24 chapters
15 hour read
Selected Chapters
24 chapters
MISS LESLIE'S NEW COOKERY BOOK.
MISS LESLIE'S NEW COOKERY BOOK.
One Volume, 652 pages, bound. Price $1.25. T. B. Peterson, No. 102 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, has just published MISS LESLIE'S "NEW COOKERY BOOK." It comprises new and approved methods of preparing all kinds of Soups, Fish, Oysters, Beef, Mutton, Veal, Pork, Venison, Ham and Bacon, Poultry and Game, Terrapins, Turtle, Vegetables, Sauces, Bread, Pickles, Sweetmeats, Plain Cakes, Fine Cakes, Pies, Plain Desserts, Fine Desserts, Preparations for the Sick, Puddings, Confectionery, Rice, Indian M
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
I have endeavored to render this work a complete manual of domestic cookery in all its branches . It comprises an unusual number of pages, and the receipts are all practical, and practicable —being so carefully and particularly explained as to be easily comprehended by the merest novice in the art. Also, I flatter myself that most of these preparations (if faithfully and liberally followed,) will be found very agreeable to the general taste; always, however, keeping in mind that every ingredient
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
Tested and Arranged by Miss Leslie. Throughout this book, the pound is avoirdupois weight—sixteen ounces....
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SOUPS.
SOUPS.
It is impossible to have good soup, without a sufficiency of good meat; thoroughly boiled, carefully skimmed, and moderately seasoned. Meat that is too bad for any thing else, is too bad for soup. Cold meat recooked, adds little to its taste or nourishment, and it is in vain to attempt to give poor soup a factitious flavor by the disguise of strong spices, or other substances which are disagreeable or unpalatable to at least one half the eaters, and frequently unwholesome. Rice and barley add to
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FISH.
FISH.
This must always be done with the greatest care and nicety. If sent to table imperfectly cleaned, they are disgraceful to the cook, and disgusting to the sight and taste. Handle the fish lightly; not roughly so as to bruise it. Wash it well, but do not leave it in the water longer than is needful. It will lose its flavor, and become insipid, if soaked. To scale it, lay the fish flat upon one side, holding it firmly in the left hand, and with the right taking off the scales by means of a knife. W
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SHELL FISH.
SHELL FISH.
Insert a knife, and if the shell instantly closes firmly on the knife, the oysters are fresh. If it shuts slowly and faintly, or not at all, they are dying, or dead. When the shells of raw oysters are found gaping open they are fit for nothing but to throw away, and should not have been seen in the market, as they are quite dead and decomposition has commenced. Clams the same. When it is necessary to keep oysters a day or two before they are cooked, they must be kept clean and fed, otherwise the
59 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BEEF.
BEEF.
The prime piece of beef for roasting is the sirloin; but being too large for a small family, the ribs are generally preferred, when there are but few persons to eat of it. So also is the baron, or double sirloin, undivided along the back. It is chiefly seen at great dinners. Except the sirloin and ribs, there are no very good roasting pieces, all the rest being generally used for stews, soups, &c., and for corning or salting. Unless the animal is a very fine one, the inferior pieces are
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MUTTON.
MUTTON.
If mutton is good it is of a fine grain; the lean is of a bright red color, and the fat firm and white. Unless there is plenty of fat the lean will not be good; and so it is with all meat. If the lean is of a very dark red, and coarse and hard, and the fat yellowish and spongy, the mutton is old, tough, and strong. Therefore, do not buy it. If there is any dark or blackish tint about the meat, it is tainted, and of course unwholesome. If kept till it acquires what the English call venison taste,
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VEAL.
VEAL.
Do not buy veal unless the vein in the shoulder looks blue or bright red. If of any other color, the veal is not fresh. A calf's head should have the eyes full and prominent. If they are dull and sunken, the head is stale. The kidney should be well covered with firm white fat. All the fat must be firm, dry, and white, and the lean fine in the grain, and light colored. If any part is found clammy or discolored, do not buy that veal. The best pieces of the calf are the loin and the fillet. The loi
55 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PORK.
PORK.
Young pork has a thin rind or skin, easily indented by pressing with the finger, and the lean will break by pinching. If fresh, the meat is smooth and dry; but if damp and clammy, it is tainted. If the fat is rough with little kernels, the pig has had a disease resembling the measles, and to eat it is poisonous. Pigs that have short legs, and thick necks, are the best. Pigs fed entirely on slop make very bad pork. They should be kept up for at least two months, fed with corn, and not allowed dur
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HAM, etc.
HAM, etc.
To every four gallons of water allow four pounds of fine salt, two ounces of saltpetre, three pounds of brown sugar, and two quarts of West India molasses. Boil the whole together, stirring it well, and skimming it after stirring. When clear, let it cool. The meat being clean and dry, rub it all over with ground red pepper. Then put as much meat into the pickling-tub as can be very well covered by the brine, which must be poured on cold. Let it remain six weeks in the pickle, (carefully taking o
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VENISON.
VENISON.
You may judge of the age of venison by looking at the hoof, which is always left on the leg. The deer is young if the cleft of the hoof is small and smooth; but large and rough, if he is old. Buck venison is considered better than the meat of the doe. The haunch, or hind-quarter, is the best part, and the fat upon it should, be thick and white. The shoulder, or fore-quarter, is the next best piece. The saddle comprises both hind-quarters; and these, for a large company, are always cooked togethe
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
POULTRY AND GAME.
POULTRY AND GAME.
