Richard F. Burton - "The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4"

Gustave Flaubert - "Drie Vertellingen"

Charles Morris - "Historical Tales, Vol. 9 (of 15)"

Pansy - "Three People"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches

E >> Eliza Leslie >> Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches



Produced by Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
Libraries; Steve Schulze, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.




DIRECTIONS FOR COOKERY, IN ITS VARIOUS BRANCHES.

BY

MISS LESLIE.


TENTH EDITION, WITH IMPROVEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY RECEIPTS.


1840.




PREFACE

The success of her little book entitled "Seventy-five Receipts in
Cakes, Pastry, and Sweetmeats." has encouraged the author to
attempt a larger and more miscellaneous work on the subject of
cookery, comprising as far as practicable whatever is most useful
in its various departments; and particularly adapted to the
domestic economy of her own country. Designing it as a manual of
American housewifery, she has avoided the insertion of any dishes
whose ingredients cannot be procured on our side of the Atlantic,
and which require for their preparation utensils that are rarely
found except in Europe. Also, she has omitted every thing which
may not, by the generality of tastes, be considered good of its
kind, and well worth the trouble and cost of preparing.

The author has spared no pains in collecting and arranging,
perhaps the greatest number of practical and original receipts
that have ever appeared in a similar work; flattering herself that
she has rendered them so explicit as to be easily understood, and
followed, even by inexperienced cooks. The directions are given as
minutely as if each receipt was "to stand alone by itself," all
references to others being avoided; except in some few instances
to the one immediately preceding; it being a just cause of
complaint that in some of the late cookery books, the reader,
before finishing the article, is desired to search out pages and
numbers in remote parts of the volume.

In the hope that her system of cookery may be consulted with equal
advantage by families in town and in country, by those whose
condition makes it expedient to practise economy, and by others
whose circumstances authorize a liberal expenditure, the author
sends it to take its chance among the multitude of similar
publications, satisfied that it will meet with as much success as
it may be found to deserve,--more she has no right to expect.

_Philadelphia, April 15th, 1837_.




INTRODUCTORY HINTS.


WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

We recommend to all families that they should keep in the house: a
pair of scales, (one of the scales deep enough to hold flour,
sugar, &c., conveniently,) and a set of tin measures: as accuracy
in proportioning the ingredients is indispensable to success in
cookery. It is best to have the scales permanently fixed to a
small beam projecting (for instance) from one of the shelves of
the store-room. This will preclude the frequent inconvenience of
their getting twisted, unlinked, and otherwise out of order; a
common consequence of putting them in and out of their box, and
carrying them from place to place. The weights (of which there
should be a set from two pounds to a quarter of an ounce) ought
carefully to be kept in the box, that none of them may be lost or
mislaid.

A set of tin measures (with small spouts or lips) from a gallon
down to half a jill, will be found very convenient in every
kitchen; though common pitchers, bowls, glasses, &c. may be
substituted. It is also well to have a set of wooden measures from
a bushel to a quarter of a peck.


Let it be remembered, that of liquid measure--

Two jills are half a pint.
Two pints--one quart.
Four quarts--one gallon.

Of dry measure--

Half a gallon is a quarter of a peck.

One gallon--half a peck.
Two gallons--one peck.
Four gallons--half a bushel.
Eight gallons--one bushel.

About twenty-five drops of any thin liquid will fill a common
sized tea-spoon.

Four table-spoonfuls or half a jill, will fill a common wine
glass.

Four wine glasses will fill a half-pint or common tumbler, or a
large coffee-cup.

A quart black bottle holds in reality about a pint and a half.

Of flour, butter, sugar, and most articles used in cakes and
pastry, a quart is generally about equal in quantity to a pound
avoirdupois, (sixteen ounces.) Avoirdupois is the weight
designated throughout this book.

Ten eggs generally weigh one pound before they are broken.

A table-spoonful of salt is generally about one ounce.




GENERAL CONTENTS.

Soups; including those of Fish

Fish; various ways of dressing

Shell Fish; Oysters, Lobsters, Crabs, &c.

Beef; including pickling and smoking it

Veal

Mutton and Lamb

Pork; including Bacon, Sausages, &c.

Venison; Hares, Rabbits, &c.

Poultry and Game

Gravy and Sauces

Store Fish Sauces; Catchups, &c.

Flavoured Vinegars; Mustards & Pepper

Vegetables; including Indian Corn, Tomatas, Mushrooms, &c.

