On Flesh - Meats - Dairy
BEEF. The large stall fed ox beef is the best, it has a coarse open grain, and oily smoothness; dent it with your finger and it will immediately rise again; if old, it will be rough and spungy, and the dent remain.
Cow Beef is less boned, and generally more tender and juicy than the ox, in America, which is used to labor.
Of almost every piece of Animals, Birds and Fishes, the female is the tenderest, the richest flavour'd, and among poultry the soonest fattened.
Mutton, grass-fed, is good two or three years old.
Lamb, if under six months is rich, and no danger of imposition; it may be known by is size, in distinguishing either.
Veal, is soon lost--great care therefore is necessary in purchasing. Veal bro't to market in panniers, or in carriages, is to be preferred to that brought in bags, and flouncing on a sweaty horse.
Pork, is known by its size, and whether properly fattened by its appearance.
To make the best Bacon.
To each ham put one once of saltpetre, one pint bay salt, one pint molasses, shake together 6 or 8 weeks, or when a large quantity is together, bast them with the liquor every day; when taken out to dry, smoke three weeks with cobs or malt fumes. To every ham may be added a cheek, if you stoy away a barrel and not alter the composition, some add a shoulder. For transportation or exportation, double the period of smoking.
Fish, how to choose the best in market.
Salmon, the noblest and richest fish taken in fresh water--the largest are the best. They are unlike almost every other fish, are ameliorated by being 3 or 4 days out of water, if kept from heat and the moon, which had much more injurious effect than the sun.
In all great fish markets, great fish-mongers strictly examine the gills--if the bright redness is exchanged for a low brown, they are stale; but when live fish are brought flouncing into market, you have only to elect the kind most agreeable to your palate and the season.
Shad, contrary to the generally received opinion are not so much richer flavored, as they are harder when fish taken out of water; opinions vary respecting them. I have tasted Shad thirty or forty miles from the place where caught, and really conceived that they had a richness of flavor, which did not appertain to those taken fresh and cooked immediately, and have proved both at the same table, and the truth may rest here, that a Shad 36 or 48 hours out of water, may not cook so hard and solid, and be esteemed so elegant, yet give a higher relished flavor to the taste.
Every species generally of salt water Fish, are best fresh from the water, though the Hannah Hill, Black Fish, Oyster, Flounder, Bass, Cod, Haddock, and Eel, with many others, may be transported by land many miles, find a good market, and retain a good relish; but as generally, live ones are bought first, deceits are used to give them a freshness of appearance, such as peppering the gills, wetting the fins and tails, and even painting the gills, or wetting with animal blood. Experience and attention will dictate the choice of the best. Fresh gills, full bright eyes, moist fins and tails, are denotements of their being fresh caught; if they are soft, its certain they are stale, but if deceits are used, your smell must approve or denounce them, and be your safest guide.
Of all fresh water fish, there are none that require, or so well afford haste in cookery, as the Salmon Trout, they are best when caught under a fall or cateract--from what philosophical circumstance is yet unsettled, yet true it is, that at the foot of a fall the waters are much colder than at the head; Trout choose those waters; if taken from them and hurried into dress, they are genuinely good; and take rank in point of superiority of flavor, of most other fish.
Perch and Roach, are noble pan fish, the deeper the water from whence taken, the finer are their flavors; if taken from shallow water, with muddy bottoms. They are impregnated therewith, and are unsavory.
Eels, though taken from muddy bottoms, are best to jump in the pan.
Most white or soft fish are best bloated, which is done by salting, peppering and drying in the sun, and in a chimney; after 30 or 40 hours of drying, are best broiled, and moistened with butter, &c.
Poultry--how to choose.
Having before stated that the female in almost every instance, is preferable to the male, and peculiarly so in the Peacock, which, tho' beautifully plumaged, is tough, hard, stringy and untasted, and even indelicious--while the Pea Hen is exactly otherwise, and the queen of all birds. So also in a degree, Turkey.
Hen Turkey, is higher and richer flavor'd, easier fattened and plumper--they are no odds in market.
Dunghill Fowls, are from their frequent use, a tolerable proofs of the former birds.
Chickens, of either kind are good, and the yellow leg'd the best, and their taste the sweetest.
Capons, if young are good, are known by short spurs and smooth legs.