Spring chickens bring a high price, and are considered delicacies, but they are so insipid, and have so little on them, that we think the purchase of them, when very young, a mere fashionable extravagance, and a waste of money that might be better employed in something that had really a fine flavor, and that when divided was more than a morsel for each person. We wonder that any but invalids should care for spring chickens. It is better to wait till the young chickens grow into nice plump fowls,
36 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SAUCES.
SAUCES.
For Sauces. —This is frequently called Drawn Butter. For this purpose none should be used but fresh butter of the very best quality. It is usually sent to table with boiled fish and boiled poultry. Also, with boiled mutton, lamb, and veal. It is never served up with any thing roasted, fried or broiled. Numerous sauces are made with melted butter. If mixed with too much flour and water, and not enough of butter, it will be very poor, particularly if the water is in too large proportions. To prepa
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VEGETABLES.
VEGETABLES.
All vegetables are best when fresh, as can easily be discovered by the difference between those newly brought from the garden, and those that have been kept in a provision shop till next day, (and perhaps longer,) imbibing the atmosphere of meat, fish, poultry, and a variety of things, each becoming impure from the same causes; not to mention the rats, mice, and insects which run over them at night. You cannot have vegetables in perfection without a country garden. But if obliged to depend upon
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BREAD, PLAIN CAKES, etc.
BREAD, PLAIN CAKES, etc.
Brick ovens are generally heated with dry fagots or small branches, or with light split wood. For baking bread, the oven-wood must be heavier than for pies. A heap of wood should be placed in the centre of the oven on the brick floor, and then set on fire. While the wood is burning, the door of the oven must be left open. When the wood is all burnt down, and reduced to a mass of small red coals, the oven will be very hot. Then shovel out all the coals and sweep the oven floor with a broom, till
35 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PLAIN DESSERTS.
PLAIN DESSERTS.
Sift into a pan a large quart of yellow indian meal. Simmer over the fire a quart of milk, a pint of West India molasses , stirred in while the milk is hot. Put the milk and molasses into a large pan, and mix gradually into them the corn meal while they are quite warm. Add a large table-spoonful of ground ginger, and a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat the whole mixture long and hard, for on that will chiefly depend the lightness of the pudding, as it has neither eggs, butter, nor y
48 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FINE DESSERTS.
FINE DESSERTS.
To a pound of the best fresh butter allow a pound of the finest flour, sifted into a deep pan. Have on a plate some additional sifted flour for sprinkling and rolling in. Divide the pound of butter into four equal parts, and three of those parts divide again into two portions. Mix the first quarter of butter into the mass of flour, cutting it with a broad-bladed knife. If your hands are naturally warm, avoid touching the dough with them, as their heat will render it heavy. Paste, to be very good
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FINE CAKES.
FINE CAKES.
In making very fine plum cake first prepare the fruit and spice, and sift the flour (which must be the very best superfine,) into a large flat dish, and dry it before the fire. Use none but the very best fresh butter; if of inferior quality, the butter will taste through every thing, and spoil the cake. In fact, all the ingredients should be excellent, and liberally allowed. Take the best bloom or muscatel raisins, seeded and cut in half. Pick and wash the currants or plums through two waters, a
51 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SWEETMEATS.
SWEETMEATS.
No sweetmeats can either look well or taste well unless the fruit and the sugar are of the best quality. As in all other branches of cookery, it is false economy to provide bad or low-priced ingredients. It has of late years been difficult to obtain very good sugar at any price, so much is adulterated with flour or ground starch. In the common powdered sugar the flour is so palpable that we are surprised at its having any sale at all; and the large quantity required to produce any perceptible sw
47 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PICKLES.
PICKLES.
For pickles the articles should all be fine and freshly gathered. They are generally too hard to be cut or eaten conveniently, and there is too much unnecessary fear of pickles proving soft. It is not now customary to keep them for weeks in salt and water; two or three days will be sufficient for this part of the process, and some kinds do not require it at all. The arts of both preserving and pickling are of late years much simplified. All pickles have nearly the same taste, and there is no use
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREPARATIONS FOR THE SICK.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE SICK.
Skin and cut up a fine full-grown fowl. If but little is wanted, take only the dark meat for the broth, and put it into a pot with a small quart of water, and slowly boil it to rags. Strain the liquid and return it to the pot, and thicken it with two spoonfuls of arrow root, if no vegetables are permitted. Otherwise, you may boil with the chicken some sliced onion and sliced turnip, with a grated parsnip and a sliced potato, straining out the vegetables with the shreds of fowl. You may reserve t
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
No metal (not even silver,) is good for tea-pots. All tea should be made in china or queensware. Wedgewood (whether black or white) imbibes much of the essence of the tea, and from constant use soon becomes unpleasant. Britannia ware is exceedingly unwholesome for any sort of cooking, as one fourth of the composition is copper. Block tin for a common tea-pot is less objectionable, and much cheaper. All tea-pots should, after using, be thoroughly emptied of the old leaves, and washed very clean i
43 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WORTH KNOWING.
WORTH KNOWING.
Before preserving and pickling time, buy at a druggist's, two ounces of the clearest and whitest gum tragacanth. Obtain also two grains of corrosive sublimate, (indispensable to this cement), and having picked the gum tragacanth clean, and free from dust and dark or discolored particles, put it with the sublimate into a very clean yellow or white-ware mug that holds a small quart and has a close-fitting lid belonging to it. Then fill the vessel more than two-thirds with very clean water, either
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter