The Best Way - A Book Of Household Hints & Recipes

By Read Books Ltd.

Originally published in 1915, this is a practical household guide written `for housewives by housewives'. This book is absolutely packed with advice and hints that will still be of much practical use today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Vintage Cookery Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include Soups Fish Dinner Dishes Vegetable Cookery Pastry and Puddings Sweets and Creams Savouries Breakfast Dishes Cold Meat Cookery Invalid Cookery Cakes and Candies Sauces, Pickles, and Preserves Beverages Cookery Crumbs Bread, Buns, and Tea-Cakes Notes for The Home Doctor Care of Clothes Household Hints and Helps for the Housewife Nursery Notes Toilet Hints What a Housewife Ought to know

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473390218

Book preview

INDEX

THE

BEST WAY BOOK

(No. 2)

A PRACTICAL HOUSEHOLD GUIDE WRITTEN FOR

HOUSEWIVES BY HOUSEWIVES.

BEING THE COMPANION VOLUME TO THE FIRST "BEST WAY

BOOK" (WITH THE RED COVER).

IN placing this, the housewives’ Best Way Book (No. 2), before her readers, the Editress commends this little household guide to the attention of the hundred thousand ladies who were delighted by its predecessor, No. 1. The huge success attained by the first edition of the Best Way Book was entirely due to its practical and common-sense origin, since it was compiled entirely from tried recipes and hints of 850 British housewives who have gained the weekly prizes offered in the Best Way pages of that popular little weekly journal Woman’s World.

in every respect Best Way Book (No. 2) is a worthy companion volume to the red-covered Best Way Book, which has found a place as a proved and trusted reference volume in

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND KITCHENS.

It has been compiled from a wider circle of writers than its predecessor, for its contents have been contributed, not only by the practical housewives who gain the thirty weekly prizes offered by Woman’s World, but also by those prize winners whose tried recipes find a place in the Help One Another pages of The Home Companion, the Helps Along the Way feature of Family Stories, and the Save Your Pennies columns of that popular weekly The Family Journal.

Ladies who purchase this little work for the first time should not fail to obtain a copy of the first Best Way Book (the book with the red cover), which may still be obtained, price 6d. net, from every newsagent. The first Best Way Book contains 850 recipes and hints, all of which are distinct from the 1,000 household and cookery hints which appear in this volume.

If you have any useful hint or recipe which does not appear in these pages, send it to the Best Way Editress of Woman’s World at once. Each week, thirty half-crowns and other prizes are awarded to the senders of the best short cookery, laundry, and household hints which are published in this journal. The Help One Another pages of The Home Companion (price 1d., every Tuesday), the Helps Along the Way feature of Family Stories (price 1d., every Tuesday), and the Save Your Pennies columns of The Family Journal (price 1d., every Friday), also welcome and pay for such hints.

If your hint is a good one you are sure to get a prize, and it will doubtless find a place in the third Best Way Book, which will appear later on.

WOMAN’S WORLD, THE HOME COMPANION, FAMILY STORIES, AND FAMILY JOURNAL OFFICES,

THE FLEETWAY HOUSE,

FARRINGDON STREET,

LONDON, E.C.

SOUPS.

CARMELITE SOUP.

Ingredients.—A head of celery (or a tablespoonful of celery-seed), two large leeks (white part only), three large potatoes, six pints of water.

Boil all till tender, rub through a sieve, add one pint of milk, an ounce of butter, and three lumps of sugar. Thicken with a dessertspoonful of cornflour when boiling. Bring to boiling-point, and serve.

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CELERY SOUP.

Take two leeks or onions, two small heads of celery, well wash, cut up into pieces, and put into a saucepan with one ounce of butter; fry for five minutes with the lid on. Add one pint of white stock and a cupful of milk; simmer for one hour, then pass through a hair sieve, and season with pepper, salt, and a squeeze of lemon. Boil up again, and thicken with a little cornflour if required. A tablespoonful of cream added just before serving is an improvement.

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BEEF OR MUTTON SOUP.

Cut up three-quarters of a pound of lean beef or mutton. Wash a quarter of a pound of rice, and cut up a quarter of a pound each of turnip, carrot, and tomato—the meat and vegetables may be cut to about half an inch square. Cut up also three stalks of celery very small, or, if you prefer, three sprigs of parsley. Place the meat and rice with four quarts of cold water in a saucepan, and let it boil gradually; add the vegetables, and salt and pepper to taste, and boil gently until the food is tender. To bring up the quantity to the four quarts, add boiling water.

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SOUTH AFRICAN SOUP.

Scald a medium-sized onion with boiling water, then chop it, and put it in a pan with one pint of water, and boil till nearly done. Add to it one quart of milk, bring it to the boil, and thicken with a little cornflour to the consistency of thick cream. Add a piece of butter the size of a walnut, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and season with salt and pepper. Boil a few minutes.

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LEEK SOUP.

Ingredients.—Six leeks, two quarts of stock, half a head of celery, half a carrot, pepper and salt.

Wash the leeks well, and slice very thinly the white part of them. Put them in a stewpan with the stock, celery, carrot, and seasoning. Boil together, and skim carefully, and then stand the pot on the side of the fire to simmer gently for two hours and a half. Pass all the vegetables through a sieve, replace them in the soup, and serve.

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SCOTCH BARLEY BROTH.

Well wash three-quarters of a pound of Scotch barley in cold water. Put it in a soup-pot with two pounds of shin or leg of beef sawn in small pieces. Cover it with cold water, and when it boils, skim it clean, and put in two onions of a medium size. Simmer gently for two hours; let it cool, and then skim off all the fat. Put in two heads of celery and one turnip, cut up small, season with salt and pepper, and let it boil for another hour and a half. This is considered a most frugal and nutritive broth, and, as it is not an expensive dish, should be much appreciated.

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CREAM OF BARLEY SOUP.

Wash a teacupful of barley and put in a saucepan with two quarts of chicken stock, add one onion chopped, a small piece of mace, and a piece of cinnamon-stick; let all simmer very gently for three hours. Strain, and after rubbing ingredients through a sieve, return the stock to the saucepan. Add one ounce of butter, beat two yolks of eggs with half a pint of milk, remove the pan from the fire, strain all among the soup, which sufficiently cooks the eggs. Add pepper and salt to taste.

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EMPRESS SOUP.

Chop up finely two onions, and fry them in a saucepan in two ounces of butter, keeping on the lid of the pan. When a nice golden brown, sift over them two ounces of flour. In another saucepan put two quarts of milk on to boil, and when boiling put in the onions. Stir well, and boil for fifteen minutes. Mix together the yolks of two eggs with two teaspoonfuls of grated cheese, put them into a saucepan, and on them strain the soup. Blend well, and re-heat, but do not boil or the eggs will curdle.

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AMERICAN SOUP.

One pound of neck of mutton, three-quarters of a pound of peas, fresh, dried, or split, three-quarters of a pound of tomatoes, fresh or tinned, an onion, carrot, and turnip, a saltspoonful of sugar, a little celery, salt and pepper, two and a half quarts of water.

Soak the peas, and put them in a pan with the mutton and water. Boil up, then add the onion, carrot, turnip, and celery cut into small pieces, and the sugar. Boil gently for two hours, then add the tomatoes, also cut up small, and boil half an hour longer. Take out the meat and put the soup through a fine sieve. Return it to the saucepan, add the pepper and salt and a teacupful of small squares of fried or toasted bread, and serve.

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SHEEP’S HEAD BROTH.

Get from your butcher a nice-sized sheep’s head, average cost about sixpence. Put it into a large basin with plenty of water, and let it stand for an hour and a half to clear off all blood, etc. Give a final washing with salt and water. Boil it slowly all day in plenty of water salted to taste. Next day strain and add twopennyworth of herbs. Keep the soup in a tureen or large jar, where it becomes a firm jelly, which can be cut as required daily, and, if preferred, herbs added like-wise.

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HASTY SOUP.

One small vegetable marrow, a dust of nutmeg, a pint of milk, one quart of water, an ounce of butter, salt and pepper to taste, and a small tablespoonful of flour.

Peel and cut up the marrow, put it in a pan with the butter, water, nutmeg, a teaspoonful of salt, and some pepper. Cover the pan, and simmer about an hour. Then rub the marrow through a sieve. Return to the pan, add the milk and the flour smoothly mixed, and boil up. A very little cream is a great improvement.

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KIDNEY SOUP.

