Oxtail Soup

Things A Lady Would Like to Know Concerning Domestic Management and Expenditure (Henry Southgate, 1875)

I love this book mostly for the improving quotes that it is so liberally sprinkled with.

Cultivate modesty, meekness, prudence, piety with all its virtuous and charitable occupations, all beautiful and useful accomplishments, suited to your rank and condition.  These are the chief ornaments of your sex, and will render you truly lovely as women and as Christians. --Rev. James Fordyce, D.D. (Yes, the same Rev. Fordyce that Mr. Collins keeps trying to read from in Pride and Prejudice.)

I have theories on why beautiful soup tureens were so popular.  Oxtail joints are not particularly attractive.

Oxtail Soup.--Make a quantity of brown soup with shin of beef; take 2 or 3 tails and cut them in pieces at the joints; put them into the soup, and stew them till tender, but not till the meat leaves the bones.  Add a little [mushroom] ketchup, and serve it with the pieces of tail in the soup.

Even less attractive raw!

Oxtail Soup, Redacted
Beef broth
Mushroom ketchup
Oxtail pieces

Put beef broth, a few tablespoons of mushroom ketchup, and some pieces of oxtail in a pot.  Either simmer for a loooooong time, or pressure cook 45 minutes (natural release).


Verdict:  Actually... great.  Really great.  Really, really great.  This made the best beef broth I think I've ever had.  That mushroom ketchup is really nice when it's diluted.  That, along with the flavor from the oxtails, made the broth so fabulous.  The oxtail meat was tender, flavorful, and succulent.  The kids adored it.  They dunked bread in the broth and had a couple bowls each.

The only problem is how to eat the gosh darn things.  It's REALLY DIFFICULT to get bites off the things!  You probably end up with six or seven bites of meat off the entire thing.  So, a great starter soup I guess, but probably don't base a whole meal off this unless you throw in some vegetables.

Raspberry, Strawberry, Currant or Orange Effervescing Draughts

Things a Lady Would Like to Know [1876]

This is a third attempt at an effervescing drink, for teetotalers such as myself.  The first two were Effervescing Fruit Drinks and Effervescing Jelly Drinks, both from Mrs. Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book [1850], both absolutely wretched.  How will this new challenger from the world's most moralizing cookbook fare?  

A masculine woman must be naturally an unamiable creature. -Rev. James Fordyce, D.D.

Raspberry, Strawberry, Currant or Orange Effervescing Draughts.--
Take 1 quart of the juice of either of the above fruits; filter it, and boil it into a syrup with 1 lb. of powdered loaf sugar*.  To this add 1 1/2 oz. of tartaric acid**.  When cold, put it into a bottle, and keep it well corked.  When required for use, fill a half-pint tumbler three parts full of water, and add 2 table-spoonfuls of the syrup.  Then stir in briskly a small tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda***, and a very delicious drink will be formed.  The colour may be improved by adding a very small portion of cochineal**** to the syrup at the time of boiling.

*Regular, granular sugar.  The sugar it refers to is a solid brick or cone of sugar, that has to be smashed before use.  I prefer a hammer.  Or to buy it free-flowing.

**Tartaric acid may be found at specialty brewing stores.  Or might not.  In lieu of tartaric acid, the much more commonly available citric acid can be substituted.  Citric acid is 4x less acidic than tartaric acid, so you have to increase the amount by 4x.  Citric acid can be found by asking at a pharmacy, or by keeping your eyes open during canning season.  If you get it from the pharmacy, as I did, expect to pay through the nose.  $24 for the amount that I needed for this recipe.  RIDICULOUS.  All the recipes I've used citric acid for (one) call for just a little bit, so I thought it would last a while.  Nope.  Entire bottle.  Little did I know, two aisles over in the canning section of the exact same store was twice the amount for $3.  I found that out a couple days later by accident, and felt so very angry.

***baking soda

****Cochineal are wee little bugs that live on cacti, valued for their excellent red dye.  And yes, it is still used as a food dye.  People whined about it a lot less when they were literally smashing up bugs in the kitchen to dye confections than they do now where you never see any evidence, which I find strange.  Feel free to substitute pre-prepared food coloring, if you do not wish to mash up bugs.

Verdict:
Very, very nice!  The citric acid works a lot better here than vinegar.  I didn't strain my raspberries like the recipe says, because I am lazy.  I tell myself that the seeds make it look more rustic and homemade, and I think I have a good point.  And once again, it took until I dumped the baking soda in to go, "Oh RIGHT!  Citric acid is made of ACID!" and run breakneck to the sink while it threatened to explode over my hand due to the chemical reaction.

Husband enjoyed it, Toddler threw a tantrum when she finished hers because it was gone, and I thought it was delightful.  Very refreshing, tingly in your mouth like soda but not as sweet.  I think some cream stirred in would be fabulous.  As a bonus, it's just so darn pretty.  It looks like a drink from My Little Pony.

