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

37 HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

To Bake Pumpkin.

The long striped pumpkin with a thick long neck, called by some potato pumpkin, is the best for baking; cut it up in slices, leaving on the rind; put it in a dutchoven or dripping-pan, and let it bake an hour with a quick heat. Where sweet potatoes cannot be had, pumpkins make a very good substitute. If you put ripe pumpkins that have not been frosted in a dry place, they will keep to make puddings till spring.

To Dry Pumpkins.

Pare them and cut them in thin slices, have a strong thread, and string them on it with a needle; hang them out in the sun till dry, taking them in at night, tie them up in a muslin bag, and hang them in a dry place. Soak them before they are stewed, and they are nearly as good for puddings as when in season. Some dry them as apples, by spreading on boards.

Parsnips.

Scrape and split them, and boil until quite soft, either in salt and water, or with meat; they are very good served up in this way, with plenty of butter. They may, when boiled, either be baked with a few slices of salt meat, and require no seasoning but pepper, or made into small round cakes, seasoned with butter, pepper and salt, and fried.

Carrots.

Carrots should be scraped, and boiled till soft, in plenty of water; when they are done, take them up, and slice them thin; season them with salt, pepper and butter; they are suitable to eat with boiled meat or fowls.

Boil To hours

38 DOMESTIC COOKERY AND

Turnips.

Pare and quarter the turnips, and put them in a pot of clear water, or with fresh meat; boil them half an hour; drain, and season them with butter, pepper and salt; mash them. Boil 1 hour.

Onions.

After they are peeled, boil them in milk and water; if small, they will cook in half an hour; when they are done, pour off the water, put in cream, butter and salt, and let them stew a few minutes. Small onions are much better for cooking, as they are not so strong.

Beets.

Wash the beets, cut the tops off, and put them in boiling water; the early turnip beet is best for summer, and will boil in less than an hour; the long winter beet should be boiled two hours; when they are done, drop them in cold water for a minute; peal and slice them; season with butter, pepper, and salt, send them hot to table.

To pickle beets, put them in a jar after they have been boiled; fill it up with weak vinegar, put in salt, cayenne and black pepper.

To Keep Vegetables in Winter.

Beets, parsnips, carrots, and salsify should be dug up before the frost is severe; those wanted for use in the winter should be put in barrels, and covered with sand; what you do not want till spring should be buried in the garden, with sods on the top. Celery may be dug in November, and set in a large box covered with sand, in the cellar, with the roots down, it will keep till the frost is out of the ground.

39 HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

BREAD.

As bread is the most important article food, great care is necessary in making it, and much judgment, as the weather changes so often.

In warm weather, the rising should be mixed with water nearly cold; if there should be a spell of damp weather in the summer, have it slightly warm and set it to rise on a table in the kitchen.

In winter it should be mixed with warm water, and left on the warm hearth all night. If the yeast is fresh, a small quantity will do; if several weeks old, it will take more. If you use dry yeast, let it soak fifteen minutes, and put in a tea-spoonful of salaeratus to prevent it from getting sour.

See yeast in back of book.

Light Bread.

For two loaves of bread, thicken a quart of water with flour, till it will just pour easily; put in a table-spoonful of salt and half a tea-cup of yeast; this should be done in the evening. If the weather is cold, set it where it will be warm all night; but, if warm, it will rise on a table in the kitchen. If it should not be light in the morning, and the water settles on the top, stir in a little more yeast, and set it in a pan of hot water for a few minutes; knead in flour till it is nearly as stiff as pie crust, and let it rise again. Have your baking pans greased, and when it is light, mould out the bread, and put it in them; set it by the fire, covered with a cloth, till it begins to crack on the top, when it is light enough to bake. To bake in a stove requires care to turn it frequently; if it browns too fast at first, leave the door open a little while; a thick loaf will bake in an hour, and a small one in less time. Too head a little flour with milk and put lump of lard as large as a large walnut.

To Bake a Dutch-oven Loaf.

If you wish to make a large loaf, it will take three pints of water, more than half a tea-cup of yeast, and two

40 DOMESTIC COOKERY AND

spoonsful of salt; when the rising is light, knead it up, have the dutch-oven greased; put it in, and set it near the fire, but not so near that it will scald. When it rises so as to crack on the top, set the oven on coals; have the lid hot, cut the loaf slightly across the top, dividing it in four; stick it with a fork and put the lid on; when it is on a few minutes, see that it does not bake too fast; it should have but little heat at the bottom, and the coals on the top should be renewed frequently; turn the oven round occasionally.

If baked slowly, it will take an hour and a half; when done, wrap it in a large cloth till it gets cold.

To Bake in a Brick Oven.

If you have a large family, or board the laborers of a farm, it is necessary to have a brick oven, so as to bake but twice a week; and to persons that understand the management of them, it is much the easiest way.

If you arrange every thing with judgment, half a dozen loaves of bread, as many pies or puddings, rusk, rolls or biscuit may be baked at the same time. Some persons knead up their bread over night in winter; to do this, the sponge should be made up at four o'clock in the afternoon. If you wish to put corn flour in your bread, scald three pints of it to six loaves, and work it in the flour that you are going to stir in the rising; to make six loaves of bread, you should have three quarts of water and a tea-cup of yeast.

Scalded corn flour, or boiled mashed potatoes, assists bread to rise very much in cold weather. Have a quart of potatoes well boiled and rolled fine with a rolling pin on your cake board; mix them well in the rising after it is light; if the oven is not ready, move the bread to a cool place. If the bread is sour before you mould it out, mix a heaped tea-spoonful of salaeratus in a little water; spread out the bread on the board, dust a little flour on it, and spread the salaeratus and water over, and work it well through. This quite takes away the sour taste, but if the bread is made of good lively yeast, it seldom requires it; let it rise in the pans about half an hour.

41 HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

Common sized loaves will bake in an hour in the brick oven; if they slip easily in the pans, and, upon breaking a little piece from the side, it rises from the pressure of the finger, it is done; but if is should not rise, put it back again; when the bread is taken out of the oven, wrap it in a cloth till quite cold.

You should have a large tin vessel with holes in the top, to keep bread in; in this way, it will be moist at the end of a week in cool weather.

Directions for Heating a Brick Oven.

It is very important to have good oven-wood split fine, and the oven filled with it as soon as the baking is out; by this precaution it is always ready and dry. Early in the morning, take out half of the wood, and spread the remainder over the oven, in such a way as it will fire easily; light a few sticks in the fire, and put them in; when it burns well, turn the wood about, and occasionally add more till it is all in; when it is burnt to coals, stir them about well with a long handled shovel made for the purpose.

When it looks bright on the top and sides, it is hot enough; let the coals lay all over the bottom till near the time of putting in the bread, when draw them to the mouth, as it is apt to get cool the quickest. If you have biscuit to bake, put some of the coals on one side near the front, as they require a quick heat, and should be put in immediately after the coals are taken out; they will bake in fifteen or twenty minutes.

When all the coals are taken out, if the bottom of the oven sparkles, it is very hot, and should wait a few minutes; but if not, you may put in the bread first, and then the pies; if you have a plain rice pudding to bake, it should be put in the middle of the front, and have two or three shovels of coals put round it, if the oven is rather cool. Close the oven with a wooden stopper made to fit it; after they have been in a few minutes, see that they do not brown too fast; if so, keep the stopper down a little while. Pies made of green fruit will

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