Required.—One bone, one kidney, one onion, one carrot, half a turnip, a small stick of celery, salt and pepper.

Put the bone into five pints of water and simmer for eight hours. Stand in a cool place till morning, when remove all fat which will have risen to the top. Then strain, and put in the vegetables. Wash the kidney, cut it into pieces, sprinkle with pepper and salt, put it into a saucepan and brown well. When thoroughly browned, add half a pint of water and simmer for one hour. Then put it into the stock, and let all simmer for two hours. Then take out the vegetables, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour mixed with cold water, adding a spoonful of Yorkshire relish.

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SAVOY SOUP.

Put a good-sized cabbage into a saucepan with some carrots, onions, celery, and a beef-bone. Add a quart of water, and simmer for five hours. Then strain and take off any fat. Put back the best pieces of cabbage; season with pepper and salt, and serve very hot.

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SOUP A LA REINE.

Three quarts of water, two or three shank bones of mutton, quarter of a pound of lean gammon of bacon, a bunch of sweet herbs, a piece of lemon-peel, two or three onions, and a dessertspoonful of white pepper.

Clean the bones carefully, and put all the ingredients in three quarts of water; let it come to the boil, thicken with vermicelli, and serve.

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MONK’S BROTH.

Take two cupfuls of dry beans, put them on to boil, and boil until tender; add two large turnips. Cut up also four medium-sized carrots and two large onions and a small bunch of parsley. Stir constantly, so as to break up the vegetables, or add a little flour to thicken. A little macaroni or vermicelli may be added, if liked. These ingredients make enough for eight people.

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CREAM OF SPINACH.

Wash and boil six pounds of spinach in salted water. Drain and chop very fine. Put in a stewpan with two ounces of butter, salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. Stir over the fire until the moisture is almost evaporated, then stir in an ounce and a half of flour, and three pints of boiled milk. When the mixture has boiled for a minute, remove from the fire, rub it twice through a fine sieve, and return to the pan. Stir, and heat it well without boiling it. Add a little more butter and half a cup of cream. Serve with fried breadcrumbs.

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NUTRITIOUS SOUP.

Ingredients.—One pound of skirt of beef, one onion, carrot, turnip, and parsley.

Method.—Cut beef in small pieces same as for beef-tea, chop onion very finely. Cut up carrot and turnip, and mince parsley. Put on meat in soup pot with sufficient water for soup required (or if you have stock, so much the better). Keep stirring till and through the boil; add vegetables (except parsley); boil for two hours, and put in parsley just before serving.

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MANX SOUP.

Ingredients.—Three pounds of potatoes, one pound and a half of onions, half a pound of pearl barley, a few outside leaves of celery, a pennyworth of carrots and turnips, and two ounces of dripping.

Slice the potatoes and onions after paring and washing them, and fry them nicely with the dripping in the saucepan you are making the soup in, and dredge in a little flour. Cut all the vegetables up fine, and let the whole simmer gently for two hours. If liked, a little chopped parsley added just before serving is an improvement. Serve with toast. Cost about 8d.

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SPANISH SOUP.

Soak a rabbit in salted water for half an hour, then wash it in very hot water till all the blood is out. Cut it up into small pieces, and put it into a pan with two quarts and a pint of boiling water. Add two ounces of ham, a teacupful of tomatoes, two onions cut in slices, two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a small carrot, turnip, and stick of celery, cut small, one teaspoonful each of peppercorns and capers, a little thyme and parsley, and two bay-leaves. Boil for two hours, simmering gently, then strain through a sieve, and season to taste with salt and cayenne pepper. Thicken with a little cornflour or vermicelli, and boil for a few minutes longer.

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THICK SOUP.

Put two quarts of water in a clean saucepan with a dessertspoonful of salt. Take two turnips, four onions, five potatoes, one stalk of celery, and a bunch of parsley, chop up small, and put, with the exception of the parsley, into the water when it boils. Boil for an hour and a half. Moisten a tablespoonful of flour with a little cold water; add this, with a cupful of milk, and the parsley, finely chopped, and boil for quarter of an hour longer; then serve.

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TAPIOCA CREAM SOUP.

