P. G. Wodehouse - "Love Among the Chickens"

Mary W. Tileston - "Daily Strength for Daily Needs"

Arthur Elson - "Woman's Work in Music"

Olive Tilford Dargan and Frederick Peterson - "The Flutter of the Goldleaf; and Other Plays"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
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




When you wish to use the force-meat, divide into equal parts as
much of it as you want; and having floured your hands, roll it
into round balls, all of the same size. Either fry them in butter,
or boil them.

This force-meat will be found a very good stuffing for meat or
poultry.




GRAVY AND SAUCES.


DRAWN OR MADE GRAVY.

For this purpose you may use coarse pieces of the lean of beef or
veal, or the giblets and trimmings of poultry or game. If must be
stewed for a long time, skimmed, strained, thickened, and
flavoured with whatever condiments are supposed most suited to the
dish it is to accompany.

In preparing meat to stew for gravy, beat it with a mallet or
meat-beetle, score it, and cut it into small pieces; this makes it
give oat the juices. Season it with pepper and salt, and put it
into a stew-pan with butter only. Heat it gradually, till it
becomes brown. Shake the pan frequently, and see that it does not
bum or stick to the bottom. It will generally be browned
sufficiently in half an hour. Then put in some boiling water,
allowing one pint to each pound of meat. Simmer it on coals by the
side of the fire for near three hours, skimming it well, and
keeping it closely covered. When done, remove it from the heat,
let it stand awhile to settle, and then strain it.

If you wish to keep it two or three days, (which you may in
winter,) put it into a stone vessel, cover it closely, and set it
in a cool place.

Do not thicken this gravy till you go to use it.


MELTED BUTTER, SOMETIMES CALLED DRAWN BUTTER.

Melted butter is the foundation of most of the common sauces. Have
a covered sauce-pan for this purpose. One lined with porcelain
will be best. Take a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter,
cut it up, and mix with it about two tea-spoonfuls of flour. When
it is thoroughly mixed, put it into the sauce-pan, and add to it
four table-spoonfuls of cold water. Cover the sauce-pan, and set
it in a large tin pan of boiling water. Shake it round continually
(always moving it the same way) till it is entirely melted and
begins to simmer. Then let it rest till it boils up.

If you set it on hot coals, or over the fire, it will be oily.

If the butter and flour is not well mixed it will be lumpy.

If you put too much water, it will be thin and poor. All these
defects are to be carefully avoided.

In melting butter for sweet or pudding sauce, you may use milk
instead of water.


TO BROWN FLOUR.

Spread some fine flour on a plate, and set it in
the oven, turning it up and stirring it frequently that it may
brown equally all through.

Put it into a jar, cover it well, and keep it to stir into gravies
to thicken and colour them.


TO BROWN BUTTER.

Put a lump of butter into a frying-pan, and toss
it round over the fire till it becomes brown. Then dredge some
browned flour over it, and stir it round with a spoon till it
boils. It must be made quite smooth. You may make this into a
plain sauce for fish by adding cayenne and some flavoured vinegar.



PLAIN SAUCES.

LOBSTER SAUCE.

Boil a dozen blades of mace and half a dozen pepper-corns in about
a jill and a half (or three wine-glasses) of water, till all the
strength of the spice is extracted. Then strain it, and having cut
three quarters of a pound of butter into little bits, melt it in
this water, dredging in a little flour as you hold it over the
fire to boil. Toss it round, and let it just boil up and no more.

Take a cold boiled lobster,--pound the coral in a mortar adding a
little sweet oil. Then stir it into the melted butter.

Chop the meat of the body into very small pieces, and rub it
through a cullender into the butter. Cut up the flesh of the claws
and tail into dice, and stir it in. Give it another boil up, and
it will be ready for table.

Serve it up with fresh salmon, or any boiled fish of the best
kind.

Crab sauce is made in a similar manner; also prawn and shrimp
sauce.


ANCHOVY SAUCE.