Eggs; usual ways of dressing, including Omelets

Pickling

Sweetmeats; including Preserves and Jellies

Pastry and Puddings; also Pancakes, Dumplings, Custards, &c.,
Syllabubs; also Ice Creams and Blanc-mange

Cakes; including various sweet Cakes and Gingerbread

Warm Cakes for Breakfast and Tea; also, Bread, Yeast, Butter,
Cheese, Tea, Coffee, &c.

Domestic Liquors; including home-made Beer, Wines, Shrub,
Cordials, &c.

Preparations for the Sick

Perfumery

Miscellaneous Receipts

Additional Receipts

Animals used as Butchers' Meat

Index




MISS LESLIE'S COOKERY.




SOUPS.


GENERAL REMARKS.

Always use soft water for making soup, and be careful to
proportion the quantity of water to that of the meat. Somewhat
less than a quart of water to a pound of meat, is a good rule for
common soups. Rich soups, intended for company, may have a still
smaller allowance of water.

Soup should always be made entirely of fresh meat that has not
been previously cooked. An exception to this rule may sometimes be
made in favour of the remains of a piece of roast beef that has
been _very much_ under-done in roasting. This may be
_added_ to a good piece of raw meat. Cold ham, also, may be
occasionally put into white soups.

Soup made of cold meat has always a vapid, disagreeable taste,
very perceptible through all the seasoning, and which nothing
indeed can disguise. Also, it will be of a bad, dingy colour. The
juices of the meat having been exhausted by the first cooking, the
undue proportion of watery liquid renders it, for soup,
indigestible and unwholesome, as well as unpalatable. As there is
little or no nutriment to be derived from soup made with cold
meat, it is better to refrain from using it for this purpose, and
to devote the leavings of the table to some other object. No
person accustomed to really good soup, made from fresh meat, can
ever be deceived in the taste, even when flavoured with wine and
spices. It is not true that French cooks have the art of producing
_excellent_ soups from cold scraps. There is much _bad_
soup to be found in France, at inferior houses; but _good_
French cooks are not, as is generally supposed, really in the
practice of concocting any dishes out of the refuse of the table.
And we repeat, that cold meat, even when perfectly good, and used
in a large quantity, has not sufficient substance to flavour soup,
or to render it wholesome.

Soup, however, that has been originally made of raw meat entirely,
is frequently better the second day than the first; provided that
it is re-boiled only for a very short time, and that no additional
water is added to it.

Unless it has been allowed to boil too hard, so as to exhaust the
water, the soup-pot will not require replenishing. When it is
found absolutely necessary to do so, the additional water must be
boiling hot when poured in; if lukewarm or cold, it will entirely
spoil the soup.

Every particle of fat should be carefully skimmed from the
surface. Greasy soup is disgusting and unwholesome. The lean of
meat is much better for soup than the fat.

Long and slow boiling is necessary to extract the strength from
the meat. If boiled fast over a large fire, the meat becomes hard
and tough, and will not give out its juices.

Potatoes, if boiled in the soup, are thought by some to render it
unwholesome, from the opinion that the water in which potatoes
have been cooked is almost a poison. As potatoes are a part of
every dinner, it is very easy to take a few out of the pot in
which they have been boiled by themselves, and to cut them up and
add them to the soup just before it goes to table.

The cook should season the soup but very slightly with salt and
pepper. If she puts in too much, it may spoil it for the taste of
most of those that are to eat it; but if too little, it is easy to
add more to your own plate.

The practice of thickening soup by stirring flour into it is not a
good one, as it spoils both the appearance and the taste. If made
with a sufficient quantity of good fresh meat, and not too much
water, and if boiled long and slowly, it will have substance
enough without flour.


FAMILY SOUP.

Take a shin or leg of beef that has been newly killed; the fore
leg is best, as there is the most meat on it. Have it cut into
three pieces, and wash it well. To each pound allow somewhat less
than a quart of water; for instance, to ten pounds of leg of beef,
nine quarts of water is a good proportion. Put it into a large
pot, and add half a table-spoonful of salt. Hang it over a good
fire, as early as six o'clock in the morning, if you dine at two.
When it has come to a hard boil, and the scum has risen, (which it
will do as soon as it has boiled,) skim it well. Do not remove the
lid more frequently than is absolutely necessary, as uncovering
the pot causes the flavour to evaporate. Then set it on hot coals
in the corner, and keep it simmering steadily, adding fresh coals
so as to continue a regular heat.

About nine o'clock, put in four carrots, one parsnip, and a large
onion cut into slices, and four small turnips, and eight tomatas,
also cut up; add a head of celery cut small. Put in a very small
head of cabbage, cut into little pieces. If you have any objection
to cabbage, substitute a larger proportion of the other
vegetables. Put in also a bunch of sweet marjoram, tied up in a
thin muslin rag to prevent its floating on the top.

