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Title: Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book A Practical and Exhaustive Manual of Cookery and Housekeeping Author: Marion Harland Release Date: February 5, 2021 [eBook #64459] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARION HARLAND'S COMPLETE COOK BOOK*** E-text prepared by MFR, Les Galloway, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/marionharlandsco00terhiala Transcriber’s Note In the section Pickled nutmeg melons, melons change to mangoes part way through, viz. “Lay the _mangoes_ in strong brine for three days. Drain off the brine and freshen in pure water for twenty-four hours. “Green” as you would cucumbers—that is, have a kettle lined with green vine leaves, and lay the _mangoes_ evenly within it, scattering powdered alum over the layers. A piece of alum as large as a pigeon’s egg will be enough for a two-gallon kettleful. Fill with cold water; cover with vine leaves, three deep; put a close lid or inverted pan over all, and steam over a slow fire five or six hours, not allowing the water to boil. When the _mangoes_ are a fine green remove the leaves and lay the melons in cold water until cold and firm.” This has been corrected. Marion Harland’s Complete Cook Book MARION HARLAND Marion Harland’s Complete Cook Book A PRACTICAL AND EXHAUSTIVE MANUAL OF COOKERY AND HOUSEKEEPING CONTAINING THOUSANDS OF CAREFULLY PROVED RECIPES—PREPARED FOR THE HOUSEWIFE, NOT FOR THE CHEF—AND MANY CHAPTERS ON THE CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HOME—THE FINAL EXPRESSION OF HER LIFE’S EXPERIENCE BY MARION HARLAND Author of Common Sense in the Household, Etc. NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright 1903 The Bobbs-Merrill Company June Copyright 1906 The Bobbs-Merrill Company March PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Marketing 3 Care of Household Stores 6 Kitchen Utensils 9 Chemistry in the Kitchen 12 Carving 15 Serving and Waiting 18 Among the Linens 23 The Children 25 Diet and Digestion 28 The Impromptu Larder 32 Familiar Talk Breakfast 34 Breakfast Fruits 38 Breakfast Cereals 42 Breakfast Breads 46 Hot Breakfast Breads 54 Quick Biscuits 61 Muffins and Their Congeners 63 Waffles 65 Griddle Cakes 66 Breakfast Breads of Indian Meal 71 Divers Kinds of Toast 75 Eggs 78 Familiar Talk Who Rules the Home 89 Fish for Breakfast 93 Familiar Talk Where We Eat 107 Breakfast Meats 110 Breakfast Bacon 110 Tripe 114 Beefsteak 116 Kidneys 118 Sweetbreads 120 Liver 122 Chicken 123 Other Breakfast Meats 126 Breakfast Game 129 Breakfast Vegetables 131 Familiar Talk With Martha in Her Kitchen 137 The Family Luncheon 143 Luncheon Dishes 145 Familiar Talk Living to Learn 183 Croquettes 188 With the Casserole 194 Cheese Dishes for Luncheon 198 The Toast Family 205 Luncheon Vegetables 207 v Sandwiches 214 Tempting Prefixes to Luncheon 221 Salads 224 Luncheon Fruits, Cooked and Raw 241 Sweet Omelets 247 Familiar Talk With the Nominal Mistress of the House 249 Luncheon Cakes 258 Frostings for Cakes 278 Various Fillings for Cakes 279 Gingerbreads 281 Small Cakes 284 The Doughnut and Cruller Family 292 Familiar Talk A Friendly Word With “Our Maid” 296 Dinner 300 Soups 303 Bisques 314 Cream Soups 318 Vegetable Soups With Meat 322 Vegetable Soups Without Meat 328 Fish Soups 333 Fish 337 Sauces for Fish and Meat 353 Familiar Talk Is Impromptu Hospitality a Lost Art 361 Meats 367 Beef 367 Veal 377 Mutton 385 Meat and Poultry Pies 388 Pork 395 Poultry 400 Turkey 400 Ducks 404 Chickens 405 Geese 413 Game 415 Dinner Vegetables 427 Even Threaded Living 498 Sweets of All Sorts 503 Pies 503 Hot Puddings 518 Baked Puddings 528 Fritters 544 Pancakes and Dumplings 548 Some Pudding Sauces 551 Cold Puddings and Custards 555 Whipped Cream Dishes 558 Blanc Mange 563 Fruit Desserts 576 Ice Cream and Ices 580 Home-Made Candies 590 Afternoon Tea 604 vi vii Some Dainties for Afternoon Tea 610 Frappé Beverages 614 Wafers 616 Stewed Fruit, Preserves, Fruit Jellies, Et cetera 617 Pickles 633 Catsups, Et cetera 648 The Home Brew 652 Formal Breakfasts and Luncheons 663 Concerning Dinner Giving 668 Some Studies of