Made Over Dishes
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S. T. Rorer >> Made Over Dishes
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MADE-OVER DISHES
BY MRS. S. T. RORER
Author of Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Philadelphia Cook Book, Bread and
Bread-Making, and other Valuable Works on Cookery.
Revised and Enlarged Edition
CONTENTS
Preface
Stock
Cooked Fish
Meat
Beef--Uncooked
Beef--Cooked
Mutton--Uncooked
Mutton--Cooked
Chicken--Uncooked
Chicken--Cooked
Game
Bread
Eggs
Potatoes
Cold Boiled
Cheese
Sauces
Salads
Cereals
Vegetables
Fruits
Sour Milk and Cream
PREFACE
Wise forethought, which means economy, stands as the first of domestic
duties. Poverty in no way affects skill in the preparation of food. The
object of cooking is to draw out the proper flavor of each individual
ingredient used in the preparation of a dish, and render it more easy of
digestion. Admirable flavorings are given by the little leftovers of
vegetables that too often find their way into the garbage bucket.
Economical marketing does not mean the purchase of inferior articles at a
cheap price, but of a small quantity of the best materials found in the
market; these materials to be wisely and economically used. Small quantity
and no waste, just enough and not a piece too much, is a good rule to
remember. In roasts and steaks, however, there will be, in spite of
careful buying, bits left over, that, if economically used, may be
converted into palatable, sightly and wholesome dishes for the next day's
lunch or supper.
Never purchase the so-called tender meat for stews, Hamburg steaks or
soups; nor should you purchase a round or shoulder steak for broiling, nor
an old chicken for roasting. Select a fowl for a fricassee, a chicken for
roasting, and a so-called spring chicken for broiling. Each has its own
individual price and place.
Save for stock, every bone, whether beef, mutton, poultry or game, as well
as all the juices that are left in the meat carving dishes on the table,
and the water in which meats are boiled and in which certain vegetables
are boiled. Into this storehouse--for such a stock pot is--will go also
the tough ends from the rib roasts, which would become tasteless and dry
if roasted; the bits that are taken from the French chops; the bone that
is left on the plate from the sirloin steak; and every piece of the
carcass left on the general carving plate of all sorts of game and
poultry. After the meat has been taken from the roast, these bones will
also be used.
STOCK
In all good cooking there is a constant demand for a half pint or a pint
of stock. Brown sauce and tomato sauce, in fact, all meat sauces, are
decidedly better made from stock than water, and as it comes to every
household without the additional cost of a penny, there is no excuse
whatever for being without it. Save the bones collected on Saturday,
Sunday and Monday. Chicken and veal bones may be kept together; beef,
mutton and ham in another lot; one makes a white stock, the other brown.
If the quantity is small, put them all together. Crack the bones, put them
in the bottom of a large soup kettle, cover with cold water, bring slowly
to boiling point and skim. Push the kettle to the back part of the stove,
where the stock may simmer for at least three hours, then add an onion
into which you have stuck twelve cloves, a bay leaf, a few celery tops, or
a little celery seed, and a carrot cut into slices; simmer gently for
another hour and strain. Tuesdays and Saturdays are the best days for
making stock, as they are the days on which you have long, continuous
fires; Tuesdays for ironing purposes; Saturdays for bread baking; in this
way you will economize in coal, heat and time.
In making tomato soup, to each pint of tomatoes add a pint of this stock
instead of water; or the stock may be simply heated, nicely seasoned and
used as clear soup. By adding a little cooked rice or macaroni, you will
have a rice or a macaroni soup.
In cream soups, where stock takes the place of water, less milk gives
equal, perhaps better, results. For instance, in cream of celery soup,
cover the celery with cold stock instead of water, using a quart instead
of a pint of water, and then use only a pint of milk, having in the end
the same quantity of a much more tasty soup at a less cost. One soon
learns that all made-over dishes are more savory where stock is used in
place of water. If peas, beans or cabbage are being cooked, this water may
be added to that in which beef or mutton has been boiled, the whole
reduced carefully by rapid boiling, strained and put aside for use.
COOKED FISH
Canapés
Cold boiled fish makes excellent canapés. To each half pint of fish allow
six squares of toasted bread. If you have any cold boiled potatoes left
over, add milk to them, make them hot and put them into a pastry bag.
Decorate the edge of the toast with these mashed potatoes, using a small
star tube; put them back in the oven until light brown. Make the fish
into a creamed fish. Rub the butter and flour together, add a half pint of
milk, add the fish and a palatable seasoning of salt and pepper. Dish the
centers on top of the toast with this creamed fish and send at once to the
table. A very little fish here makes a good showing, and is one of the
nicest of the hot canapés.
