The Myrtle Reed Cook Book. Reed Myrtle
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Prepare as above, dip in egg and crumbs, and fry in deep fat. Or sauté in butter in the frying-pan. Breaded mushrooms may be broiled if dipped in melted butter or oil before broiling.
Prepare as above. Place in a shallow earthen baking-dish, hollow side up, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place a small piece of butter on each. Baste with melted butter and a few drops of lemon-juice. Serve very hot, on buttered toast.
Cut off the stalks, peel, and score lightly the under side of large, firm, fresh mushrooms. Sprinkle with pepper and salt and soak a few moments in oil. Drain and broil. Serve with lemon quarters and garnish with parsley.
Make a batter of two eggs, well beaten, a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of melted butter, and spice or grated lemon- or orange-peel to flavor. Dip the trimmed slices of bread in this batter and fry brown in butter.
Two cupfuls of green corn, grated, half a cupful of milk, one cupful of sifted flour, two eggs, a teaspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful each of butter and lard. Beat the yolks of the eggs, add the milk, then the flour and salt. Beat to a smooth batter, add the corn, then beat again, adding the well beaten whites of the eggs last. Put the lard and butter into a frying-pan, and when very hot put in the batter by small spoonfuls. Brown on one side, then turn. If the batter is too thick, add a little more milk. The thinner the batter, the more delicate and tender the oysters will be. Canned corn may be used, if it is chopped very fine, but it is not so good. By scoring deeply with a sharp knife each row of kernels on an ear of corn, the pulp may be pressed out with a knife. The corn may be cut from the cob and chopped, but the better way is to press out the pulp.
Regardless of the allurements of wood and field, it is always safest to buy mushrooms at a reliable market. So many people are now making a business of raising them that they are continually getting cheaper. The silver spoon test is absolutely worthless. In fact, the only sure test is the risky one: “Eat it, and if you live it’s a mushroom – if you die it’s a toadstool.” However, when buying mushrooms of a reliable dealer, one takes practically no risk at all, and, even at the highest price, a box of mushrooms is much cheaper than a really nice funeral.
EGGS
Various rules have been given for testing the freshness of eggs, but there is only one which is reliable, and it is, perhaps, the most simple of all. It is merely this: open the egg and look at the contents in a strong light. It is better to hold it near the eyes and at the same time take a deep breath inward.
Strictly fresh eggs come from the country sometimes with the date of their appearance stamped indelibly in purple on the egg. This is done by giving the hens chopped calendars with their meals. Care should be taken, however, to furnish this year’s calendar. Nobody wants an egg with a last-year’s date on it and the error is likely to disarrange the digestion of the hen. Eggs flavored with onions or tomatoes are secured by turning the hens into a neighbor’s vegetable garden. A certain florist feeds his unsold roses to his hens and sells rose-flavored eggs to his customers at a fancy price. The hint is well worth remembering. Violet-flavored eggs might be had, doubtless, in the same way.
At a formal breakfast, all precautions should be taken to insure the freshness of the eggs. A conscientious hostess would be very much mortified if she served chicken out of its proper course.
Use a skillet, or muffin-rings placed in a pan of water, not too deep. The water should barely cover the eggs. Bring the water to the boiling point, drop in the eggs carefully, one at a time, and remove from the fire immediately. Cover the pan and let stand until cooked. A teaspoonful of lemon-juice or vinegar in the water will keep the whites firm and preserve the shape of the eggs. Poached eggs are usually served on thin slices of buttered toast. Take up with a skimmer and let drain thoroughly before placing on the toast. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. As every other writer who has given directions for poaching eggs has said that “the beauty of a poached egg is for the yolk to be seen blushing through the veiled white,” the author of this book will make no allusion to it.
Put two heaping tablespoonfuls of butter into a frying-pan. When it sizzles, break into it quickly six fresh eggs and mix thoroughly with a silver spoon for two minutes without stopping. Season with salt and pepper and a slight grating of nutmeg if desired. Scrambled eggs should be thick and creamy.
Beat the eggs thoroughly, add one teaspoonful of cold water or milk for each egg and beat again. Cook as above.
Have one cupful of cold cooked asparagus tips ready. In boiling asparagus its color will keep better if the smallest possible pinch of baking soda be added to the water. It should be cooked quickly in an uncovered saucepan. Prepare the eggs as for Scrambled Eggs – II, and when they begin to thicken, put in the asparagus tips and stir until the eggs are done. One half cupful of the asparagus tips to each three eggs is about the right proportion, but more may be added if desired. In making scrambles, allow one egg for each person and one extra for each three persons.
One cupful of minced dried beef, which has been soaked in boiling water for five minutes. Put it into melted butter, stir till the butter sizzles, then pour over six or seven-well-beaten eggs. Stir till the eggs are smooth and creamy. Serve at once. Any scramble may be served on toast if desired.
Three tablespoonfuls of butter in the frying-pan. When it sizzles, slip in the broken eggs carefully, one at a time. Tip the pan and baste with the melted butter while cooking. If wanted crisp on both sides, turn the eggs over when the under side is done. Wet in cold water the saucer on which an egg is broken and the egg will not stick to it, but will slip easily into the pan. Olive oil may be used instead of butter, but the pan must be covered during the cooking, as the oil spatters.
Fry eggs as above, using butter or oil. When done, skim out, add more butter or oil to that in the pan, season with salt, pepper, vinegar, or lemon-juice, and let brown. When the butter is brown pour it over the fried eggs and serve.
Make a cream sauce, using one tablespoonful of butter, two of flour, two cupfuls of milk, and pepper and salt to season. When the sauce is thick and creamy, add hard-boiled eggs coarsely chopped, and serve at once on toast. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Fry two sliced onions in butter, but do not brown. Stir in one cupful of milk or cream and enough flour to thicken, rubbed smooth in a little of the cream or milk. Season with salt, white pepper, and a bit of grated nutmeg. Stir till thick, then add eight hard-boiled eggs, sliced crosswise. Heat thoroughly and serve.
Butter a stone platter that will stand the heat of the oven. Break into it carefully enough fresh eggs to cover it, taking care not to break the yolks. Place in the oven till the eggs are set. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and minced parsley and serve at once.
Make the cream sauce and put into it enough boiled celery, coarsely cut, to serve as a vegetable. Spread on buttered toast and lay a poached egg on each slice. The tough, unsightly portions of celery stalks may be used in this way.
Use one cupful of chopped cooked chicken livers and six or seven well-beaten eggs. Prepare СКАЧАТЬ