Bake three layers of almond tart and flavor it with a wine glass of arrack. When baked, scrape part of the cake out of the thickest layer, not disturbing the rim, and reserve these crumbs to add to the following filling: Boil one-half pound of sugar in one-fourth cup of water until it spins a thread. Add to this syrup a wine glass of rum, and the crumbs, and spread over the layers, piling one on top of the other. Another way to fill this cake is to take some crab-apple jelly or apple marmalade and thin it with a little brandy.
Take cold roast or corned beef. Put it into a wooden bowl and chop it fine. Mix with it about twice the quantity of hot mashed potatoes well seasoned with butter and salt. Beat up an egg and work it into the potato and meat, then form the mixture into little cakes the size of fish balls. Flatten them a little, roll in flour or egg and cracker crumbs, fry in butter and lard mixed, browning on both sides. Serve piping hot.
Boil four or five parsnips; when tender take off the skin and mash them fine; add to them a teaspoonful of wheat flour and a beaten egg; put a tablespoonful of lard or beef drippings in a frying pan over the fire, add to it a saltspoonful of salt; when boiling hot put in the parsnips; make it in small cakes with a spoon; when one side is a delicate brown turn the other; when both are done take them on a dish, put a very little of the fat in which they were fried over and serve hot. These resemble very nearly the taste of the salsify or oyster plant, and will generally be preferred.
These are made of any scraps or bits of good food that happen to be left from one or more meals, and in such small quantities that they cannot be warmed up separately. As, for example, a couple of spoonfuls of frizzled beef and cream, the lean meat of one mutton chop, one spoonful of minced beef, two cold hard-boiled eggs, a little cold chopped potato, a little mashed potato, a chick's leg, all the gristle and hard outside taken from the meat. These things well chopped and seasoned, mixed with one raw egg, a little flour and butter, and boiling water; then made into round cakes, thick like fish-balls and browned well with butter in a frying pan or on a griddle. Scraps of hash, cold rice, boiled oatmeal left from breakfast, every kind of fresh meat, bits of salt tongue, bacon, pork or ham, bits of poultry, and crumbs of bread may be used. They should be put together with care, so as not to have them too dry to be palatable, or too moist to cook in shape. Most housekeepers would be surprised at the result, making an addition to the breakfast or lunch table. Serve on small squares of buttered toast, and with cold celery if in season.
Put on to boil in fish kettle, one glass water, one-half glass vinegar, two tablespoons of brown sugar, one-half dozen cloves, one-half teaspoon of ground cinnamon, one onion cut in round slices. Boil thoroughly, then strain and add to it one lemon cut in round slices, one goblet of red wine, one dozen raisins, one tablespoon of pounded almonds; put on stove again, and when it comes to a boil, add fish that has been cut up and salted. Cook until done, remove fish to a platter, and to the liquor add a small piece Leb-kuchen or ginger cake, and stir in the well-beaten yolks of four eggs; stir carefully or it will curdle. If not sweet enough add more sugar. Pour over fish. Shad or trout is the best fish to use.
Take a piece of salt codfish, pick it up very fine, put it into a saucepan, with plenty of cold water; bring it to a boil, turn off the water, and add another of cold water; let this boil with the fish about fifteen minutes, very slowly; strain off this water, making the fish quite dry, and set aside to cool. In the meantime, stir up a batter of a pint of milk, four eggs, a pinch of salt, one large teaspoonful of baking powder in flour, enough to make thicker than batter cakes. Stir in the fish and fry like any fritters. Very fine accompaniment to a good breakfast.
Water in which meat of fish has been boiled should never be thrown away, as it forms an excellent foundation for many soups and sauces which might otherwise have to be made with water.
If a large quantity of water has been used, the boilings will be poor; therefore, when the meat has been taken up, leave the pot on the fire and let it boil quickly, without the lid, for an hour or so, then strain off for use.
The water in which corned beef or pork has been cooked is generally too salt for soups, but it should be stood away till cold, when a thick cake of fat will be found on the top. Put this into a basin and pour over it some boiling water; when it is cold again it can be used for cakes and pastry. It makes an excellent and wholesome substitute for butter in cooking.
Roll the trimmings from pie crust into a sheet about a sixth of an inch thick. Cut this in cakes with the largest patty cutter. Have any kind of meat or fish prepared as for croquettes. Put a heaping teaspoonful on each cake. Brush the edges of the paste with beaten egg, and then fold and press together. When all are done, dip in beaten egg and fry brown in boiling fat. They should cook about eight minutes. Serve hot.
Take three pounds of fish (weakfish or carp, pickerel or haddock or whitefish, any fat fish with a fish poor in it). Remove skin and bones from the fish and chop flesh very fine, add a good-sized onion, minced or grated, make a depression in the centre of the chopped fish and add three-quarters cup of water, one-half cup of soft bread crumbs, salt and pepper to taste, one-fourth cup of sugar, two egg whites and two tablespoons of melted butter. Chop until very smooth and form into cakes containing a generous tablespoonful each. Put the bones and skins into a saucepan with an onion sliced and a tablespoon of butter and add the fish cakes. Cover with water and simmer for one and a quarter hours. Then remove the cakes and strain off the gravy into the two egg yolks which have been slightly beaten together with one teaspoon of sugar; stir over the heat until thickened, but do not boil it. Pour over fish cakes and serve either hot or cold. The butter and sugar may be omitted if so desired.
Put a cup of cream or milk in a saucepan, set it over the fire, and when it boils add a lump of butter as large as an egg, in which has been mixed a tablespoonful of flour. Let it boil up thick; remove from the fire, and when cool mix into it a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, a bit of minced onion or parsley, one cup of fine bread crumbs, and a pint of finely-chopped cooked chicken, either roasted or boiled. Lastly, beat up two eggs and work in with the whole. Flour your hands and make into small, round, flat cakes; dip in egg and bread crumbs and fry like fish cakes in butter and good sweet lard mixed, or like fried cakes in plenty of hot lard. Take them up with a skimmer and lay them on brown paper to free them from the grease. Serve hot.
