PREFACE.
Table of Contents I have endeavored to render this work a complete manual of domestic cookery in all its branches. It comprises an unusual number of pages, and the receipts are all practical, and practicable-being so carefully and particularly explained as to be easily comprehended by the merest novice in the art. Also, I flatter myself that most of these preparations (if faithfully and liberally followed,) will be found very agreeable to the general taste; always, however, keeping in mind that every ingredient must be of unexceptionable quality, and that good cooking cannot be made out of bad marketing.
I hope those who consult this book will find themselves at no loss, whether required to prepare sumptuous viands "for company," or to furnish a daily supply of nice dishes for an excellent family table; or plain, yet wholesome and palatable food where economy is very expedient.
Eliza Leslie.
Philadelphia, March 28th, 1857.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
Table of Contents Tested and Arranged by Miss Leslie.
Wheat flour one pound of 16 ounces is one quart. Indian meal one pound 2 ounces is one quart. Butter, when soft one pound 1 ounce is one quart. Loaf sugar, broken up, one pound is one quart. White sugar, powdered, one pound 1 ounce is one quart. Best brown sugar, one pound 2 ounces is one quart. Eggs ten eggs weigh one pound.
LIQUID MEASURE.
Table of Contents Four large table-spoonfuls are half a jill. Eight large table-spoonfuls are one jill. Two jills are half a pint. A common-sized tumbler holds half a pint. A common-sized wine-glass holds about half a jill. Two pints are one quart. Four quarts are one gallon. About twenty-five drops of any thin liquid will fill a common-sized tea-spoon. Four table-spoonfuls will generally fill a common-sized wine-glass. Four wine-glasses will fill a half pint tumbler, or a large coffee-cup. A quart black bottle holds in reality about a pint and a half; sometimes not so much. A table-spoonful of salt is about one ounce.
DRY MEASURE.
Table of Contents Half a gallon is a quarter of a peck. One gallon is half a peck. Two gallons are one peck. Four gallons are half a bushel. Eight gallons are one bushel.
Throughout this book, the pound is avoirdupois weight-sixteen ounces.
GENERAL CONTENTS.
Table of Contents PAGE
Soups, 33
Fish, 77
Shell-Fish, 108
Beef, 138
Mutton, 173
Veal, 188
Pork, 216
Ham and Bacon, 235
Venison, 252
Poultry and Game, 265
Sauces, 309
Vegetables, 343
Bread, Plain Cakes, etc., 401
Plain Desserts, 444
Fine Desserts, 469
Fine Cakes, 516
Sweetmeats, 543
Pickles, 568
Preparations for the Sick, 581
Miscellaneous Receipts, 595
Worth Knowing, 645
ANIMALS
Table of Contents FIGURES EXPLANATORY OF THE PIECES INTO WHICH THE FIVE LARGE ANIMALS ARE DIVIDED BY THE BUTCHERS.
Beef.
Table of Contents - 1. Sirloin.
- 2. Rump.
- 3. Edge Bone.
- 4. Buttock.
- 5. Mouse Buttock.
- 6. Leg.
- 7. Thick Flank.
- 8. Veiny Piece.
- 9. Thin Flank.
- 10. Fore Rib: 7 Ribs.
- 11. Middle Rib: 4 Ribs.
- 12. Chuck Rib: 2 Ribs.
- 13. Brisket.
- 14. Shoulder, or Leg of Mutton Piece.
- 15. Clod.
- 16. Neck, or Sticking Piece.
- 17. Shin.
- 18. Cheek.
Veal.
Table of Contents - 1. Loin, Best End.
- 2. Fillet.
- 3. Loin, Chump End.
- 4. Hind Knuckle.
- 5. Neck, Best End.
- 6. Breast, Best End.
- 7. Blade Bone.
- 8. Fore Knuckle.
- 9. Breast, Brisket End.
- 10. Neck, Scrag End.
Mutton.
Table of Contents - 1. Leg.
- 2. Shoulder.
- 3. Loin, Best End.
- 4. Loin, Chump End.
- 5. Neck, Best End.
- 6. Breast.
- 7. Neck, Scrag End.
- Note.-A Chine is two Loins; and a Saddle is two Loins and two Necks of the Best End.
Pork.
Table of Contents - 1. Leg.
- 2. Hind Loin.
- 3. Fore Loin.
- 4. Spare Rib.
- 5. Hand.
- 6. Spring.
Venison.
Table of Contents - 1. Shoulder.
- 2. Neck.
- 3. Haunch.
- 4. Breast.
- 5. Scrag.
MISS LESLIE'S
NEW
COOKERY BOOK.
Table of Contents SOUPS.
Table of Contents It is impossible to have good soup, without a sufficiency of good meat; thoroughly boiled, carefully skimmed, and moderately seasoned. Meat that is too bad for any thing else, is too bad for soup. Cold meat recooked, adds little to its taste or nourishment, and it is in vain to attempt to give poor soup a factitious flavor by the disguise of strong spices, or other substances which are disagreeable or unpalatable to at least one half the eaters, and frequently unwholesome. Rice and barley add to the insipidity of weak soups, having no taste of their own. And even if the meat is good, too large a proportion of water, and too small a quantity of animal substance will render it flat and vapid.
Every family has, or ought to have, some personal knowledge of certain poor people-people to whom their broken victuals would be acceptable. Let then the most of their cold, fresh meat be set apart for those who can ill afford to buy meat in market. To them it will be an important acquisition; while those who indulge in fine clothes, fine furniture, &c., had best be consistent, and allow themselves the nourishment and enjoyment of freshly cooked food for each meal. Therefore where there is no absolute necessity of doing otherwise, let the soup always be made of meat bought expressly for the purpose, and of one sort only, except when the flavor is to be improved by the introduction of ham.
In plain cooking, every dish should have a distinct taste of its natural flavor predominating. Let the soup, for instance, be of beef, mutton, or veal, but not of all three; and a chicken, being overpowered by the meat, adds nothing to the general flavor.
Soup-meat that has been boiled long enough to extract the juices thoroughly, becomes too tasteless to furnish, afterwards, a good dish for the table; with the exception of mutton, which may be eaten very well after it has done duty in the soup-pot, when it is much liked by many persons of simple tastes. Few who are accustomed to living at hotels, can relish hotel soups, which (even in houses where most other things are unexceptionable), is seldom such as can be approved by persons who are familiar with good tables. Hotel soups and hotel hashes, (particularly...
