Home › Fourteenth Day › Fourteenth Day
Fourteenth Day
"Don't you think it's about time for us to cook another breakfast, Aunt Jane?" asked Grace. "We want to have some different things this time; none of the same except the coffee." "I'm willing," answered her aunt. "We'll do it tomorrow if you like; and in the mean time I must give you some breakfast recipes. Here is one of the oldest, easiest and most respectable."
No. 174 CORNED BEEF HASH.
Take tender boiled corned beef, entirely free from fat or gristle, chop it fine, and mix with it chopped boiled potatoes in the proportion of one cup of beef to three of potatoes. Add enough salt to season the potatoes, pepper to your taste, mix very thoroughly together and let it stand over night. Half an hour before the time to serve, place it on the fire in an iron frying pan, with one tablespoonful of cold water and a teaspoonful of butter to each cup of the mixture. Let this cook slowly on the back of the stove, stirring frequently; if it becomes too dry, add boiling water. Taste it, and if not sufficiently seasoned, throw in more pepper and salt, but very cautiously.
Serve very hot. "Why, that receipt's long enough for a mince pie, Aunt Jane," said Grace. "You'll find that following it carefully makes all the difference between good hash and poor, uneatable stuff," answered her aunt. "When hash is tossed together in a hurry it isn't the same thing as this."
No. 175-POTATOES a la Maitre D'Hotel.
Cut cold boiled potatoes into irregular slices, not large, and heat in a saucepan with a little milk and butter, pepper, salt and some chopped parsley. Place it over a hot fire, stirring all the time until ready to serve. To make a French dish of this, stir in half the juice of a lemon or a teaspoonful of sharp vinegar.
No. 176-POTATO PUFF.
Take two cupfuls cold mashed potato and stir into it two tablespoonfuls melted butter, beating to a light cream. When this is done, add to it two eggs beaten very light and a teacupful cream or milk, with salt to taste. Beat again and bake in a quick oven until browned. "We made the croquettes for lunch, you remember," said Aunt Jane, "and the puff is very hard on your little arms, for it is nothing without a great deal of beating; so we'll be contented this time with maitre d'hotel." "What does that mean, Aunty?" "A maitre d'hotel is the chief steward of a hotel or restaurant, or, in very elegant establishments, of a private family, and as he often combines a knowledge of cookery with his other accomplishments, it was natural to name a dish after him. In case you should ever want to cook a winter breakfast, I'll tell you a way to do codfish." No. 177-TOSSED-UP CODFISH.
Pick to pieces cold boiled codfish, or use the desiccated, which is already prepared. Prepare half a pint of thin drawn-butter, to which add half a pint sweet milk, three hard-boiled eggs cut up fine, a tablespoonful of butter, a few grains red pepper and some chopped parsley. Heat this till nearly boiling, then throw in the fish and boil up once, after which serve in a deep dish on buttered toast. It must be hot.
No. 178-DRAWN BUTTER.