount of rice needed and stand half aside until the day following, when may be quickly prepared rice croquettes, cheese b.a.l.l.s, etc. On the day following that on which rice has been served, any cold boiled rice remaining may be placed in a small bake dish with an equal quant.i.ty of milk, a little sugar and flavoring, baked a short time in oven and served with a cup of stewed, seeded raisins which have slowly steamed, covered with cold water, on the back of the range, until soft and plump.

CORN MEAL MUSH

Place on the range a cook-pot containing 9 cups of boiling water (good measure). Sift in slowly 2 cups of yellow granulated corn meal, stirring constantly while adding the meal, until the mixture is smooth and free from lumps. Add 1-1/4 level teaspoonfuls of salt and 1/4 teaspoonful of sugar, and cook a short time, stirring constantly, then stand where the mush will simmer, or cook slowly for four or five hours.

Serve hot, as a porridge, adding 1/2 teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter to each individual bowl of hot mush and serve with it cold milk or cream.

Should a portion of the mush remain after the meal, turn it at once, while still hot, in an oblong pan several inches in depth, stand until quite cold. Cut in half-inch slices, sift flour over each slice and fry a golden brown in a couple tablespoonfuls of sweet drippings and b.u.t.ter. Or dip slices of mush in egg and bread crumbs and fry brown in the same manner. Some there are who like maple syrup or mola.s.ses served with fried mush.

This proportion of corn meal and water will make porridge of the proper consistency and it will be just right to be sliced for frying when cold. Long, slow cooking makes corn meal much more wholesome and palatable, and prevents the raw taste of cornmeal noticeable in mush cooked too quickly. The small quant.i.ty of sugar added is not noticed, but improves the flavor of the mush.