All birds are known, whether fresh killed or stale, by a tight vent in the former, and a loose open vent if old or stale; their smell denotes their goodness; specled rough legs denote age, while smooth legs and combs prove them young.
A goose, if young, the bill will be yellow, and will have but few hairs, the bones will crack easily; but if old, the contrary, the bill will be red, and the pads still redder; the joints stiff and difficultly disjointed; if young, otherwise; choose one not very fleshy on the breast, but fat in the rump.
Ducks, are similar to geese.
Wild Ducks, have redder pads, and smaller than the tame ones, otherwise are like the goose or tame duck, or to be chosen by the same rules.
Wood Cocks, ought to be thick, fat and flesh firm, the nose dry, and throat clear.
Snipes, if young and fat, have full veins under the wing, and are small in the veins, otherwise like the Woodcock.
Partridges, if young, will have black bills, yellowish legs; if old, the legs look bluish; if old or stale, it may be perceived by smelling at their mouths.
Pigeons, young, have red legs, and the flesh of a colour, and prick easily--old have red legs, blackish in parts, more hairs, plumper and loose vents--so also of grey or green Plover, Black Birds, Thrash, Lark, and wild Fowl in general.
Hares, are white flesh'd and flexible when fresh kill'd; if stale, their flesh will have a blackish hue, like old pigeons, if the cleft in her lip spread much, is wide and ragged, she is old; the contrary when young.
Leveret, is like the Hare in every respect, that some are obliged to search for the knob, or small bone on the fore leg or foot, to distinguish them.
Rabbits, the wild are the best, either are good and tender; if old there will be much yellowish fat about the kidneys, the claws long, wool rough, and mixed with grey hairs; if young the reverse. As to their being fresh, judge by the scent, they soon perish, if trap'd or shot, and left in pelt or undressed; their taint is quicker than veal, and the most sickish in nature; and will not, like beef or veal, be purged by fire.
The cultivation of Rabbits would be profitable in America, if the best methods were pursued--they are a very prolific and profitable animal--they are easily cultivated if properly attended, but not otherwise.--A Rabbit's borough, on which 3000 dollars may have been expended, might be very profitable; but on the small scale they would be well near market towns--easier bred, and more valuable.
Butter--Tight, waxy, yellow Butter is better than white or crumbly, which soon becomes rancid and frowy. Go into the centre of balls or rolls to prove and judge it; if in firkin, the middle is to be prefered, as the sides are frequently distasted by the wood of the firkin--altho' oak and used for years. New pine tubs are ruinous to the butter. To have sweet butter in dog days, and thro' the vegetables seasons, send stone pots to honest, neat, and trusty dairy people, and procure it pac'k down in May, and let them be brought in in the night, or cool rainy morning, covered with a clean cloth wet in cold water, and partake of no heat from the horse, and set the pots in the coldest part of your cellar, or in the ice-house. Some say that May butter thus preserved will go into the winter use better than fall made butter.
Cheese--the red smooth moist coated, and tight pressed, square edged Cheese, are better than white coat, hard rinded, or bilged; the inside should be yellow, and flavored to your taste. Old shelves which have only been wiped down for years, are preferable to scoured and washed shelves. Deceits are used by salt petering the out side, or colouring with hemlock, cocumberries, or safron, infused into the milk; the taste of either supercedes every possible evasion.
Eggs--Clear, thin shell'd, longest oval and sharp ends are best; to ascertain whether new or stale--hold to the light, if the white is clear, the yolk regularly in the centre, they are good--but if otherwise, they are stale The best possible method of ascertaining, is to put them into water; if they lye on their bilge, they are good and fresh--if they bob up an end they are stale, and if they rise they are addled, proved, and of no use.
To Roast Beef.
THE general rules are, to have a brisk hot fire, to hang down rather than to spit, to baste with salt water, and one quarter of an hour to every pound of beef, though tender beef will require less, while old tough beef will require more roasting; pricking with a fork will determine you whether done or not; rare done is the healthiest and the taste of this age.
Roast Mutton.
If a breast let it be cauled, if a leg, stuffed or not, let it be a done more gently than beef, and done more; the chine, saddle or leg require more fire and longer time than the breast, &c. Garnish with scraped horse radish, and serve with potatoes, beans, colliflowers, water-cresses, or boiled onion, caper sauce, mashed turnip, or lettuce.