Baked Sardines
After sardines have once been opened it is best to remove them from the
can and make them into some dish for the next meal. They may be broiled
and served on toast, or made with bread crumbs into sardine balls and
fried, or baked. To bake them, stir the oil from the can into a half
cupful of water, add a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a half
teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Put the fish into a baking pan,
run them into the oven until very hot, then dish them, baste them with the
sauce and send them at once to the table.
Fish Croquettes
Any cold boiled fish that is left over may be made into croquettes. To
each cupful of the cold fish allow one level tablespoonful of butter, two
level tablespoonfuls of flour and a half cupful of milk. Rub the butter
and flour together, add the milk; when boiling take from the fire. Add to
the fish a level teaspoonful of salt, a dash of black pepper, a
tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a few drops of onion juice; mix this
carefully with the paste and turn out to cool. When cold, form into small
cylinders, dip in beaten egg and fry in deep hot fat.
Fish à la Crême
One pint of cold boiled fish, mixed with a half pint of white sauce. Turn
this into a baking dish and brown. Or when the two are carefully heated
together, serve in either ramekin dishes or in a border of browned mashed
potatoes.
MEAT
As meat is the most costly and extravagant of all articles of food, it
behooves the housewife to save all left-overs and work them over into
other dishes. The so-called inferior pieces--not inferior because they
contain less nourishment, but inferior because the demand for such meat is
less--should be used for all dishes that are chopped before cooking, as
Hamburg steaks, curry balls, kibbee, or for stews, ragouts, pot roasts and
various dishes where a sauce is used to hide the inferiority and ugliness
of the dish. We have no occasion here to spend money on good looks.
If one purchases meat for soup, the leg and shin are the better parts.
This, however, is not necessary in the ordinary family, as there are
always sufficient bones left over for daily stock. All meat left over from
beef tea, tasteless as it is, may be nicely seasoned and made into curries
or into pressed meat, giving again a nice dish for lunch or supper.
Remember, that where the flavoring of the beef has been drawn out into the
water, as in making beef tea, another decided flavor must be added to make
the made-over dish palatable. For this reason, curries, pressed meats,
served with either Worcestershire or tomato sauce, are chosen.
Cold mutton may be made into pilau, hashed on toast with tomato sauce,
hashed with caper sauce, made into escalloped mutton, barbecued mutton,
casserole, or macaroni timbale; all sightly dishes, quite handsome enough
to place before the choicest guest. Spiced meats, as beef _à la
mode_, may be served cold with cream horseradish sauce and aspic jelly.
If warm, they will be made into ragouts, or some form of dish with a brown
or tomato sauce. It is well to bear in mind that white meats will be
served with white or yellow sauces; dark meats with brown or tomato
sauces. The coarse tops of the sirloin steak, the tough end of the rump
steak, if broiled, cannot possibly be eaten, as the dry heat renders them
difficult of mastication. Cut them off before the steak is broiled, and
put them aside to use for Hamburg steaks, curry balls, timbale or
cannelon, making a new and sightly dish from that which would otherwise
have been thrown away.
If you use ham, and have had a piece boiled, after the even slices are
taken off, chip the remaining tender pieces for frizzled ham, making it as
frizzled beef is made. The bits around the bone that cannot possibly be
sliced, will be chopped and made into potted or deviled ham. Throw the
bone into the stock pot.
A meat chopper or grinder, which costs but a dollar and a half or two
dollars, will save its price in the utility of these scraps in less than a
month.
The water in which you boil a leg of mutton, chicken, turkey or a fresh
beef's tongue, or such vegetables as string beans, peas, rice, macaroni or
barley, put aside and use in place of plain water to cover the bones for
stock-making. The water in which cabbage is boiled should be saved alone
and used the next day for a soup Crécy; the flavor of the cabbage, with a
carrot that has been slightly browned in butter, makes a delightful soup
without the addition of meat.
BEEF--UNCOOKED
The uncooked tough bits or pieces of beef may be made into any of the
following dishes:
Kibbee
Chop uncooked tough meat very fine; put it twice through a grinder. To
each pound, allow a tablespoonful of grated onion, a tablespoonful of
chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of salt, just a dash of pepper, and a half
cup of toasted piñon nuts. Form into balls about the size of an egg,
stand in a baking pan, add a half pint of strained tomatoes, a
tablespoonful of butter, and bake slowly thirty minutes, basting three or
four times. If more than one pound of meat is used, all the ingredients
must be increased accordingly.