Soak eight anchovies for three or four hours, changing the water
every hour. Then put them into a sauce-pan with a quart of cold
water. Set them on hot coals and simmer them till they are
entirely dissolved, and till the liquid is diminished two-thirds.
Then strain it, stir two glasses of red wine, and add to it about
half a pint of melted butter.

Heat it over again, and send it to table with salmon or fresh cod.


CELERY SAUCE.

Take a large bunch of young celery. Wash and pare it very clean.
Cut it into pieces, and boil it gently in a small quantity of
water, till it is quite tender. Then add a little powdered mace
and nutmeg, and a very little pepper and salt. Take a tolerably
large piece of butter, roll it well in flour, and stir it into the
sauce. Boil it up again, and it is ready to send to table.

You may make it with cream, thus:--Prepare and boil your celery as
above, adding some mace, nutmeg, a piece of butter the size of a
walnut, rolled in flour; and half a pint of cream. Boil all
together.

Celery sauce is eaten with boiled poultry.

When celery is out of season, you may use celery seed, boiled in
the water which you afterwards use for the melted butter, but
strained out after boiling.


NASTURTIAN SAUCE.

This is by many considered superior to caper sauce and is eaten
with boiled mutton. It is made with the green seeds of
nasturtians, pickled simply in cold vinegar.

Cut about six ounces of butter into small hits, and put them into
a small sauce-pan. Mix with a wine-glass of water sufficient flour
to make a thick batter, pour it on the butter, and hold the sauce-pan
over hot coals, shaking it quickly round, till the butter is
melted. Let it just boil up, and then take it from the fire.
Thicken it with the pickled nasturtians and send it to table in a
boat.

Never pour melted butter over any thing, but always send it to
table in a sauce-tureen or boat.


WHITE ONION SAUCE.

Peel a dozen onions, and throw them into salt and water to keep
them white. Then boil them tender. When done, squeeze the water
from them, and chop them. Have ready some butter that has been
melted rich and smooth with milk or cream instead of water. Put
the onions into the melted butter, and boil them up at once. If
you wish to have them very mild, put in a turnip with them at the
first boiling.

Young white onions, if very small, need not be chopped, but may be
put whole into the butter.

Use this sauce for rabbits, tripe, boiled poultry, or any boiled
fresh meat.


BROWN ONION SAUCE.

Slice some large mild Spanish onions. Cover them with butter, and
set them over a slow fire to brown. Then add salt and cayenne
pepper to your taste, and some good brown gravy of roast meat,
poultry or game, thickened with a bit of butter rolled in flour
that has first been browned by holding it in a hot pan or shovel
over the fire. Give it a boil, skim it well, and just before you
take it off, stir in a half glass of port or claret, and the same
quantity of mushroom catchup.

Use this sauce for roasted poultry, game, or meat.


MUSHROOM SAUCE.

Wash a pint of small button mushrooms,--remove the stems and the
outside skin. Stew them slowly in veal gravy or in milk or cream,
seasoning them with pepper and salt, and adding a piece of butter
rolled in a large proportion of flour. Stew them till quite
tender, now and then taking off the cover of the pan to stir them.

The flavour will be heightened by having salted a few the night
before in a covered dish, to extract the juice, and then stirring
it into the sauce while stewing.

This sauce may be served up with poultry, game, or beef-steaks.

In gathering mushrooms take only those that are of a dull pearl
colour on the outside, and that have the under part tinged with
pale pink.

Boil an onion with them. If there is a poisonous one among them,
the onion will turn black. Then throw away the whole.


EGG SAUCE.

Boil four eggs a quarter of an hour. Dip them into cold water to
prevent their looking blue. Peel off the shell. Chop the yolks of
all, and the whites of two, and stir them into melted butter.
Serve this sauce with boiled poultry or fish.


BREAD SAUCE.

Put some grated crumbs of stale bread into a sauce-pan, and pour
over them some of the liquor in which poultry or fresh meat has
been boiled. Add some plums or dried currants that have been
picked and washed. Having simmered them till the bread is quite
soft, and the currants well plumped, add melted butter or cream.

