Part 1 (1/2)
A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes
by Charles El this little book is to show you how you may prepare and cook your daily food, so as to obtain froreatest amount of nourishment at the least possible expense; and thus, by skill and economy, add, at the same time, to your comfort and to your comparatively slender means The Recipes which it contains will afford sufficient variety, from the simple every-day fare to more tasty dishes for the birthday, Christmas-day, or other festive occasions
In order to carry out my instructions properly, a few utensils will be necessary Industry, good health, and constant employment, have, in many instances, I trust, enabled those whom I now address to lay by a little sum of money A portion of this will be well spent in the purchase of the following articles:--A cooking-stove, with an oven at the side, or placed under the grate, which should be so planned as to ad open or closed at will; by this contrivance much heat and fuel are econorate By this means you would have hot water always ready at hand, the advantage of which is considerable Such poor e scale, in all allon iron pot with a lid to it, a one-gallon saucepan, a two-quart ditto, a frying-pan, a gridiron, and a strong tin baking-dish
To those of my readers who, from sickness or other hindrance, have not money in store, I would say, strive to lay by a little of your weekly wages to purchase these things, that your families may be well fed, and your ho your own bread I assure you if you would adopt this excellent practice, you would not only effect a great saving in your expenditure, but you would also insure a more substantial and wholesome kind of food; it would be free from potato, rice, bean or pea flour, and alum, all of which substances are objectionable in the co would be a tub, or trough, capable of working a bushel or two of flour This tub would be useful in brewing, for which you will find in this book plain and easy directions
I have pointed out the necessity of procuring these articles for cooking purposes, and with the injunction to use great care in keeping thehly clean, I will at once proceed to show you their value in a course of practical and economical cookery, the soundness and plainness of which I sincerely hope you will all be enabled to test in your own homes
COOKERY BOOK
No 1 BOILED BEEF
This is an economical dinner, especially where there are many mouths to feed Buy a few pounds of either salt brisket, thick or thin flank, or buttock of beef; these pieces are always to be had at a low rate Let us suppose you have bought a piece of salt beef for a Sunday's dinner, weighing about five pounds, at 6-1/2_d_ per pound, that would come to 2_s_ 8-1/2_d_; two pounds of cos, and say 8-1/2_d_ for cabbages, parsnips, and potatoes; altogether 3_s_ 9_d_ This would produce a substantial dinner for ten persons in family, and would, moreover, as children do not require h left to help out the next day's dinner, with potatoes
No 2 HOW TO BOIL BEEF
Put the beef into your three or four gallon pot, three parts filled with cold water, and set it on the fire to boil; remove all the scuently on the hob; when the meat has boiled an hour and is about half done, add the parsnips in a net, and at the end of another half hour put in the cabbages, also in a net A piece of beef weighing five or six pounds will require about two hours' gentle boiling to cook it thoroughly The dus may, of course, be boiled with the beef, etc I etables, with a small quantity of the meat, would be all-sufficient for the children's meal
No 3 ECONOMICAL POT LIQUOR SOUP
A thrifty houseill not require that I should tell her to save the liquor in which the beef has been boiled; I will therefore take it for granted that the next day she carefully rerease, which will have become set firm on the top of the broth, into her fat pot; this must be kept to etables, onions, or fish The liquor must be tasted, and if it is found to be too salt, some water must be added to lessen its saltness, and render it palatable The pot containing the liquor must then be placed on the fire to boil, and when the scum rises to the surface it should be re, put as many piled-up table-spoonfuls of oatmeal as you have pints of liquor into a basin; mix this with cold water into a s soup; season with so the soup with a stick or spoon on the fire for about twenty minutes; you will then be able to serve out a plentiful and nourishi+ng e family at a cost of not more than the price of the oatmeal
No 4 POTATO SOUP FOR SIX PERSONS
Peel and chop four onions, and put the fat, or butter, or a bit of fat bacon; add rather better than three quarts of water, and set the whole to boil on the fire for ten minutes; then throw in four pounds of peeled and sliced-up potatoes, pepper and salt, and with a wooden spoon stir the soup on the fire for about twenty-five minutes, by which time the potatoes will be done to a pulp, and the soup ready for dinner or breakfast
No 5 PEA SOUP FOR SIX PERSONS
Cut up two and a-half pounds of pickled pork, or so end of neck ofof beef, and put any one of these kinds of allon of water, three pints of split or dried peas, previously soaked in cold water over-night, two carrots, four onions, and a head of celery, all chopped small; season with pepper, but _no_ salt, as the pork, if pork is used, will season the soup sufficiently; set the whole to boil very gently for at least three hours, taking care to skiet that the peas, etc, must be stirred from the bottoentle boiling will suffice to cook a goodsoup
If fresh meat is used for this purpose, salt must be added to season it
Dried mint may be strewn over the soup when eaten
No 6 ONION SOUP FOR SIX PERSONS