The Myrtle Reed Cook Book

CHICKEN

Have young chickens cleaned and split down the back. Break the joints, season with salt and pepper, and rub with melted butter. Broil for twenty minutes and serve very hot.

Clean and cut up two spring chickens, season with salt and pepper, and fry brown in butter with a chopped onion and a dozen fresh mushrooms. Pour over a wineglassful of white wine, and a cupful of stock. Add two cupfuls of canned tomatoes which have been rubbed through a sieve, and a tablespoonful of minced parsley. Thicken with flour browned in butter, heat thoroughly, season to taste, and serve.

Clean and joint two spring chickens, fry brown in butter, and put into the oven to finish cooking. Seed and shred six sweet peppers and boil in salted water until soft. Drain, and add to the chicken. Pour over two cupfuls of cream, bring to the boil, thicken with a little flour cooked in butter, and serve.

Clean and cut up a young chicken, dip in beaten egg, then in seasoned crumbs, and fry brown in fat to cover. Serve with Cream Sauce to which minced parsley has been added.

Fill a chicken with drained oysters which have been seasoned highly with salt, pepper, and melted butter. Sew the chicken up in cheese-cloth and boil, allowing twenty-five minutes to the pound. Take off the cloth, pour over a Maître d’Hôtel Sauce, and serve.

Clean and cut up a chicken, season with salt and pepper, and brown in butter. Dredge with flour and sprinkle with minced parsley. Boil two bunches of asparagus in salted water until tender but not broken. Put a lump of butter and a tablespoonful of cream into a saucepan and put half of the asparagus on it. Sprinkle with pepper, lay the pieces of chicken upon it, cover with the remainder of the asparagus, dot with butter, pour over a cupful of cream, and cook slowly until done. Serve with small squares of fried bread or with toast points.

Clean and joint two spring chickens. Brown in butter and add five sliced onions, a can of tomatoes, four cloves of garlic, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a pod of red pepper without the seeds, and salt to taste. Cook slowly for forty-five minutes, adding stock or water if necessary to keep from burning. Take out the pepper and the garlic, add a can of peas, and simmer for fifteen minutes longer. Thicken the gravy with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed smooth with a little cold water and the yolk of an egg well-beaten.

Clean and cut up the chicken, and brown in butter with a sliced onion and a carrot. Season with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, add three cupfuls of stock or water, and cook until the sauce thickens, stirring constantly. Add a cupful of canned tomatoes and simmer until the chicken is done. Add a can of mushrooms cut in pieces, and a little minced parsley. Heat thoroughly and serve.

Sift together four cupfuls of flour, four teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and a pinch of salt. Work into it half a cupful of butter, and add enough milk to make a soft dough. Roll out, cut into biscuits, and bake. Cook two chickens, cleaned and cut up, in water to cover, seasoning with salt and pepper. When very tender, thicken the liquid with flour cooked in butter. Stir constantly. Split the biscuits and cover a serving platter with them. Pour over the chicken and serve.

Clean and cut up a chicken, boil until tender, cool, and remove the bones. Line a buttered baking-dish with a rich biscuit dough, and put in half of the chicken, seasoning with butter, pepper, and salt. Add a layer of hard-boiled eggs cut in slices, and the rest of the chicken. A few potato balls cut with a French vegetable cutter, and boiled until nearly done may be added. Add enough of the water in which the chicken was boiled to fill the dish, cover with a biscuit crust which has a large hole in the centre for the steam to escape, brush with the beaten white of egg, and bake for half an hour or more.

Clean and cut up the chicken. Put a small plate in the bottom of the kettle, put in the chicken, cover with hot water, and season with butter, pepper, and salt. Sift together three cupfuls of flour and three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Mix with enough milk or water to make a very thick batter. Drop the batter by spoonfuls into buttered patty pans, place in steamer, cover and steam over another pan of boiling water. Skim out the chicken, arrange on a platter, and thicken the gravy while stirring with flour blended with a little cold milk. Pour over the chicken and dumplings and serve.

Stuff a chicken with highly seasoned crumbs to which a few chopped chestnuts have been added. Sew up, and lard the breast with thin strips of bacon. Roast and serve with Cream Sauce to which chopped cooked oysters have been added.

Clean and cut up a chicken and boil it until tender in water to cover. Drain the chicken and brown in butter with two small onions sliced. Sprinkle with two teaspoonfuls of curry powder, pour over the water in which the chicken was boiled, heat thoroughly, and thicken while stirring with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed smooth with a little cold water. Take from the fire, add the beaten yolk of an egg, and serve with a border of boiled rice.

Clean and cut up a young chicken, season with salt and pepper, and fry brown in hot fat with two thinly sliced onions. Dredge with flour and add one cupful each of white stock and stewed and strained tomatoes. Cook until it thickens, stirring constantly, and simmer the chicken in it until tender, adding more stock if needed. Add a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar, salt and pepper to season, and a cupful of cooked and broken macaroni. Serve very hot with a garnish of parsley.