Roast Veal.
As it is more tender than beef or mutton, and easily scorched, paper it, especially the fat parts, lay it some distance from the fire a while to heat gently, baste it well; a 15 pound piece requires one hour and a quarter roasting; garnish with green-parsley and sliced lemon.
Roast Lamb.
Lay down to a clear good fire that will not want stirring or altering, baste with butter, dust on flour, baste with the dripping, and before you take it up, add more butter and sprinkle on a little salt and parsley shred fine; send to table with a nice sallad, green peas, fresh beans, or a colliflower, or asparagus.
To stuff a Turkey.
Grate a wheat loaf, one quarter of a pound butter, one quarter of a pound salt pork, finely chopped, 2 eggs, a little sweet marjoram, summer savory, parsley and sage, pepper and salt (if the pork be not sufficient,) fill the bird and sew up.
The same will answer for all Wild Fowl.
Water Fowls require onions.
The same ingredients stuff a leg of Veal, fresh Pork, or a loin of veal.
To stuff and roast a Turkey, or Fowl.
One pound soft wheat bread, 3 ounces beef suet, 3 eggs, a little sweet thyme, sweet majoram, pepper and salt, and some add a gill of wine; fill the bird therewith and sew up, hand down to a steady solid fire, basting frequently with salt and water, and roast until a steam emits from the breast, put one third of a pound of butter into the gravy, dust flour over the bird and baste with the gravy; serve up with boiled onions and cramberry-sauce, mangoes, pickles or celery.
Others omit the sweet herbs, and add parsley done with potatoes.
Boil and mash 3 pints potatoes, wet them with butter, add sweet herbs, pepper, salt, fill and roast as above.
To stuff and roast a Goslin.
Boil the inwards tender, chop them fine, put double quantity of grated bread, 4 ounces butter, pepper, salt, (and sweet herbs if you like) 2 eggs moulded into the stuffing, parboil 4 onions and chop them into the stuffing, add wine, and roast the bird.
The above is a good stuffing for every kind of Water Fowl, which requires onion sauce.
To smother a Fowl in Oysters.
Fill the bird with dry Oysters, and sew up and boil in water just sufficient to cover the bird, salt and season to your taste--when done tender, put into a deep dish and pour over it a pint of stewed oysters, well buttered and peppered, garnish a turkey with sprigs of parsley or leaves of cellery: a fowl is best with a parsley sauce.
To stuff a Leg of Veal.
Take one pound of veal, half pound pork (salted,) one pound grated bread, chop all very fine, with a handful of green parsley, pepper it, add 3 ounces butter and 3 eggs, (and sweet herbs if you like them,) cut the leg round like a ham and stab it full of holes, and fill in all the stuffing; then salt and pepper the leg and dust on some flour; if baked in an oven put into a sauce pan with a little water, if potted, lay some scewers at the bottom of the pot, put in a little water and lay the leg on the scewers, with a gentle fire render it tender, (frequently adding water,) when done take out the leg, put butter in the pot and brown the leg, the gravy in a seperate vessel must be thickened and buttered and a spoonful of ketchup added.
To stuff a leg of Pork to bake or roast.
Corn the leg 48 hours and stuff with sausage meat and bake in a hot oven two hours and an half or roast.
To alamode a round of Beef.
To a 14 or 16 pound round of beef, put one once salt-petre, 48 hours after stuff it with the following: one and half pound of beef, one pound salt pork, two pound grated bread, chop all fine and rub in half pound butter, salt, pepper and cayenne, summer savory, thyme; lay it on scewers in a large pot, over three pints hot water (which it must occasionally be supplied with,) the steam of which in 4 or 5 hours will render the round tender if over a moderate fire; when tender, take away the gravy and thicken with flour and butter, and boil, brown the round with butter and flour, adding ketchup and wine to your taste.
To alamode a round.
Take fat pork cut in slices or mince, season it with pepper, salt sweet marjoram and thyme, cloves, mace and nutmeg, make holes in the beef and stuff it the night before cooked; put some bones across the bottom of the pot to keep from burning, put in one quart Claret wine, one quart water and one onion; lay the round on the bones, cover close and stop it round the top with dough; hang on in the morning and stew gently two hours; when done tender, grate a crust of bread on the top and brown it before the fire; scum the gravy and serve in a butter boat, serve it with the residue of the gravy in the dish.