Hamburg Steaks
The genuine Hamburg steaks are rich in onion and very rich in fatty
matter, too much so to be wholesome; so we will modify them, that they may
be eaten even by dyspeptics or persons with weak digestion. Put twice
through a meat chopper the tough ends of steaks or bits of the round. To
each pound of this meat allow a half teaspoonful of celery seed, a
teaspoonful of grated onion. Form into thick even cakes, being sure that
the center and sides are the same thickness. These may now be broiled
over a clear fire, or under the gas lights in your gas broiler, or they
may be dropped into a thoroughly heated iron pan. As soon as browned on
one side, turn and brown the other. If the steaks are an inch thick, it
will take eight minutes for perfect cooking. An exceedingly satisfactory
way is to brown them quickly over a hot fire, then put the pan in the oven
and allow them to cook for five minutes. Dust with salt, season with a
little butter and pepper, and send to the table on a very hot dish; or
serve with brown or tomato sauce. If they have been cooked over the fire,
or in the oven, put a tablespoonful of butter into the pan in which they
were cooked, add a tablespoonful of flour, a half cup of stock, and a half
cup of strained tomatoes. When boiling, add a teaspoonful of salt, a dash
of pepper, and pour over the steaks.
Cannelon
Put twice through the meat chopper one pound of tough meat, season with a
teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and, if you like, a little celery
seed or chopped celery top; take this chopped meat into your hands, and
form it into a roll about four inches in diameter and six inches long.
Roll this in a piece of oiled paper, put it in a baking pan, bake in a
quick oven thirty minutes, basting the paper with melted butter three or
four times. When done, remove the paper, dish the cannelon, and pour
around plain tomato sauce.
Brown stew
Cut any left-over pieces of uncooked tough meat into cubes of one inch.
Put a couple of tablespoonfuls of suet into a saucepan; when rendered out,
remove the cracklings. Dust the bits of meat with a tablespoonful of
flour, throw them into the hot suet, and shake until brown. Draw the meat
to one side, and add to the fat in the pan a second tablespoonful of
flour; mix, add one pint of water or stock, stir until boiling, add a
teaspoonful of salt, a bay leaf, slice of onion, a teaspoonful of browning
or kitchen bouquet; cover and simmer gently until the meat is tender,
about an hour and a half. The proportions given here are for one pound of
beef. This may be served plain, or in a border of rice, or with dumplings.
If dumplings, put a pint of flour into a bowl, add a teaspoonful of salt
and one of baking powder; mix thoroughly and add sufficient milk to just
moisten; drop by spoonfuls over the top of the stew, cover the saucepan
and cook for ten minutes. Do not lift cover during the ten minutes or the
dumplings will fall.
Beef Timbale
Chop fine any left-over tough bits of lean beef. Cook together for a
moment a gill of strained tomatoes and one cup of bread crumbs; add to the
meat, rub to a smooth paste, season with a quarter of a teaspoonful of
celery seed, a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper; mix, and
then stir in carefully the well-beaten whites of two eggs; fill into
custard cups, stand in a pan of boiling water, and cook in a moderate oven
twenty minutes. Serve with tomato sauce. This recipe is for one pound of
beef.
BEEF--COOKED
Ragout
Cut pieces of cold boiled or roasted beef into cubes of one inch; to each
quart of this allow two tablespoonfuls of butter, two of flour and a pint
of stock. Rub the butter and flour together, add the stock, stir until
boiling; add a tablespoonful of onion juice, a teaspoonful of browning or
kitchen bouquet, a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of tomato catsup,
a tablespoonful of chopped parsley; add the meat; stand over the back part
of the stove until thoroughly hot; serve on a heated platter garnished
with triangular pieces of toasted bread. A few left-over olives,
mushrooms, or even a chopped truffle, may be added.
Bresleau
Chop sufficient cold cooked meat to make one pint, season it with a
teaspoonful of salt and a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper. Put a half
cup of stock or water, two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs and a
tablespoonful of butter over the fire; when hot, add to it the meat; take
from the fire and stir in carefully two well-beaten eggs. Put this in
greased custard cups, stand them in a baking pan half filled with boiling
water, and bake in a moderate oven fifteen or twenty minutes; serve with
tomato sauce or sauce Béchamel.
