A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes | Page 3

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To those of my readers who, from sickness or other hindrance, have not
money in store, I would say, strive to lay by a little of your weekly
wages to purchase these things, that your families may be well fed, and
your homes made comfortable.
And now a few words on baking your own bread. I assure you if you
would adopt this excellent practice, you would not only effect a great
saving in your expenditure, but you would also insure a more
substantial and wholesome kind of food; it would be free from potato,
rice, bean or pea flour, and alum, all of which substances are
objectionable in the composition of bread. The only utensil required for
bread-making would be a tub, or trough, capable of working a bushel or
two of flour. This tub would be useful in brewing, for which you will
find in this book plain and easy directions.
I have pointed out the necessity of procuring these articles for cooking
purposes, and with the injunction to use great care in keeping them
thoroughly clean, I will at once proceed to show you their value in a

course of practical and economical cookery, the soundness and
plainness of which I sincerely hope you will all be enabled to test in
your own homes.
COOKERY BOOK.
No. 1. BOILED BEEF.
This is an economical dinner, especially where there are many mouths
to feed. Buy a few pounds of either salt brisket, thick or thin flank, or
buttock of beef; these pieces are always to be had at a low rate. Let us
suppose you have bought a piece of salt beef for a Sunday's dinner,
weighing about five pounds, at 6-1/2_d._ per pound, that would come
to 2_s._ 8-1/2_d._; two pounds of common flour, 4_d._, to be made
into suet pudding or dumplings, and say 8-1/2_d._ for cabbages,
parsnips, and potatoes; altogether 3_s._ 9_d._ This would produce a
substantial dinner for ten persons in family, and would, moreover, as
children do not require much meat when they have pudding, admit of
there being enough left to help out the next day's dinner, with potatoes.
No. 2. HOW TO BOIL BEEF.
Put the beef into your three or four gallon pot, three parts filled with
cold water, and set it on the fire to boil; remove all the scum that rises
to the surface, and then let it boil gently on the hob; when the meat has
boiled an hour and is about half done, add the parsnips in a net, and at
the end of another half hour put in the cabbages, also in a net. A piece
of beef weighing five or six pounds will require about two hours' gentle
boiling to cook it thoroughly. The dumplings may, of course, be boiled
with the beef, etc. I may here observe that the dumplings and
vegetables, with a small quantity of the meat, would be all-sufficient
for the children's meal.
No. 3. ECONOMICAL POT LIQUOR SOUP.
A thrifty housewife will not require that I should tell her to save the
liquor in which the beef has been boiled; I will therefore take it for
granted that the next day she carefully removes the grease, which will

have become set firm on the top of the broth, into her fat pot; this must
be kept to make a pie-crust, or to fry potatoes, or any remains of
vegetables, onions, or fish. The liquor must be tasted, and if it is found
to be too salt, some water must be added to lessen its saltness, and
render it palatable. The pot containing the liquor must then be placed
on the fire to boil, and when the scum rises to the surface it should be
removed with a spoon. While the broth is boiling, put as many piled-up
table-spoonfuls of oatmeal as you have pints of liquor into a basin; mix
this with cold water into a smooth liquid batter, and then stir it into the
boiling soup; season with some pepper and a good pinch of allspice,
and continue stirring the soup with a stick or spoon on the fire for about
twenty minutes; you will then be able to serve out a plentiful and
nourishing meal to a large family at a cost of not more than the price of
the oatmeal.
No. 4. POTATO SOUP FOR SIX PERSONS.
Peel and chop four onions, and put them into a gallon saucepan, with
two ounces of