Color in Family Dinners 673 An Evening Reception and Chafing-Dish Supper 676 Familiar Talk Common Sense and “Etiquette” 681 Canned Goods 684 “Handy” Household Hints 693 Final Familiar Talk Emergencies, Broken China, Et cetera 715 Some Culinary Terms 719 For Ready Reference 724 Index 729 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing Page After Dinner Coffee in a Cozy Corner 672 Afternoon Tea on the Veranda 606 Anchovies on Toast 464 Beef, Roast 380 Belgian Hare, Roast 416 Beverages 652 Birthday Cake 520 Biscuits, Hot 364 Brandied Peaches, Garnished 628 Breakfast Equipage 36 Cake, Sliced Home-Made 364 Calf’s Head, Boiled 380 Caviar Toast, Garnished 222 Cheese and Egg Entrées 202 Chicken Pie, Small 388 Chicken Pie in Silver Stand 388 Chicken Omelet 84 Chicken Salad Mantled with Cream Mayonnaise and Garnished 232 Chicken, Scalloped 404 Chicken, Scalloped 126 Cod, Boiled 344 Coffee, Capital Cup of 364 Covered Cheese Dish for Limburger 202 Crab, Scalloped, in Shell 156 Creamed Macaroni in Pineapple Cheese Shell 202 Croquettes 126 Daffodils 84 Dinner, A Little 668 “Dinner, A Pick-Up” 364 Eggs 78 Eggs, Baked 78 Egg Omelet 78 Eggs, Stuffed 202 Entrees 126 Fish 100 Fish 344 Floating Island 520-558 Fondu of Cheese 202 Fruit Salad, Garnished 232 Fruit Salad, in Banana-Skin 232 Game 416 Game Pie in Napkinned Dish 388 Grape Fruit Prepared for Luncheon 222 Green Peas, Garnished 464 Halibut Steak 100 Harland, Marion Frontispiece Ice Cream with Hot Maple Sauce 582 Individual Floating Island 558 Irish Stew and Browned Potatoes 364 Lamb Chops 126 Lobster Cutlets and Whipped Potatoes 156 viii ix Meringue Glace and Whipped Cream 558 Mock Pigeon 380 Mould of Jelly, Garnished 628 Orange Marmalade 582 Oyster Cocktails 222 Oyster Patties 344 Oysters Scalloped 84 Pair of Boiled Fowls, Garnished 404 Pair of Roast Ducks 404 Partridge, Roast 416 Perch, Fried 100 Plum Pudding 520 Poultry and Entrées 404 Punch, Strawberry 628 Quail on Toast 416 Range Screen Lowered to Shut in Heat 140 Range Screen Partly Raised 138 Salads 236 Salmon, Boiled 344 Sandwiches Afternoon Tea 582 Brunette 216 Crescent 216 Whole Wheat Bread 216 Side-Board and China Closet 718 Smelts, Fried 100 Sweetbreads, Braised 404 Sweetbread Cutlets and Saratoga Potatoes 156 Tables Autumn Dinner 300 Bridesmaid’s, with Pink Roses 500 Christmas, Decorated with Holly 300 Decorated with Pine Cones 266 Decorated with Chrysanthemums and Palms 300 Easter Wedding Breakfast 266 Engagement Dinner 500 Japanese Decorations for Children’s Luncheon 266 Sunflower Luncheon 500 A Little Dinner 668 Toast and Anchovies Garnished 464 Tomato Salad 236 Tomato Salad with Whipped Cream Dressing 236 Tomatoes, Stuffed and Garnished 464 Trout, Fried 344 Turkey, Roast 404 Veal and Beef 380 Veal Chops and Spinach 380 Venison, Roast 416 Wafers 616 Whipped Cream 520 Whipped Cream, Garnished with Cherries 558 Woodcock, Roast 416 x xi Marion Harland’s Complete Cook Book DEDICATORY PREFACE To My Fellow Housekeepers, North, East, South and West: Thirty-one years ago I wrote, dedicated to you, and sent to press, Common Sense in the Household. The daring step was taken in direct opposition to the advice of all who knew my purpose. I was assured that I should lose the modest measure of literary reputation I had won by novels, short stories and essays if I persisted in the ignoble enterprise. One critic forewarned me that “whatever I might write after this preposterous new departure would be tainted, for the imaginative reader and reviewer, with the odor of the kitchen.” He may have been right. I do not know nor do I care whether his judgment or mine was the better. I gave my first cook-book to you because I knew from my own experience, as a young, raw and untaught housekeeper, that you needed just what I had to say. The hundreds of thousands of copies which have been sold, the thousands of grateful letters received from my toiling sisters, testify to that need and that to me was appointed the gracious task of supplying it. Under the impulse of a conviction as solemn and as strong I offer you now a work embodying the best results of mature Housewifery. Or, as I would rather name