Let the soup simmer unceasingly till two o'clock, skimming it
well: then take it up, and put it into a tureen. If your dinner
hour is later, you may of course begin the soup later; but it will
require at least eight hours' cooking; remembering to put in the
vegetables three hours after the meat.

If you wish to send the meat to table, take the best part of it
out of the soup, about two hours before dinner. Have ready another
pot with a dozen tomatas and a few cloves. Moisten them with a
little of the soup, just sufficient to keep them from burning.
When the tomatas have stewed down soft, put the meat upon them,
and let it brown till dinner time over a few coals, keeping the
pot closely covered; then send it to table on a dish by itself.
Let the remainder of the meat be left in the large pot till you
send up the soup, as by that time it will be boiled to rags and
have transferred all its flavour to the liquid.

This soup will be greatly improved by the addition of a few dozen
ochras cut into very thin slices, and put in with the other
vegetables. You may put Lima beans into it, green peas, or indeed
any vegetables you like: or you may thicken it with ochras and
tomatas only.

Next day, take what is left of the soup, put it into a pot, and
simmer it over hot coals for half an hour: a longer time will
weaken the taste. If it has been well made and kept in a cool
place, it will be found better the second day than the first.

If your family is very small, and the leg of beef large, and the
season winter, it may furnish soup for four successive days. Cut
the beef in half; make soup of the first half, in the manner above
directed, and have the remainder warmed next day; then on the
third day make fresh soup of the second half.

We have been minute in these directions; for if strictly followed,
the soup, though plain, will be found excellent.

If you do not intend to serve up the meat separately, break to
pieces all the bones with a mallet or kitchen cleaver. This, by
causing them to give out their marrow, &c., will greatly enrich
the liquid. Do this, of course, when you first begin the soup.


FINE BEEF SOUP.

Begin this soup the day before it is wanted. Take a good piece of
fresh beef that has been newly killed: any substantial part will
do that has not too much fat about it: a fore leg is very good for
this purpose. Wash it well. Cut off all the meat, and break up the
bones. Put the meat and the bones into a large pot, very early in
the day, so as to allow eight or nine hours for its boiling.
Proportion the water to the quantity of meat--about a pint and a
half to each pound. Sprinkle the meat with a small quantity of
pepper and salt. Pour on the water, hang it over a moderate fire,
and boil it slowly; carefully skimming off all the fat that rises
to the top, and keeping it closely covered, except when you raise
the lid to skim it. Do not, on any account, put in additional
water to this soup while it is boiling; and take care that the
boiling goes steadily on, as, if it stops, the soup will be much
injured. But if the fire is too great, and the soup boils too
fast, the meat will become hard and tough, and will not give out
its juices.

After the meat is reduced to rags, and the soup sufficiently
boiled, remove the pot from the fire, and let it stand in the
corner for a quarter of an hour to settle. Then take it up, strain
it into a large earthen pan, cover it, and set it away in a cool
dry place till next day. Straining it makes it clear and bright,
and frees it from the shreds of meat and bone. If you find that it
jellies in the pan, (which it will if properly made,) do not
disturb it till you are ready to put it into the pot for the
second boiling, as breaking the jelly may prevent it from keeping
well.

On the following morning, boil separately, carrots, turnips,
onions, celery, and whatever other vegetables you intend to
thicken the soup with. Tomatas will greatly improve it. Prepare
them by taking off the skin, cutting them into small pieces, and
stewing them in their own juice till they are entirely dissolved.
Put on the carrots before any of the other vegetables, as they
require the longest time to boil. Or you may slice and put into
the soup a portion of the vegetables you are boiling for dinner;
but they must be nearly done before you put them in, as the second
boiling of the soup should not exceed half an hour, or indeed,
just sufficient time to heat it thoroughly.

Scrape off carefully from the cake of jellied soup whatever fat or
sediment may still be remaining on it; divide the jelly into
pieces, and about half an hour before it is to go to table, put it
into a pot, add the various vegetables, (having first sliced
them,) in sufficient quantities to make the soup very thick; hang
it over the fire and let it boil slowly, or simmer steadily till
dinner time. Boiling it much on the second day will destroy the
flavour, and render it flat and insipid. For this reason, in
making fine, clear beef soup, the vegetables are to be cooked
separately. They need not be put in the first day, as the soup is
to be strained; and on the second day, if put in raw, the length
of time required to cook them would spoil the soup by doing it too
much. We repeat, that when soup has been sufficiently boiled on
the first day, and all the juices and flavour of the meat
thoroughly extracted, half an hour is the utmost it requires on
the second.