Plain Swiss (Suet) Pudding

Things A Lady Would Like To Know [1876]

True love, like the eye, can bear no flaw. --Laveter.

Once again showing a lamentable taste in quotations, we proceed, at last, to the long-awaited suet pudding. Queen Victoria, like most Victorians, had a basic distrust of vegetables. Her Majesty in particular lived on a diet made up almost entirely of beef and puddings.

In the absence of a pudding mold, I ended up smooshing it into a metal bowl and setting it on top of a coil of aluminum foil inside a pot of boiling water. I took great care with the smooshing, so that it would detach from the bowl easily and lie there in a beautiful, smooth hemisphere.

Not so much.

Plain Swiss Pudding
Chop very fine 6 oz. of beef suet, and mix it well with 8 oz. of breadcrumbs, 1/2 lb. of apples, pared, cored, and minced fine; add 8 oz. of powdered white sugar*, the juice of 1 lemon, and the peel grated, with a pinch of salt. Well mix all the above ingredients, and put it into a buttered mold; boil it, and when done, turn it out and serve.

From the White House Cook Book [1887] "Sauces for Puddings" section:

Milk or Cream Sauce:
Cream or rich milk, simply sweetened with plenty of white sugar and flavored, answers the purpose of some kinds of pudding, and can be made very quickly.

Verdict: Um. Mixed. The flavor was really, really, really good. Rich and sweet and buttery tasting and fruity and luscious. Really, it is one of the best things my tongue has ever had the pleasure of tasting. That is saying something, considering what I used for breadcrumbs was failed whole wheat bread that was as dense as a brick. Not a bit like beef. But. Every bite leaves a heavy, waxy coating all around the inside of the mouth. It coats the back of the teeth and doesn't leave. It is awful. The bits from the bottom of the bowl were the worst, I think the suet kind of pooled there. The bits from the top were much better. Husband ate all of his portion and only noticed the fattiness after I pointed it out. I ate a few bites, then couldn't stand the wax build-up any more.

I am unsure whether this result is just because that is how suet puddings are, or because this particular recipe or cookbook has a particularly high ratio of suet to other stuff.

*"Powdered" here means "Smashed up from the brick or cone it came in."

Breakfast: Indian Slapjacks, Pork chops, Eggs and Apples, Graham bread

A great variety of dishes are unnecessary for breakfast, but see that what you do have, is nicely cooked, and properly served. Unless sickness or some other circumstance prevents, the mistress of the house should always add the finishing touches to the breakfast room, and the breakfast table. The most experienced servant will fail in producing just the right degree of light and sunlight, in getting rid of the last speck of dust, or the latest evidence of ashes, and never thinks at all of transferring a branch of rosebuds, and geranium from the garden to the mantel piece; these belong to the gentler thought, and more refined instincts of the cultivated lady, and such duties are not at all beneath the dignity of the highest in the land. -Jennie June's American Cookery Book: Containing Upwards of Twelve Hundred Choice and Carefully Tested Receipts; Embracing All the Popular Dishes, and the Best Results of Modern Science... Also, a Chapter For Invalids, For Infants, One on Jewish Cookery; and a Variety of Miscellaneous Receipts of Special Value to Housekeepers Generally.[1870]

Bill of Fare:
Indian Slapjacks
Pork Chops cut thin and fried brown
Fried apples
Graham bread

Indian Griddle Cakes --1
Mix together one pint of Indian meal, one cup of flour, a table-spoonful of molasses, a tea-spoonful of saleratus*, a little salt and ginger, and sufficient sour milk to make a stiff batter. Bake on the griddle.

Pork Cutlets
To broil or fry these, cut them half an inch thick, trim them into neat form, take off part of the fat. To broil them, sprinkle a little pepper on them, and broil them over a clear and moderate fire a quarter of an hour, or a few minutes more; and just before taking them off, sprinkle over a little fine salt. For frying, flour them well and season with pepper, and salt, and sage. They may also be dipped into an egg, and then into bread crumbs mixed with minced sage; if for broiling, add a little clarified butter to the egg, or sprinkle it on the cutlets.

Eggs and Apples
Beat up the eggs as for omelet, pare and slice the apples, fry them in a little butter, take them out, and stir them in with the eggs. Melt a little butter in the pan, put in the eggs and apples; fry, turning over once and serve it hot.

***

Verdict:

Indian Griddle Cakes: Kind of dry and gritty, but not bad. They work astonishingly well for soaking up syrup, possibly up to 3x their weight in syrup. I do not know what property of this recipe is the cause of this, but it is awesome.


Pork Cutlets: So very tasty. I bolded the part of the recipe I followed, and they were fab. Nice and crusty outside, tender and juicy inside. Delightful.

Eggs and Apples: Surprisingly delicious! I used a small apple, three eggs, a splash of milk, a sprinkle of salt, and about 2 T. butter. Butter is important. You wouldn't think this would be as pleasant as it is. I can't quite describe how it tastes, so you'll just have to try it out.

