KinSource - Tale of the Week - Reliable Recipes

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, September 30, 1895, p. 6

RELIABLE RECIPES.

There are numberless recipes for making toast, says E. W. M. in the Housekeeper, but if it is to be palatable due care must be paid to this most important command, "toast the bread just right."

It is not easy to describe a "just right" that will meet the approval of every palate, so I'll tell you what passes for just right in my family.

If there is to be dressing for the toast, it must be prepared while the bread is being made ready - before it is ready, if there is but one pair of hands - for it must not be allowed to cool before being served. I have seen cooks who have prepared the bread first and placed the toasted slices in a warming oven to await the dressing. Such toast is not liked at our house. Neither is toast made by holding slices of cold bread over the coals until they are browned on the outside, and cold and soggy within.

To make toast "just right," have slices of stale bread cut of medium thickness, and place them in a hot oven, allowing them to remain until heated through and almost ready to brown; then take them out, brown them quickly over a bed of coals, and serve immediately. If there is a member of the family who usually wants more than one slice, either have the second slice prepared when the first has been despatched or, if there is no servant, butter it as soon as it comes from the toasting fork and let remain between two hot saucers, turned face to face, until he is ready for it.

If toast it to be dipped into hot water, which, by the way, must always be salted, it is best to leave the slices of bread in the oven until they are brown; but in order to have it good, the oven must be nearly red hot, and the bread must be turned at least twice before it becomes brown. Don't cut off the crusts, but dip the toast in boiling water, crust down, turning it rapidly like a wheel. The quicker you can dip it and get it out on a hot platter the better it will be. Butter it immediately.

If toast is to be served with a rather thin dressing, it should not be dipped into hot water at all, but put into the dressing at once. If the dressing is thick, always dip the toast and butter it, too, before adding the dressing.

Salmon Toast - Place a small can of salmon in a dish of boiling water, and allow it to remain long enough to heat thoroughly, then open the can carefully and pour off the oil, which will be found to have gathered at the top. Place the salmon, free from oil, in a skillet in which you have a gravy made of milk thickened with a little flour. The gravy must have just reached the boiling point when the salmon is added. Put in salt, pepper and butter to taste, and when the salmon is thoroughly heated through, pour it over the slices of toast which have previously been dipped into hot water, buttered and arranged on a hot platter.

Tomato Toast - Stew the tomatoes until they are free from lumps, then add a little salt and pepper, a generous lump of butter and sugar, enough to sweeten them without tasting sweet. Prepare the toast by browning it over the coals, after heating it in the oven; lay each slice in the tomatoes for a moment before taking them from the fire, then pile them in a dish that covers closely.

Oyster Toast - Strain the liquid from the oysters, add it to an equal quantity of milk, season with butter, pepper and salt, and let it come to a boil. Chop the oysters quite fine, add them to the gravy, after preparing the slices of toast, and when they have just time enough to become thoroughly heated, pour them over the toast. There should not be enough of the gravy to swim the oysters. The slices of toast should not be dipped into hot water, but should be buttered. A nice change is made by substituting toasted crackers for the bread.

Asparagus toast makes a nice breakfast dish, if the asparagus is cooked a long time before being poured over the toast.

Cold meat may be chopped fine and made into a rich gravy with the addition of soup stock, and used as a dressing for toast.

Thick cream spread on crisply toasted bread sprinkled with salt and served very hot, makes a breakfast fit for the gods.

Strawberries, raspberries or blackberries mashed with a little sugar and spread over slices of hot buttered toast are not to be despised.

Slices of crisp toast dipped into boiling chicken gravy will be relished by nearly everyone.

In fact, it would be possible to have delicious toast every morning, and not serve any one kind oftener than once a fortnight.

Grapes are now in market in great quantities and the prices are such as to attract the attention of the most economical of housewives. Here is a recipe for ripe grape catsup, a good way of utilizing the fruit as a sauce for roasts.

Five pounds of grapes, one pound of sugar, one pint of vinegar, one tablespoon of pepper, one-half tablespoon of salt, one teaspoon each of allspice, cloves, cinnamon. Cover the grapes with water, cook ten minutes, then run through a sieve so as to remove nuts and seeds. Add the ingredients and boil twenty minutes, or till a little thicker than cream, bottle.

For a delicious grape sweetmeat use the following recipe:

Allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to one pound of fruit. Select Isabellas or some good outdoor black grape. Weigh the fruit. With your fingers squeeze the pulp from the skin of each grape, throwing the pulps into one bowl and the skins into another. When this is done put the pulp into a porcelain-lined kettle on the fire. Heat gradually and then stew gently for about fifteen minutes, until, by testing, you will find that the seeds come out easily. Turn them into a coarse sieve and press all the juice and pulp through, thus extracting all the seeds. Now put pulp and skins back on the fire in the same kettle and when boiling add the sugar, and continue to boil for about thirty minutes. It should by this time be a rich, dark color and quite thick; if not, boil fifteen minutes longer.

Put into glass jars when cold and set away for winter use. Grape sweetmeat served with cornstarch pudding makes a most acceptable dessert. It may also be used for the filling of tart shells.

If you have home-grown grapes, which obstinately refuse to ripen before touched by frost, it is not, on that account, necessary to let them spoil. They will make excellent green-grape jelly.

Wash one gallon of green grapes. Cover with water and cook till you can mash them; pour into your jelly bag and strain. To each pint of juice add one pint of granulated sugar; boil ten minutes, very fast, and it is ready to pour into glasses.

In the following recipe for lobster a la Newbury the canned lobster of commerce may be substituted for the real article by Western housekeepers:

Meat of one boiled lobster cut in dice. Put a piece of butter the size of an egg in a hot chafing dish, thicken with a spoonful and a half of flour, but do not allow it to brown; stir in gradually a tea cup of sweet cream, not allowing it to curdle; then take from the fire and mix with the yolks of two well-beaten eggs: add a pinch of red pepper and one of black; just before serving add a wine glassful of sherry; a half wine glass of brandy improves it. This is a tried recipe.