Clean and disjoint the chicken. Fry brown in an iron kettle, using equal parts of butter and olive-oil for fat. When brown, season with salt and pepper, pour in a cupful of stock, cover, and cook slowly until done, adding more stock if required. Dredge with flour and turn the chicken slowly in the gravy until the gravy is thick. Take up the chicken, strain the gravy over it, garnish with parsley, and serve.

Put a small cleaned chicken into a casserole with a dozen peeled onions, two bay-leaves, a cupful of carrot cut into dice, a small turnip chopped fine, and two stalks of celery cut into small pieces. Fill the casserole half full of boiling stock, cover, and cook in a hot oven for an hour and a half, basting frequently. When the chicken is half done, add salt and pepper to season. Serve in the casserole. Either fresh or canned mushrooms may be added.

Have a chicken cleaned and cut up. Cook in boiling water to cover until the meat falls from the bones. Take out the bones, remove the skin, season with salt and pepper, and arrange in a mould. Reduce the liquid by rapid boiling and add to it a package of soaked and dissolved gelatine, pepper and salt to season highly, and the juice of a lemon. Pour over the chicken and cool on ice. Serve with a garnish of hard-boiled eggs and parsley.

Clean and disjoint the chicken, and boil until tender in water to cover. Cool in the water in which it was boiled and remove the skin and fat and bones. Keep the pieces of chicken as large as possible. Arrange on a platter, and pour over a stiff mayonnaise dressing. Sprinkle with minced parsley, and garnish with lettuce leaves.

Have two chickens cleaned and cut up. Boil until the meat drops from the bones, then drain, and chop it fine. Reduce the liquid by rapid boiling to a cupful. Add to it a heaping tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of pepper, a pinch of allspice, and an egg well-beaten. Mix thoroughly with the meat and press into a buttered mould. Cool on ice and serve cold, garnished with slices of hard-boiled eggs and parsley.

Cut cold cooked chicken into dice. Reheat in two cupfuls of cream, seasoning with salt and pepper. Thicken with the yolks of two eggs beaten with two tablespoonfuls of Madeira. Mix thoroughly, and heat but do not boil. Take from the fire, add a heaping tablespoonful of butter, and serve.

Chop fine cold cooked chicken, and mix with a cupful of Cream Sauce. Add two eggs well-beaten, seasoning to taste, and enough bread crumbs to make the mixture very stiff. Cool, shape into croquettes, dip in egg and crumbs, fry in deep fat, and serve with any preferred sauce.

Shred cold cooked chicken very fine. Arrange it on a buttered baking-dish with alternate layers of cooked and broken macaroni, seasoning each layer with butter, pepper, and salt. Moisten with cream, cover with crumbs, dot with butter, sprinkle with cheese, and bake brown. Serve in the baking-dish.

DUCK

Partly roast a pair of ducks and put them into a saucepan with two cupfuls of stock and two dozen pitted olives which have been rinsed in boiling water. Cover and cook in the oven for half an hour, basting frequently. Take up the ducks, skim off the fat, thicken the gravy with a little flour and butter cooked together, pour the sauce over the ducks, and serve.

Rub a prepared and cleaned duck with butter, dredge with flour, season with salt and pepper, and roast, covered, in a hot oven. Make a gravy of the drippings, adding stoned olives to it, and surround the duck with a border of green peas.

GOOSE

Parboil for two hours, drain, and stuff with seasoned mashed potatoes. Roast in a covered roaster with two cupfuls of water in the pan. When done pour off the surplus fat, add enough water or stock to make the amount of gravy required, thicken with browned flour and a little butter cooked together, and season to taste.

TURKEY

Put a tough turkey into cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook until the meat slips from the bones. Remove the meat, chop it fine, and return the bones to the stock. Simmer for two hours, and strain through cheese-cloth. There should be two cupfuls of the liquid. Add one package of gelatine that has been soaked and dissolved, and season with salt, pepper, grated onion, lemon-juice, and kitchen bouquet. Dip individual moulds in cold water, and put a slice of hard-boiled egg or pickled beet into the bottom of each one. Put in a little of the jelly, and let harden. Fill the moulds nearly to the brim with the minced and seasoned turkey, cover with the jelly, and set away to cool. Serve with mayonnaise.

Boil a quart of Spanish chestnuts, peel, chop, and mash them. Mix to a paste with melted butter, seasoning with salt and pepper, and stuff the turkey loosely. Roast as usual, in covered roaster and serve with Cranberry Sauce.