Graham bread: I used 9-grain bread, hoping that the Rev. Sylvester Graham would approve.

All together: The best part about this menu is that you only have to use one pan! Fantastic. To keep the food from getting cold while you make everything, throw everything in the warming oven** as you make it. If you do not live in the 1800's and thus do not have a wood stove, turn your oven to its lowest setting, let it come to temperature, turn it off, and then throw in your tin foil covered food.

After eating everything, I was well satisfied. You may notice, however, that everything is brown. This may be why Jennie June suggests putting flowers on the table! As indeed I did (although they are not in the picture), as I have the refined instincts of a cultivated lady.


*Saleratus is the naturally-occuring form of baking soda. It was gathered up off the ground, where it forms a sort of crust. Early settlers to the western United States were often thrilled to find deposits of saleratus. Like pure baking soda, it has to react with an acid in order to leaven stuff. This is why the recipe above calls for sour milk, which I've talked about before. Fresh milk will not work! To substitute for sour milk, add 1 tsp. vinegar or lemon juice to every 1 cup of milk.

**The warming oven is the part of a wood-burning stove that is right above the range. It doesn't get hot, it just stays... you know... warm. Because of this, it is marvelous for keeping food warm, raising bread, keeping the bread warm after it is baked so that butter melts into it deliciously hours later, and keeping premature babies and sickly lambs in. It is not, as some might quite wrongly believe, for storing pots and pans in. This is a waste of good cookie-storing space.

Rhubarb Fool

Jennie June's American Cookery Book [1870]

I may have neglected to mention this before, but I love cream. So much. If you enjoy cream a tenth as much as I do, you will love fools. No no, the desserty kind. A fool is a fruit sauce folded into cream (whipped or unwhipped) or custard. For this recipe, I chose to replace gooseberries with rhubarb.

RHUBARB.—This is one of the most useful of all garden productions that are put into pies and puddings. It was comparatively little known till within the last twenty or thirty years, but it is now cultivated in almost every British garden. The part used is the footstalks of the leaves, which, peeled and cut into small pieces, are put into tarts, either mixed with apples or alone. When quite young, they are much better not peeled. Rhubarb comes in season when apples are going out. The common rhubarb is a native of Asia; the scarlet variety has the finest flavour. Turkey rhubarb, the well-known medicinal drug, is the root of a very elegant plant (Rheum palmatum), coming to greatest perfection in Tartary. For culinary purposes, all kinds of rhubarb are the better for being blanched. -Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

Gooseberry Fool
Put into a deep dish some green gooseberries, a quart or more if desired, after baking them in the oven until quite soft [I simmered on the stovetop], pulp them through a colander and add pounded sugar to taste. When it is cold, mix in a gill* of cream to each quart of berries, and serve in a glass dish.


Verdict: Another triumph of an extremely short list of simple ingredients. Rhubarb, sugar, cream. Yum. The cream mellowed the rhubarb a little bit, rendering it even more delicious than before. Such an easy dessert! And so tasty. Plus, it is attractively pink. Now go! Try this with whatever fruit your heart fancies! I'm sure it will be fantastic, because you made it.

*5 oz.

Salmon, Roast Pigeons, Vegetables, Macaroni Pudding

Things a Lady Would Like to Know [1876]



Remember this book? Oh yes. The one with the edifying quotes. Today's menu is for July 25, with this accompanying quote:

Consider everlasting consequences, contemplate approaching judgment. -Rev. James Fordyce, D.D.

Oh, Reverend Fordyce. You are as cheery as ever. You may remember this fellow from such books as Pride and Prejudice, where he is mentioned as a favorite author of Mr. Collins.

Salmon
Roast Pigeons
Vegetables
Macaroni Pudding

Salmon.—Take 2 slices of salmon, and lay them in a baking-dish; put some pieces of butter over them; add salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg, half a tea-spoonful of chopped parsley, 1 shalot, rubbing a little of it into the fish. Baste frequently. Take out when done (in about three-quarters of an hour); drain it; lay it on a hot dish, and pour over it either tomato or caper sauce.

Roast Pigeons.—Pick, draw, and truss them, keeping on the feet. Chop the liver with some parsley; add crumbs of bread, pepper, salt, and a little butter; put this stuffing inside. Slit one of the legs, and slip the other through it; skewer and roast them for half an hour; baste them well with butter. Serve with brown gravy in a boat, and bread sauce.

4. Maccaroni Pudding.—Simmer 1 or 2 oz. of the pipe sort in a pint of milk and a bit of lemon and cinnamon till tender; put it into a dish with milk, 2 or 3 eggs, but only 1 white; sugar, nutmeg, and a half glass of raisin wine, or table-spoonful of brandy. Bake with a paste round the edges. A layer of orange marmalade or raspberry jam in this pudding, for change, is a great improvement; in which case omit the almond water, or ratifia, which you would otherwise flavour it with.