it, Housemotherhood. Before I put pen to paper I stipulated that the contract with the publishers of The Complete Cook Book should contain a clause forbidding me to prepare and issue any book of a similar character during the next ten years. Whatever I have to say to you through the medium of a printed and bound volume in all these years must be said here. I have had this thought in my mind with the writing of every page. In every page, in every line, in every word I have done my best to serve you. I know you well enough to be assured that you will not forget this. If such a thing might be I would have every dish compounded according to my directions a souvenir to each of you of one who has given thirty- odd of the best years of a busy life to the task of dignifying housewifery into a profession, and ennobling the practice of it in your eyes. For the fair degree of success which has followed these efforts I am thankful. Thankful, too, to those of you whose appreciation of my aim and my work has held up weary hands and stayed the failing heart. This talk, made purposely as “familiar” as if I were face-to-face with each of you, is not a valedictory, but an au revoir. The book in your hands contains the gleanings of an active decade. Housewifery keeps pace with other professions in the swinging march of an Age of Wonders. I have faith in it and in myself to believe that I shall go on with the fascinating work of accumulating. I add, hopefully, I have also faith in you that, in the future as in the thirty years overpast, you will aid me in that accumulation. Marion Harland. 2 MARKETING Mutton and beef may be called the Marketer’s Perennials. They are in season all the year round. In buying mutton see that the fat is clear, very firm and white; the flesh close of grain, and ruddy. Buy your meat fresh, even if you mean to hang it in the cellar for a week—or longer in cold weather. “Begin fair!” The best cuts of mutton are loin, saddle and leg. French chops are cut from the rib, the fat taken off and several inches of the bone cleaned from meat. They are nice to look at, good to eat—and expensive. You can do the trimming at home when you have once seen it done and save the extra cent or two paid for the word “French.” Loin chops are cheaper and usually more tender and better-flavored. A more economical piece than the leg for the housewife who does her own marketing is the fore-quarter. You can bone and stuff part of it for a roast; the chops are almost as good as those cut from the loin, and the bones, when removed, make good stock for broth. The meat is really more juicy and sweet than that of the leg, and the cost from two to three cents a pound less. Lamb is in season from May to November. What is sold under that name in winter is undersized mutton, and usually tough and dry. Beef—the Englishman’s main-stay—is quite as important in the American kitchen. Seek, in purchasing, for rosy, red meat, “shot” with cream-colored suet, dry and mealy, and a good outer coat of fat. Press the meat hard with the tip of your thumb. If it be flabby, and, after yielding to pressure, retains the dent, let it alone. The rib roast is a choice cut. It is more comely when the bones are removed, the meat rolled and bound into a round. In which case insist upon having the trimmings sent home. You pay for them, and, when you order soup-meat, for that as well. Have the bones cracked, buy one pound of coarse lean beef for perhaps ten cents, and you have foundation for a good gravy soup, or stock enough for several hashes and stews. The round costs about two-thirds as much as a rib-roast and half as much as a sirloin, and serves admirably for à la mode beef, or a pot-roast. The sirloin steak is far more economical than a porterhouse. Remove the bone before cooking. This cut often contains really more of the coveted tenderloin than the porterhouse, and the rest of the steak is more tender, as a rule, than the dearer cut. Have the steak cut at least an inch thick. Summer fresh pork is less desirable than winter lamb. It should be barred from the market after the first of May, and not allowed there before December first, if then. The lean should