Monday 7 March 2016

21 February 1880 - Answers to Correspondents - Cookery

A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER - I think the best recipe for thin oatmeal cakes is the following. Pour a gill of boiling water on half a pound of oatmeal, having added a large pinch of salt to the oatmeal. Make it into a dough, turn it on to a board well covered with meal, work it very slightly, roll it out as thin as possible, cut into shapes, and bake on a hot stove. When a little brown on the under side, take them off, and place on a hanger before the fire, in order to brown the upper side.

A YOUNG COOK - We suggest the following recipe for an economical pie. Cut one pound of lean beef into dice, place it in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter, four minced onions, and a pinch of pepper and salt. Let all simmer in its own juices until perfectly tender. If not allowed to cook too fast, there will be nearly half a pint of gravy from good fresh meat. It will take nearly two hours to cook it thoroughly. Then put the meat and onions into a pie-dish, and cover it with nicely mashed potatoes. Mark the cover in squares on the top by crossing it with a knife, and bake all for twenty minutes. The potato crust should be nicely browned. A little milk or butter should be mixed with the potatoes, as it enables them to be smoothed more easily. If made with cold meat, of course it will not require the stewing before baking.

MARY M. - The best way to dress mutton chops is to grill them on a gridiron, and when transferred to a hot-water plate, or dish, put a piece of butter of the size of an acorn on each, and pepper them. The receipt to which you allude refers to cooking potato-chips, not chops Peel fine kidney potatoes, cut them in very thin round slices, lay them in a cloth to dry, and fry in the wire basket in good fat; clarified pot-skimmings are preferable to dripping, and beef-suet melted down with lard is next best, but oil is the best of all for frying potatoes. The chips would be sufficient only to cover the bottom of the basket. When taken out they should be laid on paper before the fire, that the great may be absorbed. 

SWAINSTON - We suppose that your oven is too hot, or else you leave your pastry baking for too long a time.

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