Verdict:

Salmon: Wayyyyyy overcooked. I pulled it out of the oven at 20 minutes, and it was still overcooked. Three-quarters of an hour would render it into salmon jerky. Other than that, I really liked it. The preparation and ingredients were very simple. I didn't do a tomato or caper sauce, and I don't think it needed it. I can recommend this recipe, as long as you don't cook it as long as I did.

Roast Pigeons: Pigeons were unavailable, but luckily a couple cornish game hens were happy to step in as stunt doubles. And they were delicious. I now love cornish game hens. Not a very interesting preparation, but it is pretty fun to eat an entire bird in one go, especially with some fantastic gravy made with the drippings. Husband made the stuffing, using a slice of bread per bird, and also tried really hard to attach the legs together as instructed. This did not succeed. Probably because some thoughtless butcher had cut its feet off. The same butcher also failed to include the tiny wee livers. Shucks!

Macaroni Pudding: The original menu had tapioca pudding on this day, but this looked more entertaining. In place of raisin wine, brandy, or ratafia, I used vanilla and a little orange flower water. I thought it was lovely! Think of it sort of like a custardy rice pudding, but with macaroni instead of rice and also in a pie shell. The marmalade was an excellent touch. Husband thought the flavor was good, but couldn't get over the bouncy texture of the macaroni, so unexpected in a sweet application. Boo sucks to him, that means I get to eat the rest!

Vermicelli Soup, Jugged Hare, Vegetables, Bread and Butter Pudding

Things a Lady Would Like to Know [1876]



This book is excellent for menus, with a bill of fare for every day of the year! Even February 29. So many year-long cookbooks forget poor February 29. It also has a huge selection of improving quotes.

Daughter, the happiness of life depends
On our discretion, and a prudent choice:
Look unto those they call unfortunate,
And, closer viewed, you'll find they were unwise.
Some flaw in their own conduct lies beneath;
And 'tis the trick of fools, to save their credit,
Which brought another language into use. -Young

Er..... yes. That... hm. Well. Let's get on with the food. Perhaps it will be better. I subtracted a dish (made of eels) from the menu and swapped the dessert, but the type and number of dishes in the meal is still accurate.



Vermicelli Soup
Jugged Hare
Vegetables
Bread and Butter Pudding




Vermicelli Soup.--Soak for half an hour a 1/4 lb. of vermicelli (broken into inch lengths) in cold water, then drain it. Put it into a stewpan with 3 pints of boiling hot stock, 2 table-spoonfuls of grated Parmesan or Stilton, a tea-spoonful of fresh-made mustard, a salt-spoonful of loaf sugar, a salt-spoonful of salt, and simmer gently for good three-quarters of an hour, stirring frequently. Add another quart of stock, and a wine-glassful of Marsala or 1 1/2 of sherry. Boil slowly about eight minutes longer, and serve with a separate dish of parmesan or Stilton cheese.





Jugged Hare.--Skin the hare, and cut it in pieces, but do not wash it; dredge it with flour, and fry it a nice brown in butter, seasoning it with a little pepper, salt, and cayenne. make about a pint and a half of gravy from the beef. Put the pieces of hare into a jar; add the onion stuck with 4 or 5 cloves, the lemon peeled and cut, and pour in the gravy. Cover the jar closely to keep in the steam; put it into a deep stewpan of cold water, and let it boil four hours; but if a young hare, three hours will be sufficient. When done, take it out of the jar and shake it over the fire for a few minutes, adding a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, 2 glasses of port wine, and a piece of butter rolled in flour, with some fried forcemeat-balls. Serve with red currant jelly.



3. Bread and Butter Pudding.—Boil gently for five or ten minutes a pint of good milk, with the peel of half a lemon, a little cinnamon, and a spoonful of almond or orange-flower water*, then sweeten with good sugar;

break the yolks of five eggs and the whites of three into a basin; beat them well, and add the milk; beat all well together**, and strain through a hair-sieve; have some bread and butter cut very thin, put a layer of it in a pie-dish, and then a layer of currants, and so on till the dish is nearly full; then pour the custard over it, and bake it half an hour.

Verdict:

Vermicelli Soup: So good. I love cheese. Vermicelli is a noodle that is thinner than spaghetti, but thicker than angel hair. I used spaghetti. I will admit to you now, to my shame, I did not boil it for 45 minutes, nor did I soak it. I know. I'm sorry. But I wanted at least one thing in my dinner that I was reasonably sure would taste good, and other recipes in the book for vermicelli soup didn't have it cooked for that long. I also subbed grape juice for wine, for because as I have said before, I am a teetotaler. It was all yummy and warm and cheesy and good. Mmmm.

