Marion Harland's Cookery for Beginners A Series of Familiar Lessons for Young Housekeepers — Themes and Context

MARION HARLAND’S COOKERY FOR BEGINNERS

MARION HARLAND’S COOKERY FOR BEGINNERS

A SERIES OF FAMILIAR LESSONS FOR YOUNG HOUSEKEEPERS

_Author of “Common Sense in the Household,” “The Dinner Year Book,” “The Cottage Kitchen,” etc._

COPYRIGHT, 1884, BY D. LOTHROP & CO.

COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY D. LOTHROP COMPANY.

1. HOME-MADE YEAST AND THE FIRST LOAF 7 2. BREAD SPONGE AND BREAKFAST BREADS 16 3. BREAKFAST BREADS 28 4. OTHER BREAKFAST BREADS 37 5. EGGS 42 6. BROILED MEATS 54 7. FRIED MEATS 60 8. WHAT TO DO WITH LEFT-OVERS 69 9. OTHER DINNER DISHES 81 10. MEATS 94 11. VEGETABLES 107 12. DESSERTS 118 13. CAKE-MAKING 131 14. JELLIES, CREAMS, AND OTHER FANCY DISHES FOR TEA AND LUNCHEON, OR SUPPER-PARTIES 143

COOKERY FOR BEGINNERS.

HOME-MADE YEAST AND THE FIRST LOAF.

THE question is often asked, “What is the most important branch of culinary knowledge? What the chief requisite in supplying the table well and healthfully?”

The experienced housewife cannot hesitate as to the reply.

Beyond doubt, the ability to make _good_ bread. No one need rise hungry from a table on which is plenty of light, sweet bread, white or brown, and good butter. For the latter item many of us are dependent upon market and grocery. It is hardly just to hold the cook responsible for imperfections in this regard when she has bought the best articles these supply. She is culpable if she fails to see that her board furnishes three times a day a bountiful allowance of what I hope none of my friends in council will ever call “_healthy_ bread.” The eater may be made or kept healthy by the consumption of nutritious, wholesome, healthful or healthsome food; but the most careful philologists do not speak of edibles as subject to such diseases as may afflict living creatures.

While it is always wise to use none except the best flour in bread-making, it is true that skilful management of an inferior brand will often produce better loaves and biscuits than careless treatment of fine family flour. I say this that none may be discouraged. So far as my observation and experience extend, nothing can remedy the disadvantage of indifferent yeast.

Let me earnestly advise, therefore, as the foundation of successful baking, the manufacture of

Four large mealy potatoes, peeled.

Two quarts of cold water.

One teacupful of loose, dry hops, _or_, half a cake of the pressed hops put up by the Shakers and sold by druggists.

Two tablespoonfuls of white sugar.

Four tablespoonfuls of flour.

Half a cupful lively yeast, _or_ a yeast-cake dissolved in a little warm water.

Put water, potatoes, and the hops tied up in a bit of coarse muslin, over the fire in a clean pot or kettle. Boil until the potatoes break apart when a fork is stuck into them. Unless they are very old or very new, this should be half an hour after the boiling begins. Take out the potatoes, leaving water and hops on the range where they will boil slowly. Mash the potatoes smooth in a wooden tray or large crockery bowl, with a wooden spoon, and work in the sugar. When these are well-mixed wet the paste with three tablespoonfuls of the boiling hop-tea, then stir in a tablespoonful of flour. Do this four times, beating and stirring to get rid of lumps. When the flour is all in, add, a little at a time, the rest of the hop-tea, squeezing the bag hard to get every drop. Throw the boiled hops away, and wash the cloth or bag well before putting it aside for the next yeast-making.

Strain the thick, grayish liquid through a colander into a bowl and let it get almost but not quite cold before you stir in the half cupful of made yeast that is to “raise” it. Set aside out of the dust and wind, put a sieve or throw a bit of mosquito netting over it, and leave it to work. It is a good plan to set the bowl in a large pan or dish to catch what may run over the sides. When the yeast ceases to sing or hiss, and the bubbles no longer rise and break on the surface, the fermentation is complete. Four or five hours in July, seven in January, usually bring this to pass. Pour the yeast into glass fruit-jars with close covers, or stone-jars fitted with corks, or common bottles, tying the corks down with twine. Keep in a _cool_, dark place, and do not open except to draw off the quantity needed for a baking. In the refrigerator it will keep good for a month. Shake up the bottle before pouring out what you want into a cup.