A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl, Caroline French Benton [good books for 7th graders TXT] 📗

So many things in this part of Margaret's book call for white sauce, or cream sauce, that the rule for that came first of all.

White or Cream Sauce

1 tablespoonful of butter. 1 tablespoonful of flour. 1 cup hot milk or cream, one-third teaspoonful of salt.

Melt the butter, and when it bubbles put in the flour, shaking the saucepan as you do so, and rub till smooth. Put in the hot milk, a little at a time, and stir and cook without boiling till all is smooth and free from lumps. Add the salt, and, if you choose, a little pepper.

Cream sauce is made exactly as is white sauce, but cream is used in place of milk. What is called thick white sauce is made by taking two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and only one cup of milk.

Creamed Oysters

1 pint oysters. 1 large cup of cream sauce.

Make the sauce of cream if you have it, and if not use a very heaping tablespoonful of butter in the white sauce. Keep this hot.

Drain off the oyster-juice and wash the oysters by holding them under the cold-water faucet. Strain the juice and put the oysters back in it, and put them on the fire and let them just simmer till the edges of the oysters curl; then drain them from the juice again and drop them in the sauce, and add a little more salt (celery-salt is nice if you have it), and just a tiny bit of cayenne pepper. You can serve the oysters on squares of buttered toast, or put them in a large dish, with sifted bread-crumbs over the top and tiny bits of butter, and brown in the oven. Or you can put them in small dishes as they are, and put a sprig of parsley in each dish.

Panned Oysters

Take the oysters from their juice, strain it, wash the oysters, and put them back in. Put them in a saucepan with a little salt,—about half a teaspoonful to a pint of oysters,—and a little pepper, and a piece of butter as large as the end of your thumb. Let them simmer till the edges curl, just as before, and put them on squares of hot buttered toast.

Scalloped Oysters

1 pint of oysters. 12 large crackers, or 1 cup of bread-crumbs. 1/2 cup of milk. The strained oyster-juice.

Butter a deep baking-dish. Roll the crackers, or make the bread-crumbs of even size; some people like one better than the other, and you can try both ways. Put a layer of crumbs in the dish, then a layer of oysters, washed, then a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a few bits of butter. Then another layer of crumbs, oysters, and seasoning, till the dish is full, with crumbs on the top. Mix the milk and oyster-juice and pour slowly over. Then cover the top with bits of butter, and bake in the oven till brown—about half an hour.

You can put these oysters into small dishes, just as you did the creamed oysters, or into large scallop-shells, and bake them only ten or fifteen minutes. In serving, put a small sprig of parsley into each.

Pigs in Blankets

These were great fun to make, and Margaret often begged to get them ready for company.

15 large oysters. 15 very thin slices of bacon.

Sprinkle each oyster with a very little salt and pepper. Trim the rind from the bacon and wrap each oyster in one slice, pinning this ``blanket'' tightly on the back with a tiny Japanese wooden toothpick. Have ready a hot frying-pan, and lay in five oysters, and cook till the bacon is brown and the edges of the oysters curl, turning each over once. Put these on a hot plate in the oven with the door open, and cook five more, and so on. Put them on a long, narrow platter, with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley around. Or you can put each one on a strip of toast which you have dipped in the gravy in the pan; this is the better way. This dish must be eaten very hot, or it will not be good.

Creamed Fish

2 cups of cold fish. 1 cup of white sauce.

Pick any cold fish left from dinner into even bits, taking out all the bones and skin, and mix with the hot white sauce. Stir until smooth, and add a small half-teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

You can put this in a buttered baking-dish and cover the top with crumbs and bits of butter, and brown in the oven, or you can put it in small dishes and brown also, or you can serve it just as is, in little dishes.

Creamed Lobster

1 lobster, or the meat from 1 can. 1 large cup of white or cream sauce.

Take the lobster out of the shell and clean it; Bridget will have to show you how the first time. Or, if you are using canned lobster, pour away all the juice and pick out the bits of shell, and find the black string which is apt to be there, and throw it away. Cut the meat in pieces as large as the end of your finger, and heat it in the sauce till it steams. Put in a small half-teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon. Do not put this in a large dish, but in small ones, buttered well, and serve at once. Stand a little claw up in each dish.

Creamed Salmon

1 can salmon. 1 cup of white sauce.

Prepare this dish exactly as you did the plain creamed white fish. Take it out of the can, remove all the juice, bones, and fat, and put in the white sauce, and cook a moment till smooth. Add a small half-teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, and a squeeze of lemon, and put in a baking-dish and brown, or serve as it is, in small dishes.

Scalloped Lobster or Salmon

1 can of fish, or 1 pint. 1 large cup of cracker or bread crumbs. 1 large cup of white sauce.