Make a stuffing of equal parts of bread and cracker crumbs rolled fine. Season highly with salt, pepper, and melted butter, and add a pint of raw oysters with their liquor. Add also two eggs well-beaten. Stuff the turkey loosely, truss, and roast, in a covered roaster. Turn over when brown on top. Make a gravy with the drippings, using browned flour to thicken.

Chop cold cooked turkey fine, season to taste, and mix with very thick Cream Sauce. Season with salt, pepper, celery salt, and curry powder. When cool and stiff shape into croquettes, dip in egg and crumbs, and fry in deep fat. Serve with a border of green peas.

Reheat cold cooked turkey, cut small, in a Cream Sauce. Arrange in a buttered baking-dish in alternate layers with seasoned crumbs, having crumbs and dots of butter on top. Add also any bits of stuffing that may remain. Add stock or gravy to moisten, sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven.

Butter a baking-dish, and fill it with alternate layers of cold cooked minced turkey and sausage. Fill the dish with stock or gravy to moisten, cover thickly with crumbs, and pour over half a cupful or more of cream or milk with which a well-beaten egg has been mixed. Season with pepper and salt, dot with butter, and bake covered. Sprinkle with minced parsley before serving.

Reheat cold cooked turkey, cut fine, in a Cream Sauce, seasoning with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Put into a buttered baking-dish with alternate layers of drained oysters and seasoned crumbs and dots of butter, and brown in the oven.

Chop fine the meat of a cold turkey, and to each cupful add one-third of a cupful of cracker crumbs and one egg. Mix thoroughly and add enough of the stuffing to season. Shape into a loaf, roll in cracker crumbs, dot with butter, and bake for half an hour.

PIGEON

Clean and cut up the pigeons. Cook until tender in boiling water to cover, seasoning with salt, pepper, and chopped onion. Drain, and put into each pigeon a hard-boiled egg, with salt, pepper, thyme, and a little butter to season. Put into a deep baking-dish and strain over them the liquid in which they were cooked. Add one cupful of cream, one tablespoonful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs, one tablespoonful of minced parsley, and a pinch each of thyme and salt. Cover the pie with a rich crust, bake, and serve either hot or cold.

Clean the birds and split without detaching. Dip in seasoned oil, broil, and serve on toast. Pour over melted butter, seasoned with lemon-juice and minced parsley, and garnish with slices of fried bacon.

TWENTY WAYS TO COOK POTATOES

Peel potatoes of uniform size and soak for half an hour in cold water. Cover with boiling salted water and cook until tender but not broken. Drain thoroughly and keep hot, uncovered, until dry and mealy. Or, without peeling, let them stand in cold salted water for half an hour before cooking. Season with salt, pepper, and butter if desired. Minced chives or parsley may be added.

Season a pint of hot mashed potatoes with salt, pepper, celery salt, minced parsley, and butter. Add a little onion-juice if desired or a beaten yolk. Moisten with a little milk or cream and add half of a beaten egg if the yolk has not been used. Shape into smooth round balls, brush with the remainder of the egg, and bake on a buttered tin until brown. Or, dip in egg and crumbs and fry in deep fat. The celery salt may be omitted.

Scrub potatoes of equal size, wipe dry, and bake for an hour in a hot oven. Break the skins that the steam may escape. Peel before baking if desired.

Mix together two cupfuls of hot mashed potatoes, half a cupful of cream or milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter, the yolk of one egg, and the whites of four, and salt and pepper to season. Beat very light, folding in the stiffly beaten whites last. Turn into a buttered baking-dish, brush with the beaten yolk of egg, and brown quickly. Or, arrange mashed potatoes in layers in a buttered baking-dish, alternating with lumps of butter and grated Parmesan cheese. Have cheese and butter on top. Brown in the oven and serve in the same dish.

Peel and parboil potatoes of equal size. Drain and put into a baking-dish or into the pan with a roast and bake until brown, basting with butter or drippings. They may be dredged with flour before baking.

Cover the potatoes with cold salted water, bring gradually to the boil, and cook slowly. Cool in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, peel and chop very fine, and reheat in hot butter, seasoning with salt, black pepper, and cream. Cover and let stand for ten minutes before serving.

Mash boiled potatoes, season with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and moisten with a very little milk. Butter a frying-pan, and shape into a flat cake to fit it. Cover and cook slowly until done, then dot the top with butter, and brown in the oven. The milk may be omitted and the potato shaped like an omelet. Fry brown, turning once.

Mix together two cupfuls of hot mashed potatoes, two teaspoonfuls of butter, one-third cupful of grated cheese, and salt, cayenne, and grated nutmeg to season. Add the yolks of two eggs beaten with two tablespoonfuls of cream, mix thoroughly, and shape into croquettes. Dip in flour, then in beaten egg, then in crumbs, and fry in deep fat.

Beat the yolk of an egg and add to it enough well-seasoned hot mashed potatoes to make a stiff mixture. Shape into balls, put into a shallow buttered baking-pan, brush with the well-beaten white of the egg, and brown in the oven.

