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Some Kitchen Kinks: Casserole

Casserole Cookery.

A casserole is a heavy earthenware dish with a cover. A substitute for it can easily be improvised by using any heavy earthenware dish with a heavy plate for the cover. A casserole presentable enough in appearance to be put on the table serves the double purpose of baking and serving dish.

A suitable cut of beef or veal, and it may well be one of the cheaper cuts, as the long, slow cooking insures tenderness, may be cooked in a casserole. manner.

Poultry and other meats besides beef or veal can be cooked in this Chicken cooked in a casserole, which is a favorite and expensive dish in good hotels and restaurants, may be easily prepared in the home, and casserole cookery is to be recommended for tough chicken.

The heat must be moderate and the cooking must occupy a long time.

Hurried cooking in a casserole is out of the question. If care is taken in this particular, and suitable seasonings are used, few who know anything of cooking should go astray. Chopped meat also may be cooked in a casserole and this utensil is particularly useful for the purpose, because the food is served in the same dish in which it is cooked and may easily be kept hot, a point which is important with chopped meats, which usually cool rapidly.

Casserole Roast. 3 or 4 pounds of round or rump of beef.

A slice of salt pork.

A few peppercorns.

One-fourth each of a carrot, a turnip, an onion, and a head of celery cut into small pieces.

Try out the pork. Brown the meat on both sides in the fat. Put in a casserole with the vegetables around it, add 2 cupsful of water or stock.

Cover and cook in a hot oven three hours, basting occasionally. A sauce or gravy can be made with water, flour, and some of the juice left in the casserole.

Casserole or Italian Hash.

Boil one-fourth pound of macaroni, drain and put into a buttered casserole, add a little butter and grated cheese. Push the macaroni to the sides of the dish and fill the center with chopped cooked meat seasoned to suit the taste of the family. A little sausage gives a good flavor to this dish. Place in the oven until hot throughout and serve.

A very good modification of this is made by using raw instead of cooked meat. For this one-half pound of round steak is sufficient for a family of six. This should be cut into small pieces, browned, and cooked until tender in water with the onions and other seasonings. An hour before the cooking is complete, add one-half can of tomatoes. Before serving, the meat may be mixed with the sauce, and the whole is poured over the macaroni.

MEAT COOKED WITH VINEGAR Dishes of similar sort as regards cooking, but in which vinegar is used to give flavor as well as to soften the meat and make it tender, are the following:

Sour Beef.

Take a piece of beef from the rump or the lower round, cover with vinegar or with a half-and-half mixture of vinegar and water, add sliced onion, bay leaves, and a few mixed whole spices and salt. Allow to stand a week in winter or three or four days in summer; turn once a day and keep covered. When ready to cook, brown the meat in fat, using an enameled iron pan, strain the liquid over it and cook until tender; thicken the gravy with flour or ginger snaps (which may be broken up first), strain it, and pour over the sliced meat. Some cooks add cream.