American Cookery: Thanksgiving Menus and Recipes by - (the lemonade war series .TXT) 📖

there came into fashion the simple meal of fruit, cereal and eggs. This is to be commended, if the egg, or its substitute in food value, is not omitted. Too often a sloppy cereal is washed down rapidly with a cup of coffee and called sufficient. Sometimes the ready-to-eat cereal and the milk bottle left at the kitchen door include the entire preparation for the morning meal.

The adaptability of this quick breakfast, and its ease of preparation, keep it in favor, but filling the stomach with a cereal, from which some of its best elements have been taken, means, for women folks at home, placing the coffee pot on the range to warm up the cup that will stop that "gone" feeling so common after a near-breakfast. The man at work might once have found solace in a glass of beer; now, perhaps, he smokes an extra cigarette. It is well understood that children grow listless and dull before noon, when an insufficient breakfast is eaten. One who has breakfast leisurely at nine o'clock may be satisfied with a roll and a cup of hot drink, but a commuter with a trip ahead to office or shop, and the farmer who must make an early start in the day, cannot rely on light, quickly digested food in the morning. Their energy and working capacity will slow down long before noon.

Objection is sometimes made to a good, sustaining breakfast because of a distaste for food in the morning. In such a case, look to the quality or quantity of the night meal; it may be too heavy or indigestible.

Between a breakfast with warmed-over meats, and one without meat, especially if eggs are substituted, the choice should be given to the latter. Twice-cooked meats, however pleasing they may be to the palate, are not easy to digest. They serve merely as a way to use left-overs, which good management will keep to the minimum.

When selecting fruits for breakfast, the fact must not be overlooked that the starch of cereals and acid fruits, like a sour orange, often disagree. When apples are plentiful nothing is better than this fruit when baked, but in cities the banana frequently costs less and it stands at the head of all fruits in food value. When perfectly ripe it has about 12 per cent of sugar, but as it is picked green, the fruit sold in the markets is often but partially ripe and is more easily assimilated, if baked like the apple; it then becomes a valuable breakfast food.

It is a common mistake in a meatless breakfast to use too large a proportion of cereal. While the standard cereal foods, when dry, are from two-thirds to three-quarters starch, with the balance made up of a little protein, fat, water, fibre and a trace of mineral matter, it should not be forgotten that while cooking they absorb several times their bulk of water, which reduces the food value of the product. Oatmeal and corn meal are best adapted for winter use because they contain a little more fat than wheat or rice, which are suitable for summer diet.

Eggs are the most available substitute for meat at breakfast and it is doubtful economy to omit them, except in times of extreme high prices. They are not essential in all desserts and saving in their use should begin at that point. Eggs may be cooked in many ways so that they need never become a monotonous fare. All kinds of fish are an excellent substitute for meat, and, as prepared for the table, nearly equal beef and mutton, in the amount of protein, which is the element missed in a non-meat diet, unless it be carefully planned.

Breakfasts without Meat

The following are adapted to different seasons and the beverage may be selected to suit the taste.

1. Strawberries, eggs baked in ramekins, oatmeal muffins.

2. Fruit, cheese omelet, rice griddle cakes.

3. Oranges, codfish balls, wheat muffins.

4. Oatmeal, baked bananas, scrambled eggs, rice muffins.

5. Cereal, hashed browned potatoes, date gems.

6. Oranges, soft boiled eggs, lyonnaise potatoes, dry toast.

7. Cereal with dates, whole wheat muffins, orange marmalade.

8. Stewed prunes, French omelet, creamed potatoes, dry toast.

9. Grapefruit, broiled salt codfish, baked potatoes, corn muffins.

10. Fresh pineapple, broiled fresh mackerel, creamed potatoes, French bread.

11. Sliced bananas, omelet with peas, rusked bread.

Breakfasts with Meat

1. Fresh apple sauce, pork chops, stewed potatoes, graham muffins.

2. Dried peaches, stewed, broiled honeycomb tripe, escalloped potatoes, reheated rolls.

3. Fruits, minced mutton, potato puffs, rice griddle cakes, lemon syrup.

4. Baked apples, baked sausages, hashed potatoes, corn cakes.

5. Baked rhubarb and raisins, ham omelet, bread-crumb griddle cakes, caramel syrup.

6. Melon or berries, broiled ham, shirred eggs, creamed potatoes.

7. Oranges, broiled beef cakes, French fried potatoes, toast.

8. Steamed rice, sliced tomatoes, bacon and eggs, rye muffins.

9. Berries, broiled chicken with cream sauce, fried potato cakes, muffins.

10. Cereal with syrup, scalded tomatoes with melted butter, baked hash, dry toast.

11. Melon, veal cutlet, cream sauce, baked potatoes, corn bread.

Some Recipes for Preparing Poultry By Kurt Heppe

Fowls should be divided into four classes, according to their uses. The uses are controlled by the age of the fowl.

What is suitable for one dish is not suitable for others. In fowls the age of the bird controls the use to which it can be put. This is something the caterer and the housewife must remember.