Beef Croquettes
Chop sufficient cold cooked beef to make one pint; add to it a teaspoonful
of salt, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a dash of cayenne, a quarter of a
teaspoonful of pepper, and a grating of nutmeg. Put a half pint of milk
over the fire. Rub together one tablespoonful of butter and two
tablespoonfuls of flour, add them to the hot milk, stir until you have a
smooth thick paste; take from the fire; mix with it the meat, and turn out
to cool. When cold, form into croquettes. Beat one egg, add to it a
tablespoonful of warm water, and beat again. Dip the croquettes first into
this, then roll them in bread crumbs, and fry them in smoking hot fat.
They may be served plain or with tomato sauce.
Beef Steak Pudding
Cut cold cooked steak into cubes of a half inch. To each pint of these
allow a half pint of milk, six tablespoonfuls of flour, two eggs, and two
tablespoonfuls of chopped suet. Put the flour into a bowl; beat the eggs,
add to them the milk, then add gradually to the flour; make perfectly
smooth. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with a layer of the batter, put
in the bits of steak, sprinkle over the chopped suet, then a dusting of
salt and pepper, and, if you like, a few drops of onion juice; now put
over the remaining quantity of the batter, and bake in a moderately quick
oven an hour and a half.
Potato Dumplings
Take any pieces of cold cooked meat, chop them fine, season carefully with
salt, pepper, chopped parsley or celery. To each pint allow two
tablespoonfuls of melted butter. For the crust you may use left-over cold
mashed potatoes; if so, add a little milk and stir them over the fire
until smooth and hot. If potatoes are boiled for the purpose, add salt,
butter and milk, and beat them until light. Line to the depth of one inch,
a baking dish, put the meat in the center, cover the top with mashed
potatoes, smooth, brush with milk and bake in a moderate oven a half hour.
Gobbits
Scrape and cut into fancy pieces one good-sized carrot and one turnip. Put
these into a saucepan, cover with a pint of stock, and cook slowly until
the vegetables are tender. Have ready, cut into cubes of one inch,
sufficient cold cooked beef to make a quart; add it to the vegetables,
simmer a few minutes until the meat is hot; have ready also one cup of
rice that has been boiled thirty minutes in clear water, drained and
dried. Arrange this in a border around the meat dish. Put two
tablespoonfuls of butter and flour into a saucepan; mix. Drain the liquor
from the meat and vegetables, which should now measure one pint; if not,
add sufficient stock to make a pint; add this to the butter and flour, and
stir until boiling. Dish the meat and vegetables in the centre of the rice
border. Take the sauce from the fire, add a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of
pepper and the yolks of two eggs. Reheat for just an instant, strain over
the meat mixture, dust with chopped parsley, and serve at once.
Beef Fritters
Chop sufficient cold cooked beef to make one pint; add to it a teaspoonful
of salt, and a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper. Beat two eggs until
light, add to them a half pint of water or stock; stir into this one and a
half cups of flour, beat until smooth, add a teaspoonful of baking powder
and the meat. Drop this by spoonfuls into smoking hot fat; cook about
three minutes, drain on brown paper, and serve either on a folded napkin,
or in a dish with tomato sauce.
Minced Beef on Toast
Take the meat from between the bones of a rib roast, or any little bits
that would not be serviceable in other dishes, chop them fine, and to each
pint, allow one tablespoonful of butter, one of flour and a half pint of
tomatoes or stock. Mix the butter and flour together, then add the
tomatoes strained or stock; when boiling add the meat, and a palatable
seasoning of salt and pepper. Stand the mixture over hot water until
smoking hot, and serve on squares of toasted bread.
Barbecue of Cold Beef
Cut cold-roasted or boiled beef into thin slices. Put into your saucepan
two tablespoonfuls of butter, two tablespoonfuls of catsup and two
tablespoonfuls of sherry; stir until hot; drop the slices of beef into
this, cover the saucepan, shake occasionally for a minute, until the beef
is smoking hot, and send at once to the table. This is exceedingly nice
made and served from a chafing dish. This dish may be made by omitting the
sherry and using a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a teaspoonful of
mushroom catsup and two tablespoonfuls of stock.
Salt Beef Hash No. 1
Cold cooked corned beef is best made into hash. Chop sufficient to make
one pint. Chop the same quantity of cold boiled potatoes; mix the two
together, put them into a saucepan, add a half pint of stock, a
tablespoonful of butter, teaspoonful of onion juice and a quarter of a
teaspoonful of black or white pepper. Stir carefully and constantly until
the mixture reaches the boiling point. Serve at once on buttered toast.
