"Domestic cookery, useful receipts, and hints to young housekeepers" by Elizabeth E. Lea, 1845

17 HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

To Boil Salt Shad, Mackerel or Herring.

Wash the fish from the pickle, put it in a frying pan, cover it with water, and let it boil fifteen minutes; take it up and drain it between two plates; put a little butter over, and send it hot to the table: or, after boiling, you can flour, and fry it in drippings of any kind.

To Boil Salt Salmon

Let your salmon soak over night, and boil it slowly for two hours; eat it with drawn butter. To pickle the salmon after it has been boiled, heat vinegar scalding hot, with whole peppers and cloves; cut the fish in small square pieces, put it in a jar; and pour the vinegar over. Shad may be done in the same way.

To Broil Salt Shad.

Soak the shad a day or night previous to cooking; it is best to drain an hour before you put it to the fire; if it hangs long exposed to the air, it loses its flavor; grease the gridiron to keep it from sticking, have good coals, and put the inside down first. Fresh shad is better to be sprinkled with salt, an hour before it is put to broil, put a plate over the top to keep the heat in.

To Bake a Fresh Shad.

Make a stuffing of bread, butter, salt, pepper, and parsley; fill a large shad with this, and bake it in a stove or oven.

To Fry Fresh Fish.

Have the fish well scaled, washed and drained; cut slits in the sides of each; season them with salt and pepper; and roll them in corn flour; have in your frying pan hot lard or bacon drippings; if the fish have been 3

18 DOMESTIC COOKERY AND

kept several days, dip them in egg, before rolling them in corn flour, to keep them from breaking; fry them light brown on both sides.

To Fry Clams.

After opening them as oysters, wash them in their own liquor and drain them; make a batter of an egg, flour and pepper, dip them in this, and fry them in butter.

To Stew Clams.

Strain the liquor and stew them in it for about twenty minutes; make a thickening of flour, water and pepper, stir this in and let it boil up; have some bread toasted and buttered in a deep dish, and pour the clams over.

Clam soup may be made by putting an equal quantity of water with liquor; and putting in toasted bread, crackers or dumplings.

To Put up Herring and Shad.

Those that put up their own fish, should be careful to have the barrels tight, and well cleaned; if the pickle leaks from them they are liable to spoil; scale the fish, and wash them, as it will save much time; when you prepare them for cooking, take out the gills, but leave on the heads of herring.

The heads should be taken off the shad, and split them down the back; put a layer of fish, then a layer of ground alum salt, and after they are packed, put on a weight to keep them down. If herring are well cured, they will be good at the end of two years.

To Pot Fresh Herring.

Scale and wash them well, cut off the heads and fins, and season them with salt, pepper and cloves; pack them neatly in a large jar, and pour on enough cold vin-

19 HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

egar to cover them; put a plate over the top of the jar, and set it in a moderately warm oven, or on the top of a stove, in a pan of hot water, for five or six hours; they will keep in a cool place several weeks, and are an excellent relish.

To Keep Meat Fresh.

Where persons live a distance from market, and have no fresh meat but what they kill, it is important to know how to keep it fresh. In winter, if it is hung up in an out-house, it will keep very well for six weeks or more; when it has once frozen, it is safe till thaw comes on, when rub it with salt. In the summer, if you have an ice-house, you can keep it without trouble; if rubbed with salt, and pinned in a cloth, it will keep in the cellar two days; or by lowering it down your well, attached to a rope, and changing the cloth every other day, it will keep good a week in hot weather.

Roasting Meat.

To roast either meat or poultry requires more attention than boiling or stewing; it is very important to baste it frequently; and if the meat has been frozen, it should have time to thaw before cooking.

To Roast a Turkey.

A very large turkey will take three hours to roast, and is best done before the fire in a tin oven. Wash the turkey very clean, and let it lay in salt and water twenty minutes, but not longer, or it changes the color; rub the inside with salt and pepper; have ready a stuffing of bread and butter, seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, an onion if agreeable, and an egg; if the bread is dry, moisten it with boiling water; mix all well together, and fill the turkey; if you have fresh sausage, put some in the craw; have a pint of water in the bottom of the dripping pan or oven, with some salt, and a spoon-

20 DOMESTIC COOKERY AND

ful of lard or butter; rub salt, pepper and butter over the breast; baste it often, and turn it so that each part will be next the fire.

Gravy may be made from the oven by boiling it in a skillet, with thickening and seasoning. Hash gravy should be made by boiling the giblets and neck in a quart of water, and chopped fine, then seasoned and thickened; have both the gravies on the table in separate tureens.

Cranberry and damson sauce are suitable to eat with roast poultry or tomato jelly.

To Roast a Goose.

Make a stuffing of bread, butter, salt, pepper, sage, thyme and onions; it requires but little butter, as geese are generally fat; wash it well in salt and water, wipe it, and rub the inside with salt and pepper. A common sized goose will roast in an hour, and a small one in less time; pour off nearly all the fat that drips from the goose, as it will make the gravy too rich. Make hash gravy of the giblets the same as for turkey.

Ducks.

Wild ducks are generally cooked without stuffing; and for those that like them rare, fifteen or twenty minutes will be long enough; for common ducks, a stuffing should be made the same as for a goose; they will roast in half an hour. Currant jelly and apple sauce should be eaten with ducks and geese.

Chickens.

A large fowl will roast in an hour, and a small one in half an hour; boil the livers and gizzards in a skillet with a pint of water, thicken and season for gravy. The breasts of the chickens should be rubbed with butter or lard to keep them from breaking. Tie the legs together to keep them from bursting out. When butter

21 HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

is scarce, it is a good way to make rich short cake to stuff poultry with; it will require nothing else but pepper, parsley, &c.

To Roast a Pig.

Have a pig of a suitable size,clean it well, and rub the inside with pepper and salt. Make a stuffing of bread, butter, parsley, sage and thyme; if the bread is stale, pour a little boiling water on it; mix altogether; fill the pig, and sew it up with strong thread; put in the skewers and spit, and tie the feet with twine; have a pint and a half of water in the bottom of the tin kitchen, with a spoonful of lard and a little salt; with this, baste it, and turn it, so as each part will have the benefit of the fire. It should be basted until the skin begins to get stiff with the heat of the fire, then grease it all over with butter or lard, and continue to turn it before the fire, but baste no more, or the skin will blister. A pig will take from two to three hours to roast, according to the size; when it is done, pour the water out in a skillet, season it and thicken it with flour and water. To make hash gravy, put the liver and heart to boil in three pints of water; after they have boiled an hour, chop them very fine, put them back in the pot, and stir in a thickening of flour and water, with salt, pepper, parsley and thyme. Have the gravies in separate tureens on each side of the pig. Apple sauce and cold slaw are indispensable with pig.

To Bake a Pig's Head.

Have the head nicely cleaned, with the eyes taken out, and the ears cut off; season it with salt and pepper, rub crumbs of bread over, with a spoonful of lard; put it in th dutch oven, or dripping pan, with a pint of water; bake it an hour; thicken and season the gravy.

To Roast Beef.

Season the beef with pepper and salt, and put it in the tin kitchen, well skewered to the spit, with a pint of 3*