Butter a baking-dish and press hot boiled potatoes into it through a colander or potato ricer, having first sprinkled the potatoes with salt and pepper. Put into the oven for a few minutes and serve. Or, sprinkle with crumbs, pour over a little melted butter, and brown in the oven.

Cut peeled and sliced potatoes into thin match-like shreds. Soak for an hour in cold water, drain, dry thoroughly, and fry in deep fat in a frying-basket. Sprinkle with salt and serve. These are sometimes called Shoestring Potatoes.

Peel and chop fine enough raw potatoes to make a pint. Heat two tablespoonfuls of beef drippings in a frying-pan, add the potatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add two tablespoonfuls of stock or hot water, cover and cook slowly until soft, then more rapidly until brown. If more liquid is required, add a little stock or water or cream. When a crisp crust is formed, loosen at the edges, and turn like an omelet.

Peel raw potatoes, chop fine, and put into a buttered baking-dish with alternate layers of well-seasoned Cream Sauce, sprinkling each layer of potatoes with salt, pepper, minced parsley, and onion-juice. Have sauce on top. Sprinkle with crumbs, bake for half an hour, and serve in the baking-dish.

Slice two small onions and fry in butter. Reheat with six or eight boiled potatoes sliced thin or cut into dice. Season with salt and pepper, cook until brown, sprinkle with minced parsley, and serve. A few drops of vinegar or a teaspoonful of lemon-juice may be added.

Peel potatoes and soak for an hour in cold water. Drain, cover with fresh cold water, adding a teaspoonful of salt. Boil, put through a potato ricer, season liberally with butter, moisten slightly with milk or cream, and add pepper and salt to taste. If desired, add a little celery salt. Beat thoroughly and serve; or, put into the serving-dish, score the top into squares with a knife, pour over a little melted butter, and brown in the oven.

Scrape off the skins, or rub off with a coarse cloth. Soak for an hour in cold water, drain, cover with cold salted water, and bring to the boil. Cook for half an hour, drain, sprinkle with salt, and dry for two or three minutes before serving. Add a little melted butter if desired. Or, pour over a cupful of cream or milk, which has been boiled with a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Or season with salt, pepper, minced parsley, melted butter and cream; a sprinkle of carraway seed may be added, or, serve with Hollandaise Sauce.

Rub the skins from new potatoes with a coarse cloth. Cook until done in boiling salted water, pour over a Cream Sauce, and, if desired, sprinkle with minced parsley. Old potatoes, boiled whole, may be served in the same way.

Cut boiled potatoes into dice and reheat in butter with canned red peppers cut into strips or fried green peppers, or both, and season with chopped onion fried in butter if desired. Or, prepare according to directions given for French Fried Potatoes, cutting into dice and frying with them the red or green peppers or both.

Cut the top from each of six baked potatoes, scoop out the pulp, and mash to a smooth paste with three tablespoonfuls each of butter and cream, and salt and pepper to season. Add one-fourth cupful of grated cheese and cook to a smooth paste. Take from the fire, stir in one well-beaten egg, fill the skins, and bake.

Peel and chop raw potatoes and cook, covered, very slowly in seasoned butter. When they are soft, drain and put into a baking-dish in layers, alternating with grated Parmesan cheese. Pour over a little melted butter and bake for half an hour in a slow oven. Serve in the same dish.

Peel and slice the potatoes, wipe very dry, and sauté in oil. Cook slowly, adding a little minced garlic and onion towards the last. Finish cooking in the oven. Just before serving, drain and season with salt, minced parsley, and lemon-juice.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY WAYS TO COOK OTHER VEGETABLES

Cut off the tips of the leaves and round off the bottoms, removing the stalk and trimming away the under leaves. Soak for half an hour in salted water, washing thoroughly. Boil until tender in a large quantity of salted water. Drain, and remove the soft inside with a spoon. Put into a serving dish, dot with butter, heat until the butter is melted, and serve; or, serve with Béchamel or Hollandaise Sauce.

Scrape and clean the asparagus and tie into bundles of five or six stalks each, taking care to have the heads even. Cook rapidly in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, and serve on toast with melted butter to which a little lemon-juice may be added. Drawn-Butter, Cream, Hollandaise, or White Sauce may be used instead. The tips may be cooked in the same way.

Cut the tender parts of the asparagus into inch-lengths, boil until tender in salted water, and drain. Put a layer into a buttered baking-dish, season with pepper and salt, dot with butter, sprinkle with crumbs and hard-boiled eggs chopped fine. Repeat until the dish is full, having crumbs and butter on top. Bake for half an hour and serve in the same dish. A thin Cream Sauce may be poured over before sprinkling with the crumbs, and the eggs omitted. A little grated cheese may be used instead.