be pink, the fat pure white and solid, the skin like white, translucent parchment. That it is cheap and “goes far” recommends it to many people. The chine, the spare-ibiss and loin are the best cuts for roasting. Pork chops are popular, and pork tenderloins much affected, even by epicures. Children and invalids should never touch unsalted pork at its best estate. Veal comes into market earlier than genuine spring lamb, and is seasonable all the summer through. Be sure it is not that most objectionable variety of what is rated by dieticians as a decidedly objectionable meat—known in slang usage as “bob-veal.” No calf should be slaughtered until at least six weeks old. The meat should be a clear, pale red, the fat very white, the texture firm. Veal may be innutritious, but the knuckle and, indeed, all the bony parts are invaluable for soups, containing much gelatinous matter. The breast, the fillet and loin are the most popular roasting pieces. Veal chops are really better eating and cheaper than the cutlet, and should be better known to the frugal housewife. A calf’s head, scraped free of hair and well-cleaned, may be bought in country markets for fifty cents, and can be made into a dainty dish fit for John and John’s unexpected friend. Sweetbreads are an acknowledged delicacy, and liver, properly cooked, will be approved by all. By the way, lamb’s liver costs less than calf’s liver, and is more toothsome. In choosing poultry, slip your bare forefinger under the wing where it joins the body and press hard with the nail. If the skin breaks easily, the fowl is probably young. Then try the tip of the breast-bone. If the cartilage gives readily and springs back slowly, the signs are still favorable. Next, look for hairs on the body and hard horny scales on the legs; for scrawny necks and a livid hue in the flesh—all unfavorable indications. Tough fowls should be cheaper far than tender. If your market-man calls them frankly “fowls,” commend his honesty, and if you contemplate a fricassee or chicken pie, reward his integrity by a purchase. Chickens may be “fowls,” yet good,—that is, nourishing and amenable to judicious “tendering.” A veteran housewife, with a reputation to support, tells me she has but one method of securing really excellent meats for her table: “When a market-man sells me tough flesh, or superannuated poultry, or ancient fish, I give him warning. At the second offense, I transfer my custom to another dealer. The rule works well!” It is especially useful when one would be certain of getting fresh fish. Now that fish and oysters are bedded in ice until the wiliest connoisseur may be mistaken in their age, it behooves the housemother to know, first of all, that she is dealing with a man with a conscience as free from reproach as she would have her halibut, salmon and oysters. 3 4 5 CARE OF HOUSEHOLD STORES Apples, potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, etc., if stored in bins or barrels, should be picked over every week. The defective should be thrown away, and if there be any sign of sweating, the good should be spread out on the floor for a day or two to dry before they are repacked. Fruit should be handled with care. Bruises are incipient decay. Particularly fine fruit—apples and pears—should be wrapped, each separately, in soft, unprinted paper and, when packed, covered with fine, dry sand. Thus protected, they will keep plump and sweet for months, and need no overhauling meanwhile. When practicable, keep vegetables in large quantities elsewhere than in the cellar under your dwelling. Putrefying roots, cabbages and apples were responsible for much of the winter and spring diseases that puzzled our forefathers and mothers. Even now many a farmhouse reeks with “cellar smells,” as subtile and dangerous as sewer gas. Keep eggs in a cool place, yet not where they will be liable to freeze. If you store them in large quantities, pack in dry salt, the small end down. As an additional precaution, grease the shells, and pour melted lard upon the topmost layer of salt. Dried beans and peas should be kept in wooden or tin boxes with close tops. Have canisters with tight lids