To every pint of well-seasoned white stock allow one ounce of fine crushed tapioca, two yolks of eggs, and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Boil up the stock, then slowly shake in the tapioca, stirring it until cooked—about seven minutes. When done, it will float on the top. Beat up the yolks of the eggs, add the cream to them; let the soup cool a little, then put two or three tablespoonfuls of it with the eggs and cream, and return all into the soup. Stir it carefully over the fire, just to cook the eggs, but do not let it boil.

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ONION SOUP.

Ingredients.—Three medium-sized onions, a little butter, one pint of stock, some grated breadcrumbs, a cupful of milk, seasoning of salt and cayenne.

Method.—Peel and cut the onions into small pieces, fry them in a saucepan in a little butter till tender, but not brown. Pour over them the stock, add the salt and cayenne, and simmer for a quarter of an hour or a little longer. Press the soup through a sieve, return to the saucepan, add the breadcrumbs and the milk, which must be made hot. Taste for seasoning, add more if required, and serve with small dice of toast, or, better still, fried croutons. This is a most economical soup, and one that has the advantage of being quickly prepared.

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TOMATO SOUP MAIGRE.

Slice a large onion, and fry it to a good brown in a saucepan. Pour over it a tin of tomatoes which have been well chopped, and two cupfuls of boiling water. When the tomatoes are tender, rub them through a colander, put them back into the saucepan with a cup of boiled rice. Thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with the same amount of flour. Boil up again, and serve.

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WINTER SOUP.

Ingredients.—One pound of neck of mutton, one pound of dried peas, one carrot, one parsnip, a stick of celery, a small piece of turnip, one leek or onion, a small piece of cabbage, pinch of carbonate of soda, one teaspoonful of sugar, and one teaspoonful of salt.

Soak the peas for a night, and put them on in twelve breakfastcupfuls of cold water, adding the carbonate of soda, sugar, and salt. When the water gets hot, add the mutton, well washed, and cut in small pieces. Let it boil, then add all the other vegetables, finely shredded. Cook for two hours, add pepper and salt to taste, and serve.

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FRENCH VEGETABLE SOUP.

Melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan over a nice clear fire. Cut up into small pieces four large potatoes, three small onions, two small turnips, one carrot, and a stick of celery. Let all cook in the butter for a few minutes. Then add three pints of white stock, and let the soup boil slowly until the vegetables are quite soft. Strain through a sieve and rub the vegetables through. Return all to the saucepan, and add one ounce of crushed tapioca. Stir while the soup boils, or it will be lumpy. Then draw aside for ten minutes until the tapioca is cooked, stirring now and again. Just before serving add some very finely-chopped parsley and seasoning to taste. This makes a delicious soup.

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ECONOMICAL SOUP.

Make a stock of bones and bits of meat, strain and add to each quart of stock a tiny bit of cayenne pepper and a coffee-cup of chopped vegetables, onion, carrot, turnip and potato in equal proportions; salt to taste. Simmer until done. When time to serve, stir in carefully one well-beaten egg.

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VEAL BROTH.

Ingredients: A knuckle of veal, a slice of lean ham, two onions, a bunch of thyme, a few cloves, half a blade of mace, four ounces of pounded almonds, half a pint of milk, an egg, and water in proportion to meat.

Take the knuckle of veal, separate it into several pieces, and put it into a stewpan with the ham, onions, and bunch of thyme, cloves, and mace. Pour in enough water for the quantity of soup required, and let it stew for fourteen hours until the stock is as rich as the ingredients can make it. When sufficiently stewed, set it to cool, and carefully remove all fat. Add to it the blanched and pounded almonds and let it boil slowly again. Thicken with the milk and well-beaten egg, and boil up slowly again for another half hour, and serve.

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HINTS ON SOUP-MAKING.

The best base for soup is lean and uncooked meat in the proportion of a pound to a quart of water. Meat bones well broken up and added lend a very delicate flavour. With a combination of meats, such as beef, mutton, veal and ham bones, you will have a higher-flavoured soup than by using any one meat. It is well to remember that it is the meat and bones from the legs that are rich in gelatine, and these should be purchased in preference to all others for soup-making.

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To make a good soup, wash the meat and bones, and cover them with cold water in the saucepan in which they are to be cooked. Let them stand for two or three hours until the juices are partially extracted, and then set on the stove, and cook slowly—and that is very essential—until the meat is absolutely juiceless. The soup should be strained, and set away to cool. Soup stock should not be allowed to stand more than three days, as its delicate flavour is lost.