Jugged Hare: Rabbit tastes just like chicken! Really. Husband cut up the rabbit, because raw meat with bones makes me feel squiggly. Cooking in a jug, in liquid, with very low heat for several hours, is directly comparable to using a slow cooker. You may come to your own conclusions about with method I used. I also did not add in forcemeat balls (they are garnish, anyway) nor the spoonful of mushroom ketchup. My jugged hare recipe choices were limited, so I did the best I could. Most of them involve cooking the rabbit in its own blood. The flavor was really nice... except for the lemon. It was far, far too much lemon. If you make this, please use only a couple slices of lemon. That much lemon made the meat so very, very sour.

Bread and Butter Pudding: Fantastic! It tastes just like bread pudding should. I used orange blossom water, which made it gently floral. It does use a large amount of egg, more than you'd see today. As such, it is solid at room temperature. This is excellent if one does not have a refrigerator, as one lives in the 1870's. Because of its thickness, however, it doesn't run between the layers and soak in as well as it might. This problem would be easily rectified by adding custard between the layers right after the currants rather than pouring it all on top. If you do have a refrigerator, fewer eggs would not go amiss either. Two or three would be sufficient, I believe.



*Look in the drink mixer section of the grocery store
**This is tempering. It prevents the egg from cooking too fast and becoming scrambled egg. Slowly drizzle the hot liquid, a little bit at a time, into the eggs while whisking. Then, when the temperature of the eggs has been brought up, dump them back into the hot mixture and heat slowly and gently until thick.

Roast Fowl, Potato, and Half-pay Pudding

This comes from The Book of Twenty-five Cent Dinners for Families of Six [1879], by Julie Corson, superintendendent of the New York Cooking School. You can read it here, at Project Gutenberg! I love Project Gutenberg. My very very favorite quote thus far comes from this book:

The cheapest kinds of food are sometimes the most wholesome and strengthening; but in order to obtain all their best qualities we must know how to choose them for their freshness, goodness, and suitability to our needs. That done, we must know how to cook them, so as to make savory and nutritious meals instead of tasteless or sodden messes, the eating whereof sends the man to the liquor shop for consolation.

Preach, Julie! Fannie Farmer needs to know. The atrocities she visits on defenseless sick people fill me with sorrow.

$.25 in 1879 is about $5.50 to $5.70 in 2010 money.

Both poultry and game are less nutritious than meat, but they are more digestible, and consequently are better food than meat for persons of weak digestive organs and sedentary habits. They are both excellent for persons who think or write much.

Roast Fowl.—You can generally buy a fowl for about a shilling a pound; it need not be tender, but it ought to be fleshy in order to furnish the basis for two meals. Choose a fowl which will cost fifty cents or less; pluck all the pin feathers, singe off the hairs with a piece of burning paper, or a little alcohol poured on a plate and lighted with a match; then wipe the fowl with a clean damp cloth, draw it carefully by slitting the skin at the back of the neck, and taking out the crop without tearing the skin of the breast; loosen the heart, liver, and lungs by introducing the fore-finger at the neck, and then draw them, with the entrails, from the vent. Unless you have broken the gall, or the entrails, in drawing the bird, do not wash it, for this greatly impairs the flavor, and partly destroys the nourishing qualities of the flesh. Twist the tips of the wings back under the shoulders; bend the legs as far up toward the breast as possible, secure the thigh bones in that position by a trussing cord or skewer; then bring the legs down, and fasten them close to the vent. Put the bird into a pot containing three quarts of boiling water, with one tablespoonful of salt, an onion stuck with half a dozen cloves, and a bouquet of sweet herbs, made as directed on page 19; skim it as soon as it boils, and as often as any scum rises.



Meantime, while the fowl is boiling, peel one quart of potatoes, (cost three cents,) and lay them in cold water. At the end of one hour take the fowl from the pot, taking care to strain and save the pot liquor, put it into a dripping pan with the potatoes, season them both with a teaspoonful of salt, and quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper, and put them in a rather quick oven to bake for about one hour. When both are well done, and nicely browned, take them up on hot dishes, and keep them hot while you make the following gravy:

Chicken Gravy.—Pour one pint of boiling water into the dripping pan in which the fowl was baked; while it is boiling up mix one heaping tablespoonful, or one ounce, of flour with half a cup of cold water, and stir it smoothly into the gravy; season it to taste with pepper and salt, and send it in a bowl to the table with the chicken and potatoes.



Dried Herbs.—When you buy a bunch of dried herbs rub the leaves through a sieve, and bottle them tightly until you need them; tie the stalks together and save them until you want to make what the French call a bouquet, for a soup or stew. A bouquet of herbs is made by tying together a few sprigs of parsley, thyme and two bay-leaves. The bay-leaves, which have the flavor of laurel, can be bought at any German grocery, or drug-store, enough to last for a long time for five cents.


