Cooked Spinach

The everyday Cookbook circa 1887

An excellent way to serve spinach is to first look it over carefully; wash it in two or three waters. If the stalks are not perfectly tender, cut the leaves from the stalk. Boil for twenty minutes in water with enough salt dissolved in it to salt the spinach sufficiently.

When done let it drain. then chop it fine, put it on the stove in a saucepan, with a lump of better, salt, and pepper, and enough milk to moisten it. When the butter is melted and spinach steaming, take from the fire and put it in a dish in which it is going to the table.

Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut in slices or in rings- that is, with the yolk removed and rings of the white only left.

Items worth remembering

The Everyday Cookbook circa 1887

A sun-bath is of more worth than much warming by the fire

Books exposed to the atmosphere keep in better condition than if confined in a book-case.

Pictures are both for use and ornament. They serve to recall pleasant memories and scenes; they harmonize with the furnishing of the rooms. If they serve neither of these purposes they are worse than useless; they only help fill space which would look better empty, or gather dust and make work to keep them clean.

A room filled with quantities of trifling ornaments has a look of a bazaar and displays neither good taste nor good sense. Artistic excellence aims to have all the furnishings of a high order of workmanship combined with simplicity, while good sense understands the folly of dusting a lot of rubbish.

A poor book had best be burned to give place to a better, or even to an empty shelf, for the fire destroys its poison, and puts it out of the way of doing harm.

Better economize in purchasing of furniture or carpets than scrimp in buying good books or papers.

Our sitting-rooms need never be empty of guests or our libraries of society if the company of good books is admitted to them.

Eclairs and Puffs

The Century Cookbook circa 1894

Cream Puffs-
Stir together in a saucepan one cupful of butter with two of flour; when well mixed add half a pint of boiling water, stir smooth, and when it boils set aside to cool, when cool add five eggs and beat for two or three minutes; cover bottom of a baking pan with buttered paper and drop the mixture on it in small spoonfuls, or it can be put in muffin rings. Bake for twenty-five or thirty minutes in a brisk oven.

Cream for filling-
Boil one pint of milk, heat together 1 cupful of sugar, 2 eggs and 1/2 cupful of flour, stir this into the boiling milk and let it cook for three minutes; flavor with lemon or vanilla; cut a circular piece out of the top of each puff , fill with the custard and replace top.

Eclairs-
One pint of milk, 6 ounces butter, 8 ounces corn starch, ten eggs. Boil milk and butter together, add corn starch and boil for three minutes. After removing the paste from the fire, let cool, and then add the eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly; bake in oval-shaped patty pans; when done, cut open and fill with whipped cream, (or cream filling above) flavored to taste; make an icing for the tops flavored the same as the filling.

Chocolate Eclairs-
Make the same as above, fill the center of the cakes with vanilla custard(or cream filling above) and ice with chocolate icing.

Transparent Puffs-
Mix together 1 pint of water, 2 ounces butter 6 ounces corn starch, then beat in 5 whole eggs and the white of five(more). Beat well and bake in patty pans or in small spoonfuls on buttered paper.

Pie Crust

The Century Cookbook circa 1894

Take one quart of flour and rub into it a cupful of butter or lard, add a teaspoonful of salt, and enough very cold water to make a stiff dough.

Mix with as little handling as possible, and put on ice or in a cool place, an hour or two before using; roll out thin, put in the filling, and spread a little butter on the upper crust, before baking.

Yorkshire Pudding with Roast Beef

The everyday cookbook circa 1887

Have your meat ready for roasting on Saturday, always. Roast upon a grating of several clean sticks (not pine) laid over the dripping-pan. Dash a cup of boiling water over the beef when it goes into the oven; baste often, and see that the fat does not scorch. About three-quarters of an hour before it is done mix the pudding.

Yorkshire Pudding;
One pint of milk, four eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately; two cups of flour-prepared flour is best(white flour?); one teaspoon salt.
Use less flour if batter grows stiff. Mix quickly; pour off the fat from the top of the gravy in the dripping pan, leaving just enough to prevent the pudding from sticking to the bottom. Pour in the batter and continue to roast the beef, letting the dripping fall upon the pudding below. The oven should be brisk by this time. Baste the meat with the gravy you have taken out to make room for the batter.
In serving, cut the pudding into squares and lay about the meat in the dish.
It is very delicious.

Eggs brouille

The everyday cookbook circa 1887

Six eggs, half a cupful of milk, or, better still cream; two mushrooms, one tablespoonful of salt, a little pepper, three tablespoonfuls of butter, a slight grating of nutmeg.
Cut the mushrooms into dice, and fry them for one minute in one tablespoonful of the butter.
Beat the eggs, salt, pepper, and cream together, and put them in a saucepan. Add the butter and mushrooms to these ingredients.
Stir over a moderate heat until the mixture begins to thicken.
Take from the fire and beat rapidly until the eggs become quite thick and creamy.
Have slices of toast on a hot dish.
Heap the mixture on these, and garnish with points of toast.
Serve immediately

Eggs A La Suisse

The everyday cookbook circa 1887

Spread the bottom of a dish with two ounces of fresh butter; cover this with grated cheese; break eight whole eggs upon the cheese without breaking the yolks.
Season with red pepper and salt if necessary; pour a little cream on the surface, strew about two ounces of grated cheese on the top, and set the eggs in a moderate oven for about a quarter hour.
Pass a hot salamander (A hot fire poker) over the top to brown it.