Salt Beef Hash No. 2
Chop enough cold cooked corned beef to make a pint; chop the same quantity
of cold boiled potatoes; mix the two together. Put them into a stewing
pan, add one pint of stock; simmer for just a moment; take from the fire,
add two eggs well beaten, a dash of pepper; turn the mixture into a baking
dish and bake in a quick oven twenty minutes.
Rechauffee of Beef
Cut any left-over cold beef into thin slices. Cut into slices three cold
boiled potatoes. Peel two tomatoes, cut them into halves, squeeze out the
seeds, and then cut the tomatoes into small bits. Chop one good sized
onion. Put a layer of tomato in the bottom of a baking dish, then beef,
then a seasoning of onion, salt and pepper, and if you have it, a little
chopped celery, then potatoes, then again tomatoes, beef, and so continue
until you have used the materials, having the last layer tomatoes. Dust
the top with bread crumbs, put over a few bits of butter and bake a half
hour in a moderately quick oven.
Steak Pudding
Cut any cold left-over steak into thin slices, and cut these slices into
bits one inch long. Put one quart of flour in a bowl, and add to it one
cupful of chopped uncooked suet. Chop the suet and flour together for a
minute, add a level teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of black pepper,
and sufficient cold water to just moisten. Take the dough on the board and
roll it out into a sheet; make it a little larger than an ordinary pie
dish. Season the bits of meat, put them on one-half the sheet, lay over
the top twelve good fat oysters, brush the under half of the dough with
the white of egg or water; fold over the other half and make two or three
holes in the top. Put it in a cheese cloth and steam for two hours. Remove
the cloth, brush the pudding with the yolk of the egg and bake in a quick
oven a half hour.
Panada of Beef
Chop sufficient cold cooked beef to make one pint; season it with a
teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a dash of
pepper. Put this in the bottom of a baking dish. Crush six Uneeda
biscuits, pour over them a half pint of milk, let them stand a minute or
two, add one egg, well beaten, a half teaspoonful of salt and a
saltspoonful of pepper. Pour this over the beef and bake in a moderate
oven twenty minutes to a half hour.
Other meats may be substituted for beef.
MUTTON--UNCOOKED
Tough pieces of uncooked mutton may be put twice through the meat chopper
and used for curry balls or for stuffing for tomatoes or egg plant; in
fact, in almost any way that one would serve uncooked beef. Having fewer
pieces of uncooked scrap mutton than of beef, we are less accustomed to
seeing them used.
Curry Balls
Put any pieces of tough uncooked mutton twice through the meat chopper;
season the meat with salt, pepper and onion juice. Form into little balls
the size of an English walnut. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a
saucepan; when hot, throw the balls into the butter, and shake until
carefully browned. Lift them from the saucepan, and to the butter in the
pan add a teaspoonful of curry, a tablespoonful of flour, mix and add a
half pint of stock; stir carefully until boiling; pour this over the
balls, cook, slowly for twenty minutes, add two tablespoonfuls of lemon
juice and serve in a border of rice. Cocoanut milk may be used instead of
stock.
MUTTON--COOKED
While mutton belongs to the red meats, when carefully cooked it may be
used in many ways in which you would use chicken or veal. Capers and
tomato, with a slight flavoring of mint, are more agreeable with mutton
than with almost any other meats.
Bobotee
Chop sufficient cold boiled mutton to make a pint. Put two tablespoonfuls
of butter and one onion sliced into a saucepan; stir until the onion is
slightly brown; then add a half pint of stock or milk and four
tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs. Stand this on the back of the stove for
about five minutes while you blanch and chop fine a dozen almonds. Add
these to the meat, then add a teaspoonful of curry powder, and a
teaspoonful of salt. Beat three eggs until light, stir them into the meat,
then turn the whole into the saucepan. Rub the bottom of the baking dish
first with a clove of garlic, then sprinkle over a tablespoonful of lemon
juice and put here and there a few bits of butter; put on this the
mixture, and bake in a quick oven twenty minutes. Serve in the dish in
which it is baked, and pass with it plain boiled rice.
Boudins
Chop sufficient cold cooked mutton to make a pint. Put a half cup of
stock, two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs and a tablespoonful of butter
over the fire. When hot, take from the fire, add the meat and three eggs
well beaten; add a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Put the
mixture into greased custard cups, stand in a baking pan half filled with
boiling water, and cook in a moderate oven fifteen to twenty minutes.
Serve with sauce Béchamel. The bottom of the cups may be garnished with
chopped mushrooms, capers, or chopped truffles, or dusted thickly with
chopped parsley.