Carefully avoid seasoning it too highly. Soup, otherwise
excellent, is frequently spoiled by too much pepper and salt.
These condiments can be added at table, according to the taste of
those that are eating it; but if too large a proportion of them is
put in by the cook, there is then no remedy, and the soup may by
some be found uneatable.

Many persons prefer boiling all the vegetables in the soup on the
first day, thinking that they improve its flavour. This may be
done in common soup that is not to be strained, but is
inadmissible if you wish it to be very bright and clear. Also,
unless you have a garden and a profusion of vegetables of your
own, it is somewhat extravagant, as when strained out they are of
no further use, and are therefore wasted.


MUTTON SOUP.

Cut off the shoulder part of a fore quarter of mutton, and having
cut all the meat from the bone, put it into a soup pot with two
quarts of water. As soon as it boils, skim it well, and then
slacken the fire and simmer the meat for an hour and a half. Then
take the remainder of the mutton, and put it whole into the soup-pot
with sufficient boiling water to cover it well, and salt it to
your taste. Skim it the moment the fresh piece of meat begins to
boil, and about every quarter of an hour afterwards. It should
boil slowly five hours. Prepare half a dozen turnips, four
carrots, and three onions, (all cut up, but not small,) and put
them in about an hour and a half before dinner. [Footnote: The
carrots should be put in early, as they require a long time to
boil; if full grown, at least three hours.] You may also put in
some small dumplings. Add some chopped parsley.

Cut the meat off the scrag into small pieces, and send it to table
in the tureen with the soup. The other half of the mutton should
be served on a separate dish, with whole turnips boiled and laid
round it. Many persons are fond of mutton that has been boiled in
soup.

You may thicken this soup with rice or barley that has first been
soaked in cold water; or with green peas; or with young corn, cut
down from the cob; or with tomatas scalded, peeled, and cut into
pieces.

_Cabbage Soup_ may be made in the same manner, of neck of
mutton. Omit all the other vegetables, and put in a large head of
white cabbage, stripped of the outside leaves, and cut small.

_Noodle Soup_ can be made in this manner also. Noodles are a
mixture of flour and beaten egg, made into a stiff paste, kneaded,
rolled out very thin, and cut into long narrow slips, not thicker
than straws, and then dried three or four hours in the sun, on tin
or pewter plates. They must be put in the soup shortly before
dinner, as, if boiled too long they will go to pieces.

With the mutton that is taken from the soup you may send to table
some suet dumplings, boiled in another pot, and served on a
separate dish. Make them in the proportion of half a pound of beef
suet to a pound and a quarter of flour. Chop the suet as fine as
possible, rub it into the flour, and mix it into a dough with a
little cold water. Roll it out thick, and cut it into dumplings
about as large as the top of a tumbler, and boil them an hour.


VEAL SOUP.

The knuckle or leg of veal is the best for soup. Wash it and break
up the bones. Put it into a pot with a pound of ham or bacon cut
into pieces, and water enough to cover the meat. A set of calf's
feet, cut in half, will greatly improve it. After it has stewed
slowly, till all the meat drops to pieces, strain it, return it to
the pot, and put in a head of celery cut small, three onions, a
bunch of sweet marjoram, a carrot and a turnip cut into pieces,
and two dozen black pepper-corns, with salt to your taste. Add
some small dumplings made of flour and butter. Simmer it another
hour, or till all the vegetables are sufficiently done, and thus
send it to table.

You may thicken it with noodles, that is paste made of flour and
beaten egg, and cut into long thin slips. Or with vermicelli,
rice, or barley; or with green peas, or asparagus tops.


RICH VEAL SOUP.

Take three pounds of the scrag of a neck of veal, cut it into
pieces, and put it with the bones (which must be broken up) into a
pot with two quarts of water. Stew it till the meat is done to
rags, and skim it well. Then strain it and return it to the pot.

Blanch and pound in a mortar to a smooth paste, a quarter of a
pound of sweet almonds, and mix them with the yolks of six hard
boiled eggs grated, mid a pint of cream, which must first have
been boiled or it will curdle in the soup. Season it with nutmeg
and mace. Stir the mixture into the soup, and let it boil
afterward about three minutes, stirring all the time. Lay in the
bottom of the tureen some slices of bread without the crust. Pour
the soup upon it, and send it to table.


CLEAR GRAVY SOUP.