This sauce is for a roast pig.


MINT SAUCE.

Take a large bunch of young green mint; if old the taste will be
unpleasant. Wash it very clean. Pick all the leaves from the
stalks. Chop the leaves very fine, and mix them with cold vinegar,
and a large proportion of powdered sugar. There must be merely
sufficient vinegar to moisten the mint well, but by no means
enough to make the sauce liquid.

It is only eaten in the spring with roast lamb. Send it to table
in a sauce-tureen.


CAPER SAUCE.

Take two large table-spoonfuls of capers and a little vinegar.
Stir them for some time into half a pint of thick melted butter.

This sauce is for boiled mutton.

If you happen to have no capers, pickled cucumber chopped fine, or
the pickled pods of radish seeds, may be stirred into the butter
as a tolerable substitute.


PARSLEY SAUCE.

Wash a bunch of parsley in cold water. Then boil it about six or
seven minutes in salt and water. Drain it, cut the leaves from the
stalks, and chop them fine. Hare ready some melted butter, and
stir in the parsley. Allow two small table-spoonfuls of leaves to
half a pint of butter.

Serve it up with boiled fowls, rock-fish, sea-bass, and other
boiled fresh fish.. Also with knuckle of veal, and with calf's
head boiled plain.


APPLE SAUCE.

Pare, core, and slice some fine apples. Put them into a sauce-pan
with just sufficient water to keep them from burning, and some
grated lemon-peel. Stew them till quite soft and tender. Then mash
them to a paste, and make them very sweet with brown sugar, adding
a small piece of butter and some nutmeg.

Apple sauce is eaten with roast pork, roast goose and roast ducks.

Be careful not to have it thin and watery.


CRANBERRY SAUCE.

Wash a quart of ripe cranberries, and put them into a pan with
about a wine-glass of water. Stew them slowly, and stir them
frequently, particularly after they begin to burst. They require a
great deal of stewing, and should be like a marmalade when done.
Just before you take them from the fire, stir in a pound of brown
sugar.

When they are thoroughly done, put them into a deep dish, and set
them away to get cold.

You may strain the pulp through a cullender or sieve into a mould,
and when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a glass dish.
Taste it when it is cold, and if not sweet enough, add more sugar.
Cranberries require more sugar than any other fruit, except plums.

Cranberry sauce is eaten with roast turkey, roast fowls, and roast
ducks.


PEACH SAUCE.

Take a quart of dried peaches, (those are richest and best that
are dried with the skins on,) and soak them in cold water till
they are tender. Then drain them, and put them into a covered pan
with a very little water. Set them on coals, and simmer them till
they are entirely dissolved. Then mash them with brown sugar, and
send them to table cold to eat with roast meat, game or poultry.


WINE SAUCE.

Have ready some rich thick melted or drawn butter, and the moment
you take it from the fire, stir in two large glasses of white
wine, two table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar, and a powdered
nutmeg. Serve it up with plum pudding, or any sort of boiled
pudding that is made of a batter.


COLD SWEET SAUCE.

Stir together, as for a pound-cake, equal quantities of fresh
butter and powdered white sugar. When quite light and creamy, add
some powdered cinnamon or nutmeg, and a few drops of essence of
lemon. Send it to table in a small deep plate with a tea-spoon in
it.

Eat it with batter pudding, bread pudding, Indian pudding, &c.
whether baked or boiled. Also with boiled apple pudding or
dumplings, and with fritters and pancakes.


CREAM SAUCE.

Boil a pint and a half of rich cream with four table-spoonfuls of
powdered sugar, some pieces of cinnamon, and a dozen bitter
almonds or peach kernels slightly broken up, or a dozen fresh
peach leaves. As soon as it has boiled up, take it off the fire
and strain it. If it is to be eaten with boiled pudding or with
dumplings send it to table hot, but let it get quite cold if you
intend it as an accompaniment to fruit pies or tarts.