To Dress a Turtle.
Fill a boiler or kettle, with a quantity of water sufficient to scald the callapach and Callapee, the fins, &c. and about 9 o'clock hang up your Turtle by the hind fins, cut off the head and save the blood, take a sharp pointed knife and seperate the callapach from the callapee, or the back from the belly part, down to the shoulders, so as to come to the entrails which take out, and clean them, as you would those of any other animal, and throw them into a tub of clean water, taking great care not to break the gall, but to cut it off from the liver and throw it away, then seperate each distinctly and put the guts in another vessel, open them with a small pen-knife end to end, wash them clean, and draw them through a woolen cloth, in warm water, to clear away the slime and then put them in clean cold water till they are used with the other parts of the entrails, which must be cut up small to be mixed in the baking dishes with the meat; this done, separate the back and belly pieces, entirely cutting away the fore fins by the upper joint, which scald; peal off the loose skin and cut them into small pieces, laying them by themselves, either in another vessel, or on the table, ready to be seasoned; then cut off the meat from the belly part, and clean the back from the lungs, kidneys, &c. and that meat cut into pieces as small as a walnut, laying it likewise by itself; after this you are to scald the back and belly pieces, pulling off the shell from the back, and the yellow skin from the belly, when all will be white and clean, and with the kitchen cleaver cut those up likewise into pieces about the bigness or breadth of a card; put those pieces into clean cold water, wash them and place them in a heap on the table, so that each part may lay by itself; the meat being thus prepared and laid seperate for seasoning; mix two thirds part of salt or rather more, and one third part of cayenne pepper, black pepper, and a nutmeg, and mace pounded fine, and mixt altogether; the quantity to be proportioned to the size of the Turtle, so that in each dish there may be about three spoonfuls of seasoning to evey twelve pound of meat; your meat being thus seasoned, get some sweet herbs, such as thyme, savory, &c. let them be dryed and rub'd fine, and having provived some deep dishes to bake it in, which should be of the common brown ware, put in the coarsest part of the meat, put a quarter pound of butter at the bottom of each dish, and then put some of each of the several parcels of meat, so that the dishes may be all alike and have equal portions of the different parts of the Turtle, and between each laying of meat strew a little of the mixture of sweet herbs, fill your dishes within an inch an half, or two inches of the top; boil the blood of the Turtle, and put into it, then lay on forcemeat balls made of veal, highly seasoned with the same seasoning as the Turtle; put in each dish a gill of Madeira Wine, and as much water as it will conveniently hold, then break over it five or six eggs to keep the meat from scorching at the top, and over that shake a handful of shread parsley, to make it look green, when done put your dishes into an oven made hot enough to bake bread, and in an hour and half, or two hours (according to the size of the dishes) it will be sufficiently done.
To dress a Calves Head. Turtle fashion.
The head and feet being well scalded and cleaned, open the head, taking the brains, wash, pick and cleanse, salt and pepper and parsley them and put bye in a cloth; boil the head, feet and heartslet one and quarter, or one and half hour, sever out the bones, cut the skin and meat in slices, strain the liquor in which boiled and put by; clean the pot very clean or it will burn too, make a layer of the slices, which dust with a composition made of black pepper one spoon, of sweet herbs pulverized, two spoons (sweet marjoram and thyme are most approved) a tea spoon of cayenne, one pound butter, then dust with flour, then a layer of slices with slices of veal and seasoning till compleated, cover the liquor, stew gently three quarters of an hour. To make the forced meat balls--take one and half pound veal, one pound grated bread, 4 ounces raw salt pork, mince and season with above and work with 3 whites into balls, one or one an half inch diameter, roll in flour, and fry in very hot butter till brown, then chop the brains fine and stir into the whole mess in the pot, put thereto, one third part of the fryed balls and pint wine or less, when all is heated thro' take off and serve in tureens, laying the residue of the balls and hard boiled and pealed eggs into a dish, garnish with slices of lemon.
A Stew Pie.