Having well buttered the inside of a nicely tinned stew-pot, cut
half a pound of ham into slices, and lay them at the bottom, with
three pounds of the lean of fresh beef, and as much veal, cut from
the bones, which you must afterward break to pieces, and lay on
the meat. Cover the pan closely, and set it over a quick fire.
When the meat begins to stick to the pan, turn it; and when there
is a nice brown glaze at the bottom, cover the meat with cold
water. Watch it well, and when it is just coming to a boil, put in
half a pint of cold water. This will cause the scum to rise. Skim
it well, and then pour in another half pint of cold water; skim it
again; pour in cold water as before, half a pint at a time, and
repeat this till no more scum rises. In skimming, carefully avoid
stirring the soup, as that will injure its clearness.

In the mean time prepare your vegetables. Peel off the outer skin
of three large white onions and slice them. Pare three large
turnips, and slice them also. Wash clean and cut into small pieces
three carrots, and three large heads of celery. If you cannot
obtain fresh celery, substitute a large table-spoonful of celery
seed, tied up in a bit of clear muslin. Put the vegetables into
the soup, and then place the pot on one side of the fire, where
the heat is not so great as in the middle. Let it boil gently for
four hours. Then strain the soup through a fine towel or linen bag
into a large stone pan, but do not squeeze the bag, or the soup
will be cloudy, and look dull instead of clear. In pouring it into
the straining cloth, be careful not to disturb the ingredients at
the bottom of the soup-pot.

This soup should be of a fine clear amber colour. If not perfectly
bright after straining, you may clarify it in this manner. Put it
into the stew-pan. Break the whites of two eggs into a basin,
carefully avoiding the smallest particle of the yolk. Beat the
white of egg to a stiff froth, and then mix it gradually with the
soup. Set it over the fire, and stir it till it boils briskly.
Then take it off, and set it beside the fire to settle for ten
minutes. Strain it then through a clean napkin, and it will be fit
for use. But it is better to have the soup clear by making it
carefully, than to depend on clarifying it afterward, as the white
of egg weakens the taste.

In making this (which is quite a show-soup) it is customary to
reverse the general rule, and pour in cold water.


SOUPE A LA JULIENNE.

Make a gravy soup as in the preceding receipt, and strain it
before you put in the vegetables. Cut some turnips and carrots
into ribands, and some onions and celery into lozenges or long
diamond-shaped pieces. Boil them separately. When the vegetables
are thoroughly boiled, put them with the soup into the tureen, and
then lay gently on the top some small squares of toasted bread
without crust; taking care that they do not crumble down and
disturb the brightness of the soup, which should be of a clear
amber colour.


MACCARONI SOUP.

This also is made of clear gravy soup. Cut up and boil the
maccaroni by itself in a very little water, allowing a quarter of
a pound to a quart of soup. The pieces should be about an inch
long. Put a small piece of butter with it. It must boil till
tender, but not till it breaks. Throw it into the soup shortly
before it goes to table, and give it one boil up. Send to table
with it a plate or glass of rasped Parmesan or other rich cheese,
with a dessert spoon in it, that those who like it may put it into
their soup on the plate.

While the maccaroni is boiling, take care that it does not get
into lumps.


RICH MACCARONI SOUP.

Take a quart of clear gravy soup, and boil in it a pound of the
best maccaroni cut into pieces. When it is tender, take out half
of the maccaroni, and add to the remainder two quarts more of the
soup. Boil it till the maccaroni is entirely dissolved and
incorporated with the liquid. Strain it; then return it to the
soup-pan, and add to it the remainder of the maccaroni, (that was
taken out before the pieces broke,) and put in a quarter of a
pound of grated Parmesan cheese. Let it simmer awhile, but take it
up before it comes to a boil.

It may be made with milk instead of gravy soup.


VERMICELLI SOUP.

Cut a knuckle of veal, or a neck of mutton into small pieces, and
put them, with the bones broken up, into a large stew-pan. Add the
meat sliced from a hock or shank of ham, a quarter of a pound of
butter, two large onions sliced, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a
head of celery cut small. Cover the pan closely, and set it
without any water over a slow fire for an hour or more, to extract
the essence from the meat. Then skim it well, and pour in four
quarts of boiling water, and let it boil gently till all the meat
is reduced to rags. Strain it, set it again on the fire, and add a
quarter of a pound of vermicelli, which has first been scalded in
boiling water. Season it to your taste with salt and cayenne
pepper, and let it boil five minutes. Lay a large slice of bread
in the bottom of your tureen, and pour the soup upon it.

Copyright (c) 2007. topboookz.com. All rights reserved.