OYSTER SAUCE.

Take a pint of oysters, and save out a little of their liquid. Put
them with their remaining liquor, and some mace and nutmegs, into
a covered sauce-pan, and simmer them on hot coals about eight
minutes. Then drain them.

Having prepared in another sauce-pan some drawn or melted butter,
(mixed with oyster liquor instead of water,) pour it into a sauce-boat,
add the oysters to it, and serve it up with boiled poultry
or with boiled fresh fish.




STORE FISH SAUCES.


GENERAL REMARKS.

Store fish sauces if properly made will keep for many months. They
may be brought to table in fish castors, but a customary mode is
to send them round in the small black bottles in which they have
been originally deposited. They are in great variety, and may be
purchased of the grocers that sell oil, pickles, anchovies, &c. In
making them at home, the few following receipts may be found
useful.

The usual way of eating these sauces is to pour a little on your
plate, and mix it with the melted butter. They give flavour to
fish that would otherwise be insipid, and are in general use at
genteel tables.

Two table-spoonfuls of any of these sauces may be added to the
melted butter a minute before you take it from the fire. But if
brought to table in bottles, the company can use it or omit it as
they please.


SCOTCH SAUCE.

Take fifteen anchovies, chop them fine, and steep them in vinegar
for a week, keeping the vessel closely covered. Then put them into
a pint of claret or port wine. Scrape fine a large stick of
horseradish, and chop two onions, a handful of parsley, a tea-spoonful
of the leaves of lemon-thyme, and two large peach leaves.
Add a nutmeg, six or eight blades of mace, nine cloves, and a tea-spoonful
of black pepper, all slightly pounded in a mortar. Put
all these ingredients into a silver or block tin sauce-pan, or
into an earthen pipkin, and add a few grains of cochineal to
colour it. Pour in a large half pint of the best vinegar, and
simmer it slowly till the bones of the anchovies are entirely
dissolved.

Strain the liquor through a sieve, and when quite cold put it away
for use in small bottles; the corks dipped in melted rosin, and
well-secured by pieces of leather tied closely over them. Fill
each bottle quite full, as it will keep the better for leaving no
vacancy.

This sauce will give a fine flavour to melted butter.


QUIN'S SAUCE.

Pound in a mortar six large anchovies, moistening them with their
own pickle. Then chop and pound six small onions. Mix them with a
little black pepper and a little cayenne, half a glass of soy,
four glasses of mushroom catchup, two glasses of claret, and two
of black walnut pickle. Put the mixture into a small sauce-pan or
earthen pipkin, and let it simmer slowly till all the bones of the
anchovies are dissolved. Strain it, and when cold, bottle it for
use; dipping the cork in melted rosin, and tying leather over it.
Fill the bottles quite full.


KITCHINER'S FISH SAUCE.

Mix together a pint of claret, a pint of mushroom catchup, and
half a pint of walnut pickle, four ounces of pounded anchovy, an
ounce of fresh lemon-peel pared thin, and the same quantity of
shalot or small onion. Also an ounce of scraped horseradish, half
an ounce of black pepper, and half an ounce of allspice mixed, and
the same quantity of cayenne and celery-seed. Infuse these
ingredients in a wide-mouthed bottle (closely stopped) for a
fortnight, shaking the mixture every day. Then strain and bottle
it for use. Put it up in small bottles, filling them quite full.


HARVEY'S SAUCE.

Dissolve six anchovies in a pint of strong vinegar, and then add
to them three table-spoonfuls of India soy, and three table-spoonfuls
of mushroom catchup, two heads of garlic bruised small,
and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne. Add sufficient cochineal
powder to colour the mixture red. Let all these ingredients infuse
in the vinegar for a fortnight, shaking it every day, and then
strain and bottle it for use. Let the bottles be small, and cover
the corks with leather.


GENERAL SAUCE.