Prepare this dish almost as you did the scalloped oysters. Take out all the bones and skin and juice from the fish; butter a baking-dish, put in a layer of fish, then salt and pepper, then a layer of crumbs and butter, and a layer of white sauce, then fish, seasoning, crumbs and butter again, and have the crumbs on top. Dot over with butter and brown in the oven, or serve in small dishes.

Crab Meat in Shells

You can buy very nice, fresh crab meat in tins, and the shells also. A very delicious dish is made by mixing a cup of rich cream sauce with the crab meat, seasoning it well with salt and pepper and putting in the crab-shells; cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven. This is a nice thing to have for a company luncheon.

Creamed Chicken or Turkey

2 cups of cold chicken. 1 large cup of white or creamed sauce. 1/2 teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Salt and pepper.

Pick the chicken or turkey off the bones and cut into small bits before you measure it. Heat it in the sauce till very hot, but do not let it boil, and add the seasoning,—about half a teaspoonful of salt, and a tiny bit of cayenne, or as much celery-salt in the place of the common kind. Put in a large buttered dish and serve, or in small dishes, either with crumbs on top or not.

A nice addition to this dish is half a green pepper, the seeds taken out, chopped very fine indeed, and mixed with the white meat; the contrast of colors is pretty and the taste improved.

Scalloped Eggs

6 hard-boiled eggs. 1 cup cream or white sauce. 1 cup fine bread-crumbs. Salt and pepper.

Cook the eggs twenty minutes, and while they are cooking make the white sauce, and butter one large or six small dishes. Peel the eggs and cut them into bits as large as the end of your finger. Put a layer of bread-crumbs on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of egg, then a sprinkling of salt, pepper, and bits of butter, then a layer of white sauce. Then more crumbs, egg, and seasoning, till the dish is full, with crumbs on top. Put bits of butter over all and brown in the oven.

Eggs in Double Cream

This is a rule Margaret's Pretty Aunt got in Paris, and it is a very nice one. Have half a pint of very thick cream—the kind you use to whip; the French call this double cream. Cook six eggs hard and cut them into bits. Butter a baking-dish, or small dishes, and put in a layer of egg, then a layer of cream, then a sprinkling of salt, and one of paprika, which is sweet red pepper. Put one thin layer of fine, sifted crumbs on top with butter, and brown in the oven. Or you can put the eggs and cream together and heat them, and serve on thin pieces of buttered toast, with one extra egg put through the ricer over the whole.

Creamed Eggs in Toast

Make small pieces of nice toast and dip each one in white sauce. Boil hard four eggs, and cut in even slices and cover the toast, and then spread the rest of the white sauce over all in a thin layer.

Devilled Eggs

6 eggs. 2 saltspoonfuls of dry mustard. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 saltspoonful of cayenne pepper. 1 teaspoonful of olive-oil or cream. 1 large tablespoonful of chopped ham. 1/2 teaspoonful of vinegar.

Boil the eggs hard for twenty minutes, and put them in cold water at once to get perfectly cold so they will not turn dark. Then peel, cut in halves and take out the yolks. Put these in a bowl, and rub in the seasoning, but you can leave out the ham if you like. With a small teaspoon, put the mixture back into the eggs and smooth them over with a knife.

If you do not serve these eggs with cold meat it is best to lay them on lettuce when you send them to the table.

Eggs in Beds

Chop a cup of nice cold meat, and season with a little salt, pepper and chopped parsley. Add enough stock or hot water just to wet it, and cook till rather dry. Put this in buttered baking-dishes, filling each half-full, and on top of each gently slip from a cup one egg. Sprinkle over with salt and pepper, and put in the oven till firm.

Shepherd's Pie

This was a dish Margaret used to make on wash-day and house-cleaning day, and such times when everybody was busy and no one wanted to stop and go to market to buy anything for luncheon.

1 cup of chopped meat. 1 cup of boiling water. 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 teaspoonful of lemon juice, or 1/2 teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce. Butter the size of a hickory-nut. 2 cups hot mashed potato.

If the potato is cold, put half a cup of hot milk in it, beat it up well, and stand it on the back of the stove. Then mix all the other things with the meat, and put it in the frying-pan and let it cook till it seems rather dry. Butter a baking-dish, and cover the sides and bottom with a layer of potato an inch thick. Put the meat in the centre and cover it over with potato and smooth it. Put bits of butter all over the top, and brown it in the oven. Serve with this a dish of chow-chow, or one of small cucumber pickles.

Chicken Hash

1 cup of cold chicken, cut in small, even pieces. 1/2 cup chicken stock, or hot water. 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. A pinch of pepper. Butter the size of a hickory-nut.

Put the chicken stock,—which is the water the chicken was cooked in, or chicken broth,—or, if there is none, the hot water, into the frying-pan, and mix in the chicken and seasoning, and cook and stir till it