Good puddings are nutritious and wholesome, and an excellent variety can be made at a comparatively small expense.
Half-pay Pudding.—Carefully wash and dry a quarter of a pound of Zante currants, (cost three cents,) stone the same quantity of raisins, (cost three cents,) and chop an equal amount of suet, (cost two cents;) mix them with eight ounces of stale bread, (cost three cents,) three tablespoonfuls of molasses, half a pint of milk, and a teaspoonful each of spice, salt, and baking powder, (cost four cents.)

Put these ingredients into a mould which has been well buttered and floured, and steam them about three hours.


If by any mischance the top of the pudding is watery, you can remedy it by putting it into a hot oven for ten or fifteen minutes to brown. When you are ready to use it, turn it from the mould and send it to the table with some CREAM SAUCE. This is an excellent plum pudding, and costs only about twenty cents, including sauce.

Cream Sauce.—Stir together over the fire one ounce each of flour and butter, (cost two cents;) as soon as they are smooth pour into them half a pint of boiling milk, (cost two cents,) add two ounces of sugar and half a teaspoonful of lemon flavoring, (cost two cents,) and use with the pudding as soon as it boils up. The sauce and pudding will cost about twenty cents.

ALSO!

Julie recommends you also do this for dinner the next two days:

Fried Chicken.—Dip the pieces of chicken saved from the Sunday dinner into a batter made according to the following receipt, and fry it a delicate brown color in quarter of a pound of olive oil or sweet drippings, or lard, (cost three cents,) heated until it is smoking hot. Before you begin to fry the chicken, wash one quart of potatoes, (cost three cents,) pare off a ring from each, and put them to boil in plenty of well salted boiling water. When the chicken is done take it up with a strainer, and lay it for a few minutes on brown paper to free it from fat; then serve it hot, with the boiled potatoes.

Frying Batter.—This batter will do nicely for chicken, fish, clams, cold boiled parsnips, or fruit of any kind, of which you wish to make fritters. The oil is added to it for the purpose of making it crisp. Many persons object to the use of oil in cooking, from a most foolish prejudice. It is a pure vegetable fat, wholesome and nutritious in the highest degree; and the sooner our American housewives learn to use it in cooking the better it will be for both health and purse. I do not mean the expensive oil, sold at fine grocery stores for a dollar a bottle, but a good sweet kind which can be bought at French Épicerie or German Delicatessen depots for about two dollars and fifty cents a gallon. Make the batter by mixing together four heaping tablespoonfuls of flour, (cost one cent,) a level teaspoonful of salt, the yolk of one egg, (cost one or two cents,) two tablespoonfuls of oil, (cost one cent,) and one gill of water, or a quantity sufficient to make a thick batter; just as you are ready to use it, beat the white of the egg, and stir it into the batter; the cost will be three or four cents, and the use of it will double the size and nicety of your dish.

Chicken Broth.—Heat the broth in which the fowl for Sunday dinner was boiled, and when it is at the boiling point throw in quarter of a pound of rice, or fine macaroni, which will cost three or four cents, and boil it about twenty minutes, or until tender; see if the seasoning is right, and serve it hot.

Whew. Sorry about all that reading. Now onto the

Verdict!:

Roast Fowl: I used a couple chicken thighs instead of an entire chicken, and I'll admit now that I did not actually kill, pluck and gut it myself. The shame, I am filled with it. Anyway, this was... really good. I thought the boiling it and THEN roasting it was weird, but it actually worked well! The boiling rendered off a lot of the fat, so later when the chicken was roasted it crisped up to deliciousness without that under layer of gross fat. Bleargh. It was nice and tender as well. And, bonus, I got broth for... whatever I need broth for. Woo!

Potato: It's, you know, a potato. This meal has zero real vegetables. I hope the poor folk reading this book didn't get scurvy or anything.

Half-pay Pudding: So yeah! A steamed pudding. Gentle readers, I tried to find suet. I made a valiant effort. I actually talked to the guy in the butcher department.

"Do you guys by any chance have suet?"
"What... what is suet?"
"It is the solid fat from around the kidneys of cows."
"Oh. I call that 'kidney fat'. And no. We don't. Try the butchering school."

Pfft.

I also used sorghum molasses, for extra credit. Let's talk about sorghum!

Before shipping from the Caribbean became reasonably inexpensive, "molasses" in recipes referred broadly to 1.) the stuff from sugar cane and 2.) boiled down syrup from sorghum. Sorghum plants look like corn minus the corn, and have a veeeery high sugar content. Sorghum can also be grown in cool climates, unlike sugar cane. Thus, sorghum was much more readily available, since it could be produced at any local farm. It tastes much like molasses, but much milder and smoother. It is tasty on pancakes. And super annoying to make over a fire. Hate. So. Much.