A young bird can be distinguished from an old one by the pliability of the tip of the breastbone. When this tip bends under pressure, then the bird is young. If it is hard and unyielding, then it is old.

Very old birds are used for soup and for fricassée.

Medium-aged birds are used for roasts.

Spring chickens are used for broilers and for sautéed dishes.

Very young chicks are used for frying in deep fat; for this purpose they are dipped in a thin batter, or else in flour, and in eggs mixed with milk and afterward in breadcrumbs. These chicks, and also spring chickens, are used for casserole dishes and for cocottes (covered earthen ware containers, in which the fowls are roasted in the oven).

The liver of fowls is used in different ways; it makes an excellent dish. It is best when sautéed with black butter. Some of the fine French ragouts consist mostly of chicken livers.

With omelettes they make an incomparable garnish.

In very high-class establishments the wings and breast are often separated from the carcass of the fowl and served in manifold ways. Sometimes the entire fowl is freed of bones, without destroying the appearance of the bird. These latter dishes are best adapted for casserole service and for cold jellied offerings.

Capons are castrated male fowls. They fatten readily and their flesh remains juicy and tender, owing to the indolence of the birds. The meat of animals is tenderest when the animal is kept inactive. For this reason stall-feeding is often resorted to. When the animal has no opportunity to exercise its muscles the latter degenerate, and nourishment, instead of being converted into energy, is turned into fat. Range birds and animals are naturally tough; this is especially true of the muscles.

Large supply houses now regularly basket their fowls for about two weeks before putting them on the market. During this time they are fed on grain soaked in milk. This produces a white, juicy flesh.

When a bird is to be roasted it should be trussed. This is done by forcing the legs back against the body (after placing the bird on its back); a string is then tied across the bird's body, holding the legs down. The wings are best set firmly against the breast by sticking a wooden skewer through the joint and into the bony part of the carcass, where the skewer will hold against the bones.

In preparing birds for the oven their breasts should be protected by slices of bacon. Otherwise they will shrivel and dry before the birds are cooked.

For broiling, the birds are cut through in the back, in such a manner that they quasi-hinge in the breast; they are then flattened so they will lie evenly in a double broiling iron; for this purpose the heavy backbone is removed.

Stuffed Poularde

After trussing the bird rub it with lemon so it will keep of good color; now cover the breast with thin slices of bacon (these can be tied on). The poularde is put into a deep, thick saucepan and cooked with butter and aromatics in the oven. When it is nearly done it is moistened with poultry stock. If this stock reduces too fast, then it must be renewed. It is finally added to the sauce.

These fowls may be stuffed with a pilaff of rice. This is prepared as follows: Half an onion is chopped and fried in two ounces of butter. Before it acquires color half a pound of Carolina rice is added. This is stirred over the fire until the rice has partly taken up the butter; then it is moistened with consommé (one quart); and covered and cooked in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes. It is now combined with a little cream, a quarter a pound of dice of goose liver and some dice of truffles.

The rice should not be entirely cooked by the time it is stuffed into the bird; the cooking is completed inside the bird. The cream is added to provide moisture for the rice to take up.

Instead of cream one may use consommé, and the truffles and fat liver may be left out, if too expensive.

The bird is served with a suitable sauce.

The best sauce for this purpose is Sauce Suprême, and is prepared as follows: Put two pints of clear poultry stock and some mushroom-liquor into a sauté-pan. Reduce two-thirds.

While this is going on prepare some poultry velouté by bringing some butter in a pan to bubble, and adding some flour. This is brought to a boil while stirring constantly. The flour must not be allowed to color. Now, gradually, add some poultry-stock, stirring all the while with a whisk. Salt, pepper and nutmeg are added. This is simmered on the side of the fire, and then strained.

Now add one pint of this velouté to the suprême sauce; reduce the whole on an open fire, while constantly stirring. Gradually add half a pint of good cream and finish with a little butter.

Sautéed Chicken

Young chickens should be used for this purpose. Feel the breast bone; if it bends beneath pressure the bird is right.

Empty, singe and clean, and disjoint the bird. This is done by cutting the skin at the joints and loosening the bones with a knife.

The wings are cut off in such manner that each holds half of the breast; the pinions are entirely cut off; the different pieces are seasoned with salt and pepper; now heat some clarified butter in a sauté-pan; when it is very hot insert the pieces of chicken and let them color quickly; turn them over, from time to time, so as to get a uniform color; cover the utensil and put it in a fairly hot oven. The legs are cooked for about ten minutes more than the breast and wings. The latter are kept hot separately.

When all pieces are done, they are dished on a platter and kept hot in the oven; the pan is now moistened with mushroom-liquor, or chicken stock, and again put on the fire; only a very little moistening is put in the pan. As soon as it boils swing it around the pan and then add to it, gradually, the sauce that is to be served. This swinging in the pan dissolves the flavor, which solidifies in the bottom of the pan; it greatly improves the sauce.

A simple sauce for sautéed chicken is nut butter, that is, butter browned in the pan. This may be varied by flavoring it with a crushed garlic-clove. An addition of fine herbs will further improve it. A dark tomato sauce may