Chop six shalots or small onions, a clove of garlic, two peach
leaves, a few sprigs of lemon-thyme and of sweet basil, and a few
bits of fresh orange-peel. Bruise in a mortar a quarter of an
ounce of cloves, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and half an ounce
of long pepper. Mix two ounces of salt, a jill of vinegar, the
juice of two lemons, and a pint of Madeira. Put the whole of these
ingredients together in a stone jar, very closely covered. Let it
stand all night over embers by the side of the fire. In the
morning pour off the liquid quickly and carefully from the lees or
settlings, strain it and put it into small bottles, dipping the
corks in melted rosin.

This sauce is intended to flavour melted butter or gravy, for
every sort of fish and meat.


PINK SAUCE.

Mix together half a pint of port wine, half a pint of strong
vinegar, the juice and grated peel of two large lemons, a quarter
of an ounce of cayenne, a dozen blades of mace, and a quarter of
an ounce of powdered cochineal. Let it infuse a fortnight,
stirring it several times a day. Then boil it ten minutes, strain
it, and bottle it for use.

Eat it with any sort of fish or game. It will give a fine pink
tinge to melted butter.




CATCHUPS.


LOBSTER CATCHUP.

This catchup, warmed in melted butter, is an excellent substitute
for fresh lobster sauce at seasons when the fish cannot he
procured, as, if properly made, it will keep a year.

Take a fine lobster that weighs about three pounds. Put it into
boiling water, and cook it thoroughly. When it is cold break it
up, and extract all the flesh from the shell. Pound the red part
or coral in a marble mortar, and when it is well bruised, add the
white meat by degrees, and pound that also; seasoning it with a
tea-spoonful of cayenne, and moistening it gradually with sherry
wine. When it is beaten to a smooth paste, mix it well with the
remainder of the bottle of sherry. Put it into wide-mouthed
bottles, and on the top of each lay a dessert-spoonful of whole
pepper. Dip the corks in melted rosin, and secure them well by
tying leather over them.

In using this catchup allow four table-spoonfuls to a common-sized
sauce-boat of melted butter. Put in the catchup at the last, and
hold it over the fire just long enough to be thoroughly heated.


ANCHOVY CATCHUP.

Bone two dozen anchovies, and then chop them. Put to them ten
shalots, or very small onions, cut fine, and a handful of scraped
horseradish, with a quarter of an ounce of mace. Add a lemon, cut
into slices, twelve cloves, and twelve pepper-corns. Then mix
together a pint of red wine, a quart of white wine, a pint of
water and half a pint of anchovy liquor. Put the other ingredients
into the liquid, and boil it slowly till reduced to a quart. Then
strain it, and when cold put it into small bottles, securing the
corks with leather.


OYSTER CATCHUP.

Take large salt oysters that have just been opened. Wash them in
their own liquor, and pound them, in a mortar, omitting the hard
parts. To every pint of the pounded oysters, add a half pint of
white wine or vinegar, in which you must give them a boil up,
removing the scum as it rises. Then to each quart of the boiled
oysters allow a tea-spoonful of beaten white pepper, a salt-spoonful
of pounded mace, and cayenne and salt to your taste. Let
it boil up for a few minutes, and then pass it through a sieve
into an earthen pan. When cold, put it into small bottles, filling
them quite full, as it will not keep so well if there is a vacancy
at the top. Dip the corks in melted rosin, and tie leather over
each.


WALNUT CATCHUP.

Take green walnuts that are young enough to be easily pierced
through with a large needle. Having pricked them all in several
places, throw them into an earthen pan with a large handful of
salt, and barely sufficient water to cover them. Break up and mash
them with a potato-beetle, or a rolling-pin. Keep them four days
in the salt and water, stirring and mashing them every day. The
rinds will now be quite soft. Then scald them with boiling-hot
salt and water, and raising the pan on the edge, let the walnut
liquor flow away from the shells into another pan. Put the shells
into a mortar, and pound them with vinegar, which will extract
from them all the remaining juice.