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Soup should have merely the flavour of salt, and there should be in it the warm tone which the judicious use of pepper gives. Other flavourings are sage, thyme, tarragon, mint, parsley, bay-leaves, cloves, mace, celery-seed, and onions. Many of these may be used in one soup, but they should be so delicately blended that no one is conspicuous.

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Rice, sago, pearl barley, macaroni, vermicelli, and cereals of this kind are valuable additions to meat soups. The first three are used in the proportion of half a teacupful to three quarts of soup. Wash thoroughly, and soak before cooking. Delicate flavours should be added just before serving, as boiling evaporates them.

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For brown soups use a dark sauce in a very small quantity to give the soup a very delicious flavour and colour.

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Soups should never be seasoned with black pepper, or the credit of having used a dirty utensil will ensue.

FISH.

SPICED COD.

Take a convenient piece of cold cod, set it in a deep dish, and remove the skin carefully. Boil together half a pint of the best vinegar, half a dozen cloves, a few peppercorns, and two whole allspice, and a little salt. After this pickle has boiled for five minutes pour over the fish slowly. With a silver spoon pour the pickle over the fish two or three times, and let it stand over-night. Next day drain, wipe dry, and serve with salad.

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COD’S ROE WITH DUTCH SAUCE.

Boil a fresh roe in salted water until firm. When cool, cut into slices a third of an inch thick. Lay them in a pickle made of a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar, a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, and a pinch of mixed spice. Leave them until next day, but turn them two or three times. When wanted, dry and flour them, beat the white of an egg lightly, pass them through it, and cover with seasoned breadcrumbs. Fry brown, and serve on kitchen paper with Dutch sauce, made by blending together half a teaspoonful of flour and an ounce of butter, put into a jar with a tablespoonful of water, another of Tarragon vinegar, and the yolk of an egg. Put the jar in a saucepan of cold water, and stir the sauce until it thickens over a gentle fire. Be careful to heat slowly, or it will curdle.

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COD’S HEAD AND SHOULDERS.

Ingredients: Cod’s head and shoulders, four ounces of salt to each gallon of water, a little horseradish, vinegar. Method: Rub a little salt down the bone and thick part of the fish and tie a fold or two of white tape round it to prevent its breaking. Lay it in a fish-kettle with just enough cold water to cover it, with salt added in the above proportion. Add three teaspoonfuls of vinegar and a little horseradish. Bring water to the verge of boiling, then draw the fish-kettle to the side of the fire, and let it simmer gently till the fish is done, which can easily be ascertained by trying it with a fish-slice, to see if the meat separates easily from the bone. Skim well and carefully. When done, drain it and slip it off the fish-strainer on a napkin neatly folded on a dish. Garnish with parsley and lemon.

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FISH CHOWDER.

Cut a fresh haddock into pieces about an inch thick and two inches square, removing all bones and skin. Cut four or five slices of salt pork, lay them in the bottom of an iron saucepan, and fry till crisp, but do not scorch. Take out the pork and leave the fat. Chop the pork into small pieces. Put into the pot a layer of fish, a layer of split cream crackers, then a layer of pork, a little pepper, and a little chopped onion. Then another layer of fish, etc., until all the fish and pork is used. Cover with water, and stew gently till all is tender. Thicken the gravy with cream cracker crumbs and ketchup. Take out the fish and boil up the gravy once. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon and pour the gravy over the fish. Cod or hake may be used instead of haddock.

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STEAMED FISH PUDDING.

Remove bones and skin from a pound of any uncooked fish; chop it finely, and mix with three ounces of suet, the same of breadcrumbs, a little salt, pepper, and parsley, two eggs well-beaten, and half a pint of milk. Thickly butter a basin, and press the mixture well into it. Cover with a greased paper, and steam for one hour. Serve with egg sauce.

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BOUDINETTES.

Take half a pound of fish, free from bone. Mince very fine, and mix it with a quarter of a pound of mashed potatoes; add a little sauce—anchovy, parsley, or melted butter. Failing these, a good spoonful of cream. Bind the mixture with the yolks of one or two eggs. Make into balls or cakes, and dip into the whites of the eggs and brown breadcrumbs. Fry, and serve on pieces of fried bread. This