Boil a shoulder of Veal, and cut up, salt, pepper, and butter half pound, and slices of raw salt pork, make a layer of meat, and a layer of biscuit, or biscuit dough into a pot, cover close and stew half an hour in three quarts of water only.
A Sea Pie.
Four pound of flour, one and half pound of butter rolled into paste, wet with cold water, line the pot therewith lay in split pigeons, turkey pies, veal, mutton or birds, with slices of pork, salt, pepper, and dust on flour, doing thus till the pot is full or your ingredients expended, add three pints water, cover tight with paste, and stew moderately two and half hours.
A Chicken Pie.
Pick and clean six chickens, (without scalding) take out their inwards and wash the birds while whole then joint the birds, salt and pepper the pieces and inwards. Roll one inch thick paste No. 8, and cover a deep dish, and double at the rim or edge of the dish, put thereto a layer of chickens and a layer of thin slices of butter till the chickens and one and a half pound butter are expended, which cover with a thick paste; bake one and a half hour. Or if your oven be poor, parboil the chickens with half a pound of butter, and put the pieces with the remaining one pound of butter, and half the gravy into the paste, and while boiling, thicken the residue of the gravy, and when the pie is drawn, open the crust, and add the gravy.
Minced Pies. A Foot Pie.
Scald neets feet, and clean well, (grass fed are best) put them into a large vessel of cold water, which change daily during a week, then boil the feet till tender, and take away the bones, when cold, chop fine, to every four pound minced meat, add one pound of beef suet, and four pound apple raw, and a little salt, chop all together very fine, add one quart of wine, two pound of stoned raisins, one ounce of cinnamon, one ounce mace, and sweeten to your taste; make use of paste No. 3--bake three quarters of an hour.
Weeks after, when you have occasion to use them, carefully raise the top crust, and with a round edg'd spoon, collect the meat into a bason, which warm with additional wine and spices to the taste of your circle, while the crust is also warm'd like a hoe cake, put carefully together and serve up, by this means you can have hot pies through the winter, and enrich'd singly to your company.
Tongue Pie.
One pound neat's tongue, one pound apple, one third of a pound of Sugar, one quarter of a pound of butter, one pint of wine, one pound of raisins, or currants, (or half of each) half ounce of cinnamon and mace--bake in paste No. 1, in proportion to size.
Minced Pie of Beef.
Four pound boiled beef, chopped fine, and salted; six pound of raw apple chopped also, one pound beef suet, one quart of wine or rich sweet cider, one ounce mace, and cinnamon, a nutmeg, two pounds raisins, bake in paste No. 3, three fourths of an hour.
All meat pies require a hotter and brisker oven than fruit pies, in good cookeries, all raisins should be stoned.--As people differ in their tastes, they may alter to their wishes. And as it is difficult to ascertain with precision the small articles of spicery; every one may relish as they like, and suit their taste.
Alamode Beef.
Take a round of beef, and stuff it with half pound pork, half pound of butter, the soft of half a loaf of wheat bread, boil four eggs very hard, chop them up; and sweet marjoram, sage, parsley, summersavory, and one ounce of cloves pounded, chop them all together, with two eggs very fine, and add a gill of wine, season very high with salt and pepper, cut holes in your beef, to put your stuffing in, then stick whole cloves into the beef, then put it into a two pail pot, with sticks at the bottom, if you wish to have the beef round when done, put it into a cloth and bind it tight with 20 or 30 yards of twine, put it into your pot with two or three quarts of water, and one gill of wine, if the round be large it will take three or four hours to bake it.
For dressing Codfish.
Put the fish first into cold water and wash it, then hang it over the fire and soak it six hours in scalding water, then shift it into clean warm water, and let it scald for one hour, it will be much better than to boil.
American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life.
By Amelia Simmons
Hartford: Printed for Simeon Butler, Northampton, (1798)
Note: This information also appears in a book which is essentially a pirated editon of Amelia Simmons' American Cookery (1798).
The New-England cookery, or the art of dressing all kinds of flesh, fish, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plumb to the plain cake. Particularly adapted to this part of our country.
By Lucy Emerson
Montpelier, VT: Printed for Josiah Parks, 1808.
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Chelsea Fable Tea Pot, C.1752-3. Painted by Jeffreys Hamett O'Neal. Aesop's Fable of "The Goat In The Well."