Put all the walnut liquor together, and boil and skim it, then to
every quart allow an ounce of bruised ginger, an ounce of black
pepper, half an ounce of cloves, and half an ounce of nutmeg, all
slightly beaten. Boil the spice and walnut liquor in a closely
covered vessel for three quarters of an hour. When cold, bottle it
for use, putting equal proportions of the spice into each bottle.
Secure the corks with leather.


MUSHROOM CATCHUP.

Take mushrooms that have been freshly gathered, and examine them
carefully to ascertain that they are of the right sort. Pick them
nicely, and wipe them clean, but do not wash them. Spread a layer
of them at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and then sprinkle
them well with salt; then another layer of mushrooms, and another
layer of salt, and so on alternately. Throw a folded cloth over
the jar, and set it by the fire or in a very cool oven. Let it
remain thus for twenty-four hours, and then mash them well with
your hands. Next squeeze and strain them through a bag.

To every quart of strained liquor add an ounce and a half of whole
black pepper, and boil it slowly in a covered vessel for half an
hour. Then add a quarter of an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of
sliced ginger, a few cloves, and three or four blades of mace.
Boil it with the spice fifteen minutes longer. When it is done,
take it off, and let it stand awhile to settle. Pour it carefully
off from the sediment and put it into small bottles, filling them
to the top. Secure them well with corks dipped in melted rosin,
and leather caps tied over them.

The longer catchup is boiled, the better it will keep. You may add
cayenne and nutmeg to the spices.

The bottles should be quite small, as it soon spoils after being
opened.


TOMATA CATCHUP.

Gather the tomatas on a dry day, and when quite ripe. Peel them,
and cut them into quarters. Put them into a large earthen pan, and
mash and squeeze them till they are reduced to a pulp. Allowing
half a pint of fine salt to a hundred tomatas, put them into a
preserving kettle, and boil them gently with the salt for two
hours, stirring them frequently to prevent their burning. Then
strain them through a fine sieve, pressing them with the back of a
silver spoon. Season them to your taste with mace, cinnamon,
nutmeg, ginger, and white or red pepper, all powdered fine.

Put the tomata again over the fire with the spices, and boil it
slowly till very thick, stirring it frequently.

When cold, put it up in small bottles, secure the corks well, and
it will keep good a year or two.


LEMON CATCHUP.

Cut nine large lemons into thin slices, and take out the seeds.
Prepare, by pounding them in a mortar, two ounces of mustard seed,
half an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of nutmeg, a quarter
of an ounce of mace, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Slice
thin two ounces of horseradish. Put all these ingredients
together. Strew over them three ounces of fine salt. Add a quart
of the best vinegar.

Boil the whole twenty minutes. Then put it warm into a jar, and
let it stand three weeks closely covered. Stir it up daily.

Then strain it through a sieve, and put it up in small bottles to
flavour fish and other sauces. This is sometimes called lemon
pickle.


SEA CATCHUP.

Take a gallon of stale strong beer, a pound of anchovies washed
from the pickle, a pound of peeled shalots or small onions, half
an ounce of mace, half an ounce of cloves, a quarter of an ounce
of whole pepper, three or four large pieces of ginger, and two
quarts of large mushroom-flaps rubbed to pieces. Put the whole
into a kettle closely covered, and let it simmer slowly till
reduced to one half. Then strain it through a flannel bag, and let
it stand till quite cold before you bottle it. Have small bottles
and fill them quite full of the catchup. Dip the corks in melted
rosin.

This catchup keeps well at sea, and may be carried into any part
of the world. A spoonful of it mixed in melted butter will make a
fine fish sauce. It may also be used to flavour gravy.




FLAVOURED VINEGARS.


These vinegars will be found very useful, at times when the
articles with which they are flavoured cannot be conveniently
procured. Care should be taken to have the bottles that contain
them accurately labelled, very tightly corked, and kept in a dry
place. The vinegar used for these purposes should be of the very
best sort.

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