for coffee and tea, and keep them shut. Coffee loses strength and flavor when exposed to the air. Tea softens and molds. In buying crackers give the preference to those packed in tin cases. If they come in paper boxes, set these in tin receptacles, or in stone crocks with snugly fitting tops. Never throw away a tin cracker-box. It is always useful. After cheese is cut, wrap in tin-foil, or in soft (unprinted) paper and keep in tin, or in stoneware. Crusts, bits of toast, broken crackers and stale slices of bread should be kept in the kitchen closet until perfectly dry; then set in a moderate oven for an hour before crushing them with a rolling-pin. Keep these crumbs in a glass jar with a close top. They are invaluable for breading chops and croquettes, and for scallops. Brown flour by the quantity, and when cool put into glass jars ready for use. Salt cakes and hardens in damp weather. Store it in your warmest and driest pantry. In very wet weather mix a little corn starch with that you put into the table salt-cellars. Flour can not be kept too dry, nor can Indian oatmeal, and all kinds of sugar. Pulverized sugar is as susceptible to humidity as salt. Tin boxes are absolutely necessary for keeping it tolerably free from lumps. Spices, pepper and dried herbs must also be shut up closely, and never be kept in open receptacles. Some brands of baking-powders actually effervesce when exposed for days at a time to the open air. All are injured seriously by such exposure. For all these staples and ingredients, have closely-fitting lids—and keep them on! Store dried fruits in stone jars with covers; canned fruits and pickles in glass jars; tumblers of jelly and marmalade should be kept in the dark. The light acts chemically upon the contents. If your storeroom be light, wrap jars and tumblers in thick paper tied on with strings. As soon as meat comes home from market remove every bit of the brown paper enveloping it, and lay upon a clean dish near the ice—never upon it. Fish does not suffer from contact with ice. Meat does, becoming flabby and viscid. If your refrigerator is so arranged that you can hang the meat up, that the air can get at all sides of it, it will keep far better than when laid on a platter. A good meat preserver is a box, as large as you can make room for in the refrigerator, the top and bottom of which are of wood, the sides of wire netting. Stout hooks are screwed into the inside of the top, and one of the netted sides is hinged, like a door. Meat hung in this box will remain untainted and sweet much longer than when hung upon the side of the refrigerator. If you have a cool cellar, keep the meat box, thus prepared, upon a shelf in the darkest corner. The netting excludes insects, yet allows the air to enter, and by drying the surface forms an impervious coating which will keep in the juices. Get large tin boxes for bread and cake. Scald them frequently, drying thoroughly in the sun, and have clean, dry cloths in which to wrap each fresh batch of cake and baking of bread and biscuits. It is an excellent plan to make cotton bags in which to put lettuce, celery, tomatoes, spinach and other green things you wish to store in the refrigerator. The shelves and ice-box are kept clean, the esculents fresh. Many housewives have adopted the expedient within a few years, and none has abandoned it after a trial. The bags are of coarse, light cotton cloth, or of cheese-cloth, and go into the weekly wash. Table butter, wrapped in dampened cheesecloth squares, keeps sweet and firm. These squares are as large as a child’s pocket handkerchief, and hemmed to prevent raveling. Half a dozen will last a year, unless the “hired gurrel” takes them for dish-cloths. Butter, made into balls for the table, should be kept in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator, and the water changed every morning. 6 7 8 Keep in your own mind, and so far as you can, impress upon the conscience of servants, that whatever has been once in the refrigerator must be returned to cold storage, unless used. Meats soften and taint, butter turns rancid, fruits and vegetables decay when this precaution is neglected.