Anyway! The pudding. It was okay! A little soggy, but I did use store bought bread, so that's my own fault. Kind of like a smooshy cinnamon roll. The sauce was tasty times. If you want to try it out, here is my altered recipe:

Half-pay Pudding
1/3 C. raisins and/or currants
1/4 C. suet or butter
2-3 pieces stale (or toasted) bread (2 if homemade, 3 if store bought. Ish.), crumbed
1 T. molasses
1/2 C. milk
1/4 t. each spice, salt, baking powder

Mix first set of ingredients in order listed. Divide into 2 greased ramekins. Cover ramekins with foil or parchment paper and tie on. Steam 1.5 hours (I put them over my vegetable steamer). Bake 5-10 minutes if it is too smooshy. Turn it onto a plate and put cream sauce over.

Cream Sauce
1/2 T. butter
1/2 T. flour
1/2 C. milk
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla or 1/8 t. lemon flavoring

Melt butter in a pan and stir in flour. Slowly add in milk and cook until slightly thickened. If it is boiling, it is as thick as it's going to get. Stir in other ingredients and cook until sugar melts.

Broiled salmon, potatoes, breakfast johnny cake, stewed cherries

This breakfast bill of fare is from Jennie June's American Cookery Book, Containing Upwards of Twelve Hundred Choice and Carefully Tested Receipts; Embracing All the Popular Dishes, and the Best Results of Modern Science, Reduced to a Simple and Practical Form. Also, a Chapter for Invalids, for Infants, One on Jewish Cookery; and a Variety of Miscellaneous Receipts of Special Value to Housekeepers Generally [1870].

Phew.

Jennie June, no less generous with her quotes than with her titles, chooses this to begin with:

"What does cookery mean?"


"It means the knowledge of Medea, and of Circe, and of Calypso, and of Helen, and of Rebekah, and of the Queen of Sheba. It means the knowledge of all fruits, and herbs, and balms, and spices--and of all that is healing, and sweet in fields, and groves, and savory in meats--it means carefulness, and inventiveness, and watchfulness, and willingness, and readiness of appliance. It means the economy of your great-grandmothers, and the science of modern chemists--it means much tasting, and no wasting--it means English thoroughness, and French art, and Arabian hospitality, and it means in fine, that you are to be perfectly, and always 'ladies,'--'loaf givers,' and as you are to see imperatively that everybody has something pretty to put on,--so you are to see, even yet more imperatively, that everybody has something nice to eat."--RUSKIN.

I think that is rather nice.




Broiled Salmon
About an inch, is the proper thickness to cut the slices; dry them with a cloth, put salt on them, and lay them skin side down, on a gridiron over hot coals. Before laying on the fish, rub the bars with lard, to prevent them sticking. When broiled sufficiently on one side, turn the fish, by laying a plate upon it and turning the gridiron over; then slip the salmon from the plate on to the gridiron. This prevents its breaking.

I just pan-fried these, seeing as I am short on gridirons over hot coals.


Fried Potatoes
Peel half a dozen medium potatoes, cut them up small, and put them into cold water for about half an hour; take them out, dry with a towel, and put them in a frying-pan, with two ounces of butter and a little salt; cover down, and every little while, shake and turn them; when they are tender, and of a clear, light, rich brown, they are done; the grease should be drained off from them, and they are ready to send to table.




Breakfast Johnny Cake
Mix over night six or eight table-spoonsful of fine yellow Indian meal, with two of wheat flour, one of corn starch, a tea-spoonful of salt, and water enough to wet thoroughly--milk is better, but is not essential.

In the morning add one egg, a tea-spoonful of soda, a table-spoonful of brown sugar, and another of melted butter; beat up well, and bake immediately. This is good enough for "company."



The original menu, instead of johnny cake, had "baker's twists". Unfortunately, I have no idea what those are, and Jennie June did not provide a recipe. This right here is as close as Google took me, and I just don't think that's what Jennie June was thinking of. I hope. What Jennie June does say is this:

"In some families, warm soda biscuit for breakfast, is the regular thing; this is very hurtful. Good home-made bread, not quite fresh, is best. French bread, baked the day before, next best; good baker's twist, third best. For a change, warm corn bread, or johnny cake may be made for breakfast, rice cakes, or waffles, and if biscuits, make them from the light dough mixed over night, shortened with a little butter."

So there.

Stewed Cherries
No recipe given. I used canned, you could simmer fresh sweet cherries in sugar water. But don't.




There is a very important point however, to which little attention is paid, and that is fruit. "Fruit," saith the old proverb, "is golden in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night," yet it is only at night, that in this country, we eat it at all, as part of a meal. This is wrong, fruit is a most valuable part of food, it cannot be too highly estimated; more fruit, with less saleratus, and rich greasy compounds, such as butter with meats, gravies, and the like, would take away the occupation of half the doctors, and reduce wonderfully the sum total of dyspepsia and liver complaints.

Verdict:

Salmon: Mmmmmm. Salmon. Salmon is delicious, and how can you go wrong with a simple pan-fry and salt?

Potatoes: Also pretty simple. I prefer Jennie June's simplistic attitude towards fish and vegetables to Fannie Farmer's love of egg sauced fish or Aunt Babette's horrible library paste peas.

