The Chicago Herald cooking school : a professional cook's book for household use, consisting of a series of menus for every day meals and for private entertainments, with minute instructions for making every article named, originally published in the Chicago Daily Herald.

  • Whitehead, Jessup.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Chicago Herald cooking school : a professional cook's book for household use, consisting of a series of menus for every day meals and for private entertainments, with minute instructions for making every article named, originally published in the Chicago Daily Herald. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    survived bo much would have come up with the corued beef half done and tough enough to spring off the dish—for the corned pieces nine times out of ten are such as would not do to roast or broil—and the pork would be too soft to slice. The potatoes that will steam in thirty minutes would be spoiled while waiting for the carrots, which take two hours, or the parsnips and onions, which require one hour and a half, or the turnips, one hour, or the cabbage, which one day may cook soft in twenty minutes and an- other day take an hour or more—owing to the kind and the season of the year. The corned beef generally requires three hours boiling to make it good, depending, however, upon the quality and size of the beef. It will be seen from the above examples that to cook by boiling a good deal of head work is nec- essary, if not much skill. It is not a sort of knowledge that will come of itself, as a knowl- edge of broiling might. Somebody has observed that Homer in all his writings never once men- tions boiling as a mode of cooking, although he describes a number of feasts and in one place has Achilles doing the broiling for a party of Kings, his guests. So it is inferred that boiled dinners were at that time unknown. People were not wise enough. The most difficult vegetable we have to over- come by boiling is the beet, and because it takes a long time its luck is, generally, to be left un - covered a»d nearly boiled dry, open to the air with neither steam nor water, and somebody goes about fuming because there is no end to the boiling. The time can be reduced one-half by covering with a tight lid. A subscriber writes to an editor asking if it be true that certain articles take longer to boil, or cannot be boiled at all, at great elevations, and is answered in the affirma- tive, and instances quoted from the Baron Yon Humboldt, who could not cook potatoes on the top of a certain mountain range. But it should be ob- served the experiments only referred to the low boiling point of water in open vessels, and took no account of confined and superheated steam. In point of fact, the people who live in very ele- vated localities find very little difference in the time required for cooking any article over lower elevations, provided they keep the lid on the ket- tle. The liquor in which corned beef and salt pork has been boiled may not be very commendable as stock to make soup out of, yet it may be so available in some cases if not too salt. The meat loses from a fourth to a third of its weight in boiling, and a portion of the loss is prevented when the liquor can be put to use. If not for that purpose, let it become cold for the fat to be taken off for use in frying. 2.—Apple Dumplings Cooked in Sauce. First make the short paste with one pound of flour—a heaping quart after sifting—four ounces of shortening, a rounded-np cupful of minced suet, or a level cup of cold butter or lard, one cupful of water, salt. Keep out a handful of Hour to dust with. Bub the lard into the flour dry till thoroughly mixed. Putin the salt and all the water; work it up to a smooth paste; roll it out once on the table like pie paste; fold it in three and it is ready for use. The water should always be poured into a hollow in the middle of the flour when making any kind of paste, and the flour drawn in gradually while stirring, other- wise the paste may be rough and lumpy, and much working to correct the fault will make it hard. The above is the kind and quality of paste used in most of the bakeries for pies; it is the universally useful sort. Dumplings made of it do not break when boiled in water. But while the top of the range is occupied with the boiled dinner the empty oven will do for the dumplings. Half fill a bright tin pan with milk and water and set it in the oven to boil. Pare and core small but good and easy cooking apples. Roll out the paste in one large sheet, put an apple un- der and close and pinch off the paste underneath the apple—quickest way—and cook the dump- lings in the pan. They take about half an hour. Brush a sheet of paper over with melted drip- pings and lay it on top to keep the dumplings from baking at first, and take it off, baste and brown them when nearly done. Add sugar and a little butter and nutmeg to the liquor in the pan; strain and use it for sauce. I know a gentleman who, both for his own gratification and to perpetuate the custom of his father, always orders his apple dumplings when made as above, brought to him on a soup plate, and all it will hold. That is why there is no par- ticular number of apples specified. 3.—Tapioca Jelly with Cream. 1% pints of water—3 large cupfuls. 3 ounces of pearl tapioca—teacupful. ti ounces of sugar—a teacupful. % a lemon. Steep the tapioca in one cupful of the water for two hours. The water is to be cold when added, but the bowl may be set in a warm place. Then boil the other two cups of water with the sugar in it; cut the lemon rind, or part of it, into shreds and throw it in and add the juice. Stir in the steeped tapioca, and let cook at the side of