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Read Ebook: Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Tyree Marion Cabell Editor
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Ebook has 2162 lines and 209623 words, and 44 pages
DRIPPED OR FILTERED COFFEE.
DRIPPED COFFEE.
CAF? AU LAIT.
GREEN TEA.
BLACK TEA.
ICED TEA.
CHOCOLATE.
COCOA.
BROMA.
MILK AND BUTTER.
The most exquisite nicety and care must be observed in the management of milk and butter. A housekeeper should have two sets of milk vessels . She should never use twice in succession the same milk vessels without having them scalded and aired.
In warm weather, sweet milk should be set on ice, if practicable, or if not, in a spring-house. Never put ice in sweet milk, as this dilutes it. One pan of milk should always be set aside to raise cream for coffee. A bucket with a close-fitting lid should be filled with milk and set aside for dinner, one for supper, one for breakfast, and a fourth for cooking purposes.
For making butter, strain unskimmed milk into a scalded churn, where the churning is done daily. This will give sweeter butter and nicer buttermilk than when cream is skimmed and kept for churning, as this sometimes gives a cheesy taste to the butter. Do not let the milk in the churn exceed blood heat. If overheated, the butter will be white and frothy, and the milk thin and sour. Churn as soon as the milk is turned. In summer try to churn early in the morning, as fewer flies are swarming then, and the butter can be made much firmer.
A stone churn is in some respects more convenient than a wooden churn; but no matter which you use, the most fastidious neatness must be observed. Have the churn scalded and set out to sun as soon as possible after churning. Use your last made butter for buttering bread, reserving the staler for cookery.
Butter should be printed early in the morning, while it is cool. A plateful for each of the three meals should be placed in the refrigerator ready for use. Do not set butter in a refrigerator with anything else in it but milk, or in a safe with anything but milk. It readily imbibes the flavor of everything near it. After churning, butter should be taken up in what is called "a piggin," first scalded and then filled with cold water. With an old-fashioned butter-stick wash and press the butter till no water is left. Then add a little salt, finely beaten. Beat again in a few hours, and make up in half-pound prints. I would advise all housekeepers to keep a piggin, a butter-stick, and a pretty butter-print.
Work the butter over three times, the last time adding an ounce of the above mixture to every pound butter. Of course, the butter is salted, when first made. Make the butter into rolls and wrap in cloths or pack in jars, within four inches of the top of each jar. If the latter is done, fill the jars with brine and tie up closely. If the former is preferred, drop the rolls into brine, prepared as follows:
CLABBER.
COTTAGE CHEESE.
When the tea-kettle boils, pour the water into a pan of "loppered" milk. It will curd at once. Stir it and turn it into a colander, pour a little cold water over it, salt it and break it up. A better way is to put equal parts of buttermilk and thick milk in a kettle, over the fire, heat it almost boiling hot, pour into a linen bag and let it drain till next day. Then take it out, salt it, put in a little cream or butter, as it may be thick or not, and make it up into balls the size of an orange.
SOUP.
As making soup is a tedious process, it is best to make enough at once to last several days. Beef shank is most generally used in making nutritious soup. It is best to get this the day before using it, and soak it all night in cold, clear water. If you cannot do this, however, get it as early in the morning as you can. Break the bones, wash it, soak it a few minutes in weak salt and water, and put it in a large boiler of cold water. As soon as it begins to simmer, remove the dark scum that rises on top. Keep the boiler closely covered, and boil very slowly till an hour or two before dinner. Then, with a ladle, remove all the fat from the top, as it is this element that makes soup unwholesome. Strain and season, or, if you prefer, season just enough for one meal, reserving the rest as foundation for another sort of soup. It is well always to keep some of this stock on hand in cold weather, as by the addition of a can of tomatoes, or other ingredients, a delicious soup may be quickly made of it. Never throw away water in which any sort of meat has been boiled, as it is much better to simmer hash or a stew in this liquor than in water, and it is also invaluable for basting fowls or meats that have not been parboiled.
Directions for soup making are so fully given in the following pages that it is needless for me to say anything further on the subject here.
OYSTER SOUP.
ECONOMICAL OYSTER SOUP.
Cut up one tablespoonful butter with flour and put in while boiling; beat the yolks of four eggs light, mix them with one-half pint milk.
OYSTER SOUP.
Empty the oysters into a colander and drain off all the liquor; then strain the liquor through a very coarse cloth to rid it of all scum, etc. To a whole can of oysters take a quart of milk.
PUR?E OF OYSTERS.
For fifty oysters.
Put the oysters on in their own liquor--let them come to a boil--take them out and mince them; skim the liquor when nearly done. Beat well together:
OYSTER SOUP.
Take two quarts of oysters, wash them, and add, 2 quarts water. A bundle of herbs. 1 small onion sliced.
TURTLE SOUP.
Kill the turtle at daylight in summer, the night before in winter, and hang it up to bleed. After breakfast, scald it well and scrape the outer skin off the shell; open it carefully, so as not to break the gall. Break both shells to pieces and put them into the pot. Lay the fins, the eggs and some of the more delicate parts by--put the rest into the pot with a quantity of water to suit the size of your family.
Add two onions, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, cloves and allspice to suit your taste.
To one turtle that will weigh from four to five pounds, after being dressed, add one-half gallon water, and boil until the turtle will drop to pieces, then add:
To 2 1/2 quarts soup add: 1 ounce mace. 1 dessertspoonful allspice. 1 teaspoonful cloves. Pepper, black and cayenne, and salt to your taste.
MOCK TURTLE SOUP.
Put on beef and boil very tender; take out, chop fine, and put back to boil. Put potatoes, mace, cloves, cinnamon, parsley, thyme, spice, celery seed, and ten hard-boiled eggs; pepper and salt to your taste.
MOCK TERRAPIN SOUP.
CLAM SOUP.
Open the clams and chop them up fine. To twenty clams, add:
CRAB SOUP.
Open, and cleanse of the deadman's fingers and sandbag, twelve small fat crabs raw. Cut the crabs into two parts. Parboil and extract the meat from the claws, and simply extract the fat from the back shells of the crabs. Scald eighteen ripe tomatoes, skin them and squeeze the pulp from the seeds through a colander. Chop them fine and pour boiling water over the seeds and juice, and strain them. Stew a short time in the soup-pot one large onion, one clove of garlic, in one spoonful butter and two spoonfuls lard, and put them in the tomatoes.
One dozen crabs to one gallon water. Take off top shell; clear body of crabs. Cut through the middle, put them into a kettle, mix with some butter, and brown them. Then add one gallon water, and simmer for half an hour. Skim slightly, and add the hock of an old ham, and strained tomato juice one pint. Boil two hours. Season with pepper, spice if liked, and half-pint wine.
BEEF SOUP.
Crack the bone of a shin of beef, and put it on to boil in one quart water. To every pound meat add one large teaspoonful salt to each quart water. Let it boil two hours and skim it well. Then add:
Cut up the head into small pieces, and boil in a large quantity of water until it is all boiled to pieces. Take out all the bones as for souse cheese, and boil again until thick. Then while hot, season very highly with pepper, salt, catsup, allspice, and onions chopped fine.
CALF'S HEAD SOUP.
Take one-half liver and the head of a mutton, veal or beef, and boil until the meat drops from the bone. Cut up fine and add one-half the brains; then:
Put in enough water at first, as adding it makes the soup thin.
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