Breakfast Johnny Cake: Okay, so this was not good. The invalid muffins and Graham gems, they didn't taste like anything. But this tasted like baking soda, acrid and chemically salty. We got together with friends this evening to play games, and brought the leftover johnny cake along, since Jennie June swears it is good enough for company. Or we wanted to get rid of it. You can decide that about us. One of our friends said it tasted just like licking a dryer sheet. Friend, why were you licking dryer sheets?

Stewed Cherries: Canned cherries are not my favorite canned fruit. And if you have lovely fresh cherries, why would you cook them up? That would be a travesty. However, all credit to Jennie June, I am dyspepsia and liver-complaint free!

Fruit, fried fish, frizzled beef, milk toast, Graham gems, boiled egg

Bad dinners go hand in hand with total depravity, while a properly fed man is already half saved.

This breakfast (yes, breakfast!) menu comes from Tried and Approved. Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping. Compiled from Original Recipes., which is dedicated to:

THE PLUCKY HOUSEWIVES OF 1876,

WHO MASTER THEIR WORK
INSTEAD OF ALLOWING IT TO
 MASTER THEM.

Fruit
I used pears that I canned last fall.

Fried Fish
Clean thoroughly, cut off the head, and, if large, cut out the backbone, and slice the body crosswise into five or six pieces; dip in Indian meal or wheat flour, or in a beaten egg, and then in bread crumbs (trout and perch should never be dipped in meal), put into a thick-bottomed skillet, skin side uppermost, with hot lard or drippings (never in butter, as it takes out the sweetness and gives a bad color), fry slowly, and turn when a light brown. The roe and the backbone, if previously removed, may be cut up and fried with the other pieces.
A better way is to dredge the pieces in the flour, brush with beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs, and fry in hot lard or drippings enough to completely cover them. If the fat is very hot, the fish will not absorb it, and will be delicately cooked. When brown on one side, turn over in the fat and brown the other, and when done let them drain. Slices of large fish may be cooked in the same way. Serve with tomato sauce or slices of lemon.




Yeahhhh. I used the last of the tilapia, which I bought sans head and backbone. I say I, but actually Ron made this. He used Italian breadcrumbs.

Frizzled Beef

Use a quarter of a pound of dried beef, tender, crimson and shaved very fine. Into the pan put one tablespoon of butter, let it melt, then add one and one-half tablespoons of flour. Rub to a smooth paste, pour in one cup of thin cream, add a dash of paprika, then the beef. Allow it to boil up, then serve on rounds of toast.






This recipe actually comes from another cookbook, Good Housekeeping (1909), because it had much clearer directions. I also used milk rather than cream. Cream would be... wow. Probably really delicious. I also just used 1 jar of dried beef, and it was just about right for this amount of sauce.

Milk Toast
Make toast. Heat up milk. Pour milk over toast. Eat. I didn't make this, because it seemed ridiculous to have toast with gravy, toast with milk, and Graham gems.

Mrs. Buxton's Graham Gems
Take one egg and beat well; add pinch of salt, one quart of buttermilk or sour milk, and Graham flour enough to make a stiff batter; add one heaping tea-spoon of soda and stir thoroughly with a spoon; heat and grease gem-irons [pour in muffin tins], and after dipping the spoon in cold water, drop a spoonful of batter in each pan, repeating until all are filled; bake in a quick oven [about 375-400 F.] half an hour. This measure will make a dozen [abt. 2 dozen].

Boiled Eggs
Put them on in cold water, and when it has boiled the eggs will be done, the whites being soft and digestible, as they are not when put on in boiling water.

I may have simmered these a solid 10 minutes past the point when the water started to boil. I WILL NOT EAT RAW WHITES.

Verdict:

Fruit: Well, it's fruit, isn't it? Home canned pears are delicious. Especially when they are from my grandma's tree.

Fried Fish: This was SO much better than that egg sauce business. If I make tilapia again, this is how I'm doing it.

Frizzled Beef: This is also known as chipped beef. First of all, the dried beef was kind of hard to find. Until I looked at Wal-Mart. It was by the spam, sardines, vienna sausages, etc. I really thought this would be terrible. But it isn't! It grows on you. One thing I did that other recipes for frizzled beef (and the lid) called for was pouring on warm water, swishing it around, then pouring it off to get off some of the salt. This isn't something I'll be putting on regular menu rotation, but it actually is pretty good. I had seconds for the first time since starting this blog. I'm going to get a couple jars for food storage.

Graham gems: They were, you know, fine. Much like the invalid muffins, but wheat. I used whole wheat flour instead of Graham flour, because it is easier to find and the differences are negligible. The crust was nice, but these should really be more of a vehicle for jam. Lots and lots of jam. Ron said they would be better with sausage gravy. Again.

Boiled egg: Geez! What is with these people and mass amounts of protein and bread product?!